the zabuza and haku saga is one of the best story arcs in naruto. here presented was the first major "villains" naruto and company encountered. it was here that we get acquainted with the layout of the naruto world, the heirarchy of the shinobis and their duties and the principle of chakra. but besides all these technical information, the story arc has some of the best characters, bloodiest fight scenes, pinakastig na mga jutsu, the best revenge and the most tearjerking death scenes.

here we get zabuza, a guy who has been dead for volumes already but still high on my favorite character list. not good looking in the traditional bishounen style but he's not downright ugly either. he's not the type fangirls definite squeel and coo over but still he got what i call "presence". in filipino, kung baga ay may dating. i guess that what i like most about his character design (i love kishimoto-san's character design, he always take time to give characters an extra detail). plus those bandages over the lower have of his face is cool. a nice twist on the traditional ninja mask. he's cool, he's tough and he doesn't compromise. he fights for his own beliefs and doesn't care what it takes. he's one of the characters who's unfortunate enough not to be a genius thus have to get things done the hard way. he's a demon, an assassin and loves to kill...hehe, traits that usually leave a big impression on me. he lived a tough life and met a bloody end. and yes, i like him better than haku. what's haku without zabuza, neh?

and we got haku, a bishounen in probably every sense of the world, hehe, prettier than most girls in the manga, and a powerful one too. possessor of one of the coolest and powerful jutsus in the manga. said to be an emotionless shinobi tool yet has a soft spot for 12 year old boys... great outfit, cool mask. a pretty accessory, i love it that he's extremely loyal to zabuza and doesn't think twice of dying for him. mmm...what else do i like about haku. not much actually. it's just that his "partnership" with zabuza is perfect and they look good together and are good together. otherwise i would have probably more or less ignore him. nah, at most i'd probably remember his character design and his jutsu. sorry haku fans.

this is the one story arc where blood is splattered everywhere, arms were chopped off, a hand went thru a chest, people became pincushions, and a head was chopped off. talagang madugo. pretty intense stuff for a "children's manga", neh. we get kakashi, zabuza, haku soaked with blood, specially on their last fight. inari's dad was crucified with his arms chopped off, with inari crying his eyes out and the townsfolk cowed into submission. let's not forget that scene were haku saved zabuza, how are they going to pull it off in the anime? or that scene were sasuke was being skewered with senbon, or, zabuza's revenge where gatou's men stuck their swords into him but he still gets to behead gatou with a kunai in his mouth. astig talaga!

at astig yung demonic mirrors. astig pati yung principle behind them. i love the idea of using mirrors' reflection for attack so you can move at the speed of light. may physics application! it kind of reminded me of those carnival mirrors where you see yourself elongated, shrunk and distorted...and zabuza's water clone jutsu was even used by kakashi in much much later chap 140+.

i still couldn't read this story arc without getting teary-eyed at the end. kakaiyak talaga. i even cried two times.specially when zabuza was dying and said he needed to see haku's face. tapos it began to snow and they died side by side under the snowflakes. tapos sabi pa ni kakashi, you'll be able to go together...T T...scuse me while i dry me eyes...

oy, for those kakashi obsessed, it was here that kakashi introduced his sharingan and really showed off his fighting abilities. in later chapters, his fights were not that impressive and bloody as the focus was more on the genins.

so what's with zabuza and haku? father/son? mentor/pupil? lost souls? friends? lovers? i don't really care. zabuza and haku, in any relationship you want to stick em in is fine with me.

am not much of a yaoist, i do enjoy yaoi moments in manga anime. yuri's fine too, tho yuri is rarer and the advocates are not as many or as ardent as yaoi fans. for me, if two people look good together and are good together, be that they have same gender and other wise , it's okay. heck, they're both humans afterall. i don't even mind incest that much, well, probably as long as they're within generations.

their relationship kind of reminds me of yanagisawa and shichisaburo, characters from a book about a detective in shogunate japan by a korean author. shichisaburo, who's about 14 (almost same as haku's) was an actor of the kind that portrays only women and yanagisawa was the prime minister of the shogun. the two were lovers, with shichisaburo doing everything he can to show he loves and is worthy of yanagisawa while the latter thinks only of amusing himself with the boy. the boy meanwhile slashes himself with a sword the way samurai lovers do to prove their love, and in the end even lets himself be the scapegoat for a crime yanagisawa was guilty of, that of treason which of course very much punishable by death. there was a scene when shichisaburo was being interogated and the detective (who's the main character and who am bored of and who's wife i hate because for one, she's the main cause of shichisaburo's death because she's the one who found out about the plot of yanagisawa) asked the boy if he really did what he did. the detective even asked the presence of yanagisawa be removed because he might be influencing/intimidating the boy, but shichisaburo just confirmed what he said. so the detective, who was a sworn enemy of yanagisawa felt it was hopeless and they had to execute the boy. while being dragged away, shichisaburo and yanagisawa's eyes meet and yanagisawa saw only pure love in the boy's eyes and it dawn on yanagisawa that he had betrayed the only person who had truly loved him...unlike zabuza who's heart melted, yanagisawa became even more coldhearted and ruthless. he survived to appear on other books of the series, still making life miserable for the detective, the man who was responsible for killing shichisaburo. like zabuza, yanagisawa had led a tough life, if i remember right, he was used sexually as a kid, and as a man used his body (as well as his immensed intellect) to seduce the shogun and gain influence over the weak excuse as man and of course be even a shogun himself eventually. the shogun here was a practically impotent homosexual on a quest to produce a heir, he was a shogun only in name with yanagisawa practically ruling.. shichisaburo in the other hand was this toast of the theater world, an ingenue who can act more feminine than the women themselves. he was fascinated with the power that yanagisawa holds and was slowly imitating the way the man acts and talks. he does some dirty work, like planting incriminating stuff on the emperor's concubines, for yanagisawa.