There's a quietness that comes after death. Sakura has never understood it, never known quite what to do within it, regardless of her relation to the dead. It happened with Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, as the village went into mourning; and it happened with Sarutobi Asuma, though this time, the village does not mourn.
Now, as she watches Shikamaru stand in front of a grave that was filled far too early, she feels that silence fall heavier than ever.
She's never been great at comforting people—even now, after her training, she's not the best. She knows how to poison, how to kill, how to draw a man in and make him fall for her, make him trust her, but she doesn't know how to help people she actually knows. She doesn't know how to comfort those who have lost everything—or, just a single important thing—and now, watching one of her best friends cry over the grave of his now-dead mentor, she realises it's a gap in her education she needs to rectify; both for those closest to her and as a way to get closer to targets.
(She's a kunoichi. Seduction missions were always going to become a part of her repertoire. It's how the world works.)
Get better, Inner says simply.
"Shika-" she starts, finds herself failing; standing beside him with a hesitant hand left floating in the air. She doesn't know what to do with herself, doesn't know how to make that heartbroken expression into something lighter. She doesn't know how to help. "I'm sorry," she finishes in the end, a lame comfort even to her own ears. What does she have to be sorry for, after all—it was not her fault; and she did not know Asuma very well at all.
They stand in silence for a while, Shikamaru's shoulders shaking as he cries silently; Sakura's hand eventually falling light and as comforting as she could even try to be at this point in time on his shoulder. Then Shikamaru turns, walks off in the other direction; and Sakura follows, the look on his face revealing something she doesn't want to leave him alone through.
"Asuma left me chakra blades," he tells her when they reach what appears to be their destination—training ground 10. "I want to figure out if I can imbue them with my shadow."
"You probably could," Sakura says, because this she can help with—revenge and sparring; she's good at those things. "It's just yin chakra, after all."
"Exactly," Shikamaru says, throws her a grim smile. "Wanna be my guinea pig?" he asks, and Sakura smiles right back, teeth and harshness in a way kinder than any could expect from that kind of smile.
"You want a spar?" she says, "I'm always up for a spar."
"Good," Shikamaru replies, and launches himself at her. She dances out of the way with a laugh; a quiet taunt—I thought you were going to put your shadows in a chakra blade? C'mon, Shika, that was nothing—and so it begins.
Sakura spars with him until he's exhausted; until his chakra reserves are nearing empty and his limbs are shaking in his exhaustion. When they reach that point and he tries to continue, she puts him down hard. She's been a Jounin for a few weeks now; and a shaky-limbed chunin who's used too much chakra is easy to overcome, even with how tired she is herself.
When he stops moving after that, just lays on the ground panting, she smiles slightly and drops down next to him. "Some pretty good clouds, huh," she says, watching them as they float across the sky, fluffy and white and shaped like various animals and items. "See that one, over there? Looks kind of like Ino, huh." She points, and Shikamaru follows her gaze to a cloud that looks absolutely nothing like Sakura's girlfriend. It startles a laugh from him; and she grins, proud in her accomplishment.
"If that looks like Ino," he says, and he's tired and sad and angry, but he sounds slightly better than he had before, when his voice had rung with his overwhelming desire for revenge. "Then that one looks exactly like you." The cloud, of course, looks nothing like Sakura, but it's the principle of it that makes her smile, tilting her head so it rests against Shikamaru's shoulder.
"Sure does!" she says brightly. "Although, it is about to get eaten by that dragon cloud."
Shikamaru laughs, tilts his head to rest on top of hers. "Serves you right, for how hard you've worked me."
Sakura sobers, looks up at her friend. "You want revenge, don't you. On the guy who killed Asuma. That's why you worked yourself so hard."
"Yeah," Shikamaru says, and his eyes go somewhere far away; his brain in a place Sakura can't follow him too. "Yeah, I want revenge on him. I've thought up six different ways we could have taken them on if we knew their abilities; if we knew he was immortal."
"Thinking on the past does no good," Sakura admonishes, lightly whacking his shoulder. Shikamaru barely moves and Sakura frowns. He always complains with things like that; calls Ino and her troublesome women. "So," she says, with a lightness that is forced, at first; before the idea of fucking up the guy who hurt Shika this badly actually registers. Her next words are far darker, an unholy glee written through her voice. "How're we going to deal with this guy this time?"
"We?" Shikamaru says, glancing down. Sakura's smile is all teeth.
"We," she confirms.
When Shikamaru takes Kakashi, Choji and Ino to take down Hidan and Kazuku, he takes Sakura too. Kakashi's surprise at seeing her is purely because of how she stands at Shikamaru's shoulder as he explains his plan, smiling a smile that is more a baring of teeth; a declaration of war written in how she stands and the weapons strapped to her body.
When his plan inevitably goes sideways, it's Sakura who flies into the battle first; tanto drawn and entirely ready to take Hidan's head off.
(When questioned, later, she said "What? Decapitation works on that guy; Shikamaru and Asuma proved that last time". When Kakashi pointed out that the other guy could sew heads back on, she told them she wouldn't let him. Kakashi never decides if his student is overconfident or insane, although, he thinks, it could always be both.)
Whatever she is, she doesn't succeed in that first attack. She does, however, successfully manage to bury the asshole in genjutsu while Chouji goes for the other guy, who's arms are turning to chords. The battle is complete and utter chaos; the Akatsuki members obviously far better than all four of them—three chunin, two jounin—but not as good as working in a team.
Use that, Inner whispers, urgent, use their lack of teamwork against them. You know you can.
And they do—two jounin, three chunin; later three jounin, three chunin and a genin—they team up in their attacks, in their defence; protect the weaker ones and let Naruto's clones take the hits. When they see openings, they jump in—Kakashi often spots them before her, but then he's been an assassin, ninja and jounin for longer than she's been alive. He hits a vital point at one point—slams a kunai into the thread-guy's (Kazuku, Inner reminds her) heart. He's obviously just as fucking immortal as his partner, though; he grunts but otherwise doesn't react, turning to look at Kakashi and attempt to throw him across the clearing.
He tells them he has multiple hearts. Sakura just smiles, teeth and blood and poison, and vows to find all of them.
She finds all of them.
They return to Konoha victorious, having defeated two immortal beings. They return home victorious, coated in the blood of those who never stopped bleeding; just laughed and laughed and laughed as Sakura tore out Kazuku's last heart. Ino kisses her, like that, in front of the gates of Konoha and half-drowned in the blood of the man who killed her mentor. Shikamaru groans, calls them troublesome; but he's smiling, better now that he's home and has cut Hidan's head from his shoulders.
(Sakura is half in love with his ruthlessness, with how he took Hidan's head and buried it; a fire burning bright in his eyes.)
Tsunade greets them, glares and reprimands, but there's relief in her eyes and Sakura smiles, bright and unlike any shown to those they fought, because they're home; and Shikamaru is better now.