Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sakura moves to Konoha when she is five.

It is not her idea. If she had her way, she would stay in Suna, where it’s warm and it storms for days, not go to stupid Konoha where it’s a lot cooler and it only really sprinkles and there’s snow.

Snow is stupid. There’s no snow in Suna.

Mama says that they’re moving to Konoha because it has a better economy. And it has more merchant clans, too, so there’s better chances for alliances.

“I miss Gaara-chan, though,” Sakura complains, from the wagon that she and her parents are traveling in.

“No, you don’t,” Papa says. “As soon as we told you that you two might get married, you threw a fit and made Gaara say that you two weren’t friends.”

Sakura makes a face. “I miss Gaara-chan, not getting married to Gaara-chan. I don’t ever want to get married.”

Sakura’s mama snorts. It’s an undignified way for a lady to laugh, and her mama corrects herself into a titter almost immediately.

“You won’t think that forever,” she says. “Besides, there’s lots of nice people in Konoha. You’ll like them.”

“Will not,” Sakura says. “I don’t like anyone from Konoha.”

The shinobi following behind the wagon laughs. “Aw, that’s not very nice, hime-chan. After all, I’m from Konoha. Are you saying you don’t like me?”

“I said what I said,” Sakura says. That’s what her Papa says when someone is trying to negotiate with him badly.

The shinobi just laughs. Sakura scowls at him.

-+-

Sakura makes a face when they finally make it to Konoha. It’s got walls around it, and forests around that, and a mountain on the other side, and it looks like a closet. Suna had been all wide-open space, when you got to on top of the mesas surrounding it: golden sand and bright blue sky for miles and miles and miles until it all faded into one kind of fuzzy orange-blue line.

Sakura can barely see thirty feet here.

She makes a face at the shinobi who are guarding the gate, but they just laugh and make faces back at her. She scowls, and makes her ugliest, scariest face at them.

They just laugh again, so she turns with a huff so that they know that she’s not looking at them.

Her new house in Konoha is also disappointing. It’s all one color, close to white but not close enough for it to actually be white, and it looks dirty and the roof is green and it’s got weird curved tiles that Mama says are for the rain. It’s nothing like their house in Suna, which had been tall and circular and baked golden in the sun, but still cool on the hottest days and still warm in the dead of the cold nights.

Sakura makes another face. She’s never gonna get used to the sound of rain on the roof.

“You know,” Papa says, “it actually rains all the time in Kiri. You can’t go outside without an umbrella, most days.”

Sakura makes another face.

Papa laughs. “What’s that for? You’re half-Kiri, you know?”

“‘We are more than our forefathers’,” Sakura quotes. “I’m also half-Suna. And Suna’s way better than crummy old Konoha.”

Papa shrugs. “I can’t really disagree. Maybe don’t say that so loud here, though, it might peeve off a couple of people.”

“Whatever,” Sakura says. “Rasa-jisama says that peeving people off is a special talent of Suna.”

Papa sighs. “Rasa-jisama says a lot of things.” He picks his daughter up. “Come on, let’s go pick out your new room.”

-+-

The next day, Papa and Mama take Sakura to go meet with the hokage.

Technically, Sakura doesn’t have to come. Papa’s supposed to meet with him because he used to be a foreign shinobi, and Mama’s supposed to meet with him to make sure she’s not loyal to Rasa-jisama anymore. Sakura’s just a kid, so she doesn’t really count, but Mama and Papa don’t know how to requisition D-ranks for genin to watch Sakura yet and apparently they don’t trust her not to burn the house down.

So Papa carries her on his shoulders into a very tall tower that nearly looks like where Rasa-jisama works, but squatter and uglier. It’s painted red, and it has the same roof style that Sakura’s new house does, and it’s got the kanji for fire on the front of it as big as anything, just in case somebody forgot where Konoha was.

Inside the squat little building, Papa carries Sakura up a few sets of stairs, just behind Mama, until they come to a hallway with some benches set on the wall. Papa sets Sakura down on the bench and tells her to wait while he and Mama go and talk to one of the shinobi standing next to the door.

After they talk to the shinobi and he slips in through the door, Sakura and her parents wait on the bench for what feels like hours and hours until the shinobi finally comes out and motions them in.

The room behind the door is mostly empty, besides some furniture, some pictures, some people who are trying to be invisible, and an old man sitting behind the desk.

“Haruno-san, Hasuno-san,” the old man says, nodding. His gaze goes from Mama and Papa to Sakura, and he smiles. “And who might you be?”

Sakura bows, her right hand against her left wrist like Mama taught her. “I’m Haru no Sakura, sir. My parents are Haru no Mebuki and Hasuno Kizashi.”

The man keeps smiling and puffs on his pipe. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sakura-chan.”

“You too,” Sakura says, straightening. “Who might you be?”

“Sakura,” Mama chides.

“Quite alright, Haruno-san. I don’t mind children,” the old man says. “My name is Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sakura-chan. You should call me Hokage-sama.”

Sakura tilts her head. “Is being hokage like being kazekage?”

The hokage chuckles. “I suppose it would be. Do you know the kazekage?”

Sakura nods eagerly. “Rasa-jisama is the kazekage. He’s really tough, though, and really strict.”

“Sacchan, I’m sure that hokage-sama doesn’t want to hear about your opinions on Rasa-jisama,” Papa says, picking Sakura up and holding her against his chest. “I’m sorry about her, hokage-sama. She’s too curious for her own good.”

“Am not,” Sakura says.

“I don’t mind at all, Hasuno-san,” the hokage says. “Although, you may be right. I know that children can be… distracting, in these kinds of situations. Sakura-chan, would you mind waiting outside for us? I can have one of my assistants give you some paper to color on?’

“Okay,” Sakura says. She lets Papa set her on the floor and pats him on the head before she walks outside of the office with one of the people who was pretending to be invisible before.

In the hallway, the shinobi that had been guarding the door smiles at Sakura and gives her a pile of papers and a pencil when she sits down on the bench.

Sakura’s not sure how long she sits on the bench without her parents. She draws Gaara, and her and Gaara, and her and Gaara and Temari, and her and Temari, and even her and Gaara and Temari and Kankurou, and Mama and Papa still aren’t done talking to hokage-sama.

Sakura keeps drawing. She draws Rasa-jisama and Momo-jii and Mama and Papa and their old house back in Suna, and they’re still not done talking by the time she’s finished with all that.

And then, just when she’s about to ball up the paper and throw it at the shinobi guarding the door to see if he’s as good at ignoring distractions as the shinobi back in Suna, someone very loud comes barrelling up the stairs and down the hallway.

“Hey!” He yells. “Shinobi-san, shinobi-san, is Jiji done yet? I’m bored and the ANBU are huge losers and everybody’s mad just ‘cause of a little paint and we’re supposed to meet today, y’know!”

He skids to a stop in front of the shinobi guarding the door, waving his arms and gesturing wildly.

The shinobi just shakes his head.

The boy scowls. “Jeez! And he specifically requested me, too! How rude!” He looks over at Sakura. “Hi, who are you?”

“Haru no Sakura,” she says. “You can call me Sakura-chan, if you want.”

The boy grins. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto! You can call me Naruto-kun, though. I’m the coolest shinobi in Konoha!” He strides over to the bench and sits next to Sakura. “Whatcha drawing?”

“You’re not a shinobi. You’re my age.” Sakura says. She frowns as she feels Naruto’s presence. She leans closer to him, closing her eyes. Naruto sputters for a moment, but Sakura just reaches out and holds him still. “You seem familiar,” she says, slowly.

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto asks. “You’re, uhm, really close, y’know.”

“I know,” Sakura says. “You just seem familiar.” She focuses, ignoring whatever Naruto’s babbling about. After another moment of thinking, she opens her eyes wide and sits back with a grin. “You remind me of Gaara-chan, that’s it!”

“Gaara-chan?” Naruto asks. His face is flushed red, but very slowly returning to normal. “Who’s Gaara-chan?”

“He’s my best friend, but we moved away so now he’s not,” Sakura explains. “Do you wanna be best friends?”

“Really?” Naruto asks. “I mean, with me?”

Sakura frowns and tilts her head to the side. “Yeah, why not?”

“No reason, it’s just- I mean, you could make lots more friends besides me, y’know? And if you make friends with me, no one will wanna be friends with you.”

Sakura puts her hands on her hips. “I don’t care about anyone else, though. You’re like Gaara-chan, so I wanna be friends with you! And besides, you’re the first person I met here!”

Naruto frowns and worries at his lip. “Alright, I guess. How long have you been here? Where are you from?”

“I’m from Suna. I only moved here yesterday.”

“Neat! What’s Suna like?”

Sakura explains all about Suna, going into as much detail as she can, explaining how the sand used to burn when you walked around, unless you were wearing ankle-high shinobi boots, and how you could go out and cut up some cactus meat, and how long the days were and how hot they were. By the time she’s explaining to Naruto how the moon sometimes looks like it has a halo around it, her parents are finally out of the hokage-sama’s office.

“Hey there, Sacchan,” Papa says, leaning against the wall and smiling at Sakura and Naruto. “Did you make a new friend?”

Sakura nods. “This is Nacchan! He’s a lot like Gaara-chan. He’s really nice and really cool and he likes learning about Suna!”

“Nacchan?” Naruto demands, shooting up straight. “I said you could call me Naruto-kun, not Nacchan!”

Sakura pouts. “But Nacchan’s a cute nickname! Plus, then we can be Nacchan and Sacchan. Isn’t that a good idea?”

Naruto slumps back. “I guess,” he says.

Sakura grins. “Told you so!”

“Sacchan, leave that boy alone,” Mama said. “It was nice to meet you, Naruto-kun, but Sakura has to be on her way.”

“Aw, can’t Nacchan come over?” Sakura pleads. “He’s my best friend! And it’s important to be hospible.”

“Hospitable,” Mama corrects. “And our house isn’t ready for visitors yet, Sacchan. Naruto-kun can come over once it is, alright?”

Sakura pouts. “Fine.”

“Good girl,” Mama says. “Come here, then. We’ve got to get home and get everything unpacked.”

“Alright,” Sakura says. She takes a moment to shuffle through her drawings, and passes the best ones to Naruto. “Bye-bye, Nacchan! I’ll see you later!”

“Bye, Sakura-chan,” Naruto says, as Sakura guides her parents out of the stupid hokage building.

-+-

“Every time,” Mama says, as soon as they’re out of the hokage building. “Every single time. The odds are staggering.”

“Gaara was definitely your fault,” Papa says. “Karura was your cousin.”

“And Yagura was your kouhai,” Mama says. “And now we’re in Konoha, where neither of us have family, and she’s already made friends with another one.”

Papa is quiet for a moment. “Maybe she’s a monster, and she’s gathering information on them.”

“That’s not funny, Kizashi,” Mama snaps. “We may not be in Kiri, but-”

“I know, Mebuki,” Papa says quietly. “Every hidden village has their secrets. Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to Sakura.”

“I know,” Mama says. “I know, Kizashi. I just worry.”

“Papa,” Sakura interrupts. “Carry me.”

Kizashi laughs. “Already? Aren’t you strong?”

Sakura sticks her tongue out at him. “I’m super strong. You still gotta carry me.”

Kizashi laughs. “Sound logic, there.” He bends down and scoops Sakura up and onto his shoulders. “Ready to go home?”

“We’re not going home, we’re going to the Konoha house. It’s different.”

“It won’t be so long, Sakura. You’ll get used to it,” Mama says.

“Hmm,” Sakura says. “I guess I do like Nacchan, and he’s from Konoha.”

“Very true,” Mama agrees. “You’ll get to know a lot of things from Konoha that you’ll like.”

“We’ll see,” Sakura says.

Chapter Text

Karatachi Yagura isn’t sure what one is supposed to bring to what is not quite a baby shower, what with the baby already being born. The baby was born a while ago, actually, over six months, and Yagura isn’t exactly sure why he had to wait so long to bring a gift for the baby.

Probably to make sure that it stuck, Isobu guesses, unhelpfully. Human babies are notorious for dying.

Don't be depressing, Yagura orders. Senpai’s baby is never going to die.

Well, that’s just blatantly untrue.

I didn't say that it was realistic, I said that senpai’s baby is not going to die.

Isobu is silent, but only for a moment.

You’re being difficult.

You're a turtle.

Yagura sighs, rolls his shoulders, and knocks on his senpai’s door with the hand that isn’t holding the gift for the baby.

It’s not even a moment later before Hasuno Kizashi slams the door open, grinning from ear-to-ear, not looking at all like a responsible father of an infant.

“Yakkun!” He greets, excited as always, and lifts Yagura in a tight hug, spinning around to set the young teenager inside the house. “Glad you could make it! Come on, come on, Mecchan and Sacchan are waiting in the living room. What’d you bring? Sacchan’s teething right now, and she’s been chewing on everything, so if you brought something rubber, Mecchan’s probably going to kiss you. If it’s a stuffed animal, she might slap you. Sacchan’s been tearing them up like she’s a dog. I dunno where she gets her strength, it must be a Suna thing. Anyways, how are you? You’re taking the jounin practical soon, right? That’s good, I’m sure you’ll make it. It’s gonna-”

“Kizashi, my love, light of my life,” Haru no Mebuki interrupts, face serene and tone kind, “shut up and let Yagura-kun get a word in edgewise.”

Kizashi just laughs. “Sorry, Mecchan, Yakkun.”

“You are the same as always,” Yagura says, calmly. Kizashi laughs again and steps over his daughter, who is playing with the head of a stuffed dog, and kneels next to his wife. Yagura kneels on the other side of them, and the child stares at him.

“Ah-bih!” The baby says. She grins and shoves her hand into her mouth.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Sakura-chan,” Yagura says politely. He passes the package to her. She throws the dog head aside and begins tearing into the package with relish.

“Did you tape the box shut?” Mebuki asks. “She can’t open tape, yet.”

“Gohf,” the baby disagrees. There are already scraps of tape stuck to her fingertips, which she shakes viciously. “Dah!”

“I have a kunai, Mebuki-san. I can open it, if she cannot.”

Kizashi sucks his teeth, and leans into whisper to Yagura. “Yakkun, Mecchan doesn’t want Sacchan to be near any ninja stuff. She won’t even give her a toy kunai until she’s at least three.”

Yagura’s forehead wrinkles involuntarily. “I think I received a toy kunai when I was born.”

“Yeah, me too! Mecchan says it’s different in Suna, though.”

“Mecchan can also hear you,” Mebuki interrupts. She pulls Kizashi back by the collar of his shirt. “Don’t worry, Yagura-kun. As long as you don’t give it to Sakura, I don’t mind.”

It doesn’t seem to be an issue, though, as the baby tears the box open, punched through the side of the box itself, and has pulled out the gifts of a water lily patterned onesie and a rubber turtle bath toy.

Kizashi gave Yagura two thumbs up from behind Mebuki.

-+-

“Ah,” Sakura says. She points at Yagura.

Kizashi laughs. “She likes you! I told you you would be fine, Yakkun.”

“She could be pointing at me as someone she dislikes, senpai,” Yagura points out.

“No, she likes you,” Kizashi says, confidently. “She’s mine and Mecchan’s daughter, right? There’s no way she wouldn’t like you.”

“She bit me yesterday.”

Kizashi laughs again. “The Hasuno are distantly related to the Hōzuki, you know? My baby girl’s gonna have real sharp teeth.”

Yagura grimaces. “You are far too exuberant for being informed of your daughter’s tendency towards assaulting jounin of Kirigakure.”

“You think you’ve got it bad? She almost got my ear one time, when she hit her head on a table and needed me to hold her for a little bit. If she weren’t bright pink practically everywhere, I’d almost think she’s part Hoshigaki.”

Yagura shudders. “Don’t even joke about that. I fear for my safety.”

“Ah!” Sakura says again. She points at Yagura again and shakes her hand as she does it.

“No, thank you,” Yagura says, politely.

Sakura sighs heavily and stands up in her high chair and points at Yagura again. “Ah! Abashubhuhbuaba!”

“I said, no, thank you.”

“She wants up,” Kizashi says, smoothly clearing Sakura’s dishes away. “Just pick her up. Carry her like she’s a handful of caltrops.”

Yagura examines the toddler skeptically before he cautiously lifts her, adjusting her until he’s holding her feet in his cupped hands.

“Bwah,” Sakura says.

You’re terrible at this, Isobu says.

-+-

“Yagoo,” Sakura says. She grabs Yagura’s apron and pulls on it almost hard enough to completely remove it from his outfit. Yagura tries his best to ignore her as he reads through the possible upcoming missions he could take.

“Yagoo!” Sakura repeats. She pulls harder on his apron.

“Sakura-chan, you may refer to me as Yagura-nii or Yagura-san,” Yagura explains patiently. “Referring to me as Yakkun is inappropriate, given your age and our respective rankings. It could even be considered inappropriate for your father to refer to me as Yakkun, but he is one of the most powerful shinobi in our village.”

Sakura blinks at him. “Yagoo,” she says, again.

“No,” Yagura says. “Yagura-nii.”

“Yagoo.”

“Yagura-nii.”

“Yagoo.”

“Yagura-nii.”

“Yagoo!”

Yagura sighs, and rubs his forehead. He can feel a headache coming on.

“Yagura-nii.”

Sakura scowls. “Yagoo!” She holds both her hands up to him. “Up!”

Yagura stares at her for a moment. He sighs and sets the clipboard aside before acquiescing and lifting her by one wrist.

“Yagoo,” Sakura says again, sounding a lot happier. She puts her free thumb in her mouth and begins swinging from Yagura’s grip.

“Yagura-nii,” Yagura corrects, again.

“Zaboo!”

“It is starting to seem like you are doing this on purpose. Zaboo sounds nothing like Yagura-nii.”

“Morning, mini-nin, mini-senpai,” Momochi says, from behind Yagura.

“Momochi-san, next time you call me mini-nin, I'm going to castrate you.”

Momochi, as always, ignores him to wave at Sakura.

“Zaboo,” Sakura repeats. She waves at Momochi with her spit-flecked hand..

“Wrong,” Momochi says. He pokes Sakura’s nose. “Momochi-jichan.”

Sakura scowls. “Momo-jii.”

“Sure, good enough.” He ruffles Sakura’s and Yagura’s hair, seemingly not put off by Sakura snapping at his fingers or Yagura involuntarily flaring Isobu’s chakra at the annoyance. Yagura’s headache pounds.

“Why does she refer to you properly, but not me?”

Momochi raises an eyebrow and pokes Yagura’s nose. “I’m tougher than you, mini-nin. That’s why.”

“I refuse to believe you are superior to me in any way, Momochi-san.”

“Shouldn’t you call me senpai?”

Yagura doesn’t know precisely what happens to his face, but it makes Momochi laugh, so he works his hardest to smooth his features.

“Fine, fine, no senpai. Speaking of, shouldn’t mini-him be with her dad? Who trusted you with a kid?”

“Senpai requested that I keep an eye on her while he is on a mission and Mebuki-san is on a trading trip. It should only be for today and tomorrow.” He rubs his forehead again. “I believe I am coming down with a headache.”

Momochi shrugs. “That’s not the first time I’ve been called a headache. Maybe not in front of mini-senpai, though, huh?”

Yagura sighs.

-+-

Hasuno Kizashi kneels on the floor of the meeting room of the mizukage, and doesn’t recognize the man kneeling on the dais opposite him.

The man almost looks like Karatachi Yagura, almost looks like the boy that Kizashi has known since his first babysitting E-ranks, with his gray-blonde hair and hot pink eyes, scar on one, deceptively slight limbs and childish body.

Almost, but not quite.

The man on the dais- the man who is supposed to be Kizashi’s mizukage, his first, last, and every priority from when he ties his hitai-ate on in the morning until he falls asleep at night- he is not Karatachi Yagura.

The man’s eyes are cold, hot pink frosted over instead of so bright and so clever, like Yakkun’s always had been. He is kneeling formally and has a sharp scowl on his face, instead of his usual carefully measured neutrality.

“Mizukage-sama,” Kizashi says, because he cannot call the man on the dais “Yakkun”. He leans forward and presses his forehead and hands to the floor. “I beg that you forgive me for abandoning my post. I leave Kirigakure for the love of my wife and child, not for betrayal. The Will of Water still flows through my veins, and it always shall. For the happiness of my wife and child, and the improvement of the lives they could live outside of Kirigakure, I beg you accept my gift as my hitai-ate, that you never forget who I was when I belonged to you.”

He remains there, kneeling with his forehead against the floor, waiting patiently for his kage’s response.

After several long minutes, the mizukage spoke.

“I… accept your apology, Hasuno-san,” he says. “And I accept your hitai-ate along with it.”

Kizashi straightens, unties his hitai-ate from around his bicep, and folds it neatly before setting it on the ground and pushing it towards his kage.

“I release you from your vows to Kirigakure, and from any significant relationships you have here,” Yagura continues.

If Kizashi were a lesser shinobi, his breath would catch in his throat.

“You will be granted no mercy. You will be expected to exit Kirigakure as soon as possible.”

Yagura is quiet for a moment.

“If you ever return to Kirigakure, you will be assumed to be here as a hostile force.”

Kizashi swallows. “I understand, Mizukage-sama.”

Yagura nods sharply. “Dismissed.”

Kizashi nods, stands, and bows. He turns to leave the room.

“Hasuno-san.” Yagura calls.

Kizashi turns to look over his shoulder. “Mizukage-sama?”

Yagura blinks heavily. His eyes seem more awake, suddenly, flashing with intelligence again, no longer frosted like glass.

“Hasuno-san,” Yagura says again. “Good luck.”

Kizashi waits for a moment, and sees Yagura’s eyes go glassy again.

“Thank you, Mizukage-sama.”

Yagura nods again. “Dismissed.”

Kizashi leaves Yagura behind.

Chapter Text

Gaara falls in love with Hasuno Sakura as soon as he lays eyes on her.

She is loud and excited and bouncing and jumping and she is so much like the other kids that he used to try to play with that it almost hurts, and she smiles at him and says hello-my-name-is-hasuno-sakura-can-we-be-friends like she doesn’t even care that he’s a monster, or that he hurts people, or that no one loves him. She grins at him, eyes and mouth wide, and won’t leave him alone. She grabs both his hands in hers and demands his friendship, and he can’t disagree.

Father orders him to refuse her. Tells him that he is far too dangerous to be friends with the half-civilian child. Asks, “You don’t want to hurt her, do you? You’re a monster, Gaara. I won’t allow you to hurt her.”

But when Gaara tells Sakura that, she just scowls and puts her hands on her hips.

“What does it matter what your tou-san says? I want to be your friend. If your tou-san bothers you about it again, tell him that I said it was okay. Okay?”

Gaara just stares at her, shocked at how brash she is, at her confidence, at how little she cares for what the kazekage could do to her, and he finally nods, slowly.

Seeing him nod, Sakura grins again, the same enormous grin that she was wearing when she was first introduced to Gaara. “Great! So we’re friends now, right?”

Hesitantly, Gaara nods again.

“Since we’re friends, can I call you Gaara-chan? And you can call me Sakura-chan, okay?”

Gaara nods again, finally confident that this is the right answer.

Sakura echoes his nod, far more decisively, “Let’s go play on top of the mesa, okay, Gaara-chan?”

Gaara swallows. “Okay, Sakura-chan.”

Sakura’s face, if possible, brightens even more, and she grabs Gaara’s hand.

“Let’s go, then!”

As she pulls him along with her, Gaara feels safe.

-+-

Gaara didn’t mean to. That’s what he tells Mebuki-bāsama and Kizashi-jichan and Chichi-ue and Temari and Kankurou and everyone who even looks at him. He didn’t mean to. He was just trying to show her. She was the one who wanted to do it, it wasn’t even Gaara’s idea He had wanted to play Go, actually, but Sakura-chan had wanted to play shinobi and had wanted to spar, and Gaara had tried to say no but Sakura had insisted, had said “Aren’t we best friends?”, had pouted until Gaara finally gave in. And he had been trying not to hurt her, and had been doing his best to be gentle, but-

But, his head had hurt, and he had wanted to go somewhere quiet, and the demon within him had been shouting and screaming, and Sakura-chan had been being loud too, and the sun was too bright and the air was too hot and the sand was too itchy and Sakura had thrown a weak punch, not even enough to hurt or even really bother Gaara, but it had been too much, and he had thrown out his hand and struck out at Sakura-chan with a sandy whip, and her face had started bleeding; a long, thin stripe of blood just below her right eye that had (so quickly, too quickly, too much too fast too red) curtained over her cheek and begun dripping off her chin.

And Sakura-chan, for the first time that Gaara could remember, had burst into tears.

And she had run away from him, darting to one of the jounin stationed on the mesa, who had picked her up, glared at Gaara, and leapt down into Suna proper.

Not enough, the monster in Gaara’s head said. We want more.

He hadn’t meant to.

“You see what you’ve done?” Chichi-ue had said. “I told you. You can’t be trusted around her.”

“I know you didn’t mean to,” Kizashi-jichan had explained, smile and voice tight, “but I think you and Sacchan need some time apart.”

Mebuki-bāsama hadn’t said anything, had just put her hand on Gaara’s head.

“It’s okay, Gaara,” Yashamaru had said. “We all know you can’t help how you are.”

And Temari and Kankurou had just looked at him, scared of him, like they were about to run. They had been less scared of him since Sakura had gotten there, had been spending time with her (and, by extension, him, because Gaara was Sakura’s best friend, her favorite, so they spent all their time together, and he had hurt her-

Gaara kills the jounin who is following him through the village.

-+-

"I forgive you," Sakura says.

-+-

“Gaara-kun,” Mebuki-bāsama says, sweetly. She and Kizashi-jichan are sitting on their sofa, while Gaara and Sakura-chan are squeezed together in an armchair across from them. Sakura is holding Gaara’s hand with one of hers and holding a rapidly melting popsicle in the other.

“Sacchan,” Kizashi-jichan adds, with much more warning in his voice than Mebuki-bāsama had had.

Sakura, uncowed, just sticks her now-blue tongue out at him.

“Sakura,” Mebuki-bāsama says sharply, and Sakura settles back in the armchair, grumbling.

Mebuki-bāsama and Kizashi-jichan both just sigh.

Mebuki-bāsama clears her throat. “Anyway,” she says, “we have a very important thing to tell the two of you.”

“Ask,” Kizashi-jichan corrects.

Mebuki-bāsama sighs again. “We have a very important thing to ask the two of you.”

A silence settles over the room.

“... What is it?” Sakura-chan asks, mouth still half-full of ice cream.

“Don’t talk with your mouth open, dear,” Mebuki-bāsama says.

“Your mother and I,” Kizashi-jichan begins, before glancing at Gaara. “That is, Rasa-jisama and your mother and I have been talking, and we thought that it would be convenient if you and Gaara-chan would get married.”

Gaara freezes, and he feels Sakura-chan go still next to him.

“What,” Sakura-chan finally chokes out.

“Marriage, dear,” Mebuki-bāsama says. “You have a rather high rank in merchant society. It’s a bit early, but why put off until tomorrow what can be done today? You and Gaara-kun get along quite well, and you both share a similar rank in society. Really, it’s a perfect match.”

“I don’t even like Gaara-chan!” Sakura insists, throwing both her hands in the air. Drops of ice cream splatter everywhere.

“Sacchan, you’re still holding his hand,” Kizashi-jichan reminds her.

Sakura scowls and drops Gaara’s hand. “But I don’t like Gaara-chan. He gave me this scar, and he’s mean, and one time he punched me in the arm, and he likes fried lizard and he hates fish and I love fish.”

“Sakura, you said you didn’t mind the scar,” Mebuki-bāsama says.

“And we were sparring when I hit you. You said it was okay,” Gaara says, feeling slightly put out.

“And you only like fish if it’s fried and covered in ketchup, which is the same way Gaara-kun likes it,” Kizashi-jichan says.

“Really, Sakura, you’re just being difficult,” Mebuki-bāsama says.

“We’re not friends!” Sakura insists. She turns to glare at Gaara. “Gaara-chan, we’re not friends.”

Gaara’s heart stops. “We’re not?”

“No!” She pokes his chest. “Say we’re not friends!”

“Sacchan, I think-” Kizashi-jichan begins.

“Sakura-” Mebuki-bāsama says at the same time.

Gaara can feel his heart beating loud in his chest, his eyes watering, can hear the thump, thump, thump, thump of blood in his head.

“We’re not friends,” he says, still overwhelmed.

“Say you don’t like me!”

“Sacchan, that’s enough,” Kizashi-jichan says.

“I- I don’t like you.”

“Say you’re never gonna be my friend again!”

“Sakura, enough!” Mebuki-bāsama snaps.

Sakura glares at her mother. “I’m not marrying Gaara-chan.” She jumps off the armchair and stomps away for a few steps, before abruptly turning around and grabbing Gaara to pull him along with her.

She stomps all the way out of the house, slamming the door behind her, and out towards the steps of the mesa before she finally calms down enough for her footsteps to go back to normal.

“The nerve!” She says, and that definitely sounds like something she took from Temari. “The audacity! How dare they!”

Gaara just stares at her. “Y-you brought me with you?” Tears are still streaming down his face. His throat is still raw, and there’s still sand curling around him.

“Of course I did! We’re best friends!”

“But- you made me say-”

Sakura waves her free hand, as if fanning away Gaara’s words. “That’s for an alibi. That way, Mama and Papa won’t try and make us get married again.”

Gaara hiccups. “You don’t hate me?”

“Of course not!” Sakura finally seems to notice Gaara’s blotched and teary face. “I’m sorry, Gaara-chan. I should’ve warned you. Rasa-jisama gives mission briefings, doesn’t he? I should’ve given you a mission briefing that you would have to say that.”

She tackles him in a hug, ignoring the sand swirling around his body and getting ice cream in his hair. “Gaara-chan is my best friend. I just don’t wanna get married to you.”

Hesitantly, Gaara encircles his own arms around Sakura’s body.

After a moment, Sakura steps out of the hug. “Getting married to someone would be terrible.”

Gaara shuffles awkwardly. “I dunno. I think it might be nice if we got married, ‘cause I like you a lot and we’re best friends and if we got married we could live together and have sweets for dinner every day.”

“No, getting married would be terrible, even if we’re best friends and we had sweets for dinner every day,” Sakura says.

“Why?”

“I’m never gonna get married, Gaara-chan,” Sakura says. Her ice cream is melting over her hand, but she doesn’t really seem to be paying attention. “Mama and Papa keep telling me that I should get married in order to make more connections in the world, but I don’t want to do that. I’m my own human person, and I’m not a tool. That’s the first thing they teach you in Kiri.”

“But we’re not in Kiri,” Gaara says.

“I know that,” Sakura says. “But I’m from Kiri, and I don’t wanna stop being a person just because people want me to get married because it’s avantigous.”

“What’s avantigous?”

“It’s when it makes stuff easier. Papa says that it’s avantigous for me to use my cute face if I become a shinobi.”

Gaara nods, like he knows what Sakura is talking about.

“Anyway,” Sakura says, crossing her arms. Her ice cream ends up against her armpit and she eyes it with disgust before letting it fall to the ground. “Anyway. I don’t wanna get married to you.”

“Okay,” Gaara says. “We don’t have to.”

Sakura sighs heavily. “Yeah, we do. ‘Cause Mama always gets her way.”

“If you’ll excuse me,” Kizashi-jichan says, “you might remember that I said we were going to ask you about getting married.”

Sakura jumps. “Papa! You’re not allowed to sneak around until I get shinobi training!”

“You just ran away from home after you made Gaara-kun cry, Sakura. You’re grounded from any mention of shinobi training for the next week.”

Sakura pouts and scuffs her foot at the sand. “I didn’t wanna marry Gaara-chan, though.”

Kizashi-jichan sighs. “You didn’t let us finish, Sacchan. Yes, your Mama and Rasa-jisama think that you and Gaara-kun getting married would be a good thing. But we’re giving you an option. And, obviously, you don’t want to marry Gaara-kun.”

Sakura shakes her head forcefully.

“Right. So, let’s go home, and stop riling up Gaara-kun. Tell Mama that you’ve said no. Alright?”

Sakura nods, and holds up her hands. “Carry me!”

Kizashi-jichan sighs, and lifts Sakura up to his shoulders. “Alright. Gaara-kun, can you make it back on your own?”

Gaara nods, and Kizashi-jichan and Sakura-chan wave as they walk away.

-+-

Sakura leaves Suna a few months later, and she makes him promise not to forget her.

She draws a red heart on his hand, and then puts an angry frowny-face inside it.

“So you know that we’re not gonna get married, but I still love you,” Sakura says. “Don’t forget the heart, okay?”

“Okay,” Gaara says. “I’ll miss you, Sakura-chan. We’re still friends, right?”

“Duh,” Saura says. “Forever. Okay?”

“Okay,” Gaara says. He passes a small glass bottle of his sand to Sakura. “This is so you don’t forget me, okay?”

Sakura grins. “I’d never forget Gaara-chan!” She tackles Gaara in a hug and squeezes him so tight that it almost feels like she’s trying to squeeze his insides out. “Besides, I got your scar to remind me. Right?”

“Right,” Gaara says. He swallows. “I’ll miss you a lot.”

“I’ll miss you a lot too, Gaara-chan,” Sakura says. “Come visit me sometime, okay?”

“Okay,” Gaara agrees.

Sakura finally pulls out of the hug with a smaller smile. “Bye-bye, Gaara-chan.”

“Goodbye,” Gaara says, as Sakura walks away.

Chapter Text

Kakashi is starting to think that Hiruzen might be upset with him.

He is starting to think this because the new genin team that he is supposed to test is composed of the last loyal Uchiha, the jinchuuriki (who also just happens to be Kakashi’s sensei’s kid), and the kid with ties to the mizukage, kazekage, one of the biggest textile merchant clans, one of the most powerful shinobi to come out of Kiri, three jinchuuriki, and eight of the most dramatic playground fights, as recounted by Iruka.

And he’s going to have to pass this genin team, because this is the political powerhouse. This is the last loyal Uchiha, the son of the yondaime, and the one girl who managed to have political connections deeper than Hiruzen's own.

And she is pink. She’s not even 150 centimeters, and she’s dressed in the typical dress that Kakashi would expect from an heiress to a civilian clan, and she’s pink. She looks like a camellia blossom, but not the deep, rich red like it usually should be. It’s underripe, ill, pale and undernourished.

And she is best friends with sensei’s kid, and apparently worst enemies with the last Uchiha and has simmering rivalries with more than half the kids in her graduating class and the vast majority of civilian clan heirs.

Hiruzen has assigned Kakashi a veritable time bomb of pre-teen ninjas, and Kakashi isn’t even sure what he did this time to deserve it.

As Kakashi watches his future genin team from the trees outside the classroom, everything already seems to be going to shit. Sensei’s kid, who had been talking with the political powerhouse, is now pointing at the last Uchiha and is yelling almost loud enough for Kakashi to hear.

The political powerhouse, however, is staring down at her desk, looking somewhat… sad? Pensive? Some type of near-synonym to that, anyways, which doesn’t quite match with her personality summary from chuunin Umino, who described her as excitable and stubborn. Then again, even Gai can be pensive-ish sometimes, and sage only knows when Tenzo isn’t pensive. Maybe she’ll grow out of it.

The Uchiha doesn’t even be seeming to try and stop the fight, instead posturing like he’s about to start a taijutsu brawl in Umino’s classroom.

Kakashi should probably stop that, but being assigned the most volatile genin team since the sannin has put him in a foul mood. And chuunin Umino was the one who recommended this team composition, so he can go fuck himself.

Just as Kakashi is watching to see whether or not Sasuke is about to set the classroom on fire, the pink political powerhouse whips her head up and stares directly at Kakashi’s face, while she says something to the other boys.

He’s watching us, she seems to be saying, Kakashi’s ANBU lipreading coming in handy.

Just in case she’s bluffing, Kakashi leaps to the next tree, and her eyes follow him. Uchiha and the yondaime’s kid are staring out the window, too, but neither of them seem to be able to see Kakashi.

Kakashi re-checks his chakra masking. It should be near perfect- he can hide his chakra from most of the Inuzuka, and even from about half of the Aburame kikaichu. The only people who haven’t let him practice with them are the Hyuuga, with how secretive they are with their eyes, but Kakashi’s hidden from Gai’s Hyuuga student often enough that he’s at least a little confident in that ability.

But the little pink thing in the classroom keeps staring at him, and it’s making Kakashi feel weird, so he decides to leave.

Patience is a good thing for a shinobi to learn.

-+-

When Kakashi gets back to the academy, after making Tenzo buy him shaved ice from Kakigōri-san, it’s more than several hours after he was supposed to come meet his team, and there’s no way that anyone could give him more grief about it than he’s already going through with this fucking team.

He opens the classroom door, and a chalky eraser falls on his head, releasing a small cloud of chalk dust.

“... Ah.”

Sensei’s kid is rolling on the floor laughing. The Uchiha looks so disgusted with him that Kakashi has to double check and make sure it isn’t Fugaku staring at him.

The pink one, the one that managed to see him from outside, just looks smug.

“I told you he was coming,” she says.

“Shut up,” the Uchiha says, before the pink one has even finished her sentence. She looks dejected, but also somewhat used to it- like she hasn’t been able to finish a sentence without being shushed by the Uchiha.

“My first impression of you all… how should I put this.”

The eraser falls off his head.

“I hate you all.”

Even sensei’s kid stops laughing at that, and the pink one finally looks like a girl who is supposedly brash and stubborn. She glares at Kakashi, looking like a refined clan head’s wife, one who retired from a successful shinobi career- Yoshino, that’s who she looks like, or Kushina when she was acting as the Uzumaki head. Dangerous, but restrained.

“Let’s meet on the roof, as fast as you can.”

Saying that, Kakashi shunshins to the roof, and waits.

He doesn’t have to wait long. All three brats come bursting through the rooftop door, only a few seconds after Kakashi’s settled himself on the ledge with his book.

“Sit, sit. Come now, let Kakashi-sensei get to know you.”

Warily, they all sit- more than a little distance away from Kakashi, and looking more than a little grossed out- and watch him slam his book shut.

“So,” he says. “Let’s get to know each other. Likes, dislikes, dreams, hobbies… things like that. Sound fun?”

All three are scowling at him. Ahh, Gai overestimated how cute Kakashi’s students would be. So far, they aren’t cute at all.

“Hey, hey, shouldn’t you go first, sensei?” Sensei’s son asks. “Give us an example, huh?”

Kakashi sighs. For as much as the kid might look like his father, he sounds just like Kushina… is the speech pattern genetic? Kakashi would probably go crazy if he spent too much time in Uzushio, if it is.

“Well, you already know that I’m Kakashi. My likes… well, I enjoy some things. And I dislike others. Hobbies? I have a few. And dreams… well.”

All three of his students look mutinous. That is a little cute- they probably think that if they could get the drop on him, they could take him out. Genin actually are adorable.

“We didn’t learn anything about you!” Pinky and sensei’s son shout in unison.

“Ah, is that so?” Kakashi wonders. He rubs his chin over his mask. “Oh, well. I suppose you might learn more about me.” He nods to the yondaime’s kid. “How about you tell me about yourself?”

The kid, more than acting like Kushina, is acting like a human bouncy ball. A human exploding tag. A more exuberant Anko. A poisonous darting salamander that is marginally smarter. A sentient firecracker. A self-propelling safety cone.

And he’s damn loud.

“My name is Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!” He yells, like he’s introducing himself to the whole village. “I like ramen, especially Ichiraku’s, and Sacchan and Iruka-sensei and when Sacchan or Iruka-sensei take me out for ramen, y’know! I dislike the time it takes for water to boil for instant ramen, and when Iruka-sensei yells at me, and when Sacchan lectures me, and this ornery bastard! My hobbies are making ramen, reading manga, hanging out with Sacchan, and sparring, y’know! And my dream is to be hokage one day, and make the whole village recognize me, believe it!”

Kakashi is getting dizzy from Naruto’s speech patterns. Y’know, y’know, believe it, believe it- did no one test to make sure he wasn’t just a reincarnation of Kushina? If it weren’t for his hair and his eyes, Kakashi wouldn’t even believe that Minato was involved.

“Well, that’s lovely,” Kakashi says. He should’ve brought the headache medicine that Gai bought him. If this volume is typical, he’s going to fail them no matter what. “Pinky, you’re next.”

Sakura just raises an eyebrow at him, and Kakashi is reminded of old Kyōjuko-sensei, the Aburame who taught at the academy when Kakashi graduated, with her condescension and self-important posture.

“My name is Haru no Sakura- not Haruno, Haru-space-no. I like Nacchan- that is, Nakkun- and Ino-chan, and flowers, and Suna, and my parents, and dango, and shaved ice. I dislike most boys, and the idea of getting married, and eggplant, and vegetables. My hobbies are climbing trees, playing with Nacchan and Icchan, and weaving. My dream… I want to become a successful kunoichi, a jounin, and be able to live on my own without needing to get married to anyone.”

She speaks calmly and steadily, a bit cutely, but not formally.. Her hands are clearly not callused, and she seems like the hardest thing she’s ever seen is a tatami mat floor instead of a carpeted one.

“Hm. What a nice introduction.”

Kakashi nods to the grouchy one. “Your turn, brat.”

The boy grunts, and Kakashi adds another point to the ‘Fugaku similarities’ column in his head.

“My name… is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things.” His gaze slides over to Sakura, and he sneers before refocusing on looking cool and distant. “I don’t particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I am going to restore the Uchiha, and kill a certain man.”

Ouch. Kakashi’s pretty sure that he just cut himself on all that edge.

Unfortunately, he can also nearly hear the echoes of eight-year-old Anko calling him a dumb edgy loser, so he might be being a bit hypocritical.

“My, what interesting characters we’ve got here,” Kakashi mutters. “Well, I suppose we’ll meet tomorrow morning, hm? Does five o’clock in the morning sound good?”

Sakura and Naruto both complain loudly.

“Great. See you all tomorrow!”

Kakashi falls off the roof and shunshins across the street on the way there.

-+-

Kakashi arrives at his assigned training ground the next day a few minutes before noon, and Sakura and Naruto both scream at him at the top of their lungs.

At least he brought his headache medicine this time.

Kakashi guides them into the clearing on the training ground and holds up the two bells. After explaining the test, Sakura looks extremely unimpressed, and her hand shoots up in the air.

“Any questions?” Kakashi asks, ignoring Sakura’s waving hand. “Good. Well, then-”

“Sensei,” Sakura interrupts, “your test doesn’t work.”

Kakashi raises his visible eyebrow. “Ahh, really? Could you explain how that is, Pinky?”

Sakura frowns. “My name is Sakura, sensei. That shouldn’t be so hard to remember.”

Kakashi fakes a smile. “Ah, sorry, Pinky. Seisei’s got a bad memory.”

Sakura rolls her eyes, and Kakashi is, again, sharply reminded of Kyōjuko-sensei.

“Sensei, genin teams need to be three person teams, because Konoha policy is that every team needs to be three people, with a maximum one degree difference in ranking. Two genin and a single jounin cannot exist as a three person cell, because there is a two-degree difference between genin and jounin.”

“Ahh, really?” Kakashi is, actually, a little impressed at how un-naive this kid is. Most genin believe whatever Kakashi tells him, much less disagree with him outright. “Well, it’s because sensei got special permission from hokage-sama. Alright?”

Sakura frowns and shakes her head, but Kakashi’s just going to ignore the know-it-all from here on in.

“Excellent. Now, remember- you will have to come at me with intent to kill. If you can’t do that much, there’s no way you could succeed as a shinobi. Understand?”

Minato’s son rushes at him as soon as he finishes his sentence, and Kakashi gets him on the ground.

“I didn’t say go yet, did I? You’ll never make hokage if you can’t listen to people.”

Kakashi eyes Sasuke, who is tensed and ready for combat, and Sakura, who just looks mildly disgusted with him.

“Go.”

-+-

Naruto is either a moron, or even more hardheaded than Kushina. Him being stupid would make sense, with how he just does the same thing over and over again, trying to tackle Kakashi to the ground. Stupid makes sense for that, but so does that pigheaded, explosive stubbornness that Kushina was so famous for.

But no matter how many times Kakashi chucks him away, he keeps running back, somehow with ten times the energy of the last time, still yelling “I’m gonna be hokage, believe it!”

So Kakashi ties him up by the ankle in a tree.

Sasuke probably gets the closest to getting a bell. A fireball ninjutsu is pretty good, for his age- Obito had managed it, sure, but that was during a war, when they didn’t have a choice.

But he doesn’t seem to expect other people to use ninjutsu, which makes it easy for Kakashi to use his Hiding Like A Mole technique.

Sakura is the most timid one. Kakashi can smell her hiding in the trees, just watching as Kakashi beats up her teammates.

Not a great sign for someone who wants to live independently, but it’s easy enough to drive a genin out of hiding.

It only takes one kunai for her to be running, and only a couple handsigns for a basic genjutsu.

Her eyes glaze over for a moment, and Kakashi can see her lips half-form names- Nacchan Gaara-chan- before she blinks. Her eyes are still glazed, but she looks away from where the genjutsu should be, and looks at Kakashi.

He shunshins to the other side of the clearing, and after a long, slow, sticky moment, Sakura stumbles a turn and looks at Kakashi’s new position.

“Kakashi-sensei,” she says- it’s loud, like she can’t quite hear herself, and slow, like she’s dreaming- “this isn’t very nice.”

She takes a slow step towards him, swinging her arms in front of her, and tries to approach Kakashi.

“Hm,” Kakashi says, watching Sakura move. She’s still in the genjutsu, still hearing whatever her brain makes when Kakashi uses his hand signs, but Sakura is still approaching him. “How interesting.”

He shunshins away, and hears Sakura shriek.

-+-

Kakashi isn’t exactly surprised that Sakura tries to force her lunch on Naruto. They’re meant to be best friends, and Sakura seems the type to give up absolutely anything for Naruto.

Naruto refuses, though, and that also doesn’t surprise Kakashi. Sakura is Naruto’s best, first, and only friend, and with how similar Naruto is to his parents, there’s no shock that he wouldn’t let Sakura sacrifice herself. He refuses, loudly, and Kakashi is pretty sure that if he really had left, he would still be able to hear him.

Then, more quietly, a different interaction between Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke, staring at the ground, offers some rice from his lunchbox.

He’s blushing, in the mild, nearly invisible blush of the Uchiha. He looks like Obito had, when he watched Rin and Kakashi spar, or like how Mikoto had, when she walked with Kushina.

And Naruto takes the rice.

Kakashi scowls beneath his mask. He really wanted to fail this team.

When he appears in front of the three, Sakura is the only one who isn’t shocked.

Chapter Text

Sakura gets her first C-rank mission less than two weeks out of the academy, and it’s not just because Naruto yells at the hokage. She’s pretty sure that her lecturing the hokage about experience and how quickly shinobi from Suna get C-ranks and how young her otou-chan was when he went on his first C-rank.

“I don’t know, Sacchan,” her otou-chan tells her at dinner. Tonight, it’s curry with rice, very spicy like Okaa-chan likes, since she’s going on a trading trip to Iwa, where they don’t have spicy food. “C-ranks can be pretty dangerous, and there’s no way for you to know for certain that things won’t go pear-shaped. I don’t want you to be in any danger.”

“I can handle myself, Otou-chan,” Sakura argues. “We’re just going to the Land of Waves, and Sensei says it’ll only be a couple weeks long.”

Okaa-chan grimaces. “Sakura, the Land of Waves can be awfully dangerous. There’s some discussion of bandits in that area.”

Sakura rolls her eyes. “Okaa-chan, it’s fine. Sensei’s an S-ranked jounin, y’know? And we’re only escorting a bridge builder. We’ll be fine!”

“I don’t know, Sacchan. Your mother might be right.” Otou-chan takes a large bite of meat, swallowing it whole.. “Besides, S-ranked shinobi aren’t infallible. Papa was an S-ranked shinobi, and now he’s a sculptor.”

“Yeah, but Otou-chan still has S-ranked skills. You can’t pretend that you were just so bad at being a shinobi that you retired to be a sculptor.”

“I think that you’ll find that I can,” Otou-chan says, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Kizashi,” Okaa-chan sighs, fondly.

“Mecchan,” Otou-chan replies, still wiggling his eyebrows.

Sakura sighs heavily.

“Oh, my sincerest apologies for worrying about my only daughter, Sacchan,” Okaa-chan replies easily. She pushes her curry and rice together, taking a dainty bite of the spicy mix. “But, I suppose you will insist on going. Just stay safe, alright? And remember, there’s never any worry about making friends in a new place.”

“Especially not if they’re good business contacts, right?” Sakura asks. She’s already finished her curry, and is now poking at the relatively bland rice.

“Exactly,” Okaa-chan says. She doesn’t gesture with her fork, which is far too unseemingly, but she doesn’t seem far from it.

“But don’t forget to have fun,” Otou-chan adds. Okaa-chan elbows him. “But, um, not too much fun! Focus on becoming an excellent shinobi, alright? Watch out for the bandits.”

Sakura nods seriously. “I will, Otou-chan. Don’t worry.”

Otou-chan grins. “That’s my girl.”

-+-

Sakura does not like the bridge builder, no matter how good a business contact he might be.

He’s acting drunk, even though he doesn’t smell anything like alcohol, and he makes strange faces at Sakura, and he calls them kiddy ninjas that aren’t worth what he’s paying.

So Sakura does his best to ignore them as they walk.

Naruto tries to make conversation, at least, but he runs out of topics as soon as the bridge builder mentions hating ramen and Kakashi-sensei tells him to shut up about the bridge builder hating ramen.

As they’re walking Sakura feels something strange.

The path that they’re on doesn’t seem to be anything unusual- just trees, dirt, bushes and grass and puddles, but there’s something tingling at the back of her mind as she’s walking.

The third puddle they pass ripples.

“Oh,” Sakura says, in realization, “puddles.”

Naruto gives her an odd look. “Yeah? What about it, Sacchan?”

Kakashi-sensei just flaps his hand. “We don’t have time to play around, Sakura-chan. Keep moving.”

It hasn’t rained recently, and Sakura’s pretty sure Kakashi-sensei knows it, even if he doesn’t have the same strange tickling at the back of his mind as she does.

“What a kid,” Sasuke sneers.

Sakura’s shoulders curl forward unconsciously, and she stands up, now hunched and staring at the ground.

Only a few moments later, they are attacked.

Sakura defends the client, like she’s supposed to, since this is an escort mission.

She should have been watching Naruto.

Because, while Sakura is busy protecting Tazuna, Naruto gets hurt. He gets stabbed, and Sakura stares at the blood dripping down his hand, mouth open.

“Nacchan?” She whispers, her grip on the kunai shaking before she forces it steady.

While she’s staring at Naruto’s blood, at his rapidly healing cut, Sasuke apparently eliminates the enemies, and he smirks at Naruto and calls him scaredy-cat.

“That knife was poisoned,” Kakashi-sensei observes. “It might be prudent for us to turn around. Especially since somebody wasn’t entirely honest about this mission.”

Sakura’s eyes flick between Naruto and the bridge builder, and in the- what, half second? Millisecond?- that she isn’t staring at Nacchan, he’s stabbed himself in the hand.

“I won’t turn back,” he says. “I’m stronger than that.”

Staring at the blood dripping down Nacchan’s hand, Sakura isn’t sure that she is.

-+-

The next day, after Kakashi has interrogated the bridge builder somewhat about why they’re being attacked by chuunin from other countries, Nacchan causes a scene by throwing his kunai first, at nothing, and then at a snow rabbit.

From behind them, Sakura can feel an itching at the base of her skull- something familiar, distantly, in the same way that her parents are familiar, and Nacchan is familiar- a sort of familiar that was there her whole life, or should have been, but was almost half-forgotten.

“Down,” Kakashi-sensei commands, and Sakura tackles the bridge builder to the ground. Above her, she can hear the slow fwoosh-woosh-woosh of something whirling slowly through the air. Once she has room to look up, she can see that a sword is embedded in a tree, with a man standing on it.

There is a familiar tickling in Sakura’s head as she stares at the man on the sword.

“Ahh, is that you, Zabuza-kun?” Kakashi-sensei says, standing in a leisurely pose.

“Zabuza-kun?” Sakura repeats, quietly. Again, something familiar, so achingly almost-known, but she can’t quite figure out what it is about it that makes her think of her otou-chan.

Tazuna shifts so that Sakura falls off of him, and pulls her back to her feet. She draws her kunai and stands in front of him, so that she feels like less of a child.

“Feh,” the man says. His face is wrapped in bandages, and all Sakura can see of it is his eyes, but it still seems like something she should know. “Copycat Kakashi, isn’t it? Or, rather, I know you as friend-killer Kakashi. I suppose you should probably warn your little friends, hm?”

The man surveys Sasuke, and Naruto, until his eyes finally meet Sakura’s, and he raises an eyebrow.

“How interesting,” he muses. “Friend-killer, aren’t you going to introduce me?”

Before Kakashi-sensei can reply, Nacchan is yelling.

“My name is Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!” He shouts, brandishing his kunai like it’s a wakizashi. “And I won’t let you hurt my friends, my sensei, or Tazuna-jisan!”

Zabuza barely acknowledges him. “Typical loudmouth. Reminds me of a man I used to know.”

“That’s enough talking,” Kakashi-sensei growls. He pulls his forehead protector up so that it’s lying straight on his forehead. Sakura can’t see his face, but Sasuke’s stare at him is stuck somewhere between outraged and flabbergasted, while Nacchan just looks confused.

“Ah, you really are getting serious aren’t you? Friend-killer.” The man jumps off of his sword, and grabs the hilt on his way down, pulling it out of the tree along with a thick wedge of wood. “What an honor. In return, I suppose I had better try and kill you.”

Around them, the air fills with a thick, chilly mist.

“Team seven, stay with the client,” Kakashi-sensei orders. “Protect him at all costs.”

“That’s not necessary,” Zabuza says. His voice is close, too close, and the familiar tickling is muted, and when Sakura turns to look, he’s only a few feet away from her.

And then, in the next half-second, Kakashi-sensei is between Zabuza and Sakura, and there is a knife in Kakashi's stomach.

Immediately, the man collapses into water, and Kakashi is struck from behind by the enormous sword that had embedded itself in the tree.

The fight is too fast for Sakura to follow- Zabuza is behind Kakshi-sensei, and Kakashi-sensei is behind Zabuza, and back and forth and again and again, striking and clashing, the metal sparking and flashing in the mist, until, finally, the mist begins to fade away and Zabuza is standing on the lake, Kakashi held in some strange orb of water next to him.

“Well, then,” he says. “I tell you what, kids, if you leave that bridge builder to me, I won’t kill you.”

“As if!” Nacchan yells. “We could never betray Konoha like that!”

“Ahh, really?” Zabuza asks. “That’s a shame. You see, your precious sensei will be dead within a few minutes if you don’t want to compromise.”

“Stop,” Sakura shouts.

Or, she tries to shout. But her voice seems paralyzed in her throat, refusing to escape at the same enormous volume that Nacchan always manages, and it comes out as little more than a whimper.

“My, you don’t seem to care for your sensei at all,” Zabuza says, mockingly. “Well, that’s just fine for me. After all, you’ll all probably die if you want to fight me.”

Then, again, everything moving too quickly- Naruto throws a shuriken, and Sasuke throws a shuriken which turns into two shuriken, and then one past Zabuza turns into Nacchan, who throws a kunai, and Kakashi is out of the water, staring back at Zabuza.

“Momochi Zabuza,” Kakashi-sensei says, “You are forfeit.”

-+-

After the fight, Kakashi-sensei can’t walk. Tazuna hoists him up on his back, makes Sasuke carry his luggage, and they all walk together to Tazuna’s house.

It’s two days after they arrive that Kakashi-sensei finally wakes up and summons them to his side, already sitting upright.

“Listen,” he says, “that man we fought was a very dangerous missing-nin. He is not dead- that hunter-nin was a false shinobi, and I believe that they may reappear while we are on this mission. He is known as the Demon of the Mist. His name is-”

“Momochi Zabuza,” Sakura interrupts.

Kakashi-sensei gives her an odd look. “That’s right,” he says. “Did you hear about him from your father, Sakura-chan?”

Sakura fidgets uncomfortably and lets her gaze slide to the far corner of the room. “Ah, sort of. Rather- I mean, I heard of him from my father, yes, but, more than that, when I lived in Kiri- this was a long time ago, since I moved when I was about three, and I hardly remember it- but then, it’s not as though-”

“Idiot,” Sasuke sneers. “Stop babbling, and answer the question.”

Sakura half-shrugs. “I guess, whenever I think of him… rather than Momochi Zabuza, I always called him Momo-jii.”

There’s a spell of silence.

“Momo… jii?” Naruto repeats. “Like Jiji?”

Sakura shrugs and nods. “More of an uncle, really. He wanted me to call him Momochi-jichan, but that was too long.” She begins playing with her hair. “I wouldn’t remember him- he escorted us to Suna, but then I didn’t see him regularly. He visited, sometimes, or back in the academy, during breaks, we would go see him out in the country, but it’s been years since then. This is my first time seeing him since I was eight.”

Another, longer moment of silence.

“... Well,” Kakashi-sensei says. “That’s certainly interesting. There’s really no time to talk about it now, though, but we will certainly need to have a conversation about that later. For now, though, we’re going to be focusing on training. The way you all are now, there’s no possible way that you could even hope to stand against him. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be learning some new chakra techniques. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Sakura and Naruto say, while Sasuke just grunts.

-+-

Sakura manages to climb the tree the first time. Her chakra skitters, and she climbs the tree more like a water spider than a squirrel, but Kakashi is looking at Sasuke and Naruto bicker, rather than her.

And then, Sakura walks on the water just like Zabuza had. It’s more at home for her, more natural than the tree bark. The water moves like her chakra does, like her otou-chan’s chakra does, moving so quickly yet so gently, restrained but not for long, and Sakura prefers this.

After she shows Nacchan how to climb the trees- he was using too little chakra- Kakashi sends her to guard the bridge builder and Sakura walks up and down the bridge, up and down the bottom of the bridge, and up and down the waves, sliding and leaping with the crests and the foam, and the next day is the same, and the next day, and through the end of the week until Sasuke and Nacchan both come back at midnight, covered in mud and dirt and twigs, their spirits high.

The next day, all four of them are guarding Tazuna.

-+-

At first, Sakura doesn’t think that the mist means anything. They’re in the Land of Waves, and it’s cold out, sure it’s gonna get a little foggy.

But then Kakashi-sensei tenses, and Sakura sees it, and then, off in the distance, she sees two shadows- Momo-jii’s hulking figure, and the false hunter-nin’s smaller, more slender shadow beside him.

“Hatake Kakashi,” Momo-jii says, unsheathing his blade. “Let’s dance.”

The fight is quick. Sakura stays with Tazuna, tries to protect him as best she can, one kunai tight in each hand, feet firmly planted on the bridge, a current of chakra flowing through them to keep her steady.

But it only takes one hit for Kakashi to be thrown hard enough that he’s out of the picture, and Sakura is staring down Momo-jii.

“Hey there, genin-chan,” he growls. “Might you hand over that bridge builder to me?”

Sakura steels herself and glares up at him. “I will do no such thing, Momo-jii.”

Zabuza blinks at that, leans down and stares at her. “That’s a pretty cute thing to call an enemy shinobi, genin-chan.”

Sakura flexes her grip on her kunai. “My name is Haru no Sakura, and my father is Hasuno Kizashi, and when I was very small, my jii-chan taught me a lot of things about being a good person. I haven’t seen him in a long time, though.”

Momo-jii blinks, and then blinks again, seemingly not understanding what she’s saying.

“Sakura-chan,” Kakashi-sensei says, “step away.”

Suddenly, Momo-jii grabs Sakura around the waist, and holds his enormous sword against her neck. “Hey, friend-killer, shouldn’t you be the one stepping away? I sure would hate to hurt your cute little genin-chan.”

“Momo-jii?” Sakura asks. She’s not afraid, not quite, but closer to being about to kill Momo-jii.

“Shut up, kid,” he says. “You’re a shinobi, aren’t you? This is what you should do for your village.”

Sakura glares at nothing in particular. “I will do what I please for my village, Momochi-san, and my village will be happy for it.”

Zabuza laughs, low and deep in his throat like Sakura remembers.

“You’re a fool, genin-chan. You’ll do what you’re ordered to do by your village, and no less. The same way you’ll do what your Mama tells you to do, and the same way you’ll do what your jounin-sensei tells you to do. You were born to follow orders, and then you decided to become a shinobi, who does nothing but follow orders. That’s all you’re good for, mini-senpai. That’s it.”

Sakura can feel the anger building up inside her. “That’s not true!” She snaps. “That’s not true. Because if your village is evil, if it’s truly and deeply evil, you should never obey them. And I have never been controlled by my okaa-chan. I have always had a choice. When I was a child, my jii-chan— my jii-chan taught me that no one is a tool. Everyone is a human person. No one is a tool!”

Sakura squeezes her eyes shut. “So if you kill me, Momo-jii, you’ll be killing your senpai’s daughter! You’ll be killing a real human person, not destroying a tool.”

A moment later, after Sakura has opened both her eyes- better to see her end coming than to be caught off-guard- there is a horrible scream down the bridge, and in the brief half-moment that Momo-jii is distracted, Kakashi throws Sakura away from Zabuza, and almost as soon as she’s out of Zabuza’s grip, there is a lightning-covered fist going towards Momo-jii’s chest.

Another scream, then, and the false hunter-nin is dead between Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura stares at the dead body, and she hears Nacchan shouting and Tazuna shouting and Momo-jii shouting, and the dead hunter-nin is still dead, blood dripping down Kakashi-sensei’s arm.

Zabuza screams, a grief-stricken howl that is so loud and so deep and so full of rage and hurt that Sakura can feel it in her bones, in her heart, in her mind, and she desperately doesn’t want to.

Zabuza swings his sword, but it no longer looks tailored to his size- rather, it’s as though he’s swinging an enormous weight around, like it’s too heavy for him to properly use as a sword, like the sword is guiding him rather than him guiding it.

“Nacchan,” Sakura says, and she’s not sure whether it’s hard to hear herself because of the blood pumping through her veins or because of the hissing, spitting, burning chakra coming out of Zabuza and Kakashi. “Nacchan. Where’s Sasuke?”

Nacchan doesn’t answer her. Sakura turns, to make sure that Nacchan did come, that she wasn’t mistaken, and he won’t look at her.

“Oh,” is all she says.

When she looks back to Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei, only one of Zabuza’s arms is working, and his sword has become an extension of his remaining arm, still too heavy, too strong for him to be wielding.

And then, Gatō’s men appear.

-+-

It’s snowing.

Momo-jii is still not quite dead, even once he and Kakashi-sensei have eliminated all of Gatō’s men.

Not quite, Sakura knows, but nearly there. He can’t sit up, can’t even focus his eyes, can’t speak without his voice sounding like sandpaper.

“Please,” he rasps, Sakura clutching his hand like it’s all that’s keeping her afloat, “bring me Haku.”

Hurriedly, Nacchan takes the false hunter-nin’s body, carrying it gently, and lays it down next to Momo-jii. His hand reaches out, grasping and searching for Haku’s hand, and Nacchan carefully guides them together.

“She loved you, y’know,” he says, softly. “She wasn’t- she wasn’t a thing. She wasn’t a tool. She was a real human person, and she liked the smell of rosemary and lavender, and she loved you.”

“I know,” Momo-jii murmurs. His eyes are wet. “Haku, I’m sorry. You weren't a tool. You were- you were so much better than that." He takes a slow, rattling breath. "And, Sacchan... I'm so sorry. I forgot- I forgot all about you, and who I was supposed to be, and what I taught you. I forgot about everything I knew. I’m sorry.”

Sakura sniffles. “I know, Momo-jii. I know. It’s okay.”

It’s not okay. There is blood trickling down Momo-jii’s mouth, wetting his mask, and pumping out of every wound she can see and more that she can’t. Momo-jii is dying.

“But, you really are an idiot, you know?” Sakura asks. She’s still crying. “Otou-chan would have helped you, if you had asked. And Okaa-chan. And even me- whatever you needed, Momo-jii. But instead, you forgot everything, even forgot the stuff you taught me, the most important thing. You moron.”

Momo-jii smiles weakly. “I know,” he murmurs. “I really am the worst, huh.”

Sakura shakes her head fiercely. “You’re my jii-chan. You’re the best. You’re just- you’re just an idiot.”

Momo-jii laughs softly. “Is that anyway to talk to your elders, mini-senpai?”

Sakura sniffles. “I’m sorry, Momo-jii.”

“It’s… alright,” Momo-jii says. His eyes slide shut, and snowflakes land on them. “Ah, senpai… he’s probably disappointed in me, huh?”

Sakura shakes her head, even though she knows Momo-jii can’t see her. “Otou-chan loves you, Momo-jii.” She chokes on her breath, breathes in-two-three-four out-five-six-seven. “Otou-chan loves you, and so does Okaa-chan, and so do I. You have a lot of people who love you, Momo-jii. You just forgot.”

“It seems I forgot a lot of important things,” Momo-jii murmurs. “I’m sorry… Sakura-chan. For what it’s worth… I love you all too.”

Momo-jii takes another breath. The air he breathes out barely fogs at all.

“For what it’s worth,” he murmurs again.

He doesn’t breathe again.

Chapter Text

Kakashi wasn’t expecting his students to look so shitty.

Sure, the forest was a toughie, and he’d have been way more surprised if they came out of it looking just peachy, but this…

Sasuke has a cursed seal where his neck meets his shoulder. His eyes are manic, and Kakashi’s half-sure that he would have needed to sedate him if he hadn’t passed out as soon as Iruka cleared them. He’s barely allowed to compete in the preliminaries, and Kakashi doesn’t like his odds. He’s wavering in and out of consciousness, which is better than Kakashi would expect from who Sasuke encountered, and he’s fairly certain that the odds are in favor of the boy surviving, at least.

Naruto’s clothes are more ragged than usual, and the boy himself is coated in dried blood, vomit, and what he excitedly tells Kakashi is “super mega cool awesome huge snake venom and snake juice ‘cause I got swallowed by a snake, sensei, some really creepy pervert caught us and sealed Sasuke and I got swallowed by a snake for like a few hours at least, that’s why I have so many new holes in my jacket, and then I blew up the snake from the inside an’ came back and saved Sasuke and Sacchan!”

Kakashi has to swallow another dose of Gai’s headache medicine just to deal with Naruto’s slipshod mission report.

As for Sakura, her hair has fallen out of its usual style, and is now splattered with mud, blood, and vomit. Her clothes are ripped, too- her skirt is nearly torn in two, and one leg from the capris she wears below it is missing. Rather, not missing, but wrapped around one of Naruto’s own battle scars. Her jacket is gone, apparently unsalvageable, and her supplies instead tucked into her waistband. She’s got bags under her eyes that remind Kakashi, sharply, of his father in his last days.

She’s got the bruising from strangulation on her neck.

Dark purple, almost black, which is enough pressure for enough time to cause death in other bodies.

But Sakura lived.

She’s currently passed out, head in Naruto’s lap, as the two of them wait in the hallway outside of the medical area. Naruto is Kakashi’s only student still conscious, and Kakashi isn’t sure if it’s because of luck or the fox within him.

It’s difficult to even persuade Naruto to let Kakashi bandage Sakura’s wounds- Kakashi remembers the sharp pain of being the sole conscious survivor of a mission, and instead gently guides Naruto into bandaging Sakura’s few bleeding wounds. Her problems seem to mostly be either bruising or psychological. The sleep will help for at least half of that.

Naruto looks a lot more like shit, once Sakura’s bandaged, but that’s something that could be fixed easily enough with a bath and some rest, but Kakashi doubts the boy will sleep until his teammates are fully recovered. They still have two full days until the hokage presents the preliminaries, and then two hours after that for the fights to actually start.

Kakashi leaves Naruto with Sakura, bandages, and a book to pass the time, before he goes to talk with Anko and the hokage.

-+-

The problem is Orochimaru.

Anko and Kakashi, as the only two who have seen or heard evidence of the man being back in Konoha, quickly report their information. Orochimaru is stealing faces, and seems to be fixated on Sasuke. There’s some sort of connection there- when Kakashi was young, before Orochimaru had defected, the man had been a very sensible person, always condensing his responsibilities into one instead of going at life with a leisurely pace.

This is bad news for Sasuke.

All the hokage does, though, is nod thoughtfully and puff on his pipe. His eventual decision is to ignore the problem for now and carry on as normal, with a minimal security increase.

Kakashi rolls his sharingan eye and bites his tongue to prevent him from saying anything sarcastic. Sure, let the murderous S-ranked missing-nin run free with a bunch of genin. Why not. It’s not as though he’s branding the genin, or anything.

But the hokage’s word is law, and Kakashi makes a mental note to raise his personal security settings to suit the situation.

After that meeting, he stops in to see his students again. Sakura is still asleep, although she’s now clutching Naruto’s hand. Naruto himself is nodding off, jerking himself awake at the last minute every time. His senses are still battle-sharp, even in the neutral ground of the Forest Tower.

Kakashi waits until he’s certain that Naruto is asleep before he scoops up his two students and takes them to a private sleeping area.

Technically, it’s only supposed to be for Kakashi himself once he signs it out, but he doubts anyone is going to stop him.

He lays both of them onto the single bed, laying Sakura against the wall so that Naruto is in a position to protect her. Once he’s satisfied with his arrangement of the genin, he pulls a blanket over them and scrawls out a quick note on the pad of paper on the small desk, signing it with his henohenomoheji.

He looks over Naruto and Sakura one last time, ensuring their safety, before he silently leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.

His next step is Sasuke, who is still asleep. He twitches and writhes in his sleep, occasionally gasping or calling out. No actual words pass his lips as he sleeps, just wordless cries and shrieks as his body fights off the seal.

Kakashi leaves the fuinjutsu specialists and med-nin to it. He’d only be getting in their way, at this point.

Eventually, he finds his way back to his jounin dorm, and leans against the wall next to the door.

He can sleep in the hall.

-+-

He has a meeting with with Hayate, Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma, the night that the second phase ends, in order to determine the participants of each preliminary bout.

They’re supposed to be randomly generated, but there’s no one who can check, anyways, and this is the perfect time for field psychological evaluations.

“We have twenty participants,” Hayate states. “Of those twenty, six are from outside of Konoha. Three of them are from the newly formed village of Otogakure, and the remaining three are children of the kazekage. It is important to remember this with regards to the match-ups.” Hayate pauses his speech to hack up a lung and take a long swallow of water. “Apologies. Additionally, thirteen genin this year are rookies. Gai’s team, along with Misumi Tsurugi and Yoroi Akado, have at least a year’s experience, and the kazekage’s children have an indeterminate amount of experience. Where possible, the experience levels of the participants in each fight should be roughly equal. Additionally, fight participants should preferably be of different teams. These fights are also about supporting comrades in their battles, not turning these genin against each other.”

Hayate waits for acknowledgement that doesn’t come.

“That said,” Hayate says, “the hokage has final say over the bouts. Hopefully, you will all be able to make intelligent decisions.”

Gai and Asuma are arm wrestling under the table, and Kurenai is not-very-subtly peeking her head underneath to check on the progress of that particular bout, and Kakashi is drawing on the table.

Hayate sighs, and hacks up his other lung.

“Whatever,” he says. “Don’t break the table, and be sensible for once in your lives.”

He sits back in his chair and unwraps a lozenge.

“I think that the two Hyuuga should participate in a bout together,” Kurenai suggests, now sitting on the floor to watch Gai and Asuma arm wrestle. “Hinata is too gentle, and she relies too much on dodging. A match with Neji-kun would be good for her.”

“I disagree,” Gai says, less heartily than usual. His veins pulse in his wrist, and Kakashi is pretty sure he hears Asuma’s bones crack. “Neji carries too much anger towards the main house. A bout against Hinata would lead to injured feelings, and worse for the young lady.”

“I’d like to see Ino fight Neji,” Asuma says, flexing his fingers in Gai’s grip. “She relies too much on those damn kunoichi lessons. She needs to fight someone who’ll take her seriously.”

“I recommend she fight one of the non-Konoha genin for that,” Kakashi tosses out. “All the kids from Konoha know each other, and they’re mostly gonna be at least a little soft on each other.”

“True,” Asuma acknowledges. “But if there’s a real risk of Ino getting hurt, Shikamaru would likely attempt to interrupt.”

“Good opportunity for him to face some difficulties of being a shinobi before he gets promoted,” Kakashi points out. He starts sketching Pakkun on the table. “He can’t save everyone. Plus, if Ino’s bout is first, then we can see how Shikamaru fights under pressure.”

“That’s true. I was thinking of having Choji go first- he relies too much on Ino and Shikamaru, and if Shikamaru has to watch both his best friends fight before his own, I think that would be an excellent evaluation tool.”

Kakashi flips through the sheets of the non-Konoha rookies. “How about Kin Tsuchi? She’s a kunoichi from Otogakure. Fifth bout?”

“Sure,” Asuma agrees.

Left of his sketch, Kakashi notes down Ino v. Kin middle.

“I’d like to request a later bout for Lee,” Gai says. “His opponent is inconsequential, however, a genjutsu type would be preferable. The boy needs to learn patience and how to handle illusions.”

Beneath his note about Ino’s fight, Kakashi scribbles Lee v. X end.

Going like that, they hammer out the majority of the bouts. The only ones that really interest Kakashi are Neji against Hinata, Naruto against Shino, Sasuke against Zaku, and Sakura against Gaara.

Sakura will not win. He knows what the kid’s like, has heard it in the jounin and ANBU gossip for the past month. Sakura might have been friends with him once- had even tried to be friendly with him now- but Kakashi knew the look in that kid’s eyes.

The hokage didn’t even have the grace to refuse that match-up.

It’ll be good for her psych profile. Good to see how she deals with stress, with former allies, with all of that. But still.

Sakura may be a below-average shinobi who followed the wrong career path, but she doesn’t deserve this.

-+-

The bouts themselves are the worst part.

The only thing that wasn’t predetermined was the order. Besides general requests, like Ino-Shika-Cho going Cho-Ino-Shika or Lee going towards the end, the matches are randomly ordered.

Kakashi has the horrible feeling that Sakura’s bout will be last.

-+-

The first match is Gai’s female student, against the kazekage’s other son. Sakura looks like she wants to cheer on her cousin, but Naruto’s hand on her shoulder seems to remind her that she’s a Konoha genin, now.

Gai’s student just manages to win the fight. Kakashi doesn’t entirely understand how, but it seems to involve a chakra-infused blade slicing through chakra strings and paper seals made, quite literally, on the fly.

Gai shouts so loudly that Kakashi has to check his ears for bleeding. When his student gets back to the balcony, Gai lifts her up and whirls her around, still cheering for her. Lee mimics him exactly, and seems to take notes on Gai’s cheering.

Kakashi feels a little sorry for Gai’s Hyuuga student, being surrounded by those people.

The Aburame is sent out second, along with Naruto.

Naruto is excessive at the best of times, but when paired up with someone as charmingly neutral as an Aburame, he becomes positively unbearable. He hops in place and stretches from side to side while he waits for the Aburame to take his place.

“Go, Nakkun!” Sakura cheers, still a little hoarse even after her rest days. “Show him who’s boss!”

Naruto grins back to her with a cheeky salute.

It’s not a great match-up for Naruto. The chakra absorption from the Aburame makes Naruto’s clones nearly useless, usually vanishing after just a few bites from the insects. Even with his overuse of the clones, it’s difficult for Naruto to get close enough to attempt taijutsu against the Aburame.

However, bugs can be overloaded. If an Aburame insect overfeeds on chakra, it dies almost immediately. It’s been explained to Kakashi multiple times how this is different to an insect getting squashed, but he still doesn’t quite understand it.

Naruto’s chakra is nearly endless, even without the fox.

The shadow clones were already nearly overfeeding the insects, but with Naruto’s limitless supply, and all of them channeling chakra to their tenketsu points, the bugs still biting and stinging, they don’t stand a chance.

Once the hive has been sufficiently thinned, six different Narutos all assault the Aburame at once, knocking him to the ground.

He doesn’t stand back up.

“Great job, Nakkun!” Sakura yells, clapping. Kakashi offers a polite clap as well, and even Sasuke gives his acknowledgement.

The next fight is Choji, against the Inuzuka. The Inuzuka acts a lot like Naruto had- lots of nervous energy, very ready for the fight.

Choji fidgets.

Kakashi is pretty sure that Chouza had never been as timid as his son is.

It’s a terrible match-up for Choji. The Akimichi have never fared well against the Inuzuka or the Uzumaki or other similarly energetic clans- their techniques take longer to set up, and the attacks, while quick moving, don’t have enough energy to knock out any quick-moving opponents. The Inuzuka and his ninken run circles around him, and he ends up just collapsed on the ground, giving in to the Inuzuka’s boundless energy.

The next fight are the two Hyuuga.

The fight would’ve ended within seconds, if the girl would have just stayed down.

But she keeps standing up, breathing so heavily that everyone on the balcony can hear it, wobbling in her stance, unsteady and dizzy, and Gai’s student keeps knocking her back down.

It just keeps going. The boy keeps fighting, and the girl keeps standing up, and it isn’t over until Kakashi feels killing intent arise from the boy.

Gai is in the arena as soon as Kakashi feels it, holding his student’s hand back. Kakashi can’t hear what they say, but he knows that they’re exchanging words.

The younger Hyuuga is taken away on a stretcher, and Gai takes his own student outside of the arena space.

Sasuke wins his bout. That truly was an easy fight- done within ten seconds, his opponent writhing and screaming in pain. They’re both escorted to the medical area, though- just after Sasuke had been declared the victor, he had collapsed to the ground, clutching the arm on the side of the curse mark. Kakashi should go with him, should be with his student, but if Sakura’s bout had come while he was with Sasuke-

He doesn’t think he could stand it.

Ino wins her bout, but barely. She eventually resorts to her mind replacement jutsu, and ends the bout after five full minutes of prancing. Long for a genin spar, and Kakashi offers Asuma an unimpressed stare. If Ino had just used her kekkei genkai from the start, the bout would’ve been done in the time it takes to blink.

An Oto nin goes against one of the Konoha genin without a team and wins. The Suna kunoichi is paired with another Oto nin, and wins after a difficult bout. Chakra absorption is good, but with a boost from that kind of fan, he hadn’t stood a chance.

Sakura is looking around at the few genin remaining who haven’t had their bouts, yet, and quite clearly doing the math about who she might fight.

If she had to fight anyone else, she might win. Not the Nara, but if Gai’s student went too far with his chivalry, or she managed to sneak him into a genjutsu…

Well, even if she didn’t win, she would live. Live easily, probably, without broken bones or a broken spirit.

Sakura looks over at the kazekage’s child and bites her lip.

Almost as soon as Sakura’s made her realization, hers and Gaara’s name are both called.

“Sakura,” Kakashi says, immediately. He kneels down to be at eye level with her and looks her in the eye, “you need to surrender. You can’t win this fight.”

Sakura’s eyes are watering, and he squeezes her shoulders. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

She smiles, weakly. “I know that, sensei. Don’t worry about me.”

She pulls herself out of Kakashi’s grip and follows the kazekage’s son down the stairs.

“Gaara-chan,” he hears her say- distantly, though. She’s well past the point of being able to be heard without chakra enhancing, and Kakashi’s ears are ringing loudly. “Gaara-chan, promise that we’ll still be friends? No matter who wins, okay?”

The jinchuuriki doesn’t answer.

Kakashi stares down at the arena. He grips the handrail tightly- if he were Gai, the metal might just bend.

“It will be alright,” Gai says.

“Shut up, Gai,” Kakashi says. It’ll be good for her psych profile, he reminds himself. Important data. Could even be helpful for knowing about the jinchuuriki.

Sakura and the jinchuuriki each take their positions. The boy is perfectly still- unnaturally still, and it creeps Kakashi out. Even Sakura, with how still she is, is still flexing her fists and taking deep breaths.

“Go, Sacchan!” Naruto shrieks. “C’mon, you can beat this loser! You got this!”

Sakura doesn’t look up, instead just nodding sharply.

Her opponent does look up, snapping his head so sharply that Kakashi almost thinks he broke his neck, for a moment. He’s glaring at Naruto, who actually shrieks in surprise, dancing behind Kakashi and clutching his flak jacket.

“Begin.”

Sakura’s no good at taijutsu. She moves too slowly, tries to add unexpected quickness at the end, but isn’t polished enough with it yet. Her ninjutsu is equally subpar, with nothing in her repertoire except a basic wind jutsu. Her one hope is her genjutsu- even that’s doubtful, though. Most jinchuuriki are fairly resistant to genjutsu, and Sakura’s is nothing special, compared to whatever her cousin’s seen on his B-rank.

She flicks her fingers through seals, laying a soft genjutsu over the jinchuuriki, and then sprints forward, a kunai held in each hand, and she slashes at him.

Kakashi can feel the shock from the other two Sand genin as the blade connects with their younger brother’s skin.

And then, their younger brother’s skin crumbles away, along with Sakura’s genjutsu.

There’s silence, for a moment, and Sakura isn’t even moving. Doesn’t the academy teach kids to always take advantage in combat, to never stop moving?

The jinchuuriki starts laughing, and the other Sand genin cower behind their teacher.

“Sakura-chan,” the jinchuuriki growls, loud enough that everyone on the balcony can hear him, “that really hurt, you know?”

Sakura drops her kunai, and Kakashi isn’t fast enough.

-+-

Her bones aren’t even broken, the med-nin had told him. They were fucking shattered. Shattered bones, a severe concussion, friction burns across her body, a black eye, and she’s unconscious.

Kakashi wasn’t fast enough.

There hadn’t been any killing intent. If there had been, he knows that Gai would’ve been down there faster than he was.

What the fuck kind of kid does that kind of thing without a trace of killing intent?

Naruto had been more scared than Sakura had been, probably. Once Kakashi had stopped Gaara, and Sakura had been back on the ground, Naruto had come tumbling down the stairs and tackled Sakura in a hug, sobbing.

“I’ll be okay, Nacchan,” Sakura had said, swaying on her feet, before she had collapsed and vomited. “‘S- ‘s okay, Nacchan. ‘M okay.”

What the fuck kind of kid does that kind of thing to their childhood friend?

Naruto had followed Kakashi and Sakura and the med-nin to the medical area, clutching Kakashi’s flak jacket, and had watched them set Sakura’s bones and feed her herbs.

“Sensei,” Naruto had asked, eyes wet, “Sacchan’s gonna be okay, right?”

Kakashi hadn’t been able to look away from Sakura’s body. Too small- smaller than Rin’s had been, surely, and smaller than Obito’s. Too small.

When did Kakashi start getting soft?

“Sakura-chan will be fine,” Kakashi had said, half lying. “Effort is eighty percent of healing.”

Naruto hadn’t cried, Kakashi doesn’t think. Had been about to, probably, but had wiped his tears away.

“Right,” he had said. “Sacchan’s never gonna give up, y’know.”

Kakashi hadn’t answered. He had let Naruto stay next to Sakura’s bed while he made a few enemies by kidnapping Sasuke out of his treatment room early to sit with his teammates.

The boys are asleep in Kakashi’s jounin dorm, now. Kakashi had had to wait until they were deeply asleep to move them- if he tried when they were just dozing, they both screamed and shouted at him, gaining Kakashi more enemies.

Everyone besides Team 7 is gone, going through the tunnels to get back to just outside training ground 44.

Only Sakura is too injured to be moving before twenty-four hours are up. And she’ll be going to the hospital as soon as she’s cleared to move out, stuck in her bed for at least a month.

Kakashi’s a shitty teacher.

He sighs. He’s going to have to tell Sakura’s parents what happened. Going to have to explain why he didn’t stop it. Going to have to explain why their daughter is in the hospital. Who put her in the hospital.

The med-nin had said that she might not be able to be a shinobi again.

Kakashi sighs again.

“Naruto believes in you, you know,” he informs the sleeping form of his student. “And so do I. And I know that Sasuke might not say it, but he does, too.”

Sakura doesn’t answer. Kakashi sighs again.

“C’mon, Sakura-chan,” he says, quieter. “Isn’t your dream to become a successful jounin kunoichi?”

Sakura doesn’t answer. Slowly, Kakashi reaches out and arranges her bangs so that they aren’t in her eyes. It always bothers her when they are.

“You’re going to be a splendid shinobi,” Kakashi says. He waits a moment, watches Sakura breathe another deep breath through the bandages wrapped around her chest.

“We’re all on your team, remember,” he says. “And a shinobi who abandons his comrades is worse than trash.”

He pulls out Icha Icha and flips back to the start. “Don’t make me trash, kid.”

Chapter Text

Sakura looks beautiful.

She had woven her kimono herself, apparently. Ino doesn’t really know how long weaving takes, but this one had probably taken a while, right? It was her ceremonial kimono, so it had to be pretty special. Besides that, it had Sakura’s clan symbol- a single, unbroken white circle- woven on the back, and an incredibly intricate design of a sakura tree on the front, with the sakura petals fluttering all across the rest of the kimono. Not even embroidered on- Sakura had somehow managed to weave such an amazing scene without a single gap in the fabric. When Sakura moves, the petals seem to shimmer and move, too. Ino really doesn’t know how Sakura did it.

She’s gotten her hair cut and styled- it’s set in three tiny buns, one above each ear and one on the top of her head. It’s impressive that they managed to do that much with what little hair Sakura had, after everything. She’s also had her makeup done by someone- not Ino, which is a little disappointing, after all the times that Ino has begged to give Sakura a makeover, but even Ino has to admit that whoever did Sakura’s makeup probably did better than Ino could. It’s all fine and delicate, all coordinated together with Sakura’s pink hair and her green eyes.

Sakura really is beautiful.

She’s in the center of the room. She kneels before an old woman, who’s wearing a simple, plaid kimono. In between them is a small sheet of paper- it has something written on it, but Ino can’t read it at this distance.

“You were born in the spring,” the woman announces loudly. Ah, so it’s just a divination. That’s fine, then.

The old woman continues for around twenty minutes, describing the circumstances of Sakura’s birth, where it was in the sexegenary cycle, whether she possesses more yin or yang, before she continues onto Sakura’s future.

“The year of your birth was not an auspicious one,” the old woman says. “Your life has had difficulties, and the difficulties will only continue to mount. Despite how much it will hurt, you will succeed as yourself. Many will not understand your decisions, and you will hurt many with your decisions, but you will be strong throughout. Perhaps too strong- some may fear you, but others will admire you.”

Sakura accepts all the woman’s words with a blank face. She doesn’t nod, and her eyes do not flit away from the old woman. She is- or seems- entirely focused.

The entire fortune telling session lasts for a mere forty-five minutes. As soon as the woman finishes, Sakura stands smoothly from seiza and bows deeply to the woman. The woman herself is guided out of the room by two middle-aged men, and Sakura doesn’t rise from her bow until the woman is gone.

As soon as the woman is gone, the room erupts into noise. It’s only quiet murmurs from all of the other adults, but from the previous echoing silence, it seems near deafening.

Sakura turns around, and everyone falls silent.

A young girl approaches her, a knife in her hands. It’s not a kunai- not any kind of standard shinobi equipment, at least not that Ino knows of. It’s sleek and thin and silver and bright, with tassels from the end and the blade itself has artistic cut-outs in it.

Sakura holds the knife blade down, and approaches one of the older women in the room.

“Obā-sama,” she says, loudly and clearly, “will you do me the honor of testing my weaving?”

“The honor would be mine, Lady Sakura,” the woman replies She takes the blade from Sakura’s hands, and backs up nearly fifty feet. The other people who had been standing near Sakura all retreat about ten feet. Sakura seems completely calm.

The woman brings her arm back, as though to throw the blade, and Ino takes a sharp breath.

The woman throws the blade, and it flies straight and shining towards Sakura.

The blade hits Sakura’s shoulder, and it does nothing but fall to the ground with a clang.

The woman approaches Sakura again and inspects her kimono.

“Untorn,” she declares. She bows to Sakura, and picks up the knife to return it to her.

This ceremony repeats twice more before Sakura approaches Shikamaru.

“Lord Nara,” she says, “will you do me the honor of testing my weaving?”

Shikamaru doesn’t hesitate. “The honor would be mine, Lady Sakura.” He takes the knife in his fist, and steps back the fifty feet without looking away from Sakura.

Shikamaru throws the dagger straight and through. It collides exactly where Sakura’s heart is, once more to the floor.

Shikamaru returns to inspect Sakura’s kimono, as close as he can, and nearly glares at it, inspecting it for several minutes more than everyone else had.

“... Untorn,” he finally declares. He bows to Sakura- nearly as deeply as the others had, but not quite, and Ino knows that she’s going to yell at him for that later. He picks up the dagger and returns it to Sakura.

Finally, Sakura approaches her cousin- the girl, the one from the chuunin exams who had fought Naruto in the second part of the combat stage.

“Lady Temari,” she says, and Ino’s known Sakura too long to not hear how Sakura is speaking with anger in her jaw, “will you do me the honor of inspecting my weaving?”

“The honor would be mine, Lady Sakura.”

As with everyone else, Sakura’s kimono remains untorn even after the dagger collides with it.

After the Suna girl finishes the test, the room erupts into applause, and Sakura finally grins.

-+-

Sakura returns in a new kimono, this one dark blue that seems to shimmer with raindrops as she moves. Her clan symbol is once again woven on the back, still pure and white, but somehow suggesting the appearance of clouds.

“Lady Sakura,” Ino says, the name awkward on her tongue- she isn’t ‘Lady Sakura’, she’s Sacchan, and always has been. She bows, too, but not as deeply as the others had after testing Sakura’s weaving. “Your weaving skill is quite impressive.”

“Thank you, Lady Ino,” Sakura replies. It’s utter horseshit, the way she’s talking, but it’s only necessary until this whole ceremony is over- today was the last of three days, and the weaving testing was the last of the day. It should be over soon. “And may I add, I’m so glad that you were able to make it to today’s ceremony. Your support is much appreciated.”

“Of course,” Ino says. “This kimono, as well, is very impressive. You have a great aesthetic gift.”

“Thank you, Lady Ino. Besides that, it also has some minor armor capabilities.”

“Oh, does it?” One of the aunties standing around Sakura interrupts. Sakura turns to speak with her, and she slices her kimono sleeve with a kunai.

“It’s a steel mesh that I wove in along with the silk, which is actually two layers woven together,” Sakura explains.

“Oh, my. Surely not woven all at the same time?”

“Actually, yes! None of it knotted or tangled, either. The technique is.. “

Sakura continues speaking to the older women, who quickly envelop her away from Ino.

Ino sighs, quietly, and wanders away. Shikamaru is just leaning against a wall, which Ino knows isn’t the right way that clan heirs are supposed to act in important ceremonies like these, but anyone who glances over at Shikamaru doesn’t seem to mind.

Ino walks over and joins her, though she keeps her posture proper, rather than leaning like Shikamaru is.

“Lord Nara,” she says, stiffly. “You must be honored to have gotten to take part in Lady Sakura’s ceremony.”

“Stuff it,” Shikamaru says. “No one can hear us at this distance, and even if they did, everyone from outside of Konoha wouldn’t know what proper Ino-Shika-Cho etiquette is.”

“Fine, dickhead. You know, you were supposed to bow to Sacchan as deeply as everyone else did. You better apologize to her afterwards.”

“Nah,” Shikamaru says. He shuts his eyes and breathes deeply. “I figure if she wants to use me, I can at least not bow so deeply.”

“She’s not using you, stupid. She invited you to be nice.”

“Wrong,” Shikamaru says, eyes still shut. “Think about it, Ino. She only invited the clan heirs- not Hinata, not Shino, not Kiba. You don’t find that suspicious?”

“No,” Ino says. “Sacchan doesn’t even like those guys.”

Shikamaru sighs. “Ino, she invited us to show off her political connections. If she were inviting people she liked, Chouji and Asuma-sensei and I wouldn’t be here.”

“If it were political, her cousin would be here. The red-haired one, not the two that are here.”

“Naruto isn’t here, either,” Shikamaru says. “Connect the dots, Ino.”

“Don’t talk down to me,” Ino snaps. She folds her arms across her chest and scowls. “I hope your mom yells at you.”

“Why? For being right?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

She turns away from him to glance over at Sakura. She’s talking to a bunch of adults, her face tilted up and smiling as she talks. She doesn’t waver in her stance- her legs must be hurting by now, without her cane- but her performance is perfect.

She must feel Ino staring at her. She glances away as one of the adults starts talking, making eye contact with Ino, and offers her a grin and a wave.

Ino waves back, halfheartedly, and Sakura returns to her conversation.

“Not like I mind,” Shikamaru continues. “It’s a lot less troublesome than when she was starting fights with me and Chouji.”

“She’s not using us,” Ino says. She turns back to face Shikamaru and smacks him on the shoulder halfheartedly. “You still better apologize. It’s polite.”

“Whatever,” Shikamaru says, eyes still shut.

Ino doesn’t say anything else for the rest of the ceremony.

Chapter Text

Sacchan is crying.

Naruto doesn’t know why Sacchan is crying. There’s tears rolling down her face, and her face is flushed redder than usual, and she can’t even speak through the hiccuping and sobbing.

All Naruto can do is hug her.

“I- I-” Sacchan starts, before she breaks back down into tears, hiccuping and snorting as tears and snot roll down her face.

“It’s okay, Sacchan,” Naruto says, trying to comfort her. “Everything’s gonna be alright.”

“It’s not!” Sacchan yells, still speaking through sobs. Naruto clutches her tightly, letting her bury her face in his shoulder. “It’s never gonna be alright again!”

“Shh,” Naruto tries. “Shh, sh-sh-sh-sh. It’s alright, Sacchan. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

“It’s not okay!” Sacchan shrieks. She hugs him even tighter, and Naruto can almost feel his shoulders crack from the pressure. “It’s never gonna be okay ever again!”

“How can I help?” Naruto asks, desperately.

“You can’t!” Sacchan howls. “My kaa-chan is dead, and she’s never gonna be here ever again!” She hiccups again,and sobs. “I want my kaa-chan!”

Naruto doesn’t have anything he can say for that. He’s never had a kaa-chan, and even if he had liked Mebuki-basama, she was barely his oba-sama. She’s not his kaa-chan, and he doesn’t know how to help.

“I’m here,” Naruto says, a little helplessly.

Sakura sniffles. “But my kaa-chan isn’t. And she’s never gonna be here again.”

She buries her face back in Naruto’s shoulder. “I want my mama, Nacchan,” she mumbles. “My mama’s dead, and I’m never gonna see her again.”

“I know,” Naruto whispers. “I know. It’s okay, Sacchan.”

“It’s not,” Sakura says. “It’s not okay.”

“I know,” Naruto whispers, again. “But I don’t have anything else to say.”

Sakura sniffles, and starts crying into Naruto’s shoulder again.

A moment later, Sakura is pulled away from Naruto.

Even though she’s still crying, she looks blank, like she’s not even there anymore. Not seeing Naruto at all.

“Naruto-kun,” Kakashi-sensei says, from behind him, “I’m going to be speaking with Sakura for a while, okay?”

Naruto isn’t sure if that’s okay. He’s Sakura’s best friend, and he doesn’t think that he should be leaving her alone when she’s like this.

“Don’t worry,” Kakashi-sensei continues. “I’ll be right here with her. Why don’t you go and talk to Iruka-sensei, okay?”

Naruto glares at him doubtfully, before he looks back at Sacchan. “Sacchan, are you gonna be okay with staying with sensei?”

Sakura nods, her eyes still looking blurred and blank, like she can’t see him.

Naruto glares at Kakashi, before he turns and walks away.

-+-

“Sacchan’s kaa-chan is dead,” he tells Iruka. They’re sitting at Ichiraku’s, and Naruto is just rearranging his ramen with his chopsticks instead of eating it. “And Pervy Sage wants us to leave for a training trip in a week, and he doesn’t know how long we’ll be away from Konoha.”

“That sounds tough,” Iruka-sensei acknowledges. “Did you tell Sakura-chan that you’re leaving?”

Naruto just shakes his head. “Sacchan only found out about her kaa-chan today, and Pervy Sage only told me about the training trip yesterday. I haven’t had a chance.”

“I see,” Iruka-sensei says. “Do you think the Sage would allow you to stay here in Konoha, for your training?”

Naruto shakes his head. “He says that people are on my tail, and that if I don’t keep moving around, they’ll kill me.”

“Hm,” Iruka-sensei says. “Do you think Sakura-chan would come with you?”

“She’s gotta stay with Kizashi-jichan,” Naruto says. He pokes the boiled egg in his bowl. “It’s not fair for me to make her leave her tou-chan behind.”

“Eat your ramen, you’ll feel better,” Iruka-sensei points out. “Will you at least be here for Haruno-san’s funeral?”

“I don’t think so,” Naruto says. “It’s in three days, and Pervy Sage wants me gone as soon as possible.”

“The thing is, Naruto,” Iruka-sensei says, twirling his ramen noodles around his chopsticks, “even if P- the Sage wants you to leave, and stay on the move, I don’t see why you can’t come back for Haruno-san’s funeral, or how the Sage can prevent you from coming back for her funeral. You should at least try and be here for Sakura-chan as much as you can.”

Naruto sighs, and pokes at the soggy menma in his ramen. “I’m scared, Iruka-sensei.”

“You’re living in scary times,” Iruka-sensei says, patting him on the shoulder. “It’s part of growing up and changing, Naruto. It won’t be scary forever.”

“I hope not,” Naruto says.

-+-

Kakashi’s worried about Sakura.

She’s worse than she had been after the Forest of Death. Worse than she had been after her battle with Gaara. Worse than she had been after the genjutsu over the chuunin exams, when she had barely been able to crawl through the bleachers to break it on all the jounin and chuunin she could find. Now, she’s just sitting on the ground, crying her heart out, and not saying anything.

Kakashi won’t say anything, either. When his father had died, he had hated it when people had tried to talk to him when he wasn’t talking, and Sakura is seeming more and more like him every day.

“Kaa-chan is dead,” Sakura finally says, just as the rain is beginning to fall. “She died during the Konoha Crush.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kakashi says, quietly. “Your mother was a good person.”

“She was the best,” Sakura says. The ground around her is rapidly turning to mud as the rain continues falling, but she shows no inclination to push herself up with her crutches and clean herself up. “She was nice, and she believed in me, and she was the best mother ever, and I don’t know why she had to die.”

“Sometimes, people die for no reason,” Kakashi says, gently. “Even parents die, even when there’s no good reason for them to die. Even when they were good parents.”

“It’s not fair, though,” Sakura says, voice teary. “She didn’t deserve to die.”

“Who does?” Kakashi asks. “Most people don’t deserve to die.”

Sakura hiccups and sniffles. “But I wasn’t ready for her to die.”

Kakashi shuffles closer and rests his hand on Sakura’s head. “No one’s ever ready for death, kiddo,” he says, quietly. “I wasn’t ready for my father to die. Sasuke wasn’t ready for his family to die. And you’re not ready for your mother to die. The problem is, death doesn’t wait for us to be ready. It just happens.”

Sakura sniffles again, and wipes her eyes. “My mama’s dead,” she whispers. “And Gaara-chan killed her.”

“I know,” Kakashi says. “Don’t worry, Sakura-chan. They’re all gone, now, back to Suna. You’re safe, now.”

Sakura sniffles again, and wipes her eyes. “I don’t want them gone,” she whispers, “I want them punished. They killed my mama, and almost a thousand other people, and they destroyed Konoha, and nobody did anything about it. They just sent them back, and blamed it all on one guy. Nobody got punished for it.”

“I know,” Kakashi says, taken a bit aback by the venom in her voice. “Don’t worry, Sakura. We’ll find Orochimaru.”

“I don’t give a fuck about Orochimaru,” Sakura says, suddenly staring into Kakashi’s eyes. Her eyes are lit from behind with anger, as the raindrops drip off her eyelashes and down her cheeks. “Orochimaru didn’t kill Okaa-chan. Orochimaru didn’t destroy my home, or my neighbors’ homes, or my neighbors’ lives, or kill my neighbors and my friends and my comrades. It was the kazekage’s child who destroyed my life and my home. Orochimaru can do whatever he fucking wants. I want my cousins to pay for what they did.”

Kakashi nearly stumbles back at the anger in her voice and the tone she’s using.

“I know, Sakura,” Kakashi says. “But we have to work within the law.”

“Why?” Sakura asks, glaring at him. “Was it legal when they murdered over five hundred people? Was it legal when they destroyed all those buildings?”

“We’re better than them, Sakura-chan,” Kakashi says. “We can’t stoop to their level.”

“I don’t give a fuck if people think that I’m better or worse than them,” Sakura says. “I want them to pay.”

Kakashi doesn’t know what to say. This venomous girl, this cruel girl, this girl who thirsts for vengeance- she isn’t the girl that Kakashi’s been training, not the girl that he forced back into her hospital bed while she was in recovery and she was so desperate to go back to who she was, not the girl that he sent Yūgao to, not the girl who crawled through the bleachers at the chuunin exams because she resisted a genjutsu that so many jounin didn’t, not the girl who came out of the Forest of Death alive. The girl sitting in the mud next to him is crueler than he had been when he was a child, and he doesn’t know what to do.

But he’s her teacher. Her mother had made him bento, had called him young man and had cried next to him in the hospital while Sakura was lying in bed, comatose. He had been her mother’s friend- or she had been his, at least- and he has to protect this girl.

“Sakura-chan,” he says, kneeling next to Sakura. His knees and his boots and his feet will be coated in mud, but that doesn’t matter. “Sakura-chan, you will be alright. We will be alright, and we will protect you, every time.”

“I don’t need protection,” she says, still glaring.

“Okay,” Kakashi says, trying to sound as reliable as Minato-sensei once had, when he was only seven and his sensei was the only adult that never abandoned him. “You don’t need protection, fine. But I will always be on your side. I am staying with you, whether you like it or not, because I am your sensei. Ygao is the same way, got it? You can trust us.”

“I could trust Gaara-chan, too,” Sakura mumbles. Her face has softened now, but only into sadness instead of rage. “What am I supposed to do, sensei?”

“You keep going,” Kakashi says. This, he knows- he doesn’t remember much from his childhood, but he remembers what he had to do after his own father died. “You wake up every morning, and you eat breakfast, and you work as hard as you can. You take deep breaths when it hurts, and you light incense for your mother, and you spend time with your friends and with your teachers. You focus on living your life, because if you focus too much on the dead, you become one of them. Okay?”

“So I just move on?” She asks, sniffling. “I just keep going? That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Kakashi confirms. “There’s no secret, Sakura-chan. We just keep going. We mourn when we need to, and we move on when we need to, and we work so, so hard. Okay?”

Sakura sniffles. “Okay.” She wipes her eyes. “What do I do with the anger, sensei?”

“You use it,” Kakashi says. “Shinobi must use every tool they have, and you use that anger in battle. Everyone on the battlefield is angry, and the only reason that you win is because you’re angrier. You put that anger away until you’re in a fight and then you use it to completely eliminate your opponent. Got it?”

Sakura sniffles again, takes a few raggedy breaths before they slowly even out into clear lungs. “Got it, sensei.”

“Good girl.” He pats Sakura on the head. “You ready to head back to town?”

Sakura nods.

“Does your otou-chan know where you are?”

She shakes her head. “He’s probably already asleep.”

“Alright. You want me to take you back?”

Sakura shrugs. “Whatever.” She grabs her crutches and pushes herself up- she and her crutches are both absolutely coated with mud, and Kakashi weeps for the drain in her bathroom.

“Alright, come on then.”

They walk back to Sakura’s house in silence. Like she had predicted, the house is dark.

“You’ll be okay, Sakura-chan,” Kakashi reminds.

“I will,” Sakura agrees. “Thank you, sensei.”

“Of course,” Kakashi says, ruffling her hair. “Anytime, kiddo.”

Sakura nods again, and Kakashi walks away before the door shuts.

Chapter Text

When Sakura wakes up, they tell her that she was unconscious for five days.

That’s not acceptable.

Her mother and father are both there when she wakes up, and they are both sobbing.

The odds of waking up become lower and lower every minute someone is comatose. Gaara-chan- just Gaara now, she reminds herself- they are no longer each other’s childhood friends, no longer important to each other. Gaara had proven that well enough. Regardless, Gaara’s mother, Sakura’s own mother’s cousin, had been comatose for three days before she died after giving birth to Gaara, and Sakura’s father had had dozens of kouhai who had died after being comatose even for just a few days.

Five days is five days too long. What was wrong with her? Some broken bones, some bruises, a concussion? That’s nothing. Her father has scars all across his body from times he had nearly lost limbs, and he had fought his way back home, back to his mizukage and back to his team.

Sakura gets a little scraped up and she’s comatose for long enough that they test her for five hours to make sure she didn’t lose cognitive function.

She struggles to her feet as soon as she’s conscious of herself, the tubes and sheets and hospital gown tangling around her as she near-collapses on the floor, her legs already unused to walking and supporting her weight after just five days. Her muscles have already decayed, are already starting to fail her after less than a week- all her hard work is gone, destroyed.

The nurses put her in a wheelchair. They tell her that physio will start the next day- she might not even be able to walk in time for the third stage of the chuunin exams, in just under four weeks.

That’s not acceptable.

-+-

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto come to visit her the next day she’s awake. Kakashi, apparently, has made some kind of friendship with Sakura’s parents- her mother, who is usually so prim and proper, holds him by the shoulders and ruffles his hair- and Sensei is almost twenty centimeters taller than Sakura’s mother. Her father doesn’t get along with him as well as her mother, but there’s a certain camaraderie between them.

“When did you make friends with my parents?” Sakura asks, before she can stop herself. It’s obvious when he made friends with her parents.

“It was during one of those times when I was lost on the road of life, Sacchan,” Sensei says easily. “Ah, that reminds me, I still have your mother’s bento box to return.”

“... My mother gave you food?” Sakura asks, glancing towards Naruto.

“It’s true, Sacchan! Oba-sama made him a triple-layer bento box twice and he took it both times and I bet he ate all of it!”

It weirds Sakura out that Kakashi is friends with her parents. Icchan’s parents aren’t even friends with Sakura’s parents, and they’re way more age appropriate than some guy who’s only about Momo-jii’s age.

She doesn’t have much time to dwell on it, though, before Naruto and Sasuke are talking about how they’re training for the last stage of the chuunin exams. Sasuke is getting personal training from Kakashi, and Naruto is getting training from someone he just calls a pervert, which probably means that he’s famous or something, ‘cause Naruto’s always rude to important people.

Naruto’s gonna fight Temari-nee- unless she’s just Temari too, now, also having abandoned Sakura.

Who Temari is or was to Sakura doesn’t matter, though. She makes Nacchan pinky-promise that he’ll win, no matter what. That he’ll destroy her.

She doesn’t miss the anxiety in his eyes.

Sasuke’s going to fight Gaara.

She grabs his hands in her hands- this is the closest they’ve been since the Forest of Death, and certainly the kindest she’s ever been to him- and she stares him down and tells him that if he doesn’t beat Gaara, that she’ll destroy him.

He looks nervous, like Nacchan had, but only for a moment. A second later, he smirks and rolls his eyes.

“As if I would ever lose to trash on that level.”

He’s making fun of her, probably- he wouldn’t lose to someone on her level, is what he means, that he’s infinitely better than her and her cousins- but it doesn’t sound like it. He sounds like he’s her ally, her teammate- not quite her friend, but so, so close.

Kakashi herds Naruto and Sasuke out after just an hour and a half of visiting. Naruto and Kakashi both promise that they’ll come back and visit again, and Kakashi nudges Sasuke into a semi-agreeable grunt.

-+-

The nurses keep telling her that she’s moving too fast, that she’s working too hard during physical therapy. They say that working so hard is only going to wear her muscles out more in the long run.

She stands up on her own on the second day of physical therapy. The nurses want her to stay in the wheelchair, even though she can already walk. They tell her there’ll be plenty of time to walk later, but later doesn’t include watching her team and her friends compete in the chuunin exams.

Her mother wants her to slow down, too.

“I was so scared,” she says, tears in her eyes as she sits next to Sakura’s hospital bed. “I thought I was going to lose you, my precious daughter.”

“You won’t, Mama,” Sakura tells her, clutching her mother’s hand. “I promise. I’ll never leave you.”

“But you’re working too hard, beautiful girl,” her mother whispers, voice breaking as she chokes on tears. “There’s time. There’s time for you to walk again, for you to become a wonderful shinobi. I promise, my beautiful daughter.”

“There’ll be more time if I’m done faster,” Sakura says, and that’s the last she’ll say about it.

The fourth day she’s awake, Kakashi comes to Sakura’s room with a tokubetsu jounin. He introduces her as Yūgao-sensei, and tells them to get along before he shunshins away.

Yūgao-sensei drops down into the chair next to Sakura’s bed, looking like Kakashi blackmailed her into coming.

“How many people are in the building?” She asks.

Sakura stares at her. “How should I know?”

She could be nicer, but her legs hurt from physio and her head hurts from the smell of the hospital and she had been intending on holding a conversation with Kakashi-sensei.

“You have sensory abilities. How many people are in the building?”

Sakura rolls her eyes. “It doesn’t work like that. I can tell when people are near me, and if they have unique chakra signatures, but I can’t count them.”

“You will,” Yūgao says. “And your abilities do work like that, you just haven’t had to use them. I’m here to make you.”

“So how am I supposed to do that?”

“Focus.” Yūgao says, crossing her arms. “Close your eyes and look at the chakra signatures. You know how to tell the difference between different peoples’ chakra signatures, unless you’re an idiot.”

Sakura glares at her.

“Calm down. I already know you’re not- if you were, I would’ve told senpai to shove his tantō up his ass when he asked me for this favor. You can tell the difference between different peoples’ chakra signatures. So shut your eyes, and feel the chakra signatures, and tell me how many.”

Sakura sneers at her, but she shuts her eyes and focuses on the chakra signatures. Her, Yūgao, Nacchan coming down the hall. Dozens of nurses, but their signatures are so similar that Sakura can’t remember which ones she’s already marked and which are just moving around, who is who and how many there are.

“At least… thirteen,” she says, finally. “I can’t tell how many medical, but at least ten.”

“Hm,” Yūgao acknowledges. “You’re not nearly as useless as you look.”

Sakura opens her eyes again to glare at Yūgao.

“Don’t worry. We’ll work on it.” As soon as Yūgao finishes her sentences, Nacchan slams the door open.

“Sacchan, hi! I just got finished doing training with the pervert, and he doesn’t know anything about anything, but you know about almost everything, so I was wondering-”

Like always, it takes Nacchan almost five minutes to notice that someone else is in the room. “Who are you, nee-chan?”

“No one relevant to you,” Yūgao says, standing up smoothly. “Sakura, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She vanishes, and Sakura is left alone to help Nacchan practice with his chakra.

-+-

The next day, Kakashi does visit Sakura before Yūgao comes by. Sakura had been practicing her physio when he had entered, still practicing her stretching- she won’t work on her standing yet, but she will walk to the chuunin exams by her own power.

Kakashi just forces her back into bed before he starts chatting, and Sakura accuses him of robbing her family of their bento boxes.

Somehow, he vanishes just before Yūgao enters Sakura’s room.

She plops down in the chair next to Sakura’s bed, again. “How many?”

Sakura focuses harder this time. Her, Yūgao- no Nacchan this time, but Kakashi-sensei is nearby.

“Inside, or on hospital grounds?”

“Both.”

Sakura concentrates. Harder, harder, harder- she is good enough, she can do it, she will do this.

But she doesn’t know any of the medical personnel, except- there, out on the balcony, is that person she and Sasuke and Nacchan had met at the chuunin exams, but the rest- they all blur together, their chakra unfamiliar and unwelcoming.

“Focus on the cores,” Yūgao says, voice quiet and blurred and distant, so far away from Sakura. “The edges of the chakra signatures are where they’re less certain, right? Focus on where the chakra comes from.”

Sakura takes a deep breath and focuses. Find the cores, find the center, find where things are solid, Sacchan, where they won’t fall away-

“At least forty,” she finally says.

“On the grounds, or in the hospital?”

“The- the building,” Sakura says. “I don’t know on the grounds. A nurse on a balcony on the third floor.”

“Good. Specifics are good.” Yūgao stands from her chair, and Sakura opens her eyes to watch her leave. “I’m coming back until you can count how many people are within two hundred meters. Don’t make me waste my time.”

-+-

Eleven days are just practice. Sakura knows she’s good enough, knows that she can do it, that she can just count how many damn people are in the hospital. After six days, she can focus exclusively on the core of the chakra signature, doesn’t even register the raggedy, blurry edges. After five, she can tell when they’re moving, where they’re moving, where from and where to.

On the twelfth day, Yūgao comes in while Sakura is practicing her physio. She’s standing, this time, and she’s been standing for only three minutes and there’s already sweat dripping down her neck at the pain in her legs.

“Get in bed,” Yūgao says. “I know you’re not supposed to be standing up yet.”

“I can do it,” Sakura says, jaw clenched.

Yūgao shrugs. “No skin off my nose.” She drops into the chair. “If you can stand up, then you can count how many people are in the building while you’re standing.”

“Fine,” Sakura snaps. She takes a deep breath- her legs are burning, she can feel the bones crumbling again, the muscles falling apart as she stands, but she can do this, she is Haru no Sakura, entitled by the fucking kazekage, and she can do this. Her breath feels heavy and cloudy, suddenly, as though she’s breathing through some toxic fog- find the center, Sakura, focus, Sakura, find where you won’t fall-

“Stand up straight,” Yūgao says. “You said you can do it, then do it.”

Sakura straightens- when had her knees bent? When had she lost the center? Focus, Sakura- didn’t you say you had a dream, Sacchan? C’mon, Sacchan, you can do this-

Sakura is on the floor. She’s not sure when she first fell on the floor, but she’s on the floor now.

“Stand up,” Yūgao says. “Can you do it, or not?”

Sakura’s legs are on fire. It feels like her legs are on fire, like fire ants are stinging her, like she’s being enveloped in bleach, but she is Haru no Sakura.

“I can do it,” Sakura says. She grabs the edge of her hospital bed, and pulls herself up to stand up straight.

“How many people?”

Focus, Sakura. You’re not garbage, Sacchan. Naruto believes in you, you know? Find the center, Sakura. Find the core. Her, Yūgao, nurse nurse nurse nurse nurse nurse doctor doctor doctor doctor visitor visitor visitor visitor visitor-

“Fifty-one, give or take four,” Sakura says.

“Wrong. There’s sixty-seven right now, another one walking in right now.” Yūgao sighs. “Partial credit. There're seventeen on this floor, but you can’t make your way through life guesstimating how many people there are. You do that on the battlefield, you’re dead meat.”

“Fine,” Sakura says. Are her femurs snapping? Is she hearing her tendons lose their grip under her skin? She can do this, she can find her center, she knows where the solid places are.

“Sit down,” Yūgao says. Sakura doesn’t realize what she said for a moment- long enough, apparently, for her to take matters into her own hands and push Sakura onto the bed.

“If you can’t do something, then don’t do it,” Yūgao says. “A shinobi who understands the limits of her body is a better shinobi then one who shatters all her bones working too hard. Got it?”

Sakura just takes deep breaths.

“C’mon. What’s senpai’s favorite phrase?”

“A shinobi who abandons the mission is trash,” Sakura says, breath thready.

“And?”

“And a shinobi who abandons his teammates. Is worse than trash.”

“Good. If you work too hard, you won’t be able to protect your teammates. If you overstrain your body now, you won’t even be able to leave the fucking building on the day of the chuunin exams. Understand?”

Sakura heaves another breath. “I understand.”

“Good.” Yūgao keeps looking down at Sakura for another moment, before she just sighs and turns away. “Tomorrow’s a rest day. If I come back on Saturday and your legs are broken again, I’ll snap your neck myself. Understood?”

“Understood.”

-+-

Sakura spends her rest day with her mother. Her father has been summoned to Kirigakure for some reason that requires Hasuno Kizashi instead of Haruno Kizashi, and he’ll be gone when the final stage of the chuunin exams come.

Her mother pushes her through the hospital gardens in her wheelchair, admiring the flowers and enjoying the weather. They sit in the gardens together, quietly, and Sakura is going to lose her mind if nothing happens soon.

“I love you,” her mother says, suddenly. “I love you so, so much, Sakura-chan.”

“I know, Okaa-chan,” Sakura says. “I love you, too.”

“Good,” her mother says. “I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I love you.”

“I do, Okaa-chan. I do know.”

“Good,” her mother says again. She takes Sakura’s hand in her own. “I’m always on your side, Sakura.”

“I know, Okaa-chan.”

“Good girl,” her mother says. She kisses Sakura’s forehead. “Let’s go back to your room, okay?”

Her mother pushes Sakura’s chair back to her hospital room and lifts her into her bed. Sakura and her mother spend the rest of the day talking and resting.

-+-

The next day, she can count all the people on the first two floors of the hospital. The day after that, all three floors, and the day after that, where they’re moving- and based off of that, who which signature is.

“Good,” Yūgao says. “Where’s senpai?”

Sakura stares at her. “How should I know? He’s not on hospital grounds.”

“I’m sorry, did I say that I would be teaching you until you knew all the chakra signatures on hospital grounds?” Yūgao asks. “I’m fairly certain that I said two hundred meters for sensory skills.”

Sakura sighs, rolls her eyes, and focuses. He’s not on hospital grounds- she knows that much, at least. Outside, feel further- there’s people walking in the streets, but they don’t matter, none of them are her sensei. Brush past all those other chakra signatures, pretend they don’t even exist. Focus, Sacchan- are they familiar, or do they not matter? Someone she knew in the academy, unimportant. One of the civilian clan heirs, irrelevant.

“Don’t focus on going through all the chakra signatures you can find,” Yūgao advises. “Focus on senpai. Where is he? It doesn’t matter where anyone else is.”

Focus on Kakashi-sensei. He still has Sakura’s mother’s bento boxes, he’s the one who held Sakura’s hand after Momo-jii died, he’s bought her candy and he’s bought her a festival mask and he’s bought her and Nacchan and Sasuke all ice cream on one of the hottest days of their training, and she first found him when he was sitting in a tree like a weirdo instead of coming in to introduce himself until hours later-

“Far away,” Sakura mumbles.

“Focus on what’s around him. Look for clues.”

Around him. Other chakra signatures, more developed than any civilian’s- that means shinobi. About as developed as Sensei’s, but less ragged. Jounin? Nothing like the people who pretend to be invisible around Nacchan, and no one any more developed than Sensei. Jounin, but not somewhere that civilians couldn’t easily get to. Far away, but she can still feel him- less than Yūgao’s ridiculous two hundred meters, much less. Civilians surround the jounin, unbothered but still moving.

“... Bar?” Sakura finally guesses.

“Why?”

“With other shinobi about his level, but none very high above. Surrounded by civilians- all calm. No one’s bothered or irritated. Far away, but not too far- there’s lots of restaurants and bars nearby, but the shops are further away.”

“Why not a restaurant, then? Is your sensei more likely to be getting drunk than getting food?”

Sakura shrugs.

“Don’t make personal guesses. Keep things vague, or any information you have would be close to useless. An assassination mission would be dead in the water with that kind of guess- if you’re that uncertain, just say ‘establishment’ and leave recon to get the rest of the information. Understood?”

“Understood. Can I open my eyes now?”

“Go ahead.”

Sakura opens her eyes to see Sasuke in the room.

“He got here while you were looking for your sensei,” Yūgao explains. “Don’t ever get so focused on your target that you don’t notice a new signature approaching you. The way you are now, you’d be dead ten times over.”

She stands from her seat, nods to Sakura, and shunshins away.

Sasuke stares at the place where she was standing for a moment before looking back to Sakura.

“Your sensei is weird,” he says.

“Your sensei is in a bar at three o’clock in the afternoon,” Sakura retorts.

-+-

The day before the final stage of the chuunin exams, she gets a new visitor. It’s not Sasuke or Kakashi or Naruto or Ino- those four are probably too busy training. It’s not Yūgao, either- she’s been unwell, recently, her chakra signature disturbed and unhappy. Sakura had asked, just once, but Yūgao’s face had dissuaded her.

Gaara walks into Sakura’s room. For a moment, she had thought that it would be Nacchan, with how similar he and Gaara still feel.

Instead, it’s Gaara.

They just stare at each other, for a moment, before Gaara takes a gritty breath.

“Your scar,” he says, voice far too scratchy for the boy Sakura remembers. “It hasn’t faded.”

“They don’t tend to,” Sakura says, coldly. “You’ve given me more, since that one.”

Gaara swallows. He almost looks nervous for a moment- his chakra is disturbed, the way it had been when he was small and now so much worse, redder and hotter and crueler.

“You shouldn’t have become a shinobi,” he says. “If you hadn’t-”

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before Sakura chucks her bedside lamp at him.

“Fuck you!” She screams. “Fuck you! You don’t get to tell me that I shouldn’t have become a shinobi after you put me in a fucking coma, Gaara!”

Gaara just stares at her. He’s getting irritated- his chakra is stuttering even worse than it had been before.

“I was trying to talk,” he says. His sand swirls around him, and Sakura physically stops herself from flinching.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Sakura spits.

“Hey!”

There, at the door, Nacchan and one of Ino’s friends, both glaring at Gaara.

“Leave her alone!” Nacchan yells.

“Sacchan, you’ve truly become strong,” Gaara says. “It’s a shame that you became a shinobi.”

His sand is swirling so much more aggressively now- it stings, just a bit, against Sakura’s skin.

“Why is that a shame?” Ino’s friend asks. “Aren’t you supposed to be Sakura-san’s childhood friend? Shouldn’t you be proud of that?”

“Of course I am,” Gaara says. He’s starting to smile- not the smile that Sakura remembers, the one that was so soft and so kind and so innocent. “And destroying the strong is my reason for living. The two of you are strong, as well- perhaps, once I’m done with Sakura, I’ll destroy you two.”

“You couldn’t kill any of us,” Sakura snaps. “You’re weak, Gaara.”

Gaara’s face splits into an even wider grin. “Then I’ll just have to prove you wrong.”

“Are you that eager to fight, kid?”

Again, another person in the doorway- Yūgao this time, with Kakashi-sensei and Kakashi-sensei’s friend behind her.

“If you want to fight, any of us three would love to take you on,” she continues. “But if you’re gonna pick a fight with a sick kid in a hospital, you can go back to Suna right now. Got it?”

Gaara snarls, but his sand stops swirling, and his grin vanishes.

He moves through the doorway, past Yūgao and Kakashi-sensei and Kakashi’s friend.

A moment after he’s gone- enough of a moment for them to calm down, to take a few breaths- Nacchan visibly sags with relief.

“It’s a good thing you came, Irrelevant-neechan! I thought that guy was for real gonna kill us, he was so scary. Sacchan, did you really used to be friends with him? He really creeped me out! Kakashi-sensei, is everyone from Suna like that? What a bunch of weirdos!”

“Kiddo, Sakura-chan is from Suna,” Kakashi replies, ruffling Naruto’s hair. “How about you and Shikamaru go hang out with Gai? He’ll buy you ice cream.”

“Yes! Come, let us celebrate the miracle of youth!”

Oh, right. Kakashi-sensei’s weirdo friend.

He herds Shikamaru and Naruto out of Sakura’s hospital room, leaving just Sakura, Yūgao, and Kakashi, who gently shuts the door behind them.

“You good?” Yūgao asks, while Kakashi starts cleaning up the broken lamp.

“I’m fine,” Sakura says. She can breathe, and that’s all that really matters. Anything else is irrelevant.

“Good,” Yūgao says. She awkwardly pats Sakura on the head, before she takes over cleaning up the lamp from Kakashi-sensei.

“You sure you alright, kid?” Kakashi asks. It’s more comfortable talking with Kakashi-sensei than it is with Yūgao, but Sakura’s answer doesn’t change.

“I’m fine, sensei,” Sakura says. “Besides, Sasuke’s going to destroy him tomorrow, right?”

“... Right,” Kakashi-sensei agrees. “He sure will.”

-+-

Sakura walks to the chuunin exams.

Her mother fusses over her in the morning, making sure Sakura’s crutches and braces are arranged properly. She can’t come with Sakura to the exams- busy with some kind of paperwork to do for the clan- but she makes sure to see Sakura off and to make sure she’s alright.

“And you’re going to be sitting with Kakashi-kun, right?” Sakura’s mother asks, as she zips Sakura’s new jacket up for her.

“His friend, until Kakashi-sensei shows up,” Sakura agrees. “And Yūgao-nee, too, and Icchan’s jounin-sensei, and Nacchan.”

“You stay close to one of those jounin, okay?” Her mother says, holding Sakura’s face in her hands. “Stay safe, alright?”

“Okay, Okaa-chan,” Sakura says. “I’ll be fine.”

“I know you will,” Okaa-chan says. “You know I worry.”

“I know, Okaa-chan,” Sakura says. She hugs her mother before she can try and force another warning on Sakura. “I love you. I’ll see you once the exams are over, okay?”

“Okay, sweetheart,” her mother says, hugging Sakura tightly. “You know I love you too.”

“I know, Okaa-chan,” Sakura agrees, before she pushes away from her mother. “I have to go, or else I’ll be late. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Okay, darling,” Okaa-chan says. “Bye-bye.”

-+-

She sits next to Naruto, Yūgao, and Lee, who offers to carry Sakura the whole day if he’ll go on a date with her, which she refuses mercilessly.

Ino’s bout is first. It’s a good match-up for her, Sakura thinks- Hinata and her cousin are both close-range fighters, but Icchan is really good at long-range combat. Her jounin-sensei says something about prancing around, but he doesn’t say anything else, once Ino eliminates Hinata’s cousin within fifteen seconds of the bout.

Next is Kiba’s, and he absolutely destroys his opponent- between him and his dog, Sakura almost feels bad for his opponent, but his opponent isn’t from Konoha, so she can’t feel that bad.

Next called is Sasuke’s, but he’s not there. For some reason, they delay his bout- that’s just patently unfair, in Sakura’s opinion, but she’s not the kazekage’s son or the last Uchiha. Maybe all clan kids would get that kind of special treatment- that’s Nacchan’s guess, at least.

Instead of Sasuke’s bout, it’s Nacchan’s.

Right after Nacchan’s name is called, Sakura grabs his arm.

“Remember, Nacchan,” she says, not entirely sure whether or not she’s joking, “you promised.”

Nacchan grins. “I know, Sacchan. And I will.”

“Good,” Sakura says. She lets go of his arm. “Remember, if you don’t, I’ll never make you food or buy you ramen ever again.”

Nacchan looks aghast for just a moment before he steels himself. “I got this, Sacchan! Believe it!”

He jumps into the arena and hits his head hard enough that Sakura’s pretty sure that everyone in the arena can hear him.

Temari floats down far more gracefully.

It’s far from an easy fight- even with all of Nacchan’s clones, Temari’s fan is big enough and reinforced enough that she can take out almost all of his clones in one wave.

Nacchan keeps on summoning more and more clones- it’s not going anywhere, and Temari is getting used to them and starting to get closer to the real Nacchan.

Finally, after what must have been hundreds of clones, Temari gets mobbed by about fifty Nacchans, and once they’re all dispelled, Temari’s fan is gone.

“Away and away and away it goes, where it went, nobody knows!” Nacchan yells.

Nacchan is really good at magic tricks like that, stealing things away and hiding them. He’s done it to Sakura, with pens and bobby pins and buttons and jewelry and even her forehead protector, once. Temari’s fan is the biggest thing he’s ever managed to hide, and Sakura can’t even figure out where it went.

Without Temari’s fan, Nacchan can destroy her completely and utterly. She’s completely ruined without any wind jutsu, and once the moderator declares Nacchan the winner, all his clones are dispersed, leaving just Nacchan holding Temari’s fan, formerly disguised as one of his clones.

He grins at Sakura, giving her a peace sign.

Once Nacchan’s back in the stands, Sakura falls over him laughing.

“You did it! Nacchan, you’re the best!”

Nacchan just laughs. “I promised that I’d destroy her, y’know! I always keep my promises! I said that that’s my oath as a shinobi, right?”

“I know, I know! But you were so good, Nacchan! You beat her with a magic trick!”

Finally, Naruto takes Sakura’s compliment and laughs, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. “I am pretty great, huh? I bet no one else could’ve beat me!”

“Exactly! It was so cool, Nacchan!”

Sakura is so busy focusing on Nacchan that she barely even notices when Shikamaru and Tenten get called for their fight. They’re already almost halfway through by the time Sakura can get all her focus back on their fight.

Sakura’s pretty sure that Shikamaru’s gonna win. He would win against pretty much everyone, if he managed to win against Kakashi-sensei’s weird friend’s student for the first round of the chuunin exams.

The fight just keeps going, though- Tenten seems to have the inventory of half of Konoha’s weapons shops in her scroll, and seems equally intent on using them all before the fight is over. Shikamaru just keeps on dodging and ducking and moving around, seemingly for no reason- he could get Tenten in his shadow easily, if he would just move closer to her.

He doesn’t win until Tenten gets so frustrated that she just throws a combat chain towards him, and he catches her in his shadow after only moving just enough to avoid the chain.

And then he goes and forfeits, even with Tenten in his hold, and Sakura’s pretty sure that Ino’s gonna have an aneurysm.

Finally, Sasuke’s and Gaara’s names are called, and Sasuke finally appears in the arena with Kakashi-sensei.

“Finally!” Nacchan yells. “It took you long enough, you loser! I thought you were gonna chicken out and not come at all!”

Sasuke glances up at Naruto, smirking. “Shut up, you big dork.” After that, his gaze slides over to Sakura.

“You better win, Sasuke!” Sakura yells. “If you break your promise, I’ll break you!”

Sasuke rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t look too displeased. “You know that there’s no way I’ll lose to garbage like him.”

Gaara bristles, across the arena.

“Guys,” the moderator yells. It’s a different one than the one who moderated for the first stage- Sakura doesn’t think that the first moderator could have yelled at all. “Come on. We’re not here for snappy dialogue.”

Sasuke just rolls his eyes and takes his place in the arena, while Kakashi-sensei body flickers up to the stands.

“Did I miss anything good?” He asks, mussing Sakura’s and Naruto’s hair at the same time.

“Nacchan won his bout and it was really cool,” Sakura says, the same time Nacchan says, “Not really.”

“Good job, kiddo,” Kakashi-sensei says, ruffling Naruto’s hair even more.

Nacchan rolls his eyes, but he seems to be a lot more focused on Sasuke’s fight than on Kakashi trying to bully them.

It’s a really good fight. Sasuke’s improved, even from how good he had been a month ago, and he fights smart instead of tough. He seems to have a strategy beyond hit harder and hit faster, and the fight looks good, beyond that. He’s improved a lot.

“Whoa,” Sakura says, after about three straight minutes of battling, “Kakashi-sensei, you can actually teach!”

“Right? I think he actually made Sasuke a better shinobi!” Nacchan agrees. “I bet he was only late two hours every day!”

“I feel like I’m getting bullied,” Kakashi says, only sounding a little upset. “I should’ve kept your kaa-chan’s bento boxes, Sakura.”

“I think he just threatened to rob me, Nacchan,” Sakura says.

“What a scumbag,” Nacchan agrees. “I hope we become more reliable adults than that, Sacchan.”

Kakashi just sighs, and the three of them return to watching Sasuke’s fight- which he’s winning, anyways.

And then everything goes wrong.

-+-

It was a genjutsu, of some kind. Something new, something strange, something foreign in her chakra system, and she shoves it aside without a second thought.

And then, she realizes that it’s a genjutsu, but by then, everyone else has collapsed around her except the jounin.

Then, the sound of a crumbling wall- there, across the arena, a black hole of hateful chakra, eclipsing all the other chakra signatures around it, buildings collapsing in its wake.

“Sakura,” Yūgao says, finally noticing that she’s awake, “Gai-senpai is on evacuation. He’s going to get you out of here and back to safety.”

“He is not,” Sakura says, immediately.

“What else are you gonna do?” Yūgao demands. “This is serious, Sakura. This isn’t me making you stand up while you practice your sensory abilities. This is life or death. You are going to safety.”

“I can help,” Sakura insists. “I’m good at chakra sensing. I can help revive shinobi from the genjutsu. More allies.”

“Stand up, then,” Yūgao says.

She can’t. Yūgao knows she can’t- she knows about Sakura’s legs best, besides Sakura’s okaa-chan, and she knows that any kind of chakra disturbance makes them worse.

“I can still crawl,” Sakura says. “And if I can crawl, I can help.”

Yūgao keeps staring at her, before she just sighs and looks to Kakashi-sensei.

“She’s staying,” she says. “She can do it.”

Kakashi looks at Yūgao, and then towards Sakura- and just for a moment, Sakura sees pain in his face.

“Okay,” he says. “You will stay safe, Sakura-chan.”

Sakura nods.

“If you die,” Yūgao says, “I’ll kill you myself.”

“I know,” Sakura says. She turns and begins waking the genin around her.

Once the other kids are awake, Sakura begins crawling towards the rest of the Konoha shinobi.

Most of the ones she wakes up are chuunin. She doesn’t have the time to explain- the focus she’s putting into completely removing the genjutsu from all the shinobi is more difficult than she’d care to admit, and all she has time to tell a given shinobi is that Konoha is under attack, and to follow the jounin.

She reaches for one shinobi, one she thinks was keeping watch on the first stage of the chuunin exams, and before she can eliminate the genjutsu on him, an enemy shinobi slits his throat, and she’s spattered with his blood- blood of an ally, and she feels the same way she had when Nacchan had stabbed his hand, on their first C-rank.

Behind that shinobi, a Konoha shinobi attacks, killing him quickly.

“Get out of here, kid,” she says, and oh, it’s the jounin from introducing the Forest of Death.

“Busy,” Sakura says. “Trying to restore allies from enemy genjutsu.”

She moves on before the jounin can try to stop her again.

Her arms hurt, but there’s still too many people that she needs to help.

She can do this.

Chapter Text

Hiruzen is definitely angry at Kakashi.

The reason for this anger is completely unknown to Kakashi, and he doesn’t even know if he deserves it or not.

On the other hand, he would have had to have killed a councillor for Hiruzen to be this pissed, so it might just be one of his little whims.

Unfortunately, Hiruzen’s current whim is sending Kakashi and three twelve-year-olds out on another C-rank mission, barely two weeks after the first disaster of a C-rank.

It's five days' travel on foot from Konoha to the location of their new C-rank, and all they’re going to be doing is guarding a local festival. That’s going to be nearly twenty days with some bored genin, and Kakashi really does not care enough to come up with a new jutsu to teach them. Only one of them can walk on water, anyways, and he doubts that there will be many opportunities to stop and teach the genin.

At the very least, the kids seem… alright. Sasuke’s mad at Kakashi about the sharingan reveal, but he seems willing enough to wait for an explanation. That gets to be a problem for future Kakashi. Naruto bounced back incredibly quickly from the death of the fake hunter-nin, and Sakura seems to have likewise recovered from the death of her uncle. She had only cried once, when Zabuza had actually died, and had kept her tears back when Team Seven was walking back from the Land of Waves. She had missed two days of training once they were all back in Konoha, before she had come back and been back to normal.

Kakashi had pulled her aside on her first day back, asked if she was alright, making sure that she wasn’t as bad as Kakashi had been, after the first person that he had loved died.

“Don’t worry, sensei,” Sakura had said. “Okaa-chan and Otou-chan and I had a funeral. I’m fine.”

And she had seemed fine, too. Had been steady in her taijutsu, no matter how bad it looked, and had laughed with Naruto after a spar and had cast several genjutsu onto Sasuke (and Kakashi himself, with quite the aura of smugness).

They should all be fine for this C-rank.

-+-

The first day isn’t necessarily upsetting, but it is certainly annoying. When Kakashi arrives at the gate, a mere two hours late, Sasuke is throwing needles at Izumo and Kotetsu.

Not senbon, but needles. If Kakashi had to guess, he would say that Sakura was somehow involved, but she gives off no appearance of having anything to do with this.

“Alright, team,” Kakashi says, “who’s ready for a C-rank?”

Naruto is immediately jumping around and yelling about how he’s ready, and how he’s totally gonna show those stupid enemy shinobi what-for, and how they had better get a move on y’know because what if they miss the festival y’know.

Sasuke just nods, while Sakura just high-fives Naruto with much quieter cheer.

Kakashi downs a handful of Gai’s headache medicine, and guides the kids out of the village.

The first hour or so of the journey is as quiet as Team 7 gets. Sakura and Naruto are playing “I Spy”, which Kakashi figures is close enough to surveillance training, especially when Sasuke jumps in.

Then, apparently, the kids get bored of playing “I Spy” and instead decide to play “Let’s all bother Kakashi as much as we can, it’s not like he’s an S-ranked ANBU-level jounin who is a war veteran or anything.”

Kakashi fucking hates that game.

It starts out simply enough- they practice a couple of weak genjutsu on him, which he doesn’t even acknowledge, and then they start flicking twigs and pebbles just past his ear so that he can hear the whistling. Even this and their giggling can be ignored.

And then they start talking to him.

“Kakashi-sensei, how do you pronounce your name, again?”

“Kakashi-sensei, how much longer?”

“... Sensei. Why can’t we go through the trees?”

Kakashi answers all their questions as patiently as he can, but the sunlight is bright and it’s hot out and the children are loud. Eventually, he just gives up.

“Hey. Sensei. Will you teach us anything useful, this time?”

“No.”

“Kakashi-sensei, are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Kakashi-sensei, what’s chakra, again?”

At that, Kakashi sighs heavily. “Sakura-chan, tell Naruto what chakra is.”

“... Oh my goodness,” the young girl says. “Nakkun, I don’t think Sensei knows what chakra is.”

Kakashi sighs. “I know what chakra is, Sakura-chan.”

“But you couldn’t answer Nakkun’s question, though?” Sakura has her finger on her chin, like she’s trying to look earnest. “Gosh, Sensei, if you don’t even know what chakra is… “

“He did graduate the academy when he was six,” Sasuke interrupts. For half a moment, Kakashi dares to hope that the young boy is coming to his aid. “That means he only got a year of education.”

“Oh my gosh,” Sakura says. “I’m so sorry, Sensei.”

Kakashi sighs. “I graduated early because I was a genius, Sakura-chan.”

Sakura nods encouragingly and stands on her tiptoes to pat Kakashi on the shoulder. “I’ll bet you were, Sensei!”

Is it Kakashi’s imagination, or did Sakura put a weird amount of emphasis on the ‘were’ of that sentence?

“... Wait,” Naruto says, like he just figured it out, “is Sensei stupid?”

Sakura clicks her tongue. “Nooooo,” she says, in a very sarcastic way. “Sensei’s just different.”

“Oh my gosh,” Naruto says. “Sensei’s an idiot!”

“You’re one to talk,” Sasuke interjects. “Didn’t you come out dead last in all the academy tests?”

“Ch’yeah, still kicked your ass, jerkface!”

“When was that, in your dreams?”

“It was two days ago, Sasuke, when he threw you into a tree so hard that you had to go to the hospital.”

“Who asked you?”

“You did, dummy, just a second ago! Sacchan’s just answering your stupid question!”

The kids keep bickering, and Kakashi downs half the medicine that Gai had given him for the trip in one swallow.

This is gonna be a long fucking mission.

-+-

When they set up camp for the night, Kakashi assigns Naruto to first watch.

When he asks what it is, Kakashi doesn’t even answer. Instead, he just sets a fire and directs the kids to lay out their sleeping bags around it, before he walks Naruto through where to keep watch from, that he shouldn’t leave camp under any circumstances, that if something suspicious happens, he should wake Kakashi.

The kids stay up talking for at least an hour until Sakura starts drifting off, after which Naruto and Sasuke probably stay up for another twenty minutes talking, until Sasuke abruptly ends the conversation with a terse, “Good night” and turns over in his sleeping bag.

Naruto looks really pathetic, now that his friends are asleep, but Kakashi just shrugs at him.

“Wake me in three hours,” he says. “I’ll take watch from there.”

Naruto pouts. Kakashi remains unswayed, hopefully, and lies down in his sleeping bag and starts pretending to be asleep.

He’s not quite irresponsible enough to actually fall asleep with three twelve-year-old genin on their second ever C-rank, but he is irresponsible enough to pretend.

After about an hour, Sasuke stands up in his sleeping bag.

“Are we doing this, or what?” He whispers.

“Heck yeah, we are!” Naruto scream-whispers- though, that’s probably as close to whispering as Naruto gets.

“Shut up, dummy! What if he wakes up?”

Kakashi fakes some sleep apnea, before he goes back to his steady fake-sleep breathing.

“Now, don’t talk again. You’re either gonna wake up him or Sakura.”

“Sacchan should be a part of this! She’s a member of the team too, y’know!”

“Sakura would just tell us that it’s disrespectful. C’mon, it’s easier for us to commit subterfuge with fewer numbers.”

She would not. Kakashi’s fairly certain that Sakura would sew ‘Kick Me’ or worse on the back of all of Kakashi’s jounin jackets if she had half the chance and a spool of thread. And besides that, committing subterfuge is only easier with fewer participants when those participants know enough to shut the hell up for long enough to commit subterfuge.

“Whatever. Sacchan’ll still get to enjoy it tomorrow!”

“I said shut up!”

“You’re not- mmph!”

Ah, the sweet sounds of nature. The wind blowing through the leaves, the owls hooting in the trees, twelve-year-olds starting slap fights in the clearing. Should Kakashi pretend to wake up? He’s quite tired, though, it might be nice to get a rest.

After a few moments, the slap fight calms down, and Kakashi hears Naruto and Sasuke approach his sleeping bag.

He lets the boys get a few strokes of ink on his forehead before he snatches the brush and kawarimis behind them, one hand on each boy’s head.

“May I ask,” he says, pleasantly, “what exactly drove the two of you to interrupt my beauty sleep?”

Neither boy says anything.

“I’d like an answer, boys.”

“It was Sakura’s idea,” Sasuke says.

“What? It was not! Saccha- mmph!”

Before another slap fight can start, Kakashi hoists both boys up by the scruff of their necks and holds them apart.

“Sasuke, you’ll be practicing your chakra control the entire time you’re walking tomorrow. Don’t betray your teammates, and if you do, at least make it a believable lie.”

“Ha!”

Kakashi turns his focus to the other boy. “Naruto, you’ll be doing the same. If your partner in crime comes up with an alibi, don’t disagree. Otherwise, you’ll never manage to complete an intelligence mission. Understood?”

“Hey, no fair! You’d’ve punished me whether I agreed with Sasuke or not!”

“Oh, for sure. Shinobi rule number eight: A shinobi must understand that their missions could hold no positive results. Your mission of drawing on my face counts.”

Finally, he drops the two boys on the ground, which Naruto loudly protests.

“Both of you, go to sleep. We’ll do watch again tomorrow night, if I think I can trust you.”

“... Sensei?”

Oh, look. Naruto’s volume and the general ruckus finally woke Sakura up. The girl must sleep like a rock at the bottom of the ocean.

Kakashi turns to face her. The girl is rubbing her eyes, and Kakashi almost thinks that she looks innocent.

Then, she opens her eyes, squinting in the dim firelight. She looks confused for a moment, then shocked, and then she bursts into laughter.

“Boys,” Kakashi says, calmly, “what does my face look like?”

“Same as usual,” Sasuke says, immediately, which makes Kakashi think he’s being insulted.

“Sensei, we really didn’t do anything special, y’know!” Naruto insists.

“Don’t worry, sensei, it suits you!” Sakura says, between giggles.

Kakashi’s eye twitches. “Sakura, what is on my face?”

“Ink, sensei!”

Even Sasuke snorts at that. Kakashi hates twelve-year-olds.

“Sakura, tell me what’s on my face. That’s an order from your commanding officer.”

“I already said,” Sakura insists. “There’s ink on your face. I don’t know what else you’re looking for.”

“What does the ink look like, Sakura?”

“Red, semi-liquid.”

Kakashi sighs again. “Sakura, last chance.”

“‘A shinobi who abandons her teammates is worse than trash’,” Sakura quotes.

Kakashi sighs again. Is this what it’s like being with these kids every day? Because he kind of hates it. “Alright. Tomorrow when we’re travelling, you’ll be walking on your hands. Understand?”

“Yes, sensei,” Sakura agrees. Well, at least she didn’t put up a fight.

“Sacchan, you should’ve just told him! You shouldn’t get in trouble, you didn’t do anything y’know!”

“The system is corrupt,” Sasuke says.

“He would’ve punished me anyways. If I had told him, that would’ve counted as betraying my teammates,” Sakura says. “Don’t worry, I can do it!”

“Great,” Kakashi says, tiredly. “Go back to sleep, kids.”

“Yes, sensei,” Sakura says cheerily, like she’s not going to be doing what Gai does for punishment in the morning.

“Whatever,” Sasuke says.

Somehow, Naruto is silent, doing nothing but sticking his tongue out at Kakashi.

“Great. Lie down and shut up.”

-+-

Kakashi can go for up to four nights without sleeping, although Gai and Hana both say that it’s ‘unhealthy’ and ‘reckless’. By the fifth night, he’ll probably at least be able to doze, and after that they’ll be able to sleep all day during the ten days they’ll be guarding the festival. Children can be trusted alone in a village, right? Kakashi was, and Sasuke & Naruto both are. It should be fine.

Suffice to say, Kakashi doesn’t sleep that night. He can catch just enough light in a kunai to get a squinted view of his reflection.

All they did was write ‘ugly’.

The planning capabilities of twelve-year-olds truly know no limits. Maybe more of them should get inducted into T&I, like Anko was. With treatment like this, surely even the most well-trained captive would spill their secrets.

Kakashi manages to scrub most of the ink off his face with a wet washcloth and a dull razor that he’s never had to use. A few dry red spots remain, but it’s the best he could do.

The first person to wake up in the morning is Sakura. She yawns, stretches, and goes behind the trees to get changed.

Boy, if there’s a bandit or a hungry wolf behind those trees, Kakashi’s never gonna hear the end of it. At some point, he’ll have to remind her that no one in the shinobi world will care if she gets changed in front of them.

Oh, good. There weren’t any bandits or hungry wolves behind the trees.

She packs up her sleeping bag and supplies neatly, leaving just some dried fruit for her to have for breakfast.

“Don’t eat too much,” Kakashi warns. “Walking on your hands for too long will make you sick.”

“Then don’t make me walk on my hands, sensei!”

Kakashi sighs. “A good shinobi always takes his punishment, Sakura.”

“She’s a terrible shinobi,” Sasuke interrupts. Good lord, when did he wake up? Kakashi hadn’t even noticed. “And besides that, she’s not a him.”

“See, sensei? How could I take my punishment when I’m not a him?”

Oh, look at that. She left out the part about her being a terrible shinobi. That’s the kind of psychological information that Gai talks about recording, probably. Oh, well.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll cut your legs off so you only ever walk on your hands again.”

“Liar,” Sakura accuses. She takes a bite of her dried fruit and it stretches so much that Sakura snaps back once it finally splits. What the hell kind of dried fruit stretches? Did she cook that herself? Is she just eating rubber?

“... Sensei. When are we moving out.”

“When Naruto gets up,” Kakashi says, lazily. The sun still isn’t entirely over the horizon, yet- there’s really no rush.

“Hm.”

Kakashi almost dares to hope that that’s the end of it, before Sasuke starts nailing Naruto with rocks and pebbles.

Although, it is pretty impressive that it takes until Naruto’s forehead is bleeding for him to wake up. The boy’s skull must be about as thick as the Hokage Monument.

After dealing with the nonsense that arises from that, Kakashi walks Naruto and Sasuke through their chakra control exercises. Naruto has to hold one leaf to his forehead and one to his shoulder the entire day, without replacement. Sasuke, who looked a little smug at that, gets to have a leaf on each shoulder, two on his forehead, and one on each knee.

Sakura waits until the very last second for her to actually get on her hands.

She doesn’t seem to mind the walking on her hands, at first. She talks occasionally- mostly just letting Naruto know that his leaf is about to slip, which Kakashi doubts is as helpful as Sakura seems to think.

Luckily, she stops talking once she starts feeling the strain. It only takes about an hour for her to stop talking, at which point she’s dripping with sweat. Her arms start shaking shortly after, and she starts slowing down.

Kakashi isn’t enough of a shitty bastard to entirely leave her behind, but he makes sure that she’s a few steps behind him, Sasuke, and Naruto. That’s encouraging, right? Leave your student behind so that she’ll try to catch up.

It works a bit, until Naruto stops dead in his tracks, his leaves dropping to the ground. “Sensei, Sacchan needs a break.”

“Do n-” Sakura’s protests are cut off as she collapses from standing on her hands, breathing heavily.

“Twenty minute break,” Kakashi declares. She’ll be alright after some time to breathe and get some water. Kids love water.

Sakura huffs, somewhat indignant, but doesn’t really protest Kakashi’s decision. She moves out of the path to lean against a tree before digging out her canteen and swallowing greedily. Naruto immediately drops down next to her, letting his shoulder brush hers even with the sweat dripping off her shoulders.

“Not too fast,” Kakashi warns. Sakura just halfway-glares at him- she’s upset that she had to be warned, not upset that Kakashi warned her. He’s gotten that look more than a few times, mostly back on his own team seven. She’ll get over it.

“Sensei! Let me and Sacchan trade punishments!”

“What? No.”

Naruto puffs out his cheeks like a chipmunk. “Sensei, we’ll both still get punished! And Sacchan’s getting sick walking on her hands, and she needs her hands to sew, and we’re both uncomfortable, and if you don’t let us swap, we’d be letting each other down, and we’d be worse than trash, y’know!”

Wow, that was the best argument that Kakashi’s ever heard Naruto formulate. Kakashi’s almost tempted to give it to him.

Sasuke snorts. “What, you think she can’t handle it? If she doesn’t try, she’ll never get better, idiot.”

“Hey! Sacchan’s great, y’know!”

“Stop,” Kakashi says. He doesn’t need to hear the Uzumaki speech pattern so much, so early. “No switching punishments. Sakura has to walk on her hands because her physical scores are so much lower. You have to practice chakra control for the same reason. Sakura could keep two leaves on her forehead and her shoulder easily. Punishment is supposed to make you suffer, so you’ll reflect on your mistakes. Understood?”

“Yes, sensei,” Sakura says, before Naruto can interrupt. She’s wiping herself down with a washcloth, and has redun her hair so that it’s all in one bun and none of it is hanging down. Her forehead protector is stained with sweat, and she ties it just above her left knee, over her chainmail.

“But, Sacchan-!”

“I can do it, Nacchan,” Sakura says, reverting to Naruto’s childhood nickname. Is that psychologically significant? Kakashi can ask Gai once they’re back in Konoha.

Naruto stays worried, though. “But I don’t want you to get sick, Sacchan. We’re supposed to be guarding a festival, and if you’re sick, you won’t be able to guard or even go to the festival, y’know!”

“It’s punishment, Nacchan. If I get that sick, I’ll just have to sleep it off. I’ll be fine.”

Naruto pouts, but turns away. “Fine. You can do it, but don’t come crying to me when you get sick.”

Sakura takes one last drink of water before she re-secures her canteen. “I never have, Nakkun. You’re the one who comes crying to me when I get sick.”

Naruto just crosses his arms, still pouting. “Whatever.”

Sakura laughs and tousles Naruto’s hair. “Thank you for caring, Nakkun.”

“Of course I care! You’re my best friend, y’know!”

“Aw. You’re my best friend too, Nakkun.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes as the two friends laugh. “Can we go now?”

Kakashi glances at the position of the sun. “We have a few minutes left, if you guys want to keep resting.”

“I’m ready,” Sakura says. She stands up and stretches quickly, before she straps her backpack on.

Kakashi nods, and then glances to Naruto, who is still leaning against the tree. “Naruto?”

Naruto sighs loudly, before he stands up and puts his backpack on. “Ready.”

“Nakkun, your leaves,” Sakura reminds, so Kakashi doesn’t have to. Naruto spends about five minutes getting his leaves arranged on his shoulder and his forehead, and then they’re finally ready to go.

They take two more breaks throughout the day- once for lunch, which was already planned, and then again when Naruto insists on Sakura’s behalf again. Her canteen is empty by then, and Naruto offers his up for her.

Maybe Sakura could learn ketsuro. If her physical capabilities stay low, she’s going to need to have a good way to get water to stay healthy. She’s Kiri, too- is the rule that Kiri-nin are good at ketsuro, since it’s water based, or bad, since they’re so used to having actual water round? Probably not important- she’ll either do it, or she won’t. That’s not really Kakashi’s problem.

At the fire that night, Sakura just collapses. She doesn’t bandage her hands, or disinfect them, or anything, but she doesn’t seem the type to leave them to fester. Twelve is old enough to be responsible for their own field medicine- Kakashi certainly was.

He makes soup for him and the kids for dinner. Gai’s told him before what foods are good for after a long day of hard work, but damned if Kakashi can remember. Instead, he tosses in chicken stock, rabbit meat, eggplant, and radishes. That counts as food, right? It’s better than the food Kakashi had during the third war, but that’s not a big hurdle.

“Are you guys going to draw on my face again?” Kakashi asks.

Naruto looks like he’s about to faint. “Noooooooooo. Sensei, holding those leaves was so hard. I can’t do it anymore, y’know!”

Sasuke just silently shakes his head.

“Good,” Kakashi says. “Sasuke, you can take first watch tonight. I’ll watch for the rest of the night. Understood?”

“Understood,” Sasuke echoes.

Kakashi leaves the pot of soup over the fire for the morning. None of the kids seem to be in the mood for chatting while or after they eat, and once Naruto finishes chugging his bowl of soup, he collapses, fully clothed, in his sleeping bag.

Once Naruto is asleep, Sakura goes behind the bandit- and wolf-infested trees to wipe off her sweat and change into pajamas. Her hands are still unbandaged- if they’re still unbandaged in the morning, he’ll do it for her.

When Kakashi glances at Sasuke, he just gets a dull stare in return. Sasuke definitely brought pajamas- Kakashi saw them last night, in fact- but he doesn’t seem to care about changing into them.

Just like with Naruto, Kakashi guides Sasuke to a good place to keep watch, and explains what’s important about keeping watch- don’t leave camp, report anything suspicious to Kakashi, and if nothing suspicious happens, wake Kakashi in three hours.

Kakashi definitely doesn’t plan on sleeping, just in case Sakura decides that she’s not included in “you guys” and goes after his face again. She doesn’t seem to be in the mood for it, but Kakashi can’t really tell with her.

-+-

Sakura wakes up an hour and a half into Sasuke’s watch.

It’s more likely that she didn’t fall asleep in the first place, when he thinks about it. She stands up smoothly, and she actually puts focus into keeping her footsteps silent. That’s probably not normal for a civilian clan kid like Sakura, right? It’s not even normal for Sasuke, and he was raised in a shinobi clan.

Sasuke glances between her and Kakashi. Kakashi had told him not to leave the camp, and to wake him up if something suspicious happened, but Sasuke can handle pretty much anything. Besides, Sakura isn’t suspicious, or anything. She’s annoying, and she’s full of herself, and she’s completely useless as a shinobi, but that’s not suspicious. That’s normal, for civilian clan girls. Ergo, Sasuke doesn’t need to wake up Kakashi.

He grabs his emergency bag, just in case.

He follows Sakura. His footsteps are quieter than hers, and he remembers just in time to mask his chakra signature so she doesn’t notice him. He’s not very good at masking his chakra signature, but he’s surely good enough that Sakura won’t notice him.

She doesn’t go far from the camp- probably only a few meters, but in the dark, it seems longer. She’s kneeling next to the small stream, a pair of gloves with what looks like ceramic armor lying next to her.

“Stupid,” she mutters, her scrubbing intensifying. “Stupid, stupid stupid. You could do this. You shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

Oh. Her hands- even Sasuke probably couldn’t have walked on his hands for as long as Sakura had, if he’s being honest. He could’ve gone longer without breaks, but not for so many kilometers. Hands are important for a shinobi, with hand seals and proper grip on kunai and swords and shuriken, besides taijutsu and technique and everything.

She’s just- she’s just rubbing the blood around, scrubbing at her palms with a dry washcloth. That’ll just make it worse- hasn’t she had any medical training at all? Maybe they’re hidden in the shadows, but Sasuke can’t see any bandages or ointment. If she doesn’t wrap her wounds, they’ll bleed on everything and probably get infected.

Sasuke wavers. Sakura is useless- if she doesn’t even know how to bandage her hands, there’s no way she’ll get anywhere as a shinobi. She’ll probably retire as a genin. It’s none of Sasuke’s business what the weak do with their time.

But she’s his teammate. Those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash- but isn’t that just Kakashi’s motto? What does Sasuke care about Kakashi, who was the son of a disgrace?

But she didn’t rat him and Naruto out last night. Most annoying girls would have, to spare themselves the trouble. And they wouldn’t have taken the punishment- they would’ve whined and complained and stopped after an hour, because they don’t do anything and they don’t work hard.

Does Sakura work hard, or is she just stupid?

“Stupid,” Sakura says to herself, again. Her hands are curled into fists, and she’s glaring at the ground. She starts pulling on her gloves.

They look like nice gloves. If they get all bloody, they’ll be ruined for incognito missions.

“Wait,” he says.

He shouldn’t have said anything. He should have left her to her stupid scrubbing and let her ruin her own gloves. They looked ugly, anyways.

But Sakura is already staring at him- past him, really; no one but the Hyuuga can see in the dark as well as the Uchiha can- and Sasuke can’t turn around now.

He walks out of the trees, and can see when Sakura recognizes him.

“What do you want?” She demands. Her glove is dangling from her hand- there’s no blood on it, yet.

“You weren’t doing anything worthwhile,” Sasuke says. “All you would’ve done is irritate your hands and get your gloves all bloody.”

Sakura just stares at him. “What do you care?”

He doesn’t. He shouldn’t. He’s hated Sakura since they were eight years old.

“You didn’t rat me and Naruto out,” he says. “Call it returning a favor.”

Sakura stares at him a moment more, distrustful, before she finally sighs. “Fine,” she says, dropping her glove with a soft clink. “What do I do?”

“Just- here, give me your hands. I’ll bandage them for you.”

His first aid kit is at the bottom of his emergency bag, pieces of lint clinging to the outside. When was the last time he reorganized his emergency bag? When was the last time he touched his first aid kit?

Sakura holds her hands out carefully. Sasuke can’t remember the last time they touched outside of a spar- probably back when they were eight, right? He doesn’t even think she’s ever bumped into him, even on accident.

Carefully, he swabs her cuts with disinfectant. She winces, but her hands stay steady. After the cuts are disinfected- which takes two of Sasuke’s cotton balls, which he’ll have to bury- he smears her hands with ointment, and then wraps them. From the fingers down, he wraps tight and follows the contours of Sakura’s hands, so that they look near-mummified.

“Keep them on for two days,” he says. “After that, as long as you don’t pick at them, you can wear your gloves instead.”

Sakura is silent for once. She turns her hands around, examining Sasuke’s bandaging and flexing her fingers.

“Thank you,” she finally says.

“Whatever,” Sasuke says, repacking his emergency bag. “Just don’t do anything stupid to ruin the bandages. I won’t help you again.”

“Right,” Sakura agrees. She finally looks up to meet Sasuke’s eyes. “Thanks, Sasuke. Really.”

“Whatever,” Sasuke says again. His bag is repacked now. He could go back to camp. Probably should.

Sakura turns and puts her feet in the stream. “You can head back to camp, you know.”

“I know,” Sasuke says. He doesn’t move.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, before Sakura sighs and pulls her feet out of the stream. “What is it, sensei?”

Sasuke whips around to stare in the direction of the camp. There, between two trees, is Hatake Kakashi, staring the two of them down.

“Sakura. Sasuke,” he says, by way of greeting. “Sasuke, I believe I told you not to leave the camp?”

“... I don’t recall,” Sasuke eventually says.

“It’s my fault,” Sakura interrupts. “He saw me washing my cuts, and came to help me bandage my hands.”

“That was his choice,” Kakashi replies. “You also shouldn’t have left camp.”

“Whatever,” Sasuke says. It’s not like he wanted to come out and help Sakura, he just- did.

Kakashi sighs. “Fifty push-ups, both of you. Sasuke, once you do your push-ups, go to bed. Your watch is over.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes, but gets started on his push-ups without argument. After a moment, Sakura follows suit.

Sasuke finishes first, but he walks Sakura back to camp, anyways.

-+-

The children are loud again.

Maybe Kakashi should exhaust them every day, if it’ll shut them up. No twelve-year-old should be as loud as the ones assigned to Kakashi. Then again, aren’t Gai’s students also really loud? Does anyone have quiet students? Maybe Kakashi could deafen himself and save himself the trouble. ANBU sign language is good enough, right?

“Sensei, will we get to play at the festival?” Naruto demands.

“Uh, maybe,” Kakashi says. ‘Probably’ is the correct answer- there’s no rumor of bandits in southern Fire country, so the worst they’ll probably have to deal with is likely some bored farmers’ kids sneaking around. This kind of job is ridiculously cushy, with lodging and meals provided. The pay isn’t great, which is probably why Kakashi managed to nab it for the kids instead of some Nara chuunin, but Kakashi’s never really cared about mission salary- ANBU missions and the pay for bereavement during war is enough for him to live comfortably in his one-bedroom apartment for the rest of his days. Besides, the kids don’t know how much money missions should pay. They’d be thrilled to get a shiny coin, probably. Kids love shiny coins.

“I didn’t bring my kimono, is that okay?”

“Don’t bring useless items on missions,” Kakashi says. Kimonos are for intelligence and seduction missions, not guard missions- even at parties and formal gatherings, unless the guards need to be in disguise. There was that one girl who wore a kimono on all her missions, some important person’s niece or sister-in-law or something, but Kakashi can’t honestly remember.

“Sensei, you should give us pocket money! And we’ll pay you back when we get our mission payment!”

No, they won’t.

“We’ll see.”

“Sensei, can we catch goldfish at the festival?”

Why would they catch goldfish? Do they realize they have to walk back to Konohagakure after the festival?

“If you know what you’re going to do with it after.”

“I’m gonna name it Yari Ma’n!”

“I’m gonna teach it to eat people on my command, like the Inuzuka dogs.”

“... Grill it with tomatoes.”

Why.

The next few days go in a similar direction. Maybe Kakashi should abandon the kids in the woods and let wolves train them. Wolves are good at training people, right? Legend has it that the first Hatake was trained by wolves and then burned a human city down to the ground, leaving it a bare field.

Kakashi’s students wouldn’t burn down a city, probably.

Well-

-+-

The children are loud for the rest of the mission and Kakashi runs out of Gai’s headache medicine within four days.

How are children so loud? Is it a defense mechanism? Kakashi wasn’t that loud, though he has known loud children. Even then, those loud children seemed to be a lot quieter than the current loud children who are only about three inches away from Kakashi’s ears at a given time.

Guarding the festival is the best part. The inn that the town’s mayor sets them up in has an onsen, and Kakashi battles his conscience only briefly before he dismisses the children for free time until dinner. He lets them out of his sight for a total of three seconds before he goes to the onsen.

He’s missed hot springs. Has it really only been two weeks?

… Maybe what he missed was silence, not hot springs.

He soaks in the water for probably a good three hours. He’s practically cooked by the time he gets out, and his skin is way too red. By dinnertime, he’s still a pretty bright pink.

“Sensei, you look like a lobster!” Naruto declares, loudly.

“You’re bothering the guests,” Kakashi replies. Ooh, steamed yams!

“You’re bothering the guests, ‘cause I’m a guest and you’re bothering me!”

“I’m a guest, too,” Kakashi says. “And you’re bothering me.”

That seems to stump Naruto enough that he stops yelling and focuses on grumbling under his breath and eating his dinner.

Children can be very, very funny.

-+-

The first night of the festival, Kakashi makes all three kids stand on guard and not participate. It’s a lot more adult than Kakashi had expected- there’s no hookers, but it wouldn’t be strange to meet a goldfish named Yari Ma’n.

Knowing his students, any one of them could accidentally get drunk. Kakashi’s gonna have to scope out the festival before he lets them out of his sight.

The kids actually do sleep through most of the next day, but they wake up at four and expect Kakashi to feed them. The inn doesn’t serve food until six, so he just takes the kids to a local ramen restaurant.

“We shouldn’t eat ramen for breakfast,” Sakura points out, but there’s already a piece of menma between her teeth.

“It’s afternoon, though, so it isn’t breakfast, y’know!” Naruto says.

“It’s breakfast for our bodies,” Sakura disagrees, after swallowing a ramen noodle.

“Hypocrite,” Sasuke mutters.

“Hey, Sasuke, look! That guy’s using a fireball jutsu!”

Oh, Sasuke shouldn’t fall for that. He looks over anyways, searching for the nonexistent ninjutsu user, and while he’s distracted, Sakura pours hot sauce into his ramen.

“... There’s no one using a fireball,” he says, glaring at Sakura.

“Oops, my bad,” Sakura says innocently.

“Dummy,” Sasuke says, digging into his ramen.

Kakashi shouldn’t encourage that, right? Sasuke started it, but Sakura escalated it. Although, she did take it for a long time before she snapped… it’s probably fine.

Besides, Sasuke doesn’t seem that mad.

-+-

Kakashi doesn’t let all three children roam free at the festival until the last night. He dismisses them from their guard posts one by one, giving each of them a festival mask to wear while they walk around. Sakura gets an oni mask, Naruto gets a hyottoko mask, and Sasuke gets an inari mask.

Sakura makes the most purchases on her night, filling all the empty space in her backpack and herself with candy and snacks, and comes out with six yo-yo balloons on her fingers. Sasuke comes out with the most prizes- he must’ve emptied out six different prize stalls with whatever unnatural luck and aim the kid has. He divvies them out amongst the kids, though not exactly evenly- Naruto gets almost anything he would’ve asked for, and Sakura ends up with a utility tool, a cutesy stuffed penguin, and something that lights up and screams when she bites it, which Kakashi is certain will only be used for good. Sasuke, for his part, winds up with dozens of knives and novelty shuriken and a plush tomato that looks angry. Naruto comes back with his arms full of yakitori and ramune that he insists on sharing with everyone, and a single goldfish.

“Behold!” He declares. “Yari Ma’n!”

Sakura cheers, for some unholy reason. Sasuke even claps.

Then, Naruto remembers to get a bowl for the goldfish, and he leaves Yari Ma’n in Kakashi’s hands while he goes to find one.

The one he comes back with is shaped like a narutomaki, for some reason. For another, stranger reason, Kakashi doesn’t even make him return it.

The last night of the festival is the night when all four of them go out together. In fact, there weren’t even any bored farmers’ sons causing trouble, so now all they have is one night left in the festival, and one morning in the inn, and then they have to walk back to Konoha, with Naruto carrying Yari Ma’n.

The last night, Kakashi doesn’t even make the kids wear their masks. They can have fun, if they want- they deserve it, since it’s not at his expense.

“Sensei, pocket money!” Naruto demands, as soon as they’re through the gates. “You promised!”

“I did not,” Kakashi says, but he divvies out some of his wallet to the kids anyways.

“Alright!” Naruto points right at Kakashi. “Wait right there! We’re gonna get something for you!”

Hm. No, Kakashi wants shaved ice, and he’s in the games section right now.

“How about this. I’ll wander around the festival, and you all have to find me.”

“What do we get if we do?” Sakura asks.

“My respect,” Kakashi says. “Also, I’ll take whatever you give me.”

“Hmph,” Sasuke says. “That’s hardly-”

“- A bad deal at all,” Sakura interrupts. “Three-two-one-go!” She grabs both boys’ hands in her own and dashes off. Kakashi has a bad feeling about this.

Oh, well. He wants shaved ice.

He gets two cones, one grape-flavored and one tiger’s blood. He can’t really eat them properly, but shaved ice isn’t meant for proper eating. It’s meant for getting ice cold sugar in his mouth as quickly as possible.

Sasuke and Naruto almost catch him a few times, but Naruto’s bright orange jacket and Sasuke’s tendency to get people to move as far away from him as possible make it easy for Kakashi to spot them from a distance, and that, in turn, makes it easy for Kakashi to just book it out of there.

He’s been evading them for about forty-five minutes by the time a tiny orange blur wearing dark blue finally takes him down.

“Gotcha!” Sakura crows from behind him. “I told you he was here!”

“Yeah, so what? We didn’t win anything good for finding him.”

“Did so,” Sakura says. “Sensei, you said you’d take whatever we gave you, right?”

Kakashi sighs. “Yes, Sakura.”

“Here, take this!”

She’s wearing her gloves when she shoves whatever it is into Kakashi’s hands, which immediately turn bright red and itchy.

“What is this, Sakura?”

“Itchy paper. We got it from a prank stall. We also have good lotion that’ll make it go away, but you can’t have it yet.”

Kakashi sighs. Specifics, he reminds himself, specifics are what controls a twelve-year-old.

“Also, this!” Naruto kicks him in the shins, and hops backwards, cursing, when he realizes that Kakashi is still wearing his greaves.

“This,” Sasuke says, handing Kakashi what looks like shaved ice.

“Taking doesn’t mean eating,” Kakashi says. He pours the sticky ice over his inflamed hands and sighs at the relief.

“Aw, you’re no fun,” Sakura says. She shoves the salve at Kakashi, being careful not to touch his hands. “We do have a real thing that we were gonna give you, though, but you can’t see it!”

“Why not?”

“Because!” Naruto declares, like it’s a convincing argument. He points at Kakashi. “Lean over.”

“Why?” Kakashi asks, but he’s already leaning. If this ends with a knee to the nose, he’s making all these kids walk on their hands all the way back to Konoha.

“Close your eyes,” Sakura says. She’s holding something behind her back, and Kakashi’s just going to resign himself to his fate at this point. He obligingly shuts his visible eye, and feels Sakura fit something on over his mask. Probably a festival mask, by the feeling of the elastic band, but he doesn’t know which one. Judging by the snickering, it’s not very flattering.

“Okay, you can open them!”

Kakashi opens his eye to the thin slits of light that festival masks allow.

“Why, thank you,” he says, shaking the shaved ice off his hands and beginning to rub the salve over the itchiness. “How kind, for my students to give me a festival mask after tormenting me.”

“Oh, right! Sasuke also got you something, sensei!”

Sasuke scowls at Naruto for spilling the beans, but obligingly holds out some roasted eggplant.

“You eat it all the time,” he mutters. “I figured you’d want some.”

… Aw. Maybe Kakashi’s genin are cute.

“Thank you, Sasuke,” Kakashi says. He caps and pockets the salve, moves his festival mask to the side with his sharingan eye so the surprise isn’t spoiled, and takes a very quick bite of the roasted eggplant.

And then immediately spits it out, because it was coated with garlic.

“I knew he’d fall for it!” Sakura cheers. “See, sensei? You eat too fast, so it’s easy to trick you with food!”

Kakashi is too busy trying to erase the memory of garlic-coated eggplant from his mind for him to chastise Sakura. Instead, he walks- maybe runs- over to a shaved ice stand to try and find release.

“Sensei, buy us some!” Naruto demands. “I want blue raspberry, and Sakura wants strawberry, and Sasuke says he doesn’t want any but really he wants lime!”

“Sensei wants watermelon flavor,” Sakura informs the woman running the booth. “So that’s watermelon, blue raspberry, strawberry, and lemon, please. Oh, two watermelons, actually- sensei ate some food he doesn’t like, earlier, so he’ll want to make sure the taste is gone.”

Kakashi had wanted two shaved ice, and had even wanted them to be watermelon flavor, but not now that Sakura’s ordering for him.

“Coming right up, sweetie,” the shaved ice lady says, smiling kindly at Sakura.

“I did not say I was buying shaved ice for you all,” Kakashi protests, finally having a mouth free enough of garlic to speak.

“... Whatever,” Sasuke says. “I’ll cover it.” He slides some money across the counter.

“That was my money an hour ago,” Kakashi points out.

“Was,” Sasuke agrees.

Kakashi hates twelve-year-olds.