Previously:

"Ow." April said flatly, chagrined. Like she wasn't sore enough already. "I don't think I can get up again…" She said as the boys started picking themselves up, staying sprawled out on the floor just the way she fell, too tired to move. "Maybe I'll just live here…"

"What are you going to do? Eat on the floor like a dog?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow.

"… I'm considering it." April answered with a deadpan expression. Kakashi smiled wryly as he stood up, deciding to give her a hand. He didn't think the boys were steady enough to help her back up since they could barely get themselves to the table.

"Come on, April… Up we go." He told her, lifting her up and setting her down on her feet as easily as if she were a rag doll. "At least eat something and take a bath before you pass out."

"… Fine…" She agreed grudgingly, even though all she wanted to do now that she had finally accomplished her goal was slip into a short coma.

Chapter 21: A Rival Appears!

"Hehe, I'm also worn out from today's bridge work." Tazuna said cheerfully as they were finishing dinner. He seemed to be in a really good mood. "At any rate, is almost complete." The moment their plates were cleared, Naruto and April immediately slumped forward to rest their heads on the table.

"Father, don't over do it, okay?" Tsunami said. "Naruto-kun and April-chan, too."

"Mmhm." Kakashi agreed with a smile, giving April a pat on the head as Naruto started to nod off. The two of them had really pushed themselves to the limit with this training.

"…" April said, blushing slightly, as she avoided his gaze, suddenly feeling a little shy. She noticed Inari was staring across the table at Naruto rather intensely. "!" She was a bit startled when tears began to form in his eyes.

"Why…?" Inari asked as the tears fell.

"!" Naruto said, taken aback when he opened his eyes and saw the look on the younger boy's face. "What…?"

"Why do you guys bother to try so hard!?" Inari demanded, slamming his hands on the table. "No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for Gatō's men!! No matter what glorious claims you make or how hard you work, when facing the strong, the weak will only end up getting killed!!!' The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

"…" Everyone stared at him in astonishment.

'Who's he think he's calling weak…?' April thought, chagrined.

"Whatever, kid… I'm not like you." Naruto said.

"We're not gonna let ourselves be killed off that easily." April added aloud.

"Shut up!! It pisses me off when I watch you!!" Inari snapped. "You don't know anything about this country, yet you're being so nosy!! What the hell do you know about me!? I'm different from you two, always clowning around and acting so cheerful—you don't know how hard life can be!!"

'Uh-oh…' April thought when Naruto twitched next to her. There was no way Naruto wasn't going to snap after hearing that.

"So it's okay for you to pose as the star of a tragedy and cry all day?" Naruto asked sternly.

"!" Inari gasped.

"Just keep on crying forever, you idiot! You little sissy!!" Naruto snapped with a sharp glare that cut straight through Inari.

"…" The crying boy was stunned into silence.

"Naruto! That's too much!!" Sakura yelled. "Why don't you say something, too, April!?" Was she just going to let Naruto get away with something like that? Normally she would be the first to scold him!

"…" April remained silent. It might've sounded harsh, but… she thought that was something Inari needed to hear.

"Hmph!" Naruto said defiantly, stomping out of the room in a huff.

"…" Kakashi glanced from his retreating student to Inari, who was still sitting at the table and crying, gritting his teeth. Well, that could've gone better…

–∞–

Once he felt Inari had enough time to calm down, Kakashi went to have a little talk with the boy, but soon discovered that he had been beaten to the punch.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" April asked Inari. He didn't say 'no', so she decided to just take that as a yes and sat down next to him on the porch, looking out over the ocean. "You know, Naruto didn't say that out of spite. He just doesn't use his head sometimes."

"…" Inari hugged his knees.

"Tazuna-san told us about your dad." She continued quietly. "… When I was younger, both of my parents were murdered right in front of me." They had died protecting her during a home invasion. Inari's eyes widened as he gasped in shock and finally looked at her.

'!' Kakashi thought, surprised. He suddenly remembered the answer she had given him during their survival test: "I want to overcome the useless me that couldn't do anything to protect myself or the people I cared about." He furrowed his brow. 'So, that's what she meant…' He had no idea...

"Although I'm able to smile now, I also had trouble dealing with my grief…" She said, smiling a little wanly. She still found it hard to talk about most of the time. "But even though my mom and dad were gone, I wasn't alone. I still had people who cared about me. You have them too, right? Your mom and your grandpa."

"…" Inari looked down and nodded, suddenly feeling guilty.

"But I think Naruto's had it a lot harder." April continued, causing him to look back up at her in surprise. "You see, he never actually got the chance to know his parents. He doesn't even seem to know who they are…"

"Eh?" Inari said, shocked. Was something like that even possible?

"And until I started living in the village a year ago, he'd never even had a single friend. The truth is, Naruto's had a rougher past than either of us. But in the time I've known him, I've never once seen him cry or complain about it. He probably got sick and tired of crying." April said with a small smile. She knew the feeling. "Instead, he's always… trying his best to get people to acknowledge him. For that dream, he's able to put his life on the line… That's why, even though he acts like a goofy kid most of time, I really respect him. He knows the true meaning of being strong… just like your father. What he said to you before… I'm sure he's probably told himself the same thing over and over. He might be clumsy when it comes to expressing himself, but he means well… So try not to hate him too much, okay?" She finished gently.

"…" Inari was silent. He didn't know what to say.

"… Well, I guess I'd better go take a bath before I get too tired…" She said, rubbing the back of her neck. April hoisted herself back onto her feet with a groan. "I'd hate to fall asleep in there and have to be saved from something as lame and drowning in a bathtub…" She added as she headed back inside, giving him some space to think about everything she had just said. After a moment, Kakashi stepped out of the shadows and took her place beside Inari.

"Well, April's already taken most of the good parts, but I'll say this… It seems she and Naruto… may understand your feelings better than anyone else." The jōnin remarked, causing Inari to glance up him.

"What?" Inari said, wondering how long he'd been there.

"After all, they don't seem to be able to… not be concerned about you." Kakashi told him with a kind smile.

"…" Inari blushed as he looked down, staring into the water. Yeah… They were good people... he knew that now. No, actually, he had known that all along…

–∞–

"Ahhh~" April let out a long sigh of satisfaction as she exited the bathroom, feeling relaxed and refreshed after a nice, warm bath. It felt so good to be clean again~! Her feeling of bliss was interrupted by some all too familiar sounds of discord coming from the room further down the hall.

"What was that...!?" Naruto demanded incredulously.

"Shut up!! You're too loud!!" Sakura snapped at him. "Don't yell at Sasuke!!"

"…" April let out a tired sigh and hung her head in disappointment. Couldn't they just give it a rest for once? … How did they even have enough energy left to fight? "Hey, bath's free." She announced bluntly as she entered the room, interrupting the fight before it could escalate any further. "Who's next?"

"Me!" Sakura said eagerly, quickly snatching up her things and making a beeline for the bathroom before anyone could object. She had wanted to go in right after Sasuke, but since April had (uncaringly) snatched that chance from her, she at least wanted to get in before Naruto.

"Hey, April!!" Naruto said abruptly, scrambling to his feet. "Listen to this, Sasuke—"

"Don't want to hear it." April deadpanned as she plopped herself down on the floor and started digging through her bag. She pulled out a small jar of muscle pain-relief balm and tossed it to him. It was really effective, so putting some of that on should help prevent her muscles from getting too inflamed from the accumulated strain of training so intensely for a whole week straight and keep her from being completely useless tomorrow. "But I might be willing to listen while you help me with this."

"Mmn… Fine." Naruto agreed a bit grudgingly with a frown, knowing exactly what she wanted. He could tell April was starting to get too tired and cranky to be messed with.

"W-Wait, what are you doing!?" Sasuke asked, a little alarmed when she suddenly started rolling up her shirt.

"What do you mean, 'what'…?" She asked dubiously, looking at him as if the answer should have been obvious. "How's he supposed to apply the ointment on my back for me with my shirt in the way?" She didn't see what the big deal was. It's not like what they were doing was any different than helping a friend put on sunscreen. She still had the important parts covered, and she planned on finishing the rest of it herself.

"Geez, Sasuke, you're such a perv!!" Naruto said with a superior smirk. "Getting all flustered just because you saw a girl's stomach…"

"!!" Sasuke said, gritting his teeth in annoyance as his cheeks flushed and a vein throbbed on his forehead.

"… Am I interrupting something?" Kakashi asked from the open doorway, sweat-dropping. He had instantly guessed what was going on after seeing the jar of muscle cream in Naruto's hand, but it was still an odd scene to walk in on.

"Nope, Sasuke just started freaking out for some reason after I asked Naruto to rub some medicine on my back for me." April answered nonchalantly, suppressing a blush. For some reason, she felt a little shy about letting Kakashi-sensei see that much of her exposed skin… 'Aw, crap… I must be developing a crush on him!!' She thought, mentally banging her head against a wall. Were student-teacher relationships even allowed in the ninja world?

"Wouldn't it be better to ask to Sakura to do it?" Kakashi suggested with a wry smile. April might consider herself 'one of the guys', but she was still a girl...

"She just went to take a bath." Naruto replied. "Besides, it's no big deal. We do it all the time."

"All the time?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's no big deal, because Naruto's like a little brother." April said with a wave of her hand, not wanting him to misunderstand, even though he probably wouldn't care either way since they were just a bunch of kids compared to him. "And we're used to giving each other first aid for minor stuff. We live right next door to each other, so it's more convenient than a trip to the infirmary."

"Yeah, I'm just taking care of a annoying big sister!" Naruto said with a cheeky grin as he slapped some ointment on her back.

"!" April winced slightly and shot him a warning look. "That 'annoying' bit was unnecessary." She quipped.

"Yeah, like you can talk." Sasuke added moodily.

"Shut up!! You're the most annoying one of all!" Naruto snapped back at him. Kakashi let out a wry laugh at his students' antics. It was something of a relief to have his original impression that their friendship was purely platonic officially confirmed. For a second there, he had started to wonder… Well, they were all still a little young for anything else anyway…

—∞—

"Then, please take care of Naruto and April." Kakashi asked Tsunami as he and the others got ready to leave with Tazuna-san the next morning. "They've pushed their bodies to the limit. I don't think they'll be able to move today." Knowing those two, they would probably be upset once they realized that they had been left behind, but it was for their own good. April especially, since she really had worked three times as hard as the others.

"Okay, let's super go!" Tazuna said, looking forward to finishing his bridge.

–∞–

"Is the ambush ready!?" Gatō asked Zabuza over the closed communication device from the safety of his office. "Hey, Zabuza!! Are you listening!? Hey!!"

"Shall we go, Haku?" Zabuza asked as he crushed the annoying device under the heel of his foot against the hull of the wooden boat they were waiting in under the bridge.

"Yes." Haku agreed, putting on his mask to hide his face.

–∞–

"AHHHH!!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, startling April awake.

"Huh!? Wha-What is it!?" April asked as she jolted up into a sitting position, wondering why he was screaming like the kid in Home Alone.

"We over slept!!!" He exclaimed. "Look!! We're the only ones still here!!"

"!" April gasped, realizing he was right as she glanced around the room. No way! Did that mean they…? While April was still getting her bearings, Naruto jumped up and ran from the room.

"Hey! Hey! Where's everyone!?" Naruto asked urgently, skidding to a stop when he found Tsunami knitting another room while Inari held her yarn for her.

"Oh! Naruto, you're already awake?" Tsunami said, surprised. "Your sensei said that you should rest…" Before she could finish explaining, Naruto was already speeding back to the room to get dressed.

"I knew it! I knew it!" He shouted as he burst back inside, startling April, who was already in the middle of changing her clothes, tearing off his pajamas as he shot past her to grab some his own. "They left us behind!!"

"Seriously!?" April asked as she continued getting dressed, feeling a bit miffed. "But this is supposed to be our first day on guard duty! Why didn't they just wake us up?"

"You wouldn't be asking that if you knew how difficult that was in your case!!" Naruto retorted as they finished getting ready.

"Sensei's a jōnin, he can handle it!!"

"We're off!!!" They both shouted as they raced out the door to catch up with the other.

"!" Tsunami and Inari both started in surprise as they whipped past them. It was like a whirlwind had just passed through their house!

"…" Inari said, blushing slightly as he remembered the talks he'd had with April and Kakashi about Naruto the previous evening.

"Damn!!! Why were we the only ones left behind!!?" Naruto grumbled in annoyance as they leapt from tree to tree. Sasuke should have been exhausted too!

'Probably because we were the most beat up…' April thought, sweat-dropping. 'Hey… wait a minute…' She narrowed her eyes when she noticed something out of place on some of the trees. "Those marks weren't there before…'

RUSTLE.

"Huh?" Naruto said when he caught first sight of yet another strange occurrence. 'What the…?'

"!" April gasped when she saw it too. "Naruto!!"

"Yeah, I know!!" He said, furrowing his brow, as they immediately turned back around.

–∞–

"Wha-What's this!!?" Tazuna gasped when he and the others reached the edge of the bridge and found that his entire work crew had been beaten up. "What!? What happened!?" He demanded earnestly as knelt down beside one of the men, who was still conscious.

"A monster…" The man moaned weakly.

'… Can it be…?' Kakashi thought as a bead of sweat formed on his brow.

–∞–

"Inari, help me with the dishes!!" Tsunami called out as two shady looking swordsmen arrived outside their house.

"Okaaay, but I'm in the bathroom right now!" Inari called back.

"Heh." The two swordsmen smirked and drew their swords. A woman and a child? This was going to be a piece of cake.

–∞–

"!" Kakashi gasped when the visibility started to drop rapidly. 'This mist…' He thought. "Here they come!!" He said aloud, putting the others on alert.

"!" Sakura and Tazuna gasped in alarm as she and Sasuke moved into position with their sensei to protect their client, each pulling out a kunai.

'So he is alive… and he's already here…!' Kakashi thought, furrowing his brow, as he formed a hand seal and started molding his chakra.

"Kakashi-sensei, this is… his Hidden Mist Concealment Justu, right!?" Sakura asked nervously, bracing herself for the coming attack.

"!!" Sasuke started trembling and tightened his grip on his kunai when he felt a huge wave of bloodlust.

"Long time no see, Kakashi." Zabuza's voice echoed through the thick mist. "I see you're still with those brats… He's shaking again, poor kid…"

"!!" Tazuna gasped in alarm when they were suddenly surrounded by ten Zabuzas.

"Hmph! I'm shaking with excitement!!" Sasuke stated with a wicked smirk.

"!!" Zabuza narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow at the boy. "Hmph..."

"Do it, Sasuke." Kakashi said with a smile.

SWWISH—DASHH! SLASH!! SLICE!! KYASHHAA! SPLASH!!

Before Tazuna could even blink, Sasuke had annihilated all ten water clones, reducing them to harmless puddles.

'You can't fool me!' Sasuke thought, narrowing his eyes, as the real Zabuza and Haku stepped out of the mist to face them.

"Hmm… He saw through the water clones. That brat has grown. It looks like a rival has appeared… eh, Haku?" Zabuza remarked. Things were getting interesting now…

"It does indeed." Haku agreed calmly.