AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
Proofread by: Author
Apologies for the chapter being about an hour late. I kept getting distracted while writing it.
So, now here we are, about to discover what Sakura and Heikō missed going on in Konoha while they were away. Are you able to guess?
Chapter 109: While you were away, are you to blame?
As they were finally permitted to leave when the conversation changed towards Tsunade taking over as the Fifth Hokage, Sakura, and Naruto left the tower.
"So, what should we do now?" Naruto asked, looking over at Sakura, who simply shook her head.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but as much as I'd like to hang out, or go back with you to see Kakashi and Sasuke, I need to go see my parents. I'm certain they've been worried sick since my disappearance." Sakura pointed out, and Naruto nodded in understanding, resisting the urge to pout.
"Alright, see you later then. I'll see about finding the others. Perhaps we can all catch up over dinner or something." Naruto suggested, referring to the rookie nine who had all graduated to become Genin from their year in the Academy.
"That sounds like a good idea." Sakura agreed with a smile, before giving Naruto a lazy goodbye wave, as she turned around and leaped onto a nearby building, taking the quickest route back home across the rooftops.
"Mom, Dad?" Sakura called out as she stepped through the door to their apartment, kicking off her sandals and leaving them in the genkan. She noted that her father's sandals weren't present, but her mother's were.
"Sakura, Heikō?" Mebuki's voice came back in response before she glanced out into the hallway from the kitchen and smiled at her daughter. "How was your last mission? I heard it was urgent. I wish you could have told us when you left." Mebuki told her with a sad sigh, while Sakura and Heikō froze where they stood. Did their parents not know what had happened?
"Um, yeah, right," Sakura answered, unsure of how to breach the subject.
"They didn't tell them?!" Heikō demanded to know, outraged within their mindscape, determined to march right back to the Hokage's tower and demand an explanation.
"It… actually makes sense." Sakura stopped her, before explaining. "Our parents are civilians, and when we disappeared, they didn't actually know what happened to us. Because they kept it secret, they kept the news from spreading, which is a good thing, considering the entire mess is now linked to an S-ranked secret." Sakura pointed out, although she wasn't happy with it either. Thankfully, her reasoning did calm Heikō down.
"What did they tell you?" Sakura asked their mother, wondering how much she could actually tell them. She didn't want to endanger either herself or them by revealing an S-ranked secret, but she had expected and yearned for some comfort and reassurance from her loving parents, and so had Heikō. This meant that they had now been left wanting and disappointed.
"Nothing, besides your mission being time-critical, information-sensitive, and that your specific skills had been required, which was why you had been sent out as soon as you recovered," Mebuki explained, before coming over to hug them.
Sakura returned the hug wholeheartedly, which made her and Heikō feel better but seemed to worry their mother.
"What is it you two? Was the mission that bad?" She asked them, probing.
"I-it was demanding, and unpleasant," Sakura admitted, frowning to herself as she thought about the torture she had endured, the pain of the memory already fading as they had spent a lot of time processing it and picking it apart.
"You… you weren't forced to do something against your will, were you?" Mebuki asked, even more, worried now, holding onto Sakura and Heikō, tight.
"No, not the mission itself… but things didn't turn out as intended. Fortunately, I was able to turn things around. I can't really talk about it, because it has been classified as an S-ranked secret." Sakura admitted, which seemed to calm their mother somewhat, as her hug and posture softened and relaxed.
"I'm glad to hear that, and a little worried, but if you say you're alright, I believe you," Mebuki told her, before carefully letting her go. Sakura released her hug reluctantly.
"Yeah, it… it's fine now. I managed to do better than we did better than we expected from ourselves, and even helped Naruto with his mission as we ran into each other on the way back." Sakura explained, making Mebuki smile at the mention of the number one, knuckleheaded Shinobi, which they had been blessed with as a teammate before her smile fell.
"Have you visited Sasuke yet? I heard he ended up in the hospital after you left." Mebuki informed her, and Sakura nodded in confirmation.
"I did. Naruto informed me of what happened while I was away, and I've been told he should recover now that he's been treated. Naruto's mission with Jiraiya was to find and bring back Tsunade. She healed both Sasuke and Kakashi Sensei as soon as we returned." Sakura informed Mebuki, who looked relieved for Sasuke and Kakashi.
"I'm glad to hear that. I hadn't realized your Sensei had ended up in the hospital as well. There were a lot of rumors going on about what happened to Sasuke however. You wouldn't happen to know anything?" Mebuki asked, curious. Sakura decided to shake her head. Sasuke likely wouldn't appreciate her gossiping about what had happened.
"No, I don't." She lied, before following their mother into the kitchen to help her with preparing dinner, deciding that perhaps their first evening home should be spent with family, rather than friends, as she sent Naruto a mental apology.
Sakura looked at her closed fist in disappointment. Tsunade had finally shared the secret to her strength with her, and it was nothing like what Sakura and Heikō had imagined. They had assumed it would be some kind of full-body enhancement that increased the strength of the entire body. Turns out, Tsunade is just ridiculously strong as she is, and that her world-famous punches weren't enhanced in some revolutionary way using chakra, but used as they were, with an explosive addition of chakra fired from her fist with each swing.
It was a disappointment because it meant Sakura and Heikō had been completely wrong with all their theories as to what Tsunade's secret was, and how they could replicate it. Had they not been careful about experimenting with their chakra and body, they would have been able to test their theories out. As it stood, they couldn't even ask Tsunade to supervise them, as she was now kept busy at the hospital, as well as with the preparations of becoming the next Hokage. Her inauguration was scheduled to be in two days, and there was a lot of work to be done until then.
Sasuke and Kakashi had fortunately been discharged from the hospital, but Sakura had seen neither hide nor hair of either of them when she had gone looking for them. Something that had added to Sakura's and Heikō's annoyance with their lack of progress. Of course, they didn't actually have any trouble with learning Tsuande's technique, it just happened to be one they found they didn't particularly like.
The only limiting factor for the technique was how much chakra the user could handle to pour into it at once, without killing themselves in the process, and if they had no other choice, how much chakra they had. It required a ridiculous degree of chakra control to be able to use it quickly, or effectively, but it was a very uncomfortable double edge sword that could easily lead to them accidentally bursting one of their tenketsu open beyond repair. It was a weakness that didn't sit well with them, which was why they had hoped to practice some of their own theoretical versions of a body reinforcement technique that built on the concept that chakra already passively strengthened the body as it was. After all, if chakra could do it passively, what if someone used a technique to do so intentionally?
Sighing, Sakura laid down on the grass in front of training ground forty-four. They hadn't booked any training ground for use, so they had gone to the quietest place they could find, just outside of the one training ground they knew was practically never in use. However, while Sakura began gazing at the sky, ready to delve into a conversation with Heikō concerning their problem, a sudden shadow fell over them, and Sakura looked to the side to see a smiling Anko Mitarashi looking down at her.
"Anko?" Sakura asked in surprise before the Special Jōnin grabbed her by the shoulders and forced to stand up, before flicking their forehead.
"You're slacking, brats. With your sensory capabilities, you two shouldn't have missed me until I got this close. This is how you ended up kidnapped in the first place." Anko pointed out, making Sakura wince as she realized that Anko was most likely right. They had been slacking, letting them relax, and stopped using their long-range sensing abilities.
"We were relaxing." Sakura tried, rubbing her forehead while pouting slightly, while Anko chuckled.
"No excuses! Do you know how much trouble you caused me? I nearly lost my job and more." Anko informed them, making Sakura stare wide-eyed at Anko in surprise.
"Wait, what? H-how- Why?" Sakura demanded to know, to which Anko simply shook her head, somehow still looking amused and in good spirits despite what she had just revealed.
"Well, I say that, but it wasn't really your fault, was it brats? Still, since I was supposed to guard you, I got a lot of shit when you two disappeared without a trace. Heck, I was even accused of kidnapping you in service of Orochimaru." Anko informed them, not even attempting to hide her clear disdain for the man as she spat his name. "Going through T&I when you're the suspect is a lot less pleasant, I tell you. Fortunately, you didn't take too long to return. Congrats, by the way, good job escaping from Orochimaru. You're already stronger than I was at your age." Anko complimented them, although Sakura and Heikō were horrified, as they imagined what Anko had gone through because of them letting themselves be kidnapped.
"T-they thought you still worked for Orochimaru?" Sakura asked, deciding to instead be angry at whoever "they" were instead.
"Well, Danzo specifically. Damn asshole. Speaking of which, we might finally have something on him. We've found proof he might have been in contact with Orochimaru with the notes you brought back." Anko informed them, patting them on the back with a huge smile. "They're probably going after him as we speak, actually. I would have joined them, but I'm still recovering." Anko explained, making Sakura worry for her, wondering for a moment what Anko could be recovering from, only for Heikō to provide a most likely accurate assumption.
"Torture and Interrogation. Fuck, I feel bad about that." Heikō admitted, immediately reaching out as far as they could with their sensory abilities, without sacrificing their ability to focus on details, giving them a decent four-hundred and ninety-two feet radius. Sakura couldn't help but wonder if the torture Anko had gone through had been any worse than theirs.
"I… I'm sorry, w-we're-" Sakura began, only for Anko to frown and put a finger against their lips, while crouching down in front of her so that they were on eye-level with each other.
"Don't apologize. As I said, it wasn't your fault. It was Orochimaru's. He'll get what's coming to him, sooner or later." Anko assured them with a serious look. They could see in her gaze that she was serious and didn't blame them. "Besides, I'm used to not being trusted anyway. Nothing new, and torture isn't something I won't survive. They healed me up nicely once they confirmed my innocence, thanks for that by the way, and then Inochi was nice enough to remove my memory of the torture session they put me through." Anko explained with a shrug as she stood back up, making Sakura gape.
"They messed with your memories?!" Heikō shouted in disbelief, taking over for the moment, reflexively flipping their hair braid over to the other shoulder without even thinking about it.
Sighing, Anko looks them in the eyes again. "I asked them- no, as much as I hate to admit to it, I actually begged him to do it. There's a reason T&I isn't somewhere you wish to end up… Speaking of, considering what happened to you, it might not be a bad idea for you to go through a beginner's course on handling torture." Anko concluded while Heikō paled, and Sakura whimpered in the back of their mindscape, dreading whatever Anko had in mind.
AN: Yeah, unfortunately, Anko has pulled a very short stick in life. She has my sympathies. And Sakura's disappearance while under her watch, unfortunately, resulted in this.
Oh, and I will admit, before this chapter, I completely forgot to consider Anko and Karin, as well as how they would be affected by all this. I intend to include Karin in the next chapter. Fortunately, I remembered them both before it became too late.
Of course, Konohagakure would offer torture resistance training. Although it isn't normally offered to Genin… for good reason, I might add. As for what it entails, well, fortunately, no bodily harm. Unfortunately, humans can be tortured in a multitude of ways without bringing them any physical, or even psychological harm. It's a little sad how creative people once were when it came to being sadistic, isn't it?
