"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! My greatest like is cup ramen, though Ichiraku is even better! My greatest dislike is the three minute wait for instant ramen to cook. My dream? To become the Ramen King, and make everyone acknowledge the beauty of ramen!"
Kakashi blinked. Well, that was quite... original.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a ton of things I dislike, although the worst offenses are tardiness, incompetence, laziness, excuses, and perversion. I don't have a dream, but I do have an ambition to kill a certain man."
Although Kakashi had an educated guess as to who that man was, and how he certainly was not that man, he still felt inclined to shove his Icha Icha novel deeper into his pocket.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like a lot of things! There are cute clothes and accessories. There are cute little animals. Ooh, and cute boys! I hope to one day a handsome, dark-haired boy would marry me and give me a mansion with my own cool, one-eyed butler and rough, unrefined bodyguard, both of whom are handsome and in love with me too. As for my hobbies, I love watching a show named Sailor Stars every Saturday morning. It's about these girls who fight crime by starlight and win love by daylight, and..."
And now, Kakashi was slightly disturbed, though judging by Sasuke's and Naruto's pale faces, he was not alone.
.
Madam Shijimi rubbed her cheek against her anguished feline. "Oh my cute Tora-chan. I was so worried!"
The Mission Assignment Office was crowded, filled with scroll work and accounting. Wealthy patrons lined by the desks for requests, their children in a giggle of hide and seek behind the pillars.
While Naruto made a commotion to the Hokage about missions more fulfilling than planting potatoes, Sakura counted every ryō of her payment. Redundant mission or not, the wife of the Feudal Lord was paying two hundred thousand a pop. Even at one percent, Sakura counted enough to cover groceries for the month.
"Okay."
Sakura perked up to see the Hokage remove his pipe. "I'll give you a C-rank."
On cue, the door slid open to reveal some drunk in old man pants, a towel around his neck. "These are the ninja? They're just a bunch of brats, especially the short one with the stupid-looking face."
With a grab of the collar, Sakura stopped Naruto from killing their client, then frowned upon hearing their mission. She had no time for a stroll to the Land of Waves, and for the time duration of the mission, the pay was outright lousy.
Unfortunately, she had no say in the matter. No other team was available, and her teammates were eager to accept anything that did not involve shoveling pig shit.
When the Konoha main gate swung open, Naruto ran ahead, bickering with the client, a bridge builder named Tazuna. Kakashi followed. Sasuke shifted his gaze towards Sakura, who had froze at the sight of the open road.
"You coming?"
Clenching her jaw, she stepped forward. "Yes."
As they walked, Sakura scanned her surroundings, a lazy afternoon within a shuffle of green foliage and blue skies. She paid particular attentions to the shadows in her periphery and made caution to be in the center of the crowd at all times.
The problem with the external is unpredictability, the random variables and factors uncovered by textbook. The problem with the external is that you never know when some random person will step into the picture and take a hammer to your cardboard world.
Her eyes snapped open at the burst of blood, her teacher diced, the cap of his skull flying off.
"One down."
Chains whipped in the air, as two rogue nin jumped away from Kakashi's dismembered body in favor of Naruto. In a blink, they were behind him, the chain looping around his neck.
With a shuriken and intersecting kunai, Sasuke pinned their chain to the nearest tree, locking them in place before kicking their faces. This gave Sakura enough time to withdraw her own kunai and push their client back.
One of the two enemies unlocked his chain first and flashed toward them. Her eyes narrowed. She made herself overlook the metal of his claw, the menace of his eye, all the machinery and armor and gear, deconstructing him until there stood a man as fragile as herself. With every vulnerability as herself, the vulnerabilities she was all too aware of as she cradled her neck at nights, wrapped under a cocoon of covers.
A clang of metal. Sakura dug her feet into the ground, twisting the handle of her kunai to keep the claw from inching closer to her eye. The enemy shifted weight, ready to punch with his other hand when Sasuke materialized, delivering a kick from below.
A perfectly intact Kakashi then held the enemy in a choke hold, the accomplice already succumbed under his other arm.
It was over.
Sakura collapsed to her knees in relief. However, her pulse quickened again after learning their client had conned them. This was no peaceful escort. A cornered Tazuna confessed he was actually targeted by a billionaire drug lord who had more than enough disposable income to dispose of them.
Immediately, Sakura voiced her objection. She prioritized the mission as A level, hardly appropriate for genin. Kakashi might be able to protect them rogue chūnin, but if a shipping magnate like Gatō wanted Tazuna dead, he could hire a team of jōnin. To continue would be a violation of Konoha codes. Not to mention, the shit-ass pay.
Unfortunately, the rest of her team ignored her logistics, out of either dedication or ego, but mostly ego. To reinforce continuing the mission, Naruto, who sustained a poison injury during the outbreak, went on a masochistic streak and slit his own hand. Then there was Sasuke, whose unnecessary derision had fueled Naruto's idiocy in the first place.
By the time Kakashi declared they would move forward, Sakura concluded she hated them all.
.
For the sake of protection, their journey was winded with detours. Part of the trip was a languid boat ride through a swamp of vegetation, the air heavy of compost and gas. The fog was so dense, Sakura breathed in moisture, her hand vanishing from sight when extended too far.
After the boat docked, they traveled on foot. The landscape was crowded with native trees, twisted and bent, roots tenting out from the mossy soil. With every step, Sakura felt her sandals sink into sponges of mud, although the humidity did well to cover their tracks.
Unfortunately, no amount of humidity could cover Naruto.
"There!" Without warning, he threw a shuriken at the bushes.
Startled, Sakura whipped around, kunai ready to fend off... a rabbit? Her eye twitched.
Naruto laughed nervously, scooping up the traumatized rabbit in a hug. "Sorry, bunny!"
Sakura scowled, ready to put herself a few meters ahead of Naruto's recklessness when something hit her. She did a double-take.
"Sakura-chan?"
Squinting, Sakura pulled the rabbit up by its ears. Wasn't this a species of snow rabbits? From her textbooks, their pigment darkened from white to brown under increased exposure to sunlight. The ability was an evolutionary advantage that allowed them to camouflage in both winter and summer landscapes.
It was already late spring, yet this one was pure white. So either she had a genetic mutant in her hands or-!
A shout. "Duck!"
Without thinking, she threw herself against Naruto, just as a butcher sword spun through the air and sliced into a tree. On top appeared a figure of muscular built, his gaze alone more dangerous than any tooth-edged chains. That her teacher recognized the person, a rogue Kiri nin by the name of Zabuza, and vice versa, did not help the situation.
Kakashi lifted his shinobi headband.
Zabuza crackled. "Ah, so I get to see the famous Sharingan already."
Both Sasuke and Sakura froze.
"Can you tell me what you know about the Uchiha clan?"
Ino had lowered the spoon from her lips, staring back in confusion. "The Uchiha clan," she repeated.
"There's no archive on the Uchiha in any of the research facilities. There's little documentation on clans in general, but the Uchiha is practically invisible in history."
"Well, I would assume everything would be kept in their own library. They weren't exactly the gossipy kind." Ino scoffed, digging her spoon back into the matcha ice cream.
With a grin, she leaned forward. Luckily for Sakura, Ino was the gossipy kind. "Did you know they had their own religion?" she whispered. "Yeah, went to a temple every week for some arcane sun and moon, dark and light ritual type of thing."
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "They were a cult?"
"Oh yeah, it's supposed to enhance their 'ultimate jutsu'."
"The katon," Sakura clarified.
Ino grinned wider. "You don't really think that, do you?"
"I know that's what their clan insignia signifies, even if many clans share the ability of the katon, and no simple fire mastery is enough to resort to inbreeding nor oust the power of the Hyūga."
At Sakura's look, Ino burst out into a laugh. "Clever girl. Yes, the kekkei genkai you're wondering about is known as the Sharingan. The evil eye, as some would call it. It appeared in the select elite of the clan."
"What does this doujutsu do?"
"The better question is, what doesn't it do. They were freaky powerful, Sakura. Their lamest could defeat the best of other clans. Too bad for us, they were also rather possessive of their things, knowledge included, and really did keep to themselves. All we know is, once that eye turns red, you better run."
As Kakashi's eye spun, Sakura faced more questions than answers. Of all the things from her last background check on this man, an Uchiha exclusive kekkei genkai was not one of them. But maybe that was a good thing, because this Sharingan may be the key to guaranteeing their quick victory and safe ret-
Sakura blinked. Did he just- Okay, that water prison was looking pretty effective there.
Nevermind, the Sharingan was lousy, her teacher was lousier, and they were screwed. Great.
A water clone morphed from the ground beside Naruto, sending him flying meters away. Shaking, Naruto crawled up and charged back at the clone.
"You idiot-!"
Zabuza kicked Naruto back in place. Sakura swallowed, her lips curling upwards. Good, Naruto, good.
"Sorry to keep you guys waiting." Naruto chuckled, strapping on his retrieved headband.
He turned to Sasuke, who looked to Sakura, who nodded back at Naruto. Without a word, they exchanged equipment, a mutual grin settling on their faces.
"Time to get wild, boys."
In amusement, Zabuza watched the girl strap on metal arm guards. It was rare to see Konoha nin show backbone. Still, they did display the village's stupidity when she charged forward as recklessly as the dumb-looking brat.
He waited for her to come into range, then sliced her torso away from her lower body. Two halves of the snow rabbit plopped in the ground, while the girl spun an one-eighty, couched beside him in balance.
On his second cut, she transformed into the dumb-looking brat from before, tongue out, index and pinky out. A scarf of tags burned around his severed neck. "Sayonara, sucker!"
Zabuza watched the explosion of his clone, more intrigued by their use of kage bunshin than impressed. He cannot imagine why they would layer a clone with a henge, except to conceal the girl's true whereabouts. Perhaps to give her a chance to flee unnoticed from battle, given Konoha's accredited "chivalrous" ways.
"Sorry, wrong deduction."
How-! Zabuza blocked her attack with a swing his sword. Sakura crossed her arms to take the brunt of his attack. She winced, before smirking and transforming into a burst of flames. Just as Zabuza pulled up a defensive wall of water around himself, a hidden fūma shuriken burst through the steam. Two fūma shuriken, one in the shadow of the other.
Forced to break his prison grip on Kakashi, Zabuza seized the upper windmill and dodged the lower, but had no time to foresee any further. The dodged shuriken threw a kunai from below, the dark-haired boy threw a kunai from above, and the girl threw a kunai from behind, simultaneously puncturing his lung, heart, and neck.
Dripping, an escaped Kakashi watched Zabuza collapse to his knees.
"You've got a good team," Zabuza laughed, eyes wild with bloodlust.
"It's over," Kakashi said. "You're already dead."
Zabuza's body rolled on the ground.
Kakashi eyed the dirt tunnel beside the body. Incredible. Never would he have thought that an S-rank criminal like Zabuza would be made a fool by a simple application of kawarimi.
With his Sharingan, Kakashi caught the whole performance, starting with the kage bunshin planted by the foot of Zabuza's water clone. While the kage bunshin dug underground, Sakura advanced to the water clone, using a kawarimi with the snow rabbit to get inside the range of Zabuza's sword. The second kawarimi, Sakura and Naruto's kage bunshin substituted with each other, so Sakura could land in proximity to the real Zabuza and the kage bunshin could blow up the water clone. With the water clone gone, Naruto and Sasuke were free to mobilize under the cover of the debris, so that by the third and final kawarimi, Sakura and Sasuke could substitute, allowing Sasuke to deliver a close-range katon and Sakura to throw Naruto as a shadow shuriken.
Individually, Naruto's kage bunshin was a flexible, disposable tool, but lacked subtlety. Sasuke's katon, as devastating as it was, proved easily countered at a distance. But with a third member on the team, they were not only able to position themselves in the right places at the right time, but also create enough layers of confusion to delay Zabuza's reaction, if only by a second.
You only need one second to kill a man.
Zabuza made a grave mistake of toying with this team, and he paid with his life.
Just as Kakashi thought he could relax, he detected a second presence from the woods. A masked child in the traditional garbs of the Kiri descended before Zabuza's body.
Sasuke appeared before Tazuna in protection. Naruto growled, ready to attack when Kakashi pulled him back.
"This one isn't an enemy," he said, eying the hunter-nin mask.
"I hail from Kirigakure," the child said softly. "I commend you for defeating a wanted rogue nin. It is my duty to now dispose of this body."
Naruto unwound when the child lifted the body and vanished. Kakashi pulled down his headband, satisfied by how the situation resolved itself.
"Well, now that's over, we should get Tazuna-san back home."
Tazuna tilted his hat and laughed merrily. "Super thanks for not letting me die, kids! Come over to my house for refreshments!"
"Whoo!" Naruto cheered at the mention of food.
They were ready to set off, until Sasuke peered down at the puddle of blood by one unconscious kunoichi. "... Guys."
Naruto's grin froze on his face, before slowly sinking down into an open jaw. His face turned white.
"HOLY SHIT, SAKURA-CHAN!"
.
A kunai peeked out from the grass.
Haku placed a hand against Zabuza's neck, ignoring the blood slipping through the cracks of his fingers. Ice began to crystallize and seal the wound.
"Please let me stay by your side."
A tear slipped down his cheek.
"Please."
.
Sakura woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling, cinder block casts around her arms. Doesn't this hurt like a bitch.
"I admit the strategy was fine," Kakashi said. "But in terms of body collateral, the role should have gone to Naruto."
Naruto jumped on her futon. "Yeah, Sakura-chan! You nearly lost both your arms!"
Sakura pondered this. Konoha's compensation for bodily damage on missions was substantial, and two arms chopped off meant at least five years of welfare money.
But no. Zabuza was already handicapped to one hand, and she had specifically picked a position with a difficult angle for him to even reach, let alone strike powerfully. Added with the inertia of his sword and its aerodynamics, there simply was not enough momentum for a fatal blow.
Not that she would bother explaining centripetal force to Naruto.
"Trust me," she said impatiently. "I'd lose your arms over mine any day." But it was not like she could not henge anywhere as convincingly as Naruto, nor blow out a katon like Sasuke, so distraction dummy it was.
She dropped the topic. "Anyway, what is this hunter-nin everyone is mumbling about?"
"Oh, some weird kid in a mask just came in and took the body away. Apparently to burn it or something."
Sakura furrowed her brows. "That's conveniently timed," she said. "And during our fight, he made no effort to help us?"
"I know, what a douchebag!"
Sakura kept her skepticism.
Kakashi shifted. "I've been thinking the same thing too, Sakura."
"Whaa-?"
Unable to constrain her temper, she dealt a headbutt to Naruto's skull. "You moron! You just let Zabuza's ally walk away!" Groaning, she buried her head into the futon. "I knew it. I knew there was someone else."
"How-"
"The bunny!" she growled. "It was a pet, and Zabuza didn't strike me as the bunny type. They were a pair, he and the kid."
"So-?"
"So there's someone still after Tazuna-san! And let's pray their relationship wasn't close, or else we're targets of revenge!"
Huffing, Sakura turned to Kakashi, who sat weighing the turn of events. If he had any sense of responsibility, he would take them back to Konoha right now. It had been a miracle they managed to kill Zabuza, and she was not pushing her luck, especially now that the enemy knew better than to underestimate them as bumbling kids.
But of course, nope, there was that exemplary display of dedication again. And ego. Still mostly ego.
"We're going to prepare for the worst case scenario and begin training," Kakashi decided. "Sasuke, Naruto, you come with me. Sakura..." He looked down at her casts. "Why don't you take it easy."
A small, dead voice caught everyone's attention. "What's the point. You're all just going to die anyway."
"Inari!"
Deadpanned, Sakura waited for everyone to quiet. An angered Naruto chased after the client's grandson, with an apologetic Tazuna following. Kakashi's idle, one-sided conversation with Sasuke did little to mend the awkwardness in the room, resulting in both opting to silently leave for the fields.
When the room emptied, the mother of the family, Tsunami, came to Sakura's side. "I am terribly sorry about my son," she grumbled. "If there's anything I can do to make you more comfortable..."
Sakura kicked the comforter off. "Yeah, help me up." She hissed. "Kakashi-sensei did not receive an exorbitant portion of my mission fee to train my teammates."
With that, Sakura straightened up and stalked out, one limb at a time. When she burst out the door, she nearly fell into the water. The entire architecture of the house was suspended above a river, a dragonfly buzzing past her nose.
"Oh wow," she mumbled, eying the pier.
In the fields, Sasuke and Naruto were vertically running up trees. Sakura craned her neck. "So cool, teaching us three dimensional maneuverability, sensei?"
Kakashi frowned. "Sakura, what are you doing here. I told you to stay at the house."
"But-"
"This isn't a joking matter. Zabuza's sword pierced through your arm guards, severed several tissues and nerves, and fractured your bone. I may have stitched you up, but you're in no condition to be training. If you fall from that height..."
Her eyes narrowed. Teach properly, and she won't fall.
"Sorry, I did not mean to be rebellious or ungrateful," she said, shuffling her feet. "I just felt a bit left out. You know, irrelevant."
Kakashi softened his expression, before patting her head. "Listen," he said, his eye wrinkled in a smile. "What you did against Zabuza has already exceeded all my expectations." Those must had been some pretty low expectations. "Let your arms recover." Her arms were perfectly capable of recovering while she trained. "It's okay if you don't push yourself further for tonight." Actually, no, pushing hard and fast seemed necessary given, you know, the drug lord sending all those rogue shinobi after them. "After all, I believe you have already outperformed both the boys."
Sakura blinked at her teacher's sincerity.
And then, she laughed. And laughed. And laughed.
Did he just seriously just say that. Did he seriously miss the underground tunnel dug under the span of fifteen seconds. With fingernails.
Or the breath of fire hot enough to incinerate all carbon matter within a three meter radius.
Or the kage bunshin that most shinobi cannot accomplish given in a lifetime. How about a hundred. With a shortcut hand seal Naruto invented in the middle of combat.
Or the inhuman reaction speeds and complementary flash-step. That by the time that light had hit her pupil and her receptors had sent a picture for her brain to process, Sasuke had already traveled five meters in the air, pulled out a set of weapons, and locked onto his target with laser precision.
Or the henge that could mimic the mass, volume, weight, density of any object, perfect down to its thermal, kinetic, and optical properties.
Guess raw physical and mental stamina was not worth much nowadays.
Nor regenerative powers that made one oblivious to damage.
Cradling her stomach, Sakura found her breath and wiped a tear from her eye. "Thank you, sensei. That's the first time someone ever complimented me like that. You are so kind." He was so full of bullshit.
Sasuke had made his twentieth strike when he turned around. Naruto was still flopping like a fish on the ground, and Kakashi was further behind, reading a book. But he swore he heard Sakura a moment ago.
"What are you doing here?" Tazuna asked, watching Sakura join the construction workers on the bridge. Her scowl reconfigured into a smile.
"Kakashi-sensei sent me to act as your bodyguard!" she chirped. "Anything I can do to help?"
While Sasuke and Naruto trained in the woods, Sakura played hopscotch on the bridge, lost in mental ramblings. Tazuna did not think there was much Sakura could do without arms, so he left her alone to her quirky behavior. The construction required full attention.
It was not until late noon that Tazuna noticed that Sakura had escalated her game of hopscotch to the bridge railings. Eyes closed, Sakura realigned her torso, controlling the shaking of her leg.
"Fifty seven, point one... point two..." In the darkness of her mind, the diagram shifted once more, a web of lines stretching in parallel before curving at the base of her foot. Angle thirty eight, lower shoulder, cosine square root N over k, keep perpendicular the arm and-
"Hey, careful there! The railings get slippery!"
Her eyes snapped open. With a yelp, Sakura toppled over. Luckily, she fell onto the deck instead of the crashing waters below. Unluckily, she did not escape unscathed, as fresh blood seeped out from her elbows and knees, from where she scraped against the cement. Tazuna shook his head while Sakura laughed nervously.
"Sorry, I'll just go back over there," she said mildly, taking her hopscotch chalk.
Once she turned around, she dropped her smile. On the floor, she marked an arrow. From the start, the repulsion force of chakra on matter...
The following day, Tazuna was on his lunch break when he accidentally knocked over his water bottle. Seeing the bottle bob in the waters below, Tazuna shrugged it off as a lost cause.
However, Sakura set down her bento and volunteered to retrieve it.
"Can you swim?" Tazuna joked.
"I don't need to."
With that, she walked off the bridge. Jaw open, Tazuna called to his men for a rope. However, as they lowered him down, there was no drowning girl. Like a water spider, she walked across the water, then back up the towers, then under the deck, and finally back upright.
"Here you go!" She presented the water bottle to him.
"How in the world...?"
"Dynamic equilibrium," she said simply. "I found it."
After a day of calculations, Sakura had reached a recipe of 73.2 percent muscle, 24.6 percent stamina, and 2.2 percent chakra focus that allowed three dimensional maneuverability, let it be a leap off the ground, or a slide across the water. For horizontal positions, strengthen core and spine to adjust for torque. For aerial combat, tunnel chakra for propulsion. For climbs, disperse and contract for adhesion. Purely formulaic, and after three thousand runs of trial and error, Naruto and Sasuke made the same discovery.
Tazuna removed his hard hat. "I see," he said, solemnly. He plopped the hat on her head and shouted to his crew. "Oi, ready the chains! We've got ourselves a new worker!"
Her new skill proved useful in connecting cables, fixing underbeams, and acting as a general mediator between the two uncompleted sides.
"What a day! At this rate, we'll finish way ahead of schedule!" Tazuna exclaimed, sauntering into town in merry steps. "You're a piece of work, you know that? Parents must be proud."
Sakura gave a dry smile.
The marketplace was a collection of rundown shacks. Half the shops sold onions by individual stalks, and malnutritioned children huddled in the streets. Originally, Sakura had hoped to use this grocery trip to stock up on medicine and weaponry, but now she would be lucky to find rice.
"It wasn't always like this," Tazuna mumbled. "The town was fine until Gatō robbed it of its wealth."
Sakura said nothing. Then, "Where does this Gatō person live again?"
Back at the house, when Naruto and Sasuke were not busy bromantically latching onto each other in heaps of sweat, they were glaring over the dinner table, stuffing food into their mouths. They extended their empty bowls for more, before hurling.
Eye twitching, Sakura set down her chopsticks. "You boys have some nerve," she said, cracking her knuckles, "wasting food!"
When she slammed their heads into their respective bowls, Kakashi concluded that her arms may have sufficiently healed for combat.
.
Nights in the Land of Waves were different from those back home. The fog would become heavy to the point of unbreathable. It would also blanket all moonlight, so that the entire outside was blind to even the shinobi. Your world became an island, limited to the space of your hut and whatever artificial means you had to light your way.
Sakura listened to the creaks and croaks, the chirping a pitch lower than the ones of Konoha. The night also amplified the groans of the house itself, old planks of wood straining against the sways of the water. If she sat still enough, she could feel the house sway too.
She cannot say whether she preferred this type of living or not, only that the nights felt strange without the buzz of electrical equipment, barks of the neighborhood dog, and occasional crash of a tipped garbage can. In the futon next to her, Naruto snored. There was the silhouette that marked Sasuke in the far corner. Upstairs were the client and his family, who had turned in after the last dishes were set on the rack, the last toothbrush returned to its cup, the last words and laughs exchanged in the hall.
It was strange indeed.
"Is something bothering you, Sakura?"
She turned her attention to the scar down the face of her teacher. Kakashi did not look up from his jutsu.
"Nothing in particular," she said. She tilted her head for close scrutiny of his eye. "But your eye, it's so cool, sensei!"
His eyes curled into a smile. "And useful." Done, he released her arm. She rolled her wrist and tested her muscles. It was the seventh night of healing, and while some phantom pain lingered, she was more or less recovered.
She noticed the drain on her teacher, though, as he shielded his Sharingan.
"Do you mind me asking how you got it?"
"Aren't you a curious one."
At Kakashi's avoidance, Sakura lowered her head in concession. The matter was obviously private, and if anyone were to deserve an explanation, Sasuke would be far ahead in line. Still, it did not hurt to ask.
"I just like knowing things, Kakashi-sensei."
Her smile was the sweet kind, contrasted to Naruto's silly one, but both were fake. Her tone was fake. Her politeness was fake.
Besides strong academic grades, the only thing Kakashi knew about Sakura was her love for some series called Sailor Stars. She would gush about the show on every mission, squealing over the latest so-and-so cute character, much to the dismay of her teammates.
Girls would be girls, though, and Kakashi did not think too deeply into the quirk at first. After all, the show was popular among girls, and from what Kurenai told him, had positive lessons about friendship, tolerance, and respect.
It had also been canceled a good year ago, and none of the characters Sakura giggled about ever existed.
"Sakura," Kakashi began.
She met his gaze. "Yes, sensei?"
The uneven lighting had darkened her pupils to jade, her skin dyed a grey. On her face was the innocent smile of a girl, a girl who had not killed a man just the week prior.
"Why did you give me a bell that day," he decided to ask.
She sent him a strange look. "Well, sensei, I would assume the same reason why my teammates are still here."
Her features became chiseled by chiaroscuro. "Were you really going to deny the nine-tailed jinchūriki and the last Uchiha tutelage for a nobody like me?" She chuckled darkly. "I wanted to call your bluff."
Kakashi stiffened. "About Naruto, you know."
She flashed him another sweet smile. "I told you, I like knowing things."
Because it was the things that you did not know that would come to kill you.
.
For a week, the days had been idyllic. Then, on the eighth morning, half the bridge crew lied slaughtered, every body punctured by senbon. Before them stood the masked child.
"Zabuza-san." There was ice in his voice. "I will fulfill your last wish and execute this man."
Kakashi deflected the senbon before it could pierce Tazuna in the throat. To Sasuke, he smiled. "You mind protecting Tazuna-san?"
Back at the house...
"Oh shit! We're late!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping into his pants.
From her futon, Sakura eyed him through layers of eye bags. She yawned. "What's the hurry. It's not like the bridge is going to up and move."
"No, but like hell I'm going to let Sasuke get a private training session with Kakashi-sensei."
"Fair enough, help me up."
Sakura grabbed her backpack, before her eye caught a roll of wire.
"Sakura-chan?"
Sakura strapped the coil to her back, before flipping out the window. Her feet stopped at the surface of the river. "Tazuna-san mentioned some construction tools for the bridge yesterday. I don't want to make a second trip back for them."
"Oh, let me help!" Naruto beamed, hopping over the windowsill after her.
Sakura facepalmed at the splash that ensued.
"Why did you do that!"
"Because you did!"
She violently shook his soaked body. "You idiot! Don't mimic skills you don't yet have and expect things to magically work out!"
"Ahaha, but you'll teach me, right, Sakura-chan, right?"
"BAH!"
At the warehouse, Sakura handed Naruto the handle of a sledgehammer before running to gather more equipment. Once done, they dashed back to the house a final time to sign off Tsunami and Inari.
On their leap across the trees, Sakura glanced down to Naruto's footwork. He grinned at hers. In unison, they somersaulted, before straightening from their crouch. Looked like the old days of walking were over.
"Good luck!" Tsunami said, drying a dish.
Sakura adjusted the strap of her backpack. "Yeah, see you-"
The wall smashed open.
"-later."
Sakura blinked at the goon in mime makeup and beanie, then at the shirtless wannabe pirate with tattoos. Her gaze fell to the broken table, split down the middle, and the plates smashed on the floor. Tsunami cowered against the sink while Inari stood frozen by the kitchen doorway.
The goon lifted his sword at Tsunami. "Tazuna's daughter, you're coming with us!"
Sakura blinked once more. Then, she smiled. "Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"You mind taking Tsunami and the kid to the other room?" Slowly, Sakura set down her backpack and relieved Naruto of the sledgehammer. Her smile darkened to a sneer. "I don't want them to see this."
Naruto seized Inari and ushered a bewildered Tsunami upstairs. "Hey, no worries, it's going to be alright," he said.
Inari peeked up from his hat. "How do you know?"
After a glance across the room, Naruto crouched down and whispered, "You know that girl down there? I grew up with her, and if there's anything I know, it's that she's..."
"She's what?"
"Well, she's fucking crazy."
Downstairs in the kitchen, Sakura stared impassively at Gatō's new recruits.
"You got yourself into a bad mess, girly," the pirate laughed. "I've just been wanting to cut-"
Five bashes later, Sakura dropped the sledgehammer and peeled skull bits off the cabinet drawers. Grabbing a leg, she gathered the bodies into industrial garbage bags. She scowled at the streaking trails of red, but kept dragging the bags until they were a safe distance from the house. Sasuke could take care of the bodies with a katon when he got back.
It was indeed a mess. She rinsed her hands and shouted to Naruto for help on the clean up. His kage bunshin began to mop the floor when one caught sight of a set of swords lying on the floor.
"They're fancy enough to fetch good money," Sakura said.
By the time the real Naruto brought Inari and his mother downstairs, the kitchen had been sterilized. As for the broken wall and furniture, Sakura tossed the swords to Naruto and promised to return with enough cash for the damages.
"Gatō's already started making his move. There will be more people after you," Sakura said. "Naruto, think you're proficient enough with the kage bunshin to have a clone keep an eye on them?"
"I am now." To Inari, Naruto grinned. "Keep strong, you hear?"
They set off.
Upon arrival at the bridge, their eyes widened. Five men of the construction crew lied sprawled across the bridge. Sasuke lied prone on the ground in front of Tazuna, a coat of senbon punctured through him.
Deep in the fog, a child in a chipped masked shoved Kakashi's limp body aside. He stumbled forward, a trail of blood down the fabric of his haori. With dead eyes, he withdrew his last three senbon. "For Zabuza-san," he whispered.
Naruto balled forward, shielding Tazuna from one last desperate attack before the child collapsed.
Then, all fell to silence.
Naruto knelt beside Tazuna. "Oi, you're okay, right?"
Tazuna lowered his gaze in shame. "Yeah," he said. "That boy protected me with his life."
Naruto stared speechlessly at Sasuke. "No... Nonono!" He lifted his body. It was cold. "No, no, don't be dead on me, you bastard. I haven't beaten you yet. I haven't- I- Who gave you permission to play hero without me!" He screamed and shook him harder.
Sakura swallowed deeply at her teacher's body. By some devastating force, his own hand was buried in his ribcage, too frighteningly deep, so deep it looked like he had burst from the inside out. Standing up, she closed her hand and forced herself to break away. She checked the others, but the crew was dead too.
"Please tell me Sasuke-kun is..." She stopped at Naruto's hunched-over form, the tears rolling down his chin. They did not stop, dripping onto Sasuke's forehead and cheek.
The tap of a cane. "What a touching scene."
They whipped around to see a mob at the end of the bridge, led by a suited man. "I must say this went perfectly, two down on both sides." The man looked up from his round shades. "Little girl and boy, I'm feeling generous today. You have one chance to run."
Naruto controlled his shaking and stood up. Sakura stared expressionlessly.
"I'm guessing the mouse-looking thing is Gatō," she stated in monotone.
"Yeah, I bet he is," Naruto deadpanned.
"Flip a coin?"
"Let's share."
"Fine by me."
Naruto withdrew both blades, while Sakura slung the sledgehammer over her shoulder.
"You kids seriously think you can take on me?" Gatō laughed, but stepped back when the two children were unfazed except for a spike in chakra from one and a drop in temperature from the other. "Kill them!" he ordered.
Naruto took left while Sakura ran along the right railing, a line of wire strung between them that with a pull and yank, sawed off the heads of the first line of offense. Naruto jumped into the crowd, spinning a hurricane of red. Sakura bashed her sledgehammer into the face of one man, before evading a spear with a fall off the bridge. "Eep!"
Just as the men peered over the railing, awaiting the sound of crashing water, she flipped back upright, hammering their heads into one. "Just kidding."
Gatō watched in horror as his crew was chopped and minced like meat. A demon approached him in even steps, burning hot enough for steam to evaporate from his skin. His pupils had thinned into the slits of a monster, mouth baring a row of sharp, interlocked teeth.
Naruto rolled his neck. "To let you in on a secret, I was starting to like him." He lifted his swords. "A lot."
Gatō whipped around, only to find a smiling girl. "You killed my future husband and butler." She raised her sledgehammer. "They were so handsome."
The scream was long. Nauseated, Tazuna averted away from the slaughterhouse. His eyes landed on the befallen boy, then widened at the sight of a rising breath.
Hazily, Sasuke opened his eyes. He stared at his teammates, who stared back, chakra dispersed, weapons falling anticlimactically out of their grip.
"Oh look," Sakura said. "He's alive."
Naruto stiffened and buried his face into his palm. "Don't get your hopes up, Sakura-chan. He could still die."
"No fool, I'm alive-"
Flushing, Naruto stomped Sasuke's head back down. "Nope, after that, you're dead."
.
"The Great Kakashi Bridge, huh."
Anko slung back into the couch. Fate certainly had a twisted sense of irony. Hatake Kakashi. The man to survive a decade of assassination work, wandering for ages in the dark, before finally pulled to the light, to a future and recovery, only to die on a C-rank mission protecting a drunk and some bumbling kids.
"Wow, what a blow."
Hiruzen understood the loss all too well. Kakashi had been one of their best black ops, as well as the village's only Sharingan wielder for a good four years. Not only that, he had been the perfect mentor candidate to Naruto and Sasuke.
"At least I finally found a new sensei for Team 7," the Hokage sighed, setting down the scroll.
"Ha, nice. Who's the sucker?" Anko asked, toying with a dagger.
"You."
The dagger fell.
"WHAT!"
.
Danzō descended down the dungeon steps, two masked shinobi in his shadow.
The closer to the cell, the colder the air became, until the floor became frosted white, as did the walls and bars. With a nod of his head, the guards parted for his entrance.
Strapped by chains, the prisoner watched him withdraw something from his sleeve. It turned to be not a sword, but a bowl.
With wrinkled hands, Danzō laid the hot chazuke before him as offering, as well as a pair of chopsticks.
"Child of Snow, we welcome you to the Land of Fire."