I wake to the sound of a thousand birds chirping.
It is a very unnerving thing to wake up to. I watch as Kakashi rams his Chidori at Zabuza. This is it. The end. I close my eyes.
A sickening squelch echos across the bridge.
Opening my eyes, I refuse to process what has happened. Kakashi is fist deep in Zabuza's chest. That's not right. Haku is supposed to intercept that. Where is Haku? Looking around I spot Sasuke. I don't know how I missed him, he is standing protectively over me, one foot on either side of my body.
"Sasuke?" I croak out. My voice is harsh and raspy. "Haku? Where is Haku?"
Sasuke jumps away from me with a look of pure elation on his face.
"You're alive. You're alive. Thank Kami, you're alive. I thought you died. I thought Haku killed you. You're alive." He's... he's crying. Sasuke is crying because he thought I died?
Sitting up I take in my surroundings. Haku is nowhere to be found. "Where is Haku? Did we capture her? Is she still around somewhere? Is she dead?"
Sasuke pauses. "She's dead."
"How? There is no way you could match her speed in that ice dome."
Without meeting my eyes, Sasuke tells me, "I didn't have to match her speed. She dodged our simultaneous attack by exiting the mirrors before we launched it. She was behind you the entire time. She wasn't in the mirrors."
That explains how she dodged that. I thought for sure it would work. I guess it did, just not how I expected. We forced her out of the mirrors. So much for my kunai defense, if I don't know you're there how can I block you?
"Then she hit you with her senbon. And you... she must have done that fake death thing. It looked so real. The surprise on your face, the dull thud your body made when it hit the ground.
The world became clear in that moment. Everything slowed down, and I knew I only had one chance. One chance before Haku got back to her mirrors. You used all my kunai so I used the only thing I could. Grand Fireball.
I made it bigger and hotter than I ever have before. It hit her dead center. There is no body left over. I burnt her to ashes." Once he finishes talking, Sasuke looks at me. He looks fearful, scared out of his mind.
"Are you okay Sasuke? First kills can be tough." I rasp out. "We've both had pretty nasty first kills."
"Am I okay? I just torched your friend to hell and you ask if I am okay!"
Oh, that's what he is scared of. He thinks I hate him now. He can't stand the idea of me hating him, he is scared of it.
I cough into my hand in a vain attempt to clear my throat. "Sasuke, Haku wasn't my friend."
"What? But you two were so nice to each other! She's the forest girl!"
"So? At best we were acquaintances. The first and only time we had a conversation we both subtly threatened to kill each other." With hacking cough I clear my throat. It didn't help, it still feels like sandpaper. "You are my friend Sasuke, never forget that. I don't even know Haku's family name."
"But I killed her." He whispers out. I've never heard Sasuke sound defeated before.
"Do you remember what you told me when I was freaking out like this? 'You put every single opponent in the ground so you can see your precious people again. You do not get to die. You have a reason to live, so make sure the enemy is the one who can't get up again.' You know what that means?"
"What?" He looks at me uncertainly.
"I'm one of your precious people." A smile worms its way onto my face.
Sasuke snorts. "No you are not! You are just my teammate. Someone I'm stuck with."
Time to drop a bomb on his world. "I don't know, you must like me an awful lot if my 'death' could awaken the Sharingan."
"WHAT? Sharingan?"
"You didn't notice? You look like a red eyed hedgehog with all those senbon sticking out of you."
"Then that makes you a yellow eyed hedgehog. You have more senbon in you than I do." Sasuke retorts haughtily.
"Great, thanks for pointing that out." He's not wrong, out of the two of us I clearly have more. Haku focused on me during the fight more than him. Did she see me as the bigger threat?
"You boys okay?" Kakashi calls out to us. He's holding one hand behind his back. He must not want us to see the blood.
"Yeah. Alvarcus doesn't know how to die, he messed it up." Sasuke says back to him.
Kakashi looks relieved. "I'm glad to hear that. What happened to Haku?"
"Sasuke immolated her. Ashes." I rasp out. "Anyone have some water? I could use a drink."
"Here." Kakashi tosses his canteen at me, I catch it and down half of it.
"Thanks sensei." I throw it back at him.
"Job well done! Let's go back and get Sakura and Tazuna." As a group we head back up the bridge. Both Sakura's and Tazuna's faces light up when they see us.
"So you won! I knew you would! Even if it was really scary when Sasuke-kun and Alvarcus were in that giant ice dome. What happened in there? And is that ice sticking out of your bodies?"
"Nothing major happened." I say. Sasuke opens his mouth to tell her about me almost dying. "Sasuke." He closes his mouth. I shake my head no. He gets the message, she doesn't need to know. "Tell them about your eye condition."
Sakura starts freaking out. "Eye condition? Did you get hit in the eye? Get over here and let me see!"
"My eyes are fine. They are better than ever actually." Sasuke smirks cockily. What an arrogant prick, I'm glad he's back to normal.
"Oh really? Congrats Sasuke. I have some tricks I can teach you later." Kakashi offers.
"Sensei, what does that mean? Sasuke's eyes could be hurt!" Sakura exclaims in worry.
"Sakura, my eyes aren't hurt. I awakened the Sharingan."
"That's great Sasuke-kun! Can I see them? Please?" Sakura does a complete 180. Now she is begging him, using her wide puppy dog eyes to crumble his resolve.
"I uh... don't know how to turn it on and off yet. Maybe later?" Sasuke sheepishly replies.
"Yes! Take that Ino! I'm going to hold you to that." Sakura does a victory fist punch.
"That is one of those tricks I'll teach you." Kakashi adds into the conversation.
Our happy moment is ruined by the sound of marching feet.
"Well well well. It looks like Zabuza failed. Not only that, you killed him for me! Now I don't have to pay him at all!" Oh fuck me is that Gato and his mercenaries?
"OI!" I speak up, addressing the shortest one here. "You Gato?"
"My reputation precedes me! Yes, I am Gato." He takes a sweeping bow. Did I mention he is incredibly short?
"You're the one who is trying to kill Tazuna, yes?" I ask for clarification. Better safe than sorry, I would hate to attack the wrong person.
"That's me. If you would be so kind as to hand him over. I think a public execution would be best." Gato doesn't even sound regretful. He doesn't believe he's doing wrong or he's become desensitized to his morals.
My whole team tenses. "Kakashi-sensei? Permission to partake in a slaughter."
"I vote yes. He caused all of these problems. If he's gone there won't be anymore." Sasuke's eyes flash crimson.
"Sasuke-kun is right! We need to cut the head off the snake and then the body will die!" Sakura draws a kunai and stands protectively in front of Tazuna.
"Team 7, new mission parameter: slaughter on a bridge." Even Kakashi wants to fight this out.
"Y-you can't be serious! You're outnumbered ten to one!" Gato starts backing away, "Men! Kill them! A bonus to each man who brings me a head!" With a mighty roar, the mercenaries charge us. There has to be at least thirty. Maybe more.
"Non lethal take-downs. We've scared them enough." Dammit Kakashi-sensei! There goes all the fun.
I attach twenty chakra strings to various stones and rubble nearby.
"Alright, non lethal take-downs it is. If I bludgeon a few to death we will call it a happy accident."
What follows was a beat down of epic proportions. It was four vs thirty. They didn't bring enough men. Between me whipping stones around like there is no tomorrow, Sasuke's newly awakened Sharingan, Kakashi just being badass and Sakura supporting all three of us the thirty mercenaries went down in minutes. All that is left is Gato.
"Please don't kill me! I'll leave Wave alone! I'll go somewhere else! Just spare me!" All of Team Seven surrounds Gato. He has no where to go.
Kakashi turns to Tazuna. "You're the client. Does this fall under our mission parameters to protect you?" Leaving it up to Tazuna is a brutal thing to do. Gato is dead. Very dead.
"Yes. I demand that you protect me." Tazuna says with grim determination. His country will finally be free.
"NOOOOOO-urk"
A kunai embeds itself in-between Gato's eyes. Everyone looks at me.
"What? I didn't want to listen to him squeal any longer."
Kakashi sighs. "Let's get back to Tazuna's house."
"Hold on a minute!" I walk over to Zabuza's giant sword and try to pick it up. Konoha would love to get their hands on this. There's just one problem, I can't lift it, it's too heavy.
"Oi. Grab Zabuza's sword will you Kakashi? I bet we can use that later, it is one of Kiri's legendary blades after all."
Kakashi seals it away into a scroll. I need to learn how to do that.
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