A/N: Writing this chapter, I suddenly realized I don’t know the actual definition of things like the Sharingan and Byakugan. Advanced bloodline? Bloodlimit? Kekkai Genkai? Hm…

Also, there is at least one nasty swear word in here, so be warned. …Should I raise the raiting?

Now, Wave Arc: Final!

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Chapter the Sixth

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Savoring a bite of wonderful, home-cooked rice, Kizuna shot Uchiha a quick glance. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she studied her teammate. There wasn’t anything terribly different about his expression, per se, but the entire air with which he held himself was a little… odd. As best as she could tell, Uchiha was… smug. Maybe.

The question was, why?

It was the morning of the seventh day after Zabuza’s “death” and their subsequent arrival at old man Tazuna’s house. (On a side note, Tsunami-san’s cooking was almost as delicious as Ichiraku ramen, and although Kizuna would never admit it to anyone, she was glad for the variety.)

Late the night before, or maybe early that morning, Uchiha and Kiba had stumbled in, both barely able to stay on their feet. Actually, no, scratch that. Uchiha had barely been able to stay on his feet. Kiba had completely lost the ability, leaning heavily against the other.

Ah.

Although both of them had completed the tree-climbing exercise at about the same time, Uchiha had been in better condition, so in a way, he’d won their little competition. (Kiba had broken down and told her about it.)

Tch. Boys. (Never mind that she had a fair competitive streak as well…)

In fact, although Uchiha was sitting next to her and smugly eating his (delicious!) breakfast, Kiba was still asleep in the guest room.

“Is he going to be all right?” Tsunami-san asked, shooting a worried glance in the general direction of the room. “He’s usually the first to the table…”

Kakashi-sensei didn’t even bother to look up from his meal (Tsunami-san had forbidden him from reading his perverted book at the table). “Yeah, it’s just chakra exhaustion. He should be awake later today or early tomorrow.”

“Thank you for meal!” Kizuna exclaimed, giving their hostess a heartfelt smile. “It was delicious!”

Tsunami-san smiled and nodded at her and Uchiha, who had also finished and said his thanks, albeit more quietly. Kakashi-sensei and old man Tazuna stood as well.

“Well then, we’ll be off. If Kiba wakes up, tell him to stay here and rest,” the jounin instructed.

The four of them walked toward the construction site silently, much like she and old man Tazuna had done for the past five days. Glancing again at her teammate, Kizuna decided that this was as good time as any to ask her questions. If she was lucky, he was still feeling guilty about the day before yesterday.

“Hey, hey, Uchiha!” she called, waving to get his attention. Automatically, he glared in her direction, but then, realizing just who he was glaring at, forced on a more neutral look. Good, he was feeling guilty. “I wanted to ask about before…”

Kizuna paused, not entirely sure how to best broach the subject. Damnit, she should have thought to ask Kiba about it first…

“In the fight with Zabuza, the stupid bastard called Kakashi-sensei ‘of the Sharingan,’ and Kiba acted like… that had something to do with you...” Gesturing vaguely, Kizune frowned and searched for words. Unable to find anything, she finished in a rush, throwing tact to the winds. “What was that all about?”

For a moment, Uchiha was silent, studying the well-worn road they were walking on. Just as Kizuna was about to give up hope of an answer, he began. “The Sharingan… It’s the bloodlimit of the Uchiha clan. Of my clan.”

She was going to sound stupid, but… “Bloodlimit?”

Uchiha nodded sharply, too lost in his thoughts to comment on her ‘stupidity’ (which was actually a lack of knowledge and not the same thing at all). “A bloodlimit, a kekkai genkai, is a technique possible only through an advanced bloodline… A deep blood lineage, superior genealogy… a technique passed down from your ancestors…”

“An ability granted through an inherent genetic difference?” Kizuna confirmed. “And the Sharingan is this bloodlimit?”

“Yeah.” His expression was distant. “It’s a technique that manifests mainly through the eyes, allowing a ninja to predict an opponent’s attacks, to see through and copy their techniques. Kakashi’s isn’t natural, though. I think it was surgically transplanted…”

Kizuna raised an eyebrow. ‘Where’d he get it, I wonder?’

“That’s why he was so weak after using it,” Uchiha continued. “Using the technique drains chakra, of course, but it’s worse for Kakashi because his body isn’t Uchiha. The Sharingan may only manifest through the eyes, but the bloodline runs through the entire body.”

“Is that so?” Kizuna replied automatically. “Do you…?”

The dark-haired genin’s mouth thinned into a sever line. “No,” he replied curtly. “The Sharingan has to be awakened, usually in a combat situation, often life or death.”

“So it’ll come when you need it?” Kizuna continued the thought.

For the first time since the beginning of their conversation, Uchiha regarded her fully, eyes full of suspicion. “Most likely,” he allowed.

“That’s good.” Beaming, Kizuna looked away, straight ahead. Even without looking, she could imagine his ‘what the hell are you on’ expression. “I’m glad that you’re strong,” she continued, stubbornly looking ahead. Somehow, her expression had become serious without permission. “I’m glad that Kiba-kun is strong too.”

(“Hmph,” Uchiha snorted but didn’t protest further. Kizuna’s smile returned, small but warm. He was really just too cute.)

“More than anything, I want to become strong so that I can protect the people I care about,” she confided. He was smart enough to remember, this wasn’t what she usually said, what she’d said before, but teammates were about trust, right? “Hinata-chan, Touka-kun, Tenten-nee, and Kiba-kun and you… My list of precious people used to be empty, but now it’s growing… The ‘strong’ I want to be is the kind of ‘strong’ it takes to protect you. But also… I want all of you to be strong too, so that even if I’m not strong enough, you’ll be able to protect yourself too.”

Closing her eyes, she beamed at him, putting as much mindless cheer into her expression as possible. “That’s why I’m glad that Uchiha-kun has that strength, even if he hasn’t found it yet.”

She turned away quickly, suddenly embarrassed and blushing. The stupid jerk wasn’t Hinata-chan, but somehow she still got all mushy around him… Kiba-kun was so much easier to be around since… he understood everything without words…

For a few heavy moments, Uchiha was silent, and when he spoke, it wasn’t at all what she expected.

“‘Uchiha-kun?’” he repeated.

Kizuna pouted. “I’m not calling you Sasuke-kun!” she protested.

Her teammate huffed, looking away. And was that a real, full expression that she saw? “You can just call me by my name, you know.”

“Alright, Sasuke.”

It sounded natural too.

“Wait ‘til I tell the fanclub!” she crowed. Sasuke scowled darkly.

-

Kiba groaned, just barely managing to lift his hand and run it across his face. It felt like every one of muscles was sore, all the way down to his bones. All too clearly, his body was telling him that he was not ready to rejoin the living world as of yet.

His dog, however, disagreed.

Akamaru barked again, oddly muted but loud enough to pierce through the returning fog of sleep/unconsciousness, and tugged at the sleeve of his partner’s t-shirt. In response, Kiba groaned again, rolling over and propping himself up on one elbow.

“’m up…” he slurred. “Wha…”

Akamaru whined urgently, his response grabbing Kiba’s attention forcefully. The genin’s eyes shot open as he dragged a deep breath and forced himself to move.

“What? Enemies in the house? Two samurai? Tsunami-san and the brat hostage?” he repeated Akamaru’s info, stumbling to his feet and reaching for his kunai pouch. “I’m on it.”

There were two enemies, both wannabe samurai and total flunkies. But, in his condition, even the wannabe flunkies presented a challenge. In the end, the best Kiba could think of was to let Akamaru handle them, with a quick (but still draining and painful) Juujin Bunshin.

Even as Akamaru-turned-Kiba made short work of the samurai flunkies, the real Kiba slid to the floor, groaning quietly. So this was what real chakra exhaustion felt like. It made all those times Kizuna drove him into the ground seem almost pleasant. And that technique drew most of the power from Akamaru…

‘Damnit. Kizuna, I’ll never ignore your advice again…’ he promised.

Leaning heavily against the wall, the genin pulled himself to his feet. Tsunami-san and Inari looked up at him in surprise from where they had fallen to the floor, the mother was comforting her son. Judging from their horrified stares, he looked as bad as he felt.

“I-Inuzuka-kun!” Tsunami-san protested, half rising. “You shouldn’t be out of bed yet! Are you all right?”

Taking another step forward and stumbling, Kiba grimaced. Akamaru whined in concern as he transformed back into his natural form. “Not really,” the genin admitted, trying to stand without the wall’s support. “But that’s not important. Where are the others? At the bridge?”

“Yes, but you can’t possibly…”

“Get to your neighbors’,” Kiba cut her off. “I doubt Gatou sent anyone else, but get out of here all the same. I’m going to the bridge. That’s where the real battle is.”

“You’re in no shape to fight. You’ll just die!”

Bless their soft civilian hearts for worrying, but… “That doesn’t matter! What are the other choices? To run and die later? It’s all the same, but then you won’t even have pride! To let my teammates fight alone and maybe lose and maybe die! Yeah, right! A ninja isn’t a coward!”

Suddenly, he could understand why Kizuna was always going on these little pep-talks. It didn’t really matter if anyone got what you were talking about. Just putting those feelings into words gave you a little extra power. With a surge of adrenaline and pure stubbornness, Kiba pushed off the wall and dashed outside, searching through his pack as he went.

He’d feel like shit later, maybe even die, but that didn’t matter now. Without stopping for second thoughts, he cracked the soldier pill and swallowed.

-

In some small, distant corner of her mind, Kizuna knew she wasn’t doing a very good job of guarding old man Tazuna. Eyes closed, hearing focused on something else entirely, she probably wouldn’t notice an attack until it hit. But who the hell was going to attack anyway?

The masked boy Haku was thoroughly preoccupied with Sasuke and Kiba, the latter arriving just before the god-damned fog was brought in. And Zabuza had his hands full taunting Kakashi-sensei.

She hoped Haku wouldn’t go for the killing blow too soon. Sasuke couldn’t probably stall for a while, but Kiba would be screwed.

‘Damnit, you stupid scarecrow bastard,’ she cursed mentally. ‘Stop stalling and corner the demon freak already!’

She could hear the two of them taunting each other, as well as the quieter sounds of Kakashi-sensei’s movements. Zabuza, she noted, was completely silent. So why the hell wasn’t her instructor worried? Kizuna could smell the blood…

‘Hm? What’s this?’

Just faintly, she could make out Kakashi-sensei rummaging through his weapons pouch and pulling something out. And … what was that?... a scroll unrolling? Maybe…

First chance she got, she was getting Kiba to teach her that sense-enhancement technique.

In pure surprise, Kizuna opened her eyes, staring blankly into the white blanket of fog. Under focus, her hearing didn’t return to normal. What was that rumbling?

Behind her, old man Tazuna shifted. Without looking at him, Kizuna began to move away, toward where her teammates were fighting. Yeah, she was certain now. The technique holding the fog in place had just disappeared.

Pulling out a kunai, she sent it flying straight at the nearest ice mirror. Just like she’d expected, Haku caught it easily, leaning out of the mirror.

“Don’t interfere,” he cautioned. “It will do you no-”

“What the hell are you doing?” she cut in. “Kakashi-sensei’s got him cornered!”

Through the gaps between the mirrors, Kizuna could just make out her two teammates staring at her in surprise. They were alive. Even as Haku went completely still, straining to reach through the slowly dispersing fog, an odd sound drifted through the air.

Ch-ch-ch...

‘Birds?’

Kizuna stared at him resolutely. Without warning, the sheets of ice cracked and began to fall, masking the impossibly fast escape of their caster. Mentally, she sighed. With the way Haku thought, he’d never take the chance that she was lying. Not that she was. Probably.

Without bothering to hurry, Kizuna walked toward her teammates, both crouching wearily on the ground, more full of needles than a pincushion. Kneeling next to them, she studied the two.

“What the hell was that?” Kiba asked flatly, breaking the silence.

He looked beyond awful, and Kizuna felt the stirrings of suspicion. “That,” she proclaimed with false smugness, “was psychological warfare. Knowing your enemy and all that.”

“And how exactly is it, that you ‘know your enemy?’” Sasuke asked flatly.

“Well-” Kizuna began only to stop, blinking at him in surprise. “You eyes are red. With dots.”

Said eyes widened slowly in surprise and… happiness? Kiba regarded him without much interest. “Sharingan, huh?” he commented vaguely.

“Cool!” Kizuna exclaimed, beaming. Caught completely off balance, Sasuke smiled too, just a little, while Kiba just rolled his eyes. “Thanks for taking care of him,” she continued, jerking her thumb toward the dog-user.

“What!” Kiba protested.

“How exactly are you moving anyway?” she asked the former, ignoring his question. Judging by Sasuke’s mixed and unreadable expression, she’d been right about that. “You shouldn’t even be awake yet.” Now that she thought about, that was actually a very interesting point. Poking his head out of Kiba’s jacket, Akamaru whined, and Kizuna narrowed her eyes, studying her teammate closely.

Even though he was sitting slouched on the ground, Kiba seemed as if every muscle was tense. Once in a while, small shudders would pass through his entire frame, almost like miniature spasms. In fact, the effect was almost like that of…

“You idiot!” Kizuna yelled, startling both her teammates. “What the hell are you thinking! Taking a soldier pill in your condition-! You could die!”

Kiba scowled, defensive and guilty. “We’re teammates! I couldn’t just let you fight alone! No!” he cut her off even before she could protest. “I don’t want to end up like Kakashi-sensei, looking at your graves and thinking, ‘Maybe if I’d been there, maybe if I’d tried a little harder…’ You’ve would’ve done the same thing!”

“I don’t have a family to leave behind!”

“You’ve got us and Hyuuga!”

“That’s not-!”

“Let it go,” Sasuke cut in, his voice ice-steel. “We would’ve all done the same thing. We’re ninja and teammates. That’s our ninja way.”

The two of them stared at him, completely shocked. Sasuke was looking away, his expression flat and focused. Blinking, Kizuna felt herself blush a little and smile involuntarily.

“Fog’s clearing,” Sasuke continued, rising to his feet. “And we’ve got company.”

He was right. The fog had almost completely disappeared from the bridge, and Kizuna could see Kakashi-sensei standing across from Zabuza and Haku. Peering at their figures, she could make out thick streams of blood flowing down Zabuza’s arms. The missing-nin was leaning heavily against Haku, who had lost his mask. How much chakra did he have left, she wondered.

Kizuna’s eyes slid past the ninja, toward the unfinished end of the bridge. The fog was still thick there, and for a moment, she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Then, the mist shifted, disappearing a little, and Kizuna drew a shocked breath.

From beyond the unfinished edge, rough men were emerging, swarming like locust.

“What the hell?” Kiba voiced intelligently. “A thug army?”

“They must have come by boat,” Sasuke mused.

As they spoke, a different figure had appeared – a neat, well groomed man in a business suit and round sunglasses. She knew right away just who he was, and just what she needed to do. Without hesitation, Kizuna pulled a handful of senbon out of her teammate, stood and, ignoring his pained protests, began to walk quickly toward the businessman and his army of thugs.

He was saying something, in a clipped, annoyed tone, as if discussing an underproductive branch of business. Zabuza was scowling viciously, a vein throbbing on his forehead. If he could have, the missing-nin would have murdered the man. Even Haku, holding up his most important person, looked murderous.

Walking past them and her instructor, Kizuna stopped and faced the businessman. “You’re Gatou,” she stated, absolutely certain.

“Of course!” the man/monster in a business suit confirmer. “And just who are y-”

“You’re the cause of all of this,” Kizuna continued. Lifting up her hand, she shifted the senbon into standard position, sticking out between her fingers like needle-thin claws. “It ends here.”

Gatou opened his mouth to say something, sneering, but before any words could emerge, he stumbled back, knocked off balance by the impact. Three needles were lodged evenly in his throat, allowing only a strangled gasp to issue. Behind the sunglasses, Gatou’s eyes bulged as he lifted his hands as if to claw at his throat. Another strangled gasp, and a heavy thud as his body toppled, completely lifeless.

For a seemingly endless moment, everyone was silent. A feeling of disconnected disbelief seemed to drain everything out of Kizuna. A thought of ‘Did I really just do that?’ was impossibly coupled with absolute certainty and satisfaction.

Things were going according to her plan. Apparently. Now if only she could remember just what her plan had been…

“You bitch!” One of the hired thugs yelled, breaking the silence. “How the hell are we gonna get paid now!”

The others yelled affirmatives behind him, growing louder in their mutual anger.

“Raid the village!”

“They’re all weak already!”

“ATTACK!”

“As if!” Kizuna countered, sliding into an attack stance. In some corner of her mind, she thought just how ridiculous the situation must look – a single girl against an army of hardened criminals. But then, she wasn’t a ninja for nothing.

Drawing back one fist, she focused her chakra and punched the bridged with everything she had. The technique was surprisingly more complicated than it looked, and she’d never been able to pull it off before, but her newly improved chakra control, it would work, she was certain.

A small crater formed around her fist, from the physical power of the attack, then, abruptly, the entire section in front of her cracked and began to collapse, taking the thugs with it.

As the dust and mist cleared, Kizuna could see that the entire unfinished end of the bridge had been reduced to rubble, barely visible in the water.

“Oh, the bridge,” she started guiltily. “Old man’s hard work…”

“Don’t worry about it,” answered old man Tazuna’s voice from behind her.

Kizuna tried to spin around, but halfway through the motion, her legs seemed to turn to jelly, and her balance suddenly disappeared. Sitting down heavily, she laughed giddily and gave him a crooked smile.

-

Kakashi sighed heavily, giving the three genin in front of him a meaningful look.

How had he ended up with a team like this? These three lunatics managed to make Gai’s band of misfits look sane and well-adjusted.

Worst of all, the three brats were ignoring him. On one end of the line, Sasuke was sulking and periodically shooting Kizuna suspicious looks. He was still upset at being thoroughly cornered by Haku, and the girl wasn’t helping with her new hobby of trying to catch him off guard.

Apparently, she’d taken his ability to read her movements and dodge her attacks as a challenge.

At the other end, Kiba was still looking a little tired after his experience with improper use of soldier pills. He was shooting Kizuna wary looks as well, in his case because she still randomly chewed him about for being an idiot.

Sitting in the middle of their short line, Kizuna alternatively looked pleased with herself, angry at her teammates and thoughtful.

They had returned to Konoha the day before, and Kakashi had just handed in his report. Now, in ‘debriefing’ (if it could be called that), he had his chance to go over the mission with them.

“Eh-hem,” he cleared his throat pointedly. Finally, the three little monsters turned their attention to him. They collective expression said something along the lines of ‘what the hell do you want, you old coot?’ “I would like to go over some points.

“The Mist missing-nins Momochi Zabuza and Haku escaped in the confusion after Gatou’s death. Officially, Gatou was killed by Haku because he refused to pay them. This is the absolute truth.” Kakashi leveled his flattest look at the three of them. They nodded with varying degrees of annoyance. Brats. “However, off the record, I would appreciate if you did not take justice into your own hands in the future, no matter how good a cover you have.”

Kizuna had the good grace to look guilty. It would have been balm to his soul if she hadn’t still looked very pleased with herself.

“On other matters, I would like to convey that soldier pills are not, in fact, a magical cure for exhaustion. However, I will leave the prolonged discussion to your parents.”

Kiba gulped, thinking of the reaction his family would have when they found out about his stunt.

“Also, I would like to congratulate Sasuke on awakening his Sharingan. I would also like to remind him that it is not infallible and not a substitute for training and experience. Be sure to work on raising your chakra control and stamina, both of which are vital in order for you to use the Sharingan to its fullest potential.”

Sasuke nodded tersely, but there was a definite hint of ‘I know, damnit’ in his expression.

“Think well on your mistakes.”

The brats had the gall to look insolent. But damn if he wasn’t a little proud of them.

-

end chapter the sixth.

Bio Note 6: Tazuna named the bridge “Bond.”

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Wow, what a short chapter. Like I was afraid, Kizuna has become deus ex machina. And where did the empowered villager go? Ah… Probably, Haku will reappear eventually, maybe around the time Sasuke runs off to Orochimaru. Well, anything’s okay as long as he’s alive…

I really apologize for this chapter, but I just really wanted to get this arc over with. Chuunin exams are way more fun (Gaara!) and I want to screw around with the rest of the characters now.

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Next chapter: A filler where more of the supporting cast gets introduced. Hinata makes a second appearance, as well as Haruno Touka-kun and Gai’s team. Maybe I’ll even work Ino in.

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