3rd Person POV

The land of waves

Sakura was trembling. She had just witnessed the death of two people, whom she believed were only just misunderstood. Caught in the world of shinobi and did what they had to to exist. She would even go as far as to believe that if they were given the opportunity to join Konoha, they would.

Should it have been a different time or place or different circumstances, they might have been allys. And it was for these reasons that Sakura had walked up to both Zabuza and Haku's body and kneeled.

She could distinctively hear the sounds of the villagers fighting against Gatō's men, but she payed it no mind as she looked into Zabuza's lifeless eyes. She slowly raised her hand to close his 'lifeless eyes', only to jump in surprise when something clamped over her wrist. She stared into Zabuza's, not so lifeless eyes as he took something from his ninja pouch and pushed it into the palm of her hand.

"It chooses it's master." He croaked as blood spattered from his mouth.

"W-what?" Sakura asked, startled beyond imagination.

"It chooses it's master, it chooses you."

"What are you talking about? Who chooses it's master? Who chose me?" She asked again, only for Zabuza to shake his head.

"The key isn't needed if it chooses you. Take care of it little girl. Only greatness will come of this, should you use it right." Sakura wanted to ask more questions, only to stop in her tracks as his grip on her wrist loosened and fell against her thighs.

Needless to say, she was stunned. What just happened?

She shook out of her stupor when she heard cheerful yells from all around her as the rest of Gatō's men had been defeated. Shaking, Sakura took Zabuza's hand off her thigh and back down by his side before closing his eyes like she had originally planned.

After saying a quick prayer she stood up, catching Kakashi-sensei's eye. She bit her lip and clenched her hands, jumping when she felt something in her hand. But before she could look, a hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei."

He gave her a crinkled eye smile. "Let's finish our mission and go home."

Sakura nodded slowly, as Kakashi walked away she stuffed the scroll into her pouch to read it later.

Although it was out of sight, it wasn't out of mind. She always thought about it. Even during the duration of their mission, not even bothering to worry about Sasuke as she usually would, or insult Naruto as she usually would. As a matter of fact, she was to out of character that it almost seemed like it wasn't even her.

This, of course, earned her quite a few stares from said Uchiha and his best friend Naruto. Kakashi only thought it was from the shock of seeing someone's death, that it probably affected her more than the boys because she was raised in a civilian family. Needless to say the boys believed him and his words, deciding to leave her to her thoughts.

About a week later team 7 found themselves standing on the completed bridge of Wave Country, saying their goodbyes.

Sakura watched on in amusement and slight disgust at Naruto as he and Inari hugged each other with snot coming out of their noses.

As they left, Tazuna turned to Inari with a thoughtful look on his face before smiling.

"I think I know what I want to name the bridge." Inari looked up at him.

"What?"

"The Bridge of Seven." Inari looked at him questioningly.

"Is it because they're team 7?" Tazuna chuckled. It wasn't the reason why but he could see how he would come to that conclusion.

"No, it's because of all the people that helped save our village." Inari still looked lost.

"But it was only the four members of Team 7." He said, looking so confused.

"No Inari, it was the four of them, Zabuza and Haku, who, although were our enemies initially, did help save us."

"And the seventh?" Tazuna smiled as he knelt down to Inari's height and ruffled his hair.

"You." He stared on in surprise.

"M-me?"

"That's right kid, if it wasn't for you I don't think we'd be here right now." One of the villagers said as several others murmured in agreement.

"You're a hero kid."

"Your father would be so proud."

"Let's hear it for Inari! Our villages hero!"

Tazuna smiled as he watched his grandson being tossed in the air by the other villagers.

"Your father really would be proud."

Tazuna looked back to the bridge to find the Konoha Shinobi long gone. Fully believing that they'll meet again some day in the future.

~•~

Sakura merely stared off into space as she stood in the Hokage's office with Naruto and Sasuke as Kakashi was giving their mission report.

She was still just as distracted as she was the first day, so distracted that she wasn't even paying attention to what was being said.

It was only when Kakashi had placed his hand on her shoulder did she snap out of it and connect eyes with a worried Fourth Hokage.

Naruto and Sasuke were already gone. 'What?'

"Sakura-chan, did you hear what I just said?" Naruto's father asked her, clearly concerned.

She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Biting her lip she settled for just shaking her head 'no'.

"In these type of situations, those involved in the incident are asked questions about what had transpired. Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui are with Sasuke doing just that while Yamanaka Inoichi and Nara Shikaku are questioning Naruto."

"And my interrogators would be?" Sakura found herself saying before she could stop herself.

"Interrog- Sakura-chan, it's not an interrogation, you aren't an enemy ninja or anything of the sort." Kakashi and Minato seemed clearly taken aback.

Sakura didn't even know what she said that was so wrong. She remembers back in the academy that if any ninja were to encounter a missing ninja of a high enough ranking they would be interrogated about said ninja and determine if their mental stability was still, well, stable.

'Maybe it's the fact that they think we're already mentally unstable from the things we saw and don't want to scare us.'

'You think so?'

'Got any other ideas?'

'...'

'That's what I thought.'

And honestly, she couldn't think of anything else.

Before anymore could be said the door opened to reveal two people, two very scary people.

"Ah, Anko-san, Ibiki-san. Thank you for coming."

"No problem Hokage-sama, so, is this the girl we're interrogating?" The woman with dark purple hair said with a slight frown was she looked at Sakura.

Minato and Kakashi face palmed.

Interrogation HQ

Minato and Kakashi stood outside the interrogation room, looking on through the one way mirror.

"You're not usually one to watch an interrogation Hokage-sama." Kakashi commented.

"Sakura's not usually the type to get distracted either, I'm just concerned about her."

Kakashi hummed in agreement. Both men stopped their chit chat as the questions started.

Interrogation room

Ibiki stood by the door with his arms crossed over his chest as Anko sat in the chair at a table while Sakura sat across from her.

"So kid, how was the mission?" Anko asked casually, making Sakura furrow her eyebrows.

"Uhm, alright I guess." She answered awkwardly.

"What do you mean you guess? The mission was a success and the bad guys are dead. Not only that but a group of Genin such as yourselves completed this mission which turned out to be an A rank mission. Seems like it went more than 'alright' if you ask me."

"Well... when you put it like that it sounds great and all, but saying it like that is just gilding it. Putting on a thin layer of gold paint to make it look and sound nice, but it's not like that at all."

"Whatta' ya mean kid?"

"I mean that if you tell it like it really is and how it really went, it's not going to sound that great at all."

"And how did it really go?" Anko asked, leaning a bit closer to the table. Ibiki turned his head to face Sakura to listen to when she had to say.

Outside the room Minato and Kakashi leaned in closer as well.

"Honestly, it was horrible. It started out nice. A simple C rank mission to escort an old man home and protect him from thugs so he can finish building a bridge. But a few hours into the mission we get attacked by the Demon Brothers of the Mist and find out our mission is a lot tougher than we think. But we didn't care, we kept on going, till we get attacked by Momochi Zabuza, an S-class missing nin. Which after the battle leaves our sensei immobilized, and even then, Zabuza managed to escape with the help of his parter. The village itself was a mess because of the unfinished bridge and Gatō's men, a whole week later after doing some training, that didn't even really help out with the mission, we get attacked again. Sasuke almost dies, Naruto goes on a rampage, Kakashi kills Haku, Zabuza becomes our ally at the last minute, he's the one to kill Gatō, and the rest of the villagers were the ones to get rid of the rest of Gatō's men. In the end, it's almost like we didn't do much, heck, I didn't even do anything." Her voice trailed off and got softer at toward the end.

"Well, when you put it that way kid, you almost make me feel sorry for you... Almost. Now back track to Zabuza and Haku, you make it sound as if their death shouldn't have happened, that they didn't deserve to die."

"Did they though?" Sakura's question caught them off guard.

Back outside a few more people had arrived.

"How'd it go with Naruto and Sasuke?" Minato asked Itachi, Shisui, Inoichi, and Shikaku.

"Fine, all both boys could talk about was how awesome they did in handling the situation and saving the village. They felt rather proud of themselves despite all the negatives that happened."

Minato hummed as he continued to listen to them but watch Sakura.

"What about the girl?"

"She's rather... Interesting."

All four new comers looked to one another before looking on into the room where the questioning (interrogation) was happening.

"-you make it sound as if their death shouldn't have happened, that they didn't deserve to die."

"Did they though?" Everyone was taken aback by her question.

Anko slammed her hands to the table startling Sakura into jumping.

"They were missing nin, a missing nin is not only an enemy to their own village but to every other village as well." Anko said with vigor, surprising all the adults around.

They all knew that she had different views than what she was actually saying, she was only questioning Sakura the way she was to get certain answers out of her.

"Not always."

And her answers just keep on surprising them.

"How do you mean?"

"The enemy of our enemy is our ally. It even happened on our mission today. After Gatō turned against Zabuza, Zabuza became an ally of ours, even if it was only for a while."

"So because he turned into an ally for a few minutes, you think he didn't deserve to die."

"Is that not right?"

Anko heaved a sigh before leaning back and crossing her arms across her chest. "You still have a lot to learn kid, a missing nin is a missing nin."

"What makes him a missing nin? The fact that he left his village?"

"It's more than that brat. He left his village and went on a killing spree. Killed people left and right. I know you know what classifies a missing nin."

"I do, and I also know what classifies a Shinobi. A person who kills when it's in their best interest to either remain alive or undetected, to kill for money, to do things with out morals or abandoning the rules when it becomes necessary, that's not just what classifies a missing nin, it's also what classifies a Shinobi.

The only difference is who takes or gives the orders, or if you make your own."