Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Sasuke was sitting up.
I wove my way through the crowds back to him, not quite able to stem the traitorous tears that rose to my eyes. The battle was over, the shock and detachment fading and everything was starting to catch up to me.
I knelt next to him, relief at seeing him well coursing through me. "Hi," I whispered inanely.
He blinked at me. "What happened?"
"We won?" I offered uncertainly. How to explain all this? "Gatou is dead. He betrayed Zabuza and Haku, so they aren't fighting us anymore."
"Huh," he said. All that had happened while he was out of it, so yeah, he was probably confused.
"You probably shouldn't be moving," I said, using my diagnosis technique to scan him. He actually didn't seem too badly off, surprisingly. I was wary of the damage to his neck, but other than that it all seemed very minor. Most of the senbon had lodged in his ribs, not penetrating into the lungs or heart. He'd take a few to the arms and legs, but they'd gone through muscle and missed the major arteries that could have made him bleed out.
"I thought…" Sasuke trailed off.
I thought I was dead.
"So did we," I said softly, activating my Mystical Palm Jutsu and beginning to heal up the most pressing of his injuries. It was slow going but doable, since senbon were very thin and only left small holes. I was grateful that my first excursion into post battle healing didn't involve gaping wounds or mortal injuries.
When I had done what I could, I looked up. Sensei and Zabuza were walking amongst the fallen forms of Gatou's men. And if they paid particular attention to one or another and then that form stopped moving or groaning in pain… I pretended not to see.
Naruto was with the villagers and Inari, basking in post fight excitement. I could see a few injuries on the villagers that I'd probably deal with soon.
But first… "Haku!" My voice didn't carry well, but he heard me all the same. He was standing awkwardly off to the side, just watching. At my call, he made his way over to us.
"Yes?"
"Could you please tell me about the attack you used?" I asked over Sasuke's scowl and wary look. I didn't know what had gone down between them while I hadn't been able to see and part of me cynically thought I was being overly trusting.
Haku knelt gracefully and folded his hands in his lap. "The senbon induce a temporary death state, by stopping breathing, pulse and nervous system activity for a short period of time. The first senbon pierces the vertebral column between the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebra, which stops movement and breathing. The next targets the external carotid artery, preventing blood flow to the brain and inducing unconsciousness as well as blocking movement to prevent the pulse from being taken. The third senbon targets the third cervical tenketsu point, shutting down the chakra system but at the same time allowing for reanimation after a short period of time."
By those directions, the needles in Sasuke's neck had been precisely in place. It was a little horrifying, as part of my brain insisted that such a thing was not possible - piercing the spinal cord, blocking an artery… all that would lead to was death. But chakra… that was the confounding aspect.
"And side effects?" I asked carefully.
Haku acknowledged the point. "The second senbon can often cause excessive bleeding, either escaping through the wound or remaining internal, particularly if it isn't removed carefully." There was a carefully blank look and a slight flicker of the eyes towards Zabuza. Likely that observation came through experience. "There is a degree of muscle paralysis or weakness that can persist for about a week, as well as symptoms similar to chakra exhaustion as the chakra system reboots."
"I see," I said, hands hovering over Sasuke's neck for a second longer. There was no excess bleeding that I could find and I couldn't fix the other factors. I let my hands drop. "Thank you for not killing my team mate."
Haku looked startled and dropped his gaze. "I… I did not wish to kill them," he admitted. "It is a failing of mine but…"
I tried to smile but I'm not sure it worked, covered in exhaustion and sadness. "I don't think it's much of a failing."
"A tool that does not work is useless, as is a shinobi who will not kill," Haku said. He looked as sad as I felt. "My very reason for existing is to be a tool for Zabuza-sama. Without that… I am nothing."
I couldn't help myself. I reached over and lightly touched his hand. "You don't believe that, Haku," I said earnestly. "And more importantly, Zabuza doesn't believe it either."
He gaped. "How can you say that?"
"Because I'm alive," I answered evenly. I wasn't good with heartfelt words, not like Naruto, but I could do facts. "If he truly believed Shinobi were supposed to kill without emotion, he wouldn't have spared us. That fight, with the water clone… the three of us didn't stand a chance, but he never aimed to kill. Beat us down, defeat us, yes, but not kill. Even here on this bridge…"
"I…" he looked torn between wanting to believe and what he thought he knew. "That is what I have always been taught. Shinobi are simply tools."
"Maybe he wants to believe it," I offered. "If you were only a tool, then it wouldn't hurt so much if you were used, like what happened here…. Maybe he wanted to spare you that pain."
He smiled wanly. "Maybe."
I let the matter drop. "You're bleeding. Do you want me to…?" I offered, activating my Mystical Palm Jutsu again.
He hesitated a second, just long enough for me to realise how forward I was being, then tilted his head back to let me heal it. "You didn't have to," he said awkwardly. "I've got salve for things like that."
I shrugged. "Cuts are pretty easy to fix. Don't worry about it. What kind of salve do you use?" I asked purely out of curiosity. It was a semi-safe topic for a conversation anyway.
We were just settling into a conversation about the properties of salves made out of coastal plants verse stuff made out of inland growing plants - which Sasuke was ignoring - when Naruto came jogging over.
"Hey!" He greeted cheerfully, but his eyes lingered on Sasuke longer than normal. "Some of the guys that came to help are injured, and they said that there isn't a doctor here anymore…" He trailed off.
I remembered hearing something like that. "I'll see what I can do," I said, standing and brushing dirt from my pants.
"I can help," Haku offered. "If it can make up for…"
"That would be appreciated," I accepted. Anything more serious than cuts and bruises I couldn't really deal with. A second set of hands wouldn't hurt in any case. "Maybe you two should see what Sensei has to say?"
"Hn," Sasuke said, which might have translated to anything from 'good idea' to 'I can't move'.
The villagers had actually managed to escape serious injury. There were a few cuts and stab wounds, which were easy to deal with, and a few broken bones, which I could do nothing more than splint. There was a Jutsu that could knit bone together, but I didn't know it and I didn't really want to experiment.
They left the bridge slowly, in groups of two or three, in high spirits until it was only us ninja left.
We grouped together, an invisible battle line drawn between our two teams. Yeah, there really wasn't a whole lot of trust going on here. I couldn't really fault anyone for that. An hour ago we'd been doing our best to kill each other.
Well. Sort of.
"So what are your plans now?" Kakashi-sensei asked casually.
Zabuza grunted. "A company as big as that wont disappear just because we killed the guy in charge. It might take a while, but they'll sort out who's next in line to take over eventually. We still… have business with them."
"You think they're still going to talk with you after you killed their boss?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.
"Eh, I always find a good assassination makes negotiating much easier," Zabuza said with a grin filled with very, very sharp teeth. Frankly, it was a little unnerving, which was probably the point. I wasn't entirely sure when or why he'd taken off the bandages.
"Yes well," Sensei said. "If that's the case…"
Zabuza shrugged. "Your bridge builder is safe," he said with rolled eyes. "We won't come up against you again. I'm done stuffing around with requests and bullshit. Shoulda done it my way to start off with."
Haku sighed. "We will not trouble you again," he assured us. "If there's anything I can do…"
For Naruto, that settled the matter. "Hey, hey, can you teach me some of those cool jutsu you used? Please?"
Haku blinked at him, flabbergasted. Zabuza laughed.
I figured that was as good an opening as I was going to get. "Umm… are you guys working with the Mist Rebellion?"
"What makes you ask that?" Zabuza asked warily. It occurred to me that most hidden villages tended to like the status quo staying as it was. A rebellion in one place might lead to others thinking it was a good idea.
I looked down. "Well, it was really the only reason that I could think of for someone of your rank being somewhere like this," I confessed. I didn't want to get into the whole explanation that I'd come up with. That would just be embarrassing.
Zabuza eyed us for a second longer then shrugged, apparently deciding he didn't care. "Yeah, we are. It isn't that much of a secret."
"Cool," I said, pleased to be validated. No one really knew that much about the Mist Rebellion, which was basically how they'd survived.
"Well, our mission lasts until the bridge is complete," Sensei said, half as an offer of peace, half as a warning.
Naruto saw something else in it. "Yeah! We're going to stay here too. So you can visit us, right Haku? Since you said you were staying."
"I… that might not be a good idea. We did attack you, after all," Haku said gently.
Naruto scoffed. "Who cares about that? You guys were lied to by that jerk Gatou. He's the real bad guy. We can all be friends now."
"Friends?" Haku smiled tentatively. "I'd like that." He glanced at the rest of us, to see how we'd taken Naruto's statement. Sasuke scowled, but I smiled back.
"Eh, don't worry about Sasuke," Naruto said, hands behind his head and face squinching into a mischievous grin. "He's just upset that you beat him."
Sasuke glared. "Idiot. You were the one that got beaten. I saved you."
"You're lucky Haku is so nice!" Naruto protested. "Otherwise -" He cut himself off; it was too soon to joke about it. "And anyway! You awakened your Sharingan thing, so it's not all bad, right?"
"Sharingan? You're an Uchiha. Huh. No wonder…" Zabuza murmured.
Naruto heard it anyway. He rounded on Zabuza with a loud, "Hey! Hey! What do you mean 'no wonder'? Don't go thinking that Sasuke is all that. You better remember my name. It's Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage!"
"Easy, kids," Sensei said soothingly. "No need to start another fight now." Sensei was getting pretty good at diffusing situations like that. I had a feeling he was going to get a lot of practice.
"Future Hokage, you say?" Zabuza smirked. "I'll keep an eye on you. You might even make it into my bingo book."
Even as they left, Naruto almost glowed. Offhand it might have been, but you couldn't deny it was a compliment.
"That went… well," Kakashi-sensei said. He was a master of understatement.
I flopped down on the ground with an exhausted sigh, sitting next to Sasuke. "I guess you could say that."
"So, boys," Kakashi-sensei added, leaning against the railings. "Care to fill us in on what went on in your fight?"
I gave half my attention to their explanation and the other half to watching everyone's reactions. Sensei had retreated to his usual nonchalant slouch, but for someone with three quarters of his face completely covered he had a very expressive eye.
After Haku had iced the ground over, he'd kept out of their reach and simply pelted them with senbon, either real ones or water jutsu ones. They'd tried to get off the ice but he'd simply started cutting off their escape routes with walls of ice that had eventually turned into a kind of maze, separating them. He'd been able to merge with any of the ice, bouncing from one surface to the other faster than the eye could see. The boys had spent most of the time trying to regroup, and eventually managed, thanks to some quick thinking with Shadow Clones and a newly awakened Sharingan. Of course, once they'd begun to effectively retaliate, Haku had simply stepped up his game again, inflicting more and more serious hits on them. Naruto had been down and unable to stand when Haku had tried to get him with the temporary death technique - though they didn't know it at the time.
"My body just moved on its own. Che. What kind of excuse is that anyway?" Naruto muttered, looking down. Embarrassment, annoyance, gratitude and shame at having to be saved warred within him.
"Idiot. I don't know why I did it," Sasuke growled back. "I just did, okay?"
"Sasuke," I said quietly but seriously. "I know you don't like people touching you, but I'm going to hug you now." Fair warning given, I practically wrapped myself around him, tilting my chin down so they couldn't see my watery eyes. "You aren't allowed to die. You hear me? Rule Number One of Team 7: No dying."
It was stupid and idiotic and impossible.
"I like that rule," Kakashi-sensei said.
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Small and helpless and it was looming over me and it was like fire on my insides and hatredmaliceevilevilevil living and breathing and ohgod how can something like that exist?
I snapped awake with a shudder, stifling the scream that wanted to break free, the tears the sprung to my eyes. I was no stranger to nightmares, but Shika wasn't here and neither of my team mates would fill in for him. Well, Naruto might, but he was… it was… it was right there.
I stumbled to my feet, chakra light guiding my way as I fled from the room, from the house. The cold ocean breeze slapped across my face, stealing away remembered heat and leaving salt spray to mask my tears.
Tazuna's house had a veranda that edged out over the ocean, and there was a nook there, in the far wall, that was just big enough for a small child to squeeze into. I huddled into it, knees pulled to my chest, curled into a tight small ball. It wasn't a pose that lent itself to sudden movement - no balance, no explosive uncoiling - I wasn't defensive, I was hiding, plain and simple. The walls pressed in on me reassuringly, and my hands were thrust out front of me to push the darkness away. The water glimmered eerily in the reflected chakra light.
My chakra was curled within me, a tight ball of fear that eased with every breath that passed. I was safe. I was hidden. Nothing could get me. There was nothing out there at all.
Well, nothing except Kakashi-sensei. I frowned as I focused on his chakra signal. He was awake and moving, first to the where the boys were still asleep, then ghosting through the house in and out of each room. What was he doing? Was he looking for something?
Oh, I realised sheepishly, boosting my chakra signal so it was back into normal range. I had pulled my chakra in so tightly that it couldn't be sensed, of course it had woken him. Dad had once mentioned that it worried him, but home was safe and I rarely felt the need to hide there. Here was not safe.
Sensei homed in on me, confirming my thoughts. I wiped my face on my sleeve and smiled weakly at him as he rounded the corner. To his credit, he didn't even look surprised at the odd position I'd wedged myself into.
"Mah, it's a bit early for you to be up, isn't it?" He asked cheerily, dropping to sit on the edge of the veranda, legs dangling over the side. That put him a good deal in front of me, but slightly to the side. Close but not too close.
It was a bit of an understatement. Judging by the stars and my internal body clock, it was probably around midnight. Late, rather than early.
I considered lying. Or deflecting. But the fact that he'd come looking for me, the amount of space he had given me, the set of his shoulders as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye… it all spoke of worry. I didn't want to worry anyone.
"I had a nightmare," I admitted, voice scratchy and slightly wobbly. I coughed and swallowed and tried again. "It's nothing big."
He hummed non-judgementally. "Is that the first time you've seen someone killed?" He asked, voice soft and smooth and patient. "It can be upsetting."
I blinked. Oh. Truthfully, that had barely crossed my mind. And I was pretty sure I was responsible for at least a few of those deaths today, either by paralysing them or by kunai; it was hard to know. But Kakashi-sensei was trying to help. For all that he left us to our own devices, he did care. "It's not that," I said, hesitantly, wondering how to have this conversation. There was really no choice but to jump straight in. If I wanted to get information, this was the best time. Probably the only opportunity I was going to have. "That chakra… that Naruto had…" Sensei didn't stiffen, didn't react at all, but his eye flicked to me from where it had been scanning the horizon. "What was it?"
"I can't tell you that," Kakashi-sensei said after a long thoughtful pause. "That is… Naruto's secret."
"It's Kyuubi, isn't it?"
This time, he did turn to look at me. I fidgeted and drew back further into my hidey hole. "I …" I swallowed. "I remember that chakra. When I was really small." I couldn't seem to speak coherently, to explain. I could only hope he understood what I was trying to say. "I was really scared," I whispered. In the night silence it seemed too loud. I buried my face into my knees so I didn't have to look at him.
"You would only have been a few weeks old," Kakashi-sensei said, a note of shock buried in his voice. I wondered how he could have known - oh, our files. "Most people don't remember anything from that age."
Lucky them. "Bad things are always easier to remember than good things," I said, voice thick. "I remember… Shikamaru was crying, was screaming, but I couldn't. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe, the air was so thick with it…" I trembled. That memory sprang to the surface too easily, the feelings of helpless terror flooding back even now. They didn't seem to weaken, not even after all this time.
Was it always going to be like this?
"It's alright. I remember too," Kakashi-sensei said, voice distant. He was seeing something that wasn't there. He'd probably been fighting that night, in the thick of it.
"That chakra was Kyuubi's," I said, when I'd stopped trembling again. "So how does Naruto have it?"
Kakashi-sensei sighed. I could guess he was weighing up his options. It was a gamble asking him this. By rights he shouldn't say anything. But if he didn't then he would be allowing me to form my own conclusions as to why… And who knows what I would come up with? Since I'd already managed to nail the important points, I.e. that Kyuubi was present, there was probably a little leeway in explaining the details. If he left me to guessing chances were very slim that I'd come up with the right answer. And those wrong answers might cause problems.
"I'm going to get in trouble for this," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.
And he told me. Starting with the theory of sealing Jinchuriki before moving on to the specifics of Naruto's situation as opposed to the history taught at the Academy. That segued into a debate about the philosophy of just how much 'mind' a chakra construct could have and whether the concept of 'mind' was different from that of the 'mental energy' that composed chakra and how you would go about sealing an abstract concept like that from affecting the host anyway.
"I don't know," Sensei admitted. "Seals of that level are beyond my understanding. But the Fourth Hokage was a Seal Master. He would have created a seal that did nothing less. Naruto is not influenced by his prisoner." He seemed pretty desperate to get that point across.
I nodded, swinging my feet. Somewhere along the line of the conversation, I'd crept out of my hidey hole to sit beside Sensei and lean against him. "I believe you. Naruto's chakra is completely different from the Kyuubi's… it's just interesting, that's all…" I trailed off. I knew you could seal physical things, and I knew you could seal chakra, but I hadn't actually considered the metaphysics of how Naruto's Jinchuriki seal might actually work.
Now that my fear had faded a bit, it was interesting. How much of the mind was in the chakra and how much was in the brain? I had a tendency to think towards the physical, simply due to my previous existence, but Kyuubi had no physical body and it had intelligence enough to talk. In fact, where was the Kyuubi sealed in? There was a mental connection between Naruto's mind and Kyuubi's prison, but he couldn't be physically inside Naruto. A pocket dimension maybe? Was the possible?
"Of course it is," Sensei sighed. Was he humouring me, or mocking me? I gave him a narrow eyed stare. He smiled cheerily and ruffled my hair. "Now, back to bed with you. It's late."
Almost on cue, I yawned.
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We still had a week to go on our mission before the bridge was complete but with Gatou dead and Zabuza and Haku confirmed to be not a threat there wasn't really much for us to do.
We still went to the bridge or helped out in the village a bit. The villagers had taken a rather large shine to Naruto, after he had rounded them up with Inari and convinced them to come and help at the bridge. Already, the stories of his 'speech' were being incredibly exaggerated. He was sounding more and more like a hero of legend every day.
He'd given them hope, and that was irreplaceable.
Other than that, we spent most of our time at Tazuna's place. Sasuke was immobile and cranky about it, especially when Kakashi-sensei gave us a second lightning jutsu to practice (Lightning Release: Radiating Shockwave) and he wasn't able to wrangle his chakra enough to learn it.
I myself oscillated between being clingy to my team mates and scribbling down notes for all the things I wanted to look up when I got home. I'd brought a book with me, but I'd long since finished reading that.
"Did you want to play Shogi?" I asked Naruto. We'd had a few games since the bridge. Sasuke was a better player, but I'd been trouncing him all morning and he was fed up.
Naruto made a face. "I don't like Shogi," he whined. "The pieces make no sense!"
I sighed. Trying to teach Naruto tactics seemed to be like trying to hold water in your hands. Frustrating and ultimately pointless. Still, I was sure that if he could get basic strategy down, then his innate unpredictableness would be that much more deadly.
I had thought that presenting it as a game would help, but he seemed to lack the patience for it. Or didn't see the applications to real life. Then, I had an idea.
"Naruto. Make forty clones. We're going to play a game."
His face lit up. "A fun one? Really? That's so awesome!" He danced about a bit before making the required clones. Sasuke watched with detached interest.
"Right, you twenty, henge so you're wearing black. You, white." I divided them into half groups and lined them up in the shogi formation across the clearing. "You're Genin," I told the first line who stood in the place of pawns. "You can only move one step forward on any turn. You," I told the two in the next line, who were normally called Bishop and Rook, "are the ANBU captain and ANBU. I want you to henge into… okay, good. The Captain can only move diagonally, but you can go as many steps as you want. The ANBU can move forward, backwards and side to side as many steps as you want. " The next line was made of mixed types. "The two of you on the edge are Chunin. Henge a vest." They didn't just henge a vest, they turned into Iruka-sensei. I stifled a laugh. "You can move straight forward as many steps as you like. The next two in are Special Jounin. Henge a vest and a sword." The sword had no purpose, but to keep them from getting confused with the others. "You can move one step sideways and two steps forward. But! You can jump over any of the others in your way. You're the only ones that can do that," I added hastily. "You next two are Jounin." They turned into Kakashi-sensei, I rolled my eyes. They were the pieces normally called Silver Generals, so I suppose it fit. " You can move one step diagonally in any direction, and one step forward. The next two are the Elite Jounin. You can move one step sideways, backwards and forwards as well as one step forwards diagonally. And finally," I turned to the last Naruto in the middle of the file, "You are the Hokage."
He looked at me with round eyes. "Really?"
I laughed and nodded. "Yup. You're the Hokage. You can move one step in any direction." He performed henge with a flourish, turning himself into a black robed Hokage with a huge grin on his face.
"Right, Naruto," I turned to the original, who was watching with an odd look on his face. "Now you have an army, and I have an army. Lets play!"
"Finally! Attack!" The clones shuffled, apparently having a better idea of what was going on than the original.
"Err, boss?" Black Hokage Naruto spoke up. "You can only make one of us move at a time. And only, uh, how Shikako told us too."
Naruto frowned. "What? Why? That sucks!"
"Well, ninja are good at different things, right? So if you were ordering them around, you have to make sure you send the right people to do the right job. So you have to know what they can do. And you can only move one a turn, because it might take a while to get a message to ninja on the field," I invented quickly.
Naruto bought it. "Alright. Umm… what can you guys do again?" He walked down the lines listening to them repeat their moves. The clones had it easier, because they only had to remember one instruction not all of them.
It took a while to play, he had to repeatedly ask for moves, and sometimes the clones offered suggestions as what they could do. I didn't stop them. They were only thinking of their own moves, and what they could see of the battlefield, but Naruto had to consider the whole field. He'd work that out though, probably.
The first time I 'caught' a piece, he was outraged. "You can't do that!"
I laughed. "I, your evil enemy Shiro-Kage, have kidnapped one of your ninja!" I proclaimed. "I am going to brainwash him, so now he will fight for my side!" I nudged him, and he obediently turned his clothes white. I couldn't drop him back onto the field yet, but I would soon, just to prove I could. Shogi pieces weren't normally coloured, so that conversions like this could happen, but it made it easier to keep track of who belonged to who.
Naruto glowered. "You! Move forward!"
Of course, once I managed to get one of my pieces into the 'promotion zone' things got more difficult.
"Well done, Chunin! You've earned yourself a field medal! Now you can move one step sideways, backwards, forwards or forward diagonally! Just like an Elite Jounin!" I made him henge a tacky looking medal on, so we could tell him apart from the others.
Naruto glowered again. "That's not cool"
"You have to reward hard work! He made it all the way inside your Hidden Village, you know," I commented.
Afterwards, we dispelled all the clones. I wonder what it felt like for Naruto to be the general of the game as well as every soldier on both the winning and losing sides. He blinked dizzily for a moment.
Hmm, maybe the contradictory memories were causing problems…
"Let's play again!" he said, determined.
His next game was better by leaps and bounds. That was Shadow Clone learning at work. He still wasn't very good but it was noticeably better. A few weeks of this and he might end up being a half decent player.
We ran into Haku and Zabuza a few times, too, despite their intentions. Gatou had apparently liked to horde his power, so there was no clear cut inheritor. That just meant that his underlings were fighting it out, mostly via blackmail and politics rather than actual fighting. That left them in a state of limbo, unable to go anywhere.
Zabuza grumbled but Haku had bonded with Naruto and didn't seem to mind overly much. I got the feeling it made Sensei wary, but he didn't say anything against it. Naruto even managed to get him to teach us the Hidden in the Mist Jutsu amidst Zabuza's protests of village secrets.
Now that was a Jutsu that interested me. Okay, it was as annoying as hell from the opposite side but incredibly useful for an attacker. I could manage a light mist in a small area about the size of a bedroom but Naruto could practically smother people with his. If there was a way for Sasuke and Naruto to learn to navigate in it…
It was something to consider.
By the time Sasuke was back on his feet… I was a little bored.
A dangerous state of affairs.
I crept through the branches, suspended above the ground, a predator hunting it's prey. I was the hunting jungle cat, I was the wolf on the prowl. I felt like smirking as I observed Sasuke's turned back. He didn't even know I was here.
Hehehe…
I was a younger sister, too. More importantly, I was a younger sister whose brother sometimes needed to be… motivated to play.
Cat's Foot technique ensured that my steps made no sound. I slunk across the branch, redistributing my weight so it didn't as much as shudder. No leaves rustled with my passing. Nothing gave me away.
I pounced.
There was a surprisingly girlish shriek that didn't come from me as I barrelled squarely into his back, sending us both crashing to the ground. I jumped over his retaliatory leg grab, spinning and running. He was up and chasing me before he registered why.
I was fleet of foot, like the deer the clan raised. Sasuke's initial reaction was anger, which faded to puzzlement. But he didn't stop chasing.
"Nyeh!" I teased, darting around trees, always, always staying just that little bit ahead of him. He was fast, but so was I.
My heart pounded. I felt like giggling.
Sasuke grabbed for me. I dodged, darting around him for freedom. He looked like he had no idea what he was doing, but he was playing anyway. Even if he didn't know he was playing.
"Catch me if you can!" I taunted lightly, giggling as I went. We wove through the trees, in and out of the forest, circling around the house. Sensei looked bemused as he watched us darting across the lawn.
"Hi Haku, hi Zabuza!" I chirped, seeing them standing next to Kakashi-sensei. "Nice to see you!"
Sasuke growled, as I escaped him again, trying to sound annoyed, instead sounding like a giant playful dog. I laughed, delighted. He lunged. I barely slipped from his grip, darting to what every child knew was the 'safe zone'. "Nyeh!" I stuck my tongue at him from behind Sensei.
Sasuke's face was a picture of disbelief.
"Now, now kids…" Sensei said.
Sasuke grabbed for me. I circled keeping Kakashi-sensei between us. He feinted right, then lunged left. I scrambled backwards, abandoning the Kakashi-sensei to duck behind Zabuza.
"This wont end well," Sensei muttered under his breath.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
Fast! I giggled, zipping away up onto the veranda around the house, using chakra to slide quickly over the smooth wood.
"Hey guys! What are you -"
I could have dodged. Really. But where would be the fun in that? I crashed into Naruto full force, sending him flying into the water as Sasuke rounded the corner, tripped over me and landed beside him.
They hauled themselves, dripping, from the water as I laughed helplessly.
They exchanged a look. "Get her."
I shrieked.
"What is your brat pack doing around there?" Zabuza's voice drifted to us. "Trying to kill each other?"
Given that I was trying to force Naruto's head underwater while Sasuke was sending crashing waves over both of us, it might not have been that wild a guess.
"I don't even know," Sensei sighed, as they rounded on the water. He stared at the three of us, laughing and exhilarated and wet from head to toe. "I'm not sure I want to."
We exchanged a single look, the idea zipping between us instantly. It was like we were of one mind.
A sheet of water went flying for the bank.
"You'll have to do better than that," Kakashi-sensei said, a second before my chakra powered water hose caught him in the face.
"Oh, you think that's funny, do you?" Sensei growled. Just like that his book was gone and there was a glint in his eye. His hand blurred and then there were three miniature dragons rising from the water and chasing us.
It was brilliant.
Possibly the most epic water fight ever.
In between jumping on Kakashi-sensei and being dragged upside down through the air in the mouth of a water dragon, I caught sight of the pair on the bank.
Zabuza was shaking his head, possibly at the foolishness of Konoha ninja and how had he lost to that?
Haku looked amused but also a little sad. I quirked my eyebrow at him in a way that said come to the dark side, we have cookies.
He considered.
Then there was a yelp and a splash and Haku was the only one standing on the bank.
I screamed with laughter and was summarily dunked head first into the water.
An hour later we were drying in the bright sunshine, exhausted and panting. Haku was staying out of easy reach of Zabuza, but kept shaking with giggles.
"Right," Sensei said, cracking his one eye half open to glare at us. "What I was going to say before was that the bridge is going to be open tomorrow. We'll head back to Konoha after that."
"I see," Haku said. "This will probably be the last time we will see you then." He looked wistful. "I wish you well."
"No way!" Naruto exclaimed. "We're totally going to see each other again. You can count on it! So, you don't have to look so sad."
Even Sasuke had warmed up to Haku after their initial bad start. He was warm and friendly and calm and polite and hadn't really hurt anyone, after all. He was hard to dislike. Haku's talk about protecting precious people and living for your dreams had made Sasuke oddly pensive and considering for a while, especially when Haku had told him that his sacrifice had earnt his respect. I hoped it was a good thing. "Who knows what will happen in the future?" He shrugged. "Regardless, I've learnt a lot here."
Haku smiled. "I as well."
.
.
The next morning dawned clear and fine. We packed our things up, chasing down loose odds and ends and double checking to make sure we hadn't left anything behind.
We disarmed all the traps we had set around the house and made sure we hadn't left any stray shuriken on the lawn just so that no one got hurt.
Then we went to the opening of the bridge.
It wasn't a big ceremony. There was only a thin red ribbon tied between two posts and a placard to be lifted into place, but the whole island was there. Dozens of people packed in to listen to Tazuna's speech.
"In this land," Tazuna began. The crowd hushed instantly. "We've had a lot of hardship. We've had a lot of struggle. Gatou pushed us down for a long time. But we fought back. We built this bridge to freedom. We built this bridge out of hope. We built this bridge out of courage and determination and with own two hands!"
There was a cheer.
"The old man is good speaker," Naruto whispered, surprised.
"But it wouldn't have been enough. Not on our own. It was the ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves that came and changed our hearts. They were the ones who gave us the courage to fight back. They inspired us. They fought with us, beside us and for us… despite having no reason to do so. That is why the perfect name for this bridge is… THE GREAT NARUTO BRIDGE!"
The cheer, this time, was so much louder. Two men lifted the placard into place alongside the bridge. There, emblazoned in the bronze in huge ornate letters, was the name of the bridge.
Beside me, Naruto was frozen.
"I like it," I said. Maybe it overshadowed us, but Naruto was the one the villagers saw, who had inspired them to fight, who had given them courage, who had made them band together and take back what Gatou had stolen. Having the will to fight for something woken like that… meant they were less likely to have it taken from them again.
That was important too.
Tazuna cut the ribbon on the posts, the two severed ends fluttering lightly to the ground. He beckoned us up to stand beside himself and Inari.
"Please, walk with us to be the first people to use our new bridge."
It was almost like a parade, everyone walking down the bridge with us at the head. Bemusing and strange, but almost right.
This is what it was for. All the fighting, the training, the fear, it had been for these people, so they could have this bridge. Nothing had changed yet, there was no trade in, no relaxing of tariffs… but the people were lighter and happier already. They had hope.
By the time we reached the soil of the Land of Fire, Naruto had snapped out of his shock and started to sniffle. Just a little bit.
"Hah," Inari said, wiping his own watery eyes. "Don't be such a crybaby."
"Idiot," Naruto retorted. "It's okay to cry if you're happy!"