Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 18 – Hollow Places
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 4,576
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 18 of ? Unbeta'd.
Sakura hates this.
She hates this so much that she could puke but Ino rests her head against her shoulder and closes her eyes so Sakura grits her teeth and tells herself to stop brooding over all the ways this is absolutely, entirely, and totally the worst and instead focus on their next steps.
It would be a lot more comforting if Sakura could really believe that Hatake-sensei would find them, he'd be fine, and he'd know what to do.
She's been burnt before.
She's honestly been let down more than she hasn't been, by everyone except Ino, so even though her mind knows that Hatake-sensei isn't the same as Kakashi-sensei, her heart is somewhere in the pit of her stomach, rolling unpleasantly.
Instead, Sakura tells herself to remember the way she'd felt when it had been just her and Tazuna in the fog on the bridge. She'd been ready to die for him, a dumb old man with a dream because he was the client and it was her job and she was the only one left who could protect him. She remembers the Forest of Death where she'd been the only one of Team 7 left standing and the knowledge that she had to do anything to protect them, the way they were supposed to protect her too.
She'd been so tired of watching their backs. She'd wanted them to watch her back for once.
And she hadn't been good enough. It hadn't been an amazing, glorious victory or anything. She hadn't saved the day.
But she'd held on long enough for others to come and help and that was the important thing. They'd managed to muddle through. She'd done her part. She hadn't let anyone down, even if she hadn't been a heroine like she'd wanted to be.
And now, she thinks, careful to keep the thought to herself as she looks down at Ino, and now I can't give up or give in to fear. Ino needs me.
There's so much she doesn't know right now. So much about this situation that is a mystery. Sakura hopes that Hatake-sensei is okay, she really does, but until they either find him or he finds them, it's going to be just her and Ino and Sakura can't abide the thought of letting Ino down.
After all, even with her head like it is, she made a plan and got us through it, Sakura reminds herself. So how could she, Sakura, do anything less? It's simple: she can't.
And it's more than that, too, and this is what had her silent and quiet after Ino had asked for her opinion—Ino had wanted her input and had trusted her thoughts and opinions. She'd done it without even thinking about it, just like it was something that came naturally to her.
Ino came up with a plan and then presented it for review and, when Sakura had an opinion, she'd listened. There was no argument, no fighting, no time delayed because they couldn't agree on something.
They just… worked together.
It was that simple.
And it wasn't simple at all. Not to her heart.
Hearts are stupid, she decides and, gauging the time to have passed enough that they're pretty close to the half-hour mark that they'd settled on waiting, Sakura looks down at Ino.
Who has fallen asleep.
Sakura swallows hard against a sudden lump in her throat and blinks back tears. Ino might be in pain but the pain killers that Sakura gave her are specifically formulated not to cause drowsiness (a sleepy ninja is a dead ninja in the field) and, yes, of course, they're both tired and damp (the ground is not dry; it never is, this time of year) and frightened and…
Ino is asleep because Ino trusts her.
She's grown past being the little girl whose world was changed with a hair ribbon, she really has, but Sakura thinks she'll never out-grow being humbled by Ino, who doesn't even seem to realize it. That's okay, it really is.
It's probably better that way, really, since Sakura wants to be able to stand on her own two feet and that's what Ino wants for her too. So Sakura will keep it a secret, in her heart of hearts, that Ino is the one Sakura wishes she could be.
Sakura will never be like Ino and most of her is slowly coming to terms with that but… Sakura hasn't yet figured out who she wants to be. Especially now that she's stepped back from being Tsunade-sama's apprentice.
That could have been something amazing. That could have been something that would have made her great.
But what Sakura had told Hatake-sensei was the truth: she hadn't become a ninja just to heal people. She'd approached Tsunade-sama because, well, it had fit. Naruto was with Jiraiya-sama and then there was… Sasuke with Orochimaru…
Which had left Sakura with Tsunade-sama.
At least, it had, until Hatake-sensei showed up and things started… changing, Sakura thinks, glancing up at the moon through the branches of the cherry tree.
Sakura doesn't know what she'll be these days. She's not sure what path she'll walk. Hatake-sensei will make sure, though, that she's given the tools to go after whatever she decides. Sakura has a lot of complicated feelings about him, about their team, about how things are different now—
But she does trust him, when he says she can become whatever kind of ninja she wants to be. Now she just has to figure that out.
Since she still hasn't and probably won't for a while, and for the first time Sakura thinks that's okay, that it's fine if she doesn't have everything she wants to accomplish as a ninja laid out in a neat little plan at fourteen… Ino's still the goal, until Sakura figures that out. She doesn't think Ino would mind.
She takes a few moments to compose herself, to make sure she hasn't lost track of anything in their surroundings (which are quiet, but it's a peaceful, normal kind of quiet—the sort that leaves the insects and animals active rather than cowering in hopes of not being noticed), and to lock some thoughts back behind Inner Sakura, who won't let Ino through, and then gently she wakes Ino.
Ino! Ino, wake up! We've got to head for first base!
Calling the guest house 'first base' strikes her as kind of silly but Hatake-sensei had called it that first and Ino hadn't argued and Sakura can see the reasons for it. If anyone is watching them, listening in on them, then a different name for guest house just makes sense.
All the same, it's not like they've been many other places in the compound yet. Their trail is one written in clean rooms, bright windows, and the smell of cleaners.
Ino comes awake all at once, not flinching or groaning, just shifting and lifting her head up off Sakura's shoulder.
What is it?
Nothing terrible, Sakura reassures her quickly. Just… it's time to go and see what there is to see at the first base.
Sakura hesitates for a moment then asks: How's your head?
Ino's smile is a thing wreathed in shadows and darkness but Sakura is comforted anyway. It's a lot better, thanks. I'm lucky you had pain killers handy.
Do you know what caused it?
Ino shakes her head, carefully getting to her feet, making sure to keep the tree they're under between her and the Main House. No. Maybe I over-reached myself?
Maybe it was an attack? Sakura ventures, getting up just as carefully, adjusting her pack on her shoulders, and quietly grateful that they'd brought them with. At least with their bags they won't have to worry about food and changes of clothing. Maybe whatever it was that kept you from reaching Hatake-sensei also tried to knock you out?
Knowing only that Ino is considering that from the way she tilts her head in the darkness, Sakura begins picking her way through the grass, setting her feet down slowly, toes first, then the heels, leading them away from the Main House. She doesn't know what's in this direction. She hasn't seen any maps of this compound—something, she thinks, that she's going to have to remember to ask Hatake-sensei about later, and there will be a later, she refuses to even entertain the idea that there won't be—so they're just going to have to guess.
It's away from the Main House, though, and also away from the guest house. They'll be able to circle back around, once they've got some distance from the Main House.
If there's something in here that can interfere with my bloodline, Ino says, once they've ducked around another small building and are no longer in sight of their room and the Main House.
Sakura thinks it might have been a shed, once upon a time. Ivy climbs the walls, leaving it looking like something out of a fairytale. She glances at Ino, waiting for her to finish her sentence.
"It's probably better if we speak aloud until we know for sure," Ino says, rather grimly. "I'm not trained enough to be able to notice things like that. If someone's able to listen in, then I won't be able to notice."
"Okay," Sakura says simply.
Ino nods, then says, "If that's the case, then they'll know what our plan was. Do you still want to go to first base?"
Sakura appreciates how easily Ino seems to accept that they could be compromised, that her abilities might be compromised, without beating herself up. Sakura knows she wouldn't be so calm about it. She'd be upset.
"It's also possible that whatever it is wasn't able to hear you," Sakura ventures. "Maybe, like, it was like a radio signal? Just one that runs interference with yours?"
Ino cranes her neck, looking up towards the roof of the shed. "Maybe," she allows. "If that's the case, then it's possible that Hatake-sensei could hear me but that I couldn't hear him back and if that's how this is, we really should take the risk and hope we can meet up with him at first base."
"Okay," Sakura says. "Okay, Ino let's go."
She doesn't think anything is after them, out here, where everything is calm and normal and feels right. At the same time, though, there is definitely something wrong with the Main House and whatever it is… is decidedly not friendly.
Together they leave the shed behind, fading into the over-grown greenery. There's something surreal about the compound, cast all in shadows and moonlight, everything old and abandoned but not falling apart, not yet.
Like it hasn't given up on life yet. It's just napping.
Sakura shares this thought with Ino as they explore their way through a garden that's surrounded by a little stream that's so choked by weeds it's practically invisible (except that Sakura stepped in it and now one of her sandals is soaked). There's a gorgeous little gazebo, with roses on trellises so full that she's impressed they're still standing.
"Maybe that's what we woke up," Ino says as they explore the gazebo and then head back outside. "It was angry that we're not the right people, the ones who are meant to be here."
"Hatake-sensei is though," Sakura points out.
"Is he, though?" Ino asks. "He's from the wrong time, right? What if the house knows that?"
"Houses aren't supposed to have feelings," Sakura says, though she doesn't out-right deny it. It's clear that, whatever has happened, something isn't happy with them. Maybe it is the house. Maybe they are stuck in a ghost story.
Sakura has never liked ghost stories. They're uncomfortable in a way that romances and adventures aren't. Ghost stories are always sad, when it comes down to it, because someone is always dead.
"Houses also aren't supposed to be able to try to break into our room," Ino notes. "Or read minds. So… whatever it is, it's something that's not supposed to happen."
"Could someone have snuck in here with us?" Sakura asks. "I didn't notice anyone when Hatake-sensei let us into the compound but…"
"I guess it's possible," Ino allows, though Sakura's pretty sure that Ino doesn't like the idea. Sakura doesn't much like the idea either but it's one they've got to entertain. "I mean, why would anyone do that? If someone wants to attack us, why would they have waited until the second night here?"
"Hatake-sensei was close by last night," Sakura says. "Where was he tonight?"
"On the roof," Ino says, looking up again. "Sitting in the rain."
Sakura's question, the one on the tip of her tongue, is to ask why he would do that. She doesn't ask. After a moment of thinking about it, she doesn't need to. Of course he wouldn't want to spend much time actually inside where his father had…
Sakura shivers.
"Ino," she says, "do you think it's his dad?"
She doesn't know why Hatake-sensei's dad would come after them. She doesn't know if it's even possible. But now, tired and keyed up and anxious, almost anything seems possible, even if it's a horrible thing to entertain.
"I don't know," Ino says. "Come on, I think we're far enough out from the Main House that we can circle back around now. I'm tired and cold and wet and I'm worried about Hatake-sensei."
"What are we going to do if whatever it is got Hatake-sensei?" Sakura asks, letting Ino take the lead, and keeping an eye on her at the same time, just in case she starts to feel ill again.
She remembers what Ino had said, about not drawing attention to the weaknesses in other shinobi, just compensating for them. Ino had been talking about coping methods.
Sakura sees no reason that she can't use the same idea here and now, to look out for Ino.
"We'll wait for morning," Ino says, without missing a beat. "And then we'll go looking for him. Let's not borrow trouble from tomorrow though—we've got to get through tonight first. And tonight's been long enough."
Despite herself, Sakura giggles, covering her mouth to stifle the noise. Ino grins back at her, fey and untouchable in the moonlight.
It takes them nearly another hour and a half to sneak their way back to the guest house. Partly because they over-shoot it the first time and wind up having to go back, re-tracing their steps, but also because they find another gazebo and, after discussion, they choose to hide their things there, under the benches.
Just in case.
It also leaves them free to exercise greater mobility and stealth. They do make sure they're armed a little more thoroughly, tucking a few extra kunai into their pouches. Sakura makes sure she has some lengths of wire and senbon. Ino has senbon, too, though hers are in a hard-shell case instead of the fabric roll that Sakura's are nestled in.
"Poisoned," Ino says, tucking them away into her pack, not even having to look up to know the question that Sakura wants to ask. "Hatake-sensei approved them."
"Poisoned?" Sakura asks.
"Nothing serious," Ino admits. "A minor paralytic, though if I got someone in the throat with these they'd die because they wouldn't be able to breathe. I'm immune to it unless you hit me with enough to sink an elephant. It's one of the ones I suggested you work on during my 'class'."
Sakura flushes slightly. She hasn't had much of a chance to work on building up her tolerances. It always feels so macabre and creepy, deliberately dosing herself with tiny amounts of poisons and venoms. Her parents would have a cow.
Or five.
Ino doesn't address this or Sakura's lack of immunity. "I've got the antidote," she adds. "And hopefully we won't need them but it's better to be safe than sorry."
With that in mind, Sakura says nothing when Ino wraps a garrote around one of her wrists. It's not a weapon Sakura likes to use but she's not the one using it. She just makes note of it and triple counts her kunai by feel.
"Do you think Hatake-sensei would let us start carrying explosive notes?" she wonders.
Ino shrugs a little. "Maybe," she allows. "But only after we're trained in them up to his standards."
That makes Sakura smile. "At least by the time he's done with us, we know we're doing it right."
"Ready?" Ino asks.
She nods, tucking her nerves away. "Ready," Sakura echoes. "Are you going to do a mind-sweep of the guest house or are we doing it all manually?"
"Manually," Ino says, with a bit of a sigh. "It's the smarter thing to do, even if the risks aren't exactly negligible. Until we know what's going on with my bloodline, we're going to have to do things the old-fashioned way."
Only Ino, Sakura thinks fondly, would treat how most ninja have to handle things as the 'old-fashioned way'.
Making sure their bags are hidden from casual—and not so casual—inspection, they take the time to hide the traces of their passing and then strike out for the guest house. It's strange to creep about the outside of it, brushing through growth that hasn't been touched by humans in years, as they look for anything, anything out of place or… weird.
Nothing outside appears out of the ordinary.
Everything is just how they left it, almost eerily so, though Sakura tells herself to not be silly. Now she is borrowing trouble, making monsters out of perfectly normal circumstances. Why wouldn't everything look normal?
It wasn't like things had gone sideways here.
They slip inside carefully, cautiously, using no chakra and doing so as quietly as they know how. They might be sub-par, in Hatake-sensei's words, but they've been working hard and they're quieter than they were a month ago.
(A fact that, despite everything going on in the moment, makes Sakura happy.)
The north side of the guest house is as they left it. Clean and empty. Sakura ignores the fact that, after their jaunt through the wet grass and plants, she's the dirtiest thing in the rooms other than Ino. She doesn't share that thought either.
As soon as they entered the guest house, all conversation had ended.
They hesitate down the hall from the kitchen. There's a light shining under the door.
They exchange glances, unwilling to reach out with chakra to confirm the signature, but equally unwilling to just ignore it. Unlike the Main House, there's no windows for the guest house kitchen. Otherwise they would have noticed earlier.
Guard my back, Ino says. I'll open the door.
But before she can, it slides open.
"Where have you two been?"
Someone, somewhere, was going to be in a lot of trouble when he figured out who was to blame for all of this. His plans had included training, more training, search for his family's summoning scroll, and probably yet more training.
(Almost definitely yet more training.)
He had not wanted or planned on an unknown threat in his family's compound, in the heart of the village.
It probably says something about him that he's much more comfortable search ing through said family compound looking for immediate threats than a missing scroll. He ignores that. There's more important things at hand.
Like protecting his team of Genin.
When his discomfort is placed against that fact he finds that all of his feelings about his family and his clan and everything that had gone down after his father had killed himself... well, all of that pales in comparison to the more immediate threat.
He finds that deeply comforting. It means that no matter how little he likes being here (he hates it) that he's not broken. It's hard but he's okay. He can still prioritize the important things when it comes down to it.
It's good to know.
The only thing he's found out of place so far is the incredible drop in temperature as soon as he enters the Main House, swinging in through a window (the same window he'd used to get onto the roof in the first place) and that's... interesting.
Everything else is much the same as he remembers, from the plates in his mother's favourite cabinet to the way the rugs are laid down. If it wasn't for the dust and dirt, the moth eaten fabrics and empty, hollow places left by the lack of life-
It would be like going back in time.
Given his circumstances, he feels he's slowly becoming something of an expert on time-travel.
Hatake-sensei, we're retreating to first base. Something is trying to enter our room.
He can almost taste her anxiety on his tongue.
Be careful, he thinks. Let me know when you've arrived and if your status changes.
She doesn't answer him.
He really doesn't like that. It's possible that, under pressure, she's forgotten to respond back with an affirmative but—Ino should know better. Her training has been incredibly neglected in so many ways but, even so…
She should know better.
Ino? he thinks, clumsily unsure of how to force his thought out at her. He settles for thinking it as loudly as he can, in the direction of the bedroom she's sharing with Sakura. Ino, answer me immediately.
But she doesn't.
He hates that even as fear tangles through his emotions and he shunts them away, sharply, even as he continues his methodical search through the main house, angling his path towards their room.
If it's just her being careless, he promises himself that she'll be dead. Not dead-dead, as Ino and Sakura would say, but his punishment will definitely make her wish she was dead. It doesn't make him feel better, exactly, but right now he'd rather hope she was careless than—
Taken out before she could scream.
His pessimism is more than capable of coming up with the worst-case scenarios.
Kakashi cloaks himself in a jutsu, using Henge to fake that he's part of the wall as he sidles around the corner of the hallway that—
It is only long practice that keeps the jutsu in place as he blinks his eye, then again, to see if he can understand what he's seeing.
It's…
It's something.
A foamy, tattered shadow, pale and writhing in the purple-black darkness of the hallway. First he thinks it's short, then it is taller than him, then somewhere in between and a mix of all three, overlapping each other like black on black on black. It has no face. It has many faces. Ever shifting, ever-changing, a mess of rolling unreality. It claws and scrabbles at the door to his Genin's room with hard nails (claws? fingers?) that clip through the door and wall, like a terrible illusion only it leaves marks behind, torn and rent into the wood.
It's so cold that it hurts to breathe.
There's a horrible crashing sound, something heavy falling, smashing to the ground, and the thing lunges, heading for inside the room-
His breath floating in the air, Kakashi doesn't think, just moves, a kunai slashing down through the thing…
And hitting nothing.
It screams-not in pain, in anger, slashing at him in fury that claws at both his left arm and at his mind. Pain, sharp and bitter, assails him and he shunts it away, ready to deal with a fight.
Only the thing is already fading. Dissolving into the air, like bubbles popping, disappearing like it never existed.
The pain lingers, in both his head and his arm, proof enough that it was real.
Kakashi ignores both, vaulting over the barricade the girls had put up (the shelves, he notes absently and with approval), landing in the empty room.
Good. They got out.
They've even remembered to shut the windows behind them, to muddy the waters as to what direction they chose to go.
Kakashi's breathing sounds loud in his ears, though he's not breathing heavily, and relief hits him like a sack of bricks. They got out. They've headed to the guest house, first base.
He grimly finishes his search of the building, quickly but thoroughly, noting that the temperature is rising, stabilizing at something that feels normal, and finding nothing out of place or that would attack him. Then he heads over to the guest house, moving so fast he's a blur, less concerned with being followed and more concerned about his students.
Ino? he thinks again, now that he has confirmation that, if they've died, they didn't die in the room.
She still doesn't answer him and Sakura can't.
They're not in the guest house either, though there's also nothing amiss, and while he's anxious to go looking for them (and, indeed, he's sweeping his chakra out in broad strokes looking for them and finding nothing; he'd be more concerned, more terrified that meant the worst, except he knows that the wards here make chakra signatures less easily read and if the girls are hiding, then, well, their chakra will be following their lead) it's important to stay in one place, where they were supposed to meet up.
He waits.
In defiance of his wants, Kakashi makes himself stay where he is. Ino's last communique said they were making for here.
If he goes out and about looking for them and misses them and then they arrive and think he's been—
Nothing good ever comes of situations like that. He knows that.
So he waits.
He spends the time in the kitchen, bandaging his arm and taking a painkiller for his head. He eats. He scours the guest house for anything out of the ordinary.
He waits. He agonizes over the waiting. Hoping they're not injured. That he can trust what they said. That they'll show up. That…
It's the longest two hours he's had to wait in… well. In a long time. Since his sensei and his team had been all together and things had been right, as much as they ever got for him.
Eventually, though, he hears them.
He knows it's them, though they're being quiet as they can be, because they're not quiet enough. He knows their tells. Sakura tends to step a little too heavily with her right foot. Ino, when she gets excited, forgets to be mindful of the soft noises her clothing makes when she brushes against the walls.
Kakashi smiles.
Gets up. Opens the door before they can.
And drawls, "Where have you two been?"
There's relief in his voice. He doesn't know if they'll notice but he knows. He knows he's in trouble, too, because—
This is his team.
"Hatake-sensei!" Sakura crows, flinging herself at him in an impulsive hug. Ino follows her, a beat behind, and unlike Sakura, she doesn't hug him, just smiles up at him with tired eyes as she stands close.
He stiffens, despite himself, since it's been a long time since someone has hugged him. He's not quite sure what to do. He settles for messing with both of their hair, not wanting either to feel left out, and smiling a bit helplessly and glad they can't see that, in lieu of hugging back.
"I'm glad you two are safe," he says, sincerely and honestly.
They've got a problem or five to deal with, given... whatever that was in the Main House.
But at least they're together.