Kakashi sat atop a rocky outcrop, trying to focus on the student in front of him and not the one he had left with Ebisu. He had assumed he'd end up having to watch Sakura like a hawk now that certain developments had made her a potential flight risk, but instead he had been ordered to focus on developing Sasuke's newly awakened sharingan into an impressive specimen prior to his fight in the chunin exam.
"What about Naruto?" That had been Sakura's only comment on the development, and one of the only comments she had made since the night before, when she had thrown a bottle at the wall and locked herself in the bathroom with the blank notebook he had given her earlier.
Kakashi had arranged for Ebisu to take Naruto, and had even managed to convince the intractable man to supervise Sakura at the same time. It may not be the freedom she craved, but a supervised outing to the hot springs was surely better than moping around his tiny apartment for the next three days.
He had tried to apologise one last time before he left with Sasuke, if only so that it would be less awkward when he came back home that night. But she still wouldn't leave the bathroom, so he had to say it all through the door and hope that it was making a difference.
The tiny sounds of her scratching pen were the only sign that she hadn't jumped out the window and left him talking to an empty room.
"What can I do to make this right?" he had eventually asked, frustration getting the better of him.
He regretted it instantly; if she asked for something that ran counter to the village's orders, they'd end up arguing all over again. But instead Sakura finally opened the door (he had been leaning against it at the time, so nearly fell backwards into her), and pressed her notebook into his hand.
"Read this."
He hadn't had a chance to even open the book all morning, but Sasuke had finally reached his limit with the sharingan and so they were taking an early lunch.
He flipped to the first page, and almost laughed at how childish Sakura's handwriting was before he realised she hadn't had the opportunity to write anything at all since she was twelve. It must have been painstaking to fill an entire notebook in one night.
I have nine friends, it began. Their names are Sensei, Teeth, Pinch, Siren, Manami, Chu-chan, Naomi, Jun, and Karin.
Karin was the first one to find me, shortly after I first went Inside. She has red hair and red eyes, and wears glasses. Most people call her 'Red.' Her favourite food is okonomiyaki and she has a sensory jutsu that allows her to track people's movements over long distances, as well as the ability to share chakra through bites.
It continued on like this, summarising her friend's abilities, likes, dislikes, and seemingly anything else that crossed Sakura's mind.
One time Pinch used a fire jutsu that was smaller and kept going longer than usual. We all sat around it and pretended we were camping.
One time Sensei dissected my leg so he could show me how muscles worked. He let me do the same thing to him later.
One time Naomi threw a shuriken so hard it got lodged in my hip bone, and when I finally got it out she let me keep it.
One time Siren sang a song called 'the fisherman's wife' and Jun and Chu-chan danced around and around in circles until Jun tripped over Chu-chan's wires and both of them fell off the mesa. Manami didn't let go so she ended up getting pulled after them. Jun fractured his back and Manami got stabbed by one of Chu-chan's weapons. Sensei and I managed to fix everyone, but Manami refused to speak to Chu-chan for ages afterwards. It was the biggest fight they ever had - which was awkward for the rest of us, because they still had to spend all of their time together.
One time Teeth broke my leg and when I set the bone it hurt so badly that I passed out. He kept making me ice to reduce the swelling, and stayed with me until I woke up and could walk again.
Half the entries were either extremely violent or extremely grim, but he was compelled to keep reading. He knew this was Sakura's way of making her friends 'real' to him, in the hopes that they would eventually become real enough for him to summon.
He doubted it would work; freeing Sakura herself still felt like a total fluke. But living with her was tense enough already, so he wouldn't give up on this project until they were both satisfied it was impossible. It was, as she had rightly pointed out, the least he could do for her.
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Sakura had started the day with low expectations. Obviously the guilt of running out her friends' clocks in a hot spring resort had obliterated any possibility of actually enjoying herself. But it turned out Naruto's stand-in teacher seemed to hate them on principle, which meant they both hated him right back. She could have forgiven that as long as he proved himself a capable jonin instructor for Naruto; but unfortunately a man had just knocked him out, seemingly using nothing more than a toad the size of a wolfhound.
She had been fetching an ice-cream at the time, meaning she had missed most of the action. But Ebisu was definitely unconscious, and Naruto had taken off after the white-haired man with the toad before she could so much as call out to him.
The ice-cream melted a sticky line down her forearm as she weighed her options. On the one hand, she was meant to be supervised by someone of jonin status any time she was out of the village (which the hot springs technically were). On the other hand, if she lost track of Naruto then anything could happen to him.
No contest, really.
Luckily, tracking Naruto was as easy as following the sound of his voice. He was yelling at the toad man loud enough that she could walk at a leisurely pace and finish her ice-cream before having to get involved in whatever new, awkward social encounter this was sure to become.
Seriously, meeting new people was so exhausting. Old friends like Naruto, Sasuke and Ino were the only people she could bear to spend any time with Outside.
And Kakashi too, she had to admit. She was still mad at him (and part of her would probably keep using him as the proxy for her anger until Uchiha Obito was finally within throttling distance) but her housemate had grown on her. It was nice to have a friend her own age, for one thing.
She caught up to them on the edge of town, where the buildings had thinned and the forest was starting to take over.
"I said, take responsibility, pervert sage!" Naruto declared, flinging a handful of shuriken at the old man.
"Naruto!" Sakura gasped, dropping the wooden stick she was currently crunching to bits; but the shuriken thunked harmlessly into a tanuki statue.
"Jeez, kid, do you ever give up?" The man reappeared from behind a tree further along the path. "And stop calling me 'pervert' in front of…" he seemed to notice Sakura's presence for the first time, and his irritation smoothly transformed into charm. "Beautiful ladies."
Suddenly he was rushing back down the path toward them, side-stepping Naruto and coming to a halt right in front of Sakura. "Pleasure to meet you, miss." he reached down and took her hand in his, pressing his lips to her knuckles.
She could have avoided his touch easily, or even punched him in the face for his audacity. The Sakura of old certainly would have done it, because even at twelve, she fancied herself a 'lady.' But this Sakura hadn't been touched in so long, especially not by an adult she wasn't related to. She probably wouldn't have sex with a stranger; the 'sex' part sounded nice, but the 'stranger' part sounded excruciating. Still, it was nice to pretend it was possible.
"Leave her alone, pervert!" Naruto came to her rescue, pulling her out of the man's reach and standing between them. It was a terribly sweet gesture, even though he was a head shorter than both her and the man.
"What the hell is your problem, kid?" the old man glared at him. "You've been chasing me for twenty minutes, asking me to train you. Now I've finally declared you worthy and come to introduce myself, and you treat me like a creep?"
"Worthy?" Naruto repeated uncertainly.
"Indeed!" the man beamed at him, but his eyes still kept coming back to Sakura. "I only ran away because I was too busy to train you when I'm currently on the hunt for new research. But now that your lovely friend is here, I can do both."
"Research?" Sakura frowned. She didn't want to be interviewed again, especially if it involved losing more time.
"Certainly." He grinned. "I'm an author, you see, and at times I have to portray the sensual beauty of the fairer sex as accurately as possible. To do such a thing with any authenticity requires research; and," the grin widened, "I am nothing if not dedicated to my craft."
"Pervert!" Naruto shrieked for the umpteenth time. "Come on Sakura, we're leaving." He grabbed her hand and tried to lead her back to town.
Sakura didn't move. "An author? You write books?" Storytelling was a valuable skill Inside. Siren used to recite tales she remembered and even a few she made up; but the made-up ones were always tainted by a lack of inspirational material.
"Sakura," Naruto tugged harder on her hand, but the man clearly understood he had her interest now.
"That's correct. I happen to be the esteemed erotic author and great toad sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin!" He struck a pose like a kabuki hero, but Sakura could only think of Gai doing his muscle man routine.
"Are you going to start your lesson, then?" It wouldn't be fair if poor Naruto got the brush off for the third time that day. He hid it under his usual bluster, but Sakura could tell he was genuinely hurt by Kakashi and Sasuke's 'exclusive' training.
Jiraiya glanced at the boy like he'd forgotten he was there. "I'm not sure a kid like that could grasp my advanced techniques." He leaned in closer with a leer. "But I'm sure I could teach you a thing or two."
"Pass." Author or no, she wouldn't tolerate that kind of talk about her teammate. "I'll train Naruto myself, if you're going to be like that. I bet there isn't a single thing you could teach him that I couldn't."
"Bet?" His eyes lit up, and Sakura knew she had him. "What are you willing to bet?"
She tapped her finger against her chin like it hadn't occurred to her that he would agree. "I don't know." She shrugged. "How about I promise to spend the rest of the day with you?"
"Deal." He reached out his hand immediately, and she shook it.
"Sakura, you don't have to spend any time with this guy." Naruto continued to act as her little protector, and her heart melted.
"Well, he hasn't proven he can do anything I can't yet," she said, and the man scoffed.
"Then prepare to be amazed, gorgeous! As one of the legendary sannin, I'm a master of all forms of ninjutsu."
"Such as?"
He seemed slightly put out by the question, but recovered quickly. "I've mastered all four forms of elemental jutsu, for one thing."
"Me too." It took ages to learn the elements you weren't adept at, but time to practise new jutsu was one of the few pros of being stuck Inside.
"Interesting." He seemed to look at her with new eyes. "How about genjutsu, then?"
"Yep." She had spent a lot of time training with Siren, partly because she'd always had a knack for genjutsu, and partly because there was a time where she thought she could get good enough to beat The Watcher at his own game. It turned out The Watcher's genjutsu was in a league of its own, but Sakura's skills were more than a match for normal folk.
"I'd say 'weapons' next, but I can see the sword on your hip. Nobody carries a katana like that unless they know how to use it."
She nodded. "Keep going."
"Oh, I don't know." He threw his hands up like he was out of options, but Sakura had been haggling with The Others for years. She knew you left your best offer for last. "I suppose I could teach him to do…this." He bit his thumb and pressed it to the ground like Kakashi had done the other day when summoning his dog. Suddenly the big toad was back, and Jiraiya stood on its back like an actor about to give his final bow. "Can you do this, missy?"
"Nope." She leaned in closer to get a better look at the toad. "Hello. Can you talk?" If it was as smart as Pakkun, she'd have to win its trust before getting to touch it. Petting a toad wasn't nearly as appealing as petting a dog, but an animal was an animal.
"Boss?" the toad's bulging eyes swivelled to look at Jiraiya. "What do you need?"
"Just giving a demonstration of my talents." Jiraiya leapt nimbly to the ground. "And unless you can perform a summoning of your own, I do believe I've won." He smiled sweetly at Sakura, who smiled back.
"I guess you have. Did you hear that, Naruto? The great toad sage Jiraiya is going to teach you how to do summoning jutsu!" And Sakura had an excuse to stick around and watch.
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Sakura flopped down onto Kakashi's empty bed, not because she actually felt tired (it took a lot to wear her out) but because it seemed like an appropriate thing to do after a long day out.
Jiraiya hadn't gotten around to teaching Naruto how to summon after all, because Naruto was still woefully behind on the basics, and for all that Jiraiya was working under duress, he turned out to be a stickler where it counted. He had spent the rest of the day teaching Naruto to walk on water instead, going back to town and using the heated canals between the hot spring pools. From Naruto's perspective it was probably a valuable lesson in chakra control, but for Sakura it was so boring that she almost went looking for Ebisu. Even the toad was gone, disappearing back to wherever the animals came from.
Naruto eventually got water walk down, and when Jiraiya said they could both come back tomorrow (Naruto for the summoning lesson, Sakura for 'the pleasure of her company') they headed back to Konoha. Naruto walked her all the way home, gushing about his progress and promising that he'd make sure Jiraiya kept his hands to himself if she did come along tomorrow (Sakura still found it adorable, but she kept that to herself).
Kakashi's apartment was empty, and it occurred to her that she wasn't sure if he was even coming home that night. The prospect of amusing herself for the foreseeable future left her feeling a little bereft; it was a little too much like Inside, where the only thing you could do alone was stare at a rock and wait to die of boredom. At least with another person there two things you could do: fight or fuck.
There were, of course, far more options available to her now even if Kakashi didn't come home (and even if he did, she was thoroughly tired of one thing and unlikely to do the other). She could read, or shower, or even find another notebook to fill. She weighed each option from her position on the bed, gazing around the apartment at the many possibilities. Hell, she could just lay there for a while, like a normal person.
The old guilt came back immediately; how dare she relax instead of doing something productive, like manipulating an old man into teaching her a new jutsu? But honestly, the bed was very comfortable. She'd been lying when she pretended it didn't interest her, knowing that Kakashi's sense of honour would compel him to give it up and sleep on the floor or something. However, Kakashi wasn't here right now…
She snuggled deeper under the covers. At first it felt nice, like a big, fabric-y hug. But she shifted a little, and the blankets weighed her down just enough to make the movement slower than usual. What if she was attacked right now? She was so exposed, lying on the flat plane of the bed with nothing between her and the front door but a large square of cloth that offered no protection and impeded her reaction time.
"Nope." She kicked her way out of the blanket's cloying embrace and rolled onto the floor. Better to be out of sight, hidden down below instead of exposed on the surface. That was the first lesson she had learned Inside.
There was enough space to crawl beneath the bed, which felt like an even better hiding spot if she wanted to avoid attacks from above. She lay on her back, looking up at the wooden slats supporting Kakashi's mattress, waiting for the darkness of the evening to become absolute.
'Wait to die of boredom' it is, she thought glumly.
And then she noticed that there was something wedged under the second last slat, hidden so well that only a tiny orange corner was visible.