Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kakashi Hatake awoke with a start and he didn't know why. Naruto's loud snoring aside, the house was quiet and peaceful. Outside, he could hear the gentle lapping of water against the beams supporting the house. Crickets chirped in the distance. A slight chill was slowly seeping into his bones. 

Wave country weather did not agree with Kakashi's Konohan preferences. 

He glanced to his right, where two boys were huddled together in their sleep. With rising amusement, he noticed that Naruto was spooning Sasuke with great enthusiasm that belied their boyhood rivalry. 

He chuckled quietly, wondering how either boy would react to waking up in such a predicament. 

A sharp scream pierced through his musings. 

Kakashi reacted before he could think. Using a sliver of chakra, he transported himself straight into the adjoining room from where the scream emanated. Heart in his throat, he berated himself for letting Sakura sleep separately. 

Taking in the room at large, he quickly took note of the closed window in front of him as well as the similarly closed door behind him. Brandishing a kunai, the only weapon he brought with him, Kakashi took a step towards the center of the room. 

Closer to the window, and slightly off center in the small room, lay two futons. Each was meant to be occupied by the only two women in the house. Weak moonlight coming in through the window aided his sight. 

Two shadowy figures were halo-ed by the waxing moonlight. Kakashi noted with growing incredulity that it was Sakura who was pinning a very frightened Tsunami, the lady of the house, to the futon on which she lay. 

"Where am I?" She hissed quietly, forearm choking Tsunami, pushing her deeper into the cushioning. "Who are you and why have you brought me here?"

Tsunami, for her part, could only gag in reply. Kakashi intervened before the situation could escalate. 

"Sakura!" He called out sternly. 

Her head snapped in his direction, body stiffening in recognition. 

"Sakura, let her go. You're safe here."

She didn't seem to be listening. Her obscured face shifted in the direction of the kunai in his hand. 

Quickly letting his weapon clatter to the ground, Kakashi brought his arms up in a placating manner. He spoke in the softest voice he could muster, not wanting to spook the girl further. 

"We're in Wave country right now, remember? At the bridge builder's House? That's his daughter Tsunami. You remember Tsunami right? Inari's mother? We have a mission to protect her father, the bridge-builder Tazuna? Do you remember that, Sakura?" 

To his intense relief, halfway through his blundering, Sakura let up on choking the woman, but she did not get up. 

Tsunami was shaking harder than a leaf, hands coming up to protect her throat from further damage. She was coughing and sobbing in equal measure. Immobilized under her attacker, Tsunami shrunk in on herself to remain inconspicuous. 

"What—Wave country…?" Sakura murmured, shaking her head in confusion. She tilted her head to the side, allowing a glint of light to illuminate her cheek. “How did...?”

During that moment’s pause, multiple footsteps were heard thundering down the hall. The door was pushed open by a disheveled Naruto holding his pillow as a weapon. Sasuke lurked just behind him, weapons drawn and peeking over Naruto's shoulder. Beyond them, Tazuna shot Kakashi a questioning look, carrying a frightened Inari. 

"Kakashi-sensei! What happened?! Sakura, you okay?!" 

Kakashi looked back at Sakura to see her facing Naruto. She was shaking her head more vigorously now, one trembling finger coming up to point at Naruto. 

"What the fuck?" She said, stumbling away from Tsunami and flattening herself against the nearest wall.

Tsunami used that opportunity to scramble away with a cry. She ran past him and into the arms of her father, whimpering quietly.  

Kakashi scarcely noticed. He was barely breathing as it is. 

Because the spot where Sakura stood perfectly illuminated her features. From the strangely familiar jewel on her forehead to the fact that Haruno Sakura seemed to have aged 10 years overnight. 

Chapter Text

The dining room was quiet. 

Discreetly, Kakashi eyed the occupants of the room.

On the far side of the room, keeping as much distance between them as possible, sat the civilian family hosting them. Inari was barely awake, nodding off on his grandfather’s lap. Tazuna sat stiffly, trying to hold himself together but Kakashi could feel the anxiety rolling off of him. Tsunami leaned tiredly against her father, looking downright miserable. She held a warm cloth to her inflamed neck. 

It was going to be a nasty bruise, Kakashi acknowledged. Already, blue patches of skin spanned the lower half of her neck and coloured some parts of her collar bones as well. Come morning and it would darken to a terrifying degree. To Kakashi’s eyes, it didn’t look too serious. But he wasn’t a medic and a closer look might be warranted. 

Beside him, Naruto sat pensively. He was openly staring at their ‘guest’ but no words passed his lips. In fact, he reflected, this might be the longest Naruto’s ever gone without speaking.

Sasuke sat in the doorway, playing with a kunai and overall looking very nonchalant. His body language gave him away though, if one knew where to look. Firstly his jaw. It was twitching from being clenched for so long. Secondly, while his shoulders were relaxed, the unnatural straightness of his spine exposed his feelings quite well. Thirdly, he’s been glaring quite ferociously at the final member in the room. 

Finally, Kakashi turned to observe the elephant in the room. Across from him, hands folded neatly in her lap, Haruno Sakura was steadily attempting to bore a hole into the tabletop. 

Haruno Sakura. 

He couldn’t argue that fact. In his heart, he knew it was her. Yes, her cherry-blossom hair was longer, sweeping past her hips. Yes, her verdant green eyes were darker, now more emerald than teal. But she still had that barely-there freckle in the corner of her eye. And she still chewed on her lip when she was nervous. She was even wearing that pink frilly nightmare for sleeping clothes that her younger version preferred.

For the past half hour, Kakashi struggled to come to terms with the person in front of him. His mind oscillated from thoughts of a well executed Henge to the possibility of his entrapment in a powerful Genjutsu. The presence of Obito’s Sharingan negates both these possibilities. 

And yet.

The young woman in front of him was closer to his age than she was to her team-mates. And nothing in the realm of possibility explained her presence. Or her absence.

And what on earth happened to her? The real Sakura, our Sakura?

Kakashi took a deep breath, held it for a second, then let it go.

Time-travel. 

Who would have thought? 

“Okay,” He said, to the simultaneous flinch of everyone in the room, “Let’s get this over with.”

He lifted his headband, making everyone zoom in on his Sharingan. “Miss, please state your full name and registration number.” 

Sakura ran a frustrated hand down her face and bit out: “Haruno Sakura. 012601.”

“Age and date of birth?”

“Twenty-three. March 28, Fourth Age ASSD”

“Gender?”

She gave him a blank look. 

Kakashi cracked a wry smile. It went unseen under his mask but somehow Sakura understood his intentions. Suddenly, he felt uncomfortable, vulnerable. Like he was being read akin to an open book. 

She looked away.

He steadied his stuttering heart. 

“Can you prove that you are who you say you are?” He asked softly.  

She was quiet for a beat. He waited patiently, watching her jaw clench ever so often. As far as tangible proof went, that little tic was good enough. He’s seen it countless times, most often when Naruto became just a tad too obnoxious. But. One can never be too cautious. 

“I have a summon.” 

Kakashi paused, weighing the pros and cons. He nodded.

She bit her thumb, swept her hand across the table and released the smallest sliver of chakra. All in slow motion, no doubt in response to the tensing of the civilians in the corner. 

And Sasuke. Kakashi noticed her glancing at him ever so often.

So she knows his triggers.   

The smallest cloud of smoke appeared and dispersed just as easily, revealing a tiny, green-striped slug.

Oh.

Oh. 

“Chīsana, please identify your summoner.” Sakura called out. The slug bowed to her and turned to Kakashi. 

“You are in the presence of Mistress Haruno Sakura, contracted at the behest of Lady Tsunade-sama to Lady Katsuyu-sama of Shikkotsu Forest.”

Well, fuck.  

So Tsunade-sama finally did cave and take on another student. When, how? For the life of him, Kakashi could not wrap his mind around how Sakura of all people accomplished that . Tiny, naive Sakura against one of the sannin? But perhaps…

Yes, her chakra control. Iruka had mentioned something about it. Remarkable for her age or something...  

So Sakura was a medic-nin. 

Kakashi blinked and for a moment he saw Rin smiling back at him. Superimposed over Naruto sat Obito and there he was, near the door. Always the lone wolf, always outside the loop of people. They were pulling him back, deep, deep into the recesses of his memories. 

Kakashi sagged forward, pulling his worn hitai-ate over his sharingan. Well, there’s his answer.

“Tsunade-sama? Really? How on earth did you accomplish that?”

Sakura shrugged. She licked her lips, glancing at Sasuke and then Naruto before replying. “Yeah. Things...happened.” She swallowed, smiling uncomfortably, “I needed...a goal, I guess.” 

 Naruto, having finally reached his threshold, stood up. “No way, lady.” He declared, pointing a finger at Sakura’s nose. “You sure as hell ain’t no Sakura-chan.“ He aimed a ferocious glare at her. “So you better spit out where you took her before I beat it out of you.”  

Sakura looked faintly amused at his threat.

Kakashi felt embarrassment crawl up his spine. “Naruto.” he hissed, “Sit down.”  

Naruto stubbornly locked his knees. Sasuke used this lull in conversation to add in his two cents. He sheathed his kunai and came up on Kakashi’s other side. “The dobe is right. If you’re here then where’s Sakura?” 

Sakura made eye contact with one and then the other boy. “I don’t know where she is.” She said, letting them read the emotions on her face. 

“Then we have nothing more to talk about.” Sasuke finished. He turned away, ending the conversation and leaving the room. Naruto followed him out, giving Sakura one last disbelieving glare.

She sighed in exhaustion.

“Sorry.” Kakashi offered half-heartedly. She brushed him off and turned to face their hosts.

She bowed to them. “Tsunami-san, please accept my sincerest apologies. I was disoriented under the cover of darkness and I assumed you to be an enemy.” Sakura kept her head bowed, waiting for Tsunami’s reply.     

Tsunami cleared her throat three times before attempting to speak. “It’s fine.” she croaked, voice hoarse. “It was only a misunderstanding. All is forgiven.”

Sakura nodded once and glanced up. “Please allow me to fix my mistake.” she said, holding up her hand. It glowed mint green. “This is healing chakra. I am a medic-nin. You will not be harmed, I promise.”

Tsunami hesitated, glancing at her father for reassurance. Tazuna looked just as uncertain. 

“She’s telling the truth.” Kakashi piped up, “That’s healing chakra. It’s perfectly safe, don’t worry.” 

Tsunami slowly nodded her consent. Sakura smiled weakly and moved closer, bringing her palm to Tsunami’s neck. Kakashi watched her with bittersweet nostalgia. 

When Sakura pulled back a few minutes later, Tsunami’s skin was as clear as day. She looked relieved too. Both of them did.

The room grew silent again. 

Before awkwardness can swallow them whole, Tazuna excused himself, carrying a dozing Inari in his arms. Tsunami hurried after them, her footsteps echoing in the dead of the night. 

Kakashi felt the events of the night catch up to him quite suddenly. Gods, he was tired. “Let’s continue this conversation in the morning, yeah?” Using the table as leverage, Kakashi slowly got up. His knees creaked in pain.   

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” He said, straightening his legs. She didn’t reply. He didn’t expect her to. 

He turned and hobbled out of the room.

Chapter Text

The sun rose leisurely that morning, peeking out over the mist curling on the horizon. Sunlight refracted on the dewdrops decorating the grass and most of the viridian evergreens lining the water. Cool breeze coiled around the trees and rippled the water. The world was at peace.

Sakura watched the day arrive, mind carefully blank. She did not sleep—couldn’t actually. There were too many thoughts in her head, whirling too quickly to pick apart. Of course, Sakura imagined that returning to sleep in the same room she shared with the civilian who she had just recently assaulted was just poor form. There was no need to make the woman more uncomfortable than she already was. And obviously, she could not exactly take up space in the room lodging her team.  

Sakura clapped a hand to her face, willing herself not to lose composure. 

And so, with too many problems piling up and no solution revealing itself, she exited the house. For Kakashi’s benefit, she lingered close to the house. The forest provided the perfect cover for her thirty minute mental breakdown of epic proportions. Silent, of course. She’s nothing if not courteous. 

“Sakura-chan.” 

Chīsana, bless her soul, kept her company the whole time. She would pop in and out of existence ever so often, acting as a mediator between Sakura and Katsuyu-sama and carrying messages between dimensions. 

Sakura moved Chīsana from her position on her shoulder to her knee. “Yes?” 

“Katsuyu-sama maintains that she cannot sense any irregularities in your chakra.”

Sakura blanched. “Meaning?” she asked, already knowing what it means. 

“You’re the only Sakura in this dimension. There is no other.”

“Can Katsuyu-sama pull me through?” Sakura questioned hopefully. 

Chīsana shook her head. “No. She has already tried. She believes it’s because you have not signed our Summoning Contract in this dimension.”

Great . 

That meant two things. One, she’s stuck here. At least, until she can get her hands on the Slug Summoning scroll again. Which means finding Tsunade-sama. And explaining who she was.

Sakura thought for a minute. 

Hard no to that.

Two, her younger self’s location remained a mystery. She might have just replaced the other Sakura in time. In which case, she should be somewhere in...um, somewhere in the Five Nations about 11 years from now. 

She might also be the other Sakura. Either by pushing Kid-Sakura out and occupying her body, in which case Kid-Sakura could be floating around as a disembodied soul— Or dead.  

Or Sakura could have absorbed her child-self, which could mean anything from Kid Sakura hanging out somewhere in the back of her head to merging with Sakura herself— or dead.    

Oh Kami, I’m about seventy percent sure I killed little me.

Sakura sighed. “Chīsana-chan, what about Naruto? Were you able to reach him?” 

“No,” Chīsana said, squirming in agitation. “Everytime I try, I get rerouted to the younger one in this dimension. Katsuyu-sama has tried reaching out to Tsunade-sama as well.” She rubbed her tiny feelers together. “Do not worry Sakura-chan. We’ll get you home soon. Just be patient.” 

Sakura swallowed. “Okay.” 

“I must go now. I’ll check in on you soon.” Chīsana disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

Sakura fell back onto the grass. 

Now what?

She was stuck here for the foreseeable future. She may have killed her younger self. Her teammates hate her. And her sensei didn't trust her. If she decided to return to Konoha, she may as well march straight into Torture and Investigation and give up everything she knows in the hopes that they don’t kill her. Or worse, send her to Danzo to do as he sees fit.

If she runs off, she’ll be labeled a missing-nin and hunted down like a dog. And she’ll lose her biggest resource in investigating exactly how she ended up here—Konoha Library.

With nothing else to do, Sakura decided to follow-up on her theories behind her younger-self’s disappearance. She sat up and folded her legs underneath her before closing her eyes and breathing deeply. 

Slowly, the total darkness behind her eyelids lightened to a dimly lit room. The sounds of a fire crackling came from behind her and in front was a comfortable little alcove with a window overlooking a lush rose-garden. It was complete with a thin mattress, some blankets and a pile of books arranged neatly to one side.

.

Books upon books lined the shelves on either side of her, darkness occupying any space not taken up by a heavy looking tome.

Once Sakura was sure she was corporeal, she called out. “Other?” 

A soft sigh slithered across her mind. “ I’m here.”

Bit by bit, a part of the darkness detached itself from the rest, materializing into human form.

This was the part that never fails to fascinate Sakura, her other personality’s exceptional cloaking abilities. No matter how earnestly she’s tried replicating her abilities, Sakura could never match up. It seems that even personalities sharing the same body can have skill sets the other cannot equal.      

“What brings you here, Other?”

Other was lounging in the alcove with the window, a curious smile playing on her lips.

“Did you perchance see any mini-versions of us running around?”  

“No.” She denied. “ But I did find a partially written thinkpiece on why you think Hyuuga Neji should be ANBU Commander.”

Sakura groaned in embarrassment, hiding her face behind one hand. “Is it the six-pack abs?” 

“It’s the six-pack abs.”

She huffed, not knowing what to say in reply.

Other chuckled in amusement. “I’ll let you know if something changes.” She said, “In the meantime, please read a new book. It’s so boring here.”

“Weed the garden then.” Sakura quipped mockingly. She left before Other could reply. Though she couldn’t see it, she felt Other sticking her tongue out after her.

When she came to, there were voices echoing in the distance. She recognized Naruto instantly. He was the loudest, shouting at the top of his lungs. “SAKURA-CHAN! WHERE ARE YOU?! SAKURA-CHAN!” 

Sakura winced at the volume. Twelve-year-old Naruto was probably the loudest child she had ever come across. Peeking out from the treeline, she saw that Naruto had dragged both Sasuke and Inari into his self-appointed mission. 

Sasuke was the first to register her presence. He scowled on sight. Naruto, noticing his change-of-face, also turned around and frowned at her. 

“Not you, lady.” He said, pointing his nose in the air. “We’re looking for the real Sakura-chan.” He brushed past her and stalked off into the woods. “SAKURA-CHAN!”

Inari skulked past her nervously. He ran headlong into the bushes after Naruto.

Sasuke assessed her, his glower lightening as he thought. “Do you know?” He asked. 

Sakura inclined her head in question. 

He twitched in annoyance at having to explain himself. “Do you know what happened to her?” He recited. 

“I have my suspicions.” She stated, watching his face contort in displeasure. 

“And.”

Sakura rapped her fingers along her arm in thought. How hard would he take this information, she wondered.

Sasuke correctly interpreted her hesitation. 

“I’m not fragile.” He hissed in quiet fury, his face the picture of indignation.

“No.” She agreed. “You’re not.”  

She repeated her theories to him, adding her reasons for each theory and also her recent findings—minus the existence of Other of course. She might be crazy but she wasn’t totally ‘round the bender just yet.

“Either she’s lost somewhere in time—“ Sakura said, finally. “Or she’s...gone. I’m sorry.” 

Sasuke looked stricken. He didn’t speak after that announcement, nodding once in goodbye and stiffly marching after Naruto. 

Sakura sighed miserably. She kept moving, circling around the house and entered through the front door. 

Uncomfortable at the prospect of interacting with someone, she set a brisk pace down the hall, ducking her head as she passed the dining room. Taking a left, she slid the door open and quickly entered the room before shutting it. 

The room she—her younger self—  had shared with Tsunami. She vaguely recognized the cream rucksack nestled in the corner as belonging to her younger self and strode over to it. Dumping its contents onto the floor, she took a quick inventory of the items.

There was a toothbrush, a comb, a few hair accessories, a pair of navy sweatpants, undergarments that were too small to fit her frame, an old novel that she vaguely remembered, and finally, hidden at the very bottom of the pack was a scroll containing all of little Sakura’s meager savings and the entirety of her weapons collection. 

She collected the scroll and the sweatpants and went through the tiny cupboard in the corner. Here she found the rest of Sakura’s belongings— her weapons pouch and some more clothes. Rooting through the garments, she found a tank top that looked like it would fit.

Sakura looked down at herself in derision. She’ll be glad to get out of the frilly pyjamas she woke up in and into something a little more practical.

Setting the clothes aside, Sakura sat down to catalogue the weapons pouch and the storage scroll. And that was how Kakashi found her.

“Ah, Sakura-san?”

“Yes?” She hummed, digging through the pitiful excuse of a first aid kit and setting aside a roll of bandages to use as chest bindings. The weapons were in dire need of sharpening as well.

“I was wondering if you could do me a favour?” Kakashi asked.

Sakura stopped her rummaging and turned to face him, waiting. He shifted from his position against the doorway and hobbled inside the room using a makeshift walk-stick.  

“If it’s not too much trouble, could you shadow Tazuna for a few days? Only for about a week or so, until I’ve recovered enough to take over.”

Sakura contemplated the task, rewrapping the newly empty scroll.

Kakashi shifted from leg to leg, waiting for her answer. He continued before she could reply. “And I’ve also been meaning to train my team, you see. They’re in dire need of some guidance.” 

“Of course.” She said, smiling politely. “But would you trust me with your mission?”

“‘Course I would. Tsunade-sama wouldn’t train just anyone. I know you have Konoha’s best interests at heart.” 

Right.

“I’ll also see to it that you’re adequately compensated once we return home.“ He promised. “That is, if you’ll be accompanying us?”

“He’s trying too hard.” Other whispered in her ear, confirming her suspicions.  

“We’ll see.” She replied, trying not to let her thoughts seep into her facial expressions. 

Kakashi slowly leaned down until he was sitting across from her, groaning all the while. “I don’t know how the Hokage or the council will react to your...circumstances” He stressed.  “but If you do this as a favour to me, I promise I’ll put in a good word on your behalf. So, what'd ya say?” 

“ Say yes.” Other hissed.

“Yes, of course. I don’t mind doing it.” She replied, keeping her polite grin in place. 

“Excellent.” Kakashi declared, his singular visible eye curving into his signature eye-smile.

It was only many years of practice that prevented Sakura from acting on her rage. Not only had Kakashi tried to manipulate her, he underestimated her as well. Only a fresh-faced Chunin would fall for such an obvious ploy.

But when he went to get up, something in Sakura made her say: “Wait.” 

Kakashi stilled and raised an eyebrow at her, waiting. 

“Your knee.” She started, “May I heal it for you?”  

“Ah, no. I wouldn’t want to impose.” He replied modestly. 

“It’s no imposition.” Sakura answered, already holding up one glowing hand.

He huffed out a laugh. “Then, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Sakura made sure to take an extra fifteen minutes while healing him just to see him squirm. Since he underestimates her anyway, why not? 

After he left, she dressed and packed up half the money and most of the weapons. She also added a sharpening stone. Guard duty was technically time off anyway. 

After an awkward breakfast, Sakura accompanied Tazuna as he started off for the bridge. 

Chapter Text

Tazuna set a slow, ambling pace through the woods. He took care not to use any pathways or put down any indicator of passage. For a while, Sakura thought they were just aimlessly wandering through the forest. A little more than half an hour later, she caught a whiff of salt and knew they were closing in on the Bay. At last they left the trees behind and emerged into an alley that led to an equally desolate street. 

Sakura was very impressed. Then again, she was impressed by anyone displaying an adequate level of directional sense. She gave him a winning smile, something Tazuna looked embarrassed to be on the receiving end of.

By the looks of it, they were near the docks. Long rows of storehouses lined both sides of the road leading up and down the alleyway. Tazuna gestured for her to be quiet and follow his lead. She nodded. Together, they crossed the road and slid into another alley between buildings. 

They came upon a well hidden door that had Sakura double-check her eyesight. It was a carefully crafted door that was made to resemble the wall surrounding it. There were no hinges or a handle on the outside which aided in its camouflage. At first glance, nothing would look amiss but careful examination showed that it was a different texture to the wall. 

Nice. 

Tazuna knocked in a varying beat of threes and twos. It sounded almost like music. 

They waited. 

The door swung open silently and in front of them stood a man around the same age as Tazuna. He was unremarkable in every way. Brown hair, brown eyes and spectacles to boot. Although, perhaps in an impoverished country that’s currently being overtaken by a money-hungry dictator, possessing a pair of spectacles may be considered a symbol of education and authority and therefore may not exactly be taken very well.

And on today’s episode of The More You Know…

Anyways. 

The man waved them inside and Sakura hurried to follow Tazuna into the joint. The storehouse was illuminated by natural light shining in through caches in the roof. Crates of different sizes littered the room. The largest ones lined the wall adjacent to the concealed door, helping to hide it from sight. Smaller ones were scattered in messy piles. Some were tipped over, spilling their contents onto the floor. 

Other than their chaperone, about a dozen other men milled around the warehouse. 

“You sure took your time getting here.” The man who let them in stated gruffly, leaning against a crate and watching them guardedly.

Tazuna cleared his throat. “Ran into a spot o’ trouble, Kousuke.”

He nodded as though to say ‘figured as much’ then gestured to Sakura. “Who’s the girl?”

“One of the Ninja I was able to hire.” Tazuna said curtly.  

“Is she the only one?” 

“Nah, there’s three more. One of ‘em got hurt on the way.”

The man, Kousuke scoffed. “Can’t be any good if they can’t take a hit from a thug.”

Tazuna did not bite at the man’s bait. A wise choice, in Sakura’s opinion. Thugs were one thing, ninjas were another. The bridge-builder’s employees were stressed, overworked and a stone's throw away from rioting. Adding Ninjas to that inexplicably complicated matters.  

Tazuna cleared his throat. “They’ll be doin’ their jobs either way.” He glanced her way. “This ‘ere is Sakura. She’ll be with us for the next few days.”

Sakura smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. 

Incredulous was an understatement. Kousuke and his workers outright rejected this idea. It was clear as day on their faces. Maybe it was a fear of retaliation or Tazuna’s chastisement or even resignation to the fact that their situation has become dire enough to warrant help from a ninja—even if she was a woman—but they did not protest.

“Alright then,” Tazuna clapped his hands to gain everyone's attention. “Where are we with the construction?” 

Kousuke listed off numerous things with half the technical terms flying over her head and the other half being only vaguely understood. Other men interjected occasionally to add details to certain parts of the construction.

“The bridge is about 80 percent done.” Kousuke finally stated. “Concrete and steel ran out about three days ago. We were able to smuggle the cement and gravel out little by little but the metal’s been giving us some trouble. It’s not exactly subtle.” The man chuckled, gesturing to all the steel lying in a large pile in one corner— bars and ropes of different sizes. 

“The ropes we can manage somehow. But there’s no way we can transport these bars without cranes or boats.” Tazuna mumbled thoughtfully. 

Kousuke snorted. “You’ll need at least four men to lift a single crate, nevermind carrying it six kilometers to the bridge. There’s no way four men and a crate can fit through the back door. Not to mention Gato’s been keeping eyes out front for a while now. Face it chap, these ain’t going anywhere.”    

Tazuna hm’d and ha’d over this hitch in their plans. Few came forward to give suggestions. Others started conversing with each other.

Sakura sighed. This might take some time. 

She moved to lean onto one of the large crates in the back so that she wouldn’t intrude on their work. She chewed on her lip as she worried over Chīsana’s continued absence, hoping and praying for her quick return. When that yielded no peace, her mind turned to her teammates’ brusque attitudes which, for some reason, only made her numb. 

In her time, Team 7 was popularly regarded as one of the many team-matchups that were doomed to fail. While they held together in their infancy due to a combination of stubbornness and a disastrous triangle of infatuation, years of separation made it so that their reunion was awkward at best but catastrophic at worse. 

After the War, it was only due to Naruto’s persistent efforts that the team was even reactivated in the first place. Between her work at the hospital, missions and her own private study for the ANBU exams, Sakura lasted exactly one month in the newly reinstated Team 7. 

It was sad really. Her younger self would have held on, guided by some misplaced sense of loyalty. The soldier who came out of the other side of a war? Not so much.

Sakura could handle being relegated to bedside medic. She could handle being sidelined during training routines. She could even handle knowing about the ‘team dinners’ that she was unwittingly excluded from.  

On their second mission out of the village, Sasuke killed three civilians. 

Accidentally.  

Because of a spat with Naruto.

And Naruto defended him.      

When they returned to the village a week later, Sakura went straight to the mission office and applied for a transfer. 

Sakura wasn’t sure how long they lasted after she quit. 

They still speak in passing, for sure. But she would rather work with a corpse before working with them again.   

In the background, there was a sudden rise in volume. Neither herself nor Tazuna were any closer to solving their respective problems then. 

“Ninja-san?”

Sakura turned around to find a man—a boy, really— staring down at her, green eyes bright with curiosity. “Yes?” 

He blushed, averting his eyes. “Hel-hello ninja-san, I’m Hansuke. Ah, I-I was wondering if, maybe, if you weren’t too busy, you could— would maybe answer afewofmyquestions ?” he finished in a breath, screwing his eyes closed and flinching back.

Sakura blinked. “...Sure.” 

The boy sighed in relief, running a hand through his matted hair. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a real-live ninja up-close. Is it true that you people can walk on water?”  

She smirked. “Maybe.” She answered vaguely.

The boy scowled. “You said you’d answer my questions.”

“I did.” She replied cheekily. “I didn’t say I’d be specific though.” The crowd behind them were getting progressively louder as more voices added to the cacophony. Sakura steadily ignored them. So did Hansuke. 

He crossed his arms together, determinedly pushing through with his questions. “Can you disappear?”

“Sometimes.” 

“What about flying?”

“Depends. Can you?”   

“Do you talk to animals?”

“Every now and then.”

“Well, what about super-strength?” 

Hm. 

Actually, not a bad idea. 

Sakura turned on her heel and stalked closer to the commotion. 

“H-hey! Come back!” Hansuke protested, giving chase. 

“Gentlemen!” she shouted over the pandemonium. “I may have a solution to your predicament.” 

The fuss stopped short. Men shot her dubious looks over their shoulders, some scoffed and two of them returned to their conversation as though they’ve never been interrupted. 

No matter. 

Sakura leaned forward and grasped the edge of a crate, hauling it up and over her head with one hand. “Where would you like these delivered?” 

She heard a simultaneous gasp and then silence.

Chapter Text

Sakura spent the rest of the day helping ferry crates of steel rope to the construction site and dodging Hansuke’s various questions. 

Her job was to bring the crates out one by one and deliver them to a spot about three kilometers out to where one of the workers was waiting on an ox-drawn cart.

Hansuke was—unfortunately—entrusted with directing her to and from the undisclosed location. In all honesty, disclosing the location to her would matter very little as Sakura, even armed with a map, would probably get lost about five meters in.

Now, Hansuke? This kid was incredible. He talked thirty minutes straight about Carpentry. Decided to braid her a Flower-crown because ‘she reminded him of someone”. For a civilian, the boy had quite some stamina. He was able to keep up with her for most of their back and forth journey and keep her entertained while she worked her monotonous job as a pack-mule. It was during this time in close proximity that she learnt of the boy’s father—Kousuke. 

“What!” Sakura almost dropped a crate. “You’re kidding!”

Hansuke laughed and denied fibbing. “You know kid, I just can’t see you being related to that crabby old man.” She blew a strand of hair off her face before securing the crate and off they went. 

“He wasn’t always so ill-tempered.” He explained. “The thing is, even before Gato came, we weren’t exactly rich. We’re just a small fishing village. Our welfare depended on the catch. Some days were good, some were bad. Some days we used to go hungry. When Gato first came, he gave us hope, he made us believe that he could change things. That we could prosper and not just—and not just pray that we live long enough to see the sun rise tomorrow.” Hansuke huffed out a breath. He was looking into the distance; mind far away, in a different time. 

“If.”  He chucked mirthlessly. “ God, there’s always an if. If we let him control all of the offshore shipping, he’ll help us thrive; and my dad was one of the first to believe him.” He swallowed. 

“And what did he get in return?” He scoffed, voice like stone. “ Nothing. He lost everything. Even got my brother killed. When he died, I remember thinking ‘yeah, we were starving but atleast we were free. ”     

Sakura swallowed, mouth quite dry all of a sudden.

“But that was years ago. Now we’re just trying to survive.”

“Your brother.” Sakura said suddenly. 

Hansuke gave her a jerky nod. “Tsunami-san’s husband.” He confirmed. “The only man here who was brave enough to stand up against Gato.” 

“How old were you?” She whispered, wondering if she could stand to hear it. 

“I was twelve.” 

Sakura’s heart was breaking in two. She could feel it. This country was a goddamn tragedy.

They dropped off the rest of the crates in silence, Sakura couldn’t bring herself to break it. When Hansuke pestered her with more questions about her chosen career, Sakura answered them honestly. 

She observed him out of the corner of her eye. 

Hansuke looked to be a carefree boy on the cusp of adulthood whose circumstances pushed him into growing up faster. He was tall and lean, with a thin layer of muscle lining his shoulders and arms from his time working on the bridge. He had a naturally golden complexion that was characteristic to the people of Wave. His face though, was gaunt. Something Sakura understood to also be a byproduct of his circumstances.

And perhaps, if she had the time to examine him, she might find more indicators of his malnutrition.

She was distracted, which explained why she was so late to realize that they were taking a more scenic route back to the docks. 

“Wait.” Sakura said, stopping next to a field of wildflowers. “Is that Feverfew?” 

She detoured closer to a cluster of white and yellow flowers to take a closer look. “They are!” She exclaimed, squatting down to pick leaves off a few of the tiny plants. 

“Um.” Hansuke mumbled, hesitating near the side of the pathway. “Shouldn’t we get going? He pointed a thumb further down the path to where the storehouse roofs peeked through the trees. 

Sakura sighed in an exaggerated drawn-out manner. “I know your father only sent you with me because he doesn’t ‘trust’ me but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.” She said matter-of-factly.

Hansuke rolled his eyes. “It’s not that he doesn’t trust you per se. It’s just that people from your particular profession didn’t make a name for themselves by being trustworthy. ”

Sakura snorted in amusement.   

“Besides,” he continued. “You really might have gotten lost.” 

She gasped in mock offence. “Are you implying that I don’t have a sense of direction?” 

“Implying? I’m telling it like it is!”

“Ha! Nice try little boy, but I know exactly where we are!”

“And where exactly is that?”

“...North?” 

Hansuke tried to stifle his laughter. He cracked though when Sakura sent him a baleful expression. “No, no.” he snickered, palms out in the universal gesture of peace. “You’re absolutely right.” 

Sakura harrumphed and they descended into a companionable silence. She hummed as she thought. “Listen. How about this, if you take me deeper into the forest, I’ll show you some top secret ninja techniques. How about that?” 

“What, seriously? You will?!” Hansuke asked excitedly, her offer swaying him effortlessly.

Sakura laughed and nodded. He whooped in joy and they took off.

For the next few hours, Sakura had Hansuke help her set snare traps and collect enough herbs to cure the whole of Konoha. She taught him how to make his own traps and pointed out the various uses of each herb. They caught a total of five hares and made it back to the docks with time to spare. Kousuke looked both relieved and disgruntled at his son’s disheveled appearance.  

Sakura sent him off with two of the hares and a pointed quip about body odour that had him gesturing rudely to her behind his fathers back.

She accompanied Tazuna to the village where he mentioned having some errands to run. While shadowing him, she got to relive her first experience with poverty. She gave away two more hares to the first people who caught her eye—an emaciated group of children and a heavily pregnant lady carrying a toddler.  

It made Sakura’s day infinitely better that she could atleast feed a few people.

Tazuna finished his errands quickly and after buying a bundle of wilted greens, they left the village behind. They discussed the progress of the bridge and various other subjects on the way, even getting into a brief but heated discussion about the standard of Rice country Sake.

The bridge-builder cleared his throat softly before saying: “Sakura-san?” 

She turned to him, face expectant. 

“Thank you fer helpin’ us with the crates. We would ‘ave had a lot o’ trouble if ya weren’t there.”

Sakura flushed. “It’s my duty. We’re here to keep you safe and getting the bridge built as fast as possible is in everyone’s favour.”

“Yeah, but feedin’ us is not part o’ that duty, is it?” His tone was teasing, voice light.

“Ah, no— but I couldn’t just let them starve.”

Tazuna nodded. “Yer a kind person, Sakura-san. I wouldn't try an’ say I understand how or why ya got ‘ere, but my people are thankful all the same fer yer help.”

Sakura was rendered speechless. She swallowed a protest and nodded, now feeling all the more determined to help them somehow. 

They spent the rest of their walk brainstorming plans to discreetly transport not-so-discreet steel bars and reached Tazuna’s house just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation.

“—giving up is a coward’s way to live and I’m not a coward!”

The door slammed open and Inari ran past them, sniffling. Tazuna and Sakura gave each other quizzical looks and stepped into the dining room to bear witness to Naruto’s rage. 

Naruto growled when he caught sight of Sakura, face morphed into a feral expression. “What, came back to kill the rest of us?”  

Shit. 

Sakura quickly assessed the situation. Tazuna stood behind her, Tsunami was near the sink in the kitchen. Kakashi sat at the table, body poised in faux ease. Sasuke, the oblivious, idiot, darling boy was defending her.    

He placed himself adjacent and slightly in front of her and regarded Naruto with a cool look. “You can’t blame her for Sakura’s disappearance, idiot. She’s hardly the one in control of Time itself.” He scoffed.    

“Bullshit. ”  

Naruto’s progressively deepening voice was worrisome. His whisker-like marks were getting darker and his eyes flashed dangerously. Chakra was starting to leak from him, creating an oppressive atmosphere. He caught her eye. “Let’s take this outside.”   

“Listen dumb—” Sasuke’s protest was cut short by Sakura’s hand on his shoulder. She didn’t take her eyes off Naruto. 

“Okay.” she agreed softly. “We’re going outside.” 

She walked backward, maintaining eye contact and allowing Tazuna to open the door for her. As Naruto passed under Tazuna’s trembling arm, Sakura noticed Kakashi’s gaze and sent him a quick smile. Kakashi nodded back. 

Hopefully, Kakashi will be able to keep everyone far enough away in case everything went to shit. A vague plan formed in her head involving Genjutsu and a quickly dwindling hope that Naruto would hesitate in attacking her. 

“Last chance, lady. Where’s Sakura?” 

Sakura shrugged. “Right here, buddy. Let’s see what you got.” 

Naruto snarled and made his signature hand-sign. Sakura pulled out one of her sadly still blunted kunai. There was a stilted pause then Naruto inhaled.

“Shadow clone jutsu!” 

Hundreds of his doppelgängers occupied the field in a matter of seconds, all of them stuck in the same semi-feral transformation. They charged with reckless abandon. 

Sakura stepped into the range of the first clone, slicing his forearm. He disappeared in a puff of smoke. She dodged the second one’s punch and used a third to knock out the second and fourth one that appeared. On and on until she made a sizable cloud of smoke and used the cover to leave behind a clone of her own. She used a Body-flicker to escape into the tree-line. Her clone continued dodging and dispelling clones.  

Three minutes in, her clone’s chakra ran out and she disappeared with a pop. 

“Dammit, where’d she go ?!” 

“That was a clone, dumbass! How the hell did you not notice?” 

“Me? You’re the dumbass, dumbass .”

It was horrific to hear the nine-tails’ half-demonic rasp filtering in and out of Naruto’s childish voice.  

Naruto dispelled all his clones simultaneously. Sakura used a second Body-flicker to drop down inside the ensuing smoke-cloud. She used a Henge to transform into her younger self and when the dust finally settled, the first thing Naruto saw was her. 

“Sa-saku ra-chan?”       

She didn’t wait for him to realize what was happening. Sakura darted forward and knocked him out with a relatively soft karate chop to his neck. 

There was a pause. 

Naruto’s eyes glazed over and he collapsed into her arms. Gently, she laid him out on the grass and smoothed his hair away from his face. 

She weaved a subtle Genjutsu into his consciousness to be on the safe side. Just a few of her happier memories with his future version. 

Kakashi and Sasuke took this moment to appear. 

“He’s not hurt. I just put him to sleep.” She whispered. They didn’t reply. Well, what was there to say? Grief affects everyone differently. 

She left Naruto in their hands and returned to the house. 

She spent a few minutes assuaging the civilians' concerns. After confirming multiple times that Tsunami was agreeable to her continued usage of her bedroom, Sakura dropped into  bed.

Her last conscious thought was that she still hadn’t heard from Chīsana but she dozed off before she could think more on it. 

Chapter Text

Sakura woke to a quiet house. Intermittent snores cut through the heavy silence. Tsunami slept soundly beside her, illuminated by the moonshine falling through the window. Her stomach gurgled. She sighed.

She walked into the kitchen for something to eat and found that Tsunami was considerate enough to leave some dinner out for her. It was just some cold broth and a bowl of rice but to Sakura, it tasted like home. She washed the dishes after eating and left them on the counter to dry. 

Returning to the dining room, she picked up the cream rucksack and started separating all of her recently collected herbs into bundles based on species. Then, she collected bits from each bundle and put them together with some twine. She repeated this on and on till she ran out of herbs. A sizable mountain of herbal tea was left on the table. 

She packed them into a burlap cloth she bought while she was at the village yesterday. Leaving that off to the side, Sakura packed another burlap sack into her weapons pouch and left the house. 

She went North, walking until she reached flowing water and then climbed upstream. Faint moonlight illuminated her path. It wasn’t long before she stood in front of a clearing overrun by wild mushrooms. Sakura pulled out the burlap sack and set to work. 

Two hours later, Sakura returned to Tazuna’s house with a bulging pack of mushrooms. She set it down outside the entrance to the house and walked inside. Tsunami was already awake and making breakfast. She was chopping some onion when Sakura greeted her and pulled out a few of the herb bundles she set aside. 

“Tsunami-san, please use these to make some tea.”

Tsunami looked pleasantly surprised at Sakura’s offer. “Oh, thank you dear! Where on earth did you find these?” She set a kettle up with some water to boil then returned to chopping. This time it was a carrot.   

“Collected them from the forest myself. Hansuke-kun helped, of course.” 

Tsunami’s smile turned bittersweet. “And how is he?” She asked, her hand stilling on her knife. 

Sakura stole a half-moon slice of carrot and popped it in her mouth, earning a smile from Tsunami.  

“Tired. Half the town looks exhausted.” 

Tsunami nodded like she agreed. “We’ve been here a long time, Sakura-san.”

“Did you ever think about leaving?” 

“Once.” She said, “A long time ago.” Tsunami’s hand shook, her smile wavering. 

“That’s all in the past, though.” She said, brightening up. “This is home, Sakura-san. It’s all we’ve ever known. Walking away would be too unbearable.” 

Sakura smiled in understanding. “Would you like to help?” 

“What?” Tsunami looked at her with alarm. “Help with what?” 

“Well, I have a huge sack of mushrooms out front. I was wondering if you wanted to help distribute them to the people in the village.” 

Tsunami’s knife clanged into the sink. She looked at her in bewilderment. “Mushrooms?” 

“Yes.” Sakura answered patiently.  

Tsunami blinked.

Sakura blinked in return.

“What.”

“What?” 

Tsunami stopped what she was doing, took the kettle off the heat and walked off towards the front of the house. Sakura followed her leisurely.

She stopped short in front of the pack and knelt down to open it. 

“Huh.” 

Sakura continued to wait patiently.

“You collected mushrooms.”

“Yes.”

“To feed the villagers.”

“Yes.”

A beat of silence. 

“I also have some more tea.” 

Tsunami started giggling. “Oh Sakura-san, I really thought you were just pulling my leg.” 

Sakura shook her head, laughing awkwardly as well. “Admittedly, I could have phrased that better.”

Tsunami got up and wiped her hands on her apron, looking thoughtful. “Well, how about this. I’ll finish making lunch early and then Inari and I will go around town and distribute these—and the tea. In secret, of course.”

Sakura stuttered to a stop. “Oh, well. I-you-uh-you don’t help?”

“To distribute mushrooms?”

Well, when you put it like that. “Right.” Sakura coughed. “Thanks.” 

“No,” Tsunami denied, “thank you, Sakura-san.” 

Sakura smiled in reply. 

They went back inside. Tsunami continued making breakfast. Sakura put the kettle back on the heat and took it off when it started boiling. She added the herbs and let it steep for a few minutes. They chatted about some inane matter or the other as they worked. Tsunami looked more comfortable in her presence as time passed and Sakura was thankful for that small blessing.         

She poured some tea into a cup and served it to Tsunami. 

“Oh!” Tsunami exclaimed. “This is very good.” She breathed in the aroma. “Is that mint?”

“Rosemary. It helps with circulation.”

They leaned back against the counter and sipped warm tea, each in their own mind. 

Breakfast was less awkward than yesterday. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto showed up but Kakashi did. He nodded at her in acknowledgement and Sakura replied with a smile. And that was the end of their conversation. Perhaps they all just wanted to avoid a confrontation and that was something Sakura could get behind. 

Inari ate his food quietly. She caught him staring every once in a while but he never spoke to her or even in front of her. Considering that his last interaction with a ninja did not go well, perhaps he thought being silent was the best course of action.   

After eating and helping Tsunami with the dishes, Sakura handed a small sachet off to her. “Could you make the kids some tea with these? It’s Ginseng, helps to recover energy faster.” 

Tsunami agreed and clasped their hands together. “Don’t worry Sakura-san. They’ll come around soon enough.”

Sakura gave her a smile and nodded her head. She didn’t mind that they distrusted her, she’d be more suspicious if they didn’t. It was only that—well, she just wanted to know why the fuck her team turn out the way that it did? These kids were only a month into their team formation and one of them was ready to fight an unknown ninja with his bare hands for the other. Admittedly, it is Naruto, but still.

Her Naruto didn’t even come by to ask her why she quit. Her Naruto, the one who fought a God for the village, the one who alienated everyone in the village for Sasuke, the one who went against orders multiple times for a traitor. 

Sakura bid Tsunami goodbye and followed Tazuna out the door.

Naruto woke up from one nightmare and landed straight into another one. Well, maybe that was just a matter of perspective. Most people—often of the female persuasion—would probably enjoy waking up face to face with the sleeping visage of the last scion of the Uchiha clan. 

He jerked away from him and into a sitting position, the motion making him black out for a second. 

Woah, so many colours.  

Naruto squeezed his eyes closed and opened them again, blinking until the colours faded. 

Wait a second. Why was he in bed? He didn’t remember going to sleep yesterday. Naruto frowned as he tried to recollect his memories. 

He remembered breakfast which was decidedly not ramen. Then Kakashi-sensei asked them to climb a tree but with their feet which was weird . Who climbs trees with their feet anyway? And what even was chakra, huh? Was he making words up to confuse them so he could slack off, that lazy bum? Then they had lunch that was also not ramen. And then more training, and Naruto’s pretty sure Kakashi-sensei’s playing a prank on them. And then they get back to the house and that Inari brat was mouthing off and Sasuke-teme said that Sakura-chan was dead and — 

“Naruto, this is literally the ugliest scarf I’ve ever laid my eyes on.”

“I can take it back if you want?” 

“You can pry this scarf off of my cold, dead body before I willingly give it back to you.”

“And you have the nerve to call it ugly.”

Naruto gasped as he returned to consciousness.

“What was that?” He mumbled to himself, shaking his head out of the residual fatigue.  

Since the room was empty of their one-eyed teacher, he got up and snuck over to hover near the door. He heard faint voices from down the hall and wondered if he should go out for breakfast. 

“Hey moron.” 

He jerked around to see Sasuke awake and sitting up in bed. He was tugging on a wet spot on his shirt. “You drooled on me.” Sasuke deadpanned.

“Pshh,” Naruto scoffed. “Yeah right, you just drooled on yourself and you’re too embarrassed to admit it.” 

Sasuke scowled in annoyance. “Shut up, idiot.” He focused his eyes on Naruto’s chin and a smirk lifted his lips. “If I’m the one who drooled, why do you have drool crusting on your chin?” 

Naruto slapped a hand onto his jaw and glowered as well. “Whatever, bastard.” He looked away, wondering if he should go through the door and risk coming face to face with Sa— nope! He’s not gonna think about her— or go through the window and risk falling into the water, and to his death. 

Hmm.

Window it is. 

He sat himself down on the window sill and threw one leg over the ledge.  

“Naruto.” 

“Eh?” He glanced up to see Sasuke watching him, face serious. 

“What...happened yesterday? You...there was this.. violent.. aura around you. You were growling, and your voice—you-you were different somehow.” Sasuke took a breath, looking lost for words. “W-what was that?” 

Naruto felt his stomach drop. The nine-tails. It must have affected him somehow. But Naruto didn’t remember a thing about it. Maybe that’s how he woke up in bed, somebody knocked him out. He gave a nervous laugh. “What,” He rolled his eyes, “Sasuke, you were probably seeing things because of how scared you were. Pshh, me, growling, can you imagine? Ha, ha, ha.” 

This was not going well. 

Sasuke looked perplexed and ready to fire off more questions.

“If Kakashi-sensei asks, I’ll be in the woods practicing my tree-climbing.” Naruto told him hurriedly, “ Toodles! ”  

He jumped before Sasuke could protest and landed on the water with chakra-laden feet. For a second, Naruto was standing on the water. Then fell straight through the surface and into the unforgivingly cold.

Three minutes into his drowning, Naruto realized that the water only came up to his chest. He stood up, grumbling to himself about the unfairness of the world, and waded to the shore. In total silence, he squeezed excess water from his clothes— his pyjamas because someone had to be an observant asshole or some shit—and stomped into the woods.

Sasuke continued to fume in the room. While Naruto is entitled to his secrets, the fact that he even had secrets to begin with was startling to Sasuke. The fact that Sakura was—well. That was also difficult to come to terms with. 

He remembered the conversation he had with Kakashi-sensei yesterday, about the Other Sakura’s theories. For some reason, Sasuke felt that his sensei wasn’t as torn up about Sakura’s disappearance as either him or Naruto. He sounded distant, like he was offering polite platitudes to a stranger at a funeral. It rubbed Sasuke the wrong way, made him itch with fury. Sakura was his teammate. She died and his team captain just shrugged it off . Like she didn’t even matter.   

“You’re so weak that you’ll probably die on your first mission outside the village.”

He said those words to her. He—He meant them too.    

Sasuke wished he could take them back. He—dammit, she deserved better.

She deserved to be mourned, she deserved a funeral, she— 

He dressed quickly and went to find Naruto.

Chapter Text

Sakura spent most of her day at the bridge, lifting heavy objects and making small talk with the workers. Every half hour, she would send clones to do a perimeter check and the rest of her time was spent keeping her mind busy and attempting to summon Chīsana.

“Dammit.” She hissed as her fifth try went up in smoke. Literally. She watched her blood smear crumble to ash and then blow away in the wind.

Well, that can’t be a good sign, right? 

What does it mean when your blood turns to dust? 

Sakura rubbed her eyes. This was no time to get philosophical. Nothing was going her way. In fact, things looked to be getting progressively worse. So, it was no surprise to her when she felt one of her clones pop. 

She sighed and got up. “Tazuna-san.” She called, “I’ll be right back.” Tazuna nodded distractedly and waved her off, yelling instructions to his men. 

Taking the easiest way down, Sakura hopped off the bridge and landed on the water. She used the current to bring herself to shore and followed her clone’s slowly vanishing chakra signature. 

“...mean, you’re real good lookin’ and all but she’s really, really pretty.”

That’s Naruto’s voice alright. What was he doing this far from the house? 

There was a giggle in reply.

“And where is this pretty woman from, ninja-san?”

Sakura’s blood ran cold. Who was this person? Their chakra signature was too high for a civilian. She stayed out of sight, suppressing her presence and waiting for his reply. 

“Oh, uh, she’s from the village, I mean, my village.”  

Simultaneously, all three understood that to be an awfully clumsy lie. Sakura facepalmed. This boy was going to get himself killed. 

“I see.” The words were spoken lightly belying the person’s disbelief. Sakura felt a steady rise in chakra from the unknown individual and almost sighed in exasperation. She tensed in anticipation, getting ready to intervene.

She didn’t have to, though. Sasuke came barging through the underbrush, armed with orange clothing and a scowl. “You idiot! Where the hell were you running off to? The clearing is that way.” He stopped short at the sight of the stranger. 

Sakura peeked around the tree. Long obsidian hair, pretty face, lean, wearing a yukata. Oh, this must be Haku. The details were fuzzy, and she can’t recall their face from the battle on the bridge from when she was younger. But she does remember that Haku was the earliest reason for Naruto’s ambitious protective streak.

“Who are you?” Sasuke demanded.  

“I am Haku.” They replied pleasantly enough, but Sakura was worried. Their chakra was spiking higher.

“Haha, hey Sasuke.” Naruto piped up, jumping to his feet. “Boy am I glad to see you. I got pretty lost here.” He chuckled awkwardly, glancing worriedly at Haku. “Well,” He huffed with finality, “I guess I’ll see you around, lady. We’ve got some important ninja stuff to do. It’s probably too scary for you, so, uh.” Naruto nodded. “We’ll, uh, we’ll be going now.”    

He pushed Sasuke roughly in the direction that he came from. “Bye!” 

They hurried away. In the distance, Sakura could hear Sasuke berate Naruto for his harsh treatment.   

Haku hovered in the tiny clearing a little longer, face tilted in curiosity. It was a good twenty minutes before they left. They paused for a minute at the edge of the field and for a second, Sakura worried that she’d been spotted. They left quickly though and Sakura opted to follow the kids.

They trudged along in silence. Sasuke found it amusing how this mission—while an absolute shitshow —was probably making Naruto more quiet than he’s ever been in his entire life. Naruto’s face would cycle through every emotion in his arsenal, from ecstatic to angry, depressed to perplexed. Every few minutes he would stop in his tracks with the strangest expression on his face, before marching forward again.

“Dobe.” Sasuke sighed, reaching the end of his patience. “What the hell is going on?”

“Nothing.” Naruto voiced in a suspiciously high pitch that meant he was hiding something. “Just, uh, thinking about this dream I had. Ehehehe.” 

Sasuke wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Ew.” he stated. “Grow up.” 

Naruto looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing , jeez. Keep your disgusting dreams to yourself.” 

“What. Teme, not that kind of dream!” Naruto squawked in indignation. 

“Whatever, you perv. I have better things to do.” Sasuke stated, walking in such a way that he stayed a few steps in front of Naruto.

“Tch.“ Naruto clicked his tongue in frustration. “You wouldn’t understand anyway.” 

It was just a few minutes from Tazuna’s house that he spoke again.

"I think we should make a shrine.” Sasuke stated. "For Sakura."

“What makes you think she’s dead?” Naruto spoke up, razor-quick. His hands fisted themselves, his face morphing in fury. “Why are you so quick to claim that? There wasn’t even a body. ”

Now Sasuke was angry too. “Well, what do you wanna do, then? Just leave this place and get on with your life? Forget she even existed? You’re right, there was no body. So, whose ashes are we gonna bring her parents? Huh, what are we gonna tell her parents?” He stalked forward to drive a palm into Naruto’s shoulder. 

Naruto responded by fisting Sasuke’s shirt. “I’m gonna find her before that.” He whispered. 

“She’s gone .” Sasuke howled at him, pushing Naruto off. “ She’s gone.” He yelled again, voice cracking. He fell to his knees, bent over and started crying.

Naruto swallowed. “S-sasuke .” He sniffed, reaching out. He aborted the movement suddenly and started wiping furiously at his face. “Damn it, Sasuke.” He laughed miserably, swiping his nose with his shirt. “You’re supposed to be the strong one.” 

Sasuke didn’t answer. He stared blankly at the ground, eyes rimmed red. Naruto sank to the floor as well. 

Behind the trees, Sakura was also choking on her sobs, hands clamped firmly over her mouth to muffle the noise. 

She left the boys to their mourning. She should never have followed them in the first place.    

Sakura took the long way around, along the shore to the abutment of the bridge. She used this time to put herself back together. In the distance, Sakura noticed the workers crowding around one corner of the deck. They were making too much noise for a covert operation such as this. She frowned and hurried closer. 

“Kaiyō-kun! Go get the medic!” Someone shouted. A dark haired, vaguely familiar man brushed past her. Sakura’s mind was slow to work out exactly what was happening, metaphorical cogs creaking in her brain.   

“My son , my son! Somebody help him!” Someone else screamed. “Hansuke, wake up!”

That’s when it hit her. Sakura gasped harshly, mind finally catching up with the situation. 

She ran.

“Move.” Sakura barked out harshly, pushing men aside. Many hurried out of her way. Kousuke was sobbing uncontrollably over his son’s body. “I said move.” She hissed, pushing the man out of the way. 

Sakura inspected the boy quickly. Bleeding from the head, possible hematoma. Definite fracture of both legs. Probable spine injury. 

She made a clone and quickly went to work. The clone started on the basics. Clear airway, inspect for breathing, re-establish circulation. She started CPR— 30 reps, 2 breaths.       

“What happened?” She demanded, channeling chakra to her hands. 

Sakura put a chakra coated palm on Hansuke’s head. No brain damage. No bleeding into the brain or meninges. No fracture. Just a large superficial cut. She quickly sealed the cut and lowered her palm to his neck. Also no damage. She traveled to his abdomen where he had minimal bruising on his upper organs and more extensive ones on the lower ones. Fractured lower spine. Broken pelvis. Pulverized leg bones. Nerve and blood vessel damage. Fuck. He’d be lucky if he can ever walk again. 

“He fell.” Tazuna answered shakily. “From the crane.”           

Sakura looked up. Roughly 200 feet.

“Sabotage.” someone else interrupted gruffly. Arashi, the heavily built resident metal-worker, threw down a thick rope that looked half severed and half snapped. 

The crowd fell into a deep and noisy argument that Sakura was quick to disregard. She started healing his blood vessels first, sealing off the hemorrhage, then worked on his nerves, healing as much of the damage as possible. She prayed it was enough. The bones were the trickiest and most time consuming. She fused them together superficially and left them to heal on their own. Her clone dispersed a while ago, when his condition stabilized and she was working on Hansuke’s bones. 

When Sakura came to, most of the workers were sent home for the day and the town medic was waiting on the sidelines. Hansuke was laid on a hastily put-together stretcher and taken away by the medic and some of the other workers who stayed behind. Kousuke followed them, wailing.           

Sakura swayed unsteadily on her feet. At first she thought that she might have expended too much chakra but soon realized that she was just undergoing shock. She held back a sob, wondering why everything she came in contact with fell to ruin. 

Tazuna barked some parting words to the rest of his crew and helped her home. He had a firm and comforting hand on her arm despite her best efforts to shake it off.

She did not remember the walk back to the house. When they reached Tazuna’s home, she was handed over to Tsunami who helped her to bed. For the second time in two consecutive days, Sakura’s last thoughts as she drifted off to sleep was about Chīsana.

‘I just want to go home.’

But home was a feeling and Sakura hadn’t been home in a long, long while. 

Chapter Text

Like all the nights before, Sakura woke up just as the waning moon kissed the trees on the horizon. Weak moonlight guided her path through the hall and out the door. She only stopped walking when she reached the shore and felt water tickle the back of her knees. 

Sakura gazed out at the sea, finding more peace in the silence of the night. She wondered if it was possible to walk all the way to the end of the sea and fall off the edge. Where would she go, if that were to happen? Would she go back to the future? Or would she wind up even further back in time?

Sakura tried to recall her last day in her own time, before this nightmare journey-to-the-past. She was on a mission, she knew. In Yu no kuni. Because she remembered sweating furiously while she was there. It was night and there was a festival—or was it a fight? She recalled crackers—no, they were definitely explosions. She might have been asleep. Or she could have been knocked out?         

And then— 

Then what? 

The moon! 

Sakura vividly recalled a full moon. It felt significant somehow. Maybe it was part of a Genjutsu? 

She might have been on her back because she remembered thinking that the ground back in Konoha was much less comfortable. And she’d been looking up at the full moon. 

And then...She remembered being very sad, her heart was hurting something awful. There were loud noises in the background. Somebody had called her name, and Sakura was pretty sure she called them a son of a bitch for waking her up. She had then closed her eyes to rest and— 

Oh. 

So she was dead.

Sakura didn't know how she felt about that because—

Quite suddenly, she ducked her head into the water and inhaled. She came back up just as quickly for air, coughing and snorting. She spat out most of the water that she drank. Fuck, her airways was on fire. This was the worst idea she’s ever had, even topping the time she tried to cut her own arm off for science.  

No, she’s very much still alive. 

Nothing has changed there, and yet everything has.

Sakura dragged herself away from the water, lest she was tempted to drown herself in the shallows.

She climbed the tallest tree she could find and watched the sun rise from one of its branches. It was just as the sun had fully risen that Sakura became aware enough to notice a chakra signature at the bottom of her tree.

She dropped roughly to the ground. “What.” She was in no mood to be cordial.

Kakashi nodded in greeting, cheerful despite her less-than-warm welcome. “I heard about the, ah, accident at the bridge.”

“And.” 

“Well, I came to check on you. Heard you were close to the kid.” 

Sakura contemplated breaking his arm. “I knew him.” She replied. Kakashi, it seems, wasn’t the type to let a curt tone hinder the conversation. “I’d like to thank you for the Ginseng as well. It worked wonders for my chakra recovery.”

She nodded, wondering when he would leave. Kakashi pushed through regardless. “I would also like to discuss your predicament.”

Inside, Other started cackling. 

Fuck off. Sakura hissed in her head. Either help me or go back to your room.

Other’s snickers reverberated inside her skull before she disappeared.  

“Sasuke reports that you mentioned some theories about our Sakura’s current whereabouts?”

Sakura grit her teeth. Spies and mercenaries, the lot of them. “I did not.” She forced out, “I only said that she’s either dead or alive and that’s not something I can confirm.” 

“I see.” 

She glanced at him warily, looking for a reaction. She was sorely disappointed. Kakashi was used to losing people he cared about. She supposes he didn’t have the time for a twelve-year-old he knew for less than a month. 

He continued the conversation. “And what about you? Will you be able to return to your time?” 

“No.” She said, “I don’t think I can.” 

Here, Kakashi looked skeptical. He raised his one visible eyebrow. “Oh?” 

She clenched her jaw, refusing to explain any further. Kakashi nodded in acquiescence. “Am I to understand that you’ll be accompanying us back to Konoha then?” 

Sakura hesitated. “I don’t know.” 

“Well then, I must inform you that if you are planning to stay here in this, ah, Time, I will be forced to take you in as a missing-nin if you do not come willingly. My Hokage would not appreciate me allowing someone of your caliber to walk away.” 

How was she supposed to reply to that? What could she say? This man did not trust her, and the longer she stayed here, the worse things became. What was she to do? How could she fix this?

Kakashi was already walking away. No doubt, he was waiting for her to bolt. Put up a fight. Prove to him that he was right not to trust her. 

Sakura wasn’t an idiot. With all her heart, she only wanted to go home. Any semblance of home. She wasn’t about to screw that up by getting locked away. Or worse, executed. 

“Kakashi-sensei would protect me with his life.” She said. Her voice carried strong, filled with conviction. “In fact, he did. Kakashi-sensei took a knife to his back trying to save me from Obito. ”

Kakashi froze in his steps. “Obito is dead.” He hissed, sorrow and rage crackling violently in his voice. 

“He is very much alive.” Sakura disagreed. “And he brought War right up to our doorsteps.”

“He would never!”   Kakashi bellowed, swiveling around to face her.  

“Wouldn’t he?” she challenged. “If he saw his best friend murder his first love?”

Kakashi faltered, taking a step back. “I—I didn’t…”

“You didn’t kill her. I know.” she said softly. “She jumped in front of you.”

Kakashi glanced at her. Regret, grief, confusion, surprise. All written on his face. 

Sakura spoke from her heart.

“You told me this, Kakashi-sensei. You never would have if you didn’t trust me.” She stepped forward, yearning to make him understand her. “Konoha is my home. I would never betray her. You know this. Tsunade-shishou would never train someone who was not loyal to Konoha.” She wiped away a tear. “You lost little Sakura. And I’m so sorry that I caused that. If I could bring her back, I would. I’d do anything to make it happen.” 

Sakura sighed. She didn’t know where she was going with her words. She wiped more tears from her face. “I need your help, Kakashi-sensei.” 

Kakashi was still, almost catatonic in his posture. He turned around and strode away. 

And Sakura knew she was damned.

It was Sasuke who finally stumbled upon her hours later at the bottom of a tree. Sakura was busy ripping into Other for leaving her to deal with the utter mess that was her conversation with Kakashi. 

“And another thing,” she yelled into the clearing, throwing a pebble into a tree like playing darts to accentuate her point. She stopped short, listening before twisting her face in confusion. “How is that even relevant?” 

She stiffened up considerably when Sasuke revealed himself. 

“Hello.” She said timidly.

“Hn.” Sasuke replied. His eyes darted around the clearing then at the tree she brutalized with stones then finally zeroed in on her when he realized there was no-one else in the area. 

Sakura could physically see him questioning her sanity.     

There was a stand-off, each watching the other warily. Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Sakura wondered how long he was going to be there. She decided to help him along.

“Can you go away—”

“Can you move—”

They paused. 

“No! ” They announced in near synchronization. 

Sakura frowned and looked away resolutely. “Find somewhere else to train.” She finally said, going back to her stones.

Sasuke grit his teeth. “I can’t. ” He gestured to the tree he was standing next to. The lower third of the tree was littered with slash marks and large foot shaped dents going up to the start of the first branch. “This one has my progress on it.” 

“It ain’t much.” Sakura coughed to herself, shuffling in place.

The words earned a scowl that Sakura pointedly ignored. 

“You’re so mature.” Crooned Other.

Eat shit. Sakura replied succinctly.

Sasuke must have decided to ignore her words. He positioned himself in front of the tree, took a running start and almost reached the first branch before the bark exploded and Sasuke was forced to land.

Too much chakra.  

Jeez . Sakura forgot how much power this kid packed. She realized with a jolt that Kakashi did all of them dirty. He never addressed any of their insecurities, never corrected any of their biases, just threw them into the wild and let them fend for themselves. He didn’t even put his pretty little speech about teamwork into action. Arguably, Sakura suffered the brunt of his negligence but so did Naruto and Sasuke in their own respective ways. 

Sakura wondered if he was partially to blame for the nervous breakdown Sasuke suffered in his teens.  

“TEME!” 

Both Sasuke and Sakura flinched at the sheer volume of the call. 

“OI SASUKE, WHERE ARE YA?” 

Sasuke clicked his tongue in irritation and glared in the direction of the shout. He did not move to reveal himself to Naruto nor did he seem to be planning on doing anything of the sort. Luckily, Naruto found him without the help. 

“I can’t believe you just left me at the house, you bastard.” Naruto exclaimed in indignation.

“Tch, worried you’d get lost or something?” 

Naruto rolled his eyes. “I’m more worried about the weird forest lady coming back to kill us when we’re not looking.” He caught sight of Sakura casually lounging on the grass and blinked in bewilderment. “Speaking of weird ladies,” he muttered, slowly inching closer to her.    

Sakura watched curiously as the boy squatted in front of her and watched her closely. Eyes flitted between her own, looking for something unspecified. He finally nodded in confirmation and got up. 

...What?

“Kakashi-sensei told me to tell you that he’ll be escorting Tazuna-san from now on.” 

“...Cool.”  

Ironically, Sakura wished she could turn back time in that particular situation. She wondered what else could have been done to make her case but nothing came to mind. What could she offer a man with undying loyalty to his country? 

She came back to herself to see Naruto still standing in front of her. 

“Do you need something?” 

“Yeah, can you move. That’s my tree.” Naruto pointed to the tree she was leaning against.

Sakura blinked and looked up. Sure enough, more slash marks littered the tree. No foot-shaped gouges though. Meaning Naruto was not pulling on enough chakra to stick to the tree. 

She grumbled and got up, moving to another tree across from them. 

“W-WHAT HAPPENED TO MY TREE?” Naruto cried, clutching onto the bark of said tree.

Sakura cringed. “Sorry.”

“What did it ever do to you ?!” He moaned, dragging himself over to a new tree like he’d been forced to leave behind a friend.

Sasuke took the time to run up the tree twice more. Each attempt was accentuated by exploding bark and frustrated grunts. 

In contrast, Naruto seemed to be using pure stubbornness to conquer his tree. He kept running until gravity acted on him. Out of his many attempts, Naruto landed more times on his head than he did on his feet, with no improvements to his vertical distance. 

They looked to have made no significant progress in their chakra-control training. Which was strange, because from her vague recollections of Naruto’s bragging, they should have improved by leaps and bounds.   

And yet. 

She eyed Sasuke furiously stabbing his tree.

It was day three and they looked to have gotten absolutely nowhere. 

“Argh! That’s it!”  Naruto huffed, hopping to his feet from his latest effort. He proceeded to empty his holster of sharp objects into the tree.

Yikes.  

Sakura stayed as they went at it all afternoon. At first it was out of curiosity. Then concern. Naruto came to her with no less than five splinters. Sasuke begrudgingly copied him when he acquired a long slash along his forearm. It wasn’t too deep but it did nick an artery. 

By evening, all of their markers have stubbornly lingered below the first branch.  

“Shit!”  Sasuke hissed, dodging a stray kunai from Naruto’s latest temper tantrum “Watch it, dumbass.” 

“Watch yourself, bastard.” Naruto growled. “Stupid tree. Stupid Kakashi-sensei. Stupid mission. ”  

“Tch. Not my fault you can’t get anything right.”  

“Why you—”

“OKAY!” Sakura interrupted. Things were getting a little too heated and perhaps a tad too nostalgic for her tastes. 

“You’re both doing it wrong, if that helps. Did Kakashi-sensei explain what, exactly, you’re supposed to do?”

They gave her blank expressions. 

Of course, why am I not surprised? This is Kakashi, after all.      

“Okay. Sasuke!” She declared, marching over to his tree and motioning for him to follow. 

“Well,” Sakura sighed when he grudgingly did. She gestured to the tree as a whole.  “I don’t know how to tell you this, buddy. This tree’s seen better days.” 

Sasuke scoffed and pointedly ignored the snickers in the background.

“I’d say you’re putting too much chakra into your tree, but you already knew that, right?” 

At his nod, Sakura launched into a brief explanation. “While what you’re doing is technically correct, it’s not just about putting out enough chakra. You’re actually supposed to connect your chakra to the tree’s chakra. The reason tree-climbing is good for learning chakra control is because of how little chakra a tree contains. Put too much, you dent the tree; put too little, you fall on your head.” 

She threw Naruto a significant look at that, earning a smirk from Sasuke and an indignant ‘Hey!’ from Naruto. 

“So try to equalize your chakra with the tree and you’ll start to see some progress.” 

Sasuke nodded once more and she moved over to Naruto.

“Your problem, Naruto, is that you have way too much chakra.” 

Naruto grinned at that comment. “Isn’t that a good thing?” He asked.

“Oh absolutely.” She agreed. “Except you don’t even use it.” 

Sasuke scoffed pointedly in their direction. Naruto turned to glare at him. 

Naruto angled his head down, and asked in a whisper: “Say, you mind telling me what exactly this chakra is?” 

Sakura staggered. “You want me to...explain chakra?” 

He nodded. 

“Oh, well it’s actually…” She explained quickly and concisely. An inexplicable sense of Déjà vu hit her. 

“Anyway, I think your problem is that you’re not actually using your chakra.” Sakura finally stated.

Naruto scratched his head nonchalantly. “So how do I do that?” 

“Well, what do you do when you want to do a jutsu?” 

“I think about it really hard?” 

Sakura almost slapped a hand to her head but restrained herself. She didn’t want to discourage the boy even further, Lord knows he’s belittled enough. 

“Okay, that’s a good start. What do you think about?” 

“That I really wanna get this jutsu to work.”

Sakura hummed thoughtfully. “And do you feel anything when you do the hand-signs?” 

Naruto frowned in contemplation. “Yeah, I get this weird tingly feeling in my fingers.”

“Do you think you can make that tingly feeling happen now?” 

“Yeah, sure!”  Naruto agreed enthusiastically. He brought a hand forward and glowered at it.

Sakura used that moment’s respite to peak at Sasuke’s progress. He had his eyes closed, one palm stretched forward to rest on the tree. Well, atleast he was taking her advice, the Sasuke she knew would never heed a word she says.

She turned around to a hand in her face, glowing bright blue. “Heh, I did it!” Naruto cheered from behind his arm. 

Sakura smiled softly. “Good job, kid.” 

Naruto grinned widely in reply. 

They practiced directing chakra to their feet which Naruto got the hang of after a few tries. After Sakura made sure he could sustain the energy around his feet for more than a minute, she let him try the tree climbing exercise again. Naruto was able to take three steps before the bark exploded and he landed on his bottom. But it was a start and Naruto seemed thrilled with his progress.

By evening, both boys were able to reach halfway up the tree before being forced to land. They seemed happy with their progress and that filled Sakura with a certain sense of satisfaction.   

The trio returned to Tazuna’s house by twilight, hungry and drained. 

And stopped short right in front of the door. 

Sequestered around the door—and blocking their path—was about a dozen or so villagers, all of them, staring at the new-comers.  

“Is the bridge complete? Are we having a party?” Naruto stage-whispered.  

“No, it’s not a party.” Tazuna explained tiredly, emerging from the crowd. He sent Sakura a considering gaze.

“They’re here looking for a medic.” 

Chapter Text

Uchiha Sasuke has always had keen, almost supernaturally perceptive eyes. Many have lauded his astuteness, others spoke derisively about his inherited gifts. Regardless of anyone’s opinions, Sasuke worked hard to train his familial traits into the pinnacle of peak performance.

It was due to this training that Sasuke was able to look underneath the underneath and discern exactly what Kakashi-sensei was asking for when he sent them out to train that morning: espionage. 

Kakashi-sensei, who spent less than a day’s worth of time with this imposter was able to correctly deduce and utilize her weakness. Her teammates, of course . 

Like morons, they fell for it too. Naruto skipped into the trap like a deer into a meadow.

Sasuke could not deny the anger and mortification crossing his frame every time he thought about it. Manipulated by his own team leader into spying on his dead team-mate’s ghost. 

As usual, Sasuke suffered through the pang that accompanied the thought of his team-mate. He knew the feeling would pass but first it needed time. Sakura was a naive child play-pretending a dangerous job in a dangerous world. She was gone before she saw reality and in a way, she was lucky.

She would be forgotten, like all the weak. Or so he reasoned knowing he didn’t really believe the words.        

“Well?” Kakashi- sensei asked from beside him, “Did you guys have fun?” 

While his posture was as nonchalant as always, Kakashi’s single exposed eye regarded Sasuke with a wild, searching gaze. Something or someone has disturbed his sensei into a state of utter paranoia the likes of never before.  

Sasuke glanced at the woman seated on the stairs. A long queue of civilians waited patiently in front of her, each being treated with a smile and careful attention. 

Sasuke mentally scoffed. How could someone so soft inspire so much mistrust.

He flashed a glare at Kakashi-sensei’s over-eager inquiry. “She helped the idiot and I with the chakra exercise.” 

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, the action near-invisible because of the mask on his face. 

“—which, last time I checked, is your job.” Sasuke continued viciously. “You left us in the hands of potential danger and you’re asking me if we had fun? ”

The remark caught Kakashi off-guard. “That’s cute.” he teased, “Weren’t you the one who defended this ‘potential danger’ not two days ago?”

Sasuke  looked away, gritting his teeth but Kakashi was right. He was so used to defending Sakura that Naruto advancing on her older version pushed him into interfering. That is all. He refused to think more on the subject and banished that train of thought. 

“I’m asking, Sasuke, because I need to know why she’s here. Knowing her motive might help us send her back.” Kakashi said, discarding carelessness in the face of honesty. “Who knows, if she leaves, that might be enough to get Sakura back.”  

Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat at Kakashi’s words. What if — He clamped down on that thought and shook his head in frustration. Somehow, he got the feeling that Kakashi did not care about Sakura’s whereabouts as long as the woman in front of them went back to where she came from.

“She was tight-lipped about herself. We weren’t able to get anything out of her.”

Not even Naruto. Sasuke thought to himself. He understood his limitations when it came to information gathering, especially the type that involved communication. Naruto, on the other hand, was unassuming in his questioning. People opened up to him unconsciously. 

Except for her.  

In fact, the woman seemed to become more closed off, the more Naruto spoke. He hadn’t even been asking nosy questions.

Sasuke watched with barely concealed exasperation as Naruto grabbed a messy pile of bandages and rushed back to the woman. She smiled gently and unravelled the mess efficiently. It spoke of years of experience.

It seems Naruto has turned a complete one-eighty on his feelings about this, this intruder . From accusing her of murder and assaulting her to acting as her personal assistant in the span of one day. This guy had to have been dropped on his head as a child, right? Multiple times, by the looks of it.

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose in growing frustration. “Keep me informed then, when you do have something substantial.”

Sasuke thought privately that Kakashi-sensei would have better luck getting Naruto to change out of his jumper than he would getting information out of this woman. 

He wisely kept that thought to himself.

On the other side of the room near the entrance, Sakura sat tending to her patients. While she worked, Sakura lent an ear to Tazuna’s recapitulation on how he got saddled with the peculiar group of travelers. 

“Found ‘em waitin’ near the bridge on the way back from work. Wouldn’t leave, the stubborn buggers.” 

The man Sakura was checking over sent Tazuna a magnificent glare at his words.

Tazuna scratched his beard in embarrassment. “We don’t actually ‘ave a doctor here in the village.” he continued, ignoring the man. “Last one died around the time Gato took charge.” 

“If you ask me,” Her patient slid in, voice conspiratorial, “Gato probably took ‘er out.” 

The man could be right. Targeting medics might be one of the oldest and most effective tactics in the Art of War. If your opponent, by some stroke of luck, escaped your hand in battle, you can be rest assured they won’t stay alive for long without a Medic. 

Tazuna frowned at the man but didn’t interject.

“The medic you saw the other day was their apprentice. He’s a good kid but he doesn’t know much about healing.”  

Sakura’s patient hummed in agreement.

She sent the man off with a bandaged arm and a warning to keep it still.

Tazuna turned to her expectantly. He’d been lurking around the room for a while and she knew it meant he had something to discuss. Sakura had a feeling she wouldn’t like what he had to say.  

“Yes?” She asked, to get it over with.

“Hansuke-kun’s awake.” Tazuna stated, face morphed into an expression of faux-innocence.   

“That’s great.” She replied stiffly, busying herself with cleaning up. Internally though, Sakura could breathe just a little bit easier.

“Who’s that?” Naruto piped up from behind them, startling Tazuna. Sakura snatched up the excess herbs in Naruto’s arms and sat down to pack them into a burlap sling-bag. 

“Oh—uh” Tazuna stuttered out. “He’s one of my workers. Sakura here saved him after a really bad accident.” He turned to Sakura and beamed with pride. 

“She’s the only reason he’s alive.”

Sakura could only hang her head in shame. I’m also the reason he came to be in this position.

She tried to forget his face, the blood on her hands and his father’s haunting lament still ringing in her ears.    

“You should go see him.” Naruto commented frankly. 

“Maybe.” Sakura mumbled, knowing that her guilt would never allow her to face him so soon.   

“He asked for you.” Tazuna baited.  

“Let’s go tomorrow then!” Naruto exclaimed.

They looked to her, waiting for an answer. 

Sakura wordlessly passed the bag to Tazuna and went to find Tsunami.   

By the sound of clamoring behind her, she knew for a fact that she would be nursing a headache in the near future. 

Dinner that night was awkward as usual and mostly silent except for an eating tournament between the two pre-teens that everyone else ignored.

Sasuke lost, of course. He went to sleep annoyed, a smug Naruto following along. 

Once dinner was almost over, Kakashi requested some privacy with the bridge-builder.

Sakura intended to follow in the boys’ footsteps but caught Kakashi’s eye and promptly sat back down. 

Tsunami, reading the atmosphere, squeezed Sakura’s hand in encouragement and ushered Inari to bed. 

A few minutes were spent in muted silence before Kakashi cleared his throat and set down a thick sheaf of parchment and an inkbrush.  

“Tazuna-san. The mis-identification of your mission has caused quite a dilemma at the mission office. As you know, there is a huge discrepancy in mission cost and pay between A-ranks and C-ranks. Not to mention the issue of putting some of our most inexperienced agents at unnecessary risk. Therefore, our Hokage has recommended that you may pay the rest of the owed sum—as well as a minor fine—over the course of the next few years—provided, of course, that business is booming and the bridge is completed. Are we in agreement?”

Sakura felt a sudden chill enter her body at the mention of the Hokage. How long has Kakashi been communicating with him? Is she..is she compromised?

That’s it, then. She thought faintly, Goodbye freedom, hello jail bars and interrogations. 

Sakura schooled her face into one of professional disinterest. If she was to be taken out, she’d rather they didn’t know how she felt in her last few moments. 

Kakashi glanced her way for a second before redirecting his attention to Tazuna again.

“Yeah, that’ll be acceptable.” Tazuna affirmed. His face soured quickly though, when he saw the quoted figures. 

Sakura leaned over and blinked in shock as well. Minor fine, indeed.

Tazuna did not argue against the amount. He looked over the agreement and signed at the end with a resigned grimace.

He returned the forms to Kakashi who gave it a cursory glance before bidding the bridge-builder goodnight. 

They waited in silence as Tazuna slowly ambled down the hall and into his room. When the door finally shut, Kakashi straightened and folded the contract into his jacket pocket before producing a scroll emblazoned with the Hokage’s insignia.

“For you.” He said, handing it over.

Sakura broke the wax insignia and unraveled the letter.

 ...sincere apologies about your current situation…

...we offer asylum in this trying time…

...and help you in any way…

...only ask that, in return…

...you provide intelligence on current and future events…

...on both a national and international level…

...of the next ten years…

...if, under any circumstances you are unwilling to continue working with us, or have not been persuaded in the first place by the contents of this letter then all negotiations will be terminated and…

“...you will be prosecuted as an enemy of the state.” 

Kakashi nodded once to reinforce the seriousness of the missive.

Sakura threw the scroll onto the table in a careless manner. “I suppose you’ll be the one to ‘off me’, so to speak?”

“Yes, that’ll be me.” 

Honestly, she saw this coming, but it hurt nonetheless.  

She drummed her fingers on the wood, thinking through her options. She could always spend the rest of her life wandering the country. It sounds like fun and she could earn a living through her medicine. But she’d probably be running from assassins for a long time.

She could also return to Konoha and strike up a different bargain. 

What could a medic from the future offer to a senile old man who wouldn’t survive the year and is responsible for multiple war crimes, genocide, raising a psychopath, and the generation of a whole slew of high-profile missing-nins?

Death, and the bastard would be lucky if it was quick.

Her eyes returned to the letter. Something about it was bothering her. The Third Hokage may have committed countless horrors in his lifetime, but he was never quick to threaten. That’s why Sakura resented the man so much, every atrocity he carried out was a conscious and deliberate choice.

“You could always go back.” Kakashi said, when Sakura exceeded the appropriate amount of time for an affirmative answer.        

“Back where?” She asked, already exasperated with this conversation.

"Back to where you came from, back to your timeline, I suppose."

Sakura snorted. As a ghost, maybe.

Kakashi narrowed his singular visible eye in suspicion. "What's your motive for being here, if I may ask?" 

"Your guess is as good as mine, pal." She said, offhand. Sakura chuckled internally at the hilarity of calling her Sensei pal. 

"Why are you feeding these villagers?"

Sakura blinked in surprise. 

"Wha-" 

"Why did you save that boy? Why are you healing these people?" 

"Because they're starving? Because he was bleeding out?! Because they're suffering? "

She slammed her fist down in outrage, “What are you trying to imply here?!”

Kakashi leaned back casually. “I’m just trying to figure out your intentions—” 

“My intentions ? My- my-my motive? My motive , Kakashi, is that I’m fucking dead.” 

Sakura paused to let it sink in. 

She regretted opening her mouth already, but Sakura was not one to stop a rant once it started. 

“That’s why I’m here, that’s why I can’t seem to reach Chīsana and that’s why I can't. Fucking. Go home. ”

Sakura was breathing hard, voice heavy with emotion. “So if you wanna be a dick to me, that’s fine. If you don’t want me here, I can go. But fuck if I’m gonna voluntarily march back into Konoha so you can torture information out of me and then finish me off. I don’t plan on dying twice in one week.”

“You have a really bad impression of Konoha’s T&I division.” 

“Do I?” She arched a brow. “I’ve worked at T&I. I think I know what I’m getting into.”

Kakashi conceded to that.

“So, take the deal.” 

“HA!” Sakura couldn’t help throwing back her head and laughing at the absurdity of it all. “Listen, fuckwit. You trained me, I’m not stupid. The minute I walk into Konoha, it’s game over for me.” 

“So, what, you’re gonna skip Wave and go sight-seeing the Great Five.”

“Probably.” 

“You said you know me?” Kakashi asked leadingly.

She stared at him, letting her eyes ask the question.

“Then you know you can’t win.”  

Sakura barked out a laugh. “Give me a break. I’ve fought Gods. And I’ve won. ” 

For his part, Kakashi had never heard more terrifying words.

Absolutely chuffed to see you guys enjoying the story. 

For those inquiring about pairings, I haven’t actually thought about it all that much. Other than a vague plot outline, most of the story elements of the next chapter come to me as I'm writing the previous one. Therefore, I'm just as surprised as you guys at the resulting word-vomit. So, in that vein of thought, anyone and everyone can be a potential significant other!

Also for those asking: Yes, not only is this story AU, Sakura also comes from an AU where she’s twenty three and not married to Sasuke and did not give birth to Sarada at—checks Narutopedia— AT AGE TWENTY ONE, WTF?!?!?!      

I THOUGHT SHE’D BE OLDER! 

I also only just came to know that Sarada means—checks many blogs—a SALAD?!?!?!

I—I need to lie down…

Till next time!

Chapter Text

The dawn brought her some semblance of peace in a world turned on its head. She assumed that, as in her case, sleep evaded everyone in the house that night; perhaps with the exception of Naruto, who looked like he could determinedly sleep through major world catastrophes.

Ironically, Sakura remembered that in the years since the war ended, the older Naruto had been plagued by chronic insomnia. Before their untimely dissolution, Sakura had helped him with home-made tinctures. She never knew if they worked and never thought to ask.

Sasuke…

Well, he had divided his time equally between the village and the rest of the Great Five. He might have also taken up Jiraiya's mantle of spy-master, atleast that's what the rumors said. She didn’t care enough to confirm. Sasuke had mentioned once that he wanted to reopen the long-neglected Police Force but last she’d known, they firmly remained part of a bygone era. 

Kakashi had finally surrendered to Tsunade and took up the mantle of Hokage about two years after she quit the team. One day, after a briefing or another, Kakashi had confided to her that he was most proud of her on the day she quit the team. In his own words “no-one else would have stuck so soundly to their own values while facing such a delicate situation.”

At that time, Sakura had only smiled in reply. In her head, she had already labeled him a coward. His words were nothing but a fallacy wrapped in pretty.   

Tsunade-shishou retired to the country-side to enjoy expensive Sake and cheap bets. She also nagged, coerced and intimidated Shizune into taking over the hospital.

Tenzō and Sai retired from the Service in the first few years after the war. They opened an Arts and Crafts store and unironically called it Inkwood . She fell out of touch with them. Something Sakura will regret for the rest of her life.

Ino, perhaps the only person whom Sakura could stand to call her friend, enjoyed terrorizing prisoners enough to become assistant head director of T&I under Ibiki. She had been looking to replace him when he retired.  

Dammit, she missed her so damn much.  

Last night’s conversation deteriorated before it even began and Sakura had left quickly, before she could attempt murder upon her own countryman.

From her position on the roof, Sakura was able to observe the silhouette of the incomplete bridge in the distance. The waxing sunlight refracted off the water and left an auburn glow in its wake. 

She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth. What would Ino do?

“Whatever the fuck she wanted.” Other whispered in a conspiratorial voice.

Sakura chuckled at her words.

“Why did I teach you to curse again?” she asked herself.

“You didn’t.” Other replied, “I learnt it myself.”

Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She looked up resolutely and leapt off the roof.

“Sakura-chan!”

“Hansuke-kun.” She smiled politely. 

“I didn’t think you’d come.”

“I didn’t either.” She glances at the golden mop of hair beside her. “Someone persuaded me otherwise.” 

Naruto grinned in barely contained enthusiasm. 

“We’re here to save the villagers!” He announced, bounding closer to Hansuke with a basket-full of wild mint. He stuffed a bundle into Hansuke’s mouth before taking off down the hall.

“Shit. No, Naruto!” Sakura gasped, swiping at him but he was already out the door behind her, cackling wickedly. 

Hansuke’s pained laughter stopped her from going after Naruto.

Sakura dropped her sack-ful of edibles at the doorway and made her way to his bedside. 

“The kid’s a riot.” He choked, spitting out a mouthful of mint. Sakura snorted in amusement. She brushed away stray leaves and brought a glowing hand to his abdomen. Hansuke watched her work with wonder and resignation. 

“I’m sorry.” She whispered to her hands, unable to look him in the eye. “If—If I hadn’t wandered off—”

Hansuke grasped her cool, shaking hands in his. “I’m alive. That’s all that matters.”

Her tears brimmed over and Sakura swiped them away with an awkward laugh. 

“Besides, I still have my hands. That’s all a carpenter needs.”

Sakura swallowed and looked away. She admired his maturity in the face of devastation. She didn’t know how she would react if she were in his place. Certainly not with as much poise as him.  

Sakura sat in the chair beside him and they talked away till afternoon. 

Hansuke glanced out the window and back to her. He’d been doing that nervous tick for a while now. She waited patiently for his question. He licked his lips in nervousness and seemed to finally draw up the courage.

“Promise me something.” He requested suddenly, face quite severe.

Sakura’s eyes flitted between his and she nodded slowly.

“The bridge, it has to be complete.” A feral glint entered his eyes. “ No matter the cost .” 

Memories flashed across her mind’s eye, scars from a lifetime ago. 

He’s asking for too much , She thinks, It’s too high a cost.

Sakura studied Hansuke’s face, the gaunt lines and sunken eyes. She glanced down at his paralyzed legs. No, she conceded, he knows, and he’s willing to bear it. 

She doesn’t remember the last time she held such powerful convictions. Probably the time she tried to kill Sas—

Sakura exhaled.

“Okay.”

As she was exiting the room, Sakura spotted Sasuke dragging a tightly bound, gagged and severely disappointed Naruto behind him. He was still wiggling in protestation. On seeing her, Naruto’s wiggling intensified.   

“Hn. He was annoying.” Sasuke told her, sounding peeved. 

Sakura didn’t know if she was biting back an amused laugh or an exasperated sigh. She settled for removing his gag—“Sakura-nee!”—and quickly putting it back on at the sheer volume of his voice.  

“Okay,” She breathed, “Your sensei is not gonna like this. There’s something I have to do and I need your help.”

Naruto nodded vigorously at her, muffled words straining against his restraints. Sasuke regarded her with calculated suspicion.

“It’s a heist.” She explained frankly. “I need a distraction.” 

Sasuke continued to stare.

“You get to beat up bad guys.” 

He frowned in consideration.

“It’s great training?”

“...okay.”  

Footsteps approached quickly. There was some furious mumbling outside, then the doors burst open.

“Gatō-sama!” 

“Zōri, I specifically told you not to—”

“Sir, our men are being attacked at the harbour!”

Thunderous silence met his words.

“ Who would dare? ” 

“M-Momochi Zabuza, sir, and the kid that was with him.” 

Naruto cackled wildly, swiping his considerably longer legs under shaky feet and brandishing a henged kunai. 

“Zabuza-sama, we need to make this quick.” Sasuke interrupted stiffly. He flipped his significantly longer hair over his shoulder before delivering a quick spinning kick to an approaching thug. 

Naruto, henged as Zabuza, continued to create pandamonium. Sasuke used the proffered distraction to slip away. A plain Kabuki mask nicked from the house muffled his breath. A dense mist, courtesy of Older Sakura, covered his tracks. 

Once Sasuke made his way to the edge of the harbour, he proceeded to cut loose as many ships as he could. The third ship he encountered had a guard detail. Three men, all armed. They surveyed the altercation from atop the deck and didn’t seem inclined to join in. 

Sasuke circled around behind them. He backtracked a few steps, taking a moment to stretch his muscles. A running leap, heart in his throat. Wind rushing his face, a quick surge of chakra and— Yes! 

Gravity no longer applied to the likes of Uchiha Sasuke.

He glanced down. Almost 20 feet lay between him and the water-line. One of his feet went through the wooden hull. Pulling it out caused more damage and Sasuke nearly missed grabbing onto the large splinter that fell out. 

He still had trouble equalizing the amount of chakra he sent to his feet. Something he had to correct when he got the time.                  

He tossed the splinter back into the gap he made and scaled the rest of the way up.  

Soundlessly, Sasuke climbed over the railing and hid himself in the shadows. Two of the three men were conversing with each other, the third was nowhere to be seen. 

He made quick work of the two thugs, using a rope to swing close and kick them off the boat when their backs were turned. Then, he went hunting for the third. 

Sasuke found the third man inside a cabin fiddling with a medium-sized safe. After a short scuffle, during which he earned a long slash across his shoulder, Sasuke knocked the man out and left him tied up. 

He freed two more ships before circling back to the source of the uproar. Naruto was still fighting the guards when he was told specifically to immobilize them quickly.

“Tch.” Sasuke clicked in annoyance. 

He watched Naruto make two more transformed clones and strike down half a dozen men. Furthermore, he still hadn’t knocked them out.  

Sasuke shook his head as the men got up and charged Naruto again. 

“Zabuza-sama!” He snarled. “You’re supposed to take them out, dumbass.” 

“I got this, teme.” Naruto grunted in reply, parrying what looked to be an axe with his kunai. 

Sasuke punched out the singular man that lunged at him with a—is that a pitchfork? —and went to find Sakura.  

He found her casually stacking ten-foot bars of iron like a child’s stacking toy. Thoroughly unnerved, Sasuke continued watching her until she noticed his presence. 

“Sasuke.” She acknowledged with a wave. “Could you jam that door in place for me?” 

He nodded non-committedly. 

“How do you do that?” He asked, thoughtlessly. He regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth. 

“I use chakra to amplify my muscles.” She replies, with the air of someone who was used to answering questions. 

“That only gives you a fifty-percent boost.” He mumbled, vaguely recalling his text-book explanation. 

Sakura nodded in agreement. “Yes, because you’re only coating your muscles with chakra.”  

“As opposed to?” 

“As opposed to completely saturating them.” 

Sakura turned and leveled a warning look at him. “Something,” She continued, “that requires extremely precise chakra control and great familiarity with the human anatomy.”

Sasuke scowled at her warning and skulked away.

He used a thin metal rod that he found lying around and leveraged it against the top of the shutter door in such a way that it can’t be opened by someone impeded by gravity. Meaning, if you’re not a ninja, you ain’t opening anything. 

Sasuke casually walked down the wooden beam holding up the shed. 

Sakura was impatient by the time he reached the bottom. 

“You done?” She asked sarcastically. 

Sasuke frowned at her and didn’t reply. 

She picked up two unconscious men who were hidden behind the stack of bars and left them leaning on some trees. Patting one on the head, she asked, “Where’s Naruto?” 

“Tch, wasting time.” 

She raised an eyebrow.

“He’s still fighting.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “That kid.” 

She spent a few minutes restoring the mist that had dissipated. By the time she was done, Sasuke could barely see her outline. He inched closer, so as to not lose track of her.  

Sakura quickly used a Henge to transform into Zabuza and proceeded to lift the whole goddamn mountain of iron.

Whatthefuck?  

What the actual fuck?

The only part of this situation that was remotely comforting to him is the fact that she looked like she was genuinely straining when picking up the pile.

“Let’s go.” She grunted. 

Sasuke led the way, shaken convictions and all.

It was slow going, they crossed the road as quietly as possible considering their baggage. Once they reached the edge of the harbour, Sasuke scaled the only tethered boat—a barge—and set to messing with the crane on-board. 

After fiddling with a multitude of buttons and almost setting off an alarm, he was finally able to make the hook of the crane descend, though Sasuke was sceptical of which switch eventually accomplished the task. Rushing to the railing, he signalled to Sakura and found that Naruto—now illusion-free—had finally caught up with them. She secured the hook to a chain holding the iron together and gave him a thumbs up. 

Sasuke returned to the operator’s cab.

Ten minutes later and the crane still hadn’t budged an inch. He stared at the buttons in frustration.

“Hey teme, what’re ya doin’?”

Sasuke flinched, banging a hand onto the control panel. 

A weird buzz emitted from in front of them and both the boys froze—only to sigh in relief when the crane finally, finally started working. They watched the pile inch slowly upwards.

Now that their self-appointed mission was reaching its final leg, Sasuke poundered his actions and was surprised at how versatile the tree walking exercise truly was. He was getting stronger, slowly but surely.  

“Where’s—” He started. The lady he wanted to say, which was inappropriate considering their familiarity. Onēsan, Sasuke gritted his teeth against the memories, never again. Sakura was—no, too much, too soon. Except, that was her name wasn’t it? 

“Where’s Sakura-san?” He asked at last. 

“Oh, she said she was gonna push the ships out to sea.” Naruto said, offhand.

“ What?” 

“She’s—” He repeated, confusion marring his words, “pushing the ships...out to sea?” 

They stared at each other. 

...and rushed to the bow of the ship. 

“ She’s pushing the ships out to sea!” Naruto exclaimed.

Literally. 

She was literally moving the ships away from the harbour and into open water with her bare fucking hands.

“Holy crap, that is so cool!” Naruto exclaimed. “Sakura-nee-chan! You’re awesome!”

This is insane, she's insane.

In Sasuke’s eyes, her image flickered. A vision overlapped her form. For a second, a miniscule sliver of eternity, she looked Ancient. Powerful. Other-worldly. A goddess wreaking havoc on earth. 

He blinked and Sakura was back, standing tall on the water.       

Sasuke almost groaned in frustration. “She’s walking on water.”

“She’s— she’s walking on water! ”

He contemplated pushing Naruto off the barge.

Today was a good day, Kakashi decided. 

No trouble-makers to watch out for. No murder-children to baby-sit. No time-travellers whose motives he should question. Just the open sea on the horizon and a good read. 

To make things even easier, there wasn’t even a need to check on the bridge-builder. Every few minutes, he would hear Tazuna bark at someone and that was that. 

Guard-duty was the best.

On that note, the commotion below him was deviating exceedingly from the norm.

Kakashi peeked down from his post atop the highest ledge on the bridge to find workers pointing at something out in the water. He visually combed through the mass of humans to find Tazuna. He was easy to find, standing near the railing and towering over the men surrounding him.

Kakashi watched Tazuna throw his head back and laugh. 

“Kakashi-sensei!” 

That’s funny. He must be hearing things. That can’t be Naruto, his student, that he sent into town to watch over their suspicious house-guest. 

Kakashi lowered his book to face the water. 

Ah, he’s seeing things too. That can’t be Sasuke on what looks to be a barge carrying building materials. He specifically told him not to let their friendly neighbourhood ‘timetraveller’ out of his sight.   

The final nail on Kakashi’s proverbial coffin was when their ‘house-guest’ exited the cabin of the barge and joined his two students at the bow of the ship. 

My, such strong hallucinations I keep having. Perhaps it’s time I retire.

Kakashi elected to return to his book and ignore his hallucinatory visions.

It was less than ten minutes later when Kakashi realized that his visions were not likely to leave him alone.  

“Sakura-san.” He acknowledged, putting his cherished book back into his pocket, “How can I help you?”

He could pick up Naruto's boisterous voice as he told a heavily embellished tale of strife and animosity. 

“Please tell me you did not make my precious little students steal from a very dangerous business tycoon.” Kakashi stated pleasantly enough. Inside, his temper was close to a boiling point.

“No. They didn’t do much stealing.” Sakura leaned back on her arms casually. “Sabotage, yes. I’ll also admit to them beating up a few of his minions. Nothing more dangerous than something you would encounter in a C-rank mission such as this.”

“How dare you—”

“Stop asking your students to spy on me.”  

Kakashi stopped short. He was caught, even if he wasn’t being very covert about it.

“I will continue to act beyond the parameters of your mission. Call them off before they put themselves in grave danger by carrying out your orders.”

Against his better judgement, Kakashi nodded. 

He taught her well, he admitted begrudgingly to himself. Or rather, she knows him well enough to stay atleast two steps ahead of him.

They sat in silence, watching the sunset.       

“They were perfectly safe. I would kill myself before I let anything happen to them.” 

Kakashi thought about Minato-sensei. He thought about Rin and with great difficulty, he thought about Obito.    

To die for your teammates, that is something he can understand quite easily.

Chapter Text

“ Waraji! Bring me my binoculars!” 

“Yes, Gatō-sama! Right away!” 

Gatō snatched the device roughly and glowered out to sea.

Silence descended over the harbour for a second, quickly shattered by the sound of the binoculars exploding against the floor. 

Gatō smoothened out the lapels of his linen suit and turned to his men. 

“Bring me the swords-man. Preferably alive.” He said to the onlooking crowd. “Waraji, get me a full report on what was stolen.” 

“Yes, boss.”

Behind him, shadowed against the setting sun, were the smouldering ruins of Gatō’s fleet. 

Sakura spent the next few days fretting over her decisions, second-guessing her every move and wondering if she put two children and a whole village-worth of innocent people in inconceivable danger. 

She was so skittish in fact, that after three days of handling her anxiety, Tsunami firmly requested that she take a walk around the area and ‘do what you ninja-folk do best’. Sakura blinked owlishly at the Lady of the house. She’s never been told to ‘fuck off’ in so many words and so politely at that. 

Gladly, she slunk off to the woods, sneaking past a curious scene of two thoroughly waterlogged and agitated children. 

“I don’t know how she does it.” Naruto whispered in bewilderment, piquing Sakura’s curiosity. He was wringing his jacket out, almost strangling it in his frustration with most of the water dripping onto his shoe.

“There’s gotta be a trick to it.” Sasuke muttered to himself, completely ignoring Naruto. He pulled on the left shoulder of his shirt, revealing messily done bandages. “A-a Genjutsu, or maybe an elemental Ninjutsu—”       

“Magic. Its gotta be.” Naruto affirmed, vigorously shaking out his jacket.

Sakura was too far away by then to hear his reply but from Sasuke’s body language, she assumed it was something scathing.    

She doesn’t know if Kakashi had reneged on his orders like she’d asked or if the boys were still shadowing her. Deciding to err on the side of caution, she elected to ask them what they were up to on her return. 

Sakura took a detour that Tazuna once used and leisurely made her way down to the harbour. A bush of wild blackberries delayed her some and she spent the rest of her trip popping berries into her mouth.  

It was only when she passed the same bush a second time that she realized that she was not, in fact, anywhere near the harbour and was actually, unmistakably lost.  

“Fuck me.” She sighed in defeat and pocketed the rest of her berries. 

Picking a random direction, Sakura marched into the underbrush with all the surety of a clueless traveller. She passed the same goddamn bush two more fucking times before stopping to collect her bearings.

She sighed and climbed the nearest tree, pausing near the top to locate any sign of civilization. 

A glimpse of a roof caught her eye and Sakura was off, speeding through the trees. 

When she finally stepped foot in the clearing, warning bells went off in her head and Sakura stilled, waiting for the feeling to pass. Instead she heard voices, angry voices and she was convinced atleast one of them mentioned Gatō. Cursing her luck, she quickly backpedaled into the trees and suppressed her chakra as low as it would go. The voices looked like they were coming from the other side of the building in front of her.

Doing her best to stay quiet, Sakura leopard-crawled closer to the source of the commotion. As she reached around the corner of the building, the voices she heard gained some clarity. 

“—you’ve got two options kid, either you bring your ass to Gatō-sama or we’ll take you to him in a body bag. So which is it?”    

Peeking through a conveniently placed bush, Sakura realized that she had stumbled upon an ongoing feud. Slightly to the right of her line of vision stood a teenager whose hunched back was turned to her. Beautiful obsidian hair flowed down their back, a feature Sakura noticed right away. An upturned basket of herbs was settled near their feet and they crouched over two unconscious bodies. The men on the ground looked like possible accomplices to the man standing further away and inadvertently facing her. Few others milled around behind him, their numbers hidden by the angle of her view around the corner.    

The man who was speaking, a shifty looking character with ashy hair and scars running over both his eyes, took a step forward. “Well?” 

Her breath caught.

Chakra rushed to her eyes, confirming her thoughts.

In retrospect, perhaps Sakura should have been paying more attention to her surroundings but at that moment, nothing in the world could exert enough force to rip her eyes away from the scene in front of her. 

Momochi Zabuza. 

Shit. 

He was swaying dangerously on his knees, only held up by the two men on either side. One quivering hand was settled on the sword at his throat. 

“Ha..ku..” he choked, every part of him quivering except his eyes. His eyes were the steadiest she’s ever seen. Familiar eyes, belonging to a man resigned to his fate. “Go.”

Sakura angled her body away from the scene, mind already made up. If Zabuza died here, she could breathe easier. While the concept of leaving a child—even if it was Haku—in a dangerous situation left a bitter taste in her mouth, she comforted herself with the fact that Haku was strong. He did almost kill Sasuke or tried not to, according to Naruto; she vaguely recalled.

“Zabuza-sama!” She heard Haku cry, voice cracking in the middle. Her heart squeezed, and Sakura forced her eyes away from the scene. He was just a child, her traitorous heart urged, his voice still carried the lilts of boyhood. 

She backpedaled, turning around and getting up. I’m leaving, she decided firmly.    

“Oi! Who’re you?” A voice interrupted her getaway. A short man, holding a short knife. "ZORI, we’ve got compa—” 

Sakura surged forward, palm pressing into his mouth, her other hand going around his head until a muffled crack! was heard and the man dropped quickly.   

“ Motherfu —” She huffed and cut herself off.

Decision taken out of her hands, she turned back around and dashed out of the bushes. She leapt out of Haku’s panicked swipe and rushed the distracted crowd. 

Sakura dealt with the leader first, unsheathing his own sword from its place on his hip to slit his throat. A clean cut that left a mess in its wake. Warm blood splattered across her arm but Sakura didn’t pause to think about it. She ran straight for the men huddled around Zabuza.

The man on the right, the one with tattoos covering his entire left side attacked first, sword in hand. She dodged by flipping over and clearing their heads. From behind, she moved to cut through the man who attacked her. He dodged, letting Zabuza fall face-first. The second man scrambled away. 

Sakura and the tattooed man took a breath to evaluate one another. He held his sword like a Samurai. All the training with none of the honour. When the man moved to strike again, Sakura made a split-second decision. 

She used a Shunshin to disappear and appear behind the second man. She grabbed him by the back of his yukata and threw him at the swords-man. She used the distraction to finish off both the men.

The clearing fell into an uneasy hush. 

Sakura threw the sword down and wiped stray blood from her face, panting harshly. She took a minute to pull herself together and turned to the teenager eyeing her cautiously. “Are you hurt?” she asked him casually, crouching to flip Zabuza over. 

“No.” he answered curtly. His voice was curiously deeper than before. Silent feet inched closer to her.

She scanned Zabuza, viridian hands wandering across the wide expanse of his chest. He was semi-conscious, eye-lids fluttering rapidly and slurring incomprehensibly under his breath. 

Chakra paralysis.  

He was recovering well. She’d give him another week before he was up and about. He was delirious too, a side effect of his condition. Sakura healed the bruises on his nose from his encounter with the ground and hesitated. She could speed things along but she was wary of the repercussions. 

“What did those men want with you?” She asked in the silence.

“Blamed us for burning the business-man’s ships.” 

“Gatō?” She clarified, straight-faced. 

Haku nodded. “They accused me when they realized he was still bed-ridden.” 

They glanced at Zabuza who continued sleeping fitfully.

“I could heal him.” She said, letting the words slip into the space between them.

He blinked, intelligent eyes analyzing her sentence. “But you want something in return.” He completed. 

Sakura nodded. “Take him and go. Leave this country.” 

“Why?”  

“You are hired help, yes? By Gatō?”

Haku hesitated. He wanted to deny everything and question her motives but Momochi Zabuza was a known mercenary and they both knew it. Not to mention, no-one else in this entire country could afford to hire a mercenary anyway. 

“Yes.” He said finally. 

“You won’t be getting paid.” She stated, “Not after this. There is nothing for you here.”

A cool breeze passed through the clearing, ruffling both of their hair.  

“You don’t seem like you’re from around here either, ninja-san”  Haku stated quietly. 

“No,” Sakura replied, “I’m just passing through.” 

Haku tilted his head in thought. “You’re quite far from any roads.” 

She huffed out a laugh, feeling embarrassed. “I have a terrible sense of direction.”

He nodded, a small smile gracing his elegant face. “My name is Haku.”

“Sakura.” 

Taking a leap of faith, Sakura went on and partially healed Zabuza’s condition. 

In Hansuke’s case, his spinal cord was completely bisected and therefore impossible to recover. Zabuza, on the other hand, had a form of rapid muscle atrophy caused by chakra-mediated nerve stimulation. Nerves can never truly heal but muscles can .

She flooded his body with chakra, using energy stored in his liver to partially reconstruct his muscles. In a day or two, he would be able to move but he would still have to work to regain the muscle mass that he originally had.

“Make sure he eats really well for the next few months.” Sakura instructed.

She stood, wiping her hands on her fraying pants. A wet patch stained one side of the pants from the crushed blackberries in her pocket. Her tank top also had small tears in it, blood and dirt staining it from her misadventures. The bandages holding her breasts in place were also starting to fray. She needed new clothes, something preferably in her size . 

Haku pulled Zabuza close to his shoulder and got up.

“If you walk three mile that way, you’ll reach the sea. Keep North and you will find the village.” He directed, pointing behind her. 

“Thankyou.” She said, “Luck be with you.” 

“You as well.”               

I hope you’ll do the right thing and leave. She mused, catching one last look at Haku’s back.

Sakura found the sea three miles out, as Haku said. She washed away the blood on her skin as well as she could and spent about an hour just enjoying the breeze. If she turned her head North, she could glimpse plumes of smoke rising in the distance.  

Instead of going to the village, Sakura changed directions and went South towards the harbour. 

She turned left into the woods just before the coarse sand gave way to pavement. It took her a few minutes of hunting but finally she came across a safe stashed in some bushes.

The safe, the one baby Sasuke—Sakura snickered—found yesterday while sabotaging Gato’s ships. She’d had a clone stash it here when no-one was looking. 

Sighing, Sakura knelt to brush the leaves away and inspected the tiny vault. It didn’t look like it was booby-trapped. 

She punched through the door, metal screeching as it caved like butter and tore the door clean away from the safe. Wincing, Sakura threw the shredded metal onto the floor and healed her tender knuckles.

Sakura’s first order of business would clearly have to be investing in some heavy duty gloves.       

She glanced inside the safe and whistled sharply, eyebrows raising in surprise.

Well, well, well, lookie here.

There was enough money inside to either fund a large organization or at the very least a tiny nation. 

Which gives me a grand idea.

Sakura buried most of the treasure.

Oh no, she definitely set aside a hair-raising amount of money, stuck it in a waterproof bag and stashed it somewhere safe just in case. The tragic hilarity of her actions was that the amount she pilfered wasn’t even a quarter of the cash that fell into her hands. 

It left her with two options:

One, she could equally distribute the wealth among the villagers. It will help the villagers, true, but with Gatō still alive, he would be sure to notice that the villagers are suddenly much better off. She couldn’t possibly bring attention to herself like that. Not to mention, Wave’s shattered economy couldn’t possibly survive on money alone. They needed trade and for that to happen, they needed the bridge complete.      

Two, she could pay off Tazuna’s mission debt. It could be a parting gift, one final good deed before she left. There would be questions. Tazuna may not accept the money, wary of Gatō’s retribution. But it can be done. 

Gatō might still come after them regardless. 

Goddamn it. 

Perhaps she should just off Gatō herself. 

Sakura dismissed the thought quickly. It was too audacious a plan. She was not in a position to bring attention to herself. Her options were limited until the bridge was completed, neither could she make her daring escape, nor can she unburden herself of this treasure. 

Therefore, she buried it.

 All of it—most of it.

Temporarily. 

She carried out one last task before she left.

The empty safe was deposited on the beach near the harbour for Gatō’s men to find. Meticulously carved into its walls were the words Keizoku wa chikara nari.

To continue is power.

A slogan used by Kiri rebel factions.

She retreated into the forest, using the beach as her guide back to the village. 

The village center—for lack of a better term—left a lot to be desired. It consisted of a semi-circle of five to six shabby wooden stalls held together by rusted nails and prayer. Most of the stalls were barren save for one with fish and another selling a wilted stack of cabbages. 

Sakura hunted down a tailoring shop a little ways away from the huddle of stalls and was offered a faded cotton shirt meant for a man. It was left behind when he was unable to afford it, explained the sweet old lady running the place. She spied an inquisitive pair of eyes watching her from behind the lady’s skirts.

“My grand-daughter.” The lady chortled, “She’s a little shy, but she’s a great help around the house.” She offered her another shirt in a daisy yellow colour that reminded her of Naruto. 

She bought both shirts and made sure to press a little extra money into the lady’s palm for her trouble.

The apothecary did not have any bandages. Sakura left without purchasing anything. 

She doesn’t know how, but somehow Sakura was able to circumvent Tazuna’s house and return to the little brook near which she found her mushroom cache. She followed it upstream, continued onwards beyond the mushroom fields and reached a quaint little waterfall hidden into the mountains.

She left her effects in a little pile on the bank and dived into the cool liquid. When she finally re-emerged, there was an unexpected guest.

Sakura blinked in shock.

Mauve coloured chakra swirled lazily around a sizable tear in space. Peeking through the rip was a set of mis-matched eyes set upon a handsome, angular face. 

“Sakura.” 

“Sasuke?”   

Yes, I know! 

A wild Adult!Sasuke appears! 

How exciting!

Chapter Text

TW for a minor anxiety attack.

They spent a minute appraising each other. 

Sakura stared blankly, never expecting herself to be caught in a stand-off of such ludicrous proportions. Water dripped off her hair and into the pool she was standing in, ripples flowing outwards from the liquid at her waist.   

Sasuke moved first, averting his eyes. “Your clothes.” He muttered. Chakra thundered quietly around the Window in Time, undulating with every minute shift in his posture. 

Sakura laughed.

Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She wiped them away nonchalantly and pulled a shirt over her head, the yellow one she purchased this morning. Getting out of the water, Sakura put on her worn, navy sweatpants. They barely reached her shins. She piled her dripping hair into a loose knot on top of her head and turned to face Sasuke again.

“How did you find me?” She asked, finally.

“Your summons were able to get in touch with Kakashi’s nin-dogs.” Sasuke answered, “He contacted me and we’ve been trying to find you since three days now.” His brows were pulled down into a frown of contemplation.

Sakura, on the other hand, was still confused. “And how did you track me to this dimension?”  

“Naruto found a body.” He watched as her eyes widened in horrified realization, hands lifting to cover her mouth. 

“Mine?” She asked, voice cracking.

“Yes,” He answered, “younger. About eleven or twelve.” 

A sob broke through Sakura’s tightly clamped mouth. She turned away, the heels of her palms digging into her eyes. 

“How fucked up is it—” she lamented bitterly, “—that I feel nothing but relief at being alive when my presence irrevocably murdered a child."

Sasuke chose to remain silent. A wise move on his part, she acceded. Above her, the sky remained bright, cloud-less and painfully azure.      

She inhaled deeply, concentrating on slowly unfurling the tight coil of emotions under her breastbone.      

"Where are you?" Sasuke asked, once Sakura was able to pull herself together again.

"Wave." she replied, already tired of her situation, "From eleven years ago." 

"Odd." He considered, almost to himself, head tilted in thought.

Sakura bristled, agitated quickly sparking up again, thoughts still stuck on her younger counterpart. Yes, odd indeed how she not only replaced her younger self in the Space-Time Continuum but may have also inadvertently killed her as well.  

She breathed through her nose. 

Feelings of self-condemnation aside, it answered some of her questions. Specifically those pertaining to the whereabouts of her younger self.

Sakura’s memories from her last days in her own time were spotty at best. The only thing she was certain of was her death.  

...I did die right?   

Was she on a solo mission, or was there a team? Who attacked her— was she even attacked? What caused the switch in the first place? A forbidden technique? Or was her death itself the trigger? 

And what of her younger self? 

How did she die? Did the switch cause her death or did someone on the other side stick around long enough to strike her down? 

These answers only raised another multitude of questions and they left her feeling breathless. Sakura’s head spun. She staggered and sank to the ground, putting her head between shaky knees and desperately trying to control her breathing. 

When that didn’t help, Sakura closed her eyes and tried to focus her mind. 

See, hear, feel, smell. See, hear, feel, smell.

I see the trees. I hear the waterfall. I feel the wind. I smell the dirt. 

She repeated the exercise again and again until she was decidedly much calmer.

I see Sasuke. I hear the birds. I feel the grass. I smell the ozone. 

Sakura waited for her steadily blurring vision to clear before returning to the conversation.  

“You okay?” Sasuke asked softly.

No. I’m a step, hop, jump away from a mental breakdown.   

Outwardly, Sakura nodded and then quickly changed the subject.

“I was on a mission, right?” She questioned slowly.

“...Yes.” 

“Was I attacked?” 

“You don’t remember?” 

“No.”

Sasuke’s frown deepened. “Diplomatic mission to Sand. You were ambushed by Sound rebels.”

“Sound? ” She asked incredulously. The news came completely out of left field. She watched Sasuke nod again under her scrutinizing glare. “What does Sound gain from this?” Sakura continued, gesturing, of course, to herself and her current surroundings. 

Sasuke grunted in displeasure. “I’m working on it.” 

Ah, but she wasn’t done.

“You said Sound was wiped out, Sasuke. Your exact words were ‘completely annihilated’.”

Sasuke sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose.  “I know, Sakura.” 

He was handling this situation exponentially better than her. Which was an understatement in and of itself seeing as Sasuke’s had voodoo-eyes since he was twelve and they’ve only gotten weirder ever since. Yeah, so he should be an expert in all things creepy and otherworldly. 

Then why would he call her situation odd?

She backed off, outwardly masking her worry as frustration. Knowing that arguing now would do neither of them any good. 

“Fine. Just.” Sakura sighed in exasperation. “Can you pull me through?” Sakura stepped forward and looked up expectantly.

The look on his face made ice slither down her spine. She dropped her head and roughly tugged a hand through her damp hair. “Dammit Sasuke, why the hell not?” 

Wordlessly, Sasuke lifted a fist and knocked on his portal . A heavy clang resonated in Sakura’s ears, simultaneously too loud and too quiet. An earthy thundering sound followed, the borders of the portal rippling in response to the disturbance. 

She didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have found me.” She thought out loud, eyes returning to the sky.  

“ Sakura.” He berated softly. His voice carried a definitive tinge of worry. Which was new. When was the last time they talked again?

She opened her mouth to shakily restart her breathing exercise before snapping her jaw shut with a decisive clack. 

“Sasuke, I’m being arraigned.”  

“What?” He asked, suddenly alert, face split between indignation and alarm.

Sakura huffed in defeat, slumping into herself. “Kakashi, the Loyal Hound of Konoha that he is, ratted me out.” 

She spun on her heel, pawing through her meager belongings to produce the letter she’d been given, Hokage’s crest proudly, glaringly visible at the bottom of the wrinkled sheet. 

“As of now, the likelihood of me spending the rest of my stint in the past in a subterranean cell under Danzo’s care is extremely high.” She dead-panned, sticking the paper to the Barrier between worlds with some chakra. Sasuke peered closely at the letter and Sakura hid her shaking hands behind her back. 

While Sasuke inspected the paper, she tried wringing out the water still dripping from her hair. When that was sufficiently managed, she turned to find another task to occupy her hands. Sakura paused to glance at Sasuke and—

“Why is it in your hands?” 

Sasuke looked up, eyes widened slightly to show his surprise. The letter— it was in his hands.

Sakura marched forward, fury driving her actions. Heedless to his warnings, she reached into the Barrier and pulled her hand back just as quick. 

“Ah!” She hissed, clutching her throbbing fingers.    

Sasuke fluttered around like a mother hen on the other side. 

“I’m fine.” Sakura interrupted his worrying. Healing chakra already working its magic, her digits flashed green before settling into their flesh-toned hue. Privately, she was trying to figure out why he was reacting the way he was. It was starting to freak her out.

Sasuke frowned down at the paper in his hands before slowly sticking an edge into the invisible wall between them. They both leaned forward with bated breaths.

The paper came through, purple fire licking its borders but not harming the artifact.  

Sakura scoffed in incredulity. “ Wow.”

Sasuke hummed in reply and straightened up again. Sakura caught the letter and eyeballed it with barely concealed displeasure. 

“Maybe we can do something with this.” He contemplated, hand at his jaw. “I have to go now.” 

Despair crawled down her spine and settled in her stomach. Sakura took care not to show any outward reaction. 

She nodded, “Okay.”

Sasuke hesitated for a bit, looking like he was arguing with himself. He turned to her again. 

Sakura turned to face him as well, belatedly registering the sweat on his brow. The portal must be draining him, she realized, considering how long he’s kept it open. 

“I will get you out of here.” He spoke fervently. “But you are not powerless yourself.” 

He disappeared before she could get a word in edgewise.

Sakura returned to Tazuna’s home very late. The house was dark when she arrived but someone was generously waiting up for her. 

She tried to smile in vain but it fell flat. 

“Nice meeting you here, on this lovely evening.” Kakashi commented lightly. 

Sakura sighed. 

“Sakura-nee-chan!”  

“Naruto, get back here!”

“It’s a trap! Run!” 

Sakura tried to dodge, but it was already too late. Paper tags bound her arms and legs together, others zapped chakra completely and thoroughly from her body. In her delirium, she only had enough wits about her to clamp down on a small sliver of chakra and smuggle it deep into her core. 

Kakashi loomed above, blurry and doubled in number. 

“—apologise, Sakura-san. This is for the best—”    

“ No!”  

Naruto. 

“Sensei!”

Sasuke.

She couldn’t remember what happened after that. 

She should have left when she had the chance.

Chapter Text

In her decade-long career as an entity of the state, Sakura was privy to precisely three bids upon her life—two assassinations and exactly one kidnapping.

During the peak of the war, Sakura had a brief stint as a saboteur. Among other things, she had blown up three of Orochimaru’s laboratories. Sound had— twice —sent hunter-nin in retaliation.      

The kidnapping incident will not be expanded on.

Ever. 

It was unfortunate indeed that all three endeavors were ultimately a huge failure because, hello, she’s still here.  

All that aside, in a frankly ridiculous turn of events, she can’t believe that the most unorthodox attempt on her life that Sakura has ever had the privilege of partaking in was carried out by her very own teammates.  

See, it's like this:

One might reasonably discern that Kakashi, under the acute duress of capturing her, failed to bear in mind the acquisition of a suitable hovel in which to stash her person. One may also, quite understandably, raise concern about the rusty nature of said man’s questionable trade-skills when one deigns to observe the crudely drawn Chakra-suppressing seals drawn into her skin. This is not the warring states era, we have paper you uncultured canine.   

So, it is inevitable that under such circumstances, her comfort may not be the highest priority on Kakashi’s checklist. 

But why , pray tell, must she be imprisoned in the vicinity of Naruto’s underwear ?

“—you understand why I'm doing this, right?” Kakashi asked, awkwardly looming above her. One of his hands held back a colourful assortment of underclothes hanging from a makeshift clothesline that spanned out between them.      

Sakura stared past him, at the green boxers speckled with orange streaks. 

Is it washed? They’re washed, right? It looks washed. What if it’s not? Ewwww, it’s touching his hair.   

It’s not like she could have replied anyway, with how securely she’d been restrained. 

When no reply was forthcoming, Kakashi sighed and backed away, inadvertently letting Sakura get smacked in the face by the very same garment she was mulling over. 

I swear to Kami, Kakashi, I will shave your fucking eyebrows. 

She cringed away from the swaying clothes and flopped resolutely against the backpacks she was deposited next to.

Reduced to the equivalent of a sack of potatoes.  

Ridiculous 

From her vantage point behind the washing line, Sakura could only purview three pairs of ninja-sandals. They hastily removed themselves from the room. Harsh whispers carried over from the other side and without her chakra, they remained indecipherable to her—except for Naruto, who was still valiantly trying to defend her honour.

You’re barking up the wrong tree, kid.

Sakura was proved right two minutes later, when Kakashi quite firmly declared: “No , Naruto. That’s final and an order from your superior.” 

Sakura sighed through her nose and made herself comfortable. 

She needed to conserve her energy.

Five days. It’s been five freaking days stuck in a room with hellions.  

Sakura has no idea how much longer she can hang on. 

She hadn’t been fed or watered in two days—and why does it sound like she’s likened herself to a horse?  

Fuck, she’s probably gone barking mad.

And yes, that was a pun at Kakashi’s expense. 

Bathroom breaks were cut down three days ago, when Kakashi thought she was making a run for it.

Well, yes it was a poorly-masked attempt to break away but if anyone ever asks: she slipped, okay?   

Not to mention the utter humiliation of actually taking a leak under Kakashi’s watchful eye.  

There was a Kakashi clone in the room every hour of every day. 

And the nights. 

Dear God, the nights. 

Naruto snores louder than a thunderstorm on steroids and Sasuke kicks in his sleep . Which shouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that apparently he rolls over as well. 

To the other side of the room.

Kakashi must gain a sadistic sort of satisfaction from her misery because he’s never stooped so low as to pull Sasuke away. Not even for Sasuke’s own safety. 

Sakura would never voluntarily stab the kid but oh boy has she come close. It was fortunate indeed that Kakashi had the foresight to confiscate anything that could even tenuously be called a weapon. 

She still mourned the toothbrush they had seized from under her thigh. 

Grunting softly, Sakura wiggled into a slightly more vertical position. The Kakashi-clone in the corner twitched. 

She paid him no heed.

From her vantage point on the floor, the only thing she was able to spy were cloudy skies. 

Just another long and gloomy day, Sakura reflected morosely.

Like clockwork, there’s a knock on the door signaling breakfast. The Kakashi clone roused to receive the food, nimbly opening and shutting the Shoji doors. After an awkward meal wherein she was force-fed lukewarm Miso-soup, Sakura was escorted out to the bathroom where she had to go about her business with the doors wide open.

Afterwards, she was escorted back to the room and her bindings double checked. Then, she was left to her own devices, the Kakashi-clone retreating to his place in the shadows. Typically, Sakura would sleep away until dinner time at which point the whole process would be repeated. 

But not today. 

Half an hour into her nap, Sakura was startled awake by a presence in the room.  

The Kakashi-clone stirred again, stepping forward nonchalantly. 

She sat up, attention locked on the stranger. 

Standard ANBU uniform. Leaf headband. The person was of non-differentiable height with auburn hair being the only striking quality on their person. Another was the black crop-jacket that they wore, with red stripes at the shoulders.  

The ANBU stared back, body unreadable. Perhaps analyzing her just the same.   

“Inu.” The stranger declared. 

Sakura almost flinched. Their voice was baritone in range but surprisingly loud in the hushed room.  

Kakashi inclined his head. 

“You have orders to terminate all primary contacts.” 

She swallowed nervously. The villagers. Her heart was already beating in overdrive.

Kakashi shifted his weight. “And my team?” 

The ANBU angled their head to watch Kakashi. “You will return to Konohagakure and declare this mission a failure. You will also undergo a psychological evaluation and new personnel will be assigned.” 

Something about the wording tickled Sakura’s mind.

She observed Kakashi’s unusually rigid stillness. His hands fisted the cloth of his pants, trembling, trembling.   

And then it clicked. 

Sakura felt nauseous. Numb. Dizzy. Breathless.  

And then.

Too many things happened simultaneously. 

The first was a spike in Kakashi’s chakra. Both he and the ANBU disappeared.

Sakura fell sideways onto the floor, convulsing, choking on her own tongue. It was mere luck that she dodged the kunai thrown at her head.

Breathe. 

The second was a loud crash. The window-bearing wall opposite her position exploded into tiny wooden shrapnel and the resulting gust of wind propelled the razor-sharp confetti into the room. 

She barely felt it.

Breathebreathebreathe.

The third was the presence of a giant boomerang.    

It tore through the rest of the walls encasing the room before returning from whence it came.  

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sakura noted that the boomerang looked very familiar. 

She was being attacked from every side including her own body. Tears flowed freely into her hairline. Sakura skipped from controlling her breathing to counting her tears to feeling the wood-grain under her fingers. She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on her heartbeat.

Breathe,    

Breathe,

Breathe. 

Finally, Time seemed to slow as she concentrated.

Sakura inhaled sharply, air whistling with the effort. She coughed violently, choking on the gag in her mouth, struggling with every inhale. She was left panting in the end.

The clang of metal on metal slowly filtered into her ears. 

She sat up gingerly.

Through the gaping hole in the wall, she found Kakashi in a three-way fight with the ANBU and—

It took a minute for her brain to catch up with what she was seeing. 

Holy fuck—

Zabuza?!

“Sakura-san.” a voice piped up.

Her head snapped to the side.

Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit.

Haku stepped out from the shadows. He knelt to remove the makeshift muffler from her mouth. Sakura took a deep breath and clenched her teeth, trying to alleviate the sudden ache in her jaws. 

“I direct you to the village and somehow you end up in the clutches of a leaf-nin.” A faint smile flitted across his face. “”Do you make a habit of finding trouble or is it the other way around?” 

“We had a deal.” She replied belatedly. The first words out of her mouth in days. Her throat stung, her voice coming out strangled. Also, fuck you.   

“Zabuza-sama had some unfinished business.” 

She cocked an eyebrow in question. 

“He believes the leaf-nins burnt down Gato’s ships and framed him.” 

She gave him a disbelieving look.

Haku gestured vaguely with his hands. “He said he tasted chakra in the air. Around the ships.”

And fire jutsu is a leaf-nin specialty. 

Ah. 

I knew I missed something.

.

.

.

...Fuck.  

Haku nodded.

“I have a question though, Sakura-san.” He continued. Haku stood to root through the pouch at his side. He pulled out a kunai. “Why would they tie up one of their own?”

He knelt down behind her, kunai in hand. 

Sakura froze, waiting. 

Haku started sawing away at her bindings. 

“Relax, Sakura-san.” He chuckled quietly. “You need not explain yourself. I am only repaying a debt.”   

Sakura laughed nervously, licking her dry lips. “Good, cause I don’t have a satisfactory explanation.” She rolled her shoulders as her bindings came loose. 

Haku swiped the kunai through the binding on her legs and Sakura was finally free. 

She reached forward and cupped his chin, planting a kiss on his forehead. “Thankyou.” 

Haku looked surprised, one hand coming up to touch his forehead.

Sakura stood. “There is atleast one team of Konoha ANBU on the island. While I am the reason for their appearance, they may not take kindly to your presence. You must leave.” 

Sakura suddenly remembered the other members of the house and ducked into the kitchen. She found Tsunami and Inari huddled under the counter. 

On seeing her, Tsunami burst into tears. Sakura reached down and hugged the woman to her chest, crushing Inari between them.  

“It’s okay.” She murmured. “Let’s get you out of here, yeah?”     

Tsunami nodded, tears still streaking down her face. She stuttered soothing words to a stony-faced Inari.

“I will take them into the village.” Haku said from behind her. 

She turned to look at him. 

Sakura took in his face. In her memories, he seemed older than he is. The villain who almost killed her team-mate. All she sees now is someone too young to be a fugitive, another child to protect. 

A location poured out of her mouth.  

“Take what you need, Haku.” She instructed him. “Divide the rest amongst the villagers.” She told Tsunami. She nodded at her words, taking Haku’s proffered hand. 

Sakura kept look-out until they disappeared over the horizon then backtracked into the destroyed guest-room. She peeked out at the ongoing fight. The three seemed to be stuck in an impasse. 

She turned the room over looking for a weapon before settling on the singular kunai that was previously used to impale her. She glanced over the seals etched onto her arms and calves. 

Standard ANBU chakra-leeching seals.

The edges of the seals were located in places through which major arteries flowed skin deep. Taking these off without the presence of a medic meant certain death. 

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she set the sharp metal to her skin. She quickly sliced four lines through the flesh above her elbows and behind her knees. Sakura sighed in contentment as warm chakra started trickling down from her forehead. 

Sakura took a deep meditative breath and centered her mind. 

Enough tears.

Her wounds were closed by the time she opened her eyes.

“It’s time to fuck shit up.”

So.

After some thought, I realized this chapter would be a good stopping point to talk about my creative process. 

The first thing I would like to point out is this: People are emotional creatures. A person stuck in a difficult situation would be distressed no matter how powerful they are. It doesn’t negate their strength nor does strength take away the need for emotional expression. 

One of the rules in the Naruto-verse is ‘a ninja must show no emotion’ which is ironic considering that most characters are driven by emotion. Kakashi thrives on guilt and is only kept alive by patriotic duty. Sasuke is motivated by revenge and filial piety. Naruto runs on sunshine and love, something he developed in spite of the trauma he experienced as a child. 

In writing Sakura’s character, I wanted to showcase her emotional side and how expressing these emotions does not necessarily make her weak. 

Please understand that these characters have gone through multiple death-defying scenarios not to mention a war, and in doing so have come out the other side with many coping mechanisms. One obvious symptom I’ve chosen to portray here is tears—a perfectly healthy outlet for stress. 

My character-interpretations will be driven by emotion as well as logic. 

That being said, the greatest factor that drives my writing is of course, all of you, the followers of this fanfiction.  

Your reviews are heartwarming and imperative to my writing. It can be said that some of your comments even changed aspects of the plot and also brought many details I've forgotten back to the forefront. 

Thank you, ever so much.

That’s all I’ve wanted to say. 

Till next time.

Chapter Text

The first thing Sakura did was test the waters. She sent out clone after clone, getting a feel for each ninja's fighting capacity. Kakashi and Zabuza, due to their recent skirmishes, were probably the weakest links but she would have to keep a keen eye on the ANBU, uncharted territory that they are.  

She was careful with her chakra, imbuing just enough for her clones to withstand a knock or three but nothing more.

Under the vague hope that her country-men wanted to take her in alive, she targeted Zabuza first. 

Sakura sent in another clone, armed with a crudely drawn explosive seal. And sent in one more, as an afterthought. To distract. 

She watched as three powerful shinobi disappeared. So did she.

Zabuza reappeared next to the tree-line. 

From what Sakura remembered, Zabuza was a solid fighter. He was well-rounded as all Jonin were wont to do but his strength obviously lay in mid-range attacks with Kubikiribōchō's length helping to block and attack from a relatively safe distance. The most dangerous article on Zabuza’s person would undoubtedly be his giant broadsword. 

So let's make him drop it.  

Sakura didn’t waste time dispensing pleasantries and promptly launched into an attack. She focused on his sword arm, bearing down on the opening caused by swinging the weighty weapon. It took four swings for Zabuza to drop the sword and engage her fully in hand-to-hand combat.  

They fell into a steady pattern of dodging and blocking. Sakura waited until he familiarized himself with her arm movements. 

Then she switched to her legs. 

He barely dodged the first kick. The second left a medium-sized crater where his foot rested. The third grazed his forearm and the fourth—

Well. 

“You’re a monster.” Zabuza breathed, backed up against a tree.

Sakura could feel her lips twitch. 

“If you leave now, you can catch up with Haku near the village.”

Zabuza glanced at the foot between his legs, almost daring it to inch higher.

"And miss all the fun?"

"What, this?" She gestured behind her, where her clones were playing a deadly round of Tag with the other shinobi. "You're not missing much."

Sakura played it cool as an explosion went off in the background. 

"I'm sure." He replied dryly. 

For all the trouble he put her through, Kakashi does deserve an ass-kicking…

"I was the one who framed you." She caught herself saying. 

Wait, what the fuck am I saying!

"I know." 

This caught her off-guard.

Sakura stepped backwards, remembering to put a healthy amount of space between them.  

Zabuza rolled his eyes, casually leaning against the tree.

“Are you here for revenge then?” She asked, cautiously.

“Bah.” He waved a hand in her direction. “Your spineless schemes do not concern me.” 

Annoyance twinged in the back of her mind. Sakura tilted her head curiously. “Then what does?”

“An unfinished duel.” 

She blinked.

A fight.

He came back looking for a fight?  

She opened her mouth to reply, to laugh, to mock him. Anything. Her brain just about short-circuited.  

“The food’s crap.” He grouched, “Might as well get a good fight out of this shithole.”

He’s joking, right?

“There’s atleast one team of ANBU here.” Sakura warned.

“Last time I checked, they’re not here for me.” He looked at her pointedly.

She shook her head, feeling laughter bubble up her throat. 

“And I went through the trouble of healing you.” She mumbled halfheartedly.

He eyed her strangely. "Keep an eye on the kid for me." He said. 

“Sorry,” She replied. “He’s your kid, You do it.” 

Zabuza scoffed. He disappeared without another word.

She turned back to see Zabuza carry on fighting as though he’d never been interrupted.

Sakura hopped onto the nearest sturdy looking tree and circled closer to the battle taking place.

Kage-bunshin-no-Kakashi looked sufficiently occupied, stuck between the rock that is Zabuza and the hard place that Sakura strongly suspects is a ROOT ninja. 

Good, She sniffed, he deserves it.

It’s amazing really , Sakura thought appreciatively, how much damage his clone can take.

With her captor sufficiently occupied, Sakura’s thoughts turned inwards. If she left now, she could hide out in River country for a bit before making her way to Tobari no Sato. The black market there was second only to Konoha’s very own shinobi library in terms of information. She was bound to find some leads there and conceivably, be able to plan her next step. 

Sakura spared a thought for the boys. 

She quickly discarded her concerns. They were with Hatake Kakashi. They’ll be fine .

She sent Zabuza one last glance then turned to leave.

“SAKURA!”

Sakura flinched, almost falling off her perch. 

While she was sure the foliage kept her hidden, Kakashi’s face was turned in the general direction of her location. She shifted closer.  

Kakashi was stuck in a deadlock, a kunai fastened against the ANBU’s tantō and his spine hooked against Zabuza’s Sword.

Blood dripped down his side, staining the grass underneath the trio. His two-toned eyes looked straight at her.

And perhaps the most distressing detail about Kakashi, Sakura realized with dawning horror, was that he was not a clone.

Sakura felt her heart rate spike almost acutely.

Breathe.  

Kakashi asked her a wordless question.  

A question that genuinely warmed her core. A question that Sakura would answer affirmatively in a heartbeat, a thousand times over. In any scenario, in any world. For Kakashi, for her team-mates—past, present, future—the answer was always a resounding yes. 

Black ink bled into her skin, lines drawing themselves out from her forehead and down her neck. Sakura disappeared between the flaps of a hummingbird’s wings.

With a flick of her wrist, the ANBU took flight; wind whistling as they passed between one tree and the next. She caught hold of Kakashi’s shoulder for leverage, jumping up and driving a knee into Zabuza’s temple. He tumbled away from them. His sword followed, forcibly wrenched out of Kakashi’s gut by the sheer force of her assault. 

Sakura caught Kakashi as he fell, propelling an abundant amount of chakra into his wounds. In short order, blood vessels reconnected, organs healed and muscles stitched themselves back together. By the time he hit the floor, not even a scar was left to remind him of his injuries. 

A soundless gasp of relief left Kakashi’s lips. It was all he had time to do. 

They blinked out of existence.

Zabuza propped himself up against his sword, bewildered, out of breath and utterly alone .

“I want a rematch!” He bellowed.

His only acknowledgement was a singular, feeble echo.

Kakashi spat out more leaves, gagging at the taste. The trees passed in a blur, shades of green crossing their vision. He resigned himself to picking twigs out of his hair for the foreseeable future.  

“Where are they?” She asked curtly.

“The bridge.” He answered instantly. “South-side.”  

Kakashi watched in somber fascination as her facial marks faded out. She glanced down at him, a smile tugging the edge of her mouth. He crinkled his eyes in reply.

She hiked him higher into her arms.

“You know,” he started pragmatically, “I do resent the position I’m in.” 

“Unfortunate.” She drawled and then remained mum on the topic.

Kakashi sighed. 

He couldn’t sulk for long. The tang of salt coated the air, stinging his nose into awareness. They were closing in on the sea.

A few moments later, they emerged from the tree-line. Sakura changed directions and started moving along the coast. They were picking up speed, Kakashi noted. They were also, he remarked apprehensively, picking up quite a bit of wood chips.  

While he couldn’t glance down to confirm his thoughts, Kakashi assumed the branches were bearing the brunt of a fair amount of chakra. Minute pin-pricks along his back lent weight to his suspicions.

“They’ll be fine.” Kakashi spoke up. Bark exploded into confetti beneath them. Sakura’s face remained impassive. 

“Root—”, Kakashi sighed, “—will want to take them in alive.” 

“Danzo is using my presence here to covertly recruit the boys.” She responded. 

Kakashi blinked. “Yes.” 

“And the Hokage will turn a blind eye to this?” 

“Well, no.” 

Sakura raised an eyebrow in question.

“That’s why I’m here. To prevent that.”

She scoffed derisively at his words. “Ah yes. Your clone , with less than twenty percent of your strength, will fight off an entire team of ANBU to protect two morons who can’t differentiate between mortal peril and their own left toe.” 

Kakashi laughed, but Sakura couldn’t help but fret. She’d experienced a reality where Kakashi was gravely injured and Sasuke almost died. It was her first brush with the sheer impermanence of her mortality. And now she’s returned, stronger, more efficient and undoubtedly making things worse.

They leapt away from the trees and onto the top of an arch marking the entrance to the bridge. 

There, just like in her past, the civilian builders were knocked out left and right. Some were alarmingly still and heavily splattered with blood; others were moaning in pain, in various stages of semi-consciousness.

It was only on the far end of the bridge, where the pavement tapered off into nothing, that most of the action was taking place. A mass of Orange crawled along the free edge of the bridge, hanging onto any inch of free space. 

Sakura sharpened her eyes with a touch of chakra. 

“There.” She intoned. “They’re protecting some civilians. I can’t see any ROOT but I spotted Sasuke.” 

Kakashi nodded, looking relieved at having his feet under him. 

“Your clone?”

“Dissipated as of two minutes ago.” 

Sakura’s jaw clenched. She glanced at Kakashi’s face, he was unreadable. 

“Kakashi.” 

He hummed in question. 

“If you ever use them as bait again, I will tear you apart with my bare hands.” 

Kakashi’s lone eye widened at the accusation. It was all the answer she needed.

She used a body flicker jutsu and materialized in the middle of the crowd. 

“Sakura-neechan!” A chorus of questions followed. She put a hand out and ruffled the hair on top of the nearest clone. 

She scanned the sea of Orange and pinpointed Sasuke. He nodded at her in greeting, seemingly unsurprised to see her. 

Three ROOT ninja emerged from the shadows on the other side of the Orange mass. Sakura made eye-contact with all three.   

“I surrender.”         

Here, Take my word-vomit.

Have I mentioned that women carrying men make me go absolutely feral? Because it does.                     

It’s up to you to decide how much of Kakashi’s plan was premeditated and how much was sheer happenstance.

Every time I think about building a bridge between Kakashi and Sakura, my brain goes: but what if we just. Don’t?  

Chapter Text

TW: torture scene present halfway through.

There was no time for goodbyes. The moment Sakura was adequately secured, the ANBU took off with her, followed closely by the remnants of team 7. Neither Naruto or Sasuke were prepared for the harsh pace set by the ANBU team. Perhaps it was only due to Kakashi’s firm grip on them that they managed to hold out thus far. As it is, without her Chakra, the only thing pushing Sakura forward was pride and sheer will-power.

On their way out, they were joined by the copper-haired swords-man that Sakura threw into the trees. He led the group thereafter. 

They travelled three days in a linear fashion. Food was eaten as they moved and sleep was limited to 4 hours only. Sakura was under watch constantly, bathroom breaks included. Perhaps she would have been thankful for the presence of the singular female ROOT member but her nerves were too frayed to notice. 

The journey was harsh. Sakura had the mental capacity to discern very few things during it. She knew that one wrong twitch would introduce her to the business end of a kunai, this time wielded by someone who would not hesitate to use it. One thing she did notice was that the children were quiet. They kept to themselves, lingering near Kakashi but still noticeably distant. It only served to thoroughly spoil her already ruined disposition. 

By the third day of their travels, the air surrounding the group relaxed into one of stained familiarity. One could only be on guard for so long before it took a toll on you.

After an entire day of running without so much as a few minutes to take a breath, they stopped next to a tiny brook for the night. Sakura almost collapsed by the time they touched down. She wobbled her way to the nearest tree, followed closely by one of the male ANBU who proceeded to bind her to it.

On one side, the red-headed ANBU was stiffly setting up a tent while on the other side a sizable distance away, Kakashi and his team set up sleeping bags. She sat up against the tree, observing their movements. 

A fire was made, food was distributed and then came the main event. 

The red-haired ANBU, the designated team-leader, double-checked the seals and bindings stuck to her limbs. Two of the others merged into the tree-line. The last one stayed seated by the fire.

Wood crackled, occupying the fragile stillness enclosing the group.

Naruto sat fidgeting atop his bedroll. Sasuke stood a few feet away, looking out into the darkness. Waiting.  

The pin was poised in the air, waiting to fall. The air was dead. Anticipating.

Sakura closed her eyes, savouring the calm, steeling her mind.

You will survive this.

Her pulse beat hard in her ears. She put all her energy into steadying it.   

Fabric slithered on her far left. The pin dropped. The calm broke.

A hand grabbed onto a fistfull of her hair, pulling her forward and slamming her head back into the tree-trunk. 

Pain exploded behind her eyes. Subconsciously, Sakura registered Naruto’s yell of alarm.       

A dull throbbing spread from the back of her head and around to the edges of her temples. The back of her neck grew damp, either from blood or sweat.  

“Who is your current Hokage?” It was Kakashi who spoke, voice flat and devoid of emotion. 

She tasted blood on her tongue. Tilting her head back, Sakura shot him a blank look.

Her ankle was next, snapped between one moment and the next. She couldn’t help the scream she expelled. Tears were already falling from her eyes. 

Someone whimpered. Was it her? One of the kids? 

“What are your orders?” Kakashi continued in the same empty tone. 

On and on it went, bottomless questions interspersed with snapping bones. But Sakura was already gone, hidden in the deep recesses of her mind. 

One of the pros of having a second personality was the ability to converse with herself and actually get a reply. Another was the ability to switch places with the more ruthless version of herself whenever needed. The third, and perhaps most useful in this scenario, is the ability to completely cut herself off from her body—and all sensations. 

“What do you think, intent or ambition?”

“Intent, I think. ” Her own voice echoed back. “ Also, we were supposed to be in River country by now.” 

“I don’t know,” she hummed in thought, “Naruto’s intentions and ambitions have always been intertwined.” 

“Yes, but do you really want him to leak Kyuubi chakra everytime he says ‘I’m gonna be Hokage!!’?'' Her other half’s voice pitched itself higher at the end of her sentence, imitating Naruto’s eleven-year-old voice.     

“Alright.” She laughed, “Intent sounds more appropriate.”

Sakura wiped away some of the lines written in the air in front of her and started meticulously replacing it with the letters for Intention. 

“I need reassurance of their safety.” She hummed absentmindedly. “Either I stick these arrays on them—or I kidnap them.” 

Sakura didn’t need to vocalize her thoughts for her other self to hear them but she said it just the same. 

In her time, after the War, the minimum enrollment age was reluctantly pushed forward to 15 years. It took half a decade of arguing and research and statistics to get done. A political stand that almost got her assassinated by her own people. Seeing child soldiers again only reinforced her convictions.            

Once she was done, Sakura sat back and observed her seal. A comforting weight settled on her shoulder.

“Looks good.” 

“I hope this works.” She worried, “Did you finish that communication array?”

“Yep .” 

A seal flashed in her mind. Sakura nodded. “Wish me luck, then.” 

“Good luck.”

It took some effort to return to her mangled body. A body in pain found it easier to dissociate, to ask it to focus again was a colossal task. When she finally came to with a hiss of pain, it was to an eerily silent camping site. 

Kakashi was a few feet away, hunched over a tree. Her tormentor, the same copper-haired ROOT ninja was conversing softly with his teammate by the fire. Naruto was shivering in place, huddled next to a puddle of vomit. His eyes never left her face. Tear-tracks ran down his cheeks. More tears joined them when he noticed her consciousness.

Kakashi turned around at Naruto’s sniffles. His eyes skipped past Naruto and landed on her. He looked surprised to see her awake. 

“Hatake Kakashi.” She rasped. “I curse you with the power of knowledge.”

Sakura hunched forward and broke free of her binding with the sheer force of her natural physical strength.

Both the ropes and the chakra-leaching seals which were attached to it snapped and tore. With that came the trickled return of her chakra. She released the chakra stored in her forehead, letting it heal the gashes running down her body. Bones cracked and snapped as they realigned into their correct positions. 

In quick succession, two kunai embedded themselves into her body; one in her chest, close to her heart and the other through her left eye. 

Sakura reached up to pull the kunai out of her face. Blood and vitreous gel dribbled down her chin and onto her clothes.

Naruto heaved at the sight, crouching over to vomit again. 

She spoke, “Six months from now, a traitor will ambush your village. Your Hokage will die in the attack and therein begins the end of your team. One will betray you and the rest desert you. Be aware Kakashi, you will fail your team again.” 

Scarcely had Kakashi opened his mouth to speak when she vanished, reappearing briefly to snag Naruto before disappearing again. 

She body-flickered three times in three different directions, sending out clones to do the same at each turn. Hopefully, the strong concentration of chakra would throw them off and allow Sakura some breathing room.

By the time she finally settled down on an inconspicuous tree-branch, Naruto was already sobbing into her shoulder. 

“I won’t hurt you, darling.” She murmured softly. 

His crying intensified at her words. He mumbled incoherently into her shoulder, one bony hand pawing her face. 

Sakura understood instantly. “I’m okay, sweetling.” She consoled, “I’m a healer, I can heal any wound, see?” 

Naruto took his time, bracing himself to look at her. She waited patiently. Mentally, she directed her clones to widen their circle of activity.  

When he finally glanced at her, he beheld two perfectly normal, entirely healed eyes. Sakura blinked at him.

“We don’t have much time.” She said. “I wanted to ask you something.“ 

“What is it?” He asked, tone somber.

‘Do you want to come with me?’ was on the tip of her tongue. She bit her lip.

“I have a seal here, helps to communicate over long distances. Do you want to keep in touch?”

Naruto blinked at her. “Kakashi-sensei said you were gonna run away.”

“I was.” 

“But you gave yourself up.” He said quietly, almost to himself. “You-you had your bones broken. Your eye was —” He glanced back up at her. “All to-to keep in touch?” Naruto was almost hysterical by the end. “ Why?”  

Sakura hummed at his question. “Because you are my teammate and I love you.”

More tears shined in his eyes. “Yes.” he said, rubbing his eyes. “Yes, I want to keep in touch.” 

She used the blood drying on her skin to draw the seal onto both of their wrists, activating it with some chakra. They both watched as the seal disappeared into their skin. 

“Direct chakra into that area and speak into the seal whenever you want to talk.” She explained. “And eat well, you hear? Ramen isn’t as healthy as you think. And make sure you look at the expiry date before drinking your milk. And-” Naruto cut her off with a laugh. 

“Is this what it feels like to have a mum?”

Sakura ruffled his hair, swallowing her pain at his words. “And look out for Sasuke for me as well, yeah?” 

He nodded adorably. 

She dropped a kiss onto his temple. Chakra jumped from her lips to his skin, knocking him out. 

“I’m so sorry for this.” She muttered to him. Pulling his shirt up, Sakura quickly worked a secondary seal into his tailed beast one. Once that was done, she gently deposited him as close to camp as she dared before leaving.

Two miles out, she met up with her clone. Sakura stopped short at the unexpected guest with her. 

“What’s he doing here?” 

“Found him in the woods.” Her clone replied. “He’s in shock.” 

Sakura knelt in front of him and sure enough, Sasuke barely reacted to her presence.

“Sasuke?” she called out. “Can you hear me?”

She reached out and brushed a hand over his fingers. “Sasuke, it’s alright. You’re not in danger.” Relatively speaking. No response.

This was no good. She can’t leave him here like this and neither can she stay any longer without risking capture.

Fine. 

“Go.” She ordered her clone. It left quickly, diving into the trees. Most of her clones were unfortunately, already disposed of. She rallied the rest into diverting her captors away from her position. 

“Right.” She said. “Let’s go, princess.” 

Sakura lifted him into her arms and ran.  

Chapter Text

Sasuke’s presence was...troubling.

Well, besides the fact that Sakura stole away the Last Uchiha™, one of Konoha’s Most prized possessions that they will henceforth be searching high and low for.

Sasuke was a severely traumatized child. Allowing him, nay forcing him to witness a particularly barbarous interrogation out in the middle of nowhere without any psychiatric intervention nearby bordered on gross negligence. 

If I ever get my hands on Hatake again…

Between carrying Sasuke, avoiding detection and running as far as she could before someone caught up, Sakura hadn’t had the time or accommodations to help him out of his catatonic state.

He’d been quiet for the most part as they traveled. Staring into nothingness at the beginning and quickly falling asleep when Sakura fell into a steady rhythm. She ran all night and most of the day until she recognized the rolling hills of Cha no Kuni.

They were currently in a narrow valley between two hills surrounding the Oolong district of Tea country. It didn’t offer much protection from the elements but the hills protected them from being spotted immediately.

Sakura observed Sasuke over the merrily crackling fire. He was hunched over in the very same spot where she had first placed him when she dropped down to make camp. His face was the very picture of indifference, it hadn’t changed since yesterday. She didn’t remember the last time he had talked. And she’s pretty sure he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday’s dinner either. 

“Here.” She said hesitantly, offering him one half of a hare she had caught and fried. “You should eat.” 

He blinked in response. 

Sakura chewed on her lip, wondering how she could fix this particular conundrum. She wasn’t much familiar with the psychological aspect of rehabilitation, that was more Ino’s field. From what she could remember of her studies, Sasuke was in a state of dissociation. How severe, she didn’t know. 

She pulled off a piece of fried meat and moved closer to him. “Here.” She tried again, holding the food near to his mouth. When he didn’t respond yet again, Sakura decided to try another tactic. She made sure to leave any uncertainty out of her tone.

“Open your mouth.” She commanded. 

He opened his mouth automatically and Sakura almost cried with joy.

“Chew.” 

He chewed.

She fed him the entire half of the hare and even had him gulp down some water. He was resistant to her attempts to lay him down so in the end Sakura made him lean against a boulder to protect him from the winds. She put out the fire and settled down on the ground a few feet away from Sasuke but still in his field of vision. 

In the sheer darkness of the night, the full might of the Milky way shone bright in the Sky. A veritable River of stars flowing North to South.

Maybe she was hearing things, but Sakura was certain Sasuke started breathing easier. 

“I don’t know if you were ever taught this at the Academy,” She started quite suddenly, “but that’s the North Star.” She pointed to the brightest star in the sky, somewhere a little above her head. Sakura belatedly realized that Sasuke might not be able to see her pointing and lowered her arm. “Some people call it the Polaris, the brightest star in the sky.”

The silence after her words was deafening and Sakura felt embarrassed all of a sudden. She thought of what else she could talk about. Finally, Sakura decided to open Pandora’s box and talk about one of Older Sasuke’s misadventures. 

As if summoned by her thoughts, a chakra-charged cloud materialized mere feet from their camp. Thunder rumbled around them, purple lightning kissing the grass at their feet.

“Fuck.”  She hissed, rushing over to Sasuke. His eyes were glazed over and he was trembling in place. She used her body to cover the Portal taking form behind her.

“You’re okay.” She told him, soothingly. “You’re safe. Nothing here will harm you.” 

“Sakura.” A voice called from behind her. Sakura wanted to scream.

Instead, she took a steadying breath and cupped both of Sasuke’s pale cheeks. “I need to speak with the man behind me.” She told him. “I’m gonna move you close to the trees so you don’t have to see him.” She waited for a nod, a blink, anything. Sasuke was painfully, painfully blank. 

Sakura created a clone who proceeded to carry Sasuke away. He looked small in her arms. 

It was only once she was certain that he was far enough away that she turned around, a headache already brewing in the back of her mind.

Bright sunlight shined out of the portal. So it was Daytime there. 

“Hokage-sama.” Sakura greeted softly. “Sasuke.” 

Her Hokage gave her a deeply amused stare. “Heard about your, ah situation. ” He stressed.

Sasuke—the older one—stood gruffly beside him. He nodded at her greeting. 

“You came all this way to offer me your sympathies?” She asked, deadpan. 

“You were never this cheeky when I was your teacher.” He replied dolefully, looking at Sasuke for sympathy.

“You didn’t stick around to earn it.” She replied, full of the aforementioned cheek .

Kakashi cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well, I suppose that’s a conversation for another day.”

Sakura inclined her head to oblige.

“Anyway.” He continued, “Here. I wrote down my endorsement of your activities in the past.” He threw a scroll through the portal into her hands. 

She unfurled it to read the contents.

Kakashi started speaking again. “I’ve specifically mandated that you be given access to the library for research. In exchange, there is a list of future events you are allowed to speak about. I’ve also stressed the importance of keeping you away from most of the ninja community.” He coughed. “Especially Danzo and our past selves.”

Sakura waited until he finished speaking to add her two cents. “This is useless.” She told him frankly. “You’re a future Hokage. Your words don’t mean shit in the past. Not to mention, Danzo already sent a team to extract information by force.” Sakura waved a hand behind her. “Konoha is no-go. Besides, this thing about your past selves is stupid, they’re already neck deep. I have Sasuke here with me right now.”

She watched as Kakashi short-circuited right in front of her very eyes. 

“Why is he here?” Sasuke demanded, quickly taking control of the conversation. 

“He’s in shock." Sakura replied. Other Sakura reared her ugly head at Sasuke’s tone.

“Watch the tone, fucker." Other hissed, curling herself around Sakura’s mind. 

“Shock?” Sasuke asked, incredulous. “Return him to the village. Now.”

Sakura looked him up and down before raising an eyebrow at his audacity. “I removed him from an overstimulated environment based on my professional opinion.” 

“He’s just begging me to rip out his arm again.” Other crooned. Sakura almost smirked at her words.

“You're altering the Past , Sakura. There will be repercussions.” He warned ominously. 

“Sasuke.” She cut in. “My younger version is dead. The Past is already altered.”

“I’m supposed to save the world.” He told her heatedly, singular ruby eye spinning furiously. “You’re just a fu— Hn —Orochi-” He started sputtering in place, twitching violently. 

Kakashi pushed him away from the portal. “Breathe Sasuke.” He barked. “Sakura, I think he’s right. You should probably return the kid. For his, and your own good.”

Sakura pressed her lips together, swallowing the words Other wanted to hurl at the duo. She watched the portal ripple in place as Sasuke’s mental state destabilized. 

“How long until you can pull me through?” She asked.

Kakashi grimaced. “Not for a while yet. We’re working on it.”

“Okay.” Sakura replied. “Then you can punish my actions when I return. For now, the child stays with me until he’s stable.” 

Kakashi stammered a protest. Sakura ignored him.

“Sasuke.” She called out to the man behind the portal. “I’m gonna fuck your brother.” 

The last thing she heard was an agonized scream as the portal fizzled out of existence. 

Other was howling inside her head. “You got him good.” She cackled.

Sakura huffed in amusement. She waited, letting her eyes acclimatize to the dark again before returning to where her clone stood guarding Sasuke. 

“He’s still awake.” Her clone told her and popped out of existence.

Sakura knelt in front of him. “Hey buddy.” She said, bringing a glowing hand close to his face. She was surprised to see him blinking back at her.

“Why did you call me?” He mumbled, rubbing a fist over his eye.  

“Hm? Oh, I was talking to someone else, actually.” She replied. “One of my slugs is also called Sasuke, how funny is that?”

“Oh.” He said. “Okay.” 

“We should probably sleep.” Sakura told him, “Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day.” 

Sasuke nodded and laid down. She did too, a little ways away.

In the morning, Sakura woke to Sasuke’s foot in her face, so she figured he was getting better. 

She hunted down and roasted one more hare for breakfast. It was as she was cooking the rodent that Sasuke finally woke.

“Morning.” She said cheerily to his disoriented face. 

“Wha—” He stated eloquently, sitting up. “Where…?”

“Tea country.” Sakura answered him. 

In response, Sasuke scowled. Sakura smiled in return. He's back. 

“Why.” 

“You looked like you could use a vacation.” Sakura said offhandedly, using a stick to stroke the fire.

“You kidnapped me.”

“Yes, Sasuke.” She agreed, “In my limited time between breaking free and escaping custody, I decided it would be a hilarious idea to kidnap Konoha’s rare-breed Uchiha puppy for funsies.”   

Sasuke turned up the intensity of his glare. 

“Okay.” She tried again, a more diplomatic approach. “How about if you sit down and eat half of this hare, I will try and answer your questions. Hm?” 

“Hn.” He agreed. 

So Sakura gave him a rundown on what actually happened in the last few minutes of her jail-break. 

“You seem to be doing much better now.” She said finally. “But I suggest you look into doing some therapy for your triggers. There are some really great exercises that will help you control them better.” 

Sasuke did not exactly agree with her, but he did look thoughtful. It’s a start. 

They shared a few minutes in silence. Sakura felt soothed by the slight breeze flowing through her hair. She sighed as she handled a few wavy strands, the ends dry and split. She tied her hair away into a braid, opting to handle its deterioration later. 

“What now?” Sasuke asked suddenly. 

“Well, my plans are a secret, unfortunately.” She told him. “But you’re free to leave.” 

Sasuke stared at her. Incredulously. He bore a striking resemblance to his future self’s face from a few hours ago.   

“Do you...not...want to leave?” Sakura asked, much to Sasuke’s indignation. 

“Why would you kidnap me in the first place?!” He asked furiously. “If I was free to leave two days after?” 

“I didn’t kidnap you.” Sakura explained for the third time. “You were in shock. I removed you from an overstimulated environment.”  

“Tch, yeah.” He scoffed. “Then why am I tied up?” 

“You’re not—” Sakura sighed heavily, feeling like she’s aged ten years in the span of a few minutes.

“One week.” She said, showing the number on her hand. “You can stay for one week and then I will return you.” 

“Hm.” Sasuke hummed neutrally. 

Privately, Sakura was pleased with his decision but she wouldn’t be telling him that any time soon. 

“Now that that’s settled.” She said, getting up and dusting herself off. “Shall we take a tour of the country-side?” 

Chapter Text

Sakura decided that this would be a great learning experience for Sasuke. Running from the authorities, she explained gleefully, is the exact conditions necessary to develop solid espionage skills.  

“You’re being hunted. ” Sasuke reminded her, deadpan, slightly concerned for her mental wellbeing. 

“They can’t catch what they can’t find.” Sakura told him, grinning wickedly. 

“Okay,” Sasuke agreed doubtfully. “So we’ll need disguises. Henge, then?”

“Hmm.” She thought as she walked a leisurely path through the tea plantations surrounding them. The road continued on and on into the horizon, winding around and between the hills in front of them. A very picturesque example of tranquil village life. 

The sun shined especially bright today.

“I have another suggestion.” She told him. “A Henge uses chakra. Even an amateur tracker could easily detect it. It’s actually one of the first things you look for as a tracker. Anyway, it’s always easier to disguise yourself the old fashioned way.”

“We don’t have spare clothes.” Sasuke said, reminding her—again—of their circumstances. “Or money.”

“You will if you find smoke.” She told him matter-of-factly.

“Smoke.” He looked like he was ready to ask the next passer-by they came across to end his miserable existence. 

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Okay, wise guy. What does smoke represent?”

“Fire.” 

“Okay, and how is a fire made?” 

“By...people?” 

“Yep.” She nodded enthusiastically. And as if fate was smiling down on them, ashy smoke rose into the air a little ways down the road. Sakura pointed this out to Sasuke. 

“It’s a well known fact that merchants go through Tea when transporting goods to River country.” She told him. “Do you know what River is famous for?”

“Um.” Sasuke thought for a minute. “Wheat?” 

Sakura smiled in surprise. “That’s a good guess actually. River does transport a lot of agricultural products. Their rice production is second only to Rice country because well, Rice country." She made a duh face. “But they’re actually the biggest producers of cotton .”

“Because cotton needs lots of water?”

“Yeah! And River country has like five rivers or something. So plenty of water to go around. Anyway, River has a standing agreement with Wind country to trade cotton and in return they receive fabric.” 

Sasuke nodded. “And this information will help us...how?” 

Sakura sighed. “Do you have such little faith in me?” She asked, pouting at the sky.  

Before Sasuke could open his mouth and no doubt, explain exactly how little faith he has in her, Sakura brought them to a sudden halt. She gestured for him to follow her. They circled in a wide arc around the merchant camp and settled down behind some bushes of tea. A few feet in front of them, surrounded by armed guards, were two big caravans transporting goods.

“The reason for this impromptu lesson in international trade Sasu-cakes, is because those caravans out there are bound to have some clothes we could use.” 

Sasuke clenched his jaw, eyebrow twitching in annoyance. “Why are we robbing merchants on the road instead of just snatching clothes off a line or something.” 

“Because if we steal from a farmer, they wouldn’t be able to afford a replacement. Merchants, on the other hand, are usually insured against these kinds of scenarios. Not to mention, such a loss would barely make a dent in their business anyway.” 

"But—" Sasuke cut himself off. He watched her, as though he was expecting her to interject into his protest. 

“But?”  She prompted.

“Isn’t that...wrong?” 

“Yes.” Sakura agreed. “So is murder, and we seem to be doing plenty of that.”

He looked away, grimacing at her words.

“As a ninja,” She continued, watching the merchants go about their routines. “We’ll always be elbow-deep in something we find morally repulsive. That’s our life. The only thing we can do is pick the lesser evil.” 

They watched the guards slowly dismantle tents and put out the fire that steered them here. 

“Now, c’mon.” Sakura encouraged him. “I have a mission for you.” 

Sasuke shot her an exasperated look. 

“You can contemplate your existence later.” Sakura teased. “Your mission right now is to Henge into one of those merchants and get us something to wear.” 

“And what are you going to do?” He raised an eyebrow, judging her. Well, Kakashi is his teacher. She can’t blame him. He probably thought she was going to slack off or something.

“Kid, you have way too much spunk for the little package you come in.” She told him frankly.

Sasuke scowled. 

She beamed at him. “Also, how are you going to steal anything without a distraction?” 

Sakura put on a face of utter horror. “OH!” She yelled, scrambling through the bush and into the road. “OH, HELP! HELP ME!” 

Sasuke watched, mind oscillating between bewilderment and amusement. A merchant and two guards slowly approached Sakura. He crawled further away from the crowd forming around her and Henged into a passable copy of a merchant’s outfit. He made himself a few inches taller and morphed his hair close to a soft tawny colour. 

He walked out of the underbrush and made a beeline for the caravans. Sasuke made sure to keep his shoulders relaxed and look as if he knew what he was doing. 

He was stopped near the caravans by one of the guards. 

“Can I help you, sir?” The man asked. He was a short man, middle aged with unusual red hair and carrying a broadsword at his hip. He didn’t seem too suspicious of Sasuke’s presence, looking as though he was expecting him. 

“I was sent to do an inventory of the goods.” Sasuke replied, sweating through his excuse. 

“Of course sir.” The man stepped aside and Sasuke almost sighed in relief. 

The caravans were kept closed by a tarp with a slit down the middle. Sasuke picked the one that was slightly out of the line of sight of the guard. Inside, it was filled to the brim with crates containing a variety of things. He found some clothes stored near the back of the caravan and quickly snatched up the first two pieces that caught his eye. 

The noise levels spiked momentarily, making Sasuke tense. He threw the stolen items into the bushes and exited the caravan. Sasuke found the sentry watching the commotion coming from the front of the camp. 

“What’s happening?” He asked the guard, straining to keep his tone casual. 

“Don’t know, some crazy lady came running out of the bushes. Kept yelling about a talking one-eyed scarecrow.” The man shook his head. “Sounds like a lunatic if you ask me.” 

Sasuke nodded, trying his best to keep a straight face. He bid the man a brief goodbye and rushed away from the caravans and the camp. It was another twenty minutes before Sakura appeared again.

“I think they bought the crazy act.” She started, wheezing in laughter. "How did it go on your end?"

Sasuke threw the ball of fabric at her head. She caught it before it reached her and unfolded it to show a finely made grey Kosode. 

"Hmm." Sakura thought as she observed the textile. It was a beautifully made fabric, too fine for just any civilian. 

She nodded at Sasuke. "Great job, kid. Did you have any trouble?"

"No." Sasuke said, smirking in self-satisfaction.

"Good." She beamed. "Now, let's get our stories straight." 

Sakura sat herself on the log that Sasuke was perched on. "Okay, the fabric is really well made, so we can’t just be any random civilian, right?” Sasuke frowned in thought, nodding along to her words. 

“So, I could be a mid-level merchant's wife and you can be…?” She trailed off, letting him choose. 

“A servant boy?” Sasuke piped up after a moment.

Sakura smiled in encouragement. “Why?” 

“You’re too young to have a child my age.” He replied thoughtfully. “And no merchant wife would dare travel alone.” 

“And you're tall for your age, you could pass for thirteen or fourteen years. Old enough to be a Samurai guard.” She prompted.

“But inexperienced enough for someone of your stature to afford.” Sasuke completed.

“Bravo.” Sakura said, smiling proudly. Sasuke ducked his head, suddenly shy.

They dressed quickly and Sakura managed to put the barest sliver of chakra over her head to cover up her bejeweled forehead and turn her hair to a very ordinary black. It would have to do until she can get her hands on some hair-dye. She put it into a low bun to appear more refined.

“Now, c'mon. There’s a town about five miles north.” She said, pointing south. “Lunch is on me.” Sakura dangled a coin pouch from her hands. “And remind me to get you a sword.”

They reached the town a little after sunset.

"Uh." Sakura said, exhausted. "Maybe I miscalculated?"

"You misdirected. " Sasuke huffed, red-faced and panting. 

They dragged themselves to the nearest food stand and ordered the first thing that came to mind. 

Sakura scratched her wrist as she stared bleary-eyed at the dishes set down in front of her. 

"Miso Ramen…?"

Sasuke lifted his head at her words. He scowled at the food. "Stupid dobe." He mumbled, dropping his head back onto the table. 

They ate the food slowly, nodding all the while. 

Sasuke fell asleep at the table which was unfortunate because it threw their whole cover story out the proverbial window. 

Sakura paid their waiter and asked them for the location of the nearest inn. She weaved a fine layer of Genjutsu around them, showing a father carrying a sleeping toddler and set off to find the inn. 

She hoped her jutsu usage wouldn’t come back to bite her any time soon.

Sakura found the inn easily and checked into the cheapest room. It was cramped, with a little window overlooking the main road but it was safer than the outdoors. She tucked Sasuke into one of the musty futons that were provided with the room and went to crack open the window. 

She scratched at her wrist, looking out into the streets.

It was still early in the night but Sasuke was out like a light. She wouldn’t blame him, the country-side was rough for someone with no supplies. She decided tomorrow they would go shopping for some provisions, then maybe they could hide out somewhere remote until the week was up. Perhaps she could teach him something useful in the meantime, the chunin exams were coming up after all. He would need all the help he could get.

Maybe she should sleep. 

Sakura rubbed her wrist up and down on her Kosode, it really was itching something fierce. She looked down at it in frustration to see the communication array flare up.

‘Naruto.’ She realized with a jolt, activating the array.

“Naruto?” Sakura spoke into her wrist, ears perked for a response. 

“Sakura-nee-chan?" Naruto’s voice spoke clearly through the seal. She could even hear the sound of water running in the background. 

‘Other, you've outdone yourself.’ Sakura praised internally. Other sent her an image of herself, proudly flexing her biceps.

“I’m here.” She replied to Naruto.  

“Hey! I can hear you! This is so cool, nee-chan! I feel like a super awesome ninja! Wait, I am one.” He coughed awkwardly and then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I-is Sasuke-teme with you?”  

“Where are you right now?” She asked in return, “Can anyone hear this conversation?”

“Eh, no way! I’m in my bathroom. Even left the water running so they can’t hear me talking. Smart, huh?! ”  

“That is smart.” She praised. “Are you under supervision? Did they question you?” 

“Yeah, there’s some masked weirdos outside my apartment but they don’t talk much. Oh yeah, when we got home, Bastard-sensei took me to this scary bald guy with some major scars. I told him I don’t remember much. Then they brought in this blond guy who did some jutsu that made him snooze off. Pretty useless jutsu if you ask me.” 

“Did he hurt you?” She asked hurriedly, alarmed.

“What, no! The guy woke up screaming. Maybe he had a nightmare? I dunno, they let me go after that.” Sakura could almost feel him scratching his head in confusion.

She chuckled. Of all the times for the Kyuubi to step in.

“Yes.” She sighed, finally answering his question. Guilt settled into her gut. “Yes, Sasuke’s with me. He was in a bad state after—well, I brought him with me for his own safety.” 

Naruto’s silence in reply to her words made her feel infinitely worse. She should have taken him along as well. She chewed on her lip.

“Did you want to come with me?” She asked softly, wondering if she misinterpreted his silence. Sakura was a traitor after all, a turncoat, a deserter. She would be on the run for as long as she stays in the past. She couldn’t ask a child to leave everything he’s ever known to follow her into adversity. She’s nothing like Sasuke or Naruto, she can’t protect them from what was coming, from destiny or fate or some other fucking bullshit that decided their lives. Fuck, if she knew what’s good for her, she’ll drop Sasuke off near the village at dawn. 

“Uh...I don’t know .” Naruto spoke softly. Sakura’s heart clenched. He sounded so, so, so fragile . “ Guess I never thought about it. Konoha’s all I’ve ever known. I mean, the people aren’t exactly nice and I kinda don’t have any friends and — well. Okay maybe like three friends. But Iruka-sensei is my sensei and Teuchi and Ayame-nee-chan only think of me as their best customer and um...I dunno, maybe?”

“Do you want me to come get you?” The words slipped out before she could think about it. And why should she anyway? Fuck the village, fuck Hiruzen. Why did she leave a child at the mercy of a bunch of cowards and imbeciles?  

Naruto laughed awkwardly. “Ah, nee-chan, don’t be silly. ”

“Do you want me to come get you?” She asked again, enunciating each word. “Just say the word and I will . Not the ANBU, not Kakashi, not even the fucking Hokage can stop me. Just say the word Naruto and I will come get you. ”

“No, I- No , Sakura-nee-chan. I’m fine, I’m okay. I want to stay, just for a while longer.” 

“Okay.” She replied. “Okay. Take your time.” 

They bid each other goodbye. And Sakura was alone again for the night. 

She wondered where it was that her life went so wrong. And she wondered if maybe she deserved it just a little. 

Chapter Text

“You know, I would help but—” Sakura covered her mouth with a hand to stifle her laughter. “—the ‘drowned rat’ look is very becoming on you.” 

Sasuke groaned in frustration, shooting her the evil eye. He pulled himself out of the tiny lake they found and set to wringing out his clothes. 

“What did you learn this time?” She asked, lying comfortably in the shade a few feet away. Birds chirped in the distance as Sakura observed the sunlight piercing in from the canopy above them. It was a peaceful afternoon on the border of the Land of swamps.

Sasuke put his shirt on a branch to dry and sat cross-legged against a large root emerging from the ground. He hummed in thought. 

“There is a barrier or something on the water.” He answered. 

Sakura confirmed his thoughts. “Surface tension.”

He nodded, “I tried coating chakra over it this time. I was able to stand for a few seconds before it broke.” 

“Were you pouring in more chakra as you stood?”

“Yeah.” he said, “Like for a Jutsu.”

Sakura sat up, giving him an amused look. “It’s not a Jutsu though.” She pointed out. “Water-walking and tree-walking are chakra modulation exercises. Pour in only what is necessary and keep it steady. Too much chakra and you’ll break the surface.”

Sasuke looked worse for wear at her words.

“Lunch then?” she asked, switching lanes. He nodded wordlessly. 

They huddled around the small campfire, eating reheated rice and dried meats. Three days in each other’s presence was enough time for them to form a flexible schedule involving travel, making camp and training. 

Their only day in the minor town in Tea was spent buying supplies for an extended period of rough terrain camping. The rest of their time was spent dodging main roads and essentially staying on the move. Sakura didn’t have a concrete plan in mind save for dropping Sasuke off near the edge of Fire country by the end of the week. 

Her lack of an action-plan helped in that they didn’t encounter any pursuers yet. it was just a matter of time, she knew. They would catch up soon and Sakura needed Sasuke gone by then.       

In the meantime, Sakura enjoyed being a teacher. 

It was undeniable. 

Teaching Sasuke was a new experience but an entirely welcome one. He was a good student, eager to learn and absorbing information like a sponge. And he preened like a bird at even the smallest praise. Which made her question how much positive reinforcement he legitimately received.

Their growing comfort around each other should have warned her but in the end, his question still caught her off-guard.  

“Do I succeed then, in killing that man?” He asked, glaring a hole into his bowl of food.

Sakura swallowed her rice, choking on it the whole way down. 

So that’s what they’re doing today.

She set her food aside and contemplated how to answer this most difficult of all difficult questions.

“Yes and no.” She answered honestly. Sakura moved closer to him and held his hands in a loose grip meant to comfort. Quietly, she marveled at the fact that Sasuke was even allowing this proximity. He was tense, following her closely with his eyes. “Sasuke.” She told him seriously. “The answer to your question is very complicated and possibly traumatizing for you.” 

Sasuke’s jaw clenched at her words. 

“If you ask to know, I will answer honestly. But are you in the right mindset to be receiving this information?”          

“What-I-I don’t know what that means.” He whispered in confusion. Sasuke ripped his hands away, putting distance between them. He paced across their tiny clearing in agitation. “I don’t care about how I feel . What happened—what happens ? I need answers." He snapped, clearly stressed. 

Sakura felt her frustration rise as she stood up. “I care.” She told him sharply. “I care about how this will affect you. You are twelve years old, a child. You’re not an avenger. You’re not even close to old enough to handle cold-blooded murder. ” 

“What would you know?” He hit back, lashing out, aiming to hurt.  

“I know enough.” She replied, staring him down. “I know how you turned out. What the truth took from you.” 

Sasuke’s breathing was harsh, eyes rimmed red in distress. He glared at her, face twisting in his anger. “I asked you a question.” 

“So did I.” She hit back. “Are you willing to recall traumatic events in your past that may or may not trigger an acute stress response?” 

Sasuke didn’t answer right away. He blinked at her and slowly looked away, considering her words.

Sakura sat back down and set herself with cleaning up. Something to keep her hands busy as she figured out how to explain well, everything.   

Sasuke walked away to the lakeside and pulled on his now dry shirt while Sakura washed up a little further away at the lakeside, lending him as much space as possible. She returned about an hour later, hauling two fat fishes over her shoulder. 

Sasuke glanced up when she returned. 

Sakura returned his gaze from where she sat, tilting her head in question. 

In the end he scoffed, sitting back down and thrusting his hands back into hers. “Tell me.” He said. “Please.” 

So she did. 

Sasuke’s face became progressively more haggard and haunted as she told her story. He cried through parts of it, sobbing hard into his hands. He raged through others, weapons drawn and screaming. Sakura had to take steadily longer breaks in between her storytelling, letting Sasuke calm himself somewhat before continuing. At times, she felt cruel, making him suffer through the debasement of his family, the people whose deaths were probably replaying in his head as he listened to her. 

At one point, Sasuke had clutched her by the collar as she spilled another truth. Chakra flaring and spittle flying, he begged her to stop. Sasuke clung to her as though she was the only thing holding him in place, the only thing tethering him to this world. 

She held him to her, unwavering against his agony, his rage. The eye of a tempest seething at the world. Sakura shed her own tears then, hiding them in Sasuke's hair.  

“So yes,” She said. “In the end, you did avenge your family. All your family.” Her shoulder dampened as Sasuke buried his head there. 

“When Sasuke finally came back,” She continued softly into Sasuke’s curled back, one of her hands patting him in comfort, “he was hollow, a ghost. Too far gone to be human again.”

Sakura had once contemplated putting him out of his misery, to give him the solace he so truly needed. Back when she didn’t know whether Sasuke was friend or foe or an insane invalid. The only Sasuke she knew was the one who had killed three innocent passers-by. 

She would take her thoughts with her to Hell when the time came but she wouldn’t apologise for them. For all that he’s been through, for all that he’s done, Sasuke deserved peace if not much more.              

The growing darkness hid Sasuke’s features as he turned to face her. “What do I do now?” He asked, voice cracking in clear anguish. 

Sakura didn’t have the words to comfort him. What could he even do apart from moving forward? The truth can’t bring back the dead. 

She shook her head and held him close.

Sasuke was withdrawn the next day and Sakura hadn’t expected any different. In response, she set an unhurried course across the border and into Swamp country. The scenery changed gradually as the day wore on. The trees changed shape and species. Dry forest paths slowly turned damp then muddy. At that point, they took to the trees and continued onwards. 

Sasuke didn’t seem to notice that he only stumbled twice during his trip through the trees. 

But Sakura did. 

A week back, he had to be carried by his sensei because of his inexperience. Now he was sailing through the trees just as well as any Konoha-nin. Sakura smiled to herself in pride.

The day was spent in silence for the most part. Sasuke was pensive but responsive, which was what kept most of her worries at bay.           

Lunch was late and consisted of onigiri made from yesterday’s leftover rice and fish. They sat atop a large root overlooking the Jade-hued water as they munched away. Dense layers of green algae hugged both sides of the meandering river roping its way through Swamp country.

Flies and insects of all kinds buzzed above the water and about their heads. Sakura hissed, swatting at a mosquito stuck to her shin. “Stupid bug.” She growled.

She finished off the rest of her onigiri and wiped her hand against her thigh. She got up and steadied herself on the emerald waters before turning to Sasuke. “C’mon.” She said. “You haven’t practiced your water walking yet.” 

Sasuke eyed her outstretched hand and then the water dubiously. “Crocodiles?” He asked.

“Maybe.” Sakura replied after some thought. “Just pray they can’t walk on water like us.” She teased, hauling him up by the hand. 

Sasuke balanced himself on the root, hand still in Sakura’s grasp as he stuck one foot onto the surface of the water. Slowly, he put more weight onto his foot, sweat sliding down his forehead as he concentrated. 

A grin broke across his face as his foot held steady. 

Sasuke quickly put his other foot down as well, simultaneously turning to Sakura and opening his mouth to say “It work—” before he broke through the surface and up to his shoulders in the water. Sakura held onto the scruff of his shirt in the nick of time, stopping him from falling all the way through. 

She guffawed at Sasuke's disgruntled expression. “Concentrate!” She chided, still laughing. Sakura pulled him up and out of the water, holding him in the air as he tried to stand on the water. Another fifteen minutes passed before Sasuke was able to shakily balance himself.

They held hands as Sasuke took slow steps, one in front of the other until she was sure he wouldn’t fall in. He was able to stay above water for upto five minutes by the time they stopped practicing.       

They continued traveling after Sasuke dried himself and changed into a set of clothes bought from their tiny village in Tea. By sundown, they found twinkling lights in the distance. 

“Welcome to Sorui.” Sakura told Sasuke off-handedly. She dug her fingers into the aching muscles at her shoulders. 

“Now I know why you wanted me to practice.” Sasuke muttered in reply, eyeing the far off lights. 

Sorui was unique in several ways. It was the only town in Swamp country big enough to boast an inn. It was also the only known floating town that Sakura has ever had the fortune of seeing with her own two eyes.  

Sorui was also situated in the center of an ancient crater. Midori no Hebi, the Great Green Snake River slithers down from Amegakura like its namesake, fills in the crater surrounding Sorui and flows out again until it reaches the land of Lakes and becomes a subsidiary to another, even bigger river, the Benzaiten.     

All this to say that Sorui was surrounded on all four sides by water. 

The only civilian way in and out was by boat. And Ninja don’t do well in enclosed spaces without atleast three methods of evasion in their pocket at all times. 

“No ninja would go anywhere without a few contingency plans in place.” Sakura quipped. “We’ll actually be taking a boat into town. The water-walking is just in case we run into trouble.” She pointed down the river where more lights illuminated a wooden barge surrounded by loiterers.   

They snuck on board with a bit of chakra and blended in with the crowd. 

Sakura leaned her weight against the railing as she looked out to where the town inched closer with every minute that passed. Amidst the chatter taking place around her, she felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu. She blinked, trying to place where the feeling stemmed from. A passing commuter knocked into her quite suddenly and the sensation vanished just as quickly as it came.

Sakura frowned, trying to recall exactly what triggered her awareness. Nothing in her immediate surroundings jumped out. 

Well, perhaps it was nothing.

Sasuke stayed close, keeping a guarded eye on the people surrounding them. 

“We’ll be there soon.” Sakura told him, absent-mindedly rubbing a hand over her wrist. She hadn’t spoken to Naruto since that day at the inn. She should get in touch soon, ask him how he’s doing. 

The whole ride took half an hour as the barge slowly made its way to the island town. In the mean-time, Sakura and Sasuke changed into their previously discussed merchant attire. By the time they docked, Sakura and Sasuke were the first ones out of the boat, minds restless with the need for open space. 

They found the tiny inn first, with little to no fuss and booked a room under a civilian pseudonym. The money they used to pay for the room came from the pocket of a generous gentleman on the barge whom they witnessed harassing a woman many times younger to him. It was the least they could do to repay him.  

While Sasuke took his time in the bathroom, Sakura mulled over her conundrum. The inn and its surroundings looked exceedingly familiar to her. Each turn of her head earned her another jolt of déjà vu that continued to escape her conscious thoughts.

‘Other?’ Sakura asked in the privacy of her mind, “Any luck?”

“Nope.” She answered a second later, “I’m hitting a wall as well.”

Sakura sighed in return. ‘Well,’ She replied when no other words came to mind, ‘Glad to know you’re still alive.’

“Maybe you should come visit more.” Other sniffed in derision. “Then you’ll know for sure.”

Sakura rolled her eyes as Other stuck her metaphysical tongue out at her. ‘Watch it.” She warned childishly, ‘or the next book will be about Chakra theory.’

Other replied by shutting her mental door in Sakura’s face. “You’re ugly.” she called out, a parting shot that didn’t even ruffle Sakura’s feathers.  

Sasuke made his exit from the bathroom then.

Sakura smiled in greeting. “Dinner?” She asked and Sasuke nodded. 

They leisurely made their way from the Dock end of town down to the centre of all the hustle and bustle. 

The whole town consisted of wooden walkways and bridges connecting houses, businesses and entire platforms filled to the brim with vendors hawking their wares. After an unknown amount of time perusing the curios offered to them, both Sakura and Sasuke gravitated towards the lonesome food-stall standing in the corner. 

They settled down on two bar-stools and didn’t even glance at the menu before simultaneously calling out “One Miso Ramen.” 

They watched, straight-faced as the chef prepared their meals with practiced motions.

“You miss Naruto.” Sakura declared without an ounce of doubt. 

“So do you.” Sasuke threw back just as quickly.

The chef set down their respective bowls of ramen with a soft clink and went to serve his other customers. 

“What are you waiting for, then?” Sasuke asked, taking his first bite of ramen. 

Sakura tilted her head in confusion, letting her noodles plop back into her bowl and spill soup on the counter. “What?” She asked, bewildered.

Sasuke swallowed his ramen before he replied. 

“Let’s go get him.”  

Chapter Text

Sakura put her head in her hands, resisting the urge to voice an outright no. She pressed her lips together for good measure. "Let's talk after dinner." She replied, pulling her bowl of ramen close.

Sasuke opened his mouth to argue, face set into a stubborn frown.

"Please." She replied, putting a hand up to stop him. She gestured to their surroundings with her eyes, waiting until Sasuke nodded in acquiescence before returning to her broth. Unease pooled in her stomach, making her lose her appetite. Sakura ate her food without tasting it.

After they were done, they paid for their food quickly and left, making a beeline for their shared room.

"Sasuke," Sakura started pleasantly enough, sliding the door closed behind her and leaning her weight against it. "I am a wanted criminal. I can't let you guys tag along. It's too dangerous."

Sasuke had his back to her as he rummaged through his ruck-sack, movements stiff and agitated.

Sakura hesitated. "C'mere." She beckoned, sitting on her futon. She watched as Sasuke took his sweet time closing and readjusting his luggage before gruffly sitting down on the bedding opposite her.

Sakura smiled apologetically. "I have something for you." She said, reaching for his arm. Sasuke didn't resist her, which she was thankful for. She pulled out a short-knife hidden on her person and drew a line down her forearm. She used the blood that sprung forth to draw a familiar seal along the breadth of Sasuke's wrist.

Sasuke watched curiously as she connected the ends of her seal with a flourish and finally, added a touch of chakra that melted the bloody seal into his skin.

"There." She said, wiping away excess blood from her already healed forearm. Sakura moved away, finding a spare cloth to scrub away the blood on her fingers. "It's a communication array." She explained. "Focus a bit of chakra onto your wrist to activate it."

"Why?" Sasuke asked hoarsely. He clutched his wrist to his chest.

Sakura knelt in front of him, smoothening his hair away from his face. "Because." She said, cupping his chin and looking him in the eye. "I want to keep in touch."

Sasuke looked at her doubtfully.

"I'm not abandoning you, silly." She said, rolling her eyes and sitting back down on her futon with a huff. "The longer you stay with me, the higher the risk that something might happen to you."

"But I'm getting stronger." Sasuke told her fiercely, hands curled tightly into fists. "Your training is making me stronger."

"Sasuke, you are destined to be Great." She intoned, upset all of a sudden but unable to explain why. "You're so busy trying to run that you forget to stop and look around."

Sasuke shook his head, disagreeing with her. "I don't need faster results, I need this."

"Why?" She asked, surprised and genuinely curious.

He looked away.

Sakura waited patiently. Sometimes, Sasuke needed time.

"I...don't know." He said after some time. "It's...the first time someone took the time to sit down and actually teach me. Nobody says it but I know they're all thinking 'that's his brother, of course he'll be great.'" Sasuke scoffed derisively. "All my life, I'm expected to be great. Out here, I can just be good." Sasuke sighed. "And I'm okay with that." he said, nodding his head. "I'm okay with just being good." Sasuke turned to look at Sakura's reaction.

He was taken aback to see tears in her eyes.

"Okay." She said, holding a hand to her trembling lips. "Okay, you don't have to go back if you don't want to."

"I—"

"No. You're right." Sakura told him. "Konoha isn't safe."

They stared at each other. Sakura broke eye contact first.

"Let's go get Naruto." She replied.

Of the many branches of Konoha's ninja system, the Konoha Border Patrol was one of the few with a rotating staff. The KBP consists of two subsects: an ANBU division that guarded strategic weak points in Fire country's defence, and the Standard division that patrolled the borders of fire country, working in tandem with the Daimyo's soldiers. The majority of the standard division's staff were Chunin, consisting of either freshly minted chunin looking for experience or veterans taking a break from missions. On a purely technical level, any ninja Chunin or above were eligible but it was almost unheard of for a Jonin to be stuck making circles around the country-side unless they pissed off a particularly sadistic superior.

So why, pray tell, was Sharingan no Kakashi here?

Scratch that, who did he piss off to land here?

Kazuya Matsubara attempted to suppress his disdain as the man in question snapped at another one of his subordinates. The man was very obviously aggrieved by something or the other and had it been anyone else, Kazuya might have atleast attempted to pack them back off to the village for some one-on-one with a psychiatrist.

But Hatake?

Yeah, he'll let someone else handle that.

KBP was also unique in that its leadership wasn't set in stone. Each person was put into teams of 4 that served a stint of two months with the last two weeks spent in a leadership position. So even newly promoted chunin had the opportunity to experience something that would otherwise take them atleast another three years.

The teams themselves were rounded out based on experience, with newbies paired up with more experienced chunin.

All in all, a very great system that made sure not to over-work any single ninja.

That was, until Hatake Kakashi threw a wrench into all of it.

To be fair, the man probably had more experience in his pinkie toe than most of the chunin put together. But they had a system, goddamnit and this guy comes in like a phantom storm and completely wrecks it.

Hatake Kakashi arrived less than two weeks ago with the newest batch of KBP staff. He quickly pulled rank and established authority much to the protestation of the leadership at that time. He was also quick to dismiss and deport said protestors.

And if that wasn't enough, he then went on to reassemble the team distributions. This led to an unprecedented amount of chaos in the division. Suddenly, all the newbies were stuck doing housekeeping while those with seniority were sent out round after round on patrols.

The man also grew increasingly snappy as the days passed. It didn't help that no-one could answer his questions on administrative technicalities nor did anyone have a clue about how exactly any of the paperwork was organized. Or where the previous reports were kept. Or anything.

Because he dismissed all the people who could have answered him.

Or so one of Kazuya's colleagues had snapped. After which, he was promptly sent packing as well.

Kazuya, for his part, did his best to keep his head down and quell the mutinous whispers that flowed amongst his peers. It was on one such day of laying low that things changed.

First, one of the patrol groups came back early. They were whispering hurriedly between themselves as they approached the entrance back to camp. One of them looked to be carrying a body.

Another called out a complicated set of whistles that sounded a lot like bird-song, they were asking for entrance. Code grey.

Urgent. Call commander.

Kazuya scrambled out of his seat and quickly pulled on the lever to the gate. He spent a minute looking for a charcoal piece before scribbling a quick message to the commander.

Then he waited.

From his spot at the top of his watch-tower, Kazuya could survey most of the camp with just a glance. The med-tent was situated directly opposite to his window and he saw that the returning team was making a beeline towards it, mysterious body in tow. He wondered if the person was still alive, experience told him no. He squinted, trying to make out any details. The figure had dark hair, of that he was sure. Nothing else could be ascertained.

The canvas opening was quickly closed behind the ninja and Kazuya sat back down.

Moments later, Commander Hatake hurried out of the east tower and into the occupied tent.

Kazuya alternated between watching the horizon and watching the tent, head shifting this way and that every few minutes.

Finally, around the time Kazuya's watch shift was almost done, he spied movement from the tent. Hatake had pulled the canvas back and was hurriedly barking orders at the ninja under his command. By the time dinner rolled around, Hatake was long gone, hauling the recently found body along.

Over Miso soup and cold rice, Kazuya slowly learnt the circumstances behind the day's excitement.

The body had been found near the border of Swamp and Fire country, unconscious but still breathing. It was a genin, kidnapped two weeks ago while on a mission.

"Why would anyone kidnap a random genin?" Kazuya asked incredulously.

His table partner leaned in close and lowered his voice to a mere whisper. "It wasn't just any genin, that was Uchiha Sasuke, rumour has it the boy was part of Hatake's very own Genin team.

"What?" Kazuya hissed. "Didn't one of them get killed too? The girl?"

"Yeah." The other man nodded emphatically, "And on their first mission outside the village too." He shook his head in distaste. "That man had horrendous luck, I'll tell you that."

Another one of his colleagues pitched into the conversation. "Is it even luck anymore?" She muttered darkly, "Friend-killer Kakashi has always left a trail of bodies behind him."

Kazuha and his partner exchanged nervous glances at her words.

"And get this," she continued unabashedly, "The third member of his team is none other than the demon-fox. That whole team was destined to fail but if you ask me, I think he should have been the one to die."

This time, they didn't hesitate to hush the woman up.

Chapter Text

Was Naruto happy to be home?

Not really.

To be fair, his first peek of Konoha after the ‘Mission from Hell’ definitely did bring him some comfort. Konoha was familiar. Konoha was— is all he’s ever known. 

He did not miss the glares though. He did not miss them at all.

Konoha was familiar, yes, but it wasn’t exactly safe. Not for him, anyway.   

Naruto's return to Konoha was chaotic to say the least. He couldn't remember a time when so much attention was directed at him. Like ever . 

It might have been because they arrived at the gates by mid-afternoon, when foot-traffic was at its peak. It might have also been because he was wearing orange, as Sasuke would often like to mutter. Privately though, Naruto liked to think it was the scary looking ANBU detail that suddenly appeared and escorted them directly to the doorstep of Konoha’s Torture and Interrogation building. 

On their way over, their party caught the eye of a vegetable peddler who would often sell him overpriced, wilted cabbage. The man took one look at the scene, zeroed in on Naruto and somehow decided he was to blame. Naruto watched as the man proceeded to chuck something at him and was promptly stopped by the brown-haired ANBU beside him. 

A huge commotion started up behind them as Kakashi gripped Naruto tightly and dragged him away. The ANBU’s presence might have deterred others from also flinging things at him but it didn’t redirect their scowls. 

Naruto sank under the weight of their stares.         

When they finally reached the drab, white-washed building that was T&I, they were greeted at the door by a grim-faced Hokage, a scary-looking dude with nasty facial scars and a large group of somber ninja behind them. They were separated and Naruto was escorted away. Kakashi-sensei did not spare him a second glance.

It was only down-hill from there. He was questioned and cross-examined in agonizing detail, starting with Sakura’s disappearance and the entirety of his interactions with her older self. Naruto was only too glad to keep to himself the snippets of Older Sakura’s memories that he had briefly glanced. 

He was detained at the department for almost two whole days before he was released. It looked like half the department had turned up to witness his interrogation. Even old man Hokage stayed to hear his version of the story. And this was a man too busy for even ramen.

Naruto was undeniably terrified by the sudden shift in personalities he had to contend with. First Kakashi-sensei, now old man Hokage. Why was everyone so serious?  

Then came the events leading up to his ‘kidnapping.’ 

And suddenly Naruto couldn’t breathe. 

He thought about the communication seal on his wrist and froze, petrified at the thought of its removal from his person. It took all his self control to keep from stupidly clutching it for reassurance.

Naruto didn’t know who to thank when his aborted movements were noticed and misconstrued. The creepy scar-faced man who’d been aggressively asking all the questions backed off quite suddenly. He withdrew to a quiet corner with the Hokage and another blond-haired man. They whispered furiously amongst themselves, throwing around words that Naruto couldn’t understand. The word ‘shell-shock’ was repeated atleast a few times. Finally, they seemed to agree to something the eldest of the three said and dispersed. 

The decision was obvious a few minutes later when Naruto was asked to follow another ninja out of the room. Many a twist and turn later, he was shown to a small room containing a tiny cot and another door tucked into the opposite wall. 

Naruto shrugged, he was too tired to care about his current circumstances. He took a shower in the attached bathroom, shoveled the suspicious food that mysteriously appeared on his cot and fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next day was more brutal than the last. He was asked to repeat his entire story from the top with the same excruciating attention to detail as the day before. This time though, instead of asking him about his experience being kidnapped they brought in the same blond man from yesterday.          

They explained the process of Memory Extraction to him and in all honesty, it was way too complicated and boring for Naruto to even comprehend. He nodded along just to get it over with and was promptly put to sleep.

Only to wake up to a splitting headache and the man screaming bloody murder.

Naruto was released very quickly after that. 

He went home thinking the worst was over and opened his door to a dusty apartment and a summons for PTSD counseling. 

Great.

He begrudged a week with a therapist who did not seem happy to be working with him and by the end of it, Naruto felt like he came away with more problems than he did going in.  

And where in the hell was Kakashi-sensei in all this?

Naruto spent hours at the bridge waiting for him on the first few days after his two-day mission briefing. He spent considerably less time waiting as the week drew to an end and by the middle of the second week, decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Naruto-kun!“

“Yeah, hi, Iruka-sensei.” Naruto replied shortly. “Kakashi-sensei is missing and I need to train. What do I have to do to get stronger?”

Iruka’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at Naruto’s words. “Training, you say? Well, it’s highly unusual for a genin to come back to their academy teacher for training advice. ” 

Iruka tucked a hand under his chin and observed Naruto for a minute. “Tell you what though, let me treat you to some Ichiraku ramen and we’ll discuss your options. What do you say?”

Naruto blinked, suddenly at a loss for words. It was at that moment that he came to realize how lonely he felt, how much he missed companionship. He spoke past the heaviness in his throat. “Yeah,” he rasped, “yeah, that would be great Iruka-sensei. Thanks.” 

Iruka came around his desk to encircle Naruto and drag him into a side-hug. “Did I just hear a ‘thankyou’? Who taught you to be polite? I have to meet this person because it can’t be your genin-sensei.”

Naruto laughed.

They had ramen outdoors which, to Naruto, was a completely new experience. The park they sat at could be found behind Ichiraku’s ramen stand and was technically a  part of training ground twelve that was chained off and reconstituted for recreational use.

It was an open space, furnished by bamboo tables arranged uniformly but positioned far enough as to give ample privacy. There were no trees close-by to provide shade and this was rectified by placing large canvas umbrellas near each table.         

Naruto was currently on his third bowl of ramen and Iruka-sensei had yet to ask him to slow down. The man was picking at his own bowl as he outlined Naruto’s strengths and weaknesses with brutal honesty. Brutal in the way that Naruto’s list of weaknesses seemed to heavily outweigh his strengths. But Iruka was also patiently explaining how to correct certain deficiencies and cover up the ones he couldn’t. 

At the end of his lecture, Iruka leaned forward to clasp Naruto’s hands. “I heard about what happened to Sakura-chan and Sasuke-kun. I’m so sorry Naruto. You weren’t supposed to experience something like this so soon.” 

Naruto stared at the table, trying to swallow the mass of complicated feelings that threatened to overwhelm him. “Thanks Iruka-sensei,” he mumbled, “I appreciate it.”

“I’ll be going to visit Sakura’s parents tomorrow. Since Kakashi-senpai is busy looking for Sasuke, I thought I’d talk to them on his behalf. Would you like to join me?” Iruka asked, smiling kindly. 

Naruto’s first instinct was to say no. The thought of looking Sakura’s parents in the eye and saying I'm sorry for your loss almost made him throw up right then and there. 

But Sakura deserved better and if this was the only way he could honour her then so be it. 

Sakura’s parents’ house sat on a cul-de-sac near the end of the civilian sector. It was a quaint two-storey building, timeworn and in need of a new coat of paint complete with tattered picket-fence and a well-maintained garden out front that sat in contradiction to the state of everything else. 

It was homely.

And Naruto was jealous.

He followed Iruka-sensei to the door, making sure to stay one step behind him at all times. It wasn’t that he was scared , he was just apprehensive about their reaction. 

Iruka-sensei glanced back at him and Naruto realized he was uneasy too. 

The door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman who was the spitting image of Sakura-nee-chan. Minus the blond hair of course. Naruto almost had a heart attack, thinking she had somehow snuck into Konoha like she promised..  

The three of them stood around staring at each other for a long minute before Iruka sensei lurched into action and introduced themselves. The woman smiled politely and invited them inside. 

The hall that they slipped into was lined with pictures on both walls. Sakura with her parents, Sakura with her grandparents, Sakura with her cousins. The other wall was dedicated to Sakura’s evolution. It started with a few baby pictures all the way up to her academy days. Naruto spied some pictures of Ino hanging off of Sakura’s back and finally, near the end of the hall he found—

—Team 7. 

In the center was their official team photo and spiralling out from it were various pictures depicting Team Seven’s exploits. And it wasn’t even focused on Sasuke like Naruto expected it to be. The first one showed Kakashi-sensei reading as he perched on a tree branch. Another featured Naruto and Sasuke picking trash in the Naka river. One particularly funny one showed Naruto being attacked by Tora and Sasuke smirking in amusement behind him. 

The last one, the one that set off Naruto’s waterworks showed all of them. Him and Sasuke were stretched out under a tree looking worse for wear. Kakashi was above them on the tree, leaning over to point at something. Sakura was closest to the camera, taking up the entire left side and smiling widely into the frame. 

Naruto turned back to both Iruka sensei and Sakura’s mother with a precariously placed smile. “These look great.” he said, unable to raise his voice any higher than a whisper.    

Sakura’s mother smiled at him, strode forward and pulled him into a hug. “Thankyou child.” she said, voice strained with emotion.  

Naruto was certain she wasn’t talking about the pictures but he also wondered exactly who was consoling whom in this instance. 

They had tea in the living room with Iruka-sensei handling most of the talking. Naruto sat beside him, sipping from his cup and partially listening to the conversation taking place. 

He didn’t speak again until they were about to leave. 

“Ah, sorry.” he mumbled, sticking a hand into his pocket and producing a butterfly clip from it. “This was Sakura’s.” He handed it over to Mebuki who handled it with trembling fingers. 

They watched as she placed it on the painfully bare shrine in the corner. 

“Please come back to visit us anytime, Naruto-kun.” Mebuki told him at the door, clasping him by the hand. As he turned to leave, Naruto couldn’t help but think that it sounded less like a request and more like a plea. 

Naruto found the rest of the week painfully bleak. On one particularly restless day, he decided to take a turn around the market square. As he was deliberating over his decision to purchase either shriveled carrots or limp radishes, Naruto heard commotion behind him. He glanced back just in time to see Kakashi vault over a cart and speed down the road with a large bundle in his arms. 

“Kakashi-sensei…?” 

Realization hit him.

“Sasuke!”                

Chapter Text

Sasuke was angry. 

No, that’s not it. Sasuke looked…

What's the word again?

Ah yes.

Fucking furious.

And Naruto wasn’t saying those words lightly. 

Sasuke tends to come off curt and brutish at the best of times, even with a face as charming as the ladies say. But this anger seemed to go deeper than his usual off-putting temperament. 

This seemed personal.  

Which is what Naruto understood from the murderous scowl seemingly tattooed to his face. It could also be assumed from the tense line of his shoulders and the fact that Sasuke looked one wrong word away from punching the living daylights out of everyone in the vicinity and then setting himself on fire. 

Figuratively speaking.

Naruto's not so sure about the figurative part.

Unlike him, Sasuke was privileged enough to spend a week recuperating from his ordeal before he had to deal with any sort of interrogation. And he knows this because Naruto spent the entire week unsuccessfully arguing up and down the hospital corridor for permission to see his teammate. 

Once the week was up, Sasuke was pulled from the hospital and marched straight into T&I much like he was. Naruto followed because very few people would consider eye-contact an acceptable initial means of communication with their teammate that they haven’t seen in over a month.      

So Naruto followed. And stared down the secretary that tried to contend his presence until they backed off. He made himself comfortable at the reception, pulling out and studying a scroll given to him by Iruka-sensei.

By evening, the reception desk changed hands and Naruto had read his scroll three times. By late night, the receptionist shook him awake and advised him to return in the morning. Naruto wasn’t even sure what time it was when he finally stumbled home.    

Unfortunately for him, Sasuke seemed to have a lot to say. Because Naruto returned the next day. And the next. And the next.

During this time, Naruto read through two more scrolls and worried if he’ll run out of scrolls before Sasuke’s interrogation was finished.

And then finally, finally, after what felt like eons, Naruto got his first look at Sasuke after almost a month apart.

Immediately, he understood that something was very, very wrong. 

While Naruto was not privy to whatever was discussed in the meeting, he did notice that Sasuke came out of it looking as cool as a cucumber. He couldn’t say the same for the interrogators that followed him out the door. 

They looked shaken. Like Sasuke marched into the room, dropped an explosive seal on their heads and walked out again. The first person to come out was the bear-sized director of T&I that Naruto had the privilege of meeting on his first day back in Konoha. The man’s face was the colour of ash as he dismissed Sasuke.

“Uchiha.” He called out again, when Sasuke reached the door. “I suggest you keep this information to yourself. For now.” His voice softened slightly as the next words came out. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for your loss, kid. I know it ain’t easy.”

Sasuke nodded stiffly, face turned away and one hand tightly gripping the door-handle.

The man turned away, hurriedly giving out commands to the man next to him. “And somebody please arrange a meeting with the Hokage.” He bit out, pinching at the bridge of his nose as though attempting to ward off a headache.

The crowd in the lobby cleared out quickly as each person rushed off to complete their duties. Once the room reclaimed its relatively calmer atmosphere, the director turned his imposing figure in Naruto’s direction. “What is your business here, Uzumaki?” 

Naruto blinked, quickly becoming self-aware. “Uh.” He stuttered, realizing that Sasuke had slipped out of the building when he wasn’t looking. He scrambled off his seat, swiftly collected his discarded scrolls and ran out the door. “Sorrygottagobye~” 

“Sasuke!” He exclaimed to the backdrop of a slamming door, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of his teammate over the mid-day crowd milling on the street. Blue caught his eye and Naruto dashed headlong down the stairs. Predictably, he tripped on the last step as a passing wind unfurled one of his scrolls into smacking him in the face.

Naruto spent a few minutes contemplating if he should get up from where he lay as a dull ache gathered in his back and promptly vanished. He sighed wearily as the sun blinded his eyes. When he finally gathered the nerve to get up and open his eyes again, it was to see one of his scrolls being held out to him. Naruto followed the arm holding it out to find Sasuke’s long-suffering face grimacing back at him. 

Naruto blinked at him, at a loss for words.

Sasuke’s face twitched as the silence dragged on. He clenched his jaw as he straightened again, putting the scroll in his pocket and looking away. 

“Is that ramen place of yours still open?” he mumbled, body poised too stiffly to be considered casual even to the untrained eye. 

Naruto’s brain continued to work in slow motion as he replied, “Huh? No. Wait, yes, YES, IT’S OPEN.” He clapped a hand to his mouth as people turned in the direction of the commotion.

Sasuke sighed in resignation as the whispers started up. “Are you hungry?” He asked, turning in the direction of the village square.       

“I could eat.” Naruto replied, unable to hide his awe. Sasuke has definitely changed.  

“Good.” 

Morino Ibiki has always been a patient man. In his line of work, not only is it an invaluable skill to have, it’s also the one with the highest payoff. Over the years, he could recall many instances where being patient had paid off admirably, far more than any torture technique could have.

This, unfortunately, was not one of those instances.     

Ibiki admired his Hokage, he truly did. He was a capable leader, knowledgeable and practical. The man single-handedly led their nation through two wars and several civil crises. He always made time for his fellow ninja and even inquired after the civilians from time to time.  

But. 

Ibiki can’t help but feel the man has grown inept in recent years.

Mission request numbers have gone down. Even though the fee rates for a mission have stayed relatively stable in the past decade. Not to mention recruitment and promotion rates have also slowed. The last chunin exams only saw four promotions and only a single Jonin advancement took place in the last year.   

These numbers by themselves weren't a cause for concern, peace has always been disastrous for the war industry. 

It’s everything else that’s making Ibiki nervous. There have been multiple reports by the KBP of skirmishes near the north-west border of Fire as well as several key businesses leaving town for ‘better prospects’. Two of them were blacksmiths specializing in weaponry.  

There’s a reason he never says no when Shikaku invites him out for a drink. 

Surely the hokage can see the signs as well as, if not better, than their Jonin Commander. Or have the years dulled his senses to such an extreme?   

While Ibiki does admit to being patient, he’s also a man of action. And the lack of promptness has left him on edge.

War...is on the horizon, is it not? 

Silence reigned as the Hokage read the meticulously written document in his hand. The last rays of the sun starkly illuminated his figure, painting harsh lines across his face. By the time he finally lay the paper down, Ibiki already had his answer.    

“Absolutely not, Morino.” The Hokage declared grimly, “I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to conduct such an investigation based on the words of a genin . Not only is it unprecedented and disrespectful, this is also a decision that requires a majority vote from the Council. Seeing as you’ve asked for utmost secrecy, that would be almost impossible to accomplish. Not to mention the complete lack of evidence to even support such an investigation—”

Strange.

Right this minute, Shikaku must be holed up in his office analyzing the time-leaper’s words back to front until they lose all meaning. Several of their get-togethers consisted of Shikaku zoning out and conversing more to himself than to anyone else. Sometimes for upto hours on end. At some point, Ibiki learnt to leave as soon as he finished his drink. 

For the Hokage to dismiss such an enormous accusation is...strange. One would even say incriminating.

“—Are we clear?” 

Ibiki didn’t miss a beat as he replied. “Of course, Hokage-sama. It will be as you’ve said.” He watched as the man set the document alight, folder and all. The scent of burning paper permeated the room as ash dropped onto the table.

The Third dispersed the mess with a wave of his hand.  

“What about the other reports?” He asked, one trembling hand reaching out for his smoking pipe. 

“There are two others. One on Hatake and another on Uzumaki. They were both turned over to you almost two weeks ago. There are no copies.” Ibiki replied dutifully.

The Third nodded, blowing a ring of smoke into the room and watching it float away. “Tell me, how is Sasuke doing?”  

“Outwardly, he seems fine. No acute signs of PTSD. He was forthcoming and compliant to all lines of questioning and seemed aware of the seriousness of his predicament. While his report of events were truthful as far as I can tell, he himself seemed incredulous as to the validity of his statements. Considering the source of this information, I'm not surprised. As per procedure, he will be on ANBU watch for the foreseeable future and handled according to his performance on reports.” Ibiki outlined carefully.

“And Naruto-kun?”

“Uzumaki,” Ibiki sighed, lips twitching in amusement, “has been skulking in my corridors the past few weeks. While older reports may indicate that he could be a potential flight risk, I believe that he seems to be recovering well. He has tried to reestablish old routines. I also have it on good authority that Uzumaki is currently receiving training from one of his former academy teachers. That means he’s reconnecting to his peers and superiors. All good signs, excellent even.” 

The Hokage listened avidly to his words. He asked him a few more inane details before dismissing him with a wave. 

Ibiki nodded in acknowledgement at the secretary working near the door before stalking down the corridor and into another room at the end of the hall. 

It was messy inside, with paper filling every inch of the room. Shelves lined three of the four walls from roof to floor and were overflowing with folders. More files were crammed into the corners and were even stacked precariously against the table that occupied the middle of the room. 

While it couldn't hold a candle to the grandeur of the Hokage’s office, it definitely beat Ibiki’s cubicle back at T&I. 

“Hello, Morino-san.” A voice piped up from behind the paperwork, “What brings you here today?”

“Shikaku,” Ibiki acknowledged, “What say we go for a drink?”

Chapter Text

Funerals were for the living, not the dead. 

This much was true. 

Even so, Sakura deserved better than this . 

A drab ceremony, plain in every possible sense, concocted in honour of her passing. Everything aggravated Sasuke, from the aloof mourners to the shrine table bearing the empty urn meant to hold Sakura's ashes—had there been anything left to burn. The urn itself provoked Sasuke to an excessive degree, looking like it was picked from a pile of rejects. It was just as impersonal as the rest of the ceremony, dull and grey and devoid of anything to commemorate the deceased.

Naruto sniffled faintly from beside him. Sasuke almost flinched, acutely aware of his surroundings. 

Kakashi-sensei stood on his other side, back straighter than a rod and facing dead ahead. He hadn't acknowledged them since he appeared and neither one of them were inclined to change that any time soon. 

Sasuke bitterly recalled the last time he saw Kakashi, bent over his prisoner’s crumpled body, mechanically spouting question after question long after she’d stopped responding. 

That was almost three months ago.

He was dressed professionally now, wearing a polished set of uniforms and seemed to have even combed his hair back for the occasion. Sasuke faced forward as well. 

In the intervening time, the priestess at the altar finished her prayers and the last of the rituals with a flourish. A man holding a slender chisel and hammer stepped up to the Memorial Stone behind the shrine. With slow, deliberate movements, he knelt in front of the polished stone and began chipping away at its surface. 

Ting, ting, ting. 

A new round of sobbing reached his ears. Sakura's mother stood to his right and outside the immediate circle in which the ceremony was taking place. Sasuke could only recognize her because Naruto had eagerly pointed her out to him before the ceremony began. She was held together by a man who could be none other than Sakura's father, with the same petal-pink shade of hair and sharp jawline. He was as blank-faced and stoic as Kakashi-sensei beside him. Naruto's sniffling increased its frequency.  

Sasuke grit his teeth.

In the 2 months since Sasuke’s return to Konoha, he'd been thoroughly swamped with missions. Between the incessant D rank missions and the absolute horseshit that they called therapy, he was exhausted. 

The fact that he’d recently started seeing his village in a new light certainly didn’t help. The shadows pressed closer, now that he knew its secrets. They loomed over him, wrapping their nebulous tendrils around and around until Sasuke was slowly, but surely, suffocating under the weight of the truth. 

His memory of the mission to Wave and the days that followed slowly lost themselves to obscurity. So much so that if someone had told him it had been nothing more than an intensely lucid dream, he would have been inclined to agree.

But it wasn't a dream, was it? His teammate was gone and her grave was a testament to that, the final resting place of a singular butterfly clip. A stand-in for the body they never found, would never have an opportunity to cremate. Would her spirit be forced to wander the Unclean realm forever, he wondered. Is that her fate, to be one of the Unburnt? 

Sasuke took to visiting the memorial stone every evening, taking the long way home to accommodate his stopover. 

Today was one such evening.

The luminosity of the setting sun reflected off the polished marble of the memorial stone until it resembled burnished gold. Running his eyes over the words Haruno Sakura for the thousandth time, Sasuke asked himself where the world went wrong for a Genin fresh out of the academy to die on their first mission outside the village. And why, of all people, did it have to be her ? 

The one with the clean slate. The one who still had stars in her eyes. He should have protected her better. 

Sometimes, Sasuke truly believed he was cursed. To be alone. To be weak. To have everything he touched burn to ash.     

His only saving grace, though he loathe to admit it,  was Naruto.

Naruto.

Of all people. 

Distracting, nagging, pushing him. To be better. To be stronger . Naruto kept him from the edge of insanity. Sasuke's not sure what he would have done had he been forced to handle Konoha on his own. 

Neither did he know how to thank him. He hasn't had a reason to be grateful in years.

Sleep was still his biggest weakness.

Some nights he would wake from sleep, shivering and soaked in his own sweat. It was always the same dream, someone holding him against their chest— you’re safe, Sasuke. You’re loved —and whispering sweet nothings into his ear— I’m here, it’s okay to cry —gripping him tighter and tighter until it’s too late — It’s too late, Sasuke-kun. You’re mine now — and there are snakes around him, squeezing, choking —           

“Sa…s…ke—un?—Sas—ke—kun. What hap—ned, Sasu—ke?—Sasuke!” A thunderclap resounded in his ear and a minute later, the pain registered.

Sasuke blinked, snapping out of his— they’re called dissociative episodes —and regained his faculties. Breathing harshly, he glanced into a pair of red-rimmed turquoise eyes set upon the pale features of Yamanaka Ino. Her arm, which was previously extended across her torso, drew back as guilt flitted across her features.

Sasuke grazed his fingers over his throbbing cheek, putting two and two together.

“Y-you were freaking out.” She explained guiltily, gripping her transgressing hand with the other. Ino shot a nervous look backwards to the two solemn boys shadowing her. Nara watched him like a hawk, hand twitching into the vague outline of a hand sign.   

Sasuke nodded, letting the moment pass. “It’s my fault.”

Ino shifted her weight awkwardly, eyes darting from his face to his shoes to the memorial stone behind him. 

“I was just leaving.” Sasuke blurted out, making Ino as well as the Akamichi, who stood behind her, flinch in surprise. Sasuke sidestepped around the girl, nodding his acknowledgement to the boys and making his way back to the footpath. 

‘ Don’t talk to me. Don’t call me back. Don't ask me how I am. Don't ask me what happened,’ played in a loop in his head as he speed-walked in earnest. 

“Wait!” Ino yelled from behind him. Sasuke narrowly avoided the immediate urge to grasp a throw weapon in his hand. Based on what he observed in Nara’s demeanour so far, that would not go down well with her teammates. While he was confident he could take down both boys, Sasuke really didn’t want to deal with the messy aftermath of that altercation.

He turned around. 

Sasuke stood exactly where he was, waiting for the trio to catch up to him. He told himself he would spare them five minutes, no more. Five minutes and then he would leave. 

“Come to dinner with us.” 

Sasuke blinked. The words caught him off guard. Even more so because they came from Nara . 

“I—”

“Our treat.” Akamichi interjected, “To honour the clans.”

Sasuke bit back an audible and extremely rude curse. He didn’t expect the Akamichi to play dirty. Now, dinner wasn't a request, it was an obligation.         

He resigned to his fate. “I need to be home by ten.” 

They ended up at the famous Yakiniku restaurant. Famous mostly for the fact that it was frequently patronised by the Akamichi. In the culinary world, an Akamichi's visit could make or break your business, so they were treated with utmost respect. 

This was evidenced by the fact that the steward at the entrance took one look at the group and promptly ushered them inside with nary a glance back at the que of people lining up halfway down the street.

They were seated in a large rooftop patio furnished with dark wood and warmly lit with paper lanterns. 

Cozy.

Sasuke sat himself next to Ino, praying that he wouldn’t regret it. Shikamaru and Choji settled down across from them. Food arrived before they finished sitting down. Seems they frequented the establishment often enough for the waitstaff to have their order memorised. 

Akamichi dug in without hesitation, grilling meat and playing host with grace. He recommended various combinations and kept up a slew of easy conversation. 

Sasuke took it all in with subdued bewilderment, from Ino’s sullen silence to Nara’s sharp eyes to Akamichi’s uncharacteristically friendly disposition. 

“Is there anything not to your liking, Sasuke-san? We can order something else, if you wish.” Akamichi asked politely, misinterpreting his silence.

“No, the food is excellent.” Sasuke answered honestly, “But that is not why I'm here, is it?” 

The momentary pause was telling. 

“No.” Shikamaru spoke up, taking the lead. He put his chopsticks away, not letting the silence creep its way to awkwardness. He wiped his mouth and linked his fingers together on the table. “We wanted answers.” Shikamaru continued, resting his chin on his linked fingers. “So tell us, how did Sakura die?” 

“You know I can’t answer that.” Sasuke replied.

“Fine. Why was her body never recovered?” 

“There wasn’t a body to even recover.” 

“Then how do you know she’s not still alive? Did you even look for a body?”

Sasuke shook his head, frustration rising. “I’m not my team leader.” He said. “Your argument is with him.”    

“But did you try to find her?”

“No, because her—” Sasuke cut himself off, breathing deeply through his nose. “Mission non-disclosure agreement states that I am not allowed to convey intelligence to any third party that is not the Hokage—”    

“We all know what they state.” Ino finally snapped, “I just need to know that she didn’t suffer w-when she…” she swallowed the rest of her sentence. 

Sasuke sighed, getting up. “Thankyou for the meal,” he said, addressing the trio. He hesitated for a minute before continuing, “I’m sorry for your loss, Ino.”

Ino replied with a watery smile and a nod. “I’m sorry too.” 

Chapter Text

“You’re joking.” Naruto announced, voice bland. His face was ashen, belying the thunderstorm stewing behind his brow. Hands fisted, he stood on the threshold of one of the many bridges connecting the training grounds and the rest of the village.   

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke could bring themselves to use the training ground they had once claimed as Team 7, preferring to pick whichever ground opened up on the roster depending on the day. Today they occupied the sparse acreage that made up Training Ground 4. The afternoon Sun beat against the barren terrain, casting glares and distant mirages.  

“On the contrary, I am not.” Kakashi replied, frigid politeness coloring his tone. He leaned against the railing in a shaded corner of the bridge, feet planted firmly on the wooden planks as though he’d been lounging there all morning. 

As though he did not just appear out of the blue, an entourage in tow. As though his choices were not made glaringly obvious by the pair of men dawdling behind him. 

Many unspoken words echoed in the space between them. 

…but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash…

Kakashi razed through the silence with nary a blink. “These two here have kindly agreed to be your teammates for the foreseeable future.” A lithe hand turned over to point behind him, “This is Sai and—”

“No, thanks.” Sasuke said, cutting him off brusquely. He loomed behind Naruto, not even deigning to acknowledge his company.

“—and this is Yamato.” Kakashi continued like he wasn’t interrupted. To add insult, the shorter of the two strangers lifted his arm in an almost taunting wave. 

This action incensed Naruto into giving up all pretense of calm. He took a step onto the platform. “You disappeared for months without a word,” he interjects loudly into the pause after his teacher's sentence, “you don't check in, you don't come for training sessions anymore and now you're palming us off?! ”

Kakashi chuckled, “I am a busy man and Yamato-san was gracious enough to step in when I asked.” His singular visible eye fluttered imperceptibly and for a second, it looked like he regretted his decision. “As for Sai…well, you do need three people to enter the chunin exams.” 

A well-timed breeze accentuated his words, shifting the atmosphere from strained to somber to shock.

The chunin exams seemed to be news for everyone. Sasuke stiffened, drawing curious eyes. Even Yamato appeared to disagree with the statement, going so far as to open his mouth to input something, only he didn't get the chance. 

With his charges now handed over, Kakashi took two steps back to reach solid ground before disappearing with a jaunty two finger salute.    

Of the remainder, Naruto was the most outraged. He opened his mouth, whether to scream or berate or something, before thinking better of it. He took the momentary lull to calm down before giving the strangers a once over. “You look like you tell people to eat all their veggies,” he commented before eyeing Sai with particular distaste, “and you look like the type of person to peep on men at the bathhouse.”

Sasuke turned to observe his companions, head tilting as though he could actually picture it. 

The newly minted Yamato-sensei pursed his lips, affronted by his words. Or at the fact that both these transgressions seemed to stand on equal footing to the orange-clad individual. Glancing to make sure his companion was unhurt; Yamato went to argue in their favor. Sai’s reaction made him pause.    

Sai smiled in reply to Naruto’s words, sending a shiver down everyone’s spine. It was all teeth and dead eyes and when he opened his mouth, it only made things worse, “In that case, you needn’t worry about yourself. You look like you have a small dick.”  

The silence that followed was ominous.

Yamato belatedly slapped a hand over the younger one’s mouth. But it was too late. He was too late, and they could only watch helplessly as Naruto’s face turned red and then purple. 

So, it comes to everyone’s surprise when Naruto, rough and rambunctious and easy to rile as he is, wordlessly takes his leave.  

Naruto moped at home for the next few days, deciding on a whim to blow off training. 

And no, he wasn’t hiding from Sai after his brutal comeback, he wasn’t . 

Naruto won't deny that the comment had struck a nerve, but more than that, it served to highlight just how powerless he was. He may talk a big game, but Naruto wasn’t particularly strong, not yet anyway. Nor was he all that bright in any of the ways that counted. All he had was an impractical dream and boundless determination. 

He used to think that was enough. 

That if he talked loud enough, if he dressed bright enough, if he declared his intentions a few times too many, it would happen. People would look at him and see him. And not a—and not a— 

Monster. 

And then a friend ( crush , love ) slipped through his fingers. Softly, wordlessly. And he watched her older-self get tortured for nothing (for him, for him ) and Naruto could only watch and watch and watch.   

And get sick. He still gets sick sometimes. After dreams and flashbacks of scarlet and bone and red jelly dripping down his shirt. 

When he returned, alone, to the village he called home, Naruto didn't feel seen. He didn’t even have the drive to make them see. He felt alone , more than he’d ever been before. 

And jealous. Oh , Naruto burned with jealousy. Towards his teammate, who had people to mourn her. And the other one, who got kidnapped for his own good. Towards himself even, from a few months ago, when he had the privilege of being carefree. 

His wrist tingled in anticipation, and Naruto longed to reach out. To the person who walked through hell just to keep in touch with him. He hesitates long enough to remember the snap of breaking bone. 

Naruto curled up on the couch, knowing that for all his selfishness, he couldn’t take that chance. He would never be able to forgive himself if, in his name, someone wound up being tortured by his village twice . 

Sasuke found it amusing how the world worked. Those who prefer solitude can never gain it and those who crave companionship can’t ever find it. 

Sasuke was alone for long enough to believe he was the former. The past few months made him stop to accept and appreciate the people around him. He was too late of course. He was always too late.

If he thought about it clinically, the new members on his team were perfectly adequate replacements for the ones he had lost. Sai was… good. He was good. Strong enough that Sasuke could go all out. And he was quiet. Sai didn’t speak more than he had to. Which had been the one thing Sasuke prayed for when he first joined Team 7. Had it been six or seven months ago when it happened, Sasuke would have kowtowed several times over to his ancestors in gratitude.   

Now, it made him itch uncomfortably. 

Yamato was also a good choice. He was a capable instructor, having tested Sasuke on his strengths that first day. He also outlined what he wanted to accomplish before the chunin exams, even allowing Sasuke’s input on where Sasuke wanted to concentrate and what he was interested in. The man was forthcoming, clear and concise. Sasuke liked him. 

Surprisingly, the man even offered to show him the basics of the Tantō art but admitted that Sasuke wouldn’t be able to pick up the skill in time for the exams. What surprised Sasuke more was that he accepted.

But neither one of them felt like they were his team. 

So, when a few days turned into a week and Naruto still didn’t turn up, Sasuke begrudgingly set off to find him. 

He started with the places he was familiar with: Ichiraku Ramen, the Academy and also the Hokage mountain for some reason. When that yielded no results, Sasuke decided to stop by Naruto’s house. Sasuke was halfway down the street before he realised he didn’t know where Naruto lived. He had to circle back to Ichiraku’s again to ask for directions.

Naruto stayed on the fifth floor of a run-down apartment building with flickering hallway lights and no elevator. Banging on his door did not serve any purpose other than to earn the neighbors’ ire. Sasuke skulked away after being shouted at twice in a row by an older gentleman that lived on the same floor. 

He almost gave up after that but decided to venture out one last time before declaring the errand an utter failure.

Sasuke visited their old training ground. And he was almost glad that he did.

He found Naruto on the bridge overlooking the Naka River. He leaned against the railing absentmindedly as Sasuke ambled closer. Upon closer observation, he noticed something else. A ribbon, red and frayed, tied to the railing of the bridge. It fluttered against Naruto’s fingers, almost like it was tickling him.

“What’s this?” Sasuke asked thoughtlessly. 

Naruto flinched in surprise. “Sasuke,” he blurted out, alarm temporarily increasing the volume of his outburst, “What’re you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” Sasuke replied, opting for honesty no matter how irksome he found it. “Seems you’ve been busy these days.” 

Naruto bowed his head. “Sorry about that,” he replied, twisting the ribbon around his finger before looking up again, a smile grazing his lips. 

And Sasuke could breathe slightly easier.

“It’s for Sakura-chan.” Naruto explained softly. He said nothing more, letting the silence fall around them. 

Sasuke swallowed, having found nothing to reply with. “Ah.” he said finally before wincing at his awkwardness.    

Sasuke spoke again after a few minutes. “Want to catch an early dinner then? My treat.”

“Sure. Ichiraku’s?”

“Duh.”

“Maybe I went overboard with that last bowl.” Naruto said as he patted his stomach, burping loudly in satisfaction. 

Sasuke wrinkled his nose at Naruto’s lack of manners. He wiped his mouth with a napkin, warily eyeing the tower of bowls in front of him. They almost reached the ceiling and swayed dangerously to one side. “Preparing for the winter, are you?” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth before paying for their meals.

“Hey!” Naruto exclaimed in reply, causing Sasuke to smirk. “I’ll have you know that I’m a growing boy and I need the extra calories.” Naruto stood from his stool, pointing a finger in Sasuke’s face to emphasize his point.

“Really?” Sasuke dragged out as he stood up too. His smirk widening into a half smile as he craned his head to look down at Naruto. “I’m inclined to agree.” 

Naruto scowled. “Shut up, teme.” 

Sasuke shrugged, turning to exit the establishment. 

“Bye, Ojiisan!” Naruto called out to Teuchi with a wave, following Sasuke out.

Outside, it was a pleasant night. The skies were clear and the stars bright. People milled up and down the street, shopping and chatting and dining. They walked in semi-comfortable silence as they turned the corner and made it out of the commercial district, letting the cacophony behind them peter out.

“Training’s at ten tomorrow.” Sasuke mentioned, out of the blue. “Training ground six.”

“Have fun,” Naruto replied gruffly, making Sasuke sigh in exasperation. 

“Look, just come, ” Sasuke insisted, “Yamato-san is a surprisingly good teacher. And that Sai guy is quiet as long as you don’t egg him on.”

“I dunno, Sasuke,” Naruto replied snidely, “what if he’s gonna kidnap you too?” 

Sasuke stopped in his tracks, unexpectedly hurt by Naruto’s remark. “Seriously? You’re going there?” 

Naruto stopped too, a thrill of anticipation shooting through him. “The real question you should be asking yourself is will you even remember Yamato-sensei after you pass the chunin exams, Mr. I’m-better-than-everybody?” 

Sasuke flinched back; fist coiled tightly in fury. What the hell was going on? Naruto may be quick to swear at him, but he would never intentionally hit below the belt. 

Naruto carried on, twisting the knife deeper. “I suppose you’re glad Sakura-chan is gone. That’s one more dead weight off your back, huh?”   

Sasuke reared back and socked him in the jaw, having heard enough. Naruto, not expecting the blow, fell back onto his butt, clutching his throbbing face with a hiss. 

“You know nothing,” Sasuke snarled, pulling him up the front of his shirt. “You are a fool .” Having said so, Sasuke started dragging Naruto down the street. Naruto, for his part, was still dazed from the blow and so followed, clutching his still smarting jaw.

After many winding twists and turns punctuated by the duo’s stubborn silence, they reached an eerie road that led into the abandoned Uchiha district. Naruto realized their location with a jolt. “W-what are we doing here?” he asked, looking around nervously. 

Sasuke remained silent, marching down the street with zero hesitation. Naruto trailed after him apprehensively, regretting the words that brought him down this path. 

Sasuke stumbled only once, halfway down the road. His eyes glazed over briefly before he shook his head and carried on. Soon, at the end of the road, they reached a worn Torii gate, all pockmarked wood and peeling paint.   

They walked through the arch and a few steps in, Sasuke ducked under the branch of an aging Cypress and onto a well-worn path cutting through the sparse woods. It was a relatively straight route that opened into a clearing. 

Not just any clearing. 

A cemetery . 

Sasuke took off again, setting a brisk pace through the crumbling cenotaphs and overgrown ivy. Naruto tailed him, growing meeker by the second. Sasuke slowed in front of the last row of gravestones, turning right and seeking out the smallest and newest addition to the collection. 

Naruto’s guilt was an insurmountable lump in his throat as he stopped in front of it as well. His heart fluttered with the realization that Sasuke had also been trying to patch together the rapidly fraying ends of Team Seven. He knelt, letting a hand trace the crudely carved words on the stone. 

Haruno Sakura.

Naruto laughed, choking on the sound as tears blurred his vision. “ Shit ,” he cursed, digging his fists into his eye sockets in an effort to stop the tears. “I’m sorry for what I said, Sasuke. I don't know what came over me.”  

Sasuke didn’t reply but did splay a hand onto Naruto’s head in acknowledgement. Which was just as well, because Naruto only cried all the harder for it.  

The end of summer brought with it a cool night breeze. Resting under the boughs of an ancient Wisteria, Sasuke confessed his thoughts in tune with the wind. “She left.” he said, oh so matter of fact. As though it was predetermined.

As though he’d been expecting it all along. 

Naruto watched as resignation seeped into his very bones, making his shoulders stoop and his voice hoarse.

“She said she’d take us away from here. She said she’d keep us safe. She kept making so many promises and then she...left.” Sasuke’s eyelids fluttered as he finished his sentence. 

And Naruto realized that no, Sasuke hadn’t resigned. He defied logic and his entire lived experience to believe. He dared to Hope. 

Which was arguably worse. 

Naruto let the same bitterness wash over him, eyes straying over this lonesome corner of the village. The permanence of his plight distorted his surroundings just so and Naruto wondered when it was that he last saw a starless night.    

Perhaps they were, both of them, two sides of the same coin. One that dealt wholly and exclusively in loss and misfortune. Red coated their margins and no herald of joy would dare to spend them.    

Sasuke shifted minutely against Naruto’s side, craning his neck to gaze at the sky himself.

“You said Training starts at ten, right?”

“Mm. Bring shuriken.”

Chapter Text

Winter was the worst time of the year, Sakura would argue. The cold seeped into her bones no matter how many layers she piled upon herself. Her lips would chap and her nails would turn brittle. Her poor hair suffered the brunt of it, dull with the ends splitting itself in multitudes until her next haircut which was almost always a few inches too short for her liking.

Summer brought problems of its own. The heat urging you to peel away your very skin. Sunburns, blisters and bugs.  

The thrice-damned bugs.

Sakura hissed, waking with a jolt. Her hand came away with the smeared remains of a mosquito. Curling her lip in disgust, Sakura wiped the grime onto her bed linen before side-eyeing the lump beside her.

Bleary, black eyes watched her from under the pile of bedding. With a bereaved sigh, Sasuke emerged from his covers, an amusing display of mused hair and ruffled clothing. And a smattered collection of inflamed welts on every visible inch of his skin from his face to his feet. 

“You forgot the bug spray,” he mumbled petulantly. 

Sakura’s half formed smile fell just as quickly as it appeared at the reminder. 

“I-What-You could have mentioned that yesterday!”  

“I did.” 

Unable to offer a better answer, she scoffed in reply, miserably scratching lines down her pimpled forearm. “Stupid swamp country flies,” she mumbled, making her way to the bathroom. “Get ready to go out,” she called out behind her. 

Her appearance changed drastically upon her return with hair combed back into a simple bun and wearing the same modest Kosode they stole off some merchants somewhere in the backwoods of Tea country. Closer observation revealed delicate flower motifs along the collar, sleeves and edges of the fabric that were characteristic of North Suna’s mud-based Dabu print.

The muted colours highlighted the brightness of her features and the swan-like elegance of her neck. 

Sasuke blinked back visions of his mother. And when she smiled, he forgot how to breathe.

Snapping out of his stupor, Sasuke marched determinedly into the bathroom and locked himself inside.

Sasuke emerged ten minutes later and Sakura declared that the first order of things was to find him a sword. “And insect repellent.” Sasuke interjected, still sounding a little sour even to his own ears. 

“Oh alright,” Sakura laughed, halving the money in her pocket and handing it over to him. “Buy whatever you like.” She said as she ruffled his hair, snickering at the dour look that crossed his face before he caved to her affections. Sakura’s smile twisted wistfully at his contentment before she pushed it aside in favour of stepping into the first rays of the sun.

Sorui during the day was a stark contrast to the one at night. For one, the crowd near the harbour had thinned considerably, making their commute from the inn to the core of the town easier. This early in the day, the shopkeepers and a few of the denizens seemed to be the only people out and about. The shopkeepers themselves were cut down to fishermen auctioning their catches and the occasional tea stall. 

It seems that, regardless of the time, Sorui was never quiet. A dull thrum of energy enveloped them, gradually increasing in pitch the closer they got to the centre of the floating town.

Planks bobbed capriciously underfoot, and they noticed more than one person randomly launch into a game of hopscotch at some point or the other. It wasn’t until Sakura stepped on a particularly well-worn plank and fell shin-deep into the water that they understood why. Sakura watched the broken pieces float away with an aggrieved glare. 

A passing fisherman barked out a laugh at her expression and helped her up. “Watch your step, missus, or there’ll be plenty more where that came from,” he chuckled, walking away.  

Through some trial and error, they learnt to tell wood apart from rot. It was all for naught though, because by the time they reached the first major junction, both of them were dripping wet from the knee down. 

Quaint little boats passed through the central channel that cut Sorui in half, carrying either produce or people. Vendors and visitors milled on the floating bamboo walkways that arched over the main channel and its multiple tributaries, allowing foot traffic to move steadily from one end of the floating town to the other.

The first wave of déjà vu assaulted Sakura and she sighed in exasperation. The intensity was starting to nauseate her. 

Taking a left, they explored this half of Sorui inch by inch, dodging wares and hawkers alike. Sellers milled at every corner, displaying a generous assortment of crystals, seals, scented oils, protective talismans, curses, potions and books on the shadowy occult.

“Wow.” Sasuke mumbled, overwhelmed. 

Sakura returned a seal she had excitedly snatched up, after a glance at its contents. “They’re all fake,” she croaked, dismay colouring her face grey.

As explained by a passing tourist, Sorui’s notoriety was just that—notoriety. It was a well-known hub for spiritual quacks dabbling in mysticism for the sake of coin. It was unfortunate indeed that gullible folks still formed lines that stretched all the way down the street. 

The centre of town appeared sooner than expected, marked by nothing more than a tall pole hoisting a threadbare flag. A simple river motif embodied the essence of the lake-town. 

The town centre was a large square boardwalk connected to the rest of town by way of bamboo arch bridges on each of its four corners. Stalls lined all four sides, selling the same wares they saw before but at a steeper price. Interspersed between the stores were palm readers, astrologers and seers. Crowds of people chatted away at every stall and soothsayer. Along with the flag, the centre hosted a modest podium that looked like it hadn’t seen much use in recent years.

“C’mon.” Sakura huffed tiredly, “let's grab something to eat.” 

In a place like Sorui, most metal work either became a mystical amulet or cutlery that passed hands one too many times before inevitably being melted down to make…more mystical amulets. Under such inadequate conditions, they were forced to spend three days exploring this eccentric little corner of the world. 

Sasuke’s deadline approached and departed with nary a peep from either one, unusually steadfast in their endeavour to find a suitable weaponsmith. 

Finding a good weapon was essential! Especially for a boy with no formal training or knowledge in the art of sword-wielding who was atleast a three-day journey away from the nearest teacher. Not for any other reason, of course. Not at all. 

Sakura ignored the small part of her mind that hurled words like hypocrite and liar at her. She’ll be damned before she allows her own brain to besmirch her doubtlessly good intentions.  

“Sure.”

‘Shut up.’

It was on the third such day of aimless wandering, er, earnest scouring, that they came across an unexpected find.  

They strolled through the back alleys of Sorui, munching on their midday meal of street food snacks. Sasuke led the way while Sakura concentrated on polishing off her chicken skewers, which might explain how they found the blacksmith in the first place. 

Eyes lighting up, Sakura went on a long spiel about the theory of sword-fighting. The blacksmith returned the favour by explaining his sword-making process and the different types that he specialised in. Sasuke could make neither heads nor tails of the conversation yet somehow had to suffer through multiple measurements of his person and atleast three of his head circumference before he could escape. 

By that time, the blacksmith had brought out a piece of paper and began sketching. 

Sasuke spent his time perusing the shop’s display. The kunai were of passable quality while the shuriken needed improvement and the senbon were abysmal at best. Yet somehow, the Katana in the shop were some of the best he had ever seen. Sasuke eyed one particular sword near the back of the barrel that had a unique lightning pattern all the way down its length and even continued onto its lacquered scabbard. 

“Nice find.” Sakura commented from behind him. Sasuke swung the sword in a downward arc, making the air around it whistle. He hummed in agreement. 

Sakura wasted no time as she spun on her heel to call out, “Oi, Oji-san! We’ll take this one!”

Sasuke watched as they haggled back and forth something fierce over the sword before the blacksmith threw up his hands and shook on a price. “Just take it and don’t come back, ya hear!” He slammed the door shut.  

Sakura waved back with a pleased grin. “I think he liked us,” she commented.

“Seriously?” Sasuke asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah. Because no blacksmith worth his money would part with Uchiha steel for the price I quoted.”

Sasuke staggered to a stop. “What.” 

Sakura blinked in surprise as well, “I thought you knew.” She reached forward and unsheathed the sword halfway before tilting it towards the sun. The light glinted off a familiar uchiwa symbol embossed near the base. 

“I read somewhere that the lightning pattern on the katana is unique to your clan too. It means the sword is electroconductive. Certain records believe that your clan also owned swords with a flame pattern suggesting thermal conductivity. Do you..think..It…hav…on…” 

Sasuke clutched at the sword, his ears ringing louder and louder until it drowned out Sakura’s voice. 

This...this was…

“...and then my mum tells me Sakura-chan, photography is not a viable career. Can you believe her!? She encouraged my nonsense for years and—oh hello! How’re you feeling?”

Sasuke’s eyes felt sluggish as he opened them. It took a second for his eyes to clear and when it did, the first thing they locked onto was the sky. Perfectly fluffy clouds drifting by against a gorgeous azure backdrop. Afternoon sun warming his cheek and the feel of lacquer in his palm. His head resting comfortably on someone’s lap.

For the first time in as long as he can remember, Sasuke took a moment to appreciate it.   

“What happened?” he asked, licking his cracked lips. 

“Vasovagal syncope. I see it all the time. You just got a little too excited with your new toy.” Sakura leaned back, enjoying the breeze flowing through her petal-hued hair.  

Sasuke snorted. He sat up to admire the katana in his hand before turning around, “Can you teach me?”

“Not really,” she hummed, “my moves consist of slash and evade. But I can train you until we find somebody who knows what they’re doing.” 

They took the rest of the day off. Sasuke spent the afternoon polishing his heirloom to a mirror finish. While cleaning, he discovered lettering engraved partially into the pommel of the sword. 

Kagami. 

Mirror . 

Chapter Text

“Again.”

The sword whistled as it swung forward, all clean lines and sharp movements. A fractional jerk in its movement had Sasuke frowning as he repeated his Katas more forcefully. 

Trees whispered and golden grass roiled in the dry summer wind. Sasuke twisted his wrist, swinging against the breeze. 

He grit his teeth as three more mistakes made themselves obvious. Shifting his weight, Sasuke gripped the handle tightly in an attempt to manifest perfection. 

“Stop.” Yamato commanded. “You're trying too hard,” he continued in a softer tone after Sasuke lowered his sword with an annoyed click. “You're still focusing on the sword rather than the movement. Listen to your body, be conscious of every shift in the muscle, every breath of air, the twitch in your fingers, the—”

“I get it!” Sasuke huffed, more annoyed with his tutor waxing poetry than with the explanation. He’s found that Yamato’s explanations become more abstract the longer he talks. Given enough time, they become so metaphorical as to require pen and paper and perhaps a dictionary to hold it all together. 

Sai was still piecing together last week's bogus advice. And Naruto had doggedly been trying to boil ramen in the morning sun’s rays in an effort to prove Yamato wrong.

“Sasuke-san,” Yamato finally sighed, circling his form, “there are no shortcuts to perfection. Only practice.” 

Sasuke watched the sun gleam and reflect into a thousand spores from Kagami’s polished surface. The lightning streaks on it burnt a crystal blue in the morning light. 

Yamato eyed his sword curiously and spoke again after a beat. “I suppose it also doesn't help that the sword was made for someone much taller. Is it an heirloom?” 

Sasuke didn’t answer. He lifted the sword higher, shifted one foot backwards and swung again. 

Later, when he sat at home and meticulously cleaned the dirt from its surface, Sasuke supposed that maybe, in a way, it was.  

“An Uchiha named Kagami, you say?” Sakura put a hand to her chin in thought, “To be perfectly honest, I should be asking you this question. Any official document mentioning an Uchiha name would have been censored out of the system around the same time as the massacre.”    

Sasuke nodded shortly. 

“I’m sorry, Kid. Had it been under better circumstances, we could have gone back and asked the blacksmith about that sword. As it stands right now, I don’t think it's a great idea.” 

Sasuke nodded again in understanding as he walked alongside her, katana displayed proudly at his hip. He was still wearing his navy Kosode, but most of his hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, making him look every bit the samurai guard whose role he was playing.

Sakura led the way across a bridge and into the center of town, planning to find something to eat before continuing their exploration. She was on a mission to find those chicken skewers she’d been craving from that one specific vendor located near the turning towards the town center. 

By noon they understood that they were never going to find the skewer shop, and decided to forgo chicken in favor of locally sourced fish ball soup. 

After lunch, Sasuke took point, navigating them through the thick crowds quite efficiently. They crossed another bridge, this time moving away from the central podium. 

Sakura hesitated at the outset of the street, senses tingling curiously. 

The atmosphere on this side of the bridge was strange. It was not alarming, nor was it haunting. It was wholly different, almost sacred. While the theme of time worn ruins continued, the air around them was charged with intrigue. 

This was the remains of old Sorui, Sakura realized, where legends say Benzaitan descended to live amongst her people. She taught them economics and shipbuilding and her people prospered on the water. Until a few centuries ago that is, when a flood swept away most of the denizens as well as a portion of the town. 

‘That booklet on the history of Sorui sure came in handy,’ Sakura mused, slinking down the street, feet silent on the mossy cobblestone. 

Unlike New Sorui built entirely of wood and floating in the open water, the Old town was built upon a shoal in the heart of the lake. This provided the necessary foundation for the weight of the stone coral buildings surrounding them. The stone coral itself was a testament to the height of their prominence, built by traders from across the Long sea. 

Those days of abundance were far in the past and most of the stone coral was dug up by peddlers to be sold as souvenirs. What was left was patched up using the same flimsy wood that held up New Sorui.  

The people milling here could very well be described as reverent, admiring the ruins and making conversation with a few of the locals. An artist was intently sketching a half-crumpled steeple onto paper. 

Sakura ambled past them and into a fierce wave of Déjà vu, making her stumble half a step. Annoyance surged to the surface and Sakura had the sudden urge to flatten the place in order to locate the source of her misery. 

Sasuke bumped into her and Sakura sighed in exasperation, letting the feeling slip past her yet again. 

Something else pinged on the edge of her consciousness, making her senses go haywire. This time, Sakura didn't hesitate. She tumbled headlong into the first side-street she encountered, pulling Sasuke along with her. Just in the nick of time too, as two Konoha nin flashed by and two more landed in the very same spot they occupied just a second ago.

“ New plan,” she hissed, mind scrambling to put together a viable escape route, “we’re getting the fuck out of here.” 

Sakura clamped her hands firmly onto Sasuke’s shoulders, forcing them into a deliberately unhurried walk down the cobblestone alleyway, through a narrow junction and past a couple of storefronts. 

She brainstormed through multiple ideas and discarded all of them. They couldn’t leave the island, all the entry and exit points should be closely monitored by now. They couldn’t circle back to their hotel either, their costumes and stories were too flimsy to pass anything more than basic scrutiny. Their only option right now was to lay low for as long as possible until their trackers moved on. It was easier to hide in a crowd, and this island town had more than enough of that so they should probably reroute back to New Sorui and—

Her thoughts screeched to a halt as they stumbled past a run-down bookstore in one of the backstreets. Sakura froze, almost vomiting with the force of the déjà vu that struck her. 

“What happened?” Sasuke demanded, sliding to a sudden stop 

“Nothing, I—” Sakura heaved again, before turning and pushing past the door to the bookstore. She vaulted over the books piled on the ground, past the strangers milling at the shelves, past the register, the curtains in her way and there—hidden safely behind glass, sat a most unassuming tome, the root of all her problems. 

Fury flooded her, pushing aside all rational thought.

Somewhere in the back of her head, she felt everything click into place. The déjà vu, Adult Sasuke’s badgering, her excursion through time, all the way back to her so-called ambush by Sound. 

Sasuke burst through the curtains a second later, derailing her train of thoughts.

“Are you okay?” he asked, sweeping the room in a single glance before returning his line of sight to her. 

Sakura stared and stared at his concerned face. Worry betrayed his youth, and the crack in his voice where puberty was slowly making its mark. This was no warrior; this was a child in a costume. His sword still dragged on the ground. She wondered how this innocent boy made way for the monster that his future self became.  

Behind him, the shopkeeper appeared, indignation turning his face a brilliant shade of purple. “Ma’am! You’re not allowed back here. I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave.”

“Of course,” she replied, “my apologies.”

They holed up in a dingy but crowded noodle shop, sharing their table with a fussy toddler and his parents. Sakura ate her noodles thoughtfully, avoiding Sasuke’s increasingly frustrated glances. 

The book…the book. 

The book was where it all started. Team 7’s inevitable second downfall. 

Their last mission together took them all the way across the ocean, to the Wild Lands of the east. There, they had to receive the codex in lieu of their client, and deliver it safely back into his hands. 

Their journey was long and arduous. Across stormy seas and unfamiliar terrain. To return a book that travelled far further than it had ever been meant to do. 

It was a relic from the Warring states period, their client had explained fanatically, an eccentric, bespectacled man hailing from the land of Iron. A book on the occult, the unknown. A book of spells. 

Sakura may or may not have snorted at his description. That was between her and the slip of paper in her file called a performance review.  

Their return journey was arguably more wretched. Filled with simmering tempers and snappy retorts, each more spiteful than the last. They arrived just in time to discover that their client had mysteriously perished in a house fire. The ashes left behind hadn’t even cooled by the time they were pilfered of anything worthwhile.

That night, they stayed in the next town over. There, Sakura saw once more, the gleam in Sasuke’s eyes, the prompt return of his feverish madness. 

There was a spell to raise the dead. Of- fucking -course there was a spell to raise the dead. Only Team 7 could have the rotten luck to not only encounter but also dabble in necromancy before their inevitable demise.

Sakura thought Sasuke mad, thought him deranged, but she never went to the extent of thinking he would sacrifice three civilians off the street to an unknown god from an unknown religion from an unknown book in the hopes of bringing his family back. 

Yeah, Sakura could not have signed off the team any faster. 

And based on her body’s reaction to the book, Sakura just needed one last piece of the puzzle.

Sakura raised her head, intending to finally answer Sasuke’s inquisitive stare. This minor action hastened Sasuke into setting his bowl down with a sharp thud before gathering all their belongings in one swipe. “Where to next, Madam?” he asked earnestly, making the lady bouncing her toddler beside him giggle. 

“Such an eager young lad you have there, my lady.” she complimented kindly.

“Yes,” Sakura agreed with a laugh, “yes, I’m quite proud of him.” Sakura got up, ruffled his hair and made her way to the exit. “Now come along, we have much to do.”  

Sasuke grumbled along after her.

Tonight, Sorui was celebrating The First Wave. 

A memorial for the first merchant-sailors who brought prosperity to Sorui all those centuries ago. There was music and dance and oversized drums beating rhythms that echoed in your own chest. 

With most of the crowds flocking to the center of town, they were able to circle round to Old Sorui without much delay. Sliding away a few loose roof tiles and sneaking into the bookstore was also a simple affair. As was disarming the mediocre civilian tripwires and replacing the tome with something of similar size.

Sasuke’s unimpressed stare though, that was another story. 

“If I get sent back to Konoha because of some fucking book, I’m never speaking to you again.”  

“S-sasuke!” Sakura snorted in horror, “Language!” 

“You curse literally all the time !” 

“Because I’m an adult and I earned the fucking right.”

She didn't know it was possible, but his unimpressed stare deepened .

“Anyway…” she trailed off, opting to flip through the volume in her hands. 

The book was comically easy to read, the contents page divided into three sections: living, dead and the afterlife. Each section was then alphabetically split based on topics. 

The section under resurrection covered everything from turning the dead into the undead and from undead to living dead to living again. As long as one had access to a body, that is. 

If one did not have such access, the book then pointed you to the section under de-aging which selectively restores both animate and inanimate objects to its former glory.

“Are we gonna be here all night?” Sasuke asked in exasperation, “At least tell me why this book is so important?” 

“I’d tell you if I knew, kid.” Sakura hummed, perusing through a particularly riveting paragraph on the etiquettes of holding a séance. ”But if you must know, we're here because the book called me.” 

“The book”, Sasuke deadpanned.

“Yes.”

“Called you.”

“Yes.”

She turned to the page under reincarnation and scrunched her brows in confusion before flipping through the matter and turning back to the contents.    

Strange. 

The text seemed to have merged reincarnation and recreational time travel into a singular topic. Which is absurd because reincarnation involves being reborn either into another body or your own. And it disregards dimensional rules. 

Time travel on the other hand, abides by dimensional rules in that it doesn't hop dimensions. Time travel is linear. Either backwards or forwards. 

She angled the diagram into the light.

Somehow the seal on the page lined up perfectly with either function. All based on intent. 

Fascinating work. 

Sakura looked up to see Sasuke shift in place. Time slowed down exponentially as she took in the sheen of a thin, neatly camouflaged wire running diagonally across the doorway. Sasuke’s elbow moved as he turned, curving against the wire before the pressure cut through the skin. 

Sasuke flinched back just as the first drop of blood hit the floor.  

“ Fuck .” He intoned, grabbing onto his arm.

A beat of silence passed before a blaring screech rang out, making both of them groan in unison.

“Eh, this place sucks anyway.” Sakura announced flippantly, shutting the book with a snap. She stuffed it inside the backpack she carried before leaping back out through the gap in the roofing and onto the narrow streets.

Sasuke followed, doing his best to trace her footsteps. They stuck to the shadows as far as possible, but the waxing moon tonight was bright, making their journey all the more difficult. 

Sakura turned a corner and halted at the precipice of the row of buildings that covered their tracks. A hundred meters or so of cobblestone lay between them and the waters that beckoned to their escape.

Crickets chirped and the water lapped against stone, but the street was quiet as a whole. 

“Be quick.” She whispered. Sasuke nodded sharply, bouncing on his toes. 

Sakura flashed to the other side. The rundown shack there provided ample cover. She checked her surroundings before gesturing to Sasuke. 

Taking a deep breath, he followed. 

One step.

Two. Three.

Steel whistled through the air. 

Sasuke’s hand moved before he did. A quick draw, a blue tinge and a muted crackle. 

The kunai clanked to the ground, a spark deflecting on its tip. 

A flurry of activity ensued, and Sasuke very quickly found himself in Sakura’s arms, sword and all. The wind bit into his eyes and Sasuke was blind, surrendering his sword to Sakura's firm grip. 

Metal bit metal, and explosions rattled down the street. Though blinded, Sasuke could sense every bit of the action. There were 5 of them—masked and armed. Two fought Sakura simultaneously. The third and fourth hung back, throwing Jutsu and sharpened steel with enough finesse to be considered an artform. The last one, a woman, hid at the very back. To Sasuke, it felt like a layer of slime enveloped her. 

It must be Genjutsu, he realized excitedly, and I can see it.

The slime tried to blanket them multiple times, to no avail; not with Sakura’s chakra dispelling it too fast to be anything but second-naturedly. 

Sasuke tapped Sakura’s shoulder, which was the only warning she needed. He found himself launched into the air with barely a hiccup to her assault. He slid three kunai into his hand, launching them at the three ninja who hung back.

The first was dodged, the second deflected, but the third struck true, straight into the shoulder of the Genjutsu expert.

He landed near the discarded kunai, catching them with a fluidity he didn’t remember having. But catch them, he did. And proceeded to absolutely demolish two grown men twice his size.

If there was one thing everyone agreed upon, it was that Sasuke was a perfectionist. He hated half measures, and he especially hated having to restrict himself to a specialty. Historically, Uchihas were long-ranged fighters, but Sasuke had trained his whole life with the single-minded intensity of someone whose destiny was to commit fratricide while glaring into his murderous brother's eyes and saying, “fuck you, brother!” or some such nonsense. 

…was he monologuing…?

…dear God.

Anyway, Sasuke won. With two kunai and a well-placed kick to the neck to knock them out. 

He was going to seek out the Genjutsu expert next when Sakura landed beside him with a pained grunt. Sasuke sneaked a peek behind him to see four more ninja than he remembered. 

Sakura threw him over her shoulder, curving her other hand into a familiar sign and engulfing them in smoke. Thousands of her copies sprang out, carrying illusional versions of him. They ran out in all directions. Some reached the water and ran out over it, not disturbing the water in the slightest and outing them as illusions. 

‘Clone jutsu?!? Sasuke raged in his head, heart sinking with bewildered finality.  

He squeezed his eyes shut as Sakura carried him straight into enemy lines.

In his ears, a splash resounded. Once. Twice. And then he heard it, multiple footfalls over the water. And the cobblestone. And the roof tiles.

Sasuke tore his eyes open to watch their pursuers splitting off, away from them. Chasing clones that never made a sound but always a ripple. Slashing illusions that passed through their kunai with a scream and clumsy footsteps.

He watched as ANBU scrambled and panicked until he lost sight of them. A familiar tingling settled itself in Sasuke’s ears and it’s a truly humbling realization, how easy it was to be a genius. 

They reached one of the main thoroughfares quickly. Sakura let Sasuke onto his feet then, sheathing his sword and hurrying him into the nearest modiste. 

They traded in their exquisite kosodes for more unassuming clothes. Kagami as well as the Tome were sealed deep inside Sakura’s backpack. 

Dawn was only a few hours away and the mass of festivalgoers were only now buzzing and bristling their way to the docks. Many embarked barges set to leave the island town. Sasuke and Sakura followed, climbing onto one of the many that lined the dock.

They started off quickly enough, carrying far more passengers than strictly recommended. The jaunt took thirty minutes longer than usual, as the arks teetered and tottered their way between each other and finally reached the embankment on the other side. The shore there was packed as well, with many taking to sleeping on the streets and alleyways and many more inching their way to the camps dotting the little port.  

The port master could be seen at his tiny shack a little ways away, staring sourly at a couple of drunks. The muttered beginnings of an argument could be heard as the duo passed and by the time they reached the tree line it had quickly devolved into a fistfight.  

They took to the trees and in a minute or two, all they could hear was the vegetation surrounding them. Sakura veered northwest and kept a moderate pace leading them to the bushlands between Rain country and Fire where the tall grass would hide their tracks.  

An hour before dawn, somewhere in the rocky crossroads between Rain, Grass and Fire country, Sasuke finally stumbled. Sakura took it in stride, not even pausing as she bundled Sasuke into her arms.

“We’re being followed,” He mumbled tiredly into her shoulder. Blearily, he rubbed his eyes as he squinted into the southern horizon. “I think it's the ANBU from before. Six...or seven ninja.”  

Sakura hummed in reply, scanning his face curiously. “Yes, in another three hours at our current pace. How’d you know?” 

Sasuke frowned to himself, like he couldn't figure it out either. “I can... see? them, in my head? Like, I just know.” he shrugged one shoulder carelessly. “There's three chakras coming in from the south, two from the southeast and one is circling around from the southwest.” He pointed north, where the broken soil of summer wetlands gave way to the  blue sky before continuing. “I think they’re planning to cut us off on that mountain there.” 

He paused before adding, “and one of them is a fire elemental.”     

Sakura blinked. First at the uninterrupted skyline, then at Sasuke himself before grabbing him by the jaw and closing in on his eyes. She didn't notice his “hey!” of indignation or even how their noses crushed uncomfortably to each other.

“Sasuke,” she declared shakily, “send chakra to your eyes for me.” 

He frowned at her in confusion and even mild irritation before complying. 

Sakura gasped, dropping him.

Sasuke hissed as he landed hard on his butt, glaring sharply at her rough handling.

“What’s your problem ?” he grit out, getting up and dusting himself off. 

 He watched, wearily, as Sakura lifted a hand and pointed to his face. 

“Sasuke, your Sharingan's awake!”