Hey folks, a super short chapter here. Between each Arc I've decided to do a chapter from a side arc centered on the happenings in the shinobi world. They will be shorter chapters, but it will be good to keep up to date for what the folks back home are up to.
Another thing, if you want to join other writers and readers of Fanfiction on a discord server check out AizenTheGoat's server here- /hTfPmCaE
Anyway I hope you enjoy and review
Arc:Catching up with Konoha
Chapter 6:Remembering the Fallen
Kuoh
As Naruto lay in bed he gently stroked Asia's hair. He'd found out early on that the girl seemed to have nightmares when she wasn't beside him at night. At least that was what she claimed, he noticed that while she didn't say it Rias seemed certain Asia had stretched the truth of that fact so that she could share in his bed. Honestly though, Naruto didn't care enough to try and find out the truth.
Asia was of course a beautiful girl, why wouldn't he like to have her in his bed with him. It helped that both of them seemed to sleep easier with someone to cling to. Just like their frequent bedmate Rias. If he had to guess it was due to their own loneliness growing up. Each of them suffered from the same thing but in different ways. Rias was held up as an unapproachable figure and her busy family had little time for her growing up. Asia had been an orphan and possessed unique abilities that at first had her treated similarly to Rias, before having her vilified and cast out of her old home. Lastly Naruto had been ostracized and treated as a monster. Belittled often and if not he would be shuffled off out of sight of the people and forgotten.
With his mind brushing along thoughts of home he thought about what was happening back in Konoha and the elemental nations in general. The thoughts that came to his mind were no more kind than the people of Konoha had been to him. More than likely they had celebrated his 'death' like the kyuubi said before moving on like he had never existed in the first place.
Pulling the girl in his arms closer to him he pushed the thoughts of his former home from his mind. He had moved on from Konoha. Just as they likely had moved on from him.
Konoha
"Sensei, we'll be late if we don't head out now." A soft voice called out pulling Kakashi's eyes away from the stone covered in names.
Glancing backward over his shoulder the cyclopean jounin sent a small smile toward the pinkette as she walked up to join him. Rather than reply though he instead turned his eyes back to the stone that held the names of a great many of his comrades of the past. He wished many of those names were never etched onto the stone, but one specifically bothered him more than the rest.
"His name doesn't belong there." The girl said as she stared at the same name Kakashi did.
"He is a hero of Konoha, he deserves to be remembered." Kakashi replied.
"He's not dead. He shouldn't be on there. He should be here with the rest of the team." Sakura said.
Kakashi sighed as he looked over at her. She had changed a lot in the last three years. Hardened. She had truly become a kunoichi now, one he was proud to call his comrade, but he often felt she didn't truly reach any of her potential until Tsunade took her as an apprentice. It was something he personally struggled with. The thought of even more failures piled on those he contemplated every time he visited this rock.
"We really should go join the others." Sakura said as she abruptly turned away from the memorial stone and started walking toward the tree line.
"Yeah." Kakashi said, shooting one final glance to a handful of specific names before moving to catch up with his student.
It didn't take the pair long to reach the training ground. Kakashi had always preferred the ones closest to the memorial stone after all. They weren't late but their squadmates were already waiting for them. A pair of oddities to go with the odd Team Seven.
Kakashi set them to doing some drills to warm up. They really didn't need to do the kiddy stuff but Kakashi had found that starting the day with a familiar workout helped ingrain it into your mind as well as warm up the body. It was mostly some team based exercises each of which required all members of the squad to complete. He had started this exact regimen of exercises with a fear of a breakdown of teamwork, after his last team the worry of such things hung over his head.
Watching them work, Kakashi mentally evaluated them. Sakura, was the only remnant of his old team, but saying that almost felt like doing her a disservice. Comparing the current Sakura to her old self was like comparing two entirely different people. Sure she still largely looked the same outside of growing older and beginning to fill out. Besides that though she had grown colder to the world. Her temper had become a cold hateful thing rather than the short lived hot headed thing it had been. She had excelled at the medical shinobi field but also branched out into poisons, taijutsu, and genjutsu, though the latter still came up lacking more often than a true genjutsu specialist because Sakura remained a bit too rigid for the imaginative art of illusions.
Currently pacing Sakura in their laps, Sai was a mixed bag. As one of Danzo's ROOT agents Sai had all of the emotional range of a dead branch. That being said Kakashi had been surprised by the speed at which the young man had bonded with his team. What helped was his clear views, or rather Danzo's views of Naruto and Sasuke. The same ones shared by Sakura. Sasuke Uchiha was a traitor and was essentially responsible for Naruto Uzumaki's disappearance. Naruto on the other hand was the unfortunate victim of the shinobi world and was considered heroic for his sacrifice. Practically all of those among Danzo's ROOT called him Naruto-sama now, and it was spreading to others outside the group as well. Kakashi wondered if that was a scheme to try and win Naruto back to the village should they ever find him again. With Danzo, that seemed the right bet.
His final team member was the one that concerned him the most. The girl was practically like Naruto at his happiest moment, but elevated to the power of ten. She was sweet and adorable, but she suffered from a lot of the same problems Naruto had on the team. For starters she was a jinchuuriki just like Kakashi's former student. Add on to the fact she was brought in from Taki after it fell in the recently concluded Waterfall War, and she was a bit of an outcast. At least those in Konoha that were bothered by her status were far less than those that had been during Naruto's time in the village. It showed they could at least learn from their mistakes.
Clapping his hands to call their attention and have them rally to himself, Kakashi gave them his patented eye-smile as they approached.
"Alright guys, we have another mission in the morning so-" Kakashi began only to be interrupted by his most boisterous of squadmates.
"Ah, we never get to do any hard hitting training anymore; it's all border patrols, and messenger missions. Tell me it's at least a search and destroy mission or something this time." Fu groaned.
"Enthusiastic as ever." Kakashi said with a chuckled rubbing the girl's green hair and making her simply grin brightly back at him.
"What is the mission going to be Kakashi-sensei?" Sai asked robotically.
"Well it's actually a sweep and clear this time around. We've gotten word of some movement along the old border with Waterfall so we are going to sweep the area for any possible Oto-nin." Kakashi explained.
Sakura's eyes hardened and Fu and Sai both sent her glances knowing her special hatred for the Sound village. In the last three years Konoha had struggled to properly rebuild following the Konoha Crush led by Orochimaru, but it had eventually. Orochimaru eventually had been forced to abandon the very village he had used when more and more of Konoha's assets began to interfere with his more public actions as the Sound Village. His replacement, following his departure with his closest supporters had been a fool and openly made war against Konoha after a skirmish in the land of Waterfall. The ensuing invasion by sound crippled the village leaving it to be scavenged by its neighbours, especially Konoha which had crushed Sound like it was nothing and reasserted itself solidly.
Sakura, hadn't gotten to be a part of most of the conflict, studying under Tsunade personally during all but the last days of the fighting. That being said, she had been a chunin medic on campaign during Konoha's push into the Land of Rice to finish off the Sound. Sakura had gone out of her way to attack Sound Shinobi, even those fleeing. She hadn't been the only one either though as many of her generation seemed to have particular hatred for the Oto-nin they encountered.
What was left of sound had returned to Orochimaru's old doctrine, and there were even rumors of a new leader among their forces that had their troops growing in number.
The squad split up after that, Fu heading back home and Sai, likely to whatever lair the Root were currently using. Kakashi expected that Sakura would stick around. She didn't ever leave him alone anymore it seemed.
"We really do a lot of the sweep and clears and border patrol missions nowadays." Sakura said as she enjoyed the peaceful nature of the training ground.
"Hmm, I guess. It's to be expected though. We just came out of a war, and the other villages know we have Fu now. They also refuse to believe Naruto was our jinchuuriki on account of being Minato and Kushina's son." Kakashi explained. "Everyone feels testy. We might end up in another war soon if things don't start calming down."
"I guess it is starting to seem inevitable." Sakura says sadly.
"Well, it's not all bad. Thanks to Naruto and Shikamaru, ties with Suna are closer than ever before. The only closer alliance Konoha has ever held was with Uzushiogakure at this point and we were like sister villages with them."
"True." She said blankly. "You know I saw Neji and Lee the other day. Neji's flack jacket fits him well, he'll make a good Jonin, and from the way they were sparring I don't think Lee is far behind him."
"Gai sure is a great teacher." Kakashi said with a smile.
"So are you sensei." Sakura reassured him. Kakashi blankly stared at her. "Don't give me that look. You are too hard on yourself for what happened. Sasuke needed a therapist, hell you and Naruto did too. But Sasuke should never have been put on a team. Naruto shouldn't have been undermined the way he was. Everything should have played out differently but you did as you were ordered, and whether you believe it or not you did train me and Naruto. We just had such bad basics because of the academy that we needed the baby steps style you gave us."
Kakashi blinked at her as the girl blushed slightly after realizing she had been lecturing him.
"I see you are getting that part of the doctor role down well." He joked getting only a scoff from his one girl audience.
"You know I didn't just see Neji and Lee, I noticed that all the members of the retrieval mission have been getting together again. Hush hush over dinner at Ichiraku." She said, frowning.
"It's fine, they know better than to run off on a wild goose chase Sakura." Kakashi said as he patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"Maybe they should though." She said quietly getting him to give her a questioning look making her continue.
"Maybe we should let them run off and hunt down Sasuke like they always talk about and just put the stipulation in that they bring him back to be questioned so we can find out where he is." Sakura said a determined look settling on her face. Kakashi sighed as he rubbed her head making the girl squirm away from him and try to fix her hair.
"What will that achieve? Sasuke isn't responsible for kidnapping Naruto. As far as I'm concerned Sasuke is a missing-nin. He'll either come peacefully or he'll have to be killed." Kakashi said seriously.
Sakura looked up at him but simply nodded. She was conflicted about outright killing her former teammate, but in the end whether Kakashi considered it to be true or not, Naruto's kidnapping was Sasuke's fault for leaving Konoha. She just wanted a way to bring the knucklehead back so things could become happy around the village again. That thought brought her mind onto others that had been affected by Naruto's disappearance.
Ichiraku's started booming in business after the truth of Naruto's heritage came out, they had used some of the extra money to build a full sized restaurant and created a secluded special customer room just for Naruto's closest friends. It had big photos of Naruto, Kushina, and Minato at the back and often felt almost more like a shrine to the Uzumaki family than any thing else. Still, anytime a member of the Konoha twelve or one of Naruto's 'precious people' ate there they only sat in that room.
The Konohamaru corps had become genin. They were the rising stars of the next generation alongside Hanabi Hyuga. However they had all become far too serious for Sakura's liking. It wasn't totally because of Naruto's disappearance. They were already exposed to war during the Waterfall War, and while they weren't frontline forces carrying messages to field hospitals and guarding medical supplies for the wounded had shown them the hardships their life as shinobi would entail. They didn't waver a bit though. Each of them wore their headbands in various places but their foreheads all held matching goggles to their lost boss. They also never seemed to give up hope, when talking about Naruto, they always referred to when he got back. It was endearing but also worrisome should the worst happen. Many, including Tsunade herself, feared that the kids would be crushed by Naruto's death should it happen.
Sakura also couldn't help but worry about Hinata the most out of Naruto's friends. She seemed to have completely changed form the sweet, timid, girl she had once known. It was like something had snapped and Hinata had decided to completely shed her old personality. It didn't help things that the 'new' Hinata seemed to blame Sakura and Kakashi only slightly less than Sasuke for what happened to Naruto. She dressed differently, and threatened people on a regular basis. Especially Sakura and Ino. Word was she had even begun challenging members of the elder council in her clan and crushing either them or their champions, even putting one or two into the hospital.
Tsunade hid her sorrow over the situation by throwing herself into her work. It made her a damn fine Hokage, however outside of work there wasn't a moment that she was sober. She was either leading village as the Iron Lady Tsunade, or she was staring at pictures of Naruto, Nawaki, and Dan while drowning herself in sake.
The day she had Naruto's name inscribed onto the Memorial Stone had been especially difficult. It was more through the pressure of the elders and several clan heads and wealthy villagers that she had done so. A lot of the other rookies had refused to even show up to the ceremony they had for it. Sakura and Kakashi could understand their opinions, but they had both attended themselves.
"You mentioned Neji was part of that group meeting. That it was all the boys from the retrieval mission?" Kakashi broke the silence that had filled the space between them.
"Yeah, Shino, Lee, and Tenten were with them when they met the last few times though." She answered. Kakashi's sigh told her he had realized something that bothered him.
"Neji and Hinata have been talking about some plan according to Kurenai. I don't know what, but it might be connected to what all the others are meeting about." He explained.
"I heard that Shikamaru has been talking with Temari more and more and that he has been getting more meetings with Gaara. I thought maybe that he was fishing for more leads on Naruto through Gaara, or maybe on Sasuke." Sakura added.
"Or something else is going on, and we have been cut out of it. I have to say I'm not fond of that possibility." Kakashi seemed as relaxed as normal, so she couldn't really tell if he was actually bothered.
Unknown to her, Kakashi was beginning to think Hinata and Neji were making moves to seize control of the Hyuga clan from Hinata's father and their elder council. He expected the meeting between the others was less about Naruto and more about ensuring that Hinata and Neji's possible coup would have support from them in the end. He wasn't sure about the situation with Suna's new Kazekage and Shikamaru though. If Asuma could be believed though they might just be planning something in regards to Shikamaru and Temari's budding relationship. Intervillage relationships needed support from the highest levels after all.
"Outside of the other rookies is anyone still even looking for Naruto?" Sakura asked her sensei quietly. Kakashi eyed her carefully after that to try and gauge her emotional condition.
"Well you no doubt know that Jiraiya was one of the leads on the investigation. He's one of the most...concerned with Naruto's condition. Has he been around to meet with Tsunade?" Kakashi asked. Sakura was Tsuande's second apprentice and assistant so she'd be more likely to notice the man.
He nearly grinned at the clenching of Sakura's fists at the mention of Jiraiya. He shared her sentiment. Jiraiya and he had gone round and round in arguments and a handful of close call fights over the last three years. The Sannin seemed more worried about Naruto as a tool, something even Tsunade had picked up on and berated the pervert about. It still didn't change the fact that he was the most likely to gain some knowledge of either where Naruto was or who might have knowledge about him.
"No, part of me is happy too. Ever since you told me about his connection to Naruto and his parents I can't help but hate him. It doesn't help that he tries to peek on Lady Tsunade as often as he can or on everyone at the Hot Springs. If it wasn't for his spy network I'd try and get Tsunade to mark him as a criminal for all the crap he tries to pull." Sakura grumbled.
"She wouldn't do that, the two of them go way back even if she isn't happy with him lately. Plus despite everything Jiraiya is somehow a better teacher than I am. He taught the Rasengan to Naruto in practically no time at all as well as made him a summoner for the toads. By all measures he did better for Naruto than I ever did." Kakashi barely had time to brace for the painful pinch from his student.
"There you go again Sensei. Always down on yourself over Naruto. You did more for him than anyone. More than Iruka did and a lot more than Jiraiya did. Jiraiya just gave Naruto what was rightfully his to begin with, and even then he didn't give him all of it. Naruto, well Naruto and I both had practically none of the basics we needed when we joined team seven. You might have given Sasuke jutsu to try and keep him from leaving the village but you gave me and Naruto the basics we needed to stand a chance. Naruto only lived long enough to be kidnapped because of what you taught. The Rasengan just gave him a boost in firepower." Sakura tried to comfort him.
Kakashi gave her his eye smile but while there were a few kernels of truth in what she said, the fact was that Naruto truly was a self made man, even at twelve. He got no support in the academy besides a few bowls of ramen from Iruka here and there and he got no support from Kakashi besides helping him tighten up his taijutsu and pushing him to expand his chakra control. Jiraiya had given him practically half of the arsenal of abilities he possessed for his battle with Sasuke. The pair had only known each other a few months and already he had taught him that much. Given more time, who knows what Jiraiya might have been able to give the boy. Now they had no way of knowing.
"You don't look like you believe me but take your new team. With risk of sounding arrogant we've become amazing under your guidance. I've become one of the strongest chunin among our generation, Fu is a powerhouse that you gave a bit of finesse to, and Sai looks like he's about to actually smile for real sometimes. That's all your doing." She tried again after reading her teacher's body language.
"Not to mention, the old team was dysfunctional even without the elders and Hokage pushing you around on things. I didn't help that problem at all. None of us did. Our new team works like a well oiled machine though and it's mostly thanks to you Sensei." Sakura gently patted the man on the arm.
Kakashi nearly chuckled at his student's actions. The thought of her comforting him about something so trivial caused him endless amusement. More the fact it was his student comforting him. He was supposed to be the support for her in troubling situations and dealing with emotional turmoil not the other way around. Then again Kakashi had a long track record of failing to properly handle emotions, both his own and his students.
"If you say so Sakura-chan." Kakashi said though it didn't sound like he really believed it.
Sakura could only sigh as they drifted into silence for a moment once more. Soon both turned their thoughts more toward the mission in the morning, or more about the situations surrounding the mission. Everything felt like a coiled spring and their workload had increased by huge amounts. On top of normal missions with their team both Kakashi and Sakura had other duties. Kakashi was head Jonin now, while not the commander and more of an honorary position, the head jonin did have to work with several departments across Konoha and perform inspections of various outposts and installations. Kakashi felt like he was almost always either on the road between these inspections or trapped in his office filling out the report for those same inspections. Sakura was Tsunade's left hand, second only to Shizune as her assistants went. Between office work to hospital work she hardly had time for normal missions let alone anything else.
"Things sure have gotten tense haven't they." Kakashi once more broke the silence.
"Yeah, Lady Tsunade is swamped with work. Practically every village even the minor ones have been flooding her with missives and even with her delegating a lot of work to departments that should handle different things she's left with pretty much all diplomatic or international issues and she refuses to stop helping at the hospital to try and lighten her workload even though Shizune has most of that covered for her." Sakura said.
"Shizune has been too busy herself. The few times I can get a free moment she's usually busy. I haven't seen her in….oh about six or seven days I think." Kakashi slumped, more than he normally did. Sakura chuckled dryly at her teacher's plight.
"You two are an odd couple. Still, when do you two plan to go public with your relationship? I think a good wedding might lift people's spirits a bit. Plus you two deserve the honeymoon for a break don't you think?" Sakura nudged Kakashi with her elbow and a coy smile.
"I think we will keep it under wraps. The world is a bit dangerous and I don't need people going after her because of me. Or kami forbid going after a possible child between us should we have one."
"Yeah, well how well did that work out with Naruto? If the fourth had been public about his wife and son, Naruto would have been treated like a prince rather than what really happened and he might still be here." Sakura scolded.
"For all we know it prevented Naruto being assassinated in his crib. It was done for his safety." Kakashi tried, though a part of him agreed.
"For his safety? We both know that's crap sensei. I loved the third Hokage everyone did, but he made Naruto a scapegoat and isolated him to control him better. He was Kage first and grandfather second." Sakura said with a frown. Everyone from her generation had loved Sarutobi, but his actions toward her two teammates had led to her really questioning if she could truly consider him a good man.
Kakashi frowned but didn't have a rebuttal. His own belief in Sarutobi had been shaken too much and had the man still been alive he might even consider pushing for him to be replaced as Hokage. Thankfully Tsunade had corrected many of his mistakes. While he still felt she was too weak when it came to the elders and other powerful figures in the village, but Sarutobi's methods had bled over a bit and left the woman with a nightmare to try and reorganize. Combined with rebuilding after the Konoha Crush and the ensuing war over Waterfall had left things in chaos.
"Well, I'm not a kage so I probably won't have to worry about the exact situation with Naruto. My enemies are from outside the village so secrecy would probably be best." Kakashi pointed out.
"For how long though. I mean Lady Tsunade won't be in office forever, who else can fill the role but you?" Sakura asked.
"I am not going to be Hokage." Kakashi said stubbornly.
"You are pretty much the only name on the short list Sensei, face it. You are definitely going to be wearing that hat one day." Sakura teased.
"Ha, Konoha would cease to exist and hell would freeze over before that happened. Even then, I'd probably just make Naruto be in charge." Kakashi said.
Sakura smiled sadly at the reminder of her friend once more.
"Yeah. We just have to find him first, then you can rest easy and go back to sneaking in to Shizune's apartment when you think noone is looking." Sakura laughed softly.
"When did you get so cheeky. Why can't you be like Fu and Sai, Fu's a bit rowby but she never teases me, and Sai is such a polite boy." Kakashi teased back.
Sakura only scoffed back at him.
"You keep poking fun at me and Shizune but what about you Sakura? If you keep scaring away every boy that tries to ask you out you won't ever find the one." Kakashi idly offered.
"I'm not ready for that type of thing, Sensei. I still feel conflicted about everything with Naruto and Sasuke. I really thought… I guess it doesn't matter. I'm just not comfortable with it yet Sensei. Plus I promised someone that when I'm ready I'll give them my first try at dating." Sakura said with a sad smile.
"Oh, do I know this lucky fellow?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes, but that's the limit to what I will say about that. Just drop it, Sensei, please." Sakura asked, becoming a little more vulnerable in her words toward the end. Kakashi immediately stopped with his teasing.
"Fine, fine, just know Sakura, it's been three years and you can't heal from your own wounds from the whole thing until you try to move on." He said softly while laying a hand on her shoulder. The smile she gave him spoke all the thanks he needed for his support.
Kakashi silently pitied the girl. He knew she was a storm of confused feelings when it came to her heart. She had never been all that stable in that regard, but with her old 'love' of Sasuke, or at least her idealized image of Sasuke Uchiha, and her anger and sense of betrayal from his actions combined with her feelings of love, platonic or otherwise with Naruto and the thoughts of the boy who had demolished her previous mental image of him she was wound up in too much of a mess to make any sort of sense of how she currently felt. That being said, Kakashi knew it was unhealthy for her to simply push all her feelings regarding it to the side and things would only grow worse in time if she didn't try to overcome it.
He couldn't force her though. She had to want to move on to succeed in doing so. He just hoped he wasn't making the same mistake again by not pushing the issue. Like he had with the boys.
As it was Sakura likely wouldn't be able to 'confirm' her loss of feelings for Sasuke without confronting him, and similarly for Naruto being unable to apologize and tell him about how much she cared for him as a comrade. Instead of getting the conclusion she needed she was just left with massive amounts of guilt that weighed her down. Much like himself and that bothered him more than anything else in regards to Sakura's current situation.
"Well, I suppose I should head home. My parents will want to have dinner together before I can start getting things around for the mission tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning." Sakura said as she turned to leave.
Kakashi waved at her before he noticed her stop.
"Oh, Sensei, Shizune sensei should have this afternoon off and Ino told me her family has a sale going on right now. Take a hint all right." Sakura said with a small laugh before flickering away into the trees.
"Maa, Maa. When did she get so cheeky with me. This has to be Lady Tsunade or Shizu-chan's fault. I wouldn't put it past Shizu for that whole mix up with Hanare a few weeks ago. He told her it was just a misunderstanding. That sadly didn't mean he was off the hook with her.
Beginning to slowly make his own way back into the village, intending to most definitely take up his student's advice about the flowers, Kakashi's mind drifted to the one person that always seemed to be the focus of his conversations and thoughts these days. Naruto.
He wondered if Naruto was safe. If he was happy and healthy. He hoped so. Kakashi wished he could see him even just one more time and tell him everything. The truth about why he was seemingly ignored and of course to apologize for just about everything.
Kakashi wondered if Naruto knew how badly his friends all missed. How terribly all his family wanted him here with them.
So that's the end, like I said, a short chapter, lots of you probably aren't super happy about it being so Sakura and Kakashi focused. That kind of sucks being as they are among those closest to Naruto in the Elemental Nations.
Please review the story if you like.