Ch: 24 New Shapes


Sakura

Sakura woke with a start. She was back in her room, in the luxurious king-sized bed that she'd been assigned, just as if she'd gone back to bed and fallen asleep all on her own. She knew she hadn't. She remembered every last detail from last night, right up until when she discovered the truth about Kurotsuchi. She closed her eyes and scanned her body. She wasn't attacked, she wasn't hurt. Nothing suggested genjutsu. And while she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her at this exact moment, there was no evidence to support that anything had gone wrong.

Sakura frantically moved to her pack to check her things. Her cover was most important. But inside her pack, her hands found Itachi's scroll with it's seal on it. It remained unbroken, and that was a relief.

Sakura hated this answer, but if she were a hospital patient she would have sent herself home with a case of exhaustion and paranoia. She began to make herself ready, and that's when she discovered a little note on her nightstand.

Haruno:

You missed your bed by 100 yards. We all have our strengths. Aim isn't yours.

Jun

Sakura broke into a grin. It looked like he'd also filled out one of the words on the crossword puzzle she had sitting out. It was a bold move, touching someone else's crossword puzzle. She was just glad it was Jun who found her and not a stranger.

Sakura saw from Naruto and Sasuke's open doors that they must've already been at the tower, so she hurried her steps towards the dining hall. Much of the decor from the previous night had been put away in favor of more ordinary furniture, which told Sakura everyone had resumed to normalcy.

There was Gado, looking square and big-nosed as usual, standing casually as he picked his teeth with a toothpick. There was also Yui, whose perfectly pale skin and blonde hair made Sakura feel the world was cruelly unjust for allowing someone to look so good this early in the morning. Yui was reading a report in her hands, doing her best to block out the sight and sounds of Gado next to her.

Different faces of Iwa-nin were now becoming familiar to Sakura, and she recognized a few from the night before. A group of them huddled around a square table, talking and smiling as they sipped on what she guessed was hot tea or coffee on stovetops set up by the servants.

"Sakura," she heard. She spotted orange pants. It was Naruto, and he was with Sasuke off to the side of the hall.

"Morning," she said, walking up to her teammates.

Sasuke was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, and staring ahead as if he was already bored. Always a ray of sunshine, that one. He nodded in recognition to her, which was actually not bad considering they'd been ignoring each other for two days.

"Sleep well?" Sakura asked.

"I was out," Sasuke replied flatly.

"Great," Sakura said. And that would be the end of that conversation.

Sakura took her place beside Naruto and leaned on the wall. She slid down it until she was sitting on the floor with her arms crossed and rested upon her knees.

"Konoha's still here?" a voice whispered.

"Yeah, they've been standing there all morning," said another.

"And too good to speak to anyone!"

She could hear the whispers about the three of them very well, as she suspected Naruto and Sasuke could as well. An entourage of Iwa-nin entered the hall from the opposite entrance, from where the Tsuchikage had taken his leave the previous night. This was followed by hurried footsteps and scattered hushing, which marked the start of official work.

Yui took a spot where Jun stood last night, at the top of the stairs. "Reporting," she announced. "Squadron 15 center."

Three Iwa-nin emerged, all kunoichi. They crouched in a straight line, bending one knee respectfully.

"Reporting classroom C," began the kunoichi on the far left. "13 of 15 on track to Genin by this month. Two inclined for recourse. No further report."

"Dismissed," Yui said.

"Classroom B", said the kunoichi in the middle. "14 of 15 on track to Genin by this month. One barred until further notice."

"Transfer the barred to Squadron 8. Undergo training for the generator until further notice," Yui replied. "Dismissed."

"Report from Classroom A," said the last kunoichi like clockwork. "15 of 16 on track to genin by this month. One evaluation and rapid track to Chunin requested, on grounds of affinity to lightning."

"Noted," Yui said, writing something in her binder. "Please submit your paperwork by the end of this week. Squadron 14 is still on mission. Squadron 13 left this morning. Squadron 12, center."

"When do you think we'll get our assignments?" Naruto whispered to Sakura.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "Jun told me to report here in the morning, but didn't say anything else."

"I'm hungry," he complained. "Think I could grab some of whatever's on the table over there?"

"Shh," Sakura hushed when she sensed a few eyes on them. "In a bit."

"But why does Sasuke get to do it?" Naruto asked, more whiny than before.

What? This broke Sakura's concentration and she looked up.

Sure enough, Sasuke was helping himself to a pot, his cup already steaming. Yui glanced over to him. Sakura wondered if she would be annoyed at Sasuke for not paying attention, but Yui said nothing.

"Anosa, anosa!" Naruto hissed to Sasuke. "Get me one, will ya?"

But before Naruto could get his fill, Sakura heard a soft voice say, "I was notified last night of my new assignment to orient our guests from Konohagakure."

This brought the onset of uncomfortable attention from everyone in the room.

"They're not leaving?!" someone shouted from behind.

Yui furrowed her eyebrows as she re-read the paperwork in her hands, an expression just short of tolerance crossing her pretty features. "This has to be a mistake."

"Whaaaat? Don't tell me Yui made a mistake!" called somebody else from the group beside Sakura. "Jodan, get this on paper!"

The whole group of them were now chuckling at Yui's expense. As they poked fun, Yui's cheeks began to glow a shade of rose as she fought to keep her composure. Sakura couldn't help but feel a little sympathy.

She, Sasuke, and Naruto moved from the side wall to front and center, kneeling as they'd seen the Iwa-nin do before them. Beside them was a Jonin Sakura recognized from last night, an artistic younger man who had long blue hair, wearing glasses which contributed to an air of intelligence. He waited patiently alongside Team 7 as all his colleagues around them continued to whine about how much longer Konoha stay.

"No mistakes have been made," a voice declared. The words were followed by an approaching clicking sound from heavy combat boots on stone.

Everyone stiffened when they realized their captain had arrived.

Sakura felt her eyes become alert, as if she'd just woken up from a night's slumber even though she'd already been awake for the last couple hours. Jun had done her many favors since yesterday, like setting them up comfortably in Iwa when no one else seemed to care. Or taking her back to her room without reporting that she'd been found too close to the Tsuchikage's quarters. She attributed her perky response to his arrival to the favors he'd done and nothing else.

"You are correct with your assignment Raito," Jun told the shinobi with blue hair. "As head of operations and logistics, you'll run orientation for our esteemed visitors and find appropriate work to cover three weeks worth."

A groan emerged from some of the shinobi behind them. "Three weeks?!"

Sakura felt a dozen resentful stares pricking the skin on the back of her neck like kunai. Not like we want to be here, either, she thought bitterly.

"Attention!" Jun shouted. His voice hit the farthest walls and flew back to Sakura's ears like a boomerang. It was foreign sounding, completely opposite to the fun and laid-back personality that she'd become acquainted with. As all the Iwa-nin in the hall shrank back, Sakura wondered if it was just her who knew the real Jun.

"Jodan, since you've been so vocal about this," Jun continued, "I thought you should know. The shinobi before you were not called here because they are ordinary. They were specifically requested by the Tsuchikage in hopes that we form a shinobi alliance unlike anything you've seen before. Together, our names will make history. You will either be a part of that or you won't."

"Y-yes," Jordan said quickly, every semblance of a smile wiped from his face. "Yes, sir!"

"The kunoichi before you is Sakura Haruno, the one and only apprentice of the famed Tsunade Senju, one of the Legendary Sannin," Jun said. "When Sakura was 15, she created the only known antidote to poison used by the Akatsuki and she defeated Sasori of the Sand in battle. I challenge my fellow Iwa-nin, which of you is so confident in your abilities that you can turn her help away?".

"What about me and Sasuke?" Naruto muttered under his breath in envy. Sakura did her best to hide the grin that threatened to take shape across her lips.

"Raito, dismissed," Yui said, resuming her normal routine.

None of the Iwa-nin dared to speak up after that, as if all their whining had been knocked out of their bodies in one fell swoop. Either that, or everyone understood that Konoha was to be welcomed unless they wanted to face the wrath of their captain.

The blue-haired nin beside Sakura nodded, pushing up his glasses as he turned to face her. "If you will follow me, please."

X

After snaking through halls in the Tsuchikage tower, Sakura and her teammates were brought to the entrance of an open room which appeared to be the brain of Iwa's operations. In front, Sakura found herself staring at a large matrix plastered over a board, peppered with various names and places and times she guessed were determined by the logistics team of Iwa. It was spectacularly complex, yet intricately organized to perfection.

Naruto's eyes were glazing over, and Sakura guessed it was his unfulfilled request for hot tea or pastries that was getting to him now.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was studying the matrix carefully, if not already completely aware of how it worked.

"I created this to keep track of our day-to-day activities," Raito said, again in his soft voice. "It's very simple to use, and it basically runs itself."

Sakura pictured him as an artist, each line on the matrix a fine stroke of a paintbrush as he blended details and created seamless integrations between them.

"Us Iwa-nin are taught to wear many hats from a young age," Raito continued. "Typically our jobs will change every day, but I've decided you are to keep one job for the duration of your stay, so choose wisely. Once you pick, you'll check in with the board after every shift to mark what you've finished. This way, the next person can pick up where you left off."

"Got it," Sakura said.

"So what are the jobs then?" Naruto asked.

"And payment terms?" Sasuke added.

"The available jobs are in the first column," Raito explained. "We've discussed that you will be paid 30% here upon completion. The rest will be sent to Konoha".

"Really?! This is awesome!" Naruto said. "We usually get paid way after."

There might as well be dollar signs in his eyes, Sakura thought.

The Jinchuriki had taken out his green frog wallet, cradling it like it was his first-born son and saying 'froggy, froggy' as he was likely fantasizing about it being stuffed to the brim.

Sakura smiled, but used this opportunity to sneak a look further into the operations room. To the left of the board, an open corridor led to another open area that housed a computer and a desk. It was unlike the Hokage tower back in Konoha, where typically each room was standalone. Behind the adjacent space was what looked like a less-traveled, dimly lit area, which she guessed was the storage center where they kept all sorts of records.

"What's that?" Naruto asked Raito, pointing to a tiny scribble on the matrix. It was all the way at the bottom of the board, hardly legible from where Sakura was standing.

"That's the air mill for our generator," Raito explained. "Squadron 8 oversees manual labor; we have a team running it to power the city 24/7. It's a low paying job which relies on crowdsourcing."

Raito seemed to pick up on the fact that Naruto didn't know what that meant. "Local businesses who benefit from the generator will exchange goods for electricity," he explained. He leaned into the board for a better view. "And this week," he continued, "it looks like a restaurant is offering free ramen with every shift. I can see why there's so many open spots. It's hard to find labor if all you're offering is low pay and ramen."

"I'll take it," Naruto declared.

Sakura had never seen him so fired up for work.

"You sure?" Raito asked. "There's better paying jobs—"

"No, no, this is good," Naruto said. "Someone's gotta do the heavy lifting around here, and it might as well be me, ya know?"

Raito looked perplexed. "Surely you wouldn't want an easier—"

"Trust me," Sakura said, smirking. "He's good."

"What's this one?" Sasuke asked. "It says debt collection. Can you explain the types of debt?"

"Ah," Raito acknowledged. "That's one of the only jobs here that pays on contingency. Those who have the means but choose not to pay are added to the top of the debt collection list. It's a tough job, and you have to move around to talk to shinobi and civilians alike."

"Sounds boring," Naruto said, yawning.

"Good. I'll take it," Sasuke said.

"And you," Raito addressed Sakura, "Will do medical, I suppose. Let's start you off in supplies, but we'll also have you do outpatient visits, depending."

"Makes sense," Sakura agreed. "Where's the supply room?"

Raito nodded. "The most important thing is that you check up on the board after every shift," he said to the three of them. "Come with me. I'll show you where everything is."


Naruto

They arrived at a flat landing, hidden deep behind the flowing mountains of Iwa. From here, the area looked chiseled from the sky like the work of divine angels, untouched by civilization — a marvelous sight if it weren't for the massive eyesore of a wind generator in front of Naruto, which supposedly powered enough electricity for the whole village of Iwa.

He fought the urge to sneeze as he breathed dirt from a gust of wind that blew past, the odd smell of wet clay drying his nostrils uncomfortably.

I'm doing this for the ramen, Naruto reminded himself, pitifully clutching his only half empty stomach. His breakfast was already half metabolized, used up by all the tuning out he did when the Chunin from Squadron 8 was droning on and on about the safety of the generators and whatnot.

"Fresh meat!" the Chunin called from his left.

They were approaching a group of beefy and sweaty Iwa-nin, who from the looks of it had already been through hell even though it was just barely mid-morning. They all started hooting and cat-calling as soon as they laid eyes on Naruto.

"Watch who you're calling fresh meat ya know," Naruto whispered. He didn't need these walking meat-sacks getting the wrong idea if he accidentally dropped something and had to bend over.

"Put 'em with the rookie," pointed one of the guys, who Naruto thought looked like Gado.

He was ushered around the other side of the generator, where he found a puny little kid trying to buckle a belt a few sizes too big. The kid looked up at Naruto, sizing him up, except the roaring sun caused him to squint, which made him look more constipated than anything else. At least Naruto wouldn't have to keep eyes on the back of his head with this one.

"And who might you be?" snapped the little grunt in his puny voice.

"Your new partner," barked the Chunin of Squadron 8.

"I don't need a partner," the grunt snapped. "Especially not some grandpa with whiskers! I'm gonna power this baby up all by myself!"

Grandpa? It took Naruto three seconds too long to realize that the kid was talking about him.

"Do as you're told Daruiko," the Chunin replied, "if you want a shot at making Genin."

Daruiko reminded Naruto of himself when he first started his shinobi journey many years ago. He was young and arrogant in all the wrong ways, with abilities nowhere close to his levels of confidence. Naruto liked him immediately.

After a few long minutes struggling to assemble his own belt — and regretting that he might've tuned out a little too much during orientation — he and Daruiko were off to the races.

"C'mon gramps, push!" Daruiko shouted.

"I am pushing. You push!" Naruto shouted back, straining so hard with all his might that he was worried he'd pop a blood vessel.

The pair of them broke, panting with their hands on their knees, unable to catch a breath. The generator still wouldn't budge. It was a job for a group of meat-sacks, not Naruto plus one grunt. It seemed the gents used the 'fresh meat' as an excuse to take the rest of the day off.

"Hey kid… you… wanna make Genin?" Naruto asked between breaths.

"I… will… make Genin," Daruiko wheezed. "What's it to you… whiskers?"

"Just… lemme…" Naruto held up his index finger, coughing for air. Once he finally caught his breath, he stood up normally. "Alright… listen up," Naruto told Daruiko. "This was a technique I learned when I was around your age, and if you learn it, not only are you gonna make Genin but you're gonna be the best in your whole damn class, got it?"

Daruiko's eyes went wide, and he nodded fervently. "Uh huh."

"Step one, put your hands like this. Step two, shout, 'kage bunshin no jutsu!'"

A second, third, and fourth Naruto appeared, and they all gleamed at each other with a thumbs up.

"Alright team," Naruto told his clones. "We've got our work cut out for us, and Daruiko here's gonna hang while he practices making his own shadow clones. Ready?"

"Alright!"

"Believe it!"

"You betcha!"

"On the count of 3!" Naruto yelled. "1… 2… PUSH!"

As the full force of all the Naruto clones hit the handlebars, they heard a rumble, the wheels beneath them creaking and moaning. When the wheel finally gave out, a thunderous roar snapped above them, and the spark of electricity told them that the generator had begun to work. Daruiko, instantly motivated, began memorizing the jutsu he'd just been taught.

The sight brought a smile to Naruto's face, but he resisted making a comment. If Daruiko was anything like his own 10-year-old self, the compliment would ruin the moment.

The group of them fell into an easy rhythm, and now with the momentum of the wheel, they could ease their efforts to a comfortable walk. This allowed Naruto enough breath to ask the question he'd been wondering since they started. "So why does Iwa need to manually run a generator? Back where I'm from, our generator runs itself."

"Doubt it," Daruiko said. "Big sis said generators help us do things like turn on lights and flush toilets. Unless you don't have those where you're from."

"No, no, we definitely do," Naruto said thoughtfully. "Well now that I think about it, I do remember hearing something. But I guess baa-chan has lightning-nin helping out with this stuff."

"Wait — you have lightning shinobi?" Daruiko asked, flabbergasted.

"Uh, yeah," Naruto said, suddenly curious. "My teammate's got lightning. And my sensei too. It's pretty common, I think. Why?"

"There's only one shinobi in the whole village with lightning," Daruiko said. "Well, besides one of the kids that I go to school with who might, says the teachers. He's going straight to Chuunin." Daruiko couldn't mask his jealousy as he said it. "Lightning is special. Most of us have earth or air."

Ha, Naruto thought. Sasuke would've loved to have another reason to think he was better than everyone else. Naruto started thinking about what it'd be like to discover a village where his own chakra affinity to wind was rare and Sasuke's was plentiful, because that would've certainly scored him more points growing up. "Wait a minute," Naruto said, suddenly realizing a flaw. "Why don't you just ask that one lightning shinobi to work the generator then? It can't be that hard for them."

"Trust me, whiskers," Daruiko said. "You wouldn't wanna touch that dude with a 20-foot pole. He's… icky."

Naruto watched as the kid made the same face that Naruto made whenever Sakura shoved those gross medicine balls down his throat. "How so?"

"Well, he used to come around pretty often when I was littler," Daruiko began. "He and my big sis were friends. But she said he stopped when he made cooler friends. I guess now he's all important and stuff, because he started acting like he didn't know us."

"Yeah, sounds icky to me," Naruto agreed. He didn't like people who played political games like that. It took a certain kind of psycho to be able to meld into whatever personality suited the moment, and Naruto personally would never trust someone who left their friends.

"And his name's stupid too!" Daruiko exclaimed, the beginnings of a smirk crawling across his face as he riled himself up. "Say no to the looned buffoon."

"Uhm, what?" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "What's that mean?"

"Rhymes with his name," Daruiko explained. "Say no to the looned buffon June."

Naruto snorted. He didn't quite get the summertime reference, but the kid probably had some kind of inside joke with his sister about it. Hey, whatever makes them happy, he thought.

"And it bugs me that he's all popular and stuff," Daruiko went on, "especially when big sis says all the girls like him and try to talk to him whenever they can." Daruiko then made a high pitched squealing noise and waved his hands frantically back and forth as if he was mocking the way fangirls behaved.

Now that was funny. As a kid, Naruto had watched all the girls do the same whenever Sasuke was around.

"But he's not even that cool," Daruiko continued, "And, and, and his hair looks like a dirt mop—"

Naruto felt a lightbulb go off in his head. "Wait — June? Do you mean Jun Yashin?"

"Yeah," Daruiko said. "I wouldn't be caught dead hangin' out with that guy! I don't know why the Tsuchikage chose him of all people to be the face of the family. He just bothers me."

Naruto chuckled and couldn't agree more — Jun was all over Iwa's politics, seeing as Team 7 couldn't go anywhere or do anything without running into that jerk. He knew he liked Daruiko from the get-go.

"Me too, kid. Me too…"


Sakura

Sakura wiped her brow and leaned back against the wall with a hard-earned sigh. It looked like Princess Tsunade made the right call using the scroll to earn favor with Iwa, because up until now they lacked even the staples. Iwa had too many formulas derived from proximate geography, too many in their civilian population, and not enough antiseptic to go around mending cuts or scrapes even if they wanted to. No wonder they didn't venture out much.

By the afternoon and exactly 128 potions and a half later, Sakura had created a batch of common antidotes that would last up to two years on the shelves of Iwa if the medic-nin knew what they were doing.

Behind her, a cabinet door slammed. "Shit," Sakura said. "You scared me."

It was Yui. They'd been co-working the medical supply for most of the day, but Sakura had long been desensitized to the cushy air of uncomfortable silence imposed on her. Yui simply looked at Sakura, put away some items, and left the room.

"Okay, have a good night," Sakura said, her voice trailing off meekly once she realized she was only talking to herself. After cleaning up, Sakura brought a hand to massage her achy neck and looked at the clock. Another six minutes until she was finished for the day. Checking the cabinets, she collected leftover unused scraps of herbs and put them on one shelf. Maybe she had something in her pack to combine with these. It wouldn't be perfect, but it might make the difference for someone who really needed it. And it would pass the time much quicker. As Sakura finished up, she heard scuffling outside in the hall.

"Excuse me? Anyone still here?"

"In the back!" Sakura called.

In came a servant looking flustered. "I have a medical order from the Tsuchikage, if you would please," she said, handing Sakura a folded note in two polite hands.

"Thank you," Sakura said. She looked at the clock. Wasn't the shift over? She waited for the servant to leave before opening the note. As soon as she did, she knew something wasn't right.

Inside the note was one of the tallest orders that Sakura had ever seen, repeated twice. The Tsuchikage was asking her to make a blood compatibility potion to reduce the chance of a patient's body rejecting a transplant from surgical procedures. But not only was the concentration lethal, Iwa would ordinarily be shelling out exorbitant amounts of money if it weren't for her expertise.

This was definitely an off-book, after-hours type of deal. The supplies would take days to gather, so Sakura decided her shift would end here. She stuffed the note in her pocket for later, switched the lights off, and stepped out of the medical supply room into the halls towards the operations matrix.

She could see from a window that it was dark outside, and many of the workers in the building had already gone home for the night. The sun set early here in the mountains, but they had another hour or so before they had to report to the dining hall. When she'd almost made it to her destination, she turned the final corner and saw Sasuke walking a few yards ahead, going in the same direction. He had a giant bag slung over his shoulder, which looked full of envelopes. His first day was successful, it seemed.

Sakura knew he knew she was behind him because he didn't once turn around to check who was walking so close. "Sasuke," she called. She picked up her pace and jogged up to catch up as he arrived at the operations board.

He glanced at her in acknowledgment, and although this would've been the perfect time to ask about his little outburst at dinner the previous night, a conversation would have to wait. There were more important matters. Sakura dove past the board to the open room through the corridor where she saw the computer earlier that day, where she bet she could find hospital records.

"What are you—"

"Cover me," she commanded. "Something's not right with the Tsuchikage."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He dropped his bag of envelopes to his feet and started marking something off the operations board, but Sakura knew he would comply. She found an entire wall of lockboxes covering floor to ceiling in the back of the room where it was dimmest.

"What are you hoping to find?" Sasuke's abrupt voice, annoyingly loud and unhushed, made her jump from across the room.

"Sh, Sasuke," Sakura hissed. Hadn't he ever heard of being sneaky? "Not sure. I want to look at hospital records."

"Why?" he asked again, at a normal volume, to indicate a blatant disregard for the words 'cover me' and 'sh.' The way he spoke, anybody from down the hall would instantly know they were up to no good.

Goddamn it, Sakura cursed. "Sasuke, be quiet. Either cover me or leave," she whispered harshly. She could've sworn she heard him huff, but in the corner of her eye, he crossed his arms over his chest and plastered himself against the board facing the corridor, reluctantly complying with her demand once again. If she were in any other mood, she'd stop to appreciate the irony that she was the one telling him to shut up.

Sakura discovered a number pad on the front of each locker. Disappointingly, she hadn't a clue what the combinations could be. Of course, it wouldn't have been that easy, just waltzing over to steal whatever was inside. Sakura yanked at the little metal nub on one lockbox, and it rattled in protest but didn't budge. She could easily break past it with strength, but the optics wouldn't look good.

She looked back to Sasuke's position, but he wasn't there. She suddenly felt a body next to her, and it was Sasuke who materialized, with his hand placed right next to hers on the lockbox. At first, she thought he was trying to stop her. "What are you doing?" she asked pointedly.

"They had a power outage," Sasuke replied.

"What power out—"

Blue lights flashed from his hand, and a zap of electricity flickered around them. Sakura's vision went dark for a brief second, but the lockbox was open when the lights came back on. She grinned at Sasuke and saw the corner of his lip tug upwards. For the first time in a while, they were working together.

Without a moment to spare, Sakura grabbed the latest binder with all the hospitalizations and surgeries from the past year. By far, the most common complaint was frostbite in the toes, followed by flu and tuberculosis, which made sense given what a crappy job Iwa's clothes did to shield people from the elements. The last one was cancer. Through the next few binders, Sakura saw much of the same thing. Throughout the years, there were some surgeries, but only six reported deaths from transplants, all due to infection after surgery. This was typical and expected.

"Sakura," Sasuke called.

"Yeah," she replied, opening another binder.

"Sakura."

Oh.

She shut the lockbox and made her way toward Sasuke as fast as possible. By the time she dashed a few paces toward the board, Sasuke was checking off his task for the sixth time that day and depositing his paid envelopes through the slit in the wall. She whizzed by the computer on the way out, but a loose piece of paper flung from the desk and made its way to the floor.

Sasuke shot his free arm in front of Sakura to block her from going back to fix it.

"Just let me—"

"Leave it," Sasuke whispered, his warm breath tickling her ear.

The sensation made her crack a smile despite their current predicament. "They'll know we were here," she protested. "Sasuke—let go—" She wrestled with his limb in vain, and the harder she fought, the stronger the resistance became until he practically had her in a headlock. She could see Sasuke's amused expression as he watched her futile effort.

The sound of heavy boots on tile came to a stop a few feet away from them. "Haruno."

She twirled around to see a familiar face. "Jun!"

He was carrying a large jug of water on his back, the same one she remembered from her first room in Iwa. "I've been looking for you," he said. Jun then looked between her and Sasuke and then to where they were practically still attached — courtesy of Sasuke's arm which was now casually slung around her shoulders. "Actually, I wanted to catch you real quick to ask you something," Jun told her. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Yeah," Sasuke replied, very curtly as if his mood had soured instantly. "You are."

"Wrapping up," Sakura said, forcing a laugh as she stepped aside from under Sasuke's arm. She wished she could insert a kunai into Sasuke's appendix from where she stood for continuing to be childish and rude to their host for no apparent reason. "We were just—"

"Leaving," Sasuke muttered.

He stalked off and Sakura felt the pull to go after him as if they were still attached. "Actually, Jun, can we talk later?" She threw their host a sorry glance and hurried after her teammate. She didn't turn back to look until she was caught up, but when she did, she saw Jun standing in the corridor, looking down the hall in their direction — holding a piece of paper that he'd picked up from off the floor.

X

Sakura spoke up as soon as they were out of earshot. "It wouldn't hurt to have him on our side, you know."

"Oh, that's what that was," Sasuke said.

"Obviously," Sakura stated, making a point to sound as flat and irritated as Sasuke did. And what'd he even mean by that? Jun would probably ask her a business question, like a report for their day's work.

Just then, an Iwa-nin walked out of the castle, within fifteen feet of where they were having their conversion.

Sakura waited for him to pass before continuing. "So are you going to tell me what last night was about?"

"What about last night?" Sasuke asked, his tone a little too nonchalant for her liking.

"Well, I don't know Sasuke," Sakura began. "Your attitude at dinner? And you accusing Jun of taking the scroll that we were already on the way to Iwa to deliver it? Your dislike for him even though he's been nothing but kind and generous to us?"

"Don't tell me you like the guy," Sasuke said.

Sakura ignored him. "Tell me why you think he stole the scroll."

"Let me ask you this, Sakura," Sasuke began. "How did you heal me when I got burned in Yukkao?"

"I treated you with ninjutsu and healing salve," Sakura said. "It was a common Kampo from Konoha, made with toki and shikon specifically from the fire region. Why?"

"And was that not the second to last recipe on the scroll we delivered?" Sasuke asked.

"It was," Sakura said. "So?"

"Jun's teammate. Yui. Did you see that bandage around her calf last night? It saw the same exact ninjutsu signature with my eyes, and I recognized the same toki smell you used on me."

Sakura wondered exactly how Sasuke had gotten close enough to Yui to notice all these things, let alone smell a bandage on her calf. But that wasn't what was important right now. There was no way Iwa could've made the healing salve without the scroll they delivered the previous night, which meant they'd somehow had access to the recipe sooner than that.

"And like I said at dinner," Sasuke added, "We passed by them within an hour of realizing the scroll was stolen. The timing is just too uncanny. Naruto agrees."

Sakura felt her defenses rise, but it was for a different reason. Sasuke was always perceptive, but that was a double-edged sword because it made it so damn hard to lie to him about other things she was hiding. "Again, I don't know why they would've done that if we were already on our way to deliver the scroll," she replied.

"I've yet to determine if it's consequential," Sasuke agreed. "Could be one way or the other."

"I just can't picture Jun stealing something," Sakura said. "He seems like he takes his job seriously. He acts with integrity, and he's kind."

"So you do like him then."

"I don't — that's not even — " As if all her intelligent thoughts had crawled into a cave and died, Sakura just babbled on, not sure where her sentence was going. What did Sasuke even mean? Professionally, yeah, Jun was their best ally in Iwa and they actually got along pretty great. So Sakura would say yes, she did like him.

But she noticed the muscle on Sasuke's jaw had gone rigid, which usually meant she'd hit a nerve, even though she didn't know which nerve that was. It was the first time they had any substantial word exchange since the night of the accident, and she hoped things would remain pleasant, which meant they should change the subject. Thankfully, she felt a familiar chakra coming their way.

"Oi! Sakura! Sasuke!" a voice called. It was Naruto running straight towards them. "Where were you? I got so hungry I had to eat alone!"

"Please," Sakura said. "Everyone knows you just couldn't resist free ramen."

"We have dinner plans with Iwa, dobe," Sasuke said.

Naruto looked sheepish. "I could eat a second dinner, heh."

But before they headed off to the dining hall, Sakura decided she'd first let her teammates know what she'd found. "I want to run something by you two first."

It was a fifteen-minute walk back to their living quarters. She ushered Sasuke and Naruto into her room for a quick team debrief, and that's where they sat on the floor, speaking in whispers.

"Alright. You first," she told Naruto.

Naruto had a blank expression that everyone knew indicated he hadn't prepared anything remotely similar to a debrief. The deer in headlights look might as well have been an admission that he was eating ramen all day.

After giving Naruto a chance to redeem himself, Sasuke relented. "People have cash, but they won't pay up," he began. "They're hoarding. There's uncertainty about the future of the state."

"Is it a question of war?" Sakura asked. "Are they concerned about rations?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Leadership. The political propaganda doesn't seem to reflect the way people feel about the Tsuchikage. It's the reverse — there are rumors his family is not doing well. Also, Iwa-nin don't like us, but the civilians mistrust Iwa-nin even more for covering up the Tsuchikage's state."

"Kurotsuchi's ill," Sakura said, adding to Sasuke's comments. "I caught a glimpse of her. She has some type of mental illness, so they keep her hidden away."

Naruto nodded. "And Daruiko told me he's never even seen the Tsuchikage. He said nobody has, since before he was born."

Who's Daruiko? Sakura wondered, puzzled. "And how many years ago was that?"

"Twelve," Naruto replied. "Daruiko said the Tsuchikage's always hidden behind cloth, or anytime he shows up he's got something covering his body."

"Alright," Sakura said. "So nobody's seen the leader of this country in over a decade, his family might be having medical issues, and today I was asked to make a potion that nobody in Iwa has ever needed; some kind of immunosuppressant to prevent failures of organ transplants. "

Sakura saw a look of recognition cross Sasuke's face as he made the connection between this revelation and their activities earlier in the day.

"So where do we go from here?" Naruto asked.

"Let's keep digging," Sakura instructed. The Tsuchikage had many secrets; that much was certain. "Whatever we can find about Iwa's internal affairs will help Konoha make an informed decision about who they form alliances with."

Naruto and Sasuke both agreed.

Now, this was the level of teamwork they should've had from the very beginning. Not that Sakura was playing for Team 7 earlier, but if she were to stick around, things would get easier if they communicated just like this. "We should get ready for dinner," Sakura told them. "Try to make friends, okay? We can't learn anything if people won't talk to us."

"You sure we can't have ramen for dinner, just the three of us?" Naruto asked, with a tiny morsel of hope.

"Aren't you supposed to be the extroverted one?" Sakura said. "Besides, they probably arranged this special dinner just for us, so we should do our part to show them a little appreciation."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, getting up to leave. "Go without me if I'm late."

"No, we won't, because then you might never show up," Sakura protested. "Wear something nice, both of you," she commanded. "We should dress like we're there to enjoy their company, not fight. What about those sweaters I got you two?"

It did not escape Sakura's notice that she was now scolding her teammates like she used to when they were kids. The feeling was familiar, almost like when she figured out the last word in a crossword puzzle, with every letter exactly where it belonged. It warmed her on the inside, though she didn't think it would.

Sakura got up after Naruto to close the door and get ready, but Sasuke lingered in the doorframe. He was wearing his usual black long-sleeved tunic and pants, the cloth on his bottom half bearing new scuff marks along the hem.

"You're not going in that, are you?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke ignored her comment. "One more thing," he said.

Noticing his midnight blue eyes upon her, Sakura stood a little straighter. "What is it?" Whatever it was, it didn't feel mission-related at all. Far from it.

As if intentionally slow, Sasuke drawled out the beginning of some words that were definitely not mission related. "My feelings. I don't…"

Oh god.

Sasuke wanted to talk about feelings. Did he somehow overhear the comment from Mrs. Yasumichi and need to clarify what was already extremely obvious? That Sasuke didn't love her? Because Sakura already knew that — absolutely no clarification was needed on this topic, ever.

"...hate you," he finished.

Sakura blinked, her heart beating hard as if to remind her that it was there. What?

"It wasn't fair to blame you for what happened. Itachi escaped me for years. You had nothing to do with it. I don't hate you."

This was Sasuke apologizing. What gave? Did Naruto speak with him?

While Sakura knew he was owed a reply, she was at a loss for words. All she could hear in her head was one thing. Guilty. Sasuke didn't know how right he was about everything the whole time.

She didn't like the way this was making her feel. It was like she couldn't just take the win; she felt like she needed to be punished for the way Sasuke was looking at her now, with his soft eyes, his expression so pure it was almost childlike, his lips teasing a genuine smile. Within her grew a sensation that her insides were starting to pull against themselves, as if they threatened to rip her body in half. She clenched the back molars of her teeth to get a hold of herself.

Breathe, idiot, Sakura told herself. "Things have been weird," she finally blurted out loud. "I'm sorry, too."

"I guess I'll get going then," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded quickly, desperate for him to leave so she could find breath.

But relief didn't come because Sasuke hovered by her door. "And Sakura…"

"Hm?" she asked, her stomach clenched and her body rigid with discomfort.

"Thank you."

The words immediately brought her memories back to all the times Sasuke had thanked her. When she and Sasuke were twelve: when she wrapped her arms around his waist in the Forest of Death as she begged him to stop savagely beating the Hidden Mist nin; when she held his hand as he fought the cursed seal from taking over his body; the last night they'd said goodbye at the gates of Konoha, when the sight of Sasuke's back grew smaller and smaller as he retreated into darkness.

It was like something had clicked that the man standing in her doorway was that Sasuke. And though it was in another lifetime, it was the Sasuke she grew up with, learned the way of shinobi with, and the same person fell in love with all those years ago.

The tearing at her insides had pressurized, and now it was vengeful torture. While things with Team 7 and Sasuke were getting easier on the outside, they were getting much, much harder for Sakura on the inside. It was easier when she wanted nothing to do with her teammates when she was working with Akatsuki and everyone else was just a pawn; when there was a definitive boundary between her and Team 7; when strong enmity between her and Sasuke caused her to not think about these memories.

It was better when Sasuke hated her.

But as much as Sakura tried to tell herself that, something else was happening:

As she watched Sasuke leave, something inside of her chest tugged for him to stay.


To be continued…