Chapter Text
It’s the early hours of the morning (far too early in Sakura’s opinion but she doesn’t get a say in this) when Naruto scares the absolute shit out of her.
The other girl suddenly rockets up in bed, going from fast asleep to wide awake in an instant, her hands clenched in the bedsheets she’d unpacked from her frankly ridiculous scroll, her brilliant blue eyes wide as she swings her head around to look at the two of them, grinning wildly in spite of Sakura’s scream and Sasuke’s startled grunt.
“I’ve got it!” she cheers, throwing back the covers and apparently unbothered by the fact she’s exposing herself. Well, yes, she’s wearing a pair of simple black panties to go with her tank-top, which some people could even argue means she’s more covered than if she were wearing a bikini or something. And Sakura knows all the statistics, knows that ninety-seven percent of genin teammates that survive to twenty have all ended up seeing one another naked at some point or another (the academy had left no stone unturned when laying out their expectations for the future), but does Naruto have to get them started on joining that statistic so early?!
Sakura flushes at the sight of Naruto’s long legs kicking down the covers as she scrambles up and out of bed, snatching up the little notepad she’d also unsealed on their first night here, pulling the pencil that’s clipped to the side free and flipping to a new page.
Sakura’s so startled that, when she manages to pull her eyes away from Naruto’s legs, it’s too late to try and see if Sasuke-kun had been looking at their teammate as well (and her stomach clenches at the thought because cha! He’s not supposed to be doing that!).
“A way to deal with Zabuza?” Sakura asks hesitantly as her heart begins to slow from its frenzied gallop to something a little easier on her chest. Begrudgingly, she emerges from her covers, shivering in the cool air and shuffling closer to Naruto, both to see what she’s writing and to leech some warmth from the other girl. She’s not sure how Naruto does it, but she’s always warm, like she’s got a furnace beneath her ribcage instead of internal organs and she’s just pumping out heat and energy all the time. It’d certainly explain why she never seems to tire, why she always seems able to keep going.
After trying to climb the trees again and again with her chakra and exhausting herself in the process, Sakura had found a new appreciation for Naruto’s endless energy, one she’s still gawking at even now, days after the realisation of just how much chakra her teammate must have.
However, when Sakura looks over Naruto’s shoulders, she’s not greeted with the scribblings of a battleplan, not even a series of traps that could be laid out for the terrifying missing-nin. Instead, there’s a whole sealing array being sketched out beneath Naruto’s pencil as her blonde teammate mutters a disjointed rant under her breath.
“…convert the heat energy to electrical via the southern element— lodge it inside an additional storage seal— can discharge it to a battery— would need to construct a sufficient one, or craft a seal— could maybe use the electrical energy—sell the hot-plates— make a killing—” She sucks in a mighty breath, grin manic as she swings around to look between the three of them (Sakura right beside her, Sasuke-kun still curled in his bedsheets like a cute, disgruntled cat, and Kakashi lounging by the window ‘on watch’). “Oh yeah. It’s all coming together now.”
Sasuke throws a pillow that wellies Naruto right in the face with a soft ‘oomph’. Sakura can’t say she disapproves; she still has no idea what Naruto had woken up so hysterical over, only that Kakashi-sensei is nodding along, so it must have made some form of sense to those in the know.
“Maa, conduct your business once we get back to Konoha, Naruto-kun. We’ve got a day of training left yet.”
Naruto huffs, but her forearm wraps around Sakura’s waist – blisteringly hot even through the fabric of her pyjama top – and her blonde teammate guides her back to bed, abandoning her notepad to its previous resting place.
Sakura crawls into her sheets, shivering when the chill that’s seeped into them during her absence registers.
“Cold,” she whines, displeased, but not so unhappy that she’s willing to start the day quite this early.
On the other side of Naruto, she can see Sasuke smirking, pretending like he’s not listening, like he hadn’t been as curious as to what Naruto was up to as Sakura has. How he’d managed to stop himself from trying to find out what was going on is beyond Sakura, because their final teammate is just… really cool, alright? Sakura’s got a lot of respect for the other girl; most of it had developed over the month plus that they’ve been working together, and the thing that’d really affirmed it had been when Sasuke had grumbled Naruto sent him over to her to ask for tree-climbing advice a few days ago.
“Budge up,” Naruto mutters, shuffling closer and, startled, Sakura can’t think of anything else to do but to lift the corner of her covers. She squeaks when Naruto burrows under and then rolls, so her hot back is to Sakura’s side, pressing up against her arm.
Sakura feels absolutely no shame in plastering herself to Naruto, soaking in the heat the other girl is throwing out as if she’s got plenty more to give. And, over her teammate’s shoulder, Sakura spots Sasuke looking at them, no longer pretending to be in some half-asleep state, a crease between his brows.
Sakura sticks her tongue out at him when he shivers. Heh, Sasuke-kun can stay in his little bubble of ‘don’t touch me’ (even if the thought of snuggling up to both him and Naruto makes her want to squeal); Sakura’s quite comfortable here.
They don’t have fish for breakfast today, something that’s unfortunately common here in Wave. Not to say that Sakura dislikes fish, but it’s a bit much to have it every day. She tries not to think too much on the state of the town, choosing instead to savour the pancakes that Naruto has whipped up with the ingredients she’d brought along.
Heh, Ino-pig is stuck with lazy Shikamaru (who’ll do absolutely nothing, especially in terms of cooking; Sakura would know— she’d been in his group for the last survival exercise in the academy) and Chōji (who, no offense, Sakura can’t see sharing food with anyone were he on a mission like this). Meanwhile, Sakura’s got eye-candy Sasuke (who can kick ass, cha!) and cooking goddess Naruto (who can also kick ass, but is super supportive too!). Yeah, she really lucked out on the team front.
Naruto plants a plate beside Sakura’s, pulling up a chair and dropping into it, the two of them sitting opposite Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun, who are both methodically chewing their savoury pancakes with matching looks of contentment. Or, at least, Sakura thinks they’re matching looks. It’s really, really hard to tell when Kakashi-sensei has a mask on like that. A mask they still haven’t seen beneath and, if Naruto is to be believed, they’ve got no chance of ever seeing Kakashi-sensei’s face. Not if she, his longest serving student, hasn’t yet done so.
“These are great, Naruto-chan,” Tsunami praises, mopping up the last of the syrup that Naruto had pulled out of her scroll-pocket dimension. “I can’t remember the last time we could afford to have something with sugar for breakfast.”
“There’ll be loads of sugar once the bridge is finished,” Tazuna declares and Sakura swallows around the lump in her throat, hoping that the man is right. Yes, Kakashi-sensei had managed to best Zabuza in the end, but that’s only because Naruto had helped. And now there’s the masked ninja to consider.
She weighs it all up in her head, trying to account for every variable, just as they’d been taught to in the academy. Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza seem pretty evenly matched; she thinks it’s a fair assumption to make that Kakashi had only been caught because he’d been put into a position of defending dead weight. Sakura isn’t stupid, she knows that compared to their jōnin sensei they’re all pretty useless, especially against a jōnin of Zabuza’s calibre. Naruto has a chance of doing better, but Sakura doesn’t know the full extent of her abilities, so cannot access that accurately. Most worryingly though, for all that they know more on Zabuza now, he’ll also know more about them. He'll know Naruto has a load of chakra to play with, knows something about how Kakashi works (Sakura can’t pin it down herself, but she’s not a jōnin with years of experience). She cannot say how a clash between the two will play out again, only that she knows Kakashi needs to be in a position to tackle Zabuza alone, without having to worry about protecting them.
How they’ll have to structure their protection detail on the bridge is obvious; Kakashi will take point to deal with Zabuza when he appears, and Naruto will be the one to deal with the masked ninja. She’s got the most experience, the one who’s been in actual fights before. She’d kept a calm head when Kakashi-sensei had been caught, had managed to free him and make it look like she was fully in control of it all. She’s their wisest choice, with Sasuke next in line should… should Naruto fail.
That’ll leave Sakura as the last line of defence between the two mist ninja and the bridge builder. She’s under no illusions; if she’s the only one left between Tazuna and his would-be killers, then the bridge builder is as good as dead.
And she hates it.
Hates how little she matters in the grand scheme of things, hates how far behind she is. Yes, Naruto is called a genius, graduating early as she had. But Sasuke-kun is so far beyond her too, and they’d graduated at the same time. She’d thought that being book-smart, that knowing the theory, would allow her to excel as a ninja, but she hadn’t considered just how physically demanding the job is. She needs to be better, to do better. As soon as they return to Konoha (if they return to Konoha), Sakura swears she’ll take her physical conditioning more seriously, that she’ll try harder, improve quicker. With Naruto and Sasuke as her teammates… she doesn’t want to get left behind.
Stuffing another bite of pancakes drizzled with syrup and strawberry chunks into her mouth, Sakura chews, turning to consider Naruto. Maybe she should ask the other girl for advice? Yes, their fighting styles are probably going to end up on different sides the spectrum, what with Naruto being a chakra powerhouse and Sakura… not. But she’ll have the basics for her to start with, won’t she?
“You okay, Sakura?” Naruto asks, head tipping to a side and Sakura’s reminded of a curious canine, or a cat or a fox given her whisker-like markings. Huh.
“Yeah, just thinking, Naruto.”
They make for the training grounds, Naruto summoning up a duo of clones, one for Sakura and one for Sasuke. Sasuke-kun has progressed enough with tree-climbing that he’s now working on stabilising his footing while trying to dodge attacks; Naruto’s shadow-clones work perfectly for this because if Sasuke forgets his task and lashes out, they’ll pop. He’s working on it becoming second nature to adjust to different surfaces, something which Sakura can proudly say she’s already got down.
Meanwhile, Sakura herself has a shadow-clone for her to try and attack. Her aim is to pop it, utilising the different surfaces of the tree trunks and branches to try and get a hit in. This is less about refining her chakra control (although the exercise does help with that) and more about improving her combat abilities, which are, quite frankly, dreadful.
The real Naruto however—
“I’ve got it, Kakashi-sensei, watch!”
Standing in the clearing, Naruto holds one hand out, palm up to the sky, her other hand bracing it at the wrist. There’s a low humming noise and then yellow chakra begins to gather in the centre of her palm, whirling around rapidly, condensed into a sphere that’s only just holding formation. Sakura makes a curious noise in the back of her throat, one that turns into a screech as Naruto thrusts whatever the hell that thing is into a tree and absolutely shreds it.
The chakra tears at the bark, ripping chunks apart, toppling the tree as Naruto’s sphere of chakra-death just keeps going, ravenously consuming the plant-flesh, until there’s a resounding bang as all of the tree that existed above Naruto’s attack drops to the ground.
A stilted silence coats every leaf, bush and branch for a moment, the clearing holding its breath as it waits for the woodchips to fall where they may. And there’s a pounding heartbeat thundering within Sakura’s ear cannel, feeling more like she’s got the storm of the century caged in her skull than her own body trying to throw some adrenaline to where it’s needed.
But then, she finds her tongue, points a sharp finger down to the real Naruto and forgets all about her shadow-clone opponent.
“What the hell was that?!”
“Rasengan!” Naruto chirps, looking down at her palm and then back up at the tree she’s absolutely decimated with it, unbridled delight smeared on every aspect of her face. “Did-ya see, Kakashi-sensei, did-ya see?”
Kakashi, who’d had to scuttle out from the path of the falling tree Naruto had felled with her ‘Rasengan’, gives a lacklustre nod, barely looking up from his book. “I saw, Naruto-kun, I saw.” But Sakura isn’t fooled. She’d seen the slight widening of his single eye and, right after, the slight softening too.
“Wonder what it’d do to the earth…” Naruto trails off, that same whirling sound occurring as the Rasengan begins to bloom in her palm again; she thrusts it down into the earth.
There’s a single breath as the ball of spinning, concentrated chakra drills down— and then a second later, it’s Naruto spinning, squawking out in surprise as she’s whipped around the site of her attack thrice before being launched over to the side, slamming into the very tree Sasuke-kun is been practising on. Their dark-haired teammate grunts, loses his footing, takes a punch to the cheek from the shadow-clone he’d been facing, and then drops down to land beside Naruto. He just manages to grab the girl before they both hit the floor, crashing in a tangle of limbs and bruised flesh.
“Damn it, Naruto.”
“Heh, sorry. Gotta remember to brace my body— wanted to see what’d happen if I didn’t.”
Sasuke-kun huffs, sitting himself up and then frowning down at Naruto in his lap.
No, not quite frowning, Sakura thinks, feeling her own brows draw together as she considers the expression he’s wearing. And more importantly, he isn’t immediately throwing Naruto off him, not like he’d done whenever Sakura or Ino-pig or any of the other girls had gotten in his personal space back at the academy.
Is, is Sasuke-kun growing as a person? Not to say he wasn’t perfect before (if a little rough around the edges, Sakura will begrudgingly admit), but could this be progress?
“Oi, Kakashi!” Sasuke calls, rubbing a hand against his cheek, the same one the shadow-clone had landed a blow on, the pale flesh reddening already. “When can I learn that one?”
“The Rasengan?” Kakashi muses, scratching at the back of his head, actually removing his gaze from that damn book of his to consider Sasuke-kun’s words. “Well, it’s actually supposed to go to Naruto, you know, rule of inheritance among ninja, yadda, yadda, but I’ll show give you Chidori instead. Once you’ve got your sharingan, that is.”
“The hell is a Chidori?”
“I can answer that one!” Naruto springs up from Sasuke’s lap, and Sakura feels her frown grow more pronounced when Sasuke’s eyes follow her motion, looking a bit puzzled, and something inside her stomach twists.
Naruto doesn’t give her much time to consider it, because she promptly comes to stand before Kakashi and adopts the tone and posture that had been most prevalent in the chūnin instructors at the academy. It’s giving lecture-energy and Sakura leaps down from her tree to join in, drawn by the vibe of anything academic occurring.
“Firstly, Kakashi-sensei learnt the Rasengan from his own sensei, the Yondaime Hokage, back when he was a jōnin known as Namikaze Minato, who created it under the tutelage of Jiraiya of the Sannin.”
“You’re remarkably well informed, on this, Naruto-kun,” Kakashi drawls, sending Naruto an almost suspicious side-eye, which certifies the fact that at least some of that information had not been given to Naruto by him, and that Naruto must have come about something in that statement on her own, via her own research, something that she maybe shouldn’t know given Kakashi’s frown. Ah, a girl after Sakura’s own heart.
“Pay attention, sensei, and let me dazzle you with my information-gathering skills!”
Sakura has to stuff her knuckles into her mouth when Naruto waves jazz-hands in Kakashi’s direction, barely ducking the smack atop the head the jōnin lackadaisically attempts to give her.
“You see, Yondaime-sama wished to further develop the Rasengan by implementing a nature transformation within the jutsu, a jutsu he’d already spent several years working to prefect. He taught it to his most talented student, hoping that the genius who’d graduated the academy at the record-breaking age of five-years old—” Excuse her?! Kakashi-sensei did what?! “—would be able to help him in his quest. Alas, that was not to be. So instead, young Kakashi-sensei takes his lightning nature and develops his own jutsu; the Chidori, a jutsu designed to pierce targets at high speeds.” Naruto finishes up, proudly planting her hands upon her hips and turning to look at Kakashi-sensei, an unspoken ‘I’ll accept your praise now’ written all over her face.
“I’m not praising that,” Kakashi immediately states, scratching at the back of his head and looking a little dazed. “Not unless you admit to your sources, that is.” So he can silence them, no doubt.
“Gai-sensei likes to waffle,” Naruto immediately proclaims, absolutely beaming when Kakashi pats her on the head, as if she were a well-trained puppy who’d just performed as expected.
“Why the need for the sharingan then?” Sasuke asks, climbing to his feet and making his way over to join them, side-eyeing Naruto as he does so. “And can’t you give a demonstration in addition to that long rant?”
“Nope! I’m not lightning natured, and I can’t use it anyway,” Naruto states with a shrug, turning big blue eyes on Kakashi and Sakura already knows what’s going to happen before it does.
Kakashi-sensei gives a large sigh, holds out a hand, and then there’s suddenly lightning coating it. The sound of a thousand birds chirping in symphony with one another fills the clearing and yeah, Sakura can see why this is a piercing jutsu— the noise alone is already getting to her ears.
“The sharingan is required because the speed at which Chidori is used causes a tunnel-vision effect. Only with the sharingan can that be overcome. So really, Sasuke-kun is the only one I can pass this jutsu onto~”
Oh.
So, Naruto has the Rasengan for causing damage, then Sasuke-kun will learn the Chidori when he unlocks his magic eye thing that Kakashi also sort of has but doesn’t. Sakura knows enough to recognise it’s a family thing, and she knows enough about Sasuke (now) to not ask. But, still…
“What about me, sensei?” she asks quietly, swallowing around the lump in her throat at the thought of speaking up but she can’t help it, not when she knows her teammates are both getting such heavy-hitting jutsu and she’s just…Sakura. Good at chakra control and book smarts but, not a whole lot else apparently.
And it’s obvious in the way that Kakashi sensei blinks, looking a little bit taken aback, that he hasn’t considered her, that he hasn’t got plans for some big attack to teach her, and Sakura’s surprised to realise there are tears gathering at the back of her eyes, the skin around them red and itchy.
That’s when Naruto comes in.
“You should check out Tsunade-hime!” She throws an arm around Sakura’s waist, pulling her in and grinning. “I mean, if you want. But your chakra control is really good, and Tsunade-hime is good at that too, so she became the best medic-nin in the world with it! But she also uses it to augment her strength— she’s taken down whole buildings with a single punch before!”
“What— really?” Sakura knows of the Sannin, the legendary ninja who had studied under the Third Hokage, and she knows Senju Tsunade had been the one to introduce a lot of the medical reforms they now had. But no one had mentioned she had super strength! And that’s down to chakra control? The very thing that Sakura has found out she’s naturally good at?
“It’s always good to have a medic on the team,” Kakashi-sensei says stiffly, but the emotion is gone so quick that Sakura doubts she’s actually seen it. Instead, he smiles at her, patting her on the head this time. “You should look into it when we get back, Sakura-chan. It’d probably be right up your street.”
If… if it means she’s not going to fall behind Naruto and Sasuke, then that’s just what Sakura will do when she gets back. Cha!
It’s been a week now since their confrontation with Zabuza and he can feel the charge to the atmosphere.
There’ll be an attack today.
Standing on the pier that leads from Tazuna’s house to the rest of the little shanty town, Kakashi stuffs a single hand in his pocket and watches as Naruto sets up a blitz of defensive seals along the building, her swarm of loyal shadow-clones hard at work.
He does feel better, knowing that Naruto can now reliably apply Rasengan without any injury or collateral damage, though he would have preferred to know that she was able to use it in a combat situation before heading into a life-or-death battle like this. Still, it’s reassuring to know she has Sensei’s trusty jutsu under her belt, added to her arsenal.
He’s… unsure with how this will turn out.
If the masked nin is in cahoots with Zabuza (and Kakashi is near certain of that fact) then there’s a slew of possible problems open for him to consider. Is the kid actually as capable as a real hunter nin? The death-like trance he may have put Zabuza in would suggest as such, and senbon as a weapon implies an innate understanding of the human body that comes only with being a member of the ANBU forces (or medical forces, but Kakashi knows where he’d place his money in this instance). Admittedly, Zabuza could have taught the boy himself, but that is still as significant as any time spent in ANBU; the Demon of the Mist is hardly a pushover, so any student taught by him is incredibly likely to be a pain in the ass.
But in that same respect, Naruto herself is a certified pain in the ass that he doubts Zabuza and his masked nin will be prepared for. While they might know she has more chakra than most, they won’t be expecting her sheer stamina, and Kakashi can name very few shinobi who’d be able to last as long in a fight as his first student can. As long as she can avoid any death-blows, as long as she keep can keep stringing her opponent out, then he’s pretty certain she’ll manage to survive this. Sasuke too; the kid’s good, even if he’s only able to see the chasm of difference between his own skills and Naruto, not looking back to see the distance he’s already covered in closing the gap between them.
Sakura is, admittedly, still a work in progress. She’s not going to make any real contributions to this fight, but she’ll be able to keep Tazuna away and stop the man from doing anything particularly stupid, so that’s a bonus at least.
Their best bet in all of this is for Kakashi to take on Zabuza again, and for Naruto to deal with their masked friend with Sasuke supporting her. He’d feel more comfortable if he could have given Naruto and Sasuke time to practise with each other; he knows Naruto can support him, but getting Sasuke to support her efficiently? They’d need far more practise for him to have been confident with this plan.
Were he a religious man, Kakashi’d be praying for a miracle.
As things stand though, he believes in no god, no higher power but that what his own two hands can create. Hands he plants down on Naruto’s shoulders and uses to give her a little squeeze once she’s done fortifying Tazuna’s house.
“Good job, Naruto-kun. Have you given Sakura-chan some seals for defence too?”
“Sure have. They won’t stand up to a full-frontal assault, but it should give her a bit of time to flee with Tazuna-san if needed.” Yes, he needs to work on developing Sakura more when they get back— having her rely on Naruto’s seals for safety (no matter how good Naruto is getting with her fūinjutsu) is setting his teeth on edge.
“Right,” Kakashi declares, releasing Naruto and gathering his little genins’ full attention with his shift in tone and posture. “Same rules. I tell you it’s too much, you run. If I’m incapacitated, listen to Naruto. I’ll take Zabuza, Naruto, you’re on our masked friend if he shows up, and Sasuke, you’re her support. Sakura, make sure Tazuna doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“Hey! I can hear you!”
“Will do, sensei,” Sakura chirps, ignoring Tazuna’s protest and Kakashi pushes down the smile that he wants them to see, not wanting to give them any chance to relax, not wanting to risk the trio loosening their guard.
“Good. Let’s get going.”
His instincts had been right.
As they approach the bridge, a fine mist settles heavy over the structure, swallowing portions of the concrete until it appears like the surface leads into nothing but empty white space. It’s spliced with chakra, though not the familiar malice of Zabuza’s. No, this chakra is colder, sharper, precise down to the last detail— their masked nin.
“W-what the hell?!” Tazuna’s voice carries when he spots the men that’ve been attacked, workers who’ve all been knocked unconscious, and Kakashi takes careful note of that factor. Zabuza, he doesn’t doubt, wouldn’t hesitate to kill if he felt it needed. That they’ve only knocked the other workers out, that they’re only aiming to kill Tazuna— does that say something about Zabuza’s game here, or is it the influence of partner?
From his peripherals, he can see Sakura reaching for a weapon at her pouch, knows without needing to look that Sasuke is doing the same on his left. At their rear, the last of their diamond formation, Naruto will have her hands free and loose, ready to pull up into a jutsu, because she’s far more deadly with her chakra than any type of blade. Even through his mask, he can scent the sweat pouring off everyone present, the perspiration slick with nerves.
“Been a while, Kakashi.”
And then there’re the water clones, five of them, one for each of Kakashi’s team, and then one in the centre, ready to strike. But they’re slow— Zabuza’s portioned his chakra off too much and Sasuke’s fast.
“Go ahead, Sasuke.”
Water splatters against the floor and Kakashi takes note of the multitude of puddles in a way only someone with experience fighting a water-natured shinobi would. It’s another source that Zabuza could draw on, even if there’ s a whole ocean of choice over the ledges that bracket them from side to side. It’s… less than an ideal match-up if their masked opponent is also water-natured, which is looking likely. Naruto herself is wind-natured, leaving the two of them neither strong nor weak against the other, but Sasuke’s only elemental jutsus are fire based. Even a D-rank electric based jutsu could have been a help here, Kakashi thinks and tries not to despair of what may come about simply because he hadn’t pushed them harder, hadn’t taken their training as seriously as he perhaps should have, too lulled into a false sense of security given the extended period of peace they’ve had.
Only, Sasuke’s known bloodshed, hasn’t he? Naruto’s had no easy life. He’s done all three of them a disservice that needs rectifying—
“Looks like the Uzumaki brat isn’t the only one worth watching, eh, Haku?” Zabuza taunts, stepping forward, his young accomplice right there on his heels. Their footwear is less secure than the standard issue ninja sandals, implying superior balance, and there’s no clear sign of a blade; either the boy favours his senbon, or he has more tricks up those pinstripe sleeves. “Get on the offensive.”
And then the kid moves.
He’s quick, just as swift as Sasuke, and Kakashi grits his teeth and lets the Uchiha block the first blow that comes with a senbon, grimacing at Tazuna’s and Sakura’s joint flinch, though his student is quick to master her reflex and bring up a blade in defence of their bridge-builder. There’s a series of clangs as Sasuke and Haku cross blades, Kakashi unwilling to take his eyes off of Zabuza’s lurking form, knowing that the moment he does, the other will take the liberty to cut Tazuna down.
But he knows the moment Naruto finds an opening to strike. There’s the sudden rush of space being filled, of air being made to part for smoke-filled flesh and then there’re shadow-clones forcing Haku back, moving seamlessly around Sasuke’s attacks, supporting and driving the enemy back and, more importantly, into Kakashi’s line of sight, so he can see both of their foes.
“I’ll leave two to support Sakura,” Naruto informs him, tightening her headband beside him and then she’s off, body-flickering into position to spring a fist at Haku. The kid dodges it, but just, and he takes a slice to the forearm from Sasuke’s kunai in exchange for catching Naruto by the wrist. It’d been a sound assessment; Naruto’s punch would have shattered that mask and had a fifty-fifty chance of hammering a concussion into the kid’s brain.
Naruto twists, angling her leg for an overhead kick, but Kakashi’s heart lodges in his throat when her opponent suddenly starts making one-handed seals. The water spirals upwards, twisting into a series of needles that strike, piercing through the concrete but not through flesh, as both Sasuke and Naruto apply their chakra and leap out of range, Sasuke vertical, Naruto horizontal. Sasuke’s quick to start throwing shuriken Haku’s way, while Naruto gives chase, plucking up each star and launching it back to Sasuke for a second use, giving Zabuza’s partner no room to breathe.
“I don’t wanna hurt you, Haku!” Naruto calls, contradicting her own statement as she tries to drive a punch at the boy, which is swiftly dodged. The blow shatters the concrete and Kakashi hears Tazuna moan in displeasure behind him, though if he’s able to actually see the damage through this mist is questionable.
“And I would prefer not to cause you any pain, Naruto-chan.” Chan? That’s far too familiar with his student and, from the startled look to Zabuza’s face, it’s a surprise for him too.
Zabuza who’s stalking closer, hand on the hilt of his blade.
Kakashi chances another glance towards Naruto and Sasuke, feeling his heart contract sharply at the sight of a series of ice mirrors, the formation reminiscent of some kind of dome. He makes a single step towards them, but then Zabuza is right there, blade drawn now, and Kakashi brandishes one of his kunai, ready to block the executioner sword if necessary.
“You don’t have time to worry about Haku playing with your little pups before he kills them,” Zabuza grunts and, if those bandages weren’t covering his face, Kakashi’s sure he’d be smirking. “Don’t’ forget, I’m your opponent, and I’ve got some questions for you. Like why the fuck would you bring a jinchūriki out and about.”
How the fuck does he know that?
Kakashi knows he keeps his face straight, knows his posture doesn’t give away just how much that single comment has got his back up, knows his chakra is held tight on a leash. This is just Zabuza needling; he might have an idea (though how the fuck he’s got that, Kakashi doesn’t have a clue) and he won’t be giving away Naruto’s status to an enemy.
“Who said anything about a jinchūriki?” Kakashi drawls, eye on Zabuza, on the tension in his muscles, in the way he shifts from right to left, in the way the other jōnin is calculating his chances of getting past Kakashi and killing Tazuna, assessing if the risk is worth it. “Konoha doesn’t even have one.”
“Officially,” Zabuza snipes back and Kakashi can’t respond because that’s when the other decides to go on the attack. Kakashi blocks, shifts, fires out a few punches and slashes, keeping himself between Zabuza and Tazuna in the same way Zabuza keeps his own body between Kakashi and his little masked partner.
There’s no choice; if he wants to ensure Naruto and Sasuke make it out of this alive, he needs to deal with Zabuza now. The man’ll be tricky to pin down, but if Kakashi can get his scent or better yet, get his own scent on Zabuza, then the pack’ll be able to take care of the rest, will be able to pin him down long enough that Kakashi can drive a Chidori through his chest. While ideally he’d have been able to avoid such a brutal kill in front of the genin this early, that’s the life of a shinobi. There’s no other choice.
When Zabuza comes at him this time, Kakashi allows a calculated nick to catch his forearm, to allow his blood to gush free onto the executioner blade. It’s not a weapon Zabuza will let go of, which ensures Kakashi’s scent will linger on his form, even as he disappears back into this mist. The pack don’t hunt by sight or sound— all they need is a scent. While this would run smoother if he could use a simple summons, that will telegraph his movements, and it won’t give the pack the instructions he needs them to receive. No, he’ll need one of the preprepared scrolls, the one where his request is already written into the seal. Pakkun will know to lead them in the hunt for Zabuza without giving away the tactic that’ll win Kakashi this battle. And once Zabuza’s dealt with, he can turn his attentions to Haku, the masked accomplice that has proven himself far more formidable than what Kakashi had first thought him to be.
“Sakura, be ready. I’m going to deal with Zabuza right now.”
“Heh. You can try, Kakashi, but we both know—”
Whatever it is that Zabuza believes they both know is never proclaimed aloud.
Instead, a tension is suddenly wrought among them, suffocating the mist, forcing the attention of all present to begin orbiting a new gravitational centre. It’s the exact same sensation from twelve years ago, the same poisonous itch, the same acidic burn, even if it’s not as potent, even if it’s nowhere near the original.
It’s close enough, familiar enough, that Kakashi knows exactly what it is.
His eyes snap to the ice dome, Zabuza forgotten, and the sheer force of the chakra spiralling from it is buffering the mist, reverberating in the air, forcing the vapour to vacate, to push back and away from the epicentre of what is about to become a gigantic disaster.
He abandons the scroll he’d been reaching for, instead adjusting his stance, bracing himself for whatever could be coming his way, even as he notes Zabuza doing the same, adjusting to the biggest threat in the vicinity, readying himself because nothing sets a shinobi’s instincts of life-and-death going quite like fucking Bijū chakra does.
And that’s when Kakashi sees it.
Through the mist, just beyond the first layer of the ice dome— Sasuke’s on the ground, absolutely fucking peppered with senbon, completely still.
And there’s Naruto hunched over him, just as pierced, looking more like a fucking advert for ANBU training outcomes than anything else.
But even as he’s watching, he sees the chakra fluctuate, sees that burning red energy quiver and then every needle explodes out of Naruto, some shattering the ice dome, some piercing straight through the concrete and continuing until Kakashi can hear the distance ‘woosh’ as they slice through the ocean below. He can hear the sizzle, even from this distance, as the wounds close, can hear the growl that shouldn’t be coming from his precious student’s throat, so fucking animalistic it has the fine hairs of his forearms rising.
“Fucking jinchūriki,” Zabuza seethes across from him, but there’s very real fear in his voice now, suddenly so very aware of just the kind of threat that Kakashi’s student can be, especially when her emotions are heightened.
Like the loss of a teammate can cause.
“Haku!” Zabuza screams, and there’s more emotion than any self-respecting ninja should use, emotion that all his talk of ‘tool’ this and ‘weapon’ that doesn’t reflect. “Haku! Get the fuck away from her!”
Another Uchiha dead under his command, another teammate perished and they keep trusting him with them, keep sending him underlings that he can then lead to their deaths and he should have turned around, shouldn’t have allowed them to put the mission first, should have drawn the line at the first hint of a threat and it’s his fault, his fault that Sauske’s dead, his fault that Naruto’s not Naruto anymore.
She’s looking at Haku, the boy suddenly so very wary of her (and rightly so, Kakashi is her sensei and he’s wary), before her head suddenly snaps around.
Red eyes zero in on Zabuza.
And then she’s gone.
Sasuke’s on the floor.
Sasuke’s on the floor, in her arms, Sasuke’s before her and he’s covered in needles, needles that’re protruding from his skin and his clothes and blood. There’s so much blood for just punctures, blood that trickles down his skin, skin that’s far too pale, pooling on the floor and mingling with the water and the mist that Haku summoned up, water and mist that’s been used against them, that’s been used to attack them.
And Sasuke’s not moving, not breathing, and Haku’s stupid fucking mask is tilted in her direction, is calmly asking if this is the first comrade she’s lost.
But Haku doesn’t kill Sasuke, does he—
Haku lets him live, puts him in a death-like trance—
But she can’t feel Sasuke’s chakra, and she doesn’t know enough about the human body.
Haku hadn’t taken it easy, he’d gone straight for the attack when Naruto had shattered that first mirror with a Rasengan, had attacked again and again, popping all the shadow clones she made before they could strike with their own attack, knocking her back again and again as she’d tried to break another, reforming them whenever she managed it.
And she might not have been able to track him, but Sasuke’s sharingan had awakened so he had, and she’d flowed with him, worked as a team together, hit when he told her to hit, ducked when he told her to duck, and then—
“My older brother. I thought I couldn’t die until I’d killed him. But—”
Naruto’s chest tightens, the whispers in the back of her head growing louder, thundering.
“But I couldn’t let you get hurt.”
“He sacrificed himself for you. He was—”
“Shut up.”
It comes out lower than she’d intended, raspier. Her throat hurts, words trying to form around snarls and her teeth throb, fangs sinking down into her tongue, a scorching energy searing through every muscle.
She shifts, slowly placing Sasuke down.
Sasuke who’s not moving, Sasuke who’s not breathing, Sasuke who’d moved to tackle something she couldn’t see because he’d just woken his stupid magic eyes and he can start catching up to her now, but to do that he needs to get up, needs to wake up, needs to not be…
Not be dead.
Haku’s smile, warm and friendly in that clearing, stating that those protecting their precious people will become as strong as they must.
But Naruto hadn’t been strong enough, hadn’t been fast enough, and now Sasuke is—
And even now, even not knowing, she still doesn’t want to hurt him. What kind of teammate is she?
“He died a noble death,” Haku says, even though Naruto can read the wariness in his stance, can taste the subtle shift in his chakra as he readies it, concerned with her sudden outpour of chakra.
She wants to give him some chakra to worry about!
More of it pours out of her, twisting, twirling upwards and she can feel it, bubbling up and just beneath her skin, can feel it ready to seep through her pours, can feel the Kyūbi urging her on, pushing and pushing and pushing and Naruto just—
Gives in.
Her head snaps around, feeling claws scrap against the ground beneath her, feeling her heart slow and then pound, feeling every sense she has heighten as she ignores Haku and turns, searches for where it’ll hurt him the most, where she’ll see his tender spot, his soft underbelly so she can rip at it.
She sees Zabuza, standing across from Kakashi – Kakashi who’s bleeding, Kakashi who’s tense and ready and standing between that bastard and her other teammate, Naruto’s other precious person – Zabuza who has Kakashi’s blood on his blade.
Zabuza who is Haku’s most precious person and who is just there, calling for Haku to come back to him, to get away from her.
But he’s worrying about the wrong person.
Naruto hunches, setting Sasuke’s head down last of all, pressing her lips to his forehead, drinking in his scent and trying to ignore how clammy, cold, still his skin is.
Sasuke who’d thrown himself in front of her, Sasuke who said he couldn’t let her get hurt.
Sasuke her teammate that she’d been worried about, that she was desperate to keep alive because she needed him, because he’d save the world and he’s her friend.
Sasuke who Haku has hurt.
She tenses, muscles tight, gaze locked onto Zabuza.
Let’s see how he likes it.