AN: Yaay, next chapter :3 Just a quick warning for this chapter. It does contain death and Shiori dealing with the guilt afterwards

I woke up to Naruto's face hovering over mine. "Wha..." I managed to blearily get out before Naruto's loud voice pierced my ears.

"Sensei! She's awake!"

"Good morning, Shiori-chan." Kakashi said with a smile. I couldn't help but notice he was leaning on a crutch for support.

I moved to get up, ignoring Naruto's protests that I needed rest. "What happened?" I demanded. "I don't remember anything after Naruto declared he'd beat Zabuza. Did he hit me?" He was fast. It was a definite possibility.

"Maa, not quite. You collapsed due to your wound sustained from the Demon Brothers."

"What? But that was just a cut. You said I got all the poison out!"

"You got most of it out, that's true. But a bit got into the rest of your blood stream. You'll be fine, but you won't be able to get out of bed for a while."

"That's ridiculous." I protested, attempting to stand to prove my point. But a wave of vertigo hit me hard and I was falling back on my butt. "I have to fight. I can't let any of you three get hurt again."

"Why don't you let me handle that, Shiori-chan." Kakashi suggested. "I am your sensei."

"But sensei, even you couldn't beat Zabuza by yourself. What if he comes back? You're still using a crutch to walk. How will you-"

"It's true I underestimated Zabuza." Kakashi cut me off before I could continue my worried rambling. "But that won't happen again."

"But I can't just sit here and do nothing." I protested again.

"We can't worry about you while we're fighting." Sasuke said bluntly. "If you insist on limping after us you'll only get in the way."

"Oh."

"You didn't have to say it like that, teme!" Naruto shouted at him.

Sasuke shrugged. "She had to hear it."

"Why you..."

"Naruto!" I shouted, stopping him before he actually tried to hit Sasuke. "He's right. I had to hear that. I don't..." I instinctively tried to hide my face where my scarf used to be, but it was gone. I bit my lip. "I don't want you to get hurt because of me." Naruto stared bewilderedly at me.

"Maa," Kakashi voiced to cut through the tense atmosphere. "We should let Shiori-chan rest. In the mean time, I can train you two in something that will help against Zabuza and his companion." Naruto seemed reluctant to leave but I waved him off.

I slumped back into the futon I was laying in. "I'm sorry." I said out loud, knowing that Sasuke hadn't left the room yet.

"Hn?"

"When we graduated, I told you to eat properly so you wouldn't get in the way. Now you had to tell me the same thing."

"I don't care." He replied simply.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I hate being useless. This is just like..." I bit my lip. "Never mind."

"Hn." Sasuke said and finally moved to leave the room. Maybe he really didn't care. Maybe he thought that my room would have peace and quiet. But I never liked silence. Kakashi told everyone to leave so I could rest, but it was boring. I rolled over and over hoping to find a position comfortable enough to fall back asleep, but I only succeeded in making myself sick again.

It was a relief when Tazuna's daughter came in with food. "How are you feeling?"

"Bored." I answered honestly. "Sorry, I would've helped you make food if I could get out of bed."

She laughed. "That's quite alright. I love cooking, and it's nice to have all these guests to cook for." She set the tray of food beside me and rested the back of her hand against my forehead. "You still have a fever."

"I do?" That would explain why I felt so hot.

She nodded. "It's only mild but you should drink lots of water. Your sensei said it would help with the poison, too."

"Thank you, Tsunami-san."

"You're very welcome. Now eat up."

Tsunami's food was delicious, especially for a place with sub par produce. After I ate I was finally able to find sleep.

It felt like I wasn't asleep more than five minutes before Naruto woke me up again. "Shiori, Kakashi-sensei said you should drink more water now."

"Why are you so loud?" I mumbled, bringing my arm up to cover my eyes against the harsh light. "And it's so bright."

"Maa, that's just the fever."

"Oh." I groaned. "Fevers suck."

"You've never had a fever before?" Kakashi asked.

"Not like this." I'd been sick before. Really really sick. Heck, I'd died before. But fevers were something new.

"We'll get you better in no time, dattebayo!"

"Let's get me better quietly, ne?"

"Oh, sorry."

It took me three days to get rid of the little poison remaining.

"It would've been faster, but you don't have any poison resistance, Shiori-chan." Kakashi told me with his cheeky eye-smile.

"Funny Ebisu didn't think of that." I commented dryly. To be fair, it probably wasn't his fault. People don't generally take poisoning the hokage's granddaughter well, even if it is to help them.

Since I could finally move normally and think straight I wanted to talk to Kakashi. "Ne, sensei, can I talk to you?"

Catching onto my implication, he shooed the boys out of the room before responding. "What is it Shiori-chan?"

"I was thinking, if the reason Tazuna-san is in danger at all is Gato, why don't we just take him out?"

"Our mission is to protect the bridge builder. The moment we move to assassinate Gato, this mission becomes an expensive A-rank. This village can't afford that."

"They can't afford the protection we're giving them now." I pointed out. "Besides, this way it's safer for us, too. We can strike before Zabuza gets better."

"You're forgetting that it will take just as long for me to recover. And, whatever you might believe, you three aren't ready for an assassination mission yet."

I bit my lip. "I don't want to kill anyone." I admitted. "But I will. If it's for the mission…If it's to protect my precious people, I-"

Kakashi cut me off by placing a hand on my head. "It's alright Shiori-chan. I'll protect you and the boys. Remember? I wont allow my comrades to die."

"I know. I just thought it'd be easier."

Kakashi ruffled my hair. "Maa, you're starting to think like a ninja. When you're stronger, and are leading a team of your own, that plan might be more viable."

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

I walked outside to get some fresh air. While I was doing some stretches to get my body moving again after spending three days in bed I heard the door open and recognized Sasuke in my peripheral vision. "What did you talk to Kakashi about?"

"Nothing." I said casually, stopping my stretches. "I just wanted to know how much the poison would continue to affect me."

He quirked a brow at me, but said nothing so I went back to stretching. I didn't want to lie to my teammates, but neither did I want to involve Sasuke in my assassination attempt. At that point I had already decided, whatever Kakashi said, that I had to get Gato out of the picture.

I waited until everyone else was asleep before sneaking out of the house. Normally, I would worry about Kakashi's jounin senses, but he was chakra depleted and I had experience in how drained it made you feel. I was fairly certain that, as long as I was careful, I could at least sneak past him while he was sleeping.

Finding Gato wasn't difficult. You would think that he would try harder to hide his illegal activities, but I suppose he didn't have to when the Wave country didn't seem to have any form of organized law enforcement. His company was housed in the tallest building in the village. Three floors by my estimation (in comparison to the mostly single story buildings surrounding it).

I walked up the side of the building, glancing through each window as I passed but still careful to remain hidden. With only civilian guards it wasn't difficult (especially after the sort of training Manabu had me do under the guise of playing ninja). I used my brief glimpses to take note of possible interferences in each floor. there seemed to be about five guards in each the first and second floors and the last floor held both Gato and at least twelve guards.

I flipped onto the roof so I could think without worrying about keeping chakra in my feet, and I closed my eyes to try to picture different attempts at attacking Gato. He had a cast on one arm so he was weak and would offer little resistance. More worrying, was the guards he had. One-on-one I could take out every single one of them without breaking a sweat. I could probably take out ten of them if I attacked quickly and aimed for a killing blow. I wouldn't be able to worry about only incapacitating them if I was facing that many.

"Do you have a plan?" The sound of Sasuke's voice made me jump.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed.

He snorted, "You're a terrible liar, and you're worse at making sure everyone is really sleep."

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and held it there for a second before expelling my breath all at once and my lip with it. "You overestimate my planning skills." He quirked his brow, so I sighed and kept talking. "All I've got is to take them by surprise and cut through the guards to get to Gato." Habit led me to explain. "Neither of us are skilled enough with ranged weaponry to aim a kunai that will stay on target after hitting the glass and avoid all of the guards. Plus, the window is too high in the first place. There's also no way either of us will be able to get into the building undetected and remain hidden all the way up until we got to Gato for a true assassination, eithre. It would be simpler if we could just burn the building down, but it's made of stone. That really only leaves brute force, something both of us have in spades."

"Hn." Sasuke answered and stood up from his crouch.

"One more thing." I said before he jumped in for the attack. "We can't afford to give any of them mercy. Gato won't be the only one dead by the end of this, and I don't want either of us added to that list. Got it?"

"Hn." He confirmed with a nod.

Both of us went to a window on opposite sides of the building and broke through nearly simultaneously. The sound surely alerted those all the way to the ground floor as it did those who were actually at the windows. I briefly wondered if I should have taken the bottom guards out first to avoid fighting all of them at once, but I was quickly thrown out of my musings by the need to defend myself.

Every single one of the thugs had a weapon, some of which were bladed but most were blunt and simply afforded them a longer reach. That might have helped for bigger opponents on the same level as them, but when they swung they left a large hole in their defense that I could swing at with a kunai. The battle ended up being very repetitive with me ducking a swing and quickly slashing or stabbing where I could. I didn't even have time to think about whether or not they were dead or register the blood I was surely getting on my clothes. Even once I was finally in front of Gato, it didn't take any thought to plunge my kunai into his chest and pull out another to defend myself from the onslaught of weapons being thrust toward me.

Sasuke and I battled our way down to the ground floor unsure of how many we killed and how many ran away. Both of us were covered in bruises and cuts that came from a combination of the window glass and the thugs' weapons. It was only once we were back at Tazuna's house and we began to clean ourselves up that I considered what I just did. I had killed someone. Despicable as Gato was, he was human. And he wasn't the only one. How many of those thugs' blood were on my hands?

I didn't even realize I was scrubbing my bloodied hand raw until I felt Kakashi's hand on my shoulder. I didn't even hear the clacking of his crutch. He held a rag in his hands and gently began to help me clean myself up. "You disobeyed direct orders."

"I killed him." I don't know if I was trying to justify my actions or admit my guilt.

Kakashi nodded. "We'll protect Tazuna-san until the bridge is completed, but it will probably be uneventful from here on."

I returned Kakashi's nod and moved to get clean clothes on. I spun around to face him once more. "What should I do with these?" I asked, gesturing to my bloody clothes.

He shrugged, "most ninja burn them if they can't get it out."

"Oh." I stared at them. "I want to keep them."

His visible eye widened slightly, but he returned it to normal a second later. "Maa, in that case I can put them in a storage scroll so they don't dirty the rest of your clothes." I nodded, satisfied, went back to the task of changing.

As soon as I was in pajamas I laid in my futon hoping for sleep to find me. Killing Gato was playing over and over again in my mind. I remembered stabbing him, but when I tried to remember what his dead body looked like nothing was there. I didn't look at him. I didn't even know what the dead body of the man I killed looked like. Of everything that happened that night, that was what struck me while I was lying awake.

Kakashi must have noticed I wasn't going to sleep because I heard him speak in the darkness. "Shiori. There's one more thing we have to do after killing someone." I sat up and blinked owlishly at him. "We have to clean up the bodies. Sasuke, you stay here and tell Naruto we've gone on a walk if he wakes up."

"Hn." I hadn't even realized he was also still awake, but ignored my surprise and followed Kakashi as he led me slowly to Gato's building. We were accompanied by the clacking of his crutch. The sound was grounding. It eased the harsh quiet of the night.

From the outside, Gato's building appeared to be so innocent. The moment we entered, though, we were greeted with a smattering of dead bodies. As I stepped around the bodies-but still staring at them, wondering why I couldn't pinpoint which ones I killed-I realized I had severely underestimated the number of guards. I know that at least some of the thugs had ran, but there were still thirty-four odd bodies lying on the ground.

I didn't pay special attention to any particular body until I finally arrived at Gato's. His eyes were open, staring at me. I've heard some describe the open eyes of the dead as accusing, but his were terrified. He knew I was going to kill him and I terrified of him. I clamped my hand over my mouth as a wave of nausea hit me. I stumbled, tripping over more than one body before I finally arrived at a window and wretched what little I had in my stomach onto the ground. Even once I was completely empty I continued to dry heave. I wondered if it was my soul that was coming out. It had to be. What kind of person can have a soul and still massacre so many people.

Kakashi worked without asking once for my help. He sealed the bodies into a single black scroll before using a minor fire jutsu to burn it. "We're done, Shiori." Gone, was his affectionate use of 'chan', and I couldnt' blame him. Not after what I'd done.

AN: So, this took us somewhere unexpected (hopefully). If anyone wants justification for Shiori and Sasuke being able to take out that many thugs at once I'm thinking back to how Sasuke was able to take out like eight of Zabuza's clone at 1/10 of his strength. If Zabuza is S-Class, then bandits probably have like 1/100 of his strength. Plus, Shiori and Sasuke are working together so...

Also, if anyone sees anything that is hard to read or understand please point it out to me. I'm more than happy to explain and I want to edit it if something like that happens because I want to make sure my writing is clear.

And one last thing. This is like my last week of school so I'm hoping to update more often once I'm on summer vacation :D