My Ninja Way
“Country of Waves Pt. 4”
She had been sitting in the forest alone, sitting in front of a tree with her palms placed flat against the trunk as she focused on cooling them willingly, when a hand clamped down on her shoulder tightly.
Yelping, she pushed herself away in caution until her eyes met those of Sasuke’s and she let out a breath of relief before becoming stiff once more.
Sasuke stared for a moment longer, his eyes going from the tree and then to her. “You still didn’t tell me.”
“Tell… you what?” Nori blinked slowly, confusion pushing away her nervousness.
“How to climb.” Sasuke nonchalantly tilted his head as he pointed at the tree.
“Oh.” Nori blinked one last time, before scrambling to her feet when she realized he was waiting for her to speak. Clearing her throat, she glanced up at him. “S-so the trick is to…”
.
.
.
Turning her attention away from Kakashi and Sakura down below them on the ground, Nori turned her eyes to Naruto and Sasuke, Sasuke on the tree next to her and Naruto a branch lower than her.
“I can totally climb this high now!” Naruto exclaimed happily as he stood, only a moment after he flew forward, letting out yells of panic before he lunged forward to fall. Nori’s eyes widened and she jumped to his branch instantly to help him—and then he stuck to the branch, hanging upside down.
“GOTCHA!” He grinned widely.
Letting her mouth part in shock, Nori stared at him in disbelief. How could he do that?!
He was reaching upwards to pull himself back on the branch, when his feet suddenly popped off the branch. Of course his reaction was to yell and grab onto something for support, and that support happened to be Nori.
Letting out a noise in surprise, the red head flew forward off the branch when Naruto wrapped his hand around her ankle and dragged her down with him. Reaching her arms out in attempt to grab something, Nori realized it would be useless with Naruto clenching her ankle like that.
And then her body jerked forward and she found herself staring at a shocked Kakashi and Sakura from above. Why wasn’t she falling? Glancing upwards, Nori’s face turned bright red as she put her hands on her stomach to hide the exposed skin before turning to look at what stopped them from falling.
Sasuke was the one hanging upside down on the branch now, only his feet and chakra holding himself to the tree. His pale hand was wrapped around Naruto’s ankle, holding him up as Naruto did the same to Nori.
“Hmpf!” Nori jerked forward once more and her face paled when she realized Naruto’s grip was slipping on her ankle. She met eyes with Naruto’s as his hand slipped a little more.
“Idiot, grab her hand—” Sasuke was cut off because his own grip loosened. Frantically reaching forward, both Naruto and Nori reached for each other’s hands before they all fell. Their fingertips brushed and then Sasuke purposely let go of Naruto’s ankle, sending the two ninja under him falling once more.
The last thing Nori saw before an arm wrapped around her waist, was Naruto instinctively reaching towards her. Her body flew to the left, pushing her into Sasuke’s side more as he held onto her and Naruto, jumping from tree to tree in an attempt at slowing their fall.
The air left her lungs as Sasuke landed on the ground before he dropped his teammates, sending them to the ground in a breathing mess.
After a few seconds of lying there, Nori stood and walked back towards the house, thanking Sasuke quietly as Naruto raised his unusually cold hand. Eyes widening, Naruto stared at the frost covering the inside of his left hand before turning his eyes to the red heads back as she walked away slowly.
When did he grab her hand?
.
.
.
She’d woken up late, and by the time she’d stumbled around her room in an attempt at getting dressed quicker than normal and she was out the door heading to the bridge, the workers were lying around in a mess on the bridge.
Ignoring Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna as they stood there, Nori quickly rushed towards the workers, checking their pulses. “They’re alive.” She confirmed after a few minutes, before turning her eyes back to her sensei for orders.
Sakura took a step backwards, “K-Kakashi-sensei?”
Nori suddenly felt sick to her stomach. “Inari-kun and Tsunami-san.” She said wide eyed, making Kakashi clench his teeth together. Nori swallowed, “we left them unguard—” Mist. The bridge was slowly engulfed in mist, making it hard to see further than two meters.
“Nori, come here.” Kakashi ordered, looking around cautiously.
“But the workers—” Nori started, however Kakashi gave her a look and she bit her lip softly and walked towards her sensei. By the time she was at his side, that familiar uneasily feeling overcame her once more.
That man was here.
“Back to back!” Kakashi ordered quickly, and everyone listened, except Nori. “Nor—” Kakashi stopped, his eyes widening lightly as he turned to look at Nori. It was strange, that despite the situation the little gentle kunoichi wasn’t cautious, shaking, or showing any sign that what was coming next scared her.
She was calm, collected, and terrifyingly curious.
“They’re here.” Her voice was low and showed no tremor, Sasuke glared and grabbed her wrist, yanking her smaller body behind his. Tearing his eyes away from his youngest student Kakashi focused on Zabuza and the other ninja.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting, Kakashi.” Zabuza’s voice rang out from around them, making everyone look around.
Blinking, Nori turned her eyes to her wrist where Sasuke’s hand still held onto her, shaking lightly. Returning her light eyes to the onyx haired boy’s face Nori watched as his eyes flickered around him. Was he scared?
“I see you’ve still got those brats with you.” Zabuza continued, “he’s trembling, poor thing.” And then he was there, crouching in front of them quietly. Keeping her eyes on the water clone, Nori never failed to notice Sasuke’s lips curving upwards.
“I’m trembling… with excitement.”
“Do it, Sasuke.” Kakashi ordered and a second later, Sasuke let go of Nori’s wrist as he pushed himself from the ground, slashing the water clones across their chests before returning to his place in the circle.
“He’s grown.” Zabuza said, not standing a small distance away from them with the other ninja beside him. “Looks like you have a rival now, Haku.”
“So it seems.” Haku said quietly.
It didn’t take long for Sasuke and Haku to be fighting, their kunai’s clashed together and they stared at each other.
Watching them with a rapidly beating heart, Nori pushed away her shock at the fact that Haku could do signs with just one hand and focused on their situation. She didn’t know Haku’s true abilities, so even if Sasuke, Sakura, and herself went against him while Kakashi went after Zabu—wait.
Tazuna was there too. She couldn’t forget about the mission, which was to protect Tazuna. So that meant she and Sasuke would fight Haku, Kakashi would fight Zabuza, and Sakura would guard Tazuna, but even then they could all end up dead because of their limited knowledge of Haku and Zabuza’s abilities.
No, she was forgetting something else as well.
Inari and Tsunami.
These people were smart, and they wouldn’t just go into a battle that they could possibly lose without another option. So they’d go after Tazuna’s family and give them no other choice but to surrender with a civilian hostage.
Nori felt her breaths start to quicken in panic and she turned to Kakashi, placing her hand which was ice cold against his arm. “Kakashi-sensei.” She said quickly making him look down at her. She met his eyes, “I’m going back.”
“What?” Kakashi stared at her with wide eyes, his hand grabbing her shoulder when she was going to start running. “Are you running away?” He asked in disbelief.
“No!” Nori didn’t bother to care that she raised her face as she desperately pushed his hand off of her. “Inari-kun and Tsunami-san, they’re in trouble.” Realization flashed through Kakashi’s eyes and he let her go.
“Smart girl.” Zabuza smirked lightly and then he was in front of Nori in a second. “However you ain’t going anywhere and you’re also not going to be fighting anyone.”
Nori’s eyes widened in confusion, “what?” He wasn’t letting her go, but he wasn’t fighting her either? What were his motives—she ducked out of the way as Zabuza reached for her, but she wasn’t fast enough and his hand wrapped around her neck.
No.
She let out a noise in struggle, noticing from the corner of her eye that Kakashi was fighting a water clone. Or was it real? She didn’t know, all she needed was air. Placing her hand on his wrist as he lifted her off the ground, Nori became aware of the corner of her vision started to go black.
No.
Why couldn’t she just stay conscious at the most important times?
Zabuza met her eyes. “You’re mine.”
NO!
And with one last squeeze and the widening of those brown eyes of his, all Nori could think before she blacked out for the fourth time on the mission was,
She was so useless.