Underlined - English

'Italicised' - thoughts

It was on the seventh day after Team 7 had arrived in Wave that Gato ordered the strike on the bridge.

Unfortunately for the drug tycoon, however, Zabuza and Haku's assault on Team 7 was a front - as both former Mist Nin had carefully spent the week carefully planning for the perfect opportunity to kill Gato: for the prideful and diminutive man never could sit backseat. After all, killing a man - however powerful - is far easier in the open.

Had Noa been there to witness the fight, she would've marveled at how very similar yet completely different the fight she vaguely remembered from her first life was to what took place that day. The morning of the seventh day saw Sasuke unlock his Sharingan - in order to save Naruto ( although this time not from his own rash stupidity). And when Sasuke fell to Haku's precisely aimed senbon, Naruto released a wave of Kurama's chakra so potent and pure that even Kakashi was knocked back by the force of it.

One - or perhaps two - striking differences however, were the fates of Haku and Zabuza.

Noa would later speculate to herself on what exactly saved Haku from throwing himself in front of Kakashi's Chidori. Perhaps it was because his fight against Naruto and Sasuke was more challenging in this time, or maybe it was because Gato's betrayal had brought to light the importance of Zabuza having someone to watch his back. Regardless, Haku did not throw himself in the path of Kakashi's Chidori.

However, without Haku there, the Copy-nin's jutsu aimed true - and that the sound of tearing flesh accompanied the call of a thousand birds that echoed across the bridge in the ominously quiet morning air.

Luckily, Zabuza was nothing if not resilient and the glancing - although deep - gouge across his ribs did little to stop him in the face of revenge. And so medical aid waited as he - and a newly allied Kakashi - decimated Gato's mercenary forces. Mere moments passed before Zabuza had - quite literally - retrieved Gato's head.

With their revenge carried out - Zabuza and Haku were quite passive. The Demon of the Mist even apologized quite amicably (although brashly) to Tazuna for trying for his life. After Tazuna gave an incredibly confused - and still wary - acception of his apology, the nukenin turned to the tense Sharingan Kakashi.

"The little brat - what's her name?"

Kakashi eyed him worriedly, glancing back to where Naruto was helping Haku gently remove the needles from his - blissfully alive - Uchiha of a student.

"Noa." Kakashi allowed, reluctantly. "No clan name."

Zabuza made a face that on anyone else would be an incredulously raised eyebrow - but on his hairless forehead was a bit ... odd. "Sure - I believe that. Tell Tsubasa Noa that she saved our asses - and that once we clean up the Bloody Mist, She's welcome to stop by anytime and start up the Tsubasa Clan in Kiri for us."

And with a final laugh at Kakashi's incredulous and disgusted expression and a quiet signal to his apprentice - the Kiri-nin were gone.

NOA

The third time I remember coming to consciousness - I'm somewhere different. Reaching out with my senses is useless, and through the fog in my brain I can't tell if the sting of antiseptic in my nose is real or not.

With entirely too much effort, I pry open my eyes and take in where I was. Blinking my eyes into focus I find that I'm in a hospital room - or at least medical facility. I catalog my injuries and find nothing out of place other than an IV leading to a rather alarmingly large bag above my bedside table.

I sit up painfully slowly, and feel a type of soreness I had never experienced before - like the feeling of sleeping in too long multiplied hundred-fold. I'm barely an inch above the standard issued mattress before a flare of pain races down my back - leaving me gasping.

I don't know how long it took me to be sitting upright against my headboard - possibly hours, possibly seconds - but it makes me silently curse Zabuza to the seven circles of hell up and down in Common and English alike. My processing speed is still painfully slow, and after putting a thorough amount of effort into it - I connect my IV to the fuzziness.

They fucking drugged me. Goddamn.

Without ceremony, I reach over and firmly grasp the line and -

There's a hand on my hand, prying my fingers away. A big hand - when did that hand get here?

"Easy there, Noa-chan. You're safe - we're back in Konoha."

I blink up at the face - or rather mask - of Kakashi-sensei, and even drugged I can see how worn he looks. I attempt to speak - to ask what happened, how I got here - but my vocal cords protest loudly and painfully, coughing and croaking with the best of them.

"Easy there, Noa-chan," Kakashi repeats, a touch of strained humor in his voice. "Those wind pipes haven't been used for a while - give 'em a break."

I nod and close my eyes - focusing on easing my breathing into a steady rhythm. As I open my eyes again, there's a glass of water held carefully near me. I reach out, and for what feels like the hundredth time Kakashi helps me drink.

Once the cup is drained and placed silently on the bedside table, Kakashi looks over his shoulder at the door. He turns back to me, the visible space between his eyes creased in worry, and grips my hand gently.

"Noa-chan. It's late right now, but you need a couple people to look at you now that you're awake. I'm going to go get them - okay?"

I feel confused - and I'm sure that it shows on my face - but I nod carefully and watch as Kakashi strolls out of the ward entirely too casual to be natural.

NARA SHIKAKU

The moment that Hatake chakra enters the waiting room, I feel Inoichi tense beside me. I turn from my frankly troublesome pile of jounin salary papers to see Hatake in a state of such extreme lazy casualness that it puts even the Nara to shame.

Kakashi was a tough man to read - it was a battle of opposition. Occasionally the elite jounin was straightforward - reactions natural and genuine- but most of the time the man was polar. The more interested he was, the less interested he looked. The more angry he was, the more casual he acted.

And the more worried he was, the lazier he acted.

"She's awake."

Even he voice - lazy and detached - was worried, in his own way.

I turn to Inoichi and Mesuji, the head medic of the hospital, and arch an eyebrow.

"Well then," I drawl, mimicking Kakashi's false tone. "We better go see her."

When the four of us plus the recently summoned Sandaime reach Noa's room, she was just on the edge of consciousness. I note the sizeable dosage of intravenous medication she was receiving and arc an eyebrow at Mesuji.

The severe woman merely narrows her eyes and cocks a shoulder. "She's an unknown."

I nod, once and sharply, before turning my attention back to my son's closest friend outside of his team. Her eyes are dilated, and she blinks slowly and often - attempting to regain focus with minimal results. She hasn't seemed to have noticed us, despite our relatively unmasked entrance. We all hang back as Mesuji approaches Noa carefully, eyeing the empty glass of water next to her.

"Good, she's drunk something." Mesuji comments absentmindedly, eyes scanning Noa's chart at the foot of her bed.

Noa doesn't respond to the medic's voice, and I can feel Kakashi's worry radiating off him in waves. He must be seriously preoccupied to let this much emotion show.

Inochi shifts, turning to the younger jounin, "She this out of it when you were here?"

It takes a second for Kakashi to respond, and when he does his voice is low and tight. "Yes. I walked in as she was sitting up, and she didn't seem to realize I was there until I kept her from ripping her IV out."

We all turn back to the matter at hand just as Mesuji carefully reaches out and takes Noa's wrist in her grip, running a diagnostic jutsu with a low flare of chakra. Noa is finally seemingly pulled out of her head, and she blinks slowly up at the five of us - small and frail in her bed.

Her free hand twitches in a shallow mockery of a wave, and I approach the bedside across from Mesuji to grip it in my hand gently. I carefully watch her expressions as she slowly takes in Mesuji removing her IV (as well as she can in her heavily medicated state), then me, and then the three shinobi at the foot of her bed. Her eyebrows scrunch minutely, and I can practically see the little genin trying to work through why there would be so many important and powerful people in the hospital room of a no-name orphan - kunoichi or no.

I let her try and work it out - knowing that despite her status as a genius drugs can be a substantial handicap - and turn to signal to my teammate.

In an instant he is next to me, and in another our positions are reversed. Noa doesn't even register the change, and react only by shifting her gaze when Inochi places his hand on the side of her neck - chakra flaring.

Noa stiftens - eyes wide - and what little focus her eyes had is gone in an instant. She slumps - but Kakashi is there, swooping in and cradling her to his chest as he follows the Sandiame to the door.

I draw even with the jounin-sensei and reach over with two fingers, closing Noa's eyes gently.