I watched Sasuke and Naruto walk in from training all day and sighed to myself. 'Why do they always have to compete? It was just climbing up a tree, why be so competitive about that? It's not like it really matters.'
"We both made it to the top!" Naruto said, sounding happy with their accomplishment. Sasuke smirked proudly, and Sakura smiled at the both of them.
"Good job guys." she said, still smiling.
"You both should get some rest, I'll bring you dinner in a few minutes." Tsunami said sweetly. They both nodded and walked out of the kitchen to their bedroom. I sighed quietly and walked to my room a few minutes later. I thought and thought and thought about Haku all that night. When I wasn't thinking about him, I was dreaming about him. It was so complicated, how could we be together like he'd promised? Would he leave Zabuza just to be with me or what? I didn't understand. The next morning wasn't too special, it just seemed to be a regular day. We went with Tazuna to the bridge he was building and I looked around curiously, wondering why no one wanted to stay to build it.
"They've given up hope." Tazuna said, sounding glum. "Maybe I should too."
"No, the bridge must be built." Sakura said with a determined tone. "Think of your people." Tazuna nodded, seeing that she had a point, and mist slowly began forming around the area.
'No, he's back.' Zabuza walked into sight, and Sakura gasped in surprise.
"I thought he was dead." she whispered quietly.
"No, that Onin was working with him." Kakashi pointed out as Haku came into view, standing next to Zabuza.
'No, Haku don't do this.' I looked down, hating that Haku was still planning on following Zabuza like he was. Before I even realized what had happened, Haku and Sasuke were fighting with each other. 'No.'
"Crystal Ice Mirrors." Haku said, making a handisgn.
'No, not this technique. It's impossible to escape alive, Sasuke will die. Haku please, you can't do this.'
"Don't even think about it Kakashi, you go after Haku, I go after Tazuna." Zabuza said threatingly.
'This can't be happening, why does this have to be happening? Couldn't Zabuza have just given up on killing this Tazuna man? It's not like he's some threat to him. Damn Zabuza and his love for money. If anyone dies here…it'll be all my fault.' Time passed, I couldn't say how long, but it seemed like hours. Finally Kakashi and Zabuza started fighting, this was getting worse by the second.
CRASH
'That sounded like the ice mirrors. No, not Haku!' I looked around, concerned about Haku and Sasuke's lives, and finally ran in the direction I'd heard the mirrors shatter.
"Sada come back!" Sakura yelled, sounding terrified for my well being. I ignored her and continued running through the mist, trying to find Sasuke and Haku. 'Haku, please Haku. Don't be dead. Please don't have killed Sasuke.'
"Sada-chan." I turned around and to find Haku standing behind me. Where was Sasuke, was he alive? "What are you doing here?" he asked frightened. "You could get hurt."
"Haku-kun, I've made a decision." I told him, taking his hand. He nodded, looking like he didn't understand why I was stupid enough to come out here when all this fighting was going on, and said
"Now's not the time. There's a fight going on-"
"Haku I love you." I interrupted. His eyes widened in surprised, and I stared up into his eyes. "I love you so much, I want to come with you." He nodded and pulled me into a tight embrace.
"I'll never leave your side." he whispered next to my ear. I wiped at my tears, smiling slightly, and looked up at him. He smiled softly and gently pressed his lips against mine.
"Now Zabuza you die!" Kakashi shouted from some distance away from us. Haku quickly broke the kiss and looked at me sadly.
"Don't." I begged, knowing what he was thinking. He shook his head and said with an urgent tone
"I love you Sada."
"Don't!" I pleaded.
He ran, why, why couldn't he listen to me? I ran in the direction Haku had ran, I didn't want to lose him; he was the only thing I had. The only thing precious to me, I had to protect him at all costs. I couldn't survive without him. I stopped seeing Kakashi's arm go through Haku, he was...dying.
"No!" I screamed.
Right when Zabuza got out his sword, I ran right at them and pulled Haku's body away from them before he had the chance to swing it at Kakashi. Dropping to my knees I held him, I held him close to me.
"Don't die Haku." I whispered sadly.
"I'm sorry Sada-chan." he whispered, staring up into my eyes. Clashes, they were fighting. I didn't care either, I wasn't going to pay attention to anything but Haku.
"No, you won't die. You can't die." I said softly. "You're everything to me."
"You won't be alone, I'll make sure you find someone." Haku promised. "I wasn't meant to live."
"Hai you were, you're not going to die." I choked, tears rolling down my cheeks.
"I am though." Haku said, coughing up blood.
"No, don't leave me." I pleaded.
"Sada, I love you." Haku said softly. He touched my face and smiled sadly. I felt more tears roll down my cheeks and kissed his forehead lovingly.
"I love you too Haku." I whispered, tears cascading down my face.
I looked down into his beautiful brown eyes one more time, as his hand fell from my face his eyes lost all life. I felt my lower lip trembling and I coughed, trying to hold in the rest of my tears. I looked up hearing no more clashing, and Kakashi walked over to me, carrying Zabuza.
"He wanted to say goodbye." Kakashi told me. I nodded sadly and held Haku closer to me.
'Haku…nande?'
"I'm sorry Haku." Zabuza said, looking towards me and Haku's body. "You're going to a place that I'm not going." I looked at my old master, and he stared at me. "He always talked about going after you Sada, he really cared about you." I nodded and stared down into Haku's dead eyes.
"I know." I said quietly. I reached up and gently closed his eyes.
"He was a pure soul." Zabuza stated. "Never selfish, always caring and protecting those precious to him." I nodded and wiped at my tears. "Be happy for him Sada, he would want you to be happy."
I nodded, and stared at Haku's face for a moment before I managed to look at Zabuza. His face, all the life in it, was gone. A few minutes passed in silence as everyone scurried around the bridge, trying to find out everyone's condition. Sasuke wasn't dead but alive, Haku never had been the type of person that wanted to kill anyone. He usually avoided it at all costs, that's what kind of person he was. Naruto was alright as well, he just need a little treatment. Sakura was ok too, but then again, she hadn't done a single thing during this entire mission. Kakashi seemed alright besides a cut on his chest, and Tazuna had been protected.
"We'll have a funeral for them." Kakashi said. I nodded sullenly and looked at him.
"Arigato." I said quietly. He nodded, and I looked up towards the sky.
'Haku, rest in peace. I'll always love you.'ONE WEEK LATER, THE VILLAGE HIDDEN IN THE LEAVES
Well, after the bridge was built we traveled back to the Leaf Village, I was doing horrible. Not my physical strength, but my emotional strength. Haku was dead, I'd lost the only person in my life that was precious to me. I didn't know what I could live for anymore, I'd kept myself alive for all those years in the hopes that we'd meet again. Now, I didn't see what the point in life was, I didn't have Haku with me anymore. I wanted to die, so many times after we left the Land of Waves. I'd thought of so many different ways to kill myself it wasn't even funny, I really didn't even feel like I was alive anymore. I felt so empty, so emotionless, so cold. I blinked, snapping myself out of my thoughts, and looked over at my arguing team for a moment before walking away from them. Kakashi had said he had tons of paperwork to do about our mission in the Land of Waves so we didn't have practice today, I was going back to my apartment and staying there. I turned the corner and felt someone come up behind me; Sasuke of course.
"Sada, I have to talk to you." he said, sounding serious.
"What about?" I asked sadly. He stared at me and looked around the area we were standing in. I looked to the left, then the right; there was no one here so why was he looking around? "Why'd you do that?" I asked confused.
"Making sure no one would be able to hear our conversation." he replied.
"Is it that serious?" I asked, slightly confused at what he wanted to talk about.
He nodded, and I rubbed my arm with a sigh. I didn't want to answer any questions right now, especially Sasuke's questions. They were all so deep, or they were personal things. Why did he have to seem so understanding? I knew that he was a type of person I'd be able to be friends with, but I didn't want to have a friend right now. At least that's what my brain told me, my heart and emotions were screaming out for comfort. They wanted a friend…and part of my brain did as well.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked, staring into my eyes. I looked at him, trying to seem confused, and he frowned. "You seem like you've gotten worse since the mission in the Land of Waves."
'Why does he have to be so observant? He's going to make a great shinobi when he's older with observation skills like that, no doubt about it.'
"I'm fine." I lied, rubbing my arm again.
"You're lying to me." Sasuke stated. I didn't say anything, he was right. "I don't want you to lie to me." I looked up at him, wishing that I hadn't lied to him, and he stared at me. "I don't want you to feel like you have to lie to me." I stared at him curiously, and he carefully moved his hand towards my faced, touching my cheek. This was something I hadn't expected, and I flinched slightly at the contact. "I want you to be able to trust me." I looked down and tried to gather my thoughts. I knew that I wanted to trust him, so maybe now was the time to let the wall down a little.
"I'm hurting." I whispered.
"Over what?" he asked, sounding concerned. I continued staring at the ground and said quietly
"He's dead." I moved my eyes away from the ground, up at him, and saw something flash through his eyes. I couldn't tell what it was because it was gone before I knew it.
"Are you talking about those rogue shinobi?" he asked, sounding emotionless.
"Haku." I whispered, clutching the crystal around my neck. "My...best friend. The only person that I cared so much about that I would die to protect, the only person who cared about me just as much, the only person that understood who I am. It hurts...so badly." I looked down, feeling my eyes stinging, and tried to hold back the upcoming tears. I felt my throat going dry and I coughed, a few stray tears ran down my cheeks.
"You feel guilty." he stated. "You think you could have saved him." I nodded and continued to stare at the ground. Sasuke sighed and hooked a finger under my chin, making me look at him. "Sada, it's alright." he said, thumbing away my tears. I stared into his eyes and could see the sympathy in them he normally hid from everyone else. "You can trust me." I nodded, realizing that he was letting down his wall a little as well, and looked down again.
"Arigato Sasuke." I whispered, coughing a little. He lifted my chin again, staring back into my eyes, and nodded.
"I'll always be here when you need me." he promised.
He wiped away the rest of my tears and moved his hand away from my face. It seemed like Sasuke wasn't the type of person that liked having too much skin contact with people, but he realized that it helped people feel a little better. I thanked him for that because I actually did feel my heart lighten a bit from him caring so much. I stared up at him, and he did something I didn't expect; he smiled. What was more surprising than him smiling was the fact that I actually felt my cheeks heating up. 'No way, I'm not blushing. There's no way.' I looked at him again, trying to hide my blush, and finally said
"I'll see you later, I need to do some thinking." He nodded, the smile fading from his face. He didn't seem like the type of person to smile too much, but I liked his smile; it made me feel a little better about everything going on.
"If you need someone to talk to, don't hesitate to ask." he told me.
I nodded and started walking around the village. 'What in the world is going through his head half the time, and more importantly, what's going through my head? What's wrong with me? Why am I acting so different? How could he have made me blush like that?' I touched my cheek, blushing harder feeling that it was still warm from earlier. 'How did he do that?' I walked and walked, trying to clear my thoughts, and ended up walking into an alley way. 'Arguing?' I looked up from the dirt and saw a group of people standing up ahead. Two of them were Naruto and Sakura, three of them were little kids that looked like they were from the Academy, and the other two were shinobi that weren't from this village. From the look of their headbands, they were shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Sand. The guy that looked like he was trying to act like a badass was wearing all black and had some purple markings on his face, the girl beside him had blonde hair pulled up into four pigtails and was wearing a white summer kimono type of outfit. The guy was threatening the brown haired kid that had some scarf on, and Naruto was yelling at him to back off; well at least it used to be happening. As soon as they had heard my footsteps, they all immediately turned their attention to me. The guy in black immediately dropped the kid and started towards me. 'Oh crap, why me?' I backed up into the wooden fence, and he put his hand beside my head, not attempting to let me go anywhere. He stared at me for a few seconds and finally smirked.
"Hey cutie, the name's Kankuro. You wanna go out somewhere?" he asked me.
'Well he certainly gets straight to the point, why's he hitting on me?'
"Hey back off!" Naruto yelled angrily. "Leave Sada-chan alone."
"Sada huh?" he asked, ignoring Naruto's other comments "Cute name, means pure doesn't it?" I nodded, still staring at him blankly, and the blonde girl said
"Just leave her alone, what if he shows up?"
"He's not going to find out anything Temari." Kankuro stated, rolling his eyes. "Just let me have a little fun." She rolled her eyes to herself, not looking like she believed him, and he looked back at me smirking. "So what do ya' say? Wanna go somewhere, just you and me?" I stared at him blankly again, and opened my mouth to say something but closed it, not knowing what to say. He smirked again and moved his hand to touch my face.
CLING
A small rock hit his hand with enough force to actually break it, and he backed up from me in shock.
"Itai, what the hell?" he said, rubbing his hand. I ran over behind Naruto, not liking that the Kankuro guy had tried touching me, and he looked back at me.
"You ok?" he asked, with a worrying tone. I nodded, looking over Naruto's shoulder at Kankuro, and heard him say
"Who threw that?"
"I did."
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed, sounding all impressed.
"Oh great." Naruto muttered, not liking that Sasuke had showed up.
"Why can't you be that cool boss?" the brown haired kid asked Naruto, looking disappointed.
"Hey what are you talking about, I could have saved you in two seconds flat." Naruto exaggerated.
"You're going to use Karasu for this?" Temari asked with a shocked tone. I looked over to see Kankuro had pulled the coffin like thing off his back.
"I hate punks." Kankuro mumbled.
"Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village." a cold voice said.
I looked over towards the tree that Sasuke was sitting on and saw a red head standing upside down on a tree. He had sea green eyes, and the kanji for love tattooed on his forehead. I stared into his eyes, mentally gasping to myself in sadness. I could see a look in his eyes, a look that both Sasuke and I had, loneliness. A look of betrayal and sadness, desperation, hatred…anger. His eyes told me how angry he was at the world, how he felt unloved, not wanted…he was the same as me in that aspect. I wanted to know more about this redhead, and why his eyes screamed his loneliness. Maybe…he was someone else I could trust. He also had the Sand Village headband like Temari and Kankuro, I was guessing they were on the same team.
"These punks started it Gaara." Kankuro raged.
"Shut up or I'll kill you." Gaara growled. Kankuro shut his mouth and Gaara disappeared from the tree, reappearing infront of Kankuro and Temari. "Excuse him." We nodded, and Gaara glared at Kankuro. Sasuke jumped down from the tree beside me and stood by my side protectively. They all turned and faced us, looking at Sakura.
"There is an alliance between our villages, according to the treaty you have to have passes and permission to enter the village." Sakura said. "State your business."
"We have passes." Temari said, pulling hers out. "We are shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Sand, and we have permission to be here."
"For what purpose?" Sakura pried, she sure was nosy.
"They're here for the Chunin exams." Sasuke stated.
"What's that?" Naruto asked. The brown haired kid explained them to Naruto, and he got really excited when he found out about being able to go up a rank. "Why didn't sensei tell us?"
"He did, you just weren't paying attention." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. Sakura giggled, and I stared at the ground.
'Chunin exams huh? This is a good opportunity for me. I know I trained with Zabuza for years of my life, but I never had been assigned a rank until I got here. I guess this would be the right time to show off my skills…except my kekkei genkai.'
"So Sada?" I looked over Naruto's shoulder at Kankuro, and he smirked. "You never answered my question, dinner?" I opened my mouth again to say something, knowing exactly what I was going to say, and felt an arm go around my waist. I looked over at Sasuke, and he glared at Kankuro.
"Back off." he said coldly. Kankuro glared at him, and I looked at Sasuke confused.
'Wait a second…what's going on here?' Sakura looked like she was going to burst into tears, Naruto glared at Sasuke, and Sasuke just smirked. "Go near her, and I'll make sure I break every bone in your body." Kankuro deepened his glare, and Gaara said
"What's your name?"
"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke said, still smirking. "I'm also interested in yours."
"Sabuka no Gaara." Sasuke nodded, and the three sand ninja walked away.
'I wonder how later is going to turn out…everyone seems like they're pretty angry with each other.'
"Nani Sasuke!" Naruto yelled angrily. "What was that about?"
'And it begins.'
Author's Note: *sigh* Poor Naruto, he's so left out of the loop. And Sasuke getting all protective...hmmmm, wonder what's going on in that little head of his. Goodness, re-writing this story is becoming quite the challenge. Oh, and I hope you like the new title. =]
PREVIEW: CHAPTER TEN
"The failure of a mission, the death of a soldier...that's all the captain's responsibility." a boy said.
'Transformation jutsu.'
"We're just thinning out those who will fail anyway. What's wrong with that?" the other asked. Sasuke rolled his eyes, walking over towards the boys. We followed behind him without question, and he said
"You'll let me pass through and also remove this genjutsu created surrounding." I stared at the floor, and Sasuke continued. "Sakura you must have noticed it first right? Your analytical ability and genjutsu know how are the most improved on our team."
"Of course, I already noticed it." Sakura stated. "Because this is the second floor."
"Yup." Naruto agreed.
"Heh, not bad." one of them said. "But all you did was see through it."