"O'Great one with thy radiant brilliance, bless this land with honey and wine. Turn five into avatars of thy munificence"
- The Book of Log
C18: Wave After Wave (Pt.5)
Sasuke opened his eyes for the first time since the battle on the bridge. Laying underneath the quilt, he poked his head out to see his room bathed in an orange glow. Comforting on the eyes, he opened them all the way and looked around. The exit door was opposite him, to his right was a wall against which sat his blond teammate, while on his left were both the large windows and the last member of his team.
Naruto was sat on a bed-high stool to his right, eyes closed. He looked frozen in time; his posture unmoving. Leaning over the stool, his right elbow placed on his left thigh, holding the weight of his chin on the back of his right hand. The other arm hugging his left leg. He looked deep in thought, exactly what the Uchiha felt he looked like when he too, was thinking deeply about anything.
Sakura sat slumped on a chair, more relaxed than the blond. Her eyes too were closed as she laid her arms crossed over the side of the bed and put her head on top. The Uchiha noted how much more relaxed she look, the tanuki-looking eye shadow now gone. She had definitely been sleeping enough, he happily thought to himself.
As he slowly crawled back underneath the cover, back to the nice warmth, his mind wandered to the last few memories he had.
I could have seriously died.
He recalled feeling like a pincer cushion and shuddered.
I am weak... too weak to help anyone.
He remembered quickly thinking about how to use his reverse fireball to defeat his opponent.
That did work, although it really only turned out okay because Naruto was there. He helped me really.
He tried going back to sleep, rotating on his bed, struggling to figure out if he wanted his head on the pillow or the pillow on his head.
They both also told me I was becoming a crazy sadist. A sadist? Torture is not cool. I wasn't torturing those animals, was I?
He'd realised that the position he'd picked was worse than his old one, so he tried moving about again.
Well at least, not deliberately. Next time I'll first kill them before cooking them.
Sasuke now felt that he'd somehow managed to take off the bedsheet and wrap it around his legs which made it even harder to go back to sleep.
Mother cooks lobsters though, and she cooks them alive. Is she a sadist?
The Uchiha was starting to realise that it was going to be pretty impossible to go back to sleep, now that he'd moved and his mind had no interest in pausing the thought barrage. After trying to delay the inevitable for a few minutes, he got up. Noticing how both of them looked fast asleep, he sneakily crept downstairs with nary a sound.
As Sasuke walked towards the kitchen, he noted that Tazuna-san, the little kid and Kakashi-sensei were all sitting around the dining table and chatting between themselves.
He picked up an apple from the fruit bowl and started eating it as he waited for the three to finish their conversation.
"How're you feeling Sasuke?" asked Kakashi-sensei, looking exactly the same as always. Jounin jacket, headband over his eyes, face mask. Sasuke was pretty sure the man had OCD since he'd never seen a single crease mark on his clothes.
The Uchiha shrugged as he finished chewing.
"I'm alright," He looked at Kakashi-sensei, noting that the other two had left without saying a word which was kind of suspicious, "How long have I been out?"
"It's been about a week."
"Cool."
After a few moments, his brain processed what the man had just said.
"A week?" He exclaimed, taking a step back in shock.
"Yeah, it's the sixth of April now. You woke up right on time, since we were actually planning on heading back today."
Sasuke's head was reeling. He couldn't believe how much time he'd been knocked out for. If his injuries were that serious, he'd definitely had died if he'd been on his own. No buts.
"The bridge is already complete?" he asked.
"Yes, a horde of bandits and Gato tried to stop us but Naruto and I dealt with them while Sakura evacuated the bridge."
The Uchiha felt ashamed as he heard about what his teammates had accomplished while he was out.
Kakashi-sensei noted the emotions clearly etched on his students face thoughtfully as he seemed to grapple with the reality of what had occurred. He knew exactly what to do and leaned forwards, looking a bit serious, "However something's come up which we were actually hoping you'd be able to solve."
Sasuke could feel his pulse quicken. Something about the man's posture, the shift from a slouch to a hyper-alert killer, made his heart beat in his chest. What could have happened that only he could solve?
"Naruto and Sakura aren't talking to each other anymore."
The Uchiha felt nauseous. The beating sped up as his head spun scenario after scenario of increasingly more crazy reasons for why that was the case. He'd just woken up and he already wanted to go back to bed.
"They work alright," The Hatake eye-frowned at him, "They helped build the bridge, but straight after, they both just come back and avoid each other"
Sasuke breathed.
This is fine
If they were working together, it meant that they could still be professional. He remembered Nii-san talking about how professionalism was a key part of being a ninja. Without it, they were just thugs for hire.
It was one of the first things to go in an irreparable relationship.
"Sakura comes and spends time with Tsunami-san, which is fine of course. But Naruto just sits down next to you without moving until the next day. Sakura joins him at night, but deliberately avoids even looking at him."
Sasuke sighed in relief. As long as his team was safe, nothing really mattered. It seemed like something had come between them to ruin their friendship and well, as a good friend, it looked like he'd need to go and talk.
They needed to be happy too.
If they could handle being in the same room, he could get them to talk.
"Do you know anything about what happened?" He asked, intensifying his focus on the man in front of him.
I need all the facts before I go in
"Not much," Kakashi-sensei eye smiled approvingly, "Naruto has no idea why Sakura's angry with him. He's waiting for her to approach him since he doesn't want to anger her any further by in his words 'engaging in direct contact' and she has made it quite clear that I can do nothing to help and so, will not tell me anything either."
The Uchiha mulled over this.
He knew that neither of his teammates were accustomed to random bursts of sulking. That was his job. They had the emotional range of a teaspoon. This meant that Naruto must have done something. Deliberately or not. Probably not, but knowing him, if this was something which had a logical justification, then it probably was deliberate. Whatever it was, it was enough to make her seriously angry. He knew that she wouldn't stay angry unless it was something serious. Which made this more difficult. Naruto got strangely attached to really stupid things, but Sakura had never really been angry before. Sure, she had bursts of anger over when they did stupid things.
But this sounded different.
Of course, I wake up to this…
He felt like face-palming at the current predicament as his mind tried approaching this like one of his detective games.
It looks like I am definitely irreplaceable. Off the battlefield at least.
He needed a banana for the journey.
"Okay, I'll go talk to them." He muttered as he decided to just grab a bunch instead of the lone one which was sitting tantalisingly at the edge of the fruit basket.
Kakashi waved him goodbye, "We'll be having a proper breakfast in not too long, so try not to eat all of them."
Sasuke now felt the sudden urge to eat all of them.
If I do, I'll only have Kakashi-sensei to blame
The Uchiha walked into the room and noticed the blond was looking at him from the same position he'd left him in.
It was kinda creepy.
But he was used to it.
All those sleepovers with the group had more or less forced him to come to terms with strange disjointed body movements.
Shino still gave him nightmares.
"Good morning, Sasuke, how're you feeling?"
The blond got up and walked towards him, his orange trousers and short-sleeved sleeping shirt sticking to him despite the sudden gust of wind. It was an old design he used to wear when they were kids, with the Konoha crest emblazoned proudly on the front in red.
"Alright," He looked at him, "Want a banana?"
He raised the bunch in front of him.
"Thank you."
He took a banana and started eating it.
Sasuke looked at his female compatriot and motioned to wake her up. He was quite used to doing this from the D-rank missions they'd been forced to do.
"Wake up" he whispered in her ear. He also gently poked her shoulders.
The Uchiha had quickly learnt that anything more earned him a black eye and her going back to sleep for an extra fifteen minutes.
Sakura's green eyes fluttered open. As she looked at who woke her up, she gave a small smile.
"You both genuinely look like parents waiting for their sick kid to wake up."
Sasuke chuckled at his own joke. He blamed Nii-san for that. His brother was amazing, but his humour was completely shot.
Naruto looked at Sakura, who determinedly looked away from him causing him to look dejectedly at her and then back towards him.
This was pretty awkward.
Sasuke could tell that even the blond knew that, which was a miracle in and of itself.
It looked like the situation was pretty bad and he'd need to nudge them quite heavily into a conversation.
"Soooo-," He looked at the both of them who were now looking at him directly in the eyes. Blues and greens meeting his dark eyes. It was a lot of pressure seeing them looking at him with such intensity, however it was also kinda nice. They both rarely gave another human being this much attention, which made him feel guilty for being a little happy as well despite the circumstances, "What happened while I was out?"
Naruto clearly looked like he was waiting for the Haruno to go first. After a few moments, she started after giving the blond a furtive glance.
"Well, we just helped build the bridge really. I helped Tsunami-san with some of the logistics behind the opening ceremony which was interesting and made a few contacts with the locals," She looked like she was really trying to continue speaking to prevent the blond from doing so, "That should help a lot with my puppetry since the people we found were quite good. Also, I managed to repair Ume which was nice. Got some more theoretical work sorted out for some of my other puppets with Tsunami-san."
She looked like she was about to stop, but then continued speaking, "Oh and also, I managed to practice fine carving with the bridge workers as they wanted to tighten everything up and were happy to show me how to do some Wave-specific designs and techniques. They also gave me a book from a master woodworker who seemed to have also been a shinobi which was also really cool cause it has a lot of different designs. I think that I can actually do quite a bit with the work and it has given me some ideas for improving Ume, too."
Sasuke could tell that she was completely done with speaking and looked like she'd even manage to shock herself with how much she'd just spoken to them. It was becoming increasingly obvious that this was going to be very very difficult to fix, if she'd really just pushed herself to speak this much for so long.
He did have to hear Naruto's side though. So, as much as she didn't want to hear him, it had to be done.
"And what about you, Naruto?"
He nodded, "I helped with the bridge and spent the rest of my time in contemplation. Nothing else really."
Sasuke looked at the both of them, not sure what to do.
Maybe he'd assumed too much responsibility from Kakashi-sensei.
He had no idea why he thought he could do it. He could barely stay alive in a fight, forget this.
I'm useless and-
His internal monologue was interrupted by the blond.
"I'm sorry. I sincerely apologise for being useless. I thought I could handle this problem I've been having on my own. My emotions got the better of me, I've never felt negative emotions before and because of that, it clouded my judgement." He paused. It was clear to the Uchiha that there was something different about him these last couple of weeks. He hadn't quite put a finger on it. Those negative emotions he'd noticed were out of character for him, and this explains why, "I was unable to save you Sasuke and criticised you just before you got knocked out, and I was also unable to help you Sakura. I also put sensei in danger. I will just restate that I sincerely apologise for what I've done or said during the course of the battle. Can you please forgive me?"
Sasuke just shook his head, "No worries, man. Just let us know before any other surprises come up."
He glanced at Sakura who looked askance. Sasuke decided to take a leaf out of the blond's book and just be straight forward.
"Yo, what's up? Why're you just ignoring him, did something happen?"
"It's hard to forget his eyes." she said after a few moments.
Sasuke was confused. He looked at Naruto and saw that his blue eyes were really confused. It didn't look abnormal.
"My eyes?"
There was a long pause. A really long pause.
He knew he had to leave it be.
This pause had to exist. They needed Sakura to talk and if she didn't do it willingly, there was nothing they could do.
A few minutes passed and it was all silent.
"I'm useless," she finally uttered.
"No, you're not." responded the blond almost immediately.
"Yeah, sure." She looked at him like as if she was actively restraining herself from clobbering him, "You don't believe that."
"It's true though, as evidenced by-"
She interrupted him swiftly, "Just before I collapsed. You were the last person I saw and you know what was running through your head before you caught me."
The Uzumaki looked worried but didn't dare say anything.
"I saw your eyes," She glared at him and spat with venom that Sasuke had no idea she was capable of, "Your eyes looked just like mum's."
There was a pause, even longer this time than the previous gap. Sasuke was impressed with how Naruto had grown up to the point that he'd started to recognise when to stop talking.
"Every day, she is always disappointed. Every time, she looks at me with disgust, knowing that I can't live up to expectations. Her expectations."
Sasuke was not expecting this and had no idea what to do. This was much worse than he thought. He saw that she was about to blow up in like three seconds. Until Naruto decided to speak.
"As already mentioned, my emotions clouded my judgement and-"
He was cut off by her, "Just shut up. Your emotions, I couldn't give a log's bark about it." Sakura her face harshening as she spoke, "Your apologies won't change the look you gave me. You should have better control over yourself, it shouldn't have come out if it was really just the split-second thought, you're making it sound like. You're a liar."
The Uchiha looked at her. She was angry. Angrier than he had ever seen her. A dark cloud hung over her, threatening to burst asunder. It was quite clear that this had been building up over the week. If he'd been there to nip it in the bud at the start, things may have been okay, but this was out of his control.
He turned to look at the blond and a penny dropped in his stomach.
Sasuke saw his eyes narrowed.
He'd never seen Naruto's eyes narrowed before in his life.
He was angry.
This was the first time he'd ever seen him angry.
His brain scattered as he felt his pulse race. It scared him. He wanted to hide. Anger didn't suit his face. His optimistic, happy and calm blond was replaced by this.
Whatever this was.
His eyes turned into slits which really freaked out Sasuke.
Like really really made him scared, he was sure he saw red for a second.
But then exactly as that second passed, he felt his heart relax again and his mind calm down. The blond's eyes after a blink, looked completely normal.
I must have imagined it
"You have no idea what life has been like for me." The blond almost growled out. Sasuke noticed Sakura looked shocked and somewhat shaken as well, "I've literally never had negative emotions before. You can't even imagine what that feels like. No one can. You have no right to tell me what I should or shouldn't feel. No one does. And no one ever will do."
Sasuke noticed his male compatriot stand up and so too did Sakura.
This was getting more and more intense by the second. Both Naruto and Sakura were fuming. Why were his two teammates so unnecessarily dramatic and scary? Why did he have to be best friends with these two crazy people?
"I am not a liar. Don't call me that. It is something actually deep and it hurts coming from you."
Sakura looked at him, her hands already in fists ready to fight. The Uchiha could see a battle playing out in her eyes as she actively strained against her urges. Her green eyes furious but also thoughtful. He wasn't quite sure how she managed to pull it off. It looked like perhaps, her brain was working through everything that had been said.
A few moments later, she relaxed her fists and sat down. The blond did likewise.
The pause this time was double both of the previous ones combined. Sasuke felt like the momentum of the conversation had completely died and so, was just about to speak, before Sakura began to talk.
"I can't imagine not having emotions." She looked down at her lap, "I know I'm not as good at expressing my emotions like Ino or Sasuke, but I've always felt them. Inside. Whenever she says that I'm stupid for becoming a ninja. That I'll never be one. I'll never be accepted because of my civilian heritage. That I'll never be able to compare or compete cause you guys will always be just too strong-"
"You saved us with your puppet, Ume I'm guessing when taking into context what you said earlier, and evacuated a ton of people."
Sakura looked at him straight in the face for the first time since the incident. Her eyes looked distraught, "None of that would be worth it if I died."
Naruto looked like he had shrunk into his seat.
"I was literally unable to move. So pathetic." She paused, "Seeing you looking at me like that, just confirmed it. I just felt worse."
She looked at the two of them.
"If I wasn't this tired, I probably wouldn't be telling you all this straight up. I'm not like Naruto with no filter. Really though, I've also had enough. If I'm with you guys, I can't keep it all in."
Sakura chuckled, "It's super creepy how open I'm with…with you guys. Like Ino has been my friend for ages, but I've never told her straight when I had issues with her."
There was a lull in the conversation, only a few moments though. It was interrupted by a humph from Sakura.
"I remember when I said that I wanted to help prevent others from being traumatised by violence. I claimed that I could stop violence…" She stared off into the distance, "I can't even stop myself from being traumatised, forget others."
The Haruno tightened her hand into a fist as she spoke, "I need power. Otherwise," She looked at Naruto first and then squarely into the Uchiha's onyx eyes, "Otherwise, everything I wish for will just be a dream."
Sasuke wasn't expecting this to become this deep, but to be fair, Sakura rarely spoke fluff.
"Remain a dream. Everyone's eyes are just dead here. The thing they're missing is hope. They see nothing but their next meal and have to struggle just to live. The children. The grownups,"
Sakura's hands were trembling as she spoke.
"I want to inspire people and being pathetic and useless is," Her eyes looked almost tearful, "The… the furthest away from that."
Sasuke had enough. He didn't want to hear her continue like this. He was the useless person in this room. These guys were heroes who helped fix the bridge while he quite literally passed out for days.
"You saved us." He looked at her straight in the eyes, "Get that through your thick skull."
He stood back and looked at the both of them, "Seriously, by Izanami, I swear you two are thicker than fruit bats. I don't care if neither of you have the power to do everything."
He looked at Naruto, "You managed to not get beaten up by Haku and stayed awake."
The blond looked away like as if he was battling an internal struggle on whether to respond or not.
Sakura looked at the blond with some emotion Sasuke couldn't quite tell and started to speak, "You beat Haku and managed to back up Sensei to defeat the entire horde of bandits and those white-haired weirdos. Don't pretend like you did nothing. All I did was evacuate the bridge."
Sasuke felt shocked, but also not surprised at hearing what his fellow friend had done. He was always the one holding him back.
Now isn't the time to mope
He looked at the pinkette and quickly started speaking, "Bruh, seriously. You saved us. You evacuated the entire bridge. That's pretty awesome. Having to sort out and manage more than a dozen people and protect them is not easy. If even one of them had died, we'd have failed our mission."
Sakura looked away and muttered, "No it wouldn't have. We just had to make sure the bridge was completed." Although it didn't sound like she believed one word of it.
"I'm quite certain that we are all on the same page on this one. If even one person had died, it would have been on us." Naruto began to speak, "You are skilled. Not everyone needs to be shooting out fireballs or water dragons to be useful. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone has unique skills whether they recognise it or not. You have to play to your strengths and you have been. Surely, there is nothing to be ashamed of in that. My success was just a fluke, you actually did everything deliberately and on your own."
There was a pause.
"I'm not even a real field medic. I've just got some skills, that's about it."
"How much skill?" Sasuke asked, "No one expects you to do everything man. Seriously, that'd be unfair. I barely expect blondie over there to be able to stumble through a conversation without triggering someone." He took a deep breath and continued, feeling that perhaps this little bit of observation might finally convince her, "I can tell that you've been tired. You were barely able to keep your eyes open this entire mission and when I woke up, I could see how much sleep you'd finally managed to get."
He smiled.
"You don't look like a tanuki anymore, that's one. You forced yourself to be there that day, for good reason. If you were healthy and fully rested, I know you'd have completely and utterly smashed it."
Naruto just nodded helpfully in the background when Sakura's eyes wandered in his direction.
She, for her part, wasn't quite sure how to respond.
Sasuke honestly loved them both. They were just priceless.
"If anyone here is useless, it's me."
He stopped them from speaking.
"No. I literally almost died and was knocked out for long enough for you guys to finish off the bridge. There is quite possibly no way either of you can top that."
The blond looked at him with concern, "You're the only reason we survived long enough for Sakura to save us."
Sasuke could agree to that.
He hadn't realised how much his friends hated themselves. This much self-roasting was not healthy.
"Yeah, true that. Buuut, I can't keep relying on you and Nii-san for everything. You both are too good, but I've gotta become independent."
He looked at them both and realised his legs hurt from standing for so long. Having just woken up from what was basically a coma did wonders for his muscles.
He sat down and they followed suite.
He leaned forwards and spoke, "Look guys. I've thought a lot since I woke up about what I need to do to do better. Positive framing as you keep on telling me Naruto. And I've figured it out."
He leant back, "You guys and my family are all the really matter to me. I really couldn't care if the rest of the village burnt."
Naruto and Sakura looked horrified. If he was being honest, he'd realised this some time ago and only added their final teammate to the list recently. It felt nice finally being able to say this out loud. He knew this was something he could never tell his family. They wouldn't get it and probably take it the wrong way.
"I'm just being honest. The people in my life matter more, they're the only reason I do anything. I know you two are different, big brain thinkers. You'd do what is best for everyone. The greater good. I completely respect that and in fact, if everyone was as selfish as me, we'd probs all still be living in the warring period right now." He looked at his friends and wasn't quite sure what kind of face the blond was making. It was like his brain was melting and trying to solidify after hearing what he'd just said. Sakura was just watching him speak and nodding. Slowly. Carefully. As if she was considering each word and approving of them. He really liked that about her.
The Uchiha hmphed.
"Right now, I'm not strong enough. I need to figure out a way of being able to support and be a source of strength for everyone so that I can stop being a burden."
No one said anything after he stopped speaking. He breathed.
He felt better. Much better. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulder.
The birds were chirping outside as the wind assailed each branch. He saw a leaf float into the room and land onto his lap.
He was glad that he had friend who were better than him. But also, not perfect. They all brought something to the team. He was happy that at least, emotionally, he was there for them.
"Now both of you apologise to each other. Neither of you considered how the other person would respond to your actions."
They both complied without much fanfare, however he did notice Sakura look away as she said it.
"Now shake on it." He gave them the leaf.
"Shake with this in your hands."
Naruto was confused.
"It's like our village." Sasuke wasn't quite sure where he was going with this, "Groups only work if they can communicate. Our village is just a big group?"
Sakura looked at him and had to stop herself from laughing at the way he finished his sentence and scrunched up his face, unsure if he made any sense.
"That's an acceptable reason," said the Uzumaki, "It makes this handshake stronger and more meaningful if we consider the historical context of what handshakes mean. It is a sign of unity and brotherhood. Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama both shook hands and posed for a drawing to represent the ending of feuds and hatred between the two clans."
He looked at the leaf he'd taken from Sasuke's outstretched hand.
"I'm an Uzumaki which is related to the Senju clan, so I fit the bit about Shodaime. But you?"
He looked thoughtful as he observed Sakura, "How do you represent the man who is reputed to be the most familiar with the Sharingan? A man who was reported to know deep secrets that dive into the very essence of why his clan existed, what the Sharingan itself is?"
Sasuke looked at Sakura. Who looked at him. And then they looked at Naruto.
"Bro, it's not that deep."
"It's just a handshake."
"It is though!"
"Just take my hand, please. End my suffering. I can't hear any more of this."
Sasuke could barely stop himself from laughing.
The blond obliged and calmly shook the Haruno's hand. Although hers was stiff at first, she slowly eased into it.
"I'm sorry," She looked at the blond straight in the eye for the first time since the incident, "I didn't know.".
"It's okay," He looked at her and smiled, "I can't expect you to know if I don't say anything. We both need to work on our people's skills." He turned to look at the Uchiha, "Sasuke is just too good."
Sasuke just laughed. And continued laughing. He couldn't hold back anymore. All his emotions, all the things he said.
It all just came out like this. He could see his teammates smiling.
"Maybe we all need a mini-Sasuke following us around and give us advice," The blond started off saying it jokingly until the Uchiha could tell that it turned almost thoughtful.
"You guys would get bored of me real quick if I made chibi clones of myself to follow you around."
Sakura laughed trying to imagine that.
There was a calm and relaxingly long pause. Naruto looked pensive. Sakura was doing some stretches. He was happy that things worked out.
Kakashi-sensei opened the door and walked in, "Hey my cute little genins, Tsunami-san's made a brilliant breakfast spread for us before we head off to pay our respects to the fallen and then back to Konoha."
He noticed that none of them were moving.
"She wanted me to say that there's a secret tomato dish which she's made just for you," He looked at Sasuke who was already out the door the moment 'to' was uttered.
The sun had reached its zenith, the hot glare scorching the earth and causing a thin mist to envelop their surroundings. Her team had already gone ahead as they were going to be late and she insisted. Naruto had moped a lot, but Sasuke dragged him to the memorial. The boy didn't even know where it was.
Inner Sakura chuckled as her focus returned to the conversation in front of her. Tsunami-san was being really insistent. There was no way on earth she could accept her gifts. This was too nice... and insane.
"Sakura-chan, I'm serious," Tsunami's light brown eyes looked with warmth at the girl in front of her, "You've saved this village. Everyone loves you for it."
Sakura almost unconsciously began to shake her head in disagreement.
"No, don't do that," Tsunami held her shoulder, "Seriously, I know I was bad when I was young with taking compliments, but you are something else."
The challenge that Sakura was facing at this current moment in time was not one which she particularly liked. Tsunami-san had singled her out from everyone else when she was trying to blend into the background to sort her thoughts after the whole debacle in the morning.
She needed time to think. This wasn't helping.
"You're like the daughter I've never had."
The Haruno strongly felt like she was in one of those trashy novels her mother left lying around that were absolutely horrific and no one in their right mind would want to trudge through so much cliché garbage.
Like why does it take Haori thirty-six, THIRTY-SIX books! To figure out that she was actually worthy of being the Empress of the Elemental Continents?
Tsunami just shook her head and waited for the girl to come around.
Sakura shook her head. She knew that not enough sleep would make her this distracted. But maybe too much sleep also had the same effect?
She needed to focus on the task in front of her. The woman who insisted on giving her a handwritten book on woodblock printing – this was a jealously guarded secret amongst woodcarvers— along with her very own woodblock. Woodblocks were carved in such a way that when ink was applied, it could be used to stamp the image elsewhere. Her own Woodblock had such a beautiful design of the waves that it made her feel nostalgic for the beach side home she'd never had. People would kill to own something like this.
The Land of Water were renowned for having not only created this technique, but for having the most skilled artisans in it. Wave was their strange estranged cousin who instead of using the woodblocks for amazing works of art that were multitone, made repeating patterns. Motifs to emblazon on the sides of their ships and cargo which Gato had now made mainstream in the shipping industry.
"I don't know why you're making this such a big deal, it's just my writing on my experience of woodblock carving and art," Tsunami was starting to look a bit tired of this back and forth, "My son has no interest in this and you can actually go and take this to places I never could."
Her eyes shone as she continued speaking, "The weeks you've been here, I can tell. Your heart comes alive as you work with a blade," She looked at her and just pushed the bound manuscript and block into her hands, "This is the right thing to do. You've heard my story, I've heard yours. How can I just let you go away from here empty-handed?"
Sakura nodded.
Tsunami-san had insisted and insisted that she take her book. It wasn't complete and she'd only started writing a few years back after her husband passed away to help distract her. She told Sakura how she was the most promising woodcarver in Wave until Gato came and got rid of everything that made life worth living for her. But now, as she'd come to know from spending time with her the past week in the daylight hours before she sat with the rest of her team around Sasuke, the brunette in front of her had big plans for the arts industry in Wave.
She felt like perhaps this was being disrespectful now. It was such a meaningful thing to do. Maybe she should just say thank you.
"I'll cherish this forever and make you proud."
Not that enthusiastically!
"See that you do!" Tsunami turned around, her hair flicking behind her so dramatically, it made Sakura want to grow out her hair. For a split second only though, medium length hair worked just fine. "I'm sure Inari and Pappa are wondering where I've gotten too."
Sakura smiled as she saw their hostess re-enter the house. These last few weeks were like as if she got stuck in rapids, travelling so fast she could barely keep her focus. The people in the land of Wave were so nice and helped her so much. She had no idea how to thank them for all this, maybe someday in the future she'd come back.
Lost in thought, she walked and walked. Her legs carrying her all the way to where she needed to go. The smell of salt threading its way confirmed it for her.
Reaching the memorial site took her breath away.
She loved the scenery they'd picked for it.
A small cliff face overlooking the shimmering sea. The sun's rays were slowly making their way across the water towards the two grave markers, lighting up the ocean as they crept out from behind the fluffy clouds. The dim glow gave a subtle accent lighting to Zabuza's sword and Haku's mask which were half buried at the site.
By they, she meant herself. Sensei and Naruto for all their skills, were completely inept at basic design principles. Sakura remembered that after she picked the location, the discussion turned towards which type of burial practice to use. She didn't really know too much about such things and so, just ignored them in favour of making sure that the grave plaques with their names on were perfect rectangles and that the angle would be just perfect for the sun.
Right now, though, as she approached the rest of her team, she heard Naruto half-way through what she was pretty sure was a monologue. He was standing over Haku's grave, the earth marking the site just starting to settle and grow into a beautiful garden of petunias courtesy of the blond who had handpicked the best bunch from Tsunami-san's Garden.
The Haruno had finally joined her team at the precise moment Naruto stabbed himself in the hand with a kunai and dripped his blood over the graves.
"I promise that I will work towards stopping this endless cycle of war and hatred with the end goal of establishing peace and order throughout the Elemental Continents."
She saw him throw the kunai into the ocean and squeeze a fist full of blood over Zabuza's grave.
"It may very well be impossible, but it needs to be done. Your village should support you. A child shouldn't have to murder his friends nor should someone be killed just for being different. It's a betrayal of everything Hidden Villages stand for."
He looked at Haku's grave for a few minutes as the last drops dripped down touching the plaque.
The sunlight reflected off the now bloodied grave markers making it look like a fresh burial. It looked eerie but it also had a certain type of beauty which the Haruno couldn't quite explain. Like as if, despite them having passed on, visiting the grave gave them a sense of vitality. Kept them alive in their minds and reminded them of all the change that had happened.
Her eyes lowered as she looked at the blond who seemed to have a rogue tear dripping off his cheek.
She hadn't realised how much this had affected him.
Sakura wasn't expecting this, but at the same time, it also didn't surprise her. These last few weeks felt like years. So much had happened. So much had changed.
This mission feels way too long, I really just want to go to bed now and sleep till next week
Sasuke yawned almost as if in agreement with her thoughts while Sensei grabbed the blond's hand and scolded him for using a rusty kunai to make blood promises. Her mind helpfully told her that he might get tetanus and should get one of those new-fangled vaccines that were recently discovered in Iron Country. They were all the rage in the medical field these days.
She told her thoughts to shove itself and it said no.
Bruh
Sakura's eyes widened as she realised that she was starting to sound like the Uchiha.
"This is taking forever Naruto, stop arguing and let's go home." wearily sighed Sasuke as he grabbed Naruto and started dragging him away in the wrong direction.
R&R (Suggestions and advice are always welcome!)