A/N: Hope everyone is staying safe. I am genuinely sorry for this chapter's disgusting length, but as a faithful author, I try to listen to what you guys want! I didn't want to withhold any information here until another chapter was ready.
Join my discord if you want to bug me personally! discord . gg / WAdaFkV
And thank you to my beta and partner, ijnt, for proofreading my work.
Uzumaki
Chapter 41
The trip to the mission office was thankfully uneventful. Tsunade was practically falling asleep on her papers and pens, and in her stupor seemed to have forgotten about Ashi's defilement of the faces, and upon their exit, Satsuki nimbly steered the children away from Lee's team. She imagined there would be no such way out the next time they went, but for now, Satsuki took the enviable role of sensei during an early morning D-rank, which was weeding.
Kawasaki's small farm only contracted them for the first half of the day, the second half of the day the lot being occupied with animals; so it was with that arrangement that Satsuki's team found themselves pulling weeds all morning and having gracefully free afternoons, not that it stopped the children from whining.
It was with that space of time that Satsuki decided to apologise to Sakura. The children had taken her back to sweeter days. 'Flowers,' she admitted. 'That's… she likes flowers, right?'
And poster boys, and sweets, she thought. But they felt cheap.
Besides, she'd never understood the appeal of pretty poster boys.
Ino was eating a boxed lunch behind the counter, sat on a tall stool and listening to the burble of everyday life outside. No hospital today. So it was the shop. It was a nice break.
What with peacetime being in full effect, there was a strange effect on the business of Yamanaka Flowers. With less deaths, they got less requests for memorial flowers, but the Konoha Crush had brought plenty of deaths a few years back - many of them young shinobi, meaning that they often got requests for flowers each year. Ino and her mother both had a fairly excellent memory, so they always knew people's preferences from old orders. People were always impressed by that.
It helped, of course, that Ino worked at the hospital now: often people would come to her because she'd helped a sick friend, or delivered the sad news of a death. She was good at being compassionate, and she knew that couldn't be said for every doctor and nurse.
Even so, Ino knew it was a shameful part of the family business that peace time often reduced their sales. She hesitated to call the Konoha Crush lucky, but its occurrence had created an influx of business for them.
For now, it was quiet, and she was quiet as well. It was a welcome break from work, and she ate some sushi in the lull.
The door darkened, and the bell on the door rang. Ino perked up, chewing quickly and furiously as she put the bento below the counter.
She swallowed, coming around the corner. "Welcome! Can I help you somehow?"
"Good to see you, Ino. Again."
Ino blinked.
Uchiha Satsuki was looking down the clusters of freshly picked and arranged flowers. The proud girl she'd known those years ago had changed, but avoided her eyes as Ino leaned over to peer down the aisle.
She'd come here a couple of days ago, asking her about Sakura's memory loss. She hadn't believed it, and she'd stormed out the moment Ino defended her, sending the doorbell ringing as she stormed into the street. Ino hadn't gotten a good look at her, nor did she get a good yelling in.
From what she could see, Satsuki was clad all in black, with a soft desert cloak around her shoulders, and she lifted a hand, waving at Ino. She strode up to the counter, looking just a little ashamed.
Ino took her in a moment, feeling eleven years old again as she stared at what was almost an old crush, but certainly an idol. Her face had changed: a little sharper, her cheekbones catching the fluorescent light of the shop, but just as striking. Taller, longer, most likely stronger, but for all her maturity, her eyes were the same old darkness. She still remembered the first time Satsuki had looked her in the eyes, because Ino had thought she was staring right past her. Ino breathed out, finding a familiar warmth in her chest at the memory.
"Satsuki-san!" Ino smiled, waving back and motioning to the counter. "Don't rush out this time, alright?"
"Yeah. Sorry." Satsuki looked at the flowers behind her, rows of bright windflowers leaning in keenly to listen. "About… all of that."
"Well, thanks. Anyway. So what're you here for?"
Satsuki looked around, something uncomfortable crossing her expression like a bird's shadow flitting across water: Ino only caught a glimpse. "Apology… flowers. I'm not good with words. Which is why I'm apologising."
Ino blinked, feeling herself soften at that. "Well, y'know, you were a complete bitch about it, but I kinda understand why you mightn't believe someone has amnesia. I'd take it as a lesson in listening, apologise very sincerely, and move on. I don't think you need flowers..."
"I want to," Satsuki said, looking a little sheepish. "I'm going to apologise properly. But I don't want to go empty-handed and apologise at the door. I want something to give her."
"Alright. Well, good." Ino nodded, perking up. "That's great. She's been really down about it, so I'm sure this'll do. I'm your girl, I can find something for you." She pulled out from behind the counter, cycling over the shelves, looking at each plant decisively. "It's a shame you can't give her a cherry blossom tree, huh."
"That's tacky."
"You're tacky," Ino muttered. "Anyway. Let's see, let's see, let's see… ah, I'll just arrange something for you. Nothing here quite suits her, right?"
"That's not necessary."
"What, you just wanna hand her some random wildflowers wrapped in newspaper like a twelve year old?" Ino was perusing through the flowers, fumbling through the stems. "No. I'll arrange something nice."
Satsuki frowned. "She'll know you did it. Then it's not sincere."
"Okay, whatever. I'll select some and you can pick them, okay?"
Ino went in back, selecting a few flowers and bringing them out front, splaying them across the table. "So here's a few. This is narcissus. That's self-esteem; then we have anemones, we have violets… anemones show sincerity. Violets show honesty. And most importantly, grape hyacinths show that you're sorry."
"Will Sakura know any of that?"
"She hangs around me, so maybe, but also," Ino reminded her, "It's the sentiment that counts. That's the whole idea."
Satsuki gave her a long look, before nodding slowly. "Fine."
"Oh, and while you're here," said Ino, lifting a finger and looking along the row as she motioned for Satsuki to wait. "I have your plant."
'My plant?' thought Satsuki, briefly. Then Ino pulled it down from the top shelf with a flourish.
It was her plant.
Naruto, she'd named it once, because of how he'd nourished it so unexpectedly. The memory brought her a little pain now, but looking at the plant, she felt a distinct and gentle happiness. It had grown into a beautiful thing.
In the autumn, the hozuki lantern plant produced husks, like opaque orange lanterns. But by the spring - as it was now - the husks had rotted, and dried out; all that was left was the gentle, white veins, poised around a small, bright orange fruit, like a white rope net around a vibrant fish egg. This was how it had the name of lantern plant; when the husks withered away from orange to a thin white net, the fruit was like a bright light in a paper lantern. The fruits were shimmering there right now, small and plump.
When Satsuki had bought it at an evening stand in Konoha's main square on her way home, it had been spring, and the husks had withered. The woman at the stand explained most people didn't enjoy the look of the dried lantern, but Satsuki had liked it, and it had been hers for almost nothing.
Ino looked proud. "It's a pretty easy plant to take care of, but it's invasive. Don't ever plant it anywhere. I've trimmed it up over the years to make it more full and bushy."
Satsuki took it, feeling a waxy leaf with a soft smile. She nodded to Ino. "Thanks."
She rooted around in her pocket, lifting a bundle of notes, and pressed them on the counter.
"Oh, Satsuki-san," Ino smiled. "Save it. Actually, you know what, do me a favour?"
Satsuki blinked.
"Take Sakura out," Ino said. "You really owe her."
Satsuki looked at the plant, uncomfortable for a second. Ino saw her visibly give in. "Fine."
"This money's a promise to me too, so take it," said Ino, pushing the money back to her.
"What promise?" Satsuki nodded, sliding the money into her palm.
Satsuki saw something sinister cross Ino's expression, like a spider dangling so close it was nothing more than a shadow, a great black blur.
"Don't hurt Sakura like that again. I mean it."
Satsuki hoisted the plant under her arm, the vase under the other.
"Got it."
Satsuki strode up the stairs to the Haruno residence, a house tucked behind a row of shops and with flower trays hanging from its windows, bushels of hyacinths and bright ivy crawling up the brick. The sheer curtains were drawn back in the kitchen, but still hung closed in the upper floors; she couldn't see anybody looking back at her, and the bouquet felt heavy in her grip. She'd held much heavier, for much longer, but her hands felt slippy with… nerves, she supposed.
She knocked with her spare hand, a light one, two, three.
Mebuki opened the door, looking tired and clad in a dressing robe over her pyjamas. She gave Satsuki a long look, until Satsuki realised she mustn't have recognised her.
"Good afternoon, Haruno-san," she said, bowing a little. "Is Sakura here?"
Mebuki stared, a moment longer, before her eyes widened in recognition and she gasped, smiling. "Satsuki-san! You're back to see Sakura? Oh come in, come in! Please, just call me Mebuki."
She ushered Satsuki in. The house was a little dusty, not the cleanest she'd ever seen it. She couldn't see Sakura's dad.
"Sakura's upstairs! To be honest, I think she's sleeping..." she gushed. "Oh, Satsuki-san, are those for her?'
Satsuki nodded, feeling a little embarrassed. "Yeah."
Mebuki smiled warmly. "Oh, that'll really lift her spirits. She's been very out of sorts, since her injury. Do you want to leave them here? I'll tell her you came by. I can wake her up too, if you like."
"It's quite alright. I'll leave them here."
Mebuki lifted the vase from her grip with the loving gesture of someone lifting up a baby, and Satsuki supposed it was as good a time as any.
"Before I go up, Mebuki," Satsuki began, "I want to ask you about Sakura's injury."
Mebuki looked distant. "Yes… I suppose you weren't here."
Satsuki shook her head. "I didn't hear about it in Suna at all. Sakura didn't write very much. Could you tell me about what Sakura did the past couple years?"
To some extent, Satsuki had heard what had happened. When she'd made the assumption Sakura was making up a pathetic excuse for cutting her off, Satsuki had gone and asked Ino, who had corroborated her injury and amnesia, and then to Tsunade, who, likewise, corroborated it. Satsuki hadn't stuck around much more. The wound of shame and embarrassment had been too fresh. Apologies were not her strong point.
Mebuki sighed, and opened the fridge. "Well, it began with… well, your teammate leaving. Do you want some breakfast? Tea?"
"Tea, if that's not any trouble."
"Yes, your teammate Naruto-kun was when things got a little odd with Sakura," hummed Mebuki, closing the fridge and opening the tin of teabags and filling the kettle under the tap. She sounded a little wary. "He was a good kid. I knew about... well. You know. Most people my age do."
Satsuki nodded.
"Please, sit at the table." Mebuki pulled a chair back, and clicked on the gas hob, putting the kettle over the flickering blue flames. "I'll admit I felt the same about him as everyone else at first... but his adoration for Sakura was such a simple childhood crush. I realised he was just a kid."
After she pulled two cups from the cupboard, Mebuki let out a sigh, staring at the porcelain. "Things just changed," she said. "After the incident with him, you know? Our Sakura changed in such a dramatic way."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, at first, she was just so angry, all the time," Mebuki said, her voice a little quieter. "She stopped smiling. She started training, all day, everyday. At least, I think that was what she was doing. She was out all hours of the night, and she would always come home battered, and bruised, or not at all.
"Before, when I used to tell her off for things, she'd get annoyed, but she started to get really angry whenever I asked anything at all. I barely saw her in the end... eventually, I stopped checking her bed," Mebuki said, her voice hitching a little. "What kind of mother gives up on her child like that? But I couldn't take it. I tried to talk to her.
"But every time I tried," Mebuki choked out, "She would tell me to stop interfering. She'd tell me I was overbearing and getting in the way. That I was worrying over nothing because I had nothing better to do, and t-that if I kept interfering with her life, she'd never grow up to be anything, and she'd end up a…"
Mebuki bowed her head over the sink. The kettle was beginning to whistle.
"A do-nothing ninja like me, who can't even make it past chuunin," she wept.
Satsuki stared.
"Sakura said that to you?"
Mebuki started to cry. Satsuki stood and turned off the gas, letting the kettle cool, and she came to Mebuki's side.
She wasn't good at comforting others. When she was hurt, she preferred to be completely alone. And she rarely cried. It was usually anger. But she offered an awkward hand, placing it atop Mebuki's, grasping it gently.
"I," Mebuki whispered, sniffling, "I'm an awful mother. Because, you know, when Sakura was injured, of course I… I prayed everyday for her health. I even travelled to a couple shrines across the Land of Fire, so I could pray for her health and wellbeing... I felt so stupid, for how much we'd argued. We hadn't had a full conversation in months. I-I was so frightened she'd die. But when she woke up, with a terrible injury, amnesia…
"I was so relieved," she said, voice cracking with sobs. "I was so relieved that the Sakura I had was gone, and the Sakura I loved was back. I was so happy that my daughter was home."
Mebuki buried her face in her sleeve, sobbing softly. Satsuki put an awkward arm around her shoulders, but she couldn't help but feel shock more than anything else.
Mebuki stood, wiping her face on her sleeve and smiling gently. "I'm sorry, Satsuki-san. I haven't talked about it very much, and it's very raw."
"I'll make the tea." Satsuki stood, lifting the kettle with a thick insulated cloth and pouring it over the teabags. Mebuki didn't use strainers like she did, or leave the tea loose in the pot. She put the cups on the table, and Mebuki sat silently across from her, eyes red rimmed.
"I have another question," said Satsuki softly. "If that's okay, Mebuki."
"Of course," Mebuki smiled, wiping her face clean. But another question of that nature, Satsuki felt she might not come back from.
"What was this mission?" Satsuki asked, stirring the tea with a spoon and lifting Mebuki's teabag out onto a saucer, before her own. "That Sakura and Ino went on. Where the injury happened."
Mebuki blew on her tea, but wouldn't meet Satsuki's eyes. "It was a mission to retrieve Naruto-kun."
Sakura, who hated Naruto, on a mission to retrieve him? And a mysterious injury?
"It was?"
Mebuki nodded. "It was the two of them, and two other ninja who I didn't know. I saw one of them, the tall man with the dark eyes, at the hospital leaving flowers for her a couple of times. Yamato-san, I think."
Satsuki sipped at her tea, thinking hard.
Was it possible Naruto had injured her somehow, to make her forget about her grudge? That seemed unlikely. Injuring someone to induce amnesia could just as easily kill them. Sure, Naruto was an idiot, but hitting someone over the head and hoping they forgot? Surely he'd be better to just to kill them outright. Maybe he'd tried to kill her.
But Naruto, trying to kill Sakura? Was he so far gone?
She shook off the thought.
It could be a genjutsu, Satsuki thought. Orochimaru commanded a massive number of jutsu. Hypnosis seals were used in the Sunagakure's Chuunin Exams, able to knock people out for a precise number of days. Could it be a sophisticated use of that? It seemed like a stretch. If Orochimaru knew how to do that jutsu, would he have bothered with the cursed seal in his attempts to get her Sharingan?
And Naruto had been terrible at genjutsu.
But it also seemed a stretch that such an injury could cause such a particular, and convenient - especially for Naruto - amnesia. It couldn't be a coincidence.
"I see," she said at last. "Did Sakura… did she say anything about Naruto? In general?"
Mebuki shook her head, looking forlorn. "No. Sakura never talked about him ever again once he left. I think that hurt was why she changed."
She put her head in her hands a moment, breathing deeply before pulling herself together again. "Sometimes, I tried to bring it up to her. Talk to her about it. I thought I might be able to do something for her."
"You can guess how that went," she said, laughing bitterly. "The first time, she broke a glass. The second time, she broke a plate. But the third time, I tried to suggest therapy. I thought that this Naruto-kun thing was at the core of why she changed, and I said maybe she should see a professional about it. You know, a therapist. That it didn't reflect on her that he went, and that she was a good person, and she shouldn't let it ruin her life."
Mebuki wiped her eyes, taking a deep breath in through her nose and meeting Satsuki's eyes again. "It was wrong of me, the way I brought it up. I can see how it upset her. I think she felt as though… as though I was holding it over her. But that time, Sakura hit me."
All the noises around her seemed to hit her at once then. Birds. People talking outside. Mebuki's breath. White noise had become cacophony.
"Hit you?" Satsuki repeated.
"Yes," she whispered. "She hit me. Just… slapped me. I was speechless. I never brought it up again. We didn't really speak after that. I think she regretted it, but she didn't apologise either."
Satsuki was speechless.
"Mebuki," she whispered. "That's horrible."
Mebuki stared into her tea.
"I'm sorry for asking about all of this," Satsuki apologised, feeling dumbfounded, the hot ceramic feeling like fevered flesh between her hands. "I know this must be difficult for you."
"It was a hard time," agreed Mebuki. But she lifted her face with a smile, breathing deeply. "But for now, it's over. I have my Sakura back, if just for a little while."
Satsuki nodded, drinking the last of her tea. "Thank you, Mebuki."
"But Satsuki-san, I do have a request," she said to Satsuki, as she rinsed the cup of its last dredges in the sink.
Satsuki rinsed her mug under the tap, soaping the edges gently with a soaped sponge. "What is it?"
"If Sakura recovers her memory," she said quietly, "When she does. Please help me with her. I don't think she will listen to me."
"I promise, Mebuki. I'll keep her safe with everything I can."
It was in a daze that Satsuki returned home after that. She'd come back briefly to put her plant away, and now her thoughts wandered. She'd planned to train before that conversation, but now that seemed impossible. She headed up the stairs to her apartment, thoughts mulling over the past like hands over dough.
There was a note on the door.
Home today. You weren't home, so going to Tsunade. Come to my apartment after D rank tomorrow. Dinner with me and Sakura.
News about Naruto. Not urgent. DO NOT COME WAKE ME UP. I am sleeping. Gai will find me. I need sleep. Come after the D-rank.
- Kakashi.
Satsuki stared at the note for a while, clasping that piece of paper between her fingers in front of her door until it felt like the last scrap of clothing from the dead.
Tarou plucked a rooted tuft of weeds from the ground, looking with almost concern over at his teacher. Even Ashi was perturbed.
"Hey," Ashi whispered to Hanabi beside him. "Don't you think Satsuki-sensei is being… a little weird?"
Hanabi watched Satsuki uproot another huge hunks of grass with both hands, her nails buried with dirt.
"A little?" she muttered. "She didn't help at all with this before. And she got here early."
"Stop talking and pull more weeds, Hanabi." Satsuki's sharp tone was like a smack to the head, and Tarou buried himself in the task once again, only sneaking a glance once Satsuki had set herself about the task again. Hanabi scowled, digging her pristine hands into the muck with renewed irritation.
"Yeah," he murmured. "Maybe she has a date?"
Hanabi had to stifle a laugh. "Satsuki-sensei? A date? With who?"
Ashi sat on her haunches, blinking. "Who wouldn't go on a date with Satsuki-sensei?"
"Me." Hanabi launched another weed clogged with dirt into the basket.
"Why not?"
"She's a complete bitch, she always looks angry, and plus, she's a girl."
"But girls are prettier..."
Tarou let himself grin. "I'm with Ashi-san there. Girls are prettier."
"If you three don't start working, I'm going to make you pay the bill for the other night."
"Yes ma'am!" Ashi squeaked, grabbing thick chunks of dry soil with both hands and launching them into the basket.
When Satsuki rapped on Kakashi's door, she expected him to be deep in sleep because of how early she was, but he opened the door fully dressed. She blinked.
"Kakashi, it's been a long time," she said, allowing herself just the tiniest curl of a smile.
He waved, smiling. "Satsuki. I see you don't have a tan."
"And I see you're still wearing a mask."
Kakashi rubbed his head, chuckling a little. "That's fair."
"No sleep?"
"A little," he shrugged, putting on his sandals. "I never sleep well after long reconnaissance missions. I get too sensitive to everyday noise outside."
Satsuki nodded, putting her hands in her pockets. She'd dressed for dinner, but after she'd gone home to slam down the vase and had that harrowing discussion with Sakura's mother, she couldn't bring herself to care much about how she dressed. No shinobi gear, she decided, but an all black outfit with long sleeves and pants was as good as it was going to get.
"So what's the news about Naruto?" she asked, pushing forward.
"I need to tell you and Sakura both, I think. So I was going to wait until the dinner."
Strangely, being told it wasn't urgent didn't feel particularly good. Satsuki had a feeling it might be urgent, but that she wasn't going to have any say in what happened.
"Tsunade-sama said she'd let Sakura know about our dinner plan," Kakashi went on, looking for his keys. "I told her to meet us at that old foreign restaurant. Do you remember it?"
"No."
"The one you and Naruto got us blacklisted from?"
Satsuki rolled her eyes. "You mean the one where you ripped us off for fancy wine?"
"I recall nothing of the sort."
She sighed, leaning against the doorframe as Kakashi grabbed his keys and money, before he paused to look at her.
"What?" she said. "You think they'll recognise me?"
He shook his head, smiling just a little. "Not a chance. You look so mature."
Satsuki felt something warm wrap around her heart, and she shook it off.
"Whatever, old man. You look the same."
"Ah, but I see on the inside…"
It was an unusual heat for a spring day in Konoha. Satsuki hadn't known the heat to set in so quick, but maybe the sun of Suna had made her memories wistful.
"Almost feels nostalgic," Kakashi said, hands in his pockets as they strode down a narrow lane. "But I was here just a while ago. I've gotten tired of campfire food."
Satsuki ran her fingers over a loose coin in her pocket. The edge, the face, the nicks and carvings. "Hey. Kakashi."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"
"I spoke to Mebuki," she said. "Sakura's mother."
"How is she?"
"Not good." Edge. Face. Shapes. She met Kakashi's eyes, stopping in the middle of the walk, and he stopped too, a couple seconds late. "I need to ask you about that."
He tilted his head. "I got the impression you were in a rush to hear about Naruto."
Edge. Face. Shape. She sighed. "I am. But you said that wasn't urgent."
Kakashi nodded. "You're right. Let me buy some fruit while we talk then. I'm starving."
He ducked toward a small shop, and Satsuki sighed, tossing the coin from her pocket to him. Her fingers smelled like iron. "We ate earlier, didn't we?"
"Well, we're supposed to eat three times a day, you know."
She rolled her eyes as he passed it off for a couple apples, tossing her one. She rubbed it against her shirt; it was red, his was green. Good. She wasn't fond of the sweet ones.
As they slunk by the side of the shop into the shade of the midday sun, Satsuki turned away from Kakashi so he could eat undisturbed.
"Is it about before the memory loss?"
"Yeah."
"I'm more curious about why the memory loss happened, myself," Kakashi hummed. He dug into the apple again with a crisp bite. "But go on."
Satsuki bit into hers. Nicer than she remembered. She stopped, swallowing. "How would you have described her?"
"Before?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm." He swallowed. "She didn't speak to me very much. Very engaged in her work. Even in her free time, I could rarely find her."
"Thought you were a ninja."
"Well, I'm not going to conduct espionage on a friend. She wasn't suspicious, just… not like herself at all."
"How?"
Kakashi stopped, chewing. "Cold. Focused. No time for fun. Barely any time for food, it always seemed. Like you." He swallowed. "Between my missions and hers, not to mention her hospital shifts, I barely saw her. She spent some time with Ino, I think because they worked at the hospital together."
"I didn't think there was much to it," Satsuki admitted. "But after speaking with Mebuki, Sakura sounds like she was acting… really strange."
"Huh."
"Mebuki sounded like she was frightened of her," Satsuki murmured. "She was genuinely grateful for Sakura's amnesia. Said she was happy to have her daughter back."
"Cold."
"I don't think so." Satsuki looked at the apple. One side was eaten, the other was still there. She saw the soft yellow-green around the core. Pips just under the flesh, like blood under the nail. "I think she was genuinely frightened of Sakura. Said Sakura treated her badly. Yelling. Even hit her once."
Satsuki expected something other than the long silence she got from Kakashi. He finished the apple.
"That doesn't surprise me," he said at last. "When I did see her, she was almost spiritless. Didn't talk about you, even. There was a lot of her talking about training, new medical jutsu. She wasn't very nostalgic."
Satsuki bit into the other half of the apple, finding its taste dull again.
"Sorry to disappoint you. She ignored me as much as anyone. Ino would be your best bet, I imagine."
"I'll have to try her again," Satsuki said, swallowing. Felt like mush. "And whoever she was training with."
"I think Ino would know about that too." Kakashi took a last bite. "Come on. We'll be late."
They turned up on time, but Sakura had turned up early, fiddling anxiously outside of the restaurant.
Seeing her again, cooler this time, Satsuki realised how truly odd Sakura seemed. She was clearly a honed ninja: she had new scars around her ankles and arms, many little nicks of white hardened skin; she was thinner, taller, and stronger; but she held herself like she had when Satsuki had left. Nothing about her was more comfortable in herself, nothing about her seemed more confident, more focused. How had she come to be in that body, with careless scars and jagged nails, but she still brushed dust off her pants and fiddled with her skirt? No confidence, no ease, no precision. It was jarring. Satsuki should have noticed.
But she hadn't, she thought bitterly. Anger did that to her: made her a full-blown idiot.
"I'm sorry," she said, starting with the hard bit. "I'm sorry about the other morning. I was wrong to throw you out like that."
Sakura started at her abrupt speech, before laughing a little and scratching the side of her face anxiously. It had been that way before. She'd laugh, smile, even when Satsuki visibly hurt her feelings. "It's okay. Thank you for the flowers... they were really beautiful."
Kakashi lifted a hand. "Yo. It's been a while, Sakura."
Sakura looked awkward, but laughed anyway, scratching her face. "Has it? Well… nice to see you, Kakashi-sensei."
"Did you hear from Tsunade-sama what I wanted to talk about?" Kakashi asked, opening the front door.
"No… is it important?" Sakura tilted her head.
"A little. Let's sit first."
It was that fancy restaurant, called Issho ni - together - and it was a foreign style of restaurant called a bistro, originating from a distant Northern stretch in the Land of Lightning. The one they'd gone to with Naruto.
"Hey," Sakura frowned, looking around as an aproned waiter seated them in a leather-seated booth. "Have we…?"
"Yes," Satsuki nodded, shuffling to the end so Kakashi could sit beside her. "When you were staying with me, four years ago, we came here. So you remember that?"
Sakura nodded, frowning. "Naruto was… sick, then."
Satsuki watched carefully for her expression, but opened her menu to look.
Kakashi hummed. "Yes. He was. So, I suppose you remember that far back?"
Sakura looked thoughtful as she opened her own menu.
"I was staying at your apartment away from my family, because me and my mother were arguing," Sakura said, thinking with her hand beneath her chin and her short, jagged nails tapping softly on the leather menu cover. "Naruto was really freaked out by Gaara, but he encouraged Hinata-san into the fight, and then she… was killed. Neji-kun blamed him for it afterwards… and Naruto had a breakdown. Kakashi-sensei had to knock him out."
Satsuki nodded. She'd thought about that time in her life a lot in Sunagakure, long days of training in the hot desert or cold icy nights, and yet it still brought her pain to think of how Naruto had deteriorated.
In hindsight, it felt so preventable. But none of them had really understood the depth of his desperation. Not until it had been too late.
"So after Naruto disappeared into training for a while after that, and then we came here for dinner." Sakura looked around at the decor. "He was really thin. Even though he'd trained a lot, he looked a lot skinnier."
Satsuki nodded. Sakura's face, as far as she could see, didn't betray any anger, just confusion. It seemed genuine. 'But I didn't understand Naruto's real state of mind, either,' she thought bitterly. 'How would I know what she's thinking?'
"Yeah." Kakashi scanned the menu. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"The Konoha Crush," said Sakura. "I don't remember you and Naruto fighting Gaara, I just remember the stuff before. I fought Gaara, I remember, but the rest Ino told me about."
"Up until the Konoha Crush," Satsuki repeated to herself. "That's… odd."
"Yeah," Sakura said, quiet. "It's strange. I feel like I'm dreaming. Everything's so different, but it's so familiar."
Kakashi nodded. "I can imagine. It must feel very unusual."
Satsuki ran through the details again in her mind. It was ridiculous, but what kind of scam would this be? Sakura surely didn't gain anything from pretending.
But how was this possibly the same girl who had apparently hit her own mother in rage?
"Last time we were here, Kakashi bought the most expensive wine on the menu." Satsuki gave Kakashi a hard look. Same pinot noir right at the bottom of the page.
"Strange," Kakashi hummed. "I remember you and Naruto getting us thrown out."
Sakura folded her arms, huffing. "That was super embarrassing. The way you two fought was the worst."
Satsuki resisted the urge to huff, turning up her chin. "Evidently, they aren't that dedicated to their blacklist."
"You're four years older." Sakura rolled her eyes, smiling a little. "It's no wonder they don't recognise you, Satsuki-san."
The waiter arrived, holding a notepad to his chest. "Are you ready to order?"
Sakura quickly bowed her head, looking anxiously at the menu.
There really wasn't anything more mature about her, Satsuki thought. She was stronger, harsher, maybe a little prettier, but this anxiety, this naïveté was all the same. Satsuki looked at the menu herself. She hadn't even really considered anything.
"Could we just get some dango, please?" Kakashi cut in, closing his menu with a soft smile. "We might get something else later."
Satsuki saw a distinctive twinkle in Sakura's eyes as the waiter bowed and headed away. "This is a Land of Lightning style restaurant, right? Dango? And sweets to start?" Sakura said, looking a little scandalised but smiling a little. "Doesn't Satsuki-san not like sweets?"
"Sorry," said Kakashi.
"I'll live," Satsuki said. "Maybe I'll get steak."
Sakura smiled. "Hey… Satsuki-san, I actually wanted to ask about your time in Suna. How was it?"
Satsuki looked thoughtful, sitting back. "I liked it," she said, finally. "I had a couple great teachers while I was there."
"How was Gaara?" Sakura asked, coughing a little. "I um, last time I saw him he was pretty… well. Gaara. He killed Hinata-san, and… you know. The Konoha Crush."
Satsuki smiled a little. "Ah. Gaara's the Kazekage now."
Sakura's jaw dropped. "You're lying!"
"Not at all," Kakashi smiled, shaking his head. "It's the truth."
Satsuki nodded. "It helps that as far as the village goes, his abilities are unbeatable. Sunagakure always had problems with resources and poverty before he came in, but he actually expanded the city. Using his sand, he expanded Sunagakure's border by miles, and then he built a lot of housing. And when he used his sand to drill beneath Sunagakure, he found a lot of valuable natural resources. It brought the village into a lot more prosperity, which is why they've started holding Chuunin Exams more. The elders who temporarily held the position felt he was a better fit, and that was that."
Sakura stared. "Wow," she said, stunned. "I guess that is hard to beat, huh? Was your training good? I heard that Suna did it to reward you for the... the cursed seal you got, right?"
"Temari promised me experts, and experts I got," Satsuki admitted. "I trained under a fans expert, and a dual-wielding expert as well. They were gruelling teachers."
"More gruelling than me?" Kakashi feigned shock.
Satsuki smirked. "Not a high bar, but yes."
"Cruel."
"I thought Kakashi-sensei was hard until I trained under Anko-sensei," Sakura nodded. "She tried to kill me so much."
"So who taught you? Would I know them?"
"The Sand's Left and the Sand's Right."
"Ah. Titles?"
Satsuki nodded. "They use titles a lot there."
"Any name I'd recognise?" Kakashi asked.
"I heard Gaara refer to the Sand's Left as Ameyuri once. I couldn't guess for the Sand's Right."
The dango came, and Sakura's eyes lit up. "Can I have the stick you were gonna have?"
"Sure."
She didn't hesitate. Kakashi took one too, levelling a curious look at Satsuki. "Ameyuri? What kind of weapons did she have?"
"He," she corrected, taking a sip herself. "And two lightning blades. Kiba, they were called."
"That's almost certainly Ameyuri Ringo, one of the Seven Swordsmen," Kakashi said, mouth full of a speedily devoured dango. "I was sure that was the woman of the group that I knew, who wielded as you say, lightning blades."
"Wasn't a woman," Satsuki shrugged. "I never heard anybody in Sunagakure doubt that. Red hair, sharpened teeth, dark eyes. Definitely the right person?"
"Sounds like the right person," Kakashi confirmed, leaning down to stash away another dango once more. She looked away again. "How odd."
"You got taught by one of the Seven Swordsmen?" Sakura gushed, looking a little dazzled with her mouth full of dango. "Like Zabuza? You must be even stronger now, Satsuki-san!"
Satsuki looked away. Kakashi took the cue.
"And how was the Sand's Right?"
"Taught me a lot about fans, but everything about wielding two weapons deftly I learned from the Sand's Left." She looked at the menu for steaks. The dango was far too sweet for her. "A lot of the jutsu with the fans involved wind, which I can't use, but he taught me a lot about how I could incorporate other tactics into my tessenjutsu. But the fans they use are bigger than mine. Made of really hard wood from the Iwa border."
"You're being very secretive, Satsuki-san," Sakura pouted, polishing off the stick.
"You'll see it all eventually."
When the waiter came, she ordered sirloin rare, Kakashi ordered the same but well-done; and Sakura ordered pork chops.
Satsuki handed the menu back to the waiter. "So what about you, Kakashi?"
"I've been out hunting the Akatsuki," he said. The name brought a sharp, painful reminder. Satsuki always surprised herself with how sore those memories could be. "I've been trying to find information for Tsunade-sama so we can figure out their next move. I came back as soon as I heard about Suna."
Satsuki sighed, remembering the incident with clarity. "That was dire."
"How so? I heard it turned out quite well."
Sakura turned her head. "The attack on Gaara?"
"He survived, after all," Kakashi nodded. "I heard you were instrumental, Satsuki."
Satsuki looked away. She could smell that steak cooking. The pork, too.
"But you know what it means," she said, steeling herself a little.
Kakashi nodded, but Sakura looked thrown, looking back and forth.
"Well," Kakashi said, "That brings me to what I wanted to talk about."
Satsuki felt something heavy in her stomach, settling, rolling over and over, like a gelatinous stone.
She tried to steel herself. "What is it?" she got out.
How did he still have that power over her? She'd trained a long time without him, without thoughts of Itachi. She hated this.
The steak came, but she couldn't bring herself to be excited. It was smeared with charred peppercorn, bloody red tissue spattering with fat at the edges, but her hunger had gone for the moment.
"I'll start with the good news." Kakashi put his steak aside for a moment. "It appears that Orochimaru is dead."
Sakura blinked.
Satsuki's heart skipped, and she felt strange, light-headed, in disbelief. "Dead?" she repeated.
"Dead," said Kakashi, letting himself grin. "And, yes. It seems Naruto may have been the one to do him in."
Satsuki, despite herself, despite everything, felt the poison of the cursed seal turn to ash at the words. Everything felt lighter. She stared, her mind ran the words over and over, and still they remained. Orochimaru was dead.
And she laughed, a thing with all teeth, a grin she knew cut through everything she'd cultivated about herself.
"How? What happened?" Sakura asked, gaping. "How did Naruto- I mean, it's Orochimaru, right? He killed the Third, right?"
"Well, we don't have all the details," Kakashi admitted, crossing his arms and leaning back. "And the reports are mixed. Some prisoners told sources that Yakushi Kabuto, Orochimaru's longtime assistant and spy, released them from their cells without warning just as Orochimaru's transfer was supposed to take place. But Naruto was seen outside the base as it… well, blew up."
Satsuki's eyes widened, incredulous. "Blew up?"
"Blew up," Kakashi confirmed. "Blew it sky high, apparently. Every report confirms that there were fireworks."
Sakura looked exasperated. "That had to be him..."
But Satsuki was barely able to contain herself, a smile unlike her on her cheeks. "Definitely," she breathed, laughing a little still. "No other idiot would make such a scene of killing someone."
Kakashi chuckled. "I'm inclined to say the same. But, before I say anything else, we'd better eat. It'll get cold."
They dug in, and Satsuki knew they were revelling in a silent celebration of teeth, meat and steel. Satsuki tore into her steak with the knife, tearing it tendon by tendon with the fork, the fat and the blood seeping onto the plate but never mixing, pond within pool and peppercorns like stepping stones.
The feeling of blood spurting from the flesh, dripping through her teeth, the sharpness, the heat, and the aftertaste of violence was so satisfying, it squandered every other food she'd eaten in her life. And that included tomatoes.
"I wanna rent a boat," whined Naruto.
Juugo gave him a hard look. "You were the one who got an organisation on us, short orange. Besides, it's a waste of money. We can walk."
Naruto crossed his arms. "Look though! The waves are choppy, and the water's gonna feel super different and hard to stay on compared to like, a river. Wouldn't it be better to pay for a rowboat or something?"
Kimimaro sighed, opening his paper umbrella as it began to rain just a touch. "It's better no one speaks with us." Though if he was honest with himself, he was no keener. The waves looked harsh.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "But what about the prisoners? How are we gonna get them off the island without a boat?"
Juugo looked thoughtful as he tread onto the beach. His bulk meant his steps left great imprints in the sand, feet sinking into the ground. "Well," he said, "I think there must be a boat there. I doubt they're bringing every prisoner back and forth on a rowboat."
"Yeah… I guess," Naruto said, cracking his shoulders. "Man, these waves look rough. Let's get it over with, then."
It took Naruto a couple of falls to get across the water, and it wasn't because he was bad at it either: the waves meant your feet could easily slip under if you didn't move with the motion. Still, it was better than swimming.
They trekked across the water with no small amount of difficulty to the South Base, and when they finally pulled ashore, Naruto wrung out his pants a little.
Kimimaro also squeezed some seawater out of his yukata, looking unhappy. Naruto shared the feeling: the weather was overcast, and it was neither hot nor cool, a very light dusting of rain spitting down. With the seawater though, he was definitely cold.
The South Base was, as it had been in the maps, on the water. It wasn't entirely apparent from a distance what it was - it sort of looked just like a large chunk of rock; but it had an entrance, and appeared to dip underground.
"So what's the plan?" Naruto said, squeezing out his orange half-yukata. "If I release everyone and there's no way off the island, I bet they'll try to swim. The weather's not good. I bet lots of people will just drown, especially if it really starts coming down."
Kimimaro nodded. "It'd be best for us to find a boat or a way off first. Orochimaru-sama likely had something he used."
"Okay, so I'm gonna transform into Kabuto." Naruto made the hand sign, and a plume of smoke passed through his now silvery hair. "What are you guys gonna do?"
"I suppose Kabuto is the better option." Juugo mulled it over. "We could stay as ourselves and ask Karin where the way off is with you. I'm not sure how well ransacking this place will go with her here."
"Is she strong?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.
"Not sure, but she has a lot of sway. People here are genuinely very scared of her."
Naruto's face dropped. "Man, I was kinda hoping for someone really nice to be my cousin. Is she cute?"
Kimimaro gave him a look of disdain. "She wouldn't be in charge of this base if she was nice. And personally, I find her creepy. Her red eyes and hair make her look like a demon."
"You fight with your bones, some people might think you're creepy too," Naruto said absent-mindedly, humming thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sure she has good points and bad points."
Juugo gave Kimimaro a look.
"So stay by my side, and we'll find this Karin person," Naruto said, putting his Kabuto hands proudly onto his Kabuto hips.
Kimimaro frowned. The look wasn't quite right. "You've forgotten his glasses."
"Ah, shit. One sec." He rooted in his bag, pulling out some shattered spectacles and proudly placing them on. "Okay, I'm ready."
"What are those?" asked Juugo, frowning.
"Just a keepsake! So stay a couple feet behind me and look like goons. We're gonna say Orochimaru is dead and we're looking to transfer these prisoners elsewhere."
"So no burning," Kimimaro warned.
"For now!" Naruto sang, heading into the base.
Karin was hungry.
She missed fire, too, she thought absent-mindedly. In her hometown, there'd been so much fire. Fire in the town pit: fire in the home. It was that smoke that made her so hungry for something: the charcoal, the twang of burning wood, the acrid way it clung to her hair. Ash.
Orochimaru had no taste for fire, which she understood. It was a fast track to a disaster to have an open fire in a closed underground space. Even so, she longed for twigs and wood and coal, buried in the ground and heating her hands. Meat on an open fire had that perfect taste.
She thumbed a bite mark on her arm, feeling the gentle depths where it plunged deep, the deep pencil-prick of a canine. These days, it felt like the scars and the bite marks were a calendar. In this lightless, fireless place, she barely noticed the passage of time at all. Not that she had in the past few years anyway.
She closed her eyes, listening to burble of chakra in the base and leaning across her desk.
Prisoners clustered like flowers all around, she could feel that. Rats. She felt those too. She could smell damp. In the water around the base, there was a school of fish, flitting. An octopus sucked itself to the rocks. And…
Huh.
Karin's eyes snapped open.
One… two… three… ah, they were familiar. The sharp one that sat on the tongue like salt, that was Juugo. Then there was the soft peppermint of Kimimaro, who sometimes smelled like septic and hospital beds; and there was someone she did not know the name of, but she'd smelled him before. Sun, umami, hot soup, iron. He had a heat in him, a foul stinking beast: the Nine Tails, a familiar foulness.
Karin drew back, shaking her head. No… there was more.
One, two, three… four… five? She breathed in deeply.
The sea. Distinctly the sea. That chakra was huge, sprawling, burbling, froth and salt. Then there was something slight beside it: nothing more than an undertone… leaves. Tea. The smell of hot water…
Close.
Pap, pap. They were knocking on the door to her office.
Did death still have that kind of courtesy? "Come in."
The door opened, allowing the candle light of the hall to pour in. The one of the sea, the one of leaves and tea, stood tall.
"Yes?" she said, feeling a little bored.
The one of the sea grinned at her. "Karin, is it?"
Karin shrugged. "Sometimes."
Satsuki finished first, and she mopped the blood that had trailed unbidden from her lips. The napkin was black, and the darkness soaked the red right up.
After Sakura had finally eaten the last strip of pork, the waiter came and cleaned up the plates, and Kakashi leaned forward.
"Now," he said. "The bad news. Konoha does have another issue here."
Satsuki knew that it was going to be this.
"That he's not here?" Sakura asked, tilting her head. "Is it possible he just hasn't gotten here yet?"
"That's the issue," nodded Kakashi. "Naruto burning other bases inclines Konoha to believe he's probably trying to erase all of Orochimaru's work, so it's possible that he may come back when he's finished the job. But it's possible he won't, and even if he does, for that time he's made himself a very visible Akatsuki target and he's completely exposed. If Akatsuki know where the bases are, then worst case scenario is that they may even trap him."
"Then we have to help, right?" offered Sakura, her eyes twinkling, both hands on the table.
"I don't think we can." Kakashi shook his head. "We don't know where the bases are, for one. Every base we knew about he's already burned, but there's likely more. But even so, Naruto is not part of Konohagakure right now. He's a nukenin. There's a decent chance he won't allow us to help him, and the Hokage is not going to understand any incentive to protect him."
Satsuki felt a little sick. The red of the restaurant felt abruptly stagnant, like it would soon dry into brown blood.
"But Naruto's our friend," Sakura reasoned, hopefulness across her face. "Surely Tsunade-sama will understand-"
"She won't," Satsuki said, her chest twisting with it as she shook her head. Sakura looked at her, hurt in her eyes. "There isn't a chance in hell she'll let us go."
Sakura looked to Kakashi, who nodded, quietly. The waiter brought the bill.
"Tsunade-sama isn't going to send her best ninja to go help Naruto, who tried to kill you both," Kakashi sighed. "Especially after she sent out that retrieval mission that failed, and lost her student's memory to it."
He slipped some notes into the clip on the bill, calling the waiter back. Satsuki grabbed his arm.
"Let me pay," she said.
"No," Kakashi shook his head. "Let me pay so I can feel better about the bad news."
She sat back, and he slumped into his seat as the waiter took it. He exhaled deeply, exhaustion written around his eyes. "I don't feel great about it. I tried to ask her as a favour, because... I owe Naruto that much, but she was very firm about Konoha's tenuous position in the Five Nations."
Sakura blinked. "What position?"
"We have no bijuu," Kakashi said, massaging his temples. "After the invasion, our treaty with Suna was one of our only saving graces, and thankfully, Tsunade-sama's return. Our jinchuuriki is out burning Orochimaru's bases. If Naruto wasn't in their Bingo Books yet, he is now. Everyone will have seen what he's doing, but if we go out and try to regain him, we don't just risk losing more valuable ninja, but the fact that we are so desperate to regain his power might make Konoha look weak."
The air was palpable as the waiter came back to try and return Kakashi's change, which he waved off.
"So what?" Satsuki said, bitter. "What do we do?"
"We wait."
Naruto admitted that if burning bases gave him a high, then it might have been dwindling with every moment of Orochimaru's stagnant legacy. What had he expected? Fireworks?
Well. He'd provided those, but it didn't feel like people were celebrating like they should have been. And he didn't feel better about Konoha. Not about the dead, or Satsu- the people he'd left behind.
Was there something more immediate to be had? Of course. Naruto was a professional at occupying himself with the here-and-now. He pulled his Kabuto face together. It was hard not to parody him. God, he fucking hated that guy. Good riddance.
"Kimimaro-kun," he drawled, turning to Kimimaro, who looked a little disgusted. "Where is Karin-san?"
Kimimaro gave him a look of pure disdain. "I don't know, Kabuto."
Juugo shrugged too, and he strode down the halls, crowds of shuddering eyes from the cells within. The people here seemed more scared than average.
Undeterred, he checked room after room with the two, but found nothing. The last one even seemed to be a managerial office filled with records, which he sealed away (but of course!). Still.
Juugo peered around. "Where is she?"
"Maybe she's seeing to some other operation," Kabuto mused. before letting his sliminess wash away from him and cackling full force. "Man, fuck it! You guys go unlock all the cells."
"What about the keys?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Kimimaro, you got that bone whip, right? Just get the locks open! I'm tired of waiting for her."
"It's my spine," Kimimaro said, looking a little miffed. "And don't be stupid. Karin is probably here somewhere, and when she sees us unlocking cells she's going to be angry. We still don't have the boat, and not to mention I still don't know how you're planning to convince her to listen to you about anything."
Naruto rolled his spectacled eyes, and spawned a clone. This one transformed into Kabuto, with spectacles of his own. Crack too, though. "Take him, then. Go have one last look for her. Maybe ask the prisoners? I dunno."
"Where are you going?" Juugo frowned.
"I'm gonna check around here a couple more times," he mused, looking around the room. "Just for anything important. Then I'm gonna head outside to look for that boat. I reckon it's gonna be hidden somewhere out there."
Kimimaro headed out, with Juugo in tow. "Do not burn the base."
"Hey, hey! Would old Kabuto ever burn his favourite goons? Hey. Oi. Don't just leave-"
He'd ransacked a lot of rooms full of research but no Karin, before he eventually surfaced from the base. He did find a sort of sub-manager, who didn't have much to offer to him bar squeaks and progress reports, until eventually Naruto surfaced from the base, embedded in his thoughts.
The sun had come out; the waves were settling, and only a little spittle still from the clouds. A rainbow diffused faintly across the glare.
As he stepped out of the doors and onto the craggy rock, he gave himself a moment to focus, and saw red.
Was that Karin?
Her eyes and hair were shocking to the sight. In that warm sun, they looked like cold fire, hot and blinding at those sun-dazzled edges. Her eyes were vacant, and she didn't squint at the light.
"Karin-san," he called out, trying to keep the Kabuto mask on. "I've been looking for you."
She was stood — a little unsteadily now he looked — among the bumpy rocks, looking right through him. She said nothing, lips apart. One of her fingers twitched.
"Karin?" he said again, a strange feeling setting in his stomach. But then it clicked.
Ah. If it was who he thought it was...
"Uzumaki Naruto."
That cold timbre brought memories of weakness rushing through him like electricity. He let the mask melt away into clean smoke, tossing his glasses onto the rocks and reaching into his yukata.
"Yeah."
The clouds were slipping apart, the sun was bright upon the water.
"You already understand why we're here," Uchiha Itachi said. "Come quietly."
He didn't meet Itachi's eyes this time, but caught a glimpse of Kisame's sharp smirk. His sword looked fitful under its bindings.
Naruto pulled out his trench knives, channeling crisp wind chakra down their lengths that made the steel sing. He snapped them to his front.
"To be honest," Naruto grinned bitterly, feeling the level hum of the wind chakra across the sheen as he lowered his weight, "That's not really one of my strong points."
A/N: I like my steak medium-rare, and to be honest, if I keep the lights low, rare is about perfect. How about all of you?
If I've already asked that, my question concerns double rainbows. Have you ever seen one? Please explain.