Thank you for all your kind comments and interest in this story! Hopefully this chapter will live up to expectations. Enjoy!

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Chasing the Wind

Chapter 2
The Powerful Yet Powerless

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The days crawled by. Filled with D-rank missions after more D-rank missions until Sakura couldn't be bothered keeping track anymore, it was no wonder the frustration of Team 7 was mounting. She was just surprised that none of them had snapped yet.

"Gah! I swear if I have to pull out one more stupid turnip, I'll burn this stupid farm down!" Naruto yelled.

Sakura looked up and squinted at the overhead sun, wiping the sweat off her brow. Her blond teammate was furiously waving a turnip by its green, leafy stalks as he continued to rant about how Hideo-san's farm was 'ridiculously, stupidly big'. She agreed wholeheartedly. They had been harvesting vegetables for hours on a sweltering hot day, and even though it was nearing three o'clock, the sun was as unrelenting as it had been at twelve. Even Sasuke and his usual suck-it-up mindset had been seething only an hour into the mission.

Naruto suddenly halted mid-rant and took a closer look at the turnip in his hand. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, this one kind of looks like you!"

"Maa, that's a bit mean don't you think?" Kakashi shut his book and pocketed it with a sigh. "We're pretty much done here anyway. Let's tell Hideo-san and then we can go back to the Hokage and see what else he has for us."

Sakura groaned at the idea of another mission. Her hands and wrists felt sore from all the twisting and pulling she had done. However, she had a feeling that trying to escape would only result in being tracked down by an unimpressed Kakashi and lumped with even more of these horrible missions. With that in mind, she reluctantly followed the rest of Team 7 as they bid farewell to their client before heading towards the tower at the centre of the village.

It really was a waste to be doing anything other than enjoying Konoha on a day like this. Civilians and off-duty shinobi were wearing light, floating fabrics that lifted with the passing breeze, and the air was mingled with the faint fragrance of herbs and spices. Below her, the children weaving around the afternoon crowds and the endless stalls of colour and trinkets held more appeal than the sweat-slicked clothes plastered to her body and the wind pulling through her hair as she pushed from rooftop to rooftop.

When her team entered the mission assignment room, another genin team looking equally haggard and slumped was on their way out.

"Done already, Team 7? Well, let's see what else there is for you…" The Hokage rummaged through a stack of paper on his desk before pulling out a few sheets. "We have dog walking, babysitting, or - ah, looks like Tora has escaped-"

"We are not finding that dumb cat again!" Naruto protested, folding his arms. Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Naruto! Don't speak to Hokage-sama like that," Iruka admonished. The corner of his lips that twitched upwards betrayed his anger.

Kakashi seemed to be content to have his nose stuck in his book and let them argue around the issue, but Sakura was certain she was going to do something terrible like throttle their client if she had to take on another mind numbing D-rank mission. When Naruto took a step forward and opened his mouth to launch into a speech that would undoubtedly make Iruka's face turn bright red, she grabbed his collar and dragged him back.

"Hokage-sama," she said, "with all due respect, but we've done nothing except D-rank missions for over a month. If it's not too much to ask, we would like a C-rank mission for a change."

Iruka looked at her in surprise and seemed about to reprimand her when the Hokage held up a hand, amusement etched across his wrinkled features. "If it's variety you're after, D-ranks aren't so bad in that regard. What could you hope to gain from a C-rank?"

"A challenge," Sasuke said firmly. "We can't improve much if we're stuck doing things that don't push us, and it's in everyone's best interests if that isn't the case."

Surprise flashed through the Hokage's face. He eyed them contemplatively, taking in their determined expressions, before a smile broke through his serious demeanor. "Very well. I have an escort mission available for you to do, unless… your sensei has any objections?"

Kakashi blinked when all eyes were suddenly on him, and smiled disarmingly. "None from me."

Feeling satisfied with having secured a C-rank despite being dubious of Team 7's slurring and swaying drunkard of a client, Sakura arrived home with a lightness to her steps. She washed the sweat and dirt off her body, relishing in the way her muscles relaxed under the spray of hot water, before going to her room to pack for the road tomorrow. Somewhere between a faded green canteen, pouches of kunai and shuriken and rolls of bandages, her mother arrived home.

"Sakura?"

"In my room!" she called back, tossing the few basic medical supplies she had into her bag.

"Have you seen the sweets that Kanna-san's little girl made for us? I tried some for lunch and-"

Sakura turned to see her mother standing in the doorway, green eyes moving between the objects on her bed and lingering on the rolled up sleeping bag. Something heavy settled at the bottom of her stomach when she recognised the sudden stillness in her mother's posture for what it was.

"Where are you going?" Mebuki looked at her with the usual pleasant expression, but the slightly stilted voice told her more than enough.

"I have a C-rank mission tomorrow with my team," Sakura explained, smiling unconvincingly. She always hated these conversations. "We're leaving in the morning."

Mebuki frowned. "I thought your team only did D-rank missions."

"Hokage-sama thought we were ready. It's just - we're not even going to be out of Konoha for that long, and we've got Kakashi-sensei as well."

"But you should still be careful, Sakura. You'll always find yourself in danger, and something bad could happen before you even know it. If… if you ever decide that being a shinobi is not for you, then-"

"Kaa-san," Sakura interrupted, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply before continuing. "I knew the possibilities the day I signed up for the academy, and I'm not just going to quit now. I won't stop being a shinobi. I'm not you, or tou-san, or Daichi-san down our street." She pushed away the guilt that instantly began to surface. It was a low blow to bring her mother and father into the argument, but she was sick of her mother's attempts to baby her whenever she caught a whiff of danger. In a softer voice she added, "I'm going at nine o'clock tomorrow. Don't worry about the laundry, I'll do it before I leave."

A strange expression crossed Mebuki's face as she stared at Sakura for a few silent seconds before it gave way to something more gentle. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I'm being silly again. I know you've wanted this for the longest time. Just - you'll be home in time for us to visit tou-san together, won't you?"

Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat and gave a curt nod. Turning her attention back to her half-packed bag, she resumed throwing in the necessary mission supplies with more force than necessary. She didn't bother listening for the sound of feet padding away. Even now, her mother moved with the same silent footsteps from her shinobi days.

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Flickering flames crackled in the quiet of the night. The once large, sparking campfire had dwindled until it was a small bright presence. More than an hour had passed since her teammates had retreated into their tents, but Sakura remained in front of the fire, palms pressed against its heat. She pulled her blanket tighter around her.

They were in Fire Country again, with less than a day's worth of travel until they reached the gates of Konoha. It was good news. She would be able to cleanse and sleep properly, and be close to her family and friends again. But her relief was dampened by the unexpected trajectory that Team 7's mission had taken; what had supposedly been a C-rank had quickly spun out of control and become an A-rank mission with the appearances of four unexpected adversaries.

When the Demon Brothers emerged out of thin air, she knew that something crucial about this mission had been left out. Kakashi had pinned their client with a dark, angry stare until Tazuna threw himself into a feverish explanation of why he had lied about the details of the mission. As soon as they realised the gravity of their situation, a vote had been in order - one that was met with the unanimous agreement to continue forward. Sakura wasn't sure if her decision made her stupid or brave, but when Momochi Zabuza came along, all she could think about was how ironic life could be. It was only yesterday that she assured her mother she would encounter little danger while on her mission, but there she stood, only a few metres away from a dangerous missing-nin with murderous intent.

Wave Country was a beautiful land of wide rivers and plenteous mangroves, but its people were downtrodden and defeated. Despite the discouragement that came in the forms of Inari's protests, failing local businesses and a decreasing number of bridge builders, Team 7 trained and trained until they returned to Tazuna's residence each night (sometimes morning) with scrapes, bruises and higher spirits.

Unfortunately that did not mean that Sakura was ready to face Zabuza and Haku when the time came. The duo appeared amidst rolling mist, and although Haku's porcelain mask hid his identity and emotions, she had plainly seen the animosity in Zabuza's hard eyes. They attacked, fierce and unrelenting, and Kakashi and Sasuke quickly dove in. Sakura resigned herself to protecting Tazuna and watching the battles from afar. When Naruto arrived and catapulted himself inside Haku's ice mirrors before she could stop him, things only seemed to go downhill.

She remembered the flood of red chakra that swept across them, its hatred and maliciousness so thick that it almost tangible. Tazuna had collapsed on to his knees, wheezing for breath, and she had almost keeled over herself before she gave a firm self-reminder that her job was to protect rather than pass out. But she and the rest of Team 7 weren't the only ones who had protected that day.

It happened in slow motion. Kakashi's screeching chidori lit up in his palm as he advanced towards Zabuza. The distance he covered within only seconds was something she could only dream to achieve, and she held her breath when he inched closer and closer to the missing-nin - to completing their mission. She did not expect Haku to materialise in front of Zabuza a split second before the attack would have made contact with the man. But he had. Kakashi tried to pull back at the very last moment, but he was too late; the lightning seared into Haku's chest before fizzling away alongside the light in the boy's eyes.

For a while she had just stared, unable to look away. A chill had gone up her spine, its icy fingers probing and wandering. It moved higher and higher before settling over her chest where a terrible, numbing feeling grew.

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

Sakura jerked in surprise and snapped her eyes to Kakashi's expectant ones. "You scared me," she gasped, slapping a hand over her chest. Her sensei was unrepentant, only sitting down with his eye fixed on the dancing flames.

"So why are you still awake, Sakura?" he asked.

"I won't be able to sleep," she admitted. When he only gave a soft hum in response and made no move to leave, she gathered up her courage and asked, "Sensei, were Zabuza-san and Haku-san bad people?"

Kakashi turned his dark grey eye to her. "That depends on what you mean by 'bad people'. If, say, your definition refers to people with conflicting interests, then they certainly were bad people."

She huffed at his vague response. "But Haku-san jumped in front of Zabuza-san to protect him, and then Zabuza-san said that he cared for Haku-san and wanted to be buried next to him." Her face twisted in confusion. "If they were bad people, then shouldn't they have not cared about each other? The academy always told us to put our teammates before ourselves, and even you said that people who abandon their comrades are scum."

"I guess that makes them alright people then," Kakashi said after a pause. When she only continued to stare glumly into the fire, he sighed. "Sakura, what I'm trying to get at is that the world is not so black and white. The people we come across during these kinds of missions can be allies or enemies depending on a wide range of circumstances - ones that we have little control over. For example, if Zabuza and Haku had the same goal as we did and were our allies, would you say they were bad people?"

Sakura blinked at the unexpected question. It was more than a little difficult to imagine the duo wanting the bridge to be built for whatever reason, but if she had no reason to be concerned about them wanting to slice her into pieces at every turn, and if she took their last moments into consideration…

"No, I wouldn't," she said. "I mean, anyone could tell that they cared about each other."

"That's true. But they just so happened to be the enemy in our mission." Kakashi looked at her expectantly.

She frowned. "That… doesn't really change anything." It was such a simple line of logic, but she was still surprised at how obvious the answer suddenly seemed.

"Exactly. Allies and enemies are just labels that we use because of their convenience. They simplify and make it easier for us to decide how to interact with others. But they also make it easier to forget that our so-called enemies share things in common with our allies. Things such as compassion, love, loyalty and sadness - to name a few. So you see, an enemy isn't any less human than an ally, although that rarely matters in the grand scheme of things."

Sakura felt flabbergasted and somewhat betrayed. "Why didn't they teach us this in the academy?"

"There are some things that you can't understand until you've experienced or seen it. Besides, the academy was only ever meant to provide shinobi with their foundations and basic knowledge, so it tends to skim right over these sorts of areas that could be seen as relatively unimportant or too ambiguous."

She considered that for a moment. The academy had only ever emphasised the positives of shinobi life. They fed tiny future shinobi children great stories about past and present heroes of the village and the noble ways they upheld the will of fire. They helped students grow by analysing and critiquing their skills until they were deemed fit as potential candidates for the shinobi lifestyle.

"They treated us like tools," she whispered in realisation, eyes widening.

"We are definitely tools of the village in some ways," Kakashi said, sounding amused for a reason that eluded her, "but the moment you became a genin, a contract was made between you and the village. By accepting you as a shinobi, Konoha also accepts all the things that make you your own person. And of course on your side, you expect the village to accept both sides of you in exchange for your work. That is the agreement between a village and its shinobi. Do you understand?"

Sakura nodded slowly, mind still whirring with information. "That makes sense. But what about… well, if there was a situation where you had to choose between completing a mission or keeping your team safe…" She hesitated for a second, unsure what to make of her sensei's sudden stillness, but ploughed on. "And you chose to keep your team safe, what would happen?"

The wind groaned and whipped her hair across her face. She ducked her head, burrowing deeper into the warmth of her blanket.

Kakashi was eyeing her thoughtfully. "I can't really answer that, Sakura. There would be too many factors in play to determine how a failed mission would be dealt with. But if you chose to prioritise the safety of your team ahead of your mission, I won't say you did wrong. No mission is worth a teammate's life."

She smiled up at him, feeling a rush of warmth at his words and an invisible weight being lifted off her chest. "Sensei?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

Kakashi's eye crinkled shut in a smile. "You should get some sleep. We'll be leaving at dawn." He ruffled her already messy hair before silently making his way back to his tent.

Being a shinobi was… more complicated than she thought it would be. With a sigh, she reached out and smothered the tiny flickering flame until only darkness remained.

She barely slept that night.

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"Are you ready, Sakura? It's time to go!"

"I'm coming!" Sakura smoothed the creases out of her black pants before heading to the front door where her mother was waiting for her, also dressed in black.

Her team had made it back to Konoha only a day before she was due to visit her father with her mother. Mebuki had fussed around but in the end decided that she was just relieved Sakura had returned home safe and in time to uphold her promise. When asked about her mission, Sakura remained vague with the details, only commenting on the fact that it had been 'very interesting' and resulted in an 'unique and formidable sounding bridge' somewhere in Wave. Mebuki had looked confused but Sakura left it at that. If the Hokage had looked close to gaping in an undignified manner during their mission report, she didn't want to know how her mother would react.

Their walk to Yamanaka Flowers was quiet and uneventful. Only a handful of people were outside in the drizzling rain during that cold, drab evening, and she was certain they were all on their way home. Inoichi greeted them at the front counter of his shop and handed over a pre-wrapped bouquet of white, pink and red carnations with a sombre look on his face. He always had their flowers ready every year and refused to accept payment.

The memorial stone was a dark, kunai-shaped structure with hundreds of names carved into its rough surface. On a typical sunny day it was already a foreboding presence and a reminder of the harsh reality of a hidden village, but it appeared even more so under the grey skies and the tall, swaying silhouettes of trees in the distance.

Sakura watched her mother place the bouquet at the base of the stone and bow her head. Her eyes wandered down the lists of names, most of which she had never heard of and some of which had been the protagonists in hero war stories. She continued trailing down until she reached a name that was printed humbly, no smaller or larger in size than its neighbours: Haruno Kizashi.

From her hazy childhood memories that blurred into a continuous stream of shapes and colours, her father was a well-liked, fun spirited man with pink hair and blue eyes. He fitted perfectly into their lives; she and her mother loved him and he loved them in turn. She didn't recall much else about him, other than that he had been a jounin, was regularly out of the village on missions, and one day left home only to never come back when she was six years old. And then it had been just her and her mother.

They dealt with their grief in different ways. She became determined to somehow fill in the void following her father's death, whereas her mother wanted to shield her from danger by attempting to persuade her away from shinobi life. Her chosen profession was still something they disagreed on six years later, and it made her want to tear her hair out. Her mother had once been a shinobi herself, so why couldn't she understand Sakura's decision?

Sakura looked up at Mebuki's face, noting the far-away eyes and down-turned lips, and knew that her mother would not return until much later on.

When they arrived back home, Mebuki wordlessly sunk down on to the leather couch with an unreadable expression and Sakura retreated inside her room. Late into the night, when she was swallowed by bed covers and her mother thought she was asleep, the faint sound of sobbing made its way to her ears. She frowned up at the darkness of the ceiling and twisted her fingers into the softness of her quilt.

She could train and train, but what good was it if she couldn't protect her mother from invisible enemies?