Title: Sakura's Home
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto-sama. I don't own anything about Naruto, this is just for fun and if I did own Naruto I wouldn't have to right this, because I would have a team of very talented people turning this into a saga right now...
Rating: K+
Warning: this not only has spoilers until Manga 270ish, but it's kind of required for you to know what's going on. I use a lot of the Gaara mission, just made it AUish.
Summary: Sakura was kicked out of Konoha five years ago but now has been asked to return… She will meet old friends and be faced with the consequences of her actions. Future AU Sakura centric. No pairings, and you need to be up to date in the manga and series.
Authors Notes: As promised, the next installment. We're almost at the end, aren't you excited? I know I am.
Chapter 21 – Harmonize
"Three hundred and sixty-two?" Sakura asked, still not understanding.
"Yes. You have one more than everyone else in the world." Hinata smiled and clasped her hands behind her back.
"How?" Sakura felt as though her head would explode with the implications of it all.
"I made it." Hinata smiled again and winked.
"You what?" Sakura took a step back in the darkness, but was careful to stay in the light.
"Just before I died." Hinata took a step forward. "Do you remember?" She asked, but before Sakura could respond, a movie started playing behind Hinata, against the darkness that surrounded them. Sakura knew the scene immediately, and shut her eyes.
"No, don't make me watch it again, please." Sakura pleaded and covered her ears.
Hinata gently pulled her hands away, and caught Sakura's chin in her hands. "This time, it will be different, because you already know that I'm not really gone." Sakura nodded, she could feel the tears well in her eyes. "And this time, you'll pay close attention."
Sakura nodded, and the tears spilled over onto her cheeks as she watched the same scene that she'd seen over and over again.
"Sakura…" Hinata's soft, melodic voice was rippled with pain as it slipped from her bleed lips. But then there were no more words, but motion. Her slender hand was rising and trembling and reaching. It seemed like it took forever for her finger to rest lightly on Sakura's right temple, just at her diamond. She doesn't know what this action means, but she in humbled in the new presence of a dying smile from Hinata.
Sakura doesn't know if it's because of the memory or not, but it's almost like she can feel someone touching her seal. A warm, feather-soft touch to the extra chakra outlet Hinata created. And it makes it real, it makes the memory that she just saw replay like it was all happening again. She felt the blood on her hands and could feel the weight of Hinata's body in her arms.
She was crying rivers now. It was all too much, remembering, seeing Hinata as she was, still young and beautiful. "I'm sorry." She cried into her hands and shook from the weight of the guilt and grief.
"Did you see it?" Hinata asked gently.
"See what?" Sakura choked on her own tears and tried to stop crying, just long enough to think straight.
"The moment I created your extra tenketsu?"
Sakura nodded. It was when Hinata touched her face, just before she died. "Yes." She sobbed again at the memory of Hinata's face just then. It was resolute, and torn. But she was still beautiful. "I'm sorry." She wept some more into her fisted hands and hated herself more than she knew how to say. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She said it over and over again, begging for the girl in front of her to say something, to make it right, somehow. Sakura dropped to her knees now, in the darkness and wished that she could die.
"Shhh." Hinata whispered and stroked Sakura's hair. "It's alright. I don't blame you. I never blamed you. You were just doing what you thought was right. You were trying to save Sasuke-kun. I understand what that kind of love feels like. I would have done anything to save Naruto-kun, anything." Hinata made Sakura look at her. "And I'm glad that I've gotten to help you, these five years. Whether you knew it or not, I've been helping you control the life force you absorb. Without me, your jutsu would never have been complete. So I'm honored to be a part of something that will help so many people."
Sakura still cried, but she nodded, because that seemed like the right thing to do. "You've been helping me?"
"Yes, because I think you are capable of accomplishing great things." She smiled, but this time it didn't look happy. She looked sad and Sakura's heart broke. "I helped you because you needed it, and you let me. I did it to help preserve your life, and mine. But most of all, I did it because Naruto-kun loves you, and being a part of you makes me feel like maybe, he loves me too."
And then, Sakura could feel her heart break. Really tear down the middle and split wide open. She wanted to say something, anything, to make that look on Hinata's face disappear. She wanted Hinata to be loved, because she deserved it, because she was a good person, and Sakura was the one who stole Hinata's chance for love, two times over. "I'm sorry." It was feeble, and not good enough to express the sorrow she felt. But it was the only thing she could think to say.
"I need you to do something for me." Hinata looked down at her, with those huge off-white eyes and Sakura could only nod.
---
"What do we have to do?" Naruto asked as Neji watched Sakura with his Byakugan activated. He didn't respond for a minute, but stood quietly.
"You do nothing. I will activate her seal." He released the white-eyed jutsu and took a deep breath.
"You're sure this will work?" Kakashi still teetered on the cusp of the armrest.
"No." Neji didn't look at him, but instead performed a series of hand seals.
---
"I want you to tell Neji-nii-san that he's the successor of my clan now, and I expect him to be strong and compassionate."
"Strong, compassionate." Sakura repeated and nodded.
"And I need you to tell Shino-kun that he's become powerful and just and that I'm proud of him. " Hinata still looked down at her, gently ripping open Sakura's heart.
"Powerful, just, proud of him." She nodded again, locking the information inside her mind, safe for the journey at hand.
"And Kiba-kun," Hinata's voice broke a little and Sakura whimpered at the thought of him, "tell him that I expect him to be loyal and kind, just like he always was." She paused and seemed to be settling her nerves. "And tell him that I'm sorry, I'm sorry I couldn't love him back."
"Loyal, kind, and love." Sakura didn't trust herself to say anymore. It really was strange that two women, so different in every way could still be so similar. Kiba was Hinata's version of Sakura's Naruto. And Sakura understood then why Kiba hated her so much. Because, what would Naruto do if someone killed her?
"And Naruto," Hinata was crying too now. Huge tears slid down her cheeks and splashed onto Sakura's hands. "Please, tell Naruto that he was my inspiration. Tell him that I wouldn't have survived without him. He made me strong; he made me want to be a better shinobi, because he believed in me. Tell him 'thank you, thank you for everything he did for me'. Just tell him… tell him…" Hinata seemed to be at a loss for words.
"I'll tell him that you will always love him." Sakura answered, knowing exactly what she'd wanted to tell Sasuke if she'd gotten the chance.
"Yes, tell him that." Hinata nodded, because she understood what it was like to love someone who would never love you back.
"And tell everyone else, Kurenai-sensei, Otou-san, Onee-chan, everyone else that it's okay because I'm not really gone. I'll still be inside of you Sakura-chan. They'll all see it too, don't worry." She smiled, through her tears, and Sakura felt better. She liked that she wasn't going to be alone.
"I'll tell them" Sakura promised, and remembered everything she said, held it deep inside her heart so that she'd never forget the way Hinata looked right now.
"And now, it's time." Hinata kneeled and pulled Sakura into a mirrored position.
"Time?" Sakura blubbered as she looked Hinata in the eyes.
"Yes, it's time to harmonize our chakras." Hinata took a deep breath and her face looked determined.
"How do we do that?"
"Think about me, anything about me. Just focus on one thing about me." As Sakura looked at her, her long black hair and pale white skin, she couldn't imagine picking just one thing about her. She thought of Hinata's voice, of her hands, her fighting during the chuunin exams, Naruto. And as she thought about all these things, she realized what really made Hinata beautiful. It was the same thing that made Kakashi powerful, Neji mysterious, and Sasuke dangerous. It was her eyes. Those strange, almost-white, slightly-purple eyes that made Hinata's soft features look like an angel, a doll, a painting. It was her eyes that showed her compassion, and gave her strength. And as Sakura closed her eyes, the only thing she thought about, pictured perfectly in her mind, was Hinata's lovely eyes.
"Okay." Sakura spoke without her voice quivering. With Hinata's eyes against the back of her eyelids, looking so sure, there was nothing else Sakura could do but believe that everything was going to be okay, somehow.
"Now, I need you to concentrate and release your seal."
It shouldn't have been a surprise. Sakura should have known it was coming. But still, she wanted to open her eyes and ask Hinata why. But Sakura already knew, this was dangerous, and she was going to need all the chakra she'd built up over the past five years.
It wasn't an easy thing to do, to release all that pent-up chakra, to just let it flow and bubble to the surface. The chakra would serve as a tether, a line that would draw Sakura out of Kakashi's body and towards her own.
She knew the seals by heart. The boar, the horse, the rat, the ram, the dragon and the bird. Done in fast, rapid succession. She kept her eyes closed, still picturing Hinata's eyes and activated the releasing jutsu.
---
"How long will it take?" Naruto asked. His voice was softer than usual.
"I have no way of knowing that." Neji activated his Byakugan and stepped over to her. He knelt at the foot of the couch and moved a strand of hair that had fallen over her face.
"We're counting on you." Kakashi told him, without having to.
"I know." Neji nodded and placed two fingers against her temple.
---
And just then, Sakura could feel a light, feather-soft touch against her seal again. It was the same place that Hinata touched all those years ago, in a meadow full of dying light and falling rain. But Sakura pushed that thought aside, and focused only on Hinata's eyes and releasing the chakra all at once.
What will happen? Will it work? Can they possibly save Sakura? And if they do, what will happen to her? Stayed tuned 'till next time.