Naruto: Of Bone and Ice

Kimimaro, Haku, Koyuki, Hattori and Yuri sat on the ground in silence next to a fresh grave they had made for Miyako. The sun was low now and the sky was beginning to darken as dusk set in.

"I think it is time to move out," Kimimaro said, trying not to sound harsh.

Hattori and Yuri looked at the grave and then back to Kimimaro, knowing he was right. After all, a shinobi was taught to suppress all emotions.

Haku had already dealt with Raiga's body, having destroyed it so no one would be able to take it for information gathering.

Koyuki had also taken his swords, having wrapped both of the Kiba blades up and placed them on her back to transport.

"We should regroup with the others and head back to the village." Haku then said, watching as Hattori and Yuri stood up, taking one last look at the grave.

"Alright." He said agreeing with Haku.

"Let's move out," Hattori then said, turning away from the grave as he looked into the distance.

Yuri watched him as he did, knowing that Miyako's death had affected him.

"Does anyone have a location for Kujira and the others?" Koyuki asked, wondering where their squad had gotten to.

"No... But im sure they can't be far, after all, we were all patrolling this area." Haku said, seeming confident they were fine.

"Anyway, let's head back to the meeting zone, we can wait there for them until the appointed time before heading back to the village," Kimimaro said, getting a nod from the others.

Meanwhile...

"Kujira watch out!" Chika shouted, watching as he was sent flying through the air, smashing into a tree trunk hard where he fell to the ground in pain.

"This guy is so strong..." Kujira said, slowly standing to his feet as he held his injured arm.

"Chika looked at Kujira and then at Rokuro, seeing that he was also looking panicked.

"T-That's because this guy is Jūzō Biwa... Holder of the executioner's blade..." Rokuro said, shaking in his boots, having read his profile.

"I can't say I expected to run into a bunch of Mist brats that can't even wipe their snotty noses all the way out here," Jūzō said, lifting his massive sword onto his shoulder.

"How the hell did he know we were watching him..." Chika said, watching him carefully in case he attacked them.

"Hmm... I take it you were spying on me for a reason, something about taking my sword?" Jūzō said, keeping an eye on the three of them as he did.

He was currently wearing his black Akatsuki cloak over his normal clothing, keeping the lower half of his face covered by the collar.

"Just my luck," Jūzō said as he lifted his sword off of his shoulder and pointed it at the three of them.

"Guess I will just have to kill you all." He then said with a straight face.

"Get ready!" Chika suddenly shouted, feeling the killing intent that was now radiating from his body.

Kujira watched as his memory faded back to only a few moments ago, wondering how he had let this happen.

"Chika did you read the map right?" Kujira asked, seeing that they had been travelling around the land of fire in circles now.

"Of course I did!" She shouted, pissed off that he didn't trust her.

"Come on you guys, we should head to the town where the target was last sighted like others have," Rokuro said, trying to keep the peace between them.

The three of them were currently jumping through the trees, travelling at a half-decent speed towards their target zone, or around it thanks to Chika.

The three squads had already agreed to each investigate a different area around the town, seeing how their target had been sighted there last.

However, Chkia had read the map wrong, even though she had denied having done so.

"How about we stop and take another look, I feel like we are just going around in circles!" Kujira shouted again, looking to Rokuro, who was technically in charge being the only Chunin.

Chika scoffed, stopping on the branch she landed on.

"Fine, do what you want!" She said, crossing her arms.

Rokuro pulled out the map, smiling as he looked at their location, feeling the sweat run from the back of his head as he realised Chika had been taking them the wrong way.

"Well! Tell me I'm right then?" Chika said, daring him to disagree with her.

Rokuro was about to say something, however, Kujira suddenly picked up a killing intent, quickly getting the others to take cover as he felt it approaching.

"What is it Kujira?" Chika asked, not knowing what was going on.

"Just be quiet." He said, being serious for a moment, causing Chika to remain quiet, as she never usually saw him act like this.

A moment went by as the three of them waited, holding their breath as they tried to remain as quiet as possible.

Another moment passed by before a man walked across the ground, taking all of their attention as they spotted the black cloak with the huge sword on his back.

"No way... that's the executioner's blade," Chika said.

The others nodded, with Rokuro checking the bingo book for their target, and seeing Jūzō's profile.

"He looks dangerous," Rukuro said, taking another look at him from their vantage point.

"We need to retreat," Kujira said, knowing they couldn't win this fight.

"What do you mean?" Chika said, not used to seeing him like this.

"I can just tell... He's too strong for us." He said, not messing around.

"Why? We should tail him and send a message to the others, that way we can complete the mission." Chika said, looking to Rokuro for him to agree.

"What's this about a mission?" A voice not belonging to the three of them said, coming from next to Kujira, causing his eyes to open wide in shock.

"Look out!" Kujira shouted, trying his best to turn around, only to feel the sting of a boot hit him in the side, using his arm to try and block it before he was sent flying through the air.

"Kujira!" Both Chika and Rokuro shouted as they jumped down to his aid, watching as he had slapped against a tree hard.

Kujira's memory faded, seeing as he was all caught up to their current situation, watching as Jūzō pointed his sword at them, getting serious.

"I didn't think that the Mist would resort to sending a bunch of snot-nosed brats after me, but whatever, I'll kill you like I killed the rest," Jūzō said, getting ready to charge toward them and attack.

"We have to fight... Rokuro cover me!" Chika shouted as she pulled out a kunai and ran towards Jūzō with a low stance.

"No Chika don't!" Kujira shouted, trying to move, however, the pain in his arm caused him to flinch and stumble.

Jūzō watched with interest as Chika ran towards him, easily moving out of the way of her kunai thrust aimed for his neck.

"Stupid girl," Jūzō said as he sidestepped her attack, slapping her wrist in an attempt to dislodge the kunai from her hand.

However, instead of Chika's wrist being slapped away by Jūzō's hand, the force of his attack had caused her wrist to burst into water, causing his hand to go right through her.

"What is this?" Jūzō said, surprised as Chika used her ability to her advantage.

"Now Rokuro!" She shouted as she suddenly wrapped her body around his, turning to water and holding him in place as she tried to restrain him.

"What the hell is this!" Jūzō shouted as he started to struggle in an attempt to get her off of him.

Rokuro hesitated for a moment but knew this was probably the only chance they might get, and quickly dashed forwards, pulling a demon shuriken out from his weapons pouch unfolding it.

"Take this!" Rokuro shouted as he threw the shuriken towards Jūzō, watching as it sliced through the air.

Jūzō also watched, surprised that these brats had managed to put him on his back foot.

"A Hōzuke member?" Jūzō said, realizing what was going on.

"Get off of me!" Jūzō yelled, using his chakra to burst and rip Chika off of him, pulling his sword up with amazing strength at the last second as he used the edge of it to block the shuriken.

The shuriken smashed into the executioner's blade as Jūzō was holding it above his head, upside down so that the blade was in perfect line with his body, slicing the shuriken in two and allowing it to fly off into the distance harmlessly.

Jūzō turned his attention to Chika, watching as her body became solid again as she tried to attack him once more.

"Give it up! I know that trick!" He yelled, lifting his sword into the air before slamming it down into the ground, causing the ground to erupt and send chunks of debris at Chika, sending her flying and negating her ability to turn her body into liquid.

"Oh no, it didn't work!" Rokuro shouted, watching as Jūzō smashed the ground with his sword before charging toward him.

"Oh, shit..." He said to himself, knowing he couldn't do anything.

"You die first!" Jūzō said, lifting his sword and getting ready to slice him in two.

"Look out!" Kujira suddenly shouted, charging in as he shoulder barged the side of the sword itself out of the way, causing Jūzō's slash to miss Rokuro and hit the ground next to him.

"Why you!" Jūzō shouted, using the sword to hold his weight as he spun around and kicked Rokuro in the stomach, sending him flying and out of the way before he landed and pulled his blade out of the ground, getting ready to cut Kujira in half with it.

"HAAA!" Kujira roared, using a hammer fist strike to hit the flat of the blade again forcing it into the ground and taking Jūzō off guard.

"No way!" He said, watching as Kujira loaded up another punch before he unleashed it, slamming it into Jūzō's chest and sending him through the air into a tree.

Kujira was breathing hard now, knowing that his attack would not be enough to put Jūzō down for long.

"We should take the sword and get out of here!" Kujira shouted, seeing that Chika had recovered and Rokuro could still move somehow.

"Alright I get it, let's get the hell out of here!" Chika said as she grabbed the handle of the executioner's blade, doing her best to pick it up and jump up onto a tree branch above.

"Come on, lets go!" She yelled, getting both Kujira and Rokuro to follow her, despite their injuries.

Jūzō pulled himself out from the trees he had slammed into, watching as the three brats made off with his sword.

"How in the hell did this even happen!" He roared, dusting himself off before he dashed forwards, having had enough of messing around.

"Come on guys faster! We have to get away from him before he catches up!" Chika said, looking back to see if he was chasing them yet.

"It won't matter, he's a jonin and ex-member of the seven ninja swordsmen, there is no way we can outrun him for long," Rokuro said, clutching his ribs from where he had been kicked, feeling that some were broken.

"Get back here!" Jūzō shouted, appearing behind them as he jumped forwards, reaching a hand out for Rukuro who had fallen a little behind the others.

"Oh shit, Rukuro!" Chika shouted, coming to a halt on a tree branch and turning as fast as she could, using the weight of the sword she was carrying to help turn her and charge towards Roukro.

"Arghhh!" Jūzō yelled as he went to grab Rukuro by the neck, only to feel the sudden cut of a sword go right through him.

Chika had charged and taken him off guard, using his own sword to cut right through his body, taking all of her strength to do so.

Rukuro and Kujira watched in amazement as Chika landed, still holding the sword, hearing Jūzōs body drop to the ground.

"You did it!" Rukuro shouted.

"He's done." Kujira also said looking to where his body had fallen.

"No..." He suddenly said, looking back to his teammates who also looked at him, seeing the expression on his face.

"Did you really think I would fall for something so pathetic?" Jūzō's voice suddenly said, coming from behind Chika.

"Chika look out!" Rokuro shouted, watching as Jūzō slammed a punch into her so hard that half of her upper body exploded away from the force, causing the water she was made of to scatter far away.

"I have faced members of your clan before, and I already know how your ability works!" He roared, watching as Chika went flying in a puddle of water, trying to gain as much of it back as she could.

"Chika!" Rokuro shouted, seeing his friend hurt by his attack.

"Shut it you brat!" Jūzō also shouted, jumping over and backhanding Rukuro so hard that he flipped in the air before hitting the ground like a ragdoll.

"No!" Kujira shouted, watching as both of his teammates had been taken down in the space of a few seconds.

Jūzō watched as his sword flipped through the air, lifting his hand to catch it by the handle and twirling it around before he rested it on his shoulder.

"Now, it's your turn." Jūzō then said, showing his jagged teeth.

Kujira looked at both Chika and Rokuro, who were both lying on the ground now unconscious.

"I can't let them die here... I need to do something."

Kujira slowly spread his feet across the ground as he widened his stance, sitting in a horse stance before taking a deep breath.

"I can't let this be the end for any of us!" Kujira said, taking another breath causing his skin to darken.

"I'm not waiting for you to mess around kid, time to die!" Jūzō said as he suddenly appeared in front of Kujira, raising his sword above his head so he could take a full power swing at him.

"I won't give up!!!" Kujira shouted as his skin suddenly turned black, raising both of his arms into the air as he performed an X block, somehow stopping Jūzō's blade without taking any damage.

"What the hell kid, how did you?" Jūzõ said, trying to push down even harder, but feeling a powerful resistance from Kujira as he fought to hold him off.

"You can't stop my blade like that!" Jūzō said, watching as he increased the pressure, cutting Kujiras's skin ever so slightly.

"Blast it all! I'm... I'm not strong enough!" Kujira said to himself, feeling his body give way under the weight of the sword.

"It's over," Jūzō said, feeling the last of his strength give out.

"Your life is mine!"

Suddenly Jūzō felt something strike him, feeling something cold thrust into him in the back, feeling it go right through him in one motion.

"W-What the..." He said, coughing blood as he slowly looked down to see a sword sticking out of his chest.

"Why would you..." He then said, looking behind him to the person responsible.

"You left yourself wide open, Jūzō." The man said, pulling his sword out of Jūzō's body and standing clear from any danger.

"Z-Zabuza... Why you!" Jūzō shouted, falling to his knee as he used his sword to lean his weight on.

"I'll be taking that blade Jūzō, and I will be taking your life along with it!"

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That's the end of that chapter! as always thank you for your support and have a great day! We are now almost 100 chapters ahead on my P.atreon page! Join as a free member and check it out!