Much thanks to desdendelle, drowsyivy, Anita Magia, and Tavina for beta reading.
Tenten watched the door close and tried to not let herself feel too relieved.
She was the oldest one in the room right now, but she knew better than to think that meant she was in charge, or should be in charge. With all of the information that had come out last night, she definitely didn't want to be in charge, either, not when it seemed like most of the rookies had a much better idea of what was going on and were on the verge of violence. She was guiltily more than willing to leave Sakura to it.
Tenten was the one who was going to have to deal with Neji, after all.
He wasn't that hard to deal with in the first place, not really. Not if you bothered to know what he was like and didn't just assume.
Tenten was already aware from back in the academy that Neji had always stayed focused on their lessons; he hadn't allowed himself to play or hang out with any of the other students, not that he had very much opportunity to begin with. From their second year of the academy until the winter they were eleven, Neji and the other Hyūga went to and from the academy as a group. It wasn't something most people were aware of because most students fled the academy's grounds the moment they were dismissed, but Tenten had started putting in extra practice at shurikenjutsu very early, and the academy training grounds were the only place students could practice at without getting in trouble for taking up any of the real training grounds unless they had an older ninja training with them. While Tenten's family had a yard that was more than large enough for most things, it wasn't large enough for practicing with projectiles. That was why she had been able to find out that Neji and the rest of his clan were escorted to and from the academy.
Neji didn't like mentions of his clan or people saying things that assumed Neji was the first in their whole cohort because of being a Hyūga. He was competitive and worked hard, but that was all of the members of their team, really. Neji just took the competitiveness to a different level.
She had tried once to ask Gai-sensei about it all one of the rare times it had only been them, unsure of exactly what she was trying to ask, but he had known all the same, and had, almost uncharacteristically, gently turned the question away and told her that it would have to be up to Neji to say anything to them.
A nonanswer for a nonquestion.
But she had learned—not just over the year and a half since they were first assigned to a team together with Lee, but from the academy, too—that the only way to make any headway with Neji was to be confident and act with purpose.
It had still been a lucky thing that Neji had decided to leave the main living area last night, choosing to pull back to the closed office their unexpected host had pointed out.
Neji had planted himself down in the corner as far away as he physically could get from the others, even with a whole wall separating them. Tenten had forced Lee to take the comfortable-looking desk chair and helped check his legs and massage the pain-relieving balm she had brought with her into them before lying down on the soft carpet to try and get some sleep.
Outside of a murmured thanks from Lee, none of them said anything.
Tenten had been woken up by Lee saying her name, light just barely showing through the room's blinds. Neji wasn't in the room.
"Where'd—"
"The bathroom," Lee had answered, eyes focused on her. While Lee sometimes frowned in concentration, that wasn't the kind of frown he had looked at her with. "Do you think it's true?"
She didn't need to be confident for Lee, so she had answered truthfully.
"I don't know."
That was all that they had had time for before Neji returned.
He had said nothing, even though they didn't bother to pretend to be asleep.
It had also made Tenten realize that there were twelve people and only one toilet, so she had helped Lee up to the bathroom and then went herself before returning to the office to get another fitful attempt at a nap in.
By the time they had been summoned to the main living space, even mid-morning had passed entirely.
When Socorro left with Shikamaru, Tenten found herself immediately hoping she hadn't made the wrong choice by deferring leadership back to Sakura.
Sakura really was supposed to be the mission leader, and she was a chūnin, but…
It was hard to ignore the fact that Tenten was the oldest of all of them, and that she had more experience than the rookies did.
But she had done it because one of the few things Neji did respect— at least listened to— was authority, and if Tenten allowed herself to be put in charge by a civilian woman… Neji definitely wouldn't listen to that, not when he knew who the real mission leader was, but he also wouldn't listen to Sakura if it had gone through.
Before Tenten felt forced to suggest anything to Sakura for what to do next, Kiba spoke up.
"She said we were allowed to get anything from the kitchen," he said, stretching as he got up from the floor. "Chōji's already hungry, and Akamaru's not really supposed to be waiting that long between meals if I can help it."
Without waiting for anyone to say anything, Kiba made his way to the kitchen, Akamaru at his heels.
"Let me help," Tenten spoke up, and she moved to follow him.
She wouldn't usually be the first to volunteer herself for cooking—she didn't like to cook that much if she could avoid it and Gai-sensei even corrected clients who assumed that as the girl on their team that she would be the one doing any cooking—but she wasn't going to let an Inuzuka kid be in charge of cooking. Most of them ate like their dogs.
Tenten appreciated having more than just meat in her diet.
Ahead of her, Kiba turned around when he passed the half-wall that split the kitchen from the dining room, nose wrinkling in disgust.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I thought I smelled alcohol earlier, but I thought it was from the ventilation or something. But it's really bad in here. It's her trash."
"It can't be that bad." She knew that Inuzuka were supposed to have sensitive noses.
"Well, you look," Kiba answered, and he retreated out of the kitchen, shaking his head like it would get the smell out of his nose.
The kitchen trash bin was a large one, with the white plastic of a bag turned over the top and against the kitchen's back wall.
The scent of strong alcohol hit her the moment she was standing right over it. There was some plastic and styrofoam trash in there on top, but it wasn't enough to cover the large glass bottles underneath.
"Is she an alcoholic or something?" Naruto's voice spoke up, coming from next to her. When she turned to look, his face was scrunched up in distaste as he got closer and got hit by the scent as well.
"She didn't look drunk, just tired," Tenten pointed out. And very stressed, which made some adults drink, but she didn't think saying that would be helpful right now. The empty bottles were a big distraction right now, though, and there was an obvious solution. It just meant going through some hoops. She pulled the trash bag's edges up, pulling it out of the bin to tie it up. It was made easier than she expected by the discovery of a drawstring.
"You're gonna take her trash out?" Naruto asked. He made a face.
"It's either that or leave it in here to be smelly," she pointed out. While she was fine up until she got right next to it, Naruto had picked up the smell from a few feet away and Kiba had noticed it almost the moment he was inside the kitchen's space. Tenten didn't know who else would have a sensitive sense of smell or be concerned about how many bottles there were, but it was better to take care of it sooner than later.
Naruto didn't protest immediately, so she figured she had at least settled that part of it.
She darted out of the kitchen,down the hallway, and into the woman's bedroom. The one corner of the bed that was collapsed under Lee's weights didn't look any better with the lights on with daylight filtering through the windows; other than that, though, the room was plain, if nicely put together.
Socorro had made Shikamaru change shirts and alter his hairstyle before they had left, which seemed like a reasonable enough precaution to take on her own. People focused on the whole appearance, usually, and what they expected.
After a bit of careful rummaging, Tenten managed to find a black t-shirt that wouldn't be too big, quickly unbuttoned her own top before pulling it on over her head, and undid her twin hair buns after removing her hitai-ate, pulling her hair ties onto one wrist. She took her shirt and hitai-ate into the other room, setting both on top of her pack, next to her holster.
She took her sandals out with her, catching the attention of the others when she did. Neji's eyes traced down her loose hair to where it fell past her shoulders and out of sight, but he didn't say anything before he turned away.
"You changed?" Sakura asked.
"Mmhm," Tenten went. "It made sense to, from what we've learned so far, even if it's just to get rid of the trash, since I'm the most inconspicuous from what we were told earlier."
Sakura nodded, biting her lip a little. "Can you take a look around while you're outside?"
"Sure!" It would be easy enough, and it would help remind everyone that Sakura was supposed to be in charge.
Before she reached the door with the bag, Kiba spoke up, leaning around the edge of wall that separated the kitchen and entrance. "Can you take Akamaru with you and see if there's any grassy areas or even dirt? He doesn't like to go on concrete."
Akamaru let out a short bark and whine.
"He can come with me," Tenten answered. Inuzuka dogs didn't need to be on leashes like pets, so as far as she could tell, it wouldn't be an issue.
Kiba bolted for his pack and pulled out a little black plastic bag from one of its pockets. It never occurred to her that Inuzuka would take trash bags with them in their mission packs, but after a moment, she supposed it made sense. "Thanks," he said, wearing a fanged grin.
The immediate heat took her by surprise, but it also made the air conditioner inside make much more sense.
It was too different from any of the climates in Fire Country.
She walked out onto the sidewalk. The first direction she looked in led to even more buildings of the same building material, spread out slightly more, so Tenten took the other one, slowing down only a little at the sight of the strange metal things—they looked a bit like train cars—in the street.
Akamaru barked, getting her attention before he peed against the side of a boxy-shaped bush and then squatted on the parched grass.
Tenten let out a little sigh and bagged it up. "Thanks for going before I found a trash can or dumpster," she told the dog.
He let out a happy bark.
When they reached where the sidewalk edged against the asphalt, she went down one end until she finally saw a dumpster against the stone wall on the other side, which was where she hit a problem.
Akamaru set one paw on the black surface before hopping backward, and refused to go any further. It was probably too hot for his paws, she guessed.
"Alright, stay there," she said, feeling a little silly talking to him. She knew ninken and most animals that worked with shinobi were able to understand people much better than normal animals, but it wasn't something she was used to. The closest her family got was a cat her uncle kept as a mouser for his warehouse that had shown up one day.
A man with short-cropped hair and dark skin like Socorro's was approaching the spot she had left Akamaru in when she returned around.
She moved into a jog, and by the time she reached the sidewalk, Akamaru was in a slightly defensive crouch.
"Hey, is this your dog?" the man asked.
"Yes, sorry," she said, forcing an embarrassed grin on her face. Just a small one. Too much would be an obvious lie.
"They're supposed to be on a leash, what if it bit someone?"
"He's very well trained," Tenten answered, crouching over to pick Akamaru up. "I was only taking the trash out, and he stayed where I left him."
Before the man could press any further, Tenten quickly walked away, going around the outside corner for the building.
She did a careful loop, not just to make sure the man didn't follow her back to the apartment, but to scope the area out. It wasn't just a couple apartment buildings, but several of them in the same style, partially clustered around to be facing inwards with grassy tree-shaded spots, a small playground, and even a fenced-off swimming pool.
There wasn't anything this fancy in Konoha.
There were very few people out in the area, and she saw no sign of the man again, but she carried Akamaru the whole time, even though he obviously wanted to be on the ground to check things out himself.
She didn't put him down until she returned to the apartment, setting him down inside the door.
The scent of cooking food filled the air inside, immediately reminding her that she was hungry; she usually had dinner early. That was rarely a problem, except right now she could tell she was hungry enough that she only felt this way when she was coming onto lunch without eating anything for breakfast.
In the time she had been gone, Neji had disappeared from the front living space, probably back to the room they had taken over. While Kiba, Sakura, Shino and Lee weren't in sight, she could guess the first one was in the kitchen, at least. Lee was most likely keeping Neji company.
Akamaru immediately ran off to find Kiba.
"What took you so long?" Naruto asked from his spot in the living room in front of the table. As far as Tenten could tell, he hadn't really moved, but there was more paper layering the table top than there had been before.
"I was scouting things out," she responded before heading into the kitchen. She ignored the sight of Ino in the corner of her eye, who was currently pressed into the far corner of the dining room. While Tenten usually didn't pay attention to what others said or did… everything from last night didn't fall into 'usually'.
Kiba had found the pots and pans and was doing his best to cook pinkish cubes of unidentifiable meat in a large frying pan, with a bowl of noodles on the counter next to him. Shino was next to him, his focus on a small pot, which he was stirring the contents of with a whisk.
A bit further down, Sakura was cutting up carrots.
Akamaru let out a small whine as Tenten stepped in, poking his nose against Kiba's ankle.
"Hey, c'mon, I'm pretty sure this won't be good for you. It's way too salty. Get a carrot from Sakura," Kiba said, frowning. He carefully scooted Akamaru away with his heel.
Sakura looked up at Tenten. "What's it like out there?" she asked, before returning her attention to the carrots.
"Really warm," Tenten answered. "And I nearly got in trouble because Akamaru wasn't on a leash. Besides that, though, we're next to a mountain. It looks arid. I don't know where we are, but it's definitely nowhere in Fire. There are strange vehicles out there, too."
Sakura frowned down at the carrots she was chopping before flinging most of a whole one down to Akamaru. "We should keep a low profile for the time being while we figure everything out, then."
"I think that'd probably be the best idea," Tenten agreed, looking between everything being cooked. "Was there much luck with the food?" She could already guess not, based on what was being prepared.
"Not really," Kiba spoke up. "She wasn't joking when she said there wasn't much. We found these noodles, a couple tins of this weird potted meat, and some carrots and an onion that was starting to grow. There was some other stuff, but I didn't want to touch it. It should be enough until they get back."
Tenten nodded, and she glanced at the pot that Shino was focused on just long enough that it caught his attention.
"It's for my kikaichū," he said. "They still need to eat, too. It's just sugar."
"Oh," Tenten went.
"Hey! Sakura, you should try microwaving the carrots," Kiba spoke up before Tenten could think of anything else to say.
"What?"
"Why not? I've never been able to use a microwave."
Tenten left the kitchen before she could get dragged into whatever was beginning to unfold. She wasn't that interested in using a microwave.
Instead, she made her way to the office again.
Lee managed to give her a self-conscious grin when she opened the door. He was still sitting at the desk chair, one leg folded over the other, hands working away at the muscles in that leg.
"How are your legs doing?" Tenten asked.
"Better, now," Lee said, to her relief. "It feels like the first time I tried to put on ones that were too heavy and tried to run with them on." Lee winced, but he immediately tried to cover it with a smile. The wince made Tenten feel more relieved, if anything, because if it really was serious, Lee would have tried to hide it entirely. He felt sure enough for things to accidentally slip through. "I should be fine soon. What was it like outside?"
"Completely different," she said, as she leaned against the wall. "I don't know where we are. It's too hot for early October, too dry for Fire, we're in the foothills of a mountain, the architectural style isn't like anything I've seen but it isn't too weird…" she let it linger there for a moment, before continuing. "There is a pool for this whole set of apartments, though, so wherever we are's stable enough." She decided against bringing up the strange vehicles for now.
Lee frowned. "You really think we're not in Fire?"
"It's too different," Neji said, speaking up for the first time since last night. "Whatever's going on, it's too different from anything we know about. We can't use chakra, and there's no genjutsu at work, there's too many little things that are different but still consistent with each other." While his voice was steady and under control, it was missing the usual coolness and confidence Tenten associated with him. "Even just inside this apartment, the lightbulbs and sinks are different."
It hadn't occurred to Tenten to examine either of those things that closely. "What do you mean?" she asked.
Neji stood up, walked over to the desk, and reached for the desk lamp's light bulb, unscrewing it and dropping it into Tenten's hand.
It was obvious, now that she was looking at it, that it really was different; while the shape was the same, the details were all wrong. Instead of clear or frosted glass, it was all plastic, and the weight was completely wrong, no quiet 'ting' of the filament from being handled. The writing on the base was completely different as well, featuring a brand she had never heard of, and instead of the usual mark that indicated what country it was made in, it said 'Made in China' instead.
Tenten gave it to Lee to inspect after her, and he frowned at it before leaning forward and screwing it back into the lamp's light socket.
"You are both right," he said. "It really is too different."
Before they could think on it any further, there was a knock at the door, and Tenten opened it to Shino, once again.
"Kiba's finished cooking," Shino said. "It's just enough to tide everyone over for now, which is good, because it doesn't appear to be that appetizing. However, it's still better than nothing."
"Thank you, we'll be right out," Tenten answered.
Neji drifted past them to leave, silent.
She exchanged a worried look with Lee before she offered him a hand up, which he gratefully took.
"I think we will need to keep an eye on him," Lee said, quietly. "Just in case."
Tenten nodded. "At least for now."
Gai-sensei had been very disappointed after what happened when they trained with Kakashi's team, and then again with the chūnin exam tournament.
While it hadn't put it in as many words, from what Tenten had been able to pick up, Neji's actions—along with Lee's match against Sasuke—had potentially cost Tenten the opportunity to be promoted, despite the fact that her match had gone well and their whole team had acquitted themselves well during the attack. If she was going to be held culpable for Neji and Lee's actions as well, she was going to try her best to stop them from reflecting poorly on not just themselves but her as well.
In the short time that she had been in the office with her teammates, the rest of the apartment had filled with the scent of cooked food. As far as she could tell, every single bowl and plate that could be found was being used. There were a row of them set up on the counter with stir-fried noodles and bits of the potted meat, topped with slightly squishy looking rounds of carrots. None of them were particularly large servings or even what Tenten would call a full meal.
There were also no chopsticks, either, just forks. Several of them were cheap plastic. Thankfully, no one would be stuck trying to eat noodles with a spoon.
Their team ended up eating at the kitchen table with Ino, with the rest of the rookies eating in the living room.
As much as Tenten didn't particularly want to be sitting with Ino, based on what had come out last night, it was probably better for now to keep Neji separated from everyone else. If he tried to do anything about Ino, it would be much easier to deal with. Whether or not he realized that was what she and Lee were trying to do, she didn't know, but either way he wasn't saying anything about it, which was enough.
She took a bit longer than Neji and Lee to finish eating, with Lee following Neji back to the office once they were both done. To her relief, Lee was walking with much more ease than he had been earlier in the morning.
After she set her bowl and sad plastic fork in the sink, Sakura approached her.
"Tenten? You're familiar with fūinjutsu, aren't you? Hinata and Naruto are trying to figure out what happened, but they haven't had much luck so far."
"I can take a look, sure," she said, sounding more confident than she felt. While she was still learning fūinjutsu, the main thing she was using it for was storage scrolls, and those she was still improving on. She had hit the point of being able to regularly use them for missions at the beginning of this year. Even then, Gai-sensei cautioned her against using them to store everything away, and never important necessities, even if it would result in a lighter bag. All the first aid supplies and rations in the world would do nothing if their storage scroll was damaged enough or they were too exhausted to safely use chakra to release them.
She was glad that she had listened to him, because right now it meant that only her larger weapons were totally inaccessible, and she wasn't totally unarmed.
She dropped down to sit on the floor, taking an open spot by the table.
Her heart immediately sank as confusion set in as she got a look at the strange tri-pronged kunai, what was on it, and the copied out symbols on the rest of the paper spread out over the table.
"This isn't fūinjutsu," she said, trying to keep the concern and worry out of her voice. "I mean, there's some but… most of this is jutsu-shiki, I'm pretty sure, and I haven't studied that enough except to know how to recognize it." It was easy to get the two mixed up, if you didn't know. As far as Tenten was aware, they weren't supposed to mix.
The whole design was clearly cobbled together, and amateurly at that. While she was interested in learning how to utilize jutsu-shiki as well—it was similar enough to written fūinjutsu that it was the next natural step for people who were very good at it—she hadn't picked it up yet because she was still learning how to refine the basics of what she was already knew.
Whatever the jutsu-shiki was supposed to do, it was very, almost excessively elegant, even in the messiness departed by being copied in a learner's hand. It took a true master to make something in a shinobi's hand look like art, but that was what had made her fall in love with and want to use weapons in the first place, and then fūinjutsu.
The seal elements added around it were like the first ones Tenten had learned; basic and chakra hungry. The kind that ate up any surplus of chakra used and needed plenty of it to be activated to begin with. Easy to learn the basics from, but difficult to use practically.
"Where did this come from?" she asked.
"It was the Yondaime's," Naruto started, but even as he did, the cautious cheer—the kind that was sometimes spitefully held on to, that she was so familiar with from Lee—that he had managed to keep on his face dropped, expression shifting entirely into a frown, eyes narrowing as he stood up, twisted around, looking for someone. His eyes landed on Ino, who was still sitting all alone at the dining table. "Why did you give this to me?"
Tenten made sure she was clear of the table.
"You said you were learning fūinjutsu," Ino said, voice so quiet that it was barely audible over the apartment's running air conditioner.
"You were acting weird about me learning fūinjutsu in the hospital, too," Naruto said, words careful and deliberate. "I thought you were just trying to be nice when you gave it to me, but people aren't nice to me for no reason. Why'd you give it to me?"
"Because your father was the Yondaime," Ino answered, and if there had been any other noise from anyone else in the apartment before this, it was totally gone now.
"No," Naruto went, voice cracking just a little. "That's not funny. I'm an Uzumaki. I'm an orphan."
Ino continued on. "Your parents kept the pregnancy a secret. But on the night you were born—"
"No—No—" And without saying anything else, Naruto scrambled to his feet, lunged forward, only barely stopped by Sakura jumping in the way, which gave Tenten just enough time to get up and grab hold of him, yanking him backwards. She was going to end up with bruises from this, but she had dealt with worse just from training with Lee and Neji. "No! You don't get to tell anyone! You don't get to say anything!"
In front of them, Ino stared at Naruto in fear.
"If you say anything else, I'll kill you," Sakura said, still in front of Naruto. "Because if you know that, too, you know what the punishment is supposed to be."
Tenten couldn't see Sakura's expression, but the girl's shoulders were heaving.
Ino said nothing more.
Once Naruto wasn't yanking so violently away from her, she let go.
Like she hoped, he didn't rush for Ino.
Instead, he bolted down the hallway and into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him, right before Sakura got to it. Despite that, Sakura managed to leverage it open and force herself through.
Tenten felt the eyes of everyone else behind her fall on her.
It wasn't fair, but she was the one who had involved herself the way she did first. She was the one who had set their expectations like this.
She gave herself the briefest moment to consider what Gai-sensei would do, and forced her body language to cheer up. Straight shoulders and back, untensed hands, a light smile on her face. "Let's just calm down before anything gets out of hand more, okay?" she said. The initial opening a kind suggestion, and then… "We don't need any more trouble than we already have. If what Sakura said is true, that is a serious punishment and things are already difficult enough." A reminder that the kind 'suggestion' was the only good option.
Gai-sensei was very good at those.
Ino shrunk back into her corner.
No one else offered any challenge to what she had said, which was enough for now.
"It'll be a bit harder without Naruto, but I can try to take another look at this and see what might be going on." Her words held more confidence than she felt in her skills, but Tenten went and sat back down in front of the table.
Sakura had barely managed to shove herself through the space between the door and its frame before Naruto slammed it shut again. It was a close enough call that the fact her hair was in a braid was probably the only thing that kept any of it from getting caught in the door frame.
He looked up at her just long enough to give a miserable sniffle, before rubbing at his eyes as he sank down to sit on the floor.
The last time she had seen Naruto look so miserable was in the Forest of Death, after their encounter with Orochimaru. That time she had avoided him, hadn't said anything until Sasuke had woken up. She had been too afraid last time.
This time she wasn't afraid, not like that, but she wasn't sure what to say to make anything better. "Naruto?"
Naruto looked up again, wiping snot from his nose onto his arm. "What?"
"Are you going to be okay?" she asked as she dropped down to sit next to him.
"I don't know," he answered, sniffling. "If she really does know everything and she tells them, they're all gonna hate me. But if the whole thing with this show is true, they're gonna be able to find out without her and they're gonna hate me anyway. I hate this."
Sakura hadn't thought about that part when she threatened Ino into silence. It felt silly, hollow now. She couldn't enforce anything like that. "They're not going to hate you," she went with. "It's only the adults that have really been like that, right? It might be a big shock, but they're not going to hate you. If they do, they can go sleep on the porch with Akamaru's pee puddles until we get home."
That got a strangled laugh out of Naruto and he tried to blow his nose clear. "How do you know I won't be the one having to sleep on the porch with Akamaru's pee?"
Sakura thought back to earlier, to how the woman had reacted to both of them, but especially Naruto. "Socorro-san likes you," she said. "She's not going to let it be you."
Naruto sniffed. "Yeah, I guess she does. I don't really get why we wound up here, but I'm pretty sure she really is Sasuke too, somehow. She makes the same faces as him. It's kinda weird."
"Maybe," she answered. She didn't know how she felt about any of it yet, but she didn't feel as confident in making that kind of assertion like Naruto did.
He looked down, not meeting her eyes. "Do you think it's true?" he asked.
"What's true?" There was enough that Ino had claimed that Sakura was having a hard time keeping it all separated to know exactly what Naruto was asking about, even if she was pretty sure what he was asking about. There were only so many things that had come up just now, after all.
"That the Yondaime's my dad," he answered, rubbing his eyes again. "When I was little, after I saw the photo of him in Jiji's office, I used to like to pretend secretly, you know? Because we both have blond hair and blue eyes. But other than that, I don't look anything like him. But I liked to pretend that if he was, and people knew, they'd stop hating me." Naruto sniffled. "Instead…"
Sakura knew the story just as well. The Yondaime had saved the village from the Kyūbi by sealing it up, and it had cost him his life. He had sacrificed himself for everyone. "He's why they treat you like that."
If it was true… it was a different kind of sacrifice, and Sakura didn't know how she felt about that. There was something different to that idea, that the Yondaime used his own child, compared to using an orphaned baby. She wasn't sure if it was better or worse.
Naruto nodded, still not looking up at her. "After I found out, it was easier to think that it was 'cause I was already an orphan and there was no one who'd care about me anyway." Naruto let out a hard little laugh, a kind she wasn't used to from him at all. "It's unfair."
Sakura bit her lip for a moment, thinking, trying to come up with something that could make Naruto feel better. "If it's true, then that's probably why we were given Kakashi-sensei," she finally came up with.
He blinked, and finally met her eyes. Naruto's face was red around the eyes, with tear stains, but he didn't look as miserable anymore. "Oh. Yeah. Kakashi-sensei was one of his students, wasn't he? Which means… he probably knows, huh?"
"Him and Jiraiya-sama, since Jiraiya-sama was the Yondaime's teacher," Sakura said. "And… they both didn't treat you badly like most people."
"I don't wanna believe Ino," Naruto started. "But what else does she know?" He clenched his hands into fists for a second before letting go.
"I don't want to either. I think we need to look into all of this ourselves, instead of just letting her tell us things," Sakura said. "Even though I'm not sure I want to."
"Me neither." He rubbed at his face again, before looking at her again. "Sakura-chan?" Naruto's voice dropped into being just a bit quieter than it had been before. "Thanks. For telling her off and stuff. Getting in front of me. I'm not sure what I would have done if I got my hands on her." He managed to give her a much more unsure than usual smile.
"I don't think you would have done that much," Sakura admitted. "You usually get really scary when you're really angry, but that didn't happen this time. You were angry for only a bit, but it stopped really quickly, compared to the last times. I wonder if it's because we can't access our chakra."
The smile disappeared just as fast as Naruto had managed to push it onto his face, and Sakura was left worried for a moment that saying something had been the wrong idea. "Maybe. I dunno. The Kyūbi's made of chakra, and so's the seal." Naruto frowned. "What if this is gonna be a problem?"
It hadn't occurred to Sakura until Naruto had said something, and now she was as worried as he looked. "I don't know," she said. "I don't think any of us know enough to figure any of this out, at least right now."
"I guess we're really gonna have to figure this out on our own," Naruto said, swallowing.
"I guess so." Despite the fact that even Naruto didn't sound confident, Sakura had a hard time feeling anywhere near as confident as Naruto did anyway.
As far as she could tell, whatever Naruto had done was totally impossible, or was supposed to be.
The date was wrong, the time of year was wrong, the climate outside was wrong, what little Tenten had described was wrong, so many things inside of the strange apartment was wrong or too advanced, along with fact that Sakura couldn't sense her chakra at all and the strange woman who was familiar but wasn't, who was so sure she had been dreaming about being Sasuke.
Wherever they were, it was nowhere near home, and Sakura wasn't sure how this would get fixed from them doing anything.
She had the horrible suspicion that it was going to be on Sasuke, somehow, even though this had been in an attempt to rescue him. But now all of that looked like it was turned over; they needed rescuing, too, and that wasn't usually guaranteed.
Sakura couldn't help the hysterical giggle that came out of her at that thought, and Naruto gave her an alarmed look.
"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?"
She wasn't able to stop it from happening again, but she managed to calm herself down long enough to answer. "Yes, I had a terrible thought."
"What is it?"
"Well, sometimes teams on missions just vanish, right?"
Naruto nodded, still looking at her with caution.
"Well, there's no way they're not going to look into this," she said, unable to stop, as the giggling turned into hiccups. "Too many of us are related to important people or are important. There's no way I'm going to not get in trouble over this," Sakura hiccuped.
"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan," Naruto got onto his knees, and hugged her. "It's my fault. Not yours."
"I should have stopped you before you did anything," she hiccuped. "Everything I've done so far's been wrong and we're probably going to go to war because of me speaking up at the wrong time and I couldn't even get us out of the village gates—"
Naruto hugged her until the hiccuping slowly subsided and turned into quiet tears. "Hey, if I'm gonna be okay, you have to be too, alright?" he said once the hiccuping had totally stopped.
Sakura nodded against his shoulder, staying silent before she felt like she had gathered herself up enough to speak again. "Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"I hope you didn't get your snot on me." She forced herself to smile, even though she didn't feel like it.
Naruto laughed and pulled away. "No way. I know you'd hit me if I did. I'm not that gross."
"You've licked Sasuke's hands."
"Yeah, months ago, and?"
"You don't know where Sasuke's hands have been."
Naruto made a face. "Ew, Sakura! That's gross! And Sasuke washes his hands anyway."
"I would hope he does," she answered before rubbing at her face. "My face has to look all blotchy and red from crying now. I can't go in front of everyone looking like this."
"It's not that bad," Naruto told her.
"You're still all snotty and red-faced," she pointed out. "I don't think I should believe you right now."
Naruto ducked his head down, but he gave her a grin, one more real than the earlier ones had been. "Maybe not. You can go wash your face first. I'll watch the door for you." He stood up and glanced at the rest of the bedroom. "It's weird to think we just wound up somewhere like this. It looks mostly normal."
"Except the carpet," Sakura agreed, standing up. "And what poor Lee's weights did to the bed."
"Yeah, those things are scary."
She felt the edges of a more natural smile grow on her face. "Thanks, Naruto."
"For what?"
"Letting me get upset at you like that, when I was trying to comfort you first," she said, as she stood up.
He rubbed the back of his neck, giving her an embarrassed smile in return. "Well, I wasn't gonna say no." Naruto opened the bedroom door.
Thankfully, if any of the others had tried to listen in to their conversation, they had already retreated so that Naruto and Sakura could pretend it had been private. There was no one immediately in sight.
She trailed Naruto out of the room and ducked into the bathroom.
Her eyes were puffy, red-rimmed, and her face was red and blotchy from crying—especially ugly against her hair—but despite that, she felt a bit more in control of herself than she had earlier this morning, which was good. She had to keep it together in front of everyone else. Naruto didn't count.
She turned the water on, making sure it would be as cold as possible.
"Let's just hope nothing else happens before she comes back," Sakura murmured to herself.
I woke up to cool air and darkness, something beeping near my ear.
My alarm clock used a bell, and it never got this dark in my apartment. This wasn't right.
I twisted to sit up, but couldn't, and cold metal pressed against my neck and wrists, everything suddenly coming back to me.
"This isn't real, this isn't real…"
I didn't want it to be.
The beeping sped up, and it was the only thing I could hear.
Eventually, it slowed down, and I realized it was matching my heartbeat.
"Ah, you're finally awake." Orochimaru's voice.
A shiver ran down my sign as I heard footsteps echo through wherever I was.
Shinobi were able to be completely silent. Even with just chūnin, it was habit. None of the sensei at the academy had footfall that could be heard. They had to make it a point to be loud, when they went over the basics of teaching us stealth.
He wanted me to hear him.
Orochimaru's eyes caught whatever light was in the room first, suddenly visible in the darkness. It meant it wasn't as dark as I thought it was in here.
"At first, I wanted to use your body for the potential Sharingan, but there are other secrets in your head, aren't there, Sasuke-kun?"
I felt a hand set itself at the base of my neck, where he had bitten me. "I don't know what happened to the seal I put on you, but that's just another question for later. It can wait."
The beeping stopped.
"What do you know about stories, Sasuke-kun?"
Today is the fic's 2 year anniversary. Thank you for reading.
