Vicious Calm
Chapter 6-... But That Doesn't Mean It Will Get Better
Good to see you spelled the title right this time.
I do what I can.
Really because I thought you just set auto-correct to change any instance of viscous to vicious.
How many times am I going to need to type viscous?
You mean aside from the last two lines?
Yeah that was kind of annoying but I still maintain it's the smarter option. I find it's better to trust a computer than my brain whenever possible.
Yay for spell-check :)
I'm surrounded by morons.
So you're the part of my brain that keeps saying that certainly makes sense. By the way you mentioned there were more...things like you guys. Out of curiosity which is the one of my brain that keeps saying 'I'm surrounded by psychopaths' because that just seems hypocritical?
[Shudder] You don't want to know.
Trust Cynicism-chan on this Ain't nice_
Okay...Well um this chapter marks the end of the Land of Waves arc and at approximately 13,800 words it's also my longest chapter yet.
The fact that it didn't take you half a year to release it is a miracle unto itself.
I'm quite pleased with that fact. University assignments didn't do much to help though.
Whine again and I will assault your mind with Britney Spears.
Weren't ya going to do that anyway._.?
Fair point there.
What? What!
Well then on to the chapter. Childishness disclaimer.
Hang on!
Cat-chan owns nothing Nothing I say(!)_(!)
She's been experimenting with emoticons.
Don't ignore me you pieces of-
Nagi gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes. A low guttural growl came from her throat as she once again struggled against her bonds.
A pair of handcuffs.
A set of stocks with iron reinforcement.
Eleven six pin heavy duty locks.
A rock lashed around her neck.
An approximate six metres of chain; looped in such a complex fashion that it would have been easier to untangle that mess of Christmas light you left in the bottom draw and forgot about. You know the ones.
Topped off with a paper charm used to weaken evil spirits. Which really only served to make her mad but as the guy who put it on would argue. She hasn't broken out yet. The primary logic apparently used in the entirety of these bindings.
Though to be fair she hadn't broken out yet. She did strangle that one guy with the loop of chain attached her handcuffs but she hasn't broken out. Not for lack of trying either.
Across from Nagi, in the wet, cold and cramped room they called a cell, laid Inari. Only one set of handcuffs and a loop of chain had him bound. Not that it mattered at this moment, as the potent knockout drug he had been hit with last night had yet to lose its effect.
She would have called it a long-lasting drug but Nagi honestly didn't know just how long the two had been in cell. She had slept for a time but the lack of windows in the cell meant Nagi didn't know if she had awoken during the same night or if she had slept until the next day. Even then she hadn't thought to keep count of long since then, more occupied with trying to break free of her bonds.
The girl couldn't even know for sure how long it had taken her to recover from her injuries, the path of blood from the door to where she was now told her just how gruesome they had been. Even so it was clear from the battle before that her healing rate was slowed to a crawl without Kyuyo.
The blonde's struggling stopped as she thought about her crimson haired companion. Perhaps if Kyuyo had been with her in that fight...
"No!" Nagi's eyes assumed a demonic appearance of their own. Her whisker marks darkened and deepened as her face hardened.
Kyuyo was her oldest friend.
Kyuyo was her confident.
Kyuyo was her boyfriend (even if she didn't fully understand what that entailed).
But Kyuyo was neither her crutch nor her tool. He was not some weapon to be used or a battery to be drained.
Nagi was certain that it would better, for both of them that she became a powerful ninja on her own. Nagi wouldn't have to pray that he rescued her all the time and Kyuyo would have the kind of freedom he deserved.
"I will become strong, I won't stop trying!" Nagi punctuated her oath with an almighty heave against the chains.
With the adrenaline rushing around in her head she didn't even hear the metallic crack of chain links fracturing.
"Good lord my eye!"
"Stay still and I'll do a lot worse to you!"
"Why would that make me want to stay still?"
"Just shut up and die."
"I thought you wanted me to stay still."
"..Die!"
"Oh you don't know what you want."
"Sakura please stop trying to kill him and Sasuke please stop giving her reasons to kill you. I've already lost a table and a son; I am not going to hide a corpse in the vegetable garden.
As the sun shone on the bridge builder's household chaos reigned. Not the fun kind of chaos either.
Sakura was in a blind rage.
Sasuke was frantically trying to stay out of her range of attack, not an easy task by any measure, and much more importantly, make sure he didn't spill his tea.
Tsunami was calling for an end to the madness, lest it add more items to the list of things she had to clean and/or repair.
Tazuna was curled up in the corner, wondering what hell he had unleashed upon the world.
This scene would probably make more sense if we have a little illumination; to that end let us return to dawn when things were a lot calmer and lot less life threatening.
Sasuke was quite relaxed, despite displaying some troubling signs of insomnia, having not had a wink of sleep last night for any readily apparent reason.
Tazuna was just waking up, having slept very well, despite the fact that his grandson was missing, he couldn't really blame the boy from wanting to get away from the mess last night had been.
Tsunami on the other hand had been pacing all night, caught between going to look for her son and what would happen if she left these three at home.
Sakura was... still asleep, she hadn't ended her sleep talking, but every else had just learned to filter her words out, if she had remained asleep thing might have been well.
Unfortunately Tsunami's fears had been well founded as Tazuna soon did something remarkably stupid.
"Hey I'm going to work. Is it too much to ask you two to come guard me?" Tazuna tried to make the ninjas make good on a contract that he was lucky they had mostly forgotten about.
Well actually that wasn't the remarkably stupid. It was stupid sure but it wasn't remarkably stupid. The remarkably stupid thing was that he addressed his question to Sakura, she being the alpha bitch out of the two, and then proceeded to tapped her on the shoulder.
It was an act which served to wake the pink haired girl up.
Tazuna was knocked across the room for it, mostly because Sakura had an ingrained attack sense which made her lash out at anything non-blonde whenever she wake up. Her alarm clock was kept on the other side of her room for this reason.
The real trouble came when Sakura had wiped the sleep out of her eyes, and the blood off her knuckles, and noticed that Nagi wasn't seated next to her anymore. Didn't even notice that Zabuza and Kakashi were gone also but that was probably for the best.
To her credit she only thought that the blonde had gone to the bathroom or to have a shower.
Against her credit she still jumped to her feet, intent on keeping an eye on the blonde at all times.
However disturbing and obsessive her intentions might have been her search was quickly over as Sauke calmly explaining that Nagi had been MIA since last night, having disappeared while Sakura had been asleep.
A few seconds later, when Sakura's brain had fully registered that information, she did the first thing that came to her mind.
She blamed Sasuke and attacked him accordingly.
Half an hour later and we have reached this point. With Sasuke cornered (the corner opposite to the one that Tazuna was still bemoaning in) and Sakura was deliberating whether to cut his throat or castrate him.
She had just decided to do both (castrate then cut of course) when Tsunami stepped between the two.
"For the last time, stop it! You can't kill your teammate." 'Not in my house at least' She left that last part unsaid for the sake of her reputation.
"Give me one good reason." Sakura was seeing red and had no intention to listen to the older lady's answer but she wasn't psychotic enough to kill a civilian to get to her target just yet. She was however psychotic enough to throw a civilian across the room; she just lacked the strength to do so without the proper form. She intended to assume the throw stance while her secondary target struggled with her question.
"Because Nagi wouldn't her teammates slicing each other up." Unfortunately for Sakura Tsunami was a very observant woman, particularly for a civilian. While the older woman wasn't certain about the specifics, and wasn't sure she wanted to know honestly, but Tsunami had drawn three quite correct conclusion for the past night. One, everyone loved Nagi. Two, Nagi loved everyone in turn. Three, everyone didn't necessarily like everyone else.
Her statement stopped Sakura in her tracks. The pink haired girl glared at Sasuke with the sort of fury normally reserved for Gods issuing divine punishment. However the girl stayed her hand, and her weapon, and turned away when it became apparent that Sasuke wasn't going to flinch under her gaze.
Indeed the raven haired boy had been rather composed this whole time. Without the threat of his tea being spilled he remained serene. Tsunami had probably been more worried for his life than he had been.
"Screw this bullshit; I'm going to look for Nagi." Sakura said walking towards to sliding door.
Tsunami breathed a sigh of relief and Tazuna unfurled himself and started to stand, albeit shakily.
However everyone stopped when Sasuke spoke next. "No."
Sakura turned around once more, the dangerous gleam was back in her eyes and the even more dangerous kunai was back in her hand. "What was that?"
Sasuke didn't back down instead taking a sip of his now cold tea. "Despite the issues with the contract, namely that it's practically null and void because the client withheld vital information that would have raised the price of the job, we never contacted Konoha and told them so. Meaning Team 7 still has a mission to complete and with Kakashi and Nagi gone that duty falls to us."
"Why should I care? Hell why do you care?"
Sasuke didn't answer right away. Instead he walked over to where Tazuna was, picking the old man up without any level of gentleness and dragged to bridge builder to door, likely intending to drag the man all the way to the bridge regardless for how many rocks there were on the room. As he passed through the sliding door Sasuke gave his answer. "I don't know it just feels like something that has to be done and no-one else is going to do it. Nagi can take of herself; we have a job to do."
"Nagi can't take care of herself. She'll get hurt unless I protect her." Sakura's eyes were maniac, her protectiveness as a friend having gotten worse and worse lately.
Sasuke didn't stop walking. "Fine if you're going to go that way then perhaps I should inform the Hokage about your lack of loyalty to a ninja's duty. See how well you can... protect Nagi when you're stripped of your ninja rank for disservice."
Sakura watched him leave, her fury was palpable and she literally had to bandage her forehead as she bleed from a burst blood vessel, but she eventually followed him.
The natural order had been broken. Sasuke had the upper hand.
"There it is." Haku spoke quietly as he arrived at the destination. The head office of Gato's Shipping Company was actually outside of the Land of Waves constructed on a small island and connected to the mainland, though it was more like a giant featureless rock than a piece of land, but it was built like a fortress as guarded even more so.
The fortress office was connected to the mainland by a single strong, if very ugly, rock bridge which made a frontal assault akin to suicide. Worse still a frontal assault was quite possibly the only feasible tactic as the crashing waves and sheer cliff faces made going in back a deadly risk even with water and wall walking.
Even if you made it past the bridge's chokepoint and through the massive reinforced doors then the interior was an intentional labyrinth crawling with thugs, traps and dead-ends.
Haku's eyes narrowed as he considered the many possible death-traps and the numerous thugs would be jumping at the chance to cut their throats, eager for a bonus. "We will have to plan our attack with the upmost care. We need to be fast, silent and play this defensively if we are to going to have any chance of...of... what the fuck are you doing!"
Haku temporarily forgot the whole reason he was being silent when he saw what Kyuyo was doing.
Namely the crimson haired teen was stretching. "What?" Kyuyo looked up in confusion at Haku's outburst.
"That doesn't not look like playing it fast, silent and defensive. What it does look like is that you're going run headfirst at the front door!"
"..."
"You're going to run at the bloody door aren't you?"
"Yes. Yes I am."
"That door is four feetthick. That thing is treated hardwood with iron bars across the back."
Kyuyo sighed but didn't stop his stretching. "Look Haku I get that you want to do this like a wuss..."
"I WANT to do this smart and safe."
"It's pretty much the same thing mate. I know why you want to do it that way because you're a mortal, that thing kinda comes with limitations. Whereas I am a biju. Not just any biju, the Kyubi no Yoko. Nine tails worth of power here. I am an entity of chakra, the meister of fire and I am going to rush that door. All that treated pine is going to be ash in the wind. Those iron bars are going to be molten splashback that will be melt the faces of anyone stupid enough to try and stop me."
Haku had to restrain himself from whacking the Kyubi no Yoko over the head. "Look Kyuyo clearly you want to play the dashing boyfriend by saving Nagi cavalier style. Complete with a nice little kiss with the sunset in the background as the credits roll..."
Kyuyo didn't stop his stretching but he went red in the face, for once though Haku didn't have time to stop and poke fun at him.
"...But if you try and steamroll that door all you're going to achieve is collapsing the roof of that place on your head..."
At that Kyuyo did stop his stretches at that, opening his mouth as an argument formed on his tongue. Haku didn't even give him a minute to speak.
"I don't care if you say you can survive that because you might have forgotten that I won't and I can bet you that Nagi won't."
Kyuyo gaped like a fish when that realisation hit him, struggling both with what he should say and if indeed he should say anything.
"We're doing this my way because it's the smart way. We will play it safe, watch and wait for an opening." Haku crossed his arms daring Kyuyo to try and retort. Kyuyo did.
"So what, I'm just supposed to sit around while my Nagi sits in a cell."
Haku shook his head, Kyuyo was a good guy but he really did get like an animal when he was angry. Aggressive, possessive and really, really stupid. Of course any animal could be tamed if you were willing to be aggressive right back.
"We both have the same goal here Kyuyo; we want to go save Nagi the problem is that you think you know what to go do it. You think you're strong and experience and in a way you're right. You're demon and that makes you strong. You're immortal and that makes you experienced but those two things don't go together. You're experienced in being the strongest but you have no experience in tactics.
The biju were sealed away for a reason and that reason was because you were facing ninja. A ninja is one of the most dangerous warriors on the planet because we are willing to cheat. It is an underlining value that ensures our military might and it will ensure our success today because we will do this my way.
We WILL wait for an opening, we WILL sneak in without anyone ever knowing we were there, we'll save Nagi, we'll put high explosive under Gato's chair and then you two have can sit back and watch the firework. Now sit down, shut up and show some FUCKING patience!"
Kyuyo faltered under Haku's tirade but he wasn't about to let this argument end. Even if he probably should have. "This isn't about me showing patience-"
"That's all it is!"
"Shut up. I refuse to let Nagi wait longer than she has in some dark cell. I mean," Kyuyo pointed at the bridge of Gato's stronghold though he refused to break eye contact with Haku, "are we just supposed to expect that sometime this millennium that this asshole, Gato, is going to take his entire army of thugs out for a brisk walk."
Kyuyo and Haku's argument lulled for the first time as they hardened their glares, neither one intending to stand down on this matter. Of course they didn't stop for long since almost the moment Kyuyo finished talking the sound of marching feet reached their ears.
The two looked to where Kyuyo had, rather ironically, pointed at the bridge where countless thugs marched along with Gato leading from the rear.
Their lines would have given any self respecting drill sergeant a heart attack never the less the sheer force of numbers made the dishevelled horde of hired muscle much more terrifying than they probably deserved.
"What the hell are they doing?" Haku's eye psychically twitched as his inner tactician raged as his enemies, who he had clearly over estimated, did the stupidest possible thing they could have done in the situation.
"Who gives a crap, let's go." Kyuyo cared considerably less knowing well that the stupidest thing his enemies could have done was the best possible opportunity for him. He didn't even care about the sheer serendipity of it all, both he and Nagi possessed impossible levels of luck that they each took for granted; to the biju and jinchuriki couple impossible things were a natural part of life.
It was only Haku's hand on his shoulder, and more importantly the ice that had formed around his feet, that prevented him from rushing off full bore.
"Kyuyo, Gato is marching all of his thugs out of a heavily fortified, nigh impregnable, stronghold. The only way this could possibly be better for us is if Gato forgets the lock the front door. Now, I don't know what dark god has given us this gift but if you screw this up by not waiting until the army of thugs is at least out of sight, then you don't want to know what I will do. Got it?"
"...Got it."
Zabuza swore for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning, which was made worse by the fact that it had barely been an hour since the sunrise. In his defence it had been a pretty bad morning.
He had no luck finding Nagi, not even the slightest clue or trail. Zabuza was a highly skilled assassin, despite his conspicuous choice in weaponry, and because of this he had been put through a specialist tracker course back when he was a still a chunin in Kirigakure. Those lessons had been hammered deep into his mind, sometimes literally, until he could recount them in his sleep.
Unfortunately for Zabuza the whole reason he had such harsh lessons was because, for all his skill in death dealing, the Demon of the Mist had absolutely no talent in tracking. Zabuza could move like the morning mist and cut up his enemies with such fury that they became literal red clouds in the air, but he could barely tell the difference between the tracks of a rabbit and the tracks of a mountain lion.
Still he retained the knowledge, he couldn't if he wanted to, and when he had Haku as his apprentice he passed on this hard learnt knowledge. Only to be bloody pissed off that the little runt took to it so easily.
Still Zabuza wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and after an afternoon of stress relief, he brutally killed some annoying genin that passed by, he named Haku the resident tracker. Only now the girly little runt had disappeared on him, right when he was needed.
So to summarise Zabuza couldn't find his niece, was reminded of his own short comings and now he would have to kill his apprentice when the runt reared his head again. And now...
"I see you haven't found her Momichi."
Zabuza stared down the one man he really didn't want to ever see again. Nagi's sensei, the man he currently hated most in the world at this moment. The two had ran into each other by chance, well technically Zabuza had ran into Kakashi as the later was apparently taking a break, never the less neither were happy about it.
"The same goes for you Hatake. At least I've been searching what are you doing, standing there and reading a fucking porno." Zabuza growled at Kakashi who closed and put away the little orange book he had been reading. You could feel the waves of animosity between the two.
"Don't worry I've only just started actually." Kakashi put his hand in his pockets and slouched over, moving away from the tree he had been resting on. With his face covered it was difficult to judge his expression but the glare of hatred in his single revealed eye was all Zabuza needed to know.
Zabuza groaned, having realised that the petty bastard was trying to provoke him again; if he stayed here any longer Zabuza knew that they were just going to try and kill each other. As fun as that would be he really didn't have time to share. "Count yourself lucky that I'm going to ignore you and keep moving, I have to find Nagi and I don't have time for this bullshit."
Zabuza brushed Kakashi off as he attempted to move past the leaf jounin. Only for Kakashi to step in front of him, realistically such a simple act wouldn't block the path of a ninja. Zabuza could have simply tried to go another way, as a ninja he had a lot more than four directions to choose from, and he unfortunately had no set path but the intent was pretty clear. Kakashi was not going to let him pass.
Zabuza quickly pulled the kubikirihonchu from his back, blocking Kakashi's lightning fast punch with the flat of his blade, only to recoil as the muscles in his arms suddenly contracted.
Kakashi pulled his fist back, his single eye gave away his smug expression, as sparks danced from the blade arcing back to the jounin's fingertips. Bastard had used a lightning jutsu.
Zabuza swore, having never seen the man use handseals. Still the Demon of the Mist wasn't about to be laid low by the little elemental chakra like that. Stepping back Zabuza considered his next few moves, at the moment he concentrated on widening the gap between them confident that in a battle of reach he would have the advantage.
Clearly Kakashi knew that too, as soon as Zabuza moved back three feet the left jounin formed a single handseal. A burst of chakra triggered a trio of explosion tags buried in the ground.
Zabuza's senses and reflexes, honed by years of swordsmanship, prevented him from losing his legs as he ducked and rolled. Only the shockwave still knocked him around and the blast of dirt obscured his vision. Because of that he didn't see the result of Kakashi's summoning jutsu until the ninja hounds had bitten his arms and legs. Weighing him with a pack worth of canine bodies.
"Damnit!" Zabuza swore out loud as the smoke from Kakashi's jutsu cleared, revealing Kakashi as he stood up from the pre-drawn summoning circle on the ground. Kakashi met his glare with sharigan revealed. "This wasn't a coincidental meeting was it? This was a crappy ambush."
Kakashi eyesmiled in response, grabbing his right wrist with his left hand as he did so ensuring his palm faced outwards. "Considering you only worked it out just now then I'd call it a pretty good ambush. By the way; Chidori!" The sound of a thousand birds rung out thru the forest as a ball of lightning formed in Kakashi's palm.
Zabuza looked over at where his zanbatōu laid, three foot away having been knocked out of his hand by the blast before he could holster it. He probably had a jutus which could reach it for him of course with his hands and feet bound there wasn't a whole lot he could do. "Do I at least get an explanation as to why you put so much effort into assassinating me? Even if you're being jealous or possessive or whatever you're deal is, this seems a little much."
"I'm a ninja but you're right I do have reasons beyond the fact that I hate you so incredibly much. That being said I'm surprised you put no effort into killing me. It isn't as though Nagi's around to see I've been watching my own back since I left that house." Kakashi admitted honestly, his line of sight had never once moved from Zabuza since he had entered this part of the forest. Then again a ninja without a healthy sense of paranoia was often just a corpse without a burial.
Zabuza shrugged. "Maybe all this time with Nagi have mellowed me."
"I don't believe that. You took a job to kill an innocent, if annoying man, to further the corrupt business of a tyrant. A good man wouldn't do that and even a desperate man is still driven by standards even if his forgotten them."
"Ever ninja has either killed or will kill at least one man." Zabuza retorted, though if he was making an argument he wasn't particularly passionate about it.
Kakashi didn't disagree with him though. "True most of the times Nagi goes to attack its only happenstance that her enemies will survive. It's almost as though she's been raised by someone without a respect for human life."
"You think that's my fault then, there's other people who have known her longer than me."
Kakashi raised a single eyebrow. "Who might that be?"
Zabuza didn't answer that. In fact it seemed to Kakashi that he couldn't answer. Filed that information away for later musings before continuing with what was, for all intents and purposes, the reading of a crime before an execution. "Well that doesn't matter, it's pretty clear that you didn't just play family to Nagi, you trained her as well. I'd always thought her battle style was a little odd for the area, if you were around though then it would have been strange if she didn't fight like you." Kakashi breathed deaply and it seemed to Zabuza that he was about to get to the heart of the matter. "Children always like to act like their parents, or really any kind of paternal figure, and sometimes...sometimes they end up growing up like their parents."
'Children like to act like their parents... so that's what he's afraid of' Zabuza quickly thought. "You're worried Nagi's going to turn into me when she grows up."
"There's too much of a similarity, the way you fight, the way you act. Things that go beyond a simple sense of familiarity or a matter of training; you're a role model to her. Something to aspire to. Someone... someone to live like. I can't let that happen anymore." Kakashi growled raising the Chidori to strike, even though his hand was shaking from trying to maintain such a powerful jutsu for so long. It was doubtful that Kakashi noticed though. "You're a missing nin, I can't allow Nagi to think that there's no consequence from leaving her home, her history... any of us. I've made a lot of mistakes but if nothing else I can't let that happen. You need to disappear, Nagi needs a father figure but it can't be you. Do you disagree?"
"No." Zabuza leaned his head back and sighed. Incredibly calm and composed, especially considering he had a pack of dogs biting his limbs.
"...Really? I kind of expected more of an argument."
"I've known Nagi for five year and for almost of all of those five years I've had an annoying little voice in my head telling me to suck it up, settle down and live with Nagi like a normal little family. But instead I've spent five years wandering nowhere, telling Nagi I'm going to save up enough money to save my village from a monstrous tyrant. It's a quest I gave up ages ago but I still keep using it as an excuse." Zabuza returned his glare to Kakashi and in it Kakashi saw the eyes of man who had had accepted his fate at the goals. "Do you know why? Kakashi of the Sharigan."
Kakashi stared unimpressed but didn't speak.
"I spent years staining my hands with blood and enjoying it. I can't even be an effective role model, there's no way I can be family to anyone at this point. So if you're going to kill then tell Nagi I died with class." Zabuza's eyes moved to Kakashi's Chidori, even if was getting executed he wouldn't be able to die as an assassin if he didn't see the guillotine drop.
Zabuza waited for the blade to drop, but it never did. Kakashi flexed his hand and the Chidroi faded into nothing, taking its static birdsong with it.
Kakashi looked at Zabuza and kicked dirt in his face. "Is that it? You think this is class, I've seen men rush against a horde of enemies with both arms broken who died with more 'grace' than you."
"What was that!" Zabuza growled, stepping to his bloodstained feet as the nin-dogs returned to the summoun realm in a cloud of smoke.
Kakashi didn't balk as the missing nin grabbed him by the collar with blood covered hands. "If you're going to die then at least die trying. I hate it when people who die for others but people you just sit there and accept their deaths without even trying to do something are even worse. If you've got some much blood on your hands then go and wash it off."
Zabuza flung Kakashi backwards, ignoring the pang of pain in his injured limb, which is to say all his limbs, as he did so. "You think it's that easy you little Boy Scout."
"No," Kakashi regained his footing after being tossed backwards, "but I think at least trying is a lot more worthwhile than waiting to die." Zabuza didn't speak and even the byakugan wouldn't have been able to read his expression. Kakashi continued. "Since I can't stand to watch a man die so pathetically, I'm going to give you another chance. This time try and wash the blood off your hands. When, or if, you ever do see if you're capable of being the kind of father figure she needs. If you fail though..." His face might have been covered but Zabuza could swear the leaf jounin was smirking. "Then I'll happily step up and take that place for myself."
"Like hell you will!" Picking the kubikirihoncho off the ground Zabuza swung the massive blade aiming to cut the Copy Nin's torso in half. Except that, mid swing, he stopped and strapped the weapon into its place on his back. "You know what... fine. We'll play it your way. I'll beat you at your own game."
"I doubt that."
The two exchanged an unspoken vow, or perhaps it was more like a challenge, a duel between gentlemen or at least men who thought they could pretend to be gentle rather than the aggressive monsters they usually were.
Never the less it was the second pact with a demon in as many days, even if the demon here was one in name. Like the other pact the mood was ruined as soon as it began. Except instead of a creepy little rabbit showing up it was a raucous explosion.
Both jounin went to ground as soon as the sound hit their ears. Once the initial blast had passed and there were no secondary blasts the two looked up, a plume of black smoke with a bluish tinge marked the blast site nearby.
Each ninja's first thought was simultaneous and identical. 'Nagi!'
In a flash both the Copy Nin and the Demon of the Mist were off, rushing to the site of the explosive and hopefully the sight of their blonde.
Only they were incorrect. Despite the blonde girl's bouts of pyromania she wasn't responsible for this particular explosion. Let's go back about half an hour to properly explain the circumstances here.
Sasuke and Sakura had just arrived at the construction site for Tazuna's bridge. Tazuna himself was positioned between the two for his protection. To the say the man was a little shaken would be an understatement having little confidence in his bodyguards. Fully expecting them to start squabbling at any moment, until eventually there would be as massive fight and he'd be killed in the crossfire. The more he though the more he began to think that it would have been safer to leave the house on his own.
Never the less his concerns were for naught at the three made it to the bridge without incident. It helped that both Sakura and Sasuke were a bit occupied. Sakura having spent the entire time brooding, being incredibly pissed off at the whole situation even if she had come to accept it somewhat. Still she had taken point and should really have been on the lookout for enemies.
Her teammate wasn't doing much better, Sasuke having spent the walk chatting away possessing countless questions to Tazuna about construction.
"Exposition." He called it though no one had asked, even though he went on to say (once again unprovoked) that it was a bit pointless as none of the readers were around to hear him. Really the only purpose it served was to make Sakura's mental 'urge to kill' meter rise.
If was a relief when Tazuna finally said. "We're here." The bridge builder stood proudly, hands and his hips, as they looked over his creation. The bridge that would connect the Land of Waves to the mainland, a monument of rebellion spread out in front of them.
"What a wreck." Sakura said simply, a sword piercing Tazuna's pride as she did so.
Sasuke was relatively more understanding. "There is clearly still a lot of work that needs to be done. What we are looking at is the older bridge they have to demolish to make way for the new bridge." Well in relative to Sakura's comment is was more understanding... kind of.
"There wasn't an old bridge, if there was a bridge here before this wouldn't have been a problem." Sakura said.
Sasuke shrugged in response. "I'll admit I was trying to save the builder's misplaced pride."
"How was any of that going to save my pride!" Tazuna snapped, his pride was of course soundly broken. The bridge builder slumped over, he hadn't even started working and his body was already emotionally drained. This was not going to be a good day. "Look it might not seem like much right now but," Tazuna gestured to the piles of cut stones and the palettes of concrete powder that littered the construction site, "both ends of the bridge have been built and the support struts put in place. That's about half the work done. All me and the worker have to do now is make the two ends meet in the middle." Tazuna led the two ninjas to where the bridge half on their side dropped off. Morning mist covered the ocean but the other end of the bridge was easy enough to see. There was a considerable distance between the two ends but at the least there was more work that needed that had been done than work that had to be done.
"Out of curiosity how do you get between the two?" Sasuke asked, he wasn't all that curious actually but exposition demanded someone ask the question.
"We used boats at first, and still do for the bigger equipment and supplies, but once the support struts got in put everyone just walked across them."
Sasuke looked over the side, seeing the iron bars that Tazuna had been referring to running out of the rock. Three large beams on the left, right and in the middle were easily big enough for a fully grown man to walk across without the need to balance. On the other hand there were also several smaller guide lines, but it was doubtful the builders would have used these, as the guide lines were just metal cables. Walking across them would have been like a tightrope act.
"Seems dangerous." Sasuke eventually concluded but Tazuna only shrugged it off.
"There is always a certain level of risk when it comes to contruction."
"If only there was some kind of code for health and safety in the workplace." Sasuke said in monotone. "Then if there was some kind of union for workers. Established in order to ensure that this, theoretical, code was upheld."
"I better not hear talk like that when the workers show up." Tazuna warned Sasuke, he would have poked the genin in the chest to get his point across if he wasn't so terrified of these ninja freaks. "Last thing I need is for them to get any ideas."
"Speaking for which, where are all the workers?" This time Sasuke was genuinely curious as opposed to simply asking for some insane and incomprehensible reason. In the time they had been at the construction site Sasuke hadn't seen another soul.
Tazuna was less concerned about the whereabouts of his workers. It wasn't as though this was the first time there had been a mass bout of laziness in his workers. "They'll show up sooner or later. Now we should work out what to do with you two. It'll take at least a solid week of work to complete the bridge and that's assuming we get lucky and Gato leaves us alone. Which he won't." Tazuna sighed deeply. "So I want you two to keep things from going wrong until the bridge is done. Just to be clear by 'things' I mean Gato's thugs and by 'going wrong' I mean showing up to hassle us."
Sakura opened her mouth preparing a tirade based predominately around the theme of 'why the hell should I listen to you'. Before she could get the first 'fuck you old man' though Sasuke whacked her over the head. The Uchiha might have well kicked a black cat for all the trouble that action would bring him in the future. Still it shut Sakura up for the moment as she was reminded of the threat Sasuke held over her. So instead the girl asked a question that was actually productive to the mission "How many of Gato's men are going to show up?"
Tazuna though for a moment after releasing a breath he didn't notice he was holding. "Not really sure on that one, considered what happened with that bandage guy I'd have expected one of two gangs to have showed up to try and kill me in his steed."
"Perhaps we got lucky," Sasuke theorised, "there is always the possibility that Gato doesn't know his hired missing-nin defected... or got distracted as the case may be."
"I wasn't certain actually, but now I have confirmation I think I'll just go ahead and kill you all myself." A voice spoke from the other side of the bridge.
Tazuna shit himself as soon as he looked over at the opposite end of the bridge.
The Konoha genins were much less impressed. Gato was a short and somewhat greasy man who really didn't look all that intimidating. Fortunately for him Gato had money which allowed him to pay other people to be intimidating for him. In this case it was a horde of hired thugs. "For the record when I say I'll kill you I mean of course they'll kill you."
"Yeah we kind of got that." Sasuke said flippantly.
"Pretty obvious tactics for slime like you." Sakura laughed.
Gato didn't find anything funny though. "Y'know, I was just going to offer a bonus to whoever killed the bridge builder but now I'm going to give a pay rise to whoever tortures the little brats." The thugs at Gato's backs roared in excitement. A sound soon followed by a chorus of the clanging of feet as the quickest thugs jumped down onto the metal bars which connected the bridges.
"See this is why exposition is important. If it wasn't for me the readers would never had known about the beams. It would be like there was no way for the thugs to cross, thus leaving us free to pick them off with ranged attacks." Sasuke was overjoyed, so naturally Sakura wanted to kill him in response.
"Here's the plan. First we kill them and then you." Sakura spoke, rage and poison in her voice.
"Fair enough but might I make an amendment to that plan which carries actual tactical value?"
"What?"
Four lines of men arranged themselves with practiced ease around Gato's end of the bridge, making sure not to cut off the way to the support beams. The first line dropped to their knees once everyone was in position, both lines of men prepared crossbows as they did so. All of them were ready to kill their enemies with the kind of tenacity that only the promise of a fat pay check could provide.
"Take out the archers first." Sasuke pulled Tazuna out of the way as the initial volley was launched.
Sakura took cover as well, moving behind a pile of rocks, tossing senbon into the archer's lines to cover her escape. Felling a number of archers in the process but not nearly enough to make the group any less of a serious threat.
Sasuke was unable to attack for the moment, having his hands full as he dragged the bridge builder behind a nearby palette filled with bags of concrete. It would keep the client away from the crossbow bolts at the least so Sasuke was cleared up to go on the offensive.
Leaping up and on to the palette Sasuke picked his weapon of choice for this fight, kunai was explosive tags pierced onto the tips. Using both hands he tossed three at the three bars in sequence. Targeting the three thugs who were just climbing off of the bars and onto the ninja's side of the bridge. Weapons at the ready to attack.
The resulting trio of explosives sent them falling injured, at best, into the ocean and knocked a few of men behind them as well. The losses didn't faze any of the remaining thugs though. They just kept pushing forward each driven by the force of greed.
Gato himself had disappeared in the initial rush. Likely having retreated to the back of his forces, unwilling to put himself at risk. At the moment there as little either genin could do about that.
Sakura had to stay focused and keep moving, attaching whenever she moved between cover. Her poisoned projectiles could easily kill a man with one dose but they weren't fast acting enough to reduce the threat of the archers quickly. Meaning she had to first incapacitate the men with a dwindling number of irritants, anesthics and hallucinogens to keep the fire off of Sasuke while he worked. Her own desire to win was overriding her desire to see him dead, if only temporarily.
Meanwhile Sasuke focused his efforts into halting the rush of thugs over the support beams. The chokepoint the bars created where invaluable in this situation. Indeed they were the only thing that prevented the army of thugs from overwhelming the ninjas the first attack. It gave them an edge but the fact that a single ninja had to cover three possible entrances meant that it was a tenuous advantage at best. Leaving a single beam unattended for too long would soon result in a flood of thugs.
Still while the use of ranged attacks allowed both to cover their targets with a large attack spread Sasuke doubted that either his explosives or Sakura's toxins would last the entire battle. He could only hope that thugs would lose enough men so as to make a melee attack feasible. Still at the current rate of usage it looked like they might do just that.
'As long as nothing goes wrong we might just win this.' Sasuke thought and immediately regretted it, somehow he knew, within his budding psychosis, that he had just ensured their deaths through the dreaded jinx.
Sure enough as soon as Sasuke's thoughts turned to impending doom, Sakura's thoughts turned to impatience.
"I've had enough of this game." Once again Sakura moved behind a pile of rocks for cover, only this time she stayed there, removing three vacuum sealed vials from her little bag of tricks. Two clear vials and one a vial a strange bright blue.
Sasuke leapt off the palette of concert, without Sakura covering him he was at the mercy of the archers and caught two bolts across his burnt arm. Not that he noticed the bolts cutting a set of parallel across the limb since all the skin on the arm was scar tissue by now.
Landing in front on Tazuna he looked over to Sakura looking for a clue as to what she had in her hands. He had no chance of working out what was in the unlabelled vials but since Sakura had pulled out her mask along with them Sasuke covered his mouth with the sleeve that hadn't been burnt off yesterday. Motioning for Tazuna to do the same and stay low for good measure. Sasuke might not know what she had but he had a fairly good idea of what she was going to do with them.
With three quick swings of her arm Sakura launched the vials over the rock pile, taking care with the individual flight arcs of each vial so that they landing in different places along Gato's end of the bridge. The two clear vials were an immolate and a gas based accelerant, you don't want to know what the blue vial would do, so she didn't want the vials mixing as soon as they hit the air.
So of course as soon as the vials reached the peak of their arcs over the unfinished middle of the bridge that the remaining archers launched their next volley of bolts. Wether intentionally or accidently the bolts cut through the vials. Shattering the glass and mixing the contents with the air and, worst of all, since they were so close, mixing them with each other.
The result lit up the morning sky like a second, albeit blue tinged, sunrise.
Inari's brain was rattling around in his skull and he hadn't even moved yet. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he had just been broken out of the deepest sleep of his life by the incessant rattling of chains.
It took several minutes of mental grumbling and groaning but eventually, he broke out of the half awake, half asleep stupor he had just been stuck in. The first thing he saw was a vista of a brick wall and was hardly worth the effort but when he turned over and saw his second sight he awoke instantly.
"Nagi!" Inari's new friend was bound with the most complex system of bonds he had ever seen.
The same rattling chains that had woken Inari up halted as the blonde ceased her struggle. "I...Inari!" Nagi said in hesitant surprise, her voice hoarse from roaring in indignation all morning. Once she established that this wasn't a walking dream, mostly because of the pain in her wrists, where the cuffs cut into her, Nagi grew brighter. "Inari! You're awake!"
The blonde girl gave a wide grin in relief but Inari wasn't very relieved himself looking over the state his friend was in. She had more metal wrapped around her than that Zabuza guy probably had used in his sword. The ground beneath her was caked in dried blood with fresh blood dripping from the wounds on her arms and wrists. The worst part was not since he had regained consciousness he Nagi stopped crying.
"Nagi. Are you..."
"I'm alright!" Nagi answered a little too quickly. She tried to wipe her eyes with her sleeve but the chains wouldn't allow her to move her limbs that much. "I...I can get out...of...of this I just..."
Nagi's reassurance seemed to be aimed more at herself than Inari. It didn't seem to work though as her words soon turned into blubbering.
Nagi's continued determination had been driven by pep talks for some time now but, as soon as she had an audience to her hopeless struggling, the young girl broke. A flood or tears and self doubt flowed out. Racking her body with sobs. 'I can't do this!' Nagi cried internally.
Her tears felt like they would last forever when she felt cloth under her eyes. It almost hurt to do so but Nagi opened her eyes.
Inari had moved in front of her, pulling his own chain taught to stretch as far as possible, and was wiping her tears away with his bawled up bucket hat.
"I...I...I..." Nagi continued to blubber as Inari gently patted away the streams of salt water.
He gave her four words of comfort. "You can do this." Inari spoke slowly and softly, letting the sentiment sink in while the boy continued to clear her eyes.
"I can... I can do this..." Nagi spoke quietly but, as Inari noticed, her tears had stopped flowing. "I can do this."
She was hurt, hoarse and bound to a wall but when Nagi grinned a mouthful of sharp teeth she looked like she could take on the world and win.
Inari pulled back his hat though, with all the blood and salt water staining it, he understandably didn't put it back on. "Ah! I just remembered." Sitting back and letting the chain loosen, pulling on it had hurt his wrist but he wouldn't dare to complain, Inari pulled out something he had stuck behind him in his belt. That 'something' just so happened to be something useful. The sealing scroll in which Nagi kept her zanbatō.
"I grabbed it during the start of the fight. Figured you would need it put away your giant sword after the battle. Although... I don't know where your sword is but I thought, perhaps, you would have some of those ninja knives in here as well." Inari explained, as a civilian he didn't know the ninja terminology, calling kunai 'ninja knives' for instance, nevertheless his thinking was clear.
However unwittingly he had done something much better than simply pick up a dropped bag. Nagi's grin grew wider and even more bloodthirsty.
Extending her left arm as far as the chain would allow Nagi stretched her palm open. "Listen closely Inari, I want you to unroll the scroll to the second big seal and place it under my palm."
Doing as he was instructed, though he was a little unsure about her usage of the word 'seal', Inari unrolled the scroll. He saw the first big seal, assuming that was what the confusing mass of wiggly lines was, if these drawings could contain objects Inari guessed correctly that this was where Nagi kept her favourite giant sword. Continuing he passed a few smaller seals accompanied by cutesy pictographs ranging from a cup of ramen to a severed head with Xs for eyes (which he really hoped was a metaphor for something). Eventually he came to the seal Nagi wanted, it was a bit smaller than the first and the ink wasn't as faded, but like the first seal it lacked an explanatory pictograph.
Inari didn't waste time wondering and simply put the seal under Nagi's outstretched palm. He was so focused on the paper he didn't notice Nagi forming a hand seal with her right hand.
"Release."
There was a puff of smoke which caused Inari to fall back in surprise, in his deference the boy wasn't used to ninja's and their techniques.
When the smoke had cleared and Inari had regained his senses he saw the sealed item. It was a two foot, pitch black machete. It was intimidating and no doubt very sharp.
From all he knew of the girl Inari shouldn't have been all that surprised that the girl had a few spare weapons, there was after all a lot of that scroll he didn't see, indeed thinking on it he soon recognised the machete from one of Nagi's stories. It was the machete that had been given to her as a graduation present from her uncle.
He didn't have much time to dwell on it though as Nagi was eager to escape her bonds. "Cover your head. My Houdini impersonation tends to involve shrapnel."
Inari quickly did so, which was good as Nagi didn't bother to check he did before she began.
The next five minutes were a symphony of destruction as what sounded like a recording of a machine sound colliding with a scrap yard echoed throughout the small cell. Inari was more worried about his hearing than the little metal pieces of broken chain that bounced off him.
Soon though there was one last sound, the clang of mass of metal falling to the ground, and the cell went quiet. The silence lasted all of half a minute before the sound of laughter filled the void. Laughter both adorable and maniacal in its tone.
Inari removed the arms from over his eyes and was rewarded with the sight of the small blonde girl, free, laughing and looking even happier than she normally did.
Inari couldn't help but laugh with her.
"Okay... Okay." Inari said, once the breath in his body had left him.
"You ready to go?"
Nagi, who didn't look out of breath in the least, motioned for one minute. She then turned around and then turned around two more times before finally settling on a direction. Once she had done so Nagi closed her eyes, giggling as she did so, the blonde had a soft smile and a blush on her face.
Inari just had to ask. "What was that about?"
"I was sending a message back to Kyuyo in Konoha. Just telling him that, under my own power, I was able to become a bit closer to being a great ninja. I figure he'll be proud."
"You two can communicate telepathically!" Inari was amazed.
"No." Now Inari was annoyed. "At least I don't think so but then again we've never tried. So if he doesn't receive the message I'll just tell him when I get back to Konoha."
'Ahhh, young love.' Inari thought like an old man. "Maybe he'll take you on a date as a reward."
Nagi giggled and went an even deeper shade of red. No doubt she had the same ideas when 'sending' the message.
Inari almost wanted to meet this Kyuyo. Even if he was apparently a demon Nagi seemed to love and trust him a lot. Suddenly Inari had a strange thought. 'Hmmm. Why does it feel like we're building to something?'
"Well then." Nagi once more flashed a sharp toothed grin as she spun her machete in one hand. "You ready to bust out of this joint?"
Inari smiled. 'Whatever, I doubt anything could ruin this moment.' Inari motioned to the hardwood door. "Ladies-slash-psychopaths first."
"Such a gentleman." Nagi raised her machete ready to splitter the door with a hail of attacks and then repeat the attack process on anyone that stood in their way.
Before she could put this plan into action though, the door burst off its hinges. Buffeting the pair with a storm of splitters.
When the waves of heat that came along with the splinters died down Inari opened his eyes, a few seconds before Nagi did, he saw a red haired teenager at the doorway. The boy had look of relief on his face, and a ball of fire in his head, but for some reason all Inari could think was. 'I have a really bad feeling about this.'
Kyuyo's first thought after he burst through the cell door was. 'Nagi. She's safe.'
He and Haku had rushed through Gato's maze like headquarters in record time. Apparently Gato hadn't been a complete idiot and left behind some measure of guard for his fortress. However the shipping mogul had still only left behind the barest minimum of a security force. Namely singular thugs lazily patrolling the corridors. They eliminated the thugs without even having to stop.
Haku had taken point and succeeding the guiding with only a few mistakes. Of course as soon as the ice user pointed out the dark hardwood door, that Nagi was locked behind, Kyuyo rushed ahead like a shot. It was a good thing Haku had been expecting the demon's reaction otherwise he would have been bowled over.
Not that Kyuyo seemed to care, not even looking back before he smashed down the door like a man possessed. Which was kind of true, he was in love after all, corniness be damned.
When Kyuyo had seen the inside of the cell it didn't occur to him to ask who the kid was or why no one was tied up. He was just glad to see his Nagi-chan safe.
Eventually though, even to someone like him, the second thought he would have eventually had to hit home. 'Why does she look so pissed off?'
Perhaps we should go over just what the evolution of Nagi's reaction was. You see when Kyuyo had first burst in Nagi had just looked surprised, neither fully sure what was going one or how she should respond. Then, after a minute or two, she had a look on her face like a deep realisation had struck her. Then came the shock and the indignation. Closely followed by the anger. The boundless fury. Everything after that could be summed up in the phrase 'Nagi was pissed off' and she wasn't getting any calmer.
"Na-Nagi-chan?" Kyuyo panicked. Quickly going backwards through his thought in an attempt to remember just what he had done wrong.
Most recently he had come to save her; Kyuyo couldn't see how she could get angry at him for that.
He had had sworn a pact with Haku; Kyuyo was certain that Nagi didn't know about that.
He had wailed on Haku; Kyuyo really hoped that Nagi never found out about that.
He had manipulated events to force Nagi and Zabuza to meet under really bad condition to serve his own ends; no wait, that was Haku, Kyuyo just didn't stop him.
He had followed Nagi her to the Land of Waves despite specific instructions not to so as to not limit Nagi's own growth.
He had lit Nagi's bed on fire.
He had spilled water on one of Nagi's training scrolls and then accidently incinerated while attempting to dry it.
He... Wait a minute he's already gone past it. Third last one you idiot!
'Huh? Oh that one. No, that can't be it. It's not the worst thing I've ever done.' Kyuyo thought to himself.
Clearly Nagi disagreed."Kyuyo what are doing here?" Nagi growled, breaking Kyuyo out of his futile thoughts.
"Uh... well... I came to rescue you."
"You came all the way from Konoha." Nagi crossed her arms and raised a single eyebrow. Daring Kyuyo to think about his next answer very veeerrry carefully.
"Well... no." Kyuyo couldn't to Nagi's face. Her eyes were too big and terrifying.
"So then, you just happened to be in the Land of Waves."
"...Yes?"
"May I ask why?"
"I really wish that you wouldn't."
"I'll take that as a yes."
"Damn."
"So then Kyuyo, why?"
Kyuyo took a deep breath; somewhere deep within him he knew that everything would come down to this moment, if only he had a better grasp on the current situation. "I came to look after you."
Nagi did not take the comment the way he would have liked. Namely she yelled at him. "I didn't want you to look after me!"
Kyuyo stepped back a few paces. More than a little shocked about what was going on. Never the less Kyuyo stood strong and didn't back down. Why, oh why didn't he back down. "I'm sorry to feel that way but you need to be protected."
That was so not the right answer.
While this was happening Haku and Inari were having a little chat of their own.
"I'm Inari."
"Haku."
"..."
"..."
It wasn't a particularly lengthy or important chat. Nor was it even a very interesting one. The two were more occupied with their own thoughts any remainder of their attention going to watch the ongoing shouting match.
Inari was trying to work just what was going on while it looked like Haku had a pretty good idea.
Naturally Inari asked him.
"A miscalculation." Was all Haku had to share on the subject though. Inari wondered if that meant anything to anyone but the teenager himself. Not that it mattered Haku was more concerned with amending his own plans to compensate for this new situation.
Problem was that, whatever their thought process, the atmosphere in the cell wasn't very conductive to private thoughts.
"Why don't I take you home kid." Haku eventually concluded this to be the best action, given the blonde and the red-head sometime to cool off with scream therapy.
Inari silently agreed and turned towards the door, only to be stopped by Haku.
"Not the door, it'll take too long." Haku said with a curt smile.
Inari resisted the natural urge to punch Haku in the mouth. "What pray tell is faster than the door?"
Haku did so love to mess with civilians. The ninja turned towards the wall he had been resting against and tapped a finger against its cool surface. The cool stone instantly became bitingly cold as a smooth sheet of ice formed over the wall.
Inari had a very bad feeling of where this was going. "Please tell me you're joking."
Haku obviously wasn't but it was much more fun not to explain that fact. So he just picked Inari up by the scruff and tossing the boy through the ice mirror before the boy could fight back.
Jumping into the space warping ice himself a second later.
Leaving the jinchuriku and biju to work out their differences.
Speaking of which we should probably get back to that.
"When have I ever broken your trust?" Nagi yelled, likely in retort, if you have problems with reading context.
"What about that time you ate my pudding when you said you wouldn't." Kyuyo replied in... What does pudding have to do with anything?
"I said I wouldn't eat your pudding if you could stop me. Which you couldn't."
...What the f-Oh! Yes, I see. We happened to come into this in that point in a big argument when the people involved just start throwing out an old random insult or issues.
"Be quiet you okonomiyaki loving bastard!"
...For the sake of the sanity of everyone involved I'm just going to try fast forwarding through to the end of this argument when the important stuff starts happening. Let's see...
AFGKWEOAGAEGZXDFVFZXDS qWFAE RH DfSZCnqSEM FR SDP0 SAHFJKsdf{pwefr X DUIl
…and play.
"Go crawl in a ditch and die." Nagi yelled.
"I spent most of my life drunk in ditches. I can go back anytime time I like." Kyuyo retorted feigning pride.
…That's not it.
Gajsf VREwfaWQRF wfE
"Why do you have my zanbatō?"
"Would you rather I left it in the ground?"
Nor that...
Glhlgef LGLEFGULE
"Please Nagi-chan I'll buy you some ramen."
"How simple minded do you think I am?"
"..."
Why didn't I use DVD, I could have had scene selection. Blasted Beta-Max...
GDSS# DSVXCC E # WEFGSFXCVFEFsadfdf DV ecvxsdf SefdFSDHVWEBBzjFJLUEWHHFUHSD sd?F
"Nagi-chan why don't we just forget about all of this." Kyuyo pleaded.
"Forget... How could I forget about this?"
That is actually somewhat important but it's stuck in a huge block of nonsense text. Still it's a sign that we're getting closer.
"Just go away!" Nagi yelled her face was red and her eyes were watering. No doubt the young girl had reached her emotional limit.
All right, this will work. Get comfortable, grab a bucket of popcorn and watch the heartbreak.
"Nagi-chan." Kyuyo attempted to calm her with a soothing tone.
However it did more harm than good as Nagi simply levelled a determined, and at the same time a weary, expression at him. "No. I've had enough of this. If you don't understand than I'm not going to waste breath trying to make you understand."
"Wa-wait." Kyuyo had a terrifying realisation about what would come next.
"I don't want to see you ever again." Nagi turned on her heel and headed for the door.
"Nagi, wait!" Kyuyo reached out to stop Nagi before she walked out of that door. Only to be stopped by a cold vice grip on his forearm.
Haku had returned and he wasn't pleased stopping Kyuyo and giving him a cold hard glare.
"What are you doing here?" Kyuyo growled at the interruption. It did have the effect that Kyuyo wanted as Nagi was frozen in the doorway. Kyuyo didn't know why she was just staring at his hand though.
Haku only hardened his gaze. "My first duty is as her cousin." Haku motioned to the hand that he had stopped from touching Nagi. Kyuyo had unconsciously reformed the hand into a blazing razor sharp claw. Nagi might be fireproof but she wasn't laceration proof.
"I..." Kyuyo couldn't explain the sight.
Haku had a pretty good idea though. "You really need to learn to control your emotions." Haku pushed Kyuyo's arm away, the burning claw fell limply to Kyuyo's side.
Haku led his cousin, who had been shocked into silence, through the ice mirror making sure to close it behind him this time.
Leaving Kyuyo alone with his thought. Thoughts which could be summed up with one simple word.
"Fuck."
Sasuke's world was pain and light. It took a great amount of pushing through both for him to open his eyes again. Once he finally did Sasuke maid out the sight of his client and his teammate.
Tazuna was fine, he had stayed close to the concrete and had done a good job in protecting the old bridge builder, but the man had still passed out from the sheer shock of it all.
Sakura was in considerably worse shape and Sasuke wasn't much better. Unlike Tazuna who had been close enough to cover that light couldn't pass between the two the two ninjas had been further back. The effect was that the two were just out of the defensive shadow the cover provided which proved painful as the attack had rained down from above.
Still, no matter how much pain they were in, Sakura and Sasuke were ninjas and even running on pride when they should have been running on blood neither intended to go down. They had intended to fight off the thugs with pluck but instead it gave them front row seats to what might be one of the most shocking sights of the day.
"No one's allowed to kill me students but me." Kakashi...
"I'm trying to get back in my niece's good books. It really wouldn't reflect well if I let her friends die. No matter how annoying they are." ...And Zabuza had shown up out of nowhere to protect the injured genin. It really was a strange sight the murderous killer and Nagi's uncle were playing hero.
"Tch! Playing is right, it's pretty obvious why they showed up in the first place." Sakura growled as she pulled herself into a sitting position.
Sasuke nodded in agreement. He himself had already assumed a saizen sitting position and was pulling Tsunami's glazed teacup from his weapon satchel. "Guys show up shouting 'Nagi!'. Pretty obvious they thought the blonde was here, Izanagi knows why, now they're just playing the gallant saviours to avoid admitting they're idiots."
"Morons should go back to trying to kill each other. Leave the fight to me."
Sasuke shook his head and raising the cup to his lips at the sign of recklessness. '...Wait. This doesn't have any tea in it.'
"Still..." Sakura's voice was very quiet, so quiet it seemed like she was talking to herself, Sasuke was honestly surprised he heard it at all. Sakura was fully focused on Kakashi, Zabuza and the piles of thugs they had eliminated in such a short amount of time. "The kind of power they had."
'Figures, first hint of character development the witch has and it's just her being entranced by violence.' Sasuke scoffed and left Sakura to her not-so-private thoughts. Instead focusing his attention towards the fight on the bridge.
It was, after all, the final confrontation.
Kakashi and Zabuza had positioned themselves right in the middle of the bridge on the thin guide wires that ran between the two bridge halves. It was a precarious balance to be sure but the two jounin might well have been duct taped to the ground for all they showed it.
While the jounin were proud and strong Gato, on the other hand, looked like he had shat himself. The few guards he had who weren't dead or smart enough to flee looked to have frozen with fear.
Zabuza was the first to speak. "I feel it would be redundant to say but," the demon of the mist pointed his zanbatō at Gato's throat, "consider this my resignation."
Kakashi just sighed. "I'd give you a sarcastic slow clap but even that seems like it would give too much credit to that line."
"Bite me."
The two jounin's little comedy routine was interrupted by the sound of creepy, raspy laughter.
"Ha...haha...hahahaha...Ahahahaahahaha." Turns out it was coming from Gato.
"Looks like we broke him." Kakashi laughed but Zabuza wasn't so sure, he had dealt with far too many psychopaths in his lifetime to think that this would bring anything good.
"I am NOT! Going to die HERE!" Zabuza was right, Gato had just cannon-balled into the deep-end. "I still have my secret weapon. KILL THEM!" Gato snapped his fingers but his remaining guards just looked like they wanted to get the hell out of there. "I SAID KILL THEM!"
The thugs slowly pulled the crossbows from behind their backs.
"Don't give him any material for an evil villain rant. No one wants to have to listen to that!"Kakashi warned making sure that everyone heard him.
"Heh heh heh. This is more than just another old trick."
"Doesn't matter. Apparently he can do it himself." Zabuza shook his head.
"These bolts are covered in the poison of the exotic and deadly Carrion Plant. This poison can kill a man in three seconds."
Sakura laughed. "Ha! Big deal I can do that with the plants in my backyard."
"I don't think he's sane enough to hear you anymore, guy hasn't made any comebacks." Sasuke pointed.
"Don't worry everyone we'll get rid of this piss poor excuse of a villain." Almost everyone on the bridge was shocked by the sudden arrival of a long haired... person next to Gato. This... person had already flicked senbon into the necks of the remaining thugs who fell unconscious to the ground. Wearing a smile that straddled the line between teen heartthrob and card carrying villain.
Only three people weren't surprised by the... person's sudden appearance. Tazuna; who was still unconscious and now muttering in his sleep. Zabuza; who looked like he was about to have an aneurism. Finally Gato; who had the excellent excuse of having a sword stuck through his gut.
The shipping mogul gave one last spluttering gasp before the sword cut upwards. The halves of Gato fell to either side, Haku made sure to step to the side, revealing a very happy little blonde girl holding a gore covered sword.
"I'm so glad I remembered to grab you." Nagi practically sparkled as she spoke to her sword.
"Nagi!" Three simultaneous cries came from Zabuza, Kakashi and Sakura as they rushed over to their favourite blonde.
"Good to see you Nagi-chan." Sasuke gave a much more level headed greeting coupled with a toast from his empty teacup.
"I told you we didn't need a militia." Inari looked over the bridge from his place on the cliffs of Wave Country.
His mother scoffed from beside him, an axe in her hands and a mob of villagers at her back. "Tch! Guess I should go get my father and teacup back before those psychotic ninjas break them."
Tsunami walked down the path that connected to cliffs to the bridge. A few of the militia she had left behind looked like they wanted to start a Mexican wave but Inari silenced them with a hand. He was focused on the scene that was being acted out beneath him; in particular the sight of Zabuza and Nagi sharing a tender hug. Sakura and Kakashi seemed to ready to forcibly tear the two apart but Inari ignored. The villagers would no doubt party for weeks over Gato's death, though hopefully someone would remember to clean up the corpses before then, but he felt that the pho-uncle and the pho-niece deserved this moment,
After all Inari couldn't help but notice, having thought ahead and brought binoculars, the fresh puffy redness beneath the little girls eyes.
"So long Nagi-chan and...good luck."
"Sorry to interrupt this tender little moment." 'Not really' ", but we should get out of this country before they try to bill Konoha for damages." Kakashi said with pretty obvious hidden motives.
"For once I agree with Cyclops-sensei." 'Anything to get that bandaged bastard off of Nagi-chan.' Sakura wasn't much better.
"I have no funny," 'by which I mean creepy' ", thoughts to add but we really should be getting out of here." Sasuke concurred, he was the only one who had noticed Tsunami on her way to the bridge, and unfortunately it was for pretty idiotic reasons. 'No way is she getting my cup.'
None of these thoughts could reach the two they were intended for. Incapable of piercing though the shield of touching that seemed to envelope them.
"So you're leaving Oji." Nagi looked up at her uncle with just ridiculously big eyes.
"Yeah." Zabuza had prepared a long speech of what he needed to do and why he needed to do it but when he and his niece hugged everything just seemed to melt away in a flood of understanding.
"Mou..." Didn't mean Nagi had to like it though.
"Don't worry I'll be back..."
"Seriously stop hugging we need to go." Kakashi had finally managed to pierce the shield tapping an imaginary wristwatch for good measure.
"If nothing else I have some scores to settle with your sensei."
Zabuza and Nagi separated though not before sharing one last look and a matching pair of sharp toothed grins. Though with Zabuza, and his face-wrapping, you kind of had to take his word.
Once they had did so Kakashi had a clap to draw everyone's attention. "All right any other business before she ship right." Not with an actual ship of course they were just going to take the bridge.
"Actually..." Sakura raised her hand drawing on aspects of her old image as a good little schoolgirl.
"You know when any teacher says that you're not supposed to answer."
"Shut up Cyclops." Sakura gave her teacher a middle fingered salute.
"Fine, just hurry up." Kakashi had abandoned his imaginary wristwatch for an actual pocket watch.
"I'm just going to go ahead and ask the question that should have been asked a while ago." Sakura to pointed to the object of her query. Haku. "Who the hell is this chick?"
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Uhhhh..." Zabuza acted like it didn't know how to explain it, in actual fact it was more like he really didn't want to explain it. Especially the 'chick' part.
"Well I suppose we could explain it but I warn it will just bring more questions." Nagi rather intelligently for once.
Haku had different ideas. "Ah so simple minded. There is an 'oh so simple' and concise way to explain everything..."
Everyone waited for the 'oh so simple' answer.
"...However it would be much more useful if I have some time to make it work to my benefit." Haku thus quickly evaded the question by jumping over the side of the bridge. Disappearing into the frigid water below.
"..." X 3
Nagi laughed happily. "Good to see Haku hasn't changed a bit."
Zabuza sighed. "I don't know about 'good' exactly but... yeah, he hasn't changed a bit." Zabuza walked over to the edge of the bridge and, with a wave, disappeared over the side himself.
He didn't say goodbye as he left but, as Nagi knew, the day Zabuza said goodbye was the day he would never come back.
"See you soon, Oji."
"It's been, what two hours, and you're already losing yourself in a bottle." Haku looked the cell that he had just stepped into, the same cell that he had got Nagi out of not three hours ago and, apparently, the same cell that Kyuyo had never left. The floor was covered in so many bottles it wasn't possible to walk and making the room sound like a wind chime.
"Shup ut, traitor!" Kyuyo hid the tone of his slurred words quite well but couldn't hide the slurred words themselves.
Haku shook his head like he was dealing with a petulant child and not a dangerous drunken demon. Then again in his experience the two hardly differed.
"You need to look at the bigger picture." Haku placed his hand on his chest. "Take myself for example; my great plan was recently kicked in the proverbial ball-sack when Zabuza decides his going on some kind of stupid vision quest. Did I want to bash Zabuza over the head, perhaps but I held back. Do know why?"
Kyuyo hiccupped and took a deeper swig of rum.
"Because we have time and, to borrow an old phrase, time heals all wounds." Haku sidestepped to avoid the glass bottle that Kyuyo lobbed at his head.
"So I'm just supposed to sit around." Kyuyo growled.
"You've already said that once today and, once again, the answer is simply yes." Haku turned on his heels to face the doorway. "Consider this the exercise in patience you so sorely lack." Haku stepped into the hallway.
"Where are you going?"
"Unlike you I don't need any training in patience. I'm an assassin about the most patient person you can find. For instance I've spend many years waiting to spend some time as a family with my cousin. See you in Konoha."
With a wisp of snow Haku disappeared from sight leaving only one sentence hanging in the air. "Try thinking of it this way. Happy endings only happen at the end and this is far from over."
Kyuyo growled, glaring at the space where Haku had used shunshin, before eventually pulling himself together and heading towards Konoha.
You really weren't kidding around with the chapter title.
One day I'm just going to have to go ahead and kill something in my writing. It's a difficult thing for me to do even when I'm not writing fanfiction. I don't like being sad over seeing a character I like die but the goal of writing is to invoke emotion after all.
You could kill yourself and sure everyone would enjoy that. Invoke emotion without the sadness.
...No.
Tch! This is why you'll never write anything good.
While I'm here I should point out something raised by Kythorian who did point out what I thought to be something of a plot hole I had dug myself into.
Didn't you already put up a comment about that?
True and I'd like people to go read that I just felt like I should draw attention. I consider it a good sign that only one guy posted about it; I tried to make the problem seem as natural as I could but it's something to think about.
I really can't expect anyone putting that much thought into the crap your write.
Should have seen that one coming? Anyway I should wrap this up, the next chapter will be something of an observance of fallout chapter I don't expect it to be as long of a chapter as most. Then again I really didn't expect this chapter to be as long as it was. Never the less I'll aim for more comedy but I keep in mind I don't even trust myself so there is no reason any of you should.
Jamata.
Hey that's my closer.
Sayonara -_-
Don't use that one, that's for when you aren't going to see someone for a while.
The more you know ;)