Chapter 21
"That plan's so crazy it just might fail! Actually it'll probably fail, you should just stick to business and leave murder conspiracies to the pros."
When Zabuza and Haku entered the woods to search, the Mist-nin had been surprised at how easy it was to find their quarry. While the cavern had been an admittedly impressive place to hide and could have easily been missed due to the shrub concealing the entrance, Zabuza barely had to expend any energy to locate it.
After all, he only had to follow the sound of raised voices.
His hands flew through the seals for a simple Suiton jutsu, a small flood pouring into the cavern, and within seconds of starting four people burst out.
The former Mist nin found himself faltering not for the first time today at the sheer absurdity of the sight before him. Three brats who looked like street urchins stared at him and Haku wide-eyed—one with noticeably blood red irises with commas rotating around the pupils—and behind them stood what could be the ugliest old woman he'd ever seen, if not for the roughly trimmed facial hair and the fact the sagging breasts beneath the baggy shirt seemed to fall apart so only one "boob" remained.
Eye twitching with irritation, Zabuza decided he no longer had the energy to care anymore and launched his attack.
And so, any plans Team Seven had in mind of fleeing officially shattered as they found themselves desperately fending for their lives from a homicidally furious A-rank missing-nin and his assistant.
"The universe officially hates us," Sakura groaned, clutching a kunai with a death grip to guard Tazuna while a horde of Naruto clones hurled themselves at Haku with a furious shout of "CHARGE!" The faux hunter-nin flickered out of the way and flicked his wrist to send several senbon flying in their general direction, each one piercing a clone's chest dead-center and causing them to pop.
Meanwhile Sauske stood alone against Zabuza, gritting his teeth as he clutched a windmill shuriken. His newly activated Sharingan made all of his opponent's moves appear slower, but just because he could see the man's moves didn't mean his physical reaction time improved too. The current inner turmoil over the realization he'd just activated the Sharingan did not aid in his ability to think clearly.
Murderous intent rolled off the paint-covered Swordsman in thick waves that crushed Sasuke's lungs and left him nearly paralyzed, cold sweat dripping down the genin's face. The missing-nin's body shook with harsh and ragged breaths, his eyes wild and manic against the orange and green splotches that surrounded them like masks.
As a professional killer hired specifically to kill Tazuna, Zabuza acknowledged he should probably just kill him now. None of the genin here stood a chance against him, and even if Haku decided not to go for lethal blows he could probably incapacitate all of them without even knocking them out. Heck, all Zabuza really had to do was body flicker behind the pink-haired brat and slit the old man's throat.
But fuck it. His capacity to give a damn about professionalism had gone out the window when the stink bombs hit him dead-center in the chest. Killing a defenseless old man dressed like an old lady would hardly sate his need for blood. Zabuza needed a real fight, something actually challenging to give him a chance to go all out and properly vent his stress.
"Where. The hell. Is Hatake."
His voice dripped with icy venom that sent shivers down Sakura's spine, while Sasuke visibly winced and locked up as his breath snagged in his throat. Naturally, neither of them wanted to admit that Kakashi had been missing for the past nine days, but obviously they needed to tell him something or they'd end up chopped into little pieces.
As Sasuke scrambled to think of a suitable excuse Naruto suddenly stopped attacking Haku and raised his arms to form a T. "Hold on a second, time out! What will you guys do if that Gato guy suddenly dies before you finish the job? Will you guys stop?"
"What?" Haku halted a surprise attack from behind the blonde to shoot him a baffled look, while Zabuza growled in frustration.
"Don't change the topic you stupid brat!" he roared, making all three genin wince. Shrinking back from the intense spike in killing intent, Naruto began rubbing the back of his neck and sucked on the inside of his cheek.
"Uh, b-but I'm kinda not changing it?" he muttered meekly. That did not ease the bloodthirsty Mist nin.
"Are you kidding me!? I am two seconds from ripping your head off with my bare hands you damn brat!"
While Zabuza seethed with increasingly furious irritation, Haku regarded the blonde silently as he scrutinized his words. Unlike his master, Haku had not been consumed by homicidal rage due to a series of juvenile pranks, and as such he could calmly analyze the situation. Given the specific question Naruto asked, he reached the conclusion he should probably indulge the blonde. "It depends on the circumstances, but most likely we will stop as he has not paid us. Why do you ask?"
"Well, see, about two minutes ago one of my clones ran into that masked guy who kidnapped Kakashi-sensei—"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?"
"NARUTO!" Sasuke and Sakura hissed, staring at him in open horror while Tazuna choked in fear at the sudden increase in Zabuza's already suffocating murderous intent.
"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses and let me finish!" Naruto snapped, shooting his teammates and the incredibly deadly missing-nin an annoyed look. Huffing, he resumed pointedly, "Anyways, so that guy grabbed my clone and dragged him to a road about twenty miles away from here, and right now Kakashi-sensei is fighting who I assume is Gato and a mob of, like, one hundred thugs."
His teammates gawked at him in disbelief, while Zabuza's explosive fury cooled down to a simmering rage. He suddenly appeared in front of the blonde and hoisted him into the air by the collar, making Naruto yell in surprise and start squirming. "What did you just say?" he demanded in an eerily low voice, and the genin gulped, shrinking under his penetrating glare.
"I s-said, Kakashi-sensei is fighting a bunch of thugs, and I'm pretty sure your boss is one of them?"
Cursing loudly, Zabuza flung the brat to the ground and threw his arms into the air in exasperation. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?"
Twenty miles away, Kakashi felt just as frustrated as Zabuza did. His body definitely felt the effects of the extended captivity and lack of action, his reaction time ever so slightly slowed and his muscles a bit too loose for his liking, but not nearly enough to hinder him. While Gato's thugs vastly outnumbered him, most of them barely registered as a larger threat than a freshly-graduated genin, so he had little trouble cutting them down.
Weaving through the mob of mercenaries and slashing throats and stomachs with a blood-soaked kunai, he found himself more irritated than challenged by the current fight. Obito's eye burned in his socket as he swerved around a sloppily swung sword and buried the kunai in the shoulder of its wielder, eliciting a pained yell. Kakashi easily snagged the sword from his loosened grip before he sent the thug flying back into three others with a strong kick to the chest.
Electricity trickled through his fingers as the Copy-nin whirled to intercept another attack, letting his natural element infuse into the blade as he swiped it at his would-be assailant. A strangled scream echoed around them as the poor soul stumbled back and the distinct odor of charred flesh arose as sparks visibly danced in the bloody gash crossing his chest. The others around him recoiled in horror and quickly began to retreat from Kakashi, making him arch a brow at their cowardice.
Really. What did they expect, going up against one of Konoha's top jounin known for his lightning techniques? Though to be fair maybe they just hadn't heard of him, since clearly none of them had even an iota of knowledge about shinobi. If they did, they wouldn't be fighting a jounin with a weird red eye with three constantly spinning tomoe. Actually, when phrased like that, he had to question if they possessed any common sense, period.
Cutting through the crowd, his attention zeroed in on the short man with puffy sand-colored hair and a well-ironed business suit staring at him fearfully. A sharp odor trailed from his direction and Kakashi's nose wrinkled in disgust because, ew. He briefly eyed the growing stain around the crotch of the man's trousers with no small amount of disdain before turning to slice through another idiot trying to bash his head in with a nail-ridden club.
Once he'd felled a couple more idiots, Kakashi turned to face the businessman fully. After spending the past four minutes cutting through the most idiotic mob of thugs he'd ever encountered, the Copy-Nin made a fearsome sight. Electricity idly sparked along the length of the bloodied blade held casually at his side, his left arm soaked in blood from cutting down opponents with the kunai. Red streaked his silver hair, and more specks of the crimson liquid glittered darkly underneath his implanted eye.
"You know, this mission is really getting on my nerves," he quipped dryly, his eyes showing no humor. Gato cowered under his cold gaze, staggering backwards as his knees shook violently.
"St-stay away from me!" he stuttered, his voice rising in pitch with panic. "I-I'll pay you anything you want! Name your price, I can afford it! Just—just don't kill me!" His open cowardice only elevated Kakashi's irritation with the man, his eyes narrowing dangerously. As a responsible jounin who represented Konoha, he knew he should not needlessly slaughter a well-connected businessman.
On the other hand, he had just spent eight days in captivity restrained to a bed after being forced to undergo a highly unwanted medical procedure, and had been subjected to the most chipper and enthusiastic kidnapper he'd ever encountered outside of the time Gai and Genma dragged him from his apartment and forced him to join them for a night out on town.
Honestly, Konoha would have way bigger problems on their hands than punishing him for assassinating a tyrannical business tycoon once he submitted his report.
His grip on the hilt of the sword loosened and he let it slide out of his hands, his gaze never leaving Gato's fearful eyes as it clattered to the ground. "Sorry, but after the week I had, I'm afraid no amount of money can save you."
As he spoke his legs slowly slid apart from their casual gait, and for the first time the mob did something smart and backed away as blue sparks began to gather in his hand. The space around him began crackling with electricity as chakra gathered in his hand, the air reverberating with a high-pitched screeching reminiscent of countless birds chirping.
At this point an even more pungent odor assaulted Kakashi's nose, and he scowled in open distaste. Gato had officially vacated the rest of his bowels.
Uncaring about the fact that using the Chidori on a civilian was seriously overkill, he launched himself forward with an angry roar, thrusting his hand directly at Gato's chest. The businessman stood paralyzed by fear, only able to watch as death surged right for him.
His scream rung out just as Zabuza rocketed through the trees.
Given the highly violent and lethal nature of the shinobi lifestyle, few events in their line of work could be described as "awkward".
Finding one's employer dead at the hands of an enemy before he could pay them definitely counted though.
Heavy tension choked the air as Kakashi stood over Gato's gory corpse, the businessman's chest cavity little more than a raw mound of flesh and blood from the impact of the Chidori. Normally the Chidori did not leave such a mess, but Kakashi had made a point to bury it only halfway through Gato's chest rather than fully penetrate it. It made for an even more painful death than usual since it obliterated his skin and ribs, and only partially pierced his lungs and heart.
Eying the body with total apathy, the silver-haired jounin turned to level a calm, almost bored gaze on the rainbow-splattered ninja who had just arrived. "Hello, Zabuza," he greeted without any particular inflection. "As you can see, I just killed your employer and a good chunk of his men. I would apologize for the inconvenience, but I honestly don't care right now."
Frustration officially hitting its peak, Zabuza roared in frustration and stabbed the Kubikiribocho into the nearest tree, the blade shoving straight through the trunk with a loud crash and protruding halfway through the opposite side. "Fuck it all to fucking hell!" he yelled, cursing at the top of his lungs.
As he spewed a variety of words as colorful as the paint currently splattering him from head to toe, Team Seven and Haku burst through the trees and came to a startled halt. All of them looked unkempt and ragged, their bodies littered with scratches and bleeding cuts and their clothes torn from fighting, but their wild eyes locked on the blood-soaked jounin standing over Gato's corpse and their breaths caught as one.
"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto stammered, the name rattling off his lips in a stunned stupor. Next to him Sasuke stared at Kakashi with wide glowing red eyes as he registered the man's presence while Sakura's face screwed up in overwhelming relief and emotion.
"K-Kakashi-sensei!" she sobbed, tears gathering as she inhaled a shaky breath, and before he could react the trio surged forward as one to tackle him. Kakashi could only stand in mild shock as two sobbing genin and one rattled Uchiha trapped him in a bear hug, his waist quickly growing damp with two kids' worth of snot and tears as they buried their faces into his side.
"You're alive," Naruto sniffed, his arms tightening around Kakashi's side. "You're actually alive!"
"We were so s-scared," Sakura blubbered, her voice muffled by his clothing as she buried her face further. "We couldn't figure out how to find you and save you and we didn't know when Zabuza would attack and-and—"
Frozen and unsure how the hell to deal with a bunch of crying kids, Kakashi awkwardly reached out and patted Naruto and Sakura's heads, and then winced slightly when he noted the blood on his left hand stain Naruto's sunny blonde hair. The boy barely seemed to care though, as he tipped his head back to gaze at him with watery blue eyes and oh kami he made Sensei's kid cry.
Kakashi's brain shut down as he stared at his student, unable to think of how to respond. Fortunately, Sasuke came to the rescue. "We protected Tazuna," he reported, his voice eerily flat compared to his teammates, and Kakashi turned to look at him only to freeze. Sasuke stared up at him with bloody red irises, a total of three tomoe distributed between his eyes as he noted one in the left eye and two in the right.
The Copy-Nin's brain echoed back to that dinner at Ryoko's house so long ago, her words about the price of the Sharingan ringing through his head, and as he stared at the physical manifestation of Sasuke's emotional dissonance he realized his kidnapping probably had a role in it activating.
Shit.
One month in and Kakashi had officially traumatized his team. This is why he did not want to take on a bunch of genin, he had enough trouble handling his own issues, let alone those of three kids!
While he floundered with how the hell to handle the latest turn of events, Haku carefully approached the still-cursing Zabuza. "Sir?" he hazarded cautiously, and the string of profanities tapered off with a final tree-splitting punch as Zabuza turned to face his apprentice.
"What?" he bit.
"What are your orders?" Haku asked, carefully measuring his tone to avoid agitating his master further. The man growled lowly in irritation, turning to level a glare upon their former employer's corpse.
Sensing the change in the Swordsman's demeanor, Kakashi pried his students off him and quickly moved them behind himself. Technically, this did not make them perfectly safe since they still had about thirty thugs standing behind them. At this point though Gato's mercenaries had been thoroughly frightened by the sheer brutality they just witnessed, so none of them made a move to attack the still-shaken genin.
"That cheapskate didn't bother paying us in advance, so there's no point in carrying out the job," Zabuza declared plainly. His gaze slid over to Kakashi, his eyes narrowing. "I am half-tempted to try to lob off your head anyway, but at this point I am officially fed up with this job and honestly can't be bothered to give a shit anymore."
"That makes two of us," Kakashi agreed tiredly. Slaughtering the horde of thugs had been laughably easy, but once the adrenaline wore off the emotional strain from his captivity had left him drained. Right now he just wanted to curl up with his Icha Icha collection and recharge his energy. "So I suppose this means a ceasefire, then."
"Sure, why the hell not." Zabuza shrugged lazily, and Kakashi decided to trust him. He should probably try to eliminate Zabuza anyway, since he still posed a serious threat and all, but he didn't care. Kakashi really just wanted to get home, but sadly he'd probably have to stick around a bit longer until Tazuna finished the bridge.
Turning to his students, he asked curiously, "Where is Tazuna, anyway?"
"Oh, he's fine!" Naruto responded cheerily, flashing him a proud grin only slightly offset by the still-moist tears staining his cheeks. "I left a couple shadow clones behind to guard him while we chased after these guys!"
Kakashi decided to ignore the irritated growl-like noise Zabuza made at the mention of shadow clones. "I see. Well, let's go get him and go to his house. I think we've earned a day off." His students visibly sagged in relief, and he noticed not for the first time just how tired they all looked. The emotional toll from worrying over their teacher and their circumstances had combined with their daily physical exertion, and now that everything had finally resolved they seemed just as drained as he felt.
"A day off sounds good," Sasuke muttered quietly, and that only sharpened Kakashi's mental assessment of their exhaustion. The Uchiha trained every day for hours on end without showing signs of complaint, so for even him to be worn out, his genin must have worked even harder than he'd originally thought.
His heart panged with guilt at the realization, and he swallowed harshly as he forced a smile onto his face, his eyes crinkling in carefully crafted cheer. "Maa, I'm sure it does. When we get to his house you guys can tell me all about what you did the past few days, okay?"
Ever eager to show off, Naruto promptly began rattling off all the cool stuff they'd done. Kakashi just nodded his head absently, quickly giving up on following Naruto's fast-paced rambling. Instead he looked to his other students, his gaze lingering on Sasuke in particular.
"...You should probably deactivate that now," he suggested mildly, and the Uchiha blinked before realizing what he meant. Swallowing, he squeezed his eyes shut and his face scrunched with intense concentration, and when he opened his eyes again the bright red of the Sharingan had faded into their usual inky black coloring.
"Hey, before we go, I have one question," Sakura suddenly interjected, and the trio of males turned to regard her with varying degrees of curiosity.
"Yes, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, and the pink-haired girl frowned slightly as her green eyes flitted behind them towards the bloody carnage Kakashi had wrought earlier. It suddenly occurred to Kakashi she might need therapy for this, yet another offense
"Where was Gato going with all those men?"
Her question gave Kakashi pause, and even Zabuza seemed to pause at it. "Yeah," he murmured lowly, slowly turning to face the remnants of the mob Gato had amassed. "Why did he need all you guys?" The surviving mercenaries quaked in fear under his narrowed gaze, all earlier bravado dashed after the spectacle of Kakashi easily slaughtering their colleagues and employer.
"W-we d-don't—" one stammered, but another cut in before he could finish.
"We were just following orders!" a lanky-looking thug exploded, his features screwed with panic and fear as he staggered backwards. His heel dug into a corpse's hand and he winced in alarm, quickly rambling, "We didn't want to fight you guys! B-but Gato ordered us to take you down so he wouldn't have to pay you! If we knew how strong you were we wouldn't have followed it though, honest!"
His fearful rambling cut off as one of his comrades slapped a hand over his mouth, but the damage had been done. Heavy silence followed as the six ninja stared at the mercenaries, slowly processing the implications of what he heard.
Staring at them blankly, Sasuke slowly said, "...Gato was going to have you, a bunch of thugs, try to take out him," he didn't gesture to Zabuza but he didn't really need to, "An A-rank missing-nin from Kiri and one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen, just so he wouldn't have to pay him?"
More tense silence followed. Then one of the mercenaries squeaked a hesitant, "Y-yes?" and another mercenary slapped a hand over his mouth.
Shoulders sagging tiredly, Zabuza promptly planted his face in his hand and grumbled under his breath. "Haku?"
"Yes, Zabuza-sama?" his apprentice asked.
"Did we just waste two months for absolutely no pay?"
"...I believe so, yes," Haku responded after a moment's hesitation, and his master released an inhuman roar full of barely contained aggravation.
Kakashi quickly hoisted Naruto under his arm and grabbed Sakura and Sasuke by the shoulders before initiating a body flicker, moving to safety just before Zabuza surged towards the terrified mercenaries with a bloodthirsty roar. Landing next to Haku, he released his grip on them and set Naruto down, calmly placing his hands on all of their shoulders and turning each stunned genin around one at a time to face away from the carnage.
"Well, it seems this is wrapping up quite nicely," he commented casually to Haku. The dark-haired boy turned his head slightly to watch him, his expression unreadable behind his mask, but after a moment he gave a small nod.
"I suppose so," he murmured quietly, turning back to the destruction his master currently wracked upon the unfortunate mercenaries.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked questioningly, starting to turn his head, but the jounin plopped a hand on the blonde's head and firmly turned it forward.
"Maa, you really shouldn't look right now," he commented idly, and turned back to Haku. "If I may make a suggestion. If you and Zabuza dispose of all the corpses, I will help you cash that big check Gato wrote you two."
His comment made the boy visibly stiffen, and he could sense Haku's eyes slowly slide towards him behind the mask. "...Did they not just confirm that Gato had no intentions of paying Zabuza-sama?" he asked carefully, and Kakashi smiled.
"Well, yes, but his bank doesn't know that," he replied cheerfully. "And wouldn't you know it, one of the perks of the Sharingan is making really good forgeries of signatures."
Sasuke seemed to choke on air at the overly mundane usage of his clan's vaunted doujutsu, but Kakashi ignored him, focusing instead on Haku. The boy inclined his head slightly, and he slowly nodded. "...I cannot speak for Zabuza-sama, but I believe he will agree."
"Wonderful." Kakashi smiled at him pleasantly, and then turned to enjoy the carnage his former foe wrought upon the irritating mob.
With the threat over, he reached up for his headband to tug it back over his left eye. No one noticed the Sharingan fade to black just before the plate covered it once more.
Later that night Sasuke sat on the deck of Tazuna's house, listening to the lingering hum of voices inside as he stared into the woods. Snow gently flittered from the sky, dusting the landscape in a thin, wispy layer of white which gave it a strange, ethereal quality. He ran his thumb over his omamori as he stared into the trees, and for the first time since this whole ordeal had started he gave himself permission to relax.
Soft footsteps padded behind him and soon enough Sakura sat next to him, letting her legs dangle over the edge as she stared into the woods. "It's pretty, isn't it?" she asked quietly, and he hummed softly in agreement. The snow would undoubtedly melt by morning, it was too thin to stick for long, but until then he decided to just sit back and enjoy the sight while he could.
Leaning forward, Sakura reached out a hand and watched a snowflake flutter into her palm, smiling softly as she brought it closer for a better look. "I used to think snowflakes were the prettiest thing in the world," she confessed quietly as she watched it melt. "When I was a kid I wished my hair was white instead of pink."
Her quiet admission caused Sasuke to flicker a curious glance at his female teammate. Sakura's name suited her well because the girl seemed to visually personify spring, with pink hair the color of cherry blossoms and crystalline green eyes the color of a freshly sprouted flower bud waiting to bloom. The idea of her with snow white hair or any other remotely wintry coloring felt wrong.
"Why?" he asked after a few moments, and her lips curved into a soft smile, letting her palm fall to the deck and slide over the wood.
"Because pink is so cute and girly, while white seemed so much more mature. Snowflakes seemed so elegant and graceful. No two snowflakes are the same, you know, each one is so complicated and gorgeous and unique. I wanted to be like that."
"What changed?" The question slipped out without thinking, surprising even Sasuke. At one time he wouldn't have cared enough to ask, but over the course of this mission he had come to respect Sakura. Though she lacked the physical strength he and Naruto possessed, she had been the one to develop most of the long-term strategies. She had been the one who figured out how to walk on trees and water with nothing more than memory and a comment from Tazuna.
Naruto may have been the one to give motivating speeches, but it had been Sakura who gave Team Seven a purpose before they could fall into despair.
The kunoichi seemed just as surprised by the fact he asked, but she quickly recovered and smiled sheepishly, turning back to the snow. "Well, I guess I realized that while snowflakes are really pretty, they melt almost right away. They can only last a long time by clumping together, and when they do that they lose their unique individuality and become a boring white blob."
Reclining back, she twiddled with the ends of her hair as she continued, "Cherry blossoms, meanwhile, are beautiful because of every individual petal. They don't mash together into a single shape, each one blows separately in the wind, each one falls in its own time. After a while snow starts to melt and becomes dirty, but even when dried and shriveled cherry blossom petals are still pretty and colorful.
"Everyone remembers the beauty of cherry blossoms," she finished softly. "But no one remembers every single snowflake."
Sasuke looked at her in faint surprise, and after a while he just slowly nodded and turned forward. A companionable silence fell over them, neither of them seeing fit to break it as they each stewed in their own thoughts. Her explanation had been surprisingly deep and profound, once again proving the girl had more depth than he usually credited to her.
Rubbing his thumb over his charm, he suddenly paused, his gaze flitting down to the blue fabric. He frowned slightly and glanced at Sakura to find her gaze trained on it, her eyes sparkling with curiosity she was too polite to actually voice aloud.
"...It's a gift, from my aunt Ryoko."
Sakura startled at his quiet words and snapped her eyes upwards to meet his in surprise, her breath visibly catching. Sasuke looked back at the amulet, holding it up a bit so she could look at it better. "This amulet. She made a bunch as a good luck charm and gave them to us. She said it looked like an omamori, but it wasn't actually one so we didn't need to throw it away at the end of the year." Lips forming a tight line, he added, "She died about two months later."
"Sasuke..." Sakura's voice became soft, offering him a sympathetic look. He didn't look at her, just rubbed the character for "Protection" written on the tag.
"I almost threw it out," he continued quietly. "Before, I mean. I didn't like the photo inside."
"Huh?" Sakura's face screwed in confusion, and with a second of hesitation he pulled on the string sealing the charm. Alarm flickered in Sakura's features as he opened it and slid out a folded photograph, but he waved a hand at her dismissively.
"Calm down. It's not an omamori, so it's not bad luck to open it." As he unfolded it, he hesitated briefly before holding it towards her. "Just... promise not to laugh."
Too curious to resist, Sakura nodded and leaned over to peer at it, and her eyes quickly widened in surprise. On the surface, it appeared to be a simple family photo of four girls wearing pretty kimonos, specifically two young children and two teenagers. However, she almost immediately recognized one of the young girls to be Uchiha Akari, and from there her eyes roved over the other "girls" to realize something.
"You're... Half of you are cross-dressing," she sputtered, too shocked to think clearly. Sure enough, a pouting Sasuke stood next to Akari wearing a pretty dark blue kimono decorated in white blossoms, while a boy with curly hair stood behind them with a giant grin, his arm slung over the shoulder of a furiously blushing, beautiful dark-haired teen.
As she struggled to process this, Sasuke couldn't help his lips quirking into a small smile. "Actually, Akari's the only girl," he corrected dryly, and Sakura stared at the photo blankly before releasing a startled squawk. For all he hated that man, Sasuke couldn't help but feel amused that his teammate mistook him for a female in the photo. The pure shame the photo would cause him is the only reason Sasuke hadn't cut him out of it.
That, and the fact that he loathed the idea of cutting off Shisui's arm in the last photograph he had of his dead cousin. Shisui had died just a few days after taking it.
"How?" Sakura whispered weakly, sounding almost distraught by confusion, and Sasuke huffed a slightly bemused snort.
"I'm not sure. All I remember is Shisui suddenly appeared sputtering about Mom and Aunt Ryoko wanting to put me in a dress. Then Aunt Ryoko appeared and dragged us both back to the house, and they forced us all into kimonos and took photos." Even Akari had been slightly off-put by the endless cooing and fussing over them as the two women fussed over the four youths and how "pretty" they looked. "A week later Aunt Ryoko gave each of us a charm with it inside as a memento and threatened us not to throw it away."
Sakura just stared at him in shock, her eyes boggling in disbelief as she listened. Once he finished though she slowly leaned over, looking at it again.
"...Well, you do look pretty good," she mused thoughtfully, and Sasuke stared at her for approximately five seconds as her words processed, and then his face turned bright red.
"Wh-what?"
"I'm just saying, you didn't look that bad. A little makeup and longer hair, and you would've been prettier than Ino."
Sasuke just stared at her in horror, and she slowly raised her gaze to meet his before breaking into a shit-eating grin.
"Just kidding," she teased in a singsong voice, and laughed even as Sasuke scowled and shoved her off the deck.
OMAKE: Meanwhile...
A large crowd of civilian armed with fishing spears, nets and hastily constructed weapons stood near the entrance of the unfinished bridge, murmuring amongst themselves in mild confusion and disgust as they viewed the spectacle before them.
Paint-splattered craters scarred the land directly in front of the bridge spanning about one hundred meters. Somewhere beyond that traces of an unspeakable stench radiated from the ground, so putrid and foul it made more than a few eyes water. Just at the foot of the bridge, they could also see something dark staining the ground alongside the shredded remains of wire.
A few men carefully navigated the strange battle-scarred landscape to check the bridge, a few of them sliding a couple feet when they stepped on the oil slicks still staining the soil. Once they reached the other side, they cautiously dispersed to examine the bridge, and the crowd held their breath as they waited for their reports.
"No one's here!" one of them hollered, and a general groan of disappointment rose from the crowd.
"Dang it!" Inari huffed as he crossed his arms with a childish scowl. He had spent the past hour trying to convince the townspeople to put aside their fear and valiantly go to the bridge to take on Gato's men and protect his grandfather, only to arrive to find the bridge empty. The crowd still buzzed with pent-up energy and justice, so the current turn of events felt rather anticlimactic and unsatisfying.
Awkward silence hovered over the crowd as they stared at the bridge, contemplating what to do. "...Screw it, let's just go attack his base instead!" someone hollered from the back of the crowd, and a roaring chorus of approval rose from the mob as they turned and stampeded away. Inari had awoken a thirst for justice, and it would not be satisfied until they had Gato's blood had been spilled.
