How To Be Heartless? (Book One)

Chapter 9: Preparations For Battle

"Hey wake up idiot," Sasuke's voice was not pleasant first thing in the morning, and I opened my eyes in a groggy motion, barely noticing that my head was resting on his lap. I immediately groaned, my face reddening as I reluctantly met his eyes, finding that he was once again scowling as though I were the most annoying girl on the planet.

"I fell asleep?" I mumbled, yawning into my hand as I sat up, my face inches from his before I backed away in a rush. "Is Kakashi-sensei awake?"

"Briefly while you were busy napping," Sasuke said in between scoffs as he stood up and dusted off his lap. I raised a single brow, and slowly glanced towards Kakashi's resting figure. Sakura and Naruto were on opposite sides of the room and Sakura seemed to be sending me slightly annoyed glances and it took me a moment to realize why.

"How long was I sleeping?" I asked, turning my gaze to Sasuke. I didn't have it in me to ask how long I was sleeping on his lap, but I noticed his cheeks slightly inflame as he cleared his throat and began to walk away.

I didn't get a chance to hear his answer as Kakashi bolted up.

"Sensei? What's wrong?" Naruto asked, looking at the worried looking Kakashi.

"There is something that has been bothering me, body erasing teams usually dispose of the body of the person they killed right there," Kakashi-sensei began, making everyone look up. I suddenly felt stupid.

"Wow...good morning to you to, Kakashi-sensei." I stated, and he glanced at me briefly with a sigh.

"It's six pm, Sana," Sasuke said with a sigh.
     
        "Okay, I don't need this right now," I said with a yawn.

        "Okay..." Kakashi said with a sigh as he glanced towards me. "We need to have a talk later about priorities."

"So tell us more about the body eraser," Sakura said, not getting it.

"Don't you see? How did the masked boy dispose of Zabuza's body?" Kakashi-sensei answered.

"Ha?" Sakura stated confused. "How could we know? That masked guy took the body with him."

"Yeah... If he needed proof of his work, he could have just taken the head," Kakashi-sensei explained. "And the weapon he used to kill Zabuza..."

Simple needles. I can't believe I had thought it was nothing before.

"No way..." Sasuke frowned, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, exactly."

"What are you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked. My eyes glanced at a confused Naruto and Sakura, their minds didn't seem to dawn on what was going on.

"Most likely... Zabuza is alive," Kakashi-sensei announced, but it sounded much more grave as he spoke it so ominously.

"What the hell do you mean!!" Naruto snapped, a small sigh settled on my lips.

"Kakashi-sensei, you checked and said he was dead!!!" Sakura snarled.

"Yeah, I did... But most likely that was just a momentary death," Kakashi-sensei explained. I didn't even know that was possible.

"The needle weapon that Hunter-nin used...unless it hits a vital organ, has a low probability in killing your opponent. It's an item even used by doctors in acupuncture therapy," Kakashi-sensei described. "Hunter-nins know about the body structure throughly. Putting a person in a momentary dead state is probably easy for them.