A/N: Be Not Defeated by the Rain, poem by Kenji Miyazawa. Translated by Hart Larrabee.

The poem is centered, underlined, and italicized.

Link: http://tomoanthology.blogspot.com/2012/08/kenji-miyazawas-poem-ame-ni-mo-makezu.html

::

Unbeaten by rain

Unbeaten by wind

Bested by neither snow nor summer heat

::

Kakashi didn't stop one moment on his entire journey towards Konoha. It didn't matter how long his muscles were screaming at him to stop or how hard his lungs cried for him to slow down and breathe. Every second wasted was another step Sakura had towards her death and there was absolutely no way he'd sit around and wait for it to come for her.

There were so many questions he had knocking around his head he left alone in favor of reaching the village as quick as he could. Was Naruto's seal broken? Had Sasuke really unlocked the Mangekyo in one eye? Did Zabuza summon his ninken like he was asked? What were the states of those two now?

He desperately wanted to turn back and check, but the red stains on his arms and flak jacket told him that he couldn't.

Haruno Sakura, the little tyrant that always had something to say, was dying.

"... Ka... shi...?"

He picked up his pace. "I know you don't like following my orders, especially after that display back there, but for god's sake stop talking. You can't afford to lose any of your energy," he said. Kakashi tried his hardest to keep the strain in his voice from being heard, but he was sure she knew it was there either way. "Haku's fine. Naruto's fine. Sasuke's fine. You're the only one who got injured so severely that you need medical attention right away."

"... H... Heh..."

When he looked down, her chapped lips curled up the tiniest bit even as her eyes stayed shut.

"Y... You do... ca... re..."

Her head lolled against his chest.

::

Strong of body

Free of desire

Never angry

::

Something dashed past the gate sentries and said one word: "hospital". It took Kotetsu and Izumo a few seconds to determine that no, it wasn't a threat, and that it certainly had been Hatake Kakashi in a panicked state they thought they'd never see on such an impassive and monotonous being. The few more seconds that ticked after that is when they realize it wasn't just him who passed them by.

"He... No way, he wasn't carrying Sakura, was he?" Izumo asked, now wary of the unexpected display. "Should we tell Morino and Shiranui?"

"I doubt it would help things, seeing how frantic Hatake looked. If it was her, the hospital would notify them. But shit, I've never seen him look like that before," Kotetsu said. "Didn't they just go on a C-rank? You think they ran into bandits on the way back?"

"They were slated to be gone for a whole month. It's been, what, two weeks? Something definitely went wrong."

They kept an uneasiness in the darkness of the earlier morning for another two hours or so before another party showed up to throw off their regard for Team Kakashi's "simple mission". Eight ninken appeared at the gates, the largest carrying an unconscious black haired boy and some of the smaller ones lending their bodies to keep the blond one upright.

"Sakura-chan," the latter croaked miserably. His eyes were puffy and red. "Did sensei bring her back in time? Please! Did she... did she..."

Izumo appeared behind him, catching his body as he pitched backward. Kotetsu took it upon himself to carefully lift Sasuke from the bulldog's back.

"Fuck, what happened out there?"

The little pug shook his head. "All I know is what went down, shouldn't have. Take 'em to the hospital; Naruto's only exhausted but Sasuke's got some injuries to take care of, 'specially those eyes of his."

::

Always smiling quietly

Dining daily on four cups of brown rice

Some miso and a few vegetables

::

The Mangekyo Sharingan, as known by many, was obtained by witnessing the death of a loved one. Though contrary to popular belief, they didn't have to be the ones committing the act to have it awakened. It could simply be explained by being brought on by the trauma that came with the death of said someone, but the magnitude of the pain and loss the user had to feel needed to be far beyond normal emotional boundaries.

That was the reason why the Uchiha strayed away from the practice of their ancestors. Those who had it today attained it by the means of pure accident, like Uchiha Shisui, who had gotten it in both eyes because he "allowed his friend and rival to die".

Such expectations hadn't even been in mind as Fugaku, Mikoto, and Itachi rushed to the hospital as soon as someone had come to inform them that the youngest member of their immediate family had come back two weeks earlier than expected and in an unconscious state.

"He's not in any danger," a doctor ensured the three of them. Mikoto looked most visibly relieved by the news. "Uchiha-san has numerous cuts and bruises, an injury from a projectile behind his left shoulder, and a half a centimeter gash from his right knee down to his right ankle, which will both heal without any scarring."

Fugaku glanced through the plexiglass window to where his son lay calmly in his room, the EKG machine showing no abnormalities in his heartbeat. "But?"

The doctor flipped through her clipboard. "But, as we were examining him, we found that a high amount of chakra had been channeled through his optic nerves, his right eye more so than this left, suggesting that he activated his sharingan. Our assumptions had been accurate when he woke up for a few brief moments. His left eye has the normal sharingan, but his right has a pinwheel pattern we've never encountered before. I'm assuming that winds down to classified clan knowledge?"

She took their sudden frigid expressions as a 'yes'. Itachi took a small step forward.

"What are the rest of his team's conditions?" he questioned, unable to set aside the nauseating feeling in the pit of his stomach. His beloved little brother—how could something like that happen? On a C-rank mission, no less? The doctor flicked through more of her pages.

"Uzumaki-san is suffering from severe chakra exhaustion and is miraculously uninjured—"

If the Kyuubi could be called miraculous.

"—Hatake-san is going through the very same, though the severity level is greater than the boy's, along with mild cuts and bruising, and... oh. It seems that Haruno-san has taken the brunt of the injuries. In fact, she's currently in the ICU after going through emergency surgery."

Mikoto held up a hand to her mouth. "That poor dear. Will she be alright?"

"Her injuries are extensive, Uchiha-sama. Only time will tell."

The doctor quietly excused herself, telling the three they could go and stay with Sasuke until visiting hours ended at ten in the evening.

Meanwhile, in a room down the hall, Naruto lay in a much similar state as his rival. Iruka had pushed his chair as close to the bed as possible and held his son's hand in his. He was so thankful that he managed to return home unharmed, or as unharmed as a shinobi could get on missions like the ones he just came from.

But even if Naruto was safe and sound, it didn't mean the same for his friends and teammates. Iruka, being the soft soul he was, also cared deeply for both Sasuke and Sakura. They were still his students as well as the rest of Naruto's family, so there was no help in thinking that they weren't like a niece and a nephew to him.

Sasuke would be fine, surely, with minor physical injuries and only the state of his eyes to worry about. Sakura's situation was much more dire with her lengthy list of injuries. When being told of it, Iruka couldn't help but feel bile rise up in his throat. Being wounded like that would have certainly killed any normal shinobi.

Then again, Sakura wasn't exactly normal, was she?

"How is he, 'ruka?"

The door opened and in stepped Mari dressed in simple civilian clothing and his hair tied together in a messy bun. It seemed that he had been able to get off work early like he'd told Iruka just before the latter ran off towards the hospital.

"Naruto's going to be just fine. He just exhausted his chakra and is overly fatigued. The doctor said he can be discharged in a few days."

Mari breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god. How 'bout Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan?"

"Sasuke's fine. Sakura's in the I-ICU."

The older man cursed under his breath as he pulled up another chair to the bed, facing Iruka and taking Naruto's hand as well. "Look, I know this has gotta be a real heavy hitter for ya'," he said. "Why don'tcha just take a rest back home? I'll stay an' watch 'im."

"But..."

"Don't worry 'bout a thing, honey. Get some sleep, take some breakfast or somethin', and take some time to yourself. You've been 'ere for hours and you had a busy day at school. I'll make sure Naru-chan'll be just fine," Mari promised. Iruka reluctantly stood up and placed a kiss on both his partner's cheek and Naruto's forehead.

"... Okay," he conceded. "But I'll be back before classes start later today."

Mari waved him out of the room with an assuring smile. A minute ticked by, the dark sky outside still milling around when he reached over to tousle the head of messy blond hair.

"He's gone. You don't haf'ta keep pretendin' like that."

A few seconds passed before Naruto warily opened his eyes and stared straight above at the ceiling. Even with the bare moonlight and the glow of the heart monitor, Mari didn't have to strain his eyes to the tears that were welling up in his boy's eyes. He wiped some of them away with the pad of his thumb.

"What's wrong, Naru-chan? Somethin' hurt?"

Naruto's tears ran faster. "I... I don't..." He hiccuped. "I don't... d-don't want Sa-Sakura-chan... t-to... hic... to d-die..."

::

Observing all things

With dispassion

But remembering well

::

"I don't know how much more my heart can take."

"And you say I'm the old man."

"I'm being serious! I swear to god my heart stopped when we sat through her mental examination, I thought I was hallucinating when she went on that mission two years ago, I spent days trying to convince myself that you were lying about the sleeping pills, I nearly lost my mind when you told me about the whole sealing fiasco, and now there's this!" Genma cried. He grabbed at the hair hastily tucked beneath his bandana. "She's going to kill me one day!"

Ibiki sighed. That was one way to put it. He'd been walking home from a long and uneventful day at T&I when a hospital intern appeared and told him the state of his ward. Immediately, he practically hauled Genma along to the hospital with him without knowing just exactly what Sakura had gotten herself into. The only thing the intern told him was that her situation was 'critical'.

"You know what she's like."

"Yeah, well she needs to tone it down."

The two of them breezed through the hospital entrance, Ibiki approaching the receptionist. "We're looking for Haruno Sakura. I'm her guardian, Morino Ibiki," he said, flashing his T&I ID card. The man behind the desk nodded and typed a few things into his computer.

"You'll find her on floor four, room two," the receptionist politely informed. Ibiki and Genma exchanged glances before hurrying up the stairs, deeming the elevator too slow for their demand to know what exactly happened to their student. Floor four was the ICU. If a shinobi had managed their way in there, there was no telling the true extent of 'critical'.

When they reached her room, 'critical' couldn't even begin to justify the circumstance she was in.

"What the fuck..." Genma whispered disbelievingly. Sakura was hooked onto several machines to regulate her organ functions, it seemed, and a blood bag hung over just to the side of her head. The parts of her body that weren't covered blankets were swathed in bandages, particularly her arm that had been casted and set in a sling. An oxygen mask was placed over the lower half of her face, but even with it it didn't look like she was breathing.

"Morino-san, I take it."

The doctor handed Ibiki the clipboard, which he readily took and flipped through.

"What the hell happened to her?"

"She finished surgery about an hour ago. We had several medics tend to the list of injuries on page three. The most prominent ones sustained was to her torso where we had to extract two metal shards that completely pierced her through- from her left lumbar region, barely hitting her left kidney and descending colon, and from below her left clavicle where the shard punctured a lung and missed her heart by millimeters," the doctor explained as he cast a glance at his patient. "With injuries as considerable as hers, it's a wonder that she made it this far. And quite the luck she had not getting a fatal hit."

"Do you know when she'll wake up?" Genma asked. The doctor shook his head.

"When, or if for any matter, all depends on her. We've done all we can and we'll continue to help her, but she's the only one who can pull through this."

That wasn't a comforting thought in the slightest. Sakura already had a problem doing all of that when she was healthy and well (for lack of a better term)—so her deciding whether to live or not while on the brink of death was hardly fair. Ibiki gave the clipboard back.

"The rest of her team?"

"Still unconscious as far as I'm aware."

Genma leaned against the wall before letting his head drop into his hands. Why was it that Sakura was the one getting into all these situations? She could've been a simple shinobi who had every single one of her peers, still more advanced than the rest but with a truer smile on her face.

She could've been a happy child with parents that loved her and still be apprenticed to T&I but be that much more naive and innocent, looking like she didn't carry the whole world on her shoulders. But instead, she had turned to this life.

A little girl wracked with guilt who still thought that she wasn't enough and that she'd never be enough.

"Hey, Morino. I'm gonna see if I can get any more information about... this," Genma said. Ibiki shrugged a shoulder as he sat in one of the chairs outside Sakura's room.

"I'll be here."

Down on the second floor was where the rest of Team Kakashi was being held. First he checked the team leader, finding that not only was he unconscious like that one doctor told him, but probably would be for the next several days if his charts had anything to say about it. Next he went to Sasuke's room, but after seeing all of his family bunched at his side, slowly backtracked to the last person he could hear the story from.

But as he approached Naruto's room, he could hear quiet sniffling.

"W-We were all fighting on the bridge, ya' know? Since Sa-Sakura-chan came... we-we were doin' lots more 'cause she's super strong. We thought we were gonna win until..."

"'til?" an unfamiliar voice questioned.

"... until... until the bombs went off."

Genma stopped by the door and kept out of sight. There were more sniffles, then Naruto's rough voice floated back out to the nearly empty hallway.

"The firs' one made the bridge start to shake, but we still had ta' fight. Then there was another one, then a third one, then one after that, but w-we thought we were gonna be okay. I had Sasuke and Sakura-chan and our new friend Haku, so we were go-gonna be okay." Some sheets rustled and it sounded like the boy started weeping again. "But then there was the la-last bomb. It wasn't on the bridge like the rest of 'em 'ca-cause it was on one of those really big crane thingies and it ha-had lotsa metal on it. S-So the metal went down and Haku... Haku was standing right there! And Sakura-chan pushed him away so she'd be the one who died instead!"

The sound of his sobs had strengthened, but was soon muffled. Whoever was in the room with him had probably hugged him.

"I thought she d-died there and I got so... so mad at those bastards 'cause they were the ones that ki-killed her, but I saw her... I saw her run an'-an' I don't get it!!"

"You don't get what, Naru-chan?"

"Why did Sa-Sakura-chan just throw herself und-under the metal like that?" Naruto whimpered. "She knew she cou-coulda died but she did... she did it anyway. Why? Doesn't sh-she care 'bout what happens to her?"

Genma pursed his lips and slipped away.

::

Living in a small, thatched-roof house

In the meadow beneath the canopy of pines

::

When Sakura opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a small aloe plant sitting on the table beside her. She thought it looked so cute in its tiny purple pot with a little caption written with black ink saying 'Feel Better' and- oh.

This was the hospital, wasn't it?

She slowly turned her neck, which was stiff from disuse, to the right and saw her boys slumped in the chairs lined up next to the window. Naruto had his head tipped back and drool leaking out the corner of his mouth and Sasuke had his arms crossed over his chest, eyebrows cinched together and chin against his chest.

"Psst. Sasuke."

Sakura coughed, voice scratchy and dry from disuse. Sasuke shifted. "Mm... what?"

"Did my caterpillars make it back okay?"

"You're in the hospital, Sakura," he grumbled. "You shouldn't care about those stupid cater..."

He blinked himself awake and rubbed at his face to get the crust out from around his eyes. Next his head jerked up and his hand slammed straight into Naruto's stomach—voluntarily or involuntarily, she couldn't tell.

"You're up!"

At those words, Naruto slid off his chair and hit the floor with a nice dull thud. He opened his mouth to snipe some bitter rebuttal at the way his person was treated, but when he saw an amused pair of emerald eyes, he shot to his feet like he hadn't been rudely assaulted just seconds ago.

"Sakura-chan!!"

They fussed over her like she'd never known them to do so before, asking if she needed some water, more pillows, was in pain... To which the answers were 'yes', 'no thank you', and 'it's nothing I can't handle'. And as Sasuke walked to the other side of the room to get her pack and ensure that her caterpillars were in fact fine, her eyes fell onto the calendar tacked up on the wall.

Two weeks.

That was how long it took her spare seal to work.

::

Going east to nurse the sick child

::

She was surprised at the myriad of people that came to visit her over the next three days since her consciousness. She soon discovered Yori had hidden in the expanse of sheets the entirety of her admittance and left when he had the chance to inform Sasori that he definitely didn't need to (and he quoted his summoner word for word) "cut a damn bitch" because she was healing at a slow but steady rate.

After Sasuke and Naruto had to be pried away from her side to have check ups on injuries of their own, Hinata popped her head into the room.

With an adorably pink face and her hands clasped around a red box, she hurried over to Sakura's beside and placed the gift on the table right beside the aloe plant.

"These are anmitsu on-onigiri! Your, u-um, your favorite!" she squeaked. Sakura looked at the box, delicately wrapped in red and silver ribbon, before holding both her arms out with a wide grin. Hinata cocked her head.

"Sakura-san?"

"Thanks, Hinata! Come over here and give me a big hug!"

The Hyuuga's face burst into a tremendously loud shade of red as she backed up. "I-I... a... a... getbettersoonSakura-san!"

She scurried out the room. Sakura laughed to herself (causing a small coughing fit) then settled back into her pillows. She did admit that was kind of mean, but she hadn't seen the other girl in so long that she missed how easy it was to make her blush.

Though aside from her, she really didn't expect much more visitors after that.

But it seemed like the world loved to prove her absolutely wrong.

Kiba came in a few hours later with Akamaru sitting on his head and a fist-full of 'Get-Well-Soon' balloons in his right hand. He greeted her with an ecstatic wave as he tied them to her bed and plopped down into the seat next to her. When asked about why he brought so many balloons, he made a face.

"Well 'cause the more balloons you give someone, the happier they're gonna be. Duh."

Akamaru barked in agreement. Then Hana came in a few minutes later, even more balloons in her grasp.

"Kiba! You didn't get enough!"

An hour after that, Chouji came in. He had a whole plate of freshly made dango, which he and his mom made for her, and set it on the table next to Hinata's onigiri. He told Sakura about how glad he was that she was okay and that he and all her friends came to visit her every day until the day she woke up.

She frowned. "Why would you guys do that?" For me?

"What are you talking about? We all got scared when we found out what happened. We had to make sure you were alright."

Something flashed in Sakura's eyes, and if he saw it, he didn't say anything about it.

The next morning, she woke up to the sight of a huge bouquet of white lilies waddling its way into her room. They were placed on the table right alongside the aloe plant, the half-eaten onigiri, and the mostly filled dango plate. She would've eaten more of the food, but her situation didn't exactly allow for a healthy appetite.

Ino jumped out from right behind them with an almost accusatory glare. "How could you almost die like that, forehead?!"

"Sorry. I'll ask permission next time."

"Don't even joke about that!"

Ino hefted herself up next to Sakura's feet and crossed her arms with a huff. She went on to chastise her bedridden friend about how bad it was to get injured so extensively like that and she was forever banned from ever getting so hurt again.

"Pale blue isn't even your color," the blonde sniffed, eyeing the sheets and hospital gown distastefully. "If you never have to come back here again, it won't be a problem."

Sakura couldn't remember the last time Ino had been the one troubling over her, not the other way around.

Almost immediately after she left about two hours later, Shikamaru came sauntering in with a wooden board tucked under his arm and a bag held in one of his hands. Without saying a word, he placed the board on her lap and began arranging the shogi pieces he pulled out from said bag.

"I knew Ino was going to come and see you," he said. "So I thought it would be better if you had some time to get some of your brain cells back."

Sakura laughed.

Hours later near the end of visiting hours, someone she never expected to spare her the time of day. Hyuuga Hanabi came stomping up to her side and cast one long look at all tubes and bandages imposing on her "rival" before thrusting a cup into her pale hands.

"Hanabi-san?"

"Nee-sama's sad that you're here. So get better."

The one hospitalized peered down at the cup and saw that it was one of of her favorite desserts-- anmitsu from the shop a block away from the Academy, and smiled.

"Thank you, Hanabi-san. It's sweet that you came to see me."

Hanabi pinkened and turned away with a scoff. "I didn't do this for you and you're still my rival!"

Sakura's smile widened. "Yes, yes, of course. My mistake."

On the third day, Sai came in to greet the day with her. He babbled on and on about how excited he was to finally see her awake and on her way to recovery.

"So I was doing some research outside of school and you know what I read? That there's a whole color psychology that's supposed to do a lot of things for somebody!" he grinned. "I found out that green is 'sposed to promote healing and things like that so I made you a whole sketchbook full of drawings in green! And lots of different shades of green so they don't get boring. Here! Look!"

Sai gleefully handed her one of his standard sketchbooks. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, except for the 'FOR SAKURA TO GET BETTER BECAUSE SHE NEEDS TO GO BACK TO BEING AWESOME NOT LIKE SHE ISN'T AWESOME NOW BUT I THINK YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN' painted on with a dark green shade. She bit her lip to keep from laughing and flipped through.

Each page had a different scene, ranging from waterfalls to forests to flower beds to mountain tops, and even to Konoha's far too familiar streets.

"You're not allowed to go outside yet, right? So I made sure to draw all that I could so you can look at the drawings and not miss it so much anymore!"

Sakura stroked the artworks with her finger. How long did it take him to make this for her? It would've been hours upon hours out of each day that he had to devote to just making her feel better. Was she really just worth it? All that painstaking time just to be used to make her happy?

"... Thank you, Sai," she murmured, eyes running down every line he had drawn for her. "Everything you've made is beautiful."

His grin stuck true to his face. "When you get out of the hospital, let's go on a walk by the lake!"

At noon, Shino came to visit. He had on his large overcoat and glasses like he normally did and looked just as expressionless as he did on his normal days. His steps were quiet as he padded over Sakura's side, and as he neared her, he pulled a small plastic bag out of one of his large pockets and set it on the table.

"I... am very forgetful," he said. "But I remember that you like dried pineapples."

Easy. Simple. Not too much hassle.

But it really hit close that he recalled even the smallest details of the Killer Hornet Incident from so long ago.

"Hey, Shino?"

He looked at her.

"Wanna keep me company for a while?"

He made no inclination of staying, but eventually moved to the other side of her and pulled up a chair without saying much of anything else. And that silence was completely fine with her.

At least until Sasuke and Naruto would come in later on and break the door off its hinges like they did the last time.

So on the fourth day of her waking up, Sakura received a guest she knew would come in sooner or later. Yamanaka Inoichi strolled into the room expecting his patient to be knowingly waiting for his arrival or sweet-talking the nurses into letting her leave the hospital earlier, but he was surprised to find her not doing anything of the sort.

Strangely enough, her head was turned to look at the table covered in the gifts her friends had given her the past few days.

"By the looks of it, a lot of your friends came to visit."

"Yeah, but..."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow. "But? You didn't want them to?"

"No, I loved everything they did for me, it's just... I don't know, no one's ever done this for me before," she mentioned quietly. He took a seat by the window as he pulled his assessment book from his black overcoat.

"No one's ever done what?"

Her eyes shone with unshed tears. "Shown me how much they wanted me to get better."

::

Going west to bear sheaves of rice for a weary mother

::

Sasori didn't look too happy today, Gaara noted curiously. The corners of the man's lips were pulled down into a huge frown and his finger had been incessantly tapping his knee for the past ten minutes. A scorpion had come saying something like 'she'll be dispatched in a few days, so you don't have to keep worrying' or another thing along those lines.

"Did something happen, Sasori?"

"It's just..." he grumbled. Then, he sighed. "Remember when I told you about the girl I knew? The one whose heart is sick?"

Gaara nodded.

"She was admitted to the hospital a couple of weeks ago after nearly sacrificing her life for the people she loved. I'm not complaining that she cares so much about other people, but it wouldn't hurt for her to care about herself every once in a while."

The boy leaned into his arm. "She must really love those people she saved, huh?" he asked. Sasori threaded a hand through Gaara's hair and looked up at the setting sun.

"They're her family, but she should learn how to not risk her life so much."

Gaara shifted so that his eyes were downcast. He didn't know why Sasori was so against such a thing, if the sick girl was willingly to die for those she loved, wasn't that a good thing? It showed how much those people meant to her and what she was willing to do to make sure they stayed alive no matter the cost.

There was such pure intent behind the gesture.

"I would do the same thing for you," the boy murmured into the cloth of Sasori's cloak sleeve. The man slumped forward and pretended not to hear.

::

Going south to tell the dying man there is no cause for fear

::

The monk stood in the middle of the recently completed bridge that connected Wave Country to the mainland. He passed by numerous dark spots that stained the concrete on his walk over, the workers saying that it was merely a paint spill accident, but those who had been there a month ago knowing very well that it was a loosely-crafted lie.

A little boy, he saw, hurried to two people standing along the railing of the bridge. The monk recognized them as the team that accompanied the team that left on harrowing circumstances.

"Haku-san..." the boy said, clinging onto the teenager's sleeve. "Haku-san, do you know what happened to Sakura-san yet? Is she still hurt?"

Haku bit his bottom lip. "We received a letter saying she's recovering well. She's okay now, Inari-kun," he answered. He tried to give up his best smile, but the monk knew it was anything but. Forced smiles were never the easiest to see, but the way it fit so uncomfortably on the Kiri-nin's face made it more than apparent. He kept it on until Inari reluctantly returned to his now-safe town before facing his companion, the bandaged swordsman.

"We have to return to the village," the man said before his apprentice could utter a word. "They said she was fine and Yagura-sama won't allow delay."

"I have to tell her I'm sorry!"

"Haku—"

The boy started to cry. "I need to tell her that she didn't need to do that! I need to tell her, Zabuza-sensei! I need to tell her that she shouldn't have thrown her life away!"

The monk turned forward.

He'd been one of the few not in the safe houses and watched the entirety of the fallout. He saw the bandits, the explosions, the crane falling, and the anguished screams and malevolent chakra that followed soon after that. Haruno Sakura, if he remembered correctly, had nearly died when he watched her be carried away by her teacher.

Her sacrifice was... a surprise to witness.

"Shishou? Aren't we leaving?"

The monk adjusted the pack over his shoulder and turned towards his disciple. "Hm, just thinking about some things. Come on. Wind Country's going to be our next destination. It's a long way out, so we'll have to get a move on," he said. The boy bobbed his head and quickly fell in step next to the monk, the latter sparing a glance at the engraved plaque that hung over all those who journeyed to Wave.

The Cherry Blossom Bridge

::

Going north to tell those who fight to put aside their trifles

::

The one person Sakura never had a visit from was Kakashi—the person she thought would be the most worried out of the rest of them. He might wear that mask over the bottom half of his face, but nothing could cover the fear and desperation in his expression. It took him all he could to travel the length to Konoha and he probably collapsed from chakra exhaustion.

But from her time at the hospital to her taking it easy back at home, there wasn't the slightest trace of him.

Until one of his dog summons gave her a note after her check up at the hospital.

Meet me at the Memorial Stone.

The message was short and revealed nothing, but perhaps it was there for the sake of significance? But it was no matter for her. The travel there was certainly a change from being bedridden and cooped up in her room at the house all day.

It started raining when she got there. Luckily enough, Genma's insistent nagging on her bringing an umbrella actually came in handy (he'd been such a mother hen ever since she was released from the hospital). Kakashi stood before the black marble with his hands in his pockets, not saying a word and letting the droplets soak his clothes.

"You're looking better," he greeted quietly. Sakura gave him an odd look.

"Well, yeah. I got out of the hospital nearly a week ago, you know. Even the doctors were surprised that my injuries are healing so fast," she said. She wiggled the arm still in a sling. "Most of them, anyway."

"... You should have stayed there longer. To make sure nothing really went wrong."

"Nah, it's fine. What happened to me wasn't that bad. Don't you hear what the boys say about me? I'm invincible!" she grinned, giving a small fist pump for emphasis. He twitched.

"Wasn't that bad?" Kakashi repeated. He rounded on her, his eyes ablaze with fury. "Wasn't that bad? You had a collapsed lung, several fractured bones, sixteen separate contusions over six centimeters long and five centimeters wide, tissue damage, a concussion, metal that pierced your stomach and chest, and myocardial ischemia! You were dying in my arms and all you can say is that it wasn't that bad?!"

Sakura's grip faltered on her umbrella as she blinked up at him. Being explicitly yelled at by Kakashi was new.

"How is it that you can stand there and crack jokes with that happy look after you nearly lost your life from shards of metal falling on you?!" he exclaimed. He ran a hand through his unruly hair and exhaled harshly. "So it's true, then. What Naruto said."

"... What did he...?"

"That you'll willingly sacrifice anything for the sake of others because you don't care enough about yourself."

"What? That's not—!"

She stopped at the murderous look on his face.

"Then how do you explain what happened with Haku? You knew him for barely two weeks and you threw everything away just to push him out from under metal! No one's invincible, Sakura! Not even you!""

She pressed her lips together and he sighed.

"I called you here for a reason. What you did in Wave was a direct violation against my orders almost at the cost of your life and compromising the mission even further. I know you're only a genin, but I've told you this before. There are consequences to your actions."

He drew in a deep breath. "You're suspended from the team."

::

Shedding tears in time of drought

Wandering at a loss during the cold summer

Called useless by all

::

Kakashi tore his gaze away from the absolutely betrayed look in her eyes and the way her mouth dropped in shock, a look that could only be dawned if any one of her boys ever stared straight at her and told her that they hated her—something that would never happen yet never be surmounted, but the words coming out of the Jounin's mouth were damn near close to it.

"That means you can't train with us, participate in missions we're assigned to, or engage in any other activity where Team Kakashi is listed on the roster."

Her breathing quickened. "You... You can't just... do this..."

"I've already taken it up with Hokage-sama and it has been approved and finalized," he said, still refusing to look her in the eyes. "From this point onward, you're not allowed back on the team for at least three weeks. Even then, I'm not sure that covers the entirety of your punishment."

That betrayal took its time to finally sink in, and when it did, it turned into a rage to rival Naruto's when he lost control on the bridge.

"I can't believe it! You're punishing me for saving someone's life!"

"There are rules that need to be followed, Sakura. You put everyone in jeopardy due to your actions."

"He didn't deserve to die!" she shouted.

"But you do?!" he shot back. "Stop trying to play hero, Sakura! If you try to save everyone, you're only going to get yourself killed!"

She shook her head and shut her eyes in utter disbelief. "I thought... of all people, you would understand why I do things the way I do things. I saved Haku because he was my friend and he, like everyone else, deserved a chance to live. I was thinking that finally, I wouldn't let anyone down anymore," she whispered. Lightning crackled the sky, creating a brief shadow over the ground they stood on. "You don't know the things I've been through, Kakashi. What I had to live through my entire life. Maybe I wanted to die out there and all you did was stop me from fulfilling my wishes!"

He was taken aback. "...You don't mean that."

"Oh, what the hell do you know?! Of all this time being our 'sensei', you haven't done one goddamn thing to try and get to know us better! We tried all that we could by cracking those jokes you 'hate', making bets, sharing stories, making dinner, laughing with everyone—but no! All we wanted was to be your friends and all you've done is push us away! So how the fuck are you going to tell me what I mean and don't mean?! Are you the same man that passed us because we were the ones that said we wouldn't leave our teammates behind?!"

"Sakura!"

The umbrella dropped from Sakura's hand with the sharp gestures in his direction, but she didn't seem to notice. "No! You can't keep treating me like I don't know what I'm doing! I will never regret the decision I made that day, and if I ever get the chance to do it over I wouldn't take it. I would risk my life for him every. Single. Damn. Time. Now tell me, Kakashi, why is it I shouldn't save people who are more deserving than I'll ever be?!"

When he said nothing, she stepped forward until they were only a meter apart.

"Go ahead! Tell me! Since you know everything!"

Still nothing. She went closer until she grabbed the front of his shirt with her good arm and shook him until angry tears began trickling down her cheeks.

"TELL ME!"

"BECAUSE YOU CAN'T JUST THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY FOR YOUR FRIENDS, RIN!!"

The rain suddenly felt a little colder.

Sakura dropped the fabric and retreated some ways backwards. Kakashi had turned around so fast that only the red swirl on his flak jacket faced her now, leaving her to shake her head and push some of her wet hair to the side. "So that's what it was. You never saw me. All you saw was a mistake that shouldn't follow through." She chuckled hollowly. "But who am I to talk? It's not like I'm any better."

She, uncaring of the rain that soaked her bandages and chilled her healing wounds, began her walk down the path back towards the village. Her saffron yellow umbrella lay discarded at Kakashi's heels—the one thing he glanced at as the frigid air carried her parting words.

"But now... I guess it's safe to say it's better to be the scum that abandons their comrades than the trash that breaks the rules, right? Good to know."

Kakashi stared at her retreating form slumped in hurt and defeat with the sound of water on stone the only welcoming sound ringing in his ears.

::

Neither praised

Nor a bother

Such is the person

::

This was a predicament.

For as long as Ibiki could remember, one of his biggest problems with Sakura was trying to keep track of her. Sometimes she'd be walking next to him, sometimes she was gone when he turned a corner with only a sticky-note on his side telling him not to worry or he'd get more wrinkles. Sometimes she'd be in his office bantering with him about this or that, and sometimes his window was open and there would be a sticker in the place she was just at.

He didn't really care, honestly. She could discern right from wrong and knew her way back home from any part of the village.

But today was odd. When Ibiki left for work, Sakura was curled in her sheets with her face smooshed in her pillow. Thinking that it was the fatigue of her injuries, he told her that he left breakfast on the table. When he got back, the food he left sat untouched on the table and she was in the same position from when he last saw her.

"Did you just stay in bed the whole day?" he asked. "We had to keep you on the bed when you were in the hospital. How come only now you're doing what you're told?"

She mumbled into her pillow, making him snort.

"I beg to differ. Bandages need changing? Uncomfortable?"

More wordless murmurs.

Ibiki lowered himself down on the foot of her bed. "Yeah, I know you can take care of yourself but you haven't moved or eaten for the past twelve hours. Cough it up, kid," he said. "Something's been eating at you for a couple of days now and you haven't even gone to any of your team training sessions."

There was a short pause before she muttered lowly. His eyebrows creased as he looked at her. That was a joke, right?

"What do you mean you got suspended? And all because Hatake got angry at you for putting your life out like that?" he repeated. Of course Kakashi had always been even more of a stickler for rules than he was, but he never expected that to happen. "Huh. Didn't think he had it in him to turn on a teammate like that."

Something that sounded like a sigh escaped her muffled lips.

"Am I mad about what you did?"

She grunted and Ibiki turned his gaze to her ceiling. He wasn't as frantic as Genma was when he learned about the condition she got herself into, but there was that small sliver of anxiety and anger he felt when he saw her nearly lifeless in the ICU. After Idate he had no one and after her parents, she was the same way.

Living together wasn't the happiest they'd ever been in their lives, but if they didn't have each other, where would they be now?

"To be honest, I'm still a little pissed at your stunt," he answered truthfully. "But you did it because you thought it was right. Can't blame you for that."

Sakura pulled her face out of her pillow and offered him a small smile. The bags under her eyes were like angry shadows against the pallor of her skin as she looked a bit thinner from her normally healthy build.

"Thanks," she whispered. Ibiki shrugged his shoulders and pushed himself back onto his feet.

"You needed to get back to your usual self soon anyways," he said. "Shiranui and I were talking, and we came to the conclusion that you obviously don't know how an A-rank missions is supposed to go. As your sensei, we have an obligation to show you how it's done correctly."

She rolled over. "You booked me on an A-rank? With you and Genma?"

"You look like you need a pick-me-up."

"But... But I was unconscious for two weeks!"

He pointed at her bandages. "I know you've been secretly healing yourself ever since you got back and all you've been doing is mope. Fix your injuries by the end of the week and we'll leave. We'll tell you what it's about on the way there."

The glazed look in her eyes replaced itself with genuine happiness and hope as she flung herself to wrap her arms around Ibiki's midsection. He made a displeased face and tried to throw her back on the bed as nicely as possible.

"Scrooge learned how to love!"

"Don't make me ground you! And—dammit! Let go!"

::

Kakashi had stayed at the Memorial for hours on end. His clothes has been thoroughly soaked and dried stiff in the while that he stayed there. Muddy sandals tracked his hallways when he finally skulked home at night as his conscious remained foggy no matter how much he tried to sleep it off. His team—could he still say it was his?—would meet in three days for their first training session after the contingency, and he was sure his two remaining students—could he still be called a teacher?—wouldn't be happy with what he'd done.

"Are you the same man that passed us because we were the ones that said we wouldn't leave our teammates behind?!"

This was the right thing to do, no question about it. If Sakura risked her life like that one more time it'd all be over. He couldn't allow her the chance to make the wrong choice.

She needed to cool down. Re-evaluate her options. Make decisions that benefited herself above all else for once.

'Like you can talk, hypocrite.'

He was a hypocrite, wasn't he?

But all he wanted was to make sure his team didn't make the same mistakes he had and still grieved over the thousands of days that passed him by. Kakashi wanted for his team to be stronger than he ever was-- smarter, more capable, less weighed down by the wrongs they committed onto themselves. He wanted them to be better than what everyone else thought of them.

To be somebody.

Somebody...

Kakashi let his head drop as he gazed out his window.

"I wish to be."

::

A/N: Well, this chapter came out on time. I'll be in New York for the next three weeks, so that might really put a hold on updates. But we'll see.

::

And a cover by ImperfectlyInfinite !

WHAT UP!!!!!!

This is great!

::

EDITED 2/8/18