Author's Notes: Well, it's official. I'm dedicating this chapter to faith, because you all have none.
Quote for Chapter 10: "We often take for granted that our lights will come on when we flip the light switch, but the reality is that our reliability standards leave us all vulnerable to blackouts."—Richard Burr.
.
.
Title: Catch 22
Rating: T (or PG-13)
Summary: Sakura isn't weak because she lacks strength. She is weak because they protect her. Sakura-centric
Pairings: None (yet)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Spoiler Alert: This chapter contains spoilers from manga chapter 399–400 and manga chapter 574 of Naruto Shippuden. You have been warned.
Chapter 10: Blackouts
.
.
Sakura was in the hospital when the Suna volunteers reached the village, so she didn't even know they had arrived until some blushing nurses showed up for their shifts midday. Apparently, there were over a thousand people to welcome to foreigners, civilians and shinobi alike, and if the rumor was to be believed the Kazekage was looking "more attractive than ever."
The medic glowered at the nurses, since they had taken personal time off just to get a glimpse of the redhead. And this was the time that the hospital needed the most help, since Danzou had no clue what he was doing when it came to hospital business. He'd just left everyone to their own devices with no real superior. While Shizune would be with the Hokage today, Sakura would be getting everything back in working order. That morning, she had already called in Jounin to cart six people off to prison, which included two doctors and four nurses that had kept her and Shikamaru in a drug-induced coma for a month. She told Ibiki not to go easy on them.
Sakura's temper was on edge a bit, since she had been up much of the night before working on Tsunade's paperwork to get everything ready for the Kazekage's visit. All the building plans had been finalized and delivered, so the volunteers could get to work straight away. It was going to be a busy day for everyone, since Sakura had assigned several D-Rank missions last night for Genin teams to plant trees and flowers, so even they could do their part.
Of course, the lack of sleep wasn't the only reason her mood was so horrible today. Apparently, Sasuke had one condition for returning to the village peacefully: that he could go and get Itachi's eyes. The Mangekyou would eventually deteriorate his eyesight, which could be prevented if another Sharingan was combined with his. Sakura wasn't sure why Tsunade had agreed to it, probably since the remaining Council longed to have a monopoly of the Sharingan again, but Sasuke and Kakashi had left the night before last.
"You didn't send a medic with him?" Sakura had asked after Tsunade told her. She worried, since there would be certain things Sasuke would need to do in order to preserve his brother's eyes.
Tsunade had simply raised an eyebrow. "Kakashi knows more than any medic how the transplant process works, Sakura. They'll be fine."
Of course the Hokage had been right. In fact Kakashi had been the best person to pick for such a mission…but even that didn't stop her from worrying.
Sakura shook the memories away from her while giving orders to a nurse. There was enough work to do that she didn't need to daydream about all the things that could go wrong. She told someone to take over for her, and Sakura took a late lunch break in the Hokage's office, figuring she could get some paperwork done in an hour. It may help her get some sleep tonight, at least.
Sakura closed the blinds and sat down in Tsunade's chair, since the other woman was out and about in the village for the day with the Kazekage. Taking a bite of her sandwich, Sakura picked up the top sheet of paper. She grimaced, and then mused out loud, "Her cat escaped again?"
.
.
The kunoichi reflexively woke up when she heard the Hokage's office door open, instantly trying to cover up the signs of sleep. No wonder Kages hated the paperwork aspect of the job so much, it was boring as hell. Sakura looked at the clock, and with a rush of relief realized she'd only been asleep for fifteen minutes.
A painted face poked his head in the office, looking surprised to see the pink haired woman sitting at the Hokage's desk.
"Hey," Kankuro said, opening the door fully. "You haven't seen my brother around, have you?"
Sakura shook her head, which was still a bit hazy from her nap. "No." And then she adopted a sly look. "Don't tell me you lost the Kazekage."
"I did not lose him." The Sand nin huffed. "Momentarily misplaced…maybe…"
Sakura shrugged. "Find Naruto, then. He's probably attached to Gaara-sama's side."
"Good thinking. I thought I might find him here with the Hokage, but I guess not." He looked at her curiously. "What are you doing here?"
Sakura froze for a moment, since she knew what she was doing was a big no-no. Being in the Hokage's office without the Hokage actually there was bad enough, but sitting at her desk was probably punishable by something. Tsunade kept so many classified documents in the drawers of this desk that even one of them in the wrong hands would be a catastrophe. Of course, Sakura had already seen many of said classified documents, and the really secret documents were under lock and key in some other part of the building. Sakura made up something that sounded the most plausible, "Looking for a medical text."
She watched him closely to see if any disbelief appeared on his face, but there wasn't any. He just said, "Okay, good luck finding it!" And then he left. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as the door shut behind him. Perhaps she should contain doing this to nighttime, since it looked like she would be more paranoid during normal hours. She stacked the papers in groups before leaving the office. Until later then, Sakura sighed.
.
.
The pink haired medic was entirely unprepared for the following two days. The hospital had all sorts of incoming patients due to construction injuries, though thankfully these were easy enough and didn't take too much chakra to heal. At least that's what she thought at first, anyway. After more than two hundred of these minor injuries, Sakura's chakra was dwindling. It was when her shift ended, the rest of the medics going home, that Sakura trudged her way to the Hokage Tower and planted herself at the Hokage's chair. Thankfully, the Hokage seemed to be recovering at a nice pace, so she wasn't going to have to do this for much longer.
Tsunade's paperwork had picked up. A lot of it, thankfully, were just notices that construction was complete or mission reports that just needed to be filed away. Some were requests for more funds for the buildings, which always made Sakura feel a bit discouraged, since it seemed that she hadn't allotted them enough money. Nevermind that the Hokage read and approved all of her fund allocations, but it made Sakura feel like she wasn't doing this right. That she was causing more trouble instead of helping.
The first night, Sakura retreated back to her apartment to sleep, and didn't even have time to dream before her alarm clock woke her.
The second day was much the same routine, except that when she went to the Hokage's office at eleven at night to start that work, there was a rather thick scroll laying on the desk. This worried her, because there was nothing else around it. Normally by this time, Tsunade's desk was piled high with papers, but now all that was on it was a scroll and a note that read Please Summarize—Tsunade.
So Tsunade was appointing this to her. Well, it wouldn't be so bad. It would be like taking notes from a medical text, something she had perfected when she was still learning everything. And Sakura vaguely knew what a summary for such a document was. The Hokage just didn't have time to read through something so long before she even knew if the scroll was worth reading or not. The summary would provide her with a page or two of all the high points in the document.
This won't be so hard, Sakura thought, and she kept her upbeat attitude all the way to the first line of the scroll: The people of Mizugakure request to renew the trade agreement with Konohagakure with alterations, to take effect in two months time, when the old agreement expires.
Well…shit.
.
.
It was three in the morning, and Sakura was near tears.
She had gotten a quarter of the way through the document just fine, and then her simple legal dictionary failed her. In order to summarize these things, Sakura would have to understand them, so she had to look them up. At twelve thirty, Sakura retreated to the Hokage's library on one of the lower floors of the Tower, which had a lot more specialized texts. Normally, this place was restricted to everyone but the Hokage, but she had special permission as the Hokage's apprentice, especially since Tsunade kept all of her personal medical texts here. Sakura had spent a lot of time here during the two years she was learning medicine, so she knew her way around the place. She spread her things out on the oak table, and began to pull books off the shelves. Despite how small the room was, Sakura was able to find everything that she needed, and she continued on with her task.
That was until two in the morning, when she reached a term that she didn't understand, and couldn't find in any of the books in the library. She tried to see if she could skip it and move on, but the phrase had sub-clauses that extended for the next three feet of the scroll, surrounded by words like tribunal and jus inter gentes. Whatever it was, it looked far too important to skip.
Sakura looked at the ten books she had already gone through, and resigned herself to go through them again. She had been looking for any word that would lead her to something, but it either wasn't there or she was so tired that she was missing things. The texts were open around her, and she winced at the general chaos on the table. She reached for the nearest book, feeling her eyes go glassy at the thought of how late she would have to stay up, and how early she would have to be awake tomorrow.
The main door to the library swung open, and Sakura froze at the sight of the Kazekage in the doorway. He looked impeccable as usual, even for three in the morning. Sakura knew she probably looked like hell. He raised an eyebrow at her in silent question.
"Good morning, Kazekage-sama." Sakura said, and then wondered if she wasn't delirious because she had just wished the Kazekage good morning. She needed to go to bed.
"Haruno-san." He acknowledged before walking into the library.
"Can't sleep?" She asked. He shook his head slowly. Even though he was no longer a Jinchuuriki, he still probably had insomnia, not to mention he was in a foreign place far from his own home. "Is there anything I can do?" She asked. He shook his head again, looking around. Sakura tensed and hoped he didn't read anything on the table, since even the Hokage's apprentice had no business to be looking at these sorts of things. He wasn't supposed to know that the Hokage wasn't the strong woman she appeared to be.
"A walk will be enough." He said. "Forgive me for disturbing you." With that, he turned around to walk out the door.
"Gaara-sama, wait!" Sakura stopped him, and she wondered what the hell she was doing. He turned around to look at her, and Sakura gulped. She was desperate. She wanted to get this over with. She wanted sleep. She didn't have any other options. "Do you know what a supranational law is?"
His brow furrowed a moment, and Sakura almost regretted asking before he said, "It gives the rights for two different countries to submit decisions to a communal group." Sakura frowned and looked back at the document. Well, that explained some of the next few sub-clauses, but there were still so many things about this she didn't understand. She worked through the clauses as best she could in her head, forgetting the man in front of her until he asked, "Why?" and then her spirits plummeted.
"Curiosity…?" She offered him as an answer. He didn't appear to have heard her, though, as the next thing that she knew, he was looking over her shoulder and reading the treaty. Sakura could only sit very still, hoping that he just brushed it off as some form of research or…
"Explain." He ordered in a voice that made it rather clear why he was chosen to be the Kazekage. Even without her looking, Sakura could tell he was looking at her with penetrating jade eyes. Sakura turned to protest, using the last of her courage for the night, but stopped abruptly when she found out she was right about his eyes. She closed her mouth quickly. She wasn't afraid of him, not anymore at least, but he hadn't lost the intimidation factor he'd carried so easily as a preteen. She found out that that gift had only matured, and she would probably give him her whole life's story if he only asked the right questions. It was almost funny, because she was in her home country, and he was not her Kage, but she still felt the full brunt of his authority, and her ninja instincts were telling her to follow orders.
Naruto trusted Gaara with his life. Could she trust him with this?
Sakura's gaze returned to the table. "Tsunade-sama is…" she swallowed out of nervousness, "…not recovering as quickly as expected. She is needed in the public eye during the day, so at nights…"
"You're doing her paperwork." He said. Sakura bit her lip.
"Please don't think any less of her for this, Kazekage-sama. I started doing this on my own since—"
"Stop." He ordered again, and Sakura flinched. She could see it now, Suna cuts diplomatic ties with Konoha due to kunoichi's mistake—Kazekage and Uzumaki Naruto still best buds. "I understand."
Sakura turned her face towards him in shock, never expecting to hear such words come out of his mouth. "You..."
"I died once." He said as an explanation. "Temari took over." And he left it at that. Sakura remembered the events easily, how scared everyone had been for the Kazekage and his siblings. How distraught Naruto had been…But at least it seemed like he understood what Tsunade was going through, even just a little, and it appeared that Sakura was now in the same predicament Temari had been in about a year ago.
She heard the sound of scraping wood, and Sakura's eyes widened again. She wondered if her mouth would ever shut again, or if she would just have to leave it open in a permanent shocked gape. The redhead dragged a chair over next to her, and had narrowed his eyes in concentration, reading the treaty before him. "Kazekage-sama," she said, "there's really—"
"Cross out sub-clause three." He interrupted. "Konoha would lose too much offshore territory."
"I'm really just supposed to summarize…"
"And sub-clause eight, it's a ridiculous demand and they know it."
Dazedly, Sakura found herself putting Xs through both clauses. She wondered if she was doing the right thing, but figured Tsunade would probably have to read through the entire document anyway, since Gaara mentioned there were some good points in it. Working like that, it only took them another half hour to finish the treaty and summarize everything, a feat which probably would have taken Sakura until lunch.
At three forty five, Sakura rolled up the scroll again and let out a tired, but satisfied, smile. She was done for the evening. She turned to the Kazekage, and found that he also looked more relaxed and tired than when he walked in here. For a brief moment, Sakura wondered if he fell asleep on his paperwork the same way Tsunade did.
"Thank you." Sakura said quietly.
He nodded a response, and then disappeared in a whirlwind of sand.
.
.
The next night, Sakura felt a little better about the paperwork. Even though she was by herself again, the Kazekage left the village late that afternoon, Tsunade told her that she would be able to resume her duties in another two days. She was already counting the hours until Tsunade came back to work.
It was ten o'clock when the door to the Hokage's office opened slowly, and Sakura stilled, wondering if she was about to get caught again. Though this time, it wasn't Gaara who stepped into the room, it was a rather sheepish looking Naruto, who greeted her with an, "Oh…um…hey, Sakura-chan…"
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Naruto?" She asked. "What are you doing here?"
He shut the door softly behind him. "Well…" He rubbed the back of his head. "Gaara and I had a little heart-to-heart chat, and by that I mean he beat the shit out of me for an hour."
Sakura blinked. "Are you okay?" He didn't really look all that beaten up.
He waved a hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, he accused me of being a bad future Hokage, because my teammate was looking after my village for me…" He looked at her, still bent over the desk. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm not really supposed to talk about it, Naruto." And neither was Gaara, Sakura thought dryly inside of her head. Still, it had been Naruto he had told all of this to, and it wasn't like the blond was any danger to the village.
"Right…um, is there anything I can do?"
Sakura smiled a little. "I'm looking at construction costs for the new buildings. You can assign missions to Genin teams."
His face lit up. "Really?" And then he drew up a chair opposite hers. "Where do I start?"
She pointed to a large stack of requests, and then a smaller stack of folders. "Match the request to the team, but only if it seems like it could be a D or C ranked mission. Tsunade needs to handle any higher than that." He looked slightly put out by the size of the stacks, but nevertheless picked a request off the top. She thought she heard him mutter, "Damn cat," but she may have been hearing things.
He picked up the next one and laughed. "Weed pulling…I used to hate these missions when I was a Genin."
"You're still a Genin, Naruto." Sakura reminded him absently, picking up more dribble about finances.
"Only on paper!" He protested. "But the next Chuunin Exams are coming up in a few months, in Rock. You think I could get the bastard and shark-breath to be on a team with me?"
Sakura's mouth twitched upwards. "They'd probably be more likely to say yes if you didn't call them that. But…I really don't know how to answer that. Suigetsu seems to care about his rank, but I can't imagine that Sasuke does…"
"Don't say stuff like that, Sakura-chan. Sasuke is a Konoha shinobi again. Of course he's going to want to get a better rank. He can't be all epic as a Genin."
"I…guess you're right." Sakura didn't have the heart to tell him she had almost caught him leaving the village. "When he gets back you can talk to him about it."
One blond eyebrow rose. "But Sakura-chan…Sasuke is back. Baa-chan operated on him this morning."
Sakura's hands stopped shuffling papers. "Oh…" Why had she not been told that her teammate was back…that he was currently recovering from surgery? "I guess I was out of the hospital…" She paused for a moment in thought, and then cleared her throat. "Then I take it the surgery went well?"
Naruto perked up. "Yeah! It went great. Baa-chan said he'd only have to stay in the hospital for a week, and then he'd be good as new!" He said more, but Sakura tuned him out.
"I'm glad he's recovering," Sakura said to herself. It shouldn't have been a big deal, since she had been busy in the hospital this morning. Still, it hurt that no one thought to tell her that her teammate—ex-teammate?—had gotten operated on, and she hadn't been there. She felt her chest constrict and wanted to laugh and cry, because even after all these years only Sasuke could make her feel this way.
.
.
Sakura nervously stood outside of Sasuke's hospital room, a small box in her hand. What was she doing? This was stupid. He was going to throw her kindness back in her face, and then make her feel worse than she did when she went in. Thankfully, she would have a perfect excuse if things got awkward, since her hospital shift started soon. In fact, she'd made sure that she'd come here at this time, so that excuse would be available to her. She really didn't want to lie to him.
The medic knocked on his door, lighter and more hesitant she expected. For a moment, there was silence, and it was almost pathetic that hope bloomed in Sakura's chest. Maybe he was asleep, and she could just put the box down on his nightstand and—
"Enter." A low voice came from inside, and Sakura steeled herself, slowly sliding open his door. She willed herself not to be nervous, as this was just Sasuke and he was back now with allegiances to Konoha and he wouldn't try to hurt her—physically, at least—even though he had tried a little less than a year ago at Orochimaru's hideout but he hadn't made contact because he stabbed Yamato and then shocked everyone with the Chidori—
Stop it. Sakura told herself. This is not making you less nervous.
He was sitting up in bed, clad in a black shirt, with bandages wrapping around his head and covering his eyes. She knew he couldn't see her, but Sakura still felt his stare pinned on her all the same. He could still sense her, so he didn't need his sight to tell him where she was in the room.
"Hi, Sasuke!" She greeted, hoping he didn't hear the slight wobble in her voice. "I just wanted to check on you and make sure your eyes were healing all the way. I mean, of course they are, since Tsunade-sama knows what she's doing and she's the greatest—"
"Sakura." He interrupted, and said girl winced. He hadn't snapped at her at all…there was no anger or annoyance in his voice, but Sakura felt reprimanded all the same. She stood there for a moment, not too sure what to say next now that she wasn't babbling like an idiot. Still, she looked at her teammate sitting on the bed, more than a day out of surgery, and her head dropped.
"Sorry," She said quieter, not trying to force herself to be happy anymore. "No one told me you were back and…I should have been here…" As expected, he said nothing, so she let out a light sigh and walked over to his bedside table, putting the box on it. "I know how awful hospital food is, so I made you something to eat. Rice balls and tomatoes are—were, your favorites, if I remember correctly." Again he said nothing, so Sakura figured this was a great time for her pre-planned excuse. "I should leave you to get some rest, my shift is starting soon anyway." She turned her back, feeling a bit tense at the awkward, one-sided conversation.
Her hand was on the door before he said, "Wait."
Sakura turned, raising an eyebrow at him. She squashed down thoughts of why he was calling her back, because she knew they would all be wrong. Instead, she looked at him as a medic instead of a woman, and noticed his face was a little ashen. "Something wrong?"
He took a few deep breaths. "My eyes are bothering me."
She walked over to him, and by some miracle she was maintaining her professional cool. "That's to be expected after surgery. Most likely the morphine is wearing off. Do you mind if I look anyway, just to make sure everything looks okay?" When he shook his head, her hands moved to his head. "I'm going to start removing your bandages, but keep your eyes shut for a minute so I can turn off all the lights." She removed the bandages, and then flicked off the lights and shut the blinds. "You can open your eyes now." She said, inwardly a little surprised that he'd obeyed.
The sight of his new Sharingan left her breathless. It was a six-pointed star, which was his own, she guessed, surrounding a small black symbol in the center that she recognized as similar to Itachi's Mangekyou, from the one time she had seen it. It was so unlike any Sharingan she had seen in her ninja career that she was absolutely fascinated by it.
Realizing she was staring, Sakura leaned back a little and cleared her throat. "Can you see anything?" She asked, to check how far he was in the healing process.
"It's too blurry. Everything is gray."
Sakura nodded. "Okay, that's pretty typical, so you're healing at a nice rate. Can you look up for me?" He did, and then immediately his eyes shot back down. That was all the signal Sakura needed to know where his pain was and what to do about it. "I'm going to put my hand over your eyes, so don't be alarmed." Don't attack me was what she really meant. The medic settled her hand over his eyes, and powered her arm with chakra, watching her hand glow a steady green. She soothed away his pain, and then made sure that her hand didn't linger. "Better?" She asked, and he nodded.
Sakura brought out new gauze, and began to wrap his eyes again. She upped his morphine dosage a little, making a note of it on his chart, and then told him that she would have someone check in on him in a few hours, and that he should try to get some rest. She was halfway out the door when she whispered, "Welcome home, Sasuke," not even turning around to see if he had heard it or not.
.
.
The medic winced when her shift was done for the day, rubbing her sore back as she walked down the hallway. Hopefully, Naruto had already started Tsunade's paperwork, and Sakura was relieved to know this would be her last day filling in for the Hokage.
There was a sudden movement from a window, and Sakura snapped her attention to it. It was Naruto, though, and Sakura gave him a dry look.
"Wait, wait! Don't get mad!" He said, hands in the air. "I'm a clone!"
"Why are you here?" Sakura asked. Although why they hadn't thought of using Naruto's clones yesterday to help with the paperwork made her want to slap her forehead.
"Um…well I think Tsunade-baa-chan is milking our last day and, well…her whole office is covered in paper. The clones are helping…but I just wanted to prepare you. Also, could you bring some snacks when you come?"
Sakura sighed at the thought of another sleepless night. "Sure. I'll see you in half an hour."
"Thanks, Sakura-chan!" And then he poofed out of existence.
The medic rubbed her temples, wondering if she would have had better luck being one of the other Sannin's apprentices.
"Haruno-san?" A timid voice asked. Sakura looked down to see a nurse, who immediately became more tense, so Sakura figured she must have looked as pissed as she felt. She forced herself to relax.
"Yes?"
"Well…it's Uchiha-san…" And then her face flushed a bright red.
"What about Sasuke?"
"Well, some of the nurses have become worried, as he hasn't eaten all day and won't let anyone near him to check on his eyes…"
Sakura rolled her eyes, half at Sasuke's childishness and half at the nurses'. It was clear that they just wanted a peek at him, because nurses had no business checking his eyes. When Sakura relayed that to the nurse in front of her, the other woman looked down and squeaked out, "I thought you should know," before scampering off.
Sakura growled, stomped over to a vending machine, and bought a packaged rice ball. She didn't have the patience right now to put up with this crap, especially since there was a horrid surprise waiting for her in the Hokage's office. She took off towards the Uchiha's room, her own surliness enough to send staff and patients alike in the opposite direction.
She reached his room and threw the door open without preamble. Suigetsu was there, and it looked like he had been in the middle of some story, because he had paused with his mouth open as soon as the door slid open hard enough to bounce off the opposite wall. She only noticed him for a moment, and then she turned the full force of her glare over to Sasuke, who was sitting up with a blank expression under the bandages.
She bared her teeth, and then chucked the rice ball at his head with a good deal of force. She wasn't at all surprised when he caught it one-handed, even though he couldn't see. "Eat that and stop making the nurses cry, damn it." And then she slammed the door closed.
.
.
Sakura was sitting at the nurses' station doing some light filing. She didn't feel quite up to doing any major healing today, since her chakra was running a little haywire from lack of sleep. Still, she thought she could be useful by coming in and doing something small, especially since she now needed the money to refurnish her apartment.
"Morning, Sakura-chan!" A voice called, and Sakura spun to see Naruto walking towards her. Everyone was looking at him, since he'd yelled across the room. Sakura rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the smile from forming on her face.
"Good morning." She said to her blond teammate, not for the first time wondering where he had gotten all of his energy. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to visit Sasuke!" He grinned. "I think he secretly likes the company, but he'll never actually tell anyone that."
Sakura couldn't really imagine Sasuke saying that he liked anything, but she had to imagine that it had to get lonely in a hospital room where you couldn't even see anything. "I'll follow you up there." She said, filing one more thing before standing. "His eyes need to be checked, anyway."
"Awesome!" Naruto said. "We'll have a Team Kakashi reuni—"
"Sakura."
The smile dropped from Sakura's face as she turned her head to see the new person in the conversation. Her eyes widened at the face she hadn't seen in…how many months? It took her a moment to form a coherent thought, especially when she saw the older woman practically size her up.
"…Mom?"
"We need to talk." Her eyes slid over disapprovingly towards Naruto, who was blinking in confusion. "In private."
Sakura nodded warily, well aware of how these conversations usually went. "Naruto, I'll meet you up there in a few minutes."
Cerulean blue eyes flickered from Sakura to her mother, and then back to Sakura again. "…Okay, Sakura-chan." He didn't go upstairs immediately, though, and Sakura could feel his eyes on her back as she walked out the door. It was almost a relief when they were out of his sight. Her mother went over to the small garden in the courtyard, standing underneath the shade of a tree.
"I've heard stories from the neighbors about what you've been involved in recently." She sighed. "Do you know how much danger you've been in?"
Sakura's eyes narrowed, wondering which time the other woman was talking about. "I've had no choice." She said simply.
"You do have a choice, Sakura. You can quit this nonsense now while you're still alive."
"It's not nonsense—"
"Don't interrupt me." She snapped. "As your mother I want what is best for you. Look at you! You look like you haven't slept in days, your apartment is a wreck—"
"You went to my apartment?"
"I do have a key, you know. How busy are you that you allow your living space to look like that? And the last I heard, you were being considered some sort of criminal by Danzou-sama! Who I also hear you helped overthrow after you decide to go missing for months at a time. I did not raise you to be this reckless, or to go against your superiors like that." She sighed again in a why me sort of way. "Look, I know a woman who owns a clothing store and she's looking for new hires. You could work decent hours, get a decent pay…"
"I'm not going to stop being a kunoichi."
"I didn't want to have to do this, but I am your mother. You're going to quit this ridiculousness and move back home, do you understand me? You do not know what you are doing, you're almost sixteen! Do you know what other sixteen year olds are doing? They're not trying to get themselves killed. Why aren't you…normal?"
That one stung a little bit.
"I am normal, and I'm not quitting anything." She had already quit too much, and there was no way she was going to waste all of the hard work she had put into becoming a ninja to become what civilians considered normal. "I know you don't care, but I'm actually doing good for the village."
Her mother suddenly grabbed her upper arm, getting in her face. While Sakura was aware that she could easily throw her mother off of her, she didn't want to actually hurt the other woman. "Stop it! You are just one person, they won't miss you! You're just waiting for the Hokage to send you off to be killed for the village."
"None of that is true!" The medic yelled. "You have no idea what I've been through to get to where I am!"
"Your life is not some tragedy! You had a happy life with us and you threw it all away! And now you're starting to do stupid things like running away from the village for two months, and then we heard you were in a coma? You've turned so irresponsible that you're hurting yourself!" She closed her eyes and started to calm down. "Your father and I still love you, but we decided we're not going to support this kunoichi nonsense anymore."
"Did you…even come and see me while I was in the hospital?"
Her mother shrugged. "We sent a card. Might I remind you, you were in the hospital because you were a ninja, so we decided not to see you for your own good." She scoffed, and let her daughter go. "And in my opinion, your team has been rubbing off on you too much. Did you know that you were labeled as a criminal? Do you know what the neighbors thought? That traitor teammate of yours—"
"Stop." Sakura said, her words sounding more confident than she felt.
"And that demon—"
"Mother, enough."
"And now you've turned into some reckless criminal, I won't stand for—"
"Ah, Sakura, there you are."
Said girl didn't know whether to praise or damn his appearance. He was saving her, sure, but that probably meant he had been listening. Sakura turned glassy eyes over to a familiar figure sitting in the tree above them. He hadn't been there the whole time, since Sakura would have sensed him, but she knew he'd been listening longer than he let on.
"Kakashi-sensei." She greeted, her voice a little tense. Still, she was grateful he'd kept his book hidden away…even though the entire village knew he was a pervert, anyway.
"Sasuke needs you to look at his eyes."
Sakura's mother narrowed her eyes at the intruder, opening her mouth, but then wisely shutting it. She looked towards her daughter. "We're not done yet."
"Yes," Sakura said, sounding more confident now that she had a little backup. "We are."
Her mother looked indignant, but turned up her nose and began to stomp off. It seemed like Sakura wasn't the only one who went through a few changes, since she didn't remember the older woman to be quite so…haughty.
Kakashi landed next to her, and there was a flash of orange that signaled he'd gotten his book out again. "So that was your mother? I thought her hair would be pink."
Sakura sighed. "No…I'm an anomaly in my own family." In a lot of ways, she finished in her head.
"She's just concerned about you."
The kunoichi knew that nothing she said would make him feel guilty about eavesdropping, so she didn't even try. "I guess it's easier when you've got shinobi for parents."
"In some ways, but then again shinobi know more about the danger, so they worry more. Civilians can only imagine what it's like."
Sakura was quiet for a moment. Her mother could only imagine what strengths Sakura had, and she only heard the stories. She probably thought her daughter was still the same weakling she used to be, and had no idea her daughter was strong enough to defend herself. She slid green eyes over to Kakashi. She wondered if he thought himself a parent figure for his Genin team…if he worried about them because he knew the danger they would be in once their shinobi careers really begun. He had certainly been there more than her actual parents lately. He had been in to check on her in the hospital more than her own father.
"She sent me to the Academy so I could 'get it out of my system.'" Sakura sighed. "Are Sasuke's eyes really bothering him?"
"Nope."
"Then could you go up there and tell them I'm sorry, but I had to go home early?"
"They'll be disappointed."
One out of two, maybe. "And tell Sasuke to stop making the nurses cry, and then glare at the nurses for being inappropriate."
"Okay."
"See you later, Kaka-sensei." And then she made hand seals and transported herself to her apartment with a poof!
Sakura winced at the state everything was still in. She tried picking up as much as she could, but she had been too tired to do anything major. Mostly, she had just made sure that her bed was cleaned off and her shower was accessible. The Root members that had gone through hadn't been nice, and Sakura wondered sarcastically if they'd planned to find her by breaking her dishes.
It had been a long day, even though it was barely noon. She wondered if it was too early to drink alcohol, and then realized that she was becoming far too much like Tsunade. With a sigh, she snapped open a garbage sack.
She worked until dinner, managing to get most of the living room clean and some of the kitchen. Thankfully, she'd forced herself to drag her feet to the grocery store and buy groceries, otherwise she would still be eating ramen. But even so, her dinner wasn't very complicated, so she was able to start working soon after.
There was a knock on her door at a little past seven, and Sakura opened it to find Ino standing in there with a bottle of sake.
"Hey Forehead!" The blonde said, inviting herself in. "I'm here to help you clean your apartment, and to spend some quality girl-time together."
"And the alcohol is for…?"
"So we don't remember the cleaning part of it."
"Sounds good to me."
They worked for an hour, with the piles of trash piling up near the front door. Sakura found that the alcohol and Ino's company were making this far less of a depressing experience, since suddenly the smallest things became hilarious and they were able to have some quality girl-conversation. Someone knocked on the door again at nine, and, giggling, Sakura answered the door. Her giggling stopped, though, when she saw the unexpected visitor.
"Karin?" She asked incredulously, slightly mimicking the way her teammate had said it about a week earlier.
The redhead turned her nose upwards. "This village is boring." She said. "There's nothing to do."
It felt strange that the woman in front of her was practically her teammate. Sakura shrugged. "We're getting drunk and cleaning my apartment."
The redhead took a second to think about that. "Yes to getting drunk, no to cleaning." And then she walked in and plopped herself down disgustedly on the one intact couch cushion. A little shocked by her presence, Ino wordlessly handed her a shot glass.
"You're not with Sasuke?" Sakura asked.
"Sasuke-kun has been with Suigetsu and that blond kid all day." She raised an eyebrow. "There's no way I'm going to test his patience now." She blushed a little. "Not that Sasuke-kun doesn't want to see me, of course."
Ino and Sakura shared a knowing look, both of them having come from this path before. "You need more to drink, four-eyes." Ino said, filling up the girl's glass.
"What was that, blondie?" Karin asked, affronted.
Ino giggled, and then looked at the redhead wickedly. "Did Sasuke ever tell you about his first kiss?"
The redhead gaped for a minute, before spluttering out, "N-No." She raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me it wasn't some worthless Konoha slut."
"Oh no, Sasuke has way more taste than that." Ino said, and Sakura couldn't contain her grin. "It was Naruto."
"WHAT?"
.
.
The world around her was slightly foggy, and Sakura's head spun.
"Yare, yare, Sakura," She heard a voice say in the dark. "How is it that I have a Jinchuuriki and an ex-missing-nin on my team, and you're the one I have to watch out for?"
She briefly felt hands lift her, but she felt so disconnected that she couldn't bear to fight them. She felt herself being placed on something soft before sleep pulled her back under.
Sakura awoke to a sun that was far too bright, and the sound of someone in the living room groaning, "Shit…my head…" It took all of her effort to roll herself off of her bed, stumble into the recently cleaned bathroom and vomit in the toilet. She didn't have the energy to question that her bed wasn't where she remembered passing out.
.
.
Between working and getting her apartment (and life) back in order, Sakura didn't have much time to see her team over the next two weeks. There was a laundry list of things to do inside of her head, and it barely got shorter as the days went by.
After her apartment got clean, it had mostly been empty. She used her evenings to paint the walls and clean every inch of the floors, since the Root members that looked for her hadn't exactly hidden their displeasure when they couldn't find her. After that was done, the time after work was dedicated to rushing to furniture stores before they closed for the night. She pooled her money, and had blanched when she realized what this was going to cost her.
Though because of this, she had been neglecting her team slightly. She had been asked to check on Sasuke's eyes by a nurse, but she had been in a rush to the furniture store before it closed, so she told them to tell her teammate that Tsunade would be in to release him in half an hour. Naruto had invited her to lunches and dinners, and then to a training session, all of which she had turned down. He even told her they were going to see what abilities Sasuke's new Mangekyou gave him, but she had turned that down too, even though she had really wanted to go.
She didn't have to worry about her team going on missions without her, though. Part of Sasuke's probation was that he had to remain inside the village for one year. Suigetsu was also put under the same restraint, so that his loyalties could be evaluated. Last Sakura heard, Naruto was still trying to get them on a team with him for the Chuunin Exams, and he was trying to convince Tsunade to allow them to leave the village for that reason.
Sakura groaned as she stepped into her shower, telling herself she was going to enjoy the hot water instead of speeding through this time, like she had recently. Her apartment was clean and furnished again. It still looked a little Spartan, needing a few homey touches before she could call it finished, but all the major stuff was done. The dent in her bank account had been painful, and Sakura decided she would need to go on a mission soon, even if it was without Sasuke or Naruto.
She was washing the conditioner out of her hair when something (someone) appeared at the edge of her awareness. She turned the water off and listened, her skin prickling. The medic slowly grabbed a towel, and then a kunai, thanking Tsunade for keeping her prepared. It had been part of the training that the Hokage had put her under (always have a weapon within reach) and the older woman had surprised her apprentice in a number of situations to make sure the lesson was driven home.
The shower curtain was ripped back without notice, giving Sakura just enough time to fling the weapon at her attacker and press the towel to her front. When she saw who caught the kunai about an inch from his forehead, she wanted to shriek, so she did.
"Uchiha Sasuke, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Dark eyes stayed pinned on her as he put the kunai on her bathroom counter. Sakura clenched her fist in her towel, making sure it was covering everything without moving her eyes away from him.
"You've been avoiding me." He accused, not sounding at all preoccupied with the fact that she was wearing only a towel, and barely that.
"Damn it, Sasuke! That gives you no right to break into my apartment…or my bathroom! Get out!"
"Why?" He asked, acting like she hadn't spoken.
"I've been busy!" She growled. "It's had nothing to do with you at all!"
He narrowed his eyes, soundlessly accusing her of lying. And, okay, part of her had been avoiding seeing him, since she wasn't exactly sure what to say to him or how to act around him. She wasn't really sure where they stood with each other, and it made her nervous. This, however, was an entirely different story.
"What do you want?" She asked him. "Welcome home, I'm glad you're back, now get out."
She lost all of her bravado the moment he took two steps forward, standing at the edge of her tub. She stepped back until her back was against the tile, taking a minute to look shocked at his forwardness, before meeting his eyes again.
Sakura huffed. "Then could you at least wait somewhere else until I'm decent?"
"No." He said lowly. "You're avoiding me and I want to know why."
"What do you care?" She asked. "If I remember correctly, you were always just fine without me there." He didn't move, so she gave him a flat stare. "I've been working…and in case you haven't noticed, my apartment sort of got ransacked, so I've had to put that back together. Happy now?"
He didn't move for a minute, evaluating her answer. He gave her a nod that said he accepted the excuse, and then disappeared. Sakura stood gaping for a moment before her fists clenched. "Infuriating son of a bitch!" She yelled after him.
.
.
Author's Notes: For all of you who are going to say that last scene was OOC for Sasuke, I disagree. He's the kind of person that wants answers when he wants them, and he doesn't care what he has to do to get those answers. So, if Sakura is avoiding him (for whatever reason this irks him, but I'll let you use your imagination as to why) and he wants to know why, what better way than to corner her where she has no means of escape? That was pretty much my thought process throughout that scene, which was very fun to write. The next chapter will be out soon-ish, and I hope you'll like the things I have planned. As always, review and let me know what you think!