Effloresco Secundus

Chapter 13: Passing Judgment

Sakura watched Naruto as subtly as she could when he greeted her mother, whose eyes were unusually watchful and whose usually smiling mouth was pursed in thought. Sayuri looked from Sakura to Naruto, carefully, like she was making some important decision. Sakura saw her blond teammate hesitate and watched his eyes widen as her mother after a long moment of that weird staring, pulled him into a big hug. Sasuke looked alarmed by the casual display of affection, taking a step back as if wanting to avoid a similar ambush on his own person.

'That hug did not look as casual as it should have,' Sakura thought slowly, looking at her mother and her teammate from the corner of her eye. Naruto was very bright-eyed as he stepped back, and there was something strange in Sayuri's expression. Something not completely relaxed suspended in her gaze.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Sasuke said, uncomfortable like a ruffled pigeon and looking younger than he usually did. His brow was still furrowed, like it almost always was, but he seemed less like an old soul and more like he didn't know where to put his feet when Sayuri waved them into the kitchen.

"Your home is really nice, Sakura," said Naruto, staring about the well-worn and well-loved kitchen like he'd never seen anything like it. 'Maybe he never has.' Usually, Naruto's energy coupled with his hair color reminded her more of Ron than of her other best friend, but in this moment he looked a lot like Harry had when she'd first gotten to know him. Like seeing a real home was akin to seeing a diamond in the flesh.

"You'll have to make do with pizza," said Sayuri, the foreign word slipping effortlessly out of her mouth with the ease of long practice. "It's bread with tomato sauce, pieces of meat and melted cheese on top," she explained without looking behind her. She'd explained this to other guests before. "I swear my daughter made up this dish just to avoid cooking proper food."

Sakura would have colored a little, if she wasn't so used to her mother's light-hearted grumbling on this particular subject. 'She isn't wrong, though.' Sakura had never been very good at cooking, either the muggle way or like a witch. And that had been a great source of frustration, once upon a time. It had always been both embarrassing and irritating that both Ron and Harry could cook better than she- not that either of them had enjoyed it all that much. Ron had once said it was because the two of them just wanted to whip up something edible, while she wanted to 'master the art of cooking' and ended up overcomplicating it. In hindsight, he probably wasn't wrong.

They ate together amid chatter, mostly between Naruto and Sayuri. Sakura was content to watch, surprised to see that Sasuke would occasionally interject something. Sakura tentatively thought he only joined the conversation because he wanted to avoid offending her mother for some reason. 'Maybe it's that clan-bred sense of propriety rearing its head.'

"What do you work with, Sayuri-san?" Naruto asked over his last slice of pizza, having devoured everything else on his plate with gusto.

"I work in construction." Sayuri had finished her food and sat back with her muscular calves crossed, looking like a big, content feline.

Naruto hummed. "What's that like?"

"It's pretty heavy work. Mostly boring heavy work, and occasionally dangerous."

"Dangerous? How?" Naruto tilted his head like a curious bird.

"We work with heavy equipment and materials. Heavy enough to crush a human quite easily." She said that like she didn't have personal experience with it, and as always, Sakura had to look away from her mother's face. Sometimes, it felt like all her sins were scribbled on her face with the same boil curse that once formed the word SNEAK across Marietta Edgecombe's face. Ugly and impossible to hide.

Haruno Ken had his brain turned to pinkish-grey slush in the mud under a wagon wheel carrying blocks of concrete, a few minutes after Hermione arrived in this world. Exactly how he ended up under that wheel was one of those things Sakura preferred not to think about if she could help it. 'Some things even a mother wouldn't forgive,' thought Sakura, sneaking a glance at Sayuri's placid face.

The conversation meandered from Sayuri's job, to the house and its decorations, to light, non-invasive questions about the mission they'd just come from.

"… so now we have a trial to prepare for tomorrow," Naruto finished his remarkably understated retelling of their mission. The way he put it, it sounded like they'd just tripped into some annoying people on the road and also a woman who was possibly a thief. 'He's not too shabby a liar,' Sakura mused as she finished her cup of tea.

"A trial, huh?" Sayuri had a wry look on her face. Sakura was sure she didn't believe Naruto's PG-rated version of events. "How exciting. It's been a while since anything as scandalous as a Daimyo's son and a paramour of his getting into a public tiff has happened around here."

Sakura hadn't even thought of it as a scandal. Had Ginzou? He had a bit of a reputation, but not one tarnished enough that he could do whatever he wanted without the public batting an eye. 'Maybe he was so busy being offended at the thought of someone stealing something from him that he forgot what a big thing a trial could become?'

Naruto voluntarily jumped up to help Sayuri wash the dishes, and Sakura watched him preen under her appreciative grin. 'There is something off there,' she thought, vaguely and with a small twist of her lips. She would not have expected Naruto to start doing the dishes unprompted. Would any twelve-year-old?

Naruto and Sayuri continued their loud conversation as they cleaned up, and Sakura went to lean back on the kitchen table next to Sasuke. Her dark-eyed teammate looked at her from the corner of his eye, but it took a little while for Sakura to acknowledge the subtle request for attention.

"There was something I wanted to ask you," Sasuke said, very quietly. When she looked over, he was speaking through barely-moving lips. "About Haku."

It felt like a homecoming, like she'd been waiting for it since they left the bar. Sakura blinked, slowly, stalling and gathering her thoughts. "Yes?" 'Nobody will believe him, no matter what he might say to anyone about whatever it was he saw.'

There was a pause. Sakura caught Sasuke tilting his head in thought, like he was trying to figure out how to phrase whatever he wanted to say.

"…Did I really strike the killing blow?" He looked at her fully now, and he was close enough that she could see that the spokes in his dark irises were a mix of grey and black. For an adolescent boy, he had remarkably inscrutable eyes.

Sakura breathed out very slowly. "What do you think?"

"I think you did… something. I think you stopped his heart a second before I… struck." Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets, but kept his eyes on her. There was a discomfort in his posture, but Sakura wasn't sure if it stemmed from his roundabout mention of killing someone for the first time, or from whatever he'd noticed in that moment before he sank his kunai into Haku's throat.

"What did you see?" Sakura tried to sound noncommittal, unbothered. Something old and tired, the part of her that was only a war veteran and nothing else, thought: he has no family to miss him if he disappeared. It was one of those awful, ugly thoughts that a normal human being and a good friend and a light witch should never think, and Sakura shoved it down into the pit of her mind and slammed a lid shut over it.

Sasuke pulled his hands out and then shoved them back into his pockets. "My Sharingan… there was something. A flash of… some kind of energy."

'Another connection between bloodlimits and magic,' Sakura thought, saving that thread of theory for later. She said nothing, leaning lightly against his shoulder and waiting for the sudden tension in his muscles to release.

"Sakura… did I kill Haku, or did you?" He spoke so quietly, almost into her hair, that Sakura barely heard him. Her heart beat quickly in her throat, fluttering like the wings of some small bird in her jugular, and she heard her throat close and swallow in something like panic. Or relief.

"I did." It was a leap of fate and it was an absence of logic and reasonable caution. And maybe, just a little, in defiance of the taint of darkness in her mindscape. And of her secretive… everything. 'I've worried and worried and worried about anyone suspecting the truth, what would happen if they did. And I'm an idiot for wanting to trust a twelve-year-old with something I've spent so long hiding. But…'

Sasuke leaned back against her now, just a little and much less casually than Sakura had. "Is it a bloodlimit?"

It was a perfect lie to hide behind, one that would make Sasuke feel connected to her, like they were the same in some way. 'It would probably make him less likely to say anything, and I need an ally. Someone to vouch for me, if it should be necessary.' It was a calculating move, and even though it wouldn't hurt Sasuke in any way, it still felt like a betrayal. 'I'll never tell him the truth. And I'll make it up to him somehow. I won't let him be just a fly in my spider's web.' Sakura nodded, still with her heart in her throat.

"Your mother doesn't know." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact.

"I'm newblood," said Sakura, and it felt just like when she'd once called herself a muggleborn. 'Newblood,' she thought. 'Noun: 1. The first in a line to be born with a bloodlimit. 1.1. The originator or sole carrier of a bloodlimit, see bloodlimit carrier. 1.2. The first inheritor of a bloodlimit mutation.' She saw the dictionary definition in her mind's eye, and it fit what she was. Kind of funny, that. A lie that fit absolutely perfectly. 'Is it even really a lie, then?'

"If you ever mention it to anyone, I'll deny it. I won't let them breed me. Or experiment on me." Sakura kept her voice as pleasant as a warm summer breeze, but let steel show in the quick glance she gave him. She was taking a stupid risk, but since he'd already seen what he had, denying everything would no doubt make his suspicions worse. 'And if that happens, he might ask someone else about it.'

Sasuke gave her an unreadable look. "I had a feeling you would say something to that effect." He tilted his head a little, looking at her sideways. "You didn't want to tell me either."

Sakura heard her knuckles make cracking sounds as she folded her hands together, tightly. "Some things are private. And I don't trust easily."

Sasuke made a quiet noise, deep in his throat. "What would you have done if I had decided to tell someone?"

Sakura looked at him blankly, darkly. "Stopped you."

"Hn. At least you're serious about keeping it a secret." He moved his shoulders stiffly, took a step away. "I won't tell anyone without your permission. On my family's honor." He paused, glancing back at her over his shoulder. "I've already promised the idiot blond the same concerning his bloodlimit."

Sakura held back her look of surprise with difficulty. 'Whenever he's mentioned having a bloodlimit, or the kinds of things that can happen to a bloodlimit holder, he's seemed so blasé. That's as far from the truth as you can come, apparently. Still waters running deep and all that, I guess?' Sasuke would never have invoked his family's honor nonchalantly. The old clans took their names and their honor very seriously.

-.-.-.-

Later that night, the team ended up seated on Sakura's bed, discussing the upcoming trial. Sasuke, who apparently had a very finely tuned sense of what was appropriate to wear on formal occasions, was frowning at Naruto's orange shirt.

"You're going to a trial as one of the main witnesses. You have to look dependable." He pinched Naruto's sleeve between his fingers, looking down at the bright orange like it was personally offensive.

"I look totally dependable! And cheerful, unlike you!"

Sasuke grimaced. "No, you just look like a clown."

"Guys…" Sakura said with a sigh. She was not going to have them start another one of their stupid arguments on her bed. Naruto looked over, mouth open in protest, and made a discontented little sound. Then caught her look and grunted.

"Fine, I'll wear something else, geez."

"It's not that we don't like your normal way of dressing, Naruto-" Here Sasuke snorted and Sakura immediately drove an elbow into his ribs. "It's just that the people who will be judging at the trial tomorrow will be stuffy old coots."

Naruto blinked. Then burst out laughing. Sakura had hoped for that reaction precisely and smiled when he grinned at her. "Yeah, alright. When you put it like that."

"…You do have shirts in other colors, right?" Sasuke asked, skepticism thick in his voice. Naruto glared at him.

"Yeah, I do."

"…They have to be clean, too."

"Bite me, bastard." Naruto rolled his eyes.

Sasuke smirked, leaning back on the bed's headboard. "And don't fiddle with your things, or smile like an idiot all the time. It'll make you seem untrustworthy."

Naruto sighed explosively, an annoyed frown marring his tanned features. "Fine, fine. Where did you learn all this stuff anyway?"

Sasuke shrugged elegantly. He said nothing, so Sakura assumed it was something he'd learned when he was still part of a clan. 'They did run the police force, so it's not like it's completely unbelievable for Sasuke to be knowledgeable about certain aspects of law enforcement work.'

"I have this book I thought might be useful," Sakura said before Naruto could comment on the lack of answer. She hopped up and moved towards one of her bookcases, retrieving Civilian Crime, 4th edition. It was the kind of heavy book she wouldn't have been able to carry comfortably in one hand as Hermione. As Sakura, she could probably have carried it with just two chakra-augmented fingers.

Sakura flipped through the pages until she found the one she was looking for. "Here. 'Grand theft'."

"That's what that O-Hisa woman is being accused of?" Naruto's eyebrows arched with surprise.

"I assume so?" said Sakura. What other charge could they possibly stick to her?

He looked thoughtful. "I thought for sure it would be something like, 'the crime of fucking with the Daimyo's son', or something."

"Fucking with and just fucking." Sakura's lips twitched at Naruto's outraged expression. That had been a bit crude, but the way Naruto phrased it… 'Maybe I'm just gradually turning into a cruder person, living this child soldier life and all. Or maybe it's Ginny's influence, coming to haunt me late. Hah.'

"Prostitution isn't exactly illegal, though," said Sasuke. He looked a bit uncomfortable too, but not nearly as overtly as Naruto.

Sakura made a thoughtful sound, thinking back to what she'd read. "Regulated, sanctioned and taxed bordellos aren't illegal. 'Streetwalking' is still a crime in most places. And a foreign shinobi seducing the Daimyo's son is a crime ten times over."

Naruto pulled up his knees and leaned his chin in the dip between them. Idly, he played with a loose string in his pants. "I wonder what's gonna happen to our relationship with Kumo."

Sasuke frowned. "It was never that good a relationship."

"But it also wasn't outright war," said Sakura, feeling her stomach begin to clench. Perhaps noticing the change in her mood, Naruto bumped a knee against hers.

Sasuke looked over, dark eyes slightly narrowed. "It won't go that far. Fire's alliances with Water and Wind are too strong."

"That's what worries me. If those alliances weren't in effect, then even if our relationship with Kumo soured further and we began to regard them as completely hostile, we wouldn't go to war over it. We'd just be hostile back. But Konoha is strong and stable enough not that we don't have to let kind of insult and threat to us slip past. We are strong enough to declare war over it." Sakura sighed.

"I never thought strength would be a drawback," Naruto muttered, casually leaning against her.

"It's not exactly a drawback, because if we did go to war, the odds are in our favor." Sakura breathed in, holding back an unhappy noise that wanted to escape her. "It's a circle. If we go to war, we'll probably win, so we'll go to war, because we're sure we'll win if we do…"

"I've understood Kumo's military strength to be greater than ours," Sasuke said, slim brows drawn together.

Sakura nodded agreement. "It is, but they don't have our connections. Even if we don't consider them major alliances, we do have various treaties with Rivers and Hot Water."

"And Takigakure," Sasuke added.

Sakura nodded. "That too. I think Kumogakure is too self-reliant," 'and perhaps a bit too arrogant,' "- to form 'unnecessary' alliances. Like you said, they have the greatest military strength out of all the villages. Why would they need allies?" Sakura said the last bit wryly, and Sasuke gave her a thin smile.

"But don't they need to import and export stuff? To keep their trade going?" Naruto asked curiously. Sakura looked over at him. 'He's not completely unaware of what it takes to run a country.'

"Lightning has very favorable terrain- mountainous areas to mine metals, various kinds of forests, lakes. A rich animal life. It's like an entire little world in itself. And anyway, import-export contracts aren't the same as alliances or treaties. Plus, Kumo exports much more than they import." She was starting to fall into teacher-mode, but at least Naruto didn't look as bored as Ron always had when she'd talked about these kinds of details.

What she didn't mention was just how little most import-export contracts covered. Compared to the way knowledge, technological and scientific achievements had been passed around in her old world, the Hidden Countries barely shared anything with anyone. What was imported and exported were base materials or those things that were either of no use or so commonly known that there was no advantage to keeping them to yourself. Thus among other basic materials, Amegakure in Rain exported some machinery and technology, Fire Country exported certain medicines, Wind exported clay and pottery and Takigakure in Waterfalls exported art. For example.

"But won't holding a public trial with a captured O-Hisa upset Kumo?" Naruto asked.

Sakura nodded. "Probably. But if we don't retaliate somehow, it'll be like we're letting Kumo step all over us. We'd be seen as weak."

"It still seems like it'd be better to keep it a secret that we have her here." Naruto nodded to himself, arms crossed over his chest.

Sakura didn't say so, but she agreed. What she also didn't say was that perhaps the intent behind showing off the captured O-Hisa was to provoke a reaction from Kumo. If Konoha only wanted to curry favor with the Daimyo, they would have tucked the trial into some dark, private little corner of the Konoha Tribunal and spread misinformation, or no information at all, about what was really going on.

"I'm not certain Kumo will believe that she's been captured." Sasuke said, a thoughtful frown on his face. "They could think that she voluntarily allowed herself to be caught and has some scheme in progress behind the scenes."

Naruto snorted. "That would be kind of ironic."

"I think in this instance, we'll have to leave the plotting to Konoha's higher-ups." Sakura doubted she'd truly be able to put it aside, but there wasn't much three genin could do to influence the situation. All they could do was focus on the trial. She said as much and received solemn nods in return. Leaving something so serious completely in someone else's hands wasn't a pleasant feeling. The sidelines were a depressing place to be.

They talked a bit about what might happen tomorrow at the trial, about how to phrase their statements and how to hide that they had an inkling about what was really going on. It was a quiet, distracted discussion that ended quicker than it probably should have.

Sakura lent the boys the spare futons, and they went to bed still in that quiet mood. Sakura laid awake, thinking. About tomorrow's trial and the possibility of war in the future. About how she sometimes confused Sasuke and Naruto with Harry and Ron, even though they were really only alike in the most basic of ways. And about the dark taint she'd allowed into her magic.

'Putting it off won't help,' Sakura thought, closed her eyes to her shadowed ceiling and descended into her mindscape. When she opened her mind's eye, the library seemed healthier than it had when she'd last visited. Livelier. The edges of the hole had grown smooth, like someone had sanded them down… but it hadn't closed even a little.

'It looks less like a wound now. More like a window.' A window with an uncomfortable view. Sakura leaned over it, somewhat hesitantly, and peered down with eyes narrowed into a squint against the bright light. There it was. The true representation of her magical core. Though why the wizarding word referred to it as such, she'd never understood. It was more like a tiny, separate brain, lacking higher functions but with a certain kind of unfocused sentience anyway.

She wondered if it was developing anew now, how far the development might have gotten. Not this mental representation, but the physical core, nestled in the posterior cerebellar notch and spreading magic into the pons and further out into her brain. Rather like a localized infection or virus, to put it in the bluntest of terms.

The light of her mental core slowly became more bearable, until Sakura could see the yarn-like oblong form. She saw the taint more clearly now, shadowy threads mixed in with the otherwise light threads. 'At least the dark threads aren't the majority,' Sakura thought with some relief. But the magic seemed to be moving quicker through those dark threads, and the threads themselves looked somehow… fuller.

Sakura rose back out of her mind with an unsettled feeling radiating from her stomach and outwards, chilling her fingertips and toes. She turned over in bed, looking over at her sleeping boys and pulling her cover up to her chin. 'What does it mean that the darker threads are more active? Is it just because I used dark magic against Haku? Or am I somehow predisposed towards the darker kinds of magic in this life?' She'd never truly believed in that kind of predisposition before.

It took Sakura a very long time to fall asleep that night.

-.-.-.-

Both Sasuke and Naruto were up before her, and Sakura took her time getting ready in the bathroom before breakfast. She usually wasn't one for long showers, for various reasons, but this morning it felt cleansing. The peppermint soap she had to scrub herself helped with that.

"Sakura! You're unusually slow today," said Sayuri when she entered the kitchen. Tamagoyaki was laid out on three plates, still steaming. "I have to head to work early today. Some stupid dispute at one of the sites. But I'll see you tonight, yeah?" With a quick pat on Sakura's head, she headed out the door.

"Your mother is a pretty awesome cook, Sakura-chan," said Naruto, mouth full of food.

Sasuke made an annoyed face and demonstratively scooted to the side. "Idiot, you're spitting on the table." He took a dainty, polite bite of his own plate of food, like he was demonstrating how it was supposed to be done. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"We still have some time before the trial starts," said Sakura as she joined them at the table. "We could train a little. There was this chakra exercise…"

They ended up in the garden a few minutes later, balancing spinning marbles on their fingertips. It was relaxing to concentrate on something so straightforward and while they could probably have prepared themselves even more for the trial, it felt like this wasn't too bad a distraction.

Loose-limbed and dressed in austere clothes, they made their way towards the Tribunal a little while later. The sun was pleasantly warm and the main road crowded with bustling throngs of people.

They were greeted by an old civilian man immediately upon entering the Tribunal's first hall. "Sasuke-san, it has been a while," he said with a smile after their greetings, and Sasuke gave a small bow in acknowledgement. The old man led them into the hall of the High Court and Sakura saw that several people had already gathered in the spacious room.

"You know that old guy?" Naruto asked Sasuke when the elderly man left them. Sakura turned her head to catch his reply.

Sasuke nodded, and after a long silence added, "A long time ago, my father used to preside over certain trials."

Naruto's eyes widened with interest. There was a look on his face that spoke of carefulness, though. His voice was quieter when he continued. "Your dad? Really? Was he a judge?"

"No. A policeman. Head of the police force." Sakura didn't think she'd just imagined the glimmer of pride in Sasuke's voice when he shared that tidbit. Privately, she smiled. He was opening up to them more and more. Maybe it even made the loss hurt a little less when he did.

"The police force Ginzou's servant talked about before?"

Sasuke nodded again, but now discomfort was creeping back into his expression. He turned away, just slightly, like he'd caught sight of something that interested him more than the current conversation. Naruto backed off immediately, and Sakura and he shared one of their tiny, delighted looks behind their teammate's back.

"Are you three here as witnesses?" asked a high, feminine voice behind them. When they turned around, they were faced with a middle-aged woman missing an arm and most of her hair, but with a smile so bright you hardly noticed.

"Yeah," said Naruto, his smile competing with hers in brightness. "You too?"

"I'm here as part of the Konoha council. I'm Nakatomi Kikuo, Head of Banking."

She looked more like a retired cage fighter than the leader of Konoha's banks. Kikuo asked for all their names and before they knew it, the three of them were embroiled in small-talk with this strange woman.

"Are you already making nice with our star witnesses?" said a languid voice to their right, and Sakura looked over to see a man who looked so much like Shikamaru that they had to be closely related, slowly making his way over.

"You know how I feel for the younger generation, Shikaku," said Kikuo with a smirk.

Nara Shikaku gave her a look, his scars lending his face a shade of intimidation despite his lazy expression. "You feel they'll ruin everything if anyone ever puts them in charge of anything."

Kikuo put her knuckles to her hips, an eyebrow raised. "Shikaku-san, that's hardly what I said."

The corner of Shikaku's lips quirked. "No, you said 'if the younger generation ever ends up running this show, we might as well commit seppuku'. A direct quote." He turned to the three of them, looked them up and down in one neutral glance and said, "You should seat yourself at the table in the corner there."

As they trotted off towards the indicated table, Sakura wondered if she was the only one to feel like Shikaku had purposefully interrupted at that exact moment to cut off the burgeoning conversation.

"Hello, brats."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto hopped into the seat next to their teacher, who had an arm slung over the back of his chair and his face stuck in that orange book of his.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura sat down next to Naruto with a question on her lips. It had been on her mind as the team made their way to the Tribunal. "Ginzou doesn't know we're shinobi, so how…"

Kakashi answered before she could finish and Sakura gave him an irritated look at the interruption. "He won't be here. The plaintiff is never in the same room as the defendant during a trial."

Sakura pursed her lips in disagreement. "But the TV-crews will film us too, dressed and addressed as shinobi, won't they?"

Kakashi hummed, rolling a half-lidded eye up to meet her. "By the time this debacle makes it to civilian screens, it won't matter what he knows."

And the recording would probably be edited and cut up along censorship lines, anyway. "I just want to get this over with," she admitted, and Kakashi nodded languidly.

"Mmm, don't we all? Team seven has better things to do right now."

Sometimes it was difficult to tell if Kakashi was being sarcastic or not. Trying to read him was like staring down into a still lake, knowing there was something there and waiting for a ripple on the surface to show something more than your mirror image.

Naruto snorted loudly. "Like what? Waiting hours and hours for you to show up?"

Before Kakashi could make some infuriating retort, the judge and the council lay judges entered the hall. Sakura spotted the man who she knew to be the head of Torture and Interrogation, Ibiki-something. Then two of the three men who made up the widely-known Ino-Shika-Chou took their seats. Then the head of Yamanaka, a statuesque blonde with an ugly frown on her face, made her way in. After her came Hiashi, head of the Hyuga, and then the old woman who lead the Aburame. To make up the full contingent of Konoha's oldest shinobi clans, the head of Senju and the head of Uchiha should have been in attendance too. But at least the representatives of all the four noble clans were here.

The heads of the oldest civilian clans entered and seated themselves next, all with eyes shrewd enough to pass for shinobi if judged on sharpness of their gazes alone. One of the Hokage's advisers, Koharu-something, sat down next to them.

The last person to enter was the head of the hospital, the Chief Medic. It was the position Senju Tsunade should have held, and not this weary-looking old man. 'Is it too impolite to think of one of Konoha's legendary shinobi as completely irresponsible?' Sakura thought to herself, eyeing the slow and laborious way he seated himself in a chair. That Tsunade had decided to run away from the village for some reason was an open secret in Konoha. One of those things you weren't supposed to talk about, because of her legend and because of everything she'd done for Konoha. She was the reason Konoha was the most medically advanced of all villages. 'Not all positives can outweigh all negatives, though.'

Medics were very valuable. The skill required to mend something as thoroughly and efficiently in the field, under duress, the way a good field medic could was rare. The chakra control required for more extensive work other than pure emergency healing was extraordinary. Good medics were almost as likely to be taken by enemy shinobi as bloodlimit carriers, and they were always the most likely member of an average team to be captured. Because everyone valued a good medic.

To become a fully-fledged one, you had to be predisposed to excellent chakra control pretty much from birth. You also needed a better, fully-trained medic to guide you through your training. Tsunade had been the best. And she had left. She'd been at the center of everything important at Konoha's main hospital, and she'd left without making sure that it would be able to keep afloat without her.

For several years, Konoha's main hospital had not been the best place to be treated. Overworked and understaffed with junior medics lacking supervisors. Previous, effective routines not kept in place in the absence of a leader. Sakura had heard it all from Sayuri. Begrudgingly, Sakura admitted that the hospital shouldn't have floundered for so long, but Tsunade had left in the year of the chickenpox outbreak, when half the hospital's administrative unit had been sick and-

"Sakura-chan, what are you frowning about?" Naruto said in a loud whisper. Sakura blinked, yanked out of her irritated train of thought.

"Nothing. I'm just tired." She forced her creased brow to smoothen, adopting a more placid expression as she did so.

She didn't have the time to take up her train of thought again, because the team was suddenly interrupted by a boisterous greeting. "Fellow Konoha genin!" The enthusiastic voice belonged to a teenage boy dressed completely in green spandex. Sakura tried her best not to stare. 'That's very… tight. And green. And revealing.'

"Oh, Gai?" said Kakashi, looking over his shoulder at a man his own age who was dressed in an equally ridiculous green spandex thing. Sakura tried even harder not to stare, and saw from the corner of her eye that Naruto had failed in that endeavor. Sasuke looked like he was about to say something, face a mask of incredulity, but shut his mouth before actually speaking. "What is your team doing here?"

"We were Tasked with preparing this great room, my Rival!" said Gai in a booming voice that probably echoed to all corners of the hall. "My wonderful Team was just about to leave when we spotted you, and decided to Come over and Greet you!"

The way he spoke made it sound like certain words were capitalized. "That's nice of you." Kakashi's mask creased in a lazy smile. "This is my team." He pointed at them halfheartedly.

Gai smiled widely, greeting them all like they were his new best friends. Then he made an exaggerated gesture towards the people standing behind him, as though he was revealing a hidden treasure. "And this is my Team- Neji is a natural-born genius, Lee is a genius of Hard Work, and the Beautiful Blossom Tenten is a genius of strategic intuition! I have had the Honor of teaching them for the past year!" He puffed out happily, smiling so widely it looked like his face was about to spilt in two. Lee grinned as brightly as his teacher, the Hyuga boy had a vaguely resigned look on his face and the beautiful blossom seemed to be ignoring what was happening right in front of her. "My Rival! We should Orchestrate a Celebration of Life with a joint training session between our teams!"

"Hm? Yes, yes."

Gai shook his head in an expansive movement. "Always so hip!"

Lee suddenly appeared right in front of Sakura, with a smile that showed off all his teeth, and said, "Fair maiden! My name is Rock Lee, and I'll protect you with my life! So please go out with me!"

Sakura opened her mouth, closed it again, felt her face begin to draw into a grimace and took a step back. Behind her, Naruto made a strange noise. "Uh… no. Thanks." She tried not to sound too creeped-out by the intense way he was looking at her, that he'd asked her out without knowing her name, and the fact that he was twelve and Sakura was an adult. 'Mostly an adult, anyway,' Sakura thought as Lee started shouting about how he'd prove that he was worthy of her love by doing pushups on the ceiling.

Sasuke and Naruto were determinedly trying to shove her behind them, looking like they were planning to shield her from the weird boy with their bodies. Sakura rolled her eyes at their ridiculous overprotectiveness and stood her ground. She'd faced creepier people.

Gai gave his boy-copy a few encouraging pats on the shoulder, and then he was suddenly shuffling his students away. Over his shoulder, he called out happily: "We will Meet again, Team Seven!"

"…Who was that?" asked Sasuke after half a minute of absolute silence. Naruto looked half-horrified, half-fascinated. Sakura rubbed her brow with the heel of her hand.

"Never mind that," said Kakashi, amusement curving his eye, and snapped his book shut. Sakura opened her mouth and closed it again, not sure she wanted to know anything more about her teacher's weird… friend. Acquaintance. Rival. "It's starting."

By the door, a guard called out, "All rise for her honor, Hyuga Yuki!"

An older woman climbed up into the ornate judge's chair, behind the heavy wooden table on the raised podium in the middle of the room. Everyone rose, sitting back down again as she settled into place. 'Naked forehead. A main house member,' thought Sakura, eyeing her speculatively.

The judge held up a hand for silence and waited patiently until everyone's attention was firmly on her person before speaking. "We have gathered in Konoha's Tribunal today to bear witness to and judge the conduct of one 'Hisa' from the town Otafuku-gai. Let us all remember our objectivity and heed our rationality as we pass judgment on the validity of the accusation laid against her."

The fake O-Hisa looked exactly like the real one, Sakura observed. She was led into the room in between an old man with half his face hidden by bandages and a woman Sakura recognized as Mitarashi Anko. 'One of her legs are bandaged,' Sakura noted, though Mitarashi didn't appear to be bothered by the injury.

Sakura watched as kunoichi leaned over to speak quietly to a young-ish priest seated in the civilian section, wearing long robes and clutching a bracelet of prayer beads in one hand. Sakura didn't know just how much sway he had in political matters, and as an agnostic, she hadn't had much contact with this world's clergy. 'They do say that the Fourth called down a death god to kill the demon fox,' she thought with a lingering look towards the priest. 'But who knows if that's really true? Considering the flashy names they have for techniques in this world, that could just be a hopped-up title…'

"Huh, that's one of the priests who ran the orphanage…" said Naruto in a whisper, leaning forward a little. His expression looked rather ambivalent to Sakura's eyes. "You guys should come with me to the temple sometime so I can introduce you."

"No." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The Uchiha clan has always worshipped the deities of the elder faith."

"In the Naka shrine?" Sakura asked with interest, watching as the judge explained exactly what 'the defendant' was accused of. The charges didn't sound any less ridiculous or petty when she stated them.

"My grandparents built that shrine together with the other Uchiha of their generation," said Sasuke, a little stiffly. Sakura nodded. She'd heard that- the Naka shrine was the only shrine still devoted to the elder deities in Konoha. But she hadn't known Sasuke was member of that religion. What she had heard was that the shrine had been renamed in the style of the new state religion by some official decree.

"Fine," said Naruto with an eye-roll. "I can introduce you outside of the temple, bastard."

Sasuke shrugged, but his expression was negative. "The common priests think we're heathens."

"You're missing the trial, brats," said Kakashi, and although his voice was slow and easy, they all sat up straight and quieted. 'He shouldn't have to remind us to take this seriously, not after what the Hokage said yesterday.'

Not that the trial that followed was all that interesting, if you weren't aware of the undercurrents. It was a trade of questions posed by the judge to the fake O-Hisa, and her parrying them with a combination of smart answers and wounded dignity. A slight tittering sound went through the lay judges stands when she admitted to 'a sexual relationship with the honorable Ginzou-dono'.

'That was well-played, if the deception isn't discovered,' Sakura thought, holding back a wry smile. 'There is no way Kumo would be able to claim O-Hisa as one of their own after she confessed to sleeping with the Fire Daimyo's son. Not without letting everyone know just how badly they've breached acceptable conduct between two Hidden Villages. Even if they know that one of their own shinobi would never publicly admit to sleeping with a high-class target, it's not like they can storm in and say that either.'

"The witness stand calls the genin of Team Kakashi!"

And that was their cue. Led by a straight-backed Sasuke, they solemnly trooped into the stand. Sakura glanced covertly at the henge'd defendant, but couldn't see any hint of a Konoha shinobi under her expression of injured pride.

They were introduced by name, rank and registration number and Sasuke was sworn in as the spokesman for their team for the duration of their witness statement. They could protest his answers if they disagreed, but other than that, he was their collective voice in this moment.

"Is it true that you witnessed these events?" asked the judge, arms crossed over her chest and face drawn into an authoritarian expression. Sakura wondered if she was aware of what was really going on, and was just playing it up for the crowd.

"We witnessed part of them, Madam Judge," said Sasuke and explained in an even voice how they had heard the argument between O-Hisa and Ginzou, reciting relevant parts of the dialogue between them as he did so. Honestly, it wasn't much for a judge to go on to reach a guilty verdict. All they'd really heard was Ginzou accusing O-Hisa and O-Hisa denying it.

"How would you say the defendant was acting during this argument?"

"Angry and defensive, Madam Judge." Which was true enough, but the phrasing and tone was tilted in the Daimyo's son's favor. The following question-and-answer session kept slanting subtly towards Ginzou, and Sakura had to admire the way Sasuke could turn a phrase to make it sound suggestive of some background plot. 'He might make an interesting politician one day,' she thought. 'Or else a good clan head.'

Sasuke continued weaving answers that put O-Hisa in a less than favorable light, and when team seven was finally allowed off the witness stand, Sakura doubted that there was any jury in the room, whether they were aware of the background plotting or not, who would vote in O-Hisa's favor. 'Whether they notice that that's exactly what we're trying to make happen is a different story,' Sakura thought drolly. All the people in this room were high up in the Hidden Village hierarchy, so this probably wasn't the first time they'd been called upon under false pretenses.

When Kakashi and several other people had been called upon to make their statements, the judge finally announced, "The court is adjourned!"

Sakura was sure some of the people summoned to give their statements hadn't had anything at all to do with O-Hisa or team seven's mission. 'Everybody is committing perjury without batting an eye,' she thought with reluctant amusement. One of the supposed witnesses mentioned something about how Mebuki, or Mabui, had been involved somehow… frankly, it was starting to become difficult to keep track of all the, well, bullshit everyone was spouting.

The Hyuga judge summarized what had been said, frowning severely, and made some noise about how they'd all need to think this over carefully before deciding on the verdict.

"What now?" Naruto whispered, glancing at their teacher.

"Now we wait until we're allowed to leave," Kakashi said, looking like he wanted to slouch, but remaining straight-backed in his chair despite the urge. The judge took her leave with a trail of secretaries and after her the fake O-Hisa was escorted out. Like that had been some kind of signal, the formal air in the hall lifted.

"What a farce, eh?" said Shiranui, appearing behind them with a senbon firmly stuck between his teeth. Sakura didn't comment, too busy observing three ghosts in heavy-looking, formal garb who were suddenly moving about the room. Had those three always been there? 'Hiding in the back, maybe?'

Naruto tilted his head towards the ANBU. "Does everyone know that this is all fake and stuff?" he asked quietly.

Shiranui shrugged. "Not everyone, but the people gathered in this room aren't exactly stupid. And anyway, the only thing that matters is that the right audience believes in what they see here."

"When will we know what the jury decides on this matter?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow, watching as the lay judges were guided through a door in the back of the hall. "I assume after they've finished deliberating in the juror's hall?"

Shiranui clacked the senbon against his teeth. "Mmm-hm."

"How long will that take?" asked Naruto, already looking like he wanted to bounce his knee with impatience. When Shiranui mentioned that it would be a day or two, at least, Naruto's face twisted with dismay. "We'll be stuck in here for days?"

"Yes, the court always cages the witnesses in here until the jury's made their decision," said Shiranui, lips twitching. "It's policy."

"Ignore him, Naruto," said Sasuke with a sneer. Naruto, who actually looked like he'd been about to do just that, crossed his arms and sighed.

They waited in bored silence for what felt like ages. Other people were being permitted to leave after only a few minutes, which made the wait seem even longer.

"You're free to leave now," said the lazy voice belonging to the scarred Nara, coming up to them a little while later. He was slouching worse than Kakashi usually did, ponytail standing on end and hands firmly in his pockets.

They did leave, Kakashi waving them out of the Tribunal building with little more than a hasty hand gesture. Nose already in the orange book again, he wandered through a side-door and left the rest of team seven to walk out into the afternoon sunlight on their own.

A/N: I'd like your opinions on Sayuri's reaction to Naruto, Sakura's and Sasuke's talk, and the trial. Along with anything else you feel like sharing, as always.

Inoichi, Shibi and Inuzuka Tsume are not heads of their respective clans in canon. It's just one of those fanon things a lot of readers have taken as fact over the years.

Oh, and: Sakura's opinions are not interchangeable with my, the author's, opinions! Thought I should mention that, because I've had some people message me and… well. I just wanted to clarify that.