Please leave a comment or PM if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, or just compliments. For the sake of this work, the elemental balance will go earth}lightning}water}fire}wind. Thanks to SmallFountainPen for betaing chapters 57-73. Thanks to SoaringJe for betaing chapters 116-156.
"Her… role?" Minato asked, a touch too calmly.
"Yes, her role." The Shimura Head looked a touch too smug. "At the beginning of the year, in the fall of 44 Konoha, Shimura Ema, then Inoue Ema, recommended that the Research Department begin manufacturing acid bombs. Co-Head Yamanaka was the one to reject the suggestion."
Sakura leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, hands calmly folded over each other just in front. "Why should I have approved acid bomb manufacture?"
The Shimura Head scoffed. "Do you deny the use such seals would have been in the fight against the byoki?"
"I do not," Sakura said. "Did you know such an attack was coming? I did not have access to such information."
"There was, of course, the attack on the byoki research outpost manned predominantly by Uchiha—"
"Which occurred that summer, after Shimura Inoue quit her job to become a stay-at-home mother at the height of the war. With the limited manpower we had, revisiting a proposal nobody was arguing for could not become a priority."
Clan Head Shimura looked to be scrambling, now. "Even outside of the byoki, the combat effectiveness of acid bombs—"
"Was no greater than fire-bombs, which were far easier to produce and had the added benefit of setting Kiri ships alight."
"Moving on," Minato said, "Head…"
The meeting continued—some vacancies filled (Research still had to fill theirs), many requests for reduced deployments (Minato agreed easily enough—even with the threats from the other Great Nations, no longer being in a war reduced the workload dramatically, and the high-speed radio and telegraph meant that it wasn't necessary to have the entire force camped out on the borders), and even more requests for additional funding.
Sakura, in her role as Research Co-Head, joined in on that one.
Finally, there was nothing else left but the Elders.
Elder Utatane began. "While at the time the suggestion to distribute Water Lands amongst—"
"No."
Elder Utatane blinked. "No?"
Minato grinned.
It wasn't a very happy grin.
"I just finished killing whatever it was that was controlling Kiri forces with my bare hands. It was violent, it was risky, and Hiruzen and I did it. I think it's only fair that we get a say in what happens to the land we freed, and we will be sticking with Diplomat Shin's suggestion of giving it to the nobility and the Daimyo and renting out its defense."
"Well, I'm sure Hiruzen would agree—"
"And I'm sure he wouldn't."
"Why isn't he here?"
"I'm sure I explained that at the beginning of the meeting."
Back and forth they ping-ponged.
Sakura only allowed her eyes to bounce between them, but even with that restraint she quickly found herself tiring. The other Elder—Mitokado—sat silent, eyes ping-ponging alongside everyone else's.
And still they went.
Finally, slowly, the argument came to an end.
Minato's authority was absolute, and Elder Utatane conceded she could not convince him otherwise.
And that was when Elder Mitokado cleared his throat. "I believe that we need to introduce stricter immigration laws for Uzu."
"What?" Minato asked. Well, Sakura was pretty sure it was a question—his voice just happened to be very flat.
"Yes, since the beginning of the war Uzu has received a substantial amount of refugees from across the continent. This level of immigration is hurting Konoha's culture and safety, as each immigrant is a possible spy—"
"Uzu land is primarily clan-owned. They can do as they wish within their land. As for the port, we do not keep confidential information there. The closest to any substantial information is Kaiso Academy, and the Academy teaches what we want every child under Konoha's control to know." Elder Mitokado went to speak, but Minato didn't let him. "We're done for the day. A reminder that the entirety of next week will be devoted to mourning those we have lost. Please balance what needs to be done with the grief that deserves to be felt, not only for yourself but also to anyone under your authority." Minato bowed and left.
The rest of the room didn't take long to clear out either.
Sakura took the time to notice which clans stayed after to talk to Elder Mitokado—it was a larger number than she'd expected.
At least Inoichi didn't stay behind, but that was to be expected—the Yamanaka were the principal clan when dealing with immigrants, and their agreement to surface-scan the mind of everyone who wanted to move to Uzu had, for a time, meant that no anti-immigrant sentiments could really get going.
That time was apparently over.
How it could be over, when every single immigrant had agreed to be mindwalked by a Yamanaka, was—
Sakura considered.
Remembered her time in school.
She might not have been able to enter anyone's mind, but some of her Yamanaka classmates could, and actively did so in spars during the last Academy year—to the point that Konoha students quickly learned how to manipulate their thoughts to keep their Yamanaka opponents from seeing anything they didn't want to be seen.
Sakura wondered if the Elders and clan leaders (the majority who had flocked to Elder Mitokado were older, raised in pre-Konoha days where they very likely went against Yamanaka in fights) realized that such a skill was not a common one to have outside of Konoha; even those who had fought against Konoha in the last few wars hadn't really come across many Yamanaka who could mindwalk, their skill having far too many other uses to allow many to spend time in combat-heavy positions.
She decided that the Elders did not.
.
The mourning week was…
Bad.
Part of it was how unnatural it felt, to have a week of funerals.
To try to fit your grief into a specific mold.
A lot of it was just the amount of grief.
The amount of dead.
The names seemed to go on forever, stretch into infinity—an endless ocean of sorrow, of anger and confusion and helplessness.
Sakura took the time to consider each Yamanaka individually. Later in the week she would think of every other person she knew who had died, feel their impact on her life in her bones, but first she would consider each Yamanaka, because they were family.
(This was not how Yamanaka typically grieved. It was also not how Arden grieved. But as Sakura had continued learning more and more about Arden's world and person, she realized that it was just as imperfect as her own.
(If she found a way to grieve, then, that worked better for her, there was no reason not to mourn in her own way.)
She started the day with Yamanaka Tsubasa, her cousin who had lived just down the street from her since she was born.
She ended with Yamanaka Taiki, who had shaped her taijutsu until it was actually workable, and then again until it was actually threatening. (It wasn't even the byoki that had gotten him, or the war with Kiri—it was his alcoholism, his coping technique for pain experienced before Konoha even existed. His liver was shot and, with how busy all the medical personnel were, he hadn't managed to hang on long enough for a doctor with the necessary skills to become available.)
She went to his house, to grieve him.
It was late, well past dusk.
Taiki didn't even have a house, just a room in someone else's, right next to the courtyard he taught so many Yamanaka in.
She sat on the doorstep, looking at the training ground.
Her eyes were red, aching from the strain of the day, and her mouth was dry—she'd tried to stay hydrated, but it hadn't exactly worked.
She probably fell asleep at some point, or near enough, because it was a bit of a shock when she noticed someone else was entering the courtyard.
The eternal genin, Maito Duy.
Sakura watched as the man bowed to the empty courtyard, all the way down as if bowing to the Daimyo himself.
She could hear his crying, but the man was clearly trying to keep quiet—most of the world was supposed to be asleep now, and even if they weren't (because many were still awake, still sharing grief in their own homes) he didn't seem to want to impose.
She stood.
Walked over to him.
He stood.
She bowed, made the formal sign for a spar.
He bowed back.
They began.
Neither tried very hard, and neither used anything but what Yamanaka Taiki had taught them.
It was a different sort of mourning than what she had done earlier in the day, but it felt right.
Felt natural, to grieve Yamanaka Taiki by doing what he had enjoyed most in the world—more, even, than liquor.
Neither fought to win.
Both just…
Fought.
Until their internal clocks told them midnight had passed at least an hour ago, until both realized that they had obligations in the morning; children to look after, work to do, more people to realize they'd never see again.
Bowing, a sign of reconciliation from each, and they left.
The entire time they hadn't spoken a word.
.
Going from a week of funerals to preparing for the largest celebration ever—Konoha was trying to leave an impression—should have been jarring.
It was.
Still, it was necessary.
Right now Fire residents and international threats alike distrusted Konoha's ability to protect their own, to recover from the blows it had received from Kiri and the byoki.
They had to prove them wrong.
Show them that the Fire couldn't be put out—that the Will burned too strong.
Sakura kind-of wished the previous Hokage was still here—he was amazing at speeches, at inspiring people—but Minato said he was needed in the Land of Water.
Still, even without the benefit of inspiring speeches, even with the discomfort of moving from grief to celebration so quickly….
Konohans wanted to celebrate.
They wanted to be, for the first time in a long time, carefree.
They wanted a break from the fear, from the anxiety.
And so, no matter how much there was to do—and there was a lot to do—no one gave up.
Konoha was going to get its well-earned victory day, and that was that.
.
Uchiha Hono was the sort of person it was difficult not to be envious of.
Just barely in her twenties, most gave her a handful of years at most to make it to jounin-level.
She was charismatic, funny, pretty.
She got sick so infrequently that her genin sensei had been forced to teach her how to use chakra to stave illness off—something most others learned before they even know what chakra was.
She was smart.
She was capable.
She'd already copied dozens of jutsu.
She was the sort of person it was very difficult not to be envious of.
She was also stressed.
The Uchiha, as a whole, were deciding what to do about the celebration.
Plenty had already decided to go—they had artwork to show, music to play, they said, and they were completely uninterested in the fears of the others.
Others, many others, had already decided the only way they would ever touch the mainland again was if a series of near-simultaneous earthquakes pushed Uzu into the mainland with no time for them to escape to another island.
And then there were people like Hono.
People in the middle.
There were a few young adults who all the others were looking to, now.
The Clan Head, of course.
Uchiha Kaen, who was considered brave to the point of stupidity but who had lost both younger siblings to the byoki.
Hono herself.
If she didn't make the right choice…
Didn't stay when she should have gone, displayed Uchiha power to the international stage, helped stave off any vultures looking to profit of Konoha's bad year…
Didn't go when she should have stayed, lost herself or anybody she loved to byoki still lying in Konohagakure in hiding…
Hono swallowed.
Looked around at the faces of her friends, still looking to her for a decision.
And answered.