Chapter 36 – Intent

Going through my notes was more difficult than I expected. As it turned out, I did not think linearly when I was sleep-deprived. It was honestly amazing that Sasuke knew me well enough to get a clear picture out of the scattered information.

It was downright horrifying that Naruto and Sasuke knew me well enough to figure out what I was planning even before I admitted it to myself.

Because if the Hokage wouldn't let me go, then I would have definitely...

"… And that's the gist of it," I finished, drawing an X with my fingertip over another location. "When you compare where the borders shifted with the discrepancies in the supply chains, those are the three most likely areas. If I had to guess where they've gone now, it'd be the one nearest us."

Shikamaru held a data table I'd drawn, comparing it with the earlier 'six paragraphs' that had given him so much trouble earlier. "I'm not sure whether to be impressed with you or unimpressed that nobody in the tower has tried this yet..." He scowled. "No, more like they did, and just never said anything."

"Not that I know of," Kakashi piped up from the corner of the kitchen. He had been leaning against a side door that led outside. I'd been half expecting him to disappear at any second. "It's generally considered bad taste to try to find a hidden ninja village without provocation."

Asuma-sensei snorted. "And bad for the health. I'm sure dozens have figured it out already and immediately burned their notes."

I rolled my eyes. "It's amazing that you manage to be as technologically advanced as you are when ninja seem to hide absolutely everything. I'm surprised you even have cameras; I bet ninja hated that."

"If I remember right," Ten-Ten broke in. "The invention led to a few dozen deaths. But the blueprint was already spread through several countries by that point, so there was no reason to try to quash it and be left behind everyone else."

I gaped at her. "I'd been joking."

"The ninja hadn't," she replied with a shrug.

"Speaking of which," Ino cut in. "Are you so sure these will be Sound Village outposts? They're all over the place, and it's just as likely that some of them will be different hidden villages, even when you compare which places are noted to have Sound Village ninja activity." She frowned. "I mean, if you track Konoha-nin, they'll be all over the place as well."

"Not sure at all," I sighed. "But the one marked between us and Rice seems the most likely."

"Talk about enemies right on your front doorstep," Ten-Ten said.

"I wouldn't mark the nation as a whole as an enemy," said Asuma-sensei. "In little skirmishes like these, you want to avoid talk that stinks of war."

Kakashi shifted uncomfortably out of the corner of my eye. Fair enough; he's probably seen his fair share.

"Do you know how much of this Naruto is telling Hokage?" I asked Sensei. "I asked him not to bring my notes with him, but I hope he at least brought a map. And I'm worried whether Sasuke made much sense of these..."

"The clone I spoke with had a map. It was unmarked, so it should be safe enough. Even if the clone didn't remember correctly, I sent Naruto and Sasuke down to talk themselves."

"Right..." I turned back to my notes, checking another table for the umpteenth time. C & R Company marked 40k worth of product sent to that location, but only 20k on the delivery and tax forms. Delivery costs were roughly 1.5 times higher than they should have been, which would account for an extra delivery within a short distance...

A siren wailed.

Everyone in the room became very, very still as we listened. The siren went off in a pattern, an obvious code. After it repeated itself three times, the siren stopped.

"Translation?" I asked the room as a whole.

Shikamaru slouched in his seat. "First part says jounin response only. Make sure you re-learn your codes." He stretched. "The rest was above my pay-grade, no idea."

My eyes flashed to Sensei. He had a slightly hunted expression.

"Sensei..?"

"Well!" Asuma said, clapping a hand on Sensei's shoulder. "We really should get going now–"

"You're only here because you had your dogs scent-tracking, right, Sensei?"

The men froze.

"On top of that, you're not supposed to be here right now anyway, are you, Sensei?"

"Ah, that is–"

"But if Gai is talking to Hokage with Naruto and the rest, you're probably not in trouble. Go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll be a good girl and wait." I stuck my tongue out at him.

He relaxed so sharply that it almost caused Asuma to stumble. "Right, well, first, you are completely wrong in every way, and also we should get going. Bye~"

They were gone in a blur of motion. I hadn't even seen the door move.

"Ninja are so weird," I remarked, returning to my charts. And the following year at the same date, C & R marks their delivery as–

I froze.

Ino noticed immediately. "Oh, what now?" she grumbled. "Do I even want to know?"

I raised a trembling hand at the company's title on the sheet. C & R. Not only that.

"Ino, what's the name of the barbecue place we like, again?"

"What?" Shikamaru cut in. "How the hell is that relevant? Do you think they're also doing under-the-table deals with Sound? Give me a break."

"Answer the question."

Ino gazed at me with wide eyes. "They're called Yakiniku Q. Why on earth does that matter, Sakura?"

"Romaji," I said weakly.

"What's a romaji?" asked Chouji.

I sat back in my chair. C & R. Yakiniku Q. There were evidence of roman letters around me everywhere. And I'd never noticed. It was common to use roman letters in Japanese writing, back home. But there weren't supposed to be other languages here. Were there?

"Do you understand what I'm saying right now?" I tried to the table at large in English.

"What? Sakura, are you–"

"Begrijp je dit? Een kleine hoeveelheid, misschien?"

Chouji frowned. "Isn't that one of the Southern languages? Since you're freaking out over things with Southern characters, right?"

"Northern, technically." Shikamaru corrected.

"Hang on," I said in Japanese. "Gonna go puke."

"Don't you dare," Ten-Ten cut in. "Sakura, what on earth is wrong?"

"So, uh," I took a deep breath. "Okay, wow, we're doing this. Okay. So." I ran a hand through my hair. "Well, screw secrecy anyway. The Sensei are gone, so they can't tell me not to. Right."

"Wait," Ino cut in. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

I locked eyes with her. She was one of the first people to learn about my situation, even if she didn't know the details. She was also familiar with how classified information was handled in Konoha.

I forced myself to sit back and think it over. "It's… listen. This is related to my situation and why I have 'amnesia'. It's relevant to this situation with Sound. But it's also technically classified information. You might all get in trouble if I tell you. I'm willing to tell you, but only if you want to know. It's up to you."

They all exchanged glances.

After a long pause, Shikamaru was the first who spoke. "No. We don't need to know. Not if it's going to get you into serious trouble." He sighed. "Just tell us what you can. If we can't follow enough based on that, we'll just have to make due."

Ino nodded. "I'm less worried about us and more worried about you. If… Sakura, those languages? If they're Southern languages– well, Northern. They're spoken mostly in Rock and Cloud, Sakura. Konoha doesn't have a good relationship with them at all." She unconsciously fixed her hair behind her ear. "I think they're barely used as it is, and probably only ever for code. You knowing how to speak them… Sakura, it won't look good."

I snorted out a hollow laugh. "I've been coding my notes in them for months and speaking them randomly. If anyone noticed, there's not much I can do about it at this point."

"I don't know if this is asking too much," Chouji said slowly. "But who are you?"

I pursed my lips. "I'm just a girl. And I know less than pretty much any ninja alive. I'm not– I'm not a threat. I'm just me." I sank a little in my seat. "If you don't want to keep helping me, that's fine, but… I'm not a secret spy from Rock, Cloud, or Sound. Nothing like that. I'm just me. I don't know why I would know how to speak them. To me, they feel natural."

A thought occurred to me. But Orochimaru… would Orochimaru have learned them?

I felt cold.

Ino's hand landed on my back. She'd stood up at some point. "Your name is Sakura Haruno. You're my best friend. You were raised in Konoha, and you were attacked a few months ago..." She trailed off for a moment. "Your personality is a little less gentle, and you speak less politely than you used to, but you're still you."

"Less gentle?" Shikamaru snorted. "She used to give Naruto a black eye once a month."

That shocked me out of it. "Wait, really?"

"He's exaggerating!" Ino cut in. "He never got a black eye!"

I stared back at her. She also doesn't know that Naruto heals almost immediately and has a giant chakra monster in his belly. Oh… that's…

"Whoa, I was a jerk," I said.

And then I burst out laughing.

"Right, okay, I was a violent menace, I speak languages I shouldn't, and we know where Orochimaru is–"

"Orochimaru?" Chouji yelped. "That's who we're after?"

"Yeah," I wiped at my eyes. The tears wouldn't stop for some reason. "Yeah, and I think I have a lot more questions for him than I thought." I burst into another round of giggles. Everyone at the table stared at me as though I'd grown another head. One that spoke quote-unquote Northern Languages.

"So why the debate whether the languages are North or South?" I asked once I was able to speak again.

"The languages were said to come from a country across the Southern Sea, but the people who spoke it migrated up North into what's now known as Rock and Cloud," Shikamaru said, his chin propped up on his hand. "Are you done?"

"So done."

As though on cue, the front door snapped open. We all turned to look down the hall as Naruto and Sasuke stepped through. Spotting us, they made a beeline for the kitchen.

Naruto threw his arms around me. "Hey, Sakura! I did good, right? Anyway, it'll be two weeks. Sorry!"

Shikamaru shook his head slowly. "I'm telling you, she'd have killed him before."

I nudged Naruto away so I could look at his face. "What the actual hell, Naruto?"

Sasuke appeared to us, practically vibrating with frustration. "Could ask you the same thing." We met eyes, and he was gritting his teeth.

Ah. So I did get caught.

"I didn't actually do anything," I tried.

He shook his head. "No. We're not talking about this right now. Later. But Naruto's right, we convinced him." He turned to the rest of the group. "I don't know if we'll all be together, but he should be allowing us all to do at least some part of the mission. We'll be tailing one of the companies who make the most frequent suspicious deliveries." Out of nowhere, Sarada descended from the ceiling to land neatly on his shoulder. He gave her a head-scratch.

"Two weeks..." I muttered.

"Sorry, Sakura. It was the best we could do," Naruto said miserably.

"No, it's fine, Naruto. Thank you for everything." I cleared my throat and turned toward the rest of the group. "And… I'm sorry you all got dragged into this. If you change your mind and don't want to join us, I'll understand."

Shikamaru snorted. "You're kidding, right?"

"We've been pretty bored with our missions since the one in Wave," Chouji added.

"I'll be lucky to get any missions at all with Lee still recovering," mused Ten-Ten. "And someone has to keep you kids out of trouble."

Ino smiled softly. "Duh."

I cleared my throat again, a strange feeling rising in my chest. "Right… thank you."

They stayed with us for a couple of hours, going back over our notes and the meeting Naruto and Sasuke had with the Hokage. Ten-Ten had been the first to leave, eager to meet back up with Neji and try to track down her Sensei. Team-Asuma left much later, for similar reasons. At that point, there wasn't much left for planning before we received a proper mission.

In the end, it was only the three of us left in the kitchen. I was carefully sorting and packing up notes when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Sasuke glaring at me.

"So..." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded note and handed it to me.

Unfolding it, my chest tightened.

"Any particular reason you were marking out where Konoha's security gate posts were?" he asked. Naruto stilled from where he'd been organising his mission pack.

"That– that is. Um."

His other hand grasped my other shoulder and shook me roughly. "Are you insane? What were you thinking? Were you even planning on asking us to go with you?"

My shoulders clenched, and I squinted against the tears that had threatened. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, jumping to his feet. "We don't know that–"

"She doesn't know? How can you not know?" He shook me again. "Orochimaru and my brother, Sakura! And anyone else in Sound, and anyone else that was trying to kidnap you! Kabuto and his scroll! Are you an idiot?"

Naruto threw an arm between us and shoved Sasuke away. "That's enough!"

Sasuke was breathing heavily, his face flushed and his eyes shining too brightly. "Idiot," he spat again, before whirling around and shoving his way out the side door. Sarada quickly darted after him before the door slammed shut.

He left a terse silence behind him.

Naruto put a much more gentle hand on my shoulder and nudged me back into the chair. "It's just because he got scared. Don't worry about it." He walked back over to his mission pack, picking it up off the ground. "And uh, don't do that again. Not without talking to us first." He avoided my eyes and left out the same door as Sasuke.

I sat in numb silence for a long while. Finally, I reached forward, taking the scrap of paper from the floor. I folded it neatly, setting it back in with my notes.

A/N: Before I get another hoard of people yelling at me in the comments about languages: 1) Look up "Temujin's Continent" on Narutopedia. 2) I'm the author and the original plot of Naruto is burning merrily in my fireplace, keeping me warm. So toasty. So soothing. Ahh~

Everyone Else: Hi! Sorry this took a while. This chapter is less edited than most, but it was a difficult one and I wanted to get it done. Also, there's a lot of you now, so I got nervous. Uh, hi. Hope you enjoyed Sasuke almost losing his absolute shit.