The next morning Sakura left as Kanta prepared a plot of land in the back of her house to dig out a garden. He had thoughtfully brought two hoes, a shovel and some other gardening tools back from the Senju compound with him yesterday.
Their morning had been only slightly awkward after his confession to her and the dismissal of his affections. She had thanked him for being her friend and hoped he understood, that it wasn't him, but that she simply didn't have time to love, anyone. He had nodded his head, and seemed to accept her words but she had caught him looking at her with such pained longing during and after breakfast that she had decided to visit the Uchiha compound. She wanted to have a look at their library since it was larger than the Senju's, first.
It was a beautiful morning. The air was cooler but the sun still warmed her skin as she stepped out of the forest and into the open fields near the Uchiha compound. Sakura stopped to pick some of the wild flowers that were growing in the field, it made her think of her best friend Ino and she smiled ruefully at the small little buds.
Her head jerked up as she felt his chakra explode around her, she dropped the flowers she had just picked, drew her katana that Izuna had gifted her ducked and swung up to meet his own blade that had come down over her head just moments after she had drawn hers to block his swing.
"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" Sakura glared at the man.
"Pretty flower picking buds, all alone in a field of flowers." He taunted her.
"I heard the Uchiha had taken a pet, a pretty thing with pink hair who could heal any wound." The man pulled back his blade and flipped backward several paces watching her.
"It seems you're not just a pretty healing flower though." He nodded to her sword.
"I asked you who the hell you were." Sakura growled at him, not interested in his monologue.
"Temper temper little one, you may dress like a lady but you certainly don't speak like one." He cocked his head to the side considering her as if she were such an enigmatic puzzle.
"I'm not a lady, I'm a kunoichi." Sakura sheathed her katana and infused her fists with chakra leaping into the air and coming down on him with speed he hadn't been expecting.
"Shit." Was all she heard him say before the ground erupted around them.
Sakura flung her body back, up and over the rubble to get a clear view of her opponent, he had dodged it, her eyes narrowed.
"Damn woman, I am impressed, the rumors said nothing of your physical skill, holy shit you certainly are destructive." He laughed looking at the crater between them.
Sakura readied her fists again when he stopped her with one hand in the air.
"I don't wish to fight you, I only wished to see if you were as good as they said you were. I am Sarutobi Sasuke." The man bowed before her.
Sakura's mouth dropped open. The Lord Third's father had just attacked her, complimented her, teased her and then bowed to her.
Sakura stood there in her shock. Sasuke Sarutobi smiled at her. "I assume you're visiting the Uchiha Compound?"
Sakura nodded, she still couldn't seem to find her voice.
"I was heading there myself, we can travel the rest of the way together, if you like." The man smiled at her.
Sakura nodded again and inclined her head to him. He smiled casually at her.
"Sorry to have made you drop your flowers." He had walked up to her at this point and gestured to the fallen blossoms at her feet.
"Oh, uh, that's okay." She knelt and picked the flowers up off of the ground, watching him out of the corner of her eye. 'Could she trust him'...
He had noticed her watching him apprehensively and laughed out loud. "Meeting you was by chance, I wasn't following you, honest." He raised his hands in the air and winked at her.
Sakura hadn't known The Lord Third as an old man, or his son Asuma in his younger years but at the moment, with that gesture, he looked like a combination of the two and she laughed. He seemed relieved at her laughter, happy she hadn't held his less than formal introduction against him.
"I wasn't aware the Sarutobi clan was friends with the Uchiha." Sakura said once all her flowers had been regathered and they were on their way.
"Well, friends is, maybe a bit over stating our business. I have some information for the clan head, he put out a word he was looking for something, I have a bit of information on it, and I was going to be out this way visiting the Senju, soooo." He trailed off with a good humoured sort of grin.
Sakura couldn't help but smile and wonder if this is how the Lord Third had acted when he was younger.
"You will be visiting the Senju as well?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, the Sarutobi clan have been friends of the Senju for many years now." He continued to smile as they walked down the main path to the Uchiha compound. "You are also friends with the clan are you not?"
"I am." She smiled. "Hashirama Sama and Tobirama Sama are wonderful conversationalists." She laughed.
"Hashirama wrote me a week ago telling of his encounter with you in the woods, he said you simply fascinated him, I had to come see for myself, once I heard you were here."
"Heard I was here? Word sure does travel fast around here." She said as they approached the main gates of the Uchiha compound.
Sakura flared her chakra subtly and Sarutobi did the same. One of the guards smiled at Sakura.
"Ah, Watanabe San, back to work so soon?" Sakura recognized the man she had healed in the woods.
"It was a minor cut Lady Sakura, and your healing was so superb it was as though I had never been cut at all. Thank you again for healing me." He bowed to her.
"It was my pleasure, and my job." Sakura smiled kindly at the man.
"Sakura." Madara opened the gates himself to step out and greet them.
"Sarutobi San." Madara inclined his head to the man beside Sakura. "I see you have met our new medic."
"A delightful woman, skilled too, blocked my katana as if it were nothing." Sarutobi grinned at the Uchiha who raised his brow.
"You were sparing with her?" Madara asked curiously, looking from Sarutobi to Sakura.
"More like he attacked me out of nowhere." Sakura mumbled, but smiled when Sarutobi laughed and patted her on the back.
Madara's eyes narrowed at the man. "You attacked Sakura?"
"All in good fun Uchiha, she wasn't in any danger. I only wanted to see if what the Senju said was true, was. He raved about her!" Sarutobi smiled at Sakura who merely looked bored.
"I see." Madara's eyes had been flickering over Sakura to make sure she was indeed, okay. The gesture was not lost on Sarutobi, who continued to grin.
"Well, seeing as no one has lost a limb, or been pounded into oblivion." Madara's mouth twitched. "Would you both care to come in for some tea?"
Sakura nodded and Sarutobi gestured for her to walk ahead of him, an odd gesture for the time, and it caught Madara's eye. Madara watched the Sarutobi clan head with mild interest on the surface but underneath, he was watching him like a hawk.
Sarutobi walked beside Madara, Sakura still in front, kept looking back at them, "This is ridiculous, I'm leading but I have no idea where I'm going." She stopped and glared at the men.
Madara barley held in his laughter at the woman's expression, she had the most amusing look between annoyance and exasperation on her face, it was quite adorable. The Sarutobi grinned openly at her.
"We will be taking tea in the main house, in the gardens, where we had lunch with Izuna." Madara said without the slightest trace of amusement in her voice.
The annoyance left her face immediately and a new look of determination replaced it. 'So expressive', he thought.
"Quite the little spit fire eh Uchiha? I can see why you like her so much." Sarutobi whispered to Madara as they followed the pink head of hair through the compound.
Sakura hadn't heard him, focused on the path in front of her. She saw a familiar shock of black hair, "Izuna Kun!" Sakura waved to Izuna who was coming out of the main house to join them.
"Sakura Chan, so nice to see you back here in the compound. How was your visit to the...Senju?" He asked her politely.
"It went well, Tobirama Sama said that Hashirama called for a seasonal truce?" Sakura asked Izuna.
"He did." Madara answered her, Sarutobi beside him nodded in the wisdom of such a truce.
"It is common for both sides to par take in a temporary truce for the harsher months, not to say there might be small skirmishes, but we will not meet as heads on the battlefield...until Spring." Madara explained to her.
"Maybe it's because I'm not used to war as much as you, having only fought in one large war before, but it seems odd to do such a thing." Sakura looked from each man to the other.
"It is not unusual in farming communities such as ours,." Sarutobi told her. "Like the Uchiha said, there is a precedent for such actions."
"You said you were in a war, what clan are you from?" Sarutobi asked her conversationally as the small group walked the now familiar path to the stone table in the garden.
"I am not from a shinobi clan, my people are merchants." Sakura said. "I am the only shinobi in my family."
"Incredible!" Sarutobi said sincerely, "With that monstrous strength of yours!" He smiled kindly at her.
"I always said civilians could be shinobi, told you that last year didn't I Madara?" The man teased the Uchiha.
"Hn." Madara sat down and gestured for Sakura to sit next to him at the table.
"What did you say, I forget, oh yes, you said civilians were nothing but front line fodder as I recall, hum? Sakura changed your mind I bet, with those little fists of hers, little firecracker." Sarutobi winked at Sakura who giggled.
"Sakura is the...exception Sarutobi, I doubt most civilians could come close to her strength, or shinobi born." Madara said cooly.
Izuna laughed and Sarutobi whistled.
"I don't believe I have ever heard you compliment anyone besides your brother before Uchiha, remarkable." He smiled a knowing smile at Sakura who blushed, 'Interesting', he thought.
Their tea was poured and the conversation moved into the fall harvest, the fall butchering and small gossip concerning the smaller surrounding clans.
Sarutobi dropped out of the conversation to eat a few almond cookies and listened to Sakura and Izuna's debate on how effective poisons could be in a hand to hand fight.
"You underestimate how many different kinds of poisons there actually are Izuna Kun." Sakura argued.
"There aren't so many as you are trying to lead me to believe, not now at least." Izuna countered.
"Just because you aren't aware of them, doesn't mean they don't exist you know." Sakura crossed her arms and glared at him.
"Learn that from your new friend did you?" Izuna teased, not put off by her scowl in the least bit.
"No, I have made three myself before coming here, and their antidotes, it isn't all that hard really if you know the flora and how to prepare it. The basics are key but after you know that, the combinations are...well, endless, you just have to have an aptitude and the drive to create." She said triumphantly, ignoring his jab about Reto the Kazekage and poison master.
Madara had stopped speaking and watched with Sarutobi, a small smile on his face as the pinkette destroyed his little brother in their little verbal conflict.
"You should be a politician." Sarutobi rejoined the conversation.
"Pah, I don't have the patience for such bullshit." Sakura cursed, caught up in the passion of her and Izuna's agreement.
Sarutobi laughed out loud, "Such a mouth on her." He said, admiring her brashness.
"She suits you Madara." Sarutobi said catching Sakura and Izuna attention back from their argument on antidotes.
Madara looked surprised but Izuna didn't know if it was because the Sarutobi clan head had addressed him by his first name or by observation.
"She does." Madara smiled at Sakura who blushed.
"Shall we take a walk Sarutobi, I would like to show you the new rock garden Izuna has been working on since you were here last." Madara asked, rising from his seat beside Sakura.
"I would be delighted to see it, Izuna's creations are always the most unique." Sarutobi gave Izuna a smile and he and Madara walked down the path away from the table, leaving Izuna and Sakura to themselves.
Izuna watched Sakura in amusement, it seemed Madara's statement hadn't quite sunk in yet.
"Izuna Kun, did Madara just..." Sakura paused.
"He likes you." Izuna smiled at her.
"I remember but, what he said now, just now, with, did he..." Sakura looked at where the two clan heads had disappeared, "Did he just admit he liked me?"
"Romanticly?" Sakura asked Izuna incredulously.
"Well, yeah." Izuna frowned at her, he had yelled it before, why was she acting so surprised.
"Oh." Sakura looked down at her tea.
"Sakura Chan, is something wrong?" Izuna was a little worried now, she had seemed to return his brother's feelings before, even flirted with him he had thought, but now, she seemed...shocked.
"No, yes, I mean, but why?" She looked up at him, worry and confusion all over her face.
"Why does he like you?" Izuna continuously marveled at the woman, most women would be thrilled that the clan head of the Uchiha had shown an interest in them, or any clan head for that matter but Sakura seemed worried.
"Yes, all we do is argue." She said looking up at him from her cup.
"Well, that's why, you challenge him, you don't let him walk all over you, he respects you." Izuna smiled at her, "So do I, you're a remarkable woman Sakura, like no one either of us have ever met."
"But Madara he, surely there is someone more deserving of his affections than me." Her thoughts turned inward and it seemed like she hadn't really heard what he had said.
Izuna watched the strong, confident, fiery woman before him shrink into an insecure, timid girl right before his eyes. It pained him, did she really think she wasn't good enough for his brother?
"Madara respects strength, in both mind and body. There is simply no one that can compare to you in that area Sakura. We've looked, the clan elders have looked, you're the only one." Izuna smiled at her.
"Oh, I get it, the clan is looking for a wife for him and I fit the bill huh, cause there isn't anyone else around?" She rose to her feet. It was Sasuke all over again.
"Sakura, no, that's not what I meant." Izuna rose with her protesting.
"I understand Izuna Kun, you don't have to explain it anymore to me." Sakura started to walk away, "I'll be going home now, thank you for the tea."
"No, Sakura please, let me explain, that really isn't, I meant it as a compliment." Izuna didn't want her to leave, she had misunderstood what he had been trying to say and he felt terrible.
Sakura smiled faintly, made a few rapid hand signs and disappeared in a puff of smoke, a log fell where her feet had been just moments ago, and she was gone. Izuna activated his sharingan but she was nowhere to be found.
Madara and Sarutobi came back to find the stone table empty, Izuna and Sakura nowhere to be seen.
"I'll be going then Uchiha, I will be stopping by the Senju compound on my way out of the area, please tell your little hell cat I said goodbye, wonderful girl that one, clever and not bad to look at. Would hate to piss her off." Sarutobi waved to Madara and walked out the gate of the compound.
Izuna landed beside Madara and looked out into the nearby path, his sharingan still activated, "Sakura is gone, she misunderstood what I had said about you and her and she left." Izuna admitted his mistake to his brother apologetically.
"What did you say to her?" Madara asked, his forehead creasing with his frown.
"I told her you respected her, that you valued strength and well, that we couldn't find anyone like her before and she had guessed that the clan wanted you to marry and that she was the best candidate and she got upset and left, I think she might have been insulted but I can't for the life of me figure out why." Izuna said, guilt clear on his face.
"Did she say anything before she left?" Madara asked.
"Well he acted like you were settling for her, like she wasn't good enough for you or something." Izuna said, still trying to fgure out why what he had said made her feel that way.
"I havn't even talked to her about this, I haven't even said anythign to her except to yell at her in a fit of rage that I liked her, why the fuck would you bring it up to her?" Madara was getting upset. Sakura had fled, it was obviously Izuna's fault and he hadn't even come to grips with his own feelings for the woman yet and she had already run away from him, 'fucking hell'. This was a complete disaster.
"Well?" Izuna asked him impatiently.
"Well what?" Madara demanded.
"Go after her!" Izuna almost yelled at his older brother.
"What for? She left on purpose, its not like I forgot her at the market or something!" Madara knew he needed to do something but going after her, he wasn't sure that was the best thing for him to do at the moment, not to mention he had no idea what to do when he caught up to her.
What the hell was he supposed to say? 'Sorry my little brother made you feel unworthy, but you are, let's get married?', he wasn't even sure he wanted to marry her. He liked her, he respected her, but they were still at war, this was no time to take a wife, even if she was as amazing as Sakura, there was too much to do still, for his clan.
"I love you brother, I do, but sometimes you can be such an idiot." Izuna huffed and stomped his foot.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Madara glared at his little brother.
"It means, you aren't the only one who sees what a rare find she is. You're not the only one who watches her because he likes looking at her. There are others who see how talented and skilled she is, like the fucking Senju!" Izuna was yelling now pissed his brother was still here and not going after Sakura.
"The Senju?" Madara said stupidly.
"Uh yeah." Izuna rolled his eyes at his brother. "I swear you're so clueless with women Madara. She won't be alone long, whether it's you or that oaf Hashirama, or even his asshole little brother Tobirama, someone will court her and marry her, eventually."
Madara let his little brother's words sink into his brain, Izuna was right, but what could he possibly say to the woman. War. War is what he knew. He didn't have the first clue on how to talk to a woman.
"What do I say?" He asked his brother.
"The truth." Izuna smiled, glad they were making progress.
"The truth." Madara frowned. What was the truth?
Izuna groaned in annoyance and frustration, "Tell her why you like her so much, how you feel about her, things like that. Just be honest, a woman like that, she'll see right through a lie and cut through any bullshit you might try on her, and don't go all reclusive on her like you do when you find yourself face to face with strong emotions, I mean it, you have to be honest with her."
"I hardly know her, it will all sound like bullshit." Madara protested, this conversation was stupid, she was probably already home by now.
"Then tell her you want to get to know her. I don't know why she took what I said so negatively but you have to fix it and quickly, she is stubborn, if she has too long to dwell on this, it will be bad, for both of us." Izuna almost cringed at the thought.
"Fine. I'll go talk to her tomorrow morning." Madara made to turn around but Izuna grabbed him by the arm.
"I told you , you have to talk to her as soon as possible!" Izuna said, frustrated with him.
"Fine! I'll leave right now!" This was ridiculous Madara thought to himself. They were drinking tea one moment and she was running away the next, now his little brother was yelling at him to go get her and tell her about his feelings...this is why he never bothered with women...he sighed and flickered away.
Sakura jumped down from the tree beside her new home and looked at the house. She had still lived with her parents before the war, she had never had her own place before. Everything was new here. New home, new people, but old feelings began to resurface. She ran Izuna's words over her head.
We've looked, the clan elder's have looked, you're the only one
So, because they couldn't find anyone better, they had settled for her, very flattering. She arched her back and stretched. She would take a hot bath, drown her insecurities in hot water and memories of self loathing. She slid the door open to her house and step inside, kicking her boots off by the door. She couldn't feel Kanta's presence, maybe he had gone back to the Senju compound for something, she didn't mind, she wanted to be alone.
Sakura filled her largest pot with water using her water jutsu and set a fire under it to heat the water. The Uchiha had gifted her a wash tub, but she was going to use it for a bath instead of laundry, they didn't need to know. She pulled the large wash tub into her bedroom and set it in the corner.
Sakura poured the heated pot of water, pot after pot, into the tub until it was almost full. She stripped off her clothes and slowly lowered herself into the tub. It was times like these she was grateful for her small size, she fit into the tub perfectly. Resting her head on the edge of the tub she sighed and relaxed in the hot water letting her frustrations and confusions evaporate with the steam.
Madara flew through the forest, his brother's words repeating themselves in his head over and over.
This was all just a misunderstanding, she would understand once he explained things to her. She was logical, she would understand. Izuna had over reacted, he was sure of it. Madara sensed her chakra before he landed at her door. The Senju was gone, he couldn't feel the man anywhere nearby, good, they would be able to speak without interruption. He knocked on her door, no answer.
Was she ignoring him on purpose? He slid the door open and stepped inside looking around, she was nowhere to be seen. he went to the kitchen, she wasn't there. He went back outside and checked around the house, no one there. Madara thought for a moment, the bedroom, he moved to the bedroom, the door was closed, he knocked. No answer.
That was odd, he pushed the door open. He didn't see her anywhere, there was her bed, the desk, the nightstand, the wardrobe, the tub...the tub? Why the hell did the woman have her wash tub in her bedroom...he walked up to the tub and looked inside.
Sakura jumped up out of the tub naked, and screaming.
