Hello, again.
Now we'll be getting back with Dash and Team 7, although Shy will show up towards the end of Dash's part. Not quite saying just who Dash will be with just yet, though.
And to reiterate, Zabuza and Haku are still shinobi, not samurai, but even shinobi don't like being explicitly lied to like this time. If Gato didn't do that one key thing, then maybe they would be more willing to continued working for him. Since he didn't, he'll inevitably have to deal with the consequences of his deceit.
Perspective: Dash/Fluttershy, Sunset
Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Dash grumbled as he waited once again at Kumo's gate. Even after a few days since he learned about how Nami was faring, plus what happened the last time he was in Kumo, he wasn't an entirely happy boy at that moment.
As it turned out, not only is he still kept from trying to help Sun and Sakura help Nami, but he's now having to wait until the Raikage and his escort team were ready to head to Konoha for a meeting. Apparently the Hokage wanted to try again with a treaty, and this Raikage was much more willing to make it work. And not only that, but he had yet to really get the chance to grill the Hokage about the truth with the Bingo Book.
"Even so," Dash said to himself, "why am I stuck as part of the detail when I can be so much more useful elsewhere?"
"That makes two of us." interrupted his thoughts, revealing that he was overheard by Karui and her team, alongside another blond girl.
Growling, he got up the the chair he was in and moved forward, only to be blocked by the newcomer.
"Do you two really have to start fighting now?" she asked the two, getting a pair of huffs in return.
"It's not like I wanted to come here when I could be helping my brother liberate Nami." said Dash.
"What exactly would you expect me to do when faced with such arrogance, Yugito? Roll over and beg forgiveness?" asked Karui.
"You could start by acting like a proper kunoichi." said Yugito. "It isn't like this is the first time any civilian showed any small amount of arrogance, although I will admit, he does have viable reason all things considered."
Dash scoffed at that. "Like I care about the fact that somehow my brothers and I have managed to get into that dang book, which still ticks me off."
None of the Kumo nin could reply as just then the Raikage and what was apparently his brother showed up. "All right, that's enough you two. Honestly, with the way you two are acting, I should be expecting a wedding invitation sooner or later."
"WHAT?!" Dash and Karui cried in unison. "ME?! MARRIED WITH HIM/HER?! NO WAY!"
"Ladies and gents, Exhibit A." said Yugito teasingly, getting chuckles as the two in question glared heatedly at her for insinuating that.
After they calmed down, the Raikage said, "Now that we're here, let's get going. We've got considerable ground to cover."
"For you at least." Dash muttered, but didn't leave them as the group, and a squad of Kumo ANBU, ran off towards Konoha.
I guess I just better hope that Sun and Sakura hold out long enough for the rest of us to get there and help.
XXXXX
"Although, I will admit, I always to do something like this." said Dash as they set up camp that night. While they weren't quite at the Kaminari border, they had made much better progress than if they had anything such as regular civilians with them. "Never quite had the chance to before."
"That's not cool." Samui quipped.
"Better hope this isn't a flash, so that we don't have to dash." said Killer Bee, who the Raikage had introduced as his brother after introducing himself as A. His tone resulted in the other Kumo nins to groan in exasperation while Dash just stared blankly.
"What, fool ya fool?" the man asked at Dash's stare.
"Buddy, you just blew your image with that pathetic rap." he told the man, causing him to face fault while the others took a bit to start laughing, drawing blanks beforehand. Karui's irritation with Dash temporarily vanished at him managing to pull a fast one on the wannabe rapper.
Bee got back up and glared at Dash, who just stuck to blank stare and crossed arms. He didn't try anything, but was definitely upset at the boy's reaction to his rapping. Even out of the village, people don't like my lines.
A then asked Dash about his speed. "I do have to ask, Dash, what is the top speed you've gone? We know you're fast, but just how fast?"
"Not real sure." he answered, sitting down by the assigned fireplace. "Never really had a big reason to actually find my limit. Although I think I might've doubled my speed on the way from Nami to Konoha. I will proudly say, though, that it was all natural. No chakra connected."
"'No chakra connected.'" Karui scoffed. "That's impossible."
Dash smirked at the girl. "Tell that to Rock Lee, who's unable to use chakra outside of Chakra Gates."
He didn't say anything else, just laid back with his hands behind his head while Karui was still skeptical. Although it all this gave A food for thought, but it would have to wait until they were at Konoha to be certain.
XXXXX
Eventually, the group arrived at Konoha and were quickly let through to Hiruzen, who promptly asked Dash to give a tour to A's companions of Konoha. However, not too long after they started walking, they came across Shy and a small pack of dogs walking obediently around him.
"I see you're taking some of the dogs out for a walk." called Dash, getting Shy's attention.
"Welcome back, Dash. Behave!" Shy returned, with the 'Behave!' being towards the dogs who started growling a bit at Yugito. "And who are the shinobi with you?"
Dash then gestured to the people behind him. "Sure thing, bro. Shy, this is Yugito, Samui, Omoi, Karui, and Killer Bee. Although, for the record, Karui has some serious anger issues while Killer Bee should quit rapping. He's terrible at it."
Shy giggled as the two Dash somewhat insulted face faulted at Dash's blunt/rude manner. He then said, to be polite, "Nice to meet you, Yugito, Samui, Omoi, Karui, Killer Bee."
Just then, a bird call sounded above them, right before a hawk came down and landed on Shy's shoulder. The bird nuzzled his cheek as he brought up a finger to pet it for a few moments before taking the message on its leg. "Hello there, Talon. What do you have there?"
He opened it up to find it was from Sunset, and what it read brought a smile on his face.
"Shy?" asked Dash, wondering about the smile.
"Sun's made it into Nami." Shy explained. "And Team 7 had managed to get the enemy shinobi to switch sides and join them, so their back up squad wasn't quite needed. Apparently Zabuza Momochi doesn't like it when you deliberately withhold information from him."
"Zabuza Momochi? The Demon of the Mist?" asked Karui, bewildered at the mention of the nuke-nin.
"I agree with Zabuza." said Samui, eyes narrowing slightly. "Withholding information is so not cool."
"Not to mention that it could get shinobi killed." said Yugito. "Although it's a bit different if it's part of a test or you simply don't have all the details."
"So what, he didn't know about the current state of Nami or something?" asked Dash, receiving a nod from Shy.
"At least according to what Sun wrote, Zabuza has a boy with him that went through something similar when he was younger." Shy told Dash, earning a growl and some surprising static on his person. "He also said he'll let us know when to head out to Nami ourselves, so no going there now. Got it, Dash?"
His question was stern for emphasis, eliciting a pout from the recipient and a few chuckles from the bystanders. When he wasn't answered straight up, Shy's stern gaze grew until Dash finally relented. "Alright, fine. I won't go until Sun calls. Happy?"
Shy simply smiled innocently, earning more chuckles and a few laughs. The moment was broken when a bark came from one of the dogs, reminding Shy and Dash of what they were originally. "Oh, sorry you guys. See you later, Dash."
"You too, Shy." replied Dash as the boy and the dogs walked off. He then turned to the Kumo nin with him. "Shall we continue the tour?"
XXTeam 7XX
Around the same time Shy and Dash got the message, Team 7 was working on water walking in a battle-effective manner. They had managed to arrive the night before, so didn't have much of a chance to properly greet Tazuna daughter and grandson, and Kakashi had gotten them training for the morning to allow the official introductions be around lunch. However, they weren't quite there with water walking just yet, especially Sasuke who was still a bit shaky in his regular walk. Haku, in the meantime, was still dealing with the after effects of Zabuza giving him 'The Talk,' so he was mainly supervising on shore.
Thankfully, for him, Sakura was still fully dressed, and even if she fell in, Sun was there to pull her back out and dry her off. So Haku didn't have to worry about big awkward moments yet.
Returning to Team 7, Sakura was working with Sasuke while Sun was working on manipulating the water with his chakra while walking on it, waiting for Sakura and Sasuke to get up to a suitable level for actual sparring.
Too bad she doesn't know the Kage Bushin yet. Sun thought. We could've sparred for a bit while her Bushin took care of Sasuke's training. On a different note, I sure hope Kakashi and Zabuza's paranoia about Gato getting help that we together might not be able to deal with is just paranoia.
"Hey, Sun!" Sakura called out suddenly. "Sasuke's ready for some light sparring."
"Finally!" he cried, wanting to do more than what he'd already done before. Granted, he hasn't gone real complex yet, but the point still stands. Of course, that was also about when the voice of Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, called out "Lunch is served!"
Grumbling a bit at the timing, Sun led the others back to Tazuna's house, where Tazuna and his family were waiting. Kakashi and Zabuza had went out to scout out Gato and check if their suspicions were confirmed, making it a bit iffy if the two would be there for the meal as well.
At least to the kids.
Although, upon arrival at the table, they found Kakashi and Zabuza there as well, but what really caught their attention was when Tsunami's son showed up, stopped upon seeing Sun, and stare in confusion and slight hope.
"Can I help you, Inari?" asked Sun.
Inari asked in return, "Did that rainbow angel send you?"
Sun and Sakura stared a bit before chuckling as they realized just who Inari was talking about. "Sort of. He's actually my brother, Dash, instead of an angel, but he was the one that told us about how things were faring here."
"We're here to help." said Sakura, while Sasuke just nodded, not needing to say anything.
While Inari was a little disappointed that Dash wasn't an angel, but was still happy that Dash sent for help like he had promised. Ever since his father died, he had lost all hope, but now it looks like things were getting better.
Just have no idea where the song came from, though. Thought Inari and Tsunami upon hearing Sun's words. Let alone how the heck we started singing as well with it.
Just then, a paper ball impacted with Tsunami's forehead and fell into her skirt pocket miraculously. Pulling it out, she read out, 'The singing is just from the natural ambiance we Uzumaki brothers exude whenever the situation calls for it, although it isn't always coming from us exactly. Pinkie'
Sun raised an eyebrow at that. "Well that explains a lot."
"I'll say." added Sakura.
Kakashi then decided to bring the subject to more serious matters. "Changing the subject, I'm afraid our suspicions were confirmed. He had called in a pair called the Zombie Brothers."
"Zombie Brothers?" asked Sasuke, only to get answered by Sun. "You mean Hidan the Jashinist and Kakuzu of Waterfall? I read about those two, or at least Jashinism and Kakuzu. Jashinism requires its practitioners to basically become suicidal masochists to offer human sacrifices, but in return they are rendered virtually unkillable. Kakuzu had one time attempted to attack the Shodaime Hokage, but failed. However, that was well before our time, so what could he have gotten hold of to keep him alive for so long?"
"All that is really known are rumors about him, mainly him having the ability to steal people's hearts." said Zabuza, having had easier access to nuke-nin data than the others. He may not have been able to get into village-owned facilities all that often, but the doesn't mean they were the only places to go.
That scared Team 7 quite a bit. Stealing people's hearts? Just what could any of them really do against something like that.
"Please tell us you already sent a message back to the Hokage to get the original back up back here." said Sun.
Kakashi sighed. "I did, but I have no idea as to when, or even if, help will come. Tazuna was tricked into lying about the mission after all. So it would be best to stick with the possibility that we're on our own until help actually does arrive. However, it gets even worse with Hidan, because we're basically the only ones that can actually fight back, let alone fight well enough to hold him off."
"I'll se-" Whatever Sunset was about to say was cut off when Sakura suddenly cried out and slumped in a heap. "Sakura!"
While Sun worried over his unconscious girlfriend, Sasuke noticed some twitching around her eyes, hands, and feet in particular. Wanting to know for sure, instead of creating a false alarm, he placed a hand on Sun's shoulder and spoke. "Sun, how about you do whatever you were about to talk about. I'll keep watch over her in the meantime, okay?"
Sun hesitated before eventually nodding, wanting to get his family to Nami as soon as possible. The six always did seem to be stronger when in close proximity to each other.
Gently handing Sakura over to Sasuke, he said, "Take care of her."
Sasuke lightly smiled in reassurance while inwardly sweat dropping at Sun's sudden bout of obliviousness. He did just offer to keep her safe for the boy, didn't he?
Whatever the case may be, she didn't wake up for the rest of the day and well into the night, with each of them taking turns watching over her. But one thing that did happen was the twitching Sasuke noticed becoming more pronounced and wide spread, as well as the occasional grunt/groan of pain leaking out of her mouth. Sun grew restless and stressful with each passing minute, to the point that Haku had to use senbon to knock him out to get him to rest that night, leaving Sasuke to watch over her one last time.
"You better get through this, Sakura." he said as he was about to turn in for the night himself. "Sun's worrying himself sick over you right now."
"Good to know." a voice he didn't expect replied to what he said, getting him to freeze and slowly turn around as movement from where Sakura was came to his ears. When he fully turned, he gasped in shock and fear.
"Unfortunately, I have a little murdering psychopath to take care of. So if you'll excuse me." She said before moving to a window and opening it. She used it as a launching point to fly off as she 'sang' out, "I'll search high, and low, and far and wide. I'll find that Jashinist, and I'll have his hide!"
Her piercing laughter rang out over the country as Sasuke stood, staring at where Harpy Sakura flew off and left a single feather. His only action when Kakashi came in and demanded an answer as to what happened was, "She's back."
Harpy Sakura...had returned.
Basically, with Harpy Sakura, she's Inner Sakura with a few key differences. Instead of being simply a louder version of Sakura, she's more proactive, taking actual measures that Sakura herself isn't willing to do. I was thinking about something like this for a while now for the Wave arc, so that's how it is.
However, I am willing to take suggestions to get Harpy Sakura a better named than that. Luna's and Twilight's darker counterparts are called Nightmare Moon and Midnight Sparkle respectively, after all.
As for the bit with Kumo, it was just really meant to be bringing Dash closer to getting a girlfriend of his own, like I said before. Have yet to pinpoint which girl, though. Taking solid ideas for Pinkie though, just be sure that they come from outside the village and at least work somewhat with Pinkie, like how Sunset and Sakura are supposed to be more bookish in comparison to Rare and Ino's more fashionista style.
Until next time. Please let me know what you think.