Me: I do not own Naruto!
Naruto: Hell yeah! You don't own me!
Me:...that's not what I really mean, but who cares? Merry Christmas, everybody! Check out my blog~
BloodMoonWanes: Sakura was a bit annoying in the beginning, wasn't she? As for Kasumi's past...who knows? *wink, wink*
Bella-swan11: It's going to take a while before Kasumi and Sasuke get that level of trust between them. No worries, Kasumi won't let her team down too much. Thanks for the review!
starrat: Hope I don't disappoint! Thank you, hun!
Guest: Thanks!
Sammy: Right? I've always thought that it was kinda strange; no one from Team 7 really just helps Naruto. Thanks for the review!
zZhell-butterflyZz: Glad to know you like it! XD
forever-a i n e: Hmm, I'll have to check those out sometime. My favorite would probably be Clearing Mist by shadownumera. Beautiful story. The bold words was dividers sorta just came out of nowhere and stayed. Sasuke will be Sasuke, hmm? Thanks for the awesome review!
Zabuza
By the time they got on land, Kasumi was ready to go crazy.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
She gritted her teeth and forced herself to squash that familiar small voice in the back of her mind. It wasn't helping her concentration. Kasumi was well aware that they were in danger and she knew, better than both of her teammates, that a wandering mind on the battlefield led to blank eyes and still hearts.
Kasumi made absolutely sure that both of her teammates were close to her, because as they got further and further inland, her danger sense grew stronger and stronger. They had handled themselves alright in their first true fight, but she did not want to lose Naruto and Sasuke through complacent folly when they were finally starting to get along.
Of course, she made sure that neither her body language nor her face betrayed her state of mentality or the alarm that was rushing through her veins.
They certainly didn't notice anything.
Well... Naruto tried. "There!" He screamed, throwing a kunai into the bush.
A second later, a startled and completely terrified white rabbit leaped out and crickets sounded in the silence.
"Whoops..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously.
"Hn." Sasuke deadpanned. "Dobe, be more careful!"
"Like you know anything, teme!" Naruto retorted.
"At least I'm not a dead-last." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"Boys..." She sighed and they turned away from each other, arms crossed. She knew that they weren't really mad or irritated each other; they were high-strung and their way of dealing with it was the normal banter they engaged in. Still, Kasumi needed to concentrate and she needed them to focus as well.
Finally, her warning sense spiked.
"Down!" She screamed, grabbing Naruto and Sasuke and pulling them down with her, trusting Kakashi to get to Tazuna.
Something large and sharp ripped through the air and crashed into a tree, biting deeply into the wood, barely missing their heads. And suddenly, there was a tall, lanky man standing on top of the monstrosity of a clever. One that she, unfortunately, recognized; he was quite famous, at least to her. The Demon of the Mist.
Kasumi got to her feet, only distantly aware of Naruto and Sasuke doing the same. She eyed the bandaged man in front of her nervously. Of course, of course, they ended up facing him.
"Well.. well... if it isn't Kirigakure's Momochi Zabuza-kun." Kakashi said casually.
Next to her, Kasumi felt Naruto tense up. She glanced at him and grimaced. He was overconfident because of their earlier victory. Ignorant because she doubted he knew who Zabuza was. Not a great combination.
Before he could spring, she grabbed some of his fingers and twisted. She didn't bother being gentle.
Naruto stuttered to a halt, his face going pale with pain. He turned on her, obviously ready to complain, but snapped his mouth shut with an audible sound when she shot him a fierce glare. His eyes went wide with surprise, she had never ever been stern with him, and worry. He was starting to understand the trouble they had gotten themselves into, but slowly. Too slowly.
Beside her, Sasuke gingerly eased closer. "Who is he, Kasumi?" He asked, his voice low and tense.
The boys had long since accepted her as the one they turned to if they didn't know something. Kasumi assumed it was because she was the most book smart, had the Bingo book, and read books whenever she had free time while they... didn't.
She pressed her lips together and answered in a voice just as quiet. "Zabuza Momochi. Demon of the Hidden Mist. Missing-Nin from Kirigakure. Once a part of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Anbu level."
Sasuke paled and Naruto went stiff.
Zabuza chuckled sinisterly. "Would you look at that? One of the brats knows who I am!" He suddenly narrowed his eyes at Kasumi. "Hmm, now that I think about it, you look a bit familiar..."
Blood, fire, and loving brown eyes flashed in Kasumi's mind. She bit her lip and resolutely forced the memories down.
Kakashi's demeanor didn't change but he reached for his forehead protector. "Maa. My cute little student isn't that one you should be worried about right now."
She wasn't sure whether he was redirecting the attention off of her purposely or not, but Kasumi was thankful nonetheless.
Her past was buried and buried it should and would stay.
Kasumi adamantly ignored the puzzled stares of her teammates. This didn't concern them.
Trouble
"Take Tazuna-san and run! You have no chance of beating him! As long as he's keeping me trapped in this prison he can't move!" Kakashi shouted. "The water clone cannot go very far from his body. Just run away now!"
Naruto grit his teeth. "Kasumi-chan?" He glanced towards his female teammate and Sasuke instinctively did the same.
She may not have been as strong as him or even as strong as Naruto was becoming, but sometime during their time together, Kasumi had become their de-facto leader.
Her mind could spit out multiple scenarios and plans in the span of a few heartbeats and she was the best strategist out of them all. It helped that she was never demanding and arrogant. The boys could listen to her and not feel as if she was stomping all over their male egos... not that they would phrase it in such a way. She directed them, made the plans and Sasuke and Naruto made sure those plans went smoothly.
Except now, Kasumi was still and silent. Her face was pale and drawn and she was staring at Kakashi and Zabuza blankly. Shadows screamed inside her normally tranquil brown eyes and she said nothing. Her fists were clenched and her chakra fluctuated unsteadily.
Naruto blinked and stepped closer, reaching up to touch a finger to her cheek. "Kasumi-chan...?"
"Aww." A mocking voice said and Sasuke spun around to see a clone form out of the water. "Is someone upset?"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. If Zabuza wasn't who he was, he would have charged forward with a kunai right then and there. What right did he had to insult his team?!
Naruto looked just as murderous.
"Run away! This fight was over the moment I was caught!" Kakashi ordered from where he was captured. "Our task is to protect Tazuna-san!"
Sasuke set his jaw and glanced at his unresponsive teammate. Fine. If Kasumi wasn't up to this, he would take up the mantle of leadership. "Not a chance. Our mission is to protect Tazuna and if we run now, he'll catch up to us effortlessly. There's no point. All we can do right now... is fight."
Kasumi and Naruto glanced at him. Naruto's blue eyes were filled with the same determination and resolve that he knew were reflected in his own. As always, Kasumi was harder to read. To his relief though, her clouded eyes seemed to be clearing up slightly. Sasuke did not need his one rational, intelligent teammate freezing up on him.
"How touching." The Zabuza clone jeered. "You can all die together."
Sasuke ignored him. Kasumi's words from the bell test echoed in his mind. Teamwork is the foundation of Konoha.
"Naruto." The blonde looked back at him levelly. "Are you in?"
The dobe had the nerve to smirk. "Of course!"
"Kasumi." The cream-haired girl turned to stare at him, her eyes unreadable. "Are you in?"
A pause of silence. And then slowly, ever so slowly, a dare-devil smile lit up her eyes. "Why.. the... hell... not?!" She responded, turning back to face the Zabuza clone.
He smirked. "Then let's do this."
Resolve
"Like we practiced." Kasumi told her teammates and they nodded. "Boys: long-range." She knew her teammates' strengths and weaknesses all too well.
"Haha." The laughter of the Zabuza clone startled them. Frowning, they glanced back at him. "Hahahaha!"
"You brats will never grow up." He spat condescendingly.
"What?" Naruto clenched his fists.
"Going to keep 'playing' ninja, eh?" He raised an open hand. "When I was about your age, these hands were already dyed red with blood."
Both Sasuke and Naruto gulped hard.
Kasumi bit her lip, but didn't otherwise react. Keep calm. She had to keep calm. Keep calm and betray nothing. Zabuza was already suspicious of her. She couldn't draw anymore attention to herself.
"Devil... Zabuza..." Kakashi muttered from inside the water prison.
"Ah... so you're heard a little about it." Zabuza smirked cruelly.
"Long ago, in the Hidden Mist Village, also called the Bloody Mist Village, there was a final obstacle in becoming ninja." Kakashi said.
"Hm...you even know about the graduating exam." Zabuza glanced idly at his captive.
"That exam?" Naruto questioned.
Kasumi tensed. Why was Zabuza telling them this? To scare them? Psychological warfare? To show them just how out of their league they were? She didn't need the reminder; she was well aware of how badly this could go. Either they would succeed through some major stroke of luck and a drop of skill or the grass would be watered with rivers of their blood.
"Hehehe," Zabuza began to chuckle sinisterly under his breath.
"What's this graduating exam thing?!" Naruto persisted.
Kasumi took in a shuddering breath and Sasuke glanced over at her. What the hell was going on?
"Fights to the death between the students!" Zabuza revealed, looking up with bloodthirsty eyes.
"..." Kakashi reluctantly started to explain. "Friends who have trained and eaten at the same table are pitted against each other and go at it until one of them loses his life. These are friends who had helped each other and shared dreams..."
The trio remained silent, but Kasumi's fingernails dug into her palms. She didn't want her teammates to hear this. They were so... innocent of the horrors of the world, despite how contradictory it seemed with who her teammates were. Sasuke had had a glimpse, but Naruto...
Naruto knew prejudice and hate, but he didn't know evil. Not evil like this.
"10 years ago, the Hidden Mist graduation exam was forced to change." He went on. "This change came after the previous year when a devil appeared."
"A devil?" Naruto repeated, unconsciously touching his stomach.
"Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who was not even a ninja, had killed over a hundred of the students." Kakashi finished to their horror.
"That.." Zabuza commented. "... sure was fun."
"Enough!" Kasumi suddenly snapped, eyes smoldering. They couldn't afford to waste time and they couldn't afford to lower their guards. Zabuza was powerful enough, fast enough that he could wipe them all out while they were sitting ducks listening to his horror stories. "Naruto-san, clones. Sasuke-san, go!"
It was a measure of how far they had come when they both unthinkingly obeyed.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto cried and created a ring of clones around the Zabuza clone.
Sasuke took off with a flicker of chakra, heading towards the real Zabuza.
"Che." The clone effortlessly swung his blade, dispelling several dozen clones.
Naruto had already set off after Sasuke. The clone smirked. Fools.
Kasumi stood guard before Tazuna, her eyes on the boys. They were getting closer to the water and she began to feel uneasy. Why wasn't Zabuza doing anyth-
'DOWN!' A voice - her safety net, her now fully awake bloodline - screamed inside her head and before Kasumi had processed it, her body was already falling forward to land in a rough push-up position.
A large blade sliced through the air where her neck had been and just barely managed to scratch the back of her neck. She gasped at the realization the clone had gone straight through the Naruto clones and was standing right behind her!
"Kasumi-chan!" She heard Naruto scream.
"Damn." Sasuke hissed under his breath.
Blood trickled down her back and Kasumi was all but frozen with fright. She could feel the clone raising his sword, getting ready to swing it and finish her off. Naruto and Sasuke were too far away to help, Kakashi-sensei was trapped, and she couldn't, couldn't-!
Have faith and let your bloodline protect you.
It was a mantra. One that had been instilled in her since birth. Now, in a moment of utter vulnerability and extreme danger, Kasumi found herself falling right back down onto that childhood quote. It settled over her like a reassuring blanket and suddenly, she could move again.
She withdrew into herself and the outside blurred against her senses. Time wasn't moving, the blade that would cleave her in half hadn't fallen down yet.
She reached down, down into her core and found her normal chakra. It was a soothing blue in her Sight and like chains, it was wrapped around a ball of amber. The amber glowed against her senses, a warm, comforting source of protection. Kasumi cupped it gently between her hands, relishing in the harmony. It had been a long time since she had done this. Since she had been forced to do this.
She took a pinch - "not too much darling or you'll go too far," her mother had whispered - of her gloriously serene bloodline and let it flow through her body. It was far too easy to get caught up in that refreshing rush of power, like a near steaming hot shower in the dead of winter. But she forced herself to concentrate, and suddenly, time was moving again, and the blade behind her was falling, and Naruto was screaming her name, and Sasuke was staring at her with haunted, desperate eyes -
But this time, she knew what to do.
The blade's arc of trajectory flashed in her mind's eye. Pushing herself into a forward roll, she bought her chakra-enforced leg up and stopped the lethal blade. The impact hurt, damn near shattered her leg, but she didn't let the pain distract her.
"Concentrate!" She shouted to her teammates. Kasumi didn't know whether they obeyed or not, because the Zabuza clone was moving again.
Raising the giant blade, he tried to bring it crashing down on her once more. She sprang to her feet and dodged it lithely. Another slash followed and she grimaced when she was too slow and a deep slash appeared on her arm.
'Stomach... the stomach...'
Kasumi lashed out with her leg towards the clone's knee and when he dodged, followed it up with a chakra-enforced punch to the clone's stomach. She made sure to put all of her hard-won strength and weight behind it.
Her fist hit the clone hard and with a choked off sound, it melted into water.
Gasping for breath, Kasumi fell to her knees, craning her head back to see what her teammates were doing.
She was just in time to see Sasuke throw a large shuriken at Zabuza.
When Kakashi-sensei was free again, she grinned in exhausted triumph. Naruto really was such a genius when it came to plans on the battlefield.
Worry
"Kasumi-chan!" Naruto cried, running towards his fallen teammate.
What if she was hurt really bad? Oh God, look at her leg! He mentally beat himself up about not staying with her. He shouldn't have let her get hurt, dammit!
Sasuke followed, leaving Kakashi to deal with Zabuza. Though he wouldn't admit it, he was worried as well. He was also furious at himself for allowing such a thing to happen. For just a second, when Kasumi had been within range of that deadly sharp blade, he had seen - !
"I'm okay." Kasumi said reassuringly when they got close enough. "I'm okay."
Frowning, Naruto crouched beside her, Sasuke standing guard on the opposite side of him.
"Are you sure?" The blonde fussed, eyes wide and concerned.
"I'm sure." She patted his arm, turning back to see a... Kirigakure Hunter-Nin?
Kasumi's blood ran cold, her heart stuttering. It took her every ounce of control she had not to curl up in the fetal position.
Kasumi watched the man take away Zabuza's corpse and frowned. Something was wrong...
Beside her, Naruto blinked and Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
Before she could dwell on it too long, Kakashi fainted and they had a brand new problem to take care of.
Kasumi sighed inwardly. What a 'C-rank' mission this was turning out to be.
Next time:
"Kasumi..." He looked straight into her temperate brown eyes. "Have you killed before this mission?"
Review~
Take a look at my blog and Merry Christmas everybody!
Question: What do you think of Kasumi's bloodline?