Hi! Here with another story. For any of you just clicking on this, this is a sequel to New Sakura, the likes of which you can find in my profile! Just as a warning to Sasu x Saku fans everywhere, when I first published it, it was intended to be an Ita x Saku, and there will be heavily implied hints, but if you read the authors notes you will be caught up to date. I plan on editing the first few chapters to incorporate this change of opinion, but as of now I have not made these changes yet, I apologize for the inconvenience!
And now, for all of you returning readers. . .
I'm back with the sequels! =D I'm so excited to see how everyone reacts to this, this is my first time doing a project like this, and my 2nd/3rd sequels to a long-term project. Like I may or may not have mentioned in New Sakura, the prologues and first few chapters will be very similar as far as plot goes, until it takes a major split further down the road. This took so much prior planning to make sure that the plots were unique and interesting, I'm not quite sure how I managed to create this in such a short amount of time, taking into consideration my other stories and social life. I hope that the feedback for this story/stories is as overwhelming as New Sakura was :3 Without further ado, I present to you guys the New Sakura Sequel, The New Otokage ^_^
Summary: Three years ago, Sakura got a second chance at life and sought shelter in the arms of Akatsuki. Two years ago, she gained strength unimaginable to her previous self. One year ago she became Kage. But dying did not necessarily mean escaping her past, and what can she do when they come knocking on her door?
Pairing: [Sasuke x Sakura] Itachi / Naruto
Genre: Romance / Family
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters in any way, shape, or form.
Chapter 1. Prologue
Sakura was up long before the sun had actually risen. She had things to do, after all. "How are preparations coming along?" She muttered to the hooded nin beside her, both of them travelling at top speed, although relatively calm.
"It seems the promise of money managed to motivate people. We have some promising workers."
"So when's the expected construction time?"
"About a year, if all runs smoothly."
Sakura's tongue clicked in irritation, but she said nothing more on the matter. 'If things ran smoothly' -which they never did. Alas, this was obviously to take time. It's not like building a hospital and functional roads took anything but time, as it was. "Did we figure out who was in control of this town?" she changed the subject.
"Hai. We pin-pointed him to one of Orochimaru's now nonoperational underground bases. Itachi is there now scouting the area."
"And after him?"
"The Daimyo has tasked us with eliminating all of Orochimaru's negative influence on this land before he even considers our request. According to the intel Deidara has gathered, this'll be the last one."
At least this had been good new, Sakura couldn't help but think. "Tell Itachi not to intervene. This one's mine."
"Hai."
"Arigatou, Konan."
Said hooded figure allowed a small smile to appear on her features. "You need not thank me." Truthfully speaking, it was she who should be thanking Sakura, for taking on this mission. It had been a rough two years, and finally, their preparation were starting to be concrete.
"This is it?" Sakura looked at the list of names -twenty, if she were lucky.
"That was all we could scavenge." Konan admitted regretfully. "We went to each city but that was all we could do."
Sakura frown distastefully. "Well, it's better than nothing. I'll start the training myself."
"Shouldn't this fall on someone else's hands? You're busy as it is." Konan muttered. "I can get Kisame to do it, or-"
But Sakura raised her hand, a sign for Konan to stop. "They signed up because they liked the peace that I'm trying to obtain for this nation. If they are to follow under me, I think it only appropriate for me to be the first to get my hands on them." Sakura stated. "Bring them to the training ground we have assembled. I'll be there shortly."
Konan paused momentarily, a small, knowing smile on her face. "Hai." And as she began leaving, she paused, and as an after thought, decided to chide in. "You truly are amazing, Sakura." She offered to explanation as she briskly disappeared as her clone dissipated, not seeing Sakura's blushing face at the compliment.
"Focus, Sakura." She could hear his voice reverberate in all corners of the expanse that was the arena, but no amount of his instructions would teach her how to do it.
"I'm trying, Itachi." she sighed, her hands already formed in the seal to release the genjutsu. She had been training since dawn now, and not for the first time this past month, and she had yet to be able to efficiently counter his genjutsu.
"Silence." Itachi instructed her, forcing her to shush. "Be confident in your abilities, kunoichi. I've seen what you are capable of. What is holding you back?" He was circling around her, like one would their prey, not missing the exhausted hunch of her back or the small trickles of sweat making their way down her brow.
"Nothing." she demanded adamantly. But she didn't sound very convincing, not to her, and definitely not to Itachi, as he made a full circle around her and stopped in front of her.
"Are you afraid of me, kunoichi?" his question wasn't confused, nor astounded -frankly, as far as he was concerned, she should be.
"Iee." She countered. But even though she said this, she knew that in the back of her mind, she could still not forget the atrocities she had heard Itachi had committed -had seen first hand what it was he had done to Sasuke, and knowing that this very same person was in the very first steps of breaking her was irrevocably frightening. She knew she had signed up for this, but things would only get worse from here on out.
"You lie." his voice seemed to echo, making Sakura flinch. "Use your fear. Focus on this fear. If you fear me, then fight me with all you have. Only then will you survive." He said no more, as the world around her once more warped into nothingness.
"Sasuke-kun...!" she could hear her voice, see the daunting images of Sasuke being slain, over and over again as it had been done several dozens of times just on this particular day, and she couldn't help but flinch at it. Despite how intrusive it was for Itachi to infiltrate her mind like this, she was at his mercy and she could not help the fact that she still cared for Sasuke, and for Naruto, and for many of her friends back at home, despite the betrayal.
As Itachi had instructed her to do, she cleared her mind, searching for the weak point in the genjutsu. She was tired of this -exhausted of the abuse and angry at the manipulation. 'I will... defeat... this... stupid... genjutsu, Shannaro!" And with a burst of chakra, one strong enough to catch Itachi off guard, suddenly the genjutsu that infiltrated Sakura's mind was broken, and everything went dark for just the slightest of moments.
And there Sakura was, sweat streaming down her brow, exhausted. Had she finally done it?
"Itachi-nii...!" She flinched, looking around to what she knew to have been Sasuke's voice, although one more child-like and carefree than what she could remember it to be. No. She was still in a genjutsu, still stuck in her mind.
But wait... These weren't her memories. These weren't her thoughts at all, whiched begged the question, whose mind was she really in right now?
"Maybe next time, ototou." She knew this voice as well, and as the setting changed she saw Itachi, but twelve or thirteen years old, and a much younger Sasuke alongside him. "Gomen." he apologized earnestly, his hand resting on Sasuke's head.
'Why this of all memories?' Sakura seemed shocked, at odds with the scene before her as it unraveled and fell apart, and turned into a memory entirely different, of Sasuke grown up at the age of thirteen and training on his own, day and night, through sunshine and rain. And then the next memory, Sasuke looked the same, but his typical blue attire was replaced with black, and he was slightly taller and more mature, and within the next instance it was a scene Sakura recalled to have heard about, an instance in which Naruto had been training with Jiraiya and had been ambushed by Kisame and Itachi. 'That's right... Sasuke-kun had been there...'
Before she could think anything else, suddenly she was hurled backwards as the genjutsu broke, Itachi standing before her, his eyes ablaze with the Sharingan, and his hands in the typical hand sign to dispel the mind technique. There was silence in the clearing for a long time. "That'll be enough practice for today, Sakura." Without a moments notice, he turned around and walked away briskly, leaving Sakura alone and on the floor, sorely rubbing her butt.
She didn't know what to make of this, what to even think, but if there was one thing she was certain of, it was that Itachi had been watching Sasuke, from childhood into adulthood -who knew how long he had been watching over him, now? But why, and to what aims? Frankly, it made no sense to her, although something definitely stood out to Sakura.
Maybe Itachi cared more than he lead on...
"Ahhh, Jiraiya. It's about time." Tsunade had felt her former teammate long before having actually seen him, so it was no surprise that she was already speaking before he fully walked through the door.
"Such a pleasure to see you as always, Tsunade-hime." he mused, mainly to himself, even as he earned a roll of her eyes from Tsunade. "And once again, it is nice to see you as well, Kakashi." the aforementioned shinobi had been so quiet, that if it weren't for his strong chakra and the flip of a page from one of his own books, Jiraiya would have never even sensed him.
"Likewise, Jiraiya." Kakashi greeted, closing his book shut before Tsunade pummeled him, and stuffing it into one of his miscellaneous pockets.
Yet, as much as Tsunade wanted to indulge herself with some company from her friend and comrade, she was busy, and he had something that she wanted. "Well?"
Jiraiya sighed, his expression growing uncharacteristically serious. "As expected, we haven't seen or heard from them."
Tsunade bit her thumb in a contemplative fashion, clearly irritated. "It's somewhat nerve-wracking," Tsunade began, how unusually inactive and quiet they have been..."
Jiraiya had to admit it was. In recent times, Akatsuki had hardly been spotted. It had been what? A year since they made any large movements? They could offer him no clue of their whereabouts, or even of what they were up to, and why they were so dormant. They had made no attempt to capture any Jinchuuriki, and if anyone ever caught a glimpse of any of them, it was usually near Ame and Oto, not that any of them could figure out why without stepping foot in either of those countries, a feat that wasn't advised. After all, Ame was Akatsuki country, and they could not easily step foot into Oto without attracting unwanted attention.
"So long as our Jinchuuriki are safe, then we have nothing to worry about." Kakashi muttered.
"I would hardly say nothing, but from our current situation we can't do much." Tsunade admitted. "But we should still remain weary nevertheless. Clearly they are planning something, something big." Tsunade foreshadowed ominously. They were biding their time, building up their strengths until it was the perfect time to strike -it was all they could assume, and it was a scary thing to think. One Akatsuki member was hard enough to defeat on their own -what force were they gaining now? What ever it was that they were doing, it couldn't be any good for any of them. "Keep me posted if you find anything, Jiraiya. Kakashi, for now, I'm going to allow Team 7 to go out on missions with Naruto once more. For now, it seems that the risk is low."
"Hai." Kakashi and Jiraiya accepted the request in unison.
"That is all for now." Tsunade dismissed them, and as such both men exited the Hokage's tower, with talks about a new book and conducting some research this very second at the hotsprings.
"You're the supposed hero?" one of the eighteen nin before her spoke out, staring at her in near annoyance.
"I wouldn't call myself a hero, but yes, more or less." Sakura stated with a curt nod, her face expression blank and her body languid.
"You're a child." one man sneered. "I'm done with this; I knew it was too good to be true." And so he, along with two other shinobi stormed off before anything could even behind.
'Great, we haven't even started and we're down to fifteen.' Sakura could have rolled her eyes, but did not make her irritation known, keeping a relatively uninterested face expression. "Does anyone else want to leave? I'd rather you not waste my time." she bluntly stated as she looked at the rest of the men and women alike around her. Most were about her same age, with a small handful significantly young or older, somewhere along Kakashi's age, it seemed.
"How do we know this is the real deal?" A male spoke, his hair an unruly blue heap of curls on his head, younger than Sakura by at least six years. "I've heard the rumors -that you single-handedly eliminated all of the rogue-nin of Orochimaru's."
"You'll come to find that dealing with Orochimaru's rogues was the simplest things I've dealt with as of late." she didn't even bat an eyelash. "And if you don't believe me, then we'll have a test."
She knew this was so Kakashi-esque, but found this the quickest and easiest way to get them to trust her, and as such she pulled out a bell tied to a string from her pocket, letting it jingle as the breeze guided it. But suddenly she tossed it towards the miscellaneous blue-haired man, who precariously caught it, wondering if this was some sort of trap. "We'll play a little game." she began, slowly but surely shrugging of her cloak, as Konan, who had been standing alongside her the entire time, pulled it off. "I have half an hour to get this string from all of you. I don't care who holds it, I don't care how you protect it. And you know what, I'll do it using only one technique of your choosing."
The shinobi stared at her. "You're not serious, right?" It was a girl this time, someone who could be no older than seventeen years old, her brown hair cut short.
Another seemed rather excited about the challenge. "Alright, how about Taijutsu?" Truth be told, he just wanted to fight her one on one.
"That's fine, if everyone is under the same consensus." Sakura shrugged.
The fifteen shinobi looked at each other, almost as if asking "Do you care?", until the blue haired man spoke up. "Yeah, Taijutsu is fine."
"Alright. I'll give you all fifteen minutes to get acquainted to each other, and after that I'll leave. The trial will start ten minutes after my departure."
And so it had been.
"And that makes it eleven minutes and twenty one seconds." Konan stated, watching Sakura twirl the bell in her hand, half of the shinobi on the ground, panting, and the other half barely standing. She had not one scratch on her, and truthfully speaking hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Fine. You win." the man stated begrudgingly. "So what now? Do you just start training us or what?"
"Not entirely." Sakura stated. "I am giving you all the final say on whether or not you want to join my cause. But know that when you agree to this, you are not just your own person." Sakura's words seemed to echo across the clearing. "Once you join my ranks, you are becoming my family. I will work for you, I will sweat for you, and I will bleed for you if need be. All I ask is that you put that same dedication in reconstructing a nation and transform it into a peaceful and thriving society. Once you join my ranks, you will be working not for me, but for Otogakure. For a better future, one in which you can look back on and feel proud. If you choose to stay, I will expect you here bright and early tomorrow. If not, it was a pleasure meeting you."
She made to leave, but was stopped by the blue-haired boy. "What's your name?"
Sakura blinked. He wanted to know her name? "Miyuki." And just like that, Sakura and Konan gathered their belongings, and nearly in the blink of an eye they began walking away. And as confident and as cool as Sakura had seemed, she couldn't help but mutter a quick "Do you think any of them will show?" to Konan nervously.
Konan smiled. "I think you've made a very lasting impact, Miyuki." Konan muttered.
And she would come to find that all fifteen of them showed of the very next day, and the day after, and the day after that.
It was a bright, sunny day, a beautiful spring morning that personified the perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold, with just the lightest of breezes playing in the wind. As it should be for a day smack in Spring.
But on this particular day, the Rookie 9 and Team Gai, save for Sasuke, found themselves inside of a barbecue restaurant, although this occasion was not at all random. It was March 28th, to be precise, Sakura's birthday, the second one since her passing, and they had made it a tradition to have a feast for her birthday, as Sakura was likened to have if she were still around.
And although the preparations and invitations had been sent out by Naruto, Ino, and Hinata respectively, neither of them had been able to get a hold of Sasuke since the day prior. The first year had been hard -on Sasuke particularly, and as such, Ino could not blame him for his lack of willing-ness to come to this small banquet of sorts.
"Should I go find him?" Naruto offered; truth be told, he didn't want Hinata's and Ino's efforts to go to waste, to reserve months in advance this specific date, just so that everyone could get together, only for Sasuke to bail out willingly, with no regard to the amount of effort and not to mention money, that it had taken for such an event.
"Iee." Ino shook his head. "I'm sure he has his reasons for not attending." Ino stated softly. She would go and look for him after everything had settled down, as she always did, and she would make sure he didn't wallow in his depression.
It hadn't taken long for the Rookie 9 to sit and eat, and it was sometime in between this feast that Ino snuck out, having a pretty clear idea of where it was that Sasuke would be. As such, she marched her way to the cemetery where Sakura's gravestone was located, and lo and behold there the Uchiha was, sitting alongside her tomb with flowers resting on his lap, momentarily forgotten.
Ino couldn't tell what he was doing, but she could see his mouth moving, hear some sort of vocalization on his behalf, and she couldn't help but identify that Sasuke was once again talking to her grave, and the thought made Ino smile and well up with some sort of unknown happiness. She stared up at the sky then, one lingering thought on her mind.
'He truly does love you, Forehead Girl.'
She wasn't blind, nor oblivious, and because of the fact that she, along with Naruto, had designated themselves as Sasuke's sort of caretaker, they were mutually understanding of Sasuke's thought process and had a better insight on his life than anyone could give them credit for. She would watch, dutifully so, as once a month, precisely on the day of her passing, he would march his way to her grave, with either some flowers or a small meal, and he would sit there, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours depending on his schedule, and spend his time there. Sometimes he would talk, other times he would remain silent and simply enjoy his meal, but in any of these occasions, there never failed to be some sort of peaceful expression on Sasuke's face, one which Naruto and Ino had only ever caught in that very location, sitting alongside Sakura's grave.
Yes, he had come to terms with the fact that Sakura would never come back to him, to them, but Ino had been right -talking seemed to ease him, made him feel that Sakura was never too far away, and it was comforting enough for him to continue his small tradition as best he could.
Truth be told, after all this time, he still could not get over the cosmic irony of the situation. Sakura had been the careful one -the analytical one that always ended up saving their behinds someway or another. If anyone should have died it should have been him, or perhaps Naruto, and hell, even Kakashi was dangerously unpredictable, but not her. She had been a controlled variable in not just his life, but in Naruto's life, and in Kakashi's life, and even in Sai's life, so for her to have perished before any of them?
Sakura liked to play cruel jokes -it was all Sasuke could think of.
But on this particular day, this thought which was normally almost amusing to him rang especially bitter and foul in his mind. For the life of him, he could not understand why he was here, celebrating a birthday, a day commemorating another year of being alive, in front of her tombstone. But he wasn't entirely certain he could stand it, the happiness and exuberance that his teammates would no doubt be sharing at the restaurant, and as such he had opted out of their plans. He much preferred this, and it reminded him how he used to be back in the days, during the time that he had spent with Orochimaru. He had been a lone wolf, always preferring solitude and silence over any sort of company. Sakura and Naruto had changed that, but on certain days such as these he felt reverting to his old self was easiest when dealing with this sort of tragedy.
"Sasuke"
It had been but one word, which forced him to look up at his companion, although he had sensed her coming long ago. He wasn't at all surprised to see her there; she always was, and he wasn't even the least bit bothered when she began to approach him, and sat down alongside Sakura's tombstone.
"You must think me weak, right?" Sasuke mused, for some reason thinking this ordeal to be funny. He was the only one who still did this, visiting Sakura's grave every month. Sure enough, he would see people such as Ino, TenTen, Hinata, and Naruto often enough, but not a strict regiment like it was for him. And even on this most special occasion, he fled and sought refuge under the only lingering symbol of Sakura's presence.
"It beats locking yourself up in your house for the entirety of the day." Ino stated, disregarding Sasuke's statement. After all, this had been what he had done during her first birthday, despite the Rookie 9's insistence of visiting her grave once more. And just the mere fact that Sasuke was able to do so now showed a great growth in the man, and Ino couldn't be any more proud that Sasuke was deciding to honor Sakura's life in his own way. But at that comment, Sasuke's eyes turned a few shades darker as he recalled the previous year, exactly to the day, where he had nearly broken down in remorse and guilt, as if for some reason it was entirely his fault that she was no longer in Konoha.
Sensing this, Ino decided to instead change the subject. "Hinata and Naruto are as happy as ever, Forehead, although he's still nowhere near getting Tsunade's approval for becoming the next Hokage..." And so she began to speak, in a similar fashion that she knew Sasuke to have been doing, and she spoke to the grave about random topics, namely about what was going on in everyone's daily life, because she knew that this would somehow make Sasuke feel better -and it did, and soon enough they were both talking to Sakura for roughly ten minutes, until Ino decided that she had done her job in making sure Sasuke was doing okay.
"Whenever you're ready to join us, we'll be going to the Hyuga Compound for some drinks after the barbecue." Ino simply stated, getting up. She placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, an effort to show him support, and gave Sakura's tomb one last glance. "I'll see you later, Sakura." And with a silent prayer, she was off towards the restaurant, leaving Sasuke alone.
"Arigatou, Ino." he called out to her as he watched her retreating figure. She paused momentarily, but continued on her way without so much as sparing him a glance.
He had no reason to thank her, after all. This was what friends were for, and Ino knew, clear as day, that Sakura would want her to make sure that Sasuke was okay in her stead.
When Ino returned to the restaurant, she found that everyone had already left. Clearly, she had taken too long.
-Everyone but Sai, that is. "Did everyone head over to Hinata's?" she questioned, not bothering with a greeting for someone she had become quite close to in recent months. In fact, ever since their first Christmas without Sakura, it seemed he would pop up in her life often at the most random and unexpected of times. He had become a close friend, dare she say it.
"Hai." Sai confirmed. "I offered to stay behind so you did not have to walk alone to the compound."
Ino couldn't help but smile. "Arigatou, Sai. That was awfully kind of you for someone who struggles with compassion." Ino made light of his lack of social understanding and gathered her belongings, the likes of which she had left at the restaurant before heading over to the cemetery. Without further interruption both shinobi exited the establishment, heading towards the Hyuga compound at a leisure pace. It was silent between them for a long time, Ino clearly too preoccupied with her thoughts to worry about starting a conversation.
"How was he?" Sai asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. He had seen her leave discreetly, so as to not alert people of her absence, and although she and Naruto had spoken in hushed voices before departing, he knew this had much to do with one Sasuke Uchiha. Don't ask him why, because he himself could not come up with a proper answer, but he had, for a lack of better words, been keeping tabs on her in recent months, if only because he found it astonishing how much effort she put into keeping everybody's spirits high, especially in times such as these.
"He was... good..." Ino stated contemplatively. "I didn't know what to expect from him today, but he seemed to be in high spirits, all things considered." Ino smiled slightly.
"And you?"
Ino involuntarily flinched, but her smile was still plastered on her face. "What do you mean, Sai? I'm perfectly fine."
"You can't fool me of all people with those smiles, Ino." he stated simply. He was the king of fake emotions, after all. He knew everything there was to know about fake smiles and comments, and as such it was no surprise that he could see right through Ino.
Her smile faltered, her eyes gazing down in turmoil, but she did not offer him a response.
"I know you've taken it upon yourself to make sure that Sasuke is doing alright, but this burden doesn't fall solely on you -and by no means does it mean that you're not allowed to mourn however it is you want to." Yes, Sai had noticed it long ago, how Ino had hardly given herself any time too grieve for her loss, always too preoccupied with planning this event or that event, or smiling for the sake of her team, or for Sasuke or Hinata, or whoever else. She appeared incredibly strong, hand's down the backbone of the group (alongside Naruto), but Ino was a fragile woman who had lost her best friend since childhood, her long-time rival, and forcing herself to appear happy all the time was certainly not helping her cope. "You are allowed to lean on others, you know."
Sai didn't know why he even cared enough to tell her, but he could acknowledge the fact that five years ago, he would have never bothered trying to console a person. But Sakura and Naruto had changed him, and they opened the doors to a different world for him, a world filled with sentiment and emotions, and feelings of pain which he would have otherwise never come across had it not been for them. As such, he couldn't help but sympathize with Ino, and although he had his more reserved and confined ways of mourning the loss of someone so important to him, he began to understand that everyone had a different way of dealing.
Sasuke never liked to talk about it
Ino tried to cope with it by making others happy
Hinata was oddly at peace with it, always smiling and speaking happily of past instances with her
Naruto grinned proudly and stated that Sakura would see him be Hokage, from wherever she was
Kakashi never let anyone in and tip-toed around the subject
Tsunade refused to talk about it unless drunk
Shizune still had mixed sentiments about the entire ordeal and immersed herself in her work when days like these came about
And he -well, he painted.
But Ino's way of coping was definitely the most self-sacrificing, and Sai knew that it would break her eventually if she didn't change her ways. As such, he had volunteered to wait for her, as he had done several times before in the past two years, if only to indicate to her that if she needed to lean on someone, he would be her backbone if she needed it.
She smiled and looked at him then, although Sai could clearly see all the pain in her eyes, how distraught she was over the matter.
She didn't know why, but Sai seemed to be the only one capable of seeing how badly she was hurting, and it brought her immense comfort to hear his words. "Arigatou, Sai..." He had brought up topics she would have preferred he not, and now she could feel herself slipping, becoming much too vulnerable than she would have preferred.
"I believe the reunion will continue well enough without us." Sai decided. "Come with me."
There had been a ruckus at the center of the village, a large crowd of people (nearly the entire city and then some) gathered at the town square to watch a women with remarkably green eyes and blonde hair speaking atop the Daimyo's balcony, and in the steps beneath her at least a hundred shinobi. "People of Otogakure." Her voice seemed to boom from all sorts of directions. "The time of suffering for this nation has gone on too long. It is time that we put an end to this, and start anew...-" and so her speech began, in which she stated all she had accomplished in these past three years, all of the shinobi she had helped train, and all of Orochimaru's ex-followers she had helped rid Sound of, and all of the hospitals she had opened and the roads she had constructed and the work she had created, although many of the people below already knew all of her accomplishments. "Accordingly, as long as there are no objections, I would like to nominate myself for the position of a new Otokage, one who promises to put worth all of her strength and effort to reconstruct Sound, better than ever."
And as her speech came to a close and she was allowed a moment's breath, suddenly cheers erupted from all corners of the city, telling Sakura all she needed to know.
"This is a New Day for Otogakure. So tonight, we cheer to a brighter future."
The cheers continued, perhaps for five minutes, perhaps for an hour -Sakura was too elated to note the time, as she entered the Daimyo's building, where she found the aforementioned Daimyo, accompanied by Konan, Kisame and Itachi (of course henge'd), and two more shinobi officially garnering a Sound hitae-ate.
"You did it! You're officially the Otokage!" the blue haired boy stated in exuberant excitement.
"Calm down Akira. My work isn't done just because I've gained the title." she allowed herself to ruffle the boys as always unruly hair.
"Congratulations. You have earned the hearts of the people. Good luck keeping it." the Daimyo hardly seemed impressed -this Otokage would be no different from the previous one, he was sure.
But Sakura hardly cared about what the Daimyo thought as it was. "We shall celebrate this small victory tonight, and work out the details another day." she decided with a smile.
"A new Otokage has been named." Tsunade's fists tightened at the news from her ANBU.
"And of the rumors?" she asked.
"We cannot confirm anything other than that sightings of Akatsuki have increased irregularly in that area over the year."
"Very well, you're dismissed." Tsunade stated, her mind on other matters. She had tasked Jiraiya on getting information from this so called new Kage, and she had yet to hear back from him -she swore if he was wasting her time and was at the strip club right now, she'd have his head on a silver platter.
Almost as if he could sense his impending doom by her hands, suddenly there was a puff of smoke in her office, as said gray-haired Sannin appeared using a Body Flicker technique. "Ahh, just the teammate I wanted to see." he stated with a goofy grin.
"You're in my office, don't act like this was a coincidence." she stated irritably. "But never mind that. I assume you've obtained what I asked of you." She waited expectantly.
"Hai... sort of." Jiraiya confirmed. And as he stated this, he pulled out a file from within his robes, and tossed it on top of Tsunade's desk, allowing her to grab it and read over its contents.
"Miyuki..." she muttered as she scanned the file. "So I ask for information, and you get me her name. You couldn't even get me her picture Jiraiya, really?" clearly, Tsunade was annoyed.
"That was my problem. No matter where I went or who I turned to, absolutely nobody had any information on her. Who she was, where she came from, if she had any family, or even what her favorite color is. I couldn't even get a last name for you. It's like she wasn't alive until last year." Jiraiya stated, somewhat troubled by this. "But one thing I was able to confirm is that she does have clear connections to Akatsuki, although the circumstances aren't clear to us."
"Well if Akatsuki's involved it can't be anything good for us, so it doesn't quite matter what those circumstances are."
"I suppose, but..." Jiraiya seemed hesitant to continue his train of thought.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "But what?"
"But you should pry into what you have failed to ask of your ANBU." Jiraiya stated, although Tsunade didn't seem to understand what he was implying. "Have you heard of Sound's economic standing now?"
"I've heard tid-bits." Tsunade brushed it aside.
"She's built hospitals and schools all across the lands. She's constructed roads and set up a police force just within the span of a year. She's in the midst of creating a Ninja Academy and has eliminated all of Orochimaru's influence in the land. She doesn't look like someone trying to obtain power."
Tsunade let this information sink in. She had done all of this when she had barely been officially named as Kage but a week prior? She had been busy, that's for sure. So what was her agenda? Her purpose for doing all of this? "She's trying to win her people over..."
"Yeah... and it's worked; remarkably so, in fact." Jiraiya seemed to find some humor in it. After all, this kunoichi was succeeding in all of the areas his former teammate (the one not currently Hokage) had failed. Where Orochimaru had only cared about possible test subjects, she genuinely cared about cleaning up the mess he made.
"Why is this relevant, Jiraiya?" she asked with a sigh.
"Maybe we shouldn't accuse her of having malicious intentions so soon. She has yet to take any harmful action against anyone, so maybe we should see how things play out before making assumptions and acting against her." he reasoned.
"It's not like I was planning to anyhow." Tsunade sighed. After all, taking violent action against a previous nation, now fallen, would make it look like Konoha was trying to spread out and obtain new land, an action that would clearly not bode well with the other Kages. As things stood, her hands were tied."Keep me in the loop."
"As you wish, Lady Tsunade."
"To our new Otokage." Sera stated, opening up a bottle of apple cider (no alcohol for her little munchkins, after all).
"Cheers!" they all shouted in excitement, Kisame and Konan quick to swallow the bubbly drink. It had been four hours since Sakura was officially declared the new Otokage, and she could still not believe it. Her. Sakura Haruno, the one nobody paid attention to during her Genin years, had now surpassed her teammates and all of her Rookie 9 in title. The without a kekkei genkai or without a notable clan or a tailed beast. The more average than average kunoichi with exotic hair color, Haruno Sakura.
"I would like to make a toast." Sakura stated with a smile on her face, "to all of you, for helping me realize my dream, and working so hard to make this happen for me." And it was true. She would have never been able to accomplish all of this had it not been for the help of Itachi or Konan or Kisame, or even Sera. And not to mention the financial backing of Akatsuki. Until just recently, she had been running her operations using the finances of Akatsuki, and had barely began taking donations from the village just a month before being officially branded as their Kage. "Tomorrow will be busy for all of us. So try and get a good night's sleep. We begin our operations of creating our Ninja Academy tomorrow."
Even though she stated this, she had no intention of following her own advice, seeing as three hours later, and mind you it was already midnight by the time that everyone left Sera's house, she was still at the desk in her own home, doing away with paperwork and reading up on a mind-numbing amount of things. Konan had accordingly gone to sleep in a spare bedroom they had constructed in Sera's household, while Kisame and Itachi were left to follow Sakura back to her own place, where they would be left to fight for the remaining spare in there.
"You're working too hard again, Pinky." Kisame was casually laying on the couch behind Sakura's desk area, already accepting of his Fate to forever sleep on the couch, as he tossed a ball up and down in an idle manner.
"Am not." Sakura muttered, not entirely paying attention, too focused on her work.
"Kisame is right, Sakura." Itachi's sudden voice, spoken so close to her, made her visibly jolt upwards in surprise, an action which earned her a snort of amusement from Kisame.
"Kami Itachi, must you always do that?" she sighed in frustration, placing a hand over her heart, a means of depicting her faster than normal heart rate.
"Do not blame me for your lack of awareness." Itachi dismissed Sakura's pout. "Furthermore, if you could not even sense me, clearly you lack sleep, as Kisame implied." Nevertheless, he placed a warm cup of tea alongside Sakura, a tradition he had become accustomed to over the years of them working closely alongside each other.
"Yeah, and privacy." Sakura retorted, although both Kisame and Itachi knew she didn't mean it. "You two can go to sleep without me, y'know? There's no point in waiting up."
"We'll at least keep you company." Kisame dismissed Sakura's concern.
"I'll be done in a few minutes, I promise." Sakura stated. "At least one out of the three of us needs to be fully awake for tomorrow's proceedings with the Daimyo." she quirked a smile, taking a short break from her work to turn on her seat, so that she could properly address her two Akatsuki friends, as she gripped the small teacup Itachi had placed by her side.
"I respectfully decline, and instead request you worry about yourself more than us. Do we seem that inept?" Itachi raised an eyebrow, although they all knew this was Itachi's attempt at "humor."
"Do I?" she challenged with a daring sort of taunting expression playing in her eyes.
Yet, it seemed Itachi had no haughty response to this, and as such remained silent and walked away. "A few more minutes, Sakura." he repeated her words.
Sakura scoffed, and turned back around to face her work. "Hai, hai." Yet, Sakura hardly paid any attention to the time, as it began ticking by yet again. But Sakura was exhausted, truth be told, and it wasn't much longer than an hour after Itachi had retired to the spare room, the new installment to Sakura's previous one-bedroom home, that Sakura ended up passing out on the desk. This was not at all to mean that Itachi, nor Kisame, had actually followed her advice and had gone to sleep, though. Promptly after she had fallen asleep, almost as if they were synchronized in their mechanics, Kisame and Itachi got up and walked over to the hunched kunoichi, her mouth slightly apart with a slow trail of drool making its way down her face.
"She is incorrigible." Itachi seemed dismayed, a clear frown on his features. He had a blanket in his hand, one he carefully wrapped against her small frame, even as Kisame laughed at his actions.
"You dote after her like a mother hen, Itachi." Kisame mused.
"I wouldn't need to if she took care of herself." Itachi ignored Kisame's statement, picking up the empty cup of tea and walking it towards the kitchen. And, almost as if he were accustomed to it, Kisame began to turn off the light on her desk, and daintily picked up the kunoichi currently passed out. Truth be told, neither of them had any intention of going to sleep before seeing to it that Sakura did too.
As such, it had been their duty, for the nth time because they had lost count by now, to clean up after Sakura, turn off all the lights, and pick up her dainty figure and carry her to her room, and of course, make sure she was tucked in well, for they both knew she got cold too easily.
It was actually quite remarkable to see how far they had fallen from their former glory -their power, which rivaled that of Kages, and here they were, their sole duty to care for the girl drooling on herself, and tucking her into bed when she failed to do so for herself. If Itachi was the mother hen, as Kisame had dubbed him, then the shark-nin would be akin to the protective older brother to Sakura, so he had no room to speak so haughtily, honestly.
Sakura came to bright and early, no thanks to Itachi pulling aside the blinds that were blocking the light from Sakura's sleeping form. She groaned, one Itachi had heard often in the past years, due to Sakura's adamant protest of Itachi's disregard of the "five more minutes" rule. And despite Kisame's agreement, that this was a rule that should be honorably upholded, Itachi ignored them both and went on with his day.
"Breakfast at Sera's is almost done. You and Kisame are the only ones to yet wake."
Yet, she either couldn't understand him yet, or chose not to listen to him, as she attempted to cover her face with a pillow -a useless action, as Itachi had already seen this coming and had removed said pillow from her hands before she could even move it an inch. She growled, a non-threatening puppy-like one, as she instead chose her duvet for said action of covering her face. "Itachi you're insufferable."
"It's not my job to let you sleep in, Sakura." he muttered. "As I recall, you are the one who did not want to go to sleep when you told you to."
"Blah blah blah." Sakura scowled, and promptly afterwards the blankets were suddenly hurled off of Sakura, ripped from her tight grasp as it was instead tossed to the floor.
"Up." he insisted sternly once more.
"But I'm so tired." she nearly cried out in agony -and for Kami's sake, why was it so damn cold?!
"You have five minutes." he gave her a pointed look, said no more, and walked away, closing the door to Sakura's bedroom behind him.
And so there Sakura lay, cold and groggy, her hair a disarray and her cheeks tinted pink. Because she knew she had fallen asleep at her desk, and that Kisame and Itachi had more than likely tucked her into bed, as they always did, because she was too stubborn to listen to them even when a part of her knew them to be right. Her inner swore she did this on purpose, secretly liking being doted over as if she were a child. But to be honest, how could she not? When had anyone heard of Akatsuki tucking people in and wrapping blankets around them? Nevertheless, she didn't want Itachi coming back and reprimanding her for still being in bed. As such, she stood up abruptly, stretching all the while she walked outside of her room and into the living room, where she could see Kisame still snoring his life away.
"Rise and shine sleeping beauty." she was not the least bit gentle with the shark nin, pulling the blankets off of him and, playfully, of course, tipping the entire couch over, causing the nin to fall off with an uncharacteristic yelp, of which she couldn't help but snicker at.
"Must you always do that." his statement was mumbled, due to his face's current position on the ground.
"If Itachi won't let me sleep peacefully what makes you think I will let you sleep in?" Sakura snickered, clearly amused. "Anyhow, Sera's breakfast is nearly served. I'm going to go shower, don't wait up." And so she fixed her furniture and briskly turned around, heading towards her bathroom.
Although Kisame grumbled in defiance, he couldn't deny the fact that breakfast sounded delightful right now -especially Sera's.
When Sakura had emerged from her bathroom fully dressed, she found her home deserted, although she could clearly feel the presence of her comrades just a block away at Sera's house, the likes of which had doubled in size with a little bit of funding from Sakura and Akatsuki respectively, in order to accommodate the appearance of the likes of Sakura, Kisame, Konan, and every so often, a couple of her most trusted shinobi such as Akira.
Before heading out, Sakura allowed herself time to examine her appearance, for the very first time dressed in traditional Kage-like attire, a hat similar to that of her former shishou's placed on her head. But instead of the red color she was oh-so familiar with, a purple one took its place atop her head, one she adamantly disliked because of its eerie resemblance to the snake nin. Alas, she could not be picky about the color.
It was odd to see herself standing there, officially titled as the Nidaime Otokage; she would never have imagined herself to be in this position, leading a nation, let alone a nation not her own, but here she was, and there was no turning back. That being said, she turned around and without so much as a second glance to her appearance.
She could hear the commotion of her comrades long before she had actually entered Sera's house, although she hadn't expected any less from the rambunctious group, although this was probably due primarily to Sera, Kisame, and Suki and Suzuki. Although, strangely enough, it seemed to have died down by the time she approached the door, not that she could understand why.
And so she opened it, needing no invitation, and to her surprise, the table lay set an array of delicious food forming a buffet in front of her, all of her friends already sitting down, waiting for her arrival. "Good morning everyone." she greeted calmly.
"Congratulations, Sakura-oneesama~!" Suki and Suzuki shouted excitedly.
Although a smile framed her face, Sakura couldn't help but sigh. "We already celebrated last night. There truly was no need for such a feast, Sera." she reminded the two girls, putting a hand on each of their hands as she walked in and took a seat in between Itachi and Konan, a bow of gratitude sent to Sera all the while.
"Think of this as a feast fit for a Kage." Sera brushed her aside.
"I tried to tell her, but she wouldn't budge on the matter." Konan stated calmly, although she wasn't opposed to the quantity of the food (Kisame always ended up eating half of it anyway).
"She never does." Sakura mused. "But never mind that. What's on our agenda today?"
"We have a meeting with the Daimyo in the hidden village in two hours. We are to begin discussing the preparations for the Ninja Academy as well as delegate roles for head of staff for the programs we are establishing." Konan stated.
Sakura nodded. "The paperwork on the matter is already completed. I'll give it to Akira to file and sort out upon our arrival, and we'll sort out the rest later." For now, she would have a nice breakfast with her make-shift family, and worry about the less than accommodating Daimyo she would have to deal with from now on.
The Daimyo, with a characteristic frown on his face, looked over the paperwork that Miyuki had created for him to look at, including budget, prices, blue prints, and any other information she had deemed relevant enough to include. They had been discussing plans for well over an hour now, and still he could not say that he was entirely pleased with her plans, not that she hadn't been concise enough or anything like that -she had planned it nearly to the last detail. "And how do you plan to fund this project of yours?" he asked condescendingly.
"If you refuse to participate, as you have with every other project I have started for your village, then I shall make due with my own resources, though I will not hesitate to ask for donations from the village." Miyuki stated, not afraid to show some passive-aggressive malice. It was understandable that the Daimyo didn't want to lend out money, especially not to a stranger, when money was hard to come to in these lands. But after three years of building hospitals and schools and roads and becoming Kage for Kami's sake, her intentions were clear, but still he did not budge, if only to keep his funds.
"I am not opposed to the changes you are making, make no mistake of that, Miyuki." the Daimyo narrowed his eyes. "By returning us to a status of a Hidden Village, you will indeed increase income and gross value of Otogakure. But you are also bringing on politics only shinobi's bring to the table; a messy side of politics I would rather not be a part of, especially if the rumors of your so-called funding are true." the Daimyo stated warily.
"I am well aware of what I am doing." Miyuki clipped in. It was definitely dangerous business what Sakura was getting them involved in; shinobi life style only ever meant trouble and warfare in the long run, but it was a necessary sacrifice. "And as for your concern, if I didn't get my funding from them would you have helped?" she raised a delicate eyebrow, but the seconds ticked by and the Daimyo didn't respond. "I didn't think so. Are we done here?"
"...I'll be in touch." he finally grumbled, and with a nod Sakura turned around and walked away, two shinobi following behind her, both with blue hair, but only one an Akatsuki member.
They walked swiftly and purposely outside of the Daimyo's building, and it wasn't until they were finally out that Akira let out a sight of relief. "Do you think it's really okay to speak that way to the Daimyo, Lady Miyuki?"
"He wouldn't dare to say anything against me. He knows what I'm doing will eventually bring him loads more income; he's such a greedy old bag whose in it for the money." Miyuki stated. "You should learn the politics, lest you take my place in the future."
At the comment, now matter how absent-mindedly Sakura had said it, Akira couldn't help but blush profusely. "I-I-I could never Lady Miyuki! I would never be able to surpass the reputation you have carved."
His reaction was priceless, down to the nervous, Hinata-esque way he played with his fingers. As such, Sakura couldn't help herself from ruffling his unruly hair, a chuckle escaping her mouth. "Have more confidence in yourself Akira."
Before any more words could be spoken between them, a figure appeared with a puff of smoke, a person who Sakura knew to be Itachi, of course henge'd. Sakura raised an eyebrow, knowing that Itachi must have some urgent news to tell her if he appeared before her so informally. "Is something the matter?" she asked.
"Sayaka says you have received a letter in your office early this morning."
"A letter?" If it had been Akatsuki, it would have been delivered via Konan or Itachi respectively, and who else would be trying to speak to her other than Pein? "Who is it from?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You may see for yourself." Somehow, Sakura didn't like the answer that Itachi had given her, and as such she wasted to time. "Inform Sayaka to bring the letter to my office. Akira, give me the papers to sign; I'll get started on them while I wait."
"Hai, Lady Miyuki." Akira bowed, and at once handed Sakura her documents. Within a moment's notice, she had disappeared with a puff of smoke, and in the next second she was back in her office, wasting no time in signing off on the papers she had acquired from the Daimyo.
Within the next few minutes, Sayaka, a kunoichi that had stood alongside Akira during their first meeting, approached her with a bow. "I have the letter you have requested, Otokage-sama." she stated calmly.
"Who is it from?" She asked the question Itachi had refused to answer.
"It says here its from the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure, Lady Miyuki."
Her scribbling halted, a small ink blob forming at the corner of her signature. Truth be told, that had been the one thing she hadn't expected to hear. "Bring it here. You're free to go, Sayaka-chan." she ordered, and with a bow her secretary did just that, and then promptly dismissed herself to finish her other duties.
Sakura sighed, eyeing the scroll but eventually tossing it on her desk, without even opening it.
What could her former mentor possibly want?
P.S. Sakura's new name, Miyuki, translates to "snow". I re-named her this because she was reborn in the snow (winter time), in essence =] That is all.
So here it is! THE LONG AWAITED PROLOGUE! I do truly truly truly hope that it met everybody's standards. I tried my best to not make this one so repetitive to the ItaxSaku version, but unfortunately, there are several events that overlap. This will be, for the most part, the main similarity between them though.
This prologue is a wee bit shorter than the other one due to a longer flashback, but they both end on exactly the same lines/events.
Moving on, a lot of you may be wondering what I'm going to do as for as updating goes, and I have to be honest, I don't know just yet. I'm going to say the average time will be one chapter a month, but if I'm trying to update both sequels at the same time, then I might not be able to do this deadline. I'll let you guys know how well I'm able to balance the work load on top of school and life. Yet, despite this, the new chapters for these will probably not be posted for another 2 months. I want to give myself more time to work on Sakura's New Future and Somewhere We Belong before picking up on this again. I'm sorry about that!
Let me know what you all think?Above all else, as the first 3-4 chapters are up, I'd like to know if the stories are too repetitive, or too similar to each other. There's no point in me making two separate stories if the plots end up looking near identical, after all.
Any and all feedback would be much appreciated! Until next time!
Check my profile for updates on my latest projects and update times!
-MarzSpy