Yamato met Sakura long before she was ready to train as a team. This was the first time that Sakura had met a person without a daemon. She felt like she was going in blind for the first time.
She had learned on the first meeting that he was just as awkward as Sakura. Genma and Sakura had gone to meet him at training ground 9. Poor Genma almost had to drag all the conversations after the introduction was made. Good thing the man couldn't stand the silence for more than 5 minutes.
It wasn't until the third meeting before Sakura was prepared to have Genma standing all the way at the entry. Yamato was calm, but it was clear this was the first time teaching someone else. He was so sincere that Sakura couldn't help but grow attached. A lot of time was spent meditating and connecting with the two elements that were needed for wood-style jutsu. Luckily, water and earth were Sakura's elements. Even if water was much stronger, to the point Sakura could always find some. Which was good, because the water was always so nice to them.
Itachi joined them on some occasions and was much better at guiding Yamato on how to train Sakura. The teen was so gentle that she understood why Sasuke adored him. Not just with training, but also when Sakura woke from nightmares. Grated, both Itachi and Genma were terribly awkward in the beginning not knowing how to help her.
The problem was that every time Sakura was close to successing in wood jutsu she lost consciousness. After the fourth time, the gold dust began to fly around the unconscious lynx and Sakura began to cough blood. Minato was quick to stop the training. To the great joy of the 3 approving worried men. Sakura wasn't sure why she needed to stop but everyone else seemed worried and stressed.
When Sakura had asked Inoichi his face was drained of color. He had all but lifted her up at once and dragged her to the hospital for a checkup. Sakura and Tobi hated the hospital. It smelled of medicine and blood. She especially hated where the old people were. Old people smelled of pee.
Finally, after an unnecessarily long check-up, they talk about a lot of things, like gardening. Genma and Itachi were also brought up a lot. Sakura told him a lot about origami that Itachi had shown her over the weekend. Sakura didn't know how she felt about someone knowing her as well as Inoichi did. When this was pointed out Inoichi laughed and assured her that most shinobis felt like that.
"Inoichi, I think I'm ready to get a new team," Sakura said right before closing the door in Inoichi's face. Genma had laughed when Sakura had told him, and it took him quite a bit of time before he stopped laughing enough to talk. Honestly, both her and Tobi were impressed he didn't stop sooner due to lack of air. It even got a smile from Itachi when she told him as well.
Shino and Shikamaru both understood that Sakura need time to recover before she was ready for a new team. That didn't mean they couldn't come to spend time with her after their own teamwork was over. Each time, however, they were felt with such anger on her behalf towards her old teammates. Minato had taken care of Hakata and the Uchiha. The Nara and Aburame clans were cold to them, and where the Nara went so did the Yamanaka and Akimichi clans. This affected everything related to food since that market was owned by the Akimichi and they guarded it like a dragon.
That still meant that Naruto and Sasuke still hadn't got anything but a slap on the wrist. Sasuke looked like a mess, with big bags under his eyes, red eyes like he had been crying, constant twisting, and his overall sloppy look. They almost felt bad for the guy and ended up agreeing that his punishment would be lesser than Naruto's. They didn't know why the Uchiha had never visited her either at the hospital or home. They especially didn't understand it much less when Itachi began to live with her.
While Naruto was, not only unusually quiet this time, but he also wasn't outside in public much. They were going to hit where it hurt. The ramen shop. Teuchi had been very reluctant when hearing out why they wanted him to ban Naruto. Even when they got him to agree, the man was still hesitating to only allow him back in, when he had apologist to Sakura. The man was still upholding their agreement from what they had heard.
Sasuke had been so much harder to find a punishment since the boy didn't have anything he openly liked. Well, maybe other than Itachi.
So, here they were, stalking the boy. Right now, Sasuke was at the Uchiha training ground with the clan head watching him from the shade. They were all fully aware that the only ones that didn't know they were there were Sasuke and Jina. Fugaku for some reason didn't call them out on it for some reason.
"Dad, please tell me the reason I can't go see Itachi, please!" Sasuke finally turned around to acknowledge the old man after 3 hours. The Uchiha was nothing if not stubborn. It was clear that they had had this conversation before.
"…" Fugaku simply stood there but his wolf was twisting and moving in unease. Honestly, that man would be impossible to read without his daemon.
"Please" Sasuke begged, his eyes big and teary with his bottom lip wobbling. This was basically one of those dramas Shikamaru's mother loved to read.
"… Sakura-san isn't just some random member of the Haruno clan… She is the daughter of Mebuki, their clan head." He said walking towards his son and kneeling, so they were at eye level.
"Our clan has a contract with them, where we offered our protective." He continued in the same calm voice. The hurt was underlying in his tone.
"By Sakura-san almost getting killed, the clan must pay since there were two of our clan members there…" He was hesitating as he stopped seemingly unsure of what words to use.
"What does have to do with Itachi?" Asked Sasuke prompting his father to continue.
"Mebuki demanded Itachi in return… That means that he will no longer be seen as an Uchiha, our son, the heir, a shinobi of Konoha, or your brother." Fugaku said not even bothering to hide the hurt on his face. Hugging Sasuke close when tears began to fall.
"Then what is he?" Whispered Sasuke almost hesitant to ask, not sure if he want to know the answer.
"He is Sakura-san's" He finally said before taking Sasuke inside again.
Shino and Shikamaru left after that, Mebuki had already taken the most important thing from the clan. That was one scary woman indeed.