Demons Thoughts/Speech

Human thoughts

Dreams

After the tracker's ninja's declaration of helping Zabuza fulfill his purpose, he retreated back into one of the mirrors, preparing for another wave of senbon. Tei was the first to react, though not by much and was able to push Hinata out of the way along with dodging the needles herself. But one problem is that the enemy seemed to have complete control over the mirrors and shuffled them around, causing the space between them to dwindle until there was only a little narrow hallway of space left. Tei growled at the tracker, baring her teeth while waiting for the next move. While they were now cornered there wasn't much their enemy could do either, Haku would have to come out to properly finish them off.

"Hinata, can you move at all? We need to get ready, he can't take us both out! If we play this right, one of us can get free and end this." Tei muttered softly, taking care to speak so Haku would be able to hear.

The ex-Hyuuga nodded once, showing she heard but at the same time she was looking at all the mirrors, her eyes narrowing a bit. "If he can move them, what can we do so we won't be chased? What if something happens?"

Tei huffed softly, that little snag putting a hole in her plan but she shook her head, trying to seem brave in front of her friend. "There's two of us and only one of him. Even with they can move, he would probably have to focus his energy on them. That's why we need to split up! But we have to be careful, there's no telling how damage we can endure before going down, we have to be smart!"

"Yeah, gotcha!" Hinata nodded, looking more sure and determined to end this fight. With a just a second of hesitation, the pair split off, going in opposite directions and getting a boost of hope when Haku seemed to just be charging after Hinata before cutting her off. That is until a second image of the tracking ninja showed up right beside Tei, running alongside her through the mirrors until he threw a volley of senbon at the red/brown haired girl's shoulder, sending the same jolt of pain to Hinata until she too was stabbed in the leg. The mirrors then shuffled again, widening back out into a dome shape where multiple copies of Haku covered every mirror.

Hinata and Tei backed tracked until they they were back to back, Hinata giving a nervous smile as she looked over the numerous copies facing them. "Well, shit. Got any other ideas, Tei?"

-Break-

Though it was very hard, Anko could just make out the dome of mirrors surrounding her two female students and wanted to go to them but Zabuza chose to leap out from the mists, forcing her back. Even sending Naruto would be tricky as that would leave Tazuna defenseless. Gritting her teeth, the snake jonin would just have to settle matters here quickly in order to help the rest of her team. As she nimbly dodged again Zabuza's strikes, she tried to look over at the dome but the Demon of the Mist constantly kept her attention.

Scowling, Anko pulled out her dirk from her first fight with Zabuza and charged at him, cutting into his side but also getting slashed in he shoulder as she pulled away. Looking at the wound, Anko snorted but shrugged it off, getting back into things and snarling. She would make Zabuza pay for that, one thousand times over.

With Naruto, he stood bravely guarding Tazuna, even moving him some distance from the battle so the bridge-builder wouldn't get hurt. He gripped his kunai tight, trying to stop his hands from shaking but it wasn't from nervousness, at least not for himself, he prayed his comrades would be okay, especially Tei and Hinata. He knew that their trainign made them all stronger, better prepared but they still couldn't find a counter to the girls' condition. While he wanted to think the girls would come out of it with no harm, the blonde wasn't stupid and only hoped they come back to him alive. But until then, he had to protect Tazuna, he had to do his part with completing the mission as well as helping the old man with his dream!

-Break-

Tei and Hinata had tried multiple times to break the barrier, only to receive a hail of senbon for their troubles. While Tei was able to remain standing, Hinata was forced to one knee, breathing hard. While they shared each other's pain and it definitely slowed them up, Hinata seemed the worse off of the two and she knew it. Scowling softly, she shakily got to her feet and growled, staring at a natural break in the barrier.

"Alright Tei, let's try this one more time! I have a good feeling about this one, let's go!"

Tei gave her companion a slight smile, steeling herself and nodding, though she saw how tired Hinata was and even though she felt the same, she hoped the other girl knew what she was doing. She couldn't pull any stupid moves, she just couldn't. Still, she allowed to proceed, feeling that Hinata knew what she was doing.

As the two split up once again, Haku had started growing wary of the battle, he wanted to put an end to this battle to help Zabuza's purpose. Arming himself, he called back the mirror images, leaving only the real him and chased after the stronger Tei, who had her back turned to him. Hinata saw this and her eyes widened, Tei was faster than her and had neraly reached the edge, she was forgetting herself and didn't watch her back. As Haku got ready to strike her down from behind, Hinata turned and put in a burst of speed from her dwindling endurance and moved in front of the deadly needles, feeling a large amount of them pierce her chest, stomach and neck.

The agony transferred over to Tei and she stumbled, nearly falling over before Hinata and rushing to her, managing to catch her as the smaller girl fell over. Hinata smirked a bit and tried to speak, only gurgling out blood before trying again.

"At least, I got to save you this time. Tei, I'm sorry...but this was the only thing I could think of. Tei please, don't die...Live on for me." Hinata gave one last smile before her eyes closed and her head lolled loosely to the side.

Tei felt her strength leaving and it was suddenly getting hard to breath but as she stared down at Hinata's body, none of that occurred to her. She hugged Hinata close, silent tears streaming down her face before she gently placed Hinata down, her shoulders shaking.

"Is this the first time you've seen a friend die in battle?" Haku asked, placing himself back in one of his mirrors. "This is the life of a ninja, nothing but more suffering lies beyond. But she was a true warrior, to give her life for you."

Tei didn't respond, she only placed her hand on Hinata's cheek, taking a shuddering breath before letting it out. "I failed again...I thought things would be different this time. But...I lost another daughter..." Tei then looked up at Haku, tears still falling as she glared at her with hate filled purple eyes.

"I'm going to kill you!" she snarled, baring sharp fangs as Tei prepared to take her revenge.

A/N: And now the moment's here. Everything with Tei has been leading up to this, though I do hope I've left some good foreshadowing getting up to this moment.