Chapter 7.
"Hey, didn't I talk to you earlier?" Sakura asked as she walked alongside Inara. Inara looked up in the surprise that the older girl was talking to her.
"Huh? Oh…Oh yeah. Haha, sorry about that." Inara grinned apologetically.
"You're not sorry. You intended for this to happen. Perhaps not by getting caught by Iwa ninja, but the outcome was that you still came with us. Therefore, you're not sorry." Sasuke said tonelessly.
"…You are such a negative person." Inara said after a few moments of silence.
Tazuna guffawed into his hand, trying to smother his laughter.
"And you are an idiot." Sasuke said in evident disgust as he looked at Inara, who glared back at him in annoyance.
"Shut up Teme. What matters is that she's here. Nothing can be done about it, so get over it." Naruto said suddenly, tired of hearing Sasuke's disapproving voice.
"Ok, that's enough." Kakashi's voice came from behind them all.
They walked on, but Sasuke was STILL giving Inara evil glares.
Which she returned.
Naturally.
Inara was bored.
After four hours of walking down a never ending road.
"You know, we could at least make this fun." She commented.
"This is a mission. Missions aren't supposed to be fun." Sasuke said emotionlessly.
"I was just saying…" Inara said, raising her hands in mock defence.
"Sasuke, she's younger than us and she's a kid, like us. Learn to have fun…Teme." Naruto backed Inara up. She gave him a grateful look.
Sasuke's eye twitched in annoyance. Which was the expression mirrored on Sakura's face.
"LEAVE SASUKE ALON-"
"SHUT UP!" Inara yelled at Sakura. "GET OVER IT. SASUKE DOESN'T LIKE YOU. END OF."
"HOW DARE YOU-"
"SHUT. THE. HELL. UP."
"Inara." Kakashi warned her, the disapproving look back in his eyes. Inara's jaw locked and she forced herself to grind out an apology through gritted teeth.
"Sorry Sakura."
Sakura looked like a little pink fluffy kitten that'd had her fur ruffled up the wrong way by an offending hairdryer.
Apart from her now smug expression, that was.
Inara felt a sudden urge to charge at Sakura and drag her down to the ground, and grasping her around the neck so as to shake her like a rag doll.
Instead she shrugged and rolled her eyes indifferently.
Later on the same day, Kakashi had taken the lead again, and Tazuna was hanging back slightly, flanked by Naruto and Sasuke. Inara had now distanced herself slightly from Sakura, not even deigning to look at the offending pink thing.
But she still longed for something fun to do.
That was when her eyes alighted upon her father, walking up ahead of them.
With a mischievous grin, she looked at the ground she would have to cover.
Not too great a distance.
Perfect.
When there was a lull in the conversation, or rather, argument, from between Naruto and Sasuke behind her, she sprang forward and ran at Kakashi, leaping up and grabbing him, wrapping her whole body onto him.
He started in surprise and he found himself hurtling to the floor as Inara crowed mentally at being able to successfully tackle him. Kakashi suddenly rolled with it and came up so that he was pinning her to the floor.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
She didn't answer, instead quickly she slipped out from under his arms and ended up in a kneeling position on his back, taking out a kunai and holding it against his throat.
He sighed in disappointment.
Inara felt herself sliding as he stood up and she was ungraciously deposited on the ground.
Indignant at being walked away from, she appeared in front of him and threw and handful of kunai at him.
But he flickered slightly and disappeared.
In slight confusion, Inara relied on her senses and tried to focus on where he would come at her from.
Suddenly she felt a stabbing pain in her back as she was flipped backwards and slammed to the floor.
She coughed and spat out some dust.
"Ow." She groaned.
"Don't try it kiddo." Kakashi said, staring down at her.
Inara looked away sulkily and stood up, brushing herself off irritably. Kakashi walked off again to join Tazuna at the front of the group, whereas Inara hung back with the other three Genin.
"That was a bad idea Inara…You might not want to try that again" Sakura warned, trying to be nice to her for the first time since their little spat.
"There's no such thing as a bad idea. Only poorly executed awesome ones." Inara laughed, trying to cover up her hurt at being rejected.
Naruto snorted with laughter but wilted under Sakura's disapproving glare. He moved off to go and annoy Sasuke instead.
"That was your idea of fun?" Sakura continued.
"Well yeah, I mean, I want to get stronger." Inara said truthfully. It wasn't a lie, she DID want to get stronger. It was just…hard…around her father.
"So you take on a Jounin. Do you have a death wish?" Sakura asked
"…No. He wouldn't kill me." Inara laughed it off.
"How do you know?" Sakura inquired further, her curiosity aroused.
"I just do." Inara said evasively, suddenly realising that she was cornering herself in.
"But-"
"Just leave it would you! He wouldn't kill me because I'm…" Inara snapped, trailing off.
"Because you're what?"
"Because…I'm…Special…Yeah. I'm special."
"You're special." Sakura raised her eyebrow disbelievingly.
"Yes. That's right. Special." Inara nodded, pleased with herself.
"…O…k then." Sakura said slowly.
"C'mon you two! We'll never get there at this rate!" Kakashi called back to them.
"Hai!" They both answered, running to catch up with the main group.
"Do you know anything about this mission Inara?" Kakashi asked as they all walked on.
"It'll be a mission no longer, Kakashi Hatake, the ninja who has copied over a thousand Jutsu…Sharingan Kakashi…The Copy Ninja." A voice thundered from above them.
"Team, protect Tazuna!" Kakashi said, trying to act calm for his team's sake.
Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke all moved to protect Tazuna. Inara however, drew her kunai and held it in front of her body in an aggressive stance.
"Oh? What have we here? A small hero."
"It only takes a small hero to kick a big ego." Inara said.
"Zabuza Momochi is the name, Demon of the Mist." Zabuza said from where he was stood on a sword which had been embedded in a tree high up.
"Hm. I'll call you Misty. Like the name for a cat. Here…Kitty…Kitty." Inara spat, her voice dripping sarcasm. A thick mist started to flow all around them, and Inara bit her lip.
Threatening sarcasm was supposed to work.
Damn it.
"Inara. This is not the time. Stay back." Kakashi snapped.
"Can you please try and trust me for once?" Inara sighed, trying not to sound like a whining child.
"I trust you, but this is a bad situation we're in. So do as you're told. For once." Came the reply.
The mist was now so thick, that she was unable to see Kakashi anymore. It worried her. She felt alone, lost in the mist…and all around her phantoms were appearing.
Suddenly a phantom which was larger than the rest sprang up from behind her. And this one wielded a gigantic sword. Inara screamed and ducked to the floor as Zabuza swung at her.
There was a sharp clang of metal on metal.
Inara gasped as she felt a drop of something hit her hand, which was supporting her on the floor. She looked at it. A drop of crystalline red…
Looking up in horror, she saw her father standing above her protectively, the sword embedded into his glove, having cut through both the metal and material on the back of his gloved hand.
"A-A…I-I sw-swear…"
"Protect Tazuna." Was Kakashi's short response, never taking his eyes off of Zabuza.
Instead, Inara tightened her hold on her kunai and thrust it upwards into Zabuza's chest as hard as she could. 'Zabuza' suddenly exploded in a hail of water.
"Water clone." Kakashi said grimly. Looking down at Inara, he grabbed her by the arm and ran her over to stand with the others.
"Make sure she stays there." He said to Sasuke.
The chicken-butt haired boy nodded and glared at Inara.
"You know, you're screwing this up for all of us." Sasuke said when Kakashi had left to go and fight the Demon of the Mist. "You're a liability to all of us. You are only going to get hurt, or get one of us hurt."
Inara suddenly felt awful. She recalled a conversation which she had had with her father mere days ago, predicting this exact kind of incident…and what his reply had been.
Flashback.
"Father please, oh PLEASE take me with you!" Inara begged, her hands clasped together tightly.
Kakashi blinked once at her.
"Inara, I couldn't even consider taking you with us on missions. You're almost a Genin, two days away from the exams, and if I were to take you, it'd put me in danger of having to look out for you, and you'd be putting yourself in danger." He explained calmly.
End of Flashback.
Annoyed with herself, she cursed her plans which she had so carefully laid out, cursed all the wasted training time.
"Why couldn't you have just gone home?" Sasuke continued.
"Shut up." Inara said quietly.
"Who do you think you are? Talking to me like that. You don't have any talent or skill, you're a fresh out Genin." Sasuke sneered.
Inara went rigid.
Suddenly she turned around and slapped Sasuke across the face a hard as she could, sending him stumbling.
"Don't you EVER talk down to me. As a matter of fact, don't talk down to ANYONE. Ok? Try and be decent to your team-mates. For one, be nicer to Naruto. Do you anything about him? Is he really that much more of a loser than you are? And Sakura, you treat her like dirt when in fact she would die for you. Man up and try to love her back, and protect the bonds you form. Ok? Grow a pair you negative bastard. At the same time, grow a heart." Inara said, grabbing him by the collar as she said this straight into his shell shocked face.
"Y-Y-You-"
"I'm a realist in some aspects. Welcome to the real world. Love is a big part of it, asshole." Inara said tersely.
Sasuke was dropped to the floor unceremoniously.
"Now, go and help your Sensei." She ordered him, pointing in the direction of where Kakashi was ferociously battling Zabuza.
"Why can't you?" Sasuke asked, his eyes filled with a million questions.
"Because I put him in a great deal more of danger than you do. Take Naruto with you, and get along with him, prick." Inara huffed, angry at the truth of it.
Sasuke stood up and grabbed Naruto by the shoulder, pulling him over and away from the bridge builder and the two girls.
"What did you do to Sasuke!" Sakura asked heatedly.
"Gave him an insight into life. Don't worry, with any luck it'll improve your future." Inara replied irritably.
Sakura gaped at her as Inara turned her attention to the bridge builder.
"How much farther do we have to go?" She asked him.
"N-Not far…Not far I shouldn't think." Tazuna responded after a few seconds of silence.
"Good." Inara nodded once.
There was a yell as Kakashi was suddenly dropped from where he had been held in a water prison, and Zabuza hissed as a kunai grazed his cheek which had been thrown by Naruto.
"Hm. Teamwork." Inara nodded approvingly, watching as Kakashi stumbled onto the bank, shaking the water droplets from his dripping wet hair.
Suddenly, before anything else could happen, two senbon flew through the air.
Inara gasped and threw a shurikan, grinning as it knocked the senbon out of their path and away from their target.
A dark figure then zoomed across towards her, and her eyes widened, as did Sakura's and Tazuna's.
But Inara threw herself forwards instead, and herself and the figure collided, making them both tumble to the ground awkwardly.
"Who the hell are you?" Inara asked breathlessly from where she managed to fall on top of the figure.
"None of your business. Just die." The figure replied with a male-ish voice. As Inara got a good look, she realised that the dude was masked.
"Masked dude, are you able to take no as an answer?" Inara said as she drew her kunai at held it against the masked dude's throat.
"Haku. Stop." Zabuza said.
"That's a hunter nin…" Sakura said slowly, recognising the markings on the mask from the distance between them.
"Who's working with the enemy." Sasuke said, darting forward and pushing Inara's wrist down quickly and firmly, driving the kunai into Haku's throat.
"Z-Z-Za-…-bu-…-za…unhhh…" Haku whispered, his hand falling on the ground.
Dead.
"Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled, he went to move forward, but Zabuza threw himself at Kakashi and they both toppled backwards into the water behind them.
Within seconds, they both rose to the surface of the water, and Kakashi unveiled his Sharingan eye from underneath his Hitate.
"A-A-Another Sharingan user…? Th-that's impossible!" Sasuke spluttered under his breath.
"Calm it Sasuke. It was a present from a long time ago…" Kakashi called over his shoulder, sensing his student's mood.
Sasuke nodded stiffly to show that he'd heard.
Then Kakashi and Zabuza faced each other from across the water.
"Ushi Saru U Ne I Tori Ushi Uma Tori Ne Tora Inu Tora Mi Ushi Hitsuji Mi I Hitsuji Ne Saru Tori Tatsu Tori Ushi Uma Ne Tora Mi Ne Saru U I Tatsu Hitsuji Ne Ushi Saru-" They chanted simultaneously, the hand seals a blur as they moved at ridiculous speeds.
"Tori Ne I Tori!" Kakashi chanted even faster than before, being three steps ahead than Zabuza, even though it was HIS jutsu.
"Suiton! Suiryuudan no jutsu!" They both yelled.
"Impossible!" Zabuza exclaimed, his eyes wide as two monstrous water dragons rose up from the surface of the water.
"As I am right in thinking that Naruto would say; Believe It." Kakashi said, his mask crinkling as he smiled.
The dragons crashed down upon each other, water spraying everywhere as the two ninja were thrown back, waves which reached half of the height of the trees rising up.
"HANG ON TO SOMETHING!" Sasuke yelled, grabbing Inara around the waist and taking Sakura by the hand, making them grab on to fairly sturdy looking low hanging branches, whilst Tazuna and Naruto did the same with Sasuke on other branches.
The water battered at them relentlessly, and Inara looked up as a loud foreboding crack sounded above her.
"Please. Please no. Please." She said, pleading with nothing in particular.
Well, she didn't talk to trees that often.
And to be fair, she didn't speak tree language.
The sound of the crash when the branch finally broke was lost to the ever flowing and crashing of the waves as they pounded against them relentlessly, and Inara was swept underwater with a gurgle of air bubbles.
The water rose to its peak height, nearly reaching three quarters of the trees majestic height.
Which was when the water began to recede, letting it flow back into the rives, and being soaked into the ground.
An eerie calm settled over the area in the aftermath of the battle.
Next chapter, being posted soon. ;D
Slight cliffy I'm afraid.
PLEASE tell me what you think of that chapter in a review, because I'm hoping that was ok.
And sorry about Haku guys, he was a fave character of mine, but I had to let him go.
Think about it this way, Sasuke is a bitch, and we all know it. ^_^
Say if you want Kaka-Sensei to have a go at him for it. I can make it happen….
But for that, I need reviews. ;)
Kaitaru Seras Viktoria Hatake.
XxxXxxX
