Chapter Text
There wasn’t much to do after reaching Tazuna’s residence. They got Kakashi lying down in a sleeping bag Sasuke had bought (really convenient for the purpose, too) and then checked his vitals. He was stable, for all intents and purposes (his pulse was steady and that’s all the three of them knew to check). While there was no running water, it was called the Land of Waves for a reason, meaning that there was a nearby lake where all of them could wash up. On her turn, Sakura noticed the crumbling roads, the rundown, grimy buildings, the people lying on the street. A man tried to push past her in a pathetic attempt to pickpocket her. She gently pushed him away, then handed him a few Ryo. God knew whether or not it would actually help him though, rather than simply alleviating her own conscience. She could still feel the blood on her palms from where she’d held that burnt corpse — one foot in front of the other. After freshening up, she headed back to Tazuna’s residence. His daughter, Tsunami, was kind enough to cook a meal for all three of them and offer them their living room to stay in. Sakura volunteered to keep watch. Had to do something, after all. One foot in front of the other. She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways, not after the events of today.
And that was why she was sitting outside the old drunk’s doorsteps in the pitch black of night, despite rather animated offers from Tsunami to stay inside. Her son, Inari, was rather apathetic, and just shooed her away. Rude , especially since they’d almost died twice today. But it got her what she wanted, so now she was staring into the pitch black, sensing chakra as far as she possibly could. Really, it wasn’t that great. Originally, her range was about 30 meters. No doubt pathetic, but good enough for her original purposes. Over the course of this mission, she had estimated an increase of about 35 meters. Pretty fast improvement, if she said so herself. However, that still wasn’t a lot. Hell, she could only sense Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi inside, solely due to them being in the living room where they had been offered room.
So currently, she was trying to expand that range into something more useful. But in order to break out of the cage, one must first find the bars — that was a quote she remembered from a book. What were the bars in this case? Firstly, the “softness” of distant signals. She just couldn’t pick up on them for now, and she didn’t think there was very much she could do about it. Secondly, there was noise — all the signals from far away, meshing together into a meaningless prickle. What she needed to do was pick diamonds from coal. But how could she do that? Maybe she could make the prickles louder somehow? Let’s try it , she thought. How would she do that? She added spiritual energy to her chakra again, putting into its more pliable state. Once again, she felt the ripples in her chakra, felt Naruto and Sasuke and Kakashi, the last one weak but persistent. They’re all alive , she thought. For now — now the thing was that she needed to make it so that her chakra picked up on those movements and amplified them. How could she do that? She strained her mind and tried to figure it out, to no avail. Let’s try a different approach then, something simpler . She pulled a thread from her dress, tied it around her thumb and index, and pulled it taut. She flowed chakra along it. It immediately pulled taut. Let’s try modifying the composition . Physical chakra made the threads dig into her fingers where she had tried them. So it makes it more taut . When she added spiritual chakra, the thread slumped. Slowly, she added back the spiritual chakra. The process was slow, and painstaking, until the string started wobbling. Could it be? — she increased the spiritual composition of her own chakra and suddenly the string wobbled harder. Was it just a problem of the right composition? No, it couldn’t have been. She knew because she had tested out the composition just yesterday, and the one she used worked best on average. On average. But an average is a sum of many, many parts. Meaning that — different signals resonated with different compositions. She moved her hand away, and the string stopped wobbling. Changing the composition of her chakra, she moved up and down the amount of spiritual chakra until at a higher amount, it started violently wobbling again. Time to try this out . She felt her chakra, added spiritual energy to it until it reached the maximum, then decreased it to the minimum. She practiced that a few times, making sure the movement was smooth. She decreased the amplitude of the change until it was a slight wobble. Works for now, though I should probably practice . And then she allowed herself to pay attention to what her chakra was telling her. She could feel out in waves, incredibly far, then closer, and closer, and she could feel Tazuna and Tsunami and Inari in the same bed, and then she could feel Kakashi and Sasuke and then her felt even closer and —
“Hey,” Naruto said, holding an old-fashioned looking lamp. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“I’m keeping watch,” Sakura replied. Naruto simply looked at her doubtfully and she defended herself.
“Using my chakra I swear!”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Naruto said. “I was thinking about today, and about those guys, that creepy guy with the chain and the other huge guy with the sword and …” Sakura studied Naruto’s face. His lip was wobbling, his eyes unusually blank. “I hate those guys,” Naruto confessed. “They would’ve killed us and I’m glad we beat them up. They’d’ve killed us and you and me and Kakashi and Tazuna.” Naruto paused before continuing, burying his face in his hands. “So why am I so upset when they died?” And the dam broke.
“...when we came across that puddle, I knew that those two shinobi were there, and I placed an explosive tag there. And as soon as I felt them rise out of the ground, I activated it. And part of me wished that I used something nonlethal, like a flashbang, and that maybe we could have found a way out where nobody died.” Sakura gulped before continuing. “And another part of me wished that I had blown them to smithereens the moment I felt those signatures.”
“When I saw that shinobi run at you with a knife, that first part died. If we had to do it again, I’d kill them. If we had to do it a thousand times, they would die in every single one.”
“It’s weird, you know. Killing is bad. Feeling bad when people die is a thing that normal people do. But for shinobi, killing just makes them a better shinobi. The fact that you feel bad when people die just means you aren't a sociopathic monster, Naruto.” He flinched at the words, and Sakura didn’t know what to make of it. “Sorry,” Sakura apologized. She didn’t know what she had done but he was probably hurt.
“No, it’s fine. I know you didn’t mean anything about it,” Naruto said. “I was thinking about that shinobi who tried to stab me,” he started. Only because I ran away to ogle a corpse . “And I … thought I’d gotten stronger, after I learned the clone jutsu and with y’all and Kakashi but …” he laughed. “I saw the kunai in his hand and … I don’t know what happened, you know? Wasn’t even my first time with something like that.”
“Wasn’t your first what ?!”
“...you know how I totally bombed the academy test, right?”
“...right.” Did someone try to kill him then or something?
“Well … after the test, Mizuki told me that there were a bunch of super powerful jutsu in the Hokage Tower, so I broke in —”
“You broke in —”
“Yeah I performed that sexy jutsu —”
“ — the sexy jutsu —”
“— where I turn into a hot naked woman —”
“—oh—”
“— and when I met him in the woods, Iruka showed up —”
“—Iruka? —”
“— to warn me that Mitsuki was using me —”
“ — to steal the scroll? —”
“ — yeah —”
“ — and then he tried to kill me —”
“ — MIZUKI TRIED TO KILL YOU?!” Sakura said it in a loud whisper, then remembered they were on watch. She listened to the rest of the story.
“ — I was really confused to and then he said that I was the nine —” and then Naruto went silent. “Sorry ignore that —”
“You. Naruto Uzumaki. Are the nine-tails. What leaves are you smoking?” Naruto protested.
“Th-the Hokage said that it was true and that when I was born the Fourth Hokage sealed it in me —”
“Okay that makes more sense, you have the nine-tails inside you . I was confused. Continue”
“So yeah Mizuki explained that I had the nine-tails in me and that was why all the shinobi looked at me funny and then him and Iruka started fighting and Iruka told me to run and make sure Mizuki didn’t get his hands on the scroll.”
“Oookay.”
“But Mizuki had gotten a surprise attack in so Iruka was getting sort of beat up and so I rushed in to help him but then Mizuki threw a giant shuriken at me and I — I froze and Iruka — he jumped in front of it.”
“...so that was why he came to school wrapped in bandages”
“Yeah I think he was hiding some of his injuries too because Mizuki got him in a lot of places.”
“...but there’s a happy ending to this story, right? Considering that Iruka is…alive and you’re a shinobi.”
“Yeah so after that I…sort of snapped out of it. And thank the Sage I’d learned the shadow clone jutsu just before because it was my first time performing it for real.”
“And then?”
“And then I beat the shit out of Mizuki and Iruka gave me his headband because apparently the jutsu was super impressive.”
Sakura took a moment to process all of that. What do I even say to that? But wait .
“Let me get this straight. Firstly, you broke into the Hokage Tower —”
“Gramps let me in!”
“You stole a scroll chock full of state secrets —”
“If you put it like that it sounds —”
“Ran into the woods, chose to perform, out of ALL of those jutsu —which include at least one technique for raising the dead — the Multi-shadow-clone jutsu —”
“How’dya know all of that?”
“I did my research which maybe you should have done because that jutsu in the hands of literally any other shinobi is a quick and easy recipe for death by chakra exhaustion —”
“Huh?”
“But you were insanely lucky because you have unlimited chakra or some bullshit like that —”
“I do?”
“You, who couldn’t clone yourself to save your life, pulled it off within two hours.”
“The technique just made sense to me —”
Sakura held up her hand as she bored her eyes past Naruto’s, straight into his soul.
“Do. You. Know. How. LUCKY . You. Got?” Naruto just looked at the ground.
“...I don’t feel lucky.” At that, Sakura put an arm around Naruto. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do, since he seemed to need it. Poor guy .
“I know. I’m…just glad you’re alive I guess.”
“You don’t hate me?” Sakura squinted at him, confused. Why would he think she hated her? Was it the bell test? They’d already gotten over that, though. So —
“Why would I hate you?”
“You know, because of the nine-tails —”
“Firstly, no I don’t hate you because you have the nine-tails inside you. If you think about it, you’re sort of a hero, because you’re protecting everyone from it. Hell, I should probably apologize to you.”
“Why?”
“So you know how Iruka showed you a lot more attention than any other kid in the class and how you’re on a nickname basis with the rest of the class, and how you have a clan name so famous its symbol is on the side of every flak jacket in Konoha?”
“...You thought I, Naruto Uzumaki, failure-extraordinaire, was a nepo-baby?” Sakura winced.
“I’m really sorry —”
“No that sounds really reasonable. If you think about it I am basically that though, right?”
“No like I thought you had hot-shot parents or something —” Naruto burst out laughing at that “— but instead you had … more unique circumstances I guess.” Naruto just continued laughing.
“Sakura…” he trailed off.
“...who do you think my parents were?” Sakura just stared at his face blankly. “How am I even supposed to answer that question —” and then she looked at him. And she remembered the monument on the Hokage tower, and before she even knew what she was doing she blurted it out.
“Holy shit. Was your dad the Fourth Hokage ?!”