Kakashi woke slowly. His head felt cloudy. His muscles felt watery and weak. His ribs felt like they'd been stomped on. The last time he'd felt anything remotely like this was a few years ago when he'd seriously overdone it training with his mangekyou and woken up in the hospital an hour later with an anxious Gai hovering over him.

Kakashi peeled open his right eye. The ceiling above him featured a lightning-like crack and a water stain. Probably not a hospital then. Definitely not Konoha's hospital at the very least. Where was he? What had hap-

Oh gods, Zabuza – he wasn't dead.

Kakashi tried to jerk upright. It didn't work, and he sank back down onto the futon with a groan. He really hated chakra exhaustion.

Someone had stripped him down to his undershirt, mask and boxers. He wondered if it was the same person who owned the futon. Where was his team? Had the fake hunter-nin come back to finish them off while he was unconscious? Probably not if he was still alive, but where were they?

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura's head appeared around the doorway as if summoned by his thoughts but more likely summoned by his groan. "You're finally awake!" She padded the rest of the way into the room. "You really scared us. You've been unconscious for a day and a half." She sat down cross-legged by the futon to Kakashi's right.

"Sorry about that," Kakashi murmured. Trying to sit up had taken a worrying amount of effort. Damn missing-nin and their chakra draining techniques. If he was any judge, he was going to be off his feet for days.

"I think we'll forgive you under the circumstances," Sakura tried to joke, but it fell rather flat. "Naruto and Sasuke-kun are going to be annoyed that you woke up while they weren't here."

"Not here? Where are they?"

"They're out guarding Tazuna-san. We've been rotating guard duty so one of us would definitely be here when you woke up. Everyone agrees that Gato is really cheap despite being so rich, so he probably won't waste his money on another S-class missing-nin after Zabuza."

Kakashi felt ill in a way that had nothing to do with chakra exhaustion.

"Zabuza's not dead," he rasped. "That hunter-nin was his accomplice. If you hit the right nerve points with senbon, you can simulate death. I realized what had happened too late."

Sakura bit her lip,

"So Sasuke-kun and Naruto are in danger?"

"Probably not today," Kakashi sighed. "The body takes a while to recover from that sort of paralysis."

"How long?"

"I think Genma said about a week." So most likely about the same amount of time that Kakashi was going to be out of commission. Convenient. He'd say almost say too convenient, but he couldn't think of a single advantage someone could take from the situation. "Why are you still guarding Tazuna even though our mission is over?"

"He didn't ask us to, but we agreed that it was a fair trade for him feeding us and letting us stay in his house while you recover." Sakura paused and twisted her fingers together. "And, sensei, I've been to the village now, and they really do desperately need this bridge. They used to have a trade agreement with Kiri, but after Gato started running people out of business, Kiri just… stopped caring. The people… half of them are starving. It just doesn't seem right to stand back and do nothing."

Kakashi reached out a shaky hand and rested it on Sakura's arm.

"Sakura, I could take out that bridge by myself with ten well-placed, demolition-grade explosive tags – possibly less. We may be able to help them safely complete their bridge, but what they really need is a permanent guard." Sakura's shoulders slumped, and she hung her head. Kakashi sighed. "We have to leave as soon as I'm able to travel again, but," Kakashi paused and knew that he was probably going to regret this decision even before he made it, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt for the three of you to keep guarding Tazuna-san and his crew until then. You're guarding the people, though, not the bridge. If something happens, you are to take the civilians and run."

Sakura looked up and smiled.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei. Thank you."

"You'd probably just all sneak out and go protect the bridge anyway if I told you no," Kakashi muttered to himself. Sakura offered him an innocent grin but didn't deny it.

His team was going to cause so much trouble when they eventually made chuunin – he was looking forward to it. His nerves would probably be dead by then, but he'd definitely enjoy watching the antics.

"I'll got let Tsunami-san know that you're awake so that she can make you some miso soup," Sakura announced, standing up. She paused when she reached the doorway. "Uh, Kakashi-sensei, I was wondering," she turned back to him, "um, just how old are you?"

Kakashi frowned at her in confusion, wondering where that question had come from.

"Twenty-seven. Why?"

Sakura made a strange choking noise, and her face went red with embarrassment for some reason.

"Oh, no reason!" she squeaked. "I should really go see about that soup!" Then she rushed out of the room.

Kakashi frowned after her.

Huh. What had that been about?


Two hours and a cup of miso soup later, Sasuke and Naruto returned with Tazuna.

"Nii-san! You're awake!"

"Hey Naruto- omph!" Naruto's tackle hug nearly squashed Kakashi.

"Careful, dobe – you're going to knock him out again if you keep that up."

"Shut up, teme!"

Something eased in Kakashi's chest at the sight of the two boys whole and clearly uninjured.

"I'm glad you're both okay," he told them and awkwardly patted Naruto's back since Naruto clearly didn't have any plans to let go for a while.

Sasuke sat down on the floor a little distance from Naruto but still within easy reach of Kakashi.

"Sakura told us that Zabuza is still alive," Sasuke informed him. Kakashi nodded.

"People should really stay dead when they're defeated," Naruto grumbled and then gave Kakashi one last squeeze before sitting up.

"You're going to have to be extra careful," Kakashi told them. "I know that we haven't had much of a chance to go over chakra sensing, yet," Which would be changing the instant they got back to Konoha, "but you're going to need to keep your senses wide open at all times."

"Don't worry, nii-san – we will!"

"I don't know – are we going to have time with you giving a motivational speech to every single person we meet?" Sasuke asked, his tone serious but a teasing tilt to his mouth.

"I did not-!"

"The entire bridge crew. That fruit seller. Three different fishermen-"

"I was just talking to them, you bastard! Talking."

"Sure you were."

Kakashi huffed a laugh,

"Just try to keep the revolutions to a minimum, Naruto."

"Nii-saaaaan!" Naruto whined.

"Do you know where my jounin vest got put?" Kakashi asked instead of teasing Naruto further.

"I'll get it." Sasuke stood and walked purposefully out of the room.

Naruto was quiet for a moment, his hands twisting in the hem of his jacket in a way that meant he was having a hard time putting words to his thoughts. Finally, he whispered,

"I completely lost it after you collapsed." He looked ashamed. "I- I didn't even think to check for a pulse. I just fell apart."

Kakashi held out one arm, and Naruto burrowed into his side, face hidden in shame.

"It was your first life or death battle. You held it together until after the fight was over. Most shinobi freeze at least once their first time out in the field, and that's usually just against regular bandits – not S-class missing-nin. You did a good job."

"And you pulled it together once Sakura reminded you to," Sasuke offered quietly from the doorway. He was holding Kakashi's jounin vest and staring at his feet. "You didn't come close to eviscerating our client."

Kakashi patted the empty space on the other side of the futon, and Sasuke shuffled over. He sat down, pulled his knees to his chest and hugged his legs.

"There's a reason you're supposed to work slowly up to taking A-rank missions." Kakashi stared up at the ceiling. He glanced toward the door and noticed an extra shadow on the floor. "They highly stressful, and if you haven't had time to build up to them, they can bring out and enhance the less desirable aspects of your personality. All of you did admirably. I'm proud of all of you. You, too, Sakura." Sakura, caught in her eavesdropping, wandered in as well and settled on the blankets by Kakashi's feet. "You three saved my life. Thank you."

The four of them stayed like that quietly until Tsunami called that dinner was ready.

"What did you want your vest for anyway?" asked Naruto as he sat up.

"Oh, that." Kakashi reached out and snagged his vest from where Sasuke had set it on the floor. He dug tiredly through one of the inner pockets and produced a fistful of ryou. "Would one of you buy me some yeast and bread flour while you're at the market tomorrow? Or even all-purpose flour – I'm not that picky at this point."


Two days after waking up in Tazuna's house, Kakashi was balanced precariously on an old pair of wooden crutches and kneading bread dough like his life depended on it. Should he be up and about just, yet? No, probably not, but Kakashi had brought one book with him. One. And his team's C-rank escort mission had turned into an A-rank nightmare. An on-going A-rank nightmare, and if Kakashi could, he would throw all three of his students over his shoulder and book it back to Konoha.

Yeah, so Kakashi was already on his second loaf of bread.

He really wished that he had his windowsill pictures with him to talk to. At least Tsunami had graciously leant him the use of her kitchen and oven. He couldn't experiment with recipes, though, because it was rude to set other people's ovens on fire.

"What's the point of sending them to guard the bridge? They'll just get killed."

The eight year old nihilist, however, Kakashi really could have done without. Nine year old? Ten? Kakashi wasn't really good at guessing ages between 'walking and talking' and 'Academy graduate.'

Kakashi didn't look over at Inari, because he was a little afraid that the movement would make him overbalance on his crutches.

"They're not guarding the bridge – they're guarding Tazuna-san and his building crew."

"So? You're still all going to die," the little boy muttered sullenly.

"Everybody dies eventually," Kakashi shrugged, "but, no, my team isn't going to die this mission." He fervently wished that Inari would leave.

"Heroes always die."

That brought Kakashi up short. He twisted on his crutches to look at Inari. The little boy was leaking around the eyes. Oh gods, small, crying child and nary a pork bun in sight.

Inari scrubbed at his face and glared at him.

"Are you going to yell at me for being a crybaby, too?" he demanded.

Ah. So that was what Naruto had been shouting about last night. Kakashi still hadn't been deemed well enough to join everyone at the table at that point and had only caught the tail end of raised voices.

"Of course not." Kakashi carefully rearranged himself so that his back was leaning against the counter, his bread dough temporarily abandoned. "One of the bravest people I ever knew used to cry at the drop of a hat. There's nothing wrong with crying."

Inari blinked at him in surprise.

"But- But Naruto said-"

"It's all right to grieve." Kakashi glanced at the torn picture hanging by the kitchen table. He suspected the missing person was either Inari's father or older brother, and given the state of things in Wave Country, it was no stretch to guess that he'd died on Gato's orders. "The important thing is not to crawl down into the grave with the people we've lost. Visit, remember the good times, but don't stay. After all, it's how they lived that makes a person a hero – not their death."

Inari stared at him, eyes still leaking.

"How would you know?"

"I survived the Third Shinobi War. I've seen a lot of good people die."

"Did you cry?"

"Not at first. I tried to crawl into the grave after them. None of the people I lost would have wanted that for me." Kakashi eased away from the counter and turned back to his dough. The familiar, soft texture of bread dough beneath his fingers was soothing.

After a moment, small feet padded slowly over to him, and a small hand hesitantly curled into the hem of his shirt. Kakashi looked down at Inari. The boy was looking down, and the volume of leaking had increased greatly.

"Sometimes, it's really hard… to remember that there were good times," Inari whispered.

"Yeah," Kakashi agreed softly, "but eventually it gets easier." He looked at his bread dough, and then tore off a chunk and handed it to Inari. Inari accepted it with a frown.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"You knead it." Kakashi demonstrated. "I always find that it's better when I have something to do with my hands."

Inari rolled the ball of dough between his hands.

"This is what I always thought jellyfish ought to feel like," he decided. He prodded the dough across the countertop.

Kakashi glanced back at the kitchen entrance when he heard a floorboard creak. Tsunami was watching Inari from the doorway. She caught Kakashi's eye and gave him a small, grateful nod. Kakashi nodded back and then returned his attention to kneading.

He was really looking forward to this mission being over.


Two days later, Kakashi was off his crutches and walking steadily under his own power again. His chakra reserves were still depleted – just over half strength at best – but walking didn't require excessive amounts of chakra.

"We're leaving tomorrow," Kakashi informed his team at supper that night.

"But the bridge is almost done!" Naruto protested. "Tazuna says they have less than a day of work to go."

"We're days ahead of schedule," Tazuna agreed. "My crew has been working much better with your team guarding them."

"The daily motivational speech probably hasn't hurt either," Sasuke nodded mock seriously. Naruto tore a piece off of his bread roll and threw it at Sasuke. Sasuke just caught it and ate it.

"Nevertheless, we need to head back to Konoha tomorrow. Our mission is over," Kakashi sighed. "We'll take you as far as your bridge in the morning, Tazuna-san."

Tazuna nodded in understanding.

"Thank you. You and your team have done far more than I could have hoped. Gato is cheap and has no patience for failure. If we're lucky, he'll have fired that missing-nin and will wait a while before he tries anything else. Honestly, he'd profit more from trying to set up some sort of toll than by destroying the bridge."

Kakashi wasn't quite so optimistic, but for Tazuna and Wave Country's sake, he hoped the man was right.


The next morning Kakashi and Team 7 headed out with Tazuna after bidding Inari and Tsunami goodbye. Tsunami and Inari were heading out as well to visit one of her friends.

Kakashi was once again wearing his tanto on his back with his pack sealed in its scroll. He doubted he'd manage to relax until he and his team were safely back inside the gates of Konoha. He was going to hire his team for another D-rank at his bakery just so that he could keep an eye on them while also baking a bread mountain.

Pretty much everyone in the village waved at Naruto as they passed through. Naruto waved back, Sasuke rolled his eyes, and Sakura just shook her head.

Kakashi's general feeling of unease continued to grow the closer to the bridge they got. He wished he could believe he was just being paranoid.

"It's awfully quiet," Tazuna muttered to himself as they arrived at the bridge. "I hope the crane's engine isn't malfunctioning again."

Kakashi already had his tanto unsheathed by the time they found the first unconscious member of the bridge crew.

"Take Tazuna and head back to the village," Kakashi ordered, but even as he spoke, unnaturally thick fog was rolling out to engulf the entire bridge. Damn it. "Never mind. Defensive formation. Do not lose sight of each other."

Kakashi stabbed the water buunshin before he'd even fully, consciously registered its presence. He shoved his hitai-ate up. First opportunity he got, he was running Zabuza through with a chidori. He needed to finish this fight as quickly as possible and conserve chakra as much as possible, because he had no idea what Zabuza's accomplice could do. Or if the little bastard carried poisoned senbon.

"Don't think you're going to catch me with the same trick twice, Hatake." Zabuza's voice seemed to boom out of the fog from every direction at once. "You can't copy what you can't see."

The fog was choked with chakra but… there was a subtle pattern to it. The way it shifted and swirled belied movement. Kakashi ducked just in time as Zabuza's sword cleaved through the air at neck height.

"Suiryuudan no jutsu."

Kakashi leapt out of the way as the massive, familiar water dragon. The jutsu crashed into the spot where Kakashi had been standing, cracked the concrete, and sent water sluicing from one edge of the bridge to the other.

Kakashi sent a gout of flame back in the direction the jutsu had come from. The fire burnt away some of the mist for a moment and illuminated two figures standing near the far railing, one tall and broad, the other small and lithe.

"The stage is set. After you, Haku."

"Thank you, Zabuza-sama."

The fog rolled back in, shrouding both figures once more. Kakashi had been right – where the chakra was densest in the fog was where Zabuza was. And dodging that water jutsu had put far more distance between Kakashi and his team than he was comfortable with. He spun back towards where he'd left his students and Tazuna just as Naruto's startled shout cut through the air. Zabuza was barring his way.

"Your team will be dead in a matter of minutes, Hatake. Your fight is with me." Not a buunshin, definitely the original this time, and his eyes were shut for some reason.

"Really? Fighting me with your eyes shut?" Kakashi asked in a flippant tone that he in no way actually felt. "Seems a touch arrogant." He thrust with his tanto but wasn't surprised when he was blocked.

"You're not going to catch me with that genjutsu eye of yours again, and I don't need my eyes to defeat you."

Huh. That seemed like overkill. Gai just watched Kakashi's feet to avoid his sharingan when they sparred. Then again, given the amount of chakra in this damn fog, Zabuza probably had a very detailed feel of everything that was happening on the bridge.

Behind Zabuza Sasuke's Grand Fireball jutsu lit the fog for a brief, eerie moment.

"Then I guess I'll just have to go through you." Kakashi disengaged blades, slapped a quick water jutsu into the puddles on the ground that would hopefully snag Zabuza's feet or at least slow him down a little, and then rolled out of the way as Zabuza's sword nearly bisected him. He really didn't want to engage in a lengthy sword battle – that would just be playing to his enemy's strengths. Zabuza specialized in kenjutsu – Kakashi did not. He was probably a better long distance fighter than Zabuza was, though.

He whirled through a dizzying series of lightning and fire jutsus. When he'd finally put what he hoped was sufficient distance between himself and Zabuza, Kakashi replaced himself with a lightning buunshin and flipped over the railing. Have fun sticking a metal sword through that.

There was almost no fog below the bridge, and Kakashi raced along the underside towards his team. Somewhere overhead he heard Zabuza swear colorfully as he apparently electrocuted himself on the lightning buunshin. He could feel Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura's chakra signatures flaring almost directly above him. He swung himself back up over the railing-

And directly into the path of Zabuza's arcing blade.

Kakashi managed to shove himself back out into the open air far enough that the sword only tore through his vest and slashed a deep gouge in his chest instead of eviscerating him. A shuunshin landed him in a graceless sprawl in the center of the bridge.

Damn it.

He rolled to his feet.

"Slowing down, Hatake? That chakra exhaustion finally catching up with you?" Zabuza sounded ever so slightly out of breath. Evidently Kakashi wasn't the only one feeling the effects of this battle. Kakashi's mind raced as he reminded his knees that they weren't allowed to wobble until the battle was over and his team was safe.

He just needed to keep Zabuza relatively still so that he wouldn't have to chase him down with a chidori and stretch things out even longer. Well, he did have the pack's mass summons scroll, and Zabuza's weapon did have Kakashi's blood on it now. With a scent that strong, the fog wouldn't even slow his ninken down. It was worth a shot. The pack might only be able to keep Zabuza in place for five seconds, but that was more than double the time that Kakashi needed.

The scroll slipped easily from its pocket on the front of his vest thankfully unharmed. He smeared blood from his wound across it in one swift movement (that was definitely going to require stitches when this was all over), set his intentions clearly in his head, and then pressed the scroll against the ground.

Kakashi's sharingan caught the telltale swirl of fog, and he blocked Zabuza's sword with his tanto as it sliced through the air. In some ways, Zabuza was almost predictable. He was a brutal fighter but not the most creative one. Or perhaps that was just his style when he was fighting blind.

Kakashi proceeded to parry, block, and dodge, mostly trying to stall for time so that his ninken could find their opening. The fog was starting to dissipate a bit. It must be a tiring jutsu to maintain. Kakashi could just make out some sort of… domed structure? What the hell was that? He'd never seen anything like it before. This fight needed to be over five minutes ago.

Kakashi danced back out of Zabuza's reach once more, and the pack chose that moment to attack. Zabuza's eyes snapped open in shock as teeth sank into his limbs. The fog was rolling back faster now, and Kakashi could see that his students and Tazuna appeared to be trapped in a structure made of mirrors. He didn't waste any breath on words.

His hands flew through the necessary seals, and then he sprang forward with a handful of screaming lightning. Kakashi pulled his hand back to strike-

Suddenly, it wasn't Zabuza in front of him anymore but a young, pale, delicately featured face surrounded by dark hair.

Rin.

Kakashi's arm jerked left almost of its own accord. His hand plunged through bone and muscle. Hot blood splattered his face. Something hit the ground with a thud.

Kakashi's mind had gone numb.

"Gods damn it, Haku, you idiot! What were you thinking?!"

"Sorry… Zabuza-sama. I didn't… have time for senbon."


Far below the bridge a small fishing boat bobbed on the surface of the river. Its sole occupant stared up at the underside of the bridge.

Nori had heard the shouting and just now a sound like pane after pane of glass shattering. His hands tightened around his fishing net. In these parts such sounds of violence could only mean Gato. Someone was attacking the almost-completed bridge, but what could he do? He was just one man….

But he thought of his friend, Nashi, and her nearly empty fruit stall with its few wrinkled apples and bruised peaches. He thought of Tsurizao, who could no longer work after being crippled by one of Gato's goons. He thought of the children begging on the streets, whom he didn't even have enough to give a few small coins to. And he thought of the blond boy he'd met in the market whose words had radiated hope and belief and conviction like the first sunrise after a decade of darkness.

Nori looked down at the trident lying in the bottom of his boat that he sometimes used to spear large, bottom feeding river fish. Maybe one ant couldn't harm a wasp, but an entire colony of ants could tear a wasp to pieces. He put down his net and picked up his oars.

This was their home. Their bridge. And he was sick of watching his village die.

(And in the village square, two unconscious hired swordsmen had already been tied up, and the other ants were starting to swarm, the anger in their hearts finally burning past the fear of years to become courage.)


Zabuza shook off the pack with a mighty heave and leapt back from Kakashi with Haku tucked against his side. Haku's left arm remained behind on the concrete of the bridge, severed just above the elbow. Kakashi didn't even try to chase after them.

"Bandage that! Don't even think about bleeding out!" There was the barest hint of hysteria underlying Zabuza's tone. "You're no use to me dead!"

A warm, furry face nudged Kakashi's slack hand.

"You with us, Boss?" asked Pakkun from where he was perched on Bull's head.

Kakashi blinked. Tried to shake off the mind-deadening haze.

"Yeah," he croaked. "Go protect my team. I'm going to try something while he's distracted."

"Something stupid?" asked Pakkun cynically. Before Kakashi could even respond, the pug sighed, "It's you – of course it will be. Let's go!"

Kakashi pressed his palm to his sharingan and concentrated as the pack ran to surround Team 7 and Tazuna. He desperately wanted to check on his students, but he needed to finish this now while Zabuza was distracted, and he was only going to have one shot at this.

Zabuza was standing defensively on the front of Haku now, but he made no move to attack while Haku slowly wound bandage around the cauterized stump of his arm. He had his sword held in front of him almost like a shield.

Kakashi lowered his hand and focused his activated mangekyou.

The portal opened in the center of Zabuza's blade instead of his chest. Damn it. But he could work with that. Nothing threw a kenjutsu specialist quite like destroying their weapon.

"What the hell?!" Zabuza tried to yank his sword free of the portal's pull. Kakashi gritted his teeth and redoubled the chakra he was feeding to his mangekyou.

Tink.

A hairline fracture shot through the metal as Zabuza desperately fought to save his weapon.

Tink. Tink. Tinktinktink.

The fractures were spreading and multiplying, radiating out from the edges of the swirling vortex.

CRACK.

Zabuza's sword shattered. Metal rang as pieces of the massive blade hit the ground.

Kakashi dropped to one knee as he lost hold of his mangekyou, and it swirled back into a normal sharingan. His head throbbed.

Zabuza gaped at the shattered remains of his sword.

Slow clapping broke the silence.

"Really, I don't know why I gave you a second chance after you failed the first time." A short man wearing sunglasses and carrying a cane was standing a little ways down the bridge. One of his arms was in a cast and- oh, there was the miniature chuunin army that Kakashi had been expecting since this mission had first gone wrong. This must be Gato. "What a waste of money you turned out to be. It turns out I can hire a whole army of missing-nin for what you wanted to charge me. Consider yourself fired." Gato spotted Haku's arm lying on the bridge. "Ha! Lost an arm, did you? Serves you right for breaking mine!"

Zabuza stared at Gato with dangerously narrowed eyes.

"So you're not going to pay us?"

"Absolutely not."

"Just needed to be clear." Zabuza let the hilt of his ruined blade fall from his hand. "Hey, Hatake, lend me your sword."

Kakashi laboriously hauled himself to his feet.

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm not working for him anymore, and you broke mine."

"Fair enough." Kakashi unsheathed his tanto and tossed it to Zabuza hilt first. Zabuza snatched it from the air with ease.

Gato took a step back.

"You can't hurt me! I own this place! I own this whole country!"

"Not anymore!" The shout came from behind Kakashi. He twisted around in surprise. What looked like the entire village was standing just behind his wide-eyed students and Tazuna. Men and women were armed with tridents, fishing spears, boat hooks, pitch forks, sickles, and anything else that had been near at hand. Even Tsunami was standing in the front of the crowd brandishing a kitchen knife, and Inari had managed to get his hands on a crossbow that Kakashi highly doubted he knew how to use.

"You've taken our homes and our livelihoods!" shouted a man with a trident.

"Taken our loved ones!" yelled Tsunami.

"We're done letting you take things," snarled another woman, raising her boat hooks.

"And you insulted Haku and broke our contract." Zabuza rolled his neck. "I'd say I can hurt you all I want."

Gato barely had time to scream as Zabuza lunged forward and killed him with a single swing of gleaming silver. He shredded his way through a quarter of the missing-nin Gato had hired before they realized what was happening and turned tail and ran. Zabuza let out a disgusted snort as he watched them flee.

"Amateurs." He turned back to Kakashi and tossed him back his tanto. "How do you fight with that piece of shit, Hatake? It's tiny."

Kakashi caught his sword and pulled his hitai-ate down over his sharingan with a shrug.

"I've got nothing to compensate for."

Zabuza ignored the insult and started fussing over Haku's one-handed bandaging job, though he'd probably stab anybody who pointed out the fussing for what it actually was.

"So they're not trying to kill us anymore?" asked Sakura. Her left arm was hanging limply at her side – presumably numb from the multiple senbon protruding from her shoulder – and she was limping. Behind her Naruto and Sasuke were also bristling senbon like porcupine quills and limping, but they were upright, and all their limbs were attached. Kakashi resolutely did not look down at where Haku's arm still lay. Sasuke's eyes were red and sporting a single tomoe each.

"No, they're not," Kakashi confirmed. "Status report?"

"Senbon suck," Naruto stated decisively. "But no significant injuries."

"My arm should be fine once we pull the senbon out," Sakura agreed.

"He didn't seem to be aiming for anything vital," added Sasuke. "Honestly, he didn't seem all that invested in killing us. Naruto almost had him talked to a standstill after I broke his mask."

"Motivational speech no jutsu is surprisingly effective," Sakura nodded. She pulled a senbon out of her thigh with a wince and let it clatter to the ground. Her right hand was shaking. Naruto's hands were trembling as well. Sasuke's hands were steady, but his face was ghostly white, making the scratches on his cheeks and his newly awakened sharingan standout even more lividly.

Kakashi wiped some of the blood off his tanto on his pants leg and re-sheathed it.

"Good work."

"Are you okay, nii-san?" asked Naruto anxiously.

"Huh?"

"You're swaying," frowned Sasuke.

"And sort of dripping blood," Sakura pointed out.

And now that adrenaline and shock were starting to wear off… oh, yeah, his chest was sort of blazing with pain, wasn't it? And his chakra reserves were desperately low again. Kakashi stared down at his bloody vest.

"I should probably bandage that," he mutter vaguely and then staggered slightly. Sasuke and Naruto each caught one of his arms and guided him over to the railing a few feet away from where Haku and Zabuza were. His legs folded inelegantly under him as he sat down. He pulled his storage scroll off his belt and unsealed his pack with a small burst of chakra.

"Naruto, help Sakura get those senbon out of her shoulder. Be gentle – they can cause damage on the way out as well as the way in. Sasuke, my med kit is in the front right pocket of my pack."

Kakashi eased out of his tanto strap and vest and gingerly wrapped gauze and bandage around his chest in a rough field dressing while his students helped de-senbon each other. He needed to put some stitches in but in the middle of an incomplete bridge surrounded by civilians wasn't exactly the best place to do that. He looked up to find Zabuza glaring at him.

"Why aren't you in the Bingo Book?"

"I was sort of retired for a while there." Kakashi stared thoughtfully at Zabuza's unscored hitai-ate. "Why'd you decide to work for Gato?"

"Revolutions are fucking expensive."

"Right. You tried to depose the Mizukage," Kakashi nodded to himself.

"I tried to kill the bastard. He's tearing apart my village from the inside out," Zabuza snarled.

"Have you ever considered starting your revolution on a smaller scale?" Kakashi asked, leaning himself back against the railing with a wince.

"How?"

"Well, these people certainly look ready for a revolution." Kakashi waved one hand vaguely at where the civilians where tossing the bodies of the dead missing-nin over the side of the bridge to drift out to sea and a watery, unmarked grave. "But they're not going to make it very far if they have to constantly worry about protecting their bridge. They may not be able to pay as well as Gato, but they won't stab you in the back either."

Zabuza gave the villagers a disdainful look, but before he could speak another thin, tired voice spoke up.

"Could we, Zabuza-sama?" Haku's eyes were dull with pain but hopeful. "I think I'd like that – protecting them."

Zabuza stared at Haku for a long moment. His eyes flicked to the space where Haku's arm should have been and then to some distant point out over the river.

"I'll think about it."

Haku smiled.

Metal jingled as Zabuza's sword started reassembling itself, and Kakashi was suddenly very glad for Gato's timely arrival.

"Hey, Kakashi-nii," Naruto piped up, "do we have to give Haku back his senbon or do we get to keep them?" He flourished a fistful of senbon.

"Under the circumstances, I think it's up to you, Naruto."

"I'm keeping mine," Sakura declared.

"You missed one." Sasuke pulled a senbon out of Sakura's half fallen out bun and handed it to her.

"Thanks, Sasuke-kun." She sighed. "I need to figure out a better way of pinning my hair – this just isn't working."

"I've always found that a cover works best," Haku told her, and Kakashi wondered just how much more surreal his life could get.

Sasuke handed his senbon to Haku.

"Shuriken are the best anyway."

"They are not!" Naruto protested hotly, also passing his senbon to Haku. "Kunai are so much better."

"I broke his mask with a shuriken."

"Yeah? Well, we couldn't have made that stretcher without kunai, and I didn't see you blocking any senbon with shuriken, teme!"

"If today has proven anything, it's that senbon really are the best," disagreed Sakura.

"You want us to stick around, Boss?" asked Pakkun, sitting down next to Kakashi.

"I think we're good now. You can head back."

Pakkun huffed.

"Right." The pug watched for a moment as Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura started debating weapons. "Looks like you're doing a good job with your pups so far."

Kakashi smiled to himself.

"Thanks."