-;-
Arc 3 Land of Waves
Part 2
-;-
"-ke? Sauske?"
A voice kept repeating. Growing in volume until it reached into his eardrums and dragged him out of soft darkness.
"Ugh," he says. Blinking up at Naruto's face inches from his own. With a hand too dead for its own good, he slapped him away. "Ugly."
"Gah!" Naruto plumps down onto his bum. Mouth flapping. "K-Kakashi-sensei! Freak's awake!"
"Shut up," Sasuke grumbles. Rubbing his eyes, he notices the dead weight of his arms were due to bandages wrapped being tighter than his sense of reality. "I'm not dead."
"No thanks to you," Naruto jabs the sleeping bag he had been put in with his foot, and says through clenched teeth. "If it weren't for Sakura-chan and Kaka-sensei we'd have..." he looks away. Face pinched.
"Mm," Sasuke keeps his trap shut and takes in the small campsite. In his unconsciousness, team 7 had settled down in some obscure forest. Hidden by gargantuous trees, and in the middle a small, blazing fire cracked and spat into the night. Off near it, was Tazuna. Head bent against knees; indicating he was either dead asleep or drunk. "What's happening?"
"We're heading back," Kakashi and Sakura drop behind Naruto. Arms filled with neck-snapped crows, ravens and firewood.
Kakashi dumps the lot and stoops down and flicks him on the forehead.
'Hush, Otōto'
"Ah!"
"Huh. You're sober. That tranquilizer Sakura gave you should have knocked you out until we made it to the hospital," Kakashi smiles, "You're sturdier than you look. The type of poison those nuke-nin used was the worst of the worst, you got off easy Sasuke-chan."
"Lucky me," Sasuke says. Peering at his bandaged arms on his lap in betrayal. "Why are we heading back to Konoha?"
"Easy!" Naruto shouts and points a finger to the drunkard. "That asshole lied to us and nearly got you killed. Tch."
"He's going to face trial for risking the lives of a Konoha genin and falsifying the mission requirements," Sakura pointedly snaps a twig while staring at Tazuna.
The man turns away, silent.
Sasuke doesn't believe his ears.
He was simultaneously bewildered and charmed. If this were happening; Fate wasn't pressuring the story. Clearly Sasuke was actually bizarrely lucky when it came to staying alive. What the heck.
On the other hand, though - he gloomily mulls - returning to Konoha means that big guy with an overcompensating sword may not appear.
And that was the exact proverbial fray he wanted to leap into.
Arms out, thumbs up and bellowing a Hail Mary.
"Hey," Sasuke addresses the wily man, "you lied for a Goddamn reason, yeah? You wouldn't have just knowingly risked the lives of children 'cause you were short on bucks."
Tazuna doesn't glance from his knees. If there were a rain cloud above his head it would have thundered.
"As if that'll change anything."
Don't get shy. "Could do. Never know."
"Sasuke-chan," Kakashi says, looking at him weirdly. Wondering no doubt, what he was getting at being so considerate all of a sudden. "He's already explained everything. There's no need to -"
"Has he?" Sasuke tries to convey to the man with his eyes that he needs to fess up whatever depressing history he's got tucked away to tickle his teammates' bleeding hearts. "C'mon, old man. What sort of nefarious business is going down in your village? I almost died because of it, you owe me."
Tazuna sighs, glancing at Sasuke. Eyes lingering on his arms. "I suppose...I do owe you an explanation." he says in a sombre, down-trodden tone.
"Ugh here there goes. Don't listen to him teme, he's a skeevy old con-artist. He'll say anything to get us to resume the mission," Naruto complains - and ends up demanding to resume the mission after listening to a long-winded sob-story contrived of the poor getting sucked dry by a sociopathic man who did not appreciate a bridge being built across a river that would render his shipping company useless.
Sasuke thinks, 'Thank you, for being such an idiot Naruto. Couldn't kick it without you,' and goes to tuck himself next to the fire. Ready to sleep off the night and call it a job well done. When he'll awake, everything will be set in place and he can -
"Up to you," Kakashi abruptly butts in on Naruto's attempts at swaying. The man, loathful as he is, was looking at Sasuke. "Within reason of you almost being a casualty, it's your decision."
"Who's the sensei here?" Sakura scoffs, though she too was awaiting a response.
"I'm up for it," he meets Kakashi's twitching lone eye. Did the man think he'd choke on this? Did he honestly not get that Sasuke was itching to bury himself and be done with this world's bullshit? "Let's save the fuckin' Land of Waves, right Tazuna?"
The old man's jaw hasn't shut since Naruto and Sakura leapt to his defence.
"Umn-erm-I'm-I-I-I-I-"
"Good man," Sasuke says to the excited blabberings and curls into his sleeping bag.
"Even after risking death he's still super weird," Naruto says, sounding a bit too admiring for Sasuke's comfort.
- ; -
Seeping through clumps of white, moist mist, an overpass smaller than the Golden Gate Bridge appears above the small boat. Only a handful of yards were left to cross along gaping river until they reached the Land of Waves.
"That's huge!" Naruto hisses his excitement to the team. Twisting from the front of the boat to share his awe. Sakura, ridiculously, wouldn't stop elbowing Sasuke until he got the message this was some powerful shit they were witnessing.
"Uh huh, uh huh," he remembers gargantuan glass buildings and bridges large as giants. "Impressive."
Kakashi hums. "I haven't seen anything quite like it before," he says.
"It's not done yet," Tazuna says, cheeks brimming with pride. "But it soon will be - with your folks' help. She'll be a beauty."
"Shush, or someone will hear us," the boatman warns. Silencing them.
- ; -
Tazuna directs them down a dreary backroad known only by merchants. The reasoning is assuming big time gangster wouldn't know of it, thus his hired hitman shinobi shouldn't.
Kakashi coughs tactfully at that and warns Sakura with an eye to not say anything snappy.
Nevertheless, they go down that dirty old path and when Naruto nearly kills a fluffy white rabbit, cold fingers peel Sasuke's spine.
He twists from the group - Sakura thunking Naruto over the head, Tazuna catching his breath, Kakashi sighing - and stares at the small form of Rin's ghost lunging towards them. Sharp finger-nailed hands scratching the air.
Her scream sharper than a thousand knives.
["Kashi-chan duck!"]
Kakashi shouts, "Everyone get down!"
Sasuke feigns ignorance by standing and looking in all directions. A pointless maneuver, admirable as it was.
"Down teme!" Naruto flings himself at Sasuke. They thunk to the ground in time to witness a sword as long as a door tear across the air. "Sheesh you can be an idiot sometimes."
Sasuke gives a look and shoves him off. "I'm more aware than you think."
"Well you sure as heck don't seem to get the picture," two kunai drop into Naruto's hands through his sleeves. Sight unwavering on the man who now stood crouched on the hilt of his sword. Blade embedded into a tree above them. "Better get your game-face on, teme."
Kakashi addresses the guy as Zabuza and warns them not to engage with the nuke-nin. "Protect Tazuna."
"Get him Kashi-chan!" Rin claps. Floating at the side and observing with vivid curiosity.
"Kiri ninja. Seven Swordsman of the Mist - Some days we can't freaking win," Sakura quietly hisses, hurriedly dragging over Tazuna who looked ready to dig himself a hole. "Formation A."
"Yeah, yeah," Sasuke mutters and circle Tazuna with a purpose he doesn't wholly feel - and he assumes after a sudden clump of mist obscuring his vision and his skin beginning to crawl - that Kakashi must have insulted the guy's mother.
"Holy shit," Naruto wheezes. "Wh-what is that?"
"Killing intent," Sakura informs brusquely. Voice stiff. As though she were being crushed by an invisible weight. "It's not real. Keep repeating th -!"
She gets cut off by the naked force of Kakashi and Zabuza, attack colliding at the heart of their tightly knit group.
Right where Tazuna was standing.
Had Kakashi not spun him into Sasuke's arms, the old man might have died on the spot.
"You assho-" Sasuke manages to croak out before catapulting off with Tazuna and somersaulting to the ground. Elbow jamming to the sternum and nose, Sasuke punches Tazuna away and coughs into his arms. "Some C-ranked mission," he wheezes to himself. The old man has the decency to look apologetic, until reverting back to pure terror as Naruto screams;
"Sensei!"
Turning, Sasuke coughs. Kakshi was trapped. Floating in a water ball on the lake. Zabuza standing by. Chuffed.
"I'd like to die now," he thinks aloud.
"I can make that happen," a gruff voice tells from above. Sasuke peers up, and blinks. Finding a clone of Zabuza looming over him. "Chop you up like sashimi." The man looks to be smiling behind that bandaged face.
And the effect is electrifying. That deep tone of sincerity, that cute eye crease smile. Sasuke is thoroughly endeared.
"I think you ought to know that is the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me."
Zabuza chuckles, raises his sword, says, "Kid, you're pathetic."
"No!" and Tazuna drags him into his arms by the backpack in the nick of time. A blade thick and wide slams down to earth between Sasuke's legs. Gulp.
He's all for dying, but please let him keep his dignity.
"Oh God, oh God," Tazuna whimpers. Zabuza looks from the blade in the ground, to Sasuke's stunned expression, and growls like a bear. "I made him angry."
An orange blur wraps around Tazuna's neck, and Naruto starts shanking his kunai into the clone's neck - "Nobody calls my teammate pathetic!"
"Yah!" Sakura comes out of nowhere and punches the clone in the balls. Zabuza's eyes pop along with the water clone. "Sasuke-kun, take Tazuna-san and run!"
Sasuke blinks. "Now wait a minute."
"Who said you can run?" another clone swirls out from the mist, clumping together and forming a human right before his eyes. It was as mystical as it was impressive. The clone got every miniscule, nano-scule, muscle-scule, intimidating detail about the guy down.
Sakura and Naruto look down at their smaller bodies and gulp.
"Run!" Kakashi shouts.
Sasuke gestures uselessly before getting tugged to his feet by Tazuna and spearheaded into the forest.
"This is not the pleasant bodyguarding experience Konoha publicizes!" Tazuna runs more with his knees than his feet. Arms working in dual make-shift propellers.
Hand having not left Sasuke's bandaged, stinging to high Hell arm, he's surprised his shoulder hasn't dislocated itself out of desperation yet.
"How do you think I feel," he growls.
Out in the distance, they could hear war cries, scraping metal - and after a moment of silence a sonic boom.
A swath of hot air drifts in a rush from behind.
"Oh God, oh God," it's incredible how such an old man with creaking bones could run faster. Even Sasuke was having a difficult time catching up with him. He was getting dragged like cans behind a wedding carriage.
Long-story short; they get a good couple foot-ball fields away until the earth rumbles, trees shake, and they're forced to stop as a wave from nowhere swoops out in front of them and settles back from wherever it came.
Leaving behind a wet, black and blue Zabuza. Up against a tree.
Kunai fling into his arms. A wet slap and thunk as they penetrate past muscle into the tree.
"Holy moly, your sensei got him," Tazuna finally slackens his grip. Exhausted and sore, Sasuke drops. Breath harsh.
"You - mean - old - man," he huffs. Crawling to Zabuza across sloppy mud, and pokes the delirious man on the bandage-wrapped cheek. Zabuza's eyes were showing way too much white for a regular concussion. Feeling his already tenuous grasp on his death was slipping out of reach, Sasuke prods harder. "Hey, you."
"Brat," Zabuza's pupil swung into position - though somehow kept swinging.
"Get back here!" Tazuna hisses.
"I don't suppose you can," he pauses, stomach heaving from last night's dinner, "Hoo boy - you can not die on me right now, yeah? At least for a bit."
Tazuna sighs, "You have way too much heart for a shinobi, kid."
Of all the misunderstandings.
"Sasuke-chan, step back from the nice Kiri-nin," Kakashi says. Coming from the trees and wavering upon landing. His headband was up, showing a gleaming red tomoe eye. "He's about to say hi to mother."
Zabuza chuckles, coughing a red spray behind his mask. "That's cruel, I never knew my mother."
He doesn't get to confess much after that. Two senbon slash into his neck. Nicking Sasuke across the cheek and showering him in arterial blood.
"This has been a pretty devastating afternoon for me," Sasuke says. Turning to look at Kakashi, the man's eyes are wide and looking at something above. "You're terrible. You don't even care."
"It wasn't me," says Kakashi.
"It was me." an ethereal voice speaks.
This time, Sasuke turns to look at a lithe, masked figure propped on a tree branch. He doesn't say, 'I know that,' instead he says, "You're a bitch and I despise you."
"Sasu-chan, that's not very nice. Apologise to the scary lady."
On quivering legs, mopping his face with bandaged arms, Sasuke ignores the remark and makes his sullen way to Kakashi. "Can we go?"
"Not just yet," Kakashi forcefully shoves him behind by the back of the head as the masked kid flashes to Zabuza. "Going by the creepy mask you're a tracker-nin from the Village Hidden in the Mist..."
Being more than sick of the day's awful events, Sasuke sallies past Tazuna. Not having a clear direction in mind other than 'anywhere but here'. On his way he passes Naruto and Sakura, both dirty, wet and adrenaline filled eyes. They had a lively buzz to them that Sasuke envied.
"Where's Kakashi-sesnei, is it over?" Sakura immediately asks upon seeing him, waving Naruto to go ahead. "And what the heck, why are you covered in blood?" she pats him down, frantic, "Are you alright?"
Solemnly, he nods his head and divulges; "There was an unfortunate event."
"Aah!" they hear Naruto yelp in the distance. "Sensei's fainted!"
"Did he? Good for him."
- ; -
Team Seven take refuge with their unconscious sensei at Tazuna's house. The whole trip lugging Kakashi between Naruto and Sasuke's shoulders takes at least an hour. Weary from battle, the promise of food, drinks and the threat of unknown danger keep them from collapsing.
[Rin dancing around Kakashi definitely kept Sasuke awake
"You did so well today Kashi-chan~!"
"Chakra exhaustion looks so good on you~ I much prefer this to your suicidal ideation days~"
Honestly. The fuck was wrong with her.]
Tazuna's house is large yet incredibly empty. Apart from his daughter Tsunami, a petite young woman who immediately usher them inside, and a distant brat called Inari, it looked as though it hadn't housed many people for a while.
They're put into a room large enough for all four of them.
"Here's a spare futon, shinobi-san," Tsunami rushes in as they place Kakashi down. Sasuke nearly dropped the man when Rin patted his shoulders, thanking him and Naruto for their effort to keep him safe. "For your sensei," Tsunami eyes the man. "Give a shout if you need anything. Dinner will be ready soon, oh, I can send it up here if you'd like."
"That would be amazing, Tsunami-san," Sakura gives her a relieved smile that drops when she leaves. "Right, how is everyone?"
And like that, as they drop out the futon and roll Kakashi onto it, one by one they give a review of injuries.
Naruto, under the guidance of Sakura, helps bandage her ribcage and dress some gashes.
"Sasuke, check over Sensei," Sakura says, undressing herself and slapping Naruto upside the head when the boy squeaked. "We've done this before, idiot."
"Still, it's you Sakura-chan," Naruto pats his cheeks. "I've gotta respect your privacy."
"That's all very well and decent of you, Naruto-kun…"
Shaking his head from the preteen drama, Sasuke eyes Kakashi for a long second. His slightly tanned skin had ashened. Jounin flak jacket crumpled under the amount of blows it received. Lying on the futon the man's sassy bravado had sunken into something weak and pitiful.
He looked like a young man, and for an uncomfortable second Sasuke is reminded how young Kakashi is compared to himself.
"What's wrong with him anyway?" asks Naruto. Rubbing alcohol on Sakura's back where a small gash was. He had seemed to gather his wits about him. Good boy.
"Chakra exhaustion," Sasuke answers, rolling up Kakashi's sleeve. Having noticed a wound crusted over with blood.
"There's more on the legs, mi-ni-Ob-i," Rin advises, sing-song besides his head and Sasuke makes sure to check that out after. "Such a shame, his legs are really one of his best features."
Hearing that from a child was more disturbing than her being dead.
"Makes sense," Sakura says. "Those water dragons looked chakra-heavy, and the sharing..." she stops herself.
Sasuke focuses on cleaning and dressing the wound.
"What? Sharing-what?" Naruto glances between his two teammates. Bashing through whatever tension had arisen. "You mean that red eyeball of his?"
"The Sharingan. It's my family's Dojutsu," Sasuke says. "It was mentioned in Kakashi's section of the bingo book."
"Oh! The copy thing, yeah?" Naruto nods. "Wait, but Kakashi-sensei isn't an Uchiha."
"Obito-chan~" Rin somersaults in the air, hands clutched to her heart and dead eyes distant, "Oh Obito-chan. I wish you could come back to us~ Kakashi would be so thrilled even if you're a megalomaniac serial killer~"
"He must have gotten it from someone in the family," Sasuke shrugs. "Maybe a friend. Or a lover."
Rin chokes on her ectoplasm.
Win for Sasuke.
"Weird that he's never mentioned it," Sakura mutters aloud.
"Sasuke?"
Sasuke looks up to meet the curious gaze.
"Do you have the Sharingan?"
"Yep," Sasuke confirms.
Sakura whirls, jaw dropped. At the movement, Naruto flinches from his work of dressing the wounds. Roll of bandage flying to the air in white trails.
"What? You've never mentioned this. Not so much as-as hinted. Does the Hokage know? He does, doesn't he?" Sasuke's raised eyebrow seemed to pitch her tone towards hysteria.
"Bite me," Sasuke drawls, attention moving down to Kakashi's legs where, he saw, a long strip of cloth was slashed into the skin. "Dammit, this looks like it'll need stitches."
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura says. "You," she chokes, not knowing what to say. What could she possibly say?
"You've been...ignoring, a powerful dojutsu," Naruto mumbles. Baffled and sounding as though he didn't know whether to be angry or not.
Rin, that girl was giggling like a thousand bells.
"For - for what?" Naruto asks, bracing himself.
"Spite. And threatening the government with erectile-dojutsu dysfunction," he grins happily.
In the spirit realm wherein Rin resides, there's a whole lot of applause.
"No sense," Naruto huffs to Sakura, hands scrambling to pick up the bandage roll, "He makes no sense."
- ; -
"You're all going to die," is the first thing the grandson tells them at breakfast. That and, "I'll laugh when you do."
Sasuke and his team pause on the stairwell down, "Thanks."
"Teme!" Naruto flicks the back of his head, hissing. "Don't encourage such bad-energy crap," wrapping an arm across his shoulders he drags him towards the table where Tsunami was hushingly chiding her son. "And you!" the blonde kid points to the morose small one. "Watch and see, we'll save this village from Gumbo - "
"Gato," Sakura briskly puts it.
"-and we'll survive. Cause that's what great shinobi do. Protect and serve."
"Protect and serve. Look where it landed you," Godfrey runs a hand down Quin's headstone.
Inari snorts, and Tsunami gives him a look that has him keeping quiet for the rest of the meal. Bodyguarding Tazuna is implemented with a shift rotation lasting two hours. Sakura is first, followed by Naruto and then Sasuke. By the second shift Kakashi wakes up and Sasuke finds Tazuna's house has its own resident ghost.
A man with severed arms and a neck chopped half way follows Inari as the boy goes out fishing at the pond nearby. Sasuke knows this, because he is assigned to watch other the flighty brat in case Gato develops any nefarious ideas.
"Why'd you thank me?" Inari asks. Gruff and glaring as he sits by the pond. Besides him dipping toes in the water, the ghost similarly looks curious. Cocking its head in a manner that parted flesh.
Sasuke makes sure to keep his eyes on the kid and not the exposed vertebrae.
"I'd prefer someone laughing at my funeral than crying."
Inari blinks.
"You poor soul."
"You don't want to live and runaway?"
"I'd rather die."
Snorting, the kid turns back to his fishing pole. Severe little eyes studying the still water, "Stop acting like a hero. There's no such thing."
The man's ghost looks like he wants to hug him, "If I knew my death would do this…"
Whatever baggage there was in this family of Tazuna's seemed to revolve around this adult guy, and Sasuke made sure to do his darndest at not meeting the ghost's eyes. He didn't want another rerun of Ayame's mother's ring.
Sasuke shivers.
- ; -
Kakashi awakens with the theatrical reveal of Zabuza being alive and the ANBU being a hoax.
"Like me it won't take long for him to recover," Kakashi says, crutch under one arm and hobbling, he leads team 7 into woods by Tazuna's house. Standing guard over the family were Kakashi's group of loyal ninken. "And when he does, Zabuza will choose somewhere with water nearby. Stands to reason you need to learn how to walk on it."
"Was that a goddamn pun?" Sasuke asks, aghast.
"Maa~" Kakashi casually struts up a tree. "Before that you need to learn the basics."
- ; -
Rin had taken up affection with the weird decapitated ghost man. Leaving the woods free from her eerie songs and commentary. Sasuke basks in it as he stands staring at the trunk of his tree.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto calls after falling five meters off the tree, "Could you spare some tips?"
Three minutes into training Sakura made it up two branches of her tree. Ultimately, the girl was bored to Hell watching her teammates repeatedly fail over something she found to be pretty straight forward.
Sasuke, done with procrastinating (tickles of Kakashi staring at him over his pornography grating his peace) focuses an appropriate amount of chakra into the soles of his feet and slabs it to the birch.
Ten meters up, he wonders how high he'd have to 'fall' to snap his neck. As an Officer he remembers scenes of jumpers. Broken bodies and exploded skulls.
"Can I, sensei?" Sakura asks distantly.
"Go ahead. Sasuke-chan, alright there?"
"I'm good," Sasuke grunts and continues his slow journey up. Chakra control has never been particularly agonising. Back in the police academy, instructors instilled strong levels of focus into each and every recruit. Their teachings seemed to have passed across death.
Fire jutsu is chock-full of dangerous finesse.
Stuck in thought, he looks at his palm and focuses on heating air particles. Waves of warmth spin the air near his fingertips, contorting it as the heat grows and expands - and just as quickly he kills it.
Naruto cries follow a thump.
"That was close, Naruto-kun," he hears Sakura encourage and looks down to see the two children muster courage. "You can do it."
"Believe it," Naruto runs up the tree. Blue eyes meet his and he gawps, "Teme! You made it?"
Sasuke flips him off and completely skews Naruto's concentration.
"Sasukeeee!"
- ; -
The sun sets behind the Land of Waves, and Naruto fails to show up for dinner.
"What's that kid up to?" Tazuna asks Kakashi.
"Training."
"It's useless," Inari voices. "We're wasting our food sharing it with dead-men, mum."
The ghost at his side shares a dejected look with Rin. The girl pats him on the back, and Sasuke has to try very hard not to openly gawp at it like a psyche patient. He's never actively seen ghosts touch each other.
Hell. Even console one another. What the heck. They were dead what was there to console.
In his haste at looking anywhere but them, Sasuke catches Sakura biting her lip. Eyes glancing now and then to the back door.
"Tsunami-san, could I take a plate out for Naruto?"
"Of course, honey. I'll go prepare a bento."
Sasuke, after a pointed green-eyed stare-down, sighs and drags his battered body out after Sakura. As the backdoor closes, they hear Kakashi brag to Tazuna how cute his students are.
They find Naruto where they left him. Only dirtier and incredibly huffy.
"None of your tips work, Sakura-chan!"
Sasuke looks up at the hole-punched trunk Naruto has been waging a war against and says to the kid, "Use less Chakra."
"Eh?" Naruto blinks.
"Do it."
Naruto squints at him. Not sure why Sasuke was encouraging him. "Is this a trick?"
"You're a chakra powerhouse," Sasuke explains, "It's obvious you naturally overcompensate."
Naruto's mind looks to be clambering over this newfound information. "How am I supposed to feel about that."
"Try it," Sakura steps between the two boys. "Go on."
"Mmmm, alright," Naruto, putting on a show of hesitancy, manages two steps up the trunk, then three, and soon he is walking. "Teme! Look!"
"Yep, I'm looking, and I'm going," says Sasuke. Turning on his heel and walking from the 'team bonding moment'.
- ; -