A/n: Well, this is the six chapter of TPOIL. If you guys remember Sakura's suiton affinities from chapter three then this chap will make sense for the first part,. Well, you'll see. I also wanted to focus on members of Team 7 one at a time, while Sakura is still the central character I feel a little ease into the inevitable OOC that will happen upon completion of the next few chapters may be necessary, well maybe besides Sasuke, he's still a little pampered prick for a while. I don't hate Sasuke but pampered little clan boys like him and Neji are more of a gradual growth than instant change, though Neji is a bit logical.

On a side note: I hope that you can be patient with my sporadic updating considered I was gone since like May and it's DECEMBER. *cries*I apologize.

DISCLAIMER: WELL, TO HEIGHTEN MY DEFLATED AND BRUISED EGO, I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. I DO NOT OWN A PEPSI CAN AND I DO NOT OWN A CAT!

Enjoy,

~Siralia.
Chapter Six: Water Affinities and Demons pt.1

The fog settled around the boat as it rowed across the river, the motor too loud to run. Tazuna was sitting near the end of the boat along with Sakura and Naruto, who was oddly quiet. Kakashi stood near the rower while Sasuke stood in the middle of the small boat, nerves and tension running wild among the group. Once they reached the side of the island, the sailor gave a weary wave and took off, leaving them alone.

The trek to Tazuna's house wasn't long, but it felt like hours to Naruto who continued to ask if they were their yet, much to the rest of Team Seven's dismay.

Thankfully, Sakura was the one to end it with a punch to the face of the annoying ball of sunshine. "We don't want to hear your whining, so shut it, baka."

"Sakura-chan, that hurt!" Naruto whined, favoring his nose. The pinkette turned to glare at the blond who shrunk back and fell into step with Tazuna. Sighing in content at the quiet, she folded her hands behind her back and enjoyed the scenery, she seemingly slowed her pace and ended up by Tazuna and Naruto.

Abruptly, Kakashi stopped and looked around, seeing a shiny object in the distance flying towards them at a fast pace. "Duck down now!" he yelled but couldn't take immediate action as Kakashi was pinned to a tree by his shoulder. Luckily, he popped and smoke formed around the sword, it clattering to the ground with nothing to hold its heavy form.

"Well, what do we have here?" A hoarse voice danced across the clearing as everyone clambered to get to their feet. Sakura pushed Tazuna behind her and Naruto and Sasuke took charge of her sides. Kakashi stood in front of his team, glaring at the space ahead of him. "Three brats and...oh Kakashi no Sharingan, the Copy Ninja. Lovely." he said. The gennin had a hard time trying to see who it was, only able to make out a silhouette with the mist that formed around them.

"You three stay back and protect Tazuna! Don't interfere with this fight!" Kakashi yelled, rushing ahead to the silhouette. Automatically, you could hear the loud clang of metal from the two enemies in the distance as everyone tried hard to see the battle. They were soon distracted as a clone of the mist nin charged at Naruto. With a nod to Sasuke, Sakura grabbed Tazuna and jumped away from the fray as Sasuke rushed to Naruto's help. Another clone appeared in front of Sakura as she tried to keep Tazuna in her sight.

"Shit!"she cursed as she threw a kunai at the clone who dodged it with ease. Swinging the sword at Sakura, she jumped out of the way with Tazuna.

Naruto and Sasuke finished off the clone quickly and rushed back to Sakura's side, protecting Tazuna. Sakura looked over at Sasuke, who had tossed a kunai at the clone who dodged it.

"It's this all you got, brat?" Sakura cursed and dodged another swing of the sword and charged at the clone, with nothing in plan. The clone smirked and swung the sword where the flat side hit Sakura's flying body in the opposite direction into a tree, she barely had time to recover when the sword flew towards her, hitting her shoulder, causing a deep wound. Sakura cried out and held her shoulder as the blood seeped through her fingers, pain too strong as she passed out.

"Sakura!" Naruto cried and looked at the clone. "No one hurts Sakura-chan like that!" the blonde rushed forward at a speed that could rival Sasuke's and bloated the area with a bunch of clones, that all sent hits at him. The skilled clone dodged most of the but didn't noticed the real Naruto sneak up behind him. The clone suddenly dispersed, revealing Naruto behind the falling water. "I got 'im!" Naruto said, jumping around.

"Dobe, stop celebrating and get the idiot over there." Naruto looked at Sasuke with a glare.

"Sakura-chan is not an idiot, teme!"

"Shut up and get her, dobe."

"Teme!"

"Dobe."

Teme!"

"Dobe!" The two went back and forth as the volume rose between the two as Kakashi walked into the clearing, looking at the two idiots. When he scanned the area for the third idiot, he saw her unconscious form against the tree and took what little energy he had and shushined to her side. Picking her up, careful not to agitate the wound further, he secured a hold on her and walked towards their escort's house, barely muttering a command to follow. Sasuke and Naruto immediately deflated at the dim aura that surrounded Kakashi and went after him, keeping an eye on Tazuna as well.


Tazuna, Sasuke, Naruto and two newly introduced people, his daughter and grandson, Tsubaki and Inari, sat around the table, enjoying their meal. Kakashi was upstairs nursing Sakura's shoulder wound. The bleeding had stopped a while ago but the gash was too deep for it to close up with out any help. Luckily with Kakashi's minimal knowledge of first aid, he was able to stitch up the wound, even though it was spotty. Sakura was now awake and was being fed soup by the silver haired man.

"Kakashi-sensei, I-"

"No. You just shut up and get better." He interrupted, clearly irritated. He had been nursing Sakura for hours and clearly needed rest but he refused until he saw any sign of health in the young girl. Unbeknownst to her, Kakashi was going through turmoil over almost losing another one of his teammates. He vowed to have that never happen again but it almost did.

Close.

So close.

To her dying. He looked her over, noting the fact that her small body couldn't afford to lose the amount of blood she had. It was only because of the countless hours Kakashi spent watching over her is she even awake. He hadn't cried in almost fourteen years but when he saw Sakura injured, he felt that train would have been broken. She reminded him so much of Rin that it hurt and if he had to-

Cutting that thought off, he looked to the door as him and Sakura heard small, pounding footsteps run across the hall accompanied with a slamming door.

"What was that?" the pinkette asked, poking her head around Kakashi shoulder. "I don't know but I'll go see. I'll be right back."

"Let me come with you!" Sakura said, shifting out of her makeshift bed.

"No, you need to stay and rest." Kakashi said, standing up on wobbly legs.

"No, sensei. You need to rest. You haven't slept for at least two days and if the enemy attacks you would be no good." Sakura waved her arm to Kakashi's shaking form. "So I want you to lay down. "I'll go check."

Kakashi looked at his small student for a moment, finally succumbing to the pseudo- command that she gave. He laid on the bed and almost instantly fell asleep. Sakura smiled a bit before opening the door and walking out.


Inari was crying his eyes out as he felt the pain of his memories that were resurfaced by the conversation that took place at the table. The silence that he was used to was broken by a couple of light knocks on his door.

"Leave me alone!" he cried and the presence outside the door seemed to shift before opening the blockade between him and this offending human with blonde hair. Though when he turned to give him a piece of his mind, he saw a person who he didn't expect to see. It was a fair-skinned girl with pink hair and the most vivid green eyes that he ever saw, almost the color of grass during the spring. He only saw her once before when she was carried in the house by the older man but he didn't really see how she looked like, only her hair.

"Um... I'm sorry to bother you. I was just checking to see if everything was okay." Inari just stared dumbly at the pinkette. "Can I come in?"

He nodded and the girl stepped in the room, closing the door behind her. "Um... my name is Sakura." she smiled.

Inari was entranced by her smile. She was the most prettiest girl she had ever seen, with an amazing smile and name to boot. He seemed to be staring for a while as she looked at him with an questionable expression.

"Are you okay?"

Huh? Oh, yeah!" he wiped his eyes and stood up, walking over to Sakura. "My name is Inari."

"Inari, hm? Cute." she smiled again causing him to blush. "I noticed you were crying earlier, what happened?" With that question, everything rushed back to Inari and he dipped his head.

"It's nothing." he said with a quiet voice, keeping his eyes square on the floor.

"You know you can talk about it if you want to. I'll listen." Sakura said, walking over to the area he was at and sat down, patting the space next to her. Inari watched with wide eyes and almost began crying but he quickly walked over to her and sat down by her.

"So what happen? Was it Naruto?" the pinkette asked in a light tone.

"Kind of." Inari said. "I- I'm just so scared for my grandpa with people trying to kill him, I don't want to lose him too." He took a breath and continued. "I told your friend, N-naruto?" Sakura nodded once. "I told Naruto that you guys would to be able to save him and their was nothing that they could do, then grandpa yelled at me."

Sakura watched as the little boy began to cry for the nth time that day. "I just don't want him to die!" he wailed at the end. Sakura's heart lurched for the boy as she gathered him in a hug and let him cry it out, trying not to cry her self.

"Inari-chan, I have to say this." she broke through his sobs and he looked up at her. "Everyone will die one day but while they are alive, you cherish each moment with them. Don't cry because they might die, be happy they are alive. You try to protect them with everything you got and cherish that." Inari looked at her with eyes of wonder and got up out of the hug.

"You're right, Sakura-san!" he smiled and wiped at his eyes. "Thank you!" he said, running out of the room. Sakura knew she had said the right thing to him but little did she know that those same words would come back to bite her.