Obito-Sensei Chapter 35
New Day, New You
Two days since they'd arrived in Amegakure, and for the first time Sakura saw a blue sky. She stopped chewing on her sweet dango and blinked as she looked up through the narrow steel portal to the sky that was visible through Amegakure's towering buildings.
The sky looked the same no matter where you were, and that gave Sakura a bit of courage. She looked over to the boy sitting on the railing of the balcony with her, idly sucking on a popsicle.
"Does it clear up like this often?" she asked.
Haku shook his head with a thoughtful look. "Well, sometimes," he verbally amended. "But not usually this time of year. Rain is pretty dreary until around June. Then it warms up."
Sakura stared at him, and then up at the sky again. The last two days had been a bizarre blur. After their meeting with the Amekage, she and her team had been shepherded from one place to another; issued a new ninja number, hitai-ate, and equipment first off, and then shortly thereafter split apart.
You'll see each other again soon, Konan had said, but so far that hadn't been the case. Sakura had been given a new apartment, ninja housing that would normally be subsidized by the government of the country but now was simply owned by the village. It was a single room suite with an attached bathroom, smaller than her parent's home but bigger than her room there. It felt wrong for Sakura that she would be rewarded for defecting with a bigger room with a wall-length closet (whose door was a mirror!) and a nice oversized bed, but it made sense to her. Rain would naturally frontload luxuries and preferential treatment for new shinobi, especially ones they'd invested in. Naruto and Sasuke probably had even better places; there was no way the village could afford to give every ninja their own space like Sakura's.
Right?
Right after Team Seven had been split up, Sakura had met with Haku. The boy had just come back from a mission, his Akatsuki haori covered in mud and rain. He'd been accompanied by the burly man with a butcher's knife sword that had been with Konan at the Chunin Exams: Haku had introduced him as Master Zabuza, and Sakura had recognized the name from their midnight talk.
The memory of the smile Haku had given her when Konan had presented her made Sakura shiver. The androgynous boy had looked so ridiculously happy. What had she done to deserve a smile like that?
"Are you worrying it won't be as nice as Konoha?" Haku asked, and Sakura shook her head, both as a denial and in an attempt to stay in the present.
"I knew it wouldn't be," she said. Haku chuckled. "It's the Land of Rain after all."
"Nation," he corrected absentmindedly. Sakura gave him a curious look, and he shrugged. "Some of the older shinobi here will give you a nasty look if you call it that. They don't have good memories of the Land of Rain."
"Well, thanks," Sakura said. There'd been an invisible awkwardness between them ever since she'd been reintroduced. How had Haku been so genuine while trying to recruit her when Sakura couldn't say a word without carefully weighing it? Was it because one of them was lying and the other wasn't? The Amekage had told Zabuza and Haku nothing of what they'd discussed; as far as Haku knew, her defection was completely genuine.
He'd spent the last two days showing her the village. After seeing a fraction of it for herself, Sakura was sure Amegakure was like no other place on earth. The buildings, the neon, the rain and the ingenious mechanisms for catching and dispersing it, all obvious. What you wouldn't find before walking through its streets was its unusual diversity.
Konohagakure wasn't a homogenous city, Sakura knew. It had been founded by the Senju and Uchiha forming a partnership, joined by more than a dozen other clans before it had truly been born, and had always welcomed shinobi of every stripe into its ranks in the decades since. It had a large civilian population drawn from every corner of the Land of Fire and beyond. Nevertheless, Amegakure made it look like a bastion of monoculture. Walking the streets of the village had exposed Sakura to more people, music, aesthetics, and food than she had seen in the entirety of her life before coming there.
Shinobi formerly of the Villages hidden in the Stone, Sand, Cloud, Water, and even Leaf; some who still wore their old hitai-ate in odd places, and others who were simply recognizable by their appearance or gear. Civilians too, some citizens and some merchants. Every building was united by Rain's steel and iron aesthetic, but at the ground level every shop, apartment building, and personal home was festooned with charms from a thousand different places, few of which Sakura recognized; mascots, corporate logos, good luck charms, religious icons and little gods that might not even have names. Some homes hung wreaths of tiny paper people with red hair and red clouds; those, Haku told Sakura, were the signs of those who held the Amekage with a particular reverence, mostly superstitious shinobi.
Rain, Sakura quickly realized, was the center of too many things all at once; a political revolution, a gathering of military might, multiple ethnic diasporas, and more. Rain was like a glittering gutter that had collected everything that wasn't welcome in the other countries and villages over the last decade, and it presented such a maddening mix that Sakura wasn't sure she would be able to fully wrap her head around it in two years, let alone two days.
The food was really good though. That was without question. Haku had shown her something called pizza, and even if it was a little cheesy for her taste Sakura had wolfed it down before they'd wandered out to the balcony for dessert.
"I don't really know what I'm doing next," Sakura admitted. Haku shifted, finishing his popsicle.
"Well, most likely you'll be kept in the village on observation for a week or so," he said. Sakura leaned in, smiling at his casual tone. "Your teammates too, of course. Exciting that they came as well." He leaned back, and ice danced along his popsicle's stick, picking up what was left of the sugar and juice and forming a new, smaller treat. "After that probationary period, you'll probably be sent on a mission, possibly with Master Zabuza and I. That will be to officially test your skills in the field, though of course we're already aware they're substantial."
Because of the Exam? Or did Itachi report that? Sakura didn't voice the question.
"Makes sense," she settled for, finishing her dango. Haku gave her a curious look.
"What changed?" he said, and Sakura swallowed. "If you don't mind me asking."
"To bring me here?" Sakura asked. He nodded. "I don't know if I could tell you without sounding like a baby," she said after a second, and Haku laughed.
"Try, then." Sakura looked down. Her apartment was on the twenty-eighth floor of the complex; the street was a dizzying distance down.
"We got a mission after the Chunin Exam. To go find one of the Sannin." Live the lie. Make it not a lie. Tell the truth. "The Toad Sage, Jiraiya. He was in the Village Hidden in the Waterfall."
Haku's smile faded. "Waterfall?" he asked. Sakura tried to keep her forehead from scrunching up as she overanalyzed his expression. Did he know something about what had happened to the village from rumors, or from a mission report?
"Yeah. We found Jiraiya, and then that night Waterfall was attacked." Sakura weighed her words and what they could accomplish. "Both by rogue ninja that were after its Jinchuriki, and by shinobi from Konoha that were after our sensei."
"From the Leaf?" Haku asked after a moment. Either he was a faultless actor, or Sakura had actually managed to throw him off guard with her strategic truth.
"They were from a group called ROOT," Sakura said. "Apparently, they were a faction within Konoha that undertook wet work for the previous Hokage. They were disbanded when the Fourth took over, and resented that. So they tried to assassinate Obito-sensei." She leaned forward on the railing, sticking fast to it with chakra and stretching out over the street, looking down the two-hundred and some foot drop. "One of them used a mind-control jutsu on me and stabbed him with my sword. But he ended up killing them,"
"Wow." Haku sighed and finished off his regenerated popsicle. "But what exactly about that…?"
"It made me think about how Konoha was fractured, and how there were probably more people like that in it who would kill people just because they didn't know how to do anything else," Sakura said. She hopped back down onto her balcony. "And more than that," she said more confidently, "when I met Jiraiya, I realized he was the person who had given the Amekage their beliefs in the first place, and ROOT had wanted to kill them too." She clenched a fist. "It made me want to find all that stuff out for myself, and it made me remember our conversation in the Forest of Death. Right then, I wanted more than anything in the world to not just be another shinobi. I wanted to be one who left things better than when I became one."
She breathed out shakily, aware of her pounding heart as she lost track of what was the truth. Haku cocked his head.
"But your teammates-" he started to say, and Sakura laughed.
"Got dragged along," she said, before correcting herself. "Well, that's not quite true. One of the rogue ninja that attacked Waterfall was Sasuke's brother, and he said he was working for the Rain."
"That's ridiculous," Haku said. Sakura blinked at his harsh tone. "The Nation would never take in someone like Itachi Uchiha. A mass murderer like that?"
Sakura shrugged. "You'll have to tell Sasuke that. He was convinced Itachi was telling him the truth." About everything, she internally amended. "When I left, there was a fight, but he told me that he wanted to come with me to find his brother. After that, Naruto had no choice but to come as well."
"You're lucky to have such good friends," Haku said, and Sakura blushed. "And you're even luckier to have had a revelation like the one you did. Plenty of ninja could have gone their whole lives without a moment like that."
"I guess," Sakura said a little doubtfully. It had just been self evident, hadn't it? "I feel a little guilty about it."
"About Naruto and Sasuke?" A nod. "That's understandable. But they'll both find their own reasons to stay, beyond just you and each other. That's how the Nation is. Once you're inside, you start to see the rest of the world clearer and clearer. It'll be the same for them, I'm sure."
"I'm terrified it won't be," Sakura said. Honesty, honesty. Be Sakura Haruno, defector. "What if they never find their own reason?"
Haku smiled. "Then they'll stay anyway. If they'd defect with you, Sakura, I'm sure there's nothing they won't do for you."
"Yeah," Sakura said, her heart pounding out of her chest. "I hope that's true."
###
A week passed, and Sakura still saw no sign of her team. She wandered the city, spent time with Haku, and learned new routines. She felt listless, with no mission and only a single friend. Haku was good company, but he was clearly the only one who trusted her; she was too new for the other shinobi of the village, even Zabuza, to give her anything but an acknowledgement of her existence. She was detached from the world, like a ghost that could touch but not feel.
So she did whatever she could to pass the time. She tried to find new stores and restaurants to visit; she decorated her new room, trying to make it feel like a real home instead of a bed and a closet and a bathroom and a balcony. She read, sad that she hadn't brought more books.
One of the books she had placed in her final pack had been the gift from Kushina, Tales of a Gutsy Shinobi. Sakura was able to finish it before the week was up.
When she put it down, she had the feeling she would have to read it again.
Jiraiya was a good writer, though fiction had never been completely to Sakura's taste and this book was not either. Several things stuck out to her on her first read through. How disconcerting it was to read a book with her best friend sharing a name with the protagonist. The constant focus on the female body, which made her feel queasy several times. The indistinguishable mark of experience in the writing: anyone could make up a battle between shinobi and write it down, but the clarity and terror inherent to Tales battles made it obvious to her that they were likely pulled directly from Jiraiya's life. They were simply slightly too realistic, if melodramatic, to have been completely made up. Small details like the cold feeling of running low on chakra and the barely noticeable sting and shock of shuriken slicing through flesh sang through the writing and made Sakura remember her own past aches and pains.
The most obvious to her was the sincerity behind the book. Tales was an anthology about the gutsy shinobi Naruto, who was constantly underestimated and put down because of traits that were considered inappropriate for a ninja. He was honest and a little dumb, but he approached every situation with all of his effort.
Maybe names had some power, Sakura thought. But what made Tales different from the average shinobi action fiction you could pick up in any bookstore and forget before you put it down was its focus on empathy and understanding. Naruto usually didn't win just by outsmarting the enemy shinobi and beating them up; he learned why they were the person who they were, and used that to find a victory, either by convincing them to change their path or having some new knowledge that let him defeat their usually ridiculous jutsu. And of course, he never gave up, no matter what; that persistence was what let him reach that revelation in the first place.
'Why don't you give up on making me give up?'
Sakura wasn't a literary analyst, but it became obvious to her by the time she was done that Jiraiya had put a lot of himself into this book, and that he truly believed the best way to defeat someone was to understand them.
But what did that mean for his ideology of Ninshu, and the ideology of the Nation of Rain that it had spawned? That, Sakura needed more time to think about. She'd left the book half open on her nightstand, laying face down and open to a page where Naruto cut out a shinobi's stolen eye.
Eight days after they'd arrived, a shinobi she didn't recognize came calling for her.
When she opened her door, summoned by the sharp triple-rap upon it, she found a woman on the other side. She was a shinobi in her middle age, perhaps her forties, with sharp features, dirty blonde hair, and gentle green eyes. She only had a couple inches on Sakura, and that more than anything made Sakura start as she realized that she'd spent the last year shooting up in height, that she was already almost level with an adult.
"Sakura Haruno?" she asked, her voice as gentle as her eyes, and Sakura nodded, unsure of what to do. The woman wore her hitai-ate in a traditional manner, tucking her hair back in a ponytail and covering her forehead. "May I come in?"
Sakura stepped aside and made a soft affirmative, and the woman looked around taking in everything as she stepped into the room. She smiled and sat down on Sakura's bed, clasping her hands in her lap.
"My name is Nonō Yakushi," she said. Yakushi? Like Kabuto? The older woman noticed Sakura's look and nodded. "Yes. You've met my son, I take it."
"Yes ma'am," Sakura said, standing at attention. Even sitting down in a casual pose, the woman commanded attention. "How can I help you?"
"Well, you're a smart girl, aren't you Sakura?" Nonō said, and Sakura couldn't tell if she was simply sincerely sweet or sarcastic. "What do you think?"
Sakura crossed her arms. "Haku said I would probably be given a mission after a week or so," she said, and Nonō nodded. "And I really hope it's that, cause I think I'm gonna die of boredom otherwise."
"Do you like going on missions, Sakura?" the woman asked, and Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"It depends on the mission, I guess," she said. "But I definitely like it more than just sitting around, without my friends. I feel useless. I came here to be useful."
"Well okay then!" Nonō shot up with sudden enthusiasm. Sakura almost jumped back in surprise. "In that case, let's get you out of here! Meet me at the eastern bridge in thirty minutes, alright?" She winked, striding out the door. "Looking forward to it!"
Sakura watched her go in shock, and when her door closed began looking around frantically. A mission? Her first mission for Amegakure? It had been so long and yet she'd thought she'd have more time, the days passing in a blur like turgid lightning. What kind of mission was it? Nonō hadn't even said!
Calm down, Sakura thought as she began to pace. This was part of the test. How do you, Sakura Haruno, defector, pack for a mission you know nothing about? That's something that tells them something about you. What do you want to tell them? What's the truth that you don't want to hide?
Jack of all trades is a master of none, but usually better than a master of one.
It took fifteen minutes for Sakura to pack a generalist pack: enough food to last three days, a change of clothes, two dozen kunai and half as many shuriken, ten feet of steel wire, twenty of rope, and more. She was gripped by a sick deja vu. This time her father wouldn't be there to pack her a sandwich and get a peck on the forehead. She was alone in this room, alone in a building filled with people in a village bursting with more.
She felt something hot well up in her eyes, and shook it off with a grunt. She slipped on her frilled jacket and her sheath, the sword concealed under the pink frills, and then shucked on her pack and made her way towards the door. She stopped, looking at herself in the wall-length mirror.
Her hitai-ate was fine, but she felt like she was missing something. After a second, she looked back at the table next to her bed. There was a lacquered black box sitting on it, Konoha's leaf carved into its top.
She slipped back to her bedside and opened the box, its golden hinges silent, and stared down at the bespoke blade within. She'd never taken it out of the box before. Even looking at it made her stomach twist.
'I hope you like it.'
Sakura reached down and picked up the knife, feeling its perfect balance for the second time, the way her chakra slipped into it as naturally as water into a cup. She spun it once, and then placed it in a smaller sheathe on the other side of her hip from her sword. She'd never used that one yet either.
She let out a sigh.
'Ready.'
Sakura left from her balcony, gently closing the sliding door behind her flitting through the dense upper reaches like a sparrow. Up here, she was just another shinobi with a pack; Amegakure was full of them, hundreds of other ninja bouncing from building to building on errands as they navigated the urban forest of balconies, signs, power lines, communication cables, and a thousand other obstructions. For a ninja, all of the Hidden Rain was navigable from the lowest alley to the highest rooftop. The rain today was light, barely a drizzle from the grey sky, and Sakura didn't even notice it as it dappled her hair and jacket.
She took her time making her way to the bridge, wondering who she'd find there and knowing she still had about fifteen minutes. What day was it? She'd partially lost track in her mini-purgatory. Tuesday, she was pretty sure. The city was bustling with life; an older couple gave her a cheerful wave through their window as she rocketed past, and she didn't even have time to give a hesitant wave back. The streets below surged with activity, markets that had sprung up overnight and moved with the crowds filling the air with excited shouts and the smell of food, perfume, and incense.
It was all still overwhelming, and as the buildings started to become shorter and smaller at the edges of the village Sakura was glad to leave the noise behind. She bounced down an alley and walked out into one of the main thoroughfares, trying to control her breathing as a gaggle of screaming children ran past.
When she arrived at the wide bridge five minutes early, Nonō was already waiting for her.
"Hey, you're timely," the woman said as Sakura approached. She was leaning against one of the huge railings that span the bridge and staring out over the lake. "That's good."
"Will it just be the two of us, Yakushi-sensei?" Sakura asked, and Nonō waved her off.
"First off, I'm not your sensei, so don't even think about it. " she said. "Please just call me Nonō." She smiled. "The Amekage believe you're independent enough that you won't require that, Sakura."
"I appreciate that," Sakura said, and she did. Even if it might be a ploy, the notion that she was trusted enough that she didn't require a new sensei here gave her a weird satisfaction. Was this their way of saying she was a Chunin? That would be funny: both here and in Konoha, and at the same time. She suppressed the giggle.
"Second," Nonō continued, "we'll be accompanied by one other." She straightened up. "The Chunin Exam may have given you a different idea, but the Nation of Rain organizes its ninja a little differently from Konoha and the other villages. Are you okay with that?"
"Of course," Sakura said, letting her curiosity burn. "How is it different?"
"Most villages organize teams of three with a jonin or special jonin leader." Nonō stated the obvious. "Though naturally in wartime those organizations become more fluid, with squads combined into larger teams, platoons, and companies. I hope you're familiar with that." Sakura nodded. "I'm sure if it came to war Rain would be the same, but our peacetime teams are organized in cadres instead of squads: each has nine members."
"Nine? But not for every mission, that would be too many," Sakura said. Nonō smiled.
"Precisely. So instead, that group of nine is normally split into flexible teams of three, though it's not impossible they could all be sent on the same mission in some circumstances." She gestured towards the village. "So for example, the cadre that you're a member of is Cadre Thirty-Three, which was newly created when you and your team arrived. All three of you are members-"
Sakura tried to suppress the thrill of excitement she felt at that news. They were still in the same team! They weren't getting split up!
"-along with myself, Zabuza Momochi, and…"
"Myself," Haku said, and Sakura spun in surprise to find him behind her. He gave her a playful grin. "Who'll be coming along on this mission."
"Haku!" she exclaimed. "Does that mean Kabuto and Suigetsu are in the cadre as well?"
"They are," Haku said. He looked a little different, Sakura thought, covered in almost a dozen tiny packs, his Akatsuki half-cloak concealing some of them, and his hair pinned up with two senbon. He was frankly beautiful. "Along with one more shinobi who you haven't met yet."
"Right," Sakura said, trying to get the word 'beautiful' out of her head. "Number nine. Who're they?"
"A girl named Karin," Nonō said. "You'll meet her soon, I'm sure."
Sakura wondered what she was like, but another question superseded it. "So, where are we going?" she asked, nodding towards the village. "Out of the village, I assume."
"You'd assume right," Nonō said with an amused look. "We're going to check in on one of the minor villages. They've expressed interest in a partnership with the Nation; we are only going to get the lay of the land."
"Which village?" Sakura asked. Haku laid a hand on her shoulder, and she jerked at the touch.
"Waterfall," he said soberly, and Sakura froze, the rain pattering against her face.
Waterfall?
She didn't want to go back there. She tasted ash and fire.
'We've long resisted becoming Leaf's ally…'
Sakura blinked. "Okay," she said. She noticed Nonō's lack of reaction. Haku had already shared this with her, she was sure. Had she been selected for this mission specifically because of that?
All that only took a heartbeat to process, and then Sakura breathed out. "Okay," she said again, and then cracked a smile. "I didn't think I'd be going there again so soon."
"Good attitude," Nonō smiled. Sakura couldn't escape the feeling that she was being graded. "Shall we, then? If we leave now, we should be able to make it there by sunset."
Waterfall was closer to Rain than the Leaf. Was that why they were reaching out to the Nation? Or were they reaching out to both, weighing their odds? Sakura didn't know, but the question burned inside her. She'd just barely arrived, and already she could see the weight the Nation of Rain was applying to the world. Assuming Nonō was telling the truth, of course.
They left Rain behind, and Sakura with her thoughts.
###
Haku and Nonō were good traveling companions. They cracked jokes, pointed out interesting sights, and told Sakura about their past missions as they traveled. She tried to reciprocate, but that awkwardness was still there, the invisible barrier of novelty.
Nonō had been right. They reached territory Sakura recognized shortly before the sun began setting, casting brilliant red light across the treetops. Traveling through the Land of Rain was interesting. The rain seemed to have a life of its own, pounding down in some places and barely present in others, and its constant presence had ground down the nation into mush for long stretches of their travel. Rain was filled with stretches of wasteland where nothing grew; old battlefields, Nonō told her, with the undisputable authority of someone who might have been there when they were created. It was a patchwork country, peppered with forests and grasslands and swamps and dirt.
What had she read? That conquerors and colonizers had taken most of Rain's natural resources in an endless series of conflicts? The scars on the land were so obvious that even she could see them. It made Sakura reflect on how she'd never seen anything like it in the Land of Fire. Her home country had never fallen prey to armies rampaging without limit.
But as they entered the Land of Waterfalls, the forests grew thicker, the wildlife more common, and the sun lower. Eventually, Nonō brought them to a stop with a raised hand. Sakura missed teleporting. She didn't mind the long distance running that most shinobi used to travel, but she was definitely realizing Obito's Kamui had spoiled them.
"We're on the edge of their patrol area," Nonō said. "I'm sure they've been told we're coming, but we should still move slow and steady, alright?"
"Of course," Haku said as they tightened their formation and began walking together.
"They patrol in teams of three," Sakura said, the memory drifting back to her. "Two less experienced shinobi and a team leader." Sorta like this one, she thought. "Though maybe that's changed, after what happened…"
"Probably not," Nonō said with a shake of her head. "Waterfall, even more than any other village, needs to keep up a show of strength. They can't afford to lessen their patrols."
"Right," Sakura said. She was surprised at how violently her skin was crawling. They weren't even in the village. Had it made that much of an impression on her?
No, she thought in a moment of welcome clarity. It hadn't been the fire or the blood, it had been the way she'd been kidnapped out of her own body. ROOT was what scared her, not Waterfall, and the man who'd squeezed her soul in his hands was dead. Her sensei had killed him. The thought brought her some peace, and the fear eventually drew back.
It was replaced by the feeling of being watched after about twenty minutes, and Sakura began looking around, seeing Haku and Nonō make the same tiny motions. Just like last time, they were being observed and not confronted. After three minutes of moving closer to the village without being challenged, Nonō stopped and cupped her hands over her mouth.
"Shinobi of the Nation of Rain!" she yelled, and the trees rustled. With animals or shinobi, Sakura couldn't tell. "We're here to speak to your Elder!"
Elder. Were all the others dead? At that moment, Sakura couldn't remember. A minute of silence passed, and then another. Nonō didn't flinch or hesitate, just standing between the trees with her hands on her hips. Right as Sakura began to believe they would be ignored or attacked, a young boy popped out of some bushes about thirty feet away, only showing his head. He couldn't have been much more than seven or eight.
"You're early!" he cried out in a high pitched voice, and Nonō shrugged.
"We left early," she said with a gentle grin, and the boy regarded her uncertainly, looking back and forth between her, Sakura, and Haku.
"All girls?" Sakura saw him mouth, and she had to suppress a laugh. "I'll lead you in!" he said out loud, filled with all the authority of a child that had been given any measure of power. He spun around, striding through the forest towards the village, and Sakura's team followed after him.
It was a familiar journey, the towering edifice of the plateau Waterfall stood atop and the claustrophobic tunnels that traveled up through it much less intimidating on a second viewing. Sakura barely paid attention as they walked, stuck in her own mind and grappling with an old thought. It wasn't a coincidence that she'd been chosen for this mission. What made the most sense? That Rain was using her as a prop to show that they could recruit Konoha shinobi? No, it couldn't be that, she'd already been there. They would have sent Naruto or Sasuke. It was a different reason, but she couldn't figure out what.
They reached the top, and Sakura stopped right before laying eyes on the village. To test her loyalty, maybe? Sending her to a neutral territory, so soon after she'd defected, to see if she'd run? To see how she would deal with the shinobi of Waterfall? It was a little crude, but it made the most sense. If she left the village and came back, that would be proof of at least her dedication.
The thought let her take a breath in, and then Waterfall immediately took it away.
The sight of the unmarred village and its beauty had burned itself into her brain, and she hadn't had time to see it from a distance after the devastation Itachi had wreaked on it. Now, she could see the damage in full.
Half the village had been completely consumed by flames, and was still in the process of being rebuilt. It was covered in shacks and tents, temporary housing crowded with people of every kind. Waterfall was isolated and mostly populated by shinobi: Sakura could see right away that rebuilding would be a slow process without the usual civilian and Daimyo contractors that Konoha used for construction. The great tree was seared on one side, nearly a hundred feet of thick bark burned to charcoal like a huge swath of ugly paint. The top of it was missing; Sakura had no idea how that could have happened. The whole tree was ragged where it had once been sweeping and gorgeous, cut through by fire and other forces that Sakura couldn't guess at, gaping holes blasted in its canopy.
Some of the rings had been damaged, water pouring freely from them into the lake. Sakura blinked, felt her throat clench. Waterfall had been a beautiful place, but now it looked like a plate that someone had dropped off a table. Nothing fit together; some pieces would be missing forever.
"You know where to go?" the boy, whose name they hadn't learned, asked, and Nonō nodded. He grumbled. "Then I'm going back to patrol!" He scurried back into the tunnels and left Sakura's team to their own devices.
"It's an amazing place," Haku said with genuine appreciation, and Sakura glanced at him. He couldn't see the full picture, she thought. He couldn't see what Waterfall had suffered.
Because of Itachi. Because of Rain.
She took a deep breath. "It was even better before the attack," she said. Haku nodded thoughtfully.
"I'm sure," he said. "Still… I've never seen a place shaped by shinobi like this."
"They're rare," Nonō said, striding forward onto one of the paths that led through the lake to the village's center. "Most shinobi only know how to destroy, after all."
'The thing that Shinobi supply is violence.'
Sakura followed the older woman in a daze, chased by the echo of the past as they made their way into the village and began ascending its rings. They drew looks everywhere they went, shinobi eyeing them cautiously as they went around the business of rebuilding their shattered home. They were obvious outsiders, Sakura thought with a flash of self consciousness.
And her, an outsider among outsiders...
They continued all the way to the center of the ring, to the longhouse that had been filled with squabbling elders the last time she'd seen it. The building was unmarked by fire: it had been one of the most heavily defended sections of the village, and the blaze that had consumed so much of Waterfall hadn't reached it. There were more ninja standing guard around it than anywhere else, and as the Rain shinobi approached they watched them with paranoid eyes.
Nonō came to a stop at the top step, clasping her hands behind her back, and tilted her head with an innocent smile. "Would you inform the elder we've arrived?" she said in a sweet voice, and two of the shinobi glanced at each other. One of them, a woman with long blonde hair, muttered something and slipped through the door and out of sight.
"They're jumpy," Haku noted. Sakura shook her head.
"Their home was destroyed in the middle of the night," she said. The boy took note of her heavy tone. "I can't believe they're even letting us in."
The woman reemerged and made a curt gesture, and Nonō stepped forward. "Stay by my side," she muttered. Haku and Sakura obeyed. They were shuttled into the building, ninja from Waterfall at their front and back.
The back of Sakura's neck itched, and she looked back. A ninja had slipped out from behind the door to follow them, leaving the blonde woman at the door. She blinked at a jolt of recognition.
It was Osaka, the blue-haired girl that had escorted her in the last time she'd been here. The older girl was looking down at her with hateful eyes, her lip curled up in disgust. Sakura met her gaze, unable to look away as she followed Haku and Nonō further into the building.
The girl looked like she wanted to say something, but reconsidered it after a second thought. Her eyes continued to burn into Sakura's back as she kept pace with them down the corridor.
Just like last time, the soundproofing was absurd: Sakura couldn't hear the argument until the door to the central chamber was opened for them.
"I don't care about excuses!" a young man was shouting. "If you can't do it, find someone who can!" He slammed his fist down on the room spanning table, now far too big for the room with so few people in it. There were only three other shinobi in there with him, all older, all strictly at attention. Sakura recognized the voice. He was the elder with two swords strapped to his back, the one who had argued they should have just kicked Fuu out of the village.
He was the only one left? She felt her face twitch in anger. As she did, the elder looked over at their entrance with cold eyes, glancing at each of the new arrivals in turn. Sakura, he lingered on for a second longer, a hint of confusion in his expression.
He dismissed his shinobi with an angry wave of his hand, and they shuffled out of the room stoically silent. The shinobi that had been escorting them in, Osaka included, replaced them: they weren't allowed to be alone with the elder, that much was clear. What had his name been? Eiji? Sakura struggled to remember anything she'd learned after the battle for the village.
"You're early," he grunted, taking a seat and rubbing his temple, and Nonō gave a slight bow. Haku and Sakura mirrored her, and the man snorted. "Please, don't flatter me."
"We're not here to flatter you, Elder Eiji," Nonō said diplomatically. Sakura felt a bit of satisfaction at getting the name right. "Only to offer our village's support in your trying times."
"Yeah, we've heard a lot of that," Eiji said, crossing his arms. "Let me get your spiel out of the way, huh? Is it gonna be a tithe, loans, or submission?" He started propping up fingers and mockingly knocking them down. "We can't afford to give up any part of our mission profits even if we wanted to, so you can fuck off with that. We don't have the ninja to spare, I'm sure a clever group like the Amekage know that, so you know…" He grinned. "And Waterfall will never integrate with another village. This is our home. So if you don't have anything else-"
"The Amekage are not fools," Nonō said mildly, and Eiji rolled his eyes. Sakura was frozen, watching a conversation she'd never been a part of before. Was this how all the villages conducted diplomacy, or just Waterfall? If it was, no wonder there had been three World Wars. "They understand asking Waterfall for concessions at the moment would be an insult at the very best." She removed a piece of paper from her jacket ('Konan's paper?' Sakura couldn't help but wonder) and slid it across the table. "That is why they would prefer conditions instead."
Eiji laughed, snatching the paper up with a dismissive look. "There's no difference," he said, unfolding it without looking at it. "A condition is just politely asking for a concession."
He glanced down at the paper, and his eyes went wide.
There was silence in the room for more than ten seconds. Sakura and Haku gave each other a look, both clearly wondering the same thing. Nonō was still, her hands shoved in her pockets in a lazy stance.
"You can't be serious," Eiji eventually said, laying the paper face down with a weak laugh. "There's no way even Rain could afford this."
"Why would they offer it if they couldn't?" Nonō said, removing one of her hands to examine her nails. "The Amekage would look like real idiots if you accepted the offer and then they couldn't come through."
"Maybe they're idiots then," Eiji grumbled, looking more and more uncomfortable. "Plus, what would we do in the meantime?"
"Still take missions, of course," Nonō said. "You have to keep your shinobi up to snuff, right? It just wouldn't be existential anymore."
Sakura had no idea what was being discussed, and clearly Haku didn't either. Eiji noticed her confusion and sneered at it, before, to her horror, she saw the same spark of recognition in his eyes that she'd seen in Osaka's.
"I thought I recognized you," he said, and Sakura realized she was being used as an excuse to delay the discussion. Was this her life now, being used as a tool and a prop? "You were here that night, with the rest of those brats." He smirked. "I didn't realize Shinobi from the Leaf had so few principles. And after all those fancy words your sensei barfed up. Did he make you sick enough to leave?"
Sakura stiffened, her blood running cold. All eyes in the room were on her.
'It wasn't like that. Why should I care? Sakura Haruno doesn't care about the Leaf anymore. The village didn't raise you or train you. Your parents did. Your sensei did, Obito did. If the village was insulted, there's no reason for you to care.'
All those mild and responsible answers raced through Sakura's head, and then the anger in her heart burned them all away.
"You don't know me," she said, and she saw Nonō cross her arms, face unreadable. This was part of the test. Be yourself, and you'll pass it. She was sure. She let a sneer creep across her face. "Don't make assumptions."
"Ooh, testy," Eiji said, amused. "Do you let all your subordinates mouth off like that?" he asked Nonō. She shrugged.
"You insulted her," she said. Sakura blinked as she realized the woman was backing her up, however neutral she appeared. "Did you think she would stand there and take it?"
"She certainly did the night we were attacked," Eiji sneered. "I heard she tried to kill her sensei herself. Driven mad by fear, were you?"
Sakura refused to respond. She just locked eyes with the man, resisting the urge to snarl. What was he trying to provoke her for? A grown man, getting his kicks from picking on a teenager? Pathetic. He was like Waterfall itself, something that had once been impressive but now was just sad to look at.
Eiji stroked his chin and looked down on her before suddenly pushing his chair out and standing up with a laugh. "Rain's offer is tempting," he said, and Nonō nodded graciously. "But it's based on conditions. I can accept that, if you let me add a condition of my own."
"That depends on the condition," Nonō said. Eiji smirked.
"She's a swordswoman," he said, nodding at Sakura. Her heart skipped a beat as her anger was doused by the reality of the situation. "And the youngest among you. If Rain really is strong enough to rebuild our village..." He leaned down, elbows on the table, and smiled. "Let's have a duel, like proper shinobi, and if she impresses me, I'll agree to your terms, one-hundred percent."
Sakura was rooted to the ground. Waterfall's leader had just challenged her to a duel? How petty could he be? He was trying to use her as leverage, of course. If Nonō refused, he would go on a track about how Rain could impose conditions on their agreement but Waterfall could not, even obviously stupid ones like this. The man's thoughts were obvious to her; he moved in simple patterns.
Maybe his swords would too?
Nonō was already shaking her head. "No," she started to say. "That's obviously-"
"Right now?" Sakura asked, stepping forward. She let her hand wander down towards her sword, and behind her she heard Haku stifle a laugh. She couldn't blame him; Eiji's expression was hilarious. He'd expected a denial; his rhetoric hadn't been structured to account for acceptance. An overconfident moron: that was the kind of person who would think about throwing away someone like Fuu.
Sakura's thoughts boiled with spite.
"In here?" she continued. "Or outside?"
"Sakura." Nonō's voice was unreadable. "You understand what you're agreeing to, right?"
'I won't be able to step in' went unspoken. Sakura nodded. "I understand, Nonō." She looked back at Eiji. He glared, his nostrils flaring. "I came to Rain to be useful, remember? If this will make him agree to the village's terms, then I'll do it in a second."
"Testy and cocky," the elder sneered, standing up to his full height. All of the other shinobi in the room were silent, watching their leader with carefully neutral expressions. Why was he still in charge, Sakura wondered, when his own shinobi seemed to barely respect him? Just tradition, or something else?
Maybe, a part of her that had been buried by the anger said, his strength alone could justify loyalty.
Too late to take a step back: she had to keep moving forward.
"Give your word," Nonō said, holding up a hand. "Or this will be for nothing."
"We're negotiating now. Why not? I'll give my word, and the word of Waterfall," Eiji said with a shrug, handing off something of immense value without care. Just like he'd wanted to do to Fuu. "Outside."
The Waterfall shinobi in the room turned as one, making their way out of the chamber. Sakura followed. She had thought her stomach would be turning circles, but for some reason she was calm.
If she was a shinobi, and the only thing a shinobi could supply was violence, then the best way she could help Rain and convince them of her loyalty was to win this duel. She didn't have a single doubt.
'But can't a shinobi do more than violence? Isn't Waterfall proof of that?'
They trundled out of the longhouse and drew yet more stares as they fanned out into a semi-circle, one half composed of Rain's shinobi and the other half of Waterfall's. The other side of the circle was much bigger.
"We should establish some conditions for this condition," Nonō said. Eiji scoffed. It was a nice day, Sakura thought. The sun was starting to set, casting thick shadows and red light across the plateau.
"Blood," he said. "Or screaming to stop. I'll accept either." He sneered at Sakura, once again expecting her to be unnerved.
"Sounds good," she said, narrowing her eyes and shucking her pack. She laid it at Haku's feet. She couldn't see any other weapons on the elder besides the dual swords at his back, and as she spoke he slowly drew both of them. They were plain black blades, nothing remarkable that she could see. Possibly chakra conductive metal?
She'd never fought two swords at once before.
"Tell the rest not to interfere!" he barked at Osaka and the others, and they scattered. "I'll be teaching a lesson in loyalty."
Sakura gripped her sword, but didn't unsheathe it. She also didn't reach for her knife, still hidden under her jacket. She wasn't confident enough to use it yet.
"Nonō Yakushi," the elder spat again, a clear note of command. "She's your shinobi; give the command."
Nonō gave Sakura one last chance. She didn't take it. Instead, she unsheathed her sword. She brought it out alone; there wasn't any water accompanying it.
Nonō took that as her signal. "Begin."
Eiji the Elder leapt forward as soon as the words were spoken, bringing both blades crashing down in a brutal vertical arc, and Sakura flowed into a defensive posture that Obito had almost literally hammered into her. Her blade intercepted both of the blades in a high guard.
Sakura immediately realized she'd made a mistake. The strike was unbelievably strong; her guard almost shattered in an instant. It was like she'd caught a slab of concrete on her sword. Eiji growled down at her past his blades as they ground against hers, his arms rippling with muscle as he tried to force his way past her sword.
He wasn't bothering with anything she could call technique, only raw strength. Not because he couldn't, Sakura was sure, but because he wasn't bothering to. His strength alone could be enough.
"Weak!" the man called out, and he kicked out. Sakura let out a grunt of exertion and thrust his blades away in time to leap back, the kick only brushing her stomach. He stomped forward and threw another series of strikes, his swords flashing out. He wasn't as fast as Obito, Sakura thought, but each attack was thrown with so much anger and force that parrying the first almost sent her spinning to the ground. She ducked under the second and skipped backwards, drawing more distance as Eiji continued to rush forward, every step a strike and every strike a step.
"So Rain is the kind of village that lets children represent it?!" Eiji roared, leaping into the air in a brutal roundhouse kick. Sakura ducked the kick but the man was attacking again before he even hit the ground, spinning low and knocking her off her feet. She hit the ground hard and rolled backwards, out of range of the man's scything blades as he carved at the ground under her. Chunks of rock went flying into the distance as the man's powerful attacks cleaved clean through the stone. "It's pathetic!"
He reared up, both blades high, and Sakura saw her opportunity.
"Shut up!" she shouted back, and kicked herself off the ground, driving her head directly into the man's gut. Eiji gagged, rocking back, and Sakura scrambled under his legs as he slashed wildly down at her, only tearing up more stone. She spun back to her feet behind him, leaping over a kick thrown back.
But the man was faster than her; another kick struck her out of the air, and Sakura tumbled backwards, falling into the uppermost ring of water that surrounded the longhouse. She came up gasping for air, seeing the area beyond her opponent for the first time. A crowd had gathered; more Waterfall shinobi than she would have figured, maybe two dozen, all watching the fight with interest. Nonō and Haku were at the forefront of the crowd. Eiji was stalking forward, twirling his swords and spitting with anger.
As she breached the water, Sakura saw Haku raise an eyebrow. She grinned viciously and stood up, pulling herself out of the water and standing atop it.
She brought her blade up, and the water came with it. Eiji slowed, his eyes narrowing as Sakura's Ryusuiken took form, the blade beginning to spin and picking up speed. Sakura flourished the sword, drawing more water up.
"Jutsu, huh?" Eiji said, sheathing one of his swords with a swift and violent motion. It was a wonder he didn't stab himself. "Alright then." He held his other blade out before him, and to Sakura's alarm began making hand signs with his now free hand.
There was no announcement of the jutsu: Eiji just spit a fireball bigger than Sakura that roared forward and seared the stone below it.
"Hey-!" she heard Nonō shout out, but Sakura didn't hesitate. She stepped forward and swung her sword with both hands, and the water blade whipped out and cut the fireball in half in an explosion of scalding steam. Sakura shielded her eyes, the blade revving furiously at her side.
She heard a splash to her right, the movement hidden by the steam, and swung on instinct. Her blade came around, but before she could complete the attack a hand latched onto her arm with enormous strength and stopped it in its tracks. Sakura's other hand shot down on instinct, towards her waist.
The Ryusuiken fell short, but the half-completed attack blew away the steam. Eiji was standing next to her, his hand wrapped around her arm and his blade at her heart.
"I'll give you some advice, little girl," he said. He wasn't even sweating, Sakura thought. He had her completely at his mercy. It would be suicide to move. "Extending your sword sounds neat, but all it means is that if the enemy gets close to you, your technique is-"
Sakura jerked upwards, and Eiji hesitated. He didn't push his blade forward into her heart. He'd put his sword in a lethal spot to threaten her, but that meant he couldn't actually attack without adjusting it. Not without killing her.
Sakura had guessed correctly that despite his rotten attitude, he didn't want to kill her. That meant that instead of dying, she had enough time to flick her wrist and send the tiny blade of water wrapped around her knife flickering upward to cut him cleanly across the chin.
Eiji moved his sword, almost as fast, and slashed Sakura across her shoulder, drawing a gout of blood. She didn't flinch, just glared up at him as he crushed her arm.
"I could have killed you," he hissed. "You little-"
"And I could have cut your head in half," Sakura spat, her whole body shaking with adrenaline. "Congratulations, we're both dead. Let me go."
She jerked her arm back and Eiji released her with a grunt of fury. He glared down at her, clearly considering swinging once again, before sheathing his blade. He hadn't even cleaned her blood off of it.
Sakura didn't dare say a thing. She could sense her role in things had come to an end.
"Impressive!" Nonō said with a clap, and a couple of the Waterfall ninja halfheartedly joined in. "Strength like that is why Rain wishes to be Waterfall's ally, Elder Eiji." She stepped forward, carefully watching Sakura as she stepped away from the older man. "Your village's power can't be questioned."
"Ha." The man said. The short duel seemed to have taken some of his spark away. He wiped a thumb against his chin, smearing the trickle of blood Sakura had drawn, and sighed.
"I'm kicking you out," he decided, and Nonō gave him an unimpressed look. "But I'll agree to Rain's conditions. If Amegakure rebuilds Waterfall, and supports it in the meantime, we will happily come to its defense if necessary." He flashed a smile, and Sakura saw the handsome charisma that had been buried beneath a bad attitude. "It's the least we could do for such good neighbors."
"Delighted to hear it!" Nonō said. Haku, as ever, was quiet, observing everything with frightfully intelligent eyes. "The Amekage will send another delegation to record the official agreement, of course."
Right; normally something like that would be taken care of by the Daimyo's government, Sakura thought, but Rain's government and its village were one and the same, weren't they? The bureaucracy and legality of any treaty fell upon them.
"Of course," Eiji said wearily. He gestured, and they were surrounded by Waterfall's shinobi. "Now get out."
###
They made camp under the open sky a little after midnight. They'd made it about halfway back to the Nation of Rain by that time, and Nonō had decided that was enough. She had closed the wound on Sakura's shoulder with flawless medical jutsu. Sakura was sure that she had been the one to teach Kabuto as soon as she felt Nonō's warm touch.
The camp was standard for a shinobi: concealed by the earth, no open flames. They kept themselves warm with their chakra and blankets, and ate small meals they'd packed themselves.
"Are you looking to reinvent yourself?" Haku asked when they were nearly finished, and Sakura almost choked on her noodles.
"Pardon?" she asked. The boy was peering right through her with his piercing gaze, his haori pulled up and wrapped around his neck like a scarf for a little extra warmth.
"Accepting that challenge wasn't something you would have done in the Leaf, I think," he said. Nonō was staying quiet, she noticed. The woman wasn't judging her, at least Sakura didn't feel like it, but she was always watching.
"I went after Gaara," she pointed out, and Haku frowned.
"That was different. That was just anger. Justifiable anger, but still. This time you were doing it because it would help the Nation."
"Yeah." Sakura looked down, stirring her noodles. "I guess that's true. I was angry this time too though." She laughed. "I guess I am looking to reinvent myself. I keep thinking that I should be different now. Cause now I'm Sakura Haruno, someone who defected from Konoha. But I don't always feel like I am."
"It's not that easy to redefine yourself," Haku said with a gentle smile. "But if it's any consolation, I'm sure anyone who hears about what happened in Waterfall will think you're a completely different person."
Nonō laughed. "Without a doubt," she said. "You did do Rain a service if that's what you're worried about, Sakura. I didn't expect Eiji to be so insecure."
"I didn't understand it," Haku said with a shake of his head. "He did not seem like a leader. More that they were just following him, if that makes sense."
"It's accurate," Nonō mused. "Eiji was the newest and youngest elder, and it seems all the rest were winnowed in the attack."
By Kakuzu, Sakura thought. He'd torn out their hearts. Theirs and the Village's itself.
Nonō continued. "Waterfall hasn't experienced a loss like that in more than sixty years, not since its first generation of leaders were murdered by Kakuzu the Immortal." Sakura jerked: she hadn't known that detail. Kakuzu's actions took on a sinister new import to her. Had he come back just to repeat the job? "It's likely the shinobi are following Eiji just because he had authority in the old structure. Plenty of people operate that way."
She shrugged. "He may be deposed soon. If that happens, Waterfall will be ready for it. He gave the village's word in our agreement, not just his."
"Treaties tied to men are fragile," Haku said, clearly repeating someone else's words. Sakura looked back and forth between the two of them, weighing her words carefully.
"So does Rain have alliances like that with other villages?" she asked. They turned towards her. "Nonō, it sounded like Rain was going to rebuild Waterfall out of pocket in exchange for military assistance."
"Good ears," Nonō said cheerfully. "But it's more a defensive alliance. If we start a war, I doubt Waterfall would follow us… which I'm sure would be a fun debate if whoever threw the first punch was in doubt." She curled a lock of blonde hair around her finger. "But the Nation does have similar alliances, Sakura. It's one of the secrets to its strength, though I'm sure Konoha wouldn't have told you about that. A village relying on lesser ones for defense is unbecoming, right?"
Sakura nodded, though she didn't really agree.
"I came from the Land of Fire, you know," Nonō said, staring off at the stars. "I know how they work… the kind of people who rise to power there."
She sighed. "But enough of this. Let's rest. Plenty to do tomorrow."
They did, and for the first time in weeks Sakura slept without dreams.
'Even if it's not real, I feel like I belong here.'
###
Sakura got back to her apartment late the next day and collapsed on her bed with a groan.
Ame had welcomed them with clear skies and the city had been as active and noisome as ever. Nonō had brought them to one of the barracks, where they'd reported on the mission and then separated. It had all been normal, just the same as it would have been back in Konoha. It made Sakura feel dissociated again, like she was looking over her own shoulder and unable to believe what she was seeing. The actions were the same: the actors were different.
"You did well," was the last thing Nonō had said to her, and the sincerity in it made Sakura's heart bleed. She rolled over in bed with a groan, and something at the top of it crinkled.
Sakura looked back, confused and searching for the sound. She didn't see anything. She crawled up the bed, patting the blankets and looking around, and eventually hit upon the pillow. The crinkling came again; there was something under it.
It was a note, a little curled up piece of paper. Sakura frowned, unrolling it with paranoid hands.
The handwriting was familiar. She blinked, scanning the words.
Saw you got back. Let's meet up tonight, under that bridge near the east entrance. 10PM.
-S
Sakura blinked. How the hell had Sasuke crept into her room? How the hell had he seen her get back without her spotting him? How the hell…
But then, that was just the kind of guy Sasuke was. He'd always been like that, weirdly competent and a little strange. She thought back to the entrance, trying to figure out which bridge he meant. Probably the one closest to the entrance gate, connecting two buildings. Couldn't be under the bridge leading into the city itself: that was too obvious. At 10PM it would still be a little busy. They would just be another group of teenagers.
They were in the same cadre anyway, right? There wouldn't be any harm in meeting up just because they hadn't been shepherded towards each other. They were shinobi. They had that independence at the very least.
Sakura settled back into the pillow, looking at the letter, and grabbed a book.
It seemed she had a couple hours to kill.
###
AN: Bit of a delay on this one, lol. I was reworking the outline to account for some more dynamic stuff, which normally wouldn't have taken that long, but then my dog got attacked while we were hiking and I tore my ACL defending her, pain threw my routine off, blah blah blah, excuses excuses. I'm back on track now, and we should have weekly or biweekly updates for a bit again. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!