Chapter Text
"What do you want?"
The chaos around her fell silent. The bear standing across the creek looked surprised at being addressed by something other than screaming.
"Are you insane?" Ino hissed from somewhere by her elbow.
Good question. Sakura had the distinct impression of watching herself, as if from a great distance, facing down the enormous beast and looking brave on the outside despite the violent shaking of her innards.
Maybe she was going a little insane. Mostly, she was just tired. The village had gone through enough in the last few years, they didn't need a bear lurking in the surrounding woods and approaching people, including a little boy who claimed it talked to him before his mother drove it off.
“Can you speak?” She finally asked it, surprised she could get the words out.
“Yes.” The bear said, voice as deep and growly as one would imagine a bear to have. One of the women at Sakura’s side started crying.
“Then…” her voice came out unsteady, she cleared her throat “Then why are you here?”
The bear looked over at Tenten, who had notched her bow. At Sakura’s signal, she lowered it.
“I need a wife.” The bear said.
“I’m sorry, but you’re the only bear for miles…”
“A human wife.”
Sakura’s mouth snapped shut. Tenten raised her bow again.
“I won’t force anyone.” The bear assured. “We’d be spouses in name only. All she needs to do is live with me for a year.”
She had no idea what to do with this information, or how he would react to an outright refusal. The best she could come up with was stalling for time. “It’s customary in this village for the groom to give a gift to the bride’s family. Come back with something a week from now, and in the meantime we’ll bring your request to the village elders.”
The bear nodded. “Alright, deal.” Then he turned and ambled off into the woods.
Only then did Sakura’s legs finally give out under her.
Seven days later he was back, a plump grain sack dangling from his jaws, met by the village leader Kakashi and everyone of importance in the area, as well as a crowd of curious onlookers.
“Try emptying it.” The bear instructed after dropping the bag at Kakashi’s feet.
The man asked someone to get a barrel, then untied the sack and poured.
And poured… and poured…
Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd as several sacks’ worth of millet grains flowed out unceasing. Their leader only stopped after filling a third barrel, a rare look of awe in his eyes.
“It will only last a year.” The bear explained. “So start filling as many storage containers as you can find.”
Sakura stared at the grain, feeling pierced.
All the lean times flashed through her mind. The people that went hungry despite help from the community, the meager yield promised with this year’s rice crop. This sack was worth more than all the gold and jewels ever mined, the answer to their problems…
And she knew the leaders would refuse it.
Kakashi cleared his throat. “As incredibly generous as this is, I regret that-…”
“I’ll do it!”
Silence fell as everyone stared at her.
Only the bear looked unsurprised.
“I-I volunteer myself!”
“WHAT?” She heard Naruto yell from somewhere in the crowd.
Kakashi drew close. “You don’t have to do this.” He murmured, imploring.
Sakura clenched her hands into fists. “I think I do.”
“You can’t let her!” Naruto pushed his way closer. “Kakashi Sensei…!”
The village leader held up a hand, silencing him. Looking at Sakura for another moment, he turned to the bear. “Will you swear she’ll be unharmed? Your wife in name only?”
“I promise.”
Kakashi heaved a sigh. “Then, I’ll allow it.”
Marriage between common folk in the land of Akanozuni could be as simple as the couple signing a contract and drinking sake before witnesses. They only needed a few hours for the paper to be written up. During which, Sakura’s nearest and dearest tried their hardest to talk her out of it.
“You don’t have to prove yourself to anybody!” Her mother shouted.
“Don’t I?”
“Give it more time.” Her father urged. “It hasn’t even been a year since…well...”
“That’s a long time to be treated like a stranger in my own village!”
“Not by anybody who matters!”
Everybody mattered. They mattered when Sakura treated their wounds and sickness. They mattered when they recovered, and when they died. To a healer, nobody didn't matter. And to be viewed with suspicion by several people she’d treated in her short career…
“You’re giving up your whole life just because he left!” Naruto accused.
“Not my whole life, just a year!”
He threw up his hands. “This is crazy…!”
“I know! But somebody’s got to do it, so it might as well be me! You’re going to be a father soon, don’t tell me you’re not worrying how to keep your family fed.”
“Hinata and I thought you were gonna’ be there when the baby came!”
“I will be! She’s got about seven months to go, I’m sure I can convince him to let me visit by then.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“I’ll make him.” Sakura vowed.
After the most perfunctory and joyless marriage ceremony Konoha had seen in decades, with the bear signing the contract by leaving a paw print, Kakashi declared them husband and wife for the next twelve months.
“Better than the monster she almost married.” Sakura overheard someone mutter.
The following day, she bid goodbye to everyone, loaded with as many provisions as her mother could cram into her shoulder bag. The bear, her new husband, stood off awkwardly to the side.
“If he tries anything,” Tsunade murmured in her ear, “Give him hell.”
“I plan to, don’t worry.”
Naruto muttered something threatening to the groom before hugging Sakura so tight she could barely breathe.
“Don’t let anyone hurt you again.” HE told her gruffly.
Blinking back tears, she followed a step behind the bear as he walked westward, leaving her sobbing parents and dismayed friends behind. The woods closed around them, muffling sounds, but her thoughts were louder than ever.
Suddenly the bear stopped and crouched low. “Climb on. We’ll get there faster if I carry you.”
She cautiously pulled herself up, gripping handfuls of fur. “Where do you live, exactly?”
“West Country.”
She nearly fell off.
"The other side of the continent?"
“Yep.”
What on earth was he doing so far from home? Didn’t they have women in that country? “You could’ve mentioned that sooner!”
“Would it have changed your mind?”
“It’ll take months to get there!”
He glanced up at her. “Not if I run.”
She just gaped down at him.
“Ready?”
She only managed an affirming nod.
He started at a slow lope, gradually gaining speed until she was flattened against his back, then faster still, until she had to shut her eyes against the stinging winds. The few times she pried them open she saw the landscape change. Craggy mountains, flat grasslands, coniferous forests, Boggy moors…
After a few hours, he slowed to a trot, and she saw they were surrounded by woods not unlike the ones back home.
“Here it is.” He finally declared.
Sakura gasped.
Sprawling before her was a manor the likes of which the greatest clans in Konoha could only imagine. A mansion of three stories (three!) surrounded by a lush lawn and manicured gardens.
“You live here?"
“Like it?” He seemed to be enjoying this too much.
“I hope you don’t expect me to clean that place by myself!”
“Don’t worry, it maintains itself.”
“How?”
“Magic.”
She glared down at him. “Anything else you failed to mention? Singing walls and dancing kitchen utensils?”
“Mmm nope.” He drawled after pretending to think a moment.
Sakura didn’t fight back the sigh that heaved itself from her chest. But her annoyance didn’t last long. Upon entering the house, she spent several moments in the anteroom, eyes like saucers.
There were just so many things.
“You can do whatever and go wherever you want.” The bear told her. “Even visit the woods off grounds.”
“I don’t know where to start.” She admitted.
“Just one rule.” He said, catching her attention. “Don’t bring a light into your bedroom once it gets dark.”
Sakura frowned. “Why not?”
“Just… don’t. Please.” Weariness colored his tone.
“But that’s it? No other restrictions?”
“None.”
Well it was strange, but easy to follow. No skin off her nose. “Fine.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring her new home.
Whereas simplicity and understatement was preferred in the homes of the wealthy back in Akanozuni, opulence and extravagant display were clearly preferred here. Rooms and rooms of bright objects in every color and material imaginable… marbles, silks, polished wood, brocades, painted porcelain… and countless paintings of plants and animals and landscapes, as well as people in strange costume.
Even the kitchen was so pretty, she couldn’t imagine cooking in there. The pantry was chock full of foods and fresh ingredients, not to mention other grain sacks like the one gifted to Konoha. There was even a huge library that she was shocked to find carried mostly books in her own language.
The mystery deepened when she discovered that, while all the other closets and wardrobes were empty, one bedroom was stocked with woman’s clothes, half kimonos and obis, half western dresses. She could only assume this room was meant to be hers, adding to the storm of questions swirling in her head.
She didn’t see the bear again until sunset, after she had bathed in a white porcelain tub in the adjoining washroom, dressed in the plainest kimono she could find, and nibbled on some fruit from the pantry. He shambled into the kitchen, taking up so much room he nearly upset a stool before she righted it.
“How d’you like it?” He asked.
“It’s… incredible.” She summed up.
“Do you need anything?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then, I’ll see you in the morning.” He began to turn.
“Wait.”
He looked over his shoulder.
“You never told me your name.”
He looked off to the side. "I guess 'Bear' is as good as anything."
“Bear.” Sakura echoed flatly.
"Yeah, thing is… I can’t remember my actual name."
“Oh. I’m… sorry.” What could she possibly say to that?
“It is what it is.” He replied, unconvincingly.
Sakura shook her head. “Well, goodnight then, Bear.”
“Goodnight, Sakura.”
She had never slept on a mattress, and didn’t find it particularly comfortable, feeling like she was sinking into a vat of dough. But the full day was taking its toll, her lids growing heavy and energy seeping out of her limbs…
A creak in the floorboards woke her up.
She blinked groggily into the darkness. “Bear?”
The mattress dipped beside her, making her heart stop.
A young man’s voice whispered, “Stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine.”
She finally found her voice. “Wh-who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m nobody.” The stranger said tiredly, pulling the blankets over himself. “And I’m going to sleep.”
“In here?”
He didn’t respond.
Sakura lay frozen, trying to make sense of this.
A perfect stranger… a man… had just come into the house and expected her to believe he just wanted to sleep. And not in one of the dozen or so empty bedrooms, but right beside her. Did he think she was an idiot?
“You can’t stay here?” She hissed, trying to hide the fear in her voice.
“I have to.”
That was the last thing he said for the rest of the evening.