I own nothing.
Atrophy.
Old summary: Team Seven has rotted. Tsunade Senju is dead. Danzo has taken the throne. The Uchiha clan always fears and Leaf's enemies always plot. But there's always hope, isn't there? Non-massacre. AU. Rated for swearing, violence, licks of horror/gore. Dark!AU. Multichar but mostly two main characters.
a/n: Before you read this. [June 12, 2017]
When I started writing Atrophy a year ago, I wanted to write a fanfic that was honest about characters in the Shinobi world. So the rambling prose and lack of plotty elements was just my way of focusing more on the characters and all the little things that affect each other. Recently, on discord, I had a discussion with a couple of people about "bullying" in the Shinobi world. The way it is encouraged, the way it's cyclical.
Another thing is that Atrophy gets dark. The original summary contained Tsunade's death. This doesn't really change. Tsunade will be a tragic hero, and Sakura will grow into her element—unhealthily even. I just want to tell you the story of how we get there.
Based on that knowledge, I went back and edited Atrophy. Special thanks to enbi, CJ and snogs. Also to all the reviewers who have encouraged me over the year.
Thank you for reading.
.
.
.
'Rubble, blood and bodies filled the streets as people tried to escape. There was only chaos.' This is how reports describe the Kyuubi attack.
The Sandaime directed orders left and right as he approached the gargantuan form of the Kyuubi. Kushina Uzumaki reigned the beast in with her family technique. But the beast was stark raving mad, the professor wrote. It writhed and howled, and something was wrong. If Mito Uzumaki's accounts of the kyuubi were reliable, in which it was a malicious beast who looked for every opportunity to undermine her. A smart, thinking beast.
So, the Professor assumed that there was something underhanded at play when it drew its claw and smashed the ground, but at the same time assumptions were deadly things.
Regardless of his conclusion, he was distracted when he realized why Kushina Uzumaki was bearing the Kyuubi down.
"Minato! Kushina!" he yelled. "Minato no!"
An ugly dread filled him, because he realized that he was too late. Too late. The Fourth had already summoned the Shinigami. And thus, the great beast was restored into the belly of the Fourth's son. With a dying cry, the maddened beast tried to jab its future prisoner with its claw. A vain attempt.
Husband and wife used their bodies to protect their newborn son and the beast pierced right through them.
Records state that the Kyuubi cursed the village when he dissipated. Future academy textbooks would say that the Yondaime defeated the great fox and became a Hero. The professor thinks that that might as well be true. The Yondaime was a hero.
So, husband and wife fell gracefully together, and the Fourth's arms wrapped around his wife. His wife whispered promises to her baby-boy as they were brought down to their knees. He rested his chin on her shoulder and looked down on his son.
"Promise me you'll be a good boy, Naruto," she said. Blood bubbled from her mouth when she smiled. Her husband clutched her tighter. "Promise me you'll eat your ramen. You won't cause too much trouble, and you'll be a good boy."
"Minato! Kushina!" The Sandaime screamed, throat raw. "No!"
Medics rushed to their aid.
Future records would only state that the Sandaime arrived in time to hear Minato Namikaze's last words. His wife's cooling body lay within the crook of his arm. Their baby boy bawled on his other side. The professor writes in later accounts that he wishes things didn't end up this way. In another life, where people weren't as cruel—Naruto would be raised with loving parents.
"Lord Hokage…" the Yondaime whispered. "There is an intruder into this village. There is a murderer still loose on these streets. He's not of the village but I suspect he was of the village."
Someone barked for the medic to move faster behind them.
"What do you mean?" the Professor asked. He applied pressure to Minato's wounds as he held his head up. "Speak Minato! Stay with me boy. You can't die on me. You can't die on your son!"
The Yondaime's lips dripped with blood when he spoke.
"He had the sharingan."
"Minato…"
The newly arrived medic—who caught the tail end of the conversation—stiffened. The Sandaime's gaze was directly on Minato's face.
"He had the sharingan, but he was…not of…Konoha."
"He was not of the Uchiha clan?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked. "Are they the culprits responsible for the attack?"
"He…was…not…I don't know…but the murderer on these streets...he aims to sow discord into the village..." he croaked out. "He aims to use the Uchiha clan to destroy it…protect the village…Sandaime-sama. For my student Obito, for the sake of my friend Fugaku, please do not release your wrath on the clan."
The medic barked orders in the background, and the baby cried bitterly into the cold rankling air, and the Sandaime widened his eyes and cradled the Fourth's head.
"Minato." His voice cracked. "You can't die before me! Not before you see your son walk!"
His pleas were lost in the sudden exclamations of the medics saying
"We've lost his pulse!" and "The Fourth is..."
Their little baby boy cried harder.
.
.
.
As for the intruder?
The irony cut like kunai against his regenerating skin on his stomach made by the Fourth's rasengan.
He hated his kin. His head buzzed with sick memories of dead brothers and dead people and red eyes like blood. Cursed flesh of cursed flesh, he bit out curses at the sky. Because it gave him strength.
"Soon. All of you will die. You foolish cursed clansmen."
But the Uchiha district vacated in the light of the Kyuubi attack, which is why this was the safest and most familiar route. There was not a single Uchiha here. Every adult and child was evacuated. He then heard someone nearby.
"Itachi!"
It was a boy. A young boy with tousled, wind-swept hair. He looked to be seven.
"Itachi, where are you! This is not funny!" the boy called out. The boy sensed him then. He glanced at him. Tobi entertained thoughts of being a boogie man with tattered clothes—like the ones in his grandmother's tales.
He tilted his head.
"Who are you?" the boy asked. He pulled out his kunai from his back pocket.
"Who wants to know?" Tobi rasped back.
There was a sort of familiarity about the boy. Of sun-kissed days, silly shenanigans, scabbed toes and the sound of a rasping, gurgling "Obi-nii!" He recognized the boy, but it didn't matter because the boy wouldn't recognize him.
And then very lazily, Tobi flung a kunai at the boy. The child dodged. He picked himself up immediately. He had the lightness of a child's body and the reflexes of a shinobi. Also he had the sharingan. Seven years old and he had the sharingan.
But despite this, the boy didn't move to attack immediately. A smart move, Tobi thought.
He was a prodigy.
"So, you have the sharingan too."
The boy said nothing.
"Pity," Tobi said. "So young, and so many dreams snuffed out. You'll probably die an unfortunate death at the hands of your village, which is why I don't have time to mess with you. Shoo." He waved his hand like he waved a dog away. The boy didn't budge. Instead, his eyes narrowed—no doubt calculating the distance between them, the dexterity and agility of his blows, and his chances of winning the fight.
What a blithering idiot. "You really want to die, don't you?"
Tobi really, really didn't want to kill an Uchiha. He had a lot of elaborate schemes, and killing an Uchiha directly interfered with his agenda. And Tobi's agenda was to turn the clan against the village and the village against the clan.
He decided to act upon a whim. Maybe one shut mouth wouldn't—
"Shisui!"
Something inside his fragmented mind jolted with familiarity at the sound of that voice. He dodged an arsenal of shuriken. They flew through his body. One of them had ripped through the fabric of his sleeve as he teleported to the roof of a house.
Tobi blandly removed the shuriken from his sleeve and twirled it on the edge of his pinky.
"And the freakshow just keeps going on and on and on—"
"Who are you?!"
That's when it struck him. Tousled hair, blazing sharingan and a reminder of Kagami Uchiha. Kagami's grandson. Tobi made the connection. His eyes flickered over to the man. He murmured something to his son.
"Otousan?" Tobi picked up on the boy's whisper. "Who is he?"
"Shisui stay back," he said. "This opponent is dangerous." He narrowed his eyes.
Well then, he dilly dallied too long here. He wasn't about to fight Kagari Uchiha, and whatever kinsmen his cursed clan pit him against. He moved to leave, but it was too late. Then the man's eyes lit red. First form. Then the second and then pin-wheels. The Mangekyou Sharingan. Tobi's own eyes spun behind his mask, but he couldn't—he wasn't fast enough.
"This is one of the strongest Mangekyou techniques! Mirror of Truth!" the man said.
When did he—
His mask unwound, and something which felt like tiny hands peeled off his skin. His feet left the ground. The world tunnelled, and the world bent and twisted till his body curved into and towards the tunnel, and propelled him forward into the sudden burst of light at the end of the tunnel.
"Mirror of Truth" was one of those techniques that shattered illusions and allowed people to see your past, your present and your future—all within a fraction of a minute.
One. Two. Two and half. "You will not escape!" Kagari said. Three. "You will not harm this village, intruder! May the mirror of truth reveal your intentions toward Konoha!" Four. Five.
Five and half.
All his plans, his careful premediated plans were rippedout of his mind. All his hard work, all of his secrets, all of them were stripped. Exposed.
Six.
Kagari faltered. It took him six fucking seconds. Six fucking seconds.
"You are…"
Kagari Uchiha stared at him, first with familiarity and then with pain. Tobi grit his teeth and howled. Kagari's technique receded.
The only problem was that Mirror's Truth was exhaustive and took a significant portion of Kagami's chakra. The real reason why it wasn't so well known is because Kagari hardly used it much at all.
"Get out!" Tobi rasped.
Pity.
"Obi…to?"
"Hello Uncle," Tobi felt the cool casing of his mask over his cheek-bones once again. He felt the night air dance through his hair. Kagari's eyes swirled.
Wicked don't rest, and neither do Tobi's fingers.
The world spun around them once more.
"Obito…why?" Kagari whispered again. His mind still reeling with images of old founding fathers and dead crushes and fallen rocks. "What have you done?"
It was Kagari's hesitance to act that day, which caused Shisui to lose a father and also alter the future of Konoha. It was Tobi's erratic persistence that day, which won him the fight but lost him much more.
"I can't let you live. Sorry, Uncle."
Kagari moved back to guard himself. He was too slow. Tobi rammed his hand through the man's chest, smashing through his ribs, tearing its way past the tissue, the blood, the flesh and towards the beating organ, pulling him into the Kamui.
"But at least your eyes will be useful for my work." Six seconds. Six seconds. That's all it took for all his plans to get ruined.
He reached for the man's eyes with his free hand. Kagari snapped his lids shut.
"Not so f-fast…" Kagari choked. He reached for the tag underneath his sleeve of his ANBU outfit. Before Obito could react, the man blew himself up into a blast of flesh. It rained blood onto the streets below.
Tobi pulled back his charred arms.
"Your…plans won't work…" Kagari's last words filled Obito's head. "You will…not…win…"
Tobi saw Shisui run up to his father's fallen body, or what was left of it. There was an arm here, a leg there and a torso somewhere else.
His young, intelligent eyes spun with the Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Otousan!" Shisui screamed. His tears streamed down his cheek and a single red tear fell. "Otousan! No!"
Obito glanced away from the scene.
The Kamui spiraled to a close, and it was like the fall of a heavy curtains on the play.
.
.
.
Young Shisui witnessed his father's death, and his testimony was enough for people to know the "true cause of the Kyuubi attack." Weakened, Konoha rebuilt from the ground up, and they began the search for this intruder. The death of one of their most prominent clansmen angered the Uchiha clan.
And in this life, Konoha doesn't blame the Uchiha for the attack, because the Sandaime honored the Yondaime's wish for peace. For a Konoha that worked together.
While yes, Tobi miscalculates the effect of the Kyuubi attack on his foolish cursed clansmen, the Uchiha do plot. But only in the thick of the night—murmurs and complaints. There are no massacres in this story. Only Danzo bides his time in the thick of Leaf's roots.
The records state that the death-toll, shinobi and civilian, rose to 200. Konoha never lets her injustices lay forgotten, and the Sandaime makes sure of that.
Even if it wasn't in his life-time, he'd bring the intruder to see the face of Konoha's wrath.
.
.
.
Twelve years later, Orochimaru attacked the village with the help of Suna.
Construction took place on one half of the village. The council and the clan-council met to discuss the next Hokage candidate and how.
Orochimaru defeated the Sandaime, but the wayward Saanin fled with his arms sealed. Nearly thirty percent of the village suffered damages. But it was nothing that Konoha couldn't recover from.
The remaining Sand shinobi were detained. There were negotiations about the new Hokage. Kakashi Hatake. Jiraiya.
Incompetent, the council argued. Morons who read and wrote porn in broad day-light. Jiraiya would never returnto the village as a resident Hokage. He wasn't cut out for the life. Hatake…well…they shuddered to think of all the excuses he had for being late for important meetings.
Like being lost on the road of life.
Moving on.
Itachi Uchiha, Fugaku suggested.
Too young, the council replied.
The council eventually decided on a candidate. They seem like the only candidate who would sit long hours, make responsible decisions and do paper-work, not skive off work to go peep on women, or read inappropriate subject matter during meetings.
Fugaku Uchiha was horrified. Hiashi Hyuuga was not amused. Shikaku Nara sighed. Chouza Akimichi and Inoichi Yamanaka exchanged humored looks.
"The Legendary Loser? Tsunade would use the village funds to pay off her debt!" Homura said.
"In all of the Land of Fire, she is the only worthy candidate at the moment," Koharu said and glanced at the clan head. "Unless one of our esteemed clan-heads have better ideas."
"Shisui Uchiha," Fugaku said. "The Uchiha clan has plenty of worthy candidates."
"Too valuable to be Hokage," one of the council member argued. "He is better off in the Fire Daimyo's elite guard squad."
At the time, Shimura Danzo was not present for the meeting. But no one voted him in, and neither was the Aburame clan present. Nara Shikaku assumed that Shibi was far too busy with his clan duties. Whatever those might be.
"Yes Uchiha," Hiashi snapped. He wasn't about to lose to an Uchiha. "Just weaponry and a little bit of skill does not guarantee the makings of a good Hokage. You need experience and age. Tsunade Senju really does make an excellent choice."
But convincing Tsunade Senju was another feat, Shikaku Nara thought.
.
.
.
White sheets, cream walls and the incessant beeping of the machines was all he listened to in the past two days.
Sasuke had been in a coma since his fight with Gaara of the Sand. He and a bunch of genin had managed to stall Shukaku long enough for the Bijuu to actually wreck havoc on the village.
Sasuke hadn't woken up in two days, and Itachi hadn't slept in two days.
There was a slight knock on the door.
"Come in," Itachi called out. "It's open."
The door clicked, and in entered a girl with a shock of pink hair and scared green eyes. She widened her eyes at the sight of him. He didn't have any energy left to console her.
"Sorry! I'm just here to see him," she squeaked.
"That's fine," he said. "Who are you again?"
"Sakura Haruno, sir," the girl said. "I'm his team-mate."
His brother had brought over his team-mates for dinner, and Itachi hadn't been present. But at first glance, the girl didn't strike him as a shinobi. Pink hair. Long pink hair. Bright green eyes. Harunos weren't a clan, they were probably civilian then. The past six to eight months had been a trying time for him.
"Aa…" he said. The girl fumbled with her hands.
"I'm s-sorry. I'll come back at a better time."
"No that's fine. You can stay. Just shut the door."
"Okay."
She shut the door and it rattled to a close. A bit harder than expected. She squeaked half-an-apology, and scraped the chair towards the two brothers—apologized again—and sat down. She wrung the hem of her red dress and then very softly said, "Are you his older brother?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
She wrung the hem of her dress like you'd wring a rag of water. Twist it in, let go. Twist it. Let go. He endured a few minutes of silence before he heard her talk again.
"I…have something to say."
Itachi inclined his head in her direction.
"It's my fault that your brother is in this coma."
She might be just being modest. Most team-mates carry some sort of burden of guilt, because they happened to be in the same place at the same time. It's just a misfortunate series of events. ANBU always blamed themselves when something went wrong within a team. A casuality—
"Sasuke stepped between me and a fatal blow because I couldn't move. I'm sorry, he tried to save me, because I closed my...eyes."
What? Itachi thought. Neverclose your eyes.
Itachi went verystill. He looked at her, and really looked at her.
"My sensei said that I should be more careful next time. He didn't give me any other advice though," she babbled. "I'm sorry. I think I was more of burden than a help…"
She looked up.
She trailed off at his furious look.
Itachi was tired. He was tired of waiting long nights for a flicker of an eyelid. He was sick of the worry that at every knock on the door, someone might come to him and say, "Sorry Itachi, your brother won't make it."
As an Uchiha, a great many people targeted Sasuke for his eyes, his position within the clan, and his abilities. Orochimaru was one of them. Itachi tightened his fists. The old Hokage knew this, yet he dared to put an incompetent kunoichi on his brother's team. The fumbling, the trembling, the way she looked down at her wrung hem of her qipao—it irritated Itachi. She reminded Itachi of dead-weight. Someone who was truly repentant for their actions would be out there practicing.
Because in their world failure meant death.
"Maybe." Caustic irritation formed on the tip of his tongue. "Maybe I shouldn't be the one you should be apologizing to. Maybe you should be apologizing to your team for being a sorry excuse of a kunoichi."
Sakura's eyes widened.
"Or your lack of team, thereof. Your team-mates are Naruto and Sasuke, correct?" Itachi demanded.
She nodded, and her bottom lip trembled.
"I'm sure they will be promoted for making it past the preliminary fights. Naruto was particularly exceptional with his clone usage. Sasuke had tremendous amount of skill for an Uchiha. I didn't hear about Sakura until a minute prior."
And he surveyed her. From her long, thickly conditioned hair to her frightfully painted nails. Green. The color of her watery eyes. She squirmed at his gaze. The battlefield was no place for flimsy kunoichi like her. Itachi only functioned on steady logic, and the complacency in Konoha when it came to competency began to irritate him. People's lives were on the line!
It was also the byproduct of being in ANBU for many years and dealing with his duties towards his clan.
"And they will leave you behind," he said. "And you will try again for genin. And I assure you, the Hokage will be advisedof your incompetency, because you will endanger some other team."
He smiled, and it wasn't pleasant.
"I do hope the best for the unfortunate team you come across."
And she stood up, and trembled. Her hands balled into fists. Itachi almost felt sorry for her pitiful display. He wasn't a kind person. He was a reasonable person. All things considered, he was also terribly disgusted by her lack of discipline and interest in the profession. He was an Uchiha. Sasuke was an Uchiha. They were expected to out-perform.
They couldn't do that with weak links.
So, he decided to add in one more word or two as she stood up. The chair behind her clattered to the cold floor as she moved to the door. She caught the knob.
"Good luck Sakura Haruno. You will truly need it," he called after her as she flew out.
.
.
.
The Konoha general Hospital was always her domain, and when she returned, that didn't change. Her first order of business was inspection. Their cream walls hadn't been painted in years, and it was clear that her former teacher didn't think hospital funding was needed. The head-medic's requests would have been constantly rebuffed.
The head-medic just wasn't "insistent enough."
"Lady Hokage," the nurse who Fugaku and Mikoto spoke to turned and bowed. She glanced at the Uchiha.
Fugaku stood up as she walked past them. Her heels clicked against the dirty floor of Konoha General Hospital and reverberated through the corridors. A timid nurse followed her. Tsunade paused. She snapped her fingers.
"This hospital is inadequate. Konoha has really degradedsince I've left." Tsunade Senju said with a wrinkle of her nose. She looked left and then right, then she noticed the Uchiha family who were seated in the lobby.
"Dear…that's…" Mikoto pulled her husband's sleeve.
"Senju-sama." Fugaku nodded his head in her direction. With the stride of an Uchiha, he walked up to her. "It's good to have you back in the village."
"How are you finding Konoha?" Mikoto asked her with a polite smile.
"Lord and Lady Uchiha," Tsunade replied and nodded. "Travelling gives you some perspective, and the food is the only redeeming point about Konoha these days."
Fugaku bristled internally. Mikoto's smile remained plastered.
"Now, what can I help you with?" She shifted her sharp eyes to the two of them.
"My son is a coma," Fugaku said. "I was here to visit him."
"A coma." Tsunade stated blandly. She snapped her fingers and turned to the nurse. "I need their son's medical report."
The nurse squeaked and dropped her cup. "Yes right away."
"You only get a minute. Run!" Tsunade called after her. The nurse scampered down the corridor. "Hmm…efficiency is lacking in this hospital." She looked down at the grimy floor. "And so is hygiene. Pitiful."
She walked past them with an air that was so disgustinglySenju (in Fugaku's opinion.) She commented lightly for a minute on this and that, mostly to herself. Mikoto patted her husband's tense arm soothingly. One thing was clear about the new Godaime, she didn't make small talk.
The nurse came rushing back.
"A minute and three seconds," Tsunade said. She took the file from the nurse, flipped it open and scanned the contents, muttering to herself. "Ah—Sasuke Uchiha."
She paused to read the contents for a minute. One mind-wringing, heart-stopping, wretched minute. She flipped the file back and forth. One page, two and then three. Then she stopped and smirked at something.
How disgustingly Senju, Fugaku thought again. She almost forgot about them.
She didn't.
"Well," she hummed. "Poor boy."
Mikoto blinked. Fugaku blinked. The nurse also blinked.
"Can you make him better?" Fugaku asked her, carefully, like he was stepping on glass-shards.
"Are you insulting me Uchiha?" she snorted, and turned the page, which contained Sasuke's scowling birth-photo, to read the contents of the next one. Typical Uchiha. She hummed. Too bad girls were too captivated by their good looks to look at their rotten personalities. "I can make him well."
Tsunade didn't care very much for her Senju background since her entire family was dead—save for some scattered members of the population around the Fire Nation—but she didn't have a single inkling as to why someone would put a third Senju in charge of the village when there were Uchiha candidates.
But she did want to maintain her predecessor's legacy of peace in the village. Konoha was hostile, Tsunade believed. It was hostile towards her as a woman Hokage, and she quite frankly was too "old" to give a shit. She closed the file.
"He'll be up in the evening." She tossed the file at the poor nurse, who fumbled to catch it. "Come back later. Nurse, inform the doctor in charge that I have taken over the Uchiha's case."
Later that evening, both parents and Itachi entered Sasuke's room to see him sitting up. He stared down at his hands, and then his parents.
It was then that Fugaku Uchiha decided that he was okay with Tsunade Senju as Hokage.
.
.
.
"Going to visit that Uchiha in the hospital, again?"
Sakura glanced over her shoulder at her mother, who leaned against her door-frame. She had not visited Sasuke in a week. She was pretty sure that he was discharged. She was also doing her damned best to avoid any Uchiha within the village.
"Yes mama," she lied. Because Mama liked Uchiha Sasuke better than Uzumaki Naruto.
"I heard you failed your exam."
Sakura stiffened.
"That means less pay, doesn't it?" Mebuki asked. She dropped Sakura's folded laundry onto her bed. "You'll also no longer be on the same team as that demon boy."
Naruto's name was on the tip of her tongue. But Sakura reigned it in. Say Naruto.
"Also, your father and I would like to talk to you in the evening."
Mebuki closed the door behind her. Sakura pulled her red qipao over her head. She twirled around in the mirror. Once, then twice. She grimaced and pulled her hair into a braid. A few minutes later and she marvelled at the fish-tail braid.
"What would Sasuke—" Her face fell.
Itachi had been right.
She was no longer on Sasuke's team. Sasuke became a chuunin and was climbing up the shinobi ladder. Even Naruto had been assigned the rank of a chuunin, and this left Sakura behind. It inched inside her and churned like discomfort. Do something. Be someone.
She heaved a sigh and pushed up her window. She was definitely going to tryto stay out late.
.
.
.
There was a bouquet on the table from the Uchiha family.
Tsunade reclined against the Hokage's leather seat.
"'Dearest Tsunade,'" the Slug-Saanin reads out. "'If you are reading this right now, you must have accepted position of Hokage. As my favourite student pfft—" she snickered to herself "—I always knew you would.'"
Shikaku Nara waited.
"'I am going to die by Orochimaru's hand. I have probably succeeded in sealing his arms, therefore rendering him useless for the time. No doubt, he will try and approach you. But leaving Orochimaru for now. The Sound village will be subdued at present. There's another pending issue—'"
She flipped the page of the letter.
"This is long," she muttered. "'There's another pending issue at hand. You are aware of Konoha's war hawk, Shimura Danzo? Well, in the past twelve years since I returned to power, my life has had attempts on it exactly three times. The first one was foiled. The second one betrayed the War-hawk—he is loyal to me. The third one, we captured and killed. He will no doubt attempt something similar. You can read about all the attempts.'"
Tsunade put down the letter with a severe look in Shikaku's direction.
"So why didn't you arrest him if you were certain of Danzo's actions. You are Konoha's master tactician and the damn Hokage for goodness sake."
"It's a lot more complicated than that, Hokage-sama." Shikaku said. "The Third had his suspicions about his former cell-mate. We could never pin-point evidence. ROOT has the protection of the council, as an asset and an important part of the village's growth."
"And you believe that?"
"I have no evidence to believe otherwise." Tsunade drummed her fingers against the table. "We performed multiple investigations. You can read about them."
"I need alcohol for this," she muttered. "Moving on. 'The next issue is the problem of an organization called Akatsuki, one of whose members appears to have been from the Uchiha clan. The Uchiha records, however, were insufficient to pin him down. Unless, he's one of the dead. We have evidence to believe that he was the main culprit in the Fourth's attack.' How come I haven't heard this side of the story?"
"We have records for that." Shikaku said. "Records of the fourth's death and records of Kagari Uchiha's death in tandem with this person. He also killed the Third's wife, several medics and several ANBU. Kagari Uchiha's son, Shisui is a sole living witness to this individual's abilities. He is away from the village right now."
Tsunade scanned the rest of the letter. It wasn't written well, because it was written in a hurry.
"And sightings with this organization?"
"In theory," he says. "Shisui was approached by one of them—an invitation,I suppose. Their goal is peace and the disarmament of the Shinobi villages, they say."
"Did he accept?" she asked. "Or did he at least try to capture the messenger?"
"The messenger was a clone." Tsunade tutted. "And since his refusal, he's never been visited again."
"You said that their goal is peace and the disarmament of the Shinobi villages?"
"So, they say. This is also classified information which we have not divulged the village with, but Fugaku believes that the Mangekyo can control the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi attack took out a significant amount of our force and the Fourth. His motives line up? Iwa is also accused of using the Akatsuki."
"Well that sounds like a fun question at the Kage's summit."
.
.
.
She met Naruto by the Naka river bank, where they both dipped their toes in icy water and chatted. The sun bathed their arms. It was mostly Naruto talking beside her about this and that. She listened quietly as he emphasized theatrics with exaggerated expressions. The cicadas chirped in the background to punctuated his 'ttebayos' and 'you listening, Sakura-chan?'
Then she caught the tail end of what he was saying.
"Y-you're leaving?" Sakura squealed.
"Yeah Sakura-chan! Ero-sannin told me that he would teach me new techniques!" He slid his thumb underneath his headband. "I'll be back in no time and then we can practice together! And then go on a ramen date!"
"No time?"
"Like—" Naruto squinted at the water flowing over the rocks. "—two years."
"Two years is a long time, Naruto."
Itachi's words rang inside Sakura's head, beat through her veins as she clenched her sides. They'll leave you behind.
"Jiraiya agreed to teach you?" she asked softly. Naruto's chest caught with a sudden pride. He grinned and nodded vigorously.
"Yep! I really surprised him when I summoned the big old man toad to fight Gaara!" Her eyes widened. Naruto had really come far.
"Wow Naruto, you are going to become very strong!"
The boy rubbed this nose and grinned. "Hehhee…You are going to be verystrong too, Sakura!"
She lifted her uncertain eyes to him.
"You really think so?"
"I know so! Kakashi-sensei said that you had the bestchakra control out of all of us, right?"
She nodded mutely.
"That has to count for something, doesn't it?" Naruto said. He grinned at her. She smiled back distantly. For what? She thought. Maybe she could just quit the shinobi for—
Wait, it does count for some thing!
"Yeah…" she whispered. "Genjutsu, the finestof genjutsus. One of the village's experts on genjutsu—Shisui Uchiha was said to have very good genjutsu, aided by his chakra control! He's not in the village or I'd ask him for pointers…but it also counts for healing ninjutsu."
"Healing?" Naruto widened his eyes. "You can really do that?"
"Yeah! You need good chakra control to heal," Sakura told him with a determined nod. "Geez, Naruto, Iruka-sensei talked–"
Interrupting her excitedly, Naruto blurted out, "Hey hey?! Granny Tsunade is a great healer!"
Sakura went very still.
"She's the besthealer ever! That's why Sasuke-teme woke up!"
"Tsunade?" she croaked. "Tsunade Senju? She's the..."
"Yeah!" Naruto said. "Ero-saanin said that she was also the best poisons specialist or something. I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you, did I? They are making her Hokage tommorow!"
The decision that twelve-year-old Sakura made that day, changed her life forever, both for good and bad. It would also change the course of Konoha's future.
She looked up at Naruto with a rare fire in her eyes.
"Naruto, I want to get really strong," she said.
"We're both gonna get really strong!"
They grinned at each other for a few moments.
"Can I still have that date?"
"No."
"Awhh Sakura-chaaann!"
.
.
.
"So, keeping him out of the village, on the road, training with Jiraiya, keeps him out of my hair." Tsunade mused, twirling the ends of her hair. "Good. At least unless he's strong enough to handle himself. One less headache. Putting the Akatsuki aside, we have the issue of Danzo." She leaned forward. "I'm not about to have attemptedassassinations on my life. What do you propose I do?"
Shikaku stroked his goatee.
"I've been thinking, Hokage-sama…of a double agent."
"An agent?" Tsunade raised a brow.
"Obviously one he can trust. A person with excellent potential. Danzo likes malleable and desirable shinobi."
"And what exactly is considered, 'desirable?'" Tsunade asked.
"Typically people with kekkai genkai. Most people with talent, you have known several of these candidates. Kakashi Hatake. The boy who was found in Orochimaru's experiments, Tenzou, who had your grandfather's moukuton. Yakushi Kabuto for his excellent medical prowess. Kekkai Genkais lessen error. Geniuses lessen error. Medical shinobi also lesson error."
"Do we have potential candidates?"
"My son," Shikaku said. "But he is a lazy boy. He might have genius, but our esteemed ROOT commander prefers obedience."
"Anyone else?"
"Hyuuga Neji. But he is a noble-clan member. He poses a lot of complication. The same goes for any of the Uchiha. The key thing is that they have to be young. Young enough to be malleable."
"Non-clan members then. Youth is important."
Shikaku winced as if he remembered something.
"Tenten, a civilian on Maito Gai's team. She is excellent with weapons…" Shikaku trailed off. "But he has plenty of special weapon–users..."
That's when there was a knock on the door. Tsunade looked to Shikaku silently asking him if they had an appointment. He shook his head.
"Who is it?" she barked.
The door clicked open. A timid looking girl with pink hair and green eyes peeked in.
"What do you want?" Tsunade snapped.
"I have a request for you Hokage-sama," the girl whimpered.
"Enter. Shut the door. Straighten up." Tsunade put down the letter. Shikaku stood aside.
And the girl did as she was told. She stood in the midst of the office with her hands clasped behind her back.
"Are you afraid of me girl?" Tsunade asked.
"No Ma'am." Her voice trembled lightly.
"Then speak. What is it you wanted?"
"My name is Haruno Sakura," Sakura breathed out. "I would like to be your apprentice."
Silence.
The office filled with laughter. Tsunade's laughter. Shikaku shifted his foot to give the girl a side-eye.
"You?" Tsunade wheezed. "Haruno Sakura, was it? Whose team were you on?"
"Kakashi Hatake," Sakura said.
"Hmm…" Tsunade leaned on her palm. "Oh? Team seven? Along with the Uchiha brat and Minato's son? Didn't see you on their cell."
Minato's son? Sakura thought, distracted. Minato Namikaze? The fourth's son?
Shikaku gave Tsunade a look as if to scream 'classified.' Tsunade ignored it.
"And let me guess, Kakashi Hatake ignored you for the other two. Both of who had more potential. Sakura Haruno, what skills do you bring to the table? But it didn't matter. You thought a woman's obligatory position was in the wake of men, to stand behind simply because of some assumed genetic propriety. Then when you are placed in a position where you were cornered like an animal, you realized how incompetentyou really are."
Naruto was particularly exceptional with his clone usage. Sasuke had tremendous amount of skill for an Uchiha. I didn't hear about Sakura until a minute prior.
Itachi's words replayed like a broken tape-recorder in Sakura's mind. The tape rolls like the disgust in his words.
Tsunade's words cut through the stench of dying childhood dreams—like marrying Sasuke-kun, being happy, buying a home, and having an older son and two daughters and with a white picket fence. Sasuke-kun liked this. Sasuke-kun liked that. He liked girls a certain way.
These rumors about Sasuke-kun, which were passed around in the halls of the Academy, fueled her fantasies.
It would have been Sasuke-kun and her against the world.
She always thought she would have it figured out. She was a smart girl who got good grades, and she would makehim like her.
She felt like a vulnerable child. A vulnerable, clumsy, girl-child playing kunoichi in this big world of shinobi-men. But in front of her was a woman. A woman who could sit in a seat which was upholstered for a man because she worked for it.
Grit your teeth, Sakura. You'll succeed too.
Shikaku folded his arms in the background. His eyes raked over pictures of dead brothers and dead lovers that were propped on the shelves near large books of Medical Ninjutsu and chakra theory. Tsunade leaned forward on her desk, and looked at her, really looked at her.
"Do you blame Hatake for your inadequacy?"
Sakura didn't nod her head. She just stared back at the woman.
"I don't blame Kakashi-sensei...Sasuke-kun had more...potential," she choked out. "I..."
"Blame yourself?"
"Yes..." Sakura murmured very honestly. "Because I didn't show my potential." She'd only been watching Sasuke. But she wasn't about to announce that, not now and not ever. She was only twelve. She still couldn't make sense of her feelings.
Tsunade gave her an appraising glance.
"Seems like we are getting somewhere. No one is responsible for your greatness, but yourself. So why do you want to be my apprentice? What do you have to offer?"
"Excellent chakra-control." Sakura said immediately. "I managed to get tree-climbing on the first—"
"That's not what I meant. You look like a weak thing. Your physical traits don't buy me. I want heart. What do you have to offer Sakura Haruno?"
Itachi's voice replayed.
And I assure you, the Hokage will be advised of your incompetency simply because you will endanger someone.
She closed her eyes.
Fuckthat.
"I wantthis position. I won'tbe left behind. I will make something out of HarunoSakura," she said. A wisp of a snarl, a kiss of determination, a quake of stubborn earth.
Tsunade raised her brow. Shikaku shifted his weight from one foot to the other, intrigued.
"I will come back today. And tomorrow, and the day after, and every single day of your life—till you acceptme as your apprentice," Sakura continued. "Because I wont—"she paused, spitting out the word with fire. "—be left behind!"
She stopped, breathing in and out quickly. Tsunade blinked slowly. Her look was calculating.
"What will you do if I breakyou?"
"I'll get stronger," Sakura bit out, fiercely. "I will not cry."
"And if you cry?"
"I'll wipe those tears away," Sakura continued.
Tsunade leaned back against the chair. The girl was fuming. Her palms were clenched white, where her green, pert nails dug into the flesh of her palm.
"What are you willing to give up for this? Everything?"
"Everything."
Shikaku shared a knowing look with the Hokage, before he closed his eyes. He dug his hands into his pockets.
"Well then, I'll accept you on one more condition."
"Haruno-san. Listen carefully to what you are accepting," Shikaku said.
"I have a big village to run," Tsunade said. "I have work and people to deal with. As my student, you will be within my inner circle. You will also be part of a group of people who will work to keep me safe. I will teach you on one condition."
Sakura straightened.
"You will be placed in a tangle of lies and deception because of me. What will you say when someone asks you, 'Are you loyal to Tsunade Senju?'"
Sakura thought on it for a few seconds.
Kakashi, despite his negligence, taught his students to look underneaththe underneath. What was underneath his mask? What was was underneath the crinkle of his smile? Why did shinobi speak in riddles? What did Tsunade say? What did she not say?
Being a shinobi about your loyalty, Kakashi would say. Sometimes you had to lie to protect the truth. Sometimes you had to compromise yourself for the sake of your loyalties. Maybe, that's not what this story is about.
Tangle of lies and deception?
So, Sakura said, "I'm not loyal to Tsunade Senju."
The room was silent. Blood pounded in her ears. Her fingers felt clammy. Tsunade's face was stony. She shifted her eyes to Shikaku. Shikaku was silent. He didn't say a word. He looked back at the Godaime and nodded.
Had she given the wrong answer?
Tsunade's deep red lips peeled back into a feral, stomach twisting, heart-wrenching grin. Feral like a predator who caught her prey with her sharp teeth.
"We have our double-agent in training, Nara."
