Chapter 11

The remaining two days pass by in the blink of an eye. Sasuke finally got his kunai from the tree. I didn't attempt to use the fire whips again.

Regrettably it is out of my league for now. I don't know if I will ever be able to use them, my chakra supply is just too small. Once I looked back on my experience with the fire whip I noticed that unlike a standard chakra string the fire whip needs continuous chakra input to stay formed. Like I said, I don't have the chakra supply. I burn through it too quickly, pun intended.

Today is the day. The day that we face Zabuza and Haku at the bridge. I want to say I am ready. I'm not. This will be my toughest battle yet.

Team 7 wakes bright and early on the seventh day of our stay at Tazuna's house. Once Kakashi rounds all three of us up, he starts to give us a pep talk.

"Alright team. Today is the most likely day that we will encounter Zabuza again. He should be healed by now so be ready for a fight at a moments notice. You three are not to engage Zabuza. Defend Tazuna. If the hunter nin shows up I want Alvarcus to engage."

"Really? Why me?" Sasuke is faster than me, I thought he would fight against Haku. That is what happened in cannon.

"The only thing we know for sure about the hunter nin is that they use senbon. With your chakra strings you can throw them back. If Alvarcus gets overwhelmed, Sasuke you help him. Sakura, you protect Tazuna no matter what happens." Kakashi explains.

We all nod our understanding.

"I am proud of you all. You have all grown so much since you first became my students. Remember to work together and we will win."

"Can we go now? I'm looking forward to this fight." Only you would Sasuke, only you.

"Sure. To the bridge!"

We make it to the bridge without issue. Once we get there though, there is a major issue. All the workers are on the ground, hopefully just passed out. At the worst dead.

"They are here. Be ready." Kakashi places himself before us protectively, ready to go to battle at the drop of a hat.

Alright. Here we go. Alvarcus vs Haku. I can do this.

"Kakashi, you decided to show up after all. Oh and you brought the prize, the bridge builder himself, Tazuna! I tell you what, I'm in a good mood. Haku here," Zabuza gestures at the hunter-nin "tells me your magnet release brat doesn't want to fight."

Kakashi quickly glances at me.

"You hand over Tazuna, you can walk home. If you don't, you'll go home in pieces."

"Consorting with the enemy now, Alvarcus. When did you have time to do that?" Kakashi is deadly serious.

"It's not like that Kakashi-sensei. She's the forest girl."

Kakashi actually visibly recoils.

"Oh get your mind out of the gutter! I'm twelve! We didn't do anything."

"We most certainly did not." Thank you Haku. "I am not into my own gender."

"Oh come on! You too Haku? I am a BOY dammit!"

"Really?" Zabuza growls. "If I would have known that my water clone wouldn't have held back for as long as it did."

"Why does everyone think I am a girl?" I whine to the heavens.

"I am fairly certain it is the hair." Sakura chimes in. "You do have very nice hair, it's prettier than mine. I have no idea how you keep it straight, mine's always a mess in the mornings."

"That's it! I'm cutting my hair! Anyways, no I did not consort with the enemy. We picked herbs together and talked about our reasons for our actions. Nothing more, nothing less."

"He is not lying." Haku collaborates my story.

"Thank you Haku."

"Enough! I did not come here to talk! Kakashi! Will you hand over the bridge builder?" Zabuza is revving to go.

"Nope. He has grown on me. Like a fungus." Ew, gross. Yet also accurate.

Zabuza grins like a maniac. "Then we fight. Haku, dispose of your new friend."

"As you wish."

Kakashi and I approach Zabuza and Haku. Haku and I move away from the jonin. Neither of us want to get caught up in their fight.

"You know Haku, we don't have to fight."

Haku pulls out a handful of senbon. "I am afraid we do. Zabuza-sama has order me to. I am his tool, to be wielded how he sees fit. He wishes you dead, unfortunately for you I will grant his wish."

Senbon fly at me. I send them right back with my strings. It's a hell of a lot harder to do this with senbon, kunai are much easier to track.

"So it is true, you do have the magnet release."

Let her think what she wants. Misdirection can be powerful.

"Unfortunately for you I have a bloodline too, and my bloodline removes your advantage. Ice Release: Senbon!"

Senbon of ice fly out of Haku's sleeves and race towards me. I kawarmi with a barrel of bricks on the edge of the bridge.

"Missed me!" I taunt Haku.

"I will remedy that."

I seriously need to stop taunting my opponents. More senbon of ice fly at me and I roll out of the way. One senbon sticks into my shoulder.

"Good shot Haku." I pull the senbon out and throw it to the ground. Drawing kunai I taunt her, "If that is all you can do I will be fine."

I send strings out of my forearms to connect to the kunai. I draw more kunai and repeat the process until I have 10 of them hovering around me at various positions. If she thinks I have the magnet release I better act like I do.

"Here I come!"

I charge at Haku, attempting to either spear her with kunai or force a taijutsu fight. All I really want to do is to keep her from using her demonic ice mirrors. Once those go up that is game over.

Haku dances backwards, always just out of my range while constantly pelting me with senbon. For every twenty that I block with my hovering kunai defense, one makes it through my guard. Shoulders. Legs. Gut. Chest. Arms. Hands. Feet. Back. Very soon I look like the world's weirdest porcupine.

"Sasuke! I could use a little help here! You're faster than I am, we need to corner her."

Sasuke steps up. "Fine. I'll engage in taijutsu. Support with your... magnet release. Defend first, offense if you see an opening." Good, he is playing along with the ruse.

The tide of the battle turns. With Sasuke's help the fight is no longer evenly matched. We are pushing Haku back into a corner. Slowly but surely our victory is getting closer.

"I can not fight both of you as I am now." She leaps away from us, putting at least ten meters between us.

"Then surrender. We will spare your life." Sasuke offers.

"You misunderstand, I simply need to move faster. Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"

A dome of ice forms around Sasuke and me. Shit. This battle just got a lot harder.

"The battle is over. Surrender and I will spare your life."

I lodge a kunai in a mirror with Haku's reflection. "Sasuke. Give me all your kunai." He looks at me and raises an eyebrow. "Now dammit! We need to get out of here so unless you have a fire jutsu that can melt the ice hand over the kunai!"

"Grand Fireball!" Sasuke's attack rages towards the ice. There was no effect, the ice that his fireball melted reformed. There's no way were getting out of here like that. Sasuke tosses me his kunai pouch.

"Alright. Here is the plan – ouch!" A senbon spears through Sasuke's kunai pouch and into my hand, pinning it closed. "That's a dirty trick and you know it Haku! Ouch! The butt? Really? Ouch! Aim for Sasuke dammit! There is more than one of us here!" I spear my ten floating kunai into ten unique mirror images of Haku's face.

"Not good enough. You need to be faster to hit me."

"Shut up. I don't need to be faster." I pull the kunai out of the mirrors to start blocking the senbon again.

I rip the senbon pinning Sasuke's kunai pouch from my hand. That is going to hurt a lot tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I ripped out a chunk of skin with the senbon. Opening the pouch I take his kunai and toss them into the air. I now have twenty floating kunai at my command.

"Sasuke. I want you to hit the highest mirror with your fireball jutsu. I'm going to hit the other twenty at the same time." Senbon start flying like crazy. Within seconds dozens of new senbon hit Sasuke and me. Haku realized that she can't dodge that.

"NOW!" I roar.

The kunai fly. The fireball shoots through the air. They all find their mark.

"Did it work?" Sasuke asks.

"I don't know. Is the dome still up?"

"Yeah. Do ice techniques stay formed when their user dies?"

"How should I know? I've never fought against an ice user before."

"You always know random obscure facts. It's kind of your thing." Sasuke blandly replies.

"I'll save you the trouble." Oh shit that's Haku. "It didn't work."

Two senbon impale me in the neck. The last thing I remember seeing is Sasuke's horrified face and a flash of crimson.

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.

Sasuke, Sakura and I make it back to Tazuna's house in record time. Kakashi sent us gennin on ahead, he wanted to talk to Tazuna about how he is going to pay for the mission upgrade in rank. That's going to be an awkward conversation.

"It feels good to be done with this mission. No more crazy missing nin attacking us." Sakura, you are so very right. Finally, the mission is over. Now it is just go back to Konoha.

"AAAHHHHH!" A scream rips through the air.

"That was Tsunami!" Sakura shouts.

"The backyard!" Sasuke takes off towards the other side of the house with Sakura and me hot on his heels.

What we see stops us in our tracks. I forgot about the mercenaries sent to the house. What else have I forgotten? Think about that later!

Tsunami and Inari are being held at sword point by two thugs.

Tsunami calls out to us the second she sees us. "Inari! Save Inari! Save my baby!" She squirms in the henchman's hold. "I don't care what happens to me! Save my son!"

"Shut up!" Tsunami is cut a little bit on her throat from her captor shaking her. A drop of brilliant crimson rolls down her neck. "So! You did survive! I knew the Zabuza guy was no good at his job." Henchman number one says.

"Should have sent us I told Gato. We'll get the job done! But no, he hires the big bad missing nin." Henchman number two adds on.

"There isn't any chance you will release them without a fuss will you?" I try diplomacy first. There is no harm in asking.

"I tell you what!" Henchman number two says, "If you three kill yourselves then we will let them go!" With a wicked grin on his face Henchman number one nods vigorously.

"I accept." Slowly raising my hands, so the henchmen can see them, I ask Sasuke, "How good is your aim?"

With stony eyes he replies, "Flawless."

Sakura is staring at us in bafflement. "Alvarcus you can't seriously be thinking-"

"SAKURA!" I yell. Then in a softer voice, "Please, just be quiet."

I call out to Sasuke, "Sasuke. Can you do it? I'm asking a lot from you."

"I can. When?" He draws two kunai, one in each hand. I can hear Sakura sniffle behind me. She's starting to cry.

"When I lower my hands." I say in a emotionally void tone.

"Okay." Sasuke responds in the same tone.

I slowly, stealthily, sneakily attach chakra strings to Inari, Tsunami, and both of the swords. If I mess this up, Inari and Tsunami are dead. If Sasuke misses his throw, they are dead. If Sasuke really thinks I want him to kill me, I'm dead. I really doubt that last one though, he is smarter than that.

"Ready Sasuke?" He palms his two drawn kunai.

"Yes." He assures me.

I drop my hands. I yank the swords away, then I yank Inari and Tsunami away from the henchmen. Sasuke's kunai fly true. Both henchmen go down from a kunai to the heart. Flawless.

"That was well executed team." Kakashi appears before the three of us, startling me very badly.

Sakura rounds on him with absolute fury in her eyes. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE FOR KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

"Sakura, calm down! I would have stepped in if I needed to. Sasuke and Alvarcus had it under control. Trust your teammates. You've seen how well those two work together after only a few months of being on the same team." Kakashi has a really good point. Sasuke and I do work very well together.

"T-Thank you! Thank you so much! You saved my baby, you saved my baby!" Tsunami thanks us while sobbing over Inari.

"Why don't we all go inside and call it a day? It's been long for all of us." Kakashi exasperatedly says to us all. He's not a people person.