Chapter 19:

Yakunan's POV

I fell back, breathing heavily and looked at the poor tree. It looked like it was about to fall over, and held a large dent in its side. I smiled triumphantly. Suddenly, a bird began to chirp obnoxiously. Then a round of other birds began to sings annoyingly along with it. For the first time all night, I looked at the sky to see the sun was fairly shining through clouds. It looked about nine or so, maybe even ten.

'I wonder what everyone else is doing...' I thought to myself. Then I realized something. 'Where has Crimson and Pure been this whole time... I haven't heard from them in a while...'

'We're still here,' I heard Crimson's voice faintly in my mind. 'We were just sleeping for a while, replenishing our chakra. By all means, don't talk to us, it was nice when it was silent.' I rolled my eyes at her comment.

'Maybe you should go back to your team, Ya-chan. I mean, this would be a good chance to show that you won't do any reckless moves.' Pure advised.

I sighed, 'that would be a good idea, but after I had that outburst last night, there maybe alot of unwanted questions and I don't wanna--' I froze. Something wasn't right. I undid my hiding jutsu and sniffed the air, staying myself on high alert.

Suddenly, two strange scents went were coming at me, and in the direction of Waves. I quickly hid in a bush nearby, and pressed my ears against my head and my tail against my body. My hairs were standing up like sticks and my heart was beating faster by the second.

The two men came to a sudden stop in from to of ny hiding place. They both had weapons and each carried the faint, yet certain, scent of Gato. "Hey, look-a this!" One called to the other.

"What? We need to get to the old guy's house. What are you looking at?!" The other said. The first motioned the second over to my tree that I was demolishing moments earlier. "Wow, what could-a made that?" The second stood amazed at the debris of my rage and boredom.

"I dunno, but feel it." The first pressed the back of his hand against the wood. "Its still warm, that means that this was done a few minutes ago."

"That's fine. But what's so good about that?" The second asked.

"You idiot!" The first scolded, hitting him upside his head. The second one rubbed the back of his head, frowning. "If this is warm, the the thing that did this was just here. In order for it to make it this bid then it must be big!! And if it's big then--"

"THEN WE CAN EAT IT!!" The second one cheered, triumphantly. The first one nodded, understandingly.

"Now, go find it so that we can cook it after Gato has us do this thing about Zabuza." The first one said, shooing the second away and looking himself for my location. Once both their back were turned, I booked it, jumping out of my hiding place and away from here. I applied unsteady chakra into my steps. As I was running, I winced and fell down, from lack of chakra. I kept running on foot, ignoring all the pain I received from it. I heard the men catching up to me, then one of them grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me in the air, right in their face.

"Look-a this. It's a person with doggie ears and tails." The first one said. "Is it human? Can we eat it?" No, no you can't. That'd be cannibalism.

"I guess, since it technically looks like-a dog." The second one said, and my blood ran cold. I growled lowly at them.

"LET ME GO!" I commanded, thrashing around, trying to get out of the man's hold, but that only tightened his grip.

"Oh it does talk! Let's just tie it up and take it back to base. Iroh is a butcher, we'll ask him to prepare it for us." The second recommended. My eyebrow twitched.

"I. AM. HUMAN!!!!!" I screamed and brought my legs up against the first man's chest, forcibly pushing myself away from his hold. I fell down on my back, still breathing heavily. "YOU CAN'T EAT ME, YOU IDIOTS!!" I growled at the men.

"Oh look, it's feisty. How about we find a boar or something to bring back and take this one to Gato. He might find some use for it." The first one suggested sickly. The second nodded in agreement and they both began to close in on me.

'Some help, please!' I asked Crimson and Pure frantically. They both groaned and said things about how I should handle my own problems or something. 'JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN CHAKRA!!' I screamed. They both huffed but gave it to me anyway.

With the newfound energy, I concentrated chakra into my feet and shot up in the trees. From there I ran at top speed to the bridge that Tazuna was making. I didn't want to go to Tazuna's house because that's where those two men were headed. I needed a place to drag them away from the house, so the bridge it is.

Suddenly, I could smell two new scents on my way to the bridge. I stopped on a tree and hid myself. The two men broke off from my trail, so I was fine for a while. But in the village was different. The bridge had four familiar scents and two old ones. I could smell Tazuna, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke. But there also was two enemy scents: Zabuza and Haku. They were going to fight.

I cursed to myself and ran to the bridge, tracing their scents. Eventually, I got to the bridge and ran to my team. The once partly sunny atmosphere was cold and misty. The outline of my teammates came into my fields of vision. Tazuna and my team was facing off with Zabuza and Haku, Zabuza had four or so water clones standing by him. I ran up to Kakashi to join him.

"Good timing, Yakunan," Kakashi praised. I nodded and glared at Zabuza.

"Oh look, the little doggie decided to play with us." Zabuza teased. "I'm gonna have fun with you. I may just have to finish you instead of bring you to Gato."

"Over my dead body." I replied coolly.

"That can be arranged," Zabuza replied and I growled threateningly.

'Are you guys ready to be summoned?' I asked.

'Yes, but do you have enough chakra to do it?' Pure responded. I didn't have that much, so I'll be kind of useless in battle, but I think I can manage for myself.

'Yeah, don't worry,' I replied. I began to do the hands signs.

"DEMONIC SUMMONING JUTSU!!" I shouted. A large poof was sounded and then Crimson appeared. She was as tall as Kakashi, and was armed with her red and black katanas. Her black ears twitched and her tail swung excitedly. She was in a fighting stance and was her eyes looked hard and determined, ready for a fight.

"Hurry up and summon Pure." She commanded. I nodded and did the hand signs again.

"ANGELIC SUMMONING JUTSU!!" I cried once more. A large poof sounded again, this time bringing Crimson's twin and partner in crime, Pure. She was just as tall as Crimson, and was armed ready with senbon needles. Her long black and white braids were twisting down her backside. Her baby blue eyes were a bit timid looking, but if you knew her as well as I did, then you'd realize that it she was just holding back her trump card, Tainted. Her black and white wings were folded behind her back, nodded from view if you were directly in front of her. Her white ears were folded downwards and her tail was touching the ground.

"Oh look, you brought both your dolls out to play, huh?" Zabuza taunted. I glared at him, about to counter, but I fell into a coughing fit.

Pure immediately took action and began to heal my chest. "Maybe you should sit out of this one," she advised.

"No, no. I'm okay." I replied, standing straight.

"If you say so, do you want me to give you some of my chakra?" She asked.

"No, its fine. You'll need it to fight." I argued.

"I'll sit in the back and heal everyone," She retorted. "If you're not healthy then that doesn't help us any, anyway." I sighed and stopped arguing with her. Then, a large amount of chakra could be felt throughout my body, making me feel way stronger than before. I thanked Pure and turned to the problem at hand.

"Let's get them over with now," I said.

Zabuza scoffed. "How are you and your pity party going to stop me? Even that one over there is trembling in fear!" He motioned to Sasuke, who smirked.

"I'm trembling... With excitement!" He replied.

"Go, Sasuke," Kakashi said, giving Sasuke permission to fight.

Sasuke ran up to the clones and slashed at them quickly, turning them into water. It was a improvement in speed then before, which was nice I guess. A minute later, they were all gone, leaving only puddles of water and a proudly smirking Duckbutt.

"Hmph, look at that, the brats improving. Looks like you got a rival, eh Haku. I'll take on doggie and the Copy Cat, they're more in my league." Zabuza got ready, and positioned himself in a fighting stance.

"Crimson, you and Kakashi fight Zabuza. I'll back up Sasuke. Pure, can you stay behind and heal all injuries and protect the bridge builder?" I gave the orders to the demon and angel. Crimson grinned, revealing her canines and Pure smiled softly.

"You know me so well, Yakunan! Letting me be in the actual battle! Just for that, I won't kill your teammates this time!" Crimson approved and I rolled my eyes.

"I can heal, but be wary of Haku. You know how he fights. If something happens then I'm stepping in--" Pure began to worry.

I interuppted her. "That won't be necessary, I know what to do. Plus, you're the medic, if you get hurt then we can't get healed. You know that."

Pure eyed me carefully. "Fine, but be careful."

"I will." I replied.

I turned my attention to Sasuke and Haku. They were both at standstill. Blocking each other with a kunai and senbon needles. Then, Haku started doing hand signs with one hand.

'Here it comes. With all that training Kakashi taught them, he should be able to dodge this.' I thought, critically. As expected, a thousand ice senbon needles arose from the water surrounding them and pointed at Sasuke. As they rained down, Sasuke jumped away, successfully dodging it. He skidded and splashed into a large puddle, away from Haku and the senbons.

Sasuke takes the chance to throw a kunai at Haku, making him fall to the ground, to dodge it. While he was on the ground, Sasuke kicked Haku in the air, and to Zabuza. Zabuza stood there, surprised at Haku, but quickly hid it.

"What's wrong, Zabuza?" I asked, mockingly. "Realizing that you're gonna lose?"

"You thought you were quicker, but you were wrong," Sasuke said. "I wonder what else you're wrong about."

"You really did make a big mistake insulting these ninjas. That only brings out Sasuke's attitude. He's the best young ninja in all of Konoha. And there's Sakura, who is the sharpest mind out of them. And we have Yakunan, who is powerful enough to bring you down. And finally we have the hyperactive, knucklehead ninja, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Zabuza turned to scolded Haku. "If you don't hurry up, we'll end up the victim! Get a move on!!"

"Yes, Zabuza," Haku obeyed, getting up. He did a series of hand signs and then said. "Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!" A wave of energy burst from him, the water on the ground quickly began to rise, and solidify into ice. The sheets of ice formed a dome around Sasuke, who was looking incredibly confused.

'Here it is,' I thought to myself. I turned to Pure and nodded to her, showing that I was going. I ran outside the dome and began to attack.

"Sasuke! You need to get out of there!" I called to him. He turned to me, not paying attention to Haku and Haku formed in the mirrors, and shot senbons at him. Sasuke yelled at the sudden pain, and tried to take out the senbons.

"What's the point in taking it out--" he said, his image now all over the sheets. Each one bearing senbons. "--when even more are coming?" He finished, as he threw the senbons at Sasuke. Sasuke yelled again, and looked around for a possible exit. "Nobody has ever been in this jutsu and made it out alive." Haku stated. "Except for Yakunan, off course. But that was luck, and it could not be done a second time. Not to mention this is a whole new upgrade since then." I glared at him as he kept stabbing Sasuke with senbons. He was right, I had escaped this jutsu once, but it barely even could be counted as escaping, though.

*-* FLASHBACK *-*

Young Yakunan was about 7 and a half, and she was being held captive by Gato. Someone came up to her cage, and peered at her through the bars.

"Who is this, Zabuza-sama?" The young boy asked. He was about the same height as me and held a very innocent look on his face.

"This is a demon being held by Gato." Zabuza replied. The looked up thoughtfully. "You know, this would be a great way to get practice on your Kekkei Genkai, Haku. I want you to practice your Crystal Ice Mirrors on it." Zabuza commanded. He had a guard unlock the cage and Haku stepped in. Young Yakunan was in the corner, her head in her knees, chained up, and barely paying attention to her surroundings.

"GET UP DEMON!" The guard outside ordered, threateningly. Shakily, the girl stood, revealing her face. It was very dirty and hand many cuts and bruised on it. Her hair was a mess and her ears and tail were exposed, but they too were extremely dirty. The girl was also dangerously skinny from malnutrition. She wore a dirty gray shirt with blood stains on it here and there and shorts. Both articles of clothing were raggedy and a few sizes too big. The only colorful piece of clothing that she had was a red scarf, but it was also just as raggedy as her other clothing. She brought her head up and looked at the boy in front of her.

Haku gasped at the sight of her. "Zabuza-sama, this girl is hurt!" Haku cried, naïvely.

Zabuza rolled his eyes. "It's a prisoner. It's gonna get a few cuts and scrapes. Now hurry up, I don't have all day Haku!" Zabuza said impatiently.

Haku sighed and looked at the weary girl, pitifully. "I'm sorry." He whispered quietly, so that only he and her could hear. He did preformed the Crystal Ice Mirror jutsu and practiced it on Yakunan, and felt terribly sorry for each time he had hurt her.

*-* FLASHBACK OVER *-*

I shook my head of the flashback and got ready to attack the mirrors. "FIRE STYLE: GREAT FIREBALL JUTSU!" I cried, aiming the attack at the dome. The ice barely any difference.

I began to try again, using a different jutsu, but suddenly Haku's image came before me. "I need to eliminate you too." He said. Suddenly, the water at my feet turned to ice, and made me slip and fall down in front of the dome. Haku's ice moved and quickly flew inside the dome, right next to Sasuke before completely turning into water again, dropping me on the ground.

"What are you doing in here?! I thought you were attacking from the outside!" Sasuke glared.

"I though that it'd look like fun to be stabbed repentantly by senbons so I magically floated the ice inside so that I could get impaled too!" I replied, sarcasm laced in my words. Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned to Haku, who was in the image before us. I could tell he was trying to formulate a plan to get us out, but it wasn't working.

Another round of senbons came at us from all around, making it impossible to escape.

'Yakunan! What's going on? Do I need to--' Pure said in my mind

'No! Keep back up with Crimson and Kakashi. They are your first priority, I'll handle us in here.' I commanded, as I sucked in my teeth when 10 or so senbons attached themselves to my skin.

Sasuke started making hand signs for a fire style jutsu. "Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" He yelled, exhausting fire from his mouth, and hitting the ice. A wall of smoke was created from the fire hitting the ice. After the smoke cleared, all that could be seen was the ice wall, still completely in tact.

Sasuke scowled frustrated. "Do you really think that one measly fireball would break my ice?" Haku taunted, sending another row of senbons. I brought out a kunai and blocked as many as possible. This process kept repeating for about ten minutes until a loud poof could be heard from outside the dome.

Through the cracks of the dome, a cloud of smoke was seen before revealing a boy that I knew all to well...

"UZUMAKI NARUTO HAS ARRIVED TO DEFEAT ALL THE BAD GUYS!!" A voice called out, announcing his position. My eye twitched as I looked at the twelve year old. Is this guys serious...? At least now he can attack from the outside... Then again, if he did Haku might just drag him inside as he did me.

There was a sound of a weapon being deflected and Zabuza and Haku talking. After a few minutes, Zabuza went back to his battle with Crimson and Kakashi. Haku turned back to us, getting ready to strike. I smelt a new presence next to me, and I turned around to be face to face, with a idiotic Naruto.

"Hey guys, I came to help you out!" He said with a smile.

"You idiot!! You were supposed to attack from the outside!" Sasuke yelled at him.

"How was I supposed to know that!!" Naruto argued back.

As the boys were arguing, I continued to deflect the weapons coming at us. "BOYS!" I called back, making their heads turn to me. "You can play house later, right now, we need a plan to get out of this dome," I told them. They both nodded, ignoring my insult, and turned to the enemy at hand-- Haku.

We need a way to melt the ice. Maybe if Sasuke and I combined out jutsus.

'Pure, I need your fans.' I called to her. She nodded, and summoned my fans for me, making plain white medium sized fan appear in my hands. It had a black handle and white inside with a feather pattern on them. The other one was the exact opposite, white handle and black paper.

"Sasuke," I said, he turned his head giving me his attention. "On my mark, do the strongest fire style jutsu you know." He nodded and I got into position. I waited, twitching my ears for the right moment. "NOW!"

"FIRE STYLE: GRAND FIRE BALL JUTSU!!" Sasuke said, exhausting fire.

"WIND STYLE: BLADE OF WIND HURRICANE!" I said synchronizing with his fireball, making it stronger. The enhanced fire hit the ice, melting about 1/4th of it. Sasuke almost fell from such a withdraw of chakra, I helped him steady, watching the ice as it formed back.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10... Ten seconds. That's how long it takes for it to regenerate itself. I looked at Sasuke, who was breathing heavily. With the senbons coming at him and trying to perform such a high jutsu, it'd be dangerous for him to repeat it. Naruto was also getting scratches, and he didn't know any fire style jutsus.

"That's it! I'm getting us outta here!" Naruto said, making hand signs. "Shadow clone jutsu!!" He created about ten shadow clones and shot them at the mirrors. Haku dispersed them with no effort and shot more senbons at us in return.

"Don't waste your chakra, Naruto!" I scolded him, only to get ignored. Think, just think. Naruto's too much of an idiot to conserve his chakra, Sasuke cannot use big moves like that again, and I have alot of chakra, but almost no intelligence on fire style moves. "Sasuke. What are the hand signs for the grand fireball?"

"Snake. Sheep. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger." He replied. (Don't know if this is correct, so please tell me.) I nodded and stepped up to the ice mirror, deflecting as many senbons as I could whole doing so.

"I'm going to escape. If you can, try to follow, if not then don't die. I'll attack from the outside. Good luck." I said, while doing the hand signs from the jutsu that Sasuke told me. "Fire style: Grand Fire Ball Jutsu!" I shouted, creating a fireball about half the size of Sasuke's. "WIND STYLE: GREAT BLADE OF WIND HURRICANE!!" This made the fire ball 3x as powerful, creating a hole about three feet tall. I ran up and slide under it, using the water on the bottom to get farther. I turned around, looking at the hole that just closed up, and smirked.

I turned to the battle with Crimson and Kakashi. Crimson was neck to neck with him while Kakashi was getting healed by Pure. Zabuza looked at me and glared. He jumped away from Crimson and in front of me. He slashed at my body, but I jumped far away, backwards and Zabuza smirked.

"YAKUNAN, NO!" Crimson screamed. I looked down to see that I was far over the railing for the bridge and was fast approaching the water beneath. My scarf unraveled in the wind and flew back unto the bridge, snagging the rail. I tried to grab hold of it, but at the last second, I plummeted, hitting the ice cold water face first.

I sunk deeper under the water, struggling for breath. This wouldn't be a bad problem for me, except for one little thing.

I can't swim.