"Gatō?" Zabuza drops his now useless arms to his sides, thanks to Kakashi-sensei. "I don't understand. What is all this? Why are you here? And who are these thugs you brought with you?!"

The short man with the glasses standing at the front of the group of armed men chuckles, wearing a malicious grin. Even if I hadn't heard his name, there would be no doubt in my mind that this truly is Gatō.

"Well, you see, there's been a small change in plans," Gatō calls our way, jabbing the end of his staff against the cement bridge beneath it. "According to the new plan, you'll die right here on this bridge, Zabuza."

My eyes instantly widen with shock. "What did you say?" Zabuza says, his own eyes locked on the man.

"Since hiring a regular Shinobi's too expensive, I've decided to take you out of the payroll. Of course, even these "thugs" I brought with me cost somethin', so if you could manage to slaughter a few of them before they take you down, I'd appreciate it. Think you can manage that, "Demon Ninja of the Mist"?" Gatō laughs again, "Look at ya – you look about as demonic as a wet kitten!"

The other men join in.

"Sorry, Kakashi," Zabuza says lowly. "Our fight ends here. As long as my reason to take down Tazuna is gone, there's no reason to fight you, either."

"Yeah. I suppose you're right." Instinctively, I reach out to grab Naruto's arm to steady myself, watching nervously as Gatō stalks toward us, only to stop in front of Haku's body.

"That reminds me!" When he ends up placing his shoe against his face, I end up grimacing, my fingers tightening around Naruto's sleeve. He, himself, tenses up. "You little brat; you squeezed my arm until it broke! I've been meaning to repay you for that."

My eyes shutter close before I can see his foot connect with the side of Haku's head, but the sound of the impact alerts me that it's still been done.

"I only wish you were alive to feel that," Gatō adds.

"Get away from him!" Naruto suddenly screams from beside me, pulling himself from my grip and running forward. "What do you think you're doing, huh?!" I'd rushed forward to stop him, but Kakashi-sensei beats me to it, thankfully.

"Use your head!" he hisses at him, Naruto, still struggling against our Sensei's grip. Finally he stops, looking up to Zabuza.

"You say something, too!" Naruto yells. "He was your comrade! You gonna just let him do that?!"

"Be quiet, fool," Zabuza snaps back at him. "Haku is dead; what does it matter?"

"What?!" Naruto growls at him. "Don't you feel anything watching him do that? Weren't you with Haku for a long time?!"

"Just as Gatō used me... I was simply using Haku," he answers. "I thought I'd told you – we Shinobi are merely tools. What I wanted was Haku's skills, not Haku, himself. His usefulness is at an end. The loss of his strength and skill, yes – that means something to me. But the boy... nothing."

"If you really mean that..." I spot Naruto's fists ball up. "... then you're an even bigger rat than I thought!"

"Okay, that's enough," Kakashi-sensei grabs his shoulder. "Calm down, Naruto; he's not our enemy. Not right now."

'Shut up!" Naruto shirks himself out of his grasp and points at Zabuza. "As far as I'm concerned, he's enemy number one!" The two glare each other down. "After everything he did for you – Haku lived for you! You were the most important thing in the world to him! And he meant nothing to you? Nothing at all? While he was sacrificing everything for you, you never felt anything at all for him? And if I become stronger, does that... does that mean... does that mean I'll become as cold-hearted as you are!?

"He threw his life away, and for what? For you and your dream?! You never even let him have a dream of his own, but he didn't care. And y-you just toss him aside, like he was n-nothing!"

Naruto turns away, biting down on his lip... as he cries. "Man, that's so wrong! So wrong!"

I... I missed a lot of the battle. However Sasuke became so close to death because of Haku; however Naruto ended up being the one to face him off instead; how the bridge got scarred; how I somehow healed myself again – I didn't know about Haku's care for Zabuza. It didn't even register in my head, any of the words he'd said when he spoke of that other person's dreams – whatever the dream is, it belongs to Zabuza. Haku only wanted to be there when he achieved it.

There's no way there isn't a single bone in Zabuza's body that never didn't care about Haku. Being together for so long and with the personality Zabuza has, he definitely considered Haku a tool. But it can't be only just that. It can't.

"Kid..." For a moment, I think it'd started raining. The ground before Zabuza turned dark, spotted from liquid, but looking up, there'd been no water. I never even considered... that he could be crying, too. "Don't say... another word.

"Haku was... He wasn't just thinking of me. He was feeling pain inside for you while he battled you. I know all of that. He was too kind. I'm... glad we could fight with you until the end."

Without the use of his arms, Zabuza tears through the bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face. Peering around slightly, I'm surprised that his face looks... rather normal. Kakashi-sensei taps my arm from beside me, shaking his head, and I duck back, embarrassed. Yeah, probably not the right time.

"It's as you say, kid," he says, glancing over his shoulder at Naruto. "Shinobi are human, too. Maybe it's impossible to become an emotionless tool. Well... at least I've failed. Give me your kunai."

Naruto hesitates, but from his pocket he draws what looks like his last knife and tosses it to Zabuza, who catches the handle by his teeth. As he charges forward after Gatō and his small army, I take Naruto's now empty hand in mine and squeeze it.

"Your words reached him, Naruto," I whisper, and he turns to me slightly. Frowning, I raise my other hand and brush away the tears and wetness from his eyes and face. "You don't... you don't have to cry anymore."

A shout startles me, a reminder that the fight still goes on, despite not needing to be reminded. Zabuza will only be able to go so far before his injuries consume him, but even still, he takes down over a dozen armed thugs before reaching Gatō. Another cry of pain echoes across the bridge, and I recognize it to be Gatō, himself. A moment later, there's a loud splash coming from the water below.

The crowd of thugs suddenly splits, revealing the extent of Zabuza's new injuries, and the multiple spears sticking out from his back. Stumbling back in our direction, the weapons swaying with him and each of his steps, he eventually collapses halfway to his destination – to Haku. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I realize I'd barely been breathing, and I shut my eyes, my body shaking with... with frustration? Anger?

"Don't look away," Kakashi-sensei tells me. "When you live like a warrior... this is how it ends." Nodding, probably almost too much, I return my gaze to Zabuza's body.

"Naruto! Kari!" Startled, I quickly turn at Sakura's voice to find her waving at us, and Sasuke rising from the ground. I sigh in relief, tears quickly springing into my eyes. "Look, it's Sasuke! He's alright! He's alive!" And he raises his hand at us. I can't help but laugh, my smile spreading fast across my face; I share it with Naruto, though his confusing is clear and present.

"B-But how?" he stammers.

"What a relief," our Sensei breathes.

"Oi, oi, oi, oi!" a voice calls, a clanking noise echoing across the bridge from where the thugs stand. "Don't go gettin' too comfortable!"

"Damn Shinobi, killing our source of money!" another seethes, brandishing his sword at us.

"Now that it's come to this, we've got no choice but to attack the town and take everything valuable!" a third says, the other thugs shouting their agreements.

"Shoot, this isn't good," Kakashi-sensei mutters.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaims. "You've gotta have some kind of Jutsu that'll wipe all these losers out at once?!"

"That's impossible. I've used too much chakra."

Not only that, but look at your injuries, Sensei! my thoughts are screaming. He's too exhausted, too hurt to even consider fighting. I blame Makara-sensei for this next thing, and for boosting my ego almost too unnaturally high for even considering it, but—

"Then leave it to me, Kakashi-sensei," I say, finally releasing Naruto's arm and walking away from them and toward the group of thugs.

"Kari, what are you talking about?" he asks sharply; I can't help but wince. "You'll only get yourself killed!" I shake my head at him, disregarding his words.

"Please allow me to do this," I ask over my shoulder at him, and in the corner of my eye, I spot the thugs moving toward us. "I don't want to be like Zabuza – I refuse to let the people I care about get hurt because I just stood by or I was too weak. But I'm not weak, Sensei, and I have my grandmother to thank for this." I smile at him and pull my remaining kunai from my thigh holster. "And you've still got lots to teach us, so you can't die yet, either, Sensei!"

"Kari..." Kakashi-sensei sighs at me. "Well... I suppose we'll all be dead, anyway, if you don't try."

"I... think that's the spirit?" I say.

"Get 'em!"

I find myself grinning, for whatever insane reason, when they all charge toward me. Jumping over Haku's body, sending a silent apology down at him when I do, I'm fast to dive into the hoard. From each of my hands, I drive a kunai into the side and chest of one of the thugs. Their groans and shouts are loud, but they collapse on either side of me when I launch my palm and heel into either of their bodies. I whip a third kunai off to my right where one of the men raise a large sword at me, and it pierces his neck, sending him stumbling backward, the weapon falling on top of him.

There's a shout from behind me that has me tense up on the spot. One of the men had raised their axe up high behind me, ready to swing it down at me, but a single arrow had stopped him, his body jerking to avoid getting hit by it. J-Jeez, that was close!!

"There's one more thing you're forgetting about!" a man's voice shouts, and I realize, having turned to find out where the arrow had come from, that it'd been from the finished end of the bridge. "Before you set one foot in our village, you're gonna have to go through all of us!"

Almost the entire village's population, armed with all manners of weapons or weapon-like objects, lead by a crossbow-wielding Inari, fitted with a stir fry pan for a helmet, have arrived, and just in time, too! The man with the axe has gotten distracted, so I launch my foot into his gut, forcing him off his feet, and run back from the front lines.

"That was too reckless," Kakashi-sensei says, Naruto and Inari's exchange slightly louder than him. He steadies me with a bloodied hand on my shoulder. I grimace at it. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," I promise him, "but Sensei, your hand—"

"Oh, sorry," and he removes it, chuckling.

"T-They've all come," Mister Tazuna blubbers, having regrouped with us along with Sakura and Sasuke. "The whole village!"

Hands on my hips, I turn back to the gaggle of thugs. "You're outnumbered four to one!" I tell them.

"There's no way I'm gonna miss out on all the fun!" Naruto says, grinning my way. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" And four of them appear at either side of him, wearing the same cocky expression I know and love.

"You just have to teach me that!" I say.

"Only if you teach me some of those Taijutsu moves!" he replies, and to seal the deal, we shake hands on it.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Several large pops fill my ears, and the both of us turn our heads to find that our Sensei had used his Sharingan to replicate Naruto's technique, having created dozens of his own clones. "Kakashi-style."

Directing my own grin back at the thugs, "Are you guys still up for it?" I call.

"Not a chance!" they all chorus. The boat that'd been docked at the edge of the bridge is quickly filled with the thugs—and those who hadn't made it in made a dangerous choice to swim away and to the safety of land.

"Victory!" Inari shouts, crossbow raised high in the air. Naruto and I end up cheering along with the villagers; I'm laughing again. They'll never have to deal with Gatō ever again – they're free!

And... I'm really glad that Mister Tazuna had gotten us as his escorts.

Once the shouting and cheers die down, I'm able to hear the sound of wood bouncing against stone. Glancing beside me, I realize our Sensei is missing, then turning completely to find him having pulled the last of the four spears out from Zabuza's body, setting it on the ground next to the others.

Unsteady from his own injuries and low chakra, Kakashi-sensei picks Zabuza up and carries him to Haku's side to lay his fast-bleeding body down beside him. I'm about to take a deep breath, when I discover that inhaling hurts my chest, and that the temperature has considerably dropped. Something cold hits my nose first before I'm able to see it.

"Snow?" I realize, wiping the melted flake off of it.

"At this time of year?" a villager adds. "That's impossible!" another exclaims.

He's not wrong, I think. Besides... this snow has chakra in it. My eyes drift back to Haku. Did you do this... Haku?

"Thank you... Kakashi," we hear Zabuza say, a slight shiver to his voice. Our Sensei nods, and limps back to us.

"My grandmother used to tell me that..." I wipe the melted snow from my cheeks and brush it from my hair. "... that when you die near others... a piece of your heart will keep living in them. I wonder... if this will be the same for Haku."

"Of course, it will," Kakashi-sensei says, easily reassuring me. "His spirit was... as pure as the snow, itself. You never know, Zabuza... maybe you'll join him there, after all."

Zabuza was... a pretty complex person... who did some pretty horrible things. He was an assassin, after all. But somewhere inside him had existed enough compassion to take care of and train Haku. He didn't have to take an orphaned child off the streets. He could've picked anyone to train as a "tool", as he put it, but he chose Haku.

The aftermath of fight had been short-lived. Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei all had injuries that needed to be tended to – well, maybe not Naruto. Somehow, his injuries healed, too. And none of us knew how. Then, Zabuza and Haku's bodies needed to be taken care of. It took much convincing on part of the villagers; we'd asked them if we could bury their bodies just on the inner outskirts of the village. Mister Tazuna, surprisingly, vouched for the idea. Having been the one who'd seen everything between us and those two from the beginning, he most certainly had the right. Naruto told us of a beautiful place that overlooked the village – it'd been somewhere he'd discovered when he'd been training in the forest – and he leads us there for the final send off. And he'd been right; there's a stunning view of the sea from up here, and the sunset.

"Is... that really it, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asks. I lay down the small bouquet of flowers I'd collected – jasmines, my namesake. "Is that... the Ninja Way? To use and be used by people like tools?"

"Shinobi are all merely tools in the hands of destiny," Kakashi-sensei replies. "There's no point in wondering whether it's right or wrong. It just is." He shoves his hands in his pockets. "It's the same in the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Well, if you ask me, if that's what being a Ninja is all about, something's out of whack," Naruto mumbles. "Is that why we go through all this training? Just to end up like them?"

"What's the reason for that?" Sasuke inquires.

"Is this world really sick enough to sacrifice just anyone's life?" I wonder, huffing at the grave markers.

"Well... it's a question without an answer," our Sensei answers with a short sigh, "and that's something we Ninja have to deal with every day of our lives, like Zabuza and the kid."

Naruto rises up from his squatting, hands on his hips.

"Okay," he says, smiling. "I've just made a decision! From now on, I'm finding my own Ninja Way! A way that's straight and true and without any regrets! From now on, I'm following the Way of Naruto!"

"Uh..." Kakashi-sensei only ends up chuckling. From where I'd been kneeling in between Haku's and Zabuza's graves, I use my dirt-stained hand as a visor against my forehead and smile up at him.

"When you figure out what that way is, Naruto, I'd really like to live it, too."

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑

"We could've never finished the bridge without you." Mister Tazuna places a hand on Inari's head. "I can't tell you how much we're going to miss you."

"Do be careful!" Tsunami adds with a smile.

"Thank you," Kakashi-sensei says, "for everything."

"Now, now," I hear Naruto say, and suddenly, I'm being patted on the shoulder by him, "don't get all choked up, Kari; you can come back and visit them any time soon!"

"B-But I'm not upset," I say, frowning at him. "For once, this's been a happy ending."

"You don't have to deny it," he says, his voice warbling briefly. Sighing, I shirk his hand off me.

"D-Do you swear?" Inari asks, Naruto whimpering from behind me. Now who's getting choked up?! "Will you actually come b-back?"

"O-Of course!" Naruto cries through gritted teeth. "Y-Y'know, Inari, it's o-okay to cr-cry if you w-want! Th-There's nothing w-wrong with t-that! G-Go for it!"

"Who says I wanna cry?!" Inari shouts. "A-Anyways, if there's nothing w-wrong with it, t-then why d-don't you go on and cry?"

"N-No! You first!" They really do try their hardest to keep themselves together. "Awh, forget it!" And Naruto turns away, stalking down along the completed bridge. I share a look of exasperation with Sakura, and we end up sighing in unison. Waving one last time, we join him.

"You know, I wonder what they're going to end up naming this bridge," I say, once we're halfway across. My teammates all hum in thought. "Well, whatever it ends up getting called, I'm sure it'll match just how amazing it is."

Updated June 16th, 2021 | 3,230 words

Ugh, finally, I'm done this dang arc. I got pretty badly sunburnt on the 15th so I'm in a lot of pain at the moment, but I'm gonna do my best to keep updating the next chapters. The Chunin Exam arc chapters might end up being slowly edited, too, because I hated writing a majority of what was there before, but we'll see! 🤣