Chapter Five: First Blood

"At last – a mission!" Rei cried out happily, jumping as they walked past the Konoha gates. Sasuke sighed, shaking her head at how over-excited she was, almost matching up to Naruto's. Although granted Naruto was pumped up after his brief argument with Tazuna, still Rei was practically radiating, constantly smiling.

They were beginning their journey when Rei stepped in a puddle. Kakashi turned his head but Rei stopped altogether.

It was then that chains went flying and two ninjas attacked Kakashi. Without stopping to think, Rei lowered to a battle stance. "Protect the client!" she called out immediately, repeating the mantra that had been instilled in her from the Academy. Sakura shouted in agreement and Sasuke went ahead to secure the chains against the tree. Protecting Naruto, he kicked them both in the face.

With the two ninjas heading towards Sakura and Rei, Sasuke went to their defences but Rei had jumped over him and kicked one of them back, colliding the two together and right into Kakashi - who held them in a lock easily. "Hi," Kakashi said calmly, cheerfully almost.

"Huh? But he was – what?" Naruto looked behind him, "Kakashi sensei…used the replacement jutsu."

"Naruto, sorry I didn't help you right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I just didn't expect you to freeze up like that." The slightest of disappoint tinged his voice. Tazuna let out a relief sigh as Kakashi approached his other students. "Good job, Sasuke, very smooth. As for you Rei – very impressive, good reaction and response time. You too, Sakura." Sasuke shrugged easily and Rei beamed up at her sensei.

"Hey," Sasuke called out to Naruto who was deep in thought. Sasuke smirked. "You're not hurt, are you?" Naruto glared. "Scaredy cat."

This got Naruto fired up and ready to fight his teammate. "Sasuke!"

"Naruto!" Kakashi interrupted. He told the student to control the poison and then addressed Tazuna. The truth was, this wasn't a mission for genin. But this was a team with Naruto after all – and there was no way that he would step down on an exciting mission like this. Especially not because of Naruto's injured hand. Stupidly and overly dramatic, he stabbed his kunai threw his hand…only to probably die of blood loss. Rei sighed, shaking her head but she was smiling at the foolish blonde ninja.

After the journey over the water through the mist and learning the truth about Gato, they were all alert throughout the rest of the path towards his home. Naruto was more energetic than ever with a determination to prove himself and of course, to show up Sasuke except one of his stupid attempts turned out to be true. Rei's eyes narrowed.

"That's a white rabbit," she murmured to herself, and turned to Kakashi who was scrutinizing the area.

Exactly like the last time, the moment she sensed something was wrong, an attack immediately followed. A large sword was hurled at the group and a tall, muscular man with bandages wrapped over his face revealed himself, emerging from the shadows. Kakashi tensed. "Well, well. If isn't it Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja from the village hidden in the mist."

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye. Did I get that right?

Sharingan? Sasuke looked up sharply at his sensei.

Kakashi shouted out commands and Rei followed it instantly and stood in front of Tazuna yet still staring closely at Kakashi's Sharingan as Sasuke explained the dojutsu. Fog began shrouding the area to a thickness that was completely to Zabuza's advantage. As the rest of them talk about Kakashi's reputation, Rei couldn't help but concentrate on distracting herself from the pain she felt growing in her chest.

The internal worry was wiped the moment Zabuza vanished and Kakashi was there, telling them how swift dead could come to young genins who were still too young to accept the idea of their life ending in a moment.

And all the while, Rei was concentrating on her breathing. Slow, steady breathing.

"Eight points."

Sakura gasped. "What's that?"

"Legs, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidney, heart." Rei swiveled around, trying to locate the point of the voice to no success. "Now, which will be my attack point?"

Sasuke was panicking, unable to breathe. He felt like he was suffocating, like he was going insane. Never before had he felt so intense - so chilling.

All he could think about was being in the Uchiha compound, of feeling death in the air, and of being completely alone and frightened, on the edge of something. And now here he was again in the exact situation. His hands started trembling and Rei turned to him immediately. She put a hand on him and he looked up at her with an oddly vulnerable look in his eyes. She saw fear.

Fear did not look right at all on Sasuke Uchiha's face.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi called his voice firm. "Calm down, I'll protect you with my life – all of you. I will not allow my comrades to die." He turned and smiled at them. "Trust me."

But still she felt Sasuke's arm shake under her palm. "It'll be okay," she said, eye bright with a manic excitement. Sasuke couldn't understand how this girl could be so happy as if death wasn't an option to her.

"I wouldn't be so sure." And just when Zabuza was about to kill the old man, Kakashi sprung in front of them and stabbed him with a kunai – only for it to be a clone, and was slashed in half…but that was a water clone as well. Still, as strong as Kakashi was – when he was trapped in the water prison technique, it was all over. The words Kakashi said to them replayed in her mind – protect Tazuna.

She had to protect him.

And if that meant running right in front of him, then so be it.

"No, Rei!" Sasuke shouted at her, "What are you doing?" He ran towards them, throwing his blades but being easily defeated by Zabuza. Rei froze in shock, not understanding why Sasuke would be fighting against her. He pulled her back, away from Tazuna, away from the scene of battle. Naruto was on the ground hurt, and Sakura scolding him, Rei stood there, staring, trying to follow the situation. Although Kakashi yelled at them to keep the mission – the very thing Rei was pursuing – Tazuna himself told them to save Kakashi which only made her thoughts scramble even more.

What is going on? She couldn't make sense of anything.

And to make it worse, there was Kakashi – talking about the deadly graduation exam. This man…killed all of them?

"It felt so…good." The clone was in front of Rei in an instant, ready to knock her down but she dodged his attack and kicked his jaw, upwards. But this was an S-rank criminal and he had her locked in a full taijutsu combat. It was if she was in a dream, her arms were moving to protect herself as her head told her to go faster and faster but she was always a second too slow, not fast enough and -

"Rei!" Finally Sasuke snapped out of it but it was too late and she was knocked to the ground. Immediately, Zabuza stepped down on Sasuke, crushing him. Kakashi was shaking with anger, trying to get to his students – but he was trapped. I can't...I can't let them die like this. Naruto came to the rescue, conjuring up shadow clones.

That was the changing point.

As soon as Sasuke had the shuriken in his hands, Kakashi was soon released moments after Naruto transformed out of the shuriken. With Kakashi released and out with a vengeance, the two jonins were in a battle with the rest of them staring in amazement.

Except for Rei.

Before the massive volumes of water was released, Sasuke ran towards Rei, picking her up in his arms and jumping away to higher grounds. With Zabuza defeated and the Hunter-nin's arrival, danger was behind them and Rei's eyes were fluttering as she sat up slowly.

"Rei – are you, are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said, disorientated. "I'm okay."

But at that moment, Kakashi froze and he fell to the ground. Rei shot up with a sense of duty and went to her sensei, rolling him over onto his back. "Kakashi-sensei!" they called out.

"He's fine, Naruto!" Rei reassured. "He's probably just collapsed from the fighting." Although Rei was sweating, and she felt her arms sore with bruises, she managed to mimic the jutsu she saw plenty of times throughout her years spent at the hospital. With her hands over Kakashi's head, she used the Mystical Palm to relax his muscles. The other genin's eyes widen at the sight of Rei using a medic-ninjutsu, Sakura's green eyes in particular, frozen.

"How do you –"

"Something I picked up," Rei said quickly, "Come on, we should go fast." But she was exhausted yet pushed herself to keep up the mystical palm for a while longer. Sasuke's eyes scanned her face, seeing a girl that was on the verge of passing out yet having the strength to keep on going for Kakashi's sake, for theirs.

Omg. I don't know how I did it, but I'm done. I wrote out the entire story! alsjlkgjakljgare. Obsessive six hours of my life spent on it! haha. Anywaaaays, i hope you enjoyed this. Please leave a review after you're done reading it - tell me what you think! :)