Heartbroken
A/N: I'm really trying to improve my battle scenes—my goal is for them to contain action and introspection, giving a decent visual without getting too much into fighting details. Unlike the REAL author, I'm just a girl whose mum has decided that I am too …pathetic physically to let me push the lawn mower.
Just a note for you guys now, before I forget. I've made my decision regarding Hinata and thank you for your input. And…I am going to try to put up another chapter by Sunday, but if I have not it will be another week. I'm going on vacation for a week, to a place where I barely have a cell phone signal, electricity only by generator, and no city for almost half an hour's drive. On the plus side there is a lake, sun, water sports and its HOME.
Enough about me, when you only care about Kaiyou and the gang!
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Kekkai genkai—blood line limit. Ex. Sharingan, Byakugan
Emotou-chan-- little sister
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Kaiyou had decided that she liked the training Kakashi had assigned them. Much to his dismay; Kaiyou preferred to train all night as well as all day, as a real test to her stamina, her growing speed and her unpredictability (the only way to beat the clones whose mind was modeled after hers). The exercise was also a great challenge for her clones' newfound teamwork. It annoyed Kakashi precisely because she snuck out to continue her exercising. After years of pranking Kaiyou had developed quite the stealth skills.
It was a week after the battle with Momochi that Kakashi went to lock Kaiyou into the house so that she couldn't sneak out again that he finally noticed. The girl was completely worn out, and snoring loudly in her curtained-off area of the room. He thought back to the day, and realized that Kaiyou had only come home in time for breakfast in the morning, then been back out training with the boys. Pulling the blanket back over his adoptive little sister Kakashi shook his head. The girl hadn't slept in more than twenty-four hours, easily. She'd been training that whole time, except for when she was shoveling food into her face.
He'd let the girl sleep in on the morrow. She'd need her sleep. It's not like Zabuza would be ready to have a second go yet, he should still be recovering from chakra exhaustion, and holes in his neck. Even if a skilled medic-nin had treated him he should only just be getting back on his feet.
Alas Kakashi, you're a ninja, you should know. Ninja's always push the limit. Kakashi himself had been on crutches within a day of almost total chakra exhaustion. He hadn't had injuries though.
XxOOxX
The snoring slowed, and then stopped. The blonde head emitting the snores tried to bury itself in a soft pillow, away from the world and the bright sun. Eventually the figure admitted failure and stretched her arms, right then left over her head, a loud yawn accompanying the movement, along with a pop from her jaw. Opening and closing her mouth several times, before rubbing and then opening her eyes Kaiyou smiled to face a new day.
Rolling over the edge of her futon, and falling an inch onto the floor, she unraveled herself from her blankets and stood up. Another day, another tacky orange suit, dwelling as "Uzumaki Naruto" of no relation to the Hokage and NOT a jinchuuriki- such was the morning that greeted Kaiyou.
As she was changing another thing greeted her: The sounds of violence, something so familiar to her ears, after years of training as a kunoichi. She didn't bother with the henge but instead grabbed her weapon pouch and ran quietly outside. "Naruto" was now a mix of him and Kaiyou, a whiskered version, coming to the rescue.
Outside she saw Tazuna's daughter tied up and held at sword point by two low-life samurai, most likely moral-less rurouni. Inari was just rushing forward, courage finally mustered. If Kaiyou didn't intervene he would lose his life attempting, and failing to save his mother. He was still just a boy, he had no hope.
Well, I'm a hero of Konoha aren't I? Let's kick butt! Two clones were swiftly made, and a substitution just as swiftly executed. "Trying to save me Inari, I'm touched."
The three were quite surprised. Where had the woman gone? With a grin Kaiyou, never one to go anywhere unarmed slit the ropes binding her. "Shall I be fair and play one-on-one?"
The two samurai grinned and charged the blonde ninja. "Nah." The clone knocked them out before they even got close to Kaiyou, who had jumped away after slitting her bindings.
"So they cheat too?" Turning around she glanced at the boy who had found his mother behind him. "Ninja's always use everything at their disposal." Naruto/Kaiyou cocked his/her head, "I've got honor though—treat scumbags low, but respect those who deserve it. Now be brave and take care of your mom! Your heroics aren't over yet; you've gotta look over her for YEARS!"
And she's off... Kaiyou took off for the bridge. If the attack had already started here, surely there was trouble at the bridge too. Besides, she'd already figured out that she'd been left behind. No way was Kakashi-nii getting away with that!"
XxOOxX
Kakashi and the two boys, along with Tazuna, arrived at the bridge. A mist lingered far on the other end. Between there and where the men stood were a few bodies-those who had arrived at the bridge first.
Zabuza was here. From the mist stepped two ninjas: the hunter-nin and the Demon of the Mist. "I didn't expect you so soon. My genin did a number on you," Kakashi mused with a straight face, and emotionless voice.
"Ahh but you seem to be short one. Perhaps he ran scared, like the pretty-boy is now. Shaking enough to wet yourself boy?"
Sasuke just smirked. "I'm shaking with excitement. You won't stop my dreams!" No Uchiha tolerated being called a pretty-boy or implications of being a coward. Kaiyou somehow managed to be exempt from the list of those to be punished for her insults.
Shortly later the fight had begun. Shino was relegated to guarding the client, which he was not thrilled with. At least Kaiyou had managed to ruin his stock of alcohol so he wasn't always drunk… What bothered Shino the most was that he was unable to fight. Getting involved with the battle between Zabuza and Kakashi was like asking for his precious Kikai to be massacred. And the younger boy had already figured out about the bugs.
That fact alone surprised Shino. Not many who did not know his clan name were able to deduce that he used bugs to drain his enemy's chakra. What further surprised Shino was that the boy had a defense, and a kekkai genkai. Ice. He'd frozen Shino's bugs, and trapped the Uchiha inside a dome of ice mirrors. The only thing Shino could do was throw shuriken and kunai at the boy.
He just leaned out of the ice and captured it, throwing it immediately back at Shino. His eyes narrowed. The boy did not throw shots designed to kill. Shino's attention from that strange abnormality—it was not a common trait for shinobi, was distracted with an orange and yellow blur landed on the bridge.
"Reporting for duty! Whose butt do I kick?" A whiskered Naruto didn't even bother waiting but immediately assessed the situation, and threw a kunai at the ice dome. While the hunter-nin went to catch it, Kaiyou jumped into the dome.
Shino shook his head. Geesh, she may have some skills, but the girl is honestly an idiot sometimes. She jumped willingly into the trap…
XxOOxX
Sasuke knew he was in trouble. Much as he had trained himself in speed this shinobi was faster, was all around, had a lot of sharp instruments to throw, and had more battle experience. He'd tried fire jutsus; the ice hadn't melted off even one drop.
Essentially all that he could do was go through the practice routine that Kakashi had set up. Watch the weapons, and avoid quickly. Lately it had been making his eyes itch though. It was hard to watch weapons when your eyes felt weird.
For once he wished his itchy eyes were causing him to see things that weren't really happening. He did not just see his teammate jump into the death trap to help him. But no, she was there, grinning as she avoided a fair amount of the needles with ease.
"Any plans 'Uke?" He didn't even spare the moment to glare. "Make clones and catch him!" Sasuke didn't say what the plan was after that—he doubted that the girl on the team would appreciate knowing that he intended to use a fire jutsu on a captured enemy. He could not risk the enemy breaking free.
Unfortunately things didn't work that well though. With more clones making the space tight and maneuvering space more limited, everybody was getting pelted with senbon. A clone that was unable to dodge away from a senbon, due to another's' presence, was hit. The puff of smoke as it was dispelled created confusion, and lack of visibility, and poof more were hit.
Sasuke and the real Kaiyou were among those being hit by senbon as well. Straining his eyes to see through the plumes of smoke Sasuke was finally able to make out some visuals. Movements felt intensified. He saw the last of the clones be dispelled, and a hail of senbon headed straight for vitals on his blonde teammate.
Movement: his body was in front of hers, taking the blows. His breath caught, and the Sharingan slipped out of his eyes, just as the smoke cleared. Kaiyou had felt him push her aside.
A feminine scream filled the air. "SASUKE! No…why…"
"Dunno why dobe. I want to be strong enough…" His voice trailed off and his body went limp. Kaiyou never even imagined that the hunter-nin had pulled the same trick a second time.
A soft voice spoke to Kaiyou as she mourned her friend, annoyance and honey to a fan girl as he might have been. "I didn't want to kill him. You forced my hand. This is the second kill I have made that has hurt my heart. My father and a young boy only doing his job. But I will harden my heart in order to protect my special person…"
Kaiyou looked up a look of cold rage on her face. "YOU! You're that boy…you say you want to protect! But whom are you protecting? LOOK AT WHO YOU"RE PROTECTING! He's willing to work for a man destroying a country for greed! And you kill a friend of mine, a special person to me, for that…"
Anger set into Kaiyou's heart. The orange jacket blew open in a wind that was created within the dome, out of nowhere. Haku didn't even have time to blink in surprise seeing the feminine build beneath the jacket, connecting that together with the feminine shriek of rage.
Her eyes turned red and she hunched over in pain. A red substance oozed out of her body's pores, circling around her, looking for all the world like a red tail before exploding into a face and settling down around her.
As she straightened back up Haku knew fear. Fear stronger than what he'd felt when he had faced the mob, led by his own father. Before him was no human. Slitted red eyes, a fanged overbite poking over her lower lip. A snarl filled the air, issuing from the dangerous mouth. Even the whiskers that he hadn't noticed that day in the woods were thicker, more animalistic.
Haku immediately went onto the defensive. He sank into his mirrors and began throwing as many senbon as possible. He did not want to be near the girl, Naruto, any longer. She didn't dodge, and Haku felt a moment of hope. They imbedded themselves into the blonde's skin, only to be jettisoned out. Kaiyou ran forward to the mirror Haku stood in forcing him to flee, throwing more senbon in his wake. A small hand caught his ankle as the tiny twelve-year-old grabbed hold of him. She swung him to the ground, slamming his chin against the blocks of cement, then threw him right through his mirrors, kunai following.
Kaiyou chased after, eyes flickering back to blue, then remained so. His body had bounced across the hard bridge. In her mind words kept repeating themselves, as the white mask fell off of Haku's delicate face.
"Daughter, remember that no matter who tries to hurt you, or calls you names revenge won't help. In some things ninja's disobey rules of honor, but this is always true. Revenge makes you worse than he who hurt you."
"Protect my precious people…"
"You are a hero, never forget that…"
"Protect!"
"A hero"
"By the way, I'm a boy"
"Revenge isn't worth any time. Just be brave"
Kaiyou was breathing heavily, yanking herself away from the boy that was just climbing to his feet she turned to Shino. "Knock him out please," she whispered.
It had taken so much control to eliminate that strange bloodlust she'd felt. The boy was sorry, and revenge never worked. She knew that. Why had she felt so angry?
Shino was once again confused. There was something odd about his teammate but he did not know what. The boy sent his Kikai over to Haku and sucked his already low chakra dry. He might have been tempted to allow his allies to suck more chakra than the boy could live without, but he hadn't seen that Sasuke was more than unconscious.
XxOOxX
Kakashi had decided to quickly finish off Zabuza as soon as he'd felt malevolent chakra issuing forth from where his emotou-chan and the uke had been fighting the masked apprentice of Momochi Zabuza. Now Zabuza stumbled back away from Kakashi, a large hole in his chest. He fell to his knees, then forward to his face, already did.
The hole had been where his heart would normally be located. The summoned dogs that had pinned the man, to allow for Kakashi's chidori howled their victory.
A clapping noise penetrated the quickly dispersing fog on the bridge. "Looks like my little ninjas weren't worth their price. No matter, I prefer quantity to a lack of quality anyways. Kill the bridge builder!" Behind Gatou stood more than two dozen bandits, rogues and other unsavory men with weapons. "The ninjas you can do whatever you want with."
Kakashi sighed and glanced at his dogs. He was personally tired, and he knew that Kaiyou was as well. Sasuke was… It was up to him, Shino and the dogs. Kakashi looked over at Shino.
He almost had an eager look on his face…wait, what face? Kakashi had learned enough of the boy by now, though, to know that he would feel left out over not having gotten to fight. "They're all yours. Help him boys," he directed toward Pakkun and his friends.
A pack of dogs and a swarm of bugs immediately advanced upon Gatou. An arrow materialized out of the man with a whoosh before even the swiftest of the animals arrived. "Leave our village alone!"
The cavalry had arrived, led by a young 7 year old boy. A villager had shot Gatou. Shino had to make do with chasing the men off.
XxOOxX
A subdued group prepared to leave the village. It had been a friendly place for them in the past few days. Haku had disappeared soon after waking up from his forced nap. Only a note had been left behind. It's time to protect. Nobody quite knew what he meant by that, since Kaiyou had refused to read the note, claiming there was too much kanji in it.
Kakashi had taken another couple days lightly (filled with an orange book when Kaiyou was out of eye-sight). Shino had spent quite a bit of time training, relieving the tension of not having gotten to play a large role in the fight. Kaiyou had trained as well, determined not to let anything like the debacle in the ice mirrors happen again.
None of her friends were to be injured or die on her watch. Not again.
Kaiyou had resumed portraying Naruto after the battle for the bridge was over. Nobody other than Haku had realized that Naruto was indeed a she. Of course even Haku hadn't known that "Naruto" was an alias.
It was only now as they were leaving the village that the squabbles started up.
"Tch dobe. You were so pathetic, telling that brat not to cry when you yourself blubbed over me on the bridge. I didn't know you cared." A smug smirk adorned Sasuke's perpetually-pale face.
"I do not care you pervert! I'd rather…I'd rather eat trash than have anything do with you, you pathetic uke! Heh! I bet you just wish that Naruto had laid on you and bawled his eyes out!"
Sasuke stared, then looked away hurriedly, raven bangs hiding his face. Kaiyou paid no attention to the meanings of that statement. Naruto was really a girl so any male would enjoy that. But "Naruto" was supposed to be a boy….
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Please let me know how I'm doing!...to be honest I didn't expect the whole chapter to be the fight… And no, Haku will not pop back up in the story (At least I don't plan on him doing so. Sorry, no love competition.)
