The first time that Sakumo saw her, he didn´t realize that she was Mebuki's daughter. Or even the second time. It didn´t hit him for months who her mother was.
But then again Sakumo hadn´t talked with his sister-in-law since his dear wife passed away.
He owned that woman a lot, for all those years ago. Menuki and Mebuki were twins born and raised in a brothel. He had met Menuki while she was out buying food and her sweet smile had swept him off his feet. Mebuki had unlike her sister little care for the poor and had been saving all her money to buy herself free.
Menuki had instead used quite a bit of hers to help the kids on the street get food and shelter. Mebuki had a strong personality, with a sister-complex and a need to protect Menuki, Sakumo had upon meeting her for the first time, had the thought that it was a shame she never joined the ranks, she would have thrived in T&I.
He remembers not caring that they were from the red district, or that they were both working as prostitutes. He remembers the first time he had met the hardworking man, Kizashi, with bad puns and jokes. He had a smile that made Sakumo think, that Minato might not keep his title as sunshine, with the way Kizashi lit up the room.
To this day he had no idea how two people so different fit so well together. He had softened her rough edges in some way. So, when the time came and he asked for Mebuki blessing to merry Menuki, she had agreed after informing him how she would kill him, should he make Menuki cry.
He later found out that as long as she was under the thumb of the brothel, they couldn´t get married.
The day Menuki got pregnant he had been overjoyed. The only problem had that she still belonged to the brothel and any child of hers would as well. If that wasn´t bad enough, Menuki got easily sick due to the pregnancy. Mebuki had come through for them in a way he had never expected. She bought Menuki´s freedom instead of her own. Neither of them ever got a chance to thank her for the sacrifice she had made that day.
He had never tried to keep in contact with the fanciest blond he had ever met. It wasn´t until the family dinner at the Uchiha clan, that he had noted the way her green eyes narrowed as she sneered at Sasuke-kun that the thought hit him, so this is what their daughter would look like. Frankly, he felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.
He still hadn´t talked to his niece, and wasn´t that just crazy? For the last couple of months. Sakura was much like her mother, both reminding him of feral animals. He knew it was only his own coward behaver that was to blame. He knew he needed to get his shit together soon.
Sakura hated what today stood for, it was bound to be horrible since her mother passed away. She could still remember that day. It was time to visit that horrible place once more.
The winter was one of the coldest winters that Konoha had had in years. The freezer and heater hadn´t worked for years now, and she had only cold water. Her mother was asleep in the only bed they had right now, far too thin, but so had her dad been when he was still alive. He had passed the last winter, and no hospital would take in anyone from the red district. She didn´t have enough money to pay the bill and help her mother. Now her mother´s breathing was becoming shallow too, just like dads had, and Sakura had the feeling she wouldn´t make it till tonight.
When next morning came and her mother had stopped breathing, she just stood there looking down at her blond hair the was sticking to her face, her hollow cheeks, blue cracked lips, and dark bags under her eyes. Sakura couldn´t help but angrily wonder, how the Hokage could just ignore the problems that were the red district, weren´t they also his people? Or did that luxury only extend to those born in the right place?
What right did he have to decide who was worthy or not? She wanted to hit something, scream at the world for this injustice, they had been good people dame it! She wanted to cry, her body shaking with frustrating energy that was just waiting to come out to lash out at the next person she saw. Grinding her teethes she turned around hiding her chakra and ran out the apartment, hoping to outrun this life.
By the time she had stopped, her legs were shaking and suddenly stopped supporting her. Sakura culled in on herself scraping at her arms until they bleed.
She ran until her legs gave out from the apartment, not able to handle the memories that it brought forth. She couldn´t run anymore, collapsing where she stood. She had never done something so irrelevant, so irresponsible before in her life. Her body was shaking and the tears began to fall before she could anything about it. By the time her tears had stopped her body almost didn´t shake anymore, her eyes were red and puffy hurt to blink.
Now she just felt empty inside again like the year before. Looking at the sky, though the threes, she couldn´t help but wonder if anyone would be out looking for her. She didn´t have anyone left, maybe her team would note her absence.
Since the failed team dinner 5 months ago, the air between her and Sasuke had been even tenser than before.
Naruto seemed even more torn on how to act around her now that he knew she was an orphan, that it was just downright awkward. Itachi-sensei had a new tendency to hover over her and while she knew he meant well, it was beginning to become irritating.
The only one she seemed to get along with anymore was Kakashi. He didn´t treat much differently than before he was just far more willing to work together with her. Sakura had given him a puppy earlier today, that she had found and believed the puppy to be a nin dog, as a Christmas gift this year.
He had begun to bring a pug to training a month before, and she had thought that a pack might do better. The silver-haired kid had tenderly taken the puppy this morning and called him Bull. Sakura was pretty sure they were friends now, kind of, maybe, ish? He had hugged her. He would be the first one in years to do that. Since living in the red district wasn´t a place to make friends or it could get you killed. Closing her eyes once more she simply laid there breathing.
Sakumo was surprised when his otherwise stoic son had come home asking to borrow his pack, frantically. He didn´t know that Kakashi and Sakura had become friends? Sakura was missing since she hadn´t shown for training this late morning, Itachi was on ANBU-business and Genma was in charge, the poor snot.
That was how Sakumo, Genma, and tree kids were heading into the red district to find her home. He had little interest in looking around too much, the people leading on walls, dried blood, the smell of vomit, sex, rotten bodies, and garbage was hurting his poor head. His pack seemed to be just as unhappy to be here as him. He made sure to keep all the kids close.
When they finally stood outside her door in one of the worst parts of the red district, on wood that could break under their weigh the door stood open. He left the teen outside with the kids and walked into the apartment. The thought that someone could live here was horrifying. He passed by a small chine made for a man and a woman that he remembers and felt grief hit him so hard, it knocked the air out of his lungs.
The place was in no way form or shape a space for any human to live. When he finally made it into the place that was most likely the bedroom, he wanted to turn around and flee. Sakumo could smell the sickness and death on the bed where the bones and decayed body laid. He had a pretty good guess on whom that body belonged to. It stung his sensitive nose and made his eyes water.
Shaking his head, he went outside to the boys, asked Genma to take the boys home. Promising Kakashi that he would find her, before following her scent again.
He didn´t get very far, just outside the forest of death, when he was joined by the Hokage, apparently, the kids hadn´t listened to what he had said and went inside anyway, they probably saw their first dead body. It wasn´t a surprise that they had gone to the Hokage for it, he just hoped they had kept the Uchiha clan out of it. Police force or not, Sakumo knew that the red district followed their own set of laws, they especially wouldn´t listen to someone with a fancy badge.
"Ah, Minato-sama what can I do for you?" He asked not bothering with his manners. He had a young kid niecefamiliepack to find if Minato wanted something he could talk and walk at the same time.
"Naruto told me of her apartment, so I went there and made arrangements for her mother to be removed," The blond said grimly, the knowledge that the apartment properly left a sour taste in his mouth. The red district was always a very sore sport for all the Hokages and Minato felt no different than them on that account.
But the only way to even begin to take it apart would be with an inside man. The Hokage had a bigger chance of being adored by Kumo-nin than getting someone for that job. The people from there were all jaded, aggressive, mistrustful, feral, paranoid creatures, that would kill each other just to live for another day.
There was only one thing that would make them unify, and that was when the rest of Konoha tried to get involved in their business. They were even so good at it, that they made the ANBU run around like headless chickens. It was embarrassing, to say the least.
Properly why he had placed Sakura on his son´s team, to have an excuse to get close to her and for a bond that would make her more inclined to help him in the future. The girl seemed quite aware of that and kept her distance from the blond man.
The fact that Minato had send someone to the apartment when she wasn´t even home, didn´t help his case. Well, they should begin to prepare for the retaliation they would get. Frankly, Sakumo didn´t understand what the connection between Sakura and Minato seemed to be. To be honest, he didn´t care, what he did care about, was the effect it seemed to have on Sakura, and not in a good way. She was from the red district, and they protected their own against people like the Hokage. He just hoped it wouldn´t turn into a civil war.