Sakura was meditating in the koi pond inside the Senju trial was tomorrow and the medic was trying to calm her nerves the day Danzo had died, she had been plagued with nightmares every Katsuyu had suggested meditation and so here she than sitting on top of the water, Sakura had chosen to let herself sink and let the cold ground pond wasn't very deep so even with her sitting down, the water barely reached her koi fish swam around her, occasionally bumping into her arms. Something disturbed the water surface and she opened her eyes to see her favourite blonde menace.
"Heya, doing?"
"Naruto? Wha- How are you here?"
"I snuck in, of course. Did you really think a few ANBU and Kaka-sensei could keep me away from you?" he crouched down so they could somewhat be at eye level. "What are you doing here?"
"Meditating, I...had quite a few nightmares recently and Lady Katsuyu thought it might help."
"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's alright, honestly after everything I've done, I des-"
"What the hell are you talking about? It's not your fault that Danzo kidnapped you!"
"Maybe, but...Naruto I killedso manyinnocent people. People who had families, loved ones. Good people who were trying to do their best for their country, dead bymyhand because Danzohatedthat he couldn't manipulate them. There is so much blood on my hands..."
"Sakura-chan..."
"You must be pretty disappointed in me, huh. You always saw the best in people and tried to help them out..."
Naruto took her hands. "Sakura-chan...I don'tcarehow many people you killed."
"Wha-"
"You did what you had to in order to survive. I can't possibly blame you for that. Do you think Kaka-sensei is a bad person because of he was in the ANBU?"
"No, of course not."
"Do you think Yamato-taichō is a bad person? Ah, shit I forgot you don't know him. Or maybe youdo, he was part of ROOT too, and hemighthave killed a bunch of people, but I think he might have gotten away earlier, ugh."
Sakura laughed. "No I don't think this Yamato-taichō you speak of is a bad person."
Naruto grinned but sobered up quickly as he asked his next question. "If...if Sasuke had actually killed you that night, would you have hated him?"
"No, never. That wasn't his fault."
"Well, there you have it. If these three aren't bad people, then neither are you. You did what you had to to survive Sakura-chan. To come back to us." Naruto grinned. "And I will always be grateful to have you back."
A tear fell down Sakura's face and she pulled the blonde into a hug. "I missed you so, so much for those three years. I missed your laugh and your stupid pranks, I only ate ramen with tomatoes when I went out of the village because it reminded me of you and Sasuke, and every time I saw something bright orange I wanted to cry."
Naruto hugged her back. "I missed you too, Sakura-chan. I missed your hugs and the death threats you spewed at everyone that pissed you off, I missed being able to talk to you and make fun of Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei together. I...I'm really glad to have you back home."
They stayed embraced and cried together for what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes. Sakura eventually started shivering from the cold water, so they separated. Naruto stepped back and offered her his hand, pulling her up from the water and away from the shade into the warm sunlight.
"Why don't I go change and then you can tell me what you have been up to for these past years?" said Sakura as she wiped one last tear from her eyes.
Naruto beamed at her. "Of course! I have so much to tell you! You won't believe some of the stuff me and Pervy Sage saw. Oh, man, oh, man, I don't even know where to begin!"
Sakura laughed as gave him a one armed hug and led him inside the main house, water dripping down from her green sun dress that Shizune got her. She really missed this.
...
Sakura sighed as she laid in bed that night. Her conversation with Naruto had certainly brightened up her spirits. He had so many fun stories from his travels. She only wishes she could have seen Sasuke too. She missed him.
As if the universe heard her thoughts, her bedroom window opened up and in stepped Sasuke.
Sakura immediately sat up."What the- Sasuke? How the hell did you- No, wait. You snuck in, didn't you?"
Sasuke nodded as he approached her. Sakura motioned for him to take a seat. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Honestly, why do we even have ANBU stationed outside if you and Naruto are just gonna waltz in here. You know you can get in a lot of trouble for this, right?"
"I know, I just...needed to see you. We didn't exactly get to talk much after thatscumdied."
"Yeah..." said Sakura as she came closer. Her hand shot up and touched some of his long hair. It was out of its usual low ponytail, cascading down his back. It wasn't as long as hers, stopping halfway down his back. "I like your hair."
Red painted his cheeks, but she ignored it in favor of braiding parts of it. "Yeah, it um...I decided to grow it as a way to honor Itachi. I might cut it now that he's back."
"Don't, you look good with it."
"Thank you."
"What did you want to talk about?"
"Tsunade told us a bit about Danzo and, how he got a hold of you."
Her hands froze. "Oh."
"Sakura, I am so sorry."
"What? Why?"
"Tsunade told us how he threatened to kill me and Naruto if you didn't comply. Naruto however is the Jinchūriki of the Nine Tails, so he couldn't afford to do anything against him. Me on the other hand..."
Her thoughts from her first day in the ROOT hideout played back to her.'Yeah Naruto would probably be fine...But Sasuke? Sasuke had nothing going for him that would stop the elder from murdering him.'Sakura sighed, of course he would piece it together."Sasuke...What happened wasn't your fault." He huffed. "No, listen to it had been you, Naruto, Kakashi, Ino or hell, even some random civilian, I still would have agreed to stay there. Danzo knew that and he used it against me. At the end of the day, that power hungry bitch would have gotten his hands on me one way or another. You wanna know how I know this? Danzo was the one who killed my parents."
Sasuke's eyes widened. "What."
Sakura offered him a bitter smile, but she avoided his gaze as she continued braiding. "He had his eyes on me since the Wave mission, apparently I impressed him. I don't know if Tsunade told you, but he was the one that helped Orochimaru sneak in during the Chūnin the Hokage tower exploded, some of his ROOT agents came in and killed them in their sleep. Then they arranged it to look like the debris had fallen and crushed them."
"Sakura...I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. Where I was going with this was, everything had been planned for a long time. There wasn't anything you could have done. And honestly, part of me is kinda glad he pickedmeof all meant I could expose him and all of his awful crimes. It meant that, with him gone, your brother could return to the village and...technically, you achieving your goal of avenging your clan. So yeah, I guess some good did come out of this. And I would do it again, for a hundred more times if it meant keeping you safe."
The moon shined from behind him as he looked at her. "Sakura..." He brought her close until their foreheads were touching, onyx eyes gazed into shocked jade. "Thank you, for everything."
...
The morning of the trial, Sakura woke up early and got dressed into a pair of black pants and a red t-shirt. Walking down, she found Kakashi already dressed for the day, reading at the table. When he noticed her, he closed the book and allowed her to give him a good morning hug.
"Ready for this kid?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Ma, I'm sure it will be fine. Hopefully after today things can return to normal."
"Tired of playing bodyguard, sensei?" asked Sakura as she picked up some of the eggs the white haired man had made to put on her plate. She added some fruits and a few onigiri.
"For you? Never. If I didn't know Tsunade would rip me in half, I would steal you away and move you to my apartment permanently."
Sakura laughed and tried to hold back her tears. "I missed you too, sensei. I look forward to being back on your team."
He offered her an eye smile. "Me too, kid. I'm sure Naruto and Sasuke agree too."
"Me too. By the way, did you have anything to do with them sneaking in yesterday?"
"Ah, I might have distracted the ANBU for a bit here and there, but it's not like it was any harm. Besides, you looked like you needed it."
Sakura smiled. "Yeah, I did. Thank you for that."
"Anytime."
"I'm guessing Tsunade already left to prepare for the trial."
Kakashi nodded. "She and Shizune left about 15 minutes before you woke up, told me to be there at 10:00am on the dot."
It was 9am, so Sakura had to hurry, after eating she braided her long hair in its usual french braids and added a long black haori that reached her knees to her outfit. Tying Ino's gift ribbon in place of her hitai-ate, she made her way downstairs, ready to get this over with.
The Konoha court was designated by the Nidaime and consisted of a judge, lawyers and jury. The judge was the Hokage in cases pertaining to administration and corruption, as they were the supreme ruler of the Village. For lawyers, they were chosen in a way that it was impossible for them to know each other. Thus, no lawyers from the same clan/family can preside at the same time nor can they help a clanmate/family knew that the prosecutor for the case was Inoichi Yamanaka and Tsunade, being the petty bitch that she was, gave the elders the worst lawyer she could find: Aburame knew he was one of the worst lawyers in the village, with a 2-80 win-loss ratio in wasn't exactly the man's fault. Muchi had a pretty sharp mind, but the bugs he had chosen as a child were Hi no Kuni fire ants. They wereextremely bothersome and distracting, one of the few insect species the Aburame clan grew that actively caused harm to the user. Not enough to be deadly, but enough to make it hard to Muchi was always scratching himself in different places, trying to escape the itch.
The jury consisted of 1 representative from every single clan(that wasn't a clan head), 10 civilians and 10 clanless shinobi. While the jury cannot make a decision on their own, they can influence the Hokage.
...
Sakura was separated from her sensei and led to one of the waiting rooms to speak with Inoichi. He explained to her her role and how things will proceed. One of the Inuzuka Police officers will come get her and lead her to the courtroom when it was time for her testimony. Until then, she was to stay here with one of the ANBU guards. Inoichi was even nice enough to bring her a book so that she wouldn't be bored while she waited. Not that it was necessary in the end, because Ino entered the room and strolled in like she owned the place.
"Ino-chan, you can't be here." said her father.
In response, Ino marched up to her father, coming face to face, stared him dead in the eye and said this. "Idareyou to try and stop me."she walked past her father without a second thought and stubbornly took a seat next to her friend. "I will not be moving from this spot, until Sakura has to give her testimony. And then it will only be to escort her to the courtroom. There isnothingyou can say or do to make me leave, donottry to tell me about the rules and that she's a witness. This court is biased as fuck anyways, you have Aburame Muchi as the opposition and Tsunade as the judge. Nothing short of theSageappearing before us will save the elders. So I will be staying. Right. Here. And taking care of my friend. Got it?"
Knowing there was nothing he could do to dissuade his daughter, Inoichi sighed and let them be. The whole time, Sakura had been starring at Ino with big wide felt like she was 6 again, getting bullied on the playground and Ino had to come in and save her. A watery smile appeared on her face. "Hi, Ino."
The blonde stopped glaring at her father to turn her head and look at her. Ino smiled. "Hey, forehead. How've you been?"
Sakura laughed at the old nickname and pulled her into a hug. "Been better pig, been better."
Ino squeezed her tight. "Yeah, I thought so. At least you're here now."
"Yeah..."
"And once this stupid trial is over, you and me will go shopping, and maybe to some hot springs too to pamper ourselves and forget Danzo and his ugly mug."
Sakura laughed. "I'm sure we can rope in Tenten, Hinata and Karin too."
"Of course! We'll make it a girls day out, take some time off and relax."
"That...sounds amazing. I can't wait."
They finally pulled out of the hug and stood there holding hands. Not wanting to think about the horrible things she will have to recount in the courtroom, Sakura asked for village gossip. Ino beamed andwiping a tear from her eye, she told her everything she knew happened in the village in the past years. Sakura smiled as she finally began believing that things might be returning to normal.
...
After giving his testimony as the first witness, Itachi had been escorted to the gallery to watch the rest of the proceedings with his spoke about the mistreatment of his clan by the elders, how many of his clansmen had been fired from higher positions and demoted. The hardships endured in the relocation of their compound at the edge of the village, the discrimination he faced as an Uchiha in the academy after the Kyūbi attack and that his clanmates suffered all throughout the them how elder Homura actively encouraged this and how elder Koharu even tried to have them banished at one he only knew some of those things because he was the ANBU guard of the Hokage when this happened and was able to overhear, but this didn't make the matter any less and Koharu's lawyer did his best to trip him up and have his testimony dismissed as nothing but conjecture, however it never worked as Inoichi shouted objection after the end, the elders were done for.
Next, some of the ROOT agents that were willing to speak up were brought in, amongst them was Sai, Naruto and Sasuke's newest teammate, which shocked the two as they had no idea he was also a ROOT was Sakura Haruno, the girl his little brother had mourned for three years after he believed he had killed her. Itachi will always curse Danzo for all the loneliness and misery his brother had suffered , just like the ROOT agents spoke of the covert missions they had to take to smuggle in people and illegal objects into the village for elder spoke about what objects she had brought in and how the people were snuck inside. She told them how elder Koharu would await for Danzo to give her a file that she will then misplace so that Shimura could take whoever he pleased from the told the court what happened to those kids and if they were still alive. Lastly she told the court how the three friends would meet up to discuss ways to undermine Tsunade.A rumor here and there, a few misplaced or outright destroyed files, anything that they could do to make Tsunade's life harder.
Afterward, Sakura and a Yamanaka who he believed to be Ino came and took a seat next to him. From across Itachi, Sasuke took Sakura's hand and squeezed it twice, telling her she did a good job, before letting go. Naruto grinned at her and Kakashi gave her thumbs up. The pink haired kunoichi smiled at the elders were asked to give their own final testimony that Inoichi dismantled effortlessly. What surprised Itachi was their answer when they were asked why they stopped Danzo from becoming Hokage. Twice.
"I truly believe that what Danzo-kun had been doing was for the betterment of the village." said Koharu. "However, he never had the right temperament for the position, not to mention how unpopular he was amongst the forces. Him becoming Hokage would have led to a civil war, I'm sure. His work was much better suited for the shadows, where no one could question him."
In the end, all the elders had said ended up being used as ammunition against them. Recess was called so that the jury and Tsunade could deliberate with the followed his brother and his team outside, and he finally officially got introduced to the girl his brother held so close to his heart. Their little group discussed what had just been revealed earlier until their time was up and they were asked to return to the courtroom.
"After much deliberation, the court of Konohagakure no Sato has decided to sentence Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu on account of 14 infractions." said Tsunade. "I will now read you the verdicts. On account of document falsification: guilty, on account of defamation of a political figure: guilty, on account of defamation of the supreme leader of our village: guilty,on account of deliberate conveyance of false information: guilty, on account of deliberate disclosure of confidential information: guilty, on account of extortion: guilty, on account of bribery and fraud: guilty, on account of embezzlement: guilty, on account of obstruction of justice and sabotage: guilty,on account of unauthorized removal of classified documents: guilty, on account of insubordination: guilty, on account of high treason: guilty, on account of coercion: guilty, on account of cultural and race discrimination: guilty. They will be sentenced to death. Their execution date will be chosen and revealed before the end of the week. Court adjourned."