Bonds chapter 48: Homeward Bound
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Sakura
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"You know, maybe it's time to go back— to our regular time. We could work on a strategy for you to meet Rin," Sakura suggested. She laid her hand gently on Obito's tense shoulder and he shrugged her off violently.
"I can just kidnap her. Explain things to her," Obito argued, speaking more to himself than to Sakura.
Sakura grimaced. Was that always his solution? "Kidnapping doesn't seem to be the best option."
"I mean, she wouldn't know it was me that kidnapped her. I would rescue her from the kidnapper." He turned towards her. "You can kidnap her and then I'll save her from you." He angled his head to the side. "I'll probably have to kill you though — to make it believable." He smiled lopsidedly at her. "It would serve Bakashi right. I can drop off your corpse on his doorstep."
"Eh, no," Sakura said, stepping back from her volatile kidnapper who spoke so casually about murdering her. They had spent the last few weeks observing the daimyo's second daughter. It was only for a short while every day, before Obito would then teleport them to some other date within the time-stream where they couldn't be found if any of her friends caught wind of their location.
Obito looked up at the sky. "Hm, time to go." He grabbed hold of Sakura and pulled her against him and they vanished within his Kamui dimension. He started to pace, rubbing at his jaw thoughtfully.
"Maybe you can tell me about yourself — your childhood perhaps? Did you have any brothers or sisters?" Sakura asked, trying to smile encouragingly. She sat lotus-style on the dusty ground and tried to will the tension out of her back. When she'd worked with Lady Chiyo and Master Tsunade, they'd all touched upon the fragility of a shinobi's mental health. Obito Uchiha was psychotic, but he did seem to have more moments of lucidity these days. He was sane at least eighty-percent of the time. It was just the twenty-percent was pretty terrifying.
"No. And no parents. They were dead, dead, dead before I could even remember. Grandma raised me. Dad's mum." Obito teleported only to appeared in a crouch right in front of her, so close his breath warmed her face. "I wasn't a prodigy. Not like sweet Shisui. He's two years younger than me. He graduated the Academy at seven and me and Rin were nine. Bakashi graduated at five — he was always so pretentious." He angled his head again. "Remember the boy that was chasing cats? Back when we did the Bell test with Minato sensei?"
Sakura started to open her mouth to say that she wasn't there, when Obito cut her off. "No. No. I guess that was you but not you." He ran shaking fingers through his spiky, dark hair. "Grandma was loving. I had a good home life — always fed and bathed. I brought extra servings to poor Shisui. His mom died at some point and his dad was a drunk. Anyways, I didn't activate my Sharingan until well after I graduated the Academy. Some of the clansmen said it was a shame I was orphaned too young. If I had known my parents, then their deaths might have served a purpose to trigger the emotional response needed to activate the Sharingan."
"That must have been very hard," Sakura acknowledged.
Obito nodded and wiped his knuckle under his eye. "It was. I wore goggles because my eyes were so sensitive. Bakashi thought I was crying, but I was having watery eyes because they were sensitive. I had allergies."
"Regardless of allergies or emotional distress, no one should make fun of someone for having tears. It's normal," Sakura affirmed.
Obito laughed. "I bet you were a crybaby." He grinned at her. "Am I right?"
Sakura huffed. "I am sensitive. I wasn't very good at the shinobi rule of not showing emotion. Though, that's why Anbu wear masks, is it not? No one can be blank of emotion and still be sane."
He giggled and bounced on the balls of his feet. "That's so ridiculous, Sakura-chan! Of course, shinobi are all insane!"
"Shisui is like an older brother to me. He took me under his wing, trained me. I love him a lot. He's probably looking for both of us," Sakura said gently. It was best to talk about Shisui. Obito seemed to hold affection for him. Kakashi was definitely a sore subject and Sakura would try to avoid bringing him up.
"Shisui was supposed to die. Danzo arranged it. I wanted to stop it, but you stopped it." He blew out a breath and ruffled his bangs. "Thanks for that, I guess."
Obito was still on about her time traveling and saving Shisui's life. Though, based on her interaction with adolescent Kakashi a while back, she suspected he was right.
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Kakashi
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A week had passed since Sarada Uchiha's first birthday celebration and ten days past Sakura's seventeenth birthday. He should have been taking her on that long-promised and over-due date with his memories intact and his complicated feelings. He had to find a way to convince her, that he was more than her former aloof team leader with unhealthy coping techniques for dealing with his childhood traumas, grief, and savage experiences in the Third Shinobi War.
Kakashi remembered — everything. His adolescent crush had been with a time displaced Sakura who was the same age as him, back when he'd been an orphan but was otherwise sheltered compared to later. She was that golden-haired lover in his young adult life, the one that reminded him life was worth living and that he was more than a numbed ninja assassin. He remembered the whole team — the future version of them from that other timeline. If Sakura hadn't time-traveled to begin with, they'd have figured it out. Kakashi knew his older self had loved her based on the presence of those silver bangle heirlooms. His other version had matching charcoal eyes, strong confidence in his posture and a calm mind. If Sakura had stuck to her own time, things certainly wouldn't have been as messy as this timeline. Kakashi's mind was anything, but calm! Would he ever have that same kind of deadly calm aura again?
Though a stark contrast between timelines, Shisui wouldn't be alive if things had continued without other Sakura's interference. Itachi would have been a rogue ninja/double secret agent. Obito's terrorist group would have done a lot more damage. And there would have been a Fourth Shinobi War on the horizon that brought the shinobi nations into an alliance that stood up against a goddess. And more than half the shinobi alliance would have perished. The bit about the war, he shouldn't have known about. He wouldn't have known about, except he'd asked Sakura to tell him everything that happened in her original timeline that she wanted to be different. And she had, until more time-travelers, his future step-daughter and future son had come to take her back home.
He leaned down, picked up a flat stone from the shore where the Naka River had receded and tossed it far, skipping it over the slow moving water. His team had returned to the village to regroup. Ino needed to resume her training with the Intelligence Division under Ibiki Moreno and her father Inoichi Yamanaka. Sai and his brother Shin were being sent to join a two person team from Mist to investigate a child smuggling ring that had ties to Danzo and the remnants of the Root organization
While Danzo was dust on the wind, his machinations were still running afoul within the ninja world. The new leaders of Mist had wanted to show a sincere peace with Konoha and requested the mission to be joint. The Godaime could hardly refuse. With Sai's cartoon birds jutsu, they were the best suited shinobi for that particular mission.
Now that their team had returned to the village, it was being divided into different factions. Kakashi was waiting to hear if his leave of absence was going to be approved or not. Several of his friends had offered to donate their time off, so he'd have plenty of time if he ran out of his own. Guy, Genma, Asuma, Kurenai, Itachi, Tenzo, Yugao— they'd all come with him before the Godaime to volunteer their time off so he'd have at least a year to search for Sakura if needed. Tsunade was thinking it over. The Anbu Commander had asked if the mission to search for Sakura could be extended — he asked to just keep Kakashi and Shisui on it. The Kazekage offered to contribute resources financially and via man-power to the cause if Tsunade would consider the search mission a joint venture.
Kakashi felt the approach of Shisui, the Uchiha that would have died a horrible death had it not been for Sakura's time-traveling adventure. Kakashi clenched his jaw so tight a muscle twitched in his cheek. He would be grateful regardless of his current heartache. And maybe, somehow, something could be done to bring Obito back into the fold.
"Still no news for us," Shisui confirmed. "Though, Sasuke isn't really fighting the order to remain home. He's worried about his daughter. And Naruto is attached to him at the hip, so…." He crouched to inspect the rocks on the shore and picked one up. He tossed it in his hand to check the weight and balance and then skipped it across the waters, sending it just a smidge farther than Kakashi's had traveled. "The civil war in Mist is over. Mae Terumi is the Mizukage and Kisame Hoshigaki is her right-hand man. They wrote to the Godaime to say they had ordered their shinobi to keep an eye out for Sakura and Obito as well. You know Sai will continue to look while he and Shin are on their mission. The Kazekage regrets he's unable to join us himself, but he's sent his cousin Lyna and his protege Kankuro to look for clues. His shinobi also have orders to be aware. And even if we aren't allowed to specifically look for them, it's been agreed to keep an eye out for them."
"And yet if we're out on missions, the mission would take priority over following up on any possible leads," Kakashi murmured angrily. "That's not good enough. Considering when our current leader Tsunade up and left the village for decades without any consequences to gamble and drink, I don't see why there should be any issue with me taking a leave of absence. I've more than earned it." Their only real clue, had been when Obito and Sakura had come back long enough to steal something from the leaders of Amegakure. Konan had surprisingly reached out to Konoha with this information— not what was stolen, but that they'd been there.
"I know, Kakashi. I recognize the hypocrisy and am not arguing with you. But, Sakura would be very upset with us both if we went and got ourselves declared missing ninja. And I don't think it's Lady Tsunade that is working against us, but the council — the various clan heads— are divided. However, there is another mission I know you were eager to go on," Shisui said quietly. "Dad wants us to travel to Tea and escort the Harunos back to Konoha. It seems Lady Tsunade discovered some classified information from Lord Minato's rule that explained Mebuki Haruno's identity as his cousin and an expert in apothecary. Lady Tsunade wants her to work on a project with Shizune."
"Would Sakura's parents want to return to Konoha?" Kakashi asked. They'd left on their own volition. He suspected there was some sort of issue between Mebuki Haruno and Mikoto Uchiha. An issue that would be compounded with a shared grandchild. However, Itachi had seen the family in Tea. He was the head of the Uchiha now, maybe he'd decided they should return?
"Yes, Itachi apparently told them about their granddaughter," Shisui answered. "It's still a secret, but he felt Sarada's grandparents deserved to meet her, especially since we don't know…when…Sakura will return."
Kakashi's hands balled into fists, the leather of his gloves creaking. When? More like if. People were losing faith.
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A few weeks later, Kakashi and Shisui returned to Konoha with Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno. It had surprisingly been a nice mission. Sakura's parents were nice and appreciative to both Kakashi and Shisui. Sakura had been extremely fond of both of them throughout her childhood and had spoke many praises of them both.
It shamed Kakashi somewhat given his cavalier treatment of Sakura in her youth. Though, it sounded like Shisui more than made up for his neglect. The Godaime fed the story to Sakura's parents that she was still working on a confidential project with the Kazekage. Seeing as she'd spent quite a bit of time in Suna, they had no problem accepting that explanation. They'd been excited to learn that she had a daughter and that it wasn't a situation forcing her into retirement. It wasn't a surprise to Sakura's parents that the child was between Sakura and Sasuke. It was like Mebuki was fine with Sakura having a daughter with Sasuke, so long as she wasn't married to him. It was an odd attitude.
They would be allowed supervised visits on the Uchiha compound. Since they'd once been regular guests of Mikoto during the kids early days at the Academy, nothing much was thought of an old friend coming to spend time with the widowed clan matriarch. And it actually seemed like the two women were someone friendly again. Maybe they let bygones by bygones and focused on their common love for baby Sarada.
What had been a surprise, was during Kakashi and Shisui's escort mission, Sasuke and Naruto had been paid a visit by none other than Hagoromo Otsutsuki. With the additional massive boost in their powers, there was no need to confine them to the village and when Sarada's other grandparents arrived, Sasuke was eager to rejoin the search. The council finally relented and allowed their search to be officially sanctioned as a mission.
Kakashi noticed things seemed different between Sasuke and Naruto since he last saw them. He couldn't quite place it, but it was definitely different.
Their four-man cell — Kakashi, Shisui, Sasuke and Naruto came across Orochimaru at one of his bases. With Sasuke's Rinnegan ability and Naruto's sage powers, the snake sannin was easily defeated. Shisui stepped in and encouraged Orochimaru to turn over a new leaf, so to speak. He would become a doting parent. For, Orochimaru wasn't the only person they found in the hideout. There was a one year old boy with light blue-silver hair and reptilian eyes there under the care of a woman with long-crimson hair. Mitsuki was a clone of Orochimaru with a few genetic modifications and Karin had been his surrogate mother. Much like Tenzo had been a clone of Lord Hashirama with modifications.
As they were wrapping up that mission, there was a manifestation of powerful chakra and a rip in time. Stepping out of nowhere with lightning crackling around them stood a twenty-year old Sarada Uchiha and a seventeen year old Takashi Hatake.
"Yo," Takashi greeted, raising his hand and looking between the group. He nodded at Shisui and Kakashi, observing the spark of recognition in their gazes. "Now, don't freak out," he said, turning his jade eyes onto Sasuke and Naruto. "We've come to help you find Mom."
Sarada's dark eyes widened as she laser-focused her attention on the toddler in Karin's arms. "Is that Mitsuki?"
The woman held the baby close to her chest an her crimson eyes narrowed in suspicion behind her glasses. "How do you know his name?"
"Oh my! Sarada he's adorable!" Takashi's hands flew to his face to cover his nose and mouth, his eyes comically wide. "Who knew your boyfriend would have been such a cute little baby! Especially with as weird as his parent is!"
"Hey," Orochimaru complained with a frown. He rubbed at his forehead, Shisui's Kotoamatsukami manipulation genjutsu forcing him into a domestic mindset.
"What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked, flash-stepping to stand alongside his son from the future. The fact that Takashi was here, gave him hope that Sakura would be recovered. "Do you know where they are?"
"No one is a better tracker than me," Takashi answered. He glanced back at Sarada. "We've studied the ancient fuinjutsu of the Uzumaki. We can find them wherever in time and then I can destroy the seal around your friend's heart so that he's not stuck under Madara and Zetsu's influence."
"You haven't been able to track him because his mind is so erratic. You have to try to track Mama," Sarada explained, tearing her gaze away from her father, her eyes bright with emotion.
Takashi flashed a charming smile on Karin before he leaned close to Kakashi's ear — they were about the same height. "Karin is good friends with mom. She's an Uzumaki that Orochimaru had taken in from an abusive situation when she'd been a little girl. So she was always loyal to him, however, she loves Mitsuki more than anything. She and Auntie Hinata are great moms."
"Don't you think you should be more careful dropping tidbits from the future?" Kakashi asked quietly.
Takashi shrugged. "Maybe, but you're my dad. I've always told you everything." He smiled at Kakashi, and it reminded Kakashi painfully of the brilliant way he used to smile at his own father, before the dark times. "Damn, it's so good to see you again in your youth. I mean, you like never age, but I know Uncle Obito riles you up, so I'm looking forward to seeing you lose your cool. It's so rare!" He leaned close again. "Though, Boruto and Himawari think I talk too much when I get excited."
"Takashi!" Sarada called out, looking exacerbated.
"Right." Takashi took a deep breath and his face lost all joviality as he grew serious and focused. It was like watching a mirror back when Kakashi would practice his serious face when he'd been a kid. "We'll need Papa Sasuke's susanoo and to combine his Rinnegan with Sarada's mangekyou sharingan ability. Uncle Naruto's chakra will be useful in case we need a recharge. Traveling through time takes a lot of chakra. I will create a wooden cage around Obito and then slam Dad, you'll need to blow a hole into his chest with your chidori, I'll follow up with my hand against his chest dissolving the Fuinjutsu seal around his heart and healing the damage immediately afterwards."
"You can do all that?" Kakashi couldn't help but ask, feeling skeptical. However, two of his teammates did just get god-like powers for being the reincarnation of the Sage of Six path's sons.
"Of course!" Takashi smiled. "Why else would Uncle Itachi order us to fix this mess? One of you would probably get killed facing off against Uncle Obito like this. He's pretty loony toons at the moment. It's going to take Uncle Shisui's magical eye to calm down his mind so that Mom and Auntie Ino can work on his fractured mind and help him regain his sanity." He hopped from foot to foot anxious. "So, Mom and Obito have been hopping around time for what? A year now?"
"A year and a half." Kakashi closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are we just one big family in your time? You keep calling everyone uncle or auntie."
"Sure, Mom and Naruto are just social butterflies. Or rather, they're the flames that keep attracting all you overly serious moths," Takashi answered. He turned abruptly and threw his arms around Shisui's neck in a hug, knocking the older man back a step in surprise. "Thank you, for never giving up on Mom and Dad. They can be idiots. They'd never have figured things out without you, I suspect!"
Shisui laughed. "Yeah, well I do owe them my life. And they may be stubborn, but far from idiots."
"Let me just drop these two back off," Sasuke said, having quietly followed the conversation. He had a strange look on his face when he looked at Takashi, having made the connection of just who he must be considering his seventeen month old daughter was standing before him as a twenty-year old. Using the power of his Rinnegan, he and Naruto teleported Orochimaru, Karin, and Mitsuki back under the care of the Leaf.
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Sakura
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She was more worried now about Obito's mental health than she'd been at the start of her kidnapping. She could see glimpses of the sweet boy he'd been, buried under the cruel man he'd become. It was like he was suffering from schizoaffective disorder— two distinct personalities, one playful and one hostile.
He was currently pacing, talking about the Rin of his youth and comparing her to the Rin living in the daimyo's palace.
They weren't in the Kamui dimension and they weren't near the daimyo's palace either. Obito was suddenly worried that other-Rin would see his scarred face and be afraid of him. Instead, they had traveled back nearly five thousand years into the distant past. They were still in the Land of Fire, but the human population was sparse and widespread.
And then, it all happened so fast. One moment she was trying to stirring a pot of stew over their fire, the next a large purple fist closed around her and yanked her inside a skeletal like creature.
"I've got you," Sasuke murmured, holding Sakura against him. "I'm so sorry I was a jerk before, Sakura. Sarada misses you. I miss you."
Sakura could barely see what was happening past Sasuke's chest as he crushed her against him. There was a commotion, the sound of the wood release jutsu, the familiar scream of a thousand birds from Kakashi's chidori, Obito's scream of pain and then silence.
"Alright, that should do it," an unfamiliar, tenor-toned male voice announced.
Sakura managed to extract herself from Sasuke's hold enough to see not one, but two silver-haired men standing over an unconscious Obito Uchiha. Then as if sensing her attention, a mismatched dark charcoal and crimson set of eyes and another pair of charcoal with jade luminal borders stared back at her.
Sakura felt her legs go weak.
Then Shisui's strong arms banded around her, pulling her away from Sasuke. "We've got you. We'll be going home, Sakura-chan. It's all going to work out, I promise."
Then Kakashi was there, pulling her into his arms and hugging her close. "I owe you a date, Sakura. Happy belated birthday."
Sakura laughed, feeling overwhelmed with the abruptness of being freed from the clutches of a madman. She buried her nose against the front of Kakashi's flak jacket and breathed in the familiar, soothing smell of pine forest and earth. "How long has it been? It feels like ages. We've been traveling all throughout time."
"It's been nearly a year and half, Sakura," Kakashi answered. He leaned his forehead against hers and breathed in a shuddering sigh. "I've been so worried. I know you visited me in the past — the day Rin died."
"Yeah, and apparently another me visited you before then," Sakura said with a faint chuckle. "And Sasuke has a purple skeleton monster and I met his previous incarnation — Madara Uchiha. He's the reason Rin had the tailed beast put inside her. He orchestrated it, wanting to awaken Obito's Mangekyou Sharingan by witnessing the tragedy."
"Shh, let's not talk about that right now," Kakashi murmured. His fingers wound themselves into her hair, running through the length. It had grown even longer during her sojourn across time. "Your parents are back in Konoha. You can stay with them in your old house, stay with Shisui where you were before Obito took you, or you can stay with me." He met her gaze. "I really hope you'll choose to stay with me. I have so much I want to say to you."
"Yeah, yeah, we all have things we need to say to Mom," the silver-haired teen said, crouching next to them. He smiled at her, his teeth so perfectly straight and bright white it almost hurt to look at his mouth.
Then she was being crushed by a stranger into an even more fierce hug, yet he didn't seem like a stranger.
"Seriously, Takashi, you're such a mama's boy," a dark-haired woman with crimson and black eyes grumbled crouching at Sakura's other side. "Hey, Mama. It's Sarada — from the future, don't worry, you didn't miss too much of your time. I wish I could bring you back to where you'd been taken, but I can't. There are rules with traveling the time stream that Uncle Obito ignored. I've got to try and correct some of the imbalances. You ready to go home?"
Sakura looked between Sarada, Takashi, Kakashi, Shisui, Sasuke, and Naruto. The latter had Obito tossed over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"Let's go home," Sakura said, feeling her eyes fill up with tears of relief.
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