BOUND
Chapter 14: Knowing Your Fears

"Really, I'm not sure you guys should do that," I sing, peeling off my gloves and shoving them into my pouch. Since I'd lost half of my favorite pair of gloves in the early stages of the formation of Team 7, I'd been using a pair of black gloves that I'd found in one of Sasuke's drawers. When I asked him if I could have it, he harrumphed as he usually did and dismissed me. I took this in an "It's all yours" kind of way. Already, though, the gloves are wearing out and fraying, which irks me. I wish for my old gloves back. "I swear: you're going to wake him up."

Sakura and Naruto are leaning over Kakashi's face as he sleeps. Sakura glares at me over her shoulder, her index finger hooked as she's about to pull Kakashi's mask down. "Come on, Ren," she says. "Stop acting all high and mighty. You can't tell me that you don't wonder what his face really looks like beneath the mask. Today was the first day we ever saw what his eye looked like under his headband, and it turned out to be something remarkable. Who's to say that there isn't something that he's hiding from us by always wearing this mask?"

"Maybe he's got chronically chapped lips," I offer, shrugging, "and he doesn't want to gross people out."

Sakura rolls her eyes and turns back to Kakashi. "Whatever, Ren. You're the one that instigated this in the first place."

This is true. But in my defense, I had to wonder how Kakashi managed to breathe correctly with that mask always covering his airways. My only mistake was voicing this thought out loud. To which Sakura asked, "Do you think we should take it off for him, considering the condition he's in?"

"Well," I said, "if he wanted it off, he probably would've taken it off before he fell asleep. Just leave it."

"But isn't he temporarily paralyzed?" Sakura countered. "What if he wanted to take it off but couldn't. And the thought of asking one of us to do it for him embarrassed him so much that he didn't want to do it?"

"No," I said, propping my elbow on my knee so that I could rest my chin in the heel of my hand. My fingers curled toward my lips, and I bit into my nails, a bad habit I'm still trying to break. "I don't think that's it."

"Have any of you guys ever seen Kakashi-sensei with his mask off?" Naruto inquired.

"Now that you mention it," Sakura said thoughtfully, "I haven't."

"Ren?"

"Nope."

"Sasuke?"

"Hmph."

"That would be a no," I clarified.

"So?" Naruto said, clambering over to Kakashi's side. "Why don't we see what he looks like under the mask now? While he's sleeping. We'll take it off, put it back on, and he'll never know it."

Which brings us to where we are at the present.

"And if he wakes up before we can put it back on," Sakura says smartly, "we'll just tell him that we were clearing his passageways so that he would be able to sleep better."

I sigh heavily, exchanging a look with Sasuke, who is, as usual, remaining neutral. "Fine," I cave, throwing my hands up in defeat. "I don't care anymore. Don't say I didn't warn you though."

Sakura inches her hand along at snail's pace. Suddenly, as she's about to lift the mask, she and Naruto shriek in unison before flopping backwards. Slowly, Kakashi shifts in his bed and gets up, putting a hand over his face. He has this serious look in his eye, one that often comes hand in hand with a revelation.

I smirk and stick my tongue out at Sakura as she and Naruto recover from almost having a heart attack. Tsunami, who had, I guess, heard my teammates' screams, comes into the main room and, seeing Kakashi sitting up, says, "Oh, Kakashi-sensei, you're awake."

He rubs his hand over his face and doesn't say anything. Instead, he cups his hand over his mouth and gets this distracted look about his eyes.

"Hmm?" Naruto hums, noticing our teacher's troubled state. "What's wrong, sensei?"

Kakashi brings his fingers up to his forehead, before looking up at us and saying, "Well. Hunter-Nin who manage corpse disposals are suppose to destroy the bodies of those they kill at once, right on the spot."

"So what?" Sakura asks as I internally groan. Less than a minute awake and already Kakashi is taking us back to work. Shouldn't we get to rest too?

"Don't you get it?" says Kakashi. "How did that masked boy disposed of Zabuza's body?"

"How are we supposed to know?" Sakura says, shrugging. "He took the body with him."

"Exactly," Kakashi says. "If he needed proof of his work, he could have just taken the head. And then there's the weapon that he'd used to kill Zabuza."

I think back to when I'd examined Zabuza's body for myself. The needles that had pierced through Zabuza's neck—they were sleek, simple, thin. Then I remember why they'd felt so familiar.

"Those acupuncture needles," I say, blinking. My teammates turn to me, their faces twisted with confusion and curiosity. "My mom used to use them all the time," I explain quickly, "to help people with pain and stuff. But what—" My eyes widen as it comes to me.

Sasuke, having heard my explanation, gets it too. "No way," he mutters, mirroring my expression.

"Yeah," Kakashi says, rubbing the back of his head. "Exactly."

"What nonsense are you guys talking about?" Tazuna, who had been sitting nearby and had overheard everything, wants to know. The worry lines on his face become even more prominent.

"It's likely that," Kakashi says, "Zabuza is still alive."

The mouths of Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna drop open in horror. Tsunami, not understanding the threat, having not been there for the fight herself, scowls at us, confused.

"What the hell do you mean?" Naruto bellows.

"You checked to be sure that Zabuza was dead, didn't you?" Sakura adds.

"He did," I interject. "I did too. But it's easy to stage a death if you know what you're doing."

Kakashi nods. "The acupuncture needles that Hunter-Nin used," he says, "can be deadly. If they hit a vital spot. If not, the mortality rate is surprisingly low. And remember, as Ren said, senbon were originally designed as medical treatment tools. And Hunter-Nin and all members of a village's corpse disposal unit are supposed to have a thorough knowledge of the human body. It'd be easy for them to put a body in a death-like trance."

I cross my legs, wanting to burrow my face away in my hands as our current situation begins to soil and become messier as our sensei explains his theory to us.

"I mean, let's consider," Kakashi continues. "One: the masked boy carried away the body of the much heavier Zabuza; second: he used a weapon that has a low probably of killing. These two points indicate that his motive was not to kill Zabuza, but to, in fact, save him. We could be over thinking things, but we can't ignore that possibility."

"So aren't you complicating things by over-thinking them?" Tazuna seems to complain. "Hunter-Nins are supposed to hunt missing-Nins, right?"

"Usually," Kakashi admits. "But ignoring something this suspicious is bad on a shinobi's part. We must always be prepared, no matter the situation." Kakashi sighs, a new thought occurring to him. "Plus, whether Zabuza is dead or alive doesn't assure that Gato hasn't hired even stronger shinobi to come after you."

God. I knew it. I knew it. Zabuza's death couldn't have been that simple. It couldn't have been so easy. Not for us at least.

"You say a shinobi must always be prepared," Sakura says, "but right now, you can't even move. What are we supposed to do?"

Kakashi laughs as though the answer is obvious. "I'm going to increase your training schedule."

"Wha—training?" she echoes. "But, sensei, what will a little training matter now what with who we're up against? Our opponent is a ninja so power that even with your Sharingan he almost defeated you!"

"And when I was in trouble," he says curtly, "Sakura, who was it that saved me? You four are all maturing, progressing rapidly. Especially you, Naruto!" Kakashi grins at the blonde boy by his feet. "You've grown the most."

He had been the one to think of the plan, I agree, smirking as Sakura gives Naruto a dubious look. Naruto doesn't seem to notice though. He's too busy beaming at the compliment that's just been paid to him.

My head perks up when I feel a sudden disturbance in the floorboard beneath me. Small, cautious footsteps. Before I can think much more of it, though, Kakashi speaks again.

"That being said, the skills I teach you now will only be an interim thing, to tide us over until I've recovered enough to take over again."

"But sensei!"

I groan. Sakura has an argument for everything, it seems. Why can't she just go with it for once?

"If Zabuza is alive, how can we just train without knowing when he'll strike again?"

"It takes a while for a body to recover from having almost died, Sakura," I say. "By the time Zabuza's recovered, Kakashi will probably be well enough to take him on again."

Sakura gives me a "How do you know?" look only to divert her gaze when Kakashi says, "Ren's right."

"So we train until then!" Naruto cheers, clenching his fists and grinning. "Sounds like it could be fun!"

"Not for you," a childish voice says blandly. We turn our heads toward the voice to find a small boy around eight-ish years old. He's wearing green overalls over a tan shirt, with a hat that has two stripes running horizontally across it. The hat almost engulfs his head.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto remarks, glaring at the boy.

I remember how Tazuna had brought up the fact that he'd had a grandson when he'd been guilt-tripping us into going through with our mission. This, I decide as the boy kicks off his shoes and clambers toward Tazuna, is probably him.

"Inari!" Tazuna greets enthusiastically, opening his arms for a hug. "Where have you been?"

"Out," he answers. "Welcome back, Grandpa."

"Inari, greet our guests properly!" scolds Tsunami. "They're the esteemed ninja who brought your grandfather home safely!"

Inari blinks at us before turning to his mother. He points a finger our way and says, "But Mama, they're just gonna die."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU LITTLE BRAT?" Naruto exclaims, bolting to his feet.

My brow furrows together with confusion, my lips twisting in a knot as I watch Inari stand placidly by, despite the way Naruto fumes just in front of him.

"No one can beat Gato and his men," Inari mumbles hopelessly, making Tazuna squirm.

"You brat!"

Sakura jumps up to restrain Naruto. "Pull yourself together!" she orders. "He's just a little boy!"

"A little boy with a bad attitude," I say and prop my chin on my fist to watch as the scene goes down.

"Right!" Naruto agrees. He stabs a finger at Inari, a vein pulsing on his forehead. "Pay attention, little guy! I'm a super hero who will one day become an incredible ninja called Hokage! I don't know this Gato guy, but he's nothing against me!"

Inari scoffs, his face screwing up in a sneer. "What are you, stupid?" he asks. "There's no such thing as a hero!"

"WHAT?" Naruto sizzles.

"I said, stop it!"

"If you don't want to die," Inari says as he turns away from us and makes way for the door, "you should leave now."

"Inari," his grandfather calls after him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go look at the ocean from my room," he says, and slams the door behind him.

"Well," I say into the stunned silence of the company around me. "That was interesting."

"I'm…sorry," Tazuna mutters feebly for his grandson.

Naruto jerks out of Sakura's hold just then and stomps after Inari, fuming about being doubted.

"Naruto!" Sakura cries, exasperated.

"Just leave him," I say, waving my hand in order to calm Sakura. I can't take anymore drama than what's already gone on. "Naruto will know what to do."

[+]

When Kakashi has recovered enough to stand with the help of crutches, he takes us out to the woods by the house for training. Naruto is stoked to be able to do some real training, but when it's revealed that he doesn't know much about chakra usage, Sakura goes into this lecture about how chakra is the energy a shinobi needs when performing jutsu per Kakashi's request.

"Chakra has two points," she explains as my head lolls to the side. I hadn't gotten much sleep again, and this fact mixed with this lesson is making me drowsy, since I already know about chakra and chakra control. I'm a medic for God's sake. Not that any of these guys know that. "The body energy that is in each of the billions of cells and the spiritual energy gained through training and other experiences. By bringing out and releasing chakra, you can use a jutsu. This is done through the process of performing a seal with the hands."

"Exactly," Kakashi praises. "Iruka-sensei had some good students at least."

Sakura flushes and grins smugly.

"Well, I didn't understand that complicated explanation," Naruto says and I laugh while Sakura fumes, "but isn't that something you learn with your body anyway?"

"Naruto is right," Sasuke agrees. "We can already use jutsu."

"But none of you yet have full mastery of your chakra," Kakashi says and I give him a knowing look that he doesn't notice or ignores. "Just because you can use jutsu doesn't mean that you're using your chakra to its full potential. Listen, as Sakura said earlier, to release chakra means to bring out physical and spiritual energy and mix them together within your body. Based on what jutsu you use, the type and amount of chakra that is released will be different. Right now, none of you"—I sigh heavily and roll my eyes. Again, Kakashi doesn't acknowledge me.—"are using your chakra effectively. Even if you are able to release a high amount of chakra, unless you control it properly, the jutsu will be weakened or not work at all, and by wasting energy, you won't be able to fight as long. These kinds of weakness will appear."

"So what do we do?" Naruto asks, muffing his head .

"Learn how to control it, of course," Kakashi says, "through very tough training."

"What," Sakura starts hesitantly, looking anxiously around to see if anyone else is as nervous as she is, "are we going to do?"

"We," Kakashi says, "are going to climb trees!"

Our faces drop. I tug on the hem of my headband, bristles of my hair irritating my skin.

"Tree climbing?" repeats Sakura incredulously. "What kind of training is that?"

"Just listen," Kakashi says. "This isn't going to be normal tree climbing. We're going to be climbing without our hands."

Naruto immediately brightens at the thought. Sasuke arches his brow at Kakashi like he's doubting our teacher's sanity. I bite my lip, abandoning the act of trying to adjust my headband and tugging instead at the tuff of hair that's sticking out from under my headband. Damn this hair for growing so fast.

Sakura crosses her arms behind her back and asks, "How?"

"Watch," Kakashi says, and presses his hands together into the sign of the ram. There's a surge of chakra in the air before Kakashi slowly makes his way over to a nearby tree and props his left foot on it. Then his right foot. Then his left again. He continues this until he's just walking up the trunk of the tree.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stare after him with wide eyes. Naruto smiles like he can't believe it.

"He's climbing," Naruto mutters.

"Vertically, without his hands," Sakura verifies.

"You both have a very firm grasp of the obvious," I spit, my anxiety making me snap at them. I give my hair another tug, shifting on my feet. I accidentally bump Sasuke. "Sorry," I mumble, keeping my eyes on the ground. "I, uh. Aha. You know. Sorry."

Sasuke furrows his brow at me as our sensei says, "Do you understand now? Just gather your chakra to the bottom of your feet and climb up a tree. This is something you can do once you can use your chakra efficiently."

"Wait a minute!" Sakura says. "How is learning to climb a tree going to make us stronger?"

"Well," he answers, "first, it's going to teach you how to control your chakra; to bring out the proper amount to the proper area. As I said earlier, this is the most important aspect when using jutsu. This can be difficult for even a skilled ninja. The amount of chakra needed to climb a tree is small, but it must be exact. To add to that, it's said that the bottom of the foot is the most difficult area to gather chakra. Theoretically, if you learn this control, you should be able to master any jutsu."

"Although I don't really need to do this, do I?" I almost blurt, crossing my arms. I mean, it's a good work out and stuff, sure, but climb a tree? As in "Go-climb-up-a-tree,-any-tree,-and-get -as-high-as-you-can-on-said-tree-so-we-can-measure -your-skill"? Is that really the only way to measure how well my chakra control is? Why don't you get something lodged in your arm and I'll use my chakra to cut it out for you and then seal it up all nice and neat? Wouldn't that be easier? And not so high up?

I know that I'm supposed to be on this team to make myself seem normal and all that jazz, but I don't want to climb a tree. Especially not trees so tall and massive.

Three kunai strike the ground, one in front of each of my teammates, causing me to jump, since I hadn't been paying attention. Also, because I had already been freaking out about having to climb a tree, the added surprise of the kunai almost hitting me makes me yelp. My friends give me queer looks as I flush bright red.

"Use those kunai to mark how high you make it up a tree," Kakashi orders, motioning to the trunk of the tree that he's on. He pauses, and then directs a finger at me, saying, "Except Ren."

I breathe a sigh of magnificent relief.

Sakura, glaring, shouts, "What! Why does Ren get to skip out on our training? She probably needs it as much as we do!"

"Actually," Kakashi says, "Ren is a kunoichi who is specialized in chakra control. She comes from a family of renowned medic-Nin."

"The moment it's revealed that a child of the Kagiru clan can be a shinobi," I explain quickly so Sakura doesn't have time to convince Kakashi to get me to climb a tree as well, "we're put through rigorous chakra control training sessions so that we can start to learn how to perform medical ninjutsu at once because medical ninjutsu takes precision. If you're performing surgery or healing a fatal injury, one screw up in your measurement and you could kill your patient."

"So there's no need for Ren to go through with such a training course," Kakashi explains. "I have complete confidence in her ability of chakra control. Besides, I hear she's dreadfully afraid of heights."

Damn him.

"Whatever!" I announce, crossing my arms as heat rushes to my face. Sakura and Naruto snigger together, these sly looks on their faces. They have their hands covering their mouths as though I won't be able to tell that they're laughing at me that way. "I'm leaving. Have fun catching up to me."

This makes both Naruto and Sakura glare daggers into the back of my head as I exit the scene. I hear Kakashi call their attention again before there's silence as they concentrate their chakra.

Glad to not have to put forth effort for the rest of the day, I reach up and pull my headband off so that my hair has some time in the salty sea air. I muss it up before tying my headband back over my forehead, only this time, the way Naruto and Sasuke have theirs. As I tighten the fabric, I notice Inari walking in the same direction I am, back to the house. I furrow my brow, wondering if he'd been watching us. I consider calling out to him to ask him, but then remember the bad attitude he'd had yesterday. He obviously had something against people trying to give others a hand.

I briefly wonder why.

[+]

I'm lying on a pile of planks of wood the next morning, trying to find shapes through the fog. I can't. It makes me almost homesick, not being able to see any clear skies and curlicue clouds. Although you can really do that anywhere. Except for here, it seems.

Kakashi's assigned me to Bridge Builder Watch again, while the others went back to the training area to perfect their chakra control. From the stories I'd heard the other day at dinner (and judging by the size of the bumps on Naruto's head plus the number of bruises he'd collected) it hadn't been as easy as they'd thought it was going to be.

"Aren't you supposed to be protecting me?" Tazuna says as he comes by.

"Something along those lines, I think," I answer, waving my hand around to see if I can manipulate the mist. All it does is flutter a little more.

Tazuna scoffs. "What are you ninja kids good for if you're not even going to try to provide me with super protection?"

"Hey, old man, this is what you signed up for when you posted that mission as C-rank: No good kid ninja who sit on their asses all day. And I understand that you can't afford any better, but we are doing our civic duty as ninja by even being here you, given the current circumstances." I heave myself up and regard him blankly. "Besides, I don't sense anything or anyone other than your men walking around the bridge and banging away at nails. It actually kind of hurts my head."

"Can you be so sure of that?" Tazuna scowls, picking up a board of wood from the pile beside me. "You're a kid. You can't expect me to believe that you can sense everything going on along this massive expanse of a bridge."

"Don't act so haughty. We've—well, I have a lot more experience than kids my age should."

Tazuna rolls his eyes and walks away as I blink a few times, the vibrations that I've set up around the area of the bridge shifting with the chakra of a ninja. It's nothing alarming though.

"Sakura," I announce, surprised as her figure emerges from the fog. "What's up? Have you got news on Zabuza for us?"

"Hmm? Oh, no." She shakes her head, coming to a stop in front of me. "Kakashi-sensei sent me here to help you out with protecting Tazuna."

"Why?" I ask, though I don't mean it the snarky way it comes out.

Sakura rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Because I aced that training that Kakashi put us through."

"What about Sasuke and Naruto?"

She smirks. "Naruto hardly got a meter above the ground and Sasuke-kun was only able to go half as high as I did."

I laugh, leaning back, holding onto the planks beneath me to keep myself from falling over. "Wow, who knew about you, Sakura?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she snaps.

"Nothing! Really," I reassure, grinning. I throw my feet back over the planks so that I can lie down. "Good job," I praise before closing my eyes and clasping my hands together over my stomach. "I'll bet Naruto and Sasuke probably aren't very happy about being beaten by a girl."

Sakura sighs. I feel her leaning up against the plank pile as well. "Yeah," she says miserably. "I mean, I don't care what Naruto thinks so much as I do Sasuke-kun, and he seemed really upset at me. And to add to that, Kakashi-sensei started teasing him to provoke him into trying harder."

This piques my interest. "What'd he say?"

"I'm not going to speak a bad word against Sasuke-kun!" Sakura says, scandalized.

"Oh, come on, Sakura. It's just you and me here. No one will ever know."

"No way," Sakura says firmly. "Anyway, Ren, I was wondering, all that stuff that Kakashi-sensei said about you yesterday—about your family and stuff—was that all true?"

I open one eye to regard her curiously. "Why wouldn't it be?" I ask.

"Well, I just thought," she says hurriedly, shrugging, "that because sensei knew about your fear of heights that he made all that stuff up and you played along so that you wouldn't have to do it."

"Uh, no," I say, sitting up. "Kakashi's not the kind of guy to send people out on a mission unprepared. Besides, if I didn't have proper chakra control, I would have sucked it up and gone through with the training, despite my fear of heights. That's what it means to be a shinobi, right? Overcoming your fears to do what you need to do to help people, to become stronger so you can better protect people."

Sakura looks at me as though she's never seen me before. "Yeah," she agrees slowly. "Okay. And I know Kakashi-sensei is super perceptive and all, but how did he know that stuff about your family?"

"Kakashi," I answer, "has known me for a long time. We go back. Anyway," I say quickly, deciding to bring an end to that subject so she won't be able to pry any further and I won't risk revealing something that I don't want her to know. Like the bond. "You'd better find something to occupy your time with. It's boring out here. Nothing's on the move and it's basically a bunch of sweaty old men clogging by every few minutes to pick up equipment."

Sakura looks around. "I can hardly see anything in this fog," she notes. "Is it really safe to be working like this?"

"Tazuna told me that the sun burns it all up by noon," I answer. "Besides, they're used to it, I guess. All this mist has mutated their eyes and now they have fog vision or something. I'm sure they're fine."

That's the last piece of conversation we have for a few hours. Tazuna is right. By noon, the sun has burned away all the fog and the coast is clear. However, it's really starting to get hot. The men had finished using all the wood in their current pile and moved on to clearing mine, so I had to move off of it and sit beside Sakura on the cement seat where the railing has been placed. I stick my legs through the bars and look down over the water sloshing back and forth beneath us. I swing my legs, my head lolling to the side wanting me to fall asleep. It's not just me, either. Sakura throws up her arms in a stretch and allows herself a massive yawn.

"You were right," Sakura tells me, leaning against the rail. "This completely sucks."

"You're telling me."

"Hey," Tazuna says. Sakura and I look up at him. This is the first time he's walked past since Sakura had arrived, so naturally, his first question is, "What're you doing here now? Where are the blonde kid and the one with the serious face?"

I scoff at the way Tazuna refers to Sasuke and Naruto. "Thanks for learning our names, old man," I say.

Sakura, however, chooses to reply politely. "They're still training."

"What? And you two don't have to?"

"Well, since I'd done so well in training," Sakura says as I turn back to the rolling waves, "Kakashi-sensei asked me to come here and help Ren protect you."

"Does that make you feel better now?" I ask. "You know, having a kid ninja here that actually knows what she's doing?"

Tazuna harrumphs, dropping a piece of wood he'd been carrying at his feet, just as someone calls, "Hey, Tazuna!"

Tazuna peers over his shoulder, wiping his brow with the towel he has thrown around his neck. There's an old man, about Tazuna's age that I'd seen speaking with Tazuna on friendly terms the other day. He has this serious look on his face that usually accompanies bad news.

"Hmm? What is it Giichi?"

"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately," he says. Another sign of bad news. "And I was wondering…can I stop working on the bridge?"

Sakura and I look to Tazuna to see what his reaction. The old man's mouth drops open and he exclaims, "What? But—but why? This is so random! I hope the other guys haven't gotten to you too."

"We've been friends for a long time now, Tazuna," Giichi answers as Sakura and I whirl our heads to look at him. "I want to help you, but if we continue, Gato will put notices out on us, and if you get killed during this bridge project, then what's the point of it? We should just…quit now. This bridge isn't worth it."

Tazuna lowers his eyes. He pauses for so long that I think he's actually going to go through with it. "I can't do that," he says at last. "This bridge is belongs to all of us. This is the bridge we started building together, believing it would bring resources to our poor country."

"But if we lose our lives—"

"Look it's already noon," Tazuna says, walking away. "Why don't stop for the day? And Giichi? You don't have to come back to work tomorrow."

Giichi clenches his fists and turns his back on his friend as well, throwing his towel down, like he's angry that he couldn't save Tazuna.

"Wow," Sakura says, staring after Giichi as he leaves.

"I know, right?" I say, propping my chin on the railing. "When I got here yesterday, Tazuna was in the middle of an argument with another guy who wanted to quit. By the end of the shift, two more people had talked to Tazuna about quitting. He just let them go. They're dropping like flies, these workers."

"Well," Sakura says, "they can't help it. They're scared."

"Yeah. Scared of being killed because of the only thing that's going to save them."

[+]

On the way home from work, Tazuna informs us that he needs to go pick up some groceries for Tsunami. Sakura and I follow along obediently, as is our duty, and end up seeing for ourselves what a poor state the Land of the Waves is in. There are people running around, robbing each other blind, people wearing signs that beg for work, anything for food. There are even little children on the side of the road, begging for scraps.

No one is willing to share.

I guess when you live in such a shabby place though, being selfish is what keeps you alive.

Inside the grocery store, the variety of vegetables is lacking, and the quantity of them is even smaller. It makes my stomach whine seeing how little food there is. It also reminds me of how, when I had been out on my own, I'd always have trouble finding food to eat because I felt guilty about killing game and I usually couldn't tell poisonous berries from safe ones (and now that I think about it, I hadn't had so much trouble getting lucky with finding food or money the first three years I was 'alone', most likely thanks to the ANBU that the Hokage had assigned to me). That's probably the reason why I never take food for granted and love it so much.

Sakura shifts uncomfortably behind me as I watch Tazuna pick up a head of cabbage without even examining it first. Not that there's anything else to compare its freshness to. I take it for him and roll it around in my hands, deciding that its quality isn't so bad. He picks up a few other things and hands them to me as well before we head to the cashier to pay for it.

Suddenly, Sakura whirls around and delivers a roundhouse kick to a man wearing a trench coat and a cap and looking all around shady. "PERVERT!" she screeches before the man can explain himself.

Sakura fumes as the man scrambles to his feet and runs out of the shop, keeping his terrified eyes on Sakura to make sure that she won't follow him.

A few seconds of silence ensue. The townspeople stare wide eyed at Sakura before lowering their heads to avoid looking at us any further.

"What the hell?" I ask, my face contorting with disbelief.

Sakura doesn't answer me. Instead, she sulks as Tazuna pays for the food. By the time he's finished, she's calmed considerably, but she still won't tell me what happened to her in the store.

"Well," I say, shrugging as Tazuna secures the groceries over this shoulder, "whatever he did, way to stick it to him."

"You sure surprised me in there," Tazuna agrees.

"What is with this town?" Sakura mutters, scowling up a storm. "I swear, it's—ah!" She readies a glare and peers over her shoulder. Tazuna and I turn to look as well, only to find a small child grinning broadly. She's wearing clothes way too big for her and her hair is a messy mane. She holds out her hands, and though she doesn't say a word, we know she wants food or money or something that will help her survive.

Sakura's face falls. She reaches into her side bag and extracts four colorfully wrapped, round candies and drops them into the child's hands. The girl absolutely beams. This had obviously been a lot more than she'd been expecting. She runs away without a word of thanks, but I don't think that really matters.

"It's been like this since Gato came," Tazuna explains. "All the townspeople have lost hope. That's why we need this bridge. It's a symbol of courage. We need for the people to lose their fear and regain their desire to stand up and fight for themselves. If the bridge…is completed, the people will return to the way they once were—the way we once were—and all will be well again."

These people are all so scared, so afraid of dying for something that they once supported wholeheartedly, but don't find is worth it anymore because the one thing that could save them is turning out to be more hassle than it's worth. They're starting to retreat into their shells, hold onto themselves and everything they've got in this life because it's better than being dead and not having anything. But they don't realize that hiding, losing hope: it's the same as having someone finish you off in the long run.

They'd rather burn bridges than face the problems that come along with building connections, finish them and see what's on the other side. I want to call them cowards, want to think myself better than them, but I'm not so different, really.

We finish the walk home in silence.

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