Insert disclaimer here

Blah Blah Blah basic text (i.e. description, speech, etc)

Blah Blah Blah Thought or some transaction within someone's mind (also flashbacks)

Blah Blah Blah Kyuubi talking Jutsu will also be bold

BLAH yelling, or emphasis of some sort

Wrath of a Woman Scorned

Rated M for: language, violence, adult situations and concepts, lemons, and graphic imagery

By: EDelta88

Chapter 7: Faces In the Mirror

Nami no Kuni
Staring at Aki for a moment, Kakashi sighed. "You let him go, didn't you," he observed.

"He's still alive," Aki said, shrugging casually.

"What? But why would you..." Sakura muttered, trying to wrap her head around her teammate choosing to let an A-rank missing nin that was trying to kill them get away.

"Wouldn't it have been safer to just kill him?"

"Maybe, but where's the fun in that?" Aki asked, giving an extremely cheerful, and decidedly out of place, grin.

"What kinds of injuries did he sustain?" Kakashi asked, his meaning clear. How much time do we have?

"Oh, about a week, longer if he plays it safe," Aki said offhandedly. "Cracked a rib or two and did a number on his shoulder before his sidekick used senbon to induce a false death state and took him away under the pretense that he was a hunter nin."

"A week huh?" Kakashi mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Yep... now, I'm going to go train a little, I still have some energy to burn," Aki told him. Then she stepped off the dock, walking out to sea.

"Energy… to burn?" Sakura asked rhetorically as she watched the red head fade into the distance. Aki had just fought an A-rank missing nin and she wanted to train out of boredom? In the middle of an ocean? Glancing down she caught sight of herself in the water and frowned at her reflection. Smudged makeup, long silky hair, skinny little legs, arms like kindling, tired from a day of walking. She had always told herself that "she was a girl, of course she wasn't going to be strong," but now, after being faced with a monster like Aki, she felt so… pathetic.

Was... was she just playing ninja?

Sakura's frown deepened. Come to think of it, why was she even a ninja? Why had she joined the academy in the first place? It wasn't a glamorous job. It wasn't even the best paying one unless you made jounin and there were much easier ways to make a living. She hadn't known Sasuke yet, so that couldn't be it… What was she what was she even doing here?

"Daddy? Daddy! You're okay!"

Sakura blinked as the half-forgotten memory, her own overjoyed voice, floated to the surface, vague images of a white room and the smell of anti-septic following close behind.

"But-but they said the caravan-"

"It's ok baby, I'm fine-"

"But your leg…"

"Well mostly fine, the ninja came just in time!"

That was right… her father's caravan had been ambushed when she was little. A Konoha patrol had managed to save him but he'd lost his leg. She had wanted to be just like them; just like the people who had brought her father home… but she was going to do it better. When she saved people they'd be whole.

'What happened?' she wondered, still staring at the churning water that had held her reflection a moment earlier. How had she become so… Where had that girl that was going to save people gone?

"Well, I guess there's no way around it," Kakashi sighed, finally coming out of his musings and interrupting Sakura's inner monologue. "If Zabuza's going to be back, I should probably train you two up a bit."

"Training?" Sasuke asked, instantly perking up before he remembered to school his features.

"So, do either of you know how to climb trees?" Kakashi asked, taking a sadistic pleasure in the dumbfounded looks of his students.

Several Hours Later…

"Ooh…" Sakura moaned pathetically from where she lay beneath her tree aching in places she had forgotten existed. 'Kakashi sensei is evil,' she decided.

"Not his fault you thought you didn't need high endurance," Inner Sakura pointed out.

'Shut up…' Sakura responded weakly, rolling over on her side to watch Sasuke standing under his tree glaring at the trail of slashes that ended several meters above his head. 'How can he just keep going like that?' she wondered, he still hadn't gotten as high as she had but, until now, he'd been going non-stop the entire time they had been out here.

Suddenly, with a heavy sigh, Sasuke turned away from his tree and sheathed his kunai. "We should head back before the sun goes down," he said, walking toward the edge of the clearing only to stop just short of the tree line, cocking his ear to the side as though listening for something.

Alarmed, Sakura was on her feet, her kunai at the ready. "What is it?" she whispered harshly.

"It's… quiet," he replied, frowning. "Aki… I can't hear the explosions anymore."

"Oh," Sakura muttered lamely as the started walking toward Tazuna's house. Shortly after Kakashi had explained the Tree Climbing exercise to them, they'd begun hearing noises of a… violent, nature out on the water. They had been worried it was an attack of some kind but Kakashi had explained that it was just Aki's brand of training.

Both lost in thought, Sakura and Sasuke made their way back to Tazuna's house in silence, arriving just as Tsunami had finished setting the table.

"Inari! Dinner's ready!" Tsunami called from the bottom of the stairs. A moment later a little boy came down the stairs headed for the table, an annoyed look on his face as his mother mussed his hair.

Scowling, Sasuke turned away from the touching scene only to come face to face with his reflection, staring back at him through the surface of his empty plate.

Flashback

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!" Sakura cried, her eyes shifting wildly.

"Hm? What was what?" Aki asked coyly, turning to the pink haired girl, a cruel smile playing on her lips.

"Kakashi-sensei was-! Then you were like- grabbed the freaking blade chain-! And then you-!" Sakura rambled, absolutely hysterical and incoherent until Kakashi put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura. Breath," Kakashi ordered as he crouched down until he was at eye level with the pink haired girl, "Deep breaths, in and out, that's right."

It was there for only an instant but Sasuke saw it. An almost unnoticeable falter in her smile as an odd look passed through her eyes as she watched Kakashi calm Sakura down.

Then it was gone

End Flashback

He hadn't been able to place it before… or maybe he hadn't believed what he was seeing. Either way, there was no denying it now.

Aki had been jealous.

What had she been jealous of? Only the gods knew for sure. He could only guess… but it looked an awful lot like how he looked right now and how imagined he looked every time he saw one of the other kids playing with their parents. He was so lost in his thoughts in fact that he didn't even notice Aki walk in.

As her teammate was lost in thought, Aki sat down next to him looking as fresh as a spring daisy while Sakura and Sasuke looked utterly exhausted. It didn't really help that they knew they would have a repeat performance in the morning. In all honesty, they just wanted to crawl into their beds and sleep, but it was not to be.

"Why do you train so hard, you're just all going to die!" Inari screamed.

Aki snorted, "Whatever brat."

Inari glared daggers at the girl. "Why do you even care! You don't know anything about us! What we've been through! What do you know about pain, huh? What do you know of suffering?" he spat.

Kakashi froze, his eyes wide and terrified as the room became deathly quiet.

Aki was completely still, her face blank, revealing nothing, but her eyes spoke volumes of her total and complete contempt for the child sitting across from her. "You know nothing of pain…" the red haired Kunoichi whispered, her voice deceptively calm as she pinned him where he sat with a glare of the purest loathing.

And then… she left, she simply pushed her chair away from the table and walked out of the room.

"Those eyes… such eyes should not belong to a child," Tazuna whispered in a subdued voice while Inari stared, terrified, at the chair across from him where Aki had been just moments before.

Kakashi sighed in relief, relaxing as he heard the front door click shut. "You are very fortunate that you are still so young, Inari," he whispered, running a hand over his face.

"Wh-why is that?" Tsunami stuttered.

Kakashi gave her a sorrowful look. "Aki has no qualms about killing those that anger her. In fact, she's quite well known for it."

Inari paled and everyone looked at Kakashi with wide eyes.

"But then, why didn't she?" Sakura wondered, remembering how she had killed her neighbor in broad daylight. She hadn't even been half as angry as she had just seemed... so what was different?

Kakashi sighed. "Near as I can tell, Aki has a very complicated personal code; guidelines if you will," Kakashi explained. "One of her rules seems to be that she doesn't harm those she considers "innocents." While that isn't a very long list, children are usually in that category."

"So if Inari were a little older..." Tsunami's voice trailed off, unable to finish the thought.

"She would have cut him down without a second thought," Kakashi confirmed, sending shivers through the room.

For several long minutes, no one said a word, and the room descended into a silence broken only by the distant sounds of Aki's anger out at sea.

"Why?" Tazuna croaked. No one asked what he meant, it was all too obvious.

Kakashi didn't answer immediately, a faraway look in his eye. "She wasn't always so… twisted. She used to be the most amazing child, always running around, laughing. She could light up a room with just a smile…" he spoke, his voice trailing off, a sad twinkle in his eyes. "Oh how I miss those days..." he sighed, standing to leave.

Sasuke looked over at Sakura and she gave him a knowing look. 'It's just like what Iruka-sensei said,' they both thought.

"What...what happened to her?" Tsunami asked nervously, dreading the answer.

For the longest time Kakashi did not answer, his eyes becoming clouded again as though staring at something in the distance. Suddenly it felt as if the air in the room got heavy as Kakashi clenched his fist, his visible eye tightly shut in rage. "A ninja village is not a safe place for a little girl if no one comes when she screams," he murmured, his words hanging in the air as a single tear slid into his mask as he got up and left the house.

When he was a fair distance into the woods, Kakashi's hand lit up, crackling angrily as white lightning flailed violently around it. "DAMNIT!" he screamed, driving his hand clean through the tree to his right, vaporizing a large section of the trunk. Panting, Kakashi stood there, his entire arm lying, limp and forgotten, on the scorched wood as he started to cry. "Dammit..." he whispered as he fell to his knees as the floodgates broke.

Deleted Scenes
Note: these two scenes happened; I just couldn't find a good place for them in the chp.

Aki's Advice

Still holding the torn picture she'd taken from him, Aki turned to face Inari, her blank face hiding all emotion. "This was your father wasn't he?" she asked him. Inari, still frozen in place, simply nodded. Aki looked back at the picture and frowned. "Gato..." she mused, already knowing the answer to the question of how the man died. She turned back to Inari and saw him staring at the ground, tears rolling down his face.

"Uh-huh. My dad...he tried to stand up to Gato but he...Gato killed him! Right in front of the whole town." he said quietly.

The last part of his sentence ran through Aki's head several times. 'In front of the village...so he was publicly executed. He was a hero to the people but...they didn't stop it from happening,' she reasoned, her eyes narrowing to dangerous slits. Scenes flashed before her mind's eye... wet brick walls, a dark alley, she watched as a person walked by her, not giving her a second glance.

Aki growled, a low menacing sound that sent Inari scrambling until his back was firmly against the wall as the furious girl rounded on him. "Gato may have ordered your fathers execution," she snarled, "but he didn't kill him..."

Inari was frozen, like a deer before a pack of wolves, staring at her as his young mind worked furiously to figure out what she meant.

Suddenly her eyes flashed crimson as she released just enough killing intent to cause him to wet himself. "You stood by, every last one of you, and you watched. You did nothing while your father suffered, something just as bad, if not worse, than the act itself… Gato's men may have done the deed but it was you and this village killed him," she told him, her voice low and harsh.

Inari glared at her, despite terror inspiring aura. "There wasn't anything we could do! They had swords and they would have-" he began but Aki interrupted him.

"Killed you?" she interrupted, sneering down at him. "Yes, some of you may have died, but in the end Gato would be gone; and you wouldn't need me here, you wouldn't be suffering, you wouldn't be alone. But..." she stopped her tirade and smirked. "There is still time. You failed your father in his life, nothing will ever change that, but you can honor his sacrifice… give purpose to his death. Use your hate, your pain and your suffering. Use it and gather the villagers and stand up for yourselves like you should have from the beginning. Stamp out your weaknesses, perfect your strengths, and don't ever runaway; you will only die tired," she said to the young boy.

"B-but I c-could d-d-die," Inari stammered, terrified. He didn't want to die!

"Better to die for something, than live for nothing," Aki whispered.

Inari was, at first, stunned. However, as her words took hold of his head, it all made sense. Inari nodded. "O-okay..." he stammered, a new ferocity growing in his eyes. Aki smirked and handed him back the picture before vanishing.

When Tears Run Dry

"Mind if I join you?" Kakashi asked, coming up behind him.

"Not like I could stop you," Inari muttered sullenly.

"Better to be polite when intruding on someone's personal thoughts though," Kakashi said, taking a seat next to the boy.

For the longest time, they stayed like that, just sitting on the dock staring out at nothing.

"She was alone from the start, you know."

"Huh?" Inari asked, turning toward Kakashi.

"Aki," he clarified. "She's never had a family. In fact, she doesn't even know what happened to them. She doesn't know where they went, if they're dead, or even if they loved her," Kakashi explained, staring out over the ocean, his thoughts as far away as his gaze. "She's been alone from the start…"

"But how could she live like that?" Inari asked, how did she get food without someone to feed her? Where did she live? What had happened to her family?

A sad smile played across Kakashi's face. "Aki's always been a tough one, even when she was little. If she ever put her mind to something, nothing could stop her, but..."

"What is it?" Inari asked.

"Everyone has their limits... everybody breaks," Kakashi told him, whispering the later part so quietly that Inari didn't hear it. "She was a lot like you once. She couldn't understand why her life was so hard, or why she was always alone. She used to cry all the time. She'd hide under her blanket and sob for hours, crying herself to exhaustion just so she could sleep. She couldn't understand why people hated her," he explained, falling silent to give Inari time to absorb what he had just told him.

'That sounds horrible,' Inari thought, hanging his head shamefully. "Why are you telling me this?"

For a moment Kakashi said nothing, considering his answer. "I lost my father when I was a little younger than you. I was already an active ninja in a time of war by then, so I had very little time to grieve," he went on as he turned to Inari. "We're the lucky ones Inari, you still have your mother and grandfather who love you very much and I have memories of my parents. We can remember the happy times. What little Aki did have was taken from her years ago, eventually she ran out of tears. I don't think she even knows how to cry anymore... Personally, I would prefer pain than nothing at all, it reminds us that we're alive," he finished, standing to leave.

Inari said nothing, simply watching as the silver haired man walked away.

"Oh, and Inari?" Kakashi called over his shoulder.

"Yes?" the little boy asked.

"Don't live in the past for too long, or you'll lose your present."

Edited: 1/2/16

End Notes
Ladies and germs, it is official. I LOATHE the Wave Mission. Every time I write something for it I can never seem to get it how I want it and it's pissing me off X(
So that's my micro drama for the chp, I hope you enjoyed it! Next chp will be the battle at the bridge, I have most of it planned… then again, I had half of this written and it's still taken my fucking forever.