No Need for Love

C h a p t e r 12 - A Demon Makes His Appearance

With all of my things prepared and ready, I meet everyone at the entrance of the village. Once Tazuna shows up, we begin our long journey to the Land of Waves. Along the way Naruto continually expresses his excitement about the mission. I can't blame him, it's his first time outside of the village. As we converse, I can't help but notice a medium-sized puddle of water on the ground.

'That's weird, it's been sunny all week.'

Taking another look at the puddle as we walk by, I simply let it go not giving it a second thought. Moving past it, I suddenly hear the sounds of a chain rattling. Quickly turning around, I watch as chains entrap Kakashi and rip him apart. Sakura's scream fills the air as his dismembered body falls to the ground.

The ones behind it are two mysterious ninja who begin to make their attack on us. Quickly pulling out a kunai, I stand ready to fight, but the ninja run straight for Tazuna. Sakura protectively stands in front of him, with a kunai in her hand. In a flash Sasuke appears in front of Sakura and throws a shuriken at the attacking ninja. Causing their connected chain to stay pinned to the tree behind them.

With the chain now broken, one of the two decide to attack Naruto. Seeing that Naruto is completely frozen out of shock and fear, I leap forward in an attempt to keep the attack from hitting him. Although I was a little late, Kakashi suddenly shows up and knocks out our attackers in less than a second. It's a good thing he showed up before anything else could happen.

'So that was just a substitution earlier.'

After breathing a sigh of relief, I see Sasuke teasing Naruto for being a "scaredy cat".

"Just leave him alone, Sasuke." I say moving towards Naruto.

"You're bleeding!" I point out surprised, while Kakashi sensei explains that there was poison on the blade that hit Naruto.

"You're bleeding too, (Name)." Naruto states.

Looking down at my left arm, I see a cut where blood is seeping out. Luckily, it's not deep.

'It must have happened when I was trying to protect Naruto.'

"It can't be helped, looks like we're going to have to go back to the village, so you two can get treated. We don't want the poison to spread." Kakashi explains.

"Wait, no we won't I could-"

I stop speaking as Naruto suddenly jabs a kunai in his hand where the cut is, forcefully removing the poison.

"Naruto! Why did you do that?! I could have healed you using my sutomi chakra." I scold him while beginning to wrap his injury.

"I'm fine (Name), you should heal your arm."

"You're right."

Finishing his bandage, I examine my arm. Placing my right hand over the cut, I begin to heal myself. The wound instantly closes up, making it seem as if the cut was never there.

"Well, that takes care of that." Kakashi says.

Bringing our attention back to the ninja from earlier, we tie them to a tree. Turns out they're chunin from the village Hidden in the Mist and were after Tazuna. Kakashi sensei begins to question Tazuna as to why he requested a C-rank mission, when this would be a B-rank or higher.

'With ninja coming after him, this mission will be like no other. It's too advanced for genin, but for some reason I know we can handle it.'

Continuing the journey, we still have to take a boat in order to actually reach the Land of Waves. While that happens, Tazuna carries on telling us about Gato, and how he doesn't want the bridge to be built.

Apparently, this Gato person used his wealth to control their transported shipping, enabling him to control everything. Including their finances, government and very lives. Which is why the completion of the bridge is so crucial to them.

'Well, that explains why he lied.'

Drifting through the heavy fog, we finally reach the pier, where we get a better look at the giant bridge. From there Kakashi sensei decides that we'll stay and protect Tazuna, even though it's not a part of our mission.

Soon after we begin following Tazuna, Naruto starts to throw random shuriken at a nearby bush. Claiming to have heard something. Going to see what it could've been, I push the bushes aside revealing a bunny with white fur. Naruto decides to pick up the bunny, but it immediately begins to struggle in his arms. Dropping the bunny, it immediately scrambles away.

"LOOK OUT!" Kakashi sensei suddenly yells at us.

Looking behind me, I see a huge sword flying through the air and headed straight at me. With no time to react Naruto pushes me down, enabling me to miss the blade by a few inches. Hearing a loud thud, we gaze up to find the sword that nearly killed me embedded deeply in the side of a tree.

A person appears standing on the hilt of the sword. His physique is tall and muscular, with black hair matching his dark eyes. Allowing a slight contrast to his light gray-ish colored skin. The surrounding air is still and quiet as we all stare at his sudden appearance. The silence is broken as soon as Kakashi states the name of this mysterious person.

"Zabuza Momochi..."