Out of the Ashes

Chapter 16

Together We Are

A few days after my outing with Bu, I found out what he had been embroidering. It was a normal day where we were all training together at noon. For once, Kyuketsu hadn't woken me up like an asshole and I slept in. So I arrived late and found Kyuketsu teasing Bu. They immediately stopped when I showed up but Kyuketsu looked very smug.

I eyed the two of them but couldn't say anything because Kinoe suddenly shunshined beside me, yelling, "Good morning kiddos!"

"Don't yell in my ear!" I retorted shortly, nearly as loud. Kinoe simply grinned and put a large hand on my head. He put a good portion of his weight on me and I almost fell over.

Kyuketsu stepped back when Kinoe turned towards the boys. Bu was Kinoe's chosen target as he ruffled his hair and completely messed up Bu's ponytail. The good news is that Bu's braid is done so tight Kinoe doesn't usually ruin it like he does to Bu's ponytail. The bad news is Bu is a prissy little shit and whines when his ponytail is ruined.

Except today. Bu quietly fixed it while watching as Kinoe leered at Kyuketsu. Kyuketsu had no qualms against hiding behind Bu as a human meat shield when it came to Kinoe. Kyuketsu didn't try using me anymore because I gave him up faster than Bu since they were starting to grow taller than me and hiding behind someone your size was better than someone smaller than you. I was also meaner than Bu and gave not a single fuck. If Kinoe wanted whoever hid behind me then Kinoe could have them.

"Hey guys." Bu quietly tried to get our attention, and it worked. Because Bu wasn't someone who was usually quiet.

Kinoe hummed and turned his focus on Bu, "Yes Pinky?"

Bu scowled but he pulled off the extra pouch on his belt today and pulled out four red cloths, "I made everyone something."

I immediately realized what it was but Kyuketsu and Kinoe were surprised as Bu opened one cloth and revealed it was a bandana with Team Four embroidered neatly with all our names below it. Bu tied his around his neck and handed us each a specific bandana. As I tied mine around my neck I realized each had kanji on the opposite side of our names and team. Mine was the kanji that would makeup my name if I didn't spell it in hiragana. So, mine labeled me as a phoenix.

Bu's bandana had three kanji which labeled him as explosive. I watched Kyuketsu tie his around the bottom half of his face. He now effectively covered most of his face between his cloak's hood, his goggles, and his bandana. Kyuketsu's kanji proclaimed him as an arachnid. Kinoe tied his around his bicep and his read off as strength and wisdom. I mean, I guess that was kind of accurate. He was our sensei after all, he should be strong and wise. Even though he's a fucking moron sometimes.

"Why arachnid?" I questioned as I eyed Kyuketsu's bandana. As Kyuketsu spoke you couldn't even see the bandana move.

Kyuketsu answered instead of Bu, "Bu inquired as to what would be the most appropriate name other than 'bug' for my colony."

Right, sometimes I forget Kyuketsu is an Aburame. Kyuketsu never used his bugs when around us. He claimed he had no control over them and that they were dangerous. Of course Kyuketsu seemed like the most controlled dude ever but I suppose Kyuketsu wasn't the perfect ninja like he sometimes appeared. Fun fact. Kyuketsu usually used his stupid bow and he was actually a really, really good shot with it. Clearly a lot of effort had gone into his training with it.

"This was a really nice gesture, Pinky! I think we can even take our team photo now that we have matching accessories!" Kinoe exclaimed. Bu looked like he couldn't tell if Kinoe was being genuine or if he was teasing him. I couldn't really tell either, to be honest.

Bu looked away, a bit embarrassed, "When we were on our C rank I saw the fabric and bought it. It's durable and can be mended with chakra. The thread I used it also likely to not break."

"Sounds expensive." Kyuketsu commented immediately and tonelessly.

Kinoe grinned, "You should have made Hime pay for it! She's rich, after all."

I rolled my eyes at him. Bu blinked, "You're rich?"

I shrugged, "Technically, Sasu and I have to fight over who's clan head as soon as we're sixteen or we have more than the two of us in the clan. So whoever wins that is the rich one."

"But until then Hime and her brother both share the great finances that were left to them by the entire clan." Kinoe announced rather cheerfully.

"So she should be paying for team meals then." concluded Kyuketsu. Kinoe's grin doubled in size.

I blanched, "Uh, no? I'm not paying for you freeloaders!"

Kinoe snickered at my misfortune. It occurred to me later that he had planned this since he got stuck with the team bills and wanted to shift payments over to me. And the asshole's plan actually worked too but more on that later. We got our team photo done that afternoon as if Kinoe knew that we would be getting those bandanas. It was a nice photo and I put it beside my bed so that when I woke up I could see the smiling faces of my team staring at me.

Similarly, the next time we had to retrieve Bu when he overslept his picture was in the same place. As Kyuketsu dumped water on Bu I examined it with a fond smile. I was in the middle with my arms crossed and something that looked more like a smirk than a smile on my face while Kyuketsu was looking at the camera like he hadn't slept in days. Despite his dazed expression he had a ghost of a smile across his lips. On my other side Bu was grinning and posing. Kinoe was behind us with the biggest grin across his face. As usual he forgot to take off his doctor's coat before leaving the hospital so he just threw his jonin vest on over it. Kinoe had a pencil dangling from the side of his lips and he was actually the one who made the picture as great as it was. Why? Because Kinoe had grabbed his 'cute little genin' and pulled us into what looked like a hug. Really he was just squashing us all together. Maybe that was why Kyuketsu was as dazed as he was?

.

Almost a year after being on my genin team is when the nightmares began. They started off as night terrors that I couldn't remember but they would wake me up with a chill going through my body and the hairs raising on my arms. They slowly escalated until every morning I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept at all.

The first morning I woke up screaming, Sasu was there yelling at me to wake up. As I panted and sat up, Sasu was sitting on the edge of my bed looking relieved I had woken up.

"You sounded like you were dying." Sasu informed me as I sipped the water I kept beside my bed at night to calm myself.

I nodded, "I was."

My nightmares were real. For some reason my death replayed over and over with Fushicho taunting me. She offered me a way out every time yet even if I accepted her offer, I still died in the dream. That nightmare stayed with me for a few weeks until Fushicho and the flames were forced away by glowing red eyes on a man's silhouette.

Sasu's graduation crept up on me as I dealt with my own life and the nightmares. In fact, it didn't really hit me until a few days before when Sasu asked me to test and score him for practice.

I almost spit out my breakfast, "You're graduating already?"

Sasu rolled his eyes, "You forgot?"

I mean, he shouldn't be surprised. I forgot our birthday this year too and it wasn't until Bu told me happy birthday I realized that it was in fact our birthday. If you're wondering I got some neat presents. Kinoe got me a tanto that I was trying my damn hardest with but it just wasn't happening, Bu gave me a metric fuckton of explosive trinkets, and Kyuketsu gave me a cookbook called 'For Idiots: How to Cook Nutritious Meals'. Sasu and I pretty much got each other the same stuff we always did: supplies. I had to hurry and get my present for him on our birthday because I forgot it was our birthday.

Anyway, back to me almost choking to stop myself from doing a spit take with my breakfast, "No! I just... didn't think it was so soon."

Sasu rolled his eyes again but I did give him a practice test.

Sasu was definitely the top of his year with his jutsu being above genin level and his combat skills unparalleled by any other genin. Of course Naruto could give him a run for his money due to the fact you could hit Naruto as many times as you wanted and he still wouldn't go down.

I gave Sasu a hard time despite him being really good and the days before the test he practiced so hard because he thought he sucked more than he actually did. I laughed when he came home fuming because he was rookie of the year and far better than he thought.

"I can't believe you." Sasu sighed at dinner that night.

I hummed, "What did I do?"

"You set me up to be rookie of the year. Making me train like that for the graduation exam." Sasu explained as if I knew I had done that.

I mean, that wasn't my intention. I did it for the laughs but whatever floats his boat I guess. He would have been rookie of the year regardless.

After Sasu's graduation the nightmares stayed at a standstill. I only woke up screaming every so often depending on if I won or the shadows won. One Sunday at dinner with Bu and Onna, Sasu groused about his team and I quietly stuffed my face. Bu watched with narrowed eyes until his mother lightly smacked him and hissed, "It's rude to stare when a lady is eating!"

Bu rubbed his head and huffed before speaking to me, "You have bags under your eyes."

That earned him a harder slap upside the head and another hissed reprimand that Sasu even heard this time. This one remarked on how you never commented on a negative aspect of a lady's appearance, especially in front of others.

Bu wasn't deterred though, "It looks like you haven't slept in days!"

"She's been having-" Sasu began and I slapped a hand over his mouth. I shook my head at him.

"Having what?" Onna was the one to ask. While Bu was looking at me with narrowed eyes, Onna looked more amused by what was going on. Both were clearly concerned though, despite showing it differently. Bu was actively worried while Onna's body language only hinted she was concerned.

Sasu bit my hand and pushed it away, "Nightmares."

"Nothing important." I dismissed easily, "I sleep even if I look that bad."

I refused to say anything else and the following day, Kyuketsu was on my ass about it. Bu looked extremely pleased as I wanted to die. Kyuketsu doesn't shut up when it comes to health and good habits and he was determined to get me to sleep without nightmares again. This filled my days until the day Kinoe brought us to get another C rank that took us outside the village.

"I'm going to kill him." I promised Kinoe as Kyuketsu furiously flipped through a book on sleep habits. Every so often Kyuketsu would glance at me and then back at the book and every glance towards me made me want to kill him even more.

Kinoe only laughed until we were called into the mission briefing room.

Inside the Hokage was flipping through papers and scrolls without looking at us. Pestering him at the desk was the one and only Naruto. Kinoe lost all color and Bu and I both snickered when we noticed his white face. Kinoe's fear of Naruto was a fun point for the entire team. Except the man in question, of course.

"Team Four, looking for a C rank?" the Hokage questioned, looking up and doing a hell of a job at completely ignoring Naruto. It was like Naruto didn't even exist at this point.

Kinoe nodded cheerfully but far too quickly to be normal, "Preferably one out of the village. My cute little genin are stir crazy."

"More like you're stir crazy." Bu whispered to me and I grinned.

Kinoe glared at us and I returned the look with the sweetest smile I could muster. The Hokage cleared his throat and we all looked forward at him. Right, no team shenanigans in front of the military leader.

"I have a mission to Wave guarding a bridge builder. He'll be in shortly." the Hokage informed us as he held out the scroll for Kinoe to retrieve.

The room was quiet enough where everyone could hear the sounds of Kinoe and I cracking our necks as we sharply looked at each other. It couldn't have been more obvious that something was silently passing between us.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow as I also paled, surpassing even Kinoe's fear of Naruto, "Is there a problem, Fushicho-chan?" the Hokage, in what I could only call a devious smirk, added, "Uzumaki-kun?"

The Hokage doesn't call Kinoe Uzumaki-kun. He calls him Kinoe-kun. I was too horrified about the mission we got to laugh as Kinoe almost fainted.

"Uzumaki?" Naruto repeated as his face scrunched up, "Like me?" Is that rubber burning I smell? Naruto is thinking pretty hard about this.

Naruto scrutinized Kinoe and I found my courage to address the Hokage, "Nothing is wrong, Hokage-sama. We just had a bet on our mission and we're surprised I won."

The Hokage's eyes were twinkling as he watched Naruto approached Kinoe. Kinoe looked at me and the boys for help but we only stepped back. In fact, I made things worse for Kinoe. But that's what I do, isn't it?

Naruto looked at me, "Fushicho, what does he mean Uzumaki?"

Kinoe begged me with his eyes, his soul was absolutely screaming 'DON'T DO IT PLEASE' but I did it anyway, "That is Uzumaki Kinoe. He's your uncle, in fact. We found out recently."

Naruto looked like he was going to cry. Kinoe was already crying. I leaned against Kyuketsu as I felt a bit faint. I mean, I'm clearly a genius because I managed to bullshit half that situation. But I was feeling very tense and that tension tripled when the door slid open and a very familiar bridge builder entered. He walked with heavy steps and sake dribbled from his lips as he took a chug of his bottle.

He eyed my team, "You sure these kids can do the job?"

"We have him. He's pretty strong." Bu answered when clearly neither me nor Kyuketsu were going to. He pointed at Kinoe, who might I add was still crying. Naruto was also crying but his were tears of joy while Kinoe was crying for every single reason one could cry.

Our client didn't look reassured but he accepted it and stood tall, "The name's Tazuna. I'm a master bridge builder and I need to get home safely and build an important bridge."

Kinoe looked like he didn't quite accept reality right now. But then again, I was also trying to forget this was happening. As soon as he confirmed he was Tazuna it was like my heart dropped to my feet and refused to leave. Kinoe eventually found himself again and got the scroll from the patient yet still smug Hokage. Kinoe left us after mumbling something to Naruto and telling us where to meet. Then he promptly substituted himself with a potted plant that likely came from the hallway and I felt his chakra book it out of here.

We split to get our things and I found Sasu before I left to let him know where I was going. I also instructed him to go find Naruto and give him Kinoe's address. When I get back Naruto should now go pester his newfound surviving uncle. Sasu was kind of confused but I was sure Naruto would tell him about how he "found his super cool uncle who is actually Fushicho's sensei!".

I don't think I'm being mean by doing this. Like, Kinoe looked like he was going to have a heart attack (And he is like, thirty. Can you have a heart attack at that age? Shit, Kinoe's a medic. There's no way he's going out from something like a heart attack) but I think I did something for the better. Kinoe could have just disappeared and avoided Naruto since you know, jonin. But why should he? Naruto has reached the point where Danzo can't really do much to separate him from Kinoe if Naruto chooses to interact with his uncle.

Besides, I'm already here. I say fuck the plot! Clearly the Hokage agreed with me anyway. The Hokage looked far more amused than anything else when we left despite the fact he reduced one of his jonin to tears.

Back to the real issue at hand: We stole the fucking Wave mission.

Kinoe met up with me on my way to the gate we were meeting at. He regained some of his color by now but he was still looking very under the weather. In fact, he didn't look like much of a jonin right now.

"What are we going to do?" he asked firmly, "My situation can wait until we get back."

Ah. I was actually impressed Kinoe managed to put the Naruto situation behind him and focus on the bigger problem. Of course, he couldn't put it behind him forever because as soon as we got back I was sure Naruto would be on top of him. In fact, I had pretty much made sure of that.

I shook my head, "I'm not sure. Why is this happening?"

Kinoe couldn't answer me.

We left through the south gate with Bu excitedly chattering to Tazuna and asking questions about Wave. Kyuketsu half listened and I didn't listen at all. Rather I waited for the inevitable to happen. It took three days to get to Wave if you walked with a civilian. It was early during the final day when we were almost to the coast that we ran into that mysterious puddle. Kinoe and I shared a look as we passed it.

Kyuketsu immediately stopped as we passed it and stared directly at the puddle. Bu, either taking the hint or sensing it himself, pulled him along and discreetly dropped what I identified, in horror, as a stink bomb.

I think the smell itself almost killed the unsuspecting Demon Brothers because it certainly made all of us gag. The one in the puddle wasn't very affected until he stepped out of the puddle. He almost keeled over immediately. His brother who came from the trees wasn't in the direct cloud of shit so he flew at us while disconnecting himself from his brother. Bu, Kyuketsu and I got the fuck out of the way (And out of the range of the stink cloud) while a single chakra chain sprouted from Kinoe's back. The brother hardly had time to realize what was going on before Kinoe had him hanging upside down and his arms pinned to his body.

His brother met a similar fate. In a matter of minutes both were tied to a tree and Kinoe turned to Tazuna, smiling brightly, "They're after you, aren't they?"

Kinoe wasn't holding back nothing.

Tazuna sputtered and Kinoe pointed towards the brothers, "They aren't regular bandits. Specifically, they're nukenin who specialize in assassinations. They have no reason to attack us as ninja on ninja, especially considering there was a jonin here. So, they're after you Tazuna-san." As if it would prove his point, Kinoe pulled a bingo book from his pouch and opened it up. He turned to let us see it and his finger marked the page that named the Demon Brothers. They had a list of missions and kills, but the thing I eyed was their associations. Momochi Zabuza and Hozuki Shinju. Who was Hozuki Shinju?

As I pondered why that name sent such a foreboding feeling through my body, we got the sob story from Tazuna and literally none of us were affected. Kinoe and I already heard it while Bu and Kyuketsu weren't particularly affected. Kyuketsu was a hardass and Bu was just weird.

"Does this mean we go back?" Bu questioned, Kyuketsu demurring immediately, "Yes."

Kinoe hummed, "Well we could go back. Or we could feel good about ourselves and help this poor country."

Kyuketsu looked at him blankly. Kinoe smiled back at him brightly.

I suggested, "We're probably going to run into their associates from the bingo book and we can probably bug the Hokage for a pay increase."

That changed Bu's mind and then Kyuketsu was outvoted three to one. Four if you counted Tazuna. So we continued onwards after leaving the brothers unconscious and with Kinoe signaling for the closest hunter-nin team. We reached the boat and that was a very peaceful trip where I was actually lulled into a peaceful sleep from the boat's rocking.

When I woke up the mist was heavy and I was a bit groggy. I took one of those naps where you slept for a weird increment of time, so I didn't sleep long enough to actually sleep but too long to just be a power nap. Bu waved at me when he noticed I was awake and Kyuketsu nodded. Kinoe shifted to sit next to me when he realized I was awake.

"We're docking in a few minutes." he whispered, pointing to the looming figure of the giant bridge. We were just passing below it and the way it came through the fog made it look absolutely menacing.

I nodded, and Kinoe continued, only this time he spoke in English, "What are we going to do about those two?"

"It'll be easy to save them since you're here." I admitted in much rougher English than Kinoe's.

Kinoe hummed, "The other Samsaras are going to be a bit irritated, but anything involving you they'll understand."

"The other Samsaras can suck a dick." I retorted. It's not like they were out here and about to engage in a high level fight. I didn't think it was going to be a risky fight but you never know. Kinoe went to say more but his muffled laugh caught Bu's attention and he moved up to where we were.

"Whatcha' laughing at?" Bu asked innocently.

Kinoe went to answer but the boatman hushed us as we started to dock. Tazuna thanked the boatman and soon we were walking towards our next fight. Well, really it was Kinoe's fight. I certainly wasn't going to fuck with Zabuza.

As we walked I kept my mind half on walking and half on sensing. I was the one to shout a warning when suddenly two new chakras were inside my range and closing in fast. We all ducked as a sword bigger than my entire body sliced through the air inches from our heads. Kyuketsu, Bu and I got into our triangle formation around Tazuna as Zabuza made his appearance on his sword. But then, I placed the second chakra as they shunshined beside Zabuza.

I dropped my kunai.

The woman on the sword was confused as she looked at our team and she barked out, "Who the fuck are-" until her eyes landed on me, "You!"

She tasted like perfume and pollution. She was beautiful with a pronounced jaw and piss colored eyes behind thin framed glasses. Several hitai-ate were worn on her person and her hair, while a bit longer than the last time I saw her, was still an off white and layered.

This was the woman who tried to kill me during the massacre.

"You take the jonin, Zabuza." she almost cooed as she pulled her own jagged sword off her back, "I have a bone to pick with the Uchiha brat."

Kinoe turned to me in alarm and the look on my face must have scared him because he turned cold. He turned to Zabuza and the woman and he warned, in a dark tone, "Leave now because if you take one more step against my team, I'll rip you to pieces."

"Try it!" the woman laughed and she disappeared with her chakra spread out among the atmosphere. I looked around wildly, trying to figure out where she was going to appear.

Zabuza didn't seem too concerned and pointed to Kinoe, "Your fight is with me."

Chakra chains sprouted from Kinoe's back and I could feel Shinju's chakra tense at their appearance. Zabuza didn't seem to really care as Kinoe sent several of them after him. Kinoe's limit seemed to be eight chakra chains at once. They were chakra intensive with little feedback for him so he could use about thirty before he cut himself off. While that seems like a lot it's actually not much if you keep having to dispel the chains for some reason.

But I can't really say much about Zabuza and Kinoe's fight because there was a sudden congregation of chakra beside me and I only had time to block before a kick sent me flying into the trees. Bu yelled my name but Shinju was already on top of me again. I activated my sharingan and rolled the fuck out of the way as Shinju's sword pierced the earth where I had been moments before.

Shinju tilted her head as she regarded me with a distasteful look, "Let's cut to the chase and let me kill you. I've been here far longer than you. I mean, I'd say nothing personal but it's completely personal."

"What the fuck?" was my eloquent response. She dashed forward and I got the fuck out of the way again. She was incredibly fast but nothing was too fast for my eyes to see.

Shinju smiled, "I want to be the only one of our kind here because I want to rule the world."

"You're crazy." I told her. She nodded and gleefully tried to cleave me in half but I was fleeing into the trees by the time her swing was off.

I dove between the trees and behind me I could hear her hacking through bushes. She was immediately on my heels and definitely catching up despite my attempts to confuse her with zigzags. I rose into the trees and poured my chakra into jumping and while this made us more even than on the ground she started catching up quickly.

I thought I was going to be caught until a voice, one not quite Fushicho's, whispered in my mind, 'Use kawarimi with a leaf above you.'

I didn't even stop to think if Fushicho was trying to fuck me up. I just did what the voice said and immediately Shinju stopped on the branch I had been on. She looked around and swore. I wasn't a master at suppressing my chakra because my thoughts on chakra were kind of leave it alone if you didn't need it. But she seemed to have no clue I was only a few feet above her.

It hit me a moment later. She wasn't a sensor so she had no idea where the fuck I was.

"Fucking Uchiha hacks!" suddenly screeched Shinju before there was an explosion beneath her feet.

Shinju wasn't harmed in the slightest and her sights were set on her attacker. Bu stood a few branches away and he was already moving into his next plan with more explosions wracking the area. I almost fell out of my tree as another one collapsed into mine. I dropped from my tree as Shinju passed beneath me and she must have seen my shadow because she attacked upwards. I parried her blade with my shitty little tanto Kinoe got me for my birthday that I was kind of learning how to use. I bounced off her with a kick and landed on a branch behind me.

"Fu! Use your Natural Fire Jutsu!" Bu called as he gassed the area with a stink bomb. Shinju immediately caught a whiff of it and her faced turn a bit green.

"What in the fuck is that?" Shinju coughed as she missed a branch covering her nose when the smell hit her.

I really didn't want to but I had no choice. Rather than my usual Natural Fire Jutsu I tried something new because I was kind of desperate. I never tried to breath fire before but today was the day I tried.

I let my anger towards this woman fuel me.

The smoke came out my nose and the fire came out my mouth. As soon as the fire actually came out my senses screamed at me. The flames sent alerts throughout my entire body as I remembered how it felt to burn to death. But I steeled myself and forced the fires to reach far. When my fire hit Bu's stink cloud, we realized Bu used something flammable in his recipe because it lit up and kind of exploded. It startled me into swallowing some fire and choking. I fell backwards off my branch, screaming in fear as the fire reached for me, and Bu caught me as he was booking it out of there.

Shinju was still alive as we got out of there because I could feel her chakra spike up in pure anger. But Bu got us out of her range and we were lucky in that the way we ran was towards where Kyuketsu was guarding Tazuna. Bu put me down when we got there and I was the one who asked Kyuketsu, "Where's sensei?"

Kyuketsu pointed towards the lake and in that moment I was never more disappointed in Kinoe in my second life. Kinoe looked very, very ashamed of himself as he was trapped in a water prison. Zabuza couldn't drown him because Kinoe was a medic and water natured so he was very easily able to sustain himself in water for a period of time. He couldn't make himself a mermaid but he wouldn't need air for a few minutes so we had time to figure out what to do.

Oh, and a Zabuza clone was looking at us expectantly and mockingly.

"Kyuketsu, do you have any ideas?" I questioned.

Kyuketsu shook his head. I looked at Bu who also shook his head. I stared at the Zabuza clone and the clone stared right back at me.

"Okay. How about I guard Tazuna while Kyuketsu takes care of the clone and Bu goes for sensei?" I asked.

Bu grinned, "Fine by me!"

He looked to Kyuketsu and Kyuketsu sighed but took three arrows from his quiver and nodded to me. Then both sprinted off and like they knew each other's moves (They totally didn't. They just can't sync their fighting styles) Kyuketsu took the clone head on before sliding beneath its cleaver and trying to slap an explosive tag onto its leg. This didn't work but Bu tossing a bomb at him was a great distraction as Kyuketsu suddenly split into several chakras.

I almost fell over as I felt his bugs leave him. It was so weird as a few dozen pieces of Kyuketsu's chakra started to sprint from him onto the Zabuxa clone. When my nausea from the feeling passed I witnessed as several dozen black and red spiders destroyed the Zabuza water clone. Kyuketsu was laying on the floor dead to the world as the spiders did their work. They returned to him and Kyuketsu made a noise that resembled a groan and a "Fuuuuck".

Meanwhile, Bu did his job effectively with several stink bombs, real bombs and fakes. Honestly, Bu just threw everything he had at Zabuza and Zabuza really had no other choice than to leave the water prison and get the fuck out of the way.

I shouldn't have been paying this much attention to my teammates fights because it was Tazuna who alerted me to the sword aimed for my neck. I took Tazuna to the ground with me as Shinju, who was looking like a singed Sim that just survived being set on fire, sailed over me. She was fueled by anger as her chakra lashed out at me and made me feel like I was drowning. Of course drowning didn't scare me nearly as much as burning did.

While I yet again played get the fuck out of the way with Shinju, Kinoe and Bu managed to capture Zabuza with Kinoe's chains. Shinju didn't really care about her partner's capture as she tried her damn hardest to fuck me up. I didn't know whether to cry in relief or cut off Shinju's head when a senbon planted itself in the side of her neck and she went down. Another needle targeted Zabuza's neck and Kinoe dropped Zabuza's fake dead ass on the ground.

Haku appeared beside me and I almost stabbed him on reflex. But I stopped myself and merely sighed and put away my crappy little tanto.

"Oh good. A Hunter-nin. I'm ready for a nap." Kinoe announced before he promptly collapsed onto Bu. Bu made a noise resembling a scream mixed with a choke as Kinoe's dead weight pulled Bu with him.

I looked at my three teammates before I looked at Haku, "Fucking idiots."

Haku didn't even laugh. He had his professional attitude up.

"Thank you for allowing me to get the kill on these nukenin. I've been hunting them for awhile." Haku bowed his head to me as he lifted Shinju onto his shoulder. He approached Zabuza and disappeared with both unconscious enemies. I walked over to Kyuketsu as Bu pulled himself out from beneath Kinoe. Kyuketsu opened his eyes when my shadow fell over him.

"Spiders?" I questioned.

Kyuketsu ignored me, "I won't be able to move for awhile. Controlling them takes all my chakra."

"I have to carry you then." I sighed and looked over to Tazuna, "Can you help Bu with sensei?"

That was how Tazuna's daugher found us. Disgruntled and me carrying Kyuketsu in a piggyback while Bu and Tazuna were kind of dragging Kinoe along. Gosh, why couldn't I be carried all this way?

AN:

Extra long chapter and extra update this month for the holidays! (:

So I changed the rating to M and I changed the genres from angst/suspense to drama/humor. I feel this is appropriate. I try and put some laugh material in with Fushicho's rambling and descriptions. And drama might get changed to suspense or angst again. Not sure. Let me know what you think. The rating changed because I feel safer and more free on M. There won't be any smut so no worries there. If there's any romance I might heavily imply from there but thats about it.

I prefer using shunshin over body flicker, but kawarimi looks really weird in comparison to substitute. I'll probably use the latter interchangeably. I really want to use honorifics and Japanese name for jutsu. But I keep trying to remember who uses what honorific and who just says fuck it and I made a list.

Can Kinoe just be Professor Kukui from Pokemon Sun and Moon? Please? I will absolutely make him wear his vest open and no shirt under his doctor's coat.

Fun Fact- My cat has a Santa hat, a Christmas sweater and a Christmas collar with like seven bells on it. She looks so adorable in them. Except her fur looks silly in the sweater because she's so skinny with the sweater then all of us a sudden all her floof spills out.

Thanks to the following for reviewing (:

RimK10
lizyeh2000
Thomas Drovin
grifman275