Tap.
A lone figure sat in a Konoha interrogation room, staring determinedly at the smooth surface of the table as her fingers slowly drummed on it.
Tap.
Dried flecks of blood slowly peeled off her skin as she waited, barely shifting in the rigid and uncomfortable chair.
Tap.
There was no clock on the wall, or sound from the outside. The walls were a harsh grey, almost aggressive in their monotony.
Tap.
Tap.
At another time, she'd be left to stew longer. The room would have been able to do its job, and an interrogator would walk in with a softer subject.
But considering the contents of the scrolls she'd brought, they were on a bit of a time crunch.
Ibiki briefly locked eyes with Anko. She gave him the barest of nods.
Tap.
He opened the door.
"A mission out of the village? Lucky. I've been stuck doing filing for my clan for weeks." Ino complained. "I know it's important and all, but I'm literally going insane."
Sakura took another bite of the scone in her hand. "I'll bring you back a hairclip or something."
Ino hesitated. "You don't actually have to do that. I know money is tight for you right now." She cut her a sly look. "But I will make you tell me everything when you get back. I need something to entertain me."
Sakura huffed a laugh. "I'm not with my crazy old team. I doubt it'll be that exciting."
The door to the interrogation room was heavy and loud, giving occupants plenty of time to notice the company.
Tap.
Sakura Haruno did not move her head when he entered the room, but her eyes snapped towards him. More than anything else, she looked tired.
He took a seat across from her without fanfare, and she slowly pulled herself into a more upright position.
Tap.
"Do you know why you're here, Haruno?"
Tap.
She laughed.
"Of course I do."
Sakura stared disparagingly at her gear.
When it was all laid out like this, it made it even clearer how depressing the status of her weapons were. Five shuriken, seven kunai, and ten senbon. Two explosive tags, one smoke bomb, one modified smoke bomb, and three vials of poison to recoat her blades.
Absolutely pathetic.
Still, the pitiful state of her gear didn't change the reality of her situation. They would be heading to the Land of Hot Water tomorrow, and she was just going to have to manage with what she had.
Besides, a simple retrieval mission to a minor Nation shouldn't require a lot of heavy firepower, even if she was still suspicious about why so many of them were being sent.
She'd manage.
She always had.
"Explain it to me." Ibiki said mildly. "Why do you think you're here, Haruno."
Tap.
"I went on a mission in a squad of five." She said evenly. "And was the only one to come back. The scrolls probably didn't help either."
Tap.
Yes, the damned scrolls. "Are you still confident in your assessment of which was the fake?"
Something flashed beneath her eyes before disappearing in a blink. "Yes."
"How are you sure?" He pressed.
Tap.
Tap.
"The real one has a bloody handprint."
It lined up with her previous accounts. No slip ups yet.
"Start from when you left the village."
Cloud loomed menacingly over the forest as they traveled. The kind that promised rain with no end.
The village they were traveling to was about the same distance from Konoha as Wave, only this time there was no civilian to drag along. Sakura wasn't the biggest fan of long stretches of running, but there was something to be said about the simplicity of it all.
They set up camp for the night, and took turns on watch. It was quiet. They travelled most of the next day as well, before finally arriving.
The client looked-nervous. Constantly glancing around and jumping at anything unexpected.
Kazaze handled him briskly, pumping him for as much information as possible about the jewelry before leaving the second he didn't have anything else to say.
"Sakura, Iwana, I want you getting a feel for the rumors around the situation. He's hiding something and I want to know what. Yoshisu, Josuki, you're coming with me to scope out the neighbourhood the thieves live in."
"And?"
"The jewels hadn't been stolen at all. They were family heirlooms and had been given to his brother instead. He just didn't want to look bad or pay an extra fee."
Ibiki resisted the urge to sigh. Clients had been lying to them more often, but until they were entirely stabilised they couldn't do much about it.
"Did you witness anything suspicious?"
"No."
Sakura pulled off her most obvious weapons and headband, before stuffing them into an innocuous bag.
"What are you doing?" Iwana asked.
"Civilians are more likely to answer us if we don't look foreign shinobi." She explained.
Understanding lit up in his gaze, and Iwana copied her. "That makes sense." He mused. "The Land of Hot Water has a shinobi force, but they're fairly pacifistic. They probably have a better relationship with their civilians."
Sakura couldn't help the uptick of her eyebrow at that. "Probably." She agreed. "Though I can't imagine Konoha civilian spilling their guts to a random foreign shinobi either."
He hummed. "A lot of them have been pretty unhappy these days-not that I blame them. A few of their districts took heavy damage, especially the outer ones that Orochimaru sent his summons into."
Grief clawed inside of Sakura. She could still feel the ashes beneath her fingertips. "Yeah." She said hollowly.
There was something knowing in his gaze. "We should have protected them better. We both rely on each other, after all." He sighed. "I apologize, I'm rambling. Let's get going."
Sakura nodded, something warm in her chest.
"How did your captain handle the news?"
Tap.
"She was annoyed, but seemed to be expecting it. We tracked down the client and she renegotiated the price."
"Was the mission a success?"
"Yes. Josuki, Captain Kazaze and Iwana infiltrated the house while Yoshisu and I stood watch. It went smoothly and we collected the pay from the client."
"Where is that money now?" Ibiki asked.
Tap.
Sakura shrugged. "Probably with Captain Kazaze's corpse."
"…ever lie to Konoha again, you won't like the consequences." Kazaze said coldly, managing to look down on the client despite the fact that she was a head shorter than him. "Have I made myself clear?"
He nodded frantically. He'd gone deathly pale and was clutching the bag of jewellery tightly to his chest.
"Good." She turned to the rest of us. "Let's move out."
This was where things would become tricky. "You did not return to Konoha."
She shook her head. "Kazaze told us we had a secondary mission. We had to meet up with an informant in a nearby apple orchard."
"Did she tell you anything else?"
Tap.
"Not really. I assumed the informant was from Otogakure though, because of the proximity to the Land of Hot Water." She pursed her lips. "We made it to the site at approximately 1800 hours."
Tap.
"What happened after you arrived?"
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
"It was an ambush."
Kazaze was dead before any of them could move.
Her head was cut clean off her shoulders, and three more figures burst into the clearing before her body even hit the ground.
"I'll get the scroll! Iwana, cover me! Yoshisu! Sakura! Carve a path out!" Josuki barked out, the first to recover from the shock.
Sakura's hands flew to her weapons, and she barely had time to raise a kunai before a sword descended on her.
The attacking shinobi were clothed head to toe in black, no Hitai-ate in sight to mark their allegiance. And they were good.
Sakura hissed as the next swipe grazed her ribs, and trapped the sword against her. Her kick sent the shinobi stumbling backwards.
To her right, lightning chakra cackled as Yoshisu electrocuted his opponent, but suffered a stab to the thigh in retaliation.
The air turned hot as Iwana loosened a fire jutsu, chasing away the shinobi that had been aiming at Josuki.
"I've got the scroll!" She roared. "Iwana! Sakura! Cover the retreat! Yoshisu, with me!"
Sakura lunged at one of the shinobi trying to follow them and yanked him backwards. Iwana had engaged her previous opponent and one other, leaving Josuki and Yoshisu with only one pursuer.
With a kunai in one hand, and senbon in the other, she clashed with the shinobi.
It was a brutal fight. He refused to give her any room to breath or cast jutsu, forcing them both to rely on hand-to-hand combat. She managed to stick a senbon through his wrist, only to get thrown into a tree.
Her back ached from the impact, but she was on her feet again by the time he came to meet her.
They fought again, and Sakura was reminded of the Forest of Death. Of a place with everything deadly.
Where berries had made the difference between life, and death.
Sakura stuck her hand against the tree and sent a pulse of chakra. Through the trunk, to the branches, to the ripe apples that hung around them.
They exploded.
The shinobi staggered back, caught off guard, and Sakura lunged.
He tried to block her, but his hand was paralysed from her poison. Her kunai slid between his ribs.
He managed to strike her in the face, but blood was already pouring from his front. She launched herself at him again. Her knees stuck to his chest with chakra, and she drove her senbon into his eye.
Her arm creaked under the pressure he grabbed her with, but she shook herself loose in time to avoid falling with him.
His body hit the ground and he didn't get up.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of Iwana's opponents break off from the fight and cast a wind jutsu.
It sliced right through his own comrade and into Josuki.
Yoshisu shouted, catching her as she went down. His hands glowed as he pressed them into her bloody sides.
The same shinobi geared up for another jutsu, and Sakura desperately threw a handful of kunai.
Yoshisu looked up in time to see his death. His face twisted into a snarl, and he threw the scroll towards Sakura.
Her kunai struck the same moment Yoshisu and Josuki died.
She dove for the scroll, a wind jutsu skimming the side of her head before she ducked behind a tree.
Two on two. Those weren't impossible odds. Ignore that over half the squad was dead and that the wind jutsu user didn't seem to be running out of energy.
A hand ripped her from her hiding spot and threw her back into the clearing. She barely managed to catch herself in a roll before ending back-to-back with Iwana.
Blood trickled down his sword arm, and he spoke in a low voice. "On three, use all of your explosives and smoke bombs and substitute yourself away. Hide your chakra signature as much as possible and meet at the river we drank from on the way here."
Sakura ran her tongue over her teeth and nodded.
"1…2…3!"
"They didn't follow you?"
She shook her head. "Not that I could tell. I don't think they were trackers."
"Did you encounter anyone else on the way to the river?" Ibiki pressed.
"No."
Tap.
"How long did it take for Iwana to join you?"
Tap.
Tap.
"Thirty minutes at most. I'd guess it was around 2100 hours."
Three hours from when they'd met the informant. If she'd been running hard, with minimal breaks, the geography lined up.
"Was he behaving suspiciously?"
Tap.
"No."
"I'll take first watch." Iwana said. "The traps we set up should give us some warning, but I don't want to take any chances."
Sakura hesitated. "Are you sure? My injuries aren't that bad."
He waved her off. "Get some sleep. I'll wake you up in a few hours and we can trade off. We'll need all the energy we can get for the trip home."
She nodded shallowly.
"Okay."
"You were still in possession of the scroll?"
Tap.
"Yes."
"And Iwana knew that."
Tap.
"Yes, I told him."
"Did he say anything about it?"
She shook her head.
It was instinct that awoke Sakura from her slumber.
Her eyes flew open just in time to see Iwana pull the scroll away, and take a deep breath.
The kind of breath she'd seen Sasuke do a thousand times.
Fire jutsu.
She didn't stop to think, she just moved.
Heat scalded her arm, but she managed to spare the scroll, save for a light singing. Grogginess made her retreat unflattering, but she managed to create distance between her and Iwana.
She looked back. He seemed surprised to find her awake. It was then that she noticed he also carried a scroll, one that was near identical to the one in her hand.
When Sakura spoke, her voice was low and gravely.
"What do you think you're doing."
"He tried to destroy the scroll."
Tap.
"Yes."
"Did he explain why?"
She let out a huff. "He said it was for the good of Konoha."
"Please, Sakura. Listen to me." Iwana pleaded. "You don't understand what's really going on."
Adrenaline and fear coursed through her veins. "I understand that you were going to destroy a scroll the rest of our team died securing." She said coldly.
He sighed. "It's not that simple. Konoha has grown weak, and the next attack might be the one that finishes us. But if we make the Hokage take the threat seriously, then-"
"Then what?!" Sakura demanded. "You want to make our government even more paranoid than they already are? They're shinobi! They don't need anyone's help with that."
"You want Konoha to protect civilians more, don't you? This is the first step towards that! If the Third Hokage hadn't been so weak, your parents wouldn't have died in the Invasion! This could prevent something like that from ever happening again."
Something in Sakura went very, very cold.
"I never told you my parents were dead."
He stilled for a fraction of a second before waving her off. "It was just gossip I heard. You were a hot topic after your match with Neji Hyuuga."
Maybe, if she hadn't just witnessed him trying to burn the scroll they'd nearly died for, she would have bought that.
"You still owe me that favour, right?" He said charmingly. "This is how we can consider it repaid. It's for the good of Konoha."
Sakura stared at him in disbelief. "Asking me to allow you to falsify a scroll we're going to hand to Intelligence, and then lie about all of this, is nowhere near comparable to lending me a few kunai."
The softness in his expression fell away, leaving something hard and unyielding.
"Give me the scroll, Sakura."
Exhaustion tugged on her. Her back ached and her arm wasn't bending properly. There was still blood on her face. She had nothing but two kunai, three senbon, and a vial of paralysis poison, with chakra reserves that were only a third full.
Sakura was tired of fighting.
She looked at the scroll, and then at Iwana.
The choice was simple, in the end.
"No."
"He was not initially violent after you removed the scroll from his possession?"
"No. He tried to talk me into giving it to him."
Tap.
"And after you made it clear you would not cover for him or give up the scroll?"
Tap.
She gave him a look.
"He tried to kill me."
Sakura was losing.
Badly.
The problem with fighting someone you'd sparred with, was that they both knew what to expect from each other. Sakura knew how he attacked, knew the way he swung his sword and backed away to cast fire jutsu.
Just the same, he knew she liked to substitute herself whenever she was backed into a corner, and that her chakra reserves were nothing impressive.
He scored a gash on her unburned arm, and a brutal kick to her side. She sacrificed her last senbon for a moment to breathe.
He'd only cast one fire jutsu, and she was pretty sure she knew why. Sakura wasn't the only one fighting with a disadvantage-they'd both just got out of a high-stakes fight.
Their supplies and chakra were low. It was just a matter of who made the most of it.
He swung at her again, but this time she was ready.
She allowed the blade to graze her ribs for a chance to get close. Her final vial of poison doused him in the face, and he jerked back with a hiss.
He quickly wiped it off, but that just meant it was on his hands now. It wasn't the fastest acting poison, and it was most effective if absorbed through the bloodstream, but it worked through skin contact too.
And it was much more potent than what she'd used against Zaku.
Sakura palmed her final kunai and waited.
Iwana must have realized her plan, because he came at her faster than ever. She was forced to use substitutions to get out of being cornered. Her chakra was running perilously low.
But then-
Iwana's strike fumbled, fingers losing their grip just enough for the sword to tumble from his grasp.
She kicked it away, only to find herself flat on her back with ninja wire around her throat.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way." Iwana sighed. And then the wire tightened.
She bared her teeth at him, trying to buck him off even as black spots danced across her vision.
Not like this. Sakura promised herself.
She scrambled through hand signs, scraping together the last bit of her chakra. A substitution wouldn't work with him still holding her but-
He gagged with nausea, the wire loosening just enough that she could take a breath.
Her hand closed around a rock.
He toppled backwards after her first strike, Sakura following doggedly.
She struck him with the rock again, no chakra left to power her, only adrenaline.
Crack!
He tried to shove her off.
Crunch!
His grip lost strength.
Splat!
Iwana's blood sprayed across her face.
She raised the rock and for a brief moment, they locked gazes.
He looked terribly human like this. He looked afraid.
Sakura brought the rock down.
"Killing a fellow Konoha shinobi is a serious act." Ibiki said, unsure if he was amused or surprised she'd even admitted to it in the first place.
Tap.
Tap.
"Good thing I didn't do it on a whim." She said blandly.
Ibiki leaned back. "Did you encounter anyone else on your return to Konoha?"
She shook her head. "No. I stayed out of any towns and away from popular roads. I didn't want to risk anyone finding me."
"Why did it take you so long to return?"
Tap.
She gave him a flat look. "Well, I had almost no chakra left and was injured. After leaving the river, I passed out for at least half a day. The rest was just…a lot of walking."
Three days after her fight with Iwana, at approximately 0500 hours, Sakura approached the gates to Konoha.
The chuunin on shift took in her bloody, battered form, and rushed her inside.
"Where the hell is the rest of your squad?" One of them asked.
Sakura laughed and laughed and laughed.