The White Flash

Oka-san's Old Friend

Ayumi was lulled awake by an array of voices, all familiar. "So, what's going on, Sensei?"

What happened? Ayumi thought, shifting in her blanket; her body was sore, limbs stinging. One lid peeked open, her hand rested by her head, from her wrist down the length of her arm was wrapped in bandages. Her mind raced with images of her fight with Zabuza before coming to an abrupt stop laying in a tree. That's right! "Papa!" Ayumi threw herself up. The room turned in a rush, her torso swaying.

"Settle down, I'm alright." A gentle hand moved beneath her hair, resting on her neck. She followed the long sleeve to her father's covered face. "You're alright."

"Don't worry, Ayumi-chan." She turned to Hiro, sitting a few feet from her bed next to Naruto. "Zabuza-san was defeated."

"I'm not sure about that," Kakashi said, his hand left Ayumi's neck. She looked at their current surroundings; Sasuke, Hiro, Sakura, Naruto, and Tazuna were all present along with a woman with long blue hair. She looked around the standard room, finding Kohei dead asleep in the far back corner. "To continue my earlier story, Trackers take care of the bodies of people they've killed, immediately and on the spot."

"So, what about it?" Sakura questioned.

"What did that kid with the mask do with Zabuza?"

Kid? Mask? The white mask and red design popped into her mind. She turned, "I saw that kid! When I was fighting Zabuza, I transported to the wrong kunai-the one he threw into the forest." She raised one hand to her neck, "something was happening when I was in the forest. It felt like... a worm was crawling underneath my skin. I started getting stronger, but before I could get back that kid hit me with something that zapped all of my strength."

"He got you with senbon," Hiro informed. "Kohei said that the two places he aimed for were pressure points to bring sleep, called the Wind Pool."

"You guys found me?" She questioned. Her hand fell back to her lap, "oh right, how did you guys find me?"

"The Tracker Ninja told us where he left you. You were in the trees above all of the damage of Kakashi-sensei's and Zabuza-san's fight. Other than those pressure points, the only wounds Kohei found were the ones you got from fighting Zabuza-san."

"He said that he couldn't let me return in the state I was in." Ayumi shifted her gaze to her father, "why would he try to help me?"

"I think that kid works with Zabuza," Kakashi revealed. "There is no doubting that kid is from Kirigakure, it's possible that he knows of Yachiru. Zabuza and Yachiru were close so it's not impossible that the kid would assume Zabuza would want to keep you alive and kill the rest of us."

"What have you guys been clamoring on and on about?" Tazuna questioned.

"It's probably that Zabuza is alive."

"What the heck do you mean?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"But Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, "you made sure he was dead!"

"It's true, I did make sure. But he was probably just in a state of near-death. The senbon that Tracker Ninja used has a very low ability to kill unless it hits a vital spot. First, he went to the trouble of taking Zabuza's corpse which was probably heavier than he is. Second, he used a senbon, a weapon with a low ability to kill. Third, the only one of us he tried to spare was the daughter of Zabuza's friend. From these three factors, I can conclude that this boy knows Zabuza and as such he wasn't trying to kill him but save him."

"Aren't you reading too much into it?" Tazuna questioned.

"No," Kakashi declined, "if something seems fishy, make preparations before it's too late. That's an iron-clad rule of the shinobi."