Team 7 arrived at Tazuna's house, where they met his daughter, Tsunami, and his grandson, Inari. Kakashi woke up to the new environment with two people at his sides, but not quite as peaceful as they would have thought.

Feeling someone grab his ankle, Kakashi automatically aims a kick to their head. His leg is forced into restraint which causes further ruckus.

"Stop moving, Sensei," a feminine voice manages to grit out. "It's Sakura."

His eye snaps open and he turns to her direction. Kakashi's visible eye crinkles in a nervous crease. He hopes that he didn't hurt his student. Why was she poking at him anyway? Sakura points across from herself and introduces another woman.

"This is Tsunami-san, she is Tazuna-san's daughter," she says. Well this is awkward. Way to scare a civilian. Kakashi murmurs "hi" to the woman and turns back to Sakura. "Were there any problems while I was out?"

Sakura replies, "No. Everything went smoothly." Before Kakashi can utter another word, Tsunami interjects into the conversation. "Since you still can't move properly, you have to wear crutches for the next few days." The teacher glares at the ceiling. "I will not be doing that."

"Why?" Tsunami raises her eyebrow. "Zabuza is still alive," he says. While Tsunami is upset, Sakura is not surprised. "That doesn't mean you have no time to recover. You should heal, Sensei." He snaps back at her, "I am in charge. I know what's best." They continue to argue before Kakashi unwillingly uses the props.

Outside

Naruto and Sasuke are happy to train after hearing news of Zabuza's state. They long for the thrill of a fight against the strong ninja and want to be prepared for his next appearance.

"Today I will teach you all something different," starts Kakashi, "it is best if I show you." With crutches, he strides up the tree. Anxiously, Sasuke and Naruto watch him walk the underside of a tree limb. "Just use your chakra," he smiles. "What a poor explanation," says Sakura.

She follows her teacher's tracks and sits on the limb above him. Kakashi pretends to be shocked, noting her great chakra control. Sasuke attempts running the tree first to no avail. He only reaches a few steps before slipping off. Too little, Sakura thinks. Next, Naruto smirks, thinking he is better than Sasuke at the task, and runs full speed at his tree right beside his rival's. Lo and behold, the trunk breaks when he takes his first step. Too much, she finishes. Patiently, the kunoichi waits for one of them to crack as they go through countless trials and errors. Birds chirp in the forest while time goes by. Finally, Naruto approaches his friend.

"Sakura-chan, I don't get it," sighs the boy. Gears turning in her mind, Sakura conjures up a way to explain the concept to Naruto without confusing him.

"You're using too much chakra," she says. "Think of it like ramen: if you put too much noodles into the bowl, the ramen will overflow the bowl and you won't have enough broth. If you put too little in the bowl, the broth will overpower the noodles. You have to use the right amount of ramen to compliment the broth and fill the bowl. Does that make sense?"

A light bulb comes over Naruto's head and he grins. "Perfect!" Sasuke, who overheard the conversation, shakes his head but gets the gist of what Sakura described. Kakashi refrains from laughing at the odd hypothetical situation. However, he smiles softly at the teamwork he witnessed. Naruto and Sasuke simultaneously dash up their respective trees and feel a gleam of victory . . . until they fall down.

"Why didn't it work?" Naruto shouts. "Practice makes perfect," replies the prodigy, even though she got it on her first try. But they don't need to know that.

Kakashi wonders how well Sakura's chakra control is, so he decides to test it. "Sakura, follow me."

They arrive to a river and he opens up about his intentions. "Ninjas don't really do this early, but you're a special case. Have you ever walked on water?" Sakura recollects her childhood, searching back to any sign of the exercise. She only remembers reading about it, since there is not much urgency in a place lacking aquatic areas. She shakes her head.

"Go ahead then," drives Kakashi. Sakura takes her shoes off before taking one step onto the wet surface. Since Kakashi is there, she assumes no one else is in the vicinity. Goosebumps emerge from her skin as the water surrounds her foot. She pools chakra in the sole, testing its response. It appears stable, but the river keeps flowing. She mumbles to herself, "If the water continues running one way, then my chakra must flow the opposite direction while matching the velocity of the water." Kakashi watches her lazily, but his focus is intense. He observes her intelligence and waits to see if she can use it effectively.

To his surprise, she confidently takes two steps onto the river and stays steady. Sakura maintains her composure to prevent herself from falling. The balance of her chakra and the river complement each other and she turns to Kakashi. He is awestruck at the unusual display of a perfectly executed technique on the first try. Scratch that, amazing control. He isn't ready for all the information he will receive of the estranged girl in a short period.

Sakura's nerves are on edge as she preps herself to reveal a dangerous secret.

'Just say it.'

'He will look at me differently.'

'Really? You're acting like a little bitch.'

'It would be a bad time for him to connect the dots and abandon the mission.'

'It would be an even worse time for you to be taken by a bankrupt crook that has been craving exotic young girls and selling them for money.'

'You're right.'

Her mind returns to the real world and she lets it out.

"Sensei, I need to tell you something."

Kakashi, expecting her to talk about her abilities, says, "What is it?"

"I think- no, I am being hunted here. Gato is after me," she blurts. Startled, Kakashi blinks and asks curiously, "Why?"

"My family did business with him. Long story short, Gato lost all of what he had from us but he wanted me. My father didn't allow it, and nobody would trade with him, leading to the Waves monopolized by Gato and me as a target."

Kakashi stands against the tree shocked by her background. He was so caught up in her being such a good ninja that he forgot about her being an heiress. Obviously, as an elite shinobi, he goes on missions interfering with politics and protecting clansmen, but never unintentionally with a teammate when it's in a whole other territory.

"Why didn't you tell me before we went with the mission?" he questions. She looks down. "I forgot."

Confused, he presses further, "How does an heiress forget a target on her back when she goes to a place? This is too dangerous."

The truth is that she never forgot the target nor did she forget her status.

She forgot her family.

She incinerated the memories of her wicked parents to eliminate that time permanently: the time of loss.

Her loss of happiness. Her loss of trust. Her loss of love.

Her loss of innocence.

Her loss of sanity.

Sakura trembles as she drags herself back to land. It would not do to drown at a time like this. Kakashi worriedly approaches her, seeing her body shake.

"I don't want to be one of his dolls," she stutters erratically, "I don't want to be like my mother, or my cousins, or my aunts and uncles." She hears her parents' disapproving words. She smells their siblings' attractive aroma. She feels her cousins' prolonged caresses. And she tastes her defiler's tongue.

Sakura drops to her knees.

"But I can't let him terrorize this land. You haven't seen it. The poverty, starvation, and despair."

The candidness of Sakura's revelation frightens Kakashi. While he underestimated her skills, he overestimated her emotional state. He thought that, like Sasuke, she was the typical enigmatic prodigy. Instead of being innately a hermit, her feelings were snatched away from her. Kakashi should have known the Hokage better to realize he won't have two of the same people on one team.

The signs are subtle, yet glaringly obvious. Sakura binds her teammates together and treats them like they are her blood brothers. She indulges in common things such as food, books, and fashion. For fuck's sake she even held a party for all of the new teams, including the teachers! But as much as she acts normal, Sakura never truly reaches the status quo. It is impossible to call her a kid because everything she does is too mature, too wise, and too unique.

But what scares Kakashi the most is her fear. His confidence to proceed with the mission grew from his genins' courage. If they felt that they could handle it, then so could he. He did not take Gato seriously because he assumed that the power lied among the shinobi, whom he always competes against, not the man. Now that his best–and most reliable–genin is in danger, he cannot kill Zabuza and co. and the party's over. Kakashi must make a choice to plan carefully or leave the mission entirely. What a fucking curse.