Chapter 7: It's The Final Countdown
Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke watched as little Sakura ate her soup silently on the kitchen table. It was relatively early for dinner but they decided to eat instead. They also had to remind themselves that she just transformed herself into her younger version earlier this morning, and she's probably one or two years old at the moment. And by the run of things, Sakura's definitely changing way too fast and was getting younger by the minute, but when Naruto couldn't stand the deafening silence, it was him who broke the silence.
"Uhh—Sakura?" the pink-haired shinobi hesitantly lifted her lashes as he watched Naruto and the two others who took the seat opposite her. The blonde ninja kept on alternately pointing at the two others beside him.
"Don't you remember this one?" he pointed at Sasuke. "He's the hard headed, petulant bastard whom we kept getting back, and…" he pointed next to Kakashi, "…our super ecchi teacher who's always late and loves reading porn in public? Don't you remember?! Don't y— ow!" Both ninjas beside him reached to smack Naruto on the back of his head.
"So much for an introduction huh, Naruto?" Kakashi said, a vein ticking on his forehead.
"And who told me to watch my words again? Stupid dweeb." Sasuke muttered.
But when they all turned to look at Sakura, her attention was already elsewhere. Naruto slumped his head on the table and sighed.
"I don't even think she heard me the first time."
Sasuke followed where Sakura was looking and saw that she was staring at the can of milk they left at the kitchen counter. He tried getting her attention with it.
"Sakura? Would you like some milk?" Sasuke asked the little ninja who swiftly turned her head towards him and nodded. He faintly smirked and smacked Naruto once more.
"Hey! What was that for, Teme?" He asked, clearly annoyed. Kakashi, who was on the side, only sighed at the scene in front of him and started cleaning up the table.
"Bring Sakura to the living room, and watch television." Naruto's ears perked up.
"Oh, yeah! Would you like to watch television with me, Sakura?" without waiting for a reply, Naruto picked the little ninja up from her chair and brought her to the living room of the east wing. So far, so good, Sakura had not shown any protest. She just let herself be carried away by Naruto. When they were finally out of sight, Kakashi spoke.
"I think it would be nice if we went to an onsen, tonight."
Sasuke remained silent for a moment, quietly thinking about his former sensei's out of the blue suggestion. He looked at the milk bottle he was holding at the moment, letting it cool down a little bit.
'Hn. An onsen would be nice, considering all the stress we've been through.' He thought.
"Kakashi…" Sasuke called his former sensei's attention as the silver-haired shinobi faced him with a crinkle in his visible eye.
"Okay kids, we are going to an onsen." Kakashi announced as he made his way to the living room.
Naruto who was multi-tasking in watching the television and playing 'grab the finger' with Sakura, shot up with excitement upon hearing the word onsen, and started chanting in a sing-song manner.
"Yay! We're going to an onsen; we're going to an onsen!" but eventually stopped when he realized that the nearest public onsen was actually quite far from the Uchiha manor.
It was one thing to use chakra to travel and another thing to enjoy walking under the moon light and they also have to consider that they have Sakura and her unpredictable mood swings. So Naruto stilled himself. "Wait…but the distance…and…and we have Sakura…"
Naruto trailed his eyes towards Sasuke as he approached Sakura who was lying on the sofa, and gave her a baby bottle, half-filled with milk. The little girl grabbed it from Sasuke's hand and immediately placed the rubber nipple in her mouth.
"Thank you, Sasuke." she whispered.
The three of them stilled at what they heard from the little girl who was busy drinking her milk while watching television.
"D-did I hear that right?!" Naruto swiftly went back to Sakura's side. "S-Sakura, do you remember who we are now?" Naruto asked.
"Huh? What are you talking about, Naruto?" she asked with a quizzical look on her face, still sucking through the bottle which muffled her baby voice, but her eyes were devoid of the confusion and unfamiliarity she had a while back.
"Who am I?" Naruto tested again.
"You're Naruto." She answered.
"Who's he?" Naruto pointed at Kakashi who was standing at the foot of the sofa.
"Kakashi-sensei." The silver-haired shinobi smiled, upon hearing his name.
"Okay, last one." Naruto added, but even before he could ask the final question.
"He's Sasuke." Sakura smiled.
The three of them felt relieved when the little ninja named them correctly.
"I guess she just got a little confused when she woke up." Kakashi commented.
"That's probably because Naruto startled her with his ugly face." Sasuke commented.
"Hey! I heard that, Teme!"
But all of them laughed all the same.
"Whoa, Teme! You really do have your private, open-air onsen, and you never even thought of inviting us even once?!" Naruto complained as they made their way to the private onsen the Uchiha manor has.
It took them a while to prepare the place. Even though Sasuke maintained the onsen to a pristine condition, nobody really used it, except now.
It was also kind of awkward for them to bring Sakura along as the three of them were wrapped with towels only on the lower half of their bodies, except for Kakashi, of course, who still had his mask with him, but eventually they realized that they had no choice. Furthermore, while they were able to manage to wrap the whole of Sakura in a towel, the towel had the tendency to slip off, so Kakashi secured the cloth with clothes' pin on Sakura's back.
"I guess we better get used to this huh?" Naruto asked, as Kakashi finished semi-swaddling Sakura with a towel. Kakashi and Sasuke nodded.
There was no more room for blushing and being uncomfortable every time they change her clothes or diaper. This was probably how they are going to be if ever Shikamaru's team fail to come back. But they had to hope for the best and just enjoy what moment they have with the Sakura who still vaguely remembered them right now.
The three of them gingerly went into the hot spring, with Sakura on Kakashi's arms. Naruto brought a relatively wide, wooden bucket with him so they could place Sakura in it as they relaxed. They started filling the wooden bucket with water and placed Sakura inside. The bucket kept floating.
"Will you be okay, there?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes." Sakura answered, smiling up to him.
Naruto even gave the little ninja a wooden bath brush to serve as her paddle. The three of them watched as Sakura paddled her way around the family-sized hot spring.
"I'm feeling kind of guilty for relaxing like this, but I have to admit that I kinda need it." Naruto said.
"We all do." Sasuke commented back.
"Well, we can't do anything at the moment but to wait for Shikamaru's team to get back." Kakashi said.
"Sensei?" Sakura suddenly asked. They all turned to watch her paddle back towards Kakashi. When her bucket was close enough, the silver-haired shinobi pulled her closer.
"What is it Sakura?" Kakashi asked back.
"Why are you wearing a mask? It's gonna get wet." The little ninja asked, which alerted Naruto and Sasuke, perking their ears up, thinking that maybe…finally…he'd reveal what's behind his mask, the pink-haired shinobi only had to ask the right question. Both of them gulped in anticipation.
On the other hand, Kakashi's visible eye crinkled into a smile, remembering that they've been in a similar situation before. 'I guess she couldn't remember that far back, huh?' He thought.
"Well, you see, it's my fashion statement!" Kakashi chirped happily.
"Oh please, we all know that, that's not the reason why you're wearing a mask." Naruto muttered under his breath.
"Naruto." Sasuke called. "Sakura, doesn't need to know the truth about it now."
Kakashi looked at his former students, then back at Sakura who waited patiently for another response. Of course, the child that she is now couldn't possibly understand what really took place in his life, and like what Sasuke said, she didn't need to know. So he settled on the usual thing he always did when people got curious about his mask. He lifted Sakura off the bucket.
"Would you wanna see what's behind this mask?" Kakashi asked the little kunoichi on his hands. Naruto and Sasuke stealthily moved closer to his side to have a better access on the view.
"It's a mouth of course!" Sakura exclaimed, like the bright girl that she is. Kakashi smiled, while Naruto and Sasuke remained skeptical.
'Hn. We still don't know if he has big lips.' Sasuke thought.
'Or buck teeth!' Naruto thought the same as the two of them stared at each other, their thoughts communicating. Sakura spoke once more.
"But your mask is really going to get wet Sensei." She added.
"Would you want to pull down my mask?" He asked, the pink-haired ninja nodded and Naruto and Sasuke were much closer than before.
'Or he probably has thin lips!' Naruto's and Sasuke's heads had already bonked together, their thoughts resonating that of the other.
It was clear that the two ninjas were already at their wits' end. They just had to see it, and Kakashi knew this perfectly, so he just had to get them one more time...just for the fun of it. The silver-haired ninja chuckled deep inside.
Sakura reached out her small hands to clasp the corners of Kakashi's mask. Kakashi pulled her closer to his face so she could better reach it, and so he could better see her reaction after finding out that what's behind his mask was another mask. But Kakashi had not anticipated what the little ninja would do, nobody did. Because for the several seconds that Sakura's face hovered over his, the little ninja kissed the tip of his covered nose which made him blush and blink in rapid succession.
"Hey! That's not fair! I want a kiss too!" Naruto rowdily exclaimed as Sasuke tried his best to pull his best friend back down to the water. The simple kiss made Sasuke blush too, and maybe he was a little bit jealous that he wasn't the one who had received the kiss first, but a child is child after all, and maybe that's how the child Sakura really is. Sweet and charming and…
"Sensei, I feel like pooping." Sakura suddenly bursted the words out, which of course made the three adult ninjas scramble out of the hot spring and onto the nearest bath room. But one thing was for sure, all of them were smiling, and all of them were happy.
After changing into fresh new clothes, Kakashi was able to pat Sakura to sleep. Once again, they all made their way towards Sakura's room and made a human barricade around her, as she slept soundly.
Nobody wants to admit it but no one really wants to go to sleep. Deep down the recesses of their thoughts, the three felt scared, because maybe, just maybe, in the blink of their eyes, Sakura might ultimately disappear.
Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi all faced Sakura's sleeping form. Kakashi brushed her pink bubblegum hair away from her cheeks, Naruto gently tucked the blanket tighter around her, while Sasuke held her hand, smiling softly as Sakura's tiny hand reflexively tightened her grasp around his index finger, even when she was so fast asleep.
"I can't believe it. She has us all wrapped around her fingers." Naruto whispered.
"She always has, Naruto. She's the saner part of this team after all." Kakashi commented.
"That's why she can't disappear." Sasuke said.
"She won't disappear. Even if it means raising her on our own." Naruto said firmly. "Kakashi will be Hokage soon, and I'll be a jōnin. Of course I want to be Hokage too, but it's still kinda early, then I'll wait for Sakura at the academy! She'll probably end up in my team." Naruto stated, his resolve could strongly be felt in his words, to which Kakashi couldn't help but smile because of his statement.
"How 'bout you, Teme?" Naruto asked Sasuke.
"I'll probably do the same." Sasuke answered quietly. "I'm done with my travel of redemption, so I'll stay…and look after her."
"And all of us will protect her." Naruto stated once more.
"Because she's Sakura." Sasuke added.
"Because she's our Sakura." Kakashi ended.
The three of them nodded. An unspoken pact had been built amongst them. Their words being carried by the breeze of the night as all of them settled on Sakura's bed, a silent, calming feeling enveloping them as they started to drift off to sleep. Nobody really wanted to, but their unspoken promise made them feel at ease.
As the Hokage said, nobody really knew when Sakura's final transformation will take place, but as the moon above the sky disappeared, and the light of the dawn emerged, Sakura took her final form. Changing silently. Slowly, turning her into a much, much younger version of herself, and finally bringing her back to infancy.
The three adult shinobis remained asleep, unaware of what just transpired, but Sakura already changed and her clock already started ticking.
AN: And that's the end of Chapter 7! So what do you think, huh?
Oooh, I can feel the ending coming. And the conflict between pairings has once again resurfaced, oh my gods. One more chapter to go guys, and this is done! Keep sending reviews and don't forget to click the 'favorite' button! Just kidding, it's up to you to click. Just click responsibly though. That's what's important. :)
See you on the final update! Bye!
