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Obito-Sensei (A Sakura-Centric Naruto AU)

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Sakura's training process is really interesting. I love how you made chakra into more of a hard-magic system, to borrow a phrase from Sanderson.

It turns out that you have this fic on FFN up to chapter 19, so now I have to resist the urge to get ahead. Can't wait for the next chapter.
 
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Chapter 19: The Second Week
  • Threadmarks
    • Mothers​

    When Naruto drove his Rasengan into the tree, the whole thing pretty much exploded. He glanced over his shoulder and beamed, and at the end of the clearing his mother sarcastically clapped once.

    "Well done," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "You've murdered a helpless tree."

    "Yeah," Naruto admitted. "But it's like, super murdered, right?" He gestured at what was left, barely a stump sticking out of the ground. "That's good, y'know? It means my control's getting better!"

    "That's true," Kushina admitted, walking forward and examining the stump. "But you're not planning on using that jutsu on Sasuke, are you?"

    "No way." Naruto shook his head. "It's way too dangerous. I wouldn't want to kill him!"

    "That's good." His mother smiled. "Still, it is pretty impressive Naruto. Good job."

    "Thanks!" He rubbed the back of his head, beaming. Kushina wasn't slow to praise him, but Naruto always took every bit he got with the same amount of gratitude. He looked down at his hand, tightening it into a fist. "Even if it's not gonna be a super serious fight, I still don't wanna lose to him."

    "I'm sure he's feeling the same way," his mom told him with a grin. "Especially if I know Mikoto. No doubt she's training with him, and pretty hard."

    "Yeah…" Naruto looked around. "Where's dad? I thought he told you he'd drop by."

    His mother frowned. Naruto was used to his dad being busy. He was the Hokage, after all. But lately, he'd been seeing less and less of them. He wasn't really worried about it, but he was starting to notice the absence.

    "Still sorting things out with Stone and Sand," she said, and Naruto felt a frown of his own come on. That creepy bastard. It really was all his fault. "You know, with that genin team."

    "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, I bet."

    "How's Sakura doing?" his mom asked, shifting the subject. "She never came by again."

    "She's training her ass off," Naruto said frankly, and his mother rolled her eyes.

    "Language," she tsked, and Naruto laughed.

    "I dunno what else to call it!" he said, flopping down onto his butt. "I've only seen her and Obito twice in like, two weeks!" Just like his dad, he was starting to miss her. "And both times I did, she was all covered in bruises-" he made a rubbing motion of his face and arms, "and super pale. Obito told me she was pushing herself really hard; almost into chakra exhaustion, every day."

    "She's taking it seriously," Kushina said, and Naruto nodded.

    "She saw that guy, when he said he was supposed to kill me," he said, a little subdued. "And he fought that team from Stone alongside the Rain guys too. They weren't pushovers. If Gaara really killed all of them…" He sighed, trying not to think about it. Whenever he did, he got scared. He didn't want Sakura to die. Even imagining it made him shiver. "Yeah. She's taking it seriously."

    "Good," Kushina said, sitting down next to him. "If she knows that, then Obito will know too. He'll make sure she's ready by the end of the month."

    "I hope so," Naruto said, twiddling with the grass at his feet. "I don't… all she's got is her sword. She's really good with it, but against that guy's sand?" He plucked up several blades and threw them away. Hey, he thought, that was a neat metaphor. "He took on Team Eight and Ten at the same time and won."

    "Yeah, that's pretty scary," his mom said, which didn't make him feel better. "But you'll just have to trust her and Obito, and your dad. Sakura wants to fight, and they won't let her die."

    "Dad?" Naruto asked, and his mom tapped her nose knowingly.

    "If she really gets in trouble, he'll bail her out." She laughed. "The same goes for Gaara, if she trains enough. Who knows. The point is, he's unwilling to let anyone else die."

    "That's good." Hearing that mollified him a little bit, but Naruto still felt himself plucking at the grass. "But y'know, dad always says being a shinobi is about sacrifice. Wouldn't that..."

    "Everyone has their own way of being a shinobi," Kushina said. "That's just your father; a lesson he learned the hard way, I think." She smiled sadly. "Being Hokage is a difficult job."

    "S'why I never wanted it," Naruto said, half-joking. He bobbed his head thoughtfully. "Kabuto said the same thing, about shinobi."

    "Kabuto?" his mom asked. "The guy from Rain?"

    "Yeah," Naruto said. He'd told both his parents about the Rain team, but not much more than their names. "When we were at the tower, he told us that everyone had their own reason. Every shinobi, I mean." He looked up thoughtfully. "Cause Lee said that being a shinobi was about seeking out a powerful foe. So I guess he didn't really agree with that."

    "Well, that's a pretty mature thing to say," Kushina said with a little laugh.

    "What do you mean?" Naruto asked, and his mother shifted a little, glancing at the Hokage monument. It was partly obscured behind some trees, but still stared out over the village.

    "A lot of ninja wouldn't put it that way," Kushina said. "They think that their way of being a shinobi, whether it's looking for someone strong, or killing enemies of the village, or being a tool, enduring, sacrificing…" She trailed off. "They can't look at it another way. They just call it wrong, and move on."

    "Kabuto wasn't the only one who was a little weird like that," Naruto said. "They all were. That whole team. Maybe the whole Rain village is like that."

    "They're some strange ones," Kushina said with a smile. "But the Akatsuki has always been honest in its beliefs." Her smile vanished. "Even if they can be a little extreme."

    "How?" Naruto asked, and his mother shook her head.

    "It's not really important right now. Are you going to keep training?"

    "Nah." He lay back with his hands behind his head. "I'm kinda bored." He grinned and rolled backwards, coming to his feet. "I think I'll go bother Sasuke instead." He stuck out his tongue.
    "Don't want him training when I'm not!"

    Kushina laughed. "You go do that then," she said. "Say hi to Mikoto for me, will you?"

    Naruto nodded and jogged away, faintly humming a discordant tune. Kushina watched him go with a faint smile. Unbeknownst to him, just before he went out of sight her eyes narrowed. Her focus shifted to the left, and chakra began actively coursing through her body.

    At an invisible signal and in a moment so short it didn't really exist, the Hidden Leaf's greatest weapon was entirely prepared for a fight.

    "And what," Kushina muttered under her breath as she silently began stalking forward, "are you up to?"

    ###

    "Sit down," Sasuke's mother said, and he did, plopping down on the ground and examining his work with a critical eye. All eight of the posts on the other end of the throwing range were covered in a comical amount of shuriken. It had reached the point after nearly two hours of practice that he'd been aiming for the space in between the steel.

    He'd landed far more than he'd missed, but anxiety was still twisting Sasuke's gut into knots. It was a warm and sunny day, especially for January, but Sasuke couldn't feel the sun on his neck and arms. He felt cold and distant, even with his mother only a couple feet away.

    "Not good enough," he muttered, and his mother narrowed her eyes.

    "Better than anyone else your age," she said, her tone sharp, and Sasuke grunted.

    "I never was able to get close to him," he said, tossing one of his last shuriken into the ground. "Shurikenjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu…" He gritted his teeth. "Even now."

    "You can't compare yourself to Itachi," Mikoto said. Sasuke looked up at her; she was completely expressionless. "It's a fool's errand."

    "You don't think I can catch him?" Sasuke asked, his voice low, and his mother sighed.

    "I don't think it's your responsibility," she said. "It never has been. It's something you took on yourself, Sasuke. I allowed it because it helped you deal with what happened, but-"

    "You allowed it?" Sasuke snapped back. "He's my brother, and your son! You should feel the same way I do!" He shot to his feet, face twisting. "Itachi is our responsibility!"

    His mother watched him carefully, and Sasuke's anger faded and gave way to embarrassment. He shuffled his feet, glad the training ground they'd come to was empty. It had been like this since the forest, he thought. He felt like he didn't have any control of himself, and of his feelings: Itachi had broken his composure along with his arm, but the first couldn't be healed by any jutsu.

    "I'm sorry," he said after a couple seconds, and his mother nodded, taking the apology with grace. He found himself looking at the scars on her face, feeling something curdle in his heart. "But I can't… I don't understand him, and I can't let him get away."

    "It's normal to seek answers, and revenge," his mother said with a frown. "But you've been moving from that towards an obsession, Sasuke. I don't like seeing that in my son."

    "What should I do then?" Sasuke asked, starting to pace. "Just let him get away? Forget him? He came back, just for me..." He paused, and suppressed a sneer. "For my eyes, probably. I'll never be able to ignore him, so long as he's alive."

    "Of course not." His mother shook her head. "Just… allow yourself some distance."

    "Meaning?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

    "Your brother died that night," Mikoto said bluntly. "Whoever killed your father and so many other Uchiha, that wasn't the Itachi anyone there knew. He'd been growing more distant for some time… but not towards anything that would indicate that." She closed her eyes, and for a moment Sasuke saw in his mother a fragility and fatigue that he'd never seen before. Never allowed himself to see, he wondered, or never been allowed to? Mikoto Uchiha had always been composed and disciplined; it could have been both, or neither.

    "You're the only son I have," she said after a moment of thought. "The man who's taken your brother's name is just an imposter." She held up a hand at Sasuke's questioning look. "Not literally. I'm not crazy, obviously. But that's the distance I'm talking about." Her cold facade cracked again, just for a second. "You've got to learn to seperate the Itachi that was your brother, and the Itachi that broke your arm, Sasuke. If you don't… you'll never be able to accept reality."

    Sasuke wasn't sure if that would work for him, but it made sense to him that was what his mother must have done. What else could she do, with her prodigy son turning on his family so violently? They'd never talked about this in such detail before; to his mother, the Itachi that had loved them and the Itachi that had tried to kill them were totally separate people.

    But then, Sasuke thought, maybe they really were. If someone became another person who only looked and acted like their past self, was it really strange to say they were someone else entirely? Maybe not.

    Maybe that was the distance he needed to resolve the question that was always burning him down from the inside out. To just… reject the premise.

    His brother was dead. His business was with his doppelganger

    "Okay," he said. They'd been standing in silence for almost a minute, his mother watching him with crossed arms. "I'll think about that."

    "Okay," his mother echoed him with a faint smile. "It's hard, you know."

    "I know."

    Her smile grew a little more genuine. "But we can do it together."

    Sasuke rolled his eyes at that, and his mother laughed. "That's the principle of the village! Teamwork is always superior to working alone."

    Sasuke frowned. "If that's the case," he said, "why is the final for the exam single elimination matches?" His mother frowned back, and he continued. "And why was I put up against Naruto? If that's the core of Konoha… that doesn't really make sense." He looked up at the sky, blue and bright. "I didn't really think about it, with Sakura up against Gaara."

    "That's a good question," Mikoto said with a nod. "The Final Exam isn't really an expression of the village. It's a show, to put it bluntly."

    "A show?"

    "The most powerful people from across the Land of Fire and beyond will be coming to watch," Mikoto said. "That's why the matches are one on one, so that they'll be easy for non-shinobi to follow. Essentially, it's an exhibition." She mockingly strutted back and forth, throwing her voice slightly. "Oh, look how powerful our young shinobi are, please hire them right away," she said, before laughing. "A glorified interview."

    "An interview? Haven't we already proven ourselves? Isn't that what the academy is?" Sasuke asked, feeling some of his anxiety leach away, being replaced by curiosity. He rarely heard his mother speak like this.

    "Yeah, to the village. But that's the dichotomy of being a ninja nowadays," Mikoto said. "There's being a shinobi in the village, and there's the image you have to present outside of it. Some people have trouble reconciling that." She grinned. "That's why you should have fun with your fight with Naruto. I know you both want to win, but you should be trying to make it as flashy as possible. The ninja there will already know you're worthy. You don't need to worry about impressing them."

    "Naruto's probably hearing the same thing," Sasuke said, and his mother nodded.

    "Without a doubt."

    "And what about Sakura?" he asked, and his mother grew more subdued. "What's her interview then?"

    "Gaara of the Desert already has a reputation," Mikoto said bluntly. "If Sakura survives, she'll have succeeded. That's all she needs to do."

    "That's..."

    "Cruel, yeah." Mikoto shrugged. "But that's how it is. You've got some company, by the way."

    She gestured, and Sasuke looked back over his shoulder to find Naruto waving at him from across the field.

    "Hey!" his teammate called, and Sasuke grinned.

    "Slacking already?" he called, and Naruto scowled.

    "Says you!" he shot back, and Sasuke laughed. "You're the one sitting around! Got tired of tossing stars so quickly!?"

    Sasuke glanced back at the hundreds of shuriken dotting the posts, and then looked back at Naruto with a flat expression. His friend cracked up after a moment.

    "Fine!" he admitted. "You got me there." He started walking forward, and Sasuke went to meet him, leaving his mother behind. "I got bored. I wanted to see how you guys were doing!"

    "I'm doing fine. Do you mean Sakura?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto nodded.

    "We haven't seen her in forever," he said, kicking at the ground. "I wanna check on her."

    Sasuke looked back at his mother, and she grinned and made a shooing motion. "Breaks are important," she said. "Go check on your friend. She and Obito are at training ground eighty-eight, last I knew."

    Pretty close, as far as that went in the sprawling expanse of Konoha. Sasuke nodded, and Naruto waved.

    "Mom says hi!" he shouted as they jogged away. "We'll see you later!"

    Sasuke waved as well, but he wasn't thinking about 'later'. He was thinking about what his mother had said about his dead brother, and Sakura.

    'Cruelty is how it is,' he thought, and he was a little surprised at the clarity and viciousness of the thought as he and Naruto left the field.

    ###

    When her teammates found her, Sakura was doing the same thing she had done every day for over eight hours straight for the last two weeks. Both of her hands were submerged in buckets of water on either side of her, and she was deep in something she had almost started thinking of as meditation, pulling the water out of the buckets and commanding it with her chakra.

    She had moved beyond pillars by the end of the first week. Obito and Asuma-sensei had told her to try more complicated shapes than stacks of water, and Sakura had followed their advice. It had been impossibly challenging at first to guide the water into anything more complicated than a split pillar, but time and practice had made it easier and easier.

    Now, she wasn't getting tired so fast, even if she sometimes had to close her eyes and center herself, to take stock of the tingling across her body as chakra poured out of her hands and left her hollow and light, like an empty glass.

    Now, she was making flowers instead of pillars. It was the same basic shape, projecting the water upwards, but the difference was at the top, where her chakra split the water out into wide petals. Keeping the water suspended in that shape in defiance of gravity was a gratifying challenge.

    Now, at the end of the second week, the flowers were becoming as simple to Sakura as the pillars had been. She'd have to move on soon, to keep challenging herself.

    "Sakura?"

    She yelped, the flowers collapsing back into the buckets at her sides as her hands instinctively clenched into fists, and opened her eyes. Naruto and Sasuke were standing in front of her, peering at her inquisitively: Naruto was practically glowing red.

    "Sorry!" he said, and Sasuke chuckled. "We didn't mean to… that was really cool!"

    "Naruto? Sasuke?" Sakura shook her head, trying to center herself. "Where'd you guys come from?"

    "We walked right up," Sasuke said matter of factly, and Sakura felt herself blush. She really had been so caught up in the exercise that she hadn't even heard them approach. "So you've moved on, huh?" He looked around as Sakura pulled herself off the ground, feeling a little woozy now that her concentration had been broken. "Where's sensei?"

    Huh. That was the first time Sakura had heard him call Obito that. "He left," she said, fumbling for her sword, which she had laid out behind her. "To get some lunch for us." As she picked it up, she frowned. Asuma had taken the blade from her two days ago, and returned it the next. Ever since then the balance had been just slightly different. Not enough to be truly different, but enough for Sakura to notice. She hadn't bothered to ask what Asuma had needed her sword for, and he hadn't told her.

    If he was going to, he would when he needed to, she was sure.

    "He's not back already? He didn't use the Kamui?" Naruto asked, and Sakura laughed and shook her head. It was good to hear his voice, even though it hadn't been that long.

    "Asuma-Sensei called him lazy for teleporting all the time," she said, and Naruto laughed too. "Said he should try running, like a real ninja."

    "Well, maybe he's right," Naruto joked. "I mean, I get it, if I could teleport everywhere-"

    "Like your dad?" Sasuke suggested, and Naruto snapped his fingers.

    "Hey, yeah, he does the same thing!" he said with a thoughtful look. "Do you think he taught Obito-Sensei to use it like that, or the other way around?"

    "The first," Sasuke said, and Sakura secured her sword and walked up to her teammates. "My mother is always saying that your dad's the laziest Hokage we've ever had."

    "Ha!" Naruto crossed his arms. "That's just 'cause he gets so much done, there's nothing left to do after a while!"

    "Sure," Sasuke said dryly. He looked to Sakura. "What do you think, Sakura? Lazy, or efficient?"

    Sakura didn't answer. She was too busy looking over his shoulder. Her mouth had gone dry.

    "Sakura?" Naruto asked. "What-?" He looked back, following her gaze.

    Gaara of the Desert was glowering at them from the shadow of a tree about thirty meters away, his hands rhythmically opening and closing, his chest heaving. His eyes were wide, unblinking, and focused directly on Naruto.

    'What?' Sakura thought, and even though Gaara couldn't possibly hear the thought, it was as though it triggered him to take action. His hands closed into fists, and he started slowly walking forward. 'What? It's only the second week. I'm not ready. Why is he here?'

    It was a stupid thought, and Sakura recognized that immediately. Gaara obviously wasn't here for her.

    "Hey!" Naruto shouted, and Sakura's fugue broke. She drew her slightly too heavy sword, and Sasuke pulled a knife from his hip. They both jumped to Naruto's side, presenting a united front against the ninja from Suna.

    Gaara didn't care. He just kept stalking forward, eyes fixed on Naruto.

    "Get out of here, you freak!" Naruto shouted, and the boy flinched. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" The words were harsh, but he sounded terrified.

    "You're very irritating," Gaara muttered, his pace never changing. His arms swayed from side to side, like he was sleepwalking, barely in control of his body. Sakura felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, and her hands tightened around her sword. "I already told you how it is. It's your destiny for me to kill you." His eyes flicked between Sakura and Sasuke. "I'm not interested in your teammates. If they leave, I'll even let them live."

    "As if," Sasuke said, and Sakura nodded, raising her sword.

    Gaara didn't pause or even hesitate, like Sakura had quietly hoped he would.

    Instead, he smiled.

    "Fine," he said, only fifteen meters away now. "That might be more fun."

    She wasn't ready to fight. She wasn't ready for this fight. Would she ever be ready for this fight? Sakura felt one of her feet sliding back and steadied herself, trying to analyze the situation. What could she do against his sand with her sword? Nothing. None of them had anything that would work, even the Rasengan. Charging in would just get them cut or crushed.

    Thirteen meters. She started backing up, and Naruto and Sasuke followed her, keeping at her side. They had to stay out of Gaara's range; he hadn't struck yet, but he surely would soon.

    A tongue of sand crept up out of the gourd on Gaara's back, and for the third time in her life, Sakura accepted the possibility of her death.

    "Stop."

    Sakura looked up, and something fast and red landed in front of her and her team, sending them stumbling back in shock. After a moment, they recognized the new arrival.

    "Mom?!" Naruto asked, and Kushina Uzumaki didn't even look back at him. She was completely focused on Gaara. Sakura couldn't see her face, but for the first time the boy paused. More sand poured out of his gourd, tentatively floating around him.

    After two weeks of working with water, Sakura couldn't help but appreciate the insane level of control and power that must have been necessary to maintain the sand in the air like that. Could she do that with water particles? Maybe, but it would just form a mist. Would that even be useful?

    She was, as usual, overthinking things. Kushina took a step forward, and to her astonishment Sakura saw a golden light start to pulse in the small of the woman's back. What kind of jutsu was that?

    "Turn around and walk away, right now." Kushina's voice was steel. "You shouldn't be here."

    "You aren't my mother," Gaara said, putting a peculiar stress on each word, and Kushina shook her head. Sakura caught a glimpse of her face; she was wearing a furious scowl.

    "That thing isn't either," she said, and Gaara sneered.

    "Liar," he growled, and more sand poured out of his gourd, so much that Sakura wasn't even sure it could hold it all. "Liar liar liar liar liar." The sand spread out around him, pooling at his feet. "Mother says I need to kill you too." He said it pensively, like someone had just whispered it in his ear. "I guess I'll just kill all of you."

    Kushina grunted, and the light on her back exploded, resolving itself into two golden chains. As Sakura and her teammates watched, frozen with shock and awe, the chains darted forward, towards Gaara. The boy nodded, and his sand rose up in dozens of tendrils, walls, and other obstructions, trying to snare the chains.

    But Kushina's jutsu danced through everything, so quickly that Sakura could only see the golden afterimage. Gaara's eyes grew wide as the chain's drew closer, and he sent more sand after them, but Kushina's jutsu dodged everything, whipping to and fro like wild snakes.

    Unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. The jutsu was so fast and so flexible that Gaara's sand, which had stopped two teams at once, couldn't even touch it. Kushina twitched, and the chains surged forward. Sakura blinked, and they were through the sand, through a hole in Gaara's defenses. They rushed towards the boy's chest and head-

    "Enough!" The chains stopped before the voice had even cleared the training ground, and Gaara's sand rushed up, wrapping around them and trying to crush them. Kushina clenched a fist, and they evaporated in a rush of golden chakra, leaving Gaara clutching at nothing.

    There was a man under the same tree Gaara had been. He was tall, with tanned skin and dark red hair.

    "Lord Kazekage," Kushina said, and Sakura was surprised the man didn't melt into a puddle of acid and bile from Kushina's tone alone. "How good of you to join us." The glow in her back fully vanished, and Gaara growled, beginning to advance.

    "Gaara," the Kazekage said, and his son stopped, eyes wide. "I said enough."

    For a moment, it looked like the boy might tear himself in two, yearning to press forward but kept back by something like fear, if he could feel it at all. But it was only a moment, and Gaara relented, his sand sulkily sliding back into his gourd as he stood stock still, staring at Naruto and his mother.

    "Tell me," Kushina said, "were you planning to restrain him before or after he murdered my son?"

    "A shinobi cannot murder, or be murdered, Uzumaki," the Kazekage said with a faint sneer. "But if you are so concerned, I would not have allowed this to proceed."

    "How comforting," Kushina said, taking a deep breath.

    Naruto stepped forward. "You're the Kazekage? You're his dad?" He looked between the two of them, and Sakura did too. She could see a resemblance. Their faces were very similar, the same way Kushina and Naruto's were. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

    "He doesn't have much tact, does he?" the Kazekage noted, and Kushina glanced down at her son. Sakura wondered how she'd ended up here, going from meditating with her water-flowers to Naruto insulting the Kage of an allied village in just minutes.

    "I didn't hear anything out of line," she said, and the Kage snorted.

    "I'll forgive that, for today," he said, turning away. "Gaara. Follow."

    It was like a command for a dog, not a human being, and Gaara resisted it for a moment. His father crossed his arms and tapped one finger against his shoulder, and something golden and shimmering rose up around him, like an aura of tiny particles. "Now."

    "Another time," Gaara eventually said, his eyes going dead and flat, and he turned to follow his father. Team Seven and Kushina watched him go the whole length of the training yard, and when they were finally at something resembling a safe distance the Kazekage turned. He wasn't looking at Naruto, or Kushina, or even Sasuke, but at Sakura. She blinked at the sudden attention. The man didn't look angry, or even irritated. He just regarded her with something that looked uncomfortably like pity.

    "A word of advice, girl," he said, and Sakura felt herself bristle at the appellation. "It doesn't matter how much you train. If you step foot in the arena with Gaara, he will kill you." He turned around, waving dismissively. "If you want to live, you'll surrender. I can restrain him here; that won't be my duty during the Exam."

    And with that, he and his son were gone in a flicker of sand and gold.

    "Asshole," Kushina spat, turning around to face them. "You guys all okay?"

    "Yeah." Sakura nodded, but found that her hands were shaking. She looked down at them, the Kazekage's words ringing in her ears.

    'He will kill you.'

    "Was he following me?" Naruto asked, and his mother nodded.

    "How long? Why did you stop him?" Sasuke asked, and Kushina frowned.

    "For a while. Since Naruto left to find you guys," she said. "I noticed right away, but I couldn't risk stopping him by myself, at least not until he got ready to attack. He's still a guest in the village, and the Kazekage's son besides… even if he doesn't treat him that way." Her lip curled in disgust. "What a horrible man."

    "Horrible men make horrible children," Sakura said faintly, and Kushina gave her a surprised look. "My mother says that sometimes," she said, her head still ringing.

    'He will kill you.'

    "He was talking shit, you know," Kushina said, and Sakura looked up in surprise at her coarse language. "We won't let you die. The village won't let you die, not in a match against that guy. It's not happening."

    "Sure," Sakura said. "I know."

    But saying it out loud just made it more absurd. What could anyone do, even Kushina, or the Hokage, or her own parents, if Gaara caught her in his sand? What could they do if he started squeezing the life out of her, crushed her sword, crushed her bones?

    Nothing. If that happened, they wouldn't be able to do a damn thing.

    `If you step foot in the arena with Gaara, he will kill you.`

    Sakura shivered.

    ###

    AN: I just wanna stick a quick apology in here. I've been trying to stick you a weekly update schedule for Obito-Sensei, and up until this chapter I was managing that. I got caught up in some personal difficulties (though to be honest, who doesn't have their fair share of those right now), and that got this relatively simple chapter pushed back. Hopefully, next week will mark a return to a normal update schedule. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 20: The Third Week
  • Threadmarks
    • Jutsu​

    Eleven days before the final, Sakura had moved on from water flowers. The shapes she was making with the water were growing more and more abstract, ever more bold in their construction and defiance of physics. She'd begun trying to form full kanji, and though it was just as challenging as the flowers had been at first, Sakura knew exactly what that meant: that she would get it in time.

    But no matter what she did, all it was in the end was shapes with the water. Three weeks now of the same thing, pausing for nothing but eating and sleeping. Sakura could count the real conversations she'd had for the month on one hand. She was starting to feel distant from herself, her mouth clamped shut from exhaustion, her tongue always dry. When she did speak, it was inevitably quiet and hoarse.

    Sakura Haruno no longer felt like herself. It was getting harder for her to distinguish herself from the buckets of water she was working with every day, filled up with chakra when the sun rose and empty and soaked when it set. In some moments of clarity, she had wondered if this was why her sensei hadn't started them on nature manipulation earlier. This was no way to live.

    But Sakura didn't want to die, so she didn't say anything. She just kept making shapes, trying to increase her complexity and control by any small degree.

    Asuma and Obito were often keeping her company while she trained. Keeping watch over her, maybe. Gaara wasn't interested in her, that was obvious, but her sensei had reacted poorly to the boy from Sand approaching them.

    For the last week, he and Asuma had argued, often, about every subject under the sun. It was obvious to Sakura that the only thing that they had in common was the village, and her. It didn't matter what the subject was: tactics, food, fashion, or gossip, the son of the Third Hokage and the student of the Fourth didn't seem to agree on a single thing.

    Eight days before the finale, Sakura formed her name with the water. She opened her eyes and regarded it, barely recognizing the loops and curls that formed her identity. It shimmered with an inner light, the water pulsing through the construct at high speed. Sakura had figured out that was the simplest way to keep complicated shapes in one piece: the momentum of both the liquid and her chakra helped stabilize them. Not nearly enough to be freestanding, of course, but every little bit helped.

    "How stupid can you… hey now, that's a pretty good one." Asuma wandered over, analyzing the name with obvious interest. "That's well done, Sakura. How long do you think you could hold it?"

    "It doesn't matter how long she can hold it," Obito said a little grumpily as he walked over. "That doesn't-"

    "It's good for her control," Asuma said, cutting him off. "Consistency is even more important than power, Obito."

    "Funny to hear you talking about consistency," Obito shot back. Sakura kept staring at her name, wavering in the air. How long could she hold this? A minute? No, much longer than that, she was sure.

    "I'm here to help you," Asuma said with a laugh. "You brought me on for my advice, and now you want to shoot me down? What do you think you're pulling?" He turned back to her, Sakura barely registering the movement in her peripheral vision. "Can you move the kanji around? That would be a good-."

    "Shut up," Sakura muttered, and then clammed up immediately, unable to believe what she'd just said.

    Shut up? Had she really just…?

    'Shut up.'

    "Shut up?" Asuma blinked. "Pardon?"

    "Sakura?" Her sensei tilted his head, looking down at her with concern. Sakura realized she was starting to breathe heavily. Her name shimmered one more time and then dissolved, collapsing into the bucket.

    Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up.

    "Shut up," she said again, louder this time, and closed her eyes. "I'm done, so can you both please just… shut up."

    "Sakura." Obito knelt down, bringing his face levels with her. "What do you mean?"

    "I'm done," Sakura said, her voice shaking. She hated that, but she couldn't do anything about it. LIke this whole thing. She couldn't take it anymore. The world felt like it was spinning under her, leaving her behind. Vertigo was swimming behind her eyes. "I give up. I'm going to forfeit."

    She remembered her treasonous thoughts from so long ago, when the only thing she'd been able to think about was her anger. No, that wasn't right. When her anger hadn't made her care about anything else.

    'You're stupid if you think that will last forever. When the month's done, will you still be angry?'

    Obito didn't say anything. He just let her drown in her own silence, the only sound her own deafening breath. Asuma watched from behind him, his arms crossed. She couldn't read either of them. Her vision was blurring. Was she crying?

    "Why now?" her sensei finally asked. "You've already come so far. Why give up now?"

    "Because we haven't done anything!" The words burst out of Sakura, steadily ratcheting up to a scream, and she shot to her feet, knocking down one of the buckets with her knee. "I've just been messing around with water this whole time! Making shapes and nothing else!" She kicked the other bucket over, and Asuma laughed. Sakura glared at him, and the laughter died in his throat. "And you two have just been arguing about nothing this whole time, like a bunch of idiots! And you messed up my sword!"

    She sobbed, her voice cracking. "You said you were going to help me, but I haven't gotten any stronger! I don't know anything new! When I saw Gaara that day, I knew he'd be able to kill me like it was nothing! Like I was nothing! I knew! Nothing's changed! All this training has been nothing!" She screamed the last word, doubling over and pouring her whole soul out into the word, and was left hollow afterwards, staring at the wet grass and feeling tears dripping down off her cheeks.

    "I'm done," she whispered, her throat painfully rough. "I don't want to die. That bastard can have my spot. I don't deserve it anyway."

    Her sensei gave her a bit more silence after that. Eventually, he stood back up.

    "Alright," he said, and Sakura looked up at him. "We're done, then." He glanced back at Asuma, and the other man shrugged.

    "If that's how it is," he said with a sour grin.

    "What?" Sakura asked, and Obito refocused back on her. He was expressionless, his eyes flat.

    'Wait.'

    "You said we're done, Sakura," he said, his voice like a hammer. "So, we're done."

    "Sensei…" Sakura didn't know what to say. Her insides were churning. Wasn't this what she wanted?

    "If you want to try again, I'll be here tomorrow." Still flat. Still no judgement, no enthusiasm, no life of any kind. Obito crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing. "But for now, go home, Sakura. Get some rest." He turned to leave. "Think about what you really want."

    Sakura had nothing to say, and neither did her sensei or Asuma. They left her standing there, silent and empty.

    'What did I just do?'

    Eventually, at least a couple minutes later, Sakura snapped out of her fugue and realized she was just standing there, staring at nothing, barely breathing.

    'Wasn't this what I wanted?'

    She left the field and the buckets, her hand wrapping itself around her sword unconsciously. She squeezed the hilt rhythmically, echoing her pounding heart, as she made her way through the streets of Konoha and towards her home. The village was bright and full of life as usual, but Sakura spoke to no-one, and no-one noticed her. To the world she was just another tired ninja trudging home a shortly after noon.

    Sakura didn't notice when she made it back to her home. She was just…

    Disappointed.

    "Sakura!" Her mother was in the entryway putting her shoes on when Sakura stepped through the door. "You're home early!" She paused, examining Sakura's face. "What happened?"

    "Nothing," Sakura muttered, stepping past her and up the stairs. Her mother turned, following her.

    "Not real convincing," she pointed out, and Sakura felt her heart jolt in her chest. "Are you alright? You look pale."

    Sakura had never told her parents what had happened the week before with Gaara, and so far as she knew neither had anyone else. Right then, halfway up the stairs, she wondered why that was. Had she been too tired to? Or had that just been an excuse?

    "I told…" she said, and then stopped, swallowing her tongue.

    'Sometimes, there are fights you can't win.'

    "What? What is it, honey?" Her mother stepped closer, their heads drawing level on the stairs, and Sakura turned around, tears beading in her eyes. "Oh, Sakura…"

    "I told sensei I was done," she said, struggling to form the words. "I told him I'd forfeit."

    "Sakura…" Her mother took another step forward, putting her arms out. Her hands settled on Sakura's shoulders, pulling her forward a little. She was staring into her eyes. "You're sure?"

    Sakura's throat clenched, and she nodded, her vision blurring. "Okay." Her mother pulled her into a hug, resting her head on her shoulder. Sakura shuddered, her whole body shaking. "It's okay."

    "It's not…" Sakura gasped for air. "I'm not…"

    "Just shh," her mother said, the words harsh but her tone soft, and Sakura sobbed, collapsing into her.

    She was scared. She didn't know how to express that. Behind all the exhaustion, the anger, the tears, Sakura was just scared. The fear was eating her up from below, dragging her down into something dark and cloying.

    'I don't want to die.' That was all that Sakura had been able to think as she lay in bed gradually slipping into sleep for the last three weeks. That was the core of the anger, she was sure, that selfish fear, not the altruistic rage she'd assume it was. 'I don't want what happened to them to happen to me.'

    Her mother held her there on the stairs as she cried for one minute, maybe two, before pulling back and wiping some of the tears from her eyes. She was crying too, Sakura saw. Not as much as she had been, but a little.

    "C'mon," Mebuki said with a little smile. "Let's go sit down, alright?"

    Sakura was led down the stairs, away from her room, and her mother sat her down at the kitchen table. She walked away and came back with a glass of ice water and an apple, setting both down in front of her daughter.

    "Eat," her mother said, and Sakura listlessly devoured the apple, only now realizing how hungry she was. Mebuki sat down, watching Sakura carefully as she finished the apple and began downing the water alongside it.

    "I'm really proud of you, Sakura," she said, and Sakura almost choked on her water.

    "What?" Of everything she'd expected out of her mother, that hadn't even come into consideration. What could there possibly be for her to be proud about?

    "No matter what, you were really brave, you know," Mebuki said, leaning forward and propping her chin up with her hand. She smiled. "Training to go up against that guy was brave… but forfeiting is too."

    "That's stupid," Sakura said, taking another sip of water. She hiccuped. "What's brave about giving up?"

    "Nothing," Mebuki said, shaking her head. "But telling your sensei, and doing it when you were going to have the eyes of the whole village on you… that takes a lot of courage."

    "It just makes me a coward," Sakura said, and her mother frowned.

    "What's cowardly about knowing your limits?" she asked, and Sakura dropped her head.

    "That's not-"

    "What's cowardly about not throwing your life away?" Mebuki pressed, and Sakura closed her mouth. "What's cowardly about choosing your fights?"

    "This fight was chosen for me!" Sakura said, feeling some life kindle in her chest, and her mother clucked her tongue.

    "By random chance. But even that's wrong!" she declared, standing up out of her chair. "That's what's been frustrating your father and me, you treating this like you've got no choice! But you've always got a choice! You're the only person who picks your fights, Sakura!"

    "I wanted this fight!" Sakura said, standing up too, her fist clenching around the glass. Her mother gave it a pointed look, and she set it down carefully, not wanting to shatter it. "I wanted to make him pay for what he did to Hinata, and Shikamaru, and everyone else!"

    "Then why are you forfeiting?" Mebuki asked, and Sakura snarled.

    "Because I don't think I can win," she said, and her mother nodded.

    "That's what keeps you from being a coward," she said, and Sakura stiffened. "If you were giving up just because you were scared… that wouldn't be a good look." She leaned down, placing her hand flat on the table. "But Sakura, even if you're scared, I can tell that's not why you're giving up."

    "But I am scared!" Sakura almost shouted, and her mother laughed.

    "But you just said it yourself!" she said, looking like she was enjoying herself. "You don't think you can win! You're the kinda girl who thinks with her brain, not her fear!" She laughed again, a smaller, drier chuckle. "That's always been your problem, Sakura! You're too smart for your own good. You're overthinking this! You already got to the conclusion, and now you're searching for something else!"

    She leaned forward. "Look at me." Sakura's head had tilted away, towards the exit of the kitchen as she pondered escape. "You're doing the right thing. You know yourself. If you don't think you can win, you shouldn't fight."

    "That's not what being a ninja is," Sakura said, wondering where the words were coming from. They didn't sound like her. They sounded like…

    Haku.

    "Sometimes, a ninja has to struggle, or take a fight they can't win."

    "Yep," Mebuki said triumphantly. "That's true. Sometimes, you'll have no choice. But right now, you're not supposed to be a ninja. You're supposed to be a genin that'll be an example to the other villages." She grew a little more somber. "And in this case... a genin who walks away is a better example."

    Sakura looked down, rolling the words around in her head as she finished off her water.

    "Sensei told me to come back tomorrow," she eventually said, a little shocked at how tired she sounded. It wasn't even three in the afternoon, was it? "He told me to think about what I really want."

    "You should do that." Her mother leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, and Sakura almost flinched back. "Get some rest, okay? You've been running ragged this whole month. Just take an afternoon to yourself, okay?"

    She nodded, and her mother stood up. "I said I'd meet up with some friends, okay? I'm going to head out, if that's alright."

    "Who?" Sakura asked, feeling rooted to the table, and her mother winked.

    "No one you care about," she said with a wry grin. "But if you're worried, don't be. I'm not going to spread the news around. That's not gonna be my place."

    "Okay." Sakura slumped forward, resting against the cold wood of the table. "Have fun."

    "I'll be back tonight," Mebuki grinned. "Your father and I will make you something nice. How's that sound?"

    Sakura nodded, and her mother left. She heard the door distantly close, and stayed at the table with no idea of what to do next.

    If she wanted to give up, why did doing it feel so terrible?

    Sakura stood up, taking her glass to the sink and tossing her apple core in a trashcan in the corner of the room. What did she even want to do with an evening to herself? The last couple weeks had been nothing but training, eating, and sleeping. What had she even done for fun, before this?

    She watched as the apple landed in the can with a thunk, and frowned. She hadn't read a book in almost a month. That was really unlike her. Sakura hated to say it out loud because it sounded dorky and antisocial, but reading had been her favorite hobby for as long as she could remember. It was easy and fun. Just like when she had trained with water, it was simple for her to fall into a fugue while turning page after page, feeling the unique texture of the paper and enjoying the creak of the spine.

    "I'll go to the library," she said out loud, just to hear her own voice. She tried to make it more confident. If she didn't make a plan, she'd just sit in the kitchen for the rest of the day, and then just hate herself more. "I'll go to the library."

    As far as half-baked and spur of the moment plans went, it was pretty good, so Sakura went with it.

    ###

    Konoha had several libraries, but the central one near the Hokage's tower had always been Sakura's favorite for two reasons. The first was its atmosphere. The eastern library was nicknamed "the pinecone," because of its spiralling structure dotted with windows, and most of the others had equally bizarre construction. By contrast, the central library was like most of Konoha's residential buildings on the surface, tall and blocky, but the majority of its library was beneath the ground in a sort of den that sprawled out in several subterranean extensions.

    Down there, beneath the building and away from the bustle of Konoha, things were usually quiet and peaceful. The thick walls absorbed most sound, and the rooms were large enough that even someone talking loudly wouldn't do much to disturb the peace. It was an ideal studying environment.

    The second reason was its size. The central library was by far the largest, and Sakura had never failed to find a book on any sort of subject there. History, geography, advanced mathematics, chakra theory, even more niche interests like art and engineering could be found in abundance at the library. If Sakura was ever curious about something, she could always be sure to find it there.

    Until today. Because today, on a whim, she had begun searching for the history of a particular village soon after arriving, and had met with little success.

    Sakura shut another index, a motion that was dangerously close to a slam, and huffed. She didn't understand. Amegakure had been a Hidden Village for at least thirty years. There was no way there wasn't any material on it. She returned the book, a large omnibus titled Villages, Towns, and Cities of the Northern Nations which had been meticulously organized, overly dry, and ultimately useless, to one of the towering shelves and stalked down the aisle, heading towards a help desk.

    Sakura didn't like asking for help in a library of all places, but she was left with no choice. She'd been here almost twenty minutes and hadn't been able to find a single thing.

    "Oh? Is that you, Sakura?" She recognized the man at the desk when she rounded the final stack; it was an older gentleman who'd been at the library for as long as she could remember… but she couldn't remember his name. Sakura felt a flare of self-consciousness. "Haven't seen you in a while. How're you doing?"

    "Good!" she lied with a smile. "I'm having trouble finding books about a certain village. Can I get some help?"

    "Sure!" The older man smiled, his mustache rising with the motion, and reached down to pull out a file from beneath the desk. He pulled it open, eyes already dropping. "Which village is it?"

    "The Hidden Rain," Sakura said, and the man clucked his tongue.

    "Well, no wonder," he said, snapping the file shut. You're never gonna have much luck there, young lady."

    "What?" Sakura asked, cocking her head as she peered over the desk. "What do you mean? Someone must surely have written about that village…"

    "Of course," the man said with a grin. "But it doesn't matter how much is written about it: if the court forbids any public material about it, you're not going to find it in the stacks."

    "The courts?" Sakura was only getting more confused.

    "The Daimyo's Court, of course. Material on Amegakure isn't fit for public consumption, according to them." The man tapped his file. "So it's banned from being filed in the public areas."

    "Well that's stupid," Sakura said.

    'You'd never dream of replacing the Daimyo, I imagine.'

    She paused at the flitting memory, and then continued. "If it's not in the public area…"

    "Oh, I can go grab it for you," the man said. "It's available to shinobi, unless the Hokage says otherwise." He laughed. "And I doubt the Fourth has time to go around banning books like the Daimyo."

    "Yeah…" Sakura smiled, feeling a little uneasy. "Could you get a couple for me? I'm just trying to learn more about its history, I guess. I ran into a team from there during the Exam, and they were really odd."

    "Most foreigners are," the man said with a nod. "Especially shinobi. Other villages have all sorts of freaky customs." He leaned forward. "And that's just the stuff that's gotten out. Be glad you were born in the Leaf, young lady."

    Sakura nodded and gave another smile, but it felt insincere. She wasn't feeling gratitude.

    She was thinking about what Tenten had told her, about Neji being a servant to the rest of the Hyuuga because his father had been born a couple minutes after Hinata's.

    The man left, disappearing into one of the back rooms that connected to one another throughout the whole library like a spider's web, and Sakura waited patiently for about three minutes. When he returned, he had an armful of books.

    "Don't go reading them all in one place," he said, and Sakura forced a laugh as he set them down on the counter. She gathered them up with a word of thanks and retreated to a long desk in the corner.

    Sakura would have had trouble articulating what she was doing if someone asked her, but mostly she just wanted to see if everything Haku had told her was true. In the end, it wasn't very surprising to her that it was.

    The Land of Rain had been a small country since its founding. Even before the age of shinobi and their villages it had been trapped between larger competitors that exploited it for its resources. It had once had many precious metal deposits like the Land of Iron, but those had all been mined out decades ago. It had once had thick forests like the Land of Fire, but colonizers and corporations from Earth, Iron, Fire, and Wind had chopped them down long ago, and now little lumber remained. The same story repeated a dozen times. Sakura came to realize, two books in, that what Haku had told her had been sanitized and limited, either so he wouldn't sound too harsh or out of ignorance since he was not a native. In almost every respect, Rain had been stripped of everything of worth and left as a buffer territory between the larger nations: an excuse for them not to share borders and the complications that would arise from that.

    Rain only had a couple meaningful exports in recent history, after the rise of the Five Villages, and to Sakura's complete lack of surprise the main one was skilled shinobi. Perhaps it was because of the constant conflict that wracked the nation, or maybe it was because most people seemed to underestimate shinobi from the minor villages and so watched any exceptional ones with extra attention, but regardless of the reason Rain had a history of singularly powerful shinobi who shaped the politics of the entire nation. There had been Hanzo, like Haku said, and before him there had been Kawakami the Ember, and before him Fukoku Konran, who had given up her family name to protect her clan from retribution.

    And now, there was the Akatsuki Triumvirate. They were only in one book, The Red Sun Over Rain, which was more modern and, Sakura thought, a little silly. It painted the Akatsuki as dangerous anarchists who wanted to destroy the world because they hated the current system. Sakura already knew that was inherently ridiculous. If you were leading a village, you couldn't be an anarchist; that was self-evident. Haku and his team had been sent to the Chunin Exam to be promoted traditionally: that meant that Rain wanted to be a part of the system, not destroy it. The author claimed that Rain and the Akatsuki were focusing on stealing powerful shinobi from the other villages with mind control and more sinister methods, and it wasn't long before Sakura found herself rolling her eyes.

    Eventually, she closed the book in disgust. She had wanted to find out more about the Akatsuki, but here at least there wasn't anything but propaganda. The only new thing she'd learned was that all three of the Akatsuki's leaders, Jiraiya of the Sannin's students, were masters of ninjutsu, which wasn't especially shocking, and that one of them, Nagato, was rumored to possess a mysterious dojutsu. There were no details. Was it like the Sharingan, she wondered, or the Byakugan? Red Sun wasn't interested in that question, apparently. It was more concerned with selling the Land of Rain as an existential threat to the Five Villages, with a couple less subtle passages calling for it to be crushed as soon as possible.

    The whole book left a sour taste in Sakura's mouth, and she pushed it away, making a mental note to never read anything else by the author. She didn't want to get a headache.

    However, the talk of Amegakure being crushed reminded her of something else. She wheeled her chair away from the desk and slid up out of it, wandering back into the stacks.

    It wasn't nearly as difficult to find material on Uzushiogakure. That material was available to the public.

    'What idiot in the court decided that Ame shouldn't be, anyway?'

    Sakura returned to her table with another handful of books and sat down with a groan, spreading them across the wood. Someone stepped into the den, an older woman, glanced at her, and then turned and left; she'd taken up the whole table. Sakura sighed. She didn't want to be seen as rude.

    Material on The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools was much more balanced than it had been for Rain. Most of the sources agreed on the main details; it had been a small village ruled by the Uzumaki clan, just as Haku had said, and it had been annihilated by its neighboring nations, Lightning and Water, with the effort led by the Hidden Villages of Mist and Cloud.

    The motivation behind the destruction was a little more complicated. One book alleged it was due to an ancient grudge; the Uzumaki clan had practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism in the distant past, and its neighbors were taking revenge for their predation. Sakura thought that sounded especially silly, and was most likely propaganda. Two other books agreed on the cause, that in the age of the Hidden Villages the Tailed Beasts were important weapons, and the Uzumaki had possessed weapons or techniques that were a threat to them. Because of that, Mist and Cloud had feared their own Beasts being destroyed or captured, and had formed the alliance that had doomed Uzoshiogakure.

    Sakura didn't know much about the Tailed Beasts, other than that they existed. The notion they were important weapons for the Villages pricked her interest, and so they were the next subject of her research.

    Four hours later, Sakura looked up from her ever-growing stack of books and panicked when she realized it was almost eight o'clock. She rushed home without bothering to return all her books for the first time in her life, ideas and foriegn words buzzing in her head. When she threw open her door, her parents were on the other side.

    "Sakura?" Her father came down the hall, out of the kitchen. "Hey! We were just going to start looking for you!" He grinned. "What happened? Get caught in a book?"

    Sakura didn't want to admit that that was exactly what had happened, so she just shrugged, and her father laughed. "Well, if that's how it is," he said, gesturing. "C'mon. Your mom and I made dinner. We're gonna celebrate, okay?"

    It was a huge dinner, and Sakura felt normal for the first time in a month, speaking with her parents and telling them about her training. They talked about their missions, gossip in the village, news from abroad, and Sakura fell into a comfortable haze of familiarity. She went to bed with a full belly, and fell asleep warm and feeling safe.

    Why, she thought as she slipped away, did I give this up for so long? Just to win a fight? Wasn't that stupid?

    But when she fell asleep, she didn't dream about her parents, or the library. She dreamed about sand, and she woke up in a cold sweat before the sun slipped over the mountains.

    ###

    Her sensei came to fetch her in the morning, after her parents had already left. Sakura walked with him through the morning streets, and they watched Konoha wake up around them. Shops came to life, people poured into the streets. Sakura and Obito walked through it all like a waking dream, the air cold and the sky a dismal blue-grey.

    "I've gotta apologize, Sakura," her sensei eventually said, after they'd been walking for a couple minutes, and Sakura dropped her head.

    "I'm the one who needs to apologize, sensei," she said. "To you and Asuma-sensei too. I shouldn't have… I didn't handle yesterday well. I shouldn't have said those things."

    "Probably not," Obito said with a little laugh. "But who could blame you? We got so caught up in the how we never explained to you why." Sakura glanced at him with a questioning look, and Obito gave her a sad smile. "We never explained to you the purpose of the exercises."

    "You did though," Sakura said. "They were to improve my control, and my nature transformation."

    "Sure, but for what?" Obito asked, and Sakura frowned. "Exactly. You never asked, and we never bothered. Even after Asuma took your sword, you didn't ask any questions, so we kept training you. You trusted us, right?"

    Sakura nodded. "Well," her sensei continued. "Just cause you trusted us, doesn't mean you shouldn't ask questions. Take that as a lesson from this, maybe. We didn't realize how frustrated you were getting." He raised one of his hands. "Our fault, not yours. But something to keep in mind, okay?"

    "Well… okay," Sakura said. "But then, what are we doing today, sensei?" She frowned. "I can't just keep training…"

    "True," Obito said. "We both figured, Asuma and me, you were getting there anyway. Yesterday just confirmed it." He rubbed the back of his head. "So today, I figure we'll show you what that training was for. After that, you can decide if you still wanna forfeit."

    They walked in silence the rest of the way as Sakura tried to suppress her shame. She still wanted to give up: she doubted anything that happened today would change that. But her sensei seemed excited even if he was a little dour, and she didn't want to shoot him down. That would be terrible.

    When they arrived at the same training field she'd practically been calling home for the last several weeks, Sakura was surprised to find that it wasn't just a set of buckets and Asuma like usual. Asuma was there, and so were the buckets, but there were others. Naruto and Sasuke were there, goofing around with one another as they tried to slap the other's shoulder. They waved when they saw her, and Sasuke took the advantage to land an extremely loud SLAP on Naruto, drawing a yelp as the other boy skittered away.

    Sakura laughed, hiding her smile with a closed fist. Her teammates weren't the only ones there. Asuma's team was as well: Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino, and besides them Hinata was sitting in the grass, watching Naruto and Sasuke spar with an unusual amount of focus.

    Last of all, Rin Nohara was there. Sakura had only met her for real once before, when the woman had examined her in the hospital. The jonin grinned at her, and Sakura felt her stomach flip. Why were there so many people?

    She wished Tenten was here, instead of the rest.

    "Sensei?" she asked, and Obito frowned.

    "I don't know about the others," he said. "When I left, Naruto and Sasuke were the only ones here."

    "They came to watch," Asuma called as Sakura and Obito came closer. The whole group began coming together, all nine ninja forming a rough semicircle. "Wasn't my idea." Obito stepped away, quietly conversing with Rin. The older woman giggled, and he frowned.

    Sakura felt her heart sink. She looked at each of her classmates in turn, her gaze lingering on Hinata's missing finger. Both she and Shikamaru were out of their casts: apparently their broken bones had fully healed. "Ino?" she asked, coming to the last of them.

    "You're the one going up against that freak," Ino said with a smile that belied her word's venom. "We wanted to see how you've been doing."

    She wanted to shrink down and vanish into the earth. Sakura looked down, unable to handle the admission. She hadn't done a thing. She wasn't any closer to beating Gaara today than she had been when he'd almost killed Ino's team. Her sensei stepped up beside her, and Sakura wished he'd just tell everyone to go home.

    Nothing to see here.

    "Sakura's been training her nature transformation for the last three weeks," was what he said instead. "Today, we're going to see that pay off. There's no guarantee it's going to be especially exciting. If that's what you're looking for, you should head out right now."

    No one left. "She'll kick ass," Naruto said, and the other kids nodded. Sakura blushed, and he smiled at her. "No way she won't."

    "Hmph." Asuma snorted, stepping forward and putting out his cigarette. "We'll see." He held his hand out. "Sakura, your sword."

    Sakura pulled her sword from its sheath and carefully turned it around, presenting it to Asuma handle first. The Sarutobi gingerly plucked the blade from her hands, turning it over in his.

    "You never asked me what I did with this," he said, and Sakura shook her head, feeling more foolish by the second. "Why the balance was off."

    "I thought you'd tell me," she said quietly, and the man snorted.

    "Well, I guess you were right. I'll tell you right now." A distortion in the air rippled up the blade, and Sakura watched it with fascination. It was like a heat shimmer, but a thousand times more turbulent, and it came to a stop about a foot above the end of the sword. Asuma dipped the blade down, and ran the almost invisible distortion through the grass at his feet.

    Wherever the convulsing air touched, the grass and earth was snipped apart, as if the air was an unbelievably sharp blade. Asuma dragged a thin, deep cut in the earth without even touching it with the sword, and then lifted the blade back up, the distortion vanishing.

    "I had my clan reforge your sword," he said as Sakura gaped. Shikamaru made a soft sound of understanding. "The Sarutobi have a good stock of chakra reactive metal, and your sensei and I thought you were a good candidate for it."

    "Chakra reactive metal?" Sakura asked, and Asuma handed her sword back to her. She looked down at it, the strange weight suddenly taking on an entirely new meaning. "Like the paper?"

    "Just so," Asuma said with a nod. "It's a material that soaks up chakra like a sponge, and makes it easier to direct. I can transfer my chakra through it, transform it intoWind." He plucked a curved knife from his vest, and the distortion reappeared. "My knives are constructed of the same metal."

    "I see," Sakura said, not sure if she did. "Then, what…?"

    "Sakura!" Naruto interrupted. "This is so cool!" He looked at all three of the adults. "Then she can do the same thing? Put her chakra through the sword, but with water instead of wind?"

    "Exactly," Obito affirmed, and his teammate gave him a sly look.

    "Pretty clever, Obito," Rin teased, and Sakura's sensei rubbed the back of his head with a shy grin. Sakura watched the whole thing, feeling a tickle of amusement in her chest.

    "Well, it's only clever if it works," Obito said. He gestured and Sakura followed him back to one of the buckets. "So, Sakura, this will be the same principle," he said, and Sakura looked at him with a little fear. She was keenly aware of all the eyes at her back. "Before, you were channeling your chakra directly through your hands into the water. The only difference here is that you'll be using the sword as a medium."

    "What's this for, sensei?" Sakura asked quietly, and Obito straightened up. "What am I trying to do?"

    "An elemental blade," Obito said bluntly. "Like what Asuma did with his Wind. Water isn't the best piercing element; that's Lightning. But for cutting, it's right behind Wind, and it can be a lot more flexible." He knelt down, bringing his face level with hers. "You ever seen a water-jet cutter?" Was that a jutsu? Sakura shook her head, and her sensei shrugged. "Yeah, I doubt you would have. It's a special kind of tool for cutting material that's sensitive to heat." He frowned. "I think. I've never used one. The point is, you get water going fast enough, mix in some other stuff, and it can even cut through steel. You understand?"

    Sakura didn't, but she nodded anyway, desperate to suppress the trembling that would start in her feet and work its way up through her body. She didn't want to humiliate herself in front of her teammates, Obito's, and the others. She was more scared than ever.

    "Try running your chakra through the sword first," Obito suggested. She was sure he could tell exactly what she was feeling. Sakura focused, projecting her chakra out through her palm and into the sword, and was surprised at how easy it was. The sword sucked up her chakra almost eagerly, but without wasting any of it. It just filled up the blade; after a moment, it felt like it was an extension of Sakura's body, more so than any sword had before.

    The weird weight was gone. Sakura realized it had been a sort of emptiness, and absence where her chakra should have been. Her arm shook, once, and she closed her eyes, focusing on the feeling.

    "Pretty cool, huh?" Obito said, and Sakura opened her eyes to see him smiling. She smiled back. "My White Fang is the same way," he said, gesturing at the blade on his back. It made Sakura feel better to have something shared with her sensei. "Now, try dipping it in the water."

    Sakura did, the tip of the blade vanishing below the surface. She could feel the water coursing around the blade like it was her own hand. Almost unable to believe how easy it was, she drew the liquid up around the sword. When she pulled it back, the water came with it like a liquid sheathe.

    "What?" she asked, looking at it with a confused expression. She heard someone behind her cheer, probably Naruto.

    "That's not supposed to be easy," Obito said, looking a little smug. "But it feels like it, right?"

    Sakura moved the sword back and forth, watching the water dance over it. The liquid clung to the blade like a magnet; it was barely an effort for her. She nodded, astonished at the feeling, and her sensei grinned. "That's 'cause of your training. Like I told you at the beginning, Sakura…"

    "I'm a natural," Sakura said faintly, and Obito nodded.

    "Right now, it's just a bunch of water around the blade," he said, and Sakura focused, analyzing the sword and her chakra. She forgot about the people behind her. It was just her, her sensei, and the sword. "That's not going to help much with cutting power, though it might freak people out if they don't understand how water works. Try moving it a little?"

    Sakura did, trying to get the water to spin around the steel like a rotary blade, and it responded to her chakra much quicker than she thought it would. She had assumed the movement would be sluggish, but the water began spinning so fast that some of it flew off, out of her control and splattered into the grass.

    She frowned, and retrieved more from the bucket. Keep it close to the sword, to keep control. Use the centrifugal motion to take some of the work away from your chakra. After a couple minutes, the water around the sword was rotating around it in a constant spiral.

    Like the Rasengan, she realized with a start. Like a vertical Rasengan centered around the sword. She glanced back at her teammates, and watched Naruto and Sasuke come to the same realization. Naruto grinned and gave her a thumbs up, and she smiled back shakily. The others were watching too: Ino's eyes were wide, and Hinata's Byakugan had activated.

    "Good," Obito eventually said. "I think you've got the hang of it, mostly." He narrowed his eyes. "But you see the problem when it comes to Gaara, right?"

    "Even if I could cut through his sand," Sakura said, backing down from the high of controlling her chakra so effortlessly and confronting reality, "it's still just a sword. I'd have to get close to him. He'd have the advantage there."

    "Exactly," Obito said. "So, that's the last part of this jutsu." He lifted three fingers, and ticked them off one by one. "You control the water. Easy, for you." One finger dropped. "You rotate the water, to increase its cutting power." The second finger dropped. "The last step will be extending it, so you can attack Gaara safely."

    "It's like the Rasengan," Sakura muttered, barely able to believe it. "It's just as much shape manipulation as it is nature."

    "Yup," Obito nodded. "I took a little inspiration, can't lie."

    "And you thought I could do it?" Sakura asked, barely able to believe it.

    "Still do," Obito said, solid as a rock. Sakura was rooted to the spot, captivated by his confidence. "So, show me. Let the water extend off the sword, but don't lose control of it. Okay?"

    Sakura tried, not really sure what to do. She let the water drip down off the sword like a long wet snake, careful not to lose the rotational energy. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to get it back once the water was stretched out. The water became a rope, and then a cord, stretching farther as it coiled around her feet. Five, ten, fifteen feet. Sakura was finally forced to stop, feeling her chakra's grip on the liquid grow thin. She drew some of the water back up into the sword, feeling like she was pulling on an unbelievably heavy winch, and left herself thirteen feet of liquid coiled around her.

    "Are you kidding… okay." Obito rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

    "What?" Sakura asked, and her sensei laughed.

    "Sakura, do you even know what you're doing?" he said, and Sakura frowned, shaking her head. "You just made a whip out of the water. It's still spinning!" He gestured at the water. "If I'd known you could do this, we woulda started last week!"

    "This is… good?" Sakura asked, looking down at the coil of solid water she'd created, and Obito snorted.

    "Hey!" he called over her shoulder, and Sakura flinched. "She wants to know if this is good!"

    "What?" Rin called back. "Is she insane? That's amazing!"

    Sakura wasn't sure if she should take offense at being called insane or blush at the compliment, so she decided on both. She lifted the sword, feeling the water follow and locking in place with her chakra, imagining it as an iron spine that ran throughout the whole whip, as Obito had called it. Solid, unbreakable, but flexible. Her will and soul extended through her sword, through the water, making it just another further extension of her arm.

    "Okay, you're getting it," Obito said. "Now let's test it out, alright?" He walked back towards the group, and Sakura followed, the water trailing behind her and leaving a trail in the grass.

    "Sakura," Hinata muttered as she walked past, and Sakura glanced at her, trying not to show her anxiety. Could you even hide that from the Byakugan? "Keep your chakra even across your upper body. You have too much on your right side. It's going to throw your balance off."

    Sakura nodded, trying to follow the advice. She kneaded more chakra in her core and spread it out across her torso, and to her surprise the water blade grew even lighter.

    What amazing eyes. She smiled at Hinata, and the girl smiled back. In front of her, Obito came to a stop.

    "Alright," he said, turning to face her and jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "See that tree?"

    It couldn't be missed. It was a stout, wide oak, barely twenty feet tall and with a trunk wider than even Obito could wrap his arms around. The trunk was covered in scores of scars from previous practice sessions by other shinobi.

    "We want you to whack it," Obito said, and Sakura watched the tree with a bit of suspicion. She raised her sword, watching the water course of it.

    "Just whack it?" she asked, and her sensei nodded.

    "Use it like a whip," he suggested.

    "Keep the water rotating," Asuma said, walking up behind her as Obito got out of her way. "That's a good technique. Keep that up, extend the blade, and strike with everything you've got."

    Sakura glanced back at him, and then at the tree. She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to center herself, and her feet slid into a basic kata stance.

    She swung the blade at the tree, not sure what she was doing, and the water blade splattered against the side, cracking some of the bark but otherwise falling limp. Sakura frowned.

    "Swing," Asuma said. "It's not just a normal sword anymore. You have to feel the water." He put his hand down, touching his ring finger to the top of the water coursing over the sword, and when he pulled it away there was a tiny cut on the pad of his finger. Sakura blinked at the sudden blood. "This is your sword now. Understand?"

    "Did you just cut yourself?" Ino asked in disbelief, and her sensei shrugged. Shikamaru laughed.

    "C'mon," she heard Sasuke mutter. He sounded like he was anticipating something. Was he using his Sharingan? Could he see something she couldn't? "Do it."

    "Sakura, just swing!" Naruto shouted from behind her. Sakura closed her eyes, taking another breath. She poured more and more of her chakra into the sword, still trying to keep her body balanced. "Fuck that tree up!"

    Sakura swung with both hands.

    She stepped forward into the strike, ankle to hip to arm to hand, throwing the entire weight of her body into the blow, and screamed as she swung, blowing all of her anxiety, fear, and anger out in a single breath. It wasn't a very traditional kiai, but it was all she could do.

    The water blade slashed out, so fast that Sakura herself could barely follow it, and sliced through the tree. It went at a slight diagonal angle, carving clean through the trunk, and exited about a foot lower on the other side in an explosion of bark and sap.

    Sakura blinked, unable to comprehend what she'd just done. The water blade fell apart and splattered across the field; she stumbled, off balance, and fell on her butt, breathing heavily and watching with wide eyes. The tree groaned, sliding sideways on its bifurcated trunk, and slowly toppled, branches cracking and snapping as it fell with a slow but inevitable gravity and slammed into the field, shaking the ground.

    The field was silent for a full five seconds as the tree settled, and Sakura looked back at her teammates. They were both just as surprised as her, speechlessly staring at the toppled oak. Naruto's eyes slid down to meet hers.

    "Holy shit, Sakura," he said, and broke the silent spell.

    Everyone rushed forward, surrounding and congratulating her. Naruto pulled her to her feet, babbling the whole time. Sakura could barely hear them. She was staring at the fallen tree, her hands shaking.

    'I did that?'

    She couldn't wrap her head around it. She'd cut down a whole tree? In one swing? That wasn't possible, was it?

    Sakura's hands closed into fists, something hot pricking at her eyes. She had lost her grip on her sword, and left it on the ground.

    'I did that.'

    "I told you!" Asuma hooted, slapping Obito on the back. "I told you!"

    "Bullshit!" her sensei shouted back with a wide grin. "You didn't know that would happen!"

    "Well, no!" Asuma admitted. "But I figured it would be something!"

    "Boys," Rin muttered, pushing her way through the press and looking Sakura over with a critical eye. She took one of her hands in hers, and Sakura felt foriegn chakra running through her body. "You alright? You fell over."

    "I'm fine," Sakura said, and it felt like an unvarnished truth. Her whole body was buzzing, as if it had been asleep until now. She didn't feel tired at all; it was like there was a live wire running under her arm, hot and electric. "I was just surprised. I didn't think…"

    "No kidding," Rin said dryly. "Your pulse is crazy, but you're good besides that. Calm down a little, okay?" She pulled back, dropping Sakura's hand, and smiled. "Be proud. That's a hell of a jutsu."

    Sakura sniffled and nodded, and Rin's smile shrunk. "What's wrong?"

    "Sakura?" Naruto asked, his hand coming down on her shoulder. "You okay?"

    "I'm okay," she said, her voice muffled. She laughed and dropped her head, the tears coming more heavily. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I just…!"

    "Hey," Sasuke said, coming in from the other side. "It's okay. What're you-?"

    "I'm happy, you idiots!" Sakura cried, and Naruto laughed. "I thought I was gonna die! And now-!" She gestured vaguely at the tree, the sound coming from her indistinguishable between sobbing and laughing. "That? I don't even know what to do with that!"

    "Kick that freak's ass, is what!" Naruto declared, and Sakura descended into another round of laughter and tears. "Stop crying! You're freaking me out!"

    "It's okay, Naruto," Obito said. "She was scared. It's natural." Behind him, Ino sniffed as well.

    "Dammit Sakura," she muttered. "You're gonna make me get started too. We were really worried about you, y'know?"

    Sakura nodded, still too overwhelmed to speak.

    "It's a good start," Shikamaru said. He looked a little excited, his eyes narrow as he looked back and forth between the tree and Sakura. It was the first time Sakura had seen anything but boredom or amusement on his face.

    "You've got the power," Choji said, trying to sound authoritative. "But you're gonna need a little more to get past that sand. You should keep training."

    "She will," Hinata said quietly. "She'll get there." She stood up, and Sakura barely recognized the fierce expression on her face. "She… Sakura, you'll show Sand they made a mistake."

    Sakura nodded, blowing out a rough breath and wiping away some of her tears. "Sorry," she muttered. "Sorry, you guys."

    "Nothing to be sorry for," Naruto grinned, and Sakura smiled back at him.

    "I was going to give up," she said after a moment, and everyone in the field stiffened. "I didn't think I could do anything against him." She frowned, her eyes narrowing as she looked back at the tree. She bent down to pick up her sword.

    "And now?" Obito asked. "Did you think about what you want?"

    Sakura straightened up, turning the sword over in her hand.

    "I don't know if I can win, but..." she said, mostly to herself. Her sensei cocked an eyebrow and leaned in, and Sakura looked up at her, feeling her lips slide back and bare her teeth.

    'I'm sick of being scared.'

    "I'm definitely going to fight."
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Damn, I just binged this whole fic in like two hours and I can't wait for more.
    DBDrake said:
    Yo, this story is a RICH vein of creeping dread; it is in a permanent state of half dropped shoes.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This quote hits it exactly. It is a testament to your ability as a writer that you were able to take the oldest shounen trick in the book, the "seemingly pointless/no practical application training turns out to be the basis for an amazing technique" trope, and still make it hit super fucking hard. The fact that you made it happen organically rather than as some sort of wise master mind game is even better. I can totally see adult!Obito and Asuma forgetting to give Sakura context, as well as Sakura's insecurity/assumptions stopping her from asking for an explanation and making her assume the worst.

    I usually don't like stories where the characters misunderstand each others perceptions of them, mostly because it always feels too contrived and makes me feel frustrated by the characters rather than for them. In this case though, your characterization is so consistent and you set everything up so well, there's no dissonance or annoying obliviousness whatsoever. I don't know how many views this story has, but it deserves more.

    P.S. I knew I recognized your name from somewhere. Not Sick was great, and I'm glad to see you're still cranking out hits!
     
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    Chapter 21: The Finals Begin
  • Threadmarks
    • Rivals​

    The day of the final exam arrived before Sakura knew it. She barely remembered waking up that morning; it was as though she were transported to the arena without control of her body. She met her teammates and her sensei there.

    "Sakura." Obito waved his hands in front of her face. Naruto and Sasuke had already gone on ahead. "You okay?" He was fully kitted out, wearing his metal forearm guards and everything.

    "No," she said frankly, and he laughed.

    "Eat a big breakfast?"

    "No."

    "Looking forward to the fights?"

    "No."

    "Can you say anything else?"

    "No."

    Her sensei laughed again, and squeezed her shoulder. "That's fine. You're all going to meet up in the middle of the arena, alright?" They were standing in one of the halls that spiralled throughout the building, the light of the morning sun pouring in through a nearby exit. That door led to the arena proper. "The rules are going to get laid out there. You're the last fight of the day, so you'll have plenty of time to catch your breath, okay?"

    "Okay." Sakura took a deep breath. She was going to fight. She'd already made up her mind. Now, it was just a waiting game. "Okay."

    Obito smiled. "Trust yourself."

    Sakura nodded, and walked out the door into the sun.

    The arena was huge, more than a hundred meters from end to end, and was essentially a small ring of nature enclosed by concrete walls that towered over thirty meters high around it. There was a small creek running through one corner of it, and a copse of scraggly trees in the other: the rest was mostly flat, torn up grass. A perfect naturalistic circle. Above the concrete walls were the stands.

    They were already completely filled to the brim with people of every size, color, and nationality. Sakura was completely overwhelmed by the size of the audience and the sound of its murmuring. There were thousands of them, and just their background noise was like a rushing river all around her. She scanned the countless faces in the crowd for familiar ones, and couldn't find any at a first pass. Her other classmates were up there, and her parents, but she couldn't find them in the sea of people. She kept walking, coming to the center of the arena.

    The other competitors were already there, all except Kabuto. Four of them turned to catch her eye as she walked up: Naruto, Sasuke, Tenten, and Haku. They all smiled at her.

    How weird was it, Sakura thought, that she was friends with four of the twelve finalists?

    Gaara was there too. He didn't look at her. Sakura took her place on the other end of the line from him.

    "Good of you to join us." The proctor for the match was Shikaku Nara, the same scarred man that had been there when the matchups were announced. "Eleven out of twelve is good enough for me, so we're gonna go over the rules now."

    He pulled out a scrap of paper from his vest, and the murmuring in the arena intensified. "Like I told you all a month ago," he said, "this will not be a bracket tournament. Each of you will have a single match, and that match will determine your promotion." His eyes wandered over each of them, lingering on no-one. "Give your all."

    He pointed at Naruto and Sasuke. "You two are first: your match is in ten minutes. Take that time to prepare." Then, to the rest of them. "You seven will be in the first observation area." His finger swept over the ninja from the Hidden Sand. "And you three, the second."

    They were splitting them up. Because Gaara had come after Naruto before the tournament? Almost certainly. The older girl, Temari, bowed her head, but her teammates just stared ahead without a word.

    "Go," Shikaku said, and they broke up into three groups. It was already happening? Sakura still didn't feel even close to ready. As her teammates turned to go, she walked after them.

    "Sakura?" Sasuke turned towards her. "We're-"

    "I know," she interrupted. "I just wanted to wish you guys luck." She managed a single dry chuckle. "Both of you, you know." She reached out, a little hesitant at first, and then pulled them both into a hug. Naruto made a high pitched noise, but Sasuke just grunted. When she pushed them back, they were both slightly blushing.

    "Have fun, okay?" she said, and they grinned.

    "Oh, we're gonna," Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded with a bit of a smirk. "Thanks, Sakura!"

    Sakura jogged back to the group, and Tenten elbowed her. "You dork," she said as they entered the shadow of the arena. "Who do you think's gonna win?"

    "I've got no idea," Sakura admitted. "They're both really strong, and they've known each other for so long. It could be either of them."

    "It'll be Sasuke," Neji said, and Sakura looked over at him in surprise. She hadn't expected him to care. "He's the more determined."

    "You are wrong, Neji!" Lee declared, and the Hyuuga let out an amused grunt. "It will be Naruto: he is the more youthful!"

    "Louder, you mean," Tenten said with a smile.

    "Sakura knows them the best." Haku spoke up, his voice soft, and the Leaf ninja glanced at him. "And she's unsure of the winner." The ninja from Rain smiled at a private joke. "It could be a tie."

    "Haku, right?" Tenten asked. They started to climb the stairs to the observation room. It was a smaller room set below the main stands, closer to the arena and separated from the crowds. "You're my opponent."

    "And I yours," Haku said, completely neutral.

    "Any tips on how to beat you?" Tenten asked, and Sakura blinked at her boldness. Haku just laughed.

    "Perhaps later," he said in good humor. They reached the room; it wasn't very large, maybe only thirty feet wide, with a couple of benches set near the side closest to the arena. There wasn't a window there, only a short railing that ran the length of the room. "For now, I'll just wish you good luck, Tenten of the Leaf."

    "Ha!" Tenten smirked. "Fair enough."

    "You're a cocky one," Suigetsu said with a bit of a sneer, and both of Tenten's teammates gave him unimpressed looks. "No one's ever beaten Haku. You won't be the first."

    "There's always a first," Tenten said with a teasing tone, and the boy snorted.

    Sakura looked back and forth between the two older ninja. She didn't want them to fight, not at all. Tenten fought with blades, and Haku with needles and most likely water jutsu. No matter how the match went, there would definitely be blood spilled.

    "Sorry I'm late!" Kabuto hammered up the stairs behind them, and popped the tense attitude without effort. "Did I miss anything?"

    "Nothing important," Haku said, glancing at Suigetsu. The boy huffed and calmed down, crossing his arms and sitting down on one of the benches. "The matches are going to start in a couple minutes."

    "Phew!" the boy mimed wiping away some invisible sweat and sat down next to Suigetsu. "Ah, hello Sakura!" He inclined his head towards Tenten's team. "And you as well, ninja of the Leaf."

    "Cutting it a little close, weren't you?" Tenten asked, and the boy rubbed the back of his sheepishly. "What were you up to?"

    "I was grabbing something," Kabuto said, and as ever Sakura had no idea if he was telling the truth or not. The older boy never seemed outright suspicious, he just had a vague way of talking that made the back of Sakura's neck occasionally prickle. "It's not important, I promise." A slight smile slipped over his face. "I won't be fighting any of you anyway, so there's no need to worry."

    "Ah!" Lee said, pointing upward. Sakura followed the line drawn by his finger to the stadium's highest point. It was the most important seat in the house. The Hokage was there, and he was what had drawn Lee's attention; he was standing up, preparing to speak. His wife was present as well, along with the Kazekage and one other, all seated in tall stone thrones.

    There were a half dozen other shinobi that Sakura didn't recognize. She couldn't make out much about them from the distance, but the way they were positioned made her assume they were the Kage's bodyguards, two standing behind each great chair. That was what drew Sakura's attention to the third figure as the Hokage began speaking.

    It was a tall woman with blue hair, nearly hidden under the distinctive hat of a Kage. She remained seated with the other Kage and Kushina, demure and graceful looking even in repose, as Minato Namikaze spoke.

    "Welcome!" he declared, his booming voice carrying over the massive stadium with ease. "To the Hidden Leaf's Chunin Selection Exam!" He looked around the stadium, somehow making it look as though he was making eye contact with everyone. The Hokage just had that kind of impossible presence. "Today, we will be celebrating the skill of our dozen finalists with six unique matches! Please honor their achievements, and stay to watch to the end!"

    It was overly formal and strange sounding, and Sakura realized with a new thrill of both horror and excitement that she would be the last match. She would be the climax that the Hokage had just implicitly promised.

    She shivered.

    The Hokage sat back down and shared a private joke with his wife, who laughed, inaudible from a distance. Sakura wondered what they were thinking as they watched their son start the final exam.

    Naruto and Sasuke both appeared from either end of the arena, approaching the center as a chorus of cheers and clapping rose up around the stadium. Naruto waved and grinned, but Sasuke didn't make a move: he was totally focused on his teammate. His opponent, Sakura thought. For just a couple minutes, the world was going to flip upside down.

    Shikaku was still waiting for them in the center, and he gave each of them a nod as they arrived, coming to a stop just ten feet apart.

    "All matches will operate under the same rules," he said, projecting his voice loud enough that Sakura was sure even the highest seats would be able to hear him. "The battle will only end if one of you concedes defeat, is rendered unconscious, or killed." His eyes slipped back and forth between them. "If I believe the match has been decided, I will step in myself. Understand?"

    Both of Sakura's teammates nodded, faces set in serious expressions, and she wondered when they had all started looking older. Sasuke hadn't always been that severe, surely. And Naruto's hair hadn't been that wild before. It had only been a couple months, but neither of them looked like kids anymore. They looked like shinobi.

    Did people think the same thing about her?

    "Begin!" Shikaku threw up his hand and leapt back, clear of both contestants, and Naruto and Sasuke…

    Did nothing.

    A mutter sprang up among the crowd, and Sakura leaned forward, clasping her hands beneath her knees.

    "Lose their nerve?" Suigetsu muttered, and Neji grunted.

    "No," he said, and as he did Naruto and Sasuke began walking towards each other with a slow deliberation. "They're not that sort."

    Naruto and Sasuke met in the exact center of the arena, and Naruto grinned and raised one hand. The stadium went quiet, people straining to see what was happening. Sakura felt a little laugh escape her; he was making a Seal of Confrontation, two fingers raised straight up, like this was just another spar in the academy. Sasuke mirrored him with a smirk.

    Then, they both dropped their hands, bringing them down to meet one another and wrapping their index and middle fingers around the others. Sakura tilted her head: the order of the seals was odd.

    "What are they doing?" Haku asked, and Sakura looked over at him, the gesture suddenly clicking in her head.

    "Those are the Seals of Confrontation and Reconciliation," she said, and Kabuto and Suigetsu both shifted a fraction of their attention to her as well. Tenten's team was focused on the field: Naruto and Sasuke had both turned and were creating some distance between themselves. "We use them before a fight, to indicate that a spar is starting, and after, to show we're still comrades."

    "After, though," Tenten mused. "So if they're doing it now..."

    Sakura's realization should have made her heart sink, but instead it woke a wild kind of excitement in her. She wanted to see this fight, she thought, even if it was strange and wrong. Maybe that was why some part of her was so curious. She leaned forward on her bench, fixated on the two boys.

    "It's because," she said, "they don't think they'll be able to afterwards."

    ###

    As soon as his students made both seals, Obito knew immediately that they were going to do something stupid.

    "That's cute," Rin said, and he looked over at her. They'd both taken seats in one of the higher rows of stands, along with many of the other jonin-sensei. "They tell you what they're up to?"

    "Not a thing," Obito said, and both his students turned to face each other once again, having put a couple dozen meters between them. "They're in love with surprises."

    The battle started as suddenly as everyone had expected it to. Sasuke made the first move, drawing a brace of shuriken from his back, and Naruto darted sideways as his friend began throwing the stars with reckless abandon. The noise of the crowd swelled with excitement as the Hokage's son ducked, dodged, and weaved through a torrent of steel; Sasuke wasn't holding back, and he unleashed nearly a hundred shuriken in just a couple seconds.

    Naruto dodged most of them, but he was immediately on the defensive. Rin sat back with a smirk.

    "He's not letting up," she said, and Obito nodded in agreement. "Does he have any-?"

    Naruto went through another somersault, and came up with a handful of pebbles from the arena. He shouted something and threw them in a loose spread, and Sasuke leapt backwards, eyes narrowing.

    The rocks exploded only a couple feet in front of the Uchiha, throwing up an impressive cloud of dust, fire, and smoke, but barely singing Sasuke's eyebrows.

    "He's got it," Obito said. He had spent all his time with Sakura during his team's month of training; he didn't have a clue what his other students might have up their sleeves. Naruto was taking advantage of the distraction, charging straight in through the smoke; Sasuke couldn't see him coming, even with the Sharingan.

    Bad idea. Sasuke had always been superior to him in taijutsu. Obito frowned, wondering what his student was thinking. Just as he'd thought, the moment Naruto cleared the smoke with a flying kick, Sasuke detected him. He ducked the blow and struck upwards, lightning fast, wrapping his arms around Naruto's leg like a constricting snake. Naruto didn't have time to react before he was violently thrown over Sasuke's shoulder, slamming into the ground with an audible thump.

    Rin let out a little laugh and winced, and Naruto rolled away, Sasuke pursuing him. The Uchiha leveled a series of kicks at his opponent, but Naruto rolled out of the way of every one of them, the ground cratering where his head had been just moments before. The fourth time he rolled, Obito caught a glimpse of the smile on his face.

    The ground under Sasuke detonated with an enormous KRUMP, and a cheer went up throughout the audience at the explosion. Most of them weren't ninja, Obito thought. They couldn't see, at least not right away, that Sasuke had leapt clear of the blast at the last second. The jutsu formula Naruto had laid down in the dirt was clear as day to the Sharingan, after all.

    They were both a lot faster. Even if they hadn't been training for a life or death struggle, his students had obviously taken the prospect of the match seriously.

    Fifteen meters straight up, Sasuke was running through the handsigns for a Grand Fireball. As the audience took notice of him and another roar of approval went up, he pulled back, taking a deep breath, and spat a ball of fire many times his size down at Naruto directly below him.

    Naruto didn't run, which he probably should have. Instead, he took four kunai out, two in each hand, and focused, his chakra covering them in an explosive spiral. He really loved that jutsu, Obito thought. But Naruto had always been attracted to flashy things, and instant explosive tags were definitely that.

    Naruto hurled all four kunai into the heart of the fireball when it had crossed half the distance between him and Sasuke, and the whole thing exploded with such violence and fury that for a moment there was a small second sun birthed in the heart of the arena. Obito shielded his eyes, unwilling to look away as Sasuke plummeted into the inferno. As the blast cleared, it became clear that some of his clothes had caught fire; the same went for Naruto. Neither of them seemed to notice: they were absolutely fixated on each other, preparing for the next clash. The audience was going mad at the sound and spectacle.

    Naruto put together his hands in a simple seal, and Obito blinked.

    'No way,' he thought. 'They wouldn't have been dumb enough to teach him that.'

    There was a burst of smoke, and Sasuke was suddenly falling into ten Naruto's instead of one.

    Shadow clones? Seriously?

    "Shadow Clones?" Rin looked over at him with a wry glance. "Seriously?"

    Obito laughed. "As if he wasn't enough trouble on his own," he said, not sure how serious the comment was. Naruto had always had way more chakra than was normal for a kid his age, probably thanks to his parents. He wasn't like another genin, who might accidentally knock themselves out from splitting their chakra too enthusiastically.

    But still...

    Sasuke landed, and to Obito's surprise was not immediately dogpiled. Naruto and his clones circled him, keeping their distance, and Sasuke looked around, obviously unsure of how to proceed.

    He muttered something under his breath, his Sharingan whirling more and more violently, and Obito read his lips from a hundred meters away.

    "This is gonna suck."

    He charged at the nearest clone, and all of the Naruto's responded at once: the clone fell back, baiting Sasuke farther in, and its compatriots surrounded the Uchiha and threw attacks from every angle.

    Sasuke was good. Great, even, when it came to hand-to-hand combat. If he and Naruto sparred with just their fists, Sasuke would win almost every time, even without his Sharingan.

    But, Obito noted with an amused grunt, it didn't matter how good you were if eight guys were trying to pound your face in from every direction. At that point, you needed something else. It sparked a distant memory in him, and his fingers ached.

    Sasuke took more than a dozen blows, and managed to stay on his feet, fighting back with wild swings and acrobatic kicks. One of the clones popped in a burst of smoke, and Naruto fell back once more, letting Sasuke catch his breath.

    "Good time to give up!" he shouted, and each of the clones drew a kunai, explosive formulas whirling over them. Sasuke spat, and Naruto laughed.

    "Your choice!" he said, and all the clones threw their knives at once in a brutal crossfire.

    Too cocky. Sasuke counterattacked, leaping into a spinning kick and sending four of the nine kunai back at their throwers. The knives exploded in unison. The blasts below him picked Sasuke up and threw him like a ragdoll, spinning through the air and leaving a whorl of blood and burned hair behind him: the ones he'd returned destroyed another five clones, two of them going up at once as they desperately scrambled away from the returned knife.

    Sasuke had already figured out the weakness of the detonation jutsu, Obito thought: Naruto couldn't control the timer he set after they left his hand, not unless he picked them up again. Once they were out, they were anyone's weapon, not just his. He was impressed, and even more so when Sasuke landed on his feet, stumbling backwards and patting out some of the fires on his back. That had been a nasty hit, but the boy was still ready to fight.

    "Try again," Sasuke grunted, and Naruto frowned. He put his hands together again.

    More clones appeared: fifteen this time, joining the surviving four and putting twenty Naruto's on the field. They charged as one, trying to overwhelm Sasuke with sheer numbers. The Uchiha retreated, producing more shuriken. Steel stars flashed out, and three clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. Still, the others poured in, and Sasuke was suddenly in a desperate fight against overwhelming numbers once more.

    But this time, he wasn't immediately pushed back or buried in bodies. Obito leaned forward, his eyes narrowing.

    Five, fifteen, thirty seconds, and Sasuke was still standing and fighting, throwing himself at Naruto with abandon and taking more hits every second. But he was doing damage: one clone went down, and then another.

    "What's up?" Rin asked, leaning forward with him. "He's putting up a hell of a fight, huh?"

    "It's not that," Obito muttered. Sasuke wasn't getting faster. If anything, he was slowing down. His movements were getting more and more deliberate, not a single action wasted. He slid between clones, redirecting attacks and slipping around others, and only striking out when he could land a single solid blow. Two more clones disappeared.

    Naruto was smiling like a madman, and Sasuke was doing the same. They were both having the time of their life, Obito thought, but they weren't holding back. So why, then, could Sasuke be holding his ground?

    As Sasuke spun and fought and bled, Obito focused more and more intensely on him. He closed one eye, and his Mangekyo spooled out in the other, the world gaining just a little more invisible clarity.

    Sasuke's chakra was surging, practically exploding inside him. He turned towards Obito, knocking another Naruto into next week with a picture perfect haymaker, and Obito blinked in shock.

    Sasuke's eyes were changing. The Sharingan was rotating so quickly that to ordinary eyes the tomoe would appear as one perfect black ring, but even over the enormous distance Obito could perceive the truth.

    The two tomoe were splitting off, black pigmentation being left behind in the ring and lingering in the crimson pool of the eye. They coalesced, coming together with an inevitable gravity.

    The next time Obito saw Sasuke's eyes, his third tomoe had fully formed.

    "What?" Rin asked, and Obito realized he had been completely silent, enraptured by the transformation. He sat back with a sudden breath, and his teammate gave him a funny look.

    "Sasuke just evolved his third tomoe," he muttered, and Rin arched an eyebrow.

    "Just now?" she asked, looking back at the fight as another three Naruto's disappeared. Sasuke, impossibly, was winning. Twenty against one, and he'd brought the odds down to an equally impossible sounding fifteen to one… and he was still winning. "I thought… the way you got yours…"

    "He's not afraid for his life," Obito said. His Mangekyo receded, and he crossed his arms. "He's just… enjoying himself."

    "Is that how that goes?" Rin asked. "Have you ever heard of that happening?"

    Obito shook his head, and Rin pursed her lips. "You guys barely know more about those eyes than the rest of us, don't you."

    He snorted. It wasn't something any Uchiha would say out loud, but Rin was right. Even to its own clan, the Sharingan was a mystery in many ways. Obito had always been told it evolved in life or death situations, and that his Mangekyo had come from an enormous sorrow. That had lined up with his experiences, with Shisui's, and even with Itachi's.

    And yet here, now, Sasuke had just brought his Sharingan to the highest level it would hopefully ever go, and all it had taken was a thrilling fight with his best friend.

    While Obito wondered what that meant, Sasuke finished off the last of Naruto's clones, and the Hokage's son retreated once more. Sasuke limped after him. They were both tapped out, Obito thought. Sasuke had taken dozens of hits, and ugly bruises were forming all over his body; one of his eyes was covered in blood, leaking from a cut on his forehead. Naruto was bleeding from a couple shallow scratches and had one impressive burn on his cheek, but otherwise looked much better off than Sasuke.

    But that wasn't the case, Obito was sure. The blond had produced dozens of large explosive formulas divided his chakra twenty times over. He was breathing heavily, and his feet weren't steady under him. He didn't have infinite energy, no matter how he acted.

    Sasuke threw another shuriken, a perfunctory attack, and Naruto smacked it out of the air with the back of his hand and a laugh.

    "C'mon!" he said, panting and resting his hands on his knees. "You gotta work for it!"

    He leapt back, once, twice, and settled on the other side of the arena, crouching down and watching Sasuke. The Uchiha stopped, and Obito could see he was just as tired as Naruto. The euphoria of his Sharingan's evolution had probably worn off by now, and the reality of his many cuts, bruises, burns, and sprains was setting in. Even if he'd won, he had just fought twenty of Naruto at once.

    At this rate, the both of them were going to fall over. The fight had barely been four minutes, and they'd poured their all in from the very beginning. The crowd was going crazy, unable to believe that Sasuke had fought his way out of the press of clones.

    "You're right," Sasuke said, settling to one knee. He grinned. "Your choice, Naruto."

    He held out both hands, face scrunching up in concentration, and Rin sucked in a breath.

    "They can't be that stupid," she said, and as Sasuke clenched his hand into a claw a blue glow sprung up in it, gradually growing in size and violence. Slowly and surely, the Rasengan took shape, its azure light reflected in Sasuke's crimson eyes.

    Naruto watched, and Obito watched him. After a second, the boy grinned and stuck out his own hand as well. His Rasengan grew much faster than Sasuke's: he obviously had more practice. After a second, both boys were holding a spinning ball of violent chakra the size of their head in their hands: Naruto in his right, and Sasuke's in his left.

    They charged.

    "They're that stupid," he confirmed, and the crowd roared in approval.

    Both the boys were moving with such speed that Obito was sure the ordinary people in the crowd would only see the glow of the Rasengan, two blue streaks drawing an inexorable line towards an explosive terminus. Dust and grass was kicked up in a great wake, Naruto and Sasuke throwing themselves forward at an incredible pace. It was just a heartbeat before they collided.

    Obito had never seen two Rasengan strike each other. When his sensei had invented the jutsu, he probably hadn't conceived of it. It wasn't just a physical collision: the Rasengan were spinning in opposite directions from each other, and when they struck, there was a deafening moment of tension. The violent spheres of chakra ground against one another, throwing out a high-pitched keening sound that blasted through everyone in the arena. Obito felt the vibration in his mouth, like a dentist's drill.

    Naruto pushed forward, gritting his teeth, and Sasuke pushed back, both simply trying to overpower the other. The Rasengans followed, squishing into each other, deforming, moving from sphere to oval…

    And then, they detonated.

    The blast was loud and bright, even more so than any of the explosions that had rocked the arena. Both of the jutsu exploded in a rush of chakra and wind, and both of the boys were sent flying backwards. There was a sonic boom, and an exclamation in the crowd following it. Naruto and Sasuke spun like pinwheels, throwing endless somersaults through the air, and both struck the opposite walls of the arena at the same time with a spectacular THUD.

    Obito winced, and both his students slumped bonelessly to the ground. They'd be back up for more, he was sure. They were just that stupid and stubborn. Neither of them would be able to condone just lying there.

    The crowd waited five seconds, then ten. There wasn't a sound; neither of the ninja moved.

    Fifteen seconds. Shikaku walked over to Naruto and bent down, taking his pulse. The blond boy didn't stir. The proctor flickered over to the other side of the arena, almost out of Obito's line of sight, and did the same to Sasuke. He was met with the same reaction.

    Obito shook his head, not sure if he should laugh or groan. Rin gave him a disbelieving look. Both of his students were completely out cold.

    Shikaku stood up, his hands on his hips, and looked up at the Kage box high in the stands. He shrugged.

    "By mutual knockout," he announced, "the match is a tie."

    The stadium exploded into noise: protests, cheers, laughter, even some angry yelling. Obito just sat back as Asuma, Rin, and several other jonin heckled him, his face in his hands.

    But he was smiling behind them.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • I must say, seeing Naruto and Sasuke fight without their Canon unfriendly rivalry is quite beautiful. I've only seen it once before, in a time-travel crackfic, and it's really well done here. Rasengan cancelling mutual KO is a good way to end it, I think.
     
    Man, that was a fun fight. A little predictable, but all the more fun to read because of that.

    I'm surprised Sasuke was able to match Naruto's Rasengan equally, considering Naruto had a head start in learning it. I'm guessing it's because by that point Naruto had less chakra overall.
     
    Chapter 22: Performance
  • Threadmarks
    • Water, Wrath, Wind, Ice​

    "Idiots," Neji noted as Naruto and Sasuke were dragged off the field. Sakura shot him a nasty look, and he shrugged. "What else would you call that performance?"

    "Not smart," Sakura admitted, her heart finally slowing down. She had nearly screamed at the both of them when they'd pulled the Rasengan out: what were they thinking, waving around such a dangerous jutsu? If they hadn't intentionally clashed, they could have both been killed by a solid hit. As it was, they were both completely unconscious; she doubted they'd be on their feet anytime soon.

    'Maybe not even by your match.'

    "But they weren't being complete idiots," she finished, and Neji scoffed. "They wanted to put on a show, and…" she gestured to the crowded stands. The whole arena was still losing its mind in both excitement and frustration as her teammates left the ring, carried by Leaf ninja.

    "They succeeded." Kabuto cut her off with a grin. "That was quite the match. That jutsu at the end… the Fourth Hokage's, no?" Sakura nodded, and the older boy sat back and adjusted his glasses. "Pretty incredible, for them to have mastered it."

    "Yeah," Sakura said, feeling like she had nothing to contribute. "Pretty amazing."

    "When is the next match?" Lee asked. "I am next, am I not?" Sakura shrugged: she only knew that she was last.

    "You, and Suigetsu Hozuki," Neji said, gesturing to the boy seated behind Lee. Lee turned and gave Suigetsu a grin and a quick bow; all he got in return was a bored suggestion.

    "He has a strange body," Neji said flatly. "Be careful with him."

    "Interesting thing for a guy with marbles for eyes to say," Suigetsu responded, his tone mild and his eyes narrow. Neji chuckled.

    "No need to be rude," he said, and Suigetsu scoffed. "This is just a friendly competition."

    "Yeah, so friendly that our Kage are all watching closely," Suigetsu grunted, standing up off his bench and stretching. He sneered at Lee, and the boy frowned. "Sorry that your opponent had to be me."

    "Suigetsu," Haku chided, and the boy blew out a breath, stalking out of the room. "The match hasn't even started yet…"

    Suigetsu didn't listen. He was already out of the room. What was up with him, Sakura wondered? The boy made of water had always been prickly, but this was a step above. Haku frowned.

    "Let me apologize on his behalf," he said, and Lee smiled at him. "He's having a difficult week."

    "It is no concern!" Lee gave Haku a thumbs up. "I will apologize as well, in case our match makes it worse!"

    Haku laughed. It was a good laugh, Sakura thought, quiet but honest. "It's appreciated."

    "Lee, you should get ready." Tenten walked up, and Lee nodded. "You have everything?"

    "Ready!" Lee announced, and Tenten shook her head with a grin.

    "Remember what sensei said, alright?" she said, and Lee grew a little more somber. Sakura watched the change with interest. She'd never seen the older boy look so serious; it was like his face wasn't made for it. "If you need to go for it…"

    "I will go for it," Lee said with utter seriousness. He looked out into the field, and Shikaku gestured with one hand. "Ah! It's time!"

    Only a couple minutes between matches, Sakura thought. Hardly a chance to breathe, but then, each competitor had only been given one fight. One fight, so they could go all out and hold nothing back, so they could be as entertaining to the audience mostly composed of people who wouldn't or maybe couldn't know the difference between skill and flashiness.

    The thought was as sour as an umeboshi, and Sakura rolled it around her head a little as she watched Lee descend the stairs to the arena, worrying at its bitterness. She wasn't a bitter person, was she? She wasn't an angry person, was she?

    'You're stupid if you think that will last forever. When the month's done-'

    She was still angry, she thought. She was still furious, still feeling that gnawing sensation in her stomach. But that anger had extended beyond Gaara, the bastard who had hurt her classmates and killed those helpless Stone ninja. Now, Sakura could feel nothing but disgust for the people who had traveled all this way just to watch teenagers brutalize each other. For the other ninja, the Daimyo and his representatives, even the other Kage.

    She blinked and took a deep breath, trying to center herself. That anger might come in handy, but not right now. Right now, all she was doing was sitting in the stands and shaking. Tenten gave her a curious look.

    "Sorry," she said, and Tenten nodded. She understood, Sakura thought. If anyone understood, it would be Tenten. She gave the girl an uncertain smile, and Tenten returned it. A thought flitted across Sakura's consciousness, and she frowned. "Haku," she said, shifting her attention to the Rain ninja next to her, and Haku turned to her expectantly. "I had a question."

    "About?" Haku asked, and Sakura watched Tenten and Neji bend their ears as well. Kabuto was apparently oblivious, looking around the arena with a curious expression. Suigetsu had just stepped out onto the field, and was heading for the center; Lee would be right behind him.

    "The Amekage," Sakura said, the world both familiar and foriegn. Haku nodded. "I thought you told me, back in the forest, that it was Yahiko. A guy." She gestured up at the Kage's booth, at the woman with blue hair. "Is that-?"

    "No," Haku laughed, and Sakura did as well. She had thought that maybe Yahiko was like Haku; just so pretty they could pass as a girl without question. "When I told you that, Sakura, I think you misunderstood me. I said that Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko were our Kage."

    "So you meant that-?" Sakura asked, and Haku nodded.

    "That is Konan," she said. "All three of them share the Kage's duties; Konan is most often the one who travels outside of the village."

    "Interesting," Tenten murmured. "So you have three Kage?"

    "We have one Kage," Kabuto said with a genial smile, "but three people hold the position."

    "What's the difference?" Tenten asked, unimpressed, and Kabuto shrugged.

    "Perhaps it's only academic to you," he said, "but it's important to the Nation of Rain." He gestured at his hitai-ate. "This used to be four lines; now, it's three. But they all form one symbol, right?" Tenten nodded, and Kabuto grinned. "See? It's simple."

    Sakura wasn't sure she got it. If three people could be recognized as the Kage, that just meant there were three Kage, surely. One Kage and three people just sounded like sophistry to her. She didn't say anything, though; what would be the point of arguing about it?

    "It's starting," Neji said, and Sakura turned her attention back to the field.

    Lee and Suigetsu had met in the middle of the field under Shikaku's watchful eye. There was no sign or mark; Shikaku simply raised his hand, and the battle began.

    Lee took the initiative, rushing forward. Sakura had seen his tremendous speed before, but it still surprised her every time. He closed the five meters between himself and Suigetsu so fast that Sakura only saw a green blur, and lashed out with a single straightforward haymaker.

    Suigetsu's head exploded, and Lee backed off. If he was surprised, he didn't show it beyond a slight widening of his eyes. The boy from Rain walked forward, closing the distance as his head reformed.

    "I know your schtick, Rock Lee," he said, and Sakura was surprised to see Lee back off, considering his options. "We were all told to watch out for you; a master of taijutsu, and nothing else."

    "That is very flattering!" Lee declared. "But I am not yet a master: merely a hard worker!" He struck out again, a blinding roundhouse kick, and Suigetsu's arm shot down. In a blink, it grew enormous and grotesquely muscled; he caught Lee's leg and held it fast, and the boy blinked.

    Suigetsu punched out, and Lee jumped into another kick, spinning and striking his opponent in the chest. Suigetsu fell apart in a welter of liquid, his grip loosening, and Lee scuttled away like a spider on all fours, putting ten meters between them in an instant.

    Lee continued retreating and Suigetsu languidly pursued, clearly in no hurry. Sakura couldn't blame him. Could Lee even hurt the ninja from Rain? She'd cut his head clean off and he hadn't even flinched. Lee only had his feet and fists: no matter how hard you punched, you couldn't destroy water.

    She glanced at the exit. Sasuke or Naruto could have taken care of this guy easily with their ninjutsu, but even though Rock Lee could have beaten them in the same position, he was apparently helpless. Sakura was sure even the least observant people in the audience were thinking the same thing.

    'Sorry that your opponent had to be me.'

    "This isn't going to be a fun fight," Sakura muttered, and to her surprise Tenten gave her a grin.

    "Don't write him off just because the guy's slippery," she said, showing some teeth. Kabuto nodded.

    "Suigetsu would be a fool to think the rest will go the same," he said, and Sakura glanced at him as Lee kept running away. "Which… he sometimes is."

    When there was twenty meters between himself and Suigetsu, Lee stopped and reached into his pouch. His hand emerged clutching a small flask and a smaller box.

    "Oh?" Haku leaned forward. "That probably won't work…"

    As Sakura watched, eyes wide, Lee upended the flask over his hands, spilling a thick dark liquid all over the bandages that covered them.

    "This wasn't a good idea," Neji noted, and Tenten snorted.

    "Shut up," she said goodnaturedly. "It was his idea, you could at least wait to see if it works first."

    Oil, Sakura thought, leaning forward with Haku and watching the match more intently. Suigetsu was drawing closer: Lee removed a match from the small box and struck it against the side, chakra keeping the small stick from slipping from his oiled grip. Was he seriously-?

    All at once, with a sudden bright violence, Lee's hands caught fire.

    Suigetsu laughed. "For real? That's not going to-!"

    Lee surged forward, much slower than before. The fire wasn't chakra, Sakura thought, barely able to believe what Lee was doing. If he moved too fast, his own speed would put it out, even with the oil. But even with that handicap, he still had a solid advantage in speed over Suigetsu.

    Suigetsu blocked with a swollen arm, and Lee punched it in half, spilling excess burning oil over the boy as he struck. Before Suigetsu could react, Lee struck out again, burying a burning fist in Suigetsu's chest.

    The Rain ninja screamed. Sakura flinched back at the sound; it was shrill and loud, almost like a kettle coming to boil. Beside her, Haku frowned.

    "Ha!" Lee kicked out, knocking Suigetsu's legs out from under him: they stayed solid, and Sakura wondered why. She hadn't even been sure Suigetsu could stay solid with how often he splattered when struck. "How do you like the flames of-?"

    Suigetsu screamed again, and his head and torso liquified. It ran, still screaming, up Lee's arm as the boy jumped back in shock. Before Sakura could believe it, the water that had been Suigetsu poured into Lee's mouth and nose, completely smothering him.

    Lee batted at his own face with his flaming hands, his movements growing frantic, as Suigetsu's legs toppled over, ownerless. Tenten's teammate stumbled around, growing more and more desperate as he tried to remove the water from his face, but he was totally unable to dislodge it. Sakura's hands curled into fists.

    How long could Lee hold his breath? He'd been in the middle of an attack, just finished breathing out as he landed his kick. With no preparation, could he manage a minute? Maybe a little more? After five more seconds of fruitless action, Lee came to a stop, closing his eyes and centering himself.

    "Lee…" Tenten muttered, and Sakura glanced at her. Her friend looked worried; her whole face was scrunched up, and her hands were opening and clenching rhythmically, searching for a weapon to hold.

    Lee exploded.

    Not literally, to Sakura's relief. But the boy's whole body erupted, chakra streaming off of him with such clarity and violence that it was visible to the naked eye, like a tornado of bright blue and gold light. Lee silently screamed, and the storm of chakra doubled, then tripled in size. His muscles and veins bulged and twitched: his skin grew ugly, strained and puce, and he reared back, soundlessly roaring at nothing.

    The water covering his face was pushed back for just a moment, not clearing the skin but forced away by the sheer force of his chakra. Lee punched up, and the sheer velocity and violence of his punch struck the water with such force that a third of it was torn away in an instant. His nose broke with a brutally loud crack, and blood began running down his face, mixing with Suigetsu's water.

    Lee threw several more punches, snuffing out the flames on his hand in an instant, and cleared all the water from his face. But Sakura could already tell it was too late: even if the water on his face was gone, there was still too much remaining in his nose and throat. He still couldn't breathe, and the water was fighting back with all of Suigetsu's strength, further strangling him and crushing his broken nose.

    He screamed again, a faint sound issuing from his throat, and kicked at the ground, producing a crater nearly as big as himself. But it was all but over: Lee stumbled around, his enormous strength completely wasted, and gradually but inevitably drowned standing up in the middle of the arena.

    When he collapsed, the crowd was silent. Water, more than Sakura had imagined, poured out of his face, and Suigetsu took over a minute to reform, painfully dragging himself back together. When he was complete, he looked down at his unconscious opponent, snarled, and spat.

    "Dumbass," he muttered, and then Shikaku stepped up.

    "Suigetsu Hozuki is the winner," he said, and some scattered applause emerged around the arena. He nodded to the Rain ninja, who did not' acknowledge him. Suigetsu just headed for the arena exit.

    Sakura had no idea what to feel, and even less of what to say as Lee's unconscious body was removed from the arena. She looked around, half worried that the spectator box was about to grow violent.

    But neither Tenten nor Neji moved. They were rigid; Tenten closed her eyes.

    "That was unfortunate," Neji said after almost thirty seconds of silence. Tenten simply nodded in agreement, and Sakura found herself doing the same. What more was there to say?

    "Forgive him," Haku said. "That was… cruel."

    Isn't that what being a ninja is, Sakura thought, but she couldn't bring herself to speak the truth aloud. Didn't you say something like that in the forest yourself, Haku? There's an inherent cruelty to shinobi. Suigetsu was just doing what he had to to win.

    Maybe she would have said it if it were just the two of them. But with Tenten right there, Sakura felt something restraining her from speaking her mind. Maybe good sense, rationality. Maybe something else. She might never be sure.

    "I'm next," Neji said, already leaving.

    "Your match isn't-" Sakura started to say, before Neji turned and locked eyes with her. Her words died in her throat. He looked murderous. His eyes slowly shifted over, resting on the back of Haku's head, and Sakura was astonished to feel a slight defensive instinct. She couldn't be one-hundred percent sure that Neji wouldn't strike Haku from behind in that moment.

    He was filled with nothing but fury. Sakura let him leave in silence, and Tenten did the same. The void persisted for several minutes as the audience muttered and the field was set for the next fight. Across the arena, Sakura caught a flicker of movement: the Sand ninja, Kankuro, was making his way down to the field.

    "Hey!" She jolted at the voice and turned around, a smile already slipping across her face. Naruto and Sasuke were both stepping into the observation room, and Sakura rose to meet them.

    "You dumbasses!" she exploded, and Naruto's grin morphed to a shocked expression. It only grew more exaggerated when she gave him a hug, and then Sasuke after. They both gave her a bemused look.

    "That's fair," Sasuke noted, and Sakura laughed, feeling a wild relief overtake her. They were both fine. They'd get to see her fight.

    "What were you thinking?" she demanded, stepping back. "What if you'd hit each other?"

    "We weren't gonna hit each other," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "Not with his Sharingan. Besides, we set it up."

    "Set it up?"

    "Course." Naruto grinned. "If we were both still standing after a couple minutes."

    "We agreed to it yesterday," Sasuke elaborated, picking at a scab on the back of his hand. "Whoever was able to get up afterwards would make Chunin, we were sure." He frowned. "But…"

    "You didn't think it would be neither of you," Kabuto said mildly, and Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head, where there was no doubt a horrific bruise. "There's a lesson there."

    "Don't smash jutsu like that together?" Naruto suggested, and the boy from Rain chuckled.

    "Respect your limits," he said, a little somberly. A nodded in the direction of the arena, and Sakura realized that both Neji and Kankuro were already on the field. "The next fight's starting."

    "Did Lee lose?" Naruto asked, taking a seat on Sakura's left as Sasuke walked up to lean against the railing. "We passed Neji on the way here. He seemed really pissed."

    "Yeah," Sakura confirmed. "Suigetsu beat him."

    Naruto stuck out his tongue. "That sucks. Good for him, I guess. That must have been a crappy fight."

    "It was a poor match-up," Haku said, a little subdued. Sakura wondered where Suigetsu had gone: he hadn't come back to the observation box. "Rock Lee likely could have defeated anyone else here." He leaned back with a curious look. "Perhaps even Gaara of the Desert, with that last technique."

    Sakura wondered how true that was. What else would that explosion of chakra have caused? Increased Lee's speed and strength, perhaps? If that were the case, he might have evaded Gaara's sand and beaten the boy's face in. She would have liked to see that.

    Instead of…

    Shikaku raised his hand, and the third battle began.

    Kankuro ran away immediately, and Neji strolled after him, completely at ease. The boy from Sand created more and more distance between them, circling around the arena, and Neji pursued without any urgency. His gait was relaxed, but his Byakugan was active.

    There was a threat boiling off of him, as obvious as steam or fire, Sakura thought. If Kankuro got too close, Neji would completely destroy him, to a degree he'd never subjected Naruto or Sasuke to. Sakura was sure of it.

    The 'fight' continued as that awkward, distant dance for another twenty seconds. Because of that initial sedate pace, Sakura almost missed its conclusion. When Neji was in the southern quadrant of the arena, Kankuro made a series of twisted hand-sign.

    The ground around Neji exploded, and something lanky and brown erupted out of the earth beneath the Hyuuga's feet, extending four arms and two legs in a huge, deadly bear hug. Blades extended from its limbs, and it spat needles and dust from its yawning mouth. Sakura leaned forward, the moment frozen in time; she had no idea what she was seeing. Kankuro closed his hands, and the thing that had appeared from underground mimicked the motion, closing all its limbs like a huge set of scissors.

    Neji gave it a bored look, and spun.

    A sphere of chakra erupted out of him, almost like a Rasengan but huge and diffuse, surrounding Neji's entire body. Sakura blinked, and the controlled storm of chakra tore the attacker apart, sending its limbs flying in every direction as its body exploded. The head flew straight up, its huge shock of fuzzy brown hair waving in the wind.

    Neji came to a stop, and the head hit the ground. It bounced, and he kicked it out of the air right at Kankuro, his face twisting into a sneer. The boy from Sand caught the bloodless head with both hands at his chest and stared down at it, motionless, his eyes wide.

    "A puppet will never be as strong as your body," Neji said, clearly, coldly. "You could never defeat me with a toy."

    Sakura thought Kankuro was going to scream, or charge, or do anything at all, but he just stared down at the head. His hands were shaking. With anger? Fear? Frustration? She'd never know. He jerked one of them up with a snarl.

    "I forfeit," he said, spitting the words out like they burned his mouth. "I cannot continue."

    Shikaku nodded; the audience was silent, obviously shocked, until he waved and declared Neji the winner. A huge cheer went up: even if the fight had been short, the conclusion had been exciting instead of depressing, and that was all most of them wanted.

    Sakura looked to the Kage's box, curious what they would be thinking. They were all still seated. From this distance, she couldn't perceive more than that.

    "What the hell was that?" Naruto asked, poking Tenten on the shoulder. "Since when-"

    "It's a Hyuuga technique," Tenten said, glancing over her shoulder at Haku, and she didn't say anything more than that.

    Of course. Haku and Kabuto were from another village. Why would Tenten explain her teammate's techniques with them around? Sakura hadn't even considered it, and apparently, neither had Naruto.

    Neji returned soon after, and grudgingly received a fistbump from Tenten. Kankuro spent more time in the field than his opponent had, rushing around and picking up the pieces of his puppet. He carried them in a bundle in his arms as he retreated out of sight, fretting over them like a distraught parent.

    "He buried it before the match," Neji told Sasuke, answering his unspoken question. "Not against the rules, I suppose."

    "Tch. Clever."

    "Not clever enough."

    Sakura wondered where Lee was. Surely, he must have woken up by now? Things seemed to be going faster and faster. Each match was getting shorter than the last.

    Would hers be the shortest?

    "I'm next," Kabuto said, standing up. He paused, and carefully took his glasses off, handing them off to Haku. He took them with a casual reverence, placing them gently in his lap. "Hold onto them, would you?"

    "Of course," Haku said, always so sincere, and Kabuto walked away with a straight back.

    "Doesn't he need them?" Naruto asked, and Haku shrugged.

    "I don't know," he said, and Naruto laughed at the admission. "His eyesight was damaged as a child, but I don't know how badly. He's not blind without them."

    "Is he worried they're going to be broken?" Sakura asked, feeling like it was an obvious question, probably because it was. Haku nodded.

    "All three of the ninja from Sand are the Kazekage's children," he said, and Sakura started. How had Haku known that? How had she not? The other two ninja were Gaara's siblings? Why were they so normal, compared to him? "Even if the first went down without much of a fight, that's no guarantee his sister will be the same."

    Kabuto waited in the arena for nearly two minutes before his opponent arrived, carrying an enormous war fan. Sakura watched with bated breath: when the match started, Kabuto immediately rushed forward, leading with a knife.

    Temari of the Desert jumped back and swung.

    A hurricane appeared out of nowhere, picked up Kabuto like a limp doll, and threw him to the other side of the arena. He hit the wall, slammed to the ground, rolled, and came up running.

    That certainly would have broken his glasses, then and there. Sakura narrowed her eyes as Kabuto began strafing around the arena, avoiding more gusts of wind by a hair. This time, when the wind slammed into the wall, it left deep gouges in the concrete, like a storm of blades.

    It was the same thing time and again, she thought. She looked over at Haku as surreptitiously as possible: the beautiful boy was watching his teammate fight, blind to the rest of the world as Kabuto evaded razor wind by just inches once more. The team from Rain always seemed to be the most well-informed. They always knew exactly who they were up against. They'd sought out her team in the forest; Suigetsu had said he'd been warned about Rock Lee, and Haku had said the same about them.

    All ninja were supposed to know their enemy. Know the enemy, know their weaknesses, win. That was one of the base creeds of being a shinobi. But all of the people here, they were just genin. Watching out for the Hokage's son was one thing. Minato Namikaze was one of the most infamous men alive, it was just common sense to know his family.

    But Rock Lee was an orphan. A fourteen year old orphan who was strong and fast, but who hadn't made a name for himself outside of the village. Who would have told Suigetsu he was a master of taijutsu? Who must have told Kabuto that Temari specialized in ranged Wind jutsu, which could shatter his glasses in an instant? Why else would he have given them to Haku, when he'd gone into the forest with them without hesitation, and why else would he have charged ahead straight away, trying to close the distance so desperately when everyone else had been so cautious? How had Kabuto recognized the Rasengan, and how had Haku known the ninja from Sand were all the Kazegake's children?

    Sakura had always had an ember of suspicion in her heart, but now it was growing into a flame. She kept herself from looking at Haku again. The boy would notice. What had he been told about Tenten? Had he already figured out a way to beat her?

    Her heart beat a drum against her ribs as Kabuto struggled for his life in the arena below. Temari was completely relentless. Whenever Kabuto advanced, she pushed him back with her fan. In short order he was pinned down in a copse of trees near the arena's walls, on the opposite side from the observation box. He couldn't leave without getting shredded, Sakura was sure.

    Forfeit, she wanted to say, feeling the hypocritical thought burning her brain. You're in a helpless situation. You can't attack. You'll just get hurt. Forfeit now.

    Was that the mature answer, the answer of a Chunin? Sakura would never be sure, because at that moment Kabuto burst out of the trees, accompanied by several clones. They all made a beeline for Temari on a half dozen different vectors, and the girl sneered. Her scything wind cut through two: they were simple bunshin, and the jutsu passed through them without effect.

    Temari backed up as the clones drew closer, cutting through another three and leaving only a single Kabuto. The real one, surely. She swept her fan once more at nearly point blank range, and Sakura flinched, ready for the boy to be slammed back again-

    And the wind passed through him without effect.

    Temari blinked, and Kabuto burst out of the earth behind her, swinging his fist around in a deadly arc.

    He'd dug through the earth while Temari was occupied with his clones. Sakura was a little jealous: it was a simple but effective strategy, and he'd executed it so effectively that Temari hadn't even noticed her real opponent hadn't been charging her.

    Kabuto was fast, and he'd struck at the perfect moment, but somehow, Temari was just as quick. She didn't try to dodge. Her opponent was too close for that. Instead, she just swung back; not with her fan, but with a knife that had dropped out of her sleeve.

    Kabuto's fist struck her in the temple, knocking her sideways in a brutal arc, but Temari's counterattack scored a deep cut along the length of his arm: blood flew freely across the field, and Sakura hissed in sympathetic pain. Temari tumbled, keeping hold of both the knife and her fan, and Kabuto charged after her.

    'I don't like fighting.' It was true, Sakura thought. There was just a hint of hesitation to Kabuto's actions. He was brilliant and skilled, but that moment of pause had just gotten his arm cut, and it was about to cost him more. Temari came to her feet, already sweeping her fan.

    It wasn't a complete jutsu: the wind that emerged was short and dull, not the razor hurricane it had been before. But at point blank range, it picked up Kabuto and threw him back, opening up shallow cuts all across his chest. As he fell back, he threw a knife just as the wind abated. The blade buried itself in Temari's shoulder, and the girl ignored it, bringing her fan back for a final attack.

    That was it. The whole arena knew it at once, with a single joined breath. Kabuto was a sitting duck in an open field, with Temari's jutsu about to crash down on him. He could not hope to dodge anymore.

    Temari swung, and Sakura watched with astonishing clarity as the wind tore the field before her to shreds. Kabuto didn't have time to do more than cross his arms over his torso.

    He was a medic. He was protecting his vitals. Sakura was amazed he had the presence of mind for it. But it saved his life. When the wind struck him, Kabuto wasn't torn open. The invisible blades sawed through his arms, nearly severing one of his hands, and there was a sudden explosion of blood.

    Kabuto toppled backwards, writhing and feeding the dirt his blood, and the crowd roared.

    'Scum.' Sakura was grinding her teeth. That and her heart nearly drowned out the rest of the arena. 'They're cheering at his blood.'

    Temari paused, waiting with her fan cocked for Kabuto to rise. The boy didn't give her a reason to attack again; he slowly stilled, calming down and lying flat on his back as his shredded arms soaked his clothes and the ground. His left hand was flayed; Sakura could see the bone through the shreds of muscle, and she felt her gorge rise at the sight.

    "You done?" Temari called out. There was still a kunai embedded in her shoulder, and blood was steadily running down her arm and dripping from her fingers, staining her fan. "Or does it need to be your neck next?"

    Had she been aiming the wind? That would be incredible. Kabuto slowly raised his less damaged hand, though it was still covered in lacerations.

    "I'm done fighting you," he said, sitting up with infinite caution. He didn't look scared; he pinned Temari with frightening, sincere eyes, and smiled. "The victory is yours."

    Shikaku appeared between them, and nodded. Temari relaxed marginally, and lowered her fan. The proctor looked to Kabuto.

    "We'll need a medic," he muttered, and Kabuto laughed.

    "No need," he said, and the crowd leaned in. He began carefully running his hand over himself, a green glow springing up. Sakura couldn't believe it. He was going to use his medical jutsu on himself, right in the middle of the arena?

    It was brilliant, she realized. Kabuto couldn't have won this match, so… no, that would be insane.

    Who would willingly let themselves nearly get slaughtered, just so they could show off their abilities as a medic?

    And yet, that was just what Kabuto was doing. He reattached his hand, growing back skin and muscle like some grotesque time lapse. The lacerations on his chest shrunk away to nothing and left behind soft pink skin, visible through the cuts in his shirt. The same happened to his arm. After two minutes of silence, he stood up, and left the arena under his own power.

    A soft murmur arose across the whole audience, growing in volume until after several seconds it was a continuous wave. Civilians gasped, and shinobi muttered. Sakura watched the more experienced ones lean forward, watching with interest, looking for a limp where there was none.

    If that had been on purpose, Sakura thought, Kabuto really was a genius. A mad one, but a genius all the same. He'd been the one to lose, but there certainly wasn't anyone looking at Temari as she left. All eyes were on Kabuto.

    It gave her an idea.

    "Wow." The whisper drew Sakura's attention to Naruto, enraptured at her side. "He just… fixed himself up."

    Sakura nodded, feeling herself draw inward. Only one fight left… and it wasn't one she wanted to watch. "He's pretty incredible," she said quietly. Naruto's face was practically shining with admiration, and she couldn't blame him. Fixing Sasuke's arm had been one thing: what they'd just seen was something else entirely.

    On her other side, Haku stirred. Sakura glanced over at him, and he gave her a small grin. "It's nice to have, don't you think?" he said sincerely. His eyes slid to Tenten's back. "Even if I lose, I'll have someone to fix me up."

    Tenten turned, quirking her eyebrows at both of them. "We're next," she said, reaching down and affixing the scroll she'd placed next to her to her back. She bowed sarcastically. "Ladies first."

    "I'm a guy," Haku said phlegmatically, and gestured graciously towards the door. Tenten blanched, eyes darting to Sakura. Sakura just closed her eyes forlornly and nodded, sure they were thinking the same thing.

    'It's just not fair.'

    Tenten recovered her composure and laughed. "Alright," she said, taking the lead. "I'll give you that one." She left first, and after a moment Haku rose and followed her. Sakura turned, watching them leave.

    "I'll be right back," she muttered, and Naruto gave her a curious look. Sakura slid off the bench and went after both her friends, not quite sure what she was doing.

    She caught Haku in the corridor at the bottom of the stairs, and the boy turned as Sakura let her footsteps sound out, a hint of concern flitting over his face. "Sakura?"

    What are you doing? Who told you about Lee? Were you told about Tenten? Dozens of questions surged through Sakura's head all at once, leaving her momentarily paralyzed. What came out wasn't exactly what she'd wanted.

    "You're hiding something," she said, and Haku's face tightened up a little. He didn't look mad, but it was so far off his normal relaxed expression that Sakura noticed it immediately. "I don't know what, and it's probably nothing, but…"

    "We are shinobi," Haku said, so careful, so neutral. Sakura felt an unwelcome sneer tug at her lips. "It is in our nature to hide things."

    "Ours, or yours?" Sakura asked, stepping forward. Haku didn't retreat: they grew closer. "I didn't hide anything from you. That night, I was totally honest with you."

    "That's true," Haku said with a smile. "You're an honest and kind person, Sakura. It's admirable."

    Sakura frowned. "If you really think that, then give me a bit of honesty in return," she said, and Haku's smile faded. "You and your teammates knew a lot about us."

    "About your teammates," Haku said quietly. "Not you."

    "Not just them," Sakura pressed. "About Rock Lee too. And Kabuto, he knew that Temari was a ninjutsu specialist. That's why he gave you his glasses. Right?" Where had they gone, she suddenly thought. Did Haku still have them? She hadn't seen him leave them behind, but he was heading to the arena now, and Kabuto was nowhere in sight. Just like Lee...

    "That's possible," Haku admitted, and that all but confirmed it for Sakura. She took a final step forward, only a foot or so away now.

    "How? And why?" she said, and Haku blinked. "We're just genin. How could you have found out that much, and why would you care? This is only an exam. You told me yourself that Rain thinks this is just a show. Did your Kage care that much about you winning?"

    Haku regarded her with cold eyes, and after a moment, sighed. "It's not that," he said, stepping back for the first time. Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Sakura… do you…"

    "Hey." Tenten stepped around the corner, fingers drumming against her leg, and Haku stepped back even further, clamming up. "Chatting in the dark?" She grinned. "Can I join?"

    Sakura glanced back and forth between the two of them. "It was nothing," she decided after a moment, and Haku gave her a look she couldn't read. Gratitude, maybe? "You two should get out to the field."

    "That's the idea," Tenten said dryly, and Sakura bit her lip.

    "Take…" she said, and then faltered. "Take it easy on each other, won't you? I don't want either of you getting hurt."

    Haku and Tenten both snorted, and then laughed at the mirrored sound.

    "We're shinobi," Haku said, and Sakura's heart sank. "Like I told you Sakura… it's not in our nature."

    "Hey, no worries," Tenten said, striding forward and clapping her hand down on Sakura's shoulder. She gave Haku a fierce smile. "I'll make sure the fight's short."

    "I wish you the best of luck," Haku said warmly, and then turned and walked out of sight, leaving Sakura and Tenten behind. The older girl chuckled.

    "He's cocky," she said, and Sakura laughed uncomfortably. Which was worse, this fight, or that hers was after? "Any tips?"

    Sakura shook her head. "He's fast, and perceptive. He can paralyze people with senbon. I don't know any more than that."

    "Senbon huh? That's traditional," Tenten said appreciatively. "You'll cheer me on, right?"

    "Of course," Sakura lied, and Tenten smiled.

    "Get back up there," she said. "You gotta rest for your fight, alright? Try to calm down a little."

    Was she stupid? How could she possibly be calm? Sakura resisted the urge to scream and gave Tenten's arm a squeeze, before she broke away and trudged back up the stairs.

    'What if they kill each other?'

    She stepped back out into the sun, and Sasuke gave her a lazy wave.

    'What if Gaara kills me?'

    Sakura made her way to the railing, consumed by her own thoughts, and waited for the fight to start.

    Tenten and Haku met in the middle of the field, just a couple meters away from the bloody stain Kabuto had left behind. As Shikaku was looking between them, making sure they were both ready, they did something none of the other competitors had: they gave one another a short bow, barely more than an inclination of their heads.

    Sakura bit her lip, and behind her, Naruto put his hand on her shoulder.

    "Begin."

    Both shinobi leapt back; knives fell into Tenten's hands, and needles into Haku's.

    Sakura didn't want to watch, but she couldn't look away. Her friends danced around the arena, probing one another's defenses with countless thrown weapons. Tenten didn't take even a scratch; she struck everything sent her way out of the air with her unerring accuracy, and eventually Haku switched solely to evasion, realizing he would never be able to reach her.

    Tenten took that opportunity to go on the offensive, bombarding the Rain ninja with hundreds of shuriken, senbon, and kunai, more and more weapons pouring out of her scroll every moment. Haku ducked, slid, and leapt around the arena, but Tenten was true to her word: she never missed what she was aiming for, and despite his best efforts Haku quickly began to sustain dozens of small wounds.

    The turning point came just a minute in. Haku dove forward out of the way of another brace of shuriken, and Tenten smirked. Her fingers danced, and Sakura winced as she saw the glint of nearly invisible strings shining in the air.

    Haku turned, eyes wide in shock, just in time for three of the shuriken that had missed him to slam into his left arm. They struck with incredible force, enough to send him skidding backwards; blood was already running in rivers down his forearm. Sakura flinched.

    "Well done," Neji muttered, and Sakura felt a helpless anger at him. Down in the arena, Haku was trying to pluck the shuriken from his arm, but they were stuck fast. The steel strings vibrated with an invisible energy.

    "Sasuke, did she-?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded.

    "She's running her chakra through the wire," he confirmed. He glanced at Neji. "Did you know about this?"

    "We developed it together," Neji said, prideful as ever. "A way for her to pin down any opponent." He smirked and gestured at Haku as the ninja from Rain gave up on pulling the shuriken from his arm. "It's the same principle as tree walking; they'll never come out."

    "Give up," Tenten called out, pulling with one hand and producing more kunai in the other. "You're a sitting duck!"

    Haku experimentally tried to saw through one of the wires with a knife, keeping one eye on Tenten, and his furtive movement drew a chuckle up in the audience.

    "Alright," Haku sighed, and raised one hand in a simple sign. The blood flowing down his arm crystallized into a wedge of red ice, shaping itself into a long crimson blade.

    Tenten froze as well, watching the jutsu with narrowed eyes. Sakura blinked.

    One hand sign. An ice jutsu. That was far more advanced than the water jutsu she'd been expecting. Was ice even possible? Could that be a-?

    The wire went slack. Haku charged.

    Sakura wanted Tenten to fall back, but instead she drew a short spear in one hand and began spooling in the wires connecting her fingers and Haku's shoulder in the other with quick, dexterous motions. She wrapped the steel wire tight around her hand like a dog's owner would its leash, leaving a bit of slack as they prepared for it to lunge, and braced her spear.

    The moment of impact was understated: Haku twisted around the spear, unwilling to impale himself, and struck out with his ice blade as he spun, trying to sever either the weapon or Tenten's arm. Tenten pulled back, slamming her right arm out, and the wires yanked Haku's ice blade off course. The attack harmlessly sliced through the air at Tenten's side, and her spear passed over Haku's shoulder, so close Sakura couldn't see the gap between the weapon's shaft and Haku's body.

    Both shinobi shifted, weighing their options for a clear moment that existed in the space between their heartbeats. Tenten kicked out, trying to drive Haku back, and Haku met the kick with his knee, pressing forward and bringing his blade to bear. He made another one-handed sign as he did, and ice spread off his knee onto Tenten's leg. It began creeping up her shin, and Tenten spun, bringing the shaft of the spear around and trying to strike Haku in the temple with it.

    Haku ducked, forced to back away by the spinning spear and another kick, and Tenten surged forward, uncaring of the ice weighing her leg down. The spear swung around her in a brilliant steel tracery, drawing an infinity symbol in the dust kicked up by their scuffle. The crowd was roaring for both of them, pushing them on, but Sakura was silent.

    The boy from Rain weighed his options, and in his moment of hesitation, the same kind of hesitation that Kabuto had shown in the match before, Tenten yanked on her wires and tugged him forward, into range of her spear. She struck out four, five, six times, four lightning stabs and two brutal slashes. Haku slipped around all but one of the attacks: the final stab nicked his cheek and notched his ear, a small and bloody cut.

    "Ha!" Tenten exclaimed, planting the spear in the crook of her shoulder and wrapping her hand around it like a snake, drawing it in even shorter and making it an extension of her arm. "Your-!"

    Haku snarled and stomped, and a ring of ice exploded out of the ground around him, a thin line of his own spears. Tenten jumped back, her reflexes saving her from being impaled, but the ice cleanly snapped off the head of her spear and opened two nasty cuts on her left leg.

    Tenten drew another weapon, a glaive with a short, wide blade this time. She was committed to keeping Haku at a distance, and for good reason. His ice jutsu were terrifying. But Haku didn't make the same mistake twice. He retreated, darting away from Tenten and heading for the corner of the arena.

    The stream, Sakura realized with a jolt. The little stream that ran through the corner, practically forgotten in all the violence. Tenten must have understood as well, because she took off after her opponent, shattering the ice on her leg with an errant punch and pulling back on the wires once again. Haku's arm was yanked back, and he stopped in his tracks, glaring down at the shuriken.

    He slapped his hand down on his arm, and yelped in pain. Sakura leaned forward, her heart beating faster at the sound, and Tenten paused. A second later, the shuriken fell away…

    Along with nearly an inch of Haku's arm.

    Sakura flinched, but there was no more blood. There was a thick sheath of ice over the wound. Haku had frozen his own flesh and ripped it right off, and the shuriken with it. He'd covered the wound with his own frozen chakra.

    As Tenten whipped the shuriken and the hunk of Haku's flesh around with the wires, suddenly in possession of a new and gruesome weapon, Haku dove backwards, covering the final couple meters to the stream, and submerged himself in the shallow water. Sakura half-expected the stream to freeze over, but to her shock the exact opposite happened. The water exploded into steam, and Haku emerged from it like a bloody shadow, his other wounds freezing over.

    "You put up an admirable fight, Tenten of the Leaf," he said, and Tenten readied her glaive, shifting her footing. She was off-guard, Sakura could tell. The display of ninjutsu had intimidated her, and so had Haku's ability to seal his own wounds. From her strategy so far, she had probably planned on bleeding Haku into helplessness.

    But that obviously wasn't possible. She would have to take more serious measures.

    She approached, one step at a time, whipping the shuriken attached to the wires wrapped around her hand in a wide arc, and keeping the glaive steady before her as she did. Haku began running through hand-signs. Nearly ten, so fast that Sakura blinked and the sequence was done.

    The steam around him collaseced, quickly growing solid. But it didn't collapse.

    Instead, a fleet of gleaming ice mirrors formed in the air, suspended by Haku's chakra. Tenten stopped, unwilling to approach an unknown jutsu, and Haku stepped backwards into a mirror that formed behind him. Stepped into it, slipping into the flat surface as though it were a hidden door.

    "Accept my apology," he said, and then he was gone. The mirrors slowly orbited, as though Tenten was her own little planet with dozens of iridescent reflective moons.

    Tenten took an uncertain step forward, and all at once the air was filled with dozens of shimmering shards of ice.

    Needles of ice, Sakura thought, the moment stretching out as Tenten started to move like half-frozen syrup dripping down a refrigerator's wall. It was another part of Haku's jutsu, an artificial storm of senbon to replace the real ones. Were the mirrors projecting the needles by themselves? She could see Haku's reflection in all the mirrors, but it shimmered, inconsistent and constantly moving.

    No, she thought. That wasn't possible.

    Tenten moved, spinning her glaive and trying to deflect as many of the needles as possible, but too many made it through her hasty defense. She instantly transformed into a porcupine, stuck through with tens of icey senbon several inches long. Three pierced entirely through the meat of her right arm, and the limb went limp, uselessly hanging at Tenten's side. The wires wrapped around it dragged in the dust.

    She roared, and smashed one of the mirrors into shards in return. Haku didn't care: his reflection stared out of the remaining ones unperturbed.

    "No!" Sakura hissed, and Neji frowned.

    "There's no way," he said, leaning forward and placing both hands on the railing. "It's like he's in all the mirrors at once."

    "It's a trick," Sasuke said. Sakura couldn't tell if he was angry or impressed. "He's moving between the mirrors." Sakura jerked her head towards him, her question obvious. "It's so fast that it looks like he's all of them at once, but it's an optical illusion." He grimaced. "And he can attack from every direction… it's almost like the Yondaime's jutsu. His body is being transformed into pure chakra." The grimace grew deeper, more suspicious. "That's not a normal jutsu. It's gotta be a Kekkei Genkai."

    A bloodline? Sakura's stomach dropped. She could pick out every raindrop in a storm, but she couldn't tell when Haku was moving from mirror to mirror. Even Neji couldn't tell. Sasuke had been the only one to notice.

    That meant that Tenten wouldn't have a chance. She couldn't possibly counter the jutsu.

    "Does he have to leave the mirror to attack?" she said, the coldness in her voice shocking her, and Sasuke nodded.

    "He does," he said. "And he's not going to be able to take down Tenten with needles alone."

    Sakura looked back and found that Sasuke was right. While she'd been distracted, Tenten had been doggedly destroying more and more mirrors, ignoring the countless needles riddling her body. But she was starting to slow down, and blood was coating her body, running in small streams from the hundreds of pinpricks covering her. Sakura felt her heart tear, watching her friend struggle to even breathe.

    It was just an endurance match now. A jutsu like that had to eat up a tremendous amount of chakra. Would Tenten's body give out first, or Haku's energy?

    Haku burst out of one of the mirrors behind Tenten. There were only seven left now, and Tenten turned, at the sound or at some sixth sense Sakura could not know. She was too slow: Haku flashed past her, not slowing down as he jammed a brace of needles through Tenten's throat.

    Incredibly, Tenten twisted at the last second, her eyes burning with fury, and the needles that would have paralyzed her simply punched straight through the muscle of her neck. She gagged on her own blood but kept turning, kept swinging her glaive with blind anger, and snipped off a lock of Haku's long hair as he cleared her range and dove back into a mirror.

    'Stop it.'

    Sakura's hands curled around the railing, her fingers making shallow imprints in the steel. She wanted to leap in between them, to bring the fight to an end by any means.

    But she was just one girl in an arena filled with thousands of men and women baying for blood, and even a silent prayer was completely drowned out by that noise.

    The end came as suddenly as the match had started. Haku charged again, both hands filled with needles. Tenten spun drunkenly, staggering from blood loss, and the glaive slipped from her hand as she brought it up behind her head to smash it down on top of her opponent.

    But as ever, the girl possessed two things: too much determination for her own good, and surprising speed.

    As Haku plunged in, committing to the attack, there was a flash of smoke and a tanto appeared in Tenten's raised hand. Fingers that had once been limp clenched so tight that blood leaked from their nails at the touch of the weapon. Tenten snarled and swung the blade down like a steel thunderbolt as Haku stabbed forward with both hands, driving needles up to his knuckles into Tenten's lungs.

    In that moment, Sakura perceived the entire world of shinobi, cast in miniature, reflected through her two friends. Two people so focused on bringing the other down that they gladly stepped into what could be fatal attacks.

    Tenten staggered back and fell, wheezing, unable to breathe. She collapsed on her side and flopped like a fish out of water.

    'Killing someone is a terrible crime.'

    Haku gasped, and his shirt tore open, completely split by Tenten's strike. There was a long cut running from just above his clavicle to just below his belly button; blood poured out of him, and he collapsed to one knee, pressing a hand to the wound.

    The audience took a breath, and Haku pushed himself to his feet, the huge but shallow wound bleeding more sluggishly. Tenten's sword hadn't been long enough; it hadn't cut deep enough to take him down.

    Sakura didn't know why she felt both elated and sick.

    "Enough!" Shikaku called, appearing between them. "Enough! The match is decided! Haku is the winner!"

    The crowd roared, and Haku weakly waved. He staggered forward, and Shikaku held out an arm, blocking his path and cocking an eyebrow.

    "I have to remove them," Haku said, blood pouring down his chest. "She'll suffocate." Sakura felt like she would as well. Breathing was getting more and more difficult.

    Because they'd almost killed each other, or because her fight was next?

    Shikaku nodded, and he and Haku approached Tenten together. Haku bent down, and Sakura saw Shikaku's shadow dance, just on the edge of melding with Haku's.

    The proctor didn't trust him at all, she thought. He was ready to paralyze Haku then and there, in the middle of the arena.

    Haku gingerly plucked the needles he'd sunk into Tenten's chest out one by one, and when the fifth one was removed Tenten gasped and coughed up blood.

    "Sorry." The boy from Rain winced. "Sorry. Hold your breath until they're all out."

    Tenten did, and Haku finished removing the rest of the needles. After he was done, she coughed up another glob of blood, staining her lips. Haku stood up, and offered Tenten his hand.

    "A good fight," he said, "as much as one can be." Then he wobbled on his feet, almost collapsing backward before Shikaku pressed his hand against his back.

    "Medics," he declared flatly. "Both of you."

    Both fighters were escorted off the field as the crowd rumbled in excitement. The end was coming.

    "Sakura," Sasuke said, and Sakura jerked, realizing she'd been staring at the needles Haku had discarded in the arena. "You're up. You ready?"

    "You ready?" Naruto echoed, and Sakura took a deep breath, trying to find herself.

    "Guess I'll find out," she said, hoping to sound witty or brave. It came out as a whisper.

    "You'll be fine," Naruto said, and then he blushed and gave her a quick hug. "Stay safe."

    She turned and left the observation room.

    Fly or die, Sakura, she thought. God, that's too melodramatic, isn't it? She mindlessly descended the stairs towards the arena, mind whirling through progressively dumber metaphors. Butterfly? Butterflies were cute. But that meant she was a caterpillar right now…

    She was muttering to herself, she realized. Sakura giggled. If anyone ran into her right now they'd think she'd cracked. She could still give up, right? She'd told Obito and everyone else she'd fight, but they'd understand. They'd understand surrendering to those empty eyes, right?

    "Sakura?"

    Sakura blinked, returning to reality. She'd run right into Tenten and Haku, both being carried through the hall on their own stretchers. Tenten sat up and grinned at her, her arm still crippled; Haku just gave her a laconic wave, breathing shallowly.

    "You guys…" Sakura felt herself tear up.

    "Oh come on," Tenten grimaced. "This is nothing, you big baby."

    "It was our choice," Haku said with a laugh, before letting out a painful sounding hack. "She was an incredible opponent."

    "Right back atcha, pretty boy," Tenten said. The medical ninja carrying her stretcher rolled her eyes and made to continue on down the hall, and Tenten weakly kicked her in the back.

    "Hey!" she protested. "Give me a minute, would you?!"

    "You're literally filled with needles," she pointed out, and Tenten blew a raspberry. The older ninja shook her head. "Kids…"

    "Sakura," Tenten said, ignoring the comment and pinning Sakura with her fiery brown eyes. "If we'd been trying to kill each other, we both would have died." She coughed, and Haku nodded. "Do you understand what I mean?"

    "Not really," Sakura admitted, rooted in place. "That's a creepy thing to say." She wasn't shaking anymore; she felt a dreadful calm creeping over her.

    "Gaara is not going to be the same," Haku said, and Tenten smirked.

    "So if you're going to fight," she said, baring her bloody teeth, "fight to kill. Keep yourself safe, but if you're going to hit back, throw it like it's going to be your last attack. You get me?"

    "I-"

    "You get me?"

    "I get you," Sakura said, her voice hoarse, and the medical ninja finally lost patience and began carrying both of their patients away.

    "You picked up a sword, Sakura," Haku said as he was carried past her, and Sakura turned to watch them leave. "You know what that means."

    "What're you doing, trying to get the last word?!" Tenten demanded, and Haku snorted as they turned the corner and vanished. "Kick his fucking ass, Sakura!"

    Sakura stood in the hallway alone, trying to digest what had been said to her, and eventually turned and continued towards the arena. The hall grew brighter and brighter, sunlight and sound pouring in. Eventually, she reached the exit.

    The crowd was rumbling, anticipation audibly rising by the second. Sakura stood on the precipice, her last chance to turn back without public humiliation.

    On the other side of the arena, she saw Gaara appear from the darkness of his own hallway, plodding into the arena, not looking at anything or anyone. The crowd's noise rose as he approached the center, awaiting Sakura's entrance.

    She took one step, and then another.

    'I gotta get stronger.'

    'We just don't want you getting hurt.'

    Another. She was in the sun now, carried forward by something intangible.

    Gaara shifted, glancing at her.

    'Sometimes, there are fights you can't win.'

    'I guess I'll just kill all of you.'

    'If you step foot in the arena with Gaara, he will kill you.'

    Sakura's hand wandered down and came to rest at the top of her sword's sheath.

    'You're smart, Sakura.'

    'You're an honest and kind person, Sakura.'

    'She's a natural.'

    Sakura closed her eyes, feeling her sword and all the chakra she had poured into it.

    'I know you're scared.'

    'Trust yourself.'

    When she opened her eyes, she and Gaara were ten meters apart. Farther than the other combatants had been, but Shikaku seemed to want it that way. He raised a hand, and brought her to a stop.

    "Ready?" he asked, and Sakura nodded. He looked to Gaara, and the Sand ninja grunted.

    "Then, let the final match of the Chunin Exam begin!" He raised his hand and jumped back. The fight began. Sakura's foot slid back unconsciously, preparing for anything, and Gaara…

    Sat down.

    Sakura flinched, because she had no idea what else to do.

    Thirty seconds passed, and the crowd grew restless. Sakura felt she had no choice but to speak

    "What are you doing?" she asked, and Gaara closed his eyes.

    "If you want to die, come," he said, each word containing more boredom than Sakura had ever felt in her life. "But you will not give me any meaning."

    He only cared about Naruto. The shock of the realization ran from the top of Sakura's head down to her toes. He didn't even want to fight her. She almost giggled.

    She could-

    "You couldn't touch me," Gaara muttered. "You're not strong enough to be worth killing."

    Sakura twitched.

    Play it safe.

    Stay at a distance.

    He's stronger than you. He took on two teams at once without a scratch. He killed that team from Stone. Smashed them to paste. He's crazy. He will kill you. There's no shame in surrender.

    He's just here for an easy pass. Let him be on his way. Try again next year. You just got unlucky, Sakura.

    'I'm sick of being scared.'

    Sakura twitched again, grit her teeth, and her anger burned the world away.

    She unsheathed her sword, a single fluid motion, and a shimmering trail of water followed it out of the sheath, rotating around it and rapidly picking up speed until it was tearing through the air with thousands of hungry teeth.

    'You couldn't touch me.'

    Gaara opened one eye, glancing up at her. Sakura heard a hiss, and was shocked to find it was coming from her.

    "Watch me."
     
  • Threadmarks
    • ExNihilo said:
    those two aren't exactly super top secret, right? 4th used the Rasengan a lot, and I never got the impression Sand was hiding the Sand Sibling's parentage.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Definitely not top secret, no. It's just continuing the trend of the Rain boys knowing more than they could reasonably be expected to. Just one or two things, like "Don't get your ass beat by Naruto, he's the Yondaime's kid" would be fine, but everything they've shown in aggregate Is what is pricking Sakura's bullshit alarm.

    Glad people liked the chapter! Hopefully the next will be faster.
     
    Chapter 23: The Exam Concludes
  • Threadmarks
    • Worth Killing​

    "Uh, Sasuke?" Naruto nudged his friend as Sakura began stalking around Gaara, moving in a steady clockwise motion. "Did she say-?"

    "Yeah," Sasuke nodded, his Sharingan active and staring at the two ninja below. Naruto looked back, painfully aware of his heart thumping in his chest. Sakura looked in control; her footwork was perfect, and her long pink hair flowed behind her as she circled her opponent, her watery sword following her like a snake in the dirt.

    But, uh…

    "You think she snapped?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded again.

    "Yeah, maybe," he said. He leaned forward. "But she's not freaking out… I think she's just really mad."

    Sakura snarled and flicked with her sword, cracking the water like a whip, and someone in the audience above whooped. Gaara still wouldn't move, or even open his eyes. She was trying to bait him out, and he wasn't falling for it.

    "Yeah." Naruto swallowed. Sakura's face was twisted up, her eyes wide, her teeth bared. "She uh… she seems pretty mad." The face should have been scary or weird, but for some reason, Naruto could only think that she looked really cool.

    Sakura had always had an air of hesitation and sadness to her, from the very first day they'd met. She never seemed certain about anything, and she had always been a little scared of everything, even him and Sasuke and Obito. Scared that she didn't belong, or that they didn't like her, or some crap like that. Naruto had thought that was a little stupid, but his mom had told him it made sense. And he guessed it did, but he'd never been able to wrap his head around it.

    But that didn't matter, because right now, Sakura looked completely sure of herself. There wasn't a lick of hesitation in the way she walked or held her sword; she was one-hundred percent ready to tear Gaara apart.

    She looked cool, and prettier than usual. Naruto smiled, leaning forward. At his side, Sasuke gave him an amused look.

    "What?" Naruto asked. "What're you looking at?"

    "Some dumbass," Sasuke laughed, and Naruto went red with anger and a bit of embarrassment. "Let's hope those seals of yours hold up."

    "Hey, I don't wanna brag," Naruto said as Sakura completed the first half of her rotation around Gaara, now at his back. "But those seals are the most badass thing I've ever done."

    Sakura did the most ninja thing she could have under the circumstances and chose that moment to attack. If she'd thrown a sword strike that could cut down a tree at anyone else's back while they were sitting down with their eyes closed, Naruto might have been pretty concerned for Sakura's state of mind.

    But since it was Gaara, he found himself hoping with all his heart that the hit would land.

    'I'm probably meant to kill you, right?'

    Sakura's water sword struck out, covering the twenty feet between her and Gaara in an instant, and a thick wall of sand surged out of his gourd. It interspersed itself between Gaara and the blade, and the water smashed into it with a tremendous crack. The sand bent, chunks of grain flying apart and compromising the wall, and Sakura's blade rebounded, leaving behind some of its mass.

    Gaara didn't twitch, completely trusting his sand to protect him. Did he even control it himself? Naruto's hand curled into a fist.

    But Sakura didn't hesitate, didn't even pause to breathe. Before the recoil from the strike had even reached her, she was swinging again, taking hold of the blade with both hands. The water twisted like a living thing, slamming itself back into the weakened wall, and Gaara's eyes opened. The sword broke through the spot it had struck before, crashing through the sand with a loud smack.

    Gaara ducked, and the blade whipped right over his head. The boy from Sand looked back over his shoulder, eyes wide, and Naruto heard Sakura snort.

    She pulled her arm back, sheathing the sword for a moment, and Naruto's seals went to work. The water still attached to the blade was rapidly sucked back into the sheathe and replaced by more pushed out of the storage formulas lining the inside. When Sakura's sword emerged a moment later, it was impossible to tell that a third of the extended blade had been left behind when it had shattered Gaara's wall.

    It had been hard to work with such a small surface, and to create the whole array in just a week, but Naruto had never questioned it when Obito had asked him for his help. If it was for one of his teammates, he'd do whatever it took to help them win.

    (and he'd asked his mom for help as well, but Sasuke in particular didn't need to know that.)

    Gaara crossed his arms, and more sand poured out of his gourd, forming a circle around him. He still wasn't standing up.

    "Did you even know the name of those ninja you killed?" Sakura asked, and then she swung again, grunting with effort. Her blade whipped out, but she wasn't aiming for Gaara directly; his sand came up to protect him, this time guided by his will. Naruto was sure of it, because Sakura's blade went over him by a couple feet, and the sand didn't move up to block it. She swung again, the blade whickered close to the ground, under the sand that had gone up. "The team from Stone?"

    "No," Gaara said. He rose to his feet as Sakura continued to lazily whip her sword back and forth, the water blade dancing in a hypnotizing pattern just beyond the range of the sand. "I did not." He was showing interest, Naruto thought. Was that good or bad?

    Bad, he decided after a moment. Definitely bad.

    "Why did you kill people whose names you didn't even know?" Sakura asked, and the blade struck out, slapping against the sand. It wasn't a full power strike, Naruto thought. Sakura's voice was cold, and she was controlling the water blade like an extra long, super flexible arm. She was in total control of herself, and testing the limits of Gaara's defense.

    He grinned.

    "I wanted to," Gaara said, and he smiled softly. He looked up into the stands. "I know what you're going to ask. I'm not stupid. Why I wouldn't want to kill you too."

    Naruto realized who Gaara was looking for when he locked eyes with him, and he snarled down at the boy from Sand.

    "I'm not interested in you," Gaara said. "The one-"

    "Sure," Sakura hissed, and stepped forward into her next strike. Her blade hissed through the air, and Gaara's sand came up to block it, far more than before.

    Naruto winced, expecting the crack of water on sand again, but instead Sakura grunted, twisting her whole body, and the water spun past the wall of sand, forming into a long sickle. The blade grew thin, stretched to its breaking point: Gaara glanced at it. He had time to take a single step back before it lunged for him, the tip slamming directly into his chest.

    Gaara tumbled backwards, and for just a second the whole stadium was dead silent.

    He landed on his butt and sat there, stunned. The boy had gone through the whole Forest of Death without getting touched, had trounced Team Eight and Ten in seconds, and Sakura had knocked him on his ass. It had been a weak hit, a fraction of the force her blade could normally bring to bear because of the awkward angle stretching her chakra to its limit.

    But it had been a hit.

    "You'll happily murder someone who you don't know because you're bored, but because your dad told you you couldn't kill Naruto, you're just going to sit and pout for me," Sakura spat. "You scumbag."

    Gaara slowly stood up, a grin spreading over his face.

    'Sakura, what are you doing?' Naruto shifted.

    "Okay." He laughed, the sound escalating, growing more and more high pitched. Gaara's hands spread like claws, and sand began pouring out of his gourd, an impossible amount. "Okay. Now I'll kill you."

    ###

    Sasuke wasn't sure if Sakura was making a mistake or not.

    He was sure he wasn't comfortable, regardless.

    Gaara attacked, hundreds of pounds of sand surging out from him and towards Sakura, and Sakura retreated, striking at the sand with her blade as she steadily gave ground. Gaara advanced, never faster than a casual stride, but Sasuke could see the potential for enormous speed in him.

    His eyes could see a lot more than the rest of the audience could. Everyone else was only seeing the clash of water and sand, one combatant retreating and the other pursuing. The crowd was going insane, the noise only providing more distractions from the actual fight.

    The Sharingan showed him more. To Sasuke, it was clear that Sakura wasn't just retreating; her chakra was only growing sharper and sharper, compressed into a star of fury that burned out of her heart and flared every time she attacked. She was swinging her sword once a second, like clockwork, twisting her whole body with each strike and throwing her all into every one. None of the hits were feints: despite her fancy footwork, every single slash was clearly meant to strike Gaara down.

    Gaara was advancing and his chakra was exploding, pouring out of him constantly. It was such a tremendous amount that Sasuke thought he surely had to drop any second, but he wasn't showing any fatigue at all. The ninja from Sand had incredible stamina, to burn that much chakra on defense and walk forward without a single sign of it. His sand darted to and fro like it had a will of its own, smashing down Sakura's attacks time and time again.

    But Sakura was just growing more ferocious, every attack angrier than the last, and after ten seconds of retreating and ten deflected attacks she planted her feet and sheathed her sword in a lightning motion. The sun at her heart burst, doubling in intensity, and Sasuke watched with fascination as her sword began glowing so bright with her chakra that he could see it through her sheath with his Sharingan.

    For the first time, Sakura spoke the name of her new jutsu, using it as a heartfelt kiai.

    "Ryusuiken!"

    She unsheathed and swung the sword in the same motion, her body low and flowing with the strike like she was water herself. The blade snapped out, twice as thick as before, and Gaara's sand rose to meet it.

    Sakura made a ram handsign while maintaining her grip on the sword, grunting with effort a heartbeat before impact, and the water became hard as steel. Sasuke couldn't look away; the amount of control she was exerting, sending her energy from her core, down her arm, through the sword and into the water itself, was hard to fathom. It was like an extension of the Rasengan; the water was spinning like a saw, helping keep it together.

    The technique, Sasuke thought with a grin, was terrifying. He'd known that the second he'd seen it in the training ground, but it was something else to see it brought to bear against someone like Gaara.

    The steel-strong water, spinning violently and whipping through the air so fast that it produced a small sonic boom, cut right through the shield of sand Gaara had raised. The boy didn't even have time to look surprised. The water blade slammed right into his chest.

    Sasuke had honestly expected the attack to cut Gaara in half, or at least tear his torso open. But instead, he was sent flying backwards like before. There wasn't any blood. Just more sand.

    "What?" Naruto asked, leaning so far forward he was liable to fall over the railing. Sasuke put his hand on his shoulder, keeping him back. "What?!"

    Gaara refused to tumble and stayed on his feet, sliding backwards like a heavy statue. The boy's head snapped up with a mad smile, and Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

    "His whole body is covered in sand," he said. Now that he could see the damage, the rest was obvious. "Like armor, an inch or two thick. It's coating him."

    Incredibly hard and dense sand too, if it could stand up to that strike and only crack. Sakura's attack could have cut through a concrete block, but Gaara was just winded. He had two layers of incredible defenses.

    "Better~!" Gaara called out, and Sasuke saw Sakura bristle at the word. She started to step forward, and Sasuke shouted.

    "Sakura-!"

    "No." Sasuke's mouth froze, the words trapped in his throat, and he found the rest of his body was similarly paralyzed. A second later, the paralysis vanished: he spun around and found Shikaku Nara standing there with a grim expression.

    "Assistance is against the rules," the proctor said. "She has to stand on her own." He stepped forward with a dour glare. "Unless you'd like to disqualify her."

    Sasuke frowned. "She needs-"

    "She'll figure it out," Shikaku said. "And if she doesn't, I'll keep her from dying." He had nothing more to say, and disappeared back to whatever shadow he'd crawled out of.

    "Jerk," Naruto muttered, and Sasuke suppressed a growl. He looked back to the fight. Sakura and Gaara were maintaining their detente about twenty five feet apart. For the first time since the fight had started, Sakura didn't look sure of herself. She stood in a low posture, her blade extended before her, eyes narrowed.

    She looked up, past Gaara and at them. At him and Naruto. Sasuke nudged his friend, and they both locked eyes with Sakura.

    There wasn't anything to say. They both just nodded; Naruto smiled, and gave a thumbs-up. A smile flitted across Sakura's face, and then her eyes went hard.

    She sheathed her sword, storing all her water once more, and kept one hand on the blade's hilt. The other, she kept free, loose and ready at her side.

    Then, she started walking forward.

    "Uh…" Naruto muttered, and then Gaara's sand came up, dancing like dozens of wispy snakes as Sakura slowly but surely advanced directly into it. "Uhhhh."

    "She knows what she's doing," Sasuke said, watching Sakura knead more and more chakra in her core and steadily amass it in both her legs, her right hand, and her sword. She picked up her pace, approaching Gaara with small quick movements, always ready to evade in any direction.

    'I think,' he amended. Naruto was already twitching with sympathetic adrenaline; he didn't need to know just how fast Sakura's heart was beating, while Gaara's was as steady as a metronome.

    Gaara raised one hand, and his sand attacked in a vicious wave. He wasn't trying to be clever, just to crush Sakura with a single attack. She didn't let him, darting sideways around the sand. She was fast: much faster than she'd been even a month ago. Obito training her chakra control so stringently had increased her speed, even if she hadn't done nearly as much physical training.

    However, that speed just put her on par with the sand. It was enough to keep her out of danger, but the closer she got to Gaara, the less margin for error she had.

    And yet, that was exactly what she was doing. Sasuke leaned back, crossing his arms.

    "Why's she getting so close?" Naruto asked as Sakura pressed in, avoiding more and more sand every second. Gaara refused to back up; he just conducted his sand with more energy, tossing it around like a mallet and trying to crush their teammate.

    "The armor," Sasuke said. His eyes burned; they'd been burning since his fight with Naruto, when everything had become so clear. "She wants to break through it. Her jutsu gets weaker with range."

    "So… she's going to hit him point blank?" Naruto blinked and looked back. There was only fifteen feet between Gaara and Sakura now: she dove forward over a swell of sand, her feet just barely clearing it. Her right hand never left her sword's hilt. "

    "Looks like," Sasuke muttered, trying to slow his heart down. She'd be fine. Shikaku had promised.

    But still…

    Gaara was smiling. All teeth, eyes wide. He looked like a wild animal.

    Ten feet now.

    "C'mon," Sasuke said under his breath, and Naruto nodded in silent agreement. "Just hit him, Sakura."

    With seven feet left, Sakura was snagged by the sand. It wrapped around her ankle crawling up her leg and stopping her dead in her tracks as she leapt to the left. Gaara's face split open in a smile, but before she could be crushed, Sakura lashed out with her blade and severed the sand. Then, she jumped. As she did, she sheathed the blade once more.

    The sand still on her leg didn't fall away; it constricted, and Sasuke saw in unfortunate detail how Sakura's foot deformed as her ankle shattered. Spikes of sand pushed into her skin, soaking the grains in blood. But Sakura didn't scream: she just closed her eyes and drew her sword again.

    Gaara gestured one more time, sending another wave of sand up at her. Sakura was about six feet in the air, five feet away from Gaara. The sand would envelope her in less than a second. Sakura cocked her sword back, up and behind her shoulder, preparing for a huge thrust. The water around it rotated faster, like a drill, so fast even Sasuke could barely distinguish the motion.

    Sakura thrust at a downward diagonal angle, directly at Gaara, and for the first time ever the boy showed something like wariness. He started to jump back: his sand spread out in a huge shield, wide and deep and separating him and Sakura like a canvas that was harder than steel.

    Sakura spoke. Maybe it was just so quiet that Sasuke couldn't hear it, or maybe she didn't bother to vocalize at all, but Sasuke had to read her lips to understand her.

    Ryusuiso.

    The water exploded off her blade in a thin spear, compressed beyond all reason and spinning so violently that it immediately began shedding mass. It was like a bolt of blue lightning, and it pierced right through Gaara's sand shield as if it wasn't there. Sakura had aimed for Gaara's chest, but the boy had evaded the blow thanks to his instincts.

    That meant that instead of cutting out his heart, Sakura's water spear shot right through Gaara's side, leaving a hole the size of a grown man's thumb.

    There was an audible gasp in the audience; Sakura flew over Gaara's head, his sand not reaching for her, and landed behind him, tumbling to her knees as her broken ankle gave out. The sand on her leg fell away in bloody clumps. She glared over her shoulder, burning green eyes framed by pink hair, as he collapsed to one knee, mouth opening and closing soundlessly.

    "Aahhh…" A gasp escaped him, and Sakura dragged herself up, sheathing her sword again. All the water she'd used for the spear had fallen out of her control the moment it had landed; that jutsu had been too much for even her impossible chakra control. Gaara looked back at her, his mouth opening wider, his eyes bloodshot. Sand was crumbling off the hole in his side, his armor mixing with his blood. "Aaaaaahhhhhhhh-!"

    "Not worth killing, huh?!" she screamed back, and swung again. Gaara fell back, his sand coming up to a degree Sasuke had never seen before to shield him from the strike. Sakura was relentless, swinging again and again, twice, three times a second, and her brutal attacks eventually pierced through the sand, falling on Gaara's back and shoulders and further cracking his armor. The boy from Sand curled up in the fetal position as Sakura screamed and beat on him, her blade producing a bloodcurdling crack every time it rebounded off his armor. "You were right, you piece of shit! You're the only one worth killing around here!"

    Sakura slipped on her broken ankle, her form failing, and she collapsed to one side, swinging even as she went down. Gaaara took the half-second respite and sand began piling on top of him, more and more until his form was completely obscured, and then more after that. Sakura kept attacking, but the sand formed into a pyramid, and then a dome. Gaara was gone: where he'd lain, there was just an orb of impregnable sand.

    "Okay, that's gotta be a forfeit, right?" Naruto said, and Sasuke shook his head.

    "It's a defensive technique," he said. "If Sakura can't break through…"

    "Oh," Naruto said, looking back at the orb. Sakura was still probing at it with her sword, but it was becoming obvious she couldn't penetrate it. It was just too thick: any scratches she made repaired immediately.

    "Crap."

    ###

    After nearly a minute of swinging at the dome without any effect, the haze of red receded, and Sakura found herself taking stock of the situation.

    She was low on chakra, feeling the all-too familiar exhaustion creeping in. Her ankle was killing her, constantly radiating pain up through her leg and making her heart skip a beat every couple seconds. Her sword was getting heavier and heavier.

    And yet, all she could think about doing was to keep on attacking. Keep swinging, until Gaara couldn't get back up, couldn't protect himself. She glared at the dome of sand.

    Gaara was bleeding in there. She'd pierced his side. He'd screamed; he wasn't used to getting injured. He was used to bullying people. Killing them. Not to them fighting back, hurting them. Had he even bled before?

    If she waited, he'd have to come out. She could kill him, like Tenten had said. She was sure of it. But if she waited, she might drop first. She was already so tired.

    'There are some fights you can't win.'

    Sakura snarled, her fists clenching. She looked around, keeping her eyes on the orb but searching for something else.

    "Hey!" she called, and she felt and watched the audience shift at her call. "Proctor!"

    "Yes?" Shikaku asked from behind her, and Sakura resisted the urge to jump. She glanced back over her shoulder, letting her sword fall limp.

    "Does he have to come out of there?" she asked, and Shikaku shook his head.

    "There are no time limits," he said, and Sakura bit her lip, feeling her head grow clearer as the reality of the situation became apparent. Gaara wasn't an idiot, just murderous. He had to know that if Sakura couldn't reach him, she'd tire herself out trying. He was just going to sit in there until she dropped, and then he'd come out and kill her. It's what she would do, in his position.

    "Then… I'm done," she said, and the Nara cocked an eyebrow.

    "You're forfeiting?" he said, and Sakura grimaced.

    "If you want to call it that. I'm done. I can't reach him in there." Sakura looked back, and despite the situation, she smiled. "I proved my point."

    Shikaku laughed. "Without a doubt," he grinned, and raised his hand. Sakura steeled herself, ready for a feeling of shame or disgust, but nothing came.

    She'd given it her all. She'd made Gaara bleed. She had nothing to be ashamed of. That thought kept her standing tall and proud as Shikaku declared her the loser.

    The crowd screamed, cheered, boo'd, laughed; Sakura ignored all of it, the cries for and against her, and sheathed her sword, limping for the exit. She looked for Naruto and Sasuke, and found them in the spectator box; Naruto was grinning at her, and Sasuke just nodded. They both thought she'd done the right thing.

    Sakura smiled back at them.

    "Nooooooooooo…"

    Sakura stopped; the voice was just a whisper, but she turned around nonetheless. It was coming from the dome; there was a small hole in it, like an eye peering at her. She perceived something golden inside, like a gleaming cross.

    Something too heavy to believe slammed down on Sakura's shoulders, an invisible force that sent every hair on her body standing on end. She retched; malice itself wrapped its hands around her heart and squeezed, and Sakura was suddenly paralyzed. A part of her so primitive that it didn't have words started screaming, but on the outside, she was dead silent. She could not speak: she could barely breathe.

    "Nooooooooooo…" The whisper came again. It was coming from where Gaara had been, but it sounded nothing like him. "You don't get to just leave."

    Something exploded out of the hole.

    At the very beginning of the match, fresh and angry, Sakura could have dodged it. But right now, she was slipping into exhaustion, her anger was replaced by satisfaction, and she had a broken ankle.

    She saw a blur as Shikaku tried to intersperse himself between her and the thing coming out of the dome, but it wasn't enough. On pure instinct, Sakura brought up her sword, raising it in her right hand in a vain attempt to block the attack she couldn't even see.

    Something, a huge hand made of sand, slammed into her with a sonic boom. It crushed her arm against her chest, and Sakura felt blood hit the back of her teeth. Her sword flew out of her hand.

    'I let go of my sword,' she thought as she was thrown backwards. 'Shit, Tenten's gonna kill me.'

    She hit the wall of the arena, and everything went fuzzy and black.

    Sakura was aware of hitting the ground next, and after that, very little made sense. There was screaming all around her, and a roaring too, a sound that shook her like an earthquake. The ground shook, convulsing under her, and her leg and arm were on fire. She wished they would just fall off, they hurt so much.

    She rolled over, looking up at the blue sky as a rolling darkness overtook her vision.

    Oh, hey. Her sword was stuck in the wall of the arena. Neato.

    There was more screaming, more roaring, more shaking, like an endless nightmare. The dreadful hateful heavy chakra pressed down on her like a building, crushing her into the earth. The earth had teeth, tearing at her back. Someone was screaming her name. Maybe it was Naruto.

    The darkness drowned out everything, and Sakura passed out.

    ###

    It seemed cruel to leave you with a cliffhanger, and I didn't update for two weeks last time, so an extra early one seemed appropriate. This was one of the scenes that brought the fic back to life: I hope you liked it.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Ser_Serendipity said:
    To peace, I guess. I said that at least. To creating a world where no one will desire war. I just want people to be safe. To not feel like they have to fight and kill to get what they want. Maybe that's naive, but I think so long as I hold to that goal…

    We'll be able to accomplish something. Exactly. Better to try than to concede.
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    Ah yes the Seeds of Radical Sakura is planted. "This system sucks and we want to try and do something about it rather than just roll over and accept it." Truly Haku should write books.

    I also like how you illustrated one of the old guard (Konoha's) stance on a lot of the things Rain, Akatsuki and the Ame Trio have been preaching (also the minor but significant change to their symbol.)
    Ser_Serendipity said:
    I refuse to be a tool.
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    I love how much you're willing to change characters from canon. You don't just repeat the same well trodden path, things have changed and its not just this one singular thing but many.
    Ser_Serendipity said:
    "No way." Naruto shook his head. "It's way too dangerous. I wouldn't want to kill him!"
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    Ser_Serendipity said:
    Sat down
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    This is honestly one of my favorite bits of writing in this fic so far. Part of what Gaara so effective was that he wasn't just this 24/7 he could be perfectly calm, rational and polite and then suddenly murder you like one would scratch an itch, or how alternatively pseudo philosophical/childish he could be. Its horrifying and engaging and the sheer dismissal and yet the threat is felt anyway.
    Ser_Serendipity said:
    "Watch me."
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    You've been teasing us with it before but its finally time for that steadily building anger to explode.
    Ser_Serendipity said:
    The face should have been scary or weird, but for some reason, Naruto could only think that she looked really cool.
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    Crush +10. Naruto be like.
    Ser_Serendipity said:
    "You were right, you piece of shit! You're the only one worth killing around here!"
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    Oh yeah Sakura's pissed. The pay off was excellent. Transitioning from super water chainsaw whip so super iaido might be a bit cliche but its cool to imagine, and effective as hell. Sakura just hammering away at him heedless of her ankle is super fitting and alongside the qouted bit really gets across Sakura's not displeasure exactly that feels a bit too trite but I'm exhausted and my brain is derping but well displeasure with not only the Shinobi system but also those it gives birth too and sanctions.
    Silverbullet said:
    And now Kushina gonna smack a racoon.
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    I can't imagine Rasa would let him get too wild either, bad for diplomacy and all that. And then Konan could also choose to involve herself in some way.

    There's more I could say of course some I've done a bit on Discord, some I haven't but I'm exhausted and planning on turning in soon so I'll just leave it here for now.
     
    Chapter 24: Aftermath
  • Threadmarks
    • Sakura Haruno​

    Sakura woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling.

    She tried to sit up, and her leg and arm immediately told her that was a terrible idea. Her back ached, itching all over. Sakura followed their screamed instructions and lay back down. She settled for looking around instead, trying to figure out where she was.

    Hospital, she realized after a moment. She was definitely in a hospital. The central hospital, if her window was any indication. It was getting dark outside. Sakura blinked. Had she been unconscious for that long? Her sword was nowhere to be seen. There was an IV in her left arm.

    "Guh," she said, her mouth too dry to speak. She licked her lips and tried again. "Hello?"

    "Sakura?!" Naruto busted the door down and beamed at her. "You're okay!"

    "Naruto?" Sakura blinked. "Were you just… waiting outside?"

    "I was waiting inside but Obito-sensei made me leave," Naruto pouted, coming to her bedside. "He said I was being creepy."

    "Umm…" Sakura said, not sure what else to say. "Okay. What… what happened?"

    "Oh." Naruto's face fell a little. "Uh, well, so-"

    "You missed all the excitement, Sakura." Obito materialized in the corner of the room, and Naruto stomped his foot.

    "How do you do that?" he asked, and Obito tapped his ear. There was a radio there, nestled underneath his hair.

    "You're loud, Naruto," he said with a grin. "I asked to be told as soon as Sakura woke up. I knew you'd be the perfect alarm."

    As Naruto pouted, Sakura looked to her sensei for answers.

    "First off, Sakura," he said, stepping forward. "Amazing fight. Incredible. You did better than anyone could have dreamed."

    "But?" Sakura said, sensing the unspoken word. Obito sighed, his grin growing a little sour.

    "You couldn't have known, but you went a little overboard." He sighed. "The Kazekage didn't tell us about what Gaara's reaction would be to getting injured. He probably just didn't expect it…"

    "Sensei, what happened?" Sakura asked, trying to lift her head again and failing. "What hit me? What was that…" The memory hit her like a hammer, and she shook. "That roar?"

    "This is gonna be need to know, alright?" Obito said, and both Sakura and Naruto nodded. "Doesn't leave this room." He snorted. "Not that plenty don't know now anyway."

    "Gaara is a Jinchuriki," he said, and suddenly very many things made sense to Sakura.

    "Like mom?" Naruto blurted out, and Sakura jerked her head towards him, her arm screaming in pain. He gave her a look that clearly said "whoops."

    "Sorry," he said, and Obito shook his head.

    "Like Kushina," he said, and Sakura lay back, trying to digest two incredible pieces of information at once.

    She knew what a Jinchuriki was, in theory. Someone with one of the Bijuu, or any other sort of demon, sealed inside of them. Either to contain the power, or harness it for themselves. All the villages had them; how many, and what demons exactly, was a secret kept religiously by each of them.

    But if Gaara was one, and Kushina too…

    'Is that why Naruto has those whiskers?'

    "That was what happened at the end, then?" Sakura asked, and Obito nodded.

    "Gaara is the sort of Jinchuriki created to use a Bijuu's power," Obito said. "His seal lets out the Beast's chakra if he's stressed, or angry." He scratched his chin. "Or at least, that's our assumption. The Kazekage isn't exactly sharing, even if we are allies."

    "So when I stabbed him, the Tailed Beast came out?" Sakura asked. "I didn't…"

    "Not your fault," Obito said. "Don't worry. It wasn't the whole thing. Gaara transformed into some kind of… hybrid."

    "He was a real freak," Naruto finally spoke up. "He turned into a monster. Half sand-" he drew a line down the middle of his body, "and half him. Sasuke and I grabbed you; the Kazekage and my dad went after him."

    "They subdued Gaara before he could do too much damage," Obito said. "But that happening in front of the whole audience, that damage was already done." He looked out the window with a thoughtful air. "Now all the villages will know Sand has a faulty weapon. You probably made an enemy of the Kazekage for that alone, Sakura."

    Sakura blinked, and Obito blinked back. "Sorry. That was a little too frank."

    "No, that's, uh…" Sakura felt faint. She'd just wanted to prove a point, not cause an international incident. It had just been a fight for her. "That's good to know." She looked down at her body under the sheets. "Am I okay?"

    "Well, I'm sure you can tell your arm and leg are busted. Lacerations all over your back," Obito said with a grin. "Leg broken in multiple places. Compound fracture on your arm."

    "Ugh, so gross," Naruto muttered, shaking his head. "Was coming right out your elbow." He got a thoughtful look. "I guess your elbow was coming right out your elbow…"

    "Thanks, Naruto," Sakura said dryly, and Naruto blushed. She felt a little bad for her tone. "And thanks for saving me, too."

    The blush intensified. "Someone else woulda if I hadn't," he said, rubbing the back of his head, and Sakura smiled.

    'But you were the one who did.'

    "So, this is gonna be your home for the next day or two," Obito said. "Get used to that bed."

    That sounded fine to Sakura. Lying in bed for the next couple days would be beautiful, if she were being honest with herself.

    "Okay." Sakura tried to catch her breath, trying to remember what was important. Now that the euphoria of waking up had passed, the pain in her limbs was growing unbearable. "Okay. Two things."

    "Shoot," Obito said, and Sakura took a deep breath. Focus. You can sleep afterwards.

    "One: where's my sword?" she asked, and Obito laughed.

    "I've got it," he said. "You want me to bring it to you?"

    "Would it be weird if I said yes?" Sakura asked, and Obito laughed again.

    "Not at all," he said. "What's two?"

    "Did I pass?" Sakura asked, and Obito frowned.

    "Hasn't been determined yet," he said. "The judgements got delayed, for obvious reasons."

    "Do you think I'll pass?" she asked, and Obito shrugged.

    "Hard to say," he said.

    "What?" Naruto protested. "But she kicked ass!" Sakura started to speak up, and he spun on her. "Shut up! You kicked ass! Why wouldn't you pass?"

    "That's up to the judges," Obito said. "The three Kage, and the representative jonin from each Village. And it's not as simple as kicking ass, as you put it. There are other factors to consider." He crossed his arm, tapping a finger against his forearm. "We'll see."

    Despite asking, Sakura found herself not really caring if she had passed. It was a distant concern. She was alive. She'd stood up to Gaara in front of the whole village, and made him bleed. Right now, that was more than enough for her.

    "Alright," she said, laying back. Her head was fuzzy again; she was sure Obito had noticed. "That's okay…"

    "Your arm hurting?" Obito asked, and Sakura laughed.

    "My everything," she admitted, and Obito smiled at her.

    "We're all really proud of you, Sakura," he said, and Naruto vigorously nodded. "I'll grab a medical ninja; get you something for the pain. Just take it easy, okay?"

    Sakura nodded, and Naruto and Obito said their goodbyes and left. A medical ninja came a minute later, just as Obito had promised, and injected her IV with something that carried her away.

    ###

    Sakura ended up only spending two more days in the hospital. She left early on the third day, her right arm and left leg in a cast, and with a crutch to help her walk.

    Sasuke was with her when she left; Naruto and Obito were already at their destination. He'd come to take her to chunin determination. Sakura was happy to be out; she'd grown bored lying in bed as medical ninja fussed over her, making sure her bones had reconnected properly. Going from the most exciting day of her life to a couple of the most boring had left her seriously wired.

    She'd had plenty of visitors to keep her from going mad. Her teammates had come by at least once a day, and so had her sensei. Ino and her team, and Hinata and hers, had both come by on separate days to offer their congratulations. Hinata had brought food, meat and salad, and Ino a book, some fiction about a ninja who fought with their hair. Sakura had been immensely grateful to them in different ways.

    Tenten had shown up the day before; her team hadn't.

    "You dumbass," Tenten had said, sitting at her bedside and trying to read the book over her shoulder. "You're lucky he didn't kill you."

    "He's lucky I didn't kill him," Sakura had grumbled, not sure if it was bravado or the truth, and Tenten had cracked a smile. She had been covered in small, circular bandages, each placed over a scabbed lump of raised skin; senbon exit wounds weren't pretty to look at, and neither was the inflammation they caused. Sakura hadn't even wanted to guess at what her friend's chest looked like.

    "It was a hell of fight, you know," she'd said, her smile fading. "But Sakura…"

    'You might have taken it too far,' Sakura remembered, as she stumped through the streets of Konoha, stubbornly keeping pace with Sasuke. She couldn't say Tenten had been wrong.

    Everywhere she went, people were looking at her. Some of them were whispering.

    That's her, the whispers went in a dozen different permutations. That's Sakura Haruno, the girl who went crazy during the Exam. Look at her hair, there's no mistaking it. She still has her sword, even though she's in a cast. That's a shinobi for you.

    Some of the whispers were for the sake of admiration, others confusion, some concern. But no matter what they were expressing, they whispered, and Sakura felt eyes on her every step of the way to the Hokage's tower.

    "Uh, Sasuke?" she asked, and he glanced over at her. "Why's everyone, um, know me?"

    "You made a scene," Sasuke said, quietly amused. "People could hear the screaming across the whole village. You almost woke up a demon right in the middle of it, you know."

    "Oh," Sakura muttered, feeling a blush creep over her cheeks. "I didn't…"

    "Didn't Obito already do this with you?" Sasuke said, and Sakura nodded. "Then don't bother. There's nothing to be sorry for." He grinned, uncharacteristically earnest. "You made Naruto's day, kicking that guy's ass. Neither of us knew how advanced you'd gotten with your jutsu."

    "I didn't really know either," Sakura admitted. "I mean, I knew how to use it, but never like that…" She laughed. "I was just so angry. I guess that might have helped. And I couldn't have done anything without Naruto's seals."

    "He did a pretty good job," Sasuke said, and Sakura felt an immense well of gratitude towards him welling up inside her soul. Helping her forget the pain in her arm and leg, the stares, and the whispers… Sasuke had always been friendly, but he'd rarely reached out like this before.

    The last shred of doubt that they were real teammates, real friends, evaporated at the back of her mind like a puddle simmering away in the midday sun, and Sakura barely noticed its departure.

    They passed the rest of the journey to the Hokage's tower in companionable silence, Sakura learning to ignore the people who could not ignore her as best she could. It was strange, to suddenly be known. She remembered walking home from her training with Obito the day she'd told him she was giving up: no one had paid her any mind that day.

    Maybe that anonymity would return with time. Sakura hoped so. The attention made her uncomfortable. When they reached the tower, Sasuke gave her a look out of the corner of his eye.

    "Do you want help?" he asked, and Sakura grimaced. The Hokage's office was seven floors up; seven flights of narrow winding stairs that could be annoying to climb with two feet, let alone one. "I could… carry you."

    Sakura stuck out her tongue, going a little red at the mental image, and Sasuke laughed. She wasn't sure she could handle that embarrassment.

    "Just go slow," she asked, and her teammate grinned and nodded. "I'll keep up, promise."

    They started ascending the tower, and Sasuke pulled ahead, occasionally looking back to watch her progress. Step by step, Sakura stumped up the tower. It was a delicate process: right leg forward, crutch under her left arm up, make sure footing was solid, bring level, repeat until you want to vomit.

    This sucks, Sakura thought, and laughed at the clarity of the thought. How far were they now? Just the second floor? What the hell, it had definitely been more than that.

    Her arm jostled, and she grit her teeth, trying not to imagine the bone punching back through her skin. It was set now; the pain just meant it was healing. She pulled herself up another step, feeling a drop of sweat run down her face. Sasuke gave her a concerned look, and she grinned back, hoping it didn't come out as shaky as she felt.

    Halfway there.

    'Gaara couldn't finish you off, there's no way some stairs could.'

    She laughed at the thought, and immediately tripped on the last step of the fourth set of stairs.

    "Ah fu-" she started to say, and then Sasuke caught her with one hand, keeping her from slamming face first into the floor. A curious jonin stuck his head around the corner of the hall, and snorted at the sight of her. Sakura glared at him, and he pantomimed surrender and retreated back to whatever he'd been doing in his office.

    "Okay," Sasuke smirked. "Good try, alright?" Then he hoisted her up in one hand, chakra keeping it stuck to her shoulder. "Let's do this instead."

    Sakura gave up and nodded, and Sasuke ran them up the last three flights of stairs with surprising speed, pushing him ahead of him and being careful not to jostle or bump her against any of the walls. It was kinda relaxing, Sakura had to admit; being carried by him wasn't the worst thing in the world.

    On the seventh flight, he deposited her on her feet, and Sakura sighed, leaning back onto her crutch. "Thanks, Sasuke," she said, and the boy shrugged.

    "You'd do the same for me, right?" he asked, and then strode ahead without waiting for a response. Sakura followed him around the corner, and found Naruto and Obito waiting for her.

    "Hey!" Naruto waved, and Sakura smiled back. She eyed Obito, and he answered her unspoken question.

    "We're the last," Obito said. "Well, you guys are the last. The other teams have already been judged."

    "We're getting judged as a team then?" Sasuke asked, and Obito nodded. "It's not pass-fail as a unit-"

    "No, it's by individual," Obito clarified, crossing his arms. "None of the teams so far have been all one or the other."

    "Who passed?" Sakura asked, feeling like she already knew the answers. If she had to guess, it would be-

    "Tenten, Neji Hyuuga, Haku Yuki, Suigetsu Hozuki, and Temari of the Sand all passed," their sensei said, his eyes narrowing a little. Sakura nodded, pursing her lips and adjusting her crutch. She felt a thrill travel up from the bottom of her stomach. Tenten had passed, and so had Haku! It was more than she could have hoped for. Neji wasn't any surprise to her as well.

    Poor Lee, she thought. Both his teammates had risen in rank and he was stuck as a genin, just because he'd had a bad match-up.

    'Like you.'

    Worrying for no reason. Sakura dispelled the thought, and marveled at the ease of it. Even if her arm and leg were shattered, she felt more confident than ever. Had it been that simple, or had stepping up to Gaara in a moment of anger broken something in her?

    And if it was the latter… was that a bad thing?

    "They're going to call you in in a moment," Obito said, and Naruto shifted. Obito caught the movement and grinned. "Hey. You all know how proud of you I am, right?"

    "Yeah," Naruto grumbled. "We know."

    "Cool, cause I'm not going to be talking you up everywhere I go," Obito laughed. "You've all made names for yourselves already; you're not going to need my help."

    Before Sakura had time to ponder that, the door to the Kage's office opened, and Shikaku Nara stepped out. He had a freshly healed cut on his temple, a little thing that ran from just above his ear to his eyebrow.

    "Ready," he declared, and one by one Team Seven filed into the room.

    There were five other shinobi inside aside from Shikaku. The Hokage, Kazekage, and Amekage, who were sitting, drew the most attention. Sakura had seen the Hokage and Kazekage before, but Ame's, she'd only glimpsed from a distance. The woman, Konan, had a severe beauty. Her hair was blue and her eyes gold, and beneath her Kage hat there was an exquisite origami flower tucked in her hair. Her eyes tracked them, and Sakura in particular, as they entered the room. Sakura felt like she was being picked apart right there; she forced herself to make eye contact, and the woman's icy facade cracked, a minuscule smile creeping over her face.

    The other two shinobi were jonin representatives from the other villages, like Obito had mentioned. Sand's was a stocky brown man; half his face was concealed by a soft white turban that hung down over it, and the other was marked with long red tattoos that ran over his cheeks. He had dark eyes, and they dismissed Naruto and Sasuke in just a moment. But like the Amekage's had, they lingered on Sakura.

    Sakura didn't keep eye contact with him like she had the Kage: she caught a glimpse of deep disgust in them, and decided it would be better to look away.

    The jonin from Rain was huge, over six feet tall, and incredibly muscular. He was wearing a sleeveless black vest that showed off his arms, and had bushy black hair that stuck up in all directions like a nest of blades. None of that drew Sakura attention though: it was his smile, which showed off his pointed teeth, jagged like a shark's, and the huge sword slung over his back. The blade was just as tall as him, with metal so black it refused to reflect light, and was shaped like a butcher's knife instead of a traditional sword. There was a neat hole cut in the top, and a semicircle carved out near the grip.

    Shikaku joined the line-up, standing behind and to the left of the Hokage, mirroring the other jonin and their Kage.

    "Team Seven," the Hokage said, and Naruto gave a jaunty wave while Sasuke and Sakura bowed. Clumsily, in Sakura's case. His father rolled his eyes. "Are you ready to receive your determinations?"

    "'Course," Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded.

    "I'm ready," Sakura said, trying to stay calm. It felt like everyone was staring at her again. That had to be her imagination. Why would three Kage be staring at her?

    "Very well then," the Hokage said, and he extended a hand. All three of the Kage stood up from their chairs, joining their jonin on their feet.

    "Naruto Namikaze," the Kazekage said, and Sakura wondered who had determined who would speak to who. The man sounded bored; it was like he didn't care that his son had almost turned into a demon and slaughtered her. If he really was her enemy now like her sensei had said, he was doing a good job of hiding it. "You showed admirable strength of character and expertise in your battle." He frowned. "However, you also showed a severe lack of judgement; in an uncontrolled environment, you would have exhausted yourself and died." He sat back down, crossing his legs. "There is more to being a chunin than making a crowd cheer," he said disdainfully, and Naruto's shoulders slumped, just a little.

    Sakura understood, right in that second, that they would all be staying genin.

    "Sasuke Uchiha," the Hokage said, and Sasuke pulled himself up straight. "You showed yourself adept in ninjutsu and taijutsu in your battle, and did your clan proud." He was expressionless. "Unfortunately, you showed a similar lack of judgement and recklessness with your final attack. By engaging Naruto on his own terms, you placed yourself in unacceptable danger; a chunin must not disregard safer options, for themselves or for the village, unless there is no other choice." He sat back down. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke didn't slump. He stayed upright, staring straight ahead. He'd been expecting this, Sakura thought. He was too smart not to have.

    "Sakura Haruno." The Amekage had a voice as beautiful and severe as her appearance, and she regarded Sakura with a curious expression, looking over her casts and crutch with something that might be called amusement.

    "You showed tremendous bravery and aptitude in the exam, and faced an opponent that held all the advantages. You also surrendered when it was safe to do so, instead of pushing yourself too far, and thus showed much sounder judgement than your teammates." The woman smiled. "However, you also chose to fight when there was no need. Gaara of the Desert had no interest in the match. Though it is in the nature of shinobi to fight, one of the most important duties for any ninja, and especially a chunin, is to be careful when picking those fights." She sat back down, the smile fading. "Just like the rest of your team, if you had been in an uncontrolled environment, you would have died. And others would have as well."

    Others, Sakura thought. What would have happened if the Kage hadn't been there? Who else could have stopped a rampaging Tailed Beast?

    "Because of these factors," the Hokage said, "we have determined that none of you are quite ready to be chunin. Your skills have developed; your attitudes have not." He shrugged. "That's all there is to it. You're dismissed."

    Team Seven left in silence, and Obito waited until they were two floors down to say anything.

    "Honesty can sting," he noted, and Sasuke chuckled.

    "You don't disagree with anything they said, sensei?" he asked, and Obito gave him a cockeyed look.

    "They were too soft on you guys, if anything," he said, and Sakura winced at the truth of it. "Naruto: you were too flashy. Sasuke: you were doing fine until the end. That Rasengan looked amazing, but it was dumb as hell. And Sakura…"

    He sighed. "I told you I was proud of you for standing up to Gaara, but you let your anger control you. If you hadn't attacked first, the match probably would have been called in your favor because of his refusal to fight." He held up a hand before she could protest. "And if you'd waited for him to attack, which he might have, it would have shown more maturity on your part. That's what they were looking for, and none of you guys showed enough."

    "Stupid…" Naruto muttered. "Now we're gonna have to take the whole damn exam again."

    "Hey, maybe you'll get lucky and get a battlefield promotion instead," Obito said dryly, and Naruto perked up. Their sensei coughed. "Don't look so excited: just be glad you can get promoted in a fancy tournament instead of a war, huh?"

    "Fiiine," Naruto said, and Sakura watched as he shook off his disappointment in real time. She was surprised she wasn't feeling more herself, but if she were being honest with herself, she'd never expected to be promoted. Stabbing Gaara had been more than sufficient for her; anything else had been gravy.

    "Well, what now, Obito-sensei?" she asked, and Obito raised an eyebrow. He pointed to her.

    "Bedrest," he said, and Sakura groaned. She was sick of being bored. "You, I don't care," he said, pointing to Naruto, who stuck his tongue out at him. "And you… we've got some clan stuff to discuss," he said pointing to Sasuke last, who jerked in surprise. "Sakura, where you headed? I'll be happy to take you there."

    Sakura considered. "Home, I guess," she eventually decided. At least she had more books at home. If she was going to be stuck in bed, her own would be preferable.

    "Coming right up." Obito grabbed her shoulder, and that nauseating slippery feeling washed over Sakura. The Hokage's tower vanished, but Sakura's home didn't appear. Instead, they appeared somewhere else.

    Sakura had only been here once before, the strange dimension that only Obito's eyes could access. It was an endless space of stone cubes, and she tried not to think about where it was or why it looked like it did. Where did the air in it come from? All the stones had their own barely visible luminosity, and they lent the space an eerie half-light.

    "Sensei?" she asked, wondering why they had stopped halfway, and Obito turned towards her.

    "Sorry," he said, not sounding it. "Sakura, I just wanted to ask… are you alright?"

    "Huh?" Sakura gestured to her arm and leg, and shrugged. "As much as I can be."

    "That's not what I meant," Obito said, and Sakura frowned. "You'll heal; I don't doubt that. I meant you."

    "Sensei… I don't understand," Sakura said, not sure if she was being truthful.

    "I told you you let your anger control you," he said, and Sakura's frown deepened. "I wasn't kidding about that. You did something incredible against Gaara, but you did it because you were furious. It made you take risks you wouldn't have otherwise."

    "And what's wrong with that?" Sakura demanded. "He was a monster; I shouldn't get angry with those kinds of people?"

    Her sensei sighed. "I'm not good with kids," he muttered, and Sakura scoffed. "Sakura, you gotta get what I'm saying, right? I was worried, watching you get that angry. I know Naruto and Sasuke were too."

    "I was just angry, sensei," Sakura said, leaning back on her crutch. "I snapped out of it. It's nothing to be worried about."

    "Hmm," Obito said, and Sakura felt an intense urge to lash out at him. It was her broken bones, she thought. They just wouldn't stop hurting. It was making her irritable. "Did your parents ever visit you, Sakura?"

    "What?"

    She was caught flatfooted, and Obito noticed it. Damn Uchiha, she thought. You couldn't hide anything from them.

    "I asked if your parents ever visited you, when you were in the hospital."

    "No, Sakura said. "They didn't have time."

    Obito looked disappointed. "They did," he said. "I had Rin monitor all your visitors, Sakura. They came the first day, as soon as you were awake."

    Sakura looked down, unwilling to make eye contact. She just stared at the stone beneath her feet, wanting more than anything for the conversation to end.

    "But they only came that one time," Obito said. "Why just once?" He knelt down, coming face to face with her, but Sakura refused to look up. "You were badly hurt. You were there for several days. They were at the exam."

    "I don't know," Sakura whispered. "I'd like to go home."

    "I don't want to take you home if it's not where you should be," Obito said, too blunt to be kind, and Sakura felt her eyes grow hot. "Why didn't they visit you?"

    "I..." Sakura said. "I said I didn't want to see them."

    Obito nodded. "I figured. Rin told me there was an argument. The whole floor heard it."

    Sakura felt like it would have been better if Gaara had killed her, or maybe put her in a coma. At least then she wouldn't have to have this conversation.

    "They didn't want me to fight. They were afraid I'd get hurt."

    "That's natural, they're your parents. Was that what the argument was about?"

    "I don't know." Sakura choked. "Sensei, can I please go home? I want to lie down."

    She couldn't tell what Obito was thinking. The scar that ran from below his eye to his chin crinkled.

    'Why did you fight? You knew he was crazy! He didn't even want to fight you, but you attacked anyway! You could have been killed!'

    What had she said? That she'd had to? That she couldn't let him walk away? It had been a stupid answer.

    'Honey, we're worried-'

    Get out. She'd told them to get out.

    And now she was asking to go home, like nothing had happened. Maybe she was hoping that if she acted like that, it would be the truth.

    Her sensei stayed there for another couple seconds, and then eventually stood up. "You know you can talk to me, if you need to," he said.

    "I know," Sakura said quietly. "I promise, I know."

    "Okay." Obito settled for it. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

    "It's okay," Sakura muttered. "I'm sorry too."

    Obito sighed, and took hold of her shoulder again. "You can do amazing things, Sakura." He smiled, a little sadly. "But make sure you're doing them for the right reasons."

    Then Sakura was in her room, and her sensei was gone.

    She stood there for a moment, and then limped over to her bed and sat down. She looked around the room, feeling like it belonged to a different Sakura Haruno. The house was quiet; her parents weren't home.

    Sakura lay back, wincing as her back stung, and blew out a deep breath. She closed her eyes, listening to her breathing.

    She was alive, and home. She could figure out the rest later. She fell asleep with all her clothes on, the crutch clattering to the floor, and did not dream.

    ###

    When Sakura woke up, it was pitch black outside. The village was quiet and lit with countless lights, the cold February air oppressively bearing down on it. Sakura shivered, tugging at her blanket with one hand. Her face was freezing; the rest of her was warm in bed.

    She hazily wondered why that was, her head lolling back and forth. After a minute or so, she realized what was wrong. She was under the covers, and in her pajamas. The window was open. Someone had undressed and redressed her after she'd fallen asleep, and opened the window to let some fresh air in; it had been closed when Obito had dropped her off.

    The back of Sakura's neck prickled, goosebumps rising. Without a conscious thought, she found herself looking for her sword again. She found it at her bedside, resting against the nightstand on her left side. She didn't remember leaving it there; it was next to her crutch. Her parents must have been responsible. They'd come home and found her passed out, and tucked her in. She felt a pang of guilt, but it was buried by a sudden paranoia.

    Something was wrong. The thought gradually worked its way up past the fog in her brain. Something was wrong, but she had no idea what. She began cautiously reaching for the sword. Who would care if she slept with it? If someone wanted to judge that, they could-

    "You have great instincts, Sakura."

    Sakura's cautious motion transformed into a panicked one: she snatched up her sword in a flash, bringing it above and close to her body. Adrenaline sent her bolt upright, ignoring the dull agony in her arm and leg. Then, she recognized the voice.

    'No way.'

    "Haku?" she whispered, and the boy stepped out of the shadows that cloaked the room. Sakura started, clutching her sword closer. She felt vulnerable, hidden under the blankets and with two limbs immobilized. It was one thing to be friendly with the boy from Rain; it was another entirely to be alone with him in the middle of the night.

    "What are you doing here?" she asked cautiously, her brain buzzing, and the ninja stayed still, intentionally presenting no threat. He was wearing his Akatsuki haori and a black shirt and pants: even the red clouds were dark enough to become part of the shadows.

    "I didn't mean to frighten you," he said, and Sakura laughed.

    "Maybe you shouldn't have come into my house in the middle of the night then," she said, and the boy chuckled. "Can you… leave?"

    "In a moment," Haku said, and Sakura tensed up, just growing more nervous. What was happening? Was this a dream? He stepped forward, and Sakura raised her sword on instinct. He stopped again.

    "Your fight was amazing," he said, and something in Sakura sparked at the compliment. "Though I'm told you did not make chunin. I'm sorry for that."

    "It was the right call," Sakura said, and she believed it. "I didn't make the smart decision."

    "That might be true," Haku said. "We're going to be leaving tomorrow morning. All of us, going back to our own little corners of the world. I'm not sure I'll see you again." He stepped forward, and the moonlight coming through the window played across his face. He looked intense, focused. It reminded Sakura of their last midnight conversation, in the Forest of Death. "But you're a remarkable person, Sakura. I didn't want to leave without seeing you."

    "You're freaking me out," Sakura said frankly, and Haku laughed.

    "Sorry," he said, and he rubbed the back of his head. "I've never been very good at this."

    "If you came to say goodbye, I appreciate it." Sakura thought about it, and then smiled. "I hope we'll meet again. And not as shinobi, you know."

    "I know," Haku chuckled. "But it's not just that."

    Haku reached into the pocket of his haori and removed a strip of paper. It was plain white and about the size of Sakura's hand, and he handled it with a gentle but unmistakable reverence. He extended his hand and slipped the paper in Sakura's direction, and to her astonishment it flitted across the room to her, darting on invisible currents until it drifted into her lap. She looked down and found nothing remarkable about it.

    "What is this?" she asked, and Haku smiled the same sad smile Obito had before he'd left her.

    "Just some paper," he said. "Actually, it's what Kabuto was getting; why he was late. I was going to give it to you after your match, but with how it ended…"

    "What's it for?"

    "Sakura…" Haku hesitated. "You asked how we knew so much. It's because we were keeping an eye out for people like you."

    Sakura blinked, and Haku continued. "What you told me in the forest… you understand this system isn't sustainable. You don't want to be just another ninja fighting wars that don't matter for people who don't deserve it."

    "What are you saying?" Sakura said, a dreadful suspicion building in her gut.

    "If you ever feel like Konoha isn't the right place for you," Haku said, his conviction building. "If you ever feel like you need to fight injustice in this world, that you can't do it here-"

    "Stop," Sakura demanded, and Haku ignored her.

    "Just write on that paper. Anything will do. 'Save me,' 'Come get me,' 'I want to leave,' 'My name is Sakura Haruno,' whatever you want. We'll understand; the Akatsuki will understand. Someone will appear to help you."

    "Haku," Sakura said, and then she stopped, having no idea what to say beyond that. "I don't… I don't want that." I don't want to go with you, she thought. You misunderstood me. I'm a ninja of the Leaf.

    "You don't have to do anything with it," Haku said. "You can throw it away if you want. Just remember it." He shifted, and Sakura saw a heart full of insecurity. "Please."

    "Please leave," Sakura said, and Haku backed up. "Now. Right now."

    "Alright," Haku said, making his way towards the window. He stepped out, over the sill, and looked back over his shoulder, his hair streaming past his pale face in the moonlight. "Until next time, Sakura."

    Then he was gone, and Sakura was left with a blank piece of paper and her own doubts. She clutched her sword to her chest for the rest of the night, and did not fall asleep until the sun rose.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Wow, that's a really cool place to take Konan's powers. I mean, her "lake of paper bombs" was pretty cool, but I always felt it was kind of a waste of potential on Kishimoto's part.
     
    I've been wondering for a while if Sakura might be "the one" to leave the village, not that anyone on Team 7 needs to for a given narrative to work. I was becoming more and more sure of it throughout this chapter, even before the last scene, there. I don't know if she will or not, but at the very least it makes sense for her to be the one with doubts about... well, everything, and dissatisfaction to go with it.
     
    Chapter 25: Faith
  • Threadmarks
    • Breakfast​

    It took about a week for the whispering to go away, and when it did, Sakura felt like she'd woken up from a long and surreal dream. She could walk through the streets again without people staring at her. She still received glances, but she was sure that some of them were just for her crutches. The rest, she could ignore.

    Once more, she was just Sakura Haruno, another ninja of Konoha.

    That day, eleven days after the finals, Naruto had invited her to his house, and Sakura was making her way there with the same dogged determination she had to use to walk everywhere lately. It had never crossed her mind to ask for help. It was a different kind of training, she occasionally found herself thinking, to work around the pain.

    The casts had come off several days ago, but the breaks had been especially nasty, and she was still in pain. The crutch wasn't strictly necessary: it just helped keep the ache in her leg bearable.

    There was only so much that medical ninjutsu could do, Obito had told her. Especially with the kind of hit you took, the body needs time to fix itself fully. Sakura thought that sounded like a bunch of crap. Kabuto hadn't looked like he was in pain when he'd walked out of the arena after having his chest and arms torn open. But then, Kabuto could have been in agony too, and just better at hiding it.

    When Sakura reached Naruto's home, her leg was pulsing with pain, and she buried it with a growl. She wasn't sure what to do when no one was there to greet her, so she did what the Sakura of a month ago never would have dreamed of and let herself in.

    "Hello?" she called, closing the gate behind her. "Naruto?"

    "Sakura!" The Yondaime popped into existence right in front of her, and Sakura screeched in surprise. The Hokage was wearing a loose white t-shirt and blue pants, and a short white apron was wrapped around his waist; it was by far the most casual Sakura had ever seen him. "Good morning! How are you feeling?"

    "Lord Hokage!" Sakura blurted out, barely keeping from stumbling backwards. "My apologies!" She looked down at the apron; there was a kanji emblazoned in red on the front. Yon: fourth.

    'No way.'

    "Minato," the Hokage said. "And what're you apologizing for? You're the one who was invited over, right?" He stuck out a hand. "C'mon. Naruto's in the back."

    Sakura reached out and took his hand, expecting to be invited into the house, and instead was instantly in the backyard. There was no sense of motion, no delay like with Obito's Kamui; she was just in one place and then another before her eyes could even register the change. Her brain flipped, and she blinked.

    "Sakura!" Naruto sounded exactly like his father: he was there, along with his mother. It looked like she'd interrupted a spar. Her teammate was on the ground, covered in grass stains, and Kushina was looking down on him from the other end of the wide field that dominated their backyard with an amused expression. "You're early!"

    Sakura arched an eyebrow. "How long did you think it would take me to get here?" she asked, and Naruto coughed. He pushed himself up off the ground and dusted the grass off his pants; there were still marks covering his face and jacket. Sakura giggled.

    "Be right back," the Hokage said, and he disappeared without a sound once more. Sakura glanced back over her shoulder, unsettled by the sudden absence.

    "Does he always… do that?" she asked, and both Naruto and Kushina nodded.

    "Oh yeah," Naruto said, wandering around the backyard and picking up a couple knives.

    "All the time," Kushina confirmed. "You get used to it."

    Right on cue the Yondaime appeared again, and a table covered in food alongside him. Fruit, eggs, rice, and more; it was a veritable feast. Sakura's stomach growled. Naruto's father lifted his hand up off the varnished wood, and the entire thing shifted for a second, settling into its new environment.

    'Seriously?'

    Sakura had never seen anyone use ninjutsu so frivolously, not even her sensei. The Hokage treated instant teleportation like anyone else did their hands; there was no thought for him, it was just reflex.

    She couldn't decide if it was amazing or terrifying. Probably both, if she were being honest with herself.

    "I overcooked the eggs…" the Hokage muttered to himself, and for the life of her Sakura couldn't tell. The eggs were scrambled, sprinkled with cheese and scallions, and they looked incredible.

    "Honey, some chairs would be nice," Kushina said, and the Hokage snapped in and out of existence; four chairs fell in place around the table.

    "Sorry," he said bashfully, and Kushina laughed and planted a kiss on his mouth. Naruto gagged extravagantly, and Sakura wondered what she'd wandered into.

    "C'mon, let's eat," the Uzumaki said, and they all settled around the table. Sakura looked around, not sure what to do. Her parents always said what they were grateful for before they ate together; Naruto's family didn't have any sort of ritual that she could observe. They just dug in.

    Sakura took small portions, not wanting to look greedy, but Naruto didn't have any compunctions; his plate was quickly completely obscured under his food. They ate in silence, Sakura trying to suppress her feeling of awkwardness. She had been trying to ignore that inner voice and growing more successful over time, but here she felt distinctly out of place.

    "How are you healing, Sakura?" Kushina eventually asked, and Naruto looked over at her, his mouth full of food. Sakura swallowed, overthinking her answer.

    "I'll be fine," she said, and winced at how weak her response had been. Kushina rolled her eyes.

    "Duh," she said. "I meant how are you doing?"

    "It hurts," Sakura decided, trying to be frank, and Kushina nodded sympathetically.

    "No shock there," she said. "It's surprising you're recovering as fast as you are." Sakura blinked at that. It had been nearly two weeks; an eternity for most shinobi. Kushina saw her surprised reaction.

    "You got punched by a Tailed Beast," she said with a laugh. "You might not know this, but their chakra is incredibly toxic. It inhibits the body's natural healing process, and can stop medical ninjutsu too." She grew a little less amused. "Honestly, you could have died from chakra shock just from that hit. You were lucky, you know."

    "I know," Sakura muttered, half expecting another lecture, but Kushina didn't press forward. She was far too grateful for that; it seemed every other conversation she had nowadays was people trying to tell her that picking fights with Tailed Beasts was a bad idea. Like that wasn't self evident.

    "Still, you performed incredibly," Kushina said, glancing at her husband. "More than earned a promotion, I'd say."

    The Hokage coughed, and Naruto sat up. "That's what I said!" he said, his mouth still full. "She kicked ass!"

    "It wasn't that simple," Sakura said quietly, and Naruto gave her a funny look. "Like Obito said. I made an enemy, right?" She didn't look at the Hokage; she still didn't know how to square him being the village's leader and also being the man who'd made her this delicious meal, and Naruto's father, and the kind of person who'd wear an apron emblazoned with Yon. Too many conflicting views of Minato Namikaze were clashing in her head right now.

    "You did," Minato confirmed, and Sakura forced himself to face him. He wasn't talking to her as the Hokage right now. At least, she didn't think so. He was speaking as Naruto's father. "You won your fight, Sakura. At least where it counted. But that was precisely why you could never have made chunin."

    "Because Gaara was the Kazekage's son?" she asked, and Minato nodded.

    "That's one of many, including your impulsiveness," he said, leaning back and giving her a thoughtful frown. "I'm sure Obito told you this as well, but you made Sand look like fools in front of the world. Promoting you after that would have been, well, rude, since the Hidden Sand is ostensibly our ally." He grinned. "Though the Amekage still voted in your favor. She enjoyed rubbing that in Rasa's face."

    "I thought…" Sakura frowned and shook her head. "No, I knew something like that would probably happen. I guess I just didn't care."

    "That's mature of you," Minato said with another nod. "I hope you won't hold it against me." That was the Hokage speaking, not Naruto's father, and Sakura gave him a shy smile.

    "How could I?" she said. "I was expecting it, after all."

    She felt another little wall break down, and for once tried not to overthink that as well.

    "S'not fair," Naruto muttered, and his father shrugged.

    "Nope," he said. "But you know what I say, Naruto-"

    "Yeah yeah." Naruto waved him off. "'Being a shinobi is about sacrifice,' that kinda stuff. So what, Sakura sacrificed being a chunin? She didn't get to make that choice."

    "Sometimes you don't get to," Kushina said. "Sometimes, you get called upon to sacrifice yourself, and that's that."

    Sakura looked over at her, and Kushina must have noticed her expression, because she gave her a coy look as she stuffed half a melon in her mouth. "Something wrong, Sakura?"

    "I…" Sakura didn't even know what to say, or if it was her place too. It couldn't be, right? But she pressed ahead regardless, her mouth ignoring her brain's desperate demands to shut up. "You said, right after I got matched up with him, that Gaara was a victim of circumstances." Kushina nodded, pursing her lips. "You meant that he was the same as you?"

    "Well, I never murdered anyone for the fun of it," Kushina said with a thoughtful look, and Minato snorted. "What?"

    "You and I must remember the academy differently," he said, and Kushina went red in the face.

    "They didn't die!" she insisted. "They just had to learn a lesson!" She huffed and regained her composure. "But yes; we're both jinchuriki. Naruto told you, right?"

    Naruto looked down, clearly embarrassed, and Sakura found herself mirroring him. Kushina just laughed. "Oh, don't look so sad! It's not a big deal, y'know!" She laughed again, a little quieter. "Though if the only other one you know is Gaara… yeah."

    She shifted. "Did you want to ask me about it?"

    "I don't know what I'd ask," Sakura said honestly, and Kushina grinned.

    "Listen, I'm just like you," she said, leaning forward with both elbows on the table. "The only difference is that I've got a big grumpy bastard right in here," she said, patting her stomach. "The Nine-Tailed Fox, if you're curious."

    That didn't mean much to Sakura: there were nine-tailed beasts, and that was the extent of her knowledge. Did having nine tails mean it was the biggest? Or the smallest? Or neither? Did tails even matter? She didn't want to ask, sure that the question would be stupid.

    "Can you use it? Like Gaara could?" she asked instead, and Kushina shook her head.

    "Well, sorta," she corrected herself, and Minato nodded. "Just a little. Its chakra is so huge and poisonous that I'd die if I let too much out, but I have a seal designed to release little bursts." She opened her mouth, pointing at her extended incisors: they were quite long and sharp for a human's, even more so than Kiba's. "That's how I ended up with these. They only popped up in the last couple years."

    "Is that why Naruto has his scars?" Sakura finally burst out, unable to contain herself any more, and Kushina laughed, seizing her son by the cheek as he protested loudly.

    "It is!" she said, sounding proud, like she'd carved them in herself. "Aren't they adorable?! Best mutation ever!"

    "Cut it out!" Naruto laughed, swatting at his mom's hands and falling sideways off his chair. He tried to stick himself to it by his butt, but his control wasn't precise enough: he ended up just sliding down the side of the thick wooden furniture, his butt glued to it by his chakra.

    "Well done," his mother said, as dry as a bone, and Naruto grumbled from his sideways position in the grass.

    "I get self conscious," he muttered, and his mom laughed.

    "No you don't."

    Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Well, what would make you stop poking 'em?"

    "She's been poking at them since the day you were born," Minato said with a soft grin. "Face it; you can't stop her."

    "I could henge them off," Naruto declared, pulling himself back into his chair and grabbing another bite of omurice, and Minato gave a mock gasp.

    "And break her heart?" On cue, Kushina's lips wobbled. "You wouldn't dare."

    Sakura giggled and Naruto surrendered, slumping into the table. "Alright," he said in a tragic voice. "You-"

    Minato suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sakura flinched away from the sudden sound. She saw Naruto do the same thing. Kushina was the only one who didn't react.

    "Wh-?" she started to say, but she didn't even have time to finish the word. Minato reappeared without a sound and caught his chopsticks before they could land on the table. Kushina laughed.

    "You'd think they'd learn," she said, and Minato chuckled.

    "They're going to catch me one day," he said, and then as Sakura watched with wide eyes he nipped at the side of his thumb, drawing a couple drops of blood and making a series of hand signs too quickly for her to follow. "But not today."

    He placed his palm down on the table next to the plate, and there was another explosion of smoke. When it cleared, there was…

    Well, Sakura didn't know what it was. Her first thought was a little green man in a brown cloak, barely a foot tall, with a goatee, thick bushy eyebrows, and a tuft of white hair, but more than a glancing look made it obvious that whatever Minato had summoned wasn't human. It didn't have ears or lips, and its skin was smooth and hairless. It turned, looking indignant, and she saw that its eyes were dull yellow, with horizontal pupils.

    'Like a toad,' she thought, and Minato grinned at the new arrival.

    "Revered elder," he said, as respectful as someone should have addressed him, and the creature snorted.

    "You little brat," the toad said in a gravelly voice. "I was in the middle of breakfast, ya know!"

    MInato cocked an eyebrow and looked around, and the toad followed his gaze, glancing at the diminished buffet. "Bah," it scoffed. "Not a wriggle amongst it. You're getting squishy, lad."

    "Glad to hear you don't approve," Minato said, and the creature laughed. It turned, actually looking at the others at the table.

    "Kushina, won't you control this ungrateful husband of yours?" it asked, and the Uzumaki crossed her arms.

    "I doubt I could," she said with a grin. "If you're going to try summoning him, do it at noon. He likes a power-nap around then."

    "Kushina," the Hokage whined. "They don't need any help!"

    "Mmm," the toad grumbled. "Naruto," it nodded, and Naruto waved back with an ebullient "geezer!" Its horizontal eyes settled on Sakura last. "Who's this?"

    "Sakura Haruno," she said after a moment, not sure if she should extend a hand or just nod. She settled for a slight bow, and the toad snorted.

    "Polite," he said. "Ya love to see it."

    "Sakura," Minato said. "This is Fukasaku, Revered Elder and Sage of the Toads of Mount Myoboku." He gave that slight smile of his. "One of my teachers."

    "Don't act like that's my most important title," Fukasaku grumbled. "Why can't ya just obey the summons like a good disciple?"

    "Maybe you could ask politely next time?" Minato suggested, and the toad gagged.

    "Each generation of ya humans is pickier than the last," it complained. "What happened to the ones who'd fall down at the sight o' us? Used to be people were honored by a summon to Myoboku."

    "They all died," Minato said dryly. "Hundreds of years ago."

    "Bah!" Fukasaku waved him off, and the Hokage laughed.

    "Why did you summon me, elder?" he asked, and the toad sobered up a little; Sakura realized she was watching a very old ritual conclude.

    "It's little Jiraiya," he said, and the Hokage leaned forward. Sakura knew the name; that was one of the Sannin. Though she didn't think there would be anyone else in the world who would call him 'little.'

    "What's he done this time?" Minato asked, and Fukasaku frowned.

    "It's what he hasn't done," the elderly toad said. "He's been resisting the summons too. We sent Gamatoro to bring him and he came back with no memory of his mission."

    "Gamatoro did?" Minato asked, and Fukasaku nodded. The Hokage narrowed his eyes and leaned back. "Jiraiya wouldn't have done something like that."

    "Of course not!" Fukasaku declared. "That boy is too good at getting in trouble! That's why we summoned you; to send one brat to check on another!"

    "I'll send someone right away, revered elder," Minato said, and the toad harrumphed.

    "Good!" he said. "I'm going back to my meal." He didn't spare another word for goodbyes: a puff of smoke was all, and then he was gone.

    "A mission from the toads, huh?" Kushina said, and Minato crossed his arms with a frown. "That's unusual."

    "Sensei has just been getting more stubborn," the Hokage said. "But if Myoboku thinks he needs looking in on...they're almost certainly right." He stood up, pulling away from the table. "I'm going to check some things. Finish without me?"

    "On it!" Naruto declared, and his father laughed and disappeared.

    "That was a summon?" Sakura asked, and Naruto nodded as he polished off his plate. "I didn't know the Yondaime could summon… Toads?"

    "Yeah, toads," Naruto confirmed. "They come around every once in a while. Some of them are weirdos, but a bunch are cool." He got a thoughtful look. "They have some really cool water jutsu… maybe they could help you with your Ryusuiken!"

    Sakura had never considered seeking out the help of talking animals to become a better swordswoman, but she'd also never considered that a foot tall toad so old it called a grown man a brat would be able to make the Hokage leap into action with just a few words, so her horizons were rapidly expanding. She sat back, cradling her right arm as it ached and pondering the thought.

    But as she did, another one crept in.

    'You should tell him.'

    Her left hand unconsciously patted one of her pockets; the paper was still there. Sakura had been carrying it her with her everywhere she went, irrationally scared that if she left it in her room one of her parents would ask her about it. That was ridiculous; it was a blank strip of paper. Even the most paranoid shinobi wouldn't see it as more than that. And yet, she was compelled to keep it close.

    She'd never sign it, she thought. But if that was the case, why hadn't she just thrown it away?

    "Sakura?" Naruto was looking at her, and Sakura realized she'd been staring at him, her finger tapping against the paper inside her pocket. She blushed, looking away. "What is it?"

    She didn't want to tell him. What would he think? Haku wasn't an idiot: if he'd thought she really could betray the village and defect to one of its rivals, couldn't there be some truth to that that Sakura couldn't see in herself? And if Naruto found out, his father was the Hokage, and that-

    "Hey, you're overthinking something," Naruto said, scooting forward. "What's up?"

    "What?" Sakura asked, feigning innocence. "I'm not, promise."

    "Yeah you are," Naruto insisted. "Your nose is all scrunched up, that's your overthinking face. Is it your arm? It's gonna heal up."

    Did she make that face often? Sakura felt a bit of shame at being so easy to read.

    "Naruto…" she said, glancing at Kushina.

    "Want me to leave?" Kushina asked, and for the first time in her life Sakura cursed the fact that most of the people she knew were ninja. It was unreasonably hard to hide even little things from them.

    "Would that be okay?" she asked, and Kushina nodded.

    "Sure. Plenty to clean up, ya know," she said, standing up from the table and clearing their plates. "I'll be back in a bit." She planted a kiss on Naruto's forehead before he could squirm away and laughed.

    And then she was gone, and it was just the two of them.

    "Ummm…" Naruto didn't seem to know what to say. "Sakura? You okay?"

    "Naruto," Sakura started, sure she was making a terrible mistake. "Did anyone come to see you, after the final?"

    "Well sure," Naruto said. "Shikamaru and Choji and Ino, and Hinata and Kiba and-"

    "Anyone else?" Sakura asked, and Naruto titled his head. She painfully pulled herself out of her chair and Naruto followed her as they wandered deeper into the yard. "Anyone… not from the village?"

    "What? Like from Sand or something?" Naruto asked, and Sakura nodded.

    "No, no one like that," Naruto said. "Did someone come to see you? Was it one of those creeps from Sand?" Naruto's face started twisting up in anger, but Sakura held up her good hand before he could work himself up.

    "It wasn't Sand," she said. "It was Haku."

    "Haku?" Naruto instantly went from anger to confusion.

    "The day I got out of the hospital. He showed up at my house that night, and-"

    "What?!"

    "Let me finish!" Sakura said, and Naruto raised his hands with a confused expression.

    "He gave me this!" Sakura said, feeling like she was tearing off a bandaid as she yanked the paper out of her pocket. Naruto stared at it without comprehension, looking back and forth between it and her.

    "It's some paper," he pointed out, and Sakura grimaced.

    "It's just some paper, yeah," she said. "But Haku…" She choked on the words, and her teammate took a concerned step forward. "He told me that if I ever wanted to leave the village, I just needed to write on it."

    "Huh?" Naruto didn't look alarmed, just baffled. "But you'd never leave the village."

    Sakura felt herself start to tear up at the honesty and simplicity of what he'd said, and Naruto quickly grew panicked. "What'd I say?!" he asked, and Sakura started hyperventilating, the paper trembling in her hand.

    "She's relieved, dummy." Kushina appeared out of nowhere, plucking the paper out of Sakura's hands, and she felt something heavy leave her with it. It was literally out of her hands now; the paralyzing possibility, no matter how impossible, was gone.

    "Hey!" Naruto shouted. "You said you'd leave!"

    "I totally did," Kushina said with a grin. "But I never said anything about not eavesdropping, right?"

    She'd heard her. The Hokage's wife had heard her. Sakura started trembling even more violently, and Kushina grabbed her by the shoulder.

    "Hey," she said. "Sit down." Sakura did, and Kushina sat alongside her. "Calm down too, while you're at it." That one, Sakura couldn't do.

    She sat there wondering what was going to happen to her, and Kushina snorted. "Don't look so damn nervous," she said, and Naruto sat down too, the three of them forming a triangle. "So you got an offer from Rain? That's pretty impressive, ya know."

    "What?" Sakura asked, trying to center herself. Kushina wasn't mad. Naruto wasn't mad. She was going to be fine. Why would they be mad at her? She hadn't done anything. Control your breathing, dumbass.

    "Rain is always trying to recruit strong shinobi," Kushina said, and Sakura remembered something she'd dismissed as propaganda a couple weeks before. "It's a nation built by exceptional individuals, and they always want more." She gave Sakura a grin full of teeth. "So if they were approaching you, Sakura, they must have really seen something special."

    "I don't know-" Sakura said, and Kushina scoffed.

    "You stabbed a Jinchuriki, remember?" she said, and Sakura wondered if she felt anything on Gaara's behalf. She was certain no one else did. "That's always gonna make an impression."

    "I don't think it was just that," Sakura said, the words pouring out without regard. "I talked a lot with Haku, that night we were in the forest. He told me about the Akatsuki, and I-"

    "Agreed with him?" Kushina said, and Sakura nodded, not sure if she could or should elaborate. What would she say? That she helped articulate his own beliefs? That would just be even worse. "That's fair. Really, anyone who listens to someone from the Akatsuki explain their values should agree with them."

    "Really?" Sakura asked, and Kushina nodded.

    "They've got admirable ideals," she said. "Building peace, right?" She sat back. "But it was obvious from the beginning what was happening," Kushina continued. "Rain's team linked up with you guys immediately, as soon as the second exam began. And I'd bet they were watching you before that, right?"

    They had been, Sakura thought. Haku had made eye contact with her the very moment they'd been in the same room. Wasn't that strange, in hindsight? In a room with over a hundred other ninja…

    'We were keeping an eye out for people like you.'

    "They were probably looking out for you, Naruto," Kushina said, and Naruto cocked his head.

    "Cause of dad?" he said, and Kushina clucked her tongue.

    "Yup. You'd make a great hostage, and an even better defector," she said, and Naruto frowned. "So if they could figure out your deal early on…"

    "But they didn't seem like that," Naruto said. "Kabuto fixed up Sasuke… we talked for a lot. I mean, I'm not a mind reader or anything, but he didn't give me that feeling."

    "And Haku didn't Sakura," Kushina said. "Most likely, they were all being sincere with you. The Amekage sent true believers; those are always the best to convince others." She pointed at her son. "But they didn't approach you, Naruto, cause you didn't resonate with them as much. You liked Kabuto, but as a person, not his ideals." Her finger shifted. "But Sakura… you sympathized with both Haku and his beliefs. That's why they approached you."

    She grinned. "Believe it or not, one person can drag their friends along with them when they abandon something. Naruto, if Sakura felt like she had to leave the village to do something important, would you go with her?"

    Naruto shifted, looking doubtful. "I mean, I'd ask you guys first."

    "And if we said no?" Kushina asked, her tone a little less playful. "If we forced you to choose between us and Sakura? What would you do?"

    "I…" Naruto frowned, dropping his head. "I don't know."

    Sakura could feel her heart beating at that admission. Kushina gave them both a sad smile.

    "That's how organizations like the Akatsuki function," she said. "They make you make impossible choices; no matter which one you make, you feel like you've failed somehow. That's how they get you. But Sakura…" She shifted, lifting one hand palm up. "You beat them with your honesty alone. That's the trick of it."

    "I don't want to beat them," Sakura said quietly. "I want… what Haku told me made sense. About shinobi. About the minor villages." She looked up, making eye contact with Kushina. "Like Uzushiogakure."

    "Whirlpool?" Kushina asked, and for the first time since they'd sat down she looked uncertain.

    "You're an Uzumaki, right?" Sakura said, and Kushina nodded. "Haku told me that Uzushiogakure was crushed between Cloud and Mist, during the Second War. I looked it up, and it seemed true."

    "It was," Kushina said. Her attitude had shifted. She was cautious now, wondering what Sakura was poking at when Sakura hardly knew herself. "Cloud and Mist were both threatened by Whirlpool's sealing experts; it was a small village, but it had several powerful masters of fuinjutsu, including the First Hokage's wife."

    "Really?" Naruto asked. "I never knew that. How come you never told me?"

    "I came to Konoha when I was very young, Naruto," Kushina said, shifting towards him. "Mito was my great aunt twice removed or something like that; she was also the last jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. She chose me to be her inheritor because of my chakra." Some of the life left her face. "Soon after I left, less than a year, the village was destroyed. Konoha became my only home."

    "And we couldn't help?" Sakura asked, and Kushina tilted her head, looking so similar to her son for a moment that Sakura blinked. "Konoha couldn't help?"

    "The Leaf did everything it could, but it was at war with both the Hidden Sand and Stone, and couldn't afford to make more enemies," Kushina said, inadvertently confirming something else Haku had told Sakura. "That's why the attack happened at all. There were considerations made towards rebuilding the village, but it would just have been knocked down again. Cloud and Mist are both incredibly dependent on jinchuriki for maintaining their power; my clan's proficiencies were always going to be a threat to them." Kushina gave them a sour smile. "So the Uzumaki scattered; we're all over the world now, and I doubt that will change anytime soon."

    "Didn't that make you mad?" Naruto asked, and for just a second Sakura saw a very different Kushina in front of her, a young girl boiling with rage. But the phantom image was gone as quickly as it appeared, and Sakura blinked, wondering what on earth she'd just imagined.

    "Furious," Kushina said. "It made me want to burn the whole world down. I took out that anger on anyone who got in my way." She made a fist and laughed. "I still have plenty, I guess. It's something you learn when you grow up. Anger is good; it's how you use it that matters."

    Sakura wondered if Obito and Kushina had been swapping notes, or if they'd arrived at the same conclusion separately.

    "In the end, no matter how angry I got, I realized it was meaningless," Kushina said. "What happened to my clan couldn't have been prevented. It was a circumstance created by the system of villages. A smaller one became vulnerable, and its rivals took the advantage." She shrugged, and discarded decades of suffering in a single motion. "That's just how it is."

    There was a moment of silence; Naruto didn't seem to know what to say, but Sakura did. "How it is," she said eventually, and Kushina gave her a lopsided grin. "But maybe not how they could be."

    "Man, they got you good," Kushina laughed, stretching out.

    "I don't mean it like-"

    "Don't worry," the older woman said, waving her off. "You just about cried when Naruto told you you wouldn't leave earlier, Sakura. There's not any question about your loyalties." She stood up, taking the paper with her. "Keep that anger, and keep those ideals. See where they take you guys, alright?"

    "You guys?" Naruto asked, and Kushina waggled her eyebrows.

    "You're a team. Where one of you goes, all of you will," she said. "That's the way it's always going to be. Just keep that in mind, ya know?"

    She left them sitting there in the grass, and Sakura looked around, wondering what had just happened.

    "Well, that was weird," Naruto said, lying back and staring up at the blue sky. After a moment, Sakura joined him, the both of them lying side by side and looking up at the drifting winter clouds. It was nice, Sakura thought. Quiet and peaceful, and not too cold.

    "Hey, Sakura," Naruto said, rolling over and looking at her, and Sakura looked over at him, wondering what he was going to say.

    You're not going to leave, right? We're a team, right? I can trust you, right?

    But she realized in a heartbeat that Naruto took that all on faith when he didn't say anything like that.

    "Wanna learn the Rasengan?"

    ###

    Wow, more than 25 chapters already. This seems like an appropriate place to thank everyone who's been reading this. Yes, that means you! I'm having the time of my life writing Obito-Sensei, and I hope you're having a good time reading it. The next arc is going to be a fun one; can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it.

    Stay healthy!
     
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    • 25 chapters? Dang. I've been enjoying this. Glad you're writing it.

    A large part of me wants this to have a (relatively) happy ending.
    Another part of me is really scared that everything is somehow secretly worse off than canon somehow, despite Naruto having a family & no sand invasion.

    Keep up the good work!
     
    ahhhhhhhhhhhh

    naruto too pure for this tainted eaaaaaaaaaarth

    I like the interogation of the whole akatsuki ideal thing in this fic.

    It's like; stories where people go "war is bad there should be peace, instead of war!" and other people go "Yes, how?" and perosn one is all "UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH get back to you on that one chief" are great.

    Exspecially if it isn't clear if the cynical evolution dudes or the idealistic revolution dudes got it correct
     
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