Cherry Blossoms | A Naruto FanFic

Chapter Twenty-Five: Tree Climbing

- End of Flashback -

Naruto and Kakashi shared a look, they nodded towards each other and Naruto grabbed his jacket which contained Kakashi's soldier pills.

Without hesitation, Kakashi took a pill knowing the consequences of taking one but decisions of this magnitude require the hardest will and determination.

Deciding to break the news, Kakashi looked at Natsumi and Sasuke who looked at Kakashi with confusion.

"Hunter-Nina are required to depose the body immediately on sight, no matter the location or how many witnesses are there" Kakashi announced while getting raised eyebrows from Natsumi and Sasuke.

"So what?" Natsumi asked while looking at Kakashi, unlike Natsumi, Sasuke was carefully dissecting the words of Kakashi.

"Don't you two see? If they are required to depose the body immediately no matter how many witnesses are there, why did he take Zabuza's body? There's also the method he used for execution, senbon needles" Kakashi added on, this was enough evidence for Sasuke to piece together what Kakashi was suggesting.

"No way...you can't mean that" Sasuke said but his question was answered when Kakashi nodded.

"Yeah...it's most likely that's the case," Kakashi said, Sasuke immediately turned pale and Kakashi looked towards Naruto.

"What are you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked while raising his hand, he had his suspicions but there's no way right.

"It's mostly likely the case that...Zabuza Momochi is still alive"

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Immediately Natsumi and Tazuna's jaws opened in shock while they turned pale alongside Sasuke.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?! KAKASHI-SENSEl, YOU CHECKED AND SAID THAT HE WAS DEAD!!" Natsumi yelled out while looking at Kakashi with wide eyes.

"Yeah, I did...but that was most likely just a momentary death state. The senbon needle that the fake hunter-nin used is useless unless they hit a vital organ. It has a low possibility of killing your opponent. It's even an item used by medical professionals in acupuncture therapy" Kakashi announced.

"Hunter~nins know about the body's structure thoroughly. Putting a person in a momentary death-like condition is easy for them. First, he carried the body away against all code requirements in all the villages. Second, he used a weapon that has a low probability of killing which is also against the code of a hunter~nin. These two points indicate that his motivation was to not kill Zabuza, but save him. We can't ignore that possibility," Kakashi continued with his explanation.

"Aren't you thinking too much into this? Hunter~nins are supposed to kill missing~nins, right?" Tazuna asked, feeling a pit in his stomach knowing the most dangerous people are still hunting him down.

"No...with all the suspicion. We will be prepared before it's too late. After all, it's never bad to prepare for any situation to succeed in the mission and keep your comrades alive" Kakashi said.

"Plus, whether Zabuza is alive or not, it's most likely that Gatō knows and bought a stronger shinobi," Kakashi said. The sensei of Team Seven turned his head towards Natsumi and saw a smirk filled with excitement and joy.

"Hm, she's actually excited that Zabuza may be alive," Kakasho thought. He tried to take away that humanity from Natsumi since there will be a crunch in the future, but if a shinobi has no emotion, they aren't really living.

"Since I'm still injured from my previous battle. You guys will receive training from me and Naruto since we're currently the strongest in the group," Kakashi announced while glancing towards Naruto, the tall man merely shrugged and Kakashi nodded.