If there was one thing Sakura never got tired of, it was watching Naruto and Makoto work their magic, in the gardens or in the kitchen. It was the one place where Naruto never doubted herself, and it was mesmerizing to watch her move with such calm assurance. Plants sprouted at her feet and turned toward her like she was the sun, and she slotted so comfortably in Tsunami's kitchen, perfectly at ease working around and with the older woman. Sakura felt clumsy just washing the vegetables Naruto had grown and Tsunami had harvested.

She was used to that: feeling not quite at home in her own skin. It was something she'd become used to over the years. With her parents both constantly away on missions, her house had never quite made the transition to home, and she'd never been comfortable to talk to her parents about her problems. Problems like being picked on at school for her hair. Kami, she'd hated her hair when she was young, had taken a spare kunai to it herself and tried to cut it all off because if she was just more normal maybe the other kids would like her more, would include her just a little.

Her attempts had only gotten them to add 'sheepdog' to the long list of names they already called her. Obviously, she was never going to make the cut no matter what she did. The realization, that she was never going to be good enough for those girls, for friends, more than any of the nasty things they called her, was what drove Sakura to tears.

And there had been Naruto, bright like the sun even then, with Ino at her shoulder, coming to the rescue. She drew people toward her the same way she did flowers, warm and open. A little too much for Sakura, actually. But Ino, Ino was good. Fierce and protective without being so completely inexhaustibleas her sister. Calmer, and Sakura hadn't known flowers before meeting them, but for Ino, for friendship, she learned, because Ino smiled when she pointed out flowers correctly, and that was worth the hours spent up late at night memorizing.

"Sakura-chan?" She looked up and found Naruto focused on her. "Are you okay?"

She looked down and realized she'd scrubbed the skin clear off the potato she'd been washing. She shook her head and smiled. "Yeah, just lost in thought, I guess. I'm fine. Just, you know, maybe don't give me any of the knife jobs."

Naruto grinned at her and nodded. "Sure thing!"

She dried off her hands and stepped aside, out of the way of the cooks, folding her arms and leaning against the corner to keep watch on the room. The picture on the far wall caught her attention, and Sakura stepped closer to inspect it. It was the same photo she'd noticed that morning when Inari had stormed from the house. "This photo looks like it's torn. Was there someone else in it once?" Tsunami and Tazuna both stiffened and Sakura backpedaled desperately. "Oh, never mind. It's none of my business, really."

Tsunami took a deep breath and smiled over her shoulder. "No, it's alright. That's my husband."

"Kaiza," Tazuna explained. "Inari's father. He wasn't his birth father, but he was a father in every way that counted. And he was a hero."

"He started off a hero," Tsunami refuted, "he became a legend. The very first day he saved Inari's life. Inari adored him from the first. He fit into our family like a missing puzzle piece that we were all just waiting to find."

"Inari never knew his father, so you can imagine how much it meant to him for Kaiza to be there. He was just a simple fisherman, but he was the bravest man I've ever known. We live in the Land of Waves, weather here can be unpredictable. Seasonal floods are a given, but that year the rains were torrential, waters rose to unprecedented levels and broke through all efforts to hold them back."

"The docks were underwater," Tsunami recounted. "The fields were underwater. Half of the first floor was underwater, and the rain just kept coming."

"The tides washed out the south gate and we were sure we were going to lose half the town. We needed to get a line across the water way to have a hope of closing it, but those rapids were impossible to cross. Except Kaiza didn't believe in words like 'impossible'. He believed in protecting what's precious to you no matter the cost, even if you have to put your life on the line. 'Protect your precious things with your own two arms,' he would say. He tied the rope around himself and swam across on his own and got the line anchored so we could all pull the gate closed."

Sakura let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Naruto's smile was bright, proud and satisfied like she was one of those who'd been waiting on the shore for Kaiza.

"Kaiza was our hero, and Inari was so proud to be his son."

"And then Gato came." Tsunami set down the knife she was using and covered her face with her hand. "He took over, and my Kaiza was the only one willing to stand up to him."

Tazuna removed his glasses, tears dotting the tabletop. "Gato broke those proud arms. He tied Kaiza to a cross as an example to everyone what would happen if they stood up to him. His thugs executed him. Inari saw it. He hasn't laughed or smiled since that day."

Sakura covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm so sorry. Please excuse me."

She shook with the force of her emotions and hugged herself as she tried to get herself under control. The cool night air didn't do anything for her. She was so angry. The strength of her fury surprised her and she did her best to get a leash on it.

It was something that had been repeated to her over and over again through her childhood. Training as a Kunoichi, Sakura had to be careful not to lash out when she got upset because she had access to so many more ways to hurt someone than a civilian child had.

She had lost her temper, once, and thrown a hair brush at another girl who'd said she would never amount to anything. She had broken skin and left a large knot on the girl's head. She'd been ashamed of her reaction and swore to get her anger under control. That had lasted until the girl's friends cornered her in the stairwell the next day and began pushing her around. She'd lashed out then, too. Only it hadn't resulted in a lump on the head.

That girl had tumbled down two flights of stairs, broken three fingers and her ankle. Even then, Sakura had known she had to do more to end the bullying. She had to win more than the fight in front of her; she had to win all the ones after that as well. So she'd straightened up, refused to show how horrified she was, had threatened them that next time it wouldn't be a broken ankle, it'd be a leg, or their neck. The girls had fled before her, they'd never bothered her again after that. But they weren't the only ones who'd been scarred.

Terrified of what she could do when pushed too far, Sakura had taken to focusing on more mental pursuits. A cutting tongue was just as satisfying as a physical response, but she never had quite gotten over the realization of the power she wielded.

She held up her hand and flexed her fingers. Even now... She still pulled her hits in spars, some deep part of her recoiling at the chance of ever again causing such harm by accident. She sniffed. Some Kunoichi I am. Afraid to hurt someone accidentally and paid to hurt them on purpose.

Ino understood her, had been the one Sakura cried all her fears out to. Naruto couldn't understand in quite the same way, hadn't ever come up against a wall she didn't try to break through on her own, and Hinata would try going under or around a wall and then question if she had to over it at all. But Ino was willing to give her a boost until Sakura could pull herself up.

She wondered, standing there and shaking with impotent rage, if maybe she just hadn't been quite motivated enough to get over that wall on her own. For some reason, it didn't seem like quite as big an obstacle as it had before. She wanted to hit someone, to hurt them. How dare Gato rip this poor family apart. The children in the market, that little girl; Inari, Tsunami, Tazuna. The list of his victims stretched longer than the bridge he was trying to stop. For them, for all those too weak to stand up to Gato themselves, Sakura vowed not to pull a single one of her punches.

No calmer, but far more determined, she went back inside and helped finish preparing dinner.

Naruto's good semaritanism and her earlier disappointments only fueled her appetite and she and Sasuke dug into their dinners like ravenous wolves, all manners forgotten. Kakashi's sole experience at the Yamanaka Compound hadn't been an abnormality: Sasuke and Naruto lost sight of everything when they were on a training kick.

With years of experience, Sakura ate calmly, completely ignoring her team mates, eyes closed and carefully not looking to her right when she opened them. The rest of the table stared in horrified fascination.

Tazuna cleared his throat. "This is delicious, Tsunami."

"Th-thank you, Father. I couldn't have done it without Naruto's help." Naruto paused in the middle of shoveling rice into her mouth to give the older woman a thumbs-up before going back to her meal.

Kakashi sighed. "Don't puke, you two. You know how much this meal means."

"We won't," Naruto assured. Sasuke grunted confirmation.

"Oh, they won't," Sakura muttered ominously. "Trust me." In six years, she hadn't known Naruto to eat so fast she puked ever. The other teen had gotten lessons from Choji, she was convinced. The blonde was the only one in the village that could out-eat the Akamichi on ramen, Sakura was certain they had passed on the secret to swift eating for managing the feat.

The two finished their first course and held out their dishes in perfect sync. "More, please!"

Tsunami laughed at them both. "Have as much as you like. There's no compliment like asking for seconds."

Naruto beamed at her, face covered with stray rice grains. "Thank you!" She got into a chopstick battle with Sasuke when they both reached for a roasted mushroom at the same time. Naruto's smile turned predatory. "I'm the one who cooks while traveling." Such a pleasant tone of voice really shouldn't have been so threatening.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes but wisely retreated. Tension diffused, they both disappeared behind their bowls again.

Sakura hid her own amused smirk behind her cup. They never changed, they'd fought over treats the same way when they were children. She finished her own meal long before the others. "Thank you, Tsunami-san, for everything. The use of your kitchen, your shower, your spare rooms, dinner."

"No trouble at all. It's been so long since we've last had guests. I've forgotten how exciting it can be. And it's hardly been a strain with any of you! The garden, the house help, and of course protecting my father. If anything, I should be thanking you."

"What's the point of thanking anyone? They're just gonna die, anyway."

Silence dropped over the table like a pall and Sakura's mouth dropped open at the sheer audacity. "Inari!" Tsunami scolded.

Tazuna waved his hand. "No, no, it's fine. I'm rude to them, too."

"Then you should be scolded, too!"

Naruto set her bowl down with a thump. "We're not going to die on this mission. I have promises to keep."

Inari scoffed. "Promises don't mean anything. You're all just going to die."

Sakura could hear her team mate's teeth grinding. "Look, I know you've lost a lot-"

"You don't know anything!" Inari screamed. "You don't know our pains! What we've gone through! All we've lost! You come in here and think you're so much greater than us, that you can do better than the best! But you don't know anything of our pain! You just-"

The crack echoed around the room in the sudden silence it caused. Every eye was on Naruto as she stood over the young boy, his hand to his reddening cheek where she'd slapped him soundly. His dark eyes teared up as she fell to her knees and then pulled him firmly to her chest, his struggling against her nothing to a trained kunoichi's strength. A pin could have been heard dropping as Naruto hugged him, resting her cheek atop his head. "You stupid, foolish little boy. You can't just do that. One person's pain can't be weighed and measured against another's. All pain stands on its own. The pain of the person who loses their father; is that really worse than the orphan who didn't know their parents at all? They never had that pain, but they didn't have the good parts, either, do they balance out?"

Inari said nothing, either too shocked or too wary of being hit again.

Naruto went on, "What, precisely, do you think is Gato's strength that makes him so unbeatable? Tell me, why exactly do you think we're doomed to die?"

"Because he's stronger-"

"Why?"

"Be-because he's got power."

"What power? What power does he have that we don't?"

"People! He's got lots of other ninja and- and..." Inari trailed off, and Naruto smiled down at him.

"That's right, Inari: Gato's got people. That's the only strength he has: the strength of others. He's powerless on his own. A small man with a big ego.

"Your father died not because he wasn't good enough, but because he stood on his own. We don't have to be better than even the best, because we have our team mates to fall back on." Naruto's blue eyes locked with Sasuke's, then Sakura's as Inari broke down and cried into her shoulder. "We are only ever as alone as we allow ourselves to be."

They both got up and joined her, Sakura running her fingers through the distraught child's hair. "We are Leaf Ninja. Even on our own, we face no enemy alone."

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