50. Wow, it's been a really long time since I got to write something casually and for fun. This holiday, I want to read more fanfiction myself, and writing goes along with it.
In these five months, thank you to the people who have come by (literally how did you find this fic when hadn't been updated in so long?)
To Nihil Asara: Actually, when you point that out, I think about it too. At that point, I hadn't considered something like that. But I guess my main thought was that, if he wanted to kill her to benefit, they would have done so. Not to mention, she didn't know Shikaku as well back then. As a writer, I planned this as a genfic, so I really didn't think about kids. If we ever get there, I'll remember your thoughts for Shikamaru :)
To Buggy (Guest): I think I was caught off guard by how unhappy you were haha, but that's alright. The main point was for them to realise that Sakura was not a child, and that they shouldn't be lowering their guard around her! If you read forward, I hope you enjoyed that Sakura had an increasingly more difficult time discerning the way her daily killers acted.
To FutureTrunksFan94: Thank you for the kind support, and no worries! I think negative reviews are a normal thing to get. I'm very glad for readers who actually look at other reviews and actively come out to support us – I can't believe that you found this story worth that extra effort.
To LeafLetters: HAHA well, that's definitely a complaint I've gotten a lot over the years. I hope that with time, it has gotten better (if you've managed to last it out through the next 15 chapters to get here?). This chapter in particular, is supposed to be a bit more straightforward. I hope you find a kindred spirit in Sasuke and Naruto over the chapters as they continue to wise up to Sakura's verbal tricks. The point, has always been, to not give the game away. I'm not sure I can add anything more to the logical disconnect point :') but I'll continue writing better.
To Rose Romanillos: Today I played the Noelle Hangout quest, and received a paper rose. That also reminds me a bit of Konan – just a bit of thing I thought of, seeing your name. Thank you for leaving a review, and as always, I hope this chapter is easier on the reading.
"But the meetings themselves are quite simple, aren't they, Sakura-nee? It seems to me all the past times that an agreement has been made behind the scenes. We only go there to vote."
Sakura hums, leaning back on the wall with the snacks between her and Sasuke. Both of them are relaxing in one of the Uchiha clan rooms as Naruto drags his huge brush from one end to the other, curving this way and that.
"The show is important. As much as you can hate this behind the scenes work and manipulation, it does get you places," and she says so with a smile.
Sasuke just frowns and takes another cookie. "A long time ago, I thought politics was for the weak. Speaking with words and dancing around one another without speaking clearly. If Tsunade-sama was strong, there would be no need for this, I've always felt."
"You say that like it's the past."
"I don't approve of it. And I don't like it when Sakura you manipulate us. But if the reason for that is our weakness, then I have to learn how to do that too. While we get stronger."
Naruto waves and Sakura reaches a hand out in his direction, a couple of her chains pulling water in through the window from Sasuke's backyard.
Their resident sealsmaster-in-training reconstitutes his dry ink powder with the water carrying her chakra signature. The sensitivity to her chakra will eventually be used in the seal, on top of Sasuke's and Itachi's, to ensure that just an Uchiha's chakra wouldn't be enough.
She turns back to Sasuke who follows the scroll Naruto drew out for them, as he infuses his chakra into various spots, the 'keyholes' as so defined.
"I wouldn't call it weakness. After all, political power is also strength, and in the eventual world where there are no wars, politics will be all that remains. I want you to be ready to use everything that you have at your disposal, Sasuke."
After the motion has Sasuke's open support, it is not difficult to get the rest of the clans to agree to catalogue their Kekkei Genkai. Sakura certainly likes to think that it is her influence, and the answer is somewhere there, since Hiashi-sama is the next person to agree.
Maybe it is his desire to actually reach a new breakthrough in Byakugan studies, or perhaps it is to not be outshone by the remnants of their once rival clan. He doesn't explain himself before throwing in his green tassel tag.
Once the two clans with the most restricted secrets agree to the motion, there isn't much that the other clans can say. Inuzuka-sama and Aburame-sama both comment in their own way that they doubt new progress will be made by outsiders.
Sakura knows for a fact that less progress will be made for clans which have always been open, especially those that adopt in and have successfully integrated children. The Aburame who raise newborns with the kikaichu have always done so by trial and error.
"Where are we going to store this knowledge, however?" is all Shikaku-sama asks, as he grips his tag.
Tsunade-sama looks towards Jiraiya-sama, seated at the table, who explains briefly the mechanism of a kind of seal. "My disciple and I will seal each set in a clan location of choice once the research reaches a critical point."
Naruto isn't around, but that he's Jiraiya-sama's sealing disciple is no secret – not in the least that Naruto is the Fourth's legacy. One of those things sensei is still, fairly hung up upon.
"If you would have us," Sakura begins, "we could do research within your clan compounds. We would surrender all clan materials every day when we leave. Tsunade-sama has expressed to me her desire that we avoid painting a target on one central laboratory."
The Nara clan head makes a sound of agreement before tossing his tag in. Akimichi-sama, at least, smiles, "Haruno-sama and Orochimaru-sama will let us know the materials to prepare each research session then, so we can account for everything."
Sakura nods back, since she's the one who is comfortable working like that with him – they do enough of it for business.
The vote passes once everyone's tag is in and Tsunade-sama is quick to dismiss the council since everything else passed without fanfare. Relocating of various buildings, more contributions to rebuilding efforts, reports on border watches and developments in Suna and Kiri.
Naruto is waiting outside for both of them, reclining against the wall and reviewing some seals. He rolls up his scroll, half bouncing over to them as they leave.
Hiashi-sama touches Sakura's shoulder gently, interrupting what would have been her warm greeting. "We are painting a target on you instead, Sakura-sama."
Sasuke tenses up behind her as Naruto begins to frown. "But I am a more difficult target than a single building, at least, that is how Lady Tsunade has judged the situation."
I want to wake up again is her main guiding thought when she tells them to, "Stop."
"Unhand me," she says quietly, her voice mild and slurred, not able to move her fingers yet. They're still in Konoha since she can vaguely make out the familiar architecture – Tazuna-san's handiwork.
So… sleepy… no. Waking up. This sapping thing in my chakra system?
As she has always suspected, the village which can pose a threat remains the Village Hidden in the Clouds. The womanly figure of the person who is carrying her like one would a younger sibling, her chakra crackling like Kakashi-sensei's. Carrying her on her back though she's deadweight.
"I was under the impression that this drug lasted on Bee-sama."
Her chakra is hard at work at neutralising said drug. As a medic, being aware of how chakra functions to combat foreign chemicals means that they can also accelerate the process.
A drug that can subdue the latent effect of a Jinchuuriki's advanced healing factor. A chemical poison? Or a new compound discovered? Since it is not apparently deadly…
"It did," comes the voice, a male voice, replying the lady who is carrying her.
Sakura wriggles her toes first, then her fingers and cracks her neck. "She's already beginning to regain her control. Soon she'll even be able to yell." Her chains, which have been hovering the entire while, now moving sluggishly.
"I know. Her chakra began to activate nearly as soon as she was dosed." "Either you dose her again or we abort the mission. If we're caught with her…"
"No. She won't be conscious enough for the next half an hour at least. That's enough time to complete the mission."
It clicks slowly, the thought that they are not kidnapping her so much as they are trying to do something with her. Tamper with her memory? Electroshock therapy? In the middle of Konoha? Ah… because then no one would suspect that the village was infiltrated. Just that she had amnesia.
But what can wiping my memory do for them? They haven't accomplished anything. Dosing me again would be much… simpler?
"Hey, you!" Sakura nearly smiles when the lady's footsteps stutter. The male's footsteps did not, so perhaps he could tell that Naruto was closing in on them.
The lady carrying her tightens her grip, her plane of back muscles taut and tense. The male touches her wrist, brushing Sakura's shin. Again, it confirms that the crackling also comes from him. He's a medic, as well.
"He's like Bee-sama," the male mutters under his breath for the lady's sake, before he speaks with a pleasant tone. "Can I help you, shinobi-san?"
Sakura hums, solidifying her chains around them. "You can help me first… Kumo-nin-san." Her speech is still lisped, but as she crawls out of the mess of chains and the tangle of limbs wrapped in those chains, she notices that they're not wearing a henge.
They look like Fire Country natives, but they are Cloud ninjas. There is no changing voices or eye colours. A world where contacts, nay, even spectacles, are not available in the form she knows. Hindsight, like the vision of most, is 20/20. Naruto catches her as her chains prop her up on shaking legs, "Sakura-chan, you're safe."
She hooks an arm around his neck to support herself, "Yes, just a little bit drugged. They cannot try anything now, let's just wait a bit…"
Itachi-san arrives in a murder of crows, dressed in his ANBU gear, alongside Tenzo. "Haruno-sama," they greet her robotically. She smiles, "Did you bring the restraint seals? The lady used a blade a long time ago when I saw her in Kumo. Samui-san, right? I'm afraid I don't know the male."
"Weasel, you bring the prisoners to T&I. I will take Haruno-sama to the hospital."
As senpai tends to her, she has to restrain her chakra which is now, oddly disobedient once the danger passed.
Naruto hands her a cup of water, jokingly remarking, "Sakura-chan, now you understand how I feel when there are people fixated with kidnapping you."
Tenzo stiffens in the corner of the hospital room that he claimed as his own. Sakura drinks the water gratefully, "Well, I suppose that is one experience I could have done without. Do you know what Tsunade-sama will do after this? I barely started on any of the bloodline research and they already tried to kidnap me."
"Ino-chan's dad will be able to find out, I'm sure. I can't believe Hinata-chan's dad was right! It's like their All-Seeing eyes can even predict the future." Naruto takes the cup from her and senpai ruffles her hair. "I'm glad you're safe, kouhai."
Her blond teammate almost pouts, "You bet, Kabuto-san! Sakura-nee won't be hurt. She was just acting this time." Sakura just smiles as senpai gives her an uneasy look. The grey-haired medic pushes up his spectacles, "I will have words with Orochimaru-sama. We must increase the defences."
Sakura thinks over the plan which succeeded, and all the places it didn't go wrong. Orochimaru-san did say that he founded a village in those years. Even before that, senpai was his, huh… Dual loyalties in a Hidden Village.
And Hiashi-sama is a schemer. He looked like he would have rushed headfirst into battle, and yet he was the one who offered her up as bait in his scheme. An emotional man pretending to be harsh. "Hinata-chan's dad promised that in exchange, he'll volunteer their clan to be researched first, right? So you'll be busy from now on."
Naruto looks almost forlorn. Sakura reaches out to tap him on the nose. "Will you miss me, Naruto-chan?" "Of course! And I miss you more than Sasuke, you can bet!"
She laughs, at ease, "I hope he and sensei are doing well. I definitely hope sensei isn't saying weird things to Mei-sama. The last time we were in Mist, sensei almost proposed to her, you know!"
Then her blond teammate is launching himself forward onto her bed – eyes gleaming, "No way! Sensei is weak to pretty faces? We can totally use that to see what's under his mask…"
"Well, I promise to train with you at least twice a week. When Sasuke-chan and Sensei return home, the three of us can try again."
"That's a promise, Sakura-chan! Even if you find Hinata's pearl eyes too beautiful, I will drag you away!"
"Oh… yes, even if they are beautiful, Naruto-chan." She giggles and he blushes. "I will be sure to tell Hiashi-sama when he comes over." "Sakura-chan..!"
It's good that they've gotten close over the years. From Hinata-chan befriending Naruto-chan on her own, to this…
An angel's last mission, love.
So maybe she is the conquering angel. Still, she does not know why they would attempt to kidnap her now, unless they thought she already had the information they want. The sedative made to dose Jinchuuriki is not good news.
Kumo has two tailed beast containers. If Bee is the brother to the Raikage A, it would stand to reason that he would be the host of the Hachibi. Again, what is with the use of the English alphabet in a world where no equivalent language can be found? Next, someone would tell her that a person called 'C' and 'D' all the way to 'Z' exists.
It is good that she was able to defend against the drug by pre-emptively using Mystic Palm: Filtration, since it makes the latest creation a standard toxin.
But even she cannot be using Filtration all the time, let alone Naruto who uses a shadow clone to help him with his Rasengan.
Naruto leaves the room with her senpai as Tsunade-sama waves them out. The lady's youthful appearance never wavers, her confident medical chakra washing over Sakura like her orders.
"Inoichi will walk you with your permission, once he's done with the Kumo-nin. Just to ensure that there are no mental effects from the poison."
The Lord Yamanaka is troubled when he comes to find her, though by then Tsunade-sama has returned to her tower to deal with all the other things that village leaders have to do. Conducting a letter to Kumo being high on the list to demand an explanation for her attempted kidnapping.
Sakura is as aware as ever that this is a political play intertwining her with her well-being. The reason that Sensei and Sasuke are out of the village training and that she and Naruto will not tell them of the Cloud's attempt.
"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, but I'm afraid we know very little of what they were doing with you. It seems almost as if they had no particularly nefarious plan – they were only instructed to kidnap you."
There is no sloppy work for them to discover the real motivations and she hums. "On my end I cannot detect any lasting problems. I would be obliged if Yamanaka-sama would do a check over for some kind of seal or genjutsu. I'm more curious to know why they sent two Kumo-nin rather than one if all they wanted was to kidnap me."
On an odd level, despite their rough start, Sakura trusts Ino's father. Not because he keeps trying to schedule psychiatric appointments with her, but because he loves his daughter and Sakura can understand that.
Love, like grief, being part of ordinary life, does not require anything.
He rests his hand on her head and with her permission, their chakra flows meld together. Unlike a forced entry that requires the restraints to synchronise the flow, taking a great deal of effort along the way, a consensual mind-walk doesn't hurt the patient.
And they both find themselves in a long corridor to nowhere. "Yamanaka-sama," she calls out to him, or perhaps they are merely thinking at each other? "there is something odd about this corridor."
He nods, "This is… not what a mindscape should look like. It definitely doesn't match you, Sakura-chan."
He reaches out to touch the wall that ripples – and there's a sharp pain shooting through her skull. She clutches at her head, unable to even reach out and tell him to "Stop, please!"
Then the wall is rippling outwards in circles of ink and chakra lines that are not hers, not his, not ours – the memories rush back into the corridor ripping it apart at the seams.
One thought that she catches before she's back in the hospital bed, Yamanaka-sama collapsed over her, "There's no way their mind walkers can break this, right?"
Sakura sends a chain out into the corridor to just get someone's attention, Tenzo, his familiar chakra immediately closing in.
She has a splitting headache and Yamanaka-sama is bleeding on her clean sheets, but they have also solved one problem.
"Kumo has made some seal and genjutsu hybrid, trying to counter the Yamanaka techniques… Tenzo can you get Yamanaka-sama tended to? Please let Tsunade-sama know of the discovery, halt the letter to Kumo."
When Ino's dad has regained consciousness and is composed again, they're both of the same mind. "They used the same method on their own ninja."
"But how did they use the skill on me without memory of it?"
Yamanaka-sama shakes his head, "The memory remains. A subconscious one that we have to dig for and unseal."
"That's odd, sloppy," Sakura opines.
Yamanaka-sama chuckles, "Sakura-chan has high standards. You must remember that tampering with the mind is risky business, let alone memories when we don't even understand the mechanism behind memory formation. Just because you can rewire nerves, and in fact pioneered it, Sakura-chan, I don't want to think of how many experiments Kumo had to run to succeed in this."
Sakura hums, "If Yamanaka-sama would like me to concede. But I still think that there is no need for them to have risked something uncertain now, rather than in our infinite future."
But he is right on the main thing – Sakura keeps careful watch of the things she expects, since there isn't even chemistry per se here. Orochimaru-sama who focuses heavily on life sciences touches only as far as dissections and grafting.
Tearing into minds is a distinctively chakra-thing to do, and because of it, Sakura has fantastical expectations of what it can do.
Someday, someone will rule this world. What will be the point of control? Overwhelming force?
"-akura-chan..?"
She shakes her head, "Forgive my lack of attention, did you say something, Yamanaka-sama?"
The man is smiling, faintly, "I was simply curious as to the deep thoughts you were having."
There's the usual something in that smile that Sakura has never felt comfortable with, even though logically the Yamanakas should be the best at a disarming smile. At any rate, it should put her more at ease than Kakashi-sensei's eye crinkle.
"Ah… I hope it is not impolite. But I wanted to ask if Yamanaka-sama had an estimate of how many experiments Kumo might have run to get them to this stage."
"It wouldn't be impolite unless Sakura-hime thought that I was speculating without basis," he replies, a voice full of dry wit.
The sound of honesty that she got from him, a joke and chide, and Sakura laughed. "I wouldn't dare impute you as an empty vessel making noise. I hoped that you were not speaking from experience."
"Historical records and experimentation have been quite enough for our clan, Sakura-chan. Enough things have gone wrong in the development of clan techniques all over the Elemental Nations, but none have gone mad quite like my forebearers."
Yamanaka-sama waves at the innocuous secretary in a polite manner, and then the seals along the floor are glowing blue, red where Sakura steps on them.
The new intelligence headquarters… in the Hokage Tower. Another of the structural changes Tsunade-sama made after the village was flattened. "And today, as well, you will be experimenting with me. Sakura-chan, I can't over-emphasise enough that you have to stay close to me in the prisoner's mindscape."
Finally, we're at 50 chapters – I don't think I expected to write so far away from canon plot when I first began. Everyone seemed to be hashing the same stuff until the Wave Arc. From here on, we're doing a quick detour, but it's mostly because I always felt that Kumo in canon became passive way too fast for a nation that bothered with the Hyuga Affair.
Rest assured, I won't be delving deep into bloodline research here (though I have to say, all the fanlore around this stuff, like Hinata's canon developments as Kishimoto-sama pulled out all the stops, is fascinating). We'll be looking at what motivates the Elemental Nations as Sakura takes more steps towards that world, where politics reigns supreme.
Since, at heart, Sakura still, hates killing. Naruto will continue working on seals, and Sasuke will actually get what we know as the Chidori Stream fairly soon. Look forward to action, coming to a chapter near us!
Kayo