The Barn


Chapter Four
Make Me


Sakura made dinner for three, hating how she knew in her bones that she would only need three servings. Tayuya's seed of worry was sprouting in Sakura's mind. She started to fixate about the reasons Kakuzu didn't return her calls.

Her phone was on the counter, dark and silent. No missed called, no unread text messages.

'Wrong, wrong, wrong.'

"Were you in danger?"

Sakura blinked and looked up, realizing for the first time that Konan was speaking to her. Sakura's thoughts had drifted again.

"I'm sorry. What were you saying?" Sakura asked.

Kona smiled apologetically. "No, it was sudden. I meant about earlier, with the other girl that came here. She was wild with magic all through her, but that didn't change when you showed up. I didn't think that meant danger but when I thought about it later…it's not normal for shinobi or your sort of people to be flaring their chakra-I mean magic, like that. It's wasteful."

"It's Tayuya. That's her MO, what she's known for. She's all wild all the time. You can't get the drop on her, and she's the sort of person you want on your side. For better or for worse, she's…always dangerous, all the time."

Sakura grinned out of the side of her mouth, not realizing she was even doing it until she caught the reflection of her face in the water glass. She let the expression fall away. Old memories always felt fonder the further she grew from them.

Memories weren't much different than scars.

"It didn't sound like there was much use for being dangerous in this strange new world," Gaara said, licking his lips. The chances that he was thinking about that drink were high.

"Not for me, no, I'm not really immersed in that world. The rest of the coven, the family, they do the dangerous stuff. I don't know exactly what, because we weren't that tight, but it made Tayuya look good." Sakura shrugged. "I guess I didn't have enough faith to blindly pledge my services like she did."

"What is the dangerous stuff?" Gaara asked.

Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "No idea. Maybe they're beheading dirty politicians in the Ukraine or dealing with forces over the veil. For all I know they're playing board games with the devil on Wednesdays. What was the sort of dangerous stuff you did when you guys were shinobi in your old world?"

"Fighting, killing people, escorting clients through dangerous territories. It was full blown war at the end," Konan answered.

"You didn't look like you were dressed for war when you first were summoned," said Sakura.

"You can thank whoever it was that tethered our spirits to the wood of this place. When our souls were bound we were influenced by the era of this place. That was over a hundred years ago. You've not seen us in our traditional garb."

Sakura whistled low. "I didn't know this place was that old."

Konan grinned. "We were built into it."

"And it was over one hundred and twenty years ago," Gaara added. When Konan narrowed her eyes at him quizzically he just pointed to a book left on the end table with the title, Local Providence History.

"I didn't know you read," Konan whispered.

Gaara made a face. "You thought I was illiterate?"

"I…just didn't know you read. There wasn't a lot of reading material in the mad genjutsu warping word."

"How did you think I ran a country if I couldn't read?" Gaara glared at Konan but then whipped his face around to Sakura and his expression went from agitated to desperate. "I can read, I'm not illiterate. I read lots of things."

"I believe you," Sakura said, failing to not see his desperate face as cute. He was too easily adorable.

"Are there many like her?" Konan asked. "Crazy like a wildfire and ready to go?"

"Tay is a hurricane, she's a wind witch like a lot of the main family members. Karin is a blood witch, and I'm a bone witch. Some of the Uzumaki women are dual witches, possessing more than one speciality, but the dominate trait is almost always wind."

Sakura rolled her eyes, remembering how that classification brought with it a sense of superiority she missed out on. She wasn't of 'pure' stock, they told her.

"Shinobi specialize in different areas of study, and we have natures to our chakra, but it's funny that we don't limit ourselves to one trait," said Konan. "I think you would have done well as a shinobi."

"I'm barely a witch," Sakura scoffed. "I'm not a part of that lifestyle, remember?"

"You're not like the other girl, but that doesn't mean you're not dangerous," Gaara said.

Sakura felt weight settled into her when Gaara looked across the table at her. She felt like he could suddenly see right through her. She had been turned transparent for him to see the parts that she had ignored or pretended to never have in the first place. She hadn't touched magic in six years but it had touched her, like it or not. He knew that. He saw that.

Sakura lowered her eyes and reached for the glass of water, sipping more to give herself something to do and less to actually drink. She couldn't meet his eyes in that moment. Sakura didn't want to be dangerous.

"It doesn't seem like the others are coming back tonight. Were you expecting them later?" Konan asked.

She stood up to collect their plates and take them to the kitchen sink. Sakura rose to follow her and help. Gaara picked up what was left of the food and carried it over to the stove. There was a little of the Sheppard's Pie left that Sakura helped him put away in a plastic tub.

"I was expecting a call from him, actually." Sakura slipped the lids over the Tupperware and then placed the plastic in the fridge. "He should have contacted me by now but none of my calls or texts have been answered. I'm not worried, because I'm sure those guys can take care of themselves, but I don't like this feeling."

"Do you have classes to teach tomorrow?" Konan asked.

Gaara grumbled, sending an annoyed look over to Konan. "They can take care of themselves. She doesn't need to do anything for them."

Konan waved a hand in his direction to shush him before turning to Sakura and waiting for an answer.

Sakura nodded. "I do have classes in the morning, but they're early. I'll be done by mid day. I don't think I have meetings either, just office hours."

"You have to be there for the whole time?"

Sakura felt a grumble in her heart. "I don't need to be there exactly. I can say there is a family issue I need to see to and leave if I don't have any appointments on the books with students. It doesn't look good, but…"

She had never sacrificed any of her work or school life for witchery work. It didn't set well with her that one lifestyle crossed over to her main lifestyle. She was worried about being professional at the university, not the number of black cats that crossed her path.

"You don't need to do anything for them. No one can force Madara to do anything he doesn't want to and the others will be just as fine. What's the worse that can happen when they're here, where it's super safe all the time?"

Gaara didn't mean for his words to make her worry, but that's all they did for the rest of the night and into the next day.


Sakura left Gaara behind, not having the heart to wake him and take him with her before the sun was up. After her first class a few students from her lecture yesterday peeked in to see if Sakura was with the new TA hopeful and were disappointed when Sakura said that today was 'the love boat's day off.' The gaggle of girls were all a tizzy on their way out.

Before long it was lunch time and she was in her last lecture. When that ended she checked her emails from her phone one last time and saw that there were no outstanding meetings planned by any of her students or the rest of the faculty.

She took the free time to make her copies and prepare the materials for the next day's lesson. She planned a pop quiz but then scrapped that when she realized she hadn't finished covering the chapter. With the new textbook update the old chapters were all split and she had to wait twice as long to give a test that was also twice as long.

Sakura paused in her cubicle to check her calls. Just like her messages, there were none from Kakuzu.

She made the copies anyway and saved them for later. With her things put together Sakura grabbed her bag and the untouched drink off her desk and headed for the parking lot.

When she got home Gaara was there, almost simmering until she offered him the frappuccino. He melted like a cat for the apology/bribe. Konan looked up from the book she was reading and frowned when she saw Sakura's expression.

"What's the matter?" Konan asked.

Sakura hated what she had to say, wishing she didn't have to even as the words started to spill from her mouth. "Those boys aren't coming back unless I go get them myself."

"Kakuzu told you this?" Konan asked, standing and looking worried.

"No, he didn't tell me anything, and that's how I know it's bad. I'm going to change and then I'm heading back out. Is there a way you could be discreet and mobil?"

Konan took a stew forward and unfolded into a hundred pure white papers that flapped noisily onto themselves and then folded up again and again until she was an origami flower pretty enough to wear as a hair decoration.

Sakura nodded to Gaara. "And you?"

He narrowed his eyes at Sakura, still sucking up cold drink through the lime green straw. "I'm not hiding."

"It's not hiding, I just don't want them to see you and try to keep you behind too."

"I'm not leaving your side and I'm not staying behind. They can't make me, so I'm not hiding," he answered in a matter of fact tone. He didn't sound like he would entertain any dissuasion.

"You don't know the Uzumaki."

Gaara shrugged. "They don't know me."

Sakura set her mouth into a line and nodded, inwardly willing herself to stay neutral and not let her expression slip to show anything.

"Fine. I won't let them take you if you don't want to. I'm not as strong as the Uzumaki main house members, but I'll be strong enough. Just wait for me to change."

Sakura cleaned up and peeled off the pencil skirt and nude stockings. She had a long sleeved dress as black as pitch with a deep cut in the front. It stopped around her knees in heavy folds that lifted when she twirled. Sakura stepped into pointed black heels that made her feel ten feet tall and sounded her approach like a warning on the right type of floors.

Sakura almost left the bathroom after that, but paused to look herself over again. She redid her eyes and lips with the darker colors and blew a kiss to her reflection. She looked like a witch again and that was half the power struggle.

Sakura slipped a small woven purse over her shoulder and checked to make sure her chalk and totems were all in place.

When she lifted the paper flower that was Konan to clip into her hair the outside of the paper turned back and curled to match the rest of Sakura's image.

"Are they far, this Uzumaki family?" Gaara asked.

Sakura reached for a stick of chalk encased in a mother of pearl handle. She blew on the end and then tapped the hardwood before bending down to draw a long, intricate seal in a counterclockwise pattern with perfect lines and unforgiving edges. In the center of the seal she drew an eye open sideways.

"Stand with me in the center, Gaara," she said while holding out her hand for him to take.

He reached for her but skipped her hand to just take her arm and wrap it around his own. He pressed close to her side and she felt the warmth of him.

Arm in arm, Sakura refocused her attention and pushed her magic into the seal. It wasn't the neatest of all her work, but when it hummed under her, her bones sang happy and she knew she had done a good enough job.

There was a pull downward and Sakura felt the pressure before her magic buffered both her and Gaara and then the snap that tore the world into a new shade of white made her jump. The world bled back into color and slipped slowly into focus.

Gaara leaned on her and she held him steady until the spinning stopped.

"Where are we?"

Sakura opened her eyes and looked up. All around them was white gray marble veined with black and blue. The stood on a dias that was burned with a seal of its own.

Sakura stepped down and tugged Gaara with her before heading to the seamless door that responded with just a touch. "The is the receiving hall. Come on, the real manor is a little further down."

Outside the door there was a path made out of tan gravel and white crushed shells. It was shaded by slouching trees with branches as wide as they were long. It was a fair walk before the path curved towards a white colored house with marble columns and a cascade of history in every step.

Sakura led Gaara up the front stairs and didn't bother knocking. The door opened as they approached and a footman stood to the side, eyeing them as they walked in.

"Where is Kakuzu?" Sakura asked, stepping over the threshold.

"He is occupied at this moment with the young masters. If you would like to wait in the parlor Dame Sakura, I shall let him know you've arrived."

Sakura felt her lip curl at the title. "There's no need for that. He's expecting me."

It was a lie. Kakuzu probably thought she was cowering at the house, ignoring the issues like she had for all of six years. She had never been much of a witch, and dressing up in dark colors didn't change it.

All her life she had been second class, never good enough, a castaway afterthought of a girl. She had never tried to be anything else, so why would anyone expect her to waltz into the home of the largest and arguably most powerful coven on the East Coast looking like she belonged?

"There's a lot of shinobi here," whispered Gaara, drawing close to her side.

"You mean witches."

"No, shinobi. Witches, yeah, but there are more than just Madara and Kisame and Zabuza here. I can feel their chakra. Shinobi aren't the best when it comes to masking their powers unless they are a sensor type."

"You recognize anyone?" Sakura asked, keeping her voice low as she turned down a new hallway and led Gaara towards the offices where Kakuzu should be. She remembered the way from when she came in last week to represent her claim in the late Mito will.

Gaara yanked on her arm and Sakura stopped. Gaara pointed off to the opposition hall. "Down there. I can sense Madara."

"The others?" Sakura echoed.

"Maybe, but Madara is the easiest to notice."

Sakura stood where she stopped, looking down the hallway to where Kakuzu's office was. It was only a few doors down. Nothing about it stood out. There was no magic running around the exterior like other doors in the same hallway. No peering eyes either.

Sakura turned on her heel and headed in the direction Gaara pointed out. "Let's go," she said, threading her arm into his once more.

The doors seemed to warp and stretch. Sakura felt the webbing of an illusion even as Gaara muttered something about 'genjutsu' in her ear. It was easy enough to step through and ignore without much bothering. Lesser mortals would have been caught right away. Sakura wasn't one of those anymore.

Gaara stopped at a door and Sakura bit back a groan before pushing open the first door. The Uzumaki library was the envy of all bookworm girls, as long and tall as the ones in the city, and just as stocked. Several fireplaces warmed the corners and in front of one of those fires, a beautiful redhead sat nursing a short glass burning with liquid amber.

Karin looked up and the fire reflected in her glass, making it look like she nursed the burning flames in her palms. Her eyes, once half lidded and drowsy, flashed wide with brilliant color as a smile stretched wider and mad across her ruby lips.

She stood and turned, the silk of her dress sliding down over her hips like hands, leaving little to the imagination. Karin was just as stunning as Sakura remembered. The redhead had perfect nails and diamonds on her fingers, sparkling like a piece of art. It hurt to look at her.

"Sakura!"

Up on the higher levels Madara leaned far over the railings. He gripped the metal once and then heaved himself up and over, falling through the air for two stories before touching down in front of her in a low crouch that disturbed nothing in the air. He sprang up and reached for her hand but as he moved a gold chain materialized and yanked him back towards Karin. He snarled.

"You bitch, if I had my chakra-"

"But you don't," Karin drawled. She raised her fist, wrapped over and over with layers of gold chakra binds. "Stupid, old fashioned fool. You're a mess waiting to happen. Did you bring the other ones to me, cousin?"

Gaara growled, standing closer to Sakura even as Madara's eyes flashed. Something kept the red out of his irises.

"I was afraid of something like this. Where is Kakuzu and the others, Karin?" Sakura asked, fixing her posture into one of casual defiance. This was the game between them.

"Auntie said we needed to help you out. You're in over your head, dearest cous," Karin cooed, her voice sluggish.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, noticing the red bite marks on the underside of Karin's one arm. They were out in the open like she wasn't even trying to hide them anymore.

"What did they do to you?" Sakura breathed, heart hammering fast in her throat. Those were fresh bites and old bites both.

"I'm getting by, cous," Karin chuckled, closing her eyes and letting her head roll to one side. Her hair fell off her neck and several more bites showed up along the pale of her neck. Her posture was one step away from lethargic.

Sakura felt anger in the roots of her teeth. She wanted to tear apart something with her jaws, soaked heavy in magic. Karin was one of them! How could they? She was a contender for the next matriarch or patriarch of their coven.

"Who?" Sakura managed to ground out.

Karin's eyes flashed with anger. "Don't growl at me like you care. You're not a part of this anymore. You should go now, before auntie comes looking. You know how she is when it comes to her babies and Naruto and Menma will be here soon."

"Why? Did you call them?" Sakura huffed.

"Don't need to. There are eyes in half these walls, you know. You walked right into it, cous. You can't get much stupider than that." Karin clicked her tongue on her teeth and shook her head. "I thought you were smarter than that, little miss PHD, or was it PTSD, I can't remember."

Karin set her scotch glass down and wiggled her fingers in Sakura's direction. Magic simmered in the air between them and Sakura drew up her own magic to meet it. There was the sound of cracking when their magics met and Karin grinned.

"Let Madara go, now." Sakura's voice left no room for argument. "He's going back with me, along with the others."

"Oh?" Karin cooed, her lips forming a perfect O. "Are we really going to get into it here, of all places? Really, Sakura. I thought you had more class than that."

"Let go of the chains." Sakura glared at the way Madara strained with the shackles around his neck and wrists.

"Or what?" Karin shook the chains and drew Madara closer, forcing him backwards onto his heels. "You going to actually duel me here?"

"Let him go." Sakura pushed Gaara behind her.

Karin looked hungry. She wrapped the chains around her fist once more before yanking sharply and jerking him back off his feet and over the back of the couch. Something snapped, splintering into stalks of shredded wood upon impact. Madara crashed down with a groan while Karin stepped forward, climbing up the cushions and over the back of the couch in her heels and skirts, never caring for gravity. Behind her the chains snaked up and pinned Madara down to the floor, freeing her hands for more nefarious and dangerous magic. Red magic crackled around her.

"Last warning, let him go."

Karin raised her hands. "Make me."

Sakura surged.


AN:Likely you have seen this on tumblr where I originally published it, but I really like finding everything in one place, so I'm uploading it all onto this site as well.

I'll be updating this as the days go on-but it's a fun little side project that IS NOT going to turn into a novel. It'll not be that long. It's just a side gig.

I just really like witches.