Hi guys! me again XDDD it's currently 1:55 AM, so I apologize if this sucks XDD and for any cheeseyness DX
Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. Please review! n.n It makes me a very happy RenRen.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto
He was a fairly good swimmer. As a mist nin in training, knowing this basic skill, and comfort around water was essential, and therefore, had been made to learn it. He was a strong swimmer, his partner being the faster one- in races she always won, a fact that irked him to no end- but when it came to endurance, he simply had her beat. He'd learned a lot about swimming since becoming an academy student: which strokes were good when, how to do them, and a fair bit about drowning.
Drowning, typically, results in panic. He knew this, not as much as generally knowledge as common sense. Naturally, a drowning person will try to grab on to anything- anything- that isn't sinking. For the little blond boy, that thing was Kotone.
The startled scream made Zabuza turn, in time to see the drowning boy catch his partner around the shoulders, trying to use her to keep himself afloat. Kotone, who was unable to support his weight and her own, immediately struggled to force him off of herself, and to keep her own head above water. Zabuza watched, mildly concerned, waiting anxiously for his partner to get herself out of the panicked boy's grasp, so that they could continue.
"Hey! Get off me, I can't keep swimming like this!" She shouted between mouthfuls of water. The blond boy continued to cling, and Kotone continued to try to wrestle him off, Seeing her partner's face pale visibly, as the sickening sound of bone against bone was heard over the waves and screaming of sea birds.
The boy's forehead collided squarely against the back of Kotone's skull, Zabuza watching as her eyes rolled back in her head, as consciousness left her, the other boy's weight dragging her now limp body beneath the waves.
An icy feeling, that he couldn't blame on the ocean settled somewhere in his stomach, as realisation struck him. Kotone was unconscious. In a minute, she'd have sunk too deep to save a few minutes more, and she'd be dead. If he saved her, though, he'd have to tow her back to shore, and his battle with the waves was one he was winning only by an ounce. If he succumb to the cold and weariness, they'd both drown.
His mind raced, flashes of ideas and memories playing out in the short time he had to choose his course of action.
"Alright, Zabu kun, but if I die today, it's your fault."
He shook his head and groaned, before dating towards where she had disappeared a second earlier. She may have been a pain in the ass. But she was his pain in the ass.
Taking in a lungful of chilled air, diving beneath the cold, and forcing his eyes open, to scan the green tinted world of fluid shadows. He exhaled a mass of bubbles, as he kicked his way deeper, after the fuzzy shape he saw sinking to the depths, that focussed a bit as he neared, dark hair floating as she sank, her half open eyes meeting his.
They had practised the proper method for saving a submerged victim, but now, as his chest was constricted, craving air, technique and proper method was quickly discarded in haste. He took hold of the inert kunoichi-in-training's waist, planting his foot on the fully unconscious boy's shoulder, pushing him off. There was a pang of regret, but no time for anything more, as he fought his way back to the surface, and air he now needed so badly. He couldn't possibly save them both.
Sputtering, eyes stinging from salt water, he reached the rolling water's end, taking a painful breath of air, as well as allowing his partner, who he managed to float beside him, to do the same.
He was considerably relieved to see her coughing, and struggling to take in the glacial air, proving that she was alive, and relatively well. A hand took hold of the back of her shirt, towing her along, as he resumed his now one armed doggy paddle towards the shore.
His battle with the curling rhythm of the water seemed endless. One stroke forward, two strokes back. His vision began to swim occasionally, his limbs not thoroughly numb, and stinging, his eyes watering, salt blinding, coughing and choking on the icy liquid that seemed intent on filling his mouth and nose.
Worse still, his partner, who seemed to be slowly coming too, had the nerve to start shivering. "You are so not worth this." He spat back at the unmoving girl he pulled behind himself, who he blamed for his newfound difficulty with the assignment.
Naturally, she generated no heat, since she was completely immobile, and her mouth had taken a slightly blue tinge. He couldn't remember what it was called, just that it was bad. There was a tiny noise from behind him. Soon another, that sounded almost like a word.
"Z...Zabu...za?"
"Kotone," He managed to reply.
"W...Where am I..." Her voice trailed off, and she was silent again, as she slipped back into the cold sleep that called her.
"Kotone?" If there was one thing about cold he knew, the one thing that had been repeated, again and again, embedding itself in his mind somewhere, it was that keeping an injured person awake could be the difference between surviving and death. They may not wake up again. "Come on, Kotone, wake up! Help me! Kick or something damn it, We're almost there." Now that he looked, he could see that this was true.
"Wake up, Kotone. I won't let you die, and get out of this that easily."
She gave no reply, but a tiny kicking motion was made by her feet. She'd heard him. "Good! Just like that. We're almost there, Kotone. Almost there." He reassured, for his own sake as much as her's, teeth chattering.
Finally, surreally, his feet grazed the sandy ground beneath him, panting and gasping, dragged his partner with him to shore before collapsing, shaking from cold.
That same jonin stood at the beach, surveying them with the infuriating indifference he had come to hate. There were sever other pairs dotting the beach, recovering as he was, or huddling together. Others still were walking for home, as the jonin was instructing them to do, calmly. Too calmly.
He finally found the strength to sit up, before nudging his partner, who had fallen back into the deep sleep like state she had been in before, awake, waiting with her as she regained her senses.
"Zabuza kun?" She said quietly, once she had fully returned to herself, "T-thank you..."
"It's nothing." He frowned. "I mean... now we're even."
"What?"
"The tree thing. I owed you. Now we're even." He looked away sharply, eyes following a piece of seaweed being tossed about as the waves washed over the shore. "Besides. If you died, they'd assign me a new partner. They may be more annoying than you, if that's possible. I didn't want to risk it."
"That's why you helped me?" Her voice was unusually soft.
"Yeah. "
"I...I see. Right." The two stood, staying close to one another for protection against the wind that pierced their soaking clothes and skin, the cold finding it's way back into their bones. Barefoot and exhausted, they finally reached home, numbed feet cut and raw from the gravely path.
It was hard even to find the motivation to bathe and change, but the promise of a warm bath won out over their weariness, and they parted ways temporarily. They'd missed supper, and would have to go hungry today, it seemed.
Kotone, unusually, was finished first, and sat, wrapped in her blanket on her mat when he returned, looking pensive.
"What?"
"I heard two teachers talking." She answered dully. He lay down, and she immediately curled up beside him, their game forgotten tonight. "Fifteen of us didn't make it back."
"What?"
"You heard me. Fifteen drowned. They didn't even seem to care..."
He bit his lip, small hand curling in a fist. "Damnit. So that's their game now,"
"Zabu kun?"
"Weeding out the weak ones. They meant for some to die. It was a test."
"So you mean..." She closed her eyes, nestling closer to her friend. "I... I think I'm scared."
"Don't be. Ninja aren't supposed to get scared, remember? We're not supposed to feel."
Kotone nodded. "Yeah... yeah, that's right. How stupid of me. Goodnight, Zabu kun."
It's only after finishing this that I realise how much yelling Kotone does XDDD anyways. Sorry for the cheeseyness. I hope you enjoyed it, please review and have a nice day :3