Chapter 6: Forget Me Not
"Tsunade-sama!" Tsunade who was at the window sill turned her head to see the person who was so delighted to see her and was surprised at the sight of a little Sakura riding Akamaru. Hinata tried to stop her, afraid that her boisterous greeting might disturb the Godaime but Kiba stopped her as he watched his ninken thread its way to the front of her desk who slowly crouched down so that the little kunoichi could wiggle herself off of the big dog.
Kiba, Shino and Hinata immediately followed, bowing their heads as a sign of respect towards the lady Hokage, and behind them were the little ninja's teammates. Tsunade slightly cocked her head to the side as she looked at Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto who formed an 'X' with their arms over their chests.
Tsunade's lips turned into a smirk when she fully understood what they meant as Naruto kept pointing on Sakura who was now at the foot of the window staring up at her. The pink-haired ninja held out her arms beckoning Tsunade to carry her. The Godaime graciously complied at the little girl's silent request.
"Kakashi-sensei said that I'm Momo-chan for today." Sakura whispered to her. The Godaime nodded as she sat on her chair with Sakura in her arms. She motioned for the first three to move forward. Shino was the one who handed the report to which the Godaime swiftly scanned its contents.
"Good, good. I'll call for you three again if I have questions regarding this report." The Godaime thanked the three and gestured for them to leave.
"Bye, bye Akamaru!" Sakura called as the huge dog followed his master out of the Hokage's office, the ninken barked in response.
"Good thing Momo-chan was here huh? The Godaime is surprisingly in a good mood." Kiba commented as they passed by Naruto's team. His two teammates nodded.
When Kakashi saw that the first team was already far away from his vantage point, he closed the double doors and eventually joined Naruto and Sasuke who was already standing in front of the lady Hokage.
Tsunade perched Sakura on the surface of her table and looked at her former student intently.
"How are you, child? Do the big brothers treat you well?" Tsunade asked the little kunoichi who was now busy playing with one of her paperweights. Her sharp senses didn't fail to catch the uneasiness of the trio upon hearing her question, but she still waited for Sakura's reply.
'Oh god, please don't tell her about the bubble butt incident! If Grandma finds out that we're letting you run naked, she'll kill us for sure.' Naruto whimpered in his thoughts.
"I'm okay Shishou, but my chest and tumtum hurt a bit." Sakura complained. Still playing with the paperweight but with a little pout on her lips. Tsunade gave the three ninjas a scrutinizing look, enough to make them hope that the surface of the ground would crack and swallow them instead.
"Holy shit. She's gonna tell that she fell off her bed! We've got to defend ourselves, people!" Naruto whispered to Sasuke and Kakashi, but Sakura remained silent after that.
"Is that so? Let me see, child." Tsunade lifted Sakura's shirt to inspect the parts where she said it hurt. The Godaime's eye narrowed when she saw a bruise starting on her chest.
"Did she fall off the bed?" Tsunade asked, her voice obviously strained. It must be because of anger. The trio nodded. It won't help them denying much longer. The Godaime sighed, and without even saying anything, her palms started to glow a soft green.
"Oohh! I can do that too!" Sakura exclaimed, as she watched her master heal her and scanned her body for other injuries.
Sakura held out her hand and the four ninjas watched as the little kunoichi focused her chakra on her little palm, but to no avail, no green glowing chakra appeared. The pink-haired ninja slumped her tiny shoulders and looked utterly confused.
"I-I could do it before…what's happening?" Sakura asked as she stared at her small palm which just went against her will. The four adult ninjas couldn't help but to feel sorry for the little girl.
"No worries child." Tsunade assured her, as she fixed her shirt and patted her head. "The power is still in you…it just became dormant because of your child form." Tsunade explained.
"Will I ever become normal again, Shishou?" Sakura asked, tears already forming in her eyes.
"Of course! Your friends and I…" The Godaime motioned to where Sakura's team was standing, gently smiling at her. "…We're trying our best. But for now, I want you to go with Shizune first. She has some nice things to give you, okay?" Tsunade wiped the tears impending to fall on Sakura's cheek and called for Shizune to enter the room.
The Godaime's assistant greeted the other shinobis inside and picked Sakura up, carrying her out to go to another room. When the huge double doors closed behind Shizune, Tsunade dropped her gentle composure and fully faced Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi.
"She's changing too fast." The Godaime seriously pointed out. "She's nearing her final transformation, and nobody can really tell when she'll take her infant form that's why I need you to be with her always, and to report to me immediately the moment she finally changes."
The trio remained silent, letting the weight of the information sink in, when Kakashi spoke.
"Do we have any information on where Shikamaru's team is at the moment?" he asked.
"Yeah! Can't they make it back any faster Grandma?" Naruto demanded.
"I've received information that they've already reached the destination where I last held the scroll. The only remaining thing to do is for them to locate it and bring it back."
"What if they can't locate it in time?" Sasuke finally spoke.
"Then we have to prepare ourselves for what's about to happen to Sakura, and you have to prepare her as well."
"But I thought she's not supposed to know? Where you lying to her when you said she's gonna be okay, huh, Grandma?" Naruto exclaimed.
The Godaime did not respond to what Naruto said. Instead, she relayed to them that at the moment, Shizune is giving her things that she would greatly need as she takes her final form, and some mandatory shots that a child needs.
"No feeding her food that's too heavy or difficult to digest. Her internal organs have greatly altered already that's why she's complaining of stomach ache a while back. Feed her milk and other soft foods, and please have great patience." Tsunade ordered the trio. "Sakura's really confused at the moment though she's great at hiding it. It's always in her nature not to make her friends worry so she keeps her frustrations to herself." The three adult ninjas nodded. "Your teammate's strong and intelligent," Tsunade commented. "She won't disappear." The Godaime saw Kakashi's visible eye tenderly smile, but she turned her gaze to the Uchiha boy who spoke.
"But we don't know that for sure. Even you're not sure about it." Sasuke muttered, clearly worried about Sakura's current state.
"I know." Tsunade stated firmly. "I know because she's my student."
It was already past four in the afternoon when the three adult shinobis went home to the Uchiha manor, with Sasuke carrying a sleeping Sakura.
"Ugh, I had no idea that when Grandma said she had some nice things to give to Sakura… it would turn out to be this much!" Naruto complained as he looked at the number of huge bags the three of them were holding. The contents of the bags ranged from baby clothes, to more diapers, feeding bottles and baby food.
"It makes you think that she really did plan for all of these." Kakashi absentmindedly commented.
After classifying every baby food in the kitchen, the three of them went upstairs to sort the baby clothes which Tsunade gave. Sasuke settled Sakura down on the mattress and surrounded her with giant pillows when Naruto plopped himself at the foot of the bed.
"Be still, you, moron! You might wake her up!" Sasuke reprimanded the blonde ninja, his voice low.
"But I'm really tired, Teme. Why don't you go downstairs and start preparing for our dinner already." Naruto ordered the Uchiha who instantaneously narrowed his eyes because of his words.
"What did you say?" Sasuke taunted Naruto to repeat himself. "Who the fuck do you think you are to order me around, huh, dobe?" Sasuke rebuked.
"Now, now, Sasuke, Naruto. I think it's best that we all go downstairs and prepare dinner, okay?" Kakashi immediately butted in to stop whatever impending battle was about to take place.
"And watch your words, Teme. We've got a child with us." Naruto mocked.
"She's sleeping, you, moron." Sasuke spat back, but eventually turned to Kakashi and asked. "Who's gonna stay with Sakura?"
"Naruto could leave a shadow clone here. We can't place her on the counter as she might crawl over the edge again once she wakes up." Kakashi explained.
"Hn." Sasuke wasn't quite convinced but he eventually agreed. "You better do a good job looking after Sakura, you, dobe, or I'll teleport your dead body to the depths of nowhere." Sasuke threatened.
"I'm not really afraid of any threats right now, Teme, considering that Grandma had been breathing down the back of my neck almost the whole day today. I'm really kind of immune to it already." Naruto cockily said as he summoned a shadow clone to look after Sakura while the three of them prepare dinner.
"Hey, Kakashi. Soup's okay for Sakura right?" Sasuke said as he eyed the contents of his cupboard, his former sensei crinkled his visible eye and nodded.
"Can you make corn soup, Teme?" Naruto asked.
"It's Sakura who's eating the soup, dweeb. Not you." Sasuke answered as he prepared the pot for the soup.
"But can't you make enough for us?" Naruto asked as he started placing his own pot full of water on the stove to start sterilizing the baby bottles.
"Hn. Fine." Sasuke said.
"How's Sakura, Naruto?" Kakashi asked as he busied himself on chopping the chicken meat in front of him. They decided on having chicken katsu for dinner.
"She's fine, still sleeping." Naruto started dropping the baby bottles one by one on the pot.
"You're not poking her cheeks, are you?" Sasuke asked, but Naruto dropped the last baby bottle he was holding. He nervously grinned at Sasuke who in turn smacked him at the back of his head.
"You're going to wake her up, you, idiot!" Sasuke scolded.
"No…no! She's fine! She doesn't feel a thing! She's not going to wake u—" Then Sakura started wailing upstairs. Sasuke sighed and turned off the stove.
"You, stupid moron." He whispered. Kakashi just shook his head as he trailed after Sasuke who went upstairs to check on the crying baby.
"Sakura's fine! My shadow clone's doing what I saw Kakashi was doing to make her calm down." Naruto tried to explain as he followed the other two.
"Then why isn't she calming down? Her cries are just getting louder." Sasuke chided.
When they entered the room, they saw a confused and distraught shadow clone with a squirming Sakura on his arms.
"Set her down the bed, Naruto." Kakashi commanded as they looked at the girl who wouldn't stop crying. Naruto's shadow clone eventually disappeared as they walked towards Sakura's bed.
When they got closer, her wailing turned to sobs but when she opened her eyes to look at the three of them, the little shinobi let out another piercing wail with a look of unfamiliarity in her big green eyes.
"Woah. Looks like she doesn't even know us." Naruto whispered. "Kakashi! Do your baby whisperer thingy." The blonde ninja said, but even before Naruto could finish his sentence, their former sensei already sat beside Sakura and steadied the bawling girl on his lap.
"Sakura," he called to her with his calming voice. Sasuke noticed that Kakashi held Sakura on both her sides and was no longer rubbing her back like he used to do. Sasuke assumed that his former teacher was willing Sakura to look at him. Fortunately, the silver-haired shinobi caught her attention. Her wails turning into soft sniffles. Kakashi then turned Sakura to face them and started pointing to each of them.
"Sakura, do you know these guys?" Kakashi tenderly asked. The little ninja only turned her head back towards their former sensei and hid her face on his vest as she continued crying.
Naruto, who was so alarmed at the fact that his teammate had already forgotten about him, jumped on her side which made her even more uncomfortable.
"Sakura, it's me! Naruto! Don't you remember? You used to always bonk me in the head with your fists!" Naruto explained, trying his best to make the little kunoichi remember.
Sasuke, on the other hand, pulled the blonde ninja off the bed seeing as Sakura refused to face Naruto.
"I can't believe it! She was still alright this morning!" Naruto said, exasperated. "And it's unfair that she only knows you now, Kakashi!" the blonde ninja further complained. But Kakashi spoke.
"I think Sakura forgot me as well." The silver-haired shinobi expressed, as he started rubbing Sakura's back while looking down at the little shinobi on his lap. "She's actually trembling in my hands right now. She's really just confused and scared and she'd probably have latched onto anybody right this moment. Except you Naruto, because you just had to startle her." Kakashi stated as Naruto slumped himself on the bed right at Kakashi's side.
Sasuke remained stoically silent about all that's happening as he was already lost in his own thoughts.
'Would it be different if Sakura hadn't fallen asleep? Should we have prevented her from sleeping? No. It's inevitable. This was bound to happen. Only that, it happened a little sooner than we expected.' Sasuke thought, as he stared at Sakura's quivering body.
'Has she really forgotten about us?' This was the last thing he had in mind as they all looked at the pink-haired ninja who tightly grabbed Kakashi's vest.
AN: Oh no! Our little ninja's forgotten about them already? What would the the team do about this? Here's Chapter 6 guys! Probably a chapter or two to go before this story ends. Thanks for all the love! Keep sending reviews! See you next update!