Fragments
-o-
Life
-o-
Naruto sighed as he looked around his apartment. Sure he shouldn't complain, many of his comrades had far less once they moved out of their parent's houses. But still, the apartment felt empty, utterly so.
He rummaged in his kitchen and pulled out several stacks of ramen and nothing else.
A quick look into the refrigerator confirmed that only bad milk and some old rotting vegetables remained.
Ah right, he needed to go grocery shopping. Three weeks on a mission were hell on perishables after all.
He looked at the ramen in his hands. Or he could ignore the need and live on a diet of water and ramen. Sure it would stunt his growth for a while, but who needed to be bigger anyway? It just made you a bigger target! And being smaller than the average meant that you had easier access to vital organs.
The best way to the heart was through the stomach after all.
-o-
Sakura waved a cheerful goodbye to her parents and sprinted out of the house. As soon as she felt sure her parents or neighbors couldn't see her she dropped the cheerful mask and pulled out a bottle.
"Kyaaaah! That hit the spot." She gurgled happily. Damn her sense of responsibility and more importantly her desire to keep her parents happy. No alcohol while in the house and she had to keep them under a light genjutsu to hide the alcohol from them.
Still, it could be worse, she could be unable to drink alcohol altogether.
She rubbed her ribs gently, medic nin were awesome. She would have to make sure Tsunade trained a lot more once she came back. Having your broken ribs healed like that... she had started to reinforce them with chakra this morning before she remembered they were already back in top condition.
Whistling she moved through the streets of Konoha, life bustling all around her. Merchants hawking their wares, messengers running around delivering their letters, mothers leading their children around...
Sakura accelerated, away from it all. The noise quickly got to her. She just couldn't deal with it. How had she dealt with it for the first few weeks? Ah right, she had ignored it as much as possible.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she arrived at the training ground. She bet that today or tomorrow Ibiki would call them in, to get the location of Orochimaru's bases. This should be fun, especially since Ibiki couldn't employ his more interesting techniques. Though she couldn't play too much with him either. The Hokage would only tolerate so much, and Ibiki even less.
"Hey Sakura!" Sasuke smiled as he ran towards her. And did he have to show off his hickey like that? Damn it, the less she knew about Ino and him the better.
"Uchiha." She grumbled and looked away pointedly.
Sasuke simply chuckled. "So you don't want your bent..." He looked at his hands in confusion, then at Sakura who snarfed the meal down quickly.
"Shanks." She said through a few bites.
"You have absolutely no manners." Sasuke sighed.
She grinned at him, showing off her nice and white teeth. Perfect chakra control had so many advantages, like never having to brush your teeth, just use chakra to clean em.
"I'm an animal I know." Sasuke snorted.
"Genjutsu like that don't work on me." He shook his head.
Damn, and he didn't even use his sharingan.
She spotted Naruto trotting towards them, a look of dumbstruck confusion on his face.
"Hey moron? What's wrong you look even more stupid than usual." Not that he looked that stupid anymore, but you had to get your licks in.
"People are nicer to me... much nicer." Naruto said, looking around as if he expected somebody to come jumping out and run him down.
Sasuke coughed. "Well, somebody might have mentioned that you captured a high class enemy nin and helped free a poor impoverished country from total ruin, to Ino... and anybody else willing to listen."
"What the hell?" Sakura asked. She had expected a lot from Sasuke, but not him starting to... to... what did he do anyway? Improve Naruto's reputation sure, but why?
"Uhh, not that I mind, but why?" Naruto echoed her thoughts.
"Well, you want to be Hokage right? Not a job I want to ever have, much too much hassle. But a Hokage needs to be loved by his people. So I'm helping you get famous. By the way, if anybody asks? You didn't do all that much, and you couldn't have done it without us anyway."
Naruto stared at Sasuke as if he was insane. "Well of course I couldn't have done it without you."
Now Sasuke stared at Naruto, pity shone from his eyes for a second, before he shook his head. "I always forget you haven't been trained in politics. We need to change that and asap. As the future leader of Konoha you need that training. Desperately."
Sakura blinked, Sasuke wanted to train Naruto in politics... that would turn out to be comedic gold.
"You've got good instincts already Naruto. And you are humble enough not to steal the spotlight from others. That helps a lot in politics, especially if you don't need to steal to spotlight to gather attention. But still, you need to make people aware of you. And not with pranks. Unless you manage to prank somebody spectacularly hated." Naruto had gotten a notepad from somewhere and wrote down every word the Uchiha uttered, nodding every now and again.
Sakura had tuned it out after the first few words. Nothing of importance to her, she had no desire to ever enter into politics. Her campaigns would end up having her opponents stabbed in the back. So much simpler really.
"Well, as interesting as Sasuke's lecture on village politics is." Kakashi spoke up. Sakura narrowed her eyes as she noted that he also wrote down every word Sasuke spoke. "We do have an appointment with Ibiki... and for once I don't want to be late... Ibiki gets annoyed when I'm late and..."
Sakura nodded, shivering. "You don't want to get Ibiki annoyed, he has his ways to make you regret it."
Kakashi glanced at her, but decided against questioning her.
"Well? Let's go then. He grinned at them and marched off."
-o-
Sasuke leaned back in his chair and smiled politely at the man in front of him. Sakura sat ramrod straight and for once had not a single remark against anybody in the room.
Instead she looked straight ahead, kept her mouth shut unless somebody asked something of her and if she said anything it came out as short clipped sentences, giving exactly the information she had been asked to give.
Ibiki seemed to love her. "Thank you Sakura, if you and Naruto are right we have at least five of his bases now. Maybe we'll be able to take him out soon." He even smiled at her. She didn't smile back, but she inclined her head politely at least. Damn, even the Hokage didn't get that much respect.
Naruto grimaced. "I don't think that's that good of an idea. Orochimaru's strong, very much so. He's managed to take out the Hokage when he fought him."
"Yes, the fourth said it took a lot out of him to beat Orochimaru. And that no one beside him stood a chance against Orochimaru." Sasuke added helpfully.
A strange expression came over Ibiki's face, like every time Sasuke talked about the fourth, after the Kyuubi attack.
"Well... do you think you stand a chance against him?" Ibiki asked, pleasantly. The entire session had been more or less pleasant. More like a discussion than anything else really.
They looked at each other, Sakura still in her stoic mask of professionalism, Naruto in intense concentration and Sasuke in his trademarked noble thinker pose.
Finally Naruto shook his head. "I don't think so. He's got a few aces too much up his sleeve. We could give him a run for his money, hell maybe we could even fight him to a draw. But he still has a lot of advantages over us." He sighed. "I would really prefer not to fight him until a bit later... maybe if I can get some training in Cloud..."
Ibiki's eyebrow rose practically over his head. "Training in Cloud? Why would you want training there?"
Kakashi nodded confused, Sakura seemed to ignore it, but she listened as well, Sasuke had no doubt about it.
"Because their jinchuriki taught me how to control the Kyuubi. And I think I need a certain cave for the full effect. I'm far more along now than I was before, I can pull a lot of its power out safely, but not everything I could if I had gone to that cave... I think at least. But considering the price of failure, I'm not gonna try if I'm not in that cave."
Ibiki nodded, but Sasuke could see the next question coming a mile away.
"Why would cloud allow you to train with their jinchuriki?" He asked.
"Because Madara planned to rip it out of me and take over the world with the combined form of all tailed demons." came Naruto's prompt answer.
Sakura didn't appear surprised by that. But then, she worked for Madara for a while. He probably told her all about his plan.
"World wide mind-control." Sasuke added. "If he had succeeded that would be the end result."
Ibiki shuddered. "And you think he's planning the same here."
All three nodded. "It's a stupid plan, but it could work sir." Sakura said.
Ibiki glanced at her. "You know? From what Zabusa said I expected more trouble from you."
Sakura's face didn't even twitch. "Sir, I've been... your guest before. And routine seven eight five... isn't something I particularly wish to repeat."
Ibiki drew back in horror. "I did what? Why would I do that to you?"
What the hell did routine seven eight five mean?
Naruto and Kakashi looked as confused as Sasuke felt.
"It was a mission debriefing." Sakura began.
"A mission debriefing? Why would I... how could I?" Ibiki looked utterly disgusted.
"I acted less than respectful." Sakura explained. "And the situation for the village wasn't the best. You were highly stressed and Danzo authorized you to use any means necessary to get information." Sakura answered quietly. "You were entirely within your right to discipline me."
"Danzo in control... the routine... it's a small miracle you are even sane." Ibiki muttered.
"That's debatable." Naruto piped up. For once Sakura didn't react to the dig, instead Ibiki did.
"You shut up, unless you want to see what that procedure really means brat!" He growled.
Naruto glanced at Sakura quickly. Then shrank back. "I'll be good."
Sasuke could only agree, if it managed to make Sakura behave... he had no desire to experience it. Especially since it seemed to disgust Ibiki.
"Well, can you tell me anything else about your world?" He asked Sakura, gently even.
She looked at him in something approaching confusion. "Why would you want to know anything about it? It's a shit-hole, full of monsters and madmen... well actually it's a shit-hole that has occasional monsters and madmen. Now that the population has taken such a nosedive even the monsters go hungry." She shuddered.
"Can you describe the monsters?" Ibiki asked.
She looked at him blankly, then shook her head. "Sorry, I would rather not. I don't think they'll be relevant any time soon." She glanced at Naruto. "If the knowledge should become necessary... I'll tell you all about them, before I kill myself. I'm not going to live through that again."
Sasuke shuddered, he really didn't want to think about what her world looked like to create that response.
Ibiki looked at her for a bit longer then nodded. "I guess that's fair enough... maybe you'll tell me when you feel you can? We might come up against something similar at some point and any hint could be useful."
Sakura looked at him then nodded. "I'll try."
He turned to Sasuke. "Well, do you have anything useful for me?"
Sasuke considered the question. Did he have anything immediately useful for Ibiki? He knew a few techniques the Fourth had developed over time, a few clan secrets they would really rather keep, some very useful info on Danzo...
"Well I know how to get at Danzo." He considered it. "Probably, if this world were anything like my own." Though considering the difference had been the actions of his father, Sasuke felt somewhat confident that Danzo would still use Orochimaru's old hideout. It had been given up, after Konoha had looted it, of course.
"He's breaking in his new recruits in Orochimaru's old hideout. He had the rooms cleared of rubble and all and simply moved in." Sasuke shrugged. "I also have a few more tidbits on the clans, a few interesting techniques of the Fourth, insight into the sharingan and am very willing to recreate my the clan. You just have to..."
Sakura's fist ended that sale's pitch.
"Why are you so hellbent on me not getting any?" He growled at her. "If you were interested it would be an entirely different matter. But I learn quick and you aren't, so why the hostility?"
"You are embarrassing us all with your constant lechery." She answered in her overly professional voice.
"And you aren't?" He growled back.
"Not in front of Ibiki, I'm not." She immediately answered.
"Oh, fair enough I suppose." He shrugged and looked at the amused man.
"At least you are making this slightly interesting. Zabusa made it boring and a struggle. Really wish the Hokage had authorized force on him." Ibiki sighed.
"Well, talking about that. How are they doing?" Naruto asked quietly.
Ibiki looked at him for a minute, before he shrugged. "The boy passed his examination with flying colors. Nobody here has any problems with him living in Konoha. Kinda get why you would want him here, really." He shook his head. "Too bad that he's a package deal. Zabusa makes the entire thing a lot less appealing. He admitted that he would probably flip out and attack random passersby in a few months. Too bad really, he told us about a few of Mist's rarer techniques."
"So they can stay?" Naruto didn't seem deterred by that last revelation in the least. Probably because he already knew about it.
"Eh, in security detainment yes. We aren't letting him out any time soon that's for sure. Well he does get regular exercise to make sure he stays healthy, but he'll be supervised the entire time." Ibiki watched Naruto carefully.
Naruto nodded with a sigh. "Figured it would end like this. Maybe Haku will find his place here, after he's out of containment."
Ibiki shrugged. "Maybe. In any case, he won't be out of prison until after the exams. If Orochimaru really plans to attack we can't risk having a security risk like him running around. Sorry kid," He didn't look all that sorry though. "But that's the way it is."
Grimacing Naruto nodded nevertheless. "Suppose that's the best I could ask for."
"Yes, anything else by the way?" Naruto looked at the ceiling for a while, clearly thinking. Suddenly his eyes, which had closed halfway shot open again.
"Yes! Kabuto, the bastard worked for Orochimaru!" He very nearly shouted. "He's..."
"Ugh! Damn that creepy guy. I'm still not convinced he didn't take up Sasuke's mantle and continue to create these freaking monster nin." Sakura spat. "He was such a creep. I don't know whether Orochimaru had anything to do with it or not."
Sasuke felt so stupid for not remembering that. "Yeah, the Fourth had Kabuto imprisoned and... questioned. Turns out he was a sleeper agent for Orochimaru, and before that for Sasori."
"Hmm interesting." Ibiki added it to his list of interesting things Team Seven said.
"I wouldn't advise anybody below Kakashi's level to engage him though, the guy is good, very good." Naruto growled, to Sakura's agreement.
Sasuke didn't know enough about the guy. The Fourth had after all imprisoned him rather easily. But maybe Sasuke had just not been made privy to the real difficulties in his capture. He had been rather young then.
"Hmm well, we are just gathering information at the moment." Ibiki muttered. "Anything else, or should I start asking questions?"
They looked at each other. No reason to fear the questions, but the more they managed to remember the better their standing with Ibiki and the Hokage.
Naruto opened his mouth first. "Well, there's...
-o-
Sakura stretched, working the time on that damn chair out of her muscles. The question and answer session had taken well over four hours and only one hour had consisted of them telling Ibiki what they knew. The rest were sharp questions about things Sakura could barely remember happening. Never mind the details.
Ibiki managed to worm a lot of stuff out of them though. Maybe he and the Hokage would come up with a decent plan. If not, kill everything without a Konoha headband seemed like a workable plan.
And if Danzo happened to cross her path. Accidents were known to happen in war.
"You owe me a fight." Sasuke spoke up, as he finished his own stretches.
Sakura blinked at him and shook her head. "No, you!" She poked him in the chest, almost making him fall over. "You, owe me a fight." She barred her teeth at him in an approximation of a grin.
He returned the favor easily. "Whatever, now?" Naruto's stomach gurgled loudly.
Sakura twitched, it had a point.
"After dinner?" Sasuke corrected his question.
"And some time to let it settle." Sakura nodded, she needed food and now. Water could wait, she had some on her anyway, even if many people would disagree. You could drink it, it counted as water, simple as that in her opinion. Though you mind need some poison resistance for some water.
"And I'm not interested in ramen, so excuse me if I have other plans." She nodded at them and disappeared in a flash. She hoped she would get to Ino before Sasuke managed to somehow get to her. Sakura hadn't spend any quality time with the young girl since she returned.
That would change today. She pulled her wallet out and grinned at its fat state. Oh how she loved the captain, he always looked out for his subordinates.
If only he would have let her show her appreciation properly. She had been old enough then after all. She wouldn't try anything now of course. She rather doubted she could enjoy it anyway. Stupid tiny body.
She jumped down in front of the Yamanaka flower shop. A quick look confirmed that Ino probably still had some missions to do. But Sakura could track her down easily enough.
She scrambled over the rooftops on all fours, her nose in the wind. Sometimes she envied the Inuzuka and their noses. They could smell as well as Sakura could now without any chakra enhancements. If they added those they could smell even better.
But in the end Sakura didn't have to worry about certain smells, so it canceled out.
Ino's scent could be found all over the building, but the freshest led her towards the Hokage tower. Just as expected, since most teams would meet there to save time.
From there the trail split, as Ino finished her missions and Sakura had to concentrate a lot to find the freshest.
"Not bad." A voice said behind her.
Sakura turned around. An Inuzuka stood behind her, the ever present dog at her side. "You after the Yamanaka girl?" She asked.
Sakura narrowed her eyes at the woman and suppressed a growl. After a deep breath she nodded. "Yes." She frowned at the older woman.
"Not one for small talk eh?" The woman laughed. "No worries, she's on her way into the forests, gathering herbs. Just go in that direction, should be faster than following her trail, they have to get some containers first."
Slowly Sakura nodded.
"Oh and... girl how the hell can you keep standing, you smell as if have a distillery in your stomach." The woman frowned at her.
"Oh, that's my little secret." Sakura winked at her. "But thanks anyway. Anything that saves time is good after all." She waved and sprinted off, forgetting the meeting almost immediately.
-o-
What a strange girl, Tsume thought to herself she definitely used some Inuzuka forms in her sprint, but mixed with something more devious. She shivered slightly, no the girl just delved deeper into the beast than even Inuzuka.
She would have to talk to the Hokage about that, it seemed she taught herself how to access that state, or somebody taught her without really understanding what they were doing. She might also have to talk to Kiba, giving out clan techniques like that... and not even introducing the girl he was interested in to her... tch.
-o-
Sakura quickly found Ino once she entered the forest. It would have been hard not to find her, with all the complaining she did.
Sakura chuckled to herself as she snuck up on her. The carelessness of youth. Shikamaru gathered the herbs in a sort of bored serenity. He probably enjoyed himself, poor guy died in the first real war he fought in. Ran himself into the ground trying to protect everybody.
He didn't even notice her, neither did Choji, who somehow managed to juggle his chips and the herbs he plucked.
Sakura smiled at him sadly, he had taken Shikamaru's death hard... and died a week later, ripping apart several of Sasuke's creations.
Asuma looked at her with an raised eyebrow as she snuck towards Ino, who raged at the menial task she had to endure, but didn't say anything.
"Why me? I should be doing something useful, not pick herbs for some stupid git from the hospital! And whiiii!" She screamed as Sakura slipped behind her and hugged her tightly.
"Inoooo. I'm hungry!" Sakura purred into her ear.
"Aahhhh Sakura! Let go! I'm not a lesbian!" Ino struggled desperately, but Sakura easily countered ever move Ino made, not letting go for even a second.
"Ohh, come on Ino, I wanted to go to that great steak-house I know." Ino's struggles weakened a tiny little bit.
"I'm not going on a date with you!" She screeched and her struggles intensified.
"I'm paying by the way." Ino stood still almost immediately.
"I'm not kissing on the first date." She said. "No groping either."
Sakura laughed and let her go. "Are you sure you aren't an Akimichi?" She asked Ino.
"I just appreciate good, free, food. I think I know the restaurant... if it's pretty expensive?" She looked speculatively at Sakura.
"Yes and as I said, I'm paying." Sakura winked at Ino.
"And you know that I was just kidding with the date stuff right?" Ino asked, a little fearfully.
Rolling her eyes Sakura nodded. "Yes, yes. No kissing or other stuff. Don't worry, I'm not interested."
"Well good." Ino nodded. "Wait, why not?"
"Come on then." Sakura dragged Ino behind her, ignoring her question, until she ran into a wall known as Asuma.
"What do you think you are doing?" He asked, quite clearly amused, going by the look on his face.
"Taking Ino out for dinner, dad." Sakura answered easily.
"Well I'm not sure I approve of Ino going out with drunken strangers." Asuma easily countered.
"I'm not drunk, just slightly inebriated." Sakura joked.
"Well, you can still pronounce it, that does lend credence to you." Asuma rubbed his chin. "Doesn't change the fact that Ino still has work to do."
Sakura shrugged and handed him some cigarettes. "I'm sure you can do without her."
Asuma looked at the cigarettes in his hands then nodded. "You make a good point. Have fun Ino."
Ino stared at Asuma as if he had gone insane. "How? Why?" Sakura ignored her and dragged her along. "Don't question it Ino, just accept it."
-o-
"So, it there a reason you let Ino off early?" Shikamaru grumbled ever so slightly at Asuma.
The older man turned to his young charge and raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you wanted to listen to her complain?"
Shikamaru blinked and shook his head quickly. "Now that you mention it, this might just be a blessing." He quickly returned to his work. "But that you would be bought for that and cigarettes."
Asuma chuckled quietly, hiding his worry. How had the girl known that he was interested in Kurenai? And how had she found out that he planned to invite her to Takai Kuchini? No matter, he now had a reservation for next week. And those were hard to get... how had the girl managed it anyway?
-o-
Sakura smiled at the waiter as she stood in front of the restaurant, a smile showing of her full white teeth. And she did nothing more. She didn't give the man more than five minutes before he cracked. After all even as exclusive as this was, a simple reservation, even a week in advance couldn't be worth having that smile in front of your face for any amount of time. And she didn't even have to threaten him.
She just asked for a reservation and then, upon the expected denial, had started smiling.
"Ok already, fine you have a table for two in a week, are you happy now?" He pulled a pen out of his pocket and set it on the paper. "What name should I put down?" He asked, clearly afraid.
"Haruno." Sakura beamed cheerfully, not creepy this time just cheerfully. The man sagged in relief.
"Ok, it's a decent table too, since I don't want you back here anytime soon."
Sakura nodded. "No problem not for a few months at least. Oh and, since I know how much trouble this could get you in. Here's a bit of money." She handed over a large stack of bills. Enough to bite a little chunk out of her mission payment, but she had enough left to last her a bit longer. So she didn't worry too much.
The man looked at the money and suddenly he seemed all smiles. "I'm sad to hear that miss. If you and your date want to come back, you will be very welcome here."
Sakura rolled her eyes but didn't protest, the guy might be a greedy sleaze, but at least he didn't lie about it.
-o-
Ino looked around the restaurant, it was pretty nice, not great and certainly not Takai Kuchini, but then Sakura had to have trouble affording this place and here you just paid premium for the meat. There you paid premium for everything.
"So... how did your first mission go? I was kinda busy with Sasuke yesterday..." Ino asked as they waited for their food.
She had a lot of questions for Sakura beside this one, but she needed a conversation opener.
"Eh, went pretty good. We were attacked by a high class missing nin, but we kicked his ass and captured him." Sakura said.
Impressive, that would be... "Missing Nin!" Ino shouted. They had what?
"Well, three missing nin really, but I'm not counting the first two, they just sucked way, way too much." Sakura rolled her eyes dismissively.
"Buh?" Ino managed to say.
"Got paid for an A-Rank mission too, since this guy was that dangerous. And a nice bonus because our employer kinda lied about the mission. But really it wasn't that dangerous." Sakura held her hands up. "Not that I'm saying they shouldn't have pushed it up to A-Rank. I mean obviously the guy was a high class missing nin. But still, we weren't in any real danger."
Sakura patted Ino's shoulder.
"We..." Ino started to say. "We... we kinda went on a C-Rank mission." She finally managed to say. "Sasuke is so awesome!"
"Hey what am I? I fought Zabusa too!" Sakura huffed indignantly. As if she could do as much as Sasuke. "And I landed the first hit as well!" Sakura added.
"Oh really, what else did you do?" Ino replied haughtily. She knew about Sakura's smarts, but she also knew that practical applications of those smarts didn't come quite as easy as Sakura seemed to think. After all Ino hadn't done all that good on those either. Her chakra control might be excellent, only second to Sakura or maybe Hinata, but she still couldn't compete to the boys.
"Eh, stole his sword, which I have to show you by the way. The Hokage let me keep it for now. Also punched Zabuza around a bit." Sakura preened, as if that was such an accomplishment.
She considered the feat for a second. Alright, alright even punching an A-Rank missing nin was an accomplishment, punching him repeatedly did count for something.
"Fine, you are good." Very good, but if Sakura said the truth, and Ino prided herself in being able to read her friend, then how did she managed it? "But... how could you do that?"
Sakura closed her eyes for a second a huge grin spreading over her face. Just as a waiter came with their orders. Ino looked down at their plates. She had chosen a dainty plate, just enough to get full, but not nearly enough to gorge herself.
Sakura on the other hand had a huge plate of meat, slathered in meat and topped in even more meat. How did she plan on eating all that?
And a bottle of sake stood beside it. Another thing Ino couldn't imagine the reason for. Since Sakura shouldn't be drinking anyhow. But Sakura went after the sake first, right after tipping the waiter generously... and who tipped without paying first?
Ino stared in shocked horror as Sakura downed about half the bottle in a few seconds, showing not the slightest sight of discomfort.
"Sakura!" Ino squeaked.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What? I can take it no problem." She waved Ino away. And started tearing into her meat. It had been cooked long enough to resemble charcoal by now. How could Sakura even eat that?
She looked at her own plate and decided that focusing on her meat would be better for her mental health.
She could hear Sakura savage her meal though and looking up quickly she noticed that Sakura used the fork and knife just a little bit hesitantly, as if she didn't remember how to use them. Which just might be the truth, she didn't eat with them all that often after all.
But Ino had a feeling that if she handed the other girl some chopsticks she would see the same slight hesitation. What made Ino worry even more however, were the constant interruptions in Sakura's meal. She would stop eating, scan the entire crowd, then dive right in. And she didn't try to taste the meat, she just gobbled it down as fast as possible. Though... not always, she seemed to try to slow down and enjoy it every so often.
Ino looked at her own meal, what had happened to Sakura? Sure they hadn't gotten along so great after her declaration of independence. But they had still maintained a friendly rivalry. Somewhat friendly at least.
This Sakura seemed interested in rekindling the friendship, but she acted so different. Ino could feel confidence radiating off her. But tempered, tempered by a paranoia she only saw in some of those veterans that came to talk to her father every now and again. They acted pretty much the same, always on the lookout for the next threat, even as they considered themselves safe from said threats.
Only, how could Sakura have picked up those habits? On this mission? Doubtful, she had started behaving strange way before.
Sakura didn't talk during her feeding session and Ino preferred to focus on her own meal anyway, so they remained silent during their meal.
Finally they both were done. Even at the same time, which disturbed Ino a bit. How could Sakura have eaten that much in such a short time... and where did she pack it all.
"Ahh, that hit the spot." Sakura patted her stomach contently.
"How could you eat so much? Aren't you afraid you'll get fat?" Ino asked scandalized.
Sakura watched her through droopy eyes. "Nah, I can simply work the fat out of my system, Ninja life is the greatest diet know to man. You should eat as much as you can while you have the time, get the energy for missions and such."
"Ugh, you're as bad as those veterans dad always talks to." Ino watched Sakura carefully, and Sakura's sad reaction told her everything she needed to know. Sakura considered herself one of them, one of those veterans... but why the hell? She hadn't fought in any wars, she was way, way too young for that.
"Heh, I suppose so. It was that mission you know? Just, some things... I don't wanna talk about it." Sakura lied, oh she did it well, if Ino hadn't experienced the strange behavior before the mission she might even have fallen for it.
Still she decided against calling Sakura out on it. "You said you wanted to show me that sword you captured." She said instead.
Sakura immediately perked up. "Hell yes! Come on! She put several large bills on the table and dragged Ino out. She saw the waiter quickly go to their table, but he didn't follow them as soon as he saw the money. Instead he grinned widely as he pocketed it.
"Just how much money did you leave there?" Ino asked Sakura, as the latter dragged her through the streets of Konoha.
"Enough that I can go there again in the future and be very welcome, their meat is awesome." Sakura enthused. Quickly they reached the Hokage tower. Sakura went straight for the lower levels. A guard watched the two somewhat warily as they approached. Ino wondered where they even were.
"Hi there, the Hokage said I'm allowed to take Zabusa's sword. Or well Kakashi said he'd ask for permission at least." Sakura greeted the man quickly.
The man glared down at her. "I haven't heard anything like that." He grumbled. "And I'm certainly not going to bother the Hokage because two genin want to get their hands on an oversized slab of steel."
Ino chuckled weakly. She hadn't even wanted to be here.
"How do you know about this place anyway? Even if you're right, you should just wait till the sword is assigned to you." The guard continued.
Sakura shrugged easily. "Eh, how about this, you show us the sword, and if I can lift it you hand it over?"
"No, now scram before I kick you out." The guard said evenly.
Ino tugged on Sakura's arm, they should leave now.
Sakura didn't budge however, instead she glared at the guard, who glared back with the same intensity.
Finally, after a good minute Sakura gave up. "Meh, the sword isn't word attacking you. Much more trouble than it's worth really."
The man snorted. "I would bet you can't even touch me. But we have a few too many geniuses in Konoha for me to make that mistake."
Sakura looked at him for a while then grinned. "Heh, hehe, Hahaha! Damn, great job you do here. I mean I could have killed you in the blink of an eye, but still great job you do here, better than most at least. Guess I'll have to wait like a good little genin."
The man rolled his eyes. "Just get out of here and be glad I didn't have you send to Ibiki."
Sakura stiffened immediately. "I'll be good, no need to send me to him. I really don't want to end up there!"
"Ibiki?" Ino asked. The name sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place from where...
-o-
Karan followed the girls with his eyes. He should report them, but really. The only thing they did wrong was knowing about this place. And he didn't think that actually was a crime. Beside only one of them knew about it. The blond one had been dragged along.
Wait, he recognized the blond. Inoichi's girl. Which might explain how they knew about this place. Ino, that was her name, told the pink one about it and the girl wanted to show of her now acquisition. If she told the truth at least.
Nothing bad about it really. And certainly not worth his time reporting it. He could remember his own attempts to brag to his friends with trophies. Though most didn't end up in places like this.
-o-
"Well... that was a bust." Sakura muttered dejectedly as they walked away from the Hokage tower.
"You should be glad he didn't call more guards or send you to this Ibiki. Who's that anyway?" Ino asked.
"Head of torture and interrogation." Sakura shrugged. "Had a long chat with him this morning."
Ino had stopped still at that revelation. "What? Why were you talking to the head of torture and interrogation?"
"Classified information I'm afraid. I'm not allowed to talk about it." Which annoyed her to no end. Not that she would have talked about it anyway. Far too many people already knew about it, but the fact that she had been forbidden to do something. It grated on her, she had grown so used to the freedom the end of the world had offered her. Not that she would ever go back. The freedom just hadn't been worth the sacrifices. Still she missed it at least somewhat.
"Classified? What have you gotten yourself into Sakura?" Ino asked, Sakura could hear the worry in her friends voice. And just for that she would have been willing to give up every bit of freedom she had ever gained.
"Don't worry about it Ino. It's nothing dangerous." At least not any more dangerous than the life of a ninja was anyway.
"But..." Ino started, Sakura simply ignored the protest however.
"Let's go and train a bit. I have to make this meat settle. And afterward you can watch me kick Sasuke's pansy ass into the ground."
Ino squawked in protest. "No way, he'll kick your ass, he's so much stronger."
Sakura rolled her eyes. If she hadn't been the exact same at that age she would have slapped Ino upside the head. But the academy had sucked at preparing them for the real world. That had been supposed to be the job of the jonin, who sucked just as much at it. Damn them and their desire to coddle the kids. It just led to a metric shit ton of dead genin.
Not that the other villages were better. They either coddled their genin as much or managed to get the same death toll by killing them themselves.
Why hadn't anybody found an ideal yet where you didn't kill your own genin and didn't lose them on their first serious mission?
Sometimes Sakura thought the world needed to end and something new, something better should replace it.
Then she remembered that Madara said that it might have already happened and the current destruction ended up as the result.
So no, the end of the world wouldn't be the solution.
They had reached the training ground and Sakura grinned at Ino. "I would say we start training right now, but the meat is a bit heavy in my stomach. So, if you can touch me once in the next five minutes we start training together, if you can't I'm just gonna go to sleep. You can do the same if you want, or you can actually start training, so that one day you might be able to beat me."
Ino glared at her. "Who do you think you are? I'm the better one, don't forget that."
Once upon a time that might have been the truth, but after the first war, they had been utter equals, specializing in different forms of combat, which made comparisons difficult, but still they considered themselves equals.
Now? Ino didn't stand the slightest chance, she just didn't believe it yet. Even if she knew it intellectually.
And only having to catch up to Sakura would motivate her to improve herself. Motivation had always been her team's problem.
"Then you won't have a problem touching me right?" Sakura said, leaning out of the way of Ino's incoming fist.
"Heh of course not, just hold still for a second." Ino tried hitting her a few more times, but all Sakura did was lean back or to the side. Not even worth using chakra. Well, besides to enhance her reaction speed of course. Not using that would have been a bit stupid. This body hadn't been properly conditioned after all.
After two minutes Ino growled in frustration and tried to use her signature technique, Sakura had evacuated already though and Ino only managed to hit a bunshin with it.
"Graah where are you?" She howled.
"Behind you Ino-kins." Sakura purred into Ino's ear.
The jump the other girl made was just too amusing. Sakura broke down laughing.
Ino tried to hit her as she rolled around the grass, but even down here Sakura could evade the slow, from her perspective anyway, attacks easily.
A minute later and Ino slumped on the ground beside Sakura. "How... how could you dodge all of that so... so... gah!" Ino threw up her hands.
"As I said, I'm gonna kick Sasuke's ass soon. Now it's your decision to train some more or join me in my nap. I don't care really. I'll protect you if you don't want to improve."
Ohh what a glare, and what killing intent! It almost, almost managed to... well affect her she supposed.
"I'll train, and once I catch up, I'm gonna kick your ass all the way to Wind! You hear me Sakura? Sakura? Don't you dare go to sleep. I'll kick your ass you hear!"
Sakura smiled and slowly drifted off to sleep, Ino's shouting being a nice background noise. She had pulled out another bottle of sake and nuzzled it dreamily.
Soon Ino had enough of shouting at somebody who totally ignored her and started her training to kick Sakura's ass.
Sakura looked forward to the results. It should be entertaining... she would have to be careful though, if she beat Ino too much, she would just frustrate the other girl and break her will to advance. Only Lee and maybe Naruto could bounce back from constant failure. Most people simply reached a point sooner or later when they realized their efforts were futile and gave up.
She had reached that point more than once, and if she hadn't been too afraid to die...
She drifted off into an unpleasant sleep. She dreamed of the monstrous hexapods that were among the earlier and more successful of Naruto's…Uzumaki's abominations. They typically ranged in size between a large puma and a small bear, largely hairless and could shatter boulders with a swing of its paws. Any one was more than a match for most chunin, and they typically came in packs of around six. She had always wondered whether there was some sort form of numerology at work there, they had never gotten an answer one way or another before the end became moot.
Sakura still remembered the sap under her hands and the itch in her nose from the first time they had seen them. She had been assigned to Gai's team as a medic and lighting assault specialist, on a mission to extract a defector from Sound. They were supposed to "ambush" the team, kill three of the members and make off with their client and call sign Clasp.
Hyuuga Neji had signaled their approach 'with pursuit.' Before he could spring the ambush, though, they saw these beasts chasing them. One of the Sound ninja, a big guy that looked like an amateur sumo wrestler, stopped by a small stream to buy time for his comrades to escape. The huge man actually grappled with the lead one, pinning it to the ground. The hexapod's front two paws raked his back, while the hind legs tore at his ample gut. From what she could see, the wounds on his back were closing as fast as they were being made. The last she saw of him, four more dogpiled the man, and his screams still echoed in her mind.
It took the feeding frenzy almost two minutes to die down.
He had bought more time with his death than his struggle.
The last one doggedly pursued the survivors, a woman with vaguely shark-like features and a pair of swords strapped to her back, and the target half leading, half dragging their client along. Shark woman stopped.
"Raika, no!" The idiot man stopped, the young girl stumbling numbly into him, terror visible all over her face.
"Keep going, you idiot!" the shark woman, who had to be at least thirty, drew the swords from their sheathes and gave them a peculiar little flick, dropping small lead weights at the end of some wire.
"But-" for someone who set his companions up for ambush, Clasp had a great many reservations about leaving them to die.
"Get her to safety, and don't come back!" Clasp only hesitated for a moment longer, but then grabbed the girl in a fireman's carry and bolted.
Sakura never found out what happened to Raika, but years later she came across a badly mauled hexapod with the most peculiar scars.
-o-
Ino looked at her sleeping friend, rival? Whatever! In astonished disbelief. How could Sakura have beaten her so easily? She hadn't even paid attention!
Ino could have taken a loss, she could have taken it. But not like this, somehow Sakura had improved to a point where Ino couldn't even touch her anymore. How didn't matter, only that Ino had to get better. Maybe Sakura had tricked her? A genjutsu maybe, or something.
She would have to ask Asuma to train her harder, Sakura wouldn't get away from her. Even if she seemed interested in rebuilding their friendship. She didn't appear to be interested in Sasuke anymore at least. Which made that far easier... if only she weren't interested in Ino now.
Ok, probably not. More likely Sakura had just managed to break out of her shell and stopped playing the good girl.
Ino frowned, though she had never seen somebody go from good girl to weird alcoholic, super fighter... Ino sat down and watched Sakura sleep. Something had happened, something big.
And before that mission to Wave too. If only Ino could say what happened.
And Sakura hadn't been the only one. Sasuke had been affected just as much. Naruto too, he acted different as well, but it affected him much more subtly. He moved so much smoother and so much more confident. Ino would have called him attractive if he wore something beside his damn orange monstrosity.
Even then however he somehow pulled it off. At least somewhat.
She hated herself for it and would never admit it, especially where anybody could hear her, but she had actually imagined how Naruto would kiss! She whimpered in horror... no, that had been Sakura.
Ino looked down and saw Sakura shake slightly in her sleep, giving of a terrified whimper every now and again.
Slowly Ino approached her friend. Should she wake her up? After all if Ino had a nightmare she would appreciate somebody waking her up. On the other hand Sakura would definitely not like being woken by her rival.
"No, stay away!" Sakura whispered. Suddenly she screamed. Her hands shot to her face and held it, as if in great pain. "Nooo! It burns! Oh god it burns!" She screamed.
That decided it for Ino and she grabbed Sakura's shoulder.
She hadn't expected a kunai at her throat though.
Blinking Sakura looked at her, then at the kunai. It disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. "Don't do that Ino, don't wake me up like that. I might not be able to stop myself next time." Sakura whispered into Ino's ear as she hugged her desperately.
Ino felt her ribs protest, but she kept quiet. Instead she patted Sakura on her back, as the other girl burrowed her face in her shoulder and cried.
"Why? Why am I suddenly such a crybaby?" Sakura asked through her shoulder. "First Sasuke then you? Why can't I stop this?"
Ino didn't answer. She couldn't even imagine the reason for Sakura's sudden crying fit. "Shh." She whispered instead, slowly rocking Sakura back and forth.
Weird, how it seemed to calm Sakura down immediately. She snuggled into Ino, resting her head on her chest. Soon her breathing came regularly and her silent sobbing had stopped.
Ino lay down herself, her position had been somewhat uncomfortable.
She stared at her friend, what the hell happened? What was wrong with her? And could she wake her without getting her throat slit?
Better not risk it, Ino decided and closed her own eyes.
A few minutes later she fell asleep as well.
-o-
Sasuke looked down at the sleeping girls. He had been here for a while now. Long enough to see Sakura seek refuge from her nightmares. He had refrained from waking the girls, their fight just wasn't important enough to disturb such a rare moment of peace.
He wondered what Sakura had dreamed about. But he probably didn't want to know, considering her stories it would have been very unpleasant.
"Hey Sasuke." Naruto greeted him. "You didn't finish already did you?"
"Nah, Sakura fell asleep. I didn't want to wake her." Sasuke pointed at the sleeping girls.
Naruto looked at them and nodded. "They are kinda cute." He said. Without really getting it, Sasuke noted dejectedly. Did Naruto totally lack a sex drive? Here he had two cute girls cuddled up to each other and he didn't... Sasuke narrowed his eyes. No, Naruto did notice, he just repressed like crazy.
Afraid of rejection? Possibly. But then, why didn't he do anything with Hinata? Not the slightest chance of rejection from her.
"Ok, now that you are here, can you wake them up." Sasuke told Naruto.
Naruto looked at him with half lidded eyes. "You just want me to lose a hand when I wake up Sakura." He stated.
"Maybe." Sasuke admitted. "But you will grow it back! I can't."
"Your fight, you wake her." Naruto said flatly. So much for friendship, Sasuke grumbled as he picked up a stick and tapped Sakura's shoulder.
Her hand snapped up and ripped the stick out of his hand before he had even touched her. In the same motion she drew herself up and positioned herself before Ino. Sakura's eyes flew around the clearing, trying to take everything in at once.
A second later they zeroed in on Sasuke and the familiar glare settled on her face. "What?" She asked.
"Our fight?" Sasuke countered.
"Oh... yeah..." Sakura looked at Ino, who had woken up from her sudden movement.
"Buh? What's going on?" Ino asked.
"We are going to be witnesses to one awesome fight!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically.
Looking at Sakura, Sasuke noted that she didn't share Naruto's opinion. He tended to agree with her. Many people said that any fights Sasuke got into were a bit on the boring side, what with him using genjutsu to confuse people.
His highest level sharingan moves weren't really suited to offense as well. They were very useful in a team, to give the attacker an extra edge, but alone they were a bit underpowered.
He hadn't needed them yet anyway. And against Sakura he would just have to make her waste her high speed attacks as fast as possible. She could use it two, maybe three times. If she were really suicidal four. He doubted she would go that far. And this wouldn't be a slug match like her bout with Naruto.
Sasuke liked to think of himself as a more refined fighter. He used fancy moves, instead of brute strength.
He watched as Sakura slipped her forehead protector down, over her eyes.
Blind fighting eh? Useful, especially against the sharingan. And a bit beyond Gai's blind fighting as well. She didn't even use her eyes. Her nose twitched cutely... Sasuke shook his head, no he had a fight to fight. No time to think of that.
"You know? That's smart, really." He said. "But, do you really think I don't know any genjutsu not reliant on my eyes?"
With satisfaction he watched her tense up. Her hands flew together into Kai, but of course she dispelled nothing. Yet anyway.
He heard her growl silently. "Bastard."
Chuckling he began to circle her. She remained perfectly still, she didn't even twitch. No hint that she knew where he walked.
His hands flew into a few seals and he send a genjutsu her way. A simple thing really, it wouldn't even affect her senses beyond sight, but as her hands flew into Kai again his theory had been confirmed. She could "see" him performing jutsu.
Which would be annoying, he needed her to waste her high speed attack. But he couldn't dodge it. So he had to force her into attacking something other than him with it. Genjutsu were perfect for that, but without his sharingan he couldn't force her into a genjutsu. Not without her easily breaking out.
With the right timing he could possible fake her out in the charge and she knew it, otherwise she would have already attacked. But it would be risky, too slow and the fight would be... not over, but it would hurt!
So he circled her, as she stood still in the center of the clearing.
"I thought this would be an awesome battle?" Ino spoke up, clearly bored. He didn't take his eyes off Sakura, instead he used the distraction Ino had provided for another genjutsu.
He grimaced as Sakura escaped almost immediately.
"They aren't doing anything!" Ino whined.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it's disappointing. My battle with Sakura was much more awesome."
Hmm.
Sasuke turned his head, and as expected Sakura exploded into action, his sharingan spinning Sasuke let lose another genjutsu, this one fooling all her senses. His genjutsu self moved left, he right. And Sakura missed him by a width margin.
Even so, she managed to correct herself quickly and lash out with her foot. She caught his shoulder and send him spinning through the air. Grimacing he caught himself and renewed his genjutsu. She had a few more attacks before she had to retreat. His hands moved together and stopped as her killing intent ripped through him.
His eyes widened, his breathing stopped and her fists slammed into him, again and again. He barely managed to block half of them, before the barrage stopped, and he fell onto his back.
"Hahaha. Seems like your genjutsu aren't all that good eh Sasuke?" Sakura taunted him.
Groaning he sat up, bitch. Still, he smiled. He could see her chest heave, as she greedily sucked in air. Her punches were strong, and they hurt a lot. Much more than they should given his conditioning... that he didn't have anymore. He sighed. He had forgotten about that. He had gotten used to this body so fast.
"You were holding back." He muttered as re rubbed his chin. "You hit Zabusa much harder."
Sakura opened her mouth to retort, but closed it again. "Huh? No I didn't."
Blinking Sasuke looked at her. Then how come he still stood? Zabusa had taken quite a bit of... ah, but Zabusa hadn't expected extremely heavy hits. Even after his clone died he had expected Sakura to be weak. He probably had no real defense active at all.
Or her killing intent simply broke his concentration. If you weren't used to somebody fighting with their killing intent, as opposed to use it before the battle purely as intimidation...
Or maybe Zabusa just sucked that much. Who knew, he certainly didn't put up much of a resistance to Sasuke or Naruto either.
"Oh, you're pretty weak then." He could take another barrage of punches like that, easily. He rubbed his sore ribs and winced, as a sharp pain informed him that his ribs weren't just sore, one actually had been broken.
"Or maybe not." He admitted.
Damn, ok maybe he couldn't take another barrage like that. Sakura pulled out a kunai.
"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" Sasuke asked uneasily. A knife would up the lethality of the fight considerably.
Sakura shrugged. "You can take it I'm sure."
He took a deep breath. She wouldn't try to kill him, she just wasn't that stupid. So, she used the knife as intimidation, or to disable him. His rib ached, but he ignored it. Sakura didn't have a monopoly on ignoring pain. And neither did Naruto.
His hands had flown into jutsu, this time Sakura didn't try to dispel it. It would after all have been useless. Instead she dodged the fireball coming her way.
"Yeah! That's more like it." Ino shouted excitedly. "Go Sasuke, go Sakura!"
"Why is he first!" Sakura shouted as she dodged.
"I like looking at his ass better!" Ino shouted back.
"I prefer Sakura's ass to be honest." Naruto disagreed, much to Sasuke's relief. He preferred the ladies as well. Wait...
"What do you mean, prefer? Do you like my ass?" Sasuke asked in horror.
Naruto stayed quiet for a while and Sasuke couldn't see him, since he focused on Sakura. Then the other boy answered. "Well I suppose you do have a nice ass."
Silence reigned in the clearing. Ino's giggling the only thing breaking it.
"You know? As much as I hate the two of you... if you decide to go at it, I'm watching." Sakura said.
Sasuke smirked, as his sharingan noted the slightest twitch in her muscles.
"What? No way!" He screamed in outrage and Sakura used that outrage to attack. Of course, the kunai going for his right leg missed by a mile. His counter attack on the other hand, succeeded beautifully and he ripped her forehead protector off her eyes.
Sakura stood there and stared at him for a second.
Then she ripped the protector out of his hands. "You win." She growled and turned away.
A second later she had disappeared into the forest.
"You couldn't have let her win? Or at least fought her to a draw?" Naruto asked quietly.
Sasuke carefully rubbed his chest and his broken rib.
"No, not really. I won't lose just to make her feel better." He growled.
Ino stood there and looked between them. "What just happened? And why did Sakura run? It's just a fight. And while she's gotten better, you are still way better Sasuke."
Sasuke smiled at her and nodded, though if Sakura had used a kunai in that first attack, she would have killed him. Only Naruto, and Orochimaru and Kisame and Madara and Hidan... you know the number of people who could have survived being hit in the chest repeatedly by a dull kunai was disturbingly high.
Why didn't he belong to that number anyway? He had to work on that.
"She's a sore loser that's all." And it had nothing to do with the fact that she just lost to a guy she swore she would kill. Nope, nothing at all. Not as if it invalidated her entire life or anything.
"I'll go and talk to her." Naruto volunteered, but Sasuke shook his head.
"Nah, I'll do it. I beat her after all."
-o-
Once again thanks to Slamu for reading over this.
Also for Zusvayo for catching anything we both missed.