A Little More Than This (Discontinued)

Chapter 17

Mei tugged along behind the group, keeping a look-out for Zabuza and Haku. She knew that they'd show up and so wanted to ready. The group arrived at the almost finished bridge to look out at mist and a distinguished smell of the dead. There were a few bodies, decapitated and laying at random around the bridge.

'You're sick Zabuza-San, you always have been' she thought, looking out at the scene.

"Just as I thought!! Show yourself Zabuza Momoji!!" Kakashi bellowed. Not a second later Zabuza appeared, Haku by his side and both looked ready to kill. Mei gulped nervously and out of the corner of her eye she could see Sasuke shivering, whether from excitement or fear she couldn't tell. But she doubted the second option was it.

"Look at this one. He trembles in fear at my very presence!!" Zabuza cried, several clones appearing around the group. "I'm trembling... in excitement" Sasuke replied, zipping around the small group and slicing up the clones. A smile crept onto his face as he stood in a protective stance in front of his teammates, minus Naruto who had been left behind due to his exhaustion.

Mei sent a sad eye twinkle to Haku before jumping over Sasuke's out-stretched arm and engaging the brown-haired boy in a battle.

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Kisame walked up to the sullen plant-man, who had been in a emotional-spiral ever since he had returned from the water-country.

"What's the matter with you?" Kisame asked, handing over a bottle of Sake. "Nothin'" White Zetsu replied, still in a sulky mood. "Clearly there is something wrong. You can talk to me" Kisame sighed, he had become quite the councillor since Mei's untimely death.

"Do you ever get the feeling that Mei isn't, you know, dead?" He continued. "Sometimes I get the feeling that if I went looking for her I'd find something worth it... but I know she's dead" Kisame replied, sighing a little. He had been asked the question multiple times and had given the same answer each time.

Zetsu nodded, understanding what he meant and they opened their mouth to blurt out what they had seen but was cut off by Kisame. "Of course that doesn't mean I don't miss her. I feel like her short time with us was to enlighten us in our wrongs" his voice calm and suddenly righteous.

The small crowd around burst into laughter, not expecting Kisame to sound so much like a preacher. Kisame laughed along with them, as Zetsu cracked a small smile. 'Yup, definitely worth being with these idiots. Maybe we can tell them later'

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Mei and the masked Haku shared blows, both aiming to wound, not fatally or kill. Zabuza sighed slightly, he did not want to harm the annoyingly happy tangerine, nor did he want Haku to do such a terrible deed.

He kept the other side of the group at bay not allowing them to help the young girl. This she had to do by herself. He caught the Kunai that Kakashi threw at him and heard the sound of blood splashing against concrete. Kakashi and Zabuza looked over at the scene, Mei's body looked fine despite the large gash producing a large amount of blood from her chest.

Haku's masked showed the same void of emotion it usually did, but he was praying silently that she wasn't dead. That's when a fist came towards him, it belonged to Sasuke. He kept up with Haku's own skills, but barely and could hardly track his movements. Sasuke was determined to help his friend by defeating the bastard.

Zabuza looked down at the girl, and caught Kakashi's fist. The man seemed desperate to finish the battle. The sliver-haired nin was desperate. He needed to kill the bastard in front of him so he could make sure Mei wasn't dead. He was so focused on his opponent he didn't notice or sense Mei getting up and shaking off the blow.