Title: Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?
Chapter: 3 – Peach
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 5,082
Summary: AU. The night before they're assigned to Genin teams, Sakura wakes up with Ino in her mind—and she can't leave.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 3 of ? Unbeta'd.

"I think she's taking a shower," Chouji says thoughtfully, tilting his head towards the wall that the bathroom adjoins. "Maybe she'll be in a better mood after that."

They room they're in is another bedroom, this one larger with two beds, two desks, two closets (though the closet is really just one big one with two doors). There are no windows in this room so despite it being the middle of the day, they have the lights on. Chouji is sitting on the floor with his back against one bed. Shikamaru is sprawled out on the other.

"Who cares?" he says.

"Ino will," Chouji says, since it's the truest thing he can think of to say right then. He's not certain he cares about Haruno's moods right now either. "And we are going to have to put up with her for the foreseeable future."

That's also the truth.

It's not a particularly exciting one or one that he likes but no one has asked him to like it. No one's asked him anything at all about this whole situation. He'd gone from helping his parents prep things for tomorrow's breakfast to being swept away in a tremendous wave of rage and grief that he'd instinctively known wasn't his but was through the alliance-bonds. Grief travelled. Someone was dead.

His dad had rumbled, "More than your hitae-ite, Chouji, that you feel that means you're an adult of the Clan," while his younger brothers had stared wide-eyed and confused.

His mom had nodded grimly, wiping her hands off on an apron, as an older cousin came running into the back room. "I'll watch the children," the cousin had said, and that had been that. The minutes after had gone by in a swirl of organized drills that Chouji recognized but had never done for real while feeling the alliance-bond like a second skin. Always before, he'd been like his brothers, herded away with the other kids, to be put into protective custody in safe rooms that no floor plan showed. There they'd wait anxiously until it was deemed safe enough for them to come out and discover what had happened.

Sometimes they'd never been told what had happened.

This time, though, Chouji had been expected to stick close by his father, and he'd done so, hardly noticing the few raised eyebrows he had garnered with his hitae-ite so new it still shone. Traversing the village and keeping up with his Dad had taken most of his concentration, to the point that when they'd arrived at the Yamanaka greenhouses, his stomach had dropped with surprised dread.

He'd looked up at his dad, whose serious expression had made him feel sick—his dad had been grim already but, with where they were, he'd gone grimmer than Chouji had ever seen him—and then Shikaku-san and Shikamaru had arrived and Chouji had gotten to watch his own dawning horror be replicated on his best friend's face.

Ino had told them where she'd planned to be that evening. It should have been safe enough for her to do so. Only someone of the three clans even knew where the Yamanaka greenhouses were, let alone had access to them. She was protected both by Yamanaka jutsu-wards and Nara forest-wards while working in the greenhouses. Her father had been nearby. She should have been safe.

She hadn't been.

Chouji will never forget the way she'd looked, lying on the ground, with her blue eyes sightless. He doesn't think that Shikamaru will either.

Shikamaru makes a grumbling noise in the back of his throat and Chouji drops it for now. They sit in silence, each thinking their own thoughts, until the water from Haruno's shower stops.

"Do you think she's going to start yelling again?" Shikamaru asks abruptly.

"I think…," Chouji hesitates a little, but at a glance from Shikamaru, he shrugs and says, "I think she had a point. If it wasn't for her, Ino really would be…"

He trails off and, after a moment, decides to skip the rest of that sentence.

"All of this sucks," he settles on. "But we got lucky. Ino got lucky."

"Some luck," Shikamaru mutters half-heartedly.

He knows, as Chouji does, that it could be so much worse. This is weird and awkward and complicated but Ino is still here and that's something to be glad about.

"Maybe just… try not to make Haruno out to be the problem," Chouji advised. "You remember what your mom said, right?"

"About how if she gets too over-emotional Ino could die?" Shikamaru's gaze slides back over to look at the ceiling. "We're doomed anyway. Haruno's an over-dramatic hosebeast. You've seen her at school. It would be easier if they just yanked her out of her body and let Ino take it over."

"Ino loves her," Chouji points out, though he's sure that that possibility is under discussion right now—especially among the Yamanaka Clan. "Killing Haruno so Ino had a body back would devastate Ino and it wouldn't give her a Yamanaka body back either. Besides, Ino knows her better than we do. There's got to be something about her that's worth the effort to get along with her. And, if we don't get along with her, how do you think we're going to be able to talk to Ino right now? If Haruno doesn't want to be around us, then… Ino goes where she goes."

Shikamaru huffs something that's almost a laugh. Chouji's glad to hear it. "That's going to drive Ino up the wall."

That makes Chouji laugh. "Now picture their squabbles," he suggests. "Neither of them can flounce away from the other."

He very much doesn't understand Ino and Haruno's friendship but Ino is absolutely adamant that they are, and have remained, best friends, no matter how much they've gone from going everywhere and doing everything at school together to shrieking, competing, and trading catty insults at every chance they get, and Chouji believes her even though he doesn't understand it.

Girls, he's pretty sure, are just weird in general.

There's no denying that Haruno is able to be Ino's host, though, and while he didn't understand most of what the adults had said last night—especially since the Yamanaka cousins tended to slide in and out of speaking verbally and excluding him from their mental conversation; he suspects they didn't want to further upset him and Shikamaru—but he had followed enough to know that, if Haruno hadn't loved Ino as much as Ino loved her…

Then the miracle that Ino had pulled off wouldn't have been able to happen.

For better or for worse, no matter how little he understands it, Haruno has already proven herself as Ino's best friend in a way no one in the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka Clans can deny.

Maybe Haruno had been right, though her words had been like knives to his raw feelings. Maybe they should just be grateful. They didn't know what it was like for her, to have had her world abruptly turned upside down.

And she was a civilian—well, having passed the first part of the graduation exam, she could probably be considered as a first-generation shinobi now-but, he mused, it must be awfully confusing to be dropped into a place where everyone knew what the lines were, where they were, why they were there and didn't even have to think about it, even leaving out the whole 'sharing a body and mind with her best friend'.

"Ryo for your thoughts?" Shikamaru asks.

Chouji smiles slightly. "I was just thinking that I wouldn't want to share my head with you."

Shikamaru's expression is conflicted enough at that—horror and offense both—that it makes Chouji laugh helplessly.

"No offense," he adds, just because he knows that will make Shikamaru grunt and it does. "Come on," he says, getting up. "We should check and see if Ino's up yet."

Shikamaru eyes him. "You know what Mom said—"

Before going in to see Haruno, Nara Yoshino had torn a strip off of them, up one side and down the other, finishing with, in tones sheathed in ice: "I know this isn't what either of you expected from graduation and I understand you're grieving for Ino-chan, but you cannot be setting Haruno-chan off like that. She needs to be kept calm and the Yamanaka don't know yet what triggers her secondary personality layer. If that activates, Ino-chan is likely dead. The Yamanaka don't think there's room in Haruno's head for three personalities. You are putting Ino-chan's life in danger by riling Haruno-san up. I know it's not fair. I know that. I don't care. If Ino-chan gets ejected from Haruno-chan's body because you two can't be civil then Ino-chan's death will be on your heads."

Chouji had been crying before Haruno had slammed the door on them all but, after that, Shikamaru had cried as well. He'd pretended not to notice, as Shikamaru had pretended for him, but they both knew it.

"I can be civil," Chouji says mildly. "And both you and Ino have said I'm calming to be around."

"Well, yes—" Shikamaru looks disgruntled.

"Maybe you can play Shougi or Go with her," Chouji suggests. "You wouldn't be likely to upset her while doing that."

With a tilt of his head, Shikamaru considers that. "Do you think she can play?"

"If she doesn't, you can teach her. She's book smart, she should be able to pick it up pretty fast." Chouji says reasonably. "And the concentrated focus on a game like either of those should keep her on a pretty even keel, which also helps Ino out too."

"I'll see if I can find a board," Shikamaru says, rolling off his bed. "And—I'll let you do the talking until we see if she's going to go off on us again."

Chouji doesn't point out that she'd only gone off on them because of Shikamaru. He hadn't even had a chance to say hello to her before Shikamaru had upset her. He doesn't point it out because Shikamaru's his best friend and sometimes you just have to let that sort of thing go.

For another, he's pretty sure Haruno would have gone off on them soon enough anyway. She'd been fit to be tied and that she'd snapped at the first provocation was… not particularly surprising, given everything.

"Alright," he agrees. "It's a plan."

Sakura's shower is the most spiteful shower she's ever taken and, by the time she's done, she feels much better. Even if she has to put on the exact same clothes she'd been wearing before her shower. She assumes they're going to give her more clothes at some point but at this point she doesn't even dare to hope that she'll have some say in what those clothes will look like. Once she's back in… her bedroom… she supposes, since that's what it seems to be right now, however barren it is, Sakura spends a good while sitting in front of the vanity and brushing her hair out with one hundred strokes on each side while she eyes her reflection speculatively and wonders if they'll let her pick what hair colour she'll have if she can't keep her own.

She'd rather keep her own but Yoshino-san had been right in pointing out that her pink hair stands out rather a lot in the sea of black, reddish browns, and blondes.

Black would make the most sense, she decides, though it's not a colour she wants. We're on Nara territory and I can't pass as an Akimichi and they just had one blonde assassinated.

Given Yoshino-san mentioning that they want her to blend in should someone come back to finish the job, she can see why they wouldn't want to dye her hair blonde. She was even in Ino's class. Ino's taller than she is but…

Sakura frowns a little, trying to picture herself with Ino's brilliant blonde hair. It would suit her eyes, she decides. She's less sure it would suit the rest of her. Her frown deepens a little.

Her eyes?

Maybe they will dye her hair blonde. It's not a far trip from green to blue, when it comes to eyes. Nara tend to have dark eyes and the Akimichi tend to lean towards various shades ranging from amber to hazel to a deep, chocolate brown.

Or maybe they'll make her wear contacts. Or… or… some jutsu? But, no, if they'd wanted a jutsu to hide her then they wouldn't dye her hair, right?

Sakura sighs.

A knock on the door startles her. She drops the hairbrush and has to scramble after it, calling as she does, "Come in! It's not locked!"

She hadn't seen the point, after Yoshino-san had opened the door while it had been. Though she had promised herself that later she'd figure out how to get past the locks on these doors. It was just good practice, really, right?

For now, though, it's actually… really nice after the last day to have someone knock on her door. Sakura doubts she's allowed to shout 'go away!' anyway but the illusion of things being normal and her privacy being respected is just… very appreciated.

It's less appreciated when Chouji, followed by Shikamaru, enter her room.

Ugh.

Maybe she should've shouted 'go away'. It might still not have helped anything but she would've felt better.

Chouji tentatively smiles at her with red-rimmed eyes and Sakura realizes she's glaring at the two of them. "Is this a bad time?" he asks.

Shikamaru just eyes her stonily but, then, Sakura can't blame him right that minute. His eyes are also red-rimmed. He'd probably snap if she mentioned it.

"Yeah, sorry," she says, though she doesn't feel sorry. "I was just… frowning at the mirror when you guys came in. You guys can sit, I guess, though there's not really anywhere to sit other than the floor."

Her mother would slap her upside the head for how terrible a hostess she was being right now. She'd deserve it. Sakura knew better.

She reminds herself that she was doing better than she'd done earlier and that they were the ones who'd started that. Sitting on the floor doesn't seem to bother the boys, though it's weird to be looking down on them from her vantage of the vanity stool. Sakura thinks about sitting on the floor with them, but she doesn't want to, so she doesn't bother. Instead, she finishes brushing her hair and then painstakingly ties her make-shift headband back into her hair.

"Why were you frowning at the mirror?" Chouji asks, after a long silence.

"Yoshino-san said that I'm going to have to dye my hair to blend in better here," Sakura replies glumly. "So, I was trying to decide what colour would look best on me."

"Dye your hair?" Chouji echoes, with a glance at Shikamaru that she more senses than sees. "What are the choi—

It's rude to interrupt people but she does it anyway with a withering look his way. "Guess."

"Oh." He looks down for a moment. "Do you… have a preference?"

Sakura sighs. "I don't even know if I'm allowed to have preference," she admits, turning on her stool so that she's facing them. It's more satisfying to keep her back to them but this way she can read their expressions and she needs every advantage she can get. "But I'm also pretty sure you two didn't come here to talk about my hair."

Ino would come here to talk about her hair and they'd probably take hours going over the pros and cons of each options ("but obviously Yamanaka blonde is superior!" Ino would probably conclude, with a toss of her own long ponytail but—no, that exists in some world where Ino isn't a presence in the back of her head) but she can't really see boys, even boys that Ino is friends with, wanting to do the same.

Besides, they both have terrible hair. She doesn't want their opinions anyway.

"We didn't get off on the right foot," Chouji says, with a glance at Shikamaru, who looks away, like he's irritated by this whole thing. "I thought that, maybe, we could start over?"

He makes it a question, directed at Shikamaru more than her, which Shikamaru realizes after a moment. He heaves a sigh more melodramatic than hers have been. Despite herself, it almost makes her smile.

Then Shikamaru looks at her, really looks at her. Perched on a stool in a headband made from a curtain and in clothes that aren't hers, with Ino inside of her, Sakura wonders what he sees. She's not sure that she really wants to know.

"We're going to be stuck here for a while," Shikamaru says finally.

Sakura bristles.

"I'm not blaming you," he says crossly. "I'm just saying. So even though it's completely troublesome it would probably be better if we don't hate each other."

"I don't hate you," she says, a little surprised.

He looks at her. "What, you like us?"

"I didn't say that either," she retorts. "Before today I never thought much of either of you."

"Yeah," Shikamaru says after a moment. "Right back at you."

It's Chouji's turn to sigh. He looks so very tired. "Can we at least try to get along?" he asks plaintively. "Other than the adults, it's going to be just the three of us for the foreseeable future."

"The four of us," Sakura corrects and is surprised to find that Shikamaru echoed her sentiment there. "Ino's supposed to wake up sometime tomorrow or the next day. Yoshino-san said that due to… what happened… there's a lot that Ino's mind needs to recover from and that sleeping will fix it."

Chouji nods. "I didn't mean to leave out Ino," he says, again mostly to Shikamaru, before he looks back at Sakura. "But that just means we should make more of an effort to get along, right? Ino wouldn't want all of us fighting when she wakes up."

No, Ino probably wouldn't.

That doesn't mean that Sakura has to like it. Though at least they're talking to her as if what she thinks has some weight. Yoshino-san had been awfully nice but Sakura had gotten the impression that if Shikamaru's mom decided upon something… well, woe betide the person that attempted to oppose her.

"Truce?" she offers, unwilling to just forget that Shikamaru had insinuated that this was all her fault but conceding that she didn't really want to be left to her own, bored and lonely devices for however long they kept her here.

"Yeah, alright," Shikamaru says.

Chouji beams at both of them. "Good," he says. "Now what should we do?"

"Are there things we're allowed to do?" Sakura asks, doubtful of her options here. "Are we allowed to explore this building?"

She hasn't yet tried to see what there is to see.

"How many people are here right now?"

"Can we answer one question before you ask more?" Shikamaru grumbles, but Sakura actually recognizes this grumble from class. It's the way he sounds when he's called on by sensei but knows the answer.

"My way saves time," she says.

Chouji coughs back something that she's pretty sure was almost a laugh.

Shikamaru just rolls his eyes.

"There's a games room," Chouji says. "And a library."

Sakura perks up at that. "A library?"

"We'll show you where it is," Chouji promises. "There's also several rooms to train in. Dad's mentioned something about giving me a schedule but I don't know if they'll do the same thing for you."

"Mom's insisting on the same thing for me," Shikamaru says. "We're not actually sure how many people are going to be staying here full time. The three of us, obviously, but I think the adults are working out a rotation of who'll be around when. We can go almost anywhere in the building."

"There's jutsu wards on the doors to the rooms we're not allowed to enter," Chouji adds.

"Jutsu wards?" Sakura asks keenly. "What's a jutsu ward?"

They look at her for a moment, like they're surprised by the question, but Sakura's used to this sort of surprise. It means she's asked something that Clan children just grow up knowing.

She waits. It sucks a lot but she's found that waiting out their surprise is usually the most efficient thing to do in cases like this.

"They're a specialized type of jutsu," Shikamaru says finally. "Usually tuned to blood of a Clan but they can be altered to different specifications. Like alliances and marriages—those aren't blood-bonds but they're…"

He trails off, looking frustrated.

"This is a Nara compound," Chouji says. "So if you're not a Nara, there's fewer places you can go. You can't leave either, since you're not tied into the permissions."

"Can you leave?" she asks. Sakura doesn't really understand what they're trying to explain but at least the basic concept seems easy enough. It's like… fences that she can't go beyond because she's not related to them.

It's a little weird but then, Sakura's known that Clans tended to be weird. She's just never had to be all up in the middle of it all before.

"I don't know," he admits. "Shikamaru can."

"Only if I want to be killed by my mom," Shikamaru mutters. "I'll keep my head, thanks."

"Do… do you think there'd be a book in the library that would explain jutsu wards?" Sakura asks, deciding not to point out that Yoshino-san had been perfectly nice to her.

Shikamaru eyes her. "We can look for one, I guess."

He hesitates.

"Do you play Shougi?" he asks abruptly. "Or Go?"

Sakura blinks, bemused, but she can't fail to recognize the peace offering for what it is. "I'm better at Go than Shougi," she says. "But that's because I've played it more."

"Let's find a few books for Sakura-san," Chouji suggests. "And then we'll go check out the games room."

Iruka hurts everywhere.

Mizuki had really done a number on him last night but compared to how the rest of the night had gone… Iruka would have preferred to tangle with Mizuki again and again. The physical pain was bad enough but he was used to working around it and ignoring it when he could. Any ninja was, by the time they reached Chuunin.

But he's always been soft-hearted and, if giving Naruto his hitae-ite and graduating him last night had been a highlight of his teaching career (and it had been, that smile would stick with him for a long, long time) then what had come after would haunt him for just as long. He'd been patched up and then, as sensei, had gone to the re-convened meeting about team assignments. It had been running late, after already having been disrupted once. There were a lot of Clan children—and not just any children, but the heirs of their respective Clans—and that made the teams both easier and harder to haggle into formation.

The Nara-Yamanaka-Akimichi team had been formed without problem. From the time they'd been born, everyone had known their Clans wouldn't tolerate any other formation. The most difficult part of that had been settling on a sensei for them that would satisfy all three Clans. Sarutobi Asuma hadn't been enthused about his assignment but Jounin sensei were rarely excited for their teams.

Likewise, the Inuzuka-Hyuuga-Aburame team had been put together without much fuss. They lacked the powerful Clan alliances of the other Clan team but their skills were complimentary and Iruka had agreed readily that he thought they'd work well together. Kiba was loud and brash but he was gentle enough, in a rough way, to look out for his quieter teammates, and Hinata's ability to read a room coupled with Shino's analytical intellect made them a solid choice for a team. Once their Clan abilities were factored in, well, they had the potential to be an excellent tracking team. Yuuhi Kurenai had snatched the team up immediately and, while she was a new Jounin, he thought she'd do well by them…

They had settled in on haggling about what to do with the various civilian and small clan graduates, not to mention the last Uchiha and Uzumaki Naruto, when one of the Akimichi Jounin, a woman that he knew on sight but couldn't place her name, had come in, grave-faced, and…

In the end, he wasn't the only one who'd gotten little to no sleep.

And now he has to face a class full of students and tell them what had happened.

There were days he loved being a teacher. (Most days he loved being a teacher.) Then there were days like this where…

He wishes he was anything else.

Iruka grimaces, then takes a breath and limps into the classroom, which falls silent at his entrance. Usually, for a graduating class, this is a time of hushed anticipation. There's some of that too but he can feel when the anticipation turns to something a bit more serious.

They're ninja children, though, so they don't ask. Naruto was there and Kiba, from the expression on his face, already knows. Iruka had expected that. Tsume-san had been part of the search in the first attack and, as a Clan head, she'd have been informed of the second one. They're his loudest students, the ones he'd have picked to ask what was going on.

"Good morning," he says, once he's safely behind his desk and can look at all of them. There should be thirty, with the addition of Naruto. Instead, they're at twenty-six. "Let's run through attendance."

Technically, he doesn't need to, but Iruka chooses to. It's a way to highlight the four absent students without saying anything. He sees the looks some of the civilian girls swap when both Ino and Sakura are noted as being absent, along with Chouji and Shikamaru. Maybe they think it has something to do with their rivalry.

He wishes it did.

"Before we get into the team assignments, there's some news I need to tell all of you. Some of you will have heard parts of it from your parents already."

Hyuuga Hinata is looking downcast. He's surprised that her father let her come today.

"Last night there were two attacks in Konoha," he says, and it's easy to tell who hadn't heard anything, who had heard of one but not the other, and who had known about both. They might have graduated but they're still kids that he's taught for years. He can read them like books. "Mizuki-sensei turned traitor and is currently in custody of ANBU."

He waits for the shocked murmurs to subside and does not go into further detail. He can tell that Naruto wants to and, if he does, that's up to him.

"The second attack occurred later in the evening," he says, "and it pains me to announce that it involved some of your classmates."

There's no flurry of looks or murmurs at this, just anticipation or dread, depending on the child.

"It pains me to report that last night, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura were killed in action."

Now the class erupts into a frenzy of babbling and shrieking. Several of them burst into tears. Hinata has closed her eyes, while Akamaru has climbed onto Kiba's lap. Sasuke looks unconcerned. Naruto… Iruka tries not to look at Naruto's face for too long, as Naruto looks like he's been stabbed in the heart.

Right—he remembers now, Naruto had had a crush on Sakura.

Iruka answers no questions about where and how and waits until the worst of the noise has subsided.

"The perpetrator of last night's attack has not yet been caught." This sets off a renewed flurry of noises. He waits it out again. Iruka doesn't have the energy, or the heart, to shout them all down today. Not when this was supposed to be a happy day. "Please be careful as you go about your business in the next few days. You will see more patrols than usual, and there's far more that you won't see. Do not try to catch them out. If you do notice a patrol team, do not draw attention to them. This is for your safety. Hokage-sama himself asks that, when you're not with your teams or your families to make sure you stay in well-lit, well-populated areas and avoid as much as possible going anywhere alone. I know some of you are going to want to help. Ask your parents or your sensei for what you can do."

He hates this. He hates every bit of this.

"It should go without saying," he says, "but I'll say it anyway. This is not the time for pranks or jokes. If you spot something or someone suspicious, notify the nearest Jounin that you trust. Do not attempt to investigate on your own. We've already lost two of your classmates. Don't add to that number."

One of the small-Clan girls, Ami, raises her hand tentatively.

He nods.

"Iruka-sensei, what about Nara-kun and Akimichi-kun? Are they okay?"

"They were badly injured in the attack but will recover," he says quietly. "You will not find them in the hospital, so do not try to visit them. Their Clans have determined that, given the circumstances, and that the enemy remains at large, that convalescing in the hospital is too big a risk. They are in the care of their Clans. Any further questions?"

One of the civilian boys, Yasuo, raises his hand. "Iruka-sensei. What… what about the funerals?"

"Good question," Iruka says. "As of yet, nothing has been decided. In cases like this, funerals are usually held after the enemy nin has been caught and interrogated."

And then killed but that goes without saying as heads nod around the classroom.

They have many more questions but, after shooting down a couple about the details surrounding the incidents, he claps his hands together. Most of the Jounin-sensei have arrived and now stand at the back of the classroom. Only a handful of students have noticed them, given their distraction.

"Alright," Iruka says. "It's time to split you all into teams. When I read off your name, join your teammates and your sensei will take it from there. Team One—"

No matter how much it hurts, life goes on. It's when it stops hurting that you're dead.

Iruka still hates every bit of this.