"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Not even the fog could shield them from the orange assault to the eyes, Sakura thought. One of the clones bumped into her and popped. Their 'prison' was too small for this many people.
Then again, that was the plan. She and Sasuke were huddled in the center, holding their weapons, to attack as soon as the opportunity arose. Naruto, meanwhile, made as many clones as possible to try and push the ice mirrors apart.
It wasn't working.
Yet, Sakura thought, just keep believing.
It was getting hot in the middle and not the kind the pinkette had once (really once) imagined. Sakura wiped her hands on her shirt, wishing for Chi to be here. She never seemed to panic and had some dangerous techniques according to some books about her clan. Sakura had devoured them, finding it every bit as exciting as a horror movie. When she and Kakashi fed Chi, she noted how her sensei didn't let her touch the girl. Chi looked stiff and pale, probably why Sakura couldn't hold her.
The clones doubled and by now, she couldn't breathe anymore. Sasuke grunted as their backs pressed together. The clones were puffing, red in the face and limps overstretched. It lasted about five seconds before they all poofed away. Sakura was almost glad that it failed, at least she could breath.
When the smoke cleared, they were back at the beginning. It was beginning to feel hopeless. Naruto fell down among the senbon and landed on his butt, already familiar with that and thus immediately jumping back up.
"What is your big deal?!" He shouted, angrily. "You hold us here, not even fighting but not letting us go either!"
He had a point. Even Sasuke had to admit.
Kakashi, from his spot further down the bridge, allowed himself to relax a tad bit at the gravelly sound of Naruto's voice. At least his kids were alive. Then he flinched and made an odd move that caught Zabuza by surprise. They aren't MY kids, dammit!
The figure- the kids had learned that his name was Haku- appeared in front of them. None of the trio tried attacking, they had also learned that Haku could move way too fast for that.
"I do not wish to kill you."
Naruto scowled "You can't kill me!"
"I believe I can."
Narutoooo. Sakura panicked, if the boy kept provoking Haku, he might actually attack. Annoying as he could be, She would never wish for the boy to die. He had become way too much of a comrade to her.
"No, you can't. Believe it!" There was the catchphrase. It had been a while, Sakura noted.
"And why is that?" Haku inquired.
Naruto hesitated, a flash of darkness on his face, before he reverted to his 'not-thinking' style.
"Because people had already tried and failed!"
The sound of weapons clashing in the distance was worse than the silence. As if this confession didn't mean anything. It was just another part of the world they lived in. Sasuke felt his heart racing in his chest. The orange ninja stood in the center, shoulders hunched, arms and legs apart, ready for attack and defense.
He couldn't see his eyes, but Sasuke was sure that they were burning with an intensity he had seen only once before. That was when Sasuke had spotted the other boy standing up for a stray cat who had stolen some fish. Naruto defended it against some older guy who had no problem denying a hungry being some food. Sasuke remembered it because the older guy looked terrified upon seeing Naruto and his bright blue eyes.
Haku let out a small sigh "You too?"
It was a soft acknowledgment, two strangers who have been through the same horror. Naruto heard it, wavered before lowering his hands.
"Why?"
No, why you! Naruto, who tried to kill you? Sakura felt her stomach turn. Sure the kid was annoying at times, but he was a kid. Who would want to kill a young boy who just pulled pranks?
"I have a rare Kekkei Genkai." Haky replied, spreading his arms "As you can see, I can create ice. Not many people could do that and now I'm the only one left."
Sasuke shifted and for a moment it looked like their opponent was looking at him. Haku folded his hands and continued.
"I was born in a small village in the Land of Water. At that time there was peace, but not too long before there had been a war. Shinobi with Kekkei Genkai fought amongst the other shinobi and were feared because of their talents. That fear remained even years after the war. The one with the bloodline abilities were hated and killed because of that fear."
"My mother was a wielder of Ice Release and I have inherited it from her. My father was a ordinary man. We used to be a loving family, simple and poor, but it was enough. My father did not know about our abilities, or so we thought. He had seen us, when I discovered my Kekkei Genkai. He became afraid despite having loved us so dearly. He then gathered a group of people and attacked us."
Sakura's jaw trembled. She wanted to cover her ears and continue to believe that flimsy fantasy she had when she was a child. Shinobi were cool, had super-powers and were regarded as heroes. The world was a beautiful place, there were no cruelties. The bad guys were always taken care of quickly.
What a ridiculous lie I told myself.
She should have seen it. In the scars of her teachers, in the eyes of veterans. She should have heard it through the whispers of massacres and mysterious murders. Instead she focused on a single boy and believed that the road was easy and pretty.
Truly ridiculous.
"He killed my mother and tried to kill me too. I reacted, and killed everyone. Including my father." Haku's voice never wavered. He had come to terms with his horrible past, it seemed.
"I met Zabuza-sama a few years later, when I was just a street rat. He gave me a purpose and he had the same eyes as me. I am more than happy to be a tool for him." He concluded.
"What?" Naruto almost growled "Don't you have any dreams of your own?"
"My dream is to be useful to him. It is my nindo." Haku didn't sound insulted at all.
"That's..." Sakura searched for the right word "a bit much, don't you think?" Fool! If you have nothing to say, don't say anything at all! Her cheeks colored.
"To others, perhaps. To me it is all I want." Haku reached up.
The Genin tensed but he reached for his mask. Haku barely touched the porcelain when he froze. Sasuke frowned, he couldn't be hearing birds hear, right? Sakura gasped and pointed. There was a light on the other side of bridge, bright and blue.
The mist parted and the outlines of the adults could be seen. Kakashi was charging at a motionless Zabuza. The mighty Kubikiribōchō was pinned upright in a piece of concrete near them. The light came from Kakashi's palm. Sasuke's Sharingan activated on its own, memorizing the jutsu. Naruto gaped and only Sakura noticed Haku speeding away. The mirrors melted and fell down. A white mask laid shattered on the ground, near the puddles.
A thud echoed in the silence. Chi landed in the center of the bridge, her open haori waving in the wind. Kakashi involuntarily sped up. His stretched hand hit a body, cut clean through it and the body behind it. There was a gasp and a grunt. Kakashi wasn't sure if he did a good job.
"O-oh, sensei." Chi stared at him. Kakashi liked to believe she wasn't nearly drooling at the sight of blood, and that the clenching of her jaw wasn't out of lust.
Kakashi yanked his arm back, letting the blood stream down. Haku was beautiful even while dying, and also very young. The boy leaned forward, but a muscular arm from Zabuza around his waist stopped him from falling.
Team 7 got out of their stupor and ran over. No one spoke, except Naruto of course.
""H-Haku?"
"Do not worry." Haku muttered, a trickle of blood coming from between his lips. "I am happy I could die with Zabuza-sama."
Zabuza growled, his bandage was turning red. "Stop talking, brat."
Haku groaned "I just want... to ask their names..."
Naruto gulped but hit his chest anyway "Name's Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage! Believe it!" There were tears in his eyes.
"S-sakura. Haruno Sakura..." Why haven't I got any dream?!"
"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke looked away, jamming his hands in his pockets.
"Ketsueki Chi. Pleased to meet you." Chi awkwardly bowed, her eyes focused on the gaping holes.
Haku nodded, too tired to speak. Zabuza's knee buckled and he fell to the ground on his back. Haku remained clenched against his chest. The thump of their bodies hitting the ground made the Genin wince.
"This is the end of us... You and I won't be going to the same place." Zabuza gasped. Haku's eyes were already closing, but he was listening. "I just- just wanted to... thank... you."
Haku smiled, as prettily as only he could, and let his final breath out. Not even a second behind, Zabuza's eyes flew open.
"Kakashi!" He spoke with a feverish strength. Kakashi straightened, the last words of a man were always the most important, regardless of foe or friend. He walked and lowered himself to the ground next to the Demon's head. Zabuza's free hand shot out and clutched his vest.
"Get... Gato." The eyes were wide and filled with a passion unlike anything he had seen. Kakashi nodded, grabbing the man's wrist in a promise. Enemy or not, now Zabuza was defeated and the copy-cat always believed that a shinobi was capable of honorable deeds.
"Consider it done." He replied.
Zabuza's eyes clouded and his arm relaxed. The Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi was no more.
Kakashi got up and turned to his students. Sakura and Naruto were close to tears (he wondered why), Sasuke was stoic though his pursed lips betrayed his thoughts, Chi was staring at the blood. The Jonin squinted, there were blood smeared on her chin, her hands and her sleeves. Her haori was open and the ribbon hung by her side.
"How are you guys?" The fog cleared completely.
"F-fine, I guess." Naruto wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Haku was really nice, you know."
Ah, I suppose they did something other than fight. Kakashi's eye crinkled. He reached up to cover his Sharingan. Let's do this the right way. What did Iruka say again?
"Let's give them a grave, alright?"
Chi looked up. She's not going to blatantly ask me if she can drink their blood, right? "I know a place. Near the house is a forest where I buried some other guys."
"Excuse me?" What the flip? Has she been kidnapping villagers?
Chi waved her dirty hand "Some thugs send by Gato came to the house. I took care of them and buried them. Inari and his mother are fine."
Sasuke was looking angry. Not exactly something to be jealous of Uchiha. Kakashi sighed and turned back to the bodies. The Genin wordlessly gathered and they got to work. Zabuza and Haku's limp bodies were still warm. They carried them off the bridge and eased them on a soft patch (upon Sakura's request) of grass. Chi's hand lingered on the bodies, her eyes a bright red.
"Alright, all of you get back on the bridge. Clean their stuff, I'll get the sword, and bring it back." He had a firm a grip on the Ketsueki's shoulder. The three wiped their hands and left, too distracted to wonder why Chi wasn't coming with them.
Kakashi turned the Genin towards him. She was fidgeting, looking both guilty and thirsty.
"What happened."
"Three thugs came in the house. I killed them and-"
"Drained them?"
She bit her lips. "Yeah, but they didn't have enough chakra." She looked up. "I am really hungry sensei. What if I loose control on the way back?"
Kakashi pursed his lips, glanced at his students gathering senbon and leaned forward. "Alright, here's what we are going to do. You get to drink some, but not all! Make sure no one sees you."
Chi nodded gratefully. "Thanks sensei, I won't be seen."
He turned away and walked over to gather Zabuza's sword, ignoring the slurping sounds behind him. As he came nearer he noted Naruto standing with his eyes trained on the other side of the river. That was when he heard them, a stampede. In the distance a mob appeared, complete with torches and axes. As far as he could see, none of them were shinobi.
"Team!" He yanked the sword out of the bridge and jumped to the center of the bridge to meet them halfway. His students stopped working and appeared at his side. He let out a breath when Chi arrived second later, looking fired up but not quite sane yet. At least the bodies wouldn't be resembling a raisin when they returned. There was a Killer Intent in the air, coming from Naruto and Chi.
Sasuke felt it too, it made him uncomfortable but he wasn't about to show it. Sakura gulped and instead focused on the fat figure leading the horde of men. The group stormed on the bridge, coming to a halt in front of the shinobi.
"You must be Gato." Kakashi sniffed, the fat man was really sweaty from walking such a distance.
Indeed, the fat man introduced himself as Gato, called them all losers and asked where the two 'idiots' were. Naruto all but shouted at them that Zabuza and Haku had died and weren't idiots. Gato laughed until he cried and Kakashi could hear the unspoken vow of his team to make him cry out of pain.
"Now then, let's take care of you." Gate sneered and send his team of untrained thugs to fight the team with the most notorious shinobi of Konoha. To top it off, said shinobi weren't in the greatest of moods.
What an idiot.
The men stormed at them. Kakashi figured that a plan wouldn't be necessary. Not that the kids would listen. Naruto created a dozen clones and launched straight in the fight. Sasuke send a fireball at them and even Sakura clutched her kunai and ran to take on a weaker looking men with a nasty looking gardening hoe.
"I'll be going then." He waved and jumped to where Gato was last seen and started his fight.
Chi nodded absently. There was so much blood in the air. A guy with a goatee swung his ax near her head. Chi's eyes flashed yellow and she flickered behind him, snapping his neck without a second thought. Another one came at her. She pierced his heart with a kunai. Another one. Dead by shuriken.
One more. Killed by crushing his skull against her knee. She broke someones spine, severed a head and stabbed a younger fellow to death. Chi's head was buzzing. Her veins felt hot, the chakra from Zabuza and Haku coursed through them.
There is another method to kill.
Her memories resurfaced. She had used it before. People didn't seem to mind. Chi watched as a group surrounded her. Her teammates were fighting in the distance. They weren't looking. There was a steady drum around her, growing louder as the men closed in on her. She lifted her hands to the side. They were close enough now.
"Ninja Art, Ketsueki Style: Extract."
The world around her turned red. Blood burst from the men's torsos, quickly forming torrents that raced at Chi. It hit her skin, her lips and even her eyes. The moment it touched, it got absorbed. She took in all of their blood, panting from exhilaration. The men fell down, their skin completely shriveled.
Wake up!
Using the energy she had received now, Chi's mind became calm and the world morphed back to how it originally was. No more mistaking humans for juice-boxes. Chi the Genin was awake again. She ran forward and grabbed a lanky guy who was about to charge into Sakura's unprotected back. In a display of power as a result of Ibiki's torture/training, she threw him over the railing and into the wild river.
Her eye fell on the remains of her first victims. Can't leave them in the open. They soon followed their colleague in the water. By the time she was back and fighting again, only a few men were left. Gato was kept in place by Kakashi who seemed to enjoy this. He held the man with one hand and knocked his thugs out with his other. A real boss. Zabuza's sword was pinned behind them.
The mob was taken down and only Gato was left begging for his life as he bled from a nasty gash in his neck given to him by one of his own clumsy minions who had pushed him against Kubikiribōchō. Naruto punched him. Kakashi didn't care. He was supposed to kill the man anyway. Gato's mouth was stuffed with a fairly large piece of wood that had broken off the railing during the fight. He died a few moments later, alone on the bridge as the team had already started digging for a grave for Zabuza and Haku.
Chi cleaned the gaping holes some more (using a sponge she produced from somewhere) and helped Sakura with the sewing. The girl had to swallow back her fear many times and feared just as many times that her breakfast might show up. The boys were digging a large grave in the shadow of the forest. Sasuke might have pretended to find it unnecessary, but he dug just as hard as Naruto. Kakashi kept an eye on Sakura and consulted with Pakkun.
Kakashi had summoned the pug as soon as he got separated from the Genin. The nin dog was tasked with reporting back about the state of them. It was Pakkun who had raced back worriedly to Kakashi and had told him that 'The pups stand no chance against that one!". Those words had made Kakashi fight just a tad harder and lead to him using the Chidori.
Now the pug was describing how the blood burst from the men surrounding Chi and how it got absorbed by her. Kakashi peeked at the girl. Her skin had always been tanned so there was no difference there. Her eyes were still yellow and made her look angry despite the gentle expression she had while comforting Sakura.
This kid is going to kill us all. Kakashi thought darkly. He decided to clean Kubikiribōchō before bringing it to the graves. He was going to bury them with it. Couldn't risk a random villain deciding to use it, could he?
The graves were made, the bodies laid inside body-bags and the weapons were put on their torsos. Sakura carefully placed the mask next to Haku's sebon. Naruto patted the soil that covered them. Chi crouched next to him, holding a handful of chestnuts.
"We should plant them. One of them might turn into a tree."
Only Sasuke noticed the slight difference in the chestnuts, but he dismissed them as stones. Naruto and Sakura poked holes in the ground and started planting them. Years later there would be trees and perhaps a few roses.
This should be a good place to return to next year. Kakashi massaged his neck, letting the sun shine on his face. "We have to fix the bridge and then we can go home."
It had been nearly a week now and with the needed rest and work, it would take another week before they could go back.
Ah, the Chuunin exams are coming up too. I need to train them.
Truth was he was planning to train Sasuke privately and get some teachers to train the other two. He wasn't sure how Iruka or the Genin would react to that but he needed to drill some basic rules in the Uchiha. Perhaps he would manage to pull the boy's head back from where it was stuck due to its deflated size. If that wouldn't happen through his training, then he had a different tactic. Very little could not be fixed with a gentle 'tap' to the head. Multiple times. With various levels of force.
The days that followed were hardly worth a letter home, not that any of them did write home. Sakura had 'forgotten' her writing utensils given to her by her mother at home, not wanting to embarrass herself.
They took some rest and recovered. The bridge was cleaned and fixed (as was the house). Inari and his mother thanked Chi from a distance and baked her a cake. Chi didn't have the heart to tell them how bad she was at eating sweat things and that the cake was burned and accepted gracefully. Naruto was subdued for a day but bounded down the stairs the next day as if nothing had happened.
"Kakashi sensei! I've decided my nindo!" He shouted and jumped in front of his poor teacher. "I am never going back on my word and I am never giving up! Believe it!"
"A-ah, congratulations Naruto." What happened to "'Kashi sensei"? He wasn't disappointed or anything. Just, curious.
With the bridge all finished and named after the orange ninja, Team 7 and Chi took off. They had used up all of their clean underwear, had exhausted themselves and nearly died. Not to mention almost released a massive, nine-tailed demon fox and allowed a blood-drinking shinobi to roam freely in the town and committed a massacre on a newly build bridge. Kakashi was just glad that they hadn't set the whole place on fire.
The way back went by much faster since they could make use of their 'super-powers' and speed up. They slept briefly in their camp and took off early to make it before nightfall. Both Naruto and Chi insisted that they weren't completely drained from their extortions during the mission and so the group moved at lighting speed.
When Konoha's gates appeared, Sakura felt her eyes tear up and immediately punched herself (a very challenging task in itself) for being too sentimental. The gates appeared, Kakashi send them off with the message to get rest and come back to their meeting spot tomorrow. He would handle all the paperworks and stuff.
Watching the kids jolt towards their respective houses, hit him like a wave of sadness. Why he was sad, he didn't know. He must be growing old. He took care of the report, went to the Hokage, got chastised for completing an A-level mission with Genin and left for the bar.
Anko greeted him with a bottle aimed at his head. He tapped it aside and stepped to the group of Jonins. Ibiki looked at him, question clear.
"Yo Ibiki, " Your student tried to drain my students, collapsed and woke up for no clear reason, killed nearly ten people and didn't care, drank some blood, killed some more men, drank some more blood and frankly: I don't think I can handle her anymore."your student is at home, resting."
Ibiki sighed in relief. "Good, must have been tiresome to be on the road for so long."
"..."
"Kakashi?" Asuma frowned, leaning into his view "What happened?"
"..." Kakashi smiled and decided that they were going to find out regardless. "Our C-rank mission became an A-rank and we fought and defeated Zabuza Momochi and some more men."
It was silent in the bar. Jonin gaped at him and Kakashi found himself enjoying it. Ibiki gestured for another drink in a practiced movement of his hand. The bartender put the chosen bottle down and poured a shot glass full. Ibiki took the bottle and pushed the shot glass to Kakashi.
Kakashi cleared his throat, downed the shot, felt his throat and empty stomach burn and then started to tell his wonderful tale about the Naruto Bridge.