Fish like you should know their place

"You were an expensive tool, but I only needed to use you once. I was planning to wait until you'd killed the old man and those brats before taking care of you too. Looks like you're already finished, though. That saves me some money."

"You... betrayed me?" Zabuza's voice brimmed with furious disbelief.

"Betrayed you? Don't make it sound so ugly." Gato sneered. "From the beginning, ours was nothing but a relationship of mutual exploitation. A missing-nin wanted by his own village has no business talking about loyalty."

He waved his hand and ordered the hundred or so thugs behind him, "Get them! Chop every last one of them to pieces—including that Demon—and throw them into the sea for the fish!"

The band of desperate criminals howled and surged forward like a tide.

Gato was cunning. He didn't send his men after Kakashi, the strongest one there. Instead, he targeted the softest-looking marks.

Some charged at Sasuke and Sakura, who were protecting Tazuna, while even more grinned as they rushed toward Haku, who had just dispelled the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals and was weak from his massive chakra expenditure.

"Haku!" Zabuza's eyes nearly bulged with rage at the sight. He tried to rush over and save him, but Kakashi blocked his way.

"Your opponent is me, Zabuza!" Kakashi also despised Gato's actions, but his mission was to protect his client. He couldn't leave Zabuza, their greatest threat, unattended.

"Get out of my way!" Zabuza had gone completely berserk. He swung Kubikiribōchō at Kakashi with reckless abandon.

Meanwhile, facing more than a dozen charging ronin, Haku clenched his teeth and readied a senbon in each hand, preparing to make his final stand. But he had used up too much chakra trapping Ling Xuan, and now he was already at the end of his strength.

After managing to block a few blows, he was kicked to the ground by one of the ronin.

"Die, brat!" A burly samurai raised his katana high and brought it down hard on Haku, who lay on the ground.

Nearby, Zabuza was battling Kakashi furiously. He caught a glimpse of what was happening from the corner of his eye. At that moment, it felt as if an invisible hand had clenched his heart, leaving him in too much pain to breathe.

He roared and tried to rush over, but Kakashi kept him from breaking free. All he could do was watch as the cold blade came down toward Haku.

All this time, he had told himself that Haku was just a useful tool. A perfect killing tool with a Kekkei Genkai, whom he had picked up in the snow. If the tool broke, he could find another.

But... why... did his heart hurt so much?

Why was the image that surfaced in his mind the lonely boy who had looked at him with clear eyes in the snow and said, "I want to become your tool"?

No... Don't...

At that critical moment, a dark figure silently appeared in front of Haku, moving faster than the Body Flicker Technique.

Without even turning around, Ling Xuan casually raised his right hand and caught the powerful katana blade precisely between two fingers.

Clang!

The blade stopped less than a centimeter from Haku's neck. It could go no farther.

The burly samurai felt as if his sword had struck an immovable boulder, numbing his hands. He stared at the expressionless black-haired boy before him, his eyes filled with shock.

"Fish like you should know your place." Ling Xuan's fingers tightened slightly.

Crack!

The steel katana snapped in two between his fingers!

With a backhanded flick, he sent the broken tip flashing through the air. It plunged straight into the samurai's throat.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

The ronin around them were so frightened by the bloody, decisive display that they stumbled back.

Ling Xuan ignored them and crouched beside the weakened Haku.

"Can you stand?"

Haku stared blankly at the boy who had saved his life, then looked over at Zabuza, who had clearly relaxed now that he was safe. He nodded gently.

"Mr. Zabuza... needs me."

"Good." Approval showed in Ling Xuan's eyes. "I'll take you to him."

"Mr. Zabuza, I'm sorry. I..."

"You don't need to say anything, Haku." Zabuza cut him off. He looked at Haku with an expression more complicated than anything he had ever shown before. "You... did well."

Zabuza finally understood that Haku had never been a tool to him.

He was the only warmth Zabuza had ever known in this hellish world—and the last.

"AAAAAAAH!!!"

The fury of betrayal, the terror of nearly losing Haku, and his hatred of his own helplessness ignited the Demon's rage.

Zabuza threw back his head and roared like a beast.

He looked at Gato, swaggering in the distance, and all that remained in his eyes was pure killing intent.

"Kid..." He glanced at Naruto. "Can I... borrow your kunai?"

Naruto was still too stunned to process what was going on, but he instinctively tossed Zabuza the kunai.

Zabuza caught it in his teeth. Blood tears streamed from the eyes that had earned him the name Demon.

"Haku, lend me your hands."

Summoning the last of his strength, he tore away the useless bandages wrapped around his arms from the fight. He had Haku use his unharmed hands to grip the hilt of Kubikiribōchō in place of his own.

"Together... we'll carve our way through!"

"Yes, Mr. Zabuza!"

The Demon and his tool became one with the blade at last. Together, they turned into a deathly whirlwind that swept toward Gato's hundred-strong rabble!

It was a slaughter of the most brutal kind.

Zabuza abandoned all defense, pouring every last bit of his life force and chakra into each swing. He used his own body to shield Haku from every attack. Wherever the blade passed, flesh flew and screams rang out without end.

New wounds opened across his body, and blood stained the entire bridge, but he never stopped advancing.

At last, Zabuza charged before Gato like a blood-soaked asura.

As Gato stared at him in terror and despair, Zabuza drove the kunai clamped in his teeth through his heart.

Thud.

Gato's short body collapsed in a pool of blood.

Zabuza, too, finally ran out of strength. He released Haku's hands, and his towering body slowly fell backward.

"Mr. Zabuza!" Haku let out a piteous cry and caught him in his arms.

"Haku..." Zabuza looked at him. The violence and killing intent had faded from his eyes, leaving only boundless tenderness and weariness. "I wish... we could go... to the same place together..."

His hand fell limp.

The Demon, Zabuza Momochi, was about to die.

Yet just as the flame of his life was about to go out, a hand gently pressed against his chest.