A/N: Hi! I decided to update in celebration of New Year's, but yesterday my internet sucked, so…
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but the plot is mine. Bobby is my cousin's.
Chapter 19: Bonds
"Will I... Will I also be able to become strong?"
~Inari~
"Are we there yet?"
"No," Jiraiya answered, exasperated. Bobby had been asking the same question for hours, and Jiraiya was getting tired of it. Actually, he had been sick of it around the third time Bobby asked.
"Ah, but my feet hurt," the boy complained.
"Too bad!" Tsunade snapped, even sicker of him than Jiraiya was, if that was possible.
Bobby made a face at the woman's back as she marched ahead of them, Shizune and Sakura, who was holding Daichi, straining to keep up.
"Tsunade-hime, you're going too fast for the rest of us to keep up!" Jiraiya called to his former teammate.
"I don't care!" the woman snapped, but all the same, she slowed down for the others to keep up. They couldn't fly through the trees yet, because Bobby didn't have the control, so they were traveling the longer way on the ground.
Silence fell over the travelers, until, "Are we there now?" Bobby's ritual statement was spoken, just as Jiraiya was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with him.
"No, we're still not there, Bobby-kun," Shizune answered with a sigh.
"When will we be there?" Bobby demanded as he paused to rub at his sore feet through the ninja sandals.
"Not for a couple more days," Tsunade answered.
"Oh," Bobby said as he began to trail after them. He frowned as he realized that someone was tailing him, and that someone was good since Jiraiya hadn't made a single signal to show that he had noticed. Not too sure how to convey his message, Bobby stayed silent.
Jiraiya had now paused, and stated, "A mile ahead of us, coming fast are two ninjas of about chunin caliber."
Bobby wasn't too worried about them, but there were still being tailed and no one had mentioned it. The only reason why he had noticed was because of his eyes. Please notice soon, because I can't tell you with them in hearing range. Besides that, they'd probably be able to read my lips.
They all waited, Tsunade and Jiraiya hiding their signatures so that the missing-nin couldn't tell they were there.
The chunin arrived with a burst of kunai thrown at Bobby, who they seemed to have decided was the weakest link. Bobby easily knocked them out of the way with his bare hands, having seen the attack from miles away. Not really, it's just that my Byakugan saw through the bush as they threw it, which gave me enough time to prepare to block.
Tsunade punched the ground, creating a fissure that caused the slower chunin to break her legs. His mother immediately was behind the chunin, slashing her throat and killing her. Jiraiya tripped the surviving chunin easily, and pinned her down.
"Why are you here?" the silver haired sannin demanded, pressing a kunai to the girl's throat.
"I-I'm from Rain. Me and-and Ran decided to l-leave because of the constant w-wars," the girl sobbed, not much older than Bobby. Bobby felt bad for her, but he understood the seriousness of the situation.
Still… "Can't we just let her go? There's no reason to keep her," Bobby asked.
"She attacked you!" his mother said, looking angry.
Jiraiya sighed. "We can't. If Rain heard that I and Tsunade protected a missing-nin of their village, we'd start a war."
"But-" Bobby began.
"Turn away, kiddos," Tsunade said as Jiraiya slowly drew a kunai. He stopped, just as a feminine person walked out of the forest, looking like an ANBU member of Rain.
"I will be taking her," the girl (or at least Bobby assumed she was a girl), stated as she pulled the other girl up by the back of her shirt.
"What are you doing?" Jiraiya demanded.
"Rain is short on ninjas," the girl explained. "So we are capturing our missing-nins and taking them back. We are also placing trackers in them so that it will be impossible to run away without pulling them out and killing themselves because of the placement."
The missing-nin looked terrified. The ANBU member appeared to whisper soothing words in her ears as she knocked her out. The now captured nin was silently carried away into the forest.
Thank goodness…
x~x~x
Bobby stared at Jiraiya in horror. "I have to kill a bunny?"
Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Yes, you have to kill a rabbit. You have to learn it at some point, so I suppose the present is best."
Bobby groaned with horror. "But it's a cute bunny rabbit!"
"Yum," Jiraiya said. "It's dinner."
Bobby pouted as Jiraiya nudged him towards the forest. "Don't worry, I'm sure after the first couple of times you'll like hunting," Jiraiya stated.
"That doesn't help or make me stop worrying," Bobby murmured. Jiraiya just laughed as he sat down beside Tsunade around the fire pit that lacked fire. Sakura and Daichi were looking for wood right then.
Bobby trailed into the forest, searching for food. Damn, how long is this gonna take? Finally, Bobby came upon a rabbit, and walked silently toward it. As soon as he took another step, his foot crushed a leaf beneath it, breaking the almost silence of the forest with a loud crunching noise. Bobby sighed as the rabbit took off running, and knew that he wouldn't be able to catch it now. It would be too far away, or already in its burrow.
Bobby groaned loudly in the now truly quiet forest, which was devoid of the regular animal noises because of his inability to remain silent. He soundlessly began to stalk forward even deeper into the forest. Time passed slowly in that place, seconds seeming to last eternities.
After what seemed like weeks, Bobby finally found another rabbit. The creature was chewing on a stolen vegetable, a carrot, he thought. That rabbit is starting to look tasty now… Just then, his stomach growled loudly. Damn it!
The rabbit froze just then, in an attempt to stay hidden. Yes! Bobby thought as he drew a kunai, and without thinking, almost casually tossed the blade, piercing the poor creature's eye. Bobby came forward, and then stared at the sightless eye of the bunny. Hot tears began to well up in his eyes as he realized that he had just taken an innocent life. It was just a bunny…
Sobbing loudly, he ripped the kunai from the body of the rabbit, and wiped it off on his pants. He, fumbling, placed the kunai back in his holster. He picked up the rabbit, and then carried it like a mother would a baby, tears sliding down his face all the while.
He soon arrived back at camp, and laid the rabbit down next to Shizune, who had a kunai in hand so she could skin the rabbit. The fire had not been started yet.
"Where are Sakura and Daichi? They've been gone far too long for just wood," Shizune murmured worriedly.
"Sakura should be able to take on most ninjas at chunin level, which means she's encountered something above that. Or, she was distracted by herbs again, which is the most likely," Tsunade stated.
"Still..." Shizune said.
Bobby's mother sighed. "I'll go."
"Thank you, Akira," Shizune replied, relief staining her face.
x~x~x
Sakura hummed as she picked up yet another piece of wood. She wasn't too far from camp, so she wasn't very worried about enemy nins or bandits. Beside her, Daichi also was grabbing wood, until the small boy paused.
"I smell smoke," the soft-spoken boy stated.
Sakura sniffed the air, but already knew the boy's instinct was correct. It always was.
"Come on, let's go," Sakura said as she began to follow her nose.
"Sakura-nee-chan, are you sure about this? Shouldn't we tell the others first?"
Sakura just shrugged his concern off. "Stop worrying. We can handle this."
Silently, the two began to walk towards the smell, and soon enough, the sound of a merrily crackling fire filled their ears. The two froze when they felt a kunai pressed to their throats. "What are you doing here?" a feminine voice hissed.
"You're-!" Sakura whispered with surprise.
"Ah-Um, we were j-just wondering who w-would be out here," Daichi stutter, his shyness beginning to shine through his usually silent exterior at the sight of a person he didn't know.
The Rain ninja nodded as she silently took the kunai away from their throats. It was the girl from before that stood behind them. She looked better than she had before, with clean clothes and wet red hair that had clearly just been washed. "I remember you two. Sorry about before. Me and-and Ran," the girl choked with a sob, "we didn't want to kill anyone."
"I noticed," Sakura replied. "Whichever one of you threw the kunai aimed for his shoulder, not his heart."
"Yeah," the girl whispered. "That was Ran. She trained herself in medic jutsu. She was gonna teach me some."
Daichi, adding to the awkwardness of the situation, heard his own stomach growl, and turned a bright pink. The two girls stared at him.
"I'm hungry," the child whispered.
Sakura laughed. "Yeah, we were supposed to be getting wood so we could eat."
"Here," a new voice, gruff, stated as the person attached to the voice tossed a piece of jerky to the small children. The man was huge, and a strange cleaver-like sword was hanging from his back. Instead of the symbol of Rain on his head band, the symbol of the Hidden Village of the Mist boldly stood, scratched out, on his headband.
"Ah, don't panic, please," a quiet voice, that of the hunter-nun, pleaded.
Sakura had already drawn a kunai and stood proudly in front of Daichi. "Who are you?" the pink haired child demanded.
The supposed ANBU member sighed. "We will tell you the truth, then. I am not a hunter-nin from Rain, but an orphan from the civil war in Mist. My name is Haku. This is Zabuza," the child said, gesturing towards the huge man with the sword. "This is actually a true Rain nin, who really did flee from her country because of the civil war. Her name is Shizuka."
"Why did you save her?" Sakura asked, mystified.
"Huh? Why wouldn't they save her? All she wanted was to get away from the war," Daichi said, naively trusting them.
"We saved her because we have seen war before also," Haku answered.
Daichi quietly chewed on his jerky while Sakura thought. A war… To think that it would make them betray their village…
Silence ruled over the group, until finally, the ever strange Daichi broke it. "What happened to your parents, Miss Haku?"
A burst of laughter came from Haku. "Daichi-kun, I am a boy."
Daichi stared with his mouth wide open, revealing pieces of half chewed jerky. "Oh," he finally replied after he swallowed, blushing fiercely with embarrassment.
Haku sighed, and then began his story with closed eyes. "My mother had a bloodline, and hid it all her life because if it was found out, she would be killed. One day, my father figured it out, and killed her. So, in turn, I killed him, before he could kill me. After that, I lived on the streets for some time before Zabuza found me." He opened his eyes, and met Sakura's green ones and then Daichi's mismatched ones... "Ninja life is not all sunshine and roses. It never has been, nor will it ever be."
Zabuza stretched now that Haku's tale was finished. "Sheesh, why do we keep on running into you crazy Konoha ninjas?" the swordsman demanded. Daichi eyed the weapon curiously and Sakura felt very worried. Please, oh please don't decide to become a swordsman. And if you do, don't decide that you want this guy as your teacher.
Without expressing her concerned thoughts, Sakura asked, "What Konoha ninjas?"
Zabuza frowned in thought. "It was a team under Hatake Kakashi. They weren't half bad, for brats."
"Do you remember the names?" Sakura demanded, curious about her fellow ninjas.
"I think so. One of them was some brat named Narudobe, or something like that. Then there was another blonde brat with a weird foreign name, and the Uchiha brat." Zabuza frowned in thought. "The only reason why they aren't dead right now is that some weirdo with a mask showed up and saved them. She didn't wear a headband, so I can't tell you what village she was from."
"Weird," Daichi said. Somewhere, in the back of his memories, he could remember a woman wearing a mask, muttering over and over that everything was going to be alright. He wasn't very sure whether she had been reassuring him or herself.
Sakura was frowning. "Naruto and Sasuke…" To be able to hold off ninja of this caliber… even if they weren't alone is amazing… I hope that someday I will be able to be as strong as they are.
"Someone is coming. Come, Haku, Shizuka. It is time for us to leave," Zabuza stated as they all silently took off into the trees.
Left alone, Sakura and Daichi gaped at the place where the three had been. A noise caused them to turn around. Bobby's mother, Akira stood there, frowning sharply at them. "What is taking you two so long?" the woman demanded.
Daichi and Sakura looked at each other, and silently agreed to not tell the truth so they wouldn't get in trouble. "I thought I saw an interesting herb, but it was just a weed," Sakura explained quickly.
Akira obviously didn't look too deep into their lie, as she seemed to believe them as she herded them back towards camp, collecting extra wood along the way. They all dropped the wood into the fire pit and sat around it as Shizune started a fire. Jiraiya was giggling perversely beside Tsunade, grinning evilly as his pen flew across the page.
Bobby was strangely staring at the skinned rabbit with tears in his eyes, and sighing, his mother went to comfort him. This was the image Sakura fell asleep to after they (except for the mourning Bobby) ate rabbit. My family is so strange…
Question: Who's your least favorite character of all time?
My answer: Peter Pettigrew. He was a coward and a traitor.
