Sasuke and Iroh took a long look at the small pile of letters that Sasuke had retrieved from the mailbox. "These are all for you?" Sasuke half-stated, poking the pile with his pointer fingers as one slid down the pile and threatened to fall onto the floor. Iroh caught it between his fingers and smiled.
"Well, I didn't think Sakura would send me this many letters" he mused, delighting in Sasuke's obvious expression of shock.
"You gave Sakura our address?" Sasuke gaped, putting a careful distance between himself and the formidable pile of papers on their table.
Iroh chided him with a look, and opened the one in his hand. "She doesn't know who you are, Sasuke. I told her I am training my nephew, she did include a letter for under that alias, however. Would you like to read it?" Iroh waved it haphazardly in his hand, and was unsurprised to feel it disappear from his grip.
He read through the letters carefully, and noted that no one appeared to edit Sakura's letters. Some of the things Sakura was writing him were sensitive information. Nothing seemed concerning, though, and there was nothing she wrote of that would concern Mifune-san in particular. All the same, he took a few notes on things Mifune-san might find interesting to give him later. He was supposed to be an informant of sorts, after all.
After delving through all of Sakura's letters and setting some aside for Sasuke to peruse, Iroh rolled his neck and went to make some tea. He hadn't been able to send her any letters (unsurprisingly, the Sun Warriors weren't a communicative lot), but he had been writing on a long letter explaining his long absence.
After his tea, he would finish and send it. She certainly merited a well-thought reply, and now he'd have to add a caution to it. She really shouldn't be mailing out such private information, and it was just a further sign of carelessness in her education and development that no one had seen fit to inform her.
Iroh wasn't sure that he would care for this Konoha. Thus far, he wasn't very impressed. Sasuke's family was murdered in the middle of the night by his own brother, and they had neither apprehended Itachi nor given Sasuke the obvious attention he had needed. They'd let a thirteen year old run away on his own with a mass murderer, and hadn't even come looking for him, to Iroh's knowledge. Sasuke was ill-equipped to deal with other people, and had been dangerously close to severe mental dehabilitation.
Sakura, for being in a position of such power and esteem, was almost neglected. She had no real guidance and an almost pathological need for attention. She had no confidence in her abilities or her potential, and no one seemed to care.
It was despicable to waste and destroy such talented young people.
If he saw this Tsunade of the Sannin again, he was going to have some choice words with her about throwing children at her problems.
Sakura tore through the streets of Konoha, eager to escape the drudgery of Tsunade's office. She needed to get in time with her sword before eating and working the late shift at the hospital. Tsunade had a ridiculous amount of demands for Sakura to fulfill, including hours at the hospital, intense training schedules, and immense amounts of paperwork.
Sakura was almost glad she didn't really have any friends, because she wouldn't be able to see them anyway. She'd just finally gotten useful enough to be able to help healing moderate injuries, which meant now she was in the Emergency Room instead of assisting other medic-nins as a nurse. Sakura was so grateful for not having to be a nurse that she might actually bother to be on time for her hospital shift tonight. She was never, ever going to give someone a sponge bath.
'Dirty old men, if one of them ever asks us that again, we'll beat them with a stick! Chyaa!' Inner Sakura sounded off, and Sakura only vaguely wondered where she was going to find said stick in a hospital room.
Luckily, the streets were starting to clear up at that time of night, so Sakura didn't have to use the rooftops. (ANBU was seriously upset if you were jumping around up there for no reason, something about needing to keep them well-observed). She ducked into her empty apartment, grabbed her sword, and ran to Team Seven's empty practice field.
She ran through all the katas quickly and fluidly, enjoying how the katana seemed to glide through the air, almost unhindered by gravity. After spending a morning training on how to beat any and all of the things to death with naught but her fists, working with her sword felt freeing, and much more sophisticated.
Not like she would ever tell her shishou that, Sakura rather liked living.
It had been almost nine months since she had seen Uncle, and she'd worked the katas he'd given her to perfection. Since she didn't have anything else to do with it yet, she'd just decided to continue working on them, anyway. She found herself easily tearing through them over and over again, while she thought about other things. Sakura was actually very proud of this, as Uncle had told her that they needed to be so ingrained that they weren't second nature, but first, the very instant she unsheathed her katana.
She was getting there, she could feel it. And there were only three months until Uncle would get here and teach her some more. 'And we will blind our enemies with our beauty AND skills! Chyaa!' Inner Sakura cheered her on, while Sakura improvised some quick jabs at the unsuspecting air.
Kakashi looked on with interest from his perch in a far-off tree, unbeknownst to his student. He'd put his Icha Icha book away, and started committing the movements she was making with her katana to memory. She'd certainly improved since the last time he'd watched a few months ago, and even from his vantage point he could see that she'd begun to run the movements with her eyes closed and never lost her footing.
He'd been at the Memorial Stone, as was his custom, when he gazed out over their deserted training ground and noted that there was movement there. That in itself was odd, as Naruto had left the village a few months prior with Jiraiya, Sasuke was… well, long gone, and Sakura was being trained by Tsunade. So the only one in the village was Sakura, and she hadn't shown any initiative in training when he'd been teaching her, so he'd decided to get closer for a look.
He'd almost died of shock when he saw Sakura alone, doing movements he'd never seen before with a katana (and where in the hell had she gotten that?). He'd been proud, and confused, but mostly intrigued. This was definitely something she hadn't learned from Tsunade. Or anyone he knew, for that matter.
Swords were traditionally considered the samurai's weapon. Shinobi favored much shorter blades. Ninja didn't use swords very often, though he'd often lamented that as a stupid idea. Even then, they hacked at things, or used them in tandem with their jutsu. Mostly they were there to look intimidating, as most ANBU didn't even really use the damn things.
But if they'd been trained like that… well, that had made him look at the short sword in his ANBU gear a little more respectfully.
He couldn't ask Sakura what she was doing without alerting her to his presence, so he just came back and watched from time to time. And if he happened to mentally sketch out the katas so that he could learn them, that was just a bonus.
To think that shy, nervous Sakura had been the one to take up a blade, obviously unbeknownst to everyone in the village. It certainly made him reconsider how he'd mostly discounted her when training his team.
At least, everyone in the next Chuunin exams was going to be incredibly outclassed. He rather started to pity the poor Genin that got in her way.
Maybe Naruto wasn't the most surprising ninja after all.
The last two and a half months of training with Sasuke had actually started to become relaxing for Iroh.
Sasuke had only given him about a day of reprieve after arriving back at their residence before excitedly demanding that Iroh start training him again in seriousness. He'd disregarded all pleas of "Oh, but think of your old and weary shishou, about to collapse from exhaustion" with a patiently disbelieving look that saw right through Iroh and his fraudulent claims, before walking outside and waiting outside the door for Iroh to follow him.
After that, things had gone much more smoothly. Sasuke was meditating with good results, and was quickly mastering the basics of firebending with more grace than Iroh had thought imaginable. Sasuke had been so surprised to find that all the katas Iroh had had him learning before made much more sense now, and flowed gracefully from one position to the next.
Sasuke's problem, of course, was not his Inner Fire, but any fire outside of him. If it felt foreign, he fumbled and rejected it, occasionally burning himself in the process. Sasuke evidently found it difficult to take anything that was not his into himself, and that was where his problems lie.
Rather an apt metaphor for his entire life approach, no doubt.
Iroh knew that there were benefits to mastering Inner Fire, and Sasuke had the control and drive to see it through. However, in a world of unfriendly fire users, the inability to control outside fire would kill Sasuke just as easily as if he'd never learned firebending in the first place.
Luckily, Sasuke seemed to understand that, and had started to do candle meditations again. Iroh had him start on a flame meditation, where he carried a flame from an outside source around in his hand and focused on it entirely. If he could keep the flame lit, and not let it burn out of control, the meditation was considered a success.
Sasuke was finding it difficult, but what he lacked in natural talent he more than made up for with effort. He'd begun using outside flame as his only source of light, taking long walks outside in deserted places. Iroh couldn't even imagine a more devoted student.
But it was time for him to go to Konoha.
Sasuke had argued, complained, and pleaded with Iroh to stay in the Land of Iron, but Iroh just reminded him that he had made a promise. Sasuke would stay in the Land of Iron, working on the meditations and other things that he did not need instruction on, and Iroh would be back in a month.
He wasn't worried about Sasuke. The boy had enough to do to keep himself occupied, and was more than capable of taking care of himself. Sasuke was actually concerned for Iroh's safety, as odd as that sentiment was, but hadn't expressed it as such.
Instead, Sasuke had insisted that the roads were unsafe, the Land of Fire was a flea-infested hell, and Konoha was full of nasty people who kicked puppies. Iroh hadn't known whether to be amused or gratified for the unanticipated swell of concern from his student.
In the end, Sasuke had conceded that Iroh needed to keep his promise, and provided him with a list of things to get, and a list of things to not do while he was there. Iroh had accepted both with a reassuring smile, and informed Sasuke that he would send a few letters. Sasuke had nodded solemnly and then retreated to his room while Iroh left, evidently having satisfied his emotional needs.
The trip to Konoha was one into gradually more beautiful country. Land of perpetual summer, indeed. Sasuke may have been slightly exaggerating about the inherent dangers.
After a delightful conversation with the guards at the gate, they had sent a quick message to Sakura at the Hokage's Tower, telling her that "Her Uncle Iroh had arrived in Konoha, and will be waiting for you inside the gate". They had then cheerfully carried on their conversation, while he waited.
Luckily, he didn't have to wait very long. Iroh had been absentmindedly scanning the town for Sakura, when out of the eye he saw a short streak of pink dart across a corner and barrel down directly towards him. He barely had time to brace himself before he was winded by an almost bone-crushing hug, but somehow found the presence of mind to hug her back.
"Uncle!" he heard, although muffled by her head buried into his shoulder, and Iroh absently noted that she'd grown at least three inches taller since their last meeting.
Eventually, her arms either grew tired of hugging or she got distracted and she pulled away, letting Iroh breathe sweet, sweet air again.
"I missed you!" she yelped happily, tugging on his arm.
He gently pried her fingers off of his arms, where they had already made some interesting white marks, and took her hands into his own. "I missed you, too, Sakura" he smiled, and she grinned back, no less excited after being forcibly removed from his person.
"So, how are things? Did you receive my letters?" he asked personably, but Sakura shook her head quickly.
"I'll tell you all about it over lunch, I'm starving" she complained, grabbing his hand (thankfully, much more gently this time) and dragging him to somewhere she claimed had "the best barbeque ever, I promise!"
Once there, they ordered their food, and she regaled him with tales of her training, working in a hospital, and her many new triumphs in becoming "the greatest kunoichi in the entire world!" Iroh couldn't help but grin at seeing how animated she was, she was much removed from the shy, stumbling girl he'd met in the Land of Iron. Evidently having a skill that suited her really did wonders for her confidence.
The food was excellent, the company better. He shared (very edited) stories about their travels back to the Land of Iron and the Sun Warriors, and stories from Sasuke's training. Of course, he'd since decided that Sasuke's name was Haru, a sunny name for his firebending student. Sakura was entranced by stories of their travels, and Iroh even found himself sharing stories from when he'd travelled the Earth Kingdom.
Sakura was talkative, sure, but she was also a very attentive listener. She lapped up stories of his youth and battles like they were life-giving water in the middle of the desert. After they finished with lunch, she dragged him back to her tiny apartment, where she ran to grab her katana. Before he could even glance around the apartment, she was yanking him out the door again and to a designated training area all the way across the town.
As she pulled him towards the training field, he took the chance to look around Konoha.
It was less advanced than the Land of Iron, but most of the buildings appeared to be less than fifteen years old. The people were simultaneously friendly and suspicious, Iroh noted with a bit of a smile. That was probably normal for a village full of ninja.
"Okay!" Sakura said breathlessly a minute later, and Iroh surveyed the area. It was a beautiful green clearing with woods surrounding the area. There were a few posts next to a large stone, that Sakura indicated to him was a memorial stone for ninja killed in action. Iroh bowed respectfully to the stone before proceeding to the clearing, and told Sakura to start her earlier katas for his inspection.
She started smoothly, and proceeded through her katas beautifully. She was better with the swords than Sasuke, he noted idly, as she finished the sequence and started again. She was picking up speed, and if that wasn't interesting enough, her eyes were closed and she was executing all the stances perfectly.
She finished and looked to Iroh for confirmation, her eyes gleaming with the pride he knew he was reflecting.
"You are most certainly ready to take on your next steps" he stated smoothly, trying not to get too excited about the prospect of having two incredibly talented and happy students.
She grinned ferally, and carefully held out her katana to Iroh. He accepted it gingerly, and took the proper stance, watching Sakura do the same.