A story

We were all sitting around the living room table, the moonlit night outside contrasting with the lantern-lit room to create a rather cozy atmosphere for our dinner. It was quiet, the main reason for that was that almost everyone who sat around the table were tired from a hard day of work, be it training, bridge building, or taking care of a cynical brat.

Of course, I wasn't as tired as the rest of my group since they used up their chakra repeatedly, while I just sparred with everyone a couple of times after Sakura and I returned with Tazuna. But it did make for a rather good excuse not to talk which was something my slightly stressed brain could appreciate. You know, from being the one person who knew that multiple great ninja villages were planning to attack your home.

"Hey Tazuna, when do you expect the bridge to be finished?" Sakura asked after she finished her dinner.

"Hm? Not sure, my best guess is that it'll take a week, but maybe longer or even a little shorter, it could start raining for all we know, so it's really hard to say" he shrugged.

Sakura sat, biting her fingernail slightly as she mulled over Tazunas guess, making Sasuke look at her in interest, having clearly noticed that something important was happening inside Sakura's brain.

"What are you thinking?" Sasuke asked.

"It's just, it's been going far too smoothly, whoever Zabuza is working with has barely made a single move against us, nothing more than a bit of sabotage, and always something that never takes long to do or fix" she said.

"couldn't that just be because they aren't able to leave Kakashi-sensei alone for too long or he'll escape? Other than that is the fact that they are clearly a senbon specialist going by how accurately they incapacitated Zabuza, so maybe they just don't have a way of damaging the bridge on a larger scale" Sasuke said.

"That's totally wrong, idiot, if he felt like it, he could've he have just like, pushed all the stuff we use to build the bridge into the sea, or set up a bunch of traps all over the place. that's what I always do when I wanna prank someone" Naruto said.

"Wait a second" - I interrupted just as Sakura was about to speak - "you just set up pranks all over the place when you want to prank one person? what If someone else walks into one of your pranks?" I couldn't help but ask.

"That just makes it more fun" Naruto said with a beaming smile, while Inari, Tazuna's grandson, mumbled something about how "it's not gonna be fun when Gato kills you".

"What was that you brat?" Naruto asked.

"i Said that Gato is gonna kill all of you if you keep fighting him, so you should just give up because there's nothing you can do about it!" Inari yelled before running outside.

"Wait! INARI!" Tsunami yelled after her son as she leaned out the doorway.

We all turned to look at Naruto.

"Fine! I'll go get him" Naruto grumbled, yet still hurried off after Inari.

"Will Inari be okay?" Tsunami asked.

"he'll be fine, Tazuna has already proved that going after his family won't make him stop, and Gato has to be careful that hopelessness doesn't transform into a reckless rage, if he isn't he'll end up with a revolution on his hands. Besides, Zabuza's accomplice can't do anything that drastic or we'll change our entire way of guarding you" I said nonchalantly.

"They are not my accomplice, they are a tool to be used" Zabuza insisted.

"Zabuza, that just isn't fair, no matter how stupid your friend is, which they have to be to follow you, you can't just call them a tool, I mean, you don't see me calling Sasuke a tool, do you?" I said.

The argument when on like that for quite a while, with Zabuza arguing for his philosophy of all Shinobi being tools, while I kept insisting that no one other than Sasuke and Zabuza were tools, although a very different kind of tool. Sasuke kept trying to ignore us until I, apparently, called him a tool one too many times and he finally started to inject his own snide comments on a particular person being a true tool into the conversation, and Naruto returned with Inari.

All the while, Sakura looked deep in thought about something, until she finally interrupted our bickering.

"Quiet down! I have an idea; I think I figured out why Zabuza's ACCOMPLICE isn't doing anything more than annoying us" Sakura said.

"Does it really matter? After all, I am pretty sure that if we just set Naruto completely loose on them, he'll win within the hour, since, you know, he apparently doesn't care at all about collateral damage" I said.

"Not the right time, Anno" Sasuke said.

"anyway, I think the reason why nothing truly problematic has happened is that they don't want us to do anything differently than we have been doing. They are doing just enough to keep us from being suspicious about nothing happening, while not doing something big enough to heighten our guard" Sakura said.

"So what?" Naruto asked.

"So that means that they're confident that they can accomplish... something, either freeing Zabuza or killing Tazuna, but at the very least they have some plan to deal with one of our teams" Sakura explained as the room grew still, everyone thinking on what that could mean, except Zabuza, who had a slightly more severe grimace on his face.

"So, we should combine the teams?" Naruto suggested after a moment of thought.

"But what if that's exactly what they want? What if they have some way of incapacitating us as a group? They could be trying to make us think that we need to group closer together when that would only serve to set up the perfect situation for them?" I asked.

"So, in other words, we have to make a decision with our, and everyone else from the land of waves, lives on the line, based on the personality and skills of someone we know nothing about?" Sasuke said, the tone of his voice overflowing with sarcasm.

What he said, however, struck a chord in my mind, because, unlike the others, I did know quite a bit about Haku, most importantly, I knew of his undying devotion and love for Zabuza, going as far as sacrificing himself to save him. However, he also has the mindset that he is nothing but a tool and that his only job is to follow Zabuza's directions no matter what. So that left the question, would he concentrate on freeing Zabuza, or following Zabuza's command to complete the mission? Ok, stupid question, he would definitely choose Zabuza, besides, it's not like they can't just kill Tazuna together afterward.

However, the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza showed rather clearly that I can't trust what my previous life's experience told me when it came to skill or ability and that I could only use it for personality and goals. So that knowledge left me unable to just assume that Naruto and Sasuke would win, beyond the fact that even if they are likely to win it would still be a horrible idea to let them fight on their own.

"I think we should join together," I said.

"Based on what?" Sasuke asked.

"An intense game of mental rock, paper, scissors against myself" I said confidently.

Silence ruled for a moment before Sakura sighed "fine, why not, we know nothing either way so we might as well go with his suggestion"

The idea was accepted, and it was decided that all of us would guard Zabuza and Tazuna at the bridge together, then, we went upstairs to sleep, well, most of us did.

The quiet house was once again the only thing I heard as I stood, grabbing one of my whips, ready to go... do something, to hopefully get myself tired enough to sleep. I sighed as I walked to the roof, deciding that cloud watching at night was just as exciting as cloud watching in the middle of the day, and since that always made me bored to the point of lulling me into a coma when Shikamaru made us do it, I figured it might also help me sleep.

I whipped the edge of the roof and activated the seal on it, feeling a small bit of chakra drain out of me before using my superhuman strength to heave myself to the roof, only to be surprised when I saw Sakura there.

"Sakura? Wow, I didn't even notice when you got up. I guess you really are the best at stealth" I said.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure... thank you, by the way" Sakura looked at me in surprise before distractedly muttering a quick thank you and returning to her thoughts.

I raised an eyebrow at just how distracted she was "did you really not notice me? I whipped myself up here, and if you hadn't noticed through our twenty-day stay here, whips are quite loud"

I walked over and sat beside her, sighing at the familiarity of the moment "I know that look, that's the look of someone trying to figure out a problem on their own"

"How do you know that look? it certainly isn't from looking in the mirror, since you always get help with all your stupid schemes" she said, still staring intently at the moon but more aware of me than before.

"it's actually become a bit of a tradition for me to walk in on my female friends when they are wearing that look, seriously, two out of my four female friends have been in this situation" I said with a smile.

"who's the fourth one? The other two must be Ino and Hinata" Sakura asked, her endless curiosity overwhelming even her current melancholy.

The smile fell away from my face.

"that's not important" I snapped, with significantly more force than I intended.

I sighed at my own behavior, I knew she was simply trying to help, but the constant stress on whether I chose the correct path by staying here instead of going directly to Konoha grated on me. I couldn't even tell the others since they had to be in peak condition for the fight ahead which worrying about the fate of our home wouldn't help with.

"Sorry about that, I just... don't like that topic" I said.

"...what happened in the land of water? All you've told us is that you got sent there as a spy, you never even told us who you were spying on" she asked.

"it's not important" I said.

"But why? What happened that made you like this, you're less reckless than you used to be, you barely make any of your old 'look at how arrogant I am, then I fail' jokes, what in the world happened?" She said, her voice becoming louder.

"Just forget about it already, I'm fine" I said.

"I'm not the only one who noticed, you know, Sasuke and Naruto did too, we're worried about you, just tell us what's wrong so we can help you" she said.

"And I appreciate that, but I am fine" I insisted.

"But-"

"Just shut up Sakura" I snapped, making a hurt silence descend on us from all sides.

I leaned back and looked at the sky, hoping for some boring clouds to lull me to sleep, only to be immensely disappointed by the beautiful cloudless night above, the endless stars creating a scene impossible to capture in any painting... maybe I wasn't that disappointed.

"Sorry about... that" I said.

"No problem, I should have stopped when you said you didn't like the topic" she said while leaning back and lying on the roof next to me.

"So, what was the problem that made you come up here in the first place? I would say that if you tell me your problem, then I would tell you mine. however, I think we've firmly established that I don't react well to my friends trying to help me with my obvious psychological problems"

Sakura took a moment to gather her thoughts before she started speaking "I just feel like I'm not doing enough, I feel like I'm only reacting, and even then, I'm only reacting, what? Twenty days after I became leader. I just- I just keep thinking that I shouldn't be in charge" sinking into silence as we kept looking at the stars.

"Hey Sakura, did I ever tell you about the third time I was in charge?" I asked.

"no" she said tentatively.

"Makes sense that I subconsciously decided to block myself from telling you that particular story, after all, even I have that last thread of pride, and, well, this story will most certainly erase that" I said with a smile.

"You see, it all started with this hostage situation where I took the lead, well, it was actually more of a quiet polite conversation before I decided to ruin it. It started off well enough, I had their strongest member as an unconscious hostage and they had nothing, which is quite possibly the best circumstances that any shinobi has been in since the dawn of time. Now, I won't bore you with the details, but I managed to lose our strongest teammate, get nothing from the negotiations, and stick the person who took over for me in an impossible situation where she literally didn't have the manpower to do anything but sit still and wait" I said with a smile.

"In other words, this is my fault. Honestly, I'm possibly the worst Shinobi in the world, I'm not even sure I should be one at this point" I said.

"Wait, you want to quit being a Shinobi?" Sakura asked in alarm.

"No, not really" - I sighed - "it's just that, well, this wasn't what I wanted when I joined the academy, I wanted to go on adventures with my friends, explore chakra, and just... have fun. I didn't want to be a spy who's so horrible he got half his team killed" I said.

"oh" she said.

We looked at the stars for a while longer, until I could feel Sakura starting to shiver.

"Go inside, it is rather cold" I said.

"Ok, just, remember that if you want to talk, I'll be there" she said awkwardly.

"Yeah, sure" I said.

And like that, I lay on the cold roof until I fell asleep, waking up from the gentle beams of sunlight on my face, prepared for a new day, a new day where Haku's attack could happen at any moment.