Ok, so I've wanted to write the latter part of this chapter for ages! Lol
Naruto's chakra turned scarlet and swirled around him vigorously. It seemed to be in the shape of a fox. His wounds healed and his nails and teeth grew. His hair fluffed up and his eyes were a menacing scarlet hue.
'What the hell… is he?' was a thought in the back of my mind. I wasn't focusing too hard on that, but rather the fact that Sasuke was dead and had entrusted his will to me. I was also thinking of a way to kill this bastard Haku.
I was no longer tired; my adrenaline was rushing and my chakra built up.
Naruto charged on all fours at one of the mirrors. Haku fired some needles but Naruto's chakra deflected them and he punched a mirror, shattering it.
My byakugan was activated and I noticed Haku was outside the mirrors. He made a move towards the next one but I rushed forward, grabbed his leg and punched him hard in the gut. He flew backwards.
Naruto followed up and kicked him in the back but before Haku could go flying again, he grabbed the collar of Haku's shirt and punched him in the face with an extreme force. Haku's mask cracked as he flew backwards and smashed through another mirror and flipped over the ground.
A cloud of dust flew up but I located the masked boy with my Byakugan and murmured in a low growl, "Doton: Ganchuusou!" Earth spikes shot up from the ground and three of them hoisted Haku painfully into the air. I sprinted over and jumped up, level with Haku's beat up body. I concentrated chakra into my palm and thrust it down on the boy's upper abdominal. He shot back down and slammed into the ground with force enough to create a crater.
Naruto leapt at Haku as the smoke cleared. The mask had fallen off completely and the boy's face was actually quite beautiful; almost feminine. However, he was bruised and blood oozed from his bleeding lip, splashed, and tainted the cement bridge. Naruto lunged in for another punch but at the last moment, he stopped; his fist trembling, inches from Haku's blank face.
I stood a just out of ear-shot, and out of breath with my hands on my knees as Haku said something.
Naruto growled and lashed out, sending Haku skidding across the bridge again. He coughed up more blood and wiped his mouth. I could hear them now and Haku was taunting us.
"What happened to your intensity? You can't kill me with that… There are people who make this mistake… not killing their enemy because of pity… letting them leave with just their lives. Not having a dream… not being needed by anyone… the pain of simply living."
"What are you trying to say?" growled Naruto.
"Zabuza has no need for a weak shinobi… You have taken away my reason for existing."
"Why for a guy like that? He's a bad guy who takes money from a criminal! Is that eye-brow-less freak the only important person to you?"
Haku went on to explain that back when he was young, he had loving parents. Later everything fell apart when it was discovered that he and his mother had a Kekkei Genkai and that his father killed his mother and attempted to do the same to him. However, as it turns out, Haku ended up killing his own father. He said he was unwanted, unneeded… Zabuza was the only one who accepted him…who needed him and because of that, Zabuza became the most important person in Haku's life.
I soaked this all in and knew that I too, used to be unneeded. All my clan ever wanted was to make sure I wasn't a threat but also make sure I was strong enough to be used as protection. They are selfish and have given me no freedom. The curse mark on my forehead is proof… That changed today. Up until now, I have been searching for a way to free myself; a way to prove myself but now I have a new mission. Sasuke said he needed me to fulfill his wishes, no, his necessary ambitions. It needs to be accomplished and I'm the one fit to do it. Perhaps I am overthinking things but if Sasuke was still alive, he would still need me to back him up just in case something such as this very situation should occur.
I came out from my thoughts when Haku said, "…Kill me." Naruto hesitated. "Please hurry and kill me. Why are you hesitating?"
My ears where ringing and Naruto yelled something that Haku responded calmly to. I couldn't take it. I clenched my teeth and whipped out two Kunais and charged at Haku, zooming past Naruto. Naruto's baffled stare bore into my back but I sprinted forward ready to strike. I was only a foot away when Haku slid to the side and used my momentum to flip me over onto my back. I landed with a hard thud and groaned mentally.
"Sorry, I can't die yet." The boy muttered, making a seal. He disappeared and I let out my breath in a hiss of anger.
I stumbled slowly over to Sasuke's corpse and sunk to my knees. My body ached, I was worn out and my ears were still ringing and my Byakugan had deactivated. All the adrenaline I had built up disappeared and crashed down on me in a wave of exhaustion. I didn't bother to check what was going on with Kakashi and Zabuza. It wasn't long before I passed out; my head thumped onto Sasuke's cold chest, just avoiding a few needles.
A short time later, I awoke to find that I had been shoved off Sasuke and replaced with a sobbing Sakura. When I looked at Sasuke, his eyes fluttered open and he tried to prop himself up into a sitting position. He mumbled something almost inaudible to Sakura and started getting up.
I moaned silently, still aching and also sat up. When Sasuke noticed me, our eyes locked. "Hotaru…" he murmured and offered me a hand which I gladly accepted. Even in the state he was in, he managed to pull me up. We wrapped our arms around each other's shoulders for support. I stumbled but he placed his other hand on my stomach to steady me.
"God, it hurts!" I hissed.
Then I realized Sakura looking at me with a glare that was somewhere between jealousy and sadness.
Naruto glanced over at us and Sasuke just nodded. Naruto looked like he was going to cry.
Then a huge group of nasty looking ex-shinobi, who I hadn't noticed until now, yelled at us. I swore as they ran towards us.
Suddenly an arrow flew from behind us and all the villagers, led by Inari, screamed, "If you come any further onto this island… the citizens of this country will stop you with everything we've got!"
Kakashi and Naruto made a bunch of shadow clones; the ex-shinobi yelled in alarm and fled.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Zabuza whispered something to Kakashi and he moved Zabuza so he could be next to Haku. It began to snow and an unnoticed tear slid down Haku's cheek.
All that went down afterwards was that we had a mini funeral for Zabuza and Haku, we all got patched up and healed as best we could for the time being. As we were leaving, Naruto and Inari cried their eyes out. We later learned that the bridge was named, "The Great Naruto Bridge" for obvious reasons.
It was a few weeks after the Mist village mission and squad 7 was good as new... except for the major fact that Naruto and Sasuke are either ignoring each other or screaming at each other every five minutes.
Despite all this, Sasuke and I had actually become closer. Don't get me wrong though; what I mean is that we have been training and talking together rather frequently.
We trained to further test each other's skills. Sasuke is undoubtedly strong. His Taijutsu combined with Sharingan is incredible and he has several decent jutsus up his sleeve. I'm pretty sure he thinks similarly of my skills.
Because Sasuke had confided in me at a time when he thought he was going to die, I was the only one who knew the details of his intentions and therefore was designated to be the one to help him accomplish it. Sasuke hadn't told anyone the extent of his goals until the moment he told me. The reason he told me was because, like he said, I'm different. Whether or not Sasuke and I have just become another Zabuza and Haku doesn't matter. I don't really care if I'm being used as a tool, because I have finally been accepted. It is just like Haku's situation now that I think about it and I almost feel bad for trying to kill him.
Because Sasuke had told me his ambition, I told him mine. I told him everything save the fact that I sometimes have seizures. He'd probably figure that out later anyway.
The relationship between Sasuke and I is, in no way, intimate. Rather, we carry the secrets of each other's lives and ambitions and that in itself was enough to form a bond of trust between us.
We had just returned from a bunch of stupid missions that included pulling weeds and walking dogs; it was absolutely nothing compared to our previous experience.
Right now Sakura was asking Sasuke out on a date and Sasuke was declining and explaining that she was even lower than Naruto. A little harsh, but that's how Sasuke is.
"Let's go Hotaru, we have training to do." Sasuke said unemotionally.
As I walked beside Sasuke, I gave a short wave to Naruto and Sakura, who were glaring daggers at me. If looks could kill (with the exception of certain levels of Sharingan) I'd have been dead several times over.
As we were walking back, I felt a strange and powerful Chakra. "Sasuke…"
"I know, let's head back but we'll go this way." He nodded to the trees that surrounded the village. We hopped up onto the tree branches and traveled that way. I activated my Byakugan and detected three unfamiliar chakras, one of which was fainter but had an incredibly hateful pallor to it.
When we got closer, I broke away and curved outward and came back a longer rout to remain undetected. I deactivated my Byakugan and suppressed my chakra as much as possible. I stood up high in a tree and watched Naruto, and a strange boy, arguing. The boy was wearing weird purple make-up and a cat-like hood. On his back was something wrapped in bandages.
The girl, standing next to the boy, was wearing an off shoulder tunic style dress and had four pig-tails arranging her blond hair. Eventually I noticed another chakra. A red-haired boy stood up-side-down on a tree branch. It seemed that I was the only one who noticed. 'How could they not notice the huge amount of angry and lonely chakra built up inside him?' I thought.
I disappeared and reappeared at his side, also up-side-down, using a small amount of chakra to keep me there. The red haired boy didn't notice. He stood calmly glaring down at the scene playing out before him. I sneered. 'This kid thinks he's so cool but he still had no idea I'm here.' For some reason I found this incredibly amusing and decided to make him aware of my presence. I reached out and tugged lightly on his sleeve. His head snapped toward me and for a moment he looked shocked. He quickly tried to conceal it but it had defiantly been there. I grinned mischievously, which I hardly ever do, and felt quite triumphant.
I disappeared again and reappeared next to Sasuke. I smirked as Sasuke threw a sharp stone at the cat-hooded boy's head and the attention was drawn to us.
"You haven't noticed him yet? I think I ticked him off a bit… I noticed him but he didn't notice me" I said to Sasuke and nodded in the red-head's direction. Sasuke's eye's widened for a moment then narrowed.
Just as the boy with make-up was about to unwrap the thing in bandages, the read-haired boy said, without any emotion, "Kankuro, stop it. You're an embarrassment to our village."
"Ga-Gaara…" Kankuro stuttered.
"Losing yourself in a fight, how pathetic… Why do you thing we came to the Leaf Village?"
"Listen, Gaara, they started it and—"
Gaara glared, "Shut up… I'll kill you." Kankuro and the girl repeatedly apologized to Gaara. The read-haired boy turned to us and said, "Sorry to you guys," not sounding all too apologetic.
As they were leaving Sakura called out to them and they mockingly explained that they were here for the chuunin exams.
They began walking away but Sasuke called out, "Hey, what's your name?"
The girl blushed and pointed to herself, "Huh, you mean me?"
"No, the one with the gourd."
Gaara turned and said, "Gaara of the Sand…I'm also interested in your name?"
"It's Uchiha Sasuke." He smirked.
Gaara turned to me, "…and yours?"
"Hyūga Hotaru." Gaara's eyes narrowed further.
We all stared at each other for a few moments when the girl broke the silence, "Hey! Aren't you going to answer him! It's rude to ignore people when they are talking to you!" She pointed at me.
"Hey Sasuke, you tell her. I can't cuz' I don't know her name." I muttered with a sigh.
"Hotaru is mute but speaks through telepathy. Unless she knows your name, she is unable to use telepathy as well. She knows his," he nodded at Gaara, "but not yours." He said in a monotone voice.
They looked a bit stunned (except Gaara).
"Well, my name is Te—" She started but Naruto interrupted.
"Hey! What about me, Huh!"
"Not interested," muttered Gaara, "let's go." They turned and continued walking towards the village.
"Us too," Sasuke said to me, and we jumped away.
