Shin spreads his senses wide, checking obsessively to make sure he isn't being followed. He'd half-assumed Sakura would have called him out on the fact that he very obviously didn't head back in the direction of Konoha once he'd helped drop off Sai in the forest, but it seems that his sister and Hatake were more preoccupied with boot-camping their team than his agenda.
Still, he's well aware that his paranoia never sleeps.
After finding the window Shisui had described in their last communication, the one with one square of the pane cracked all the way across, he scans it quickly and, after deeming it empty, he scales the wall and slips in through the window, excitement and anxiety warring under his skin.
"Thought you'd stood me up."
The shuriken flies from his fingers without conscious input before his feet even touch the ground inside the room, and he turns, viper-quick, just in time to see what can only be Shisui duck out of the path of the weapon, almost overbalancing from the chair he's perched on.
Shin doesn't relax from his crouch, not even when Shisui straightens and grins, because the room had been empty. He'd checked. There hadn't been an active chakra signature in the room.
Shisui, proving once again that he knows him better than Shin knows himself, takes a step forward, incidentally stepping into the patch of light coming in through the window, and Shin's breath catches.
"It's me, I promise." Shisui reassures, unfolding his arms and spreading them out, hands open, palms facing up, a small smile on his face. "Remember how I've been living with chakra-monks for the past five years? Look."
And then Shisui lets his chakra out, and it almost scalds Shin, the full force of Shisui's fire-natured chakra crashing over his senses and making it impossible to focus on anything else.
Not that Shin would even attempt to focus on anything else when Shisui is right there in front of him for the third time in as many years.
The sound that slips from his throat is somewhere between a sob and a laugh, and when Shisui's smile gains a wistful edge, Shin allows himself to be selfish just this once. He launches himself into the space between Shisui's arms, wrapping his own around the Uchiha's torso, and buries his face in Shisui's shoulder, hands fisting the fabric of his shirt between his shoulder blades with desperation.
Shisui chuckles, short and unsurprised, and his arms loop around Shin's waist, sharp chin coming to rest on Shin's shoulder.
They stand in silence for an indeterminable period of time, and Shin feels more like himself in that moment than he has in almost a year.
"I'm not sure how to feel about you being taller than me now." Shisui mumbles after a while, his fingers idly toying with the end of Shin's ponytail, and Shin snorts, the sound wet with tears he'll never shed.
"Shuddup." Shin grumbles, the words almost incomprehensible with how his face is pressed against Shisui's shoulder. "No talkin' yet."
"Alright, alright." Shisui laughs, quiet and good-natured, and it speaks to how much he'd missed Shin, too, that he doesn't comment on Shin still clinging to him, content to simply stand in the patch of early morning sunshine coming in through the window.
After another few minutes, Shin finally gets himself together enough to loosen his desperate grip on Shisui's shirt, his fingers numb, and slowly steps back from the hug, looking anywhere but at Shisui.
"Sorry." He murmurs, taking another breath and forcing himself to look up, only to find Shisui already facing him, that maddening, soft smile on his face. "It's…"
"I know." Shisui says, and the most annoying thing is that Shin is pretty sure he actually does. "And I'm never gonna turn down a hug. You don't need to apologise."
Shin scoffs, stepping around Shisui and perching on the side of the bed, shuffling until he can lean his back against the wall. He sighs and unbuckles his katana from his belt, setting it on the floor by the bed, then looks up at Shisui and shoots him an expectant look, not that Shisui can see it.
"You going to sit down, or?" he asks, and Shisui smiles again, then slowly heads over to the bed on Shin's left, as if unsure whether he's welcome, and something twists in Shin's chest.
"This is a change." Shin manages after a few seconds, lifting a hand to Shisui's hair and pulling at a single lock, less than an inch long, the shortest he's ever seen Shisui's hair, and a big change from the shoulder-length curls he'd been sporting last time.
"It has been almost a year." Shisui points out, the same thing Shin had been thinking mere minutes earlier. "Ten months and three weeks to be exact, but who's counting?" Shisui adds with a shrug and a wry smile, and Shin huffs.
"You're so dramatic." He accuses, though it sends a jolt through him when he realises that he's not the only one who's been counting every day apart. It's likely not for the same reasons as Shisui's counting, but it still feeds the small part of his mind he allows to entertain delusional fantasies.
"So?" Shisui teases, bumping his shoulder against Shin's and staying there, and Shin can't find it in himself to move away. He's only a man, after all. "You gonna catch me up on all the crazy stuff that's happened in the last few months?"
Shin huffs a laugh, bumps his shoulder into Shisui's just for the sake of it, and obliges.
This time, he stays for almost a whole day.
Sakura's heart is beating double-time as she whips through the air, her stomach twisting with nerves as she keeps her eyes trained on the area the flare had come from, noting the clouds of dust that signal summons and felled trees.
She had hoped her changes to the timeline would change this, too, but since surviving ROOT and living with Shin, she'd grown to appreciate being pessimistic and prepared over optimistic and dead. The eagle she'd pushed Sai to develop is testament to that, as are the flares she made all the boys carry after Kakashi had handed out their waiver forms, and she refuses to regret it.
She only hopes she isn't too late.
When the eagle swoops low and she spies the massive bulk of the snake summon that had eaten Naruto in her original time, she doesn't hesitate to launch herself off the eagle's back, biting her thumb and flashing through the seals while in mid-air, slapping her hand to the ground as she lands and pumping chakra.
Tsubaki appears, bigger than Boshi and Eki combined and eating a good forty percent of all of her chakra, but she doesn't care.
"You're the mongoose here, hime." Tsubaki grumbles as the smoke clears, almost of a height with the trees, but she bounds off towards the snake regardless, and Sakura takes a second to pop a soldier pill, then shunshins to where she feels Sai's chakra.
The scene she comes upon burns itself into her mind and she knows she'll have nightmares as soon as she closes her eyes, but both her boys are alive and Sasuke's neck is sans Curse Mark for now.
But that's about where the good news ends.
Sasuke's standing on shaking legs, his eyes Sharingan-red and spinning with a single tomoe, his shirt ripped, his thigh and arms bleeding, and sweat that's likely born of terror more than exertion running down his paler-than-usual face. Sai's crouched in front of him, tanto held in his left hand while his right arm hangs limp, visibly broken if not shattered, his left eye screwed shut to keep out the blood that runs down from the gash in his head and Sakura prays that it's only a concussion he's suffering from.
Then, Orochimaru's neck elongates and his head shoots towards her boys, mouth open grotesquely, his fangs elongating and the silver of the chokuto she remembers Sasuke later wielding glinting from his open throat.
Sakura doesn't hesitate.
She shunshins right in front of Sai, fist drawn back and loaded with Tsunade-taught strength, and punches Orochimaru in the throat.
The Sword of Kusanagi is forcefully dislodged from the Sannin's mouth and arches up into the air, while the force behind her punch throws Orochimaru's head back to his body and then even further, the momentum making his back smack against the trunk of the tree, and his feral golden gaze snaps to her in fury.
"Sai, take Sasuke and run to Tsubaki, now!" Sakura orders, her eyes not leaving Orochimaru even as her heart lurches when she feels Sai move. Luckily, her brother knows better than to question her, and she waits until he smothers his and Sasuke's chakra and shunshins away before she – rather idiotically – rushes Orochimaru again.
Her water bullets are brushed aside almost carelessly with a seal-less Wind jutsu, her earth pillars get destroyed before they have the chance to fully form, Orochimaru's ninjutsu coming to him effortlessly and without the need for seals or technique names, and Sakura belatedly remembers Tsunade referring to Orochimaru as their ninjutsu master.
She's certainly seeing that mastery now.
She launches herself into the air to avoid the earth spikes Orochimaru sends back almost idly, but when he moves to follow Sai's shunshin-addled dash to her summon, Sakura throws caution to the wind and calls on the natural energy around her.
The Forest of Death was made of the Shodaime's trees, and Hashirama's creations sing when she channels her love for her team and her to keep them safe into her chakra. They grow and draw nearer to each other, surrounding her and Orochimaru in an impenetrable ring of Mokuton, vines and roots reaching out to snag the Sannin in a mockery of the snakes he commands.
Orochimaru's golden eyes narrow as he dodges and cuts at the thinner vines with a wind-edged kunai. She feels movement behind her and half-turns to see an Earth Clone form out of the branch she's on, but before it has a chance to fully coalesce, her Mokuton pierces through it, turning it straight back to mud.
"You're too young to be my experiment." he assesses, the madness of earlier replaced by a mix of irritation and curiosity, while an effortless fireball incinerates the roots closest to him.
Sakura has no doubt what he's referring to and she grins, wide and unrepentant even as she ducks under a water jet and is a second too late to roll away from a barrage of shuriken as she concentrates on calling up a wall of wood to take the brunt of the Wind jutsu that makes Temari's techniques look like a summer breeze.
"That's because I'm not an experiment." she tells him sharply, wincing when she's once again too slow to completely avoid the spike of earth that shreds the muscle of her thigh, but she numbs the nerves and rolls instead of trying to heal it.
"Katon: Hosenka!" she calls instead, slipping shuriken into the flames with a sleight-of-hand that makes her miss Shisui something fierce.
If anything, that technique seems to catch Orochimaru's attention even more than her Mokuton had, and Sakura scrambles to capitalise on that curiosity and keep the Sannin's attention on her instead of on her team, the fingers of her left hand flashing through Tiger-Dog-Rat while her right sweeps down her calves, releasing her speed seals.
Then, she blurs, while her Shisui-taught afterimage-clones rush Orochimaru from every direction she Shunshins to.
It's the most recognizable technique she can think of, and she sees the moment Orochimaru realises whose it is, even as he easily dispatches her clones.
But Sakura's goal isn't to kill, or even hurt Orochimaru, not really - instead, she simply wants to block off any route he may have left to pursue Sai and her boys, and she waits until he's fully distracted by her clones before she pumps all of the chakra she has left into the forest around them.
Her chakra, combined with the remnants of Hashirama's, saturates the clearing so much that even the best sensor wouldn't be able to pick up Sai's trace; then she commands the trees to weave and squeeze together as much as possible to provide a physical barrier to keep Orochimaru in as well.
"Foolish child." Orochimaru snarls as Sakura finally stills, all her clones dispatched and all of her chakra gone, and she's surprised to note that there's intrigue in those unsettling eyes as well as anger. "You've just signed your death warrant."
Sakura grins even as she pants to catch her breath, adrenaline and Shisui's signature technique testing even her resilience, while the Sannin remains largely unaffected.
"You'll find that medic-nin are rather annoying to kill." she shoots back, then lets her grin sharpen as she takes the apparent break for conversation to pop yet another soldier pill, her reserves protesting. "But you know that already, don't you?"
Orochimaru tilts his head, eyes narrowing dangerously, and Sakura inwardly gives herself a small pat on the back.
Mission accomplished: attention diverted. Then, she realises that she has the force of Orochimaru's full focus on her, and panics a little. Now what?
"I will have what I want." Orochimaru tells her simply, with all the conviction of a man who wouldn't know how to envision another way. "All you've done is delay the inevitable."
"You won't have my student." Sakura tells him with equal certainty, meeting his gaze head-on. "You will not have Sasuke."
Then, deciding that she might as well go for broke, she adds, "Your other targets, I care not for."
"Oh?" Orochimaru asks, deceptively mild, and Sakura sees more snake than man in the Sannin in that moment. "Even if my other target is your precious Hokage?"
Sakura smirks, bloodstained teeth and bitter eyes, and she's sure it makes for an ugly expression because it comes from the ugliest parts of her heart. "Especially if it's him."
It seems to be the one answer Orochimaru doesn't expect, because he visibly pauses, and Sakura presses her advantage ruthlessly.
"Ask him about ROOT, if you want. Ask him what he did to those who came out of the ashes of Danzo's pyre." she croons, and Orochimaru suddenly smiles, and that, more than anything else, is the expression that frightens Sakura most.
Orochimaru tenses then, almost imperceptibly, but Sakura's been pumping her eyes with chakra since she sent Sai away so she notices, and when she extends the chakra to her ears, she hears what Orochimaru must have: dogs.
Kakashi.
Orochimaru turns to her with an expectant look in his eyes.
"To kill sensei, I'll need to escape." he observes simply.
"Why do you think you can still see the sky?" Sakura shoots back, and there's a there-and-gone glint of something in Orochimaru's eyes, then a Wind jutsu stronger than anything he's used so far lifts Sakura off her feet and flings her like a ragdoll, walls of trees and roots breaking against her back as she slams through them with the force of Orochimaru's technique.
She registers a dull pain in her chest as she blinks the dark spots from her vision in time to see the smudge of Orochimaru's hair as he flees. Then, what could've been minutes or seconds later, Pakkun's tiny face enters her view, and she raises her eyes until her gaze falls on familiar silver hair.
"Hey, taicho." she coughs, raising a hand alight with medical ninjutsu to her chest in an attempt to fix her broken collarbone, but her chakra flickers and disappears before she can finish, a wave of nausea hitting her in its stead.
"Kouhai." Kakashi sighs, moving to sit on his haunches, though the action is so sudden and disjointed it looks almost like his knees give out on him.
His hand lands on her head and he pats her twice, as if to see that she's real, then reaches out to squeeze her shoulder, and Sakura doesn't even mind the stab of pain the action brings her.
"Do me a favour; next time you go after S-Rank missing-nin, let me know, hm?" he asks, and Sakura knows him well enough to hear the panic and bone-deep relief buried in his voice.
"I didn't know what I was going to find, taicho. I just followed the distress signal." she lies, then quirks a wry smile at Kakashi's tiny frown. "But sure. I promise. You can always be my knight in shining armour."
"When did you make our team carry flares?" Kakashi asks instead of commenting on the promise they both know she won't be able to uphold, the grip on her shoulder not easing. "That's a little paranoid even for you."
"Can it be called paranoia if it's justified?" Sakura asks rhetorically, then shrugs with the shoulder Kakashi isn't holding and winces at the motion. "I gave them the flares before the first task. I...had a bad feeling about this exam."
"Was it as bad as 'rogue Sannin' bad?" Kakashi asks instead of questioning her apparent clairvoyancy and Sakura shakes her head, a grin threatening to pull at her lips despite everything.
"More like, 'there are two bijuu in this forest and one of them is being held back by a storage seal' bad. But, hey." she shrugs again, ignoring the way Kakashi startles at the news. "They're safe, Orochimaru's gone for now, and I know what he wants."
It's then that another presence enters the field, and Sakura and Kakashi both turn, with varying speed and smoothness of movement, to see Anko, her eyes wide as she takes in the wooden dome Sakura had created, as well as the felled trees around the clearing signifying a) enormous summons and b) a high-level ninjutsu battle.
"You got here in time then, Hatake?" she asks sharply, eyes straying away from Sakura's creations but flickering back every two seconds, as if drawn by magnetism to what is undeniably Mokuton.
"No, he was escaping when I arrived." Kakashi denies, and Sakura curses him in her mind for ruining the perfect smokescreen Anko had unknowingly provided. "This was all my kouhai."
Anko's eyes fall on her, then widen. "You engaged Orochimaru? Alone?"
Anko is more than justified in her disbelief, but Sakura still bristles.
"I didn't exactly have a choice." Sakura snaps, regretting it immediately when her vision swims and her lungs remind her that most of her ribs are likely broken. "He engaged my team, and if I wanted them to survive, it was me or them."
"Where are they now, then?" she asks sharply, and Sakura lets the subject drop for the time being.
"My summon should've taken them to the Tower." she replies, and, as if that's the signal she was waiting on, Anko sets off.
Kakashi twitches but stays still, and when Sakura catches his eye, he points at his back.
"Hop on, kouhai." he orders. Sakura does a double-take, then is about to protest, then thinks better of it – she doesn't even need to try and stand up; she knows she likely can't move. Her vision is swimming, black creeping at the edges, and her entire body feels like one big bruise, not to mention that she can hear how her breath wheezes with every inhale.
"Can't move, taicho." She manages between breaths, and Kakashi's eye loses any trace of humour as he moves to gingerly begin rearranging her limbs so she can climb onto his back.
"How bad is it?" he asks quietly once she's more or less secure on his back, and Sakura moves to shrug then hisses in pain when the aborted motion jars not just her ribs and back but her collarbone too.
"Quite." She breathes, settling into Kakashi and falling into herself, concentrating on the pain and disconnecting from it mentally, locking it into a cage in the back of her mind and throwing away the key.
Then, she digs shaking fingers into her back and pulls out her bottle of soldier pills, popping a third one into her mouth in the space of under an hour.
"But I'll manage." She promises, not sure whether she's trying to reassure Kakashi, or herself.
"You better." She thinks she hears Kakashi mumble, then they're rushing through the trees, conversation forgotten.
When they arrive, Anko seems to be very animatedly arguing with Tsubaki, gesturing wildly, but Sakura's summon isn't budging.
"Hime." the giant tiger greets once she spots her, inclining her head, and Sakura slides off Kakashi's back and stumbles forward, feeling Kakashi on her heel as she gingerly makes her way to her summon.
"Tsubaki-sama." Sakura sighs, shoulders sagging in relief as she melts against Tsubaki's leg, letting the tiger's warmth seep into her. "How are they?"
"Safely in the Tower." her summon replies, ignoring Anko's frustrated 'that's what I've been asking for three minutes!'.
"Sai-chan also snuck up on a team hiding out nearby and stole their scroll. I wouldn't have let him go, but he assured me it was important and didn't go far." Then, almost as an afterthought, she adds; "And I must tell you, hime, snake will never be my favourite snack."
Despite herself, Sakura laughs, and pretends she doesn't taste iron on her tongue.
"I'm sorry to have subjected you to the horror." she teases, then sobers and inclines her head respectfully, uncertain if she could manage a bow right now. "Thank you for your help."
Tsubaki lowers her giant head and gently bops her forehead against Sakura's torso, and Sakura staggers, both, due to not having the chakra to stick to the ground to weather the impact, and from the spike of pain the action sends through her.
"Summon me again soon, hime." the giant tiger replies and so saying, unsummons herself, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Shall we go in?" Sakura asks, when Kakashi and Anko just stare at the space her summon had occupied not seconds previous.
"I've never seen tiger summons." Anko murmurs in reply, her voice a mix of wonder and suspicion, and Sakura nearly rolls her eyes and starts limping towards the door Tsubaki had guarded, popping a blood replenishing pill into her mouth once her back is turned and ignoring the fact that the black dots at the edges of her vision refuse to clear.
"Well, now you have." she snipes under her breath.
Perhaps she's being ruder than necessary, but despite Tsubaki's reassurance, the anxiety she feels won't dissipate until she has her team before her and can ascertain for herself that they're in good shape.
Without waiting for the others to join, she pushes open the door.
Sasuke startles when the door opens, gaze snapping away from Iruka and to the figure of their assistant sensei who now stands in the door. His newly-activated Sharingan allows him to see the odd slant to her shoulders that signifies either hiding pain or an injury, and there's a large, freely-bleeding wound on her thigh, and her pupils are blown. The frown creasing her brow and the downward curl to her mouth clue him in to the fact that she's likely as worried for them as they've been for her, and exhausted, on top of that.
"Sakura-sensei!" Naruto cheers, jumping to his feet, and Sasuke inwardly despairs the idiot's complete lack of an inside voice.
Sakura smiles, a small, tired quirk of the lip, but it's a smile nonetheless, and opens her arms for a hug, an invitation that Naruto takes without a second thought. Sakura's arms come up around him, one of her hands alight with the mint-green of medical ninjutsu, and Sasuke takes that moment to take in the people who walk into the hall after her.
One of them is Kakashi, which alleviates some of the worry Sasuke hadn't even realised he was feeling, and the other is the creepy woman who led them to the Forest of Death, though she looks far more stressed and suspicious than sadistic now.
"My cute genin." Kakashi greets, also sounding stressed, signature book for once nowhere in sight. "Seems you had a bit of an adventure. Anyone care to fill me in?"
True to form, Naruto jumps at the opportunity, pulling away from Sakura to all but jump around the two jounin while he recounts being eaten by the massive snake and then promptly saved by an even bigger tiger. Sasuke tunes him out, his eyes falling to Sakura as she slowly heads towards him, her hand still glowing green and held up in a self-explanatory manner.
He nods slowly and feels the soothing wave of healing chakra sweep over his body, mending the wound in his thigh and the little aches and pains he hadn't even realised he'd amassed until they're washed away with his sensei's chakra.
"I'm going to manually switch off your Sharingan before it sucks you dry of the last of your chakra, okay, Sasuke?" she asks quietly, her lips barely moving, her hand no longer touching him, clearly waiting until he gives permission.
"Will I be able to activate it if I need to?" he checks, just to be sure, relieved when she nods.
"Of course. Though I don't recommend trying to until you've had some rest. Chakra exhaustion is...not pleasant." she advises, still not touching him. "May I?"
He nods, and as her fingers lightly touch his temples, the unusual sharpness of his vision fades, and he feels the beginnings of a pounding headache setting in.
"Ah." Sakura murmurs, and then the headache is swept away before it has the chance to fully form.
"You need to eat. Here." she holds out a granola bar she seems to produce out of nowhere and waits until Sasuke takes it before moving onto Sai.
"Sasuke?" Kakashi asks, drawing his attention to his other sensei. "Mind picking up from Naruto?"
"I..." Sasuke starts, then stumbles, because he hasn't been listening to Naruto's recounting at all, too focused on Sakura and his own guilt.
"We got separated." he swallows. "When Naruto came back, it...wasn't Naruto. When we made 'him' drop the transformation, he looked like a kunoichi from Grass."
Something flickers across Kakashi's face then, and the crazy proctor shoots him a meaningful look, but he doesn't even look her way, visible eye not leaving Sasuke.
"Strong Wind jutsu. Too strong for genin. Then, something I thought was genjutsu. I...I saw my own death. Like with Zabuza, but worse. I couldn't move. She was laughing. Mocking us. Spinning two kunai she planned to kill us with. When she threw them, I was going to stab myself and run, because I remembered Iruka-sensei saying that pain also breaks genjutsu."
Sasuke doesn't look at his Academy teacher, but he almost feels the man puff up with pride.
"But Sai moved first." He finally looks at his teammate, feels his guilt churn when he sees the broken arm, and his mind replays how Sai had acquired it.
But Sai doesn't meet his gaze. His teammate's eyes are shut, Sakura's hands on either side of his head massaging his temples, her fingers still glowing green, and Sasuke has a flash-memory of Sai's head smashing against the trunk of the tree, and he feels his nausea rising.
"He knocked the kunai out of the air and rushed the kunoichi." He continues his report, and even he's aware that his voice has grown toneless. Robotic. "I don't think she expected it. And he was fast."
Far faster than he's ever been in training, now that Sasuke thinks about it, even after he'd 'revealed' his skills.
"He managed to force her back, off balance, and cut her face, and that finally broke the technique she'd been holding us with. Then Sai used a Fire jutsu, and her skin started...dripping. And then it wasn't a kunoichi at all."
"It was Orochimaru." Sai murmurs, his eyes now open, though they're trained on his broken arm as Sakura mends the flesh the jagged bone had shredded.
Sasuke hears Iruka gasp behind him, but he's past caring.
"He started talking about- about Itachi. About the Sharingan. But Sai got in his way every time he tried to get close to me. And then...And then I think he realised that I hadn't activated my Sharingan yet. So he caught Sai and he- he-!"
"He tried to kill me. Used an Earth jutsu." Sai says simply, as if realising that Sasuke can't bring himself to say the words, and Sasuke doesn't know whether to be grateful he doesn't have to say it himself, or to curse Sai for the blasé way he says it.
"But he was sloppy. I managed to free everything but my arm. When it broke, Sasuke activated his Sharingan, and Orochimaru threw me into a tree."
"I went to him." Sasuke picks up, because as much as he doesn't want to talk about this any more - or ever - he doesn't want to hear Sai's dispassionate recounting of his almost-death even more. "He told me we can't fight an S-Rank shinobi, and to use the flares sensei had given us. He said that she'd come."
"And she did." Kakashi finishes, and Sasuke meets his gaze then nods. Then, Kakashi's gaze grows colder and he turns to the proctor, an expectant eyebrow raised, his whole mien emitting cool indifference. "Is that sufficient? Will you let my team rest now?"
Even Naruto jumps at that, because it's the harshest they've ever heard Kakashi sound, but the woman is either used to that tone or has no sense of self-preservation, because she pushes.
"And how did you get to the Tower?" she asks, and Sasuke almost rolls his eyes. Wouldn't Naruto have mentioned the massive tiger they rode to the Tower? It didn't seem like something the blond would miss out.
"Sakura-sensei's summon! I already told you!" Naruto jumps in, proving Sasuke right.
Then, Naruto leaves Iruka's side and comes to stand next to Sasuke, reaching a hand back blindly to wrap his fingers around Sai's uninjured wrist, eyes narrowed on the proctor.
He knows something's not right. Sasuke realises, and carefully doesn't jump when Naruto's other hand snags his wrist as well. Instead, he matches the glare the blond's directing at the woman, and feels more than sees Kakashi's proud smile at their defensiveness.
But then, he feels a gentle hand on the small of his back, and Sakura-sensei is coming around his other side, not stopping until she stands with her back to all three of them, unmistakably placing herself as the line of defence between them and the proctor.
"I made sure all my summons know that their job is to protect my team at all cost." she explains, and, like with Kakashi, her voice is much colder than what Sasuke's used to. "Now, will you let our team rest, or are you going to drag them off to T for a proper interrogation?"
The proctor narrows her eyes, and Sasuke gets the impression that he's missing something, but eventually, the woman subsides, offering a sharp; "The Hokage will want to hear about this."
"Then he can come find them." Kakashi replies evenly, and although he hadn't moved to obviously indicate where he stands like Sakura had, his posture radiates confrontation moreso than if he had openly challenged the proctor. "After they get some rest."
And Sasuke-
-Sasuke feels at home.
For the first time since the Massacre happened, he feels like he has a family.
Once they get the kids showered, fed, and into one of the makeshift infirmary rooms assigned to them to sleep in, seeing as it was barely day one of the five day exam, Kakashi finally allows himself to relax.
He'd been hypervigilant, making sure he had an eye on all his kids at any given time, needing desperately to make sure that his team, his pack, was alright. That Orochimaru hadn't managed to sink his fangs into any of his genin. That they would live to see another day.
Sai's broken, mangled arm and fingers had been wrapped in a cast, and each of his fingers wrapped in a sturdy bandage and splinted. Sakura's healing, though sufficient to burn out any infection and set the bone, still hadn't been enough to heal it fully, and Kakashi wouldn't have asked it of her anyway considering how depleted her reserves had been even before they'd stepped into the Tower. Still, the visual reminder of the extent of damage Sai had sustained – seemingly without any concern from his own part – added to the weight of guilt on Kakashi's shoulders.
Guilt which he, for the first time ever, sees reflected on Sasuke's face every time the Uchiha glanced at Sai's sleeping figure. Guilt which Kakashi felt weigh in his own gut when he realised just how much damage Sakura had suffered in her fight with Orochimaru when the girl passed out when leaning against the wall and couldn't be woken. Guilt which burns in his throat when the medics get called in and swear upon running the diagnostic, hastily carting Sakura away to a separate room, and Kakashi realises how much she'd hidden from him.
Guilt which only grows when the medics don't come to find him, but bring in Yamanaka Inosuke into the Tower, and when Kakashi presses one of the medics scurrying around, the man throws back something about 'designated shrink' and 'suicide watch'.
He's going to need to have another talk with his kouhai, and it's one he's not looking forward to in the slightest.
The nurse had told him that they had brought the kid out from under the anaesthetic, but it still takes another half an hour before Mongoose so much as stirs.
When she does move though, she groans, her voice hoarse and shot through, and Inosuke wonders whether he was too considerate to have turned off the light. He's not most pleased with the brat; having her suffer a little would be the least she deserves for the nerves she'd caused him.
He's leaning against the wall in the corner of the room and watching, silent as the grave, as the girl shuffles around on the bed and likely tries to take stock of her assorted injuries. Mongoose tries to sit up, then hisses, hand flying to her shoulder, and Inosuke remembers the clear break of the collarbone she'd supposedly suffered in her fight against Orochimaru.
[The fight. Against Orochimaru. From which she'd managed to walk away.]
She manages to push herself into a vaguely sat-up position after a few more seconds of struggling, and Inosuke, not for the first time, marvels at her pain tolerance. The medics had healed the broken bones as much as they could, but they'd left most of the bruising to heal naturally, not to mention that the kid is likely smack in the middle of the nausea that comes hand-in-hand with chakra exhaustion, yet she's still determinedly shuffling around.
And then, just as she reaches for the water jug on the small bedside table, her hand freezes in the air and she turns her head so she's looking directly at where he's standing, though her eyes sweep over him without recognition.
Still, a frown creases her brow and she abandons her quest for water in favour of staring vaguely at Inosuke's left shoulder.
"Kai." she murmurs, hands raised but not forming seals, and Inosuke watches as she winces at the feel of manipulating chakra, her coils likely still not recovered from the four chakra pills she'd taken.
Inosuke sighs and drops his Total Dark technique in the same breath.
"I don't think you're supposed to be using chakra yet." he says flatly and Mongoose jumps, having gone back to trying to get some water.
"Senpai!" she croaks, then winces again and takes a sip, her expression almost apologetic. "What are you doing here?" she asks, her voice more like what he's used to hearing, though she still looks far paler than she should.
Inosuke bites back an acerbic comment and raises an eyebrow instead, letting it speak for him.
"You fought Orochimaru." he states, not dropping his crossed arms nor making any attempt to come closer. "As your assigned shrink, I'm making sure you're not suicidal."
Mongoose chokes on her next sip of water, turning to him with wide eyes.
"What?" She manages after she finishes coughing, but Inosuke doesn't budge. "You're kidding, right?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Inosuke asks flatly, and the girl blinks, subsiding. "What were you thinking?"
"That my team was in danger." She says, and she's sharper now, her eyes narrowed, her walls up. "I didn't think I'd have to explain myself to you."
Ouch. Inosuke is almost impressed with the deflection, but he's still mostly angry.
"I'm not asking about the why. I can understand the why, as you so kindly pointed out." He shoots back, and the kid has the grace to look somewhat chagrined. "I'm asking why you rushed off without waiting for backup and fought Orochimaru, alone, like a moron."
"I didn't know I'd find Orochimaru." She defends, but Inosuke is undeterred and stares her down, and it speaks to her favour that she doesn't try to argue the point any more, just sighs and subsides.
"Can I show you instead?" she asks after a beat, almost whines, really, suddenly appearing older than her years, the look in her eyes the kind of tired that sleep won't fix. "I don't really want to talk about it."
Inosuke has known the kid for almost half a year at this point, but he doesn't think he'll ever get used to how unbothered she is about the prospect of letting him into her head.
So he doesn't say anything, choosing instead to cover the distance between him and the hospital bed, and he muses that they need to stop having serious conversations in the hospital. he holds his hand out, concentrating on the technique, and lets Mongoose cross the last few inches which separate her forehead from his hand, and then he closes his eyes and focuses.
When he pulls away, about ten minutes later, his first instinct is to punch Hatake, then the Hokage, in that order. His second instinct is to find Inoichi and shake him, because how the fuck had the man missed the chaos that is Mongoose's mind? And his third and final instinct is to cover his face, because the kid didn't show him just the fight, or the pursuit; she showed him everything: the fight, the journey to the Tower, healing her students, and the conversation with Orochimaru.
'Your other targets, I care not for.'
Eventually, he sighs, the corner of his lips twitching up, and he moves his hand from the kid's forehead to her hair, carding through it once before cuffing her around the head lightly.
"You trust me too much." He murmurs, and the kid has the audacity to smile sadly at him and shake her head, but she doesn't say anything, so he drops his hand and steps away. "When you're done with this part of the Exams, come find me. Your head needs some management."
[He doesn't tell her why he says that, he doesn't tell her what he saw, he doesn't tell her about the second layer of images superimposed over the memories she was showing him. Images in which Mongoose had long hair and wore a red dress and cried as her Uchiha teammate was bitten by the Sannin. Images too clear to be delusion, the sense of fear and helplessness in them all too real, but overpowered nonetheless by the memories where Mongoose plays the role of the distraction and fights a Sannin to save her students.]
And then he stops, because he can still feel the kid's chakra levels, and there are two bijuu in this Tower, and Kiri shinobi just parading around the place with their jounin-sensei who's been in the Bingo Books since before the times of the Bloody Mist, and Inosuke is not leaving Mongoose here unprotected.
So he sighs and digs into his pocket, pulling out one of the Akimichi pills, somewhat amused as the kid tracks his every move and clearly recognises what he holds out.
"As soon as you have enough chakra, summon Chie. Then take this," he holds out the chakra pill, "immediately. It'll help you recover about a quarter of your chakra without the adverse effects of the normal chakra pills, but it's still a quarter you could do something with."
Mongoose takes the pill from him and sets it quietly on the bedside table, then pins him with a look. Surprisingly, she doesn't say anything for a few long seconds, then smiles and nods.
"See you soon, senpai." She murmurs eventually, eyes unusually shiny, then settles back into her blankets, and Inosuke steps back fully, nodding back.
[He's going to kill Hatake.]
It turns out that Inosuke had come to visit because Preliminaries were starting in three hours. Sakura gets to her feet once Sai appears in her room a few minutes after Inosuke leaves. Her brother's arm is in a cast and in a sling across his chest, and Sakura's stomach drops.
"I'm sorry." She murmurs, stepping closer to Sai and letting their foreheads touch, one of her hands going to the nape of Sai's neck while the other seeks out his unbroken wrist and lets her fingers seek out his pulse-point, reassuring herself with the steady thump-thump of his heart. "I should've healed it better."
"You shouldn't have healed it at all." Sai rebuts, tone chastising, and his hand twists in her grip, his own fingers seeking out her wrist. "Three soldier pills, aneue?"
Sakura shrugs, closing her eyes and soaking in the fact that Sai is here, he's safe, and mostly in one piece.
"Worth it." She whispers, then takes a shuddering breath and pulls away. "How are Naruto and Sasuke?"
"Shaken." Sai informs her, hand slipping out of her grasp, and Sakura allows it, stepping back and giving him space. "Naruto finally realised who the Sannin are. Sasuke is annoyed at Kakashi for forbidding him from using his Sharingan in the Preliminaries."
"Kakashi did that?" Sakura asks, surprised, because Kakashi had always been of the 'exploit every advantage' mentality, in both of her timelines.
"After I told him that I recognised one of the other genin as Danzo's spy, yes."
Sakura snaps to attention, eyes wide and alarmed, and gestures at Sai to continue.
"He came up to us before the written exams. Introduced himself as 'Kabuto'." Sakura's stomach drops. "I recognised his nin-info cards."
Fuckin' Kabuto.
"I think he's Orochimaru's." Sakura breathes, closing her eyes again and trying to will back the tension headache she can feel gathering in her temples. "I'm going to find Kakashi."
Sakura glances back at her bed, catches sight of the chakra pill Inosuke had gifted her – breaking about seven Clan rules as far as she was aware – and feels a wry smile pull at her lips.
"Hey, Sai-chan, be my spotter for a second?" she asks absently, already flickering through the seals for the summoning jutsu, her coils protesting rather vehemently. She channels all her intention into the summoning, calling out for Chie in her mind to make up for where her chakra falters, and she sways when the little chakra she'd managed to build back up leaves her in a sudden whoosh.
She stumbles through the smoke, almost falling into the bedside table and grabbing blindly for the pill, popping it in her mouth and swallowing dryly as soon as her fingers close around it.
"You're an idiot, aneue." Sai chastises, and Sakura huffs a laugh despite how light-headed she feels, allowing herself to sit on the bed for a moment and get her bearings.
"You're the second person to tell me that today." she mumbles, then smiles when Chie jumps onto the bed and rubs against her thigh. She ignores Sai's quiet 'maybe you deserve it', and lets her fingers card through the fur at Chie's nape.
"Hello, Chie-chan." she greets, scratching the small tiger behind the ears. "How do you feel about a nap around my shoulders this time?"
Three hours later, Sakura stands on the balcony, Chie hidden behind her genjutsu and wrapped around her shoulders. Her back is leaning against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest, most of her focus on trying to radiate a disaffected air as she pretends to watch the first match of the Preliminaries, this time taking place between Kankuro and Misuri.
There are some changes in the lineup this time around - for one, Haku is alive and walking, standing next to Ao and two Kiri kunoichi on the other side of the railing, and Orochimaru's team from Sound is nowhere to be found.
She'd spoken to Kakashi about Kabuto's presence at the exam, explained some of what she'd 'guessed' Orochimaru might be planning to do, and Kakashi darted off to 'deal with' Kabuto as soon as she teen officially withdrew from the Exam.
Now, she's watching the matches while surrounded by her age-mates, yet they're not even acquaintances in this timeline. She's light-years ahead of them in experience and in rank, and it really should concern her, and most definitely shouldn't feel as satisfying as it does.
But, by being an unknown to the genin, she's also an unknown to the jounin-sensei. She feels the stares on her person, notes the way the Konoha jounin tense when Team 7 turns to her once they realise Kakashi is conspicuously absent, and it takes Chie's quiet purr by her ear to remind her to relax.
"Where's Kaka-sensei?" Naruto exclaims and his lack of an inside voice is somewhat of a comfort to her frazzled nerves; a reminder that this is what she's here to protect.
"Your sensei had an errand to run." She tells them frankly, schooling her expression once she feels Sasuke's scrutiny, but she lets an undercurrent of amusement colour her voice, which Sasuke and Sai undoubtedly pick up on.
It's fun, being so vague, and she finally understands why Kakashi did it her first time as a genin – Naruto's indignation is hilarious, and Sasuke's adamantly-not-pouting face is positively adorable.
(She laughs inwardly at how obviously the other sensei are eavesdropping.)
Sasuke is glowering at her, and the expression is far more bratty than she remembers it being when she was twelve the first time, coloured as her perception of it had been by her crush. Still, this time, she's Sasuke's superior, had whooped his ass after the first few times he contested her authority and under her expectant gaze, he dials his glare down until his expression is sour, but not antagonistic.
"Use your words, Sasuke." she encourages gently, makes sure her amusement doesn't bleed through this time, and sees Ino stiffen out of the corner of her eye, then gape.
"You know where Kakashi is." Sasuke says at last, grumpy and accusative. Sakura raises an eyebrow, telegraphs just how unimpressed she is, until he gets the hint and rephrases.
"Could you tell us where he is?" he pauses, looks like he bit into a lemon, then sighs, giving in. "…Please?"
Sakura only just smothers a smirk and nods. She lowers her head and lowers her voice, aware of just how many ears are listening in, and says; "He's investigating a lead about the man you fought in the forest."
As one, Naruto and Sasuke stiffen, faces growing serious, solemn. Sai gives her a calculating look, and she knows he can read between the lines and reach a fairly correct conclusion without her having to give any more detail than that.
Then, Naruto's serious expression switches to a petulant one.
"How come when the bastard asked, you told him?" he pouts, and his curiosity is clear, but Sakura detects an undercurrent of genuine hurt underneath.
Before she can begin to explain her reasoning, Kakashi materialises at her side, bringing along a tang of copper and ozone so strong that it makes her give him a concerned once-over.
"Because my adorable kouhai believes in rewarding good behaviour." he says, eye creasing in his signature smile, and it takes Sakura a second to realise that he's answering Naruto's earlier question.
She catches Sasuke's affronted glare and stifles a laugh at Kakashi's wording, even as the Uchiha bites out a vehement; "I'm not a dog."
Kakashi, for his part, looks completely innocent, blinking at Sasuke like he had no idea that his words could be interpreted like that.
"Of course not." Kakashi agrees, smiling like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. "You're far too uncute."
Sakura glances at the board, notes that while they've been bantering, Kankuro won his match. She elbows Kakashi, both in reprimand and to draw his attention, and points.
Uchiha Sasuke vs Akado Yoroi
Sasuke smirks.
As one, Kakashi ruffles his hair and Sakura smacks him round the head.
"Don't get cocky now." Kakashi chastises mildly, and Sakura holds back the surprised glance she wants to shoot him.
"As your senseis, we've got bets running on this." He tells Sasuke and Sakura wants to gape and smack him, but settles for shooting the Uchiha a small smile.
"He bet you'd lose." She says quietly, throwing Kakashi in the line of fire with nary a thought. "In the spirit of proving him wrong, do your best. But don't let your opponent get too close; his chakra…" she frowns, playing up her concern as she looks at Yoroi, faking deep thought. "it's weird. Hungry. I don't like it."
Sasuke gives her a curious, measured look, but nods jerkily and vaults over the railing. Sakura sighs.
"You're a sensor?"
Sakura doesn't jerk, but it's a close thing. She missed the jounin sensei coming closer; apparently reassured by Kakashi's arrival, they must've ambled over at some point, bringing their teams with them. All the Konoha teams stand within arm's length of each other now and Sakura is overtaken with nostalgia.
"No." she denies, shaking her head at Asuma who'd been the one to ask. "But his chakra reeks."
And then, Sakura blinks, because Ino is suddenly in front of her, right in her face, close enough that Sakura can count the blonde's eyelashes, and her stomach drops out at the same time as a lump of grief and longing wedges in her throat.
"And who're you?" she demands, and Sakura hears Asuma and Shikamaru's chorused and quietly-despairing sigh of 'Ino…' "I don't remember you from the Academy!"
"Excuse me." Sai cuts in, tapping Ino lightly on the shoulder and offering her one of his patented smiles. "Please don't crowd our sensei."
It's Ino's turn to blink, stupefied. "Sensei?!"
Her bafflement seems to be echoed by the jounin.
Sakura feels more eyes on her now, not just the adults but the genin too. She reigns back a scowl and suffers through it. She knows what she looks like – barely over 5'2", built like a boy, with her cropped-short hair, her carefully-unisex, standard uniform that's barely any more personalised than Kakashi's – seeing as it was brought to her by Kakashi, she supposes it makes sense – and the ANBU tanto strapped to her thigh, a compromise of sorts.
She looks average. Androgynous. Forgettable.
Aside from her hair, of course, but she can't do much about that.
Her appearance, along with her age, makes her one of the best infiltrators in ANBU, she's found, and she holds the confidence that realisation had won her close now, forcing herself to ride out the curiosity of a handful of twelve-year olds and force down the wave of grief and nostalgia that hits her.
"Shouldn't you be in these Exams with us, though?" Tenten asks, and Sakura is a little surprised to hear the girl speak.
"That would be rather counterproductive." Kakashi hums, but like the reticent bastard he is, doesn't offer any more information than that.
Sakura fights back a scowl and shifts her weight under the pretence of fidgeting, makes sure her heel is right above Kakashi's exposed toes, then puts all of her weight on that leg.
Kakashi doesn't make a sound, but his stuttered exhale is enough for her to think them even.
Luckily, she's literally saved by the bell as Hayate announces Sasuke the winner, on the grounds that Yoroi, with his back broken, is unable to continue. When he tries to stand up from his crouch, however, Sasuke staggers, and Sakura takes it as her cue.
She vaults over the railing and drops by Sasuke's side, offering him a hand up. The Uchiha eyes it for a moment, torn between looking even weaker if he staggers again and the humiliation of accepting help, then huffs and takes the proffered hand. Sakura pulls him to his feet and steadies him as inconspicuously as she can manage when he sways.
"Good job with your fight." She tells him quietly, knowing how starved for genuine praise Sasuke had been. Is, still.
"You were at a disadvantage since he was older, and a Water-type who also favoured close-combat, but you won." She pauses, considers, then lightly squeezes the arm that she's using to keep him steady. "And you followed my advice."
Sasuke shoots her an odd look, somewhere between embarrassed and exasperated, then looks away with a grumble.
"It was good advice." He gets that expression again, the one that looks like he bit into a lemon, and if Sakura's not wrong, there's a flush making its way up the back of his neck. "Was there– do you think I could've done anything better?"
Sakura fights every impulse she has that's telling her brain she should be resembling a fish out of water right about now. She bites on her tongue to make sure she doesn't gape and carefully keeps her eyes ahead of her so Sasuke doesn't see how they'd widened at his question.
Sasuke… is asking for feedback. For tips for improvement. And he is asking her.
"Well…"
Once the kids get bored of standing around in silence and wander off in their own groups, the jounin descend on Kakashi like hungry vultures.
"I thought they only allowed jounin to be sensei, even assistants." Kurenai says, seemingly innocently, but her scarlet gaze is far too sharp for her words to be just the casual observation they sound like.
But Sakura is far more slippery an opponent in the art of word games and innuendo, and Kakashi has spent the better part of his adult life being as annoying as possible.
Kurenai doesn't stand a chance.
"Bold of you to assume my kouhai is not a jounin." He retorts, not raising his gaze from his book, even though he hasn't been reading the words for some time now.
"So he-" Asuma starts, at the same time as Kurenai exclaims "So she is-!" they both cut off and look at each other, then Asuma sighs.
"So they are a jounin?" he inquires, and Kakashi bites back a grin; baffling Konoha's elite is one of Kakashi's favourite past-times, and being able to do it so effortlessly is hilarious.
"I never said that." He denies, and relishes in the eye-roll and scowl that his response provokes.
Then Gai steps up and lays a hand on his arm.
"Kakashi," he murmurs, surprisingly subdued by the man's standards. "I may not recognise faces, but I remember that chakra. Are you sure that that," he waves a hand to where Sakura is still sitting with Sasuke, their heads bent together, "is a good idea?"
Kakashi glances over, and as if feeling his eye on her, Sakura looks up and meets his gaze. She seems to read something in his face because she says something to Sasuke, and in the next second, she's by Kakashi's elbow.
Asuma and Kurenai start, just a little, but Sakura pays them or Gai little heed besides offering a short nod.
"Taicho." she says instead, and at her admonishing glare, Kakashi pockets his Icha Icha with a mock-pout. He takes a leaf out of her book and ignores his friends' incredulous faces. "You should work with Sasuke on his speed and endurance." She advises, and Kakashi hums.
"Isn't he plenty fast already?" he asks, just to be difficult, but even he's not expecting the wry little twist to Sakura's smile, a crack in that practised ROOT blandness.
"For an average genin, he is. But there aren't many of those here." She says sagely, letting her gaze stop meaningfully on the Suna team and Gai's boys, then trails back to him.
"He asked how he could've done better in his fight." She adds, and Kakashi carefully doesn't react at the idea of Sasuke asking for feedback. "I said he should train to ensure his speed is consistent, even when fatigued."
That's good feedback, Kakashi muses, and smiles inwardly at how aligned it was with what he thought.
"Maa, I was going to put him through another boot-camp anyway, before the next round."
Sakura shoots him an exasperated look but nods, content. Then Sai is beside her and Kakashi glances at the board at the same time as she does.
Sai vs Tenten
Kakashi watches as brother and sister in all but blood clasp hands, and Sakura smiles.
"Kick ass, Sai-chan." She tells him quietly, and as she's talking, Kakashi notes the way her pointer finger is fluttering over the Sai's wrist, catches distance fighter and weapons and smirks to himself. Then Sai nods, offers her one of his truer smiles, and hops over the railing and into the arena.
"Who needs nin-info cards when we've got you, hm, kouhai?" he teases and Sakura laughs, short and surprised and not in the least repentant.
"The downside of balance." She says cryptically, winks, then sobers. "Her team's got two taijutsu specialists and a Hyuuga. It would be dangerous if she wasn't proficient in distance combat."
Kakashi hums noncommittally and turns to watch the match.
Hayate gives the go-ahead, and true to Sakura's hunch, Gai's student immediately bombards Sai with a barrage of kunai and shuriken, likely counting on the fact that Sai won't be able to block all of them with a broken arm.
Normally, Kakashi would concede to the wisdom of that assumption; a normal genin would've struggled to dodge them, and would've definitely gotten hit by at least a couple. Sai, however, nimbly twists out of the way and relocates a safe distance away. Gai's student jumps up, and, in a show of quite impressive airborne gymnastics and fuinjutsu, twirls a scroll around herself and bombards Sai anew.
Sai's posture slumps in what looks hilariously like a sigh, and he waits until the first wave is less than a metre away and-
-disappears.
To her credit, Tenten recovers quickly and sends the next barrage at his new location, but it's futile. Sai body-flickers like it's going out of style, seal-less, Kakashi would like to add, and when Tenten finally touches down, he's on her, tanto drawn, capitalising on her fatigue and mild vertigo before she has a chance to show off that Gai-trained speed. He knocks the kunai she belatedly raises away with the flat of his tanto, ducks the high-kick and swoops in low; one swipe at her hamstring, one at the back of her knee, and the brunette crumples with a shout. Sai crouches over her, the tip of his tanto resting suggestively on her jugular and turns to the referee.
"Winner of this match: Sai!" Hayate declares, and Kakashi feels the stunned silence that radiates off the other jounin.
"You taught a fresh genin the shunshin?!" Asuma asks incredulously, and Kakashi wonders if he should be offended.
Probably not, but then again, boring.
"Maa, how lowly do you think of me? I'm a responsible adult I'll have you know." he drawls, sees Sakura muffle a snort out of the corner of his eye and smirks. "My cute kouhai, however, isn't."
Instead of being offended, Sakura merely raises an eyebrow.
"Hm, tell me that the next time I have to play nurse for you, you obstinate bastard." His – on second thought – decidedly not-cute kouhai snarks back, and pushes off the wall towards the stairway where Sai is coming up.
Now that won't do. Kakashi decides, and wraps his arm around Sakura's neck, careful of her broken collarbone and bruised back, and pulls her in for a noogie. The teen startles and snarls, but suffers through the tough love with a resigned sort of exasperation, then tries to stamp on his foot when he releases her. Kakashi moves away and she gives him the stink-eye, but walks off without a word.
"Love you too, bratling!" he calls after her retreating back, and snorts at the middle finger she raises at him.
When he turns back to the other jounin, the expressions on their faces look like he just told them he's going to run off into the sunset with Orochimaru and have a host of genetically-engineered babies.
Oops.
When Naruto's match with Kiba is announced, Sakura puts her hand on his shoulder and squeezes.
"Inuzuka are known for their dependency on their sense of smell and for combo-attacks with their ninken." She murmurs, and Naruto turns, wide-eyed for a second as the information registers, then nods. She squeezes again. "Kick his ass, Naruto."
From the look on his face, you would've thought she just told him she'll pay for his ramen for the rest of his life. Naruto's smile becomes brighter than the sun and he wraps his arms around her neck almost quicker than she can respond and hugs her tightly for a split-second. Then, he whoops excitedly and vaults over the railing, jumping into the trash-talking with Kiba with ridiculous vigour.
His match, for all that it progresses much the same, is considerably shorter. He goes for Akamaru after the first time Kiba does Fang-over-Fang and knocks the puppy out before Kiba has a chance to feed him a chakra pill. Once he's faced with just Kiba, Naruto's clones and brawl-like taijutsu quickly overwhelm the Inuzuka, and the match ends in his win, and the proctor calls for a short break.
After he's gone through Kakashi, Naruto bounces up to her and drags her over to the other rookies.
"It was exactly like you said, sensei! You're so clever! How d'you know so much, dattebayo?"
Sakura glares at Kakashi when he makes eye-contact, and the man has the gall to grin at her and wiggle his fingers in a little wave.
She sighs and tries for a smile when she turns back to Naruto and their age-mates.
"It's important to know about your comrades just as much as it is to know about your enemies." She tells the group at large, careful not to make eye-contact with anyone but Sai. "You will eventually have to run missions with other shinobi, and not all of your assignments are going to give you the luxury of an introduction, so knowing your allies' strengths can be beneficial. Plus, Konoha Clans all have rather distinctive abilities, which makes it a little easier."
When she realises that it's not just Naruto who's staring at her rather blank-faced, she blinks.
"You really should've been taught this at the Academy." She says dully, because she's pretty sure she learnt most of the Konoha-related Clan trivia there.
Or maybe it was in the recommended reading?
It's Shikamaru who breaks the silence, and Sakura almost has a heart-attack because of that fact alone.
"They told us that the Uchiha, Senju and Hyuuga Clans were the first to settle in Konoha, which is why they are the Noble Clans." He remembers, and gives Sakura a measured look. "Nothing about the others, or their abilities."
Sakura drops her head against the wall and lets her back slide down it until she's sitting, then gestures at the other Rookies to join her on the floor. In a few seconds, she's got Naruto, Team Ten, Kiba and Tenten sat around her in a circle, while Sasuke, Sai, Shino and Neji stand nearby and pretend to not be listening.
"Right," Sakura sighs, and launches into lecture-mode.
"The Inuzuka are trackers with an excellent sense of smell and work in tandem with their ninken." She begins and laughs inwardly at how Kiba preens at the indirect compliment. "They are often partnered with the Hyuuga, whose dojutsu allows for telescopic, 360 degree vision, making them good for recon and tracking missions. The best tracker squads also comprise Aburame, whose colonies can track a target over hundreds of miles once they've tagged them."
She waits while the genin digest that fact, and when neither Neji nor Shino interject to correct her, she moves on.
"Team Ten, you probably already know you weren't put together by chance."
All three of them nod, with varying degrees of curiosity and apprehension, but Naruto, and even Kiba, look worryingly blank.
"The Ino-Shika-Cho trio, or in fact, any Nara-Yamanaka-Akimichi squad, is perfect for intelligence gathering. The Nara, with their control over shadows, are well-suited for capture and detainment. The Yamanaka have mind-walking techniques, and can interrogate a target in the field by bypassing the standard method in favour of simply extracting the information directly from the target's minds." She gives them a second to digest all that, then continues.
"They can also temporarily possess the body of another person, but that puts them at risk if their teammates aren't nearby to look after them. And the Akimichi are the combat specialists in those squads, though with their strength and Super-Size techniques, they also double as Konoha's demolition specialists, and, of course, run all the best restaurants in the Village." She smiles when Chouji blushes at her last comment, and stifles a laugh when she notices that Naruto's jaw is hanging wide open.
Kiba, and, surprisingly, Tenten, aren't faring much better.
Absently, Sakura realises that the adults have once again gravitated towards the genin.
"There have been other, smaller Clans dotted throughout the Village's history. The Sarutobi are renowned for producing devout followers of the Will of Fire and shinobi with strong Fire-affinities. The Shiranui have all been weapons and poisons experts. The Hatake were kenjutsu specialists hailed from samurai."
She notes how Kakashi tenses out of the corner of her eye, and powers through.
"You might've heard of one Hatake in history class – Hatake Sakumo, Konoha's White Fang?" she asks, and it's Ino who nods. "He was said to have been on par with the Sannin. He's one of Konoha's heroes, and someone who I personally believe to be the personification of the Will of Fire; he was instrumental in the Second Shinobi War, and he chose to save his teammates' lives at the expense of a mission."
Kakashi, she muses, is drawn tighter than a bowstring, and the jounin around them are either gaping at her or shooting him worried looks.
Then, Naruto breaks the silence with a loud, "Wow, Kakashi-sensei! You had a hero in your family! Did you know him? Did you?" he demands, bouncing on the spot with his excitement.
Kakashi lets out something that's a mix between a quiet guffaw and a stifled sob, and slumps. "Yeah, Naruto. I knew him." is all he says.
And then Sai, blessedly awkward, shy Sai, who in this timeline is a genius in his own right, butts in with a scarily perceptive, "What about the Uchiha? Or the Uzumaki?"
Wow. Even after all these years, I am still not used to Sai who understands social cues. Sakura realises, and it dawns on her with all the impetus of being tackled by Boshi.
Still, she grasps at the question and tries not to look at how tense Sasuke and Naruto have both gone.
"The Uzumaki were a large clan of fuinjutsu users, renowned for their longevity. Their princess, Uzumaki Mito-sama, married Senju Hashirama as part of the alliance between Konoha and Uzushio." Her heart twists at Naruto's awed expression and the quiet, surprised 'the Uzumaki were a Clan?', and she reaches over and lightly ruffles his hair, then sighs.
"The Uchiha… they ran the Konoha Police. They were well-respected by the civilians for treating civilian cases with the same gravity as the shinobi ones. Beside their dojutsu, the Uchiha were renowned for their mastery of Fire ninjutsu and proficiency in kenjutsu."
Sasuke whips his head around and she knows she's verging into dangerous territory, but this is a piece of his history she can give back to him, and the other genin are far too busy processing everything she's told them so far, so she gets to her feet and pulls Sasuke aside, smiling sadly.
"Though, having said that," she continues, far quieter, not sure how to feel about having Sasuke's full focus on her, "I knew an Uchiha who chose a different specialisation, and mastered the shunshin to the point of having 'of the Body Flicker' added after his name in Bingo Books, he was so proficient with it."
Sakura sees the warning look Sai shoots her at the same time as Sasuke lets out a pained sound.
"You knew him?" he breathes, awed and agonised. "You knew- you knew Shisui?" he stares at her, grief-stricken and betrayed and just the tiniest bit hopeful, and Sakura feels her heart break.
She raises a hand and rifles though the inner pocket of her chunin vest. "He was one of my good friends when I was younger." She tells Sasuke softly, then offers him the picture Sai had drawn years back, before the events that led to the Uchiha Massacre.
On it, a seven-year-old Sakura, a twelve-year-old Shin, and a fifteen-year-old Shisui are smiling at the camera, squished on a bunk in ROOT dorms, their arms thrown around each other's shoulders. The drawing is well loved, has been folded and unfolded many times since its creation and it's frayed around the edges, but even that can't dim the brightness of Shisui's smile. Sasuke reaches out with trembling hands and takes the picture from her, his face torn between grief and deep longing.
"That's Shin, isn't it?" Sasuke asks, quiet and fragile, and Sakura nods.
"He knew Shisui best. I'm sure he wouldn't mind telling you some stories, if you'd like." She offers, and Sasuke nods.
"I would." He looks at her then, an unreadable expression on his face, and carefully hands her back the picture, his grip on the frayed paper almost reverent. "Thank you, sensei."