"Apologies for the wait."
Sakura nodded brusquely and tossed back the cup that had been slid in her direction. Mirai, Sakura vaguely remembered Sai calling her, raised her eyebrows.
"Have a lot to forget, do you?"
Sakura kept her voice ineffectual with determined effort. "Maybe I'm just looking for a good time."
"Oh," the buxom woman sighed sagely. "Is that why you're chugging shots away from your friends at the table?"
Sakura pushed away from the counter, glowering slightly.
Naruto remained just as she had left him, with an expression of mild disgust on his features. Sai nodded at her in greeting. She nodded back and began chewing into some of the food they had ordered.
"It's unnatural," Naruto said after a long silence.
Sai calmly sipped his glass of water. "On the contrary, it's rather normal."
"You didn't know him," the blonde retorted, biting into some chicken. "In the Academy, he acted like girls were bacteria. He didn't let them within three feet of him—just ask Sakura!"
Sakura shot him a glare, none too pleased to be invoked in this context.
"I, too, had virtually no sexual interest until very recently," Sai countered with a calm smile.
"You're different," Naruto said carefully, brows furrowing. "Sasuke is…"
Sasuke was, in all likelihood, manifesting some sort of unnecessary crisis in response to the fact that he had all but gotten away with being a rogue-nin, rejoined a team far more adept than he had left it, learned the truth about his brother, now lived with said brother, and (consequently) had something resembling a family and a functional team for the first time in over ten years.
Sakura sighed, aware that she was probably…deliberately being ungenerous. She didn't care much about it, though.
"The way I see it, Sasuke's starting to give Sakura a run for his money," Sai commented casually.
"What are you talking about?" Naruto scoffed. "She's never stepped out in the middle on us."
"What do you think that long bathroom break last time with the visiting Suna chunin was, dickless?" Sai rolled his eyes.
Sakura coughed into her fist, eyes watering.
Naruto turned red. "It was just a bathroom break, wasn't it? Because you guys weren't feeling too well—" he turned toward her—"Wasn't it?"
Sakura lifted her head, staring at him. "I'm not sure what you want me to say," she said finally.
Naruto's mouth turned down.
Sakura's mood darkened. "I'm not a monk, Naruto."
He blinked back at her defensive tone, expression lightening. "You're not— What?"
"You seem to constantly expect the best of me, and I have no idea why," Sakura continued, and it was the alcohol that smoothed the way for the words she would have normally left unvoiced. "I'm mean, rude, and, yes, I lie. A lot."
Naruto's expression grew grim. He straightened in his chair as Sai watched them both, dark eyes bright. "Sakura—"
But she was on a roll now. "And do you even remember how I used to treat you? I was selfish, and I treated you like dirt. Sasuke was better than me. And I don't think— I don't think I've ever apologized for that, somehow."
"You could now," Sai suggested.
Her glance cut to him. "I am sorry," she said curtly, not able to look at Naruto. "But the point is: I never set that bar high. So I'm not sure why you try to be—to make me be—"
She couldn't find the right words, so she gave up. She leaned back into her chair and tilted her head back.
"I was just—surprised, is all," she heard Naruto say, voice calm.
Sakura stared at the ceiling.
"I miss things that happen around me. I can be…self-involved—we both know that, don't we?"
After a pause, Sakura rolled her head to look at him. "That's how you survived, Naruto," she said quietly. "How else were you supposed to when no one else was going to look after you or care for you."
"And how did you?" Naruto asked sharply.
She flinched, eyes narrowing.
The blonde sighed noisily. "That's not what I meant. Don't look at me like that," he stated evenly. "I'm not demanding answers anymore. What I mean is— I'm not holding you to any bar, Sakura, whatever that means. I'm not holding any of us to that. I just want…"
Sai placed his chopsticks down on his plate, solemn.
"I just want more," Naruto finished, eyes burning. "For all of us. Everything we don't have or we've lost—we can make it ourselves. I don't have a mom or a dad or siblings, but I've got a team, haven't I? Who said that couldn't be enough?"
Sakura's fingers gripped the edge of the table, creating small dents.
"Team Seven: a team by, for, and of the orphans," Sai said consideringly.
"No," Naruto said distractedly, "Sakura has parents."
Sai's gaze paused on Sakura. "Really? You never talk about them."
Sakura shrugged stiffly. "I don't see them much, day-to-day. I see my mom every few weeks or so—she'll call me over for a meal."
"And your dad?" Naruto asked, brow furrowing.
"My father is the head of our family merchant business, so he spends most of the seasons of the year travelling," she answered evenly.
Sai's mouth pursed. "You call your mother 'mom'," he said lightly, "and you call him father."
Sakura paused. "We're not particularly close," she admitted because, of the facts pertaining to her personal life, this was among the least consequential to her. "I probably haven't seen him in years because of his business and then my timing with missions."
"Oh," Naruto said, expression looking a little lost.
Sasuke chose this moment to return to their table. Nothing about his person revealed what had transpired; even his hair was impeccable.
"Were her knees alright?" Sai asked politely. "I can't imagine twenty minutes on the tile in those back restrooms is particularly comfortable."
"Speaking of which," Naruto said wearily, "apparently, you and Sakura might want to start up a list. Or you might…double-pollinate or something."
"I don't pollinate, Naruto," Sakura said irately.
Sasuke's black eyes flicked to her. They shared a quiet moment of mutual disgust.
The next morning, Sakura woke to the sound of scratching against her window. Fully prepared to see the crow beckoning at her window, she flipped in her bed to glower. Her glare dropped as she located an unfamiliar hawk.
Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she stumbled over to the window and crack it open. The bird hopped in with an indignant caw. Her fingers fumbled with the string for a long minute, until she was finally able to release the scroll from the hawk's body and open it.
Name: Haruno Sakura
Rank: Chunin
Team Designation: 7
Your name has been suggested for psychological review. Please book an appointment within the next two weeks at your convenience. We look forward to your visit.
Regards,
Chako Yo
"What the fuck," Sakura hissed, crumpling the parchment in her fists. Blood rushed in her ears, and her tight control over killing intent slipped. She heard a muffled shriek from the room below her.
She tossed the scroll into the trash and stalked over to her wardrobe, blindly pulling on some clothes. She spared a minute to splash water on her face and clean her mouth before heading toward the door. After a moment of hesitation, she bent to retrieve the scroll and then left.
"Hey!" a man in standard issue uniform called out as she exited her building. "Keep it under control, will you?"
She didn't spare him a second glance, senses sharpening as she scanned around her. Sakura wasn't a chakra sensor, but Kakashi didn't exactly keep his head down on a daily basis; when he wasn't purposefully suppressing his chakra, there was always an edge of impending violence, of barely-there restraint about him (although she was beginning to doubt that the latter was actually true)—and it made him easily locatable.
Sakura's jaw tightened as she found him.
Uncaring of who saw her, she propelled herself through the village along the rooftops until she reached the hokage's tower. She pushed the double-doors open a little too loudly.
The crowd parted before her. Sakura scowled and at last tried to tamp down on the killing intent she had been leaking. She walked toward the start of the spiral staircase that wrapped around the inside of the whole building. Although Sakura had come here often while studying under Tsunade, there were parts of the tower she had never seen. She had never known the purpose of the third floor, for example—which she seemed to be heading directly towards.
She pushed open the double set of doors positioned by the landing and entered a hallway of more doors—each with a schedule posted above the knob. Sakura's eyes narrowed as she spotted 'Captains of Chunin Teams Mandatory Meeting.'
She made a bee-line towards this room and swung open the door.
The first man, closest to the door, she didn't recognize. Sakura scanned over the rest of those seated around the large, square-shaped table that filled the room.
She paused on a familiar face composed of sharp features and red eyes. Hinata's captain, Kurenai, she remembered. Her eyes shifted left next to find Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji's captain, Asuma, tanned and gruff-faced beside her. And then, finally, on the other side of both of them was Kakashi.
He was almost ten years younger than everyone else in the room. Rather than this fact keeping him at attention, however, he was sprawled over a chair that was positioned the wrong way, opposite the table—so that his feet could rest on the large window sill.
The familiar woman, Kurenai, evaluated her calmly. "Sakura, right?"
Sakura's fingers thrummed on the door in impatience. He had yet to turn, even though he certainly could sense her in the room—had probably known the moment she had entered the tower.
"As the sign says," another jounin captain said, head tilting to the side, "this is a meeting for captains of chunin teams."
"Good," Sakura returned shortly, arms crossing as she leaned against the door. "I'm on a chunin team, and I'm looking for my captain."
"Another time, perhaps," Kurenai said, voice lightly warning.
Sakura didn't move.
Asuma sighed loudly and stood up. He gave her a vaguely annoyed look as he moved to stand in front of her, the dense mass of his body blocking her sight of the room.
He raised his eyebrow as he looked down at her, a cigarette caught between his lips. "Do I have to move you or are you going to move yourself?"
"Taichou," she called out, stoic.
The older man grunted. "The former then."
He stretched out a wide, tanned hand—presumably for her shoulder—and Sakura's gaze tracked it until a body shunshined between them and a new face looked down at her.
A lone dark eye gazed at her, disinterested. The hitai-ate was lowered, covering his sharingan. "What," he drawled. Sakura's mouth tightened.
"This," she said through gritted teeth, holding up the scroll.
Kakashi stared at it dispassionately.
Sakura flicked the loose knot she had tied, and the scroll rolled down, revealing its contents. His body blocked the others from being able to read it.
"Hatake," Kurenai said sharply. "We still have items on the agenda to discuss. Remove your student from the room—"
"—so we can end this meeting and all get on with our lives," Asuma finished boredly.
Kakashi's face was equally bland. "Carry on without me."
Sakura turned on her heel and opened the door, ignoring the protests that arose behind her. She didn't turn until she heard the door shut will an echoing thud behind her.
He moved past her, the upper half of his face unreadable, to a door on the opposite of the room at the end of the hall. He opened it and entered. She followed.
Sakura closed it behind her, the muscles in arm tensed in acute restraint. The other hand, in which she held the scroll, she raised.
"What is this?" she asked, voice blank.
"Don't waste my time with stupid questions," Kakashi answered, voice distant. "Ask the ones you mean."
Her shoulders tightened.
"Alright then," she admitted, voice dark. "Why?"
Kakashi looked unconcerned by her vehemence. "It is the duty of a jounin captain to report potential cause for trauma of any kind directly to the center of psychological services—"
"I don't resent your suggesting my name," she clarified through thin lips, looking down at her knuckles. "I resent that you've suggested it knowing that I won't pass a review—" her mouth twisted—"That no ANBU would."
Accordingly, as informal policy, no ANBU were ever asked.
"You're not ANBU." His voice was a rasp.
Sakura's nostrils flared. "I'm not ANBU anymore. But the brand's still on my shoulder. And its other legacies, evidently, persist."
"So take the time off," Kakashi ordered, eyes directed somewhere past her.
Sakura's chest hurt. "I can't."
His gaze at last met hers, his brow dark.
"Don't take this away from me," she hissed.
It terrified her, that he could—and that now, with something like reasonable justification, Tsunade might let him. Sakura didn't know what she would do without ANBU and Team Seven. Probably go crazy.
"I'm good at what I do," she argued. "I have the most experience on Team Seven. When I was in ANBU, you trusted me as your back up. I might have lost control that…that one time, but I've never compromised a mission—"
Sakura's mouth snapped shut.
That singular, dark eye roved over her, a strange quality in it.
"Are you punishing me?" she demanded, voice strangled.
A moment of silence range between them—and then Kakashi leaned forward, seething. "I'm holding you back from the path that you've sent yourself hurtling down. Are you blind?"
Sakura's eyes widened.
Then, she shoved away from the chair and stood, arms landing hard on the table as she took on a more aggressive stance.
"Why?" she breathed. "Why do shinobi become their strongest only when they've reached that state—caught between…"
Air hissed through the gaps around the window as the breeze shook the trees just outside, scattering the light.
Her eyes fluttered shut. "Freedom. Cruel and euphoric," she whispered. "The freedom to be anything but…human or humane. And…"
"Guilt," he finished, voice almost inhuman. "From whatever sliver of humanity remains."
Her nails dug into the wood of the table.
"What do you do?" she muttered nonsensically, "How do you sleep without tossing and turning and waking up, and how do you pretend—"
She wasn't conscious of her body acting, but in the next instant, she had pinned his hand beneath hers, flat onto the same table. His body reacted instinctively, twisting to evade the restriction. Sakura pressed down with punishing strength.
His eyes flew to hers. Her fingers flexed.
"Did you know?" Sakura said, mouth barely opening. "They say newborns can die without touch."
His gaze narrowed.
Slowly, unconsciously, the pads of her fingers began to travel.
"They say when no amount of chakra can help, something as simple as a hand on a hand can bring someone back from the verge of death, can heal what was seemingly irreparable."
His eyes tightened imperceptibly. She traced the grooves around knuckles, followed the ridges of scars—so many scars—pressed into callouses.
(She wanted to touch him—his throat. To see if it trembled.)
"Old wives' tales, no doubt," she said shortly. She started to pull her hand away.
He reacted without batting an eye, wrist twisting away. His face though, as it looked down at her, seemed, for an instant…but, no, she must have imagined it.
The sound of the doorknob turning had them both turning sharply toward the door.
She saw the moment Kurenai felt the killing intent in the air, oozing insidiously through the room like oil contaminating water. The older woman's muscles tensed slightly.
"Hatake," Kurenai said carefully, red eyes passing fleetingly over her and settling on him. "Your presence is required."
Kakashi's head tilted back, eyes coolly surveying her. A minute might have passed, before he pushed off the table and exited the room without another word. After a long, complex look Sakura's way, Kurenai left as well.
She stared for a moment at the empty room until, disturbed, she too opened the door and exited. Sakura bowed her head and steered herself single-mindedly toward the exit.
She paused only when, perhaps inevitably, she bumped into someone. "Sorry," she muttered.
"Sakura?"
Sakura lifted her head. Iruka smiled at her, wide and unreserved. "It's been quite a while," he announced. "How have you been?"
"I've been good," she said slowly, mind still somewhere else, "How have you—"
The words died in her throat as she made eye contact with the person right behind him.
"Itachi?" she blurted.
"I know I taught you better than that, Sakura," Iruka said sternly.
Sakura kept her expression neutral with concerted effort at the oddly nostalgic rebuke. "Itachi-san," she submitted stiffly, "…why are you here?"
"I am filing some paperwork under Iruka-san's guidance," Itachi said, expression placid.
Sakura's gaze burned into him. That explained precisely nothing.
Iruka at last took pity on her. "As per the hokage's command, Itachi-san will be joining the Academy as an assistant instructor until he is combat-ready."
Her mouth dropped. "Really? An S-rank nin?"
There was no way Tsunade had come up with that on her own. Someone had to have convinced her. Strenuously.
"Sakura," Iruka warned sharply, eyebrow arching. "Formerly S-rank, to be clear."
"Right," she said blankly.
Her baffled gaze settled on Itachi. He was looking at Iruka through the corner of his gaze, an odd expression on his face: a little wary, perhaps.
Sakura's brow furrowed. Itachi, an instructor at the Academy? Surrounded by bratty, impatient children who cried and whined…
Maybe, actually, it was oddly fitting. Certainly more than being a massacring traitor had been.
"Survive the week, and I'll buy you dango," she tossed over back, still bemused, as she left. The words left her mouth without much thought.
It was only once she exited the building that she realized that the words had been familiar—and not her own.
ANBU?! Your balls haven't even descended yet, Itachi. Listen-you better survive the week or I won't be buying you anymore dango. Remember that, okay? Dango.
As fortune had it, she ended up returning to the hokage tower within the hour.
"This one," Tsunade admitted, "is complicated."
"Complicated how?" Naruto demanded.
"There will be some…politics to navigate and be wary of," the hokage responded, inclining her head. "The risk of potential conflict is extremely low, but secrecy is extremely important to the client—hence the mission rank."
"To be honest, I'm not exactly sure this is the appropriate team to send." Her amber eyes flickered between Sakura and Kakashi, before landing dubiously on Naruto. "But," she sighed, "you're the only ones at-hand on such short notice and with a high-profile enough name to appease this client."
Sakura's head fell to the side, surveying Kakashi out of the corner of her eyes.
"Will the ANBU be joining us again?" Sai asked curiously.
"No," Tsunade said shortly, glancing absent-mindedly at Sasuke. "As I said, the risk of conflict is minimal."
She gave a huge sigh, rubbing at her forehead.
"The client is the daimyo," Shizune explained.
Slowly, Sakura shifted her gaze from Kakashi to the hokage and her assistant.
"The daimyo, as we all know, is happily married," Tsunade said carefully. "So I needn't stress anymore how critical it is that this all be kept under the wraps."
Tsunade and Shizune shared a glance.
"A few months ago, the daimyo privately gifted a ruby necklace, a very recognizable family heirloom, to the lady Okomo Aimi as a token of his…fervent affections," Shizune said carefully. "Unfortunately, the relationship has now turned sour, and Okomo wants to out their affair. Recent reports have suggested that Okomo is planning to part with the heirloom publicly in an auction hosted by the court tonight, which both the daimyo and his family will be attending.."
"For obvious reasons," Tsunade grunted, "this cannot happen."
"So we have to retrieve the heirloom from her entourage before it has a chance to be put up for auction," Sai summarized.
"Precisely," the hokage said, eyes glinting. "Good luck."
It went perfectly.
That was, until Naruto fumbled the drop-off and deposited the necklace in the wrong man's pocket.
Sakura didn't know if it was worse or better that she hadn't been there to seen it. While the failed extraction had been occurring, she had been diverting Okomo's bodyguards using genjutsu from entering the auction hall.
"Moron," Sasuke hissed. "You had one job."
"I forgot what your henge looked like," Naruto groaned miserably. "I remembered the red hair, and there were only three people with red hair in the room. What were the chances…"
Sakura leaned back against the tapestry in the abandoned corridor they were currently occupying.
"And how were Okomo's guards?" Sai asked, conversational.
"Fine," Sakura said. "Not that it matters…anymore."
"With this idiot's luck, that merchant is already well on his way home," Sasuke grunted sourly.
Naruto punched him in the shoulder.
"How's your brother doing, Sasuke?" Sai asked offhandedly.
The Uchiha yanked his head away from Naruto to glare at him.
"Do you not talk?" Sai wondered.
This didn't get a response either. A discomfiting, burning sensation curled in her stomach, like indigestion.
"Really?" Naruto pressed, momentarily distracted from his own plight.
"So what?" Sasuke returned coolly.
"Have you been ignoring him?" Sai inquired. "Even given your shared living situation?"
Sasuke's features looked harder and crueler than she had seen them in sometime. He stepped toward Sai, muscles tight, like he was prepared for a fight. "I don't have to explain myself to you—"
"Quiet," Kakashi commanded indifferently from behind them. They all turned to find the copy-nin standing a few feet behind them.
Naruto yanked Sasuke back. Glowering, the black-haired boy allowed the motion.
"Any updates?" Naruto asked hopefully.
"The merchant hasn't left yet—he's spending the night down the hall and leaving tomorrow morning," Kakashi said shortly. "He's a Konoha citizen, so we have grounds to commandeer the necklace."
"So no fighting," the blonde clarified, looking relieved.
"Not unless he protests," Kakashi said, voice dark, like he wouldn't mind much if the merchant did.
He stalked down the hall, and they followed, sticking to the shadows as the moonlight peeked through the clouds outside. He stopped in front of a heavy, mahogany door with a peacock handle.
"Knock," the copy-nin ordered Naruto.
He shuffled forward, stretching forward a tentative hand. Blinking, he rapped lightly against the wood.
"Civilian," Sasuke snapped impatiently. "Remember?"
"Louder, dickless," Sai advised.
"Ah, right," he laughed sheepishly, scratching at his head.
With a bright smile, Naruto drove his fist into the door. A resounding thud echoed down the hall. Sakura winced.
Kakashi's head rolled to look down at him, eyes sharp and scathing.
There was a moment of silence, in which she began to doubt the merchant was even in the room— then footsteps sounded from behind the door, balanced and even, approaching.
The door opened, revealing a tall man in his early forties with hair the color of copper.
"An item from the auction was misplaced," Kakashi drawled without any introduction, "We'll need to search your possessions—"
"How unexpected," the man in the door observed.
Sakura blinked, before bowing her head stiffly. "Father."
Author's Note:
omg WHAT? Sakura actually has parents?
Haha, in all seriousness though, obviously my rendering of her parents is going to deviate from canon-as we've seen so far, Sakura's parents are fairly distant from her / have very little idea of what's actually going on in her life. I think I mentioned very passingly in the first chapter that, in this story, she comes from a family of merchants. I think her canon parents were actually also shinobi, but that's always seemed to me like kind of a random decision on Kishimoto's part / strangely has never really come up in her character development as a shinobi...so. Yeah. I'm going to be doing something different.
Also, I might be interested in writing an Itachi's first day at the Academy omake lol...let me know what you think.
As always, hope you've enjoyed and let me know what you think!