Safe
Hinata's chakra was weak, but it wasn't gone. Sakura could sense it more and more as she walked through the doors to the medbay.
Sakura didn't let go of Ino, even when the medics rushed over to her. Instead, she carried her all the way over to where Hinata was, until she could see the rise and fall of her chest. Then she finally set Ino's body on a nearby bed.
Hinata would live, the medics told her, maybe even recover by the next day. Sakura sat next to her bed, watching her sleep. Hinata's chakra felt agitated, but it was slowly regenerating.
On Sakura's first day of being on Team 7, she'd decided her dream was to be strong and protect everyone.
She never thought it would actually happen.
In the Forest of Death, Sakura hadn't been strong enough to protect them from Orochimaru, but even Orochimaru had said she was in the way, when he was attacking Sasuke. Afterward, she protected both Naruto and Sasuke from the Sound team, even when she was so tired she could barely stay awake. In the preliminaries, she'd protected Hinata from Neji as much as she could.
Sakura was strong. Or at least strong enough to protect some people, sometimes. Not everyone, not yet, but that dream didn't seem as far off as it once did.
However, once glance at Ino, laying there with a growing bruise on her jaw, made Sakura feel sick.
She wasn't becoming like Uncle Shin, was she?
"Good job," Kakashi-sensei's voice came from behind her. Sakura turned and saw a very satisfied Sasuke and an excitedly-dancing Naruto walking towards Hinata's bed, with Kakashi-sensei following behind them. "You three made it."
"Yeah! Because we're the best!" Naruto yelled. Some of the medic-nin and nurses in the area glared at him, but he didn't notice. Naruto's voice woke Hinata, who blinked blearily at them. Sakura sighed in relief. Suddenly, she was exhausted and her whole body started to ache all at once, especially the shoulder Neji had hit.
"Congratulations to you too, Hyūga Hinata." Kakashi told her.
"But I lost, right?" Hinata said quietly as she sat up, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Against Neji," she added, pulling her knees up to her chest.
Sakura wanted to comfort her, somehow. But she didn't know how to do it, so she just sat there and tried to look anywhere except Hinata.
Naruto, however, looked ready to explode with even more unbridled excitement.
"You get to go to the finals though!" he said, bouncing up and down where he stood. Hinata's head flew up to stare at him. "You get to be the tenth competitor because you fought super well, and never gave up! You were super cool! And then we'll all train and kick Neji's ass in the finals!"
"Oh." Hinata said. Then she turned bright red. "Th-thank you, N-Naruto."
Naruto linked his hands behind his head and gave her a blinding smile.
"If none of the rest of you are injured," a nurse came by, with a very fake-looking smile. "Would you please let the patients rest? They'll be either released or moved to the Konoha hospital tomorrow, with normal visiting hours."
Kakashi gave the nurse a smile that was just as fake. "In fact, I do believe my cute little ducklings are injured," he said. He gestured, pointing to each of them in turn. "Would you like to take a look at the new curse seal, the wounds, or the tampered chakra seal first?"
"I- um. I suppose the wounds," the nurse blustered, finally recognizing Naruto and Sasuke. "We aren't set up for seal work here. You'll need to be referred to a specialist for that."
Kakashi's fake smile grew wider. "Sakura first, then."
Sakura took off her mask and the gauze, and the nurse's face blanched. Hinata gasped.
"I've been doing some healing, but it's slow," Sakura told the nurse. She avoided looking at Hinata, but that didn't keep her from feeling the utter shock in her chakra. Kakashi-sensei also did not seem happy, but he was muting his chakra so it was hard to tell.
The nurse held a glowing hand over her face. The surface of the skin and muscle tingled.
"Jutsu," the nurse muttered to herself. "It must be, it's barely responding to chakra. How have you been healing it?" she asked.
Sakura directed chakra into the wound like she normally would, focusing on the edges. The tingling turned into stinging and the muscles and bone of her jaw ached. It glowed green out of the corner of her eye.
The nurse's eyes widened, then narrowed. She sniffed and pulled back.
"Well, you obviously don't need me, and I'd prefer you not waste my time with meaningless requests," the nurse told Kakashi-sensei. "Your duckling can heal that herself. Now get out. And go see a sealing specialist," she added, trying to wave them away from Hinata's bed.
Sakura didn't move. Instead, she looked at Hinata.
"I'll be okay," Hinata told her with a small smile. It didn't reach her eyes.
"I know," Sakura said, forcing herself to smile back. She got up stiffly and tied the mask back over her face. "Like Naruto said, we'll help you kick Neji's ass."
Hinata giggled softly, and it finally reached her eyes. Sakura relaxed a tiny bit.
"See you tomorrow, Hinata!" Naruto said. "We'll come visit, I promise!"
Hinata waved at them as the nurse shooed them out the door.
"Ramen, ra-men, ra-men, ra-MEN!" Naruto sang, dancing around in a circle as they walked. Sasuke looked faintly annoyed, but mostly tired. Sakura kept stretching out her shoulder as they walked, trying to dislodge the last bits of Neji's chakra.
At Ichiraku's, Team 7 ate slowly.
The owner of the shop and his daughter hadn't even blinked when Sakura took her mask off to eat. They congratulated the genin on making it to the finals and promised them each a free bowl after the chūnin exams, whether they made the next rank or not.
None of them got up to leave when they'd finished their ramen. Sakura did her best not to doze off, Sasuke kept stabbing the bottom of his last bowl with a chopstick, and Kakashi-sensei watched as Naruto described their exams to Ichiraku and Ayame in vivid detail, snake barf included.
Sakura wanted to go to sleep for a week, but she didn't want to go home alone. Especially not with Gaara still in the village. She also didn't want to leave Sasuke and Naruto alone with their contaminated chakra. They still didn't feel quite normal.
Sasuke's chakra in particular felt different, and it wasn't because of Orochimaru. Before, he'd felt determined and full of hate, and anger. Now, there was a strange mix of hope and despair, and it probably had to do with Uchiha Itachi.
Sakura remembered Itachi, a little bit. He always picked up Sasuke from class, when they were small. And Itachi always smiled. Uncle Shin had almost never smiled when he picked her up.
She wondered what having Itachi as a brother would've been like. Wondered what living through the massacre was like, and being targeted by multiple S-grade shinobi constantly.
"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura began hesitantly. "I know the tournament is supposed to be individual fights, but I think team training would be safer for us."
Sasuke's chopstick paused mid-strike. "It'll be safer to stick together at night, at least. Especially since we all seem to be targets," he added sourly. The stabbing resumed, louder this time.
Naruto was finally paying attention. Kakashi-sensei looked thoughtful. "Where do you think we should go, then?"
Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but then he frowned and shut it again. His chopstick tinked against his bowl quietly.
Sakura fidgeted. "A training yard isn't as protected as the neighborhoods, since they don't get patrolled as often. The Haruno Complex is small, but it's just me, it's clean, in a patrolled neighborhood near the Hokage's Tower, and it has enough space for all of us. And there's a training area big enough to spar in."
"Works for me!" Naruto said. "As long as it's got hot water."
"Fine," Sasuke added, standing up. "I need to stop by my apartment first though."
"As long as the pack is welcome too, I'll be there," Kakashi gave her his signature one-eyed smile.
Sakura stared at her teammates, then felt her face heat up.
"Um, okay. I mean, yes, they're welcome. We- I mean I should have enough room."
Sakura's face burned as Kakashi-sensei chuckled and ruffled her hair.
It was still odd to think of the Haruno house as her own. It wasn't fancy, or big, but it had a yard big enough for a pond and a few trees, a garden, and a training area. The pack would be able to fit.
"Wooo!" Naruto crowed, pumping a fist in the air. "Sleepover time!"
Sasuke snorted, but Sakura could see him smiling too.
Kakashi-sensei disappeared as they left the ramen shop, but Sakura wasn't worried.
Sasuke and Naruto lived in the same apartment complex, and it was on the way to her house. They each stopped to restock their packs from the exams.
Oddly, both of their apartments were clean. Far cleaner than hers, even if Naruto's trash can was overflowing with instant ramen cups and his fridge smelled sour. Sasuke's fridge was almost completely empty. Neither of them had much, maybe a cup on the counter and a towel on the floor and some gear. And there were no decorations at all.
Sakura suddenly got very, very nervous. She couldn't remember if she'd cleaned up everything before the exams or not. Uncle Shin hadn't ever cared about messes.
At home, Sakura knew there were land titles and shinobi-clan-village agreements strewn about her table, with copies of her latest mission reports mixed in and some medical books that she'd finally bought. That was probably okay, but she'd never actually moved Uncle Shin's old clothes hamper into the bathroom, so she was pretty sure there was also still a pile of dirty clothes in it and strewn about the house.
To distract herself from becoming more nervous, Sakura focused on healing the wound on her face as she waited for the boys to get their things. It stung in a familiar way.
She'd always wanted to have an actual sleepover, but usually, she'd imagined having Hinata over, not Naruto or Sasuke. (Definitely not Sasuke, back when he was just the quiet, cute, cool classmate that all the girls liked and who argued with Naruto all the time.)
It was strange, but it also kind of felt like a mission. Stay safe, and train for a final fight in a month's time. Just another C-rank mission that somehow accidentally ended up A or B rank. Only this time, instead of sleeping in a forest, they'd probably end up sleeping in her living room.
Once Naruto and Sasuke were finally ready, the sun had almost completely set, and the moon had risen. Sakura led them to the Haruno Complex, through the circular doorway in the walls, and into the house. Naruto looked suddenly nervous, and even Sasuke was looking around warily.
Sakura set her pack down on one of the couches. Sasuke and Naruto did the same. "You can walk around, and there's food in the kitchen. I'm going to clean up and get some sleeping mats."
(Thankfully, all her dirty clothes were easy to clean up and tuck away out of sight.)
There were only three bedrooms in the house. One was hers, one used to be Uncle Shin's, and the other was her parents. Sakura didn't want anyone staying in Uncle Shin's until she'd gone through all his stuff, and her parents – well, that one wasn't ready. Not yet. But maybe soon.
So instead, she dragged old training mats and the spare sleeping mats out of the closet to clean them off and gathered spare blankets and pillows to take back to the living room.
As Sakura came down the stairs with everything they'd need, she saw Kakashi-sensei sitting on the couch, reading his little orange book that was too thick, with Pakkun snoring beside him. Sasuke and Naruto were arguing about something in the kitchen. Outside, she could see Tsukimaru lying down in the yard with both dogs and wolves curled up on top of and around him.
The whole house felt brighter and happier than Sakura could ever remember, even though it was nighttime.
Tsukimaru met her eyes, and she smiled at him. He threw his head back and howled at the silver moon in the sky.
The dogs and wolves joined him, barking at each other and howling until Sakura was pretty sure all of Konoha could hear them.
Her smile grew wider. They were safe.
Sakura barely had the energy to pull the mats and blankets into the middle of the floor in front of Kakashi-sensei and take off Kubikiribōchō before she fell fast asleep.
A/N:Thank you to everyone who's liked, followed, and reviewed! I apologize for the long and unnecessary author's note.
I recently had a conversation with my brother (because pretty much all we do is talk about whatever we've been writing or reading) because I was concerned that the upcoming events, no matter how logical their progression, would be too significant a change in the story. Then he reminded me that I just so happen to be writing fanfiction, and that I should write whatever I want. So I will. But I still wanted to warn you in advance that the bigger power spikes and splits from canon begin in the next chapter. I am ridiculously excited for them. (It's also odd how easy they were to weave into the story, since they still needed to be extremely plausible within the canon universe.)
Here are some mini-synopses of the next training arc spanning many chapters, just to get your mind working and because they're fun to write:
The Third Hokage, sentimental old fool that he may be, knows what's coming. He will ensure that the next generation of Konoha is ready to face it, whether they think they are or not.
A truly motivated Kakashi is a terrifying thing to behold. Once he stops accidentally running into trees, that is.
The seal that the Hyūga put on their branch clan was mainly to keep their eyes safe from theft, since the branch family went on far more dangerous missions than the main family. The control mechanism was just a side effect. Or at least, that's what they remember.