A/N: Absolutely LOVE the amount of reception I've been getting for these most recent chapters. Seriously, you guys have no idea how motivating that is. Keep it up if you can :)

This next chapter may be a bit...controversial to some of you.

Time for The Bridge Calamity, Conclusion

Enjoy!

Blackness.

All that was visible was the lack of visibility itself. An endless sea of darkness permeated by no sound. A void of nothingness. Swimming through it all, Satsuki could find nothing but her own consciousness. The pain was gone, but no positivity or comfort had replaced it. She was simply numb and silent. Ten, after a near eternity of nothingness, feelings began to return. The feeling of a slight wind across her face, the cold of what felt like rain, and even the sounds of a distant commotion.

Over time, each and every one of these individual sensations coalesced into a coherent whole. Her vision snapped back into frame, her ears began to function once more, and her skin felt the world around her anew. Having a clear memory of what had occurred to presumably send her to the dark void in which she had been trapped, Satsuki knew for certain that, some way, somehow, she was alive again. Or perhaps she had never died in the first place. It was difficult to know.

As she attempted to sit up, a sharp pain ripped through her body and kept her lying flat on her back. Though she had survived, she was far from healthy. Finding that moving her neck in any way at all was tremendously painful, Satsuki resigned herself to only moving her eyes to scan her surroundings. Eventually, after several moments of searching, she found a familiar sight.

'Shikamaru? If he's alive, then…' she thought to herself as she spotted the Nara standing rigidly a fair few meters away from her. With great haste, she swept her vision across its entire range in search of her remaining comrade. After a brief, panicked few seconds, she located Naruto. He was standing at the edge of the bridge, staring over the edge. The longer she studied him, the more unsettled she became.

To begin with, his entire body was outlined by a faint, glowing ember of what appeared to be red chakra. With her vision focusing further, she noticed that his nails appeared to be more akin to claws, and that his frame was shaking slightly. Slowly, gradually, the blonde turned around and stepped away from the bridge's edge. At the sight of his face, Satsuki's eyes widened and her chest tightened. His eyes were dark red with slitted pupils, the whisker markings on his cheeks were distinctly thicker, and his canines were sharp fangs.

More than the sheer shock factor of his appearance, the look of deeply-rooted despair on his face. There was a sizable stream of blood dripping down his face from his hairline, and it looked poised to mix with tears that were already threatening to fall from his eyes. He looked miserable. Overwhelmingly so.

'He was crying for me before, so...I guess that makes sense. Maybe he's a little gentler than he lets on.' Satsuki thought to herself, adding the blonde's expressive shows of empathy to the list of traits she silently defined him by. She then returned her attention to the scene before her, with Naruto walking back toward Shikamaru. What followed was an exchange of words that Satsuki couldn't quite hear.

'They don't look all that happy with each other. Naruto especially. What did I miss?' the Uchiha girl pondered. It was then that she realized that a very pivotal entity was missing from the setting. The huntress was nowhere to be seen.

'Did Naruto get rid of her? Did he actually manage to win?' she thought to herself, completely dumbstruck by the possibility. She had indeed encouraged her teammate to fight on as she had been presumed to be dying, but it would have been disingenuous to say that she had expected him to prevail. Not in the state he was in when she had left him. In the midst of her baseless attempts to make sense of what she was seeing, Shikamaru cast an odd glance in her direction. Apparently, her restored vitality was obvious to the naked eye, because the Nara immediately broke out into a jog toward her.

Within moments, he was knelt down by her side. A beat later, he looked back over his shoulder and waved for Naruto to join him.

"Get over here! She's still alive!" he yelled to the blonde. Any animosity that had existed less than a minute prior vanished instantly from Naruto's face. He came running with no questions asked. When he reached them, he practically fell over trying to stop himself. Luckily, he caught himself in time to kneel down next to Shikamaru. With both of her teammates looming over her, Satsuki opted to attempt to use her voice for the first time since her awakening.

"W...What did I miss?" she asked hoarsely. At the sound of her voice, Naruto's eyes instantly shifted back from red to their natural blue. His fangs shortened, his claws disappeared, and the anguish on his face melted away. She receive no verbal answer to her question. Instead, she was swiftly scooped up from the concrete and tightly hugged by Naruto.

"T-Thank god…" he whispered. Satsuki let out a slight yelp of pain at having been so suddenly moved. Her teammate responded by lightening his grip on her, though he kept her pinned to his chest. After adjusting to the new position somewhat, the Uchiha girl relented and returned the embrace as best she could.

"I appreciate the concern, but you could have warned me." she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder. Naruto shook his head and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He was clearly emotional.

"I don't care. You're still alive. You're...you're not gone." he said quietly. Satsuki blinked several times, but allowed herself to relax and smile slightly at his innocent relief at her safety.

"I'm okay. It'll take more than some sewing supplies to kill me. You don't have to cry, Naruto." she said softly in reference to the slight tremors she could feel working through his body. Finally giving her space, Naruto gently laid her down on the bridge surface and wiped his eyes.

"S-Sorry. I was just...really worried." he said honestly with a sniffle. Suppressing her silent appreciation for his purity, Satsuki propped herself up on her elbows and looked to Shikamaru, who was sitting quite awkwardly to the left of them.

"Could you give me a summary? I feel like a bunch has happened." she requested. The Nara nodded and took a deep breath to prepare himself to give his account of the events.

"You actually haven't been out all that long. Maybe fifteen minutes. For starters, Naruto beat the life out of Hak-...the huntress. He was probably well on his way to killing her when he threw her off the bridge. I doubt she could swim in the condition she was in." he said. There was then an odd pause. He hardly looked happy about what he was reporting.

"She's probably drowned by now, if the impact with the water didn't kill her immediately." he concluded in a fairly weak tone. Satsuki furrowed her brow at glanced at Naruto to see if he understood Shikamaru's demeanor any better than she did. The blonde's expression had shifted from relieved and overjoyed back to irritated and somewhat angered. Whatever was afoot regarding Shikamaru's feelings toward what had happened to the huntress, Naruto strongly disliked it. Changing the subject for the sake of relieving tension, Satsuki turned her head toward the opposite end of the bridge.

"Looks like Kakashi is still at it with Zabuza." she commented, drawing the attention of the two boys toward the warring Jonin. Though it was difficult to tell through the still-present mist at the distance they were at, it appeared that Kakashi had taken the upperhand.

"Should we join in?" Satsuki suggested as the Rogue Swordsman was visibly staggered by a strike from their teacher. Interestingly, it was Naruto that shook his head in denial of the notion.

"Even if he's getting beat up, we probably can't do anything to him. I might've been able to help out a few minutes ago...but not now." he said. The image of her teammate's blood-red eyes and fangs then flashed across Satsuki's mind.

"We should at least get closer. If something goes wrong, we need to be there." Shikamaru said firmly. The Uchiha girl nodded in agreement. Having realized that he was outnumbered, Naruto gave a reluctant nod.

"Fine, I guess that makes some sense." he muttered. He then frowned and looked to either side of their location.

"Where's Tazuna?" he asked curiously. It was a fair question to ask, given that the entire point of their battle with the huntress had been to keep the bridge builder clear of harm and injury.

"Behind you, no worries."

The bridge builder in question, who was the owner of the new voice, then joined the group from behind them. He looked almost entirely unharmed, which was a success in and of itself. Shikamaru and Naruto then rose to their feet to begin the short journey toward Kakashi and Zabuza. When Satsuki moved to join them, she found that her legs had very limited strength. In particular, her left leg was almost entirely useless at the moment. With her cheeks slightly red, the girl cleared her throat.

"Could I get a little help?" she called out meekly to her team, who had begun to walk away. Naruto glanced back over his shoulder and did a short double take. He then jogged back over to her and crouched down by her side.

"How much can you walk?" he asked. Satsuki gave standing up on her own another try, only to fail quite miserably. With a shake of her head, she settled on her rear and rubbed her left thigh.

"Not at all, I don't think." she admitted. She despised it, but she needed help moving. Easily noticing her complete lack of mobility, the blonde turned his back to her and kept his levels lowered down to match hers.

"I know you're gonna hate the idea, but get on my back. We don't have a ton of time to waste." he said. Flushing a deep red immediately, Satsuki held her tongue and kept her urge to yell at him for even suggesting the method in check. Practically glowing with embarrassment, Satsuki scooted forward and pulled herself up onto him by his shoulders. Naruto then carefully hooked his arms under her legs and stood up.

"This okay?" he asked. Though she was well aware he was referring to the pain in her legs, Satsuki ducked her head down into the base of his neck to hide her burning face.

"No, and if you say anything about it or touch me wrong, I'll strangle you on the spot." she threatened. Despite the severity of the situation, Naruto managed a laugh and began walking to catch up with Tazuna and Shikamaru.

"Good to know that dying didn't change you much."

Kakashi aggressively pressed forward as he sensed the waning strength of his foe. Zabuza had proven himself to be a more than worthy challenger, but the gap between them had continually widened as the fight had progressed. The Jonin was faster, slicker, and more powerful when it came down to the depth of their reserves. Having wobbled Zabuza a moment earlier with a solid knee to the side of his jaw, Kakashi entered the Rogue's space once again and struck him three times in the gut, leg, and temple.

The multi-leveled assault backed Zabuza up further, allowing for Kakashi to whirl into a whipping kick that landed squarely with the heel across his foe's face. Zabuza finally crashed to the ground with a harsh 'thud'.

"It's been fun, but I don't have any more time for you." Kakashi said. Then he sequenced three simple hand seals and gripped his right wrist down by his waist. A circle of sparking blue electricity then formed around the silver-haired Ninja, accompanied by a deafening choir of wailing, bird-like chirps. Once fully charged, Kakashi locked his eyes on Zabuza, who was halfway to his feet.

"Raikiri!" he yelled. The Rogue Swordsman immediately attempted to move as he sensed the Jonin's oncoming blitz, but abruptly stopped in his track, leaving him in the path of the devastating Jutsu heading his way. A split second later, Zabuza was impaled through his right shoulder by Kakashi's lightning-cloaked fist. Blood quickly soaked through the bandages covering his mouth as he sank to his knees with the Jonin's arm still stabbing through him.

"Don't bother fighting back anymore. Even if that didn't kill you right away, you'll bleed out in a few minutes." Kakashi said, ripping his hand free as he spoke. He then looked straight ahead, and quickly identified the culprit behind Zabuza's sudden freezing.

"Didn't I tell you all not to interfere?" he asked Shikamaru, who was emerging from the mist alongside Zabuza. The Nara shrugged and gestured to the severely injured Rogue on the concrete ground.

"I'd say that I've earned a pass for being disobedient this time, don't you think?" he said. Kakashi sighed and returned his attention to the badly-bleeding Zabuza.

"Fair enough. Just don't think that what you just pulled is going to fly most of the time." he said. A moment later, the remainder of his team arrived. Naruto slowly emerged from the mist and stood alongside the Nara. Funnily enough, Satsuki was piggybacking him, and she was hiding her face behind Naruto's neck. Despite her efforts, her ears were still visible, and they were bright pink.

'She's in rough shape. Physically and mentally.' Kakashi joked to himself. Shelving the thought for the moment, he kept his eyes fixed on Zabuza, who was on one knee with a hand over his bandaged mouth.

"If you have anything to say, or that you'd like me to record, I'm feeling generous." Kakashi offered. The Rogue shook his head and coughed painfully as he clutched his horribly wounded shoulder.

"I don't need your sympathy. Besides, even now, I could probably kill one of your brats without much issue." he said raspily. The Jonin narrowed his eyes and pressed a kunai to his neck.

"Try it, and I'll make your head roll." he said menacingly. Zabuza chuckled and held up a falsely defensive hand. He then gestured east toward the land beyond the bridge.

"I'd rather die with my dignity intact. I'll concede to you. At least I can say it took a big name to end me." he said. He then muscled his way to his feet despite his mortal wound.

"All of that aside, you should all get moving. They'll be here soon." he said vaguely. Before any member of Team Seven could demand elaboration of some kind, the distant sound of pounding footsteps registered in their eardrums. Zabuza promptly made a brief hand seal, which cleared away the mist. Around a quartermile from the bridge, like a swarm of locust, was a mob of armed men.

"Who are they? Friends of yours?" Kakashi asked. Zabuza shrugged his shoulders and took hold of the bandages on his jawline.

"Only by assignment. They're here for the same thing I am. That's Gato's mob. I'm sure you've heard that name before." he explained. The Jonin nodded and kept his eyes narrowed as the crowd approached. There were fifty of them at a bare minimum. Even if they were all hopelessly weak individually, swarms of enemies were always a pain to contend with. Then, just as Kakashi was about to begin barking orders to his team, Zabuza ripped the bandages from his face.

"I'll do you one single favor. I'll handle this trash heap." he said roughly as his injury festered. Kakashi eyed him skeptically and took a step back.

"What's in this for you? I don't buy it." he asked. The Rogue Swordsman drew a kunai as a poor replacement for his now-lost blade. A smirk then spread across his serrated teeth.

"I've wanted to make that midget taste his own blood for a while now. He's with them. I can feel him in there. So, I guess you could say I'm treating myself just as much as I'm helping you." he said openly. Though he was far from trusting of Zabuza in any sense, weighing his options quickly produced the conclusion that accepting the proposal was wisest. Giving a curt nod, Kakashi turned his back and gestured for his team to follow him.

"Let's move. There's a chance he dies before he can take care of them all, so be on your toes." he said to his genin. Before they could move out fully, Zabuza called out to them one last time.

"Oh, and one last thing. Haku isn't quite dead yet. I'm not sure how she survived the pounding blondie put on her, but I can sense her chakra. Do with that information what you will." he said just loudly enough for the cell to hear. Kakashi nodded, noting the information mentally.

"I'll keep that in mind." he said before ushering his group along and leaving Zabuza alone at the end of the bridge. Finally alone, the Rogue Swordsman planted his feet and awaited the arrival of the man he so hated.

'You always used to say that I had a gambling problem, and maybe you were right, but that one was for you, Haku.'

Shikamaru pursed his lips as he made his way toward the bank of the river. Just over four hours had passed since the climactic duel upon the bridge just over his head, and judging by the silence and uneventfulness of the day following the events, Zabuza had managed to either slaughter the mob by his lonesome, or scare them away. The Nara hadn't made the trek back to ponder those things, though. No, he was there for something he was far less confident in. Far less sure of.

"Oh, and one last thing. Haku isn't quite dead yet."

'I've got no way to know if he was even telling the truth. I don't see why he wouldn't have been, but still.' he thought to himself with little certainty as he scaled the banks. Beyond the simple question of validity regarding Haku's apparent survival, and whether or not she would even still be alive hours after the fighting had ended, the fact remained that Shikamaru had snuck out unannounced once again. His team had already grown suspicious of him days prior, and now they knew the reason.

As he walked along the edges of the water, his aimlessness grew. He knew who he had come for, but he had no concept about what he planned to do if he found the huntress. None whatsoever. Shaking his head, Shikamaru picked up the pace at which he was walking. For the following minute, he did nothing but walk in a straight line, pondering his own decision making. It was only when he stepped on something of a different density than the damp mud at his feet that he stopped. Taking what was meant to be a cursory glance downward, Shikamaru saw something that froze him in his tracks. He had stepped on a hand. Slowly following the hand up the arm, he identified its owner.

By pure chance, he had stumbled upon exactly who he had come to search for against his better judgment. Haku was laying on the bank, with her lower half still submerged in the water. Immediately upon realizing what he had found, Shikamaru knelt down and checked for a pulse on the side of her neck. Though it took time, he eventually found one. It was faint, but it was distinct. She was just barely clinging to life. With her status confirmed, Shikamaru carefully pulled her fully out of the water and laid her on her back.

'Blue lips, pale skin, cold hands. She's definitely got hypothermia.' he thought to himself grimly. Beyond her likely medical ailment, she was also badly injured across her entire body. Her face was covered in cuts and bruises, and her wrist had swelled up from having been broken by Naruto. Shikamaru monitored the rising and falling of her chest for several moments.

'What do I even want to do? I can't just leave here here, but is bringing her back really an option?' he pondered. A brief return to Naruto's brutal rage drew a shuddering breath from his lungs.

'Naruto would tear me in half for it, and I can't imagine Satsuki would like it a ton either. Sensei...he's a wildcard.' he thought to himself. It was a horrid choice. Either leave Haku to inevitably die in the hours to come, or risk alienation from his own cell. Shikamaru Nara was capable of performing under pressure, and largely always had been, but the sheer moral magnitude of the situation before him was crushing. Clenching his jaw, Shikamaru gripped his temples.

"Why do I even care? You lied to me. That's all you did. You played me like a fiddle. God, I'm such a kid." he hissed to both himself and the unconscious girl before him. His eyes had clamped shut amid his conflicted thoughts. Shaking his head, the Nara sighed heavily.

"And here I am, down in the mud for you. Just because I can't tell right from wrong anymore." he said quietly. A stirring sound then caught his attention. He snapped to attention, and saw that Haku's eyes were a crack open. She was gazing directly at him. For reasons he couldn't properly pin down, the sight of her eyes made the decision for him. As gently as he could, Shikamaru picked her up off the bank with a grip under her legs and upper back.

"Why…?" Haku whispered softly as she was cradled and carried away from the cold water. Shikamaru swallowed a lump in his throat and shook his head, not daring to take his eyes away from the path directly ahead of him.

"I don't know. I honestly have no idea." he said weakly. The huntress said no more. She simply tucked her head into his abdomen and returned to the hazy sleep that had taken her hours beforehand. Within a few minutes, Shikamaru reached the path that would take him all the way back to Tazuna's house with Haku still bundled in his arms. Unfortunately, the path wasn't empty when he reached it.

"Well now, what do we have here?" Kakashi, who was standing in the center of the path with his arms folded across his chest, inquired. Judging by the look on his face, and by the tone of his voice, he wasn't the least bit surprised by what he was seeing. Casting his eyes to the ground, Shikamaru tried and failed to sound poised.

"I...just think she could have some information we could use. She might have a bounty on her head or something." he muttered. Kakashi sighed and made his way up to his student. He then put a hand on his shoulder.

"I can't stress this enough, kid. Never get emotionally involved. It's hard, I know, but this is exactly why." he said. Shikamaru glanced up and met the man's eyes briefly.

"So that's a 'no' to the information idea?" he asked. The silver-haired Ninja assessed Haku's sleeping form carefully for a few seconds.

"If she survives, which is a big 'if', then I'm way too tired to kill her myself. I think the rest of the team are too, even if they'd probably like to try. Thing is, if we bring her back, there's every chance she gets executed anyway. There's no way she doesn't have dozens of bodies to her credit." he said honestly. The Nara nodded dejectedly.

"I know that, and I know how stupid I'm being. I feel like an idiot. I really do. I just...can't walk away. She's a human being." he said. Kakashi put his hand on his left hip.

"And so will every person that you kill in your career. It's never going to be easy, but getting attached is never going to do you any favors. Especially not at your age." he said bluntly. Shikamaru tensed slightly as Haku shifted in his arms, but calmed again when she remained unconscious.

"And this is the last time I'll make that mistake." he swore as strongly as he could muster. Kakashi motioned for the genin to follow him, to which Shikamaru obliged. For a time, they walked in silence through the path, which was lined with wild trees.

"As much as think what you did was stupid, irrational, and just plainly a bad idea, the one thing I will say is that it's convinced me that you'll be a fine man someday." the jonin said after a time. He then turned and faced his student again.

"My philosophy is that the rules come second to your comrades. That girl isn't your comrade or your friend, no matter what you've managed to convince yourself of, but I guess you've got the right idea with your priorities. You're a good kid, Shikamaru." he said. Shikamaru adjusted his grip on Haku and nodded.

"Thanks for that. I'll...try to think less emotionally next time." he said. Kakashi gave him a thumbs-up and gestured toward the light of the house, which was now visible in the distance.

"Let's go and get this over with."

A/N: I know that a large section of you are going to be extremely angry that Haku is still alive, but you know what? My story, my rules. That aside, I hope you all enjoyed this one. I think it turned out alright, and I enjoyed writing it.

Tell me what you thought in a review :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!