Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Back to the Past ❯ Chapter Nine: Deathly Zabuza ( Chapter 9 )

Sakura woke up quickly, taking in her surrounding. She was laying on a bed in a darkened room. She sighed, frustrated with herself. "My summons drain me too much."

A knock on the door interrupted her self-berating, and she told the person to come in. "Are you okay?"A beautiful woman with long black hair asked.

"I'm fine, but who are you?" asked Sakura.

The woman smiled sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. I'm Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami. I welcome you to your home. Now are you okay?" asked Tsunami.

"Yup, I just in tminutest bit and then I'm as good as new." Replied Sakura.

"SAKURA-CHANNNN, YOU'RE AWAKE!" Naruto yelled and began to run to her only to be held back by Kakashi.

"Naruto, she needs more rest." Kakashi scolded.

"No, I'm fine Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said, watching Sasuke as he lurked in the doorway, staring at her.

"So Sakura, how are you feeling after you fought against Zabuza and that hunter ninja?" asked Sasuke.

"Just a little tired and sore, nothing a little more rest won't cure." She said before turning to Kakashi. "So should we start training?" asked Sakura, sitting up only to notice that her shirt wasn't on. "Okay, what happened to my top?"

Tsunami suddenly scrambled to the bundle of fabric on the dresser. "Sorry, I took it off so you could cool down. You had a bit of a fever."

Sakura smiled and it her shirt back on before turning to her teammates who had all looked away was soon as her blanket had fallen. "Hey guys, shouldn't we be going?"

Naruto raised his hand. "I have a question. What is a hunter ninja?"

"Basically they pursue a rouge ninja from their village." Kakashi said.

Sakura, sensing her sensei wasn't going to elaborate, continued Kakashi's explanation. "Naruto, listen carefully. A hunter-nin goes after any rouge or missing-nin from their village. For example: Say Sasuke becomes a missing-nin. Our village would send hunter-nin to track him down and kill him or to bring him back. More often then not, their targets are killed to protect village secrets. Right Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura looking at him.

Sakura didn't notice the awed and confused looks her team was sending her. "Okay Sakura. That was freaky." Sasuke said.

"Oops, sorry. I read a lot on these kinds of things." Sakura said scratching the back of her head. She stood up and went to the door, stopping when she noticed no one was following. "Aren't we going to train?"

"Right, let's go." Kakashi said, leading his team outside and into the woods not far from the house.

Kakashi stopped when they found a clearing with some thick trees. He started to explain the chakra control exercise he was going to teach them but was interrupted by Sakura. She went on to explain the exercise and even went as far as going to the tree in fronts of her and beginning to walk all the way to the top of it. She paused at the top got look for any sign of where Zabuza's hideout could be but went back down when she couldn't find anything. When confronted with her teammates inquiries about her knowledge she gave them her normal excuse of reading a lot.

Since she had demonstrated her ability to climb the trees, Kakashi dismissed her. She went over to a nearby stream and sat down, leaning back on her hands to relax and think of what her next move would be. She was interrupted as Kakashi came and crouched beside her.

"Hey, Sakura are you okay?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes, I'm fine." Sakura said, closing her eyes to signal to her sensei that she didn't feel like talking.

Kakashi complied with her wishes and stood from his crouch. "Sakura you still can talk to me about it all." He said as he walked away from her.

"Kakashi-sensei, even you can't understand what I'm going through right now, you haven't seen the future that I'm from." muttered Sakura looking out to the sunset.

At The Bridge

"What?" yelled Tazuna, seeing that his men were on the ground dead.

As mist rolled in, Kakashi and Sakura took out their weapons and looked around. "Naruto, Sasuke keep your guard up." Kakashi ordered.

"Believe it," Naruto said as he pulled out a kunai and held it ready in front of him, Sasuke doing the same.

"Kakashi-sensei, you go after Zabuza, Sasuke and Naruto go after the hunter ninja, I'll stay and protect Tazuna." Sakura said.

"Right Sakura-Chan." Replied Naruto.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Zabuza's taunted from the mist before he and Haku appeared in front of them. Kakashi engaged Zabuza while Naruto and Sasuke's followed Haku a little further away.

Sakura watched the battles, keeping Tazuna behind her. She didnt interfere, knowilng that some things she couldnt meddle with if she wanted Nruto and Sasuke to grow up. Thirty minutes later, when everything was wrapping up, she ordered Tazuna to stay put. She ran to Sasuke's side and started healing him, enough so he was out of any immediate danger. As she ran back to Tazuna's side she saw Gatou with his gang of thugs.

She listened to Naruto's speech at Zabuza about using Haku, watched Naruto get so emotional that he started crying. She watched Naruto's words cut at Zabuza until the man started crying and ordered Naruto to throw him a kunai.

Naruto threw Zabuza his kunai and Zabuza caught it in his mouth since his arms were out of the equation. Zabuza went on a rampage through Gatou's men, killing the majority of them even as weapons were thrown at him and lodged in his back. Those that Zabuza didn't kill fled for their lives and Zabuza struck down Gatou before the tiny man could escape.

Zabuza's body finally gave out and he collapsed. He turned his head to look at Haku's body. "Kakashi, could you do me a favor and take me to Haku?"

Everyone was silent as Kakashi took Zabuza to Haku's body and the man said his goodbye.

As they were leaving the bride to bury the dead, Sakura noticed Sasuke's looking at her. "What, Sasuke?"

"You called me by my first name. So you still have feelings for me." Sasuke said.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Sasuke." Sakura smirked at him. When they reached the place where Zabuza and Haku were going to be buried Kakashi told them to go back to Tazuna's to rest and heal.

As news spread of Gatou's demise, Tazuna was able to get help finishing his bridge and soon they were able to go home.

Walking home, Sakura made up her mind to go and see Ino and Shikamaru's fathers and maybe get them to help her out a bit.

A/N- I hope you like this chapter. TTFN Bye.