Sakura managed to peel off the scent-masking top before she gave up entirely, sinking into a chair and burying her face in her arms. She'd been using her spare moment she had to map out the underground tunnels in preparation for Shimura's death. She'd been getting the bare minimum amount of sleep in exchange for long hours forcing pathways and room layouts into her brain. She couldn't risk physical copies of any of the information, couldn't risk anything that could incriminate her in Shimura's murder, and it made everything five times harder than it had to be otherwise.
The sleeplessness was nothing she hadn't dealt with before, missions oft required long days of wakefulness, either to stake out an area or to travel at top speeds, but they were generally offset by periods of meditative states. Stake outs and running required little in the way of mental exertion and energy could be rationed for periods requiring higher levels of alertness. Even when she'd been sacrificing the exact same hours to transcribe the ROOT archives she hadn't had to think much, copying files descending into a purely mechanical process.
But this was different. Her nights were spent exploring and planning and memorising. She had to create contingency after contingency to perfect the assassination all without acting in any way different during her ever-busy days. She could handle not sleeping but the sheer stress of thinking almost twenty four seven was making her brain feel like it was going to melt out of her ears.
Sakura groaned, and sunk a bit further onto her table. She should go to bed, should maximise the time she had to switch her brain off, but the thought of moving, when she knew she had a blissful two and a half hours until Team Seven had to meet up that she could use to just not move instead, was a painful one.
She was pulled from sleep by a quiet thump, the sound of someone landing on the windowsill, and she contemplated wether lifting her head to see who it was would be worth it.
Sakura snorted into her arms. Who was she kidding? There was only one person that managed to effortlessly evade every trap she set up, no matter how complicated. Even the one time that the Hokage had tried to personally drag Sakura out of bed to beat the shit out of her after a particularly trying day filled with idiots had ended in Sakura having to cut the woman out of ninja wire.
Now the Hokage just stands outside her bedroom window and screams.
A very annoying finger starting poking her in the ear. Sakura groaned and batted it away. It switched to poking her in her side.
She lifted her head and glared blearily. Hatake, the fucking asshole, just eye-smiled down at her like he wasn't interrupting her glorious napping hours.
"What?" She slurred irritably. He had the fucking gall to look amused.
"That's not a bed, Sakura-chan." He said. She glared at him for a few moments before she huffed and buried her head back into her arms. He hummed and warm fingers threaded through her hair, cradling the back of her head and tilting it until one eyes was exposed. She cracked the eye open so she could glare at him again, only mildly disorientated when his face come into view next to hers rather than above. "You're working too hard."
She snorted and turned her face back into her arms. "Fuck off." She grumbled, ignoring the tingling pull on her scalp where his grip had tightened.
Shimura was a threat. The monster was a threat. The sheer amount of bloodlust she was feeling for the people around her was a threat.
The sooner threats were neutralised the sooner her people were safe.
He hummed again, hand idly fiddling in her hair.
"Alright." Hatake stood abruptly and Sakura definitely did not squeak as a hand wrapped around her waist and he lifted her under an arm like she was some kind of wayward chicken he was carrying back to the pen. She may have spent a moment flailing but she blamed that on the shock. Sakura was dignified woman who did not squeak or cross her arms or pout as she was lugged up her own stairs.
"I hate you."
"Mhm."
"You're a dick."
"Mhm."
"Your hair is dumb."
"Aah." He pulled back the duvet and dumped her on the bed before throwing the blanket haphazardly back over her. She grumbled but dutifully rolled herself into a burrito and squeezed her eyes shut. After a few seconds of clicking noises interrupting her decent into unconsciousness she opened her eyes again and squinted at Hatake as he fiddled with her alarm.
"Wha'?"
"Just show up before lunchtime." He said without glancing at her. "I'll tell the others I sent you stealth training." It took Sakura a few seconds but when it clicked what he was doing her vision blurred as her eyes threatened grateful tears. She sniffled.
He was giving her a whole extra six hours to sleep.
"Kashi." She said, her voice embarrassingly shaky. Hatake pressed a final button on the alarm and turned to look at her, eyebrow raised. "You're the best."
He nodded sagely. Then shunshined away.
Fucking asshole.
Screams drifted in through the windows, overlaid by the occasional explosion that set vibrations through the walls. Plumes of dust and rock shrapnel rose over distant buildings as chaos waged in the village. Sakura was perched on a wall, invisible, of the Hokage's office as she watched the pandemonium. Currently distant but rapidly working its way through the village streets.
One of the men that were on the barrier squad detail burst through the door, the wood listing off one hinge from the violence of the entrance, and he stumbled into a kneel. His eyes were wide and panicked, sweat dripping down the sides of his face and mouth moving silently under terror.
Otter moved fluidly into a kneel next to the terrified shinobi and the man visibly collected himself from the ANBU's calm. A deep, hitching breath in, out, then he talked.
Konohagakure was under attack.
"Alert the entire village we're under an emergency situation and then call Naruto back." The Hokage ordered, her image firm with power as she stood before the massive windows. Her voice rang with promise as it carried over the room. When she turned to the small toad on her desk her face had the hardened bearing a general. The expression of the woman who was forged in one of the bloodiest wars in the Elemental Nations' history.
"Gotcha! Imma go get Naruto right now!"
"We're all counting on you." The Hokage replied.
The door gave a pitiful squeal as it was pushed open once more, a wizened hand clasping the edge with a barely-there tremor.
"Stay where you are." The old woman said, jowls giggling with every pitiful wheeze. The council woman took shuffling steps into the room. A harsh frown on her face. She was backed by another old fool, as though numbers could possibly excuse trying to usurp the authority of the Hokage during an emergency. "We must leave Naruto at Myouboku Mountain."
"What did you say?!"
"Danzō has informed us that our attacker is none other than Akatsuki's leader and he's come here to take our jinchūriki, Naruto." The old man said, his voice calm and words flowing in a gentle cadence as though their village wasn't currently under attack.
The ANBU in the rafters shifted uneasily. Sakura could practically taste Cheetah's anger as he silently drew his tantō. It would only take a short signal from the Hokage and these fools would be dead.
"So what?" The Hokage's features were twisting. Anger and incredulity battling for dominance. The scent of smoke and blood and chaos began to seep into the room.
"We let you get away with this last time, but this is a completely different situation. Naruto is still a child, and this enemy personally killed Jiraiya!" The old woman insisted. "If Naruto falls, Akatsuki obtains the Kyuubi. Thus, we cannot-"
The Hokage charged and grabbed the pair by their collars, lifting them off the ground. Sakura smiled viciously at the terrified expressions on their faces.
"What's the meaning of this?" The old lady tried to demand but her voice was shaky with fear. The delicate beads in her hair clinked in time with every terrified quiver.
The Hokage cut them down, her words clear and untainted by the rage hardening her back. Their philosophy was flawed and she pounced on their problems with the skill and finesse of a outstanding public speaker. By the time she was finished even the fools looked ashamed. Sakura would much rather see their blood on her hands but there was merit to this. In humiliating the wilfully blind.
The council members retreated, like battered dogs with their tails between their legs, and they were quickly forgotten as the Hokage snapped orders and led the group to the roof.
The monster raged and snarled beneath Sakura's skin. Bayed for blood. Demanded that she force the intruders out of her village. It was making her skin crawl. Her meat bag's cover too tight, too warm. Her edges to sharp and the pressure too high. She had gone too long pushing down her instincts and now they were rising up in triplicate in response to threat.
She did her best to ignore it.
Disobeying the orders of the Hokage and leaving her duties as a member of the guard would constitute desertion. Sakura could quite possibly end up executed or in prison for doing so. It was terrible timing, but she only had to last the next day before she'd be moving forward with her assassination plans and her bloodlust would be calmed. She pushed the monster into its box.
Focused on what was in front of her.
The Hokage summoned Katsuyu and Sakura settled into the formation with the three other members of the guard, forming a barrier as the Hokage meditated inside.
With Sakura's small reserves she didn't contribute chakra into the barrier- most of that came from Cheetah and Salamander- but she did act as a stabiliser, as a base for them to form and shape the chakra more easily. It was imperative she keep her chakra level, lest it's fluctuations upset the balance and cause it to fall or explode.
Time passed and Sakura concentrated on breathing through the rising darkness. Focused her senses to look for anyone approaching the rooftop rather than the sounds of screaming and destruction of her village. In through the nose for four. Hold the breath for seven. Out through the mouth for eight. Again and again and again until her mind settled and her body relaxed.
She'd managed to fall into an almost calm headspace when the Akimichi arrived.
"Hokage-sama!" He called, crashing into position next to the standing woman. "We've learned one of the enemy's powers!"
"I'm listening."
"He's male, looks to be about 25-30 years old. Six piercings on his nose and seven in each ear. His ability is to attract or repel anything his technique targets! Whatever he aims at he can either draw towards himself or push away, that includes any and all kinds of ninjutsu!"
"Repel ninjutsu?" Asked Cheetah.
"Yes! Though there's about a five-second interval between when he finished using it before he can use it again!"
"Just five seconds…"
"Excellent work! This will be tremendous help in reducing our losses." The Hokage said. "I'll alert everyone through Katsuyu!"
"Team Chouza went to back Kakashi-sensei up." The Akimichi said, his voice thick with grief. Sakura froze. "The enemy killed everyone but me."
There was a ringing in her head. The world shrunk to the shake in her hands and the pair's next words. Even the monster had quietened.
"Get to Chouza's location!" The Hokage ordered. "If we get him to the hospital fast enough he can still be saved."
"What?! Then dad's not…?"
"No."
"Thank god! Thank god! What about Kakashi-sensei!?"
The Hokage didn't say anything for a moment. "…Get going, Chouji."
Sakura's chakra fluctuated wildly and she had to lift her hands from the barrier else she'd explode the whole thing. Her body boiled and her chest hollowed and filled with acid.
The world was muffled. Distant. She didn't hear the concerned questions or feel the gentle hand on her shoulder.
Kakashi was dead.
DEAD.
One of hers.
The. MOST. IMPORTANT.
Dead.
Like a gift from the heavens, an orange haired, black and red cloaked figure fell from the sky and landed on the roof. Sakura's eyes drank them in greedily.
Six piercings on his nose. Seven in each ear.
The world rushed back into Perfect. Fucking. Clarity. She shrugged out of Kusanagi's strap and stepped beside the Hokage, storm chakra already cloaking her in dizzying cycles of blue. Her entire body buzzing with the unexpended energy.
She wanted to hurt.
Her voice was perfectly calm as she interrupted the conversation between the blonde and the red head.
She wanted to break.
"Hokage-sama." She said and they paused. Sakura pushed her chokutō into the Hokage's hands. "I'm calling in my favour. Protect my sword."
She wanted to kill.
"W-what?" The Hokage stuttered, hands gripping the chokutō.
Sakura opened the monster's box. It consumed her.
Killing intent covered the rooftop and the ANBU around her stumbled and fell to their knees. The Hokage bent over, pale and shaking.
The puppet took a faltering step back.
The monster threw itself forward, fist pulled back to punch as it jumped at the defiler. He held up a hand and a wall of force hit the monster, throwing it into the air and away from the defiler. He looked bored.
The monster laughed.
Its chakra spun faster and faster and faster and the moment the force stopped its body flickered, landing behind the defiler. It flicked the base of his neck.
A wave of pressurised chakra hit the defiler and his head vaporised with the satisfying sound of shattering bone and squelching innards. One second it was there, one second it was not.
If the intruders could heal any damage to the bodies, then the monster would make sure there were no bodies to heal.
A fist hit the defilers torso. A flick on each limb. The body disappeared, nothing but red splatters on the concrete and the monster breathed. Its hands were twisted into a sign and its awareness expanded painfully. Undertrained sensing forced well past its limits until the monster could read the entire village. Blood dripped out of its nose but the monster ignored it. It compartmentalised away the pain.
There was the vaguest remnants of a signature and it rushed towards it. Ignored the cries of the insects behind it as it sprinted over the rooftops, pushing its body as fast as it would go. It hopped rooftops and balconies and threw itself into the street with reckless abandon.
Crumbled concrete pillars and twisted metal stabilisers twisted formed a nightmarish wasteland of rubble. A tortured skeleton of the destroyed buildings crushed and frozen as it had writhed in silent pain. The sun beat down harshly on a desert of grey, the monotony of destruction only broken up by splatters of vivid red. In the centre of it all was a single, sparking burst of silver.
The monster hit the ground and stumbled, feeling something in its ankle give way as it landed heavily onto its knees. It picked itself up, tightened its shoe until it could no longer twist its foot, and picked its way over the rubble.
Ragged silver hair, bloodied face slack against the ground and slumped shoulders peaking out of a concrete tomb. Thirty two hand signs to twist its chakra system into earth manipulation. Two palms pressed to the ground to lift the rubble off the silver-haired body. Hands wrapped around the still -too still not breathing oh go- ribcage and pulled. The monster stumbled backwards as it dragged the body -ot a corpse it can'- out and exposed warped, shattered legs.
Sakura crouched by Kakashi's blood splattered, slack face and pressed trembling fingers to the pulse point on his neck.
Nothing.
-hit fuck please not yo-
Still nothing.
She tore off arm her arm guards and gloves, using teeth and nails and not caring that the fabric ripped and the leather warped. They were discard and a kunai was drawn to cut a slit in the black fabric over Kakashi's neck -hat does it matter he's dead he can't care if she saw hi- and bare, pale fingers dug under the fabric to hit clammy skin.
Nothing.
-'s so cold and still and broke-
Still nothing.
The monsters pulled its lips back in a snarl and an inhuman sound tore out of its throat, twisting and bruising its way out of the delicate tissue.
The desecrators would pay.
It pried its senses open and the world wavered around the edges as its head gave a furious, painful protest. Blood poured from its nose and splattered out of its mouth with every breath. A shaking hand tore off the intrusive mask and it vomited red before gasping in unobstructed air.
Its senses were gone again but it remembered the feeling of the foul terror to the west. The monster ran. Storm crackled around it.
The shattered landscape gave way to whole buildings gave way to a shattered landscape again. A dead one had its hands around an ant's throat, the ant's back pressed into a wall and a bleeding insect grovelled next to them.
Behind them was the foul thing. A twisted caricature of a smile and bulging eyes hanging over a monstrous face. Madness personified clinging on a tear between worlds. The trickling echo of insanity pulsing from it and into the edges of the monster's mind. The scent of rot in the air.
The dead one was the anchor. The foul thing had to go first.
The monster flickered and landed on top of the head. Its eyes narrowed as it tasted the signature of the horrific thing. The monster pulled back a fist and twisted its chakra into delicate tenketsu.
"You cannot destroy the King of Hell!" The dead one screamed. The monster punched. The foul thing shook but it did not crack. The monster readied more pressurised chakra, this time twisting and forcing it into the opposite of the foul thing's aura.
"You can destroy my bodies but you can never defeat me! The world will know pain!" The dead one had dropped the ant to continue screaming at it. It must not have combat abilities.
The monster punched. The foul thing shook and a spiderweb of cracks fissured through it.
"That's impossible!"
The monster readied its chakra again and hit a final punch. The foul thing shattered, horrible screams rising from its depths as it twisted and boiled. The pieces shuddered and groaned as they lost their aura. The dead one's world breaking eyes blew wide. He swung and grabbed the ant by the neck, his chakra flaring only for nothing to happen.
The monster flickered behind the dead one and punched. His body exploded. The ant disappeared in a puff of smoke. The monster's feet finished off the remaining chunks of limb.
It tried to force open its senses once more but they refused to cooperate, the world as tiny and dark as it remembered it being as a tiny human. Feverish green eyes swung wildly around its surroundings and landed on beasts that towered over even the tallest of buildings. As it watched one of them barrelled through a construct of wood and glass.
The monster ran.
Over broken buildings and through rubble and past screaming insects. A leap through the air and it launched itself at a mountain-sized, multi-headed dog creature. A bleeding fist connected with the thing's head and caused an explosion of gore. The monster flickered onto the giant creature's back and watched as the stump where the head had been grew two more.
It blinked.
Pulled back its fist. Ignored the burn of its coils as it forced as much as it could into the points. Slammed it down onto the creature's back.
The dog's spine shattered and bent, the skin becoming a bloody mess below the monster as the creature howled and buckled.
The monster was sweating. There was blood pouring from its nose and mouth. Breaths came in ragged, sputtering gasps. It pulled back a fist and pushed its chakra into its points. Ignoring the agony as it forced the energy out of its body and into the small nodes.
Its fist slammed into the creature's back and the thing roared in pain, its back exploding outwards and the shock travelling down to its organs. It whined and screamed but it did not die. The monster panted and coughed.
The creature was still beneath it.
It pulled back its fist and forced chakra into its points. It ignored the way the body parts the energy left abruptly went numb and stopped working. It ignored the dimming of its vision and the stopping of its lungs. It tried to pull on the almost-filled star upon its forehead, but the energy refused to obey.
It punched.
The creature's insides liquified. The massive dog whined a last whine before it stilled entirely.
The monster's fist exploded outwards in an eruption of bone splinters and red.
It didn't feel the pain.
It didn't feel much of anything.
The creature below it disappeared into smoke and the monster dropped. Its body caught by a screaming insect before it shattered on the ground.
The world stopped.
Sakura opened her eyes to blackness. The world devoid of anything but a distant light.
She walked towards it. Had this happened last time she'd died? Was she leaving to go to a new world? To gain new people? A new life?
The idea wasn't a particularly happy one. That was surprising. She hadn't really expected to feel much of anything about her death but there was something hollow and aching when she thought about leaving her world.
The light came into focus as she walked, resolving itself into a lamp hanging from a distant, unseen point. The light flickering occasionally and industrial bulb letting out a quiet hum. Underneath it was a metal table with two stark metal chairs on either side. The edges were scratched and dented and a broken pair of handcuffs swung from a twisted peg.
Sakura slipped into her chair and looked into the face of the man across from her.
"This is unexpected." She said.
"Not for me." Tristan replied. "I've been here the whole time. Watching." He gestured to the side and a screen came into focus.
"Does this mean we're two individual souls?" Sakura asked. "I'd always considered us the same person in a different body."
"That's not true, there's always been a distinction between Tristan and Sakura, minor as it was." He replied. "Though we are essentially the same at the core, and sharing our memories blurs the lines to where it hardly matters."
Sakura frowned. "I do experience a wider range of emotions than you ever did, though I had attributed that to puberty."
"I think there's more to it than that." Tristan said, slowly twisting the golden ring on his finger. "I have come to the realisation that we were depressed."
"We were?"
"We certainly weren't happy. The only drive we had was looking forward to the next kill. When the disease came we were glad to die."
"I suppose. Am I depressed? I did just commit suicide by chakra exhaustion." Sakura said matter of factly. Tristan chuckled.
"You are young, aren't you? Even with my experiences guiding you there are things that you miss." His tone was mirthful. "No. You are not depressed, you killed yourself in an act of grief. You're actually far happier than I can ever remember being."
"We didn't go this far over Sarah." Sakura whispered. Tristan's face became solemn.
"No, we didn't." He said. "And we loved her. She was our firstborn. Truly one of ours, but we weren't one of hers."
"I don't understand."
"My world was different. People like us were locked up and reviled by the masses, and for good reason." He leaned forward, a serious expression on his face. "We hid ourselves every second of the day, the only people who ever saw our true face were those we killed. Have you ever hid yourself from your Hatake?"
"I certainly didn't advertise what I was." Sakura said.
"That is true, especially in the beginning, when you were learning just how accepting this world was of its darker aspects. But you also have never lied about your motivations. You were always completely honest with the man, even if you didn't share anything." He leaned forward and lowered his voice to punctuate his words. "And he has never, not even once, rejected that part of you. Even when you've shown outright bloodlust the man has smiled fondly and encouraged you."
"That is true." She whispered, a small smile twitching the corners of her lips.
"I loved my wife and I loved my kids and I loved my friends but they did not love me." Tristan said, leaning back in his chair as the lines on his face suddenly became more prominent. The greys stood out in his hair. "The man they loved was a hollow image, little more than a projection. I have no doubt that if they had ever met the real me they'd have discarded me in an instant."
"They were one of yours, but you were never one of theirs." Sakura nodded, understanding lighting her features.
"Indeed."
"Do you know what happens now?" She asked and he shook his head.
"When I arrived here the screen just began showing your life." He said with a small frown. "Maybe there is no third life for us?"
"Purgatory?" She eyed the blackness around them.
"I could hardly see us ascending to heaven, or the pure lands as your world calls it."
"But we're not going to hell?"
"We haven't yet."
"This is under the assumption that those places exist."
"It doesn't particularly matter. Either we do or we don't." Tristan shrugged, lounging backwards in his chair. He opened his mouth to say something else but paused as a beam of light enveloped Sakura.
"What the fuck?" She said, staring down at her glowing hands.
"You're going back." Tristan whispered and his brow furrowed. "I feel like I should be able to…"
Sakura went weightless, floating in the air, and he reached over the table; a single, ring bearing finger landing on the point between her collarbones. The air burned and the world disappeared in a flash of light.
Sakura opened her eyes.
She had a disconcerting feeling like something was missing, even as a star between her collarbones caught her attention.
"Sakura!" A brown head hovered worriedly above her. "Are you alright?"
"Genma?" Sakura said, blinking and taking in the destruction around her. It looked like Konoha had been levelled by a herd of giant cattle. "I'm… not dead?" She looked at the hand she distinctly remembered exploding. It was whole, not even any scars to indicate what had happened. In fact, it was like her body had reverted to how it was just before the battle. No aches or pains indicative of exertion and her chakra levels full.
"Let me explain…" Started a Katsuyu next to her.
And that was how Sakura heard the story of the female Pein summoning a herd of giant summons to rampage through Konoha, stampeding over the village as the Hokage poured all of her chakra into protecting its citizens. The Uzumaki appearing and fighting the remaining three Peins, being captured by a summon from the female Pein and turning into a Bijuu when the female Hyuuga sacrificed herself to save him.
Apparently then Pein made a moon?
And then the Uzumaki made a miraculous return to his normal self, beat up the Pein's and yelled a very anorexic man into submission, causing him to sacrifice his life to bring back all the people he killed, completely avoiding answering for the massive amounts of property damage and emotional trauma.
It was all very nice and touching but Sakura could only play the conversation with Tristan over and over in her mind.
"Kakashi?" She asked, voice just above a whisper.
"Perfectly well." The summon replied and Sakura couldn't help it.
She cried. She gave into her age and the hormones and she clung to Genma and cried out all the stress and the grief. The man held her to his chest and stroked her hair through it, humming quietly in her ear as her sobs slowly wound down to the occasional hiccup. She rubbed her face with the back of a hand.
"Fucking Hokage better have my sword." She muttered, pushing herself away from Shiranui as he laughed at her.
"Why would the Hokage have your sword?" He asked incredulously.
"I gave it to her. Told her to keep it safe." Sakura sniffed, pushing herself to standing and cracking the joints in her back. "Cashed in a favour for it or everything."
"You traded a favour from the Hokage for a sword?!" Shiranui asked, sounding genuinely offended at the idea.
"That sword is my baby. I would trade a thousand favours just to keep it safe." Sakura said defensively.
"Maa, no need to go that far, Sakura." A voice drawled from beside her and her face split into a grin as she twisted to regard the whole, not at all dead man. He wasn't looking at her. Instead he was having a tense stare-off with Shiranui that she really didn't understand. Sakura stood between the two as they had an entire conversation she wasn't privy to in a series of twitches and glares, her lips pursed and brow furrowed. After a few seconds the senbon-chewing man nodded and wandered off, mumbling something about finding Namiashi. She watched after him go before blinking and deciding to just ignore whatever happened, instead twisting back to face Hatake.
"Kakashi!" She greeted excitedly and then her eyes dropped to the beautiful blue and white sword in his hand. Her smile widened. "Kusanagi!" She launched forwards, intending to latch onto the man and her wonderful chokutō in one fell swoop, but he turned at the last second and she ended up balanced on one of his hips, legs wrapped around his waist and arms clutching his incredible, moving ribcage with the beautiful heartbeat underneath. Though the hand holding Kusanagi ended up on the side she wasn't on.
"I see how it is. My own student more excited to see a piece of metal than me." He said, voice thick with mock offence, as his free hand landed atop her head.
"You won't be seeing much more of anything if you call my baby just a 'piece of metal' again, Hatake." She growled and clambered over him to reach for her chokutō. He just eye-smiled down at her and used the hand on her head to keep her in place, his other hand lifting Kusanagi out of her reach.
"Do you have a jacket? I know the village was destroyed but it's probably still bad form to walk around in your ANBU kit and no mask." He said and she paused, leaning off him a bit to look down at herself.
Her gloves and arm guards had been dumped at some point, along with her mask, and the rest of what she was wearing had strips melted out of them. A fair few of the ceramic plates in her flak jacket had actually exploded outwards.
"Ah." She pressed her face into his shoulder and just clutched for a short moment because he'd been dead and she'd had a psychotic break and she'd been so sure that she'd been doomed to sit in a metal chair and watch other people live forever but now they were alive.
The sentiment was shared, if the way Kakashi's hand twisted a little too tightly into her hair and his nose pressed into the top of her head and inhaled a little shakily.
But then his grip was loosening and she was slipping back to the ground, rummaging through the inner pockets on her ANBU flak jacket to pull out a scroll. She unrolled it on a convenient hunk of rubble and poofed the clothes inside into reality. She considered the flak jacket for a moment before simply cutting it off with a kunai. The tank top was intact enough that she just left it but the pants were unsalvageable so she peeled them off and threw a soft grey sweater dress (It was a part of her 'cold weather pyjamas' emergency kit, being caught with nothing but what was physically on your person wasn't never excuse to sleep uncomfortably.) over the top of everything.
The rest of the clothes resealed, weapons pouches strapped back on and scroll tucked away she turned back to Hatake. He was staring at her with a complicated expression, seemingly lost in thought as she blinked up at him.
"…Kashi?" She asked and he snapped back to reality, tossing her her chokutō and taking long strides to head in the direction of the village outskirts.
"Come on." He said and she hurried to catch up to him, slinging Kusanagi over her shoulder. "Naruto should be getting back soon. Iruka went to collect him."
"I heard that Pein made a moon to trap the nine-tails inside!" She said as she walked next to him, her face furrowed in thought and eyes wide with excitement. "Does that mean that the real moon was made by someone? Is there a bijuu trapped inside of it? Are there secretly ten tailed-beasts and the tenth one is just stuck in the sky?"
Hatake glanced at her, a complicated expression crossed his face and he abruptly looked away again. "Hopefully we'll never find out."
Sakura didn't know what that was about but in deference to the man literally dying earlier she ignored it. After all, he was ignoring how her forefinger kept finding the pulse point on his wrist.