A/N:My longest chapter ever. I only proofread it one time, hope I didn't miss too many mistakes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. The original manga belongs to Masashi Kishimoto san.
Warning: I'm an Asian. English is a lot different from my first language. Please forgive if sometimes the word I choose to use isn't suited the context and any spelling- grammar mistake I have made and will make.
Chapter 4: "Training and the re-encounter."
The first thing Kakashi saw when he regained his consciousness was a glowing green light. He heard the voice of his female student, "You woke up, at last. How do you feel now, sensei?"
"Much better," he answered, noticed he was now inside a small room which only had a few simple furniture. "Where are we?"
"Tazuna san's house," she replied and said when he tried to sit up, "Easy! I healed all your wounds but the worst thing you got is chakra depletion, you would need time to recover."
He looked around. His other students and Tazuna was in the room as well. Tazuna and Naruto watched him with concern while Sasuke were just … being himself.
"Sensei," He turned back to Sakura. "I don't understand. That young ninja, I recognized his mask, it's a Kiri ANBU's mask, right? But if he's an ANBU, why did he save Zabuza?"
"Well," He sighed. "I would like to think he only needed Zabuza alive so he could bring the missing nin back to Kiri for interrogation but we've got to assume the worst, too."
"And that is?" Sasuke inquired with his monotonous voice.
"The young ninja is Zabuza's accomplice."
Kakashi's statement was followed by a dead silence in the room. Tazuna exclaimed in frustration, "What? So it's not over yet? They would return?"
"Yes, but not soon, at least," the Jounin reassured, "Zabuza had received some serious internal injuries which wouldn't heal in a short amount of time so we still can prepare for it."
"It's not like you in any better condition, sensei," Sakura said, folded her arms in front her chest, medic style.
He smiled. "Oh, sorry. I mean: I prepare you guys for it."
His students looked at him with mild surprise. Naruto asked, his expression rather excited than apprehensive, "We? We can do it?"
"Why not? It was thanks to the three of you that we were able to defeat Zabuza, remember?" Kakashi reminded them.
The blond grinned, now fully confident. "Yeah, that's right! We'll kick his butt if he dares to return, believe it!" (A/N: First time I used this, can you guys believe it?)
"Nonsense, what a baka!"
Everyone immediately stared at Sasuke, he just frowned. 'It wasn't me!'
The source of the voice was actually a little boy, about six or seven years old and had a sullen attitude on his face. He went into the room with a young, long bluish black haired woman.
"Inari!" the young woman scolded, "Don't be rude! They have been protecting your grandfather."
Tazuna said as the boy ran to him, "It's okay, Tsunami. I say rude things to them all the time." Then he turned to team 7. "They are my daughter and my grandson."
"Grandpa!" Inari pointed at the team. "Why don't you tell them what they're doing is useless? They would get themselves killed!"
Naruto stood straight up instantly. "What did you say, brat?! Don't you know who we are? We're Konoha's ninja, heroes who can defeat any force of evil!"
His teammates sweat dropped when he took a pose as if there was some amazing aura radiated out from his body when he said that and refused to join his antics. Inari snapped, like something in the blond's words irked him, "Shut up! There's no such thing as hero in this world!"
He stomped out of the room, followed by Tsunami after she gave the team an apologetic look.
'What's wrong with that boy?' Sakura wondered, a bit worried.
'So pessimistic!' Naruto thought sarcastically, 'Compare to him Sasuke is a ray of sunshine!'
A few days later, team 7 gathered in the forest near Tazuna's house. Even though Kakashi was still weak and had to move around with crutches he decided he should continue training his students as soon as possible.
"Listen!" he said. "In our last battle I have discovered things you guys must improve in order to fight more efficiently so I came up with this exercise: climbing tree."
"Climbing tree?" his students repeated.
"Yes, but not using your hands. Send your chakra to your feet to do it." And as demonstration, he climbed -more like walked- on a tree, straight up, as easy as on flat land then stopped at the highest branch, standing up side down.
"That's it?" Naruto raise his eyebrow. "I thought it would be something impressive, but it's just like what Sakura did during the Genin exam. You know, when she caught you in that Genjutsu."
'Don't need to rub it in my face.' Kakashi landed back on the ground, gracefully even with the crutches. "That's why this exercise is for you and Sasuke only. Sakura will have her personal training with me, on a higher level of course," he added slyly.
'What is he trying to pull?' Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. 'Make my teammates dislike me? If there's something I understand about boys, that is they really hate losing to girls.'
Sasuke kept his expression calm, but a glint of annoyance could be seen in his eyes. Naruto gaped at the Jounin for a bit then declared, "No way! I'll finish this in a flash then join her!"
"Go on ahead!" He shrugged. "You too, Sasuke. But I warn you: It's not as simple as it seem."
The two ninja got in positions and started running up the trees they'd chose. Naruto was only able to make three steps before slipped down. Sasuke made it higher but had to jump back as he heard the tree cracking under his feet.
'This is tricky,' the raven haired boy thought. 'The amount of chakra has to be perfect. If you applied too little, you'd fall right away, like Naruto.' He glanced at the blond now looked pretty frustrated then turned to the dent he created on the tree. 'If you applied too much, the chakra itself pushed you down.'
"I see," he told Kakashi. "You want us to train our chakra control, right?"
The Jounin nodded. "Precisely. Chakra control is very important when performing jutsu. If you're lousy at it, the jutsu won't reach its highest potential or even won't work at all. You end up wasting your energy and in battle, that's fatal. So I need you guys to train until it became your second nature, understood?"
The two stayed quiet, each one had his own thoughts. Kakashi gave them the last piece of advice, "Next time, use kunai to mark the spot you've been able to climb up to and try advance higher from that." Then he gestured to Sakura to follow him.
The girl obliged. After a few minutes, she asked when she realized they was getting out of the forest, "Where are we going?"
"The construction site," the Jounin replied. "I can train you there while we keep an eye on Tazuna san."
"Didn't you say Zabuza wouldn't recover anytime soon?" She thought for a bit more then assumed, "Oh, there's still that young ninja."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Even though I think the chances are small. If he wanted he could have killed us when we first met him already. He had a perfect opportunity then."
"So why didn't he?" Her eyebrows furrowed.
The silver haired nin contemplated the problem. "Most reasonable explanation would be he and Zabuza aren't accomplices but more like master and student or even master and servant."
"Eh?!" Sakura stopped on her track, surprised.
"Zabuza is an arrogant man," he said. "How would he react if his servant killed the people who defeated him?"
"Not happy, and that's an understatement," the pink haired girl answered. "He probably wanted to kill us himself." She couldn't help but shivered at that.
"Right, then maybe we don't have to worry about the young ninja after all, at least for now," he said, his tone switched to be more light-hearted. "However, that's just theory and we all know Gatoh isn't very famous for his patience so better safe than sorry, we have to keep Tazuna san under our guard."
The girl nodded and they kept walking quietly from there.
Naruto sat on the ground, panting. He tried the exercise for like hundreds of time now but still unable to make it all the way to the highest branch. His mood gotten worse as he looked at Sasuke's kunai marks, the raven haired boy maintained his lead which meant 7 feet above.
"Arg! Why can't I do it?" he whined, thrashing his arms childishly. "Sakura chan did it so easily!"
"Dobe, she's a medic." Came the monotonous voice, he almost jumped. "Most medics were born with natural talent in chakra control, no point in comparison here."
He stared at Sasuke. The teme'd never said so many words in one sentence like that unless he had to. And did he just indirectly admit that someone was better than him in something? No, he couldn't be that nice. He probably meant: 'She's no good. She's just lucky that God gave her a talent'. Now he wanted to wallop the jerk.
Sasuke sensed the malice, threw the blond a 'what are you glaring at?' look. The blond didn't answer, stood up and walked away. "I'll go check on Sakura chan."
"For what?"
He felt even more annoyed. 'Is he suspecting me?' In fact, he planned to ask Sakura for some advices but he would never tell Sasuke that so he stated his other reason, "Like I said, I'll check on her. You seriously think it's okay to let her train alone with our perverted sensei?"
He swore he saw Sasuke's left eye twitched.
"She can take care of herself," the Uchiha said in the end, turned his head back to the tree. "You don't know where they're training at anyway."
Naruto could only stood motionless in place. 'How come he always manage to make me look like an idiot?'
The two boys kept training until the sun set then returned to Tazuna's house. They saw Sakura prepared the dining table while humming a tune. Her cheerful mood disappeared when she noticed them entered, bruised all over.
"Let me heal you guys," she offered.
"Safe your chakra," Sasuke coldly replied, seated himself on a chair.
Naruto scowled at him for his blunt attitude, wondered how Sakura could keep her calm still then grinned to her. "These are only minor wounds, they'll heal by themselves in no time, you don't have to do anything, Sakura chan."
"Yeah, and you've trained so hard you must be exhausted by now, don't push yourself any further." Tazuna walked in the room, followed by Kakashi.
The blond gave the bridge builder a curious look. "You saw her train or something, Tazuna san?"
"Well, she trained at my construction site so of course I saw," he said as he sat down, too. "Later, she and Kakashi even went to the market with me and helped carrying the groceries I bought."
Kakashi corrected, "She helped, I wasn't able to do anything with these crutches."
'Good, she didn't train alone with perverted sensei,' Naruto secretly thought. He looked at Sakura. "What did Kakashi sensei teach you today?" Switched to puppy dog eyes (or fox eyes) mode. "Tell me, tell me!"
The pink haired girl was about to answer but Kakashi interrupted her, "Focus on your own training. You haven't succeed, right? Or I should have heard you bragging non stop by now."
"I'll nail it tomorrow, just you wait!" he declared confidently, a bit disappointed that he didn't get to know more of Sakura's training. Across the table, Sasuke threw a doubtful gaze at the Jounin. 'In front that many people, he couldn't teach her any kind of jutsu since those are classified to outsiders. So what's he training her at anyway?'
No one paid much attention to Inari, who just joined them silently. Sakura helped Tsunami serve the food to everyone then started to eat her potion but soon lost her appetite when she watched the eating contest between her teammates began. She got a feeling that somehow they had became rivals and wouldn't accept defeat.
"I want some more!" they said at the same time, glaring at each other like 'don't you dare touch my food!'.
"Slow down!" Kakashi shook his head disapprovingly, warned, "I know you need a lot of food to have energy for training but if you keep eating like that you'll puke or worse get a severe case of indigestion and have to ask Sakura for help, you want that?"
The two, however, ignored him, kept gulping down all the nourishment there was on the table. Inari observed them for awhile with disgust on his face then huffily left the dining room, half of his food untouched.
Sakura worriedly looked at her teammates. It wasn't good for your health eating so fast, medic's experience. She searched around for something which might distract them.
"Tazuna san, why is that picture missing a big part at the corner?" she asked, pointed to a picture frame on the wall. It showed Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari all smiling happily.
By the way Tazuna and Tsunami's moods suddenly saddened, Sakura inwardly chided herself for said stuffs which she apparently should not. Still, she achieved her original intention. Sensing the change in the air, her teammates stopped their competition and had their attentions on the bridge builder instead.
"There was another person in that part, Inari tore it out himself," Tazuna answered after being quiet for awhile. "It all started three years ago…"
(A/N: You all know the story, right? I couldn't come up with any change to put in it so just let me skip this part.)
Sakura slowly walked down the stairs, she still thought about the story Tazuna told her team yesterday night. Now she could understand a bit more why Inari acted the way he did, but why was he so insistent that there was no hero in this world while his father, as far as she knew, was a real hero? Yes, he had failed. Did it make any difference? In Konoha, ninja who was KIA had their names carved on the Memorial stone and people called them heroes.
"Good morning, Sakura," she heard Kakashi's calm voice.
"Good morning, everyone," she greeted then sat down, saw the breakfast prepared for her already on the table. "Thanks, Tsunami san!"
Tsunami smiled and returned to her work. Sakura noticed there was one person missing. "Where's Naruto?"
"Hasn't come back yet," Sasuke answered in an indifferent tone.
The pink haired girl looked at him, didn't get it. "What do you mean?"
He sighed, wasn't used to talking so much. "He left to continue training right after yesterday's dinner. Don't you know?"
"No, I was washing dishes with Tsunami san." Then her eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, so he trained all night? He was exhausted even before that. Wouldn't it be bad for him?"
Kakashi waved hid hand dismissively. "No need to worry. Naruto might act silly sometimes but he's a fully-fledged ninja, he can take care of himself."
Sasuke finished his breakfast then stood up. "Hn, I think Sakura were right. He's an idiot he's probably wandering around dead somewhere."
'How could he twist my words so it became like that?' The girl winced, she asked as she saw him heading for the front door, "Where are you going?"
"Out," was his answer before he left. Tazuna commented, "Such a … boy of few words."
For some reason, Kakashi glanced at Sakura, chuckled, made her blink her eyes innocently in confusion. "I'll say he's getting better."
"Oh, Sasuke left already?" Tsunami looked out from the kitchen, frowned slightly. "I was about to ask him to bring some food for Naruto."
"Let me," Sakura volunteered and told Kakashi, "When I return I'll go straight to the construction site. See you there, sensei."
The Jounin nodded. She ran out from the house, soon caught up to Sasuke. He turned his head when he heard her footsteps, raised an eyebrow.
"I bring breakfast for Naruto," she explained, showed him the bento. "He's probably training at the same place as yesterday, isn't he?"
He didn't answer, resumed his walk. 'Is that a 'yes' or a 'I don't know'?' She pouted without letting him see that. 'Did he reach the limit of words he could say in one day or something?'
"If you're heading there too, can you help me deliver it? I have to go to Kakashi sensei soon for training."
Again, no answer, but this time it was definitely a 'no'. Didn't have any other choice, she followed him.
They walked side by side in quietness. She couldn't help her thoughts from wandering, even though they still didn't talk much to each other –not that Sasuke talked much to anyone for that matter- somehow, they had grown more comfortable in each other's presence. That was a good thing since like it or not, they had to meet almost everyday.
After a few minutes, Naruto came to view. The two saw there was another person with him. He was … beautiful, almost made Sakura mistake him for a girl if she didn't realize the sleeveless kimono he wore was the type for men. He spotted them, stopped his conversation with Naruto then left. There was something about him that drawn the pink haired girl's attention so she kept watching him until he was out of sight.
"What's wrong?" She startled when she heard Sasuke's voice. "No, it's just… I have a feeling like I've met him before."
He turned to Naruto. "Who was that?"
"Don't know, I just met him." The blond shrugged. "He was here gathering herbs, I guess. I didn't even ask his name."
Assumed she was just imagining things, Sakura dropped her doubt, came close to him and handed him the bento. "Here your breakfast."
His eyes instantly lit up. "Wa, you're the best, Sakura chan!"
"Tsunami san prepared that for you." She smiled. "Remember to thank her later."
Surprisingly, the blond didn't dig in right away. He glanced at Sasuke, who now kept quite a distance from them doing a warm up for his training, then looked back at Sakura, lowered his voice, "Hey, can I ask you a favor?"
She nodded. "Yes, what is it?"
"You're good at chakra control." He scratched his head. "How about some advices? But don't tell Sasuke I asked, please!"
The pink haired girl thought carefully for awhile. Actually, control chakra was as normal to her as breathing and she had never wondered how she did it. "Well, the most important thing is don't push yourself too hard or you'll get angry and frustrated, it will disturb your chakra network. Try to relax, feel your chakra flow first. Once you get the flow it'll be easier to manage the amount of chakra you project out."
Then she said goodbye to her teammates and left for training as well. Naruto ate his breakfast while repeated her words inside his head, didn't want to forget them, he intended to put her advices into use as soon as possible.
Stood up, he closed his eyes, made the hand-sign for focusing chakra. 'Ok, relax, feel my chakra flow… Here it comes… I can feel it …' His eyes snapped open. 'I got it!'
He ran towards the tree, certain he would make it all the way to the top this time.
"Naruto."
He tripped and fell. Couldn't blame him, he kinda jumped whenever the antisocial teme started a conversation to him out of nowhere. Turning abruptly, he yelled at the saboteur, "What?! Don't you see I'm busy?"
He might have hit his head and started hallucinating since he saw Sasuke blushing, barely noticeable, but blushing nonetheless.
"You asked Sakura for advices just then, right?" the raven haired boy said, avoided the blond's gaze. "So… what did she tell you?"
Naruto's eyes widened as plates. What was that? The end of the world? Uchiha Sasuke, the prodigy, number one in everything, swallowed his pride to require advices? Then again, the blond recently noticed, sometimes the Uchiha would act out of character when it came to Sakura.
"Why don't you go ask her yourself?" He couldn't waste the chance to get back at his arrogant teammate. "I won't tell you."
'There, his eye twitched!' He sniggered.
They returned to Tazuna's house much later than the day before. Sakura was standing outside, waited for them with an anxious expression. She exclaimed when she saw them, all worn out and Naruto had to lean on Sasuke for support, "Oh my! Don't tell me you guys trained straight from morning till now. I don't want to have three patients with chakra depletion at the same time!"
"Oi, I'm no patient anymore," Kakashi said, walked out from the house. "No crutches, see?" Sakura threw him a warning glance. "You're not well yet, don't push it."
Naruto, despite how tired he was, grinned to the ears. "Kakashi sensei, we made it! We both made it all the way to the top!"
The Jounin crossed his arms. Sakura's mood turned to cheerfulness. They said 'Really?' but with different tones.
"Yeah!" And to prove himself, the blond looked for the nearest tree, climbed on it before anyone could stop him and hung up side down on the highest branch just like Kakashi did when he taught them. "See!"
However, his chakra was already low so he soon lost his chakra hold. Sakura panicked, tried to rescue him but Sasuke was faster. He ran straight up the tree, hanging on the same branch and grabbed the blond ankle, saved him from falling to his demise. "Hn, you're such a dobe."
The Jounin smiled behind his mask as he watched Naruto let out an angry cry, tried to restrain himself from reach up and punch the Uchiha, knowing they would fall if he did that. To think they completed the exercise in just two days was really impressive, considering they both possessed tremendous amount or chakra, especially Naruto.
"Okay, you guys have succeeded. From tomorrow the team would train together again," he called up to them, his voice as nonchalant as ever. "Now carefully get down before you drop dead, from chakra exhaustion or literally, I'm not gonna take responsible for that."
The boys jumped down, glared at him while Sakura giggled. Then they heard a voice came from the direction of the house, "Why trying so hard? There's no way you can defeat Gatoh."
Naruto turned, saw Inari standing in the doorway, he scowled. "You like babbling nonsense, huh."
Inari retorted, stepping closer to him, "That wasn't nonsense! Gatoh has an army while you guys just have four people, you do the math!"
"Shut up! I won't lose! I'm nothing alike you!" the blond snapped, anger showed in his tone now.
The boy paused a bit, tears started streaming down his face, he yelled, "Don't talk like you understand me! What do you even know? Someone who's always smiling and laughing like you could never understand how I feel!"
Naruto yelled back, "Oh, so you're gonna play the victim here? Keep crying for all I care, you're just a coward!"
"That's enough!" Sakura told him with a stern expression. Inari seemed shocked. Kakashi slightly shook his head. "It's late, go and rest. You have training tomorrow, remember?"
The blond glared the last time at Inari then complied, Sakura and Sasuke followed him. He stomped off to the bedroom, fuming and completely forgot he hadn't had dinner. Sakura sighed, her voice saddened, "Did he have to say all that?"
"He were right though," Sasuke silently said. She turned to him. "But Inari's still just a kid."
He didn't answer, moved to the window and looked outside. Wondered what he was watching, she did the same. They saw Kakashi came close and talked to Inari, "Naruto could be harsh sometimes but he didn't mean anything bad. We've heard about your father. In fact, I think Naruto is the one who understands you most."
Inari looked at him, surprised. He continued, "He's an orphan, he doesn't even know the faces of his parents and before he joined this team he didn't have a single friend. However, I've never saw him cry, sulk or give up. Instead, he's always trying his hardest in everything, doesn't hesitate to put his life on the line if needed. What he told you was cruel but I guess it was the things he kept telling himself everyday."
Inari stayed silent and in the house so did Sasuke and Sakura. The pink haired girl stole a glance at the boy beside her, he seemed deep in thought. She realized even though his personality was very different from Naruto's, their lives was similar in many aspects. She sure hoped they would get along better, preferably become best friends.
Kakashi heard footsteps from the stairs and looked up, saw Sasuke and Sakura coming down. "Why just the two of you? Where's Naruto?"
"He doesn't wake up no matter how hard we called him." Sasuke had his usual stoic face, his hands shoved in his pockets.
Sakura was frowning, she crossed her arms. "You smacked him on his head when he didn't respond to the first call. I think he's unconscious now." 'So much for getting along,' she mentally added.
He just shrugged. Kakashi inwardly grimaced at his student's behavior then decided, "Well, he used up too much chakra yesterday for training, I was planning to give him a day off anyway. Let's go."
So the three of them and Tazuna left the house, headed for the construction site. Sasuke couldn't help but wondered what kind of training Kakashi would give him. It might be the same as Sakura's -then again, she probably had completed it already.
Sakura's pace faltered. Upon noticed that, he turned to her, inquired, "What's the matter?"
She kept silent for awhile, seemed worried for some reason. "You hear anything?" He tried to listen but it was really quiet. "No."
"Exactly," Kakashi said, narrowed his eyes, he realized the problem now. "We're close to the construction site, why there's no sound?"
Tazuna startled. He ran straight ahead, made the three ninja follow him. When they reached the place, they all shocked as all the workers was lying on the ground, injured or worse.
A thick mist started to surround them. Sakura and Sasuke reacted immediately, stood next to Tazuna, weapons ready. They heard a hostility voice, "We meet again, Kakashi."
"You recovered faster than I thought, Zabuza," Kakashi calmly answered to the owner of the voice.
The assassin appeared, the young ninja came with him, his face still hidden behind the ANBU mask. Zabuza weaved some hand-signs then ten water clones materialized around the three Konoha nin and Tazuna. "I see you kept those useless brats. That one's trembling again, pathetic!"
Sasuke looked up and smirked, made the water clone in front of him surprised. "I'm trembling with … excitement!" he said almost arrogantly.
"Go on, Sasuke, Sakura." Kakashi encouragingly smiled. "I'll leave them to you."
In a blink of an eye, the Uchiha destroyed five of the clones. By the time he turned, Sakura was finishing the last of the other five as well. If he was shocked, he didn't show it. 'So Kakashi trained her to improve her speed an stamina huh?' he thought. 'He truly seen through our weaknesses. But to think she advanced that fast …'
Zabuza didn't seem like he impressed much. "Change your strategy and put your students on the front line? Two can play that game. Haku!"
The masked nin bowed his head slightly then started moving in circular motion towards Sakura and Sasuke, so fast he looked like a small tornado. Sakura raised her weapon, prepared for battle but Sasuke told her, "Stay back!"
He took out another kunai, now held one in each hand and blocked Haku's attack. The two exchanged some blows before stood still in a weapon lock. "Do you realize I'm holding two advantages over you?" the masked nin asked in an emotionless tone.
"Oh, what are those?" Sasuke raised his eyebrow, that wasn't enough to stop the smirk on his face.
"One, we're surrounding by water," Haku slowly replied. "Two, I'm keeping one of your hands busy." And he made hand-signs with just his free hand.
Even Kakashi was surprised. 'I've never seen anyone capable of that!'
The water flew up in the air, gathered and formed hundreds of senbon, aimed straight at Sasuke. He closed his eyes, focused his chakra. 'Stay calm, I've trained for this.'
Haku jumped out before the senbon hit, but when he looked at the place, the raven haired boy had disappeared. "Doesn't seem like you can catch up to my speed," he heard a voice from behind. "Now it's my turn to attack."
He moved, avoided Sasuke's first strike. Sasuke threw the other kunai with a flick of his wrist made the masked nin has to crouch down to dodge only to receive a hard kick and flew backwards.
'He's faster than Haku?' This time, Zabuza actually shocked, still, he covered it well.
Haku stood up, no one was able to see his expression because of the mask. "How long you're gonna keep going easy on him?" Zabuza said strictly.
"Sorry, Zabuza san," he obediently replied. "I'll finish this quick."
He performed hand-signs, chakra started to project out from his body, into the air. Soon, Sasuke felt the temperature dropped down drastically. Sakura ran to him. "It's bad! You've got to …" She didn't continue her warning as ices appeared around and above them, small at first but growing bigger and bigger until they became twenty ice mirrors, formed a dome, trapped them inside. Haku's image was seen on every mirror and they couldn't tell which one was real, which one was just reflection.
"I'll show you my true speed," Haku stated. What happened after that was too fast for the two Konoha ninja to see. They only felt their skins got cut repeatedly and all they managed to do was stayed in defensive stance, tried protecting their vital points.
Kakashi stepped up, intended to help them but Zabuza took out his sword, threatened, "Try save them and I'll kill the bridge builder."
'He got me,' the Jounin worriedly thought. 'I can't leave Tazuna san unprotected. But how long Sasuke and Sakura could last under that jutsu?'
"Forget them," the assassin continued. "Once trapped inside the Crystal ice mirror jutsu their lives considered finished."
The attack ceased, seemed like Haku had done with his first assault. Sakura, now injured all over, forced herself to think straight after the panic. 'Why did he stop? May be this jutsu has time limit?'
Sasuke wasn't in any better condition, he observed Haku's image on the mirror, tried to figure the jutsu out. 'Now there's just one of him. His image only appeared in other mirrors when he prepared to start an attack. Did he use shadow clones or water clones? No, then he wouldn't need the mirrors, and even if that many of clones all threw senbon at the same time it couldn't be so fast that I was unable to see the direction of the weapons. What's the trick here?'
They stiffened as Haku pulled out another senbon, ready for round two, but then a shuriken flew towards the mirrors formation, hit straight on Haku's mask when he turned around and made him fall to the outside of the jutsu.
"Don't worry, Uzumaki Naruto is here!" came a loud voice accompanied by the sounds of smoke bombs went off. "Heroes always appear last, right?"
…
'Baka!' Sasuke scowled. 'He'd got the surprise element and just ruined it!'
'Ninja use smoke bombs to escape not to appear!' Sakura had no idea if she should laugh or cry. 'And wasn't the mist enough?'
Haku got up, there was a scratch on his mask now caused by Naruto's shuriken. He mumbled, "Uzumaki Naruto."
Without warning, Zabuza threw shuriken at the blond. Everyone was stunned when Haku used his senbon to stop the weapons on their track. "What you think you're doing?" the assassin asked sternly.
"Please, let me fight my own way, Zabuza san," he answered. Zabuza snorted. "You're still too soft."
"Soft?" Sasuke muttered. Sakura inspected her wounds and his then said, "He's right. All our injuries are only scratches or shallow cuts on the skin. It wasn't like we could dodge, if he intended to kill us we would have became two porcupines by now. Hn, unless he's a psycho and just wanted to torture us, then it's a whole different matter."
The Uchiha looked at her weirdly, never knew sometimes in crisis her twisted sense of humor came out. Ignored his reaction, she kept on, lowered her voice, "About this jutsu, I think if we attack from the inside while Naruto helps us attack from the outside we could break it or figure out how it works at least."
He returned to seriousness and watched Haku stepping closer to the blond. "Good idea, but it seems Haku plans to kill Naruto first."
Unexpectedly, the pink haired girl threw a shuriken at Haku through the gap between the mirrors, which he dodged easily.
"Oi, you!" she yelled, with the tone of a spoiled child asking for attention. If Sasuke were someone else and they wasn't in a life threatening situation he would have sweat dropped. "We haven't finish here!"
Haku turned to them, his voice hardened, "Guess I'll deal with you later, Naruto. Now I have to finish my battle with them, to the death!"
They backed down warily as the masked nin went into the mirror again, inwardly hoped their teammate would understand the plan.
…
"Know what? Turns out this jutsu won't let people get out but lets people get in."
…
The two turned around, Naruto was behind them. Sasuke's eyes widened, he couldn't believe even the blond could be this stupid. Sakura had the urge to just hit her head somewhere and die (preferably, the mirror, might break the jutsu, who knew).
Kakashi, witnessed it all, sighed deeply. 'You sneak behind your enemies back, not your allies, Naruto.'
"Are you a ninja?!" Sasuke snapped. "Think before you act!"
"You're talking that way to the one who came to save you?" the blond retorted.
The Uchiha was about to say something more but Sakura interrupted him, "Forget it! Try come up with a new plan don't blame each other for the ruined one!"
"Why bother? The dobe would mess it up anyway. I'll use direct approach." He made the hand-signs for his signature jutsu. 'Fire style. Fire ball.'
Sakura pulled Naruto backwards a bit to avoid the heat as Sasuke's flame engulfed the mirror which had Haku in. However, the flame then died out, revealed the mirror intact.
"You'd need a much more powerful flame than that to melt this mirror," Haku calmly said.
"Oh yeah? How about this?" Naruto exclaimed, made his own jutsu. 'Shadow clone.'
Both Sasuke and Sakura yelled 'Don't!' but it was too late. The blond's clones charged, each one at a mirror. Haku's images appeared everywhere again and in mere second, all of them were destroyed. The real Naruto fell to the ground, cut and scratched just like his teammates.
"Don't think I'll give up just like that," he stubbornly said. "I still have to achieve my dream."
Haku paused slightly then solemnly answered, "We're all fighting for our dreams here. I have someone who's very important to me. To help and see him attained his goal is my dream. It's just unfortunate that our dreams conflict with each other. Please don't take this personal."
'Is he patronizing me?' Naruto thought angrily and used the jutsu once more, paid no attention to his teammates protests.
But turned out, his effort wasn't wasted. This time Sakura and Sasuke spotted something when Haku attacked him and the clones.
'Was that what I think it was?'
'Barely there, but I saw him!'
"Can you do that again?" the raven haired boy asked, his tone was more like demanded.
Naruto grinned confidently. "No problem!" He created even more clones than before. They declared, "We'll smash your mirrors to pieces!"
The other two Konoha nin hid behind some clones, secretly prepared their jutsu. Haku moved to strike, didn't expect he would get into an ambush. The kunoichi and the Uchiha directed their jutsu carefully so they wouldn't cancel each other out.
'Water style. Water spear.'
'Fire style. Fire ball.'
(A/N: Yeah, when I compared them with water and fire in the summary, I did mean it.)
Caught off guard, Haku didn't dodge in time. When he returned to his mirror, he startled that he now had a hole and a burn on his clothes. 'Impossible! One could be a lucky shot, but two?'
Sakura smiled while Sasuke smirked.
'We got it! We don't have to catch up to his speed.'
'We just have to get the right timing!'
Seeing their first counter attack was very promising, Naruto repeated his jutsu over and over. However, now Haku had been more cautious, his movements became irregular, harder to predict and he attacked Sasuke and Sakura as well, not just the clones. Busied with dodging made it really difficult for the two to aim properly. Soon, the blond was exhausted from continuously dividing his chakra.
"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura asked when she saw how pale he was.
"I'm… okay…" Even though he said that, he sounded breathless. Then suddenly he collapsed right when Haku started another attack. Sakura and Sasuke dashed to him, deflected all the senbon aimed for their teammate.
"Dobe, get up!" the Uchiha commanded. "We can't protecting you like this forever!"
"Who asks you to?" the blond replied, tried to force himself up but failed and fell back down, this time unconscious.
'How did they…?' Haku wondered in astonishment. 'I aimed at their vital points but they just deflected them all. They wasn't even able to do anything before. How could any normal ninja advance so rapidly?'
Sasuke sighed, now it would be much more complicated to escape. He closed his eyes. 'It haven't complete yet, but I have to try.' When he opened them, his Sharingan had activated, he had two tomoe in the left eye and one in the other.
"I see," the masked nin said. For some reason, there was a hint of grief in his voice. "This jutsu allows me to move with the speed of light. It was supposed to be impossible to track me, let alone block my attacks, but both of you are also…"
'What does he mean both of us?' Sasuke thought, didn't understand at first. Then realization hit him. He turned his gaze to Sakura.
Her eyes had changed into a darker shade of green, making her look somewhat mysterious. A black patent appeared, formed the shape of a blooming cherry blossom in each of her irises.
'Hanagan!' He was speechless.
He knew the Haruno clan possessed this Doujutsu, he was just surprised cause the gene was recessive and since Sakura'd never used the jutsu before he had assumed she didn't have it. He searched his memory, tried to remember Hanagan's ability.
'If I'm not mistaken, on the first stage, the Hanagan provides some sort of sixth sense, helps the users sense the direction of every attack aims at them in the radius about 20 feet, no blind spot.' He smirked. 'No wonder she was able to dodge Haku's senbon. You'll react faster when you sense the attack than see it. Good, if we work together we can break this jutsu.'
Haku was deep in his thought as well. He silently calculated, 'I didn't expect I would have to fight two kekkei genkai ninja at the same time. The more this battle prolong, the more disadvantages I'm in. Sharingan would read through my jutsu while Hanagan would figure out my movement patent. I've got to end this fast, but how?'
His eyes diverted to Naruto, now laying on the ground behind his teammates. 'They're quite protective over that boy, he's their weakness!'
The masked nin started attacking, pretended to aim at Sasuke and Sakura while in fact, directed his senbon precisely to force them back away further and further from Naruto. When they realized Haku's plan, they was at a distance too far to rescue the blond.
Pumped chakra to their feet, they tried to run as fast as they could as Haku charged straight at their teammate.
'No, I have to stop him!'
A/N: Yeah, Sakura has a Doujutsu! I know Hanagan's ability is similar to Byakugan right now but it would have other abilities when it evolved (yes, evolved). However, I'm not planning to make it too powerful since if it was Orochimaru would target Sakura instead (cringed). Um, unless you guys think it'll be an interesting twist then maybe I'll consider it.
And I'm sorry if you don't like the name Hanagan. With my limited Japanese vocabulary I could only come up with that. Feel free to suggest other name for me if you want (tell me the meaning, too). I won't promise that I would use it but if I did I would give you credit in my author's note. n_n