Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 16 – Sure Things
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,358
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 16 of ? Unbeta'd.
Sakura doesn't know what to expect of the Main House, aside from more dirt and pain, and while she can help with the first, she can't really help with the second, no matter how clever Ino was about trying to get them out of having to go inside today.
Sakura assumes this is what the whole thing about looking for the scroll in the dirt and ground was about. Ino isn't the sort of person to volunteer to dig around in the dirt, no matter how much she likes planting and caring for flowers.
It's totally different kinds of dirt, anyway, compared to the effort it would take to shovel up everything on the grounds.
Sakura is deeply, deeply glad that it didn't work, as far as suggestions went. If they'd been stuck out digging in a thunderstorm she might have never forgiven Ino.
(Okay, she would have. But she would have grumbled.)
As far as attempts went, even though it didn't work anyway, Sakura considers it to have been a valiant effort and she's pretty sure that Hatake-sensei appreciates the thought. Maybe that's all that they can really do, anyway, in making sure he knows they're thinking about him and, the thing is, she is.
And it feels… good.
To know that her thought and consideration and care is noticed, observed, and reciprocated as the opportunity arises. Because thinking about that too hard just makes her emotional and she's already the crybaby of their little three-man team (she knows that Hatake-sensei is gentler on her emotions than on Ino's and she's pretty sure that's why even though he doesn't, refuses, to hold-back on deserved criticism or praise alike) Sakura shoves all those thoughts away and, instead, just inside the Main House scuffs one sandaled foot through all the grime on the floor and glumly observe the bright, smeary streak her sandal leaves behind.
That's disgusting.
Rain is starting to fall behind them in thick, fat drops that bode poorly for anything outside staying dry.
She'll take being inside. Even inside here.
Ino peers over her shoulder. "Cleaning it is then?" she says, with a questioning look at Hatake-sensei. "Or do you want us to-?"
Hatake-sensei has mastered the art of looking far away and remote but Sakura doesn't believe he's ignoring them. He manages to be lost in his thoughts and paying attention to them. She doesn't understand how he can do these two contradictory things at the same time. Maybe it's some weird Jounin skill.
He doesn't smile, not even the faintest hint of it, like he might some other time and place, but he nods. "Cleaning today," he says. "You're both too low on chakra to be effective with the jutsu I taught you. Get a feel for the layout and then start cleaning."
He doesn't say what he'll be doing and he also doesn't say they should be looking as they clean, just in case, but Sakura hears both things and resolves that, unless they find something that absolutely needs his attention that she'll leave him alone.
"Yes, Hatake-sensei," they say in tandem and watch as he nods, gives a vague sort of wave, and then drifts further into the house without them.
Sakura watches him go, feeling a little forlorn and abandoned.
"Stop sulking," Ino says, clapping her on the shoulder. "Let's get some light going and we'll start figuring out… where to start…"
The fact that even Ino feels this is going to be a long, almost impossible task makes Sakura feel irrationally better.
"I think we should locate a kitchen," Sakura says, with a frown at the grossness they're walking on. "And a bathroom. Those should be cleaned first and then we can expand our sphere of influence. Besides, if it's still storming later, Hatake-sensei might not want to head back to the guest house."
It's too dark in the Main House to make out Ino's expression.
"I think he probably will," Ino says. "But your idea makes as much sense as anything else, so we'll start there."
Sakura hesitates a moment, not sure of which way to go. "Do you have any idea where a kitchen might be located in this sort of house?" she asks.
"Big compounds like this really aren't the Yamanaka style," Ino says thoughtfully. "It's more a Nara or Akimichi thing. Generally, though, the kitchens are going to be near the back of the house, on the main floor. Come on, let's go look."
Fearlessly, despite the near dark, Ino sets off down the hall and Sakura scrambles to follow her.
"What do we do if we find Hatake-sensei?" Sakura asks, in a low voice. "I mean, he just…"
"Wandered off?" Ino suggests.
"Yeah," Sakura says. "That."
"I think the best thing to do right now is to treat it like he's acting normal," Ino says slowly. "I mean, it's not normal, but unless we have a burning question or a need for him, I don't think should really try to disturb him?"
"But if he comes and talks to us, just act like everything's the same as always?"
Sakura is pretty sure she can do that. Or. Well. She can at least try.
"I think so," Ino says. "A lot of shinobi don't want to be noticed when they're not handling something very well. So if we don't need to draw attention to it, we probably shouldn't."
"And if we need to, then there's something more important than his grief going on?" Sakura says slowly. "Is that what you mean? Ino, that sounds… kinda harsh."
Ino is quiet for long enough that Sakura is starting to get anxious, wondering if she's upset Ino and now it's just her who isn't upset and if she'll have to figure out how to cheer up both her sensei and her best friend in the dirtiest place she's ever been.
"It's harsh," Ino admits. "But it's also true. If we start screaming for him then it's because something we can't handle is probably trying to kill us and, in that case, our lives really are more important than his grief. And… and I think that Hatake-sensei would agree with me too."
Sakura doesn't know what to say to that and Ino doesn't really seem to feel like wanting to talk as she lapses into a thoughtful sort of silence, so Sakura just… allows the silence to drag out.
They find the kitchen after three false turns and they don't find Hatake-sensei anywhere. They're making enough noise, though, that if he wanted to avoid them, he easily could. They're quiet but they're not Jounin quiet.
And once they start cleaning, they're not even Genin quiet.
Especially not once they get some of the lights working—which is both encouraging, since dank, dirty places are always less oppressive in the light and also depressing because, well, it's gross enough in here that she almost wishes they could just leave the lights off.
The real prize of the afternoon, though, is the ancient radio that they find on the windowsill over the sink.
"Do you think it still works?" Sakura asks as Ino carefully lifts it down so they can better look at it.
"Nothing is going to work when this dirty," Ino declares, then she grins. "But maybe once it's clean we can get it to tune into a station. Even enka music would be better than nothing, right?"
"Maybe," Sakura says, with a bit of a laugh. "But I'd rather something a bit less old people music, Ino!"
"Beggars can't be choosers!" Ino crows and for a little while, the kitchen's disarray is ignored as they carefully do their best to make the radio gleam.
It takes them the better part of twenty minutes to get it clean and another forty-five minutes to get it to work but it's totally worth it—
Cleaning goes a by a lot faster with laughter and music to go along with the work.
It's late evening and Hinata is mulling over her research in her bedroom, having enjoyed a bite to eat with Tenten after the library and has almost, though not quite, been able to put the whole… experience… with Shikamaru and Chouji behind her.
She's still not sure what to think, except that she hadn't enjoyed the conversation.
The clock is a steady reminder that soon she'll have to leave her thoughts and her words and rest. Team 8 has training tomorrow and she wants to be in top form for that. Anything else would be an embarrassment after so long without a proper meeting.
"When are you leaving your team?" Hanabi asks, all young, cold impudence from her doorway as it's abruptly opened. Hanabi doesn't bother with knocking. With her, is Neji, who's expression is much harder to read.
Hinata sees them from the small mirror she keeps on her desk and doesn't look at them yet.
Hinata is surprised by the words but not by her sister's presence. Even if she hadn't had the mirror set, she would have noticed her coming. She hadn't noticed Neji coming with her but, even still, she savours that tiny triumph and then, deliberately, Hinata takes a moment to finish the sentence she was writing in her journal before she turns to look at the two of them.
"I'm not leaving my team," Hinata says calmly. The serenity is real. Now that she's confirmed as much with her team, the idea of actually leaving them seems absolutely impossible. Moreso because she doesn't want to.
Because manners must be used to be learned, Hinata stands. "Hanabi, Neji-nii-san, please come in. Would you care for anything to drink?"
Hanabi plops herself down on a floor cushion like an irritable storm cloud. Neji takes the chair, which Hinata pulls out for him with a small smile, since he's still recovering from nearly dying. He's back in training now, at least in the family, but he's still going three times a week to the hospital for check ups by Tsunade-sama herself.
"Tea, please, Hinata-sama," he says.
Once upon a time he wouldn't have been so polite to her. If Hinata were a spiteful person, she would dwell on that, but Hinata is just glad he's happier these days.
"I have cookies too," she says, knowing that Hanabi will want those (and she does, her little sister takes three as soon as the plate is set out). Their father would be appalled.
Hinata says nothing.
"Everyone at school says you're leaving your team," Hanabi says, once she's taken a bite out of each cookie. (That way no one can steal them from her.) "But you're not even going to tell us before you do? Even Dad thinks you're going to."
Hinata hesitates slightly as she makes the tea. "I was under the impression that father thinks as little of me as possible."
It's a more complicated situation these days than not but she still remembers the way he'd tossed her to the Academy telling the instructors there to make something of her since he could not find a use for her.
These days, he's a little more yielding. A little more of the man she thinks her mother must have loved.
But change comes slowly and while they've been able to converse over a meal in a civilized manner these days, there's been none of the closeness he shares with Hanabi nor the training he lavishes upon Neji, and Hinata has learned over the years to not expect more from her father. If it happens, it will happen, and she will decide how she feels about it then.
If not, well, Team 8 will support her, as they have from the beginning.
"Mostly," Hanabi admits openly. "But he wondered aloud where I would hear him, which means he wanted me to find out."
"I have no secrets," Hinata says mildly. It's even mostly true. The only thing she's tried to keep quiet is her feelings for Naruto and, as he's not even in the village, that has become much easier. "Though if I did, this would be a terrible way to find them out, Hanabi."
Hanabi stuffs the rest of one cookie into her mouth and shrugs a little.
She doesn't have to say anything for Hinata to know what she's thinking. Hinata is well aware that she's a terrible liar.
"And you," Hinata says, to Neji, "are you here because of the rumours as well?"
"I was curious," Neji admits. "And when Hanabi-sama told me what she was doing, I thought it would be interesting to come along. While I haven't spoken much to Tenten and Lee, I have no doubt they've heard the rumours as well. It's all over the compound."
Hinata supposes she ought to be grateful, in that case, that someone has come right out to ask her, or demand of her, the answers.
"Well," she says, "I, I do not plan to leave Team 8. I am happy with Kurenai-sensei's tutelage and Kiba-kun and Shino-kun are good teammates. We will become strong together. I see no reason to leave them to join Team 7."
"Aren't Haruno and Yamanaka your friends?" Hanabi asks. "Everyone says so."
They hadn't really been friends, back in the Academy, so she wonders what Hanabi's classmates are saying now about that.
Still… it's true now that they're friends.
"They are my friends," Hinata says. "And, as friends, they know I am happy with my team. They haven't asked me to join their team and I have no intentions of asking them."
Truthfully, Hinata isn't sure that finding a third team member has really crossed either Ino-san or Sakura-san's minds yet. They've been busy with training and had little time for thinking of anything else. Even when they've talked, it's been mostly about what their sessions will be like and when and where the next one should be scheduled.
They're far better at keeping their secrets than I am.
It doesn't bother Hinata.
She really doesn't see the need to keep any, having grown up in a Clan where every emotion is read almost before it's felt.
Hanabi sighs, flopping backwards on her pillow. "That's boring," she decides.
Hinata is past the stage where she might have apologized for having a boring life to her little sister, so she doesn't.
"Don't you have anything better to talk about at school?" Hinata says, her soft voice taking any sting out of that question. "Surely your classes aren't so boring that you must talk about me?"
"People keep asking me," Hanabi says, like that answers everything right there.
In a way, it does.
Hanabi has trouble making friends. Hinata had been too shy but Hanabi's brash, well-deserved over-confidence doesn't endear her to her classmates any more than Hinata's shyness had.
Now that people are talking to her, Hanabi must feel like if she doesn't get answers that they'll stop.
"I'm sorry," she says, "but I will not be changing teams. Nor have they mentioned anyone that they would like to become their third teammate."
"Not even Tenten-san?" Hanabi says, with a glance at Neji.
And this, Hinata realizes, is why he's here. Being stuck in the Hyuuga compound, he's had little chance to spend time with his team and feel out what they think of everything that's happened.
"Not even Tenten-san," Hinata says calmly, since it's true as far as she is aware. "Or Rock-san. Or anyone. If they have discussed a third member, they have not brought it up to me. Mostly, when we talk, it's to compare training notes. Ino-san knows a great deal about immunities and how to bolster them for both poisons and venoms."
Hanabi looks unconvinced and, while Neji's expression hasn't changed much, Hinata can tell that he's relieved.
"If you'd like," she says, "I'd be willing to share my notes from that."
Hanabi waves that off, unconcerned, but Neji nods.
"I would like that, Hinata-sama," he says. "If you're certain that you don't mind."
"Knowledge is meant to be shared," she says, smiling. "At least, this sort is. I'm sorry I do not have anything else to share with the both of you but I really don't know anything."
"I wanted gossip," Hanabi grumbles.
"Have another cookie," Hinata says, pushing the plate over to her little sister.
Hanabi sulks some more, eats another three cookies, and sticks around listens to what Hinata explains to Neji about immunities anyway.
Well, we're in the house now.
Though Kakashi is cheating just a little by sitting on the roof above the kitchen. The air inside feels oppressive. He knows it's a trick of the mind, that he'll have to stay inside tomorrow, but for now, he's taken refuge outside.
Only an idiot would be out in a storm like this.
But he's that idiot. The rain is cool and harsh and comforting in it's unrelenting patter against his skin. Also comforting is the music that comes from the kitchen, intercut with static (he's surprised they even got a connection at all) and girlish laughter and the scent of lemon soap.
Kakashi closes his eyes.
He's got to get it together. He hates this.
But he made this choice. He chose to walk into this, eyes wide open, and unlike most of this timeline, this is… about what he expected. There's no one to blame for his surprise.
Part of him had somehow hoped that everything would be as he'd left it and he is bitterly disappointed that it, like everything else, has moved on with the steady march of time. Paradoxically, he is also grateful that things changed.
If nothing had changed, he thinks he'd have never made it past the front door.
Rain spills down the back of his uniform.
What am I going to do with Sakura?
It's a more constructive question than wondering what he'll do if his dogs can't be summoned, if they can't find the scroll.
(The answer is he'll probably go mad. Madder than he already is. Kakashi misses his dogs.)
Peculiarly, it would almost be easier of Sakura wasn't so much untapped potential. With careful development she could go almost anywhere, do almost anything.
He doesn't think she'd make a good assassin. He knows civilians think that all shinobi are assassins and there's a certain level of truth to it—every shinobi must be willing and able to kill in the course of their missions.
But that's not quite the same thing.
Similarly, ANBU is probably too harsh for her.
Neither of these observations are new or particularly unusual. There are more talented shinobi who are not assassins or ANBU material than there are.
He laughs softly, the sound hidden by the patter of the rain, so that his girls don't hear him.
That's part of the problem, Kakashi suspects. He can think of plenty of paths for Ino but, then, it's easy to see her in ANBU. She's very kind, to those she cares about, but otherwise—
She doesn't have Sakura's sensitivities.
It's not a criticism. Or a compliment. It just is.
He doesn't know enough genjutsu to be able to turn Sakura into a master. Tracking, perhaps, he muses. It would pair well with Ino's sensor-nin training. Though she hasn't shown any signs of wanting to learn it either…
Though she's civilian-born, he remembers. Maybe she just doesn't realize what options there are. There's more to being a shinobi than just doing missions. A huge part of it is finding and playing to your skills, improving your capabilities to the point where you can say you have a 'specialization'.
Clans had an easier time of it, when it came to that, if people lacked their own initiative, they could bury themselves in their clan specialties.
My biases are showing.
There was nothing wrong with that either. The children of the Clans are quite literally born to do that.
I'll start with tracking, he decides. That and traps. They work well with both Sakura's talent and chakra control and will compliment Ino's abilities.
It's a start.
And the rain continues to fall.
Deep in the house, something stirs.