Disclaimer: I own this story…but not a number of its characters…

Chapter 36: A Dream Come True

Sakura felt as if all the air had been torn out of her lungs as she realized who she was looking at.

"Father?" Sakura whispered disbelievingly, the word falling from her mouth before she even realized she was saying it. Someone's head in the crowd moved to block her view of the young man with the strawberry-blond hair that greatly resembled the boy in her father's genin photo. Ignoring the pain in her hands, knees and ankle, Sakura tried to shift herself out of the bush to get a better look, but all she managed to do was hook one of her sleeved on a branch and hit her ankle on some unseen object. By the time she freed herself and had wiped more tears off her face, the procession had nearly disappeared from view. The crowd was starting to murmur again as they proceeded to follow after their leader and his guests—from what Sakura could catch of their words, they were both intrigued and distrustful at the same time.

Sakura tried to stand, to get a better view of the group's retreating backs—of the father she had never seen outside of his photo—but her ankle wouldn't hold her. She would have fallen back into the bush if a hand hadn't caught her arm.

"I don't know which one you were looking at, but they were all too young to be your father."

Had Sakura been capable of doing so, she would have jumped in surprise, but between her ankle and the hand holding her up by the arm, she only managed to twitch in a comical fashion. Although Sakura was ecstatic to realize that she had finally found Aniki, her emotions were overwhelmed by the fact that she had just lost her chance to meet her father…assuming, of course, that that was who the strawberry-blond had been. Unbidden tears started pouring down Sakura's cheeks as she stared after the vanishing crowd, wishing she could follow as well. "He has to be my father…" Sakura whimpered—whether to herself or Aniki, Sakura didn't know. "He has to be…"she continued, not even noticing that Aniki was staring at her with a strange look in his eye, "he looks just like the photo that mommy tried to get rid of—"

Sakura might have continued listing reasons for the Konoha ninja to be her father, but Aniki interrupted pertly, "I doubt they are exactly the same." Sakura looked up at him questioningly, the tears still streaming down her face even though she wasn't whimpering anymore. It was almost as if the tears were a conditional response.

The red head rolled his eyes and answered her unasked question as he picked her up out of the bush and set her back on the now deserted road, "As I said, they are too young to be your father. It is impossible." And then he paused, taking in her expression, an expression which stated quite clearly that, no matter what he said and how impossible it was, she wanted to believe she had met her father. Too bad for her, the red head wasn't one to care what other people did or did not want to believe.

"Don't look at me like that, brat, and quit wasting water…" Sakura's first attempt to wipe her face ended with her nearly losing her balance on her one good leg (and she would have returned to the bush if Aniki's hand hadn't kept her upright). After that the little pink haired girl determinedly swiped at her eyes again and again, despite her lack of balance, until the waterworks stopped. Only after she had obeyed his second command did she return her unwavering gaze back to him, her expression the same as it had been before—which completely went against his first command.

If Aniki had been the smiling sort, he would have been doing so now, if only for the absurdity of the situation. Few people had the guts to stand up to him, and usually those who did soon backed off when he glared at them as he was now glaring at the stubborn girl before him. As he had noticed more than once before, though, his glare had no effect on the pink haired annoyance.

With eyes still leaking, the young Hoshi crossed her arms across her chest and announced with more confidence than she clearly felt, "You're wrong. He has to be my father because he looks just like the picture…" and then, as if just remembering something, her gaze became even less confident as she added, "…or at least…I think so…" And then, much to the preteen's irritation, she started blabbering. "Kirsche left it behind when we came here…and he might not be the same age as in the photo…and since I don't have it I can't compare them, but…"

With one red eyebrow all but twitching, Aniki interrupted harshly, "But nothing. He—whichever one you think he is—is too young. End of story." When that determined light in her blue eyes didn't go away, he sighed, shifting his gaze out to the deserted space all around them. Only when he was certain that there was no one around to hear did he speak. "Even if he does turn out to be related to you—don't look at me like that, it's impossible for him to be your father, but a brother or some such isn't—but either way it's better for the both of you if you act as if you are not." When wide blue eyes only stared up at him questioningly, Aniki felt like ramming her head into the ground. It was so obvious, and yet the child standing before him was clearly oblivious to the world around her.

"You are a Half." Aniki stated irritably, ignoring her gasp of surprise. "You have done well to keep it hidden so far, but I'm not an idiot, and if your father really is from Konoha, you would be better off continuing to hide your heritage. We might not be at war with them yet, but it is coming—not even peace-minded representatives will change that. The Kazekage is a fool to think that it might." Noticing that bitterness was making it into his voice, the red head paused and shook his head before finishing in a much calmer voice, "Anyhow, most people in Suna actually care about such things, so keep your parentage to yourself if you don't want to end up dead."

For a few moments, Aniki was sure that the little girl was going to argue, but then her determined gaze faltered. "You're right…" It was almost a whisper, but the preteen heard it none the less. Pin-prick pupils glanced up at him and then back to her feet, her determined look now mixed with what might have been sadness as she added with glazed eyes, "…I think Kirsche said the same thing when we first came here…I forgot…that's why…my eyes…" He didn't bother asking what she had meant about 'her eyes'. He had seen and heard enough to put the pieces together on his own.

As the child trailed off, Aniki realized that the pink haired girl was lost in her own thoughts. This wouldn't have mattered so much if she hadn't tried to start pacing, clearly having forgotten the last time she tried to take a step. This time Aniki didn't bother stopping her from falling to the ground—if that's what it took to remind her to be careful, so be it—although he did catch her by the back of her shirt a moment before her face hit the dirt.

Hauling her up into a sitting position, Aniki turned his attention to her ankle, ignoring whatever ham brained thing the child was blabbering about now. "How did you manage this?" Aniki asked exasperatedly as he realized that she had not twisted her ankle like he had first though she had. Blood was trickling down her foot from a deep cut near her Achilles tendon. "Never mind," he added as he noticed the sliver of wood lodged in the cut, "I am going to take this out now." Pausing to glare up at her, he added sternly, "You are not going to fight me."

Aniki could tell that the brave face she gave him as she nodded her ascent was all an act from the way her entire body was shaking, but he didn't care so long as she didn't kick him in the face for the pain he was about to cause her. Surprisingly the girl didn't scream when he removed the wood from her flesh, although she did try to pull away—not that he let her. Leaning closer, Aniki examined the wound for any leftover splinters while simultaneously attempting to ignore the fact that, from the amount of sniffling going on, the brat was likely crying again. Although Aniki was nowhere near medic material, he was better at dealing with wounds than tears.

There were no splinters that the preteen could find, but despite that, the red head continued to stare at the wound. If Aniki had been anyone else, his eyebrows would have been together by now and his eyes would have been narrowed. Instead he kept his face professionally blank out of habit as he glanced back towards the bush he had taken the brat out of. There was no way that a piece of wood could have made such a clean cut. Returning his gaze to the slice, Aniki made the proper hand signs and then placed his hand over the wound—once again ignoring the sounds of distress coming from the nine-year-old—and began the long, tedious process of accelerating the regrowth of tissues. He stopped as soon as he was certain that she'd be able to walk without help. He refused to be seen carrying the girl when he was clearly off duty, and not just because of his pride. Although Aniki didn't even want to think about it, he already knew what would likely happen if certain people found out he had an interest in the brat.

Although he had once overheard the Kaneko girl gushing to her sandy-haired friend about how 'cute' they were together, there was nothing romantic about his feelings for the brat. She was interesting only because she was different, and the thought that he would allow himself to feel any emotions of the sort for a girl who would one day leave Suna and likely never return was preposterous. He knew better than that.

A wobbly-voiced question broke Aniki out of his thoughts. "What is it?"

Glancing at the brat who was still sniffling, Aniki found concern and confusion written plainly on the girls face. Strangely enough, the tears he had expected to see were nonexistent, although her eyes did gleam with tears unshed. "Is something wrong?" the child warbled out. Aniki shook his head rather than reply. There were plenty of things wrong, including the fact that she could read his emotions better than even his grandmother, but he wasn't about to tell her that. He was just about to explain to her how lucky she was to have not severed her Achilles tendon when suddenly her face fell into a look of horror as she gasped out, "Is my foot going to fall off?!"

The way the brat had said it, so serious and terrified, was almost enough to make the red head burst out laughing; and for a moment, he couldn't stop his feelings of utter astonishment and amusement from showing on his face. He swiftly ironed off the look—almost expecting the girl to point out his uncharacteristic actions as anyone else he knew would have. But she didn't. Instead, her only reaction was to pout and glare and insist that it wasn't funny—she was serious.

Aniki didn't allow himself to lose his mask a second time, although it was a close call. If he had been alone, he might have let a small smile settle on his face at how annoyed she now looked…but then again, if he had been alone, he wouldn't have felt the need to laugh in the first place. Not for the first time did the red head wonder why he let the brat get under his skin so easily…and not for the first time did he tell himself he couldn't wait for her to go away for good so that he could return to normal. He didn't like feeling attached to anything.

"No, your foot is firmly attached." Aniki responded stoically before the child could say anything else to dent his armor, "You should be able to walk on it now." Rising to his own feet, Aniki ordered the girl to stand, and then rolled his eyes as she held her arms out for balance as if she expected to fall at any moment. While the pink haired child's attention was on her feet, Aniki's mahogany eyes glanced back once more to the bush he had pulled her from, memorizing the scene. He would have to come back here later once the brat wasn't with him to find out what had cut open her ankle…although he had a bad feeling he already knew what it was. He wasn't even twelve yet, but he had already seen his fair share of battle wounds…and neither broken glass nor wood shards left wounds quite the same way the sharpened metal of kunai and shuriken did.

It wasn't until Aniki started leading the pink haired annoyance back to the market that the boy actually thought to wonder why he had just helped the brat. She wasn't that interesting. Sure, she was injured and lost (like she always was every time he saw her), but he had never bothered to help anyone else before. Then again, no one had ever bothered to come to him for help unless they were ordered to.

Everyone in Suna seemed to recognize him as a force to be reckoned with, as a boy too smart for his age, as the great-great-nephew (or some such) of the first Kazekage—whatever the cause, everyone knew him on sight and had expectations of him. Some people expected him to be the next Kazekage—something that he, himself, had no desire for—while other people planed for him to be the perfect killing machine that blindly obeyed every order given to him by his village—another expectation that he had no desire to live up to. Everyone in the village knew what he was capable of and they acted accordingly depending on their views; and whether they were trying to place him on a pedestal or leash him to his duties, to his village…it never changed how they treated him. No one cared about his thoughts or feelings on the matter, and if the red head was frank with himself, he was starting to hate this village that could only view him as a puppet.

And perhaps that was the reason he was so willing to help this annoying pink haired child that kept following him everywhere. She didn't seem to know a thing about him, and it might have been almost refreshing, if she wasn't a foreigner. But what was surprising was that even when he had pushed her away, as he did any other foreigner who was simply too ignorant to know about him, she hadn't budged. He knew a thing or two about the Hoshi clan thanks to his grandmother, and so by now this little pacifist should have been cowering in fear of him—or shying away in disgust, depending on whether she was the kind of Hoshi who hated or feared the use of force—but she wasn't. The girl was an interesting conundrum…and Aniki would like to believe that that was the only reason why he was helping her even now. However, as he had already told himself, she wasn't that interesting.

The question came out of nowhere. "Why did you kill him?" Aniki froze, his blood going cold as the pink haired child took a few more steps ahead before realizing that he had stopped. The Hoshi turned around to look at him, her face strangely unreadable as she caught his gaze and asked, "Why did you kill the baker?"

At first the red head couldn't understand why he felt a pain in his chest at her words, but with his sharp mind, his confusion didn't last long. He had thought she was different…and yet here she was, asking him the same question all of his so-called superiors had been nagging him about for the past three days. A feeling that he refused to call betrayal settled into his heart as his eyes glared heatedly down at the Hoshi. She didn't even seem to realize that this glare was different from all the others. If she had, she wouldn't have tilted her head to the side and added calmly, "You didn't have to kill him, so why did you?" She acted as if he had done something wrong…just like those old bats did.

Something inside Aniki snapped.

He didn't need her. He didn't need any of these imbeciles—not the council of elders, not the Kazekage, and certainly not some brat who dared to question him for saving her life. If they couldn't see their own deaths when it stared them in the face then they deserved to die.

It took all of Aniki's control not to act upon that thought as the ice in his veins transferred to his gaze. For the briefest of moments, he actually wished her dead as she asked agitatedly, "Why won't you answer me?"

He instantly regretted the impulse—no matter how stupid she was, she was just a civilian child. If anyone was at fault for this feeling of betrayal it was him. It was he who had let her into his life…and thus it was he, the red head decided, who would have to remove her.

Was it wrong of him to want to hurt her as much as she had hurt him? No, but it was childish. Too bad for the Hoshi…he technically still was a child.

For the briefest of moments, the Hoshi looked distracted, as if there was something else around them to catch her attention. Even before those abnormal eyes returned to seeing him, Aniki had already made up his mind on how to sever this bond that he should never have let form in the first place. He would push her out of his life once and for all before her betrayal could hurt him more than it already had. He could only hope that this steadily growing pain in his heart would leave along with her. If it didn't—if this disturbingly familiar pain stayed the way the pain of his parent's death…their ultimate betrayal…had, then he might just have to once again consider cutting his own heart out.

The only outward sign of Aniki's internal struggle, aside from his cold stare, was the barest twitch of an eyebrow. Unbeknownst to him, though, that one outwards sign was more than enough for the little pink haired child to understand everything she needed to about the situation.

Aniki's hand was jabbing out with just the right amount of calculated force to push the girl off her feet and to hurt her without truly injuring her—he didn't want any reason to feel worse about this situation than he already did—but in that same instance, the child was moving as well. The moment Aniki realized that she was coming closer—that his hand would now make contact with her head rather than her shoulder—he almost froze as twenty different outcomes flew before his mind. None of the outcomes ended well. He couldn't pull back the blow enough not to cause a concussion—or worse—and he didn't want to hurt her—not really—not even if this movement of hers was an attempt to attack him. There was only one thing he could do.

With this realization and a jerk at the last possible moment, Aniki's arm thrust above the girl's head instead of into it. For a moment the young genius's mind went blank, and it wasn't until he heard the brat sobbing out apologies into his chest as she hugged him that Aniki realized just how wrong his assumptions about her were. She wasn't attacking him, she wasn't betraying him…

"It's my fault, isn't it?"

…she wasn't even blaming him... Did she even realize what he had almost done? Did she even realize that her sudden movement could have cost her her life?

"It's because of me, that you—you…" her voice trailed off as she buried her face even further in his shirt, her arms tightening around him. Aniki was at a loss for what to do. He had no idea what could have made the brat think it was a good idea to throw herself at a ninja—she had to know by now that he was a ninja, since he hadn't exactly hidden his talents—and he definitely had no idea why the girl was crying when he hadn't hit her, let alone what to do about it. Despite all of his smarts and all of his talent, the child genius had no way of knowing what was going on in the girl's head.

The brat was an enigma, and even when she finally stopped sobbing and pulled away from his now-wet shirt to finish the statement she had begun earlier, he still couldn't figure her out.

Sakura looked up through watery eyes at her older-brother-like figure, feeling as if her heart had been torn to pieces. Although she had dreamed about this event just a few days ago, she had never expected things to pan out the way they had. Only now that the brief déjà vu-like moment was over did the youth understand that the only reason she hadn't just lost Aniki was because her dream had saved her.

When she had been having the dream, Sakura had thought that she had looked to the side because there was something there that had captured her attention, but there hadn't been anything there other than the setting sun, and not even that had been what had made her break eye contract with Aniki. Only now did Sakura realize that she never would have looked at the sun if she hadn't wondered what it was that she was looking at in the dream. And Sakura knew from Kirsche's lectures about Natures Light (the ones that she had only ever half listened to) that if she hadn't looked at the sun, she wouldn't have Seen anything (something about sunlight making their abilities work better). And thanks to the visions that had flooded her sight, Sakura knew that if she hadn't Seen anything, she would have lost everything.

She never would have questioned Aniki if she had known what cruel things people had been saying to him about his having killed the monster baker. Although she still couldn't understand what he had said in her dream about 'it being better that way' and 'not needing anyone', Sakura did now understand that what had set him off—what had made him strike out at her—was her own careless question. If she had known that adults were bullying him because he had saved her life, she wouldn't have said anything. Perhaps this was what Kirsche had meant when she had said that, just because someone can do something, it doesn't mean that they should.

Even worse…she now knew that he had truly saved her life—not that she hadn't known before…but this was different. The moment her eyes had met the sun she had witnessed her own death five times directly at the hand of the baker and another seven times due to her injuries after Aniki had come to save her. Only once did she live…and that, only under the circumstances of what had really happened…if the baker didn't die as soon as Aniki arrived, then she died. There apparently was no other option.

"You had to kill him…" Sakura croaked, fighting back more tears, "Because of me…you had to kill him…you didn't have a choice…because of me…" And now the tears were falling again. She wailed right on through them, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Again and again she apologized, not even noticing that Aniki's eyes were widening and that his true emotions were flashing through his eyes more visibly than they ever had before. There was shock, confusion, pity, regret, self-loathing, and a whole slew of other emotions that, had Sakura thought to actually look, she would have seen and recognized immediately. But she didn't look up again—she couldn't—not with how terrible she was feeling.

It was her fault that the baker was now dead…and Aniki was now being bullied because of her…and then she had hurt him by insinuating that he shouldn't have saved her life. Sakura hated herself for all of this, but even more so, she hated herself because she was glad that Aniki had chosen her life over his own comfort. She had Seen Aniki be directly ordered not to kill the baker and she had Seen how less hectic his life would have been if he had obeyed…and yet he had chosen her. He had chosen her…and she was thankful for it...but at the same time, it disgusted her—no—she disgusted herself. She now knew that, despite what she had told Aniki right before everything had erupted, she could never again say that the baker shouldn't have been killed.

Although it sickened her to her core, Sakura realized that she enjoyed living too much to even wish that Aniki had spared the baker.

She was glad the baker had died.

And somehow, Sakura felt like that made her the worst person in the world.

A hand came down heavily on her head, forcing Sakura out of her self-loathing thoughts as well as forcing her to look up. Blinking in confusion, Sakura found Aniki's face less than an inch from her own. As was usual, his face was unreadable, however his eyes were smoldering—with what emotion, she wasn't sure, but it was there. The pink haired girl barely got out a 'wh—' of question before Aniki cut her off.

"You," he began, his voice harsh and clipped in a tone that made it seem as if he were raising his voice at her even though he wasn't, "are an idiot."

And so, Sakura's dream came true...too bad it was a dream she didn't want to happen...but at least it ended well for her...well, mostly. I hope you liked this chapter, and sorry for the wait. Between dead week, finals, and work, I didn't have enough time to post this chapter last week. I'll try to update again in two weeks (around May 30th). Also, I'm seriously thinking about writing that Sakura/Sasori AU story I told people about.

Originally this chapter wasn't going to be written in Sasori's POV (it was going to be all from Sakura's POV)...but then...it just sort of happened. 'Aniki' just sort of wrote himself in there and refused to leave...so I left it like that. The next chapter which I've begun writing is also written from the POV of someone who I originally didn't think I would be writing as...but once again, it just sort of happened.

IMPORTANT: Since I didn't get many responses I will ask again: would you, my readers, be interested in me posting a recording of me reading a part of this story? I've had one of my readers who I know in person suggest it, but I wanted to know if anyone else was interested, and if so, which part they would like me to read aloud. There is a poll on my profile about this matter, although feel free to send me your response in a review or a PM (especially if you want a specific section to be read).

To the anonymous reviewer itachimaniac: I cannot respond to reviews on my old stories that are anonymous since there is no way to contact you. If you really want me to respond to you, please either get an account and PM me, or write a review on this story.

As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to enjoy the production...flamers, on the other-hand, are banned. Now, let's move on to the pretty list!

Thanks to: BriEva (I'm glad you knew...or thought you knew...about who she saw. There is definitely something going on with Cha'ri...and Cha'ri definitely has some secrets that will be revealed before Sakura returns to her time...I won't be saying what those secrets are, but you are free to keep guessing. As to Kirsche's reaction, you'll have to wait a bit to see that. Shin's reactions are fun to write—if you like seeing Shin's reactions too, I think you'll enjoy the next chapter. As to Katsu...yes, I've been developing his character...and yes, Sakura really doesn't like meeting up with him...although I don't know if it will happen yet...I can envision Sakura kicking Katsu in the shins when he's the Kazekage just for old times sake. Also, since I haven't heard from you yet, I was wondering if you had an opinion about me making a recording of a portion of this story—as mentioned above under 'important'), Geniusly-Unique (I find your guesswork very interesting. Keep it up. Also, it's okay if you've forgotten most of ACC/CCR, since this is only a sister story, not a continuation), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (thanks for your vote...and I understand the whole being busy thing. I'm just glad to hear from you), & RtheAwesome (That was in response to another review, and as this chapter points out, although there are definitely feelings involved as it concerns 'Aniki', neither his nor Sakura's are of the romantic sort. I might eventually write a oneshot or some such, though, that is Sasori/Sakura) for reviewing!