Title: Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?
Chapter: 6 - Melon
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 4,723
Summary: AU. The night before they're assigned to Genin teams, Sakura wakes up with Ino in her mind—and she can't leave.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 7 of ? Unbeta'd.
When Shikaku comes to his door looking disgruntled and grim, Chouza lets him in without question. Of course he does. He also feeds him and then, once they're safely ensconced in his office, the wards thrumming with energy that writhes and purrs against his skin, he listens, his frown growing as he does.
"Well?" Shikaku asks, once he's done speaking.
Chouza hums thoughtfully, still considering the matter. He's tired. He'd spent the day carefully preparing and preserving Ino-chan's body for storage until they can figure out if it is possible to revive her and then return her spirit, soul, and mind back to it. Even though he's showered, he can still smell the process lingering on his skin.
Mind games, he knows that, and tries to ignore that. It's hard, though, when he'd spent the day grieving.
"I'll have some of my family put on the matter too," he says slowly. "People underestimate my clan more than they do yours and Inoichi."
Most of the time the assumption that being fat equals stupid grates on him. There are times that it's useful, however, and as a shinobi he'll use any advantage he's given.
Shikaku's expression is shrouded in shadow, deeper around him than they are in the rest of the room, for Chouza likes to have light to work by.
"But?" Shikaku asks.
How to put it?
"I do not think Sakura-chan could possibly be aware of any of this," Chouza muses, raising one hand to forestall Shikaku's comments. Shikaku is so impatient, though he'd deny it. "She's had many of the Yamanaka Clan in her head over the last twenty-four hours, scrutinizing and evaluating every inch of her existence. Furthermore, she's been Ino-chan's best friend for years and Ino-chan is, like most young Yamanaka, exuberantly nosy and delighted to probe through a friend's mind to look for ways to make them happy."
It's sweet, mostly, though the Yamanaka Clan also doesn't share that with people outside of their three-way Clan alliance. It could very easily be taken the wrong way, when it's just that privacy means something totally different to people born reading minds and who have to work to close other people out.
Better, much better, for the rest of the village to assume that the Yamanaka must work to open their minds, rather than the other way around.
"Inoichi would have also evaluated her over the years, given her closeness to his daughter," Chouza continues. "Ino-chan is very popular but she has few close friends. Sakura-chan was keyed into their home wards."
And entirely unaware of how much trust that meant Ino had in her, Chouza guessed, because that was also terribly Yamanaka, loving deeply and ferociously and keeping secrets so that they couldn't get hurt.
Inoichi hadn't told even him or Shikaku about just how close the two girls were until Ino had wound up in Sakura's head and he'd had no choice but to explain how Sakura would have been able to get into his home in order to gain access to a pass to the pathways only their three clans knew about.
"I know all of this," Shikaku says. "Why are you belabouring this point?"
"Don't you think it's convenient that now we don't have to justify why we've taken Sakura-chan from her family?" Chouza asks. "I don't think that any of this is Sakura-chan's fault but I don't like that fact. We should have parents upset, devastated. Instead, we find two adults who, by all account are Sakura's parents, and who have mourned their daughter who they believe is three years dead. From a murder that hasn't been solved, no less."
Shikaku frowns.
"I understand there were some irregularities with her Academy records too," Chouza says, making it a question, though he doesn't wait for Shikaku to answer that. "Which begs the question… what is so important about Haruno Sakura? She's no one important in the great scheme of things, just another first generation kunoichi trying her hardest to succeed."
Which is admirable all on its own. As an individual, of course, Sakura-chan's merits are unquestioned. If she survives, hopefully thrives, she will be a fine asset to the village.
"So, why has someone gone to an awful lot of trouble to have Sakura-chan's records fudged and then, upon Ino-chan's assassination and Sakura-chan's disappearance, have her parents believe she died three years earlier? What point does this serve and does it have anything to do with Ino-chan's assassination or is it only a coincidence?"
"You don't think it's a coincidence," Shikaku observes.
"Do you?" Chouza returns mildly. "It's terribly suspicious that this comes to light now, under these circumstances. It does make it easier for our clans to shift Sakura-chan's custody to being under our purview with legalities on our side, which is useful to us. An orphaned first generation kunoichi who is close friends to a clan heir—an easy sell to get through the council, even if we did it openly.
"But Sakura-chan's memories don't match with her parents' at all. We'd have to consult with a genjutsu expert but something as thorough as that… I'm not sure how feasible that would be without a bloodline backing it up. Do you know what the civilians in the neighbourhood remember?"
"It's on the list to find out," Shikaku says grimly, and Chouza nods because Shikaku's figured out where he's going with this.
"If it's not something like genjutsu, then as far as I'm aware, there's only one clan remaining in Konoha that could pull something like that off when it comes to the mind," Chouza says. "The only problem is that I can't think of a reason why."
Shikaku rubs his face. "We're going to need to talk to Inoichi. Face to face. If this originated in his clan, it's going to get ugly. Yamanaka don't keep secrets from each other easily. It's too hard for them."
"There's nothing special about Sakura-chan," Chouza says, "except for her friendship with Ino-chan."
And now Ino-chan has been assassinated and it is only thanks to the strength of that friendship that Ino-chan isn't fully dead.
Shikaku scowls, the shadows about him thick enough to wear, as he stands. "I need to get back to the safe house."
"I'll get Inoichi," Chouza says, knowing that Shikaku can get back to the safe house faster than he could. "And meet you there. Who else is in the safe house?"
The names Shikaku rattles off are all names known to him, known and trusted, and Chouza hates the fact that there's something rotten, somewhere, because one bad apple can spoil an entire bushel if left alone.
It's going to be another long night, after a long day, and Chouza grimly predicts that there's going to be more than a few of those coming if their speculations are correct. They could be wrong, he hopes they're wrong, but they've got to clean their houses first before they can turn outwards, knowing what they know now.
"Should we take the Haruno into custody now?" he asks, hauling himself to his feet.
Shikaku hesitates, then shakes his head. "No," he decides. "We'll confirm the security of the safe house first and see what Inoichi wants."
When Sakura wakes up, back in her room in the Nara safe house, she gives a miserable little whine and buries her face under the pillow. Ino's presence in the back of her head is as still and heavy as a shroud. She's not awake yet and that makes everything else feel a little bit worse.
Ino would at least have my back, Sakura thinks mournfully, since she knows that she can't trust anyone else to. On the bright side, she should wake up at any point now, if I'm remembering right.
Still, she huddles under the blankets for a little longer, despairing of her current circumstances and wondering who carried her upstairs from the games room last night in about equal measure, especially once she realizes she's been changed into pajamas.
Ugh! I hope it was Yoshino-san!
If she had to have someone change her, like a baby, she supposes that Yoshino-san is the least objectionable. At the very least, she's a woman, though that's a small comfort when everything else has gone sideways.
Eventually her bladder demands that she get up and take care of it before it pops. Grumbling to herself, Sakura slips out of her room, into the bathroom, and freshens up enough to feel almost human by the time she gets back to her room.
She locks the door, just in case, just because she can. It won't stop anyone, she knows that, but it makes her feel better and, as she glumly looks at the clothes options she's got—all in shades of beige, browns, blacks, and greys—she needs every scrap of good feeling that she can muster as she settles on a pair of brown pants, a grey shirt, and a black vest with wide pockets. She likes the pockets, quite genuinely, though everything else is a bit of a fashion disaster that she is grateful no one whose opinion she cares about will ever see her in.
At least my hair is still colourful, she thinks, though even that's not really a plus when she knows it can be dyed at any point and likely without her opinion of that mattering. I should probably decide what colour would suit me best. I still think blonde would look nicest and that I'd look terrible with black hair but that that's probably what they'd prefer to give me, hidden away in a Nara secret place. I wonder if they'd let me go, like, a dark strawberry blonde? That's an Akimichi-ish kind of colour, though I don't look Akimichi.
As she brushes her hair out, Sakura tries to think if she's ever seen a skinny Akimichi.
If I have, I haven't noticed, she eventually decides, tying her make-shift headband on and making mental note to ask for a needle and thread today. Sakura doesn't think falling asleep on that would kill her, even in her current compromised state. Which, like, I guess that's kind of terrible too, but I really don't know much about them or the Nara.
She knows enough to know that calling Chouji fat is a Grade A bad idea (even though he is) and that his weight has something to do with his Clan jutsu. She knows, too, that Shikamaru's family uses shadows and that Shikamaru is smarter than he acts because he's a lazy ass.
I know the most about the Yamanaka, she thinks, studying her reflection in the mirror and drawing comfort from the sleeping, near translucent lines of Ino behind her and, as far as she knows, not visible to anyone other than her. But even that, like, Ino taught me a lot just in getting me to the greenhouses. I don't know anything, not really, if it wasn't taught in the Academy.
And she knows her Academy knowledge is solid. She's read every book and scroll she could get her hands on as student. She's done every exercise primer she could find. If it comes to the publicly accessible history and general knowledge then she's confident that she knows it.
But it's pretty obvious, now, that the Academy barely scratched the surface of what being a ninja even meant.
Sakura's not sure how to feel about that.
She's got so many tangled feelings that she's not really sure what to think of any of it.
When I get out of here, I'll decide about that, she decides, ignoring that she has no idea how long she'll be stuck in the safe house rather than at home. It's kind of terrible, actually, that they keep so much knowledge locked away, but I suppose, at the same time, that the Clans are entitled to keep their own secrets, well, secret.
There's still an inherent unfairness to it that rankles at her. The easy way that Ino had walked her through how to leap out a window and land using chakra to absorb the impact. Like, she'd said that was something most students didn't know, but Ino knew it and Ino knew who else knew it.
And she hadn't taught Sakura it beforehand.
Sakura steadfastly ignores that she and Ino had been rivals for the last while and that Ino would have had no reason to reach out and teach her a skill like that. Then she scowls at her reflection because she also knows that, had Sakura asked, Ino probably still would've taught her it had Sakura known to ask about it.
She'd have lorded it over Sakura like a queen and taunted her mercilessly but she'd have taught her.
I suppose I can't blame her for not teaching me and me for not asking, Sakura decides. But still! R – U – D – E, Ino-pig!
Ino doesn't answer her.
Grumbling, Sakura makes her bed and folds her pajamas, not quite sure if they're supposed to go in a hamper or anything and so, for the moment, leaving them on a bottom corner of her bed. After plumping the pillows and straightening the curtains the best she can (they still look terrible, since she tore a strip off of them to make her headband), Sakura gives up on staying in her room and ventures out onto the landing.
Shikamaru is just coming up the stairs. "Oh," he says. "You're up, good. Mom sent me to get you for breakfast."
"Good morning to you too," Sakura says dryly.
That earns her a smirk. "There's nothing good about them," Shikamaru says, turning around and heading back down the stairs. "Come or not, I don't care."
She follows him since she's hungry and also because if Yoshino-san sent him then that means Yoshino-san will care if she shows up or not.
And Yoshino-san said that I was going to have lessons today. I'm looking forward to that, even if they're just book lessons, and I wanted to ask her if I'd be allowed to do basic stretching exercises. I could avoid the ones where I'd be standing on one leg or anything like that.
Shikamaru doesn't bother with small talk, though he surely must hear her behind him. He just sticks his hands into his pockets and ignores her.
Sakura can't even muster up enough indignation to pretend to be annoyed by his indifference. It's better than out-right hostility.
"Ino's not up yet," she tells him, since that's the only thing Sakura thinks he'd actually want to know from her.
"Ah," he says. After a few more steps, he adds, sounding like he actually means it: "That's too bad."
And that's that.
Chouji is helping to set the table when they walk into the kitchen. Shikamaru's mom has her hair pulled back in a ponytail and has tied an apron about her waist. Sakura itches to ask if she can help but Yoshino-san catches sight of them before she can open her mouth.
"Take a seat, Sakura-chan," Yoshino-san says in a pleasant sort of voice that's nonetheless clearly an order. "Shikamaru, get your father."
"What am I, your servant?" he complains.
"At least you know your place," Yoshino-san says. "Get going."
With a grumble, Shikamaru goes and does just that.
Sakura takes a seat at the same chair she'd sat in last night, not sure if she quite dares to sit anywhere else. "Good morning, Yoshino-san, Chouji."
Chouji's smile is a little tentative but it's there. "Morning, Sakura," he says. "Don't take Shikamaru's complaints too seriously. He doesn't mean them."
"He does, sometimes, but there's a method to my madness," Yoshino-san says. At Sakura's curious look, she elaborates: "If I can keep him moving, then he stays awake."
Sakura giggles. "Maybe that was his problem in the Academy?" she suggests, thinking about all the times he'd napped there.
"It was," Chouji says easily. "He's fine once he's moving but let him sit around then he's going to take advantage of it and really rest."
Sakura feels a pang for those days, when everything had been easier, and also felt a little silly for that nostalgia because—literally. Two days ago. She hasn't been away from it long enough to miss it properly.
"Speaking of moving around," Sakura says carefully. "Yoshino-san, would I be able to do the basic ground stretches from the Academy? I know that anything with balance involved would be out but if I fall asleep while I'm already laying on the ground…"
Yoshino-san is quiet as she works at the stove. "I'll approve it," she says. "On the condition you do it with someone else in the room, just in case. You can stretch while Shikamaru and Chouji do, before their training."
"Thank you, Yoshino-san," she says, though being supervised for that kind of thing, just in case she hurts herself, is kind of embarrassing. She knows how to stretch!
But Sakura actually understands the reasons for this restriction, no matter how it chafes at her. Everything about her situation is weird and they want Ino to be safe.
They probably don't want me to break my neck or anything either but, like, if it wasn't for Ino…
Well. There's no point in dwelling on that more than she has already. It is all for Ino.
Shikamaru comes back then, trailed by a man who has to be his father.
He looks kind of like a bear tried to eat him and then spit him out because he was too tough to swallow, doesn't he? she muses, murmuring a greeting as Chouji does, though his is far more enthusiastic. Like, wow, those scars on his face, and I'm surprised Yoshino-san lets him go about with his clothes looking like that.
On the heels of that thought, however, she remembers:
Oh my gosh, that's the Head of the Nara Clan! Why does the Clan Head dress like a hobo?
Sakura would rather die than actually ask that, ever, because even in her head it's incredibly impolite, so she keeps her mouth shut.
It's kind of cute, anyway, the way that his eyes smile at his wife while he takes a seat. The rest of him looks so scruffy and unkempt and his expression is all harsh lines made harder by the scars that mark him. It makes him kind of… foreboding… but that's hard to maintain when Yoshino-san walks by and he follows her path with his gaze.
In the name of keeping Shikamaru moving, Yoshino-san ropes him into carrying food over to the table. Shikamaru complains the entire time, though he's careful to do exactly as his mom says, and Chouji sneaks a grin in her direction about it when Shikamaru isn't watching.
"So," the Head of the Nara Clan says to her, once he's had a drink from the cup of tea Yoshino-san set down for him. "You're Haruno Sakura."
His eyes, now, are as sharp as the rest of his edges.
"Yes, sir," Sakura says, trying not to squirm. "I'm sorry for the imposition and I'm grateful to you and your Clan for taking me in during this whole situation."
It's not quite the truth but… it doesn't hurt her any to say.
"I can't say it's no problem," he says. "But you're welcome."
Sakura just nods and, as he turns his attention to his son and Chouji, she tries to fade into the background a little. It's pretty easy, since she feels a bit overwhelmed by everything, no matter how hard everyone is trying to pretend things aren't out of the ordinary.
But also, why is he angry? Sakura wonders as she eats. At least, I think he might be angry. He's got that vibe about him. I hope it's not about me. I haven't done anything.
Though maybe he's just angry at the whole situation and how his wife and son are here, keeping an eye on her, instead of living like normal.
She sighs a little, missing normal.
Chouji and Shikamaru are tapped to wash and dry the dishes—with Shikamaru muttering about how they'd done them last night, geez—and it's not until everyone has almost finished eating that Nara Shikaku (Yoshino-san had said his name) speaks to her again.
"Ino's father will be here later this afternoon to check in on the two of you," he says. "He's asked that, right after lunch, you take a nap."
Like I'm some sort of baby! she sulks, even as Shikamaru complains that he's never gotten ordered to take a nap before.
"Yes, Nara-san," she says simply. "Can… can I ask why?"
He lifts his shoulders in a shrug. "He didn't say, just asked me to pass on the message."
Message is what he says but Shikamaru was right and Sakura knows it: it's an order and she'll have to obey it.
Nara-san sits his cup down and pushes away from the table. "I'll be back later, Yoshino."
"Will you be here for lunch?" Yoshino-san asks.
"Probably not," he says. "Don't keep anything warm for me. I'll try to make it in time for supper."
"That's fine," Yoshino-san says. "If that changes, let me know."
They don't say the words, that they love each other, but Sakura can tell they do, even as Nara-san talks to Shikamaru and Chouji for a moment, then smiles at his wife and heads out, still looking like the world's most dangerous hobo.
She looks a little helplessly at the table, knowing she's not allowed to help out and resenting that a bit.
"You hold tight for a moment, Sakura-chan," Yoshino-san says.
Sakura waits.
She tries not to feel resentful about being excluded from doing something as simple as the dishes but it's hard not to, especially when Shikamaru grumbles the whole time about having to do it.
And here I am, wanting to do the dishes, she thinks ruefully. But I'd feel better, if I could.
Since she understands why she can't, she doesn't bother to complain out loud. Yoshino-san doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd put up with that either—especially evident after she smacks Shikamaru upside the head for whining.
Which just makes him whine more.
Actually, it's really kind of funny, Sakura realizes, even as she bites back a giggle. Then she catches Chouji's eyes and they both laugh at seeing the same repressed mirth on each of their faces.
That, more than anything, makes Shikamaru stop complaining, peculiarly enough. In short order, the dishes are done—wash, dried, and put away under Yoshino-san's exacting eyes—and Sakura stands. She also takes the time to push all of the chairs in, feeling that it isn't much but it's something to help out and it isn't that much of a risk, not when she's holding onto something the whole time. Yoshino-san's smile is faintly approving, which makes Sakura almost want to purr with satisfaction at having managed this.
I wonder if she approves because it's keeping things tidy or because I found something I could do within the restrictions she's given me?
It's a pretty good question but, as she follows the boys, with Yoshino-san at her back, Sakura decides she's not going to ask.
Yoshino-san would probably answer me, Sakura decides. So far, Yoshino-san has seemed pretty forthcoming with her. But I don't know that I'd like her answers.
She hasn't really liked any answers she's been given so far. It's childish to blame Yoshino-san, so she doesn't, but at the same time, she's not keen in the moment to ask for more unpalatable answers to have to think about. Later, maybe she'll ask later. If she gets a moment without the boys around.
They wind up in the library, which is just as weirdly gloomy and shadowed as it had been yesterday, and Sakura is somewhat surprised to find there's already books out on one of the tables, along with notebooks and pencils.
This seems like a familiar occurrence to the boys, who take their seats—Chouji with a sigh, Shikamaru with a grimace; neither of them have ever enjoyed book work—and Sakura, after a moment of hesitation, takes a seat across from them.
It feels a little like lines drawn in a war.
Sakura tells herself not to be silly as she follows their lead and helps herself to a new notebook and a pencil. They might be here mostly for Ino, but they've been kind enough so far and, so long as she's got Ino, they'll continue to be kind. She's pretty sure, anyway.
It's really the only little bit of power I have, she realizes, Yoshino-san's excellent breakfast settling uneasily in her stomach. And once Ino wakes up…
She doesn't know.
Yoshino-san passes out the books. "Shikamaru, the first two chapters of this one," she says, which doesn't seem like enough instruction to Sakura, but he just nods. "Chouji, you've got the last three chapters of this book to get through."
"Yes, Yoshino-san," he says and, if he's a little glum about it, he pulls the book towards himself readily enough.
She can't read the titles on either of the books. In the odd gloom, she's not even sure if they have titles or if it is just a trick of the light.
"Shikamaru said that you were interested in wards," Yoshino-san says, turning over a third book in her hands. It is thinner than the others, with a soft cover instead of a hard one.
Sakura nods, though that's a little generous of him, since… "Well," she says awkwardly, "I'd never heard of them before."
"For several reasons, it's not taught in the Academy. They revisit the question of at least outlining their existence every few years but there's not really a need for it, not at the pre-Genin level," Yoshino-san says easily, though she doesn't explain what the reasons are for them not to be needed. "He gave you a couple of books yesterday, right?"
As she nods again, Sakura thinks of the way they're sitting on the desk in the room they've given her, where she hasn't even cracked a cover yet, and feels a little guilty. Should she have read ahead?
"This book," Yoshino-san says, "isn't one of those. You're welcome to read them in your free time. This is a workbook meant to gauge your base understanding. The boys say you're smart, so you'll notice fast that this workbook is meant for kids younger than you."
Sakura frowns a little, her emotions running through a rapid succession of complicated feelings.
"It's a book meant for Clan children, isn't it?" she says, though it's not really a question. It's the only thing that makes sense for why Yoshino-san feels the need to explain this to her. "So… so you're not expecting me to get all of it right, even though I'm older."
"That's right," Yoshino-san says, with a smile. "Do your best to complete the exercises in this book today, but don't beat yourself up over the things you don't know. Essentially, you were raised in a different culture."
"But that was in another country," she murmurs, a quote from her father's favourite movie. Oddly enough, it helps her contextualize this. It would be silly to get upset about not knowing everything about a country she's never been to.
And this might be all Konoha but, it's becoming clear, that there really are something like two Konoha. One that she knows and one that…
One that Ino comes from, she realizes. And everyone else here. I wonder if Yoshino-san was a first generation shinobi? She said she was out-Clan, but that's not the same thing.
"Yes, Yoshino-san. I understand."
That seems to be all that Yoshino-san had been waiting for as she puts the book down. "For this, don't ask Shikamaru or Chouji for help with any of the questions. I want to know where you stand without help."
Sakura tries not to feel indignant over being told not to cheat but—well. She does feel a little put out, even as murmurs her agreement.
"Good," Yoshino-san says. "I will be around should any help be required and, if any of you aren't working, I will know."
With a quelling glance at the three of them, she nods sharply, and leaves the room.