Chapter 38

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Ayaanmalik: Well I certainly don't have any intention of quitting this half way through, no need to worry on that front. And as for whom the 'main character' it tends to shift from chapter to chapter, arc to arc. I'm trying to keep a balance so it's not too much OC and not too little OC. So there'll be stints where Tri takes a step into the background to allow me to develop another's story/ character.

DragonBall Shin: I do have a Narrative Framework of how the main story will unfold, that goes all the way to the end of Shippuden. But the smaller narrative elements I usually add at a later date, sometimes whilst writing the chapter they're introduced in.

Guest: I'm glad to. XD

To Nami no Kuni

-(*)-

"Do you understand the orders given to you?"
"Hai, Hokage-sama," was the succinct reply. "Repeat them back to me," the Yondaime ordered. And the sole ANBU before him did just that, repeating almost word for word what Minato had dispensed to them just moments earlier.

"Excellent. Now, I trust you can remain professional throughout this? I know you've been waiting for this for years, but you represent far more than just yourself. You represent Konoha and the Jūnishi as well. Furthermore, you won't be the only Konoha Shinobi in Nami no Kuni."

The mask-clad ANBU tilted their head to the side, "Hokage-sama?" they asked curiously. "Hatake Kakashi and Genin Team 7 are already on the island conducting a C-Rank mission. But the situation has developed since then."
"How so, Hokage-sama?"

"I received a carrier bird from Team 7 in the early hours of this morning. Team 7 has requested reinforcements after running into several Kirigakure missing-nin, including Momochi Zabuza."
"The Kirigakure no Kijin (Demon of the hidden mist) himself? Does this mean I have supplementary orders, Hokage-sama?"

"It does not, although if you're able to keep an eye on them; do so. A reinforcing group has already been dispatched."

"Might I inquire as to whom?"
"You may, Raven. One of Tsunade-hime's newest medic squads led by Haruno Sakura was on a botanical survey mission in Hi no Kuni's eastern regions. I have reassigned them to support Team 7 until their mission is completed.

"My level of anonymity?"
"You already know your mission rank, you may not directly disclose the specifics of your mission but you may do so indirectly, Kakashi-kun will understand. You may reveal your identity to Kakashi-kun and Sakura-san by choice, the rest only if you feel you need to," Minato explained.

"I understand, Hokage-sama. Will that be all?"
"Yes, that's everything," Minato answered walking around his desk. He placed a hand on the ANBU's shoulder, "Please be careful. I would prefer to send another with you but only three individuals are cleared for this mission. And Naruto-kun is needed here as the Iwa delegation are due to arrive tomorrow and Weasel is already out on a mission."

"It is of no concern, Hokage-sama." Minato's hand dropped from his shoulder, "Very well. ANBU Raven, you may begin your mission."
"Hai."

The ANBU was gone the moment he's finished speaking. Turning to look out the window as another morning arrived in Konoha, Minato breathed out a small sigh, 'Where is Team Ro? They're now a day overdue.'

-(*)-

That mission brief was this morning, it was now late afternoon, soon to be early evening. Raven had shot across central and eastern Hi no Kuni, he'd reach the coast or get very close before nightfall and cross to the island the following morning. He'd been travelling north of 300% the speed of a standard ANBU squad.

It was perhaps a little excessive, but he felt it necessary. After all, this was Momochi Zabuza who had tried to kill his younger sibling, it wasn't every day a Genin faced up against someone of that calibre, even less survived to tell of it.

Zabuza was another of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū (Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist). Should his identity be revealed, it was possible Zabuza might know him, which could prove interesting. Perhaps he'd get the opportunity to take his sword tally to two?

He estimated Sakura wouldn't arrive until tomorrow either, despite her being much closer, she would have to wait until the carrier bird reached her before she'd know of her reassignment.

The coast wasn't far now, the faintest traces of the nearby ocean was beginning to reach his nostrils. There were no hills or natural obstacles stopping the ocean breeze from blowing inland.

Despite the proximity to Nami no Kuni, this part of Hi no Kuni was almost completely devoid of human habitation. There were no towns, no villages, not even remote farms. Other than the odd hunter or logger path, the land was untouched.

'I may want to stop before long, it'll be dark soon.'

It was another fifteen minutes before Raven decided to call it for the day, he'd come across a small dirt path that meandered through the endless trees. The ANBU, despite it being several miles inland, presumed it to be a coastal trail that led to a dock of some sort, how else would people and goods go to and return from the island?

'This spot looks as good as any,' he thought as he found a flat piece of ground beneath a large oak tree, just a single smooth surfaced rock was present to break up the sea of grass, it didn't look too uncomfortable to sit on. He withdrew a few of the things from his storage seals he needed to set up camp for the night when he heard it.

A voice. No, two voices, they sounded faint, muffled, as if they'd been gagged. He quietly stalked around for a few minutes, it didn't take him long to find them.

Two individuals, both clad in grey camouflage Shinobi clothing, rebreather masks covered their faces, one had a large clawed gauntlet on his right hand, the other on the left. Around both their foreheads was the Hitai-ate of Kirigakure.

Strangely they were both tied to a tree, strong ninja wire was wrapped around their midriffs, their hands bound together. They looked a little beat up, their clothing featured a few scuff marks and small rips.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Oni Kyōdai (Demon Brothers), Gōzu and Meizu. What could possibly bring two middle of the pack Kiri missing-nin to the back end of nowhere in Hi no Kuni?"

He managed to startle the twin brothers, neither had noticed his presence until he'd spoken. They turned their heads to face him, much of the colour drained from their faces as they realised a Konoha ANBU was standing in front of them.

The remaining colour drained entirely as he removed his mask. They recognised him, it didn't matter that they did, they wouldn't live long enough to tell anyone. Both had bounties that could be claimed after all.

-(*)-

The Following Morning

Besides Team 7 and the oncoming ANBU, there was another pair of Konoha Shinobi either on or heading to Nami no Kuni. They'd wasted an hour this morning trying to find someone who'd take them across to the island, but for a reason that was unknown to them, the rates were extortionate. Eventually they'd given up and simply walked across the ocean.

And now they were passing through the outer limits of the largest town on the island. Clad in the flak jackets that identified them as Chūnin, they also wore around their right arm a white band of cotton, a red cross sown on top, this was the marker denoting them as Medical personnel.

Twenty-four hours earlier they'd been in the midst of surveying the eastern regions of Hi no Kuni for its botanical potential. No one had ever undertaken such a survey before and the hospital in Konoha wanted to know what plants were where and in what quantities. It didn't matter whether it aided a cold or coagulated blood, Tsunade wanted to know.

The surveys were being conducted all over Konoha. Turns out Hi no Kuni is rather rich in a variety of useful plants and with them now catalogued they could be cultivated and put to use.

But for now, they'd had to put that aside, which was slightly frustrating but what can you do, they'd been given direct orders from the Hokage himself to reinforce Genin Team 7 in the nearby Nami no Kuni. Also annoyingly, the orders they'd been given were bizarrely lacking in details, it did mention they'd find out more upon arrival but Sakura liked to know these details in advance. No Shinobi liked surprises on missions.

"Do you know where we're going exactly?" her colleague, a fellow Chūnin called Kusuri [1] asked. She'd joined Tsunade's medical class at the same time as Sakura and over the months that followed they'd become friends.

"Sort of, I was given a description on the house we're looking for in our reassignment orders. We're looking for a house on the southern outskirts of the town, it's built on top a small hill overlooking the sea."
"Anything else?" Kusuri asked, it was hardly the greatest description.

"Well… It also said there was a grove of trees about fifty feet from the house but…"
"That's no help…" Kusuri grumbled. "Why do you think I didn't mention it," Sakura grinned back.

Kusuri and Sakura were similar in many respects. They both came from clan less Shinobi families, Kusuri's father was a Chūnin like Sakura's, while her mother was a Jōnin. They were both promoted to Chūnin at the same time, although Kusuri was two years older.

"How about that one? Fits the description," the brown-haired young woman said pointing at a house. Sure enough, it was atop a small hill and overlooked a calm sea. "Looks the part, let's give it a try," Sakura suggested as she led them both up to the door, raising her hand she knocked.

As she rapped her knuckles against the door she heard the sounds of a conversation cut off. She heard what sounded like several bodies scrambling around, the sound of wooden chairs moving across wooden floors.

The door opened, but all of about three inches. Sakura could see a thin metal chain attached to the door and doorframe, 'A nervous bunch it seems.'

"Can I help you?" a feminine voice asked.

"Morning Ma'am, Konoha Shinobi here to reinforce Team 7 at the request of Jōnin Hatake Kakashi," Sakura neutrally, but calmly stated. Standard protocol dictated she not name herself.

As for the woman, she looked nervous, her eyes wouldn't meet hers. Then she vanished, it was followed by hushed whispers for a few seconds, then she reappeared. "As part of your reassignment orders you received a code. What is the code?" Sakura could tell the woman was trying to hold her nerve, her voice sounded frayed.

"9-9-9-10-1-7," [2] Sakura clearly spoke. The woman turned away, presumably to look at someone else. A moment later the door shut, the latch holding the chain in was removed and the door opened properly this time.

They were both quickly hurried inside and the door shut behind them. 'Somethings got them spooked,' Sakura noted as she was finally able to get a good look at the woman she'd been talking to. She had long blue hair that fell down either side of her face. Her outfit consisted of a pink shirt featuring red sleeve ends and a red collar with a long blue skirt.

Next to her was a young teenage girl in Shinobi clothing, a Konoha Hitai-ate wrapped around her arm. Kusuri saw the mark of Konoha too, "Yep, definitely the right house," she said.

"Your names?" the girl asked as the blue-haired woman refastened the metal chain. "Haruno Sakura, Chūnin CMC."
"Kusuri, Chūnin CML." The girl nodded in greeting to them both before replying in kind, "Nara Meshikamaru, Genin, Team 7. And this is Tsunami-san who has very kindly offered us the hospitality of her home."
"Tsunami-san," they both greeted her, she gave them a wave and a weak smile in return.

"Anyway, as things stand you're in charge Haruno-san," Meshikamaru said.

"Why? Where's your Jōnin sensei?"
"Upstairs in bed, currently unconscious."
"How?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow. "Chakra exhaustion," Meshikamaru answered.

"Kusuri," Sakura started to say but they'd both had the same idea. "I'm on it. Tsunami-san, might I ask you to take me to him." The woman nodded and bid Kusuri follow her upstairs.

"How you all holding up?" Sakura asked the weary-looking Nara. She looked exhausted, physically and mentally, her skin was a little pasty and the bags under her eyes were prominent. She let out a big sigh, "We're all ok. Fighting for your life is going to take some getting used to though."
"Yeah, that takes a while."

"I'm just glad you're here now. We arrived on the island and were attacked almost immediately, then sensei collapsed and it's been an anxious wait for someone to arrive, no idea if we were going to be attacked again or not," she blurted out.

Sakura put her hands on her young comrade's shoulders and gently pushed a little chakra into her. "Don't worry, we're here now so you can relax a little. It's not healthy being this highly strung, you're going to burn out of you aren't careful."
"I know, I know. It's-it's just I've been having to do everything and…"
"Whoa, whoa. What do you mean you've been doing everything? What have your teammates been doing this whole time?" Sakura quasi-demanded in a calm voice.

"Sitting around doing next to nothing," she bitterly replied. Sakura was deeply unimpressed. She knelt down on one knee bringing her eyes level with Meshikamaru's. "You've done splendidly. You're still just a Genin, you aren't supposed to be worrying over command structures and such. Yet look at what you've achieved despite that. "I presume it was you who sent the request for reinforcements?"

"Yeah," she quietly replied. "But my teammates weren't too happy with that. They said I was worrying too much."
"Well ignore them because they're wrong. With your commanding officer indisposed you stepped up and assumed command. You made the correct decision in requesting reinforcements," she tried to reassure her. It seemed to help as she gave her a weak smile. The chakra flow seemed to return a colour to her cheeks too.

"Now I'm going to go see to your sensei. Then we're all going to meet and the four of you are going to bring me and Kusuri-san up to speed. I'm going to chew your teammates out for making you do everything at some point by the sounds of it too. But before all that, you need a nap, ok?" Meshikamaru wearily nodded. She gave her a little push to get her moving.

Sakura waited a few seconds before following her. She was taking the first steps in memorising the house layout. She was about to take the first step up the stairs when Tsunami began to descend them.

Sakura stepped back allowing the older woman to pass her. "Thank you Sakura-san."
"No problem," she smiled. "Where am I heading?"

"End of the corridor, the door on the left." Sakura quickly thanked her before walking up the thirteen steps to the upper floor, again memorising the layout. The locations of doors, positioning and size of windows, length and width of corridors. All that knowledge could be used to defend a structure.

She spotted a door slightly ajar, a small face staring at her. As soon as they realised Sakura had noticed them they quickly shut the door. Sakura shrugged her shoulders and continued down the hall.

Kusuri, her hands glowing green while held over the unconscious Hatake Kakashi's chest, was focusing on bringing his chakra levels back up when she was joined by Sakura. "How is he?" she asked in a professional tone as she shut the door behind her.

"He's exhausted, chakra reserves at I'd guess about 5-10%. But other than a few cuts and bruises he's physically fine."
"Ok. Are you good to continue delivering chakra?"
"Yes," she replied without moving a muscle. "Good, I'll see to the cuts since they don't look tended to. Don't want him suddenly developing an infection."

Without another word, they set to work.

-(*)-

Back in Konoha

Naruto and his team waited patiently at Konoha's western gate. Their guests were technically a few minutes late but they could see them in the distance. Besides it was a long way from Iwagakure, only being a few minutes late was somewhat impressive.

It would be nice to see Kurotsuchi again, he hadn't seen her since their joint mission months earlier. And as much as Naruto enjoying talking with her over their communication scrolls, it wasn't the same as a face to face conversation.

"We taking them straight to the Hokage?" Shinsuke asked walking up next to him. "Yeah, after they've signed in at the check-in station," he replied. "Cool," Shinsuke said. Naruto turned his head a little to look at him, his voice had sounded a little off.

Shinsuke wasn't looking at him, he was instead looking, no, more peering down the road trying to see if he could make out any faces. Naruto couldn't help but smirk, ever since they'd completed the joint mission Shinsuke had been less… outspoken shall we say.

Less outspoken about one of his greatest interests – women. Quite simply, Shinsuke was a womanizer and a prolific one at that – or at least he had been. In recent months it had become rarer and rarer to see him with his arm around a pretty ladies waist. Naruto had assumed he was just growing out of it and otherwise not paid much attention. Now, however, it intrigued him greatly as Shinsuke continued trying to pick out faces in the approaching crowd.

He seemed to have spotted someone he knew because his face suddenly lit up in enthusiasm. Naruto turned to look at the approaching group of Iwa personnel. Kurotsuchi in the middle, next to her father, a few diplomats he recognised from previous exchanges, and a short Kunoichi that was familiar to him.

He wondered why she was familiar for a few moments before it came to him. This was the medic who'd tended to Shinsuke's injuries after their run-in with the Ishi nin.

Suddenly, Shinsuke's lack of interest in women, formerly not of importance or concern to him, was now of great interest. 'My, my, Shinsuke. Could it be you've developed a crush?'

This, the third diplomatic exchange was shaping up to be most fascinating indeed.

-(*)-

"And we're done," Sakura declared, wiping the sleeve of her top against her forehead, they may have only been small cuts but a great deal of concentration was still required.

Medical Ninjutsu revolved around encouraging the body's healthy cells to divide at a greatly accelerated rate. To do that literally shortened the patient's life, so great care was taken to ensure only cells around the injury divided. Sakura's work today likely shortened Kakashi's life by two to three minutes.

"Thank Kami for that," Kusuri tiredly groaned as she sat on the edge of the bed. It had taken them an hour to finish.

Kusuri definitely looked a little jaded which wasn't a surprise, transferring chakra was an energy-intensive affair. Not because it was difficult to achieve, moving chakra from one person to another was fairly simple. The problem was the patients chakra coils, they would only accept around 30% of the transferred chakra, the rest simply went to waste.

"Did you bring any energy bars with you?"
"Yeah," Kusuri answered, pulling herself to her feet she walked over to her backpack which she'd left against the far wall. "Do you want one?" she asked, taking out a bar for herself. "No thank you, the cuts were only mentally straining, I didn't need to use much chakra."

"Alright, I'm gonna go get some fresh air, it's a bit stuffy in here." She said between bites. "Ok, I'm gonna stay here and wait for him to wake up."

They both nodded to one another and Kusuri left. Sakura sat in the rooms only chair, but not before taking a book from her own backpack.

It was only about half an hour before the sole living member of the Hatake family began to stir. A few moments later his right eye opened. "Welcome back to the world of the living Kakashi-san," Sakura greeted him.

"Huh?" he slurred a little. He let his head fall to the left to see who'd spoken. He could make out a human-shaped figure but his vision was marginally blurred, he could see the light pink blob on their head.

"Sakura-san?" he guessed, blinking several times trying to get his eyesight to focus. Besides, he knew no one else with such hair. "Correct in one, Kakashi-san," she smirked closing the book in her hand. "How do you feel? You did a real number on yourself out there."

"Apart from a massive headache and feeling dead-tired, I'm alright, my Sharingan takes a huge amount of chakr… Wait, my team!?" he suddenly exclaimed, shooting up into a sitting position as the memories flooded back.

"Are absolutely fine," she reassured him, a firm hand on his shoulder pushing him back down against the pillow. Despite wearing a mask that covered almost his entire face, the relief was evident. "How long have I been out?"
"Not sure, I've only been here for about an hour. You'd have to ask your Genin."
"So you don't know what's happened either?"
"Nope," she said shaking her head.

"I take it you're here as reinforcements?"
"Correct."
"Just you?"
"No, me and my colleague Kusuri."
"So who's the ANBU in the corner?" Sakura spun on the spot, a kunai appearing from somewhere into her right hand as she fell into a defensive stance.

A low, warbled, faintly distorted chuckle came from the corner of the room as a disillusion Genjutsu faded away to reveal a masked figure leaning against the wall. "As observant as ever Kakashi," they commended, a vicious grin hidden behind the porcelain bird mask.

"Who are you?" Sakura demanded in a low hiss. "Sakura," Kakashi quietly barked, "Stand down, he's Konoha ANBU."
"You know them?" she asked, her eyes never shifting from the ANBU. "Yes, he's called Raven."
"Dog," they replied in greeting.

Kakashi sole visible eyebrow furrowed a little. "I left ANBU years ago," he tried. Raven simply shrugged, "And I'm only supposed to wear this mask on a part-time basis yet I never seem to take it off."

Not fully understanding their conversation Sakura tried to move it on. "How long have you been there?"
"No longer than you, I entered the house when you did."
"Why? What are you here for?"
"Classified," he brusquely replied. "But with conditions," he added.

"Conditions?" Kakashi said in surprise. "Why is that a surprise?" Sakura queried. "Classified missions with conditions are pretty rare. What are the conditions?"
"I'm permitted to reveal my identity to you both, and to the others if needed. Despite having my own assignment on Nami no Kuni, I'm to keep an eye on your assignment and if needed aid in its completion."

As he finished speaking his lifted a hand to the Raven mask and he removed it. His mask had specially made one-way colour filters that allowed him to see out without issue but prevented colours being seen when looking in. Everyone only saw black eyes, which was necessary as black/ green and black/ red eyes made it incredibly easy to identify him.

"Tri-kun?" Sakura lowly said in surprise, the kunai in her hand completely forgotten. "Hello to you too, Sakura-chan. Fancy losing the kunai before the hugging, I'd prefer not to get stabbed," he grinned, the sharp end was aimed straight at him.

With a small look of embarrassment she put in back in her hip pouch. "Sorry," she quietly apologised. "Don't worry about it, you're only being cautious" he said stepping forward, lifting her off the ground in a big hug.

"So it's only me and Kakashi who know you're here?" she asked hugging him back. "Yes, and I'll be maintaining that for the time being. I don't want to give Tsunami-san and her family a fright, they look jumpy enough right now. But I – we need information, so I need you two to go gather everyone and have them run you through everything that's happened."

Sakura helped Kakashi out of bed, his legs still a little wobbly, as he propped himself up against a chester drawer she handed him a rudimentary crutch. "Until your balance is back," she explained. He nodded as Tri placed his mask back over his face. "I'll drop by from time to time but for the most part I'll be scouring the island, until then – ta, ta." The Genjutsu was reapplied and Tri, as if a mirage, faded from sight.

"Kakashi, how did you see him?"
"Thanks to my Sharingan, I've learnt to spot many of the subtle signs around Genjutsu."
"Hmm, I'll have to see if I can learn some of them. I had no idea he was there."
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, you're not supposed to know they're there."
"I guess. Let's go round up your Genin."

A few minutes of hustling later, all the Shinobi, including a hidden Tri, were present and awake in the front room of Tsunami's house. The woman herself and her father, the mission client, were also present. The face Sakura had seen behind the door earlier, however, was not.

"Ok gang…" Kakashi started. "Who the hell are these two?" Sasuke immediately interrupted. "Well Sasuke, if you'd allow me to introduce them, you'll find out," he replied with one of his trademark eye smiles as Meshikamaru gave the young Uchiha a scowl for his rudeness.

"This is – Actually, why don't you introduce yourselves."
"Haruno Sakura, Chūnin CMC."
"Kusuri, Chūnin CML."

"CMC? CML?" Rezano said to himself. "They're new ranks assigned to graduated Combat Medics, CMC stands for Combat Medic Captain and CML stands for Combat Medic Lieutenant," the young Nara explained, to which Sasuke immediately snorted.

"Oh, great going. Not only did you call for back-up when I told you it was unnecessary but you managed to screw that up and got a pair of glorified doctors instead."

"Combat Medics, not Doctors, Baka!" Meshikamaru fired back, "It's in the name, they're trained to fight and heal. If you'd pull your head out of your ass once in a while, you might have already known that!"

Tsunami and her father Tazuna looked at one another in worry, that's when Sakura stepped in. "Genin Uchiha, Genin Nara. You will cease and fucking desist!" she snarled, allowing a brief blast of killing intent to permeate the room. A calming hand on Tsunami and Tazuna's shoulders from Kakashi stopped them from recoiling in fear.

Both Genin froze, they immediately sat up straight in recognition of a voice of authority. "You," she said to Meshikamaru, "are in the right, so don't rise to his petulance."

"As for you," she coldly barked at Sasuke, "You will hold your fucking tongue or I'll relieve you of it. My presence means I'm the second highest ranking Shinobi here, so you will do as your fucking ordered."

"Yeah right, an Uchiha won't take orders from a glorified doctor," he sneered, finding some of his bravado again. The killing intent returned, this time far stronger.

The look she gave him would have held a charging Rhino. "You, Genin, will obey all orders given to you by your superior officer. You don't comply and I'll be forced to exact the punishment for insubordination." The colour drained from Sasuke's face immediately.

"Punishment?" Tsunami asked no one in particular. Kakashi who was stood next to her and her father filled her in, "The penalty for Insubordination is death." Both gave him a look of horror. "You wouldn't," Tsunami said. "We're a militaristic society, actions have consequences."
"But he's still just a child."
"Not in Konoha he isn't, the moment he was awarded the Hitai-ate around his forehead he was emancipated and declared an adult."

Tri, again in the corner of the room sported a wide grin, He was loving watching Sakura chew out Sasuke. Her words were cold, savage and displayed a necessary trait, leadership. Tri wondered whether it might be nearing the time she be recommended for the Jōnin trials.

"Well then, now that that's dealt with, I think it's time you three brought us up to speed on just what's happened since I collapsed," Kakashi mediated, bringing them all back on topic.

And they did just that, although 'they' meant Meshikamaru did all the talking with Rezano occasionally adding a sentence or two, Sasuke said nothing. To Sakura, it was just another example of the two boys pushing all the responsibility onto Meshikamaru. The pink-haired Kunoichi wasn't in doubt over who she thought would be promoted first from Team 7.

It took her nearly twenty minutes to go through everything. For Sakura and Kusuri's sake she started with their encounter with the Demon Brothers before moving onto the white-furred rabbit and the resulting encounter with Zabuza. Their fight with the missing-nin, the sudden arrival of the Kiri hunter-nin and how they killed Zabuza with a sole senbon to the neck. Something which immediately made Tri growl.

Thankfully, Sakura realised too. "Meshikamaru, you said Zabuza got dropped by just a single senbon, yes?"
"Hai, Sakura-san," she replied with a curt nod. "Could you show me exactly where the senbon hit him." With another nod she raised a finger and placed it against the side of her neck, "Around here," she identified.

Walking over to the girl she carefully ran her fingers across Meshikamaru's neck, it lined up exactly where the nerve would be. "Yeah, I feared it might be something like that."

"What are you thinking?" Kusuri inquired. "Meshikamaru's finger lines up exactly where the Great Auricular nerve is."
"Ah," Kusuri mumbled. "For the rest of us please, Sakura," Kakashi said. "I don't think Zabuza's dead," she declared. Her declaration was followed by absolute silence.

"Hit that nerve just right and you'll drop someone instantly, their nervous system temporarily goes into shutdown and their hear-rate plummets. It does a brilliant job of mimicking death."
"But if you don't begin to reawaken the nervous system shortly after you risk causing substantial brain and nerve damage," Kusuri added.

"How long?" Kakashi asked. The two Medics looked at one another, "Half an hour, max," Kusuri replied. Kakashi sighed, "So he must still be on the island."

"So Zabuza could be back on his feet already?" Rezano said in worry. "No," Kusuri said shaking her head. "It takes time to fully reawaken the nervous system after something like this. If he's conscious right now, he'll feel awful, far worse than you currently do Kakashi. I'd estimate a week before he's fit enough to fight again."
"I concur," Sakura said in agreement.

"So that leaves us five days. Five days from tomorrow at least to train you three as much as possible," Kakashi said to his three Genin. "And this time the fight will be on our terms. Remember, he has to come to us."

-(*)-

Elsewhere on Nami no Kuni

"Knock, knock," a persistently annoying, grating voice said before swinging the door open and barging in. The rooms two occupants didn't react in any discernible manner, a teenage girl continued with her tasks. While the second, an adult male laid out on the bed just groaned in resignation at being subjected to the little weasel he, begrudgingly, called an employer – for now.

The short man cackled, "Look at the state of you Zabuza, sure did a number on you didn't they."
"The fuck do you want, Gatō?"
"Hey now, Zabuza. Is that any way to talk to your employer. I'm starting to think you don't like me.

"Anyway, the reason for my visit. Why is the bridge-builder still alive?"
"Because it's not every day you run into Hatake fucking Kakashi on an insignificant island at the ass end of nowhere," he deeply grumbled. "Are you saying you can't get the job done?"
"Did I say anything of the sort?" Zabuza retorted fixing the short man with a dangerous glare. "Then do it then. You realise you don't get paid until that old man gets dead."
"I am aware."

"Good. Now, since I'm not a man known for his patience, I've decided to hire some additional muscle just to make sure since the Dumbass Brothers or whatever the fuck they were called failed so miserably. Apparently you two know each other so I'll just leave you both to get… reacquainted."

Gatō was joined by a woman Zabuza hadn't seen in years, and even then, that still wasn't long enough. With her arrival, Gatō left.

She was of average height, although short compared to other members of the Seven. Her long red hair was still partially covered in a cloth of the same colour. It was also still tied in that same manner he remembered on either side of her head giving her a bird-like appearance. Her Hitai-ate wrapped around her forehead, a pair of black eyes beneath the metal embossed with the symbol of Kirigakure.

Her outfit was still the same. A loose, pin-striped shirt with arm length sleeves, a dark Obi wrapped around her waist. Her black pants were also loose fitting, particularly at the ends of the leg.

"Thought you were dead," Zabuza bluntly said, "Some disease I heard."
"So they say, Zabuza," she lightly chuckled. "And for most of my illness it seemed inevitable that I would eventually, as you put it – die. But it was not to be, I don't know how, but one day I awoke and I was cured. I've embraced this second lease on life ever since.

"Now, who is this old man bridge-builder you've had so much trouble trying to kill. I'm overdue a meal," she asked him, her lips curving upwards to reveal her sharpened teeth.

End Chapter

[1] – Kusuri is Japanese for Medicine

[2] – Brownie points if you can figure out what the code relates to.