LC; I'M FUCKING PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW!

Naruto; What happened? Did you forget to buy tampons?

LC; WORSE! I HAD ALREADY FINISHED THIS STUPID CHAPTER AND THEN MY COMPUTER CRASHED!

Sasuke;...What's the bad part?

LC; DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I'VE WRITTEN THIS? IT'S ANNOYING!

Naruto; Why do I get the feeling this chapter might be painful.

LC; BECAUSE I AM MORE PISSED THEN THE TIME WHEN THE VIRUS DELETED EVERYTHING!

Sasuke; That might be why.

LC; GRRRRR! STUPID SUCKY COMPUTER THAT KEEPS GETTING VIRUSES AND CRASHING! GAH!

Disclaimer; I would not mess with me today. I don't own them so you can leave now. Shoo.

Chapter 11; When life gives you lemons, toss them back at life and demand chocolate.

They sat there for some time, each lost in their own thoughts. Kida wishes she could take off her mask and breathe in the evening air, something she hadn't done since she could barely remember. The curse of the Hatake mask traditions.

Asuma fidgeted a little and his hands itched to light a cancer stick. He refrained though, feeling that this moment was too serious to smoke to calm his nerves. Still though, he did let himself draw one stick, although he did not light it.

Kida took a breath through the fabric of her mask and tried to understand everything she was feeling and why she felt those things. It was a concentration technique she liked to do whenever she felt a lot of things at once, it helped her to focus.

She was angry, because she was forced to kill that missing nin, because that nin attacked, or maybe because she didn't like the chains of tradition she was held by. She focused further and decided she was angry because of all those things. They all came together to make her rather pissed off.

She felt sad, she didn't like the blood on her hands. She didn't even get any blood on her hands but she had scrubbed them viciously in the stream they'd passed.
She hated that feeling! She knew she'd be seeing his face that night.

She felt frustrated, she didn't have a problem knowing it was because of her lack of progress at being a great kunoichi. She felt so weak in comparison with her father! Like she would never escape her tou-san's shadow!
This was the biggest part of her emotions at the moment. She hated how weak she felt in comparison with that other version of herself, the one who went by Naru Uzumaki, wore orange, and had blonde hair.

"Stop that." The interruption in her thinking was so unexpected she almost did jump out her skin.

"You shouldn't compare yourself with your father." She gave him a questioning look.

Asuma was inwardly laughing his ass off. He wondered if the Hatakes knew that their masks didn't hide as much as they thought it did. As if to make up for the fabric, a Hatake's eyes were twice as expressive as a normal person's eyes.

"I know you compare yourself to him, and to your teammates, maybe even to me. You need to stop that. Your not your father, your not your teammates, and your not me." She cocked her head to one side and raised a brow. A what-kind-of-dope-are-you-smoking kind of look if ever he saw one.

"The only one you should compare yourself to is yourself. That is, the you of yesterday." He explained.

"If you can run a little farther than you could yesterday, do one more push-up, one more curl up, then you've improved." Her eyes began to light up as she caught on to what he was trying to say.

"I guess I'll head back to the others, come back when you feel up to it." He told her, getting up to leave and finally giving into his urge to smoke a nice, long drag.

Kida sighed as soon as he was out of sight and hearing and pulled down her mask. She took a deep breath and revelled in the feeling of clean air against her face.
Kilala dropped down next to her and chirped in her ear about not feeling sorry for herself. She wasn't really listening.

"Myself, ne?" She murmured, a little smile playing on her lips. Her whisker marks were fine, and her face clean of blemishes. She thought she looked rather exotic. She always had. She wondered if anyone even remembered what her face looked like, outside her family.

She pulled the mask back up, reluctantly, and pulled out her romance novel. Now to find out if Nojiko would forgive Keisuke for cheating on her with the servant! Insert giggle.

She wasn't sure but she could have imagined the way that everyone sighed in relief when they saw her reading that book. She could have.

The next day Tazuna took them to meet up with a rowman, who he had hired to take them to the island he lived on and where he was building the bridge.

"So that's your bridge." It was the first time that she had lifted her nose from the pages of her beautifully written novel. The structure looked impressive in size and was simple yet elegant in form and design. She approved.

"Yep, that's Nami's hope." Tazuna muttered absent mindedly. He looked on at his creation in pride.

"This is as far as I can take you." The rowman stated as they reached the shore. He wasn't risking his life any further than he already had at this point.

"Thank you for this risk." Tazuna said politely as the man shoved off again to put his boat back on it's moorings.

"This way." The man said gruffly, pointing down the direction of the road they were on.

Kida didn't register whatever words were on the page she had just turned to. She knew that they were in enemy territory now and she should behave accordingly.
Few genin were ever taken out first. No, there were two logical targets at the moment. The first would be Tazuna, the actual target. The second would be Asuma-sensei, take him out and the rest would follow.

It was a common strategy, and she figured that if she was in the enemy's position, this would be the place to implement it. There was natural mist cover and the road was narrower here tha anywhere else, the forest surrounding them from most directions now.
She palmed two shuriken, this would be the place for an ambush.

'Damn, I need to pay more attention to my team, them doing surprising things is going to give me a heart attack one of these days.' She decided a moment later as Tome cuddled a rabbit that he had almost murdered. Even Sasuke was shaking his head at the boy's antics.

"Tome, that is a white rabbit in the middle of summer." She said slowly, making sure the boy was actually listening to her this time.

"Which means-! Get down!" Asuma shouted as he grabbed their client. Kida knocked down Tome and didn't spare a moment, just hoping Shino and Sasuke didn't freeze up and get killed.

A man appeared on the giant cleaver that was lodged into the tree. He wasn't wearing a shirt, had puffy pants, and wore his slashed kiri hitaite crooked on his head.
He also had a mask of bandages across his face, which instantly made her respect him. She respected masks.

"Hmm, here I was thinking you were just some konoha flunkee only to catch a glimpse of that sash." The man said, his voice slightly muffled by the bandages.

"Asuma Sarutobi, your thirty five million bounty would come in handy." He chuckled, obviously amused at this turn of events.

"Zabuza Mumochi, known for killing an entire graduating class without ever attending, failed a coup against the mizukage, and is now looking for another go at it." Asuma said demurely, listing all he knew about the masked nin. Zabuza only laughed.

"So you know about the graduation exam?" He asked.

"We all know about the exam. How do you think we became ninja?" Tome asked, not fully comprehending the enormity of what they had just heared. This was a man who could go toe to toe with a kage level shinobi.

"Tome, the graduation in kiri is a lot different than the one in Konoha." Kida gulped as she remembered the story her tou-san had told her as a child.

"To graduate in kiri, it used to be that you had to kill one of the students. But they changed that practice." She informed the blonde haired boy. Even he was starting to look a little green around the gills.

"They changed it because one boy, without ever attending their academy, managed to kill every single student. The demon of the mist." Zabuza seemed absolutely delighted that she knew his history.

"That man, was Zabuza Mumochi." He burst into laughter than, hearing her dramatic end to the story.

"Looks like Konoha is finally teaching their genin something." He said in admiration, basking in their inner turmoil.

"My tou-san made me memorize the bingo book." She said dismissively.

"Who's your tou-san gaki?" Zabuza asked, obviously interested.

"Kakashi Hatake. My name is Kida Hatake." His eyes seemed to positively glow then! It looked like christmas had come early for the missing nin.

"Well, how interesting. I already know the blonde boy, everyone knows the flash's son. You two would be worth a mint if I captured you alive and sent pieces to your daddys." He told them. Kida could feel Tome freeze at the mention of his parentage. She wondered what Zabuza would think if he knew she was the flash's daughter. How Tome would react to find out she was his older sister.

"If you want them you have to get past me." Asuma said, sounding rather impressive and lavishing the air with his own KI to combat the one his opponent was unconciously releasing.

"Of course, I'd be happy to oblige." Zabuza said, pulling his sword from the tree and landing on top of the lake.

"Now then, kirigakure no jutsu." The mist around them thickened until they couldn't see past their own noses.

"Sasuke, Shino, Tome, manji formation! Kida your support!" He ordered through the mist, knowing they would hear him. No one put forth any protests and slipped into the battle formation that had been drilled into their heads since the first day at the academy.

Kida pulled out her kunai and put away her book. She was support, that meant she had to use her Hatake tracking jutsu to find Zabuza and help Asuma keep up with the man while simultaniously making sure he didn't get too close to her team.

A few hand seals later her hearing and sense of smell far exceded those of her teammates' and she was frantically searching for her sensei and Zabuza.

"Shino, send out some bugs to weaken Zabuza." She ordered quietly, hoping he wouldn't hear. The bug user nodded and some of his kikai began sneaking out of his clothing and began flying through the air towards the chakra sources that they could sense. He gave them strict orders not to drain Asuma-sensei's or their reserves and sent them on their way.

"Liver, kidney, lungs, heart, spine, sub-clavicle vien, jugular vein, and brain. Eight vital places, now which should I aim for?" His disembodied voice seemed to come from all directions. Kida knew then her hearing wouldn't help her any and so she let that part of the jutsu go in favor of strengthening her nose ever further.

Yes, she could smell him! He smelt like blood, the forrest, another scent like that of a boy, and water. Wait, water doesn't have a scent unless it's being held together with water!

And he was right behind her!

"I think I'll take out the girl first." She whipped around faster than she previously thought possible and saw him about to knock her out. She knew if he did than she would be lost. For the second time in her life, she vanished from reality.

The mindscape!

'Great, I'm back here again and have about two seconds before being knocked unconcious and then kidnapped to be used for ransom.' She ranted within her own mind. Wait, this was her mindscape and she was talking in her mind so how did that work? Bah, this was too confusing for her!

She knew why she was here though, so she chose not to waste anymore time and ran down the hall to where she could feel the Kyubi.

Standing in front of his cage now, she couldn't help but feel like she was making a deal with the devil in accepting his chakra. She had no choice, she knew, but she didn't like it.

"Pathetic little girl, need my help again?" He asked, his voice gravelly and sending shudders up her spine.

"Don't think you can lecture me you overgrown plushy, just hand over the chakra and I'll be going to make sure we don't get cut up into bite sized pieces." She said fiercly, for now she wasn't in the mood to be respectful and try to convince him to give her chakra willingly. She was too busy wondering how much longer she had till everything went black.

"Take my chakra midday snack." The fox sniffed, obviously not impressed with her insult. She shrugged before feeling the red chakra sneaking it's way through her body again.

"Thanks."

Reality!

Kida felt the amazing strength of the chakra overwhelm her being and saw everything as though it were happening in slow motion. She saw the chop to the neck that would no doubt keep her down for a few days and smiled beneath her mask.

"Too slow!" She taunted him from behind as she slashed a kunai through his surprised form. She had moved behind him in the space usually reserved for a blink of the eye.

The water splashed to the ground and she felt her anger growing as her frustration banked the fires. She didn't like this guy. She wanted him dead.

Kida shook her head and forced herself to think logically, not to give in to the instincts.

"Asuma-sensei, three meters behind you and closing!" She shouted a warning to the former guardian. Asuma didn't question her and merely launched an attack with his trench knives in that direction. The smell of fresh blood told her he hadn't missed.

Tome was shaking as he felt the insane amount of bloodlust in the area. Not only were the two jounin exhibiting it, but also Kida! This bloodlust he felt from her was familiar somehow though, like he'd felt it before.

That's when he realized he had! When he had been tricked by Mizuki and stolen the forbidden scroll, when they had been about to die, she had called upon this same chakra! Only last time it had vanished so quickly he had doubted he really felt it at all. Now though, he knew it wasn't just a figment of his imagination.

Zabuza can call himself a demon as much as he cares to, Tome decided. Because at the moment, the real monster was Kida Hatake.

Kida felt the power fade away again and she recognized a strange kind of tiredness settle into her very bones. It appeared that power came at a price. If she ever had to use it in a real fight, such as the one between Asuma-sensei and Zabuza now, she wouldn't get a second chance. As soon as she let that energy go she would be too exhausted to fight back.

Zabuza's mind was working on turbo mode as he tried to figure out what that power he had sensed from the girl had been. He knew Hatakes had a rare form of chakra as a bloodline limit, known as White chakra, that was very dangerous and more potent than normal chakra. However what he just felt seemed different.

What he felt, if he had to describe it with a color, was red.

Could she have some kind of mutation in her bloodline limit that changed the chakra, did the next Hatake generation become even stronger? It seemed the most likeliest explanation for what he had just witnessed and why the jounin Asuma hadn't seemed that surprised. Only the other kiddies seemed nervous.

Maybe the girl didn't have as much control over it as he would think of a Hatake. He heard the white chakra was hard to control at the best of times.

All the while, he had been swapping jutsu with that Asuma guy. The man was a wind affinity if ever he saw one, that was for certain. Air bullets, air blades, even a little tornado that could probably rip him to shreds once, although Asuma seemed tired after that one.

He responded in kind of course, with water dragons, water bullets, and water clones where he deemed appropriate.

"Zabuza, I'm not letting you escape so easily!" Asuma vowed, getting a little frustrated with how the man was keeping him at a distance. He had a lot of long range jutsu but he wasn't a ninjutsu type. He preferred hand to hand combat personally but Zabuza knew with his big sword he would be out classed in terms of speed against him and his trench knives.

Kida helped where she could, sending kunai and shuriken to try and drive him either towards or away from Asuma-sensei in order to make the fight better.
She was glad for all the hours of aim practice she had put into her skills, they were probably saving her sensei's life right now.

"Your more trouble than your worth gaki!" Zabuza yelled suddenly, sending the water dragon he had prepared towards her, rather than her sensei.

Her eyes widening at the sight of the attack she felt her entire being screaming for her to move. Suddenly the laws of physics passed gas and gravity dropped dead. At least that's what she would later swear would happen.

Because one minute she's standing and staring at a dragon of liquid about to tear her to pieces and the next she's up in the air and had no recollection of jumping.

In the air, she threw more kunai and shuriken, to keep the missing nin off balance long enough for her sensei to get in close. It worked wonderfully.
Just as Asuma got close enough and began to swipe at Zabuza's exposed jugular, she realized that they weren't alone.

Zabuza burst into smoke, and rather than the log she had half expected, a boy wearing a hunter's mask appeared instead.
Zabuza had kawarmiied himself free of a killing stroke by using that mysterious hunter. Poor guy, he didn't look much older than...she did...

Her tracking jutsu was still activated, and she recognized that guy's scent. That was the boy she smelled on Zabuza only a little while ago. Kami, was it really just thirty minutes ago? It seemed like an eternity after the battle began.

The boy was already dead by the time she reached her sensei's side. The mask had been lifted to reveal a surprisingly feminine face for a boy, one who's eyes were already glazed over in death.
Strangely enough a small smile graced his face.

"Where did he go?" Tome asked shakily, trying to shake off the tension of the moment.

"He kawarmiied with this boy to escape." Asuma told him. She stretched her sense of smell as far as possible but he had already covered his tracks. It seemed he had left via water way.

"I can't track him." She admitted, feeling a little disappointed that one of the great seven swordsman was forced to retreat.

"Who's this guy?" Sasuke asked, walking up to inspect the body. He was jealous that Kida had been able to help in the battle, but he knew from a logical stand point that she was the strongest of the present genin. He knew that she was stronger than both him and Tome from the practices he had been present to since joining her clan as an honorable Hatake.

END OF THE CHAPTER AND NOW I MUST WORK ON ANOTHER FIC! NO REST FOR THE WEARY!

LC; Now to work on another fic of mine.

Naruto; Your behind in your little personal schedule.

LC; Stupid computer crashing and making me rewrite all this work.

Sasuke; Don't blame the computer, blame the owner for being too pour to buy a new one.

LC; *Sigh* Yeah. This computer needs replacing. I've had it for so long though!

Naruto; It's your 'baby'! You used to sleep with it!

LC; I was young and in love!...With the internet.