AN: Short chapter today, I know. But to be fair, I really hate this arc. It's overdone and slow and blah blah blah. That I'm working on college things as spring break has just ended. Anyway, thank you guys for all the comments and kudos. You guys are awesome! EDIT: Beta'd as of 7/29/18
They had been walking for near on three hours before the Demon Brothers from Kiri decided to show up. And, just like last time, they attacked Kakashi-sensei first, using their chains to rip him apart before going after Tazuna. Unlike last time however, they were ready for it.
"Sasuke, now!" Naruto shouted, tossing the boy a length of ninja wire. He caught it and the pair ran forward, wire stretched taut between them. Sakura meanwhile bolted toward Tazuna and took up a defensive stance in front of him, kunai in hand and ready.
The brothers noticed and jumped back to avoid being clotheslined, just the way they had planned it. Dropping the ninja wire, Naruto summoned ten clones and shot towards one of the brothers while Sasuke headed for the other. Their hope was to distract them by forcing them away from each other, thereby stretching their chain out until they went too far and tripped themselves.
Naruto pushed his opponent back into the tree line with a flurry of kicks and punches. But instead of jumping back, he detached and shot his clawed gauntlet straight towards Naruto. The boy leapt to the side-
Only for the gauntlet to swing back around, ensnaring him in the cable.
Fuck!
The demon brother started to reel in the gauntlet, and unfortunately that meant he came with it. He squirmed to try to get out of it, but his arms were stuck.
"Damn it!" He shouted.
"Naruto, duck!"
Naruto didn't even hear who had said it, but using his legs, he pushed against the tree in front of him, performing a semi-successful backflip that ended with him on the ground while a volley of shuriken and kunai sailed above him.
A dull thunk followed. Something toppled over. Then silence.
Naruto took that moment of silence to catch his breath, all the air having been knocked out of him from his ungraceful landing. "Ow," he groaned.
Turning his head to see where the Kiri ninja was, he looked in the direction he presumed he'd landed. In his place he saw a blood-soaked body covered in kunai and shuriken. It wasn't moving.
"Naruto!" Someone was running up to him and grabbing his shoulders, helping to sit him upright. Looking up he saw Kakashi-sensei's worried face. Immediately his sensei started to untangle the cable from the gauntlet, all the while appearing to look him over for injuries.
"I'm fine, sensei," he said, shrugging off the cables once they were sufficiently loosened. Kakashi-sensei made no move to show he'd heard.
"Those were chunin from Kiri," he said instead. "The Demons Brothers, known for their use of poison."
"Well I didn't get cut or anything," he told him. "See?" He held up his hands for emphasis. Kakashi-sensei gave him an unimpressed look for his troubles. Naruto huffed in annoyance before scrambling to his feet, Kakashi-sensei lending a hand to help him.
"Sensei!" He heard Sakura call to them. He looked over to see her rushing toward the tree-line, med-kit out and ready. "Is Naruto hurt?"
"No, we're fine here, Sakura," their sensei said, waving her off. Her shoulders slumped in relief before she turned back to someone else, presumably Sasuke. When Naruto and Kakashi-sensei made it back to the road, Naruto was surprised to see just how gory it was.
This brother's body wasn't as mutilated by weapons as the other's, but it was still gruesome.
"Your first kill, Sasuke," his sensei hummed from his side. "I'm impressed."
Well, Naruto grimaced. From a certain point of view.
"They were after the client," Sasuke said simply, not even phased by his first apparent murder.
"Well, good job." He nodded to the boy before turning to the bridge builder. "Now, Tazuna," he said, voice turning cold. "We should talk."
Somehow, by some miracle. They convinced Kakashi-sensei to let them complete the mission. And Naruto didn't even have to stab his hand to do it. Their sensei was much more reluctant to agree because he'd had to save Naruto from being gutted by one of the Demon Brothers. Naruto disagreed on that front, insisting he would have been fine.
The side eye spoke enough words to shut down any argument.
Either way, they had still gotten him to agree, and were now on their way to the Land of Waves.
Once they'd exited the boat that had taken them there, every member of team 7 was on high alert. They had won one battle yes, but there was still one more to go before they arrived in Tazuna village. The one with Zabuza. Yet despite knowing he would attack them somewhere between the boat and village, none of them could remember exactly where. And it was putting them all on edge.
Walking at the front of the party, Naruto was palming a kunai nervously while Sakura hung back behind Tazuna in case any projectiles came his way. Sasuke had taken point and was having a hard time not activating his sharingan. He ached for his blade, the one he'd gotten from Orochimaru, so as to feel some semblance of reassurance. But as it was, he didn't have it yet, so he had to settle for kunai like the rest of them.
"Awfully quiet, you three," Kakashi noted from the side.
"Just focusing, sensei," Sakura replied tersely. And that was the end of that conversation.
They walked for a little while longer, nerves growing with each step. They were so high strung that even the rustle of bushes could have set them off – which was exactly what happened.
Naruto reacted first and threw his kunai, where it hit its target with a sickening thunk.
After a moment's thought, Naruto realized that couldn't have been Zabuza. Upon investigation, he found he was right.
"Aw man," he sighed, pulling the now dead rabbit out of the underbrush. It was a snow hare, winter coat still on despite it being spring. He vaguely remembered scaring a rabbit last time. But he hadn't killed it. Just went to show how much his aim had improved over the years.
"Jeez," Sakura sighed, clutching her chest. "That scared the shit out of me."
Naruto opened his mouth to apologize, but was cut off by Kakashi-sensei's sudden cry.
"GET DOWN!" he shouted.
Acting out of reflex, Naruto threw himself onto the ground, watching Sakura tackle Tazuna and Kakashi-sensei do the same to Sasuke. Not a second later a giant sword came spinning over their heads, lodging itself squarely in a tree behind Naruto. It would have surely decapitated all of them had they remained standing.
But that wasn't the thought going threw Naruto's head.
Zabuza, was all he thought.
The fight with Zabuza had gone much the same as it had last time. Chakra exhausted sensei included. It had been frustrating being forced to the sidelines again, save for the fūma shuriken move. Even though they all knew Kakashi-sensei would win, it was infuriating not being able to help. They had the skills. They had the knowledge. But it was useless when they couldn't do anything with them. It made them all feel useless.
The whole team had been uncharacteristically quiet for the remainder of the journey to Tazuna's house. But no one had made a comment of it. Tazuna might have assumed it was all due to the very traumatizing event that had just occurred. But the rest knew they each were all caught up in their own, frustrated thoughts.
They had been forced to stay out of the battle this time. What if the same happened next battle? They couldn't accept being forced to sit back when they knew they could change things. They had agreed that they shouldn't mess with the Zabuza battle much before they'd left. The world didn't see them yet as the incredible powerhouses they were. And as such they had to play the part. They had known that. But that had been before. Before they had felt it. The powerlessness, the helplessness, the frustration. They'd known that was how it was going to be.
But there's a difference between knowing, and knowing.
And it made all of them feel frustrated beyond compare. Because how could they change anything when they had to be stupid helpless genin? How?
"Here we are."
Tazuna's voice broke them out of their reverie and back into the present. They found themselves standing in front of a quaint wooden house set into a pier. Water lapped at the posts holding it up below them, the salty smell of the sea shifting calmly around them.
"It's not much to what you guys are used to, I suppose," the bridge builder continued, stroking his goatee thoughtfully. "But it's home – and where the four of you will be staying until I get the bridge built."
"It's perfect," Sakura supplied, speaking up for the first time since the battle. She offered him a kind smile. It was weak, slightly strained, but obviously sincere. "Thank you, Tazuna."
The architect smiled back. "'Course. Now let's get your teacher set up inside before you drop him."
And that was that.
AN: check out my AO3version for this chapters art!
