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Karin had imagined her death a hundred times; when you lived in any kind of proximity to Orochimaru, it just came with the territory.
Poison was the obvious guess. Some horrible surgical experiment was just as plausible. If there was a merciful god in this world-- who was also somehow willing to ignore the enormous weight of Karin's transgressions-- she may even be allowed to go out on her own terms.
The odds were slim, but never zero.
So when the time came, she was ready for the pain. What she hadn't prepared herself for was how damn slow it would be.
Karin lay prone on the remains of an old stone bridge, slowly ebbing in and out of conciousness. Her head was hurting and probably also bleeding, her chest hand a massive cavity the exact size and shape of her teammate's hand, and-- worst of all-- she hadn't even been able to stifle her crying. Her cheeks were streaked red with tear tracks, and she was letting out soft gasps and hiccups that both mortified her and aggravated the wound.
She was too far gone at this point to heal herself; she couldn't so much as concentrate on breathing properly, much less healing. And even if she somehow managed to coordinate her muscles into something approximating function for long enough to bite down into her arm... well. The man who did this to her was currently standing over her with unfocused, blood-red eyes-- unfocused, yet still able to communicate the fact that they were very eager to have something new to lash out at.
In other words: even if she managed to get back up, it wouldn't be for long.
If she had been in greater possession of her faculties, Karin would have sighed. As it was, she had to settle for a miserable gurgle. It would seem that this is what her short and shallow life amounted to: chasing after the shadow of a man who could never love her in return.
Well-- love is, perhaps, a relative term. Karin had latched on to Sasuke Uchiha for the same reason she latched on to anyone: survival. He was strong, he had power, she would be stupid not to push her advantage. Karin was many things; stupid had never been one of them. She’d been latching on to powerful men to survive since before she can remember. It is simply the way of the world when you are a valuable woman.
Valuable. Like her worth could easily be measured in money, an object to be traded and haggled down for. Karin felt disgust rise in her stomach, clawing its way into her throat and making her gag. For Sasuke, that really was all she amounted to. A sensor, a tracker, a healer, an Uzumaki.
Anything but a person.
And she knew that. She'd known that going in: he was using her, and she was using him. And she was fine with that. She was fine.
As she lay dying, Karin had no choice but to come to grips with the fact that she was not at all fine.
Then a miracle appeared on the other side of the bridge.
Had Karin been just a little closer to unconscious, she might have mistaken the woman before her for one of those aforementioned merciful gods. Her hair the color of cherry blossoms, her skin brown and hardy like the trunk of a tree, all wrapped in a fluttering white cloak. And even from where she lay, Karin could see the bright green of her eyes, shining beneath a purple diamond tattoo. The effect was ethereal.
Sasuke seemed to deem this newcomer reason enough to shift his attention away from his teammate's soon-to-be-corpse.
Karin couldn't see his face as it turned, but she could feel the tension in the air, like the current before a storm. They were exchanging words that Karin couldn’t quite make out through the ringing in her ears. But the expression on the girl's face alone told her that whatever it was they were discussing, it was serious.
She made out a few bits and pieces. Defection. Teammate. Konoha. Sound. Konoha again. Loyalty. Resolve.
Ah, so that was it. An old teammate. Coming to join him on his crusade against the world. Well, lucky them. A spot on Team Taka had just opened up.
Then, Karin did something even she did not expect. Some animal instinct inside her, not content to bleed out peacefully like her brain and dignity were demanding, made her coughed out a weak cry for help through the blood in her throat.
"Please."
That one word was the best she could do.
The woman’s eyes instantly zeroed in on her, Karin now being treated to the full force of her clear green stare. Those eyes were nothing at all like the sharingan. They didn't pull you apart piece by piece to see what you were made of, all while sucking you into a deep spiral. Instead, they just looked. Perceptive but unpiercing.
Sasuke ignored Karin, He aimed his next words at the newcomer.
"I'll let you join me if you kill her."
"You want me to kill her? Someone I don’t even know? That's not proof of loyalty, that's--”
Sasuke's voice was a low and dangerous rumble of thunder.
"Do it, Sakura. She dies anyway. Do it, and prove your resolve.”
So her name was Sakura. Very fitting. A pretty last image to look at, if nothing else.
Karin lay back, looked at the sky, and got ready to die.
Then everything stopped making any sense at all.
Out of nowhere, Karin felt a tap her on the shoulder. She turned her head to the side and saw the newcomer--Sakura--crouching behind her. She put her finger to her lips, a universal gesture for silence. Unable to do much else, Karin nodded her head. But it was strange-- a glance back at the other side of the bridge showed the woman was still standing there, facing Sasuke, so… a clone? But it had appeared from nowhere, and Sakura hadn't made so much as a hand sign since she'd gotten on the bridge. It would take an absolutely unreal amount of concentration and chakra mastery to manifest a physical clone without hand signs or the slightest trace of chakra leaking out.
But Karin had neither the desire nor the ability to complain as the clone-Sakura placed her glowing-green hands on Karin’s midsection. A medic herself, Karin knew talent when she saw it. The chakra running through her system, sowing her flesh back together was textbook-level efficient; not a single leak of chakra going where it shouldn't, not a single step missed or out of order. She was making healing look practically easy.
The respite didn't last long. Even the most efficient of healers couldn't hide their chakra while they were healing. Nor should they: intermingling one's chakra-- safely, delicately-- with that of their patient was necessary for the healing process.
Unfortunately, even the slightest ripples of chakra would be more than enough to draw the attention of a high-alert Uchiha.
Sasuke moved so fast Karin didn't even bother to try tracking his motions. One minute he had his back turned to her, and then next he was behind the Sakura on the bridge, kunai pressed to her throat. A checkmate in no uncertain terms.
If all this kunoichi had succeeded in doing was prolonging her already slow and painful death, Karin would haunt both her and Sasuke from the grave.
But instead of panicking, the clone-Sakura still crouching beside Karin continued her healing. She seemed unbothered by her counterpart’s dilemma. The two made eye contact, nodded slightly, and then the clone picked her up bridal style and carried her off the bridge.
Sasuke still showed absolutely no signs of caring.
“You’re a fool if you think I’ll spare your life for old time’s sake.” He eventually growled, pressing the kunai into her neck hard enough to draw blood.
Sakura's response was resolute and unshaken.
“You’re the fool if you think killing me will be that easy.”
Sasuke responded by drawing the kunai across her neck and slashing hard. Blood, red and plentiful, spilled out from the wound. Karin could see the inside of Sakura's gaping throat, the bursting veins and torn tendons. There was simply no surviving a wound like that.
Sakura fell, with a look that was so serene it almost didn’t seem like she was dead. Her body hit the ground with a soft thud, and Karin drew her eyes away from the sight.
Sasuke wore an expression Karin has never seen on him before: one that, on another person, might have more easily been read as shock. He stared at his hands, eyes darted back and forth, avoiding the body in front of him.
It began to dawn on Karin that the pain in her side was fading. She turned to her side and saw Sakura’s clone wink at her, finger at her lips. One hand was still pressed to her side, glowing green and healing in its wake. So was the other one a clone? Or a very convincing genjutsu-- that couldn’t be, nothing would fool the Sharingan.
She turned back to the bridge and saw something unthinkable. Instead of dissipating, like a clone should after being killed, the body was getting up . Slowly, one hand after the other, the corpse brought itself to its knees.
Only it didn’t look like a corpse at all.
Karin wasn’t sure what to make of the sight in front of her. Sakura looked fine, aside from the bloody residue coating her neck. In fact, she looked better than fine, her skin seeming to glow with vitality. But she wasn’t the same Sakura as before, either. Her cloak had fallen to the ground, sliced when she fell, and her neck sported heavy black lines. Or rather, her whole skin was lined with black markings, all across her face and arms. At the center of her forehead, a purple diamond glowed, and her green eyes shone with confidence.
Sasuke looked as taken aback as Karin felt. He was usually quite good at hiding his emotions, but this seemed to have taken him by complete surprise. He actually took half a step back in shock.
Sakura-- the real Sakura, the one standing on the bridge-- met Karin’s eyes and smiled. Then she drew her fist back and punched the ground.
It was as if someone had set off a bomb. The ground almost exploded, rubble flying everywhere, and most of the bridge immediately collapsed. As the rubble fell into the water, the river was overcome with massive waves that rippled down on both sides, and a shockwave created enough wind to blow back Karin’s hair. She couldn’t see Sasuke through the dust and rubble, but was sure that it would take more than that to kill the infamous Uchiha.
Karin was feeling good enough to sit up, and as she did she made eye contact with Sakura’s clone. The clone was looking at the bridge in concern, and bent down to pick Karin up again.
“It’s okay, I can walk.” Karin said, feeling at the wound on her side.
Sakura slapped her hand away with a stern expression, and lifted her by the elbow to assist her in getting up. Chastised, Karin allowed herself to be taken care of.
“We need to get away from here,” Sakura said in a lovely, soothing voice, looking back up at the former bridge where the dust began to settle. “It’s not safe.”
Karin wasn’t about to argue with a woman who’s fists leveled bridges, so she nodded her head. They only made it a few steps down towards the river bank when the sound of chirping birds began to echo through the gorge. Karin turned back to see Sakura, standing on top of a pile of rubble, facing Sasuke’s chidori head-on.
Sasuke, for his part, looked furious. The light from the chidori played violent shadows across his face, downturned in a menacing scowl.
He lunged at Sakura with unparalleled speed. One minute he was standing across from her on the rubble of the bridge, the next he had his hand through her chest. She looked pained for a second, her mouth falling open in apparent surprise, but quickly recovered; grabbing Sasuke's arm and squeezing.
A sickening crack echoed throughout the gorge.
The clone that was helping her move just chuckled.
“Bad move."
His hand was through her chest and she was laughing. She hadn't even wiped the blood off her neck.
Sasuke grit his teeth, clearly in pain. Sakura wasted no time, front-kicking him in the chest so that he catapulted backwards and fell back into the shallow riverbank.
Clone-Sakura nodded sagely. “That’ll be a couple ribs broken.”
Had she been more sound of mind and body, Karin would have checked for genjutsu.
Sasuke lay splayed on his back amidst the rubble and the rushing water. He got up smoothly, as if nothing was wrong, but Karin noticed he was favoring his right shoulder, and his left arm hung rather loosely from his side. Sasuke shook the water out of his bangs, glaring at his opponent. Sakura seemed to be giving him time to recover, as she stood across from the last Uchiha, calmly dusting herself off.
Karin wondered if whatever this unshakable core holding up Sakura had been grown from experience, or if it was something innate and immovable.
Whatever it was, it had Sasuke pissed off.
“If you’re mocking me, you’ll come to regret it.” His words came out through gritted teeth and spat-out blood.
“I’ve done no such thing. Now how about you take me seriously so we can finish this.”
“Serious," he sneered, face twisting into something uncharacteristically ugly. "Sure. Let's get serious.
Sharingan red and black whirled, and Sasuke unsheathed his sword with an elegance that should have been impossible in his wounded state. In turn, Sakura unstrapped a much smaller blade from her shin and shifting into a fighting stance.
The two exchanged blows at a speed that Karin almost couldn’t follow. Sakura was good, parrying every hit that came her way with a speed that couldn’t be natural. Chakra-enhanced movements, perhaps.
But one thing was clear; as good as Sakura was, the Uchiha was better.
He struck from all angles, leaving no openings and attacking with lightning infused speed. At some point--again, without hand signs--Sakura had summoned an earth clone to assist her in parrying Sasuke’s speed. But even the two of them together were no match for the last Uchiha. At least, not when it came down to kenjutsu.
Sakura seemed to realize this as well, and tried to create some distance between the two with paper bombs. But Sasuke didn't take the bait, pressing her until she had no choice but to fall back to the riverbank.
With one foot in the river, Sakura, still parrying Sasuke’s strikes, summoned three water clones in addition to her earth clone. The four each ran in seperate directions. Sasuke took out the one heading north immediately with a well placed fire jutsu, and sent an arc of lightning curving towards the one heading west.
While his attention was split between her and the clones, Sakura put her hands together and murmured a single word.
“Kawarimi.”
Sasuke looked even more enraged at this development. She had replaced herself with the one in the south, the furthest one. Sakura just looked at him, head on, and weaved together a series of hand signs. His sharingan spun and he looked at her with disgust.
“Genjutsu? On me?" His words dripped with revulsion and disdain. "Who the hell do you think I am?”
Her foolish plan inspired one of his own.
If it was genjutsu she wanted, then genjutsu she shall get.
Sakura faced him head on, looking him straight in the eye like a fool. Sasuke bared his teeth.
“Tsukuyomi.”
Sakura froze, a blank expression on her face. Karin could only watch in horror as Sasuke's triumphant grin spread across his face.
The battle was over.
Until it wasn’t. Clarity returned to Sakura's eyes.
“Genjutsu, Sasuke? On me?" She parroted mockingly.
He looked at her, utterly shocked and unable to process the sight that lay before him. Sakura Haruno, a kunoichi with little to no potential, no bloodline, and no clan had just broken out of his clan's most dangerous genjutsu. Bloody eyes stared in disbelief, and he clutched his head in pain.
This couldn’t be real.
“Don’t you remember what our dear sensei once said?” The kunoichi said sweetly, smile filled with teeth. “I am a genjutsu type, after all. And between the two of us, I always had better chakra control.”
Karin turned in awe to the medic beside her.
“How did she--how did you-- I mean-- It’s impossible to break through the Tsukuyomi.”
The kunoichi smiled, a genuine one this time.
“Not impossible, just… very improbable. One has to have a certain cerebral makeup you see, which allows the chakra network to fluctuate irregularly. It’s more of an unintended side effect than an actual trait, but forensic specialists believe…”
She trailed off after noticing the confused face of her patient. “Sorry, sometimes I get too technical.” She laughed and scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
“No, it’s alright,” Karin said, a bit cross. “It’s not the jargon I’m confused by. I’m a medic too-- and a scientist. But I’ve been studying the Sharingan and its abilities alongside Orochimaru for years, and even I never came up with a way to break through the Tsukuyomi.”
Sakura gave her a delighted little smile. “It comes down to the fact that I have a bit of a... personality disorder. To put it mildly. It’s not a bloodline, or a jutsu, and it can’t be achieved with any amount of training. It’s just part of who I am. And as a side effect, it allows me to break free of almost any jutsu that attempts to control the chakra pathways in my mind-- as long as I have the element of surprise on my side. That includes any and all genjutsu that I’ve been exposed to, sharingan or otherwise, along with outliers like the Yamanaka clan's kekkai genkai.”
Finishing her explanation, Sakura bent over and did another diagnostic.
“Your vitals are stable. Let’s move you to someplace safer.”
It took all of Karin's willpower not to fire off a thousand questions at Sakura's shorthand explanation, but she figured now was not the best time.
Still. The scientist in her began composing a mental list.
If Sakura had been hoping to weaken Sasuke's resolve with the Tsukiyomi stunt, it seemed to have backfired. He attacked her with even more ferocity than before, although one of his eyes was now squeezed shut-- likely due to the amount of blood coming from beneath his closed lids. Using Tsukuyomi seemed to have hurt him more than her.
The sound of chirping birds returned, lightning wrapping around Sasuke's non-broken hand. But this time, instead of just enveloping his hand, the lightning extended into a long blade. Sasuke took several steps forward; accelerating his stride into a run, he charged at Sakura with pure killing intent.
Sakura's eyes narrowed, and she made a few quick hand signs before jumping onto the rubble before her. Chains of water wrapped around Sasuke, clearly some high level justus. Yet Sasuke broke through the chains like they were nothing and continued his charge.
He didn’t manage to skewer her this time. Sakura dodged the lightning blade, weaving through his lethal strikes with practiced precision.
Clone-Sakura nodded approvingly. “A good medic always knows how to dodge. That was the first lesson that Tsunade-shishou drilled into my head.”
Sakura was agile, but Sasuke was fast. They danced around each other, Sakura just a little too quick to dodge and Sasuke just a little too quick to give Sakura an opening to strike.
Karin felt a familiar bitterness rise in her throat.
Someone like me could never.
This girl was probably a genius from birth, with some kind of incredible bloodline that accelerated regeneration. Maybe she had a real clan at her back, instead of a name and a lineage of ghosts. The Uzumaki had been wiped out long ago, erased from history. Just a footnote in a story.
Karin wondered if someone as insignificant as her would even make it into the margins.
As if sensing her thoughts, Clone-Sakura gave a gentle smile.
“You know, my parents were merchants. I’m the first shinobi in my family.”
Karin gaped, momentarily unable to process that information. Sakura looked up at the battle, expression hardening.
“Never give them the benefit of underestimating yourself.”
The Sakura on the battlefield stomped her foot on the pile of rubble, creating a cloud of dust and further destroying the remnants of the bridge. She used the split second in which Sasuke’s attention was diverted to form a couple of hand signs. A giant water dragon rose from the river and roared its way over to him.
Sasuke simply unsheathed his blade and carved the dragon in half as it passed through him. The dragon split in two, but then reformed into two seperate water constructs. They enveloped him, and Sasuke realized a second too late that the water was charged with electricity from his own lightning blade.
The dragons imprisoned him in a dome of water, and his body involuntarily convulsed as it was hit with an electrical shock that would be fatal for any normal human being.
He glared at Sakura through the dome of water, eyes wild and almost feral. Sakura seemed to accept that he was neutralized for now, and turned her attention to Karin.
That was her first mistake.
As she leapt over to assist with the healing, Karin, Sakura, and her clone were suddenly surrounded by pitch-black flames.
Sasuke stood in the middle of a half dissipated water bubble, mist rising from his form. His right eye was bleeding now. He spoke one word.
“Amaterasu.”
They were consumed. The clone was the first to go, an earth clone that cracked into dust. Sakura tried her best to shield Karin from the flames, but she still felt the black fire nipping at her heels as they fled. She looked at Sakura’s face, and it was clenched in pain. She had taken the brunt of the damage, and her left side was still aflame. Gritting her teeth through the pain, Sakura rushed them to the river and deposited Karin on the opposite bank before rolling into the water. Karin realized the futility of this action just a moment too late.
The Amaterasu; it was an attack Karin wasn’t too familiar with, having never seen it in action. But all her compiled research pointed to the same conclusion: the flames could not be doused. They would burn and burn and destroy all in their path.
Sakura seemed to be coming to grips with this too; she summoned a wall of water that nearly drowned both herself and Sasuke’s ring of fire. It did little to slow the spread of the flames.
Sakura's expression tightened into resolve: she grit her teeth, drew a kunai to her flaming arm and hip, and cut the flesh from her body.
Miraculously, the black fire stuck to the discarded flesh, effectively freeing her from the flames. Karin stared in shock as Sakura tossed aside a chunk of her own arm, still on fire, and regrew half the limb.
Sasuke-- to put it mildly-- wasn't taking all this too well. His face went through a range of indistinguishable emotions as he watched her strip away the flames, before settling on what Karin recognized to be anger.
Sakura evidently recognized it too: but if she was intimidated by the Uchiha, she didn’t show it. Instead, she grit her teeth in pain and braced herself for what was to come.
Sakura moved first. She spat bullets of water at him as he chased her with his black flames. She didn’t-- couldn't-- let herself get caught in them again. The two circled each other, ever cautious. Emotions ran high, and if Sakura was starting to lose some of her composure, Karin didn’t blame her. The kunoichi spun through the air with grace, and with every landing her boots cracked the earth below her.
The sheer strength of this woman fascinated Karin; if they both lived through this she would try to convince her to show her some techniques. With that kind of force on her side… no one could ever touch her again. She pictured snapping the fingers of each man who had laid his hands on her, one by one, and smiled through bared teeth.
Karin stood, hand bracing her abdomen-- but she registered no pain. In fact, she felt rather lively, her head clear that ever-present fog. Sasuke’s eyes had made everything cloudy, had made it hard to think, had made it seem like she had no choice but to follow him.
She remembered the joy that rose to her throat when she’d first heard Orochimaru was dead, followed by a feeling of disgust. The things she had done for that man were-- well, unforgivable.
As were the things he had done to her. She drew her eyes away from the many, many bitemarks lining her skin.
She may not deserve a second chance-- but that didn't mean she was ready to squander it.
Karin was snapped out of her reverie by a loud rumble. Two walls of earth had appeared on either side of Sasuke and were rapidly closing in on him. He sliced the air with his sword, lightning making a wide arc. It sliced through the walls of earth like a knife through butter-- but that attack, powerful and precise as it was, still wasn't enough to keep him from being buried in the rubble.
Sakura approached it cautiously, unsure if the great Sasuke Uchiha had run out of tricks. Karin extended her senses and found a huge amount of chakra amassing beneath the rubble.
“Sakura, get back!”
Karin screamed, realizing what he was about to do, feet moving before she could tell herself to stop. Sakura turned her head in confusion, and was slammed into by the full force of Karin's body just as the world erupted in flame.
The resulting explosion would have impressed even Deidara. Fire-- bright red in contrast to the pitch black flames of earlier-- had burned through the river and the rubble surrounding it. A great pyre was in the center; smoke filled the air, and neither Sakura nor Karin could see beyond it.
Karin coughed, trying not to inhale. Her back had taken the brunt of the explosion. Sakura stared in horror at the flames licking Karin's back, before summoning a gentle wave to douse them.
“Why-- why would you do that?” Sakura's voice pitched into panic.
“You saved me, didn’t you?” Karin replied. “I’m a sensor-type. I saw that he was building up fire chakra for an attack."
Sakura huffed, unsatisfied with the answer-- or, more likely, with her patient putting her back in harm's way.
“It was the least I could do.” Karin added, glancing down at Sakura’s arm, which was burnt as well. “You’re hurt too.”
Sakura shook her head. “Don’t worry about me.” She said as she ran healing hand over Karin’s charred back. "I've got this handled. I promise."
The pyre burned bright amongst the rubble of the bridge. Both kunoichi tensed as they sensed movement coming from the flames.
But instead of Sasuke’s angry form, a massive indigo fist emerged to pummel them, both girls sent flying backwards into the forest. Karin's head hit the trunk of a tree, and everything went dark.
Her last thought before slipping into unconsciousness was simply: I hope I was useful.
When Karin finally came to, she took in the sight of Sakura fighting a half-formed chakra construct with Sasuke at its center. Its aura pulsed purple, and Karin sensed that this technique was deeply imbued with a lot of chakra. She wracked her brain for any information she had on this thing, anything that could give Sakura the edge. Orochimaru had made her read all those notes on Uchiha techniques…
“Susanoo!” Karin cried triumphantly. “The strongest ability available to those who have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan…” She trailed off, realization dawning.
Sasuke was really, truly, serious. He wanted to kill them both. And as strong as Sakura was, Karin wasn’t sure if it would be enough to stand in the way of hundreds of years of Sharingan bloodlines.
Turning her attention to the battle, Karin saw that Sakura was indeed lagging. She had massive strength, and was able to parry each one of the contruct’s blows, but she had already used up a lot of chakra-- and it was clear that healing Karin had not been part of her plan. She no longer had the easy swagger of her earlier battle.
To her credit, Sasuke wasn't looking toogreat either: but he was currently protected by a massive spiritual avatar of pure chakra and essentially invulnerable. Karin wracked her brain for a solution, any way she could help disable the Uchiha long enough for Sakura to land a blow.
Karin was a medic, a sensor, a scientist-- and while she was no slouch, she simply hadn't been trained for combat. If she tried to enter this fight, she'd lose.
But if there was one thing she had an edge on, it was the sheer volume of her chakra. Perks of being an Uzumaki and all that.
It took an extremely skilled medic to be able to infuse chakra: and although Karin wasn’t in the habit of regrowing limbs and recovering from slit throats, she didn't doubt her talent.
If she could just draw Susanoo’s attention away for a moment…
Karin rolled up her sleeve and bit her arm, effectively healing the rest of her wounds. Had she tried regeneration on this level earlier, the energy drain would probably have killed her. As it was, all Karin felt was mildly put-out. Her strength was gradually returning, and with it her wits. There was plan cooking in her head somewhere, she just needed to bring it to the surface.
Karin may not be collapsing bridges with her punches, but since she was no longer sporting two head injuries, a stomach wound, and chakra burns, she surely had enough chakra to pull something off. Something, anything that could give Sakura the edge.
Mind made up, Karin wove through the trees until she reached the center of the battleground, where Sakura was holding off Susanoo.
“Distract him!” She yelled at Sakura. “I have a plan!”
Sakura spared her a glance before two giant fists came down on her. She was hit, and sunk straight into the earth. Karin bit her lip and her stomach sank. Then two spikes of rock came up from the ground and impaled Susanoo’s arms, pinning him to the ground. Susanoo roared in anger.
Sakura came up from the earth behind Karin.
“I bought us a minute. What’s your idea?”
Karin smiled, and restrained herself from rubbing her hands together in glee. That would be too on the nose, even for her.
“How would you like a chakra infusion?”
________________
Kakashi raced through the woods, Naruto and Sai at his side. Naruto was just barely holding back tears, and Sai’s face was dark.
The low mood was understandable: after all, this could very well be the day that broke Team Seven for good.
Kakashi and Naruto had been preparing to move camp with the others when Sai came to them, his demeanor unusually serious.
His next words made Kakashi's entire body go cold.
“Sakura’s gone after Sasuke.”
Naruto's mouth opened in horror, shock painted across his face. Kakashi could only force out a single word.
“When.”
Sai had the decency to look remorseful.
“I found her bedroll empty this morning. Last night, she and I… talked about some things. I believe I may have accidentally goaded her into going after the traitor.”
Naruto looked furious.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You know-- you know how Sakura feels about the bastard, why would you-- how could you-- how could you!”
Naruto, absolutely livid, and grabbed the taller boy by his shoulders and started to shake him back and forth like an angry dog with a particularly miserable toy. Sai let it happen.
“And that?” Kakashi asked, pointing at the scrolls in Sai’s hand.
“I found them in her tent.”
Kakashi took the scrolls from Sai and quickly scanned them. One was the report they got that stated Sasuke had been sighted near the border of Rice Country. That was probably where Sakura was going. The rest appeared to be Orochimaru’s research, the ones they had confiscated from his last base. Kakashi’s eyes widened.
“Naruto, let go of him.”
Naruto turned to his teacher, his whiskers already more pronounced, and his eyes orange. “He goaded her-”
“From the looks of these scrolls, Sakura has been planning this a long time.” Kakashi said, handing them to Naruto. They were filled with research on the Uchiha, and Sakura had written notes in the corners, stating potential weaknesses and strategies.
Naruto’s eyes widened. “Why would she…”
“For you.” Sai said. “She is doing it for you.”
Kakashi didn't have it in him to correct him, but the thought refused to go away.
She's doing it for herself.
Kakashi could feel the battle before he could see it. An immense amount of chakra was being used, that much he could ascertain. In the distance, he saw a giant indigo form uprooting tree after tree, as if it was looking for something. He had only read about such a thing.
Susanoo. Sasuke really wasn’t holding back.
The chakra construct uprooted another tree and aimed it at the distance. Yet, inexplicably, tree seemed to be retaliating; it was wrapping its branches around the monster’s hand and holding it in place. It seemed as if the forest was coming to life, as tree after tree pinned down Susanoo.
Mokuton. The realization had Kakashi stopping in his tracks.
He knew Sakura had been working with Yamato and Tsunade recently, to “revive an ancient jutsu”, but he’d never begun to imagine that this is what his third student was capable of. Somehow, with no Senju bloodline ability, no history of experimentation at Orochimaru's hands, Sakura had done the impossible. With nothing but an affinity for earth and water, perfect chakra control, a sheer determination.
Kakashi almost wanted to laugh. It seemed the little cherry blossom seed had finally bloomed into a tree.
Naruto turned around to see his teacher standing in shock.
“What are you doing, we have to save Sasuke!” He yelled.
This jolted Kakashi right out of his stupor.
“Sasuke?" Interjected Sai, "We’re here to save Sakura.”
“You haven’t sparred with her recently, have you?" Naruto said disbelievingly. "She’s going to murder him if she doesn’t hold back!”
Naruto had barely given the absurd statement time to settle before he took off in the direction of the battle.
Sai stared ahead, blindsided. Kakashi attempted to make his voice sound comforting as he put a hand on Team Seven's newest recruit.
“If it’s any consolation, I’m fairly certain they’re both going to murder each other.”
________________
It had taken years. Years of training and dedication to arrive where she was today. Day’s spent training her body, night’s spent working at the hospital, while every moment keeping enough focus to create the seal on her forehead. Taking every single one of Tsunade’s punches, breaking almost every bone in her body just to be healed so she could break them again. Spending days in the library doing research and deciphering old scrolls, cracking codes while filling out the Hokage’s reports, and learning jutsu by herself in the grueling heat when Tsunade was busy. Sakura had poured her blood, sweat, and tears into her training, and it was finally paying off.
The day Naruto left was the day Sakura asked Tsunade to train her. It was an awakening in more ways than one. Sakura had never been the special one, the chosen one, the genius. No teacher saw anything in her until Tsunade. She was the one who was pushed aside, told to do push-ups while the boys sparred, told she should take a break, told she shouldn’t push herself too hard.
Sakura was tired of being underestimated by the world.
She had been put on her team to balance out the strong personalities of Naruto and Sasuke, she was supposed to be the meek girl, the obedient girl. The mediator. Sakura was tired of being the mediator. She wanted to be the fucking star, or at the very least shine bright enough to make the next Hokage think twice before they put a girl with “no potential” on a team with two supposed-monsters.
Sakura used the skills she had, honing them and perfecting them. She was already an impeccable paper ninja, so she put her research skills to good use and dug up every single piece of information she could on the Uchiha. She followed a paper trail that led to a bunker underneath the Uchiha compound, which turned out to be filled with encoded notes on hidden techniques. Once she had everything memorized, she worked on counter-techniques. She got Kurenai to teach her genjutsu, and together they discovered her ace in the hole; Inner Sakura. She would wrangle water and earth jutsu out of Kakashi in exchange for buying him lunch. She practiced. She prepared.
She hadn’t expected the arrival of Yamato and Sai. Sai was helpful enough in teaching her some water jutsu, but Yamato was the one who helped her put that to good use. He was the one who saw her mastery over earth and water, and asked her if she’d ever tried the wood release.
Sakura had gaped at him at first, then smiled. No bloodline to her name, no tailed beast, no famous clan: even so, she was determined to succeed.
And so, Sakura focused all her attention on training with Yamato and Tsunade-- after all, who better to teacher her than the granddaughter of Hashirama, and the only known Mokuton user left?
Sheer will and impeccable technique, along with two good teachers and a lot of patience were was allowed her to succeed. Wood was complex: it had the stubbornness of earth with the life and fluidity of water. Sakura first tried summoning each release in her hands and then putting them together, but it was more complicated than that. The chakras didn’t click like puzzle pieces, they needed to be woven together in a precise pattern. It was made my difficult and defied all logic. So she let go of that logic for once, focusing instead on her emotions. Soon it became second nature, as if the wood was made to bend to her will. It felt so right .
As she bounded between the trees, Sakura conjured that feeling again. The stubbornness of earth, the life of water. Weave them together. She brought her hands into the Snake sign and let herself become a part of it. The tree's branches were her own arms, and she was wrapping them around Susanoo, restraining it. She let the forest come to life and entwine the construct, pinning it in place.
Perfect, Inner chimes in.
And it was. Sure, not everything had gone to plan-- she hadn’t expected to have to save a dying girl, for one-- but Sakura had practice rolling with the punches. She had goaded Sasuke into exhausting his reserves, by staying calm--a more difficult task than she'd like to admit-- and beating back his techniques one by one.
After all, the trick to fighting Sasuke is to beat him mentally, to keep your cool while wounding his pride. And Sakura was sure that this time she’d dealt a serious blow.
As the trees wrapped around Susanoo, she strode forward and lept onto the head, where Sasuke resided. He was struggling, his limbs bound by the trees, and he looked at her, enraged through bleeding eyes.
Now, to break through. Inner practically sung with glee.
Ok, rein it in.
Sakura summoned all her strength and punched. Spidery cracks ran through Susanoo’s helmet. She punched again, and again, and again. The indigo chakra gave way before she could throw her fifth punch.
Sasuke struggled, still bound by the trees. The great drawback of Susanoo was that the user couldn’t move if the construct couldn’t move. He had essentially restrained himself.
Thank you, he had once said to her years ago. She hadn't had a response then, too overcome with shock and desperation.
“You’re welcome.”
Then she drew her fist back and punched him in the face.
________________
Naruto stopped in the clearing created by his teammates' battle. The chakra construct was collapsing. The wood around it gave way, forming a bridge to the ground. Sakura emerged onto the bridge, dragging Sasuke behind her.
Naruto felt his spirits sinking as she reached his position. Sasuke wasn’t moving.
“Is he…” He choked out.
“Dead?” Sakura said, meeting his gaze. “No, he’s just unconscious. But man, was it hard to hold back. He slit my throat, you know that?”
Naruto’s eyes widened, trying to process everything that had happened. Sakura was okay, Sasuke was… pretty beat up, but okay. They were all together.
“You did it, Sakura!” He said, jumping up to give her a hug. “You brought him back!”
“Ow, get off of me you big lug!” Sakura yelped as Naruto tackled her. She'd used to be taller than him when they were genin, but to his delight and her despair, he’d hit a big growth spurt from the ages of fourteen to sixteen-- meanwhile she’d barely grown two inches.
“Don’t make me kick you!”
Naruto reluctantly removed himself, and looked down at Sasuke.
“That bastard looks pretty beat up.”
“So was I, until I healed myself."
Naruto looked her up and down, noting the dried blood on her neck, the burn marks, the charred clothes. He swallowed, unsure of what to say.
Thankfully, Sakura seemed content to steer the conversation forward. "Oh, by the way, meet Karin Uzumaki. She’s like, your third cousin or something.”
A bespeckled redhead emerged from the bushes behind Sakura, looking around nervously.
“She's Sasuke's-- well, former teammate, and a medic to boot. And she gave me the chakra infusion that allowed me to win the battle, so, you know.. be nice."
Karin gave a nervous, slightly awkward wave. Naruto's face cycled through a range of emotions: stunned, lonely, hopeful, before landing on something that could only be described as immensely happy.
Just as Naruto was about to introduce himself, Sai and Kakashi jumped down from the trees.
“Looks like quite the reunion indeed.” Kakashi said, nodding warily at the newcomer. Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly, face turning serious at the appearance of her former teacher.
“I'm sure you have a lot to say, Kakashi-sensei, but if you could hold off on the lecture for just a moment--"
"No lecture," he replied, before gently putting his hand on her shoulder. "You did well."
Sakura's hard expression wavered.
"Kakashi-sensei..."
He let his eye crinkle into a smile.
"Let's go home."
________________
Sasuke's dreams were full of anger. Fire licking his sides, blood dripping from his brother's eyes, bodies piling around him. The fury and vengeance and hatred carved a place deep into his heart-- and without them there was only a gaping hole. He felt empty, scraped clean, and vulnerable as open sore.
The path he was on right now was dark and neverending, offering neither rest or respite. But it was what he had chosen; there was nothing to do but keep going, keep sinking, keep letting the emptiness inside him grow deeper and deeper.
He'd gotten this far; surely there was nothing going back from here. Surely, there was no other route to take.
Yet behind him, at the other end of the tunnel, shone two brilliant lights. One was blinding as the sun, bright and endless. The other flickered like a candle in the wind, a once steady flame gasping its last breaths.
But-- even after everything-- it still emitted warmth.
(Thank you)
It would be a long path ahead of him, and there was no guarantee he would reach the end in time. No guarantee he would reach the end at all.
It would be so, so much easier to just look away.
(You're welcome)
For the first time in a long, long time, Sasuke turned his eyes towards the light.