The Son of Two Heroes

Chapter 4

In total only about eighty men made it in. As the first group got the farthest along, a paper bomb went off underneath them. The loud echoing boom resounded through the passage, as more paper bombs went off courtesy of the pinkette, only about forty bandits were left. However in a hail of kunai and shuriken from Naruto and Sasuke respectively that number was cut in half. Unbeknownst to them four men slid past and ran toward Sakura who threw a handful of shuriken at them, but it only dropped three, the thrown weapons buried in their heart. The last man having caught one in his shoulder. Sakura froze at seeing the three men she had just killed die so close to her.

"You're dead girly!" The last man said bringing his sword to bare, poised to strike the girl down like nothing. Suddenly a swath of kunai landed behind him, and as he turned he caught sight of black with a hint of orange before a kunai inclosed in a fist slammed into his skull, which burst with blood covering Naruto's face. He froze momentarily registering the look of shock and utter fear on the man's face as he killed him, but remembering he had done so to save Sakura, he regained his composure.

"Sakura! Are you alright?" Naruto yelled at the girl.

"Huh...Naruto?" She said still dazed. "Y-you just saved my life didn't you. Thank you." She said falling to her knees.

"No problem," he said then turned and called out through the ravine over Sasuke's little killzone, "Kaka-sensei! Come look after Sakura!" And with that Naruto flew back into the fray with Sasuke, between the two of them they utterly bodied the rest of the bandits with taijutsu and kunai alone.

Kakashi watched as Naruto pierced the skull of the last bandit with a kunai. As the bandit dropped dead he noticed the look of sadness in his eyes. Sasuke and Naruto then landed next to him, covered in a fairly large amount of blood. "Good work team. I'm proud of you, you all did well for your first time doing something like this." Kakashi sighed, "head down the hill about another half mile and there's a stream, you boys go get cleaned up and I'll take care of Sakura, alright?"

"Yes sir." the boys said together and disappeared from view.

"Sakura, I need you to look at me. Can you do that for me?" Kakashi asked the shell shocked girl. Her thousand yard stare turned to meet Kakashi's dark grey eyes. She nodded dumbly. "Sakura, you did what you had to do and what was required of a shinobi. On top of that it was kill or be killed. If you hadn't killed those three men they most definitely would have killed you before Naruto could have possibly got them all." Kakashi sighed, "harden your heart, for this is something we deal with everyday. However don't forget that it's all right to feel remorse and regret over taking a life, that remorse and that feeling is what keeps us human. If you ever begin to enjoy it, that is when you become a monster. And you're no monster Sakura. Trust me, I've seen many."

Sakura sobbed slightly but took shaky deep breaths and replied, "thank you, sensei."

"Of course!"

"S'ke?"

"What Naruto?"

"How ya doin'?"

"Shouldn't you be focused on how you are doing and not on how I'm doing loser." Sasuke grumbled.

Naruto stared into the river. His reflection in the bloody water staring back at him. "It's easier for me to worry about others, than it is to worry about myself."

"That's why your a loser dip shit." Sasuke sighed, "but I'm fine. Thanks loser."

"Heh what can I say I've never had friends, so that's why every new friend I make matters so much to me. You were my first friend, you are my best friend, and your almost closer to family to me than even Old Man Hokage." Naruto said. He didn't exactly know why he was actually admitting this, but he figured it was just the shell shock he was still experiencing. Upon Naruto finishing his statement, Sasuke's eyes widened to gigantic proportions, and his gaze turned to the golden haired shinobi.