PLEASE READ: I've made a couple of minor but important changes to chapters 1 and 2 at the suggestion of my beta reader, so please do go and re-read those before reading this chapter. Thanks!
Beta'ed by the fabulous enemyanemone. She has an amazing story up on FFN, which is all about girl power (Ino, Sakura, and Hinata), so go check her out!
The best part about Konohan autumns, in Sakura's opinion, are the colors and sounds that come with the biweekly Market Days. Resplendent foliage adorns the sky and dapples the ground with leaves in bright sunset hues, whose withered, skeletal husks crunch merrily under the geta of civilians and the sandals of off-duty ninja. On Market Days, farmers and merchants from outside the village bring their produce and goods and set up rickety makeshift tents and stalls on the main street and there they hawk their goods, their voices rising above the murmur of the crowd. Not to be outdone, the local shopkeepers also string particolored banners and streamers in front of their stores and stand outside their doors, calling out:
"Fresh fish! Fresh fish!"
"Strawberries for only 30 ryo!"
"Sweets for the sweet! Get your manju and daifuku here!"
"Roasted chestnuts! Sweet potatoes! Ginkgo!"
The street's usually crowded on Market Days and today is no exception, especially since it is close to closing time. Sakura and her mother squeeze past the displays of leather goods, knives and weaponry, and an assortment of children's kimono to get to the produce stalls.
"Now, what did we have to buy?" Mebuki wonders aloud. She fishes around her pocket and extracts a slip of paper. "Sakura, dear, can you go buy some oranges from Kosaku-san? Oh, and a few of Saki-san's apples, of course, if there are any left over."
"How many do you need?" Sakura asks, accepting the coin purse that her mother gives her.
"…Two oranges and five apples, dear," Her mother says, squinting at her handwriting. "I'll be in front of Yamame-san's shop."
"Okay. I'll see you in a bit."
Sakura steps into the crowd of shoppers. Nobody takes a second look at her; they're more focused on getting the items they want before the market closes at 5. She likes the anonymity. It's times like these when she's able to run away from everything and no one knows or really cares about who she is. Ino's friendship has taken some of the sting away, but it still hurts to be alone in a village that values teamwork above all other relationships, in a place where the weak are left behind like mismatched socks at the bottom of the hamper.
She's not the only abandoned genin in Konoha's history. She knows that she's one of the more fortunate cases; there are others, older genin who have slipped between the cracks in the system and have toiled for years without advancing a step in their careers. It's a miracle that Tsunade-sama agreed to take her under her wing. But humans find a perverse thrill in finding flaws, the imperfections in the things they take for granted. With the Copy Ninja, the last Uchiha, and the Demon Fox child on the same team, it's inevitable that some people will focus on Sakura with cold, cruel glee.
"Haruno Sakura? She's just a stray cat Hokage-sama picked up out of pity," the receptionist at the front desk confides to her friend as Sakura crosses the lobby of the hospital, following after Shizune. "She's nothing special. Hokage-sama has a soft spot for the charity cases." She doesn't bother to lower her voice; it carries clearly across the lobby. Shizune frowns and picks up her pace.
"Oh, her? She's the one on that failure of a team. What a joke," someone else snickers as Sakura walks past on another errand. "Ah, well. What can you expect from a civilian-born?"
Jaded eyes watch her as she crosses the streets; whispers follow her wherever she goes.
Dispensable , they whisper. Unwanted. Weak.
But here, in this sea of many, she's just Haruno Sakura, Mebuki's daughter: Sakura-chan, all grown-up, not at all resembling the little bundle of wrinkled skin from sixteen years ago. Sakura with the brilliant smile, almost as bright as her pink hair and as warm as sunshine, always with a kind word for the vendors that greet her.
Just Sakura.
She finally locates Kosaku oji-san's tiny fruit stand after wandering around for a while. It's dwarfed by the larger fruit stands besides it, but its small size belies its popularity; there's a long line of housewives that spans the adjacent two tents and snakes around the corner. The line proceeds quickly; the housewives in front of her pepper the wizened old man behind the counter with rapid-fire orders which he supplies with equal alacrity. Sakura finds herself at the head of the line in no time. The old man smiles at her.
"Ah, Sakura-chan," Kosaku oji-san says, giving her a gap-toothed grin. "What can I do for you?"
"Kosaku oji-san! I'm so happy that you're back this week." Sakura beams at him. "Two oranges and five apples, please."
The Harunos have always bought Kosaku oji-san's fruit ever since Sakura was old enough to walk. Kosaku's orchard was a day's journey away from Konoha, but despite the long trip, he and his wife Saki faithfully came to the village to sell their produce every Market Day. It was well worth the journey, though, because they never had any trouble getting rid of their produce. Kosaku and Saki's apples were famous throughout Konoha, and housewives fought to buy the last, bruised ones at the bottom of the barrels during the Flash Sale at the end of the day.
"It's because we treat them like our children," Saki oba-san joked once, referring to their apple trees. Whatever the reason, their apples were special, and anyone who bought produce at Kosaku oji-san's stand could instantly taste the difference between Saki oba-san's apples and apples from someplace else.
"Saki sprained her ankle last week so we decided not to travel," Kosaku oji-san says sadly. "She still isn't feeling very well, the poor dear, so I told her that I would go by myself this time." He deftly fills a paper bag with the requisite number of fruit and hands it to her.
"Here you go, dear. And a gift from Saki." He adds two purple sweet potatoes to the bag. "Give them to your mother and tell her to make satsuma-imo gohan for you this week." He winks at her before turning his attention to the next customer.
As Sakura navigates through the crowd and heads towards Yamame oji-san's fish counter, a cow bell rings in the distance. The crowd immediately quiets down.
"FLASH SALE!" Someone bellows. "PRODUCE, FISH, 50% OFF!" There is a short pause before the microphone crackles again.
"Kosaku-san has just informed me that he will be giving away his remaining apples for FREE!" The voice booms. "Yes, that's right, folks! FREE. Starting…NOW!"
Chaos ensues.
It's a little after the flash sale ends when she feels a familiar taste start to bloom on her tongue. She braces herself, and then jolts in surprise.
It's not the acrid bitterness of soldier pills.
It's sweet and heady, a faint whisper of the promise of fall bounty and the blush of ripe fruit growing on trees.
It's the taste of Saki oba-san's heirloom apples.
They're here, she suddenly realizes. They're here. It doesn't make much sense, but she just knows that her soulmate is somewhere nearby.
Here, in Konoha.
Here, only a few blocks away from her.
She runs through the streets like a madwoman, her heartbeat beating like a drum against her ribcage. She runs past late shoppers, past the empty stalls and tents until she reaches Kosaku oji-san's fruit stand, which stands unmanned.
"Looking for Ko-san?" The owner of one of the adjacent stalls jerks his thumb to the left. "He's already packed up and left. Said something about getting to the old missus as fast as he can."
She finally locates Kosaku oji-san's wagon about to exit the village gates.
"OJI-SAN, WAIT!" She screams. She can hear her heartbeat coursing through her ears, thumping out the same pattern.
Kosaku oji-san turns around.
"Eh…Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?"
…Of course Kosaku oji-san wouldn't know who he gave away his apples to , she realizes belatedly. Who would keep track of such things when every single person in the area was crowding around his stand?
"Sakura, dear?"
She can't hear her heartbeat anymore.
"…N-no. It's—It's nothing, oji-san," Sakura finally says. She backs away. "Sorry to bother you. I'll be on my way."
"Sakura-chan? Are you alright, dear?"
"I'm…I'm fine. Say hello to oba-san for me! Have a safe trip!" She flees the area, ignoring Kosaku oji-san's concerned calls behind her.
She runs without any sense of direction, unseeing eyes fixed straight ahead, filled with an overwhelming sense of failure and desperation.
You wouldn't have known who it was anyway , a small voice in her mind whispers.
But they were here today, she screams internally. They were here at the marketplace, and she's missed her chance to meet the one person who might understand her, someone else apart from Ino and Kaa-san and Tsunade-sama and Shizune-senpai who might look beneath the underneath and appreciate her for being herself.
Someone who knows her through the salads she eats and the water she drinks, and who can probably tell when she's crying into her pillow by the taste of salty tears that trickle down her cheeks and onto her chapped lips. Someone who likes to drink hot barley tea in the evenings and pop soldier pills into their mouth like candy, uncaring of the consequences.
Someone who, maybe, just maybe, be...a friend.
The memory of apples lingering in her mouth tastes like salt.
AN: I'm back! Moved to another state two weeks ago and started my new job (I'm employed, guys! So excited!). I logged on to update this story a few moments ago (after two months of not updating, oops) and I'm just wowed at the number of people who subscribed to this story. I LOVE YOU ALL.
Kosaku means "farming" in Japanese.
Saki means "crimson."
Yamame means "seema/Japanese salmon."
If you've ever been to a flash sale, it's craaazy—housewives are TERRIFYING. Satsuma-imo gohan (Sweet potatoes with rice) is one of my most favorite things in the world. Carbs on carbs also sound pretty terrifying, but it's SO GOOD and it's super easy to make (you literally just slice up a sweet potato and cook it with the rice using a rice cooker). Mmmm.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave a review! Also, another shameless plug—I'm tinkering around with a Sakura-centric Tokyo Ghoul AU story, so stay tuned for that.
To my American readers, happy Fourth of July! I hope you all get to enjoy the fireworks and the barbecue.