Chapter 21
Chapter Summary
"Take it from me
It's got a mind of its own and it stings
Nothing can stop me
Nothing holds me back
Think you could slow me down?
There ain't no turning back.
Take it from me." - Take It From Me, Kongos
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Sakura's hands shake.
They always shake when it comes to this.
Her hands shake, water splashes, and a new fish finds it's home in her koi pond.
"I'm so sorry, Kahan." She whispers to the bright red fish.
At her side, Tsuru watches silently, but their three year old daughter cries.
She's twenty-five and it's summer, nearly a year since the festival, when she comes across the Sennin on the battlefield. They're on the Kiri border, for once, fending off a vicious assault. No doubt gnawing at the bit to have the Sanbi back. Tsunade's in the rough of it, looking exhausted as she uses Katsuyu to heal those around her. Sakura immediately goes to her side, Jiraiya and Orochimaru looking (and sneering) at her when she arrives. "Tsunade-sama." She greets politely. "Let me take over." Tsunade instantly glares at her and Sakura quickly offers, "We can switch off."
"Fine. I'm going to the tents, then." Tsunade huffs, cutting off her Yin seal.
Sakura takes her place, passing the woman a stack of seals as she goes by. Tsunade scowls a bit but takes them. "Just put them on anyone you see bleeding." Sakura says and gets a curt nod for her efforts.
"Jiraiya?" Orochimaru questions and the man huffs.
"I've got it. Go, take all the glory." Jiraiya says plaintively and Orochimaru flashes a smirk - an actual, genuine, not evil-looking smirk - before he dives into the battle. Jiraiya hovers near her, silently watching her Yin seal unravel. "How is it you and Tsunade both know that seal?"
"It's an Uzumaki forbidden fūinjutsu." Sakura explains. "She learned it from her grandmother, I expect, and I learned it from a scroll my father had." And from Tsunade in a past life. "It's the same seal, but don't mistake it for having the same purpose."
"I wouldn't. I can tell the difference, thank you very much." Jiraiya snorts. "You just use yours for pure chakra storage. Tsunade-hime uses it as an actual jutsu designed to fuel Katsuyu."
"You are correct." Sakura acknowledges, closing her eyes for a moment. She can feel Tsunade planting her seals and she carefully begins to channel her chakra into them. "My Yin seal acts as a central network to power each individual seal I place - or have someone else place. It helps me to-"
There's a roar.
A very loud roar, and a terrifying flare of chakra, so overpowering that it makes her own chakra waver in response. She opens her eyes.
"Oh, shit." Jiraiya says, blinking rapidly. They can't see it itself - but they can see the way the chakra makes the trees sway with it's pure density.
"That's a Jinchūriki, yes?" Sakura asks blankly.
"Ah-huh."
"Shit." Sakura echoes his curse.
Tackling a Jinchūriki is hell. It takes all four of them to do it. Orochimaru using jutsu to distract it, Tsunade using Katsuyu to protect those in it's radius while also punching the ever living shit out of it, and Sakura herself helping Orochimaru distract it. She cuts at the partially unleashed bijū with her sword, and uses jutsu in between. The monster snaps between all three of them while Jiraiya works out a seal.
It takes nearly fifteen minutes for him to finish it, and another five to apply it.
By the end of it, they're thoroughly exhausted - though Orochimaru pretends he isn't.
In the aftermath, Sakura finds herself sitting next to Jiraiya, struggling to catch their breath, with Orochimaru and Tsunade across from them. "That was good seal work." Sakura commends and the man looks at her in surprise.
"Oh. Thank you." He says in the tone of a man not used to praise, and that makes her frown a little.
"Very good seal work, in fact." Sakura says, and mentally curses Shikaku for what comes out next. She wipes her face with a small rag, frowning deeply before turning her head towards Jiraiya. "You should come by my Clan's compound when we get back. Tabane is a seal master - he's teaching Kushina everything he knows. He wouldn't mind teaching you as well."
Jiraiya blinks rapidly, dead silent for several awkwardly long seconds. "Answer, you idiot." Tsunade commands, reaching across to punch Jiraiya's knee.
"Ow!" The man complains, Orochimaru giving an amused - an amused! - snort. "Oh, uh." Jiraiya looks over at her and offers a hesitant but genuine smile. "I would be honored to accept, Uzumaki-hime."
Don't call me that, she wants to snap, biting the tip of her tongue to hold it back. She just nods at first, and when she's pulled herself together, she speaks. "It would be our pleasure, I'm sure. Perhaps you could even teach Tabane in return - you use a different style than ours, after all. I'm certain he'd be interested."
"I- yes, sure. I can do that." Jiraiya awkwardly reaches up to rub the back of his head, his smile widening a bit. "How can I say no to an offer from someone as beautiful as you?" He asks charmingly.
Too charmingly. He oozes it and she can hear Orochimaru sigh as she stares blankly at Jiraiya.
"Too much. Take it down a notch, then we can talk." Sakura tells him before shoving to her feet and walking away.
She's almost to the nearest medical tent when she hears him call, "You mean there's a chance?"
Shikaku's words haunt her step.
So does Jiraiya.
Even when she's covered in blood, he still sidles up and smiles at her like she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. It's flattering.
It's also over the top, as with everything he does.
She doubts she could ever love the man - and doubts he could ever truly love her, as well.
But the idea of having someone is becoming more tempting the longer he pursues her. Having someone there to wake up to, to eat breakfast with, to drink tea with. Someone just to have there, even if it's nothing more.
"You love her." Sakura murmurs to Jiraiya when he accosts her in relative privacy. They're on the outskirts of the camp, the sun going down and the sky bleeding red. Jiraiya's glowing smile falters. "Tsunade-hime, that is."
The smile is gone, now.
"I've seen you watch her."
"I've seen you watch her." Jiraiya says with sudden seriousness. "You've lost something too, haven't you?"
"I suppose I have." But not the same thing as you. Not even close. "But you love her still. Why do you pursue me?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Jiraiya's smile is coming back now, with a tinge of bitterness to it. "You're young. You're gorgeous." She can't help the way her cheeks warm at that. "You look incredible all of the time. When the sun meets your hair, it's the most beautiful color I've seen." He reaches up, hand rising slowly, but she doesn't try to avoid it. His fingers brush against her cheek, taking a lock of hair between his fingertips and tucking it behind her ear. The rest of her hair is in a braid that was tight at some point, but has come loose in the chaos of battle.
"It lights up like wine and makes your eyes look warm instead of cold." He goes on, staring at said eyes. His face is soft, so genuine it makes her heart ache a bit - because she knows they'll never be each other's first choice in life. "You care about your comrades as if they were your own family, and I love seeing that in a woman. You care, and a lot of people forget to."
"Tsunade-hime cares." Sakura points out and Jiraiya winces slightly.
He looks pained and sad for a second before shaking his head. "But Tsunade-hime isn't mine to care about."
"And I am?" Sakura counters and his lips twitch slightly.
"Well, I'm hoping so. Otherwise I've been making a fool of myself." He says with a good natured laugh.
Sakura softens a bit, unable to help herself. He still reminds her of the Jiraiya from her memories, but she can tell the difference between them. This Jiraiya's lechery isn't quite so ingrained.
She considers for a long minute.
The Jiraiya she knows would never settle for anyone but Tsunade, but this isn't the same Jiraiya - and he might be willing to calm down to married life. She doesn't necessarily believe so, but… perhaps.
And there's nothing to lose in this…
Sakura leans up and presses her lips to his.
His arms are around her in a second, pulling her closer and kissing her fiercely.
"You didn't tell me." Jiraiya says in the aftermath, frowning at the stains between them.
Sakura shrugs lightly. "It doesn't matter to me. As far as firsts go, this wasn't half bad." It wasn't wasn't really her first, only in this life. In her past life, she'd been allowed to live much more frivolously, rather than bouncing from warzone to warzone.
"Half-bad?" He demands, offended, and she grins at him.
"Well with how tall and thick you are, I was kind of expecting-"
He cuts her off with an offended gasp, high-pitched enough to send her into a fit of laughter.
After a moment, he gives in to the urge to laugh as well.
Then he gives in to other urges and they start all over again.
"So?" Shikaku asks when she returns to Konoha.
"No." Sakura says simply, flicking a bit of dirt from the shoulder of her sleeveless dress. "Too lecherous. I'd strangle him after the first month."
"You just spent three months without strangling him." Shikaku protests and Sakura shrugs.
"We were busy with other things." She explains. His eyes roll. "He's good for that, at least. But imagine if I were actually busy doing something? He'd be insufferable."
"Hiashi?"
"No." Sakura says instantly. "I disapprove of the Hyūga Clan's use of seals." She informs the man and then looks at him incredulously. "Why do you even care? Why are you bothering me with this?"
"You're an intriguing woman to bother." Shikaku offers and Sakura sighs.
"Find another experiment to play with, Shikaku-sama. I'm a busy woman." And at that, they both fall serious again. "I hear Tsuru's been sent to the Kumo border."
"Yes. With Minato." Shikaku confirms. "The Hachibi's been sealed in the Raikage's brother. He seems to be able to control it with great skill. Only Minato and Tsuru have been able to face the pair and come out alive."
"Only them?" She questions, frowning softly. That's a bit alarming… and that also meant that the Raikage she knew in her last life is the current one.
Which means his 'brother' is Killer B.
Which means Sakura's pocket jinchūriki tackler might directly lead to the untimely death of Killer B.
Someone who had been a friend of Naruto's. Who had taught Naruto how to embrace being a jinchūriki and come out on the other side even stronger for it.
"Is something the matter?" Shikaku's question brings her back to reality and she blinks hard, expression blank.
"Not at all." She says mildly. "I only worry about Tsuru's state of mind. She may be more reckless than usual."
"I have an eye on her mental state."
"You mean Inoichi does?" She suggests lightly at the man frowns a bit at her.
"We both do."
"Good." The last thing Sakura wanted was for Tsuru to be another koi in the pond.
"What about Inoichi?" He starts to suggest, but Sakura recoils so hard he pauses with his mouth still open.
"No. No, no, no." Pictures of Ino flash across her mind, and Inoichi acting as a father figure for her when she was young… "No. Just… no."
"...Alright." Shikaku says very slowly.
"I'll pick someone myself, thank you very much. Now excuse me, I have a Clan to run." She says, bowing quickly to the man. He bows back and then she flickers away as fast as she can.
That's one conversation she hopes to never have again.