Chapter 46 What's left.

"Out like a light," Kakashi observed as he nudged Sakura with his foot. There was a moment of stillness as they waited for his foot to disappear. Kakashi backed away with a sigh of relief when nothing happened.

Naruto and Sasuke gave him a blank look for his stupidity. When they returned last night, Sakura was already unconscious from chakra exhaustion. She warned them that the day after, Zabuza would be on the move before falling asleep. She didn't stir even as the sun rose in the distance.

"How long has it been since she was last vulnerable like this?" Kakashi muttered, now playing with her hair despite the danger. The last time he woke her like this, he found a kunai at his throat. Sakura continued to breathe evenly. He didn't like this. It felt wrong to see her like this. The last time was when she was in the hospital.

He gritted his teeth.

"Shikamaru, Ino," he called for the two genin. "You two stay here and watch the house."

Asuma rose a brow but said nothing. They were his students, but he didn't really see anything wrong. With Sakura out of commission, they would need someone else to watch the house. If they really were going to finish the bridge as implied, they weren't much help in the effort. Both were averse to working at all.

"Ugh, fine," Shikamaru groaned, unhooking his ninja pouch. "I didn't want to go out in the sun anyway."

Ino's face took on a devilish quality.

"Babysitting an unconscious and unresponsive Sakura?" She chuckled darkly. Had it been a man, Kakashi might reconsider, but there was nothing Ino could really do to Sakura.

"Just know she'll wake up eventually, and with her tracking skills, you won't be able to hide," he warned.

Ino flinched. Good, he did his duty as her guardian.

"If we work all day today, we might be able to finish," Sasuke said, leaving the house.

"With Kakashi sensei, we can finish faster," Naruto added. "I wish Yamato was here; he could finish the bridge on his own." Kakashi facepalmed and groaned.

"Tenzo could do that, can't he?"

There was a moment where team seven pondered their existence while Asuma, Choji, and Tanzuna stood clueless.

/

Tazuna looked out at the bridge with awe. They made a steady process over the month, but here came a few brats that almost finished in in a night. His pride as a builder was damaged.

"Well, they did a number on the bridge, didn't they?" Kakashi muttered, looking at his genins' handy work. There was a noticeable difference between Tazuna and his genins' work. The bridge so far seemed well used, while his genins' looked new.

The scratches were minimum and barely visible, leaving him to believe they didn't use the machine but their bare hands. Kakashi ran his finger over the head of a nail and found it smooth as opposed to the others on this bridge.

"One hit kill?" he asked Naruto.

"Yeah," the blond confirmed, stretching his muscles. "Fast but efficient."

"She called it training," Sasuke sated loading a second pouch with nails. "Strength and accuracy."
"Alright then, show me what you got," Kakashi said with a smile.

Sasuke flickered away as Naruto multiplied. The blonds moved quickly to grab boards and moved to the end of the bridge.

"Ready!" he called. Sasuke leaped off his makeshift wire web and positioned himself over naruto's location. With a flick of his wrist, nails like kunai were sent flying. They bounced off each other and sunk deep into the boards.

"Not deep enough," Tazuna noted. Sasuke stood upside down on his web of wires and watched Naruto as the blond ran atop the boards. With each step, he hammered the nails into the board as he ran.

"What the hell is this!?" Tazuna exclaimed. The worker watched on in amazement and horror as Naruto did a job that took hours in seconds. Just then, a board gave way, and Naruto plummeted.

Kakashi moved to catch him, but a wire and kunai beat him to it. The wire wrapped around naruto's outstretched arms, and Sasuke pulled him up effortlessly.

"Idiot," he cursed when Naruto was sitting upside down on the wires with Sasuke. Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head.

"Thanks, Sasuke."

"Hmph."

"Sakura said Tazuna would be able to utilize us properly," Naruto said, looking don't at them. "We're in your care!"

"I didn't realize you teach your students construction, Kakashi," Asuma eyed Kakashi with suspicion. They were a bit too convenient.

"I didn't," Kakashi said proudly. "My cute little genin's are genius'."

"Sure," Asuma drawled, not believing a word he said.

"With these kids, we might be able to finish," the workers muttered among themselves.

"We can actually do this."

"We can finally be free of Gato!"

"Alright, everyone!" Tazuna called. "Let's finish this bridge!"

"Yeah!" they all cheered.

So caught in their own victory were they; no one saw the man running away from the bridge.

"Boss!" the desperate cry echoed through Gato's treehouse as the man ran franticly through its halls. He arrived at Gato's office before too long and fell to his knees, panting.

"What's all this fuss about?" Gato demanded. While he wasn't dreadfully busy, he was in a bad mood after strange people came to his doorstep. He glared at the man as he tried to remember what he told him to do.

"Boss," the man gasped, still out of breath. "The bridge, boss. It's almost complete!"

"What!" Gato was among those that were shocked by this.

"Weren't they halfway across the sea before? How can they almost be done suddenly?" his right had asked.

"You bastard. Are you slacking off on your duty!?" his left hand asked, gripping his sword handle. That's right. He gave the job of watching the bridge development to this guy. There wasn't much to report since the process was slow, so he forgot about him.

Gato frowned deeply. He didn't expect this. He was so busy gathering his money to his current location after the raids; that he placed the bridge in the back of his mind. His rogue ninja was injured from the fight with leaf shinobis too, weak bastard. Nothing was going his way.

His mind went to the people that showed up asking about the "Akatsuki." That was the name of the people that attacked his goods, so he wasn't happy to hear it.

"It seems something interesting will happen if we stick around," the woman?- Was it a woman?- Told him. "Don't mind us. We won't get in your way."

They were currently wondering about the place, thankfully not around his treasure room. Treats under his roof, a troublesome bridge builder and a useless tool. Gato sighed at his misfortune. Everyone jumped at the sigh.

"Alright then, we'll just have to get rid of all the problems at once," Gato glared at the messenger. "Send Zabuza to deal with the bridge builder. Tell him to kill the man this time."

"Y, Yes sir!" the man ran out of the room to find Zabuza.

"I never invest in one business," he muttered, leaning back in his chair. "In case that useless man fails, bring me his family. I'll make an example out of them." Again. This land was so frustrating; was it always so hard to take over a single village? That family gave him nothing but grief. There are no heroes in this world, so why are they pretending to be.

A sigh came from him again. He was going to get gray hair if this kept up.

"You want us to grab the woman and her brat?" his left hand asked.

"Yes, the more, the merrier," he confirmed. "And kill anyone that gets in your way. Those tree huggers are really getting on my nerves."

"Leave it to us," his right hand said proudly. "They're just kids, nothing we can't handle."

/

It was quiet, just the way Shikamaru liked it. There were no screams of bloody murder, so he knew Ino was still alive despite her suicide mission. The Yamanaka was currently searching for the best spot to draw on Sakura's body. Apparently, drawing on the face wasn't enough, and she wanted to make Sakura as hideous as possible.

Shikamaru would never understand women.

"Huh?" he heard Ino mutter as clothes shifted. "No fair! How come she has such a cute birthmark. Mine is just like a flower petal; how come hers look like a diamond!" Shikamaru turned his back to the commotion, he didn't need to see all that. "How is her skin so smooth? Doesn't she train at all!?"

"Ino, you shouldn't do anything too crazy," Shikamaru warned. "It's likely she'll know it's you." He pointed to the ceiling where butterfly-like summons hung like bats.

"It's fine," she said, accumulated with the rustling of clothes. "Everything I do is for the pride of all kunoichi."

BANG!

The two genins sat at attention at the sound. Tsunami and her son were home, and that didn't sound good. Ino ran out the door, abandoning what she was doing to check on their host. Coming down the stairs, she witnesses a large group of thugs walking through the doorless doorway.

"Looks like your luck has run out," their presumed leader said, stepping forward. "You've pissed off Gato for the last time." He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the mother and son as they sat stunned against the wall. "Come with us quietly, and we won't hurt you. Much."

Inari hugged his mother tight, trembling in her embrace. Gato was finally coming after them. He knew building that stupid bridge would get them in trouble. Just then, his mother moved him behind her and stood. For some reason, he thought back to the night before.

"Sorry for scaring you. It wasn't my intention." The scary woman said to him after he came out of the bath. She'd looked at him with such hatred he thought she was going to kill him. His face flushed at the memory of him sulling himself because of her.

"Whatever, I don't need your stupid apology," he said, gripping the towel around his neck tightly as he turned to leave.

"You should really fix that attitude of yours," she said, making him flinch. It was hard enough to turn his back to her. "If you continue with that attitude, someone with fewer passions than me." her emerald eyes glared down at him. "Will kill you." He turned to face her out of fear for his life. He'd seen what she could do, and he knew he couldn't outrun her.

"What do you know about me!" he yelled. "What the hell do you know about suffering! You guys run around smiling and joking like idiots. You don't even belong to this country, yet you're putting your nose where it doesn't belong!"

"In this world, there isn't a single person that hasn't experienced pain. You lived a relatively sheltered life. Losing your father and "Hero" isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. You still have a mother and grandfather that loves you. If you go into the village, though people might look at you with pity, they would be kind to you. Imagine being born to a world where your parents died protecting you; being blamed for their deaths by the entire country."

What kind of logic was that?

"While we're at it, imagine you lived your life surrounded by a large family that showered you with love, only to return home to their dead bodies in the streets."

Inari stared at her in horror, frozen as she approached.

"You're not the star of some tragedy," she said, crouching to eye level. "That honor belongs to those who lost everything and are desperately trying to protect what they have left. Not the person that has given up on life and sobs every day feeling sorry for themselves." She stood and walked past him. "Your tears will change nothing. While your crying, everyone else is …"

Tsunami stood in front of her son, staring down the men that barged into her home.

"Stay behind me, Inari," she said. "I'll protect you."

"…protecting those precious to them with their two hands."

"You bitch, how about you behave!" one of the thugs yelled and swung a knife at her. Inari always wanted to be like his father. He was a coward, but he wanted to be brave like that man. Stong and able to protect those close to him. In the end, his father died, and he wasn't able to save anyone.

"Your tears won't change anything."

Maybe it was because of that woman's taunt, but Inari found himself moving. He stumbled in front of his mother with his hands outstretched. He was a coward, not able to protect his precious father; but, he would protect what he had left.

The blade came down to him as his mother reached for him. At that moment, he understood why his father was smiling then. Even if it was useless, he tried his best. His final tear fell down his cheeks as death's scythe fell.

Night song my night walkers.

And another chapter is here! I wanted it to be longer but it's the cliffhanger was too good.

Next chapter

December 7