Sort of a "If the Sand and Sound ninja managed to destroy Konoha" setting, but that doesn't really play into the plot that much.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Sakura flinched as Shizune pushed a wave of emerald healing chakra towards her arm. Ino and Tsunade were somewhere outside; Sakura had been injured on one her last foray out, and Shizune, recovering from torn ligaments in her legs, stayed to watch and heal her younger comrade; they would be moving camp again as soon as Shizune was healed enough to keep pace with the rest of them.
Just a few weeks earlier, when Shizune would do this for Sakura or Ino, heal their wounds, she would murmur softly for them to hold still or whisper that it wouldn't hurt, anything to soothe them, but now she was stone silent throughout the process. Shizune had been quiet to begin with, but now she rarely spoke at all.
The flickering light of the lantern displayed their little hideout in detail. Four pallets, really just a thin blanket to lie on, were off to a corner. There was a cook fire in the center; apparently Tsunade knew how to light a fire without setting off too much smoke. It was untidy; any attempts at cleanliness by Sakura, Ino or Shizune were steadfastly thwarted by Tsunade.
The fire was burned out, the ember light in the coals extinguished. The air was stale, and Sakura wanted out. The coals burning out reminded her too much of Naruto and Sasuke; inactivity allowed her mind to fall back to them.
"Shizune-senpai, can we go outside?" Sakura asked quietly. For some reason, Sakura knew Shizune would be more receptive if she said "we".
Shizune started, finishing healing the flesh wounds on Sakura's arms and brushing a few stray strands of coal-colored hair out of her pale face. For a few moments, she seemed to have trouble processing the words, then nodded, slowly. "The air is getting stifling. It should be safe outside, for now."
Shizune stood up, and Sakura instantly regretted her request as the older woman's face contorted with pain; Shizune's legs were still weak and shaky, and barely supported her weight. But still, out they went, and Sakura was silent, knowing she wouldn't want attention drawn to herself. Out they went, into sunlight that, though dim, seemed blinding after days in half-light.
A hot, humid wind blew across the expanse of dry, yellowing grass; trees existed only several hundred yards away, and only to the north. The sky was deeply overcast, the storm clouds ominous gunpowder gray; there existed a strange, dim yellow light. And all the while, it was singularly, oppressively hot.
"It hasn't rained in weeks," Sakura remarked, straining over the wind. "Do you think it will now?"
Shizune's brow furrowed. "Not sure." Her eyes scanned the horizon, and Sakura knew she was worrying about Tsunade.
It had been barely two months. Barely two months since Sakura and Ino had stumbled upon Tsunade and Shizune, since Tsunade had been ready to abandon them to their fates but Shizune had had other ideas. Two months of running, fighting, training, and, most amazing of all, bonding.
Two months that felt more like a lifetime.
Now, Tsunade and Ino were in the nearest town scrounging up supplies and information because they were good at not being noticed (the only one better was Shizune) and they could pass as mother and daughter if they had to. They would be back soon, if all went well.
Sakura's eyes scanned the horizon, for now she was worried too. She had a feeling, just a feeling, a small feeling that niggled at the pit of her stomach, though that might have been the dull ache of hunger setting in again.
Shizune, for once (she was disturbingly aware of when others were upset and Sakura wasn't sure whether to be comforted or discomfited by this), didn't seem to notice. She instead stared out at the clouds roiling and swirling, and let out a deep breath lost to the whistling of the wind.
"How's your training with Tsunade-sama going?" Shizune's brown eyes never left her study of the angry sky.
Sakura frowned. They all lived in the same cave; it wasn't like there were many secrets between them. Then she realized. It was small talk.
"She's pushing me very hard," Sakura admitted, twirling a strand of her newly brown hair in her fingers.
"Why are we doing this again?" Sakura asked Ino as she continued to apply the spray.
Tsunade and Shizune looked on in muted amusement as Ino set about to the diligent—and messy—business of dying Sakura's hair.
"Because silly. Don't you think pink hair would stand out in a crowd?"
"She did that to me too," Shizune remarked. "Tsunade-sama tends to move a bit too quickly for her students; I'm training Ino—" for Tsunade and Shizune were training Sakura and Ino in the medical arts, respectively "—at a slower pace to make sure she understands everything." Suddenly, she smiled. No lines formed around her mouth when she smiled; it was the same with Tsunade, but for different reasons. "You're not going to like it when she gets to dodge training."
Sakura felt the wet wind whip her face with scalpel-sharp cruelty. Thunder rumbled, but no rain came.
"Is she…always like this?" The uneven tremulousness of her voice was lost to the wind that blew and howled.
Sakura didn't think she had ever been so reluctant to talk to Shizune before. Sakura was in awe of Tsunade, but not of Shizune, who had done everything she could to make Ino and Sakura feel welcome…unlike her cantankerous mistress.
A shriveled leaf blew into their eyesight. Shizune caught it with a small, deft hand, and examined it for a few moments, before wordlessly handing it to Sakura, who took it in some confusion. It had probably been the color of well-watered green at some point, rich and glossy, but now it was like the grass, faded, lusterless and dried out.
"She's a bit like this leaf now." Sakura nodded. Suddenly, amazingly, it was all clear to her. Tsunade was a dried, withered husk, where there had once been something full of life. Sakura bit down into the leaf, and made a face. And bitter, too.
A strange noise started coming from the north. For a few moments, sweet uncounted moments that made the heart tick down the seconds, Sakura wasn't sure what she was hearing. It was a strange sweeping noise, a swishing noise that was wet and cool and so unbelievably right.
It was rain. Rain came through the trees and began to advance upon them. Not hard rain, not driving rain, but just a steady humming shower.
Sakura stood numb and stunned, standing now, as she watched the shower near her, with the intent of driving away softly her memories of Sasuke, Naruto, Konoha, Sound ninja, everything…
"We should go inside." Shizune's voice, soft, steady and serenely calm, sounded like a whisper upon a sigh in her ear.
"What about Ino and Tsunade-shishou? Won't they get wet?" Sakura stood, and trembled. Trembled, but did not cry. Because she was still twelve years old in her body, her core was not twelve years old anymore, and never would be again. She had become like the leaf and Tsunade, a dry husk, empty and hollow.
Shizune answered, in a voice not her own, a voice older and wiser and far more timeless, as Sakura felt the soft pressure of hands on her shoulders, "It won't kill them".
There were plenty of other things that could kill them.
Sakura and Shizune retreated inside, as the long-absent rain came to heal the land of its long and empty hurts.