Shattered Destiny:

Chapter 9: Land of Hot Water

I fall down, again. Satu-chan is doing little better and Zabuza is waiting for us at the top. Why is wall walking so hard? "You okay?" I ask, this is the third time we've fallen down. "Where did you learn to wall walk already?"

"Goro-sensei."

Goro… I let out a sigh. "Can you explain how it works?" Koi-sensei asks him.

"Yes Sensei." Zabuza hops down from the burned tree, next to us. "You put chakra into your feet." His feet start glowing. "And it glues your feet to the surface."

"Too much and you'll push yourself off." Sensei pipes up.

"I've had that happen a few times." Zabuza-san admits with a light chuckle.

"Don't we all." Sensei agrees as Zabuza takes a step up, completely perpendicular to the ground. He sticks his other foot to the wall.

"Is it just putting chakra into the feet?" I ask.

"Yes."

I put a foot onto the wall and try again, my chakra bar doesn't shift the slightest. "Hand signs help."

"Never needed them before." I argue, but still make a handsign. Why's this different from Flames, Sparks and Firebolt?

"In your academy files you hardly ever tried, correct?" Sensei asks.

"Yeah, nothing was working for me."

"But did you ever try?"

"I always try!"

"Really, really try?"

"No…"

"Keiki-kun." Sensei rests a hand on my shoulder. "Nothing in life comes without effort-"

"But I have these!" I raise my hands, sparking and flaming.

"You're not the first to instantly pick up select jutsu, you could have been a prodigy Keiki-kun." She doesn't look angry with me. "This isn't coming as naturally as your fire and lightning, but are you going to let that be your limit?"

"No!" It came out of my mouth faster than I could realize I was giving an answer.

"Try again." She steps back.

"I-I'm sure you can get it, Keiki-kun." Satu-chan says reassuringly.

I look up at Zabuza, he just looks down at me with an amused look. My scowl couldn't have been deeper. His amusement increases.

We didn't even get to stay the night, a sea otter came hopping into camp saying that there was an opening. We hurried sleepily onto the boat, Zabuza's taking the lack of sleep like a champ. "Don't worry, they'll get used to it." Sensei assures everyone as we get onto the boat with filled backpacks.

Once we're settled the boat is pushed out into the water with five ninja on board, Team Four and someone from the camp.

Satu-chan falls asleep the moment the boat's launched. Normally it wouldn't be that much of a bother if I weren't the pillow.

I'm sitting as straight as I can, sleep temporarily forgotten as my brain tries to figure out what to do.

Why is my teammate sleeping on my shoulder? I'm glad no one can see my face- I can hear snickers! I don't dare make a sound in case my voice cracks and they laugh at me more than they already are.

I can feel her breath on my neck, I'm as stiff as a board and as red as a tomato. "Don't you Funny dare say anything." I hiss to Zabuza, I know it's him laughing! He's sitting across from me.

"Funny?" Zabuza's voice is strained, holding back the laughter.

"I wish I had a camera, but we can't risk the flash giving us away." Sensei whispers in that gushing voice that girls have.

"Young love." The shinobi accompanying us snickers quietly, that's who's laughing!

"We're getting close to the shore, we need to be quiet now." Sensei whispers, getting suddenly serious. "If Satu-kun's not awake when we stop, you'll have to wake her Keiki-kun."

How am I supposed to do that!?

"Okay, this is as close as I dare take the boat." Our oarman says after five minutes of… almost torture, this should be illegal!

"S-satu-chan." I poke her cheek. "Satu-chan."

"Hmmm?" She asks while half asleep.

"It's time to get out."

"A few more minutes?" She shifts, her hair tickling me.

"Help."

"Can you water walk?" Sensei asks Zabuza-san.

"Of course, I had almost a year to learn." He says proudly.

"Great, can you help me get Keiki-kun and Satu-kun to shore?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Take her." I almost mouth the words.

"Quietly now." Sensei says as Zabuza takes the still sleeping Satu-chan, she shifts in his arms, but settles down again to sleep more.

Jeez what'll wake her?

Sensei picks me up and we get out of the boat. I'm used to boats, the back and forth motion they do as the tides rock it like a cradle. Being held by a human constantly correcting their rocking motion is nothing like that.

I'm not sick, but it feels so wrong! Thankfully it doesn't lt doesn't last very long as we reach the sandy shore and the strange shifting returns to a more familiar feeling.

Never thought I'd lose my sea legs. "Where to?" I ask sensei as I drop to my feet.

"North." Sensei says facing us north.

"What about Satu-chan?" Zabuza-san asks. "She won't wake up."

"I got this." Koi-sensei kneels by Zabuza and pulls something out, lights it on fire with a jutsu and holds it under our teammate's nose.

She wakes up after a few seconds. "Hmm?" She asks, taking in her surroundings with sleepy eyes. "ZA-"

Sensei clamps her mouth shut with a force. "Quiet!" She hisses. "We're in the Land of Fire now."

Satu-chan nods nervously and mumbles something under the hand. Zabuza sets down a red faced Satu-chan, who hides behind her scarf.

"We can tease each other later." Please no. "But for now we have to hurry." Sensei ushers us forward. "We can rest once we're in hiding, Land of Fire's definitely full of hiding places."

You would never think by name alone that the Land of Fire was a forest, I was expecting it to be a wasteland full of volcanos, but it's quite lively with lots of animals.

A group of sea otters are sleeping on some rocks by the coast, they're paying us no mind. Are they part of the sea otter clan or are they regular otters?

Are they both?

I took the first guard, I was still wound up from the boat ride. I settle down and a large eye appears in my vision with 'Hidden' underneath it.

Tip(Stealth): Whenever you enter stealth the stealth indicator will appear in one of three stages: Hidden, Searching, Discovered. The stealth indicator will change to reflect these three stages. Note: companions don't count towards discovery.

All three stages appear side by side, the eye on the left is closed, the center one is slightly open and the right one is completely open. Two of them vanish, leaving just the Hidden eye.

Sneak is a skill, can I train it with my team sleeping right here? I wait a while in stealth, but there's no skill up notification. Maybe I have to be hiding from my friends?

Still nothing, this is boring! With a sigh I glance around, how is anyone supposed to see anything in this foliage?

I don't dare go off into the forest, Sensei showed us how to set up traps and… I already forgot where they were.

How much time is it until Zabuza's shift? I look up at the only break in the canopy, the moon. My shift is almost over? Did she say three or four hours?

"You can go to sleep now." Zabuza's voice makes me jump a foot.

"Did I wake you?" I ask slightly embarrassed.

"Yes and no." Zabuza says after a moment. "You need to work on being quiet."

So I did wake him. "Sorry."

"Get some sleep, I'm the only one of us genin with actual training… didn't you learn anything in the academy?"

"I was accelerated two years without ever being told."

"No kidding?"

"Yeah, a first year cleared the exams." I wonder if Satu-chan is the same, we seem to be equally inexperienced.

"You'll get the hang of it." Zabuza-san says confidently.

"What if I don't?"

"Then you'll die." he answers matter of fact.

Our conversation died after that. I got into my sleeping bag and immediately my exhaustion takes over, dropping me into blissful sleep.

We made it past the border of Hot Water pretty quickly, I wouldn't have noticed if Sensei didn't say anything.

One piece of woodland looks like another piece of woodland.

We were also made to hide our ninja equipment, it's easy to hear the paranoia in sensei's voice.

Needless to say that I'm a little on edge. Sensei slows down to ruffle my hair. "Don't look now, but we're being followed, don't look!" She whispers to us fiercely.

"W-what do we do?" Satu-chan asks, trying not to look around frantically.

"Nothing, if they let us go then we'll have nothing to worry about."

"What if they stop us?"

"We're on a camping trip and decided to take a walk by the coast."

Even I can tell how shady that excuse is, and I'm nine!

Sensei walks ahead. "Gotta love that ocean breeze!" Sensei exclaims.

"It feels nice!" I pipe in, I can do normal… I think?

"Will we see any seagulls?" Satu-chan wonders.

"Maybe?" I bite down on my distaste of those flying rats. They're far more common than sea otters, and they steal a lot more.

We keep up the idle chat, pretending to be normal. All except for Zabuza, he's keeping deathly silent.

"What brings out a group like yourselves this close to the border?" Without warning a shinobi appears in the trees, his team is nearby… most likely.

"Camping trip, We're going to see the redwoods in Fire." Sensei answers without missing a beat.

"Going the wrong way for that." The shinobi tells us. "Fire's that way, and that way." He points west, and past us.

"That can't be right." Sensei reaches into her pack and retrieves the map. "Are you sure?" She asks, he nods. "We can't have been turned around." Sensei buries her nose in the map. "Where's the shoreline." She thinks aloud. "To our… right?"

"Did we get turned around?" I say unbelievingly, mostly at how quickly Sensei is coming up with this act.

"I-I told you w-we went in a circle." Satu-chan pipes up brilliantly.

"Should have listened." Sensei groans, smacking her forehead. "Well, we can still go west and-"

"I'm afraid that's not possible." The shinobi tells us.

"Why's that?"

He glances into the foliage, at his hidden teammates. "Bandits in the area." He comes up with on the spot. "You must go back home, where's that?"

"More bandits?" Sensei furrows her brows. "That's what we were told when we left Saku hana."

"Saku hana? You are quite a ways from home." He looks to the brush again.

"This is the third time we've been redirected." sensei nods. "It appears that we're surrounded by bandits… strange." Koi-sensei then rubs her chin in thought. "It's almost as if-"

"We'll take care of it, it's been dangerous lately so I must ask you to go back to Saku hana."

"Fine, sorry guys." Sensei turns around and gives us a disappointed face.

"We won't get to see the redwoods and their flowers you kept telling us about?" I tug on her sleeve.

"Not this time." She looks up at Satu-chan. "We might be able to see some seagulls on the way back."

"Yay!" my teammate perks up.

"We'll stick by the coast, Shinobi-san?" By the time Sensei looks up at the shinobi he's gone. "Step it up, the only thing worse than bandits is an angry shinobi." Sensei tells us urgently.

"Are you okay, Zabuza-san? You were awfully quiet." I ask him, he's sweating bullets.

"I-I'm fine." He says clearing his throat.

As she said we leave the cover of the trees to stick by the coast, going north west. "We're still being followed, g-kids."

"Will we have to fight?" Zabuza steps up and whispers into sensei's ear.

"It's a possibility." She shrugs. "Seagull!" She points out for Satu-chan.

"Seagull!" She sounds excited, but when it's compared to my 'Sea otter!' shout, it's not as enthusiastic.

We traveled for a short time, pretending to be normal. "They left us, we need to hurry." Sensei says increasing the pace of the group.

"Won't they be back?" I ask, looking up at sensei.

"Yes, and they won't be nearly as friendly." She lets out a deep breath. "I doubt we fooled them, they're most likely off to inform Yugakure of our presence… If we're not in Frost by the time they come back, in force next time, we won't stand a chance."

"I thought you said this was safe?" I ask her.

"Compared to keeping Lightning distracted, disrupting Fire's suppylines, or even looping around Tea to assault Wind? This is the safest mission available that we can take." Sensei snorts. "Keep up now, when we get the chance I'm teaching you three how to Body Flicker."

"What's that?"

"Teleportation."

Being able to teleport whenever I want? "Cool!" I exclaim, but not to loudly.

We travel unabated for a time at a forced jog. "Do you really like Seagulls?" I ask Satu-chan in a whisper.

"No, those flying rats keep trying to take my food." She tells me.

"What about sea otters?"

"They're adorable!"

We are now best friends for life. "I was out fishing with my papa and one hopped into our boat!"

"No way!"

"Yes way! We gave it some fish and it stayed with us until we returned to the village."

"Lucky!" The envy in her voice has me grinning.

"How much time do we have until they get to Yugakure?" Zabuza asks.

"We have a few hours, maybe." Sensei tells him.

"What was its fur color?" Satu-chan asks me.

"That doesn't sound like long." Zabuza says glumly.

"It was chocolate brown with some white in there." I tell the envious Inoichi.

Zabuza and Sensei are keeping an eye out while Satu-chan and I quietly gush about sea otters.

I let out a startled yelp as kunai hits the ground in front of me. "You four can go back to fire." The shinobi from earlier pops up. So much for a few hours.

Sensei draws a pair of kunai, I guess stealth is no longer an option. I pull out my kunai pouch and reveal my tonfa- where did Zabuza's sword come from?

Satu-chan pulls out a pair of kunai shakily. "Stay behind me, Satu-chan." I step in front of her.

"O-okay, Keiki-kun." She gulps.

Crit sustained. -20 health.

A kunai hits my neck, I let out a yelp and grab at it, dropping my Tonfa.

Perk added: Hearty 2: +50% health regeneration.

"Keiki!" Satu-chan screams.

"I'm fine!" I pull the kunai out tenderly, it went in deep.

"What are you?" Zabuza-san asks me with wide eyes.

"Alive." My health bar tells me that much.

"He should be dead." The shinobi up in the trees says pointing at me.

"We're full of surprises!" Sensei throws a kunai at him, it hits and he bursts into smoke leaving a log in his place. "Get to cover!" She tells us before promptly vanishing from sight.

"To the trees!' Zabuza tells us, I pick up my tonfa and the three of us make a run for it, more kunai and shuriken are thrown at us.

+10 block XP (15/200)

I deflect a kunai with my tonfa.

Crit sustained X2. -30 health.

But four others get through.

We dive into the foliage. "How are you still alive?" Zabuza asks, finally seeing where the kunai have hit.

One is lodged in my neck close to where the first one was, two are lodged in my side and the third one is sitting comfortably between ribs. "It's my Kekkei Genkai." I say, painfully extracting the blades from my flesh, whimpering in pain with each extraction.

The one in my ribs is stuck in there. "I-I have bandages." Satu-chan says pulling out a first aid kit from her pack.

"I'll live." I cough blood as I speak. Half of my health is gone in an instant, when we get back to kirigakure I'm investing in some armor. A tree nearby is demolished, falling close by. "I can't get this one out." I say pulling on the one in my chest with all my might.

Satu-chan tries pulling it out, but it just hurts more. She rotates the kunai, sending searing pain through my system before slipping it out. "I-I can't leave you like this."

"Incoming!" Zabuza ducks behind cover.

I drag Satu-chan behind me, moving out of the way of most of the projectiles.

-10 health.

Two shuriken are sticking out of my back. "Are you okay?" I still have some fight in me, not much but I can take enough kunai for my teammates.

"Can you move?" Zabuza asks me, pulling the shuriken out of my back.

"Yeah, it looks worse than it actually is." I grunt.

"T-thank you." Satu-chan thanks as I bleed on her. We move further into the foliage.

I stick my tonfa in my pack and draw some kunai. Where are they?

My bleeding has left a sizable trail, it won't be hard to find us. "They can follow my blood, you'll have to leave me." I tell them.

"W-we can't leave you!" Satu-chan argues, nervously glancing around the tree we've taken cover behind. She lets out a yelp then someone else lets out a yelp, too masculine to be sensei.

A body drops to the ground a dozen feet away. "It doesn't look like it, but I'm fine." I try to reassure her. "Zabuza-san." I look at him pleadingly.

"Don't you die on us." Zabuza says prodding me next to the hole in my chest, sending a wave of pain through me.

"I can promise that." I smile at him.

"We can't leave him!" Satu-chan argues as Zabuza drags her away. I drop to the ground up against the trunk of the tree, kunai dropping from my hands.

She managed to hide among our fallen classmates. I let out a light chuckle, close my eyes and wait.

It's not long before I can hear someone approach. There are explosions nearby, whoever's near me kneels.

I crack an eye open, it's not sensei or anyone from my team. The sword wielder behind him is however.

The Hot Water shinobi spins around and uses a kunai to block Zabuza. "Using your comrade's corpse as a distraction?" he sounds disappointed.

I put a flaming hand to his back. "I'm not dead yet."

-40 Chakra. +40 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (88/150)

"We thought you died." Zabuza-san tells me as the shinobi collapses to the ground.

"How… your wounds?" He sputters.

"I'm hard to kill." Did I sound cool? I think that sounded better in my head. The light leaves his eyes as he dies.

"You don't sound mortally wounded." Zabuza-san stares at me.

"I think I sound roughly half dead." I glance at my health bar, it's started regenerating.

"Above you!" I can hear Satu-chan yell.

Our heads snap up at the third Hot Water shinobi, he vanishes without any issue. The explosions stop. "Can i pretend to be mortally wounded when Sensei comes around? I don't feel like walking anymore." I lean my head back against the trunk.

Satu-chan emerges from her hiding place, she and Zabuza-san stare at me like an alien. "What?"

"How can you be joking!?"

"That's the closest I've been to death since the exams, I think I'm allowed to pretend none of this happened!" I argue back, closing my eyes.

"Can I bandage you now?"

"Sure, bloodloss has killed a few people before, I think." What is wrong with me?

Satu-chan pulls out her first aid kit and starts wrapping bandages, starting with my chest.

"Everyone still alive?" Sensei appears without warning, Zabuza instinctually strikes at her with his sword. "Hey there!" She sidesteps the strike.

"Sorry, Sensei!" Zabuza bows apologetically.

"Did you follow the blood?" I pipe up.

"Don't move!" Satu-chan scolds me.

"Yes, oh my-" Sensei clamps a hand over her mouth. "Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine, a little… punch drunk?" I search for the words.

"Light headed?"

"Maybe? I can't tell."

Sensei touches the holes in my neck. "How are you breathing."

"Common, you have my medical files."

"It states minor regeneration, it didn't mention anything about being too stubborn to die." Sensei stands up. "They retreated, I killed one and it seems like you killed one, they'll run for Yugakure for reinforcements, if we're not out of the country by the time they do we won't make it."

"Would tree walking speed up our trip?" I ask.

"It's not tree walking per say, but tree jumping and body flicker."

"I want another lesson." I set my jaw, if my inability to learn is going to put my new friends in danger-

"Stop moving!" Satu-chan scolds again.

+10 HP. Infection risk reduced.

This is actually helping!? "Sorry." I wince.

"Once your bandaged we'll resume moving." Sensei tells us.

"Yes sensei." Zabuza-san and I pipe up, Satu-chan is to busy patching me up to notice.

Authors Notes: And another chapter done, it warms my heart to see how many people are enjoying this story, it's been one I've wanted to write but been a bit intimidated to try for quite a while… and a few attempts to get things down pat, while not perfect I'll accept what I've made (which is very hard as I'm a perfectionist in writing XD) I hope you enjoyed this and previous bits, and I hope you'll stick around for more chapters!