In a world where children are bred to be tools of war, to mature much faster than they otherwise should. It only makes sense that this same world would allow for an environment that tests the upper limits of this rapid maturity. The blood mist village earned its epithet tenfold. A place where the idea of comradery is taught to only be a facade, crumbling at any given moment. When it’s the mission over the missioned, what good does friendship do if it has more potential to end like the graduation exam, rather than any perceivable positive outcome? This idea was Zabuza’s most profound lesson. Not only because of what he did but when he did it. When a child observes the world around them, they are acquiring a base. And If that base is tainted from the offset, only despair can be built on top.
Zabuza learned what it meant to be a tool. Yet even in his naivety, he could never fully submit to the fate given to his kind. After escaping the presence over him, he tries to usurp it. Zabuza claims an ambition that takes all of the darkness for himself. Perhaps out of wrath against the land that only used him, or maybe a subliminal yearning in his subconscious. If he truly is more than a tool the hidden mist created, he
could prove it by taking that land for himself. Since he was molded by the shinobi world, it’s surely apt to prove his worth in that same setting. He recreates his ultimate lesson on a massive scale. First with his comrades in the graduation exam, and eventually with those ruling over the village. Both scenarios end with him standing alone at the top.
In all his blindness, Zabuza could not see that the answer he sought was right in front of him because he is not alone, not anymore. Even if Zabuza used Haku like he was once used, there’s a massive distinction in Haku’s actions. One sacrifice is compelled out of obligation, the other born from love. Zabuza’s homeland caged him, and he became a rabid dog after releasing himself from the chains that bound him. Yet Haku never feels the desire to escape from a circumstance ending in death, because it is not for a mission, but for another.
Haku dies and proves the worth in human emotion. And Kakashi only bolsters the message with the leverage he gains immediately after. Zabuza cannot understand why Kakashi seems more powerful than before when in reality, Kakashi never upgraded at all. Zabuza merely became weaker, Because a part of his power was gone forever, never to return. In contrast, Kakashi is still fueled by the comrades behind him. The resolve to protect their lives maintains his combative prowess. For two men that grew up with similar bases, it’s fitting they would eventually clash in such a decisive setting. Kakashi had someone who taught him the value of his father’s actions, but Zabuza never even gave himself the chance to listen. And it is a fragment of this very strength Kakashi utilizes that forces Zabuza to listen. One out of several comrades behind him. Yet, for the first time in this arc, Naruto walks in front of Kakashi.
Naruto's idea of facing the enemy is a novel one. Even though both parties’ objectives have changed, Naruto still sees an impeding wall in front of him. He speaks with Zabuza not because it’s necessary for the mission at hand but because Zabuza’s way of life goes against everything Iruka taught him on that fateful night. It goes against the words of Kakashi’s first lesson. The words that changed Kakashi’s base all those years ago. Yet those words were exchanged from one comrade to another. Where iruka’s words are directed at a boy harboring his greatest enemy, so Naruto too would not only look at his comrades but his enemies as well. If Naruto could be changed from the loser fox monster to shinobi of the hidden leaf, then surely the demon of the mist could become Zabuza, a human. Naruto, once a boy but forced to become a man, looks at another just like him. They are alike, both he and Zabuza. Because all shinobi, no matter what land, are cursed by the same dogma. Instead of looking at Zabuza’s actions, naruto chooses to look at the picture as a whole. Just like Iruka did when he wept for the boy he had looked away from for so long. Naruto weeps for haku, for zabuza. And Zabuza weeps as well. For Haku, for his misguided self. And all it takes, all it ever took was for someone to look at Zabuza, not the demon of the mist. Naruto prevails by going a step beyond success, not defeating the enemy, but transforming that enemy into an ally. From the beginning of his journey, Naruto finds his greatest strength not in his latent power, but his words.
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