Disclaimer: I only own my laptop and other very little things. I own nothing more.

Warning: Language.

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

"Ah! She's waking up!"

Thud. "Naruto! Don't yell! She might have a head ache!"

"Ow! Sakura-chan! Why did you hit me?! Also, you're yelling too!"

My eyes opened up to see my team all staring down at me while Naruto was cradling his head in pain. The light hurt my eyes so I brought my arm up to shield them, but they didn't cover them at all. My eyes shot open as I stared at my left arm (or lack of it) and grew panic for a second. My body bolted up from the futon I was in and instantly, I regret it. My vision blurred for a minute and I saw black around the edges. I felt woozy and numb at the same time.

"Ah... careful. You lost a lot of blood so you should be feeling dizzy. Lay back down." Kakashi ordered as he placed a hand on my chest and pushed me down. I grunted in discomfort as the pain of my whole body started to seep in. Oh, yeah... the whole explosion thing happened... and the kick to a tree kind of made some damage to my back as well. Welp... that could've gone a lot smoother.

"Wh... what happened...?" I slurred out. Hopefully the end of the battle was just like the story, otherwise I have no clue what I'd do.

The team looked at each other, like they were avoiding talking about my arm... I released a sigh and said, "Yeah, yeah. I know about my arm." I lifted up the stubby little thing and it felt weird as it was now lighter. "I'm asking about after I passed out."

Kakashi still seemed hesitant but sighed, "I fought Zabuza and when I was about to kill him, a shinobi hunter 'killed' him and took him away... or well... he might not be dead."

Oh. So the rest of the battle was like the original? "Did anyone else get hurt? Actually..." My gaze shifted to Sasuke, he seemed surprised for a second as I was turning my attention to him. "Sasuke, are you alright? When Zabuza kicked you, you fell unconscious and your head started to bleed... are you okay?"

Sasuke's expression turned to shock before his eyes narrowed, "Worry about yourself before anyone else. You've been out for two days and nearly bled out..." He was probably scolding me because of his weird Uchiha 'I can't show my emotions well but I was worried!' thing.

I gave him a weak smile, "Heh. That doesn't sound like me at all. You're all like my kids. I'm a worrying mother..." I wasn't lying about this. I actually feel like some maternal figure to the brats. I'm almost twenty-one years old and they're just kids, so of course as the adult of the group (even though I am physically their age and I'm not counting Kakashi), I feel like I have to at least try and look after them. After a look of confusion passed on his face, Sasuke's eyes soften and he gave me a nod to confirm that he was fine. I gave him a small smile in return. Heh, looks like I'm warming up to him.

"Charlotte..." Sakura caught my attention. "You gave us quite the scare. I actually thought you were going to d-die..." Her face was filled with so much concern, yet relief that I was fine that it actually shocked me. Man, I thought that in this point of time, all she cared about was Sasuke... But, maybe I guess I was wrong.

"Yeah... I know. I panicked when the plan didn't go the way we wanted so I did the next thing that came to mind. I... I'm not going to lie. I expected this to happen, well... not the whole missing arm part, but that I would get hurt. It was a risk I took, but it wasn't an unnecessary sacrifice as I did manage to get Kakashi out of the prison with it... plus I bet I burned Zabuza really good."

A snort was heard from Kakashi. "Yeah, 'just burned' would be sugar coating it. You basically did all the damage while I just had to use one justu for him to be weak enough to go down. Who knows how long the fight would have been if you didn't weaken him first?"

I smiled at that and turned back to my team. The relief in their eyes were obvious and small smiles made way onto everyone's face as I immediately started to chat with Naruto and high-fived him (with my good arm) for awesome team work. The moment was ruined as Inari peeped open the door enough for his eyes to be seen and stared at us all.

We locked eyes and had a staring contest, before he opened the door more and pointed at me. His gaze turned to Naruto, who was fuming in annoyance of the boy (Ah, they interacted already), before declaring, "She's just dumb. She's no hero." and walking out the room.

... Why do I feel slightly offended?

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

So found out by Kakashi that my helmet got destroyed in the whole fight. It got damaged by water as Kakashi did the flood justu thing (I forgot to water proof it). I kind of was pissed off as all those hours upon hours of being sleep deprived was useless, but I should have expected the whole thing to be a bust since there was more cons than pros. Not a total failure though as I now remember how to properly code something with voice recognition so maybe I could put that into future works?

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

"You call that a form? Dude, no wonder you're failing at this so much! You're doing it wrong!" I nagged Naruto.

"Oi! I'm doing the best I can! If you think it's so easy, then why don't you do it?!" He barked, his annoyance showing. I smirked and walked over to the tree. Now, Kakashi said I could do the tree exercises as long as I didn't push myself. I didn't tell him I mastered (or at least I can hold myself up for about two minutes before faltering) the tree climb already since he would just put me on guard duty and for a few days, I wanted to relax. I was still readjusting to my arm as sometimes I'd try to grab stuff but end up not being able to and forgetting about the phantom hand. It's really weird and I'm happy it's not both arms since I would be sooo screwed. I plan to make myself a new mechanical arm when I get home (Basically become Edward Elric of this world... minus the alchemy part) and that'd be hard with one arm, but even more impossible with none. So somehow, I'm going to have to make this work... I'll ask Hinata to help me maybe?

Back to reality, I placed chakra into my feet and focus on it as I breathed in and out. I placed one foot onto the tree and lifted my other one off the ground. Sasuke, who was off the side and ignoring Naruto and I earlier, stopped to stare as I walked up the tree with no struggling at all. I only went about halfway up the tree as I didn't want to completely shatter the boys already small egos (even though it would be immensely more fun if I did) and then hopped down once I was done.

They were gaping at me with shock as I climbed the tree perfectly on my first (as far as they know) try. Naruto fummled over his words and muttering, "H-how...?" before looking at me like a god and exclaiming, "Teach me! Help me on it! Please please please!"

I smirked, I could have fun with this. "Say that I am the absolute best ninja to ever live and I'm totally going to kick your ass and become the next Hokage!"

"W-what?! No! I'm going to be the next Hokage! I'm a better ninja than you too!" Naruto sputtered out. I narrowed my eyes and huffed as I stalked off. I wasn't going to actually leave, just bluffing. He bought it by yelling, "Okay! Okay! Don't leave!" He sucked in a breath as I turned and stared at him. Sasuke was still looking at us, now with a smirk on his face as we both were waiting for Naruto to say his line.

"You... you are the absolute best ninja that ever lived and you're totally going to kick my ass and become the next Hokage." He muttered with a pout. I grinned with victory as Sasuke started to snicker lightly at Naruto. I raised an eyebrow and turned my attention to him.

"You gotta say it too, Uchiha." He instantly stopped and glared at me. "Okay then, I won't help either of you." I muttered before trying to walk off again. Naruto sputtered a "W-What?! Why won't you help me if he doesn't say it?!"

"Because I either help both of you or neither of you."

"Oi, Teme!" Naruto whined. "Just say it!"

"Hn." was the only response I heard as I walked onto the path, heading my way home. Darn, I was hoping I could record him saying it onto my phone which I had in my pocket.

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

At dinner that night, Naruto was basically yelling at Sasuke to just say the damn line and that he was a bastard. Kakashi realized that I could do the tree walk by the conversation and said starting tomorrow I was going to guard Tazuna with Sakura. Ugh, I was hoping for at least another day of just lazing around. Oh well.

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

The next day, I was sitting on the bridge just counting sixty mississippi's and then starting over again. Sakura said we'd only have to watch him for four hours and I cringed at the only part. After counting to sixty ten times I started to just look up at the sky to try and find figures. But... there were no clouds what so ever. I turned to Sakura and saw she was looking down at her own hands and lost in thought. She seemed... sad? Wait, huh?

"Hey... you okay?" I attempted at conversation. She snapped her head up at my voice and gazed at me before realizing I was addressing her and she regained her poseur.

"Um... yeah. I'm good... just fine." She gave me a pretty lame ass excuse. She just could've said, 'U kno dawg, I ain't feelin' all this shit, you get me? Like man... this ain't coolio anymo.' but no, that would not make sense as this is not my world anymore and no one speaks like that here. Yet, I can imagine people speak like that and that's just as good, right?

"Yeah... sure." I decided to drop the conversation since it wasn't my right to just pry into personal matters. If she wants to talk, I'll listen but if she wants to just think alone, that's fine as well.

I opted for staring at the water from the ledge and it... actually reminded me of home. It reminded me of Fort Tilden Beach back when I would fly kites with Mom, Harper and Flynn... When we were all little kids... Man, I miss those days. Now, those two are adults... well, I'm an adult too, but I'm just twenty while they're twenty-seven and thirty... and Shit! I probably totally missed Flynn's wedding! Ugh! If I end up going back, he's so going to kill me! And aww... I missed Harper giving birth to her daughter, too! I didn't even find out what she was going to name her... actually knowing her, it's going to be something dorky. Probably the same name as a video game character.

As I started to realize all the things that I could potentially lose from my old life, I started to get more and more sad. Over the course of the year, I had avoided all thoughts of my old life and just filled it all with working on my tech as a way to escape my mind... from the bittersweet memories. I thought of the times Harper play tea party with me even when she didn't want to and the times Flynn wrestled with me... the times Mom let me bake cookies with her and... shit, I made myself feel like crap now.

I let out a deep sigh as I turned from the water and saw Sakura looking at me from the corners of her eyes. She gave me a small, comforting smile as she patted down next to her as a way to tell me I should sit next to her on the ground. I accepted and plopped right by her and leaned against the concrete. "Charlotte..." Sakura muttered gaining my attention. She was staring at my arm with this guilty expression on her face. "I'm so sorry."

I just stared at her, letting her continue as to explain why she was even apologizing to me. "I... I did nothing! Absolutely nothing! You and Naruto did all the work while I was just standing there panicking! If I had done something... anything, then maybe... your arm..." I gaped at her as she trailed off. Does she honestly feel guilty about my arm... when there was probably nothing she could have done to prevent it? Aw shit, I have to fix this now, huh?

"Sakura... no matter what would have happened... I probably would've still lost my arm. I mean, dude, I'm a major idiot who makes so many things that backfires on them. It would have been I lost my arm in a battle or lost in while training how to use the lasers. I'm just glad that it was in a battle so it wasn't that much of a loss." That didn't seem to convince her at all as she just pulled her knees up to her chest.

Sigh. "Listen here, you little munchkin. You wanna know something about me?"

Sakura's gaze hesitantly switched to me. She looked kinda dull... maybe I should try and pull a Naruto? Yep. I'm gonna try it. "I didn't want to be a ninja."

From the look she gave me, I smirked. Naruto in his speeches always says something that catches the attention of the person who needs motivation. That statement seemed to do the trick.

"...You didn't...?"

"Nope." I verified. She stared at me with such confusion and opened her mouth to speak, only to shut it to rethink her words. Repeat that process a few times until I just continued with my explanation.

"I hate fighting. I'm a runner, not a fighter. When I was three, I stepped my dad's toes and started to cry because I thought I hurt him. I'm a person who stays in the background and uses that to my advantage. I'm better at stealth than strength... The only reason I actually fought Zabuza was because the adrenaline was the only thing to keep me from crying and high-tailing out of there. I didn't want to be a ninja... yet here I am."

"The difference between you and me is very little. We both are just scared little girls that regret not doing something right in the heat of a battle. We both have strengths and weaknesses and we both want to become better..."

Sakura muttered out a quiet, "...Why did you become a ninja then?"

I thought about it for a second before telling the truth. "I was thrown into it. It was the only thing I could do really... I mean I had a choice but if I didn't do it... where the fuck would I go? Or what would I do?"

She was surprised to hear this, questioning, "Wait... what do you mean? Don't you have a family back in the West? Why couldn't you go back to them?"

"Uh... I mean yeah, I do but I doubt I'd be able to see them again..." I ended it like that.

We fell into a silence from how abrupt the conversation ended. I could tell Sakura wanted to learn more about my family, but that wasn't the reason I started the conversation in the first place. I needed to revert back to where I was going in the first place. "Train to become a iryo-nin."

"...Huh?"

"You want to be useful? Boom! Become a iryo-nin! You'll become our most valuable teammate and everyone in the team will need you more than you need them! Bam! Fixed your problem."

Now that I think about it, with the Zabuza battle changing, who knows what else changed... maybe I should make sure certain things end up the same... and completely change some other things too. I'm defiantly quickening the plot in a few places because dude, too slow for me. One being Sakura's character development.

In truth when I was a kid, I was just indifferent with Sakura. I didn't hold a stupid hate for her... she was just there. Same when I started on Team 7, she was just there and although it annoyed me every time she obsessed over Sasuke to me or asked if I liked him too (Rejected that notion as soon as it left her mouth. He's like twelve and I'm twenty. Dude. No.). But she was a decent person and actually quite witty too. I feel like I need to give her a push, so she can try better.

"Medical ninjustu? Me? Yeah no, I don't think I could do it."

"Dude. No. Listen. You excel at chakra control, you learn best from books and you are like so fucking smart. If anyone can do it, it's you... Especially because I tried it and completely failed. If there is someone here that can do this, it's you."

Bam! Haha, I could totally be the next Naruto when it comes to inspiring people. Sakura thought it over before a smile grew on her face. "You know what... I'll try it. Yeah... I'll try it. Why not?"

Naruto, scoot your booty over. You aren't the only non-qualified but certainly effective therapist here... now there's two.

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

Fuck... So, here I was. Waking up to a large fucking crash in the house and a loud woman's scream. Aw fuck... They left without me and with Naruto. Those little shits. I bolted out of my futon and ran downstairs to see a hole in the wall for the kitchen and to see Inari sitting on the ground crying. He didn't see me yet and seemed to be contemplating something. Oh... Inari's mom isn't here. She must have been taken already.

Inari ran of the kitchen throught the hole and ran towards the thug dudes. I just opted to stay back a bit as Naruto rushed in and Inari and him had their little moment. I wouldn't have jumped in to 'save the day' since it was needed for Inari to learn not to be afraid and stuff.

Naruto turned to me as Inari started to cry tears of joy. "Charlotte... I think somethings wrong at the bridge. Come on." He bolted from his spot and disappeared into the trees...

You know what... I'm hoping this battle is like the original so I don't have to end up losing my other arm...

Life likes to fuck me, though. So, that is not going to happen.

- ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ -

Dude... I really love this chap. It's my fav so far!

And here I am again... writing 3,000 words after I just said I wouldn't... after last chapter and how much I felt like my hands were going to bleed... I did it again...

And next chapter is another battle and my hands are going to bleed more... fuck.

ALSO IMPORTANT! I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UPDATE SUNDAY BECAUSE I HAVE MUSICAL THIS WHOLE WEEKEND! SO IM HAVING IT IM UPLOADING BOTH CHAPTER 8/9 ON FRIDAY SO IM NOT AN UPDATE BEHIND! THEN IT WILL RETURN TO JUST FRIDAY AND SUNDAY UPLOADING! NOW BACK TO YOUR REGULAR SCHEDULING PROGRAM!

Until next time~!