Chapter 11: Changes in Perception


They were dead.

It was disconcerting, seeing them lying side by side in death. Light snow started to cover the bridge and the villagers wandered back now that the threat was gone. Sakura wanted to shout at them, her fists clenching as she stood between her teammates. They didn't have to die. And they didn't have to be left like this. But the villagers could only see Zabuza and Haku as two of the enemies who'd tormented them.

They'd expected the attack when it came that morning, even if Kakashi-sensei had predicted it would be another couple days. Tazuna had stood behind her, his breath a bit too fast, and she watched the others fight, constantly on edge with the possibility they'd suddenly turn their attention towards her. They didn't. Instead, great panes of ice had formed, blocking both Sasuke and Naruto from sight and she was left with her belief they'd win. Until the panes had broken to reveal Sasuke seemingly dead. Her eyes still stung from the tears, even though he currently stood beside her. Alive.

"We should bury them," she suggested quietly as the last villager left. "They should at least have that."

Sakura avoided Kakashi-sensei's gaze as he stared at her. "I doubt the village would appreciate that sentiment."

"It doesn't have to be in the village," Sasuke interjected.

Naruto brightened, the idea catching. "They don't even have to know! We could bury them in the forest or - or on the beach. Beside each other, they must have been really close after all."

"And all of you are certain you want to do this?" Kakashi-sensei asked them.

Sakura watched as her teammates nodded their consent, disbelief settling in her chest, before she added her own agreement to the mix. It was the right thing to do. Her conviction grew with the approval of her team. They'd bury Zabuza and Haku, even if nobody else knew about the graves.

Kakashi-sensei considered the three of them and they froze with the feeling they'd done something wrong but they didn't take it back. Then he relaxed, shoulders slumping in his usual laziness and then nodded. "I agree. But we'll wait until tomorrow morning before they start working on the bridge."

They lingered there in silence until the snow slowed to a stop and for the first time, Sakura felt like she really was part of a team. Like she wanted to do more than get closer to Sasuke. That was important, of course, but maybe others things were important too. Regardless, she'd be there for them, despite the danger they threw themselves into.

Regardless of how often she'd be left thinking they were dead.

(That didn't mean she wouldn't enact her revenge as she saw fit, Sakura reassured herself. It was clear they'd run straight first into any fight without so much as a plan. Dead teammates wouldn't do her much good.)

Celebrations were already in full swing as they walked through the village, enough dancing and laughing that it was obvious the bridge wouldn't be worked on until tomorrow at the earliest. They found Tazuna easily enough, in middle of it all, and he laughed them off, inviting them to join in.

Naruto seemed to decide that was enough of a reason to take to it like a bee to honey. It was difficult to understand how he went from yelling at a S-rank shinobi to dancing with Inari. She didn't feel nearly as confident, moving off to the side to watch from a distance.

Sasuke sat down beside her on the damp grass. "He's not like us."

As in on cue, Naruto stumbled into a young woman and managed to knock a jug of water over both of them.

"You're right," Sakura replied resolutely. "He's an idiot."

"Hn. He's going to get himself killed one day."

She frowned. Naruto was ridiculous and an idiot at best but that was taking it a bit far, wasn't it? He was still their teammate. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto doesn't understand how our world works. We're going to have to kill people one day and it won't be as simple as making them switch sides. And he's going to keep asking them to, even when there are no sides."

No sides? Sakura frowned down at the ground. Sasuke wasn't suggesting that they'd have to kill people they'd normally consider on their side, was he? Of course she knew things weren't always simple and that the missions they were given would sometimes be difficult to complete. They'd learned it right up there with what they should do if they were captured by enemy shinobi. If they were tortured by the enemy. But there was such a small chance of it ever happening that she'd never really thought about it again.

If Sasuke was right then Naruto really could end up getting himself killed. Sakura could picture it as clear as day. Even more so, she could see him compromising their mission in order to convince someone to do what he thought was right.

Zabuza hadn't had to listen to him in the end.

"He's going to get us killed," Sasuke continued. "All because he doesn't realize the world isn't black and white. Just different shades of grey."

There was a compulsion to agree with him. Nothing could have been more natural. But the longer she waited to respond, the less certain she was that did agree. Maybe Naruto's way was wrong, that wouldn't surprise her. But they were shinobi, not mercenaries, weren't they?

"What should we do then?" she asked him mildy.

Sasuke glared at her as if he thought the answer was obvious - it wasn't, she kept drawing blanks - and then looked away with a huff. He didn't know the answer either then.

The Sasuke she thought she knew would have known the answer. But that Sasuke also wouldn't have mentioned any of this, might have talked about how Naruto was such a burden on their team but not to the point where he suggest they'd die because of it. This version of him, and Sakura refused to believe it was the real Sasuke she'd just never noticed before, was a lot darker than she ever would have guessed. He stood abruptly and walked off, leaving her on the outskirts of the celebrations.

If Sasuke had gone off to get away from the villagers, than Naruto was doing the exact opposite. The blond was only one of many dancing and someone had started playing a guitar. They were spinning and dancing more to their own laughter than to the music, lifted by the knowledge that Gato was too dead to torment them again.

It was a far cry from what Naruto had looked like that morning on the bridge.

She couldn't really connect Naruto to that mass of red, angry chakra. It almost felt as if the chakra was still lashing out at her. That Naruto had snapped and snarled like a wild animal, and his eyes had shone long after the chakra itself had disappeared. The others couldn't have missed that.

Naruto was an idiot, the last in their class, a loudmouthed jokester, not some beast with the potential to rip a person to shreds. And her parents had warned her about it. Not in so many words but they were worried about her being on a team with him. She'd brushed it off back then because it was Naruto and the worst danger he posed was his own inability to make a proper shadow clone. Had they known there was something different about him?

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called, finally spotting her. "Come join us!"

Sakura hesitated. The fight, Zabuza and Haku dying, still left her sick to her stomach. And if Sasuke was right about the world just being shades of grey than maybe none of them should really be celebrating.

Except there was the chance Sasuke was wrong. Or maybe he wasn't but she didn't have to let that stop her from joining in. It seemed like fun and an older girl walked over as she slowly got to her feet. There was no protesting as she was pulled into the fray, awkward at first but it was easy enough to fall into the rhythm of it all.

And so, maybe she could still enjoy herself. Shinobi or glorified mercenary.

Someone pulled her into a tight spin, and breathless laughter spilled from her lips. This was more enjoyable than it had looked. Sakura lost herself in it, letting the music and laughter wash thoughts of battle and philosophy away.

Afternoon quickly melded into night and things only got rowdier as children were sent to bed. Sakura hadn't seen Sasuke in hours, even as she spotted Naruto and Kakashi-sensei every now and then. For once, it wasn't a difficult decision not to seek Sasuke out, not when their earlier conversation had left her so conflicted. Instead she slowly made her way back to Tazuna's as the day's excitement began to weigh on her.

"Haruno-san!"

She looked behind her to see a grin reflected back, so different from the scowl when she'd first arrived. "Hello, Inari-san. Are you heading back too?"

The ten year old nodded as he fell in step with her. "Everyone's acting weird."

Sakura giggled. As most of the children left, a couple bottles started getting passed around. It must have been potent because it didn't take long for them to start laughing and stumbling. Tipsy enough to argue about offering her a drink, at any rate. That was part of why she'd decided to leave as well.

"Why are you heading back? You guys are the ones who should really be celebrating," Inari asked her.

"Not really," she countered.

"Huh, why not?"

"I don't think it's about us. Tazuna-san hired us, even if it wasn't what we thought the mission would be, and it ended with more people dead." The words felt odd even to her but Sakura rushed ahead, awkwardly. "We're not supposed to kill people unless we absolutely have to."

Inari was stricken. "But-"

"Naruto-kun was still right, Inari-san," Sakura reassured him, forcing a smile. It faded quickly as Sasuke's words lingered in the back of her mind. "It's just, not all of us are like you and Naruto-kun. We fight but we're not heroes."

"I don't believe it!"

"It's fine. We still do what we can."

Inari was quick to shake his head. "That's not it! You have to stand up for what's right. It's not about being a hero. It's - you just have to do what you believe in, no matter what. You're Uzumaki-san's friends, you shouldn't give up on anything."

"What I believe in?" she murmured.

And Inari nodded as if it were really that simple. Sakura still didn't understand but she let Inari believe she did, if only so she could stop talking about it. Maybe Sasuke was right and Naruto would end up getting them killed. Or maybe Naruto was right and things were really as simple as fighting for what they believed in. Except figuring out what she believed in any capacity was proving to be much more difficult than she'd ever thought it would be.

Just wanting to come to a conclusion that wasn't someone else's was already new and overwhelming. First it had been her parents whose words she took as sacred, the world becoming clear as they tried to explain it to her. Then she met Ino and she'd thought Ino was the best person ever, so it had been simple to adjust her views accordingly. After that, it was Sasuke and if she agreed with him on everything then maybe, just maybe, he would go on a date with her. She didn't even know if that would work anymore.

The Sasuke she'd thought she knew would eventually turn around and see her waiting for him.

He didn't imply that they weren't any better than missing-nin.

The next day they buried Zabuza and Haku on a nearby cliffside overlooking the sea where they could be together in death. Even though Zabuza had been certain they were headed to different places. The villagers didn't question it when they got to the bridge and found the bodies gone, seemingly preferring to believe their enemies had turned to ash.

Kakashi-sensei was the one who suggested they stick around until the bridge was finished, just in case. The three of them agreed easily and the villagers welcomed their presence, even though there wasn't the slightest sign of Gato's men. Not to get revenge, not to stop the bridge from being built for their own reasons.

Months later, Sakura would find out they named it the Great Naruto Bridge.


"Sakura!"

Sakura groaned into her pillow, holding back a stream of curses. It never mattered how quietly she muttered them, somehow her mother always managed to know she'd spoken them. Even if it was far too early to be awake.

"Sakura, if you don't get out of bed now then you'll miss your training!"

No, she wouldn't. Because Kakashi-sensei was never on time, not unless any of them were late to training. Then he'd miraculously show up the exact minute they were supposed to be there and all of them would have to run a lap around the village. But she rolled out of bed anyways.

"You spent-"

"I'm up, kaa-san!"

There was no holding back the curses as Sakura glanced towards her alarm clock, the alarm still turned off from her mission. She scrambled to get ready, throwing clothes on her bed in a desperate attempt to find something clean. Her father blinked wearing when she pushed past him to get in the bathroom first. Sasuke might notice her if she managed to put on a bit of makeup but there wasn't the time and she stormed down the stairs instead.

Her mother looked nothing short of disapproving but she sighed as Sakura ran past, only pausing to grab the bento box on the kitchen counter. "Have a good day!"

"I will! See you tonight, kaa-san."

By the time she got to the bridge they always met at, Sakura was huffing and puffing from the effort of getting here on time. Only of course none of her team was around yet. Sasuke and Naruto were probably still laying in bed, free from the scolding of mothers to make them get up. Or do chores. Or anything else. It really wasn't that fair at all when she thought about it.

The only person who was at their meeting place was a woman she'd never seen before with blue hair meticulously tied into a bun. At a glance, the woman looked like a civilian. She wore civilian clothes and the vague sense Sakura had of chakra didn't feel like a shinobi's. But there was something else Sakura couldn't quite put her finger on. It might have been the way the woman stood or a certain tenseness in her shoulders. Civilian or shinobi, Sakura wasn't that concerned. The woman wore no hitai-ate to declare which village she was from.

The guards wouldn't be impressed if she pointed them towards a Konoha shinobi who Sakura just didn't know.

"You don't have to stand so far away," the woman spoke and her voice was cool and collected. But her gaze didn't so much as drift away from the water.

Definitely a shinobi then.

Civilians really weren't that observant. Sakura could have stood there for any amount of time and a civilian might not have noticed her until they turned around and saw her with their own two eyes. The only trouble here then was if this woman was a shinobi from another village, someone who wasn't supposed to be here. A spy, maybe. Sakura probably should have gone to find a bingo book yesterday instead of sleeping all day. Just in case anything like their trip to Wave ever happened again.

But she was strong enough to talk to a potentially dangerous kunoichi. Technically, it was something she did every day.

Keeping that in mind, she leaned against the railing beside the woman. The proximity made it even more obvious that she was a shinobi with the toned muscles in her arms, highlighted by the sleeveless blue dress she wore. And the woman was gorgeous. The intensity of her gaze took Sakura's breath away and even more than that was the curve of her cheekbones and the dip in her lips.

"Who are you?" Sakura blurted out.

The woman let out a soft breath that could almost be mistaken for a laugh but she didn't look surprised. Or even amused. "I have a visitor's pass, kunoichi-san. There's no reason to worry about your village today."

Heat quickly gathered in her cheeks and her mouth opened and closed as she attempted to say something, anything. Yet the woman still looked composed, as if it was a completely reasonable thing to be paranoid around strangers. Sakura felt like an idiot. Of course some random person wasn't going to attack the village!

Though, on second thought, Sakura didn't doubt this woman could take over Konoha.

"If you really want something to refer to me as, you may call me Angel," the woman continued. "However, people will be more likely to listen to you if you offer your name before demanding theirs."

As if Sakura could suffer through this humiliation a second or third time.

"I'm Haruno Sakura."

Angel inclined her head slightly and turned back towards the creek. This was almost certainly the strangest interaction she'd ever had.

It would have been so much easier if she could talk to someone with the same amount of poise as Angel did. Angel probably didn't have to deal with any of the issues she'd had to deal with lately either. Sasuke's words - of the danger Naruto would bring to them, of what he thought their world was really like - hadn't so much as loosened their hold on her. Both him and Naruto seemed to have their entire world worked out. Meanwhile, Sakura couldn't even seem to bring herself to tell someone she didn't know what she thought.

Maybe she could fix that.

Sakura took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. "What do you think it means to be a shinobi, Angel-san?"

The corners of Angel's lips twitched in an almost smile. "I don't know if anyone knows that answer, Haruno-san."

"Oh."

"But as for my personal feelings, I believe shinobi are the means by which the world will become a better place. It won't be easy or painless but we can work towards a day where shinobi are no longer necessary in ways civilians would never understand."

"Sakura-chan!"

The suddenness of Naruto's voice made her jump and swivel around to stare at him while he walked towards her with Rin trailing after him. Sakura glanced back at Angel, almost immediately feeling as if she'd somehow betrayed the older woman by acknowledging him. But Angel was just standing there, shoulders drawn back to make her look taller. As if that was necessary, she couldn't have been that much shorter than Kakashi-sensei and she already didn't slouch like he did.

But for some reason, the same tension was mirrored in Rin.

Sakura didn't know much about the older Uzumaki. He lingered around the training grounds sometimes and she thought he always looked a bit sad. Or some variant of sad. It was the same look he'd worn when he'd suggested she become a medic-nin. Rin didn't even slightly look like that at the moment though.

Naruto slowed as he got closer, finally noticing that Sakura wasn't on the bridge alone. "Eh, Sakura-chan, do you know this woman?"

"We just met," Sakura replied and she resisted the urge to look back and forth between the two adults. They weren't going to start fighting in the streets. At least, she didn't think they were. "Naruto-kun, this is Angel-san. Angel-san, this is Uzumaki Naruto. He's my teammate. And this is his cousin-"

"Rin-san, I was hoping we'd get the opportunity to see each other today."

And just like that, a light seemed to turn on in Naruto's head. "Wait! Is she the one who-"

"She is," Rin rushed to say. He looked by far the most uncomfortable with this situation. "I'll talk to you later, Naruto. If Angel-san came all this way to see me than the least I can do is treat her to lunch and a tour around the village."

Angel smiled for real this time and the blood froze in Sakura's veins. "I didn't come here simply to see you but I'll accept your generous offer. I hope your worries have been calmed, Haruno-san."

"Yes, thank you, Angel-san."

The air was charged as Angel joined Rin, her heels echoing on the pavement, but they seemed amiable enough as they followed the path back into the village. Sakura stared at them; Angel's dark, tight-fitting apparel was the complete opposite of Rin's mismatched, loose clothes. In fact, they seemed to be opposites in almost every way.

Except in that they were both potentially dangerous, foreign shinobi.

"What just happened?" Naruto asked, confusion seeped into his voice.

"I… really don't know," Sakura replied faintly.