THE TIGRESS' LANTERN - A HINATA HYUGA FANFICTION

CHAPTER FOUR - TIGRESS

'Who knows, Zabuza? You might just end up with him.' The Copy-cat of the Hidden Leaf Village thought as the bodies of 2 opponents laid dead at the edge of the unnamed bridge in the Hidden Mist Village under a beam of sunlight that allowed the snow to fall down from the heavens like soft frozen tears of the angels. The Opponents were the Demon of the Hidden Mist & His Apprentice - Zabuza Momochi & Haku Yuki.

Zabuza was one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist Village who was relentless and merciless when he killed - Team Seven had the misfortune of meeting him while they were escorting the Bridge Builder - Tazuna - back to the Hidden Mist Village. The Crime Lord - Gato - had placed a contract on Tazuna's Head and, like any great sellsword, Zabuza aimed to collect but...not all went as planned.

Zabuza and Haku met Team Seven at the bridge where they faced off: Zabuza wanted the pleasure of killing Kakashi Hatake himself, leaving the children to Haku. Sasuke and Haku engaged in combat and the Uchiha seemed to have the upper hand until Haku played his trump card - The Crystal Ice Mirrors. Sasuke found himself in a bind until the Knuckle-Headed Ninja - Naruto Uzumaki - entered the fray to save him. This resulted in Sasuke saving Naruto's Life against Haku's 1000 Needles of Death and was 'killed' himself; this awakened a dangerous power within Naruto - The Nine-Tailed Fox's Chakra. Naruto landed a slaughter against Haku, which destroyed his mask; knocking Naruto out of his beastly state of mind.

Haku explained the story behind his undying loyalty to Zabuza - what happened to his parents, how the two of them met and everything else that transpired since. Haku made one last plea to Naruto as for his will was his own and he failed to protect and be useful to his master - He wished for death. Naruto was hesitating but agreed to grant Haku's Wish before the Ice-User changed his mind and lunged to save Zabuza from Kakashi's Chidori; which resulted in instant death. As if things couldn't get worse of Zabuza, Gato had decided to cancel their deal, kill the Bridge Builder and Zabuza. Zabuza's Anger at Gato became obvious when Naruto's Rant about Zabuza only using Haku as a tool brought the Swordsman to tears. With a single kunai and without the use of any of his arms, Zabuza charged into the army of thugs, unleashing his Demonic Power and ended his former employer with a single slice of his throat. Kakashi carried Zabuza beside Haku, where the man spoke the words his cold heart didn't allow him to speak before he too left this world and the frozen tears of the angels rained down upon them. The rest of the villagers rallied up, led by the Bridge Builder's Grandson - Kaiza - and fended out the rest of the thugs. If only they knew...

"Kakashi-sensei...do you think we should move them, now?" The pink-haired kunoichi asked as she walked over to her teacher. The Silver-Haired Man gave a nod and began walked over to the bodies but his instincts suddenly caused him to stop and leap back, just in time before the tip of a dark blue spiked rock erupted from the ground under him and shoot to the sky about 7 feet from the ground.

"Whoa! What's that?!" Naruto blurted out as he looked at the crystalized stone but before anyone could give him an answer, the stone began to crack until it completely shattered...and a girl stood in the ruins of the stone.

She was about 4'9 in height with skin as pale as the snow that was falling from the grey sky and her hair was dark indigo like the night sky on a starless night but it was spiked and wild at the front but it was shoulder length and she seemed to have placed the back of it in a ponytail (Think like Sienna Khan's Hairstyle, just with a back ponytail); they could not see her eyes, there was a mask across her eyes that seemed to have a black ribbon that was used to hold the mask on her face under it, it shielded her eyes from them. She wore long black pants that seemed to have armored plates in some places, like the shins and tights. Het torso wore a long-sleeved, tight fit black shirt with a black armor across her chest; there was also a shoulder guard on her right shoulder that was dark blue with the white tribal head of a tiger roar in the center as a crest. On her left hip, there was a golden and black sword that had the hilt of a tiger's head.