A/N: You are all utterly fantastic. I received over a hundred reviews for the last chapter and felt well-loved. So here we are, the second part of that last chapter, which is short enough I ought to apologize for it, but the scene breaks where the scene breaks. You'll be seeing me again soon enough.

Kill Your Heroes

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Alethephobia (Part II)

Sakura worried at the fabric of her chūnin flak jacket as they descended the stairs in the Tower, ignoring the way she was destroying the neatly pressed creases. It would have to be sent out to be tailored regardless, general sizing not suitable for something meant to protect her life.

Kakashi-sensei glanced down at her, for once sans his novel.

Sakura bit her lip. "Do I have to wear it?" she asked him softly.

"You know you don't," Kakashi-sensei pointed out, "but not wearing the vest isn't going to change the fact that you're chūnin."

"I don't—," she fumbled for words, in the end managing only a plaintive, "Why?"

When her eyes flickered over to Kakashi-sensei, he looked grim. "You already know the answer to that one as well, Sakura," he replied, mildly admonishing. "Our effective military strength took an enormous blow. But we can't admit it. You're only the first field promotion we'll see, not the last."

Sakura nodded slowly, because that was something she did understand. Kakashi-sensei looked away from her as he continued speaking. "Tsunade-sama was very vocally against field promotions outside of wartime, back when she lived in the village. She thought that they only considered ability, without the stability or emotional maturity to use that ability well."

"Do you think she was right?" Sakura prodded cautiously.

The corner of Kakashi-sensei's mouth visible to her tilted up. "Except for when I became a genin, my rank was awarded through field promotions. But that was wartime. Field promotions couldn't really have been avoided, not without crippling ourselves. Not even Tsunade-sama would disagree with that, though she wasn't really happy about mine, but after...well, after that I met someone who never sat for an exam in his career. And when he went wrong, he took a lot of people with him," he said darkly.

Uchiha Itachi, Sakura guessed, but kept silent on that topic. She wasn't ready to discuss the massacre with Kakashi-sensei. Because that would lead to Gozen-san and the things she had to say and she wanted to keep that part of her life as far from the rest of it as she could. To pretend, just a little while longer, that it wasn't something that seeped into everything, spoiling her world of black and white with all sorts of shades of grey. And spiders.

"Do you think that I deserved to be promoted?" she forced herself to ask instead.

Kakashi-sensei didn't answer for a long time and she was almost certain he wasn't going to answer at all when he spoke. "I think things would be much easier for you if you'd had more field experience. I agree with Tsunade-sama on that. All of your missions have either been D-ranks or assignments gone sour. But while she might be hurting for personnel, but she's being careful about who she's promoting. Someone else might have promoted every genin who made it into the final round. She didn't. Instead, she promoted you, the Nara, and the Aburame boy. It wasn't a decision based solely on the exam—both of the boys also managed to detect and escape the genjutsu on their own and contribute to the village's defense, even if the Nara required a little motivation. That was probably why she decided against promoting Rock Lee, who is highly skilled but also dangerously specialized due to his disadvantages. I don't doubt that he'll make chūnin, but he'll really have to work for it."

He shook off his speculations, reaching out to ruffle her hair. "Don't look like that, Sakura," he told her. "I might not be certain you're ready, but you deserved the promotion."

She stared back. "...that makes no sense," she protested.

"I am a deeply complicated man," he told her.

She kept her gaze fixed on him a moment longer, then deliberately turned away. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei."

"Do I detect sarcasm from my student?" he asked, this time rapping his knuckles gently against the side of her head. "Though, technically, you can call me Kakashi-senpai now."

Sakura felt her stomach clench with panic at the implications of that, but Kakashi-sensei rapped her with his knuckles again. "When you feel ready," he said. "Until then, you've got a team that still needs to earn their own promotions. You'll probably be asked to take on missions without them for now, just like I will, but you're still a part of Team Seven. And even when you aren't with us, chūnin still operate on squads and aren't sent on A-rank assignments like what Wave turned out to be."

Her fingers slowly unclenched from the fabric of her vest. "I'm really glad you're alright," she said with sudden fierceness.

"I could say the same," Kakashi-sensei replied. "Considering our record and how long I was...unavailable, I'm surprised you didn't have to thwart another invasion. I want the extra key to my apartment back," he added casually.

Sakura frowned and did not look at him when she muttered, "No. You have hard locks."

"I could change them," he suggested.

"You won't," Sakura said. "And I won't tell Naruto or Sasuke where you live."

"Fair enough," Kakashi-sensei conceded after another long moment. "But you will stop alphabetizing my novels."

[Kill Your Heroes]

As they entered the hospital Kakashi-sensei disappeared for a follow-up appointment that Tsunade-sama herself had told him in no uncertain terms that he would actually appear for. If she gambled, she'd put money on him making an escape within the first three minutes. Sakura was left to shrug on her new flak vest—his advice was that it was better that her teammates find out now rather than later—and ask for directions to Sasuke's room.

The mystery of why Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke would be hospitalized—or homespitalized in Kakashi-sensei's case—at the same time gnawed at her, amplified by the fact that everyone had refused to tell her what was wrong with either of them. And she'd seen Kakashi-sensei, who hadn't had wounds of the visible and gaping kind. That left either poison or genjutsu, but knowing that brought only more guesses.

Kakashi-sensei would never tell her, but Sasuke might.

But Sasuke was going to be...displeased. She winced at her own understatement, because Sasuke was going to be furious and Naruto was going to be upset, but she did think that Kakashi-sensei was probably right. Just as he'd been when he'd forced her to confront the reality of Sasuke's chakra nature and all the ninjutsu of his clan. Better now, in the relative safety of the village, than in the field.

It didn't really make the prospect any more pleasant.

When she came to the room she'd been directed to, she double-checked the room number and spent several minutes straightening her clothes and smoothing her hair. Anything to delay actually opening the door, but at last she slid it open with a quick, decisive movement.

And found nothing. No one, she quickly amended, because the covers of the bed were tossed back in such a way that suggested someone had gotten up in a hurry. All her nervousness transmuting to irritation, Sakura considered where they might have gone. They likely hadn't actually left the hospital—Sasuke wasn't Kakashi-sensei after all—but she couldn't actually see Sasuke intentionally loitering in public spaces like one of the waiting rooms.

She bit down harder on her lip as she considered how likely it was they'd gone somewhere that wasn't a public space. Sasuke might drop honorifics, but he didn't usually go out of his way to break rules. But as far as Naruto was concerned, as his record at the Academy had proven, doors meant to keep him out were mostly a suggestion. More than one of their instructors had asked him snidely if he could read.

With that in mind, she had an idea where they might be.

Her eyes skittered nervously over the corridor as she slunk to the stairwell, easing the door shut. It would be just her luck if Naruto and Sasuke had come through without anyone noticing and someone caught her on the way up. She wasn't like her blond teammate; she didn't have much experience with being in trouble with adults. And, despite how pathetic it seemed, she still felt that same nervous pinch in her belly when she thought about being yelled at.

For all the dead men between her and the Academy, she was still in many ways that good child who thought rules existed for a reason.

But she made it safely to the rooftop and found the door that led onto the roof not quite shut all the way. She would have crept out cautiously—it could have been a member of the staff after all—but she heard the sharp, unmistakable shriek of kunai grinding against one another.

Sakura darted out, but even as two familiar figures came into sight, she heard another sound. The sound of a thousand birds chirping, they'd said. Chidori.

And there was Naruto, the air in the palm of his hand twisting and distorting, and both of them were roaring, Sasuke swooping down like a bird of prey and Naruto reared back like something too large for Sasuke's talons to close on. She didn't recognize Naruto's attack, but in the instant she had to perceive the battle, she knew he thought it would be a match for Chidori, else he'd have turned to his clones. This wasn't a friendly fight, she thought numbly. This had turned into a death match.

Her irritation tangled up with her fear and it spilt over into movement. Her eyes saw everything, slow as a flower blooming, her body swift as the strike of lightning in that moment. Sakura's hands closed well behind their wrists, but the crackling energy of Sasuke's Chidori leapt the gap and she screamed as her muscles spasmed involuntarily and they both slid free of her grip.

She'd half turned, just enough that their hands drove into the roof rather than each other, Sasuke's wrist sinking in elbow deep while Naruto's hand left a twisted crater in its wake. Sakura could only stare, chest heaving with unsteady breaths, one hand clutched tight over the aching trail of Sasuke's attack. "...what were you thinking?!" she demanded in a shrill voice, backing away from both of them.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked shakily, picking himself up.

Sasuke had to struggle more to pull himself free, but his eyes widened slightly when they landed on Sakura.

"You could have killed each other," Sakura said numbly. "You would have killed each other."

"It's not—," Naruto's half-hearted protest died in his throat. "I didn't mean for it to go that far," he said instead.

Sasuke's eyes flickered toward Naruto, dropping to the crater at his feet and lingered there with such intensity Sakura wanted to flinch away from him, then back to Sakura. "...what are you wearing?" he asked her, voice harder than she'd ever heard it.

Sakura forced herself to lower her hands, though there was stinging, burning welt all along one arm from the path of the electrical energy. She tried to ignore it and the part of her brain occupied in reliving just how close she'd come to knowing the same kind of force that had once pierced Gaara's sand. She straightened her back and tucked in her chin and said, "My chūnin vest."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but Naruto's reaction was far more flattering. His jaw dropped briefly, but then a wide grin swept across his face. "Obā-san promoted you?"

"You were eliminated in the preliminaries," Sasuke said sharply.

"It was a field promotion," Sakura replied.

Sasuke's eyes were accusing and Sharingan red. "You weren't even there for the fight against Gaara," he growled. "Why would you merit a promotion?"

"Hey," Naruto interjected, "that's not fair, Sasuke. You know Sakura stayed behind so that we could reach you in time to save your scrawny butt."

Sasuke's lips twisted in a snarl, but Sakura snapped, "Stop it. Just...stop," she said, more softly. "We're already going to be in trouble for the state of this roof. Don't make it worse. What were even fighting over, anyway?"

"The fact that Sasuke's an idiot," Naruto grumbled.

"As far as I'm concerned," came Kakashi-sensei's dry voice, "you're all idiots."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said eagerly, while Sasuke and Sakura stayed silent.

Kakashi-sensei's single visible eye swept over them, taking in the scene. "Well," he said. "This one I've got to hear."