Out of the Ashes

Chapter 18

The Great Bridge

Kinoe's activity in the following days was a bit odd for everyone except for me. He was constantly preparing and working on something. Bu and Kyuketsu knew we were stepping into a fight soon but the amount Kinoe was preparing seemed pretty overkill. But soon came the morning where as we approached the bridge there was a thick layer of mist that was drenched in chakra.

I tapped Kinoe's arm discreetly to let him know what I sensed and he scanned it quickly before nodding very slightly. He pretended to pat down his bags as if checking for something and he grunted, "That's embarrassing."

"What is?" Tazuna was the one to ask while Bu and Kyuketsu exchanged eye rolls.

Kinoe rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I forgot my weapon scrolls. I'll be fine without them, of course, but I'd like to be prepared. Bu, can you head back to the house and grab my scrolls for me?"

Bu's face lit up in joy before he smothered it to sound more professional in front of our client, "Yes!-I mean-uh, sure sensei." Bu thought guarding the bridge was the most boring thing in the world. Bu jogged off back towards the house and we approached the bridge. As we got closer Kyuketsu looked from the bridge to Kinoe with suspicious eyes. He didn't say anything though and as he went to look back towards the bridge our eyes briefly met. We both paused for a moment and Kyuketsu looked away first.

When we actually stepped onto the bridge we were met with a familiar sight to me. It was a massacre with the worker's bodies strewn about and Shinju waiting patiently in the middle of the bridge. Zabuza and Haku were nowhere to be seen but we made a triangle around Tazuna as we approached Shinju. Her clothes had fresh bloodstains on them and she swung her sword sharply. Blood flew off and splattered just at our feet and we stopped.

Shinju, with her sword held up as if she had it pressed to our throats, grinned, "Finally! I've been so bored waiting so I had some fun with the workers."

Tazuna was pale as he looked around. His eyes flickered between each body and his knees shook. I tried to remember what happened to the workers in the original manga and anime but it was blurry. Had they been killed, or simply knocked out? Kyuketsu held out an arm to steady Tazuna while Kinoe took the front spot to face Shinju.

"We don't have to fight." Kinoe said slowly, "We can just talk this out."

Shinju laughed, "Talk? Talk? TALK? Ha, hahaha, talk? You think you can just, take the easy way out of this? No! Nope! Someone is dying here and it's certainly not going to be my people."

Then she moved. But before Kinoe or I could move Kyuketsu burst forward out of formation. Kinoe and I both probably gaped as Kyuketsu made a few quick hand signs and bit his thumb before slamming it on the floor.

"Is that-" I was cut off as there was an explosion of smoke that almost knocked me over.

When the smoke thinned a large black figure stood in the middle. It was about the size of a horse but a lot wider considering Kyuketsu had just summoned a goddamn giant spider. Kyuketsu stood on top of the spider's large, gland? Is that a gland? An ass? It's body? I'm not exactly a spider person. In fact, I'd rather go burn that motherfucker to the ground and I'm terrified of fire.

Kyuketsu notched an arrow and shot it at Shinju who looked about as horrified as I did. But she dodged the arrow flawlessly and giggled as she jumped to the side. The spider charged and she sprinted towards the end of the bridge. The spider must have been a speed oriented summons though because it was right on her tail regardless of what she did to juke it. The last I saw of Kyuketsu and Shinju's fight was them climbing one of the cranes because I suddenly had several needles sticking out of my arm.

"Son of a fuck!" I shouted as I rolled away as more needles completely filled where I had been standing. There was an annoyed growl from Kinoe's side of Tazuna and I assumed Zabuza was out for revenge.

I focused on Haku though and rushed in the direction the senbon came from. However Haku was prepared for this and suddenly I found myself stumbling across a large ice patch. I flailed my arms and my chakra tried to grasp the ice.

Ice, apparently, was a lot different than water, trees, or any other surface, so I promptly landed hard on my back with a scream. I slid a couple feet and watched in horror as the ice mirrors built up around me. Haku stepped out of one and I slowly got to my feet. I looked around warily before focused back on Haku. His eyes were hard and focused as he stared down at me.

Finally, he said, "I'm sorry, Fushicho-san. It's selfish of me, but I must take your precious people to keep my own."

"You fuck!" I retorted very eloquently and Haku shook his head before stepping backwards into a mirror. I activated my sharingan and went through everything I could possibly do to not die in here. I didn't have Naruto to use demonic chakra to explode the mirrors like Sasuke had in the anime. What did I have? Well, Kinoe had prepared me for a few scenarios.

"Hey, hey, Victoria." Fushicho whispered in my mind, "Use me. I can slaughter him like a pig."

I ignored her and pulled out my shitty little tanto to deflect senbon. Unfortunately, I would need to sacrifice some of myself for Kinoe's crazy plan to work. By crazy I mean if I die here it's entirely his fault.

The rain of senbon started abruptly and completely. I deflected the senbon that would hit somewhere important, as Kinoe gave me a crash course of "These are the areas you can't get hit in unless you want to fucking die" and let myself get hit in more minor areas. By the time my body started screaming at me I was a porcupine, but a surprisingly able bodied porcupine.

See Kinoe's plan was based off the fact Haku was a kind-hearted person who wouldn't kill you. This plan was based off the fact that if he was aiming to kill, then as I fell to the ground he would probably come out and end my suffering. See, this plan actually had a hole in it though. I was supposed to not get caught in the ice mirrors because of this hole. The hole being, what would I do once Haku came out to end my suffering? He'd of course know nothing fatal was hit but he would also know that I would be in pain because despite the fact I could move with these senbon sticking out of my muscles, these things hurt like a bitch. I had a high pain tolerance after you know, burning to death, but I still had a limit.

When my limit was hit I literally couldn't move my left arm anymore. A senbon to my knee had me collapse to one knee and then I fell to my side after ripping out the needles from the side I would fall on. When I hit the ground my body screamed in relief that it didn't have to work it's muscles anymore. And like Kinoe predicted Haku stepped out of the mirrors and approached me.

I eyed him as he towered over me.

See, this was where I was supposed to use a genjutsu to catch him off guard so I could knock him out or restrain him. But despite having these nice eyes I wasn't actually very good at genjutsu. Sure, Kinoe and Kakashi both taught me some minor ones. But people shrugged them off like it was nothing and Kakashi said it had something to do with my chakra being unbalanced and that I didn't have enough physical chakra to keep it feeling natural.

Haku knelt beside me and ran his thumb across my forehead, "Fushicho-san, you are in pain."

"No shit." I breathed.

Haku cast his eyes down my body and he looked conflicted. But he seemed to breathe in and steel himself for whatever he was prepared to do. His eyes were hard as he looked back at my face.

"Please, let me end your suffering." he almost begged.

"When you say it like that, it's almost like I have a choice." I barked out a laugh, "Haku-san, we both know neither of us are willing to roll over and die when our precious people are fighting outside."

Haku nodded in agreement before he opened my pouch and pulled out a kunai. Weakly I reached my hand up and wrapped my hand around his wrist. Haku shook my hand off and with speed he hadn't expected, I reached into my bag.

Did I say Kinoe was preparing like mad? Well, Bu didn't want to be left out. So they combined their knowledge. Did I mention how horrifying that concept is?

I dropped a ball and Haku didn't even have time to flicker away before his entire ice dome was filled with a pungent creation. See we put the daidai to good use as Bu realized that if you put enough bitter powder into one of his bombs, every single one of your senses becomes pretty much useless. Your eyes water, your nose burns, if you have your mouth opens you might puke and you'll definitely cough, and your ears are kind of fine. You don't really focus on hearing when the rest of you is screaming.

I started to pick senbon out of myself as Haku started to gag and I heard the vague sounds of puking. My eyes were mostly fine because I closed them after knowing what was coming. I still felt tears gathering though and my nose was probably snotting everywhere in its attempts to get the daidai dust out of it, but I was far better off than Haku. In fact after getting most of the senbon out of my body I pushed myself to my feet and I walked until I found the edge of the dome. I opened my eyes there and turned to find Haku was on all fours where I had last seen him.

I approached him and when he realized I was there, above him with my tanto out, he could only choke and try to move.

"I'll make sure no one dies here. I promise." I whispered, almost unconsciously, as I drove the handle of my tanto into the back of his skull and Haku fell to the ground. I made sure he was unconscious before I looked at the ice dome and wondered, how the fuck was I getting out of here now? I decided to just try and burn my way out since I wasn't squeezing through the tiny spaces between the mirrors. In the anime it looked like Naruto and Sasuke could just leave the ice dome. Well unless Haku thought I was a greater threat and he made the ice mirrors closer together, then the anime lied.

The ice melted beneath my hand as I reached into the air for my Natural Fire technique. As soon as I breached a small hole through cracks suddenly shot through all the mirrors and it shattered entirely. I observed the battlefield and I got out of the dome just in time to watch Shinju spartan kick Kyuketsu off the crane they had been fighting on top of. I screamed as he started to free fall but his spider shot out a web that caught him and swung him back up to the crane.

I put a hand to my heart as I sighed in relief and I looked to see how Kinoe's fight was going. It was going remarkably well where Kinoe had popped a chakra pill and had a few extra chains. I ran over to guard Tazuna in case Zabuza decided to take him out with him. As I knelt beside Tazuna he jumped. He eyed me strangely.

"Kid, you look like hell." he informed me. I shrugged at him. I kept my tanto in a guarded stance as I kept an eye on both fights. Eventually Kinoe managed to wrap a chain around Zabuza's leg and trip him into a waiting chain. Kinoe proceeded to knock him out and drop him beside Haku. Kinoe laughed when he saw me.

"You look like absolute shit." he smothered his laughter, "Your eyes are running, your nose is running, you have senbon holes everywhere."

"Gee thanks." I demurred. Kinoe eyed the crane where Kyuketsu was still fighting Shinju but he seemed to be on the losing side as we watched his spider unsummon itself to avoid Shinju cleaving it in half.

Kinoe launched himself to the crane and started to run up it with more chains sprouting out of his back. By the time Kinoe was up there assisting Kyuketsu there was a concerning noise at the end of the bridge. To be precise, the broken end of the bridge. Gato and his hired thugs appeared out of the mist like an army and I looked back hoping to see Bu and the town mob. As Gato and his men came closer I stepped forward. It looked like no mob wanted to come save us.

I was the last line of defense for Tazuna.

Gato regarded me and much to my pleasure he was a short pudgy man. As he got closer though I realized he was taller than me and damn it, that pissed me off. Gato looked around and after scanning the bridge his eyes landed on me.

"You're all that's left?" he asked, bored.

"I'm enough." I replied, readying my tanto.

Gato nodded to his men, "Kill her, then kill the bridge builder!"

The army charged at me and I tensed, ready to run into it. But a hand touched my shoulder and flung me backwards. I gasped as long brown hair tickled my nose and Haku dashed into the mob.

"Oh fuck no! I did not save your ass for this!" I screamed at his back and I ran after him. Haku was a monster to fight against if you were a civilian. The mob hardly stood a chance as ice captured any man who tried to hit him. Haku didn't kill a single one of them though, only disabled them for the fight. I followed behind and when Haku finally reached Gato, Gato ordered his men to stand down for a moment. I came to a stop just behind Haku.

"I thought you were dead, you good for nothing! Kill her and kill the bridge builder!" snarled Gato. Haku looked over his shoulder at me and I readied my tanto. Then I realized. His eyes were completely bloodshot and I had no idea if he could see me or not. In fact, I had no idea how any of his senses were. I had no idea what he was going to do. As Haku turned to face me Gato pointed the man beside him towards Haku's back.

Once again, I decided I did not give Haku mercy only for him to die right here.

So I pushed forward and Haku froze as he realized I was charging. I jumped over the ice spike I saw coming with my sharingan and I shoved Haku to the side as I parried the man's blade and swung my elbow upwards and broke his jaw. He stumbled back and I felt a back press against mine. My chakra sense told me it was Haku and from there we were about to have our epic showdown.

I say 'about to' because Bu finally showed up.

I was the one to see the small grenade roll towards our feet and I grabbed Haku's arm and yelled, "Get out of here!"

Haku's arm wrapped around mine and have I ever said that being pulled along with someone else's shunshin or kawarimi is the weirdest thing to feel ever? Well it is and Haku's shunshin felt incredibly awkward. It was probably the one hand seal thing but when I reoriented myself and found we were standing beside a very proud Bu, I promptly collapsed. Bu went to catch me but Haku was faster and managed to hold me up. I felt the tremor in his body though and held out an arm for Bu, who gave me a shoulder to lean on.

I only caught a glimpse of what Bu's grenade had done. I had given him the concept of a grenade and while it wasn't working perfectly yet, as the release time was very, very long, the mercenaries weren't as fast as ninja. The grenade exploded and from a distance we could smell the foul stink mixing with daidai dust.

"I hate you." I informed Bu tiredly.

Bu blanched, "I totally saved your asses!"

I scoffed, "Haku-san and I were about to have our epic final battle."

Haku chuckled at my response. Bu pushed us onto Tazuna as the mercenaries who weren't gagging and keeling over approached us. They looked pretty pissed off and Bu gave me a smile.

"I'll blow'em to hell, how's that for an epic final battle?" Bu asked me and Tazuna sat me and Haku on some crates as we watched Bu massacre the thugs. Bu couldn't go all out without completely wrecking the bridge but his close range combat wasn't atrocious. The thugs couldn't hit him with his explosive chakra dashes either. By the time Kinoe and Kyuketsu appeared with Shinju unconscious over Kinoe's shoulder all that remained were a few thugs and Gato himself. Kinoe placed Shinju next to Zabuza and joined the final confrontation where he slaughtered the few thugs Bu hadn't and proceeded to restrain Gato.

I found myself leaning against Haku as we watched Bu, Kyuketsu and Kinoe start to clean up the bodies and check for survivors among the workers. Tazuna left us to go search for the survivors when Kinoe informed him there were some survivors. Zabuza and Shinju were tied up and left where we could all see them since they would probably cause some trouble when they woke up.

"Fushicho-san." Haku began and I realized I was leaning on him so I sat up, "Thank you."

I snorted, "For what? I didn't do anything."

"You kept your promise." he replied before closing his eyes and leaning over onto me.

I gaped, "Wait, what did I promise? When did I promise anything?!"

Haku didn't answer. Instead he let a peaceful smile cross his lips and rested his head on top of mine.

"Haku?"

"Haku!?"

"Haku you fuck!"

.

I ended up blacking out at some point but later on Bu remarked quietly that, "You two looked so peaceful." That left me more confused until Kinoe helpfully pointed out that Haku and I both ended up leaning against each other when we both blacked out. I woke up in the "sick room" that we had initially put Kyuketsu and Kinoe in. My body ached so I didn't even bother moving and it wasn't until the door opened and Bu peered in that anyone knew I was awake.

"You're awake? How do you feel?" Bu asked as he entered the room and closed the door behind him. He came to kneel beside me and I went to shrug but winced.

I sighed, "My body feels like it's broken."

"Sensei said that you'll be fine with some rest and that he'll come by and heal you when his chakra replenishes." Bu explained, looking down at the blanket that covered my body. A few bloodstained bandages covered my arms where senbon had been but otherwise I was perfectly fine. He shivered when he saw the bloody bandages.

I wasn't sure what was under his skin regarding blood considering we had all seen our fair share of it, but I mentally shrugged it off, "How long have I been out?"

"Just a day. Haku-san was up before you." Bu answered.

I blinked, "Haku was brought back here?"

Bu choked, "Haku? Not Haku-san?"

"Oh. Whoops. Haku-san." I remedied. Bu sat back and laughed awkwardly.

"For a second I thought you maybe..." Bu smirked, "Liked him."

If I could get up I would have smacked him. What was with this boy and romance? He seemed to fall in love at first sight every time he saw a girl and was convinced that I would have to like someone. Why couldn't he do this to Kyuketsu too? I mean, looking at Kyuketsu the answer is pretty clear but...

"You moron. How could I like someone who I had been fighting to the death minutes before?" I retorted. Bu nodded and stared at the wall, heavy in thought. I closed my eyes and listened to Bu's breathing before I forced my chakra sense out and felt around the house. Tsunami, Inari and Tazuna were in the kitchen while I couldn't find Kinoe anywhere in the house. Kyuketsu was also gone but Haku was sitting outside on the porch. I didn't sense Zabuza or Shinju anywhere.

"Why is Haku-san with us? What happened to Zabuza-san and Shinju?" I questioned.

Bu looked towards my face, "They're helping build the bridge with Kyuketsu and Kinoe-sensei. Sensei was talking to them for a really long time and somehow convinced them."

I pulled myself up and my body screamed. Bu tried to get me to lay back down but I stood up and ripped off some of the more obnoxious bandages.

"No way am I being bedridden when that woman is around." I told him as I grabbed one of my shirts and pulled it on over my mesh under armor I had been left in.

"That's right." Bu realized slowly, "Didn't she say she had a bone to pick with you?"

I nodded and as Bu clearly waited for me to explain I shook my head, "Sorry, Bu. But that's not something I'm willing to share with you. Not yet."

Bu didn't manage to cover the wounded look on his face fast enough. But he plastered on a fake understanding smile and I left him by himself in the room despite feeling guilty I wouldn't tell him. I made my way out to the porch where Haku was watching the forest peacefully. I sat down beside him and he turned to smile at me.

"Good morning, Fushicho-san."

"Morning." I replied, "How are you feeling?"

"Much better. Your sensei healed me before he left earlier." Haku answered brightly. He asked me how I was and I relayed what I said to Bu, mostly anyway.

Haku hummed, "I'm glad we were able to both keep our precious people, Fushicho-san."

I agreed.

For the next few days Shinju and Zabuza stayed and helped with the bridge. This helped the building effort immensely and I was kept on bedrest by Kyuketsu, Kinoe, Bu and Haku. I couldn't even argue against four people forcing me to stay at Tsunami's. Tsunami tried her hardest to teach me how to cook while I was stuck there so everyone regretted their decision when they realized I was in charge of specifically their meals.

Haku tried to be polite the first time because he didn't have the foreknowledge to know my cooking is notoriously bad. Bu tried to power through the bad meal but ended up sick later in the night and Kyuketsu refused to even touch it, stating he would get food poisoning. Kinoe, with an iron stomach, inhaled both his and Kyuketsu's food.

Finally the day came when the bridge was finished. I hadn't been allowed to help even after I was completely healed. I got payback with cooking but still. It got really boring while we waited for that damn bridge to be finished. There was a small ceremony in the morning where all of us stood, although Shinju and Zabuza stayed off to the side. After the ceremony Shinju approached me rather cautiously.

"I hate you." she said with a pout, "I can't kill you today."

I blinked at her in confusion, but asked, "Why were you at the massacre?"

Shinju laughed, "Not even going to ask why I can't kill you today?"

I glared at her and Shinju coughed when she realized I wasn't phased at all by her oddness, "I wanted to make sure Sasuke died. You see, I have a life here now. Zabuza. Haku. I couldn't let them die, not knowing what we would be walking into. I figured we would be safe if I killed Sasuke. There would no longer be an avenging Uchiha, and besides, I hated his character. But I guess I'm glad you were here. You fought to keep them alive too, so I'll let you live this time."

I snorted, "And next time?"

"Next time," Shinju giggled, "I'm going to rip you to shreds. If I'm the only Samsara left in the world then I can rule it."

"That is faulty logic." I stated.

Shinju shrugged, "It's whats kept me going. Bye, Uchiha Fushicho."

She evaporated into mist. When we got back to Tsunami's we found Haku's stuff was all gone without a trace. We had expected it though and after a teary goodbye from a starstruck Inari and a grateful Tazuna and Tsunami, we were off. We got to be the first ones to travel across the great bridge and boy was it great. This bridge was fucking enormous.

"Excuse me."

We all paused and I felt a familiar chakra shunshin behind us. I turned to find Haku standing there. He bowed deeply to us and Bu, who had been the only one not to realize someone was behind us before the 'excuse me', twirled around and almost tripped.

"Thank you, Fushicho-san. I will not forget your kindness."

I choked, "Eh?" Bu started laughing behind me and he said, I assume, to Kyuketsu, "Fu? Kind? Pssh!"

Haku smiled warmly and approached me after coming out of his bow. When I felt lips meet my forehead I already knew my face was turning red and I started to sputter angrily as Haku stepped back. He tilted his head to the side.

"Take care."

And then he was gone.

"HAKU YOU FUCK!" I screamed and it echoed majestically as Bu sputtered behind me and Kinoe laughed hysterically. Kyuketsu merely sighed.

"Can we leave now?" Kyuketsu almost pleaded.

Bu, dazed and confused, agreed.

Kinoe chuckled, "Yes. We should get going. We have to finish crossing the FUSHICHO BRIDGE AFTER ALL."

I almost tripped, "They named the goddamn bridge after me!? Why!?"

"I guess you impressed more than just a cute guy on this mission, hime!" Kinoe laughed maniacally as he practically skipped down the bridge. I almost ripped my hair out in frustration before running after him with murderous intent. Following behind me was Kyuketsu at a jogging pace and Bu, when he realized he was being left behind, yelled and ran to catch up.

The Fushicho Bridge? What a shitty name.

AN:

Reviews give me life. I got a few that really made me so happy last chapter and I got this chapter done like three days after the last chapter!

The Kyuketsu portrait is up too! Has anyone looked at their portraits? Kinoe is next!

I really want to try and do updates every two-ish weeks, but I'm not sure how well I can keep that schedule.

Fun Fact: Fushicho has yet to make her first kill. Sure she's fought to kill (Shinju, the gold-eyed man) but she has not yet killed.

Thanks to the following for reviewing! (:

ZEROdegree
Tealac
Thomas Drovin
lizyeh2000
Tamani