thank you very much for all the lovely feedback for the last chapter! i love you all to pieces and i appreciate all the feedback (even that one Guest reviewer who flipped over Genma not being 110% straight lmao) and writing always makes me happy~
unfortunately, i had to cut this chapter in two lest it grow into a 25k+ monstrosity, so the next part should be out soon!
oh, also - this story is now available in Vietnamese! Hng972 kindly translated it and it's over on Wattpad!
till then, enjoy!
"Suna? So soon?" Genma asked while leaning against the doorframe as Sakura packed. "You only just got back from that other month-long mission." Sakura paused, and when she listened a bit closer, there was an undeniable tinge of worry in the tokujo's voice.
Sighing fondly, the rosette sealed the last few kunai into her scroll and shoved it in her backpack, then turned towards Genma with a smile. "It's just a diplomatic mission, don't worry so much." When the brunet still didn't look convinced, she walked over and hugged him – Sakura suspected she needed the physical reassurance more than him, but it was nice nevertheless when his arms wound around her back with nary a thought. "It'll be in-and-out: harass some Elders, present the treaty, leave. No longer than a month. Tsunade-sama isn't expecting the same miracle as in Kiri, but she is obligated to respond to the interim Kazekage's request; Shikamaru and I are the best choice." She mumbled into the fabric of his shirt.
Genma hummed and lightly patted her head before withdrawing. "Shall I look it over?" he gestured to her pack and Sakura, seeing the change of subject as what it was, agreed. As Genma ambled over to sit on her bed, he laughed suddenly, picking up a hot-pink stuffed dinosaur from her pillow.
"You're leaving him behind?" he teased, shaking the toy in a mockery of a dance. "Kotetsu will be heartbroken."
Sakura mock-scowled, but she couldn't help the grin that pulled at her lips. The dinosaur was a gag gift from Kotetsu, given shortly after the rosette started seeing Inoichi for therapy, with a teasing 'Mr. Obnoxiously Pink for our favourite obnoxiously pink chunin!'. But even though at the time Sakura had scowled and smacked the man with the very toy he gave her, she kept it. Her old toys had all perished when her house had been levelled during the Invasion, so it was nostalgia more than anything and a desire to cling to the last remnants of her childhood with her parents that made her keep it and sleep with it since. Nonetheless, it was a fact which she would rather shave all her hair off for than admit to the insufferable raven.
"He's probably convinced I burned it to ashes the second I got it, so no, he won't be." She snarked eventually when the silence seemed to stretch on for too long and got a snort in return. The atmosphere in the room, however, was considerably lighter so she counted it a success.
From there, the conversation drifted to slightly more serious topics, from desert-appropriate clothing, Suna's socio-economic situation, to the pros and cons of foreign foods and the weather. Just before she settled in for bed, Sakura penned a quick letter to Chōjūrō, letting the bluenette know where she was going to be for the next few weeks, and Genma graciously agreed to send it off in the morning.
(and if the next day, Genma hugged her a bit tighter than usual when she was leaving to meet Shikamaru, then, well. Neither of them commented on it and Sakura simply made sure to squeeze just as tight in return.)
Shikamaru was already at the gates when Sakura arrived, and she waved in recognition before ambling over to the gate guards to submit their mission scroll and papers. She was slightly disappointed when the guards weren't anyone she recognised, but soon enough, they were off, easing in to the three-day trek for Suna. They kept a steady pace, nowhere near the speed at which Sakura had had to run at with Fox and Boar-taicho, but fast enough that by nightfall they were right by the border between the Land of Fire and Land of Rivers. Just for the extra security, they camped on the Fire side of the border, setting up their tents and getting a small fire going for food and extra light.
Eventually, when the hastily-hunted dinner was eaten and they were both sated but unwilling to go to sleep just yet, Sakura proposed a game of shogi, having spied Shikamaru's signature travel kit in his bag. They had chatted during the journey, catching up on what happed during the three months since they'd last seen each other at Inoichi's dinner. Which was nice and all, but jumping through trees and keeping half a mind on the direction they were heading in left little room for deep conversation.
As such, Sakura wasn't surprised when, after nudging his rook into place, Shikamaru asked, "So how is your jounin promotion going?" and simply judging by his tone, it would have seemed that the Nara was uninterested in the topic of discussion, but Sakura saw the way his eyes quickly flickered up to meet hers briefly before they fell back to the board, the glint in them half worried, half genuinely curious.
So she smiled. "It's slow-going, but I have hope. The requirement for even being nominated for the exams is five A-Ranks, 15 B-Ranks, 25 C-Ranks and over 70 D-Ranks. I'm all set on the D-Ranks front, and counting this mission I'll only have one more A-Rank left, but I still need 14 B-Ranks and 12 C-Ranks. It's… doable, but it'll take time. Though now that I'm not full-time at T&I it should be easier to get missions out of the Village."
Shikamaru snorted. "I still can't believe you did ten times as many D-Ranks as I did. And the ones Asuma assigned us were hell." He grouched, and Sakura found it funny how it was the D-Ranks that he found odd rather than the four A-Ranks.
Sakura grinned and shrugged, moving forward a pawn. "I think that was Tsunade-sama's intention – to make it hell." She laughed, scowling when Shikamaru used her moment of inattention to swipe her promoted bishop. "Oi! That was mean!"
The Nara just smirked, casually promoting his pawn. "Should've been paying more attention to the game, woman." He taunted, making Sakura's scowl deepen. Abandoning her hastily-erected Mino castle, she sacrificed her promoted rook to snatch his bishop in return. Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow. "Are you counting on me not being able to predict you losing your temper?" and in a move that Sakura hadn't even seen coming, he suddenly had a knight and a bishop around her king. "Because if so, then think again."
Sakura took a glance at the board, then, temper rising, pushed it aside and pounced, tackling Shikamaru to the ground.
"Oof! Ow, woman, your elbow's bony- get off- Sakura, c'mon, don't- ow! What are you- get away from my hair!"
Two days later, the duo finally neared the outer walls of Suna. The sun was unforgiveable, bright and hot and with not even a hint of a cloud in the sky, and Sakura was incredibly grateful she'd managed to convince Genma to go shopping with her and as a result her head as well as the bottom half of her face were now covered by a pale jade shemagh. She'd also swapped her standard uniform for a more appropriate outfit just before they crossed the border into the Land of Wind, and she now wore a loose white cotton tunic, beige linen pants and a cream overshirt that she left unbuttoned – Sakura was certain she would've cried if she'd had to stick by her turtleneck and dark trousers. Or at least looked as miserable as Shikamaru did; the Nara had clearly not taken his mom's nagging to heart and had merely replaced his usual short-sleeved Nara clan jacket with a long sleeved one. He'd been forced to ditch his chunin vest, and Sakura had taken pity on him and tore up one of her cotton shirts to give him something to cover his head and neck with. She also made sure to point out his lack of foresight out loud whenever the teen's complaining stopped sounding funny and treaded into 'annoying' territory.
But, at last, there were the walls of the Village Hidden in the Sand, and Sakura easily located the gap between the cliffs that Genma had told her led to the actual Village Gates. After a fairly long trek – made longer still by the fact that Shikamaru was quite literally dragging his feet, revelling in the 'first hint of shade in the last 48 hours, seriously, Sakura, how does any vegetation here even survive, I'm not surprised nobody bothers to invade Suna despite its crap military, this place is a natural oven' but finally, the Village's Gates came into view.
However, before they could so much as pull out their papers, a Suna shinobi stood before them, standing between them and the Gates with a kunai in each hand. "What's your purpose here? Identify yourselves!" he barked, pointing the kunai threateningly.
Shikamaru sighed, exhaustion turning into irritation. "We would've done so, shinobi-san, if you hadn't jumped on us." He snapped, pulling out his papers with a flourish atypical of a Nara. "We're the diplomats from Konohagakure. Your Kazekage requested us."
The ninja's hostility was replaced by suspicion, and he took the proffered papers like they were an exploding tag. "Diplomats?" he repeated, eyeing first Shikamaru, then Sakura up and down. "But you're just kids." He snorted derisively.
Instead of responding verbally, Sakura reached beneath the neckline of her tunic and pulled out her Kirigakure forehead protector she'd thought to bring which was now tied around her neck, then tugged her shemagh up a little and let the sun glint off the Konohagakure insignia on the metal plate. "Yes, diplomats." She replied coolly, her inborn politeness warring with her own exhaustion and annoyance at the situation. "Call your leader if you do not believe us."
"There will be no need for that!" a new voice called out, and a short figure jumped from the cliff, landing solidly behind the gate guard. "My idiotic brother has gone soft in his own age – he did indeed request diplomats from the Leaf."
Sakura, recognising just who came to greet them from the multitude of Bingo Books, medical and historical texts she'd read over the years, dipped into a shallow bow. "Chiyo-sama. I take it Honourable Ebizo-sama is the interim Kazekage?"
Chiyo paused, then suddenly, she was right in front of Sakura, reaching up and grasping her fabric-covered chin, then tugging her down so she could stare the rosette in the eyes. "You're sharp, girlie. But also suspicious!" And then there was a knife pressing to Sakura's throat, far quicker than she would've expected from such an old woman, and far too quick for her to dodge. "My brother didn't sign his name on the letter to Tsunade-hime, so you must have an informant! Spill!"
And then, instead of increasing, the pressure eased, and when Sakura looked down, she saw a pooled shadow by Chiyo's feet, the other end connected to Shikamaru. "I'd appreciate it if you refrained from threatening my teammate, Chiyo-sama." The Nara intoned smoothly, yet not breaking off his shadow. Sakura reasoned that the giant cliffs behind them were probably playing to the Nara's advantage, as it was literally the only place where his shadow wasn't completely useless.
"And to answer your question," Sakura added in a murmur, "I happen to enjoy history and medical books. You were quite infamous in both."
"Am!" Chiyo roared suddenly, moving as if to rush the rosette but was ultimately restrained by Shikamaru's shadow. "I am famous! Retired doesn't mean useless, girlie!"
Sakura exchanged a disbelieving glance with Shikamaru. From their experience, that was precisely what 'retired' meant in the ninja world – although few lived long enough to earn that title. Still, Sakura had grown used to humouring inflated egos.
"My mistake, Chiyo-sama. Is there anything else you need?" the pinkette replied, and Shikamaru finally dropped his Shadow Possession.
"Are their papers legitimate?" Chiyo barked at the gate guard, who nodded hastily, then, once the Elder had turned away from him, glared at the two Konoha chunin. "Then you shall follow me, and I will lead you to my brother."
Sharing one more glance and a shrug, Sakura fell into step with Shikamaru and the two of them followed the eccentric Elder through the main streets of Sunagakure. It was… it wasn't great was putting it mildly. While Kirigakure had had sad, hopeless people, a struggling economy and a depleted military, the atmosphere in Suna was somehow worse. The Village just seemed to stagnate. The people were wandering around aimlessly, most of the shops were closed, and only about a tenth of the population was visibly shinobi.
Sakura nudged Shikamaru with her elbow and jerked her chin at the crowd around them. "Kiri seems almost cheerful in comparison." She murmured out of the corner of her mouth, getting a slight grin in return. Then, after about ten minutes' walk, the straight road they'd been on before ended in a round, sandy-coloured building like most of the others they had walked past. Only this one was about three times bigger and with a kanji for 'Wind' painted on the side of the wall.
"Any bets about where we're going?" Shikamaru muttered dryly, and Sakura couldn't quite keep in the snort that escaped her.
"Speak up children!" Chiyo snapped from the front of their little procession, turning around to shoot them a glare. "How do I know you're not scheming behind my back?"
"I don't know, maybe the fact that you're still alive?" Sakura snarked quietly, the heat and the sweat she could feel dripping down her back making her ten times more aggressive than usual. Shikamaru choked, then bent over to get his breath back while he laughed.
"Stop that! Do you want me to leave you here? Or send you to the basements for interrogation? I'm still not convinced you're not spies!" Chiyo growled, and for an old lady, the woman sure had a loud voice.
Shikamaru quietened immediately, but Sakura saw red. "Threatening foreign diplomats here on the invitation of your Kazekage is not in any way helping Sunagakure's case, Chiyo-sama. There are already enough sceptics about this treaty as is – any hostile act against us carried out by your Village can trigger a war. And you and I both know Suna would not come out on top if it were to come to that, not with two superior Villages against yours." The rosette replied coldly, making sure to make her voice harsh and cutting.
It must've worked, because the woman stopped in her tracks and turned around to face them. Shikamaru tensed, but Sakura merely met the woman's eyes; compared to Orochimaru, she was nothing. Compared to Ibiki, she was nothing.
I am not helpless. Not anymore. If she attacks, I am confident we can get out. I am not helpless!
But then, Chiyo threw her head back and cackled.
"Oh, to be young and naïve again!" she crowed, her small stature shaking with the force of her laughter. "How self-important you must feel, to think your disappearance, a mere couple of genin, could force a war. I can't wait until you use those arguments on our Council!"
Shikamaru, despite the tenseness of his usually relaxed posture and the pallor of his skin, spoke first, and his voice was its usual detached drawl. "Mah, we're chunin, not genin. And perhaps that isn't too much, seeing as Suna gave up search of its own Kage, but Konoha has different standards. Especially since I am the heir to one of the noble Clans, and Sakura and I are both Ambassadors to Kirigakure. So perhaps not a war, no, but you would lose the only two allies who might even give you a chance."
Sakura stared at the Nara with a mix of surprise and pride in her eyes – last time, in Kiri, it would've been her who butted heads with the Elders, while Shikamaru did damage control. But this time, it seemed that he was less willing to remain on the sidelines of the verbal battles, and for some inexplicable reason, Sakura couldn't quite fight off the smile that pulled at her lips.
Chiyo scrutinised them for a long moment, then pushed open one of the doors leading to the round building with the kanji for 'Wind'. "We're here." She said instead, then walked into the dark hall, Sakura and Shikamaru having little choice but to follow.
To their surprise, the interior of the Kazekage building was rather cool and dark, and the Kazekage's office was almost chilly in comparison to the desert outside.
The man sitting at the desk was old. There was no other word for it, though Sakura struggled to keep herself from laughing at the expression on Shikamaru's face – the Kage's eyebrows were longer than Sakura's bangs, and they left his eyes strangely shadowed.
"Leaf shinobi," the man intoned, his voice drier than the desert outside and dripping with poorly-hidden disdain. "welcome to Sunagakure."
Nodding, Sakura and Shikamaru dipped into a bow, and the brunet sent her a meaningful glance that meant she should take care of the pleasantries. Sakura almost rolled her eyes in response.
"Kazekage-sama," she greeted politely, "thank you for the welcome. I am Haruno Sakura and my partner is Nara Shikamaru – Tsunade-sama sent us as the diplomatic envoys."
Ebizo's eyes seemed to settle on her for a minute, then he let out a world-weary sigh. "Although I am loathe to seek help from any country, it is my duty as Kazekage to ensure my successor takes over a prospering Village. We will begin negotiations tomorrow, with the Council of Elders. For now, go rest."
Sakura nodded, ignoring the dig at his unwillingness of foreign help, but then her curiosity got the better of her. "Have you decided on a successor, Kazekage-sama?"
Chiyo turned her suspicious eyes on her, making Sakura jump. "What business is it of yours, girlie? It's my brother and the Council you'll be doing business with." She snapped, and Sakura took an involuntary step back at the venom in her voice.
She nodded, feeling surprisingly cowed and was about to apologise, but Shikamaru gripped her wrist, and when she glanced at him, there was an odd look in his eyes. It looked like… indignation? anger? Something that had no right to be present in a Nara's eyes, whose tempers were renowned as almost saintly.
"That hostility was unnecessary." He replied, and though his tone was perfectly polite, his voice was cold. "Sakura's interest is perfectly reasonable – in fact, as I assume the successor will be one of the Sand Siblings, simply by virtue of being the late Kazekage's children, it is even in your favour. Perhaps you're unaware, but the three of them played a large role in the Invasion. Would it not therefore be in your best interest for Sakura and I to spread good words about them once we return, to reduce some of the animosity held by our people for their role in the destruction of our Village, or would you rather leave a teenager to bear the weight of a foreign Village's scorn when something could've been done to lessen it?"
Sakura was surprised. Pleasantly so, because she hadn't expected him to jump to her defence, but she was also exasperated. With herself, mainly, because she forgot that the teen beside her, despite his oftentimes lacking motivation, was in fact a genius. She had forgotten that the Sand trio were the children of a Kage when she asked her question, but the Nara hadn't, and, judging by Chiyo's scowl, she wasn't aware he had known in the first place.
The Kazekage, despite the unjust treatment of the diplomats he himself had requested, did not rebuke his sister or apologise on her behalf, which rankled with Sakura, but she stayed silent.
"Indeed," Ebizo commented, folding his gnarled hands on the desk before him, "it will be one of the Siblings who succeeds me. But they are not so helpless as to need that kind of favour with your Village." And although his tone didn't change, there was a slight edge to the way he said 'your Village'. Like it was somehow lesser.
Shikamaru frowned, but stayed silent, staring the Elder down. Eventually, they were dismissed, and led to their lodging for the duration of their stay in Suna.
Once the chunin charged with escorting them left, Sakura sighed. "Well, that couldn't have gone worse if we'd tried." She noted drily, collapsing on the sofa in the sparsely-decorated apartment.
She earned a snort for her effort as Shikamaru copied her, dropping his pack on the floor and flopping on the couch beside her, stretching his legs over her lap and fighting with the cloth wrapped around his head. Sakura's nose wrinkled at the feet so close to her face, but when a poke proved insufficient, she simply slumped into the cushions, letting her neck crack with a satisfying sound.
"It's only gonna get worse from here." Shikamaru informed her glumly, finally pulling off his makeshift shemagh and the tie holding his hair up in one swift move. "Not only is the Kazekage an old coot, but we're going to be dealing with the Council of Elders. Which means multiple old coots." Sakura snorted at that summary, then groaned when she managed to shed her overcoat and felt the cool air of the apartment wash over her back.
"I miss Mei-sama." She whined, fanning herself. "She fought the Kiri Elders for us."
"Mmhm." The brunet hummed, letting his eyes fall shut. "But Mei had just taken over a country ripped apart by a civil war. She knew the value of allies, and she was younger which made her less set in the 'a successful Village must be autonomous' mindset. Here, we have a bunch of people convinced in the superiority of their own land, despite the fact that it's currently got the worst stats out of all the shinobi Villages. It'll be difficult to get through to them. Even Naruto would struggle." He added bitingly at the end, and Sakura couldn't stop the bark of amused laughter than escaped her.
"Have you been doing some extra reading, Shika?" she teased, the nickname leaving her lips almost without conscious though. "What is this I hear of 'stats' and the governing families of other Villages?"
Shikamaru snorted. "As if I'm about to be shown up for the second time." He grumbled good-naturedly. "My mom literally buried me under historical texts, treaties, maps and all the other stuff in the Clan's archives when I got back from Kiri. The fact that I'm the heir also wasn't helping stop her nagging." He sighed, then barely managed to duck the bundle of cloth the rosette threw at his face. "Hey!"
"I swear to god, if you'd spent half as much time studying as you do whining, you would've beaten the Uchiha for Rookie of the Year." Sakura snapped, lobbing another bundle at him when the first one missed. "And I wouldn't have 'shown you up' in the first place!"
The brunet's eyes narrowed. "I don't 'whine', I express my dislike for needlessly expending effort." He replied, affronted.
"So you admit you're lazy!"
"I admit to conserving energy when possible. There's a difference."
"No, there isn't!"
"Yes, there is!"
They stared at each other for a few seconds, each unwilling to step down, then almost simultaneously burst out laughing, although Shikamaru's was quickly contained to chuckles, Sakura couldn't quite stop for a good minute.
It was a much needed burst of good humour before the month of hell that loomed before them.
They weren't wrong. The previous day in the Kazekage's office had nothing on the Council of Elders.
The first sign that everything was going to go to hell was just after they walked in, and Sakura's eyes scanned the room and fell across a very familiar face. Or, half a face. The other half was obscured by sheet hanging down from his turban. Then, Sakura's eyes trailed to the wheelchair he was sitting in and the distinct lack of a hitai-ate. Genma's words from what seemed like so long ago flashed through her mind; "He'll be crippled and probably forced to retire from active service, but he'll live."
She had… forgotten. She forgot the wave of protectiveness and vicious anger that took over her when she saw the jounin about to swing at Genma back when the Invasion first started. Even now there was a small, mutinous part of her that whispered serves him right when she saw the state of the man, but Sakura squashed that thought almost immediately. She had forgotten Suna's medical system wasn't even half as good as Konoha's, especially now that Tsunade was back. And now a direct result of her actions she'd forgotten about were staring her in the face.
The jounin's eyes – Baki, she reminded herself forcefully, his name is Baki – widened when they met hers, then narrowed as his mouth twisted into a sneer. Sakura quickly averted her gaze.
Then, once they sat down, it became clear that Chiyo and Ebizo weren't alone in their sense of superiority, and any of the arguments Sakura or Shikamaru tried to present were cut off, brushed off, or completely talked over, the counterarguments being formed of events which took place before either of them had been born, not at all related with the current state of affairs. The status-quo went on for hours, and while at the start Sakura saw some hope in Shikamaru's gaze, by the time the sun started setting and they were still being shouted over, he was coldly, quietly furious.
She cast glances at the Sand Siblings throughout the day. All of them were sitting near Ebizo, on the other end of the oval table from Sakura and Shikamaru. There had been surprise in their gazes when her and the Nara had first walked in, as clearly nobody had told them just who the Konoha diplomats would be, but none of them had spoken. Either they were there on a purely 'observe but do not contribute' basis, or they agreed with the views expressed by the Elders.
Sakura didn't know which angered her more.
"Girl!" one of the Elders snapped, and Sakura's gaze moved from the window to her face, lined and sallow and bearing an unsightly grimace. "Are you even listening?!" she accused, one gnarly finger pointed right between Sakura's eyes.
The rosette took a deep breath. Then, she looked around the room, at the mix of angry, disgusted, or plain disinterested faces, at the quiet trio opposite, at Baki's glare, at Ebizo's expressionless face and at Chiyo's smug smirk. She glanced down, at Shikamaru's hands which were balled into fists under the table, and at the way his jaw was tensed and the look in his eyes was cold, but hurt, like he was in pain.
Letting the breath she was holding out in a big sigh, she met the councilwoman's gaze, making sure her own was as indifferent as Kakashi's could sometimes be and her face equally impassive. "No." she stated bluntly, getting a few sharp intakes of breath and something that sounded like a hastily-smothered snort from one of the Siblings. "Why should I?" she asked rhetorically, pushing back from the table and crossing her legs. "All day, you've shouted over us. You brought old grudges to light, grudges which should've been buried in the past and long forgotten, if not forgiven, but instead, you stuck to them like stubborn Academy kids. Need I remind you that it was Suna, not Konoha, who requested this meeting? That means that your military dictator believes that you need outside help, despite his calls for independence and autocracy. But what you seem to forget is that Konoha does not need this treaty. We are still the strongest shinobi Village, even with the losses we suffered by yours and Oto's hands. But Suna? Your economy is the worst in all the shinobi nations, your people are despondent and your military is lacking. Who will you turn to for help if the Wind Daimyo chooses to do the same thing that was done following the Third Shinobi War and starts outsourcing missions that would've been given to your shinobi to ours? Who will you turn to? Iwa? Kumo? Not after what went down during the Third War. Kiri then? Unfortunately for you, as long as we offer more than you in terms of trade and aid, they will be loyal to us. Kusa? They're barely a spot on the map. Amegakure, while close to you and fairly industrialised, is resentful of the countries which used their grounds as a battlefield during both wars and has a heavy isolationist policy not good for any merchants. Do you see now?"
There was a moment of silence that stretched for a good minute as all present in the room slowly digested her impromptu speech. Shikamaru sighed, hanging his head, but his shoulders were shaking with what Sakura belatedly realised was laughter, and the tension in his jaw was gone.
A quiet sputtering and then – "You crippled our best jounin!"
Finally, Sakura's temper flared and she stood up, slamming her hands against the table, delighted when a small crack appeared, splitting the wood. "Then it doesn't say much about the rest of your forces if your 'best' was brought down by a genin!" she spat viciously, then headed towards the door.
She could vaguely hear Shikamaru say something about how a night to think on their options would do everyone good, before he jogged to catch up with her.
They walked in silence, the shinobi who were still out and about in the streets moving almost unconsciously out of their way, and it was only once they were behind closed doors and in the comfort of their own apartment that Sakura let the tension bleed out of her shoulders.
Then, Shikamaru started laughing. "Y-You should've seen their face!" he chortled, and Sakura couldn't help her own snort.
Collapsing on the sofa, she put her head in her hands. "Oh, it's gonna come bite me in the ass come tomorrow, but that was so satisfying." She sighed, moving to rake a hand through her hair before she remembered the shemagh still wrapped around it.
"You are a terrifying, troublesome woman." Shikamaru grumbled, but it was more fond than bemused and Sakura smiled despite herself.
"Whatever works, I guess." And so saying, she waved Shikamaru goodnight and stumbled over to her own room, falling asleep within seconds of her head hitting the pillow.
They spent four more days arguing with the Elders, four days of going over the same material, bringing up the same petty grievances and getting back to their rooms at the end of the day exhausted and frustrated.
On the sixth day, they took a break. Sakura finally had the time to walk around Suna like a tourist might, the same way she had with Chojuro and Ao back in Kiri. She checked out the bookshops, cafes, sweetshops, weapons and souvenirs shops, and when she dragged all her bags back to her and Shikamaru's apartment, the Nara, who had adamantly refused to accompany her on the grounds of 'recuperating', was passed out on the sofa, an arm over his eyes and jug of water on the floor beside him.
Sakura smiled fondly, dropped her bags off in her room, then stepped out again, heading to one of the cafes she'd spied along the way and was itching to try out.
But she was intercepted along the way.
"Oi, Haruno!"
Turning around, Sakura spied Temari walking quickly down the street to catch up to her, her fan strapped to her back.
"Yes, Temari-san?" the rosette asked politely, unconsciously hiding her hand behind her back when a phantom pain shot through it at the sight of Temari's fan. "Can I help you?"
"Damn right you can." The other girl replied, the look in her eyes bordering on aggressive. "I want a rematch."
Sakura blinked. "Pardon me?"
The blonde scoffed. "Oh, don't play dumb – I want a rematch of our Chunin Exam fight. You beat me once but you won't manage the same trick the second time."
For a second, Sakura couldn't believe her ears. Then, she saw red. She opened her mouth to snap back at Temari, to tell her to grow up, but then a thought struck her and she shut it with an almost audible click as her mind worked through another scenario, a trick Anko had taught her. Her eyes scanned over Temari, the tense line of her shoulders, the twitch in her brow, the way one of her hands was balled into a tight fist.
"No." she replied cheerfully, smiling at the blonde in the same fake manner that she'd grown to associate with Kakashi.
"Excuse me?" Temari was almost seething. "So that's it, huh? You beat me once, you get your promotion, and suddenly you think that you're the shit? You make me-!"
"No." Sakura cut her off, pinning the kunoichi with a sharp glare, then gave what Anko had taught her a go. "I won't deign you with a rematch because I don't have time. Unlike you, I have a treaty to present. I have to prepare arguments for it. I have to do something other than sit there and look pretty like you have done the last week. Are you really the late Kazekage's daughter? Because judging by your lack of involvement in the future of your own Village and the temper tantrum you just gave me front row seats to, you're more like a spoilt brat."
Temari was gawking. She stared at Sakura, her expression almost hilariously indignant, before she managed to splutter out a weak, "What?"
But Sakura just shrugged. "I have more important things to do. Unless, of course, you are planning on helping me convince your Elders to agree to the mutually beneficial treaty anytime soon."
The blonde was staring at her like she'd grown a second head. "You want me to… go against my own Elders? Ebizo-jiisama? Chiyo-sama? Are you insane?"
The look Sakura levelled her with could've made hell freeze over, and the unimpressed eyebrow she'd learnt from Genma only highlighted how unimpressed she was with Temari's response. Then, she delivered the final nail to the metaphorical coffin, nonchalant as can be even as her eyes were sharp and trained on the blonde as she waited for a reaction. "If you call 'having a spine' insanity, then you really are pathetic."
Three… Sakura thought idly, two… one…
"Fine." Temari hissed, seething, and the muted rage in her eyes almost made Sakura flinch back. "Fine." And then she turned on her heel and stormed off towards the centre of the village, and Sakura was left alone once again.
The rosette let out a quiet sigh. Now it was only the question of waiting to see whether her little play would come to fruition, or whether it would come back to bite her in the ass.
But she might as well make herself comfortable while she waits, and with that thought in mind, Sakura set off towards the café she was initially walking towards, a slight spring in her step.
She had a feeling things were about to turn very interesting.
"Did you have to do that?" a voice drifted over to where Sakura was sitting in a small spot of shade at a table outside the cafe, her fuinjutsu notebook spread out before her and a plate of mochi and iced tea by her arm. She looked up, slightly startled to find two familiar faces and two of the Sand Siblings leaning against the wall separating the cafe's sitting area from the main street.
"Pardon me?" she asked curiously, blinking confusedly up at Kankuro who'd been the one to speak and warily noted the redhead she knew to be Gaara who stood silently beside him.
"Did you have to do that, with Temari, I mean." Kankuro clarified with a big sigh, and though there was slight irritation in his eyes he also seemed more amused than anything. "She stormed off to harass our Elders. Gaara and I only escaped by virtue of claiming we agree with her and jumping out the window." He added with a slight smirk, though Gaara remained impassive.
Sakura snorted at the description, and allowed the corner of her mouth to twitch up in self-satisfaction. "Ah, so she took my words to heart? Good."
She absently noted that Gaara's eyes were now fixed on her with a mix of curiosity and something deeper that she couldn't quite read, and idly wondered whether she should be worried. If Shikamaru was with her, Sakura was sure he'd call her 'troublesome' then drag her away from the duo. Curiously, she dragged her gaze away from the silent redhead and noted that Kankuro now looked a mix of exasperated and grudgingly amused.
"I don't think I even want to know what you said to her. I almost pity the Elders."
Sakura grinned, then beckoned the brothers over and leant towards them conspirationally, any instinct of self-preservation be damned. She was proud of what she'd achieved with Temari, especially if the older girl actually listened and did what she'd asked. Kankuro obeyed, leaning down with a grin, but Gaara stayed back, preferring to observe. "I essentially called her a wallflower and told her to get her shit together." Sakura divulged, then leant back while Kankuro blinked, absorbing her words.
"You didn't." he murmured, meeting her eyes with a look that was part awed, part terrified. "Please tell me you didn't."
Unrepentant, Sakura grinned. "Oh, but I did." feeling a particular sense of shadenfreude, she took a sip of her iced tea while Kankuro shook his head.
"You're batshit insane." he summarised, and Sakura shrugged, deciding the observation was fair. "I-I'm gonna go. I think the Elders need to be saved from Temari." and then, in a burst of smoke, he was gone, and Sakura was left with Gaara still awkwardly staring her down.
"I don't think we have been properly introduced." Sakura mentioned when it seemed like the staring wasn't going to stop. "I'm Haruno Sakura. You're Gaara, right?"
She got a nod in response, then the redhead's eyes moved from her face to her notebook. A tiny frown appeared between his non-existent brows and when his eyes met hers again, there was the barest flicker of interest. Amused despite herself, Sakura pointed at the seat opposite her and tried her best not to jump when, between one blink and the next, the redhead was sitting carefully opposite her, only the slightest tendril of sand beside his ear letting her know that he'd moved at all.
"That looks…specialised." Gaara finally spoke, and his voice was raspy and deep, not at all sounding like it belonged to a teenager but also not the terrifying death rasp she'd briefly heard at the Chunin Exams. Sakura belatedly realised that he was referring to the seals she'd drawn up, random sketches and hastily scribbled patterns she'd scribbled down when an idea had struck her.
In truth, her and Genma had been reading about fuinjutsu for a good eight months now. They'd worked on recognising seals, comprehension speed, seal arrays and patterns and uses and the seals that they had been able to find in books or archives of masters – some belonging to the Nidaime, some to the Yondaime, some to Jiraiya of the Sannin, some from the book she'd bought in Kirigakure which they later found out contained a smattering of basic seals from Uzushiogakure. But it had only been recently that they came across the idea of coming up with their own arrays. Genma immediately jumped on explosive tags, his reasoning being 'if it explodes, that means you did it right, right?' whereas Sakura's first idea had been a knock-out tag, or at the very least, a chakra suppression one. That was what she was working on when the two Sand Siblings came over, and that was the page Gaara was referring to.
Realising that, she laughed. "This?" she asked, pointing at the notepad. "Nah, this is just scribbles. I do hope something useable can come out of it, but at the moment it's just a work in process."
Gaara looked from her notebook to her, then nodded. When a few more seconds passed and no more conversation was forthcoming, Sakura turned back to her seals, shoving a mochi in her mouth and casually offering one to the redhead.
Then, anywhere between five and fifteen minutes later, Gaara spoke again. "You manipulated my sister."
Sakura startled, glancing up from her notepad at the unreadable jade eyes focused on her, though there didn't seem to be neither anger nor judgement on the redhead's face. Shutting her notebook, Sakura met his eyes.
"I did." She admitted, easily, carefully. It was a bit off-putting to have it said so bluntly, but she reckoned that had been precisely what she'd done. And she didn't regret it.
"Why?" to her surprise, Gaara's tone wasn't accusative, and though Sakura doubted he even knew what inflection was, much less how to use it, she was glad he seemed to be curious rather than murderous at the obvious foul-play.
So Sakura just sighed and answered as honestly as she could. She answered in the same way she'd spent a good hour justifying to herself what she'd done to Temari, because after the irritation with the blonde cleared, Sakura had felt bad. Awful. Because she was very much aware that when she was insulting Temari, she was pressing very specific buttons, yet she didn't stop.
"I don't like death, Gaara-san." She stated bluntly. "War equals death. However, war can be avoided by forging treaties and strong alliances. As a diplomat, my job is to do everything I can to secure that treaty. I'll do so by any means necessary. And, as you should by now be aware, I'm not above using shady interrogation tactics to get what I want."
The redhead regarded her for a few short seconds, then nodded. "That is fair." He murmured. Then, his eyes seemed to sharpen slightly as they flickered over her yet again, and although there was nothing invasive in his gaze – there was hardly any emotion or intent at all – Sakura still felt discomfited, naked. "Interrogation?" he repeated quietly, his rasp slightly less noticeable when he wasn't speaking as loud as before. "Naruto hadn't mentioned that in his last letter."
Sakura offered him a rueful smile in response, and a one shouldered shrug. "That's probably because I joined after he'd already left." She admitted, keeping the information she gave out vague, even if she'd already accidentally revealed far more than she was comfortable with, potential ally or no. Then, the second part of his statement caught her attention and she pinned the redhead with a sharp glare. "Naruto?" she demanded, eyebrow arched. "You're in touch with him?"
She was rewarded with a slow, confused blink. "Yes." Came the blunt reply. "He sends letters, sometimes." Then, the gaze shifted to curious, though some of the confusion remained. "Are you... not in contact with him?" he asked hesitantly, and Sakura absently noted how much more talkative he'd become once Naruto came up.
She snorted. "No," she admitted, a lot more bitterly than she'd planned, and she hastened to correct herself, though judging by how Gaara's gaze sharpened, it was too late. "No, not since he left, at least." Then, she paused, frowned. "Wait, I thought he was travelling. How do your letters reach him?" she asked, puzzled. Surely, if Gaara didn't have Naruto's permanent address, then it could only be a one-sided conversation.
Gaara blinked, then let his eyes fall to the plate of mochi. "A toad comes by sometimes to collect a reply." He said quietly. "It's only happened about four times since he set out though."
"Huh." Sakura murmured, mulling that piece of information over and ignoring the stab of hurt and annoyance that went through her heart. "That makes sense." She agreed, dropping her eyes back to her seals.
A short silence settled over them, only slightly awkward, before Gaara broke it again. "I'm... sorry." He said carefully, like the word was foreign on his time. Absently, Sakura realised it was probably because he didn't have many people to say it too, growing up as a jinchuuriki, but while she felt sorry for him, she was also too preoccupied with the odd ball of hurtangerguilthurt that formed in her stomach at the news. But then, Gaara spoke again. "I didn't mean to cause you pain." He added awkwardly, and that had Sakura looking up.
A startled bark of laughter escaped her, and she inwardly delighted at the confusion in Gaara's eyes. Finally, some clear emotion. "You haven't." she hastened to assure the redhead, waving him off in the same dismissive manner Genma often directed at her. "It stings, that's true, but I haven't been a great teammate before he left, and our team was never really as close as most in Konoha are. To tell you the truth, I'm not surprised."
The real truth was that beyond some absent 'wonder how he's doing?' she hadn't really even thought of her blond teammate since she'd wished him good luck in the hospital after the Kiri mission. Hypocritical of her then, to be upset at not having received letters, but she couldn't deny that that was the reason for her bad mood.
She smiled wryly, knowing Genma would understand or at least help her talk through it, but also knowing that the tokujo was three-days'-run away, and a letter just wouldn't have the same effect. She'd have to wait until they got back to spill this particular story, and until then, she'd just have to forget about it. After all, there was little she could do.
She glanced at Gaara, making her smile into something slightly more cheerful. "Nevermind that – tell me more. I know Naruto talked to you during exams – have his letters been similarly, y'know, preachy?"
Gaara, at first glance, seemed startled. Then, only because she had been looking for it, she noticed the slightest upwards quirk of lips. Score! "Mostly they describe what he's doing." He said slowly, gauging Sakura's reaction.
The pinkette grinned, stubbornly pushing the hurt and anger down. "So, learning impossible ninjutsu, succeeding despite the odds, and convincing murderers and missing-nin alike that they have a heart despite them having spent years proving otherwise?" she asked rhetorically, and was pleased to note a flicker of amusement in the jade eyes boring into her own, even as Gaara carefully measured his words for a response.
"That...sounds about right." He admitted, and Sakura giggled. "He's also been saying about his ambition to become Hokage, and…" he paused, gaze suddenly sharper as it darted around her face, far more assessing than before. Measuring her reaction, he finished; "I think I'd like to become Kazekage."
Sakura carefully did not let any surprise show on her face, even if inwardly, she was absolutely bewildered. The teen before her had very nearly levelled her Village a year ago, a bloodthirsty, far too powerful psychopath contained in the body of a child, and now he was saying he wanted to become a Kage?
Then, Sakura banished the civilian, resentful part of her brain and considered the confession logically. Much like Mei becoming the Mizukage, having a jinchuuriki as a Kazekage would help curb most of the stereotypes surrounding the role.
She smiled, making sure it was cheerful and not a hint of her earlier disbelief showed through. "Good!" she exclaimed. "That's good! When you become Kazekage and if Naruto becomes Hokage, it'll be good for you to have years of friendship to fall back on and be able to seek advice from each other. That'll be one relationship you won't have to fight tooth and nail to establish and maintain."
If she was good in her assessment, Gaara was…shocked. Or at least, very, very surprised.
"Your reaction is the most positive I've received so far." He stated bluntly. "You don't think I'll be... disadvantaged? Because of my situation?"
Hearing the barest undercurrent of insecurity in the question, Sakura pulled a Genma Shiranui Approved Manoeuvre Number 182 – 'every serious, controversial situation can be lightened or avoided through inappropriate humour'. Mind set, she smirked. "You mean your fuzzy tenant?"
And because she was looking, she saw the exact moment Gaara's eyes widened almost comically in comparison, as if unable to believe what he was hearing.
Sakura smiled wryly. "I may not have Naruto's blind optimism or the ability to deliver amazing speeches at the drop of a hat, but I have history on my side, so listen to me, Gaara-san. The Yondaime Mizukage was barely a teenager when he took over, and he was the host of the Three Tails, and he was rather popular before he went berserk. Then there's the current Mizukage, who is a holder of two bloodlines in a village which not even a decade ago was renowned for massacring its doujutsu users. The current Raikage's brother, Killer B is the jinchuuriki of the Eight Tails. Do you see? You are not respected because you are a Kage, you are a Kage because you are respected. Win people's hearts and minds and they will stand with you through it all." She told him solemnly.
The redhead considered her for a good minute, before finally murmuring, "Hearts and minds?" in a tone that suggested, well, far more approval than she'd initially hoped for.
Sakura nodded seriously then tried to channel as much Naruto-conviction into her voice as she could. "That's right, hearts and minds. Show them the worth of comradeship, show them your reliability, show them your care for the village and its people. The fact that you are a jinchuuriki could even work in your favour, you know." She said, getting a slight widening of eyes in response before Gaara lapsed into silence.
He seemed to ponder something for a long time, and Sakura left him to it, going back to her notes. Then, there was a shift at the table and when she looked up again, the redhead was standing, and the corner of his lips was slightly, almost imperceptibly twisted up.
"You must excuse me, Haruno-san." He murmured, far more polite than Sakura expected, which was why she forgot to bite her tongue when she instinctively said;
"Just Sakura will do, Gaara-san."
Another assessing glance but a far shorter silence than before until Gaara nodded. "Sakura-san, then. But you must excuse me. I think... I think I'm going to help my siblings with the Elders." And so saying, he was gone in a swirl of sand.
Now she had three more people fighting on her side and a whole day free of Sunagakure Elders. With a contented sigh and a bite of the Suna-special peanut mochi, she returned to her notes, scowling when she realised she still hadn't figure out how to make the chakra burst that would come with the activation of the knock-out tag strong enough to knock the person unconscious but weak enough to prevent permanent harm to their nervous system. Though that could be useful too, she mused, and pencilled in 'max strength knockout effect?' in the margin to investigate when she had the time and means of testing.
Naturally, when she got back to their apartment, Shikamaru was less than impressed with what she'd done.
"I let you out of my sight for one day," the brunet groaned as soon as the door closed behind her. "one day, and you turn the Kazekage's children against their own Elders and manage to convince a homicidal jinchuuriki that he'd make a good Kage?"
Sakura scoffed, waving Shikamaru off halfheartedly as she opened the fridge, on the hunt for something to make for dinner. "You make it sound so much worse than it actually was." She teased, eyes widening in joy when she spied a plastic container on one of the shelves that hadn't been there in the morning, and she immediately pulled it out, stomach rumbling. "You cooked?" she asked reverently when, after popping the lid, the container revealed noodles, vegetables and the sweet tang of soy sauce.
Shikamaru snorted, not moving from his prone position on the sofa. "It's just some vegetable stir fry, woman. You don't need to sound so shocked."
At that, Sakura pulled her eyes away from the plate that was spinning in the microwave and levelled the brunet with a flat look. "Shika, it's the first food I haven't had to hunt, make, or pay for in a month. Allow me treasure it, damn it." She grouched, getting a huffed laugh and a dismissive 'yeah yeah'.
Finally, once the microwave 'pings', Sakura snatched the bowl out and started shovelling the noodles in, realising belatedly that a breakfast fourteen hours earlier and a set of six mochi sweets at mid-afternoon was not enough nutrition to last a whole day. Then, almost comically, she paused, then her eyes watered and she almost choked once she realised how hot the food actually was. She heard a snort behind her as she made for the tap to pour herself a glass of water to put out the fire going down her oesophagus.
Once that was done, she brought her bowl over and flopped on the sofa – or rather, Shikamaru's stomach, as the brunet was still stretched out over the whole couch and looking very unwilling to move – and studiously ignored the Nara's winded 'oof!'. She peered at the random sheets of paper scattered around the coffee table and floor, squinting to decipher Shikamaru's surprisingly messy handwriting.
"Are you…working on a jutsu?" she asked at last, eyes narrowed contemplatively.
Shikamaru sighed, the movement making Sakura bob up and down, perched as she was on his stomach. "Yeah," he admitted at last, sounding uncharacteristically frustrated which made the rosette shoot him a surprised look – Shikamaru was far too lazy by half to get frustrated. "I thought- imbuing weapons with chakra is a method used to make the hit stronger, right?" he asked rhetorically, and Sakura nodded even as she waited for him to continue. "Well, I thought, what if I imbued kunai, or a tanto, with my shadow? That should be possible, given that our Shadow Possession is just Yin Release; just chakra manipulation, not an actual element."
Sakura hummed, considering. "You'd have to maintain it at all times. And although you could use the natural shadow cast by your blade, you'd have to constantly monitor it and adjust every time you flip the tanto." She muttered, thinking out loud.
But Shikamaru nodded regardless, propping himself up on his elbow and glancing at the papers on the coffee table. "Yeah, I worked it out-" his eyes scanned over the various sheets and equations before they settled on one with a rough sketch of a tanto and various angles and calculations, "here." He finished, handing the sheet to Sakura to read over and then flopping back on the sofa with a groan. "Troublesome."
The more Sakura read, the more she wanted to cry in frustration. There were dozens of complex calculations, of equations taking into consideration the approximate volume of his chakra coils, the surface area of a standard tanto, the chakra needed to produce and sustain a shadow on its underside and more, all in cramped, messy writing and mathematical equations. The truth had been before her eyes since she took the time to get to know Shikamaru. She'd even teased him about it before. But it was only now that she realised Shikamaru really could have beaten the Uchiha in the position of top Rookie, and easily so, if he'd so much as twitched a finger. And if they'd only been graded on academic accomplishments, she added as an afterthought. She sent one exasperated glance at the brunet she was using as a pillow then dove in headfirst to parse through the calculations.
When she looked up again, she'd almost gotten over her awe and was now more thoughtful than anything. "It's doable." She murmured at last. "I've personally channelled chakra through my weapons before, so that's not a problem. Question is, chakra is blue. Your shadow is, well, a shadow. It's less common, therefore more noticeable. Although there are weapons made from black steel, and I suppose mid-battle is not exactly the time that lets you thoroughly figure out what your opponent is using, so that might be in your favour. The only problem therefore is whether you could create and maintain a shadow without using the ambient shadow."
Shikamaru hummed, picking up another sheet with fewer equations and more writing. "Yeah, I thought so. I've got a training plan here, but I just needed someone with more knowledge of chakra theory and control than me to look it over to see whether I was getting ahead of myself or whether it really is feasible." He shrugged, an action made all the more difficult by the fact he was laying down.
Sakura blinked, slightly stumped. "And that someone… was me?" she asked incredulously.
The Nara looked at her like she was being intentionally slow. "Well, duh? You're a genjutsu mistress and a med-nin. Your chakra control has to be at least in the 90th percentile."
"95th." Sakura corrected automatically and was rewarded with an exasperated glare from Shikamaru.
"Case in point." He grumbled. Then, slowly, a smirk grew on his lips. "So, if we're going ahead with this… want to be my guinea pig?"
Sakura spluttered, indignant, then, unable to come up with a witty enough retort, made a frustrated noise and chucked a cushion at the brunet's smirking face. The Nara's startled yelp when the cushion met its mark sent her into a fit of giggles and resulted in her being unable to dodge the retaliatory throw that smacked right into her nose. With a shriek, she hopped up from her position and grabbed as many of the cushions as she could, Shikamaru doing the same, and they began pelting each other with their impromptu weapons, amid insults and laughter.
Needless to say, no jutsu testing was done for the rest of the day.
The next day when they were called back into the office and sat before the Council, the siblings' seats were beside theirs instead of the Kazekage. Once Sakura and Shikamaru sat down, Temari leaned over and glared at the rosette.
"I spent a whole day yesterday arguing with them." She hissed under her breath. "Once this treaty is signed, you are giving me that spar, Haruno."
Sakura couldn't help but grin smugly, seeing Shikamaru's shoulders shake with laughter beside her. "Mmhm, sure. You better help us make sure that it gets signed then, ne?"
The expression of pure, unadulterated rage on Temari's face very nearly made the rosette lose her composure, but luckily, the Elders chose that moment to begin the meeting.
"There have been… unexpected developments recently, which led us to reconsider our… hesitance for a treaty with the Leaf." One of the women spoke, her face twisting in a grimace as she admitted to the 'hesitance' and Sakura was willing to bet that her views on the matter had not changed in the slightest. Nevertheless, she smiled, allowing the woman to continue. "What does the Leaf has to offer?"
Shikamaru sighed, but proceeded to repeat the terms they had presented days before. Sakura tuned in, piping up from time to time, but mostly she was watching the expressions of the Elders while the Nara spoke. There was less hostility this time around, but there wasn't all that much enthusiasm either.
Well… we'll have to fix that then.
"Oh. My. God."
"Sakura, you've said that five times already."
"No, Shikamaru, listen – oh my god."
"You should be glad I'm too comfortable to move and smack you."
"You are too lazy by half. But don't distract me! I haven't finished complaining about the Elders yet!"
"Will you ever finish?"
"As soon as they get those poles out of their asses, yeah, maybe!"
"Man, I'm never going to know peace again."
There was a moment of silence as the words sunk in, before they both started laughing madly and wheezing for breath. Eventually, they calmed down, but only when a disbelieving snort reached their ears and Sakura looked up, and up again because at some point her and Shikamaru had fallen to the ground and were laying on each other, but when she finally did, she met Temari's very unamused gaze.
"I spent a whole day yesterday arguing with them." She hissed under her breath. "Once this treaty is signed, I want my spar."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and nudged Sakura curiously, but the rosette just smiled and nodded. "As long as the treaty is approved by our respective Kages and our job here is done, I don't mind."
All the anger seemed to go out of Temari like air out of a balloon and Sakura watched, amused, as she seemed to deflate.
"That's it?" she asked, almost unable to believe it. "No grand speech? Just 'I don't mind'?"
But Sakura smiled again. "Pretty much. Now that it's sorted, I don't actually mind-" but she was interrupted by a messenger appearing out of nowhere. And Sakura literally meant nowhere because there were no trees to hide behind or buildings – her and Shikamaru were literally laying in the shade of the wall surrounding the Village, the whole rest of the Village in front of them.
"Temari-sama?" the messenger asked, sounding harried and incredibly out of breath, but that didn't stop Sakura rom doing a doubletake at the honorific. "There are some foreign shinobi at the Gates requesting entry."
Immediately, Temari sharpened to attention and Sakura immediately saw a trace of the same authoritative air she sometimes saw around Tsunade – the girl's gaze sharpened and her next words were little more than a demand. "Foreign shinobi? Well did you see where they were from?"
"Kirigakure, Temari-sama."
Blanching, Temari straightened out and started walking so fast Sakura had to scramble to her feet and jog to catch up, but once she did, she stayed quiet, the look on the blonde's face making her bite her tongue.
There was a thought niggling at the back of her mind, a slight suspicion as to the reason Kiri shinobi may have for visiting Sunagakure and just who it may be. But then she dismissed the thought as wishful thinking.
At least until they actually got to the Gates and Sakura saw the two figures waiting outside, the taller, bulkier one who despite being surrounded by three enemy shinobi staring at him with a barely concealed air of hostility managed to look like he owned the place, and the slightly smaller, slighter figure though only an inch or two shorter, a weird shape on the latter's back.
And then, the smaller shinobi pulled his hood off and Sakura's breath hitched. She'd know that shade of pale-blue anywhere.
With nary a thought for Temari nor any of the guards, Sakura threw herself forward, not stopping until she barrelled straight into the second figure, wrapping her arms around the teen.
"Chōjūrō-kun!"
there we go! as always, dont be afraid to leave a comment and tell me what you thought! till next time!