Hiya! Can we all just pretend it's still Friday? And by Friday I mean FIRE FRIDAY because the people have spoken and I have listened. Hehe I'm a dork and I love you all.
This chapter was titled in my drafts as Bad Idea Ch30! with the exclamation point Because! Holy shit, we're in chapter THIRTY.
An alternative title for this chapter is "Everyone, Listen Up. It's Been Two Years." or "The Chapter in Which the Author Writes Different Scenes All of Them Six Months Apart. Roughly." As always, a huge shotout to my wonderful Beta, A, who keeps me sane during this wild journey. Much love, bro.
Beware the time skips ;)
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Sakura stretched lazily, slowly going from unconscious to wakefulness in a way that was almost foreign. Usually, immediately after waking up, she was instantly awake but now it took a few seconds longer for her to realise she wasn't in her bed. She wasn't even on a bed, exactly, but instead on a futon on a tatami floor.
Now completely awake, Sakura moved her legs to get up but failed miserably when it became clear they were entangled with someone else's. She turned to her left to see long dark hair, the silky white skin of a chiselled chest and a familiar face. Hyuga Neji.
Oh.
She had forgotten about the night before. They had just come back from a mission with Anko and Mozuku to Iwa and after giving their report and stopping home to shower, had made their way to the Rusty Kunai for the customary post-jounin-mission get together. Anko had drunk Mozuku under the table and then proceeded to pass out on top of Gai a few tables over, leaving Sakura alone with Neji.
It wasn't exactly surprising to Sakura that they had gotten to where they were. Out of all of the Konoha 11, Neji was the one she could relate to the most in some senses. Both their experiences as jounin were similar and even though their circumstances were vastly different, they both had to deal with a lot of family drama and learn how to break out of the mould set for them. Granted, Sakura had done her part of breaking free a bit more effectively but estranging herself from her parents wasn't something she could really be proud of, even if she didn't exactly regret it.
Sex with Neji had been… unexpected. The boy was usually so anal about everything in his life that she had half expected that she would have to take the lead lest the night be completely boring. But he had surprised her with a dominant side that seemed completely at odds with his personality. He hadn't been a virgin in any form but what he lacked in experience he more than made up with diligence.
Sakura allowed a small smirk to form on her lips while she quietly got up and gathered her things. Dawn was close and she knew that it would become progressively harder to leave the Hyuga compound undetected the longer she took. With a last look to where Neji laid naked, Sakura left.
She rushed to the outer walls in a quick shunshin and jumped them easily before landing softly on her feet on the other side. And came face to face with a man.
In her slightly hungover state, it took her a while to recognise the man in front of her but when she did, she could only blink at him.
"Keiichi."
Sakura blinked again and watched as comprehension slowly dawned on her student's handsome face. She was sure she looked like a mess with unbound hair, wrinkled clothes and bleary eyes. Sakura was also sure she had a hickey on her neck.
"Wolf-sensei!" Keiichi exclaimed, red rapidly blossoming across his pale cheeks.
"Shh!" Sakura hissed playfully, completely amused at his embarrassment. "It's Sakura out here, yeah?"
"Sakura-taichou!" He gulped and Sakura waved at him with a cheery smile before starting to move away.
"You continue your patrol, I'll see you around!" She jumped on the nearest tree. "Ja!"
Her ANBU workshops had continued only with longer periods of time between lessons. Sakura had felt the loss of working exclusively in the shadow ranks acutely but her missions so far hadn't been dull like she had half expected them to be. Her last mission certainly was eventful.
Sakura entered her house through her bedroom balcony and immediately went to shower. She got ready for the day as she normally would and headed downstairs for breakfast before it was even seven in the morning. Tsunade was drinking tea on their kitchen table.
"You didn't come home last night." Tsunade smirked at her with tired eyes and Sakura rolled hers in response before moving to get her own breakfast and tea. "So? Who was it?"
"It's someone who's none of your nosy business, that's who," Sakura answered and huffed when Tsunade stole her toast in retaliation.
"C'mon, brat, the most fun I had this week was betting against myself how long it would take for that Koharu hag to notice I was drunk during our meetings." Tsunade rolled her eyes and pouted around her bite of stolen toast. "You went on an extremely complex mission and didn't sleep in your own bed on your first night here, there has to be some kind of gossip there."
Sakura drank her tea thoughtfully. She wouldn't exactly call the mission extremely complex. Layered, maybe. Exciting, definitely.
Their four-man team had been sent to Iwa to find out what kind of information a group of rogues had on one of the Fire daimyo's richer lords. Although Anko was the more experienced one, Sakura had a higher rank so she had ultimately taken the lead on the mission. Leading a team of jounin was certainly different than leading her ANBU team but she had adapted and made sure to take Anko's years of expertise into account.
It was total bullshit that the woman hadn't been made team captain just because she was a tokubetsu jounin but Sakura knew that Tsunade likely had no choice but to push for it. The whole reason for taking her out of ANBU was so that she could be seen as a worthy heir to the Senju line and that wouldn't be possible if her name wasn't being shown on mission reports. It still was bullshit and Sakura felt bad for Anko.
The mission, however, had been great. They had followed their intel to their compound then waited until they could single out the leader in his usual pub where Sakura had used her training with Team Ro to seduce him and get him alone. Then, Anko and Mozuku had taken over, performing a bout of on-field interrogation that looked like art to Sakura's eyes and discovering the information the group had was deadly to the lord's business and reputation.
So they waited just before dawn to obliterate the compound with the help of Kaede. As usual, Kaede and Sakura had left the place dripping blood, but long had gone the days where that had bothered her. Although the sight of her had made both Neji and Mozuku slightly green and made a smirk appear on Anko's face.
Sakura thought sadly that she already missed working with her team. It had only been a couple of months but she had barely seen any of them and even though her missions so far had been okay, she really missed them. With a resolute nod of her head that made Tsunade raise her eyebrows at her, Sakura promised herself that she would get the group together at least twice a month to get shitfaced together.
Then, she let herself be the tiniest bit excited for what was to come.
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Sakura stretched her arms over her head and cracked her neck before moving back to where her team had made camp, Kaede trotting silently at her side. It had felt weird to sleep through the day before making their way through the sand at night but it was a necessary evil both to avoid detection and to conserve their energies. They were very much in the middle of the desert during summertime.
Six months had gone by and Sakura had mostly stopped taking only missions with rookie jounin and tokujo. She was seeing Team Ro much less than she wanted to but they had continued to be heavily involved in dealings inside the village so it was fine to meet up once in a while even if Sakura barely had time for that. She had stayed in the village maybe a few weeks in all this time.
"There she is, our own Sakura-hime," yelled Kiba when she came into view, "The Red Wolf of Konoha."
Sakura rolled her eyes and sighed deeply before accepting the rations he offered her. This mission had been commissioned by the Kazekage himself to help eliminate a gang of rogue ninja from both their nations that had situated themselves smack in the middle of Wind Country territory. They were coordinating with a three-man group of Suna nin lead by Temari's sensei, Baki, and two others that Sakura didn't recognise.
Sakura was once again taking lead on a mission with people much more experienced than her, namely Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mom and a Konoha tokujo. Her daughter Hana was also present and Kiba completed their four-man unit. Personally, Sakura thought it was careless to send the whole family to a dangerous mission seeing as Tsume was the clan heir and so were her children, but she didn't argue when the woman had snarled at the Hokage.
"The pup needs to learn what a real battlefield looks like, he's coming with us."
Intel wasn't exactly good on this mission and they had estimated thirty lower to mid ranked ninja in the rogue's camp but there was a large possibility that it would be more so the ninja and their pack had been deployed in case they needed more numbers than Suna could afford to pay for. Originally, this mission would have gone to Kakashi but he was currently working on an undercover ANBU mission in Iwa, so Sakura had been chosen to lead.
She didn't bother sitting down with her team and simply ate her rations as she walked towards where the Suna nin had situated themselves.
"We have a pretty good grasp on their scent, they're exactly ten kilometres east of here, I say we move and surround them as soon as your men have their rest." Sakura didn't waste any time with pleasantries and she knew Baki appreciated it by the look on his face.
"We leave in half an hour. You take the North, we take South?" he asked.
"Sounds good." Sakura nodded and then offered him a sharp smile that was already tinted with the anticipation of a fight. "Good luck out there, Baki-san."
"You too, Sakura-hime." Baki nodded and turned before he could see the small flinch Sakura had suppressed at hearing the name.
The wretched nickname had spread in Konoha and, ever since they left, Kiba had called her nothing else. Coupled with the fact that Tsunade had specifically said in her letter to Gaara that she would be sending her apprentice to deal with their problem and her entry in Suna's bingo book, the Suna nin had taken to calling her Sakura-hime or the Red Wolf much to her chagrin.
Sakura went back to her team and informed them of their plans after Hana forcibly snatched her mother before she could throttle Kiba for something he'd said. Kaede was eating a raw rabbit at her left as she finished up and snarled when the other's ninken tried to approach it.
"Tsume-san, I want you and Kiba to take four of my summons and stay on my left when we attack. I'll take the right side with two others and Hana-san, you'll protect our backs and serve as support for any injuries." Sakura explained her plan and told them what they should expect of her summon's abilities. Hana was an expert veterinary medical nin chunin and would serve to heal her family in a pinch.
"You'll be heavily outnumbered," Tsume said, a frown on her face.
Sakura smiled slowly at the woman and felt her body hum with the prospect of a good fight. Her chakra heightened senses and the way her teammates were so feral had greatly influenced her and she felt like the lines between animal and human were blending quite dangerously in this mission. Tsume's vertical pupils expanded and her wild hair looked more like a mane in the moonlight as she grinned back at her.
"Don't worry, Tsume-san, I can handle myself." Sakura got up and lightly punched Kiba in the shoulder. "Ready? Let's kick some ass so you get bragging rights when we go back home."
The boy grinned at her and Akamaru barked. Kiba was at times way too loud for Sakura but she knew him to have a big heart and this mission had shown her that he had an appreciation and respect for women that was completely unexpected and further endeared him to her, so she made an effort to keep his spirits up whenever she could. The idiot reminded her of Naruto so much it hurt to think about it.
Sakura didn't summon the whole pack when it was time to go. Tamotsu and Kaede would be enough to back her up and the twins, Hotaka and Kimi would have Kiba and Tsume's back. They moved in a quick dash through the desert until they reached the rogue camp.
It was bigger than they expected, definitely more than forty ninja, but Sakura could feel that the chakra signatures weren't exactly strong, some of them could even be civilian mercenaries. They knew they couldn't possibly sneak up with only sand around them for miles but they didn't need the element of surprise when their skill vastly surpassed their enemy's.
That wasn't to say it had been an easy mission. Even though they had the help of their wolves and dogs, they were heavily outnumbered and some on their ranks had gotten injured. As was Suna's policy, they left no one alive.
Kiba had thrown up when the last man fell.
On their way back to the village, Sakura asked Tamotsu to go with them and help carry Akamaru and one of Hana's three brothers ninken who had been injured in the battle. Kiba had been almost chakra exhausted at one point and despite Sakura having healed him, had to climb with the ninken on Tamotsu's back for most of the way back.
They entered Konoha's gates, Tsume and Hana mounted on their summons on either side of Sakura who was riding Kaede's back and Tamotsu carrying the rest of their team. Sakura waved cheerily at Kotetsu and Izumo at the gates but didn't pause to say hello before continuing on her way.
That night, after she had said her goodbyes to her team and delivered her report, Sakura took a quick shower, left her red haori at the cleaners to get rid of the bloodstains and headed for the bar. According to her quick look at the mission roster, Team Gai had been scheduled to return that afternoon and she was sure she would be able to find—
There he was.
One look at Neji from across the bar was enough for him to give a slight nod and for them to come to an understanding. Sakura drank a single glass of whisky and made her way to the Hyuga compound towards the lower branch housing. Keiichi was once again patrolling the gates like he usually did whenever inside the village, but he didn't stop her when she climbed over the wall, he simply waved and wished her a goodnight. Sakura's laugh was tiny but it still echoed in the night.
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"Are you absolutely sure he's in there?" Sakura asked Kaoru and the old wolf huffed in annoyance. It was a stupid question, really, there wasn't anyone better at tracking prey through their smell as Kaoru. She silently petted his fur and thanked him through their connection.
She was deep into Wave territory, following a lead on a teenage boy that had run away from home. He was the heir to one of Fire's lords and had left as soon as his father had set up an arranged marriage with a girl he didn't know and now Sakura was following his lead into Wave. Not only that but straight into a rogue ninja compound.
Whatever the fuck the boy was even doing there.
Sakura sighed, thanked Kaoru once again before dismissing him and summoning both Kaede and Chika. She would have to infiltrate the place right then to use the nighttime to her favour. Chika would hide Kaede and herself in a genjutsu while Sakura used her own technique that made her into a literal ghost. She would get in, take the boy by force if she had to, get the fuck out. Kaede would be there for backup if something went wrong.
The wolves were already hidden in Chika's crafty genjutsu and she was just about to do the same when she felt the chakra signature behind her. It was almost too late for her to block a stray of senbon with her tanto.
Sakura quickly pivoted to watch the two men in front of her. Both had blue hair but one was significantly younger than the other, around her age if she had to guess, and on his back was—
It was Hiramekarei.
Like the good little nerd that Sakura was, she had done some extensive research on the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist after their disastrous first mission outside the village and she had made sure to catalogue everything in her head. The sword currently strapped to the boy's back was one of the Seven Swords used by the elite group and the only one that Kiri still had in their possession. Well, that they knew off, of course, because unbeknownst to them, Team 7 had placed Kubikiribocho in an unmarked grave on one of Wave's many shores.
The blue eyed boy-man holding it could only be Chojuro of the Mist.
"State your business, Konoha-nin," the older man said, his voice firm and nonsensical and by his getup, she figured he was some type of hunter-nin. His way of dressing was close to what Haku had used, the only thing missing was the ANBU mask and in its place was a dark eyepatch.
Sakura sighed at the complication and pocketed her tanto before slowly raising her hand in a cheeky wave.
"I don't mean any trouble, hunter-nin-san." She gave him her most disarming smile and was rewarded with the slightest of blushes on Chojuro's cheeks. "I'm here on a mission to retrieve a runaway from Fire. Civvie business, I'm afraid."
She didn't question how he knew she was from Konoha even from behind, the red haori was enough giveaway. The pink hair not exactly inconspicuous either. Besides, Chojuro wasn't just anyone in Kiri and if he was sent on a mission, it must have been important and this guy with him had probably as much importance inside the village.
"Why wasn't the Mizukage informed of this?" The man's voice wasn't exactly snappish but it held a superiority tinged with annoyance that made her narrow her eyes slightly at him. "This little stunt of yours may cost us a very important mission."
"Ao…" Chojuro trailed off uncomfortably, shuffling his feet a bit. Ao's face immediately soured and Sakura intervened before he could say anything.
"I'm assuming you're after the rogue nin compound?" Sakura asked. "I can help you with that if you want."
"This isn't any of your business." Ao narrowed his sole eye at her. "We don't need help from any of Konoha's dogs. You couldn't take the way we do things."
Sakura's chakra spiked in response, her grin turning sharper, more threatening. She didn't want an international incident to happen because of pettiness, though, so she tried to reel it in. Kaede, however, had other plans. From where he was still hidden with Chika, the now fully grown wolf growled and snarled in response.
"It's wolf, actually," Sakura said, her voice lower. Then she took a deep calming breath, put her hand on top of Kaede's seemingly transparent muzzle and rolled her eyes a bit. "I don't want a fight, okay? The reason the Mizukage wasn't informed is because the Hokage wasn't either. When I got this mission the boy was still in Fire Country territory and I just wanna grab him and get the fuck out of here as soon as possible. I won't compromise your mission."
"You're the Red Wolf of Konoha, aren't you?" Chojuro asked meekly. "The Hokage's apprentice."
Sakura smiled sweetly at him and gave him a little wave.
"It's nice to meet you, Chojuro-san." He seemed surprised to be recognised and the little smile he gave in response made Sakura's turn more genuine. "I can get in, grab the kid and get out without being detected. That's if you really don't want my help. We don't want an international situation on our hands now, do we?"
"What do you mean, girl?" Ao asked and the way he said girl made her hackles rise. She didn't give him much of a reaction, though, simply shrugged.
"The kid is the heir to one of our more influential lords," she said.
"Oh," Chojuro breathed and Ao cursed under his breath.
"We still don't need your help. You get him and get out." Ao closed his eye for a few seconds before looking back at her. "He's on the southern part of the compound. I'll follow behind you to make sure nothing happens. Chojuro, you attack from the north."
He was a sensor-nin, then. Neat. Even though he had basically said that he would follow her to make sure she didn't fuck anything up, Sakura was excited to move already. She had done a few exciting missions in the six months since that joint one with Suna but most of them had been boring bodyguarding and transporting jobs that required her name on the paper. She wondered if she'd be able to get some action that night.
"Well, it was nice meeting you both." She sent them a cheeky salute and then covered herself with her genjutsu, matching her chakra signature to that of a bug crawling on the forest floor. "Ja ne."
Chojuro's gasp was satisfying but more than that was the way Ao's eye seemed to almost bug out of his head. Sakura watched as he did a few hand signs before making eye contact with her again even though she was sure he couldn't possibly see her. With a suspicious look towards his eyepatch, Sakura moved. He was definitely hiding something.
The mission was boring, as she expected. She managed to get some sneaky action in, killing the sentinels she came across and the nin guarding the lord's heir. Turns out the kid had actually been kidnapped in a port town somewhere in Wave. Idiot.
Sakura killed a few more of the nin on her way out, the boy unconscious and hung over her shoulder. Kaede's howls and growls could be heard over the sound of the screaming men in the compound. It seemed fitting that it had been a full moon.
She was walking with the boy medically induced asleep on Kaede's back when she realised she was close to where they had buried Haku and Zabuza. It was a quick detour in which she sent them both a quiet prayer and put Kubikiribocho on a sealing scroll before heading back to her own country. That Ao guy had seemed like a misogynist tool and if she chose to take back the famed sword as a private middle finger, no one would know.
Technically, it should have been Team 7's anyway and what Kiri never knew they had they couldn't miss.
By the time Sakura got home, rumours had already reached Konoha's gossip vine. She gave her report, changed and went to see if she could find Neji around the village for the night. When she went back to the Senju Estate the next morning, Tsunade and Shizune were waiting for her with a full breakfast and sake of all things.
A Mist Bingo Book laid open on their kitchen table. Ghost Wolf, S-Rank, Flee on Sight.
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Genma signalled from a tree across to where Sakura was perched on a thick branch. Five minutes until contact. Sakura immediately weaved a complex genjutsu on the road between them designed to make humans and animals alike stop in their tracks. With an annoyed sigh, she felt the chakra signatures of their babysitters flickering in response to her use of chakra.
Genma and Sakura had left on a two-man team to assassinate the leader of a caravan of smugglers that operated between Fire and Lightning. The Raikage had been wholly unhelpful when dealing with the thieves so when Tsunade had gotten a proposal from a lord in Lightning to assassinate the leader of the group, she had immediately sent Genma and Sakura, arguably two of the best assassins in Konoha.
Of course, nothing was simple. The caravan's route was known to come very close to Kumogakure and the Raikage refused to let them anywhere near their village borders without proper surveillance. So he had sent two of his own elite to "help".
Darui and C had met up with them in a ryokan near their designed assassination point and had properly blended in as civilians like Genma and Sakura had. And that was the extent of their helpfulness in the mission so far.
Sakura found out she didn't hate Darui, to her surprise. The Kumo nin was easygoing and agreeable even if he seemed to be following C's lead on not engaging in their mission much. His personality reminded Sakura of Hideki and Misaki. Playful and light. It seemed like he had perfected the art of keeping tension from rising and that was a useful skill to have if someone had C as a partner.
C was a cocky bastard.
Sakura was sure some people would say that he was only a serious guy who knew the extent of his abilities but she would have to strongly disagree. From the moment they had met up, he had been antagonistic. She was pretty sure he had called her a Konoha bitch at one point during a veiled conversation.
It was such a pity too because he was one of the most gorgeous men Sakura had ever met with his full lips, straight nose and blond hair. Not even getting into the fact that he was a combat medic nin, a sensor type and proficient in genjutsu. The man was basically her in male form and she would never admit how much of a turn on that could be. If only he could keep his pretty mouth shut.
Sakura was shaken out of her reveries by the arrival of the caravan. As soon as they reached her layered genjutsu, the procession stopped. Genma and Sakura moved.
There weren't many people, sixteen at most with only five of them being proficient ninja and the others merely mercenaries. Still, the ninja weren't exactly inexperienced and Genma and Sakura would need the element of surprise to carry out their mission.
Their target was inside one of the carriages, a middle aged mercenary who wasn't exactly powerful but had a lot of money to hire rogue nin to do his dirty work. The plan was to first incapacitate the ninja before they could break out of her genjutsu and then move on.
Sakura, hidden in her usual genjutsu and chakra suppression combo, watched as Genma hit one of the ninja on his vital points with senbon and moved to engage her own target. He was a young preteen, maybe ten or eleven at most. His dark skin contrasted with his light brown hair and blue eyes and Sakura felt a distant pang at having to kill someone as young as him even if he was a missing nin.
Sakura moved her tanto to slash at his throat but a second before she made contact, his blue eyes snapped to hers. In a move that would have been too fast for Sakura to see if she hadn't augmented her eyesight with chakra, the kid ducked under her swipe and grabbed her wielding arm in a tight fist.
The reaction was instant.
Sakura suddenly lost all control of her chakra as if was forced back into her tenketsu. All of them. Her scream echoed in the clearing as her genjutsu dropped and she lost control of every single thing her chakra had been enhancing.
Her heartbeat quickened, her muscles, eyes and nose stopped receiving stimuli and her very balance shifted. The kid used her momentary lapse to attack her with his katana and Sakura barely had any presence of mind to dodge.
"Sakura!" She heard Genma scream from the other side of the road as she fell on her ass in her hurry to avoid getting her guts spilt on the floor, dropping her tanto in the process. She hadn't been fast enough and the boy had managed a shallow gash that crossed from her hip bone to the centre of her ribs.
The sight of her blood spilling on the floor was so jarring. Inner was confusedly trying to access their chakra, images kept popping in her head of her first C-Ranked mission and then her first one as a chunin, Ino's blood warm on her face.
Sakura remembered suddenly what Kakashi had said during their first meeting with Haku. There were kids out there younger than what they had been at the time that were stronger than Kakashi. This boy clearly had a kekkei genkai, much like Haku did.
The good news was that she could use his young age to her advantage. No matter how much of a prodigy he was, he still didn't have enough time alive to completely master his technique. Inner was already managing to at least get a feel of her chakra again, even if she couldn't quite access it yet.
Sakura was still very much close to panicking. The kid was fast and Genma was on the other side of the road, quickly being overwhelmed by the other four ninja. She knew he could handle himself but by the sounds of the battle on his side, things weren't pretty.
Where the fuck are those guys? Sakura thought desperately. She couldn't see a way out of this without having their backup take over.
Sakura dodged again and again, her speed naturally faster than that of a normal civilian thanks to Lee's training but it was no match for the boy's chakra enhanced muscles. He was much faster than her but Sakura was the more experienced fighter and that was the only thing keeping her alive.
She had just managed to dodge another swipe of his katana, her tanto laid forgotten on the ground where she had dropped it, when she saw on the corner of her eyes that Genma had fallen.
"Genma!" Sakura yelled desperately, completely disregarding her fight in her rush to try and get over to him.
The boy had readied himself to cut off her head at the same time as the other enemy ninja raised his sword to attack Genma. In the next second, when she had already conformed herself that their babysitters were just going to watch them die, Darui parried the boy's katana with his own at the same time C took the other ninja's arm out with a sharp lightning jutsu.
Darui slit the boy's throat without a second thought and moved to help his partner and Sakura felt fury rising inside her, making her belly churn.
Inner had managed to slowly open her tenketsu back up, but the trickle was small and her control shaky. It didn't matter because she didn't need her chakra to deal with the mercenaries around them. Despite her injuries, Sakura moved quickly and dispatched the civilian mercenaries with a ruthlessness and aggression she hadn't really revealed in a long time.
By the time she reached their intended target, she had several blood splatters on herself and the little weasel was trying to escape through the woods. Sakura relieved him of his head without blinking.
When she made it back towards where she had left Genma and the others, she was panting heavily with the effort it had taken her weak form. C was healing a nasty gash on Genma's shoulder and Darui was—he was sealing the boy's body in a scroll.
"You were here for him." It didn't sound like her voice. It sounded more like Inner when she was showing dark things and leaking killing intent. Darui frowned at the scroll in his hands.
"We heard a rumour, but we weren't sure he would be here," he said after a beat.
"Were you waiting to see how good he was before helping us?" she accused in a hiss.
C got up from where he had crouched next to Genma and helped him up as well before turning towards her, one hand on his hip.
"We were ordered to only intervene if the boy tried to escape and—" C began speaking but Sakura didn't let him finish. She stalked up to him and grabbed him by the neck of his shirt, bringing his face down to her level so she could snarl at him.
"We almost died!"
"Don't take this personally, Sakura-hime," C tried to appease her. "The mission directori—"
This time Sakura interrupted him with a fist on his face.
Despite the fact that her anger wasn't completely gone and she would like nothing more than to pummel the bastard into the ground, she didn't go further. Darui had made no move to interfere and Genma had simply moved to her side, letting his arm brush hers comfortingly.
Sakura flinched, her hand clutching around the fabric of her belly that was heavily stained with blood. She had almost forgotten about the gash there.
"I can heal you," C offered, his tone more subdued as he wiped the blood from his mouth.
He wasn't stupid and neither was Darui. She knew the two of them weren't causing trouble because in fact she and Genma could have died and there was no way this would have turned out okay for Kumo. The Raikage's most trusted ninja letting the Hokage's apprentice and heir and one of the guards at the Hokage Platoon die on a mere technicality of a mission directory.
Sakura didn't dignify him with an answer and instead offered Genma a roll of gauze for him to help her bandage herself. She closed the haori over herself, using the extra fabric to further staunch the blood flow before wrapping the bandages around her belly like an obi.
It was crude but the injury wasn't that serious and she was sure her chakra would come back soon enough.
They moved silently through the caravan turned graveyard, picking up gold and precious stones as they went and splitting everything up without talking much. Sakura had expected them to make the journey back to Kumo immediately but the duo surprised her by offering to pay for another night at the ryokan they had been staying at.
Sakura shrugged her shoulders, not caring either way that Genma said yes.
They were assholes for not stepping in earlier but they had pulled through in the end and she was sure she and Genma would have been in a whole lot of trouble if they hadn't been there.
Besides, Sakura didn't see the point in holding grudges against foreign ninja she would surely have to deal with again in the future.
The four of them made their way inside the ryokan through the front door, their cover as civilians properly blown. The old lady at the counter paled considerably at the sight of them and Sakura feared she would pass out but then Darui was stepping forwards with a seal from the Raikage himself and suddenly they were being ushered towards the daimyo suite, their clothes being taken to wash up so they could have fresh ones in the morning.
Sakura exchanged a glance with Genma, both of them now in oversized yukata provided by the ryokan. They both knew that they were being buttered up but none were eager to call the other duo out. She smiled a bit at him, glad to see he was completely okay.
Sakura was sure that this kind of treatment wouldn't have been extended if it was up to the Raikage. She was glad that the man's possible successors would be men that cared about foreign relationships a little bit more. Even if she wasn't exactly ready to call either of them friends. They were still technically allies.
Sakura left the three of them to eat the banquet that was being set out for them and moved towards her private room in search of a bathroom to clean herself up. She had taken most of the blood off when she had changed into the yukata but she still felt somewhat crusty and her injury was in dire need of some proper cleaning and bandaging.
She hopped in and out of the shower quickly, not wanting to waste any time before she could go eat something. Standing in front of the counter, Sakura observed her injury in the mirror and tried to move her chakra to regenerate the cells there.
The process was slow but infinitely better than it had been a few hours ago. She had managed to clot most of the wound when she felt a chakra signature flare outside of the bathroom and then the door was opening.
Ah, so this is how it's going to be, she thought and Inner smirked in the back of her mind.
Sakura covered herself with the yukata just as C came into the bathroom. She raised an eyebrow at him at his lack of worry about waiting for her response before coming in but he simply shrugged, the self assured look on his face diminished but not gone.
"You're going to stop being stubborn and I'm going to heal you." C frowned at her and Sakura felt her heartbeat speed up in anticipation.
She wouldn't hold a grudge, no, that didn't mean that she wasn't still fucking pissed and even looking at his self-assured face made her stomach clench in anger. Sakura turned to look at him, a snarl on her lips tied to a curt dismissal.
"I don't need your fucking help—mph!" Sakura was cut off by C's lips crashing into hers.
The kiss was harsh and punishing and it took less than a second for Sakura to respond in kind. She wasn't surprised. Despite his overall asshole-y personality, his eyes had lingered more than once and she knew what these kinds of missions meant sometimes.
He could be doing this to further endear her to make her forget what had happened earlier or he was simply letting himself enjoy the fact that she was someone who he wouldn't have to see everywhere around the village and that he found attractive. Sakura didn't care either way.
At the moment, he was a strong body pressing her against the counter and kissing her senseless. She had more than enough experience with these kinds of dealings outside the village to know that she could take as much as she wanted with him, no complications needed.
So when she noticed after he leaned back that he had gathered medical chakra in his hand, she pushed into her tiptoes, grabbed a handful of his silky blond hair and pulled him back to her. She didn't want his healing.
Sakura didn't let him take control of this kiss and instead pushed her own tongue inside his mouth to find his before retreating just long enough to give his lower lip a bruising bite. The groan that action ripped from his throat was positively delicious.
C might have been a bit of an asshole but he sure was good to look at through the mirror, pushing into her from behind and knowing exactly what he was doing. Sakura left the bathroom some time later feeling pleasantly sated and ready to eat and then pass out. She had let him heal what was left of her wound after all and she couldn't help but think that the look of surprise on his face when he noticed that she had mostly healed herself had brought her great joy.
She woke up early the next morning, before the sun had even risen on the horizon. She made her way to Genma's room and quietly ruffled through his things before she found a crumpled pack of cigarettes at the bottom of his pack.
Genma wasn't one to smoke often but he always kept a pack in his mission things in case he needed a cover as a civilian, his oral fixation always taking the better of him and the extra bout of nicotine a nice reprieve every once in a while.
Sakura opened his door leading outside and quickly climbed the roof, immensely glad her chakra had gone back to normal. She had only taken a few drags of the cigarette before Genma hoisted himself up to join her.
"Had fun tasting the foreign fruit, Petal?" Genma smirked at her and Sakura snorted, shaking her head slightly before offering him a drag.
"He was acceptable." She shrugged and gave him a wink when he laughed and passed the cigarette back after indulging.
Genma yawned and scrubbed his hand on his face before sliding them up to collect his hair into a short ponytail. Sakura hadn't bothered with any type of getting ready before going there and she didn't even want to take a glance at a mirror at the moment.
She stubbed out the cigarette on the roof tile beside her and leaned her head on his shoulder. Genma brought her closer and the two of them sighed quietly.
"We almost died." Admitting it somehow didn't bring as much anxiety as she had expected.
"Yeah," Genma agreed. He took a senbon from somewhere and placed it between his teeth.
"We were careless." Sakura sighed. They should have asked for more information on the ninja guarding the caravan before following through with the mission. She didn't know if they had been cocky or just unlucky but someone with a lesser level and experience than them would have probably prepared themselves better for this mission.
"No use thinking about it now, Blossom." He shrugged a bit, dislodging her from her place briefly before pulling her closer. "It's over, we're alive. You got your 'hurray-I-didn't-die' bout of sex so when we go home I expect you to be a nice wingwoman and get me someone to say 'hurray' for me, deal?"
Sakura laughed, something in her heart unclenching as they sat there together and watched the sun rise.
Their conversation turned towards their friends back home and the latest gossip they had to catch each other up on. Sakura had been spending more time outside the village ever since she started taking mostly jounin missions a year and a half ago. She usually managed to get around five days inside in which she trained, taught at the workshops and tried to meet up with her friends but things were busy.
Whispers of the Akatsuki had been growing more and more across the nations and everyone was in high alert. Being in such important positions, she hadn't seen a single strand of Kakashi's hair in about a year. Their schedules always pushed in different directions.
She made a point to always water Mr. Ukki and clean out his fridge whenever she could, sometimes even leaving some dog treats on his counter. It wasn't much but she knew it was appreciated whenever she found a new pack of exploding tags or senbon with a henohenomoheji scribbled on them on top of her dresser when she came back from missions.
With the Akatsuki being so openly active lately, Sakura wondered if it wouldn't be smarter to bring Naruto back home. They weren't so spread thin anymore six months shy of four years after the Konoha Crush. The village was beginning to prosper once again, they had the means and the money to survive an attack.
She wished Tsunade managed to convince the council that bringing him back now would be the best alternative. There was also the fact that they had an impending Uchiha problem just waiting to happen.
Sasuke had probably some more training time before moving to kill Itachi but if it was up to Sakura, they'd have contacted the older Uchiha ages ago. Tsunade was trying to play it safe, keeping her hand close to herself when it came to Danzo but, while Sakura agreed with that, Uchiha Itachi was still a Konoha nin that had been abandoned by his village long enough.
She wanted to help him. And she wanted to bring Sasuke home.
Sakura closed her eyes, feeling the soft sunshine on her skin and thinking about how much it reminded her of Naruto. She sighed, a sad smile spreading across her lips. She hoped Team 7 could reunite soon.
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Sakura was weaving her fingers expertly through her long hair, meticulously braiding it, when Tsunade burst into her room. She harrumphed loudly, almost petulantly, before letting her body fall backwards on top of Sakura's newly acquired settee. She had wanted a cosy reading corner for quite sometime and had finally managed to find some time to go shopping for it with Ino the week before.
"I'm late already," Sakura said, looking at her master through the mirror. "I won't help you with any more work today."
"The elders are driving me crazy!" she exclaimed and Sakura snorted when she rolled her eyes. "And that incredibly stupid Hyuga Hiasi is butthurt that a Nara and a Yamanaka hold so much power. You really shouldn't be shacking up with one of those stuck-ups, pasty-eyed bastards."
"Shishou." Sakura rolled her eyes. Tsunade never really had a problem with her seeing Neji for the past five months or so. She asked once if they were dating and Sakura had just raised an eyebrow. It wasn't simple like that.
Sakura had with Neji what she liked to think as a mutually beneficial partnership where they each took care of the other's needs, mostly when they'd just come back from missions. He was a nice distraction and thoroughly exhausted her whenever she needed to shut down after a particularly brutal mission.
She liked him, that much was obvious to her. He was ridiculously pretty and made her feel great with the way he worshipped her body. Even though they had first hooked up around two years ago, it had only been a little over five months since they had made their interactions a more constant thing.
Things with him were easy and they were light and just what she needed.
"That annoying Hyuga brat is going to side with the Elders because I didn't put anyone from his clan on the Council." Tsunade stretched out further and glared at the ceiling.
Sakura knew she had been working nonstop since that night they spent awake planning and plotting and scheming. Shizune had taken some of the load off her shoulders, taking full responsibility for the hospital and Sakura helped where she could when she wasn't on a mission but still. It was a lot to take on. She turned to her shishou with a determined expression.
"Look, start spreading the word that Shikaku-sama was chosen because of his position as Jounin Commander and Inoichi-ojisan because he's head of Intelligence." She bit her lip in thought and looked away when she felt Tsunade's heavy gaze on her. "Maybe you can put Ibiki-san next, to throw their scents off… And Toshio next. Make their place at the Council a staple to whoever occupies those positions."
"Maybe…" Tsunade had a faraway look on her face when Sakura looked back at her.
With a decisive nod, Sakura turned around to strap her pouches on. The idea was planted and now was the time to let her shishou decide what she wanted to do with it.
"Also," Sakura threw over her shoulder as an afterthought, "maybe it's time Hyuga Hiashi be reminded that the Hokage is deliberately choosing to overlook the slavery going on inside his clan."
It was a risky move, that's for sure. Tsunade was beginning to get on the elder's nerves and she still had a lot of work cut out for her but they had a goal to make their village a better place and they had to stay firm on the path towards it. Sakura smiled softly at her shishou when their eyes met and she saw something like pride shining in them. They would do what was right. Together.
For now, though, there wasn't much Sakura could do so she winked at the older woman and prepared to leave only for Tsunade to stop her.
"I need you to report for a briefing tomorrow. 0600 at Usui's office." Tsunade frowned at the ceiling. "We have some Akatsuki rumours that we need to do some digging on. It'll probably be a two-part mission, one with Team Ro and then another jounin-only squad."
Sakura frowned at Tsunade. A two tiered mission like that only meant one thing. They'd be working on the shadows to discover information for a mission that had to be seen in the light.
"A jounin-only squad? That seems important." Sakura cocked her head at her shishou and the older woman sighed heavily before getting up.
"We won't know much until Team Ro does their digging but if it is what we think it is, we're putting a few squads to handle it. I want you to be on the jounin team."
"Who else do you have geared up to go?" Sakura asked, wondering already if she should cancel her night with Neji.
"For the jounin team I want you to work with Kakashi and Asuma. The ANBU unit is up to Usui, they'll probably serve as backup." Tsunade squeezed her shoulders and shook her playfully a bit before shooing her with her hands. "Now go along, don't worry about this for now. Tomorrow you get that big brain of yours working, tonight you do a different type of workout."
Sakura barked a laugh and winked goodbye at her shishou before disappearing in a shunshin.
By the time she got to the Hyuga compound, she was already really late. Neji was supposed to be back from his solo A-rank at sundown and it was already a few hours post that. No matter, Sakura smirked, she would make up for it.
Sakura gave Keiichi a cheeky wave as she climbed the wall, wondering idly if he'd be on her team in the morning. With a slight shake of her head, Sakura shook any thoughts of missions away. She would focus on the night ahead of her and nothing else.
Sakura climbed through his window silently, her chakra half suppressed as always. The shower was running and steam was coming out of the door. It was left slightly open and she knew it was because he wanted her to join him.
His hair ran down his back like silk, his head hung as he leaned his arms against the wall. Still without making a sound, Sakura began to strip languorously as she appreciated his water slicked muscles.
There was a large gash on his thigh and her hand went immediately towards it when she stepped up behind him, her chakra mingling with his as she coached the cells there to regenerate. Neji sighed softly and leaned back against her minutely.
"You're late." His voice was soft and deep and it sent a shiver down Sakura's spine.
"Hmm," she hummed against the skin of the back of his neck. "I'm pretty sure Shishou keeps sending you to these long missions just to get back at me for that one time I managed to punch her in the gut," Sakura snickered as she finished healing his wound.
There was a tiny smile on his face when he turned his head to look at her, something soft on his milky white eyes that made her chest feel warm. She reached up slightly to kiss him on his cheek and stayed there as she whispered against it.
"Let me make it up to you."
It was easy to let her hand slip from the outside of his thigh towards the inside and slide it up, up, up until she heard the hitch of his breath and felt his suppressed groan through his back.
Sakura woke up naked with Neji's arm around her waist, pulling her closer when she shifted away. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. She was starting to feel a bit restless, having someone so close to her like that, but it still felt good in some ways.
"What time do you have to leave?" He pressed a kiss to the back of her neck and Sakura hummed appreciatively. She opened her eyes again to check the position of the moon.
"An hour," she sighed.
With that reminder, she gently disentangled herself from him and got up. She ran through a couple of stretches, enjoying how his gaze felt heavy on her skin before cracking her neck and started to put her clothes back on. She had her normal black clothes and red haori combo she usually wore around the village on and she was just finishing up tying her braid when Neji spoke.
"Do you think I could make it into ANBU?" His voice was hesitant in a way Sakura rarely heard it be and when she turned to look at him, Neji was resting with his hands behind his head, his gaze unfocused on the ceiling.
She knew where he was coming from.
While both of them had climbed the ranks faster than any of their friends, Neji felt he was being held back. In a way, it was true.
Gai had been against him taking the jounin test and Sakura had her suspicions that he was keeping Neji busy within his team so he didn't venture into more dangerous jounin-only missions.
Even though she understood his frustrations, Sakura couldn't help but think how lucky he was to have someone worry about him like that. Team Gai was truly a family even though Neji tried to distance himself from them sometimes.
Sakura smiled softly at him. She kneeled at his side on his futon and bent so she could kiss him slowly.
"I think," she whispered against his lips, "you have a great team and that you accomplish great things together."
"I could be more useful at the—" Sakura stopped him with her lips, kissing him more thoroughly so when she leaned back his cheeks were flushed.
"Your abilities are great for the shadow corps, that's true, but the teamwork you have with Team Gai is what the village really needs." She paused. "There's a reason we're put in such specific genin teams, Neji. ANBU is made for people like me. Don't throw what you have away."
Neji sat up, one of his hands grabbing gently at her elbow, his brows furrowed.
"I'm sorry." His voice was quiet and his face, while still flushed, was so worried Sakura felt something warm settle on her chest.
"Don't be," she said simply.
She was happy that he could have a family in Team Gai when his own family situation was so shitty. Even though they weren't dating in the traditional sense of the word, Sakura cared about Neji.
ANBU had been great for her but she was a hundred percent sure it was because she fell on Team Ro and Genma had made the effort to not make her feel alone. The fact that Toshio had kind of taken her under his wing as well had helped a lot. To be honest, Sakura missed working in ANBU as much as she did a couple of years back.
The jounin missions she took were almost never with the same team and quite often she was alone with her pack in high ranked solo missions. Sakura missed working with a unit that knew how she operated and could anticipate her moves because of countless missions taken together.
Sakura left soon after and before she made her way back home to quickly change into her ANBU uniform, she stopped at the Cenotaph.
She thought back to the day over four years ago that she had stood before the shiny stone and settled her nindo. She had been filled with despair, feeling completely alone and left behind.
How things have changed, she thought.
Sakura's eyes followed the carved characters on the stone familiarly. She stood before the memorial that day completely sure she had been doing everything in her power to follow through with her nindo. She had gotten stronger so she could protect her friends and ended up taking the village's future into her hands in the process.
The feelings of abandonment had dulled over the years but her earlier thoughts triggered by what Neji had said still echoed in her head. Sakura missed having a team. She missed Team 7. Hell, she missed Team Ro even though they weren't officially disbanded.
With a heavy sigh, she gave Inner all of her unhappy thoughts to put away in little boxes. Sakura stretched her arms over her head and did a few silly jumps to loosen up her limbs. She smiled sadly at the memorial stone one last time and shunshined towards HQ.
She had a mission to get to.
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I gotta be honest, I didn't think I'd manage to write all of this in just one chapter. Lol, it kept happening throughout the fic like, I'd think on a scene I really wanted to happen, then I'd sit down and write down in my notebook all the things that had to happen so I could get there and suddenly I had 30 chapters of character/world building and was nowhere near to what I had intended to write in the first place. This timeskip was supposed to have happened a few chapters after Sakura found out about the Uchiha Massacre. At the most.
Anyway, I regret nothing.
I know a lot of people don't read my hugeass AN all the way through (deadass don't blame them, they're ridiculously long and oftentimes pointless and filled with tmi) but I thought I'd do a lil something for the ones that do endure haha So, if you guys have any prompts to give me, I'd be more than happy to write a drabble or short one-shot about it! Just leave it in the comment section and I'll choose one or two! Thank you so much for sticking with me so far, it means the fucking world to me 3
Also! If you guys are interested in giving me a lil something in return, how about a nice review? Especially those lurkers out there, drop me a sentence! Tell me what you loved so far, what you'd like to see in the future, what you'd change in the fic if you could... This fic has like 81k hits (HOLY SHIT THAT'S A LOT WHAT THE FUCK) and over 571 favourites (WHAT? HOW? YOU GUYS ARE INSANE THANK YOU SO MUCH). Now, compare that to the number of reviews it has and keep in mind I almost always reply back (not this month cause you guys know I'm fucking buried in work but I'll catch up on it pretty soon!)... ya see what I mean? Fandom when I started out like almost ten years ago was soo much more active in the comment section! I hugely encourage you guys to bring back that part of our community back, I've been actively trying to do that myself. And like, I don't mean to say things like if you really appreciate this fic than you should be dropping really thought out reviews on every chapter! I'm a reader myself, I know sometimes I simply don't have the energy to drop even a single line even if I love the author and the story to bits. But I'm always thinking on how I can literally make that stranger's day just by pushing through that feeling sometimes and writing some nice words. I'm all about aggressively spreading positivity, y'all.
Anyway, I don't mean to sound preachy! I love you all so much and I'm incredibly grateful for all the support you guys show me. I really wouldn't be able to write this fic without it. So thank you for sticking with me so far! And welcome to the new faces I've been seeing ;)
Next chapter we finally get to what this fic was supposed to be about.
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