DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

Edited: 01/04/2021

The Leaves of the Tree

17.

Naruto remembered the first time he'd met Sakura-chan perfectly.

They were both five, each sitting in their own lonesome corner of the playground, and both were disliked by everybody else. While Sakura would curl into a ball and bawl her eyes out in the face of her bullies, Naruto beat them up and loudly declared he was going to become Hokage someday, so they'd better fix their attitudes. The day they'd officially met, Naruto packed up all his courage and stealthily approached Sakura to tell her she had amazing hair.

Five year old Sakura was terribly offended, convinced Naruto was making fun of her, and promptly started crying. Five year old Yamanaka Ino descended on the scene like a vulture, kicked Naruto very hard in the shin and dragged Sakura way. Naruto was left that day with the knowledge that girls were plain weird and the strong impression that when it came to Sakura-chan, he did something wrong. He didn't know what it was, but it was something.

Over their years in the academy and then after they were put on a genin team together, Naruto reaffirmed these things. With a few changes. Not all girls were weird, as Tenten was perfectly normal, but some were weirder than others – like Ino, who was plain crazy. Also, it wasn't that Naruto had done something wrong with Sakura-chan, it was that Naruto's whole approach to Sakura-chan had been wrong. He shouldn't have snuck up on her, flirted with her incessantly, pranked her or yelled in her ear. Sakura-chan hated that last one with a passion.

Nowadays Sakura-chan wasn't very likely to cry from any of those, though. She'd just bulldoze her way through the offending specimen with all the savagery of a prepubescent girl who had zero impulse-control, was a hundred percent geared towards rudeness, and was not inclined to play nice. Luckily for Naruto, most of the time this was pointed towards anyone who was slow on the uptake of Konoha's most widely spread rumour: you mess with Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura descends on you like a fury out of hell. You try to put up a fight? Haruno Mebuki will find you and then you might as well prepare for your funeral.

So yeah, Naruto was living the life and loving it.

From his place of honor as Sakura-chan's best teammate, best blonde, and best buddy, Naruto considered himself to be a qualified Sakura-handler, and well deserving of the title. Now he knew what to do and not to do.

"Just think of Sakura-chan as one of those old, sleepy bears, 'ttebayo," Naruto told Shikamaru very seriously before the whole mess with the chunin exams was even announced. "So long as she's calm, leave her alone. Don't go near her, don't look at her wrong and don't poke her."

"What if she isn't calm?" Choji asked curiously, as Shikamaru nursed his blackeye – courtesy of an infuriated Sakura who was being calmed down a safe distance away by Hinata.

"Don't move," Naruto said sagely. "When she's angry, Sakura's vision is based on movement. So long as ya hold still, some other moron's gonna take the fall for you."

"Yeah," Shikamaru hissed. "Like you did to me. Troublesome."

"Eh, it's a survivalist world," Tenten shrugged from her spot by the boys, and that was that.

As they stood by the make-shift infirmary designated for treating the lightly wounded, Naruto watched Kakashi-sensei make all the mistakes at the worst possible time.

First of all, Kakashi-sensei snuck up on them, which grated on Sakura-chan's already frayed nerves.

"Yo," Kakashi-sensei said, his tone significantly less enthusiastic than normal.

"Wah!" Sakura-chan had flinched with enough violence to smack Kankuro on the nose. They were still guarding the Suna-Three, as Naruto decided to dub them, and standing in close quarters together as, for some reason, it seemed to calm Gaara down.

Sasuke-teme leveled Kakashi-sensei with his patented stink eye and Naruto glared his own widely recognized look-of-suspicion at their grey-haired jonin instructor.

"What the hell, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto protested.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei! This is so not the time for sneaking up on people!" Sakura-chan complained in an angry hiss, much like a cat would.

"Mah," Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "It can't be helped."

Then he made mistake number two: he told Sakura-chan to calm down.

"Now, Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei began in a quiet and serious tone.

The three members of Team 7 immediately straightened and narrowed their eyes attentively. Kakashi-sensei only ever used this tone when they were either a- in big trouble, b- about to be in trouble, or c- landed someone else in trouble. Neither option was particularly possible at the moment, which suddenly enabled an option d that hadn't existed before: Kakashi-sensei had bad news.

"I'd like to you please sit, take a deep breath and try to calm down."

"What?" Sakura-chan blinked. "But sensei, I am calm. And I'm already sitting."

"Ah, yes, that you are."

Sakura-chan's eyebrow twitched in a very familiar warning sign. Had it been directed at him, Naruto would've run by now. Jiraiya-perv also would've sought cover. Kakashi-sensei didn't do either, which made sense as Sakura-chan never tried to attack him before. Instead, he knelt down until he was eye-level with Sakura-chan and took one of her hands in his significantly larger ones.

'Strike three!' Naruto thought in alarm, 'physical contact initiated! Run for the hills!'

"You need to wait awhile before you can go home, Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei said with an uncharacteristic softness in his voice.

"Huh?" Sakura-chan blinked. "Wait, was the house destroyed? Are my parents okay?!"

"No, no, the house is fine. That's not the problem," Kakashi-sensei said hurriedly and that was all it really took for everyone to get it.

Sakura-chan's parents were the problem.

Sakura-chan was on her feet and running down the road in three seconds. She left her weapon pouch and hitai-ate behind, along with the pins she used to hold up her hair. She'd had to take them all out for the physical check up they'd undergone before Kakashi-sensei's arrival. Sakura's pink hair fell down to her hips in two messy, half undone braids. They swayed as she ran, left-right, side-to-side, and it was almost hypnotic. Almost enough to entrance the watcher.

Sakura-chan's parents were hurt.

Mebuki-obaa and Kizashi-oji. Sakura-chan's parents. Her dad, who'd had Naruto's little apartment all fixed up in record time after Sakura-chan complained about its state around half a year ago. Her mom, who made amazing ramen, and ramen-themed feasts, and introduced Naruto to five new styles of ramen from the capital. Her parents, who just gave Naruto a key to their house two weeks ago and told him to come over more often. Who sent him food once a week for the last year because why ever not? Who were the nicest pair of civilians Naruto had ever met. The nicest pair of people.

Mebuki-obaa, who had the same green eyes as Sakura-chan, and Kizashi-oji, who had pinkish hair.

Naruto threw himself after Sakura-chan, running as fast as his body would allow. It felt like he's been frozen for a long time, but in truth he'd reacted barely a second after she did – the fox-bastard told him so in a bored, uninterested tone.

For as longs as Naruto could remember, he'd been able to talk to the kyubi in his belly. At least, Naruto thought he was in his belly, but the fox-bastard insisted it wasn't even possible. Sure, he'd not realised who the owner of the snarky voice was as a little kid and after he found out about the fox he did his level best to not engage. But. After Jiraiya-perv threw Naruto off that cliff, and Naruto summoned up Boss Gamabunta, he dreamt of the fox every night. He'd spent the entire time since then having nightly arguments with the kyubi, hurling insults and just being as loud as he could be – all to drown out the fox-bastard's hurtful words, or just to plain annoy him. Naruto felt betrayed: his imaginary friend who'd been with him since childhood wasn't imaginary at all and chose to let Naruto live a lie.

Obviously, they didn't quite see eye-to-eye on that topic and hadn't been getting along since Naruto's discovery. But today after the old orange furball helped Naruto beat up Neji out of his own volition, Naruto decided to be nice to him again. Anyone who would cause that awesome an explosion just to prove a point was someone Naruto wanted on his friend list, and hey, kyubi was living in him rent-free, so he might as well fix his attitude and serve up.

'Focus, dumbass,' The kyubi drawled and Naruto narrowly avoided crashing into a collapsed pillar right ahead of him.

Running through a half-demolished Konoha was difficult. Most shinobi moved at such high speeds, even as simple genin, that they completely depended on muscle memory – especially when around their own village. A little bit to his left Naruto caught sight of Sasuke-teme pivoting sharply out of an old lady's way, and on his right Kakashi-sensei was running with them – not ahead of them. Naruto didn't know if it was a testament to Kakashi-sensei's levels of exhaustion or if the jonin was shaken by the destroyed scenery as much as his students. The village was nearly torn apart, not a speck of it easily recognizable and entire parts completely missing.

'Exhaustion,' The fox supplied, entirely unhelpfully. 'That devil-eyed brat was faster than this when he was shorter than your midget ass.'

'You know Kaka-sensei?'

'No.'

'But you just said –'

'Focus, brat,' The fox repeated in a low growl, just as Naruto turned the corner, hopped over a caved in fissure and stepped foot onto Sakura-chan's street. 'I smell blood. Lots of it.'

Even Naruto could smell it, but from the outside everything was in perfect order. Most of the street was in pristine condition, as if the invasion hadn't concluded in an expensively bought Konoha victory just an hour ago. As if entire neighborhoods and compounds hadn't been uprooted entirely less than five hundred meters away. White picket fences, aesthetically trimmed bushes and intricate gates were the first things people saw when entering this particular middle-class area. This was the merchant district of Konoha, and though it wasn't the richest area, it was the home of the indisputably richest merchant family around.

Sakura-chan's family.

Sakura-chan's home was just as nice looking as it was when Naruto saw it last – that very morning. A two story house with a roof garden, a popular trend from Tea Country, and large windows. Two sakura trees somehow managed to grow themselves around each other, forming the gateway into the front yard. There was a miniature pond with lotus flowers floating about and several well groomed rose bushes in full bloom. Despite not being the biggest house on the street, or even inside the neighborhood, something about it was just… Naruto didn't quite have the words.

Only after Sakura-chan dragged him over for the first time did he finally realise she wasn't kidding when she said she was rich.

"Sakura lives here?" Sasuke-teme asked in surprise.

"Yeah?" Naruto blinked. "You didn't know?"

"How'd you know?" Sasuke demanded by way of answer.

"I have a key," Naruto said right back, and took immense pleasure in the sullen expression Sasuke adopted right after.

"Sakura isn't out here," Kakashi-sensei said tightly, "that's not good, she shouldn't –"

An explosively loud, shrill scream tore through the silence of the street. It continued on and on, unstopping, and only gained volume. Naruto had never heard Sakura-chan scream like that before, had never wanted to hear it, but he had a feeling he'll never forget this sound. Nor the feelings of fear, worry and urgency it set loose inside him.

Evidently, he wasn't the only one affected, as Kakashi-sensei visibly found new wells of strength inside himself, because he stormed inside the house without hesitation. Naruto and Sasuke followed closely behind him and as soon as Naruto stepped in and past Kakashi-sensei, he wished he hadn't.

Sakura-chan stood in the middle of her living room. Her hands were up in her hair, grabbing at her scalp as she continued to wail, like some sort of creature sent solely to inform mere mortals that grief was upon them. The blood was everywhere. Literally all over the place, no surface left untouched. Some sprays looked accidental, like a vein being cut at a particular point of high-pressure and bursting on accident, but most of it? Oh no. No, it was very intentional.

Nobody went about disemboweling, dismembering and decapitating people, then spreading all their pieces in strategic locations around the main entrance to their abode, on accident.

By Sakura's feet was Kizashi-oji's head. His eyes were gouged out and hung from one of the ceiling lights above Sakura's head, along with some other bits of innards, and they steadily dripped blood onto her hair. Mebuki-obaa's head was put on top of the fruit bowl, her blood filling it to the brim and covering the ripe apples inside grotesquely. Her green eyes, the same as Sakura-chan's, stared ahead unseeingly, her normally friendly and slightly mischievous expression twisted in horror and pain. Their nude, brutalized torsos were each put in different corners, like some sort of sick attempt to mimic headless busts. This alone was enough of a sight to make Naruto feel more than a little queasy. But this wasn't the end of it, no.

Above Mebuki's head, in crude red letters drawn with blood, was a message.

'Best regards, bitch.'

This was meant for Sakura-chan. This was…

"I'm gonna hurl," Naruto said flatly.

"Not the time, dobe," Sasuke warned shakily, and Naruto noticed he looked a little green himself.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei had stepped forward and put himself directly in front of Sakura-chan, blocking her view. He grabbed hold of her arms and attempted to pry them off her head without harming the screeching girl in the process. "Sakura-chan, breathe. Please, just breathe."

Sakura-chan didn't breathe.

She screamed louder and struggled desperately, kicked out, scratched, punched and bit at Kakashi-sensei who just stood there and let her do it. He took the onslaught of violence without trying to defend himself, and leveled Naruto and Sasuke with a warning look when they'd moved forward to intervene. It didn't matter either way, as Sakura-chan's screaming effectively interrupted her oxygen supply and in a matter of minutes she couldn't keep up anymore. She swayed on her feet, pale and frail in a way Naruto had never, ever seen her, before falling backwards in a faint. She would've hit the bloodied ground had Sasuke not thrown himself forward and caught her, moving before Kakashi-sensei could. Naruto wasn't even thinking about it. He was still attempting to process what all of this meant, what had happened.

The fact his Sakura-chan, his sister, just lost her family.

That he lost his new, kind-of, sort-of, almost family.

That this was personal.

"Hospital," Sasuke ground out through clenched teeth. "Sakura needs help."

"Go," Kakashi-sensei ordered and just like that Sasuke was out the door, running faster than Naruto had ever seen him do before. He couldn't find it in himself to follow. "Naruto. You're going into shock," Kakashi-sensei told him seriously.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, because the old fox had already given him the same diagnosis a moment before.

"I'm going to pick you up now and take you to the hospital."

"Okay."

Kakashi-sensei seemed to nod, but Naruto couldn't be sure. He wasn't capable of looking away from Mebuki-obaa's eyes. So green, so pretty, so much like Sakura-chan's. Empty, unseeing, wide with fear.

It's three hours later, when Naruto's staring at Sakura-chan's unconscious form, dwarfed by the hospital bed, that he slowly regains the ability to think. Team 7's refused to leave Sakura-chan's side, and no doctor had the time to argue with them, not in the aftermath of the invasion and the Sandaime's death. The only reason Sakura-chan was in a bed, inside a room, with a blanket over her was her last name and the clan symbol on her back. The civilian nurse took one look at it before kicking out a middle-aged woman to give Sakura the coveted spot.

'So much death,' Naruto thought stoically. 'So much needless death.'

'It's what you humans do,' The fox informed him cruelly and Naruto didn't have it in him to argue this time. Not when there were six other people in this room, not all of them on beds and some missing limbs.

Kakashi-sensei sat by the window, nose buried in his familiar Icha Icha book, but quite obviously not reading. Naruto curled in on himself by the jonin's feet, where he could easily observe Sakura-chan but still felt a speck of privacy. Nobody dared stare too long in the furious Copy-Cat's direction. The only one moving about was Sasuke. He almost seemed to be prowling around Sakura-chan's bed, as if he'd mapped out a perimeter in his head and was now guarding it jealously. After every round he'd stop, stare at Sakura-chan for a moment and then continue. When Sakura-chan moved, Sasuke immediately stopped his rounds to fix her blankets and tuck her in again, before resuming his strange patrol. It was the oddest thing Naruto had ever seen.

'Nothing odd about it,' the fox snorted.

'Yeah? Explain it to me.'

'The little Uchiha spawn's in love with her,' the fox deadpanned.

Naruto's brain short-circuited. He briefly glanced to his weapon pouch and debated murdering Sasuke-teme right there – because how dare he? Sakura-chan was way too good for his brooding ass, and he was mean to her like, all the time! All the time! – but the fox continued in the same uninterested drawl, and his words stopped Naruto from moving.

'Wonder how it'll kill him.'

'What?!'

But the fox wouldn't speak again.