Chapter 6

"Raito, we should probably say goodbye to Team 7. Aren't they leaving today?"

Raito didn't move from where she was sitting on the couch, reading. "Sakura might just kill me."

"Nothing that you wouldn't deserve. You made the girl cry, Raito. The least you can do is face the damage that you caused."

"She slapped me," Raito argued.

"Who's being petty now? You're going, whether you like it or not. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which is it going to be?"

These were the reasons Raito needed Haku on her team. He kept her from doing the more stupid things, and reminded her that there were consequences for her actions. She knew that he was serious, and would drag her there if he thought he needed to. Haku kept Raito honest, and Raito did whatever she could for Haku. She kept things light and cheerful, and was aggressive when she needed to be. Raito's behavior was almost entirely revolved around Haku, there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for him. The two were so in tune with each other that there really wasn't one without the other, but their relationship was in no way romantic. They had both come to the conclusion that they didn't want their relationship to be like that, so it wasn't. Raito thought of Haku like a brother, and Haku considered Raito an adoptive sister.

"If Sakura kills me, I blame you."

"If Sakura kills you, you'll be dead."

"You think that will stop me?"

"Come on, Raito, let's just go."

Raito got off the couch and pulled on her regular shoes, black skate shoes. The duo left the house quickly.

"Haku! Raito! Wait a minute, how did you know we were leaving today?"

"I have my sources," Raito said mysteriously. "You didn't really think that we were just going to let you guys go without saying goodbye? Come on, who do you think we are?"

'Sometimes, Raito is just too much,' Haku thought as he watched her at work. True, her acting skills had saved their skins before, but at times it was comical to watch her contradict everything she had done and said before. 'And she fully expects me not to contradict her too...'

"Says the girl who I had to threaten in order to get her to come," Haku said. He could almost see Raito freeze, but she didn't.

"Raito, I'm glad you came. I wanted to apologize... for slapping you the other day, I mean. You were right," Sakura said before she lost the courage.

"I shouldn't have said it like I did, I'm not saying that it isn't true, I just should have been more sensitive towards your feelings," Raito responded. "Are we even?"

"Yeah.

"We thought that we would at least make sure that you got to the docks safely," Haku said. "If you don't mind, that is."

"Not at all," Kakashi said. "Since we probably won't being each other for a while, that's probably best."

"Haku, I have a question. How did you know when to switch with Raito? I never saw either of you give any hint that you were going to do that," Sakura asked.

"Oh, that. Before we even started the fight, we agreed that Naruto's back would be to Sasuke's and Haku's fight. That way Raito and I could keep track of what was going on in each others' fight, without Naruto being able to come to Sasuke's aid if he felt that he needed to, and I would keep all of Sasuke's attention. There are subtle patterns in our fighting styles that change when we want to communicate something, she just switched a few small things up and I knew exactly what she was planning."

"It's easy now, but it took a lot of time and practice to get it that way."

"Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye, again? You know that's not very polite."

"Raito, Haku, thank you for escorting us down here, but this is where we say goodbye."

"No. All of you are going to die today, I have no intention of keeping my promise."

"Wait, you two know each other?" Naruto asked.

"Yep, we go way back. Since you're going back on your word, fight Haku and I first."

"So eager for death, Raito. You haven't changed a bit, I see. Is it going to be like last time we fought?"

"Not a chance, now there's no one to stop us. Ready, Zabuza?"

"I've been waiting for this."

Zabuza drew his sword, and Raito took a fighting stance. They stood there, looking at each other and trying to find weaknesses for a few long seconds, and then Zabuza charged at her with his sword. Raito feigned to the right, and swung a foot to knock him off his feet, but Zabuza moved it before she could make contact. Raito took the motion as invitation to punch him under his left rib in a fluid motion, and slid under him so she was standing behind him. Zabuza turned swiftly, and drew a long line of red across her ribs. It was shallow, but Raito was too slow in leaning back to dodge it completely. She did a handspring to evade the blow that would have been fatal, and nicked him in the side of the neck with a kunai that he didn't expect, and therefore didn't dodge. Thick fog began to build over them, making visibility low.

"You think that cheap trick is going to work on me? Come on, how easily fooled do you think I am?"

Zabuza dodged the kunai Raito threw at him, but wasn't able to see the punch to the jaw coming. He used his sword to block senbon rain that Haku flung at him, but in doing so he wasn't able to prevent the chain Raito wore around her waist from pinning his arms to his sides. He tried to use his weight to pry it from her grasp, but Raito held firm. He would have tried moving towards her to loosen it, but Haku was faster, and pinned his feet to the ground using ninja stars.

Zabuza's sword hit the ground with a clang. "This is new, but you're forgetting that I can still use jutsu."

"If you insist on doing things the hard way..."

Zabuza was interrupted from his hand seal when Haku grabbed the chain and pushed some chakra through it. Sharp metal spikes sprang from it, digging into Zabuza's skin. Despite the pain, he completed the last sign and dissolved into mist. The

thinning mist took on a red hue, from the blood that was pouring out of Zabuza's body.

"You'll never defeat me, Raito. Even with your little friend."

Raito picked up Zabuza's sword, and pointed it into the mist. "We've learned a few tricks since we last fought, Zabuza. The chain isn't the only thing that I've picked up."

Quickly, Haku did a hand seal, and wind swept through the area, blowing away the mist and revealing multiple Zabuzas surrounding them, ready to kill. Had they been a second later, they would have been dead. Raito and Haku got rid of them quickly.

As soon as they were finished, a water dragon rose up, and attacked them. Raito and Haku split apart, Haku threw senbon at Zabuza while Raito dodged the water dragon again. Zabuza easily evaded the senbon, but not the slice from his own sword. The dragon fell apart, and Raito lured Zabuza back to dry ground before he could seal her in water prison jutsu. He dodged two more attacks from his sword, which Raito wielded easily. Doing this took all of his concentration though, so he wasn't able to block the quick rap to the back of the neck that Haku gave him. Zabuza fell to the ground, unconscious.

As soon as he did, Raito slumped forward and put a hand to her bleeding torso. "Damn, I haven't taken a wound like this in forever. You ok, Haku?"

"I'm fine. He's not going to be though, if he keeps losing blood like that."

"Can't have that, can we? Silly Zabuza, thinking he could beat us... though I am officially jealous. This sword is awesome."

Haku took out a kit, and got to work bandaging the older man.

"Raito, he was going to kill you, you should bandage yourself first," Sakura said with concern. "He even broke his promise, and you don't have enough bandages to heal you both."

"Regardless, I'll live. Zabuza is a friend, and he didn't break his promise like he said he would. We didn't let him. Besides, I've had worse, just not for a long time." Raito planted the top of the sword in the ground, and leaned on it heavily. "The situation is a lot more complicated than it looks, I owe him this, at the least."

"Are you saying that even though he tried to kill you, you still consider him a friend?"

"We're ninja, things happen," Haku replied. "It takes too much energy to be enemies with every person that tries to take our lives."

"This happens a lot? But you two are so young..."

Raito shrugged. "Maybe, but that doesn't matter. You guys should get going, you've got quite a trip to make."

"You two take care, ok?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, we don't want to have to come back to save you or anything," Naruto added.

"Hmph," Sasuke agreed.

"Yeah, yeah, get going already."

Raito and Haku watched the other team leave.

"Things are going to get interesting," Haku commented. "I overheard that Gato's boss is interested in Sasuke."

"Really. Shouldn't we have warned them?"

"And what good would that have done? They're cocky, they wouldn't have taken us seriously. Besides, we still don't know who Gato's boss even is."

"True, but we could have warned Kakashi, I don't doubt he would have understood the severity of such a statement, though he does distrust us as it is... how unfortunate. Oh well, too late now anyway. Come on, I need to get this bandaged."

Raito left Zabuza's sword next to its owner, and stood up straight, a hand still over her wound.

"Good morning, sorry I'm late, I got caught up in a meeting."

"Like we believe that! You were probably reading again, and completely forgot about us," Sakura accused.

"Here, I got you these. I thought you guys might want to participate in the Chunin exams."

"Huh?" Naruto asked dumbly.

Kakashi sighed. "In order to have the rank of Chunin instead of Genin, you must take the Chunin exams. I thought you guys might be interested, so I got permission for you to enter. Of course, you don't have to."

"Will it get me closer to becoming Hokage?"

"... Kind of."

"Then I'll do it! I'll take the exams, and even though normally I'm not good at tests, I'll pass this one with flying colors! Believe it!"

"You don't have to, but if you want to, come to the Academy at 5:00 tomorrow. I'll let you have the day to decide."

Kakashi went up in a puff of smoke, leaving the three ninja to think it over.

"Sasuke, are you going to take the exam?"

"I don't see why I wouldn't, this will be easy."

"How about you, Sakura? Are you going to take the test? I'd understand if you didn't want to, it's probably a really hard test," Naruto asked. 'I really don't want Sakura to get hurt...'

Can I do this? I've heard that people die during these exams... and I'm not sure that it's worth it. I know that I'm not as strong as Sasuke or Naruto... but... I'm tired of being left behind. I'll do it!'

"I'll take the test," Sakura said with conviction. "The three of us will pass, there's no doubt about it!"

"Believe it!"

Sasuke mentally face palmed at their display of craziness.

XXXXXXXXXX

One Week Before...

Raito dashed into the burning building. Haku wasn't with her on this one, which was odd, but Raito found no need reason to put both of their lives at risk at the same time. They both knew something like a burning building wasn't going to kill Raito, for fear of the wrath of Haku. If it did decide that it was going to make an attempt on her life, there wasn't much Haku was going to be able to do about it anyway.

The mission was to retrieve something, Raito wasn't sure what, it was supposed to be in box. Supposedly, it was located in the office. She only had a few more minutes before she had to forfeit the mission and just get out of there as fast as she could, which she had never done before. She didn't plan on doing it now, either.

The girl paused when she thought she heard a noise from what was supposed to be the boy's room. People had said that he had left the house already... Raito kicked down the door, just to be sure.

The kid inside had some bad burns, and he was her age. She avoided a piece of burning ceiling that threatened to fall on her face, and grabbed the boy out of the room. There wasn't time for conversation, she would figure all of this out later. A part of the floor became fragile and broke, but Raito just tugged the kid out of the hole and kept moving. The office had a window they could get through.

The box was sitting on the desk, the only thing that they had told her that proved to be true. She grabbed it and rammed her shoulder through the glass, shattering it, and helped the boy get through quickly. Both of them got a few cuts, but it wasn't anything that Haku couldn't fix. She didn't even notice that they boy was coughing so hard until she got far enough away from the building that she could barely feel its heat.

"Raito! What happened? The plan was you were going to get out the front door, where there isn't anything about to catch on fire!" Haku scolded when he saw the dirty girl clutching the hand of a boy he had never seen before. She held up a hand while she coughed.

"I'll explain later, he needs medical attention," she managed to get out. Haku looked at the boy critically.

"It's bad enough that I can't do it here, we need somewhere clean. Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine, mostly I got cut when we jumped through the window. Come on, we need to get out of here."

The boy said nothing on the way through the busy city, even though they took the back streets. He was still in slight shock at being saved, when evidence that he had started the fire was all around his room. Had she not seen it? He doubted that, her eyes had scanned the room with an intensity that was unmatched. What had she even been doing there? There was the box of evidence under her arm, but why save him then? He had seen the entire thing, if he needed to, he could say what happened, and people would believe him. Had she not been told what was in the box?

If Raito noticed the black haired boy's confusion and turmoil, she didn't show it. She led him dutifully through the city with Haku by the hand, never once did she relax her grip. It wasn't until they reached their apartment that she let go.

"Why?" He asked once she finally let go. "You didn't have to do that, you know. You'd probably be better off if you hadn't."

"Why? I'm not really sure. But now that we have, I'm not sure what we're going to do with you. Besides bandage you up, I mean. Don't be a pain, take off your shirt so Haku can get to your wounds," Raito ordered, her voice anything but kind and friendly. 'A kidnapping then? Where they asked to keep me alive, but locked away?'

"Raito and Haku, Light and White, that's interesting," he commented before hissing when the fabric touched a burn. Raito was already pulling glass out of her skin like it was no big deal. "I'm Shihizuki, by the way."

Neither of the two even bothered asked how he knew their names, which was a change. Instead Haku asked, "Are there any broken bones?"

"My ankle got a little messed up, but other that, the burns, and the glass I'm fine."

"That's good, it makes my job easier. This is going to hurt, but I have to get the glass out. You're lucky, she took most of the damage for you. Raito, what exactly were you thinking?"

"You know me, I wasn't. How long is it going to take him to heal?"

"You're not thinking what I think you're thinking. That's a bad idea."

"You saw how he moves, he has to have had some kind of training. We have a few days, besides, if we don't think he's ready, we don't have to take them this time."

Shihizuki was quiet, they were probably talking this way on purpose so he didn't know what was going on.

"We don't have anything to lose... Fine, he can take the guest room."

"Cool." Raito's piercing eyes looked at Shihizuki critically. "We're going to let you rest today, and don't set our apartment on fire. We'll explain the rest after you've healed some."

"That's so kind of you," Shihizuki muttered. "Letting me rest after I've sustained such injuries."

Raito rolled her eyes and pointed down the hall. "The first door on the left."

When Shihizuki woke up the next morning, it took him a second to remember where he was. 'Oh yeah, botched suicide attempt. Right.'

"Morning," Raito said cheerily. "Care for some breakfast?"

Shihizuki shook his head, breakfast really wasn't his thing. His hair stuck up oddly, and in general he looked odd because he still had soot on his skin, which was also covered in burns, cuts, and antiseptic cream. On top of that, he was still wearing his clothes, which were done medium well with a hint of burnt.

"Where's Haku?"

"Probably setting up. Do you have any experience with ninja? Besides us, I mean."

"Yeah, I went through some training when I was younger. I've never really done any of it, though. If you're looking for a ninja, you might want to try and find my twin instead of me."

"Nope, too much trouble. What would you say if we asked you to join us? Haku and I are ninja, and seeing as you have no other place to go, and I think you would make a good ninja, it would benefit all three of us."

"You're definitely looking for my twin. I'm not very good at it... I'd probably screw you guys up."

"Look, if we were looking for your twin, you wouldn't be here now, with this offer. If we think that you'll screw it up, we won't let you on the team, it's that simple. Now are you going to let us test you, or are you going to go to jail for arson? If you don't come with us, you'll have a lot of explaining to do."

"Fine then, I'll take your test, Firefly."

"Raito is fine, you know."

Shihizuki shrugged. "Raito Shino, Light Bug, Firefly. It's all the same thing."

"If it was all the same thing, they wouldn't be different, now would they? "

'Touche, Firefly. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.'