Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is Shin who finds her.
"ROOT, Sakura, really?"
Shin's voice carries over to her as he drops down into the abandoned underground training grounds they used to use regularly. One which she had apparently run off to following her 'talk' with Sasuke, though she doesn't recall much after that conversation beyond the desperate need to get away.
"Thank god you don't have a shrink 'cause they'd have had a field day with explaining this."
Sakura blinks, forcing her mind to focus back on the present.
It is with no small degree of surprise that she realises Shin is right – somehow, somewhere, her psyche decided that the ruins of the ROOT hideout were the safest place to retreat to.
(She ignores the little voice in the back of her head whispering that at least things made sense in ROOT.)
"You good?" Shin asks, and Sakura focuses on making her brain snap out of it and pay attention. She lifts her eyes from her fisted hands to her brother and realises that Shin has stopped about twenty feet from her and is making no move to come any closer.
She frowns, confused, and Shin sighs and gestures vaguely at her.
"I don't really wanna get skewered."
It's only when she glances around, completely stumped, that she realises she's curled up in a small half-dome made out of thorns. Not roots like usual, but dried out, thick, thorny branches which have twined around her and hidden her away from the rest of the world.
She…doesn't remember making them.
"I…think so?" she manages after another unquantifiable amount of time, her voice hoarse. "How long have I…?"
"It's not even sunset yet." Shin says lightly, though his gaze is intent. He watches her watch him, then takes a few careful steps closer, telegraphing his movements as he goes, then drops into a crouch about three feet away from her. "You're a mess, Sakura."
Sakura bristles.
"It's not an attack!" Shin snaps, apparently reading something on her face that's beyond the usual mock-annoyance at his bluntness, and Sakura takes a deep breath and tries to smooth out her expression and calm her chakra. "Sai couldn't look his teammates in the eye either in the first few weeks. It's not unusual."
Sakura pauses, eyeing Shin in surprise. Sai had had problems with his teammates?
"You weren't in the Village long enough to notice at that point, but yeah." Shin tells her, his voice a mix of wry and the insufferable 'I-told-you-so' tone that Ino used to use sometimes, but Sakura's more thrown by the realisation that she hadn't noticed Sai had been struggling.
She feels like a bad sister.
"He talked it over with the Aburame Head and the Wave mission apparently helped, but that's not the point." Shin huffs, pinning her with a look. "Point is, Sai saw Shisui in them, too, so whatever you're experiencing is normal, Sakura. You'll get over it."
Shisui? Sakura wants to ask, but her voice refuses to cooperate. What does Shisui have to do with this?
After a long few seconds, she realises that Shin means reflections of Shisui in Naruto and Sasuke, which, now that she thinks about it, yeah. She can see it. And god does it hurt, even if she knows, rationally, that Shisui is alive. She misses the Uchiha something fierce.
"Itachi tried to kill me." Is what she says after another minute, because it looks like Shin's angling for an explanation. Also, she can't very well admit that Sasuke had killed her to Shin unless she's prepared to open the whole can of worms that is her apparent reincarnation, but this should do. "During the Massacre. He wanted to use his Sharingan on Sasuke, and I stopped him. He…didn't take that well."
"You'll need to get over that if you're planning to teach the kid." Shin says frankly, and Sakura shoots him a glare because she's aware, thanks. Shin doesn't seem in the slightest fazed by her ire, and he also apparently used up all his capacity to be considerate, because he adds, "You'll also need to listen to me and use the time away from ANBU to brush up on your basic skills because you've gotten careless."
He jerks his chin at the bandage still around her wrist, the reference self-explanatory.
"If you say 'I told you so' I'll stab you." Sakura threatens, distantly disturbed to find that she means it, and certain that whatever expression is on her face is rather far from friendly.
"I'd like to see you try." Shin shoots back with a sharp, humourless smile, his gaze cold. "And I don't need to say shit; you know I was right."
"I'm not leaving ANBU." Sakura snaps, and she feels the thorns around her stir. "Whatever your agenda, you can forget it."
"My 'agenda' is that you survive, you brat." Shin seethes, and Sakura's not sure whether she's more shocked by the vehemence or the insult. "You're making that goal rather difficult."
Sakura feels her irritation spike, and with it, one of the thorns that has been slowly twining around her shoots out at Shin, tip sharper than steel and aimed right at his chest.
Shin throws himself back, putting distance between him and Sakura, but the branch doesn't slow, doesn't stop, and Shin slips-!
"Katon: Hosenka!"
It's not Shin's voice that shouts the technique, and Sakura's too shocked to react. She can only watch, frozen, unable to speak, unable to do anything but stare in horror as the fire incinerates the thorned branch inches before it can touch Shin.
She doesn't notice that Shin relocate, back on his feet and a safe distance away, standing between her and Sai. Sai, who must've been the one to produce the fire jutsu. Sai, whose eyes are wide, one of his tracking mice perched on his shoulder.
For a moment, nobody speaks.
"I- I'm sorry-!" Sakura tries, choking on her breath, the horrifying realisation of what she'd almost done slowly sinking in.
"You're a mess, Sakura." Shin repeats, sharper than before, also breathing hard. "Sort your fucking head out."
Sakura keens in the back of her throat, hands rising to pull at her hair as she tries to get her breathing under control.
"I'm putting myself in charge of your training." Shin announces over the sound of her gasping, and his tone is flat, authoritative. "Next time you're brought down on a mission, you better have been fighting the Kami himself."
"Aniki." Sai frowns, tone chastising, but Shin brushes him off.
"You, too." He tells Sai sternly, a scowl pulling on his lips, and Sai startles slightly. "I trust Hatake about as far as I can throw him when it comes to your safety. We're going back to ROOT-standard training, and you're both going to like it."
"Shin-!" Sakura starts, and she doesn't want to question him or disagree, she just wants to apologise before the guilt eats her alive, but Shin cuts her off.
"-I don't care. You didn't listen when I told you that you were stretching yourself too thin the first time, so you deal with the consequences now." He reminds her coldly, and Sakura flinches. "Shelve your martyr complex and get yourself together."
Shin looks from her to Sai, the coldest expression Sakura has seen from him in years on his face, then turns on his heel and leaves them alone.
Sakura musters the energy to crawl out of the thorny cocoon she's unconsciously made for herself, and as soon as she's a reasonable distance away, she spits a small fireball at it, watching dispassionately as it turns to ash.
She doesn't know what she's feeling, but she stumbles when she moves to follow after Shin, her legs numb. Sai is at her side in seconds, a concerned hand catching her elbow, and she lets him hold her up until feeling returns to her legs.
"Aneue?"
Sakura mentally commends Sai for managing almost two minutes in silence, but the thought isnt enough for her to manage a smile so she doesn't even try to. All she can do is drop her head until it thunks gently against Sai's shoulder, taking in the wordless comfort.
"I'm sorry I sprang being assigned to your team on you so unexpectedly, Sai-chan." she mumbles tiredly, closing her eyes and letting Sai support most of her weight.
Her foot twinges uncomfortably, and Sakura is rather painfully reminded of the fact that she'd smashed her heel into the ground like an idiot when she'd been fighting Kakashi and then forgot to heal it.
"It's okay." Her brother assures her, carefully steering her towards the latch that will lead them out of the bunker. "Shiranui-san came to talk to Kakashi at some point when you were gone and I heard your name, so I could've guessed something similar."
Sakura huffs, not quite a laugh but not a disagreement either, and pulls herself up the ladder and out of the hatch, breathing in the crisp evening air with relief.
"You heading home?" She asks Sai when he appears beside her, and Sai takes a look at her, a look at the sky, then shakes his head.
"I'll go to Shino's. I think aniki needs time alone for now." Sai meets her eyes then, and Sakura is surprised to see the barest edge of disapproval in his gaze. "You scared him. He's bad at expressing it, but he was really worried for you."
Sakura ignores the lump that forms in her throat and manages a nod.
"I'll crash at HQ then." She allows, because Sai might have the right idea regarding giving Shin some space. "I'll see you at training."
She pauses, shooting Sai a curious look, "Feel like cluing Naruto and Sasuke in as to our relationship?"
Sai looks briefly amused at the thought, which had been the goal, and nods.
"Sure. It should be fun." Then, he lifts a hand in a lazy wave and offers her a soft smile. "See you tomorrow."
And disappears.
Sighing, Sakura unseals her ANBU mask and heads for one of the hidden entrances to ANBU HQ. Her assigned cot might be less comfortable than her bed at home, but she's not about to try and face Shin after she tried to kill him.
The realisation that she might have to ask Inosuke if he was serious about the offer of being her shrink isn't a particularly comforting one.
Sasuke's not sure what reaction he's expecting when 'Sakura-sensei' appears on the training grounds the next morning, but he's still somewhat surprised when all she does is nod at him in greeting when she notices him looking, no visible annoyance or resentment on her face.
Then again, seeing as she admitted to being ANBU the day before, he's not sure how much he can trust that neutral expression.
What is even more surprising is that she arrives to the training grounds with Sai talking quietly at her side.
"Good morning Naruto, Sasuke." She greets them quietly, managing a small smile, though she still doesn't meet their eyes directly.
"Hi sensei, Sai!" Naruto shouts, because Sasuke has since learned that the dobe does not operate on volumes lower than 'deafening'.
He scoffs at the thought, a biting remark on the tip of his tongue, but then Naruto cuts him off before he can say anything.
"Why're ya wearing Sai's sweater, sensei?" he asks in a weird voice, frowning intently at their teammate and new sensei, and Sasuke straightens from his kata to look at the two more closely.
Third surprise of the morning is that the dobe's not wrong. Under her flak jacket, their sensei is wearing the same grey sweatshirt he can vaguely remember Sai having worn a few times, complete with the black pockets and asymmetric zip.
"Ah." Sakura breathes, appearing almost sheepish, while Sai seems amused. "I meant to talk to you both about that, actually."
Sasuke raises an eyebrow and he can tell Naruto's even more confused, especially when the girl gestures for them both to come closer to where she and Sai are standing. Exchanging a look with Naruto, Sasuke slowly obeys, stuffing his hands in his pockets and wandering over to the rest of his team.
"I didn't tell you yesterday because I wanted to let you form your opinions of me without external influence." She begins, gaze skimming Sasuke's eyebrow and Naruto's cheek, then sharing a look with Sai, who sighs, but obligingly takes over.
"Remember when I told you that my aneue was part of sensei's ANBU team?" he asks, and Sasuke nods automatically, Naruto a bit more hesitant, and Sasuke can't help but wonder if the blond even knows what ANBU is.
He's distracted from his musings when, Sai smiles, the expression brimming with mischief and the sense of 'I-know-something-you-don't', and Sasuke's struck with the memory of his cousin Shisui.
He can't help the quiet breath he sucks in when the thought sends a sharp stab of longing through his heart. Sai's gaze flickers to him briefly, still amused but too observant to miss Sasuke's reaction, but he seems content to let it go for now.
Instead, he gestures at their new sensei who is watching him with clear fondness on her face.
"Naruto, Sasuke, meet aneue." He introduces flatly, but Sasuke can tell from Sai's eyes that he's definitely entertained, and their sensei – his sister – isn't much better.
"Wait, what?!" Naruto demands after a beat, eyes wide, gaze jumping from Sai to Sakura and back again. "But-! You don't look anything alike!"
"Family's more than just blood, Naruto-kun." Sakura says quietly, and she sounds oddly tired, the earlier amusement fading. "You decide who you consider your family. Blood relations, appearance, experience, all that is secondary."
"But it's not." Sasuke cuts in, his mouth moving before his brain catches up, and he too frowns at their sensei. "I'm an Uchiha. Even if I considered someone else 'family', that wouldn't make them Uchiha."
"Perhaps not." Sakura-sensei agrees neutrally, then seems to steel herself and meets his gaze briefly, the look in her eyes challenging, before she looks skywards. "But you're also the Head of your Clan, legally. There's nothing stopping you from adopting someone into it, in which case they would be Uchiha."
Sasuke stares.
"I think," a new voice calls out, and Sasuke almost jumps when Kakashi suddenly appears next to them, an odd expression on the man's face before his eye closes in his signature bullshit smile, "that's enough revelations for the morning. Tora's escaped again, chop-chop, Team Seven!"
When none of them moves, Kakashi opens his eye and raises an eyebrow. "Tora was last seen around the Aburame Compound. The last one there pays for everyone's lunch."
There's a 'poof', and when Sasuke looks over, he catches a small cloud of smoke where Sai had been, but the teen is gone. Naruto squawks, leaping to his feet, and takes off running but he's—
"The Aburame Compound is in the opposite direction, Naruto-kun!" Sakura-sensei calls idly, and Naruto does a 180 before disappearing between the trees.
"Did you not hear me, Sasuke?" Kakashi asks lightly, but Sasuke can feel the man's full attention on his back.
"I'm the Head of my Clan." Sasuke mutters, the words tasting like ash in his mouth. "I can afford a few bowls of ramen."
He glances at Sakura-sensei's face then, wondering what she'll say to that, and is briefly surprised when she holds his gaze, her expression contemplative.
Wordlessly, she brings her finger to her mouth and bites the pad, drawing blood. She flicks through seals too fast for Sasuke to catch then drops into a crouch, pressing her palm to the ground.
There's a cloud of smoke then a tiger suddenly stands in the field, reaching around Sasuke's mid-thigh.
"Kyoko-chan." Sakura-sensei greets, reaching to scritch the tiger's chin, because she's apparently crazy. "How do you feel about playing catch?"
"Yū and Ryūnosuke are faster, hime." The tiger replies bluntly, eyeing Sasuke with an oddly weighted gaze.
"Yū and Ryū are also over two hundred kilos and very enthusiastic." The girl shoots back dryly. "The point is to teach, not grievously maim."
"Alright." The tiger huffs, then turns to Sasuke. "You should start running, Uchiha-san."
Sasuke wastes a few precious seconds to stare incredulously at his two sensei, but neither seems to be joking in the slightest, so he turns on his heel and bolts.
He doesn't wonder until much later just how the tiger knew who he was on sight.
"Not that it wasn't funny, but was that really necessary, kouhai?" Kakashi finds himself asking after the tiger gives chase, and Sakura has the gall to snort.
"Sasuke won't allow himself to act his age." She retorts, oddly astute for someone who's known the kid for all of twenty-four hours. "He needed some motivation."
Kakashi studies her then, wondering whether there's something more beneath the seemingly casual remark, absently amused when they both wordlessly set off in the direction of the Aburame Compound.
"Do you regret it?" he asks after a few seconds, and Sakura lifts her gaze from the path ahead of them to meet his.
"I regret a lot of things, taicho." She says lightly, but there's an undercurrent to her voice that unsettles him. "You'll have to be more specific."
"ROOT." He clarifies, wondering whether he's overstepping. "Not having a childhood. Chasing missing-nin instead of cats on your missions."
"Did you?" She shoots back, sharper than usual, and Kakashi masks a wince, aware that he probably deserved that. But, before he can speak, Sakura sighs and rakes a hand through her hair, dropping eye-contact in favour of frowning up ahead.
"No, probably not." She admits after a beat, her voice quieter than before. "It gave me Sai and Shin and Shisui. It made me a better shinobi. It made me more appreciative of what I have."
"You could've become a good shinobi even without it." Kakashi feels the need to point out, because he can't imagine a world where the girl beside him is anything but a shinobi.
Sakura, to his surprise, snorts.
"Not without a lot of luck and favours." She dismisses, sounding oddly certain. "Our world is not kind to civilian-born shinobi, taicho. I'd have had to fight twice as hard for half as much as the Clan kids, not to mention my gender. ROOT didn't care about any of that."
Kakashi considers that, realising that he doesn't actually have anyone to compare Sakura's words against. Yugao, maybe? He's also not what most would call 'social' when it comes to most of his age-mates.
"Why then the insistence on everyone having a childhood? If you were so willing to dismiss yours?" he asks, unable to help himself, and he knows before the words are fully out of his mouth that Sakura's going to slam the brakes on the conversation.
And indeed, he doesn't have to wait long –
Sakura smiles, her eyes creasing with how wide it is, and it's the same smile Kakashi tends to give people who press him too hard.
"Are you trying to steal the Yamanaka's jobs, taicho?" Sakura asks, not unkindly, not yet, but Kakashi gets the hint and drops the topic.
He lets a few minutes pass by in silence, then he asks, because he needs to know they're alright; "Got any training plans for the rest of the day?"
Sakura looks up at him then, momentarily suspicious before she scans his expression and realises that his interest is genuine, then she relaxes, smiling at him briefly, and much more genuinely than before.
"I want to see them fight."
Shin…might've done something stupid.
Not exactly a first for him, but he can count the number of times he's realised it himself on the fingers of one hand.
He's at Hayate-shishou's, the place a second home at this point, Hayate and Yugao-san on the other side of the wall, while Sakura, whom he'd asked to meet him here that morning, is in front of him, her face blank.
"What did you tell them." She asks, but her voice is so flat, the question sounds more like a statement. A demand.
"The truth." Shin replies simply, because he's still somewhat angry at her, a fact not helped in the least that she hasn't been home in the week since she lost control that time in ROOT HQ.
But Sakura's burning glare doesn't waver in the slightest, so he elaborates. "That you taught yourself to heal. That you cured my cancer. That you can cure him."
Sakura pales, and when she next speaks, she sounds torn between beseeching and angry, a break in that blank facade.
"Shin, did you think about the reasons for my inaction? Did you think I didn't recognise Hayate's illness? Or did you think it was selfishness that prevented me from healing him?"
Shin frowns at her rapid-fire questions, as well as the tone they're said in.
"I'm not following." he admits bluntly, though he's not expecting the derisive scoff his words earn him.
"Of course you're not." She snaps, the anger winning out, and she rounds on him, her finger pointed at his chest, but not touching, as if she can't bring herself to do so.
Or is afraid to do so.
"Healing you was a gamble in and of itself, but the risk of detection was reduced once we stole your records from the hospital. Do you know why the suspicion stopped there?" She asks him, though it's rhetorical, for a moment later she bares her teeth at him, and her next words are almost cruel. "Because you didn't exist. You were nobody."
Shin reels slightly at her reminder, but she doesn't give him a moment's respite, jabbing her finger back at the room where Hayate and Yugao are waiting for them, and her lips pull back in a snarl.
"Hayate though? He's a tokubetsu jounin. People know him. He's had this illness for years. If you genuinely think people won't question him being miraculously cured all of a sudden, then you're naive, brother." she throws the word 'naive' at him like it's a knife, and Shin feels the pain of it like a physical wound.
He's the planner, the mastermind. Calling him naive, after everything they've accomplished, after everything he's orchestrated, is invalidating his greatest strength. He feels the first stirrings of anger in his gut at the accusation, and his next words are sharper than he intends.
"I lived with his illness for years, Sakura." he reminds her bitingly. "I know what it's like. I don't think it's fair he should suffer from it if there's a cure-!"
"There isn't a cure!" Sakura cuts him off, shrill and cutting. "The hospital could only offer you ways of managing the illness for a reason! I'm fairly sure there's only one other person in this world who could attempt a cure, even if it was found. Did you think about that?"
Once again, she doesn't give him the time to answer, carrying on, anger rising once again.
"And Hayate wasn't suffering! He wasn't using opioids and silencing seals in his treatment, he was using hospital-approved medication when on missions to manage his illness and had risen to tokubetsu in spite of it!" she points out, waving the file he'd thrust at her – Hayate's medical file – around like she might smack him with it, or set it on fire.
"But you've gone and told him and- and Yugao that he can be cured! And you didn't even think to ask me why I didn't offer to treat him earlier!"
Shin blanches, the last accusation giving him a glimpse into Sakura's real problem with him. Still, he tries another avenue.
"You- you use medical ninjutsu in ANBU." he points out, and Sakura rolls her eyes and actually does throw the file at him, so hard the edge of the folder cuts his fingers when he moves to catch it.
"ANBU is nameless and faceless for a reason! People don't ask questions!" she snaps, and he can see that she's trying to stoke the anger within her, not wanting him to see what other emotion she's feeling.
"And, in case you haven't realised, there's a big difference between healing a comrade's burn or stab wound and treating an illness that the best hospital in the Elemental Nations deemed incurable." she sneers, and Shin has to butt in, has to try to make amends, because he has a suspicion about what's really upsetting her, and if he's right-!
"I didn't realise-!"
Sakura throws her hand up, cutting him off and covering her face in one move, and Shin stops talking mostly because he can see the way she's wrestling for control of her emotions despite her face being obscured.
"Even if we haven't been on the best of terms recently," Sakura begins, her voice deceptively calm, and once she lowers her hand, her face is wiped clear of all expression. "After six years, I expected you to know me well enough to ask me to do this, or ask for my reasons, at the very least."
The mask cracks for the briefest of seconds, and Shin sucks in a breath at the glimpse of the emotion that had been hiding beneath the anger.
Hurt.
It had been his goal only partially, a voice in the back of his mind whispering about payback when he'd told Hayate about his own illness, but now that he's staring at Sakura's hurt-stricken face, he feels cold.
Sakura's walls go back up an instant later, and she continues, her voice sharp and cruel.
"This, though?" she asks roughly, waving her hand at their surroundings. "Bringing me here, to Yugao and Hayate's home, after you've already told them what I could 'do' for them? Knowing I can't refuse them?"
She meets his gaze, her eyes flat and cold, the hurt buried deep. "This isn't asking, darling brother. This is tying my hands behind my back and painting a target on my back."
And then, pausing for the briefest of seconds for her words to sink in, she shoots him the fakest smile he's ever seen from her and brushes past him, walking back into the room with Hayate and Yugao, her face as smooth and placid as the porcelain that usually hides it.
...Fuck.
As soon as she was done healing Hayate, Sakura fled.
A full week after joining Team Seven as a sensei this time, Sakura sets out to visit Inosuke, her head a mess. Still, she stops just shy of pushing open the door to her and Inosuke's old room in the hospital's ANBU wing, old memories of half-remembered hospital protocols regarding non-urgent cases and ANBU turnover rates prompting her to run a quick chakra scan of the inside first.
She's disappointed but not too surprised to find the man no longer there. Sighing, and hoping she manages to keep it together long enough to find him, Sakura spreads out her chakra sense as much as she can and concentrates on finding Chie instead, knowing from the small but continuous drain on her chakra over the last few days that her summon hasn't dismissed herself yet.
Chie's signature leads her to one of the multiple-occupancy rooms a few floors up, and she's suddenly grateful she thought to change out of her ANBU uniform for this visit. Reaching the door where she can feel her captain and summon, Sakura opens it a sliver and slips into Inosuke's room, feeling somewhat like she's on another infiltration mission.
The room's predictably larger than the previous one, four beds in total, three of which are occupied from what she can see, though she can't tell if the other men are awake or not.
Deciding not to worry about that just yet, she closes the door behind her and heads over to Inosuke and all but collapses onto the uncomfortable plastic chair by his bedside.
'Hey, taicho.' She signs tiredly with one hand, opting against speaking, not sure if her voice would hold up.
Judging by the way her throat tightens, she reckons she might burst out crying if she tries to speak.
She manages a smile at the indent in the blankets by Inosuke's feet, and though Chie doesn't drop the camouflage technique she's still hiding beneath, Sakura feels her summon's pleasure at the sight of her through the chakra linking them together.
"I wasn't expecting a visit so soon." Inosuke greets quietly, the words slow and heavy, but his eyes are alert.
He sounds even more tired than he had when she'd been discharged, and the realisation prompts Sakura to shoot him a concerned look even with how out-of-it she feels.
"Can't sleep." He says wryly, and Sakura winces, aware of what the lack of drugs to dull the senses can mean for hyper-aware jounin, but she refuses to feel guilty for telling on the nurse who had drugged her captain without his consent last time.
You don't drug jounin without letting them know about it, and you definitely don't sneak-drug ANBU. If Tsunade had been at the hospital, she'd have fired the nurse on the spot, no questions asked. The fact she, to Sakura's knowledge, has merely been restricted to working with civvies and genin is barely a punishment if you ask her.
Still, she frowns at Inosuke, gesturing at where Chie's lying in what she hopes is a rather self-explanatory 'that's what she's here for' fashion, and gets a shrug in response.
Right. Can't spring a summon-guard on a jounin and expect it to magically fix all problems, no matter how much she may want it to.
"How's your new assignment?" Inosuke asks instead, not appearing in the slightest guilty about the completely unsubtle change of subject.
Sakura blinks at him, then catches the almost lazy look he shoots the rest of the room before turning back to her.
It takes her a second to realise that by 'assignment', he means Team 7, and another beat longer to clock the reason for the vague wording.
"A mess." she tells him honestly, if blandly, her voice hoarse and wet, and she absently raises her right hand to scratch at her nose while her left flickers through ANBU sign; 'They're a group of talented kids, but they're not a team'.
Inosuke huffs and tilts his head, though his face betrays nothing. "Anything in particular that's making you say that?"
He shifts to adjust his blanket, visibly mindful of Chie by his feet, and the hand not holding the blankets twitches in a more than familiar 'Explain?'.
Sakura runs a hand through her hair, too tired for the double-speak, but she gathers that Inosuke, for whatever reason, doesn't trust his roommates enough to speak freely, which.
Well.
Sakura's already decided she's going to be calling him 'senpai' at every available opportunity, especially within Genma's earshot, but apparently her campaign has gained yet another facet.
She swallows, and when she speaks, her voice is barely above a whisper.
"They're getting in each other's way instead of working together." She murmurs, frowning off to the side and ignoring the burning in her eyes. "Watching them fight is an exercise in frustration, but I don't know how to fix it."
Inosuke studies her thoughtfully, and Sakura's aware that she's twitchier than usual, and judging by how tense her shoulders feel, she's pretty sure the tension she's carrying is visible at this point.
She raises a hand to rub at her eyes, summoning some medical chakra to relieve the headache she can feel building behind her right eye, and as she drops her hand back to her lap, she signs 'Can I show you?', and knows Inosuke sees it by the way he freezes momentarily.
Then, his lip quirks ever so slightly, an odd shadow in his eyes, though he still reaches out towards her, the movement looking more like he wants to push Sakura's hair back from her face than perform a jutsu.
His hand stills millimetres from her skin, waiting.
Ignoring the stab of pain that shoots through her heart at the man's clear hesitance despite her having already given consent to the Mind-Walk, Sakura leans forward those scant few millimetres, concentrating on the memory of watching Team 7 fight Kakashi, and lets her forehead connect with Inosuke's palm.
She sighs, closing her eyes, and finds herself leaning into the touch unconsciously.
Perhaps it says something about her mental state, but she finds the Mind-Walk almost...soothing.
It's definitely not as invasive as that time Ino had possessed her body in the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams a lifetime ago. It feels more like having someone else's medical chakra in her system, different from what she's used feeling there to but not disturbingly so.
She can feel Inosuke's presence in her mind, unobtrusive but definitely there, and with the state of her head in the last few days, his steady presence is bizarrely comforting.
When the memory runs its course, she feels him pull back, and she opens her eyes sluggishly to find him looking thoughtful, though his gaze is on the other two beds. As she watches, an odd expression crosses his face, something between wry and cruel, and Sakura feels a pulse of chakra sweep the room, though it doesn't touch her.
Chie, though, drops her camouflage technique in the same moment as Inosuke does whatever it is he's doing, and Sakura wants to laugh at the way the tiger immediately stretches, but she's a bit too preoccupied by the glint in Inosuke's eyes.
"...Senpai?" She checks quietly, raising a hand to rub at the few tears that had accidentally spilled down her cheeks. There's only one explanation for the chakra pulse that makes sense, but she's not sure she wants to believe it. "Did you just...put them under a genjutsu?"
Inosuke meets her gaze, his face back to completely impassive, and doesn't say anything for a few long seconds, then; "Plausible deniability."
"They were eavesdropping, hime." Chie informs her languidly, finally done with stretching, and Sakura frowns at her summon, then decides she doesn't want to know.
"So," she says instead, turning back to her captain with a tired sigh, "any pointers about how to fix my newest headache?"
To her surprise, Inosuke snorts at her description. Then, he grows serious, and Sakura makes herself sit up straight and listen.
"They're getting in each other's way because they have different attack patterns." he tells her simply, and Sakura turns that over in her head. "One's brash, one's arrogant, and one has a clear preference for distance-attacks."
"Naruto attacks too soon." Sakura summarises, putting her disjointed thoughts into words, glad to have something new to focus on instead of the way her heart hurts every time she thinks of her last disastrous interaction with Shin. "Sasuke too confidently, and Sai too late."
She frowns at Inosuke, mulling that over, and her captain blinks.
"It doesn't have to be a weakness." he points out sedately, and Sakura tilts her head. "You've got the equivalent of a battering ram, a second-wave attack, and clear back-up in place. Turn that into a strategy, and you'll be fine."
He shrugs, and Sakura can't help but stare.
Because, hell, that's basically how the war-time combat-squads were built.
...She's so fucking blind.
Also mildly nauseous at the realisation that Sai is part of a combat-squad.
"...I think I know what to do." she mumbles distractedly, mind running hundred miles a minute, planning sparring exercises and teamwork drills and-! She shakes herself off and manages a smile at her captain, though it's wobbly at best. "Thanks, senpai. I think I know where to start now, at least."
Inosuke waves her off, gaze sweeping over the hospital room.
"It's not like I've got much else to do." he dismisses, then his eyes settle back on her, and he appears...Sakura has no idea what emotion is on his face, but it makes her pay attention.
"Crow dropped by." Inosuke says idly, likely noticing her focus, and drops eye-contact in favour of glancing around the room again.
It is then that Sakura's tired brain connects the dots and she belatedly realises that he's doing a sweep, and the realisation makes her stomach drop.
"Said she got tagged onto Sparrow's team since Bat was benched pending his Psych eval results."
Sakura makes sure her faces reflects no more than polite interest, even though inside she wants to dance and maybe kiss Bear for keeping his word. And maybe cry a little more, because no wonder Inosuke can't sleep if he found out precisely what events led to Bat getting benched.
"Oh?" she asks lightly, the news that Bat is getting his due being the best thing she's heard in a good few days, though her voice comes out bland and even, her fatigue, both physical and emotional, as well as years of ROOT conditioning overriding her happiness.
"Figured I'd let you know since I didn't think you've been to HQ since the mission." Inosuke adds, still maintaining that almost bored tone, but by the look he slants her with, Sakura knows he at the very least suspects her involvement.
She smiles, and it's her most genuine one so far.
"Thank you. I've been using the dorms at HQ but I'm not taking missions until you're back on your feet." she admits, and, considering that Shin has all but put himself in charge of her training regime, it's probably a good decision. "Any idea when that might be, by the way?"
Inosuke shrugs.
"Sometime this week." he says vaguely, surprising her. "Would've been longer if you hadn't extracted the poison in the field and provided a sample for the antidote."
Sakura blinks, surprised. She wasn't aware Inosuke had been conscious when she'd-!
"Your brothers came to visit when you were unconscious." he explains, Sakura's confusion apparently obvious on her face. "Told me how we got back to the Village. Then Bear came by yesterday to get my oral report and filled me in."
Shin had come to the hospital?
That's...unexpected.
She remembers Inosuke's gruff 'You wouldn't stop screaming when they were trying to fix it' and barely masks a wince. Suddenly, Shin's show of temper in the ROOT HQ makes a lot more sense, and definitely explains why he'd been so vehement about getting her skills up to scratch, now that she thinks about it. It still doesn't dull the bitter tang of betrayal at the back of her throat, but it's more than she had before.
She jerks out of her thoughts when Inosuke moves, and she watches him shift so his shoulders are turned more towards her, an intent expression on his face.
He brings his hand up and, slowly, so it's unmistakeable, signs 'Thank you'.
A lump suddenly forms in Sakura's throat and she has to blink rapidly to chase away the tears that threaten to gather.
"Anytime, senpai." she manages, her voice thick, and now it's her turn to look anywhere but at the blond. Scrambling desperately for something to distract them from her reaction, she blurts, "Feel like helping me come up with a training plan?"
Inosuke doesn't say anything until she finally makes herself look at him, and then he nods. His face is back to the impassive mask she remembers from Wave, but he speaks readily enough, offering tips and corrections to her suggestions. She'll have to run it past Kakashi, too, but she doubts the man will refuse, and if he tries, she's not beyond guilt-tripping.
She doesn't know how long she spends throwing ideas back and forth with Inosuke, but by the time they're 'done', she's got a tentative plan for the next month to hopefully turn Team 7 into the unit they never quite managed to become in her time.
And if she falls asleep sometime after they've finished, wrung out both physically and mentally but feeling safe in the presence of her oddity of a captain and her summon, well.
Both Inosuke and Chie are kind enough to let her rest.
Sakura falls into a routine after her that day: she sleeps at ANBU HQ, meets Sai and the rest of Team Seven at the training grounds, spars with all three as they wait for Kakashi to arrive with their missions for the day, then drills Naruto, Sasuke and Sai on teamwork and strategy after lunch.
She combines the ideas her and Inosuke had come up with, throws the boys at Kakashi while offering tips and advice from the side-lines, then has them spar one-on-one with Kakashi while the other two watch.
Watching them fight, the conclusions Inosuke had reached seem obvious – their pacing is different, but it's not necessarily to their disadvantage.
Sakura makes sure to say as much.
"Naruto, you come in swinging before we so much as say 'go'." She tells the blond frankly, though she throws in a smile so he knows it's not a complaint, as such. "Sasuke, you use Naruto to test the waters, then jump in either when he fails, or when you see an opening. And Sai-chan, you seem most inclined with the back-up role, even though I know you can hold your own in taijutsu."
She looks at each of the three boys, then sends a look at Kakashi, who sighs.
"It's a good strategy, though I'm not sure if you're aware you're using it as such." He agrees, and he sounds so long-suffering, Sakura has to fight to smother her snickers. "You've got a wide range of individual skills so when you learn to cover for each other, rather than just for yourselves, it'll be even more effective."
"Sasuke," Sakura calls, drawing the Uchiha's attention, so she smiles and does her best to meet his eyes, "you've got the best mix of Naruto's brashness and Sai's caution, and a good eye for detail when you give yourself the time to think."
Sasuke stares at her, clearly unsure where she's going with it, so she lets her smile grow slightly.
"How do you feel about the position of team strategist?"
A week after her impromptu nap in Inosuke's hospital room, Sakura's routine is disrupted by Shin emerging from the treeline at Team Seven's training ground.
She freezes, but refuses to otherwise acknowledge him, eyes trained on where the boys are trying to snag Kakashi in one of Naruto's pre-set traps.
Shin, however, doesn't give her the option of ignoring him for long – he walks up to her until he's standing directly opposite, facing her, less than three feet between them. His face and gaze are unreadable, but not as cold and hostile as they'd been that time in the ROOT basement.
Sakura keeps her expression placid, her eyes flat, and whatever else Shin reads on her face makes him sigh.
"I'm sorry." He says simply, and Sakura startles.
They're not in the habit of apologising to each other – the last time she can recall either of them actually saying the words and meaning them had been back in ROOT, when Sai had volunteered himself for the Hokage's guard rotation. Normally, they just give each other space and then go back to how things were before whatever disagreement that they had.
"I was angry, and worried, and I really did want Hayate to get better, but you were right that I didn't take your feelings into consideration." Shin allows when Sakura just stares at him, and he still seems somewhat angry, but at least Sakura doesn't think it's solely at her this time.
"...Thank you." She acknowledges after a beat, because she doesn't want to say that 'it's okay', because it wasn't. Whatever his reasons, Shin had still hurt her and potentially put her in danger by throwing even more spotlight on her, though she hasn't had anyone bring up the fact that she healed Hayate yet. Yes, she may have reacted more negatively because Kakashi and Genma had pulled the same stunt mere days earlier, but she thought Shin knew better.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry, too." She adds, and it's Shin's turn to look momentarily taken aback. "I shouldn't have lost control like that; I didn't mean to put you in danger." She sighs, gesturing at where her Mokuton had almost stabbed Shin, for once feeling all of her almost thirty years. "You were right; my head is a mess."
"Speaking of," Shin says, instead of commenting on her apology, but she can tell by the way the line of his shoulders loosens that he appreciates it, "Psych came looking for you. Something ANBU related, I think."
"Finally." Sakura sighs, because she'd taken Bear's warning to heart and was wondering when Psych would ask her to come in. Then, she grins, an idea forming in her head.
She's not fully forgiven Shin, but the apology does go a long way to ensuring that she will, eventually. What will help even more, though...
"Hey, taicho!"
Kakashi turns, flinging Naruto away from him and pushing Sasuke into the trap the Uchiha had been trying to corral him into, and Sakura can sense his raised eyebrow even if she can't see it.
"I brought you another practice dummy!" she calls, pushing Shin so he stumbles, and Kakashi is suddenly there, grabbing Shin by the shoulder and pulling him along.
"Great, thanks kouhai." He offers distractedly, crinkling his eye-smile at her, then all-but throws Shin at his genin. "You owe me a flak jacket, but I think I'd rather have the kids play fetch with you instead."
Sakura leaves the clearing to the sounds of Kakashi and Shin's squabbling, Naruto's confused demands for an explanation, and Sai's quiet laughter, feeling rather accomplished.
Now, she's got a 'teammate' to fuck over.