(Shika)
When Ibiki told him that he would be briefed, the Nara expected to be put in an observation room, watch the interrogation, and get a quick run down of that rogue's connection to Sakura. However, what he expected was not what he got.
Ibiki pulled him into the interrogation room, locked the door, and disabled the cameras and microphones.
"Drop it," Ibiki's tone was all wrong for an interrogation, Shikamaru mused, instead it came across much like the tone Ibiki used to scold ANBU captains who pushed themselves too far on a mission. Shika would know, he'd been on the receiving end of more than a few of those over the past five years. The rogue shrugged, her golden eyes gleaming a bit too brightly.
"Didn't realize you had brought Shika in on this Iki," her voice grated on Shikamaru's nerves, something about it familiar and foreign all at once. The pieces fell into place at the nickname she used. There was only one person in the world that Shikamaru knew that could get away with calling her superiors ridiculous pet names.
"Cut the shit, I am now," Ibiki snapped. She shrugged again and a slight shimmer of chakra later, golden eyes became emerald, and black hair faded down to blossom pink.
Haruno Sakura sent Shikamaru an apologetic smile, that cracked into a full blown grin when the Nara genius just sighed and muttered a single word.
"Troublesome."
Two hours passed as Sakura briefed Ibiki on what had recently gone down in grass. As she spoke Shikamaru began to understand that he hadn't been brought in on this "interrogation" just because he had been a friend of Sakura's. His mind was already churning over the information she presented, categorizing it and logging it all away.
Many people attributed Shika's brilliance to a photographic memory and high analytical skills, but in reality only one part of that equation fit. Shikamaru didn't have a photographic memory. In fact he couldn't remember what day of the week it was most of the time. What Shikamaru did have, was a mind palace. It was an idea that Sakura had come up with and helped him develop. A normal mind palace would occupy a room, or perhaps a house, created in a person's mind, where all information was stored. What made Shika's unique was that it wasn't anything as mundane as a house, or even the Nara clan's head mansion. No, being Shikamaru, his mind palace was Konoha. Information was sectioned off in areas of the village. Information was stored in duplicate or even triplicate as well, to better link it all together. Ino had used one of her family's techniques to "see" his mind palace, and had spent the next day with a migraine for her troubles.
That was what made Shikamaru the tactician he was. The ability to know what was important and should be stored, and what shouldn't. His downfall was that as an ANBU captain, husband, teammate, advisor, and myriad other titles there was just a whole fucking lot of information that was important.
Sakura finished her recap then raised an eyebrow at the Nara standing in the corner.
"Shikamaru, is that really all you're going to do. I come back from the dead with information that Kabuto is planning an attack on Konoha and building a rogue army and you said 'Troublesome'?"
Shika sighed. Female brains are nature's most convoluted creation.
"I believe my wife will say all that needs to be said, if the Hokage doesn't." Shikamaru watched as his words dropped a shutter behind Sakura's face. The reminder that while she had been dead to the village, it certainly had lived on without her. Not only that, but that the emotions that others would feel when she revealed herself to the world would not all be positive. Sure Ino would be overjoyed to see her best friend alive, but she would also be furious. Furious that Sakura even took a mission like this. Hurt that Sakura had left her alone. Broken and betrayed and a thousand other dark emotions would erupt from his wife. And that was just one person in a village of thousands.
When a person dies it's hardest on those left behind, so it only makes sense that coming back from the dead works just the opposite.
(Sakura)
Shikamaru's cold attitude hurt. Hadn't I been hurt enough lately? I knew that Ibiki would be setting up a meeting with the Hokage soon and that was sure to end in a flood of tears and enough craters to make a Konoha water park. Shikamaru was one of the people I had planned on taking my return rather amicably.
I stared at the Nara for a brief moment then turned to face Ibiki. "I'd suggest that you set up the meeting with Hokage-sama far away from the actual village. Because this is going to be a fuck fest."
"Once you are reinstated, I'll expect you to drop the sass with your superiors Haruno," one side of Ibiki's mouth quirked up pulling at his scars in a familiar way.
"Yet another bossy woman," Shikamaru grumbled then stepped forward with his hand outstretched. Curious I reached out to him and blinked at the shogi piece he dropped in my palm. I flipped it over to stare at the king kanji inked on the back. "Defend the king Sakura. Welcome home."
I was home. Ibiki's crooked smile was home. Shikamaru's lazy attitude was home. The battered shogi piece I had given to Shikamaru before I "died" was home. I had given it to him after he explained the conversation about kings he had shared with Asuma. Konoha would always be my king, but I had a feeling that much like Asuma, Shika's feelings on the meaning of the kings had changed.
I smiled at Shika then pulled him into a back breaking hug. Shika grunted slightly then hugged me back tightly. The smell of the perfume Ino had worn since we were children made me chuckle.
"She'll be glad to have you back. Asuma needs a godmother," Shika smirked at me as he dropped another bomb. So Ino and Shika married, and had a son. The village had really moved on with out me. Reading a Nara's emotions was like trying to find the darkest piece of shade in the forest. It was confusing but with enough practice you could get close. He worried about what my return would bring, he was happy that I was back, and glad for Ino as well. So I did the only thing I figured would save us from a horrifically awkward moment.
I slapped him on the back of the head. "No chick flick moments."
"None here, but I'm sure you're about to face more than a few of them," Ibiki muttered. I sighed he was right.
"Lets do this thing Iki." A middle finger was all I got in return.
(Tsunade)
Some would claim that the fifth Hokage was too old to be having a midlife crisis. Those people would also find their knees broken and reset in the wrong direction. But that's irrelevant. A midlife crisis was the only term Tsunade could think of to describe the day she was having. She had been forced to read the latest hourly gate report three times, and it still made no sense. Ibiki had issued a mass recall of the ANBU units without so much as a reasonable explanation. The only reason she hadn't fought him on it was because one of the returning squads had reported sensing the remaining members of team seven approaching rapidly. To top it all off she had been sneezing non-stop for about three hours now. First over a statement to the council members. Twice into her sake cup creating a hell of a mess. Once into Shizune's face. And now directly onto the window looking out at the monument.
"That's horrifically unhygienic." Tsunade turned a glared at Ibiki who stared back placidly.
"Hokage-sama, we need to discuss our latest findings with you, perhaps away from the dust," Ibiki's tone was so neutral it was insulting. On a different day Tsunade would have been suspicious. But in the middle of her midlife crisis, getting out of the office sounded damn good.
Thirty minutes later Tsunade was very muchly out of her office. Not only that she was out of the village area, and in one of the ancient training grounds relegated to ANBU use only. Located at the very edges of Konoha's boundaries it was a place the elite ninja could cut loose and train without sending genin teams into years of therapy.
Which was all well and good but, "Why are we out here?" Ibiki just gave her a blank stare.
"Because there is less potential for collateral damage out here," a third voice answered her question.
Tsunade immediately froze. After all the bond between apprentice and master is strong. As is the one between shinobi and Hokage. The strongest of all was the bond of a mother who didn't give birth to a child but loved her all the same. When you share all of those bonds and more with a person, their voice is one you know better than your own. Between one second and the next she was there. No dynamic entry. No flair or drama. She just stood up from her perch in the shade of a boulder.
Somehow it was worse. The simplicity of Haruno fucking Sakura just standing up in the middle of a training area was what made it real.
Midlife crisis my blonde ass.
"GET CLEAR!" Sakura's voice rang out and Ibiki immediately fled for cover. Tsunade slammed a chakra enhanced heel into the ground and it began.
(Ibiki)
Ibiki made a note to himself to have Tenzou come out to this area and fix it. It looked like a meteor shower had hit. The ground was a map of craters and gorges. Whole swathes of the forest had been felled and uprooted. Pink and blonde blurs darted through the wreckage, a chain or destruction mapping their progress.
Indistinct shouting drifted to the two shinobi standing in the trees. Given they were nearly half a mile away that was a feat. Tsunade's pained bellows demanding explanations. Sakura's defensive cries giving them. Ibiki shifted slightly.
"She loves Sakura like a daughter. Imagine what she'll do to me for sending her on that mission," Ibiki mused to himself then smirked at the thought of Kakashi "or to you for keeping it secret all this time."
Ibik shivered slightly and returned his gazes back to the cloud of dust. Or rather what had been a cloud of dust. A sudden calm fell on the area.
(Sakura)
I was out of shape to be playing dodge-fifty-foot-tree with Tsunade. It was a perishable skill apparently. However, the scrapes, bruises, and broken bones were worth it.
"Sakura."
"Hmm?" I was healing a rather nasty fracture in my left wrist.
"Your technique is sloppy," a hand batted mine away. I sighed in relief. "Also. Don't ever die on me again."
The simple sentence carried a lot of pain and stress, old wounds that I had torn back open. I leaned my head on her shoulder and sighed.
"I agree. But you'll forgive me once you get briefed on the situation in grass." The green glowing hands paused briefly before resuming their healing.
"You're already forgiven. Completing the mission is just icing on the cake Haruno."
Ibiki dropped onto the ground in front of us. Coward, snipped Inner surprising me again.
"While I'm glad you two have worked it out we have another problem", Ibiki nodded in the general direction of the gate. The direction where three very familiar chakra signatures had appeared.
"Fucking assholes," I snarled.
(The boys)
Kakashi waved his book at the gate guards and strutted in. Naruto beamed them a smile, and Sasuke pulled I'm-an-Uchiha-fuck-off-peasants routine. All three of the men noticed the way that Izumo and Kotetsu had stared at them in abject horror.
Until a slug the size of a horse popped into existence in the road. Then the crowd in the area stared at it and the three men.
"Your presence is requested at training area 56." Katsuyu poofed away, spattering them all with mildly corrosive acid. Naruto swore and started batting at himself. Kakashi and Sasuke reacted slightly more dignified. In simple terms swearing quieter.
"Where the hell even is area 56?" Kakashi eye crinkled at the chance to show his adorable little students something shiny and new.
Or not so shiny, as a few minutes later the male parts of team 7 took in the destruction fanning out in front of them.
"They had a discussion," Ibiki offered as an explanation, before leading them on a winding and twisting path towards the heart of the field. He explained as he barked at them to copy his movements, that Sakura and Tsunade had created a bit of a natural mine field with their fight. And that the ground was about as trustworthy as Orochimaru in a pre-school. (Sasuke twitched so explosively at that a five minute break was spent digging the Uchiha out of a small landslide.)
Fifteen minutes later the four men arrived in what Ibiki deemed the safe zone. Tsunade was sitting with her back leaning up against a boulder. Sakura was perched on top of the same boulder.
"Get comfortable all of you. Because this is going to be a long talk. Five years is a lot of time to cover so lets get into it. I'm only going through this once so make it count," Sakura's green eyes were nearly bleached white in the bright sunlight.
As always Naruto was the first. He sat down in front of Tsunade. Sakura slid down to sit on Tsunade's left. Ibiki sat next to Sakura, with Kakashi stepping into place between Ibiki and Naruto. Sasuke folded his frame into position between Naruto and Tsunade.
Once everyone had settled down Sakura looked up, making eye contact with each person in the circle.
"All of you know a piece of this story, so today I'll fill in the blanks. Well, as much as I can. Some things aren't meant to be spoken of." One more deep breath and Sakura began.
. A/N: Notes are down here again because spoilers. First up, thank you to all my new favorites, follows, and reviews. As you can see it inspired a quicker update. Now I know there isn't a whole terrible lot that happens in this chapter, but next chapter we get a comprehensive look at Sakura's transition into the Pink Fox. This just set the stage for it. I have no real rational reason why Shikamaru appeared. He just kinda slid in. Also this is unedited so, sorry bout it. I know that I flaked out on having Sakura and Tsunade do a big reveal moment. But i already did that with the boys (and it was so cliche and cheesy it upset me on a molecular level). Then again with Shika. I didn't want to get redundant so I had them brawl and shout and behave like cavemen. Once again.. Apologies. Anyways, next chapter should be better. This one is worthy of compost and that's about it. (Dark humor slipped out a couple times up there too. Oops.) Until next time!