Child of the Moon

When Demons Fall

"Did quite a job on you, didn't they, Zabuza?" Gato sneered, backed up by scores of armed men. "You look like yesterday's sashimi. I must say, I'm... disappointed."

"Gato?" Zabuza questioned, limply turning to face the group. "I don't understand, what is all this?"

"You've been discarded," Tsukiko said, one eye glowing red, the other dull and green. "You've become a broken tool, and he thinks to kill us in our weakened state through sheer numbers."

Gato chuckled darkly. "Yes, you see, there's been a slight change in plans."

He struck the ground with his cane, sneering at the bloody ninja. "According to the new plan, you die on this bridge, Zabuza."

"What?"

"That's right," Gato continued. "You're too expensive, so I've decided to take you off the payroll. Of course, even these thugs cost something, so if you could manage to slaughter a few of them while they take you down, I'd appreciate it. Think you could manage that? Demon Ninja of the Mist?"

He chortled, sneering at Zabuza as he degraded the once-proud ninja.

"Look at you," he sneered. "You look about as demonic as a wet kitten."

The thugs burst out laughing, and Tsukiko walked forward, emotionless and almost mechanical. She lightly placed one hand on Zabuza's shoulder, causing him to turn sharply to glare at her, but found himself staring into those mismatched eyes and realised that the person looking back wasn't the person he fought at the start of it all. The person looking back at him was all rage and madness.

She stepped slightly past him, watching Gato with that blank stare.

"Well, well, Kakashi," Zabuza said, his gaze moving from the blonde kunoichi to Gato. "It seems that Tazuna is now safe from me. We have no quarrel."

"Yeah... I suppose you're right..." Kakashi's eyes were fixed on Tsukiko's back. He tried communicating with her, but she didn't seem aware of him. He was becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of blood pooling at her feet.

Gato walked forward, coming to a stop near Haku's corpse.

"That reminds me," he sneered. "You little punk! You grabbed me and nearly broke my arm! I've been meaning to repay you for that."

He lifted his foot, and kicked the dead shinobi's face, sneering as he jabbed his cane roughly into the boy's cheek. All the while, Tsukiko silently walked forward, a bloody trail behind her.

"Get away!" Naruto screamed. "Get away from him you scum!"

Kakashi caught the boy, holding him back before he got himself killed.

"What about you Zabuza?" Naruto demanded. "You gonna let him do that?"

"Be quiet you fool," Zabuza snapped. "Haku's dead, what does it matter?"

"What?"

While they had a small back and forth argument, Kakashi was able to get a response from Tsukiko. She continued to advance towards the dead boy, though she didn't seem aware of it.

"Tsukiko?"

"Kakashi? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, but you're going to bleed out."

"That doesn't seem good..."

"Tsukiko?"

Naruto tossed Zabuza a kunai, which he caught in his teeth.

"About time, Zabuza," a malicious voice spoke inside his mind, causing him to pause momentarily. "Show them the Demon of the Mist. The Undying Demon will follow in your shadow."

Not knowing, or caring who or what that was, Zabuza charged forward. In a panic, Gato fell over himself to get away, yelling for the thugs to kill Zabuza and the bloody kunoichi in his shadow with the glowing red eyes.

As he charged through, he cut and killed most of those in his path, with Tsukiko shadowing him. She managed to wrest a sword from one of her victims, before brutally dismembering him with clumsy swings. Someone managed to drive a spear into Zabuza's back, but he was driven by the same willpower that had allowed him to break free of Tsukiko's control, and not even pain would stop him. Someone managed to slash Tsukiko's arm, and she immediately hacked him apart with the stolen sword, a mad grin plastered on her face as men scattered before her.

She felt nothing.

Zabuza reached his target, killing Gato, but sustaining injuries that would take his life for sure. Tsukiko's attackers had fallen back, as she stood in the middle of a gory mess and watched them with red eyes filled with hate and fury.

They dropped their weapons and parted before the half-dead shinobi, while the bloody kunoichi watched the proceedings. She turned her attention on the thugs, as Sakura called out Sasuke's survival, Zabuza having fallen and partially succumbed to his injuries. Despite it all, it seemed they were still agitating for a fight. The villagers had arrived and declared their refusal to allow the pillaging that the thugs thought they'd be able to pull off, what with all real threats being half-dead looking shinobi. Kakashi had used so much chakra, that he was positively exhausted. Naruto was the same way, and Sasuke was still recovering from his pseudo-death. Several quick hand signs allowed her to employ a technique on these... Feeble-minded thugs.

"You seem to think you're in a position of strength, even with the villagers denying you," she said. "Perhaps it's time you learn why the name Nightmare Tsukiko is feared."

Her mind technique linked her to each of the thugs, and she used her nightmare technique. Before long, they were running from imagined demons and wetting themselves due to perceived horrors.

"Kakashi."

"Who-"

"Catch."

Kakashi almost didn't make it in time, to catch the fainting Kunoichi. When her eyes opened, they were her usual green, dazed and confused.

"Kakashi?" she coughed, before groaning.

"Sis!" Naruto cried out, running over to them.

"Sounds like it's over," Zabuza croaked from nearby.

"Kakashi, what happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"Oh hell, what happened?!"

"Yeah," Kakashi said to the prone ninja, as Sakura and Sasuke joined Kakashi and Naruto with Tsukiko. Sakura was immediately tasked with stopping the bleeding and the boys were to help as much as they were able, while Kakashi spoke with the dying rogue ninja.

Everyone watched in silence as Kakashi picked up the former Mist ninja, and carried him to his dead partner, the genin sitting next to Tsukiko's prone form. Tears welled in her eyes, as she heard his dying thoughts, and sensed his affection for the boy.

Once Zabuza was laid down, he came back for her, the genin parting quietly as he scooped her up.

"I thought so," she murmured, her own consciousness fading. "I thought I sensed... a light inside him..."

Her eyes drifted closed, Kakashi's heartbeat in her ear, and snow drifting gently onto her face as sunlight burst from the clouds.