Disclaimer: I really wished I own Naruto, but I don't.
Warnings: Major character death.
Prologue: Survival of the Fittest
Zabuza heaved the great sword through the air, Kakashi didn't move.
Sakura screamed.
Sakura stared, green eyes not leaving her sensei, willing him to turn into a log or water, anything!
"S-sensei?"
Kakashi crumpled onto the ground, blood gushing onto the bridge.
"Sensei!" Get up, please.
"See the future, Kakashi?" Zabuza mocked, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. "And it seems that I did know all your tricks, old dog." His mad little eyes turned toward her, lips twitching into a smirk.
Kakashi-sensei was dead.
What was to become of them now? Who was going to save her from the Demon of the Mist? To rescue Sasuke-kun and Naruto from the ice mirrors and the hunter-nin which haunted them?
"Do you still think yourself a ninja, girl?" His words were almost sickeningly sweet.
No, Sakura decided. I am not a ninja. I never wanted this…
"You have not tasted blood, not had your hands run red with it. You know nothing about pain or suffering, let alone have the guts to cause it," his snarled. "A true ninja is a tool of death!"
She didn't want to die.
Zabuza lunged forward, two short steps covering the ground between them, sword swinging through the air.
Her grip tightened on the kunai even as training erased fear and shock and doubt. If she died, she would surpass Ino or kiss Sasuke or become the greatest kunoichi who ever lived! She could not die here.
Sakura jumped moments before the sword hit her. Sakura darted forward in that precious instant, the kunai slipping into a habitual position.
"I don't want to die!"
The kunai struck deep into Zabuza's bare chest. A few brief heart beats felt like hours, as frightened green eyes stared up into shocked black.
"How?" How was she alive?
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