Inari bangs on door after door, running through the village, calling to the people to come and help. "Come on!" he shouts as he bangs on the door of one of his grandfather's friends. "Mr Giichi, come and help!"

"I'm sorry Inari," says Mr Giichi. "We can't fight, we've lost too much!"

"But that's why we NEED to fight!" shouts Inari desperately. "We have to protect what we still have left with all the strength we have!" Inari runs home, through the rows of houses, shouting "If you won't come with me I'll go alone!"

As Inari runs away, Giichi slowly gets up and walks outside. The rest of the village is doing the same. One by one they leave their houses and watch Inari run home. Inari disappears into his house and Giichi says, "We can't let him go alone."

As one the villagers vanish into their houses and re-emerge carrying whatever they could find that will pass for a weapon. Together the villagers go to Tazuna's house and wait for Inari to come out. When Inari emerges, a tin hat on his head and a small crossbow in his hand, no one says anything.

No one needs to say anything.


Zabuza thought for sure he was about to meet his end at the hands of the Copy Ninja. But then Haku got in the way. Then that interfering duo Wind and Rain arrived and stopped Kakashi's chidori in its tracks.

Now Zabuza is stuck in the middle of pack of dogs and Haku is lying a few meters away, unconscious, with a bloody gash across her chest. This battle is not going well at all. For all he knows that chidori killed Haku after all and Rain was too late.

"What the hell are you two doing here?!" Zabuza demands.

"We came to stop you from killing each other," says Wind, kneeling down beside the little girl with blue hair.

"Is she…?" Rain sounds upset.

"She's alive!" laughs Wind, and starts pulling Haku's needles out of the little girl. It seems Haku only knocked the kid out.

But, whether Wind and Rain are there or not, Zabuza has a job to do. He wrenches himself free of Kakashi's dogs and swings the Executioner's Blade at the Copy Ninja's neck.

Kakashi ducks and stabs one of the important nerves in Zabuza's left arm. "I wouldn't be doing that if I were in your position," says Kakashi.

Seriously, how does that man manage to look and sound so badass all the time? Now is not the time for feeling jealous, though.

Rain grabs Zazuza in a full nelson and says, "Dammit Zabuza, how many times do we need to tell you: don't take jobs from scumbags!"

"I have a revolution to fund!" snaps Zabuza. If he breaks free he will break his other arm. From his position he can see Haku, lying on the ground bleeding. However, what interests Zabuza more is that behind Haku is Gato and the rest of his henchmen, walking slowly towards the small gathering of shinobi.

Gato stops a few meters short of where Haku lies and laughs. "Zabuza," he says. "There's been a change of plans."

"Gato, what are you doing here?" demands Zabuza. "And why did you bring all of them?"

Gato laughs and says, "Actually, I was planning this from the start-"

"Stop playing the pronoun game!" snaps Rain.

Gato frowns. "Who are you?" he demands.

"We are allies of the Hidden Mist," says Wind. "We are here to find Zabuza and have no interest in the reason for this fight. That is your affair, Zabuza's affair and these Leaf ninjas' affair."

"Then you won't mind if my men finish them off?" asks Gato, sneering. "I simply hate having to pay for missing nins, but no village would ever take a contract from me, so I have no other choice. That is why I like to let the missing nin I hire wear himself out fighting another ninja and then kill them when they are worn down."

"That is actually a pretty clever strategy," says Rain nodding.

"Don't encourage him!" snaps Wind. "He is a despicable human being."

Zabuza wonders if Wind and Rain are married. They certainly act like a married couple. "Sorry, Kakashi," says Zabuza. "It looks like our fight is over. I no longer need to kill Tazuna so we no longer have any reason to fight."

Gato walks forward, to where Haku is lying. He stares down at Haku for a few seconds before saying, "This kid certainly didn't live up to all the boasting you did." he nudges Haku with his cane, causing fresh blood to well up out of her injury.

Zabuza feels a little flicker of something which might be emotion, but it's been so long since he's felt any that he cannot be sure.

Gato pokes Haku's injury.

"Zabuza!" yells Kakashi's orange eyesore. "Why aren't you doing anything? Haku worked for you her whole life!"

Gato stops poking Haku to listen.

"Shut up," snaps Zabuza. "Haku will be dead soon anyway. What is there to do?"

"But you should care!" yells Naruto. "She is your comrade!"

"Stupid boy," says Zabuza. "I was just using her, like Gato was using me." But he doesn't believe it - not quite.

"Do you really mean that?" Naruto demands. "Or are you lying to yourself?" he points to Haku. "She really cares about you! She dedicated her whole life to you! Are you really so heartless that you don't even care that Gato is hurting your apprentice?" Naruto starts crying, Zabuza can hear him but not see him as his eyes are fixed on Haku. "Is that how people get when they are powerful? Do they stop caring about others? That's not right!" Naruto is sobbing now. "Don't you know you're the only person she has?"

"Kid," says Zabuza, turning to look at Naruto. "I heard everything she told you." But he hadn't known before. Haku never told him her past. Zabuza can feel tears falling from his eyes. He turns back to see Gato still standing over Haku. Cold rage fills him to the very bones. Haku is Zabuza's apprentice. Haku is practically Zabuza's child. For the first time since he slaughtered 100 academy graduates and was named the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza allows himself to feel emotion. Realizing he cannot fight to his best potential with one arm down, Zabuza turns to Naruto and says, "Kid, lend me a kunai."

Naruto nods and tosses Zabuza a kunai. Zabuza bites through the bandages covering the lower half of his face and catches the kunai in his teeth. Gato is going to die. With his sword in his working hand and Naruto's kunai in his mouth, Zabuza charges Gato.

Gato retreats behind a wall of bandits like the coward he is.

It does not matter, Zabuza can and will cut through that wall of bandits. As he slices his way through to reach Gato, none of the bandits stand a chance. After the first few bandits fall, the rest start to dive out of his way. They part before him, trampling over each other to avoid his deadly blades. Zabuza cuts up a few of them on the way past because he can, and killing is what Zabuza does.

He is the exact opposite of Haku, who would never hurt anyone.

Gato backs away from Zabuza, cornering himself between the end of the bridge and the ocean. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Gato screams. "Go to Hell, you demon!"

Zabuza gets right up close so that he is almost nose-to-nose with Gato. Gato has no choice but to look right into Zabuza's eyes and those eyes show nothing but ice cold rage. "I am not going there yet, but I'll be sending you on ahead." Ignoring the Executioner's Blade, Zabuza cuts Gato's head off with the Kunai in his mouth.

As Gato's body falls back into the ocean, Zabuza turns and staggers back to Haku, his numb arm weighing him down. Something is weighing heavily on his heart. Could this be what people call fear of losing someone important? He kneels down beside Haku and stares at her injury. She got that protecting him. He should be the one protecting her. She is his apprentice after all. She is not his bodyguard.

A pair of feet appears in Zabuza's line of sight. He looks up to see Wind standing over him. "If you will allow me, I can heal her," says Wind.

"Save her," says Zabuza. "I'll even join your stupid organization, just SAVE HAKU!" The tears are falling again, but this time his whole face is visible to the Leaf ninjas. Well, there goes his reputation as a heartless killer.

Wind smiles and kneels down beside Zabuza. "I would be happy if you simply went back to your village. Mei Terumi is the Mizukage now. We backed her revolution after all." Wind activates her healing ninjutsu and begins to heal Haku.

"Sasuke! You're awake!" Kakashi's pink nerd yells.

Zabuza looks over Wind's shoulder to see the little Uchiha girl sitting up and looking around at the gathering on the bridge. Confusion is written all over her face. "It's okay Sasuke!" Naruto calls to her, waving. "Zabuza and Haku are our friends now!"

Friends….? Zabuza has never had a friend in his life.

A small noise prompts him to look at Haku. She is opening her eyes, slowly and carefully. Zabuza smiles.

"Z-zabuza sensei?" Haku stammers out.

"Hush and let Wind heal you," says Zabuza. "You did well. But don't ever sacrifice yourself for me like that again, you understand? The apprentice is supposed to carry on the dreams of the master, but you can't do that if you die before me!"

"Yes sensei," says Haku, and closes her eyes again. She is smiling.

"This is all very sweet and heartfelt," sneers one of Gato's thugs. "But aren't you forgetting something?"

"No, why?" says Kakashi.

"We're still here!" yells the bandit. "And we haven't been paid!"

"Well don't ask me to pay you," says Kakashi. "I've got genins to feed."

"Shut up, you!" yells the bandit, pointing at Kakashi. "We outnumber you, so we're gonna kill all of you and take everything valuable in this village!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," says Kakashi, making the appropriate gestures with his hands. "Does that statement include killing Tazuna?"

The bandit is caught off guard. "Well, yeah."

"Alright kids," says Kakashi, all business. "Those C Rank threats want to kill Tazuna! Let's get them!"