Chapter 7
Chapter Summary
"But you must face the ocean once again,
Follow the tides,
Wherever you've been."
Sakura's barely thirteen and she's changed the world.
She didn't even realize it at the time - she was just doing what she had to. What she was raised and taught to do.
But now, staring at the group of the one hundred and fifty-seven who decided to stay in Konoha with her, it's blatantly, screamingly obvious.
Mostly because they're standing in the yet-unnamed Clan Compound that never existed in the world she dreams of.
The world that she strongly suspects isn't just the elaborate dream it seems like.
She pushes that thought - and all it's implications - aside for the moment, clearing her throat and silencing the small crowd.
It's still eerie how intently all of them listen to her. They trust her, a thirteen year old girl, implicitly. Maybe it started out as being out of respect for her father, but they really, genuinely respect her now, and it's… odd.
"As irritating as this all is, we need to do this at least somewhat neatly. Akihito and I will be calling from a list of names. When yours is called, come up and we'll give you your new address and your key. There's also the matter I asked you all to think about last week. We've narrowed the list down to four names, and when you come up, please check the name you're most inclined towards. Hopefully by the end of today we'll actually have a name for our 'clan'." Sakura says dryly, and gets a few laughs for her efforts.
It's been two months since Uzushio's destruction, and none of them are anywhere close to healed - but this is a good step. They'll have a safe place to call their own again, instead of the hotel Sarutobi had procured for them, and they'll be able to start rebuilding their individual lives.
Unfortunately, they came from a wide variety of families. Eighty-three of them either were members of, or had ties to, the Uzumaki clan - including herself. The rest varied widely, and it make establishing an official name for their new 'clan' difficult.
She and Akihito sit down to start the grueling process of getting each and every member situated into the compound Sarutobi had set up for them, and at the end of it, they tally up the votes.
Given that they were the majority, she'd expected the decision to be 'Uzumaki' as their clan name.
Instead, the vast majority had chosen simply 'Uzu', in honor of their fallen homeland, and the thought makes her both bitter and almost painfully proud.
She's thirteen, and she's given her family a new home, even if it'll take a long time for them to let it feel like one.
There's thirteen of her shinobi left, fourteen including herself, and it makes things difficult. They need money, obviously, to rebuild their lives - and they need enough to fund their entire clan, because it'll be much more difficult for the civilians to start making money than it is for the shinobi to. The issue lies in two things.
Mainly, there's the problem that she is most definitely not the only one furious with - and possibly irrationally feeling betrayed by - Konoha as a whole. They started this war, and it cost Uzushio everything, and that makes being in Konoha a bitter pill to swallow.
Worse is that they'd need to team up with Konoha shinobi to round off their uneven teams. They have three full teams of four, or four teams of three. Either way, it leaves spaces behind.
In the end, they decide to rotate. "I'll go first." Akihito volunteers. "It's best to ease our people back into working side by side with Konoha, and I am… controlled, if nothing else." Akihito says carefully.
It's enough of an understatement that Ukari, a female chūnin, snorts softly.
"I'll go after him." Tsuru, the Uzumaki woman who had used chakra chains, chimes in. "There's the added bonus of us both being jōnin, so we'll be facing the more difficult missions. Easiest way to remind them to respect us as a whole is to help with the dangerous shit." Tsuru offers with a faint shrug.
Sakura bites her lip, hesitating for only a moment before she nods agreeably at that. She doesn't like it. It puts them at risk, obviously, and there are only fourteen of them left. But Tsuru's point is undeniably accurate, which means it's the best decision there is. The faster they re-establish respect between their two forces, the less strife there'll be with the less controlled genin and chūnin shinobi, which will make it easier for them to adjust to the idea of them still being allies.
"How good are you with those chakra chains?" Sakura asks Tsuru, who arches an eyebrow.
"Damn good, why?"
"I hear Kumo's got their Nibi wreaking havoc near the Sound/Hot Water/Konoha border lock." Sakura says, a little bit reluctantly. She thinks of a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a man with dark skin and white hair. She thinks jinchūriki and wants to take her words back - but she can't.
"You want me to smash kitty cat into the ground? I'm game." Tsuru says eagerly, purple-blue eyes flashing.
Sakura can't help but snort softly at her enthusiasm, ignoring the sickening churning of her stomach. "I'd be most useful on the Kiri border." Akihito adds quietly and Sakura nods, having seen his skill with Suiton for herself.
"Alright. In that case, Tsuru, do you mind going first?"
"If it means I can have the pleasure of completely stomping Kumogakure's precious human weapon?" Tsuru questions with a vicious little grin. "Is that even a question, Sakura-sama?"
"Don't call me that." She mutters halfheartedly. No one's come and said it outright, but they've been treating her like…
Like they'd treat her father.
"I'll pass it on to the Hokage." Sakura says, looking away from Tsuru and instead at her desk. She's thirteen - and sometimes seventeen - but they treat her like a superior, and that makes her uncomfortable. "The rest of you, write up a summary of your skills, weaknesses, and elemental types if you know them. I'll figure out the teams off that, get it to me in the next four days or so." Sakura orders, and gets a round of 'yes, Sakura-sama's for that.
They file out and she watches them go with sharp eyes. When they're gone, she turns and strides to the window of her makeshift office and looks out.
Houses made from wood and plaster stand where houses made of stone and tiles should. Trees lurk behind them where rocks and water are supposed to.
Her hands curl into fists at her sides.
She dreams she's seventeen and sometimes the dreams are pleasant, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're vivid and so lifelike, that she forgets who she even is when she wakes up. Sometimes they're so vague and distant that she forgets she even dreamed at all.
There are some dreams, though, that are always painfully vivid.
Some of them are good. Sometimes she dreams of using the Mystical Palm jutsu for the first time and feeling so happy she feels like she could fly. Sometimes she dreams of receiving her hitai-ate, one with a familiar swirl except it twists into a leaf. Sometimes she dreams of training in a four-man team and feeling joy and acceptance, and sometimes one on one with the Hokage herself and feeling so, so proud.
Some of them are awful. Sometimes she dreams of a heart in her hand, desperately wanting to cry but unable to because she's too busy breathing for the boy whose chest she's reaching into. Sometimes she dreams of an Uchiha boy who'd rather kill his teammates than speak to them. Sometimes she dreams of an army of eighty-thousand men being reduced to a mere twenty-thousand overnight, and struggling to keep as many alive as she could.
And sometimes, the worst times, she dreams of her own death.
Of giving everything she has to a man who had been an enemy, and then pushing on even after. Of fighting even as her chakra reserves dwindle down to nothing. Of desperately healing the two people she cared about most, even when she had nothing to heal with. Of struggling on, even as her chakra gates burnt and her body went numb.
And then she wakes up, eyes wide, and stares up at the ceiling over her head. The fan moves steadily, breeze chilling against her sweaty skin, and Sakura just lies there and breathes.
Living in Konoha is wrong.
She feels it, deep down into the depths of her soul it sometimes seems like.
Not just because it isn't Uzushio. Not just because Konoha is directly responsible for Uzushio's fall.
No, because Konoha itself is wrong.
Everything about it just… screams at her. Every time she leaves her new house, it feels like she's walking in an eerie, distorted dream. Which is ironic, considering she's fairly sure her dreams are why it feels so wrong. It feels like she's been deposited into a fake world and everyone around her is acting like it's real.
This place is wrong. Sakura thinks as she stares up at the ceiling, taking carefully moderated breaths.
Everything about it is wrong, from the houses to the stores to the faces on the monument.
And strongest is the sensation of wrongness every time she looks at Sarutobi and seethes with anger. The sense of betrayal reaches far deeper than she thinks it should, roots expanding even into her dreamworld. Sakura Haruno used to look at Sarutobi with awe and even joy, and he looked at her and all her fellow genin with pride.
Sakura Uzumaki looks at him with hatred and he looks at her and all her shinobi with sorrow.
The village is wrong. It's wrong. It's houses are wrong, it's streets are wrong, it's forests are wrong. Everything is wrong, and it makes her want to tear her hair out in sheer frustration.
"What does it mean," she asks hollowly, "when your own mind tells you you've lost it?"
She thinks of a boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a forgotten name. She thinks of a woman with red hair, violet eyes, and a surviving name, sent off to cheerfully kill someone just like the boy.
"It means you haven't lost it yet." Akihito tells her.
She turns her head sideways to see him perched on her window ledge, feet on the floor and hands braced at his side. He's watching her calmly, grey eyes almost as pale as her ice blue ones as they assess her. He doesn't look concerned at all, which has her exhaling a slow, careful breath.
"Then I must be alarmingly close." Sakura determines, rolling her head to look back up at the ceiling.
"Why now in particular?" He asks quietly and this, Sakura understands now, is why her father had always had the man so close to his side.
She closes her eyes, thinks of a man with spiky hair and a scarred face. Jōnin Commander, they'd call him in Konoha. The right hand of the Kage, closest military advisor and highest authority under him.
But Uzushio had been small and she had been strong, and she'd had no need for a Jōnin Commander.
The Village Head had been all she needed.
"Sarutobi gave me a Konoha hitai-ate last night." Sakura confides. "He didn't say anything, but the meaning is clear."
They're Konoha shinobi now. They should wear her symbol. It's a fair point, Sakura has to admit that. They fight for Konoha now - they can't fight for her while wearing another village's symbol.
Even if it's a dead village.
Akihito moves, feet shuffling quietly against the floor, and the window gently slides shut. "Fuck Sarutobi." He says decisively.
Sakura blinks open her eyes, genuinely shocked by the curse.
"Fuck Sarutobi, fuck Konoha, and fuck this village." Akihito sweeps on firmly and Sakura shifts, propping herself up on her elbows and looking at him incredulously. The lights outside shine through the window, dimly lighting the room - just enough for her to see the hard set to Akihito's jaw. "We gave everything for that man and his mistake. Nothing he does, no matter how he tries, will ever make us forget that." He steps closer to her bed but pauses a respectable distance away. "We aren't here for Sarutobi or his promises. We aren't here for his regret and his roof over our heads. We're here for you." Akihito slides to one knee, bowing his head a bit, and Sakura stares blankly at him.
He lifts his head a moment later, eyes locking on hers with burning ferocity. "If Sarutobi had invited us to Konoha, each and every one of us would have told him what I just said. Fuck Sarutobi." He says fiercely. "But Sarutobi didn't invite us. Sarutobi had nothing to do with it. You told us to follow you, and we followed you. You ordered Sarutobi to give us aid, and we received it. You ordered us to work with Konoha, and we are. We aren't here for Sarutobi, Sakura-sama. We're here because you brought us here and you've striven to make a home for us."
"I cannot begin to understand how difficult this has been for you. Your father…" His voice tightens and he swallows once, grief striking them as one. "Your father was my closest friend. We fought, bled, and lived together. But he was your father. You, more than anyone, feel the strength of his loss. Far more than anyone else, in fact, because you've so smoothly put yourself in his shoes that they can forget they ever lost him." Akihito says quietly. "I can barely believe it myself, even though I've walked with you day by day, but your skill in the role is clear." He pauses for a brief second and then says, "You are our Village Head now, Sakura-sama, and none of us would consider having it any other way."
Sakura stares and stares, but the grim, severe stare Akihito levels her with is unwavering. Her throat feels tight, her eyes painfully dry, and her breath constricted. "That's treason." She points out through numb lips.
Akihito's jaw tightens, the muscles jumping faintly under the skin. "Fuck. Sarutobi." He says emphatically, expression still firm.
And, well.
How can she argue against that?
She stares for a while longer, her mind spinning, and her eyes slowly narrow as she considers his words.
Eventually, she sits up straight, pushing all the way to her feet. Akihito watches her, still kneeling on her bedroom floor, and she gestures vaguely at him to stand. "What time is it?" She asks distractedly, mind whirring.
"Four in the morning, Sakura-sama."
"Close enough." She decides, striding to her closet. "I'm going to speak with the-" Sakura pauses, hand on the shirt she was pulling off the rack, and hesitates. "...With our people." She says instead of 'the Clan'.
They might be a clan now, but they were a people first. They were Uzushio's people before they were a clan of Konoha, and neither she nor the others, were ready to forget that.
"I need to think first, though, on what I'm going to say. Will you help me?" Sakura asks, staring down at the blue kimono-style wrap shirt she holds.
The same blue as the vest Akihito wears.
"Of course, Sakura-sama."
Sakura rubs the fabric between her fingers, slow and careful, before she nods to herself and closes the closet door behind her.
She pulls the shirt on - and a white kimono-wrap under it - and secures it with a white chestplate that covers from just under her bust to her hips. It fits like a traditional obi might, were it not armored and bowless. She puts on tight fitting black pants as well, mid-calf length, and black shinobi sandals. Then she carefully and methodically pulls her hair into a tight braid, reaching just past her shoulder blades, and eyes herself in the mirror.
It's been two months since Uzushio fell and she's spent them working to secure her people a new foothold in the world.
Now it's time to secure one for herself.
"Akihito?" She asks, opening the door and stepping out of the closet. He's standing near the window, looking at her expectantly. "Out of our shinobi, we have two seal masters, correct? Tabane and Kahan?" Sakura double checks, frowning softly.
Memories of Akira and Hitomi flicker across her memory.
She ignores them.
"Yes, Sakura-sama."
"Bring them to me immediately. I need to speak with them." She commands, and he bows - like he used to bow to her father - before flickering away in a small burst of chakra.
Sakura stares at the spot he'd stood in, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and then pushes herself forward.
She has work to do, and only so much time to plan it.
Kahan is a distant relative of hers. Fourth cousins, she thinks, as she watches him and Tabane work. Tabane isn't an Uzumaki, but a member of the Gashin Clan. A clan as notorious for their skill in seals as the Uzumaki were for their longevity.
Sakura lifts her hands up, pointer fingers raised to brush against her bottom lip, and watches intently as they both brush onto seal paper. She can identify most of the properties here and there, but the way they connect and operate together without exploding are lost on her.
It takes hours. Hours and hours of work for them to wrap it up, and Sakura can hardly complain.
The fact that they manage it in twelve hours is stunning in it's own right.
"We'll go place them now." Tabane says as they delicately gather up the seal tags and scrolls.
"Make sure you aren't watched."
"Of course." Tabane agrees quickly, bowing his head to her. "Uzumaki-sama." He says politely before he turns to leave.
Kahan pauses just long enough to offer her a small smile. "Sorry to miss your speech, Uzumaki-sama. But we'll take care of this. Just give us the sign when it's time."
"I will. Thank you both." Sakura says sincerely and they nod before flickering away. Sakura turns to Akihito, nodding to him and flickering away as well.
She reappears in the center of clan compound, Akihito appearing just a step behind her. The compound has been filled with people already, a few more trickling in at the last minute, and Sakura quickly steps up to the small pedestal. She waits there for everyone to settle in before she starts to speak.
"Hello, everyone." She greets calmly, eyes narrowed as she looks over them all.
They fill up the compound's open space, but there's so few of them that it hurts to look at.
She can see some of them wearing the same pain she feels on their faces.
"I gathered you here to speak with you about something I know we all have on our minds." Sakura begins, pausing for a brief moment before stating, "Kohona is not our home."
Silence greets her at that - more confused than anything.
"It's not our home, and for many of us, it's the last place we'd ever choose to be one." She says and gets a few grumbles of agreement there. "But it's where we've built our houses. It's where we've placed our families. And it's where we will now defend with our lives if we have to. I'm telling you this not because I believe you should change your opinions about Konoha. No, I feel the same way." Sakura says firmly, eyes narrowing. "I'm telling you this because it needs to be said. We are not part of Konoha, and none of us ever will be."
There's a few murmurs of agreement but most people are just watching her, so she continues without pause. "We were all there when the first whispers of the Second War started. I, personally, was there when the Sandaime Hokage came to my father and asked for his assistance in a war that he started. My father neither agreed with, nor wanted to defend, Sarutobi-sama's actions. But Uzushio has ever stood with Konoha, and Konoha tried to help us in her dying moments." Sakura says grimly, pressing her lips together for a moment.
"I won't ask any of you to reconsider your anger for Konoha. I, too, feel the bitterness of our losses. I, too, feel betrayed by the village that was supposed to be our sister village - by the village that we are now residing in. I feel it, so I won't even consider asking you not to. However," Sakura clears her throat, shifting her weight to one hip. "The fact remains. We live in Konoha now. We are the Uzu Clan now, and that clan belongs to Konoha."
Angry mutters now, some louder than just mutters, and Sakura raises her voice slightly to carry over them. "But that does not mean we do." The crowd pauses, confusion returning, and she frowns grimly at them. "The Uzu Clan belongs to Konoha, but we do not carry the Uzu name. We carry our names, our family names. Our children will carry the Uzu name, but we will make sure they never forsake our roots, and we will never forsake our home or it's people. We will always remember the sound of waves crashing against the rocks, the sight of the sun bleeding across the water, and the taste of salt in the air." Sakura calls to the crowd.
"We will always remember the way that the seagulls flew over our heads. We will always remember the way that seals glittered across the surface of our buildings and roads, lighting up the village at night. And we will always, always, remember the way all of that vanished in a single day." Sakura concludes bitterly, throat tightening for a moment, and she ignores the way that some of them stare up at her with faces that have gone pale. "We will never forget that. We will never forget Uzushio, for the good and the bad."
"Never." Someone in the crowd, a man with grey hair, says fiercely.
"Never!" Another man cries, and after a moment, the crowd goes from almost eerily quiet to half-yelling, half-cheering.
After several seconds, Sakura lifts a hand and they slowly quiet down. "Konoha will never have Uzushio. Konoha will never have the loyalty of our people that our homeland had. Konoha doesn't deserve that right." She says quietly. "But. Konoha is where our people are now. We are here, and we are whole for so long as we stay within these walls. This is our home now, even if it will never be more than a home-away-from-home." She pauses for a moment to let that sink in to the subdued crowd. "This compound is our home. But that doesn't mean that Konoha is our home." She adds, brushing her finger against the small square paper in the palm of her hand.
"Today, we are taking the first step towards making this compound ours. Not Konoha's, but ours. Today, we will make it clear to everyone that while we stand with Konoha, we do it as we are. The people of Uzushiogakure, not the people of Konoha." Sakura lifts her voice as she speaks, sending a small pulse of chakra into the sheaf of paper. "Today," She calls over the crowd, "we mark as the first day we once more stood as the people of Uzushiogakure, and no one else."
Chakra crackles and a smooth, pale blue barrier shoots up through the sky. It circles the compound and rises in a curved wall, curling upwards until it seals shut high above their heads.
A dome of chakra, sparkling softly before it fades into the background of the sky and trees.
It takes a moment, and then the crowd starts to cheer, loud and enthusiastic. "Today," Sakura calls over them as best as she can, and they don't even try to quiet down so strong is their joy at the reminder of home. "Today, we once more stand on our own. Today, we are Uzushio!"
The crowd roars and the barrier seal locks into place.
It will be many years before anyone outside of the clan steps foot on its land again.