A/N: fast update because the chapter 2 draft was nearly finished anyway. thanks for the reviews, btw! and yeah, the mulan plot. i used it. i like mulan :)
(btw what is a multi-saku? a guest left a review asking if this story is a multi-saku. i don't know what multi-saku means?)
02 little boy; big battlefield
"Uhm. I think he's dead,"
"You think so? What a pain," A different, slightly drowsy voice replied.
Then Sakura felt something blunt touch her forehead. "Hello? Hello?" Came the loud voice again.
She opened her eyes and saw the blunt end of a stick. She looked up, squinting her eyes against the bright rays of sunlight filtering in through the gaps between the trees. Looming directly above her was a pair of bright blue eyes set on a tan face that didn't quite belong there. A mop of messy blond hair topped of his head and when he grinned, a trace of a boyish child shone through. Not the kind of person you'd see joining a war.
His companion was a lazy looking guy with a tan travelling bag hanging casually over his shoulder. He regarded Sakura with a look of very mild, barely-there curiosity.
"Whoah," The blond boy suddenly put his face right in front of Sakura's. "Where have I seen you before?"
Sakura shoved him away lightly, sat up, and rubbed her forehead. Her head was aching.
"Haruno," The lazy looking boy suddenly said and Sakura stiffened. "Haruno, right? You look an awful lot like that girl in the Uchihas' prospective marriage dinner,"
"Ahh!" Blonde boy suddenly exclaimed, which caused Sakura's head to throb worse than ever, "You're from Miss Pinkie's family, aren't you?! Whoah, and I thought all Uchihas looked the same!"
"You're talking about my cousin," Sakura silently thanked her mother for piling on five layers of makeup on her face and forcing her to wear that ridiculous kimono and hair ornament. She must look a lot different right now, with her hair shorn off unflatteringly short and her face tanned by travel and dirt from the forest.
"Who are you?" She assumed a more gruff, gravelly voice.
"Namikaze Naruto," The blond shoved his outstretched hands right in her face, "Pleased to meet ya', Haruno—..?"
"Akira," Sakura supplied, feeling a newfound twinge of nervousness. It was her first time using the fake name she'd picked out.
"Nara Shikamaru, then," Lazy guy offered. "You don't stay in Leaf, do you? I haven't seen you around.
"I'm from Waterfall," She said, ready to burst right into an exact description of the place she lived, the closest landmarks, the name of the district, et cetera. From a certain point of view, having a wide forehead isn't such a bad thing when it can house a brilliant memory. Certainly handy in situations where you pretend you're a different person. From a far off place. With a different sex. To join the military. With the punishment of being executed and worse, having your family shamed, if you are caught. Very convenient, this enormous forehead is.
Naruto assisted her as she tried to get up. "So—did you faint? Were you sleeping?"
Sakura sighed, "I got lost. It was pretty early when I left and the darkness screwed up my sense of direction. I got tired so I slept it off,"
Shikamaru stared at her curiously, "Wonder why you left at dark when you could've waited until morning. Strange guy, aren't you,"
"Ah! He wanted to get to camp before everyone else!" Naruto exclaimed, "Bit competitive, aren't you, Akira?"
"And slept on the forest just like that," Shikamaru remarked. "Pretty bold of you, considering dead Leaf merchants turn up now and then. Who knows how many Sand rats are crawling around right now. This stupid war is such a drag,"
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Look who's talking. You sleep everywhere, Shikamaru,"
While the two were arguing, Sakura took the time to examine them. She recognized the blond, Naruto, from the Uchihas' dinner, and based on his last name, he was the son of Namikaze Minato, who was formerly the Fourth Hokage, led the Leaf to numerous victories in war, before surprising everyone by proposing to leave his seat and settling for a major position in the Leaf military. Sakura met him a few times in the Hokage tower, and was surprised that such a mild-mannered gentleman had such a loud, obnoxious son. But then again, she hasn't met the Lady Namikaze yet, and basing on what she heard about her, this Naruto person must have inherited a bit more of his mother's personality than his father's.
She recognized the name Nara Shikamaru from her conversations with Ino. He was, from what she could recall, a good friend of Ino's and practically family.
When he saw her stifling a yawn, he said, "You can get the rest of your sleep in a few. If I read the map correctly, that must be the camp,"
Though the tiring night she spent in the forest made her forget the real problem, it all came rushing back to slap her in the face the moment the camp came into view. Uniformed men everywhere, large tents with the seal of the Land of Fire and the Leaf filled the encampment, everyone she met was taller than she was, and she couldn't help the feeling of fear that was starting to pool into her stomach. Idiot, you musn't faint. You got past the gate. You're walking around and nobody's pointing or staring. You're safe. Just chill. Just calm down. You have very limited male friends, nobody's going to recognize you, nobody—
"Shit," Sakura swore, taking a fraction of a step backwards.
Standing in front of the Captain's tent was a familiar tall figure dressed in dark, military clothes. Black hair and black eyes set on a pale, angular face. All too familiar.
Uchiha Sasuke looked around with mild, concealed interest, actually looking more affable than when she first met him, but that didn't mean his presence still didn't scare the daylights out if her. Almost subconsciously, she pulled her hat lower to her eyebrows, in an attempt to conceal her pink hair. She fluffed her collar out nervously with quick, panicky movements. Naruto didn't seem to notice but Shikamaru did.
"You alright there, Haruno?" He raised a brow at her.
"Yeah," Sakura replied squeakily.
Shikamaru followed her line of vision and his stare landed on the Uchiha. He turned back at her, "Ah, yes, Sasuke. Your cousin would have told you about him,"
"She did," Sakura swallowed hard. Her dislike towards the Uchiha heir was momentarily overpowered by her fear of being noticed and ultimately discovered. "She—ah—didn't like him that much,"
Which was a massive understatement,
"Ugh, the asshole is here," Naruto made a sour face. He had finally noticed Sasuke.
"Let's go before he sees us," Sakura jumped at the opportunity, "I don't fancy an encounter with the guy,"
"Oh, yeah...your cousin," Naruto grinned, remembering the pink-haired marriage candidate that had caused plenty of inside jokes between him and Kiba (that consisted of insults directed towards Sasuke's manhood).
The trio skirted around the large tent, away from the dark haired boy. When he was finally more than twenty meters away from them, Sakura's tensed shoulders relaxed. They followed a few new Privates who were more than willing to show them to their tents. The assigning of tent-mates, much to Sakura's chagrin, was in alphabetical orders according to their last names. This caused Naruto to go on a riot.
"Whaaaaaat?!" His mouth hung open as he placed his face within inches in front of the poor Specialist's face, "What are we supposed to do with Akira?!"
"Hey, it's alright, Naruto—" But Sakura was crestfallen as well. Nara...Namikaze...they would be tent-mates, leaving her, Haruno, behind.
It was hard enough that she didn't know anyone else here, and just when she met people she was comfortable with, it turns she was living separately anyway. Sakura wondered, selfishly, if it would have saddened her less if Shikamaru and Naruto were also separated.
"Hey, hey, Akira's just come back from Waterfall village, y'know," Naruto said, wildly raising his arms to further emphasize his point, "He doesn't know anyone from here! Can't you let him stay with us or something—"
"Hey, Naruto," Shikamaru interrupted him before the Specialist keeled over in fright, "Akira will be with Kiba. Look here,
And sure enough:
Hakuzoku
Haruno
Hirosaki
Inari
Inuzuka
"Oh," That seemed to placate Naruto for a while, "Alright then, never mind," He said cheerfully to the pale faced Specialist. Then he turned to Sakura, "We know Kiba. He's okay. C'mon, we'll introduce you. I'm pretty sure Kiba doesn't know the rest of the sods that you'll be sharing the tent with, either,"
Inuzuka Kiba turned out to be more troublesome than Sakura thought he would.
Not only did she look familiar to him, he said that she smelled vaguely familiar too. He sniffed the air around the tent in a weirdly canine-like fashion before quirking a brow and saying, "You smell like a girl,"
"Better than smelling like a dog," Sakura wrinkled her nose, but she was slightly pale-faced.
Sakura laid her sleeping bag beside Kiba's, and had the good sense to observe how the other boys in the tent laid out theirs, so she could copy what they were doing. Kiba threw her an extra pillow and a much thicker blanket than the one she brought with her.
"Thanks," She said, fluffing it up, pleased with the softness.
"Thank the Uchihas," Kiba replied as he zipped up his pack and laid it aside, "They're the ones who supplied most of the extra goods. We don't have to worry about food and stuff like that for at least a month,"
Sakura zipped up her pack and looked around the tent, wondering where to stash it. She wondered if boys opened each other's packs, and was worried about someone opening hers and seeing the...essentials...she had stuffed down at the very bottom. She finally decided to sleep with her pack. She placed it alongside her and pulled the blankets over it.
Hours passed, and she still couldn't sleep. It felt kind of alarming—she was smack dab in the middle of a war camp with only a tent to protect her from night raids that could happen at many minute. She didn't know anyone, no Ino, no Hinata, no one at all to help her if worse came to worst. She had to deal with training tomorrow, she had to keep up with much stronger guys who spent their whole lives preparing for this, she had to protect herself from the Sand enemies, and conceal her identity at the same time. She felt incredibly tired just thinking about it.
In the end, she got only about four measly hours of sleep, though the fatigue was instantly replaced by gut-wrenching nervousness as she left the tent with Kiba.
"Man, I don't think I'll ever get used to sleeping like this," The Inuzuka complained, rubbing his sore back.
Sakura didn't even feel how uncomfortable a sleeping bag was, because she was up all night dreading training. "Where do we head first?"
"Shooting grounds," Inuzuka replied, and Sakura nearly jumped up in relief.
Shooting! She was handy with a gun. She used to tag along with Ino and her father to the Leaf's Training Grounds to practice shooting with them. Ino was actually loads better, but Sakura knew she could at least shoot decently enough.
At least, for now, she didn't have to worry about competing with actual male physical strength.
Shikamaru and Naruto were already at the Shooting grounds. Naruto waved to them and they all gathered in one spot.
"You ready?" Naruto asked, a large grin on his face.
"He's been pumped up since four in the morning," Shikamaru said irritably, "Woke the whole tent and now everyone in there hates us. They hate, too, since I'm with him. What a drag, this war is,"
"Akira, you look really pale," Naruto commented, staring curiously at her.
"I'm—more of a scholar type," Sakura swallowed, looking at a pair of boys jostling each other quite brutally a few yards in front of them. "I'm okay with shooting, but I honestly—don't know about actual combat,"
"Oh, yeah, because you came from Waterfall," Naruto nodded, as if he understood something, "I've met some Waterfall boys, too. They're all typical country bumpkins. But you don't seem like a country boy, Akira, actually—" he squinted at her, and she squirmed uncomfortably, "—you must have lived in the finer parts of Waterfall, huh? You're not nearly as tan as they are. You spend a lot of time indoors, huh?"
"I read a lot," Sakura said, sweating profusely. Of course she didn't spend much time outdoors. Hardly any Lady ever did. She did her fencing and aikido in their manor's training room, too.
Before Naruto could make any more surprisingly accurate deductions, they were all called to attention and lined up to face their targets. Her weapon was a typical, light pistol, like the ones she used for fun in the Leaf Training Grounds with Ino and her father. After wearing their headgear and ear protectors, they all started practice. Naruto and Kiba shot their targets down like maniacs, while Shikamaru seemed to like making a game out of it somehow—he shot where the head would have been, then the heart, then both feet—a game of how little bullets he needed to kill the target.
It struck Sakura just then how experienced all the other boys her age in the camp were.
"You alright, Haruno?" It was Shikamaru. He gave her a lazy stare, "You don't like guns?"
She shook her head.
"Just try, anyway," He muttered, lowering his arm, "I don't like this, either. But we have to. We're guys, after all. Someone's got to do this. I don't like women, you know—too annoying, always gossiping together in groups. But I don't want any of them to do this, you know. Holding guns, killing men—I wouldn't want any of them to have to do this."
Sakura looked at him, and smiled. He looked disconcerted, "What?"
"Nothing, I'm an idiot. And a coward," She laughed, then aimed at the target, "And you're right,"
The more bullets she fired, the more she felt at ease. Having Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba just a few feet away seemed to help, too. Of course, she didn't belong here. But they didn't know that. Even the more squeamish recruits were starting to loosen up, and sure enough, soon, everyone felt comfortable enough with each other to encourage a bit of healthy competition.
Naruto scoffed, "What's that, Shikamaru? Your pretend Sand guy doesn't look dead to me,"
"He's been dead minutes before yours did," Shikamaru replied dryly. Most of the bullet holes in Naruto's target were on the thighs down.
"Go for the head first, Naruto," Sakura added good naturedly.
"It's getting pretty rowdy in here," Kiba complained, "I mean I'm not against it, no, but shouldn't all those sods settle down a bit or something? We're holding guns here!"
"Since when did you get boring, Kiba?" Naruto scoffed, before yelling at the top of his lungs, "Hey, all you sods! You better shut up and quit your yapping because there's already a best shooter! And he's right here! Namikaze Naruto of the Leaf!"
"Ah, man," Shikamaru grumbled, sticking a finger in his left ear, "We have an idiot right here,"
"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura hissed, yanking his ear with enough force to make him whimper.
"Ow, ow, ow, damnit, Akira you asshole—!"
Kiba jeered, "Yes! Take him down, Haruno!"
"Man, what a drag,"
The noise suddenly subsided. Sakura and Naruto both looked up, forgetting their little feud, to see what inspired the sudden silence.
Sasuke walked in, his dark military coat billowing behind him. His presence alone seemed to command the respect of the Privates; the idle chatter and obnoxious jeers dissolving away as he came closer. He stopped in front of a target and stared at it, seemingly examining every detail and formulating conclusions in his head. Meanwhile, Sakura was pulling her hat lower again and fluffing up her collar.
"Who aimed this?"
"That Private, Sir, seventh one from the left,"
Shikamaru's target.
"And the one next to it was aimed by the sixth from the left?"
"Yes, Sir,"
Her target.
Sasuke's eyes shifted to their direction and she was forced to stop fiddling with her collar. He walked towards them, in a painfully slow, almost funeral march-like pace ('her funeral, not his', she thought gloomily). Sakura didn't think she could take the tense pressure any longer. She longed to do something her hands. She finally resorted to balling them into fists at her sides.
He stopped a few meters away, just enough to plant a seed of fear and tension in all the Privates assembled. Nobody wanted to displease an Uchiha.
"This, here—," He suddenly said, turning to face the rest of the Privates, his arm gesturing almost lazily towards the two targets"—is an example of fine shooting. No unnecessary flourishes, hits right on target, and doesn't waste time trying to shoot the whole target down. Your job isn't to shoot as many holes as you can. It's to shoot one hole at exactly the right spot at exactly the right time. That alone should bring your target down. Not to mention, it won't waste bullets. Or your time. There are plenty of other soldiers you could be killing with all those other bullets you lot have wasted,"
This time, his stare and voice had turned icy again. The Privates were all deathly silent.
He stared at their direction, and Sakura looked down at her feet, cursing herself for the sudden impulse to flee. She shut her eyes to calm herself. I was wearing layers of foundation and makeup. I was practically wearing a different face. My hair was long. I was wearing a pink kimono. He won't recognize me. He thinks very badly of me. He won't expect me to waltz in here and endanger my life. He doesn't think honourably enough of me to assume I would do this.
"Try not to waste bullets," He finally said, before turning and walking away like a spectre of ice and doom.
The rest of the shooting training was spent in relative silence.
"Wow, you don't know how hard it is to get Sasuke to say good stuff about someone," Naruto said when they were finally packing up for lunch.
"Yeah," Sakura replied absentmindedly, her insides still squirming.
"But what's even more amazing is you, Akira!" Naruto exclaimed, flinging his bag across his right shoulder. His brilliant blue eyes were fixed on her face, "You shoot so well! And when I first saw you, I didn't expect well—you're so short and all—but, erm—"
He trailed off as Sakura glared at him.
"You're much better than you look, Haruno," Shikamaru put in, saving Naruto's skin. "This guy—" He jabbed a thumb towards's Naruto's direction, "—is just one of those foolhardy ones that thinks size equals ability. Granted, you are rather short, but you never seemed like an idiot to me,"
Sakura mentally sent a flying kiss to a boy she had been dating a few years ago. He had turned out to be an ass but it was because of him that she tripled her efforts in her shooting and fencing. He always claimed to have fallen in love with her because she was amazing at fencing, and that idea spurred her on, eventually causing her to defeat her instructor at the young age of fifteen (she had mentioned this fact to the Uchihas during the matchmaking dinner. Wrong move).
Of course, in the end, he decided that he didn't want to continue dating such a manly girl and set his sights on Yamanaka Ino, who, of course, dumped him gracelessly. And thus, the legendary friendship between two equally frightening girls was born.
Their afternoon practice was of the worst kind: hand to hand combat. Sakura was pale faced as they entered the training grounds. Most of the boys were in high spirits, and some felt inclined to remove their shirts and army jackets to bare their muscular torsos to the world.
The ever competitive Naruto joined in too, removing his shirt in a flash and joining the shirtless throng. Kiba followed suit.
Sakura stared, almost pleadingly, at Shikamaru. But the Nara shook his head, "Not my area,"
And she almost sighed in relief.
Soon enough, they were asked not-too-kindly to settle down. After the incident with Sasuke Uchiha, the recruits were left considerably tamer and they all expressed no objections at being ordered. In minutes, they were all arranged in four lines. They were to be called up one by one to fight with a Specialist. There were also four lines of them. This seemed to flick a certain switch on in the boys and they were all doing stretches and exercises in their places. Most of them had their shirts off.
Please don't make us take our shirts off, Sakura thought, concentrating all her wishes on this one statement. She quickly formulated a plan, if her luck were to run out. I could tell them baring my torso is against my religion or something.
Then she mentally smacked her head, Moron. You're from Waterfall. The only known major religion in Waterfall is Jashinism. She didn't think anyone in the camp would take that well.
Surprisingly, clumsy-footed Naruto was anything but clumsy in battle. He was even faster than Kiba and probably stronger, so that benefited him. Shikamaru was faster than he looked, but his advantages seemed to tilt towards the more strategic kind. He always seemed to know the right time to strike and despite his usual heavy-lidded look, his eyes were keen enough to figure out weak spots seconds within the fight. He took his opponents down faster than most.
When it was her turn, the only thing she was proud of with her fight was that her fists or legs didn't shake. She was taken down in half the time Naruto was, though.
"That's alright, lad," The Specialist pulled her up and smiled at her good-naturedly, "You must be some kind of scholar, though? Your wrists are quite small. You don't do much combat training, do you?"
Sakura resisted the urge to pull her hand away from his. "Yeah. Not really my area,"
"It's alright," The Specialist patted her back, "You're pretty fast, though. Your footwork is the best among these blokes,"
Sakura tried not to gape.
The Specialist, noticing her reaction, laughed, "It's true, boy. You do some sort of fancy swordplay? Fencing? It's obvious in your footwork. Very impressive. Good at dodging, too, almost like you know exactly where I plan to hit ya. A bit uncanny,"
Sakura felt herself puff up with pride, "Thanks you, Sir!"
"You've got talent. Work on it,"
"Thank you, Sir!" She gave a quick salute and went back to her line.
"Nice job, Haruno," Shikamaru remarked, tossing him a water flask.
"You were amazing, Akira!" Naruto said loyally.
By the time they were given permission to have dinner and retire to their tents, Sakura was aching all over.
"You coming, Akira?" Kiba asked, looking back at her.
"I'm going to the medic's tent," She told him, rubbing her side gingerly, "For some liniment,"
The medics all turned out to be total assholes, and told her to come back if she had a real injury.
"Assholes," Sakura grumbled under her breath after she was kicked out of the tent. She was a well-trained medic herself and she thought it was just plain blasphemy to withhold even just a bit of liniment to someone who was aching terribly all over. She headed to the messy dining area (which was just a wide open space with a few tables and chairs) to get something to eat. Sasuke was there, just a few yards away from where she was standing, but he seemed to ignore everybody else, anyway.
"You do fencing?"
Sakura was shocked when Sasuke spoke to her. She had to shake off the fog of confusion that was swirling in her head before she could find words, "Yeah. Sir," she tacked on hastily.
"Your fencing was incorporated rather strongly in your sword fight," He commented, "I was like that, too. And do you know Hyuga Neji?"
Sakura nodded. He was tall, pale, with dark hair and a handsome, angular face. Hinata spoke highly of him, Ino detested him (she was still yet to know the reason) and the rest thought he was amazing. Sakura included. Though he was polite to her on occasions when she visited the Hyuga home, he had never been particularly warm. He only acted human towards Hinata, and a certain thick-browed commoner boy from the Leaf that she didn't know. She hoped to heavens Neji wasn't here. The Hyuga boy didn't seem like the kind of person who could be fooled by an oversized military outfit and poorly hacked off hair. And he'd seen her at least twice before without makeup when she'd visited the Hyuga house. He'd probably be suspicious.
"He was so unaccustomed to fighting with weapons that he ended up tossing his sword aside and bringing down his opponent single-handedly with his fists," Sasuke relayed the information to her casually. Sakura suspected he wouldn't act as friendly as this if he knew she was a girl, "He did it within a span of eight seconds. He was used to bare-handed Martial Arts style,"
It was weird hearing him talking so casually. Especially since the last and first conversation they had was just a few paces away from becoming a full blown insult flinging contest. There was something incredibly irritating about seeing his nicer and more amiable side.
The question came so suddenly Sakura barely had time to react properly.
"Do you know a Lady Haruno Sakura?"
Sakura made a choking sound, rather like a dying animal.
Sasuke took this as a yes, "Relative?"
"Cousin," Sakura managed to say. He throat felt terribly dry.
Sasuke didn't reply, only nodded. When she finally composed herself, Sakura thought she'd plunge right in, "She was selected as a potential marriage candidate for you one time, I believe,"
Sasuke nodded, "That is true,"
Trying not to look too smug, she ploughed on, "We're close you see. Practically siblings. And Sakura's a nice person. I hope you treated her well,"
She tried to sound as civil and friendly as possible, as if she didn't know what happened on that fateful matchmaking dinner, but sounding nice was hard when she kept gritting her teeth in carefully concealed bitterness.
Sasuke chose to dodge the remark, saying instead, "You look very similar. It's almost uncanny,"
Sakura's throat got all dry again. Karma, karma, so quick and fast, so she decided to dodge that one, too, and said, "It's a clan thing. You Uchihas look the same,"
"True," Sasuke acknowledged, then added, "Family members tend to look similar. But I was actually talking about subtle things. The shape of your eyes and face, and come to think of it, even the lilt of your voices sound similar. Yours are just deeper,"
"Hey! Hey, Naruto!" Sakura started waving frantically at an invisible spectre (Naruto wasn't there), and proceeded to smack her fist (in what she hoped was a very manly way) against Sasuke's shoulder (apparently forgetting that he had a higher rank and this would have been quite improper) before swaggering away on her shaky legs, "Ah, that idiot, what's the point of having ears when stuff just float right past them. I'm heading over to the idiot, see 'ya, Uchiha. Sir!"
Sasuke nodded, eyebrows narrowed, apparently trying to see where 'Naruto' disappeared to. But Sakura was already stalking off. Sasuke stared curiously after him. Haruno Akira was walking away very fast, and with what seemed like an unnecessary amount of swagger in his step.
"Getting to know the Privates?"
Sasuke turned and met his own reflection. Almost. The chin was more angular, the hair was even darker, and the face had a friendlier look to it.
"Only the interesting ones," Sasuke replied.
Uchiha Itachi stared at Haruno Akira's retreating figure and frowned, "You mean only the strange ones? I've always thought that particular guy was strange,"
"His cousin is strange, for sure," Sasuke snorted, "Remember Miss Pinkie?"
"Of course, your little verbal spat has become the stuff of legends,"
"My private parts, you mean," Sasuke glowered, "Ever since that night, that idiot Naruto and the rest have been making up stupid stuff about my sex life. And my dick. All because of that foul-mouthed little—"
"Technically, you insulted her first," Itachi pointed out, tossing a grape into his mouth.
"Anyhow," Sasuke sniffed disdainfully, "It's interesting to note that her cousin is a decent person."
"Strange, though,"
"What do you mean?"
Itachi shrugged, "I don't know. I don't exactly get it either. But do you see the way he walks? It's kind of like—he's conscious about it. Like he's deliberately trying to move with as much swagger as possible. It's kind of disconcerting. Though amusing. I've been watching him for days,"
"He's short," Sasuke pointed out, "Probably just afraid of being called a pansy. My guess is he deliberately moves that way, to try to increase his masculinity or something,"
"And he smells like a girl," Itachi wrinkled his nose, "Much too clean,"
"Unlike you I don't go around smelling Privates," Sasuke remarked, "I don't know about that but I wouldn't want to smell like a pigsty, either,"
"Uhm. Are you sick, Akira?" Naruto asked as Sakura stomped in their tent with an unmistakably wild, panicky look in her eyes.
"Yeah. I mean, no, I—shit the food here is awesome!" Sakura exclaimed, shoving a spoonful of the goopy, brown stew in her mouth.
"The food must be awful over in Waterfall," Kiba whispered none too quietly in Naruto's ear. The blond sniggered loudly.
"Anyway," Shikamaru dug under what looked like a pile of envelopes and tossed one at her, "A letter. From home,"
Wide-eyed, Sakura stared at the address. It was addressed simply to Haruno.
Inside, was a brief letter in her mother's handwriting.
Come home.
Sakura sighed. She knows I can't.
"Hey, hey, Akira's got a girl back home," Naruto grinned, abandoning his deck of cards as he leaned towards her with a leering expression.
Kiba whistled, "Good for ya. Left a lot of broken hearts back home, Haruno?"
"In a way," Sakura laughed lightly, then paused.
"Anything wrong?" Shikamaru asked, noting her glazed over expression.
A lie. Think of a lie. But she'd just come back from a particularly stressful conversation with Uchiha Sasuke and she has been lying about everything for two days straight. She could feel her carefully built facade wavering, and thought, to hell it all, it'd be breath of fresh air to tell the truth for once.
"It's my mother," She shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, "She wants me to come home. That's all."
"Why? I mean, I know she's worried," Naruto backtracked, slightly alarmed by Sakura's pitiful expression, "But it's an honour, you know. Us being here. It's something to be proud of. And she must know how amazing you are at fighting, Akira. You'll be okay."
"Maybe I'm not supposed to be here, that's all," Sakura sighed, sitting down and tracing the words her mother wrote down with suspiciously slim fingers. Right, come to think of it, it's a wondrous thing nobody noticed her slim hands.
"Nonsense. You belong here," Kiba snorted, and Naruto nodded sincerely.
She looked down at the letter and thought of what she should say. She'd have to write in codes, though. Address it to a worried aunt instead of a mother.
And that's what she did, at 10 PM in the evening, as she sat down with a pen poised over a clean piece of paper.
Aunty,
You know I can't.
I know you're worried, but I'm doing fine.
I've got friends. Namikaze Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba.
Send Uncle my greetings. Tell him I love him very, very, much.
She grinned at the image of her father bawling uncontrollably at that.
And while you're at it, tell cousin Sakura hello. And also, please tell her friends I'll be saving a big smile for them when I return.
She thought of Ino and Hinata.
I'll be back.
Love,
Akira
.
TBC