A/N: Sorry for being late, I was washing my hair.

… Hmm? Of course I updated. When have I ever let you fend for yourselves without my writing?

Chapter 35 – Trust

With how accustomed I was to sensing chakra around me, it probably was not a good sign that I entirely failed to notice Sasuke enter the room until he set a thermos of coffee in front of my face.

It was probably also not good that I did not sense him enter the room, brew the coffee, wait five minutes, pour the coffee, and then set it in front of me.

"Good morning," I chirped, keeping my eyes fixed on the notes before me.

"You never woke me. Did you even sleep?" There was an edge to his voice.

"Sleep is for the sane."

He sighed; a soft, whisper-light sound. It was the sigh of someone actually upset and not exaggerating the effect for my benefit.

I ducked my head lower and looked more studiously at my notes, even though they'd become a blur to me at that point.

"Why do you keep doing this kind of thing? Don't you care at all?"

Frowning, I finally looked up to face him– his eyes were red. I twitched a little, but it was in such a very obvious non-combat situation that my calm didn't leave me.

"Doing what kind of thing, exactly? What do you think I don't care about?" I tried to keep my voice as level as his. Because it was very obvious that I cared very much about very many things, but if he was obviously pissed off and keeping his cool, I had to as well.

He held an unwavering gaze on me for several seconds before sighing again– a more dramatic sigh this time– and propped his chin on his hand. "Okay, Sakura. I know for a fact that you aren't an idiot, so answer this: how are people supposed to recover from chakra exhaustion?"

"Plenty of food and rest," I said instantly.

"And what happened to you yesterday?"

"… Chakra exhaustion?" I said in a small voice.

"And what are you currently not doing?"

I shook my head. "I couldn't. I– not after a day like yesterday." I clasped my hands tight together over my books, fighting for the right words. "You– I genuinely don't think you'd understand, Sasuke. But if I tried to go to bed– there's just so much I have to do."

"Why couldn't you do them after you rest?"

"Because I might not be able to stop resting!" I said vehemently, finally losing my cool. "Dammit Sasuke, you just–" I scrubbed my hands over my face. "You can always just go and go and go, and eat when you're hungry and rest when you're tired and do it all over again the next day. But I can't!"

He sat up a little straighter, leaning back in his chair. He took a few seconds to think, before replying slowly. "I've never seen you not be like that. I can't see you not being able to get back up and fight again. So no, I don't get it."

I felt my lips purse against my teeth, fighting to keep steady. I took a deep breath through my nose. "I want to rest. I am so tired." I averted my eyes. "I was always tired, in my life before I came here. You don't understand how much of a blessing it is to be normal, to just… be able to do things." I swallowed thickly. "And I'm starting to feel that way again, so I'm scared that if I rest now, I won't be able to get back up."

He was quiet for a long moment, before reaching over and slowly pushing the coffee thermos toward me. I took the hint and picked it up to take a sip, and almost choked in surprise; he'd added cream and sugar. It must have been because Naruto had brought his groceries with him.

It actually tasted very nice.

"You're right," he said finally. "I don't get it. I don't understand that feeling at all. But I think–" he hesitated slightly, "I think that if the old Sakura– Sakarin– wasn't able to get up because she was tired, then she probably was tired and needed the rest. It doesn't sound like… just being weak."

My fingers clutched in a white-knuckled grip around the coffee thermos. It felt like someone had thrown me in a pool, but instead of an icy shock, the water was warm.

I took another sip of coffee. "Maybe," I mumbled.

He leaned back and stretched, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. "You don't talk about it much, so I'm guessing it was bad." Red eyes rolled back down to face me. "And you know you have a good reason to be tired right now. Is it that much worse than you felt back then?"

I didn't want to think about it, so obviously I immediately thought about it. In vivid detail. "Better, actually." It was startling. Even though I'd almost destroyed myself in every way possible just the previous day, then immediately had my parents kidnapped or murdered–

I still felt more capable now than I did on any given day of my old life.

Maybe I'd been thinking about my situation in the entirely wrong way. Maybe instead of, 'Sakarin takes over Sakura's life, and it's way easier', it should have been, 'If I, Sakura, had been given Sakarin's life, I would have found it difficult'.

It was liberating. It was constraining. But most importantly…

"Now that's just scary," Sasuke huffed. "Anyway, go to bed. Idiot."

I hesitated. "You know, sleep restores chakra but so does food. Maybe I could try–" I cut myself off. "Actually, experimenting with trying to sustain myself on food alone as a substitute for sleep… Maybe this isn't the right time."

"Wow. Common sense. On our team. Never thought I'd see the day. Go to bed."

I hung my head. "Right. Yeah. And uh, thank you. It means a lot, especially coming from you, and–" To my surprise, he clapped a hand on my shoulder. I looked up in startled surprise.

"Don't mention it. Ever."

I crinkled my nose. "Fine. Goodnight." I slapped his hand away and shuffled back to the living area, where Naruto was just beginning to stir.

"Hey, Sakura-chan," he mumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes. I slipped into the futon next to his, drawing the blankets over my knees. I couldn't seem to get myself to lay down yet, even as the larger of Sensei's dogs curled up beside me.

"Morning, Naruto. I didn't sleep yet, though, so..."

He blinked a few times. "Whoa, yeah. You don't look too good. Are you– actually, it's kinda dumb to ask if you're okay, right?" He rubbed at his hair; it stuck up like a mess of wires.

"I have so much to do," I muttered. I clenched my fists around the blanket. "I shouldn't have stayed up. I can't believe I let myself do something that selfish."

Naruto groaned and stretched. "What kinda stuff do you have to do? After everything that happened, Sensei probably doesn't want us going out much yet. He sounded like he didn't want us to do anything. At least, that's what I thought." He frowned. "Was I wrong? Were we supposed to be doing something?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "I mean… no, you're probably right." I lay back with a huff. "But I wanted to talk to Hokage-sama and Tsunade-sama, and I promised Ten-Ten I'd see her in training, and–" Was that really it? It had felt like I had so very much to do; an impossible mountain of tasks. Why was it that when I tried to say it out loud, that was all I could come up with?

Naruto shrugged. "I mean, the old man and Obaachan would probably be pissed if you tried to go see them right now, even if Sasuke and I go with you. And I can tell Ten-Ten we're not going to training so she won't worry, if that's what's got you all upset."

"Didn't you just say we weren't supposed to leave yet?" I snapped.

Naruto blinked, puzzled. "Sakura-chan? I have shadow clones. I can send messages to anyone you want without leaving."

There was a pause broken by nothing but the quiet thud of my pulse in my ears.

Naruto was the first to break it. "It's okay, Sakura-chan. I get really dumb when I'm tired too." He leaned over and patted my head. They're being all sorts of affectionate today, I mused absently. Am I really being that childish? It hurt a little. I was the one who was supposed to be taking care of them.

His face suddenly became stricken. "Whoa! I was just kidding. It's okay, I promise. It's like Sensei said, you can rely on us, yanno?"

To my horror, I felt what he'd been reacting to; my eyes had been watering and tears were trying to fall. I scrubbed frantically at my cheeks. "Of course I can rely on you; you're going to be Hokage, after all."

He smiled. "Yeah. Please trust me, okay? Trust both of us. We're a team. We don't try to deal with things on our own anymore, remember? That's our team rule!"

My eyes seemed to be stinging again, so I glanced away. Apparently, sleep deprivation made me emotional. I cleared my throat. "I left some notes in the kitchen with Sasuke. Can you read them and have a clone talk to the Hokage about them? But leave the notes here, I don't want them getting lost in town if your clones pop."

He gave a forced grin.

"… Okay, can you have Sasuke read them and give you a summary, and then a clone can tell Hokage-sama?"

His shoulders relaxed. "Sure. Definitely." He punched a fist into his palm. "That's what we have the bastard for, anyway. If I'm gonna be Hokage, I'm going to need a good secretary."

"Sounds like work," I yawned. My body started to develop a warm, buzzing feeling. "Hope I get a cushy office job."

I heard him snort. "You'd get so bored." A slight shuffling sound. "Okay, so you have a plan, and I need to talk to Hokage, Obaachan, and Ten-Ten. You don't gotta worry about anything else today, I'll take care of everything. You can believe it."

We might have spoken more, but that was the last thing I remembered before the sun had fully risen and started shining through the southern window. I felt the buzz of my chakra more clearly now, enough to realise that there was still very little. There was other chakra in the room, but my ears picked up the murmuring before I could recognise it.

"– pretty bad at this. Oh, she's awake. Hey, sleepy-head."

I blinked. "Ten-Ten?" I pushed myself up a little, my arms feeling like lead weights. "Eh? Shikamaru?"

They were sitting near the door, a shogi board between them. Shikamaru's slouch was more pronounced than ever. "Yo."

Another boy I didn't recognise walked through the door; he was built like a log and holding a massive picnic basket. "Oh, good morning Sakura-san. We brought food." He turned his head and raised his voice slightly. "Hey, Ino. She's awake."

The larger of Sensei's dogs, which had been curled comfortably by my head, came to life at the sight of the basket, whining earnestly.

"Eh? Well, I think there's some cheese–"

"Don't you dare!" Ino's voice cut in, walking sharply forward and tearing the basket from him. "If you give them too much they'll get sick."

"Ino!" I cried, sitting sharply up, ignoring the pulling pain in my muscles.

"Sakura!" she called back, shoving the basket unceremoniously at Shikamaru before leaping forward to wrap me in a fierce embrace. Unsurprisingly, she was the first to start crying. "Oh, Sakura, I'm so sorry. I'm sure they're okay, and the jounin will bring them back. You must have been so scared..."

"She's a ninja," Shikamaru drawled.

I never did figure out how Ino managed to kick him from two meters away.

"I know," I said tightly. "I know." I carefully wiped at my eyes, still hidden behind her hair, before drawing myself back and holding her by the shoulders. "What are you all doing here?"

Ino frowned. "Naruto found us and– well, Naruto's clone found us and told us what happened, and that you needed us for some kind of plan… but once we got here, there wasn't anyone else around except you, and you were asleep. And he'd said all the information we'd need was in your notes, but, well. How do I put this..."

"There were about six paragraphs dedicated to something about strawberries." Shikamaru cut in, staring to pull food from the basket. "I read it three times and I still don't know what it was supposed to mean. Did they drug you before you left the hospital or something?"

I frowned and thought back. "Yes. I mean, kinda. Supply chains."

The other boy with them, who could only be Chouji, had already filled up a huge plate with onigiri, watermelon slices, croquettes, tamagoyaki, cherry tomatoes, boiled eggs, fried shrimp–

"You are Chouji-san, yes? Nice to meet you, New Best Friend." Shikamaru was right. Giving people food really is the best.

"Told ya," Shikamaru muttered; either remembering the same thing I had, or he'd suggested something similar to Chouji. I wasn't of a mind to mind.

"Eh, of course. You were chakra exhausted, right? You need to eat lots of food and get healthy!" He grinned. "And yeah, nice to meet you again. Sorry you've had so many accidents. Rough start as a genin."

Tell me about it, I thought, taking a huge bite out of a croquette. Just then, something struck me; something Ino had told me about Chouji, during one of our moonlight talks.

"Chouji-san, question!" I quickly chewed my mouthful at the baleful look from Ino before continuing. "You use jutsu that draws power specifically from chakra derived from food, right? Is that the same as regular chakra?" I tilted my head. "Because you should sleep and eat to restore chakra, so couldn't you… I mean, is it possible to eat extra food so you don't need to sleep? Like if you have a long mission or something?"

He rose his eyebrows. "Uh, don't do that." A beat, and then he shook his head rapidly. "Never do that. Well, maybe a jounin could, if they trained for a long time, and the ANBU probably need to do that sort of thing in infiltration. But don't do that. It's not the same, you need both. You'd die really fast."

"Please don't tell me you actually tried to do that," Shikamaru said, sounding vaguely amused.

I flushed. "I briefly considered that such a thing may be possible, and immediately determined that I should ask a trusted authority. I just figured Chouji-san may happen to know since his family uses that special jutsu." I rapidly shook my head. "Wait, I'm sorry, I'm getting distracted. More importantly: what on earth did Naruto say to you? And why would you all decide to go along with it when it so clearly doesn't involve an actual, approved mission?"

"It doesn't?" Ino asked. "He said it in front of Asuma-Sensei, so I figured it was at least something your Sensei approved of, even if…" She trailed off and looked to Shikamaru for support.

"Naruto and your notes did say something about infiltrating another village," he said slowly. "You mean your first plan didn't involve other people?"

"I was going to tell the Hokage about my plan, and he could decide if he wanted me to bring other ninja with me. Oh geez, if Naruto barely even told you what was going on, then–"

A static-buzzing hand plopped down on my hair. "–then you're definitely going to make your Sensei worry."

My eyes widened, and I pushed my head back to stare above me. "Er, hi, Sensei. You're, uh, early."

"Is it really that hard to rely on me for the length of one day?" he asked. Another man stood behind him, an unlit cigarette pushed back behind his ear.

"Uh."

Naruto is smarter than he acts. You can rely on him. Just… keep repeating that to yourself.

"Um."

I could feel Ten-Ten, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji staring holes into me.

"That is to say..."

The dog quietly stole a piece of rolled ham off my plate.

I let my head drop back down and cleared my throat. "So did you want me to explain about the Strawberry Festival in Rice Country?"

Four blank faces stared in front of me, and presumably, two more from behind me. "Wait, no, before that." I whipped around and glowered at Sensei. "Where are Sasuke and Naruto? Especially Naruto, he's the one who gave me a hard time about leaving and doing this all myself."

Sensei raised his eyebrow. "You were going to leave on your own?"

I swallowed and tried to keep my face stern. "No, I was going to bring Sasuke and Naruto. And the dogs," I added as an afterthought. I probably would have. They're cute.

Sensei hmm'ed loudly and stepped around with the other man, crouching nearer to the group. "They're with Gai and Neji, I presume. After Asuma found me," he nodded toward the man, "I found Gai, who also had a fascinating story to tell me. So, naturally, when I heard this fascinating story was also being taken to the Hokage, I had to ask Gai to please fetch the boys and take them along to explain more thoroughly. And this young lady," he nodded to Ten-Ten, "was very insistent on checking in with you and hearing more of this fascinating story, so I saw fit to have her tag along after Asuma's kids." He nodded. "Asuma helped me tie up some loose ends, and we came here afterwards. I think that covers it."

I rubbed at my forehead, slightly surprised to find the skin around the seal scratching slightly. It must have bled in my sleep again. "Okay, so why did Naruto go to Ino and the others in the first place?" I asked Kakashi, but I looked to Ino.

Shikamaru snorted. "Naruto runs on Naruto logic."

"Okay, and uh… what exactly was Naruto's version of this story? I only asked him to–" I stopped myself. No, he didn't misunderstand me.

If he'd thought I'd meant 'tell absolutely everyone my secret plan, thanks', then I'd have Tsunade kicking down the door as well. No, there was something more going on here. What had he said? 'I'll take care of everything'. This was likely the natural extension of that.

More than that, I wasn't the only one in our team who had something against Orochimaru right now. Whatever was going on, it involved Naruto and Sasuke both.

Trust them.

"Well, you get the idea," I finished lamely.

"Naruto said you were going to infiltrate Hidden Sound," Ten-Ten said quietly. "He said you had a really good plan. And that if Hokage wouldn't let you..." She pressed her teeth over her lips, looking anxiously at the Sensei. "Well, he said you wanted your friends to help."

The jaws of the trap snapped shut. Trust Naruto. And Sasuke.

They're not going to give me a choice. I shook my head to clear the thought. No, that wasn't fair. I told Naruto I would trust him. He and Sasuke must have just… run with it. When he said that we won't try to do things by ourselves anymore, he meant it in a bigger way than I'd thought.

Sensei sighed. "You could at least warn me if you were going to uproot everyone, Sakura-chan. It isn't easy to intercede in your plans while trying to support a manhunt."

"Didn't ask you to intercede," I grumbled. "But I guess I'm relying on everyone now."

Shikamaru snorted. "Sounds like you need it. So you feel like explaining to us what's going on?"

My shoulders sagged. Defeat was absolute. "Okay, okay. Let me get some coffee and my notes."

A/N: It's funny. This section of the story was originally supposed to happen very differently, but it seems the characters outgrew my pacing, and everything needed to shift around them. That said, I will soon require a bulletin board, multicoloured push pins, and string.

Also, ah, there's a rather lot of you now. Hi. Thank you.