A/N: Day twenty-four. I've re-uploaded the last chapter with the actual chapter, so I recommend going back to read it. I'm so sorry, guys.
After having Tsunade angrily decide for Gaara to stay at Naruto's with extra ANBU protection, Sakura and her brothers plan to go home. But she's interrupted from doing so when asked about Sasori and his peculiar existence, prompting her brothers to wait for her outside instead of going home ahead of her.
Interrogation isn't exactly her forte, but she supposes that she's proficient enough. Perhaps not on the level of a Yamanaka, whose skillsets are naturally better suited for interrogation. She thinks Tsunade might want her to interrogate Sasori, and though she's interested she's not sure she could.
The Yamanaka make her wonder if they'd be able to get inside Sasori's core, if he has a consciousness when without a puppet body to attach himself to. The whole conversion from human to puppet is honestly rather baffling though, even if it doesn't seem all that impossible.
Would he have been able to create multiple cores, stored away in case one is destroyed? She thinks that'd be like having a part of one's soul die, which would probably be excruciatingly painful. Shion had mentioned something about idiots splitting their souls, though it's a distant and vague memory.
"I'd get you to study it, but you're too valuable to keep around here when you could be doing something more active." Tsunade sneers at the desk, before leaning back and pinning Sakura under her gaze. "I'll get Tenten and Shizune to study it, or…"
Sakura tilts her head as Tsunade continues to think and mutter to herself. The slug Sannin then chuckles and it makes Sakura wonder if the woman's okay sometimes.
"Yeah, I'll give the core to Orochimaru, the freaky bastard. Apparently they knew each other a long time ago or some shit, so it all works out in the end." Tsunade leans back in her chair, then stares up at the ceiling. "You and your brothers should go with Jiraiya to investigate the suspicious shit going on around Amegakure."
"When?" she asks in return, because it's not really something that she can refuse to accept. Well, she could but there's not much point. It'd just start a fight and she doesn't have much of a reason to decline anyway.
"A week from now, so prepare yourselves. I'd get your cunt of a captain to go too," and Tsunade gives an obligatory spit of hatred at the thought of Shisui, "but he's on his own mission and he shouldn't be back until you've already left. Fucking shitbag."
Sakura catches the three mission scrolls flung her way, as she once again wonders what they have against one another. It seems like it's going to forever remain a mystery. "I'll inform my brothers, then." she responds, before flinging the scroll containing Sasori at Tsunade's face.
The slug Sannin catches it, as expected and glares at her. It would be downright embarrassing if she didn't. "You little shit, where's your manners to your Hokage?"
She smiles, even though Tsunade can't see it before making her way to the door. "See you, Tsunade-san." she replies, just to purposefully rile the woman up.
A kunai flies past her head and embeds itself in a wall as she leaves to meet her brothers, much to her amusement.
They lie together, with her head on his stomach as they relax and enjoy the peace that surrounds them. It's something she and Shikamaru try to do often, since he's been training for the status of a jounin alongside general missions and she has the Akatsuki to deal with.
There's also the bit where she has to check up on Gaara who's rather uncomfortable being around strangers. He also doesn't enjoy the fact that Naruto's basically been revered for his status as a jinchuuriki, when his life has been… well, less than pleasant.
It means that she's been checking up on him for the past few days, since she's his only friend and he's less likely to do something violent if she's around.
She'd probably let him stay at their house, but neither of her brothers nor Kakashi are really comfortable with that. Father would laugh and basically just accept anyone if she says it's okay for them to be there. There's quite a lot of faith in her, which is both nice and perhaps a little too lenient. It's fine though, for her at least.
She hopes Gaara can deal with people whilst she's away. Naruto may be able to convert his fellow jinchuuriki into becoming one of his many friends, though.
"How long will you be away on your mission?" Shikamaru drawls in question, sounding sleepy as he runs his fingers through her hair. Her higanbana crown's usually taken off for this, since it feels nice to have someone run their fingers along her scalp. She remembers how he thought it seemed to strange to see her without it, the first time she took it off in front of him.
She hums. "I don't know, but it's probably more dangerous than usual." she replies, closing her eyes.
It's easier to feel Shikamaru's disapproval since they've known one another for so long, but he knows that being a ninja comes with a certain amount of risk. They all know it and it'd be insulting to tell a ninja to turn down a mission just because it's considered too dangerous.
"Be careful." he murmurs, lifting a few locks of her hair. "Have you ever thought about growing your hair out?"
Sakura shifts, adjusting her position to sit up and look down at him. He's resting one arm behind his head, and he greets her with a gentle smirk. She smiles, reaching over and running her hands through his untied hair.
"It'd get in the way." is her soft reply. "I don't really care about the whole symbolism that long hair means a great ninja. Why? Did you want to see me with long hair?"
He smiles up at her, before shaking his head a little. "It'd be different, but I was just thinking about it. I like it how it is." his smile soon turns into a frown as his eyes drop from her eyes to her collarbone. "You'd probably resemble Shion even more if you had it long."
She agrees, since Shion's hair is rather long and they look to be about the same age despite Shion having died at nineteen.
"Is it a tradition for Nara to tie their hair back?" she queries, lying back down on his chest. He drapes an arm over her in an absentminded fashion.
"More of a trend, really. There's not much meaning behind it, other than to keep it out of the way." Shikamaru responds with a yawn. "I guess it's because most of us can't be bothered getting our hair trimmed, but our hair grows slowly so we don't have trim it so often."
"How lax of you all." she chuckles. "Sai and I often have to cut our hair because of how quickly it grows out. It happens when we go on long term missions and can't afford to leave behind evidence like that. It's probably another reason why we all wear wigs, since so many strands of Neji's hair falls out if it's not tied up. We can't be too careful on our kind of missions."
Shikamaru's chest moves in time with his laugh, which feels a little strange when she's resting her head on it. "Must be difficult."
She smiles. "It's fun to tease him about it."
Jiraiya whistles as they all sit on the back of one of her large summons, since it's more convenient that way and she only has to maintain one concealment genjutsu. His hair billows behind him like a rugged cape, and she has the strangest thought of him running a kingdom full of toads and naked women as he stands above them all.
"We should be there in no time." the toad Sannin comments, impressed. "Who knew owls could fly so fast? But… how did you get the contract for them in the first place, hey Murasaki-chan?"
She glances back at him, wondering why he's using such a suggestive tone. Perhaps he knows about Father's underground business, although that wouldn't be too surprising considering his status as a master spy. Her question would be why it hasn't been uprooted then, if that's the case.
"It was gifted to me by a suspicious person, but I decided that I might as well put it to use." she replies, glancing over to the brunet of her brothers and noting his majestic stance. With his arms folded and his hair also billowing behind him as he stands, Neji looks like he's about to ruin someone's day simply for being so inferior.
"Suspicious person, indeed!" Jiraiya comments with a cheery tone, though he doesn't sound as disapproving as she expected. Well, she supposes that everyone has their fair share of shady and often illegal activities in their lives. "I wouldn't mind owls, but they often prey on toads and that's pretty uncool."
She hums, even if the wind drowns it out. "Toads aren't the only animals they eat, it's all a matter of survival." she murmurs, but doesn't expect a response since her words are too quiet.
They all fall silent for a while, until the outline of Amegakure can be seen. It's a rather unique village and she doesn't think she'd mind living there if it weren't for the abundance of rain. Having to bring an umbrella everywhere just sounds inconvenient, in her opinion.
She summons a few small owls that could fit in the palms of her hands, and they whistle in greeting as she pets one of them. "Scout the area for me, please?" she requests, and they whistle in tandem before taking flight towards the village.
"What is it that you wish to do, Jiraiya-sama?" Sai queries, sealing away his sketchbook before looking towards their current captain.
Jiraiya hums in thought, squinting to the sky and rubbing his chin as if he's trying to act in a movie and failing to act well. "Let's get some ninja, see if we can make them talk." he turns to her then, with a large grin. "I hear you've got some interesting genjutsu and fuuinjutsu. We should collaborate, hey?"
How strange, she thinks. His lack of commentary in regards to his perversion is unusual, but she supposes it's because she's never been on a mission with him and seen him in action.
"That's fine. Sai." she turns to the artist of her brothers, whom nods and draws a bird for him to ride on. "He'll get our captives for us." she explains as Sai sets off.
The toad Sannin whistles. "Women in charge turn me on, you know?" he leers at her, and she feels relieved even though she shouldn't be.
"Disgusting." Neji spits, and she laughs.
When she finds herself in another dream, she tries not to panic as she attempts to remember what happened. She standing atop a sea of black, with jagged spikes and shrivelled hands visible above the surface. The sky is grey and cloudy, and it's a much more desolate world than the other one.
She jumps when a hand bursts out of the water to grab her, expecting gravity to pull her back down soon after. It doesn't, and she's suspended in air.
Something screeches, though it's muffled and has come from the water below. It's too dark and murky to see anything under the surface, but she knows she'd rather not get dragged down.
The world then freezes, before it's violently flushed away and all that's left is a black void. Shion appears in front of her then, far too close and far too eerie as the cracked woman grins at her with an exaggerated tilt of the head.
Sakura steps back, feeling rather out of her depth because this has never happened before.
"So I've been wondering, sugar bean, what would happen to us if we were permanently split apart." Shion comments, cracking her back as though there's nothing strange about their surroundings. "I'm under the impression that our chakra isn't our soul, since you've got shit like Sasori whose puppets still contain chakra and kekkei genkai. But then, we're a little different since our chakra has merged and our minds are connected if even they're not entirely merged, yeah."
She frowns, in both bemusement and suspicion. "I don't understand what's going on and I'd appreciate it if you enlightened me."
Shion waves a dismissive hand, and there are no splintered shards this time. It's unexpectedly unsettling. "Pein captured you, but that may be because I helped a little there." is the woman's answer. "Your brothers and Jiraiya are fine as well, if a little roughened up from me having to calm them down in a sense. They really didn't appreciate me being there, haha. Jiraiya was cool though, mostly."
Sakura tilts her head, before her mind replays the memory of her growing faint when Pein had appeared. Shion hadn't given her any indication that she'd be taking over.
"See, sugar plum. I have been waiting years for a certain thing to happen, and I'm so very close to achieving it. But, I'd like you to cooperate with me rather than going against me, yeah." Shion cracks her neck with a slight frown. "It'd be much easier and better for both of us, since I'd have to get rid of you and your brothers. I have a special fondness for you three, so you know, that'd be a shame."
A world is slowly starting to build around them, back to the open field of dead animals and aimless humanoid monsters.
"Does this have anything to do with what Itachi said about hurting those I care about?" Sakura inquires with a mild scowl, because she didn't really appreciate that at all. She'd spent weeks wondering what the hell and how to prevent it.
Shion blinks, before squinting at her like she's deranged. "Wait, what? He said what?"
She blinks too, in the realisation that they've never actually discussed that. She thought that Shion knew, since it's been obvious that they appear to be collaborating together for something. Then again, it'd been just after she recovered from the experiment, so perhaps Shion had been asleep for it all.
"He asked about Kakashi, specifically." she tells the redheaded woman, whom abruptly sneers.
The world shatters around them like glass, a project scrapped from apparent rage. "He should know by now…" Shion hisses, mostly to herself before she waves her hand again. "Fuck, whatever. I'll deal with him later, I'll let you be in control as long as you don't do anything I consider shit. Your brothers are a fucking pain to deal with, yeah."
Sakura frowns in concern and doubt, before she nods. "As long as they're safe." even though she knows that she'd lose in a mental battle against Shion for killing off Sai and Neji. She'd still try, at the least.
Shion hums. "They're loyal to you, not the village. This is basically treason, but neither of us have given much of a shit about Konohagakure, yeah. Jiraiya's confused, but he's also still the same fucking shit turd I know. Alright, jelly bean. Talk later, yeah?"
When she wakes up, she's in an unfamiliar place but lays her eyes on familiar people. Then she's assaulted in the form of a hug by said familiar people, whom bombard her with frantic and angry demands about what the hell Shion was up to with the possession stuff.
She only has theories, rather than anything concrete. She'll just have to go along with it, she supposes.
Chapter Word Count: 2,614
Total Word Count: 77,738
Targeted Word Count: 0
A/N: Sorry for this chapter. I woke up late from my nap and had like three hours to write this before the end of my day, then I had momentary writer's block and had to punch that in the dick. Again, I'm so sorry for all the confusion from last chapter. I had edited it and accidentally clicked on the other file. Gah!
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