Please Don't Leave Me

Run Idate Run! Nagi Island Awaits!

(Kazumi's P.O.V.)

"Blondie! Pinkie! Go tie down the sails. Duck boy! Guide the ship to the east" Idate called out orders. Sakura and Naruto grab the ropes and tied down the sails while Sasuke went to the back of the boat to steer us in the right direction
"You know, Idate, you could take the time to learn our names instead of just giving us those stupid nicknames" I say
"I could but I don't feel like it" he said snappily.
"Hahaha! Get real, that blockhead could never be a ninja!" Naruto says loudly from the back
"Look who's talking! Last time I checked you were the reigning king of stupid" Sakura shouted back
"Well yeah, but I mean come on, I did make it to the final round of the chunin exams didn't I?" Naruto grins proudly
"You didn't really make it to the final round did you?" Idate asks
"Yeah, that's right. And if I hadn't been interrupted in the middle of it I could have won the tournament and become a chunin"
"Yeah, well whoever your proctor was must have been a real pushover. Sounds like the chunin exams has lowered its standards some" he says before covering his mouth quickly
"I see. So that means you were.." Sakura trails off as he turns away looking into the ocean
"I remember now, Idate Morino" Sasuke says
"Morino...Oh yeah, wasn't he the proctor of the first exam?" Sakura asks
"Ibiki Morino..." she mumbles
"What'd you say? M-My brother? He's alive?!" Idate asks turning his attention back to Sakura
"Yes"
"Well of course he's alive. Why wouldn't he be? He threw such a curve ball at me the tenth question in" Naruto asks
"Seriously? He's really alive then?--" he starts but was interrupted when an arrow came out of nowhere and stuck to the floor
"Ah, that's great! Now what?" Naruto asks
"It's an ambush" Sasuke says. We all look over our shoulders and there was another ship slightly bigger than ours following us. More arrows come from the air but were quickly taken down with our kunai. The next set of arrows were aimed at Sasuke but he jumps out of the way before they could get too close
"Naruto and I will fend these guys off. Sakura, Kazumi, you keep an eye on Idate" Sasuke says
"Maybe we should all just run" Sakura says
'Where would we run? We're in the middle of the ocean. Surrounded by water' I think
"It's too late for that" he says. Another set of arrows come at the ship but these ones had ropes attached to the other end pulling them closer to us
"Start working on these ropes. I'll cover you" Sasuke says running to the back of the boat
"Right. I got this" Naruto says starting to untie the ropes but they were too tight
"Looks like I'll have to cut these" Naruto says reaching into his weapon bag only to realize his weapons had fallen off at the cliff where he saved Idate
"That's perfect. I had to lose all my gear" he says frustrated
"Hey, lend me that will ya?" he motions for Morino to hand over his pocket knife
"Uhh..what?"
"Come on! Hand it over already!" Naruto says starting to get annoyed"
"Forget it you imbecile! This is more precious to me than my own life is. There's no way I'm giving it to you" he denies holding it closer to his chest
"Look, get over yourself. We don't have time for this right now" Naruto says walking toward Idate threateningly
"Get away from me you idiot!--" he says but was again cut off by a kunai being thrown at the ship
"Hurry up already you knucklehead!" Sasuke says. Naruto takes the kunai knife stuck on the floor and rushes to the ropes to cut them off, when he finally does the ship is starting to fall behind
"Ha! Well that was a piece of cake" Naruto says smugly
"Ah!" Sakura screams, when I look around there were people emerging from the bottom of the ship
"Don't worry Sakura, it's just a bunch of clones! Only the real ones can actually attack us. We're gonna be fine" Naruto says
"Sakura! Naruto! Kazumi! Watch out! One of them isn't a shadow clone, be careful!" Sasuke says with his sharingan activated
"Just tell us where Sasuke. You better stay close to my side Idate" Sakura says
"No way, why would I want any help from a bunch of ninja?" he says snappily
"Sharingan!" I say activating mine. Looking around the ship I could see all the clones surrounding us and found the one who wasn't a shadow clone. But I knew this person. He was one of the people who we fought in the very beginning of the chunin exams
"Look around pal, beggars can't be choosers" Naruto says, the real person behind Naruto jumps at him with a kunai ready
"Naruto! Behind you!" Sasuke shouts. The real person jumps on Naruto and pins him down with a kunai to his neck, I had my katana out of it's holster ready to fight but the Naruto beneath the person vanishes in a puff of smoke
"A clone? Oh no!" he looks up and there were 4 Narutos going at him all at once, but the person jumps off the side of the ship before he could even touch him
"Oh great, the real one got away" he says angrily
"Nice work Naruto" Sakura compliments
"Sasuke! They've changed into water clones"
"I got this one" I say in a ready position
"Water style: Water clone jutsu!" all my clones go after the enemy's clones but I could feel droplets on my head. When I look up there was water coming down on us even though there wasn't any grey clouds in the sky. Taking a closer look at it they were black droplets. It was oil.
"Sasuke, don't!" Sakura shouts at Sasuke. When I look over at him he had the fire style jutsu ready, had he gone through with it the whole ship would have been in flames within a few seconds, good eye Sakura. One more arrow was fired at the ship but this arrow had a flame on it. Within 2 seconds the fire made contact with the oil and the ship was starting to go up in flames
"Cover your eyes and plug your ears!" I shouted
"Water style: Water ball jutsu!" I shouted creating a massive water ball just above the ship. The water ball fell on the ship but it did nothing to stop the fire, the flames died down for a second but it was now bigger than it was before. The ship was already starting to fall apart beneath our feet
"What?" I asked
"Sasuke, what do we do? This fire is out of control!" Sakura shouts
"We dive into the ocean, we're just going to have to swim to the port at Nagi island" he responds
"You're right. That's our only option. Idate, do you know how to swim?"
"Of course" he says
"Ok, you go first then. I can cover you, with all this smoke everywhere we shouldn't have any problem slipping away unnoticed. Idate--" she says
"You can forget about it--" he says but I interrupted him by pushing them both off the side of the ship into the water. I follow right after and dive into the water
"What the heck was that for Kazumi?!" Sakura asks angrily
"There was no time! If you stayed on there any more you would have been burned to a crisp" I say coughing water out of my mouth. Sasuke and Naruto follow behind diving into the water
"Is everyone ok?" Naruto asks
"We're fine. Just keep going" Sakura says
"Those Rain village ninja you mean"
"Ha! Are you kidding? Those wimps, we can handle them"
"It wasn't us I was thinking of. What if they're headed towards Idate at this very moment?" Sakura asks
"Woah! He might be in danger"
"Of course he's in danger. That's just what I'm saying" Sakura says. Naruto was going to say something but he was going under water. Curiously I submerge fully under water and he was being pulled by his feet by the enemy ninja who were trying to attack us.
"Knock it off Naruto. This is no time to be playing around" Sakura says. I don't waste another minute and focus on my chakra as the water was running through my body turning me into a liquid until I was one with the ocean. I shot out after Naruto
"Ha, you don't have a chance against us under water" one of them says
"They may not but I do!" I say somewhat muffled by the bubbles but punch him in the gut as I sped past him still going after Naruto
"What?" he asks doubling over holding where I punched him. I was finally close enough to Naruto that I grabbed onto his outstretched hand and start to pull him toward the surface
'They can't see me because I'm part of the ocean so my body is camouflaged, but I can't do anything to do the same to the others. I have to remain quiet and be stealthy so they can't detect where I am even if I do have camouflage' I think. I look up and Sasuke and Sakura were being pulled down too by clones
'Sasuke! Sakura!' I think feeling a tug on my hand. I look down and Naruto was nodding at me telling me to let him go. I let his hand go and he summons his shadow clones
'If I'm going to help out I need to be on top of things too. Water clone jutsu!' I think making copies of myself. They all swim off to fight with Naruto's clones but his don't move. My clones didn't have any camouflage so they were just clear copies of me but one by one they were starting to limit the clones holding Sasuke and Sakura down. But one by one they were taken out
"What good will those do you? They might work on dry land but down here water clones rule" the holding back Naruto again says. I release the air I had in my mouth splitting it into thirds and throw it at them hoping they get the message, Naruto realizes this and opens his mouth swallowing the air bubble, Sasuke and Sakura don't get it. Sakura opens her mouth to do something but the air bubble goes inside her mouth shutting her up, she nods to Sasuke to do the same but the clone that was holding him down grabs it before he could. I knew Naruto and Sakura was alright but I had to do something about Sasuke, he doesn't have the air bubble like they do. I shoot off again and go after the clones still holding them down. Punching and kicking clones I was still outnumbered and the enemy's clones kept coming, I can't make any more air bubbles because I had already given the air I had left to Naruto
"Where are you?" One of them coos ever so sickly.
'Water clones!' I think. About 7 clones are created and they all go into different areas to help whoever needs it. I punch another clone and shoot off in another spot so they couldn't find me taking out more clones as I go along
"Where are you? Don't be afraid. Come on out. I'm not going to hurt you...I'm going to kill you" one of them says. I was going everywhere and my clones were doing everything else for me but it wasn't enough. Already about 4 of my clones were taken out and even more clones were being created by the enemy holding all of them down more so than before. All of a sudden I felt myself getting pulled backwards, when I look behind me there was a whirlpool, and at the bottom were all the shadow clones Naruto created manifesting his chakra into the water. When the whirlpool was gone all the clones that were created were gone completely and so were my clones, but then I felt a heavy weight on my chest that pushed me down and made my back slam on the bottom of the ocean floor. The force was so great I lost my focus on the jutsu no longer having my camouflage, the shock of it all made me slightly gasp only to realize I had no air. All the air I gave to the others was gone and I had nothing now. I could feel the water rush into my mouth when I opened it but closed my mouth just in time
"So, there you were" one of them says. They all look where he did seeing me on the ocean floor barely able to hold my breath, they all swam down to me. One of them grabbed my arms pinning them behind my back and another was holding my legs in place so I couldn't swim to the top while the third held my stomach so I couldn't wiggle or struggle away
"I was wondering where you went. You have no camouflage to hide yourself now sweetie" one of them coos in my ear making me shiver in disgust
"We won't do anything to ya. It's the water that's going to hurt ya. Those bubbles that you shot off earlier had oxygen in them, but since you got none left you might as well just give in and let Death come and take you away" another says, I could feel my eyes starting to close and I could barely comprehend what's around me but I had to stay awake! I could feel one of the people pinning my arm behind my back leave me and then the other two were taken out quickly. When I look up I could barely make out what was in front of me but it was black and blue. Sasuke! He grabs a hold of my arm and puts it around his shoulder using his other arm to hold my waist. When we finally emerged from the ocean I could finally breathe again. But I was barely able to take in anything, I could feel the water making its way to my lungs. He used his legs only (which is really hard with the distance they're going) swimming to the rocks of an island close by
"What are you crazy?! Perv!" I could hear someone scream in a high pitched voice. But I was getting dizzy, I was starting to feel so dizzy I can't even think about who that might have been or what happened that could have caused that. Damn it... But I have to stay..awake!
"Just stay awake Kazumi!" Sasuke says in my ear. I was let down and my knees fell to the ground, only using my arms as support now. I was coughing violently to get the water that was in my lungs out as someone was patting my back to help me get it out
"Kazumi!" two more voices say along with the sound of rustling sand most likely meaning they were running
"Are you ok? What happened Kazumi?!" I was finally starting to feel better and I could tell the voice was Naruto, with how loud he was. My arms gave out beneath me and I fell to the sand rolling on my back to make it a little easier to breathe. I was still breathing heavily but it was definitely easier to breathe now
"What the heck happened to you Kazumi?!" Naruto asks supporting my back so I was in his arms
"She was caught in that whirlpool your clones made and was sucked to the bottom. The enemy found her and tried to drown her but I stopped them before they could take it too far" Sasuke says kneeling to the ground next to me
"Are you ok? Can you stand?" he asks and I shake my head no to the last question
"Naruto, put her on my back. We've got to get moving. We don't have time to just sit around, we need to find Idate" Sasuke says. Naruto supports me enough so I was laying on Sasuke's back, he grabs my legs lifting me completely off the ground and starts jogging
"Lets go, for all we know the enemy already found him" Sasuke says. Naruto and Sakura get up from the sand and follow him. I was coughing still trying to get the water out of my lungs when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye
'What is that?' I think
"Idate!" Naruto yells. I could see just fine now and Idate was laying on the rocks with a ninja standing over him holding an umbrella in one hand. Idate was badly beaten up and he had needles all over his body with cuts and bruises to go along with them
"You rat! Are you in charge of those Rain village ninja?!"
"Apparently they weren't quite up to their job, in a contest of genin it appears the Leaf village genin are the stronger" he says (that doesn't sound right to me. He needs to go back to English class)
"But genin no matter how strong they are, are no match against me" he says
"Well lets find out!" Naruto yells, Sasuke lays me down on the ground and they both jump after the ninja. He jumps in the air and swings his umbrella creating a mass force that almost made us push against the ground. I didn't have enough strength to keep myself up like they did and I almost lost my grip on the rocks, had I let go I would have been sent back into the ocean again.
"Hm. About what I expected. No more of a challenge really than Idate. I'll just give you what I gave him" he says putting away his umbrella and instead grabs his needles from his pocket
"No use in wasting any of my chakra" he says and throws the needles at us. I flinch at first and prepare for the needles to come
"Kazumi!" Sasuke shouts running in front of me taking all the needles that was supposed to go to me
"Sasuke!" I shout
"Needles that deliver a deadly poison. No matter how strong you may be you already have one foot in the grave" he says
"Yeah, yeah, we've heard that before" Naruto goes to stand up but he falls to the ground
"The last sound you'll ever hear, the sound of all your plans going up in smoke" he says
"Poof" he says jumping away into the rocks
"He is gonna pay" Naruto growls pulling out the needles
"Naruto, Sasuke, take this" Sakura hands him a bottle
"What do you mean take it? What is it?" Naruto asks
"Lady Tsunade gave them to me. She stopped me as we were leaving the village" she says
"Grandma Tsunade huh?" Sakura nods and places one in Idate's mouth forcing him to chew it
"There, I think he'll come around now" she says putting one in her mouth
"It's some kind of antidote or something, take one" she says hands them both a small pill and they swallow it
"And the other thing is we can't just leave him out here in the rain. We've got to get him to some place warm" Sakura says
"Kazumi, are you ok? Do you need one too?" Sasuke asks
"N-No *cough*. He..didn't get me" I say coughing one last time finally getting all the water out of my lungs
"Thank you" I stand up on my legs now and throw my arms around his neck giving him a hug
"It's no problem" he says hugging me back
"And I think I know where to go. On the way here I saw a cave, it looked just deep enough so we could warm up and start a fire" I say
"Where is it?" Naruto asks
"Over there" I point to where the cave was
"Alright, lets go" Naruto says
"I've got Idate" Sakura says throwing his arm over her shoulder
"Lets go!" we all run to the cave I pointed out and it was definitely warmer in here than it was outside. Naruto scraped rocks together on top of the pile of twigs and blew on them until there was a small spark and a fire was lit. For the majority of the night we all took turns looking out and just waiting for Idate to come around and wake up. Currently everyone was awake and doing their own thing. Sasuke and I were near the entrance since it was our turn and Sasuke was sharpening his kunai knife against a rock he found, I wasn't really doing anything, I was just looking out into the ocean. Not much to do anyway except wait for sleeping beauty to wake up, my books were soaked so I put them close to the fire so they could dry off but not too close so they would burn
"What do you know, he's waking up" Naruto says, we all turn around and he was starting to open his eyes
"Hey, so how are you feeling?" Sakura asks trying to help him sit up
"Where is he? What happened to Aoi?" he asks
"He's gone. So you're telling me that's that character's name? Aoi?" Sasuke asks
"Who is he? Do you know each other from somewhere?" Sakura joins
"He was..a sensei I knew back in my leaf village days" he says
"What? You're from the Leaf village?" Naruto asks
"After he...betrayed the Leaf village he became a jounin to the village hidden in the rain"
"Hang on, back up. What are you talking about?" he doesn't answer and tries to sit up but he was shaking and almost lost his balance
"Woah there, take it easy now. You're still very weak. What is that you're holding? You've been clutching that all this time" Sakura points to the pocket knife in his hand
"Tch, all that work all the training, all for nothing" he scoffs
"You're giving up kinda easy aren't ya? That's not the way for any Leaf village ninja to talk" Naruto says clenching his fists
"You've got the wrong guy. I haven't even thought about the Leaf village since the day I walked away from it" he says
"Walked away from the village?" Sakura asks, he takes a second but sighs heavily. We all listen carefully ready for story time
"It hit me hard when I failed the first chunin exam. I didn't know what to do, until Aoi sensei told me there was another way to become a chunin. I really wanted to do it and I didn't even think twice about what I was doing. I stole the lightning blade used by the second Hokage and I took the scroll of sealing, but when I brought them to Aoi sensei he said I could become a chunin in the village hidden in the rain. He tricked me into stealing those things and he left me with a choice, to either go with him to the village hidden in the rain and make a new start or stay in the Leaf village and be locked away for the rest of my life if I was lucky. So I left the village hidden in the Leaves and ran off to find a new life somewhere else. I never saw the Leaf village again after that day. Nothing I do goes right. I've never been of any use to anyone, but even so Boss Jirocho, even though he knew I was no good he still trusted me. He put his faith in me. And now look that I've done!" he was clutching his pocket knife even tighter now and his eyes were starting to water
"I've never been of any use to anyone. Look at me, I'm worthless. Everything I do goes wrong. Aoi said it and he was right. I'd be better off dead" he was now crying and he was shaking
'He was just like Naruto... he tried so hard but he felt like he couldn't do anything right' I think sadly
"Stop it! You idiot, you just said it yourself! You have one person who believes in you right? One person is enough, that's all anyone needs. Don't even think of quitting, who says this race is over? You have no way of knowing how things are gonna turn out!"
"Yeah but.."
"Come on! Get on your feet" he forces Idate to stand up
"Stop it Naruto! He's still far too weak to move" Sakura tries to stop him
"Don't even try to stop him" I say
"What?" she asks
"When he gets like this he's not going to listen to anyone. And he is right. All Idate needs to do is remember that if he does give up he would be letting down the one person who believes in him. That's what he needs" I say picking up my books placing them in my pockets
"If he can't run then I'll carry him on my back the whole way if I have to!" he lets go of Idate and he falls to the ground
"The other runner already reached Modoroki--"
"You're not quitting, understand?" he asks taking Idate's shirt in his hand bringing him closer to look threatening
"Stop it--"
"Sakura, I said don't bother. Just because you tell him to stop it isn't going to stop him from getting his point across" I say
"But he.."
"She's right Sakura, just leave them be" Sasuke says
"Jirocho's counting on you and you don't want to keep him waiting. Pull yourself together!" he screams at him now
"You quit now? When you finally have the chance you've been waiting for your whole life to show someone he was right to depend on you, to believe in you. Come on, show him what you've got!" he shouts
"I'll do it, but I need your help Naruto" he says
"Alright then, lets shake a leg. Hang on tight!" he picks up Idate piggy back style and runs out of the cave quickly
"He did a good job" Sakura says
"Yeah, but we better start running too if we don't want them to get attacked again" Sasuke says
"Yeah" Sakura and I say. We all run out of the cave catching up to Naruto
"So many stairs.." I trail off looking at the stairs in front of us, there were so many but Naruto was still running up the stairs
"You're kidding, how does he do it?" Sakura asks
"No one ever accused that kid of not having energy" Sasuke pants. Every step up to the shrine was torture, my legs were burning by the time we reached the top but there was no Naruto or Idate in sight, so that means we have to run even faster if we want to make sure they don't encounter the enemy again. This sucks.
"As a reward I'll kill you quickly" Aoi raises his sword
"Water slicer!" I send off my water slicers but they were cut through so easily with that blade and all the water fell to the ground beneath his feet
"Guys! Excellent timing!" Naruto grins
"Don't sweat it Naruto. Just sit back and leave this clown to me" Sasuke says
"Heh. This clown is tougher than you think" Naruto says
"It doesn't make any difference how many there are, you'll never defeat me. I'm Aoi of the rain and I wield the blade of the thunder spirit"
"Is that so? Perfect. The blade of the thunder spirit against my chidori. Alright, lets find out which one of them is stronger!" he activates his sharingan creating his chidori ball charging at Aoi. He raises his blade against Sasuke's chidori and he easily sliced through shocking Sasuke in the process
"Sasuke!" I scream, he gets up and charges at him again only using a kunai knife