Chapter 108 - 8

Chapter 8: Zabuza's Death, RecoveryAfterwards, Kakashi carried Zabuza and placed him next to Haku's body.Haku's body lay quietly on the cold stone slabs of the bridge.His delicate face was stained with blood and dust, and his long black hair was stirred by the wind, gently brushing against his closed eyelids.If not for the shocking, piercing wound in his chest, he would have looked just like he was asleep.Zabuza lay beside Haku, watching for a long time.No one knew what he saw on that face.His gaze went from initial ferocity, to numbness, and then to something shattered that could never be pieced back together.Then, Zabuza slowly closed his eyes.Kakashi stood to the side, not saying a word from beginning to end.Naruto stood in the distance, watching this scene.He did not walk over to look, nor did he say anything.Just then, Sakura's surprised voice broke the silence."Sasuke?"Sakura had been guarding Sasuke's side, holding his hand with one hand, while the other kept wiping the tears from her face.Just a moment ago, she felt the hand in her palm move.She looked down abruptly, right as Sasuke's eyes slowly opened.Sasuke was awake.His consciousness was clearly still in a state of confusion.His vision blurred and wavered, and the first thing that came into view was a patch of pink hair, then Sakura with her tear-stained face, and then the gray sky above.He tried to move his body, but the senbon wounds all over him flared with intense pain, causing him to grunt and furrow his brows tightly."Sasuke, you're awake, don't move, you're covered in wounds..."Before Sakura could finish her sentence, her body had already moved before her brain.She threw herself forward, wrapping her arms tightly around Sasuke's neck, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder, tears gushing out like a floodgate had opened.She hugged him very hard, as if trying to drag Sasuke back from the gates of the Shinigami.Sasuke was jostled by this hug, and all his wounds protested, making him wince in pain."Sakura, let go first, it hurts..."He squeezed out a few words in a hoarse voice.In an instant, Sakura cried even louder.Seeing that Sasuke had woken up, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.The sunlight on the bridge finally pierced through the last layer of mist.The surface of the sea sparkled, and flocks of seagulls flew up from the reefs, circling and crying around the bridge piers.In the distance, on the coastline of the Land of Waves, townspeople had already begun to gather toward the bridge, holding tools and materials, eager to finish building this bridge that connected hope.Kakashi hoisted Zabuza and Haku's bodies onto his shoulders respectively: "I'm going to find a place to bury them..."After saying this, Kakashi disappeared with a Body Flicker technique in the direction of the woods at the end of the bridge.Naruto withdrew his gaze and walked toward Sasuke and Sakura.He looked down at Sasuke's condition. Most of the senbon stuck in his body had been carefully removed by Sakura, and the wounds had been simply bandaged to stop the bleeding. Although his face was frighteningly pale, his breathing had stabilized significantly."Can you move?"Naruto asked.Sasuke looked up at Naruto, his eyes filled with something complex.He remembered the last scene he saw before losing consciousness: the terrifying red Chakra that had erupted from Naruto.And at that time, Naruto was so calm he seemed like a different person. His eyes lacked their usual liveliness and noisiness, replaced by a composure he had never seen on this Loser before."Obviously..."Sasuke gritted his teeth, using his uninjured arm to prop himself up off the ground, trying to stand up on his own.Sakura hurriedly supported Sasuke's other shoulder, placing his arm over her own."Let's go back to Tazuna's house to rest first.""In your current state, let alone fighting, you can't even stand steadily."Sasuke wanted to retort, but his body was truly uncooperative. In the end, he could only grimace, letting Sakura support him as he limped toward Tazuna's house.Along the way, Sasuke and Sakura looked at Narutofrom time to time.Is this the Naruto they knew?The Naruto from before always walked with a bounce in his step, constantly chattering about nonsense like "I'm going to be Hokage." The expressions on his face were always exaggerated to the point of being annoying; he was either grinning foolishly or shouting, and he would feel uncomfortable if he was quiet for more than three minutes.But the Naruto walking in front of them now had a steady pace, his back straight, his golden hair swaying gently in the sunlight with the rhythm of his walk, like a quiet flame.He didn't speak, nor did he look back. He just subconsciously steered around a bumpy section of the road, then slightly turned his head to check behind him, confirming Sasuke was following, before continuing forward.This subtle action made Sasuke's brows furrow even deeper.It wasn't that he hadn't seen Naruto being serious before; during battles, this Loser would occasionally erupt with surprising seriousness.But that kind of seriousness was completely different from the current calmness.The seriousness during battle was a burning state, like ignited gunpowder.But the current calmness was more like a bottomless body of water, undisturbed on the surface, but hiding things unseen underneath.Sakura's feeling was more intuitive.She supported Sasuke the whole way, sneaking glances at Naruto no less than ten times.This Naruto, who was always hovering around her, shouting "Sakura-chan, I like you!" at the drop of a hat, hadn't even looked her in the eye since just now.It wasn't the kind where he was intentionally ignoring her, but rather, how should she put it, it was like he was looking at someone he knew but wasn't close with.This feeling made her a bit panicked, but she couldn't say where the panic was coming from.Naruto didn't explain anything, just gave them a slight smile when they looked over again.Then he turned his head back and continued walking forward.Without Gato and Zabuza's interference, the next day, Tazuna took the workers from the town and devoted himself to the construction of the bridge with all his might.The sounds of hammers striking nails, the sound of sawing wood, and the workers chanting as they hauled stone materials drifted from the town's wharf from afar, mixed with the sea breeze and waves, like a brisk work song.Everyone's face wore a long-lost smile; this bridge was something they had protected with their own hands and courage.Kakashi returned to Tazuna's house that evening.He found a quiet place deep in the woods, with his back to a cliff and facing the sea, and personally dug two pits to bury Zabuza and Haku together."Naruto, Sakura, protecting Tazuna for this period of time is left to you..."After Kakashi finished speaking, he walked to a corner, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to recover his Chakra.The multiple duels with Zabuza, the use of Lightning Blade and the Sharingan, plus the exhaustion from the successive battles, had pushed Kakashi's Chakralevels to the limit of his body's endurance.The Sharingan had long since been covered by his headband again; every little bit of Chakra saved helped.Kakashi entrusted the task of protecting Tazuna and overseeing the bridge construction to Naruto and Sakura, having them take turns on guard duty to ensure that no short-sighted guy would try to take advantage of the situation.