Saturday, March 30th, 2013.
Hey guys!
I didn't update last week because I didn't have the reviews required to, so that's why if you were expecting it. You were close, though - 3. Just one more and I would've updated. Oh well.
I got to watch Greg Ayers, Wendy Lee, and last but not least, Steve Blum talk in a panel at the con. Unfortunately, we only got to get Wendy's autograph. Greg left early, and my dad waiting in the cold for one hour and with us for another half hour (love you dad) only for Steve to leave before we could get his autograph. That wasn't...awesome at all, but Steve was, at least.
Overall, Con-Nichiwa was fun.
Answer to question of the week: SasuSaku is my favorite Naruto couple. I don't believe Sakura could love anyone else but Sasuke, and I think she's kind of proven that, and Naruto's even accepted that, more or less. And I feel, if Sasuke fell in love with anyone, if he let himself, it'd be with Sakura. I don't feel like going much more into depth about it. And don't you think they'd make a good couple? Obviously you do, if you're here. Plus - they're an amazing couple. Their relationship can be cute, real, dark, and heartwarming - love it.
Disclaimer: Sakura's birthday two days, so she'll do it.
Sakura: If she owned Naruto...Well, I'd had done a lot more. I already did this in your one-shot, Epic.
Me: I know. You're good now.
Sakura: Thanks. Bye!
Me: Bye.
ATTENTION:
I wrote a SasuSaku, Team 7 bonding, one-shot for Sakura's birthday and posted it two days ago. Check on my profile for it, and it's in the K+ archive. PLEASE READ IT!
Now read on, my lovelies!
Chapter 7: The Demon of the Mist
RECAP
"Care to explain," Kakashi said, turning to the man in question. He was just where we left him, against a tree. "Tazuna?"
He gulped.
END OF RECAP
Sakura POV
"I-I've said it before, W-waves is a poor country!" Tazuna began, standing up from his place from the ground.
I'm kind of glad Tazuna didn't try and deny anything or something like that. Right now, I'm tired, sort of irate, and want to get all this stuff over with. I'm not in the mood for beating around the bush.
"And because of your low budget, you decided to pay for a lower-ranking service rather than higher, regardless of the danger?"
All of us turned to Sasuke.
I guess none of us expected him to speak.
"Y-yeah-! Well, when you put it that way…" Tazuna said.
"Well because of that decision, you did put all of us in danger and I suspect there's only more to come. These guys can't possibly be the worst after you, are they?" Kakashi said, almost glaring at Tazuna.
The older man gulped.
"Tell us who else is after you – who they work for. Now. I want to know everything." Kakashi's voice was cold and threatening – the whole team (excluding Sai of course) shivered. Yes, even Sasuke.
He did it minutely, though. It was pretty hard to notice.
"G-g-gato! He hired "The Demon of the Mist", Momochi Zabuza and some lower, almost unknown brutes after me!"
Kakashi's eyes widened.
"Huh? Peaches?(1) A guy with a name like that couldn't possibly be that threatening, can he?" Naruto asked. "Who are these Gato and Zabuza guys?"
Kakashi ignored him. "Anyone else?"
"I told you! Some other unknown rouges or something! I have no idea how many there are, but the only ones I know of are Zabuza, two of his lackeys, and this boy he always has with him!"(2)
"Why are they after you?"
Naruto was about to open his mouth again when I stopped him by placing my hand on his shoulder. I shook my head. "Wait."
He bit his lip, but nodded to me.
Tazuna looked to the ground for a moment.
He took a swig of his alcohol –that I had forgotten he still had– and looked up at Kakashi again. (Kakashi's taller than him.)
"I'm the head-bridge builder at my village," he said, sighing. "Many of the other workers quit but I had stayed and…"
He continued to explain about his work on the bridge and who Gato is, why he wants him dead, all that he knows about Zabuza, etc. He also explained a bit more about his choice of ranking [of the mission]. Nothing I haven't heard before.
"So…are you going to go back to Konoha?" Tazuna said. "Because if you do, I'll still go back to my village regardless. They need me, whether you come or not."
Kakashi stood, thinking.
"What do you wish for us to do Kakashi-sempai?" Sai asked.
"I say we continue the mission," Sasuke said, inserting his own input.
"I agree." I said – we need to complete this mission. It's necessary.
"Yeah! I mean, I think we proved we can take care of what's coming! Teme, Sakura-chan, and I took care of those guys all on our own! And with Sai and you, I think we'll kick ass! We'll be fine Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed, an adorable determined expression on his face. He's so cute sometimes. I actually want to pet hit head. Isn't that weird?
You are weird.
Well I'm you. So we're both weird.
Sasuke and I nodded with Naruto's statement. I ignored my Inner.
"Zabuza makes those guys look like academy students, guys. What if I'm not there? You guys can't handle hi-"
"Yeah we can! I'm not about to give up before we even start!" Naruto now looked angry.
"This is his village's business and out of our league – we should go back to Konoha and send a higher ranking team to do this."
Before I, Sai, or Sasuke could say anything, Naruto took out a kunai and stabbed his hand.
Sai tilted his head, confused. "I didn't know you had masochistic tendencies, Dickless. But is now really the time-"
"If I'm going to be the Hokage one day, I can't give up my first mission now and leave this guy who – whether any of us likes it or not– needs us abandoned. This is our chance to prove and test ourselves, Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi was about to speak, but was interrupted. "I'm not saying I want us to just throw our lives away, but I feel we should do this. We need something to challenge us, and I'm willing to prepare for anything - be alright with what they'll throw at us." He said, raising his hand, as if showing he doesn't care about the pain he'll go through and representing it through his self-inflicted wound. "I'll do this whether you like it or not, Sensei. I don't know about Sakura-chan, Sasuke, and Sai, but I'm going to stay."
His expression of determination was one I missed – I hadn't seen it for a long time, and I almost missed it.
It made me smile.
I turned to Kakashi. "I want to do this, too, Sensei."
Kakashi sighed. "You too, Sasuke, Sai?"
They both nodded.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "I guess I can't say no to that."
I broke into a wide grin, and Naruto cheered. "Woo-hoo!"
Sai's expression remained with a fake smile, but Sasuke smirked in satisfaction.
*Drool* Man, I love it when he does that!
Shut up, you.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." I said, giving him a quick hug.
Then, I turned to Naruto with a scowl on my face. "What is it, Sakura-chan?"
I grabbed his still-bleeding hand. "If nothing is done, you're going to bleed out, idiot!"
He freaked, flailing wildly. "Wha-what?! AHH! Help, help! Someone! I'm gonna die, I'm gonna DIE-"
I squeezed his injured hand and he froze and winced harshly. Low blow, I know, but I needed him to shut up and stay still.
So what, I'm still irritable? Get over it.
"I'm going to help you, idiot. And you're not going to die, even if I didn't do anything. Pass out from blood loss, for sure, but die, no. That'd be a pretty lame way to go. No sit down and stay still – I need to heal and wrap the wound."
Naruto obediently plopped down, and I followed, taking out my antiseptic wipes –which are sometimes more convenient than the spray– and bandages.
I quickly wiped the wound with the bandages as well as the blood on his hand and kunai. If I hadn't, bacteria would have built up, which isn't what we want.
Naruto winced and flinched the whole time. "Ouch! That hurts, Sakura-chan!"
"It'll be over soon, 'kay?" He pouted, but nodded.
Then, I held his hand in one of my own, and used my other to heal it using medical ninjutsu.
Naruto awed. "Whoa! That's so cool! What is that? It's healing my wound!"
I didn't answer, concentrating. We need to practice a lot later. This is much more difficult than it should be.
My chakra flow, for the most part, was constant, but was also weak and occasionally flickered. I hadn't been that bad since I started my training for the first time in the other timeline, and it annoyed me. If Tsunade was here, she's force me to train for hours on end to make it better.
"Shut up, Dobe/Dickless. She's concentrating." Sasuke and Sai responded to Naruto at the same time, resulting in a one-sided glare. I don't need to tell you whom from. If I do, you don't know them very well.
Finally, I finished – mostly. I didn't heal him completely because I wanted his body do the rest of the work. However, now it was just a thin and shallow mark. I wrapped the bandages around his hand.
"You know medical ninjutsu, Sakura?"
I turned to my sensei, standing and helping Naruto do the same. "Sorta. I've been reading up on it a lot and practicing a bit, but as you can see, I need serious work. A LOT of work."
"What's medical ninjutsu exactly?" Sasuke asked me.
I smiled in delight of teaching him something –sue me, I felt pride in knowing something Sasuke didn't– and answered him. "Medical ninjutsu is a method of healing cells in a damaged organism to, well, heal it. Chakra while using medical ninjutsu is always green."(3)
Sasuke, unlike his best friend –sorry Naruto– actually paid attention when being taught something in the Academy so I knew what I said about organisms and cells didn't go over his head.
Naruto, I'm not too sure about. "Basically healing with chakra." I said again, in case Naruto didn't understand.
Sai nodded. "It requires a lot of concentration and control to do something like that. Specifically because it's mostly done on a cellular level."
"Why didn't you heal me completely, then Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. I turned to him. "Not that I'm ungrateful or anything, just curious."
"Because I wanted your body to do the rest of the work. If it becomes too dependent on being healed with an outside force, you won't be able to recover or heal on your own and your immune system will weaken, since it couldn't fight anything on its own. Your body needs to do the work sometimes." Naruto nodded in understanding.
"I've seen a lot of medical ninjutsu in my career, and I must say that's pretty good for your age, Sakura. Do you plan to use medical ninjutsu in the future?" Kakashi asked. I couldn't help but glow in the praise.
Kakashi rarely praised me individually, and when both Sasuke and Naruto were gone, we didn't see each other much. As much as I hate to say it, his attention was mostly on Naruto and Sasuke when we were a team, and Naruto after he came back.
Kakashi's not perfect, but I love him anyway.
"Yeah," I said. "Having a medic on the team could be really handy, and I always liked medicine."
"That's good then." Kakashi replied. He ruffled my hair. "I wish you luck, Sakura."
I blushed, happy.
"Now." He turned to Tazuna. "Lead the way."
We headed to the village.
We had just crossed the small body of water that came between us and the village.
As we neared it, I started getting almost nervous. Soon, Zabuza will show up.
But I was shaken out of those thoughts when I saw a small, white rabbit that came out of the bushes.
Keeping up appearance, but having an odd feeling anyway, I stopped and picked the bunny up, causing the team to stop with me.
I saw Sasuke, Sai, and Kakashi narrow their eyes at it. They know that something's up – rabbits shouldn't be this color this time of year.
"Aren't you a cute little thing?" I said, cuddling with the small animal. Then, I saw that it had something hidden in its fur.
Pretending I was petting the –very adorable– warm ball of fluff, I pulled the "thing" in its fur out a bit. It's a slip of paper!
I discreetly snuck the paper into my kunai pouch, pretending I was closing the latch. It really was open, though, so I was safe for the most part. I better read it later in private.
"Aww! Let me hold it, Sakura-chan. It's so cute!" Naruto said.
When I turned to Naruto, the rabbit squirmed in my arms, snuggling closer to me. "Sorry, Naruto. I guess he doesn't like you." We're just more loveable.
He pouted cutely. "Well damn it."
Soon, I set the bunny down and shooed it gently back into the woods.
I turned to my team. "I'm satisfied now, let's go. Sorry for the hold up."
I was walking toward them when another rustle was heard. Too loud to be an animal. "DUCK!" Kakashi yelled.
A long sword swiped over our heads and into a tree across, lodging itself there.
On top of the now-stuck-in-a-tree-on-purpose sword, stood a man I have been anticipating.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The legendary Hatake Kakashi, the bridge builder, a bunch of kids. What a day."
"'Demon of the Mist', Momochi Zabuza. You've heard of me? I'm flattered." Kakashi replied, one hand on his back ninja pouch.
"Likewise, Hatake. Your bounty's pretty high in the bingo book. I'm delighted. I get to kill the bridge builder, you, and those kids. Lucky me." He grinned sadistically under his bandages.
"Get ready!" He yelled, jumping off his sword, somehow pulling it out of the tree in the process and charging us once he touched the ground again.
Kakashi intercepted him before he could get to the rest of us.
While the two of them engaged a mini-battle, the rest of us surrounded Tazuna, prepared for an attack.
Soon, however, the mist had settled around us and Kakashi was forced to turn on his Sharingan.
Of course, Naruto asked what it was, Zabuza explained, and Sasuke gazed thoughtfully at Kakashi, wondering how he had gotten it.
I, of course, pretended to be mostly oblivious to the Sharingan, saying I had heard a bit about it around the village.
However, Zabuza soon got bored with his fight with Kakashi and decided to involve all of us. "I'm supposed to kill all of you so I might as well, right? One-on-one can be so boring!"
As he said this, he created clones and soon, all of us were concentrating on staying alive. Damn it!
Sai promised to guard Tazuna, so Naruto, Sasuke, and I could help Kakashi with the clones and the real Zabuza.
We were kicked around, beaten up some, slashed, but we kept coming back up.
However, one well-placed kick to the head Sasuke lingering on the ground, coughing up a bit of blood. His earlier injuries added to his pain, and due to them, he couldn't move.
The real Zabuza walked over to him, raising his sword.
Sai was busy defending Tazuna from a clone, Naruto was busy with another, and Kakashi was trapped in a water sphere.
I quickly got rid of my own clone and ran to Sasuke. I must reach him before Zabuza does!
Before I knew it, I was in front of Sasuke, between him and Zabuza. Zabuza had his sword raised above his head and was bringing it down.
I heard shouts, "Sakura!" "No! SAKURA!"
Even a plea from the currently-immobile Sasuke. "S-Sakura...d-don't!"
The Kubikiribocho(4) was nearing me and I did the first thing that came to my mind.
I caught it. The flat sides of the blade trapped between my hands. Oh my God, it worked! Thank you Zoro! Thank you One Piece! THANK YOU ODA!(5) I'll never look at watching anime the same way ever again! I'm so paying more attention the next time I watch or read shounen!(6) Thank you God!
"What?!" Zabuza exclaimed, shocked at my strength.
However, I hadn't stopped him completely. I stopped him for a moment, but he was still slowly pushing the blade down on me. I'm so much weaker than before…at least I'm still holding the blade away.
I stepped back, keeping my palmed grip on the sword, not letting go as the blade was pushed down. My muscles burned painfully, but I did not let up on my grip in the tiniest bit.
In my peripheral vision, I saw that someone had moved Sasuke against a tree, and he was slowly standing up.
In a split-second decision, I slipped my hands into the round hole near the tip of the sword, and used it to completely take hold the sword and begin to pull it from the older shinobi. (7)
"H-how are you…" he said, holding the grip of the sword tightly. In response to my actions, he tried to pull the blade away from me.
"Aaaagh!" I grunted, using all of my current strength to rip the sword out of Zabuza's hands and away somewhere, in some direction. I couldn't see which. Hopefully, we didn't accidentally incapacitate someone.
Before either of us could decide what to do next, Kakashi appeared thrust his Raikiri into Zabuza, surprising him. However, in his surprised, Zabuza jumped back, so the Raikiri did not go through him, but had gone quite deep into him, and he collapsed.
When that happened, I fell to my knees in exhaustion.
I checked Zabuza's pulse, though.
"I can't…feel anything." I told Kakashi, panting from the earlier endeavor. It caused a lot of strain on my smaller, weaker, more delicate body. I do believe some serious training is in order.
Just to be sure, Kakashi checked as well. "Nothing."
As the mist that Zabuza created dissipated, Haku showed up, pretending to be a Hunter-Nin.
He checked his pulse as well, and Kakashi explained to us who he was –when Naruto asked– and Haku disappeared with Zabuza's body.
I was about to collapse completley unto the ground, losing consciousness when I felt a warm body support me and take me into its arms, bridal style.
"Thank you, Sakura." I really don't like hearing that...especially from that voice.
I'd know that voice anywhere. I guess he has mostly recovered from his injuries…
"Your welcome…Sasuke…-kun…" I muttered, falling asleep.
The last thing I remember was snuggling myself closer to his body, content in the warm arms of my beloved.
(1): "Momo" in Japanese means peaches. "Momochi" means peach soil. Naruto translated Zabuza's name. However, Zabuza's last name may be a reference to the famous ninja "Momochi Sandayuu", though that's unclear and it's written in a different kanji than Zabuza's name.
(2): The two people he's talking about are Zori and Waraji, Gato's body guards.
(3): That's my understanding of medical ninjutsu at least.
(4): The Japanese name for Zabuza's sword if you didn't already know.
(5): Eiichiro Oda is the creator of the anime One Piece. Now why is Sakura thanking a particular character, Zoro, and Oda for making One Piece? When I thought of writing that scene, I thought of a scene in one piece where Zoro is using a technique to catch a sword to with his hands (often seen in many anime) but was interrupted every time by Sanji. (Those two will never get along...) Here's a link if you want to see it: /watch?v=H4p_Xn7mGHY
(6): Shounen is anime and manga geared towards boys, while shoujo are anime and manga geared towards boys. There ARE anime and manga that are both, however. I have a favorite that is one. Anyway, shounen tend to center around adventuer and action, and what better place to observe fantasy fighting than shounen anime? That's what she's saying - she'll pay more attention while watching shounen as to pick up ideas. Just like the sowrd-catching thing with Zoro from One Piece.
(7): If you look at the sword, there is a whole near the tip of the sword, and since that was close to Sakura, she grabbed it to get a better grip and rip it away from Zabuza.
Now I'm sure you're wondering - does Zabuza remember? Is he secretly planning to help Sakura? What about Haku?
I'm not going to tell you guys - you'll just have to wait for it.
Question of the Week: "Who is/are your favorite character(s) and why?"
Remember to review! That inspires me to write and update! I don't update without reviews! They tell me this is worth continuing!
Love,
Epic Otaku Cherry.
