Zabuza stands with his blade against Kakashi's neck. "I guess you knew this was how it was going to end, huh Kakashi?" He sneers. Out of no where two figures simultaneously attack Zabuza, effectively saving Kakashi. They attack Zabuza with a blind fury.
"What's going on?" I ask Naruto to my right. He just stares, mouth a gape at the scene. After a couple seconds of loud metal clanks filling the air, Zabuza shoves both of the figures down onto the ground with one shove. I jump in front of them and attack Zabuza myself.
"Back off Lyra!" Kakashi yells at me. One more useless slash at Zabuza and I jump back by the two interlopers.
"You guys all right?" I ask, helping the first off the ground. I walk over to the second to find him wiping blood from the side of his mouth. I reach out and pull him up too. Neither one says anything as we all turn to see Kakashi and Zabuza fighting again.
"Who's that?" the taller of the two strangers ask.
"Who's asking?" I ask smartly, smirking at him.
"He's Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto explains excitedly before I got my answer.
"Naruto." I groan, annoyed.
"Heh, sorry." He says, scratching the back of his head.
The fight has moved to the lake as they stand on the water. Kakashi seems to be saying and doing everything at the exact same time as Zabuza, psyching his opponent out. Kakashi gets the final attack in, sending Zabuza flying back to land.
"I guess you really can tell the future." Zabuza gasps out, severely injured and leaning against a tree.
"This is your last battle Zabuza!" Kakashi announces dramatically, readying himself for the final blow. Whoosh! A needle embeds itself into Zabuza's neck. A boy is standing on a tree branch high above our heads.
"Who are you?" Naruto asks angrily. The boy jumps down near Zabuza's body.
"Thanks for weakening him for me. I've been tracking this man for a long time now." The boy says, picking up Zabuza's body and doing a transport jutsu away from us.
"Ah! How can he come and just kill him like that?" Naruto yells. Kakashi turns to talk to our two visitors when he suddenly collapses.
"Aw man, I'm not carrying him." I call, holding my hands up and backing away. Sasuke ends up carrying him. The two strangers come with us without putting up a fight and we quickly reach Tazuna's house. Once we get Kakashi settled in, we sit around the table and have a little chat.
"So who are you guys exactly?" I ask the two strangers looking at the shorter one first. He has spiky, light brown hair and bluish-green eyes. He's wearing a black leather vest and pants. He also has fingerless gloves and his headband is wrapped three times around his elbow. His left arm has a black flame reaching from under his village headband-turned-armband, to his shoulder. The main weapon he has is a thin, sword with a shiny black sheath.
"My name is Suikoden and I'm hungry, do you have anything to eat?" After a weird look from me he responds, "Just kidding."
"What about you?" I ask, nodding towards the other one. He appears to be an inch or so taller than the other. He has similarly colored spiky hair, slightly more dramatic because of the added three inches to his hair length. He has striking blue eyes and is wearing a green long-sleeved shirt and black pants with a long white, short-sleeved jacket over it going down to his knees.
"My name is Yasu, nice to meet you." He says, bowing slightly.
"Nice to meet you too." I respond cheerily, bowing back politely. "Do you want a lollipop?" I ask, grabbing a random one out of my pocket.
"I just said I was hungry like two seconds ago." Suikoden complains.
"You weren't polite like him," I stick my tongue out at him and throw the lollipop at his head. He ends up catching it in his mouth. "You should probably take the wrapper off." I say, smiling.
Tazuna comes back with his daughter named Tsunami and she starts making dinner. We continue to chat, well all of us except Sasuke, as Tsunami makes food. After a couple minutes of useless chatter, I ask why they helped us with Zabuza. Yasu explains that he and his brother were on their way to the leaf village when he ran into us. Once he realized we were from the Leaf Village, they jumped in to help out.
"Aw thanks!" I say, hugging both of them at the same time. Sakura glares at me angrily. She had been staring at Suikoden the whole time. I thought she was in love with Sasuke! We go up to see how Kakashi is doing and find him awake. He explains to us that Zabuza is not dead at all, the "tracker ninja" who supposedly finished the job actually saved him.
"Great." I say sarcastically, "he's still alive."
"Well, we're off." Suikoden says, turning and walking away.
"Wait, your not going to help?" I ask, stopping him from leaving.
"It's none of our business, we are on our way to the Leaf village now. Bye bye" he says. His brother turns and leaves with him.
"Odd bunch." I say matter-of-factly. Kakashi and the rest of us head down to dinner and decide to start training the next day for the impending battle with Zabuza.
After a good nights rest, we head out to the forest and Kakashi tells us to climb trees. He explains that we have to climb the trees by sending the right amount of chakra to our feet and walking up it. Sakura and I both make it on our first tries and it is an exhilarating experience. I climb to one of the top branches and hang upside down.
"Well apparently the girls on this team have the best chakra control." Kakashi says, going on to mock Naruto and Sasuke for their failed attempts.
Sakura sticks up for Sasuke so I jump in and say "That's not fair, I'm sure Naruto just needs some practice." I decide to go train on my own while Sakura heads back to the house with Kakashi. I pick a tree and practice my punches and kicks on it. After I while I get bored and decide to try out my new jutsu. I get into my stance, relatively low to the ground, and shout "Flower barrage jutsu!" A large gust of wind circles me, carrying razor sharp flower petals with it. I move them by moving my hands in whichever direction I want them to go. Crunch! I quickly end my jutsu and turn around. "Hi." I bow slightly.
"Hello." the girl says. She seems to be collecting some kind of plant so I ask her what kind and proceed to help her find some. We talk for a little while before she comments on my jutsu. "Pretty impressive" she calls it, smiling slightly. After I thank her she asks an oddly personal question, "Why do you fight?" I ask her what she means and she says "You know, do you fight for money, revenge, family, friendship, love, what is your reason to fight?"
After about a minutes pause I answer "I guess I fight for my friends, my village and everyone who is important to me so basically, friendship and love." She just smiles and we continue to pick up the plants. It starts getting dark and I say that I have to go but not before telling her that "your one of my important people so I would fight for you." and giving her the peace sign.
Right as I'm leaving she says, "By the way, I'm a guy." and calmly walks away.
"What?!" I can't help but chase after him. "Seriously?" I reach out and rub his chest. "You are!!" He side steps me with a smile on his face.
I slowly walk back to the house. I still can't believe that was a guy. She, I mean he, was so pretty. Maybe it was a girl with a really flat chest... and abs? No, that had to be a guy! When I got to the house, Kakashi, Sakura, Tazuna, and Inari were sitting around the table. I sat down next to Inari and listened to Kakashi and Tazuna chat. Well I tried to listen, my mind ended up drifting back to the boy who I was picking plants with. After about five minutes Naruto and Sasuke came in holding each other up and looking absolutely exhausted.
"Are you guys all right?" I asked, jumping up and running over to them. I wrap my arm around Naruto's shoulder and sit him down next to me.
"We made it all the way to the top." Naruto says excitedly. I just smile back in return and Tazuna's daughter starts serving us some food. After a while Inari gets mad at Naruto for seemingly no reason at all.
"Wait Inari come back!" I shout, following him to his room. He tells me about his family and how much he misses his father. "Sorry, little man." I whisper as I hum him a song. He eventually falls asleep and I walk outside.
A short while later, when Kakashi was healed, we head back to the bridge to protect Tazuna. Sakura, Sasuke, and I go to the bridge. Not long after our arrival two familiar faces pop up. Its Zabuza and the guy who saved him! After Kakashi and Zabuza chat, Kakashi sends Sasuke to battle the boy with Zabuza, known as Haku.
Kakashi fights Zabuza while Haku starts up some kind of unknown jutsu, trapping Sasuke inside. Sakura and I are stuck watching over Tazuna. "I have to go help him." I whisper to Sakura, glancing worriedly over at the area Sasuke and Haku are in. Now there is a large ice crystal building thing surrounding the battle. Naruto charges in as Sakura complains that she should be the one to help her lover.
Naruto valiantly shows up and jumps immediately into the ice cavern. "I have to help them, sorry Sakura and Tazuna." I whisper to the bridge builder and my teammate. I jump after them but stay on the outside. I throw various weapons and try simply hitting the icy walls, before realizing its not helping. After hearing a cry from the inside, I make up my mind, and jump in. "This is probably a bad idea." I mumble before jumping in.
The scene in front of me is startling. Sasuke and Naruto are both covered in needles. They are talking about some kind of plan to take down Haku. Now that I'm inside I realize what the jutsu is. Its some kind of hall of mirrors. A Haku look-a-like is in every mirror. All of a sudden, I notice the real Haku jump out of his mirror, and not even a second later, a barrage of needles are flying at Naruto. Sasuke starts heading in front of Naruto, but he is already injured. I jump in front of both of them. The needles pierce my skin and I can't help but cry out.
Falling to the ground, I push my hands out to stabilize myself but I quickly fall face first anyway. Moments later, I hear Sasuke shout out in pain and then Naruto screams Sasuke's name and a weird chakra fills the air. I lift up my head in time to see Naruto surrounded in an evil-feeling chakra. He goes right up to Haku and punches him in the face. They both fly out of the area of the now cancelled jutsu.
I see Haku's face and I can't help but think it seems familiar. Moments later I realize who it was, the boy from the forest! I force myself onto shaky feet and quickly run out to stop Naruto from killing him. When I get outside, Haku is begging Naruto to kill him. Naruto is trying to talk him out of it. All of a sudden, Haku jumps towards Zabuza's position. I quickly figure out what Haku is trying to do so I jump after him. I make it just in time. Kakashi used his jutsu against me, his hand covered in a powerful chakra energy and his hand shoved deep in my shoulder.
"I told you were a friend now." I whisper. Kakashi pulls his hand out carefully causing me to wince and he catches me as I fall.
I wake up a week later in the Kenosha hospital. I groggily sit up, my hand immediately going to clutch my injured shoulder. "What... Where am I?"
The room is empty except for me. I attempt to stand up, but end up sprawled on the floor. I stumble back to my feet and head out the door. I bump, unceremoniously into a green figure. "Lee-kun?" I ask, glancing up into his worried. face. "Lee-kun!" I shout, wrapping my hands around his waist in an impromptu hug. Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I smile up at him. He must've noticed I was in pain, as he scooped me up and carried me back to bed. "I wanted to go outside." I said sadly as he tucks me back in bed.
"Your seriously injured." he said, glancing worriedly at my shoulder.
"This is nothing" I said happily My demeanor quickly changing as I remembered how I got this injury. "What happened to Haku and my team?" I ask.
"Maybe I'm not the best one to ask." He said, avoiding the question.
"Please Lee, I have to know. Are they all right?"
"Well, your team is fine." Lee said."I don't really know about the others."
"Oh." I said dejectedly. we end up talking for almost an hour before he goes back to training. Not long later I try and get up again but the doctor comes to visit.
I ask to leave but she quickly admonishes me. "Do you realize how severe your wound was? It took me hours to completely fix the muscles you destroyed. The bone in your arm shattered. Do you realize how hard it was to fix that? Sit your butt down and rest already."
I get sentenced to a week of bed rest before being allowed to leave the hospital. Kakashi comes to visit a day later. I immediately ask about what happened after I passed out. The answer was not something I wanted to hear.
What happened to Zabuza and Haku after Lyra passed out? Find out next time on Naruto!