Author's note: apologies, I only just noticed that last chapter (14) was an accidental duplicate for chapter 13! I've fixed it now, so if you haven't read the actual chapter go back and read it before this one :)
Sakura turned her forehead protector over in her hands. Her original was still Inside, probably still in the same cache unless Karin had grabbed it after giving her up for dead. She never wore or carried it in case it got left behind Outside, but despite all her care, she had still managed to lose it. This one was going to be different.
She considered putting it around her brow, where a 'forehead' protector was actually supposed to go. But Pinch's goggles were sitting on the top of her head and one would surely get in the way of the other. She loved Konoha, and was so happy to wear the leaf again; but she loved The Others too, and needed the protection from ocular jutsu within reaching distance.
She tied the band around her neck instead, the way she had seen Hyuuga Hinata and a few other ninjas do.
Kakashi gave her a thumbs up. "Looks good."
"Thanks. Listen, are you sure you don't want me to heal that?" She nodded at the cut on his left arm. "I feel kind of bad."
Kakashi glanced at his bandaged arm like he'd forgotten all about it. "Don't go wasting your chakra on something so minor."
"That's the second time I've seen you get hit on that side," she observed, remembering the nasty wound Zabusa had given him. "I guess it makes sense that you'd have a blind spot."
"The sharingan does have some drawbacks," he agreed. "But stop worrying about me and start worrying about yourself. Ready to go see if you're ready to become a chunin?"
"Actually," she fingered the short ends of her hair, "there's one other thing I wanted to do first. But you don't have to come along."
A crease formed between his brows. "I kind of do. That's part of what being a handler entails. Also, the boys would kill me."
"It's just…" She took a deep breath. "You said the exam might take a few days, and that it's sort of dangerous, right? So I thought I should probably let my parents know I'm doing it."
The same parents who were unable to bear the sight of her. Kakashi had witnessed their disgust firsthand, so she was prepared for him to call this a stupid idea.
Instead, he smacked his forehead. "Of course. Sorry, I'm not used to being responsible for students with parents." He nodded down a certain street. "Your house is that way, right? Let's go."
It felt strange, knocking on her own front door instead of just barging in and kicking her boots off.
After a minute, her father answered the door. "Sakura." He looked startled, but maybe not as upset as he had the day before. "Come in." It sounded more like a question than an offer.
"That's okay." Sakura waved her hand. "We can't stay long. I just wanted to let you know that I'm entering the chunin exam, so I'll probably be busy with that for the next few days." And I helped beat two jonin this morning. And I want you to be proud of me.
"You can't stay?" For a man who had made it clear his daughter wasn't welcome under his roof, he seemed almost distressed that she was cutting her visit short. "Let me get your mother so she can see you. Mebuki! Sakura's here!" He called for her in the vague direction of the kitchen.
"I'm not sure she wants to see me, Dad." Sakura glanced nervously at the sliver of her old life that she could see through the door. There were some of her shoes in the genkan, still waiting for her to come back and put them on even though they would no longer fit.
"Listen, we feel terrible about…before." Her dad looked like he wanted to say more, but then Haruno Mebuki arrived and he fell silent.
"Sakura." Her mother's eyes were still red-rimmed, and Sakura felt a pang of heartsickness in spite of herself. "I…we…hoped you'd visit."
"I'm not staying long. I just wanted to tell you I'm doing the chunin exam."
"Oh." Like her father, her mother seemed a little thrown. "Well…good luck."
"Thanks." Clearly this had been a mistake. She turned to go.
Her mother grabbed her arm. "I know we handled it poorly." She spoke hurriedly, like Sakura might break free from her grasp and run off at any second. "I - you can't imagine what it's like. To look at you." Her eyes filled with fresh tears. "You should still be a little girl. You were our little girl, and now you're…" She choked up.
"Not." Sakura finished the sentence for her. "I get it. I'm sorry to have bothered you."
"No!" The grip on her arm tightened. "You'll always be our little girl." She looked suddenly fierce. "I gave birth to you! But your father and I, we're just so…sad. And angry. Because someone took you away from us, and when we got you back we missed everything. We don't know who you are, because we didn't get to see it."
"It's just been…hard," her dad added quietly. "For us. Not as hard as it's been for you, and I know we're making it even harder. But remember, it's only been a month for us. We thought you were dead, sweetheart. And we're so, so happy you're not, but you're also not what we expected."
"I understand." And the part of her that they could see, the adult who had been forced to grow up without parents, did understand. She must have seemed like a monster wearing their daughter's skin, making a mockery of their grief. But their daughter wasn't completely dead, either. She still lived deep inside Sakura's heart, and she didn't understand why her parents couldn't love her like they used to.
"Be safe," her father also reached out and squeezed her arm. It wasn't as nice as the hug she had stolen yesterday, but it was probably as much as they could handle. "The exams are tough."
"Oh! Take this." Her mother reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small green silk bag. It had a little Konoha leaf and the words 'protection of children' embroidered on one side. "It's a charm I bought, to keep you safe."
"You should get your money back," she joked weakly, but accepted the charm with both hands outstretched. It was more than she had hoped for.
"Oh, I don't know. It brought you home, didn't it? It might help with the exam." Her father gave her a tiny smile. "Though you're not really a child anymore…"
"It's perfect." Sakura tucked it in her hip pouch. Like her forehead protector, she would keep it on her person at all times. "Thank you, both."
She left before the mood could turn awkward again. Kakashi fell into step beside her.
"You still want to do the exam? We could go see about moving you back with your parents instead?" He gestured toward Hokage Tower, which rose several stories above every other building in the village.
"Trying to get rid of me already?" She made it sound like a joke, but in reality she was terrified that he was already sick of living with her. "I'm glad my parents are feeling a bit better, but they're not ready to live with me." Her parents would only be tortured by her presence, and she'd only be tortured by the knowledge that she was torturing them. Better to stick with small doses for now.
"That's fine, then." Kakashi didn't press. "Do you need anything else from home before registration? My home, I mean."
"Hmm…" She had already grabbed her bag that morning, a nice new backpack that Ino had bought her. It had enough pockets for all her worldly possessions, including the threads of hair she had painstakingly removed from the tatters of her old clothes and bag. She pulled a bundle free. "Can you hold onto these, in case something goes wrong and we need to try Plan B?"
"If something goes wrong?" Kakashi's eyebrows creased. "I know I said the exam can get dangerous, but you're more than capable of handling anything they throw at you."
Sakura pressed one of her own pink braids into his hands. "The Watcher could send me back at any time, and you're the only one who can pull me out again. I don't know if it would help to have something of mine, but it certainly can't hurt."
He handled it politely, like Ino had handled her tattered bag the other day when it was clear she didn't want to hurt her feelings. "I'll keep it safe."
She shook her head. "You're not getting it." She placed a thin scarlet braid the length of a bracelet on top. "This is Karin." Then a thicker, shorter braid of sandy blonde hair. "Manami." A loc of curled black hair. "Siren; real name Yoshi, in case it helps." Light brown hair. "Pinch; real name Tomo." Dirty blonde hair. "Jun." A tiny square of fabric, with a few short dark brown shavings folded inside. "Naomi. Be careful, I don't have much of that." And finally, a tuft of steel grey hair, held together with a scrap of rust-stained fabric. "And Sensei; real name Kabuto, apparently. That's his blood, too, if it helps."
"You want me to try using the sharingan to take them out, like I took you?" Kakashi guessed, and Sakura nodded.
"I do. Every day we're not looking for the Watcher is years for them. This," she nodded at the pile of hair, "is more productive than waiting."
"Thing is…" Kakashi gently transferred the hair to his pocket. "I didn't take you out on purpose. My sharingan has gone back to normal, and I don't know how to make it do whatever it did again. And even if I could, I think I only managed to summon you because I happened to be thinking about you."
Sakura frowned. "Why were you thinking about me?"
"Because I thought I was about to die?" Kakashi shrugged. "You were part of a long list of regrets."
"Well." She wasn't really sure what to say about that. "Please just…try to think of my friends the same way."
"I don't really know them, Sakura." He said it gently, but it still made her heart sink. "I promise I'll do my best, but don't be too disappointed if Plan B doesn't work."
"When I get back, I'll tell you everything I can remember about them." She had years of memories; far more than Kakashi would have had of her. "I'll make them as real for you as they are for me."
And if that still wasn't enough to save them, then Plan C was clear: she'd just have to make Kakashi feel like he was about to die.