OMFG! I just realized tonight that the triple-astrick splitting up the chapter sections DOES NOT save when I copy and paste my document.

Even though kind reviewer Wake Up Steampunk totally pointed this out, I'm an air-headed fool and didn't actually make the mental connection until now.

Why? Why must FF torture me like this?! AO3 does not put me through this pain!

I have gone back and updated all the chapters with my own unique page-break. They now should make much more sense and aren't a garbage mix of perspectives and/or time skips.

Chapter Seven

Part One

By the time Kakashi came to it, was dusk. Or at least that's what his internal clock told him.

Years of living out in the field kept his breathing and heart rate steady and slow as he stretched out his awareness. His anxiety eased as the calm fluttering of his students' chakra brushed against his senses. Naruto and Sasuke were half a dozen meters to his left and in the company of three smaller, civilian chakras - one of which was reassuringly Tazuna's. They must have arrived safely at the bridge builder's home.

His female student was much closer and the sound of her soft, even breathing and the rustle of pages had him opening his eye and slowly easing himself up.

A sharp green gaze regarded him warily as he settled into a comfortable position - ready to reach out and offer assistance, but also courteous enough not to insult him by rushing forward immediately.

Kakashi's jaw twitched in irritation when he realized what she was holding.

"It's not nice to riffle through other people's belongings when they're asleep, Sakura-chan."

One small pink eyebrow arched at him. "I've already read everything I brought with me. And you weren't asleep, you were unconscious." She flicked her eyes back down to the stolen book and casually turned a page. "Maybe you should have thought about the consequences of leaving others to drag your ass through this awful humidity. You're remarkably heavy. Also, it was between this and that horrid smut you're always carrying around, so you really should be grateful."

Kakashi sighed and raked his hands through his hair, idly noting that he had been stripped down to his navy pants and shirt and the rest of his belongings were piled neatly in a corner - with one notable exception. He reached back under the covers and pulled out a kunai that had been in-hand when he awoke.

He cocked his head and raised a questioning brow. Sakura shrugged.

"You're paranoid. We wanted to make sure you were comfortable, but I convinced Naruto and Sasuke you'd have a conniption if you woke up totally unarmed."

He rubbed at his already-aching temples. She's either a blessing or a curse.

Kakashi waved a tired hand at her reading material. "I know you're perfectly aware it's technically illegal for anyone under chunin rank to have a Bingo Book."

She flashed him a sharp little grin. "Ah, but it's not really mine now, is it? Possession is off limits, but there's no rule about reading one."

He shook his head. "Clever, but you know that every order has a reasoning behind it. The Hokage doesn't want cocky genin running off intending to make a name for themselves by attempting to turn in a bounty and swiftly dying in the process."

"Good way to remove idiots from the gene pool, if you ask me." Sakura snorted bitterly in reply. Her eyes widened and she snapped her head up to meet his narrowed gaze.

"I'm sorry, sensei! I didn't really mean that. It's just-" She broke off and frowned down at the open pages. "Zabuza - or anyone else listed - I don't get how someone would want to face them."

"Mah, it's alright Sakura-chan." Kakashi soothed. "You're sharper than the average genin, so I'm not too worried about you running off recklessly. Just don't show the boys." He tried to joke, but his smile slowly melted when she remained silent and wouldn't look back up.

Small teeth worried at her bottom lip as she softly closed the book. "Sensei? Can I ask you a question?"

His eyes followed the way her fingers nervously traced the faded leaf insignia on the front of the otherwise unmarked book. Kakashi felt a brief flash of guilt that his students were thrown so soon into such a dangerous situation, but he shook it off. Better now where I can protect them, than later when they're on their own.

"You can ask me anything, Sakura-chan. That's what sensei's here for." He replied gently.

"Zabuza… he enjoys killing, doesn't he?" She asked, voice wavering.

"'Enjoys'?" He narrowed his eye at the present tense, disregarding the question for a moment. "I take it you gathered he's not really dead then?"

Sakura finally glanced up only to frown and scrunch up her nose at him. "Well, yeah."

Perhaps not as quite as cocky as I was at that age, but she still has her moments. He thought amused.

She twisted around to dig in the bag sitting next to her and pulled out a scroll. As she unrolled it, he spotted a detailed diagram of the human body - complete with small notes written in a familiar messy scrawl. His fingers twitched.

"Genma-senpai gave me this after our first day of senbon throwing," she said, oblivious as to his absolute rage at the fact that she was currently holding an ANBU anatomy chart. "I can't hit all the points yet, certainly not when the target is in motion, but I memorized them." Sakura pointed to the spot swordsman had been struck. "The 'Hunter-nin' - who I'd bet good money is an accomplice - was half an inch too low for a kill. Zabuza was paralyzed and his vitals temporarily halted, but after a few days of recovery, he'll be back to full capacity."

Bright eyes looked up, awaiting his confirmation. Kakashi's anger faded. Her eager expression reminded him that - to her - the scroll was just an information guide that had been given by a team leader, nothing more insidious than that. Genma on the other hand… I'm going to tear his ass to shreds when we get back home. It's bad enough she's taken to wearing senbon in her hair like cute accessories - they're assassination weapons for fuck's sake! - but then he goes teaching her exactly where to aim the damn things!

Kakashi grudgingly pushed aside his homicidal thoughts and nodded at Sakura's explanation. "Yes. You're correct." He sheepishly rubbed at the back of his head. "The sharingan takes a lot out of me. It's a non-native parasite - always draining away at my chakra, but I sometimes forget how much more it consumes when I'm actively using it. Sensei isn't normally so unobservant as to miss something so obvious. As to your original question…" He paused to motion her closer and waited until she'd crawled the few feet separating them to sit cross-legged at the end of his futon - eyes fixed firmly on his stern expression.

He lowered his voice and leaned forward.

"Some people would… disapprove of what I'm about to tell you, but I will never lie to you. Not intentionally.

There is no evil in enjoying a fight. The rush of adrenaline, the satisfaction of putting techniques to use, the pleasure of beating your opponent - these are not things you ever need feel ashamed of. In our line of work, you will be expected to frequently throw yourself into danger at a moments notice with no hesitation and little concern for your own well-being. I will not - nor should anyone else - fault you for appreciating the thrill that those situations can inspire."

Sakura's brows furrowed and her lips pressed into a firm line, but she didn't interrupt him.

"However - enjoyment of a good fight and enjoyment of the kill are two entirely different beasts." Kakashi tightened his grip on the kunai still gripped in his hand. The memory of the rogue-nin targeting his students had his blood rushing hotly through his veins. "Zabuza - as you rightly pinpointed - is someone who gets off on the latter much more than the former. And that makes him dangerous."

A slow nod greeted his words, but Sakura was still looked uncertain. "I… I think I understand sensei… but aren't a good part of A-ranked missions made up of assassinations…?"

"They are, yes. And even B- and C-rank missions carry the risk of having to use lethal force. By the time most shinobi make jonin, they often have a kill count in the triple digits. A count in the four digits by retirement, or more commonly death, isn't rare - especially if one joins the ranks of ANBU. But it is our morality that keeps the vast majority from taking pleasure in the actual act of ending someone's life. Cross that line between duty and obsession and the Hokage steps in to prevent a catastrophe."

Her mouth dropped open and she blinked owlishly at him. "Oh," she breathed. "That… I mean… thank you sensei. For being honest."

Kakashi crinkled his eye and reached forward to tug gently at the end of her loose braid.

"Anytime, my adorable little student. Now how about you help me up and we go find the boys, hm?"

. _ . _ . _ .

"What'd'ya mean he's not dead?!"

Sakura wisely started helping herself to the food spread across the table while her male teammates were distracted by Kakashi's announcement of their opponent's surprise resurrection. If she didn't dig in now, the two black holes would consume everything in sight.

"I mean exactly as I said Naruto - Zabuza was not killed by those senbon." Kakashi repeated.

"Dobe. Sakura spent the first hour after we got here staring at her anatomy scroll and muttering about Kakashi being a blind idiot. What the hell did you think that meant?" Sasuke asked scathingly.

"Wha-?! But he's sensei. Sakura-chan's awesome and way cool smart, but he's supposed to be right about everything!"

She kept her eyes on the bowl of rice in front of her and didn't look up to meet Kakashi's gaze that she could feel burning into the top of her head. Inner was howling with laughter at her teammates' blunt assessments and their sensei's irritated aura. Sakura was cringing.

Kakashi coughed. "Well, yes, Sakura-chan is certainly observant. But I'm not omnipotent, Naruto.

That aside, we need to be focusing on the threat at hand. Zabuza will only take a few days to recover and then he'll be making another attempt to kill Tazuna-san. That means you three will be taking turns on guard duty. One of you will be stationed here to watch over Tsunami-san and Inari-kun. The other two will be accompanying me on the bridge to protect the work crew. Use your smoke flares to signal if you encounter anyone suspicious."

He glared at each of them in turn. "This is not the time to be over-confident. You will signal or I will have you stripped of your rank and shipped back to the academy."

Sakura thought of the small red cylinders sitting in her hip pouch. If we have to use a flare while on rotation here at the house, there's no way in hell help would arrive in time. That's assuming we live long enough to even pull the damn thing.

Let's just hope the murderous-demon does the obvious and targets the bridge. Kakashi has at least proven his ability to keep the bastard's attention focused on him.

The next morning, Sakura drew the proverbial short-straw and was assigned to guard duty at the house. Not that she really minded - the boys were driving her nuts. Sasuke had apparently woken up in an especially narcissistic mood and had spent a good portion of the morning strutting around like peacock and sneering at everyone else.

Note to self: Winning a fight inflates baby-Uchiha's ego. And makes him highly irritating. Fuck, Zabuza's still alive and probably going to try to slice us into itty bitty pieces, what the hell is he so smug about?

Naruto had been steadily improving his ability to focus and not act like a hyperactive knucklehead 24/7 since they had formed Team Seven, but he too had unfortunately regressed. He would just not shut the fuck up and his endless energy just made her exhausted. Inari only encouraged him by asking an endless series of questions about what it was like to be a ninja.

Sensei probably won't let us, but Kami I'd love to tie the pair of them up and chunk 'em in a closet. Might give us a few moments of peace and quiet.

We can certainly dream, Sakura sighed.

She snagged a pair of onigiri off the kitchen counter and snuck out the back door and up onto the roof to eat while browsing through the Bingo Book that she had conveniently "forgotten" to give back to Kakashi.

It was divided into three sections, S-rank, A-rank, and B-rank. The shinobi were listed by village affiliation and then alphabetically.

Sakura automatically flipped to a dog-eared page in the first section and let her eyes drift across the words she had already committed to memory.

Name: Zabuza Momochi

Village: Kirigakure (Former)

Age: 26

Rank: Jonin (Former), Missing-Nin (Current)

Affiliation: Seven Swordsman of the Mist

Notable Information: Current wielder of Kubikiribōchō. Former head of Kirigakure's ANBU Assassination Unit. Also known as the "Demon of the Hidden Mist". Defected from his village approximately one year ago for reasons unknown. Currently works as a freelance mercenary. Approach with extreme caution.

Bounty Alive: 25,000,000 ryō

Bounty Dead: 20,000,000 ryō

Fuck, that's a lot zeros.

"Sakura."

She jumped, snapping her book closed and shoving it in her hip pouch as she rose into a half-crouch. Her dark-haired teammate let out a soft scoff at her skittishness.

"We're leaving. Kakashi wanted me to remind you to do a mile-wide perimeter run every hour." Sasuke said. "We'll be back by sundown."

Sakura swallowed back a snide comment and smiled sweetly at him. "Yes, Sasuke-kun. I'm well aware. We discussed this last night."

A dismissive glance was the only response she received before he turned and hopped down to the ground and out of sight.

Once he was gone, she left out a snarl and thrust the senbon that he had been so careless not to notice back up her long sleeves.

Pompous ass. One of these days he's going to sneak up on someone who won't hesitate and end up looking like a goddamn porcupine.

. _ . _ . _ .

The rest of her morning went surprisingly well. The perimeter runs only took her fifteen to twenty minutes every hour and were blessedly uneventful. The rest of the time she could use to meditate, read, or go through the exercises Gai and Lee had given her to do while on the mission.

It was only by the late afternoon that the boredom set in and she began to become overly-cautious.

What if he decides to attack at night? We set up an evening rotation too, but Kakashi has us staying within a few meters of the house and it's not like Naruto, Sasuke, or I would be able to pick him out of the dark if he was genuinely tying to sneak up on us, "Master of the Silent Kill" and all that.

I personally think you're losing your goddamn mind. But if you're going to waste time worrying about it, why don't you actually do something?

Sakura mentally went through the supplies she had on her.

I suppose we could set a few traps? I've got enough wire and explosive tags for about a dozen.

Knock yourself out.

She rolled her eyes at Inner and set to work. By the time she stepped back to admire her completed product, she was pretty proud. The traps were set in a circular pattern around the residence and since they had already warned Tazuna and his family to stick to the well-beaten paths, she didn't have to worry about them accidentally getting caught.

It's fool-proof. She thought confidently.

At least until Naruto almost got a foot blown off. It was only thanks to Kakashi's quick reflexes that he was yanked back in time to avoid stepping into a trap that was inches away. Her sensei's tired gaze swept around the clearing and settled on her form sitting on the highest branch she could find in the nearby trees. His brow twitched and he sighed.

"Naruto, please try to pay better attention to your surroundings. Your teammate has been busy fortifying our outpost and has apparently developed a fondness for explosives."

"Explosives?!" Naruto's blue eyes widened in horror and his head whipped around to frantically search for the tell-tale gleam of the wire.

Tazuna looked expression was dismayed and he was muttering under his breath about 'crazy ninja overrunning the damn place'.

Both of Sasuke's eyebrows shot up as he picked out the traps hiding in the brush. "Seems a bit… excessive."

Sakura scowled down at them. Idiots. Kakashi doesn't seem to disapprove.

Ah yes, because he's totally not a paranoid bastard, right?

Total Word Count: 2,773

Please forgive me for another shorter chapter! I'm still ironing out the details of the fight sequence, which make up a large portion of Part Two.

It will be posted tomorrow evening, so I won't keep you guys waiting for long!

Please remember to follow, favorite, and/or review! The emails popping up in my inbox every time FF .net sends me a notification feeds my fickle muse. :3

Much love,

Mistress-Kakashi

Angie2002-01 - LOL, happy to see you back and I'm so very glad you found the updates! OMG, you are absolutely adorable and incredibly sweet! I really super duper appreciate that you're so pleased with the story so far! I'm a firm believer in maintaining a relationship with one's audience, so I always reply to my reviews, feel free to send me more. I'm a unabashed review-whore. ^_^" I promise that this fic will continue to be updated on a regular schedule - Wednesday evening being standard - and I have absolutely not intention of abandoning it! As a matter of fact, I have the whole darn thing planned out in my head, so it's only a matter of putting pen to paper. Or in this case, fingers to the keys. Thank you for the review!

lyndyloowho - Yay! I suppose you already know who noticed, if you haven't skipped down to read my review response before the chapter, LOL. I'm thrilled you enjoyed Chapter Six as well! Thank you for the review!

Guest Reviewer #4 - Part Two - OMG, that is the absolute best! XD I am a review whore, so I love that you're contributing to the count! Chapters length is going to, unfortunately, hover around 3,500 - 4,000 words on average, but I give myself no upper limit if the scene calls for more detail. I find that length to be something I can comfortably write and edit in a week's time. Thank you for the review!

Someguy the anon - Part Two - LOL, no problem, criticism is something I equally dread and appreciate, so if you have none I'll consider it a positive! Glad you like the story so far and thank you for the review!

Twisted Musalih - Part Two - Happy to know I'm continuing to meet expectations and I'm glad you enjoyed! ^_^ Thank you for the review!

Alexiessan - Part Two - Glad you liked this fight sequence! The action scenes I get super particular about, since translating words into visual motion in the reader's mind is always a slippery slope. I can never tell if I'm conveying what I'm trying to convey, since it all makes sense in my own head, LOL. Ah, Kakashi and Genma are such mother-hens and I enjoy making them anxious! *evil laugh* Yep! Itachi and Shisui will be making appearances in future chapters! I really enjoy their characters - or at least my interpretation - and have zero self-restraint in bringing them around more. Shisui is a sparkling jewel and I am a magpie who likes to collect shiny things. ^_^" Glad you liked this chapter and thank you for the review!

Wake Up Steampunk - Part Two - LOL, ItaSaku vote noted. Sakura's final pairing has not been set in stone yet, so we'll see how the story goes. As a related side-note to your comment about Uchiha's dating their cousins, I was just recently reading a dry, but fascinating, work by the British historian Reay Tannahill called Sex In History and in the first chapter she actually proposes that it was incest that was humanity's earliest taboo. She speculates that it may have even proceeded murder in terms of a societal unforgivable and that in instances it was practiced, such as in the case of Peruvian and Egyptian rulers, it was deliberately broken to emphasize their divinity and separation from their subjects. Of course, we now know that they certainly were not exempt from the genetic consequences of coupling with close relatives, but it's a very interesting point in history. Hope you enjoyed the mini-history lesson and sorry for my rambling! ^_^" Also, Naruto and Sasuke's teamwork is something I consider vital to the storyline going forward, so happy to know I'm keeping the balance between their bad-assness and Sakura's. Thank you for the review!

Guest Reviewer #3 - Part One - The Wave arch is going to probably be wrapped up in the next two or three chapters, so Ino may pop back into the picture soon. We'll see how she responds to Sakura's more focused mindset. Thank you for the review!

Cruisegril86 - Part Two - Yay! Smiles are the best, but I can't guarantee the next chapter will do the same! Sakura-chan's ever-expanding bag of tricks will be getting a new addition soon! ^_^ Thank you for the review(s)!

Cruisegril86 - Part One - Chocolate is gift for the gods, and my lovely partner keeps me well-supplied! Hot pads are the shit, but the cats are always trying to steal it from me. ^_^" Glad you liked this chapter!

Suzululu4moe - Part Two - Zabuza is flaunting his fabulous muscles! Who said S-class swordsman couldn't be narcissistic? LOL! Thank you for the review(s)!

Suzululu4moe - Part One - Ah, our favorite Snake-Sannin. He'll be popping up in the future, but probably not in the way you're expecting. XD

Guest Reviewer #2 - Part One - I'm glad you like the story so far! Of course, I must respectfully disagree with your assessment about the speed of Sakura's progression. In my humble opinion, the mind is the most important weapon anyone - fictional or otherwise - can wield. She's already has intelligence in spades and extensive training with Genma and Guy has whipped her ass into shape! ^_^ Also, I feel that cannon-Sakura doesn't appreciate Rock Lee's abilities near enough, so I was more than happy to change that aspect in this fic. Stay tuned for more bad-ass baby ninjas and thank you for the review!

Guest Reviewer #1 - Part One - She's been smart and quick so far, but let's see if she manages to keep it up in the next chapter! I snuggled, binged on carbs and chocolate, and now feel like a new woman! ^_^ Thank you for the review!