Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Injured shinobi Nakamura Shiro hated the library: there was nothing to do, no-one to talk to and, most importantly, nothing that could get his blood pumping. In all actuality, Shiro shouldn't have been there - his broken ribs and shattered right hand had healed long ago - and yet the oh-so-esteemed Hokage had insisted on a prolonged stay as resident librarian as a supposed punishment for 'being irresponsible'. Shiro scowled at the memory as he scoured the books for the sixth time that hour to make sure they were all in alphabetical order. Running his fingertips along the spines, he read the authors' names in his head and paused at one which was out of place. Peculiar, he thought since no-one who would want this book had entered the library that morning except him. Gingerly, he tugged it off the shelf making space for it in another area. Then, he stopped and stared through the gap he had made.

There was a child. A young one, presumably as he could tell from her relatively small stature. She sported a pale green dress and brown sandals and a red bow atop her obnoxiously pink head of hair. Yet, that wasn't what stood out to him: the strangest thing about her was the book she held in her hands - the bingo book. Granted, it was an outdated version given it's availability in the library, however, he had never seen anyone below a chunin level ninja take an active interest in the contents of a book like that. She was surrounded by shinobi specific books and scrolls, he noted. He recognised the characters on the scrolls indicating information on chakra control and bukijutsu and she had an open, empty bento box beside her. Putting the book back onto the shelf, he walked around it stopping just behind her.

"Hey, kid." Shiro frowned as she remained passive. "What you doing reading a bingo book?" She shuffled around so she could meet his eyes.

"Uhh... I was just curious." She shut her book quickly and set it on the table along with the rest of the scrolls. "But don't worry shinobi-san. I'll be going now," she said as she packed her fuchsia pink bento box and notebook back into a tan satchel. She scooped up all the scrolls and tottered around slotting them back into their places then made it to the front of the library. Shiro hurried to grab his jounin flak jacket and keys to the library before following the girl to the door.

“Hey kid!” He walked out the door after her quickly turning the key in the door. “It’s getting dark - let me walk you home.” He walked up next to her and slowed his pace to match hers. She looked up at him and tilted her head slightly to the right.

“There’s no need, shinobi-san. But thanks anyway.”

They continued the rest of the journey in silence under the violet light of the twilight sky. The kid trotted along content and seemingly carefree as they turned into the red light district. Shiro’s internal alarm bells immediately went off; why would a little girl such as her need to be anywhere near this district? Moreover, why was she complacent with travelling this route alone? Shiro fell back walking behind the kid as a precaution. Pinky then took another left walking into the stairwell of an apartment block, up four flights of stairs to the third floor and trotted along to apartment 33. Shiro reached over her head to knock on the door for her and the door instantly swung open.

“Sakura-chan!” A woman with blonde hair and green eyes wearing the standard, white medic’s jacket engulfed the kid - now known as Sakura - in a warm hug. “What did I tell you about leaving the house when I’m not here, hm? Next time you want to go out, you make sure I know about it and you get back before dark, you hear me?” The woman kept coddling the clearly uncomfortable child until Shiro cleared his throat. She jumped up with Sakura still in her arms and laughed nervously. “Ah! Good evening, shinobi-san!” she smiles and puts Sakura down behind her. “Sakura-chan, why don’t you go get your towel and toys in the bathroom? I’ll be there in just a second.”

“Alright, Kaa-san!” Sakura skipped away down the hall and entered a room. Sakura’s mother turned to Shiro.

“Thank you, shinobi-san. For walking my Sakura home. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.” Shiro frowned heavily.

“If you don’t mind me asking, okaa-san, how is it that she manages to leave your home without you noticing and without permission?” Shiro noted that his words seemed to have struck a chord within her and, realistically, Shiro knew he could’ve been a little more tactful but his time giving mission reports conditioned him into getting straight to the point.

“It’s quite alright. It’s just… I’m sure you can tell I work at the hospital. The thing is the funding has been cut for years now so they’ve cut wages massively. That means I’ve had to take more shifts to get anywhere near the amount of money I had before the cuts were made. Then there’s the issue of childcare which is hard enough to get around these parts and is even harder to pay for on top of all the bills. So some days I have to leave Sakura to her own devices and today was one of those days but she’s never meant to leave unless it’s an emergency… I just don’t know-” She ran her hand over her face clearly in distress this time and Shiro could see the dark blue hue around her eyes. In that moment, Shiro felt sympathy for her - a feeling he forgot he had - and acted on a whim.

“I can watch her for you for a while. I’m on break as a shinobi and will be working at the library all day so I can watch her.” The lady’s eyes lit up at his words and she smiled. Shiro was already feeling the regret build up in him.

“Really? You would do that for us?” She smiled at him and before he got the chance to retract his offer she continued, “Thank you so much! I’ll send her over tomorrow morning! Good night!” She swung the door shut. Shiro groaned, ramming his forehead into the wall.

====

“Hello, Nakamura-san!” Sakura’s bright chirp caused Shiro to stir from his sleepy stupor. She trotted in with a set of scrolls on various shinobi topics peeking out from the top of her satchel. Walking right towards the desk, she pulled them out and set them down on the surface before saying, “I want to return these scrolls please.” Shiro raised his eyebrows in a somewhat restrained expression of disbelief at her speed of which she devoured these scrolls as he vaguely recalled her checking the scrolls last night after their usual day spent in the library. Although, at this point, he suspected he shouldn’t be surprised after three weeks of her reoccurring presence.

“Alright, Sakura-chan.” Shiro began to flip through the directory to sign that the scrolls had been returned as Sakura made her way to a seat in the back corner of the library.Shiro peered at her through the maze of bookshelves and pondered for a second before taking three, long strides to meet the child in the corner and sitting down opposite her. “Hey, Sakura-chan?”

“Yes, Nakamura-san?”

“You seem to take a real interest in shinobi topics.” Sakura gave no verbal response - only nodding as confirmation. Shiro cursed himself for not remembering this was still a child and that she wouldn’t pick up on the message he was attempting to convey. “Do you want to be a kunoichi when you grow up?” Sakura straightened at this question and rolled a scroll back up, setting it on a table.

“Well, I always wanted ta become a powerful ninja, you know? Like Hokage-sama. But Kaa-san said I can’t because it’s dangerous and that’s why Tou-san can’t come and see us anymore…” Sakura faltered on the last part of her sentence and dropped her gaze to the floor and Shiro felt his heart ache at her frown. “So maybe I can just uh… I don’t know… be a poison or weapons master? Yeah, that.” She fiddled with frayed threads at the hem of her dress and felt - with a start - nostalgia as she reminded him vaguely of himself as a child. Shiro knew then he was going to go out on a whim and say something he would regret.

“Would you like me to talk to her, Sakura-chan? See if I can’t win her over for you, yeah? Then, maybe I can tutor you?” Shiro offered with a hesitant smile on his face, feeling the immediate inkling of regret creeping up yet he was too far in. After all, he couldn’t exactly disappoint a five-year-old.

“Oh please do!” she beamed at him with hope fluttering around her forest-green eyes causing an involuntary, if not regretful, grin to spread across his own.

====

“G’night, Nakamura-san!” Sakura chirped, winking obnoxiously as she walked behind her mother. Her mother - Haruno Mebuki, as Sakura had helpfully informed him before arriving - moved to shut the door but Shiro caught it just before it locked into place.

“Haruno-san? May I have a minute of your time? Please?”

“Sure.” She stepped outside to join him in the humid, summer’s night air leaving the door behind her open a sliver.

“I’m sure you know of Sakura’s ambition to become a ninja-” Mebuki looked as if she was about to cut in so Shiro spoke faster. “I get why you don’t want her to become a ninja - it’s dangerous - yeah that’s true - but she has potential. And with potential comes the possibility of becoming powerful and therefore she can protect herself better and - ultimately - isn’t that what you want for her? Her safety? And - this is gonna sound harsh, I know - my parents were exactly like you, Haruno-san, not wanting me to become a shinobi for my own safety but I grew to hate them from stopping me reaching my dreams - and - you know - I haven’t spoken to them since… Is that what you want?” Shiro knew his little speech was a little (a lot) rambly and most likely wouldn’t go down well but he had tried, and honestly, what else could he do? “I recommend you sleep on it Haruno-san. Eventually, you’re gonna have to come to terms that it’s her life and she should decide what to do with it. And, hey if you decide you’ll allow it, I can train her for a bit before she goes to the academy - for her to have a taste of shinobi life before she commits her whole life to it.” Mebuki hadn’t said a word throughout his lengthy spiel and kept her eyes trained on the floor. “Just think about it.”

On his way home, Shiro pondered his decisions with a sudden solemnity. With her raging thirst for knowledge, Sakura could become one of the greatest kunoichi of the leaf. But then he thought of the consequences of cultivating such ability to absorb information such as causing her to be a prodigy and everyone knew how prodigies turned out… But it was either that she was left alone as a budding genius which was a dangerous thought in itself or cultivate her skills and let her be controlled by the shinobi forces as a pawn in their military escapades; Shiro wasn’t sure which one was worse.

====

The next day, Shiro unlocked the library at the crack of dawn today, the hot sun beating down on him as he pushed the door open and stepped into the cool darkness only stopping at the sound of footsteps and the approaching chakra presences. He turned to meet the sight of a slightly irritated, dishevelled Mebuki dragging an enthusiastic Sakura along. She stopped just before him and pointed to his face angrily.

“I want her home same time as usual and, if she comes home with more than a scratch on her, this whole thing is over. Do not make me regret my decision, boy.”

“Of course, Haruno-san!”

Chapter Text

After one day of training, and a brief assessment, Shiro had seen that Sakura was creepily clever to the point of being almost prodigious; had a relatively small chakra reserve though he had no idea to what extent; had almost no physical ability; and had a dangerous interest in weapons. All in all, she seemed just about average.

After their first two weeks of training and further inspection, Shiro could surmise that in all physical matters of training (which was coincidentally most of their training) Sakura proved to be a cut above abysmal. Her early morning laps around the training grounds were slow and he found that she couldn’t properly pace herself without regular intervention.

“On to endurance training, then.” Shiro had said, walking to two wooden stumps on the edge of the training field that had faded targets painted onto it. “I want five laps around the field. However long it takes - I want it done. No lunch until you do.” Shiro took a brief glance around estimating the circumference and guessed it would take a child of Sakura’s age and size about 40 minutes to do, give or take which he would eventually want to cut in half by the end of this year. This would give him time to write out a to-do list for today, read a book and lounge in the blissful shade of the canopies. “Call my name, or throw a rock at me when you’re done, yeah?” At that, Sakura bolted.

It was only ten minutes later, whilst Shiro was reading his book (‘The Tale Of The Utterly Gutsy Shinobi’ if you absolutely must know) when he saw Sakura collapse at the edge of the field. That was when he knew she would be virtually hopeless. She could learn taijutsu punches and kicks well enough but had trouble putting enough power behind them due to her lack of muscle mass. Whether that was due to her civilian heritage, general incompetence or lack of effort, Shiro couldn’t tell but he knew he would have to work with what he was given. However, he still had high hopes for this kid.

This kid’s memorisation skills and overall intelligence was off the charts. Once, in the library at lunch, Shiro had given her a scroll on the legendary sannin and, upon questioning, Sakura had relayed the information word for word much to his amazement. Shiro could bring up any obscure aspect of Konohagakure’s history or technicalities of chakra manipulation and Sakura would either offer up insightful comments or already know about the subject… Shiro put that down to the excessive time spent at the library.
Proving himself right on the disturbing interest in weapons, he had presented Sakura with an array of shuriken one afternoon and she had grabbed one immediately. Then, she had proceeded to rant and rave about their uses and how to use one as if she was his sensei. Then, she had the audacity to run off with them and start aiming them at a wooden stump - none of them hitting of course, but enthusiastically nonetheless.
Furthermore, Sakura had almost instantly demonstrated a penchant for chakra control.

“So, Sakura-chan, what do you say we start with the basics of chakra control?” Sakura had beamed at this and bounced on the balls of her small feet.

“I’ve heard of that, Shiro-sensei. It’s the, uhh… combination of our physical and spiw...spiritual energy, right?” Sakura exclaimed with her hand scratching the back of her head.

“Correct. Do you know how we expand our chakra?”

“To expand our physical energy, we train by exercising but for spiritual energy we meditate and study and open our chakra points through meditation. I think I read the theory on opening chakra points...”

“Well done, again, kid. Your knowledge may help us because today,” Shiro sat down cross-legged in the middle of the field, “we meditate. Come on - I’ll talk you through it.”

And, after that precise moment, she had proved her talent by opening plenty of tenketsu after her first time meditating then successfully sticking a leaf to her forehead with chakra within the first week. Compared to the time an average academy student would take to master this (two to three weeks), she had grasped the concept in half the time. On the other hand, he had a sinking feeling this was due to a miserably small chakra reserve which was an attribute all civilian-born ninja had unfortunately and something to work around. This also meant she could never specialise in ninjutsu.

However, the main problem they had at this point, on a Tuesday, in the afternoon sun, was Sakura’s reluctance and lazy attitude towards practising taijutsu stances, punches and kicks. She threw them sloppily, missing the mark almost constantly which made no sense as he was sure she knew how to do them correctly from hours of practice so her incompetence didn't add up. Sakura’s long hair was up in a ponytail and she was in a short-sleeve, shorts and wasn’t sweating so it wasn’t from the summer heat. It was definitely stemming from Sakura’s laziness. Shiro supposed this was from a wandering mind and not enough stimulus for her busy, little brain. Fair enough. He would make more stimulus.

Shiro slyly put his hands up shooting through hand signs for his trusty area-effect genjutsu and smiled as Sakura looked around confused as her targets began to move towards her and she panicked trying to knock them back. Every hit she made now was precise and forced the stumps back by a few meters and she evidently started to sweat. Then, in one swift movement, for a jutsu he had not taught her, she dispelled the genjutsu. Shiro stiffened. How had she known to dispel it?

“Hey, sensei!” she fumed as she stalked over. “Why did you put a genjutsu on me, hm? Y’know that really scared me.” Sakura huffed as she stood above him. She narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips, leaning over him. Shiro laughed at her.
“You just looked... bored,Sakura-chan. Obviously, I needed to… change things up.” Shiro shrugged. “Besides, who told you how to release a genjutsu, kid?” Sakura puffed up like a peacock.

“It was one of the scrolls on… uh… I think it was genjutsu thingies I read two weeks ago, sensei! Y’know they’re reeeally intrig-intwig...interesting an’ I didn’t really know if I could do it… but it worked!” Shiro considered this for a long moment. He hadn’t been aware of her intrigue in the art of illusion casting and the more he thought of it, the more he recognised that this could very well be an area she could excel in: she had the chakra control, it would work with small chakra reserves and her memorisation skills could help in casting perfect scenarios in her genjutsu, not to mention the advantage she would have with himself - a genjutsu specialist - as a sensei… Shiro had to stop himself before he got too invested in this thought. He couldn’t even be sure that her fighting style - still undeveloped - and the specific division she wanted to be in would warrant such a skillset and even if she wanted to continue being a kunoichi anyways. At this stage, nothing could be decided and decided to banish that thought quickly. And, yet, it lingered in the back of his mind for the rest of the day.

====

It was almost evening when they decided to get dinner before continuing with their training. Sakura’s first choice was a restaurant for a chance to sit down; Shiro wanted to get street food from a stall along the paths. For a happy medium, they settled on the nearest ramen store which was Ichiraku Ramen. When they arrived, Sakura ordered miso ramen and Shiro ordered shoyu ramen. Eating in comfortable chatter, neither of them looked up at the greeting of a black-haired lady with piercing, crimson eyes and matching crimson lipstick. At the disappointment of nobody responding, she resorted to smacking Shiro upside his head. Shiro winced and clasped his free hand on his head, spluttering his ramen all over the bench gaining a look of disapproval from Teuchi. Shiro gave a sheepish smile whilst Teuchi reached for a rag.

“Ow! What was that for, Kurenai? Shit…” Shiro whined.

“Well when I greet my friends, I expect a reply.” Kurenai settled in the seat to his left. “Besides, we need to have a good, ol’ catch up. So, who’s the kid?”

“Oh," Sakura perked up. "Nakamura-san is my sensei now! Isn’t that great? He’ll be teaching me for a while now. At least, until his break is over or something… But he’s teaching me ninja stuff now! Isn’t that amazing? He taught me how to open my chakra points an’ stuff and he taught me how to fight properly...” Kurenai zoned out at the little girl’s sudden bout of energy and marvelled internally.

“What’s this? Shiro? A teacher? What has the world come to?” Shiro scowled at Kurenai with a glint of amusement in his eyes. He shook his head and shrugged.

“She’s got crazy potential. I would be a fool to let all that intelligence fester without guidance.” Kurenai raised her eyebrows and made a move to rise from her stool and leave.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, dumbass. See you later, Shiro.” She walked away throwing her farewells over her shoulder but not before she heard his last words.

“Yeah, I hope so too…”

====

Four days later, Shiro received a summons to the Hokage’s office and he knew exactly what for. He received the message through an out-of-breath chunin practically keeling over outside his front door at the crack of dawn. Apparently, he was there to ‘ensure’ that Shiro turned up. Shiro scoffed at the obvious distrust emanating from the village elders and headed back inside to get dressed. Much to the chunin’s dismay, Shiro took his time getting dressed and prepared a note to leave for little Sakura in case he didn’t make it to the library in time to meet up with her. He wrote what exercises she should complete and what scrolls she should look at during lunch if he wasn’t back by then. Then, they left for the Hokage’s tower.

As he took a tentative step inside the conference room, Shiro was met with a flurry of angry looks and resigned huffs. Shiro had to suppress the urge to scowl right back.

“We have reached a verdict.”

====

It was loud and colourful in the park. Technically, she shouldn’t have been there. On one hand, she could’ve listened to her sensei and headed towards the training grounds; on the other, she could’ve headed to the park… The park it had been. She gazed across the park from her vantage point on the climbing frame: she had never been to this one before and felt severely out of place among the groups of friends. Therefore, she sat by herself on the climbing frame. She glanced to her side as she felt herself be shoved and saw a steady stream of people running past for the slide. Sakura huffed indignantly. This was not how she wanted this to go.

Sakura clambered down and landed on the grass below her. She surveyed the area for anyone she found remotely familiar to no avail. Sakura took out the note from Shiro-sensei and reread the instructions before pocketing it once again. Tottering off in the direction of the gate to leave, she stopped at the sound of weeping behind a tree surrounded by a group of boys. Sakura paused with her hand on the gate and turned sharply on her heel to investigate. Forcing her way through the group, she was met with the sight of a brown-haired boy punching a smaller boy into the ground.

“Hey!” she shouted at the larger boy. “You stop that or..” Sakura struggled for a threat to propose. “Or I’ll get the police on you!” The larger boy paid her no mind as he continued his brutal assault. Sakura fumed and debated attacking him with her kunai but decided against seriously maiming him. Instead, she launched herself at him. She landed firmly on his back, hooking her arms around his neck, twisted and pulled. Releasing his hold on the smaller boy, he fell backwards knocking the air right out of her. He struggled in her hold clawing at her arms whilst she propelled herself sideways to get out from beneath him. Sakura had to push down her pride when he scrambled to his feet holding his neck and staggered backwards. “Scram,” she hissed vehemently. The group scattered. She turned to the boy still on the floor. The boy had spiked, blond hair, bruises all over him and was sobbing into his palms. Sakura tapped him on the shoulder causing him to blink owlishly at her through raw eyes.

“Uh...Are you okay?” He nodded furiously at her.

“Thank-thank you,” he spoke between sobs. Sakura settled next to him nestling at the base of the tree.

“...What’s your name?” Sakura chirped, forcing a smile onto her face. She watched as a weak smile appeared on his face.

“Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage.” He recited hiccupping. “Believe it!”

====

“We have conducted a thorough investigation on the incident and have come to a decision of which we have agreed is of equal weight to your crimes,” the Hokage began shuffling papers around. “We have convicted you of gross accounts of insubordination under your team leader in the setting of open battle within an active mission of which you have been partially pardoned for the reason that you succeeded in completing the mission and extracting your team members from captivity. Therefore, your sentence has been reduced to two more months off of active duty in the form of suspension from all missions and one month of D-ranking missions following. Any final objections?” Shiro straightened at this announcement - a much lighter sentence than he was awaiting and definitely not the one he expected Elder Shimura to allow for. Nevertheless, Shiro prayed to whatever god was out there that nobody objected. And - apart from a few glares and subtle grumbles - nobody did. “Onto the paperwork, then.”

====

Shiro did a double take when he saw Sakura was not at the training grounds. He checked again, uttering a soft ‘kai’ in case the kid had become sly enough to learn a genjutsu and use him as a test subject. But that was, evidently, not the case. Running a hand down his face, he groaned. He’d left her to her own devices for one morning and she goes missing. Next stop on his search for Haruno Sakura was the library that was still shut like how he had left it that morning so, unless a five-almost-six-year-old could bypass the security system, she was not there. The dango shop from around the corner was, again, the next place on the list and she had yet to appear. Shiro was at a loss.

That was until he realised that, hang on, he was a trained ninja and he had ways to track the girl that he could’ve turned to at any point. Shiro pulsed his chakra outwards in an effort to sense Sakura’s chakra signature as he raced through the streets of Konoha and stopped in the suburbs at the gate of a playground/park complex and Sakura’s chakra signature paired with a concerningly immense, foreign chakra signature. Shiro darted forward kunai at the ready, only to be met with startled kids. Shiro frowned. If the chakra had been from some kid (and, subsequently, not an all-powerful ninja), then this had to have been the rumoured jinchuriki - the demon boy nobody liked. Shiro quickly sheathed his weapon and approached them plastering on his best smile to appease the poor children he had scared half to death.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro half-laughed out. “Didn’t mean to frighten you. Just looking for this girl right here.” Shiro placed a hand on Sakura’s head bending down to meet her eyes. “You cannot just run off like that, kid: it’s dangerous for starters - you almost gave me a heart attack, you know? I hope you're sorry…” Shiro continued as he dragged a perplexed Sakura out of the park only stopping when she resisted.

“But, sensei, we can’t just leave him alone. The other kids beat him up. Can’t we at least take him to the hospital?” Shiro sighed at her overly rounded eyes and her coy expression.

“Alright.”

Sakura didn’t see Naruto for a while after that.

Chapter Text

Somewhere, sometime near sunset, three Uchihas sat in a comfortable silence, eating ramen in tandem until the shortest one of them set his chopsticks down on a half-full bowl. He leaned his elbows on the table and felt his vision go fuzzy as he remembered pink hair, green eyes and a fierce smile. She had fought him with a ferocity that nobody could reasonably expect from such a sweet-looking girl. Nevertheless, she attacked the second she could with every intent to win even as he continuously blocked her quick, if slightly weak blows. He recalled the anger in her face when he threw the winning punch as the whistle blew and the upset at the realisation that she probably hated him now and that he lost a chance at making a friend. His eyes refocused as he felt a hand nudge up his hanging jaw.

“You were dribbling, Sasuke,” his brother stated besides the sniggering form of his older cousin Shisui. His brother handed him a napkin. “Clean it up, otouto.”

“Erm… Hey, nii-san? How do you talk to a girl with pink hair?”

Shisui choked.

====

Sakura tottered into the room with a collection of signed papers in hand and a furrowed brow. Waiting in line, she noticed the sheer quantity of clan children in line versus the meagre quantity of civilian children such as herself. Sakura stiffened at the thought of having to compete with these guys as Sakura was not ignorant of the little-known fact that the academy sorted it’s students’ classes on the basis of who was most likely to succeed. This meant that anybody they didn’t think would fare well in a shinobi career but had unfortunately passed the test (i.e. most of the civilian-born kids) would be placed in classes B or C and the ones who were deemed competent (the clan children) would be placed in class A. Being privy to this information, Sakura was determined not to be part of the common rabble, but, as more and more clan children filed in, Sakura had doubts of her own ability.

As she reached the front of the line, Sakura’s papers were taken off of her and being directed to a room down the hall. When she reached the door, a shinobi handed her a number which allocated her a seat in the vast classroom. Her number was 13 which meant she was on the second row, the seat closest to the door. The next child that followed was a little boy with a slouch in his walk and a spiky ponytail bearing the Nara crest. He settled in next to her along with a chubby boy bearing the Akimichi crest. More children filled the room eventually leaving no more seats free. A chunin entered with a stack of papers and a wide smile. Sakura smiled. This meant a written test and, logically, Sakura knew she was miles ahead of most of her peers and that if she didn’t pass this, nobody else would.

“Good morning, everybody! My name is Umino Iruka and I will be supervising your tests for today. This morning we’ll be doing a written exam which will test your literacy and arithmetic skills as well as some knowledge on Konoha. This will take two hours to do. After that, we have one hour for lunch and then we will meet in the school yard for the physical exam which will test your fitness levels.” The young man circled the room, distributing papers to the For now, let’s start the written exam!” Sakura flipped her paper as he signalled the beginning of the test. Sakura flipped to the first page and revelled in the pure ease of this test. She breezed through everything until the last question came into view:

Why do you want to be a shinobi of the Leaf? Frowning, Sakura noted that she hadn’t a complete answer for this question. Sakura wanted to be a ninja to be strong, successful and to make a name for herself because, as an unimportant child of the red light district, being known was the ultimate act of rebellion. She would be marked flee on sight. Moreover, she wanted to succeed simply because people wouldn’t expect her to. That was enough reason for Sakura, but did that make it a good enough reason to become a shinobi for Konohagakure? No. It wouldn’t do. I want to protect my village, Sakura wrote finally and folded the test paperback over with an hour to spare.
Break couldn’t have come at a better time, Sakura decided as she felt the soul leave her body from the complete boredom she had suffered through. She hopped out of the classroom towards the yard in the middle of the group she completed the test with. Arriving at the yard, however, was no short of nerve-wracking for Sakura, reminding her of her semi-lonely experience at the park. At least, it did until a ball of yellow barrelled into her.
“Sakura-chan! I didn’t know you were gon’ be here! We can be ninjas together!” Naruto engulfed Sakura in a warm, if a little overwhelming, embrace so Sakura stood pondering on whether to hug him back or not. “C’mon, let’s go play, Sakura-chan! You’re it!” Squinting at him, she ran.
An hour later, Sakura lined up with the kids in the yard, facing chunin Umino Iruka for the second time of that day.
“Hello, everybody! I hope you had a nice lunch break because now we will commence the fitness examination.“ He gestured towards a pre-drawn chalk line on the grass where Sakura walked to the line besides Naruto who was quite unusually gripping her hand. “First we’ll do warm ups and then, when I blow my whistle, you have to run around the yard three times as fast as you can - no cheating. Ready?”

====

After three months of consistent training and a birthday, Shiro could proudly say Sakura was at a level where she could hold her own in a fistfight against a civilian teenager; where she could name all the weapons in a ninja’s arsenal and their uses (though she could only use a kunai and shuriken semi-effectively); and where she could form a hand sign sequence if necessary. This is what he also liked to call ‘academy ready’. However, it was evident that Haruno Mebuki strongly thought otherwise.

“You can’t just-just train her for, like, a month and think she’s just ready to be a ninja. She’s clearly not-I mean you can’t just enter her into the academy without my permission. I’m her mother, for God’s sake!” Mebuki ran her hand through her hair and breathed heavily. Shiro struggled for words.

“In all fairness, Mebuki-san… All I said is that I could enter her, not that I did. She has to enter exams first before she even gets a chance to get in - you know this. Besides, you know she still wants to be a ninja and I don’t see why she can’t enter now with her age group. The spring admissions are just around the corner and she can still quit any time she wants.” Shiro frowned. “It’s on Monday at eight at the academy. Send Sakura there if she wants to join and I’ll meet her a bit earlier if she wants to go over some stuff. Otherwise, let her know I’ll be taking a few missions for tomorrow so let her stay at the library and, on Monday, make sure she goes to the training grounds if I don’t see her at the academy. See you.”

Shiro hadn’t expected his mini speech (if you could call it that) for Mebuki to work a second time round especially since he hadn’t put any thought into it in the slightest. Then, Shiro thought with a pleasant start that it must’ve been Sakura’s own efforts that she had shown up at the academy at seven thirty on Monday morning at the academy. She came with a sack full of books in tow. Shiro let her make her way to his seat at the picnic bench and plop down on the seat opposite him. She tipped all her books out onto the table without so much as a glance in his direction.

“Where do I start, sensei?”

Furthermore, Shiro could whole-heartedly say that he wasn’t expecting a teary-eyed Sakura to come running out of the academy and into his unsuspecting, unprepared arms. But there he was in the yard with an armful of snotty, tearful child. Hesitant and uncomfortable, he hugged her back as she cried into his shoulder. Cringing, he felt the wetness (snot or just tears, he didn’t know) seep into his shirt and spread on his skin. She sniffed and mumbled something unintelligible causing Shiro to frown and pull away.

“You gonna tell me why you’re sad yet?”

“It’s bec-because … oh, I was so bad at it!” Sakura wiped at her tears with the hem of her shirt. “I was at the back - the back! - of everyone when we were running and they put me- they made me spar with a real strong person and I lost! I’ll never make it into the academy!” At this point, Sakura had stopped crying and crossed her arms over her chest in a huff turning away from Shiro.

“I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you think it was. As long as you ace the written and do at least something right in the physical, you’ll pass. Besides, if you flunked everything, you can try again in autumn, alright? Don’t worry.” Shiro put a hand on her shoulder giving her his best encouraging smile for her which, admittedly, wasn’t all that practiced and looked more like a grimace and not at all encouraging.

“I don’t believe you, sensei.” Shiro clapped her on her back, perhaps a little too forceful for a six-year-old, and steered her towards the training grounds they had come to make theirs since nobody else had the good initiative to train there.

“You’ll see it my way some day, kid, don’t you worry. And, if you flunked the laps in the exams, you’ll get a chance to make up for it in training today where you’ll be doing double! Isn’t that just great?” Shiro would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a semblance of malevolent satisfaction at the pure dread on Sakura’s face.

====

Sakura didn’t expect to get into the academy let alone Class A but life was full of surprises, she supposed. On the first day, she sat with Naruto - the closest thing she had to a friend even though she spent approximately two days with him overall. The lessons were indescribably mundane, most of which explained concepts she had a firm grasp on so she was grateful for the constant jabbering from Naruto keeping her entertained. How they had not been caught talking over Mizuki, she did not know. (Perhaps, it had something to do with the fact that they were sat at the back of the room but Sakura had a sneaking suspicion it was to do with how their sensei chose to behave as if Naruto didn’t exist and therefore Sakura by association.)
Every day after school (if he was in the village that day), Shiro never failed to show up, dinner in hand and stories of his missions for the walk to the training grounds with the promise of dango later on in the evening. On the occasion that Shiro didn’t turn up, it was to the library with Sakura, the training grounds and finally home for dinner and sleep. All in all, Sakura was on track.

Things had to take a turn for the worst though when it came to taijutsu training, of course. They split the class into boys and girls and were led by Mizuki and another teacher of whom Sakura had forgotten the name. She led Sakura and the other girls to the furthest end of the yard for basic spars which was fine except for the fact she was certain every girl here would be able to overpower her but Sakura had always enjoyed a challenge. The girl she had been paired with was a pretty girl with blonde hair and cerulean eyes who she knew was a Yamanaka from the absence of pupils in her eyes. Sakura found herself filled with dread at the impending defeat. Stepping into the circle of her classmates, Sakura took form: her hands in front of her torso and feet far apart for stability. Yamanaka took a similar stance that was more stylised and refined than Sakura’s rudimentary imitation of Shiro The lady blew the whistle.

Sakura darted forward, launching a kick aimed at Yamanaka’s side that she blocked with her forearm leaving her torso open. Moving further forward, she jabbed at her torso landing a hit. Yamanaka stumbled but quickly regained her footing, swinging for Sakura’s head but Sakura ducked in time to swipe at Yamanaka’s legs. Landing on her backside, the blonde scowled and jumped up in a show of grace Sakura couldn’t hope to accomplish for a while yet.

Swiftly, Sakura threw a punch towards Yamanaka to meet her face as she rose but she was too slow and her entire forearm was caught in the grip of the blonde’s hand. She twisted Sakura’s arm back so that she had her arm behind her back and pushed her down causing pain to shoot up her arm. Knowing that losing was imminent if she stayed like this for too long, Sakura resorted to kicking Yamanaka’s knew making her leg buckle and release Sakura. She staggered and spun around to meet the approaching Yamanaka, kicking at her incoming figure but missing entirely.

Blondie made a grab for Sakura, missing by inches as she dodged to the side. Yamanaka skidded to a stop and pivoted to Sakura. Charging, she tackled Sakura to the ground and landed on top of her. Fists rained down upon her as Sakura mustered up the strength to throw her off. Propelling herself sideways, Yamanaka fell on her side with a strangled shout. Sakura jumped up, head still spinning and unable to concentrate.

Yamanaka pushed towards Sakura and her fists flew at her quicker than she could block. Sakura took several hits to the ribs and a kick to the back of her knees before she fell out of the marked sparring circle. She had lost, but somehow she didn’t feel as bad about it as she did about exam day’s fight. Yamanaka reached down grabbing Sakura’s forearm to pull her up to her feet.

“Yamanaka Ino wins! Good job, the pair of you,” the lady said and suddenly Sakura felt bad for not paying attention to what her name was. Sakura and Ino bowed to each other then made their way to the circle as others made their way in. They stood side by side in a comfortable silence even if the two of them kept shooting each other glances. A smile crept up on Sakura’s face.

“Hey, Ino?... I like your hair.” Ino smiled back.

“I like yours too.”

There was a new addition to the lunch table after that.

====

In the lunchtime ruckus, Sasuke could hardly find time to talk to Sakura. He ducked behind a bush as his fans rushed past him only jumping out when the vicinity was in silence. He sprinted towards the old oak he’d spotted his pink-haired target under earlier. Slowing down as he reached the tree, he was greeted with a fistful of food in his face. Sasuke gently wiped the onigiri off of his face as the blonde - Ino she was called - bowed deeply, apologising profusely and waved a napkin in his face. Sasuke fixed her with a practised stare causing her to blush and sit back down.

“Hey, what’s he doin’ here?” Naruto - an unfortunately familiar face - lunged from his seat to block Sasuke’s path to his friends. “You don’t gotta worry, Sakura-chan. I’ll take care of it.” Naruto puffed out his chest and crossed his arms. “Go away, Sasuke. We don’t need you.” A hand stuck out from behind him and pulled him down.

“Shut up, stupid. Don’t be so rude to Sasuke-kun.”

“Exactly, usuratonkachi. Apologise.”

“Yeah, Naruto. Say sorry,” Ino echoed with a smug look on her face.

“Never. I haven’t done anything wrong to Sasuke-teme.” Ino gasped.

Sasuke stepped around the arguing pair to Sakura who was nestled at the base of a tree, nose firmly in a book and a bento half-eaten in her lap. Sakura looked up at Sasuke and smiled. She shut her book and shuffled to the side to allow Sasuke to sit down, which he did with a sheepish grin. He pulled out his own bento and opened it.

“Hello, Sasuke. You don’t sit with us normally.” Scratching his head, Sasuke laughed nervously.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you angry when I won our fight.” Sakura gave him a bright, closed-eye smile waving him off and picked her bento back up, shovelling rice into her mouth. Finishing her mouthful, she turned to the waiting form of Sasuke.

“S’alright, Sasuke-kun. Here, would you like some of my food? I’ve never been a big fan of tomatoes.”

After school, Itachi didn’t turn up to take Sasuke home like he had promised he would. Sasuke frowned at the absence, remembering making Itachi promise to spend time with him today because it was his day off. So, where exactly was he? He must have been delayed or he could’ve forgotten, Sasuke thought. Perhaps, he’d meet him at home so they could train together, like they said they would. He wouldn’t allow a small mishap to ruin his great day so far.

“Who are you waiting for, Sasuke-kun? Your kaa-san? Because you look like you’re waiting?” Sasuke jumped a little - he wouldn’t admit that though because shinobi did not get caught off guard - and scowled his Uchiha scowl until he saw that it was the girl he wanted to befriend and then straightened his face into a hopefully more pleasant one.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for my nii-san - he’s a really cool ninja, you know? He’s called Itachi - but I think he forgot. It’s okay though.” Sasuke shrugged. “I’ll find him at home.” Sakura grinned, putting a hand on his shoulder and all but bouncing into his face.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“The Uchiha Ita… Ahh… Nothing. I just remembered I have nothing to do today. Do mind if I walk with you for a little while?” She blinked rapidly in his direction like a machine. Sasuke recoiled.

“Uh… Alright.”

Sakura practically had a bounce in her step all the way to the entrance of the compound. That was when she turned and asked Sasuke to go get ramen with her. Sasuke denied her invitation and moved to step around her only to be met with an arm shooting out to block his way. He knocked her arm away and stepped into the silent compound filled with a sickeningly metallic scent and a plethora of collapsed bodies. His eyes widened and walked backwards into Sakura who had pulled out a kunai.

“Sasuke, we need to go now.” she said but before she had finished her sentence, Sasuke had sprinted down the street. Winding through the streets, Sasuke ran, panting with Sakura hot on his tail judging by the heavy footfall that followed his own. He was at the main house in less than 30 seconds with adrenaline pounding through his veins. He barrelled into the house shouting for his parents. Sakura ran in after him in a slightly less loud fashion and approached him.

“Sasuke, don’t go running in but I think they’re in that room down there.” She gestured to the room where, Sasuke noted, emanated a strange coldness and hostility and agreed with her judgement. Of course, knowing this, he then ran in. That meant Sakura ran in too. And Sasuke may have expected the worst of the situation but there was no way in hell he expected his own brother to be stood over his parents’ corpses with a bloody katana in hand. Sakura jumped in front of him, kunai raised in a defensive position after launching another at Itachi who flicked it away with his wrist. She launched one after the other to no avail. Sasuke could feel his blood pumping in his head and his hands trembling. Tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Nii-san... Did you… Why?” Sasuke spluttered between hiccups. A shuriken shot his way, nicking his ear and lodging itself into the door behind him. He flashed behind Sakura reaching his hand out to her neck but missing as she dodged and moved to Sasuke’s side.

“We gotta go, Sasuke.” Sakura darted for the door just as Itachi did the same except to block the way out. Sasuke turned around as Sakura gasped and stumbled back.

“Foolish otouto.” Itachi’s eyes flashed red.

Chapter Text

Sakura wouldn’t speak after she was found collapsed in the Uchiha compound alongside that Sasuke boy. She sat in a hospital bed silent as the birds twittered outside the window and Shiro couldn’t help but wonder about just what had happened in that compound. She had been found by ANBU with nary a scratch on her but she remained as if she had seen a ghost. He racked his brain for any clues for what might’ve occurred that evening for her not to have physical injuries but, since he hadn’t been told anything besides the deaths of the Uchiha clan bar one boy, he couldn’t be sure. A psychological thing, perhaps…? Even if he could figure something out, he couldn’t think straight over the sound of Mebuki’s shrieking.

“I leave her under your supervision for a while and she ends up in hospital completely mute and unresponsive! Where were you? You were meant to be there for her! What did I tell you? I told you that I would pull her out if something happened, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do! I should’ve known not to trust shinobi like you!” Nurses surrounded Mebuki, restraining her from throwing herself at Shiro.

“Mebuki-san, you can’t be so loud on this ward. If you continue to act this way, we’ll have to ask you to leave,” a nurse spoke quietly in her ear. Mebuki hissed indignantly at the small crowd around no doubt recognising half the faces.

“You can’t do that. This is my ward.”

“You’re off duty. And, anyways, that means we don’t have to explain protocol to you. You either shut up or you get out. Choose.” Mebuki shrugged off the nurses and sat down opposite Shiro in the waiting room, arms and legs crossed. “Good choice.” The nurses filed back to the reception desk, taking their seats but keeping a watchful eye on the two of them. The two remained in a tense silence as they stared at one another in a wordless argument yet Shiro hadn’t the heart to disagree fully because in a way, he agreed.
He should’ve been there. How could he trust a kid, who had enough trouble listening to him when he was present, to listen to his instructions when he couldn’t be around to watch her? He should’ve expected her to wander off now and again. That was only natural. But, at the same time, it wasn’t his fault he was sent on a mission he couldn’t exactly refuse. And, it certainly wasn’t his fault that Itachi had turned rogue. Somehow, he still felt the weight of guilt rest on him as he looked on at the floor.

“I’m sorry for shouting,” Mebuki spoke up timidly, drawing Shiro’s attention away from the white tiles. “I don’t think it’s your fault. But, you know, I mean it when I say I’m pulling her out. It’s for her own good.” Shiro ran a hand down his face.

“Don’t you think you should talk to Sakura about it first?”

“You know what she’ll say.”

“It’s worth hearing her point of view, anyways,” Shiro replied without missing a beat, a flame of anger flickering within him. Mebuki nodded, averting her eyes. She went to sit in Sakura’s designated room.

“Will do.”

A figure settled in the seat besides him but he was too dazed to have noticed the woman without her sly cough. Glancing to the side at a pair of familiar red eyes and a reassuring smile, he took the steaming cup from her outstretched hand, only having to sniff to know it was coffee - black with one sugar, just how he liked it - and downed it. He welcomed the heat burning the back of his throat and the bitterness burning his eyes. He set it down on the small, wooden side table on his other side. Tilting his head back, he exhaled harshly through his nose. He murmured a quick thanks to kurenai.

“It’s no problem. You looked like you needed it more than me, anyways. Who are you here for?” With a sharp inhale, he turned to her, blank-faced.

“Sakura-chan.” Kurenai whispered a string of vulgar expletives. “She somehow managed to get wound up in the Uchiha catastrophe. Don’t even know what happened to her.” Kurenai must’ve sensed his hostility around the subject and didn’t pester him for any more information; instead, she leaned back in the chair and remained silent, and for that, Shiro was inexplicably grateful.

It must’ve been two hours before a doctor rushed into the room beckoning him to enter Sakura’s hospital room. At once, Shiro rushed into the room where Sakura sat, propped up against pillows. Her mother’s arms were wrapped around her gently to avoid pulling the IV but Sakura didn’t seem to be hugging back. Stiffly, she sat with her eyes - usually wild, wide and hopeful, now blank and still - dead set on the wall opposite her. He approached her side slowly so as not to alarm her. The doctor stuck her arm out.

“Family first. Don’t want to overwhelm her now, do we?” So he retreated to the still-warm armchair in the corner of the room as the mother’s fuss died out and she nodded towards him before leaving to bring a meal to Sakura. The door shut leaving them in silence bar the occasional hoot of an owl and shout from a drunk civilian outside.

“Hey, kid? How are you doing? And don’t just lie.” Sakura blinked back into focus, a smile spreading across her eyes yet not quite reaching her eyes. Pushing her hair away, she gestured for him to come forward.

“I’ll be alright when you give me a hug.” Shiro didn’t need to be told twice and, although the act still felt alien to him, it felt good. Sakura pulled away first and Shiro caught the hint well enough. “I feel better now, Sensei. Thank you.” She offered a smile that almost seemed sincere except for the fact that she still seemed empty.

“Uh-huh? Didn’t I just tell you not to lie?” Sakura forced a small laugh out.

“I’m not. I feel fine. I promise.” Shiro folded his arms.

“Yeah, and I’m the Hokage. Try again, Sakura. Maybe, with more truth this time.” For the first time in this encounter, he saw some semblance of ordinary Sakura from the way she lightly scowled at his use of sarcasm but, as quickly as it came, it flickered out again. She smiled at him, more genuine before yet still fake nonetheless. She said nothing. “Do you wanna talk about what happened?” She flinched.

“... There were dead people, Sensei. I think they were Sasuke-kun’s family.” Shiro pretended not to notice the tremble in her voice or the shake of her hand. “And… um… I think it was Sasuke’s brother and… I passed out, I think.” Sakura leaned into Shiro again. Shiro had to remember to thank whatever gods existed because fuck, if she wasn’t lucky to get out of there only passed out.

“Do you think you can remember how you passed out at all? It’s okay if you can’t.”

“Um… well his eyes turned red and that’s when I passed out… It might’ve been genjutsu.” Shiro felt his blood run cold and his arms tense around Sakura and cursed himself for being so optimistic because who knew what fucked up shit Uchiha Itachi could’ve put her through in a genjutsu. The possibilities were endless. He could only hope it wasn't Tsukuyomi.

“Did anything happen in the genjutsu, Sakura?” Shiro asked softly. She shook her head quickly - almost too quickly - and laughed it off as if it had been a stupid question. Shiro wasn’t sure what to think, but he knew, through experience, that he couldn’t force people to open up through interrogation - he could only offer support when needed. “You can tell me anything, alright? And if something did happen you can tell me at any time, even if you don’t want to tell me right now. And there are other people you can talk to like your kaa-san or there is therapy where special people who-”

“I said nothing happened,” Sakura snapped in a tone that felt like she was teetering on the edge between crying and screaming. “Nothing happened, alright?” she added in a smaller voice looking away.

“Please don’t lie to me Sakura.”

“Well, don’t ask me questions I don’t want to answer.”

“Alright.” Shiro stopped talking. Only waiting for now. For what, he didn’t know but he waited anyways in the thick tension that surrounded them. Suddenly brightened, Sakura turned to him.

“Where is kaa-san anyways?” She leaned towards the door to peer through the small glass pane.

“She went down to get you some dinner from the canteen. I think they were serving grilled fish today.” He could hear Sakura’s quiet groan at the announcement and once again saw the real Sakura come peeking through. “Not a fan?”

“Can you get me dango please, sensei?” Shiro contemplated saying no as it was well past her bed time but she had deserved a nice thing after this ordeal.

“Just this once.”

====

It was past three o’clock in the early morning when Sakura awoke from her second nightmare that night. Her kaa-san had gone home and would return in the morning and her sensei had been called out by the Hokage so she was left alone in her dark room. She was only in the hospital for observation to see if she had a delayed reaction - whatever that meant. But Sakura couldn’t sleep and she didn’t want to be alone so she wanted to find Sasuke.

Hopping out of bed, she gently removed the IV line and turned off the machine quietly emitting a beep at the action. Bare-footed and wide awake, she ventured down the dim hallway and stopped at the door clearly guarded by shinobi - not very high-ranking from the way they couldn’t tell she was there, which was a strange decision given that somebody might want to kill him - and she would sacrifice dango for a year if that was not where Sasuke was sleeping. All she had to do was to create a distraction. She took the long way around to the other side of the hallway and knocked over a cart creating a racket they rushed to like idiots. Running back the way she came, she circled back to the door with only a light patter of footsteps following her yet she was too far for the shinobi to hear her. She pushed open the door and saw Sasuke just as awake as she was just hunched over in his bed instead. When Sakura flicked on the lights, Sasuke screamed bloody murder.

Running, Sakura landed on him hurrying to cover his mouth with her hand.

“Hey, Sasuke-kun. It’s me, Sakura. Don’t worry, I came to check up on you,” she muttered quietly. Removing her hand slowly from his mouth, she relaxed when he didn’t let out another shriek. “Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?” Sasuke’s face transformed into a cold scowl and he pushed her half off his bed and Sakura fell to the ground with a strangled groan. “What was that for, Sasuke-kun?”

“You’re annoying. Leave me alone, now.” When she climbed back onto the bed, he moved to shove her away again but she blocked his advances and his voice raised. “I said get out!” Sakura blinked rapidly before forming an ‘o’ with her mouth.

“You’re angry at me, aren’t you? Why?” Sakura frowned.

“Because you are alive and they aren’t. Why couldn't he have killed you instead? It's not fair!” Sakura felt a stab of pain. Tears pooling in his eyes and his face turned an angry red. He clenched his sheets hard and shoved her off again with his feet and she didn’t climb back up on it again.

Three weeks later of more training with a Shiro that now always had a clone watching her whenever she wasn’t at home and he was within range and doting from her kaa-san and Sakura hadn’t stopped thinking of what he said to her that night. He was nowhere to be found at school much to her friend Ino’s dismay and Naruto’s satisfaction, both of whom weren’t privy to the knowledge of what happened that afternoon and she was intending to keep it that way. A shred of guilt winded itself through her everytime she thought of what happened and she couldn’t help but wonder why she had been allowed to live.

Unbeknownst to anyone besides herself, nightmares had persisted as well. Vivid stenches of blood, a scarlet sky and the eerie crow of Itachi’s voice plagued her each night whilst she awoke with her hair stood on end, skin soaked in a cold sweat and a scream lodged in her throat. Each night she soothed herself with sweet tea and a book or two to lose herself in to carry herself until morning. And each morning a voice in her mind urged her to look behind her shoulder at every corner and prepared her for another day.

More than once, Sakura had caught her heart stopping at the sight of Kurenai’s eyes and seeing Itachi in her place but another blink and a call back to reality had done away with the hallucination. More than once, she had uncharacteristically gotten hurt in a spar because she had spaced far out from reality, only being called back by the sharp sense of pain. More than once, she found herself back at the blocked off entrance of the Uchiha compound having no recollection of the journey there and hyperventilating whilst she ran away on shaky legs.

Sakura thought she had been doing a good job at coping until she had fallen asleep in class and discovered upon waking that she had been moved to an empty classroom with only Iruka-sensei inside marking papers. The light shining in from outside indicated that it was noon and she had missed most of her morning classes sleeping in an empty classroom. Iruka looked up at the sound of her moving.

“Ahh, Sakura-chan. You’re awake. I hope you’re feeling better.” He smiled at her brightly.

“I am feeling better, thank you.” Figuring she’d better show some gratitude, she dipped into a deep bow. “But I think you should’ve woken me up at least a little earlier. I must’ve missed a lot.”

“Nonsense. I know the difference between a lazy student and one that needs sleep. Is everything alright at home, Sakura-chan?” Iruka got up from his desk and walked slowly over to her seat and knelt down in front of her. “You can tell me anything, you know.”
“No, no,” she said smiling. “It’s not anything that you’re thinking of. I just get nightmares sometimes...” Iruka frowned. Up close the man seemed a little off - as if it was painting made by an artist who wasn't quite accurate with their brush strokes. An unfamiliar voice at the back of her head egged her on to punch him or at least whack him away from her or run away but Sakura put in a conscious effort to retain her smile.

“Nightmares? Have they been going on for a long time?”

“No, only recently they started. But I’m sure they’ll go away soon, don’t worry.” The last sentence had been more directed at herself than anyone else. “It’s nothing serious.”

“Really? What happens in the nightmares?” His voice sounded soft but Sakura felt a sliver of discomfort at the confrontation especially since it seemed that there was no way out of answering this question without seeming incredibly rude. Her eyes darted around the strangely quiet room as she tried to find an exit but to no avail. Her eyes settled on the vast expanse of empty field through the window behind Iruka.

Then something clicked.

The field was empty but it was noon - i.e. lunch break. Usually, everyone would be out there and, even if most people decided to stay inside today, Ino and Naruto would be waiting for her under the old oak. But they weren’t. And, that meant Iruka wasn't quite Iruka either.
“Hey, kid? What’s up?” ‘Iruka’ said once again in a soft voice and Sakura knew exactly who it was.
“Kai.”
The world around her bled back into reality and the face before her turned back into Shiro-sensei with an impressed look on his face and he stood back up. He backed up a little and settled on sitting at another desk. Sakura narrowed her eyes as the sun had dipped and the room was bathed in a golden glow.

“Well done. I honestly didn’t think you’d catch on so quickly. What gave it away this time, huh?” He laughed at her disgruntlement and refusal to look at him.

“It was noon but nobody was outside,” Sakura mumbled, clenching her fists at the fact that he had tried to manipulate and squeeze information out of her in an underhanded manner and almost succeeded. A strange nagging in the depths of her mind told her to get revenge so she got up and stood behind Shiro, swinging as hard as she could for his head. He ducked just in time and caught the next one she threw at him, sitting her down onto the seat next to him.

“So, when were you gonna tell me you were having nightmares of the Uchiha massacre so often you sleep in class, hm?” Shiro’s face turned serious as he fixed her with an unmoving stare and mouth set in a line. Sakura maintained eye contact but said nothing.
“So, that’s how it is, huh kid? What if I bring it up with your kaa-san? What happens then?” Sakura flashed him a glare.

“You said I didn’t have to tell you anything.”

“And you don’t. All you have to do is talk to Inoichi-san about it and he’ll help you get rid of the nightmares.” The pink-haired girl perked up at the sound of a familiar name. “I’m sure he’s free today. The man owes me a favor anyways so he can’t exactly say no. What do you say? We can get it over with today.”
But Sakura was not an idiot child, contrary to popular belief. She knew that what he was suggesting was therapy and it was not a one-time-only thing. No, it was something that lasted a long time and she firmly believed that it would not only not be helpful but be a complete waste of her time. She had no intentions of talking to anyone about her nightmares because that was nobody’s business but hers and she’d shave her head before they could get it out of her. But, if she went and decided not to cooperate, there was an off chance Shiro would stop hounding her.
“Alright.”
“You have to- what?”Sakura nodded rapidly. “Well... okay then. Let’s go.”

====

Inoichi wasn’t pleased when he saw that pest and a little girl turn up in his mental health clinic after his shift had ended with a declaration that he would have to make time for another appointment. With a resigned sigh and frustrated glare, he led them back to his office to examine the little girl’s - Haruno Sakura, someone he recognised since Ino had brought her home once - psyche. But before he could enter the room after Sakura, Shiro had pulled him aside.

“What the-”

“Listen, Inoichi-san. This is the one that was with the Uchiha at the massacre. Keep that in mind, alright?” He had pushed him back inside the room quicker than Inoichi could get a word out. Inoichi’s mind was working in overdrive. He had been the one to inspect the last Uchiha’s mind post-trauma and if Sakura had been caught in the same situation… Well, he’d hate to see what was inside her head.

“So, Sakura-chan. What seems to be the problem?” At no response, Shiro stepped in.

“She has nightmares.”

“Oh.” Inoichi frowned. Nightmares weren’t uncommon in these situations; what he needed to figure out was how to remedy what was causing them. “Would you mind telling what happens in your nightmares?” Sakura shifted so Inoichi was quick to continue. “Even just a rough description would be good.”

“‘S just nightmares… I see… Itachi and… I dunno… not so good things happen...” Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke in segments shifting under the watch of both other people in this room. “It’s not that bad… or anything. Are we done yet?”

“Not quite, Sakura-chan.” At this point, Inoichi had a couple of option he noted as he continued to ask her questions about her day-to-day life to get her at ease. One: he could prescribe her sleeping medication to help prevent the nightmares, and then send her on her way but this seemed like a case where that might not be the only thing troubling her. Two: he could grill her for more information to get a more complete psyche assessment but he had no doubt she would put up resistance and feed him lies. Three: he could attempt to get inside her mind to view what trauma she had been through and address it in a more efficient manner. That, he had no doubt she would be disagreeable to but honestly, his mind was reeling from his workload already today and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.“Sakura-chan, do you think you could let me do something for you to help get rid of your nightmares?”

“Like what?” she was quick to reply as her guard shot up. “I’m not sure, Yamanaka-san.”

“It’s nothing bad. All I’d have to do is find it inside your head,” Inoichi chose his next words carefully, “and get rid of it. How does that sound?”

“That sounds… good. How would you do that?” Sakura’s walls lowered infinitesimally.

“Oh, just a small jutsu. All I’d be doing is putting you to sleep for a couple of minutes to find the problem and then I’ll wake you and we’ll be almost done. Sound good?” Sakura offered a shy nod and she shifted so Shiro could get his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him. “Alright, now. Get comfortable and try to relax. This’ll only take a moment.” Inoichi’s hands formed the hand signs and his head dropped low.

Inside, it was what he could expect from any kid, only more organised. The room he was in had hardwood flooring and beige painted walls like a regular family house with the exception of the multitude of doors. It had no windows as expected of a person and the hall of doors was vast and brightly lit from pendant light from the vaulted ceiling; if he could speak in here like he could in real life, there would be a loud echo to reply to him in this empty building. The doors were labelled with a metal plaque to the side of them but in a language indecipherable to him which was an uncommon occurrence but never unheard of. It just might have taken him a while longer.

He had started at the door with the newest green paint which was telling of newer memories. Walls were lined with black shelves and on them were boxes upon boxes of labelled memories all presumably leading up to this point. However, all had a light aura around them making him want to gravitate to them and none of them had any locks or mental blocks around them so that ruled them all out in his search. As he walked on, the room grew narrower and the shelves more sparse. The floors grew greyer and more like stone than wood and the paint had started peeling. He continued to the end of the hallway where there was nowhere else to go but to walk into a solid stone wall. As he decided to turn back to try a different path, he spotted a hatch underneath the furthest shelf away from the entrance.

The hatch was made of metal the same grey as the stone floor and walls which made it even harder to spot at this end of the corridor where the lighting had dimmed considerably. It had an aura around it - not particularly positive or menacing but it was almost overwhelming. It wasn’t locked as one would expect it to be but he supposed the suffocating atmosphere it had provided more protection a flimsy lock would. An overwhelming stench of decomposing corpses and smoke emitted from the cracks, leaving a rotten taste in the back of his throat and if he was any less of an experienced shinobi he would’ve recoiled and retreated, but he had smelt worse on the battlefield so he held his breath instead. It pained him to bend and reach for the latch (a sign that the mental block was doing what it should be) and he dropped down through the hatch.

But what he was met with was not only a traumatic memory but a little girl that looked like Sakura.

No, not exactly a little girl. Because little girls didn’t look at him the way she did. Oh no, not a little girl.

“Get out.” He felt himself being ripped away from his jutsu.

Chapter Text

They left the Yamanaka’s office in a daze, with a promise to return for sessions weekly and their thoughts lingering on what he had told them. Those words he left them with were by all means ambiguous and left them to ponder as Sakura sat in at home on her futon nibbling her dango. Her kaa-san was in the other room cooking dinner after a very heated discussion about Shiro-sensei’s bad decision making, but Sakura had no idea what all the fuss was about. Must’ve been adult stuff.

Boredom eating away at her, she looked at the night sky through her open window. A warm breeze drifted in washing across her face, cooling her overheating body. Gazing at the meagre view before her, she noticed the streets were unusually quiet. Most of the time, it was busier at night than it was in the morning seeing as it was a hub for adult entertainment but she could count on one hand how many people were outside. She crawled over to it and slinked out of it planting her feet on the side of the wall and stuck them there by channelling chakra to them but as she did so, she felt a small wave of chakra wash over her which she wouldn’t have noticed if the niggling feeling in the depths of her mind that warned her of foreign chakra. Her body reacted on its own and she dispelled the chakra from her body and realised she hadn’t left the room.

Peeking out of the window once more, she caught a glimpse of a dark blue shadow - almost the exact shade of the night sky but only slightly more desaturated similar to a blue-black like she had seen on Sasuke’s hair. It faded into the shadows only appearing where the shadows weren’t as heavy. Scaling down the wall of the apartment block, she landed softly on her feet barely making a sound like she had practiced with sensei. In the inkiness of the night, she saw nothing but stars and house lights through windows. Using her memory, she made it to the street and followed the figure into neon red lights in the distance.

The stench of alcohol was intoxicating and cigarette smoke clouded the atmosphere considerably. Little amounts of drunk, middle-aged men stumbled through the streets aimlessly with cloudy eyes so she stuck to the shadows remaining a fair distance away from the figure. She took the second left then a right further on down the street, then stopped at the pillar by the neon door of an adult club. She had lost sight of it for just a second and he had disappeared into the darkness like it hadn’t even been there. Hordes of people started flowing out of establishments in a mixture of drunk and sober causing Sakura to facepalm because now she couldn’t find him at all. It swung open and a pale-skinned, dark-haired woman walked out and Sakura didn’t bat an eye at the fact she was wearing what looked like black underwear and little else .

Sakura jumped out from behind the pillar and catapulted herself into the woman’s arms who gasped at the weight but wrapped her arms around Sakura anyway in a strong grip. The woman smelled of wine and sweat and familiarity as she laughed at Sakura’s enthusiasm in greeting her.

“Hiya, Sakura. You scared me there. You’re sneakier than I remember, aren’t ya?” Keiko smiled as she set Sakura down on the ground. “As much as I love seeing you, you’re not supposed to be out so late. Isn’t Mama Haruno gonna be worried?” Keiko was lit from behind making her seem ethereal - like she was from the heavens.

“Yeah…but I came out here for a real good reason. I missed you a lot, Keiko-chan!”

“Missed you too, but I’m working right now, hon.” Keiko glanced around behind her and checked the door was shut by rattling the handle. “I don’t think you should be around the people I work with, like, at all, really. I think you should go home.”

“But it’s important. Really. I saw someone creeping around and they put me under a genjutsu but, don’t worry, I got out of it just fine. Then, I followed them, then I lost them, which sucks. Have you seen them around here?” Sakura whispered into her ear when she bent down to her height.

“Whoa, whoa hold on a minute now. Let’s just backtrack for a second here. First of all, what, in all that is beautiful, is a genjutsu? Secondly, creepy men are normal around here so why is this guy any different? And, third, why would you choose to follow a creep at night of all things? Sakura, go home.” She looked firmly unimpressed and fixed Sakura with a pointed look turning to go back into the building.

“A genjutsu’s just an illusion made with chakra and this guy seemed like a criminal or something-”

“Criminals are normal around here too, Sakura,” she deadpanned.

“I know, but this one seemed real dangerous to me - not like the normal bad guys at all-”

“Sakura?” she smiled a little patronisingly and ruffled Sakura’s hair.

“Yeah?”

“I need to go back in now. How about we talk about this tomorrow, okay? If any men give you trouble, scream really loudly and kick them in the nuts or elbow them in the face or punch them in the nose, okay? Go home and get some sleep.”

“But-”

“Good night.”

Sakura didn’t see the person again until she was eight years old and had almost erased their existence from her mind but Inner had kept hold of that memory with a vice-like grip. After her physical conditioning and meditation, she sat before Shiro who was demonstrating a simple doton jutsu that allowed him to stick his hand in the earth and remove it without issue.

“See here, kid. This is a technique that allows you to mold the earth around you and molding earth is the basis of any doton jutsu. It will help you learn how to turn the earth into any shape you can imagine and makes the tunneling technique - which is especially effective in infiltration missions, mind you - easier to learn. This is what I expect you to be able to do by next Friday. It should come naturally to you anyways. All you have to do is concentrate your chakra through your hand and into the earth to make it softer and remember to keep the flow or you won’t be able to remove your hand. Got all that? Great. Get to it.” Apparently, Sakura had no chance to ask any questions because Shiro-sensei had shunshinned into the shade away from the sun beating down on her as she worked.

On her first try, nothing happened. Nothing happened on her second try either. The amount of chakra she was using was definitely sufficient but she wasn’t used to working around elements and so she couldn’t quite figure out how to mold the earth to her liking. The hand signs certainly helped change the form of her chakra to work with the jutsu but it was what came after that was the issue. Did she have to push the earth away from her with the sheer force of chakra? That seemed possible but she was well aware that, in a battle, it would use too much chakra to be sustainable.

It would’ve been logical to ask her sensei what to do but he was all the way on the other side of the training ground and Sakura had no interest in walking all the way over to him. In that case, she reverted to basic chemistry: in order to convert a solid to a liquid (or, in this situation, a more malleable state), the intermolecular forces had to weaken by gaining more energy. The ‘energy’ in this case must’ve been her chakra. From then on, it was simple. All she had to do was keep a flow of chakra into the dirt, rather than spread it across the surface or around her hand, wait for it to loosen up then mold it around her hand. In an hour, she’d sunk her index finger into the earth with no trouble and had begun to expand her range for the jutsu so she could put the rest of her hand in. It would, inevitably, take practice for her to be able to predict where her hand would get down to in the soil to minimise chakra wastage and for her to speed up the length it took for her to complete the jutsu, but she was pleased with her progress.

“Good job, Sakura,” Shiro said from behind her, causing Sakura to jump. One of these days, she’d have to get him to teach her the sensing technique because getting startled so often was beginning to get boring. “Honestly, I didn’t think you’d get so far today. Keep at it.” Before he could leave, she grabbed at his ankle.

“Since I’ve done so well today, can I leave a little early?” Sakura widened her eyes and looked up at him with a shy smile.

“What for?” His eyes narrowed.

“Well, I promised Ino-chan I’d come to a sleepover and it starts in,” she looked at the sky, “like, two hours. And I have to get ready too…”

“You can leave in an hour. Back to work.” Once again, he shunshinned away. Her head lolled to one side and her eyelids hung lazily over her eyes. She hadn’t been sleeping well the past few weeks with Inner’s presence becoming ever more strong and not letting her mind rest. On top of her naturally observant disposition, as an ‘amalgamation of subconscious thoughts’, Inner had gained a hyper awareness of everything in the vicinity making it harder for Sakura to focus or relax. As her eyes fluttered shut - though not for sleep, she caught onto a shadow flitting through the trees.

She blinked once. She blinked again. Alarm bells sirened in her head as she shot up from the grass, careful not to garner any attention from Shiro. Realistically, nothing about this was a good idea, she knew, but the itch to know, to find out what was going on overpowered her sense of logic. Curiosity, Shiro had told her many times, was a dangerous thing but, unfortunately, he had yet to realise children had to learn these sorts of lessons themselves. Suppressing her chakra to a size of a snail’s reserve, she wandered over to the bushes where she saw the figure last. Crawling through the thick undergrowth, past the treeline, her bare arms obtained numerous stinging cuts that she would need to get disinfected later on and settled when she saw through the leaves that the figure had in fact been two figures clad in dark cloaks and white, animal masks. She could only hope they could not see her hair through the shrubbery and would mistake the moving as just a breeze.

“Mission complete, Taichou,” one figure spoke with a deep voice, raspy and unnatural, whilst kneeling before their ‘Taichou’.

“As expected. Head?” the Taichou whispered in a similarly unnatural yet more commanding tone. The subordinate held up a severed head by its black hair. The skin at the base of its neck was a sickly shade of alabaster like the corpses at the massacre yet drained of blood. Sakura had to hold in her retch at the morbid sight. “Burn it.” The subordinate hunched over forming a hand sign then blowing out fire to the head resting on the ground effectively incinerating it on the spot without leaving behind any evidence of ever being there.

“Now memorise these photographs. Extraction begins tonight.” The hair follicles on her skin rose and her heart dropped as the pictures were pushed into view. And - oh - they were… What, in the hell that was her life, were they going to do them? Her flight or fight instincts kicked in as she itched to run from these dangerous people (shinobi? criminals?) or hide away and forget what she saw and heard today because, by the Sage of Six Paths, was curiosity a treacherous thing. “Good. This stays between the pair of us. And remember - no witnesses. Or prisoners.”

Feeling her blood run cold, she looked up to see both pairs of eyes locked onto her. Her mouth went dry and all the blood rushed from her head. It took everything in her to resist Inner and not flee because she would not outrun two highly trained shinobi and if she was going to go out, she was not going to go out looking like a coward - that and she had already been wrapped up in a jutsu induced prison of wood. Her futile attempts to free herself were met with cold stares that chilled her to the bone even through their little masks. Feeling undignified, she raised her chin and met her attackers stare with her own, tainted with Inner’s hatred for everything around her yet her bottom lip still trembled in an effort not to cry.

“She’s yours to deal with, Kinoe. Remember protocol.” Taichou shunshinned away leaving little more than a gust of wind behind. Kinoe stood before her unmoving and stoic.

“A child,” he mumbled though more to himself than her. “Tell me - what is your name, child?”

“Haruno Sakura.” When she spoke without an inkling of a tremor in her voice, she had pleasantly surprised herself as her knees would’ve already buckled had it not been for the wooden restraints encasing her.

“Clanless then?” Sakura felt her hackles raise and she all but hissed at him as he uttered the rhetorical question because how in the hell did that have anything to do with this? “Irrelevant enough. I won’t have to kill you. It’s not like you saw anything of value here nor would anyone believe you if you had. Still, better safe than sorry. I’ll remove your memory anyway. Hold still.”

The pain she then endured was white-hot, blazing and starting from her forehead and spreading to just beyond her hairline and behind her eyes causing stars to appear in her vision. She tried to free her hands to clutch at her forehead to no avail and upon opening her mouth to scream, she discovered no sound would escape her.

“Resisting will only make it hurt more. Try to relax.”

She couldn’t remember how long the pain would last but she could remember the way the tears cascaded down her face and the struggle to breathe and the way she kept resisting whatever the man was doing to her. At long last, the pain let up, her voice returned to her and she panted heavily. The wood around her sunk into the floor letting her drop on all fours and dry heave onto the grass. But she was confused because she was sure she-

“You were wandering around in the forest, lost track of time and hit your head.” And then he was gone.

Emi, Ino and Umeko chatted away around Sakura at the slumber party. Sakura had no interest in the conversation regarding boys (Sakura decided to try to ignore the stab she felt when she heard Sasuke’s name), yukatas and kunoichi classes like she would’ve been any other day because she had other things to think about like what had happened in that forest. Whilst her mind told her she had been wandering around the woods and had hurt her head (the ache in her forehead would be a testament to that), she most definitely did not believe it. It would’ve been simpler to accept it but she knew if she were to go wandering alone in the woods it would be for a damn good reason and since her mind could not supply her with one, she concluded that something had happened in the woods. What - she did not know and Sakura hated not knowing with a passion.

“Hey, Sakura? Would the lilac or blue yukata look good on me?” Ino piped up.

“Huh? Uh yeah, the blue, I think. Yeah. Brings out your eyes,” Sakura fumbled attracting a weird look from Emi.

“See, Ume? I told you.” Ino held her head in the air with a smug grin.

“She’s obviously wrong. The lilac suits you way better,” Umeko huffed, throwing a pillow at Ino who ducked. “Blue’s a boy color anyways.” At that, Ino scowled and threw the pillow back at Umeko.

“Says who?”

“Everyone.” Ino’s scowl became even more intense as she slipped into the yukata and spun around in it.

“I'm wearing it anyways.” A knock sounded at the door and Sakura sat up straighter on the bed. She propped herself up against the pillows just as Inoichi entered the room with a sheepish smile. “Hi, Tou-san!”

“Hello, Ino-chan. Hi, girls. Sorry to bother you but I was told to bring up cookies for you. That okay?” He set the tray down on the small table by the door after receiving a chorus of nods from her and the others. “Hey, Sakura-chan. Been a while. Will I be seeing you again next Saturday?” Sakura inwardly groaned at the obvious implication that she went to therapy and, even though the other two wouldn’t pick up on it, she knew Ino would and would grill her on it later.

“Yes, Inoichi-san.”

“Alright. Good night, girls. Remember not to stay up too late.” As he left, she and the girls collectively darted for the cookies but not before Ino gave her a pointed look. The night labored on as usual whilst Sakura snapped out of her inattention and joined in on the gossip. They did each other's nails, hair; debated the best mangas and TV shows; tried on clothes; and talked boys for the rest of the night. Being around her friends and indulging in sugary treats had set her mind at ease for a while yet somehow, by the end of the night, her train of thought had circled right back around to what had happened in the woods - or rather, her lack of knowledge on it. Before she had descended into an anxious frenzy, she practiced the breathing exercises Inoichi had taught her years ago and drifted off to sleep thinking of dango, Shiro and being the best kunoichi in the world.

Morning came quickly. Umeko and Emi left after breakfast but Sakura had stayed with Ino. It was a Sunday and Sundays meant no training and no kaa-san because she had taken on more shifts at the hospital and it was a miracle if she’d been at home for more than two hours at a time. Originally, she had planned to spend the rest of the day training and reading some more scrolls on doton jutsu, but, at the pleas of Ino and the realisation that, yes, this was supposed to be her day off, she’d postponed the training for a while. The park would be their destination for today.

Armed with bento boxes prepared by Ino’s kaa-san, they marched to the park to enjoy the sunny weather and run around. Upon reaching the park, they were greeted by Naruto who had then hugged them both and initiated a game of tag and a game of hide-and-seek which they then followed with lunch. All the while, Kinoe watched them from the protection of the trees.

Chapter Text

Sparks flew as Sakura’s kunai clashed with Naruto’s. Naruto met her parry with full force when he released the hold and ducked for another hit with his fist on Sakura’s torso. Her body contorted to dodge the blow, faster than he could hit it and jumped sideways to get behind him. With a grin, she lunged for him but he flipped away from her, landing crouched on the ground.

She stood back to analyse the situation. She’d have to avoid fighting him in close combat for too long because she knew full well he used brute force primarily and he was stronger, but she was faster, smarter and she had the advantage of being a girl which meant, no matter what, Naruto would avoid hurting her too much. Sakura had learned a while ago that Naruto considered himself above hitting girls even in a battle situation and so she had decided to teach him not to treat his opponents differently because of what was between their legs. The way she saw it, she was doing him a favor; his future opponents wouldn’t have the same restrictions and wouldn’t think twice before attacking. Her main tactic would be to distract him and deliver a quick knockout punch to the jaw or restrain him to win the spar. But, she wouldn’t end it too quickly, of course, because where would be the fun in that?

Naruto threw another barrage of kunai aimed at the ground before her. They landed sporadically with a thud.

“Why have you stopped, Sakura-chan?” Sakura smiled and aimed her own shuriken at him. It brushed past his ear chopping off a few strands of his blond locks and lodged itself half an inch into the bark of the tree behind him. He bristled.

“I didn’t.”

Naruto darted towards her, throwing a poorly aimed right hook to her face that she avoided by ducking to the ground. She swept her leg towards Naruto’s to knock him down but he jumped over it. His next punch was caught in her fist so she twisted his arm to hold him in place and kicked him to the ground. He landed face first in the dirt and rolled over to splutter and wipe the dirt off his face. Ino’s whooping amplified in the background.

“That was mean, Sakura-chan. It’s my birthday today an’ all.” He groaned as he flipped back onto his feet.

“Oh well.” Sakura smiled. She dodged his next kick and punch and deflected his kunai with little difficulty. Aiming for his side, she feinted right then slammed down with her left on his collarbone. He buckled and groaned beneath and Sakura winced at the fact she had applied more pressure than she had wanted to and that it could leave a nasty bruise. Grimacing, Naruto straightened. She heard the cheers of Ino cheering her on.

“I won’t let you win. Not on my birthday, dattebayo.” He swung at her, catching her off guard and the hit landed squarely on her nose. Her eyes watered immediately as the pain spread through her face. The hot sensation of blood dripped onto her upper lip as she staggered back. Stars clouded her vision. A bruise was imminent. It may have even been broken. She supposed she deserved that for letting her guard down so easily and hitting him so hard, but, the face? Really?

Sakura ducked beneath his next hook to her face into a crouch and sent a side kick up into his opening that he tried to move away from but she grabbed his arm to keep him in place. He winced at the kick to the same spot she had hit earlier; if it hadn’t already started bruising, it would now. He spun, wrenching his arm out of her slackened grip and wrapped his arms around her neck in a fake strangle hold. Ino now switched to jeering and booing at the outcome.

“I win, Sakura-chan.” Sakura rolled her eyes and heaved him over her shoulder and pinned him down in a practiced manner. He struggled in her grip. “No-he-I- wai- that’s-that’s not fair. I already won, dattebayo. You can’t do that.” Ino roared with laughter rushing over from the sidelines. Bending over, she laughed straight in Naruto’s face who only sighed and huffed at her.

“Sure she can. A fight is a fight, Naruto, and real fights only end when your opponent can’t do anything. As you can tell, she was able to do something and she pinned you down which means you can’t do anything, which means Sakura. Wins.” Naruto looked at her blank-faced. “Basically, she wins. Not you. So suck on that, idiot.” Ino jeered and sauntered off to find the med kit.

Sakura rolled off Naruto and stood up taking Naruto with her.

“Don’t worry Naruto-chan. She doesn’t actually think you’re an idiot. She just says that to rile you up.” She wrapped an arm around Naruto’s shoulders and led them to where Ino was setting up the med kit. “Good fight today though. I think you should work on your speed and reaction time. Sorry about hitting you so hard. I hope it doesn’t bruise.”

“I’m sorry ‘bout the nose thing too. I kinda thought you’d dodge it. An’ ‘bout the bruise thing - I don’t bruise that easy, dattebayo. See?” He pulled the collar of his shirt down to reveal nothing but a red mark where there should have been a bruise normally. “It was fun.

This was unusual for Sakura. Having her mother as a medic, she’d been taught basic theory and first aid and she’d fully expect a hit like the one she’d landed to produce a mottled purple brown splotch on his skin but there was nary a scratch nor mark upon him. That was impossible unless he’d learnt medical ninjutsu but, with his abysmal chakra control, that was also impossible. On the other hand, this healing ability could have been hereditary from the Uzumaki clan but she’d have to look into that later.
Ino nudged the tissue up her nose to soak up the bleeding and handed her a cold pack to press to her sore nose. The cold soothed her swollen nose and the tissue left her voice nasally and stiff but there wasn’t much she could do before she could get home. She’d have to get dinner first that, in all likelihood, would probably be ramen at Ichiraku’s which she wasn’t averse to but she had hoped Naruto would try to develop a better diet than ramen all the time but she’d supposed that was too much to ask from someone like Naruto.

The three of them settled down on the seats of Ichiraku’s and they all ordered miso ramen - Ino and Naruto since they liked it best and Sakura because she couldn’t really taste the difference between this and any other type. She had to pretend not to notice the sinister glares and scoffs directed at Naruto. Naruto covered his frustration up nicely with his usual obnoxious persona but Sakura saw the sadness in the way his shoulders slumped at every hissed comment and scoff that came his way. And, Ino, not one to be oblivious in social settings, distracted him with her ability to lead a conversation and boisterous comments that drew out laughs from the sullen Naruto.

Sakura had no idea why people acted this way towards Naruto. The first instance she’d seen of this was in their second year at the academy when they had been denied entry to a cafe which prompted Naruto to tell her to ‘go on without him’ to which she replied with an adamant ‘no’. He had quickly explained that the vast majority of people didn’t want him anywhere near them. From then on, it had been easy to pick up on the distaste the villagers displayed around Naruto and made sense of the fact that children either avoided Naruto or mocked him: they were following the terrible example set by their primary role models - their parents. Whilst Sakura couldn’t exactly pinpoint the origin of this inexplicable hatred, she could piece together two vague conclusions.

One, their attitudes always heightened on Naruto’s birthday which indicates that his October tenth was the anniversary of something that happened that included Naruto. The biggest event that coincided with this date was what she could deduce, from the little she picked up, the end of the kyuubi attack, twelve years ago, where the village won and the Yondaime died; Sakura could not reasonably link this event with Naruto because Naruto would have just been born at that time and therefore, he couldn’t do much to warrant bad treatment. The fact that little information of the Third Shinobi War that could be found in the library was only granted to jonin that had a special key card that she knew - from experience - was nigh impossible to forge.

Two, the authorities had to be keeping it a secret. So far, from what she had gathered from most of her classmates, none of them actually knew why they were avoiding Naruto - just that they were told to by their parents. Only Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji were not told to stay away from Naruto. It was now a possibility that it could’ve been a generational secret but she couldn’t understand the motivation behind that.

Teuchi grinned at them as he passed the bowls down to them.

“It’s on me today - for the whole lot of you. Happy birthday, Naruto.” Teuchi flashed a close-eyed smile. Naruto lurched forward across the table and engulfed the startled man almost knocking over his ramen but Sakura had anticipated the strong reaction and pulled it out of the way. Teuchi returned the hug with a familial tenderness and chuckle. They parted but not before Naruto took the chance to shout his gratitude into the poor man’s ears.

It was half past nine when Naruto had finally finished his ninth and final bowl - Ino having finished after her first bowl and Sakura having finished after her third - and was ready to go home. Sakura could see he was already satisfied with the night and so, whilst walking home she pulled Naruto aside and gestured to Ino to bring out the gift. She pulled a wrapped rectangle out of her satchel and clutched it behind her back.

“Hey, Naruto? We got you a present,” Sakura said behind a small smile. Ino, however, thrust the gift towards Naruto who looked at it with stars in his eyes. He carefully unwrapped the present and peered down at it.

It was a framed photo of the three of them taken a couple of years back at the park by Inoichi. Sakura remembered that Ino was excited that Sunday: her father had just returned from one of his rare out of village missions that had lasted a full two weeks which was longer than Ino had ever been away from him. He had returned that very morning and Ino had dragged him along to meet with Sakura and Naruto at the park. In the photograph. They were each holding ice-cream cones. Naruto’s was chocolate (that was his second choice; he had been very upset when he was told ramen-flavored ice-cream didn’t exist), Sakura’s was mint chocolate chip and Ino’s was bubblegum. Sakura almost giggled at the memory of Ino having to fake liking it because she had argued with Inoichi, who had warned her she wouldn’t like it, to make him buy it for her. The ice-cream had ended up in the bin as soon as Inoichi looked away.

Sakura looked back up at the sound of sniffling. Tears welled up in Naruto’s eyes as he reached out for another hug. Sakura gladly embraced him but she had to stomp hard on Ino’s foot to get her to join in.
“Thanks, Ino-chan, Sakura-chan.” Naruto sniffed into Sakura’s shoulder. She opened her mouth to respond but, to her surprise, it was Ino who replied first.
“It’s no problem, dumbass.”

Sakura sat up in bed, breathing heavily as sweat glistened on her skin with the image of red eyes ingrained into her mind. Years with sleeping meds had only done so much to aid her sleep but the dreams had only eased infinitesimally, if only from the fact that she now recognised it as a dream and not a threat to her life. Yet, the memory of that man was not the only thing that had plagued her in her sleep anymore. No - now, she had wild nightmares with wooden restraints and hooded figures and decapitated heads. Bringing it up to Inoichi had done nothing but allow him to tell her that they were nothing but nightmares which hadn’t satisfied her inkling that it had something to do with what happened in the forest two years ago. It certainly hadn’t helped that Inner remained silent after such dreams and retreated into the depths of her mind like a recluse. Nevertheless, she lifted herself out of bed, because at four in the morning on a Wednesday, there wasn’t any point in going back to sleep.

She lumbered off her futon to shove it back in the closet and moved into the hallway lit only by the moon peering in through uncovered window panes. The first call of action was to make herself tea and to get the dango she had saved to lift her spirits. The second was to get her scrolls out to study the brain’s anatomy. Silently, she sat at the kitchen table as she sipped her tea and sifted through the scrolls she had borrowed from the library. The clock ticked in the hallway as she worked diligently. Suddenly, she felt a hand fall on her shoulder.

“It’s a bit early, isn’t it?” Mebuki yawned, shuffling around to reach for the kettle. “To be studying? Although, I should be lucky you’re not slacking off - I know I did back in my day… Ah, it’s still warm.” Mebuki pressed the cup to her lips and sipped on it with a content sigh.

“I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“Meds?”

“Don’t help.”

“Right.” After draining the cup, Mebuki set it down. “Your Tou-san used to love this tea.” Sakura said nothing. “Wouldn’t have anything else. Had a special way he would make it and all. He was always the tea guy and I was always the coffee girl. But times have changed haven’t they?” Sakura shifted slightly.

“What was he like? Tou-san?” she whispered hesitantly. She had only flashes of memories with him before he was taken from them at age three. She remembered his smile and the way he threw his head back when he laughed and the way he picked her up and spun her around when they were happy.

“What was he like? He was wonderful. He was caring, responsible, mature, a little clumsy and forgetful but I had enough poise for the two of us so that was okay. He was gorgeous too. You’ve seen his hair, right? It’s like yours and so were his eyes. And he had the perfect nose - he loved that about himself. He was a bit short though, but he liked the way he looked which was good enough for me. He could do anything he set his mind to though. I think that’s where you got it from. I know I’ve never had the same determination he had. One thing he couldn’t do though was the laundry and cleaning, so I told him to shape up or get out. He got his act together pretty quick after that.” Mebuki ended that with a bittersweet, breathy laugh.

“I’ve got to go in a bit. Early shift, an’ all. Then, I’ve got to go see Keiko. It’s been a while and I wanted to take her for a coffee. Sage knows that woman’s always working in that slum trying to get by. I’ll have to catch her right after my shift ends or she’ll be at work again before I can see her. Could you do me a favor and pick up the groceries?” Sakura hummed in response.

“Sure. Tell Keiko-san I said hello and ask her to stop by sometime, would you? I miss her cookies.”

“Thanks, sweetpea. I’ll leave the money and list by the door and I’ll tell Keiko-san for sure.”

Mebuki hurried around the little apartment collecting this and that to prepare for the day ahead at the hospital. She had only just made it out of the front door before she rushed back in with a laugh, commenting on how she had almost forgotten her keys again. Sakura remembered the last time Mebuki had forgotten her keys and it was not the best experience for her. According to her kaa-san, it was no use waiting for Sakura to return because she had been away on a compulsory camping trip with the academy and so she had to break in through the window into the kitchen.

The windows of the apartment were old and unstable enough by themselves so, as soon as she had learned how to, she had set traps on all the windows which would activate if someone tried to open them from the outside. The traps she had made would send out several kunai in all directions but were angled so that they’d hit the floor after a short distance. However, Sakura was no fool: these would only be enough to scare off common thieves with no more than academy training if that. A trained ninja - perhaps chunin or above - would be able to bypass these traps, but she supposed a common thief was the only sort of people that would want to break in because she certainly wasn’t sought after by shinobi.

The only problem was that she hadn’t expected her own mother to be caught in them. Fortunately for her, kunai wounds were easy for a medic to heal but this still earned her a lecture about telling her mother these things when she returned. At present, she could see the marks on the wood of the window where her mother had tried to break in and the way the hinges were at a slightly odd angle but they hadn’t had the money to fix it so every once in a while a cool breeze drifted into the room.

At seven, she got dressed in her usual all black attire, thin, waterproof and breathable - perfect for the near constant heat of Konoha and tied her hair up in a bun atop her head. She took a premade bento box out of the refrigerator, the money off the counter and exited the house hefting a bag on her shoulder. The way to school was quiet and unnerving but she had grown accustomed to the eerie morning tranquility. In any case, she kept her bag in sight and kept her right hand by her kunai pouch as a precaution.
It wasn’t long before she noticed a shadow mirroring her own. It was such a small difference in the usual shadows that lined the streets at this time of day but Sakura had walked this route enough times to notice a subtle change in the way the shadows moved and it set her on edge. The footsteps were eerily silent and the chakra signature was barely there indicating a highly practiced ninja was on her tail. Off the top of her head, she couldn’t think of anything she’d done wrong to attract such attention but she’d supposed the digging she’d been doing around Naruto’s situation might have displeased the higher-ups. There was a possibility of an intruder in the village but she was certain intruders wouldn’t be so bold as to come out in broad daylight. Regardless, she kept up a neutral facade.

She turned out of the akasen and into a grocery store to try and throw off the trail because a ninja worth their salt wouldn’t risk going into a virtually empty grocery store and subsequently, following them out also. She made a show of looking through the cold drinks section before purchasing a green tea and exiting out of the back door. To her dismay, the stalker had predicted her actions and spotted the same shadow she’d seen before. The shadow grew ever closer and Sakura’s heart pumped faster. She walked faster and unsurprisingly bumped into the Nara boy.

The boy stumbled grabbing the wall whilst Sakura spun in his direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the figure melt into the shadows but didn’t quite leave in a way that she recognised. She offered a hand to help the Nara as he grumbled about things ‘being a drag’ and being ‘troublesome’. He ignored her outstretched hand and dusted himself off.

“Ah, sorry, Nara-san. I should’ve been watching where I was going. You’re not hurt are you?” The Nara folded his hand behind his head and fixed her with his signature Nara, half-lidded stare.

“Don’t call me Nara-san.” A beat.

“Excuse me?” Nara leaned against the wall.

“Don’t call me Nara-san. It’s weird coming from a classmate,” he drawled and Sakura nodded. “And, yeah, I’m good.” He pursed his lips and his eyes flitted behind Sakura. Had he noticed the stalker? He made to start walking again in the direction of the Academy before pausing and looking at her. “You coming?” Sakura nodded and caught up to him.

“So, Shikamaru-san,” Sakura began, Ino’s conversation making tendencies having rubbed off on her, “what are you doing so far out before classes start? Your clan compound is pretty far from here, huh?” He shrugged.

“The roofs out here make for good spots for cloud-watching. And the skies are always brighter before the Academy starts. There were some pretty interesting clouds today.” She nodded hesitantly. She would’ve believed it if not for the amount of times she’d shown up at school sensing Shikamaru already on the roof watching the clouds with his Akimichi friend.

“I can’t say I’m one for cloud-watching. Although, I can say I did see a cool cloud today just before I bumped into you. It kinda looked like another cool one I’d seen a long time ago, if I’m being honest. Overall, though, I’d prefer to be reading.” And that was where the conversation ended.

====

“Hey, sensei? Since we’re going over the Third Shinobi War, will you tell me about the kyuubi attack?” Shiro looked up from the book they were reading over with a raised eyebrow. She shouldn’t have even known that happened. Leaning back in his chair, he scrutinised her: she smiled and played with her pencil in an obvious pretence of innocence that, with years of practice, he could see through. She was curious - he could see that from how her eyes stayed on him and how she leaned towards him. She was gathering information - that was also clear in the way she was overly attentive - but why?

“How do- What’re you up to, kid?” Sakura shrugged and looked away. “They don’t teach that shit in school. I don’t want you getting your nose into people's business like last time. That shit gets you into trouble, okay?” And it did. He had hoped some of her curiosity would eventually get redirected into academics (especially after the concussion she got after wandering into the forest that one time) but it had only been fueling her busy, little brain to be nosing around where she shouldn't be. Like that time she tried to sneak into the restricted access library multiple times by forging a key card, then transforming into him and somehow stealing his key card (failing that time only because the librarian knew how Shiro wouldn’t turn up if he had a choice not to). And that time where she tried to gather information on ANBU which caused her to be cautioned by the Hokage. Or that time where-

“Just a project at school on the Hokages. Not really about the kyuubi at all. I'm doing the Yondaime and I need to know how he died in the attack right. None of the history texts have much info on it.” Sakura smiled at him. He supposed that was a good enough reason, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d twisted the truth in her favor. In some way, he’d been proud that she was becoming a competent, sneaky kunoichi but he was rather irritated she’d started using ninja tactics against him. He also knew that if she wasn’t careful she’d get tangled up in something bigger than her. And, unfortunately, Shiro did care for this kid and wouldn’t be able to live with himself if something happened to her. It was weird how quickly she’d grown on him with all her enthusiastic, sugar addicted, intelligent self. Although she could be slightly annoying with all her questions and her inability to listen to instructions unless it suited her, he was proud to call her his one and only protégé.

“Are you telling the truth?” She nodded. “We have to be quiet about this. If I find out you’re lying, you get ten more laps everyday for the next year. Got it, kid?”

“Yeah okay, sensei.” Her eyes twinkled in humor causing Shiro to display a good-natured scowl.

“Alright, and you better be taking notes or something because I am not repeating myself for shit, l was - what - like ten when it happened and not very much is told to barely genin ten-year-old, you know? Anyways. We were still recovering from the war when out of nowhere it started. The sky turned orange and shit. I don’t know it was - uhh, kind of crazy? A lot of people died. I saw the bodies when we were escorting the civilians. But, that’s not the point is it?” He ran a hand over his face. “Right. So. The Yondaime. As far as I know, the man was taking on the enemy one-on-one. It’s been said that the criminal who released it wielded the Sharingan but you did not hear that from me. So, the Yondaime died defeating the criminal and he and his wife - Uzumaki Kushina,” he saw Sakura perk up at that name, “contained the kyuubi but died doing so, unfortunately. The Sandaime was appointed to office after that. That’s all you’re getting.”

“So, the Yondaime’s wife was an Uzumaki then?” Shiro frowned at her suspicious behaviour and interest that was not relevant to the matter.

“Look, I’m loving the thirst for knowledge - really, it suits you - but I don’t see why you should be so interested in that. It’s a bit beyond your reach in the academy, isn’t it?” She ignored him completely and grinned to herself.

“So she’s definitely an Uzumaki. I’ll bet she was that unnamed jinchuuriki that came before the fall of Uzushiogakure. Where did they seal away the kyuubi then?” Aghast, Shiro’s mouth hung open.

“Alright, this is a hundred percent beyond your reach. You won’t need this sort of information for your school project. This is highly classified information,” he whisper-hissed at her. She lit up.

“So I was right. They are keeping it a secret. So where have they sealed the kyuubi then?” The irritated man narrowed his eyes and seethed silently.

“This isn’t for a project, is it, you little brat?”

“No, but too late now, isn’t it? Where have they sealed the kyuubi?” Shiro pulsed out a wave of chakra and upon sensing no shinobi in the vicinity, huffed.

“It was killed by the Yondaime. There you go. You happy? You get twenty laps extra instead for persisting when I told you to knock it off.”

“No, it wasn’t. The Yondaime wouldn’t let so useful of a weapon go like that. He must have sealed in someone. But they’d need to find someone with the right chakra type on such short notice and they’d have to be pretty young as we- oh.” By the look on her face, he could tell she’d figured it out and - curse her stupid brain - he hoped she’d have enough sense to keep quiet. “Oh no. Is that wh-”

“That, Sakura, is also classified. As in, you need to stop prying right now because it is a Hokage-ordered silence, as in, this conversation is over.” He dropped her arm as someone rounded the corner. It was Kurenai.

“What conversation is over?” She smiled at the pair of them and he saw Sakura flinch in his peripheral vision. He placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her into him squeezing it. “Hello?”

“Oh, just her school work. Graduation’s coming up in a week. Her last physical is tomorrow, her taijutsu and fitness exams are in a couple of days, her written is tomorrow and her final in four days, so, you know, gotta keep on top of it all, right?” He knew he messed up by rambling and her disbelieving look on her face. “Anyways.”

“Oh yeah. About Academy graduation - are you getting a genin team to lead? I know I am.”

“Thank the Sage that I’m not. One student is enough for me thanks,” he laughed, ruffling Sakura’s which didn’t work out the way he intended since her hair was up in a bun. Her bangs stuck up in awkward directions in the way Sakura hated it doing and struggled to flatten it back down.

“Aww, dammit. We could’ve trained our teams together. It would make it so much easier to stick both our students in a field and make them fight each other to train. Don’t you wanna make Sakura-chan over here your official student. You’d actually get paid for it too,” she piped up. She sat down at the picnic table with them on one side and her on the other.

“Yeah, no. I’m not skipping out on my money-making A-ranks just to teach this kid and two other snot-nosed brats. No thanks. At least this brat grew out of her snot-nosed phase pretty quickly - I’m not so sure about others her age.” Sakura elbowed him in the ribs and scowled the same way he would.

“How am I a brat? It’s not like I’m complaining all the time like you are just because of a little bit of sunshine. And it’s not like I’m the one who can't sit still for five seconds,” Sakura ranted channeling her Inner and bringing her to the surface. Whilst he couldn’t necessarily dispute anything she was saying, it felt violating to allow a child to talk to him like that.

“Hate to break it to you, kid, but you’re single-handedly proving me right by disrespecting your beloved elders like that.”

“Hate to break it to you, sensei, but, with that mental age, you can't exactly be considered my elder.” Their bickering was interrupted by Kurenai’s loud guffaw at them.

“Ouch, you guys fight like siblings,” Shiro recoiled at that and scowled at everyone like he usually did anyways but it held no true malice. Sakura scoffed.

“Siblings? Oh no. He’s more like that one weird, antisocial uncle who only ever comes out at night or when nobody’s around, hates everybody and looks twelve and forty at the same time. He’s probably also a secret poet.” Wow. Shiro really grimaced at that one. Kurenai only laughed and nodded causing Shiro to grumble in his seat

“You can’t even argue with that one, Shiro,” she snickered at his crestfallen expression.

“That’s not fair. I don’t write poetry, for one. That’s dumb. And, I don’t have a single wrinkle on my face. I take care of my skin, alright?”

“Ahh, but it's not the skin though, is it?” Kurenai leaned forward, resting her cheek on her hand.

“No, it’s that dumb mustache he’s been tryna grow out since the beginning of time.” Shiro tentatively reached up to run his finger over his upper lip. The hair was faint and felt wiry. Over the past few months, he had tried to look more impressive with the addition of facial hair but his body wasn’t used to producing facial hair and what had come through usually got singed off fast by a fireball or two. “It’s just not working for you, sensei.”

“Sure it is. It just requires a lot of time and upkeep. You don’t get a lot of that on missions.” He nodded to himself satisfied but he was really only trying to convince himself. “It’s not like you would understand. It’s obvious that you girls wouldn’t get what it’s like taking care of yourselves.” All was silent for a moment.

“What’re you implying, Shiro?” The woman across from him cocked her head and her eye twitched violently. “Choose your answer carefully.” Feeling brave today, he sat up ramrod straight on the bench and smirked.

“I mean, your hair always looks like a rats’ nest. I-” Shiro didn’t last a second before he was flung into the nearest tree with a strangled shriek.

Chapter Text

Sakura fiddled with the hitai-ate wrapped over her forehead as Iruka called out the names for the teams. In front of her sat Naruto, blissfully unaware of turmoil inside her head.

On one hand, she knew it was twisted for her to have known what he was and who his parents were before he did and continue to keep that information from him. It wasn’t like she could hate him for something that wasn’t his fault and she’d already been friends with him for years - it was also a bonus her kaa-san kept her opinions to herself. But, she felt that Naruto should have a right to know why other people hated him so much.

To go even further with her point, she couldn’t understand why the Hokage knowingly allowed him to be hated for it and to have done nothing to intervene. Neither could she understand why he allowed for Naruto to be kicked out of the orphanage at seven with nobody to care for him. She knew that Naruto and the Sandaime had a strong bond and that Naruto would sing nothing but praises about him, but everything about the Hokage rubbed her the wrong way. Inner didn’t like him and she’d be stupid not to trust her.

On the other hand, she had the threat of a treason charge and subsequent death looming over her like a dark cloud and she wasn’t so sure she was quite selfless enough to tell him in spite of that.

As the names continued to get called out, she saw Ino’s huff from besides Sasuke when she’d heard she’d gotten lumped in with the Nara - who Sakura hadn’t spoken to since the time they walked to school together - and the quiet Akimichi. It was a given that they would be together since birth and yet Ino had held out for Sasuke anyway. Umeko was placed with Ashitaba and Tamaki but Emi hadn’t passed the taijutsu portion of the exam and had quit the Academy right after. The girl and Sakura had never been particularly close so she wasn’t sad to know that her quitting had marked the end of their friendship.

Her name came up soon after, as team seven with Naruto and, to her and Naruto’s dismay, Uchiha Sasuke. Through Naruto’s protests and her quiet groan, Ino had turned and told her to “hook them up” to which Sakura nodded even though there was no way she was ever going to come close to doing that. This was a disaster waiting to happen.

====

Hatake Kakashi observed the classroom from his location in the tree outside of the vast window. His three maybe-students were in a disarray waiting for him to make his entrance.

The blond, Uzumaki Naruto - idiot prankster, jinchuuriki and the son of his sensei, paced the length of the room shouting random things and in a frenzy. He sighed. The son of his sensei grew up with no family and nobody to take care of him when he should've been there. But the type of person he became because of the route he took in his career would never lend itself to child-rearing. Especially at fourteen. Especially when he could come back dead. Maybe in another life. But for now, he would teach him to the best of his ability and hope Minato would forgive him for his incompetence and ignore the bitter taste in his mouth.

Naruto stepped on a stool and rested a chalkboard eraser on top of it in an attempt to set up a prank. Laughing when he seemed to struggle to reach the top, the pink-haired girl and took over, placing it where the boy directed. She hopped off and pulled out a book to peruse.

The girl was called Haruno Sakura, he was certain. She was plain - average according to everybody he'd spoken too. Top marks but nondescript. She never saw fit to go above and beyond, doing the bare minimum. Attended therapy too, apparently because she'd gained a mysterious second personality that gave her trouble sometimes - nightmares too. Anything else, though, was just beyond his reach. However, he noted the way she was dressed - black clothes and a dark green jacket with a hood - which was reminiscent of his jounin outfit indicating that she was a slight bit more aware of what was considered suitable attire than others but he wouldn't get his hopes up.

The boy brooding at a desk was a different story altogether. Uchiha Sasuke was a frustrating case: he'd come out of the massacre traumatised, orphaned and a taste for revenge none of which any amount of therapy sessions (or lack of) could help with. He was unapologetically rude, kept everyone at an arm's length away and probably planned to run away some time in the near future (Kakashi ignored the way those words seem to remind him of himself). On the other hand, he was the strongest, most skilled of their year and highly motivated and that gave him something to work with.

He dropped from the tree, with a soft gust of air rustling the leaves he once nestled in. The girl snapped her eyes to the window instantly so he shunshinned out of the way, just out of her line of sight. Her eyes darted around the outside and landed directly on where he was standing. He frowned. Cracking open a window from the classroom next door, he slid through the gap and walked around into the classroom letting his head cushion the fall of the eraser. Eyeing the misfit trio, he saw the effect of the ‘prank’ had Naruto almost in a fit and the girl who’d helped him, bowed deeply at him in a stiff posture. The lump of hair on top of her head bobbed as she bowed as she apologised.

“I apologise for the childish actions of my teammate, jounin-san. I can’t promise it won’t happen again but I’ll try harder to stop him next time.” The words rolled off her tongue like she had said it time and time again even though he had seen her help Naruto set up just a moment ago; he wasn’t sure he liked the sound of a teacher’s pet.

“How can I say this…” Kakashi drawled and peered at them. “I don’t like you guys.” Face falling, Naruto huffed and attempted to intimidate him with an exaggerated frown. “Meet me on the roof.” And he shunshinned away.

It didn’t surprise him that little overachiever Uchiha Sasuke made it to the top first, followed by Naruto who had proclaimed it a competition between the two of them, with Sakura trailing behind. The three sat on the steps before him as he leaned against the barrier in a slump with the girl squeezed in between Naruto and Sasuke. He did suppose it would be helpful to have a peacekeeper on the team.

“Alright, why don’t we introduce ourselves? Name, likes and dislikes, dreams - that sort of thing.”

“Hey, hey, you should introduce yourself to us first. Show us how it’s done, sensei!” Naruto shouted with a big grin that would’ve looked mildly disturbing on anyone else but seemed normal on him.

“Sure. Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi… I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes.. My dreams for the future…hmm...” he tilted his head, pondering his words, “I have lots of hobbies too.” His courteous smile drifted across his face at the unimpressed graduates. “Now it’s your turn. Let’s start on the right, shall we?” He gestured to the blond whose mouth shot into a beam.

“Yosh! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo. What I like is ramen and what I like more is when Iruka-sensei pays for it. I like Sakura-chan too, she’s real cool… oh, and I guess I like Ino-chan too sometimes. What I don’t like is the three minutes I have to wait for the ramen to cook and my dream…” eyes glazing over, his determination shone through as he gripped his hitai-ate, “...is to surpass the Hokage and have the people of this village acknowledge my existence!” Kakashi stalled at that. A flicker of a genuine smile caught him off guard and it went as soon as it came. The Kushina in Naruto was obvious. “And hobbies? Uhh, pranks, I guess.”

“Next.” The girl perked up, stiffening her posture.

“My name is Haruno Sakura. I like reading books, scrolls - anything really. I also like tea, dango and mochi. I guess you could say I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I really dislike spicy foods and coffee and I hate staying up late with a passion. I don't have many but my hobbies include reading, solving puzzles and spending time with friends.”

With a smug grin, Naruto cut in, “She means me.” Sakura sent him a fond smile and nudged his shoulder.

“I consider myself a well-rounded kunoichi. On top of the academy taught skills, I also have a basic grounding in doton jutsu and very basic medical ninjutsu training. My lap time is above average at three minutes, six seconds and I have an aptitude for genjutsu which I intend to explore in the near future. Above all, my real strengths lie in my intelligence and chakra control which is in the 96th percentile. I need to work on my stamina, my strength and ninjutsu though. My dreams for the future...Well, that’s a tricky one. I suppose it’s to become the strongest kunoichi I can be and make my village proud. It’s nice to meet you Kakashi-sensei and I’ll look forward to working with you.”

A good, comprehensive summary of her skills, Kakashi observed, if a little rambly (nerves?). It wasn’t anything he couldn’t have gotten from her file - although the chakra control and doton information had been new but not unwelcome - but it was helpful to see that she could summarise well and would do well giving in mission reports. According to her file, she had a good work ethic - if a little unmotivated in physical lessons - and set of skills for a kid. It was a shame statistics showed she wouldn’t make it past reserve chunin corps. If she got lucky, with that chakra control, she might even make it into the medic program.

“Nice to meet you too, Sakura.” He flashed her a closed-eye smile, dismissive and empty. “Alright, boy in blue next.” In all honesty, he didn’t need to ask to get his answer but it was a necessary courtesy. He listened to the brooding and talk of revenge with a forced smile and faked attention. He clapped when the kid finally finished his monologue that revealed nothing that he hadn't already deduced. “Alright. That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’ll get started on our duties as shinobi."

“Duties? What kinda duties?” Ecstatic, Naruto almost propelled himself off the floor but the girl kept him still.

“First, we’ll be doing something with just the four of us.” Kakashi flicked a bug off his vest.

“Huh? What is it then?”

“Survival training.”

“But...why? We had enough training at the academy, dattebayo.”

“Well,” Kakashi couldn’t help the chuckles that escaped him as he thought back to the time he took the test with his team and Minato-sensei. They hadn’t got it the first time, but Rin’s passion for teamwork had pulled through in the end and thus they begun their journey together. Short-lived journey, that was. “If I tell you, don’t freak out.”

“We won’t, sensei.”

“Of the 27 graduates, only nine are becoming genin. The rest are being sent back to the academy. This survival training is another test to weed out the weak links and promote the best of you.” Naruto’s face contorted into one of mortification as did the girl’s but her level of horror was toned down, all the while Uchiha remained largely unfazed. “I told you you’d freak out.” The most infuriated of the trio, almost leapt at him and mauled his face off, had it not been for Haruno who had a tight grip on his shoulders.

“But then, what was the other test for, huh? We worked so hard, dattebayo!”

“Oh, that? That was to select who might have a chance at being a genin at all.” This only seemed to anger him further, if the splutters were anything to go by. He continued with the briefing. “Anyway, tomorrow you can’t hold back. Bring every weapon you have, because you’re gonna need it. The details are on this sheet.” Rifling through his Icha Icha book, he pulled out the crumpled notes from between the pages and handed them to his maybe-students. He turned his back to them and perched himself on railing, gazing down at the long drop. He’d made an underwhelming entrance, so why not make a decent exit?

“Oh, and skip breakfast tomorrow, or you might throw up.” He leapt off the railing, with a cacophony of gasps. The three ran towards the barrier but he was gone before he hit the ground.

====

Sunrise came and went and the three of them sat on the field together still waiting for their sensei to show up. Sakura’s attempt at passing the time through meditation failed continuously as the one-sided bickering seemed to amplify in her silence. Her patience wore thin so she stormed across the field and grabbed Naruto by the shoulders steering him away from the Uchiha. Bowing deeply at Sasuke, she contemplated just what she had done to accumulate so much negative karma to get stuck on a team already so dysfunctional.

Mainly, the dysfunctionality was rooted in rocky interpersonal relationships. She’d identified the type of team that had been assembled from the three of them: it was undeniably a combat team evident Sasuke’s prowess that had been handed to him from birth and Naruto’s natural disposition to fight anything and everything that presented itself as a problem. (Sakura, however, had no idea why she had been lumped in with a combat team as the meagre explanation Iruka had provided made little sense since a girl with the highest scores didn’t seem to lend herself to combat but she’d ponder on that later.)

Having the world-famous shinobi Hatake Kakashi as team leader all but solidified her theory that the jinchuuriki (it still left a bitter taste in her mouth when she realised she had to lie to him about himself) and last Uchiha were placed for their protection. The only problem was that the boys already butted heads on a daily basis. She could only hope they could lock away their rivalry before they encountered a life-or-death situation.

Regarding all of this, she was infinitely jealous of Ino who had her team set out for her since birth and a lot longer to be able to get along well.

“Sorry, Sasuke-san.” His eyes strayed away from her and the blatant aversion made her frown.

Three hours, five more tantrums from Naruto and silence from the Uchiha, Kakashi decided it would be the perfect time to show up. Naruto leapt up into the air, flailing his limbs about with a large shriek and Sakura joined him in accusing the man of bad punctuality.

“Oh. A black cat crossed my path, so I’m afraid I had to go the long way. Moving on. This clock is now set for noon.” He waved an alarm clock at the three and set it down on a wooden post. “Your task is to get these bells from me. The people who don’t will be tied to this post while I eat my lunch in front of you.”

Sakura averted her eyes at that declaration. It hadn’t been intention to defy her team leader’s orders as such to sabotage his test; it was more so that she had taken it as a genuine warning out of kindness and she had taken the liberty to eat anyway because her body tended to refuse to function without food. (It may have also been because she was more than used to throwing up in the early mornings after certain dreams hounded her, and the thought of throwing up no longer scared her.) She also wasn’t stupid enough to turn up without her bento box safe in her satchel but she didn’t need to eat it just yet.

“But there’s only two bells.”

“Yes. That’s because the people that don’t get one will go back to the academy. Now, that might be one of you or all three of you. But rest assured, at least one of you will be returning to the academy.” Stomach turning, she sighed as her original plan of teaming up went out of the window. “You can use shuriken. You won’t be able to win if you don’t come at me with the intent to kill.”

Kakashi explained some more drawing out an aggressive reaction from Naruto who was stopped immediately in his tracks.

“Huh? I think I’m starting to like you guys,” Kakashi praised half-heartedly. “Now, go!”
Kakashi had put them in a difficult situation, she knew. Setting them up against each other like this was a particularly devious plan - one that she might’ve enjoyed had she not been on the receiving end. The facts were that none of them could hope for a bell standing alone yet it wasn’t plausible for them to team up without conflict. The only option was to at least work in pairs. Her first thought, of course, went to Naruto who would team up with her without a second thought, but then she realised, even with her skill in strategy, it would not be enough to compensate for her less than ideal physical ability, Naruto’s recklessness and overpower a jounin. For this, they would need as many as they could get - this meant Sasuke as well.

It was likely Sasuke would be averse to cooperating and would want to prove himself to Kakashi on his own and would anger Naruto on top of that. Not to mention, there would be an argument over who the bells went to. She was also at a serious disadvantage since she had already briefed him on her strengths and weaknesses beforehand. This was a mess.

Right now, her first course of action was to establish a space where she knew her surroundings, could set some traps and lure her sensei in to fight where she could be prepared, and rope any of her teammates in along the way because it just wasn’t feasible for her to win on her own. She had two and a half hours to accomplish this.

Sakura kept pulsing out her chakra like Shiro had taught her, every so often, to call back an image of any animal in the vicinity. Ordinarily, sensory-nin were the only ones who could sense chakra naturally but this way allowed others to do so with a little chakra. The only downside to this was anybody she could sense, could sense her if they were using the same technique as well. She reached a small clearing far enough away from the starting point to be deemed safe and set up a few basic traps hidden well in the foliage and layered a few rudimentary genjutsu over top to conceal them - another technique she’d learned from Shiro - and waited.

At some point, the waiting became a tad too underwhelming. It had been an hour since she had set up the traps and nobody had even come close to where she was. Truth be told, passing wasn’t a priority since the next chance to pass would come around in another six months but she’d be damned if she didn’t, at least try. At this rate, she wouldn’t get a bell solely because she was too far out. She packed up again and ventured out through the trees nearer to where she first started in an effort to find Naruto to team up with him, knowing he wouldn’t have gone far since even he knew he had a terrible sense of direction. Perhaps, if she didn’t find Naruto, she could search for-

Inner hissed at the intrusive chakra in her head. It was a strong presence, however, and barely shifted from her mind. From the texture of the bark on the tree she was next to, to the smell of the damp moss lining it, everything was identical. If she ignored the presence in her head, she could’ve continued on like she hadn’t been caught in a genjutsu. It was impressive, that was definite in the way every last detail was perfectly replicated, and for that she had to commend Kakashi. But what good was a genjutsu if you knew it was there?

She almost didn’t want to dispel it immediately. The serenity of this fake world entranced her but she knew that was the lure of it. A memory genjutsu like this was crafted to lure you in with your current desire then bring back your worst memory. But if this genjutsu was supposed to be her worst nightmare, then what-

The figure crept out from the bush, red-stained fingers first and his head second. His eyes were bloody red with a three-pronged, black silhouette lining his iris. Out of the bush, he stood back hunched towards her with the hilt of his sword poking out from behind his head. A shadow fell over his face as his smile stretched over his teeth which had the same crimson dripping from it in clumps. Beads of it rolled down his uniform and into the grass, which upon contact tainted it black leaving a tar-like substance to spread.

Inner snarled at the crooning hum echoing in the shadows. She started to sweat and clenched her hands into tight fists, her nails drawing droplets of blood. The nausea started at the same time her fight or flight response kicked in. Her attempts at breaking it were shaky and unrefined.

It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real-

“Hello, Sakura.”

A burst of chakra exploded from her head and her eyes fluttered shut.

She came to an hour later with Sasuke leaning over her to shake her awake. In such a haze, she hadn’t registered much more than his dark hair and similar facial features before she pulled a kunai on him and pinned him to the ground. She only realised he was too small to be him and too weak.

“Get off me, Sakura.” He punctuated each word with an angry grunt. She scrambled off him, bowing her head in apology.

“I-I’m,” she swallowed, “sorry. I’m sorry.” The timer started to siren in the distance. “I-uh, we gotta, gotta go.” She rose off the floor keeping her gaze on it as she sprinted back to the starting point, empty-handed and humiliated.

Decidedly, this group was not destined for teamwork at all. This was a conclusion she’d reached before Kakashi had decided to shout at them about it. He got to the point of threatening them before she looked up to meet his eye then looked straight back down again. The thought of not putting up any sort of fight and falling victim to such a mediocre genjutsu and not figuring out the meaning behind the test was not something she was proud of and would not enjoy relaying to Shiro after it all.

After he’d announced they’d passed, Naruto had bounded off to eat ramen at Ichiraku’s. He extended the invite to her, to which she accepted because she needed something to distract her from the day’s events, and told her to meet him at the shop. She packed up and readied herself to go back into the forest and pull down the traps she’d set up for nothing and planned to find Shiro at the end of the day to cry at him about the day because he knew he was the type to know when to keep his nose out.

A hand grabbed her wrist as she tried to leave. Instinctively, she yanked down, grabbing the arm holding her and twisted the arm behind the person’s back only to realise it was Sasuke. Again. And she’d attacked him. Again.

She dropped his arm immediately and bowed at him for the third time that day. She was sure Shiro was going to have a field day at this.

“Sorry, Sasuke-san. Are you alright?” she said but her voice faltered at the withering glare he fixed on her. “Uh...I’ll get going now, shall I? Yes, I left some traps set up in the forest, so I gotta get those down quickly. Have a nice day.” She pivoted on her heel and thanked the Sage she wasn’t granted the ability to go red at embarrassment.

“Wait.” She glanced over her shoulder hesitantly at the somewhat slightly less angry form of Sasuke.

“Yes?” He looked as if he was constipated, Inner slyly observed. His brows were furrowed and his ears tinged red - whether that was sunburn or a natural feature of his, she didn’t know.

“...I don’t want you dead,” he spoke, carefully enunciating every sound.

She hadn’t taken the time to process what he said before she said, “What?”
“I said,” he stressed, “I don’t want you dead.” A wave of realisation flooded through her.

“Because you are alive and they aren’t. Why couldn't he have killed you instead? It's not fair”

She remembered that evening like it was yesterday. He was sitting on his bed, shouting at her. At the time, it hurt more than necessary. She had always been an enthusiastic child and hearing that had burst her bubble. The guilt behind finding the truth in his words followed her around for at least a year before Inoichi successfully drilled it into her that it wasn’t her fault that people had died that night and it never would be. He followed that up with explaining how Sasuke could’ve been feeling. It hurt significantly less after that.

But, she hadn’t expected an apology from him - ever. Certainly not from the Sasuke she saw brooding in the school hallways that she was too anxious to approach, anyway. Yet, here he was, apologising in his own, questionable way.

“Ahh, don’t worry,” she said, even though she doubted he would, “I never thought you wanted me dead, Sasuke-san.” She smiled at him again, more confident this time and meeting his eyes.

“Good.” His shoulders dropped by a fraction and his jaw unclenched (she hadn’t noticed it clenching in the first place). He seemed less intimidating as such. It seemed to her like it was the perfect chance to improve their relationship and Sakura was nothing if not an opportunist.

“Do you want to join me and Naruto at Ichiraku’s, in a little while? I promise I’ll make sure he won’t bother you and it’ll be good to celebrate as a team, right?” She offered after a moment of hesitation. He blatantly ignored her as he walked past her with his hands in his pockets and head looking straight ahead. “Hang on, Sasuke-san! Do you at least want to train as a team with us after tomorrow’s mission?” She almost slapped a hand to her face because she was sounding like she was obsessed with him and that was not what she was aiming for.

“You’re still annoying.” He just kept on walking.

Chapter Text

Shikamaru slinked through the narrow back streets of Konoha weaving in through shadows and passing by unseen. His eyes firmly locked onto the swift figure before him. Tenaciously, he remained a short distance of 200 yards away from the target. The Nara immersed himself in the shadows that stalked him. Around the village they went, dipping in and out of the akasen and occasionally observing as the subject entered buildings and left them through windows. It was becoming increasingly hard to differentiate between the cloak of nighttime and the billowing clothing of the subject but he wouldn’t be as competent as he was if he couldn’t track him anyway.

It hadn’t been his plan to go out of his way to trail somebody in the early hours of the morning but the subject had been wandering far too close to the compound for Shikamaru to leave him unnoticed. Peculiar as it was, he hadn’t anticipated to be trailing him for hours on end as the subject ventured throughout the village, delving into the thick of the buildings and passing by patrols without concern of being caught. The lack of sleep was catching up to him but it was just as well he made a habit of sleeping at school.

At 1 AM, the subject entered a hotel on the outskirts of the akasen through the top left window and left approximately half a minute later empty-handed. At 1:16, they used a back entrance to a warehouse and exited again empty-handed. This pattern continued for hours leading up to the disappearance of the subject behind a crevice in the Hokage’s cliff face at an angle he would not be able to see clearly through. A quick glance at the sky told him that the time was past three and another glance at his notepad told him that there was largely nothing he could do with this information at present. He sighed.

Time to go home.

====

Chattering away, Ino narrated the woes of genin life to Sakura as they walked to the training grounds together. Her hands flew into the air as she described the ‘stupidity’ and ‘astounding amount of laziness’ of her teammates.

“It’s ridiculous. All they do is sit around all day and Choji almost killed me after taking the last chip. What weirdo does that? It’s like I’m the only one taking training seriously. What ‘bout you?”

“Ugh, don’t get me started, Ino-chan,” she groaned. “Naruto’s always at Sasuke’s throat. We can barely get through the missions without an argument.” Which was undoubtedly true. The mission yesterday had Naruto start a temper tantrum because he wanted to walk the biggest dog which was conveniently the one Sasuke was walking. By insulting him back, Sasuke retaliated and then a shouting session ensued to the complete misery and frustration of everyone in the immediate vicinity. To end it, when Kakashi was reading his strange novel, she had released a particularly rabid looking dog whose lips curled back at the boys and set him on them. Needless to say, they were more motivated to get on with the mission a little more than they were before.

“Did that idiot touch Sasuke-kun? He’ll be sorry if he did.”

“No, no, don’t worry. Sensei never lets them get that far. Well, most of the time.” Speaking of which, Kakashi was one of the most questionable teachers she’d ever had. In the few weeks they’d spent together, he had never met up with them on time, taught them nothing but teamwork, didn’t train them and shoved them in badly paid D-rank missions as often as he could whilst he read his orange book in peace. She was certainShiro had taught her more in a measly fraction of the time that it took Kakashi to attempt to teach them the foundation of teamwork. Perhaps, Shiro was just an exceptional teacher?

But it was as if everything she said to Kakashi went through one ear and out of the other. Her requests to go over genjutsu with him had gone unheard, unlike Shiro who had already begun to teach her some of the area-effect genjutsu in their now nocturnal training sessions of about four hours between his B-ranks - or, what he liked to call ‘easy money’.

“I’m training really hard as well but I’ve put on a bit of weight too - I think it’s muscle, see?” She flexed her arm and sure enough it was packed with well-defined muscle. In comparison, Sakura lifted up her own but her arm seemed like noodles compared to Ino’s own, she noted with a hint of contempt. “Do you think Sasuke-kun likes it when girls have a bit of muscle on them?”

“I think,” Sakura encouraged, “if you show him you’re a really great person, he’ll like you even if he doesn’t like muscles on girls.” Ino perked up with a shy smile.

“You think so?”

“Of course!” She didn’t, but she wouldn’t say that. She knew the bare minimum about Sasuke and his cold demeanor made her doubt his ability to want to befriend someone, let alone date someone. As much she’d appreciated his apology, he hadn’t made himself any more of an approachable person nor had it made his personality any less distasteful to her. “And if you can’t win him over, it won’t be the end of the world.”

“Right! What was I thinking, doubting myself? Pft. I can do anything! If Sasuke doesn’t want me, there are other fish in the sea, right?” Ino beamed, skipping along until they reached the fork in the road where their paths split like the fork in the dirt road. “See you later, Sakura-chan!”

She reached the training grounds where the other two were already waiting in no less than a staring (leaning towards glaring) competition she assumed was initiated by Naruto. Their mission later that day was completed after they returned the cat - named Tora - to the Daimyo’s wife who was a rather extravagant lady, who layered herself with as much perfume as jewelry. The woman almost squeezed the poor creature to death whilst it squirmed in her hold.

“Now, we have more missions for you. You can either babysit, go shopping, help with-”

“No! No thank you!” Naruto yelled, crossing his arms. It was about time he started another temper tantrum and it was only bad luck for Team 7 he decided to have one in front of the Hokage but at least he tried to use manners this time. “Give us a better mission right now, old man!” Even though it was a point she shared with him, Sakura made it a point to place a hand over his shoulder and squeezed as hard as she could to elicit a pained grimace. Alas, Naruto took no heed to the warning and continued to shout his opinions at the Hokage.

“You idiot! You’re just a rookie! You’ve got to work your way up!” Iruka scolded at Naruto who remained steadfast in his beliefs, unwavering at any statement that contradicting his own. On regular days, Sakura admired his unshakeable moral viewpoint and values but on other days, she felt his values were a hassle to deal with. It may have been callous of her to believe, but, if Naruto wanted morals and self-righteous values, then he should've ventured out to become a samurai and not a ninja.

“But we keep getting the crappiest possible missions!” Naruto continued. Sighing and putting on an apologetic smile, she stepped in front of him.

“Pardon him, Hokage-sama, Iruka-sensei. What he means to say is that he would like a higher level mission - like a C-rank,” she chirped. Sitting back down in his seat, he smiled at her.

“I understand what you mean Sakura-chan, but unfortunately, he’ll have to work his way up the ladder first,” the Hokage croaked. The potent smoke from the pipe wafted her way causing her to discreetly start breathing through her mouth. “D-ranks are perfect for genin like you.” As much as she favored Naruto's argument, there was no denying the logic and reasoning behind the Hokage's words; Naruto, on the other hand, decide not to resign himself, but to carry on making a scene.

“I’m not that trouble-making brat you think I am anymore!” Sakura begged to differ. It was only a week ago she helped him mess with a particularly malicious old lady by ‘accidentally’ trampling over her petunias. “I can handle better missions.” That one, she did agree with.

“Alright.” That was not the reply she had been expecting. Moreover, she had been expecting another lecture from Iruka and to get kicked out, not begrudged compliance. “Your mission will be to protect an individual and escort them.” It took a second for the Hokage's words to penetrate the wall Naruto put up to block out unwanted information, but then a slow grin spread on his face - it was so wide it looked as if the muscles in his face were going to tear.

“Who? I bet it’s a feudal Lord-”

“If it was a feudal Lord, Naruto, it would be an A-rank,” Sakura interjected.

“Or a princess? I bet it’s a princess, dattebayo-”

“Naruto, he hasn’t even finished the brief-”

“Come on! Tell us who it is!”

A drunk, old man stumbled through the door with a startling burp and a half-full bottle of alcohol swinging in his grip. Glasses were perched on a bulbous nose - perhaps rhinophyma - and his wide-brimmed hat served to shade his reddened and slightly yellowed eyes. A rosy tint flushed his face and neck in a way that was neither natural nor flattering and only indicative of bad diet and health; a pot belly further suggested that this instance of him showing up drunk was a regular occurrence. But, that wasn't anything she was unfamiliar with handling.

“Wha’s this? You given me all o’ the.. Uh.. super brats. They all got the stupid faces, ‘specially the short one. They really ninjas?” The man waved his hand as he slurred his words, his less than respectful comments riling Naruto up. Kakashi caught him by the scruff of his neck and berated him.

“I am,” he paused to give us a scowl, “the super-expert-bridge-builder, Tazuna. And I expect you to provide me with super complete protection until I get home and complete the bridge.”

As soon as Sakura entered her empty apartment, she slammed her hand on the seal in her room and pumped it full with chakra. In a puff of smoke, a figure dressed in a tank top and boxer shorts appeared in a squatting position who promptly fell over. The toothbrush fell out of his mouth with a wet splatter onto his boxers and he sprung upright, alert and alarmed.

“Oi, kid. I told you to call me when there is an emergency. This don’t fucking look like no emergency to me. I was about to fucking take a shit, you know. What woulda happened if you had summoned me a minute later, huh?” he ranted with his toothpaste running down the side of his mouth. Hesitantly, Sakura opened her mouth to reply but he cut in. “I woulda been half naked with shit smeared on my ass, that’s what. Those seals are bloody expensive to make. This better be good.”

“Uh, well, I got assigned my first C-rank mission,” she started.

“Oh, good job, kid. Real proud of you,” Shiro congratulated as he walked inside the bathroom, his mood switching to a more friendly one. She sat on her futon waiting for him to return.

“It’s an escort mission,” she continued when he came back, “to the Land of Waves. It’ll take, like, two weeks, max.”

“Sounds like your pretty average mission to me.”

“Yeah, but I’m leaving in fifteen minutes and I had to tell you I couldn’t make it to training,” she said as she pulled up her backpack from the back of her closet. It was a tan fabric with brass buckles like her satchel that her mother had given her. She pulled out a few items of clothing and folded them neatly into the bag. Next came the shampoo made for dry, frizzy hair.

“Whoa, whoa, Sakura. Are you crazy?” Shiro snatched the shampoo and conditioner out of her hands. “You can’t be lugging these around for two weeks. Where did you get these from?”

“Ino. She bought them for me on my birthday. She will beat me if she finds out I used anything else.”

“Yeah, well you need it. Just take it in smaller bottles. And take the sharpening kit I got you. And extra weapons because I don’t think they’re in large supply where you’re going. And your face cleanser; you can probably get a bar of soap down there,” he listed off with his fingers. “Don’t forget to take a rain jacket. You’ll probably end up on a boat for a bit so take your seasickness meds, and your other ones, and purification tablets. Is that all? I think that’s all. Oh, and some money but Hatake should cover that anyway.”

“Uh huh. Anything else? Useful tips maybe?”

“Manji formation if anyone attacks. I assume you’ll be on defence and Hatake will take offence - he’s like that, you know. Always wants the attention on him. But that’s it.” Shiro grabbed her and enveloped her in a warm sweaty hug where she got a faceful of his armpit. “Good luck, kid.”

“Do you ever shower, sensei? You stink so bad,” Sakura gagged and pushed him away. “Go home and take a shower.”

“Oh, so that’s what I get for being nice is it? Fine,” he laughed, “I’ll go home and take a shower. And, don’t worry - I’ll have another seal ready for you when you get back, ungrateful brat.”

Barely on time was what Sakura would call herself when she reached the gates with a tired flush on her face. Kakashi turned to apparently having just arrived at the same time as she did was not nearly as unimpressed as the excitable Naruto, Sasuke and Tazuna were. She handed the paperwork to the guards who checked it over and joined with them outside of the gates. The papers were filed before she was given the go ahead to leave.

“Let’s go!” Naruto yelled, swinging an arm over Sakura’s shoulder.

“What’re you so excited about?” Tazuna grunted. Naruto’s face morphed into a fierce frown and his fists balled.

“Oh, here we go…”

The five of them walked down the road for hours it seemed like, but the sun still high in the sky proved it was only a half hour along the journey. Trees rolled on for miles, only broken up by a narrow stream in the distance. They were walking in a manji formation: Sakura and Sasuke flanked the sides, Naruto was leading at the front (obviously) and Kakashi took up the rear. Feeling the sweat rolling down her vast forehead, she reached up to wipe it off. The back of her throat was scratchy and parched and she ached to get her bottle out but she knew she’d have to hold off if she didn’t want to take a premature bathroom break in a bush.

As they dragged their feet down the arid road, Sakura’s bare toes dipped into a shock of cool. It was a puddle of water on the ground - strange because it hadn’t rained for approximately eleven days (yes, she’d counted) and even if it had been an anomaly, why was the ground beneath it still dry. She pulsed out her chakra, feeling a presence in the puddle and, to her surprise, she felt one back but yet it was from a powerful presence behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she locked eyes with Kakashi and received a gentle nod; she drifted to the back of the group and Kakashi drifted forward to take her position.

A gust of wind hit the back of Sakura’s knees as she walked - a telltale sign of an oncoming ambush - yet kept her expression neutral, only keeping her hand swinging by her weapons pouch. One figure flew over her head attached with a tar-black chain to a lingering presence behind her. Immediately, she dropped to the ground, landing on her front with dust flying up her nose. She followed that with a roll towards Tazuna and sprung up into a defensive stance. The two enemy shinobi looped the chain around Kakashi, twisting it into an impossibly restrictive trap.

“What the-”

Chains ripped through Kakashi’s body catching Sakura by surprise. To see a man so highly esteemed so easily taken out was the epitome of disappointment to Sakura; thus, she concluded that it wasn’t, in fact, Kakashi at all. And, if any of the enemy shinobi or the other members of Team Seven had bothered to double-check, it would’ve been apparent by the fact that there were chopped logs in place of severed limbs.

“One down,” a shinobi commented.

Sakura took a few glances from both sides to see both Sasuke and Naruto frozen.

“Naruto, Sasuke - manji formation!” she shouted as she took up a defensive position where her kunai were held up, her legs wide and her body low, but Naruto hadn’t moved and he still didn’t move when the ninja crept up behind him. “Naruto!”

Her first instinct was to run towards Naruto and move him away manually. Sakura's feet hit the ground heavily as she tackled Naruto and swept him away, back towards Tazuna. Meanwhile, Sasuke soared above her, pinning the chains to the trees with his kunai, in a show of what Sakura could call a mixture of good aim and calculated estimations.

The shinobi effectively had their main weapon attached to the tree which was an extreme disadvantage to them, but, if they had just moved to get it released rather than letting Sasuke stand on their arms (now in a show of what she liked to call unadulterated arrogance), they would’ve been back on a playing field tilted in their favor. Unfortunately for them, that was not what happened. Instead, Sasuke pushed back with his legs, ripping their arms from the chain and snapping it in the process.

“We need to stay in manji formation. Naruto to my right. Sasuke, on my left.” Yet, her voice remained unheard as nobody moved to respond. Her eyes twitched. “Manji. Formation!”

Beyond that, she had no time to respond since a shinobi was charging at her head on. His hand, which was encased in another metal glove, had razor-like edges to the fingers all poised and ready to run her through, but she’d be damned if she’d fail her first C-rank because of a little injury. Bracing herself for impact, she raised her weapon so her forearm blocked most of her important organs.

It was a rather gratifying moment when the shinobi were caught by Kakashi around the neck. He dragged the limp bodies away and tied them to a tree with rope she didn’t know he had.

“But he- How did he…? What?” Naruto blinked owlishly and snapped his head to where Kakashi’s body should have fallen. “Oh, oh, he did the kawarimi, right?”

“Uh huh. Are you all good, Naruto-chan?” He nodded and not-so inconspicuously shoved his hand behind his back which Sakura reached out to grab. There was a long gash on the palm of his hand with the same tar substance that was on the chain yet what surprised her, although she didn’t let it show, was that both sides of the wound began to stitch itself back together. She dropped it quickly and nodded at him.

A shadow hung over her shoulder. Kakashi was peering at Naruto’s cut and she felt his sigh on her head.

“You shouldn’t move so much, Naruto, or the poison will spread. We need to remove the poisoned blood. But first, I need to talk to Tazuna here,” he commented, passing them. She did appreciate that he showed fake concern for him and treated him normally, even though he most likely knew he was a jinchuriki just as she did, and that the kyuubi would heal him anyway.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s not as bad as it seems. Stay still and you’ll be fine.” She smiled at him.

“Uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but you kinda got stuff…” Sakura looked down at her clothes - the blanket of dust and dirt stood bright against her dark clothes. Wiping her face, she saw the dust come off and cover her hand. Comparing herself to Sasuke, who had nary a speck of dust on him, she almost felt inferior and jealousy surged in her.

“Good job, Sasuke. You too, Sakura. You, Tazuna-san, have some explaining to do. Tell me why trained shinobi have been hired to take you out.”

In the end, the team had ended up saddled with Tazuna on the boat listening to his sob story which had convinced Kakashi to continue the mission. Previously, she had tried to voice her concerns over a genin team doing what appeared to be a B-rank since her skill set would not stretch that far but it had been drowned out by Naruto’s choice to make a speech and put a kunai through his palm. This, followed by the elaborate sob story, had cemented Kakashi’s decision to push forward with the mission no matter their odds of surviving the ordeal.

“If I may, Kakashi-sensei,” she slid into the conversation. “If news circles back round to Gato that we took care of the Demon Brothers, shouldn’t we be expecting a higher level ninja to come after Tazuna-san now - like a jounin? Shouldn’t we make a plan?” She could barely make out the fear on Tazuna’s face through the thick mist.

“Good thinking. But, I’ll be there to fight him, so there’s no need to worry,” he reassured her. In no way did she doubt his prowess in battle, however, she found it difficult to believe that he would also be able to defend three genin and a little, old man as well. “In any case, it’s within our best interests to make a plan in advance. When we come across this jounin, I’ll make an assessment, while you three stay in the usual formation. I’ll signal to you if they’re out of our league, which is when you’ll leave quickly and I’ll hold them off. If anything happens to me, Sasuke is in charge.”

Taken aback, Sakura recoiled. It felt like a personal attack that he chose the most antisocial, uncommunicative person on the team to be leader over her when she considered herself to be a better fit. But she ripped that thought away as soon as it came, because it wasn’t her place to decide.To her left, Sasuke’s chest had almost puffed up from the indirect praise and Naruto simultaneously deflated but only grumbled to himself.

“Understood?” She and the others nodded at Kakashi. “Good.”

The boat came to an abrupt halt almost making her queasy since her sea legs weren’t quite the best they could’ve been. Stumbling, she hobbled off the boat with a hand on Naruto. Planks of wood creaked under her feet whilst she walked away from the docks with her arm interlocked with Naruto’s. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy and they had a few hours before anything would happen so she figured that resting her head on Naruto’s shoulder would be an okay thing to do, except he kept jabbering away.

She was jolted to consciousness when Naruto broke away and hurtled forwards, throwing a kunai to some bushes. Her kunai was out of her pouch and in her hand to leap to Tazuna’s side until Naruto pulled out a traumatized, white rabbit and cradled it to himself. Faintly, she heard Kakashi scold Naruto but she tuned into the light whistle of a blade through the air. Only having seconds, she tackled Tazuna as Kakashi yelled out.

Over her head, a behemoth of a blade sailed and lodged into a tree. Upon first glance, she recognised it as Kubikiribocho, an extraordinary blade wielded by Momochi Zabuza one of Seven Swordsmen of the Mist - and also one of the many faces in the Bingo book. Like clockwork, he landed on the blade with his back to the entourage. His upper half was bare save for a sword holster and arm warmers with a pattern resembling a cow’s hide; the same went for his leg warmers which sat upon lilac pants. Bandages loosely concealed his face and his hitai-ate sat crookedly on his head. Team 7 backed into a triangle shape to guard Tazuna on all sides.

“Copy Cat Ninja, Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye,” Zabuza retorted carelessly over his shoulder. The air was thick with humidity and tension, killing intent was building up and seeping in through her pores. Naruto stepped forward to get involved but Kakashi held a palm up for him to back down. Kakashi removed his hitai-ate from his eye. More killing intent thickened the air around them and weighed down on Sakura. The Sharingan was in use, she could tell by the look on Sasuke’s face who was the only one close enough to see Kakashi’s face. Bile threatened to rise at the thought and the brief memories it brought up.

“Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist,” Kakashi announced.

Chapter Text

Through the rising mist, Sakura could just about make out the outline of Kakashi facing down Zabuza. The tingle of chakra seeping into her pores alerted her of the jutsu causing the artificial fog. It was a clever tactic to use against a Sharingan user - fogging up the surroundings would make it impossible to use the Sharingan, effectively getting rid of the only real advantage Kakashi had. Considering he was also a shinobi from the Mist, he was likely also able to see through the mist which would give an advantage over Kakashi. If this wasn’t life or death, she would’ve applauded his strategy.

“Eight choices,” Zabuza’s voice echoed into Sakura’s ears. The most she could pinpoint the origin of it was to the lake where he dived in but that could’ve just as easily been the placebo effect. In addition, Zabuza was cloaking his chakra signature which explained why she was receiving no transmission. “Liver, lungs, spine, subclavian vein, the jugular vein, brain, kidneys, heart… Which one do I go for this time?” Automatically, her arms morphed to shield as much of her body as possible.

The weight of the air was suffocating and the more time passed by, the harder it was for her to breathe - it was as if she was inhaling water in place of air - and killing intent only thickened it. Adrenaline was now coursing through her. Her muscles shook fervently. Her heart pounded so much she could feel it in the throat. She was sweating profusely. She wasn’t the only one since she could feel Sasuke shaking besides her. Reaching for his trembling hand, she forced the kunai away from his stomach and twisted it so he was on defence. Heat-of-the-moment suicide wouldn’t be good for anyone.

“Sasuke, don’t worry,” Kakashi said. “I’ll protect you. I don’t allow my comrades to die.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

Zabuza landed behind them, somehow in the triangle her and her teammates had formed around Tazuna, with his blade angled for the kill. In a split second, Kakashi had Zabuza impaled on a kunai. How it was possible for people to move so quickly, she had no idea but the force with which Kakashi darted quite literally blew them all away so that they were all on the ground, with herself conveniently right next to Tazuna.

Zabuza himself was now bleeding water which gave away the fact that it was a clone. Another Zabuza (another clone? Or the real thing?) apparated behind Kakashi close enough that he was visible through the mist. Naruto shrieked for Kakashi’s attention to no avail as Zabuza’s sword sliced through him like a hot knife through butter. What gushed out of Kakashi’s severed torso, however, was not blood - it was water. Zabuza must’ve been close enough for the Sharingan to predict his movements and copy them. By now, she should’ve expected such a move.

In turn, it was Kakashi, Sharingan blazing, who appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai to his throat, besides the infamously delicate jugular vein. It looked like a checkmate situation, but she knew Zabuza wasn’t S-ranked for nothing and so she kept her guard firmly up.

“Don’t move,” Kakashi gritted out. “It’s over.” Sakura wished he would just get it over with and slit Zabuza’s throat already.

“Oh, you’re good at this. From the beginning, you were a clone, weren’t you and you hid yourself so you could find out what I was doing. You succeeded in distracting me. But, I’m no fool.”

Zabuza dissolved into water as another appeared behind Kakashi. The sword soared over Kakashi’s head and into the earth. Using the hilt to propel himself, Zabuza kicked Kakashi into the lake. Sakura’s breath hitched in her throat. The three genin had now made it back together and surrounded Tazuna. She could hear the sound of her blood rushing in her ears. Her kunai wavered in her grip as she attempted to slow her breathing. If it came down to it, she would have to hold her own against a jounin and she needed to be ready. Running through battle strategy in her head, she focused her eyes on the enemy and observed.

Flashing forward, Zabuza darted towards the water only skidding to a stop at the makibishi spikes that fell out of her pouch when she was flung away. He dived over them and into the water. For a moment, all was silent.

“Do you think-” Naruto started.

“Listen.” Sakura held up a hand to silence him. “Bubbles.” Slowly, bubbles rose to the surface along with Kakashi who was drenched. In an instant, Zabuza shot up and held his fingers in the snake hand seal. She knew exactly what he was doing. “Sensei, get out!” But it was too late. A sphere of glowing, blue water attached to Zabuza’s arm encased Kakashi, lifting him into the air effortlessly.

“All I have to do now is get rid of these three. Let’s see…” he hummed.

Water clones erected themselves from the water and began their approach. Sakura’s head spun from side to side only to see the boys frozen in place. Her nerves crept up on her, she became jittery, and she wanted nothing more than to run. This was nothing like the academy. Nothing like the mock missions they went on. Those were easy and she could ask for help or opt out at any time. Here, she was alone with three others in her position and none of them knew what to do. Here, she would fight or she would die. And she was terrified.

But there was no time for feelings. Feelings fuelled bad decisions and bad decisions would get her and her teammates killed. Only logic, strategy and survival. As a kunoichi, the objective was the mission - protect Tazuna. As a Konoha shinobi, the objective was to help her teammates when they needed it. As Haruno Sakura, failure was not an option. Here, she would fight or she would die.

“You three!” came Kakashi’s muffled voice from the prison. “Take Tazuna-san and run!” One look at Naruto and Sasuke should’ve been enough to tell him that they were adamant on staying, and, since the decision was unfortunately in Sasuke’s hands, she had no choice but to stay too.

Quickly, Sakura analysed the situation. Their strongest was down and that left the three of them to fend off at least three jounin level clones and protect the client. Very clearly, they were severely outclassed. The enemy’s only known weakness was that he had to stay still and the clones’ weaknesses were that one good blow would take them apart and that they were less intelligent. The smartest strategy would be to stay on the defensive until an opening arrived to free Kakashi.

“Naruto, how many bunshin can you make with less than half your reserve?” she shouted just loud enough for her teammates to hear but quiet enough to cover up the tremble in her voice.

“Uh, I dunno. A lot?”

“Good. Make a lot and get them all around Tazuna,” he nodded. “Sasuke?” Out of the corner of her eye she saw him stop and look.

“I’m taking point.” The three of them rotated into a pseudo-manji with Sasuke positioned at the front, Naruto and herself flanking the sides and Naruto copious amounts of kage bunshin filling in the gaps. Between them, they had three times the manpower and ring of people bunshin or otherwise circling Tazuna. This was good. But manpower didn’t beat skill.

Activating her sensing jutsu had already begun to ebb away at her reserves. Despite the fact she wasn’t as advanced as to identification through sensing, she could easily tell the overwhelming signatures were Naruto and his clones due to the… natural advantage he had over them, and that the smaller one was Sasuke and that the smallest was Tazuna’s.

“Sasuke, if you know any sensory techniques, I think now would be the time,” she commented.

“I don’t,” he gritted out. It was alright - she hadn’t expected him to.

“Nevermind then.”

“Sakura-chan… What do we do?” Naruto asked in a weak voice that was out of character for him. He looked at her expectantly waiting for instructions she had forgotten she was supposed to give and ones she hadn’t perfected in the slightest.

“We’ll get through this wave before we start thinking about anything else. Make sure you focus.” She sent him a weak smile meant to encourage him, though the mist was thickening and she could only see a few feet in front of her. None of the clones she had seen form had penetrated the mist yet or come within a range close enough for her to sense or see. It made her antsy - the anticipation for an attack was killing her. The tremble in her outstretched kunai alerted her of the adrenaline coursing through her yet the fight hadn’t even begun.

As she was contemplating, it was just a testament to her luck that two of the six ninja came her way. Before they cleared the distance, she powered through the Doton Kekkai: Dorō Dōmu making an earth dome come up and surround Tazuna obstructing her view of her teammates. It was a B-rank technique which drained her chakra down to it’s last few drops and that she would need to remain in contact with the ground for, but it was necessary to the mission’s success. Her shoulders sagged and her eyes were more inclined to close than to stare at the bright white of the mist but she steeled herself for the fight ahead. It was either that or die.

Her aim was perfect when she shot kunai at the incoming clones, but these were jounin and they dodged each one with admirable ease, putting on a show for nobody but herself and the few shadow clones. If she survived this, she thought miserably, she would like to learn how to do that. Whilst one of them diverted to take care of the barrage of Naruto’s bunshin, the first clone approached her from the side swinging at her with the cloned blade. At Inner’s command, she met the force with two kunai crossed and propped up against it. Arms trembling from the weight, she pushed off from the ground, catching the clone off guard. It stumbled a little and left a small opening for her to nick its side. Unfortunately, it remained intact. In response, it swung wide and clumsy, slamming the blunt side into her stomach. All the air left her lungs at the throbbing. She skidded away just as the clone dove in for the kill.

Rolling out of the way, a few flyaway strands of her hair were caught in the crossfire and were hacked off by the blade that sung through the air, landing in the dirt with a thud. She got away lucky.

The flow with which they attacked her was unnerving to say the least. Her time was spent dodging their rapid attacks rather than countering them since she scarcely had time to blink, let alone get a kunai out. Her breaths grew short and choppy and her muscles throbbed from the movement. It was only a matter of time before she slipped up and got hurt.

The next slice at her she dodged far enough for it to miss her head and for him to soar past her with the force of the swing. As she darted past him, she felt something sharp and forceful sink into her shoulder. Stunned, she let out a shrill scream but the adrenaline running through her was already numbing the pain of broken skin. The sensation of being stabbed with a blade was closest to being punched in a specific area with a substantial amount of force. It was so similar, in fact, that she didn’t register that she was actually hit by the sword until rivulets of blood ran down her shoulder and through her mesh shirt. At least it hadn’t hit an artery - she would count her blessings there.

“Sakura-chan!” she heard Naruto yell.

“It’s okay! I’m fine. Just keep going!” she reassured and took the resounding sound of metal clashing to mean that he took her advice.

Losing all sense of restraint and with white-hot pain clouding her vision, she barreled forwards, towards the clone and drove a kunai into its bare ribcage. triggering another bout of pain and aching from her abdomen which the adrenaline could not subdue.

She keeled over, clutching her shoulder. Pure luck had made it so she only had enough chakra accumulated to heal the surface, but anything to stop the blood loss would be sufficient and it wasn’t as if she knew how to heal stab wounds anyway. Pure bad luck, however, made it so that she forgot about the other clone up until it tried to run her through. Inner spurred her on, to move sideways and away from the blad which sung in the air. Again, the clone persisted, skidding to a stop and hurling the sword at her. She managed to bend over with the blade grazing her back from her right shoulder to her left hip. A lighter sort of pain spread through the expanse of her back; this wound she couldn’t heal with the little chakra she had left. She forced herself to her feet.

A glance towards her teammates told her they were too busy to help her as they were trying to hold their own as well. Sakura had never had their extraordinary stamina nor strength and, once, she had thought that it wouldn’t be so bad since her smarts were near prodigious… But intelligence was enough to make a strategy; it wasn’t enough to keep her body going against something so much stronger in a fight. It wasn’t enough to boost her chakra levels so she could heal herself. She needed to be more if she wanted to survive. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what she was.

Taking his time, the clone slowly walked to her. He dragged his sword along the ground. He knew she hadn’t a way out of this. Fight or flight, was the question. Inner growled from the depths of Sakura’s mind. Fight.

Stumbling through hand signs, she hit the ground with an open palm. The chakra drainage caused blinding pain and felt like her muscles were being shredded. Earth spikes spiralled up from the ground, just as far as she needed it to, no more no less. The clone exploded in a wave of cool water which splashed onto the open wound on her back.

The moment of brief victory was interrupted by the wave of nausea that came along with the blood loss and chakra exhaustion. Her eyes begged to shut but she shook herself to keep the sleep at bay. Her chest bindings had come loose so she busied herself with that whilst her teammates dealt with the other clones and she regained chakra. The sound of fighting gradually diminished and along came labored breaths and panting. Staggering to her feet, she walked around the dome using it as support.

“Sakura.” She jumped at the hand on her shoulder but it was Sasuke. “You’re bleeding.”

“Yes,” she huffed, watching as a couple of Naruto’s clones jumped into battle with the remaining clone that gave her much-needed respite for the time being. “But, I’ll be fine.” Turning, she surveyed his own injuries: a few scratches and a couple of non-lethal cuts.

“Sakura!” Naruto shouted and bounded over to her. “What happened?”

“What do you mean ‘what happened?’ I’ve been fighting too, silly,” she forced a laugh at his expression.

“I know that, Sakura-chan. But are you okay? That looks like it hurt a lot, dattebayo!”

“It does. But it’ll heal. Just tired... And you? Are you okay?” He nodded.

“Uh huh. Jus’ a couple o’ scratches.”

“You have a bunch of stubborn kids, don’t you, Hatake? Don’t they know they’ll never be ninja?” Enraged at this, Naruto charged head-on into the mist who batted him away like a stray leaf as Naruto flew into the ground at her feet. Had Sakura had any more energy, she would’ve screamed his name but instead she just groaned and hauled him up against the dome. “Look at you. So young and innocent. None of you are worthy of being called a ninja,” Zabuza remarked. Spitting out blood onto the ground, Naruto grinned in a way that suggested he had already won.

“Sasuke, c’mere,” he commanded. “I have a plan.”

“Would you look at that. The runt has a plan,” Zabuza laughed in crazed glee that echoed around them. “Go ahead. I’ll give you time.” Sakura gaped at his decision - what trained assassin would rather give their enemy time to think of a plan over ending the fight as soon as possible? Perhaps, he was just as insane as the rumors said.

“So, the plan?” she whispered, hoping it was a practical one and not the typical Naruto scheme. As the mist began to clear (another show of arrogance she noted), she could begin to see the faint silhouette of Zabuza in the distance.

“Oh, uh, Sakura-chan. I think you should stay with Tazuna-san. You look like you’re in a lotta pain, dattebayo…” Naruto offered.

“I’m fine. Yeah. I’m fine. Uh, just what do I have to do?”

“Oh, I didn’t need you ta do anything, dattebayo. All me and Sasuke need to do is get Kakashi-sensei out and that means pulling Zabuza away from that big ball o’ water. You should really sit down. You look pale and-”

“I said,” she breathed heavily, “I’m fine. Do you have a way of getting sensei outta there?” Sakura held her limp arm at a right angle to keep it supported so the pressure on her collarbone would alleviate. Naruto shook his head. “No, you...That’s suicide.”

“We’ll figure it out. Don’t you worry.” She racked her brain for a solution but her mind was fuzzy and she was too occupied by the giant wound in her back.

“No… We need to get Tazuna-san out of here. I’ll take him.”

“What? We can’t just run away like cowards, Sakura. We can’t do that!” Naruto hissed horrified at her.

“It’s not running away. We can get far enough away so that his clones can’t reach us and, uh... Okay. It’s not running away.” Sweat beaded on her forehead. Her breaths were choppier and her vision blurred further. “It’s not…”

“Tick, tock. Your time is running out!” they heard Zabuza croon with sinister glee.

“No. Listen. You’ll die. We’ll all die. Naruto please…”

“We are not running away,” Sasuke gritted out. Indignantly, she frowned. She’d expected the courage and bravery nonsense from Naruto who held the notion of chivalry far too close to his heart, but not Sasuke. She’d expected more from him, but what could she expect from someone who engaged in a ridiculous rivalry with her admittedly less-than-bright best friend.

“No,” she snapped. “You aren’t listening. Zabuza’s clones can only go so far so they can’t chase after Tazuna. The only option he would have is to release the jutsu on Kakashi - that’s why I’m telling you to do this.” She rounded on Naruto grabbing his shoulders and pulling him towards her. “Naruto, you have to listen. You have to understand.”

She didn’t want Naruto to get himself killed but, with the way he was going about this, death was a strong threat even for a jinchuuriki with rapid regeneration and almost a never ending supply of chakra. It made her want to pull her hair out.

“No, Sakura-chan. We can’t.” Ripping himself out of her grip, he ran towards Zabuza with a kunai outstretched in front of him.

“Naruto!” Staggering after him, she crumpled to the ground with a hand on her wound that had reopened producing copious amounts of blood. Her eyes blurred and it had only just occurred to her that she hadn’t closed the gash on her back at all. Sasuke caught her arm and helped her to the dome so she could lean on the structure. Darkness began to creep in on her in her peripherals. “Wait!” But Naruto was already engaging in another wave of clones.

“Stay here, Sakura. I’ll go,” Sasuke said and he raced off to join him in the crossfire, leaving Sakura - nauseous, scared and angry Sakura - by herself in a ring with what remained of Naruto’s clones.

====

“Mebuki-san! You home yet?” Shiro shouted as he thudded his fist against the rickety door. “Sakura-chan wanted me to tell you she’ll be out for a couple o’ weeks for a mission.” There was no reply. Did Mebuki really dislike him enough to ignore him? “You in there? Hello? I know you got off work early today! I’m coming in, alright?” He rattled the door handle obnoxiously, gaining him a nasty look from the woman with too-dark hair exiting her apartment next door in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

“Don’t mind me,” he laughed nervously with a hand rubbing his neck. “Just left something in here. Gotta get it back.”

“Aren’t you a little young for Mebuki?” she said, raising an eyebrow as she locked her own door. It took him a moment to see what she was getting at.

“No! No, no. That’s not… I’m friends with her daughter,” he rushed but what came out of his mouth sounded better in his head. The woman looked him up and down.

“We thinking about the same girl here? Bout this high, pink hair and green eyes?” He nodded however her eyebrow dipped and her face formed a scowl. “Aren’t you a little old for her?”

“Oh Sage, no! I teach her stuff!” he scrambled to correct, waving his hands about.

“So you’re her teacher? That’s just worse. Get outta here freak before I call someone to beat the hell outta you! I don’t wanna see you anywhere near her and I’ll be telling her mother about this too!” she hissed as she brandished her key in front of her. “Leave. Now.” As much as Shiro wanted to ignore her, he couldn’t help but think she was the type to make good on her word and potentially maim him and, since he was a shinobi, he couldn’t fight back.

“Look, I ain’t any sorta pervert if that’s what you think. Far from it. I really just do need to get in and talk to Mebuki - who I think may be ignoring me - about her daughter. But out of it woman,” he grunted and went back to rattling the door handle and picking at the lock causing it to swing open. He sighed - he would have to tell Mebuki to install better locks for her door. “Mebuki-san, I’m coming in!”

“Wait! You can’t just go in, you freak!” she shouted, chasing him into the house.

“I sure can.” He bee-lined straight for the kitchen and upon seeing that it was dark and empty, he called out again now more skeptical. “Mebuki-san?”

She was meant to be here: he had checked at the hospital and with her friends himself who had told him she was heading home after getting groceries and he had checked all the grocery stores too. To top it all off, he had a mission to head to in about ten minutes. It was either he found her in here, or he would leave a note anyways.

He made his way to the first room on the right - Mebuki’s room - and held his ear up to the door and heard nothing.

“What’re you doing?” the woman who had followed him piped up, tapping her foot in an irritating rhythm against the floor.

“Listening.”

“I thought you elite ninja types could sense people? Although, you don’t seem like much to me,” she snarked quietly as she folded her arms at him.

“I would but I’m conserving energy for my mission which is in about five minutes so if you would just shut up-” She held up a hand.

“I heard something in Sakura’s room-” Before she had the chance to finish, he shoved past her, taking to large strides and swinging open the door of Sakura’s bedroom. It was a mess. Apart from the usual peeling, pink paint, everything was a mess: the futon was upturned, the closet ransacked, the tattered plushies and books strewn about and the window hanging open. He raced towards the window, sticking his head out to see nothing outside.

“What the hell is this?” Shiro scoffed whilst throwing his arms up.

“Robbery, most likely. Looks like a break-in,” she nodded at the window, “but I can’t tell if anything’s been taken. Think we might’ve scared ‘em off.”

He was taken aback.

“You’re a quick thinker, aren’t you?” He narrowed his eyes at her shifting.

“No, I’m not. Have you forgotten where we are? Break-ins are all too common,” she huffed at him in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“What the sage is going on?” a familiar sharp voice hissed from the doorway. There in all her glory was a disheveled Mebuki hauling two grocery bags in each arm and a vicious look on her face. “Somebody explain now before I end up hurting someone.”

“Well-”

“Uh-”

The pair looked at each other before Shiro decided to speak again.

“Well, we think there may have been a break-in,” he offered, rubbing a hand on the back of his skull. Mebuki’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, I think I gathered that much myself,” she almost growled. “Now, is someone going to give me an explanation of why two people have broken into my home and are standing in my daughter’s trashed room?”

Chapter Text

Sasuke watched on as the wood lodged in between Sakura’s teeth splintered as she dug into it and groaned at the antiseptic searing into the gash on her back and the needle threading its way through raw skin and flesh. Rivulets of antiseptic ran down her back in streams, soaking the futon underneath her. Eyes scrunched up, her groans wavered. She was slipping in and out of consciousness.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t knock you out?” Sasuke huffed, struggling to hold her back in place as she twitched involuntarily. His own fingers burned at the sensation of gripping her shoulder for such a long time. Of course, in Sasuke’s opinion, she was certainly melodramatic. How could she call herself a shinobi if she fell at a single stab wound? Another reason this team was slowing him down.

“Shut up, teme. She already said no,” Naruto said, loud and obnoxious as ever.
Tsunami smeared a pale green salve that smelt very strongly of the earth over the stitched wound and plastered a bandage over it. The woman sighed using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat off her brow.

“Done, Sakura-san,” Tsunami chirped, “You can sit up now.”

Unscrewing her eyes (he wasn’t sure when exactly she had shut them), she blinked rapidly at the lights above her. She was almost hit immediately by Naruto who glomped her in a hug that would’ve put pressure on her wounds but Kakashi stuck out his crutch and tripped him up just in time for him to faceplant. Unsurprisingly, this elicited a snicker from Sasuke.Tsunami removed the chunk of wood from her mouth pulling strings of saliva to which she flushed. Finally pulling away from her back, Sasuke approached the outstretched futon opposite her own and collapsed on it.

“The last of the doctors left last month so I’m sorry if it scars.” With his own elbows propping him up, he began to flick off the caked-on dirt onto the tatami mat.

“No,” she rasped, “it’s more than I could’ve asked for. I should thank you for that, Tsunami-san.” Her head dipped as low as she could manage. Amidst all the damage and chaos, he hadn’t lost sight of Tsunami’s kindness when she had peeled the pink-haired girl off of Naruto’s back and carried her into the room to help. Kakashi himself had just barely been awake, himself being thrown on one of Naruto’s kage bunshin although he had to admit he was more focused on his own condition. Nevertheless, Tsunami had done her a favour and it would’ve been wrong of her to ignore that (even if Sasuke himself wouldn’t have had the graciousness to thank her, but, then again, he wasn’t the sort of reckless to let himself fall into this state).

“Ano…” Tsunami bowed and blushed deeply in a way that suited her delicate, maternal nature, reminding him of, surprisingly, his mother who was anything but delicate. He shook away those thoughts as soon as they came. The time for mourning was gone; it was time for vengeance. “Thank you for your kind words. I’ll be back with more bedding and clean clothes. Tou-san, I’ll set you up next door.” The stern look she gave the elder man indicated that he hadn’t an option to refuse, so, with a groan from his throat and groans from his joints, he rose to follow.

As Sakura grew more and more weary, she jumped in a start. She shuffled through her bag after the woman left and pulled out pajamas and set them on the cover as she struggled to get up and hobble towards the half-open shoji doors.

“Do you need help, Sakura-chan?” Naruto said. He leapt to his feet to steady her but she shrugged him off. “Sakura-chan…”

“I can do it myself.” She was sharp with her tone and even sharper with her glare but it fell to nothing when her knees buckled beneath her. The blond darted to help her, but, even in her questionable state, she didn’t fail to bat him away. Wordlessly, Naruto ambled over to Sasuke who pulled his futon out of the way just as Naruto was about to land on it.

“Mou, that wasn’t very nice Sasuke-kun,” Kakashi said, fake pouting. Sasuke had almost forgotten he was her since he was face down on a futon of his own and had suffered chakra exhaustion from using a Sharingan that wasn’t his. Yes, he had almost forgotten that rather jarring piece of information. “Let Naruto sit.” He ignored that. Kekkei Genkai thieves didn’t get to tell him what to do.

“Maybe, I’ll just take a nap first, yeah?” Sakura breathed with her eyes fluttering shut finally and her head hitting the pillow with a muffled thud. Her mouth fell open as she dozed off. Was it the painkillers - who knew? Moreover, who cared?

“Seeing as Sakura’s not awake now-” Kakashi began but Naruto cut through.

“What about her?” It was instantaneous the way Naruto sprung to her defence in a way he could only compare to a guard dog. So close in resemblance was the sight that it almost made him break into a laugh, if he wasn’t preoccupied with the dilemma of choosing to gouge Kakashi’s eye out in his sleep or holding him hostage until he had a good explanation as to why Hatake Kakashi - a non-Uchiha - had a Sharingan.

“I haven’t finished. Now that she’s asleep we won’t have to worry her when I say Zabuza might not - definitely not, actually - be dead.” There was pin-drop silence.

There were no birds to greet her awakening so early in the morn and no light in the same vein. Pitch-black and silent was the small room she was laying in, nestled between Naruto and Kakashi and lined with sweat from an indecipherable mixture of the heat of the oncoming summer, no air-conditioning and uncleaned bodies besides her causing her to grimace. The humidity in the air stuck to her like a bad smell and stuck her to the sheets.

Pulsating pain in her shoulder, however, had greeted her like an old enemy when she first came back to consciousness. Whatever herbal remedy Tsunami had administered had worked well enough for her to fall asleep but not to last through the night, but, the more she stared out of the window, the more she saw the beginnings of a new day so she hauled herself upright. Overnight, her chakra reserves had been rejuvenated and she could afford to expend a little to numb the agony in her shoulder and her back, which didn’t hurt as much in comparison. This allowed her to push off the sheets and push up ignoring the creak of her joints and groan in her muscles.

An hour later, Sakura emerged from the bathroom with half washed hair (who knew she needed both arms to wash her hair?) and one grimy back because she wasn’t too sure how the bandage would remain intact. Her shoulder had started throbbing half way through so her bathing time had been cut short; even if her shoulder hadn’t begun to ache, Naruto’s consistent thudding on the door forced her to leave early.

“Sakura-chan! Are you alright? Why are you taking so long? I need to pee! Can I come in?” he had chattered through the door just as she was caught between contemplating the defeat of Zabuza. A blade to his neck happened to be the last vague memory she had of him whilst conscious: the rest - including a young boy with an affinity for senbon and lies - may as well have been an elaborate hallucination. She still had a hard time telling those apart.

“Go pee outside!” she said whilst scrubbing the dirt off of her midriff. Soap suds dripped onto the bathroom floor made up of cracked ceramic reminiscent of her own bathroom back home.

“Don’t be so mean to me!” he shouted right back and she thought she could tell his mouth was pressed up to the door. “I thought we were best friends!” Her mouth dropped. Obliviousness was one of the things she found endearing about him and yet…

After she had pulled on her clothes, she pulled open the door stopping Naruto mid knock. He threw her a big grin before rushing in. Pushing forward, she placed a hand on the wall and hobbled over to her own futon flopping down on it. Sasuke was wide awake on top of his futon and somehow equipped with a deeper frown and harsher scowl than she had remembered him having. It surprised her to see Kakashi awake, dressed and smiling brightly at her; she had thought he would be the type to sleep until noon.

“Morning, Sakura-chan,” he said.

“Good morning, sensei,” she returned but without the put on smile. “Sasuke-san,” she added begrudgingly. He returned the greeting with a nod.

“How’s the cut?”

“It’s…” It hurt, for one, but pills and salves could only last so long before the pain faded back into existence. “Alright. Better than it could be given the circumstances.”

“That’s reassuring to hear. We’ll be getting on with training today so you can just sit back, relax and let yourself heal. How does that sound?”

“Training? Already?” Her eyes widened. She had anticipated a short break given the fact that Zabuza had been dealt with. Why now?

“Yes.” Kakashi made a sound dancing on the fine line between a laugh and a sigh. Instantly, she straightened her back and narrowed her back and Sasuke hurried out of the room. “Now, about that… Take a seat, Sakura-chan.”

All in all, it hadn’t surprised her as much as it frustrated her when she was told her hallucination was not, in fact, a hallucination. A young boy masquerading as a hunter-nin had put Zabuza in a near death state with a cleverly placed senbon, matching her memories exactly. Although, she didn’t quite manage to comprehend how a seasoned jounin glossed over astoundingly obvious flaws in common protocol when the boy failed to dispose of Zabuza on the spot. Was Kakashi too tired to take out a twelve-year-old? Maybe. (Unlikely.)

"You let him get away," she seethed as quietly as she could.

"Yes. It happens." Yes, she wanted to say, it happens when you aren't a world-renowned jounin. Especially since she saw right through it the moment he said it. Disappointing would've been an understatement.

“So, you lost the chance to kill Zabuza to a boy my age. And you want to train Sasuke and Naruto,” Naruto, the one who was overflowing with chakra and severely lacking in control, Naruto who went all or nothing in every aspect of life, “to walk up a tree using only chakra? I don’t mean to be disrespectful but shouldn’t we work on teamwork. I’m not sure they’ll need chakra training when we don’t have enough time to learn new jutsu. Perhaps, we can do other things like-”

“Sakura,” Kakashi deadpanned. “Don’t forget who the team leader is, okay? Let me do my job.”

Sakura felt her face burn and her jaw clench. Again, she was being overbearing without it being her intention. All throughout the academy, she had had Iruka and Mizuki (yes, traitor Mizuki) breathing down her neck because one too many people complained that she was bossing them around when she had just wanted to get things done right, whilst Kiba got to be as bossy as he liked and he was called a great leader. They had never managed to wring that trait out of her as she assumed they would’ve liked. She was lucky Shiro wasn’t the type to care about her ‘bossiness’.

“I apologise, sensei.” She dipped into a bow, in spite of herself. “I shouldn’t doubt you.”

“Don’t worry, Sakura. All is forgiven.” He ruffled her hair in true Kakashi fashion and took her to breakfast.

Breakfast concluded with natto and rice and a challenge from Naruto and a scoff from Sasuke. The four of them left into the forest dressed ready for training even though they were climbing trees today. It was sunny today as it should be in summer and more humid than it usually was in Konohagakure since they were situated on a small island.The mesh of her shirt provided cool respite with a cool, salty breeze on her torso but her thighs chafed in the shorts she donned and the bandage soaked up sweat like a sponge. Flyaway hairs stuck to the back of her neck even though it was looped up in a bun.

After a brief explanation from Kakashi on tree climbing, he promised whoever made it to the top first would get extra training from him. Of course, she was the first one up the tree and of course Kakashi had turned her success into fuel for the boys instead of praising her. Of course, his promise hadn’t been extended to her at all. Incentive for the boys, he explained, as if she couldn’t already tell. Then, he left her with a suggestion to guard Tazuna at the bridge before leaving for the house.

But she didn’t because she had her own training to get to. A short way away from where Naruto and Sasuke trained, there was a smaller clearing with a small pond which was the perfect place for her. This was where she was going to train.

The next three days she spent one foot in front of the other, regulating her chakra flow according to the surface tension of the water. Water-walking was a fickle thing even on static water. Only shinobi of Kirigakure had ever been known to master the art but she would consider herself pretty damn close. It was always a matter of chakra control with these things. Cross-legged, she focused on her tenketsu. The cool flush of activated chakra felt like entering a warm house after being outside in the snow. She felt the thrum of life in the trees and little critters hidden in the undergrowth akin to what a natural sensor may feel except with plenty more margin for error largely less detailed.

Once she felt the meditation was sufficient for one day, she got started on the physical aspects. First came the mandatory stretching which was the precursor to the run she was planning. Admittedly, the run was slightly harder with her current injuries but she completed it in just below average timing and heaving more than usual. After came the drills. Her fists and feet beat into the trees for hours before she took note of the blistering and skinned knuckles so, instead of causing more damage, she moved onto katas ignoring the ripping pain in her body. She had to be prepared for the next time Zabuza struck.

On the third day, after training, the first few drops of rain splashed over her skin at the same time thunder clapped. Warm yellow became grey overcasting the forest and the heat became a sticky coolness mingling with her sweat. It was only then she made her way back through the path she treaded. On her way, she entered the clearing she left the boys in. She half-expected Sasuke and Naruto to still be there training since they were both hopeless and refused her help consistently but what she saw was Naruto and someone with long hair picking flowers. Inner leapt into full force sending the alarms blaring in her head warning for danger; but Inner did that for things as harmless as the color red so Sakura reigned her in on a leash.

It was ten minutes before the stranger made to leave and Naruto turned to her. Like a toddler, he ran at her and hooke his arms around her neck pulling his face into her neck. His sweat was stronger than hers given that he was wearing a jumpsuit and it was more potent in the fabric. She was fairly certain she could still smell the ramen on it.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! I missed you, dattebayo, since we've been busy with training! What did you do today?"

"Who were you with just then?" she said instead of answering the question starin at the spot the stranger was standing in just seconds ago. It was a peculiar occurrence that a civilian be picking flowers this far out into the woods but perhaps it could be a cultural difference. After all, she only had a limited amount of knowledge of the inner workings in foreign countries.

"Oh just a girl…" He blushed. "I helped her pick flowers." He wrung his fingers like Hinata did around him. Just a girl? “She’s kinda pretty… Really pretty… But not prettier than you, dattebayo!”

"Where's Sasuke?" Naruto's mood soured grunting at her.

"Mou, who cares about teme when you got me? I'm so close to getting to the top of the tree, 'ttebayo! I think I should stay until I get it right." Pumping his balled fist into the air. “Will you stay with me?”

"No. You need dinner." She grabbed his wrist and turned him to the general direction of the house. Raindrops fell heavier still battering her bare skin.

Unfortunately, Naruto had a habit of training until he dropped (which was rare given his… situation) and cursed himself for it when he did. No matter how many times she tried to drill into him that, yes, food, water and sleep were necessary for survival, he would turn up at the training grounds every day and work himself to death. It was even more unfortunate she was occupied with her own sensei to stop him from working himself into the ground.

"Sakura~! Why are you ignoring everything I say?" Sulking, he drove his heels into the ground when she tried to pull him along dredging up mud onto both her and his shins.

"I'm not." Was she? She hadn’t intended to but the remaining irritation at his recklessness lingered every time she looked at him.

"Are you mad at me? Is it the rice cake I stole from you back home? I thought we were alright after I got you a new one?” he whined at her, pouting fiercely. She huffed and pulled him onto the path with the house in sight.

"It's not that." He stopped them and shook her about.

"Then, tell me!"

"Remember the fight against Zabuza? Do you remember saying anything? Doing anything that could maybe, possibly offend me?" she snapped at him, tilting her head and scowling.

"Ano… I'm not sure I know what you're talking about…" Naruto’s face formed into a puppy like expression to which she felt her heart wrench. It reminded her of the face he made whenever especially spiteful adults blamed him for inconveniences they faced despite his best efforts to be nice to them.

"Do you remember calling me a coward? Ignoring my foolproof plan and almost getting yourself killed? Any of that strike you as familiar?" she continued, this time in a softer voice.

"Now that you say that, I can kinda sorta remember some of that…" he nodded slow.

"Yeah. Well."

"But, Sakura-chan! That was ages ago! I thought you forgot already, 'ttebayo! How was I supposed to know you' d get so upset?"

”Yeah. Well.” Suddenly, he dropped to the ground, pressing his forehead to the ground in the sincerest way.

"I'm sorry Sakura! I shouldn't have called you that. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings but I really did mean it when I said I didn't wanna run away." Hearing his sniffles, she pulled on his collar to get him to his feet and led him to the cover of a tree. Shoulder to shoulder, they sat down with Naruto still murmuring apologies.

"I know you didn't. But maybe next time you shouldn't rush off without a plan anyways." Rolling his head onto her shoulder, he sighed.

"I know. But I can't help it."

"Sure you can. How about a deal? You listen to my full plan, I listen to yours and we work together for a new one?" Straightforward and simple enough for Naruto to follow. Hopefully.

"But you know how I am. I'm... too much of me, you know?" Dejected, he sat up straighter and looked away from her and to the ground. He began to pluck the grass from the earth in clumps.

"Sure you are. But I don't think that's bad. You're a bit out of balance on the brains to brawn scale but we have time to learn. That's normal. That's good," she said lightly. "I'm like that too but my scale is way worse since my brains are way more advanced than my body." A painful truth to admit out loud, to be sure but if it helped Naruto, it was worth it.

"Really?" She nodded.

"Huh. You're right! I knew you were my best friend for a reason." He hugged her again, making her snicker.

"Which is?"

"You're so smart, dattebayo. And pretty." He counted them off his fingers.

"Wow. Thanks."

"And you're super strong. And kinder than Ino pig -"

"Oi."

"It's true. And you're really cool. And hard-working. And you pay for my ramen sometimes. And-"

"Alright, I get it. I accept your apology."

"Thank you, Sakura-chan. I promise I won't do it again."

"Alright."

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes in peace despite the rain pouring down around them. It was a nice change from the unbearable heat she had become acclimated to in Konoha and a relaxing sensation to smell the rain hit the ground. Well. It was until she smelled something potent and - mildly put - revolting. She clutched her nose in one hand and her voice came out nasally.

“Did you fart?” Naruto started giggling so she shoved him with her free hand into the tree. “You idiot!”

Dinner that evening was an affair in and of itself. Since arriving at the house, Sasuke and Kakashi hadn't said so much as a word to one another and the tension when they were both in the same room was suffocating. Dinner time was always an interesting period of the day. Today, of course, was no exception. Personally, Sakura had no interest in the little spat going on as long as it didn't affect their performance. Clearly, Naruto had other ideas.

"Hey, Teme! Why you always looking like that at sensei for, huh? What's your deal?" Sasuke's chopsticks clattered to the table and silenced the whole room. Goosebumps prickled at her skin.

"Maybe you should ask Kakashi," he hissed coolly. So it was that. A fight over Kekkei Genkai. She knew what it must've looked like: a Kekkei Genkai theft left unaccounted for, practically treasonous and almost a punch in the face for the last Uchiha. But Shiro hadn't let her go without telling her the bare minimum on how Kakashi got the eye. So, no, it wasn't theft but she'd hate to be the one to explain that to him.

“Inari, go play in your room,” Tsunami grabbed Inari by the wrist and ushered him away. “You too, Tou-san.” Tazuna took the hint and hobbled out of the room

.”But ma-”

“I’m coming too so don’t complain.” The two left the room quietly.

“Sasuke, I’ve already told you-” Kakashi tried.

“That it’s confidential? I heard you the first time.”

“Then, you should understand-”

“I do. And I haven’t changed my mind.” Their eyes locked in a stalemate, a fiery glare from Sasuke and stern stare from Kakashi only broken by the loud eating of Naruto.

“Uh, guys, I don’t get it,” Naruto mumbled. “What’s confifential?”

“Confidential,” Sakura murmured, “and it’s not our business.”

“Yeah it is. We’re all in the same team so I wanna know what they know,” he whined and slammed his hands flat on the table. “Come on, teme! Tell us!” Sakura pushed around food on her plate, uninterested until she heard the laboured breathing of Sasuke and looked up to see the small tremble in his balled fist and the hardness of his eyes. “Hey, teme, hurry up and tell us, ‘cause I’m getting bored here!” Sasuke’s eyes fixed onto the wall ahead of him. “Teme!”

“Naruto, finish your food. Me and Sasuke are heading out for a bit,” Sakura whispered, setting her chopsticks down and placing a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. He shoved it off as soon as her fingertips touched the clothes on his back. “Let’s go.” The chair screeched against the floor and toppled to the ground when he got up and stormed to the door and slammed it on the way out. She sighed. “We’ll be back in a bit. Don’t wait for us.”

Outside, the rain was faltering into a thin drizzle but they were shielded by the porch roof. The sun had dipped below the horizon so all that was left was the afterglow of dusk and the peaceful chirruping of the crickets with whom she half-wished she could trade places with. Beside her, Sasuke breathed heavily with his eyes trained on the floor. She almost felt sympathy for him.

“Inoichi said fresh air is good for people like us,” she said. “He also says it’s sometimes good to talk about things, but that one’s up for debate.”

Silence.

“What did Kakashi do?”

“He stole the Sharingan,” he sneered before she had the chance to breathe. “He stole the Sharingan and he’s getting away with it.”

“How do you know he stole it?” she said before she could regret it.

“You think an Uchiha would simply give him his eye?” he scoffed.

“Well, yes. That’s what I heard.” Air caught in Sasuke’s throat.

“What?”

“I’m sure this is classified but… I heard from a jounin he was friends with an Uchiha on his team who was dying with half his body crushed or something like that. And, well, it was on foreign land during a war so I suppose the Uchiha wanted Kakashi to take his good eye and put it to use before an enemy nation stole it,” she said. Again, she was met with silence but a form of silence that was calmer and yet just as tense as before. Sasuke had his shoulders down but his neck bent forward and his hands in fists balled so tight his fleshed turned white. It felt sour in her mouth knowing she had promised Shiro to keep it a secret but, at the same time, if the last Uchiha himself couldn’t know, why could she?

“Hn,” he hummed. “And you’re sure?”

“No. Not really. But if it’s any consolation he pointed out that his teammates had their names on the memorial stone. One of the ones he pointed at was an Uchiha.” It was the same stone her father was engraved on so she had had the misfortune of having the opportunity to read the names in her spare time.

“What was he called?” he whispered sounding more tired and world-weary than she ever thought he could be.

“Uchiha Obito, if I remember correctly,” and she knew she did, “and he died at thirteen.” The notion of such a young death didn’t strike as much sadness in her as it would have done her mother, only because Shiro conditioned her to be careful for this very reason.

“I recognise the name.” As the rain petered out, the silence enveloped them like a rigid suit or one of the heavy kimonos Ino let her borrow for formal occasions at the compound. It weighed on them not uncomfortably but just enough to know it was there and for the pair to sit with their backs straight but their heads down in the darkness around them.

When they went back in, Sakura felt the eyes of Kakashi trained on the back of her head.

Chapter Text

It was quiet in the compound, as it usually was on sunny weekends. Shikamaru hadn’t encountered a single Nara who would unnecessarily get up early anyway. Instead, he was the only one awake and sat in his bedroom using the shadows to pull his mobile pinboard forward. It was littered with so many papers and pinned strings it made his eyes want to close and made him want to crawl back into his bed.

A lot of it was virtually meaningless. Three missing persons reports he’d taken out of Shikaku’s files after he was done with them; an account he’d collected from a child in the orphanage detailing the spontaneous adoption of their friend; a sample of mud left behind from a footprint, the results of testing came back as the chemical make up of the rocks found in the Iwa mountains. Apart from the random, three things stood out to him as important.

A map, a note and a photograph.

A map of Konohagakure with the routes of the subject regularly made at the early hours of the day. Relevant and of some use. A note the subject dropped (intentionally? It felt a little too lucky a find): at first glance empty, but upon further investigation, protected by genjutsu and a further barrier of some of the most complex fuinjutsu he had the misfortune of laying eyes upon. To preserve his well being, he refrained from tampering with it in fear of it backfiring. Lastly, a photograph - taken by yours truly - of the subject moving but it came out blurry even in the subject’s stillest moment. All of which were directly relevant to the subject but somehow got him no closer to… whatever he was trying to find.

The problem was linking them together. The missing persons reports and the orphan being ‘adopted’ spontaneously? Easy - abduction of kids and bribes to poor wardens to keep quiet. The map routing? Meant subject met several people in his time. Was this conclusive evidence or believable at all? Not in the slightest. A sealed note? What could that prove other than the subject was a highly-skilled fuinjutsu user or was working with one? Other than that, he would have to get a fuinjutsu user to reverse engineer it and the only ones in the village worked directly under the Hokage. The Iwa soil was certainly no more functional a piece of evidence.

And evidence for what? What was Nara Shikamaru trying to prove by tracking somebody throughout the night with no concrete evidence the subject was doing anything incriminating? What was the aim - the objective? He didn’t know. And that was the problem.

For once in his life, Nara Shikamaru didn’t know.

A week and a day later, Sakura found herself with a healed back accelerated by the unrefined addition of healing chakra, a still-sore stab wound in her shoulder and Sakura found herself patrolling the bridge as per Kakashi’s particularly demanding suggestion. She circled the perimeter keeping her chakra pulsing out for anything out of the ordinary for the sixth and last time that hour. The only difference there was this patrol was that she set up some traps around the perimeter that, in all actuality, would only be able to trap a rabbit. It was fortunate that she didn’t expect any mishaps since Zabuza should have still been out of commission. To finish the round, she circled back and plastered her chakra-coated feet to the underside of the bridge avoiding the construction beams and came up around the end. Evidently, there was no current threat despite Hatake’s ministrations and she had no intentions of circling the build site for twelve hours if she could help it. Not when there were other things to be done - like train.

“Heya!” said a tall-ish man with a scraggly beard and missing front teeth. “Nice seein’ a young lass like you around to help. Am Raiden - like the thunder god. Suits me, dun it?” She didn’t know what to say. “Aye, well, that one over there, the fat one, yes - smells like the sewers most days, but he’s nice enough - his name’s Hideki. Eiji’s the kid with red hair and the green scraps of clothing. The one with the patch and the scar on his head - see, he’s bald, right over there - he’s called Ichiro but jus’ call him Patch. And Kaori is over there with the red fleece on and blonde hair. She’s prickly at first but I’ve a feeling she’ll like you just fine.” Raiden took to pointing out with a slightly uncomfortable but clearly well-meaning hand on her shoulder. “Wha’s your name?”

“Ano...” She looked around the bridge for an idea. “Hana..” she said, her eyes finally landing on a flower growing out of a crack in the cement, “...ko. Hanako.”

She tightened her chest wrap and jogged over to the pile of metal beams where a few men were struggling. Wrapping her arms around one beam she pulled it cleanly off the pile almost buckling under the weight. The burn in her arms mimicked the burn when Shiro had once made her catch a boulder (if you asked her, the punishment outweighed the crime whilst Shiro would beg to differ) so she practised now what she did then. She bent her knees to acquire a thicker stance and pumped fine strings of chakra into her arms already feeling better for it. It ran through each strand of her muscles like chains of steel. It was all too easy to haul it to where the worker directed it. Mutterings both of awe and incredulousness followed her as well as the side-eyes and open staring. Sakura felt indifferent

For an hour, it was back and forth between two areas before she was called to another spot to break open a delivery. Hooking a crowbar under an edge, she heaved and pushed but the crowbar snapped on her before the seal could break. Then, she used her hand which caused more problems in the form of splinters lodged in her hand. A twitch formed in her eye.

“Can’t you just - I dunno - punch it?” somebody said. “That’s what ninja do right?”

“I could but I might break what’s inside.”

“You won’t break it - trust me. It's just some tools,” he said. “Go on.” Tentatively, she looked at the box and her fist. Would she even be able to make a dent in it? She pulled back and threw the fist forwards only to make miniscule indentation in the wood. Her watchers laughed. “Bloody ninja.” She punched again. And again. “Bloody hell, girl. Give it a rest.”

Suddenly, she had a thought. An interesting one. She threaded chakra into her arms wrapping it so it felt stiff and angry bunched up in a fist and slammed it into the box. It went through without much resistance, in the shape of her fist. No more, no less. She hadn’t realised she could use her chakra to do that. Though, she supposed, chakra theory and practicality considered, it did make sense. If she could reinforce her muscles with chakra, then it made sense that it would also strengthen her punches. But there was something else.

“Do you have another box that needs opening? Or punching?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” As she reinforced her muscles again she piled up more chakra in her fist and punched forwards, consciously releasing it on contact. It broke the same way. Perhaps it was the release of chakra on impact that caused the breakage rather than the reinforcement of muscles. “Want some more to, uh, open?”

“Yes, please.” She gave them a brazen smile as her fist broke through another one.

It was a long afternoon of carrying large beams back and forth and breaking boxes for her and they went far past noon without a break in the works. Quiet chatter fell among them as they worked past lunch and well into the afternoon. A break finally rolled around as Sakura finally felt an ache in her muscles and they worked to set up a ring of seating and brought out a crate of cheap sake. Each of them took a bottle, bar Sakura, who refused after much insistence.

“You, Hanako. I’ll bet my swordhand-”

“You don’t have a swordhand, Patch,” Eiji snarked.

“Shut it, you. As I was saying, you wanna know how I got this scar, don’t you?” He pointed to the scar down his cheek, disappearing under his patch.

“Oh he’s doing it again. He’s always doing this with the new ones. No-one wants to hear about your fight with shark, Patch,” Hideki cackled.

“Especially when it never happened,” Kaori snickered.

“Shut it, shitheads. I’m telling her anyways. Basically, I went fishing with my kid, a couple of years back. He was only two then and he had a habit of wandering off whenever I wasn’t looking. I only looked away for a second to get the bait out and, lo and behold, I look back and he was gone! You can imagine my terror when I find him in the ocean with a shark swimming towards him like-” he pulled a face and stuck his hands on his back to mimic a fin eliciting laughs all around.

“The water’s not clear enough to see that. Might wanna check some details before spouting ‘em like that,” Raiden said, swirling the sake. “Get to the point.”

“I was getting there. So, I was running towards him and I have my fishing rod with me so I use it to shove into the shark’s head like this,” he paused to mime it but nobody laughed. “Not even a smile? Moving on. So I grab my boy outta the way and throw him onto the shore and I turn around just as the shark was grabbing my leg. He pulled me into the water and lunged for my head and grabbed it in its jaws but I used my rod to stab it in the gills until it bled and yanked my head out of its mouth, pulling the teeth out with it, losing my eye and I killed it with a final hit to the head!” He finished standing up with a wild look in his eye and a scary grin illuminated by a lantern. Hideki shoved his arm away from him and Patch stumbled, sniggering reminding her of the blue-eyed boy training back at the house.

“Wow,” Kaori said dryly, sipping on the sake. “Gets more underwhelming every time you tell it.”

“Well? Whaddya think Hanako-chan?” Raiden said nonchalant. “Believable?”

“Oh,” she jumped out of her sleepy stupor, having been directly included for the first time. “Believable? Uh, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“See? The kid knows what’s up.” Hideki clapped a hand on her back, juddering her enough to spill a little bit of the water in her half-empty cup.

“But it could’ve happened. I wasn’t there to see it after all. Was your son okay?”

“Yeah he was fine. Perfectly healthy… Actually, he doesn’t really eat his greens as often as he should but we can’t help that.” He shrugged before taking a long swing of the alcohol.

“We’re lucky if we can get a bloody carrot in our dinner at all, let alone get our hands on anything green,” Kaori scoffed.

“What do you mean?” She wasn’t surprised at the poverty in the village but they had fields - she saw them - and surely, it couldn’t be that bad.

“I mean the doctors skipped town ages ago - lucky bastards - and off with them went our source of medicine. I’m not too sure myself what they're coming down with but there’s not many of them doing the farm work and that means food is expensive, ‘specially veg and that.” A series of short nods and quiet sighs echoed amongst them.

“Yeah, and I heard from me ma who heard from me cousin who heard from her sister that the old geezer that’s runnin this place tipped summat into the earth to make it stop growing stuff. Course, I dunno how true that is,” Eiji said with his head up, eyes only a sliver more melancholy compared to the gleam they held.

“Aye, but I wouldn’t put it past that money-laundering piece o’ shit.” Raiden pulled his brows into a frown and grumbled to himself, slumping over.

“I’m sorry for bringing that up,” she said shifting on the crate she was sitting on. “Didn’t mean to ruin the mood.”

“Hey, don’t you worry, lass. We’ll make do. We always have and always will. Things’ll only get better after we get that bridge up.” Raiden smiled at her, showing a couple of his missing teeth.

“And cheers to that!” Patch yelled and hoisted his bottle into the air. The group clinked their glasses together with sake (and water) flinging onto them from the impact. Eiji squealed at the liquid landing in his eyes with Koari slapping his back, apparently thinking he was choking. It was Naruto-like optimism they held for each other and themselves: admirable, and yet likely unfounded. She grinned anyway.

By the time, Tazuna called her back to return home, her knuckles were slightly bruised despite her best efforts to shield them with her chakra, and her chakra levels just above midway since she had a habit of constantly regulating usage. Accompanied with the ever-so-pleasant scent of cheap spirits and fried octopus, he appeared at the entrance of the bridge with darker circles than he had entered with and a new complaint about finances and refining his blueprints - all of which Sakura was sorely mistaken for being interested in.

“We’ll stop to buy groceries at the market,” he said, switching route to the other branch in the forked path.

Emerging from the path shielded by the canopies, the sun beat down on them, the skin on her shoulders and forehead were finally starting to blister and flake and redden and Ino wouldn’t be impressed. Neither would Shiro. The streets were both deserted and crowded simultaneously with the small huddles of homeless, impoverished families and the eerie quiet. Frail bodies of malnourished children lined the streets with threadbare clothes hanging off of them as they attempted to make the most of the stick dolls and old toys. Half the buildings were decrepit and the ones that weren’t had some off-putting, yet familiar characters lurking on the doorways, watching them pass. She suddenly felt a mile more appreciative towards her own home. Thankfully, the list of groceries was short and they were on their way.

Amongst the whispers, she heard a rather curious conversation between two people manning the stalls and paused to listen beside their chairs. Hushed, they spoke quickly so Sakura channelled chakra to her ears and craned her neck.

“Did you hear about them boys dying out by the farm?” She bent down to ‘empty a rock out of her shoe’.

“Did I hear about them? It’s all me wife’s going on about - how we need to move before harvest really takes a fall.” That ‘rock’ turned out to be several.

“‘S only a couple of farm hands. The rest’ll handle it.” As she and Tazuna passed, she slowed to look at the stalls. Some of them made souvenirs - surprising for such a small town - and pretty jewelry she was sure her money wouldn’t be sufficient for given inflation and the poverty.

“I heard it’s contagious. How long til it takes ‘em all out?”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Aye. Well, am not lying to you. The lot of ‘em are holed up in that nasty clinic. Just you wait.” They faded just out of ear shot as they moved past them, too far for the enhanced hearing to stretch. Sick farm hands? She remembered being told this but not that it was contagious and likely to bring them to death. She pondered this as she walked faster to catch up with

A pressure landed on her backside making her flinch and catch the arm of the assumed pervert in her hand. She clenched hard enough for a bruise to form until she looked down at a fearful child. She dropped the arm as if she’d been burnt.

He was small, with deep tear troughs and clothes that barely hung onto him. Once upon a time, the clothes may have fit him, but not anymore. Dirt lined his face and the hand that clutched her wallet. Looking between Tazuna who hadn’t seemed to notice her fall behind and the bag of vegetables in hand, she dunked her hand in and pulled out a couple of pears for the child.

“Don’t get caught next time, yeah?” she whispered. He nodded. She snatched the wallet back and turned on her heel, stuffing it into her kunai pouch instead.

“Everything okay?” Tazuna, who stopped further down the street, said.

“Yes,” Sakura said breathlessly. “Do you mind if I take a different way back?”

Before entering the house, Sakura counted the steps Sasuke took before turning off the lights as silhouette passed by the window. Like clockwork, it would be seconds later when Naruto switched the lights back on and an argument started to brew. Following that, it took Kakashi approximately three seconds before he realised the imminent threat of a fight looming over them and would go up to break it up and, although she could never hear his footsteps, she could clearly see his shadow pass by. The clock ticked past midnight just as the ball of pink and black came slinking in through the door.

“Mission report.” She stiffened before turning, back rigid and eyes not meeting his.

“Successful. Guard duty on Tazuna, successful. Interaction with civilians, successful. No sign of Momochi Zabuza and his partner.” She willed herself to look into his one eye. At first glance, he had his posture slouched, his head tilted and his legs outstretched on a chair - but a mask could not hide the clench in his jaw and the steel in his eyes.

“Adequate." He nodded. "Reason for breach?”

Their eyes locked in a stalemate.

“What breach?”

“Mou.” There it was again: that barely-a-smile smile. “You've been coming back late for three days now. You didn't think you could get away with it again, could you?” An itching under her skin reminded her of her astonishingly low amount of tolerance she had for Hatake.

“You haven't specified a curfew, Sensei.”

“It should be common knowledge that teams regroup before dark on missions, unless told otherwise. They didn't teach you this at the Academy?”

“No.”

“I see. Their standards have dropped then.” Her body chilled at the sudden urge to hurt him. Fatally. “From now on, you return before dusk until further notice. Do you understand?”

“I can’t,” she said under her breath, trying to maintain a calm facade, although she didn’t know how successful that would be. “I’m assisting in providing medical treatment to civilians with influenza.” She spoke the truth against her better judgement as she had a feeling that his Sharingan could probably see through it even under the fabric.

As she had first entered the clinic two nights before, it became apparent that the doctors had fled long ago and the government of the country hadn’t seen fit to send out vaccinations for everyone. About six people were affected - all of them farmhands - and there was no possible way to figure out the source of the illness given that nobody other than Team 7 had crossed this island in a year. All she and the only nurse to remain in the town - Chiharu, she was called - could do was keep them warm, well-fed and ease their aching, through painkillers and chakra in Sakura’s case. It was no wonder the town on this island that was so far out from the main body of the Land of Waves, had to seek assistance from an entirely different country.

“Under whose orders?”

“My own.”

“Mou, Sakura-chan. I don’t think I’ve made myself clear enough to you, have I? During your time on this team, which I’m sure will be lengthy, you are under my command as team leader on missions, and under my tutelage when we are not. Under no circumstances are you to make decisions of this calibre on your own authority unless I am incapacitated and it is absolutely necessary. Do you understand?”

“No.” She felt the temperature in the room drop a few degrees.

“No?”

“No.”

The pair maintained unwavering eye-contact. Sakura held her head high the way her mother taught her too whenever girls at the academy tried to get to her about her forehead, whenever she had to argue with relentless classmates in a group project and against malicious people spouting lies against Naruto. Not once did she think she’d have to use this against her sensei. Her back held rigid as she narrowed her eyes.

“Why?”

“I think I should be able to make the decision to help people whenever I can by myself. I also believe micromanagement will be a hindrance to my progress as a shinobi as it disables my ability to become a strategic thinker.”

“Interesting that you think that, but protocol doesn’t change for the benefit of an individual. Do you at least understand that?” It was patronising, his voice, yet measured in a way she couldn’t justify getting openly angry at. Calculating was the word for him.

“It is not for my own benefit. I’m fostering good relations between Konohagakure and the Land of Waves.” She wondered if he could hear the hiss in her voice as well as she could.

“And yet protocol still hasn’t changed. Mou, Sakura-chan. Are you sensing a trend yet?”

“Yes, sensei,” she gritted out, forcing a smile.

“And what might that be?”

“...That protocol hasn’t changed.”

No matter how thick he layered the fabric on his face, she could always see the self-satisfied smile settling on his face and in his voice as he faked a light tone.

“Then you can go on upstairs. I think Naruto’s waiting for you.”

Something clattered at the top of the stairs along with a strangled ‘ouch’ and more thumps. Of course, he would be there. Upstairs, she met with him and pulled him up by the collar of his black pajama shirt onto his feet.

“That sounded rough, Sakura-chan,” he commented. She scoffed, whilst grabbing the pajamas out of her bag.

“Tell me about it.”

Perhaps it wasn’t Shiro’s first choice to begin his investigation in a rundown bar where he had heard the perverted and the vulnerable of Iwagakure alike gathered. Inside, the air was thick with the stench of smoke and alcohol and it didn’t help that the lack of windows meant the cigar smoke stayed stagnant. The lights were dimmed and only shone directly on the scantily clad women on the poles. He caught sight of wandering hands and strained, seductive smiles and vaguely familiar faces of higher-ups sat comfortably within the small crowds, drinks in hand.

Typically, a simple bounty would only require one of them, but this one was an A-rank and was susceptible to his genjutsu and Hyuga Tsurugi’s Gentle Fist technique. The assignment Tsurugi-Taichou assigned him was to gather information on the whereabouts of the target - the bounty they were collecting - whilst Taichou would be doing something he hadn’t specified. J
Although, judging by Tsurugi’s past tendencies to give everyone else on his team the most unflattering jobs, he assumed that Tsurugi wouldn’t be seducing people for information.

Nevertheless, he took the order as it was considering his strict ordering seven years ago that another account of insubordination would have him demoted and barred from retaking the jounin exams. (He shivered at the thought of being returned to the same level as Izumo and Kotetsu.) So, Shiro took the back route, through the darkest of shadows letting a Henge wash over him, and a supplementary genjutsu, taking the form of a seductive woman with painted red lips and dimmed brown hair. Beauty rare enough to capture some eyes, but a face common enough to forget. Perfected through years of practice, Shiro hardly felt the need to alter his modelling now.

“Hello,” he whispered with a giggle. He faked a drunk swoon and fell into a stocky old man with greying beard and a balding head to knock a glass of red wine onto his white shirt. His giggles turned from shy to apologetic at the red splotch on his shirt.“Oops! Sorry… I’m a bit of a clutz. I should pay for that, huh..” When his hand reached into the purse, he faked a sigh and frantic rummage, eventually apologising for his lack of money.

“Ah, it’s okay for a pretty young lady such as yourself. Don’t worry about it,” he chuckled at Shiro.

“Thank you! It’s just… I ran into a thief and he stole my money… You don’t know where he could’ve run off to, could you?” Shiro’s eyes went wide along with his story. Allegedly, the target was taking part in daylight robbery to support himself.

“Thieves? Eh. Only one I know about is that child thief. Fuckin’ dodgy bastard…” he muttered under his breath. As far as he knew, this one didn’t have a record for kidnapping.

“Oh? Child thief?”

“Yeah. Been going on for years. Stealing ‘em all the time. Probably not the one your looking for. How tall was he?”

“What? Oh - pretty tall. Blue hair, dark eyes.” He nodded slowly.

“Think I saw a foreigner like him ‘round the hotel. Hey,” he put his hand on Shiro’s exposed thigh. “Wanna have some fun?”

Swiping the hand away, Shiro got up immediately to extend the Temple Of Nirvana technique around the man, putting him to sleep after having got more than what he needed. He left the bar that night with more questions than he came in with.

Chapter Text

Shikamaru wasn’t the type to put in the effort for a stroll around the village for team bonding and anyone that had met him could attest to that. He had his fingers interlocked behind his head as Ino dragged both him and Choji around the village after team training was up for the day. They were in the thick of the civilian market district at the point in the afternoon that all shoppers tended to emerge and raid the market. Now, he dreaded to think that he was one of them. Choji lugged around behind them as Ino peered into the jewellers' and pointed excitedly at a pair of pearlescent pink earrings and a matching necklace.

“What’s the point of team bonding if there’s no bonding?” Choji deadpanned much like Shikamaru would if he wasn’t conserving energy for his escapade that night. Their similar responses to situations were one of the reasons that Choji was the only person he talked to: in most ways, they were one and the same.

“If we all go shopping together, we know what each other likes. That’s bonding - I wouldn’t have expected you to understand anyway,” she huffed. “See here? I’m buying this set but it's for Sakura, not for me. I like purple best - just so you know. Do you think I could buy the studs for Naruto - he hates the ones that hang.”

“Yeah,” Choji drawled. “Can we go to Yakiniku Q now?”

“No.” Ino grunted and stomped on Choji’s foot, eliciting a shriek. “We’ve barely started.”
The afternoon faded into the evening and Ino had accumulated twice the quantity of clothes Shikamaru was sure he had in his wardrobe. His feet were aching, his hand were raw from the rub of shopping bags and he knew Choji’s only motivation was the promise of Yakiniku Q beef; yet Ino was still going strong and had her sights set on a dango store to buy something for Sakura’s mother. They made it to Yakiniku Q where they ate a considerable amount, after which Ino decided she needed to freshen up. This allowed Shikamaru enough time to leave a note in the gift box bought for Sakura.

Meet me at the compound gates before dawn.

Nara S.

It hadn’t occurred to Sakura that Kakashi might’ve been wrong about Zabuza’s recovery time. Sure, he was arrogant about his intelligence and downright self-important at times, but, as he had years of experience in his time, she had assumed he was correct in his approximation. He was not. But being unprepared was never going to be her downfall.

One might have called it strange that she was more terrified here, even with preparation someone like Sasuke with her, but she chalked it down to the fact that she now knew that this wouldn't be like training at all. Their first encounter: she admired his technique rather than analysed it as soon as they started it, wasn't pushing herself to fight harder and smarter and allowed herself to get hurt, and upon getting hurt, she'd crumbled like paper in water. She'd been treating it like training with Shiro whom she trusted not to fatally hurt her which translated well fighting chunin, but not in a fight with an S-rank criminal. Stupidity and naivety on her part; at least it wasn't being unprepared.

As soon as her senses picked up and her Inner became more alert to signal the warning bells, she’d called out the code for the evacuation. It went just a little less smooth than rehearsals when she shouted ‘sale at the market!’ as the workers hadn’t really struck up cheer and conversation, but rather filed off the bridge in loud, yet clearly tense bustle. Sasuke picked up on the signal immediately, only evident by a shift in stance and his slow amble towards her side of the bridge. Perhaps, if Zabuza were any smarter (at least socially), he would’ve picked up on the change in attitude but maybe Sakura couldn’t expect that a man without a childhood could’ve had time to develop compassion.

In fact, it took approximately seven gut-wrenching minutes for Zabuza to begin the ambush. First came the settling of the mist: familiar, predictable and something she could deal with sensing. She didn’t sense him, per se, for another while but she could predict his actions in the way he moved the mist around her. There was a cloud of it swarming the edge of the bridge, which was an obvious indicator of an ambush. Underwhelming plan from an S-rank, she had to admit, but she couldn’t fault him for thinking she was an idiot willing to fall for it. Either that or it was an intentional deterrent. That would make more sense.

When Sasuke gave the signal, Sakura sprung into stance and formation whilst Tazuna ducked for a small earth dome to rise over him. She felt it deplete her chakra, but not like last time when she felt like collapsing. The reserve she had left was a little more than a quarter but, considering she hadn’t many ninjutsu in her arsenal, that would do just fine. At the same time, she sent a signal to the clone who began the pursuit of help from the house. Only time would tell how fruitful its chase would be.

Zabuza chose to touch down at the moment where she let up on the dome. He landed sharply like an incoming kunai from above and the thud resonated in the silence. Sakura’s breath caught in her throat. Was she as prepared as she thought she was? She sincerely hoped so.

“You detected me,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Impressive,” he said again.

“Not really.” She felt her mouth dry up. ‘It was your own fault’ she wanted to say but riling up the enemy wasn’t the best idea - especially when he could easily make an example of her. “I’m observant.”

“You must be. The pair of you are also bad trap makers - did you know? I dismantled them in seconds,” he commented slyly. “The chakra alert mechanism on the seals were out in the open. A fool would have avoided them.”

“Yes, I did know that,” she replied. Had she gone to the effort of setting up traps knowing they would be in plain-sight? Of course, but those were to deter petty thieves and the like who could come after Tazuna. It would indicate the site being under protection and send them elsewhere. As much as she knew people would like to think she was stupid, she, in fact, was not. Although, if Shiro was here, she thought, he’d find some sort of twisted amusement in her being scolded by the enemy. He’d also throttle her for letting the enemy talk instead of making a plan of action.

As Zabuza continued to get too comfortable with her pointing out the flaws in their patrols, which apparently he had been observing for days (that was a blatant lie - if he was able to pass her by unnoticed on her patrols, he could’ve killed Tazuna when he had the chance) and their guarding techniques, she activated the genjutsu she had on herself. It was subtle enough for him to miss the activation when he blinked and not see the difference - as in, he literally could not see her in the thickening mist - but he would gradually start to feel it. It would begin as a heaviness in his eyes, a slur in his speech and muscle fatigue. Then, it would weigh him down completely - either he would collapse, or pass out completely; Sakura didn’t mind which.

More hope built within her as he slurred his short monologue about her supposed failure as a ninja and her apparent demise as well as her team’s doom, and how she would never understand how the world works and so on and so forth. He was seconds away from the end…
He dispelled it.

“I see you’ve been reading up on my weaknesses,” he laughed. “You get that from the Bingo book?”

“What of it?” Sasuke said as she manoeuvred them so she had a beam at their back rather than open air.

“You can find truer things in word of mouth than what you find in there. You can keep that in mind if you get out alive, as unlikely as that it is.” Her heart dropped and she considered his words; she decided they did, unfortunately, make sense. “I don’t have a weakness in genjutsu, girl. I don’t have a weakness in anything. And, if I did, you think I would let anything circle shinobi ranks freely? Fools.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Sasuke droned, but even Sakura could hear the shake in his voice. Zabuza laughed.

“It was a pleasure.”

And suddenly, he was running towards them.

Zabuza split into two and, for the second time in her life, her kunai met with the weight of the swordsman and shoved him off with a newfound charge of chakra in her fist. Along with that came a boost of confidence and she jabbed and punched his exposed stomach. He dodged just far enough for it not to blow his insides out and land in thin air. The momentum forced air forward to slam into a pile of steel beams. They toppled over like dominoes.

Sasuke’s clone melted into the ground - seems like she was dealing with the real one then - and he turned to scowl at her. He grabbed her by the arm to avoid a sword splitting her skull in half.

“What was that?” Sasuke hissed at her, gesturing at the beams.

“The strange gust of wind or Zabuza almost knocking my head off my shoulders?” He released her arm with a harsh shove. “Ow.”

“When were you going to let me know you could do that?”he hissed. “We could’ve changed our entire plan.” Yes, of course they could have if she had this technique figured out completely, which she didn’t.

“Just…” She stopped herself from swearing. “Later.” She stood back to back against him.

“But-”

“Please.” He quietened. “Keep an eye out.”

When Zabuza appeared once more as two, they circled one another. Consciously, she put one foot down before removing another - she had to be wary of letting the dome down. They met yet again, in a barbaric clash between them. She ducked as he swiped and parried as he hit and she panted. The force was wearing down on her yet it was clear to see that he was the type to play with his food. Feral, he laughed, allowing his bandages to whip in the air. She had little time left to come up with a strategy to account for the unknowns.

But Sakura was smarter than this. He was a heavy mover due to his sword and susceptible to attacks on his underside when he swung, but, due to the fact that her feet couldn’t both leave the ground, she had no way of getting to him unless she crouched lower so he would have to reach further. Naturally he was faster than her, but the weight of the momentum on the sword would keep him moving even if she dodged - a theory confirmed by him slicing through a steel beam where her head once was, and it crashing into the waves below them, so all it would take was some clever positioning to slow him down enough to land a good blow.

Unfortunately, Sakura was well aware they were playing cat and mouse and she was on the defensive. He was clearly holding back - having fun, one could say - and there was no guarantee that she had even seen close to the full extent of his abilities to even make a proper prediction on his moves. Sakura and Sasuke had to separate when his sword nicked her neck, thankfully avoiding a vessel and diverted to her thigh mid-stride creating a large gash down the side of her leg. Her eyes blurred at the sheer speed he moved and the brutal hits he landed with the blunt of his sword and it suddenly dawned on her that he could decide to end her life as soon as he pleased but his desire to mess with her exceeded his desire to kill. Sakura would only last for as long as she could stall, she thought, which meant lasting until the rest of her team arrived, so she tried it anyway.

Narrowly escaping another tragic demise, her body rolled off to the side, keeping the proximity to the floor and stayed there a millisecond longer than she felt comfortable with just to swing out of the way when she felt the sway of the wind behind her head and lunged for the side. Behind her, and over the sound of the adrenaline making her limbs tremble, she heard the thud of it sinking into the cement. Now was her chance. Charged with chakra, she threw herself forward, closing her eyes and bracing for impact, but she didn’t feel a thing. The momentum pushed her body straight through air and she stumbled to a stop.

Singing, the sword stopped an inch from her throat. Sakura could hear her heartbeat in her head and feel it in her legs. She teetered between the edge of terror and relief. The sound of the blood rushing in her ears masked the sound of a grunt from Zabuza. His arm clutching the sword flexed and wavered in tha air as he used his other hand to clutch at his ribs. It came away revealing a string of blood attached to his broken skin - broken with a rib poking out.

Glancing down at her clenched fist, she saw it covered with his blood. She hadn’t even noticed she’d landed the hit on him. She smiled. Finally, she had done something. All she had to do now was stay alive, which, honestly, was a lot easier said than done.

Sasuke had finished with his clone, yet again only slightly dishevelled but in an ordinary way, certainly not indicative of any fight whatsoever (and she did not, under any circumstance, wonder what that meant for their individual fighting capabilities and did not get jealous because she knew better than that-). He joined them swiftly in the fight, just grazing his neck. She ducked down at his distraction and his build up of anger just as he made a move to complete the sweep to separate her head from her shoulders. The game was increasing in pace. Hit. Block. Duck. Parry. Her heart began to pound. When the sword got close enough for her to see her breath fog up its sharp side, she decided he was quickly growing bored with them and he wanted them dead.

It was seconds from imminent death that someone familiar decided to make contact on the bridge. A familiar face popped into the scene - the person from the woods. With senbon lodged between their fingers, they landed besides Zabuza in a defensive stance, yet upright and startlingly elegant and poised. Of course, Inner was right, and, if Shiro was here to guide her (like she very much so wanted), he would’ve told her to trust her instincts more - but, how was she supposed to do that when Inner made her dream of ridiculous concepts like Naruto, of all people, betraying her? A problem, she decided, that was best left to resolve when off the battlefield.

“I told you to eliminate them, Haku. Explain,” Zabuza said.

“I didn’t anticipate the presence of a jinchuriki-” she held her breath, “and the girl sent a clone in advance to warn them. I couldn’t eliminate them.” She released the breath.

“Sent a clone, did she?” Zabuza turned to look at her. “You’re craftier than you look, aren’t you?”

She said nothing.

“Haku, you take the girl, Uchiha and the old man. I’ll take the Hatake and the other runt.” Inner made a sound akin to a shriek and almost caused Sakura a heart attack at the announcement.

Seconds later, Zabuza leapt away leaving the three of them alone. Sasuke no longer stood at her back but moved towards her side to face Haku. For a moment, they stood.

Silence.

A moment became two. Then, three. Then, four.

“I have a job to do,” Haku said suddenly, solemn and straight-faced. Their words broke through the tension only to rebuild it again. “You must understand.”

“So do we,” Sasuke said. “We have a mission to protect this man.”

“I can’t say I have a mission, but I do have an obligation to protect Zabuza,” they said, voice hauntingly soft. “That means I have to help him achieve his objectives. You must know.”

The worst part was that she did know. She had a rather large sense of loyalty to her friends and mother and felt the need to protect them always (whether that would be possible was debatable) and would do anything for them despite the fact that she liked to think she would have a line she couldn’t cross. In summary, she understood - mostly - why Haku was doing this. Moreover, Sakura wondered how someone like Haku - someone who clearly had no interest in hurting her - would be so loyal to a shameless killer like Zabuza, and how Zabuza could get so lucky.

“I do know,” she said reluctantly. “But we can’t let you do this.”

“Is one man truly worth your life?” he said, running the boundary between asking and pleading. The simple answer was that, no - clearly it was the mission that was worth her life. (She would not ponder that further for her own sake.)

“Is Zabuza worth yours?” she said finally. Haku seemed to consider this.

“Then, I can’t be sorry it has come to this.”

It was a winter wonderland of chakra that they saw as the Ice Mirrors materialised around them. A wave of cold air, then shock, and panic shortly after but far too late to spring into action. Sakura was pulled back to reality when she registered that Haku had pulled out a kekkei genkai. A kekkei genkai of the Yuki clan, massacred in their own civil unrest. Ice mirrors was the technique Haku was using, notoriously durable, according to the library documents. Even though Haku was required to stay in the mirrors for the technique, their senbon meant they would be at no loss. It was wide, arching and bright. Reflecting lights into the white of the fog hindered her vision and blurred the incoming senbon.

She felt them first land on her forearms which were held above her head, untying her hitai-ate from her head and replacing it around her neck. They next landed on her calves and her cheek (that one hurt like a-) and her thigh. All aimed at pressure points, but she moved just in time to avoid unconsciousness - although blood loss made it so she was half way there.

“Can you make the earth dome again?” Sasuke whispered, doing a much better job deflecting senbon than her. They once again stood back to back. She checked her chakra reserves.

“I can’t for a while yet,” she said and pretended not to hear his scornful tut’. “We need to reveal the chink in his defence. It’ll be where he is in the mirror that is the weakest, I think.” That was, if the book she’d read even held the correct information.

“He’s too fast,” Sasuke said, which sounded too much like a begrudged admittance for him to not be jealous.

“But his movements can’t be random…” she muttered. The truth or self-assurance? She needed to stay calm which was hard given her increasingly strong flight instinct Inner was providing.

Shiro made sure she knew that nothing was random - especially not humans. Humans worked like computers in a formulaic sense in the way they used logic, so Haku would have a pattern in where he moved next.

Soon, it was apparent they were all grace where she was barely above an academy level scrap in the fields with Naruto the old oak tree - their oak tree - and she suddenly realised that Haku’s throws were too soft, too slow compared to their swift evasion for them to actually want to hurt her. They dodged when she aimed a hit at them and tapped where they could hit, and let her dodge where they couldn’t control their strength, and she was thankful for the relaxed exchange as it became apparent that it must’ve been adrenaline keeping her on her toes since she felt her lungs begin to hurt and her arms falter. It was also apparent that, after every fourteenth throw, he’d end up at the mirror up and to her left and would go left or right depending on which side she had left open, then straight up above Sasuke; after that she couldn’t follow, but it was enough to go off of - it had to be.

“Keep the right side open, and aim for your left when I say,” she whispered to Sasuke.

“What?”

“Please,” she said and couldn't keep the pitiful crack out of her voice.

She counted every third throw for him to move and waited.

Three. (She evaded a senbon to the eye. Her heart pounded in her ears.)

Two. (A senbon punctured her hand. Would it even work?)

One. (Of course it would. She was ready.)

All she had to do was nudge Sasuke and his hand moved and a shuriken was flying just as she was. A hand stuck out of the glistening mirror - disconcertingly pale but strong - and the delay in movement was all she needed to land a hit on the figure. Her fist met ice in a brilliant collision of bright white and blue. Shards flew as her arm pushed through the barrier. Haku fell out of the mirror with a thud onto the ground before Sasuke who lunged for a kunai on the ground. As they leapt at one another, Sakura evaded the fight and clutched her aching arm. Her arm had slipped (why was it always her arm?), veering off to the left and she must’ve dislocated her shoulder.

Carrying her momentum, she ran up a vertical beam and flipped in mid arm, landing before the dome had a chance to crumble. She sighed, shaking and feeling the exhaustion and fatigue - both mental and physical - catch up on her. At one overview of her body, it seemed that she was, indeed, bleeding from areas gone numb from the cold. But she was alive.

All was well.

Until it wasn't.

Apparently, she had given herself too much credit on how long she could keep a dome up while in the air, because apparently it had crumbled like the sandcastles Ino still liked to build. Tazuna was open for attack on all sides.

She wasn’t fast enough to get to him. Neither was Sasuke.

But Haku was.

One slice of the blade had Tazuna’s head rolling off his shoulder and to her feet and his bloody body down to the ground.

She did not blink. This shouldn’t have been - was not - a big deal. She had seen a dead body before. She had seen people die. (But this one was real, she reminded herself.)

Her heart stuttered. His bloody head on the bloody ground with his expression forever locked into his face. Open eyes, open mouth and death in it all. She did not blink because he could not blink back.

But she did shake. And let tears fall, because she couldn’t hold them back.

And she let herself collapse because she could not help but be thankful that it was not her.

Team 7 left the Land of Waves with the ghost of Tazuna at their heels and plaguing their minds, silent yet deafening. The new bridge - the Great Tazuna Bridge, now - was finally completed under the guidance of the blueprints left behind, stained with the blood-shadow of Tazuna, Gatou's men, Zabuza and Haku.

Chapter Text

He smelt of sweat and grass and something akin to utter satisfaction after his training session. It came as no surprise to Shiro that, as soon as he deigned his four hour run around the village and his spars with Kurenai (who seemed to be the only one willing to talk to him apart from Anko who he wouldn’t touch with a ten foot long pole) sufficient, his doorbell pierced his ears. He grumbled. He enjoyed physical activity well enough but Kurenai had a knack for landing hits in obscure spots and giving him uncomfortable bruises and didn’t particularly want to walk at present. Regardless, he stood up

“There’s something wrong with Sakura,” a young girl with a hitai-ate and long blonde hair covering her eyes. Her eyes were blue and pupil-less and vaguely familiar in a nostalgic sense. He blanked. This was one of Sakura’s friends. But how did she know who he was? “You gotta help Sakura. She’s locked in her room and she’s in one of her moods and she won’t tell me or okaa-san what’s wrong.”

“What?” He short-circuited. “She’s back?”

“Uh, yeah,” she huffed. “And there’s something wrong with her-”

“Say no more,” he said as his mouth set in a grim line and locked up his apartment. He turned to the young Yamanaka. “Are you familiar with the shunshin?”

They were at the apartment in seconds with the Yamanaka ripping away from him to retch at the side of the door. He entered the apartment without knocking to no surprise of Mebuki who sat at the table with her head in her hands and only mouthed to him ‘don’t mess up’. He nodded curtly.

“Sakura?” he rapped his knuckles against the door lightly. “It’s Shiro-sensei here. Is everything okay?” No reply. He enhanced his hearing. “Ino’s worried, you know?” He heard a strangled noise.

He considered it.

“Would you like me to send her away?” he asked. He heard a small ‘yes’ from behind the door but the Yamanaka was just within earshot and her face fell as the words resonated. “I’m sending her away now.” The Yamanaka frowned but persisted, hanging around the door until Mebuki gave her a look that said: leave or I will kick you out. He stifled a laugh - it seemed like he wasn’t the only one subject to Mebuki’s scorn.

“And your mother?” He heard her hesitate so he nodded to Mebuki and gestured to the door. Vehemently, she shook her head and crossed her arms miming a very vague, violent motion towards him. “Do you want your mother to leave?” This time, the whisper of a yes was undeniable and Mebuki left the house with more than a chip on her shoulder.

“They’re gone now, Sakura. I’m coming in now.”

Slowly, the door creaked open to reveal Sakura covered by her futon blanket just behind the door, in the corner of the room. Curtains were drawn firmly shut and blocked out most light except the unavoidable haze through its sheer material. He could smell her from a distance and her hair looked like mud had found its way into it and hadn’t yet found its way out. Red-rimmed eyes pierced his own that he hadn’t seen since she was ten and crying over an argument with one of her friends over their seats at the academy. Back then, he had laughed and shoved her into more laps in training, but this felt different. Way different.

First things first, he approached her slowly and hooked his arms under hers, pulling her up and leading her to the bathroom. She was limp, following along resigned and yet still resolute in her apparent vow of silence. He helped her into the bathroom where he placed a towel on the counter and ran the water to the right temperature. Shiro looked through the cupboards for a set of shampoo and conditioner and set them next to the towel.

“Clean up. Call if you need.” He shut the door behind him on the way out.

He was now left alone in his thoughts in the kitchen. Tetchy and angry, he clenched a washcloth in his hand. It was either one of two conclusions he could come to: this was one of her episodes, or the C-rank went horribly wrong. Or, considering just who led her team… it could’ve been both. Thinking of this, he meddled with some food in the kitchen the best he could and settled it down on the table before he heard Sakura call him over from inside her room.

With the food and tea in hand again, Shiro took care to press the door closed whilst keeping the tense tranquility they had in the room and slid down to the floor a meter away from her hunched - and decidedly less smelly - form nestled in her futon. Her brittle hair hung limply on her shoulders, still wet from the shower, and she wore her pajamas with worn out cartoon characters printed on the front. She looked up at him, briefly, before looking back down to pick at threads from her tattered blanket and sniffling all the while. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes basking in each other’s company but, as Shiro was gradually getting closer to breaking the silence, he unsealed his unopened packet of dango and made as if he was going to eat it. Plastic rustling caused Sakura to glance over and fix her eyes on it.

Aha. He got her.

“Oh? You want it?” he said, holding it out to her. “Not before a meal, you don’t. Take lunch first.” She took the plate of onigiri quickly and set to work on nibbling it. “Good, right?” She nodded. Sakura finished half the onigiri before reaching for the dango and tea, but he decided some food was better than none and slid the dish over to her. Sakura accepted it with a quick mutter of ‘thanks’.

“You wanna talk about it, or is it just one of those things?” he said: ‘one of those things’ being the things she wrote in her diary and only spoke aloud to the Yamanaka patriarch. “Or was it that asshole Hatake? Never liked the bastard much-”

“Please don’t,” she interjected under her breath. Carefully, she placed the cup of tea on the floor between them and sighed. “It’s not… It’s my fault, really.”

“What’s your fault?”

“I can’t-” her breath caught. “Can I start from the beginning?”

“Yeah.” He smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

“It was a C-rank - the mission, I mean. Simple, right? Protect an old man from bandits, then come back home?” She laughed, small and bitter and sad. “I wish it was like that. We started from the village and we got attacked by a couple of chunin. We were fine really: I got into manji formation, but Naruto and Sasuke didn’t and Kakashi didn’t care, but we were fine.” Shiro kept his crude observations about her teammates to himself. “And then Kakashi realised they were mercenaries after Tazuna - that was when we knew we were out classed on the mission. But we kept going anyway.”

Suddenly, Shiro scoffed, distaste bordering on blatant scrutiny at Kakashi’s almost idiotic actions. Keeping a genin team on a probable B-rank? Arrogance at its finest. But Shiro refrained from shouting his range of expletives aloud.

“Then, Momochi Zabuza came.”

This time, Shiro could not think fast enough to stop himself from cursing.

“What in the absolute fuck was that fucking son of a rogue thinking by keeping a bunch of runts on? That fucking good for nothing piece of rusty kunai - who trusted that friend-killer with children-”

“Stop it. Please.”

“Fuck...Yeah, I’m sorry. Continue.” Shiro clenched his fists and pulled his knees up against his chest.

“So Momochi turned up, and I got hurt a bit and passed out, but I was okay. Kakashi was trapped, but then he got out and used his Sharingan and almost killed him but someone came, I think, and pretended to help but saved Zabuza - I’m not too sure about the details. We ended up getting to Wave alive but Kakashi was unconscious from Sharingan use. We were okay and Kakashi woke up and told us we had a few weeks before Zabuza would come after us.”

“And then?” Shiro held himself upright, dreading what was coming next.

“He was wrong.” He frowned. “He came two days earlier than expected and it was only me and Sasuke at the bridge. I put up a dome around our client. We held up just fine… I got one good hit on him before he decided he wasn’t going to... play with his food anymore. To cut a long story short, his accomplice swapped places with him so Zabuza could go after Kakashi and Naruto.”

“And, who was his accomplice?”

“A child. My age. A Yuki clan member - a survivor of that massacre. We only knew that when they put up their Ice Mirrors around us.”

“Ice mirrors - holy fuck…” He ran a hand down his face, rubbing frantically.

“Yeah. To get out, I had to lift my feet off the ground. I thought,” she took a second to keep her voice from trembling, “I thought I was quick enough to touch back down in time. I, uh..” She cleared her throat. “I wasn’t.”

“Oh, Sakura… It’s not your fault.”

Shiro caught her as she turned to the side abruptly and grabbed him for a hug. Tears seeped through his turtleneck like they did when she was ten and he was suddenly struck by how unfair it was for her to have been on that mission and to see someone die like that. He remembered his own experience when he was nine. Konohagakure was still within the worst of the war and his childhood sensei dropped dead with a kunai to the neck protecting their classmates from the enemy nin that had infiltrated the academy. He didn’t remember what his sensei was like or really what he looked like but he remembered exactly what the moon looked like as it shined through his window when he cried himself to sleep that night.

“It was! Tazuna’s head fell clean off his shoulders - he’s dead! And I know it's not a big deal, because I’ve seen people die before, but this one is so much worse...” Her voice trailed off towards the end.

“Listen to me.” He held her at arms length and looked at her in the eyes. “It is not your fault you were sent on a mission out of your league. It is not your fault your shitty excuse of a team leader kept going. It is not your fault. Do you want me to send you to Inoichi?”

“No.”

“Then, I need to hear you say it.” She shook her head gently, wiping her tears and snot away with her sleeve

“I know it's not my fault really. But that’s not even the worst bit,” she whispered.

“What was?” he spoke, voice tight and quiet. She sniffled and looked away from him and focused on something on the floor behind him. Breathing heavily, she sighed and looked back at him.

“I didn’t feel sad when he died. Sensei, I was happy.”

Shiro pulled her in again and let his own tears fall as well.

“So, are you going to tell me how you got out of the Ice Mirror conundrum?”

“I punched it.”

“Yeah, okay,” Shiro laughed as he peered over his book. “What did you actually do?”

“I punched it.” Barely batting an eye at him, Sakura turned another page in her own book. Before he could insist on an honest answer, she continued. “With chakra. I channelled it into my fist and released the chakra upon impact.”

Shiro snapped his book shut.

“You did what?”

Sakura was surprised when she read the note in the box Ino left for her. From Shikamaru, of course, as she was well aware he wasn’t the type to go out of his way to get her attention. She supposed this was the farthest he would go and, for that, she felt mildly flattered before she realised he would be expecting her to go out of her own way to meet with for who knows what - and then she felt pissed. So, when she left the house that morning, she was dressed in her training gear because she wasn’t going to let regret keep her from training even though training with her team was officially suspended for two weeks. After all, she still had Shiro and she doubted this strange little rendezvous would take more than ten minutes.

But, she did also have a mandatory session with Inoichi… That could wait.

The compound itself was far out into what she could call the suburbs of Konoha as it was, indeed, accompanied by the secluded Nara Forest - no surprise there. As she got there, she noted the utter silence in the compound and more importantly, the fact that nobody was at the front gates. She moved slowly, just to be sure, if anybody was watching, they wouldn’t see her as a threat, but supposed her pouches of weapons didn’t help her case. It took an hour of waiting under the light of the rising sun, warm yet unsettlingly frigid, before she saw someone appear from the shadows.

Sakura had her kunai up and out before she drew a breath, and threw it at him, but his reflexes were too quick so he dodged. It missed by a hair’s breadth.

“On edge, are we?”

“Cryptic note, meeting someone all alone - I’m sure you can understand my qualms.” Her smile was all polite formalities.

“You don’t trust me?”

“Not necessarily.”

“And you walked in here, on your own, not trusting me?”

“It’s not like I think you’re going to kill me,” she said. Although, if he was going to kill her, this would be the perfect time to do so. Sakura wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “It’s that I don’t know you very well - and the little note you sent isn’t the most trustworthy thing. Was there something you wanted to say?”

“Straight to the point then. Come with me.” He turned and walked away and it was only then that it registered that he was still in his pajamas. Talk about lazy.

Sakura followed Nara down the path down to a house - relatively newly built compared to what she’d assumed of the Nara. It was small-ish with paned windows instead of Ino’s shoji panels. It was comfortably sized on the inside - nothing indicative of a richer family like theirs. He led them to a small room with a small kotatsu in the center and a futon in the corner. Beige walls, however, was exactly the sort of thing she’d predicted the Nara clan to like. A strong aroma of jasmine lingered in the room reminding her of that cheap perfume her mother bought religiously. It made her a little apprehensive to be led into his bedroom but she could see the window propped open so she remained calm.

“I’ve been tracking him,” Shikamaru said as he shuffled through papers from under his futon. Somehow, she knew exactly who he was talking about. One of the sheets was a map of Konoha in black and white with markings in red all over it in what looked like a figure of eight. He flipped it over before she could get a better look, but she had it memorized already. “Can I trust you?”

A loaded question, by all means.

“...Yes.”

Fluffing up a floor cushion, Shikamaru threw it down next to him and patted it. “Oh, yeah thanks.” He revealed the map again. The figure of eight looped around Konoha with some offshoots that were largely based around the red light district. It tracked through blocks of buildings, passed by the club Keiko worked at and looped into the orphanage with a line that had been gone over multiple times. The dates scattered around the sheet in scratchy handwriting dated back a year and a half.

“I first spotted him around January last year. Looked suspicious hanging around shadows ‘round me and Choji. Woulda been less suspicious if he had been a Nara but if he was a Nara I wouldn’t have seen him anyway. Ignored him for a while but I kept noticing him. Thought he might’ve been going after Choji. Followed him around as much as I could after the fifth time I saw him going into buildings through windows since I was going the same direction anyway - thought it was a thief ‘cept he never came out with anything with him. Seemed to know patrols pretty well because he avoided all the rounds so it’s not an enemy nin. Circled around the akasen a lot. Went some places I couldn’t follow. Didn’t realise why until I saw you heading out and he started tailing you.”

There was a shift in the air as Sakura straightened. She had no time to ponder why he needed her opinion because she was far too intrigued with the prospect of a new puzzle to figure out (nevermind the fact that that it would take her mind off certain things-).There was only so much one could derive from the information given that wasn’t alarming. The first: Shikamaru had destroyed her perception of him being lazy; in fact, this appeared to be the exact opposite of the word. The second: there was a shinobi in the village that seemed to be working under Konohagakure’s radar - whether it was for or against the village was ambiguous at best. The third: the nin knew Shikamaru was tracking him.

“Can I shut the window, Shikamaru-san?”

“You don’t need to. Nobody that is a threat can enter the compound without alerting us.” Sakura wasn’t entirely sure how that worked but she had a feeling it would cross too many boundaries to make an inquiry. “Your thoughts?”

“My thoughts are,” she articulated, “that he was tricking you. Hear me out. This loop you tracked was recorded after those offshoots into the akasen. So I’m thinking he saw you following him this time last year, switched up his route to mess with you and that’s what you have here.” Shikamaru looked passive and almost indifferent but his eyes were unfocused and she could practically see the cogs turning behind his eyes.

“I thought the same thing at first. But you can see here,” he pointed to the note besides the edge of the Hokage mountain, “that’s where he disappears after a few circuits. Every time I get close enough to it, he’s already gone. I agree the circuits are probably to trick us, but we can erase that and that’ll leave us with a pattern.”

“When did this become a ‘we’?” Sakura interrupted. As much as she enjoyed the food for thought, she already had enough to deal with (more than enough-): like the fact that her best friend was probably on every other village’s hit list of shinobi - because that was still weighing on her - and that she had a session with Inoichi which would be difficult to get through, and another best friend to apologise to. “I’m not sure I want to be involved.”

“Troublesome...This became a ‘we’ when I asked if I could trust you and you said yes.”

“No. No, I specifically said that you could trust me; not that I was getting involved.” Whether or not she wanted to join in on this little investigation, she had stuff to get done and training to focus on and...

“And he was following you. He’s after you, Sakura,” Shikamaru said. Truthfully, there wasn’t a hole in his argument. She didn’t know how or why she was involved but she had done so many risky things for no other reason other than boredom in her short lifetime, it could’ve been anything. But she had an inkling this wasn’t something she could opt out of at any time and this wasn’t something she could control.

“And do what? We saw a Leaf shinobi wandering around the village? You’re making this seem like a conspiracy but we don’t even know if he’s doing anything bad. There’s nothing to investigate, Shikamaru-san.”

“Then, why is he avoiding the patrols?”

“He could have his own reasons. If you’re so bothered, take this to the authorities.”

“I know it’s a drag, but I think we should observe him ourselves.” Staring intently at him, Sakura huffed. “For the meantime, I’ll continue to observe. You just watch your back. I’ll send for you if anything comes up.”

“You know I didn’t agree to getting involved.”

“I know, but wouldn’t it be nice to be kept in the loop?” To Sakura’s right, a shuffling sound echoed from another room and a light yawn. “My mom’s up. You’ll not be able to sneak out until my parents leave for work. For now,” he turned to his side and pulled out a shogi board, “care to play?”

Nara Shikamaru turned out to be a most formidable player.

Chapter Text

The next day, Sakura glanced around the training grounds nervously, twitching at all the minute sounds and movements around her. She had her back up against a tree and fiddled with the frayed strings of her mesh shirt. A no-show from Shiro who had promised to turn up a little after ten in the morning, when it had just gone past noon according to the sun in the sky. He wasn’t usually late, she knew, so she supposed he must’ve been called out on a mission? No - that didn’t sit right with her. If he’d known he would miss today’s session, he would’ve sent a clone to tell her.

But, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it. Inoichi, earlier at yesterday’s eight o’clock meeting, had said to lay off the chakra use and training and had forced her to put on a chakra restrictive tag so she couldn’t use her sensory field to locate him. Her best bet was waiting. That also meant she couldn’t practise genjutsu or her newfound ability to punch with chakra, so she could only really practise taijutsu; but, Sakura found it increasingly difficult to motivate herself to run in the summer heat, so no, that would not be happening today. After reaching that conclusion, naturally, her mind drifted to weapons practice.

Sakura detached the pouch from herself and tipped out the contents onto the grass. Thirty kunai - dull or dirty - eleven shuriken, and two smoke bombs that she was almost certain were incapable of going off. She picked a shuriken up and threw it half-heartedly at a tree some distance away. Although her aim was dead on, it bounced off of the tree and landed at its base. How awful.

But it wasn’t like she could go out and buy more.

The check for the C-rank had been scrapped considering their failure. It wasn’t shocking to any of team seven but it wasn’t like they needed the money; she did. Sakura pretended she hadn’t noticed the overdue bills lying on the table on the way out this morning, and she had graciously accepted the hospital bill from the Yamanaka Center’s receptionist. Sakura was only thankful that she had her mother check up her injuries rather than the hospital themselves.

So, if her pockets were light, and her weapons now scraps, how could she get new ones?

She could steal them.

Now, wasn’t that a thought.

She felt herself grimace at the thought. To be frank, she wasn’t above being sneaky - it was literally in a shinobi’s job description - but the thought of stealing something made her think of Naruto. What if he found out about this? Stuck between a rock and a hard place, it seemed like.

Or, she could ask Shiro for help.

She removed that thought right away.

Sakura moved swiftly to hurry past the gates of the training grounds into the civilian market. It was strangely sparse that day but the sun beating down on her told her that it was more to do with their fear for their skin’s health. The civilian market was located on the main road for easy access for travellers, however, the closer she got to the Hokage’s tower at the end of the road, the more restricted the access was. Only, Sakura had never been up here if not to accompany Shiro; her price range was more in the range of the one nearer to the akasen - the one with the letters falling off the sign and doors which threatened to give her tetanus. This one was for the more well-off.

A bandaged arm blocked her path.

“Sakura,” she said, undoubtedly sarcastic. “Funny seeing you here.”

“Same to you too, Ino.” Sakura sighed. Now wasn’t the time to explain things to Ino - she’d been hoping to save that for a less stressful day. “Let me get through.”

“Why should I? We both know you can’t afford anything from here,” Ino said, ever the brutally honest person. “Unless…” And it seemed Ino knew her better than she knew herself because she grabbed Sakura’s pouch and scoured it. “Really? What were you going to get, hm?”
“Ino, don’t. Please,” Sakura pleaded.

“No. Go on. You obviously must need it,” Ino retracted her arms and crossed them. They finally locked eyes as Ino narrowed them to pair with the glare she was leading with. “I’m waiting.”

“Kunai - mine are blunt and crap and stuff...” great - now she was starting to sound like Naruto.

“I’ll do you one better. Give me five minutes.” When Ino came back, she was two shopping bags heavier. A quick look inside told her that she had gotten everything Sakura had listed - and more. “Two packs of kunai, two of shuriken, a couple of those explosive tags you like so much - and a sharpening kit, so you can maintain these kunai and not have to buy more for a while.”

Sakura felt a headache coming on.

“Ino, you shouldn’t have bought that. It’s too much - I don’t want to have to owe you anything.”

“Oh, so I should’ve left you to buy it?” That one struck hard. “Now, if you have time to steal, you have time to explain some things over lunch, and by lunch, I mean tea and dango at that shop you love,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I can’t. I’ve got to train,” Sakura said looking back and forth between Ino and the direction the training grounds were in.

“You can think of this as paying off your imaginary debt you owe me - and you can start by explaining just who it was I let into your house yesterday and then explain to me why you were going to steal things.” Knowing it was useless to argue against Ino, Sakura let herself be dragged back down the street, wondering why everything had to go wrong within one week of her life.

When they arrived, they requested a table in the corner, away from others, and when the waiter tried to place them near a window, Ino snapped at them and moved them to a table at the back. Sakura had wished for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

“Don’t bother starting with that trash mission you were sent on with all the decapitated heads. Naruto’s already come to me wallowing in his own sadness about that. He was a mess,” Ino said, cradling her cup of tea and staring down at it. “But then again, when isn’t he?”

“Right.” Sakura, staring at her own tea, smiled.

“So are you going to explain who that weirdo was that I took to your place?” Sakura laughed.

“Right. That weirdo is my sensei.”

“No. Your sensei is Hatake,” Ino said. “Tell the truth.”

“I mean second sensei. Technically, first, but let me finish. I first roped him into babysitting me when I was little - like pre-academy little. I told him I wanted to be a ninja, he got kaa-san to let me join the academy and helped me train for the entrance exams. His training was what probably got me into your class,” Sakura started, deliberately leaving out many strange details (like why her mother was so easily convinced to leave her in a random man’s care).

“A babysitter turned sensei that you never told me about. Sure, why not?” Ino sipped on her tea but left her dango untouched.

“Sorry. It sounds bad said like that, but I promise the only reason I didn’t tell you was because it never came up in conversation.” Sakura nibbled on her dango, nice and sweet but not tooth-rotting which was what she preferred. A little toothache never hurt anyone.

“And that mental breakdown the other day, hm? Naruto was in a pretty bad mood but not so bad as to lock himself away. Explanation?” Ino said. Her fingers rolled in irritating rhythmic taps against the hardwood.

“Yeah. You know How I’m prone to mood swings?” Sakura said, wincing. This was going to be fun to tell. “Yeah, weird story actually. You know how the Uchiha clan died?” Ino nodded slowly, looking alarmed. “Yeah, so I was there for some of it.”

Ino choked.

“What the hell? How did you get out alive?” Ino shouted, capturing the attention of many others in the cafe. She turned to stare at them. “What? You got something to say to me?” They turned away.

“Keep it down. I was just there and you can imagine it was pretty scary for me to see dead bodies when I was so young, so I got sent to otou-san for counselling. That was what messed up my moods,” Sakura trailed off, choosing to focus on the wall above Ino’s head. Again, she had left out the small case of Inner’s existence but only three people really needed to know about that.

“That… sucks,” Ino whispered; that was a better reaction than she’d expected. “Still pissed that you told Tou-san before me though,” she added. There was the Ino she knew. At least she didn't look at her with pity. “Must explain why you and Sasuke-kun are so weird near each other. Does Naruto know?”

“No. All he can perceive is his own emotions, but you know that already,” Sakura giggled. “I should probably tell him and get it over with today. He might cause a riot though.” Sakura felt the headache resurface.

“I say leave it a few days. He has too many of his own emotions to deal with,” Ino said, and Sakura realises Ino still hasn’t touched her food, but Sakura ignores that for now - Ino had always tended to prefer savoury foods. “Do you want to go visit Naruto now?”

“It's Sunday - I’ll be seeing him tomorrow morning,” Sakura said, and, if she was being completely honest, she felt she had exceeded her daily conversation limit already that day. Her bed seemed more and more appealing as the day wore on. In fact, the apartment wasn’t that far away so if-

“That sounds like an excuse to lock yourself in your room again. Come on, we’re going to see our other nuisance of a best friend.” Ino scooped the pair of shopping bags up and dragged Sakura up. She fished in her pocket for some money and slapped some on the table. “Let’s get going.”

Shimura Danzo observed the red eyes sitting in glass jars behind his desk. They sat on metal shelves decorating the walls. His prized possessions - stolen or not. His arm ached slightly as he viewed the empty jar he had left on the shelf: that meant it was time to change the bandages. Shimura stuck his good arm (or, objectively, worse arm) out to beckon a guard forward out of the shadows of his office and gestured to the bandages on the table. The process took little over three and a half minutes and ended as there was a knock at the door. The same guard who redid his bandages moved to open the door.

“Kinoe.” Shimura stared at his agent. Dishevelled but stoic - his perfect soldier, Orochimaru be damned. Dressed in ANBU gear despite not being under Commander Tsugara’s control, he stood tall with his chin level to the ground and his hands at his side waiting for an order. “Report.”

“Subject took the journal with them on a mission that I was unable to track due to the presence of Hatake Kakashi. Subject returned on Friday. Shows no signs of recollection.”

Examining his folder, he pulled out the paper on #642 Haruno Sakura. Her address was listed in the corner as well as her birthdate, occupation and familial relations - trivial information really, as not one of her family members, both dead and alive, were valued members of society and would never hold any significance. Her friends and her team, on the other hand, proved to be quite intriguing; if he had any luck, maybe the peculiar and unfortunate arrangement of genin Team 7 would lead her to an early demise. Then came the strange case of therapy. Of course, the subject had to have been involved in his plans of the Uchiha clan’s removal and would be sent to therapy for such things; but there was something odd about the files. Like something was missing.

Post traumatic stress symptoms but undiagnosed for now… difficulty sleeping… assignment of medical aids…Useless, useless, useless and Yamanaka Inoichi intended for that.

The Yamanaka clan head was sneakier than he had predicted, and possibly more intelligent too. Deliberately, as well. Given that the man was a clan head, Shimura had no jurisdiction over him and to claim that he was withholding information from the state would be accusing him of treason. That would then bring up the question of why Councilman Shimura was going through an insignificant genin’s files. Shimura had no time for investigations into his motives. Yamanaka Inoichi was certainly an unexpected obstacle.

Obstacles could be overcome.

“The other subject?”

“No recollection and persisted denial of events. Possible complete suppression.”

Shimura chuckled.

This one’s file was further down in the registry. Subject #829. Held comparatively less intrigue than the other but an interesting story attached nonetheless. But he was past that now. Especially, since they had proven to be incompetent.

“Unsurprising. It would seem like a waste of time to keep track of them, but there could be something there. Perhaps, their interactions may lead to something worth our while. You have ten days to infiltrate Konoha’s mental health centre and search Yamanaka Inoichi’s office for information of subject #642. You know what to do if you get caught.” Shimura seemed to be deep in thought as he paused. “And sixty lashes for you, to remind you that it was your incompetence that led to this waste of time.” Sixty lashes every time Kinoe reported for this regular assignment, until the day they died or until the day the subjects died. And, the best part was, of course, the complete obedience.

The guard led Kinoe out to the lashing room quickly and silently and Shimura was left alone with himself and an apple. He studied it - red, shiny and likely sweet as sugar. He weighed it in his hand before eating it and discovering that it was miles more sour than he’d expected it to be.

“Hey guys,” Naruto sniffled when he opened his door. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh- that stinks! What have you got in there - rotten eggs?” Ino gags and Sakura can’t help but gag too and pinch her nose, because that was not rotten egg and most definitely old milk. “You’re disgusting, you know that? Idiot.” Ino shoved past him whilst he was too sleepy to process what she had just said and when he does realise, it's when Ino and Sakura are already making themselves comfortable inside his miserably filthy room.

Although it was smaller than her own, she was at least certain the windows were secure and the neighbours weren’t thieves. His apartment was set out nicely: an entryway going into a small hallway, with the left leading into the living area and the right into the bathroom. The living area was the size of her bedroom and had his bed pushed up beside the window and his kitchenette (consisting of a few cabinets, a basin, an untouched stove top and a minifridge) had a window looking out onto the street below. It was a quaint place for Naruto to live, so it was a shame he had dirty plates stacking in the basin, old milk sitting on the countertop and his clothes all over the floor. His bed was made though - that was something.

Naruto trudged in dragging his blanket along after them and scrambled into action.

“Hey Sakura, Ino,” he scooped up the nearest pile of clothes and carried them off into the closet, “didn’t expect you guys today,” he came rushing back to the kitchenette, placing all the dishes into the basin and running the water over them. “What’s up?”

“Wondering how you were, surprisingly,” Ino said, running her finger over the frame of his bed and blew the dust off it into Sakura’s face. Sakura shoved Ino away and lied across the bed.

“Didn’t know you cared, dat,” he scrubbed the dishes furiously, “te,” he shoved them onto the drying rack quickly, “bayo. There. Done.”

“Believe it or not, Ino was the one who insisted,” Sakura said, snorting.

“Huh,” he wiped his hands and turned to them. “Really?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Wow, Ino-chan. That’s really nice of you,” he says smiling, but this was the moment that he’d usually go in for a hug and Ino would push him off; except none of that happened because Naruto was standing there wringing his hands with the sort of smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You haven’t come here to talk about the...uh…”

“No. That’s over and done with. You’ll get over a mission failure soon enough,” Ino said nonchalantly. Naruto’s face contorted - nostrils flaring and eyes watering.

“It’s not like that. You know it wasn’t, Ino!” Naruto shouted. “You know it wasn’t!”

“I would understand if you had to kill anyone or had to see anyone die, but it was Sasuke-kun and Sakura who saw that, so you have no excuse to be so sad about it for so long. It was a stupid mission failure and that’s all!” Ino shouted back as she rose from her seat, the tension in the room rising with her.

“It’s not like that and you know it! Listen to me-”

“No - you listen to me! Your problem is that you always wanna save everyone because you think being a hero will get everyone to like you!” Ino stepped closer to Naruto. “You think if you save people, everyone in Konoha will treat you better and acknowledge you!” She lifted a finger and prodded his chest not lightly, and Sakura saw his eyes brim with tears. “You think you’re a bad person who needs to prove himself to people that hate him for no damn reason! Well guess what Naruto - you’re wrong.”

Deciding this had gone on long enough, Sakura stood up and placed herself in between the pair to push Ino away from him.

“Ino, too far,” Sakura said, quiet but stern. “You need to calm down.”

“I need to calm down? The two of you need to get a grip. It’s their own fault they didn’t pay for a higher ranked team to protect him. Their fault, you hear me: not yours or Naruto’s,” Ino scowled and pushed past her to stand in the kitchenette flicking her ponytail over her shoulder and Sakura could hear the snarl in her voice.

“When did I say it was my fault?” Sakura deadpanned.

“You don’t have to. You think I don’t know you?” Ino snatched up the rotten carton of milk and put it into the bin clearly avoiding eye contact with both Sakura and Naruto. “We’ve spent years of our lives together and you think I can’t tell when the pair of you are beating yourselves up about something?” Heavy breathing and sporadic movements - Ino was getting emotional. A bubble of heat rose in Sakura’s chest, but she reigned herself in, aware of the impending emotional explosions and centered herself on the fact that Ino wasn’t trying to be mean; she was trying to get her point across.

Her point which was… Naruto not having to save everyone when it's not within his power. That was the message here.

“That is not… Alright, whatever. We get it. Just stop.” Behind Sakura, Naruto went to sit down on the floor with his back against his bed frame and his head hanging. She could see him wiping his face with the hem of his shirt so grabbed a box of tissues for him.

“You might, but he doesn’t get that he doesn’t have to make up anything or owe anything to Konoha citizens,” Ino retorted.

“But you’re being mean. Apologize,” Sakura said. “Now.”

“I’ve done nothing but tell the truth.” Their eyes met as Sakura glared and Ino returned the glare at full force with no hesitation.

“I don’t doubt that you believe every word you’re saying but that doesn’t mean you have to be so hurtful,” Sakura all but shouted. Recoiling, Ino staggered and paced the room slowly. Her head fell to the floor and Sakura heard her exhale sharply. “Well? Apologize.” Ino almost growled before rolling her eyes.

“Fine. I’ll concede.” Ino turned and made her way to Naruto, staring down at him but Sakura could tell Ino was still somewhere between kicking him and apologizing. “I’m sorry for being mean.”

“If you’re going to do it, do it properly.” Sakura sat down on one side of Naruto and put an arm over his shoulder, pulling him into her side.

Visibly softer, Ino sighed and sat down next to him. It was a strange sight: Ino - long, blonde hair, polished nails and expensive clothing - sat next to Naruto - snotty faced, wrinkled clothes and a tendency to forget to shower - and going to apologize to him. It was strange but familiar because no amount of pretty clothes would ever make Ino not care about people. Because she did. Whether she showed it or not, or whether she went about it in the wrong way (which encompassed the majority of the time) or went a mile too far. She got angry because she cared and cared because she loved them. She did her best even if it didn’t always work - that, Sakura thought, was a habit everyone could use.

“Naruto,” she started, putting a hand on his knee.

“Yeah?” His voice cracked.

“I’m sorry for being so mean. My point was for you to stop being so hard on yourself, but then I was hard on you for that so that defeated my point, didn’t it?” Still rubbing his raw eyes, Naruto nodded quickly. “Don’t try so hard to get people to like you, because, in the end, you’ll be the best of them all. And they’ll only be missing out on your awesome personality, right?” He nodded again. “Don’t be a hero because you want to please them - be a hero because you want to be a hero.”

They sat in silence for a while, but Sakura couldn’t resist interrupting.

“What a line to end on. How did you get so philosophical?” Sakura laughed with her eyebrows raised. “Did something happen while we were away?”

“Oh, shove it, Billboard Brow,” Ino said but she was smiling and rolling her eyes.

“That’s a new one, Ino-Pig,” Sakura said, sending Naruto into a wet giggling fit because he was still crying and, to be honest, she had no idea why. At least he didn’t seem too upset. That was good enough. “What do you say we go train for a bit and get ramen after? Ino’s paying.”

“Yeah, that sounds good, dattebayo,” Naruto croaked.

“Guess I better get my money ready for later,” Ino commented, slinging an arm over the pair of them and squeezing tightly. She leaned over them and grabbed the shopping bags to plant it in Naruto’s lap. “And we can try out Sakura’s new stuff.” Like clockwork, Naruto’s face perked up.

“New stuff?”

One of his stops before meeting his student was the jounin headquarters. He was up too early for a night owl such as himself, but the caffeine of a black coffee held off the sandman for a while. Headquarters was filled mostly with people he had never had the misfortune of coming into contact with, so the stares he attracted weren’t unwarranted. Nevertheless, he steamed forward to the little congregation of Hatake and his friends (or, rather, subordinates) who didn’t spare him a second glance even though, once upon a time, they all used to be casual friends.
Personally, Shiro knew he didn’t care for much apart from himself, his money, his training and Sakura’s wellbeing. (And, occasionally, his friends too.) Therefore, because the very short list included Sakura’s wellbeing, that meant he just had to get angry on her behalf, when she came home in emotional distress, Shiro took that as a personal attack. And, what do shinobi do when they are attacked?

Simple. They fight back.

Shiro knew this too, so, although he promised Sakura to lay off the miserable friend-killer, he really couldn’t keep to that in good conscience now, could he?

“So,” he said, “heard about that mission you kept your genin on? S-rank was it?”

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

“Maa, is he talking to me?” Hatake said to whichever one of his friends was sitting on his left.

“I am,” Shiro said instead of waiting for the other man to reply. “Really just wondering why you got your runts involved in a death trap.”

“Leave it, Nakamura,” the Hokage’s son said, whom Shiro didn’t even notice and who Shiro was sure Kurenai was smitten with. “It’s got nothing to do with you.”

“On the contrary,” Shiro took a seat with them so he was sat opposite the Hatake who insisted on pretending he was still reading his porn book, and felt the eyes of everyone in the commons fall onto him (oh, what a surprise), “actions like that could get you put on permanent leave, but you’ve killed your comrades before, so I don’t suppose they’d take any action against you.” The sharp, rising smell of ozone struck Shiro.

“Alright, that’s that.” Sarutobi stood and tried to grab Shiro by the scruff of his neck, but he dodged the hand and held it away from him. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“Oh, I know, and you do too.” Shiro placed a light smirk on his face as Sarutobi stared at him intensely.

“No, you don’t understand,” he insisted, seemingly missing Shiro’s entire point. He rolled his eyes at this and laughed.

“Oh, come on. At this point everyone and their mother knows how he drove a hand straight through Rin-”

In less than a second, Shiro left the comfort of his chair and hit the wall hard enough to knock the air out of him. Hatake’s forearm came up to press against his throat, restricting his breathing and vocal chords. The one visible eye narrowed so deeply that he couldn’t have been sure it was even open. Vaguely aware that a kunai was pressed against the skin beneath his sternum and angled upwards and that nobody would try to get between them, Shiro considered his next words very carefully.

“What?” Shiro choked out. “You going to kill me too?”

Feeling the Hatake’s hands start to shake, he realised he may have made a bad decision.

“Keep out of things that don’t concern you,” Hatake whispered. “I’d hate to have to resort to any further… measures to handle things. Wouldn’t you agree?” It wasn’t as if he’d even attempted to hide his deep loathing for him, or to restrain the potent killing intent he was radiating, but he had the audacity to remain civil when talking to him. So, Shiro kept silent. “I said, wouldn’t you agree?”

Shiro felt a trickle of blood run down his stomach. They were in a position where Hatake could very easily kill him and all it would take was one wrong word, but Shiro didn’t find that that motivated him any further to concede and escape with his life, even though he had to admit he was scared shitless. In fact, he would bet his last B-rank’s money on some figure of authority walking through that door and forcing Hatake to back down at any moment. At least, he hoped so because he himself certainly wouldn’t be backing down any time soon and letting him live.

As he predicted, the heavy thuds of footfalls echoed down the corridor and entered the room with a thud even louder likely caused by the doors swinging and making a dent in the wall. The familiar sounds of shinobi footwear crept ever closer and stopped a relatively safe distance away of two meters and grumbled.

“Can we not last a day without something stupid happening?” the man mumbled. “You two,” this time in a more assertive, but just as exhausted, voice, “my office. Now!”

Chapter Text

“Immaturity,” Shikaku began, “is what I expect of clan jonin who have grown up in peacetime to have. Neither of you fit that category, so why the fuck were you two having a scrap in the middle of a common room in a prestigious establishment meant for the elite?”

Bashful silence.

“Oh? Now is when you decide to hold your tongues and control yourselves?” Shikaku turned and rummaged through his desk drawer. His desk rattled loudly, banging against the floor as the uneven table legs shook violently, but Shikaku paid little to no mind to the noise. “Ah. Suspension sheets - just what I was looking for.” A satisfied glint crossed his eyes as the jonin startled. “Scared, are you? Better start talking then.”

“I’ll go,” Shiro interjected, pointing towards Hatake. “He started it.”

“More playground antics. I said, `Tell me what happened’ - not ‘point fingers until someone confesses’.”

“I’ll go,” Hatake said in a tone Shiro couldn’t identify (sarcasm or weariness? Maybe neither… Probably, neither). “Nakamura comes up to me, verbally harasses me unprovoked and I pin him to the wall.”

“Don’t forget the blade you shoved up near my ribcage,” Shiro said, snorting. “That’s half the tale anyways.”

“So I take it Nakamura started the verbal altercation and Hatake started the physical altercation. Petulant children are apparently who we’re letting into jonin HQ nowadays.” Shikaku nodded exaggeratedly and sat in his desk chair, writing on a couple of sheets. “I don’t care at all what Nakamura said, but I think I can take a guess and I can’t begin to fathom why Nakamura even cares; that didn’t mean you had to attack him.”

“I understand,” Hatake said. Complacency was typical.

“I don’t,” Shiro spoke up, because, even after all that, he was still pissed because - really? A person like Hatake in charge of children? “Why is he-” Shiro gestured to Hatake, “given a pass when he didn’t follow protocol by turning back, and he took a bunch of genin on a trip to kill an S-rank? They could’ve been killed.”

“I have no choice in that, Nakamura,” Shikaku deadpanned. “And neither do you. You know who’s really in charge around here.”

“There’s no reason why this guy should have to teach them. Get them a better teacher!”

“Listen. There are some important figures in that team - I’m sure I don’t need to elaborate - and they need the most capable jonin to train them. You understand?” Rolling his eyes, Shiro crossed his arms and leaned his head back. Sighing, Shikaku revealed the suspension slips and took a seat to sign them. “And I’ll put that suggestion in for consideration.”

Shiro sat up in his seat abruptly.

“You’ll what?” The glare that Shikaku directed at them was not shy by any means and had forgone all ounces of kindness the Nara could ever possess. Slumping into his seat, Shiro shut up.

“You heard me. Now, shut up and let me write up this stupid incident.”

Shiro only ended up leaving the office with the Hatake after three hours of a lecture and a threat to permanently take them off active duty. ‘Disgusting behaviour’ Jonin Commander Nara said. ‘Not representative of Konoha’ he said sometime after his spiel about ‘comrades’ (which Shiro believed should’ve been directed towards the Hatake more than himself really). His feet led him away from HQ and towards the training grounds… which was empty. Probably for the best anyway - he was sure so many of his brain cells died during that lecture that he wouldn’t have the capacity to make up a believable lie to tell. He just hoped she hadn’t taken to doing something stupid.

Oh well. He could probably go find Kurenai and harass her for the rest of the day.

Monday morning and Sakura was up like she always was, sitting at the table with her tea and some romance novel to read. Peaceful silence surrounded her, but her heartbeat thumped loudly at the thought of going back to her team. However, as her mother gave her a forehead kiss and left for the hospital (conveniently dodging Sakura’s question about the bills and off-handedly commenting on a break-in?) she realised that, if it wasn’t now, it would be tomorrow or the day after that and then she would build it up into a big event when, in reality, it was just another day with the team. With that in mind, Sakura got dressed and admired her new, broken-in weapons before she headed off to the team’s meet up to get their before everyone else.

So, upon getting to the training grounds, she was surprised and dismayed to see every member of the team already there and engaged in conversation.

“Good morning,” she piped up. They stopped talking. “Did I miss anything?” She almost toppled over when Naruto glomped her in a hug. Sakura noted he smelt less like ramen today, and more like the body wash Ino bought him. What a nice change.

“Sakura! You gotta stop him! Sensei says we’re going to get a different sensei now!”

Unbothered as ever, Hatake’s hands were digging into his pockets and he slouched massively. She couldn’t help the shy glee that raced through her at the revelation but paused in her doubt. Why would Kakashi be taken off the team when he was the only person to teach Sasuke some Uchiha techniques?

“Maa, that’s not the case at all. I’ll be removed for a while, and then I’ll come back as assistant sensei,” Hatake interrupted. ‘Assistant sensei’ sounded suspiciously similar to ‘Sasuke’s personal tutor’, but that could’ve been Sakura’s personal spite coming through. “Don’t worry about it. Yamato is a good guy. He should be coming any minute now.”

“Why are you leaving?” Sakura said.

“Oh, you know. This and that… Oh look. Yamato’s here.”

“Good morning.”

Turning around, Sakura stiffened at the appearance of the man who hadn’t made a sound. He had the standard uniform with the peculiar addition of a metal head brace that seemed redundant. Cropped, brown hair stuck out of the top of the brace and he had the standard, nondescript black eyes she’d seen a million times around the village. In all honesty, he was slightly underwhelming compared to Kakashi - and he was slightly unnerving.

He stared forward, unblinking with a reserved smile on his face that spoke ‘manufactured’, just like Hatake, which was comforting in a way, but he seemed so familiar… Logically, it shouldn’t have been so important to her - she could’ve passed him by on the streets (her brain remembered everything, whether she intended for it or not) or maybe it was the common eyes.

Either way though, she’d take this Yamato over Kakashi any day.

“Good morning,” Sakura suddenly remembered to say and bowed. “Are you our new sensei?”

“Yes,” he said. “You must be Haruno Sakura.” He turned to the boys. “And you are Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sauke. I am Yamato. You may call me ‘Yamato-sensei’.” The more he talked, the more it seemed as if he was a generally awkward person. “I will be training you for the chunin exams.”

The three students stopped. And they stared. And Naruto was the one to break the silence.

“What?”

“That’s no matter,” Hatake finally said to them. Crumpled batches of paper appeared from his pockets and made their way into the students hand who stood stunned. “Here’s your form. And if you don’t want to do it this time round, then you can do it next time.”

“Thank you,” she said and accepted the forms with just as much grace.

“The chunin exams are next week, you have a week to decide. If you happen to not participate, you can meet Yamato here to train at usual time that day. Is everyone clear?” he said. His eye smile faded when he looked at the ground. “I’m sure you’re all aware I have high expectations?”

“Yes, sensei,” but she was the only one who answered.

“Good,” but he didn’t look at her, and left.

And now they were alone with Yamato. He turned to them with his hands firmly clasped behind his back and stared at them, considering their blank, unresponsive stares. Beside her, Sasuke shifted on his feet and put his form in his bag, to which Sakura followed suit, vowing to read the leaflet later and nudged Naruto to do the same. After they were done, Sakura looked up. Yamato was still staring at them.

“Are we really doing the chunin exams, err, Yamato-sensei?” Naruto grimaced. “Do you think we can really do it? Like, really?” The pessimism in Naruto’s voice was unexpected, but Sakura understood. She understood because she shared the same doubts, because, after that catastrophe of a mission, the confidence she had in her team was firmly in the negatives.

“You’ll be ready as soon as I’m done with you, I’m sure of it. But it’s up to you if you want to participate,” Yamato said. Locking eyes with Naruto, Sakura frowned and shrugged. This discussion would have to wait for later. “But we have training to do until then.”

“Tell me why Hatake Kakashi had to leave.” Resounding and demanding, the Uchiha straightened and pinned Yamato with a callous stare. “Tell me, Yamato.”

“That,” he paused to glare, “is beyond your stretch of information. Do not speak to me like that.”

“Speak to you like what?” Sasuke returned, crossing his arms.

“Like that. And put my honorific back on my name before I kick you off the team. You treat your comrades with respect. Do you understand?” Sakura felt herself perk up shamefully and smiled, as Sasuke stayed quiet. “I said - do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes Sensei.”

“Good. Now, fifty laps around the field in under five minutes, without chakra. Every minute you go over is another lap for tomorrow. Oh, and since Uchiha thinks he’s so fantastic, he can do sixty. Go.” For a second, Sakura supposed she could look past his suspicious demeanour and get used to this.

Later, Sakura noted the chunin exam application form consisted of six pages, outlining the details of the time, place and disclosure of safety hazards (which spanned half the document) and a place to sign to state that the applicant accepted that the governing of Konohagakure would not be held accountable for any deaths or injuries gained in this series of events. Injuries, apparently, also encompassed mental trauma inflicted. All in all, not so different from the papers one signed at the end of the academy, except this was more acute and thorough; however, it also meant that death and injuries would be likely in these exams.

And that made complete sense, as chunins were the rank escorts, courier, and rescue/capture missions were assigned to, which would include many more attacks on a shinobi’s life and many more injuries one would have to inflict on others - perhaps, they’d even need to kill someone (although assassinations were usually assigned to ANBU and jonin). Sakura found no issues with the requirements of capability here.

On the other hand, it was the fact that she couldn’t back out now that was the real problem.

You see, it took plenty of prying on Sakura’s part to find out how the exams worked since even Shiro didn’t know. Upon sneaking into the library and spying on chunin during the academy, she had long since realised that part of the chunin exams tested for a shinobi’s communicative skills. They did this by setting up the exams in a way that three man cells were necessary - no lone wolves allowed. What this meant for teams was testing their analytical skills, and communication as a team to decide unanimously whether or not to participate, so a single shinobi turning up to the exam without their team would have an unnamed, failed C-rank attached to their record as well as their teammates. Now, if she could explain that to her teammates, that would be splendid.

Except, she couldn’t, because the Uchiha would want proof, and proof she didn’t have. All she had was her memory, which, although flawless, wasn’t reliable as proof to anyone but herself.

So, when she explained as much with a smile and some tactfully twisted words, the boys seemed desperately unreceptive. Sore after many hours of physical conditioning, team seven sat in together at Ichiraku’s as per Naruto’s insistence for thirty minutes of silence while she explained her point of view, and ate their food. “What do you think?”

“But we’re good enough, right? Yamato said we will be,” Naruto said expectantly.

“Uh, Naruto,” she started nervously, wanting to avoid telling him that that was certainly not the truth, “we’re definitely not.” His face was the epitome of heartbreak but she had seen that look when Ino had refused to buy him ramen two years ago, so she didn’t take that too seriously. “We’ve just left the academy, so we’re not exactly skilled.”

“I’ll pay you,” was the fascinating response Sasuke came up with. Considering this bold statement, she narrowed her eyes at him.

“How much?” For a moment, there was an ounce of disbelief in his eyes before he covered it up with his usual snark, which made Sakura wonder if there was any sort of personality under his sneers and scoffs. But, she found that she wouldn’t really care either way and pushed that to the back of her busy mind.

“How much do you need?” Now, she already knew that one. If she added up the 50,000 ryo for her sessions, with the bills waiting on the table which was 112,600 ryo, and wanted money saved up, she’d need something somewhere near the 200,000 mark. A big ask, but the Uchiha would do anything to move up the ranks, even if it was to get into something he might not make it out of alive in.

“200,000 ryo,” she said and heard Naruto gasp as if he’d heard some life changing secret, but Sasuke only nodded, straight-faced. “Cash,” she added as an afterthought.

“Meet me here, same time tomorrow, after training.”

“Thank you.” Fervently, Naruto intercepted and flailed about in the air. Catching the chopsticks his arm knocked, she sighed and addressed him.“What is it?”

“I thought you said we weren’t good enough for the chunin exams.” Her next breath held and released loudly.

“I know, but the money’s useful, we don’t have to pass the first time round and the experience will be useful,” she lied through her teeth. The money was, indeed, good, but the risk would never weigh up to the potential experience; but the money was more than necessary. Between her thoughts, she felt the taste of bitter regret creep up her throat. “Besides, didn’t you want to graduate to chunin?” If she didn’t taste it then, she certainly tasted it now.

“Well, yeah.”

“Then you shouldn’t complain.” They went back to eating in silence, but Sakura felt the weight of her decision holding her down.

Unsurprisingly, the first indications of the upcoming chunin exams were the foreign ninja swarming the village. This was a first for all chunin exams (unchaperoned foreign nin? Unheard of) and it put Sakura on edge as she began to see shinobi branded with different symbols roam the streets.

On her way home from Ichiraku’s, accompanied by the still baffled Naruto, they encountered an intimidating painted boy trying to strangle the Hokage’s grandchild and a girl - or, rather, Naruto encountered it and Sakura ducked behind a fence. The boy was taller than Sakura and possibly taller than Sasuke, with a jumpsuit in black and a Sunagakure symbol on him, and something wrapped up on his back. The blonde beside him was similar in height and affiliation, but donned baby pinks and a giant fan on her back. So, Sakura now knew their preferred method of attack; but, these were Suna nin - she had every intention of avoiding combat for as long as possible.

“Oi!” Naruto waved a fist at the boy. Looking away from the child, Sakura could now see the strange painted purple lines across his face and the haughty smile on his face. “Let him down, or me and Sak-” Naruto took a moment to realise Sakura had vanished, “or I’ll beat you up.”

“Why don’t you come and make me?” he said with his grip on the child’s neck tightening.

“Kankuro, you should probably put him down. We can’t mess things up for us,” the girl said to the boy who was now declared as Kankuro. “Put him down.”

“But I don’t want to.”

Sensing the rising course of action, Sakura pulled into a henge where she had mousy brown hair, matching eyes and a wider jaw before stepping out onto the scene, changing her gait and posture. Eyes turned to her and stopped short at her entrance, and Sakura felt the sirens alarm in her head. Oh well - too late now.

“That’s the Hokage’s grandkid. You don’t wanna be caught up with that,” Sakura said. “Keep this up, his brain’s gonna go to shit. Do you really want to be accused of scrambling the kid’s brain like that?”

“Put him down,” the Suna girl said again. Grabbing onto his arms, she pulled harshly and released one of his arms from the kid’s throat. Konohamaru clawed at the other one, digging his nails deep into Kankuro's hand, deep enough to draw blood; Kankuro didn’t flinch as he kept his eye locked onto the child’s face. Konohamaru was turning into a motley of red and purple and he didn’t have much time left until he would suffer permanent damage to his brain. “Get off him. This isn’t a good look for us.”

“Kankuro.”

Around them, the air went cold. A child. Her age, red hair with dark rings around his eyes, a gourd on his back, and standing upside down on a tree branch. The kanji for love sat on his forehead mocking the look in his eyes as he pinned Kankuro down with a glare. The voice was simple, clear and almost bright but distinctly…ominous? Sakura had never heard a voice like that before (yes she had) and it came from a child.

In a second, the redhead had shot over to Kankuro so fast that Sakura’s eye couldn’t follow. Kankuro dropped Konohamaru immediately, straightening himself in the eyes of the child. They stood face to face, but Kankuro’s gaze fell onto the ground in submission to a boy nearly a head shorter than him. Scrambling to his feet and gasping for air, the little boy stumbled out of the back alley and away from the scene. Nobody followed him.

“Brother.”

Brothers?

The Sand siblings. Of course.

That meant the blonde was the eldest child - Temari of Sunagakure, Kankuro was the middle child, and the redhead… was Gaara of Sunagakure - the jinchuuriki. The famed ichibi stood right in front of her, and the kyuubi beside her; but, where one vessel had control, the other was famed to have very little. What was even more concerning was that, if the barrier between vessel and tailed beast was so thin, Gaara could have complete access to the beast’s sensory field, which also meant he would recognise her signature at the exams, making her disguise completely hopeless.

Just her luck.

What could perhaps turn this situation into an even worse one than it already was, was if the ichibi decided that it had unresolved conflict with the kyuubi. So they had to get out of there.

As quickly as Sakura had come to that conclusion, Gaara turned to them.

“I apologise for my siblings’ behaviour on their behalf. Such violent displays between villages at peace are unacceptable. I hope you won’t find this reason to hold a grudge against Sunagakure in the future,” Gaara said, much to Sakura’s surprise. The words tumbled out of his mouth robotically and respectfully, but no amount of contempt was hidden underneath his tone. “My siblings will not go unpunished by their superiors.”

‘Their’, not ‘our’.

“But that’s not fair. He,” Naruto pointed at Kankuro, “almost killed Konohamaru.”

“I apologise for my siblings’ behaviour on their behalf. Such violent displays between villages at peace are unacceptable. I hope you won’t find this reason to hold a grudge against Sunagakure in the future.” Like a machine. Same intonation, same phrasing, same respectful contempt. Sakura would know because the fear running in her made her unlikely to forget. “My siblings will not go unpunished by their superiors.”

“We won’t hold it against you.” Calmly, or as calm as she could make it seem, Sakura reached for Naruto’s sleeve and tugged on it. “Didn’t you have that hospital appointment in ten minutes?” Naturally, Naruto was slow to catch on as his brain struggled throughout the series of words. Code words and phrases had never stuck in Naruto’s mind like it did with Ino, who would act naturally, but Naruto was typically a slow person, so it wouldn’t be unbelievable for him to take so long on a single sentence.

“Yeah, I remember,” Naruto said, unconvincingly. Nodding rapidly, he turned in the direction of the hospital and started to walk away at an odd, stuttering pace. “Let’s go… friend.”

He couldn’t have made it more blatantly obvious that they were running away. Nevertheless, Sakura followed suit with her eyes determinedly fixed on the path ahead, walking quickly so she could escape the watchful eyes of the Sand siblings.Before the pair could take the turn out of the alley, a voice called out. Deeper this time, but less intimidating.

“You - the one in orange. What is your name?” Gaara’s voice echoed in the alley.

“Me?” Pivoting on one foot, Naruto looked back at them. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you.”

On Tuesday evening, after receiving her money and anonymously paying off the bills, Sakura found Shiro at the library, sitting in their usual corner. The librarian eyed her nervously as Sakura walked into the building but Sakura paid her no mind. Light streamed in through the opening door, alerting Shiro of her arrival. He barely looked at ease in this library as his distaste for them remained strong, but he sat there anyway, with all the books on chakra control laid out on the table. Even the scrolls from the restricted section.

Excellent - he did her job for her.

“Kid. Nice of you to turn up today for the research. Yesterday, I hadta do the reading myself and you know how I feel about that,” he snarked.

“You know Sunday was on you, but sorry for not seeing you yesterday. However, I come bearing good news.” With her bag slung over the chair, Sakura grinned at him malevolently. “They’ve replaced Hatake.”

“They what?”

“I know! That’s exactly how I reacted.”

“Well, you better revel in it now. That’s the first and last time they’ll do you a favor,” Shiro said cynically, but even he was grinning like an idiot (and - oh look, the dreadful moustache was back).

“Way to put a damper on my mood,” she said. “But at least this Yamato actually has us doing stuff. He had us doing laps like crazy yesterday for stamina and ran us through physical drills. Drills! Can you believe it? I mean, he hasn’t actually taught us anything yet, but warm-ups, calculated circuits of drills and other exercises and cool-downs instead of half-assed arranged spars that I’m usually sat on the side for? It’s heaven!” Throwing herself back on the chair, Sakura laughed incredulously, attracting the gaze of the librarian. Obviously, Sakura straightened herself out and quietened down. In a strange turn of events, Shiro had stayed silent. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re not going to replace me, are you? With your new sensei?” Sakura wasn’t sure if he was serious.

“No. He’s creepy anyways.”

“How is he creepy?” Shiro began to split the pile of books down the middle (roughly anyway, as it was split with more on Sakura’s side) and side-eyed her. “Does he watch you all creepy?”

“No… He just feels creepy.”

“Don’t worry about that. Shinobi usually feel creepy. Usually has to do with the fact that we’re mentally disturbed. Just ask Inoichi. Or don’t. That might go against his doctor guide or something.”

“Right. Let’s look at those books.”

Chapter Text

“So, chunin exams then? You sure about that?”

Shiro was quick to disturb their peaceful silence as he browsed his book selection. Everyone and their cousins knew of Shiro’s deep loathing of the library and it’s silence in which people read. Although she would’ve preferred silence where she could concentrate, she supposed it was each to their own. And she most certainly wanted to avoid this conversation in particular.

“Yes.”

“Really? Because I’m thinking about this objectively, here. Realistically, you’re competent in taijutsu and ninjutsu - for a genin. You’re pretty good at genjutsu as you are, indeed being taught by the best-”

“No, that’s Kurenai,” she commented as she skimmed a chapter on Academy chakra theory as sometimes the basics held the most important information. However, this was not one of those cases. She shut the book and moved on.

“One of the best and you’re smart as fuck. You’ve not got too many holes to cover - but let’s be honest? Konohagakure places more value on teamwork rather than individual skill. Your team is not going to pass. So, why are you participating?”

“Experience, mostly.” She was sharp and focused on her books. Sakura did not look up.

“Oh, come on. Nobody joins the chunin exams for experience. You could die.”

“I’m smart enough to not die.” Debatable.

“Eh. Not really believing you. I’m thinking this has more to do with the bills being paid ‘anonymously’.”

Stopping short, Sakura gave herself a papercut on the edge of a page in a book she no longer wanted nor needed. She paused to wipe her bloodied finger on her pants.

“How do you know about that?”

“Came across your mom this morning and she smiled at me. That was the first thing I saw that was completely wrong. I asked her why she was so happy and she told me that her bills had been paid by a stranger. Of course, she then told me to ‘mind my own business’ but she’s usually like that so.. What’s up with that ‘stanger’?”

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” she insisted.

“Cut the crap. I know it was you. Question is - where'd you get the money from? Because that is a lot of money.”

Clearly, Shiro already knew she paid the bills and had an inkling it had something to do with the exams. To tell the truth or to not tell the truth? Contemplating the results of what she could say next, Sakura forewent the petty argument that would undoubtedly follow an attempt to lie and resulted in the truth of the matter falling out of her mouth.

“I got paid generously to take the exams. By Uchiha Sasuke.”

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t want to do it, he did so he paid me to do it.”

“Oh, wow. I’m impressed. Swindling little Uchiha menace out of money to satisfy your own needs and appeal to his goals. Genius.” A belly laugh resonated in the empty library causing the librarian to shush them and scowl at Shiro.

“What?”

“It’s genius. Well, not really. But good move. It’s not like the money is resting on the condition that you even pass the first stage. You can be out of there as quickly as you get in. I knew I taught you well.”

Well, no. If she forfeited the first exam, Sasuke would place a target on her back for his next fireball and it would quite possibly rip their team apart. However, Sakura refrained from raining on Shiro’s parade.

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Glad we cleared that up. Back to reading then.”

Clapping her on the back, he gave a small giggle and grabbed a book off his own pile. Rolling her eyes, Sakura refocused on a book. In between his attempts at conversation and lack of information in the books they read, the pair found nothing of value.

Bright and early on Wednesday morning, Sakura arrived just before Yamato did and took liberties by beginning her warm ups early. Her muscles burned in a pleasant way as she took her time stretching and basking in the rising sun whilst Naruto threw shuriken at a tree and the Uchiha sulked near a tree as usual. Yamato arrived in his usual fashion - which was to say in complete silence and not a second before or after the designated time.

“Good morning, genin,” he started robotically. “We have only a few days until the chunin exams. Have you made your individual decisions?”

Sakura looked between Naruto, who looked at her expectantly, and Sasuke, who glared at her vehemently with a silent threat, and thought back to the money she’d used to pay off her family’s debt. The look on her mother’s face when the mail came and told them their debt had been cleared anonymously had Sakura wanting to both cry and laugh. Utterly bewildered, Mebuki had collapsed onto a dining chair, rubbing at her watering eyes. That night, they had gone out for the first time as a family to Yakiniku Q. Sakura didn’t regret taking the money.

But she knew she would regret the chunin exams.

“We all decided to participate in the chunin exams,” she said finally.

“Then, we have plenty of work to do. I shall begin with laying out the schedule. From this point onward, training hours are between zero seven hundred hours to seventeen hundred hours.”

Sakura startled at the information, since Shiro’s time slot was between four o’clock and six o’clock, meaning she’d have to search for a way to leave early. Considering this was a teacher who seemed to care about his job, she would be testing her luck with this one, but she kept her face neutral nonetheless.

“We have begun the physical conditioning, bukijutsu and taijutsu practice since Monday and we will continue with such training between zero seven hundred hours and eleven hundred hours.” Yamato paused to draw a large circle in the dirt with a long stick that Sakura couldn’t recall being on the ground before he arrived.

“You will then have until thirteen hundred hours to complete a team objective which will test and require a high level of teamwork and cooperation. You will work through your lunch break if it has not been completed. At thirteen hundred hours, as you are eating lunch, we will work on the paper academy curriculum and build on your knowledge of wilderness survival, trap-setting, knowledge of other shinobi villages and genjutsu until fifteen hundred hours. At that point, we will work on ninjutsu until seventeen hundred hours. Do we have a mutual understanding of this schedule?”

Steeling herself, Sakura nodded. If she didn’t believe they were good enough to participate, then she’d have to make sure that they got to that point by the time the exams arrived.

“Yes, sensei,” she said.

“Then, let’s get started. Haruno, Uchiha - in the ring.”

(Sasuke won that round, but Sakura would later insist to Shiro that she was merely saving her energy. Nevertheless, Sakura resolved to do better and drew two spars, won two and lost three in total. Whether or whether not they were fair wins was up for debate.)

“So, we have completed the physical aspect of today,” Yamato said after the taijutsu section. “You have five minutes break.”

Sakura kneeled to run water on her face after her fourth spar against Naruto who turned out to be a whole lot stronger than he was last time she’d sparred against him. He’d given her a run for her money in terms of speed and was miles better than her physically; but he was no less predictable and, ultimately, a well-timed genjutsu led to his downfall, where he had been tricked into believing he had more space in the ring than there was, and he sabotaged himself. She also may have thrown dirt in his face once or twice. Naruto had sulked at her ‘sneaky’ victory, but Sakura knew a victory was a victory.

Water evaporated nearly as soon as it touched her skin under the summer sun and took some of the heat with it, but the sore muscles and bruises upon bruises remained stubbornly beneath her clothing. Sakura removed the sweat-sodden arm wraps and dumped them in her bag and ducked behind a tree to swap her full length trousers for the shorts she had wanted to save for after training. Alas, not everything could go her way. The hairs on her legs laid determinedly flat on her skin against the sun and she grimaced at the fact she hadn’t put sunscreen on her legs that morning. That sunburn would rub her red and aloe was pricey (but she had the money for that now-) but she’d make do for the time being.

“Hey, Sakura-chan!” Naruto called out at her as she rounded back into the clearing. Taking a seat with her back facing the sun, she squinted at his heat-flushed face and blinding grin. “Yamato-sensei’s gonna make us do an obstacle course!”

“It’s not an obstacle course, dobe,” Sasuke snapped. “It’s an intel gathering task.” Gulping down his water bottle, Naruto glared at him.

“Same thing, teme.”

“Oh. Where did he go?”

“Oh, oh, oh - I know. He said he was going to build it first. I don’t really know what that means though…”

Building? Yamato was certainly more dedicated a sensei than Hatake ever was and she reveled in that knowledge especially now she was free from him. All she had to do was graduate to chunin and she’d be free of Sasuke too. But not Naruto. Sakura was certain she’d never be free of Naruto.

“What could he be building?”

“He’s building a set for us to use to gather intel from,” Sasuke said, probably to stop Naruto from feeding her any more misinformation. (Silently, she noted this was the most considerate he’d ever done for her - besides that strange not-apology apology.) “Do not mess this up.” Ah, Sakura took back what she thought. It was in his own interest after all.

From behind Sasuke, Sakura could see a figure waving in the distance with a distinctive head brace and brown hair. Yamato gestured for them to join him so Sakura leapt up to her feet and dragged the unsuspecting bundle of sweaty orange with her and dragged him along. She kept one hand on his sticky palms and one clutching her satchel until they reached the treeline with Sasuke trailing behind. Although she couldn’t see or hear him, she imagined he was grumbling about their stupidity all the while.

“Follow me,” Yamato said when they were within hearing range of him.

Whilst pushing and whacking the various prickly branches away from her bare legs, Sakura seemed to have turned speechless as they arrived at the destination. The clearing Sakura walked into was so big she couldn’t see its end. Not only that, but it had buildings. Buildings. A whole set of them. They were a bland brown in color and looked flimsy but held strong. And dirt paths between the structures acted as mock roads and silent clones wandered the paths, completely ignoring their presence. Between the awe of team seven’s gasps, the question of how in the world Yamato made this and how she had just happened to miss this massive clearing in all her time on this training ground.

“This is where your challenge is set. You have to gather intel labelled in red without being caught by my clones. This mission is to be completed as a team, and if even one of your members has been caught, you shall fail,” Yamato said behind their ears, but Sakura didn’t jump. “And another thing - you can’t kill any of the clones. Any questions?”

“Did you make all this with doton?” Sakura asked when he offered. According to written records of doton jutsu, it was impossible to make something so refined of this calibre with plain dirt and chakra holding it together. Therefore, unless Yamato invented a new jutsu that defied doton chakra theory, this was physically unfathomable.

“Yes. I used doton. Any other questions?” Sakura had many, but she couldn’t exactly voice the fact that she knew he was lying to them. Not unless she wanted to make another Kakashi out of him.

“No, thank you sensei.”

“As of this moment, you have two hours to complete the objective. Start.”

He left with a shunshin decidedly less flashy than Kakashi’s method and left them in an awkward silence. First, Sakura made eye contact with Naruto who shrugged, and then Sasuke who persisted with a glare. She sighed.

“So,” she looked around them, “seeing as we can’t be spotted, I suppose we should hide while we think of a plan.” Bushes behind them were clearly the easiest option and so they clambered over them and crouched together. She checked her pouch and emptied her satchel of the things she didn’t need behind the bush as she was the only one with a bag to put the files in and gestured for everyone to come closer.

“We keep together and one of us has to be a look out. I will take point.” Sakura hummed.

“But I want to be at the front.”

“I’ll cast genjutsu so they can’t see us but we’ll still have to be quiet. I think I should take point as I have more experience in stealth,” she said.

Sasuke stared at her.

“No. I’m taking point. Let’s move.”

Bristling at his attitude, Sakura swallowed the urge to grab his ankle and sprain it as he tried to walk away, but, since that would jeopardize the task, she set that idea on the back burner. She followed him through the bushes and only stood up straight once they were fully obscured from sight behind one of the buildings. He gestured to the roof and Team 7 walked up the wall until they could crawl onto the roof and lie low.

The buildings were set out around a plaza, in the center of which remained a building surrounded by guards. On the side closest to them, there seemed to be a library judging by the shelves of wooden books they could see through glass panes. On the side to their left, there was a building with a symbol painted on it and a sign saying station. Police station? Maybe. Otherwise, they were surrounded by buildings with nothing inside them or black out curtains which was a giveaway to their uselessness and she supposed the ‘residential’ buildings were marked by the decorative flower pots outside their front doors including the one below them.

“The files have got to be in the library, dattebayo,” Naruto whispered aggressively. A roaming clone looked up and Sasuke grabbed Naruto to press him flat against the roof. Sakura kept an eye on the clone who looked away after staring for a moment. “Get off me, teme.”

“If you don’t want me to touch you, then shut up.” Sasuke’s response seemed to trigger anger in Naruto as Sasuke intercepted the hand flying towards him. “Pathetic.”

“I’ll show you pathetic, ‘ttebayo.” Naruto shoved as hard as he could, sending Sasuke toppling into Sakura. Pushing Sasuke back, Sakura brought her hand down between them to catch their attention.

“Guys. There are three buildings the files may be in that I’m seeing right now: the library, a police station and then a building which seems to have the highest concentration of guards around it. We have two hours to get this done. I say we go for the third building first and library last. What do you think?”

“There are guards everywhere. We can’t get in.”

“I can’t say I’m too experienced in breaking and entering but, if we are supposed to get in there, there’ll be a way. Naruto can probably get us in, can’t you, Naruto?”

“I-uh-what?”

“All we need to do is time it right. I’ll cover us.” Getting positioned on her knees, Sakura held her hands in a hand sign for the genjutsu.

Already making his way to the edge of the roof, Sasuke whispered, “No, cover me first. I’ll go ahead and give you a signal when it’s clear for you to follow.” Grabbing his shoulder, Naruto pulled him back in and pushed him to the side.

“But I need to go first. How else am I supposed ta get us in?”

“What does it matter? We’re all going anyway,” she said but neither looked her way as they continued to glare. Nervously, she peered at the guards to track their routes and discovered that one of two clones made their way down the road they needed to cross and they had a few minutes between each visit. It was an easy path to navigate if they didn’t dawdle on the roof for too long. However, she couldn’t predict the path beyond street navigation..

“Naruto is too loud and will give us away if there are guards there.”

“Hey, I’m smarter and sneakier than I look, dattebayo!” The hushed bickering continued as Sakura stared at the dirt roads and monotonous brown buildings. Upon further examination, the buildings were not made of dirt - they were made of wood.

Shaking herself out of her own trance, she paid attention to the squabble beside her that threatened to give away their location.

“Naruto’s right - he’s craftier than he seems. Even though he’s not the brightest-”

“Hey.” A sharp poke in her side told her he elbowed her in the ribcage.

“What? It’s true. Anyway, he has far more experience than you or I do. Naruto goes first.” Grunting, Sasuke sneered at Naruto’s victory grin and shoved him in the stomach.

“I said I am going first.”

“Fine. Let’s vote. All in favor of Naruto going first say ‘aye’,” she said.

“Aye.”

“Aye.”

“All in favor of Sasuke-san going first say ‘aye’.”

“Aye,” he gritted out whilst he attempted to stare them into submission to what he believed to be his rightful position of authority.

“Seems like you’re outvoted, teme. I’m going first.” Glancing back at Sakura, Naruto grinned. “Good luck.”

She gave a nod to Naruto who, surprisingly, opted to go down the back and work around the building rather than drop straight onto the dirt path. He gave her an animated thumbs up and scrambled across the dirt road on her command. Apparently adamant on taking his own route, Sasuke then fell directly upon the dirt path with a quiet thud, but Sakura had timed her genjutsu just right to make it seem like the wind had knocked over a pot. Sakura hopped down next, following Naruto’s path around the bushes and brambles. And ducked into a forward roll across the path with genjutsu concealing the shuffle in her clothing.

She rolled right into Naruto, who caught her and pulled her into the alleyway. He sniggered against her back at her clumsy execution.

“Shut up.”

Team seven moved back into the alley as a patrolling clone walked past, paused on the corner and returned the way it came.

“We’re going down to that building in the center when I say so,” Sasuke said.

“I think I should say when, as I am the one giving us cover,” Sakura whispered.

“But I am the one going first. I’m saying when,” the blonde joined.

“Oh for-” Sakura inhaled through her nose and pursed her lips. Clenching and unclenching her hands to flex them and relax her muscles, she grimaced at the two who seemed to already be glaring at each other. “I have to be the one to say or I can’t get the timing right. It’s your call whether I say when and we succeed or you can call the shots, but we’ll fail.”

It came as no surprise when he pulled his face into a sneer as Sasuke didn’t leave himself enough time to process the information before spitting back another dismissive scoff.

“I’m saying when. And I’m going first this time so Naruto can’t mess this up.” Before she could object, he was already poking his head out of the alley and scanning the surroundings even though there could’ve been a clone coming around that corner as Sakura had clearly been the only one timing the routes and Sasuke didn’t exactly try to get that information off her.

His impulsiveness rivalled Naruto in that sense but he far exceeded any of Sakura’s peers in terms of obsession with control of the team despite him being stubborn on the fact that he was a one-man show whom everyone else was slowing down. He seized leadership and expected to be obeyed but rejected authority over him if it didn’t serve him to do so. He had ambitions that seemed unachievable yet mocked Naruto who possessed ambitions equally preposterous to his own. He constantly denied Sakura’s skill even as she graduated as one of the best in the academy but practically preened at the mention of his graduation as top rookie as a declaration of his skill. A walking paradox.

It was at this moment she realised Sasuke may be more impulsive than Naruto. That also meant that, if they were going to get caught, it’d be Sasuke’s fault and subsequently, if they were going to flunk the chunin exams, it’d also be Sasuke’s fault. At least, they’d separate by the final tournament - that was something she could count on if they got that far.

Coincidentally, it was also at this moment she realised she felt something like the beginnings of a deep loathing set within her - and it was directed at Uchiha Sasuke.

“But we said-”

“Don’t mind him, Naruto.” Locking her gaze with Sasuke, she narrowed her eyes. “This means that we can blame him if we get caught.”

“I won’t get caught. Just don’t mess up.”

Grimacing at him, she snapped, “If anyone is gonna mess up, it sure as hell won’t be me. You just need to keep your performance stellar because, so far, you’ve come so close to getting us caught.”

A brief moment caught him startled as he raised his eyebrows and set them back into a deep furrow and flared his nostrils.

“Watch what you say, Haruno.”

“Oh last names now, huh?” He took a step closer to her and she felt his eyes start to burn into her own, but she refused to blink. “We have only a minute left before a clone walks down this alley. You better get moving.”

“Don’t mess up.”

She decided to ignore that comment and looked ahead.

“Ready when you are.”

“I’m going out now.”

After swiftly scanning the area, Sasuke stepped out onto the road with Sakura’s genjutsu shielding him from prying eyes. Slowly, he walked across the road, careful not to make any noise. He was two steps in when Sakura made a... mistake

So maybe the clone was made to look like it was further away than it was. A glitch in the genjutsu. An unknown side effect. An innocent mistake. Truly. It was.

And it was also just enough to allow a clone to bump into Sasuke.

Suffice to say, Yamato was not impressed.

(While she was leaving the clearing, she ran her fingertips along the wall of a building and decided it felt like wood. Now, what was Yamato doing with the Mokuton?)

They returned to reading books that evening, albeit a little later than Tuesday evening. Like usual, the librarian shushed them and left for the back room, armed with a book and a belligerent scowl. As it turned out, knowledge of chakra control at the level at which Sakura had achieved was fairly limited beyond the obvious. The obvious being the ‘balance of chakra’ being ‘concentrated to a level of fine precision only the top percentile can manage’, but nothing at the level of it in practice that could help her make sense of what she’d discovered. It seemed Konohagakure was lacking in research - but what was new there?

“Nothing,” Sakura said. “That finishes my pile. Yours?”

“Nothing in my pile too so far.”

Frowning, Sakura looked at his pile to see he had only made it through six of the eleven texts in the hours they had been there. She reached to contribute to his poor effort and her hand landed on a thick book which seemed to be a compendium of biographies of notable shinobi. Blue covered its front and book in the shade of the sea in the Land of Waves, but the title was in worn out silver, indicating that it had been pulled off the shelf many times but rarely opened.

“Why’ve you got this out? They’re biographies,” Sakura deadpanned to Shiro who was squinting at the book.

“Well, yeah. Senju Tsunade is in there. I reckon she’s got the most about chakra stuff with all her medical work,” Shiro muttered, still staring at the page. Gaping at him, a jolt of irritation bolted through Sakura as the realisation set in. Shiro must’ve felt her eyes burning his skull and looked up to say, “What?”

“We should’ve started with this, you idiot,” Sakura snapped.

“Oi, I’m still your sensei. Don’t talk to me like that.”

“Yeah, and you’re doing a fantastic job of that right now,” she sniped at him as she ran her eyes over the contents page landing her eyes on Senju Tsunade ……….. 561. The number below it read 626. Sakura felt herself get excited. “Seems like they have a good amount on her.”

Leaning over her shoulder, Shiro hummed in agreement and ducked back.

Her fingers stumbled to land on the right page. The name Senju Tsunade greeted her in pretty pink flourishes and petals taking up the first page. A dividing, title page - fair enough. Only, the next page held about three paragraphs on her her time at the academy, which Sakura brushed past, and skimmed the section on her genin team (which had a remarkable amount detailing her teammates rather than her or her training), and straight to the page on training in medical ninjutsu… That turned out to be less of a page and more of a two line statement buried in coy remarks on her beauty in her youth. Moving on.

After that was the section about her romantic interests? (Sakura had to read that again to check she had been reading it right - she was.) Some nameless men and statements on their exceedingly sexual encounters with the Sage in inappropriate amounts of detail, and more comments on her beauty of which concluded approximately a third of the biography. Some way through the last quarter, her eyes skimmed some pages on the war where her team were deemed sannin which was of little interest to her. Epic tales of war and unimaginable bloodlust and a victory that was most certainly glorified in the eyes of the Konohan civilian publisher who likely never saw the battlefield in a different country were the least important thing to her. And, besides, these inaccurate retellings didn’t help her with chakra control.

At long last, she found a page on Tsunade’s inventions in the medical field and battle field. A measly page and a half spanned this section, accompanied with some photos Sakura zeroed in on. Picture 1 - a blurry image of Tsunade surrounded in chakra performing what was called ‘Sozo Saisei’, which wasn’t what Sakura did on the bridge that day. Picture 2 - Tsunade summoning a slug - also, not what Sakura did. Picture 3 - another blurry image of Tsunade, this time, punching a crater into the training grounds of Konoha. A slight glow emanated from her fist and blew back the dirt sending specks into the camera, which explained the speckled photograph. This was familiar.

Unfortunately, whoever wrote the biography deemed it acceptable to address her henge technique instead of the rest of her techniques for the one and a half pages. But the photo was an adequate finding from a book written by an ignorant civilian.

“You finding anything there?” Shiro asked from behind his seventh book.

“Yes.”

“Thought so- wait.” He lunged from his seat and leaned over to see the book. Spinning the book so it faced him, he scanned the page. “It thought you blew up ice mirrors, not transform into your younger self.”

“You’re looking at the wrong thing.” She tapped the third picture. “That one.”

“I - what - you’re kidding.” Eyes flickering from her and back to the page, he scoffed. “Bullshit.”

“No, not bullshit. It wasn’t on that scale, clearly. And I didn’t have that chakra glow, because I was a little more focused on my chakra and wasted none. But you can see the release of chakra from her fist. That’s what I did.” Sakura met his squinting eyes.”I’m serious.”

“No no no, this is simply too much this time Sakura. Simply too fucking much.”

“What is?”

“Do you realise the skill it takes to do something like that?” he hissed and pointed his finger at her.

“Yeah, I do.”

“No. No, you don’t. You’re what? Thirteen?”

“Twelve.”

“Twelve and you figured out how to what Senju Tsunade spent nearly a decade perfecting? What the fuck is wrong with you? I knew you were prodigious but what the fuck?”

Laughing, Sakura peered at him incredulously. She was prodigious in chakra control but she was average in everything else, so the title of ‘prodigy’ was decidedly not hers to have.

“Thanks for the ego boost, but I think you’re exaggerating. It’s not like I invented it.”

“Yeah, but you still did it. Fucking hell. You’re lucky you didn’t do this in the academy, you know, kid. ANBU would have had their dirty, little claws into you before you reached double digits. You can’t show your team this skill of yours no matter what, you hear me?” Now waving his arms around, he stared at her intently.

“We already agreed that we’d keep the bulk of my skills away from my teachers until I reached genin and then I could work to my full potential. I already told them my chakra control was good.”

“That was before you made this achievement. If your new sensei of yours, who literally popped out of nowhere, was picked directly by the council, I can guarantee you he’ll be reporting back. Then, there’ll be no way you’ll get to chunin before they drag you into ANBU.”

Sakura squinted. She was good, she knew that, but ANBU level? That was something else entirely. No, it was a completely different realm of existence in the ANBU ranks and they had the sort of ability to slit throats she couldn’t fathom even after encountering madmen such as Uchiha Itachi and Momochi Zabuza. There was no place for her there, nor would she ever want to be capable of it. Power can be achieved in different ways - she was sure of it.

“What are you talking about? I’m nowhere near good enough for ANBU.”

“I know that, but you’re good at stealth - genjutsu is amazing for that, you’re fast, you’re aim is amazing and now you have this. Your strengths are optimized for ANBU and your gaps are easily covered with intensive training. And, to top it all off, you’re from a no name family: nobody important is going to care if you die young on a mission! That’s what I’m talking about!”

“You don’t need to spell out that I’m a no-name kid like that.”

“You know that wasn’t the point.” Shiro groaned and pulled his hair in a strangled cry. “Shit - I’ve been backing you into a corner since I started training you. You got involved with that massacre bullshit, you went on that shitty mission - although I’ll pin that one on Hatake, and now you’ll have ANBU on your ass. All that genjutsu shit just because I’m obsessed with having a mini-me and then I’ve pushed you onto the route of an ANBU agent.”

“That’s not your fault. I wanted you to train me and I wanted to be trained in genjutsu and I was born with good chakra control. All you did was work to my strengths - so what if mine are similar to yours?”

“Don’t forget - I was the one who persuaded your mother to let you be a shinobi and now look where you are. Fuck, your mother’s gonna gut me and use my intestines as bunting.”

“You’re being dramatic. I won’t use it unless it’s necessary, alright?” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Good. Good. And keep this information to yourself - not even Mebuki can know.”

“Fine.”

Belatedly, she remembered the bridge - she remembered Sasuke’s curious stare after she’d broken through the ice mirrors with the chakra technique. He knew. If not the full extent of the technique, he definitely knew she could blow things up with her fist. All she needed to do was get him to be quiet about it, but that could be dealt with without concerning Shiro. But, Sasuke was a difficult person - and she’d already been digging herself into a hole that she wasn’t so sure she could clamber out of.

However, she pushed her thoughts away in favor of the question lingering in the back of her mind of what her new sensei was hiding.

“Sensei, what do you know about the Mokuton?”

“Very little. Why?”

Inhaling sharply, she ran through her own knowledge and came up with a hazy memory of dreaming about some winding tree branches and a pressure on her head. She sighed. It seemed like a visit to the Nara compound was in order.

Chapter Text

The dark had never been Keiko’s friend. Nor had it been an enemy. She pondered this thought as she stood in the alley of the club between her shifts with the taste of tobacco lingering at the back of her throat. Considering that she was standing in the dark, she figured that luck had never been on her side.

Keiko thought of the room at the orphanage, and of dark corners and gas lamps too dim to read books under. She thought of the clanging of the iron bed framing if you knocked too hard against it. The itch of the linen against her frail skin. It was dark beneath the bed too. And if the moon was ever out, the light would pass by tree branches casting a contorting image on the wood floor. She could see it through the metal bars of the bed frame. In her early years, she had trouble sleeping and the ceiling or floor would often be her choice of focus to pass the night by. It scared her sometimes. Other times she would comfort the other children who were much too young to understand the concept of a shadow, because, no, strange men with yellow eyes couldn’t scale walls four floors up and stand in the corner to watch them or hurt them.

Darkness scared her brother the most, though. Her brother - what was his name? She couldn’t remember that far back for he was a memory too far gone. She was sure it was on a memorial plaque somewhere but she hadn’t bothered to look. Did she even remember what he looked like? No. Not really. But she remembered that he hated the dark more than she did. (And she remembered his smile, but that was beside the point.)

“Aneue,” he’d said once. “Can I sleep with you tonight?”

“Okay,” she’d said, because, although their matron wouldn’t be pleased, she could never say no to him. He huddled in under the paper-thin bed sheets to amplify the little warmth provided by body heat and the gas lamps. He was small enough to fit beneath her chin and not take up more than an eighth of the bed. That was good because the beds were too small for a girl her size, and bad because he was too small for his age

Sometime after falling asleep, she awoke with a start. He shook her violently, mumbling something about having a dream about a man coming to take them away from each other. A man in black.

“It’s just a dream,” she’d said. Although, it could’ve been a premonition, because, when she woke up in the morning, he was gone.

She dropped the cigarette onto the ground and crushed it with her heel. Miki, a coworker of Keiko’s, opened the door and beckoned her in. If Keiko felt a hand brush the back of her neck as she walked in, she ignored it, with her head straight ahead and a seductive smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Before training, Sakura’s knuckles hit the door a total of three times before Shikamaru hobbled to the door and opened a crack just wide enough that she could see his eyes through it. He squinted at her before opening it an inch further with a sigh, but remained fairly narrow altogether.

“So?” he asked with a sigh typical of his persona, clearly waiting for something dismissable so he could return to his bed.

“I need you to come check my new sensei out with me later. He’s… quite an intriguing character.”

“What for? Is it the shinobi we’re looking for?” he said, adjusting his posture and opening his eyes properly (Sakura hadn’t known his eyes were even half-shut. Perhaps it was that he was perpetually exhausted. She supposed he should get that issue checked out, but kept it to herself.)

“It could be.” She doubted it. “But it may not be.”

“Eh.” He paused to yawn, furrowed his eyebrows and sighed with his eyelids drooping back down again. “Seems like a drag. I’m not doing it.”

A-

What?

“Excuse me?”

“If it’s not that stalker shinobi, it’s nothing to do with me. Your sensei, your problem.”

For all Sakura’s tendencies of predicting situations, she hadn’t expected him to outright refuse to help her. Although - what reason would he have to help her? Admittedly, this was outside of their little agreement and they weren’t friends so she couldn’t play this off as a favor for a friend. Sure, she could spin a tale of how this was linked or that he owed her for dragging her into this mess, but Shikamaru wasn’t gullible. She had just thought he would be most informed based on his rigorous surveillance of the village.

“But I thought…” Her voice trailed off as it dawned upon her that he had made his decision and she was likely wasting her time. She had to make this worth his while to get him aboard. “I’ll owe you a favor for it.”

“Not interested. Have a nice day.” Moving quicker than she’d expected so early in the morning, he swung the door and the resounding slam was enough to blow a breeze into her face.

Hm. (Silently, she noted that the wood grain of the door was quite captivating, as she came face to face with it.)

At a loss, Sakura stood in front of the door, fumbling to walk away in an uncomfortable, not-quite-certain stride with no real objective besides to seem purposeful and confident. She slowed down closer to the exit of the compound where guards stood, one on watch and one fast asleep beside him. He nodded to her and Sakura, who was still awkwardly stricken by the blatant rejection, almost forgot to nod back.

Unfortunately, ever since the thing-that-happened had catalysed the formation of her Inner, she had tended to pull tiny, insignificant things together and make a big deal out of it. Therefore, Sakura knew she couldn’t truly form a hypothesis about Yamato without at least another educated opinion and confirmation she wasn’t just being paranoid. The only people she could get that from were Shikamaru - who plainly told her ‘no’, Shiro - who would drag her away by the hair on her head if he found out she was getting involved in business that ‘doesn’t concern her’, and... Ino?

Away at a distance, the girl took long strides at an alarming speed

Ino was talented at sleuthing for information she wanted and picked up on the nuances of social interaction more efficiently than Sakura could comprehend, but the chances were high that she would blow off a ‘weirdo’ sensei if she wasn’t interested or opt for confrontation if she found it appropriate. But it was a chance she was taking.

Yamato grabbed the back of Sakura’s knee mid-kick and swung her to the ground during their spar. Immediately, she rolled over from being face down in the dirt, only narrowly avoiding a punch down into the dirt. She counted herself lucky when she saw the small crater it created, even though the punch was slow enough for him to retract should she have frozen in her spot.

Attempting to knock him down, she swept her foot at his ankles but he hopped over it faster than she could see, but she had definitely felt cool air and no solid object connecting with her leg. Retracting her leg before he could grab it again, she jumped to her feet and aimed at his neck with a kunai. He blocked with his arm guard, effortlessly sliding it off him and punching at Sakura’s stomach. An odd action - but, in her moment of bewilderment, Sakura left a hole in her defence by her neck.

He was quick to snatch up the opportunity and grabbed her neck faster than she could block. Ending the spar, he placed the flat of a blade by her jugular and released swiftly.

“You have improved on your taijutsu since our spar yesterday which is an impressive rate to improve at. If you are capable of keeping this pace, you will be at an adequate skill level for the chunin exams,” he said. Sakura preened at the praise that she received. Indeed, she had been pulling her weight in and out of training with the team, so much so that she had nearly forgotten to eat this morning. Although, she shouldn’t be proud of that. Inoichi-san certainly wouldn’t approve, but she appreciated the acknowledgement nonetheless, even if she had her suspicions about his motives.

In fact, she almost wanted to forget about her suspicions altogether. Almost, though. Not quite.

“However,” ah, there it was, “your habit of trying to predict an opponent’s move before they make it will slow you down. You left a gap in your defence when you were trying to understand why I made a move you hadn’t anticipated which will be a problem in an actual battle. I recommend you practise improvisation as it will encourage you to think on your feet and react instantly rather than pre-planning a fight based on information you think you know. Also - hit harder. Your hits, currently, haven’t enough power to slow someone down sufficiently.”

Hm.

“Now, you will spar with your teammate to peer assess one another’s capabilities,” Yamato asserted suddenly, beckoning the Uchiha menace over.

Work together? Sakura wasn’t sure that was the best idea. In fact, that was potentially worse than pairing Naruto and Sasuke up.

She focused on Sasuke’s unwavering sneer instead, choosing to concentrate on her intense dislike of him, his arrogance, which even Ino admitted, and his own intense disliking of Sakura. She remembered his wish for her to die when they were young (and neatly filed away his long-too-late half apology), remembered his bull-headedness to her instructions and strategies, his self-appointed (she remembered Kakashi and winced) superiority and undeserving leadership and his arrogance in his skills. And she focused on that instead.

(And, maybe, just maybe, she felt a little bit jealous of him.)

When he got there, Sasuke spun around to face Yamato. And Sakura did the same, only doing her best not to be so openly defensive against this man whose name probably wasn’t even Yamato.

“Now you’re here, I want you to spar with Haruno-kun and assess one another’s capabilities. There are no rules as there will not be on the battlefield. Exploit every weakness you can find. Understood?” Yamato recited. Gingerly, Yamato left them at the posts to their own devices.

Exploit every weakness you can find… What a strange thing to say to a pair of genin who had never seen the face of war before.

“You heard him,” Sasuke initiated.

“Yeah.” Sakura awkwardly stood and she’d been awkwardly standing too much for one day so she resolved to change her attitude right that moment. “Let’s start, shall we?”

“Let’s.”

And then he lunged.

Like a rabid dog, he snarled at her, vicious. His kunai went to her throat just as she twisted herself away to parry with one of her own. The impact of the clash pushed them away from one another whilst Sakura gasped to regain her breath.

She’d anticipated his volatility but she hadn’t quite predicted this. Although, she supposed that was his most prominent weakness along with… Well, she would keep that for later.

Looking to his open torso, she aimed her shuriken twice to the open side and thrice to the ensuing opening as he moved to block the two she’d already sent his way. He was successful in blocking them and only managed to deflect two of the other shuriken whilst one hit dead on target only half an inch away from where she’d predicted his subclavian artery to be, not deep enough to scar, only enough to elicit a sharp huff. He yanked it out and threw it to the ground, and, upon seeing no blood gush out, she relished in the fact that she had not inflicted anything lethal on him.

No. She would save that for when she didn’t have witnesses.

On the other hand, he looked just about feral and she really didn’t understand, because why was being so strange today?

But she had no time to think before she was tangled in a flurry of hits, kicks and jabs. He aimed at her neck (smart - pressure points for an easy knock out), but she dodged; he aimed for her side - she blocked. Another few hits that landed on her hard enough to bruise and some hard enough to break bones, thankfully on open flesh. In his growing frustration with her, he hit a little too hard and threw her to the ground. A spike of pain accompanied her embarrassment. A bruised spine - now how would she explain that one to Kaa-sa?

Momentarily, he paused. In mid air, he retracted his kick, only to swap it for a punch at her head. It crushed against her nose, and, whoops, there was a broken nose. The coolness of her bloody nose fuelled her anger and humiliation but she kept still, bracing herself for the next punch. But it never came.

“I didn’t even use ninjutsu. Pathetic,” Sasuke said, suspending his arm mid-punch. “You’re the weakest link.”

Oh. Now this was too much.

Sakura, having had enough of lying on the ground, grabbed his leg and pulled him down too, using him as leverage to lift off the ground. Once she was up, her body split into three, initiating the first use of chakra in this battle and split in all directions. He scoffed and jumped back up.

Perhaps, he thought her weakness was close combat. Perhaps, he thought he was faster. Perhaps, that was the reason for his barrage of hits. He was right, of course, but there were ways to manoeuvre around her weaknesses that would exploit his own.

Starting with her strengths.

A genjutsu world folded around them, pushing their true environment away. It was now an all-encompassing atmosphere of black sky and red grass. It was silence and a spluttering Sasuke and Sakura - at least until she melted into the ground. Not really, but it was what he was seeing.

“A genjutsu? You really are pathetic.” His hands formed the ‘kai’ seal but she braced with layers upon layers of genjutsu, almost draining her chakra to half way. “Release it.”

“No,” she said, with her voice echoing unnaturally which told her to study the patterns of sound waves and ear structure later.

“Release it. You’re stalling,” he said into the abyss, then snapping his head down to stare at the ground. “I know you’re hidden in the ground.”

The sounds of her footfall were neutralised by altering the flow of her chakra into his ears. She walked around him until she reached his back in the abyss, her hand reaching out slowly to knock the pressure points around the back of his neck. Alas, he must have felt the heat of her hand because he flinched, grabbed her hand and twisted like his life depended on it (which was definitely correct in a battle situation, but completely obsolete here). He threw her over his shoulder, releasing the genjutsu in its entirety because what was the point now, and they were plunged back into bright light.

Her clones had stationed themselves in the treeline waiting on her commands, but she didn’t think she’d need them if she was on the losing side anyway. She uppercut his jaw hard enough to throw him off a little but he bounced back and rained down on her again, vicious and unrelenting. Fortunately, this gave her enough time to regain her footing and recalculate the next part of her strategy, because he was outclassing her, without a doubt. And, fuck if that wasn’t a blow to her pride.

So she kicked with all the strength she could muster in this nasty scrap of theirs and he’d only backed away enough for her to reach for a kunai to knock his own from his grasp. She looked to the treeline, back to Sasuke’s advance, and then to Naruto who had somehow swindled Yamato into letting him sit and watch.

And then she thought- well, she didn’t really think. Instead, she had an idea and a curiosity to quench.

Her chakra scan went out first, allowing her to pinpoint his exact location and general shape of Yamato’s unclear chakra. Evident by the little shuffle he made, he felt her intrusion but made no attempt to remove her. Brilliant. Her hands formed the seals for substitution, moving quickly to stay attached to the image of his chakra source and position, bracing for the incoming fist to the face in case this didn’t work…

And she felt the telltale signs of it working: the warp of her vision, the near suffocation of her chakra and the pull towards another place. Her skin yanked just as the impact of his knuckles crushed against her cheekbone, and then she was right back to the ground, still under Sasuke’s offence and Yamato still sat by Naruto.

Who was she kidding? How was that ever going to work?

Instead, his knuckles bruised her cheek and she heard a suspicious, numbing crunch to be checked out later and felt the blood fill her mouth. She spat it out on the grass as she once again fell to the ground in a bruised heap face first. His hand grasped the back of her shirt pulling her up to punch her again and again and again and again. Up she pushed herself. And down she went again. All that was missing was a sword to the torso and she’d be in just as much pain as she was when they encountered Zabuza. But, hey - maybe, he could recreate that with the kunai he was brandishing in his hand.

After what seemed like an eternity, she latched onto his collar and twisted so hard, she thought she felt her wrist crack and turned them so she had the upper hand and hit him straight on the nose. He staggered clutching his bloody nose and that gave her enough opportunity to do something she may regret later but she had to do to get ahead.

She shut her eyes. Snake. Rat.

The Hell Viewing technique.

And if he feared what she did, then she was in trouble too.

At the sound of the soft croon, she squeezed her eyes shut harder and concealed herself in the shadows. She counted her breaths, in, out, in out. She walked - the thrum of her chakra reminding her of the present. She counted up as she made her way to the back of Sasuke, careful to avoid the illusion of the crooning man. She couldn’t count what she could see so she skipped to the hearing bit.

One. She could hear her breathing. Catching in her throat and a little short reminding her to regulate her breaths.

Two. The sound of her footfall, that Sasuke had completely overlooked, thankfully. It dampened in her ears suddenly as she covered it with chakra.

Three. Itachi.

“Foolish otouto.”

She ignored that.

Four. Counting. Sasuke’s counting. Seemed like she was already behind him.Her kunai in her shaky grip was at his throat within seconds and dropped the genjutsu. And she had won.

Her eyes opened to look at the back of Sasuke’s head. She pressed into his neck further with the dull, flat side of the blade; he didn’t react. She dropped the kunai back into her holster and tried to tap his shoulder but he flinched and caught her hand. He looked at her cautiously, but didn’t meet her eyes.

Yamato was over in a second pushing her hand away from him and caught him by the shoulders. He looked between her - startled, and bloodied - and the boy in front of her - shaken, unresponsive and sullen - and she felt the tangible tendrils of remorse build in her gut. He snapped his fingers in Sasuke’s face, but no words came out of either of them. It was silent. Only for a moment. Not even broken by Naruto’s uncharacteristically quiet amble over to them.

“You,” Yamato turned to her, the sudden appearance of genuine emotion in his eyes making her stiff, “go to the hospital and get yourself checked out. I will accompany Sasuke.” In a slight shift of air, they were gone, leaving a vacuum of something other than actual mass she couldn’t quite pick out.

“Sakura,” Naruto said behind her. His hand rested on her shoulder softly. “What did you do?”

Sakura swallowed loudly.

“I think…” Her voice broke. “I did something bad.”

At the hospital, Sakura was greeted by an unwilling receptionist who side-eyed Naruto unabashedly. He was tall and spindly with greased hair and blocky spectacles and a pressed white shirt. He looked underfed, almost gaunt, and looked distinctly like the type to discriminate. He stalled at the entrance whilst Sakura cradled her broken hand and held the teeth that had fallen out.

“There’s nobody available right now. You should try again later,” he said, standing at the desk, looking at the appointment sheet, pretending it was full, when Sakura could see in the reflection of his glasses that there were definitely blank slots.

“It’s an emergency. My hand is broken and so’s my face,” Sakura persisted through the pain.

“I’m sorry. There are no spaces left.”

“This is an emergency room. You don’t need appointments for an emergency,” Sakura snapped and regretted that immediately with the pooling blood spilling from her mouth. Naruto, who had remained silent, attempted to catch the spill in his hands, missed a step and fell forward, spraying it onto the man’s pressed shirt. Recoiling, he threw up his hands in defence and grabbed a tissue off a box to dab up the red splatters. Finishing that, he threw at them a vomit bowl to finish her bloody spit into. “Do you see now?”

“I must insist that you return later,” he said.

“No,” a familiar voice said, “I’ll take them.”

“Ah, okaa-san,” Naruto stuttered.

“Haruno-san-”

“I’m on break. I can take them.”

Sighing, Sakura wiped a streak of blood down her arm and turned to face her mother. She stood in the blue and white hospital garbs, with tired eyes and dark purple semi-circles under her eyes. Predictably, she looked rather infuriated and, above all, concerned for Sakura’s state and corralled them away and down the hall. Watched by curious nurses and they walked briskly down the hall, into a small room.

In all the times Sakura had been injured in training, she had never been inside kaa-san’s own office. Her treatment was always at home with whatever spare gauze and antiseptic had been on hand. It was bigger than she’d imagined - and spotless too, although it was in a hospital. But the chairs were old - scuffed and leather torn - and the desk resting on a couple of shaky, uneven legs, with paperwork all over it in piles coated with dust. Over kaa-san’s shoulder, she saw Naruto standing idly by the door, unsure of himself and of Sakura.

“Kaa-” Sakura started, with blood muffling her speech.

“Don’t talk, silly girl. You will explain when I’m done with you,” she responded just as quickly.

Her hands sped through the process of sanitising and regloving her hands and cleaning the area, and pulled her jaw open with a sharp glare to Sakura, enough to put any resistance at rest. There was no evidence of Doctor Haruno’s bedside manner, but she didn’t need it with Sakura. She dabbed away at the blood, cleaning away most of it to see the gaps in her teeth, Sakura assumed. Pulling away, Kaa-san handled Sakura’s with care as she cleaned it gently.

“How long have the teeth been out of your mouth, Sakura?” Kaa-san asked.

“No more than twenty-five minutes,” she recalled swiftly. “I lost them in a spar.”

“Save your explanation. We’ll be having words in a moment.” She pulled open her mouth once again and peered inside. “I’m going to reinsert your teeth. This will hurt.”

Squinting her eyes at the successive spikes of pain, Sakura felt the teeth go back in along with a few flashes of medical chakra to keep the teeth in place by fixing the bone around it, but not numb the pain. Sakura supposed she deserved that.

Next, Kaa-san felt around her cheek - inflamed and aching. She prodded at the redness and held a hand up to her face to heal the swelling but stopped midway.

“You know, Sakura, you broke your cheekbone,” and she grabbed her wrist - the sore one, “and your wrist by the looks of it.”

“Yeah.” Sakura noted the pain in her gums stopped her from speaking without closing her mouth fully. “Spar,” she said with a lisp.

“Hey, Sakura-chan,” Naruto snickered. “You got a lisp.”

“Quiet, boy,” Kaa-san snipped.

He quieted.

Kaa-san focused on the healing chakra coming out in obtrusive, choppy chunks to heal the cheek and then the wrist bones. Sweat lined her brow bone and teetered precariously on the ridge. She worked for an hour in stifling silence she could see Naruto squirming from. Even Sakura herself had to restrain herself from cringing in the tension of the room. The source of the tension was up in the air. Was it Sakura’s unprecedented injuries or Naruto’s presence whom she’d deigned unsavory as soon as she’d laid eyes on him? Or maybe it was lingering tension from being overworked and underpaid? Or was it all three?

Sakura fumbled in her seat as she tried for a safe spot to rest her eyes, somewhere on the expanse of white wall, littered with unrepaired dents, holes and even a bloodstain in the corner.

Then, she finished. Just as abruptly as she’d started, Kaa-san snapped herself back and settled into the desk chair whose loud creak woke Naruto from his mental absence. He hurried forward to Sakura’s side.

“Sakura-chan didn’t do anything bad, Okaa-san! I promise. Hand on heart, “Naruto rushed with his hand, indeed clutched on his heart. Her mother waved him off with a pursing of her lips and the harsh set of her eyebrows into a frown.

“I haven’t accused her of anything. You can calm down now. Take a seat.”

“Oh. Okay.” She gestured to the second, worn leather chair off to the side. He dragged it on the vinyl floor creating an uncomfortable groaning squeak to fill the silence. He sat down and huddled his limbs together and didn't swing his legs like he normally would.

“So how did you get those injuries?”

“Sparring in training.” Sakura’s response was quick and concise to avoid the suspicion from kaa-san although that was already coming in thick waves.

“No. I’ve seen training wounds. These are much worse.”

“We were sparring and it got too rough. That’s all.” Not a lie.

“What? You and this… friend of yours?” She gestured vaguely at Naruto, who glanced between them, with a scowl.

“No. A different teammate.”

“Does it have anything to do with that new sensei of yours and the Uchiha heir I saw come in earlier?”

Of course she would make that link. Her mother was a medic which meant she wasn’t stupid. In fact, years of reading in between the lines of patients made sure she understood subtext and making links like that may as well have been second nature to her. A smart woman. That meant Sakura was foolish to think she would be able to get things past her for long.

“I… yeah.”

“He did that to you?” She rose from her seat, with the screech of the chair against the floor echoing monotonous between them. The harsh pant of an enraged doctor and the screaming silence of both her own and Naruto’s part made for a stifling room filled with a suffocating sense of anger. Floored, Sakura stumbled for a response.

“Yeah, but-”

And then the slam of her mother’s hands cut in a downwards curve, close to Sakura but landing on the desk with a thud hard enough to shake the floor. Sakura stilled.

“No ‘but’s Sakura. He was too violent.” Sakura hadn’t the courage to point out the hypocrisy when she had just slammed the table. “Someone ought to teach him to be a Konoha shinobi; not an Uchiha one.”

“What does that even mean?” Sakura asked. Uchiha were part of Konoha, weren’t they? No, she was missing something.

“Never mind that,” she rushed to cover. “What is your new and supposedly ‘better’ sensei-”

“You told your mom Yamato’s better than Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto piped up, looking personally affronted at the thought. Sakura moved to answer, but her mother was faster.

“Don’t interrupt me. Why did your sensei let your spar get so far? You are only genin!”

“Because we need to train harder,” Naruto snapped as he clutched at the arms of his chair until his knuckles turned white. He dug his fingers into the wood and frowned, tense and panicked, for a reason Sakura could only deduce was her own mother’s behaviour.

“For what?”

Heart catching in her chest, she stressed her hand on his arm but he spoke the words anyway, blissfully unaware.

“For the chunin exams.”

“For the… For the chunin exams.” She fell silent, reducing all hostility to naught. But the silence was somehow more threatening. Her eyes shut and held twitchily as she heaved a breath through her nose, producing a quiet - but sharp - whistle. Sakura didn’t know where to look. The wall, maybe. But she couldn’t tear her eyes away from her mother. Not for her life.

In the next instant, she flashed them open again.

“You were going to tell me this when? Or, let me guess - you weren’t.”

“You didn’t tell your mom?” Naruto seemed surprised. Disappointed even; Sakura didn’t have time for somebody else’s scorn.

“I was going to tell you,” she stuttered. Why was she stuttering? Sakura didn’t stutter.

“When exactly?” Mebuki said. Quiet and calm. Exactly the opposite of what she was thinking. Sakura could see her mother’s loud thoughts and raw anger in her eyes and her fists and the way her hair fell into her face.

“Soon.” This time, Sakura felt her confidence deteriorate.

“Get.” Sakura inhaled sharply as her mother looked up at her with unadulterated fury. “Out.”

Chapter Text

Heyyyyyy....

How y'all doin......

Guys don't crucify me I'm alive and lemme explain myself please

when I was writing this fic, I was BUT A CHILD T_T!!!! I was way younger than I let on, although I think it showed in my writing lol, but I was like 14 max when I started, and my vision was much larger than my capabilities!!

NOW, I'm a sophomore in college and WAY better at writing, but more importantly setting up plots and subplots and themes in a way that is COHESIVE, which my previous lack of ability stopped me from doing, which is kinda why this fic stumped me for years, so I decided to scrap it over and REWRITE it!!!!!

I already have a few chapters written which I will hopefully release at least two a month but let it be known I AM in a TOUGH school for architecture so I am on an intense workload

BUT let it ALSO be known that my plans were BIG and have only gotten big.... (kaguya I'm coming for you, hee hee heee.....) if y'all still have any faith in me, check out my profile in like an hour because I will be posting the first (and maybe second) chapter of the rewrite now, and buckle tf up, bc the plot is LOOOOONNNG, and you might be horrified at the end of it, but fingers crossed in a good way.

terribly sorry for abandoning you guys for so long but it's tough growing up in your teenage years. genuinely this fic has haunted me for years and I am THRILLED TO BE WRITING AGAIN!!!

BIG THANKS to @teeheelevihan on AO3 for harassing me for years to get back to it, and letting me infodump all of my plot to her (yes she does know the plot and she agrees, you are going to find this fucking SENSATIONAL)

btw, she is also working on a naruto ff, but a warring states period fic which I am of course privvy to, and it will be fantastic if we ever see it written

much love to anyone who is still here after so many years T_T (like genuinely, if you have returned for this update, I genuinely love u, i'm very serious rn)

idk what u can call me besides author lady, but if anyone thinks of a fun nickname for me i'll be happy to take that lol!! goodbye for now! I will maybe see you again when I upload the first chapter of the rewrite depending on if u want to read it or not.

See you later!!