Disclaimer: Naruto© belongs to Masashi Kishimoto
Humanity
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
-Albert Einstein
Sasuke's dead, he's gone. This is the mantra that Sakura recites the moment she wakes up and is immediately followed by another line. Itachi, Sasuke's older brother is the only survivor.
Every day she would try to forget, try to erase the painful memories, but how could she when the only reminder keeping her friend remains permanent on her skin.
Sakura looks at the mark on her right wrist. A tattoo of black strips aligned perfectly—complementing her fair skin—altering in spaces and thickness. A barcode.
The goddamn mark of being a property of the State.
Everyone in their village has the barcode with the blood type etched on the lower left portion of the mark, the birth date on the opposite side and the name of the person on the top left. She stares at the letter 'O' and the numbers zero, three, two and eight. Next to those, the most important part of her being is stamped on her wrist.
"Sakura Haruno." she says this over and over again and repeatedly reminds herself of this, because she's afraid. Scared. Terrified that the moment's she's chosen, she'll forget who she really is.
A pair of warm hands cups her cheeks and she blinks in utter confusion.
"You okay Sakura? Our friends are waiting inside." Naruto intently examines the face of the pinkette marred with hard lines before finally relaxing and softening. Sakura taps his hands away before placing hers on his broad shoulders.
"I'm alright. Let's go?" he warmly smiles and takes her hand as they head inside the city hall.
Everyone seems to have come to the Gathering—the yearly celebration of eating and drinking and basically bittersweet goodbyes.
"Yo foxboy!" Naruto clearly hears the insult and beams at the brown-haired boy with inverted red triangle tattoos on both his cheeks. "What the fuck happened to yer face?"
"Dogshit!" he counters, slinging his arm on the drunkard's shoulders.
"Yo, Sakura." it comes out as a purr and the young lady rolls her eyes at the flirtatious gesture when he followed his greeting with a wink.
"Hi Kiba. Where's Ino?" he lazily points to a group of ladies located to a secluded corner, busy exchanging fits of laughter and nifty glances at everyone.
"She's with Hinata and Tenten and Hinata and Tenten and…did I mention Hinata?" he finishes the absurd statement with a maniacal laugh and Naruto hits him square on the face when Kiba throws up without warning.
"Men."
She leaves the two, squeezing past the crowd who clearly lost all their senses to the alcohol.
"Despite the economic crisis and the decreasing resources, how do we manage to throw something this grand?"
Ino playfully slaps Sakura on the forehead when she suddenly interrupts her conversation with Hinata.
"Forehead! You made it!," she hugs her tightly and the pinkette scrunches her nose at the heavy scent of perfume and alcohol.
"Pig, you smell like shit!" she shouts, trying to make her voice audible enough above the noise.
"I know!" the blonde laughs and the dark-haired young woman with her seems to be enjoying herself as well.
"How are you holding up Hinata?" the timid girl pulls Sakura carefully and whispers into her ear.
"I-I'm good, S-Sakura." the tone of her voice alarms her and the foul smell of liquor reeks out once again. She then realizes that the odor comes from the slurred female in front of her.
"She's been drinking. A lot!" Tenten immediately supplies her with the answer.
"You guys are letting her?!" Sakura looks at both her friends with wide eyes and mouth agape.
"Leave it all to Tenten! You know how influential she could be to Neji." Ino says between fits of hiccups and laughter.
Sakura merely observes. The crowd, the ear-splitting music, the heavy scent of alcohol, the food, the smiles, the flushed faces. She takes it all in before their mayor, Tsunade cuts the music to start her speech. Sakura knows the speech too well. A full minute of sermon, then encouragement, then thank you's and sorry's and other loads of bullshit if she would say. She has become too familiar with it, and in fact, she wouldn't be surprised if she has memorized it word per word.
Sakura gulps and notices Naruto approaching and their other friends are heading their way.
"How troublesome, they throw a party then they'll end up crying at the end of it." The lazy looking guy named Shikamaru says after yawning.
"At least the food's free." Choji shoves a huge chunk of meat into his mouth before turning sullen.
"What do you think Sakura?" Lee gently asks as he refuses a drink from the quiet and reserved Shino.
"I think…it's horrible as well." she admits honestly, careful not to break eye contact.
"Yeah well who cares? Let's just think about that shit after we're all sober!" Kiba drinks another mug of beer while the others have already started paying attention to what their mayor has to say. After a terribly long speech, the goodbyes are next in line. Naruto offers Sakura a glass of tequila and she hesitates at first. She knows how low her tolerance is when it comes to liquor and Naruto knows that too.
"His intentions are good," Hinata's cousin, Kiba assures her. She knows that. She fully knows him better that he does, but she decides not to comment on the slight hesitation she felt and the assurance that the silver-eyed boy offered.
She takes the glass and drinks it all in one gulp.
This time…to forget.
Naruto and Sakura didn't make it in time for dinner.
"It's my fault." The blond admits when Kakashi throws a questioning look at the half-conscious female slumped on Naruto's back.
"The hangover will kill her you know." Kakashi dryly says and carefully takes Sakura from the lean and muscular boy.
"She had fun at least." he places his hand on top of her forehead when their mentor manages to get her to lay on a couch; a bitter smile creeps on the Naruto's face.
The silver-haired man stands up to wet a cloth and returns swiftly. He gently wipes Sakura's face and Naruto watches him silently.
"Go ahead. Eat. Dinner's still on the table." the older man says without removing his gaze from the sleeping young woman.
"Kakashi, why does this have to happen?" the young boy stares blankly outside, obviously losing his focus.
The masked man just sighs and dunks the cloth once more into the basin full of water.
"Why do we have to suffer for the mistakes we didn't commit?" the bitterness and disgust in his voice is too thick that Kakashi is forced to reply.
"Long ago, there were two brilliant scientists." he begins wiping Sakura's forehead once more all the while keeping the conversation alive. The impatient young man then groans at this.
"I've heard that history a thousand times!" he complains but the silver-haired man just continues, not bothering to even stop or pause.
"They discovered something that could greatly help us all. And what was it?" he looks at Naruto and patiently waits for the answer.
"The 2R-Cell. The Regenerative, Resurrection Cell." Naruto grumbles but answers nevertheless.
"And?"
"Hashirama saw it as a taboo that defied the natural flow of life, but his partner Madara viewed it as humanity's salvation."
Kakashi doesn't speak and Naruto places his hands behind his head, leaning on the wooden chair further as he continues. "The so-called salvation nearly exterminated the whole populace. It mutated into some sort of viral disease that swept our country to chaos and near extinction."
"And who solved the problem exactly?" Kakashi sets aside the towel and sees the flushed face of Sakura returning to its natural rosy color.
"Hashirama." The fox-faced boy quietly answers.
"Right, and after the mass hysteria, after the Cell Plague, what happened next?" he covers Sakura with a blanket and gently runs his fingers through her soft and pastel pink locks.
"Prosperity and then the rebellion."
"Why do you think so?"
"Because our leader is a tyrant." Naruto shuts his eyes closed as the horrible incident that killed his parents surfaces to mind.
"And?"
"That's why we have the Annual Treaty. To remind us that we stand no chance against them." The anger from his cerulean eyes is evident and Kakashi ruffles his blond hair.
"I don't get it! Why do we have to suffer—"
"Think of Sakura as Madara, and think of yourself as Hashirama. What would you do if Sakura committed the same mistake? Would you condemn her? Blame her?"
"Of course not! I'd help her—" Kakashi pats his head and looks him in the eye, his smile faintly visible through the mask.
"Then you've already got your answer." Naruto just stares at his teacher, slightly puzzled and unconvinced.
"You see, the fact that you'd stand up and help her makes her your responsibility and burden as well. You get involved and those who care for you would also get involved and the ones who care for those who care for you and so on and so forth. The bottom line is, everyone ends up with the blame."
There is silence for a few moments until Naruto decides to break it.
"So caring for each other—is bad?"
"Not bad, but good. Good but a weakness." he explains carefully. "This weakness and goodness within make us humans. As long as we fight for what's right and for each other—"
"—we don't have to fear losing our humanity." Naruto finishes the sentence for him and his proud teacher smiles. He hands Naruto two red pills contained inside a clear compact and his bright features hardens.
"And if you want to preserve what's left of that, you'd do the right thing."
The young man hesitantly takes the pill and nods reluctantly.
"Give one to Sakura the moment she wakes up."