A/N; I'm rewriting! Fixing errors and adding detail, but the story line remains the same!

Rewritten as of 11OCT19!

3rd Person POV

The land of waves

Sakura was trembling. She had just witnessed the death of two people, whom she believed were only just misunderstood. Caught in the world of shinobi and did what they had to to exist. She would even go as far as to believe that if they were given the opportunity to join Konoha, they would.

Should it have been a different time or place or different circumstances, they might have been allies, and it was for these reasons that Sakura had walked up to both Zabuza and Haku's body and kneeled.

She could distinctively hear the sounds of the villagers fighting against Gatō's men, but she payed it no mind as she looked into Zabuza's lifeless eyes. She slowly raised her hand to close his 'lifeless eyes', only to jump in surprise when something clamped over her wrist. She stared into Zabuza's, not so lifeless eyes as he took something from his ninja pouch and pushed it into the palm of her hand.

"It chooses it's master." He croaked as blood spattered from his mouth, making Sakura cringe, but pay attention despite her want to look away from the gruesome scene.

"W-what?" Sakura asked, startled beyond imagination.

Clearly, she wasn't expecting a man who she believed to be dead grip her wrist with still so much strength.

He was a Shinobi.

"It chooses it's master, it chooses you." He said clearly despite spitting up blood along the way.

"What are you talking about? Who chooses it's master? Who chose me?" She asked again, only for Zabuza to shake his head. His shark like teeth stained with blood as he continued to speak.

"The key isn't needed if it chooses you. Take care of it little girl. Only greatness will come of this, should you use it right." Sakura wanted to ask more questions, only to stop in her tracks as his once firm grip on her wrist loosened and fell against her thighs.

She looked at his calloused hand that rested on her body. Small scars littering all over as a clear sign of his profession as a rouge-nin and a previous member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

Needless to say, she was stunned. What just happened, and what was he talking about?

She shook out of her stupor when she heard cheerful yells from all around her as the rest of Gatō's men had been defeated or ran out of town as soon as their supposed fearless leader was killed.

Shaking, Sakura took Zabuza's hand off her thigh and gently set it back down by his side before closing his eyes like she had originally planned. Still noticing some battle scars along the way, making her wonder if she'd ever look as monstrous as he did in this very moment, even in death.

After saying a quick prayer she stood up, catching Kakashi-sensei's gaze as he watched her pay her respects for the fallen enemies. She bit her lip and clenched her hands, slightly unnerved after witnessing her first real kill. She jumped when she felt something in her hand, but before she could look at the scroll Zabuza had given her, a hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei."

Should she tell him about what just happened, or would it be best to wait?

Her question was answered for her when Kakashi beckoned her towards him.

He gave her a crinkled eye smile. "Let's finish our mission and go home. Hm?"

Clearly, later would be better, no need to bring it up now when things are going smoothly now that the threat of Gatō and his henchmen are gone.

Sakura nodded slowly, and as Kakashi walked away she stuffed the scroll into her pouch to read it later and followed her sensei to the rest of her team who looked a little worse for wear.

She did nothing again, leaving her teammates to do everything simply because she couldn't. Not because of her lack of trying, because she does, but because they wouldn't allow her to.

Anytime she tried, she was always told to stay back and not get in their way.

And what was she, a girl who comes from a civilian family, supposed to say to the Hokage's son and the second son of the head of the Uchiha Clan?

Not much, that's for sure.

Sakura sighed as she walked with her teammates back to Tazuna's home to get cleaned up.

Her mind however, was all over the place.

Because although the scroll was out of sight, it wasn't out of mind. She always thought about it, even during the remainder of their mission, not even bothering to worry about Sasuke as she usually would, or insult Naruto as she usually would. As a matter of fact, she was so out of character that it almost seemed like it wasn't even her.

This, of course, earned her quite a few stares from said Uchiha and his best friend Naruto. Kakashi only thought it was from the shock of seeing someone's death, and that it probably affected her more then the boys because she was raised in a civilian family. Needless to say the boys believed him and his words, deciding to leave her to her thoughts.

Although she wasn't sure how she particularly felt about that, she let it go. Opting to instead get the rest she truly needed after the day they just had.

After all, the still had a mission to finish in the morning.

About a week later team 7 found themselves standing on the completed bridge of Wave Country, saying their goodbyes to Tazuna, his family, and the rest of the villagers who showed up to send them off.

Sakura watched on in amusement and slight disgust at Naruto as he and Inari hugged each other with snot coming out of their noses.

Clearly having developed a bit of a bond during their stay at their home.

After giving one last wave, the four of them departed, leaving behind the village and the two gravesites of the two criminals they had buried earlier in the week.

As they left, Tazuna turned to Inari with a thoughtful look on his face before smiling.

"I think I know what I want to name the bridge." Inari looked up at him, curiosity shining in his eyes that were no long as dull as they had been since the boys father died.

"What?"

"The Bridge of Seven." Inari looked at him questioningly.

"Is it because they're team 7?" Tazuna chuckled. It wasn't the reason why but he could see how he would come to that conclusion.

"No, it's because of all the people that helped save our village." Inari continued to stare at his grandfather.

"But there were only four members in Team 7." He said, looking so confused.

"Yes, but they weren't they only ones to save the village Inari. It was the four of them, Zabuza and Haku, who, although were our enemies initially, did help save us." He explained.

"And the seventh?" Tazuna smiled as he knelt down to Inari's height and ruffled his hair.

"You." Inari stared on in surprise.

"M-me?" He stammered while blushing.

"That's right kid, if it wasn't for you I don't think we'd be here right now." One of the villagers said as several others murmured in agreement.

"You're a hero kid." Shouted one.

"Your father would be so proud." Proclaimed another.

"Let's hear it for Inari! Our villages hero!" They all cheered.

Tazuna smiled as he watched his grandson being tossed in the air by the villagers.

"Your father really would be proud." Tazuna said as he sighed, a proud smile on his old face.

Tazuna looked back to the bridge to find the Konoha Shinobi long gone. Fully believing that they'll meet again some day in the future.

~•~

Sakura merely stared off into space as she stood in the Hokage's office with Naruto and Sasuke as Kakashi was giving their mission report in full detail. Accidentally making her relive all the events.

She was still just as distracted as she was right after the incident with Zabuza, which she still hadn't told her sensei about by the way.

She was so distracted that she wasn't even paying attention to what was being said or what was going on around her.

A rookie mistake that could have possibly killed her if it were any other situation.

It was only when Kakashi had placed his hand on her shoulder did she snap out of it and connect eyes with a worried Fourth Hokage.

Naruto and Sasuke were already gone.

Where did they go?

"Sakura-chan, did you hear what I just said?" Naruto's father asked her, concern clouding his blue eyes.

She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out, never really having been caught so lost in her thoughts before.

Biting her lip she settled for just shaking her head 'no'.

The Hokage began explaining everything again, making her feel bad for not paying attention like she should have been.

"In these type of situations, those involved in the incident are asked questions about what had transpired. Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui are with Sasuke doing just that while Yamanaka Inoichi and Nara Shikaku are questioning Naruto." He explained, for the second time.

"And my interrogators would be?" Sakura found herself saying before she could truly think about her words before she said them.

"Interrog- Sakura-chan, it's not an interrogation, you aren't an enemy ninja or anything of the sort." Kakashi and Minato seemed clearly taken aback at her use of words.

Sakura didn't even know what she said that was so wrong. She remembers back in the academy that if any ninja were to encounter a missing ninja of a high enough ranking they would be interrogated about said ninja and determine if their mental stability was still, well, stable.

Before anymore could be said the door opened to reveal two people, two very scary people in Sakura's opinion.

"Ah, Anko-san, Ibiki-san. Thank you for coming." Minato said as he motioned the two ninja to step into his office.

"No problem Hokage-sama, so, is this the girl we're interrogating?" The woman with dark purple hair said with a slight frown was she looked at Sakura.

Minato and Kakashi face palmed.

Interrogation HQ

Minato and Kakashi stood outside the interrogation room, looking on through the one way mirror, observing Sakura's interrogation.

"You're not usually one to watch an interrogation Hokage-sama." Kakashi commented, wondering why the Hokage would waste his time with something that seemed rather trivial in his opinion.

"Sakura's not usually the type to get distracted either, I'm just concerned about her." Minato explained as he continued to watch Sakura fiddle with the hem of her red dress.

A clear sign of her anxiety.

Kakashi hummed in agreement as both men stopped their chit chat as the questions started.

Interrogation room

Ibiki stood by the door with his arms crossed over his chest as Anko sat in the chair at a table while Sakura sat across from her.

Almost like a good cop bad cop routine.

"So kid, how was the mission?" Anko asked calmly, making Sakura furrow her eyebrows at the casualness in her voice.

"Uhm, alright I guess." She answered awkwardly.

"What do you mean you guess? The mission was a success and the bad guys are dead. Not only that but a group of Genin such as yourselves completed this mission which turned out to be an A rank mission. Seems like it went more than 'alright' if you ask me." Anko said, exaggerating a few of her words every so often, trying to sound enthusiastic.

Sakura only frowned.

"Well... when you put it like that it sounds great and all, but saying it like that is just gilding it. Putting on a thin layer of gold paint to make it look and sound nice, but it's not like that at all." She explained quietly.

"Whatta' ya mean kid?" Anko asked as she rested her arms on the table in front of her.

"I mean that if you tell it like it really is and how it really went, it's not going to sound that great at all."

"And how did it really go?" Anko asked, propping her arm on the table and resting her chin on it, interested in what she had to say.

Ibiki turned his head to face Sakura to listen as well, now that they were getting into the real part of the interrogation.

Outside the room Minato and Kakashi leaned in closer as well.

"Honestly, it was horrible. It started out nice. A simple C rank mission to escort an old man home and protect him from thugs so he can finish building a bridge. But a few hours into the mission we get attacked by the Demon Brothers of the Mist and find out our mission is a lot tougher than we think, but we didn't care, we kept on going till we get attacked by Momochi Zabuza, an S-class missing nin. Which after the battle leaves our sensei immobilized, and even then, Zabuza managed to escape with the help of his parter. The village itself was a mess because of the unfinished bridge and Gatō's men, a whole week later after doing some training, that didn't even really help out with the mission, we get attacked again. Sasuke almost dies, Naruto goes on a rampage, Kakashi kills Haku, Zabuza becomes our ally at the last minute, he's the one to kill Gatō, and the rest of the villagers were the ones to get rid of the rest of Gatō's men. In the end, it's almost like we didn't do much, heck, I didn't even do anything." Her voice started of rather strong then trailed off and got softer at toward the end.

"Well, when you put it that way kid, you almost make me feel sorry for you... Almost. Now back to Zabuza and Haku, you make it sound as if their death shouldn't have happened, that they didn't deserve to die." Anko said, trying to pry into her thirteen year old mind.

"Did they though?" Sakura's question caught them off guard. Which was understandable given the circumstances.

Back outside a few more people had arrived.

"How'd it go with Naruto and Sasuke?" Minato asked Itachi, Shisui, Inoichi, and Shikaku who had just arrived and finished questioning the boys.

"Fine, all both boys could talk about was how awesome they did in handling the situation and saving the village. They felt rather proud of themselves despite all the negatives that happened." Shikaku explained lazily as he put his hands in his pockets, a bored look on his face.

Minato hummed as he continued to listen to them but watch Sakura.

"What about the girl?" Inoichi asked as he looked to his daughter's ex-best friend.

"She's rather... Interesting." Minato's reply had them all interested.

All four new comers looked to one another before looking on into the room where the questioning (interrogation) was happening.

"-you make it sound as if their death shouldn't have happened, that they didn't deserve to die."

"Did they though?" Everyone was taken aback by her question.

Anko slammed her hands to the table startling Sakura into jumping.

"They were missing nin, a missing nin is not only an enemy to their own village but to every other village as well." Anko said with vigor, surprising all the adults around.

They all knew that she had different views than what she was actually saying, she was only questioning Sakura the way she was to get certain answers out of her.

"Not always." Replied the pink haired girl.

And her answers just keep on surprising them.

"How do you mean?"

"The enemy of our enemy is our allie. It even happened on our mission today. After Gatō turned against Zabuza, Zabuza became and allie of ours, even if it was only for a while."

"So because he went from for to friend for a few minutes, you think he didn't deserve to die."

"Is that not right?" Anko sighed, faking disappointment when really, she was intrigued.

"You still have a lot to learn kid, a missing nin is still a missing nin."

"What makes him a missing nin? The fact that he left his village?" Sakura asked, almost mockingly.

"It's more than that brat. He left his village and went on a killing spree. Killed people left and right. I know you know what classifies a missing nin."

"I do, it's a person who kills when it's in their best interest to either remain alive or undetected, to kill for money, to do things with out morals or abandoning the rules when it becomes necessary, that's not just what classifies a missing nin, it's also what classifies a Shinobi.

The only difference is who takes or gives the orders, or if you make your own."