pmw

by AleighPera

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9. 9

Once they are allowed out of the Tower, Preliminaries officially complete, Sakura dismisses Chie and treats all four Team 7 boys to a congratulatory dinner.

Naruto seems unfazed by the events of the last few hours and is, as always, bubbling and perpetually energetic. Sai seems content, half-dozing in the afternoon sun like a cat, and even Sasuke isn't as tense as usual, though Sakura can tell he's still reeling a little from her earlier reveal.

The most surprising of all, perhaps, is the fact that Kakashi agrees to come with them without a fuss.

"Right, you have the next month to prepare for the final round." Kakashi announces when all the food is gone. "I have already decided on your teachers."

The boys perk up, and even Sakura straightens, cocking her head curiously. It has only been two hours since the last match of the Preliminaries, and Kakashi has been by her side the whole time. Either he had full confidence that all the boys would pass and had planned trainers before the Exams even began, or some of his friends were about to be conned into having a genin dumped on them for a month.

"Sasuke will be with me." Kakashi begins, and Sasuke nods at the news, satisfied if unsurprised, while Naruto boos, muttering something along the lines of 'what a shocker'.

"Sai, you'll be with two friends of mine. They're partners and experts in close-combat and everything sharp that you can channel chakra through. Since you're somewhat familiar with Haku already, you'll have the freedom to decide what you want to focus on to fight him with. Meet them the day after tomorrow at 0800 in front of the T building."

Sai hums, considering, and Sakura can tell he's surprised by the thought Kakashi seems to have put into this. She is too, if she's honest.

"And Naruto, you get my kouhai as your teacher."

Sakura nearly chokes on her lemonade. Some damn warning, Kakashi!

Naruto, however, seems ecstatic.

"I get Sakura-sensei?! Awesome! I thought it was gonna be some creepy old guy but if it's sensei, I'm going to kick the Hyuuga's ass, dattebayo!" he cheers, and Sakura is comforted by his easy confidence in her tutelage enough to moderate the glare she's shooting at Kakashi.

"Thank you, Naruto. Meet me at Ichiraku's at noon the day after tomorrow." She manages, taking her cue from Kakashi for the timing and scowling at the guileless smile she can see beneath his mask.

The boys' conversation continues for a few more minutes, but gradually, they all start yawning, the exhaustion of the last few days catching up to them, coupled with the warmth of the setting sun and full stomachs.

"Okay, that's it, off to bed with all of you." Kakashi shoos them up and out of the restaurant, and Sakura waves at all three and signs at Sai that he shouldn't wait up for her.

When all the boys are out of sight, she pulls out the silencing seal ANBU's Intel branch uses for catching up with their CIs – which she may or may not have pawned from Inosuke on their last mission – and slaps it on the table.

"Right," she says, raising a meaningful eyebrow at Kakashi when he tries to pretend innocence, "want to explain to me what that was about? I'm not bothered," she reassures him, quirking a wry smile, "just would've appreciated some warning ahead of time to make a proper training plan."

Kakashi sighs and sags slightly in his chair as he runs a hand through his hair, and Sakura belatedly realises that he's relieved. As if, for all his bravado, he genuinely expected her to be annoyed that he gave her Naruto for a month.

"Sorry." Her old sensei mutters, unprompted, and if she'd heard that in the original timeline, she'd have probably had a heart attack.

"There weren't many people who trusted me to look after this team, and now there are even fewer who I trust to do right by them." He explains, and Sakura feels her heart give a painful twinge.

"I got Izumo and Kotetsu for Sai because it was obvious he'd pass. Genma suggested Ebisu for Naruto when I asked him what he thought, and, while there's nothing wrong with Ebisu, he's a solid ninja, he's just… not someone Naruto would respect. And I know you've had a training plan for him in your head since you first laid eyes on the brat." The last bit feels like a dying man's attempt at humour, Kakashi desperately reaching for the teasing tone and missing by a mile, but.

Still.

It's staggering to realise that for all that Kakashi is the paragon of confidence in the field, he's startlingly insecure when it comes to his decisions as sensei. She probably should've realised that in her original timeline, but at the time, Kakashi had been invincible in her eyes. Still is, if she's honest, even if she's gotten to know the man behind the legend a lot better this time around.

Sakura smiles, and it's meant to be reassuring, but she's not sure how much of her sadness at her sudden realisation manages to bleed through. (she thinks it might be a lot)

"Taicho," she says quietly, reads underneath the underneath like he's always stressed, and reaches across the table to lightly tap his hand, "I'm honoured."

Kakashi stares at her for a few seconds, an unreadable emotion in his visible eye, then snorts and hangs his head.

"Stop it. I'm still not used to the idea of a ROOT agent with social skills." He laughs, slightly breathless and it's a front, Sakura knows, a cover for the bone-deep weariness of constantly being doubted and thought the worst of, and the relief at suddenly having nothing but calm acceptance.

So she chuckles and lightly strokes her thumb over his knuckles, then takes her hand back to her side of the table and sobers.

"Kakashi." she starts, and Kakashi raises his head and gives her a measured glance. "What did you do with Kabuto?"

Kakashi studies her for a beat, doubtless notes just how much she cares about his answer, and replies, cool as could be, "His many parts are buried under six feet of concrete at the top of the Tower." then, a vicious flash she hasn't seen since the War passes through his visible eye. "Even his crazy healing couldn't keep up with Bull's teeth."

The relief that crashes into Sakura at the news that Kabuto is well and truly dead and before he could actually begin to cause trouble for her makes her sag against the table, breathing in deeply.

"Thank fuck." She mumbles, and Kakashi snorts.

"Language, kouhai. You're a sensei now." he chastises teasingly, and Sakura doesn't even have the energy to flip him off.

Instead, she pushes herself into a position which makes her collarbone scream at her a little less and pins Kakashi with an assessing glance. "I have one more favour to ask of you."

She studies his reaction to the words, and considering that the apprehension she would've expected to find in his gaze is nowhere to be seen, she doesn't think she's ruined his good mood too much.

"Don't teach Sasuke the Chidori." She says at last, and she sees him startle, if only slightly, and the eye that was trained on her widens. Sakura gathers her remaining energy and stumbles over herself to keep talking before Kakashi slams the breaks on the conversation.

"You know what that technique is. You know what it's done for you. Is that something you want for Sasuke as well?" she asks, blunt as can be, and Kakashi flinches. Sakura, however, ignores the guilt that surges up, because at least now, the glint in his eye is more thoughtful than affronted. "You know Sasuke is a budding megalomaniac. He will take that technique and he will run with it; he won't care whether the circumstances call for it or not."

Kakashi eyes her thoughtfully and when he smiles, it's cheerful and shamelessly fake.

"I didn't know your Yamanaka has started you on psychology." He remarks idly, his words mild, yet aimed to sting, to discourage from pursuing the conversation.

Sakura ignores the jab, brushes the words off with a curt, "Tell me I'm wrong."

They stare at each other, each refusing to back down, for what feels like an age.

Finally, Kakashi sighs and slumps once again. "What would you have me teach him instead? His opponent has an impenetrable defence."

Sakura thinks.

She knows that it is imperative that Sasuke stays in Konoha this time around, and she knows what she can offer him to keep him here. She doesn't know if it'll be enough, however.

But Kakashi needs a concrete, tangible training plan, so she goes silent and thinks. She thinks about the literal library-worth of jutsu scrolls and files on Fire ninjutsu she'd saved from the Uchiha Compound before she'd lit it on fire, files safely stashed in scrolls around their apartment and the old ROOT base. She reviews the techniques she knew in her other timeline and the ones she's learnt in this one, thinks back to the ones she witnessed in the war. She remembers hushed conversations while squished on a too-small bunk with three boys, remembers whispered legends and shared secrets and midnight sparring sessions and suddenly, she knows.

(she also aches because for all that she only knew him in this life, and for far too short, the hole Shisui left in her and her brothers' lives when he left is still gaping, still hurting, still-!)

"Teach him Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku." She breathes, and her mind whirs as she builds a plan on the foundations of a fledgling idea, and it makes sense.

"Sakura," Kakashi interjects, and he sounds incredulous, disbelieving, and he looks at her like what she said was sacrilegious. "That technique is-!"

"-the pinnacle of the Uchiha Fire Release, hasn't been used since Uchiha Madara was alive for the sheer disastrous potential that it has, I know, taicho." she cuts him off, and Kakashi is still looking at her like she's a madwoman.

"Sasuke has no chance of mastering it right now, but he doesn't need to." She explains, needing him to understand. "Think about it; in his quest to surpass his brother, what could be better for Sasuke than learning a technique of their greatest ancestor, one that even Itachi didn't dare to touch? Plus, it'll be another half decade at least before he can even dream of having chakra reserves large enough to make it work to its full potential. There are dozens of jutsu scrolls that have been salvaged after the Massacre, and I know of at least two dedicated to the requirements of Gōka Mekkyaku."

(she chooses not to mention that most of them are at her apartment)

Sakura pauses for breath, belatedly realising that she's breathing hard as she's been gradually speeding up as she was talking, fighting to get the words out as new ideas coalesced and getting them out before they disappeared. She scrambles for what to say next to fully convince Kakashi that this is a good idea.

"Sasuke is the rightful heir now that Itachi's a missing-nin, and he became an adult in the eyes of the law upon graduating the Academy. He can demand those scrolls, and nobody will be able to tell him 'no'." She finishes, fighting against the instinct to screw her eyes shut and await judgement.

Kakashi is still looking at her oddly, and then he blinks, throws his head back and laughs.

"You know," he says once he's done, and there's mirth and no small amount of disbelief in his visible eye, "sometimes, I think that you're one of the best-adjusted shinobi I know. And then, sometimes, you do or say something so outlandish, so blasphemous, that I can't help but think that you must be absolutely, categorically, clinically insane, and you're just the best out of all of us at hiding it."

He chortles and wipes at a non-existent tear. "This is an example of the latter, by the way."

Sakura huffs, but Kakashi waves her off.

"Alright, say I did teach our little sourpuss the most venerated Fire ninjutsu across the Nations; what do you want him to do after he attempts to cook the Ichibi's host in his own custom-made glass oven?" he asks, and Sakura at this stage isn't even surprised that he figured out what she was planning without her having to say a word.

Kakashi is a renowned genius, after all. She just never really noticed before. She doesn't even have to think about it this time. "Teach him the Uchiha Style."

Kakashi chokes, and it's about as insulting as it is hilarious.

"Kouhai, that style is extinct." he tells her flatly, daring her to disagree. "And even if, I am not an Uchiha. The old Clan Laws forbid it."

Sakura rolls her eyes and hopes it comes off as derisive as she intends it to be.

"Since when do you care about old Clan Laws?" she asks rhetorically, and when Kakashi pulls a face of mock-affront, she raises a hand. "But fine – since you're so worried about the law of all things: the very same Clan Laws say that if a clan member is orphaned before graduating and no family takes them in, their jounin sensei becomes their official guardian until they reach majority. I know you know this, taicho, stop being difficult."

"What if I don't know the Uchiha Style?" he asks, and now she knows he's testing her, but she has an answer to this question too.

"Ask Shin." When Kakashi blinks, thrown, she huffs a laugh. "Shin and Shisui trained together almost obsessively. If not for his colouring and the fact that his first element is Wind, Shin could pass for an Uchiha with his arsenal. And we have some Uchiha scrolls, too."

Kakashi stares at her for so long, she has to fight the urge to fidget.

"How long have you been planning this?" he asks at last, voice quiet, and it's the most serious she's heard him in a long time.

So she looks back, tries to make her voice steady, and answers just as seriously.

"Since I first saw Sasuke's face after he used Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu." She says, because it's true, then adds, in the same tone, "It was a rite of passage for the Uchiha. Let him have this, taicho. Give him a tangible link to his family that his brother cannot touch. Teach him about the strength in his history. Show him that there are other ways of honouring his family than revenge on Itachi. Help him become an Uchiha in more than just name."

Sakura knows she's revealed too much when Kakashi's serious gaze doesn't waver – if anything, it sharpens.

"This isn't just about the match, is it?" he asks, and she can do little more than sigh and shake her head with a wry smile.

"No." she agrees, "In the Forest, Orochimaru said he will come back for Sasuke and I'm– I worry. I worry Orochimaru will offer him something that might sway his loyalty."

Kakashi's next exhale sounds like an incredulous laugh.

"So you want him to learn the Uchiha ways so he stays in the Village instead of being tempted to go to the Sannin?" he clarifies, and Sakura refuses to look away as she nods.

"Yes."

There's a pause, a moment when they hold the eye-contact, and then; "Okay."

And when Sakura does a double-take, he smiles, and this time, it's genuine. "I trust your judgement, kouhai."

And that- that easy admission, it was everything she ever wanted to hear from Kakashi in her original timeline, and her eyes sting with the promise of tears.

Kakashi though, bless his suddenly emotionally-perceptive heart, quickly shifts tracks and changes the subject:

"What are you going to do with Naruto?" he asks, as if they hadn't just had a meaningful heart-to-heart about not teaching twelve-year-olds assassination techniques.

Sakura takes a deep breath and it only shudders a little, then says what she's been thinking of since Kakashi gave her the questionable honour of being assistant-sensei. "I'm going to teach him control."

"Control?" Kakashi echoes, and she can tell it's not the answer he expected. "Kouhai, he's facing a Hyuuga. He needs more than the leaf-sticking exercise."

Sakura snorts, shakes her head.

"True. But bear in mind we're talking about the kid who cranks out Shadow Clones like they're regular bunshin." She says, and she sees the exact moment Kakashi understands what she means.

"His work ethic is going to get even worse." He bemoans, but there's laughter in his voice.

Sakura doesn't bother hiding her schadenfreude.

"I know. But once he's promoted, that won't be our problem, ne?" she asks with an unholy grin, and Kakashi gives in to the laughter he's been holding back.

"You're awful." He tells her, but it's gleeful, and Sakura's grin grows. "You would really do that to our comrades? How cruel." Kakashi teases, and Sakura delights in the easy banter they've got going now.

"Better them than us, wouldn't you say?" she retorts and Kakashi snorts.

He raises his glass of water in a mock-toast and inclines his head, "Hear, hear!"

When Sakura stumbles home, exhausted beyond measure and her chakra still too low to properly heal herself, Sai's asleep on the sofa, his cheek smushed against his chalk pastels, sling-arm propped on a pillow. There's sealing paper strewn all around him and Sakura's hit with an unbearable wave of fondness. She never once thought, when she decided to get noticed by ROOT, that one day she would get to have this.

It's a good feeling, she muses as she drops her pack and perches by Sai's head, gently running her fingers through his hair to rouse him. Even though he's technically older than her, she truly feels like the elder sibling he treats her as when they're together.

Sai, for all that he's grown up in ROOT, carries a rare sort of innocence that makes Sakura's possessive nature rear its head and roar PROTECT!!, that makes her face S-Ranked shinobi without a moment's hesitation despite knowing she's unlikely to win, and she knows without a slither of doubt that she would die all over again if it meant keeping Sai alive.

"Aneue?" Sai mumbles and presses his head into her hand like a cat. Sakura scratches a little harder, laughing quietly when he sighs.

"I'm starting to feel like someone swapped my little brother with a housecat." She teases and Sai stretches, not bothering to correct her. "You should sleep. Kotetsu is a slave-driver when he hasn't slept enough and Izumo is a perfectionist."

And suddenly, Sai sits up, looking surprisingly awake as he considers her.

"I thought it would be someone from your old ANBU team." He murmurs, running a hand through his hair to settle the parts she's ruffled and stifling a yawn. "The brunet, for instance."

Sakura hums, considering. It seems Sai's thought-process had been pretty similar to hers in regard to who Kakashi would assign to him. Instead of voicing that thought, though, she smiles.

"My ANBU team may have been famous, but it seems there are other people in the Village who owe taicho favours." She jokes, then tugs on Sai's arm. "Now come on, off to bed with you!"

Sai grumbles but obligingly gets up and, after pressing a sleepy kiss to her cheek that leaves her startled and near-tears, ambles off to his room.

Once his chakra evens out with sleep, Sakura sighs, pulls out a fresh notebook and settles down to plan a training regime for the next month, knowing sleep will likely not come easy despite how exhausted she feels.

The next morning, she's proven correct.

Sakura rises at dawn, mere four hours after she finally finished Naruto's training schedule, but she can't make herself stay in bed any longer. Even after barely four hours, she's more exhausted from spending most of the night wrestling with various nightmares of the Forest of Death – from both her timelines now – than because of the actual lack of sleep, though it certainly plays a part.

As she gives up on the idea of sleeping and gets up to start the day, though, she decides it's likely high time to see Inosuke. And while she's not sure what to expect – he hadn't exactly told her where to meet him, or what he planned to do – she can acknowledge that some help with 'managing her head' is probably needed at this point.

With a tired sigh, she dresses in a slightly more personalised outfit than she wore at the Preliminaries. She steals Shin's sweater this time, a wonderfully soft, blue-grey wool jumper with built-in fingerless gloves – and adds black track pants and her seldom-used pair of shinobi sandals instead of her boots. Shin's sweater is large on her, his shoulders being much broader than hers, and it hangs loosely off her frame. She forgoes her hitai-ate and her thigh holsters, leaving the house without any weapons for the first time in years.

Coincidentally, it's the most comfortable she's felt in weeks.

Once outside, she banishes her exhaustion to the back of her mind, stifles her still not fully recovered chakra, and heads for the Jounin HQ, deeming it the most likely place to start her search for Inosuke.

Luckily, she spots him mere moments after she steps into the Jounin Station – or rather, she spots the pile of folders around him, and the man himself scowling at a scroll rolled out on the table in front of him, sitting at the same booth he was in last time.

Sakura brightens and heads over, then, too tired to think much of what she's doing, calls; "Senpai!" to get Inosuke's attention.

She does manage to get his attention – he looks up, catches sight of her, and the scowl on his face fades slightly – but she also catches the attention of about a dozen shinobi in the vicinity. Shinobi who, upon seeing who she's heading towards, gawk shamelessly, particularly when Sakura ignores the clear 'fuck-off' vibes exuded by the piles of folders and Inosuke's scowl and slides right into the seat on the other side of the booth, a sheepish grin on her face.

She knows Inosuke hears the whispers that break out, and she wipes the grin from her face and shoots him an innocent look when he arches an eyebrow at her.

"To be fair, I didn't even intend to be dramatic. It just slipped out." She confesses, unable to fully bite back her smile, particularly when Inosuke huffs, though the amused look in his eyes betrays him.

"I'm sure." He says dryly, assessing her as he rolls up the scroll. "Did you come just to say hello, or…?"

Sakura rolls her eyes – she knows he knows why she's here, she's here on his order, even. Making her say it is rather excessive, in her opinion.

"I was promised therapy." She informs him just as dryly, making sure he knows how unimpressed she is with his pretend ignorance.

"And I was promised a subordinate who knew the value of a good night's sleep." Inosuke retorts, though he does tuck the rolled-up scroll into his breast pocket and starts gathering the mess of files around him.

Sakura snorts, even as she reaches out for the folders to help him clear the table.

"Kakashi put me in charge of Naruto's training for the next month. I had to prep." She explains, neatly dodging the topic of 'nightmares' for now, and while the words are not exactly a lie, they're not the full truth, either.

Inosuke doesn't pause in his motions, too good of a shinobi for such an obvious tell, but he does shoot her another assessing glance. "How do you feel about that?"

Sakura shrugs, genuinely unsure.

"I'm glad Kakashi trusts me with his students." She admits, because she wasn't lying when she told Kakashi she was honoured. "Beyond that…a bit weirded out. I'm not used to this sort of responsibility."

Inosuke's expression tells her precisely what he thinks of that, and Sakura rolls her eyes again even as she gathers the folders to her chest and stands up when Inosuke moves to leave.

"What have you decided on?" Inosuke asks instead of voicing his thoughts, likely because they're still wading through the people at HQ to get out, and Sakura sighs.

"He's facing Maito Gai's Hyuuga genius." She shifts the folders to one arm so she can rub a hand down her face, wiping the sleep from her eyes as she goes. "So I'm going to teach him control."

"And?"

Sakura shoots Inosuke a curious look once they're out of the building, because what? When he catches her looking, the corner of Inosuke's lips twitches up.

"You're not subtle. What's the endgame?" he asks, and Sakura can't help but wonder when he got to know her so well.

But, well. Inosuke seems to enjoy mischief, so she smirks and allows herself to verbalise the idea that had crystallised in her mind the previous night.

She gestures at the man to bend down, which he does with a bemused smile, and lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, looking around to make sure she won't be overheard.

"I'm going to teach him the Rasengan."

For a split second, Inosuke's smile slips, and his eyes widen as he startles at the news, then his expression smooths out, his gaze growing contemplative.

"That's going to make a statement." He points out, following her train of thought without any prompting, and Sakura is relieved and bewildered at the same time. Apart from Kakashi and Shin, few people have been able to see through her motivations so easily in this timeline. "Are you sure you're ready to deal with the fallout?"

Her earlier bewilderment is replaced with a sudden wave of fondness, but she buries it for the time being and widens her eyes instead, tilting her head and channelling her 'guileless genin' mien from before.

"'Fallout'?" she parrots, blinking rapidly as she tilts her head in fake curiosity and pitches her voice higher. "I have no idea what you mean, senpai. I was Kakashi's direct subordinate for three years, so I learned it from him. I'm only teaching it to Naruto because he's Wind and Water natured, so it suits him."

Inosuke studies her for a few seconds, a peculiar expression on his face, so Sakura blinks owlishly and goes for broke, smiling saccharine-sweet and pitching her voice even higher.

"I'm definitely not teaching it to him to remind people that the gag order doesn't mean their mistreatment of my student is going to go unpunished much longer."

At that, Inosuke blinks, then hangs his head and laughs, that same rough, rusty sound that's nonetheless starting to become comforting to Sakura's ears.

"That façade is almost too convincing." He tells her once he recovers, looking somewhat impressed despite himself. "I see why you're the infiltrator now."

Sakura grins at that, quietly pleased with herself, and goes back to her usual register.

"I appreciate the concern, but gag orders don't tend to outlive their kage." She tells Inosuke frankly, shooting him a meaningful look. "I'll be fine."

Inosuke's face does something complicated then, before it smooths out all expression and goes back to the uninterested mask she's most used to. Wordlessly, he gestures to the files they're both carrying.

"Let's drop these off at Intel, then we'll get started."

As he closes the door to his office behind them, Inosuke wonders what he's going to find in the kid's head.

He'd asked Inoichi whether he'd seen anything of note in Mongoose's mind when she'd gone to Psych to report Bat, but beyond a mildly concerned remark at the kid's pain tolerance, Inoichi hadn't had anything of note to offer, and Inosuke knew the man wouldn't keep something like double-layered memories to himself.

Especially since Inosuke was Mongoose's 'official' shrink now.

Which meant that he was back at the drawing board in terms of figuring out what, exactly, he'd seen in the kid's head at the Tower.

The unsubtle remark about gag orders not outliving kage had confirmed that she had intended to show him her exchange with Orochimaru, which at least reassures him that she has some level of control over her mind.

It does, however, raise concern of how much the kid appears to trust him, which makes this whole situation a fuckload more complicated, but never let it be said that he can't procrastinate emotional conversations with the best of them.

"Senpai, is this…your office?" Mongoose asks once she steps into the modest room, looking around curiously before her gaze flickers back to him.

"You warned me about S-Rank secrets." He reminds her, waiting for the spark of recognition in her eyes, gratified when it comes with a mere seconds' delay. "This is the safest place I know."

Outside of a T cell, he thinks but doesn't say, because he's read the kid's file and Inoichi's notes from that first post-ROOT evaluation, and he will not be taking Mongoose to T if he has anything to say about it.

When the kid hesitates, clearly unsure what to do next, he tilts his head and waits for her to verbalise her thoughts.

"I've never done this" she waves her hand around as if to encompass their whole situation, "before. Are there any rules?"

"Only one." Inosuke replies as he gestures for her to sit on the armchair in the corner of the room instead of standing around awkwardly, while he settles behind the desk. When he's got the kid's full attention again, he continues. "I need you to be completely honest with me. Is that something you can do?"

Mongoose nods as she rearranges herself on the armchair, looking baffled, and Inosuke bites back a wry smile. "Alright. How are you feeling?"

If anything, the girl's bafflement only increases at the question, but the instinctive response comes out regardless, just like he thought – "I'm fine."

"Failed step one." Inosuke retorts drily, and Mongoose blinks, then scowls, chagrined. She opens her mouth, no doubt to shoot something back, but he holds his hand up and cuts her off.

"If this is going to work, I need you to listen to me. For our time here, you need to remember that I am your therapist." He stresses the word, because Mongoose doesn't seem like she knows what such a dynamic entails. "I'm not your brothers, nor your students, nor Hatake. You don't need to protect me, or look after me, or placate me. You need to let me do my job, and I can't do that if you're not honest with me."

He lets the words sink in for a few seconds, then tries again. "So, how are you feeling?"

And Mongoose studies him for a moment, her expression unreadable – a feat in and of itself considering who he is and what he does – then takes a deep breath. As she lets it out, he can see her losing her various masks, until all that's left is- well.

He'd called her brother a war-child, the first time he'd met him. Mongoose as she looks now can't even be called a child.

She's wearing the same expression as when she'd taken her mask off in front of him in Wave – and she looks old. Her eyes are flat, the look in them weary, like she's seen too much, lived through too much.

She's not smiling for once, no mirth in her eyes nor permanent half-smile apparent. In fact, her expression reminds him oddly of his own reflection – perfectly bland, placid. Yet even with her face as relaxed as it is, the frown-lines between her brows are still visible, etched permanently into the skin despite her young age.

Her shoulders have dropped, too, her back no longer straight and proud, but slumped, like she's simultaneously carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and trying to hide from that very world at the same time.

All in all, she looks –

"Tired." Mongoose breathes, and her voice is quieter and deeper than what he's used to. "I feel tired, senpai."

Inosuke wonders whether the bigger achievement is getting the girl to admit that fact to him, or to herself.

Then, he reaches for the bundle of threadbare blanket under his desk and throws it at Mongoose. Perhaps as testament to her words, she doesn't even twitch to catch it, letting the folded blanket land on her lap, letting her gaze drop to it leisurely. Then, she raises her eyes back to him, a single raised eyebrow articulating everything she seemingly can't bring herself to say.

"First port of call." He explains, gesturing to the blanket. "Sleep."

When the girl doesn't react, doesn't so much as move or blink, he adds, "You can summon one of your tigers to guard you, I don't mind."

He gets a quiet scoff in response, and the look in Mongoose's eyes is fond when she speaks next. Fond and wry, and she's not trying to hide either.

"I'm not afraid of you, senpai." She tells him quietly, and it's not snide, just honest, though it still feels like a revelation.

He'd guessed as much over the last few weeks, partly because she has only ever shown mild apprehension or healthy respect towards him, but never fear. Still, having her admit it so frankly is nonetheless novel.

He watches as she slowly raises a hand, almost lethargic, and taps her temple by way of explanation. "I saw Orochimaru threaten my brother and student. I am afraid of what I'll see here."

Inosuke holds back a wince. He should've known that Mongoose's superior experience would supersede the fact that she is the same age as her charges. The fact that her worry and trauma manifest in nightmares, however, is almost painfully familiar.

He sighs, smiling wryly as he considers his next words. "I…could help with that."

Mongoose's eyes widen slightly from where they've dropped to half-mast, and she tilts her head, studying him silently. "I would…appreciate that."

Inosuke starts flickering through the seals for the Bringer of Darkness technique and shoots the girl a measured look.

"Don't fight the genjutsu." He orders, because Mongoose is remarkably sensitive to illusion, all things considered.

"I don't think I could fight a fly at this point, senpai." She murmurs, her eyes cat-like, almost closed save for a small slither of green still watching him intently. Her words come like molasses, soft and slow. "But, point taken."

He completes the final seal and feels the illusion cover the girl like a blanket; there's a momentary, feeble twitch from her chakra network when she feels the genjutsu enter her system, but contrary to his expectations, she allows it to settle, lulling her to sleep.

He gives it a few more seconds, feeling her chakra fall into a slower pattern indicating true sleep, then gets to his feet.

Second port of call: food.

Sakura gets to Ichiraku's at ten to twelve the next day, surprised to find Naruto already there.

She's pleasantly rested, if a little embarrassed upon waking up in the middle of the night in Inosuke's office, only to get a box of cold chicken noodles shoved into her hands from a very unimpressed-looking jounin.

"Fifteen hours." he'd grumbled, then pinned her with a look. "We're not getting into your head until you catch up on the sleep you've missed."

Inosuke had been clear in his instructions afterwards; she was to see him every other day, unless either of them had a mission, or she simply didn't feel like talking that day.

He'd been oddly insistent on that - on her establishing and enforcing boundaries, even with him being her shrink. Sakura... wasn't sure how to deal with that, but she appreciated it nonetheless, especially because she was rather sure she'd make use of that caveat.

Still, she's in a good mood when she approaches Naruto's seat, so she has high hopes for the rest of their sessions.

"Treating yourself to an early lunch?" she teases with a smile when she settles next to the blond, not bothering to hide her amusement at him stuffing his face. "We haven't even started training yet."

"Bwekfasht, shenshei." Naruto corrects her around a mouthful of noodles, and Sakura wrinkles her nose, getting a laugh from Teuchi.

"We're going to fix that." She says shortly, because she's invested in Naruto's wellbeing now, and she's a figure of authority he respects in this timeline, so she might have better chances of driving the importance of a balanced diet home this time.

She waits until Naruto's done then pays for his meal before he has a chance to dig out his wallet, then adamantly ignores his grumbling and protests all the way to the training grounds she'd booked the previous day.

"Stop complaining." She orders shortly, still surprised when Naruto falls silent immediately, looking at her with a mix of excitement and nerves. "I hope you enjoyed that, because it's the last ramen you're going to have for a month."

The way Naruto's eyes widen and his jaw drops almost makes her laugh. He looks so betrayed, she has to fight to keep a straight face.

"I'm in charge of your training, Naruto. All aspects of it, which includes nutrition." She points out simply, and she sees him subside, if only slightly, with a muttered grumble. "Now, make three clones."

That earns her a curious expression. "Just three?" the blond asks, clearly puzzled. "I can do more! I could do thirty and-!"

"Three, Naruto." She repeats, and once again, the flat, no-nonsense tone cuts off any forthcoming protests like a charm. Huh. "I know you can be your own one-man army. What I need to know is whether you have discovered the other benefit of Shadow Clones."

Naruto frowns, but obligingly sets his fingers into the cross seal and feeds it chakra. Five clones appear. It's still better than Sakura had expected, so she waves off Naruto's anxious look with a smile.

"Other benefit, sensei?" he repeats, and Sakura points at two of the clones closest to her.

"Get rid of the other three." She orders simply and waits until there are three 'poofs' of smoke as the clones disperse, before she palms a kunai, keeping it carefully out of Naruto's sight. "Now, concentrate on the one on my left."

Naruto and the clone both send her confused looks, but the real Naruto does quickly turn to his copy and his frown deepens.

"Are you concentrating?" Sakura asks, knows instinctively he's not concentrating on the chakra like she wants him to, but hopefully it'll still be enough.

She gets a determined 'yes, sensei!' in response, and no sooner does the last word leave Naruto's mouth does she whip her hand out, lightning-quick, and slit the clone's throat with her kunai.

The real Naruto's hands fly to his throat and he gags, his chakra surging so violently the other clone pops out of existence and he drops to his knees, staring up at Sakura in disbelief.

"Sensei-!"

"You felt that." Sakura cuts him off, and Naruto nods, looking slightly horrified. "What does that tell you?"

"I don't know. It's never happened before." He replies, sounding panicked. When he sees that she's still looking at him expectantly, he pauses and rises to his feet, expression thoughtful. "I can- feel the clones? When they're killed?"

Sakura nods and flashes him an encouraging smile. "Not just when they're killed. If you concentrate, you can retain the memories of Shadow Clones, both physical and mental. It's why it was labelled a forbidden technique after the Nidaime – not only could one shinobi become a one-man army, he could also, if his control was good enough, master every jutsu in existence simply by having his clones practise while he slept."

Naruto's jaw seems to be hanging by his knees. "I could- I could do that? Would you teach me?"

At that, Sakura can't resist the urge to ruffle his hair.

"Why do you think I'm here, hm?" she asks and the smile he shoots her is so heartbreakingly hopeful, Sakura's carefully-constructed walls and barriers she'd built around herself shudder.

Then, she lets go and steps back. "Right. Two clones this time. And listen well."

Haku is sitting alone on one of the furthest training grounds from the centre of Konohagakure, one which, bizarrely, has a river passing straight through the middle of it. The vapour in the air comforts him, even if only by the cold certainty that he could freeze the water particles at will and likely kill or at the very least stun anyone who tries to sneak up on him.

He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, willing the vicious hyper-vigilance boiling beneath his skin down.

He'd nearly stabbed a senbon into his teammate's eye when she squealed in the middle of the street at the start of the week, her eyes drawn to some trinket in one of the store windows. He'd shot a baleful glare at his temporary sensei, unimpressed at the lack of professionalism, even if his teammates are barely teens and have never been out of the Village before. Ao had at least had the sense to dismiss him without a word, and Haku had found himself here.

The only place in Konohagakure where he could ignore the fact that he felt more comfortable with being a mass-murderer's right-hand man than being with people his own age.

He breathes in again, then freezes when his senses catch another chakra signature in the trees.

"Who's there?" he demands icily, getting to his feet in a flash, chakra already permeating the air and gathering at the tips of his fingers, ready to shoot off his ice senbon at the slightest provocation.

"I'm sorry." A voice, a familiar voice, calls out from the trees, and a moment later, a familiar boy appears on the other side of the river. "I did not mean to disturb you, but I was running by and you seemed...agitated."

"Sai-kun." Haku greets on a sigh, finally letting the tense breath he'd out and feeling a wave of not-quite-relief, but definitely not the unease he'd have felt had it been anyone else.

"It's nice to see you again." Sai murmurs, and though it sounds like a platitude, Haku senses that Sai actually means the words, and he almost smiles.

Then, he realises what Sai has just said, that Sai is his opponent in the final round, that, for all that the other boy had killed Gato and Haku had been so grateful he'd impulsively kissed him on that damn bridge, they're not friends. They're barely acquaintances, yet here he is, dropping his guard around some boy-!

"I'm not here to spy on you, or report on you or anything like that." Sai assures, apparently noticing Haku's inner turmoil and pinning down the reason for it with alarming accuracy. "But I meant what I said - you looked agitated. Are you alright?"

-and Haku feels his suspicion and ire melt away and his shoulders sag, and Sai is suddenly beside him, catching his elbow when his knees buckle.

"Haku?" Sai asks, and the placement of his hand on Haku's elbow reminds Haku of the last time they were in a similar position and he huffs an incredulous laugh, though it's short-lived.

Sai tugs gently on his arm then slowly lowers them both down to the ground so they sit opposite each other, legs crossed, and his hand falls away the moment he seems sure that Haku isn't going to keel over, and Haku finds that a part of him misses the touch as soon as it's gone.

"Are you alright?" Sai repeats, then falls silent, giving Haku a moment to compose himself, and he keeps his hands on his crossed knees, palms up, clearly in Haku's line of sight, which speaks either of his instincts with career shinobi or Haku's apparent jumpiness.

To lie, or not to lie?

He studies Sai, and just like in the clearing where they first met, Sai studies him right back, though he's more obvious about it this time, a tiny smile quirking the corners of his lips when their eyes meet.

Not to.

"In the last ten years," Haku begins slowly, dropping the eye-contact and staring instead at the river next to them, "I've spent every day by Zabuza's side. When we separated - hunting bounties, losing tails, raiding towns for food and supplies - it was never for this long, nor was there ever this much distance between us."

Haku flicks his gaze back to Sai's face, wondering what he's going to find upon having admitted to feeling separation anxiety from an A-Ranked jounin, ex-missing-nin, and one of the Seven, at that, but he doesn't see even a hint of judgement on Sai's face.

"Your unease is understandable." Sai says instead, inclining his head. "I don't do well when separated from my siblings, either."

And Haku can do little but smile, feeling the last of the tension from earlier drain from his muscles.

"Now, not that I am not happy to see you, but we are meant to be fighting each other in the final round." Haku points out, his voice teasing though his curiosity (suspicion) is genuine.

"I don't much care for the promotion." Sai explains easily, offering a shrug at Haku's momentary surprise. "And you likely saw most of my fighting style already, plus I all-but told you how my technique works when I gave you that scroll to write to me."

Sai's eyes flash to him then, gaze sharper than his words would imply, and Haku reads the question in them and winces guiltily.

Why didn't you write?

He deflects instead of answering, because answering would reveal far too many of his issues for what is only, despite how much it doesn't feel like it, their third ever conversation.

"You're far too trusting, Sai-kun." he sighs, smiling wryly when Sai raises an eyebrow at him as if to say 'you're here with me, aren't you?' which is a very polite way to call out Haku's hypocrisy, all things considered.

"It's okay." Sai explains, pulling Haku from his thoughts, and he watches as the artist offers a mirror of his wry smile and a half-shrug. "I'm not going to be using that technique anyway. It's far too...distinctive."

Sai touches his wrist then, and Haku almost doesn't feel the pulse of chakra the other boy lets out. Almost.

He's on-guard in an instant, ice needles crystallizing from the air and falling into his hands with barely a thought, though to the uninitiated, it likely looks like sleight-of-hand with regular senbon.

But all that happens is a tiny, cartoon-like snake that uncoils itself from around Sai's wrist, and falls onto the beaten dirt between them. The placement of the drawing had been like a bracelet or a tattoo, which is why Haku hadn't noticed it earlier.

Silence falls between them, broken only by the quiet hiss of the snake whenever it flicks its tongue.

Haku decides to take a gamble.

"I...also have an ability I would prefer not to use." he says, not looking at Sai, and concentrates, one hand flickering through the seals and the other waving absently between them.

A small ice-mirror appears out of the air when he's done, no bigger than Haku's hand, and Sai's eyes widen when he notices that it's not made of glass but ice.

"Ice-Release?" he breathes, gaze flicking between Haku and the mirror. "You're a Yuki?"

Haku startles, meeting Sai's wide eyes with no small degree of shock.

He hasn't heard his Clan's name in a decade, those in Kiri having either forgotten it or too ashamed to speak it. Not to mention that Sai isn't even from Kiri, and he recognised the technique on sight.

Then, as Haku's marvelling at the boy in front of him, Sai's awe is wiped away, and he gifts Haku with a gentle smile.

"I won't tell a soul." he swears, and Haku can once again tell that he means every word. Then Sai's smile gains an amused edge as he adds; "Though I wouldn't be surprised if aneue already knows. She knows everything."

"She told you what to expect from your opponent in the Preliminaries." Haku recalls, and this time, it's Sai who startles, eyeing him sharply, causing Haku to laugh quietly. "I can recognise Morse code, Sai-kun. Though seeing it used through touch was interesting."

Sai shrugs, a helpless 'what can you do' smile on his face that makes him look boyish and carefree, and his hand falls to Haku's mirror as if unable to help himself, fingers fluttering over the edges of the ice construct with unbridled curiosity and not a hint of fear.

Haku's breath catches.

"Are there any skills you wouldn't mind showcasing?" Sai asks after a few seconds of silence, his expression contemplative, though it's offset by the glint of mischief hiding in his eyes.

"My speed and marksmanship, I suppose." Haku allows slowly, withdrawing his chakra from his ice-mirror when Sai's done with his exploration and letting the water seep into the ground between them, watching idly as Sai does the same with his snake, a black, inky stain appearing on the ground as the snake dissolves.

"Excellent, we're in agreement." At Haku's questioning look, Sai elaborates. "I also possess those skills. And..."

Sai's grin turns a touch feral.

"As it happens, I have been duping my comrades and the Academy sensei as to my real level of skill for the last three and a half years." he confesses. "How do you feel about helping me extend this prank to the whole Village?"

Haku can't help himself - he laughs.

The first week goes by quickly.

Sakura dumps all the books and scrolls on chakra theory and history she'd picked up from the library, as well as some dictionaries and kanji guides, into the arms of one indignant clone, and sets the other on the daunting task of sparring with each other while water-walking.

She puts the real Naruto through a nicer version of ANBU physical aptitude tests.

In other (Kakashi's) words: boot camp.

In her timeline, Naruto had the endurance of his Uzumaki heritage, and the recovery rate granted by his foxy tenant, but even when he'd come back from his travels with Jiraiya, his taijutsu had still been appalling.

After living in ROOT, training with Shin and Shisui, and being on a team with Kakashi, Sakura can simply not let that happen again.

She makes him run around the clearing, do push-ups, sit-ups, squats, hundreds of kicks, punches, dodges and twists and feints and jumps, until his shirt is soaked through with sweat and he hardly has the energy left to glare at her.

Every twenty minutes, she lets him have a break and goes over to the clone tasked with studying, giving it a minute to run around and drop the books, ask questions and complain, before she quizzes it on the content of the scrolls and sets it back to work with a smile and a few encouraging words.

She has a theory, and within that week, it's proven right.

Suddenly, the reason Naruto struggled in the Academy, struggled with basic concepts and always took so long to learn things by conventional means is obvious.

Uzumaki Naruto has ADHD.

Sakura feels like slapping her old self. How could she have missed that? Did her brain just go on a vacation every time she was around the blond after he returned from his travels?

But she doesn't let herself dwell on the past, and instead, makes sure she doesn't let the previous timeline repeat itself.

And every evening, when Sakura calls an end to the practice and drags Naruto's limp, exhausted form to her and Sai's flat, cooks him a balanced meal and quizzes him over what he absorbed from his clones, she reaps the benefits of the allowances she makes when planning his training regimen – he aces every quiz.

When the clones can fight on water just as easily as on the ground, she sets them on katas practice and pulls Naruto over to the river.

"You have all of your clone's memories, so we're going to up the difficulty level." She encourages, hopping lightly onto the surface of the water and turning to face him, expectant, until he joins her. "You'll be fighting me."

Naruto sputters, shocked, but then she's on him, at barely half her usual speed but still more than enough to throw him off, to challenge and discomfit. Naruto dodges, adjusts, and seems to realise she's not actually aiming to hurt him, just wants to test him, and he obediently starts fighting back.

The second week passes like that.

In the third week, Sakura has Naruto make first one, then two, three, five clones, and he adjusts the chakra instinctively now, controlling it in a way she knows he hadn't been before.

"You're Wind and Water natured." She says, and throws a scroll each at two of the five clones standing before her. "Dispel the other three, and let those two start studying the theory for the jutsu I want you to learn." She orders, and Naruto follows without hesitation.

Two weeks into their training, Naruto's chakra control is better than what it had been during the war.

Sakura gestures at him to sit down, and settles down a few feet away, legs crossed and facing the blond.

She smiles wryly.

"I know you are probably wondering why I haven't taught you any jutsu up until now." She says, and Naruto's guilty wince tells her all she needs to know. Sakura waves him off with a laugh. "The reason is simple – I could either teach you one or two jutsu over this month we have, or I could work on your basics, and make jutsu learning ten times easier for you from here on out."

Naruto's eyes widen.

"Chakra control is the foundation of elemental manipulation, and any and all techniques which require chakra. Because of your… unique circumstances, your Academy career was less helpful for your development than it's normally supposed to be." Naruto looks away at that, embarrassed and visibly upset, but Sakura flings a senbon at his hitai-ate, startling the teen enough to meet her gaze.

"That was not your fault." She insists, holding Naruto's eyes until he nods hesitantly. "If I didn't know that it would get me locked up, I'd throttle the Sandaime for letting it happen."

And Naruto must see the truth of the statement in her eyes, because he laughs, startled, his eyes glassier than usual.

"But right now, Naruto, your chakra control is better than Sasuke's." she tells him simply, and sees the moment her words register.

"You mean-!? I could match him now?!" he exclaims, ecstatic and disbelieving at once.

Sakura smiles. "You're still slower and your throwing accuracy needs a bit more work, but in terms of jutsu learning, you can easily match, if not beat him."

Naruto looks like she just told him he's going to be inaugurated as Godaime tomorrow.

"Which brings me on to what I want to concentrate on for the second half of our month together." Sakura starts, and she knows she's wading into dangerous waters now, but she can't resist, not when she knows what's coming for them, or how much his victory over Neji meant to Naruto.

"Your clones are both working on two elementary Wind ninjutsu which should help you in long-distance combat." She continues, and sees the moment Naruto forces himself to concentrate on what she's telling him. "You, however, are going to be doing something slightly different."

Sakura reaches into her bag and pulls out a pack of balloons and one filled with water she'd brought already. She smiles.

"Tell me, Naruto," she chucks him the water balloon, "what do you know about the Yondaime?"

Jiraiya watches his godson scowl, Kushina's expression painted on a face that's almost a mirror-image of Minato's, and wonders how Hatake deals with the ghosts reflected in the boy.

"Nuh-uh, no way! I'm not goin' nowhere with you, mister! I've got a-!"

"Naruto."

The voice that cuts the blond off is quiet, soft, yet it commands attention at once, and Jiraiya twists, glancing over his shoulder and doing a double-take at what he finds.

"Sensei!" Naruto cheers, bounding over to the girl's side, his earlier annoyance forgotten. "This creepy old dude was trying to get me to go with him somewhere! Tell him to shove it!"

Jiraiya inwardly despairs, but can't help but arch an eyebrow when the girl casts him an assessing glance, emerald eyes flat and betraying nothing, then digs a hand into her pocket, pulling out a small, nondescript wallet.

"Go buy us lunch, please. High protein, low sodium. You can pick a dessert, as well." she instructs, managing a smile for his godson as she holds the money out to him, waiting until he takes it with an embarrassed flush.

"But sensei, I can pay for my-!" a single look from the girl cuts him off, and, to Jiraiya's surprise, he subsides with a grumble, turning in the direction of the nearby food store, but not before sticking his tongue at Jiraiya over his shoulder.

"That's a tight leash you've got the boy on." He observes, glancing away from his godson to the mysterious newcomer once Naruto disappears from sight. "And I notice you didn't correct his jab about me being 'creepy'."

The girl levels him with a look, the earlier smile gone yet her expression somehow still perfectly polite, though Jiraiya feels ill-at-ease.

"You are loitering outside an onsen, asking a young boy about his personal details and telling him to come with you somewhere. To most people, his assessment would be accurate." She announces, and the matter-of-fact tone would normally make Jiraiya splutter, but he grasps onto the words with an assessing look of his own.

"I take it you are not most people, then?" he asks, and lets his eyes take in the odd girl.

She doesn't look like much: short, pink hair, intelligent green eyes, and a fairly nondescript outfit. The most interesting part is that her hands and forearms covered by black, finger-less gloves, and instead of the standard ninja sandals, she wears heavy boots laced up to mid-calf.

The most disconcerting thing is how young she looks.

Then, she arches a brow.

"We are talking civilly, no?" she demands, a hint of ice in her voice now. "If I thought you were a threat to Naruto's well-being, this conversation wouldn't be happening."

Oh-ho-ho! How intriguing. Her tone lets Jiraiya know that she means every word.

"How refreshingly direct!" he cheers, the glee not entirely faked. "But you might want to tell him about his Village's history. I offered to teach him some techniques, and he turned me down."

While she is doubtless young, there's a certain look in her eyes that makes Jiraiya feel like he's dealing with an old soul. And he has no doubt she knows exactly who he is, which should be enough for her to understand why Naruto doing what he did was wrong.

Instead, she quirks a half-smile, eyebrow still firmly raised.

"I would hazard that it was more due to the fact that he already has a teacher than any slight to you, personally." she points out, bland as butter, and Jiraiya doesn't bother masking his surprise.

"He does? But Hatake is training the Uchiha." he says, and the smile turns wry, and, if Jiraiya is not mistaken, mocking.

"Mm. Yet another reason I didn't correct Naruto's... assumption about your character." she replies, a propos nothing, and Jiraiya has to think for a moment to realise what she's referring to. "Who his sensei is training matters little. The fact of the matter is that I was entrusted with Naruto's training, and I will see it fulfilled."

"You?" Jiraiya demands before he can stop himself, giving the girl a critical once-over. "Don't take it personally, but I am a Sannin. I could teach the boy more than you can dream of."

Instead of offence, what he finds in those flat eyes is annoyance.

"Naruto has flashy techniques aplenty in his arsenal already." she informs him, and it's far sharper than her previous words. "What he needs is control. In that respect, I believe I am better suited to his needs."

Then, she pauses, and her eyes narrow, pinning Jiraiya with an unimpressed glare.

"Besides, you already abandoned him once. I am not running the risk of that happening again."

Jiraiya freezes.

"Apparently," he begins, once he finds his voice, and his earlier good humour is gone, a seriousness even he can acknowledge is uncharacteristic for him taking its place, "it's not just the blond brat that needs to learn a little respect."

The girl snorts derisively.

"I respect those who earn my respect." she tells him sharply, her glare not easing in the least, and Jiraiya has not been on the receiving end of such a look from a complete stranger for three decades.

"Listen, girl," he snaps, losing patience, "I was protecting Konoha decades before you were even born. Dial down that attitude and learn your history."

"I know my history perfectly well." she shoots back, and the earlier ire is gone, and that bland expression is back, only her eyes are still mocking him, and it's a look Jiraiya hasn't had directed at him since Orochimaru. "And if we were talking shortly after the Second War, you'd have had my respect. As it is, the man who stands before me isn't the shinobi who fought Hanzo the Salamander. He isn't even a member of the best combat unit the Village had ever seen."

Her eyes sweep over him, and the mocking expression is almost sad for just a moment, then she meets his gaze and shakes her head.

"A title alone holds no weight if it isn't upheld."

She could've slapped him, and it'd have shaken Jiraiya less than her words. He stands there, gaping, her words reverberating in his head, cutting deeper than any blade, but the girl isn't done. Those empty emerald eyes have pinned him down, and her voice is bland but cutting, aimed to hurt, as she muses:

"It's not like the great Sannin even defeated Hanzo, is it? He let you live. And suddenly, it was like you got your title, and instead of improving your skills further, you got good at running away. You saw what following orders at wartime can do to innocent bystanders and you ran away. You couldn't keep your only student alive so you bailed, even knowing that he'd awarded you the honour of being his new-born son's godfather. Where were you during the Third War, Jiraiya-sama?" she asks, but she doesn't even give him a second to try and formulate an answer before she continues.

"I'm surprised, you know. I'd have thought that Naruto would fit the profile of the type of students you seem to take on to a T." when he tenses, her eyes seem to sparkle, but there's no joy in the expression. Instead, she pretends to take his shock as lack of understanding and widens her eyes, adopting a guileless, innocent expression.

"You know, what with him being orphaned, ostracized, with a lofty goal and a bucketload of natural talent that requires little more than a guiding hand and somebody to believe in him...But I guess I was wrong." She shrugs then, the motion the cherry on top of a cake of disrespect, the conclusion to the performance she just gave.

Jiraiya straightens, looming over this slip of a girl, and when he speaks next, his voice is low, dangerous. Demanding. "What do you know?"

To his continued surprise, the mask cracks and the girl smirks.

"Ask your sensei, oh great Jiraiya-sama, about what rose from the ashes of burning roots when Shimura fell." She croons, just as quiet as him, not appearing in the least intimidated by his appearance. "You'll have your answer then. And stay the hell away from Naruto. You do not deserve the honour of being a part of his life."

"I can give him a link to his family." Jiraiya points out, because that was partly why he came back in the first place when sensei called him. "I can teach him his father's techniques."

The girl's mocking expression doesn't fade, and it raises even more alarm bells that she seems to know exactly who and what he's talking about. She shouldn't know this, not when she doesn't seem all that much older than his godson, and yet-!

"I've been Hatake Kakashi's direct subordinate for the last four years." She says, a propos nothing, then turns away, and Jiraiya belatedly realises that Naruto has exited the shop, a heavy-looking brown paper bag in his arm.

The fact that she's had her back to the shop the whole time, yet senses Naruto before Jiraiya sees him tells him she's been far more on-edge during their conversation than her countenance would've led him to believe.

She shoots him a look over her shoulder, meeting his eyes with a sardonic smile, and adds, "At this point, so can I."

Then, she takes two more steps, reaches Naruto, and lays a hand on his shoulder. With no hand seals, no smoke, nor even the barest rustle of leaves, they disappear without a trace.

Jiraiya blinks, wipes away the scowl on his face, and heads for the Hokage's office.

Naruto whoops excitedly as he spots Kiba and Shikamaru on the edges of the Nara forest and doesn't quite race to them, but certainly picks up his pace.

Sakura-sensei gave him the morning off, and he can feel himself radiating with excitement at being able to catch up with the other Rookies, even if one of them is Kiba.

Sensei had been…weird after the white-haired guy. She felt wrong; cold and empty, even more closed-off than usual, and her voice had sounded…hollow. She seemed to snap out of it after a few hours, seeing him off to his apartment with a smile and a pat on the shoulder and the promise of a half-day instead of their usual gruelling ten hours training.

He bites back a grin when Shikamaru sees him and rolls his eyes, and activates the technique Sakura-sensei had been teaching his clone.

Just because he's not officially training doesn't mean he shouldn't do anything. Particularly if it can result in a prank on Kiba.

Kiba had known that there was something not quite right with Team 7.

Sasuke had been a monumental jerk in the Academy, all vengeance and brooding and scowls for miles. Naruto had been the dead-last, always loud and annoying, even if some of his pranks had showed hints of genius. And Sai had made Kiba's hackles rise since the day he joined the Academy in Third Year, and the only way Kiba could really justify it was that there was something distinctly superficial to the boy. Then there was the fact that he paid even less attention in class than Shikamaru, always drawing or reading, yet always managed to have upper-average scores.

[There was one time that Kiba remembers, when he thought to cheat off Sai. The raven didn't seem like somebody who'd care about others copying his work, nor was he even deigning to address Kiba's blatant attempts at reading his paper. And Kiba– well. He saw an opportunity and he took it.

He remembers the question; your opponent is hidden in a tree. five metres above ground. Your task is to force them to come down. Calculate the quantity and trajectory of the kunai needed to accomplish your task. The crude illustration by the question added some more details, but what had struck Kiba more was Sai's answer: the boy had crossed the last sentence of the task out and wrote in the answer box; 'burn down the tree'.

Kiba remembers recoiling, startling Akamaru, and drawing Iruka's ire for 'disturbing exam conditions', but he hadn't been able to look at the boy quite the same way since.]

But now, something is different.

He's looking at Naruto chatting with Shikamaru, and for the first time since he's known him, the blond isn't wearing orange. He's in a surprisingly practical pair of brown pants and a green jacket with more pockets than Kiba would know what to do with, and there's something in his posture that's not sitting right with the Inuzuka.

Then, there are his teachers.

Hatake Kakashi had been someone Kiba had heard of, by virtue of being one of the few shinobi left in Konoha who could come close to understanding the Inuzuka's bond with their ninken, but the first time he'd met him, on that balcony in the Preliminaries, the man had reeked of blood and ozone and gore so badly Kiba had almost gagged. Yet he seemed unfazed, unruffled, and casually chatted and teased his team and a girl who Kiba later found out was his team's assistant sensei.

Because clearly, Team 7 wasn't weird enough already.

If Sai sets his teeth on edge, the girl is even worse. She triggers Kiba's fight-or-flight instinct like few other things he's ever encountered, save for maybe his mother's anger or Kuromaru's growl, and all his senses are screaming at him that what he's seeing is an apex predator.

Yet what he's actually seeing is a girl who is probably no more than a few months older than him, yet who's somehow a chunin, with enough renown to be an assistant sensei for Hatake Kakashi and have Uchiha Sasuke respect her.

Something is definitely not quite right with Team 7.

But it takes the girl's sudden appearance at the edge of the Nara Forest and a quiet call of 'Naruto', for Kiba to understand what.

Akamaru whines.

His mother twitches.

Shikamaru's dad doesn't quite jolt, but his hands drift together in a way that would've been casual, if his eyes hadn't immediately zeroed in on the newcomer.

The girl snuck up on two Clan Heads. She may be a chunin, but Kiba's mother is a jounin and the best tracker in Konoha, and Shikamaru's dad is the owner of the lands they're on.

She shouldn't have been able to do it.

"Sakura-sensei! I was just going to find you!" he says sheepishly, and Kiba is surprised by the almost fond look that crosses the girl's face.

"I'm sure you were." She acquiesces, then holds out a hand to stop Naruto when he moves to rise, heading instead towards the two adults at the table.

Kiba watches as she talks to his mother, her words oddly baffled, her back to the three of them so he can't see her expression, but his mother's and Shikamaru's father's faces are perfectly visible still, and Kiba doesn't like what he's seeing on them.

Then, after some two minutes, the girl turns around, her face perfectly bland, and beckons Naruto with an impatient wave. "Come on. Play time's over."

Naruto grumbles but obligingly waves to Shikamaru and grins at Kiba, but it's not until he jogs past Kiba that he realises what, exactly, is wrong.

He can't smell Naruto.

Even the bizarre stench of rage and death that always accompanies his chakra is gone.

Once his friend disappears from view, Kiba turns wide eyes on his mother. She, however, seems to be having a wordless conversation with Shikamaru's dad, that ends once she notices Kiba looking.

"So you noticed, huh?" she asks, and her nose wrinkles in a way Kiba has long learned to associate with 'bad news'.

"I couldn't smell Naruto." Kiba admits, and his mother just nods, like she expected that.

"Both he and the girl were scent-blocking." she tells him, and Kiba had guessed as much, but that doesn't change the fact that scent-blocking is a jounin-level skill.

From Naruto's piecemeal explanation, he'd gathered that their assistant sensei had joined the team a few weeks after their first C-Rank, so only about two months or so before the Chunin Exams, then Hatake had assigned her as Naruto's trainer for the second stage.

And Kiba knows that Naruto's not stupid despite what his test scores might've implied, and he can grudgingly admit that he'd gone into their Preliminary match overconfident and underestimating the blond, but.

But.

Naruto is wearing neutral colours. He's masking his chakra and his scent. He's listening to those around him instead of talking over everyone. That's growth, and at a rate that alarms Kiba more than he can reasonably explain.

"His sensei," he begins, hesitating, even though the words feel right, "she's not...normal, is she? Even for chunin?"

His mother looks at him, really looks, while Shikamaru and his dad seem to be having a silent conversation of their own.

"You might even have a better nose than Hana." is what his mother says at last and Kiba jolts, surprised at the observation and resists the urge to preen. "I can't tell you more because I don't know more myself."

"What did she say to you?" he asks instead, pushing down the sting of disappointment. "You looked..." like you were going to cry, he thinks, but doesn't say, though his mom must be able to read the words on his face because she bares her teeth, not quite a threat but also decidedly not a smile.

"Don't finish that sentence, brat." she warns him, but her voice wobbles tellingly and she pulls something out of her pocket and unwinds it carefully. "She gave me something I thought long lost."

Kiba squints, and he can just about make out a canine tooth wrapped in leather cord, like a makeshift necklace.

"I'll be having tea with her tomorrow." His mother tells him, a propos nothing. "If you think you can handle it, you can be there."

Team Seven's weirdness aside, the most concerning fact for Kiba is that, with barely a few murmured words, the girl had managed to bring his mother to the verge of tears, and her posture had never changed.

He's definitely coming for tea tomorrow.

The next day, Kiba stays at the Compound, playing with the puppies and helping Hana around the clinic until his mother calls him in to the house to help with the tea.

When there's a knock on the door, he stands at his mother's elbow when she goes to open the door and let their visitor in, and for the first time since he's known her, Team 7's sensei feels human.

Her face is still blank, but she's not scent-blocking, likely aware how rude that would be on the territory of a Clan of trackers, and Kiba can smell how nervous she is at the prospect of this meeting, even though externally, she just nods respectfully and steps into the house when invited, the very picture of calm.

Tsume leads them to the sitting room and settles on the sofa, and, when he doesn't get snarled at, Kiba perches uneasily beside her, while their guest takes the armchair on the other side of the coffee table.

They all studiously ignore the tea.

"Thank you for having me." the girl - Kiba's peer, and yet not, and that stings - murmurs, her voice quiet, posture demure, and it's not an act, Kiba realises with a jolt.

"Thank you for coming." His mother replies, unusually cordial, and barely two sentences in, things have already stopped making sense. "I didn't think you would."

Sakura(-sensei? -san?) smiles, but it's wry and humourless.

"You might want to hold off on thanking me until you ask all your questions, Tsume-sama." she advises, and despite the words sounding snide, there's nothing but honesty and a tinge of sadness in her scent.

Something in his mom's countenance softens almost imperceptibly at that, yet when she speaks, her voice betrays nothing.

"All I want to know, is how you came to have the tooth of the ninken of a Clan member I'd thought dead for over a decade." Tsume says simply, yet there's a weight behind the words that makes Kiba's hackles rise. "We looked everywhere. Got the Uchiha involved and everything. A Clan of trackers couldn't find her."

"You didn't look underground." is the response she gets, and Kiba wants to bristle, wants to defend, but there must've been some hidden meaning in the girl's words because his mother pales.

"No..." she breathes, eyes wide, and Kuromaru looks between his partner and the unknown chunin with the same confusion Kiba is feeling. Confusion that only grows when Kiba's mom manages a sharp "Who are you?"

Sakura closes her eyes for a second, and the expression on her face is so full of regret that something in Kiba aches, before she speaks.

"Tsume-sama...what I'm about to tell you is classified at the highest levels. Are you sure you want your son to...?" she trails off tactfully, and Tsume doesn't even glance at Kiba when she replies.

"If he babbles, I'll punish him myself." she promises coldly, and Kiba flinches, trying not to let himself show how betrayed he feels, then the girl's words fully register.

Classified at the highest levels.

He revaluates.

Sakura manages a small, surprised smile, though her scent gets even sadder, if possible.

"It's not my safety I'm worried about." she denies, and his mom snaps to attention.

"He stays." she announces simply. "Tell me everything."

The girl takes a deep, fortifying breath, and does.

"My name is Sakura. I am twelve years old. I am a chunin of Konohagakure and the assistant sensei of Team Seven." she begins, and even with that brief introduction, Kiba is floored. "And before that, I was part of Shimura Danzo's ROOT." she continues, and his mother freezes.

What's ROOT? Kiba wants to ask, because it sounds significant but he doesn't know, yet he's sure that his mother will flay him alive if he dares open his mouth.

Sakura must read the frustration on his face because she smiles slightly and answers the unspoken question.

"Shimura Danzo was the Sandaime's genin teammate and was on Konohagakure's Council of Elders for many years before he was...disgraced." she explains, and that gives Kiba some context but still no answer.

"He...didn't appreciate the 'nice Village' reputation Konoha had earned after the wars, so he started his own organisation. One he tasked with ensuring nobody thought to equate mercy with powerlessness. One that eliminated threats before they had a chance to become threats. It was like his own private ANBU, all above-board at the beginning, and he ran it for well on thirty years right under the Hokages' noses."

"Who did he hire?" Kiba asks, unable to stop himself despite his mother's warning growl. "If the Hokage didn't know about it, he couldn't have just used normal mission rota."

Sakura shrugs.

"People who'd strayed. Who'd grown disillusioned. Nameless, Clanless orphans. People nobody would miss should they never return." she replies, and Kiba's blood grows cold.

"He was a man who lived and breathed war. He thought peace was an illusion, a time for shinobi to grow lazy and undisciplined." she takes another deep breath. "He developed a conditioning program. Loyalty was expected. Disobedience was punished, harshly. There was never a true 'safety'. Defective tools were...discarded."

Sakura's voice is hollow, her scent a horrifying mix of sadangryviciousheartbroken, her eyes empty, and Kiba is frozen in fear at how easily the words pass her lips.

"You gained security if you were useful. If you wielded a unique jutsu or if you got on Shimura's personal guard rotation, or successfully infiltrated the Hokage's ANBU guard. There were also...tests."

Unconsciously, Kiba's hand seeks out his mother's for comfort, for support, for something to distract from the horror story of a life unfolding before them. Instead of flinching back or growling at him, Tsume squeezes back immediately.

"When you were first recruited, you were assigned a mask and a partner. Someone you were supposed to share a bunk with, train with, spend every moment not on missions with. It was meant to be your closest bond in the organisation, even if you would seldom see them without their mask." she pauses, closes her eyes, and seems to offer a silent prayer before she continues, eyes still closed. "And then, once you were ready to prove yourself, or Danzo decided that it was time to complete your conditioning, you would fight them. To the death."

Kiba whines.

Sakura doesn't seem to notice.

"By severing the only bond you were permitted to have, you would've voluntarily chosen the unfeeling blankness granted by the conditioning, just so you wouldn't break. That way, you could keep going, and Danzo gained perfect, emotionless shinobi, who'd stop at nothing to complete the missions assigned to them, because they had nothing to come back to."

She pauses, opens her eyes, and her next breath catches in her throat.

"That's how your clansman died." she finishes, her voice dull and her expression empty as she gazes at Tsume. "I killed her."

His mother's exhale stutters on a sob, then she lets go of Kiba's hand and rises to her feet, and Sakura flinches back but stays in place, eyes downcast, clearly expecting violence yet making herself just sit there and take it.

Kiba is too frozen to move, stuck in the same position as he was on the sofa, and that grants him the perfect view of the girl's face when his mother, instead of striking her as she so clearly expects, drops to her knees beside the armchair and envelops her in an embrace.

Sakura's eyes widen, her mouth drops open, and she seems so shocked at the simple gesture of kindness that Kiba wants to look away, but he can't.

He wishes, absently, that he'd left when he was given the opportunity.

"But you are not emotionless." His mom points out after a few seconds, letting go and returning to Kiba's side, and Kiba knows what she's referring to, even though Sakura seems surprised at the observation. "You feel, and you feel strongly."

"I... the conditioning didn't take properly with me." she admits, although it seems reluctant. "The final test works off the assumption that you have nothing, no-one else. But I did. I found a family in those dungeons. We kept each other sane, gave each other something more to think and care about than just surviving."

"Sai." Kiba breathes, and the epiphany hits him with all the subtlety of a thunderclap.

Shock colours Sakura's face, but she doesn't deny it.

"Yes." she agrees slowly, and Kiba feels something in him jolt. "You're right."

"He-" Kiba swallows, has to force the words out. "He was- there? With you?"

"He was." she admits.

"The pale kid." his mom realises. "On Hatake's team. Looks like an Uchiha?"

"That's him." Sakura nods.

Kiba's mom looks torn between regret and concern.

"They let an ex-ROOT join the Academy?" she asks, and Kiba doesn't think he imagines the protective tone in her voice.

Head of their Clan she may be, but she's his mother first. If anything, Sakura just looks vindictively satisfied at the question.

"It was my price for information." she tells Tsume, her voice hard, the demure mien sharpening for a moment, and that must mean something more to his mom than it does to Kiba, because she freezes.

"You weren't just in ROOT, were you?" she asks slowly, as if weighing every word, her eyes narrow and thoughtful and concerned and disbelieving all at once. "You brought it down."

There's a moment where Kiba thinks Sakura's going to deny it. There's a moment he hopes she'll deny it.

But Sakura's face smooths out save for the frown that seems to be permanently etched on her young face.

"Less than ten people know about that part, Tsume-sama." she warns, concern for Tsume, for Kiba, when her gaze flickers to him, clear in her eyes. "Be careful who you tell."

The warning doesn't sit right with Kiba. Creepy guy Danzo-what's-his-face was dead, wasn't he? Why the secrecy? Why the distrust?

Then, his eyes catch the rapid-fire movements of Sakura's fingers of the hand she had resting on her lap, and a quick glance at his mom confirms that she'd noticed it before him.

The dawning expression of horror on his mother's face doesn't fill him with any confidence, however. When he looks back at Sakura's hands, her fingers are still, and her frown has smoothed out into a small, worried smile.

"Of course." his mom manages, her voice hoarse, before she clears her throat and tries again. "Of course we'll be careful."

Sakura nods, and then, clearly taking that as a dismissal, gets to her feet.

"Wait-!" Tsume calls, also rising. She makes her way around the coffee table, stopping inches away from the girl, and smiles weakly. "My Compound and my house are open to you and your family whenever you want. Thank you for bringing a piece of my kin back to me."

And Kiba watches as his mother reaches out, slowly, so as not to spook, like she does with the feral ninken, giving the girl enough time to back away should she want to, and draws Sakura to her chest, holding the girl close.

Kiba keeps his eyes on the girl, because her face screws up and she squeezes her eyes shut, though she doesn't cry. She stands perfectly still for a few seconds, then, slowly, almost as if she's not sure she's allowed, she wraps her arms around Tsume's waist and fists the back of her shirt, burying her face in Tsume's shoulder.

She doesn't cry; her breathing stays deep and even, and Kiba can't smell her tears – but he can smell the wave of sadness and grief that crashes into her like a tsunami, and he wonders how she manages to keep it hidden.

Then he realises that he'd rather not know.

At six days until the final stage, Naruto has almost managed to keep the Rasengan going for a solid three seconds, Sakura's seen Inosuke about a dozen times since her impromptu nap at his office, Sai is out of the house more often than he's in, and Shin is splitting his time between his kenjutsu apprenticeship and helping out Kakashi with Sasuke's training.

It's probably why Sakura doesn't think much of it when neither of her brothers come back home for the night.

Around three in the morning, there's the sound of frantic knocking on her bedroom window, and Sakura snaps awake, getting to her feet, kunai in her hand before she's consciously aware of reaching for it.

Yugao's on the outside windowsill, looking like she'd ran all the way to Sakura's place, face drawn, eyes visibly red-rimmed even from afar, and tear-tracks glistening on her cheeks.

Sakura feels her stomach drop and rushes to push the window open, but Yugao doesn't make a single move to get in, merely panting out four words Sakura had hoped never to hear again.

"Shin's in the hospital."