Title: Blackout
Author: Lady Hachimitsu
Disclaimer: Naruto is not something I have the rights to. I'm just playing in the sandbox.
Warnings: Anxiety, panic attacks, typical Naruto violence, mental trauma, death, killing in cold-blood
Author Note: I am so sorry about the week delay. I'm just going to say, real life happened. But here's the next chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter: Four - Wave Arc Part Three
"You want me to stay behind to guard the house?" Suzue asked the next morning as everyone was preparing to leave for the bridge again.
"Yes, I'll leave Bisuke-kun with you as back up," Kakashi confirmed. "You were right in thinking that a man like Gatou wouldn't hesitate to go after his target's family. So we'll take turns on who stays behind. Today it'll be you!"
Suzue blinked and looked at Naruto who was putting on his shoes to leave and Inari who was watching them wearily from the table. She never did figure out a way to ask Naruto if he met anyone in the woods, so she still had no idea what was going to happen. With a sigh, she answered Kakashi. "Okay, I'll guard the house."
"Good girl!" Kakashi eye-smiled at her as he gave her head a couple of pets. She frowned at being treated like a dog.
"Man, it's going to be boring with you not there and only Teme," Naruto complained. "But I'll practice the handseal game really hard and get tons better!"
"Okay," Suzue acknowledged. "Try not to get into too many arguments with Sasuke. And both of you avoid dumping each other into the ocean...please."
"I make no promises," Sasuke said from the doorway.
"If anyone is going to end up in the ocean it's going to be you Teme," Naruto taunted.
"Boys," Kakashi drawled lazily. They stopped their fight with twin huffs. Suzue felt her lips twitch in amusement.
The bridge group left a few minutes later after Kakashi had summoned Bisuke-kun again. Suzue and the brown dog had a staring contest before Tsunami called for the two of them to come back in. Kakashi's summon apparently had his own spot in the house as he made for an area in the living room the ninja had been using. Suzue noted that it gave him a good view of the door and windows.
The lavender-haired girl stood awkwardly as she wondered what she should do. She had a system at the bridge but...guarding a house and the people in it was different. Focusing on the metals around her, she picked up her team who hadn't left her range yet but there was nothing else out of the ordinary. With a sigh, Suzue turned her attention back to the 'normal' world and watched as Tsunami head upstairs with an arm full of cleaning supplies while humming something.
Inari got up from the table and followed his mother upstairs leaving Suzue alone with Bisuke who looked like he was about to fall asleep. Her teeth caught her bottom lip as she tried to figure out something to do while on guard duty at the house. At least on the bridge, she could watch the workers work on it. Here...Tsunami might let her help with the dishes after meals and keep the living area they were using clean, but she had a feeling the woman would draw the line at any other chores that needed to be done.
"Could possibly clean the bath?" Suzue muttered to herself. She flushed when she noticed Bisuke giving her a look. Looking away from the dog, she decided that she wasn't going to go try and clean the bath. Her eyes fell on her team's' packs. Suzue never did get around to finishing the mending she had tried to do the first night here. She hadn't seen anyone else try to do it either.
Happy to finally find something to do besides just standing around like a dork, Suzue went over to the packs and started rummaging around in them. She still wasn't sure how Naruto could fit so many cups of ramen in his pack and still have everything he needed.
"You seriously going through Boss's stuff?" Bisuke asked making Suzue jump in surprise. Once her heart was no longer racing, she looked over her shoulder at the dog who was still just laying there watching her. She blinked at him not sure how to answer. Bisuke huffed, "Why are you going through Boss's things?"
"I'm...He got in a fight? And...I was planning on mending his...outfit?" Suzue offered, not sure what the dog was getting at. She guessed it was a bit rude to go through the others' things...
"And you're just going through his pack for it? Isn't that a no-no among you humans?"
"...I guess? For some? Kakashi-sensei didn't seem to mind before. Neither did the boys," Suzue shrugged. She eyed Bisuke for a moment longer before going back to digging through the pack for the outfit.
"Humans are weird," Bisuke muttered as Suzue found what she was looking for and pulled the clothing out. "But I guess I now have bragging rights to meeting Boss's pups first."
"...Pups?" Suzue asked looking back at the dog from where she was picking up the pile of clothes.
"You and the two boys? You three are the Boss's pups."
"He's not our dad, though," Suzue pointed out with a frown.
"He's still teaching you things isn't he?"
"Yeah..."
"Then, you are his pups."
"Kay," Suzue decided to just agree. She did have the passing thought of what Kakashi would do if his three 'pups' went and called him Dad. Maybe she could get the boys to actually do it with her?
Ten minutes later had Suzue blinking down at Sasuke's shirt she was mending. Her focus turned to the metals around her instead of the clothing and she caught what seemed like swords being waved around while heading towards the house. Blinking to bring Sasuke's shirt back into focus, she turned to look out the window even though she knew she wouldn't be able to see anything yet. Bisuke lifted his head turning to look towards her.
"Something wrong?"
"...I think we're about to be attacked," Suzue confessed as she started setting the clothes to the side. She remembered the house being attacked in the manga at the same time the bridge attack happened. Naruto ended up saving the day and changing Inari's heart. But...Naruto had left to go to the bridge already...hadn't he? And then came back in the nick of time to save Tsunami and Inari? She couldn't remember.
"How far out?" Bisuke asked getting to his feet.
"Just under to 2 kilometers, and heading this way. At civilian speed. There's two I think. And I'm pretty sure they're samurai. They aren't carrying enough metal to be ninja."
"We'll set up an ambush about a quarter of a kilometer from here. You don't pick anything else heading this way?"
"...No," Suzue shook her head. She glanced up at the ceiling. If she focused she could hear Tsunami still humming upstairs. Inari was moving around as she could hear his footsteps. With a sigh, she turned back to the dog. "So ambush?"
"Let's go find a good spot," Bisuke suggested as she trotted to the front door.
Suzue flicked her eyes up to the ceiling again and had the number one rule of body guarding run through her head: Always know where the body is. Leaving the house meant that she wouldn't know where the bodies she was guarding would be. She would just have an idea of their location. Still, taking out the threat before it reached the bodies would probably be the number two rule of body guarding.
She debated for a moment on whether or not to alert Tsunami that she was leaving, before deciding not to say anything and following Bisuke out the door. The moment she closed the door had the both of them flickering out of view as the sprinted towards where Suzue could sense the two samurai coming from. About a quarter of a kilometer in Bisuke stopped them.
"How good are you with traps?"
"Naruto's better," Suzue answered with a frown. It was true. Suzue was only just above average with traps and that was only because she could create traps with no obvious triggers unless someone knew how her kekkei genkai worked.
"You haven't had your first kill yet, right?" Bisuke asked in serious tones.
Suzue flinched a little and felt heat rise to her cheeks. She shook her head in answer. The girl knew at some point she would be taking someone else's life but...she wanted to hold off on that point for as long as possible. Mostly because even with all the Academy instructions and desensitization they had gone through, she still wasn't sure how she was going to react to actually killing a living human being. She was pretty sure part of the problem was because everything in the Academy had been geared towards actual children, not children with adult minds.
"Well, we'll just work on knocking them out then," Bisuke mused giving one of his ears a scratch. "If they are just samurai, a simple trap should be good enough. How much time do you think we have to set one up before they show up?"
"About twenty minutes," Suzue answered after a moment of thought.
"Good, then we should..." Bisuke started before launching into what Suzue thought was a way to overly complicated plan for knocking out two samurai.
"Um, Bisuke-kun?" Suzue managed to get out after a few minutes. Butterflies took up residence in her stomach at having to interrupt someone talking and she felt like she was choking. "Don't you think that's a little too complicated? I have a way to knock them out from standing on a tree branch."
"Really? What is it?" Bisuke asked.
With a deep breath, Suzue fished out two coins out of her pocket and held one up for the dog to see. She then Pushed on it sending it flying towards a tree. She carefully kept chakra light enough so the coin didn't do more than make a barely noticeable dent in the tree. Once it hit she released the chakra and the coin fell to the ground. Bisuke went over and sniffed at the mark the coin left and the coin itself before turning back to face her.
"You good enough to control that so you don't kill them?" Bisuke asked.
"Yes," Suzue nodded. Her uncle had made sure of that.
"Works for me then," Bisuke huffed as he made his way over to her. "You don't like overly-complicated plans do you?"
"Er...no? I'm more likely to freeze in the middle of them."
"What about the other two pups?"
"...Naruto can't keep complicated plans straight in his head and will change them at a moment's notice for something better if he sees it. Sasuke can work with complicated plans but he's not fond of them."
"Boss must despair over that," Bisuke huffed. "He loves making complicated plans."
And Suzue could totally see that. It was probably why Kakashi had allowed Zabuza to kick him into the lake in the first part. Sensei had a complicated plan that totally fell through as soon as Zabuza trapped him. Then there was that one team building 'mission' Kakashi had put them through. Not that the boys knew Kakashi had done that to them, and Suzue was so keeping what she found out about Sensei to herself.
"Let's get into position," Bisuke suggested bring Suzue back to the present. "You know where you want to set up."
Suzue took a moment to pinpoint where the samurai were and what path they were most likely to take before nodding. She moved a couple meters over and hopped up into a tree. Bisuke followed.
"Back up plan if this one fails, I'll attack one from above. That should distract them enough for you to take out the other."
"Okay," Suzue agreed and the brown dog hopped into another tree across from her.
A little over five minutes later, the two samurai that Suzue had been tracking came into view. They had put their swords away and were smirking at each other talking about what they wanted to do to Tsunami. It wasn't...pleasant. The two didn't even bother to look up so didn't see the girl and dog in the trees. Suzue held out two coins and Pushed them with a bit of chakra once they were in the correct position for her to hit them. The men collapsed like puppets with their strings cut as soon as the coins hit.
Jumping down, Suzue checked to make sure they were really knocked out and not just stun or dead. They were so she started tieing them up.
"Since we're not killing them and they are civilians, we should turn them over to the local authorities," Bisuke said making Suzue pause.
"Um...I'm not sure...I'm not sure that may be possible," Suzue informed the dog who tilted his head in question. "Gatou has a choke hold on the country. I'm pretty sure the local authorities are under his power. We turn these two in and they'll just be set free."
"And then we'll have more people attacking..." Bisuke sighed. "It'll be easier to just kill them then and bury the bodies."
"I...I don't know any Doton Jutsu to bury them with," Suzue pointed out as she eyed the two men she had just finished tieing up. It would be easy enough to kill them. A kunai was sharp enough to drag across the neck, severing the blood vessels there. No, she didn't want to that, blood would spray everywhere. Best to just nick a vein. Where was a vein again?
Was she really considering killing these two men?
"I would suggest just dumping them in the ocean...but I don't think we can find enough rocks or something to weigh them down," Bisuke continued before sighing. "Is there a vigilant group we could hand them over to?"
"...I don't think so," Suzue answered watching the two men breath. She started flipping the coins she had been holding in between her fingers. "Can't we just leave them tied up?"
"Guarding and keeping prisoners at the same time is tough," Bisuke informed her. "You have to keep an eye on both and we aren't expecting Boss and the other pups back until sunset. And who knows what shape they'll be in. If we're being attacked, chances are so are they. How long can you really keep them prisoner for? Where would you even keep them? In the house?"
"I could..." Suzue mumbled feebly. The dog just gave her a look. He was right, keeping these two as prisoners would be more work for her and just endanger the people she was to guard. Bisuke had also reminded her that the rest of her team was being attacked on the bridge by Haku and Zabuza. Suzue wanted to go help them and she would never be able to do that if she kept these two as prisoners.
"I'm sorry, pup, if I had known there wasn't anybody to turn these guys over to, I would have just had you kill them outright or done it myself," Bisuke apologized. "I can still kill them, but we need to figure out a way to dispose of the bodies."
"You'll get blood on your fur," Suzue pointed out absently as she continued to stare at the still breathing men. "The best way for you to kill them is to rip out their throats with your teeth. That'll get blood over you and it would be messy."
"It wouldn't be the first time for me pup," Bisuke pointed out.
"But it would upset Tsunami and Inari," Suzue countered, coins still flipping between fingers. "It would be better if I just nick a vein. The one in the neck. It would only take them a few minutes to bleed out and since it's a vein it won't spray. A kunai would be easier to clean than fur."
"Pup?"
The tone made Suzue turn to blink at Bisuke who seemed to be frowning at her. "You okay?"
"They taught all this to us in the Academy."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"I've done something like this before. It was with animals, though...rabbits, birds..."
"I know that, but you're still not answering my question. Are you okay, Pup?"
"I'm fine..." Suzue murmured softly with a frown. "I still don't know how to dispose of the bodies, though. We can't just eat them like the animals. Too much...too much."
"Don't like human anyway," Bisuke huffs. "Our best bet is to just toss them into the ocean. Even if we can't weigh them down. I suppose you don't know how to walk on water yet..."
"I know how to walk on water," Suzue admitted as she eyed the swords the men had at their waist. Bisuke gave her a surprised look as an idea started to form in her mind. "And we may not need weights to make them sink and stay at the bottom of the ocean."
"Oh?"
"I'll...I'll need to retie them with ninja wire and then using their swords...I can use my kekkei genkai to Push their swords into the ocean floor. It should be enough force that the swords won't come loose and have them float up when the bodies start to bloat."
"That could work. And you won't even have to get your hands bloody. Just take them to the ocean and Push them down," Bisuke mused, his tail wagged once. "Now to just get them to the ocean..."
"It'll be easy enough for me to carry them if a bit awkward," Suzue informed him as she pulled her spoil of ninja wire from her hip pouch. Her hand was trembling, but that was normal for her. She was always anxious and was prone to trembling when she was feeling overwhelmed. Was she feeling overwhelmed?
To be honest, Suzue felt numb, almost like she was in a dream. She retied the two men with ninja wire, making them even more secure as she was going to be carrying both over her shoulders. She finished by tying the wire to the hilt of their swords. Bisuke continued to watch her as she sat back on her heels and took a deep breath. Her stomach was turning.
"You doing alright, Pup?" Bisuke asked when she didn't move to start carrying them.
"Fine," Suzue choked out. She swallowed, throat feeling really dry all of a sudden. A drop of sweat rolled down her back. Her hands felt clammy. It was warm. No, it was cold. She wasn't even sure anymore.
"Don't think," Suzue muttered to herself. "Just do."
Bisuke ears twitched at her voice and she wasn't sure how to interpret the look he was giving her. With a grunt she got both bodies over her shoulders, arms wrapped around their waists to keep them in place. It was really awkward. She was tall but she was also only a thirteen-year-old girl. And these two were full grown men. The only reason she could even pull something like this off was because of her insane (according to the boys) training regimen she had been keeping to and figuring out how to use chakra to enhance the body.
Chakra had been a foreign concept to her when she had been born into this world. And in one way or another she had been aware of herself and this new body since she had been born. She didn't actually remember her first couple of years but she did remember being aware. That awareness had allowed for Suzue to become over aware of the chakra in her body. To the point that she hadn't let her chakra do things that for everyone else in this world was perfectly normal. Like naturally enhancing one's physical body when they started ninja training.
No one had noticed what she had been doing to herself until she entered the Academy. When they started the physical conditioning it had become painfully obvious that something was wrong when she couldn't keep up with her peers. They outstripped her by such a large margin that the teachers had become concerned there was something wrong with her. But the physical she had gone through to enter the Academy had revealed nothing. There should have been no problems with her. She should have been able to keep up with her classmates.
The first three months of her Academy career had been hell. Suzue had no idea what was wrong and she had been terrified that she would never be a shinobi. Nearly everyone was telling her she couldn't, that she should just drop out to find something civilian to do. If it weren't for the fact that dropping out of the Academy meant she would have had to move back in with her family whom she had just moved away from when she entered the Academy she probably would have dropped from the program. But she didn't. She pushed through, halfway convinced that if she just pushed harder she could catch up.
It was when her uncle came back from his latest mission and found out what was going that things got resolved. He had dragged her to a medic that specialized in chakra who figured out that she wasn't letting her chakra enhance her body like it was supposed to naturally. Suzue then had to spend the next six months in chakra rehab to learn how to enhance her body with chakra. She wasn't the only one in chakra rehab though she was differently the youngest there which had gotten her so many weird looks. Nearly all the people who had to go through this type of rehab had gotten their chakra coils heavily damaged to the point that the chakra in those coils no longer knew how to enhance that part of the body.
Everyone had been baffled about why an eight-year-old girl had this problem for her whole body and Suzue had never shared her theory about it. That chakra had been such a foreign thing to her otherworldly mind that she had pulled the chakra in so much into herself so that she felt 'normal' again. Even with all the trouble it had caused it did lead to the discovery that the more her body was able to do without the enhancements, the more she could do with them. As proven when the Academy teachers had told her to stop hindering herself once her rehab was completed and she had blown all her peers away.
After all, Suzue had spent several months trying to catch up with her peers. She had been able to narrow the gap between herself and them. She still continued to train without chakra enhancements and she could keep up with nearly all her peers without chakra. With chakra, she was simply better than nearly all of them in strength, speed, and stamina. The only problem was remembering to turn the chakra on to use said enhancements as she never figured how to make it automatic like everyone else had.
Suzue enhanced her body with chakra and it was easy enough to carry the men, if awkward because they were men. Using chakra even helped her body relax a bit. She hadn't noticed how tense she had become until the chakra had made the muscles relax. It didn't take long to make it to the ocean and Suzue was grateful that where they came out was a place that Tsunami and Inari couldn't see from the house. Even as she walked out onto the waves.
"This is far enough if you just want to dump them and send them down," Bisuke told her as he came to a stop. Suzue looked at him then the water bobbing under her feet.
"...They'll drown," Suzue murmured with a gulp.
"That's the idea Pup," Bisuke pointed out. "Less messy than tearing their necks open."
The lavender-haired girl said nothing. She knew he was right, it would be less messy. But...she remembered dying in another life. Suzue hadn't drowned in water. Wasn't even sure if drowning had been what killed her. It could have been blood loss. But she remembered blood filling one of her lungs, of choking on it, of trying to breathe only to cough trying to get the thick fluid out of her lung. Only it hadn't worked because more blood kept coming in.
That trying to breathe, choking, had been the most painful part of her death. And...Suzue didn't want to put anyone through that if she could help it. Which in this case she could.
"What are you doing?" Bisuke asked as Suzue swung one of the men off her shoulder. When Suzue pulled out a kunai and nicked the clavicle vein in the neck Bisuke added, "I told you we didn't have to bleed them."
"Drowning's painful," Suzue said as she nicked the other guy's vein. She had to grab and hold both men's shirts to keep them from going under. The first man's eyes fluttered but didn't wake up.
It took several minutes for them to bleed out. Suzue stayed there, crouched, watching as the ocean lapped away the blood draining from their body. Bisuke didn't say anything either as he watched as well. Once the men finally stopped breathing, it took Suzue a few moments before she could make herself let go and Push their swords down to the ocean floor.
Suzue had never seen a human corpse before, in either life. It...was strange. The men had almost looked like they were just asleep, she supposed because they were too fresh to seem lifeless yet. The ocean floor below her was under two kilometers. She could feel exactly where they were. If she wanted, she could dive down and find them.
"Pup, we should get back to the house, we've been gone long enough," Bisuke spoke, breaking Suzue from her thoughts. She nodded, her eyes drifting back to the point in the ocean where she could sense the two swords keeping the men she had just killed bound to the ocean floor. "Pup!"
The bark Bisuke let out startled Suzue enough that she focused more on the brown dog then the bodies below them. He started trotting away with a glance back at her after a few steps. The look clearly said, 'well, come on'. Suzue hesitated a moment but followed Bisuke back to the house.
The house looked fine once it came into view and Suzue could study it. She was even sure she could still hear Tsunami humming upstairs as she cleaned. They made their way to the dock that was right next to the house and Suzue jumped up onto it only to have her world spin. She stumbled down to her knees as she tried to catch herself.
"Pup?" Bisuke asked as he hopped up next to her and nosed at her check. "You look pale. Paler."
"Fine," Suzue breathed out as she squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to get the dizziness over with. "I'm...fine."
"You don't look fine. Are you having a panic attack? Because if you are, could you wait until Boss gets back? He'll be able to make it better I'm sure. If not, then Pakkun can. He makes everything better. He has these really soft paws you know. They can make anyone feel better just by touching them," Bisuke rambled at her. Suzue focused on his voice as she took deep breaths to try and settle the nauseousness in her stomach. She hated throwing up.
"...I'm fine," Suzue repeated about a minute later as she peeked open her eyes. The world was no longer spinning which was a good thing. "It was...I just forgot to adjust for the change of being on moving water and then on steady land."
"...And I'm a cat," Bisuke deadpanned. Suzue couldn't stop the giggle that escaped at his words. "You're not fine, but that's alright if you can at least keep it together until Boss comes back. He'll be better to help you than me...and he can summon Pakkun so you can touch his paws."
"Are they really that soft?" Suzue couldn't help but ask.
"Yep, the softest paws you'll ever feel."
Suzue nodded in acknowledgment and for the next few minutes, they sat in silence. Bisuke pressed himself up against her side. Suzue started putting his fur as she tried to get her thoughts back into some sort of order. They felt like they were all over the place. And there was this weird empty feeling inside her. She wasn't going to touch it, think about it. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Instead, Suzue focused on the fact that if the samurai attacked here then Zabuza and Haku were more than likely attacking the bridge. The question was, did she go to the bridge and try to help? Would she even be helpful? In the story, they were able to defeat them. By the skin of their teeth, but they still won. Having Naruto at the bridge to begin with shouldn't change things that much...Right?
But...not everything had been going as she thought they would base on a story she had read. Naruto and Sasuke were both willing to run away from that first fight with Zabuza and Suzue still didn't know why. And Zabuza and Haku now apparently attacked a day later than she thought they would. So how much did she now trust this story? Could she even still rely on it for anything?
What would she do if she didn't have knowledge of the Story? Suzue pondered over that question and came to the uncomfortable conclusion that she would stay at the house guarding it. Because that was what Kakashi trusted her to do. But the thought of just staying here, waiting for them to come back, doing nothing while they were fighting...
...And she could still feel the swords.
"Pup? What's wrong?" Bisuke asked and Suzue realized that her breathing rate had increased at her thoughts. Her heart rate as well. She was hyper aware of just how loud her heart beat was, of the blood it was pumping through her, keeping her alive. It's beat was pounding in her ear...
"I...if they sent people to attack here, do you think they're attacking the bridge as well?" Suzue asked because she couldn't just take off.
"Possibly..." Bisuke answered slowly. "Boss mentioned that two ninja might attack. If they sent the samurai here to kidnap the pack we're guarding, then I wouldn't be surprised to learn they sent the stronger ones to attack as well. But you're in no condition to fight."
"I...I'm well enough," Suzue got out staring just ahead of her. Bisuke gave a disbelieving huff that caused the girl to add on. "I can't stay here. I...I can't just...I can't just sit here and wait for them."
"Okay," Bisuke sighed after several moments. "I can get that. Get up and walk to the house. If you can do that and talk to Tsunami without losing it, I'll let you go off and check up on the others. If there were sending samurai here then they probably don't have any other ninja. I can guard the house by myself."
"How would you take care of the bodies if you're attacked?" Suzue asked because she doubted he would keep anyone who attacked alive.
"Make a pile for Boss to deal with when he comes back," Bisuke answered like it was obvious. Suzue blinked.
"Couldn't...we have done that?" Suzue asked making the dog give her a confused look. "Have left the bodies for Kakashi-sensei to deal with?"
"Doesn't it bother you humans to leave your dead out in the open like that, though? You don't leave corpses out to show your territory and how strong you are," Bisuke said with a scratch at his ears.
"I guess..." Suzue muttered. In the end, she still would have had to kill the two men. Bisuke's statement, though, reminded her that even though they were talking Bisuke was a dog, not a human. As such he didn't think like a human but thought as a dog.
"Now you're just stalling," Bisuke huffed as she pondered her latest thoughts. Suzue flushed because that hadn't been what she was doing.
"Kay, I'll get going," Suzue agreed. She took a deep breath and stood up. The world didn't swim so she exhaled and started walking to the house. Bisuke trailed after her.
"Tsunami," Suzue called once she was outside the room the older woman was cleaning.
"Suzue-chan...is something wrong?" Tsunami asked as she paused what she was doing and turned to look at the girl. She frowned at Suzue as she took a good look at her. "Are you feeling sick?"
Suzue made her lips turn upwards with a smile. It was easy, "I'm fine but something came up so, I'm going to the bridge to check on them. Bisuke-kun is staying behind to keep and keeping an eye on things here."
"Alright," Tsunami nodded, still frowning at the younger girl. Suzue kept the smile on her face because smiles meant nothing was wrong and no one should worry. "Do you need anything before you go?"
"Nope! I'm fine, I'm not sure if I'll be back early or with everyone else," Suzue added.
"Okay, be safe at least then," Tsunami said. Suzue nodded and turned to start back down the stairs before another voice spoke up.
"Why? Why are you going to help them? You're just going to die too."
"Inari! Just leave her alone alright?" Tsunami snapped at her son who was standing in the doorway to his room. "I'm sorry Suzue-chan. You should just go..."
"Everyone dies, but few get to choose how or why or even when" Suzue murmured.
"What?" Inari blinked in confusion.
"Everyone dies," Suzue repeated louder. "Telling us that we'll die...it's just stating a fact. We're all humans and humans are all doomed to die."
"Well, you're going to die now!" Inari snapped. "None of you will beat Gatou!"
"...I'm sorry that you had to watch your father die," Suzue said.
"What? ...What would you know?! I bet you have one happy family at home and-"
"My mother died fighting a giant fox demon when I was six months old," Suzue finally snapped. "I never knew her. I was then sent to my father who hadn't even known I existed until then and raised by him and his wife until he disappeared when I was four. My step mother kept me around because there was nowhere else to send me to until I was eight and could move out on my own. So you're right, why would I know what it's like for you. At least you had a happy family."
"Suzue-chan," Tsunami whispered into the silence. Suzue felt her face flush as she realized she had lost her temper.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," Suzue said as she bowed to the two. The lavender-haired girl turned and took a step down the stairs before pausing and adding, "We do have one thing in common, though. My mother and your father both died as heroes, fighting to protect what was most precious to them. Unfortunately, life isn't a story where everyone lives happily ever after, so sometimes...the hero dies."
"I..." Inari started.
"But another thing about life is that even when one hero dies, another can come and take their place. Life isn't a story that just ends once the monster's gone. It is a story where you choose when it ends. You can let the monster win or… you keep trying for that happy ending until you get it," Suzue offered before going downstairs.
"Well, you lost it but not the way I thought you would," Bisuke informed her once she reached the living room. "So I guess I still let you go."
"Thanks," Suzue said before slipping on her sandals and heading out the door.
It was rather obvious that something was going on at the end of the bridge once Suzue got into view. The heavy fog that hung at the end of the bridge and trailed down to the ocean was a dead give away about that. Suzue paused several meters outside it to see if she could figure out what was going on. Tazuna was easy to find based off the metal tools he wore to work at his belt. Zabuza was the next easiest to find because of his huge sword. Based off that she guess that the metal that was moving around him would be Kakashi. The hitai-ate that she picked up on seemed to be the right height to be Kakashi too even though it wasn't slanted. The two boys on her team were somewhat harder and she wasn't even sure she was picking up Haku at all.
To deduce what she was picking up on her metal senses, she would say that her teammates were fighting Haku in his ice mirror prison jutsu. And the flashes of metal she would pick up on followed by yelps and grunts of pain would be Haku attacking from his mirrors. No one seemed to be guarding Tazuna but Suzue was sure Naruto would have at least created a handful of clones to guard the bridge builder before joining Sasuke in the fight.
Suzue hesitated outside the mist to see if she could figure out anything else and blinked in surprise when she picked out what she guessed was a boat heading this way. Turning her head in the direction she could barely spot a boat that was coming from Wave Country. Frowning, Suzue wondered if that was Gatou coming to double-cross Zabuza. Her teeth found her bottom lip as she debated what to do. Go help her teammates or see if that was Gatou and his men.
A curse and a yell of pain had Suzue's head turning back to the mist she couldn't see through. And she made her decision.
Pulling a spoil of ninja wire from her hip pouch, Suzue tied the end of the wire to a kunai and doubled check that she knew where everyone was. She had no idea if this would even work but it was the best she could come up with that didn't involve charging straight in. Inhaling then exhaling, Suzue threw the kunai and Pushed on it. Then came the tricky part.
Suzue hadn't used ninja wire much before being placed on Team Seven. She had mostly used the stuff in traps and that was it. Sasuke had come up with the idea of her learning to fight with it because ninja wire was made out of metal. He had been taught to fight with ninja wire when he was a kid and had kept up with using it...mostly. Naruto's clones had ended up being their test dummy when trying different moves out and Suzue was now sure that Naruto was the leading expert on dodging ninja wire.
The biggest problem with ninja wire they had found out was the fact that it was very thin. Suzue was used to Pushing and Pulling on things with more mass than ninja wire. They had solved that mostly by attaching a kunai or shuriken to the end of one and Pushing or Pulling on that. The other problem was that she could only Push away from her or Pull towards herself. It left her limited in what she could do with the ninja wire. They worked with what they had though and mostly Suzue would just have to move around the battlefield to get the results she wanted.
But they did come up with a way for her to stand in mostly one spot and get the ninja wire to 'move' around without her moving. It wasn't ideal for actual battles yet. It took too much focus on doing for her to be able to do it while also being attacked. But no one in this battle knew she was joining in yet, so she could afford the effort of doing this. With a series of small and big Pushes and Pulls, she could get ninja wire to wrap around something without having to move from her spot. Which is what she was planning on doing.
Though she couldn't see through the mist, the metals let her have a general idea of where everyone was and the Story gave her a bit of knowledge in what she was up against. Suzue's plan was to wrap ninja wire around the 'base' mirrors of Haku's mirror dome and Pull on the ninja wire as hard as she could putting pressure on the mirrors. She had no idea if it would even do anything as the mirrors weren't just ice but chakra enforced ice. It was being pitted against her chakra enforced metal and she had no idea who would come out on top.
With a Push and a Pull followed by a jerk of her arm to adjust the wire, Suzue got the Kunai to go around the wire making a loop. She then Pulled. The ninja wire went taunt almost immediately letting Suzue know that she actually wrap the ninja wire around the ice mirrors. Adjusting her stance, Suzue then stuck herself to the ground with chakra to stay in one spot and added her own muscle strength to the Pull on the wire. There was a cracking sound and Suzue had to adjust her grip on the wire. She continued to Pull.
Her only warning was a sudden drop of temperature right behind her. Before Suzue could even fully register that what she was feeling, her body was already ducking down to roll away from the sudden cold spot. There was a soft whoosh of air above her head as she scrambled away, dropping the ninja wire as she spun back to face her opponent.
Haku was there, half in an ice mirror, half out. He still had his Hunter-nin mask on and Suzue was mildly creeped out by how it just stared at her.
"So, you have joined the fight," Haku stated after a few moments. "You seem to have a kekkei genkai, like me."
"Kinzoku Idōnin," Suzue offered.
"You managed to crack my mirrors with it," the boy continued. Suzue didn't say anything, not even sure where Haku was even going with this. "But that was from outside. I studied how it worked during the battle with Zabuza-sama. But I get the feeling that I've barely scratched the surface on what you can do, though."
"...Is that so?" Suzue asked not sure what else to say but feeling awkward because Haku seemed to expect her to say something.
"Yes," Haku nodded. "So shall we see who has the better kekkei genkai? Your metal against my ice?"
Suzue drew out a kunai to help deflect the senbon Haku shot at her. They made a dull thump instead of a chiming clank noise and Suzue realized that they were wooden. With her free hand, she grabbed a handful of shuriken and threw them at the ice mirror in front of her, giving them a Push. Haku disappeared from the mirror as the shuriken impeded themselves into the ice.
The temperature dropped again and Suzue was spinning, the kunai held out to attack. Haku caught her thrust with one hand as he grabbed the back of her dress with the other. The girl hissed as he inadvertently pulled her hair as he started pulling her towards him. She Pushed on the kunai in her hand and it slammed into the mirror, cracking it just as he pulled her into the mirror.
Panic set in. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move. It was so cold. There was no metal. Then she was falling and hit the ground hard. Still panicked, Suzue Pushed on all the metal she could now feel around her. It leaped to obey and shot away from her.
"Suzue!"
Gasping in a breath as she realized she could breathe and move again, Suzue realized the voice had been Sasuke with his 'You're-doing-something-stupid-stop' tone. Suzue blinked and finally realized where she was. Haku had dumped her in his ice mirror dome. She turned and saw her teammates staring at her. Sasuke looked really annoyed but Naruto looked pleasantly surprised and was smiling at her. Then she noticed just why Sasuke was annoyed with her. Pushing on all the metal around her had also Pushed on the metal the boys carried around. Sasuke was having to readjust his hitai-ate.
"Man, that was weird," Naruto drawled as he patted himself down and readjusted his own things. "Suzue-chan, your kekkei thingy is cool and all but we kinda need our weapons too."
"Sorry," Suzue mumbled, flushing as she stood up. "I was panicking."
"You okay now?" Sasuke demanded, flicking his eyes towards her before going back to the mirrors. Suzue blinked in surprise to see that he had awakened the Sharingan if the red coloring of his eyes she saw was any interaction.
"Fine," Suzue answered as she started eyeing the mirrors herself. Apparently, she had done some damage to the mirrors with her panic attack. Several of the ice mirrors had weapons impeded into them with cracks.
"Um, guys," Naruto started as he backed up towards them. "I think the damage Suzue-chan did is healing itself."
"You would be correct," Haku confirmed as he flickered into existence in the mirrors. "You may be able to crack the mirrors but you can't break them."
"She totally almost did with just ninja wire!" Naruto defended. "We'll get out of here and beat you up!"
"Can you break the mirrors?" Sasuke asked her while Naruto shouted at Haku.
"...Don't know," Suzue forced herself to admit. "I wasn't even sure the ninja wire would do even do anything."
"Naruto's right, you nearly broke them," Sasuke informed her as he brought up the kunai he was holding. "Think you can do that from inside?"
"We'll find out I guess," Suzue replied as she drew several shuriken.
"As fun as it has been," Haku was saying, drawing Sasuke's and Suzue's attention to him. "I'm afraid it has come time to end this."
"Above!" Sasuke shouted and Suzue Pushed up to deflect anything metal as she turned to face upwards throwing a handful of shuriken.
Haku was moving too fast for her to actually see but her uncle had trained her in reacting to anything coming at her. Especially if it was metal. And though Haku was now using wooden senbon, he was wearing metal.
Sasuke had grabbed Naruto, spinning the two of them out of the way. Suzue moved with them so that the three of them could still keep their backs to each other. The girl used her empty hand to grab at what was heading towards her and blinked in surprised when Haku materialized in front of her holding the other half of the wooden senbon she had just grabbed.
"Seems like my job just got much harder," Haku noted before jumping back into one of his mirrors.
"Suzue?" Sasuke questioned, his eyes wide and watching everything.
"Fine," Suzue told him as she readjusted her grip on the wooden senbon she had just gotten from Haku so she could throw it. Haku attacked again and it resulted in the same results. Suzue frowned. They could just keep doing this over and over again.
"Hey, you still have a spoil of ninja wire?" Sasuke asked between breaths only to have Haku attack before Suzue could even answer.
"Yes," Suzue answered as she swiped at where Haku was a moment ago. He was now back in the mirrors.
"Hand it over to Naruto!" Sasuke ordered as he pulled Naruto out of the line of fire again as Suzue tossed another shuriken at Haku. She missed as was becoming the norm and it embedded into a mirror.
"What am I supposed to do with it?!" Naruto demanded before Sasuke maneuvered him again. Suzue was forced to catch Sasuke as he over corrected for the two of them and nearly landed on his butt instead of attacking Haku.
"What Suzue did earlier," Sasuke shouted at him as all three of them were forced to scatter from Haku's latest attack. "I'm sure you can come up with a way!"
"Um...crap!" Naruto started only to curse as he barely dodged Haku's attack. "Got it!"
The ice mirror dome was suddenly filled with Naruto's and Suzue felt claustrophobic for all of half a second before Haku managed to pop all of them. Suzue hissed as he also took the opportunity to attack her. Senbon were sticking out of her leg making it go numb and collapse under her.
"Suzue-chan!" Naruto called out with a wild grin before tossing the spoil of ninja wire to her. Suzue grabbed the spoil with chakra and Pulled it towards her just as Sasuke gave a shout of warning...to Naruto.
Everything seemed to slow down, Suzue turned her attention from the spoil to Naruto. She sensed Haku's hitai-ate from under his mask flash from a mirror. Sasuke was running, but it seemed so slow. Haku even seemed to be going slower than he had been. Naruto was still smiling but it was slowly turning into a look of surprise. As the spoil landed in the hand she had reached out to grab it with, senbon sprouted from Naruto's neck.
"Naruto!" Sasuke screamed as Suzue grab the actual ninja wire and Pulled.
Naruto blinked then let out a cough that had blood spraying from his mouth. He fell to his knees. Suzue saw his lips move but she couldn't hear him. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ear; it was the only thing she could hear. Then Sasuke was there shouting at the blond, holding him. Suzue...Suzue wasn't sure she was even seeing things correctly. Naruto couldn't be...he couldn't be.
Suzue dropped the remaining weapons she was holding to grip the ninja wire with both hands. Then she channeled chakra into her arms and Pulled. Naruto had done his job. Under the cover of the clones, he had looped the wire around as many mirrors possible so that when she Pulled, it tighten on the ice mirrors. With how much chakra she was channeling it only took one sharp Pull back with the strength of her enhanced arms behind it to shatter all the mirrors Naruto had gotten. She didn't know why but the shattering of those mirrors caused the rest to of the mirrors to shatter forcing Haku to tumble out of the one he was in.
"That was...truly impressive. I did not think you would be able to do that with how long it took for your last attempt took to even crack the mirrors," Haku noted as he steadied himself.
"Guess I win," Suzue threw out only to make a nearly soundless noise of pain when she tried to move her arms to pick up her weapons. She looked at her arms but nothing had changed about them. There was nothing to show for what was causing the pain.
"But it seems that you overextended yourself in order to do so," Haku said. Suzue looked back up at him as it dawned on what she had just done to herself.
There was a reason why, even with the ability to enhance one's body with chakra, every ninja didn't have Tsunade's super strength. There was a point when the chakra couldn't protect against the damage one would do to themselves from that level of enhancement. At least not unless you had scary levels of chakra control. Suzue didn't have that level of chakra control. Combine that with the fact that she was very aware of just how to enhance her body with chakra lead to it being very easy for her to do this type of damage to her body. Her arms were now totally useless until they healed.
"I suppose I will take care of you next then," Haku informed her as he took a step towards her.
"No!" Sasuke snapped as he stabbed at Haku from behind. That shout was enough warning for the other boy to spin and block the attack if somewhat awkwardly.
Suzue wasn't sure if Haku had just forgotten or never realized the fact that she didn't need her hands to use her kekkei genkai. She also didn't know if Sasuke had intentionally positioned the kunai so that she could Pull on it and do damage to Haku. Either way, she took the opportunity to Pull on the kunai. Haku let out a startled yelp as the kunai went straight through his arm, breaking it. He broke away from Sasuke, putting as much distance as he could between them.
Before Sasuke could think to go after the older boy, Suzue was Pulling on a lot of metal that felt like weapons that Haku had just put his back to. As she Pulled, she had the thought that all those weapons were supposed to be important or something, but she couldn't remember. The girl nearly lost the connection to the metal she was Pulling on as loud curses and 'what the hell?' sounded from the end of the bridge.
The voices alerted Haku to something behind him so that he didn't end up skewed with a bunch of metal, easily deflecting them with only one hand. What the voices didn't do was distract Sasuke from trying his best to murder Haku. The dark-haired boy attacked the other with such viciousness that Suzue was pretty sure the only other person Sasuke would attack in such a manner would be Itachi. He didn't let up at all and Suzue wasn't sure she could attack Haku again without the risk of hurting Sasuke in the process. Not that she was sure Sasuke would care at this point as long as it led to Haku's death.
"Sasuke! Stand down," Kakashi was ordering. Sasuke wasn't listening. Then Kakashi was behind Sasuke, pulling him away from Haku, and keeping him from attacking. "I said, stand down!"
"He killed Naruto! I'll kill him!" Sasuke howled, struggling to get out of Kakashi grip and attack Haku again.
"If you don't stand down, I will knock you out," Kakashi informed Sasuke making the boy stop his struggles but he was still glaring at Haku.
"Haku get over here," Zabuza's low voice called out. "It seems we have some unexpected guest."
"Yes, Zabuza-sama," Haku acknowledged as he flickered over to the larger Kiri-nin. He was cradling the arm Suzue had broken against his chest.
The lavender-haired girl let her eyes drift from Zabuza and Haku to where she had been picking up a large amount of metal. The mist was clearing at a rapid pace and it reveals a large mob of thugs. At their head was a short man dressed in a business suit smirking at all of them. He tapped his cane twice before speaking.
"Well, I was hoping that the two of you would beat each other up more before making an appearance. But I guess this will do."
"Gatou," Zabuza growled. "What are you doing here? And why did you bring all of them?"
"A change of plans," Gatou chuckled. "Well, more a change of your plans as this was what I was planning all along. You're going to die 'demon', here and now?"
"What?" Zabuza asked sounding more annoyed than surprised.
"You must have guessed," Gatou taunted. "I never intended to pay you. It's always such a bother to hire skilled ninja from one of the top villages. Not to mention expensive...And they tend to have friends who object when I kill them. But you missing-nin...No one cares what I do to your kind once the job is done. All I have to do is wait for you ninja to fight each other until you're too worn down that even common thugs can finish you off. It's a great business plan. Efficient and inexpensive. Though, I admit, there was one flaw in this plan. It was hiring the Demon of Kirigakure. Such false advertising. You're more like a baby demon than an actual demon."
"Yeah! We'll be able to take you down, no problem!" the mob crowded at Zabuza.
"Forgive me Kakashi," Zabuza sighed as he turned to fully faced the mob. "Our fight is over. I no longer have any reason to want to assassinate Tazuna, which settles our differences."
"Yeah," Kakashi also sighed with a glance from Zabuza to the group at the end of the bridge. "You're right."
"What do you mean it's over?!" Sasuke snarled as he tried to throw Kakashi's grip off. "He killed Naruto! I won't let him get away that!"
"I deeply apologize for the pain I caused you," Haku offered with a slight bow. "But as Zabuza-sama said, our fight is now over."
"Such pretty words," Gatou huffed, smirk still in place. "I owe you for breaking my arm. Though it seems like someone repaid that already."
There was a senbon in front of Suzue. A metal one. It was overcast so it didn't glint in the light but Suzue was still eyeing it. That senbon had a clear path to Gatou. It would be very easy to just Push on it and send it to the short business man.
Suzue found herself looking away from the mob to Naruto who was lying too still. The blond was always so full of energy. Even when sleeping, moving around and taking up his space and half of whoever was sleeping next to him. The Story had Sasuke taking the hit and being put into a death-like state. But here and now...Naruto had been too far away for Sasuke to step in. The weapons used had been wooden so Suzue couldn't stop them. And this was real life...she had no idea if Haku would really pull his attacks.
But, Shinobi were just tools. Weapons to be wielded by others. It was something that was taught in the Academy, though those exact words were never used. So in a way, Haku wasn't even the one at fault. Gatou was.
The lavender-haired girl was still staring at Naruto when she Pushed on the senbon. She didn't see the senbon hit, pushing through Gatou's sunglasses into his eye and entering his brain. Didn't see him drop to the ground, dead before he was even aware of it.
There was silence as everyone took in the fact that Gatou was now dead.
"Suzue," Kakashi called after a moment and was sudden next to her dumping Sasuke by her side.
"He's the reason Naruto's..." Suzue trailed off, not even able to say he was dead. Though, there was the chance he wasn't. "And if Gatou's dead then Tazuna's safe."
"Sasuke watch over Suzue. That's an order."
The boy growled at the order but after shooting a glare back at Haku he settled next to Suzue. His hand latched onto the sleeve of her dress.
"Ha, I really didn't think any of your brats had it in them," Zabuza huffed.
"They're certainly full of surprises," Kakashi shrugged back.
"Hey, I don't know what you did, but you just killed our meal ticket!" one of the thugs shouted.
"We'll kill you for that!" another shouted.
"Yeah and pillage this place!"
"Take everything of value!"
Suzue turned away from staring at Naruto to the mob that was now charging at them. Eyes widening at being charged and not having the ability to flee, Suzue Pushed on all the metal they were carrying. She had to channel chakra into her legs to stick herself to the ground so she didn't slide backward.
Chaos descended onto the mob. Injuries abound and several of the weapons they were carrying killed someone else. Many lost their grip on said weapons and they went flying out over the water. Suzue switched from Pushing on them to Pulling and they came flying back to the mob. There were screams as even more of the men died.
"Suzue, that's enough," Kakashi informed her before she could Push the metal back through the remaining men of the mob still standing. She dropped the metal and it clattered to the bridge. She watched as the men who were still able to move scrambled off the bridge into the boat.
"They're gone!" Sasuke growled standing up. He froze when Suzue hissed in pain as he hadn't let go of her sleeve thus moving her arm.
"Looks like they took the opportunity of Suzue taking care of the mob to get out of here," Kakashi mused as he pulled his hitai-ate down over his Sharingan eye. "Let it go Sasuke."
"But...Naruto," Sasuke nearly whined turning to look at the blond. "Suzue?"
"...They just left my range," Suzue answered his unasked question, then she looked up at her sensei. "Can you move me next to Naruto?"
"Sure, then I think we need to take care of your injuries," Kakashi agreed as he bent down to pick her up. "Tazuna-san are you alright?"
"Better than it seems you lot are," Tazuna answered as he slowly made his way over to where Naruto was laying. "The kid..."
No one said anything. Suzue wasn't sure there was anything to say. No one wanted Naruto to be dead.
Kakashi set her back on the ground next to Naruto and started removing the senbon that Suzue had stuck in her. "Sasuke, you should start removing the senbon in you too. Be careful of the wooden ones. Suzue do you know what you did to your arms?"
"...Tore all the muscles in them...maybe in my hand too? I'm not sure," Suzue answered as Kakashi pushed back her sleeve to look at them. She winced as he poked at them.
"Well, we'll need a doctor to take a look. I'm not sure how badly you tore them," Kakashi informed her. "Now your leg..."
Naruto was groaning.
Everyone turned to look at the blond who was supposed to be dead. His eyes were squished shut and he was making a sort of whining noise. Then his eyes flickered over and he looked at them. His lips stretched into a grin as he looked at them.
"Hey, did we win?"
"Dobe," Sasuke choked out, his voice full of emotions.
"Yeah," Suzue laughed as she felt tears start sliding down her cheeks. "Yeah, Naruto, we won."
Author Note: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again sorry about the late update. I had forgotten how much I hated writing feels...Anyways, next update I'm going to say will be at the end of the month, Octo 30th/31st. The new cover for the story was done by TricksterThief who also did my profile picture. Also, I'm on tumblr under lady-hachimitsu. I'll be posting when updates happen and you are welcome send me questions and the like about the story. Or just bother me if I'm late for an update again...
Thank you everyone who's reviewed, favorited, or followed! You all make my day!