Turn Sadness to Happiness
Arc 1: Escape Iwa
Chapter 1: From a Mother
Haruno Sayuri wondered, as she stared into the dark, silent night, what had possessed her when he agreed to follow her ninja boyfriend back to Iwa and if she could go back in time, would she change it, knowing the awful future ahead.
They had met during her family's merchant caravan across the elemental nations. He was her ninja-in-dark-armor, and she his damsel in distress. The time they knew each other was short, only barely reaching a month, but their love burned brighter than a thousand suns. Right before they ended their commission of the Iwa nin, Daisuke pleaded with her to stay with him and not return to her homeland of Konoha. There was no other option but to agree—Sayuri knew the strength of her maiden's love would see her through the difficult transition to the Iwa-lifestyle, and her parents were eager to see her wed and happy. And out of the house, of course, because they wanted to begin thinking about retirement.
It didn't take much time to sign the papers that deemed her a citizen of the Rock Village, and even sooner came the wedding. Right before she left to speak her vows, Sayuri's mother had cornered her and asked if this was really what she wanted, that there was no rush to settle down.
"Of course!" Sayuri answered, delicately holding her bouquet close. "Our love is strong and true!" And just like that, Gojima Sayuri became Haruno Sayuri. Her parents left a few days later, leaving the newlyweds to their own devices.
And from those devices popped out a small bundle of squishy cooing called a baby, merely a year into their marriage. Sayuri wanted a modern name like Ako or Biiko or even Shiko, but Daisuke was set on naming her after his grandmother, whose hair color was passed onto the small child. So Sakura joined the family in their little home and all seemed well.
At least at first. Sayuri couldn't have been happier with her chuunin husband's pay, but Daisuke wanted to provide more for his family, and became jounin. At this point Sayuri had become accustomed to her husband's constant presence at the home, and hadn't expected the sudden change of mission work that came with a new rank.
"What do you mean you'll be gone for a whole month?!" she seethed over the kitchen stove, Sakura balanced strongly on her hip. The tiny five year-old watched curiously.
"I mean I'll be gone for a whole month," Daisuke replied, frustrated. "This mission is taking me outside of the borders, and travel isn't going to be quick because we're protecting civilians."
"And what am I going to do with you gone? I can't manage the store and watch Sakura!" As a request from her parents, Sayuri had opened a branch of Gojima Marketing in Iwa as a side job to supplement their income.
"Then get her a babysitter." Daisuke took his daughter from Sayuri's hip and held her up. "She's not a bad kid—just request a team of genin to supervise her during the day. Iwa nin get discounts on D-rank missions, remember?" Sakura smiled at her father and welcomed him home.
"But what if they hurt her?" Sayuri hissed into the pot. "They're just kids!"
Her husband groaned. "One of my buddies a while ago took on a team. They're not fresh out of the academy, but they haven't taken on any dangerous missions yet. Recently, they botched a small delivery mission pretty badly, so my friend's looking for a way to punish them."
"And you think that I'll let you use my daughter as a punishment! Augh!" Sayuri threw a plate of vegetables into the soup. The plate would have gone in too, had Daisuke not appeared behind her.
"And I think you'll trust my judgment. I've seen the kids personally, and they're not brutes. Their teacher is my old teammate from the genin days. He's someone that I believe can protect you if something happens." Daisuke smiled bitterly when Sayuri barked out a laugh.
"The worst that could happen is someone trying to pickpocket from the store." Sighing, Sayuri leaned into the warm chest behind her, feeling the licks of that whirlwind romance that landed her here in the first place. Sakura chose that moment to burst into conversation with the soup as it bubbled over. "Fine," she said after staring into her girl's jade eyes. "Go put in the request form and I'll see how it goes."
The days that followed were eventful for the young wife. Daisuke left, and the doorbell rang. A tall, lanky man in all black stood behind a group of three nervous kids. The man was Morimoto-sensei and his three students were Rumi, Deidara, and Omaru. Rumi was blue-haired, Deidara was blond, and Omaru was a surprising orange. They filed into her home as Sayuri left to retrieve their tiny charge.
"Now, she's not a biter or screamer, but she will pull hair," the young woman said uneasily and she passed the toddler into the arms of the nearest genin, the blond one. Sayuri hoped that Sakura would be safest with a girl—Rumi kept his distance, close to the door, and Omaru, despite the masculine name, was incredibly androgynous, and she couldn't tell what gender he was. Immediately after settling into Deidara's arms, Sakura giggled and wrapped her hands into the genin's long hair, giving it a good tug.
Sayuri had to do a double take at Deidara when a deep, male voice said, "No kidding she pulls, un! Yow!" She nearly fainted when a light, girlish chuckle came from Rumi's direction.
"You're just a wimp," Rumi laughed as she—he?—took her/his very masculine frame over to Deidara and led her… him?... into the toy-ridden living room. Omaru followed silently, sparing only a smug glance at Sayuri's shocked expression.
Sayuri nearly jumped out of her skin when Morimoto-sensei spoke from behind her, "There's a reason why we're known as Squad Genderbender." He stalked away into the living room as well, and Sayuri caught the delighted giggling of her little baby girl coupled with Deidara's boyish grumbles.
Despite her initial reservations, the team proved to be excellent care for her child. Sakura especially took to Deidara, and preferred to sleep on his chest during naptime. The blond never minded, and took it as a chance to catch a nap as well. The rest of Squad Six-Delta, as Sayuri later learned to be their official designation number, used the quiet to help around the house and store.
At first it was only a short-term project, but as Daisuke's assignments became more frequent and longer, Sayuri found herself calling upon the team to help her out more often. Between their own short missions and babysitting duty, the wife found herself warming up to the genin; they often found tiny baked presents waiting for them after a long day.
Before long, Sakura was six and at the age to begin her own ninja training. Daisuke and she had exchanged many words late at night as their very intelligent child slept unawares, but eventually the doting mother gave up. Sakura herself had expressed an interest in the ninja arts, fueled by her caretakers' own stories about grand missions and mystical ninja magic. Her husband wouldn't let up on the matter, and she even knew that Squad Six-Delta eagerly awaited the day when they could begin helping Sakura train. Deidara really wanted to share with Sakura the art of making explosives. Rumi, who turned out to be quite the gentle giant, wanted to help the tiny girl build flexibility and muscle through her family's techniques. Omaru, who belonged to a very secretive clan, couldn't think of much to impart, and instead promised to help Sakura with chakra theory.
Sayuri also expected Morimoto-sensei wanted to pass on the Dark-and-Looming technique, but there was no way she would let that happen.
Almost like her own immigration papers, Sayuri had Sakura's application papers submitted and accepted faster than she could believe.
"I'm so excited!" Sakura tittered as she ran in front of her two parents. She darted around excitedly, long pink hair tied up in a ponytail identical to the style she often saw Deidara sport. Sayuri watched on fondly, Daisuke's arm wrapped around her shoulders gently. It wasn't often he was home for long stretches, but he had specially requested this week off to spend with his family, celebrating the new ninja-in-training.
Many nights had she spent lying awake in bed, acutely aware of the cold emptiness beside her. Sayuri knew nightmares well, and feared the possibility of one day being told her husband wasn't coming home. Though they had steadily grown more apart due to his frequent missions, there was still a love she felt for him, even if it wasn't the storm it once was. Sayuri had often cried in fear, and now her small daughter was willing going toward the same fate as her husband. It was a bitter pill, and as a mother Sayuri wanted to steal them both away to safety, but understood Sakura's desire to be like her father and friends.
Daisuke squeezed his hand, letting his arm fall from her body to follow after Sakura. Sayuri took a deep breath and marched on bravely.
Sakura spent the next three years soaking all that the ninja life could offer her. Sayuri didn't know if the reason for Sakura being the number one student was her five tutors, her ridiculous literary intelligence, or her surprisingly developed chakra control. At nine years old the small pinkette was shaping up to be quite the genius, though it seemed her only weak point was her basic body strength. Despite having Rumi work with her almost every day, Sakura had only built small, defined muscles instead of the larger sustained strength the larger girl was looking for. Sayuri understood that instead of trying the same thing, Rumi changed track to focus on Sakura's flexibility, and Omaru began working with Sakura on chakra augmentation. It helped with overall performance, but from the report cards Sayuri would receive every month, it didn't save her scores, with physical capability consistently low marks.
Of course, Sayuri thought, with most Iwa-nin specializing in extreme taijutsu and Doton jutsu, Iwagakure placed a special regard on strength. In another village, Sakura might have been far overachieving.
Regardless, life was beginning to move at a much faster pace. Squad Six-Delta had returned, victorious in the Chuunin Exams hosted by Suna and all sporting new vests. This would be Sakura's last year in the academy, as unlike most villages, Iwa started their ninja young at ten. Of course, this meant that genin often stayed that way for a long time, Sayuri understood with Morimoto-sensei's help. Other villages chose to begin their genin career at twelve or thirteen, and on average promoted at fifteen. On the other hand, when his team had begun their customary babysitting so long ago, they had all only been eleven, with Deidara pulling low at ten and two months. They were all chuunin now at sixteen (fifteen and two months for their little blondie), but with an additional two years of experience as compared to other chuunin.
Morimoto-sensei had confessed to her that his team was actually a little late to the party, only because they tended to act a little recklessly on the battlefield and failed their first exam. Most Iwa genin promoted at fourteen. He predicted Sakura to be even earlier with her current promise of talent, and pegged her to be chuunin no later than thirteen, twelve at the earliest.
"Unlike a village like Konoha, which raises its few talented ninja quickly and dispenses promotions like candy to get their geniuses onto the field, Iwa prefers a more solid basic training. This results in Konoha having more higher-ranked nin than us, but also an equally high body count. Iwa has a lot of lower ranked nin, but our genin can survive for longer and the older ones are typically stronger than their chuunin."
Sayuri took solace in this knowledge. At least Sakura would be starting gently and gain a good foundation of field experience first—that might have also explained why, as compared to when she still lived in Konoha, Daisuke had still only been a chuunin when they had first met at nineteen.
Life looked pretty good for Sayuri and her little family. She was comfortable, with a caring-but-absentee husband and a beautiful-and-talented daughter. Her nightmares left her with each passing day, and she looked forward to living out her life in Iwa.
If it hadn't been for the war, that is.
A few months into Sakura's last academy year, the village of Iwa was rocked by a civil war. The outskirts of the main part of the village began a brutal assault assisted by a mysterious ally. Sayuri didn't understand why, but she knew that they lived near the center of the village, Iwakage's stronghold, and the safest place in the whole village. Refugees from the closest burgs scurried into their part of the village, ravaged and hazed by the opposing forces. Over the walls, Sayuri could see towers of smoke rise from the distance. The nights were no longer silent, with the shuffling of shinobi feet hopping over all of their roofs. She had yet to see her own husband pass by—Morimoto-sensei had dropped in at least once, and gave her a quick summary of the action outside.
The resistance was holding back decently against the rest of the Iwa nin, but their unknown enemy stressed them more than he wanted to admit. Daisuke was okay, but hadn't passed through because of his position as one of the few jounin of Iwa. Her husband had taken on a leadership position in the war effort. The chuunin-leveled Squad Six-Delta was now designated as Echo-Two, and handled most of the messenger duty from the frontlines to the Iwakage. Their strengths and ability to barrel through battlefields landed them that job, he had explained with a strained voice.
That was the first day Sayuri ever saw Morimoto-sensei cry. The taciturn statue of a man was not one to show emotion or weakness, and the woman suddenly understood the severity of their situation.
"They're going to be here soon, aren't they?" she asked quietly, glancing at her sleeping daughter. Sakura had taken residence on the couch, offering her bed to a family of three refugees. They all had sported some kind of injury, and Sakura was adamant that she was more than equipped to handle the slightly lumpy couch in the cold living room. Sayuri also suspected through mother's intuition that her daughter felt paranoid in the back corner of the house, and preferred to listen to the rustling of the resistance.
"We're trying our best," her companion whispered, his dark eyes resting on Sakura's slumbering form as well. "But it's not enough. We think our defenses are fool-proof, and suddenly everyone is dead. We don't know our other enemy, and it's literally killing us." In another surprising move for the quiet man, Sayuri found herself drawn into his arms carefully. His long arms rested heavily on her small frame, and for a moment she thought that the nin would collapse under his own weight.
"Morimoto-sensei?" Sayuri said quietly, bringing her hands up to his shoulder blades.
"You have two days." His voice was thick but controlled. "I can only say we'll last for two days at the most—then the wall will fall with Iwa." Sayuri felt her breath catch in her throat. True, she had thought of their side losing once or twice, but never had she actually believed it possible. She'd seen what the revolt had done to the refugees who managed to escape; there were no doubts in her mind about what would be her and Sakura's fates if they didn't escape.
"What can we do?" she whispered in a fright, green eyes wide. "They're patrolling so much no one can get out of the village walls, let alone the border. They're not letting anyone out at all!"
Morimoto-sensei hugged her tighter, and dropped his voice even lower. Sayuri, having been lectured by Sakura on ninja code, caught the jist and quieted down to match.
"Listen," it was difficult to do so, considering the almost nonexistent whisper Morimoto-sensei used, "right before the crest of the fighting, my squad is going to disappear from the frontlines to deliver a message to the Iwakage. In the midst of the confusion, two jounin are going to abandon the resistance. In a serendipitous moment, all of them are going to run through this street, and then gun it for the borders." Civilian wife and ninja sensei shared a determined look, the darkness splaying shadows across their faces. Sayuri's green eyes reflected the moonlight with an eerie sheen, while Morimoto-sensei's glinted dangerously.
"Who's to say that a mother and her child wouldn't also go out for a trip to retrieve their rations?" added Sayuri. The shinobi nodded and backed away from the young woman who had to live through too much.
"Then that would be fateful indeed." Without another word the dark shinobi left, slipping through the window with grace. Tensely, Sayuri watched his form melt into the shadows just as a pair of Iwa nin crossed overhead. The night was quiet again for a short moment. The mother watched the night outside, and was brought to her current situation, the memories coming full circle.
Would she have changed it? Out of all the ups and downs, the sleepless nights and long days, Sayuri knew she wouldn't. When she ran away with Daisuke, her heart was strong and naïve—life seemed brighter than the sun. Even as that feeling faded, Sakura appeared to dull the pain. Her lovely baby came out from all of this, and she would live through another heartbreak if it meant keeping her child.
Sayuri looked at her daughter once more, only to jump in surprise.
Sakura sat up on the couch across from her, eyes wide and just as luminous as her mother's.
"How long have you been awake?"
"Long enough," came Sakura's short reply as she shoved the blankets off her legs. Sayuri watched her child carefully, wondering how much she had heard truly. In response Sakura gazed up at her mother, intelligent jade eyes observing her. It was scarily impersonal—as the war continued and Squad Echo-Two visited her daughter, Sayuri tracked how the hope drained from her eyes to be replaced by paranoia and dread. She supposed that Sakura could infer more about the happenings outside the wall than she ever could.
Quickly, Sakura looked away and began rustling through her things. The young girl had prioritized her belongings and packed them into a rucksack, always kept nearby. She claimed it held all of her "precious" and "emergency" materials. Sayuri almost fainted when she saw her baby girl pull out a case of brand new kunai and a holster.
"Sakura…"
"Mom, I'm not dumb," Sakura interrupted, mimicking Morimoto-sensei's low volume. "I saw this coming a long time ago, but I didn't want to believe it. Iwa isn't winning this war—and the revolt will kill us." Sighing, she stared at her mother with a suffering look. "I need you to understand that the only reason I'm not out there right now is because this started right after the year began. If it had been a few more months, they could have claimed the entire class as an early graduation and sent into the field."
"They wouldn't do something like that," Sayuri tried deflecting, but it made sense. After the fifth month of their tenth year, the academy students really were considered genin—the remaining months were just for testing out the squads the sensei had guessed would work well. When they didn't, the teams that failed were rehashed out, and at last released to the world. The jounin sensei were given a balanced team that worked straight from the get-go.
"They would and can," Sakura returned, finishing the equipping of weapons. Then, she went into the hall closet and pulled out a bag similar to hers, which she handed to Sayuri. "Go and fill this with your things, Mom. Make sure you get everything you need, first—nothing perishable or fragile, unless you have to have it."
"Sakura…" Sayuri quietly spoke, sadly watching her daughter prepare for their defection. Said daughter was rummaging through the supply closet for utilities and other weapons.
Sakura turned to look at her mother. She sniffed once, and quickly brought her sleeve to her face to wipe away the wetness there. "We… We have to be strong, Mom." Her voice was weighed by emotion, deep with tears. "That's a real war out there, and anything can happen. If we don't prepare for it, we'll…" Sakura's voice caught in her throat, constricted.
In a second mother was embracing daughter. Sayuri gathered Sakura up into her arms, kneeling to meet eye-to-eye. Sakura shook but refused to let her tears spill out. Vaguely, Sayuri registered her own hands shaking.
"It's going to be okay, Sakura," she hummed, swaying the young girl back and forth as she had years ago. "We're going to make it okay. Somehow, someway." They sat in the silence of the night, like the quiet before the storm. After a long time, Sayuri released her child and stood, brushing off her pants. Sakura watched curiously. It was difficult, but the older woman managed to put on a brave grin. "I better start packing, huh?"
"Yeah." Sakura hoarsely whispered, watching her mother disappear up the stairs.
Sayuri was quick to pack. It was easy splitting up her essentials and nonessentials, but her sentimentality kept her stuck at her wall of knick-knacks. A large series of wall shelves kept the various gifts she'd been given through the years and items tied to important memories. Most of the items were heavy or fragile, completely useless—in a heartbreaking choice, Sayuri removed all the pictures from their frames, gathered the jewelry Daisuke had given her, and plucked a single tiny ceramic of Deidara's creation. Then, she steeled herself emotionally and crawled underneath her bed.
In the floor was a small, almost imperceptible trapdoor that hid an even smaller hole. Daisuke had called it their emergency stash, and had instructed her on the various items placed inside; their names flit across her memory in Daisuke's voice:
"A tanto," as she pulled out a short blade. It was heavy in her hands and glimmered in the moonlight.
"Chakra pills," from a tiny blue drawstring bag, and, "Blood pills," from a red one. These were only to boost stamina or quick healing, he had said, with the chakra pills being specifically for himself or Sakura.
"Explosive tags, smoke bombs, wire, rope." Nearly the stash was empty now, with the most important still lying at the bottom. Sayuri reached deep down and pulled out three more items.
"Half a million yen," she whispered this time, holding the stack of bills in her hands. They began saving this shortly after Daisuke's promotion at his behest. The money was to be split up and hidden in their belongings wisely.
Next came a thick cardboard tube, tied with a yellow string. "Passports to Suna." It had taken a little sneaky maneuvering on her part, but Sayuri had managed to use her status as civilian merchant to procure three passports in her family's name. Should they ever have to leave Iwa in a panic, their closest border would be Suna, to the east. From there the "Gojima" family would gain access into Suna with the intention of looking for new business opportunities.
The last bundle sent her mood even lower. It was a pristine white envelope tied to a large cardstock folder. In its time under the floorboards, the package only showed signs of its edges being crumpled. "My Konohan papers…" The folder held her original birth certificate marking her as a Konoha native, a copy of her immigration papers, and a family roster connecting her to the Leaf Village presently. The tiny white letter was a handwritten acknowledgement of her parents claiming the information to be true, and a general request for solace in Konoha's walls.
This was originally a surprise from her parents in her first year of marriage. The attached note had read, "Just in case he starts beating you! ~Your Mother". While she found it humorous, Daisuke saw it as a fail-safe for his wife, who was very pregnant at the time.
"If you ever need to run away from here," he told her seriously, "Your safest bet is Konoha. You have history there, and family. This practically guarantees you access into Konoha with a decent chance of reestablishing your residency there." At the time, Sayuri found it to be another joke from her protective husband. Now, she understood just how precious these slips of paper were.
With everything put into its rightful places, the Haruno woman found herself restless. She edged her way downstairs in the dark, the power having been cut a day ago. Sakura was waiting for her downstairs, dressed in an all brown ensemble that she recognized as a training outfit for stealth classes. Her little girl was busy plastering explosive notes to kunai, and a few of her own handmade bombs littered the floor.
"I'm going to be okay," Sakura spoke up before her mother even had a chance to take a step into the room. "I'm going to be okay." It sounded more like Sakura was convincing herself, but Sayuri knew little on how to help prep her daughter. Instead she carefully crossed the floor, moving to the couch. Not much longer, Sakura joined her, covered in clay and ink, and the two nestled into a restless sleep.
They awoke to the sound of bombs. Explosions rocked their house, the windows shaking in fear. Sayuri jumped awake, disoriented from the small quakes that shifted the ground to the point of the floorboards splintering.
"Mom, move, now!" Sakura quickly ordered, using her own weight to pull the woman to the ground. By instinct Sayuri tucked her head underneath her arms, just in time for the wall to explode inward. Shards of glass and chunks of masonry shot through the air like kunai, tearing into the opposite wall and shattering more fragile decorations. The couch managed to protect them mostly—Sayuri felt the sting of a few shallow cuts, and Sakura had a superficial wound cut across her forehead. Despite the newness of the wound, already her daughter had blood pouring down the side of her cheek.
Sakura herself looked even fiercer with the blood, as she cautiously checked over the top of the couch with grit teeth. Sayuri pulled their bags closer, holding one of them close. Her breathing had become shaky during that intense moment, and the room swayed to the side. The woman closed her eyes, focusing on pushing down the panic that gripped her body. Steadying herself with a deep breath, Sayuri waited for Sakura to give an order, who seemed to be handling herself with greater poise.
Sakura didn't have to speak, however, thanks to the young boy that barreled through the hole in the wall. "Sakura!" Deidara yelled, hanging on the rubble. He leaned into the living room from his perch, searching with desperate blue eyes for any sign of the younger girl.
"Here!" she replied. Sayuri followed her little girl as she hastily threw on her backpack and left the safety of their couch. The older woman assessed the blonde chuunin quickly—burn marks, a few cuts, and almost covered from head to toe in ash. He was panting, like he just ran a marathon. Blond and pinkette met each other in the middle of the room, sharing a quick embrace. Another explosion from close by sent them scrambling into offensive stances, mindful to keep the civilian behind them. They hacked as smoke billowed into the room, followed by the silhouette of a ninja. His uniform was a standard dark brown suit with a tan vest, but the strip of yellow that encircled his left bicep was unfamiliar to Sayuri. By the way Deidara tensed and quickly armed himself, she could infer that it was the revolt's symbol.
Before the man could take another step further, he was impaled by a flurry of curved knives. The blood shot out of him like a fountain, and the unknown ninja fell to the ground in a heap. Sayuri immediately felt relief, recognizing those weapons as her husband's signature tools. Her heart swelled as Daisuke kicked the dying—or dead—man to the side in order to slide into the room on rubble. In a moment she was by his side, fretting over the visible wounds on his body. Her husband just chuckled softly and pushed her away.
"You have to go, now," he painfully bit out. Sayuri could see him favoring his right leg, along with keeping the same arm close to his side. Daisuke's dirty blond hair was caked with blood and mud, sticking to his sweat-covered forehead. "There's a team oncoming. He was just a scout." He sighed his personal deep sigh, the sign that Sayuri knew that the scales weren't tipping to their side. In fact, by the way her husband's eyes were bagged and heavy, she almost knew what was coming next. "I'm going to stay here and distract them—"
"No!" she cried out, stomping her foot down. The bits of window underneath her foot crunched from the force. Sayuri looked up into her husband's eyes, trying to communicate everything she needed to say and never had. Quietly, Daisuke closed his eyes and gave her a small, sad smile. "No…" Her voice caught in her throat, the beginnings of a sob gathering in her lungs.
Sakura stared into her father's face for a moment. Sayuri watched behind a wall of tears as daughter stepped up and tightly clung to her father's pant leg, face pressed into the hard muscle of his calf. Using his good hand, Daisuke gently ruffled Sakura's hair.
"I'm so proud of you," he said, looking down at his cute baby. An idea came to him, a quick brightening of his eyes that sent his good hand from Sakura's scalp to the pockets of his dirty vest. He pulled out a plain looking scroll and offered it to his daughter. She took it silently, the deep frown in her face pulling hard at her cheeks. "It's just a storage scroll, but it has something in it I always wanted you to have. Become strong for me, okay?"
"Y-yeah," replied Sakura, her voice quavering. Daisuke opened his mouth to say something else, but screams suddenly erupted from upstairs. Deidara jumped, the grip on his weapon so tight the bone could rip through skin at any point.
"They're here, un!" he hissed, leaning for the closest exit subconsciously. The tender moment for the family fell apart, and Sayuri could witness the cold shelling up of her husband's emotions. Thunderous feet raced around on the ceiling, most likely searching for any other refugees hiding. Deidara skittishly kept edging for the huge hole in the wall.
Daisuke snapped into a battle position, knives suddenly filling the gaps between his fingers. Sayuri could only imagine the extreme mental control that kept him from wincing in pain. "Go!" he shouted at them, quickly dispatching the first nin to come downstairs. Deidara complied, pulling Sakura after him. Sakura kept mind of her mother, latching onto her in turn. The wife hesitated at first, trying to capture what could possibly be the last thing she saw of her husband. As they exited through the hole, Sayuri caught her husband's heart-winning grin sent to her direction. Then, concrete.
Then, the real chase began.
Sayuri never knew she could run so fast in her life. Deidara kept up the front, sending out kunai quickly. Every so often he would drop a tiny spider made of clay from the tiny mouths in his hands. Seconds later an explosion would follow, deterring any pursuers they might have attracted in their sprint. Sakura kept a tight grip on her hand, but steeled her head forward.
Sayuri wished she had the same strength as her daughter, but the older woman couldn't help but glance at their desolate surroundings. Buildings toppled to the ground, chunks of rocks pinned bodies to the rubble. Fire and smoke surrounded them as battles occurred, accompanied by the shaking customary of high-level Earth techniques. Every few steps she'd hear a moan or shriek pierce the sound of collapsing buildings—Sayuri fretted for the children of Iwa, hoping they managed to either hide well or die painlessly. Amazingly, they'd avoided any shrapnel sent over their heads.
Up until that point, at least, Sayuri thought as she doubled over in pain. She instantly clutched at her stomach, trying to not look at the long shard of metal sticking in it. It bled profusely despite the strong hands of her daughter pressed into the gash. Deidara swore loudly, reaching for something to help her. He managed to find a few bandages, and with a very painful tug, the metal was dislodged from her abdomen. Sayuri looked into the gray sky and saw stars. Meanwhile, Deidara and Sakura handled a quick wrapping job.
"I don't know how we're going to carry her," Deidara fraught, looking between Sayuri and her daughter rapidly. The woman had a high pain tolerance, but it wasn't enough to keep her moving at a steady pace. And he wasn't about to kid himself either—Sayuri and Sakura were both aware of his position as the least-muscular of his teammates. "If only Rumi was here…"
"Will I do?" said a deep voice that landed behind them with an audible crunch. Sayuri, even in the haze of pain, clearly saw the look of relief that Deidara's face fell into. Morimoto-sensei leaned over her, examining the first-aid applied to her stomach. Like her husband, the man had closed off visible emotions from the outside world. With a rough grunt, he kneeled down and curled his arms around her limp body. Sayuri tried to ignore the sense of vertigo as she was hefted above the ground.
"Morimoto-sensei, I love you, un." If the world hadn't been ending around them, the group might have laughed by the blond's admission. The dark teacher just huffed and flicked his chin forward. Deidara followed the unspoken command and took the front again. Sakura quickly copied with only a single worried glance back at her mother. Morimoto-sensei tightened his hold and began a series of long jumps after the younger ninja.
"Rumi and Omaru are waiting ahead of us at the tree line. Once we meet up, we'll head out for Suna." Deidara voiced an agreement, but Sayuri found something wrong with that plan.
"What about Daisuke?" she pushed out, putting the pain at the back of her mind. "He'll meet up with us too, right?" Morimoto-sensei was stony silent for a moment, contemplating on what to say to the injured wife.
"If he can catch up, he will also join us." Before Sayuri could whisper her thanks, he had to qualify the statement further, "But if we're there first, we will not linger. As a unit we cannot afford to hang around one area for long."
'Daisuke will be fine!' Sayuri convinced herself. The image of his sad, almost defeated smile came to the front of her memory, followed by his loving grin. 'He'll… He'll be fine…'
Another few agonizing leaps and they reached the tree line. Of course, as is to be expected in a wartime setting, nothing ended up going according to plan.
"Morimoto-sensei!" Rumi cried out roughly. There was a dark bruise curling around her neck and crawled to her collarbone. She stood over the fallen body of Omaru, protecting herself from an onslaught by a rebel ninja. Deidara jumped into action, screaming the name of his fallen comrade in agony. Together they downed the last ninja, Sayuri just then noticing the other bodies that littered the rocky ground. Sakura sped up and slid toward the squad, Morimoto-sensei following as well.
Deidara was collapsed next to Omaru's body, hands heavily trailed in the dirt. Rumi stood above, looking off to the side. Sayuri saw tears course down all their faces. Sakura was the only one able to keep herself composed, but her bright green eyes never left the pale face of her friend.
"Th-they came out of nowhere," Rumi started explaining. The damage to her throat warped her voice to a rougher, deeper tenor. Every few words she would stop to gather her emotions, but hiccups would break through her defenses. "We were waiting for you guys to arrive, bu-but then this team of rebel nins arrive-ived. O-O-Omaru and I managed to keep them away, but wo-one got through and… and…" She sobbed. Deidara growled and cursed repeatedly, his fists pounding the earth. Sakura stood still.
If Morimoto-sensei was distraught by the death of one of his students, he didn't show it outwardly. Instead, he inhaled deeply through his nose. Sayuri, from her high position, saw Omaru's battered body well. She shed a few tears in his memory, sparing a little time to recall the times he had helped her with inventories and stocking.
"What kind of reality is this?" she found herself whispering in horror as the remaining two chuunin of Squad Echo-Two gathered the shards of their souls. Almost too quickly they were moving ahead and into the forest. Right before they entered the true thickness of the forest, a huge explosion rang out behind them. All the ninja turned reflexively to the source of the sound, and Sayuri gasped in anguish. Flames higher than the walls of Iwa danced above the village, huge black plumes of smoke rising from their side of town. The smell of sulfur and burning assaulted them.
"D-Daisuke!" Sayuri screamed out, desperately trying to sit up in Morimoto-sensei's arms. The jounin kept a strong hold to keep her from aggravating her wound further, but she had already lost any strength left. She collapsed into his hold, weeping openly. Rumi, who was still emotionally sore, began to tear up as well.
Sakura, surprisingly, was the one to remedy the situation. "ENOUGH!" she shouted, stopping mid-run. Everyone stopped around her, watching the shaking of her shoulders. "Enough… If we keep this up, why are we even trying to hide? They'll hear us bawling from a mile away." She turned around to face Rumi, Morimoto-sensei, and her mother. Sayuri's heart broke as she watched the silent tears run down her daughter's face, an eerie sight considering the lack of any other emotion on her face.
"Sakura is correct," Morimoto-sensei gruffly said. "Now, we have no other choice. We must continue on, so that Omaru's and Daisuke's efforts do not go to waste. Squad Echo-Two, this is an order—reign your emotions and focus on the objective!" In a way that she assumed only ninja could do, Sayuri watched as the young shinobi before her dried their tears and steeled their hearts. They marched forward with measured steps, an aura of untouchable fury surrounding them.
The forest stood tall and dark around them, silence growing larger with every leap they took deeper in. Sayuri could faintly see harsh lines furrowed on Morimoto-sensei's face that bent shadows across his face.
"Sensei," Deidara called out, looking behind him. His blond hair whipped in the air, occasionally falling in the way of his eyes. The blue there was more like steel to the wounded woman's gaze, a tough and indestructible will.
"Are you sure about this?" their teacher replied, seriously looking at his remaining male student. Rumi gasped and looked between them, almost ready to break into tears again. Confused, Sayuri looked to her daughter, but the young trainee was closed off from the world and focused solely on her best friend, hands tightly clutched around her father's scroll.
"You can't be for real!" Rumi accused, breathing labored. "There are too many—"
"Rumi, I'm the only one that can do it," Deidara explained somberly. "You're too injured to carry Sayuri-san, and I'm not strong enough, un. You're going to need Morimoto-sensei to cross the border, and we can't afford the time to stop and stage a battle." His female teammate sniffled pitifully, but instead of snot Sayuri noticed a trail of red drip down.
They stopped running, falling to the ground. Sayuri, too lightheaded from her blood loss, had a difficult time following the conversation. Rumi was becoming emotional, and Deidara tried explaining in muffled terms how he was the only one who could do it. "I… chakra levels, un… best at causing… run away… don't… catch up, okay?" Colors began to swirl in her vision, vague smears that represented her precious people. Pink and yellow melded into one for a long hug. Blue joined in. Yellow separated and came closer, just enough so that Sayuri could make out blue dots.
"You don't have much time, un," she heard faintly, like she was underwater. "I'll do my best, sensei!" They began moving again, but the darkness crept up and stole her vision.
Some amount of time later she came back to consciousness, but her hold on the ledge was weak, slipping fast. Sakura leaned over her, face contorted in a way only small children could achieve. Tears mixed with some of the dried blood on her face, creating wet droplets that Sayuri could faintly feel on her cheeks.
"Why's it so cold?" she felt herself ask slowly. Numbly she tried turning her head to look to the side, but the effort was too much, so she sighed and relaxed her muscles. It was almost as if her body was acting on its own, her brain only computing the sensations a second later.
"Mom, hold on!" Sakura whispered, tightening her hand around Sayuri's pale fingers. Sayuri looked at her daughter and tried to call up a tiny smile. There was her beautiful baby girl, green eyes so reminiscent of her father's.
"You're so pretty, Sakura…" It was difficult to speak, her words slurring. Was she drunk or something? Her body felt like it weighed a ton. "I love you so much…" Sayuri didn't know why, but it just felt so important to tell Sakura this. "You are the best thing in my life… You're going be so strong, just like your father…" She sighed deeply. "I feel like I'm going to see him soon…"
There were two other people around her, but she could only clearly make out Sakura's pink hair. Her daughter was openly wailing on her chest, one hand pressed into her abdomen, which felt warm for some reason. They were outside, she registered vaguely. Dotting the sky, stars spread above her like tiny jewels.
"Mom, don't say stuff like that!" her daughter cried, bringing her arms to wrap around her mother. "You're going to be fine! We're almost to Suna!"
"Suna? Sunaaa…" Sayuri moaned. She felt herself slide a little further back, the shadows winding in her peripheral vision. "I love you Sakura… Be safe…"
The little girl sobbed. "I know, Mom, I love you too! Try staying awake, please! Please!" Her voice was strained by tears. Sayuri, with the little strength she could dredge up, lifted a hand to touch her daughter's wet cheeks. She could see all their memories together roll in her mind like an old movie, the sound of flapping film reels growing louder and louder in her head. A first birthday, first knee scrap, first cartwheel… Firsts and their accompanying laughter joined the noise in her head, blocking out Sakura's voice. It made her so tired, but happy, to watch her little girl grow up. Gently, she could feel her body falling backward, the darkness sucking her in. The hands that kept her anchored to the world slowly fading away.
"Sakura, I'm so tired…"
"Mom! Mom!"
"I'm just going to go to take a nap…"
"Mom, n-nooo…!"
Sayuri smiled softly and closed her eyes, letting all colors drain from her vision. It felt so nice to go to sleep… Humming, she thought to speak to her baby one more time.
"Wake me up in the morning, honey…"