Deadication: For Miss Dany, a wonderful encourager and godsend, at your request, here are those Kiri boys. :)
Sakura could hear the voices in the steel long before she knew what this meant. Years later she's nearly killed for this reason and is sent running out of the Land of Fire and into the neighboring country of Water for refuge. But her life is still not safe and very well never will be considering that's she's one of the only Sages alive, a person with the power to animate the nonliving as human soldiers. In her hands blades become warriors more fantastically loyal than any human born legion. She's a dangerous player in the world of warring shoguns, but all she wants to do is dirty her hands and make beautiful blade sin the forge.
In order to stay alive Sakura animates several Kiri treasured blades and is a little surprised with what happens next.
Touken Revolution
刀剣 -革命
刀
Tou = a word for swords/knives/bladed weapons
剣
Ken = usually refer to swords/katanas
刀剣
Touken = (multiple) swords/bladed weapons and katanas
revolution : [rev-uh-loo-shuh n]
noun
1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.
2. Sociology. a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.
3. a sudden, complete or marked change in something: the present revolution in church architecture.
Part 2
The world was dull with night, color was leached out of the details and all Sakura could see were the barest and most vague shapes.
With what control she had, Sakura fell back into that rush and let her spirit travel somewhere else.
Sakura hung on the hip of a soldier just as voiceless in the land of wind, and then a dagger left in the rotting corpse of a friend just south of the land of whirlpools. She stayed stuck in a wakizashi being held by a boy barely ten years old, training with his father in the land of fire. He was barely able to hold the dull, old sword, but his father took him aside and whispered words of encouragement and direction in the dark hours of the night. With a swing Sakura looked back and saw their clothing marked them as the poorest of menial laborers. No wonder they were practicing in the dark hours, the only time when their masters wouldn't see them.
Sakura skipped from sword to sword, quickly losing track of how many times she had slipped and jumped. Sakura traveled the world until something kept her in place.
If she had blood in her veins that could freeze Sakura was sure they would. Orochimaru leaned over a table examining something in a room lit by a handful of flickering candles and one personal lantern. New light flooded the room and he turned to greet Danzo with a reptilian smile.
"It's still not done," the old man rumbled. His face was always frowning, but there was more displeasure than usual when Danzo looked at Orochimaru's workbench.
"I was saving the best for when you would be here to see it. It doesn't make a difference if they are sword or boy, they can hear me just as well either way. I've instructed him in your plans well."
Danzo didn't move, or speak and the inaction made Orochimaru huff in fake agitation. The sage stood from the table and flipped back the tail ends of his overcoat, letting them flutter back down around his legs dramatically.
"You are no fun to tease. I feel all my efforts to make you itch fall short."
"I do not tolerate your existence for the fun of it, sage," Danzo growled.
"No one does, do they?"
Orochimaru chuckled blithely with a casual wave over his shoulder. He then turned and grabbed the sword off the table and turned it over his wrist once before pointing it at Danz. He let his fingers go a little slack and the point of the sword turned up, the weight of the hilt bringing it down and turning the horizontal object vertical.
Slowly, as if he enjoyed the dramatics of it, Orochimaru let go of the sword just as a light started to bloom from deep inside it. There was a burning flash that erased sight for a moment. In the next instance the light was gone and in its place stood a man with short dirty hair and clear blue eyes like a demon's.
"He'll be perfect for what you need. He'll fit right in with the other field medics."
Danzo approached the sword made man and stopped close enough to reach out and touch the younger man. He grunted, nodded, and then turned back around. "Come with me, boy. I'm assigning you to the 19th Division under Terai here."
Out of the shadows stepped a figure cloaked head to toe in gray and wearing a white animal mask. Sakura saw the mask and remembered hearing ghost stories about dead men who came back for vengeance wearing such masks. Terri's mask had three eyebrow-like markings above each eye hole and a red cat-like nose, making it look almost like an animal she could recognize, while still maintaining that element of the bizarre.
Sakura brain sluggishly noticed something: 19th Division. It sounded like the military talk that came right before a war. Danzo was equipping his divisions with sword born fighters supplied by Orochimaru. It smelled like conquest through and through.
"I will expect the other swords no later than the end of this week, Orochimaru. You know I am on a tight schedule."
Orochimaru hummed loudly, folding his hands behind his back and inclining his head in a mockery of a bow. "You want them that soon you're going to have to train them yourself. I'll give you what you ask for when you ask for them, but the quality will be shoddy. You want that when you're pushing into a foreign country filled with capable soldiers who know their own terrain better than you?"
Danzo growled. "You've had just as long with them as you have with this one. Why does it take you so much longer?"
"Well, for one thing, Terai was a bit more sane to start with. These blades from the slaughtered Kaguya clan are just as batshit crazy as their unfortunate wielders. They're a bit too wild to depend on just yet."
The Kaguya clan was a clan the lived on and around Kiri. They were a wild roving people and they knew the environment of the land of mist better than strangers. It made Sakura chill.
"How long do you expect to keep me waiting this time?"
"I can get the first dozen to you in two weeks, and the rest in another two weeks after that."
"I don't like to be kept waiting."
Orochimaru's eyes slithered around the room, taking in the reflection caught on multiple hanging swords that Sakura only just noticed. The room was littered with blades.
"Don't make the mistake and think I'm as free as one of your concubines. I have plenty of work to exhaust myself on. I've been taxed quite heavily this past week tracking down your little runaway."
"Yet you've had no luck with it."
"Oh, I wouldn't rely on luck. I'm banking on my skill."
"Arrogant snake." Danzo swept out of the room and over his shoulder he called. "I'll be back in two weeks."
The door to the outside closed and the room went dark. Sakura watched as Orochimaru stayed standing in the same position, looking at the closed door with a frozen smile before slowly turning to the wall of swords she was hanging on. His smile stretched up to his eyes and in the firelight they burned like saffron embers sunk in his skull.
Sakura tried to leave, tried to fall back into the rush and spirit away, back to her body, but the rush was gone. There was nothing to fall back into and Sakura felt solidness around her like she was literally trapped by stone and walls.
"Don't bother little girl," Orochimaru taunted. "I've been luring you here for days. Now that you're finally here I'm not letting you go so easily."
Sakura's fear surged and she wanted to scream. Maybe Orochimaru heard her because his eyes grew brighter as his grin split open and a deep, hacking laugh, filled the room around them. Sakura cursed his name and just just laughed harder and louder.
"Struggle all you want, you're on your own here, and I've got years over you, little girl. I'm the master of the magical world and you're more hopeless than a gnat in my web. You think you were free in a place where steel and arrows couldn't reach you? Maybe my men can't track you down, but that doesn't mean you're safe."
Orochimaru reached for the sword she was trapped in and pulled it off the wall. Sakura felt herself moved like a lightning bug caught in a glass cage. He dropped her onto his table and she saw her sword's reflection in the other blades around her. The sword was wrapped in paper wards inked with magic amplifiers. The sword literally was a prison designed to draw her towards it. The dizziness over the past few days started to make sense. Taxing herself and pushing herself beyond her limits made her susceptible.
"Let me go you bastard! I'm not anything to you." Sakura seethed from within the blade.
Orochimaru settled into the seat at the table and propped his head on his hand, mocking her with a fake smile. "You're nothing to me? Oh, but my dear, you're my everything. You're the bane of my existence, the thorn in my side, the gnat in my ear, and the blight on my perfect plan. There isn't room enough in this world for two gods and I'll strike down anyone who dares to even threaten my reign."
"That's not right," Sakura yelled, feeling frantic energy running all through her.
His reply sounded like a hiss. "You're the bug and I'm the boot and it's your destiny to be squashed."
Sakura screamed, fire filling her blood as she pressed up all her energy and set against the binds around her. Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at her efforts but the quirk in his lips was there when Sakura snapped and felt the blood in her throat again. She didn't have a throat, but the sensation was there and she collapsed from the far parts of her prison, collecting her edges unto herself.
"Yes, that's what I thought," he hummed. He tapped the sword and she felt a shudder run through her. "Have fun rotting in steel my annoying gnat of an advisory."
And in the moments after that Sakura nearly went insane.
Time was a thing she could no longer understand. It was always dark and always quiet and always lonely. She couldn't see anything without the lights, she couldn't feel anything except her restrictions, she couldn't even hear anything outside the sword thanks to the wards. She was cut off in the most insane way imaginable and it drove her nearly mad.
Orochimaru did come back once or twice. He gloated and smiled and snuffed out all the lights and even laughed when she screamed her curses at his retreating back. Sakura thought it was maybe two days before she felt something change. She forced herself to press up against the boundaries of her prison and felt them weaken.
She had rested and she had steeped in anger long enough that she didn't even hesitate.
With everything inside her Sakura raged hotter than the force and spread herself far and wide. She hit the boundaries and then kept spreading. The pressure around her mounted and she heard a sound that made her want to cry. A tiny tear, then another, then a longer rip and then shredding as all the wards were desecrated and the boundaries broken down. With a cry Sakura surged back into the rush, back across the countries, back into the light, and back into her body with a scream.
Sakura bolted upright in a cold sweat, still screaming and gasping. Her body shook like it was a glove she was still trying to fit into. She convulsed and fell backwards in her bed, twisting sideways and then settling with a shuddering gasp.
"Don't touch her yet!"
Sakura forced her eyes open and saw the face of a woman, and then another. She blinked and noticed there were three new women in the room in addition to Sai and Kisame. The door was open and Zabuza stood there with Haku just past his shoulder.
Sakura coughed and swore when she breathed in clean air and didn't hack up anymore blood.
"You're back, you're safe," the first girl with short brown hair and purple marks on her face exclaimed. Her hands reached to grab something off Sakura's forehead.
Sakura felt the stick of honey on her skin and looked up to see a ward place upside down in the girl's hand. One ward against another. No wonder the barriers felt weaker than before.
"Who?" Sakura could only manage one word.
"I'm Rin, that's Shizune," she said while pointing to a woman with short black hair before moving her index finger to hover in front of the last blond woman. "And that's the legendary sage princess Tsunade. She's the one that drew the wards."
Sakura nodded once before letting her eyes falling shut and her body limp.
"Sakura?" Sai called, reaching for her. This time Rin didn't warn him back and Sakura felt the boy's hands on her arm. She turned her hand over and flexed her fingers and he reached to grab her hand and hold it back.
"Damn," Sakura murmured. She forced her eyes open and then shifted to try and prop herself up on her elbows. "That was a fun trip I never want to go on again."
The stern blond at the end of the bed cracked a smile. "I imagine that's the understatement of the year if you were where I think you were."
"Orochimaru's dungeon of nothing," Sakura grumbled. She forced herself up on her hands and reached for her face, feeling it like she was sure it wasn't there. "He's building an army for Danzo."
The others in the room went still at her words but no one said anything.
"He had a…a bunch of Kaguya swords from the Kaguya clan in Kiri and…I think he's turning them so that they can be terrain specialists in Danzo's army. That's what it sounded like when Danzo was there."
"You were there when Danzo was in the room," the dark haired woman, Shizune, gasped. "Tsunade, that confirms Lord Jiraiya's theory."
"You sure you remember correctly, girl?" Tsunade asked, ignoring Shizune. "Being separated from your body for so long can make lesser men go mad and remember things that never were."
Sakura coughed and scratched at her scalp, brushing her hair back with her fingers and noticing how greasy it had become. "No way," she said. "I remember everything vividly. The only thing that's fuzzy is my perception of time. Was it two days I was gone?"
"Try four, kid," sighed Kisame. Sakura turned and saw him looking worn out but he still released a tired breath as he ran a hand through his own hair. "Tsunade got her yesterday morning and's been working on you ever since. Rin here got your body stable four days ago when Suigetsu brought her back."
"If that hadn't happened, you never would have survived the strain coming back," Tsunade said. "It was a group effort."
Sakura swallowed and bent her head down, touching her forehead to her knees. "I can't thank you enough. Thank you for saving my life."
"Don't waste your breath, it wasn't an entirely noble act on my part. I live to be a pest to that old snake. I've not been able to do anything annoying in far too long and I'm glad I was able to put a little piss in his morning tea if you know what I mean," said the older woman. Her smile at the end was almost not there, and Sakura imagined the other sage must be exhausted on her own end.
Sakura swallowed again, feeling dry. Before she could say anything Kisame had a cup of water and was pressing it into her hands. "Here, drink it all. You're barely alive as it is. We're feeding you soon, too. Damn, you nearly gave us all heart attacks for every day you weren't here running around."
Sakura almost called him a liar jokingly, but thought better of it after the water disappeared down her throat. "Sorry for making you all worry. I hadn't meant to…and I had no idea that Orochimaru was doing anything like that. I thought he forgot about me."
Tsunade snorted. "Hardly likely. The piss ant is scared of few things. Be proud to be one of his fears."
Tsunade stood and gestured to Shizune. "We're going to get Kakashi. I imagine that he'll want to know about what you heard and saw. That information needs to get to Mei as soon as possible if the snake really is planning an invasion like we feared."
"That's what it sounded like. I'm not sure when that's going to happen, but Orochimaru said he would have the Kaguya blades done in four weeks."
Said spoke while wordlessly observing the blonde woman. She was beautiful in a way women in power often were, with a back built with perfect posture and a set of eyes that had seen too much to not be hard by default. Beyond the fuzzy idea Sakura also took note of how the woman was dressed. There were no fancy robes or shawls or fine kiminos. The woman wore a simple yukata cut shirt left liberally open in the front and complementary trousers that didn't even reach the end of her calves. She didn't conform to modern styles, but wore whatever pleased her it seemed.
Sakura felt a stab of envy in her heart she recognized as admiration. What a strong woman. She was beautiful in traditional ways, but broke the boundaries in other ways. Sakura wanted to be like that one day.
"Lovely. It looks like I might have to get my hands dirty again after all. Come on Shizune," said Tsunade. She turned back once more to look at Sakura and smirked. "Get better soon, we will have work to do."
It felt like Sakura hadn't been gone at all when she went back to work. She used the early mornings to run and exercise The muscle was still there, and she felt angry enough to hone it further. Sai stayed close to her the whole time and refused to let her out of his sight except for baths and few very rare occasions. He didn't cling to her side, but was always close.
"We need you to run surveillance for this mission," Kakashi said one day.
Sakura held herself still on the edge of the roof, straining as her arms burned from keeping herself upright for so long.
"I can't do it," Sai said, never looking up at Kakashi.
Sakura dropped from the ledge and turned, grabbing for a cloth and wiping it across her face. "Sai…" She threw the sweat rag aside and fit her hands over her hips. "Honey, you can't keep moping like this. The others have gone on missions and they need you for this."
"You need me."
"I'm fine."
"You need me more than they do."
She shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Honey, I'm sorry I scared you, but I swear I'm fine. Tsunade and Rin are here helping me out, and there's Shizune and Kakashi and many others who are here being helpful and keeping this place fine. I'm going to be okay."
"I wasn't meant to be apart from your side. I'm a tantou. I'm supposed to be here, next to you, where you can reach me."
Kakashi stared at Sakura over Sai's face sending her an unreadable expression she understood well enough with the context. Her scare had shook him more than the others and no one would be able to restore his faith and confidence better than her.
Sakura crouched down and reached for his hand. He reached back for her easily, looking up shyly with eyes filled with hope, but her face was not warm. "Sai, I need you to do this for me. Go scout with the team. Be my eyes in places I can not travel."
His face shook, but she held his hand firm when he tried to pull back. "I-I…" She watched him swallow as he struggled with his desire to serve and be used against his desire to stay and see her safe.
Sakura held his hand a second more and stood. She didn't say anything more, but turned back to the doorway and jumped back up to continue her chin ups. She got through four before Sai stood to leave with Kakashi.
"Would you have done it differently?" Sakura asked over her shoulder. She didn't stop, but pulled herself up again and again.
Zabuza snorted from the shadows softly, barely making a sound. "Nah, probably not if I were you. If I were me, I'd tell the kid to scram and then kick at the dirt."
Sakura chuckled. "How did that help Haku?"
"Not at all, the kid's still glued."
Sakura dropped down, finishing her count at thirty five. Her arms ached but it was a good ache. Unlike the other days, Sakura was in a short yukata that was dingy enough to sweat into freely and discard after a bath. The sleeves were ripped off and the front hung open enough that the upper portion of her bandaged breasts peeked through.
"I'm not sure I would be any more successful with my shadow if I did what you did."
"Maybe not, but is that really the point?"
Sakura reached for the water and drank freely. "Sai is young but not too young for this to still be acceptable. I need him to grow. I need him to mature."
"He will."
Sakura chuckled. "I feel like a mother."
"You're too young to be a mother," Zabuza responded calmly.
It was too casual and the words were out before Sakura could stop herself. "I was once, almost." She realized too late what she couldn't take back. When she looked back Zabuza was staring at her more openly. "I'm sorry, don't-oh, please forget that. I'm not sure what I meant."
He watched her a second longer and then nodded slowly. "Sure." A beat passed and then, "Are you okay?"
Sakura forced an ill fitting smile onto her face. "I had forgotten, honestly. It was a long time ago and I didn't tell anyone about it."
"Do you want to?"
Sakura stared around them. They were a little ways away from the rest of the manor and in a pretty open clearing. She couldn't hear anymore voices nearby and knew that most of the boys were either getting ready to leave or already off somewhere in Kiri doing business.
"Maybe," she admitted.
Zabuza didn't say anything but he sat down in the grass under the single tree and Sakura paced over to join him. He offered her a snack from his pockets and Sakura thanked him for the mochi treat.
"It was when I was like…twelve or maybe younger. I know it was right after I started bleeding and my mom wanted me to be a housewife and sometimes she forgot I didn't want to be her. It was the son of one of her friends and he was only eight or nine years older so it was okay and acceptable. I wasn't forced, I went along with it, but I realized pretty soon that the life I had been fit into wasn't for me."
"Oh?"
Sakura rolled her shoulders and faced forward, looking at the sky and the world in front of her like it was too hard to turn and see Kisame there, sitting next to her and hearing everything.
"I was too young and couldn't carry to baby to term and it all scared me too much and he didn't want to put up with a hysterical wife. I ran away to the one place I felt safe and I stayed with Sarutobi ever since."
"The guy…"
"Ended up remarrying and then dying from some stupid sickness. I guess that makes me a widower? Does it count if you run away and he marries someone else?"
She forced herself to look back and see Zabuza. His face was tilted down, staring at the grass. "Doesn't matter," he grunted. "You're here now and that's just something in the past. I can't relate and I think I can only begin to understand parts of what you must have felt. Does it still bother you?"
"Honestly I hadn't remembered it until just now. It was so long ago and I feel like that was a part of my life when I wasn't being honest to myself, so it doesn't count." Sakura ducked her head in her shoulders. "Also, people are nicer when they think you've never been married. It was better for business to cut those ties and pretend it never happened. It didn't bother me. You know, a seer once told me I didn't have a red string of fate or a future in love. No, my thread of fate is a tassel on the hilt of a sword apparently."
"Like I said, it doesn't matter. What happened doesn't change you, who you are, or how you treat others. You're a lot more thoughtful than you know."
Sakura buried her head in the space between her knees and chest. "Can you do me a favor? Please don't tell the others. Don't ever mention it. I'm not ashamed of it but…I don't feel like that's who I am and I don't want people treating me differently." She peeked up between the stray strands of pink. "Please?"
"Of course."
Sakura closed her eyes and whispered to herself softly. "Shit."
Zabuza grunted, asking her without words what her curse was for.
"I think I'm the same as them." She looked up and he was still watching her, waiting for her to go on. "I think that I'm just like all of you, all wanting to be used. I used to think that might be a strange trait for all you to have but that's what I wanted too. I wanted to be wanted, to be valued, to have my name mean something. I wanted someone to see me, the real me, the me who was honest and true to herself, and not think her…lacking."
"Yeah," Zabuza agreed. "You're one of us. Too late to run away from it. We're all using each other and that's the lifeline we need."
There was a long moment of silence that was perfect as it stretched out undisturbed between them. Sakura took another bite of her treat and thought about her time with Sarutobi, about her time trying to learn what he knew. She remembered the rush of pride when her sword was finished and sold and the swell of relief when another commission came in…for her! She was wanted. Maybe she hadn't been perfect housewife material, maybe that meant she would never be wanted, but at least in the forge there were people that wanted a piece of her.
She was no different than all the others. Deep down, she wanted to be used just as much as them.
That night she helped Yagura with preparing dinner. He was obviously more skilled in the kitchen when it came to preparing food, something about one of his previous masters loving to cook as a pastime, but she showed him a thing or two about food back in her country and the meal that night benefited from it. Half the boys were out on jobs, but that was okay. Tsunade, Shizune, and Rin still stayed and were more than grateful for the meal.
In the morning she found Suigetsu and Kagura and while the sun was still climbing she started tutoring them in wrestling. Yagura said he would 'watch' for the first few lessons, but halfway through he got up and decided he needed to be a part of their training routine. Sakura worked with all of them, teaching them grappling techniques when she could, and then they offered to teach her the sword, but she declined.
'It's too late for me to learn something like that,' was her excuse.
It was getting colder, but the boys helped her gather wood and set up a fire pit for late night grilling. It was crude and unnecessary, but everyone who was left behind was there for it. The boys shared stories of previous masters. The girls shared stories of their travels. Sakura shared stories she could of things she had heard and then the night ebbed away their energies until everyone was returning to their rooms.
Rin slept in the vacant room next to Sakura's while Tsunade and Shizune took one just across the hall, making that far corner of the manor the 'lady' side. Rin and Shizune had retired earlier, but Tsunade hung back to speak to Zabuza in hushed tones about something to do with military movements.
Sakura was about to trek back when she felt someone's hand on her elbow. She turned and saw Yagura there, pink eyes narrowed.
"I'll walk you back."
Sakura almost choked on a laugh. "It's right over there Yag, I'll be fine."
"The agreement was you could call me shortie, not Yag, and it's still the intention of the manners that counts. I'll walk you back."
"Even though I beat you in wrestling?" Sakura teased, accepting his arm.
"I'm getting better. It's only a matter of time before I succeed in besting you."
Sakura hummed and rolled her eyes as they approached the porch. Sakura stepped up from the courtyard and turned around to see Yagura still standing in the gravel and weeds. The next big project was going to transform the innermost courtyard that the manor wrapped around. Half the rooms opened up to the innermost courtyard and it was where many of the boys spent most of their time. Presently, it looked like shit, but they were planning on making it look better.
"Thanks for helping out with dinner again. We love your cooking."
There was color high on his cheeks but he frowned with effort and averted his eyes. "Ah. It's edible, that makes it good enough." He forced his eyes to meet hers and it made his frown seem all the more forced when she just smiled back. "I hope you sleep well, goodnight."
He bowed stiffly and turned on his heel to head back in the opposite direction to the other rooms.
Sakura watched Rin as the petite woman listened to Sakura's heart and then her lungs. There was a bandage over one lung that Rin explained came from when she had to pierce the lung and remove the blood pooling there. Without such a procedure, Sakura might had drowned in her low blood.
"You're amazing. I've always admired doctors," Sakura said.
Rin looked up and smiled, putting away the listening cone. She had her bag open and behind her was a cabinet case as big as her back filled with many drawers. Each drawer held a different cure that could make her the most important person in the world to a sick man.
"It's nothing too major. I'm not as proficient as Shizune, but I'm learning. Whatever I can't do, Shizune and Tsunade cover for me. We make a pretty good team, but it's nice to settle at a place like this for a while. We've been on the road for years. It's too long."
Sakura stared off, thinking about Tsunade. "She's a sage then…like me. Why doesn't she travel with any sword companions?"
Rin shook her head sharply. "Oh no, she's not that sort of sage. There used to be a famous name for her and the other two because they were all raised together. There's Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. Tsunade is the healer, Jiraiya is the fighter, and Orochimaru is the maker."
"I've heard of those three gods before," muttered Sakura. "I thought they were just stories."
Rin's patient smile was pretty on her lips. "They are…or maybe they aren't. But in the story of the three gods they heal, make and fight off evil to develop the world from demons. When Sages appear they are one of three types. I guess you're the Maker, lucky!"
"I guess. I don't like how I am the same as Orochimaru though. The thought makes my skin crawl."
Rin's smile seemed to dafe. "Yeah, he's a real piece of work."
Sakura nodded and then thought of something. "What about Shizune. Is she traveling with Tsunade because she's also a younger sage in training?"
"No, just a medic, like me. Tsunade can see wounds and illnesses in the body in a way we can only dream about. She's world above us in power and skill, but we trail after her as well as we can because she lets us. I don't know how much she can help you, but I know she wants to hang out here and support you. It can be scary when you don't know what's happening to you or your body. We girls need to stick together during times like this I think."
Sakura couldn't help but laugh. "It's so good to hear something like that. I've never had a girl to be friends with, not since I was a little kid I think. I like how it sounds though."
Rin gave Sakura a funny look. "No girl friends? How did you not go insane. Men are idiots!"
Sakura's laughter doubled her over and she felt tears in her eyes. "Oh gods, it's true."
"No, seriously, they're idiots. They don't know any better and you're going to go crazy if you're not around someone with feminine common sense at least."
Rin jut her chin out and then clamped her mouth shut. She reached behind her and drew out a sword wrapped in velvet, too short to be a katana and too long to be a tantou. Sakura recognized the style once Rin removed the velvet wrappings. It was a woman's modified short katana, meant for a woman's hand with a smaller hilt and average blade.
Sakura's mind thrummed when she heard the echo of a voice, melodious and smooth as silk. It was a woman's voice.
"May I?" Sakura asked, holding out her hands for the blade.
Rin passed it over and Sakura hummed in delight. The sword spoke and sounded like a woman so well Sakura could practically see the sultry figure lounging nearby.
'What rough hands for a lady, I should hope that means you know how to hold me right.'
Rin pushed the sword back when Sakura tried to return it. "You can use this better than I. Please take this and you can give it a body when you're a little better recovered."
Sakura couldn't help but frown in spite of the wondrous gift. "Isn't this your's? I don't want to take it from you."
"I can't use her well enough to need it. You would be a far better owner and I want you to have it. The man who gave it to me was worried I wouldn't be able to protect myself if I wasn't with him, and…" Rin's eyes shuttered and then narrowed as if she was watching a far off memory. But she blinked hard and shook the memory away before looking up again. "But I'll be safe with Tsunade and if she gets her way, we'll stay here for a while anyway. You'll need medics if you're preparing for war, right?"
"The man who gave this to you…what happened to him?" Sakura asked, even though in her gut she felt like she was asking something better left unknown. But the words were out and there was no taking them back.
Rin chuckled sarcastically and stared off. "Oh, I married his best friend and I guess he's finally grown up enough to talk to me after it all. My husband died many years ago and he's not spoken to me since so I was surprised when he asked me to come here."
Sakura swallowed suddenly. "Kakashi! Him?"
Rin grinned. "The one and only. Yeah, don't let me go to waste. I know he looks and act like a louse, but he can be very capable when he wants to be. Thanks for taking care of him."
Sakura tried to imagine it but had trouble picturing Kakashi being compassionate enough to commission a sword so fine as a gift for a woman he wasn't romantic with. It made taking the sword that much harder.
"I'll take this, but if you leave, I'm going to insist she go with you because I don't think I can take this from you when it was a gift from Kakashi. I don't know what he feels anymore, but I do owe him my life twice over and I don't want to do anything that might hurt him."
"It won't, trust me. You might think it was expensive or a commission, but it wasn't. It's had many owners before me I'm sure. You'll be able to ask her on your own, won't you?" Rin held up her hands, palms up, refusing to take the sword back. "I really want you to have a girl at your side if I'm not here. Don't worry about me or Kakashi. He'd understand."
Sakura turned the sword over and drew it partially out to see the gleam of silver steel. The name was etched into the side along with a signature. 'Paper Cutter.'
'Mmm, but you can call me Konan for short. It's a pleasure to meet such a beautiful sage after long last. Please take care of me, Sakura.'
Sakura was in the forge finally folding steel the next day. The fire was blazing white deep inside the hearth as Sakura heated, folded, and then heated the steel again and again, swinging a heavy hammer into the brick to make it bendable. Her arms started to tire but Sakura knew her limits were further and kept folding.
It was harder when she was just on her own so she had asked Inari to help her. He spread dirt onto the anvil when she told him to and held the ax where she told him to so that he could hammer into the chunk of steel to make it foldable. He was keen and eager to please, which made him perfect for the work. He looked like a child and sometimes acted like it, but when she told him to do something he did it perfectly without fail. He later told her he had been a carpenter's blade and in his heart he had a deep respect and admiration for the makers of the world.
It took her a couple of days and Sakura instead on folding the steel more times than she normally would for a single tantou, but several of the kera chips had been in her hip pouch when she was nearly killed and stained with blood. Those chips made the sword louder and fiercer and she was afraid of what she might make if she gave it anything less than her very best effort.
With Inari's help she combined the hard and soft steel bits to the blade, folded the metals, and then finally stretched out her white hot lump of steel into something longer.
"That's a bit shorter than a typical wakizashi."
Sakura hummed. "True, but he's going to have a wicked edge and be twice as fast. Originally I meant for this one to be a part of a set I was commissioned for. He has a brother and a sister in the possession of a Nara. All three blades were made using Suna sand."
"You have a name for him yet?"
Sakura grunted before sticking the cooled steel back into the fire and stoking the flames with the bellow. When she pulled it out again it was blazing white. Her hammer attacked it mercilessly with stunning began to cool and she moved to stick it back under the coals.
"His name is Gaara, Sabaku no Gaara."
Later in the day Sakura readied her station so she would be able to temper the blade in the morning of the following day. Inari said he would come back to watch but knew she didn't need him anymore.
He was just starting to leave when they both heard the commotion down below that came with Kisame returning from a successful mission along with his team. He was hollering for Sakura, saying he got her a present he wanted her to try.
"He always does that," grumbled Sakura. She hid her smile by pressing her lips tight and stood. The anklet of chiming coins winked in the light.
"He told you one of his masters was a big time sailor? Sailors always love to bring home gifts for their loved ones. It's like how merchants are."
Sakura reached out and ruffled Inari's hair until he complained and snapped at him to scamper off. She wiped her hands on her smock and tossed it back into the forge before following the younger boy down to the rest of the manor.
Kisame was all smiles when he saw her approach and held up the jug of high quality sake that was large enough to drown a household in. He watched her with eyes full of expectation.
Sakura sighed deeply and fit her hands on her hips with a resigned posture. "I guess we did need to celebrate you all coming back safe and sound. I'll help Yagura make something extra nice."
"So I got something you like?" Kisame boasted with color high on his face, turning his skin purple in places.
Sakura reached up and accepted the jug big enough to need two arms to carry. "You know me too well, my dear."
She saw Sai hanging back a little separated from the rest of the returning men and felt her heart hurt to see him unable to meet her eyes. Haku was also behind Shizune, arms crossed in the sleeves of his yukata.
"Hurry up and clean up. I'm sure you're tired and would enjoy something a little relaxing," she said.
Shizuma looked to his sword brother Kisame and then rubbed at his neck. "A swim would be really nice, actually."
"I know a place," Kisame answered before looking back over his shoulder at the others. "Any of you sorry ass boys wanna take a little trip for a dip?"
"Not remotely," Haku said, lip curling. "I'll retire to the baths if you don't mind."
Kisame looked to Sai and raised a brow. Sai simply shook his head, holding his arm and walked wordlessly away.
"Your loss, suckers." Kisame grinned back over at Zabuza and the other swords who had come out to greet them. "Anyone else wanna know where the cold ass watering hole is?"
"It's too cold you freak," Yagura complained under his breath as he drew up alongside Sakura. He then nodded to the kitchens and gestured that he would heading there to start dinner. Sakura nodded, nonverbally communicating that she would join him soon.
Utaka showed up behind Inari and then said he wanted to go swimming in the cold that prompted Inari to insist he should go to with the rest of them. Suigetsu was all too eager while his brother Mangetsu said he wanted to stay behind and help the others prepare some side dishes.
Sakura turned around with the jug and caught sight of Tsunade leaning against the doorframe across the courtyard, arms crossed in the sleeves of her robe while Kakashi stood to her one side and Shizune to the other. Rin was nowhere to be seen.
"You need help with that?" Mangetsu asked, drawing Sakura's attention away from the group of adults.
She blinked and realized that Mangetsu was talking about the jug in her arms. It was full and heavy enough to make a lesser man tremble under the weight. The thought of sweet sake made her grin and she laughed when she shook her head no for Mangetsu.
"Darling, I'm finally going to be able to drink my weight in wine, there isn't any help I need with that."
"Hopefully you'll leave a little to share between the rest of us?" Mangetsu teased on a hopeful tone. "I'm eager to sample his spoils as well."
The two of them headed back together to get to making the meal. A special request had been okayu rice porridge to somewhat celebrate the cold settling in around the rest of Kiri, even though it had been cold for a while up so high in the mountains. Sakura thought it was a fairly plain meal, but knew that it okay because with three cooks in the kitchen the side dishes would make up for it.
Mangetsu helped her gather the ingredients once they were in the kitchen and between the both of them they had the salted salmon cut into shredded lengths, picked plum, green onion, shredded seaweed, sesame seeds and parsley. Yulara was already washing the rice.
Sakura took the oysters and started to prepare Kaki Gohan, a seasoned rice cooked with oysters that would help make it feel like winter was truly coming. Mangetsu behind her was chopping vegetables to cook in sauce and prepare.
Somehow, time cut itself in half and the sun sank lower than it should of for how Sakura felt. It seemed as if only a few minutes had passed when she heard Kisame and the others loudly make their way back into the manor. Mangetsu stopped them at the door and curtly told them all to wash up properly and make themselves neat for the meal that would be finished in another five minutes. When Sakura looked back she saw Haku and Utakata talking amicably with one another before separating, Haku going ahead to sit at the table and wait because he didn't need to get cleaned up at all.
"Heh, pretty boy," Yagura muttered darkly, narrowing his neon pink eyes. In the dark the color of his irises seemed more vibrant than usual.
"It's funny what we're serving, I think," Sakura said. It was an effort to divert Yagura's irritation that worked too well.
"Why is that?" he asked.
Sakura shrugged while washing the last bit of oil and seasoning off her hands. "I don't know, but it's just something I'm not used to. I love okaya, but I've mostly had it when I got sick or didn't feel well. It was a comfort food for me."
"Is it wrong to want to be comfortable when you're not sick?" he asked, almost worried by the unease in his tone.
Sakura couldn't help but laugh. "No it's not! Humans are silly and I wasn't the brightest for thinking I had to be sick to eat something I liked. It's comfort food and comfort is good all the time. Ah, sometimes I do dumb things, like denying myself harmless pleasures in life."
"I'm hoping tonights meal is only harmless," Mangetsu bemoaned. "There is even more sake than we originally thought. Kisame left a second jug in the kitchen."
Sakura's eyes were flashing with glee. "Like I said, it's stupid to deny the harmless pleasures in life."
"Don't you ever worry about drinking too much and falling into drunkenness?" Mangetsu asked.
"Not me. I can hold my drink fairly well and I usually get full before I get drunk." She paused to consider the two swords watching her oddly. "Why do you ask?"
"It's not the same for us I don't think. I don't know my limits yet," Mangetsu confessed while Yagura just turned away with a huff to hide the color high on his cheeks.
"Ah yes, that is new territory, isn't it. You've had rice wine before though, haven't you?"
"Not more than a single drink. Kisame and Zabuza both can hold it pretty well I heard. Kisame has stopped by the bar a few times on missions. He says it's to get intel but he just likes to drink."
"And he's not the only one," a new voice interrupted. In the doorway the legendary sage Tsunade leaned against the doorframe, shoulder pressed up against the wood jam. Her eyes were keenly narrowed and her red lips pinched upwards in a tight smile. "I heard you had the good stuff, kid."
Sakura huffed in mock agitation. "You're calling me a kid? What does that make you, granny?"
Tsunade's brows shot up and her mouth split open in a smile that showed her teeth. "Oh, you want to have it like that, do you? No many people get away with calling me old."
"What else is a kid supposed to call you?"
"I don't look like a grandmother do I?"
"And I don't look like a teenager, do I?" Sakura countered, hand on her hip, chin out.
"Maybe if you ask the right person."
Tsunade's eyes swept the kitchen seeing the food and then she pushed off the edge of the doorframe to stand fully on both legs. Her arms were crossed under her chest and held loosely while the sleeves of her jacket trailed off her shoulders.
"Dinner should be in two minutes," Sakura offered, reading the gaze as hungry.
"You did a good job and any guest worth their salt knows better than to pick a fight with the person who prepared and is serving your food. I'll behave, but no more granny compliments," the older woman teased.
And with that she turned and headed back into the connecting room.
Sakura helped the boys bring the food out into the kitchen and Rin rose up to help carry side dishes out, cutting back on the trips they needed to make. Kisame was already at one head of the table pouring rice wine for anyone who could drink and then insisting they all share in a toast.
"To getting the job done and getting to come home!"
Sakura held her dish of drink out and her arm went stiff. The table echoed with cheers as Tsunade loudly added a part about visiting good friends. The table roared again and then the dishes were tipped back. Sakura touched hers to her lips and then closed her eyes to knock it all back. It was easier swallowing the burning alcohol than it was the thought of this…this place really being her home.
She tasted a memory when the drink burned her going down. She remembered Sarutobi and the dirt and the familiar nagging and the semi steady stream of visitors to inquire about shipments and their updates. That had been the first place to feel like home to her and she had never, not once, been thankful for it like she should have been.
Sakura numbly passed a side dish across the table and passed along another one that Kisame was hollering for. The table was loud as people who were often notorious for being quiet, like Zabuza and Utakata, turned to engage in conversations. Win had loosened their lips maybe a bit.
Sakura helped herself to seconds of the drink to help wash down her food. Sai was trying to edge away from Kisame who had moved to sit beside Sai. The larger male was trying to wrestle Sai under his arm in a 'brotherly hug' to prove their affection to the world and Shizuma had decided to join in. Sai was the meat in a Hoshigaki sandwich looking miserable as ever.
Tsunade didn't hold her drink well for as much as she loved it and was roaring in laughter and egging the males at the table on. Poor Shizune hung on Tsunade's arm and tried to calm the louder woman down, but Sakura caught Rin's eye from across the table and she was smiling slyly and shaking her head. She seemed to think it was a useless struggle. Whatever the Healer Sage wanted she would get and the rest of the world would have to just deal with it.
"You look pensive for a celebration. Might I be privy to your thoughts?"
Sakura turned and saw Utakata there, golden eyes creased with a smile as he waited at her elbow. Sakura wordlessly scooted to the side and made room so he could sit beside her with his drink in the place where Yagura had been.
"Nothing quite so interesting, I assure you," Sakura sighed. "I'm just feeling nostalgic for ideas of places people call home. The last place I thought of as home was left in blood and ruin and I'm just now considering what that means."
A little bit of the cheer left Utakata's golden eyes as he leaned in closer to her to listen to her words more seriously. "So what does it mean? What have you discovered?"
Sakura picked up a bundle of seasoned vegetables and chewed before picking up another to offer to Utakata. He leaned in and bit the food off her chopsticks without fuss.
"I wasn't grateful for what I had last time, but I should have been. I spent too much time being bitter and complaining about what I thought I deserved and looking at what I wanted that I never stopped to be grateful for the blessing that it was. I don't want to be like that again with you all and this place." Sakura managed a weak smile. "I want to treasure this a little more."
Utakata's golden eyes were shimmering like pools of molten gold under sunlight when he smiled. Minutely, he inclined his head until their foreheads touched and she didn't pull away. When he sighed she felt it before she saw or heard it.
"You have no idea of the power you carry, do you?" He opened his eyes and Sakura thought she could count the lashes because of how close they were. "You're not the only one who is realizing how grateful they are. Everyone here at this table owes you their life and their freedom. You've given us the hands to wild ourselves and make something of our existence. I'll never repay that debt, but you never hold that over our heads."
"You help out a lot, don't sell yourself short. What I did was something rare, but it wasn't as extraordinary as you make it out to be."
"Have you ever had to kill someone?"
Sakura almost pulled away at the question but he reached up to hold her hair in a grip near tender that kept their foreheads together. "I've killed before," she answered even though she couldn't remember if she had or hadn't. When she first fled she had cut men down, but wasn't sure what happened to them after that.
"Have you ever killed women, the sickly, children, the unarmed?"
This time when Sakura pulled away Utakata let her, but dropped his head onto her shoulder so she couldn't see his face or the expressions he made. A curtain of dark hair falling to his chin obscured her vision.
"The freedom you gave us can never be trivialized. I'll never have to kill another person again if I don't want to."
"Utakata, I-"
He pulled away from her and braced on the edge of the table as he climbed to his feet. Standing over her, he bent down and pressed his lips into her hair and kissed the crown of her skull with reverent affection. When he whispered words to her they sounded wet.
"I will never deserve this, but I thank you all the same."
And then he moved to sit back down next to Zabuza at the opposite end of the table. Sakura saw beside him Kakashi actually talking to Rin. It was the first time Sakura had seen the two 'old friends' communicating in front of others. Sakura couldn't help but be curious as to what they were saying but became distracted when she heard Yagura behind her.
Sakura looked over to see the shorter male with clouded pink eyes standing on unsteady legs. He had a finished alcohol jug in his hand she didn't recognize and the color on his cheeks was almost as bright as his eyes. Behind him, Suigetsu was talking to Kagura about tolerance levels and body size.
"Cruel woman. You're not fair, not faaaair," he slurred, bending low and then settling down on his knees. He dropped his jug onto the table and braced there before turning around and facing her. "I was supposed 'ta be here. I left and he took ya from me."
Sakura grabbed the empty jug and laughed at the lingering smell. Whatever he had consumed was strong and he wasn't good about holding his own in the first place.
"Honey, what did you do? You're not supposed to have this much of the Baijiu, it's like ten times worse than the rice wine," Sakura laughed. She tipped the empty jug back and sucked off the last few drops. It tasted terrible and kicked like a beast with just a drop. It certainly wasn't meant for someone with a tolerance level like Yagura's.
With clumsy fingers, Yagura pushed the jug away from her face and pulled his body forward until he was nearly on top of her. He then closed his eyes and fell into her lap, latching his arms around her waist like deadbolts on a door. Behind him someone cursed and Sakura saw Kagura set his drink aside to crawl over in an attempt to reach his fallen relative.
"Come on, that's not appropriate," Kagura whined, flushing in embarrassment as he tugged on Yagura's shoulders. The older sword growled threateningly but didn't budge.
"He's fine for now. Let him stay and in a few minutes he'll be asleep," Sakura laughed. She reached down and ran a hand through his hair, brushing the pale locks back. His shoulders, which had been hunched sharply, jerked at the touch before melting away their edges as he relaxed into her.
"But he's being a bother," Kagura admitted.
Sakura hummed, still running her fingers through his hair, occasionally lightly scratching scalp. "He's fine. I'd tell you if this bothered me." She looked up and saw the younger boy's plate was still partly filled with unfinished food. "Did you not like the side dishes?"
He chuckled and sat back down in his seat and shook his head. "They're delicious. I'm having thirds!"
Sakura laughed, finishing the last of her food and washing it all down with more rice wine that wasn't as strong as some of the other drink, but infinitely more tasty. She had a high tolerance but that didn't mean she wanted to always put it to the test.
"Princess over there doesn't look like she likes my Baijiu!"
Sakura looked up and arched an eyebrow at Kisame's jeering. "I just love myself too much to wash down a nice meal with tar wash. I don't know what's wrong with you."
Beside his 'older brother' Shizuma laughed and then elbowed Sai who was smiling secretly to himself.
"Ah, is that so. You just can't handle the good stuff."
Sakura felt a groan in her throat and pushed it back, keeping it behind her teeth as she flashed a wicked smile. "Please don't ruin my nice dinner."
Kisame faked outrage and held his hand over his heart. His voice pitched high and cracked with effort as he dramatically scoffed at her statement. "What accusations. You think it would be me who would ruin your lovely dinner? And how would you claim I'd do this?"
"Kisame…."
"Shirley not with a little…." His eyes narrowed into devious slits that made his grin look half mad.
Sakura groaned out loud, seeing the rest of the table leaning in. "Please don't."
He slammed the extra large jug of high grade demon land Baijiu down between them. "-Drinking game!" he exclaimed, sending half the table into whoops and hollers.
Tsunade was already pulling out a ring of money chips to place down for bets. Shizune looked like she had given up and sat back with a dead look in her eyes, drinking from the nearest sake bottle. Rin challenged Tsunade and Kakashi started orchestrating bets between them.
"I don't want to hate myself in the morning," Sakura groaned. "Please no."
Kisame faked a pout, which was very awkward to watch on a man with such distance facial proportions. "I'll have to ask for a stand in then, because I'm drinking until it's lights out."
Sakura rolled her eyes and picked up some vegetables from a tray in the middle of the table to much on."Go ahead," she said around the food in her mouth.
Kisame turned to his side and the smile was still there. "What do you say, Sai?"
Sakura choked, eyes nearly bugged out as she braced on the table and coughed. Her eyes watered as she reached for a non alcoholic drink to clear out her throat. Her eyes, though red and watering, were narrowed defiantly in his direction.
"Ah, it should be fair enough, since he's your creation he probably has the same tolerance level as you. What do you say kid? You have any pride as the fairest of Sakura's blades?"
The words were too much of a taunt for him to resist and Sakura saw the moment when Sai decided to take on the tallest and largest man in the room in a drinking contest.
"Stop right there, fish face!" Sakura yelled, leaning forward across the table and slamming down her empty cup. "You want to get to him you got to go through me."
Kisame hollered in pure glee. "Don't mind if I do."
A series of empty cups too small to fit in either of their hands were filled and laid out between the pair. Nearly everyone on the sidelines had started to put down betting money and Sakura heard Haku and Zabuza arguing about who they thought would win. In place of coin, chore duties and randomly salvaged objects were wagered as well. Someone didn't want money but wagered a full body massage off of Tsunade who was, apparently, famous for them.
"Y'all gonna be sad as hell when you get stuck covering twice as many shifts," Kisame taunted, looking to Zabuza and then Utakata. The only one not betting was actually Yagura, who was nearly asleep on her lap.
"Shut up and pour, fish face," Sakura growled. She could already feel the headache she was sure to get in the morning.
"As you wish, princess," he chuckled, pouring out the drink. It reeked stronger and darker than the drops she had licked off Yagura's jug.
The first cup bit and the second cup bit and the third cup kicked a little bit, but was easier to swallow. Sakura had seen men go down after two cups of Baijiu and other drinks from off the continent. She didn't think that's how Kisame would be, but when he knocked back his forth cup and looked like he wasn't any worse off she started to worry.
Five cups in she could feel the sea her belly had become. Her skin started to itch and flush in what she hoped was a pretty blush-though she knew better. She covered half her face with her hand, spraying her fingers out wide to try and block anyone's view. It was a stupid effort on her part since everyone's attention was focused on her and Kisame.
"Where you come from, drinking like it's nothing?" Kisame laughed as he watched her swallow the sixth cup. He reached for his own when she turned the cup over face down.
"I'll tell you what I tell anyone who thinks I'm an easy out in these sort of stupid drinking competitions," Sakura said. She took her seventh cup and hated how she had to brace for it. When she looked up Kisame was watching her keenly and licking his lips. There was color high on his cheeks as well, but not as much as her's.
"Oh?" he prodded.
"In the fire country there's a god who likes to boast and prove to all that he's the best in all that he does. Kinder people call him the Rooster god or the Rooster Fellow, but most of us just call him the cock god for how much he crows."
Sakura reached for eighth cup and watched as Kisame swallowed his. From the sides some observers were making observations and comments. Sakura heard apprehension and admiration alike in both their tones. She looked down into the ghostly clear liquid and saw herself. She schooled her face into an impressive mask, retracting her hand and finding that strength again.
"And what about this god?" Kisame asked. Beside him, Sai grinned and his eyes flashed with knowing. He had heard this story before and knew it well.
"Oh, he's a terrible joke that's the representation of all male egos on this land." Behind her, Tsunade snorted. "So of course he thinks he's always the best when he really isn't and goes out of his way to try and prove an untruth. Like….when he comes down from the clouds to challenge men and women in wrestling or drinking contests." She caught his eye and grinned when she saw the haze in his black orbs.
"And let me guess, he came to you?" he asked, watching her drink everything in her cup before reaching for his own. When he set it down she didn't miss how his hand was slack around the cup.
"Wonderful prediction," Sakura purred. "Exactly so. He heard a woman was the best wrestler in the town and came down to challenge her, claiming he was only there to defeat the strongest, never mind how he hardly challenged any of the men in neighboring villages. So yes, he went down," she said while slamming down her empty cup. The effect was not lost on the audience as several flinched at the sound. It made her grin stretch. "Just like that."
Kisame snorted. Sakura caught the way he swayed when he reached for his next glass. He downed it but winced as it hit him deep in his belly. Like Sakura, there was an ocean there and it was burning him out the same way it was burning her. She had just learned how to live with the burning instead of letting it consume her.
"And of course in the face of his loss, loss to a woman no less, he tries to recover with a new bet that he's sure he'll win. No one told him she's been drinking like there's no tomorrow since before she could bleed." Sakura didn't pause when she noticed Kakashi and a few other more prudish males flinch at the mention of menstruation. "So he loses that bet too and before he can dig himself any deeper he decides to bestow upon the woman a gift so that no one else may be able to beat her and sully his name."
Sakura drank and she couldn't remember the number, but she set the cup down and looked down to count how many cups she'd overturned. She was finally at ten. When she looked up Kisame was bracing his hands on his knees and staring too intently down at the three remaining cups that waited on his side. He swallowed and reached for one more.
"Ts a nice story," his voice rumbled.
Sakura watched him drink, watched the Baijiu spill out of the corners of his mouth as he leaned too far back and fell. Sakura knocked her next drink back and then reached across the table for one of his and drank that too. Slamming both cups down at once she shook her hands above her head like she was shaking off dirt and then reached for her vegetables to help soak up the sea in her belly. Her skin burned all over she felt herself go fuzzy at the edges. She was going to hate herself in the morning but she hadn't lost her senses and was still, more or less, in control of her actions.
The table around her hollered and laughed and Zabuza taunted Haku with a crooked grin while Utakata reached across the table to remind Suigetsu of all the chore duties he now had to cover. Rin was also mocking Kakashi for something while the lazy old pervert slid a couple of coins her way before Tsunade did the same.
Sakura grinned down to the opposite end of the table to smile wide at Tsunade. "You should have known better," Sakura called.
Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You would think, but I'm notoriously bad with bets so I didn't want to jinx my losing streak here tonight."
Sakura laughed some more and reached for more vegetables. There wasn't much left but she ate what she could like she was a hunger that would never be full.
"You're warm," Yagura mumbled into her thigh, nuzzling her a bit more before falling a little more asleep.
"I've been called worse."
"I think we need to build a distillery out back," Utakata declared with a sake dish held in the air. "I've enjoyed tonight far too much to go back to a life without alcohol."
"You know the first thing about what that looks like?" Suigetsu snapped.
"Not a clue, the golden eyed male admitted with a cheeky grin. "What do you think?"
Suigetsu groaned loudly and buried his head in his arms. On the other side of the table Sai grinned over at Shizuma who now owed him chore duty before looking across the table at Sakura who was still chewing away on her vegetables.
Kisame roused about a half hour later and grumbled about a rematch but Sakura was already outside on the porch with a few others, drinking water and watching the stars. Mangetsu and Yagura, two boys she liked to think of as more sensible than others, were wrestling each other in the dirt. Sakura wasn't sure why, but was watching Haku to see if he would join them based on how red his cheeks were and how he swayed when Zabuza tried to help him up from the table.
Sakura watched the pair walk off and thanked Zabuza again for carrying Yagura back to his room. Her side had been occupied for only a second before Sai was there, hanging on her shoulder with his chin and holding her around her waist. Zabuza didn't say anything back but Sakura heard Haku loudly exclaim that he could walk just fine on his own and didn't need any help.
Sakura stayed up late, later than almost anyone. Kakashi and Rin had walked off somewhere together after taking Inari to bed. Shizune and Tsunade had walked back not long after Kisame. Before leaving Tsunade had reached down to feel Sakura's skin and cursed.
"You're doing it, aren't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura coyly replied, batting her eyes.
"You're burning the alcohol out through your skin, I can feel it. How can you manage such a thing? I thought only Healers could do that."
"You don't think I tricked a god for this gift?" Sakura asked.
She snorted. "That story was the best part, but no. We don't have such a god in the fire country."
Sakura shrugged. "Like hearing the voices, it's just been something I've been able to do."
Tsunade touched Sakura's face once more, but this time it was to tap the younger girl's forehead. "I want to place a seal here, to protect you when I can't from sages like Orochimaru. He'll try again and next time you might not be so lucky as to escape. It's better to protect yourself now."
"In the morning?" Sakura echoed, pushing back her hair.
"Sure. Once my hangover abates we'll get to it."
And with that, both women were gone and Sakura didn't doubt that it would be very late into the next day when the older sage woke.
"You about ready to sleep?" Sakura asked.
She nudged Sai and when he didn't respond she looked down to find him asleep on her shoulder. It was easy to pick him up and carry him back to bed, but a bit harder to leave him as he clung to what he could, forcing her to leave the outer layer of her yukata, the coat she wore over her main layer.
She walked through the halls back to her room and paused when she noticed Zabuza's door was open. She didn't look inside but slowly slid it shut so it wouldn't make any noise on the track. It was late enough and she thought she might have trouble sleeping for some reason. In spite of all the booze she had burned most of it out of her body and that left her oddly energized. It was one of the neater side effects of being a sage, she finally understood. It made sense and suddenly her stupid story about out performing a god seemed less exciting.
Sakura slid the door to her room back and slipped in, nudging the dead lantern with her toe before drawing back the covering that hung from the ceiling on front of the door to the outside. She pulled it back far enough that the light from the moon could shine through the rice screen and highlight the rest of the room in shades of blue and silver. It would be enough for her to see by to change and ready herself for bed.
When she turned her heart stopped for a second when she saw the other figure standing still in the middle of her bed, yukata dropping off his shoulders. Haku's normally immaculate hair was slightly dissolved and he looked as if he had been sleeping…or sleepwalking.
"Shoot, I shut your door and you probably got turned around," Sakura said. She reached for him. "Here, I'll help you back."
Haku grunted at her touch and pulled away. "Nah," he mumbled."Don't wanna."
Sakura huffed and remembered how she was his least favorite person. Out of all the swords, he probably liked her the least and Suigetsu had actually tried to kill her.
"Sorry, I forgot you hate me."
Haku reached up and rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms. "Is that what you think?"
Sakura reached for him again, this time slowly. She didn't expect him to grab her and hook his heel behind hers. He swung her around and she landed on her bed, disturbing the pillows but doing no damage. She was too stunned to react, but by the time the anger came it was chased away with confusion. Haku was over her and his hair was a beautiful curtain shielding their faces from the world, s she was the only one who saw his tears.
"Idiot," he hissed at her.
She felt when his tears hit her cheek but didn't flinch. In the silver moonlight he was too beautiful, and though she couldn't ever remember being overcome with a desire to be with anyone in such a way, something warm bloomed in her.
"Haku," she carefully called, swallowing.
His hands hesitantly found her face and both his thumbs brushed over her cheeks in affection. "Why can't you just look at me more?" he complained. "I just want you to look at me and…and use me."
He had been kneeling over her but he pulled away slightly to tug at his yukata and Sakura jerked back when he began to strip it away. He was a sword made man, but with nothing to cover him he was very much a man and he was flushed pink with a need that made him only more beautiful. Sakura almost hated how it made her body react…almost.
"Hey, stop that, hey-" Sakura held up her hands and pushed him away when he reached for her, crawling over his wrinkled yukata wearing nothing but moonlight.
"I don't care," Haku groaned. "I hate it, I hate it, watching-watching-having to watch them all hang on you and kiss you and get close to you and you won't even look at me. I thought I was beautiful. Am I not what you wanted, am I not what you could find in yourself to desire?" He reached for the hand that pressed him back and pulled it to his lips to kiss along the wrist. His lips on her veins sent shivers all through her body and Sakura melted a fraction.
"You're drunk, Haku, you don't know what you're saying."
"I'm saying what I've been too scared to say!" he was quick to retort. "I'm not too proud to say it when I'm like this. I can finally grovel at your feet like I've wanted to so look at me now. I want to be with you please," he whined, cracking his voice on the whisper his words became. "Please, please just please look at me. I am debased before you."
"Haku," Sakura echoed, feeling pity and too many other things take up a place in her heart.
If she was less in control of herself she might have kissed him but she had burned off all the alcohol and knew better than to take advantage of a man in such a state…even if he was sinfully pretty and very much into her.
Haku's tears made silver trails across his face, reflecting the moonlight better than anything else. He looked like a fairy and he was completely bare and willing at her feet in her bed and three months ago before any of this happened Sakura would have never imagined herself in such a situation.
"I want this to be my place," Haku admitted, reaching down and touching the bed. "Have any of the others told you this yet? They've talked about it, you know, about how we're not allowed to ask or even to let you know. They're such liars, pretending like they don't wish they were here with you like this. Zabuza told me not to bother and even Kisame warned me off but I know they're worse off than some of the others." Haku chuckled and it was almost a broken sound. "Wouldn't even mind sharing, those two."
Sakura's heart felt like it was going to leave her chest.
"Haku, you're still really drunk and this is no condition to be doing anything." Sakura inhaled deeply and pushed herself up. She then shoved Haku back so he stumbled off his yukata and pulled it up off the floor. "Get up and get dressed I'll take you back."
Haku laid on his back and made a sound of displeasure that did nothing but further ruffle her metaphorical feathers. He arched his back and showed off more of himself before Sakura dropped his yukata on top of him and stomped towards the door.
"I'm going to get Zabuza, if you have any sense left you'll be dressed by the time I come back."
When she looked back, halfway in the hallway, Haku had turned towards her and was watching her with wide chocolate brown eyes that didn't want her to leave. She made a move to leave further and he grabbed his yukata like he meant to finally wear it again. Sakura paused to watch and made sure he followed through. Haku was slow about it, and clearly displeased with his current situation, but he still dressed and stood. A moment later he padded over to the doorway and stopped just before leaving her room. Sakura walked back in and pushed the door open wider, waiting for him to leave.
"I'll go on my own, but I…I may be drunk but I don't want you to think I didn't mean it."
Haku looked up through the curtain of his dark hair and Sakura saw the idea seize him. Before she could stop him, he reached for her and this time his lips slanted over hers. Wrist in hand, he pressed into her, cupping the underside of her head and pressing in close to her so that she felt all of him in that kiss.
Her lips didn't know how to stop him as he pressed his tongue into her and tickled the roof of her mouth in ways that betrayed his inexperience. Sakura staggered under the kiss but he held her as the last of her breath started to burn away. Before she could take no more, he pulled away and then kissed under her jaw once, whispering something before leaving.
'I don't think I'd share as well.'
Sakura slept in the forge that night, relying on the voices of the swords to keep her from burning away in her sleep from steamy dreams that hadn't haunted her in half as many years.
End Part 2
AN: This story will likely be a total of 4 parts, making it a grand total of 60K like it was before I went in and starting editing and pulling scenes out-like the smutyHakudream that no one will ever see.
So this chapter is half the size of the last one, and the next chapter is only like...7K, so they're getting smaller, but I think when they're too big they lose their impact. One of my favorite scenes was with Utakata, who is a character that's not used or seen very much in the cannon-meaning he's super fun to play around with.
Speaking of lesser used characters, before I cut this chapter in half there was a Shizuma Sakura scene and I wanted to mention that I don't watch Burrito Burito Burnt-toe or whatever it's called. I just saw a picture of his face, read his wiki page and decided I would steal him for my fanfiction and salvage what I could of his character. He gets more development in the next chapter and he's not what he was in the new anime/manga. God I hate the new stuff. It's so bad.
And yes, I did in fact get the idea for this lovely fic from the video game/anime franchise Touken Ranbu and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu. In the game you play as a character-a sage- who brings to life different historic swords to fight for you and protect history and it's so pretty and easy and fun to get interested in, but I wanted to explore the dynamic between a sword made man and the maker or master. And you know me, I love Sakura reverse harem style fics. Plus, the Kiri nin and all the swordsmen of the mist were just too perfect to pass up the opportunity to.
Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought. Reviews sustain me.
-Vesper Chan