Yay, I'm updating early! I NEED MORE REVIEWS PEOPLE! And enjoy :)
XX
By the time Naruto, Sasuke and Nagato reached Konoha, it was nightfall. Naruto let them into his apartment. "Excuse the mess," he said embarrassedly. "Just make yourselves comfortable. Teme, feel free to cook to your heart's content. Just be sure to save some for me." Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"What is it about Sasuke's cooking?" Nagato asked curiously.
"It's amazing," Naruto gushed. "Sasuke-teme should just quit being a shinobi altogether and open up a restaurant. He's that good. I mean, he makes even mission food taste good!" Sasuke just crossed his arms.
"I'm not that good," he denied.
"So I'm going to tell Sakura-chan to meet us tomorrow!" Naruto announced as he left the apartment. Naruto sprinted to Sakura's house. He remembered how she was so happy that she rebuilt it just before he left. "Sakura-chan!" he yelled as he banged his fist against the door. "Sakura-chan, open up!" After a few minutes of banging against the door, Sakura finally opened the door, dressed in a pale green robe, rubbing her eyes.
"What?" she asked irritably.
"Do you want to train with me tomorrow?" Naruto asked.
"Don't you have to go back to that Killer Bee guy?" she asked sleepily.
"Nope!" Naruto yelled. "So just meet me at the usual spot at ten tomorrow morning, ok?"
"Fine, fine," Sakura grumbled. "You woke me up just to tell me that?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan…" he apologized. "This couldn't wait. Anyway, see you tomorrow!" Naruto ran off, and Sakura slammed the door shut before migrating to the couch and falling asleep.
The next morning, there was a knock at the door as Sakura was sharpening her axe with a smooth, round stone. She opened the door, and Naruto stood there. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!" he yelled. Sakura smiled at him.
"Good morning!" she greeted. "I thought I was going to meet you at the usual spot."
"I changed my mind," Naruto said, shrugging. "We'll just go together." Sakura shrugged.
"Fine by me." She sheathed her axe and slung it over her shoulder.
"Wait, Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "Why don't I carry that for you? It looks really heavy." Sakura unsheathed it and laid it down on the table. She pressed two fingers onto the red swirling pattern on the blade. The whole axe glowed pale blue.
"Send a steady stream of chakra into the blade," she instructed Naruto. "That way, you can carry it. If you send too little, it won't work, but if you send too much, it'll reject you." Naruto pressed two fingers onto the blade and focused his chakra so that it entered the blade in a steady stream. "Wow… When did you get so good at controlling your chakra?"
"When I was training with Bee," Naruto replied cheerfully. He slung the axe over his shoulder as he and Sakura left the house. They made their way over to the training ground where they first took the bell test. Sakura stopped dead in her tracks as she saw someone leaning lazily against a tree with his arms crossed.
It was Sasuke.
"Yo," Sasuke greeted, smirking and giving a wave.
"Surprise!" Naruto yelled to Sakura. He glanced nervously from Sasuke, who simply stood there smirking, to Sakura, who was clenching and unclenching her fists. He wasn't sure how this was going to end. As Sakura clenched her fists one last time and kept the clenched, Naruto did a mental countdown as he waited for Mount Sakura to erupt.
"THREE YEARS!" she screeched as she throttled Sasuke. "YOU WERE GONE THREE YEARS, AND YOU COME BACK AND THE ONLY THING YOU CAN SAY IS 'YO'?"
"Aa," Sasuke said. Naruto facepalmed.
"Sasuke, you idiot," he groaned. He was so dead.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?" Sakura yelled. "I…" She whipped around and began stepping towards Naruto in a menacing way. "Naruto, where's my axe?" Naruto quickly tried to hide Sakura's axe behind him.
"Um…" he mumbled.
"Naruto, where is my axe?" Sakura repeated, looking more and more scary by the minute.
"Um…" Naruto said again. "I think you left it at home…"
"You give me my axe, Uzumaki Naruto," Sakura growled, jabbing her finger onto his chest. There was a poof, and Kakashi appeared next to them.
"Yo!" he greeted. Sakura checked your watch. Then…
"YOU'RE SIX MINUTES AND THIRTY-EIGHT SECONDS LATE!" she accused. Kakashi sighed.
"What, you're keeping track now?" he groaned.
"Six minutes and thirty-eight seconds?" Sasuke repeated. "Isn't that really early for Kakashi standards?"
"SHUT UP!" Sakura screeched as she punched Sasuke square in the jaw, sending him flying several feet ahead. As he lay submerged in a pile of dirt, Sakura lifted him up by the foot and let him fall onto the ground. Then she grabbed him by the shirt and shook him back and forth repeatedly.
"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?" she yelled. "YOU SHOW YOUR FACE HERE AFTER THREE YEARS! YOU'RE LUCKY WE'RE EVEN LETTING YOU BACK HERE AFTER WHAT YOU DID AT THE LAND OF IRON!"
"I never thought I'd see the day…" Kakashi mumbled, not quite sure what to make of the situation.
"I don't know…" Naruto agreed. Seeing Sakura unleash her wrath and fury on Sasuke was refreshing, yet sad at the same time.
Was Sakura always like this? Sasuke thought miserably as Sakura continued to shake him back and forth.
Sasuke sat on one side of Naruto at Ichiraku's. Needless to say, the training session didn't go very well, as it consisted mostly of Naruto and Kakashi trying to pry Sakura off of Sasuke. "Naruto," Sasuke said in a low voice. Sakura had left momentarily to talk to Ino, and Sasuke wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. "Was Sakura always this… violent?"
"Sasuke-teme," Naruto said in a louder voice. "Hell hath no fury like Sakura-chan." Sasuke groaned.
"You've got to be kidding me," he mumbled. "She thinks I tried to kill her. I never meant to."
"Don't worry, Sasuke," Kakashi assured him. "She hasn't heard your side of the story yet."
"Or maybe Karin or someone told her and she's just pissed off at you," Naruto added. Sasuke sighed as Sakura stepped back into the stand.
"Sorry everyone," she apologized. "I have to go. I promised I'd take a shift at the hospital and—"
"No," Sasuke said suddenly, surprising everyone. "Stay. You can always take another shift later." Naruto and Kakashi shifted into defensive positions, hoping Sakura wouldn't punch Sasuke again. "Besides… your father's here." Sakura gasped.
"Sasuke, you idiot!" Naruto yelled. "You don't just drop a bombshell like that!"
"He…" Sakura mumbled. "He's here?" Her eyes were wide, and her body seemed to be shaking.
"Hai," Naruto affirmed. "He came here with us after—"
"But isn't he an Edo summon?" Sakura interrupted him. "Tsunade-sama told me he was an Edo summon."
"Not anymore," Sasuke said.
"W-We can introduce you to him after lunch, Sakura-chan," Naruto offered. Sakura nodded as she sat down next to Sasuke.
"Sure… That's fine…" Sakura picked at her food, stirring her chopsticks aimlessly in the rapidly cooling bowl of ramen. In the end, Sakura pushed Naruto her bowl. "Do you want it?" she asked him. "I'm not that hungry." After that, Sakura just rested her chin in the palms of her hands and sighed.
"Nervous?" Sasuke asked, smirking a little. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him but didn't say anything, slowly counting to ten in her head.
"Oy, teme…" Naruto said, tapping Sasuke on the shoulder. "She's going to hit you again if you don't shut up." Sasuke looked to Kakashi, who merely nodded gravely. He then inched away from Sakura slowly. An awkward silence fell among them, only to be interrupted by Nagato.
"Naruto," he greeted. "Sasuke. The Hokage told me I'd find you two here." Both boys cast nervous glances to Sakura and gasped. A log sat in her place.
Sakura sprinted down the street, panting slightly. She felt bad for ditching Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi at Ichiraku's but all the talk about her real parents was making her nervous. Too nervous. Slowing to a steady stroll, she wondered how long it would take before someone realized that she was gone. She didn't really know. She soon found herself sitting on top of Tsunade's head on the Hokage monument. She sighed and hugged her knees. So her father was here in Konoha. What was she supposed to do about it? "Thanks for ditching us back there." Sakura practically jumped when she saw Sasuke sitting next to her.
"Wh-What are you doing here?" she stuttered.
"Really, Sakura-chan, that wasn't very nice," Naruto piped up from her other side. "You left right when your dad showed up, right?"
"Substitution jutsu," Sasuke said flatly. "Clever, but still so annoying." Sakura paled visibly.
"You mean he came there?" she squeaked. Sasuke frowned at her.
"Wait, you're not saying that you left before he even showed up, are you?" he asked her incredulously.
"Well what do you expect me to do about it?" she yelled at him. "I just found out that he was my father last week, Sasuke-kun! And now you expect me to carry on as if I've known him my entire life? I can't do that!"
"No one expects you to do that, Sakura," a new voice said. Nagato now stood in front of them, his eyes bright green like Sakura's as opposed to the swirl of the Rinnegan. "Naruto, Sasuke, if you don't mind, I would like to have a talk with my daughter alone." Naruto and Sasuke just shrugged as the stood up and jumped off of Tsunade's head. Nagato sat down next to Sakura, who hugged her knees tightly to her chest. When Sakura didn't say anything, Nagato started. "I can only assume that you would be angry with me." Sakura shook her head.
"I'm not mad," she whispered. "Really… thanks… for getting me away from Madara." Nagato chuckled.
"Well, Izuna now," he corrected. Sakura frowned in confusion.
"What?" she asked. Nagato just shook his head.
"You'll be better off hearing that one from Sasuke," he said softly. Nagato scrutinized Sakura closely, and she refused to make eye contact with him. "You look like Konan." Sakura looked up and met his eyes for the first time.
"My mom?" she asked. Nagato nodded.
"You have my eyes, but your face is shaped like hers." He ran his finger against her nose lightly. "You have her nose." A small smile spread across Sakura's face. "I can understand if you hate me—"
"But I don't hate you," Sakura clarified.
"At least, let me explain. When… When we realized Konan was pregnant, we panicked. We hoped you wouldn't get the Rinnegan like me. If you did, then we knew Izuna would try to claim you for himself." Sakura shuddered. "So we brought you here. No offense… Konan and I hate Konoha from the bottoms of our hearts."
"I know," Sakura told him. "Naruto told me."
"But we brought you here because we knew this was the last place anyone would expect us to take you. We knocked on every door until we came upon one man… Haruno-san."
"Otou-san…" Sakura whispered to herself.
"We told him that we had people after us, really cruel, evil shinobi who wanted us dead, and we feared for your life. Every single word we told him was the truth. He and his wife took you in without question. It wasn't uncommon then for civilians to adopt children of shinobi… war orphans… Tell me… did you ever tell anyone that you were adopted?"
"Okaa-san and Otou-san told me when I was five, just before I started attending the Academy," Sakura told him. "They said I was old enough to know, and they said I could tell anyone if I wanted. But I didn't." She let out a long sigh. "Maybe it would have just been easier to tell everyone that I was a war orphan."
"But we were still alive then," Nagato pointed out.
"Shinobi children entrusted to civilian parents are always war orphans, regardless of whether their real parents are alive or not."
"I'm sorry," Nagato apologized almost immediately. Sakura shook her head.
"Stop blaming yourself," she said. "If you hadn't brought me here, I'd probably be dead right now, or worse. Besides… just because I've only known about you being my father for about a week now… doesn't mean we can't start fresh." Nagato smiled gently.
"Of course," he said. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around Sakura and hugged her tightly.
The old man read the mission report again. It was issued eight years ago, but he couldn't stop himself from reading it and rereading it over and over again. He finally reached the bottom where Uchiha Itachi had meticulously signed his name. He placed the mission report back into the file, placed the file back in the drawer, and locked the drawer shut. Koharu and Homura wouldn't be able to access the file. He, after all, had the key. And there was no possible way for them to pick the lock. He stood up shakily and, cursing his old age, stumbled over to his desk. No one dared approach it, even after his supposed death. So he knew it had been untouched during his absence. He knew no one had seen the pictures in the right drawer, not even his most trusted subordinates. He opened the drawer slowly and pulled out five pictures. They were all of Uchiha Sasuke: one of him as a baby, one as a small child, one as an academy student, one as a genin, and a more recent one of him donned in his Akatsuki cloak, Mangekyou Sharingans spinning in his eyes as he glared ahead with a murderous gaze.
Shimura Danzou sighed heavily. He had done just as Itachi had asked. Watch Sasuke from the shadows. Take care of him without letting him know of his presence. And, if absolutely necessary, let him defeat him, but take care not to die in the process. There was a knock at the door, and Koharu entered. "Forget it, Koharu," he snapped almost immediately. "I know what you and Homura are up to."
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Koharu said simply as she left the room. Danzou's hands balled into fists.
Damn it, he thought. Where's Hiruzen when you need him?
XX
I'm sure you've noticed by now, but basically, this entire story is pretty much a collection of manga predictions, what I hope to see in the manga, and Sakura badassery. Now, RECAP:
Sasuke, Naruto, and Nagato finally arrive in Konoha. Naruto invites Sakura to train with him the next day and surprises her with Sasuke's return. To everyone's surprise, she beats Sasuke into a bloody pulp. While eating lunch at Ichiraku's, Sasuke drops a bombshell on Sakura that her father is in Konoha and, unable to deal with it, she escapes via the substitution jutsu. Shortly afterward, Sasuke and Naruto find her atop the Hokage monument, only to be found by Nagato. Nagato then asks Naruto and Sasuke to leave as he talks to Sakura.
I find Sakura beating Sasuke into a bloody pulp endearing. How about you? Yes, I know the whole Sakura-Nagato conversation is very awkward. Considering that the last time either of them saw each other was when Sakura was barely a year old, of COURSE their reunion would be awkward.
I would REALLY appreciate it if all readers actually REVIEWED, as opposed to the three or four that review every chapter. THIS STORY THRIVES ON REVIEWS, PEOPLE! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!