DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

Edited: 01/04/2021

The Leaves of the Tree

16.

If there was one thing that grated on Sakura's nerves without fail, it was when people rained on her parade. If she did it? Perfectly acceptable. If it happened to others? Meh, no biggie. But if it was Sakura's happy march that was ruined by somebody else? Nope. She couldn't stand it. At all.

A full blown invasion while Sakura was still riding out the high of having kicked a possible traitor through a wall was, without a doubt, a personal attack. At least, Inner Sakura believed so. Loudly, vocally and very graphically – using language that would've made Kakashi-sensei cry if he ever heard it coming out of Sakura's mouth.

As it were, Sakura was too busy to say anything. The moment she felt a strange chakra glide against her skin, she immediately slapped together a release hand sign and jammed her pathways into a full stop. Before her, Naruto crumpled to the ground in a dead feint, and Sasuke was struggling in the arena, on his knees and visibly dazed. Behind her, Kakashi-sensei's sharingan was spinning angrily and Jiraiya unleashed his horrible killing intent again, making Sakura acutely aware of the fact something was Very Wrong. Capital letters necessary, trademarked by Tenten who had an unusually sharp talent for sensing when the metaphorical shit was about to hit the fan.

"Gaara's gone," Jiraiya said coldly, and Sakura could feel Kakashi-sensei stiffen.

"They want to let him loose," Kakashi-sensei growled.

"They don't know we've got one of our own," Jiraiya agreed and Sakura turned her head to look at him in suspicion. "Right. Sakura, get Naruto as close to the rampaging brat as you can."

"Naruto?" Sakura hissed and pointed a finger in the direction Gaara had run off, his body distorted and chakra positively evil. "You want me to let Naruto near that thing?"

"Not a thing," Jiraiya corrected. "Jinchuuriki."

Sakura paled when realisation struck and swayed on the spot.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei said seriously. "We'll be talking about secrets when this is over."

'Aw,' Inner Sakura mumbled shakily.

"Yes, sensei," Sakura agreed.

"Get Naruto to Gaara," Kakashi-sensei ordered. "You and Sasuke, arrest his siblings, hmm?"

'And you?" Inner Sakura demanded frantically. 'What about you?!'

Sakura just blinked and did her best to relay the question without opening her mouth.

Jiraiya straight out laughed at her.

"Yo, pinkie," he sniggered, "who do you think we are? For us this is like a party, yeah?"

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei patted her head softly and Sakura nodded.

As the two legends born out of Konoha disappeared, Sakura grabbed Naruto by the arm and hauled him with her into the arena. She pushed chakra into Naruto's body as she went and tightened her hold, expecting him to wake up flailing. She wasn't wrong, either. As soon as their feet touched the sand by Sasuke, Naruto regained consciousness in a flurry of wild kicks. One of them connected with Sasuke's head and brought him out of his stupor – which worked just fine for Sakura, as she wouldn't need to wake him up now.

"Orders!" Sakura yelped, to draw the boys' attention and prevent an unnecessary fight. "Get Naruto to Gaara, apprehend Temari and Kankuro."

"Why Naruto?" Sasuke growled and Sakura couldn't quite believe that little spark on indignation in his eyes, that little feeling of… something. Something remotely like –

'Oh fuck no, Mistress Uchiha,' Inner Sakura growled, 'not on my watch!'

Sakura was too stunned to intervene, and quite suddenly she was repeating Inner's rant verbatim at Sasuke, enforced by her own confusion over the situation, determination to keep Naruto and his secret safe, as well as sheer 'what-the-hell-are-you-pulling' type of irritation she usually reserved for Ino only.

"Listen here, Princess," Sakura's mouth declared, though the words weren't her own. "Now is not the time for a pissing contest. There's a damned invasion going on, in case you didn't notice, and Konoha ain't prepared for it! Could you for once in your life just do as you're told?!"

Sasuke blinked at her and Sakura took advantage of his shocked silence to assume head-position and start running after Gaara. Naruto followed immediately, he was used to her exploding and storming off, and he dragged Sasuke along. They kept their formation tight with as little openings as possible. Gaara's trail of destruction was easy to follow, and Sakura noted with relief he was headed for the forests around Konoha's border – an area that should be almost entirely vacant at this time, due to the ongoing exams.

They passed some skirmishes on their way, but luckily nobody thought to interfere with them. Or rather, no one else showed an inclination of following Gaara. Sakura caught a glimpse of Tenten, standing back to back with a pale Neji, and pummeling a group of Suna chunin. Their teamwork was seamless – even though Sakura knew firsthand their personal relationship was shit. Even though Neji had just been thoroughly thrashed by Naruto and wasn't using his Byakugan, he showed remarkable proficiency with regular taijutsu and a kunai in each hand. Whatever openings he had, Tenten covered. A little to their left, Lee had taken off his weights and was wreaking havoc, a one man taijutsu army the invaders weren't ready to face. Sakura assumed Gai-sensei was responsible for the congregation of hostiles ahead, as every few seconds a defeated opponent would be thrown out of the skirmish. Sakura hadn't thought Gai-sensei to be particularly vicious, but as they passed his defeated opponents she noticed they were all, without exception, dead.

Evidently, there would be no mercy shown to Konoha's enemies, not even from the likes of Gai-sensei.

"Man," Naruto whistled, "that's brutal, dattebayo."

"It's war," Sasuke snarked.

"Not yet," Sakura disagreed, "but depending on the outcome it could be."

"I can tell Kakashi-sensei's pretty pissed," Naruto said seriously and pointed to the northeast. "He's over there, alone."

"Alone?" Sakura almost squeaked. "That's where the gate is. Kakashi-sensei's defending it alone?"

"I think so," Naruto replied, "and the Great Pervert is by the Hokage Tower, along with Grandpa Third, and…"

When Naruto didn't continue, Sakura threw him a confused look over her shoulder.

"Who?" Sasuke demanded.

"Yellow-eyes," Naruto muttered.

Sakura's heart lurched and she immediately reached back, grabbed hold of Sasuke's shirt and pulled him forward to run by her side. She didn't let him go – she just transferred her hand to his and gripped tightly, channeling just enough chakra into her palm to make her grip uncomfortably tight, like Jiraiya had taught her.

"Don't even think about it!" Sakura hissed.

"He marked me!" Sasuke argued, infuriated.

"What do you think you can do?" Sakura snapped, too frightened to be tactful.

"I can –"

"Don't kid yourself," Sakura cut him off. "We need you with us, Sasuke. Over there you'll just be a nuisance."

"Damn, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, "what happened to you?"

"I don't like our orders," Sakura admitted. "I don't like them at all."

"Tough," Sasuke snarked, "I see them ahead."

Sakura took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. They really were ahead – Gaara twisted into a deformed creature made out of pulsing yellowish-flesh, with sickly looking, protruding blue veins and blood-shot eyes; Temari and Kankuro were cowering amongst the branched of a tree, as far away as they dared from their sibling. It almost looked like Gaara was struggling for something, as he kept yelling and arguing, seemingly with himself, though he addressed this invisible, voiceless entity as 'mother'.

"Okay," Sakura said softly and briefly touched Naruto's arm. "Go. We got this."

"Yosh!" Naruto exclaimed and sped past them, hollering at the top of his lungs for Gaara to snap out of it.

"It should be me," Sasuke grumbled.

"It really shouldn't," Sakura countered. "It shouldn't be Naruto, either, but if Jiraiya says he can do it, then he can."

"The dead last, right."

"Naruto hasn't been dead last in months," Sakura snapped and pushed a little more chakra into her feet. Naruto had zoomed past Temari and Kankuro, and his loud entrance into the fray snapped them out of their reverie. Temari reached for her fan, clearly intending to prevent Naruto from reaching Gaara, and Sakura would never let it happen. She launched herself forward with a burst of speed, pumped her fist to the limit and with an enigmatic 'shannaro' ringing in her head aimed for the gigantic fan.

Temari's eyes widened in surprise and she moved too slowly to counter. Sakura's fist punched through the metal encasing of Temari's fan and broke it cleanly in half. After delivering the successful attack, Sakura quickly dove out of Temari's immediate range and prepared herself to defend against Kankuro – but Sasuke was already engaging him.

It was strange, to work in sync with Sasuke without Naruto between them. Come to think of it, this never happened before. Not once had Sakura and Sasuke worked together as a duo. Sakura worked with Naruto, with Kakashi-sensei, with the whole team or on her own. Never with just Sasuke. At first it was because her incessant fangirling distracted her and got on his nerves, then it was because Kakashi-sensei wanted to capitalise on Naruto's inclination to obey Sakura. Sakura didn't know why they'd never been put together until now, but she trusted Kakashi-sensei had his reasons. Still, his reasons better be extraordinary because Sakura and Sasuke worked together better than Sakura'd ever worked with anyone.

Better than even Naruto.

It was as if Sasuke was aware of every movement in Sakura's arsenal and could predict them ten steps ahead of her, even without using his sharingan – he had yet to activate it for some reason. Sakura could read Sasuke just as well. She was attuned to his chakra on a subconscious level, moving out of the way of his jutsu before he began the hand sign sequence, and covering his back without planning it.

She felt the hairs on the nape of her neck tingle when Sasuke went for a Chidori to annihilate Kankuro's puppets, and instinctively Sakura knew he was too distracted by Naruto's fight to ace it – so she leapt over, slapped a hand over his back and reigned his chakra in harshly. Too harshly, truth be told. Sakura was used to doing this for Naruto, who's chakra was not unlike a raging volcano compared to her own. It needed her to be uncompromising if she expected to help Naruto direct it. Sasuke's chakra wasn't like this, and though it obeyed Sakura's direction it did so jerkily. Like a frightened animal desperate to be left alone. In this moment Sakura felt the differences between their chakras on a most intimate level.

Not just their contrasting natures: Sasuke's fire to her water, his lightening to Sakura's earth. It was more than that. Sakura's chakra was unyielding. It did as it was told, ruthlessly and without hesitation. Sakura governed it with an iron fist, a testament to her perfect control and domineering personality. Being soft and girly didn't come to Sakura naturally, she tended to trample on everybody in her way until she had what she wanted, discarding anything and anyone who weren't of interest. Sakura's chakra, like Sakura herself, was loyal, firm and determined.

Sasuke wasn't.

Sakura felt it in him for the first time. In the Forest of Death she was too frightened, too weak to really focus on Sasuke's chakra and read anything in it. She hadn't even thought about it. Now, Sakura was fuelled by adrenalin, invested in wrapping this up as quickly as she could so that she was free to go to Naruto. To protect him, to help him, to guard who she'd grown to see as a younger brother with all the ferocity of a mother bear. Naruto was hers. Sakura made him hers, claimed him as such and she wasn't ever letting go. She liked to keep her stuff and her people. The only one she ever released was Ino, and Sakura didn't like the experience. She wasn't ever repeating it. This desire drove her to do her best, and she could only do her best if she knew all the pieces on the board. She had to learn Sasuke better, and to do that meant to know his chakra, to hell with privacy.

Sasuke's chakra was terrified. It was in a constant state of battle for survival. It had no sense of loyalty, obedience or control. His chakra was adaptable, unrestrained and uncooperative. It recognized Sakura as an outsider and it cringed away from her, didn't want her assistance but was too surprised by the sudden intrusion to effectively reject Sakura's hold. More like, it wasn't used to encountering anything quite so determined. Sasuke's chakra was fearful, dark, uncompromising in its distrust of absolutely everything. Suddenly, Sakura was acutely aware of the fact Sasuke wasn't just an introverted, mysterious pretty boy. He was a loner because he repelled everything outside himself. No matter what, Sasuke wanted to be alone because solitude was safe.

He pushed Sakura away on as basic a level as his chakra.

Sakura quickly removed her hand from Sasuke's back, dodged a kunai from Temari and delivered an angry kick to the older girl's abdomen. It was entirely too overpowered for the situation, as Temari herself wasn't really aiming to kill. Her hits and strikes were half-hearted compared to the level she'd displayed in the arena. But Sakura was hurt, heartbroken and a little bit offended by what she'd just learned, so she struck out against a legitimate source. Hard, fast and unrepentant. It was in her nature.

"Are you guys insane?!" Kankuro yelled as Sasuke advanced, smashing the bits of destroyed puppets under his feet. "Can't you see we all have to get out of here?"

"We have orders," Sasuke said blandly, completely unimpressed.

"Orders?" Temari shrieked. "What orders could be worth standing in the way of a monster?!"

Monster.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched at that word and inside her, that little feeling of hurt was swallowed by indignation and justified anger.

'She called Gaara a monster,' Inner Sakura hissed. 'Her own brother!'

'Who's like Naruto,' Sakura growled right back.

'So basically –'

'She just called Naruto a monster.'

'Run her over!'

Sakura stomped her foot and the ground cracked under the hill of her shoe. Temari and Kankuro promptly shut up and stopped struggling. Sasuke, too, turned to gape at her. Suddenly all they could hear were Gaara's growls and pants, and Naruto's determined voice yelling at the crazed boy somewhere ahead of them.

"It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the feeling of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them!" Naruto yelled, and Sakura's heart swelled to a nearly unbearable level, where she felt as if it would burst soon.

She was one of those people, Naruto's precious people. She was privileged enough to be counted amongst them and to her Naruto was precious, too. Almost the most precious. A member of Sakura's self-made family. The younger brother she never had but honestly always wanted. Sakura's loudmouthed orange-clad menace, the second beloved blonde in her life, her ramen-crazed friend. Sakura's dearest, most loyal, truest friend.

"He's not a monster," Sakura said coldly. "He's a person. Did Gaara ask for this? Did he become this willingly? He didn't. Your face says so. And you – you've always treated him like a monster, didn't you? Didn't you?!"

Temari paled and began to shake her head slowly, whether in denial or condemnation, Sakura couldn't tell. She didn't care, either.

"That's why I'll never give up. I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me for who I am. They're my friends!" Naruto's words carried over towards them and emboldened Sakura at the same time as they brought tears to her eyes. She let them gather and she let them fall. Honestly, she felt like crying. Crying for the years she spent being mean to Naruto.

They were wasted years. Years during which she could've had this amazing humanoid sun in her life, and stupidly didn't.

"He's your brother!" Sakura hollered, and her voice caught on a sob. A guilty, painful sob. "Your baby brother! You should be the first person to protect him, to stand by his side! You should be his shield against outsiders and their poison! You should always have his back, always hold his hand and welcome him with open arms!"

"Shut up!" Temari yelled. "What do you know?!"

"Of course I know!" Sakura screeched, so loudly Naruto must've heard, because he wasn't speaking anymore. "Who do you think is fighting him? That's my younger brother! Mine! And so help me, if yours hurts him, I'll never let you go! Never! This is on you! Its an older sister's job to love and cherish her younger brothers, to help raise them right! Does this look right to you? Does Gaara being in so much pain, being so lonely and afraid seem right? He calls that creature mother! You should've taught him what your mother was really like! How could you turn your back on him? How could you?!" Sakura abruptly fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands, unable to look at Temari's stricken face any longer. "Gods above, if this was Naruto, I'd kill myself for doing this to him."

"Gaara," Temari whispered and something thudded loudly against the earth. Kankuro yelped in surprise and Sakura abruptly looked up, just in time to see Sasuke toss Kankuro back down and Temari charge over towards the berserk Gaara.

"Temari!" Kankuro yelled, "don't be stupid, come back!"

"Gaara!" Temari threw herself past Naruto and locked her arms around Gaara's slender neck in an awkward position. Her torso leaned oddly, half reclining against Gaara's distorted torso as Temari buried her face in his neck and cried loud, broken sobs. "Gaara, I'm so sorry! She's right, that girl's right. I should've been braver. I should've ignored father and stood by you. Mother always told me to watch over Kankuro, to watch over you. And I didn't! I didn't. I never hated you, Gaara. I don't hate you, I can't. You're my baby brother, I was there when you were born, did you know that? You were so small. So tiny. You were born too soon, and we were so afraid you wouldn't make it. But you did, Gaara, you did!" Temari leaned back and pressed her forehead against Gaara's. Gaara had stopped moving, completely stupefied by the change of events. His one undeformed eye was wide with open shock. "Do you know why mother named you Gaara? It's not because you're a self serving demon, not at all. It means self loving. Mother loved you. I love you!"

It was strange, the power words and genuine feelings held over the most broken of shinobi.

Temari's desperate affection in tandem with Naruto's determination worked like magic. Gaara retreated, or, rather, the entity Kankuro called 'Shukaku' retreated back into Gaara and left behind the boy. Tired, confused and frightened, Gaara wrapped his arms tightly around Temari's shoulders as his sister hoisted him onto her back, and cried. Kankuro hurried over and openly conquered his fear to pat Gaara comfortingly on the back and murmur his own version of what Temari had said. The Sand trio made a strange picture as they stumbled their way after Team 7 towards where Kakashi-sensei's chakra signature was. They were a testament of what bad parenting and cruel people could do, while also displaying that even the deepest of wounds could begin to heal.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto asked shyly from his spot on Sakura's back. She'd nearly bitten his head off when he said he could walk, and glared at Sasuke as if he was committing a grave sin when he made to pick Naruto up instead of her. "D'you really feel like that?"

"Like what?" Sakura asked snappishly. She was still feeling agitated by the ordeal and had no problem showing it.

"Y'know," Naruto murmured. "Like I'm your brother."

"I don't just feel it," Sakura said determinedly. "You are my brother, Naruto." Then she hesitated and faltered in her steps. "Unless you don't want to be? Then it's fine. I'm not forcing you. I just think, well, I don't know –"

"Sakura-chan," Naruto wailed dramatically, and hugged Sakura's shoulders tighter. "I love you so much!"

"Ugh, Naruto! Don't get snot on me, ya pig!"

"Sakura-chan!"