Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sakura stared at the mangled bodies of her mother and father, her pink eyebrows pulling together in confusion. "How did it happen?"

The morgue attendant stared at her for a moment before deciding not to spare her the details. His dark irises held the uncomfortable pity of someone who was terribly sorry and also unfortunately awkward with emotions.

"Genjutsu. Yes, in part, anyway. The genjutsu during the invasion caught so many people unaware… It could have happened to anyone. Your parents were unlucky enough to not be in the stands at the time. When a nearby wall collapsed, they were crushed where they'd fallen asleep under the power of the genjutsu… Yes, I'm sure you can see that they indeed were crushed by the wall, actually. Not the genjutsu. There was nothing they could have done."

The weight of the grief inside of her felt like it was compacting as he spoke. He explained that the deaths were instantaneous and they likely didn't feel a thing. He was wringing his hands a little bit. She couldn't find it in her to care if he felt uncomfortable. He must have been new to this role, but so was she. She'd never been an orphan before.

"Do you know where it happened?"

"At the edge of the Market District, near Hayazaki's." The attendant paused, scratching at his jaw. His brown sideburns yawned with the motion. "If you want to go see it, you won't be able to miss it."

She wanted to cry. She was desperate to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. All the colour fell away from her as she looked at her father's face, running her thumb over his pink stubble. The coolness of his skin only made her more aware of how hard and lifeless he was.

Sakura turned to her mother and looked at the woman who had raised her. She'd been there for everything— every bruised knee, every scrape, every heartbreak. Now who would hold her when she cried?

She absently reached out and touched her mom's hand. She lifted it, trying to move her fingers so she could hold her hand one last time. The fingers felt like frail branches beneath her grip. Sakura held her mother's hand gingerly. Too much pressure would break those delicate bones. She settled with holding the hand between both of her own hands.

"How should I prepare their funeral? I… I have no other family, I don't know what I… How do you bury someone?"

"As shinobi, your parents' end-of-life preparations will be by covered the village. Also… many ninja and civilians fell to this attack. Nothing like this has ever happened before. So there will be a large ceremony honouring all of them.

"All that you will need to do would be to notify any next of kin. Even those who might not live in the village. Do you know who is the next of kin? And you'll need to fill out some paperwork in the Hokage tower— your parents should have had a living will as Chunnin. The expiration rate with that rank is quite high, so every Chunnin will have been made to execute a living will."

Sakura was silent for a moment, his words echoing through her mind. She noticed the dirt had been removed from undernearth her mother's fingernails. There had always been just a little; she spent most of her time in the garden.

She repressed a chuckle at the absurdity of it all. Who referred to death as 'expiration rate' while talking to someone who just lost everything? "No, I already mentioned I have no other family. There was no clan and I… I'm alone now."

"Well at any rate, someone in the Hokage's office will be sure to help you handle all of your affairs then. I'm sorry for your loss, kunoichi-san." She looked at his face and noticed just how pinched and earnest it was. He meant it, despite his grievous lack of tact.

She bowed, feeling off center as she moved. What did she do now? Where would she go?

Sakura stood there for a moment, entirely unsure of what to do. She heard the awful groan of the gourney as her parents were put back in the wall. "The bodies… what will happen to them?"

"They will be added to the shinobi cemetery. Their names will be added to the stone but their specific plot information will be available only to you."

There was a screech again as the doors slammed shut and Sakura knew she'd never see them again. The thought registered in her brain and then floated away.

"You can't stay here, I'm so sorry. You'll have to wait outside or go somewhere else…"

Sakura bowed again and stumbled outside. It was too bright in the hallway and she squinted, lifting her hand to block the light. She didn't quite know where she was going, but her feet carried her out of the hospital and down the road.

It was like train cars crashing into each other. Her thoughts were mixed and jumbled and a strange sensation had settled over her that felt very much like tv static on the television.

Sakura wandered aimlessly. The thought of going home was truly unbearable. In a blur of activity, she found her way to the Hokage tower. Some no-name chunnin that she'd never met before assisted her with the paperwork for her parents' estate. The home had been left to her, along with a sizable amount of money. Until she became a Chunnin herself or turned sixteen it would be afforded to her in small monthly increments. The desk Chunnin squeezed her hand as she left and assured her how proud Mebuki would have been. Sakura had never her mother's friend before and didn't think to get her name before she wandered out of the tower and back into the streets.

Before she knew it she was at the weapons shop, staring at the wall that had come down. The ground looked rusty with blood that someone had tried and failed to clean up. She wondered how long it had had to soak in for it to be so hard to scrub out.

Sakura couldn't do anything other than watch it play out over and over again. She tried to imagine what the moments were like for them. How were they crushed? What knocked the wall over? Who had actually killed her parents?

She only succeeded in scarring herself with the endeavor. All she could see was her parents' bodies thudding to the ground under the debris.

After a while, she flinched back to awareness. Night had fallen. She swayed, unsure of where she should go.

Footsteps pounded on the concrete to her right and she turned her head to the sound. Naruto. Of course.

The smile died on his face as he saw her. She wondered how she looked. What had he seen to make him look like that?

"Sakura-chan! I've been looking for you!"

He thudded to a halt in front of her. He was still shorter than her and had to peer up at her a bit to actually see into her eyes. She noticed the fear enter his expression in a way she hadn't seen before.

"Are you… Did you get out of the hospital this morning?"

She nodded. Her lips felt like rubbery doors that didn't know how to open, holding her tongue captive.

"Did something happen?"

Sakura stared at him, her dirty hair flapping in the breeze. What could she say? Where did she start?

"Is it too hard to explain?"

A rush of gratitude and her eyes felt hot and prickly. She nodded again. Naruto studied her face again and she felt the panicky air about him thickening.

"Whatever it is, Sakura-chan, I'm here. I know I'm kinda stupid and don't always say the right thing, but…"

He lurched forward and locked his arms around her like this was his first time comforting someone. Maybe it was. Sakura's shoulders jerked up in discomfort and then she realized how nice it was to be held, even if it was the dorky blonde. He smelled like sweat and sunshine.

At some point his grip tightened and he whispered to her that it would be okay. Sakura never seen him so scared.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" Naruto pulled back as he asked, his hands resting so gently on her shoulders that she was impressed by the lack of bluster. The pink haired girl shook her head 'no,' marveling in an absent way at how much her neatly sheared off hair moved. She still wasn't used to it.

"I promise I'm not making a move— I don't assume you like me or nothing and I— I won't try anything." He slipped his grimy hand into hers and started leading her down the street. The prolonged contact was jarring and also comforting; it drew her out of the shell she kept falling into. "Come stay the night. You can sleep on the bed and I'll take the floor! I know you'd rather it be Sasuke-bastard, but—"

He abruptly stopped speaking when she squeezed his hand. "Right, heh, sorry!"

Naruto's apartment was cluttered, but not as dirty as Sakura had anticipated. She went to the bathroom, zoning out as she peed. She sat a bit longer than she strictly needed to, trying and failing to form coherent thoughts. Different disconnected ideas bounced around her head like waking dreams. She stared at the crack in the paint that ran from the corner of the window ledge down toward the baseboard.

Eventually she stood, pulled up her shorts, and washed her hands. She leaned against the sink as the weight of the day pressed on her. Her emerald green eyes were like broken bits of pottery. She hardly recognized herself. The expression on her face was too empty and her eyes were too dark. Her hair was an absolute sight, splaying about in disorganized chunks from her hack job during the exam.

Sakura sighed and exited the bathroom. She dropped down into his bed like a bowling ball and flipped the cover up over her. It smelled unpleasantly of boy.

Naruto plopped himself down on the floor and would look over at her every once in a while, trying to check on her without her noticing. She couldn't help but glare at him each time, wanting to not feel like a zoo animal.

Eventually he fell asleep, his soft snores cutting through the overwhelming silence. It was reassuring. She laid down on her stomach and looped her fingers through his, not caring what Ino would say if she knew. It wasn't romantic to her at all, she just needed to not be alone.

Sleep was easier to find than she'd expected.

**

The sound of whispers roused her from the nothingness of sleep. Disconnected words and phrases filtered through the air and Sakura sat up quickly as she realized she wasn't home.

It didn't take long to remember that she was at Naruto's. She felt sad and ugly and didn't remember why. She saw the picture on his night stand of the first day they'd joined Team 7. Her smile was so big…

It felt like a pressure point in her chest had been triggered as she remembered that her parents were dead and she was alone in the world.

"Happened…. Found her … hasn't said a single thing!"

The broken bits of Naruto's conversation carried over to her. She cringed. She'd have jumped out of the window if she was a better ninja. As it stood, she'd have to walk down the wall of his grimey apartment. Someone really needed to clean the place.

Sakura looked out the window, surprised to see an annoyed looking Sasuke staring up at her from the ground. His eyes narrowed when he saw her, his gaze scrutinizing.

Ah yes, training. She'd missed it. So Kakashi and Sasuke had come to look for Naruto, who'd also missed it. 'I bet they didn't even care if I came…'

It was childish, but she'd never been the first pick for the team and she knew that. Even though Naruto was the dead last she'd been fighting to catch up with him for the last few weeks.

Sakura blinked, looking up from the place she'd been glaring. Sasuke must have moved because she was staring at an empty road.

Her heart skipped a beat, anxious at his sudden disappearance.

She exited Naruto's room, intending to go look for him. Kakashi glanced up at her, eye smiling in her direction. "Let's chat, shall we? Naruto and Sasuke—" said boy entered through the front door "you two stay here. Sakura and I have to catch up."

"Where are you going?" Sasuke demanded.

"That's none of your business!" Kakashi said in a sing-song voice, booping him on the nose as he led Sakura past him and through the doorway. Sakura frowned, but didn't say anything or acknowledge him.

She wondered if he'd felt this way when he'd lost everything. Absently, she realized how annoying all the fangirls must have been. If she'd had the energy to do so, she would have cringed at her own behaviour now that she realized how it must have felt to receive that kind of attention when his whole family had just been murdered.

Kakashi had his book out as they walked, but Sakura knew he wasn't actually reading it. It was just a prop to make her feel less like an ant under a magnifying glass. She was grateful.

"You've never lost someone before." He said it like a statement, a fact.

Sakura nodded, feeling stupid and thankful that he had somehow put two and two together.

"Were you close?"

She nodded again. Looked at her feet. They had a mind of their own. It was obvious he didn't know who it was that had passed, but she supposed he would find out well enough when the ceremony for Sarutobi and all the other fallen comrades was held in two days.

Kakashi didn't say anything else, just kept walking. She kept moving, glancing over at him as they walked. He met her gaze but didn't say anything.

Eventually they stopped moving and Sakura realized it was because she'd stopped. She was staring at the rusty earth again, her head tilted to one side as she considered.

They stood for a moment. Kakashi's hand rested on her shoulder and when she looked over, she realized his book had been put away. He looked at the stain on the ground, the only evidence of her parent's passing.

She didn't know how long she stood there with him, with the carts rolling by and people's loud conversations dully roaring in the background. Eventually, he squeezed her shoulder.

"Time to move, Sakura-chan. You can't stand here forever. Let's go."

He started walking down the road and she followed after him, studying the back of his arm to the slope of his shoulder. How long had it been just him? His hair was grey but she knew it wasn't from old age.

They walked for a while but she wasn't paying attention. She was wondering what life as a diplomat to Suna would be like. Could she even run away from these feelings? Would they follow her there? It was appealing to think about until she ran into the obstacle of making new friends and the reality of a fresh start meaning no connections. The only person she actually knew in Suna was Gaara and he'd tried to kill her in their last interaction. Would he do that again the next time?

Kakashi, who had been walking in front of her for some time, came to a halt and she all but crashed into him. They'd arrived at the training field. It was better than sitting around all morning but also required some form of motivation that she didn't have at the moment.

Before long, they were throwing kunai and shuriken at targets. Sakura was doing her best, but even on a day when she wasn't emotionally compromised her best wasn't exactly impressive.

When it came time to spar, Naruto was careful with her in a way that she didn't like. He treated her as though she might fall apart if he hit her too hard. Sasuke was aggravated by her apparent lack of enthusiasm and was even more ruthless than usual.

"I don't know what your problem is," he spat, grabbing her by her upper arm. He spun and flipped her over his shoulder and into the ground. "But if you're looking for sympathy you won't get it from me."

Sakura felt frozen on the ground as the pain eked its way through her system. Rage followed quickly after, unbidden. She knew Sasuke was just being Sasuke. He clearly didn't know what was going on. But she was just so angry.

Her chakra buzzed within her and she flipped her weight over the ball of her foot and lunged for him. Her fingers connected with his face and she tackled him to the ground. Her left hand was fisted in his hair and she crushed her other fist into his cheek.

There wasn't any strategy to her attack. She let go of his hair and started to smack her fists down on his head in stabbing motions, as though she was holding a knife. Subconsciously, she channeled chakra into her fists to enhance the strikes.

Sasuke easily flipped her over, his eyes wide with surprise and apprehension. His sharingan frantically spun as he processed. He crunched his eyebrows down over his eyes. Then he smirked.

"Fight me for real, Sakura." He stood up, extended his hand down to her. She stared at it for a moment before accepting it.

Sasuke yanked her onto her feet and then leapt away from her, still smirking at her with an infuriating expression like he knew exactly what she was feeling. How could he know just by looking at her?

Sakura sprinted toward him, her chakra enhanced footsteps churning up the earth. She flung her arm back and then tried to crush him with a haymaker. He quickly dodged and punched her hard on the shoulder, shoving her back.

She angrily forced more of her meager reserves into her limbs, enhancing her speed. She shot out with her hands in savage combo at his chest. He easily blocked her jabs and smacked her hands out of the way to land a hit on her right shoulder.

The Uchiha then retreated to create some more space and she launched herself forward, taking it. The fight continued on with him outfighting her every step up the way.

Her arms were heavy with the exertion and she was running out of chakra. She wasn't ready to quit. It felt way better to be mad than to feel nothing. She tried to punch him again but he easily side swept her attack. Sakura glanced over and she saw Kakashi and Naruto standing off to the side. Kakashi's arms were folded over his chest but Naruto was practically biting his nails.

Sasuke took her moment of distraction to punch her directly in the jaw. She was sent sprawling onto the ground. "Get up."

Sakura tried to kept up and found herself unsteady on her feet. She tried again to push herself up.

"Get up." She tried again to lift herself. She was surprised when he grabbed her by the shirt and yanked her into a standing position before backing up half a step. "Fight me."

She tried to wake her body up with chakra but she was almost out. Still, she went in fast. She faked a jab with her left hand then quickly followed up with a high kick from her right foot. Her foot connected but then her grabbed her ankle and spun around, flinging her towards a tree.

Sakura tried to connect her feet to the tree, but her chakra failed to connect because her reserves were so low. She crashed to the ground, catching most of her weight on her elbows. She tried to push herself up onto her knees but her energy was gone and she couldn't get up again.

The cold metal of a blunted kunai was against her neck, a gentle mercy. "I yield," she grunted. It was the first thing she'd said since she'd been at the morgue and her voice was hoarse with disuse and exertion.

It took a moment to catch her breath. She stared at her hands for a moment before looking up. The reality of what she'd just done caught up with her and she cringed. Before she could even think of apologizing, she saw Sasuke's outstretched hand. She accepted it, letting him help her to her feet.

She thought about apologizing and then decided that getting her butt handed to her in the spar was sorry enough.

"Where did you learn to augment your strikes like that?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his sore jaw.

Sakura thought back to the fight. "I… didn't. I just did it."

"Hn."

Kakashi tutted loudly as they walked over to him. "Sakura, try not to use new techniques on your teammates. It could be dangerous. However, I am proud of you for utilizing that so quickly and succesively."

Sakura flushed a deep red. The only other time he'd complimented had been back in wave when she got to the top of the tree first. Even then, she'd known it was to goad the boys on. This was her first genuine compliment. What a shame to receive it in these circumstances.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! I've never seen you fight like that. It was… impressive." Naruto gushed, his cheeks pink with admiration. Sakura didn't have the energy to be annoyed by his affection. She wondered how pathetic she had to be for her fit of rage to be confused with skill. She settled for nodding uncertainly.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment before Kakashi cleared his throat and sent Naruto to spar with Sasuke.

Both of them were all speed and power, though Sasuke was not keeping up with Naruto as well as he usually did. Sakura wondered if that was her fault or if Naruto was just extra punchy after all the close combat training he'd had recently. They hadn't sparred together since before the Chunnin exams.

As they spoke with their fists, Sakura could feel the adrenaline wearing off. She was exhausted and everything was beginning to hurt.

Kakashi stood next to her, silently watching the boys spar. After some time he spoke. "You really were impressive."

"Thank you, sensei."

A/N: Hey y'all! I haven't forgotten my other stuff. :) I'm finally back from being overseas and man it was great. I've read a lot of fanfiction over the years but I haven't come across this premise before. Anything similar has been a way to make us feel bad for Sakura or to make a Mary Sue version of her that isn't even really her anymore. I'd love to consider what it looks like for her to be in this position.

I really am wondering what it will look like. Will Sasuke stick around? Or will he inevitably leave anywaay, creating a bigger rift between the gang? Your guess is as a good as mine.

Chapter Text

Two days had passed. After that sparring session, Sakura had been sent back to Naruto's to sleep off the painful loss. Naruto's ability to form clones meant that they were still able to buzz through about three different D-ranks. The village needed all the help it could get.

The next day was filled with back to back D-rank missions. Each of the children have an antsy sense of urgency to them, like if any one of them slowed down enough to think about what has just occured it would seem Too Real.

Sakura was relatively mute the whole day, though Naruto did his best to get a laugh out of her. Eventually he realized that wasn't going to happen and settled for shooting worried looks her way every half hour or so. In a way, it was nice to know he was there. It was also horribly alienating to know that no one knew what had happened and she had no idea how to talk about it. Every time she thought about telling him or Sasuke, it seemed like she fell down into a hole inside of herself and couldn't climb back out to make contact with the subject again.

Today was the funeral ceremony for all that had been lost in the invasion. Sakura snuck off alone to go retrieve some clothing from her home. She needed her funeral blacks. The last time she'd worn this, she was two inches shorter and much smaller. Some not-so-small part of her was relieved that she was too small to wear her mother's.

She couldn't bring herself to go through her childhood home so she entered through the window and exited the same way. The house still smelled the same. If she didn't think about it she could almost pretend her parents were puttering around in the kitchen downstairs.

Before she could have too many thoughts or feelings about it, she found herself back in Naruto's apartment, changing furiously in the bathroom. It was the moment she'd been avoiding.

Naruto must have already headed that way.

The rain started as a trickle but by the time she arrived at the memorial stone it was coming down in droves.

Kakashi's lanky frame loomed over many of the others present and she made her way to him and he nodded slightly to her but otherwise didn't say anything. A man she'd never seen before stood next to the memorial stone, prepared to read the names of the deceased aloud. Family members and loved ones would come forward and light incense before moving on. They announced the Hokage's death first, as it was the most important and would most likely have the most active participants in the grieving process.

Sakura walked through the line, numb and anxious. She could spot Naruto nervously fidgeting somewhere ahead of her in the line. The villagers gave him a wide breadth, leery of him for some reason.

She tried not to think about it. Instead, she wondered where Sasuke was, though even that didn't appeal to her like it used to.

After a while of looking — it really was such a long line — she found him sulking at the back of the crowd that had already gone through the line. He immediately noticed her and glared at her with such disdain that she immediately looked away, finding her feet suddenly fascinating. Her blue ninja sandals looked awful with the black of her funeral robes.

Sakura was reminded again just how much these funeral blacks didn't fit and how cold she was standing in the rain. She wanted desperately to leave but knew that it would be dishonouring to leave without performing last rights for her mother and father.

Kakashi stood to her right, gazing respectfully upon the stone as the Hokage's line of mourners dwindled to nothing. An hour must have gone by.

Then the man began calling names again. For an active ninja, he was a little fat. Sakura wondered if he was an Akamichi.

Her chest twisted as she realized they were going through alphabetical order. She studied the ground again, inspecting puddles. Naruto found his way over to them and slipped his hand into hers. She didn't know what to say so she just squeezed his hand.

Eventually they called her parents names. Naruto flinched and let go of her hand. Sakura was one of the very few people who had been the last remaining family of someone who'd passed in the invasion and she felt the eyes turn to her as she made her way up front.

The rain roared loudly out in her ears as she stepped up to the altar and lit incense. Her hand shook but she did her best to steady it. Then she bowed in prayer and walked back to where Naruto was standing. Sasuke was standing next to Kakashi but she didn't want to look at him.

She wanted to run away and never come back. But she had nowhere to go.

So instead, Sakura stood next to her team and squared her shoulders. Kakash put his hand on her shoulder and for some reason that made her want to cry more than anything.

She stood with them until the ceremony was over. It took several hours and by the end she was soaked to the bone and quite cold.

Afterwards, they all parted ways. Sasuke didn't say a thing as he left, a strange expression on his face. Kakashi had bowed, murmuring awkwardly about losing his own parents.

Naruto led her to his apartment, also not saying much. When they finally returned to the apartment, he rounded up some of his clothes. He smelled all of them, picking out the least smelly ones.

As he looked, Sakura glanced around his little bedroom, surprised to find that he had straightened up a bit at some point in the last few days.

He pushed her into the bathroom with the clothing. "Sorry they're not clean Sakura-chan, I really need to do laundry."

"Thank you, Naruto." Sakura looked at the floor and realized her clothing was still in a heap there from earlier. She caught her reflection in the mirror and immediately looked away.

"The water takes a second to get hot, sorry," he said, slipping out and shutting the door behind him.

All she could think about as she showered was how nice the hot water felt on her cold skin. By the time she emerged, her skin was as pink as her hair.

Naruto was in the kitchen, painstakingly cooking some ramen. "Miso or pork? I only have instant. Sorry…"

Sakura's lips quirked up into a tiny smile. "Miso." He was trying so hard.

"Ooh! I forgot. Here's some tea." He set it down in front of her. He was trying to be gentle, but some tea still sloshed out the side of the cup. "It's oolong, I think. I can't remember what the pack said."

"Thank you, Naruto."

It felt good that he finally knew what had happened, but it didn't mean she wanted to talk about it. He at least seemed to understand that and didn't bring anything up. They ate in companionable silence and then he asked if she wanted to be alone.

She didn't. She just didn't want to talk. So she said that and he nodded before picking up a watering can from the floor, by the sink. He began to water plants she hadn't known he owned.

"I didn't know you had plants, Naruto."

He nodded happily. "I love to take care of things! I say all kinds of nice stuff to 'em, 'tteybayo. I don't have nobody, well 'cept you, sensei, and Sasuke-teme."

He laughed that raucous jokester laugh she was used to, scratching at the back of his head. Then he paused, stiffly. "You'll always have us, Sakura-chan. I'm not going anywhere."

She punched him, playfully for once. He seemed relieved.

"Well, Kakashi-sensei… What's the big news?"

Naruto was practically vibrating after asking his question, his hands folded under his knees. Sasuke looked less than thrilled.

Kakashi's eye-crinkled as he smiled. "I'm too busy to watch after you right now. I'm in high-demand for riskier missions. Jiraiya has quite graciously accepted my request to oversee you for the next few weeks."

Sakura's heart sank and she looked heavenward as she deliberated. She knew she couldn't change the situation, so she nodded. Naruto harrumphed and folded his arms across his chest.

"That old pervert?! Gross, what's he gonna have us do? Infiltrate a bathhouse?"

"Now, now, Naruto. That's no way to speak about one of the Sannin," quipped Kakashi, suddenly appearing behind Naruto. "We all have our quirks, now don't we?"

Naruto cringed in trepidation, tucking his head under his hands as he avoided the threat of physical punishment. "Sorry, sensei!"

Kakashi patted him on the head, stepping past him and back in front of his students. "As I was saying… Tomorrow at noon you'll meet in the missions office. Be packed and ready for indefinite leave."

"…We're leaving the village?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "How will I train if we leave?!"

"You bastard, don't you remember the mission to Wave? We trained so much there!" Naruto scowled, looking at the boy with narrowed eyes and a stupid expression.

Sasuke pouted and looked away. "Hn."

Sakura hadn't met Jiraiya before. She wondered if all men were perverts or if she'd just been arbitrarily "blessed" to have such strange teachers.

A/N: Sorry for the time lapse, America i Y. I think this is an interesting direction, though. Let's see how it plays out.

Chapter Text

A/N: I am alive despite the overwhelming evidence otherwise.

It was a lot of walking. Any delusions of excitement that Sakura had had were quickly fading as they ambled from one town to the next in search of Tsunade.

Sasuke was furious at the slow pace. He'd resorted to working through the seals as they moved through the trees. Occasionally his hand would cramp and he'd be left wringing his hands out with a terrifying scowl etched into the features Sakura had once found handsome.

Naruto was glaring at the leaf in his palm, trying to figure out how to cycle his chakra into it so that it would stick to his hand. He had dropped it 36 times already as he unsuccessfully tried to complete the task he'd been given.

Sakura, upon seeing the two, hadn't been sure of what she was meant to do. She didn't have any edgy ninja training practices. So she started reviewing the last text books she remembered reading. In her mind's eye, they appeared to hover. One was green, the other pink, and another brown. The green book had been math related, discussing speed and angles as related to different ninja tools. The pink book talked at length about animals and hunting and how to properly skin a rabbit. She remembered her mother joking that the pink was to make the appearance of such gruesome tasks more bearable. Brown had been an older book, about the origin of chakra and the nature of it. That would have to do for now as it reminded her the least of unpleasant losses.

She imagined the page as they trudged along and she remembered that chakra could be used not just to stick to trees or to other surfaces, but to warm the body up or even to cool it down if necessary.

There was a mention of suppressing chakra on one of the pages. She realized she'd never even thought about trying to do that. She wondered about how to do that.

"How much further, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto whined. Sakura glanced at him and saw that his face was red from frustration. The leaf was now stuck to his hand, and he was flinging his hand back and forth trying to separate it.

"Ah… long enough that we might as well eat some lunch."

The group stepped off the main road, traveling on a little bit. When they came upon a log to sit on, Naruto immediately plopped down on it. Sasuke remained standing, his motions jerky as he reached into his pack to find his ration bar.

"Mind yourselves, I'll be back in a moment. I'm off to wash my feet," Jiraiya said with a sneaky grin. "No peeking!"

Sakura wrinkled her nose in distaste. "What does that even mean? Why would I watch him wash his feet?"

Naruto giggled and held up a hand to his mouth like he was sharing a secret, though his volume was its usual shout-to-talk decibel. "He's peeing, Sakura-chan!"

"Urk, gross." Sakura groused, dropping down on the log next to Naruto. She folded her arms across herself, pulling her knees up into her chest. She wondered if she could pull all her chakra into herself the way she pulled her limbs in.

It felt like pulling a blanket off of a bed, the weight of the blanket increasing as it came off of the bed and into her hand. Her chakra wanted to move and return to her limbs but she trapped it under her will, clamping down on it. She scraped it towards her center, like a child digging in sand.

As her chakra clumped together, it felt easier to contain it. She kept pushing and grinding the energy together, clenching it down until she simply couldn't get it any smaller. It felt strange, as though something had clicked and was holding her chakra in place. She smiled slightly, wondering how close she was to actually hiding her chakra.

There was a crashing sound, and Sakura let go of her chakra as her concentration slipped. Jiraiya was standing there amongst the bushes, breathing heavily like a madman. He was holding back the shrubbery and his eyes were a bit wild in contrast the rest of his manufactured pretense of calm.

"Is— is something wrong," Sakura asked, rising quickly to her feet.

"You—" Jiraiya tilted his head to the side as he considered her. Sakura squirmed uncomfortable under his gaze, misinterpreting the intensity as anger. He used his right hand to adjust his red vest. "Do it again."

Sasuke and Naruto both stared at her in confusion. Sakura glanced at them with wide eyes, then down at her hands. She stood, locking her fingers together as she concentrated.

It was a little bit easier this time, now that she knew there was an end in sight to the crushing down of her chakra. When she crushed it into nothingness again, burying it down until it felt properly tucked away, Jiraiya let out a soft grunt.

He walked toward her slowly, his agape mouth slowly curving up into a smile. "How… Do you know what you're doing?"

She shook her head no, inwardly relieved with the softer expression that he presented. It felt like holding her breath, to hold the chakra in this way. She wondered how long she could keep it that way.

"Your chakra is completely suppressed right now." Jiraiya touched his fingers to her forehead, like he was checking to make sure she was there. "You've done this before?"

Sakura shook her head 'no,' again. "N-never." She felt her hold on the chakra wobbling.

"It's a stealth technique, used mostly by assassins and intelligence agents. It requires incredible chakra control."

Her shoulders sagged with the weight of knowledge and the technique fell apart. She'd never killed anyone before. "Does this mean I have to learn how to be an assassin now?"

"No. But I'll keep that in mind. Here— Naruto, start this water boiling. We need to make lunch," instructed Jiraiya. "You— take this. Chanel some chakra into it."

Sakura pushed chakra into the paper, frowning when it immediately crumbled into dust. "Sensei, I think I broke it…"

Jiraiya laughed boisterously, throwing his head back in amusement. Grief rung out like a stricken gong in her chest as she imagined her own father's rowdy laugh.

"No, girl, it means you have earth-natured chakra."

"Oi, I want to know what my type is!" Naruto squawked, blowing furiously on the fire so he could join their conversation.

"You're wind, why do you think I had you working on that silly leaf exercise?" Jiraiya ruffled Naruto's hair and then sucked in some air, breathing down in a great huff. The chakra-infused air supercharged the flames and the fire burst forth immediately.

Sasuke was still pouting as he chewed his ration bar. "I'm fire. I have to be— I'm an Uchiha."

"Not necessarily." Jiraiya fished out another paper. "Try it."

Sasuke funneled chakra into the paper, surprised when it crinkled up. "Well. What does that mean?"

"Lightning!"

"Hn." A quiet fury spread across his features and he twisted away from the group to fiddle with his backpack.

"Ero-Sennin, please! I just wanna see what happens."

Jiraiya sighed dramatically and handed a paper over to Naruto. He forced a bunch of chakra into the paper. It split into two rather dramatically and the pieces flew out of his hands.

Naruto froze in embarrassment for a moment before snatching the two halves up.

"This should be fun… you each have different types. Which means your fighting styles will be very different. You'll be best suited to stop comparing yourselves to each other immediately and determine how to best compliment one another."

The water was almost ready to boil. Jiraiya pulled out a scroll, then shoved his hand into it somehow. Sakura crept closer, confused by the way his hand disappeared into the scroll. How did that work?

His hand returned with a small pack that zipped up on the side. He sprinkled some things into the water— she realized they were seasonings. Then the water changed colours and he added some noodles and dried vegetables.

"Alright kids. I want you to start thinking about the different ways that your affinities will work together in combat scenarios. Sakura— use your new skill to go get us a rabbit. Naruto, you can use your Kage Bunshin to track down some fresh vegetables for us. Sasuke— when they return you're going to cut it all up and cook it."

"Hn." Sasuke stared at his hands. "How do I do what she did?"

"Prepare to practice for a year or two, first. Then get familiar with moving your chakra around. Don't be surprised if you aren't good at it. Now go set up your cooking station."

"If I had known it was going to take this long, I might have packed a bit more clothing," Sakura complained. She was currently picking leaves out of her hair.

They'd been out in the wilderness, wandering from town to town for a week now. It hadn't been that long, but Sakura distinctly missed the goofy presence of her sensei. Jiraiya wasn't bad but he was no Kakashi.

"Sakura-chan, we haven't even been gone two weeks yet! Just you wait. It's going to be so much fun— we're going to be so smelly and sweaty and strong!" Naruto cheered at merely the idea of living out his childhood dream of being a traveling ninja. He was so enraptured that he raised his fists over his head with a whoop of joy, crushing the water balloon that he was clutching. Water rained down over him and he immediately froze.

Sasuke glared at the boy, the same quiet fury that had been present for days bubbling over. He chucked a small branch at Naruto, satisfaction blooming inside of him when it connected with Naruto's head.

"Ouch, you bastard! What's the big idea? You're supposed to be my friend, not throw shit at me!"

"We're not friends, idiot. Just teammates."

"You guys fight more like a married couple, if you ask me," quipped Sakura, cycling her chakra through her body as Jiraiya had instructed her.

Both boys looked at her with fury in their eyes. Laughter tumbled from her lips, catching her by surprise.To say it had been a while since she’d laughed was an understatement.

"You're gonna pay for that one, Sakura-chan!" Naruto roared. He threw the remnants of the water balloon on the ground and lurched after her.

Sakura shrieked with joy and took to the trees again. She'd been cycling her chakra through her body while going up and down the trees to build up her reserves. She flitted between the trees, using the strength of her legs to catapult herself from one tree to another so she wasn't having to run as much.

Naruto, in his anger, was doing well to keep up with her. Sasuke was hot on her trail as well, irritation rippling off of him like steam. Jiraiya stood in the clearing below, happy to see them acting like normal kids for once.

Eventually they caught up to her, but by then they had forgotten about their anger and endorphins were coursing through their veins. They slumped down on a branch together, far above the clearing below.

Naruto was next to her, his lean body pressed up against in her way that felt distinctly unromantic. Weeks ago she'd have punched him for trying to be close to her but now it just felt natural. Not sweet, not romantic, just normal. Sasuke was on the other side of them, leaning against Naruto with one knee pulled in close to prop his arm on. It felt nice to just sit together like this, watching the wind catch in the trees. She didn't even mind that they were all a little sweaty.

"I haven't laughed like that in a long time," she murmured. Naruto peeped at her from under his long fringe, hiding his small smile. It was unlike the big, brash ones he always had in public. It felt shy— like if she noticed he was worried to be punished. She supposed she had always punished him whenever he tried to take up space in her life. The weight of regret that she felt in that moment was too heavy to put into words and so she said nothing.

Sasuke sighed in a quick huff and she and Naruto both looked at him with confusion. "I didn't laugh for months."

Sakura's face scrunched together as she deliberated his words. She wasn't sure what he meant at that moment, why he'd chosen to say that particular thing. Had she not grieved enough? Should she resolve to grieve more?

She looked inwards at the part of her that truly cared what Sasuke had to say and considered slaughtering it. For now, she resolved to shove it down, deeper inside of herself like a seed into soil.

"It's better than crying," Naruto said with a surprising amount of resolve. It was too easy to forget that he understood pain because he was always smiling.

Sakura smiled then, wry humorless. Crying was something she longed to never do again. She said as much, no emotion to color her voice.

"You know, we're all orphans now. Isn't that kind of pathetic?" Her laugh was hollow this time.

"Eh, Sakura-chan, we were having a beautiful moment; don't be all sad now," whined Naruto. He tugged on his lower lip, pulling it down until he looked like a fish on a hook. "Besides, I'm not pathetic, I'm gonna be Hokage."

"Yeah, well I'll have to be one of your advisors since you're an absolute moron," intoned Sasuke, flinging a little piece of bark at the squirrel that dared to snoop around the branch they were all perched on.

"Hmm," Sakura hummed to herself. "I don't know what I'll be. I'm not really good at much of anything."

Naruto chuckled wildly at that. "Nuh-uh! Didn't you hear what Pervy-sage said? You could totally be my bodyguard. You can be my top ANBU! Kill anyone who tries to get close to me or opposes my agenda of awesomeness."

Sakura laughed again— for real this time— at the idea of being a silent killer. "I think Sasuke is the strongest and most likely to be your silent killer. I'd make a better advisor. But we'll see. Let's all get strong and make sure nothing ever happens again to the village the way it just did."

Naruto whooped like an idiot and all the birds next to them scattered out of the trees in avian panic. "Promise! I'm never gonna run away and I'm never gonna go back on my word. That's my ninja-way and I'm standing by it."

Sasuke was quiet, his eyes thoughtful. "I haven't decided what kind of ninja I want to be. I haven't really thought past…"

He blinked and mashed his lips together, feeling overexposed and vulnerable.

"I haven't either. I thought I knew what I wanted and then I… Sasuke, I'd help you. I'm not much help now, but I would help you. What else am I here for? Your family was murdered, mine was just… they just died." Sakura felt shy— unlike all the other times when she'd given Sasuke opportunity to reject her, it had been purely romantic. This felt more important, more personal.

"We'd both help you, bastard. We'll all get stronger and—"

The sharp squall of a crow interrupted Naruto, and he stopped short. The eyes flashed red in the darkness of the canopy and the blonde shuddered in disgust. "Eww! Stupid scary bird."

He chucked a kunai at the bird, but it easily flitted around the blade and flew down and away from them. The trio sat there quietly. Sasuke and Sakura were both considering their futures and how they wanted to live them out. What it would mean to live and choose a way of life. Sakura had never thought about offering Sasuke any sort of help that didn't end up with her as his wife in the end. Sasuke had never considered that anyone would ever genuinely help him before— that anyone even could.

Naruto had known all along that he would give his life for either of them, if the moment ever came for it. He was just hoping that they would someday feel even a shred of that same love for him.

**

"I'm not going back, Jiraiya. You think just because you showed up with a bunch of kids I'm going to suddenly feel maternal and come back?" Tsunade sneered at him, slopping her sake into her mouth with a big gulp. "I'm leaving."

"Hime! They needed someone to watch them, I didn't bring them for you."

"What's that supposed to mean? They're ninja, you fool. Tools for the old man to do war with."

The kids exchanged looks and Jiraiya sighed. "Tsunade, you don't mean that. Stop saying things just to scare them. Come back. Besides… Sensei is…"

"He's what? Old and desperate? Yeah, that's reading loud and clear."

Sakura watched closely. Tsunade had said she was leaving but she was actively pouring herself another saucerful of the rice wine.

"He's dead, Tsunade."

Her face softened, but only for a moment before harshness smoothly replaced it. "About time, I suppose. He couldn't live forever."

The dark haired girl next to the Slug Sannin was stiff, her shoulders drawn up half-way. Tense.

"Tsunade… Someone has to replace him. You're the obvious choice between the two of us. You understand the political garbage and it's in your blood. It's only fair that one of us picks up the slack when it's… It was Orochimaru that killed him."

She glares at him. "Tsunade, Tsunade, Tsunade. It's like you think saying my name over and over again will somehow make me remember what it was like when we were on the same team. Don't manipulate me Jiraiya. You think I don't know what you're doing? You can't just show up with this team like this, talking about how we're a team when we're not. We haven't been on the same team for the better part of two decades. Everyone I care about is dead."

Sakura ducked her head, embarrassed for Jiraiya. Tsunade was vicious and she wondered if the two had ever had a romantic history. How could a team end up like this?

"If you three want to be ninja, you'd better be ready to see the ones you love die. I've lost everything for Konoha. Stupid Will of Fire. All the people I love and now they want my life, too. What's left of it, anyway."

Naruto was practically itching to yell at her, but he sat on his hands and dug his nails into his thighs to keep from speaking.

"That old man should have started finding a replacement for the hat a long time ago. It's not my fault that the fourth—"

"Enough!" Naruto looked shocked for a moment that he'd spoken, but then he doubled down. "Stop it! You're just old and bitter. What is left of your life anyway? All you do is gamble and run from town to town. What kind of life is that? Sakura-chan just lost everyone in her family from that stupid invasion and she's here trying to fetch you. You have no idea what we've been through! But what good are you to the village, you big fat phony? You may as well just lay down and die already!"

Tsunade grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket, lifting him out of his chair. Sakura was struck by her strength and Sasuke had to repress a smirk at how minuscule Naruto looked, flailing in her arms. She squirmed uncomfortably at having been made an example of to the legendary Sannin herself.

"I have died a thousand times, don't lecture me on suffering. I wrote that book. I ought to crush you, you little worm." Tsunade was shaking. "What do you know? What could you possibly know what it's like?"

Sakura thought that each of them might really know quite a bit about that, though she didn't say anything. She'd never pondered much about Naruto being an orphan until she became one herself.

Naruto grabbed her hand and tried to wrench himself free. "I oughta to kick your ass, old lady! Can you honestly tell me you're happy out here?"

She flung him into the wall. "The only thing that will make me happy is embarrassing you in front of your friends! Don't push me, you insipid little shit."

Naruto rubbed at his neck in exasperation. "Bite me, grandma. I'm gonna become Hokage someday— we don't even need someone like you."

She froze for a moment, then shrieked in frustration. She grabbed him by the collar again and started dragging him outside.

"Tsunade, please don't kill him. He's quite valuable to me," drawled Jiraiya, sauntering after them as she dragged Naruto outside.

"Great, I'll just pulverize him and then heal him and you can pay off my debts for being so generous and kind," seethed Tsunade. She whipped Naruto's entire body up over her head and then slammed him down into the ground. The air crushed out of him and he wheezed.

Before he could recover, she flung him up into the air. She was intending to follow him and then kick him back down into the earth. His fingers formed the ram seal before she could and a multitude of Naruto's appeared in the air, all of them tumbling and grabbing at the air.

Sakura and Sasuke were stumbling out of the little inn about this time, shocked to see the cloud of Naruto's falling from the sky. Jiraiya was staring up at it with a resigned expression on his face.

"One finger! It's all I need!" Tsunade declared, her feet touching back down onto the earth again.

Jiraiya rubbed his face wearily. "She's gonna kill him…"

The dark haired woman stepped forward and tilted her head to the side. "I think it's going pretty well, actually."

"Hn, thanks kid."

A/N: I have more! I just had to cut it here because this felt like the most sensible place. I start straight to work on finishing the next chapter and put it out ASAP. Sorry I am such a slow updater. Life is really busy and I've had a lot of family die this year. This is probably how I'm going to choose to process these things. Since 2020, there's been a lot of death around me and it's probably why my focus have been so centered on this.

I promise this isn't supposed to be the gloomiest of fics, even though it will be dealing with harder topics.

Chapter Text

The fight ended quickly, with Tsunade angrily flicking Naruto in the forehead. He'd practically flown across the town, the sound of his hollering still audible as he flew out of sight.

When he returned, he was bleeding and limping and unhappy. Tsunade refused to look at him.

"You're pathetic. You can't ever be Hokage when you're this weak, brat."

"That may be true, but I'll get strong, you'll see! Then you're gonna have to respect me, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, brat." Tsunade sighed and looked at him for a long time. "You remind me of someone."

Naruto preened slightly. "Really!? Who? Are they amazing?"

"He's dead."

"Oh…"

They stood there awkwardly, blood still oozing from Naruto's split lip. "Clean him up, would you? Come here, Jiraiya, we need to talk."

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged glances while the dark haired woman cleaned Naruto up and the two adults vanished. It had been a long journey so far, but one of the more exciting journeys they'd ever been on.

That night, they were staying at the hotel. Tsunade had not agreed to come back with them but she hadn't threatened Jiraiya with violence in a promising enough way for him to actually leave her alone.

Jiraiya and Tsunade had spent a fair amount of time in the hot springs together, sipping sake and talking in low whispers. At first, the kids had come around curiously, floating like carrots in soup as they tried to eavesdrop on the two older ninja. Eventually, Tsunade got annoyed and instructed Shizune to take them out to do something else.

Naruto bickered quietly to himself, complaining about the pervertedness of it all. These comments of course went over the heads of Sakura and Sasuke, neither of which had any clue about the more debauched things of adult living for very different reasons. Before long they were laying on their bedrolls. Naruto was snoring loudly, his arm thrown up over his head. Sasuke was sleeping silently, curled up into a ball on his side.

Sakura stared at the ceiling. Discontent pooled in her abdomen as she thought about what Naruto had said earlier that day. She had lost her whole family. Was it worth it? What if she wanted to run away like Tsunade had? Where would she go? If she didn't want to be a ninja anymore, what would she do?

She was trying to imagine wanting to do anything other than being a ninja when a loud rumble shook the hotel. Sakura sat up straight, unsure if she had imagined the tremor.

Sasuke sat up as well, hand already clenched around a kunai. Sakura grabbed Naruto by the shoulder and shook him awake roughly.

He flinched, unused to the contact and pitched forward haphazardly. "My ramen!" His hands scrambled in front of him, trying to catch the bowl of soup he'd just been eating in his dream.

"Something is happening, Naruto," Sakura whispered. Her insides felt like a fraught rubber band, ready to snap.

They sat quietly for a moment. There was another tremor and the sound of someone screaming— obviously a civilian. The shouting grew into a frenzy and there was the sound of people running down the main road away from the inn.

Sakura crept over to the window. She was terrified but her need to know what was happening overrode the fear. She had tasted death and she wasn't sure if her boldness was her desire to live or her lack or a disregard for her own safety. She supposed it didn't matter.

There was a large figure close to the inn, swaying like a dragon. Sakura could see the twin green cloaks of Tsunade and Jiraiya billowing from where they were crouched on the wall. A figure was atop the head of the dragon-shaped shadow.

The dragon lifted its tail and slammed it into a wall. It felt like a vice gripped Sakura's heart and wrung the life out of her. It was no dragon. It was a giant snake. The book-worm side of her could clearly see the page on the history book that detailed the exploits of the Sannin in the Third Great Shinobi War and Orochimaru's giant snake summon Manda.

The wall crashed to the ground and all Sakura could see was the rubble where her parents had been found crushed to death. She could still see the colour of rust on the dirt where her parents' lives had leaked out of their bodies.

"What is it!?" Naruto squawked. At some point she'd crunched herself down into a ball next to the window. She wanted to disappear. She wanted to make him disappear.

"Who."

"What?" Naruto asked, confused. He ran over to the window and shoved his fingers between the blinds to peer out. His leg was touching her shoulder, he was so close.

"It's Orochimaru." She was breathing in sharp, angry spurts.

Sasuke rushed to the window, Sharingan swirling furiously. He pushed Naruto out of the way. Naruto swore and called Sasuke a bastard before yanking his ninja sandals on.

"That stupid snake killed my parents," she spat, already moving to grab her weapons pouch. She saw the dark-haired boy twist to study her out of the corner of her eye. She resolutely ignored him.

Naruto flapped his hands in dismay, unsure of what to do. "Why are you putting your sandals on Sakura-chan? I want to go help them but that… that doesn't seem like what you're doing."

Sakura stood up defiantly. "I'm going to go kill that man."

Sasuke scoffed loudly. "You can't possibly think that you're—"

"Don't say it!

"Sakura! You aren't strong enough. You will die."

"So be it. I can't live in a world where the man who took everything from me is still breathing the same air," she spat out, grinding her teeth together. She hadn't even been aware of the rage burning inside of her until she'd realized the cause of her parents' death and his annoyingly close proximity. Now it burned inside of her like a wildfire rushing through dry woods. She'd been angry this whole time, but had no direction for that anger.

She yanked the door open and ran towards where the Sannin were gathered. Now she knew what to do with her anger, and ran with all that attitude and intent of someone dead-set on pouring that frustration out like a liquid curse. Naruto and Sasuke were hot on her trail.

Tsunade's former teammate's arms hung limply at his sides, utterly useless. They swayed with his every movement like a terrible scarf.

"You know I'm enjoying this little gathering we're having," he crooned, licking his lips lecherously. "What a beautiful little reunion. It'll be just like old times, Tsunade."

"Oh, you mean like how you would abuse my affections and then run off after you got what you wanted? How refreshing, I missed those days," she ground out, her beautiful blonde hair whipping about her face when the snake's tail whipped through the air again.

Shizune was furiously casting Earth-style Jutsus at Orochimaru. Pillars of earth were stabbing up and out of the ground in the direction of the Otokage. Tsunade was breathing heavily as she recovered.

Jiraiya stood slightly in front of her, giving her cover. "I can't believe you were going to heal this scum's arms, princess." His fingers were twisting through a series of complicated seals.

"I can't believe I'm changing my mind," she snapped, "so don't tempt me into changing it back."

"Perhaps I can help with that," sneered a different voice. Tsunade twisted in time to see Kabuto appear next to Shizune. One of his hands was glowing with medical chakra, poised to cut into her niece's flesh. With the other, he reached into the pouch at his hip and pulled out a vial. He tossed it between him and Tsunade with an ugly chuckle. "I brought you a gift!"

The vial crashed into the ground like a bomb. Deep crimson spread out in a puddle of colour.

Tsunade shrieked and Shizune quickly dodged to the left and away from him. "Wild Lion's Mane!" Jiraiya shouted like the show man that he was.

His long white hair elongated and shot towards Kabuto in an effort to protect Shizune.

"Ah-ah-ah! Jiraiya-kun, I am your opponent. Let the children fight amongst themselves, eh?" Orochimaru crooned, and Manda's tail cast a shadow over Jiraiya as he prepared to crush his old comrade.

"Bastard!" Jiraiya swore, ducking and rolling to the side. He turned to see that Tsunade was still frozen in the same spot. "Tsunade!"

"Grandma Tsunade!" A shrill voice cried out. Relief and dread warred within Jiraiya as the orange blur connected with Tsunade's frozen form.

Manda's tail slammed into the ground and dust plumed up on every side. Jiraiya took that moment to press the advantage and darted toward the snake's head where Orochimaru was perched.

"Jeez, Granny, you really almost got crushed! Why didn't you move?" Naruto demanded.

"Naruto! She's scared of blood. It's a condition— she can't get over it!"

Naruto huffed and squared his shoulders. "Guess I'll have to kick their asses myself then. Get a good look Granny," he laughed, pointing to his behind. "Because you're gonna be kissing this later after I save you!"

"I wouldn't underestimate Orochimaru-sama… or me for that matter," Kabuto said in a dark voice as he adjusted his glasses. They caught the light in a perfectly disgusting way.

"You! You traitor. How could you betray the Leaf Village like that!? Now I'm really gonna kick your ass!" Naruto hiked his sleeves up, branding his fist at Kabuto.

Tsunade was suddenly reminded just how young he really was. Her heart ached terribly as he caused her to feel and to remember the young ones she had once known. She loved him inspire of herself, inspire of him,even.

"The same way people like Tsunade-sama can leave the village. What makes us so different?" Kabuto was bearing down on Naruto, his hands glowing with medical chakra. He caught the blonde boy on the shoulder and cackled in an unhinged shriek when the blood sprang forth. Naruto cried out in pain, clutching at his shoulder with his right hand.

"A-Avoid his hands, Naruto! The medical chakra will cut right through you!" Tsunade cowered behind him, staring at the blood. Damn her brain. She could end this little gray-haired brat in a moment if her body would just move.

Naruto created a large crowd of Kage Bunshins. "Don't have to tell me twice! Let's get you out of the way, Grandma!"

Half of the Naruto-crowd was sent to move her out of the way and the other half converged on Kabuto. Naruto hid himself amongst the multitude and worried. Where had Sakura and Sasuke gone?

"Let me go!" Sakura snarled, her eyes flashing with an expression Sasuke had never seen her wear before. He wondered if this is the way he looked to the others when he talked about Itachi. The thought made him uncomfortable.

"What do you want me to do? He is a Sannin, Sakura!"

"We both know that if it was you, you'd be charging in without a second thought. So let me go!" She heaved again, subconsciously flooding her muscles with chakra.

She yanked with one hand and swatted at him with her free hand. The surprising force behind her hand gained her some ground and she quickly pulled free of his grip. Spinning, she leapt into a tree away from him.

The rumbling caused by the giant snake was intensifying. Sasuke watched after her dumbly for a moment, unsure of what he ought to do. He realized she was right. He would be doing exactly what she was doing.

Half of him was terrified, not wanting to face Orochimaru again after what had happened in the Forest of Death. The other half of him that knew the terror of losing someone fought with the other. He couldn't imagine Sakura dying after all that they'd been through. Not after he realized she could actually be a friend who understood him.

The braver part of him one that internal fight and he found himself sprinting after her, determined to keep her safe even if just from herself. He couldn't sabotage this opportunity for her to pursue what she felt was justice— she simply wouldn't forgive him.

So he followed her, molding his chakra. It didn't take long to catch up to her. She was perched in a tree branch, her eyes critically appraising the fight in front of her. There was a sea of orange in motion down below.

Naruto was engaged in a fight with the gray-haired man (he faintly remembered that his name was Kabuto) with Shizune's help. Jiraiya and a smaller toad were trying to operate in some sort of pincer formation against Orochimaru.

Sasuke hissed, the cursed seal on his neck feeling hot. A sharp pain rippled down his left arm as the seal tried to activate on its own.

Sakura looked at him, sympathy mixed in with her anger. "You're not going to try to stop me are you?"

"No," he grunted. "I get it. I'll do my best to cover you. What's your plan?"

Some semblance of gratitude flickered across her face. She looked back at the field. Her eyes narrowed as she calculated. "You'll see, I guess."

She slipped off the branch gracefully, dropping to the ground below.

"Idiot, that means you have no plan!" Sasuke angrily clutched at his kunai. His hands worked furiously to combine the ninja wire to the loops on the handles of some of them and explosive tags to the flats of others.

She was already darting off to hide behind a wall that was crumbling.

Shizune's legs were burning with exhaustion. She was using high-level manipulation of the earth to skate across the surface and it was taking a toll on her quickly.

It felt like she had balloons in her ears, her heart was pounding so hard. Tsunade was surrounded by a crowd of bunshins, all of them hip to hip in a circular formation as they watched over her.

She was admittedly getting more and more concerned about their projected likelihood of survival. Naruto didn't seem to be tiring, but she could tell that Kabuto was running out of patience.

Shizune pressed in on Kabuto, clipping his right elbow with a blow that blocked his nerves. He didn't cry out in pain but he did swear in annoyance.

"Ha, take that four-eyes!" Naruto screeched. "Good idea, Shizune!"

Naruto threw himself forward, hands glowing. Wind chakra shot forward from his palms, cutting like razor blades into Kabuto's arm. A chunk of flesh flew off with a horrible sound.

Kabuto readjusted his arm sliced into Naruto's chest with medical chakra. Blood and smoke burst forth as the close popped.

"Careful, Naruto! He can sever your nerves with a strike like that!" Tsunade called out from the side. All the Naruto clones looked at her for a moment before nodding and brandishing a fist.

"You got it, Granny!"

Shizune rolled her eyes and pushed chakra into her legs again. If she could just get behind Kabuto, she could internally decapitate him with chakra.

Sakura palmed one of the kunai she'd prepared. It had taken her some time and a lot of supplies to set up the traps but she done it. As long as Jiraiya didn't get turned around, he'd be fine. Keeping her chakra completely suppressed while she was moving had proven especially difficult but her rage was a good teacher.

She signaled as best as she could to Sasuke and then charged forward with all of her spite. Orochimaru didn't even pay attention to her as he engaged with Jiraiya. If she could just get him in the occipital lobe….

She waited for an angle. Then she started throwing. When a kunai whizzed past his face, Orochimaru turned to her with an amused look.

"Normally it is the snake who plays with the mouse. What hope do you have against me, sneaky little kunoichi?"

Sakura didn't say anything, just kept throwing her kunai. He opened his mouth, probably to say something that he thought was funny. Sakura didn't wait to hear it, using her chakra to blow up the tags on the kunai. She dropped the hiding technique now that she'd been seen.

Orochimaru laughed and leapt backwards, away from them. Sakura threw a smoke bomb after him and substituted herself with a log close to him. She threw another kunai at him, missing him on purpose.

Jiraiya barfed out some kind of oil in Orochimaru's direction. Some of the oil landed on smoldering leftovers from her last explosion and the oil began to burn. Orochimaru's smile stayed put.

"Tell me, little one, where does your rage come from? Is this because of what I did to your little friend Sasuke in the Forest of Death? Where is he? I want to see him!" Orochimaru licked his ugly lips.

Sasuke shrieked from the tree line. Sakura resisted the urge to look at him, already certain that the cursed seal was hurting him. She wondered if Orochimaru could control that or if it just happened.

"You killed my parents! So now I'm going to kill you," Sakura said simply. Her eyes were wild but her voice was steady.

Orochimaru paused, tilting his head to the side. He looked thoughtful. "Pity. I didn't even know their names."

Sakura screamed and catapulted herself towards him, forgetting her plan in her rage. She was forced to stop when a ball of fire plumed up in front of her. Sasuke was leaning on his knees, taking a ragged breath.

He looked up at her with an expression she didn't understand. She had no time to waste, though. She darted towards Orochimaru, funneling chakra into her petite fists.

"I'd love to play with you more, but I'm afraid I don't find you interesting enough," said Orochimaru .

A long arm of hair yanked her away from Orochimaru. Sakura scowled, annoyed when she saw that Jiraiya had used that distraction to get in close. He assaulted Orochimaru with a barrage of kicks and punches unlike anything the Genin had ever seen in person.

The snake Sannin expertly dodged every hit, his body twisting and contorting like liquid. He leapt high into the air and practically unhinged his jaw. A snake emerged from the recesses of his mouth and fired down at Sakura.

She screeched and tried to get away from the offending snake. Jiraiya swore and lurched toward her, grabbing the snake by the tail and pumping it full of wind chakra. It immediately ribboned into strips of flesh and viscera. Sakura vomited.

Sasuke shouted in pain as his seal twanged again. Orochimaru was suddenly upon him, swinging his feet in a furious battery of blows. "Where is your passion today, Sasuke-kun. You're the one I'm interested in. Why aren't you interested in fighting today?"

Sasuke's fingers whirled and he breathed out fire, leaping away. Jiraiya spat bullets at Orochimaru and he was forced to deal with his old comrade once again.

"Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto shouted in alarm. They all looked over to see that a cloud of smoke, deep purple in color, had formed in the area. Shizune was still churning it out, her fingers flying through hand-seals.

Sakura rose to her feet. Kabuto abandoned the fight he was in and lurched towards Orochimaru. "Your body won't be able to withstand this if you come into contact with it."

"Grab the boy," Orochimaru hissed. He cackled when Sasuke doubled over as pain radiated from the seal. Jiraiya's hair whipped out faster than the others could move and grabbed Sasuke, pulling him to himself. He tucked the boy under his arm like a sack of potatoes.

"You're out of your mind. Flee if you must, but you will not take him with you today," Jiraiya snarled. Sasuke was rigid with pain, curled backwards like a leaf.

"Kukuku, guess we'll just have to schedule another play date, Sasuke-kun!"

Orochimaru and Kabuto began to make their getaway, fleeing through the trees that Sakura had rather thoroughly booby-trapped.

There were some loud bangs as wires were tripped and bombs went off.

Sakura watched them go, body poised to chase after them. She knew it would be useless though. She was distracted by thoughts of revenge when suddenly she found herself yanked into the air.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Jiraiya demanded. His cheeks were red with anger, the lines on his cheek blurring into his skin. His right hand was fainted into the front of her qipao and she anxiously grabbed onto it with her own hands, trying to prevent the shirt from tearing.

"I—I wasn't… I realized when he attacked that he's the reason my parents are dead. I just— I didn't really—"

"Stupid girl!" She was crushed in a hug that left her toes barely scraping the ground.

Sakura didn't say anything. She just let him hug her.

Eventually he put her down. She purposefully avoided his gaze.

"Look at me." She did. His eyes were full of too many emotions for her to decipher how he felt about her right now. "You can't do this again. I know you think you've lost everything, but you have two teammates who just risked their lives for you because you needed to play revenge-hero."

Sakura nodded, looking away quickly. Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to hold them in. Jiraiya hugged her again and she leaned against him as she cried, the tears making silent tracks through the dirt and grime on her face.

"I have to go check on Tsunade-hime, but then we'll talk as a team, okay?" Jiraiya pulled back and studied her face for a moment before patting her on the head. He smiled cheekily and she wondered if half of his pomp and ridiculosity was just a diversion. She wiped off her cheeks with the back of her hands and nodded at him before awkwardly clearing her throat.

Jiraiya wandered off to check on Tsunade and Sakura looked at her feet. Naruto was having a very loud and animated conversation with Shizune but exactly what he was saying was unintelligible.

"Hey." Sasuke looked at her shyly— God, she would have killed to see him with that expression a few months ago— and then rubbed at his neck. That's right, he was in a lot of pain. "I'm—"

"No, I'm sorry, Sasuke…" She refused to cry again. "I didn't think at all about the fact that he… I wasn't thinking at all about what he did to you."

She could almost swear he was blushing. He puffed out his lower lip and rolled his eyes. "I'm fine."

"I don't want to be like that. I don't want… I could have gotten you killed, Sasuke." Guilt rippled off of her like steam. "My revenge cannot get in the way of our team. This is the only family I have."

Sasuke looked at her for a long time. He didn't say anything; he mostly just looked a little confused and very thoughtful. "Let's go check on the idiot. Can't believe he lasted as long as he did against that gray-haired freak."

"Sasuke-kun, you know it's only because of Orochimaru's stupid seal that you weren't able to do a whole lot. We really gotta see if we can get that thing… What?"

Sasuke was staring at her like she'd grown another head. "What did I say?"

"You haven't called me that in a while." He gave her a dark look before walking away. She scampered after him, her voice coming out in a high squawk.

"Oh! I'm sorry, it's just an old habit, I'll won't do it again—"

"I missed it."

A/N: I am posting this from an airport in Qatar. I somehow don't think I'll fall off the face of the Earth again this season. I'm going to try, anyway.

I'm trying really hard to keep everyone in character as the plot departs from canon into AU.

Chapter Text

They were heading back to the village and somehow Tsunade had agreed to come with them. She had agreed to a month-long trial period where she could at any point decide she didn't want to do it anymore. Sakura had a sneaking feeling that the older woman would agree to stay long past that date but it was just a bluff to keep up her no-bullshit appearance.

"And then he was like HWING and just swinging his hands all over the place and they were glowing with chakra and man I dunno how I avoided them so long but man let me tell ya it hurt whenever he tagged me," Naruto rambled. He was swinging his hands all over the place to convey the absolute coolness of what he'd done. "Hang on, let me do it like this."

Naruto created a clone so that the clone could add sound-effects in the background as he filled Sakura and Sasuke in on his battle with Kabuto.

Eventually the pair finished telling the story and Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "But really I guess it isn't a huge deal because we didn't even win since they ran away!"

Naruto dispersed the clone by stabbing him in the shoulder. Sakura and Sasuke both cringed in distaste.

"Tussling with Orochimaru once and getting away from him alive is quite a feat, Naruto, let alone twice." Jiraiya said in a grave tone. "You're lucky he was so incapacitated by the Third's last attacks on him."

"Man, that old fart kicks ass even after he's dead!" Naruto looked a little teary eyed despite the silliness of his tone.

Tsunade made a ticking sound with her mouth and the kids looked over at her. She looked a little lost. "I still can't believe he's gone."

Despite everything, Shizune's expression was absolutely serene.

"You mean you faced Orochimaru and didn't even die?! That's crazy, Sakura!" Ino gushed, grabbing Sakura's hand.

Sakura wanted to withdraw her hand but made the conscious choice to allow the contact. "Yeah, well Jiraiya is making me get therapy with one of your family members, so there is that..."

Ino nodded, rubbing her thumb against Sakura's hand in what she assumed was meant to be a comforting gesture. She wasn't sure if it was working or not because she still felt remarkably uncomfortable.

Sakura sighed and pulled her hand back to herself, picking underneath the nails for dirt.

"Well, I can see if they can put it aside for my dad?"

Would that be better or worse? It would be a lot harder to lie to someone who had known her her whole life. She didn't want to go to therapy and talk. She just wanted to get stronger and hide her feelings in her muscles.

So she shrugged, knowing that she herself had very little control over the situation herself. Probably about as much control as Ino did.

"I'll talk to my dad."

"Okay."

They were sitting at the edge of a training field meant for general use. Ino had found Sakura there by herself earlier that morning and practically ambushed the pink-haired girl so they could finally catch up. Ino had enough tact that she'd kept it to everything related to Sakura's time out of the village but that grace period was coming to an end.

"So... Are you meeting with a therapist because of what happened on the mission or what happened during the invasion?" Ino sat calmly, her hands folded in her lap. It was the picture of "demure." It was also a very tactical maneuver, because it allowed her to have her hands in front of her in case the other girl threw a fist or weapon in her direction.

Sakura picked at the edge of her red dress, noticing for the first time how frayed and battered it was. She'd need to get a new one. "Ino... I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I hope you're not mad."

Sakura paused when she heard Ino's sharp breath. She smoothed out her dress, brushing over the failing fabric with her thumb.

"Why would I be mad, Sakura?"

She pulled at a thread, wondering how much damage the piece of clothing could take before she'd need to get a new one. Maybe she could go after this conversation was over. "I know you like to keep up to date on gossip and what's going on-"

"Sakura!" She finally looked up to see that Ino's eyes were full of tears and they were about to spill over. "Your parents dying isn't gossip. I loved them. They were practically family to me. You think I am here to just get an ear full of gossip?"

Regret gripped her immediately. "Ino, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't even know you knew yet-"

"How would I not know? I was there at the memorial service when they called their names and you were the only one who came forward. I'm not like, stupid!" Ino was crying freely now, little rivers running down her cheeks. "Did you not think I would care?"

Sakura felt guilty. "I'm sorry. I kind of shut down for a while and then we left for that mission and... I don't know what I've even supposed to feel or do, Ino. I know I hurt your feelings but... my parents are..."

The word hovered between them like a cuss word, unspoken. Ino scraped the palms of her hands up her face, like she was trying to shove the tears back into her eyes. "I know, Sakura, I'm sorry. I'm actually being so selfish right now. I came to check on you, not make you feel like crap. Life has been doing that enough lately, I think."

Sakura nodded. A thought prickled at the back of her mind. It felt similar to the pressure she felt that one time she'd had a late assignment after her parents and aunt had gone on a vacation when she was younger. "I haven't taken them their flowers yet."

"I'm probably about the only person who can really help you with that."

"Do you want to?"

Ino laughed and mimed flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. It was practically non-existent after their match in the exams. "Duh."

Tsunade and Shizune joined them for training the next morning, which surprised all of the Genin. Surely Tsunade ought to have been busy enough to warrant no personal meetings, but when Sakura pointed that out she simply shrugged and flicked a kunai in the girl's direction. How Sakura dodged it on time she'd never be able to tell.

"You show promise, brat." Sakura wondered what Tsunade would have said if she hadn't dodged it on time.

"I'd show more promise if my actual teacher weren't so busy he had to bring in strangers to teach me... Even if they are Sannin," she said in a faux-haughty tone.

Tsunade smirked, and the sparkle in her eyes was absolutely, dreadfully terrible. A chill ran down Sakura's spine and she grit her teeth to keep from trembling.

"A lot of confidence for someone whose rank is low enough that I could easily send out on long-term missions to prolong this ... deficit in your training."

Sakura gulped, unsure of what the appropriate response was. Her desire to NOT DIE was very much present, like a pounding drum in her chest.

"Uh, uh— well, you'd have to actually be Hokage for longer than a month to keep a Genin like me too wrapped up, uh, Hokage-Sama," Sakura said lamely. Pink was creeping across her face at an alarming rate and she mimicked Naruto's usual cop-out of scratching the back of her head. Internally, the squirming was even worse. 'Please don't send me out of the village; I'll never get stronger!'

Tsunade surprised her by laughing. "Don't tempt me, kid."

Naruto burst out laughing at the exchange and Sasuke's lips seemed to quirk ever so slightly upward, even if it was just for the tiniest amount of time.

The training exercises were pretty common-core stuff at first. The three of them ran through calisthenics and normal shinobi tool drills and katas until their muscles were warm.

Then they paired off. Shizune was with Naruto, Jiraiya with Sasuke, and Sakura with Tsunade.

Much to Naruto's horror, Shizune was working him over with Genjutsu. The poor kid had absolutely no idea how to detect the technique, which meant he spent the majority of the morning trapped in different variations of a simple technique that took his most embarrassing memories and replayed them. When he wasn't able to break it after ten minutes, Shizune would release him. More often than not, he was left grabbing his bum in reminiscent horror of what Kakashi-sensei had done to him during the bell test.

Sasuke and Jiraiya worked on tandem attacks against some toads. Jiraiya was trying to instill in the boy a sense of teamwork.

"I don't understand why I can't just charge in and nuke the toad," Sasuke huffed.

"What if you come across a target you are unable to neutralize yourself, eh? You still gonna charge in? Why don't you try that on Orochimaru next time and see how well that goes?" Jiraiya gave him a hard look and Sasuke glared back. Eventually he rolled his eyes and stared at the clouds.

"Alright, already! What the hell do you want me to do instead?" Sasuke folded his arms and tried to look unimpressed. Jiraiya knew he had the kid, hook line and sinker.

"You've seen the Inuzukas fight before, yeah?" Jiraiya beckoned Sasuke over. He used a branch to draw an 'x' in the ground. "Suppose I'm standing here and you're over there… We can form a pincer movement. You've got the better eyes here and I've got the power. I can keep things busy and you get into blind spots and start brutalizing ol' Gamaken."

Sasuke was thoughtful for a moment. "Jiraiya-sensei… If I kill your summon, will he really die?"

Jiraiya laughed heartily, the way that he was known for laughing, and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Ah, my boy, they don't die. They just un-summon back to the realm they live in. Think of it this way: Too many holes in their body causes them to slip back out of this reality and into their own. Like water out of a bucket with too many holes! But they don't die, they just relocate."

Jiraiya felt Sasuke's shoulders sag ever-so-slightly in relief. "Good," he whispered.

"Anyway, I'm gonna summon him and then you and I will figure out some forms that feel good, okay? You're all going to learn to fight together in pairs and then some formations as a team. However, you and I will begin the work first since I have a sneaking suspicion you're the most stubborn!"

Sasuke glared at Jiraiya who responded with a belly laugh. "Come on, kid! It's only a bad thing if you let it be!"

The kid in question responded by frowning at the old man and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Someday, kid, you're gonna make that face one time too many and it's gonna stick."

Sasuke scowled instead and Jiraiya beamed.

"Ah, yes, variety! There we are. Now you might have more than just frown lines when you're older."

"Can we just… get this over with?"

"As you wish, grasshopper!" Jiraiya bit his thumb and flew through some seals. "Kuchiyose!"

Sakura, who had been dodging Tsunade's fists at a rather impressive speed, was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the toad.

She screeched in disgust and froze to study the toads that she'd neglected to study during their previous fight with Orochimaru. She'd been much too concerned with murder and her own survival.

Her own survival was, ironically, forgotten in this moment of surprise and she didn't evade Tsunade's chakra-powered fist in time. Pain flowered across her cheek and then she was airborne.

There was a blur of earth tones and then a loud crack as she touched back down to the earth by slamming bodily into one of the old-growth trees. The leaves at the top of the tree weren't even disturbed by her assault.

She however, looked much worse for wear. Her shoulder was most definitely out of joint from the angle that she'd struck the tree and her ring finger was bent backwards at an interesting angle. Pain screeched through her like a hideous melody.

She didn't cry, though. She knew she should have been aware of her surroundings. Shame coloured her face and she choked back her tears and complaints.

"Geez, kid! You need to work on your situational awareness," griped Tsunade. She pulled Sakura out of the crumpled heap she was in and laid her flat on the ground. She pulled the girl's arm up at a 90 degree angle, ignoring her shriek of pain as the joint was set. "What did you learn?"

Tsunade sat Sakura up and then popped the girl's finger back in the right direction and Sakura gagged. "That you're a sadist! You're a medic; aren't you supposed to be able to numb that stuff?!"

Tsunade reached out with glowing hands and proceeded to heal the tissues surrounding her shoulder joint so she wouldn't have shoulder weakness. "You won't learn that way, Sakura. You will be soft if I go easy on you. If I go easy on you, one of my most promising ninja is going to die or go missing because you will assume that an enemy ninja will go easy on you."

Sakura shoved the tears back that tried to crawl out of her tear ducts.

"Orochimaru was not taking it easy on you. He was not threatened by you. He thought you were a waste of time and didn't have the talent required to kill him. So he ignored you."

Sakura's heartbeat pounded behind her eyes. She wanted to yell at Tsunade and tell her that she was wrong but she knew the older woman had to be right. Shame was heavy in her gut. The clearing had gone quiet and Sakura knew the others had to be watching this revelation of insufficiency.

"I, however, was not ignoring you." Tsunade gently hooked her finger under Sakura's chin and caught her gaze. "That technique you pulled off? Hiding your chakra like that is a high level technique that Jiraiya told me you pulled off by accident because you remembered reading something about chakra as a kid. I am not going easy on you because I see your potential. I see your passion. I see your willingness to learn. Some day, I am going to commission you to kill that bastard because I don't think he's going to change."

Sakura stared at her, eyes wide. She blinked and tears spilled over and then kept flowing.

"Now what did you learn, brat?"

"I— I got distracted because I felt the toad show up. I shouldn't have stared and stayed still so long. I don't know if I expected you to pull the punch or not." Sakura looked down.

"Ah, ah. Look me in the eyes. Better men have taken a hit like that with less class. There is no shame in this for you." Tsunade smiled. "What else did you learn?"

"That you … you won't pull punches, because I need to understand what it is to actually fight with real intention of protecting myself."

"Yes. While incredibly gutsy, your blatant path of attack with Orochimaru was wildly unacceptable because you lacked the skill to back it up. There are very real consequences to making a mistake as a ninja."

Sakura nodded and closed her eyes.

"Alright, kid. Go walk it off. Meditate or whatever. Then grab a snack and we'll get back to it in fifteen or twenty minutes." Sakura nodded again and then trotted over to the tree line, rolling her shoulder around and testing it out as she ran. "And you lot—" Tsunade gestured swiftly to Sasuke and Naruto who were standing there watching her. "You get back to work! Unless you want a swift kick in the pants yourself, you'd better get moving."

Naruto scurried back over to Shizune, laughing and rubbing at his cheeks in a nervous way. "Man, you're scary baa-Chan!"

"I'll be even scarier if you keep calling me that, twerp!"

Naruto squawked and hid behind Shizune. "How did you survive?!"

Shizune just laughed and ruffled his hair. "Keep acting out and you'll have your own testimony of survival."

Sasuke walked back over to Jiraiya with a very serious expression on his face.

Jiraiya patted him on the shoulder. "It's alright kid, I'm scared of her, too."

Sasuke pulled his arm away. "I'm not scared!"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

"I'm… I'm impressed."

Jiraiya howled with laughter and Sasuke wondered if he should have just said he was intimidated.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, what are you doing?" Naruto looked up from the doodle he was making. The way he was squinting, it scrunched his eyes up into judgmental little slivers.

Said girl rolled her eyes and continued pacing back and forth, tapping on the wall. "I'm looking for a stud."

"But I'm right here!" He protested playfully, laughing at his own joke.

"Eww, Naruto! A stud to screw this into!" Sakura held up a corkscrew. He set down his raggedy sketchbook and scampered over to her. When he held out his hand in curiosity, she plopped the corkscrew into it and went back to knocking on the wall.

He fit the screw between his index and middle finger. "YAR!" He scowled, brandishing it between his fingers. He shook his fist at her. "Why I oughta make ye walk the plunk!"

"It's plank, idiot," she responded, though she smiled.

"What?"

"Plank. You walk down a plank, Naruto."

"Huh. Always thought it was plunk. Thanks, Sakura-chan. So… what is a stud then, if you're not talking about how effortlessly handsome I am?" He leered at the wall as though it might have an intruder inside.

Sakura sighed and turned to look at him. He didn't understand why she looked sad but he hoped it wasn't anything he had said. "A stud is the beam inside the wall. It's what you're supposed to screw things into when you want to hang stuff. I can see now why you have holes in your ceiling from where your old hanging plants fell off. No one taught you this?"

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, then looked down suddenly feeling shy. He scuffed his bare foot against the floor, then curled his toes in discomfort. "I, uh, never had nobody to teach me that stuff." He scratched the back of his head like he always did and laughed like he didn't care. "I think I've been doing just fine, though! Who needs that stuff. I just keep trying until I figure it out."

Sakura stared at him with a look he had never seen directed at him before. It felt similar to a time he'd been fighting with Sasuke and the bastard had thrown him down on the ground and stepped directly on his chest to show him how much better he thought he was than Naruto.

"Naruto, I am so sorry that you had to go through that."

He laughed again and held his hands up in a sign of surrender like he usually did when she was ready to hit him. "Don't worry about it! You didn't — what are you doing?"

"I'm hugging you!" She was trying to wrap her arms around him and everything in him was desperate to get away. She did that weird thing where she pumped her chakra into her limbs and when she grabbed onto his clothing and pulled, he was yanked along like a rag doll before being held like one.

He still felt vaguely panicked because this wasn't the kind of treatment he was used to. But he also felt kind of nice. A tear rolled down his cheek and he bit the inside of his cheeks to keep from crying harder.

She pulled back and looked at him for a moment before sighing. "You deserve to be loved. You deserve someone to show you all the different things that a family would have."

"Dang, a family huh?" Naruto tried to be as manly as he could when he wiped the tears off his face. "Guess that means a date is out of the question?"

"Don't be an idiot, Naruto!" Sakura brandished her fist at him again, though there wasn't a lot of strength in the action. "Besides, I'm offering you something better than romance! Crushes can be really selfish…"

Naruto waved her off, unwilling to stay in the serious emotions. They made him uncomfortable. "Alright," he wiped his forearm over his face, and any evidence of his previous tears vanished. "So where is this handsome devil in the wall, then?"

Sakura rapped a few more times with her knuckle. She knocked up and down in the same space a few more times. "I think right here!"

It was easy enough to twist the corkscrew into the beam. Then he realized he had no idea what they were doing. When he asked his pink-haired friend, he found out they were putting up a clothesline.

"What is that? Are we sewing shirts together to make a curtain or something?"

Sakura had to pinch her nose to refrain from hitting him like she usually would. "It's a line that you hang clothing on so it can dry! Haven't you seen these when you've been running around on the rooftops?"

"I honestly just thought that people were showing off their underwear."

"You are helpless, I swear." She paused and then tilted her head to the side. "Is this why half of your clothing smells gross all the time."

Naruto blushed and decided very consciously to not look at her. "Maybe."

They were quiet for a second and she started collecting her clothing from the pile that had developed into the corner and put it in the empty laundry basket.

"I actually thought there was just something wrong with the way I was washing them. Or that all the stink was settling in the bottom of the laundry basket. So I tend to rewear my clothes a lot before I wash them because sometimes they smell worse after washing."

"That explains a lot. Come on, I'm gonna teach you."

Sakura taught Naruto a lot that day. She had him make a few sets of clones and they deep-cleaned the apartment together. She taught him (and each of his various clones) how to properly wash the dishes, filling the side of the sink with crusty dishes full of water and soap and bleach. She taught him how to sweet and vacuum, then how to mop. They opened the windows so that the place was able to air out.

They tackled the bathroom and even took the rug outside to give it a good whacking so all the dust from years of not being well-stewarded out of it.

Because of how many clones he'd made, it only took them the span of two hours. Which meant Sakura had enough time to drag him off to the store to buy some candles and pillow for his home. When he protested that he didn't have the money, she "bup-bup-bupped!" And covered his mouth and said she'd pay for it.

And she did.

Sasuke was working with kunai in the training field when Naruto jogged up to him, breathing a little heavy. Sasuke was breathing pretty heavily himself, having just thrown about thirty kunai in rapid succession with a lot of whirling and artful dancing in between each throw.

"What do you want?" He'd drawled, pretending to be annoyed but secretly so happy to take a break from training.

"Your presence is requested at the Uzumaki-Haruno residence," Naruto recited in a mock robot voice. "Bee-boop, please show up at 7:00 for food and a movie."

"Can't you just talk normally, you idiot?" Sasuke threw a stone at the boy, smirking when the blonde threw himself out of the way of the rock.

"Self-destruct sequence activating now!" Naruto pretended to press a bunch of buttons on his torso. Sasuke tilted his head in confusion then reeled back in horror when his friend did indeed self-destruct in a hazy cloud of what used to be a clone .

"NARUTO!"

Naruto cackled madly when there was a knock at the door. "I can't wait to see the look on his face!"

"What did you do this time!?" Sakura wanted to chastise him, but her hand was already covering her mouth to hide the smile that she knew was about to result from his antics.

"I sent him an exploding messenger," Naruto said. He started laughing and doubled over as he tried to keep the snickers and guffaws to himself. "But I sent two clones! One to send the message and the other to watch what happened afterwards!"

Sakura pressed her hand to her mouth as she giggled. "You didn't! What did he do?"

Naruto giggled madly as they crept toward the door. Sasuke knocked again, louder this time and a bit more forcefully. "Hehehehe, Sakura-Chan, he threw a fit! A full blown tantrum. He flopped back and forth on the ground and was just shouting "Why, why, why" and "Stupid, stupid, stupid!""

Sakura couldn't help it: she laughed. Loudly. Then clamped her hand over her mouth, feeling horrified. He had to have heard.

Naruto swung the door open. "Sasuke! Buddy ol' chum! Good to see ya!"

He clapped Sasuke on the shoulder, whining when Sasuke grabbed his arm by the wrist and squeezed. "Don't pull that kind of crap again, idiot."

Naruto looked him dead in the eye and then swallowed like he was afraid. "Why? Do you think it's …. Stupid?"

Sasuke blanched, realizing his little tantrum had been caught and shoved Naruto away from him.

"Wait, Sasuke! Don't leave. We cleaned and everything! And Sakura cooked so you know it's gonna be okay!" Naruto pleaded. "Come on, I was trying to have a little fun."

Sasuke glared at him as he deliberated.

Sakura cleared her throat awkwardly. "It, uh, was pretty funny, Sasuke."

The dark-haired kid puffed out his lower lip in annoyance. "Hn. Give me a plate. What are we watching?"

Sakura served them up food while Naruto explained that the movie was called "The Iron Fist."

They gathered around the couch, with Sakura perching up and into the right arm of the couch and Sasuke in the middle. Naruto took the other arm, slinging his legs up over it while he spooned food into his mouth.

"What is this, Sakura-Chan?"

"Rice and apples fried with mushrooms, " she whispered. "Shut up, the movie is starting."

Sasuke paused in his eating to look at her for a moment before focusing very carefully on the tv screen.

"Eh, Sakura-Chan I don't know a lot about cooking but I don't think those go together?"

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Naruto-kun?" She whispered scarily, tilting her head to the side to give him a manic look.

"N-nothing! Just that I'd never heard of these going together before!" Naruto whimpered and shoveled a few more chopstick loads of the meal into his mouth. "Look! It's the Iron Fist guy! What the heck is that!"

The man in the movie did indeed provide the perfect distraction. It was an incredibly low-budget film (which probably explained how Naruto had been able to afford it!) about a man who wasn't a ninja but used kung-fu and had some raw ability to form chakra. He must have also had a Kekkai Genkai (Sasuke and Sakura discovered that Naruto had thought these were called Hickey Plum-Pies until he learned about Sasuke's Sharingan and Sakura had gone on a robotic spiel about what a Kekkai Genkai was in one of their first practices) which caused his left hand to turn into an actual metal gauntlet.

Wonder of wonders was that instead of punching people with it, the man found every possible way except the proper way of using a fist to obliterate his opponents.

"What kind of idiot actually does stuff like this? This is lame!" Sasuke squawked with indignation. The man in the movie had picked up his metal gauntlet of a hand and was currently using it to bludgeon someone to death. "That's so stupid!"

Sakura laughed. Naruto was too enraptured in the action to notice, his own fists clenched in front of him with excitement as he watched.

"Naruto, don't tell me this is giving you ideas…"

"Just you wait. I have so many ideas." Naruto whispered. He never took his eyes off the TV screen.

Later that night, after the movie was over and they had washed and put away the dishes, Sasuke left and Sakura went back to sleep in Naruto's bed. Naruto dragged one of the new pillows in and took his usual spot on the floor.

"Good night, Naruto," she whispered, turning off the lamp next to the bed.

"Night, Sakura-Chan," he mumbled, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't deny the guilt eating through his stomach at how happy he felt to have her here when he knew that the only reason they were this close was because of the deep suffering she'd gone through. It took him a while to fall asleep, but eventually he pushed the bothersome thoughts away and slipped off to sleep .

A/N: This may be the fastest update y'all have gotten from me in years. Five days? Wow. Posting from the beaches of Zanzibar. 

Chapter Text

"You'd think that we wouldn't have to do these stupid D-ranks anymore," Naruto grumbled. He army-crawled forward in the undergrowth.

Sakura held a hand to the side of her head, pressing the button on the device at her ear so she could speak. "Well, got to pay the bills somehow. Target in sight, on my command, Sasuke."

She watched the cat as it crept closer and closer to the spot they'd rigged. "Now!"

Instead of being caught up in the trap (a simple net) they'd set up, Tora leapt right over it and up into a branch of the tree. Sakura dove down to grab the cat. It had to be a summon of some sort because the way it evaded her grasp just wasn't natural.

Sasuke hooked his legs over the branch above her and swung down to grab the cat. He was successful in his retrieval, but the cat wasn't going down without a fight. He clutched Tora to his chest in a hug and dug in his heels so he wouldn't fall off the branch.

"YEAH, take that furball!"

Sakura looked up at Sasuke, who was hanging above her. The collar of his shirt flapped and she could see the seal mark on his shoulder. She'd never reminded Jiraiya to look at it.

She frowned and got her to her feet, moving closer to Sasuke and Tora. After slipping a needle filled with sedative under the skin of the beast, it stopped yowling.

Naruto trotted over, happy the mission was successful.

"Sasuke, your seal…"

He glared at her, immediately defensive. Not the best sign.

"How has it been?"

"Why?"

Sakura sighed and looked heavenward. "Am I not allowed to care about how you're doing?"

He grunted, clearly uncomfortable, and then looked away for a moment before releasing the death grip his legs had on the branch so that he could flip over onto his feet.

"Let's go cash this in," he said, holding the immobilized cat up with one hand. Sasuke walked off stiffly and quickly, not waiting for her to catch up with him.

Naruto glanced back and forth between the two of them, grimacing with discomfort. He was at a loss for words. "Uh… I'll go ahead Sakura, if you need a second."

He didn't wait for her either. Sakura sighed and squatted down to cup a rock in her hand. She rehashed the interaction in her mind, trying to internalize the situation and make it her fault but she couldn't. Irritated by the lack of accountability, she funneled her chakra into the rock and flung it at a tree. It left a solid mark on the tree, but otherwise nothing happened.

Somewhere inside of her, that little voice that had showed up in her fight with Ino whispered to her that she didn't deserve to be treated like that. She angrily shoved the voice away from her, deeper down under the drone of tasks she had to complete.

It didn't take long for her to catch up to the others. Sasuke was silent and Naruto looked a bit miffed, like he'd been rebuffed also. Sakura chuckled wryly, but refused to look at either of them.

"He's worse than normal, Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya sighed and wiped his hand over his face as though what the girl had said to him had sapped the very life out of him. He carefully rearranged the pages of his latest work that had been spread out on the table so that they wouldn't be damaged. "Listen, pinky, I get it. But hasn't he always been moody?"

"Not like this. It's different."

"How?"

"I can't explain it. It's just different. I feel it," Sakura murmured, toying with the cup of tea in her hands. Jiraiya had immediately made tea when she arrived, because the anxiety had been rippling off of her in almost tangible waves. "Did Kakashi mention the seal? Did he even ask you to look at it? I remember in the history books, you worked closely with the people of Uzushio. Doesn't that make you at least somewhat competent in fuinjutsu?"

Jiraiya snorted. "Competent? I'm the resident seal-master for Konoha. Kakashi mentioned it to me but told me he'd done everything that could be done."

Sakura pursed her lips, drumming her index fingers on the rim of her cup. "What if that is just everything he could do?"

She smiled a little when Jiraiya pulled his white hair over his face in frustration. "Ah, you sneaky girl! Spend too much time with Tsunade and that sneaky trait will wither away."

"Why's that?"

"You'll just start punching your way through obstacles."

"Well, I'm not strong enough to punch you into doing what I really want. And what I really want is to make sure that Sasuke is okay. That doesn't feel wrong to me. Can you at least look at the seal and see what it's causing? He's just been so angry since the Forest of Death…"

Jiraiya stared at her, only ending his scrutinous gaze so that he could pick up his soju and swirl it around in its saucer. "What else have you noticed?"

"In the Forest of Death, this weird black… I don't know what it was but it moved across his skin. His chakra felt sick… It felt evil, Jiraiya-sensei! And he was… He really hurt whoever attacked us and he didn't even feel bad about it."

Jiraya downed the saucer of soju and poured himself another.

"Sasuke may seem like a jerk, but he's actually really… I've never seen him hurt someone just for the heck of it— not even Naruto and they fight like cats and dogs! And he's just… he's angry a lot. Every once in a while it seems like the Sasuke I know resurfaces, but then he gets mad and disappears again for a while."

"I will take a look at it, kid." Jiraiya took a sip of his drink. "Now get out of my sight, before I change my mind. It's offensive how easily you appealed to my ego."

Sakura smiled and downed the rest of her tea, not minding a bit that it was still too hot. She ignored the tears in the corner of her eyes and smiled at him. "I'll make up for it, I promise."

"No need, just get outta here." He downed the rest of his soju, sighing heavily.

She skipped out of his little bungalow with joy, threading her hair through her fingers in an inherently childish way. It was the most relief she'd felt in a while.

Naruto and Sakura danced around one another artfully, their arms raised like barricades in front of them. It was a weapons-free battle meant to force them to work on their grappling. She'd had to make Naruto promise not to use a clone so that they'd be at a somewhat even advantage.

While he was an incredible force in battle because of his clones, his grappling needed work. He thrived on ingenuity, but was often pretty sloppy in the actual forms and had a lot of wasted movement. As such, he was a perfect match for Sakura who was technically perfect but in reality often under-prepared for the thuggish nature of a brawler.

Naruto moved slowly at first so she could get more used to the feeling of being in a fight that relied on fists and feet. In the past she was more likely to run away than to engage in something like this.

She charged at Naruto, ducking under the fist he brought down like a hammer over her head. Her left hand caught his forearm and she thrust her right hand up into his armpit, pivoting her hip to throw him over her shoulder.

Instead of a thump from him hitting the ground, she heard a softer sound. So he landed on his feet. She whirled around with her fist cocked back to punch him in the chest and swore when his knuckles connected with her face.

"Hah, Sakura-chan you didn't think I'd move that fast, did ya?" Naruto laughed boisterously, hopping back and forth from one foot to the other.

"Get back here you rat!" She screeched. She was smiling, but he knew that look. She was going to kick his ass— if she could catch him!

He laughed and spun around her fists, giggling when she grew madder. "You gotta chill out or you're gonna lose against a stranger, Sakura!"

She angrily kept trying to catch him. She was getting sloppier as she moved. He figured he'd just let her work herself tired and then he'd swoop in for an easy win. He worked in a little closer, dodging all of her attacks. He guessed his spars with Sasuke had paid off. Then again, it was only Sakura and he'd never hurt her.

Every now and again he'd tap her on the shoulder, but not a hard hit. He was having so much fun he didn't realize that she wasn't smiling anymore.

Eventually, she got a hit in on him and it sent him flying into the trees. He smacked into a tree and then some branches on the way down. When he got to his feet, Sakura was staring at him with fear all over her face. He just smiled.

"Now we're talking, Sakura," he laughed. He cracked his knuckles. "Do it again!"

Sakura smiled, relieved that he was okay and wasn't mad. "Bring it on!"

They were in the middle of a team exercise when Jiraiya told them that Kakashi sensei would be back in the next ten days to recover them for a period of time.

"Why not permanently?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.

"Probably the same reason he left in the first place," Sakura muttered, flicking her kunai at the tree. In the past the improved accuracy would have made her feel proud, but now she was just expecting the way it landed almost in a perfect bullseye. Instead of pleasure, she felt annoyed that it wasn't perfect. She'd been working on it for a month now.

Jiraiya sighed and nodded. "Yes. When he returns, I'll be heading back out for a trip for a short period of time. I have some business I need to attend to, but I'll return in some time."

Sasuke huffed, anger evident on his face. "What about my training?"

Jiraiya tilted his head to the side. "I have time for some one-on-one before I leave. Then we can continue when I get back. I actually wanted to give you all some intentional, personalized plans and point out some people in the village for you to go to for tutoring outside of what Kakashi has planned. Now get your panties out of a twist and go run off that attitude."

Sakura could have sworn Sasuke was smiling to himself, despite the punishment he was receiving.

"When will he get here?" She asked. Naruto was practically vibrating next to her with excitement.

"As long as he doesn't die, like I said. Next ten days." Jiraiya was doing Cossack squats and stretching out his hamstrings with the motion. He breathed out steadily as he moved and it was clear he'd been doing this simple routine for more years than they'd been on the planet.

Sakura pouted and folded her arms. "Whatever, Jiraiya-sensei, I just wanted details."

"You always want details, you sneaky girl," Jiraiya quipped. "Now collapse your chakra presence and run laps. If you lose control of the technique, stop for two minutes, and then do it again."

Sakura rolled her eyes and started running. It wasn't hard to pull her chakra into a tight ball in her belly, just behind and below her belly button.

"Oi, what about me, Ero-Sennin?!" she heard Naruto squawk. "OW!"

"I believe you still haven't finished that technique I told you to work on before we picked up Tsunade!"

She heard Naruto swear and then rounded a bend in the woods and he fell out of ear shot. Running without chakra dulled her senses and made her feel quite a bit weaker than normal. She ran anyway.

A/N: Hey y'all. :) A bit closer to the normal pace on this one, but I feel like I actually have a PLAN for this story. Still super open to a beta if any of you want sneak peaks and to help with grammar. Still also in Zanzibar, haha. Love this place.

Who thinks Sasuke is staying? Who thinks he's leaving? We're coming up on some important plot points. You will have to see what happens because I've literally been flipping coins hahaha!

Chapter Text

It was already late— an hour past dark— when Jiraiya showed up at his house. Sasuke stared at the Sannin for a second, his eyes bleary from where he'd fallen asleep on the couch. Jiraiya didn't miss the kunai in the kid's hand.

After That Night, Sasuke had taken to sleeping in his Uncle Kouki's house, partly because it was close to the edge of the Uchiha District so he didn't have to walk past a lot of painful memories every day and partly because it was a place he had spent the least amount of time growing up. Nightmares were harder to leave behind.

"You gonna let me in or keep glaring at me with that useless little weapon?" Jiraiya asked, tilting his head back so he looked down his nose at the child Sasuke sneered at him but let him in.

He didn't say anything, but beckoned Jiraiya inside. Jiraiya shook the rain off of him, using a single hand seal and blowing the extra water off of his body. Sasuke would never admit that it looked cool.

The white-haired Sannin left his geta by the door and followed Sasuke into his kitchen. The boy was quiet as he puttered about, filling the tea kettle with water and setting it on the stove. It was an old stove and had to be lit with a match. If Jiraiya was amused to see Sasuke in such a domestic state, he didn't comment on it.

Sasuke stood next to the stove, leaning his weight against the counter and pressing his palms into the countertop as he studied his temporary sensei. He wondered if Jiraiya would keep teaching him when Kakashi was less busy. He desperately hoped so but would never say it. No, he'd never ask. Jiraiya didn't say anything either, not caring that he was being watched very closely. He seemed comfortable in the role of a zoo animal.

The kettle whistled and Sasuke wrapped a tea towel around the hot handle, taking it off of the stove. The anxiety of abandonment felt cold in his stomach. He held it aloft in his right hand and scuttled his left hand across the drawer to the right of the stove, searching for the hot mat so he could set the kettle on the table without burning the cloth or the table itself.

He regretted that he'd forgotten to get the proper tea cups out before bringing the hot water to the table. His mother had always shown him that it was meant to be brought together so that guests would never wait too little or too long for their tea.

Sasuke pushed a chair over to the cabinets to the right of the sink and climbed on top of it to get the nicer tea set out. His uncle had been able to reach it up here and it kept out of the way of his Cousin Hana's curious grasp. Sasuke himself needed the chair. Jiraiya didn't make a sound as Sasuke set the tea set in front of him. The clattering of the tea cups was loud in his tired ears.

He supposed that kukicha was as good a tea as any for the occasion, considering it was all he had at the moment.

"This is all I have today," he said quietly. His tone was firm, daring the older man to mock his lack of hospitality.

Jiraiya's lip twisted into a bit of a smile. "I'm surprised you're making me tea at all, kid. Your mother taught you well. I never would have expected you to be so… Domestic."

Sasuke grunted, trying to prevent the flush of colour to his cheeks. He was exceptionally well-versed in manners. He'd spent a lot of time with his mother learning proper etiquette, what with his father being head of the clan and all.

"You didn't come for tea. So what do you want?"

"Maa, don't be like that, Sasuke! I can't just visit?" Jiraiya held a hand over his heart in mock offense.

"You don't ever just visit anyone." 'You're too important' hung in the air, unspoken. 'For someone like me' was a belief he kept close to the core of his being, unwilling to be seen in that light.

Sasuke sat across from the older man, fear and discomfort spiraling out of nowhere as Jiraiya sighed and caught his gaze. The dark whispering that he continuously labored to hold back was shrieking in the back of his mind as though gearing up for war.

If he was alone, he would have pressed his fingers into his temples. Instead he would have exhaled slowly through his nose, remembering the meditation techniques his father had taught him to grow his yin chakra.

Jiraiya nodded, not breaking eye contact. "I know Kakashi sealed off that mark Orochimaru gave you. I also know you're still feeling the effects from it."

He hasn't been expecting to feel shame, but it suckerpunched him in the gut anyway. "It's fine! I'm fine."

He knew he was a liar. He knew that something was coming. Every fiber of his being was preparing for it with each passing day.

"I want to look at the seal and see what kind of seal array Kakashi used. I also want to see what it actually is that you were given." Jiraiya reached into his robes and pulled out a bundle of paper that had been rolled up and put through a decorative ring. It looked like one of the ones his mother wrapped around napkins for big meals.

Sasuke eyed the elements suspiciously. "It gives me power," he said carefully. Jiraiya tried to catch his eye, but he looked down and away.

"What do you mean?" Jiraiya said just as carefully. If his words were a posture, his fists were up and he was ready to grapple the boy before he could run away.

Sasuke sighed, looking at the ceiling. There was a rusty stain near the walkway to the living room. He wondered how he'd never seen it and if it was from That Night or a simple water leak.

"In the Forest of Death I… He was going to hurt Sakura. I was so angry. I've never been so angry in my life," it was strange to admit that out loud. It almost felt like he was lying— he had spent so much time pretending that it had been normal; to admit the truth actually felt like uttering a falsehood.

Jiraiya was quiet, sipping his tea like it was a normal conversation. Sasuke longed to hit him, just to provoke a response. He wanted confirmation of the guilt that itched within his gut. "I didn't care that I hurt him. I wanted to. I would have killed him if Sakura hadn't… stopped me. I felt like a monster. I looked— Sakura told me I didn't look like myself."

"Death is a normal part of life as a ninja, you know," Jiraiya said, setting his teacup down and pressing his fingers against the rim. The red marks on his face looked like prison bars. "Have you not encountered that yet?"

Sasuke felt his face sour into an expression of repulsion before he could pretend he was unaffected by the Sannin's words. "Not like that! I don't want to be like— … I have my own sense of justice, okay? I don't want to have to be a murderer to be strong and protect people.

"I thought you were an avenger, Sasuke…" Jiraiya looked him in the eyes and he thought about the implications of that statement and that look. Fury and fear warred with each other and fear won.

"I am." He spat. "But not the kind that's a murderer! Only that man deserves my hatred."

Jiraiya nodded like he was thinking over what he'd just said. He picked up the kettle and refilled his cup. He swirled the teacup in front of him, smelling the tea. "Have you ever considered what you'd do if you found out he wasn't the only one involved in the death of your family? Lot of strong ninja to be taken out by one boy."

"You're lying—"

"I'm not saying it's true, brat!" His voice boomed in the tiny kitchen. "I'm asking if you've ever thought about that possibility."

"But Itachi said—"

"You'd listen to the man who's killed your family over anyone else?" Jiraiya interrupted, leaning forward with keen eyes. "My family is gone, too, kid. War does something to people. It's not fair. I've seen what it's done to too many people I care about. Have you ever considered why you were placed with Kakashi?"

Sasuke felt sick. Sweat crept down the back of his neck and ice water churned in his veins. Was it possible? Had Kakashi helped kill his family? Paranoia muttered in the recesses of his conscience like a rising tide. No, no, it couldn't be that. The idea that it was to keep him weak came to the surface and he tried to shove it down. To watch him and make sure he never grew strong enough to kill Itachi. It was an incredibly buoyant thought and it wanted to stay afloat.

"Kakashi has also lost everyone to war, Sasuke."

It was as though he'd resurfaced from under that crushing weight of burdensome paranoia. He looked Jiraiya in the eye, searching for the lie he feared.

"I, too, have lost my family to war. Most of my friends. My sensei. Tsunade? She's lost more than you can know. Sakura has lost everyone. Many of us have lost everyone. Naruto lost it all before he knew he had it. You aren't alone. You don't need to walk this path, kid."

"But, Itachi—"

"But what?"

Sasuke deflated, his hands in his lap. He stared into the empty tea cup, not sure when he'd finished it. "I— I've never imagined anything else…"

Jiraiya sighed and Sasuke heard him rustling through the papers. "I can't replace your father. I can't replace what you lost. Neither can Naruto or Kakashi or even Sakura."

Sasuke felt hollowed out like the leftover rind of a fruit. His eyes burned with tears he did not want to shed. It felt hopeless when Jiraiya laid it all out like that.

"But lucky for you, you can build something else. Honouring your family does not have to look like dying alongside them, kid. You can live. You can form bonds. You can find things you enjoy. I don't… I'm not always in the village but you can rely on me."

Sasuke nodded, curtly, unsure of how to conduct himself. His feelings were a wigwam of uncertainty.

"Now take your shirt off so I can actually look at this seal. I'm not saying to forget revenge. Just… build a life you want to live so after you do what you need to do I'm not worried about you killing yourself."

The boy nodded, seeming in a daze, and pulled off his shirt. He had been in such deep thought he hadn't even realized that the seal was absolutely aching. Tenderly he cupped the permanent wound and frowned.

"Hmm, kid was right, this is bad," Jiraiya murmured to himself. He'd moved around the table and was staring at the black tomorrow of the seal, frowning.

Sasuke held still, unwilling to put himself through more pain. As he sat with nothing to think about except things he was avoiding, his temples began to pound.

Jiraiya poked around for a bit and every graze of his finger felt like a blade flaying the flesh from his body.

Eventually, Jiraiya sat back down. Sasuke was holding onto the edge of the table and dizzy, nausea causing him to remain still.

"Alright," Jiraiya began. Sasuke could hear him scribbling with a pen. "So, it's not great. But I think we can make life more bearable for you."

The Uchiha grunted, unable to move or speak without risking an explosion of liquid as an accompaniment to his speech.

There was rustling again. The sound of a jar being opened and then slopping sounds which he assumed was ink being put to page. He heard the chair scrape backwards and then the scuffling of Jiraiya's feet as he moved closer. He opened his eyes, noticing idly that Jiraiya's toes were all about the same, sunburned length.

"Look up."

Blearily, he did. Jiraiya's face was stern with concentration. The page was pressed to his face and adhered with chakra. Then Jiraiya's hands began to flow through seals so quickly that Sasuke couldn't keep track. His Sharingan kicked on before he could stop it. Horse, Tiger, Rat… it went on and on for a bit until finally Jiraiya curled all his fingers together except for his thumb and pinky finger. He pressed the pinky against the paper, in the center of Sasuke's forehead. Jiraiya pressed his forehead against his own thumb.

It felt like he moved with Jiraiya as the man reached across the table to grab more paper. "Nasty bit of seal work. I need to make sure I can feel what you're feeling or I am likely to cause some damage."

"Lucky for you, I've had a lot of long nights with people like Tsunade who can drink Gamabunta under the table," Jiraiya laughed heartily at that then winced. "Sorry, kid."

Another page was applied to the back of his head and then he waited as Jiraiya went through some seals. His body swam with relief as the sensations of nausea decreased.

"Do not try any Justus right now, got it? I've had to seal up some of your chakra so that I can isolate this area of your chakra network. There is chakra coming from that seal that is working to overwhelm your perception and proprioception."

"Huh?"

"Just. Don't use your chakra right now. Think of it this way. Your chakra is getting mixed with dirty water right now and we need to dam up the rest so we can work on cleaning it up. If we keep letting more water in, we're just gonna circulate the contamination."

"Got it."

"That means don't try to copy this with the Sharingan."

Sasuke was very still as Jiraiya worked, embarrassed he'd been caught. As Jiraiya systematically closed tenkutsu with paper seals, he could feel a tangible difference in the clarity of his mind.

He didn't say that, though. He just let the man work.

It took nearly an hour for Jiraiya to actually do that portion of the task. Sasuke slipped in and out of a meditative state to try and pass the time.

Every now and again Jiraiya would stop to take notes, scribbling in a book that he tucked into his robe after each annotation.

"It's in there pretty deep. But… I have some theories but I want to take you to see Tsunade tomorrow. She's your best bet to getting this thing fixed fully, not just sealed down into a nuisance of a tattoo."

The older man went about packing up his stuff. It was late and exhaustion kept them quiet. Sasuke remained seated, too tired to think about much of anything. It wasn't until his head started nodding more drastically that Jiraiya said anything.

"Sorry, your body's used to having a steady flow of chakra. You get to bed. I'm not going anywhere until we get that looked at, barring a catastrophic event. I'll take the couch and find some blankets. Believe it or not, I used to play 'Go' with your Uncle Ko when we were kids."

Sasuke stared at him. If one of the Legendary Sannin wanted to poke around his house, there wasn't much he could do to stop him. "Hn. Make yourself at home."

"It's complicated but very fixable. I just have to figure out how to fix it…" Tsunade stood next to the bed, one hand on her hip and the other tapping a finger thoughtfully against her lower lip. Sasuke was on his back so all he could see were her pumps. Camel brown with dark green accents. Why women wore shoes like that was beyond him.

"Well I'll start drawing it up so I can display it for you whenever you want to see it. Jiraiya, can you expand this section of the seal?" Shizune asked, prodding her finger into Sasuke's back.

"Pull Anko's file for me, would you? I want to see what he's changed since then," ordered Tsunade. "Well, kid, you're gonna have to remain in our care until this is fixed. There are certain … clauses in the seal that are worrisome."

Sasuke stiffened and tried to look up but the angle was too awkward. instead, he huffed and stared at the floor again. He was surprised when Tsunade pulled a simple chair over to him and sat down so they were at least able to look at each other.

The way Jiraiya was working on his back prevented him from sitting up, so he angled his head as best as he could.

"Listen, I can't give you all the details. But you are going to have to trust me when I tell you that I am looking out for you. This is not us working against you. You won't be able to leave the hospital and you're off training for at least a week. I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but I have reason to believe that this seal is going to have horrendous side-effects down the road, especially if you keep using it in fights, spars, and training.

Your Kekkai Genkai is very deeply linked to emotion. That works well for you. This seal is not that way. To put it simply, there is a mechanism in the seal that is actually poisoning your chakra and inducing paranoia and heightened emotion. There's a lot of other stuff going on, but that's what you need to focus on. If you have any weird thought patterns you don't understand or new fears, just remember that it's probably not your actual brain generating those things. This seal is hijacking your emotions."

Sasuke didn't answer, save for a nod. It felt violating and gross that whatever that man had done could be doing that much to him and his body. He wondered about the paranoia he'd been feeling, but didn't say anything. He'd think through that later.

"What about team stuff?" He asked.

"I let them know you're here. They should be here soon. You can still go over some strategy and stuff while you're here and I can send Sakura and Naruto out to do some D-ranks, too. It's not like they'll actually be short of a body." Jiraiya supplied. "I have plans for you today, though."

Sasuke only grunted in response. He just wanted to be alone.

"You're gonna have guards 24/7, because we won't put anything past that snake bastard," said Tsunade. She set her hand on his head for a moment and Sasuke felt awkward about the show of affection. "Alright, that's all I have time for today. I'll be back to check on things later."

"Later, princess!" Jiraiya offered before removing his hand from Sasuke's back.

When Sasuke was finally sat up and turned around, Shizune and Tsunade had already departed. There was a black blob of a figure standing outside the door. He was amused that they felt he deserved an ANBU guard.

"Alright, kid. You have a lot of time to sift through a lot of things," murmured Jiraiya. "So, I got you some stuff… I gave you a lot to think about and I know you'd rather be training and working your feelings out that way. So instead…"

Jiraiya was rummaging around in a large, red leather bag. From this bag he produced a myriad of things. There were books and scrolls and even some paints. Amongst the books, Sasuke noticed the broad spectrum of Jiraiya's work. He cringed a little, deciding not to read Icha Icha. All the people he'd seen who read that crap were really powerful but he was sure that their perverted inclinations had little to do with their battle prowess.

The other book, the Tale of a Gutsy Ninja, seemed interesting enough, though.

"I figure painting could be good for you. Get some of that teenage angst out in art form, ya know? Or you could express yourself through a different medium, a romantic one perhaps," Jiraiya held up his ridiculous romance novels and Sasuke sneered.

"Don't be sick, old man."

"These are also art," whined Jiraiya, his personality seeming too over the top to be real. "Stories of love and loss and a deep yearning for connection— of various kinds," (Here, Jiraiya was winking and nodding suggestively and Sasuke's look of disgust deepened.) "But most of all they are stories of perseverance! Perseverance in life and love!"

"Be that as it may," Sasuke said dryly, picking up the deleterious materials like one would pick up a used tissue. "I am not reading these."

He dropped them into Jiraiya's hands, slightly amused at Jiraiya's incredulous gasp. "When I was your age I would have actually stabbed someone for access to something like this."

"Hn."

Jiraiya looked at the books in his hands and then sighed. "Sorry, kid. I was just trying to be helpful."

"I think you need help if you think these are helpful for children to read," a feminine voice offered from the doorway to Sasuke's left. He turned to see Sakura standing there with a hand on one hip, her other hand gripping a backpack that was slung over her shoulder. "Granted, everyone in your generation was dying off at an early age due to the wars but things aren't like that anymore, Jiraya-sensei."

Naruto looked thoughtful, staring at the books and scrolls on Sasuke's bed.

"If you're actually that lonely you should just get a girlfriend," Sakura continued, setting herself at the end of Sasuke's bed and grabbing one of the scrolls Jiraiya had given him.

"That's mine," grunted Sasuke, annoyed by her impertinence.

Sakura smirked to herself, giving him a challenging grin. "Fight me, Sasuke-kun. Oh wait… you can't use your chakra, can you?"

Naruto laughed his goofy little laugh and grabbed for scroll she was holding. "Man, Sakura, I never thought I'd see the day where you were actively bullying Sasuke. Bastard, I think your days of fangirl Sakura are officially over."

Sasuke frowned, bothered by how embarrassed the comment made him feel. He didn't say anything, instead folding his arms and glaring at Jiraiya. "Do they have to stay?"

Jiraiya laughed boisterously and Sasuke did what he could to avoid the sense of familiarity he felt toward the trio. He hadn't felt such kinship in weeks. The difference he was feeling with the seal-mark tucked away behind the extra seals Jiraiya had put in place was startling. He had become so used to being annoyed and angry in their presence.

"Alright, children. Work through some of the problems in that first scroll. Then if you get bored or work through that, I want each of you to spend time creating something."

"But like what, Pervy-sage?" Naruto whined.

"Anything," Jiraiya said, inching toward the door as he adjusted the bag on his shoulder. "Write me a story. Draw up plans for a future home. Draw something. My only stipulation is that it can't be geared toward work or revenge. It has to be something beautiful just because it's beautiful."

"Sensei, I already have a jutsu you think is beautiful—"

"Naruto! Not that. It's for you. Each of you. Create something beautiful for yourself. You don't even have to share it with anyone other than me and even then I'm just making sure you're doing it. Now get to it— I have work to do."

Jiraiya left the room in a hurry, muttering to himself about priorities and Inoichi and hot springs.

Sakura was sitting quietly at the end of the bed for a bit, reading through a scroll on meditative techniques intended to grow chakra. Naruto had for a moment looked longingly at the book with the blue cover before shyly picking up a piece of paper. Sakura gave him a pen and he began doodling away. Sasuke stared at the book with the blue cover— The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja— and he flipped it open lazily.

He was annoyed by a singular thought that bumped around his head like a little bug against a lamp.

"I know you talked to Jiraiya about my seal, Sakura," he said at least, unable to contain himself anymore. He wasn't sure what reaction he wanted from her, so he just watched to see how she responded.

She sat down the pen that she'd been nibbling on and looked at him with a curious, guarded expression. "Do you want me to apologize?"

Sasuke felt Naruto stiffen to his right. He looked away from the two of them as he tried to decide what he wanted. "No…"

Sakura nodded a few times, more to herself than to him. "Are you upset with me?"

"No. I think…" His lip curled in disgust as he considered. His inability to express himself made him feel stupid. "Thank you, I think."

"We were worried about you, ya bastard," Naruto mumbled. His eyes looked wet and Sasuke quickly averted his gaze, feeling embarrassed and somehow violated by the strong emotions. "You weren't acting like yourself."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted. "Whatever, loser. Don't think that just because I'm stuck in this hospital bed that you're gonna pass me by."

He grinned when Naruto rose to the bait and immediately shook a fist at him. "I'm definitely gonna out-do you, bastard!"

He and Naruto continued to pretend to fight, but he didn't miss the shy, relieved smile that Sakura thought he couldn't see.

A/N: I am fully aware that Jiraiya just did something gross and inappropriate, but his rehab will take some time. Please forgive me, I can't just change him overnight. 3 Love you guys, review with your thoughts.

Chapter Text

Naruto stared at the village from on top of the Hokage Monument, kicking his foot back and forth against the forehead of the Third Hokage. He'd never been good at processing his feelings, but it all seemed to be catching up to him.

With Sasuke stuck in the hospital, all he had to occupy his attention was endless D-ranks and training by himself. Even he couldn't argue with himself that he was lonely. Sakura had been pulled on by the Hokage in the last few days and without the availability of his classmates, he was stuck with his feelings.

A gust of wind rattled across the faces of the old men who'd given their everything to the village. Naruto's hair lifted off of his forehead and his orange coat fluttered like a sheet against his body.

He missed the Hokage. Whenever he'd been bored as a kid, he had planned fake attacks on the Hokage. Usually Hiruzen's retaliatory attack had been tickles and that had been his favourite. Hiruzen was the only one who treated him like a little kid or like he deserved to be loved. Hiruzen was the one who had found a tutor for him so he could actually learn to read and write after he'd discovered Naruto's teachers weren't giving him enough instruction.

Naruto had felt so special, sitting in the side office of the Hokage with the door cracked open as he learned to read. He'd never realized that it was Hiruzen making sure it was actually being taught properly to him, he'd just always assumed that the old man had wanted him around.

It was a good thing, though, because Hiruzen had often told him as much. He would often thank Naruto for the breaks from paperwork, which he often reminded Naruto was the worst part of the job.

Naruto remembered that occasionally he'd been allowed to stamp some of the papers— he'd just had to check for a few simple things and then it was no problem to stamp away with the Hokage's seal. No one had known that they were so close and it ate at him that the only person he'd ever thought of as family was not someone he could grieve openly. It would hurt him more to grieve him in private than for someone to deny their bond.

The wind blew again and he smelled leaves and sweat and pedander. Kakashi. There was a gentle rustle behind him as Kakashi stepped forward and onto the statue with him.

"You're back!" Naruto whispered, turning in amazement to see his sensei.

"Well you don't have to cry about it," mused Kakashi, tilting his head to the side with a smile Naruto couldn't see. The boy looked confused until he felt his face and realized he was indeed crying.

Naruto laughed and scratched at his head sheepishly. "Well what d'ya know I guess I did miss you."

Kakashi shrugged and held out a hand to his student. "I've come out here to cry a few times myself, nothing to be ashamed of."

The blond accepted his hand and stood. "So where are we going?"

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, now would it?"

"You tricked me! You made it sound like we were going somewhere fun," Naruto grumbled. He was looking upon the building in front of him with great disgust.

"Maa, Maa, calm down Naruto, even the smartest ninja need to study. Besides, you have a big advantage in this area of study," Kakashi placated, patting the boy on the shoulder.

"Kaka-sensei, you do remember the part of my file that says I was… that I was… well, dead-last, right?" Naruto was mumbling now, full of shame. He stayed close to Kakashi's side as they went through the door and into Konoha's Ninja Library.

The woman at the desk leered at the both of them, though after seeing it was Kakashi she relaxed. When she didn't recognize Naruto, she narrowed her eyes again. Her glasses were an ugly pink colour and her sneer was wide and uninspiring. "Ninja I-D number, please?"

"Uh, uh— 012607!" She glanced back at her little computer, the glow illuminating her glasses and casting deep shadows into her wrinkles. He could see the little boxes showing up on her screen reflected in them. He wondered what other ninjas were close to him in ID number.

"Aha, there we go," she smiled at him. Her face was not any more beautiful for the change in expression, but he loved it all the same. He was unused to people looking at him with any semblance of kindness in public spaces. "We don't have a whole lot of Uzumaki left in the village. Welcome to the Library, child. I assume you have a plan for him, Hatake?"

Kakashi nodded, placing his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto looked up at him, so bedazzled by kindness he hadn't noticed the hand at first.

"Yeah, I'll be accountable for his formal introductions to Library Policy."

The woman nodded and the two began walking away. "Hatake, would you please show him where the break room is? If he's going to be spending a lot of time here, I want him to know where the food is."

Naruto marveled at her words as Kakashi steered him away into the jungle of stacks. Some of the shelves were heavy laden with scrolls and others with books. He had no idea what he was meant to study, but he hadn't had many people desire for him to be able to eat. The opposite, usually.

They walked for a while and Naruto started to feel the uncomfortable itch of insecurity as they wandered deeper into the maze. Kakashi did indeed point out the break room. There wasn't a ton of food, but it was tea and coffee and little snacks and comfy chairs and tables. There was a sign that very aggressively stated how food and drink were only allowed in that room and not outside of it. He filed that away in an easy to find location, not desiring to do anything to upset one of the few women who seemed to be willing to treat him like a normal human being.

"This is gonna be the bulk of your training for the next few days. I know Jiraiya had you guys doing D-ranks for the last few days before I got here. However, I think now is as good a time as ever to get you introduced to how to think if you ever want to move past Genin."

"Kakashi-sensei… I don't know if I'm good at learning like this."

"Have you ever tried it?"

Naruto shuffled his feet sheepishly. "I always got chased out of the civilian library."

Kakashi stared at the child, unsure of what to say. Naruto wouldn't look him in the eye so he dropped down into a squat. "Look at me."

Naruto took his time, eventually training his two blue eyes onto Kakashi's free grey one. He didn't say anything, feeling uncomfortable with the attention.

"I'm sorry that happened. You are not stupid. You can do this. Take notes, ask questions. Got it?" When had Kakashi put his hands on his shoulders? Naruto furiously wiped at the tears leaking out of his eyes, nodding and refusing to look at his teacher.

Kakashi stood up and looked around, humming to himself. "Now where to begin…"

Naruto locked his hands behind his back as Kakashi began to pace around the room, looking at various different titles. He plucked a view volumes from the shelf and one single scroll.

While Kakashi was collecting the materials, Naruto sat down at the table, twiddling his thumbs anxiously. Eventually, Kakashi sat himself down in front of the boy. Said boy looked surreptitiously at the large stack of books.

"I want you to read these this week," Kakashi said. Naruto gulped loudly. "I want you to read these three by the end of the day."

Naruto's lip trembled and he opened his mouth to protest but then couldn't think of anything to say.

"Naruto, do you think that I'm assuming you are a fast reader?" Kakashi asked, his hands resting on the table in front of him.

"You must be if you're asking me to read these all by the end of the day!" He was practically shouting. Tears threatened to spill over. This was his greatest shame, his deepest insecurity.

"You can't shout in a library, Naruto. You'll get kicked out. Also, I am very aware of everything in your file. I know you were the dead-last of your class. I am also aware of all of your skills. What skills do you possess that would enable you to get more work done than the normal person?"

Kakashi was waiting so patiently that it made Naruto's heart ache as his mind whirled, trying to answer the question. "I'm a hard worker?"

"You are. But no. Try again."

"A skill… A skill… so it's not me, it's something I can do?"

The Jonin nodded and Naruto pressed his hands against his head as he tried to think. He jolted when he realized. "Shadow clones!"

Kakashi hummed in approval. "I fully expect one of these books to be done today. But I want you to try for this stack. If you don't finish, just come back tomorrow and do it again. Alright, make some shadow clones."

Naruto did as instructed. Twenty clones popped into existence and Kakashi laughed to himself. "Cut that in half, you don't need that many."

Half of the Naruto's immediately nodded and then punched themselves in the face hard enough to dispel. Kakashi laughed again and handed every other Naruto a book. He reached into his hip pouch and pulled out tiny memo books which he handed to the other Naruto's. "This lot is on note-taking duty. At the end of the day today, send your note-takers to me. I want them to bring me summaries of the chapters that they read."

"What's a summary?" The five Naruto's chorused together.

Kakashi sighed and patted him on the shoulder. "A summary is when you take a big chunk of information and process it and spit out a shorter explanation for what the bigger thing is saying. You try it today and then we'll go over it later, alright?"

The teacher turned to the original and smiled beneath his mask. "You're coming with me," he chirped, plopping a scroll in Naruto's empty hands. He turned and strode down the halls and Naruto had to jog to keep up with his long legs.

"Where are we going? What's this?"

"We ought to pop in to visit our darling Sasuke-kun in the hospital, don't you think?"

Sasuke ignored the way the adults talked about him like he wasn't there. Kakashi and Tsunade were whispering in low tones about his seal, though he wasn't able to catch the entire conversation. He realized now just how often he used chakra for everything. If he had some to push into his ears he'd be able to catch every word. Or into his eyes to flick on the Sharingan and read their lips to fill in the gaps he couldn't hear.

He rebelled against the frustration he felt, trying to listen. He caught the phrases "chakra-eating" and "isolation" and "anti-venom" but wasn't able to peace the phrases together in a meaningful way. He glanced lazily at Naruto who was draped over the armchair next to him like a blanket, holding a scroll precariously above his head.

"What's that?" He grunted.

Naruto kept studying for a moment before dropping it down onto his chest. "A scroll about wind chakra."

"Wow."

"What's so exciting about that?"

Sasuke smirked to himself. "I didn't know you could read."

He almost laughed when Naruto threw his ninja sandal at him with great force. Almost.

"I'm sorry you want me to what?" Sakura whined, clutching at her hair.

Kakashi laughed and patted her on the head. "Listen, it's not that bad."

"I can't believe you're asking me to do this. Lee is just getting out of the hospital and you want me to train with his team? Kakashi, he's in love with me." Sakura had started pacing back and forth.

Her sensei stared at her with a mix of glee and pity, hiding his face behind his book.

"Wait a minute. You're pawning me off again. Are you planning on leaving again?" she stopped pacing to glare at him. When he didn't answer, she started pacing again with her hands on her hips.

"While I am leaving soon, it's actually a pre-requisite from Tsunade that you work on your stamina." Kakashi buried his nose further into his book.

"So what now I can't even go on missions because I'm not fit enough?" She let out a frustrated shriek and stomped her foot. The ground trembled beneath her foot and a tree nearby swayed.

They gray-haired legend finally put his book down at that, unable to pretend he wasn't invested. "I never said that."

Sakura stood there staring at him with the innocence that only children have. "Then why do I have to do this?"

"It's a prerequisite to her taking you on as her apprentice, Sakura-chan," he said, pushing his fists into his low back and leaning so he could crack his back.

"Oh." Sakura held one of her arms by the elbow, feeling bashful. Was there a sudden heat wave? Her face felt hot. "She said that?"

He nodded. She clicked her tongue against her roof of her mouth and sighed. She smoothed her skirt, annoyed to notice again how frayed it was. She still hadn't gotten it replaced. "In that case, I will meet them for practice tomorrow."

She exhaled one more time as she collected herself and patted down her hair. "Shall we?"

Kakashi giggled in an undignified way and she purposefully avoided looking at him. "Stretch first," he laughed, "because we're doing laps."

"Kaka-sensei, we run laps around the field every practice, I think I'll be fine."

"You sure?" He asked, dropping into a Cossack squat and stretching back and forth. She curled her lip in confusion, staring at him like she'd never seen him before.

"Why are you stretching?"

"The better question is why you aren't stretching, my sweet little tree," he quipped loftily.

She hastily complied, pushing her body through whatever motions he was doing. She missed her dad whenever Kakashi-sensei decide to act silly. She had the distinct feeling he reserved his silliness for her because he needed to be stern with the boys.

When he decided that she wouldn't injure herself on God-only-knew what task was next, his whole body went ram-rod straight and she stared at him in confusion. "Next stop! The village gates!"

He began to sprint away from her like a robot, his arms making ridiculous exaggerated motions as he sprang forward.

Sakura lurched after him, her feet landing like little bunny rabbit tracks next to the bounding strides of a wolf. "Why are you running like that!?"

"When you go on long runs, you do whatever it takes to make it fun. As you get better at it, you'll cut out the wasted movement. When you are great at it you can get ridiculous again."

Sakura jogged next to him and tried swinging her arms like a toy soldier. It didn't seem that fun to her.

When they got to the village gates, he didn't slow down. Sakura stared at him, trepidation eating at the back of her thoughts. "Kakashi-sensei, how long are we running?"

He was quiet for a moment. "That depends on how long it takes you to run four laps around the village, doesn't it?"

She wasn't sure if sweat or tears were streaming down her face.

Naruto sat up like he'd been struck. "An Uzumaki!? Did you know the first person to house the Kyuubi was an Uzumaki!?"

Sasuke stared at his teammate in confusion. The blond jolted again. Was he a lightning rod, receiving messages from an averagely intelligent deity? "Wow! Geometry is actually useful! You can figure out the trajectory of weapons with it! I didn't know that. And oh!" He flinched again. "Wow! Who would have thought that flowers were a viable method of communicating!"

Viable? Since when had the idiot used vocabulary that big. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I actually have a headache," muttered Naruto. "Ow!" He flinched again.

He glanced at the window. "I'll see you in the morning, bastard, I gotta go sleep this off."

With that the blonde menace was gone, disappearing through the window next to Sasuke's bed. Sasuke sighed as the night breeze came through. He was too tired to do much, but the lack of activity in the last three days meant that he wasn't feeling tired in the evenings.

He was left to his own devices for a few moments before there was a rustle at the door as a nurse came in. She chatted easily with the guards, laughing at something Sasuke didn't hear. He ignored her the way he always ignored women that he didn't know. It wasn't pompous, just a defense against the years of girls- young and old- operating intrusively towards him after his family's unfortunate end.

Sasuke realized as he gazed at the open window that this was the first time he'd been alone in days. It bothered him for some reason.

There was the clink of metal on metal and the sound of something rolling. Sasuke looked over to see that the nurse was bringing the metal stand the IV drip bags hung on back over to the bed. The fluorescent lighting gleamed off of the glasses and he wondered at the fact that this woman was not very pretty at all. She had a very strong jawline.

She hung the bag on the rack before moving over to the window to close it. Off to the right, she washed her hands in the sink. She shook them dry and them snapped her gloves over her hands in a dreadful way. Unnerved, the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan kept his eye on her.

"You might feel just a pinch," the stranger murmured, pushing the needle into the back of his hand. The feminine voice was gone. This was a man. Sasuke tried to pull back but the fluid was moving into his system already. Sluggish. The world was trapped in a layer of viscous jelly. No, he realized, watching the gray-haired man move about. That was him.

"Now that I have your attention, Sasuke-kun," the man said, pushing up his glasses. "I'd like to make you an offer."

"Kabuto." He slurred, trying to pull himself upright. If the way the world was spinning at the moment was telling any kind of truth, the entire planet really did revolve around him.

"Always good to be remembered by my contemporaries and lesser mortals," the man quipped, smiling to himself as though he was truly relieved he hadn't been forgotten.

"What... do you want?" It was laborious, speaking.

"I want to make an offer, silly, I just said that. I will return in two days. What I'm pumping you full of now-" Kabuto gestured to the amber liquid in the IV drip. It swirled like oil. "is a little concoction Orochimaru and I came up with to help you recover the chakra they've blocked. You know, if Konoha was going to help you get stronger, why have you they put you in a hospital indefinitely?"

Sasuke was unable to retort. He could only move his eyes to track what Kabuto was doing. Every part of him felt violated as he remembered what Tsunade had said about Orochimaru's influence. Kabuto patted his head the way a brother should, but Sasuke could see the ugly aggression that caused tension in the corners of Kabuto's eyes and mouth. "I know, I know. I seem like a hypocrite, don't I, talking about power while you think I've taken Genin-exam after Genin-exam without success." His voice raised theatrically and he spread his arms wide like a thespian. "But that is the secret isn't it? In Konoha I am a Genin. I am the right hand of the Sound! Aside from our leader, no one tells me what to do anymore."

Kabuto laughed to himself as though he was recalling a fond childhood memory. Sasuke's whole body felt hot. Thoughts were not rational any more, only feeling. 'Terror, terror. Run, hide.'

"Don't you remember how good it felt to use that power, that beautiful little gift that Orochimaru gave you? Konoha will keep you weak and they will feed off of your efforts. They will waste your time with missions that you don't care about for people you don't care about. In two days I will send people to retrieve you and take you back to our hideout where we will provide you with the power you need. If you are unable to defeat those that I send to recover you... how can you even argue with what we are offering?"

Kabuto paused to prepare a syringe. The liquid that came out of the dark brown bottle was the deep, ugly colour of a bruise. The gray-haired man held it up so Sasuke could see. "This particular concoction is to break down the blocks they've put in place to keep your chakra from reproducing. Nasty of them to steal from you in this way, Sasuke-kun. You can't afford to keep wasting time, can you?"

There was no gentleness as the syringe plunged into the center of the seal Orochimaru had given him. Pain blossomed immediately from that place, radiating outward. The only evidence of his suffering was the ever-so-slight increase in the beeping from his heart monitor.

"Now that you're actually in a position to think clearly..." Kabuto leaned in close enough for Sasuke to see the pores covering his skin. "You're running out of time. While you are here, the man you want to kill is growing stronger and stronger. What are you doing? Playing house with your teammates? Don't you have a job to do, Sasuke? How will your family be at peace, knowing the only one who is able to avenge them has just... given up?"

Pain was shooting through his body but he was unable to react or even protect himself. Kabuto leaned even closer and he could feel his breath on his neck. Revulsion poured of him as beads of sweat along his entire body. "You've already lost so much Sasuke-kun. Do you really need to see more people die, just because of you?"

Kabuto pulled back a little ways and tapped him on the nose, like he had just told a silly little joke and wasn't Sasuke just so cute? "Your doctors-even Tsunade- will just assume that their work is failing and they'll reassess and start the process over. But it will take them time to realize what's happened. I'm terribly sorry about the paralysis," Kabuto said, cupping Sasuke's cheek, "it is indeed not to your benefit to be screaming in pain when we need this to be our little secret. It would be a shame to have to hurt your friends for getting involved in matters that are just too dangerous for them, wouldn't it?"

Kabuto withdrew his hand and smiled sweetly at him. Sasuke's stomach turned. In the blink of an eye, Kabuto's face morphed into the mask of the woman it had been when he first walked in. Then he sauntered out, pausing at the door to laugh easily with the guards. A single tear struggled down Sasuke's cheek, the only evidence of his internal turmoil.

A/N: So I am accepting input. I'm personally leaning one way, but I can be swayed. Does Sasuke stay loyal to the village or not? Also Kabuto's a sick pup, can't change my mind. I'd love a fic where he gets redeemed but this one will not be that.

Chapter Text

Sakura stared at the Yamanaka in front of her, a frown worrying her features. The table between them was scuffed and ugly and she was picking at the marks with irritated jabs.

"You know, refusal to cooperate is actually a negative mark on the record," the man commented, studying his nails in faux-disinterest. He looked at her lazily, his blue, pupilless eyes boring into hers before she looked away. "I get paid either way."

"What do you mean 'a negative mark?'" She asked suspiciously, her lip curling in irritation.

He heaved sh a put-upon sigh. "Half of the point of these meetings is to make sure you're an effective shinobi at the end of the day. It doesn't matter what we go through to get you back to top shape, what matters is you get to top shape."

She continued to pick at the table. Her nails were no longer manicured and perfect like when she began her kuoichi career. They were dirty and her fingertips were callused. "Are you saying I'm not in top shape anymore?"

"On paper, you're stronger than ever. Also on paper? You're the least emotionally balanced you've ever been and on your last excursion you functioned as a liability because of that." His bored demeanor was gone and now she had all of his attention.

'Liability.'

The word echoed in her head like an ugly gong. She'd known she was a liability when Gaara crushed her against the side of the tree and even in Wave Country when she'd been relegated to guard duty because of her physical limitations.

That she would be called a liability for impulsive behavior was not something she thought she'd ever have to deal with. That wasn't who she was, was it?

Sakura ignored the hot prickling at the corner of her eyes and imagined crumpling the feeling up and shoving it into a cupboard somewhere in the back of her mind. It felt like it clicked into place, held by something else and then it lifted off of her conscience.

"So do you want to work through these problems and get better or not?" He asked. His pen was in his hand.

"What happens if I say no?" She asked in irritation, folding her arms across her chest.

He folded his arms across his chest, too, and she wanted to roll her eyes. "It could go two ways. You score well enough to get back out there and you get a comrade killed. Or you score poorly and you end up a paper ninja and you don't leave the village."

Sakura's stomach felt sour at that. She couldn't wring the life out of a snake she couldn't catch. "Alright, fine. I'll cooperate then."

She was grateful to be working with anyone other than Inoichi. It made it easier to lie.

Every time a shadow passed his door, Sasuke felt his heart rate skip a beat. Sweat would form at the nape of his neck and he felt queasy.

Whatever had happened the night before left him wrung out and sapped. It was still incredibly difficult to move his body and everything felt blurred and awful.

When Shizune came for her morning rounds like she usually did, Sasuke's heart was pounding so hard he could feel it in the vein on the side of his neck like a hammer.

He pretended to be asleep, shame rendering him unable to meet her gaze. He'd never felt so weak and helpless. He hadn't decided what to do yet about Kabuto's proposition. The power was tempting but he felt incredibly violated and unsettled by the blatant threat to his team's safety.

Shizune pressed a hand to his forehead, hissing before pulling the hand back. "Sasuke-kun?"

He cracked an eye open, then shut it again when the light of her penlight immediately scoured into his retina.

"Open up, please, you're not well and I need to check your vitals," she commanded. She was leaning in close and Sasuke could smell her ylangylang perfume. His mother had had some of those bushes in their backyard.

Shizune was writing things down on a clipboard. She looked worried.

"Y-You," he began. His voice was raspy. "Jiraiya…"

Talking took so much energy he couldn't fathom continuing. His eyes slipped shut and he leaned back. His muscles were aching like he'd been sucked dry of all his chakra.

"He's supposed to leave in a few hours on classified business." She finished writing his vitals in his clipboard. "Somehow the blockades failed and—"

"Please." His head was pounding. He opened his eyes and tried to convey with a look all that he wanted to say. "Jiraiya."

Shizune stared at him for a moment, her lips parted as she reasoned with herself. Then she clicked her tongue and nodded, standing up straight. "Please wait, then, Sasuke-kun. I'll see what I can do."

Naruto cackled to himself as he crawled out of the hole Kakashi had buried him in. "I can't believe you got me so easy, sensei!"

"I can't believe you still think you can sneak up on me after the first time you tried that," Kakashi quipped, patting Naruto affectionately on the head. Plumes of dust water into the air with each pat.

"How can you tell so easily where I am?" Naruto whined, crossing his arms and pouting.

Kakashi started walking over to the targets and Naruto trotted after him. "Well for starters, you have the finesse of a goat, bleating and stomping all over as you fight."

Naruto frowned and nodded to himself.

"You also might consider bathing a little bit more frequently, kid. I have an especially strong nose but if you ever want Sakura-chan to actually say yes to a date you'll have to work on how you present yourself. Girls don't like stinky boys."

Naruto stared at him with an open mouth for a beat until he recovered and spit out a retort with his hands on his hips. "Yeah, but you probably smell like your dogs sometimes, Kaka-sensei! What about that?"

Kakashi chuckled.

"I neither smell nor have trouble with the ladies, Naruto, so you're just going to have to trust me." Kakashi flicked a shuriken at one of the targets. "Now get back to work I want to visit Sasuke before I head out on my next mission."

Naruto nodded and threw a shuriken at one of the targets. "I do," he affirmed. He missed the way that Kakashi's face softened when he heard the honesty in the short statement.

"What happened, kid?" Jiraiya asked. His voice sounded like gravel on pavement.

Sasuke studied Jiraiya's features. He was looking, praying even for a reason to not trust him and to run off to power that seemed so easy and attainable. If he trusted Jiraiya, that meant friendship which always included pain in his experience. But if he went with Orochimaru it would be all pain and hopefully power to overcome deeper, more personal pain.

But as he studied Jiraiya's face, he only found kindness. It reminded him of his mother and how fiercely she'd spoken to him and Itachi about the Will of Fire and what it meant to be a part of the Leaf Village. It was still possible to honour the family here.

"Orochimaru… He sent someone." It was laborious to get the words out. "He did something."

Jiraiya's face was like stone now, the softness gone. "The ANBU don't report anything unusual. The machines don't have unusual readings except a slight hiccup in your heartbeat once last night and a few times today."

Sasuke tried to sit up, needing to feel the control of sitting in a defensible position. It felt like his whole body was one big Charlie-horse "They offered… a deal…"

Jiraiya's eyes were narrowed at him in a vicious way that sent a chill down the boy's spine. He didn't want to end up on the wrong side of the battlefield from this man. "What kind of deal?"

"Power." Sasuke stopped to swallow. His throat was dry. "2 days from now…"

The last Uchiha's heart was thundering in his chest and the vein in his neck felt like it would fly off of his body if it wasn't trapped beneath skin. He could hear the beeping of the machine next to him reflecting his inner reality.

"And you intend to stay loyal, then?" Jiraiya asked with a smirk. He held a hand to his own chin, tapping his index finger against his cheek.

Sasuke nodded, somehow feeling embarrassed. He studied his own hands, resting on top of his sheets. He couldn't remember when he'd acquired all the scars around his knuckles. How much more would happen to his body without his approval if he went along with that slimy creep Kabuto?

"He threatened my… the team," Sasuke said eventually. It felt hard to say with his throat so tight; whether it was from emotional or physical discomfort he could not tell.

Tears welled at the banks of his eyelids and he scowled, looking away from the older man. He felt foolish, weak. Any time he felt this deep grief of loss, the image of his brother's Sharingan swirled to life in his mind and he was terrified to hurt like he had in his youth.

Jiraiya's hand settled on his shoulder and Sasuke closed his eyes, unable to look at his mentor. "Look at me, kid."

Sasuke sighed and lifted his head. Jiraiya smirked at him. "We're gonna take care of it. The only thing to figure out is how. I'll talk with Tsunade-hime and Kakashi and see what needs to be done."

He let himself relax a little at that. Something felt bubbly in his chest, but he was unable to determine the emotion.

Jiraiya ruffled his hair and turned to leave. "Don't talk to your teammates about anything yet. No point stressing them out with only a handful of details."

Sasuke nodded and then Jiraiya was gone. He leaned back against his pillows, suddenly exhausted. He slipped off to sleep without any problems and didn't dream at all.

I know this is short. I'm feeling a bit stuck even though I know how I want this to go. It felt a bit clunky, so I'm just gonna put this out for y'all and move on. I wrote this while I was recovering from a sprained ankle from wrecking my moto in Cambodia. It hurts being stupid. Unfortunately for you all, I was not particularly feeling inspired by the walls of my hotel room. I've winced healed, but have a team in and so I'm going to be busy for the next two weeks. Hoping I feel more inspired when I have more time to work on fun projects. 3

Chapter Text

Sasuke's body lay slumped inside the barrel, hurtling away from Konoha with a speed that would've made his stomach drop if he'd been conscious for the adventure.

Sakon glanced over at Kabuto, adjusting his gait when the gray-haired man suddenly diverted to the right. They were abandoning the charted course.

Kabuto began to leap through the trees in erratic bursts and Sakon realized that they were beginning an evasion course. He couldn't detect anyone following them, but he trusted Orochimaru's second to catch something like that. Kabuto's attention to detail filled him with dread— if he did not perform well on this trip he knew that it would undoubtedly not be missed.

Tayuya swore, slipping as she readjusted her course. "What's the big idea, you four-eyed freak?"

Kabuto sighed heavily, the physical embodiment of long-suffering. "We're being followed."

Jirobo and Kidōmaru exchanged glances, looking more excited than scared.

"It's not like they're gonna stand a match against us!" Ukon crooned, leaning further out of Sakon's body.

"Get back in, you idiot, you're throwing me off balance," grunted Sakon, readjusting the barrel with Sasuke's body in it a little higher on his shoulder.

Kabuto increased the pace, his eyes narrowed with concern. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, Ukon."

The limbs of the trees they were jumping through began to shake rhythmically.

"What the hell is that?" Tayuya barked, her hand white knuckle grasping onto her flute.

"A better question," quipped a deep voice, "Is who the hell is that, young lady."

Her pale complexion paled even further as she took in the towering figure of a toad and the man hanging off the side of its head.

Kabuto's face twisted into a scowl and he leapt into the fray.

"Do you think we're good to enter in? Or should we wait?" Kankurō asked, using a senbon as a toothpick.

Temari stopped examining her nails to glare at her idiot brother. "He said to wait until he started spitting oil."

Gaara didn't speak. He stared at the carnage below, one hand braced against the tree they were hiding in and the other clenched in a tight fist.

Jiraiya and Gamabunta were wreaking havoc on the Sound Four. Jiraiya had created a Kage Bunshin that was keeping Sakon, Udon, and Kidomaru busy while Jiraiya himself and Gamabunta occupied Jirobu and Kabuto. Tayuya was unlucky enough to be a genjutsu type against such a combat oriented fighter like Jiraiya and had already been eliminated from battle. Her unconscious form lay in the middle of the battlefield while the fight and all its players danced around her.

Tsunade had been quite clear in her instructions to them about the requirements for mending the relations between Suna and Konoha. Even a toe out of line was enough to jeopardize the budding reparations between the two villages.

The wind picked up as Gamabunta swayed and crushed anything in his path. Kabuto was having to move a lot quicker as the large toad had singled him out.

There were smaller toads that Jiraiya had summoned, though they were still bigger than any of the fights involved. Jiraiya had called them his battle toads.

Kankurō looked on the toads with appreciation, wondering what it would be like to fight in tandem with them, weaving his puppets around their motions. He wondered if it would actually come to that. Jiraiya seemed to be handling it rather well.

And he was. Until the people began to change, their forms pitching and yawing with the force of ungodly chakra beneath their skin. Before their hellish transformations could be completed, Jiraiya began to spit oil over them in a passionate slew. In the confusion, Kabuto summoned snakes of all sizes.

Temari flew into motion, moving herself so that she could strategically fan the plumes of oil so they'd spread further. Kankurō deployed his puppets, laughing to himself as he tripped an unsteady Sakon. Ukon had been trying to pull himself free and the unsteadiness of his mass had made it easy to trip his sneering twin.

Gaara's lips curled in satisfaction as he reached out with his sand, crushing the ankles of the outer-brother Sakon. Temari wasted no time in fanning the flames in the direction of their new opponents. She wore a feral smile as snakes began to catch fire left and right.

Jiraiya didn't acknowledge their presence, unwilling to lift his focus from Kabuto. His smaller toads began warring with the snakes, picking them up and chucking them into the many fires around them.

There was a loud roar as Jirobo's transformation was complete and he launched himself at Temari. With a simple swipe of her fan he was repelled. Karasu, one of Kankurō's puppets, was on him in mere seconds. The clacking of the puppet was loud in her ears.

Jiraiya continued to expel oil as he parried attacks and pursued Kabuto.

Sand enveloped the container that Kabuto had been forced to abandon in his fight with Jiraiya. Gaara pulled the container to himself, setting it next to him on the broad branch where he was perched.

He stared at the barrel with fascination, wondering at the boy inside. Why was the village going to such efforts to protect him? When he'd heard about how the heir to the Uchiha name had been abducted, he'd marveled at how quickly the village had moved. It was like there had already been a plan in place.

But he remembered how fondly the blonde had spoken of his friends as they worked to dismantle his worldview of loneliness and struggle. He'd never had a friend before.

"Gaara!" His sister was calling.

He looked down to her, tilting his head to the side. Jirobu had her by the wrists and for some reason the colour was rapidly fading from her face.

"Please, Gaara! Help me!"

It only took her asking for his help for him to realize that she'd never have to ask for it again. Something deep and guttural in him felt hot fury at the idea of anyone ever hurting her. Sand was wrapped around Jirobo's body before he could form a thought or a plan of attack.

"Sand coffin." He sneered, snapping his hand shut. Jirobo's body was crushed before he could even shout. Temari fell to the ground, covered in the viscera of her attacker. Her close brush with death was equally as terrifying as the rescue.

Kankurō was next to her in an instant, his hands on her shoulders. "You okay?"

Kidomaru was there just as quickly, spitting strange gold liquid at them. His skin was brown where it had been tan before, the whiteness of his hair harsh and ugly.

With a flick of his sand, Gaara was able to interrupt the gold fluid but his sand fell to the ground afterwards unresponsive. That had never happened before and he stared after the unresponsive sand.

Temari recovered herself, lashing out with her fan to hit Kidomaru in the temple. He parried with golden rods of goop, laughing to himself as she struggled.

Kankurō retaliated by attaching chakra strings to the monster and flinging him away from him and his siblings.

"That's the only time that'll work on me, you freak!" Kidomaru screeched.

"Oi! Watch who you're calling a freak, you creep!" Snapped Kankurō, throwing knives at him.

"Do you think he's got him back yet, Granny?" Naruto asked, pacing back and forth in the corner of the room she'd come increasingly comfortable calling her office.

Tsunade sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She looked at the ceiling, wishing she had more resources. What a horrible time to take office.

"He's a Sannin, Naruto, have some faith."

"That's my best friend, old lady, have some heart," he whined, squatting down to practice a meditation technique. He could feel himself getting agitated, his heart thudding against his ribcage in a crushing pattern. "But if I was there—"

"If you were there, you'd probably be a hindrance. I know you wanna be there but you'd just be in the way and become leverage against Jiraiya like the last time."

Naruto scowled, clenching his fists. He glared at them in disdain, wishing for them to be mightier than they were.

Sakura had been there for a long time as they waited, her gaze cloudy and unfocused as she glared at a crack in the floor. "Sasuke… I can't believe he's…"

"He's not leaving the village, Sakura! He's been kidnapped, there is a difference." Naruto's voice was tight. He was convincing himself.

"He's not abandoning the village. I talked to him myself," hissed Tsunade. "He knew this was the best move, strategically."

Sakura closed her eyes. "I can't believe you gave him over like that." She fisted her shirt in her hand, clutching at her chest.

"Listen, kid, Sasuke is a shinobi of this village and you need to respect his decision. Stop acting like you've been betrayed," snapped Tsunade. "He will be fine."

She downed a saucer of sake and slammed it down on the desk. "Get out of my office. Go sort out the minor missions requests. I want them sorted by date and then alphabetically for anything falling on the same date."

Sakura scoffed and stomped away, her tears spilling over. She quickly wiped them away as Naruto followed her out, huffing and puffing as he went.

"Stupid mission requests." Sakura grumbled, shoving open the door to the back room where the Chunnin worked. Red embarrassment stained her cheeks.

Naruto exhaled, blowing his fringe straight up with the force of the breath. "Yeah."

He shut the door behind them a little louder than strictly necessary.

Temari's brow was dripping with sweat. The oil was burning mightily in some places. She was grateful for the areas it wasn't, though.

Kankurō had understood her knowing looks towards the Jiraiya, realizing that she intended to take Kidomaru down by utilizing Jiraiya's original plan.

Her brother was currently grabbing any and all loose debris from the grow with chakra strings and using the extra items as barricades and distractions while he hoarded the monster away from them. When the guy had started changing colours they had all felt a bit more anxious about the end-result of the battle.

"Temari," Gaara intoned, "Help Jiraiya for a moment. We can handle him for a while."

Temari paused, mid-lift of her fan. The gust of wind swirled through the trees, heightening the flames. She could see Ukon darting about, trying to provide cover for his wounded brother. Jiraiya laughed easily, keeping up with the pace of the stronger brother with ease. Gaara was wanting her to do the opposite of what she'd been planning.

Kabuto's hands were glowing and he was slashing recklessly at the giant toad. Temari glanced again where she'd last seen the container that held Sasuke's body. It was gone.

"I moved it. Go," Gaara ordered. She was moving to obey him before she could even reason against it further. Her fan nestled into her shoulder, she leapt towards the fray on the other side of the battlefield.

She circled around the outside, where she knew Jiraiya would see her as she leapt from tree to tree.

He was hand-to-hand with Ukon still, a wicked grin on his face. Another Jiraiya — she had lost track of who was the clone and who wasn't— was dramatically writing on a scroll as Kabuto attempted to hack at the toad.

When she got into position to fan the flames, the Jiraiya that was occupied with Ukon smirked and slammed his foot into the head of the cocky twin. The twin flew backwards into a tree with such force that the tree itself rocked at the foundation.

Sakon swore with exuberance that Temari had not yet encountered. He flung himself at one of the version of Jiraiya, though the attack was deeply limited by his crushed feet. All of his advances were useless and he was knocked back again and again. Temari set to work on fanning the flames that were already blazing so that they would spread and make the battlefield work more to their advantage.

The Jiraiya that had been working on the scroll suddenly jumped into action, shouting something that Temari couldn't hear. The scroll wrapped itself around Kabuto's body; it looked like it was wringing the gray-haired medic out like a rag.

Her insides curdled when she heard the muffled sound of screaming and saw smoke curling out from the bindings. Her distraction was short lived when she half-heard, half-felt the whizzing of a projection closing in on her.

Muscle memory kicked in and she lurched to one side and hefted the fan up to protect herself. There was a strange whistling as something circled around her.

She chuckled when she realized it was a floating kunai. Her and Kankurō had practiced this sort of communication numerous times. She looked in the direction that it pointed, the laugh dying on her lips when she realized that whatever this Kidomaru guy had going on was not looking good for them.

Gaara's breath was coming out in heaving gasps, his one arm bloated with the chakra of the demon inside of him.

Against her better judgment, she lurched closer. She didn't need to know where Kankurō was to protect her little brother. Kidomaru was shooting webs at Gaara, trying to trap him. Gaara knelt down on a cloud of sand, shuttling himself around the six-armed war genius. He needed to get behind him to send a spike of sand through the back fo his skull.

Temari tried to be sneaky, setting her big fan back in the crook of her shoulder so she could move more freely. If she could just get a good whack in—

An ugly scream ripped through the air and she couldn't help but look. Kabuto was free from the binding of the scroll that Jiraiya had launched at him. He also appeared to be free of most of the skin on his body.

Steam poured off of his body as he glowed a bright green, healing and regrowing his skin. Wordlessly, he leapt away from the clearing.

"Come back you coward!" Sakon screamed, tears streaming down his face. He looked back and forth from Jiraiya to his brother's crumped form. The curse marks on his body were beginning to recede.

He struggled towards his brother, laying on top of the body so that he could reabsorb it. One of the Jiraiya's sighed wearily and packed the scroll away. The other chased after Kabuto without a word.

Kidomaru groaned in annoyance. "Prick! Little prick. He's always leaving when things get good."

"Put your weapons down so I don't have to kill you," Gaara croaked. "Mother wants your blood but I don't want her to have it."

Kidomaru tilted his head to the side, his arms still raised defensively. "Why should I trust you?"

"Because I've been holding back from killing you this whole time. Don't make me change my mind!"

He was shaking, his whole body trembling with the reality of his words. Kidomaru relented, dropping his hand to his side.

"Alright, fine, I—" He cut off mid-sentence when Jiraiya delivered a quick chop to the back of his neck.

"Thanks, Gaara. Four out of five is pretty good for our intel." Jiraiya laughed loud and brash like they hadn't just been in a brawl. "Good work, Temari; Kankurō."

Gaara nodded, almost confused. He was so involved in his fight he'd forgotten the main reason they were there. Sasuke. Like a lightbulb turning on, he flinched. He moved his sand to retrieve the Uchiha heir from the hiding place he'd tucked him away into.

Smoke was beginning to come out of the container.

"Hmm. That looks decidedly not good," Jiraiya said flatly. "I need you three to bring these criminals back to Konoha. I'll leave some toads with you. Get them there by evening and I'll have a treat in store for you. Betray me and I can't promise what will happen."

The Sand Siblings looked at each other in relief. This was looking like a good start to reparations for the two villages. "You have our word," Gaara intoned.

"You've got it Jiraiya-sama," Temari affirmed.

"Ah, I love it when a young lady calls me that," Jiraiya grinned lecherously, picking up the container. Kankurō cringed but didn't say anything.

"And just like that, I'll never do it again, pervert," Temari whispered to herself with a shudder.

"That's super pervert to you, miss!" He yelled, jumping into the trees.

A/N: I know this isn't the best thing I've ever written. Just needed to get this out so I can move forward. Constructively review, please.

Chapter Text

"I just got word from border patrol that the Kazekage's children are on their way toward the gate. They're still quite a ways out. Should we greet them and relieve them of their… baggage?" Shizune asked, looking up from the missive at the top of the stack in her clipboard.

"Might I remind you that the Kazekage is dead? Orochimaru did kill him, after all," grumbled Tsunade, setting down her saucer. "Send someone to retrieve Sakura and Naruto. I will accompany the foreign ninja to the gate. I need to collect Sasuke so I can begin to undo this latest development. Naruto and Sakura can entertain our guests. Don't fill them in on any pesky details."

The blonde leaned back against her desk, letting out a low whistle. Her long bangs fluttered in the breeze she created. Shizune nodded to her before departing from the office. The door closed softly behind her.

Sarutobi stared at her from the picture she'd tucked into a frame that leaned against a stack of books on her desktop. It was a picture of the original team 7 and it turned her stomach every time she looked at it.

It served as a good reminder of why she was doing this. For Sarutobi who had died, for Jiraiya who would kill himself for the village at the drop of a hat, and for Orochimaru who would have been better off dying before he left the village. She didn't want the same history to repeat for the new Team 7.

She poured herself another saucer of sake and threw it back like medicine. Weariness had already settled into her joints and she hadn't been in the position even two weeks yet.

Sakura kicked at the rocks. She wanted to scowl, but knew that as a ninja she ought to be better at controlling her facial expressions— even if no one was around.

Her shuriken practice was coming along a lot quicker than she'd expected. It was amazing what happened when she applied herself. It was with no small amount of regret that she realized just how much better a ninja she could have been if she'd not been so complacent all those years in school.

The training she'd been putting in was developing her muscles nicely, if she said so herself. She'd never had definition in her biceps or even the sinewy flexors and extensors of her forearm. Sometimes she'd pause in her activities to marvel at the newfound muscles, but the adoration never lasted long.

Naruto and Sasuke were always going to be stronger. And right now one of her two measuring sticks had yet to be returned from his sanctioned kidnapping. Sakura knew that Tsunade was doing what she thought was best but that didn't mean they had to agree that it was best.

She wanted to trust her leaders, but anytime someone purposefully put the people she loved— because there were so few left— in harm's way she would feel negatively about it. It made being a ninja hard. But she'd have to manage somehow, because finding revenge on Orochimaru would be difficult if she chose to neglect her studies and abilities.

So instead of allowing herself to hate Tsunade, she heaped all of her anger and hate onto Orochimaru. He was like a telephone pole in her mind that she stapled poster after poster of people now missing from her life onto.

With that image in mind, she imaged his face on the target in front of her and ran through a series of throws. Kunai met their intended marks on the targets, closer than ever to the bullseye of the targets. Progress was easy with great motivation.

No one would ever take Sasuke-kun or even Naruto away from her like that again. Orochimaru was going to pay.

"Sakura-san?" a soft voice rang out.

Sakura turned to see Shizune standing there, looking almost embarrassed. "Oh, it's you."

"They're back. I thought you'd want—"

"Let's go, what are you even waiting for!?" Sakura screeched, unable to stop her bouncing up and down. Shizune smiled and Sakura felt joy for the first time in days.

"You idiot, if we hadn't had to look all over the place for you we'd have been able to see him before he went into surgery!" Sakura growled, hammering her fist down on Naruto's head.

"OW, Sakura-Chan! Geez, you're gonna break my skull if you're not careful!" Naruto whined, covering his head with both hands. Sasuke lay unconscious next to them, covered in bandages and extensive sealing arrays. His monitors beeped dully in the background.

Shizune reached over to swat her hands away from the boy. "Sakura-san, I know you're upset but you're being unfair. You wouldn't have been able to see him either way."

"Whatever, I don't know why he was in the library anyway, it's not like he's gonna understand what he's reading. I didn't even know you actually knew how to read, Naruto."

Sakura was so angry she didn't see the pained expression that flashed across his face before disappearing. "Sakura-chan, I'm sorry, I —"

"Save it, Naruto. Whatever you were trying to figure out is probably a waste of time anyway."

"Sakura-san! Don't talk to him like that." Shizune interjected, her cheeks flushed pink with discomfort. She set her hand on Naruto's to comfort him, but he withdrew his hand in discomfort.

"Nah, lady, don't worry about it… I've never really been smart or anything so Sakura-chan's probably right," he mumbled. He turned his attention to Sasuke, who looked smaller than ever tucked into the bed. "It's a good thing that he's set up in baachan's place so nobody can snatch him again."

Tsunade entered the room as he said that, a tray with syringes and other equipment occupying her hands as she moved past them.

"It would be better if Tsunade hadn't let him be taken in the first place," Sakura snarked.

"I'm sorry, Sakura— I couldn't hear you over the sound of your insubordination. Do you wanna run that by me again?" Tsunade ground out, visibly restraining herself.

Sakura curled her lip in disgust but refrained from commenting further.

"So, baachan, when will he be better so I can kick his ass for leaving?" Naruto asked brashly, his bright smile back in place like nothing had happened.

"Well, he's gonna need a good bit of work," she confessed as she flicked the syringe. She poked it into the Uchiha shoulder and prepared another syringe. "He's stable now, but he was in rough condition when he came back. He should be fine, though."

"Okay, but like, how long?" Naruto asked, a little less vibrantly.

"Time will tell. Might be a few weeks, Naruto. In the meantime, I have some guests in the hallway that I need you to entertain for a few days." Tsunade put a syringe into the IV line that was connected to the back of Sasuke's hand and squeezed the liquid into it.

"In fact, I think you'll rather enjoy their company," she said softly.

Sakura stood up quickly and went to the door, edging the curtain to the side ever so slightly.

"Who is it, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, standing up himself.

"The… It's Gaara. And his siblings."

"Oh."

The group of five walked in an uncomfortable silence for a little while. Naruto and Sakura cast each other uncertain glances, not sure of what to do next or where to even take them.

Conversation normally would have been Naruto's strong suit, but he was being unusually quiet. This quiet, however, was disturbed the ungodly loud rumbling of his own stomach.

"Eh, sorry, guys. I guess I'm hungry," he admitted. "Are you hungry?"

Temari nodded in a blasé fashion.

"Lead the way, kid," encouraged Kankuro.

Naruto did just that, leading them to his favorite place. Sakura decided to be tactful for once and didn't comment on how it was the only place he ever chose.

She was busy thinking about how if her parents were alive maybe she'd have invited them over so her mother could have cooked them a meal. Would they have accepted?

Ayame and her dad Teuchi looked happy as ever to see Naruto. They put their orders in quickly, but Sakura wished they had taken more time to pour over the menu and pretend they didn't what they were getting.

It would have spared them from this awkward silence as they waited for their ramen.

To their surprise (and horror) it was Gaara who actually broke the silence. He did so by scooting a little closer to the counter and fiddling with his chopstick wrapper before plucking up the courage.

"I…. I want to apologize."

Somehow, even his attempt at apologizing was terrifying.

"I forgive ya," chuckled Naruto. Sakura swiveled her head to look at him incredulously.

"Just like that?" She hissed under her breath, trying to avoid Gaara hearing her.

"You try to kill me all time, Sakura-chan," he hissed back with a strained smile. She had the decency to look at least a little embarrassed before hiding her face.

She wilted further when Kankuro snorted to himself. She shot him a withering glare and he quickly composed himself, finding anywhere else to look.

"Yeah, like I was saying, Gaara, it's okay," Naruto said. "If you really feel bad about it, you can buy my dinner tonight."

Gaara nodded dumbly, tilting his head to the side. "Hm. It is not usually this easy to apologize, is it, Temari?"

"Nope," she said. Teuchi set her ramen down in front of her and she breathed the spiced aroma in with a deep breath. "It is most definitely never going to be this easy again."

"I just hope you can forgive Naruto after you see how much ramen he's able to put away," Sakura muttered under her breath.

Dinner went on pretty uneventfully after that. Temari and Sakura bonded a little bit over some non-ninja related things like the recent Princess Mononoke film that they both enjoyed. They had both apparently found the young Emishi prince rather dashing.

Naruto and Kankuro clashed over their ideas about the Iron Claw and whether or not the dojo master should have been allowed to fight in his final competition or not, but ultimately they agreed that the fight sequences were the best part of the movie. Gaara looked disturbing serene just to be at the table.

Went the bill came, Gaara didn't acknowledge the hefty cost. He stared at it for maybe a second or two more than was strictly necessary before fishing his wallet out of his pocket and paying. Teuchi and Akane had gushed, saying they couldn't possibly charge the children of the late Kazekage, so in the end Gaara ended up only paying for Naruto and Sakura's ramen.

At first, Sakura had protested until Kankuro crassly pointed out that Gaara had tried to kill her as well. Somehow with her parents passing away, she'd kind of forgotten that detail.

Gaara tried to smile at her, no doubt hoping to come across as reassuring. It was indeed not at all comforting. It looked like he'd never actually smiled before and was trying it out just now.

Sakura laughed nervously. "Let's walk off all these calories, or something!"

They did walk for a while. Naruto and Kankuro seemed to enjoy each others company, and by the end of the night they were ducking around one another trying to grapple just for fun. Sakura ignored the way that all the villagers looked at them.

Eventually, Temari led them back to a guest house near the Hokage tower. It was heavily guarded, with ANBU guards stationed out front and along the walls.

"This is where we're staying. We're here for another few days while some important documents get sorted out," the older girl stated. She looked like she felt awkward.

"Temari-san, I'd like to hang out with you again," Sakura said. "We can go hit some shops or something."

Temari looked surprised, but pleased. She nodded, bowing her head respectfully. It didn't suit her at all to pretend to be so meek and Sakura said as much.

Temari laughed, loud and brash. "Look, I'm on my best behavior with all that's happened between our countries. But truly. I'd love to go with you."

The pinkeye tilted her head to the side and nodded, a softness entering her gaze that Naruto hadn't seen in a while.

"And I personally want to kick both of your asses tomorrow morning, if you're free," Naruto proposed, looking to his two new friends expectantly.

"I'm not allowed to fight you," Gaara intoned awkwardly. "I promised Tsunade I wouldn't."

Naruto faltered. He turned to Kankuro. "Did you make that promise?"

The puppet user nodded. Naruto's countenance crumpled.

"Dammit. Well, I'm coming by in the morning and I'll have a plan then. Got it?"

Gaara and Kankuro nodded before showing the guard their ninja ID card and entering into the house. Temari waved to Sakura and then strolled over to the house in an easy way that conveyed all the confidence Sakura had grown to associate her with.

If Sakura noticed how quiet Naruto was as they headed back to his house, she didn't comment on it.

A/N: It's been a while. I took time to actually work out the plot of the story and now I know how I want it to go. I'm back in America. I missed Appalachia. :')

Sasuke's staying, if that isn't clear.

Chapter Text

Sakura thumbed through a few pairs of slacks before huffing in annoyance and stepping away from the rack.

"I'm bored, do you want to go to a different store?"

Temari looked up with surprise, glancing down at the five pairs of slouchy pants she'd tucked under her left arm. "Err, can I try these on first?"

"Yeah! Sorry, I just… Sorry. My mom used to bring me here and it doesn't feel the same anymore." Sakura hastily turned back to the racks after admitting that, unsure why she was opening up to a foreigner of all people.

"What's different— you or the store?" Temari asked, shoving a pair of jeans back onto the shelf next to her. She pulled another pair over top of them to cover her bad job folding the jeans.

Sakura hummed under her breath and picked up a kipao-style top that her mother would have worn. It was a velvety shade of fuschia. "Is everyone from Suna so direct?"

Temari studied the smile Sakura sported, weighing its genuineness before she responded. "Usually. Hard to beat around bushes that don't exist. Not to mention the sand— you learn pretty quick not to open your mouth more than you need to. Only the rich can afford to sit about and talk so leisurely."

"Were you not rich? Aren't you the Kazekage's daughter?" Sakura folded her arms awkwardly around herself.

"I was. The problems seemed to outweigh the benefits. And my dad was rich, not me. Here, come on, I need to see if these fit," the blonde said, turning on heel and expecting Sakura to follow. She did.

As she followed Temari to the dressing room, she spotted a frilly pink scarf. She frowned, knowing that her mother would have wrapped her up in it while laughing. She would have encouraged her to embrace her feminine side. Her mom was the reason she'd worn so much make-up when she was in school. Trying out the different glosses and mascaras had been so much fun and her mom had always gotten a kick out of how different Sakura looked in different colours.

Despite being a kunoichi, her mother had always found ways to embrace her womanly side. Sometimes, Sakura missed her more than her father. After all, her mother had been the one who pestered her everyday to get things done and who cooked for her. Her dad was the silly one, who wanted to always be laughing and who would invite her to work on silly projects around the house that often took far longer than they should have.

Temari snapped her fingers in front of Sakura's face, drawing her out of her thoughts. The pants she was trying on looked ridiculous— the soft orange colour and the way they ballooned out at the ankles made her look more like a clown than a fashion model.

Sakura bit back a bark of laughter, hiding her smile behind her hands. "I hope you're trying to cheer me up with a laugh, because those are ridiculous."

Temari puffed out her lips in faux-annoyance. "What? What's wrong with them? These could be all the rage in Suna for all you know."

Sakura giggled a little. "Maybe at a clown festival."

"I dunno, I kind of like it. Could be a good diversion tactic. Some people distract through seduction…. I could distract through… whatever you call this."

Temari pulled the fabric of the pants wide, flapping them like wings. "I wonder if I could manipulate wind chakra to hold me up in these. Use 'em like weird wings."

"Oh!" Sakura paused, tapping her finger against her lips. "I think it would be easier if you made something that kind of spread out like wings on your back. But that had a sturdy spine-like piece? Or maybe that your fan could connect to?"

Temari laughed and retreated back into the dressing room. "Maybe! I dunno, but I definitely don't think this store is gonna have anything I want. Take me to a weapons shop, Sakura—I hear there's good steel coming out of Konoha!"

Sakura smiled at the lack of honorific. "Alright. I'll take you to see my favorite place."

Naruto and the Sand Brothers were perched atop the heads of the past Hokage, surveying the village. It wasn't a place that most people were actually tempted to go, so there were no rules barring people from sitting up there.

They'd been sitting there in the quiet for a few moments when Gaara awkwardly began to speak. "Yesterday, I… I was so surprised that you forgave me—I didn't say everything I wanted to say."

Naruto looked to his left, where Gaara was sitting and studied the kid's face. Dark bags were under his eyes and there were some premature wrinkles forming from how often he squinted. The most striking thing was the splotch of red underneath his deep auburn hair. Every time the wind blew Naruto could catch a peak of the boy's tattoo.

"What did you wanna say?" Naruto asked. Something in his stomach felt a little sick, like this was a more serious conversation than he'd prepared for.

Gaara paused, tilting his head to the side. "I… I want to have bonds like you have. I thought that if I conquered and killed anything that was a threat to me that I was proving I was alive."

Naruto nodded, unsure of what to say. Gaara kept talking.

"Now I have realized that... I want a reason to enjoy my life. I enjoy being around you. I want to try to be your friend."

"We're already friends. I think. Aren't we?" Naruto asked, scratching his head. "I mean, I thought we were friends. You even bought me ramen."

Kankuro sat quietly, listening.

"Oh. Good." Gaara's lips curled up just a little bit.

Naruto thought it was a much more normal smile than the one he'd seen Gaara give to Sakura last night.

"Yeah! Anything else is in the past. Just don't try to hurt my friends like that again. They're precious to me. I'm sure you could even become precious to them, too. That's why I wanna be Hokage, you know."

Gaara looked at him, his tired eyes searching Naruto for answers to questions he hadn't asked yet. Naruto kept talking, feeling confident in what he had to say.

"I used to want to be Hokage so people would recognize and acknowledge me. I was treated really bad cuz of the fox in my stomach and all, but… I dunno. Now I think I ought to Hokage to fix the stuff I don't like and make sure people I love are okay. I don't care about everyone acknowledging me now that a few people have. I just want to do whatever I have to do to make sure they're okay. If that means being in charge, I'll be in charge. I'll take care of everyone. No one else is gonna die if I can avoid it."

"Do you have to be the Hokage to do that?" Gaara asked carefully. Sand was swirling around his hand in a spiral pattern.

"Seems the best way to make the most change," shrugged Naruto. "Besides— I've been telling people I'd be Hokage for as long as I can remember. I won't go back on my word, now!"

Gaara smiled and picked up a few leaves with his left hand. He dropped the leaves over his right hand and they swirled around with the sand. "Then I shall become Kazekage. We will have an alliance. Some day, I hope to return the favor and save you the way you saved me from myself. But, I pray you never need it."

Naruto looked away quickly, surprised by how quickly tears had sprung into his eyes. It might have been the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him. "Geez, Gaara, quit flinging sand around it's getting in my eyes."

He scrubbed at his eyes furiously. "Alright, alright. That sounds great and all but we gotta get stronger. Let's go spar!"

"We're not allowed, twerp," Kankuro interjected. Naruto laughed, realizing he'd forgotten the brunette was even there.

"Well then let's go get some flowers for Sasuke's room. Stupid Baachan and her stupid no-fighting rule."

"What's she doing here?" TenTen whispered, organizing the kunai holsters on the shelf in front of her as she flicked her eyes back and forth between her work and Temari. Temari was on the other side of the store, looking at the different kinds of kunai.

"I'm hoping to buy some of your weapons," Temari said without batting an eyelash . "Unless that's a problem, of course."

She looked up in time to see TenTen blush a similar shade to Sakura's top. TenTen's discomfort was rewarded with a disarming smile from Temari. "You know they talk about Konoha steel even out in the desert?"

The blush spread to TenTen's ears. "Yeah, actually, I did. I just didn't think you'd— I mean, come on, you're the daughter of—"

"I'm no one's daughter anymore," Temari interrupted quietly. TenTen brought her hands together in front of her, uncomfortable. Quiet recognition dawned on Sakura's face and she looked down at the floor as she thought.

Temari moved closer. The budding weapon's master tensed her body, preparing for a slap. "I fully intend to be your friend. This is why I am telling you how I feel. It was a bad matchup, our fight. But you earned my respect. Is this your family's store?"

TenTen's shoulders sagged. Sakura busied herself with looking at the tantos and katanas in the back of the store. The moment felt important somehow.

"It— that's complicated. I'm technically an orphan, but the shop owners consider me one of their own. They don't really have any kids and Kazuichi pretty much has… implied that if something happens to him, he wants me to take over the shop." TenTen looked sad for a moment. "But I'd rather a family than a business."

Temari gripped the brunette's shoulder briefly, squeezing softly. "I want to commission some weapons from you. I think my brother would as well."

"Oh, I didn't realize he—"

"The other one, Kankuro," Temari said with a laugh. "Gaara has never needed a weapon."

Sakura shuddered and picked up a tanto, gripping it in her palm. Could she kill Orochimaru with a sword? Or would she rather do it with her bare hands? She brought it over her head, pretending to slash with it.

She turned it over, studying the hilt. Then she pulled it out of its sheath, admiring the slant of the blade. It was new and shiny, so shiny she could see her reflection in it.

"Hey! That's sharp, don't play around with it. That particular one is meant for stealth killing," TenTen called out.

Sakura sighed in annoyance and rolled her eyes. "I could be a stealth killer. You don't know!"

"You don't seem like the type, Sakura-chan," TenTen said, making her way over so she could resheath the weapon. "Besides, why would you wanna be a secret killer? You seem like the type to enjoy the scrap of a fight."

"What? I'm not petty."

TenTen was quiet for a moment, putting the tanto back on the display. "What is your fighting style?"

"I— I… I tend to be in more support roles, it seems." Sakura admitted. "But I don't want that! I want to have a more direct role."

"Why?" asked Temari, moving in closer. She had packages of kunai and paracord tucked under her arm, and was gripping forearm guards in her fingers. They looked heavy.

"I am going to kill Orochimaru some day," Sakura ground out.

"Interesting," mused Temari. "How?"

Sakura lifted her chin defiantly. "I will find a way."

"You sound like Sasuke," mumbled TenTen. "But I'll help you find a weapon. But you're gonna need to find a fighting style that works for you and weave a weapon in. I don't feel good about just selling you random weapons. You're more likely to hurt yourself that way,especially if I'm not there to help you."

"You'd do that?" Sakura asked, drawing back in on herself. The offer at help had evaporated her confidence, somehow.

"Duh. Besides. I hear your team is getting close with the Hokage and I fully expect you to give me the details on Tsunade-sama. I'm a big fan. She's my hero."

"Deal." Sakura extended her hand to TenTen and they shook on it.

"Alright, alright, can you ring me up? This stuff doesn't weigh nothing, ya know!" intercepted Temari, waddling away from them towards the counter. "And besides, if I like this stuff, I'll be ordering more from afar. My brother Kankuro is especially in need of good weaponry, so consider this the potential beginning of an enduring partnership."

TenTen nodded happily and scampered after Temari. "You got it!"

Sakura studied the mesh armor by the door as Temari checked out, enjoying the gentle sound of the beeps as TenTen wrung up each item.

"Oh," TenTen murmured. "Yeah, these are good. They won't come off unless you release the latch with your own chakra."

"I'll let you know how that goes," Temari said, eyeing the lighters on the counter.

Sakura looked to see what the two were talking about, but it appeared to just be some mesh stockings.

"Please do; us girls gotta stick together, ya know," TenTen said with a false chipperness that Sakura didn't understand.

Temari and TenTen exchanged a knowing look and Sakura felt left out, like she'd missed some sort of social cue. She shrugged the feeling off and studied the mesh armor behind the counter and wondered if this was where that proctor, Anko, bought all her stuff.

"Well, see ya," mumbled Sakura. "Let's go drop off your stuff, that's a lot to just carry around."

"Bye, ladies! Come back in a week or so, Sakura-chan, I'll help you find something good. We can start practicing with different stuff."

Sakura nodded and the two girls headed out the door. Sakura was quiet as they walked, wondering about what kind of weapon she could use. She imagined various different tools, how each of them would feel. The idea of a sledgehammer was so ridiculous that she imagined conking Orochimaru over the head with it, and his tongue flopping out of his month. In her mind, it rolled out like a red-carpet. At first it was funny, but then it just seemed kind of gross and she shook her head to get rid of the image.

"So, I have to admit, when we first met I didn't peg you as the murderous, revenge-seeking type," Temari said, hefting the bag up a little higher on her hip.

"Funny, I didn't think you were so soft when we first met, either," needled Sakura. "He killed my parents during the invasion."

Temari clicked her tongue loudly and nodded her head a few times. "That'll do it."

"Yeah. It did. Sometimes I imagine just—" Sakura mimed choking the life out of him with her hands and laughed. "How it will feel, ya know?"

Temari nodded. "Yeah, I get it."

They walked for a while, the hum of people laughing and moving about their day-to-day activities loud in their ears.

"He killed my dad." Temari said to with such finality that it caught Sakura off-guard. She tripped a little over a lose stone, but played it off easily.

"No kidding?"

"Yup. He'd been dead for weeks by the time we found out." Temari hoisted the bag up higher again. Sakura wondered if she should offer to carry it for a while but couldn't get the words out.

"But I suspected. I could tell something was different about him, even though nobody else could. Not even his 'trusted' advisors could tell the difference."

Sakura had the distinct feeling that this was something Temari had not shared with many people— maybe not anyone. "How could you tell?"

"He wasn't so… He started acting like he cared about us. Like he felt bad for … all that we were going through." Temari's face twisted into an expression that Sakura couldn't place, but she could feel the emotion rippling off the girl. "That's why I was so desperate to do everything that he said. I had hoped that my dad had changed and actually cared about us."

Sakura stayed quiet as they walked, unsure of what to say or how to comfort. She knew that she hated the awkward "I'm sorry" from everyone who gave it to her. They were both sorry, why say it?

Eventually, they came to the door of the guest house where the Sand Siblings were staying. "I have to admit," Temari said, struggling to fit the key in the lock with the weight of the bag in her arms. "I hate that I am glad he's gone. I wish that I could just mourn him. I am mourning the life I should have had and his death. But also celebrating it a little, because we're finally free. Ain't that fucked?"

Temari chuckled and then sighed in relief when the key slid all the way into the door. "But anyway, girl, seems like we're both orphans, now."

"You, me, and every other person in my immediate circle it seems. We should start a club," spat Sakura. Temari laughed loud and long at that.

Ino stared at Naruto and his strange friends, trying to piece together how they had gone from dangerous foes in the invasion to people wandering freely in Konoha.

She kept her shears in her hands, finding more and more flowers to cut and place in vases. She'd left her weapons pouch at home like an idiot.

Eventually, she worked up the courage to ask what they were doing. "Oi! Naruto, what are you and your… friends looking for?"

Naruto flinched like he'd been sworn at. "Ah, hi, Ino-chan!" He chuckled uncomfortably. "I-uh, I actually wanted to get some flowers for a friend who's in the hospital."

"Oh, well, okay. What brings your… friends to Konoha?" she asked, picking up some fern and tucking it into a fresh vase.

"Work," Kankuro said quickly. "We're here on the Hokage's orders, see?"

He held up a card which apparently Ino recognized easily. Naruto squinted at it, trying to see what it said. Kankuro put it away before he could read it.

"We're hoping to restore our relationship with Konoha," Kankuro said, leaning his weight against the counter. He leaned his face on his fist, studying her as she added baby's breath to the arrangement. "We were just following orders, you know how that is."

Ino rolled her eyes, smirking. "Get outta here. You attack my village and then think you can bat your eyes at me?"

"Is it working?" He asked, smiling a bit.

"You'll have to do better than that," Ino laughed. Naruto looked like he was taking notes. Gaara was so engrossed in staring at the flowers he didn't bother to chastise his brother.

Naruto watched as she added gardenias and some small sprigs of lavender. "Do the different flowers mean different things?" He asked abruptly, reaching out to gently poke at a sprig of lilac.

"Yeah, that's why it's best to have someone arrange it for you. If you're not careful, you can offend someone by bringing them funeral flowers. "

Naruto nodded vigorously, leaning against the counter with both hands as she cut the bottoms off of certain flowers and arranged them in the vase.

"What would you put together for me?" Kankuro asked.

"Hmm, maybe some periwinkle. No, golden dewdrops! Or… I know! Some laurel." Ino smiled wryly at him before looking back down at her arrangement. It was colorful and purposeful. "Those are beautiful ones.

"They're also poisonous," pouted Kankuro, folding his arms over his chest. "Message received, flower maiden. Message received."

"I'm only teasing you," she laughed. "And just Ino is fine."

Kankuro's mouth dropped open until he recovered his senses and flashed a lopsided grin. "Ino it is."

"Alright, Naruto. Is that all you need today?" She had wrapped the arrangement in a protective plastic covering that offered some protection for the flowers during the delivery. "Once you leave the shop, you'll want to deliver them quick, otherwise the flowers will overheat in there."

Naruto nodded shyly, stepping up to the register with his frog wallet clutched in his hands. Gaara was inspecting the flowers inside the plastic with fascination, though his hands only hovered above the plastic.

"Can you teach me more about flowers sometime?" He asked tentatively, forking over the cash. "I'll clean up around the shop or whatever you want, but I just… Please. I'll make it worth your while."

Ino paused at the cash register, surprised by his request. "S-sure. Come by the store and I'll leave a note for whoever's working to pass on to you about some good times for us to meet."

She handed him the receipt and was careful to not touch her hand while collecting it. "Thanks a bunch, Ino! But— please, don't tell any of the guys about this. I get hastled enough already."

He laughed and scratched the back of his head awkwardly before picking up the flowers. She tilted her head thoughtfully and looked ready to say something else so Naruto squeezed out his parting. "Anyway— thanks!"

"Can I carry them?" Gaara asked suddenly, his hoarse voice making him sound dreadfully desperate.

Naruto paused and then nodded, happy for someone to share his interest. "Sure!" He opened the door for Gaara, standing next to it so the boy could walk through. Gaara held the flowers carefully in front of him, a foot away from his body.

"I'll have to come by for some flower lessons myself next time I'm in town," quipped Kankuro, tucking a plumeria leaf behind his right ear. As soon as he turned to leave, his hood caused the flower to fall.

"Somehow I don't feel like you need them," Ino laughed, clearing the extra clippings off the counter.

Gaara shuffled dumbly out the door that Naruto was holding open, transfixed by the flowers.

"Nope, just need to see you," Kankuro said, winking and ducking out the door after his brother.

"Wait! Naruto, who are the flowers for?" Ino asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Naruto paused for a second. "Sasuke."

He rushed out, not wanting to see the sympathetic look on her face. He couldn't ignore the way she gasped though. So he ran from it instead, jogged to catch up with his friends.

They walked for a few moments before Kankuro started punching his fists and laughing. "Man, am I smooth or what? She's so hot."

"She's also the only girl in Konoha who wears more makeup than you, so it's perfect," laughed Naruto.

"Wh—you little jerk come here!"

Naruto laughed and pranced away from him. "No touchy! Baachan's orders, remember?"

Naruto trotted away and then jumped up onto the top of a light pole where he perched for a moment, discerning the height of the sun in the sky. "Let's go to Granny's! I bet you Shizune will let us in to see Sasuke."

It took them a while to get to the Hokage's quarters from where they were and by the time they arrived, the sun was low in the sky. The whole way, Gaara had enjoyed the flowers and held them like he knew they would break if he didn't hold them 'just-so.'

When they arrived at Tsunade's, Shizune opened the door for them after Naruto beat on the door a few times yelling loudly enough for the whole village to hear.

"I wish you wouldn't knock like that," Shizune said with a sigh, accepting them into the house. She held out her hands to take the flowers from Gaara while he took off his ninja sandals.

"I wish you'd let me in faster," pouted Naruto, folding his arms across his chest. Then he decided he ought to take his shoes off so he could see Sasuke.

The entryway was narrow, but the room it opened up into was large and wide. There was a long meeting table, some comfortable chairs and a low to the ground sitting area around an ornate tea table.

"Consider yourselves lucky," Shizune said cordially, "it isn't often we let foreign dignitaries in this area. It's a bit unheard of, really. But you understand how delicate the situation is and I trust you to behave yourselves."

"You'll find us remarkably willing to behave," mumbled Kankuro bowing a little as they walked. "With everything that happened we're not intending to cause any undue ripples."

"I'll hold those for you," offered Gaara, using his sand to lift the flowers out of Shizune's grasp. She tutted in surprise and then chuckled to herself when she saw the fascination on his face.

"I guess you boys don't see a lot of flowers like this in Suna, huh?"

"We have a greenhouse, but we mostly grow things for work-related endeavors, not pleasure. Not enough water for that," Kankuro confessed.

They wandered back through some hallways — it was more than Naruto could remember there being in the first place, but he shrugged it off and chalked it up to his short attention span.

When they entered the room, Temari and Sakura were already in there. Jiraiya and Kakashi also happened to be in the room. When they both stood up, Naruto drew back, subconsciously bracing himself for more bad news.

"What's wrong? Why are you both here?" He asked suspiciously. It felt like his stomach had bottomed out.

"What? Kid, relax." Jiraiya held his hands up, pleading innocence. "Everything's fine. I was just here to check on things and get report from Kakashi. Besides, I've been hearing a bit from one of our closest allies about how we might be able to offer some aid to Suna."

"Aid? Aren't we rather ill-equipped to be accepting aid from you at a time like this when our village has been disgraced by my father's actions?" Temari asked incredulously. She was draped over an armchair in a rather undignified fashion and had to press her chin into her chest to put her eyes on the Sannin.

"Be that as it may…. I think that this will bring some stability to Suna and ease our minds as well," murmured Jiraiya. "Furthermore, we can't actually confirm when Orochimaru killed the Fourth, so you lot have some plausible deniability. I deal in information and— at times—protection." Jiraiya gestured to the flowers in Gaara's grasp. "Why don't you set those down, kid, and we'll step out of here and talk business?"

Sakura looked annoyed, with her hands folded in tight fists in her lap.

"Let me unwrap them please, they need to breathe," Gaara rasped, looking serene as he set them next to Sasuke. He drilled some sand into the plastic covering the flowers and then painstakingly peeled it away until the flowers were free.

He gently fluffed them with his hands before standing up and sighing. "Alright."

"Very well then," exhaled Kakashi. "Let's go somewhere more private."

The Sand siblings stood up together and departed, leaving Sakura and Naruto alone with Sasuke's unresponsive form. Shizune had also left with Jiraiya and Kakashi. It was quiet save for the beeping and wheezing of the machines.

Sakura was crossed legged in a comfortable looking chair next to Sasuke's bed. Naruto chose to sit at the foot of the bed, feeling suddenly awkward around her. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Sakura anxiously ejected the words she'd been holding onto.

"I'm sorry I've been so angry lately."

Naruto looked up, surprised. "Huh?"

"You're uncomfortable. I can tell. I've been pretty mean to you lately. I'm sorry."

"Oh, I… Sakura-chan, I—" Naruto scratched at his neck, unsure what to do with himself.

"I'm just so angry, Naruto. Nothing is right. Everything keeps going wrong. And I know I'm not the only one hurting. I keep forgetting that you lost people, too." Sakura's chin wobbled as she screwed up her face with emotion.

"It's fine, Sakura-chan!" Naruto laughed and stood up, gesturing wide. "Everything is fine! You're safe, Sasuke-bastard is back, he's gonna get better—"

"It's not fine! Sarutobi-sama is dead, my parents are dead. That bastard is still alive. Nothing will be right until I scrub his existence off the face of this earth. The relationship between Suna and Konoha is in shambles! He killed their dad, too."

Naruto sat back down, feeling small and stupid.

"Aren't you sad? Aren't you angry?"

He hated the way she was looking at him, so full of despair tinged with accusation.

"Of course I am!" He said defensively. He dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. "But I don't want to think about it. You and Sasuke are bent on revenge and … I'll die to see it happen if I have to. I'm so sad about losing the only person I had growing up, but…"

He braced himself for the worst. He took a deep breath. "I have you and Sasuke and even Kakashi-sensei. I'm not alone anymore. I've always been alone. Now I'm not."

He'd said it. He'd revealed his deepest sin. He was grateful. Everything sucked but he'd finally been accepted as part of something. How could he hate that? He was happy. Happier than he could remember being, even despite losing his beloved Jiji. Even today, he had two new friends— three, if you counted Ino, who was finally being nice to him.

Sakura stared at him with sullen, leaking eyes. "So you're okay?"

He smiled, laughing. "Of course I'm fine! I'm always fine, Sakura-chan!"

She smiled sadly at him then, her green eyes so much more vibrant with all the red of her cheeks and nose. "Okay, Naruto. Thank you, I'm sorry for being such a crappy friend."

"No, it's fine. Please, let's just worry about Sasuke. As long as we're all okay, I'm okay." He rolled over, tugging the clipboard off the foot of the bed. "Now what does this say? I bet Tsunade isn't actually telling us how sick he is."

"Shut up, give me that!" She squawked, trying to grab it from his hands.

He stood up quickly, stiff-arming her away from him while he tried to read it.

"Gimme that! What does it even say?" She asked, trying to grab it.

He looked at it for a moment longer before sighing in annoyance. "You're right, I have no idea what it says. But it's really messy handwriting!"

"Idiot," she whispered, snatching the clipboard from him. "Oh, yeah this… dammit, she's writing in a cypher. No wonder you can't read it."

Naruto shoved her off of him and loomed over Sasuke, pulling one of his eyelids open. "Wake up!"

"Would you shut up!" Tsunade barked, popping her head in through the door. "I can hear you, you know."

Sakura dropped the clipboard and tucked her hands behind her back with a nervous laugh. "Heh! So sorry."

"You." Tsunade pointed at Sakura. "I want you to start reading the books on the third shelf from the right over there. Tomorrow I'm going to quiz you on the contents over breakfast. You will come and cook me breakfast tomorrow."

"Listen lady, I don't know if you want her making breakfa—" Naruto grunted when Sakura punched him in the side of the head. "OW! Listen, I'm just trying to help—OW. Sakura!"

"You will bring breakfast tomorrow, Sakura, and we'll go over what you've managed to learn," amended Tsunade. "You, Naruto, will work with Shizune tomorrow. You didn't even notice that genjutsu she put on you on the way down here. Shameful demonstration— she's been working so hard with you on that!"

"Sorry, baachan. What do you want me to do right now? Sakura's busy so I'm going to be bored…"

"Hmm. I have a delivery for you. Come with me." Naruto nodded and followed her out of the room. When he looked back to wave bye to Sakura, she was drawing her hand across her throat in a cutting motion.

"You're dead," she mouthed. Naruto gulped and scampered after Tsunade.

A/N: Idk how I got this out so fast. You're welcome. I love you allllll.

Chapter Text

"So… Let me get this straight. You want to rework Gaara's seal? In what way does that benefit Konoha?" Temari scowled and folded her arms across her chest.

"Contrary to popular belief, Konoha does not like to just pretend to be the good guy," Jiraiya grumbled. "Besides— confidentially, off the record—and if you quote me I'll formally deny it— Orochimaru was my teammate and i know it's his fault your dad was killed. I'd like… The world doesn't have to be evil. We don't always have to be at each other's throats trying to wring something out of one another for our own benefit."

Kakashi sighed and nodded, smoothing the edge of the documents he was looking at. He fixed his single gray eye on one of Gaara's pale blue, trapping the boy with the unfamiliar gesture of eye contact. "It wasn't easy for Naruto in this village. I know it must have been much harder for you. Our records show that Rasa tried to have you killed at least once. There's a lot wrong about this world. This poor sealing job doesn't have to keep being one of those things."

"What are you asking for in return?" Kankuro asked suspiciously, folding his arms over his chest. His dark eyes were narrow with distrust.

"Consider it an IOU," shrugged Jiraiya.

"That's not good enough— you could ask for anything, and we'd have to accept," Temari ground out. She shifted in her chair, clearly uncomfortable. "Besides, how can I trust that you're not going to ask Gaara to show up and do terrible jobs for you just because you're offering him this?"

"I'll do it." Gaara said suddenly. Jiraiya and Kakashi looked at him, curious. Shizune was taking notes on the conversation quietly. "Whatever you want me to do, I will do it."

"We're not asking for anything right now." Jiraiya sighed, wiping his face with a heavy hand. The red lines on his cheeks stretched with the motion. "I'm sorry life has been unkind to you, kid."

"It has. But I don't want this. I am tired of senseless killing. I want to become Kazekage and take care of my village like Naruto. I want our villages to have a strong alliance, not just on paper." Gaara leaned against the table, pressing his fingers into the surface. He looked every ounce of a twelve year old boy. "I want it to be quiet in my head, when I am alone. What do I need to do?"

Kankuro and Temari bowed their heads, contemplation clear on their faces. Kankuro's jaw was tense and Jiraiya absently noticed a deep smudge in the Kabuki makeup that revealed honey-colour skin underneath.

"It's pretty simple for the two of us to do," Jiraiya explained, gesturing to him and Kakashi. "We'd just superimpose a stronger seal overtop of the old one then remove the old one. It won't be as strong as Naruto's seal, but it will do a much better job holding the tailed beast inside. It's not nearly as strong as the Kyuubi either, so you don't need to have as complicated of a matrix."

Gaara nodded. "I understand. I will do what is required to win over my council and my village. I'll be a fair leader. My village must come first, but I am grateful to you and to your village. Let's work together."

Jiraiya nodded and gestured again to Kakashi, who pulled a scroll out of the breast pocket of his flak-jacket. When the scroll was laid out, Jiraiya pointed out the different areas of the mock seal array.

"This will help to promote some actual stability in the chakra pool that is the Ichibi. These little swirly parts are actually modulators that will allow your body to get just the tiniest portion of that chakra filtered into your chakra pool, instead of just intermingling like a leaky barrel into the sea. But this—" Jiraiya tapped his middle finger on a larger, more complicated portion of the array. "This will keep that thing from influencing you so heavily. You'll be able to sleep at night."

Gaara's eyes widened so far that the older men could see the entire ring of his iris. "I can't do that. I've never been able to do that. Anything longer than—"

"That's what we're trying to fix for you, kid. Any one of you could step up and take the hat, it doesn't have to be Gaara. Your village might push for someone else. But, regardless, your village needs stability. This will help bring stability. I'm confident this will work, but we've shown that we can restrain you if you get lost in the rage of the Ichibi." Jiraiya set his hands on the scroll, holding it flat. Kakashi scratched at his left bicep, curious how the redhead would respond.

Kankuro and Temari watched him while he deliberated. At some point, Temari's hands had gripped onto the seat of her chair and they remained there, her knuckles white with the power of her grip.

Shizune waited with her pencil poised above the page, her head bowed patiently.

"Do it. Seal it. Please." He looked a little unhinged, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards as he panted in excitement. His eyes flicked to the left and right as he thought.

He chuckled, softly at first. It erupted into laughter that teetered on the edge of maniacal. The air wheezed out of him for another moment and then he seemed to come back to his senses. His hand sluggishly covered his mouth and he had the decency to look somewhat sheepish.

He stiffened as a thought occurred to him, sitting up just a bit straighter. "Temari," he began, twisting to look at his sister. "Do you think I could dream?"

She stared at him, her face looking two parts sad and another part repulsed by the foreignness of the question. "I—I hope so."

That same, strange serene expression they'd been seeing slipped over his features and he tilted his head to the side, thinking.

Jiraiya cleared his throat and picked the scroll up off of the table. He thumped it on the table after rolling it up, to even up the sides of the pages. "So, if it's alright with you, kid, I'd like to get started as soon as possible. The less time you have to leave your village without the royal family, the better. We don't want to be involved in the internal politics of your village. You handle that amongst yourselves. But the sooner this is remedied, the sooner you can get back home and take care of things."

"How long will it take?" Temari asked, sitting ramrod straight with her hands on the table.

Jiraiya checked the clock on the wall. "About five hours to draw it on. Three to six hours of chakra-infusing and shuffling through different phases. Then some tweaks. Overall, we can get it done within twenty-four hours."

"How soon can you start?" she asked.

"Within the hour."

"Please. I'd do anything if it means he can be normal," she whispered, tears in her eyes. Jiraiya looked away, uncomfortable.

"That's not necessary, kid," he whispered. "Just don't waste it."

She nodded, her tears threatening ot spill over. She looked up and away, breathing out a shaky breath before patting her brother on the shoulder. Kankuro was quiet, caught up in the surreal feeling of it all.

"I'll see you when you're done, okay, Gaara?"

Kakashi and Jiraiya stood and led him out of the room. Tears leaked out of her then, slow moving rivers down her face.

"I'll leave you two to discuss this for a little bit and then I'll guide you back out to the entryway of the Hokage's Quarters," Shizune said softly. Temari flinched, having completely forgotten she was there.

She nodded dumbly, waiting for the older woman to leave before he let herself cry properly. Kankuro didn't say a word; he sat quite still and studied the dirt under his fingernails. Eventually he set his hands on his thighs and just stared at the floor.

After a while, there was a knock at the door and Shizune popped her head back in. "Let's go get you two some tea, shall we?"

Sakura sat down on the edge of Sasuke's bed, eagerly flipping through the texts that Tsunade had assigned her to read. This particular book explained what medical chakra was and how it was converted and why.

She had come to a particularly juicy portion of theory that explained how painful it was to have someone else's chakra suddenly injected into your system. She remembered when Shizune had taught them about how to dispel genjutsu and how often she'd had to push her chakra into Naruto's system to get him out of it.

Sakura glanced at Sasuke, wondering if the seal that Orochimaru had given him was causing him pain. He looked so frail and unfortunate tucked into this hospital bed and it made her heart ache.

She crept closer to the head of the bed, moving the hair away from his face. She set a gentle hand on his cheek, passing her thumb over the skin that used to have more colour. "Why won't you wake up, Sasuke-kun? I need you."

Desperate tears formed in her eyes and she shook his shoulder. "Wake up! Please, please, wake up!"

But he didn't.

Before she knew it she was sobbing, the kind of deep rib-rattling cry that spoke of grief too deep for words. She punched her fists in the throws of a tantrum and accidentally hit the boy on the cheek.

When he didn't even flinch, she wailed in shame and rubbed her thumb soothingly over the mark she'd left. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, I'm sorry."

She whispered it over and over, eventually collapsing on his shoulder in exhaustion. Gravity had its way and she found she could no longer remain that way or she'd fall off the bed. So she lowered herself to the floor, too spent to support herself. She stayed there for a while, her cheek pressed to the cool tile.

This was more than she'd cried even since her parents had passed. After a while, she pulled herself into a sitting position and scrubbed at her cheeks. Tears hadn't brought back her parents and they certainly wouldn't wake him.

Sakura rose to her feet, pacing back and forth as she fanned her face with her hands. Sobering breaths brought her back to reality and she consulted the books again, determined to learn. She'd never be this useless again.

Naruto trotted over to the aviary, checking the number on the package with trepidation. The Chuunin at the desk requested his Ninja ID Number, and Naruto fumbled with the package while he recalled the number.

"Alright and which carrier are you requesting?" The Ninja asked, blowing a bubble with the gum in his teeth. He didn't look up from the clipboard, waiting on Naruto to speak.

"Uh… Is it this?" Naruto held up the package, pointing to the number, and the ninja rolled his eyes.

"Geez, kid. Read it off to me."

"W-1-9-M-…. I can't tell if its a 0 or an 'O,'" he confessed, feeling sheepish.

"Is this your first time requesting a messenger bird?" The guy asked skeptically, his lip curling up the way it always did when adults were annoyed with him.

"Yeah," Naruto admitted, laughing uncomfortably. "Sorry, I guess I was the only one available."

"Alright, well listen. W is for Washi, because you're requesting a bigger bird. The numbers are to identify the bird, because they're trained for different routes, and then the M is for moderate priority, so this needs to go out fast. The O is for official business. Typically, these all work the same way. Now hand me over the package. Clearly you're not the sender, so let me see the official issuer tag."

The Chuunin let out a low whistle when he saw the red stamp on it. "She must either really like you or really have it out for you, kid. Can't believe the Hokage sent you on this errand. Good thing you didn't mess it up."

Naruto blushed crimson and hastily backed away from the counter. "Happy to help, sorry to waste your time, thanks a bunch!"

"I'll take care of it from here, then," the Chuunin said, smiling a little bit more kindly than before. Naruto nodded and then turned on heel and hightailed it out of there before he could possibly make any mistakes.

"Add a dash mark right there, it will improve the flow," instructed Jiraiya as he leaned over Kakashi's shoulder inspecting his line work. "Other than that, it looks great. Your Sharingan will have you surpassing me soon, no doubt."

Kakashi nodded dumbly, unsure how to feel about that. "I'm happy that the opportunity to learn is more philanthropic than my last sealing endeavor," he said darkly, thinking back on how he'd had to seal Sasuke by himself. That had been less than heartwarming.

Jiraiya's silence said more than anything. There was more to come on the topic of their supposed altruism it seemed. Kakashi sighed as Gaara looked up at them with hopeful eyes.

"Is it time?" The boy asked, his raspy voice a stark contrast to the childish reversion they were seeing.

Jiraiya patted the kid on the head and smiled warmly. "Yup! Now hang tight. It could hurt a little, so try to focus on something— any good memory you might have."

Jiraiya grimaced after saying that, wondering if the kid really had any.

"You're gonna be a little out of it, so we'll have to restrain you. But this is just to prevent anything being injured during muscle spasms as things even out, okay?"

Gaara nodded blithely, staring at a crack in the wall.

"Okay, Kakashi, start feeding in chakra on your end. I'll do mine as well. Let's hit about 30% fill and then we'll stop, hold it steady, and make sure it all looks good before we move onto the next step."

The room was quiet as Kakashi and Jiraiya both funneled their chakra into the seal; it was the simplest part of the ordeal and left the two of them without having even broken a sweat by the time they paused to check over their work.

Gaara had entered a meditative state, his lips trembling as he entertained himself in a state of half-consciousness. It reminded Kakashi of when his dogs would fall asleep, their little legs twitching as they frolicked in dreamworld.

"What's this part of the seal doing again?" Kakashi asked, studying a line that had looped around Gaara's elbow and up to his ear. "Is this the separation and enclosure of the Ichibi's influence?"

"Yeah, gotta bottle the thing to decide how it's poured out," grunted Jiraiya, forcing his fingers through a series of hand seals. "Alright, next portion— you feed your chakra into the seal now. I'll save mine to do the finishing work."

Kakashi nodded and settled in for a long haul of flooding the seal with his own chakra. This part endured for three long hours. Twenty minutes in, Kakashi noticed sweat beginning to leak from the pores of his scalp. He focused on his breathing and practiced a meditative exercise of his own, one that his father had taught him at a young age, and time became less tangible. After three hours of the steady drain on his chakra, he was sweating profusely.

It was only when Jiraiya tapped him on the shoulder that he dropped his stance and relaxed. His muscles trembled with the movement and his shoulders sagged.

"Good work, Kakashi. That was actually impressive," Jiraiya muttered, adding another layer of ink to the back of the slumbering Jinchuriki. "You knocked him out. Might be the first time he's been asleep in his whole life."

Kakashi stared at the boy as his chest heaved, wiping sweat from his brow with his right hand.

"You're worried about something bigger than him, aren't you?" Kakashi leaned against the wall, trying to corral his chakra. It had taken a far bigger toll than he'd expected.

"Take a soldier pill if you need to, you actually gave me more than I expected. I just wanted to make sure I had enough. This can wrap up a lot quicker than I anticipated earlier," Jiraiya said, shifting the table so that he could draw more designs on Gaara's forehead.

Kakashi grabbed a bottle of water instead, taking a swig through his mask and pouring the last few mouthfuls over his head.

"What has you so worried that you're intervening like this?" He needled, leaning in to inspect the older man's work.

Jiraiya sighed and looked up at him, looking every year of his age. "There's a group hunting the Jinchuriki down. I don't know what they want, but… I figured if I could… I want him to have a fighting chance. He could become a great ally, he could die in the next few years. Either way, I'd like him to have a normal life if possible. Besides, if he's an ally and he actually does manage to make Kazekage like he said… that's a strong influx of information for my network. Whatever news we can get about these guys will help us head them off of Naruto."

Kakashi leaned against the wall, anger and hopelessness warring inside of him. "You got any other bad news for me while I'm ready for it?"

"Well," Jiraiya said with a laugh, "it's really gonna throw a wrench in my plans for the next Icha Icha."

Kakashi sighed. "I take it back, I can't bare any more bad news."

Jiraiya set the brush down in the cup at his feet, holding both hands out to work on the finishing touches. "That's fine, because the good news is this is gonna be done within the hour."

"Good, because I won't last much longer than that," confessed Kakashi.

"Take a seat, you're moral support at this point," the older man ordered. Kakashi sat down cross-legged on the floor with his back against the wall and watched him work. It was always his favorite part to watch a sealing array collapse in on itself when it was being completed properly.

Asuma looked up in surprise when the hawk circled above the engawa, squawking fiercely. Shikamaru looked up with lazy concern, glancing back and forth between the go board and the large bird.

"You gonna get that?" The Nara asked with amusement, leaning his head on his hand.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. I'll see you later, Shika. Make sure Ino and Chouji actually finished their assignments," Asuma said, sighing around his cigarette.

Shikamaru flopped back on the floor to look up at the sky above, not even bothering to respond in the affirmative. But Asuma was confident the boy had heard and would obey in the most energy-efficient way possible.

He flash-stepped onto the roof next to the bird, receiving the package that was strapped to its breast. From the ankle of the bird was a set of coded coordinates that he quickly worked out as the Hokage's office. The package itself had the Hokage's official insignia stamped on it.

Befuddled, he raced along the roofs at a Jonin pace. He was unable to enjoy the setting of the sun; he was running too quickly. By the time he made it to the Hokage's Tower, the sun had settled behind the mountains and trees around the village.

He knocked on the glass of her office, the special three part knock that only certain Jonin who had served as the Hokage's personal guard were taught.

The glass slid open and he was received into the office without any fanfare.

"Tsunade-sama, I've brought you the package you sent me," he said, bowing low. His cigarette was dangerously close to burning the carpet.

"At ease, Asuma. You can go ahead and open it on my desk," Tsunade said from her place at her desk. She was sitting in her chair, but had pushed back from the desk so she could turn her seat and stare at the window and the faces of the many Hokage.

Asuma stood and sauntered over to the desk that had belonged to his father for most of his life, noticing just how empty it was. She'd definitely been expecting him and this package.

He removed the bindings on the package, unwrapping the brown paper from the simple box inside. Inside the box was a storage scroll, and he paused when he looked at it.

"Go ahead, I want you to open it," she said, turning her attention to him.

When he opened it, he was surprised to see that there were two bento boxes inside and a medium sized bottle of soju. Truly, he'd been expecting poison or something more gruesome.

"What's this?"

"You haven't come to congratulate me, Asuma-kun," she laughed. "So I thought I'd invite you over to celebrate with me."

He laughed and set her box in front of her, dragging a chair over to her desk.

"Besides, I sent Naruto on the errand to send that bird to you because he was driving me crazy and I needed him out of my hair. What do you think Takuma thought of him?"

"Kid's a handful." Asuma chuckled, scanning the desk for his father's ashtray. "You got an ashtray?"

"You got another cigarette?" She leered, turning the corner of her mouth up when he produced the pack from his flak jacket. "I knew you were a keeper, brat. Just like your dad."

Tsunade reached into the drawer at the left of the desk and hefted an ornate bird-shaped ashtray and plopped it on the desk.

Asuma set the boxes up, tucking the lids underneath so the rice, kimchi, and meat were available to be eaten. "We're missing utensils," he murmured, ducking his head to the left and right looking to see if he'd missed them somewhere.

"Ah," Tsunade swore tiredly. "I'll have Shizune bring us some."

Tsunade pressed a button under the table, and Shizune popped her head in.

"Yes?" She asked softly, startling a bit when she realized Asuma was there. "Oh! Asuma-kun, I didn't realize—"

He stood up awkwardly and bowed and Shizune bowed in return, opening the door fully.

"What— Err, Tsunade-sama, what can I get for you?"

"Can you get us some saucers and some chopsticks, please?"

Shizune nodded and then quickly shut the door. She was gone for a minute or two and Asuma focused on enjoying his cigarette fully before she returned.

She knocked gently on the door before re-entering. She deposited the cups and the chopsticks onto the desk before backing away with a bow.

"Can I get you anything else?" She asked softly, avoiding eye contact.

"Do you want to stay?" Asuma asked, standing again for some reason beyond his comprehension.

"Ah, I don't want to intrude," she whispered, bowing again.

"It's no trouble, you can have my—"

"Thank you, Asuma," Shizune said, bowing again and quickly departing.

Asuma sighed and rubbed at his face sheepishly before sitting back down. He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling disgusted with himself. "I never know what to say to her."

"Old flames have that complication. At least you two are civil," Tsunade murmured. She picked up her chopsticks. "Itadakimasu."

Asuma offered the customary thanks in response and picked up his chopsticks as well, though he used his other hand to help himself to some of the soju.

"So, are you and Jiraiya feeling civil lately?" He asked with a cheeky grin, laughing when Tsunade snapped her chopsticks at him in pretend anger.

"Have you finally asked that beautiful red-eyed girl out?" Tsunade retorted, inclining her head graciously when Asuma filled her saucer.

He didn't answer her question for a moment, chewing his food thoughtfully. "She has a name, you know."

"I know," she said carefully, plucking some vegetables up in her utensils. She popped them into her mouth and gave him a pointed look while she chewed. "I was gone a long time."

"You were," he acknowledged, taking a final drag of his cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray. He held out the pack to her and she took one, setting it carefully on the desk in a place it wouldn't roll away.

"It spoils the taste of the food for me, I'd rather enjoy it with the soju after." She stirred the vegetables around in their sauce, tilting her head to the side. "I want you to fill me on your father's last few years, since I was not here."

He nodded, setting down his chopsticks. He was quiet for a while, avoiding her gaze. "I left for a time, myself. I only came back a few years ago and it was… my father and I—"

"I cannot offer you any comfort or any shame for the decisions you've made, Asuma. I'm the last person to do so, trust me." Tsunade snorted and took another bite. "I am up to my eyeballs in paperwork and I have the council in my ears all day long. I need to know what I've walked into."

Asuma nodded, licking his lip as he thought. "You mean you need to know why I refused the position as well?"

"Yes, and why no one pushed harder for you to take it. Skill-gap aside, you've been in more meetings than I ever have. You're a lot more domesticated than I am. I know you were privy to a lot of conversations, in and out of this office," Tsunade pressed, leaning forward as she spoke. "I can't keep going like this. Something stinks, Asuma, and I need to find out what it is."

"What do you mean?"

"You just tell me what you know," she ordered, "because I have a feeling it's been this way for a long time."

"Well, there's not a lot I can tell you tonight," he confessed, giving her a meaningful look. "But we're old friends so you can trust me to tell you the truth. Not everyone can say that, you know. I'd love to have you over to my father's house though, have some tea with you, and talk about the good old days when you, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru used to babysit me. Bring Jiraiya, it'll be good to catch up."

Tsunade smiled and nodded. They'd finished their food already, but Tsunade had also already gotten the information she was after.

"You got a light so I don't have to waste my strength?" She asked, batting her eyelashes at him dramatically.

"Are you getting helpless in your old age?" He chuckled and extended his hand, flipping the zippo so that the flame extended towards her. She puffed gracefully, and then leaned back in her chair.

"Not helpless. Just… learning how to delegate."

Asuma chuckled to himself, lighting his own cigarette. They sat together for a little while like that, just breathing and enjoying one another's company. "I'm glad you're back, even if I hate the circumstances."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't go getting all sappy on me. I'm not nearly drunk enough for that. Now get outta here! But stop and give Shizune good dates for me to stop by and see you, ya got it, shrimp?"

"I'm not shrimpy anymore!" He protested, making a petulant face that reminded her of when he was a child. He took one last draw on the cigarette before leaning over and crushing his cigarette into the ashtray, leaving the burning stump behind.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a big man, I know. See ya later, shrimp."

Still, he smiled to himself as he made his way out of her office.

A/N: Well, well, well. Look at that. Another chapter. This seems like filler but it's not. It's all for the plot, baby.

Chapter Text

 “You did well,” Tsunade admitted, scanning the page for mistakes. “Too well, actually. Have you studied these theories before?” 

Sakura earnestly shook her head no, curling her fists under her chin. “No, ma’am.” 

Sakura’s heart was pounding in her chest and it felt like her mind was balanced on the edge of a razor blade, so sharp was her focus.

Tsunade nodded to herself as she finished up examining the work.

“Somehow you got all the answers right. Not bad for your first test.” Tsunade couldn’t hide the smile that danced around the corners of her mouth. “But don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you just because you’re doing good on theory.” 

The pinkette shook her head quickly back and forth. She wouldn’t dare.

“I want you to spend three hours trying to draw forth chakra to heal a fish. I’ll have Shizune take you over there and demonstrate for you while I work on these blasted papers,” Tsunade informed. “After your done, I want you to bring us lunch.” 

“You and Shizune?” Sakura asked, clarifying. She put her book and her test back into her backpack. 

“Me, Shizune, and you,” correct Tsunade. “After lunch, you have a team meeting with Kakashi and Jiraiya. Naruto has already been informed.” 

Sakura’s cheeks turned pink as she considered the implications of eating with the Hokage, but she tried not to dwell on how cool that was, lest it affected her ability to learn. With a resolute nod, she stood and exited the Hokage’s office. 

Shizune led the way, chatting idly with her about the different feelings associated with healing chakra. As they approached the room where the fish was waiting on a parchment covered in sealing arrays, Sakura plucked up the courage to ask about Sasuke. 

“Shizune-taichou, why isn’t Sasuke getting better?” Sakura asked in a quiet voice. 

Shizune smiled at her with sad eyes. “He is getting better, Sakura-chan. It’s just taking him some time. He went through a lot and now his body needs to recover. Tsunade has sealed off the tenketsu that are feeding the seal so his chakra-network is rerouting  his chakra and his body is healing from the … trauma it went through.”

Sakura nodded, sighing as they entered the classroom. The smell of fish wasn’t overwhelming, but it was definitely present. She poked the limp creature, a frown on her face. There were a few of them piled up in a bowl of water and a few separate bowls of only water. They were all large enough to hold a living fish. 

“How long until he wakes up?” She asked, refusing to look Shizune in the eye. Instead, she picked the fish up, wiggling it as though it was swimming in water. 

“He has at least another five days before he’ll even be able to wake up. We have him thoroughly sedated so that everything can heal. I can ask Tsunade-sama if you’re allowed to be present when we wake him up for the first check-in, but you may find that she says no.” 

Sakura pursed her lips, annoyed. Shizune began to explain to her about the different ways to draw the chakra forward. When the brunette’s hands glowed green, Sakura forgot about her insecurities and decided the best thing to do was improve so something like this didn’t happen again. 

”Where have you been, Pinky?” Jiraiya asked with his mouth full of sushi. Naruto looked up at her, fumbling with his lunch a little as he considered her. They were all in Naruto’s apartment, though now she’d just come to call it home. The older ninja had his back to the wall so he could keep an eye on the door. Naruto was sprawled out, his legs straight out with his dirty toes sticking up. 

”Sorry, I was eating with Tsunade-sama and Shizune-taichou.” Sakura’s cheeks blushed as pink as her hair. 

“How is that?” Jiraiya had a scroll in his lap and was scribbling away at some project. 

Sakura hummed to herself and then scratched her cheek. “Uh, good, I think.” 

Jiraiya stopped writing and stared at her, waiting for her to offer more information. When she sputtered a little and worked her mouth like a fish searching for air, he smirked. “Details, little lady. Details. I want them.” 

Naruto snorted around his food, choking a little when some rice shot up his nose. Jiraiya let him suffer for a moment. When Sakura began to talk, he thwacked the boy on the back to dislodge the stuck food. 

“Uh, well we moved from theory to practice but it didn’t go very far. I didn’t manage to save any of the fish. Shizune had to revive them all.” 

“How many fish were there?” Jiraiya asked, raising a brow in expectation. 

She blushed crimson when she realized that she hadn’t actually looked around the room to count them all. With bookwork, she read every word on the page and thus remembered it. But if she didn’t take the info in, how was she to remember? 

“You’ll never be a good spy if you don’t notice the little things. Don’t worry about it. Just practice absorbing information that would make good reports if you were spying. Obviously, we are loyal to the Leaf Village. But you have to think about how outsiders would look at information and use it against us. So it’s important to know what the actual information is.” 

Sakura nodded, bowing her head. 

“Oh!” Naruto had finally stopped coughing and sat up straight. “I was supposed to give Kakashi-sensei my reports!” 

“Where is he? I thought he’d be here.” 

“You know how he is,” Jiraiya grunted, waving off the unspoken question. “He’s probably helping some old lady cross the street.” 

“Oh! No I think it’s probably a black cat trying to cross his path this time so he had to go the long way around the village,” Naruto laughed, stabbing his chopsticks at his sushi. The sushi tumbled from his utensils back onto his plate. 

Jiraiya sighed and readjusted the kid's grip so he could actually eat. 

“Anyway, I wanted to go over training schedules. I will leave some of that ‘til we’re back with Kakashi, but first and foremost— you’ll notice that you’re not leaving the village for the next two weeks.” 

”I thought that was just ‘cuz Sasuke bastard was off duty,” mumbled Naruto, holding his schedule up like a treasure map and tilting it back and forth. 

Sakura didn’t say anything, but was instead studying her schedule. It was quite full. She didn’t mind. 

“Oh! I forgot, I was supposed to turn these in to Kaka-sensei,” Naruto said, plopping a roll of papers onto the low table. Jiraiya picked them up and began to leaf through them. 

“Not bad kid. I’ll give ‘em to my summon and have him deliver them.” Jiraiya bit into the flesh of his thumb and flexed his chakra. Gamakichi popped into existence and happily accepted both the letters and a piece of sushi. 

“Thanks boss!” 

“Deliver these to Kakashi, please,” Jiraiya ordered, patting the little toad on the head. It croaked in response and then opened the window and catapulted itself out into the world. 

“What were those, Naruto?” Sakura asked, staring at the empty windowsill that the little creature had just occupied. Jiraiya reached over lazily to shut the window. 

“Sakura, how has your other training been going? You’re actually delinquent on some training and meetings yourself this past week. You’re supposed to join Gai in the next fifteen minutes at training field nine. You were also supposed to be meeting for brain training with that Yamanaka twice a week. You have missed both of your appointments this week. ” Jiraiya picked at his teeth with his nail, looking professionally disinterested as she reacted with indignation. 

“More training!? I’ve already been going for hours,” she spluttered. Her shoulders slumped with faux-fatigue. “Also, I forgot about the other meetings…” 

“Well, enjoy some more hours of expert teaching. If I remember correctly, you don’t exactly seem to be in a place to argue with free training, little miss avenger.” 

Sakura glared at him before lurching to her feet and stomping out of the room. Naruto was studying his own schedule, whooping when he looked at his schedule for that day. 

“Sweet, I’m supposed to go, too!” Naruto sighed in pleasure, flopping back on the floor. “Least I’ll get to see bushy brows. Say, Ero-Sennin, I need to leave room to get trained by Ino on flower stuff!” 

“Oh, time with a girl, huh?” Jiraiya was quickly shoving things into his bag. Gamakichi was perched on the windowsill looking rather concerned.

“How was it with the kids from Sand?” Jiraiya asked, his voice loud enough to reach Sakura as well, and deposited his notes into his red messenger bag. 

“Great, actually,” Naruto said, stretching out his arms. “Gaara is really cool— he seems really normal compared to when we saw him at the Chunin Exams. But it does seem like it’s his first time being around people. Kank— what’s his name? Uh, whatever his name is doesn’t really talk a whole bunch.” 

“Temari is great. We share a common… anyway, how long are they hear for?” She asked, resting her water bottle on her slender hip. 

“Two more days, unless something comes up,” Jiraiya said with a smile. “Good for you guys to have friends like that. A strong alliance that isn’t just a paper agreement is truly the best way to move forward.” 

Sakura nodded, thinking about something. 

“Anyway, get to practice, girl. Naruto, hang back with me. I have an errand for you that I need you to run instead of practice. Sakura— deliver this to Gai.” 

Jiraiya tossed her a scroll and she looked at it with interest before nodding and moving to put on her ninja sandals. She tucked the scroll into her hip pouch and opened the door. 

“Sakura?” 

She looked back at him. 

“Do not read that scroll.” His expression was so serious she blushed, feeling awkward. She nodded and skipped out the door. Jiraiya turned his attention to Naruto. 

 ”Listen kid, I need you to head straight to the Hokage tower. Take this to Tsunade and then don’t leave. I’ll pick you up later.” 

”But, I’m supposed to—“

“I know what the paper says, just do as I say,” the older man barked, his eyes hardened with some emotion that was too deep for Naruto’s limited understanding of emotion. He threw a cylinder in Naruto’s direction and he caught it, wordlessly. 

The blonde nodded and Jiraiya vanished in a whirl of leaves. Naruto  didn’t waste any time grabbing his jacket and running out the door. It slammed behind him. 

Neji stood next to Gai, his arms folded across his chest. His lip curled with obvious distaste as he watched Lee and Sakura spar. 

Gai didn’t say anything as the two Genin circled around each other. At some point in the spar Sakura must have kicked improperly because she was limping a little bit. 

“You may be lacking in Taijutsu, but you are still the most beautiful girl in the world, Sakura-san!” Lee quipped, clenching his fist. Sakura moaned in frustration. 

“Shut up, Lee!” She wailed, flinging herself forward with an ill-advised attack. She charged forward to punch him square in the jaw. He shifted to the side and then wrapped an arm around her, hugging her for a moment as he side-stepped the attack. 

“If you attack like that, you’re practically inviting me to hit you. I’d rather not hurt you like that,  Sakura-san!” Lee’s eyes swam with emotion. 

Neji’s lip curled even further and Tenten sighed in frustration. “He comes on too strong in everything he does.” 

“Lee, if you spare me here then I am going to get obliterated on the field. What would you prefer?” Sakura barked, funneling chakra into her legs and stomping her foot down onto his. “You just got out of the hospital and are still making a fool out of me. At least have the decency to not hold back.” 

Lee hopped back, hissing. “That was not fair! We are practicing through the forms right now, you can’t just toss out the kata like that. Besides… If I did not hold back, you’d have to go see Tsunade-sama yourself.” 

Sakura’s entire face reddened and she bit her lip to avoid losing her temper. Instead, she clapped her hands together and bowed. “Good day, Lee.” 

She jumped away from him with haste, trying to hold back her tears. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it was definitely not to get so thoroughly trounced. 

“Lee! You can’t just talk to girls like that!” TenTen chastised, jogging towards him. Sakura continued to flee the scene, ignoring the loud wail that came from the taijutsu prodigy. 

She could feel Gai following her, but she didn’t want to slow down just yet. So she continued at what felt like a breakneck pace to her but that she knew was more of an easy lope to Gai. 

Eventually, she came to a stop near a break in the trees. She leaned against the railing, looking down at the gully below. The water burbled as it crossed over rocks and branches.

Gai didn’t say anything at first, letting her cry as she leaned over the rail. He glanced over and down into the gully, wondering at the terrain below. Sakura was too distraught to pay him much attention. 

“Sorry, Gai-sensei. I just didn’t want to cry in front of everyone.” 

Sakura sniffed and scrubbed a chewed up palm across her face. Her fists ached. 

“You have already improved a lot since the Chunin Exams, Sakura.” Gai patted her on the head like a father should have, ruffling her hair a bit before he lifted his hand and squeezed her arm. ”Check out these biceps! Where were these a few weeks ago?” 

Sakura chuckled thickly, wiping at her eyes again. 

“TenTen told me about your goals. I can’t condone revenge— it’s a dark path to walk. But I know you love this village. I told Kakashi I would do what I can to help you. You’re special to him. He doesn’t have a family anymore, either.” Gai’s hand was still on her shoulder. “He’s not good at expressing himself, but please trust that you aren’t here to be humiliated. You’re here to improve.” 

Sakura nodded. “I want to be strong. I need to be. We all do.” 

The look on Gai’s face caught her off guard. He looked more serious than she’d ever seen him. “You’re right. Now come back and take a break for a little bit while I have Lee spar one of the others.” 

They took a longer path back to the training grounds. Sakura jogged through the pain in her left foot. She’d kicked with her foot at the wrong angle and smashed the bone off Lee’s shin. It hurt terribly, but she couldn’t let up now. She was sure Shizune could help her with it later. 

When they got back to the clearing, Lee and TenTen were already sparring. 

“Go sit with Neji, please.” 

Off she went. Neji didn’t acknowledge her with words, but he lifted his eyes from the spar long enough to meet her gaze before looking back to the exchange of fists and kicks. 

She watched as TenTen batted Rock Lee’s hits away, redirecting his energy away from her body. She didn’t have the strength to overpower him so she was diverting his energy. Probably very effective against a Gentle Fist user as well. 

Sakura was annoyed that she hadn’t thought to bring her backpack and her notebook. So instead, she found herself unfurling a bandage, preparing to scribble on it. 

Neji considered her for a moment before reaching into his pouch and pulling out a notebook. It was small. But he ripped out a few pages and handed them to her, looking annoyed when she opened her mouth to respond. 

She wilted under his contemptuous look and ground out a soft thank you and turned back to her notes. “Thanks, Neji.” 

The brazen lack of honorific caused him to stiffen for a second, but then something shifted in his countenance and he seemed to relax a little. 

She pressed her paper to her knee, jotting with the best of her ability some notes on re-directing the force of a punch during counters. She was very well-versed in the mechanics of the Academy's Style, but all she knew was the motions and not the intentions. 

TenTen’s style seemed more focused on evasion and redirection, but Lee’s was forceful, everything about his style seeking to drive into his opponent and cause damage. 

Sakura considered as she sat there, doodling notes down. Her team each had distinctive styles— everyone except hers. She was still bland and unfocused in her approach. 

If she was feeling sad for herself at the moment, she could fall into self-pity and feel weak. If she was feeling optimistic, she could trust that it meant she was malleable and able to grow. 

She chose to believe it meant she was malleable. 

After a while, TenTen started to look more and more tired and her defensive maneuvers started to crumble. It was then that she began to seek a way to end the fight. But it was too late. 

Lee ended up hitting the girl with a roundhouse kick that sent her flying through the air. Instead of letting her smash into the trees, he caught her and deftly deposited her back on the ground in one piece. She bowed in reconciliation and they ended the spar there. 

“Alright, Lee! I’m—“ Gai broke off at the sound of barking. All of them looked to the edge of the training field where dogs were running toward them at a breakneck pace. “All of you stay together.” 

Sakura ignored the eerie feeling she had and tried to brush it off. Gai leapt toward the dogs and they immediately turned around, darting off into the trees. Gai followed without another word and Sakura lumbered over to where Lee and TenTen were standing. Both of them leaned heavily on their knees, panting. 

Neji strode over to them with a look of irritation on his face. His Byakugan had flared into view and he looked frustrated. 

”I’ve never seen him leave so fast!” TenTen gasped, wiping sweat from her face. 

Lee stared at the ground for a moment. “Where is he, Neji-San? Should we follow?” 

“There is a fight. He’s moving at high speeds to intercept some sort of altercation.” Neji stated, monotone as ever. 

“Let’s go! Maybe we can be some sort of back up if needed,” TenTen suggested. She started rolling her arms and was already jogging after him before the others joined. 

Sakura swore and reached into her pouch as she jogged after the brown-haired girl. She popped a few low-dose pain killers so that she’d be functional and hoped for the best. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Sakura-san! Don’t worry,” Lee offered, smiling with a wide, confident stare. “Gai-sensei is the best!” 

“I wouldn’t say it is entirely inappropriate to worry,” Neji intoned, his eyes still activated as they plowed through the Konohan canopy. “The chakra networks on these players are pretty intense.” 

Sakura gulped, excitement and fear mingling together as they moved through the brush. If the feeling in her gut was anything to go by, this fight would be life-changing.

A/N: I want to credit a reviewer on A03 for putting this into my mind. This one is for you WindSage. I’ll respond to your comments eventually. :) P.S. This story is about to be one year old as of tomorrow! Yeehaw. 

Chapter Text

Fear puddled in Sakura's stomach as they looked over the edge of the gulley where just a little while before she'd been having a minor tantrum.

There was blood on the ground and she immediately recognized the two older shinobi as Kurenai and Asuma. How had they been attacked like this? Sakura wondered absently who had hurt them so badly as she scanned the area.

Gai was down there, too , his body a blur as he whipped and kicked at the strange man with a sword. Sakura shuddered as she noticed the man's skin was not at all the color that a living human being should have. Jiraiya chose that moment to appear, his cloak fluttering about him as his chakra surged. Had the situation not been so dire, Sakura might have thought it was impressive and cool.

The strange man with a sword laughed and Sakura cringed, her eyebrows tenting together to house her anxiety.

There was another body on the ground that she didn't recognize; she couldn't see the man's upper half. Asuma was beginning to stir, trying to pick himself up off the ground.

Lee catapulted himself over the railing and began to flit back and forth between the trees as he lowered himself to the ground. Neji didn't move, staring on with an unreadable expression as he gripped the guardrail. His Byakugan had activated in his duress, but he was frozen in place.

Sakura followed Lee, cramping her chakra down into nothing as she moved. She prayed that Kurenai was still alive. Her heart thudded in her chest as she crept, moving closer and closer to the messy scene.

As she rushed secretively into the fray, she sensed that Jiraiya was there, his chakra buzzing around him in threatening waves that caused his clothing to billow. He'd begun to weave hand signs together and the terrain was changing quickly as marshes sprung up all around.

Kurenai stiffened when Sakura touched her side, her red eyes opening as wide as they were able. Sakura pressed a finger to her own lips, smiling nervously down at her.

There was a large gash in the her side and blood pooled beneath her in the grass. Sakura measured the odds of her being able to use healing chakra and knew that it would be close to zero percent. She yanked the bandages out of her pouch and pushed them against the woman's side and pressed down.

Kurenai groaned in pain and Asuma gasped, looking over to them. Sakura surmised that he was just now realizing what had happened to the woman.

"Let me do it." He commanded, his chest heaving with the exertion of moving closer to her side. "Go check on Kakashi."

"Kakashi?" Sakura asked stupidly, the blood draining from her face. Asuma pointed with his eyes to the body that was on the ground, the upper half hidden in the undergrowth.

Wordlessly, she moved toward his fallen form. He was too still. Deathly still.

She glanced over to where Jiraiya had closed in on the large man with the sword. The one in the hat stood by, watching the fight with his hand at the tanto on his side. The two of them wore matching robes, black with red clouds. The cloaks themselves weren't very intimidating, but the men were. The man in the hat was closer to her, only a few hundred feet away.

She set her hands on Kakashi's shoulder, jostling him slightly. He didn't move. She held her hand on his stomach, feeling it rise and fall weakly with each breath.

His whole body felt tense, despite his apparent unconscious state. It didn't look like there was anything wrong with him, he was just out cold. She breathed out a sigh of relief and without realizing it, also relaxed her hold on her chakra. Her chakra-presence pinged back to life full-force.

She glanced back to the battle, noticing that the man with the hat had stopped in his tracks. He turned to look at her, his red eyes glowing across the clearing.

In a moment he was in front of her, his dark hair fluttering around his face. She paled, her mind reeling. She studied the red of his eyes and the deep tear troughs under them. She knew exactly who this was.

He tilted his head to the side, considering. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck, cutting between her shoulder blades. "It's you... You're his teammate."

The man picked up a lock of her hair between his forefinger and his thumb. He twisted it, inspecting for some unknown factor. What he was looking for, she did not know.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" She asked stupidly, too scared to even think straight. The other man was yelling now, the kind of shout a man makes to encourage himself in the face of fear. Her knees were so weak; how much longer could she stand?

He let go of her hair and brushed a hand against her face as if to make sure she was real. His strange Sharingan eyes bore into hers and it felt like the rest of the world was falling away.

"Itachi!" The other man roared. Itachi turned, lazily, amusement playing across his lips as he watched Jiraiya send a veritable tornado of swampy green water at his partner.

"Why did you do it?" She implored, her curiosity crying out louder than any self-preservation she could muster. He met her gaze with the most peculiar expression. "How could you—"

Her vision went black and she heard the 'thunk' of her body hitting the ground more than she felt it. Then she knew nothing anymore, nothing other than the blackness of her own eyelids.

She wasn't sure when the world had begun to form again, but before she knew it she was wandering along through the bush in the woods, absolutely unsure of where she was headed. She didn't remember waking up again, but decided she must have just been out of it when she came to. In the back of her mind, she considered her fallen comrades. Had Jiraiya and Gai carried them to the hospital?

There was nothing to be seen of the earlier fight. The forest looked foggy and eerie now. Somehow a layer of gloom had befallen the area.

The brambles and roots in the ground were large and made walking both annoying and difficult. She stumbled once more, her ninja sandal catching on a particularly knobby root. This was how she found the path again, though it did not lead the way she remembered. She remembered the overlook, where she'd been what felt like only moments before with Neji and Lee.

Eventually, she came across it but there was no path to get up to it. As she stared at the wall, she noticed she couldn't remember why she had come this way. It was the vague, nagging sensation of forgetting something terribly important and being unable to place anything about the forgotten subject other than that it had been forgotten. Her mind was a very organized place, so this was not a familiar feeling for her.

She walked for a while, annoyance and fear coupling together to keep her company as she wandered. Her mind drifted and she considered the different training goals she currently had. It bothered her that she couldn't remember what she'd forgotten.

Eventually she forgot that she'd even forgotten anything and busied her mind with what occupied it most often as of late: training routines. Kakashi would be so disappointed if she didn't have something to report in the next two weeks. The river she'd wandered away from likely had plenty of fish but it would be cruel to subject them to her current learning methods. They probably had big fish families. Did animals grieve?

Sakura began contemplating whether or not it was possible to change the location where she stored her chakra during moments of sneaking around with it compressed. She was considering the specifics of whether the chakra had to be stored at her core or if it could be moved to a different place (and whether or not that would do anything of value or just be an interesting thing to accomplish) when a hand grabbed her by the forearm. The grab startled her and she couldn't contain her gasp.

"Where have you been?" Sasuke barked, his grip too tight to wiggle free from. "Today of all days is not a good day for you to be wandering around like a lost sheep."

'Who knew Sasuke could string together so many sylllables,' Sakura thought to herself, struggling to remember what he was talking about. Had she forgotten something?

"I— Sorry, I got turned around, I guess," she mumbled, her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember what it would have been.

"I understand if you're nervous, they can be a bit… you know." He mumbled. Sakura noticed the tips of his ears and nose reddening a little bit. This was new.

"Wh—who? Are we not going to Naruto's?" She looked around, feeling lost. How had she ended up in this place anyway? She had the distinct feeling she had forgotten something important, and not just what was in front of her.

Sasuke stopped walking so abruptly that Sakura tripped a little bit, falling into him. He held her that way, with his hands wrapped around her wrists, unbothered by the close proximity.

"Did you hit your head in there? We're meeting my parents, Sakura." She'd never seen this particular brand of concern on his face before and it made her uncomfortable. At one point, she'd have killed to see him look at her with that much emotion. Now, she was just… uncomfortable.

Reflexively, she felt around on her head, wincing at the large goose egg she found. Even still, that could have been from any number of training injuries. "That depends on whether this is old or new," she murmured.

Wordlessly, he moved behind her to study her head. "Hn. You're bleeding, Sakura. You must have hit your head pretty hard…"

Sakura looked at her fingers, surprised that sure enough there was blood on her hand. That would explain the confused wandering, but how had she even gotten out here?

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun, I didn't mean to—"

"Why are you apologizing for getting hurt?" He scoffed, grabbing her by the hand. "Come on, my mom will patch you up."

Mom. Her heart thudded in her chest and she realized that was what she'd just heard. It had to be a genjutsu. She tried to release herself, furiously whispering "Kai!" Over and over again.

Sasuke sighed, wrapping an arm around her. He was attempting to herd her forward. "It's not a genjutsu, Sakura. Promise."

"But aren't…" She pulled away from him, wrapping her arms around herself. "I thought your parents were dead, Sasuke-kun," she whispered, covering her mouth with a hand as soon as she spoke.

He looked so sad, just then. It was wrong. It felt wrong and foreign and she spiked her chakra rapidly trying to break free of whatever strange genjutsu she was in.

"Sakura, you were attacked on a foreign mission and you… they put you through a particularly nasty genjutsu. We still don't know all the complications from it but every once in a while, you're triggered— either from a hard hit or something stressful and you forget where you are. I didn't realize you were full-blown forgetting it all right now." He took a deep breath, taking her hand again. This time he was gentle in a way that the Sasuke she knew never was. This one talked a lot.

"That's… that's impossible," she breathed, pulling her hand away and brushing her bangs out of her face.

"I can show you," he offered, studying his feet. "If you trust me, I can show you."

His eyes swirled red and she looked at him, torn between letting him catch her eye or running away. He'd never tried to hurt her before, after all. "How?"

"Just a simple genjutsu to bring you back up to speed. Purely visual, just to show you what happened, nothing else, I promise." His brows tented together; he was eager to help her. When had she ever seen him like this? She wanted to be suspicious but it was just so… Sasuke. Even with all the differences.

Shyly, she nodded and looked him in the eye. Genjutsu was so invasive— one couldn't help but feel self-conscious.

Memories of a life she couldn't recall danced at the forefront of her mind. Sasuke had befriended her when they were nine. Ino had done a lot for her and her social confidence before then, but when Sasuke pursued friendship with her, the blonde hadn't had it in her to create a rivalry with Sakura over the dark-haired boy. He wasn't brooding and mysterious this go-around without the tragic death of his family. Moody, sure, but well-adjusted. Apparently without the moodiness, Ino was not interested.

She remembered many afternoons of Sasuke's brother Itachi picking him up from the academy, leading both Sasuke and Naruto back to the Uchiha compound. The Uchiha had been granted the permission to mentor the boy but not to adopt him. Sasuke's mother had been close friends with Naruto's mother.

Memories of being close friends with the two boys flooded her mind, as well as daring adventures with Naruto and Ino as they pranked the Uchiha clan with silly, harmless pranks. Naruto's position with the Uchiha had afforded him some skills to be better accepted by the other clans. This led to the somewhat interesting development of Naruto and Ino turning out to be a nightmare duo of harmless pranks and general indecency. Hinata was a closer friend to her in this youth, shamelessly in love with Sasuke's older brother Itachi. Sometimes Sakura had helped her to spy, laughing with reckless abandon when he caught them.

He was always a gentleman, smiling after the girls when they darted away, laughing like loons.

Sakura had grown strong after years of sparring with Naruto and Sasuke and naturally their team had been paired together due to their natural teamwork. It wasn't until recently that Sasuke had actively confessed his feelings for her and they'd begun to pursue this budding romance. Even watching that made Sakura's stomach churn in discomfort. With everything that had been going on in her real life— or was that life the genjutsu?— she'd disconnected from viewing him in a romantic light at all. What a jarring juxtaposition of desires; she wasn't sure whether to enjoy this 'new' development or not. There were many memories that filtered through the genjutsu and it left Sakura's mind reeling.

Sasuke ended his genjutsu and Sakura let out a low breath, trying to keep her emotions under control. It was a lot to absorb— if not for all the emotional baggage that went with it— for all the sheer facts of life that were so different from what she knew to be true. So many different faces in the Uchiha clan had come through her mind that she felt dizzy with the rush of information.

She leaned her hand against the nearest tree, trying to rectify one life with another. The weight of it felt like too much; she sank to the ground and let out another sigh of unease.

Sasuke plopped down on the ground next to her, too shy to look at her. He wasn't too shy, however, to pick up her hand and just sit with her.

There was a sound in the back of her mind. When she was a child, she'd considered it the voice of reason and she'd thought everyone had one; a second little voice, to keep them company as they navigated life. That second voice was garbled right now, for the first time in her life. She wondered why, but perhaps the voice of reason was just overwhelmed with the new information. Old information? Information.

Sakura resolved to not believe anything, but to just wait and see. If it was a genjutsu she was in right now— despite all of the evidence that it was real— she'd have to wake up some time, right? She'd never heard of one where you didn't wake up eventually. Shizune had said they ended when the chakra supply did.

"What do we do now?" She asked, shucking the feeling of confusion and deciding to play along. Sasuke frowned a bit, his trained eyes able to read through her poor lie.

"Well, we can go announce this to my parents. Also, my mother can clean your headwound."

" I'd like to meet them," she mustered.

"… Err, you have met them, to be clear. We're officially telling them that I am… inclined to marry you… when the time is right."

Any nerves Sakura had about meeting his parents vanished at the talk of marriage. Her face flooded with colour and she pulled her hand free of his. "M-marriage! We've hardly begun to date."

"It's not exactly appropriate for the son of the Uchiha's clan leader to date frivolously," he grunted, looking away in embarrassment. "We've already talked about all of this Sakura. You said you were sure this is what you wanted."

"We are thirteen," she hissed. Internally, she remembered a time when she at twelve would have been head-over-heels with the looming 'threat' of marriage to Sasuke Uchiha.

For all that he tried to appear sure of himself, he clearly looked shy now. He wouldn't look at her and his nose and ears had gone pink.

"If you want to call it off—"

"No, it's not that! It's just… It's a lot to take in." She sighed, lifting herself to her feet. "Come on, Sasuke."

She brushed the dirt and pine needles off the seat of her pants and started walking again.

"Wait!"

She turned around, putting her hand on her hip with putupon annoyance. "What now?"

He squirmed ever so subtly under her gaze. "You're going the wrong way."

Sakura scoffed in annoyance and shuffled back towards him, resolutely ignoring the slight amusement dancing over the crest of his lips.

Mikoto was not what she'd expected. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but it was not the witty, good-humoured woman before her.

Mikoto winked at her as she poured her tea, giggling to herself. "I wondered when Sasuke would finally bring you around for this meeting."

"I hardly know what you mean," Sakura said surreptitiously, taking a careful sip of her tea, casting her eyes to Sasuke as she did so. His lower lip puffed out and he looked away. She wished she could take a picture to bully Real Sasuke with.

Mikoto moved behind Sakura with a bowl of water and a cloth. She carefully picked a small twig from the girl's hair before gently lifting and moving Sakura's hair so she could better see the wound that had caused all the bleeding.

"Little brother has always been fond of you, but of course he'd never told you that," Itachi quipped, taking a polite sip of his own tea. Itachi was leaned against the counter, every bit of him vibrating forth the aura of proud aristocrat, yet bearing none of the smugness she'd anticipated. Sasuke curled his fists on his thighs, shooting his brother a death glare. Sasuke was sitting in a remarkably ordinary wooden chair next to a humble kitchen table.

Fugaku looked amused by the whole thing, as he poured over a report of some kind and pretended to ignore them. There was the slightest tilt to his lips that Sakura could recognize as a practical full-blown laugh from any Uchiha. Sakura's lip quirked and she glanced at her lap, unsure of how to respond.

Every time Itachi had been mentioned to her before, it had been laced with fear and agony. The memories Sasuke had fed her in the genjutsu had been enough to prevent her from jumping and flinching around him, but it was still a large chasm between who she expected and who sat before her. It was also evident from the way Sasuke's parents met that she'd not only met them before but had developed quite a bit of rapport with them.

"We've been hearing about you for years," Mikoto admitted, the smile in her voice evident. "We'd never mentioned anything when you just came over as friends because how embarrassing for such a headstrong young man to be outed by his mother of all people."

Mikoto began to dab at the dried blood on the pinkette's scalp. "No, we couldn't have that."

"But since my dearest son took so terribly long to tell me, I'll have to save you the suffering I endured." Mikoto leaned around so that Sakura could see her smile and Sakura couldn't help but feel dazzled. She wondered how the dour and fussy Fugaku had landed such a lovely woman like Mikoto.

"He came home one day from the park and wouldn't stop raving about the little girl with pink hair. Itachi had already heard it six times by the time Sasuke-chan told me!"

"Mother," Sasuke warned somewhat firmly. "We came to inform you, not to bog Sakura down with all of these…. Elaborate and exaggerated stories."

Itachi hummed under his breath, tilting his head to the side as he considered his brother. "If anything, Mother is being kind to downplay the level of excitement you'd expressed, little brother."

Sakura bit back her smile, trying to remind herself that none of this was even real. She could see the ghost of a smile on Fugaku's lips and she wondered what kind of man he was. She knew Ino's father had fought in the Second Great War, but she'd never heard of Fugaku's exploits to help the village.

There was a knock at the door. It slid open and a young woman appeared, bowing low. She straightened and then turned to the left where there was a rolling table of some kind. She entered the room with a tray full of small bowls of miso soup, making her way around the table like a skilled dancer. It was almost an art and Sakura appreciated the display. Fugaku had moved his report to the side to make room for his food, nodding to the young woman in the process. She was clearly an Uchiha. Sakura wondered how the clan was split and if it was anything like the Hyuuga.

"Thank you, Yahiko-san," Mikoto whispered warmly. She was a gentle woman, Sakura strong and proper (this Sakura only knew because of a casual comment regarding a mission, indicating the woman was a kunoichi) but every bit the visual paragon of a woman in a powerful position within the clan.

"So," Fugaku began, his deep voice calling attention to himself for the first time all evening. "If you and Sasuke do marry, how do you intend to bring honour to this clan?"

Sakura felt the blood drain out of her face, but relied heavily on her training with Tsunade to slow down and actually think about what to say next instead of just panicking. Shizune's work with her on genjutsu had taught her to pay attention to details and she was grateful for that. She could feel Mikoto's hand on the back of her head, still scrubbing away at the dried blood.

"Well, I have a few ideas," she began slowly. She recalled that there was a Konoha police force. "I'm quite administratively talented, so I was considering reviewing the efficiency of the Police Force; spending, training, personnel. There also haven't been any well-renowned female fighters in the ranks other than Mikoto-sama, so I would not mind to excel in combat and bring honour through that particular arena."

Fugaku didn't say anything. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he considered her words, but Sakura didn't back down and rush to accommodate as she usually did. Despite the evidence that this was real, she still couldn't believe it. She wouldn't be a bumbling fool before these people, regardless. She was going to wake up from this genjutsu soon enough.

"You've not considered children?" He asked, fixing her with a pointed look.

"Sir… I am thirteen. We are still children ourselves. I anticipate that after we marry— in a few years when we marry— we'll take some time after that to secure wealth for the clan and to develop careers before we have children. Should the time come for Itachi to assume the seat of clan-head, it would be better for us to be in a position to serve him rather than to have divided attentions."

Sakura looked at her lap, trying to sooth her heartbeat. Children? She was still a child. What kind of question was that! Mikoto's hands were exceedingly gentle as she combed through Sakura's hair.

Fugaku laughed to himself. "How diplomatic of you," he murmured.

"All done, Sakura. That should heal in a few days," Mikoto said warmly, patting her on the shoulder. The older woman stood to her feet. "Time to eat!"

They shifted to the table and Sakura felt a strange sense of comfort that they were not in the formal dining room. That meant they were comfortable with her and not trying to impress her.

"I'd like Mikoto to teach you her Tessen Jutsu, then," Fugaku said, sealing up the report he'd set to the side. He funneled chakra into a mark on the table. "I want your body to be as quick as that brain of yours."

Sakura glanced sideways at Sasuke, who'd sat to her right, and she noticed the slump of his shoulders— relief. She chose not to be offended by what could have been perceived as a slight against her physical capabilities.

"I'd be honoured, Uchiha-sama," she nodded.

"Fugaku is fine," he murmured, not looking up from his soup. Sakura nodded, perturbed by how readily she was being accepted.

There was another knock at the door and a man she'd never seen before entered when Fugaku called for him. He had long silky hair and looked similar in age to Fugaku.

"I need this delivered to the Hokage, please. Tell him I'm looking into the occurrence and I'll follow up on it personally."

Mikoto smiled at her, setting her hand on the table in a comforting gesture. "I've always wanted a daughter to teach this to," she whispered this, like it was their little secret.

Sakura nodded, content for it to stay that way. The stranger departed and Sakura's gut clenched with a latent desire to see her own mother. It was unfortunate that some pains could not be remedied so easily as the one on her head.

There was another knock at the door as more food arrived. Sasuke caught her eye and they shared a little smile as it was brought in. Itachi said nothing, staring at his hand as he pondered. His eyes were red and he looked to be working in something as they moved back and forth, tracing some object unseen to either of them.

It had been an absolute ordeal to get through the meal without stepping in the obvious traps of conversation and opinion.

Sakura must have fared rather well because Fugaku began to smile more and more throughout the meal and seemed to visibly relax at some point. At first they had been the typical Uchiha smiles, but by the end of the evening he had bared his teeth with a few delight-filled laughs at jokes that poked fun at both of his children. Uchiha were very prideful but also very self-aware and so they seemed to take every opportunity to poke a little bit of fun at one another. Never about anything serious, though.

By the end of it, Sakura was sufficiently tired and her head ached something terrible. Sasuke walked her home like the gentleman he seemed to be, his arm casually looped through her own. Sakura was still anticipating that they would head to Naruto's apartment, so after a while when he didn't lead her in the direction she'd assumed, she didn't say anything. Maybe he lived somewhere else than where she thought.

Much to her chagrin, Sasuke walked her back to her childhood home. She wanted to hold back and to pull away from him, but she knew she wouldn't be able to explain that. So instead, they continued up to the front door.

Sakura pushed her chakra into the door handle, unlatching it. She couldn't bear the idea of him knocking and no one answering.

She slipped inside, not minding that he followed after her. The house smelled exactly as it always had. That was sadder than she expected. The lights were still on and everything looked neat. Did… Did she smell tea?

"How was it?" her father asked, popping his head around the doorframe, a towel slung over his shoulder. "Let's talk details! Tell me everything!"

Sakura winced, stepping backward, her hands drawing up in front of her chest as if to protect herself.

"That part went great. Unfortunately, Sakura hit her head earlier and is back to square one with the whole genjutsu thing." Sasuke offered, sighing to himself. He was taking his shoes off.

Kizashi frowned, immediately pulling the towel off of his shoulder. "My poor baby, come here."

Sakura let her father hug her, his strong arms wrapping around her like they always had. He smelled like tea and smoke and some other smell that she'd never been able to pinpoint. Her heart wrenched and she realized some part of her had accepted that she'd never smell it again. That she'd never experience this again.

Yet here she was. At some point, she hugged him back and began to cry. It was forceful and decidedly not cute. She didn't care.

"What's all this?" Mebuki asked from the corner of the room. "That bad?"

"No," Kizashi said, smoothing Sakura's hair. "Head trauma again. There's got to be something that the Yamanaka can do for her. This is breaking my heart."

Mebuki made a sound, some low noise of pain and understanding and moved closer. "I'm so sorry honey. I can't imagine you thinking we'd died. How awful… We'll never leave you, we promise."

When she'd composed herself, the rest of the night went smoothly. Her father cooked as he always did– her mother was a terrible cook. How had she forgotten that? Better yet– why had her mother been the one to teach her to cook?

A days had passed. Mikoto had begun to teach her the Tessen Jutsu and Sakura felt more at peace in her body. Her head still ached every now and again, but she worked with Inoichi and he helped her organize her thoughts. Oddly enough, Itachi had mentioned him to her and explained that the clan-head's help had seen him through an extraordinarily hard time in his youth.

Today, Sakura was picking up new kunai before heading to her meeting with Tsunade. Tuesdays were spent pouring over a text for an hour, a harsh and thorough quiz, and then a practical exam over the material for the next two hours. TenTen wrapped the blades carefully and smiled at her as she handed them over.

"We haven't trained together in a while," Sakura mentioned, suddenly remembering a time when they'd trained together.

TenTen laughed and nodded, tucking a hair behind her ear. Her buns looked just like they always did. "Yeah! We should do that. It's been too long."

"I can't remember the last time, actually," Sakura admitted. That was annoying. It must have shown on her face because TenTen apologized and told her a few times she was free that week. "I think I'll see you Tuesday, then. Just you or the whole team?"

"All of us. You'll be hard pressed to find any Uchiha taking you seriously if you keep getting trounced by Neji. Even if he is a prodigy," TenTen said with a wink. Sakura rolled her eyes in a good humored way, trying to overlook the feeling of doom that was rolling around in her stomach.

Anxiety was rising in her throat like vomit and she needed to get out of there. Something wasn't right but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"I'll see you then!" She said in parting, ducking out of the store as fast as she could. Sakura scurried down the street, hugging the package of knives to her chest.

She was trying to sort out the feeling of a misplaced memory when out of nowhere, Ino appeared next to her. "Where ya headed?"

"To see Tsunade-sama," Sakura said shortly, trying to ignore the blonde while she looked for the memory. "Sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry—"

"What? Why? I haven't seen you in ages! I skimmed from Dad that you were in his office recently but he wouldn't tell me about what—"

"Ino-Pig, I gotta go!" Sakura said bluntly, jumping onto the roof top as she ran toward the Hokage's office. Ino followed her, fierce determination keeping her on Sakura's trail. The speed of clan kids was no joke.

"Tell me, Sakura!"

Sakura ignored her and kept running til she made it to the Hokage Tower. She looked back and Ino glared at her for a moment before haughtily turning around and flipped her hair. It was long and whipped like a rope. It occurred to Sakura that it should be short but she couldn't remember why.

She slipped into the Hokage Tower and made her way up to the Hokage's office, knocking at the door like she always did. When the Anbu opened the door to let her in, she waltzed in and then froze.

Sarutobi stared at her, a wry smile on his lips. "Can I help you, Miss Haruno?"