Chapter Text
They keep her in the hospital for a few days longer.
It’s not because of her injuries—Tsunade healed the bruises around her neck with the ease of a professional. No, it’s to keep an eye on her. Shizune reassured her that it wasn’t anything serious or negative, everyone just wanted to give her some time to process the whole confrontation with her mother. To let her get used to her new reality.
Also, Genma apparently needed to deep-clean his apartment or something.
(“That man is secretly a housewife,” Shizune told her with a grin, “He’s probably trying to make sure everything is in place and as clean as possible for your arrival.”
Then she shook her head with a small sigh, and whispered under her breath, “And to kick out his friends, if they try to sneak in again.”
Sakura pretended not to hear that last part.
Although she’s really, really curious about what kind of friends break into one’s home. Or are all shinobi just like that? If one has the skills, after all…)
Sakura glances at the door, a small smile forms on her face for a moment and then it disappears again. Before the person has the chance to knock on the door, she calls out, “You can come in, Neji-san.”
The chakra signature spikes—a sure sign of confusion. Sakura finds she likes the way it feels. Caught off guard and surprised. It’s kind of fun. One moment later, the door opens and the Hyuuga enters the room. After he closes the door, he walks closer to the bed she rests on, taking place on the chair standing beside it.
He takes a few seconds to stare at her. It’s something he does a lot, she realized recently. Not just her. At everyone that he doesn’t seem to be able to comprehend… and well, that’s almost everyone that’s decent to him. He stares the same way at Shino, who has decided to tone down his dislike for the other. At Genma, who pats his shoulder and smirks at him. At Shizune and Tsunade, who treat him politely with warmth behind their words.
In a way, she comes to understand, they are a bit similar in that sense. Sakura doesn’t think comparing Neji and herself would be smart—in the end, their situations are still vastly different and they have developed very varied due to that. But sometimes, when he stares like that, when he’s so caught off guard that he doesn’t know how to react, when he struggles to form sentences—words—that are sincere, she can’t help but relate.
He’s been stopping by every single day since she’s been admitted. Some would find it strange—she did too, at first—but he seems determined to visit her. To talk and interact with her. She doesn’t quite know why, but she can tell it’s important to him. He stops by every day, often with fruits or sweets, and stays for a few hours to talk.
And the more time she spends in his presence, the more she starts to think about his sudden presence in her life, about how he behaves, about what he says.
About what he has said.
The Chunin Selection Exams.
As she observes him, as he observes her back, she’s reminded of his speech from back then. The one during his match against Naruto.
Now, Sakura… has her own fair share of experiences with Konoha’s system. No matter how much people like to butter up the village as friendly and kind, it’s hard to ignore the signs if you look properly. Sakura has always been fascinated with the inner workings of the village, with the systems and how everything settles into place to make things work . From the civilian side to the shinobi side of the village, Sakura has always been curious about it all. It’s like a puzzle to her: the whole picture can only be appreciated, if every little piece is in its place.
And well, if you spend a lot of time observing something, you’ll find out a lot. Like the fact that despite the subpar security that Konoha should have, with the presence of Anbu everywhere, there are quite a lot of things that seem to slip through. Her own case would probably be a proper example but she really doesn’t want to think about the details of that just yet.
(Doesn’t want to acknowledge just why it’s taken years for anyone to notice something off about her whole situation, regardless if she wanted it to happen or not.)
So, she’s aware that not everything runs as smoothly as it should and not everything is as good as it seems, and yet… she hasn’t really processed Neji’s words from back then properly.
It’s not that Sakura was completely unaware of that cursed seal. Whilst she couldn’t fish out the details of how it worked and neither could she figure out how widespread in the clan it actually was, she heard of it before from the rumor-mill. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find a lot of things you aren’t necessarily looking for, after all. That said, she never found out enough to see the whole picture.
And then his speech happened and there was so much going on that she just couldn’t process properly—she ended up shoving it to the back, forgetting all about it.
Until now, that is.
With too much time on her hands and trying to figure out where her interactions with Neji are going to lead to, she’s giving his words a lot more thought. Predetermined fate? Admittedly, she is still not sure what to think about that part of the speech. She’s never given fate too much thought. Until Team 7, then she started to wonder if they were just fated to fall apart the moment they were made.
(Yes, they were.)
But the seal he showcased in the arena. His words about the main and side branch. They linger in her mind.
Sakura knows things often fall through in Konoha and that not everything is as sunny as it seems. However, the Hyuuga side branch is essentially being enslaved. Isn’t that literally the case? There’s no sugarcoating it.
It leaves her with something bitter and cold settling in the pits of her stomach.
(If she knows about the seals then the higher-ranked shinobi definitely do as well. And isn’t that the biggest sign that something is inherently off about the village’s system?)
“... Are you alright, Haru—Sakura-san?”
Torn from her thoughts, she focuses her attention back onto the boy sitting at her bedside.
“I’m fine, Neji-san. There’s just a lot to think about.”
It’s best that she doesn’t bring anything up now. They aren’t close enough yet and running her mouth could do more damage than help at the moment.
Neji is careful and quiet. She wouldn’t call him thoughtful like Shino, no, he seems a bit more… direct, so to say. However, Sakura understands that he’s going through changes himself. His battle with Naruto obviously did something to him, stirred up some part of him that might have been buried beneath every obligation he’s carrying. The former him, the one from the exam, would never have wasted his time visiting her. So, something is shifting within him.
And despite that, he’s still here.
Whatever change he is facing, it’s clear he decided to continue building up on whatever they are currently trying to achieve through their interactions. He keeps on visiting and although he might not be very good at conversations, he… isn’t like Sasuke . He tries to talk. He doesn’t do it much but it’s obvious that he wants to talk at least a bit for whatever reason. Admittedly, it’s a lot easier when Shino is around. Despite probably being the one that seems to want to talk the least out of all of them, he is incredibly good at reading them. Good enough to coax Neji out of his self-imposed awkwardness and to get Sakura to feel comfortable enough to speak.
But Shino isn’t there this day; It’s just Neji and her.
“Neji-san, is there a reason for your visits? Uhm, I’m not trying to be rude and I appreciate your presence, but… I’m confused?”
It’s silent for a while and she wonders if she overstepped a line she wasn’t aware of, but then he speaks up.
“I’m not sure either,” Neji admits. “Recently, I have been getting curious about the people around me. That includes Aburame-san and you.”
Sakura blinks.
He sighs. “I just feel like my view has been narrow-sighted. I can’t really explain it, but it’s bothering me because… Uzumaki’s words are affecting me in ways I cannot comprehend.”
Huh. He’s making Naruto sound like a siren from those old fairy tales.
“You’re trying to widen your perspective then,” she concludes.
He nods. “I wasn’t sure where to start or what even to do, but then everything progressed so abruptly, and now I’m here.”
She can tell that he’s disgruntled. It makes sense. Neji doesn’t seem like a person that likes to go with the flow, but that’s essentially what happened to him. But he’s obviously putting effort in and Sakura does think that’s commendable.
Maybe it’s alright to reciprocate the effort, in that case.
“Neji-san,” she mutters, sorting her thoughts,”did you know that your chakra signature smells like petrichor and cinnamon? It’s quite an interesting scent…”
“Huh?”
She looks up to an expression of confusion.
“I know you never listen to me,” Genma says when he approaches the other, “But I’ve got to ask anyway. How about giving the Yamanakas a visit?”
As expected, the other doesn’t bother with a response and just keeps staring ahead at the memorial. Genma sighs, shaking his head.
“You really are a mess,” he mutters, coming to a halt beside the other shinobi. “Aren’t you tired of living like this?”
“I’m not bothered by it,” Kakashi finally replies.
Genma almost scoffs. That’s a bad lie. Still, he’s always been able to read Kakashi just a bit more than the average person—it’s not difficult to him, not when at his core, Kakashi is just a really simple person. The ones that can’t grasp him are the people who have no understanding of mental health or truly believe Kakashi is some tool without feelings. It’s downright pathetic how most people really just don’t seem to grasp the issue at the hand.
He lifts his hand and places it on the other’s shoulder, squeezing slightly.
“Every sane person with some brain cells left knew that Team 7 was a terrible idea,” he states, observing as the other refuses to move his gaze from the memorial. “We all saw the fallout coming. It would have taken a lot to fix that mess of a team and there is just simply no way you could have shaped up fast enough to fix it.”
Kakashi just isn’t in the right mind space to look after kids, no matter if the kids were to become trained assassins or not.
“What is done is done, Kakashi. There is no fixing the past.”
He can feel the slight trembling under his hand.
“However, there is still the future. Don’t you think you owe it to her to at least try to get better?”
Genma ignores the following flinch.
“Sakura’s abuse is one of many examples of Konoha’s absolute garbage of a security system. Just how many Anbu have looked the other way, ignoring what was going on?”
“...”
“I know you’re not the same as those idiots, but if you continue on like this, surely you’ll get there eventually. Just think about that.”
Kakashi still doesn’t gaze away from the memorial. With another sigh, Genma turns to leave. A few steps into his walk, he remembers something.
“Oh right, I already told most of the others,” he starts turning to face the other’s back. “But use the door and ring the bell if you want to come over in the future. Otherwise, you might end up spooking poor Sakura.”
And for the first time since he’s gotten there, Kakashi glances away from the memorial to stare at him, eyes slightly wide.
Genma just waves a hand at him and then leaves. “See ya.”