Chapter Three: Reunited

Sakura Haruno finished writing up the authorization for the medication.

It was a medication that had proved a brilliant success. It had saved many lives, in and outside the village. Lady Tsunade had accounted for the Leaf's funding problems with medicine. The production of them had made a tidy profit. In fact, the village had become a center for medicine in the Land of Fire.

Sakura had created that medicine.

"Hmm, yes, that should do it," said Sakura, handing it over to one of her employees. A woman three times her age, who had been a medical ninja for far longer. "Give this medicine to the patient, only the dose I proscribed and no more. If they overdo it, it could cause complications."

"Yes, Sakura," said the woman, and she went off.

Sakura spent a while double-checking her officer for anything that needed doing. Straightening things up, she saw her picture of Team 7 was out of place. She adjusted it quickly and then noticed the sticker she kept over Kakashi's face was peeling. Pulling it off, she put another one on. It was the only personal item she had here, and she'd never been able to bring herself to tear it.

Satisfied, Sakura put on her bag. "Well, that about finishes up my hours for today.

"Now, I just need to head home and rest. I'll have-"

And then she heard it, her co-workers. "Can you believe we're taking orders from a fifteen-year-old?"

"I know, right?" said a man. "We've been working as a medical ninja for years, and Lady Tsunade is making us work for that pink-haired brat. It's not right."

"I know," said another. "She's only been practicing medical jutsu for a few years, but she's already way ahead of us. One of us ought to have that position."

"Not so loud. You know how Lady Tsunade gets. Let's finish up here," said the first.

Sakura didn't say anything.

There wasn't anything worth saying. She had raced ahead of people who had been doing this for years. Ino was supposed to be very good at healing, and Sakura completely left her in the dust. Before, Sakura had been terrified of falling behind Sasuke and Naruto. But here she was racing ahead of people who had done this for years.

Neither had given her any kind of satisfaction. Before, she had been a piece of baggage that did no one any good. Now she was showing everyone up completely by accident. It was rendering their efforts moot. But Sakura was doing good work in the hospital; she was helping people.

So she headed out.

The village looked nice in the morning light, but Sakura didn't feel nice. Her pink hair had grown back a bit since her emergency haircut in the Forest of Death. She was taller and a bit curvier, she guessed. But Ino had grown in ways that made Sakura look pathetic, and her forehead was doing her any favors, still.

And then a pair of hands went over her eyes. Sakura went still, then sensed no killing intent.

"Guess who," said the assailant.

Sakura turned around and saw Naruto Uzumaki in front of him. Only now he was taller than her, and he'd swapped out his orange jumpsuit for... a different orange outfit. It clicked.d "Naruto? Naruto, is that you!

"You're back!"

And she hugged him. The move seemed to take him off guard, and he returned it unsteadily. "Oh uh... Sakura never figured you'd be the one hugging me."

"Shut up, you idiot," said Sakura trying to keep back tears.

"Now that's more like it," said Naruto.

Sakura broke the embrace, reminding herself that she must be professional. "So, how have you been? Have you heard anything about Sasuke? How was your training? I've done a lot of training myself, so I promise you I'll pull my own weight now."

"Whoa, slow down, Sakura," said Naruto. "I've done a lot of training with Pervy Sage. Trust me when I tell you Orochimaru isn't going to know what hit him."

"But what about Sasuke?" asked Sakura. "I mean, I'm glad to see you and all, but Team 7 won't be complete until we get every member." She was speaking on autopilot in a daze at this point. Naruto was back at last.

"Yeah, I hear you, Sakura," said Naruto. "I've missed him a lot. But hey, we've gotten a lot stronger because we want to get him back. So we'll have a lot of stories to tell him."

"Yeah, you're right," said Sakura, pausing. She thought back to what Team 7 used to do when they were kids. "Um... do you want to get some ramen?"

Naruto stared at her in shock. "You're asking me if I want to go eat ramen?"

"Well, you always liked eating ramen, and we haven't really seen eachother, so..." began Sakura.

"Oh my God, I must have picked a fight with Itachi Uchiha!" said Naruto before making hand signs. "Genjutsu release!

"Genjutsu release!

"Oh no, I thought I'd gotten a lot better at this, but-"

Sakura laughed despite herself. "It's not a genjutsu, silly. I'm glad to see you."

"Oh, well um, that's good," said Naruto. "Let's go get ramen then."

The trip after that did a lot to lighten Sakura's spirits. For one thing, she hadn't talked with anyone in a while. Tsunade had admitted that Sakura had learned virtually all of her medical techniques. And that had been it.

With some pressure, Tsunade had taught Sakura some basic combat abilities. And Sakura had even managed to figure out how to conserve chakra. But pretty soon, Tsunade had been busy training everyone else. She was putting into place her plan for a new generation of medical ninja.

Soon Sakura was teaching other people. Her lessons with Tsunade had almost stopped.

But Sakura stopped dwelling on things that would make her upset. Because soon they got to Teuchi Ramen. As they arrived, the brown-haired girl who helped Teuchi brushed her hair aside as she saw Naruto. "Naruto, Naruto, is that you?"

"Ayame? Great to see you! Where's Teuchi?" asked Naruto.

"Oh, Dad's out on business. He's left me to mind the stand his absence," said Ayame. "You know, our business has gone way up ever since you defeated Gaara and did all those great deeds. You're kind of a local hero."

"That's wonderful!" said Naruto. "Hey, can I get some pork ramen."

"Sure, the first bowl is on the house," said Ayame. "But just the first bowl."

Naruto laughed and drew out his wallet. "Right, I know, I know."

"Let me get it for you, Naruto," said Sakura, who had been trying to be nicer.

"Um, Sakura, are you okay?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, of course, I'm okay, why wouldn't I be?" asked Sakura, as they paid.

"You seem to be acting a lot nicer than normal," said Naruto.

He knew something was wrong. Naruto had always been smarter than he looked, after all. "Right, yeah, um...

"I haven't had much in the way of social contact in the past three years."

"What?" said Naruto in surprise. "What about the Konoha 12? Neji, Kiba, Hinata and all the rest? We went on all kinds of missions with them."

"You went on all kinds of missions with them, Naruto. I... well, I stayed behind and trained to try and become less of a burden," said Sakura. "Lady Tsunade has focused me on medical ninjutsu, but I've also got some combat skills now. Though I had to really press her to get taught them at all.

"She keeps telling me a medical ninja should ensure their own safety above all else.

"But um... well, I don't know anyone other than Shikamaru and Ino, to be honest.

"And I haven't seen much of them."

"What about Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Sakura, and she refused to think about it either.

"Right uh... I'll drop it then," said Naruto.

The ramen arrived, and Ayame put it down before them.

"Here you go," said Ayame, smiling.

"Hey, thanks, Ayame. You always did make the best ramen," said Naruto.

Ayame blushed slightly. "Well, obviously. I am the daughter of Teuchi Ramen, the Sage of Six Ramen!"

"Isn't that uh..." began Sakura. Was that a thing? I mean, it probably wouldn't be the weirdest thing she'd ever seen or read about.

"It's a joke," said Ayame with a smile. "Obviously, the Sage of Six Paths is a downgrade."

Sakura decided to leave the subject at that. "So, Naruto, how did the journeys go?"

"Well, after we left the Leaf, Pervy Sage and I passed through the lands of Princess Haruna. We spent a lot of time hunting bandits," said Naruto. "One thing we did do was check out the Rain Village.

"Supposedly, there is this guy called Hanzo, who was strong. He fought Pervy Sage, Granny Tsunade, and Orochimaru at the same time once. And for surviving, they were called the Legendary Sannin. Well, he's been making some weird moves. His ninja have been muscling in on a lot of neighboring territories. They were trying to recruit rogue ninja."

"Hanzo is from the Land of the Rain, right?" asked Sakura. "If I remember, he carved out an Empire in the border territories between the Great Nations. The Land of the Rain is the seat of his power, but nobody has seen him in years."

"There's another thing," said Naruto. "The people in those regions, they worship this God. He's called Pain."

"Pain? That doesn't sound like a nice name," said Ayame.

"The whole religion is based around that misery builds character. That all the suffering and agony you endure is to make you a good person," said Naruto. "Justice in villages that worship Pain is real harsh, an eye for an eye.

"Pain responds to minor crime with really harsh punishments. The whole idea is that if people are terrified of what will happen to them, they won't do bad things."

"Well, to be fair, Naruto, there is some merit in that political theory," said Sakura. "If crimes aren't punished, then people will feel free to commit them since they'll only get a slap on the wrist. I know it worked for Gaara, but sometimes you really do need to throw someone in jail. Think of all the bandits you stopped. They wouldn't have turned good if they got the chance, not all of them anyway."

"Yeah, I know," said Naruto. "And from what I saw, the priests of Pain were really good at enforcing order. In one town, there was a solid gold cup in the middle of the street. Anyone who wanted could use it to take water from the fountain.

"It had been there for years, and nobody had tried to steal it." Then he paused. "But..."

Sakura looked at him. "Yeah?"

"Everybody in that place was afraid, Sakura," said Naruto. "They were watching us, watching eachother, always watching. The religion of Pain seems to have made peace in the Land of Rain. But it's been done with terror.

"There were jutsus hidden all over the place, watching for any crime.

"It was really kind of creepy."

Sakura thought about it.

Then the subject of crime and punishment reminded her of one of the conversations she'd had. It had been with Lady Tsunade, hadn't it? It had been a while ago, but it was relevant. "...Naruto, there's something you should know."

"What is it?" asked Naruto.

"I um... I talked with Lady Tsunade about Sasuke several times and..." Sakura paused. "He's going to have to spend time in prison."

"What?! Why?" said Naruto in clear horror.

"It's not Lady Tsunade's fault; she understands what is going on," said Sakura. "She knows it isn't Sasuke's fault, but... well, she may be Hokage, but she's not all-powerful. The elders, Homura and Koharu, represent a lot of other interests.

"Sasuke broke the law, Naruto. He willingly left with the Sound, and because of him, a lot of ninjas died. And what's worse, he did it to go over to Orochimaru, who murdered the old Hokage and tried to kill us all.

"I... I want Sasuke back as much as you do, Naruto. But we're not little kids playing ninja and... and I think he's going to have to pay the price."

"You don't mean he'll end up in prison for the rest of his life, do you?" asked Naruto.

"If he came back today, he could be put away for a few years," said Sakura with a sigh. Then she brightened as she remembered the other half of the conversation. "But um, I actually came up with a bit of an idea for how we could dodge that."

Naruto frowned. "What do you have in mind?'

"Well, if we go get Sasuke, we'll probably have to get Orochimaru too," said Sakura. "So, if we just convince Sasuke to take out Orochimaru with us, we'll be home free. Lady Tsunade could say that Sasuke was on a long-term infiltration mission.

"The Leaf really does need the Uchiha Clan back, so nobody will really question it. And if you think about it, Sasuke hasn't made any moves against us at all. So if he does help us beat Orochimaru with whatever powers he got, it might as well be true."

"Huh, that's some pretty smart thinking there, Sakura," said Naruto.

"Well, there are benefits to studying a lot of history," said Sakura.

"I didn't know you liked history?" asked Naruto.

"Well, I haven't been doing anything for the last few years," said Sakura. Shizune had recommended a lot of good titles after Tsunade's training stopped. "And, well, it's not like I've got anyone to spend time with. Shikamaru and Ino are always out on missions, with the village still short-staffed.

"A lot of people got killed, so the people who are left have to do that much more work."

"Well, why don't you go out on missions with them?" asked Naruto.

Sakura fell silent for a long time. She remembered the beginnings of her combat training with Lady Tsunade. Especially with her pathetic showing. Tsunade had recommended she just go in to be a civilian medic full time. Only once Sakura had gotten help with training from Lee was she able to prove herself worth training. It had been some of the hardest training she'd ever undergone for almost no returns.

"Sakura?" asked Naruto.

"...Because I wasn't qualified," said Sakura miserably.

"What?" said Naruto. "That's not true; you graduated and passed the bell test like anyone else, Sakura. And you went on a lot of missions with us."

"Yes, but..." Sakura thought of everything that had happened. She remembered hours and hours of toil, working to improve her taijutsu. All to prove worthy of being trained in combat techniques by Tsunade. "Naruto, what do you remember me doing on those missions?"

"Well, I mean you defended us from the Sound Ninja," said Naruto.

"And what else?" asked Sakura.

"You fought Ino and tied with her," said Naruto.

"She was holding back the entire time," said Sakura. "If she'd gone all out, she'd have made it to the finals. What else?"

"...Um, you aced the entrance exam?" asked Naruto.

"And what else?" asked Sakura.

"...Er, you climbed a tree in the Land of Waves," said Naruto.

"Exactly," said Sakura sadly. "I didn't actually do anything on that mission, I was just an observer. Kakashi put all his focus on you and Sasuke. I wasn't good enough to make a difference, so he put me in charge of guarding Tazuna.

"And in the Chunin Exams, I just barely scraped by to being an asset."

"Guarding Tazuna was an important job, Sakura. If he'd been killed-" began Naruto.

"If Zabuza or Haku had gone after Tazuna, how long do you think I could have held them off?" asked Sakura.

Naruto paused. "...Um, well, you might have been able to block one swipe. Maybe.

"But one swipe could make all the difference."

"Yeah, right," said Sakura. "Zabuza would have cut right through me like butter and killed Tazuna with the same strike. And Haku would have put a senbon in my neck before slitting Tazuna's throat.

"I wouldn't have slowed them down at all."

"I uh..." Naruto looked down sadly. He'd taken their deaths hard. "I don't think we should really talk about Zabuza and Haku, Sakura. It always makes me feel down that we couldn't save them. Without them, I'd never have been able to talk sense into Neji or Gaara."

"Maybe," said Sakura. "But without me, you'd just have had a more useful teammate. If Ino or Hinata had been on the team instead of me, you'd have had way less trouble."

"That's not true at all," said Naruto, but his protest was weak.

"Yeah, it is, Naruto," said Sakura. "What I did in the Forest of Death took everything I had, and it was the absolute bare minimum I ought to have done. Anyone could have done better in there.

"It's not my self-hatred that's saying it, Naruto. It's a simple fact."

Even after learning combat skills from Tsunade, she'd been assigned as a doctor. Her talents as a medical ninja were far more valuable at home.

"Yeah, but if Ino had been with us in the Forest of Death, she wouldn't have been with Shikamaru and Choji!" said Naruto. "And they've got great teamwork. So their team would have been a lot weaker.

"Maybe they wouldn't have been able to hold off Team Dosu.

"And what about when you woke Shikamaru and me up in the Chunin Exams? You were the only person there who was fast enough to protect yourself from the spell. Well, except Tenten and Neji, but they went after those Cloud Ninja to rescue Hinata.

"But if you hadn't woken us up, we'd never have been able to go after Gaara. Sasuke would have been killed."

"Maybe, but I should have stayed behind and started waking more ninja up," said Sakura. She remembered that. "I would have been in the same amount of danger and been of more help."

"Well, maybe that would have been pretty helpful, but that's just one mistake. Just don't make it again," said Naruto. "Why are you so down on yourself, Sakura? You said yourself you got a lot stronger."

"Because I had to completely retrain, Naruto. I didn't 'get stronger'; I relearned the basics," said Sakura. "I graduated from the academy mostly by book learning; my combat scores were mediocre. And... Kakashi didn't teach me anything, Naruto. In the month between the Chunnin Exams, he taught Sasuke and got you a teacher, but...

"He just gave me a scroll on breaking genjutsu to study. Then he left.

"I completely poured myself into it. I thought for sure it must have been some really difficult technique. But I learned it quickly, too quickly. And I had no idea where Kakashi was, so I couldn't ask for further instructions. So I just practiced it nonstop while keeping my other abilities up. I don't think he expected me to be able to handle it, Naruto.

"His opinion of me was that low.

"I guess it sort of paid off. Not many other people were able to stop that genjutsu that hit the tournament arena.

"I remember I was so proud when I told Kakashi that later. But I must have looked ridiculous in comparison to you and Sasuke. And I had to do it completely on my own."

"Why do you keep referring to Kakashi-sensei like he's not our teacher?" asked Naruto.

"Because he's not, Naruto," said Sakura. "He never wanted me as a student, and I was never a good enough student to change his opinion. We haven't spoken in a year."

"Well, where is he now?" asked Naruto, sounding upset. And he had a right to be.

"On some top-secret mission, I guess," said Sakura. "The last time I saw him, he'd been pretty badly hurt and sent to the medical ward."

"When was that?" asked Naruto.

"Six months ago," said Sakura. "I refused to even speak with him."

"So, what have you been doing all this time?" asked Naruto.

"Practicing medical ninjutsu," said Sakura. "Lady Tsunade has been focusing me entirely on healing other people. I've actually kind of the best in the village beside her. She even has me in charge of surgeries sometimes."

"You don't sound happy," said Naruto.

"I'm not," said Sakura. "Not at all. When I joined the ninja academy with Ino, this isn't what I'd wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be out there having adventures before I ruined it all by obsessing over Sasuke. As if Sasuke had any good reason to pick me over any other vapid fangirl.

"Now I'm a medical ninjutsu prodigy who is hated by her co-workers for stealing their thunder. And Lady Tsunade keeps insisting on keeping me here on medical duty. All because I'm no good at combat or whatever."

"...Well, fine, when I go out on my first mission, you can be on my team," said Naruto. "That way, you'll be able to finally get in on the action."

"That's very kind, Naruto, but I should probably focus on-" began Sakura. Then Naruto grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away. "Hey! What are you doing?!"

"I'm not debating with you Sakura, you're going on a combat mission whether you think you should or not!" said Naruto simply.

'Since when did Naruto get a spine?' thought Sakura.

Though she thought it was a good chance.