Chapter 77

From the looks of things, even if she begun to shout at her, she would to be ignored, and even be made to look like a mad person. Akari frowned and closed her eyes. She breathed in slowly and let out a breath. When she opened her eyes, her frown had disappeared and her face, returned to the stoic and cold expression she showed everyone except Sasuke.

"I know what you are doing." At this point, Tazuna the bridge builder, his daughter and her son, were all present. Although at first the situation seemed awkward with how Akari just stood there, they had suddenly perked up their ears the moment she spoke.

Even though she was still being ignored, Akari continued to speak anyway, "You intend to show Sasuke that cold side in order to attract his attention. I don't know how it is that you suddenly got your position, but if you think that will work, then you have another thing coming. I'm warning you, forehead; Stay away from Sasuke-kun." At this point, a tired and beat-down Naruto and Sasuke, who were supporting each other, followed by Kakashi and Zabuza had walked through the doors behind her, listening to her threat.

"Oh my." Tazuna's daughter felt amused at the women rivalry going on in the house.

"Well, aren't you the popular one, brat." Zabuza spoke with a smirk but narrowed his eyes at Akari, seemingly noticing something. Kakashi on the other hand was silent. He only stared at the comfortably sleeping Sakura, who had not moved…till now.

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I frowned. I think I came to develop this new character after spending so much time with the old lady Mebuki. I could endure so much, but the one thing I could not handle, was threats. I opened my eyes slowly and stared at the triumphant look on the face of Akari. Maybe she was feeling triumphant about getting a reaction from me after so long?

Usually when I tune things out, the sounds produced are some barely audible muffling sounds. After a while of standing and glaring at me, my carpet picked up the returning crew's chakra, fifty meters away. When they were about entering the house, interestingly, that is when I began to hear the muffling sounds from Akari; That was when she decided to speak. That was the reason why I decided to listen to what she had to say. Who would have thought she would threaten me?

I emerged slowly from my sleeping bag; My lazy and sleepy look had completely disappeared and replace with a cold smile. I saw her body shake slightly. Fear? Good. Maybe she felt Kakashi was around, that she would be protected. Or maybe she felt because we came from the same village, I would not dare to kill her so she stood her ground.

"A threat?" Honestly, did she not see my completely decimate her dear Sasuke during the academy spar? I walked slowly towards her, to which she took a step back. She felt danger and looked towards Kakashi and Sasuke for help. Just as she was about to turn and run towards them, I flickered in front of her, grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground before slamming her into the wooden floors. I had been buffing up my body for so long, I could contend with Might Guy; Lifting up an obnoxious little girl was no challenge. The slam caused her to cough out some saliva.

"Oi Sakura, what are you doing." The situation had turned so suddenly, they barely had time to react. Sasuke felt the need to stop it; He felt he was the cause and as such should probably stop it. Kakashi stopped both him and Naruto before they could rush over.

"First off, I honestly do not know how you get off threatening your Jounin superior. Insubordination. Two…" A kunai suddenly appeared in my hand and I gently pried her shivering mouth open with it and placed in into the side of her mouth before I continued, "…How I got to my position, dear Miss Akari, is by going to hell and back, numerous times, and I have the scar to prove it. Literally. I have killed many; Men women and children. Bled for the family; and I am only 12 years old." As I spoke to here, I released a little bloodlust in the surroundings, freezing everyone except Kakashi and Zabuza.

"I have no time for your jealous streak. In case you do not know, I like women instead." I retracted my bloodlust and smiled at her. The look on her face was a mix of fear and unwillingness, even a slight bit of anger. How brave she is. I smiled even wider.

"Why so serious?"

"Sakura. That's enough." I looked behind me, staring at Kakashi who was shaking his head at me. I removed my kunai from her mouth and began to make my way towards my sleeping bag. Sasuke and Naruto both run towards their teammate and helped her up, as her glare intensified. Maybe I should have just killed her. Oh well.

"Oh, and by the way, I will definitely grow into my forehead soon. Probably definitely. I may not become like Naruto's girlfriend and get huge boobs, but I will definitely grow into my forehead." I spoke while massaging my boobs and forehead, alternating between them.

Zabuza broke into a mad laugh. Kakashi, Tazuna and his daughter sniggered, while Naruto blushed. The situation was tense and awkward a moment ago. Her calling me 'forehead', once again reminded me of who I had become. For some reason, it had triggered me and I was almost regretting not killing her. There is nothing wrong with a wide forehead.

I did not really care about anything anymore and I just went to my sleeping bag. Things returned to normal, somewhat, with Akari silent by herself. After dinner, the things moved like canon, with Tazuna's grandson, Inari being annoying, and Naruto telling him off. I had to admit, it was one thing watching it on the screen, and another thing being present for it; The kid was so annoying I wanted to backhand the noise out of him. I did not really care though.

The next day came and I left with Tazuna to the bridge site. Since Kakashi had returned, he had taken over his team's training, so I was stuck with looking after the bridge builder's family as well as Tazuna himself. My lazy mood had been ruined, but I was determined to get it back. I had my sleeping back with me at the bridge as I made myself comfortable, and left a shadow clone at the house to protect his family. I only hoped the clone was not making herself comfortable and properly doing the job.

No matter what I tried, I could not turn it back on. Especially with the hammering and sawing and banging and clanking noise around. If not for the fact, I needed to have half my attention on Tazuna in order to protect him, I would have tuned everything out completely.

"Yo, Ikemen. Did you find him?" Haku had appeared beside me. It had been said to wait for Gato to come to us, but Haku had been assigned to continue searching just in case. I did not really have any confidence in finding the fat rat, but still; I was hoping we could end things quickly so I could leave Kakashi and his team and go back home.

"Its fine. It should not be long till he shows up." I closed my eyes once again when Haku flickered from side. The days and weeks passed uneventfully until one faithful morning. Just like the anime, there were extremely few people working on the bridge, including Tazuna. Kakashi and his team were present, except Naruto. The setup felt familiar.

[A very happy new year to you all. May all everything fall in place for you all. Those that were content, may it continue to be so. Enjoy the new year]