Sasuke had never been scared of Sakura before. Ever since she threw him onto the ground and knocked his pride back into its place, she was a friend he wouldn't trade for the world. Sakura was tough. Smart. Stubborn. Kind. Invincible.
But she had no reaction to killing that man with her bare hands. Team Kakashi- the students, at least- thought themselves to be a family who were just as close as the ones they had at home. Though when Sasuke thought to their lives outside from being a shinobi, Sakura seemed to know everything about him and Naruto. The same couldn't be said about her.
Her favorite color?
Red.
Her favorite foods?
Mochi and anmitsu.
Her favorite book?
Anything on medicine.
What about her home life? What's it like?
Well, uh...
What does she want to do when she's older?
She never—
Who's her hero? What's her dream? Why does she always look tired? Why's she in therapy?
I d—
What is she afraid of?
I DON'T KNOW!
Sasuke kept walking in the unusually quiet aura of his team. A day had passed since the incident and only now he realized that five years later, Sakura was still a stranger no matter how many times she said she loved them. He glanced back, seeing both her and Kakashi reading their own books as they walked, then sidled up beside Naruto.
"Hey, dobe. You still worried about yesterday?" he asked. Naruto must have been too deep into his thoughts to notice the insult and pursed his lips.
"I'm not worried about nothin'," he mumbled. "Sakura-chan's still Sakura-chan and that's not gonna change. It's... I didn't know she could kill people like that. Didn't you get scared?"
It wasn't that he was afraid of the dead body left to the side of the path. His father drilled the responsibilities and consequences of their profession into him and his older brother from a very young age. Sasuke understood that death was all a part of the job and was as inevitable as the sun rising up every morning.
But did seeing it in action for the first time scare him?
"A bit," Sasuke admitted with a shrug. "But what can we do about it? It's not like that's the only time she's going to do it."
Naruto ducked his head, nodding slightly. Out of everyone he new, Sakura was on that list of people he'd love for the rest of his life. She was the last person he should've been afraid of. He'd known her for five or six years now and had shown time and time again that she'd stand up for him no matter what. Especially that time when she yelled at their old sensei!
Bottom line, he shouldn't have acted the way he did. Most people didn't like it when others were afraid of them.
Naruto hand clenched the front of his jacket right above his belly button.
He knew that better than anyone else.
::
"What will you do if they start to fear you?"
Sakura turned a page of her book on poisons. "You sure have been a chatterbox since we left the village. What's up with you? Sick and suffering from delusions?"
"Fear," he restated, ignoring her jab, "is a very impractical concept. It makes people shy away from doing what's right and masking what they want to think. I don't know the full extent of your potential, but from what I've seen it's not something to be taking lightly. You're strong."
Her fingers curled around her book's spine. Oh, how long she yearned to hear those two words in the years behind her. She remembered counting her callouses from the hours she spent training on Tsunade's personal sparring grounds, wondering when she'd be seen as one of those who could hold up Konoha on their shoulders.
Finally hearing it left her more sunken than she'd like to admit.
"Aw, was that a compliment?"
He moved his gaze away from his poem anthology and took a good look at her face. She didn't need to force her smile for him to know that she was faking it.
"Do you understand what I've told you?" he questioned instead. Sakura silently snapped her book shut and tucked it away in the pocket on the side of her pack. Her voice came out hushed and tired so her lips wouldn't move and cease to carry over to the boys in front of them.
"I... wasn't always this way," she uttered softly. He, for a split moment, paused. "Back then, the old me had fear as her surname."
The smile was back on her face as she walked further ahead. She didn't need to be told about being afraid when the war solidified her unease, stuffing it into her rib cage with hopes she wouldn't bloody her fingers trying to tear it out.
Though it made no difference regardless. It didn't matter what she did or what she thought of, she couldn't erase what she had been trying so hard to forget.
And Kakashi? He didn't like it.
Because she looked just as he did years ago on that stormy night.
The house was dark with only lightning illuminating the shadow filled halls. He called out for his father, wondering what he could be doing this late at night. Perhaps his father had gone to check the integrity of their traps to see if the strong winds had managed to shift their positions. But when he saw a crack of an open door and pushed it open to see just what his father had been up to-
There Hatake Sakumo was. On the ground, a kunai still tight in his bloodied grip.
"Tou...san?"
Kakashi did not yell. Or cry. Or breathe.
Because he had wondered just when this would happen.
He moved his eyes back to his book. God, he hoped that Sakura wouldn't turn out to be someone like him.
::
Their boat lay waiting for them at the tip of an empty pier just where a light fog began extending its fingers towards land. The escort, dressed in normal civilian clothing and armed only with an oar, took one look at their hitai-ates before waving them on.
"Quickly," he urged, "before the weather gets too bad."
Naruto hopped right onto the bow—front and center to see everything that could be seen (or lack thereof)—as the rest of team climbed in more gently, to not rock the boat as the former did. Sakura and Sasuke sat near the edges opposite each other, and Kakashi took the seat closest to the escort that provided him a vantage point to watch over all three of his students.
The escort took no more time and started the motor to start them forward. Ten minutes into the silence and the hum of the machine, it was shut off so the oar would be used instead.
"... It's too foggy," Sasuke said. "You should stop trying to look out, dobe. You won't see a thing."
Naruto scrunched up his face and leaned forward, persevering. The escort kept on rowing as he eyed the unseeable path ahead.
"We'll be able to see the bridge soon. Once we pass the bridge, we'll be in Nami no Kuni."
It took a few moments, but when the monolith of a bridge stuck out above the mist, it was actually quite impressive. It was nearly finished, stretching out for who knows how long. Naruto's eyes shined at the sight.
"IT'S HUGE, DATTEBAYO!"
"K-Kid! Keep it d-down!" the escort exclaimed, albeit quietly. "I was able to sneak this boat out earlier, but we'll be in a mess of trouble if we get caught!"
Naruto slapped his hands over his mouth and shrunk down. Sakura looked away from the water for the first time she got on the boat and glanced up at the escort.
"Trouble?" she asked.
"It would be best that you tell us what's going on before we arrive," Kakashi said. "We were attacked by missing-nin before coming here. And if I'm not mistaken, we're here to guard Tazuna-san as he finishes the bridge we just passed. If we don't get our answer, we don't act out of our contract."
Sakura restrained a huff. He could've phrased it better.
The escort grew nervous, his hands shaking around his oar. "It's... Our village couldn't afford to pay for a higher ranking mission. Everyone pitched in to scrape together all the funds we could, and we jumped at the chance to get two villages for the price of one, even if it was just a C-rank. We need all the help we could get. Tazuna-san... Tazuna-san is being targeted by a monster. If they get him, then they'll come for the rest of us."
Naruto's shoulders tensed as Sasuke perked up. "Monster?"
"A shipping magnate," the escort gulped. "Gato."
"As in the CEO of the Gato Company? One of the richest men in the world?" Sakura questioned. "Makes sense. He's the leader of a shipping company on the surface, dealer of contraband underneath. Does most of his stuff with illegal drugs. Not to mention he tries to monopolize smaller nations and numerous enterprises."
As the escort nodded, Kakashi narrowed his eyes and stared her down. "How do you know that?"
"How you do not?"
"That's not an answer."
"It is. It's yours," she retorted. His eye twitched and she looked back up at the escort. "Continue, please."
"Uh, well... Nami no Kuni caught Gato's attention about a year ago. He used money and murder to push his way in and bought out the country's maritime transportation and shipping before we knew what was happening. He took over our ocean. That gave him control over government, finance, the people... everything."
Sakura listened carefully. It sounded about right.
"But there's one thing that Gato fears, and that's the completion of the bridge," he continued. "See, if it's built, it removes Gato's influence and returns the country's economic stability. Tazuna-san would've gone to Konoha himself for the mission, but it's too dangerous for him to leave now when the bridge is so close to being finished. If you leave the mission, he'll die. And we'll follow right after."
The boat entered a tunnel, the only lights being the old orange ones that flickered on and off along the high ceiling. Sunlight, if Sakura recalled correctly, shone as an arch of promise at the end of the darkness.
"Are we gonna stay for the mission, sensei?" Naruto asked. Kakashi folded his arms.
"We aren't the only ones slated for it. We'll discuss it with the Kiri nin when we meet up," he said. When the boat left the tunnel, the fog that pervaded the ocean completely disappeared and was replaced with blue skies and still water. The village, as it turned out, was a floating village surrounded by mangrove trees.
Sakura inspected the various places they could land and spotted two figures. The smaller one sat on one of the wooden beams with the taller one standing just off to the side, an enormous sword strapped to his back.
"Oh, the representatives are waiting for us. How nice," she mused.
"Be quiet and stay quiet."
"Wow. Asshole."
Kakashi glared at her, then wiped his expression clean as the boat docked a ways away from the figures. Naruto, just as he'd been the first one onto the boat, was the first one off and looked around with a wide grin. The forests they walked through just to get here got boring after the first day, so it was nice to see a sunny place surrounded by the ocean.
But it was kinda humid.
He spun on his heel and stuck his hand out in front of the lone female of the team.
"C'mon, Sakura-chan! Let's go start the mission!"
She stared at the offered appendage for a few seconds. What a big heart he had, still reaching out to her even when he saw what she was capable of. The corner of her lips quirked up and she took his hand.
"Yeah."
::
"Hi!"
Ibiki looked down and blinked. A boy with incredibly pale skin smiled at him, a sketchbook in one hand and a compilation of some sorts in the other. Both were held up for the man to take.
"I know Sakura's on a mission 'cause she told me that she was gonna be gone, for like, a month or something like that? She said she was gonna make me some ink made from poison caterpillars! Isn't that cool? Then after, she said—"
"Kid," Ibiki interrupted.
"Oh, sorry, sorry. My name's Shimura Sai!" the boy exclaimed. "Nice to meet you! The sketchbook is something for Sakura. I was gonna wait until she came back, but I didn't want it to get dirty or lose it or anything so I thought I should leave it with you. You're her guardian right? That's what she said. You're Morino Ibiki right? Oh yeah, and this compilation thing is something ji-san said I should give to Sakura too. I told him that she wasn't here but then he said that I should just give it to you anyways because it's only fair that you know about it too. I have no idea what he's talking about—"
Goddamn, the kid had a bigger mouth on him than Anko, and that was saying something. Ibiki held both items, taking notice of the note taped on the front of the odd compilation.
Haruno Sakura,
Potential of your magnitude would be wasted if you do keep deciding on staying in the Torture and Interrogation Sector. Have you ever thought of that? There is only so much that those three could possibly teach you.
Shiranui Genma, Mitarashi Anko, and Morino Ibiki.
You cannot grow in a place that decided to hide the diamond of your skill.
He seized up.
Our first meeting did not turn into the best of scenarios, but it has assured me that you were bound to be a candidate once you realize how valuable of an asset you can become to the village. Under my jurisdiction, you will flourish and you will succeed.
Do not think that meeting will be our last.
Ibiki looked back down at Sai, who managed to ramble on about a topic completely unrelated to what they were talking about before. Something about how squirrel tails were unbelievably bushy. He snapped his fingers to catch the boy's attention.
"Kid, you said this compilation was from your ji-san. Who's he?"
God, he hoped it wasn't that man. Anyone but that reprehensible louse who caused nothing but trouble with his ROOT faction.
"My ji-san? Uh, Councilman Danzo. I mean, I think he's one of the council members. He never really tells me about his job."
Ibiki hastily ripped the note off and read the title of whatever Danzo decided to give his ward.
The Compendium of Forbidden Jutsu
He grit his teeth.
::
Kakashi was still blank faced when the representatives met up with them on the dock. Zabuza gave off a fine aura of intimidation dressed in his Kirigakure flak jacket, bandages covering the bottom half of his face and hanging loosely around his shoulders. Haku was also completely different than from what Sakura remembered, of course, because of the two year gap and circumstances between the meetings. He had on a short blue kimono and a dark grey split skirt, his black hair brushing against his collarbone.
"Hatake," Zabuza greeted tonelessly.
"Momochi," Kakashi returned.
The jounin stared at each other, distrust obvious and the air around them culminating with tension. Naruto, oblivious to the fact that two previously warring countries depended on the outcome of this mission to see if a peace treaty would arise, stepped up to Haku and saluted.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo! And you look very pretty—"
Sasuke elbowed him. "You know he's a guy, right?"
"—handsome! Very pretty handsome!" he grinned. His tanned cheeks flushed red at the blunder, but dimmed when the other genin let out a laugh and a good-natured smile.
"Thank you, Naruto-san. I'm Haku. And your teammates...?"
"Uchiha Sasuke," the one to Naruto's left grunted. The one on the right was a little more exuberant than her grump of a friend and little more mellow than the knucklehead at her side, but faltered when she saw his brown eyes glimmer with soft excitement.
"Haruno Sakura," she introduced, a bit distantly. "I hope we'll have a good mission together."
::
Sakura was falling apart on the inside.
How could she be thinking that way? Haku was different from her. His age was different, his hair was different, his stature was different, his eye color was different-
But his eyes! They were the same! They were the same as the muted green she would catch glimpses of every now and again in the last years of the war. They were kind, full of hope, open-
Why?
Why was her mind betraying her like this? Why did seeing Haku strike up painful reminders of those she let down? Why did he bring forth her need to protect that someone she would never see again?
Why do you have her eyes?
Sakura bit the inside of her cheek and glanced away to hear what Kakashi and Zabuza had to say, but her mind remained adrift.
Why do you have Sachiko's eyes?
::
EDITED 2/8/18