Sakura spent the next few months getting chakra 'donations' whenever possible. They all came in various levels of discomfort- so far Hatake's was the only person who was pleasant- some more violently- New Kid felt like being stabbed with thousands of tiny needles- whilst others were more just mild crawling sensations. The majority of donations were small, just ten percent or so of their chakra, but occasionally people gave the full seventy.
Somehow, every night they were both in the village, Hatake found her and drained his completely. Wether she was eating out, walking home, or straight up already in bed he would show up, drain himself down and then disappear. She suspected he was using her as a method of combatting insomnia, but she didn't mind. It felt nice and she hadn't had any strange, duck-based nightmares since it had started.
Her copying of the ROOT files continued and soon she had the entire room transcribed and sealed away. She quietly slipped the scroll onto the Hokage's desk and searched for another room to copy down. She found one fairly quickly, this one with lower security that she suspected was used more frequently, and began. She concentrated on simply transcribing the information accurately and not the frustrating patterns of warmongering, pointless sacrifice where there were easier ways to achieve things and targeting far too high risk targets for low rewards.
That wasn't her job.
Her training with Maito continued and she learnt to fight with her muscles barely able to move from their ache and train with her body ready to collapse beneath her. She grew stronger. Everything went great.
Until it didn't.
She tapped on the glass, the bird that had led her here having already disappeared in a mouthful of caterpillars and a puff of smoke.
She didn't notice it had opened until her finger didn't hit the window pane. She blinked and looked upwards. Kakashi was staring at her. She looked out towards the village, breathed for a moment and spoke.
"Monkey's dead." It was quiet, toneless. Almost swept away entirely on the wind. A hand grasped her elbow and pulled her into the apartment beyond. Her body followed the pull unthinkingly. Her head empty.
"Shower." He said, pushing her into the bathroom, dumping a pile of clothes and a towel on the sink and closing the door behind him. She stripped, distantly aware the clothes and weapons she touched were slimy with a mixture of mud and humans entrails, and climbed into the shower. Not minding that it was freezing cold and slowly heated up until it was scalding. The water ran red. She scrubbed with the scentless body soap until it didn't anymore.
She halfheartedly dried herself with the overly fluffy towel and dressed in the clothing left for her. It took some effort- the long sleeved black shirt was more of a short dress and the pant legs had to be rolled four times and the drawstring pulled as tight as it could go and then wrapped around her waist again to get them to stay up- but she managed it and exited the bathroom with the towel in her hands.
Kakashi was leaning against the wall to the left of the door when she opened it. He pushed her head down until she was staring at their feet and buried an unmasked nose into the top of her head. Her hearing focused on the familiar pattern of breathing and steady heartbeat and she slowly relaxed as they stood.
A few breaths turning into a minute.
He pulled her head back up, his mask already back in place, and dumped the towel on her head, ruffling it to try and dry her hair properly. She added her hands to the bottom, getting the ends, and by the time they were done her hair was a ridiculous, curly mess down her back but it was no longer soaking wet.
A hand on her shoulder pushed her towards the bed, directing her down to lay with her head on a pillow and leaving it to pull a blanket over her. He pulled a chair from another room and set it next to the bed, grabbing her hand in his own and sitting. His hand was warm and rough with callouses, gloveless as it engulfed her own. There was a scar over his second knuckle that she'd never noticed before. His skin just a few shades darker than her own but his undertones more neutral than hers. It made the contrast between them more stark. Like his entire being was created from shades of grey whilst even her skin was dipped in pink.
He didn't speak. The silence wasn't oppressive or judgmental but it wasn't entirely comfortable either. He wasn't forcing her to talk, but he also wasn't not pushing her to.
"He was mine." She whispered eventually, keeping her eyes on their hands. Not wanting to confirm the swirl of red in the corner of her vision. "He was one of mine and all I could do was pull the sword from his chest and cut out the bastard's heart with it." Her hand tightened to a grip that was likely painful but Kakashi didn't complain, just tightening his own in response.
Hot tracks trailed down her face and tears darkened the pillow and she sobbed. Sakura was struck with the sudden realisation that she was mourning.
She hadn't done that in this life. Tristan'd barely done that in her last life.
Her signature shifted to mimic Kakashi's and she cried through the influx of warmth. The hand holding her's tightened further and another landed on top of her head. The painful hole in her chest felt just a little bit less overwhelming in response.
She was asleep before the warmth slowed.
Sakura woke to an empty chair with a cold bowl of miso, eggplant and rice sitting on top. Further investigation showed that the apartment was empty. She warmed the bowl of food, ate and cleaned the bathroom before she left out the window. Her hair and skin darkened and changed, the mask slipped back over her face as she sped over the rooftops.
Sakura didn't see Hatake again before she was seeing them off as he and Tiger disappeared with the Uzumaki on a training trip. She tried to ignore that they left weeks after Monkey's death.
Shiranui sat beside her, their legs dangling from the edge of the roof and the entrance to the missions building across the street. A brown haired tokubetsu with notably wild curls left the building.
"Imamura Shig." Sakura said, pointing down at the shinobi. "Tracking specialist, viper summons and does some niche sealing work for ANBU."
"Uniformed." Shiranui taunted. "Married to his third rich civilian wife after the first two tragically died in mysterious accidents and is known for finding his way into his teammate's beds after missions."
"Bullshit."
"I swear on Raidō's honour that it's true."
"I refuse to believe I wouldn't have heard about a serial widower in the village."
He shook his head, grimacing around the ever present senbon. "They're civilian casualties so they're under the police's purview but no one who has any idea how to do their job has been in charge since the massacre. I only know about it because I was fucking an Uchiha whilst he was investigating the first death."
"At least that explains why he sets my instincts off." She muttered. "Should he suffer a mysterious accident?"
"He's been warned. And don't act altruistic it's creepy." He said, sending a genuinely disturbed glance her way. She shrugged.
"What's good for the village is good for me in the long run."
"The deaths of a few civilians isn't a significant enough impact to matter, Pinky." His expression was unimpressed.
She scowled. "Maybe I just feel like it."
"Aha and maybe I just feel like giving dog boy a mysterious accident."
"You couldn't hurt Kashi."
"Well, no." Shiranui admitted, senbon flapping with agitation and brows puckered with annoyance at the admission. "But I could get Gai to annoy the shit out of him for a few weeks."
Sakura's lips twitched despite herself, a mixture of fondness and good humour warming her chest at the image of it, but she did her best to scowl disapprovingly. Her efforts were unsuccessful as Shiranui smirked triumphantly.
"You're just pissy he wouldn't get into bed with you."
"Everyone knows he had that thing with Yamato." Shiranui said, puffing up in mock offence. "And I'm basically Yamato but better looking!"
"Mhm, I don't know about that." She replied, a smile edging her mouth as she made a show of checking him out. He flipped his hair lounged dramatically.
"Darling, I am a catch."
"You're a catch of Carp." Sakura said, grimacing as she remembered the muddy taste of the unfortunately common fish. Shiranui barked a startled laugh.
"But seriously, say the word and the asshole gets it." He said and she smiled.
"I'll take it under advisement."
A green haired jōnin walked out of the building and Shiranui straightened to point at her as her listed her specialties.
The hawk came as she was heading back from a solo mission in the Land of Tea.
It had only been a B-rank but, with her essentially non-existent reserves, cleaning out an entire colony of giant, fire breathing tigers had gotten a little messy.
Sakura read the scroll and looked down at her blood-stained, half melted away long sleeved black top and pants. She'd long since abandoned the flak jacket after it had been mostly melted hard, also destroying the scroll with a change of clothes sealed inside, and had just been thankful her underwear had survived- her sports bra left completely untouched and her underpants only a little singed- and prepared herself for an uncomfortable journey back.
She looked at the small scroll and the words 'Team Seven to support Team Ten' with a location underneath and she sighed. It wasn't far, and she knew a village on the way where she could probably steal something.
And that was how Sakura found herself destroying yet another kimono, this one a dark purple that was almost black, for the sake of practicality. She couldn't do much about the blood splatters over everything on the time crunch she was on but she figured they could deal with it.
Sakura arrived to see a man bursting with tentacles, the black strings shooting out to wrap themselves around Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Hatake. Sakura launched forwards, her body wrapped in her elemental transformation until she was just a blur of blue and pink over the ground.
Kusanagi sliced through the three sets of tentacles as Tiger and Uzumaki appeared from the other direction and forced the tentacle man away with a combination of two ridiculous jutsus. She watched the two giant pillars with distant jealousy as she settled into place in front of the very beat up looking trio. She grinned cheerfully at them as the other three members of Team Kakashi settled next to her.
"Hey guys! Right in the nick of time, huh." She said.
"What happened to you?!" The Yamanaka asked.
"It's not my blood." Sakura replied, smiling reassuringly. The blonde did not look reassured.
"Reinforcements." The Akimichi sighed with audible relief. "We're saved."
"I've never seen you look so uncool." Tiger said, looking at a very dishevelled looking Hatake. "This opponent must be really strong."
So maybe Hatake was a little beyond dishevelled, with slightly too shallow breaths and bloodstains on the stomach of his shirt, but it wasn't life threatening and Sakura wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards the man at the moment.
The tentacle monster was watching her with narrowed eyes. "You're the boiler." He said, voice like two rocks scraping together. Sakura ignored him. So did everyone else. The tentacle monster became visibly incensed at the lack of response, but not enough to overwhelm his common sense and care him to wildly lash out at them.
"Where's Shikamaru?" Uzumaki asked.
"Fighting with the enemy at a different location." Akimichi replied.
"Two of us should go to Shikamaru's side." Hatake said, speeding through the summoning hand signs. "A long range type and a medical type would be best." Pakkun puffed into existence.
"Follow me." Said the pug.
"I'll go." Yamanaka said.
"Okay!" Said Tiger. "Sai and Ino follow Pakkun's lead and go and back up Shikamaru."
"Understood." They said in unison before racing off.
"All that's happened is the variation I have for hearts has increased." Tentacle man rasped. "And when I'm finished I'll be taking that one with me." A hand floated upwards to point at Sakura.
An angry expression crossed the Uzumaki's face and he stepped forward. "I'll take it from here."
"Did he complete it?" Hatake asked.
"…No." Replied Tiger. "It's about fifty percent."
"I see."
"However. Just watch, please. He's a completely different person than before."
If Tiger was happy with his abilities, then Sakura- as sore, tired and running on fumes as she was- was happy to sit back and let the Uzumaki do the heavy lifting. She kept her storm chakra circling just in case, but she settled into a more defensive stance and sheathed Kusanagi.
Sakura watched Uzumaki… test the enemy and then form a plan from that basis? With an incredulous expression. That was… different. Especially recently, since he'd came back from training with the Sannin and hit the brick wall of puberty head first, the Uzumaki's attack strategies had largely seemed to devolve into just 'get angry and use the kyuubi's chakra'.
Then he made a giant ball of death.
Sakura had known the bijuu were essentially this world's version of atomic bombs. She had known the potential of the jinchūriki was unfathomable. But knowing it did not change how alarming it was to see the Uzumaki casually whip out something that felt like it could wipe out a small town. The massive coalescence of chakra hummed like muffled roaring of a tornado.
"Fūton: Rasen Shuriken!" He cried and the trio of clones charged in. Sakura did not move forward to try and help, not wanting to know what would happen if she got caught in the crossfire of that move, but she stayed ready to intercept if it was necessary.
As it turned out, it was.
The move fizzled out just before it connected with the tentacle man and Naruto was stuck, centimetres away from the enemy and with no method of attack. Sakura flickered to his side in an instant, grabbing him around the waist and- in a feat of strength only possible from her training with Gai- she threw him into the path of the already running Kakashi.
"Yamato!" Kakashi ordered, grabbing Naruto and returning to their ranks. Sakura felt tentacles sink into the skin of her shoulder as she unsheathed her sword, swiping it through the black strings and pouncing backwards. Tentacle man tired to follow but was stopped by a barrage of wood driving him backwards and away from her. Sakura returned to the others with a grimace, pulling out the black tentacles as she did.
"Daaaamn!" Uzumaki groaned.
"Nice moves, clone man." She said with a slightly pained chuckle. "But maybe try hitting the guy next time?" She hovered a glowing green hand over her shoulder for a few short minutes. Monkey had forced enough medical jutsu down her throat for her to clot blood. A quick application of the skill stopped the bleeding from the numerous puncture wounds in her shoulder. Like a field bandage but quicker. And worse.
"With a name like Rasen shuriken I thought you'd throw it." Akimichi said.
"What are you trying to say?!" The blonde yelled. "It's awesome if I can hit them!"
"Even if it's called Rasen Shuriken it has to be a direct hit from a zero distance." Explained Tiger. "That's why the basics of the jutsu is using shadow clones as a feint but the time limit is too short, it only lasts a couple of seconds."
Hatake turned to look at her, raising a questioning eyebrow at her shoulder. She shook her head and definitely did not feel a burst of warmth in response to the man's concern.
"They're only shallow." She said quietly and he nodded.
"Let me do this one more time." Uzumaki said, glaring across the battlefield at tentacle man. "I'll decide this with my new jutsu."
And there was his childishness again.
"And why would we give in to such a selfish request?" Sakura asked, her face blank and her tone flat. Her shoulder throbbed and stung.
The Uzumaki's face became determined and he begun spouting off about the fourth Hokage and dangerous bridges. Sakura watched, incredulous, as the others went with it.
Naruto sprang forward. The tentacle man became an even bigger tentacle man.
"Really sensei?" She deadpanned. "You're letting him go in alone for a pissing contest with his dead da-"
"Maa, Sakura-chan." Hatake pointedly interrupted. "Naruto is going through a very difficult time in a young man's life and is feeling a little insecure. This way he either gains some self confidence or…" He raised his eyebrows and glanced at her shoulder meaningfully.
"He learns the importance of placing safety above everything else." She said, her tone unimpressed. Had she ever pulled this shit as Tristan? She certainly didn't remember doing so, but that could be the haze of hormones affecting her perception of things. "I still think it's idiotic." He ruffled her hair.
"Let the boys have their fun."
Sakura watched as Uzumaki actually managed to get the jutsu to hit this time, the world exploding and dust clearing to reveal a massive crater. She glanced at the prone Uzumaki, decided that she was allowed to not be concerned for his safety whilst her shoulder was still screaming at her, and flickered to the edge of the crater, watching the battered body of tentacle man drop into it's centre. She picked her way over to the slumped form.
"To be beaten by kids like you." The man rasped, Sakura drew Kusanagi. "Is this how you killed the others, let your comrades do the work and then steal the credit?"
"We're shinobi, not samurai." She replied tonelessly. "Don't act like honour matters." She positioned the blade over his heart and crouched down, dropping her voice to a taunting whisper. "And don't mistake letting the kid's play with you for a while for cowering behind the back lines." She shoved the sword through his chest and pumped eight percent of her chakra into it, melting the flesh around the wound.
Once that was done and the man was definitely dead, she sheathed her sword and flickered back up to the top of the crater, finally letting her storm chakra die down.
Hatake looked at her then glanced back towards the crater. "You couldn't have brought the body?"
"I'm tired, sensei." She pouted and he sighed, jumping in over the edge next to her. Dealing with a corpse, wounded and exhausted as he was, seemed suitable enough punishment for avoiding her for weeks.
"Alright everyone, let's go back to Konoha, shall we?"
Sakura saw the hit before it was going to happen.
Cat and her were back to back, each fighting off three men at once. Otter was panting and facing chakra exhaustion as he sent wave after wave of ninjutsu at the enemies. Badger- their new medic and a fire user- was working overtime to stabilise the man so that he didn't bleed out from the hole in his back.
They'd manage to pin down almost the entirety of the enemy forces while she worked, focused on protecting the pair until they no longer needed it and they could work to gain the upper hand in the fight.
"I'm done!" Badger cried, voice breathless. Sakura and Cat pushed forwards in response, opening a path through their enemies and gaining some ground. Kusanagi whirled through the air, biting into the stomach of one man and the leg of another. Her storm chakra wrapped around her. She caught the blur of movement out of the corner of her eye.
A single shinobi, hands positioned over his mouth to perform a jutsu, looking straight down the gap into their defences they'd just left in an effort to end the fight quickly. His gaze trained on their medic, who was only just switching back into battle mode and wouldn't be able to dodge.
Sakura was flickering before she'd even fully registered the thought. Grabbing Badger and leaping. She avoided being hit in the chest with the water sickle but it smashed into her right thigh instead. She landed heavily and rolled, her leg completely unresponsive to her attempts to move it.
"DUCK!" She shouted and her team obeyed instinctively. Most of the enemy did not. Kusanagi was rapidly pointed skywards and most of her remaining chakra was poured into the tip, a massive, dripping ring of storm chakra appearing and spinning outwards, slicing through bodies and trees and rocks alike. It stopped about thirty metres out from her position, leaving a line of melted destruction where it had passed.
She watched in vicious satisfaction as the man who'd launched the jutsu was torn in half. These people were hers. How dare he try and hurt them.
Her teammates were already moving, Cat and Otter working together to finish the last of the enemy shinobi off as Badger threw herself into treating Sakura's leg.
The small window of shock from the wound ended and the pain kicked in. Her world went hazy. Her ears were ringing. Her existence shrunk to the burning in her leg.
Sakura was vaguely aware that there were fingers in her flesh and someone was pulling her onto a back but her mind couldn't latch onto the who or the where.
All she knew was pain and that something very Not Good would happen if she let herself go to sleep.
So instead she clung to consciousness. Counted her breaths until something would jolt and a wave of white would lead to her forgetting how to count. And then she would scream. Scream until she realised there was a gag in her mouth and wonder who would gag her? Why did she have to be silent?
Where they in-?
The world whited out and she went back to screaming. Hazy images and people floating past her eyes.
In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.
Her eyes were closed. She forced them open again. There were no trees anymore. Just hands. Pushing and forcing her down as leather closed around her wrists.
NO.
She thrashed violently, the pain in her leg turning everything white as she did and she screamed. There were voices and thuds of untrained people running. Her eyes swung wildly under her mask, looking for something anything she knew but her brain was too hazy and people's faces too indistinct.
Her gaze caught on a needle and she thrashed, flung herself violently against the restraints. She felt the right one begin to loosen just as a gentle finger came to tap on the sensitive skin of her forearm.
Tap. Tap. Taptaptaptap. Tap. Tap. Taptaptaptap.
She stilled immediately, her screams fell silent. She was safe.
Sakura let herself drift off to blissful unconsciousness.
"INCOMPETENT IDIOTS! WE GIVE THEM TRAINING LIKE THIS FOR A REASON! NOW GIVE ME THOSE INJECTIONS STA-"
Sakura woke to an incredibly annoying beeping noise and the slight itchiness of over-washed linen. She didn't need to open her eyes to know she was in the hospital.
Like all good shinobi, and especially good ANBU, she felt the immediate and irrepressible urge to escape.
Unfortunately, judging by the way her right leg refused to move entirely and sent spikes of pain at her when she tired to sit up, she did not think that would be possible this time. Still, she wasn't ANBU for nothing and she made a valiant effort, making it all the way to propped up on her elbows before she had to pause to gasp for breath.
The room was spinning rather strangely.
"And what do you think you're doing?!" Came an angry voice from her left. Sakura's eyes swivelled and she stared at the exceedingly stressed looking Hokage.
"What's happened?" She asked, staring at the small wrinkle from constantly furrowed brows and the way the Hokage's shirt just wasn't sitting right. The woman scowled.
"Lay back down immediately." She snarled, a hand with a single chipped nail pressing down on Sakura's shoulder until she complied. "Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi are dead. Uchiha Sasuke killed them."
Sakura's eyebrows raised. "Sasuke killed Itachi? Are we certain?"
"That's the intel we have."
She huffed irritably. Uchiha hadn't been anywhere near Itachi's level when they fought, so either he got dramatically stronger in an alarmingly short period of time or something else was at play there.
"And Sasuke?"
"Taken by Akatsuki."
"Shit."
"Shit indeed.
"Now you were lucky, exceptionally lucky, with your leg." The Hokage started, looking at Sakura seriously. "The jutsu essentially completely shattered a ring of your right femur and severed the muscles almost all the way through. Your medic is an exceptionally talented individual, she recognised this and focused on keeping you alive until you reached the hospital, clamping a lot of the arteries and physically holding together a few others. Most field medics simply would have performed emergency medical jutsu and, whilst this would have saved your life, you would have been left with a permanent limp and likely unable to continue being a shinobi."
"Make her a giant bag of cookies, got it." Sakura said and the Hokage snorted.
"I offered her a position as my personal intern but she refused, said the stress would do her in." The Hokage laughed humourlessly.
"Anyway we've healed most of the damage but we had to stop about two thirds of the way through the surgery because your body wouldn't have been able to take anymore foreign chakra. As it is you'll experience some mild pain if you try to cast a jutsu." The woman's eyes narrowed considerably. "How does you system feel for you at the moment?
Sakura frowned a little. "Like my chakra tubes have been scalded. Not quite damaged and not quite painful but definitely verging on it."
"Hmm, well I'd normally say a week with no chakra use but for you you're welcome to judge it yourself." Sakura nodded. "You have a second surgery in…" The woman twisted and glanced at the clock. "Five hours, though it's just the last few stages of healing so it shouldn't make that discomfort any worse. After that we'll run you through some rehab testing, realistically there shouldn't be anything that will prevent you from going back on active duty but I have some concerns about weakening in that femur.
"As such you'll be permanently on the guard duty roster for the next four months with weekly checkups to see how it holds up. Someone else will sub in for your position on Team Ro."
Sakura felt a horrible trickling of apprehension. She hadn't failed to feed the monster for that long since the chūnin exams. Thinking back on it, she didn't think she'd failed to feed the monster for longer than a couple of weeks since she joined ANBU. This would be… interesting.
(She'd tried to quit just once when she'd been Tristan, right after he'd had his first child. He'd started up again after he found himself waking during the night to stare at his wife and newborn, vivid fantasies of ripping their hearts out of their chests playing behind his eyes.)