Chapter 1- Mission To Wave
3 Months Later…
"Yes Danzo-sama, I will follow Kakashi Hatake and his squad on there first mission out of the village and make sure nothing happens to your precious Uchiha and the Kyuubi host. Yes, I understand you expect me to keep in hiding at all times." With a sigh, Rei sat perched in a tree, having exhausted her sarcasm and her own patience for the day. She was watching her two unofficial charges attempt to climb a tree all day, while itching to go visit Zabuza.
In the battle between him and Team 7 earlier she had prompted Haku to take action before Kakashi could finish him off. Now, she was impatient.
She had been carrying a message for Zabuza for several weeks and she was eager to get rid of it if the two genin would just go inside already!
Rei perked up when Naruto nearly collapsed and he and the Uchiha headed in. As soon as they cleared the doorway she was gone.
Zabuza wasn't alone in his room, Haku was there too, sitting quietly beside his master. A single candle sat on the bedside table lit up their faces and Zabuza abruptly opened his eyes. "I know you're there." He said, startling Haku out of his sleep.
Rei released her chakra hold on the ceiling and landed on the floor in front of Haku. "It's about time. I've been here for ten minutes trying to decide how to wake you up without losing my head."
"Rei?" Zabuza wondered.
"Of course. Who else?"
He shrugged. "With the mask it's hard to tell. Take it off."
"Say please."
The Demon of the Mist snorted, but mumbled, "Please."
Giggling, Rei did as he asked, revealing short brown hair and green eyes.
Zabuza frowned. "A wig and contacts? Kind of old-fashioned, isn't it?"
"Maybe, but a ninja who doesn't know me can't tell I'm in disguise." She said cheerfully, hooking her mask on her belt.
"Good point," he granted, then glanced at Haku, who was staring at Rei, confused and unable to detect any telltale signs of the indicated façade. "Rei, this is Haku, my apprentice. Haku, this is Rei, a messenger."
"A messenger?" Rei repeated, somewhat offended. "I'm pretty sure you wouldn't leave your Zamei with just any messenger."
"No, but Mei trusts you, for reasons I don't understand."
"Are you saying you don't trust me?"
"Yep."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know what you want. I doubt you're taking care of Zamei out of the goodness of your heart. If I knew what you were planning I would feel a lot better about this."
"Sorry, but I'm not telling. Anywho, I have a message for you." Rei knelt down and bit into her thumb, smearing blood on the metal on her right glove and forming a single sign. The storage seal glowed, then released an impressive collection of important folders, documents, and an assortment of scrolls. Picking carefully through some of the smaller, more decorative communication scrolls until she came to one titled, Zabuza Momochi, in neat kanji. She handed it to him and began to sort out everything, frowning. "This stuff really adds up after awhile…" she muttered.
Zabuza wasn't listening. After opening the blood seal, he was engrossed in the contents on his letter. Haku felt slightly out of place and decided to watch this 'Rei' character, who had resealed everything except a thick file with the name 'Kimimaro Kaguya' printed on the front, which she was currently reading.
"Whose Kimimaro Kaguya?" He asked curiously, vaguely noticing Zabuza taking out a blank scroll to reply to his message.
"He's a friend, but he's got an illness and I'm trying to figure out a cure for it."
"He must be a good friend."
"Eh, sort of. I've only known him for a few minutes, but I can tell he's a good person."
"Really? How?"
She shrugged. "It's a sixth sense, I suppose."
"Here." Zabuza interrupted, tossing her a newly written scroll. "You'll take care of the protection seals?"
"As always." And she resealed 'Kimimaro Kaguya' and the reply scroll back into her glove. "So if that's it, I'll be off."
"Wait." Zabuza said. "In a few days, I'm going to fight Kakashi again. If I don't survive I want you to take my sword for Zamei and keep an eye on Haku."
Rei hesitated, looking from the unusually reserved Zabuza to a downtrodden Haku. "I can take care of the first one and I'll do my best on the second. That's all I can promise."
Zabuza nodded. "Thanks. You know, I never figured out where you were from."
She chuckled. "Everywhere." Then vanished.
6 Days Later…
Rei woke up in her usual tree and knew that today was the day. It was a feeling most experienced shinobi developed over time. Just a sense that something was going to happen today. It had warned her of many situations that would have otherwise caught her off guard. It seemed she had gotten up right in time to see Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura head out to the bridge.
Naruto must have overslept after wearing himself out training last night and of course his team had to decide to be nice today of all days and let him sleep in. Figures. Rei had fifteen minutes of tolerance in her before she gave the blonde boy an unexpected wake-up call. She sat up suddenly. Hmm, it seems some mercenaries were headed to the house. She could see through the window; Tsunami was cleaning the breakfast plates and Inari had gone upstairs a few seconds ago, so she might as well get rid of them.
Then the front door flew open and a bright orange blur darted out of the house, yelling, "I can't believe they left me!"
Rei hissed in frustration. "Idiot!" Then created a shadow clone. "Find the bandits and get rid of them, I'll follow the orange eyesore." Her and her doppelganger split up, each heading for their individual targets.
It didn't take long to reach the bridge and it took even less for everything to go down the drain. Now she was faced with a choice. Watch it play out and hope Haku didn't kill the Uchiha and Naruto didn't release the Kyuubi and Kakashi didn't kill Zabuza or break Danzo's rule of 'don't be seen.' With a weary sigh she shunshin'd herself into the ice dome, deflecting the senbon with a kunai before they could further injure the unconscious Naruto or the half-dead Sasuke, who looked like a pincushion. The latter of which was trying to decide between sinking to his knees in relief, or groaning at the arrival of a new enemy.
Then she glanced at him through her mask and said, "Don't worry, I've got it covered." Rei turned to Haku. "Hey! You've put these two out of action and I don't want to get involved, but Zabuza needs your help."
The telltale shrill chirping of high concentrated amounts of electricity cut through the mist and they both whipped around.
"No." Haku gasped.
The mirrors dissolved into water and almost in perfect unison they sprinted to the two A-Class ninjas, Rei swiftly outdistancing the lesser-trained Haku. She lunged towards them, hitting Kakashi's hand, but it only sent the jutsu slightly off course, sending it through Zabuza's chest rather than his heart.
Haku reached them in time to catch Zabuza's body as it slid from Kakashi's arm, blood dripping through Rei's fingers, since she had yet to release his wrist.
Kakashi noted the distinct scent of burned flesh and saw the partly shredded glove on Rei's right hand.
"Zabuza!" Haku shouted, tearing off his mask and Rei dropped to the ground beside him, powering up a basic healing jutsu and applying it to his wound.
"Come on Zabuza," she muttered, ignoring the attentive jonin standing behind her and the three genin across from her. "You can't die. Mei loves you, Zamei's waiting for you, Haku needs you, you can't just give up like this!"
Rei couldn't bring herself to pay attention as Gato showed up with an army of thugs, only vaguely noticing Kakashi and Naruto countering with their own mass of shadow clones and Wave Country's civilians showing up armed with various weapons. She was too busy noticing the pure grief in Haku's eyes as he cried over Zabuza's death. It had been too serious for her to heal with such minimal knowledge on medical techniques. She would have to remedy that as soon as she could catch a break.
She finally snapped herself out of her reverie and made her way to her feet, moving reluctantly towards the huge kibikiri hocho, which had been left abandoned on the bridge and simultaneously withdrawing a pre-prepared storage scroll from her pouch.
When that was taken care of she turned to face Kakashi, who had been observing her for the past few minutes as his team celebrated with Tazuna and his family.
Eventually he said, "You saved Sasuke."
She shrugged, not in the mood to respond.
The copy-nin scrutinized her carefully with his single dark eye, raking it over her as if to take in every detail so he would recognize her if they ever met again, then turned away. "It would seem as if a mysterious ally of Zabuza's had a soft heart and rescued one of my cute little genin, just as I finished him off. I'll put that in the report." He started to leave, but she caught his arm. When he looked at her she let him go and whispered, "Thank you."
"Maa, it can't be helped. I'm just a good person."
Rei giggled, then nodded her head to him and disappeared.
Kakashi didn't move after she left; only stared at the spot the masked ninja had been in, perplexed. At Orochimaru's base she had come off as heartless, merciless, the typical shinobi who had forgotten the value of human lives. Yet minutes before she seemed to care enough to let herself be seen and rescue Sasuke and Naruto, then try to save Zabuza with no regard for her own safety. If he hadn't caught her scent earlier he would have thought they were two different people.
And that giggle! It had actually been somewhat girly. Of course, he'd known she was a girl since the beginning, her voice and figure made that obvious, but it had also been so innocent. Not at all suited for a hardened ninja.
He shook his head. Never mind. He would think on it more later. Right now he needed a nap. A long nap.
The next day Kakashi, his genin, and Haku all stood beside the newly-dug grave, two of them aware of Rei, who had placed herself closer than usual with the sole purpose of being noticed, so she was there to witness Naruto's declaration of being a different kind of shinobi. When Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto left she created a shadow clone to tail them and leapt down.
"You're getting awfully comfy," Kakashi commented. "Showing yourself all the time."
"Don't worry, after this mission I doubt you'll ever see me again. I just needed to ask Haku about what he's going to do now."
"I've thought about it a lot," Haku said. "And you mentioned some people precious to Zabuza. Mei and Zamei. Who are they?"
"Mei is his lover and Zamei is his daughter."
Haku nodded, having suspected as much. "I would like to protect them, if you would point me in the right direction."
Rei considered this. Mei didn't need a bodyguard, but Zamei…and that would automatically mean protection for Shizo too, but it would be placing a great deal of trust in Haku as well.
As if reading her thoughts Haku added, "I don't care how hard it will be or how much work is expected to take care of Zamei, I'll do it. Please…"
Kakashi watched curiously, admittedly peeved that he couldn't see through the mask. There was very little he knew about this mysterious ninja and it frustrated him. Especially because she was from his own village. One he had sworn to guard from all danger.
Rei sighed. "Alright. Zamei is only three years old and there's Shizo too. He's four."
"Shizo is Zabuza's son?"
"No, he's the son of…someone else. I'll tell you later." Which was 'when Kakashi isn't listening' put politely.
He shrugged, ignoring the tickle in the back of his mind.
Okay I'm looking for pairings for Rei. I already have a good idea of who it's going to be, but I'd like your opinions too. Here are the options:
Sasuke Uchiha
Kimimaro Kaguya
Haku
Kakashi Hatake
Shikamaru Nara
Naruto Uzumaki
Choji Akimichi
Shino Aburame
Neji Hyuuga
Gaara
Kiba Inuzuka
Rock Lee
And any other guys you can think of. This is just the main list. Send me a review or PM with your vote. And give me your opinion on the story. Also, for the next few chapters I'm going to be doing a lot of time skips, but I'll eventually get it started. This is just filler details. Hope you like.