Three months previously
Swirls of bile yellow flushed away again, Sakura's clammy fingers slipping on the toilet handle, and as she arched back to wipe her face off she was hit with another gut-clenching wave of nausea. Recollections with too much momentum to stop plunged through her mind's eye, and they squeezed her stomach in punishment. Sakura ducked her head into the toilet again, barely able to breathe between heaves.
There were too many tonnes of memories collapsing upon Sakura, crumbling down from clone to clone in the mass dismissal she'd had no choice but to make. She could barely distinguish each of the thousands of experiences from each other, overcoming her entirely — she couldn't take it, and she couldn't stop it. Her only option left was to endure her body's violent reaction to the avalanche, purging the empty contents of her stomach repeatedly in this bathroom she'd barricaded herself into.
What kind of research?
Ocular. Sakura shook her head, having stopped bothering to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes. Sasuke answered in her memories through the remembered earpiece. Orochimaru.
Heat, breaths, the change sudden and lurching, the spinning lights above the dance and the vicious joy in Madara's burning eyes making Sakura throw up again, her gut clamped tight with a violent wave of emotion. She wept as she leaned over the toilet, trying to shun away the memories, to close herself off from any sensation or feeling either good or bad.
We need to talk about my third mission.
Her own voice floating up from the mental flood, and Sakura took in a gasp of air, the tears streaming from her cheeks down her throat into her qipao. The elegant tiled bathroom was cool around her, bringing her the slightest grip on sanity in its soothing sterile coldness; but it couldn't stop the memory surge, swelling forth now with what had been Tsunade's sharp reply – what third mission?
Sakura inhaled sharply, pushing away what had been her intent and thorough explanation to Tsunade afterwards. The way she'd explained her actions; the long-winded, painful epiphany that had been enough to quell Tsunade's wrath, even though the dire future for Sakura still remained. The public's attention focused upon her dance-debut with her famous enemy made it impossible for any quiet punishment and forgiveness, had Tsunade or her team been feeling generous enough to offer that. No; Sakura was going to be set to trial, and her agreement to dismiss her clones as well as a few other concessions had helped to cement Tsunade's discernment of Sakura's lingering loyalty to Konoha when she'd listened to her overdue explanation.
She'd saved herself from true condemnation, but only just barely, and only for now. That part of her life was not completely lost just yet, even though her titles as kunoichi and doctor had been stripped until at least after her sentence was given. If her explanation of her truths held strong, she might come out of this with her life intact; if she did what Tsunade asked after figuring out how to get herself to a safe space out of these tunnels, she might yet redeem herself. But if she couldn't get away from Orochimaru and his team and it all went as sour as she feared — if everything fell through —
Sakura winced bodily, flinching back like she had been struck. No. It wouldn't. She shook her head to herself, trying to remember to breathe, to change the subject with herself. Of all that she had gone through in the last day and a half, she wanted to think about that the least, and she'd rather drown in the memories of her many now-dead clones than ponder her fate. She pushed the sticky hair from her face, bending over the toilet once more with a low groan.
It was all so much. Too much. She had never imagined something as intangible as an influx of memory could physically harm her to such an extent. Were she clear of mind, or if this was happening to a patient of hers, she might have wanted to study it; to understand it better, for healing and for personal curiosity, but curiosity was the least of Sakura's emotions at present, her desire being to forget and to bury herself in ignorance instead if only for the simple feeling of relief from all she was enduring now.
Sakura. She pushed her hands over her face with a tightening throat as Madara's voice moved through her mind, and she curled up against the wall, hugging her arms over her head as if to protect herself from her own mind; but she couldn't push him out of her skull now that he'd returned, standing in the middle of her thoughts that continued to swirl in a madness of fresh memories. He was the center of so many of them, and she couldn't stop the recollections that weighed heavier than the rest: the evening of the Union event and her subsequent detainment as well as the end of all of her missions, all having taken place only just last night.
"Breathe," Sakura told herself aloud. Breaths, in these new memories of when they had finally twined — breaths, in unison.
She managed half of an inhale now, letting it out shakily, and when remembered sensation brought his exhale along her ear as when he had curled around her, Sakura clenched against herself with a soft cry, shuddering with fresh tears.
It was all over, now. Everything was done with. The harsh, judging expressions of her teammates and mentors loomed over her like they stood here in this moment. Perhaps now, considering how poorly it all ended, Madara would regard her similarly.
Sakura curled up more tightly into herself, trying to hold back dry sobs. They'd just upset her stomach again, and her throat and nose already hurt enough from how many times she'd thrown up. She couldn't take any more.
Loud knocks on the door broke her out of her tears. Seizing up hard enough to hit her head back against the wall, Sakura's expression twisted into a snarl, her arms protective around herself. She was in no state to fight, but she would if she had to, and she'd give it everything she's got.
"Are you finished being dramatic?" came Karin's voice through the door.
"Go away or die," Sakura managed. Her voice was hoarse from hours of bile and crying.
A pause, and twinned sighs outside the door, which Sakura had previously barricaded with a stall she'd torn from the wall and shoved in front of it. "Look, Sakura." It was Suigetsu speaking now. "We were hoping you'd calmed down a little. We should talk, because what you're probably thinking is definitely not the truth."
"You have—" Sakura coughed, rubbing at her throat before swallowing thickly and continuing. "You have no idea what I'm thinking. All you know for sure," she breathed unsteadily, "is that you'll die if you dare come in here. I'll kill you both. I'll—" Sakura cut herself off with a wretched round of coughing, doubling over, one hand flashing out to steady herself on the nearby sink. Spitting up more bile, she dragged in another painful breath, wiping her forehead with a curse. "Damn it all."
Another exchange of soft sounds behind the door, and then one more weary, tolerant sigh before the door thundered open. Karin strode in through rubble, dusting off her fitted asymmetrical top; a living puddle slid in past her feet, and in moments she and Suigetsu stood over where Sakura had scrambled back with her fists up and eyes blazing.
She barely caught the fat bound set of folders Karin tossed at her, her first instinct being to dodge an attack and her second being the realisation it was just files. Nearly dropping it, Sakura hefted it before tossing it onto the nearby counter, glaring back at Karin. "What the hell…?"
"Just look at it. You won't listen to anything we say until you do." Karin folded her arms, rolling her eyes at Sakura's defensive poise as she glanced carefully over at the files. As quickly as she'd come, she turned around and left, her and Suigetsu leaving Sakura to blink at the wad of folders alone once more. Quiet settled freshly across the rubble of the ruined bathroom, slight crumbling sounds settling in the echoes of their exit.
Settling back against the sink, Sakura first assessed the room around her, her narrowed eyes flicking from floor to ceiling, from doorway to broken stalls, wary of anything they might have set up while her attention had been drawn to the thrown folders. She couldn't see or sense anything different, anything off; she could hear them talking a stone's throw away down the hallway outside, just loudly enough that she knew where they were, but close enough to be within earshot should she call to them.
With a sigh, Sakura turned her attention to the weighty bundle she held, keeping her senses on alert no matter her ongoing nausea and exhaustion. She'd examine what they had given her, but she wouldn't allow it to distract her, should this be an attempt to let her guard down before an attack. Despite her anger and suspicion, she felt a pang of gratefulness that they had left her alone to read whatever this was, giving her time to think and analyse without the additional stress of them watching her do so.
Sakura flipped it around a few times, running her fingers across the bound spines of the portly folders stuffed with files. Holding it up to the light, she absorbed every detail, her observant eyes flicking over the stack warily. She could find no dangerous seals nor other similar dangers, and so she untied the bundle carefully, setting it down on the empty space beside the sink atop the cold marble counter.
Glancing back over at the empty doorway first, Sakura then peeled open the cover of the first folder, watching the entry to the bathroom for a moment longer before letting herself glance down at the revealed contents.
Yellow pages greeted her, the text thin, the pages themselves filmy: receipts, the copies of something original no longer here. Sakura's brows furrowed as she ran her finger down the words and symbols, across every written and printed detail.
It was obvious this was the ghost-copy of research. She already knew which type of research, and it was with great suspicion that she read over every part of it, flipping between the pages with increasing interest and still the occasional mistrustful glance towards the doorway in case they'd tried to reenter while she was preoccupied.
Her eyes widened as she took in the details across the pages. Gingerly, Sakura picked up the folder's worth of yellow pages, setting it to the side while still open; shifting her attention to the next folder, she opened its cover, bracing herself.
White, this time, and she immediately recognised this set of files as very similar to the previous set. Unused filmy yellow pages clung to the back of these files, blank, as if ready to serve as receipts for this set of research yet ungiven.
Not ungiven… unsold. Sakura glanced over to the other set, and she reached over, flicking to the last page of that set and parting it from the rest so she could see the number of ryo listed over a set of signatures.
She made a slight wheeze like she'd been punched before looking back to the second set she'd just been looking at. As she thought; its price page was filled with blanks, the signature spaces empty.
Her mind cycling faster, Sakura read through the files of the unsold research in tandem with the sold one, comparing them carefully from detail to detail. Her subconscious easily recognised so much of what she read; every diagram, every table, even the technical drawings and labelled anatomy pages closely reminiscent to work she'd done during her months underground researching with Orochimaru and his team. It was all painfully familiar, clearly a copy of the Rinnegan research, but —
But it was half-wrong. Sakura hunched closer over the pages, shuffling through and reading them all through another time, absorbing the texts. Wrong. All the data in the research itself was off. She knew the studies she'd done almost by heart; she knew her own experiments, all the data she'd painstakingly recorded over the months and the weeks of careful investigations into Madara's eye, and both the sold and unsold research data she was looking at here was incorrect. Comparing the real data embedded in her head to what she was looking at now matched only in visuals and structure; the copies she held had the right cadence, the right look and setup to appear every bit like detailed, nuanced and thorough ocular research for a Rinnegan… but the data itself was entirely incorrect.
Sakura stood a little taller, beginning to understand. She frowned down at the folders and spread files. If her building theory was to be believed, these were brilliant fakes of the real thing, appearing genuine enough to fool anyone who hadn't seen or experimented with the true data. Even a learned scientist would be deceived by these sets of research at a glance, the data close enough to the real thing to be believable, at least until the one possessing these fakes tried to recreate anything in true practice. Only then would the falsity of these sets come to light.
Fascinated now, Sakura flipped through the rest of the folders. More sets in yellow, indicating that those fakes had been sold, and all with numbers that made Sakura's breath hitch; some in white, and all just like the first two, being perfect fakes of the original research living in Sakura's memory. When she glanced over them all again, she noticed the serial numbers at their upper corners on each of their final pages.
She shuffled to one of the yellow receipt sets, her eyes widening upon its serial number. 78983. The very one Sasuke had mentioned after discovering it in the vault back at the night of the Union event, the copy now living somewhere in evidence files locked away in the Hokage tower.
It was the final confirmation; the obvious truth, that the research Orochimaru and his crew had sold to the Union was a clever, useless fake.
No. Sakura stood back, shaking her head, pushing a hand through her mussed pink locks and letting out a long breath. She regarded the files, wanting to believe, wanting to forgive and to forget, but finding herself unable to just yet.
Could it be? Her eyes narrowed upon the spread of folders, shifting her hands to settle over her hips as she thought.
With one last glance towards the doorway, Sakura picked up the folders and read through them another time, exhaling quietly through her nose. This time, she paid closer attention to the receipts of sold research sets, studying the details written in on their payment sections.
Her eyes widened as she began to recognise detail after detail. Each date listed for when a set was sold lined up with days she remembered in her mental calendar as typical times the Union met for services at each chosen venue. The names; the signatures listed… she knew each one, could identify them as Union members she'd either met or heard of, and they were the right ones she knew would be likely to handle vital transactions like this. They were all pre-Madara-era Union members known to advise or handle finances, typically nepotism-elected members related to a rich patron or to Saito himself, and — Sakura smirked to herself — members she knew were stupid enough to buy into a scam like this one.
And… multiple times. She shuffled to other sets of research receipts, now more admiringly than anything else. There were different names between payments, and the locations listed were far apart. Recalling memories from her clones now dismissed, Sakura knew those locations were correct for where the Union would meet, every detail lining up in a way that told her this was undeniably true where the research data was undeniably false. She'd never given Orochimaru or his team this kind of information on Union movements, members, or meetings; they couldn't have falsified this, not to this extent.
Sakura finally pushed away the folders, shoving the hair away from her face once more and staring blankly forward as it all began to fully set in: all the ridiculous, relieving truth of it.
She shut her eyes, releasing a somewhat steadier breath that trailed away slowly. Her body slowly untensed, and her nausea had quelled, some of the colour returning to her features as Sakura gradually relaxed.
She almost laughed, then cried, pressing her palms in over her face with the fresh lashing of emotions across her heart. Thank whatever gods existed: it hadn't all gone to hell.
Sakura took another few minutes to collect herself and breathe before neatly stacking the folders, binding them into a few tight knots and setting the bundle aside. She washed her face, combing through her hair, splashing cold water across her features and drying herself off on a nearby towel. Ignoring her reflection, she hefted the folders beneath an arm and strode out through the destroyed entryway, her head swivelling to lock eyes with Karin and Suigetsu down the hall where they stood awaiting her.
"Magnificent idiots," Sakura said with half of a smile.
"Hah! I knew she'd get it!" Karin cheered, Suigetsu making a toothy grin. He caught the bundle Sakura tossed at them as she walked their way, her manner a little sheepish as she stepped over some of the rubble from her earlier destruction.
"I'll say, I'm a little impressed," Sakura said hesitantly, stopping beside them to lean against the cool grooves of the stony corridor wall, "but why do it, really?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Suigetsu shrugged. "Money."
Karin gestured around at the destroyed bathroom, the elegant corridor, and to the labs and common room nearby. "You're expensive. Resetting and monitoring distant tunnel branches Madara keeps disturbing in his hunt is expensive. Research is expensive. Constantly keeping our entire team supplied, fed, happy, and safely on the run in a gigantic subterranean complex requiring mass draws of resources and power is expensive. And so…" she beamed at Sakura, "we were more than pleased to have the Union itself fund yours and our efforts."
"They would have eventually found out that it's all a scam. Isn't that risky?" Sakura asked dubiously.
"What are they going to do?" Karin smirked. "Find us?"
Sakura frowned, her eyes growing a little distant while Suigetsu shrugged. "I'm sure Madara learned of it and wasn't pleased. Of course, these little transactions," he gestured at the files Karin was shuffling back into the right order, "took place before his takeover yesterday. The cultists we sold them to didn't look carefully… and they paid for it. Orochimaru certainly has his charm when it comes to swindling idiots for huge sums of money."
"It wasn't hard to sell them on it. They'd pay anything to get a working artificial Rinnegan to their beloved god," Karin added. She sidled over beside Sakura, her expression turning deadly serious; Sakura gave her a bewildered glance as she leaned in as if with great concern. "So… Sakura. Speaking of Madara…"
Sakura braced herself, already wary, but she wasn't prepared for Karin's question anyway. "Why were you throwing up in there? Are you pregnant?"
Sakura's wide eyes shot over to Karin. In a single brief moment of internal panic, she glanced down at herself, the question repeating multiple times through her head until she realised it wasn't possible, after which she was quick to reassert an appropriately offended scowl.
But Karin had seen Sakura's panicked glance, and she let out a dramatic gasp, drawing up with her hands over her mouth. "Suigetsu! Did you see?!"
He looked between them both with confusion as Karin gestured wildly at Sakura, beaming with utter delight. "It actually happened!"
She swerved back towards Sakura before Suigetsu could reply, clasping her hands together with an expression of glee. "It seems congratulations are due!" She was nearly jumping up and down, her words hurried like there was a time limit on learning such juicy information. "So?! You finally got some after all of this time?! He was your first ever, right? I can't believe he was so impatient that he did it with your clone instead of the real you."
Sakura stood up tall in protest, then blinked, looking around with borderline paranoia and tense anxiety. After a pause, glancing between the matching delighted faces of the two she had long considered friends since her stay down here, she reddened, her stare straying into the distance. Her blush spread out to heat her ears, and she ducked her head, embarrassed Karin had learned so much from so little.
Suigetsu raised his eyebrows while Karin's squeal of delight rang out into the hallways. "Ahh! Congratulations to both of you! I can't wait to hear about it. Come!" She tugged hard at Sakura's arm, dragging Suigetsu along with her towards the common room nearby. "We're gonna drink to celebrate, and man you look like you need a drink."
Suigetsu's grin was back as the three of them moved into the warmth of the common room, sauntering towards the kitchenette while Karin pulled Sakura towards the couch. "We're drinking on Madara's dime, as well."
"Huh?" Sakura glanced backwards, only to see that Karin had already somehow summoned a bottle of sake, uncorking it with a toothy, beaming grin. "He's right. Now that he's taken over the cult, this is technically his money, bought with the Union's ryo."
"I bet he was furious finding out how much his newly-acquired cult wasted on us," Suigetsu chuckled, pulling out a few containers from the fridge. "He knows about it?" Sakura pitched in as she sat at the far edge of the couch, sitting up tall and folding her arms in a nervous, closed posture.
Karin plopped into the heart of the wide couch with a lazy yawn. "Oh, definitely. Probably before his takeover, even. He's no scientist as far as I know, but come on, who else knows more about his own eyes? I'm sure Madara took one look at that research and knew it was fake immediately."
"He didn't mention it," Sakura said softly. "Did you ask?" Suigetsu replied, only for Sakura to shake her head, Karin shrugging as she poured her opened bottle of sake into a variety of cups. "Ask him next time you see him. Guarantee he'll mention how much the Union paid, and maybe he'll tell you how brutally he killed the guys dumb enough to buy it from us. Hah!"
Recalling the unfortunates that Madara's Wood-Style branches had quietly skewered and taken away during his takeover speech only just last night, Sakura cleared her throat. "He did that right away, I guess." Karin's words hit her again, and her expression seized. "Next time I see him…"
She hung her head, pressing her hands in over her face. Blinking over at her in the return of her despondency, Karin and Suigetsu exchanged glances. Though Sakura had said nothing of her changed situation yet, they knew enough that her clones' adventures up on the surface were now thoroughly over.
"That's enough of that," Karin said, and it was her somewhat gentled tone away from her usual gruff demeanour that had Sakura peering at her from between her fingers, tears welled up in her eyes. "What?"
"No more tears. We're done with all of that stuff." Karin handed Sakura a sake cup with a smaller smile, one that was genuine and a little sad around the edges. When Sakura read her gaze more carefully, she recognised a spark of empathy behind Karin's expression, and it was then that she realised how haunted Karin's stare was behind her attitude, the shadows of a dark past hidden in the sharp glint of her no-nonsense mask.
Karin understood Sakura's pain, at least enough to mean it when she offered her this escape from all she felt, and Sakura accepted the cup with a breath more steady than her previous. She was taken aback by hers and Suigetsu's congratulatory reactions, having expected to be shamed like her teammates had done up on the surface.
Congratulations? Sakura met her own eyes within her reflection in the sake, a little stunned, numb from being overloaded with every emotion in one day.
"Stop staring into it and drink it, idiot," Suigetsu called from the nearby kitchenette where he was setting bottle after bottle of booze onto the counter. Sakura craned her neck, staring at the selection there. Japanese whisky; spiced rums; scotch, wine, and of course more sake, all of it top shelf as far as she could tell.
She could smell the sake Karin had handed her. Sakura glanced back down at it, breathing in the slightly pear-like, sweet scent of it. She hadn't dared touch the stuff since that embarrassing night at that civilian bar.
Karin startled Sakura out of her slightly red-cheeked distant look by clinking their cups with a beaming grin. "Jugo should be joining us soon. Sakura, let Madara buy you a drink and take a swig already. Suigetsu, stop playing with those bottles and get over here. It's time to celebrate the end of Sakura's reign as our favourite virgin drama queen to just our favourite drama queen! Cheers — let's party!"
Several drinks in, Jugo and Suigetsu leaning out over their most recent game of shogi, the pieces on the board scattered and slightly stained with alcohol. Pleasant scents of steamed rice and several plates of picked-at appetisers left a trace of savoury in the warm air of the commons area, masking the constant but faded smells of laboratory antiseptics and subterranean cellar-air that marked the atmosphere of every tunnel and room of the vast underground complex.
Sakura sat at the very edge of the couch as if ready to leave, holding on tightly to her barely-touched cup and listening as Karin poured out a slew of stories speckled with the occasional nosy question. Though she was relaxed, Sakura was calmly watchful of each of them, eyeing her cup warily the more tipsy the others got.
"...what it would be like? I've thought about it a million times. Like, maybe it's an inevitability, you know?" Sakura blinked at Karin's half-heard question before remembering that they were talking about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and she drew up a little tighter in her posture, visibly uncomfortable. She looked down into the glimmer of gold of her sake drink as Karin went on dreamily. "You know, maybe I'd dream of getting away into the country, where no one can bother me. Except Sasuke, of course. Probably be married to him. And I'd never have to do anything I don't wanna do, the rest of my life, living in total obscurity. I'd love that. So peaceful…"
She turned her attention to Sakura, remembering she was a person and not a wall she was talking at. Karin downed her cup, eyeing her. "What would you dream?"
"Huh?" Sakura jerked out of a vague memory, her head swivelling back towards Karin.
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi. If we fail and he casts it, what would you dream?"
Sakura paled. She shut her mouth after a pause, her fingers digging into the side of her cup. "I wouldn't." She glanced away, shutting her eyes briefly. "I would be kept out of the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
Karin frowned. "That doesn't make sense. As far as I know about that jutsu, no one escapes it except maybe a Rinnegan user. You don't plan on using the damaged one somehow?..." She gestured vaguely at the tank sitting faithfully at Sakura's side, slightly aglow by her foot upon the tatami-matted floor. "No," Sakura scoffed, "no." She took a sip of her drink as she went on in a half-mutter. "That threat-promise of his was ages ago, but I'm sure he still means it…"
Karin understood after a moment, gasping dramatically and waving at Sakura with glee. "Oh! You should have been more clear! Madara's going to keep you for himself while we all dream, huh?" She chuckled. "'Ages ago'? How long have you guys been committed?"
"It was a threat with intent to punish me by keeping me from happy dreams, not a commitment promise," Sakura shot back, irritated. "We were still enemies at the time."
"Oh, at the time, but what are you now?" Karin clasped her hands with glee, and Sakura huffed, looking around for a subject change. She noticed Suigetsu watching Karin with an amused glint in his eye; upon noticing Sakura looking at him, he returned his attention to the shogi board between himself and Jugo, careful not to stare at Karin any longer. He made his next move with a hidden grin and a swig of his sake while Jugo sat back with a finger tapping along his chin, eyeing the pieces.
"You're wrong about your Infinite Tsukuyomi dream," Sakura said then, glancing at Karin with a wry smile. "You wouldn't be wed to Sasuke at all."
"Yeah, I would," Karin countered with a pout, though her protest wasn't very passionate. It seemed she protested more out of obligation or a sort of habit than out of a genuine sentiment anymore.
Sakura watched her thoughtfully, leaning back against the couch cushions. She took another sip of her drink, more relaxed now that she'd managed to change the subject. "I think you know who I mean."
Karin eyed Sakura with suspicious confusion. Sakura tilted her head helpfully towards Suigetsu, enough for Karin to hiss at her with a cutting gesture of scrabbling hands. "Shut up! You're full of shit, Sakura. That'll never happen."
But Karin had turned pink in the cheeks, and Sakura was the one grinning toothily now, pouring them both another drink with a karmic sense of good-natured, mean-spirited glee.
"This party game is dumb," Karin was grumbling, slouching back into the couch beside Suigetsu and folding her arms with a scowl. "Let's change it up. I'm tired of swapping silly theoreticals of who you'd kill, marry or bed."
"Maybe more shogi instead," Jugo supported helpfully from where he was shuffling around in the kitchen, and Suigetsu snorted, passing a refilled glass of wine to Karin while tossing Jugo a mildly judgmental glance. "You know, Jugo, you just hate that kind of party game because you're so uptight. You need to get out more. You're like some chaste spinster only in love with himself and like eight flocks of birds."
"I don't have that many birds," Jugo objected. He pulled a tray from the oven, nursing a nearby glass before glancing studiously over the freshly-baked buns; he reached up to stroke the chest-feathers of a bird settled on his shoulder, scowling over at the other three. "At least my pets are worthwhile," he grumbled, shoving a hand through his wild orange hair before removing his oven-gloves and bird-themed apron. "Yours, both of yours—" he looked between Suigetsu and Karin, "are too… bitey."
They both shrugged. Somewhere nearby, Karin's little white cat was up on one of the coffee tables, chowing down on unsupervised sushi. Across the room, Suigetsu's aquarium glowed with light, the shadows occasionally dancing as multiple piranhas swam about in a miniature school of toothy fish. Birds hopped around Jugo as he brought the tray over and settled down beside the others into the couch, leaving his neatly-organised kitchen behind. "Best batch yet," he declared as Sakura and Karin immediately each snatched up a bun, Suigetsu eyeing Jugo with amusement. "Cooking's a good outlet for you, I think," he commented. "I haven't seen you get angry at anything since you picked up this hobby."
Karin spoke through a mouth full of steam and bread, her drunken thoughts still cantering around their previous subject. "Well, Sakura's pet is an eye in a tank," she teased, nudging Sakura beside her.
Sakura giggled. She had one arm around the tank she'd moved up onto the cushion next to her, the Rinnegan just visible as it floated within a bubbling solution. She was slouched back into the cushions, a warm glow about her booze-tinged features, and her giggle carried throughout the room into the hallway, a little uneven with drink. "At least someone thinks your jokes are funny," Suigetsu prodded Karin, causing her to shove him and only succeeding into sinking further into the couch beside him.
"She laughs, but she doesn't spill the beans!" Karin whined, sprawling with a sigh against Suigetsu. "You dump secrets like a bullied schoolgirl with enough sake but she hasn't given me anything to go on so far."
"Maybe it's because you're only giving her the cheap stuff," Suigetsu suggested. He reached over and tossed a bottle at Sakura who caught it just in time, eyeing the shining label and curved black glass of its shape. "You've worked hard. You deserve the top-shelf sake for once."
Sakura made a little hiccup before uncorking the bottle. She refilled all the empty cups suddenly offered her way, smiling to herself; she missed the way the others smiled in turn at the sight of her so at-ease and relaxed.
While they took their eager first sip, Sakura's eyes shone as she stared down into it, her glow fading somewhat. "You guys," she said, soft as a whisper.
"Hm?" grunted Karin, who had thrown back her drink in one go. Suigetsu was still sipping, only Jugo paying Sakura his full attention, who went on quietly with a slight slur between her words as she stared into her sake. "Last night turned from one of my best to one of the worst nights of my life, and this morning I honestly thought I might die from how overwhelming it all was. I thought, with the research thing on top of the rest, that I'd lost everything and everyone in my life, all at once." Sakura took in an unsteady, slightly ragged breath before going on, looking around at each of them with a warm shine returning to her eyes. "I didn't think I'd feel happy again, maybe ever. Even though I'm still scared for my future, I'm glad I was wrong about you, each of you, and I'm just so grateful…"
Sakura sniffled, nursing her drink. Karin rolled her eyes, setting a hand on her knee. Jugo had caught Sakura's emotions like a flu, and he began to sniff too, rubbing subtly at the corners of his eyes. "You guys aren't Sasuke's teammates anymore," Sakura finished with a resolute shine in her stare. "You're my friends."
"Shut up, you drunk idiot," Karin laughed affectionately, shoving into Sakura, who startled at her blunt response before humming through a smile and taking a healthy swig of her sake. The others did the same, the warmth in the room deepening.
"Oh," Sakura whispered, pulling back from her sake. She stared into it; her eyes had grown wide, the memory overtaking her in a sudden rush, unlocked from the pricey sake's familiar taste. She looked stricken; dumbfounded — and then embarrassed, the redness creeping from the glow of her cheeks to scorch the tips of her ears.
With her arm around Suigetu's neck in a vaguely threatening, vaguely flirtatious manner, Karin swung her head towards Sakura, her drink sloshing in her hand. "What? You look like you just got kicked in the stomach." She made a face. "There's a bucket in the kitchen if you gotta throw up, just don't do it on me or I'll kill you."
"Ugh…" Sakura set her sake down. She was bright red from head to toe, causing Jugo's eyebrows to raise and Suigetsu to chuckle already as she rubbed at her temples in consternation and mild embarrassment. Sakura held on to the Rinnegan tank by her side like it was her anchor in a sea of slightly nauseous embarrassment. "This sake. The taste of it… it helped me remember something."
"What? Something dumb you did?" Karin reached over, pouring more into her cup; Suigetsu pulled it from her fingers, drinking straight from the bottle. "Ew, Suigetsu," she nudged him, only for him to grin at her. "Come on. We share germs all the time."
"Not with me," Jugo contributed, sitting almost primly away from the two of them. He took a drink of water from a separate cup nearby, eyeing all three. Sakura was pushing the hair from her face, red-cheeked from the pleasant burn of the sake already but now a scorching red as she processed the memory she had unintentionally unlocked, staring down at her feet with wide, blinking eyes. "I can't believe I said something so stupid. I'm such an idiot."
"If you keep being cagey about it I'll knock it out of you," Karin slurred. She moved to nudge Suigetsu and shoved into him instead, sprawling them both deeper into the cushions; she stayed half-tucked across his shoulder as she glared intently at Sakura. "Just be straightforward. You're among your friends, right? Idiot."
"You're the idiot," Sakura shot back, blushing harder. "I, well, I was drunk. That's why I forgot anything at all, before." She lifted her sake cup, causing the others to lift theirs in unison and take a drink; she sighed after taking a sip herself, shaking her head with a small smile. "I just can't believe myself. And he didn't even laugh at me." Sakura paused. "Well, until later, when I couldn't remember what it was and I asked him to remind me." She scowled as she recalled that moment, the slur in her words a hint worse. "...Even Black Zetsu laughed at me, then. They were so entertained at my expense. Those bastards… he and Madara thought I was so funny."
"What'd you ask him? His size?" Karin giggled at her own joke, Suigetsu shaking his head as Jugo did, refilling his water.
"No… worse," Sakura mumbled. She pushed at her red cheeks, thoroughly annoyed with her past self, at the clone she'd been when she'd gotten drunk at that bar. She'd never quite forgiven herself for how sloppy she had been in showing her interest in Madara when he had lent her that unexpected, reserved support. The fact that he'd put up with her and hadn't shunned her afterwards shot a fresh grateful affection for him through her chest that hurt more than she expected.
"Just let it out already!" Sakura dodged Karin's thrown empty cup with a laugh, throwing hers at Karin in turn; she missed, and Suigetu's face exploded into a splash of water, making them all chuckle as he reformed his head with a toothy scowl. "Come on, I thought only Karin was annoying enough to do that to me."
"I asked Madara — no." Sakura corrected herself, sitting up and tucking her hair behind her ears as she avoided the digging, curious stares of the others. "I demanded that he, uh—" She sunk deep into the cushions, fully mortified. "You know what, never mind."
Karin swung her fist at Sakura. After a mess of tossed punches, parried hits and Sakura's tinkling laughter, she relented. "Fine, fine." Sakura took a nearby throw pillow and shoved it over her face before continuing, keeping it thoroughly pressed there. "I told him, um…" came her muffled, slightly slurred, belated answer, "...verbatim… 'have some brats with me'."
Sakura kept the pillow firmly affixed over her face so she wouldn't have to see their faces in the brief pause that followed.
"You what?!"
"How hard did he laugh?"
"What did he say back?" Karin's elbow was a blunt weapon jabbed repeatedly into Sakura's side until she wheezed out her answer, barely audible where she was muffled through the pillow. "That he'd consider it."
Karin's stunned silence was drowned out by Suigetsu's guffaw, even Jugo humming with amusement until Karin was chortling too. "I didn't know you two were so serious," she managed after another drink, slinging her arm back around Suigetsu. "Did he say that just to shut you up? Or are you guys about to go settle down? That'd be a funny end to the war. Giving up on both sides and retiring to go pop out some new Uchihas in the country somewhere."
"I don't know." Tossing the pillow aside, Sakura's scowl was revealed; she had a look akin to a pout, her face a red-pepper tint. "I was drunk. We'd been talking about a child-patient I lost, and how I want kids someday just as a dream I've always had, you know…" Her gaze floated down into her sake, softened. "He listened to me, unexpectedly. Put up with my whining and sadness. He told me about losses he went through back when he was younger." She paused in her ramble, rubbing at her heated cheeks before continuing. "I don't know, I guess I made the mental leap of demanding he have brats with me because I was completely smashed." She slurped down the rest of her sake with a shudder. "I even told him later when I couldn't recall my demand that I was sure his answer had been genuine. Oh… no wonder he thought it was so funny when I asked him about it…" Thoroughly and utterly ashamed of herself, Sakura couldn't even look at the tank next to her, as if Madara himself was giving her judging looks through the floating eye within it. "I'm so embarrassed. I can't believe he even talked to me after that. I want to forget again now."
"So let me get this right." Karin leaned in, her eyes bright and sharp even through her haze of tipsiness. "Not only did you demand that Madara bed you, but you told him to impregnate you… multiple times."
"Oh my god." Sakura hung her head with a squeak, hiding her face in falls of pink hair as Karin threw her head back with a laugh. "Priceless, Sakura. So smooth. You skipped all the stages: flirting, 'I love you's, talk of commitment or anything to just making babies." Karin beamed with a nasty smile. "Nice. Admirably blunt and straight to the point."
"I was drunk," Sakura protested with a wail, shaking her head vigorously. "I was a much too flirty drunk…"
Jugo regarded Sakura thoughtfully, petting the canary that landed on his shoulder. "That's very interesting, Sakura. You were that vulnerable, and he did nothing to you?"
"He's not that kind of man," Sakura shot back acidically, gripping the edge of the couch in quick-fire anger, and Jugo was quick to clarify what he meant, leaning back slightly nervously. "Not like that. I mean more in the sense of, you know, how he was your enemy; how he's trying to find out where his eye and your original have been hiding all this time." His point was noticed and ignored by Karin and Suigetsu, who slurped their drinks with copious nods, increasingly distracted exchanging silly glances with each other while Jugo went on. "It might be notable that he took your… demand with apparent patience, but his restraint as your enemy is much more surprising."
"None of it's surprising," Karin chuckled. "Considering all of those two's antics… I'm shocked," she turned to Sakura, "it took you lovebirds so long to do the deed."
"Shut it," Sakura huffed with a fresh blush. "I never meant to, at first. I tried to resist for forever. I knew better…" She squeezed her eyes shut, sighing. "We just sparked a lot since we've met, whether we liked it or not, and I guess, um," Sakura glanced away with the red spreading back to her ears, "especially the night of the Union event… once we got started, neither of us was going to stop." She barely registered Jugo's next question as she took a generous swig of her drink, one arm squeezing protectively around her pet tank at her side. "How did two enemies become lovers like you are now? How deep is that bond, exactly?"
"Don't think they're just the hookup kind, if that's what you're getting at, Jugo. At least, she isn't in it just for that. She's in love," Karin hiccuped, her hand squeezing along Suigetsu's knee and making his cheeks tint.
"Oh, it doesn't matter anyway." Sakura sighed, sinking deeper into her cushion, some of her previous gloom returning. "It would never be possible, even if he somehow wanted the same as me. And saying you'll 'consider it' is just a smooth way of rejecting someone before changing the subject."
"Oh," Jugo's eyes were wide. "So it isn't a slip you made while intoxicated. You do want that, and the sake just made it easier for you to admit it."
"No," Sakura quickly corrected him, looking away with a sharp breath. She mumbled something under her breath that the others couldn't quite hear.
Karin hadn't noticed Sakura's glummer mood, giggling as she spoke into Suigetsu's ear loudly enough for the others to still hear. "Do you think Hashi-cell super regeneration affects that? No latency between sessions, no breaks for her—"
"Pfff," Suigetsu laughed while Jugo's eyes widened and Sakura gasped, clutching tightly at the tank beside her so she might not sink into the earth with embarrassment. "Karin!"
"It's a valid question," Suigetsu commented. He and Karin eyed Sakura with matching grins.
Adjusting the tank against her side and pouring more expensive sake into her cup, Sakura shook her head, red all over and her heart pounding as memories and drunken thoughts continued to circle over her like birds of prey. Dizzy with drink and hazy with warmth, Sakura eyed Karin, Jugo and Suigetsu, glad to be relaxing like this with them even through all of her embarrassing moments. She lifted her cup, matched by the rest of them in a moment of clinking glass and sloshing sake; and though she didn't know what to toast to, her throat tightening in the moment she'd wanted to say something, she knew each of her newfound friends already understood, sinking altogether in the warmth and passing joys of their shared evening as comrades and companions.
Only the area-wide dimming of all the lights indicated that nightfall had come, hours before. The last light within Orochimaru's vicinity was the faint glow of his eyes, flicking around thoughtfully as he walked.
The night had been noisier than it had been in a long time. The sounds of boisterous celebration and banter had long faded, and he stepped carefully into the shadowed common area, wary of what he'd find considering the rare but messy celebrations his misfit crew had thrown in the past. Destruction was usually a result; broken bottles, perhaps something set on fire, and at least a fight or two, considering Karin and Suigetu's constant rivalry.
But the commons was quiet as Orochimaru arrived. The aquarium's glow set the dark room in a quivering teal-blue, the dancing of the fish making wavering patterns across the shapes of the furniture and along the walls; the bubblers and automatic water filters made a low white-noise hum that made the hush of the room warmer. Scents of cooking and alcohol clung to the air, and Orochimaru stepped forward to better distinguish the shapes on the couch in the darkness, his slitted eyes dilating slightly at the sight.
The whole of his crew, passed out, set in a shadowy glow from the tank firmly enwrapped in Sakura's lap. They were a mismatched pile where they'd finally been sunk by all the now-empty bottles of expensive sake, wine, and liquor scattered nearby: Sakura at the end, her head sprawled back against Karin's shoulder, a subtle string of drool falling from her lips and down the side of the tank held in her grip. Karin was sprawled thoroughly across Suigetsu, his arm around her shoulders, and Jugo was passed out at his other side; several birds were tucked in over his shoulders and in the mussed mess of his bright orange hair. Karin's cat was curled up over his lap, still purring, her tail swishing occasionally as she watched Orochimaru's silent approach. Soft snores rose from the tranquil, tangled pile they had all become.
Orochimaru stood before his research team, regarding them for a long moment. His curious stare lingered upon Sakura, sliding down to the tank in her arms. In its glassy center floated the damaged Rinnegan, its metallic rings flashing in the low light, glaring out at Orochimaru like it was able to see him.
How curious and unexpectedly welcome a sight it was that Tsunade's student had not only become something of his own, but had weaselled herself into the hearts of his crew. Once a misfit herself, she'd made herself a part of them, valuing and expressing affection for each of them far more effectively than Sasuke ever had before.
There had been a time, a previous life in which he'd have quickly snatched up such an opportunity to take that eye and cut her life short. Sakura was more vulnerable now than she had ever previously allowed in her stay down here… always on guard, ever-vigilant, rightfully wary of Orochimaru and his subjugates.
But time, experience and death had brought him seasoning, a wiseness that had him turning from the sight of them with the subtlest of smiles, uninterested in interrupting their harmony. Stroking the content little garter snake along his shoulder that she'd once gifted to him, his mind wandering back to his nearly-finished side project, Orochimaru left them to their peace.