Chapter 33: Sakura's Mission
Ser_Serendipity
Building Character
Worse Than Trash
The day after Sakura's birthday, Team Seven left the village once more. They were beyond the gates early on a beautiful spring morning, walking through warm drizzles of rain beneath blue skies. They had a habit for leaving now: an order of arrival, and arrangement for who packed what; by now, it was familiar and exciting to travel beyond Konoha instead of surprising.
It was just the four of them; they didn't require any hanger-ons for this mission. As they traveled through the hidden paths of the forests of the Land of Fire, they chattered, laughed, challenged each other to tiny competitions. Eventually, about an hour or so in, Naruto decided to ask Obito about their mission.
"So I get the criminal thing," he said, and Obito cocked an eyebrow at him as he waited for the followup. "But why do they care about a bunch of whales?"
"What do you mean 'get the criminal thing'?" Obito asked, ignoring the actual question. Naruto shrugged.
"Well I mean, people like breaking the law," he said. His sensei laughed. "There are criminals everywhere, in all the nations. And some laws are stupid too, so people even break them by accident. But hunting a bunch of whales seems like a stupid thing to break the law for."
Their mission, C-Rank and not super exciting sounding, was to travel to the southern coast of the Land of Fire, to a town named Miyako. It wasn't very big, from what the chunin who'd given them the mission had described, barely ten thousand people. Well, that was a lot of people Naruto supposed, but not compared to a place like Konoha, or even Tanzaku Gai. Miyako was a coastal town heavy in fishing and tourism, and a big part of that was that huge pods of whales frequently traveled close to it looking for food and, Naruto guessed, company.
"Well, whales have a lot of valuable stuff on them, Naruto," Obito said. "Or in them, really. Just about everything can be harvested."
"Gross." Naruto stuck out his tongue, and Sakura laughed. "So what, like bones?"
"Well sure, but that's one of the more obvious ones," Obito said, scratching the back of his head as they leapt through the trees. "They've got an incredible amount of meat on them, and their blubber was a super valuable resource as well. Before the hidden villages were established whale oil was used to light and heat most of the Land of Fire."
"Oil?" Sasuke asked, perking up. Naruto was just as confused. He knew animals could make all kinds of oil; he'd seen toads do it before. But he had the feeling that whales didn't spit it up like toads could.
"Yeah, from their blubber, I think. I dunno, I'm not a biologist," Obito laughed. "But it was a good source of energy, so it was always in high demand. I've heard that a lot of shinobi who lived close to the coast made their living hunting whales."
"Huh!" Naruto said. It had never even crossed his mind what ninja would have done before the villages had organized them. "That must have been cool!"
"Not that much, Naruto," Sakura spoke up, and Naruto looked back at her in surprise. She gave him a smile, and his heart beat a little faster when he saw the top of his frog wallet poking out of her jacket. "Whales are very intelligent; it would almost be like hunting people for their blood. In fact, it was banned a couple decades ago, wasn't it sensei?"
"It was," Obito confirmed, and Naruto had the familiar feeling of wondering just where Sakura learned this kind of stuff. Books? Was that why she read books? Should he read more books? "But not just because they were intelligent, right Sakura?"
She nodded, her hair whipping in the wind of her passage. "Some whales learned how to use chakra, and held a grudge," she said, directing her words towards her teammates. Naruto found himself nodding along, even if the subject was kinda boring; he just liked listening to Sakura talk. "They'd been hunted for so long they were starting to become endangered, so groups of them organized and began slaughtering humans. Apparently lots of species have done that! For a while, more than a century ago, it was too dangerous to trade across the open ocean. Any boat would get hunted down by packs of them and sunk."
"Whoa," Naruto muttered. "So that made people stop hunting them?"
"That's the idea," Obito said. "That, and stuff like electricity becoming more universal made the demand for their oil dry up. That probably had more of an effect, to be honest. Nowadays, the only people who'd be dumb enough to hunt whales would be in it for the rarity. You're just asking to get a bunch of people killed otherwise."
"Like at Miyako," Sasuke said. Their sensei nodded. "But they don't know where the poachers are."
"No," Obito confirmed. "But the coast is full of hiding places, so that's not a surprise. Cliffs and caves, abandoned towns, and even some old shinobi hideouts. It's a perfect place for outlaws to come together."
"Hmm," Sasuke said, and Naruto wondered what he was thinking. "But we're not supposed to take them down?"
"Nope," Obito said. "You didn't hear me wrong on that. Our only job is to lead the local authorities to them. Unless any of them are rogue ninja, we're not supposed to help apprehend them."
"They're too scared of losing their power," Sakura spoke up. "It's silly." Obito shrugged, slowing down the pace through the trees a little, and Naruto and his teammates matched it.
"It is, a little," he said. "But sometimes people are worried about shinobi having all the authority, or infringing on others. Uchiha sometimes get asked to help with crimes outside of Konoha, for example, thanks to the Sharingan, but they're not actually allowed to do anything besides advise the local or national law enforcement."
His face twisted, and Naruto remembered what Sasuke had told him about his mother's plan for the clan. He couldn't help but mirror his sensei's expression.
"We could just do their job for them anyway," Sakura said with a mean grin. Naruto cocked an eyebrow at her, and she smiled back.
"Wouldn't we not get paid then?" he said, and she laughed.
"Do we need the money? It's the principle of the thing!" she said, and he laughed with her. "If they're gonna hire us, they can't complain if we overperform!"
"No going above and beyond," Obito said with a stern look and a light laugh. "We've got a reputation to uphold, you know. Everytime you step outside, you're an ambassador for the whole village."
He smirked. "Even if it would be easy, we're going to do our job and nothing more. You got it?"
Sasuke and Sakura agreed, but Naruto couldn't help but give a mischievous shrug. He liked Sakura's idea, maybe mostly because it had come from her. He gave her a grin, but she was slow to return it. He cocked his head in a silent question, and she shook hers.
'Later," she was saying. Naruto accepted with a nod. Something was still eating at her, like it had been since Waterfall. It wasn't that surprising that even a month and her birthday hadn't totally driven that sorrow from her.
But Naruto was determined to do just that, no matter how long it took.
"So are we getting there tonight?" he said. His sensei shook his head. "Why? We totally could!"
"We could," Obito acknowledged. It would take them about three days to run from one side of the Land of Fire to the other, Naruto thought, but going from Konoha to the coast was a third of that distance. The sea was to the south, and Fire was a lot wider than it was tall. "But we're not in a rush. We were even asked to take it slow, remember?"
Sasuke snorted. "It sounds like they're hoping they'll have solved it by the time we show up."
"That's possible," Obito smiled. "But they wouldn't have wasted their deposit on us if they thought it was likely. You guys are a pricy team, you know."
"Well duh," Naruto said. "Like we should be!"
"Yeah, Naruto." Obito rolled his eyes. "Like you should be."
They spent the rest of the day at a sedate pace for shinobi, talking occasionally but mostly enjoying the scenery. Fire was a beautiful country, Naruto thought, even if he rarely appreciated it. Its forests were thick and vibrant, stretching for miles, but the farther south they went the more they thinned out, giving way to huge plains of grass and eventually farms. They steered clear of crops, occasionally seeing small towns or lone homes dotting the plain. Twice, someone waved at them from far away, watching in awe as they leapt across the earth like oversized grasshoppers, and Naruto waved back with a wide smile.
This was his home, he thought. He wondered what the other countries of the world were like. Were they as nice as the Land of Fire, filled with mountains and trees and plains? Or were their own mountains, deserts, seas and rivers, plains and tundras, just as beautiful? Waterfall had seemed barely any different; was most of the world like that? Could you even tell when you stepped from one country into another?
The sun started to set around five, slowly sliding down the sky to his right, and it was about then that Obito pulled out a map, looking for something he didn't bother to share.
"Here," he eventually said, veering a bit to the west. "There's a decent town about an hour that way. We'll stay there for the night."
"We're not camping?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto echoed the question. Obito shrugged.
"Do you want a roof, or to sleep on the ground?" he asked, and Sasuke and Naruto both considered the question, glancing at each other.
"Roof," Sakura cut in, and Obito gave her a thumbs up. "We've got the money for it, don't we?" She patted her new wallet, and Naruto gave her a grin.
"Sure!" he agreed. "It'll be nice. What's the town called, Obito-sensei?"
"Atsuitsa," he said. "It's not that big, but it's a crossroads town. There's probably a decent place to stay there."
Sasuke agreed as well, and they all changed their course. It barely took them half an hour to reach the town, and when they did Naruto wasn't that impressed. Asuitsa was basically an unpaved main street and a collection of neighborhoods that scattered off in every direction, set in among several steep hills. Obito was right about it being a crossroad town though; many of the buildings were several stories tall, stores or hotels for sure, and telephone poles threaded through the town like enormous spider webs, strung far off into the distance along a half dozen roads that all converged on the main street. They wandered down the concourse, and before long an older woman called out to them from one of the buildings.
"What brings you here, shinobi?" she said with what Naruto could only call a suspicious glare, and Obito gave her a disarming smile. The sun was making good progress on setting. It would vanish in about another half hour, and it sent long red streaks of light burning across the land and sky.
"Just looking for a place to stay!" he said, and the woman straightened up, leaning against the doorway she'd popped out of.
"If you're not bringing trouble, you'll want to check out Sugimoto's Bed and Breakfast," she said, pointing down the street to a newer looking building near the end. "He's fair, and quiet."
"Thanks!" Naruto called back, and the woman gave him a sweet smile. He smiled back as they made their way to the end of the street and inside the building. A bell on the door rung as they opened it. The building had a nice modern construction, and a large bottom floor that had probably once been a living room but was now a spacious open lobby dotted with tables and decorations. There was a pair of teenage boys already inside, sitting at a table by a window in the corner and sharing a collection of pastries, and they shot Team Seven a surprised glance as they walked in.
"Welcome!" An older man with a strong chin and an impressive collection of scars came out from an adjoining room at the sound of the bell on the door. "Oh! Welcome, shinobi of the Leaf!" He gave each of them a little bow in turn, and returned the grin Naruto gave in kind. "Are you looking for a room, perhaps? Or just dinner?"
"Both," Obito said, holding up two fingers. "Two rooms, one for us and one for her, and four dinners. Will you be able to accommodate us?"
'Two rooms?' Naruto wondered as Obito gestured to him and Sasuke as he said 'us'. Sakura hadn't had a problem with sharing rooms before. Had something changed? He frowned. Wait, didn't something happen to girls when they got older? His mom had told him something like that once, that occasionally teenagers needed their privacy. Sakura was fourteen now, after all.
"Of course, of course!" The man, who Naruto assumed was Sugimoto, bowed again. "More than able, and happy to! It's always a gift for Konoha's ninja to visit our town."
He and Obito exchanged more pleasantries, and Obito paid, covering their night and meals. Naruto thought that the woman had been right: the price was plenty fair.
"Now remember," Sugimoto said before handing them two keys. "Dinner is at eight, so don't be late!" He chuckled at his little rhyme before rushing off to fuss over another set of guests coming down the stairs into the lobby, and Team Seven left him to it. Obito led them up the same set of stairs past the other guests, a grumpy man and his apologetic wife, and they found that the second floor was divided into two corridors that ran the length of the building.
"Sakura, we're in room three. You're in five," he said, tossing her a silver key and nodding to the room at the end of the hall. Sakura caught it and nodded back as he continued. "If you wanna drop off your jacket, go for it."
"Alright," Sakura said. She grinned. "I'll see you guys in a minute, alright?" She jogged down the hall and jimmied her room's door open, and Obito led them to a door on the opposite side of the building, letting them in with his key. It was a pretty small room, with two full beds and a cot under the window opposite the door, looking out onto the main street. Naruto and Sasuke poked around; the beds were in pretty good condition, and there was a bathroom hidden to the left of the tiny entryway.
"It's nice," Sasuke noted, flopping down on one of the beds and kicking off his shoes. "Why's Sakura got the other room?"
"Girl stuff," Obito said shortly, confirming Naruto's suspicions. "She asked me about it on the way down here. You don't have a problem with it, do you?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Could be trouble if a fight broke out."
Obito snorted. "I know you've had a weird career so far Sasuke, but this isn't that kind of place. The most violent thing anyone has seen here was probably someone falling out a window after getting too drunk."
"Mister Sugimoto's got all those scars," Naruto pointed out, and Obito nodded thoughtfully as he sat down on the cot.
"He was probably a soldier," he said, shucking off his pack and leaving it at the cot's side. "Those scars were from shrapnel; you wouldn't get those working at a place like this. Most likely, he was caught in an explosion when he was younger."
"You mean for the Daimyo?" Naruto asked. Obito nodded. "That's cool. Sucks he got blown up though."
"Well, he lived," Obito laughed. "And he set up a pretty nice B&B too. I'd call that a win if I were him."
Naruto wondered how many ninja could say the same. Ino's family had a flower shop, right? People retired and did other stuff all the time. He wondered if it would be okay to ask Sugimoto about the scars… but that would be kinda weird, he thought. They were only staying here for a day, and the old man was probably sick of the question by now.
"Hey!" Sakura pushed open the door to find all of them plopped down on their beds. "What, you guys are all tired out already?" she grinned. "We've still got a couple hours before dinner. Do you wanna look around town?"
"Nah," Sasuke said, crossing his arms behind his head and flopping back. "What's out there, anyway?"
"I saw ice cream," Sakura said. "There's probably more. But if you want to stay here…"
"Ice cream?" Naruto popped up. "Before dinner? You're a genius, Sakura."
She smiled at him. "Well, thanks for letting me know," she said dryly. "I guess we're going; do you want any, sensei?"
"Ice cream doesn't really agree with me," Obito chuckled. "You guys go. We'll meet you back here, alright?"
Naruto and Sakura said their temporary goodbyes and went out to explore the town, going door to door. Atsuitsa had a charming atmosphere to it as the sun set on it; most of the stores were closing up, but Naruto didn't care much about them anyway. They mostly sold knick knacks or clothes or travel gear, and he had plenty of all of that. He still stopped when Sakura stopped to point out something in a window though.
By the time they finally got the ice cream the sun was pretty much gone, and they sat on the boardwalk that ran alongside the storefronts besides the dirt road and ate it together. Sakura had gotten chocolate, but Naruto preferred cookies and cream; he liked flavors that had more stuff in them. They ate even the cones, and then dusted themselves off and rose to wander back towards Sugimoto's.
"It's quiet out here," Sakura said. "Nothing in Konoha would close this early."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed, just now noticing that. "I guess they take care of all their stuff early in the day. And they must not get a lot of visitors. Or maybe just this time of year?"
"Probably," Sakura said, cutely chewing her lip. "There's a lot of roads leading here, and lots of places to shop and stay. I bet in the summer it gets crazy."
They walked in companionable silence for another minute before Naruto spoke up again.
"Are you okay, Sakura?" She turned to him, not looking that surprised. "You're just a little… sad."
"Yeah." She didn't deny it, which he was glad for. He didn't know what he would have done if she'd lied to him. "I can't stop thinking about Waterfall, that's all." She laughed. "I was mad all the time before, but that was giving me a headache. It's okay to be sad instead, right?"
"Sure," Naruto said. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but for some reason that made something inside him prickle. Sakura wasn't supposed to be that easy to figure out. "It's nothing else, right?"
This time, Sakura hesitated. They were only a block from Sugimoto's now, but she paused on the boardwalk and glanced at him. "Yeah," she said. "But I can't tell you."
Naruto blinked. "Is it girl stuff?"
Sakura blinked back. "What?"
"Obito said you got another room 'cause of girl stuff," he said, not sure if he was digging himself into a hole or not. "Is that what you can't tell me?"
"Naruto…" Sakura laughed, her whole face flushing red, and Naruto tried to laugh with her. "You know what, ask me later, and I'll tell you, okay? I promise."
"Okay," Naruto said, glad he'd gotten her to laugh. "But you better."
"I will."
"You will?"
"Yes!" she laughed again. "Now drop it!"
He did, and they made their way back to room three. Sasuke and Obito were where they'd left them, lazing around, and they settled down together as a team, each taking up their own way to pass the time. Sakura, Naruto noticed, sat in the corner and read the book his mom had gifted her the day before. She didn't get too far in before closing it with a curious look. He thought about asking why, but didn't.
Before they knew it, it was time for dinner. It passed in the same quiet haze of unremarkable time that most of the day had. The dinner was a simple meal of fish and rice with some vegetables, but it was filling and Naruto was grateful for it. Most of the other guests in the Bed and Breakfast (and dinner, he wondered?) were down in the lobby at the same time, and he enjoyed looking around wondering who they were. A businessman in a fancy suit, a woman in a plain dress, two couples, and a lone man in the corner. None of them spoke with each other; they were all bound for other places, and that sense of transition kept anyone from pushing tables together.
When they said their thanks and went back upstairs, Obito gathered them in the hall.
"We're going to be heading out real early tomorrow, and it'll be a busy day after that," he said. "I'm going to bed early…" He gave Naruto and Sasuke meaningful glances. "Which means you are too."
"Ah, c'mon," Naruto groused. "We're not babies. It's not even nine!"
"You wanna get to the coast before noon?" Obito asked, and Naruto grudgingly nodded. "Then we should probably leave here before the sun's up. You wanna do that with a couple hours sleep?"
"Fine," he whined. Sasuke surrendered with a shrug, and Sakura's lip twisted.
"Alright," she said. "I'll see you guys in the morning."
But even after Sasuke and Obito turned to shuffle into their room, she didn't move, and Naruto noticed. He didn't move either, and then the two of them were alone in the hall.
"You going to bed?" he asked, and she sighed.
"Yeah. I'm really tired, actually," she said, cracking a weak smile. "I haven't been sleeping well. Weird dreams."
"Yeah, me too," Naruto said, not in a million years ever going to mention that those dreams were sometimes about her. To his shock, Sakura stepped in. For an insane second, he thought she might press her face against his, but instead she gave him a light hug.
"Have a good night, Naruto," she said, stepping back with bright eyes. "I'll see you later, okay?"
"Okay," Naruto said with a blink, not at all sure what had just happened. "You too, Sakura." She turned and walked away down the hall, and he stumbled back into his room. Sasuke gave him a curious look.
"You look like a tomato," he said, and that just made Naruto blush harder. "Something happen?"
"No!" Naruto declared, sure they knew he was lying. "Nothing!" He saw Obito give him a doubtful glance from the cot, but the man turned right over and settled in to sleep.
"Naruto," their sensei grumbled. "Grab the light, would you?"
He did, and then slipped into his bed. After a day of traveling, it was easy for him to fall asleep, even with the sound of Obito's snoring.
In the muddled time of sleep, Naruto had a familiar dream.
###
He jerked awake, struggling up against the thick blankets draped over his body, and blinked. He wasn't sure what had woken him up. It hadn't been the dream, his sleepy brain insisted. Something was wrong.
No snoring, he realized after a second. Naruto had idea what time it was, but looking out the window there was nothing but darkness. It was definitely later, maybe a little after midnight. The room didn't have a clock.
Obito wasn't there. That's what it was, he realized. He hadn't been woken up by his sensei leaving, but his absence had pulled him out of his sleep anyway.
Why wouldn't he be there? It didn't make any sense. Naruto rolled out of bed, looking around, trying to snap awake and struggling towards it instead. Sasuke was still there, still sleeping, sometimes stirring. He'd always been a light sleeper, but Naruto had woken up first anyway. How weird was that?
Was it because he'd already had the sense something was wrong?
"Sasuke," he muttered, prodding his friend, and Sasuke snorted awake, rolling over to glare at him.
"Naruto? What…" He jerked, glancing back. "Where's Obito?"
"I don't know," Naruto whispered. No one could have taken Obito and just left them. That didn't make sense. He must have gone on himself. Why?
Sasuke jumped out of his bed, slipping his clothes on, and Naruto followed suit, feeling sure that was a good idea. "C'mon," he said. "Let's go get Sakura." He opened the door without a sound and padded down the corridor. Naruto followed right behind him, every sense stretching as he fully awoke. The whole town was sleeping. There wasn't any sound or light anywhere. It was like a graveyard.
His teammate reached Sakura's door first and tried the knob. It wasn't locked; Sasuke slid the door open as silently as the last one.
Sakura wasn't inside. Naruto blinked, rushing past his friend to look around. She wasn't there. In fact, nothing was there; none of her belongings, her jacket, nothing. The bed was even made. It was like no one had even stayed in the room.
"What the fuck," Sasuke muttered behind him, and Naruto spun around. His friend's Sharingan were shining in the dark, looking around. "She walked right out…" he said, staring at the floor. "Her and Obito both. Where were they going?"
"Where?" Naruto demanded. His stomach was dropping, a sick feeling that made him feel a thousand times heavier. Sasuke nodded towards the stairs leading down to the lobby.
They both rushed down the hall and down the stairs, still focusing on staying silent and with Naruto in the lead. It didn't last long; he came to a sudden halt as soon as he stepped into the lobby, Sasuke almost crashing into his back.
Obito was there, sitting at a table in the center of the lobby and staring right at them. His Sharingan was active, two glowing red pools in the pitch black. He raised a drink to his lips; Naruto smelled coffee.
"So," he said, so quiet that Naruto could barely hear him. "You guys woke up. You've got good instincts."
"Obito." Sasuke stepped ahead of Naruto and beat him to the punch. His voice was just as quiet as Obito's, and sharp. "What's going on?"
"Hmm." Their sensei took a sip of his coffee. "You noticed Sakura left?"
"Where is she?" Naruto said, not bothering to be as quiet. Obito made a shushing motion.
"I'll tell you in a second," he said. "But be quiet, please. We shouldn't be rude."
"You're stalling," Sasuke said, drawing closer to Obito. "She left. Why?"
Obito hesitated and then sighed, putting down his coffee. "I decided to leave it to whether you guys woke up or not," he said, and then let out a little laugh. "I guess I'm still a coward at heart."
He straightened up. "Sakura's defecting to the Nation of Rain."
Naruto felt the world fall away from under his feet. He blinked, staring at his teacher and playing the impossible words over in his head.
"No…" he said, and Sasuke glanced back at him. His friend was doing a better job of controlling himself, like usual, but there was still something crazy in his Sharingan. "She promised me she wouldn't."
"She did," Obito said, drumming his fingers on the table. "But she's going on your father's orders."
Naruto blinked again, considering the words once, twice, a third time. It still didn't make any more sense, didn't settle in his mind. He felt something in the back of his head change, like a switch going on and off.
"Dad?" His voice sounded to him like it was coming from far away. "Why?"
"She's going to find the Nanabi," Obito said, and as he continued speaking Naruto continued to fall into himself, feeling like he was watching everything from behind his eyes. Obito's words came through softer and softer. "Rain is too strong to provoke openly, and too secretive for anyone to just walk in and find out the truth for themselves."
His face twisted. "Even me. So he decided to send Sakura. She's to join the village and rise up the ranks. Find out if Itachi really was working for them, and if so if they've kept Fuu as the Jinchuriki or taken the Beast for one of their own ninja. No one knows how long it will take. And then when she's done, she'll defect again, back to the Leaf."
Obito shifted, leaning forward. He looked as though he were cut from stone. "She was the perfect choice. She's inexperienced but strong, and full of potential. She could do anything, with the right training. She's idealistic, but intelligent enough to question herself and what she believes. Rain already recognized all of that, and already approached her themselves back at the Exam. They want her: they'll be willing to overlook her flaws, the fact she might just be too good to be true. That's what will make her the perfect spy. Do you understand, Naruto?"
Naruto didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. He stood there in the lobby, watching the world as he'd understood it fly farther and farther away. This is why she'd been so sad, he thought. She'd known. She'd known and she hadn't been able to tell them.
I don't want Sakura to go, he thought.
We're supposed to be a team.
I really like her.
She can't go.
I don't want to leave her side.
We're supposed to-
'You're a team,' the vibrant memory of his mother said with a soft smile, and Naruto snapped back into himself. He took a deep breath, and clenched his fists.
"Yeah," he said.
"But I don't give a shit."
Obito cocked his head, and Sasuke nodded. "He's right," he said, and Obito gave him an incredulous look. "How's she getting there? Just walking?"
"We gave her that piece of paper Haku offered her," Obito said, watching them both carefully. "It was full of chakra; the chakra of Amekage who came, Konan. Sensei thought it was probably some sort of summoning seal. Sakura's going to go sign it and see what happens." His eyes narrowed. "You know I can't let you go after her, right?"
"You can't fight us, Obito," Sasuke said. His face split in a sneer. "You'll wake up the guests."
Obito considered them.
Faster than Naruto could react, he broke into a full sprint and passed straight through the table. His hand slammed into Naruto's face, and there was the familiar sensation of being sucked down an infinitely long drain. Naruto welcomed it.
He blinked, and Obito's hand came away. They were inside the Kamui, the endless stone space lit by a sourceless pale light.
"How about-?" Obito started to ask, and Naruto tried to punch him in the face.
His sensei leaned back and dodged the blow effortlessly, but he was obviously surprised. That meant that Sasuke, who had also been dragged in, had the less than a tenth of a second necessary to at least try to tackle him from the side. Naruto's friend actually managed to brush their teacher before Obito leapt up, over the grapple. Naruto jumped after him, trying to knock him out of the air.
Obito spun and kicked him in the chest, and Naruto was sent flying back, crashing into the cold stone that filled the Kamui. He rolled head over heels to his feet and charged back in as Sasuke received a similar treatment: Obito simply used his superior reach and strength to bodily haul Sasuke from his feet and toss him away, in the opposite direction of Naruto.
"What the hell are you doing?" Obito shouted, and Naruto went at him once again, desperate to knock him down. They clashed for a second, fist against fist, but it was hopeless. Obito's Sharingan could see every punch Naruto was going to throw even before he knew, and the man was bigger and stronger too. Even without the Kamui, there was no way Naruto could ever beat him, not by himself.
But he wasn't by himself, 'cause the second before Obito committed and knocked him away again, Sasuke was there. Two against one was still hopeless, but it wasn't an instant loss.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Naruto shouted back, and Obito replied with a punch to the face. Naruto spat out the pain and replied with a kick, and their shins smashed together. "You just let Sakura go alone!"
"That's the mission she was given!" Obito roared, suddenly loud and violent, and his hesitation vanished. He smashed Naruto away with a haymaker and turned to Sasuke with a blinding kick. Naruto hit the ground and bounced, and as he watched, Sasuke…
Stood his ground.
Sharingan against Sharingan, both burning red tracers in the dim light of the Kamui, the Uchiha's duel more resembled a dance than a fight, not a single part of them staying still for an instant. Obito tried to knock Sasuke down, his leg sweeping in to take Sasuke's knee, and Naruto's friend flipped right over the attack and kicked their sensei in the face.
"You're too used to fighting like a ghost, Obito!" Sasuke snarled, and then before he could land Obito's fist crashed down on his shoulder like a lightning bolt. Sasuke smashed into the stone and gasped, the air knocked out of him. Obito raised his foot to strike him again, but Naruto was already charging from behind. He hit the back of Obito's knee with enough force to shatter a normal person's bones and their sensei tipped backwards, thrown off balance.
Sasuke took advantage of the heartbeat he'd been given. He didn't bother rising to his feet; he just pivoted and smashed both of his feet into Obito's groin, sending the man toppling backwards over Naruto. They both heard the older man suck in a pained breath, and he rolled backwards as he hit the ground, instantly coming to his feet before staggering back a step.
"Okay," he muttered. He glared at the both of them, crimson eyes rotating ever more violently. "If that's the way we're doing this."
"Take us to Sakura!" Naruto shouted, charging in and trusting Sasuke would back him up. He went low and Sasuke went high, trying to stalemate their sensei.
But Obito was an elite Jonin for a reason. In the same motion he stepped down on Naruto's ducked shoulder, hard, slamming him into the ground, and caught Sasuke's kick out of the air with one hand: he whipped Sasuke around like a new weapon and then smashed him down on Naruto.
It was as though a building had been dropped on him; Naruto's vision went white, and he couldn't even think of breathing. He tried to scrabble forward, to say something, do anything, but for a second, he was paralyzed. It was long enough for Obito to flip him away with the top of his foot, like someone kicking a ball.
Naruto blacked out for a heartbeat and woke up when he hit the ground. He pulled himself back up, feeling unbelievably heavy. His whole torso was one big bruise, and he could feel blood trickling from his nose. He wiped it away with a snarl.
Obito was still holding Sasuke by the leg, watching him like he would any other enemy. He grimaced.
"What're you hoping to do, Naruto?" he said, tossing Sasuke at Naruto's feet. His teammate groaned, his teeth covered in blood, and Naruto bent down to help him up. The second he took his eyes off Obito, a kick smashed into his chest; Naruto tumbled backwards, the wind knocked out of him once more. "I'm not going to hold back on you."
Naruto hauled himself upright once more, and Sasuke did the same behind Obito. They were both panting and bleeding; their teacher had a swollen lip and a couple bruises, but nothing more.
"We're gonna beat you," Naruto gasped. "And we're going to go get Sakura."
"She wants to go, Naruto," Obito said, his face flat. "You couldn't stop her."
"Stop her?" Sasuke asked, and he laughed. Obito looked back at him, confused. "You moron. Why would we do that?"
"We don't want to stop her, you jackass!" Naruto shouted. Even talking made his chest hurt. "We can't let her go alone!"
Obito blinked.
"What?"
"If she's going to Rain, we're going with her," Sasuke said, starting to circle Obito as their teacher watched them both, stunned. "That's the first rule of being a team, right? Don't get split up."
Obito stood there, apparently at a loss for words. He looked back and forth between them, keeping track even as he stayed silent.
"You…" he said. He flexed his hands. "You're not trying to stop her. You want to join her?"
"What else could we do?!" Naruto shouted. "She took the mission! It's her decision; we couldn't tell her otherwise!" He could feel something dripping down his cheeks; warm as blood, but not as sticky. Was he crying? "Sakura's smarter than either of us; if she thinks she should go, she's probably right! But she shouldn't go alone! She's been sad! She needs help!"
"He's right," Sasuke said. "Sakura is strong, but alone on an infiltration mission she'll be compromised quickly. She needs support." He gritted his teeth. "We're her support, Obito."
"This isn't a mission for you," Obito said, still not dropping his guard. "Naruto, Sasuke, you're both too…"
"Valuable?" Sasuke spat, and Naruto was astonished to see their sensei flinch. "We weren't picked because I'm the next famous Uchiha, and he's the Hokage's son, right?" He stepped forward, his whole body shaking. "Right!?"
Naruto realized right in that second that even if that wasn't what Obito was going to say, that was how the world saw Sakura. That was how he had seen her for the first couple weeks they were a team, even if he hadn't thought about it that way. She was someone without a clan, without famous parents, without a famous ninjutsu. Sakura was smart and beautiful and she could do anything she tried, but because she came from a normal family of normal shinobi she was someone his dad would send away on a mission to another country for as long as it took to accomplish a task that might be impossible.
Sakura was smart, and beautiful, and expendable. Naruto felt his teeth grind together, and Obito shot him a concerned look.
"Obvious," Obito said, sounding defeated. "I was going to say obvious. Rain didn't approach either of you; they wouldn't see you as actual defectors, just more spies. They'd keep you in the dark and use your power, but there's no way you'd be able to accomplish the mission."
"But Sakura still could," Naruto said, taking a step forward. "She could."
"I don't think so," Obito said, settling into a relaxed taijutsu stance. "If you went with her, it would put her under suspicion. Most likely, they'll split you up and keep her isolated. You can't help her."
"That will happen anyway," Sasuke said. "She rejected their offer the first time; they're going to wonder what changed. They'll realize it's the Nanabi right away if Itachi really was working for them." He moved in as well, the both of them closing on their sensei.
"That's true," Obito said. "But that's why it's important that she's actually sympathetic to the Akatsuki. They'll think they can turn her, so they'll still invest in her."
"If we're not there," Naruto said quietly, "they will."
Obito paused, and Naruto lowered his head. "Cause we'll have abandoned her. We'll have abandoned our teammate, and just let her run off to do something impossible on her own."
Obito stiffened, but Naruto hardly noticed, the words pouring out of him. "And she'll know it. She's too smart not to." He was definitely crying now; he could taste the salt. "She'll know we just ran home and let her do a mission like that alone, and she'll think the Akatsuki is right. That ninja outside of Rain are just tools. Sasuke and I'll have proved it."
He looked up to find Obito staring at him. No; that wasn't it. He was staring past them. Obito wasn't seeing him and Sasuke anymore.
"Worse than trash," his sensei muttered, and Naruto cocked his head, not sure if he'd heard right.
"Eh?"
Obito looked back and forth between him and Sasuke as if realizing they were there, and then lowered his hands. The man looked torn, his eyes hollow.
"I just remembered…" he said, his voice faint, and he laughed. "I was wondering why this seemed familiar."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke said, pressing a hand against one of his ribs and hissing. Obito turned to face him with a wild look.
"The day I became Mangekyo no Obito," he said, his voice intense. "I told you about it, didn't I?"
He had, Naruto remembered. On their way to Tanzaku Gai.
"Rin said that you guys showed up to save her, and he died," he said, not treating what was probably a delicate topic with an ounce of respect. "What's it matter?"
"That was only half the story," Obito said. "There was something I never told Rin." He rubbed his swollen lip and snorted. "Kakashi didn't want to save her."
"What a prick," Sasuke said flatly. Obito chuckled. Naruto couldn't understand the change in his teacher's mood.
"Sometimes, yeah," he said. "But he came through. I said something to him… and it changed his mind." He chuckled again, shaking his head. "And I… I totally forgot it. That was the most important day of my life and I forgot what I said. Can you believe that?"
"Why're you telling us this, Obito?" Naruto asked. Obito frowned.
"There was a Stone ninja who tried to stop us," he said, mostly to himself. "He cut out Kakashi's eye. And I'm that guy? I'm that cocky asshole?" He shook his head, and sat down. "Unbelievable. What the fuck am I doing?"
"Obito, neither of us have any idea what you're talking about," Sasuke said. "Are you gonna let us out or not?" Obito sighed.
"Those who break the rules are trash," he said. "But someone who'd abandon their friends is worse than trash." He gestured for them to come sit as well and Naruto cautiously approached, wondering if this was some weird ploy to knock them out. But his sensei was radiating sincerity, and so Naruto took a seat. "That's what I told him. Kakashi wanted to continue the mission without Rin, and I said we had to go back for her. Do you see what I'm talking about?"
It was kinda the reverse of their situation, Naruto could tell, but he still couldn't see why his sensei was so affected. This was something that could only make sense to Obito, he thought.
"You're right that Sakura needs backup," Obito mused. "I was planning to keep an eye on her, but that was a dangerous idea. You two would be better for that." He gave them a serious look. "Sensei told me I had the final call for if she should go or not. He didn't mean it like this, but you guys are right. You're what will give the mission the best chance of succeeding; you two can keep her on track. I don't know how we didn't see it."
Naruto felt his heart beating faster as the reality of what they were talking about sunk in. "So, you'll let us go?" he said, and Obito nodded.
"You understand what you're saying, right?" Obito said, and they both nodded. "If you go after her, there's no going back. She's going on a mission: you'll actually be defecting."
"We'll be back," Naruto said. "So it won't be for real." He cracked a smile. "And with three of us, the mission will go three times faster. We'll get Fuu back in like, a week."
"You'll be despised, Obito," Sasuke said quietly, and Naruto gave him a look. "If you let us go? I didn't… You'll be the guy who lost all his students." He sat back, struck by the enormity of what they were saying. "I don't know if-"
"I've been despised before," Obito said without hesitation. "I can live with it." Then, he did hesitate. "But I don't know if I could live with letting Sakura go alone."
They sat in silence at that, nearly half a minute, until Obito stood up. "I'm going to regret this," he said, and then he offered both of them a hand. "Link up, okay?"
"You're not going to send us back, are you?" Naruto asked, taking his sensei's hand, and Obito smiled.
"I'll leave it up to you two," he said.
"This whole time, ever since I was assigned you, I've been trying to keep you safe. I never wanted to put you in any danger. But no matter what I did, you were always getting into trouble. It followed you around, sought us out. Team Seven was a lightning rod, the other jounin-sensei told me. They couldn't believe it. I couldn't keep you safe. All I could do was train you to do it yourself."
"I didn't want Sakura to go, but I was able to do it because I knew it was the right decision for the village. But letting her go alone isn't the right decision for her. Sensei told me I'd be the one to make the final decision for her, but she made it for me; all I can do now is give you guys the same choice. You're my team. That's the least you can have. It'll humiliate the village, but Konoha is strong enough to survive that."
"You three will always be stronger together: if you need to grow stronger in Rain instead of with me for a while, that's just how things have to be. It's like Rin says: you can't control everything."
"Good luck."
There was a swirl of space folding over itself.
"Till next time, okay?"
They vanished, and the Kamui was empty once more.
###
With every step through the grass, Sakura crushed her doubts underfoot.
She was running through the dark away from life as she knew it, so there was plenty of it to crush.
'You're the only one who can do this.'
The voice inside her, usually so bitter, was elated. It pushed her on instead of down. The voice was her; that meant she was making the right decision, right?
'It's too late to look back,' she thought, the grass parting before her. She was almost far enough away. She didn't want to write on the paper until she had some distance from everything she'd known. She couldn't bear it otherwise.
'You just have to keep moving forward.'
And yet, she couldn't help but remember the past. It played in the shadows around her, so thick that they seemed to hold some invisible secret.
They had all met a week ago, her parents and her sensei and the Hokage and her. They had stood before the Hokage's desk as if reporting on a mission instead of being given one, and he'd peered out from behind it with an understanding look.
"I understand if it will be difficult to maintain the story," he said, and her mother had nodded. "But it's crucial for her."
"Of course," Mebuki had said, and Sakura had been impressed at how stoic she was. She hadn't liked the idea, and she'd said so.
"Don't worry, honey," her father had said. "Lots of kids argue with their parents. If people want to believe that was the final straw, plenty of them will buy it."
To Sakura, who had just fixed her relationship with them, it had seemed deeply unfair. But it was what all of them had decided; the minor arguments after the Chunin Exam were to be blown up beyond repair, to make her leaving just a little more believable. Just a little more tragic. Hurt girl, running from home; what could be better? And if her parents agreed, it would be the final nail in the coffin.
"It's her choice to take the mission or not," the Hokage had said. "Even now. No one will judge you if you turn it down; no one will even know. But your experience and suitability make you perfect, Sakura."
It was an open ended objective. Depending on how aggressive and lucky she was, it could take a month, or a year. Or more. The official story would be defection. The shadows danced with the story of Sakura's past, and she ran away from it.
Top secret stuff. No one would know.
Outside the village for maybe years, with the brand of traitor firmly stamped on her. It was a terrifying prospect. Even two months ago, Sakura could never have dreamed of it.
But now she was covered in Waterfall's ashes, and for some reason that made her ready. Maybe she was just lying to herself. Maybe she would break down the second she committed.
'You're the only one who can do it.'
Sakura kept moving.
The paper in her pack was chakra reactive, she'd been told. Nothing else about it seemed strange; if there was a hidden jutsu in it, it wasn't one that could be detected by anyone in Konoha. Haku had told her it would make someone appear, but Sakura wasn't sure how that was possible.
Once she signed that paper, she was on her own. Everything else would be up to her.
She would be a Chunin the second she did. Taking the mission would be showing the necessary maturity for promotion, was what her sensei had said. What would it matter in another Village though? It wouldn't be like she could tell Rain that she'd become a Chnunin for deciding to go there.
Sakura giggled, feeling a bizarre sense of freedom. It was strange and scary and wonderful all at the same time. She'd never had her own future in the palm of her hand; it felt like for the first time in forever, she had a real choice.
'You've learned to sacrifice for the Village, and for the Will of Fire. That's the most important lesson a ninja of the Leaf can learn. On that front, I've got nothing left to teach you.'
'That's what being a ninja is.'
There was a contact for her to meet in Amegakure, the Hokage had said. She wouldn't be alone. But she wasn't allowed to know who it was. He'd told her this one on one; the actual briefing for the mission, after her parents had left, not the offer at the training ground.
"Rain's biggest secret is also its most powerful," he'd said. "It's what made sensei decide to train the Amekage all those years ago, before I met him." He'd showed her a sketch. It was of an eye, but nothing like any eye Sakura had ever seen. Even the Sharingan looked recognizable, if strange and far too red. This one had been colored a faint purple, and the pupil was surrounded by concentric rings, like ripples in a pond.
"This is the Rinnegan," the Hokage had said. "It's a one of a kind doujutsu possessed by one of the Amekage, Nagato. Sakura, these are the most dangerous eyes in the world."
"I'll spare you a history lesson, but the last person to manifest these eyes decided the course of the world. The Rinnegan's something that can't be quantified. It gives those that possess it an impossibly deep understanding of chakra. When Nagato was young, younger than you, he was able to master all five Elements in a very short amount of time, and that was just a rudimentary example of his proficiency. You understand what I mean? He can never be underestimated."
There was a clearing coming, Sakura saw: a secluded area where she would be able to see someone coming from every direction but be able to conceal herself in the tall grass. The perfect place.
"The very first test any defector faces in Amegakure is administered by him. It's a simple interrogation; our source went through it as well. We've been told that if you lie, you die; he's apparently infallible. When you face that test, Sakura, you must only tell the truth. Even if they ask you if you've been sent by us, you have to tell them so. They'll most likely know you're not a true defector; the trick will be making them think you're converting. Even if you have to deceive yourself."
Sakura had nodded. She could do that. If there was anything she was sure of, it was her ability to trick herself.
Now, she nodded to herself again, shucking her pack and digging through it in the center of the field. She rummaged through her birthday gifts: she'd brought every single one of them. Would they think she was selfish, or understand the message? Sakura hoped for the best but feared the worst.
She found the paper and withdrew it, considering it carefully. It was light in her hand and fluttered in the light breeze that blew the grass to and fro. The grass produced a faint whisper as she withdrew a pen from her pocket.
Sakura stopped.
She didn't know what she should write. All this worrying and preparing, and she hadn't once thought about what she should actually write.
A dozen messages drifted through her mind, and she shook them away. Trying too hard, too earnest, too cynical. She was defecting. Sakura Haruno was defecting. The message would have to be one that would come from Sakura Haruno, former ninja of Konoha. It would be simple, and straightforward, and a little fed up.
I want to leave, Sakura wrote in her flowing script, the handwriting her parents had always been so proud and her classmates so envious of. This isn't the place for me.
It was hard to see even in the light of the waxing crescent moon, but as Sakura watched the most important words she'd ever written sank into the paper, the ink fading from sight. She blinked; the paper was too thin for the ink to vanish entirely, so where was it going? The paper bucked once in her hands, like a living thing.
She tried to follow the flow of chakra, but even with the paper in her hand the configuration was too complicated for her to comprehend. Whatever jutsu was animating the paper required control that made her Ryusuiken look like a child's exercise.
A second later the ink returned, squirming out of the paper in a new configuration. Sakura watched it worm into new words in awe.
Wait, it wrote out.
We are coming.
Sakura sat back in the grass, feeling the waving stalks caress her back, and sighed. That was that, she thought. She felt as she had when she'd first given the paper up, like an invisible weight had finally been pulled off her back. There in the rustling darkness, alone in the night, Sakura felt a sudden kind of tranquility that she could only sit back and marvel at.
'I'm meant to be here,' she thought, looking up at the shining moon.
'That's why you feel this way. Because you're doing the right thing.'
Sakura sat there in silence, and enjoyed the feeling, and waited to be taken away.
A couple minutes later, her tranquility snapped like a bone.
"SAKURA!"
Sakura sat bolt upright, half-dazing in the field. She blinked.
That was Naruto's voice. Naruto was looking for her. Naruto was here. She dropped low by instinct, concealing herself in the grass, and the call came again. Maybe a hundred meters away, just beyond the field.
How the hell had they found her? Sakura felt panic worming at her heart and crushed it like she had her doubt. Had they gotten past Obito? That was impossible: he'd said he would keep them from coming after her, even after he told them. Since it was completely impossible that they could have beaten or evaded Obito, that only left…
That he'd sent them.
'He doesn't think you can do it.'
Sakura's face twisted into a sneer as she pressed it into the dirt, trying to erase her existence. Sasuke had a Sharingan, and if Naruto was here he was too. He could follow her trail, and if she wasn't careful, he might even see her chakra boiling into the air. She had to move, or they'd find her for sure.
"Sakura!" Naruto was closer now, at the edge of the field. She heard an echo as Sasuke repeated the call. "Come on out!"
Sakura stayed pressed in the dirt. She couldn't relocate now, she thought. If she moved, the grass would give her away. Even a shinobi couldn't travel through a grass field without disturbing a stalk. She'd have to travel with the wind, mask her movement by mirroring it. That was the only way.
"Sakura," Sasuke said, his voice clear over the distance. "We're not here to stop you." Sakura's heart froze.
"We're here to help you."
"NO!" Of everything that could have been said, that was what shot Sakura to her feet. She screamed the word so loud that Naruto and Sasuke flinched even as they turned to watch her pop out of the grass. "Go away!"
"We're not going away!" Naruto shouted back, running forward into the grass and bulldozing a path towards her. Sakura was frozen, unable to advance or retreat. She could only watch her teammate come right for her, his eyes shining in the moonlight. Sasuke followed behind him at a more relaxed pace. They were both covered in bruises: there was blood running from Naruto's nose. What had happened? "You can't do this alone!"
'No matter where you go, they'll overshadow you.'
"I can!" Sakura screamed back. "I have to! You don't understand, Naruto! You're going to ruin everything!" Without conscious thought, her hand fell to the sword at her side.
Naruto didn't stop coming, and for a heartbeat Sakura had to fight the insane urge to swing at him. Her hand tightened around her sword's hilt before sanity reasserted itself. What was she going to do? Cut down her own teammate? That was ridiculous.
She relaxed and Naruto reached her, eyes wide.
"Okay," he panted, before straightening up and grinning, wiping away some dried blood on his lip. "Basically, Sasuke and I think you've got two options."
"Naruto, you have to go," Sakura said, hearing her voice crack. "You can't be here. I've got leave. Someone's coming to get me already."
He ignored her. "So, either you let us come with you," he said, scratching the back of his head, "or Sasuke and I beat the crap out of you and drag you back to the village. Y'know, like if you were actually defecting."
"As if!" Sakura startled herself, and Naruto's grin only split wider. "I could take both of you; don't make me prove it!"
Naruto's grin faded for a moment; he wasn't sure if she was joking or not. Sakura wasn't sure either. She could use the Ryusuiken non-lethally if she tried, she was sure, and they were both already hurt. Knock them both away, or at least stall until Rain's agent arrived… but how long would that take?
Was she really considering this? She blinked, stepping back from herself.
'What are you doing?'
'Are you really going to fight your friends because they want to help?'
As Sakura took a breath and tried to comprehend the situation, Sasuke stepped forward.
"Sakura," he said, and she focused on him. Where Naruto was brash and speaking from the heart, Sasuke was smart and could be cold when he needed to. He'd understand why they absolutely could not come.
That wasn't what he said. "We always work best as a team," he said, and the truth of it stung her. "On that first C-Rank, in the Exam, in Waterfall; we all would have died if it weren't for each other." Another step. "You can't go alone. You could, but it's only going to make things that much harder. It's stupid. It doesn't make sense that you alone got picked."
"Sasuke," she tried to say, and he shook his head.
"This was the whole point of what they did. Don't you remember what Kushina told you?" he asked, and Sakura couldn't help but nod. "They gave you that paper so they could get all of us. We're not outside of their expectations; it'll just be too good to be true. They'll question it, but they can't afford to turn all of us down."
So logical. She was stupid to think he would have used that against her. Sakura felt something prick at her eye.
"This way, you won't be alone in enemy territory," Sasuke said, spreading his hands wide. "None of us will. They'll separate us for sure, but it'll be better than being separated by a whole country, right?"
"You morons," Sakura whispered, afraid something inside her would break if she was louder. "You're not ready. I've been training for this for a whole month. I'm ready to leave; I've said goodbye. You'll be leaving things halfway!" She managed to speak up, her voice coming to life. "Naruto, you'll be leaving your family! What will your dad think?"
"He'll think 'jeez, maybe I shouldn't have sent his teammate alone, I'm such a dipshit,'" Naruto said with a snort. His face fell a little. "And mom… she'll understand. She's always talking about how sometimes you don't get to make the choice. This time, I'm making it."
Sakura shook her head, changing tactics. "Sasuke, you…" she faltered, seeing the cold look in his eye. He hated his mother now; leaving her wouldn't cause him a moment of hesitation. "You told Hinata you'd go on a date with her! You'll be a real scumbag if you don't show up!"
"What?" Sasuke's whole body twitched. "That's not…" Naruto shot him a disbelieving look, and Sasuke stared back at him in horror. "That's not what I agreed to!"
"Sasuke," Naruto said. "Are you stupid? That's definitely what that was." Sasuke considered, and then slowly began rubbing his forehead, staring ahead blankly. He'd completely frozen up.
Sakura let out a high laugh. "See? You've both got things you can't afford to leave behind! That's why I got picked and you didn't! So please, get out of here!"
"No," Sasuke muttered, and Naruto nodded in agreement. Sakura's heart broke and knitted back together in the same moment.
"We're coming with you. We'll figure out if Fuu is there or not, and then we'll bail. Simple as that," Naruto said. Sakura's hands curled into fists, and he held his up in surrender. "I'll be following you and Sasuke cause I don't want to get left behind, and Sasuke'll be looking for his brother. We've all got reasons. They won't want to turn me away for having a crappy one 'cause I'm the Hokage's son. They can't afford to ditch me."
"I don't…" Sakura said, closing her eyes.
'I don't care that it's a good argument.'
'I don't care that I was going to be alone.'
'I don't deserve this.'
"I don't understand why you're doing this," she finally said, barely audible over the rustle of the grass. "I don't understand why you'd leave everything for me. It doesn't make sense."
Naruto paused, and shared a glance with Sasuke. The Uchiha shrugged.
"You're our friend, Sakura," he said. Sakura could feel her heartbeat throughout her whole body. "What the hell kind of friends would we be if we let you do something like this alone?"
Sakura stood there in the field unable to breathe, and when she opened her eyes Naruto was smiling at her. Her heartbeat jumped.
She had no choice but to surrender.
"Okay," she said quietly, taking a deep breath. "You guys know this is gonna suck though, right?"
"Hey, it could be fun," Naruto said, taking his victory with perfect magnanimity. "Missions are always fun, and this is gonna be a really cool one, right?"
"Probably not," Sasuke said. "I doubt they'll let us do anything interesting at first."
Sakura laughed. "Definitely," she said, feeling an uncontrollable giggle work its way up through her gut. "Indefinite house arrest, for sure."
"Ah man…" Naruto said with a grin. "But I always heard rogue ninja had super dangerous lives."
Was this really happening, or was this a moonlit dream? Sakura couldn't tell. She sat down in the grass, and her teammates joined her in the dirt.
They sat there as the grass rustled around them for a time that couldn't be quantified as Sakura processed just how much her teammates were willing to give up for her, and eventually she spoke up.
"What happened to you guys anyway?" she asked. Naruto laughed.
"We tried to run after you, and Obito beat me up with Sasuke," he said. Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"You mean, Obito-sensei beat you and Sasuke up?" she said. Sasuke grunted.
"No," he said, and Naruto was quick to change the subject.
"So, you already used the paper, huh?" he asked, and Sakura nodded.
"Yeah," she said, digging it out of her pocket and showing it to him. The words hadn't changed. "That wasn't what I wrote; the ink changed after I put it down."
"Huh," Naruto said as he examined it. "That's neat. Can I grab a pen?"
Sakura handed it over silently, not wanting to feel as comfortable as she did, and while she and Sasuke watched Naruto scribbled something else on the paper in his rough handwriting.
We're coming too!
The ink faded away like it had last time, and returned anew a second later.
Wait, it said this time.
We are coming for you.
Not much of a change, but for some reason the extra words made Sakura frown. Two more words for two more people. Was that all? Had Rain really been expecting that all three of them would defect?
They waited with nothing to say. They were all afraid that something would change if they spoke; that someone would realize a mistake was being made. Fifteen, thirty, forty minutes. Sakura was beginning to doze off again; she hadn't thought it would take this long for some reason. Naruto was doing the same. Sasuke was still fully alert, his Sharingan active and scanning the treeline. He'd always needed the least sleep of them. Even if it was the most important day of her life, Sakura was still exhausted.
Forty-four minutes after they'd written on the paper, Sasuke stood up.
"Something's coming," he said, and just like that Sakura and Naruto were fully awake. They watched as Sasuke looked up, his Sharingan growing wide.
"What…" he muttered, and then in the light of the moon Sakura saw it too.
A woman with white wings, soaring through the sky.
As Team Seven watched, the woman glided down towards them with the moon at her back. Her wings flapped leisurely, too slowly to truly support her, and Sakura blinked.
It was Konan, she thought. One of the Amekage themselves was coming for them. She was frozen, the weight of their future bearing down on her with impossible finality.
The woman smiled at her, the same smile that she'd given Sakura when she'd judged her at the end of the Exam, and landed so gently that even the grass wasn't disturbed.
"Good morning," she said in her melodic voice, as if she was greeting them in the street instead of in the middle of a field. "A little early to be defecting, isn't it?"
Was she talking about the time of day, or the fact it had barely been more than two months since the Exam? Or both? Sakura couldn't tell. All her senses were stretched to absurdity. Every single word carried infinite import.
Act confident, she thought, breathing in. Be yourself. Be Sakura Haruno, defector.
But Sakura Haruno, defector, wasn't supposed to be there with her teammates, and Sakura found it hard to pretend that wasn't the case.
"Amekage," she said, and Konan raised an eyebrow. "Haku told me to write in that paper if I ever felt like Konoha wasn't the right place for me." It wasn't rehearsed, but Sakura felt the words coming as if she'd been running them through her head for years. "And I don't think it is. I want to go with you. We," she said, gesturing at her friends, "want to go with you. I… I want to find out more about the Akatsuki."
It wasn't even a lie. Sakura was proud of herself. Konan regarded her with a gentle curiosity, and then nodded.
"Of course," she said, and Sakura couldn't believe she'd been accepted that easily. "And what about you two?" she asked, glancing at Naruto and Sasuke. Her eyes skimmed over their bruises with obvious interest.
"She was trying to sneak away," Naruto said indignantly, lying like only a single child could. "Like she couldn't even tell us what she was thinking." He jerked his head towards Sasuke. "And this asshole was too. I couldn't stop both of them, and I'm sure as hell not going to let them just run off on their own."
"Ha." Konan let out a little laugh. "That's very noble of you, Namikaze," she said, and Naruto grinned meanly. "You were hoping to leave too, Sasuke Uchiha?" she continued, and Sasuke grunted.
"The last time I saw my brother, he said he was working for you," he said with a glare, and Konan shifted, not saying anything one way or the other. "I need to find him." How could he be that confident, Sakura thought, to stare down another Kage without flinching? Sasuke was definitely the strongest of them.
This time, Konan's laugh was louder. "So," she said, pointing at Sakura, and then Sasuke. "In search of ideals, and vengeance. And you…" She lingered on Naruto. "You're a fine shinobi, Naruto Namikaze. Do you know how many ninja would simply forsake their comrades for changing the symbol on their forehead?"
Naruto looked surprised at the compliment, and Konan shook her head. "If you'd truly chase your friends to another village, you're exactly the kind of ninja we're looking for." Her smile turned a little sour. "But defecting is not as easy as just saying so. You'll all be questioned; are you prepared for that?"
Sakura and Sasuke nodded, and Naruto snorted. "Try me," he said, crossing his arms. Konan's grin matched his.
"I'm happy to hear that," she said, stepping forward. "Hold out your hands."
They all did it without hesitation, the whole team moving as one unit, and Sakura saw a little light in Konan's golden eyes. Team Seven presented their hands out, palms up.
"Let me show you this," Konan said, and she removed from her Akatsuki robe a handful of small black rods. They looked like ordinary metal to Sakura, but she saw the way Sasuke cocked his head at them, his eyes darting minutely as he followed the flow of some invisible chakra within them.
"This is a mechanism for a summoning," Konan said, and Sakura let out an understanding noise. "However, it's going to hurt a little. You have to penetrate the skin with them." She made no motion to force them on any of them, just waited there with her open hand, the rods glinting in the moonlight. "If you have any second thoughts, consider them now. This isn't something you should have any possible regrets about." Her eyes flashed. "You're stepping down a path that cannot be walked back."
Sakura looked at her teammates, and they at her and each other.
She found, to her astonishment, that she didn't have a hint of regret.
They nodded as one, and each took one of the rods. Sakura considered it, found the edge sharper than she'd have thought, and pushed it into the skin of her palm.
A couple drops of her blood spilled out, running over the black metal, and Sakura felt a boiling hot chakra pour into her arm, suffusing her whole body in an instant.
There was a flash of smoke, and the moon shone down on an empty field.
Team Seven was gone.
, even if I know it will doom any discussion of the actual chapter, lol.
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