Well aren't you guys lucky? Two sets of updates in two days!

Yeah, I love you guys. *heart*

And I just wrote this up, soooo...

Enjoy! :3

Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept

Flashback Nineteen – Fear

Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat as Patzu stood, the man having recovered long before the boys and girl had. He smiled at child.

"Well, I don't think that could've ended up any more perfectly than it did," the man commented with a cruel smirk. "Soon your guardians will be eaten alive by the Alrunath larva, and there won't be anyone to save you now."

"Alrunath?" Sasuke repeated relatively evenly, even though his heart shook in his breast. Slowly, he backed up to be nearer to Haku. He had to protect his brother, his friend, his family at all costs. He had to distract Patzu. Had to distract him until either Zabuza found them or he found a way out. "I've never heard of that before."

Patzu smiled.

"The Alrunath is said to be a legendary creature that somehow found its way here from across the southern sea," the man replied, arms hanging at his sides and entire body stooped as he leered at them, the silent blonde girl standing in between him and the boys. She didn't even seem to be aware of the danger she was in, and Patzu seemed to be ignoring her, eyes solely on Haku and Sasuke. "A massive insect that could destroy forests and level cities by simply landing, its coloration said to be painted by the very hand of the gods. However, when the first one landed here on our continent, there was a massive earthquake, and the mountain it rested on broke beneath it. It fell into a cavern big enough to fit the moon in, vanishing from the sunlight."

That's right. Sasuke thought. That's right. Keep him talking. Keep talking.

"Oh wow," he replied, pretending to be enraptured. If only his life wasn't being threatened; it did sound like a fascinating story. "What happened to it then?"

Patzu seemed to take a strange joy in his superior knowledge, and his smile widened a little bit before continuing, taking another step forward. Sasuke fought the urge to flinch, and he reached behind him to take Haku's hand in his. He knew the other was looking for an escape route. It had always been their system; Sasuke was the distraction, and Haku was the knife that went into their opponent's backs. Sasuke didn't want to fight this time though.

He just wanted to run. To run and find Zabuza and leave these awful mountains behind.

"It couldn't find its way out," Patzu replied serenely. "So it decided to live in the darkness. It would grow an egg within itself, die, and the new larva would eat the body of the first to live. And so for hundreds of years there has only been one, and the terror of such a thing haunts these mountains. Everybody thinks it's just a myth." He grinned tyrannically, and his voice rose in pitch. "But we know. We know differently, don't we?"

If Haku had found an escape, they didn't have a chance to exploit it. Shadows appeared all around them, and they and the girl immediately found them surrounded by people swathed in cloaks the same color as the steep rock walls.

"They'll be dead, and you'll be ours," Patzu stated with a smile as he pointed to Sasuke and Haku. Sasuke felt his heart drop into his stomach, and he reached behind him with his other hand to touch the wall pressing at Haku's back. Zabuza! ZABUZA! "They look enough like little girls, don't they? We'll go ahead and have our fun, and then we'll see how much we can sell their skins for!"

One of the men closest to the children took out a long, wickedly curved blade, the hat he wore pulled too far down his face and the scarf wrapped tightly around his face hiding any identifying properties.

"Their organs too," he stated gruffly as Haku and Sasuke shrank closer together, Sasuke making sure to stand in front of the older male. "He's quite the pretty one. Maybe we'll keep the older one alive. I've wanted a slave for quite a while now. I'm sure nobody minds?"

"Only if you're willing to share," another man said lecherously, his voice higher in pitch as he pulled rope from his belt, untangling it. "Be good little boys now, and we promise you won't get hurt."

"N-no!" Sasuke stammered, fear choking him. "Please, don't do this! It won't end well for anyone!"

"Won't end well for you, you mean!" Another man cackled as Patzu neared, entering the circle of warriors.

"Haha, that fucking swordsman!" The man cried in glee. "Thinking he could keep such lovely little creatures all to himself! Ha, what a joke!" Kneeling down so that he was almost eye level with Sasuke, he grinned. "Now he's dead, and you're all mine."

No. Sasuke thought in horror. Zabuza isn't dead. He's alive. He couldn't think of what to do. There was too many of them, it was too small of a space, Haku and he couldn't fight this many alone-!

"I wouldn't, if I were you."

The simple, emotionless statement caught everyone's attention, and they all looked down to see the ignored little girl standing there, hands at her sides and big, unnatural black eyes drowning in emptiness.

"It's a bad idea," she continued monotonously, moving until she was once again in between Sasuke, Haku, and the man at the center of the half-circle. Sasuke and Haku were backed up against a wall with no way out, and Sasuke once again marveled at this little girl's strangeness. "To attack them, I mean. You're dealing with something that you can't even begin to understand. To tangle with that…" she raised her eyes, giving the man in front a straight, even stare. "You'll all be slaughtered."

For a moment, there was dead, fearful silence as they almost believed it, and then they remembered that those words were coming out of the mouth of a tiny little girl a third of their height, and they all simultaneously laughed uproariously. The girl, however, wasn't shaken.

"You're gonna regret it."

Slowly, she turned her head to look over her shoulder at Sasuke, and suddenly the boy understood.

Distraction.

"You're gonna regret it."

Now!

Immediately, fighting the fear he felt beating at the back of his eyes, he leaped forward, sailing past the girl with kunai and fists flying. Haku, a split second later, followed suit. A couple dropped instantly with needles sticking out of their necks, completely unprepared, but then the shock vanished and the other members went into action, along with the twisted guide Patzu.

The girl simply backed up to stand against the wall, placing the palms of her hands against the rock behind her back as she simply watched, eyes big and black and full of nothing.

"You're gonna regret it."

End Flashback Nineteen – Fear

Whoop! And there it is!

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Much love,

DDB