The sun was shining, or shining as much as possible as it could through the thick grey cloud coverage, when they arrived outside what could be best described a medium-sized fishing shack.
"Finally! I thought I'd never make it back here." Tazuna said when he saw his home.
"Well we did. But the problem's not over yet." Anko stated. At the moment she was taking in the house's location and running it through her mind, and she did not like the results. It was too out in the open and enemies could come at them from all sides. This position would be near impossible to properly defend with just the resources they had. Even scouting out the area would be difficult.
Kakashi sighed. "What my colleague is trying to say Tazuna-san, and not doing so in the most tactful way, is that getting you home doesn't really guarantee your safety. Gato could easily find where you live and strike you here. To be honest, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he tried."
Tazuna narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "You ninja really know how to make a guy feel safe, you know that?" His voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"You want someone to tell you nothing's going to be wrong, go to your Mama." Anko sharply proclaimed. "On our job, we need to prepare for the worst more than we need to hope for the best. And since we were not told the entire truth regarding the mission..." She added with a piercing accusing look in her eyes. "We're not as best prepared as we should be, since you neglected to give us all the details. So, you just worry about building your bridge and not dying."
"Wow, not since my son-in-law has there been such inspirational words. You should be a motivational speaker." Tazuna said, still sarcastic, then went for the door and opened it. "Tsunami? I'm back."
"Father?" A woman's voice responded. She came into view from another room and looked relieved. "Thank Kami-sama you made it home safely." She said as she came over and hugged the old man tightly.
"Almost didn't." He replied with a small smile and patted her shoulder. "Which makes me wonder if I should ask for my money back."
The woman looked to the ninja, she looked between early to mid-thirties, she had a very demure and gentle face. "Hello, I'm Tsunami. Thank you so much for safeguarding my father. And I apologize for the attitude I am sure he gave you on the way here." She said with a small bow.
"No problem, but next time he'll get what he pays for." Anko half-joked and then with all seriousness. "That or I will hang him by his toes over a pit of vipers and laugh as I drink sake."
Everyone stared at her in silence before Kakashi stepped forward. "Word of warning, my colleague Anko's sense of humor takes some getting used to. Now, we've been informed of the crisis and will be sticking around to keep an eye on the situation."
Tsunami looked at the collection of ninja. "Thank you, but I worry we may not have enough room to house you all during your stay."
"We can camp outside." Anko said as she surveyed the area again.
"Are you sure?"
Anko nodded. "Yeah, more training for us, less hassle for you, and this way it will be easier to scout the town." 'Not to mention this way the kids won't feel constantly watched.'
"Well if you prefer it that way..." Tsunami replied. "Anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable?"
"Just allow us to use your restroom when we need it and tell us anything you know about the threat, and we're good." Anko answered.
"That should be no problem." Tsunami said.
"And if you have any dango, that would be great."
The group was unaware of a boy in the back of the room, near the entry of a hall, watching them and looking disgusted the entire time he had the patience to watch. He continued to stare at them for a bit, but the moment Kakashi started to turn his head in his direction, the boy closed the door and locked it.
"What did you find?" Kakashi asked the genin as they sat outside just after sunset. All day long the two ninja groups had scoped out the nearby town, bridge construction site, and adjacent area to Tazuna's house. Knowing the terrain was vital for ninja on the job.
"The scent of fear is everywhere, among other scents." Naruto commented, one of those scents being fish, lots and lots of fish.
Yakumo nodded. "Yeah, everyone looked afraid and suspicious of us. It's a small town so they're quick to spot outsiders, but they're hostile. Like anyone could be an enemy."
"Or a bunch of kids who are actually disguised demons. Remember Mom said when we're in groups we might give off a strong aura that would make people uncomfortable around us." Naruto offered.
Kakashi arched an eyebrow. "I was never told this." The last thing they needed was attracting more attention then they already were.
Naruto shrugged. "It's just a theory. People in Konoha are used to it by now, even if they don't like it, but in other places some people might get a funny feeling from us and not have any idea why. And like Yakumo said, most of the people here either didn't want to talk to us or wanted to get as far away as possible."
"But let's not blame some funny feeling on this." Yakumo added. "It's more likely that they're afraid in general, which suggests they might be under surveillance."
Kakashi nodded. "Yes, that is possible."
"I checked inside some places and listened to some conversations, nothing was said that really seemed worth repeating. But everyone agrees that dying seems preferable to fighting back." Sakura chipped in.
Many of the stories had a common theme to them, people who had fought back and spoke out were punished at first, but if they continued, their families paid the price.
"These people seem to have reached a psychological low point. Some of them have probably been harassed before or made examples out of and the rest are afraid it might happen to them too. I think someone here in this town is an informant, telling Gato of when someone gets out of line." Sai summed up, as he sketched something out in the dirt with a stick.
Anko nodded. "That's not uncommon in prisons, and in a way this place feels like a prison."
Kakashi nodded as well. "It appears that is the case. Right now Sasuke and Kaede are checking the town at night to see if anything's different. But if the townspeople can't trust us then I doubt we can expect cooperation from them. Worse, if they feel we will bring the wrath of their oppressor down on them, they might run us out." He had encountered uncooperative civilians before; they could often make or break a mission depending on whether or not they got violent.
"It would be best if we have them check around at night and sleep during the day." Anko added. "That way we've got all times covered, and best of all we don't have to sleep near them."
Kakashi looked a bit bothered. "Anko that's not nice."
"Oh I am sorry, when did I give you the idea that I was a nice person?" Anko asked.
"She's right Kakashi-sensei." Naruto butted it. "The fact is when Sasuke and Kaede sleep, they stink… really badly."
Sasuke had admitted that his mother had attempted numerous times to cover up his scent in his bedroom using various methods. Flowers, candles, various perfumes and scented oils, they worked well enough for a bit but after a while the smell of his vampiric body always overpowered the covering scent.
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, like rotting meat covered in dank soil. The fact that they don't like bathing doesn't exactly make it better."
"Be nicer to your comrades." Kakashi advised. "You know they can't help how they smell."
"Oh it's not like they don't admit it themselves." Naruto replied, to which the others nod.
"Anyway, we should get some more training in and be on the lookout." Kakashi suggested. "We don't know exactly how many enemies we are dealing with or even necessarily what they look like. They could be blending in with the civilian population for all we know."
The team nodded and the cycloptic jonin continued. "And remember, no releasing your true forms unless it's an emergency or you're completely positive you have the privacy for it. Part of your training this mission is getting used to acting human. Especially if the guy who's after Tazuna sends more people to finish the job."
"Which frankly is a guarantee more than anything." Anko added. "We should set up some security around the bridge and his house, the only two places Tazuna is ever certain to be."
Sai looked up from his doodling, "If they come at us with a full frontal assault, what are our chances?"
"Depends on what kind of men they have. If it is just a bunch of thugs, I give us a 90%. But if they have any more rogue shinobi, then it comes down to a 60%. Still the odds are in our favor, I just can't guarantee all of 'you' survive" Anko said in all seriousness.
Once again everyone stared at her in silence, then Naruto shook his head in disbelief. "Jeez, and people call us monsters."
Anko grinned wickedly. "Trust me kid, you may know people who breathe fire or suck blood, but you have yet to meet a real monster."
It was only a few hours before dawn when Sasuke and Kaede returned, by then the moon was sinking down the sky and there was already dew on the ground. The two vampires appeared seemingly out of the shadows themselves, then something really odd happened.
Sasuke appeared right behind Naruto, the pale dark-haired youth leaned close in to Naruto and said in a soft whisper directly into the kitsune's ear "Boo".
This caused the Uzumaki to nearly jump out of his skin, getting a laugh from the rest of the group, especially Anko.
"Jeez kid, did you piss yourself?"
"NO!" Naruto firmly denied, though his face burned bright red with embarrassment and humiliation
Kakashi rolled his good eye, looked at Sasuke and Kaede. "Alright, let's hear the report."
"The town is even more dead at night then it is during the day. No place, except for one bar, remained open. And those places looked empty until a few hours ago when a large group of men came out." Sasuke said.
"The stores are totally bare of any actual food. What they did have was barely edible weeds and fish so small it would take 4 to make a single fishstick." Kaede added.
"Tell me more about this bar." Kakashi asked.
"It is as seedy as they come. It reeked of stale smoke and cheap liquor."
Kakashi thought for a long moment. "It might be that it's open because it's popular for our adversaries. They stay open in case they suddenly show up demanding a drink. The owner probably doesn't even have a choice. What was specific about the bar?"
Both Sasuke and Kaede looked at each other briefly. "It was a strip club." Sasuke admitted quietly.
There was a silence amongst the group for a moment until Anko let out a hooting laugh. "Oh this got interesting. Didn't think a place this small would actually have one of those."
"Regardless, are you sure these men were not villagers?" Kakashi asked, trying to be very professional to avoid any jokes at his expense. A subject such as this would be a perfect opportunity to jab at him.
Kaede shook her head. "No, these people were armed to the teeth and... they had a look about them that suggested they're from all over. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's kind of like how when the chuunin exams go on and you can tell the locals from the visitors."
"They are probably mercenaries and common thugs brought in to help bully and extort the citizens." Kakashi said, though he had more to say to himself internally. 'Alright we know where the enemy is meeting up and one of the times they're likely to do so again.'
"Sasuke, Kaede, get some sleep while you can. I'll take Naruto and Sakura with me to guard the bridge." He said out loud.
"What about the rest of us?" Anko asked.
"Sai and Yakumo, keep looking around town. I am not entirely sure the fighting spirit has been completely stamped out. There are always some group who is still willing to fight. See if you can find us some friends." Then Kakashi turned to Anko "Tell me... how is your acting?"
"I'm a ninja and a kunoichi. I have to have at least some talent for act... wait, why?" Anko started.
Kakashi simply looked at her and suddenly Anko's face dropped. "No. No. NO! A thousand times, NO!"
Night came and once more the strip club was flushed with business. Even during a recession people get horny. Especially people who feel safe and entitled. Besides, it wasn't like Gato was going for fire them for this. The man would probably die of sheer hypocrisy if he shamed someone else for having a vice.
'Dammit Kakashi, you owe me BIG!' Anko thought as she did a little dance with a pole, wearing a black leather lace up corset, a micro-skirt, fishnet stockings, and thigh high boots, and her hair was in a low ponytail.
"Yeah baby, earn your dough!" One of the men watching her cheered, holding up some ryo bills but not doing anything else, as if to bait her with them.
'This is going to cost you more than money you pig.' Anko thought and resisted the urge to break the guy's arm, but kept up the act and did a spin around the pole with spread legs, resulting in some hoots and hollers and a very large amount of money being thrown at her.
"Hey sweet cheeks, you do private shows?" One of the men, a bearded guy with an eyepatch and a gold tooth, asked as he leered lustfully at her.
"Depends on who's paying." She answered, hoping this was her lead.
"Well, I'm one of Gato's head honchos." The bearded man said proudly.
Anko spun around, keeping up the act. "All these men here say that. What makes you so special?"
The bearded man smiled as if he had a secret that while he knew he shouldn't tell, he had been dying to have an opportunity like this to brag about it. "Well, I don't want to brag, but I'm currently his top assassin."
"Currently?" Anko asked.
The man nodded. "Yep, apparently his last one was killed by a bunch of kids a few days ago. Boy, Gato was pissed, but I always knew that Zabuza punk was overrated anyway, all those land of mist people are just a freaks. Now it's my turn to shine."
'Okay, so Gato's got more working for him, but I'm more concerned about this guy's source of intel. Who could have known that Zabuza was killed by some genin? Someone had to have been watching us, and they probably still are.' Anko thought, keeping up the dance. "I knew Zabuza. Now he was a guy worth giving private shows to."
This lie made the man look a bit annoyed. "I'm much better than that hack. And I'm willing to prove it."
Anko grinned and stopped before him. "Alright, then show me. But it is 500 upfront and another 1000 after. Unless you don't think I am worth it"
The man took a long look at Anko's rear and grinned. "Oh no, I think you will be worth every slip." He said before getting up and leading her to a private room.
A boy was busy brooding in his room looking outside at the stars. A knock on his door did nothing to make him stop. "Come in." He said, assuming it would be his mother.
It wasn't. Instead it was one of those ninja that came to town recently. "Hey kid, got a minute?"
In another part of town, a masked figure lurked in the trees, seeking its prey. It would have to be at its best here, in honor of its fallen master.
'Soon Zabuza-sama, they will be dead. My final mission to you will be complete.' Haku thought, coming up to Tazuna's household. Once Zabuza had died, any connection to Gato had died with him so Haku had never bothered going back to the tycoon save to tell him that Zabuza was dead. Gato had naturally tried to get the ice wielder to work for him, but an ice needle to both funny bones made him drop the subject. Or rather, drop the subject long enough for Haku to leave and not give the tycoon a chance to reset the terms.
Zabuza had been killed by the ninja protecting Tazuna. Therefore, the ninja who had killed him would be here, still guarding the bridge builder. With it being night they would be at their most vulnerable and the terrain would give the ice ninja his best advantage.
The house came into view, no lights on, but he saw more. Tents off to the side, partly hidden by some trees.
'What's this? The ninja are sleeping outside?' Haku asked himself, not expecting this. 'Hmm... this works better. I have no reason to harm the bridge builder, just the ninja. This way innocents don't have to suffer for the sins of guilty.'
He silently moved to get into a better position, wanting the best element of surprise possible. Attacking with his favored weapon, ice senbon, would be too ineffective for taking them down. No, he wanted to go for the quick kill, for the first and hopefully only time in his life. Getting above the tents, he started to quietly work on creating large ice blades replicating the kubikiribocho, dangling over the sleeping ninja.
'This should get them quickly, and those lucky enough to not die right away should be wounded enough for me to finish off.' Haku thought, squashing any lingering feelings of guilt or hesitation. To avenge Zabuza, the only person in the entire world that meant anything to him anymore, he just had to do this one kill and never do it again. Except for maybe seppuku, Haku was not willing to discount that as a possibility for later. For what did he have to live for without Zabuza?
All of a sudden, the ice blades were shattered by two dark silhouettes striking them in rapid succession.
Haku jolted in place, not expecting this. His ice was tough enough to resist fire, and on a good day could be compared to blue ice in terms of density. So shattering it with brute force was not something that could happen easily.
"Attacking in the dark, thank you." A voice whispered to him from the shadows.
Haku looked around, feeling himself get scared but maintaining on his calm composure.
"This means we can go all out." A second voice, this one feminine, added.
Haku started to work on creating some ice mirrors. He saw two silhouettes before him, looking at him with monstrous red eyes that practically glowed in the dark.
The shadowy pair attacked the mirror he was in and if he had not moved right then and there he would have been shattered while still inside it. Ignoring that, he slipped into another ice mirror behind him.
'The element of surprise is gone, I must try again later.'
The ice wielder emerged from another mirror that he secretly conjured within some bushes, giving him some cover to avoid being spotted. Making as little noise as possible, a skill he'd picked up from watching Zabuza, he proceeded to leave the forest.
It didn't take long for his instinct to scream at him, forcing him to substitute with a log and avoid a direct attack by the two red-eyed enemies, however two kunai zipped through the air avoiding the substitution and hitting the place where Haku had just been standing just a moment ago.
'How are they tracking me? Are these the jounin?'
"You can hide your body from our eyes and you can hide your sounds from our ears, but you cannot hide your blood from us." The masculine voice warned.
'My blood? Oh no, they must be able to sense my body heat somehow. Nothing I do can hide me for too long.'
Forgoing stealth, Haku began to run as fast as he could. He listened for any followers and heard no footsteps, just chirps, but he kept his speed.
Then he felt himself being tackled from behind, pinned down to the ground painfully by what felt like two people on either side of him. And before he could attempt to resist, they bit into both sides of his neck, beginning to consume the red liquid within.
Haku failed, he pushed back, he tried performing one-handed jutsu, but nothing was working. It was like these two were draining his chakra as well as his blood, and he felt himself steadily get drowsier.
'This can't be... it for me... I was supposed to... avenge... Zabuza-sama... I'm sorry... I'm a... broken... too...'
He passed out, and the two vampires released him before they would risk drinking him dry.
"He's still alive." Kaede noted, sensing a faint but clinically still alive pulse in their victim, after she wiped her mouth.
"He won't be for long. Then Gato has one less threat against us." Sasuke replied.
"Still, we should finish the job." Kaede said, sparing a glance at the body. "Are we far from the shore?"
"We could get to the bridge quickly if we had to. Why?"
Kaede began lifting the body of the nearly dead ice wielder. "No reason to leave a body lying around. And burning it risks waking everyone else up."
Getting her message, Sasuke helped support the weight. Together the two dragged their victim to the bridge, and hefted Haku over the ledge, where he splashed and slowly sank beneath the dark water.
The two vampiric shinobi watched as the last of the ripples vanished and then hand in hand they vanished back into the darkness just as the first rays of sun started to break.
The next morning things went on without anyone being any the wiser. The bridge continued to be built and the Konoha nin kept guard.
Kakashi was keeping his good eye peeled on the town which he noticed seemed even more deserted then it had yesterday.
Sai and Yakumo had reported that if people in this town did truly feel a desire to fight they hid it very well, because every person they had met or tried to talk to had the look of a sad and beaten animal. And Naruto and Sakura were busy taking turns guarding both the workers and the materials to build the bridge while Tazuna supervised.
Kakashi did not like this. There was something going on, he could feel it in the air. Anko's absence didn't make it any better. She went into the strip club, and so far she had yet to come back out.
Then in the distance he could see something, a large mass of figures approaching.
"Everyone, form up around me." He shouted to the genin and he looked over his shoulder at Tazuna. "And you, whatever happens, you and your men keep working and do not cross-" Kakashi dragged his foot across the ground "This line."
Tazuna, for once, did not argue or make a smart comment.
The large mass of figures came onto the bridge, cutting the ninja off from the land, and then they came into view. There must have been little over thirty men, of various shapes and sizes carrying a menagerie of weapons, being led by a short grey-haired man, dressed in a business suit and leaning on a cane. Kakashi assumed this man was Gato. The man did not look threatening at all, he looked at least 50 years old and was maybe 5'5 in height. Which was probably why he surrounded himself with such tough looking thugs.
The small army came to a halt about fifty feet from Kakashi and his team. There was a long silence as the two groups stared at each other. Then finally Gato spoke.
"So you are the group of outsiders who have been causing all the trouble in my town."
Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. "That would be us. Although to be fair, you are the one causing the trouble. We are simply here to clean it up."
Gato snickered and spread his hands out. "Trouble? What trouble at all? As you can see everything in this village is perfectly fine. Granted the local economy has fallen on some hard times. But as a businessman I am here to change that."
Naruto, before Kakashi could stop him, took a step forward, an angry look on his face. "Oh please, you are nothing more than a thug and crook, lording over these poor people like a tyrant."
Gato only smirked. "What you call tyranny I call business."
"Get a new thesaurus bub!"
Kakashi pulled Naruto back and addressed the little man. "What do you want? As a businessman it's your nature to make deals before making threats."
Gato pointed his cane at Kakashi. "How astute. What I want is to get what I want."
"Wow would it kill you to be more specific?" Naruto commented.
"Naruto don't provoke him." Kakashi warned.
Gato lost his smirk. "As I was saying, I want to destroy this bridge. It's bad for my fiscal terms and as the one in charge has so blatantly ignored my past deals I'm afraid the time for compromise has passed. So my terms are now this bridge is turned into rubble and Tazuna goes down with it, preferably with large pieces of it attached to him via rebar spikes. And these terms are nonnegotiable."
At this point Naruto, Sai, Sakura, and Yakumo withdrew their shurikens and kunai. And at the same time all of Gato's men hefted their weapons.
"Obviously we are not going to let that happen." Kakashi noted, lifting up the end of his headband and revealing his other eye, his trademark transplanted sharingan.
Gato did not seem remotely phased. "Even if you did kill Zabuza like his lackey said, do you think that the five of you are going to stop all of my men?"
"If they don't, we will." A voice called out from behind.
Caught off guard, Gato and his men turned without showing the ninja their backs. Behind them, standing in the street were about seventy-five villagers, all of them armed with whatever they could get their hands on. Frying pans, kitchen knives, broom sticks with the wooden ends sharpened, metal pipes, and an assortment of other items.
And they were all standing behind a small boy whom Kakashi recognized as the child from Tazuna's house.
Tazuna recognized the child as well, his jaw dropping. "Inari, what are you doing?!"
"Doing what we should have done from the first day! And doing what Dad told me to do… fighting for what we believe in!"
The villagers behind Inari nodded.
"You're done here Gato!"
"We are not letting you ruin our village anymore!"
Gato stared at the band of villagers then looked back at Kakashi and his team, then he started to laugh loudly. And soon all of his men were laughing with him.
"Oh Kami, this is too much. A shinobi leading a bunch of kids and a bunch of idiot villagers led by a kid. It is like a set-up to a bad joke."
Naruto growled, this man was making him more and more pissed off by the second. Kakashi kept calm, but he suspected that even with the added help of the villagers, their chances of fighting this entire group and getting out unscathed hadn't gone up that much.
Gato, regaining his composure after laughing, addressed both sides. "So, before I have my men kill all of you, does anyone have anything left to say?"
Then, all of a sudden, one of Gato's men, a bearded one wearing an eyepatch, stepped forward and placed a hand on his boss's shoulder. Gato turned his head to look up at the man.
"What are you-?"
He did not get any further. The man dragged the blade of a kunai across Gato's throat. The small man stood there frozen in his spot as blood ran down his neck and stained his formerly emasculate suit.
The other thugs stood rooted where they were, their eyes wide in shock as their boss fell to his knees and then onto the cobblestone, his body twitching slightly as a pool of blood formed underneath him.
And then the eye-patched man exploded in a cloud of smoke like a shadow clone. Standing in his place was none other than Anko, back in her normal attire with her hair the way she liked it. She spun the still bloody kunai on her finger and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
"Surprise!" She said with a wink.
It was about early evening, and the town was still celebrating.
After the death of their boss, the rest of Gato's thugs quickly became unsure of what to do or what they were exactly fighting for now since their pay source was dead. Not to mention they all agreed that the short tycoon was not worth avenging. They threw down their weapons and surrendered.
They were all currently locked up inside one of the warehouses since there was no jail available. Most of them were going to be placed on trial in the Land of Fire. However others were going to be picked up by authorities from their respective countries where a number of them were wanted for a variety of crimes.
Later, the villagers led by Kakashi and the others raided Gato's mansion, where they found his vault. Erring on the side of caution they opened it with a few explosive tags, and found all of the money that Gato has stolen and extorted from the townspeople. And in the lockers of the kitchen they found mounds of food; fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, and better fish then the scraps they had been left with.
The money was distributed back out amongst the people and the food was being used to feed all of the villagers at the celebration.
People were dancing, laughing, and some were crying with joy at the knowledge of their nightmare was over.
Kakashi and Anko were sitting together, with Anko drinking sweet tea and eating dango. "So Gato's self-styled 'top assassin' leads me back to a private room where he was hoping to get lucky. However the moment he closed the door I bashed his head against the wall, henged into him and infiltrated Gato's place."
"You could have told me, I was worried something had happened to you when you never came back."
"Yeah I could have told you, but then I would have missed the look on your face when you saw my big reveal." She replied with a laugh.
Kakashi sighed and shook his head. "You are a very dangerous and unpredictable woman Anko."
"Compliments will get you nowhere Kakashi." The interrogator said with a sly wink.
"Anyway, it would have been better if you had let Gato live. There was much we could have learned from him. I went through some of his files back at his headquarters. From what I could tell, he had a partner, someone who was helping fund his little operation here."
"Who did it say?" Anko asked.
"It didn't, there wasn't a name but whoever this person was, they were asking for Gato to transport villagers to them."
"You think this was human trafficking and not just simple extortion?" Anko asked as she swallowed the last of the dango.
Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know, but something tells me that there was something darker going on here."
Then they both turned their attention to the genin group. Sasuke and Kaede were standing together in the shadows, drinking what he presumed they were passing off as tomato juice. Sakura and Yakumo were fighting over Naruto, each one holding onto one of his arms and pulling trying to get the boy to dance with one of them. And Sai was doing sketches of various villagers.
"They did…okay." Anko said with some reluctance.
"That almost sounded like praise coming from you. I'd say they did very good under the circumstances." Kakashi stated with a smile under his mask.
"Yeah, well, let's just hope they can hack it during the exams. Did I mention I am in charge of one of the tasks this year?"
"And knowing you, it is going to be something difficult and horrifying and yet somehow you will find it sadistically funny."
Anko simple grin grew even bigger, letting the accusation hang in the air.
The dark waves crashed onto the shore of the mainland, then receded back out. And from the water, a long figure pulled himself onto the beach, coughing up water.
Haku was alive, but only barely. His entire body was deathly pale, his lips were blue and his entire body was numbed with hypothermia.
He inched himself forward, dragging his body across the sand as if it hurt, digging his nails into the sand to make any feeble attempt at preventing the waves from dragging him back out into the sea.
Finally after what felt like an eternity, he had gotten far enough up the shore that he allowed himself to rest. He laid his head down on the sand and then suddenly vomited up what felt like a gallon of salt water that somehow avoided being coughed up already.
Doing that drained the last of the strength from his body. He just laid there on the sand, his body shaking from the cold.
He did not know why he was alive, all he wanted to do was die to go where Zabuza was, even if that was Hell. But his body wouldn't let him.
He continued to lay there, no longer caring or even capable of doing anything when he heard footsteps approaching.
He opened his eyes, and turned his head up just a bit to see the figure that was looking down at him. His eyes were stinging from the salt water and his world was slowly turning back as he started to slip back into unconsciousness.
The last thing he saw were eyes.
Eyes that reminded him of a snake.