note 1_props to Wishtly for managing to sit through my first draft and all its eye-cringing errors. Mega-props for then having the patience to correct them in addition to pointing out flaws, cruddy descriptions, etc. You're awesome. Plus I know you beyond the computer screen which just makes it très awesome.
note 2_dedicated to those who've been yelling at me to get on with it. Yes! Your voices are heard!
note3_there is no note 3. I'm just being obnoxious.
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vi. A Different Approach
Throughout the years Suna had proven to be an indispensable ally to Konoha. The Kazekage's friendship with Naruto had been extended to the Leaf, and the two villages flourished beneath each other's support, though the two village's relationship had not always been so amicable.
Presently, the Sand Sibling's cold demeanor reminded Sakura that before Naruto had managed to beat the humanity into Gaara, relations between Konoha and Suna had been rocky at best. This was a delicate situation; one wrong move and they all could soon be staring at the inside walls of Gaara's Sand Coffin.
"I'm really sorry about that," Sakura said, scrambling to her feet, offering him an apologetic smile. "I should've been more careful about where I was going."
Sasuke muttered darkly behind her, something about "apologizing to the wrong people," as he rose in a more dignified manner. By his feet Naruto merely groaned into the dirt, making no effort to rise.
Sakura didn't look back at her teammates, her entire focus dedicated to the stoic redhead standing before her. Her smile belayed her anxiety; she knew what a powerhouse Gaara had been as the one-tail's container (her future-self had still had the scars from that Shukaku mishap). Even with Tsunade's tutelage and years of experience Sakura doubted she could take on the twelve year old if he went on a rampage. The tricky part was, she wasn't even sure what would set him off. With his propensity for wanton violence, he was as unpredictable as he was dangerous.
"Really, really sorry about that," she apologized again, still smiling doggedly despite her uninterested audience. Gaara's face remained impassive, making no indication that he had heard her. Next to him, Temari hadn't even looked up from examining the dirt beneath her nails.
"Ch, Leaf nin really are such cowards," Kankuro observed, eyeing Sakura with open disdain.
Naruto, who by this point had recovered onto both his feet, decided he didn't like the tone Kankuro was taking with Sakura.
"Hey, watch your mouth," Naruto bristled.
Kankuro's attention flitted from Sakura to Naruto. An amused smirk pulled up the corners of his mouth when he took in the scrawny blonde, instantly pegging him as one of those loud-mouthed idiot types. "And if I don't? Are you going do something about it?"
"Kankuro," Temari drawled without looking up, "leave the brat alone."
"What? I didn't do anything to the shrimp."
"I am not a shrimp," Naruto fumed.
"Naruto, calm down," Sakura murmured over her shoulder, but her words were drowned out by Kankuro's mocking voice.
"You're right, you're right, you're too small to be a shrimp. I'd say you're more of a munchkin."
"The hell did you say, fat ass?" Naruto yelled, striding forward to confront the boy. He managed two steps before a yelp of surprise left his throat as his feet flew out beneath him and the sky flashed into his view. Before he had time to fully process what was happening, the back of his skull cracked against the ground, and his vision exploded into into a dizzying kaleidoscope of red, black, and white spots. He groaned lowly, stunned by the pain.
"Naruto!" Sakura ran to his side, throwing herself onto her knees beside him. "Are you okay? " She placed a concerned hand on his chest. "Hey, can you hear me? Answer me if you can. What's your name?"
"Uzumaki Naruto," he slurred. "Konoha's next Hokage."
One eye cracked open as he offered her a weak smile. Sakura's worried features broke into a relieved grin. "Good, you're conscious. Do you hear ringing in your ears?"
"A little."
The corners of her smile slipped into a frown. "Do you see stars?"
"Do white spots count?" Naruto suddenly squeezed his eye shut and pressed a hand to his head. "Augh...someone make the world stop moving," he moaned.
Sakura's frown deepened. She pushed his hand away from his face and pried open one of his eyes, examining it clinically. "I don't have a flashlight on me but, I think you might have—," She checked the other eye. "Yup. Definitely a concussion."
"Dumb ass," Sasuke said, the insult lacking its usual bite.
"Shut up," Naruto lamely threw back.
With a twitch of his fingers, Kankuro detached the chakra string he had fixed on Naruto's foot. "Brat can't even move without tripping over himself. You sure you're a shinobi?" He laughed.
The hand on Naruto's chest curled into a fist and her tender expression hardened. She rose, turning towards Kankuro. "I think you should leave now," she coldly instructed.
"Oh?" He cocked his head, looking more entertained than threatened by her sudden change in attitude. "Or what?"
'Or I'll beat you until you're the same shade as your face paint,' she thought darkly, escalation be damned.
Her keen eyes caught Kankuro's hand twinge and something flashed through the air between them. She felt a light tug at her ankles and looked down. The chakra string glinted in the sunlight; almost invisible unless you knew what you were looking for.
"I'm kind of liking it here. Lots of weak brats to play around with, if you know what I mean" Kankuro waggled his eyebrows conspiratorially. He was trying to incite her wrath, unaware that the pink haired girl was already primed to uppercut the snot out of him.
Sakura drew her kunai from its holster and in the same, fluid motion threw the knife forward. As the blade flew it sliced easily through the chakra string before it speared into the ground just inches away from Kankuro's toes.
"Well playtime's over, so get going," Sakura bit out between her teeth grinding.
Kankuro's eyes narrowed at the severed chakra line before they flicked back up to reassess Sakurar. "Actually, I think it's just getting started," he said, smiling like he'd just discovered an extra ryo in his back pocket. The amusement in his eyes were gone, replaced by something crueler.
"No, nothing's starting," she said firmly, "so I suggest you get going, Kankuro-san. I'm sure you have more important things to do like polish your puppets."
As soon as the last syllable had rolled off her tongue, she knew she had said something wrong. Kankuro's eyes grew wide before his brows furrowed together as he regarded her with suspicion. "Hey princess, who the hell told you about my puppets?" He growled.
Her temper flared at the demeaning name, but it was quickly snuffed out as the rest of her grew cold with the realization of her mistake. The other two Sand Siblings took a sudden interest in her. Temari finally looked at her for the first time and Gaara, who had been staring uncaringly at some birds on a telephone wire, zero-ed in on her like missile-homing device. She involuntarily took a step back, feeling uncomfortable under the boy's intense scrutiny.
"Hey," Kankuro snapped impatiently at her silence. With three swift strides he closed the gap between them, standing close so that she was forced to look up at him. "And who told you my name?"
"Uhm…" Sakura tried.
He grabbed her roughly by the collar of her dress. "What do you mean 'uhm'." He shook her angrily. "You leaf trash have been spying on us haven't you?"
As she absentmindedly wiped his spittle off of her face, Sakura wondered how she'd salvage this one.
"Hey fat ass," Naruto snarled as he propped himself up on his elbows, "let her go!" Before he could try and come to her rescue, Sasuke was already by her side.
He grabbed Kankuro's wrist and gave it a sharp twist, forcing him to release Sakura. He pushed her back behind him and locked glares with the other boy. "Like she said, I think it's time for all of you to leave," he coolly advised, crushing Kankuro's wrist in his grip.
Kankuro bit back his cry of pain and snatched his hand back. "Shut up! Not until your little princess tells me how she knew my name and about my puppets."
Sakura's fists trembled against her self-restraint; what she would give for a nice, clean hook straight to his jaw. She thought of her time in Suna and the hours she ground away in the emergency room trying to save his life from Sasori's poison. Granted this was after the whole Sand Sibling Reformation thing, but still, the ungrateful brat needed some respect pounded back into him. Her animosity must have been rolling off her in waves because Sasuke suddenly looked over his shoulder and gave her a meaningful glare: stay back.
Which, of course, just made her want to shove him aside and show him How It's Really Done.
Sasuke however, simply read her scowl as reluctant compliance and turned back around. He lifted his chin while regarding Kankuro with that special brand of Uchiha haughtiness, eyeing the other boy as if he was piece of gum he'd just scraped off the bottom of his sandals.
"It's not a puzzle. You tripped Naruto using chakra strings, so you're probably a puppet user. Taking that into consideration, it's easy to guess what those things strapped to your back are. Your name? That girl over there called you by it." Sasuke finished with a Grade-A Asshole smirk. "Any decent shinobi should have the analytical ability to figure out that much, Kankuro."
Despite Sasuke's clear logic, Kankuro looked as if his dead mother had just been insulted (it was probably the smirk). "You little punk—"
"Kankuro," Gaara cut him off. His voice was soft but it shut Kankuro up immediately. "You're a disgrace to the village."
"But Gaara—"
"Shut up or I'll kill you."
Sasuke's hairs stood on their ends as massive wave of bloodlust surged from the redhead, crashing into all of them with the force of a tsunami. His heart rate picked, body tensing as it instinctively prepared for a fight. Behind him he sensed Sakura stiffen as well. Her sandals rasped against the ground as she uneasily shifted her stance, the shuriken in her hip pouch chinking together as she placed a cautionary hand in the bag.
Kankuro raised his hands in submission. " You're right. I was out of line." He was apologizing, but Sasuke thought it was more like he was trying to calm a wild animal.
"Come on Gaara, he said he was sorry," Temari said, nervously looking back and forth between the two boys on her team.
Ignoring his spooked teammates, Gaara turned his attention towards the Leaf nin. Sasuke's hands warily strayed towards his kunai holster as the redhead appraised them with his strange eyes.
"Sorry about my friends." he said flatly.
"Those are Suna's forehead protecters," Sasuke observed. "What're you all doing here?"
"It's probably the Chunin exams," Sakura answered.
"Chunin exams?" Naruto asked, having managed to sit up. He showed little sign of being concussed and given the demon fox in his stomach, Sakura suspected that by tomorrow night he'd be over the head trauma entirely.
"It's the exam they have every year for Genin to take a crack at becoming Chunin," she explained. "Shinobi that qualify come from all over the nations to the village where it's being held. I guess this year Konoha is hosting it."
"Hey cool! I want to take the Chunin exams too!" Naruto announced excitedly. As he sat cross-legged, his eyes gleamed as he imagined sweeping the competition and being so freaking amazing that the old fart had no choice but to step down and hand him the title of Hokage. Uzumaki Naruto: Youngest Hokage to ever become Hokage. Yeah, he could dig it.
"Hah!" Kankuro's voice blared through his daydream. "Trash like you would die before you even got to the second round. I'd make sure of—"
He was cut off as something cracked loudly against his forehead protector. He yowled in pain and ripped back his hood as if it had burned him, smacking his hand against his forehead. At first Sasuke thought Gaara had done something to him. Behind him, he heard Sakura snort with satisfaction.
Keeping a hand pressed against the tender spot on his forehead, Kankuro bent over and snatched a grape sized stone from the ground. Pinching it between his fingers, he lanced his arm forward and held out the offending pebble. "All right, which one of you brats threw this?" He demanded.
Sasuke's glanced back, catching Sakura's smug expression. Unfortunately, Kankuro had spotted it as well. "You little bitch," he hissed. Tugging his hood back on, he unhitched the mummified puppet from his back. It landed on the ground with a heavy crash, kicking up an ominous cloud of dirt. The cruel smile on his face promised no mercy for the pink-haired girl and Sasuke didn't like it. Things were quickly becoming dangerous; he knew he could handle himself, but trying to cover Naruto and Sakura at the same time would be more trouble than the actual opponents. What's more, he could feel Sakura actually trying to get past him. Unbelievable. He was sure cows had a better sense of self-preservation. At least they knew when they were being led to the slaughterhouse. He raised an arm to stop her and threw a glare over his shoulder. "Idiot, what're are you doing?" he hissed.
"Me? What're you doing?" She hissed back, clearly annoyed.
"Saving your life," he ground out, then turned his back on her before she could argue. He spoke directly to Gaara, having realized that the boy with the gourd was the one calling the shots. "Why don't we save the fight for the Chunnin exams? It'll cause less problems, and I'm sure the last thing you'd want is trouble in a foreign village."
Gaara didn't answer, silently contemplating the three Leaf shinobi before him. When he finally spoke, it was as if he hadn't even heard Sasuke. "You. What's your name?"
"Me?" Naruto asked, excited by the prospect he'd have an Evil Arch-Nemesis (Sasuke was just a Rival, which everyone had. Not everybody had an Evil Arch-Nemesis, and on top of that he was foreign. Super. Awesome.)
"No, the girl."
Naruto's face fell, though nobody could really understand why, and Sakura's screwed up with bafflement. "Me?" She pointed to herself to make sure Gaara was referring to her. There was always the possibility he was confusing Sasuke as female.
"Yes, you. What's your name."
"Sakura…it's Haruno Sakura," she said warily, as if her name was the key to unlocking all her secrets. Through she sounded nervous, Gaara was inwardly impressed when she met his eyes and didn't flinch. He was aware of his unnerving gaze, but the girl gave no ground, looking back evenly with the cool confidence of an experienced fighter. The black-haired boy appeared to be the ring-leader of their little gang, but Gaara knew that the dog with the loudest bark didn't necessarily have the fiercest bite.
"I'm Sabaku No Gaara...I'll be looking forward to seeing you at the Chunin exams," he said, appraising her like a cut of meat at the butcher shop. Sakura saw a glimpse of something dark and predatory behind his jade-green eyes, its tail flicking with impatience as it lay in waiting. She felt like there was giant target being drawn on her forehead.
"Come on, let's go," Gaara ordered. Kankuro was obviously upset about having his fight cut short, but with one look from Gaara, he was immediately cowed. He shouldered his bandaged bundle and shot a fearsome scowl at Sakura to make up for the fact he couldn't break her leg. Or arm (honestly, he would have been happy with either). She retaliated by sticking out her tongue. Kankuro looked like he wanted to say something but the wind was already kicking up at his feet, swirling around as it wrapped him and his teammates in a fierce storm of dust and leaves, drowning out any words or insults that may have left his mouth. When it died down, the three Shinobi from Suna were gone.
Sakura's tongue was still hanging out when Sasuke whirled on her, his expression as dark as thunderclouds. "What was that?"
She sheepishly retracted her tongue like a child caught elbow-deep in the cookie jar.
"Are you stupid?" Sasuke demanded.
"What?"
"You could have gotten yourself killed," he snapped. Sakura wondered how it was possible to tell someone you were worried about their livelihood and still sound like an arrogant bastard.
"I wasn't going to get killed. You're being dramatic," she scoffed.
"This isn't a game, Sakura. If you're not serious about being a Shinobi then leave your Hitai-ate home and don't come back," he said.
Sakura considered whether she should smash Sasuke's nose into his brain with an open-palmed thrust or just kick him in the balls. Then again, the options didn't have to be mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, before she could decide, he was already slinking off, leaving her to deal with her pent up rage alone.
Sakura stamped her foot and let a frustrated snarl rip through her. That arrogance! It must be store bought or something because there was no possible way for so much pretension to occur naturally in one human body. She took a rock and hurled it at a nearby tree. It hit with a loud thud before it plopped to the ground. The leaves rattled on the branches and a few even fell off and spiraled down in a lazy descent. Nothing blew up or burst into flames, leaving her wholly unsatisfied and somehow even more pissed off than before.
"I'm going home!" she said.
"No lunch?" Naruto asked meekly, finally speaking up.
"I'm not hungry. At. All."
"Oh. Okay. Bye?"
He then glumly watched her storm off. Yet again his date with Sakura-chan had been foiled thanks to Sasuke. He had remained silent during the heated exchange between his teammates for tactical reasons. Naruto figured if the bastard wanted her to hate him so badly, then hey, he wasn't going to stop him. Actually, he had hoped the situation would've panned out a bit more differently. He had imagined Sakura crying in his arms about what a bastard Sasuke was, and after the two of them would go for some ramen at Ichiraku's (like a date date) and then maybe do something later, like toilet paper Sasuke's house.
He hadn't foreseen this: him sitting alone in the middle of the road, twiddling his thumbs and of all things, wishing Sasuke and Sakura would just stop fighting.
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Kakashi was on his way home with a bag of groceries swinging idly from one hand while the other kept his nose happily buried within the pages of Icha Icha. It was still early in the afternoon and the sky was blue, the sunlight mild, and a breeze was threading lightly through his hair. He had no students or mission scrolls. All he had was the rest of day sprawling out before him in its marvelous, untouched, virgin glory. It was too good to be true. Which was why he wasn't surprised when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the messenger hawk circling high above him.
He stopped and looked up from his book to get a better view. The ends of a bright red ribbon fluttered behind the bird like a kite's tail. The raptor sounded a sharp, keening cry and Kakashi acknowledged the bird with a lazy two-fingered salute. Though the hawk couldn't have understood the gesture, it suddenly banked to the left and shot off to the east, presumably to continue its roundup duty.
Red ribbons— a Hokage's summon.
Kakashi looked away from his book and eyed the plastic bag in his hand. Maybe he could take his groceries back to his apartment first and then— no, no, he probably shouldn't be late to this meeting.
He reluctantly clapped his book shut, pocketing it in his hip pouch. After biting his thumb to draw blood, he quickly executed a series of hand seals and bent over to touch his bitten hand to the ground. A cloud of smoke erupted from beneath his palm. Kakashi straightened and when the smoke cleared, a silver-coated dog with a mohawk sat on it's haunches before him. The ninken scratched at its ear with a hind leg and flashed his summoner a wolfish smile.
"Kakashi," it greeted while still trying to get at the itch behind its ear. "Ah—thanks, finally," the dog said, eyes closing with pleasure as Kakashi scratched the troublesome spot. When he was done, the canine gave himself a good shake and sat down. "So, what's up?"
"Shiba, I have a meeting I need to run to. I need you to take my groceries back to the house," Kakashi said as he held out the bag.
"Finally starting to grow out of that habit of being late, eh?" The dog said dryly as reached for the bag with its muzzle.
Kakashi chuckled, "Not exactly. You can just leave it on the counter and take a few biscuits from the jar, thanks."
Shiba nodded, causing the plastic bag between his teeth to rustle.
Kakashi watched the dog bound off towards his house for a little while before turning to go. He sprang onto the roof of a nearby store, pausing long enough to blink and get his bearings before his body flickered and disappeared. He shot across Konoha's rooftop system like a silver-haired arrow, his passing presence going unnoticed by the civilians below.
He wondered what the meeting was about. Well, it is that time of the year, he mused as the roof tiles clinked underfoot.
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"I'm home," Sakura called from the front door of her home as she kicked off her sandals.
Her mother rushed out of the kitchen. "Sakura! Where have you been? Do you know what time—my lord, child! What happened to you?"
"I was just...training," she said, suddenly aware of how filthy she was in relation to her orderly living room. Her legs were gray with dried mud from the lake and the crimson of her dress was muted rust-red by the thick layer of dust and silt. Her hair was pulled up into a disheveled pony tail while her forehead protector hung limply from her neck as if it had slipped down from her head and she had been too lazy or tired to retie it (she had been too tired). Sakura could almost feel the dirt and sweat radiating off her like gamma rays, polluting the carpet and furniture with her grime. Unconsciously she wiped her cheek with her arm as if to try and clean herself, but all it did was transfer the dirt from her arm to her face.
Haruno Rika appraised her daughter with pursed lips. "Training?"
"Yes, okaa-san. Training," she repeated wearily. "Is 'tou-chan home?"
"No, he's still at the hospital; he'll be back late tonight. Wash your feet off with the hose before you come in, I just vacuumed this morning. What do you want for dinner?"
"Anything's fine. I'm going to shower before I eat," Sakura said as she stepped barefooted outside. She grabbed the hose off the front lawn and turned it on. The water felt cold and impossibly good as it cascaded onto her tired feet. She wiggled her toes beneath the running water, catching the tick and snap of stiff joints cracking. She heaved a heavy sigh and looked up at the stars pricking the nighttime sky.
After her tiff with Sasuke that afternoon, Sakura had stormed off with violent thoughts buzzing around in her head like a hive of angry wasps. En route to her house, she had happened to pass by the training fields and had spotted a cluster of makiwara sticking out of the ground. Without thinking, she had made her way to the wooden training posts, making quick work of them. Five monstrously-strong punches later, the five makiwara had been reduced to piles of toothpicks. Then she had begun chucking explosion tag after explosion tag at the trees with mechanic efficiency, her face as blank as her thoughts as she watched the trees explode into thick, black columns, roiling with fire and ash, their trunks groaning as they crashed to forest floor. Wood chips and embers had rained down on her and when she had finally run out of tags, she had seamlessly moved on to blowing the trees apart with her bare fists. However it had quickly become evident that her current chakra reserves were insufficient to raze the entire land so she had begun to run and run and run.
She had run across the lake, through the fields, until she had reached the fence that marked the end of training ground 10 and the beginning of training ground 11. Then she had run through training ground 11, and then training ground 12, then 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, until finally the setting sun had turned the sky a burnt orange and she had fallen to her hands and knees in training ground 21. She had been breathing dangerously hard and fast, her heart hammering against her chest like an angry fist against a wooden door. Sweat had dribbled down her face as her arms shook with the effort to support her, and eventually they had crumbled beneath her, leaving her shuddering in the dirt as her shredded throat had desperately tried to rake in as much air as it could. The world had spun crazily and she had clamped her eyes against it. Even in the darkness she felt the ground see-sawing beneath her as her ragged breathing grew farther and farther and farther away.
I'm going to pass out, had been her last thought before she did.
After some time, Sakura had woken to the sound of crickets and frogs. It had become dark and when she rolled over onto her back, the sky had turned a sable-blue and a thick curtain of stars had been pulled across it. She lay there for a long time, silently watching the pulsing lights from the cosmos as the cool breeze flowed over her back on Earth. A small voice had told her that her mother was probably waiting so she stiffly got to her feet and had slowly plodded back home in a daze, her thoughts as vast and empty as the universe she had just seen.
Even now as she turned off the hose and returned to the house and went upstairs, she felt oddly subdued. In the bathroom she gripped the sides of the sink and wearily peered at herself in the mirror. She looked like the cold, blacked nub of a candle wick that had been left burning for too long. In the bathroom light, she noticed her hands for the first time. The tender skin around her knuckles had been flayed open, a thin crimson scab already forming on some of the wounds. She grimaced not in pain, but in annoyance with her own body. She raised a hand to start healing herself, then stopped and lowered it. No, she'd keep those as reminder.
She returned her attention to the twelve year girl in the mirror. The girl looked back with tired eyes that looked old and misplaced on such a young face. What was she fighting anyways? Time? Fate? The universe? All three were considerable opponents. Then there was the question if she was even fighting in the first place. If she didn't do something soon, then the future, or destiny, or god, or whatever it was would win, but how could she defeat something she couldn't even see? She knew Sasuke needed to change, but it was clear he was willing to do that right after he hopscotched down the marketplace in a dress and pigtails. He was the proverbial horse who had drunk the whole trough before being led to water, the stubborn prick.
Sakura's mouth went crooked with an irritated scowl at the thought of the Uchiha. She pulled out her pony tail and her hair didn't fall to her shoulders as much as it flew apart, renegade clumps rebelling against gravity with the help of dirt and dried sweat. She combed her fingers through her hair, trying to tame it before she hopped into the shower. Suddenly, her eyebrows furrowed together as her hands slowed, dragging her finger carefully through her pink locks. When she reached the ends, she pinched the tips of her hair and pulled it taut to see where it hit: waist length. Her green eyes lit up as if they'd been struck by lightening.
Maybe she should approach this whole "change" thing from a different angle.
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author's notes_
1. So yes, my idea of a cliffhanger is Sakura staring at her hair (it's okay, I'm judging me too).
2. Things are moving along at the speed of frozen molasses. Wheeeee. I promise it'll start to pick up soon.
3. Then again, my personal idea of "picking up" might differ slightly from yours so don't expect anyone to die or anything anytime soon. (I swear, it's all for the sake of that vague term we authors just love to throw around when there's a lull in the plot: DEVELOPMENT)
4. Thanks to those who've somehow managed to stay with this story (and my general non-updating ass) AND KOW TOWS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS. Love you fools~