"Stay in the closet and don't come out. Do you understand, Mokou? Wait until I return." 

Father... Why did you always have me hide? Why did you always leave the house as if we were in danger? Why couldn't you tell me what was going on? 

Please. 

Stay with me.

Don't leave me. 

....Father! 

My eyes snap open and I find myself looking up at the ceiling of some room. I grunt a bit as I held my head after recalling a memory of my father hiding me in a closet of our home. 

"Oh, you're awake. Good." Yuuki was on the left side of me, sitting next to me as I lied in a futon. "Are you alright? You passed out after that ninja took away Zabuza." He recalls as I slowly sit myself up. 

"I'm fine..." I held my head while covering my eyes. "I didn't think I would use up so much energy on my fire power... I'll recover soon. I always do. Where are we?" 

"We're in the bridge builder's, Tazuna's house. I carried you the rest of the way and placed you in this futon, and haven't left your side until you were going to wake up. I was worried." 

"Worried?" I blinked with confusion while looking at him. 

"Yeah. You were out for a long time. For hours." 

"Hours? I didn't think I was asleep for that long. Anyway, where are the others?" I questioned and right on cue, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Tazuna walked in. 

"Finally awake. You gave us quite a scare." Tazuna said. 

"How are you feeling Mokou?!" Naruto rushed over. "You passed out after that ninja took Zabuza away!" 

"I'm fine, Naruto." I lightly smile/smirk at him. "Speaking of that ninja that took away Zabuza, did he seem a bit off to you guys?" I questioned. 

"What do you mean? He's a tracking ninja. What was off about him?" Sakura asked back. 

"Because of the weapons he used. You saw it too. He used needles, and he struck at the neck. There's a way to knock somebody and have them seem dead when you hit a certain part of the neck." I should know. I've done it myself with rouge ninjas. 

"She's right. Whoever that ninja was, wasn't a tracking ninja at all." Kakashi said. "Which means Zabuza is still alive. And he will come back." 

"WHAT?!" Sakura shouted and everyone's eyes widened with shock. All except for Yuuki and I. "What do we do, Sensei?!" 

"We train." 

"What!? It's a bit late for last minute training, sensei! Even you couldn't defeat Zabuza with your sharingan!" 

"But he isn't wrong. I think some more training would help us improve a bit." I shrug my shoulders. 

"Oh please! You couldn't fight Zabuza all on your own! You manage to break sensei out of the water prison!" 

"At least I did something." I began to glare. "Unlike you, I didn't stand around and act so scared. Hell, at least Sasuke and Naruto tried to stop Zabuza while you stood back and screamed, and act like a total damsel in distress!" 

"What did you say?! I was protecting the bridge builder!" She growled and glared back at me. 

"Like hell you were. You didn't move a muscle. You barked and whined like a sorry little bitch!" I growled louder, feeling my eyes glow. 

"What did you call me?!" 

"That's enough. Both of you! Calm down." Kakashi tells us both and Sakura puffs, then turns herself away from me with her arms folded. I do the same but scoff. "Mokou is right though. Training would be best. Then, all of you will be ready to face Zabuza again." 

"Good. Wake me when we're going to train. I'm still tired..." I lie back down on my futon and pull the covers over me.

"Hey! This isn't the time to be going back to sleep Mokou!" Sakura shouts at me and I pop my head out from the covers. 

"In case you weren't witnessing, I collapsed after using my last attack on Zabuza and it took a lot out of me. So I need to rest. Training should be good for you. For once you might be useful to the team." I smirk just to push her buttons. She growls and storms out the room and I could have swore I saw Sasuke smirk. 

"You said that on purpose, didn't you?" Yuuki looks at me and I nodded my head, followed by another smirk. But I really do need to rest... 

"Seriously Mokou." Kakashi sighed at me. 

"Am I not wrong?" I shrug my shoulders. After my nap I went outside with the rest of the team for our training to begin. Kakashi taught us about chakra control and how we can use it on surfaces. 

He demonstrated by focusing the chakra to his feet and using that chakra to walk up the tree, then hanging upside down on the branch.

Doing as he instructed, all of us sat down and focused on our chakra. I was the last to go so I know I got a handle on it. I could hear Sakura praising herself, Naruto screaming and grunting, and Sasuke grunting in frustration. 

'Got it.' I thought while opening my eyes. I stood up and walked up to the tree in front of me, and walked all the way to the top and stood on the branch. "Is this high enough? It's the very top!" I shouted below to everyone. 

"Woah! Way to go, Mokou!" Naruto shouted up while giving me a thumbs up. 

"Looks like Mokou has this all figured out. A fast learner." Kakashi comments. 

"Good job, Mokou!" Yuuki hollered up. Sasuke clicked his tongue and turned his head away out of jealously. I jumped down from the tree and landed beside Yuuki then stretched my arms. 

"I'm heading inside. I'm done here." I said to Kakashi and went inside with Yuuki following me. At dinner, Naruto and Sasuke were at each other's throats, trying to be better than one another. 

I didn't pay any mind to this because this team is already a wreck and lack teamwork. Not only that, a small boy who happens to be Tazuna's grandson, hates ninjas. But I don't pay mind to that either. 

I'm more concerned about Zabuza and that fake tracking ninja... And also this Fire Flower I keep hearing about. This is the second time I'm hearing about it. It's suppose to be some poetic phrase and for some odd reason I know about it. Well, hardly. But I know I've heard of it somewhere before... 

Where have I heard of this before? This is going to be a long mission... 

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