Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The water was cold. The way it filled her nose and lungs burned like ice. Sakura wanted to cry out but it was useless the way her mother pushed her down. The slick rocks gave Sakura no traction to get away and the edge of her vision started fading to black. Sakura knew that this was the end for her. Closing her eyes Sakura stopped struggling. She was tired of struggling, it only brought more pain. 

Then everything changed. Her mother was no longer holding her down. A hand was pulling her from the water. She could hear a voice but couldn’t understand what it was saying over the sound of her heartbeat in her ears. Sakura coughed until there was no more water in her lungs and her throat felt raw. The hands that had pulled her from the ocean were still holding her up, her breathing slowed as she began to take in what was happening around her. They were standing on the beach now, her mother lay unconscious several feet away and the wind that blew from the ocean was freezing. Sakura finally turned to look at her savior and was met with a pair of pink eyes.

Sakura opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to say thank you but words never formed.

“Are you alright?” the man’s voice pulled Sakura from her thoughts.

Nodding her head she looked at him while he glanced over her, looking for injuries.

“What’s your name?” he said, making eye contact with her.

“Sakura. What’s yours?” Sakura’s voice was quiet and it was painful to speak with the burn of salt water in her throat.

“My name is Yagura. I’m going to take you to the hospital, alright?” Yagura’s voice held a quiet command and Sakura nodded, knowing that if she agreed or not, she would still be taken.

Another man appeared on the beach causing Sakura to flinch away, Yagura gestured towards her mother before settling Sakura on his back. Sakura had seen ninja run before, but she had never experienced that herself. It was terrifying and Sakura ducked her head to hide her face between Yagura’s shoulder blades.

The journey was quick and Sakura was gently being transferred to a hospital bed and a nurse was asking her questions. Sakura answers absentmindedly, not focusing on the nurse who is helping her clean up and put dry clothes on. Every word spoken to her was going in one ear and out the other until she heard

“...brought in by the Mizukage.” the nurses were talking outside her door.

The Mizukage? Were they talking about her? Sakura was very confused. She didn’t know where she was or what was going to happen to her.

Sakura was looking out the window when Yagura came to see her a couple days later. The mist made it difficult to tell what time of day it was but she was pretty certain it was afternoon. Not that afternoon looked any different from morning in her limited experience.

“Sakura may I come and speak with you?” Yagura’s voice was calm and even, not giving away anything while still being kind.

Sakura nodded as she turned to look at Yagura more fully was the only response he got.

Clearing his throat, Yagura began, “Your mother has been placed under arrest for her crimes and after an investigation we have found out that this isn’t new, is it?” 

Sakura can feel his eyes on her, most likely cataloging her bruises and taking in her too thin wrist and overly visible collar bones. Swallowing around the lump in her throat Sakura simply nods her head.

“Would you like to be returned to Konoha?” Yagura asks kindly.

Sakura was startled out of her thoughts as snapped her head up to look Yagura in the eye. She knew he could see the fear in her face and tears lining her lashes.

“Please don’t make me go back.” Her voice was quiet and trembled as she held back from openly sobbing.

“No one will make you go back,” Yagura explained gently, “But now that we know that you don’t wish to return we can discuss other options available to you.”

Sakura accepted the tissue that Yagura handed to her and dabbed her eyes before wiping the rest of her face.

“There are a couple options available to you, as a citizen you may choose to lead a civilian lifestyle or as I understand you have just completed your first your at the Academy in Konoha, if you’d like to continue training to become a shinobi that is also an option.” Yagura explained.

Sakura took a moment to think, her first year had been miserable due to bullying and her parents but she wasn’t ready to give up on her dream of being a ninja.

“I-I would like to continue my training.” Sakura’s voice was quiet but she was sure in her decision.

Yagura nodded before continuing, “Classes are out for the summer currently, in a few weeks we will go to the academy and the teachers will test you to see where to place you when classes begin again in the fall.”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door and a nurse entering the room.

“Excuse me,” she said, “I’m just here to bring Sakura her lunch.”

Taking a moment to roll the table over to Sakura and set her lunch out, the nurse asked if she needed anything else before taking her leave.

Yagura motioned for her to eat before he continued.

“My next question is a bit more difficult,” Yagura said as Sakura watched him while nibbling on a piece of fish, “Would you prefer to live in the orphanage, where you will remain until you have graduated from the academy at which point you will be assigned housing and be given a monthly allowance to supplement you while training. Or, the other option is to be placed in a family with at least one shinobi parent to help guide you.”

Sakura stopped eating and stared at Yagura for several long moments. Her brain was running faster than it ever had before.

Yagura’s next words calmed many of her thoughts.

“The family you are placed with would take you in one hundred percent of their own accord. You will be wanted and cared for in your new home and no harm will come to you.” Yagura’s voice was soft but carried the weight of Sakura’s fears being spoken aloud.

“Do I have to decide today?” Sakura sounded small and worried.

“Of course not, the doctor’s want to observe you for a few more days and you need to sleep on it before making such an important decision. I will come visit you tomorrow if you have any questions.” Yagura smiled kindly at Sakura before taking his leave.

Sakura mulled over what she had been told as she finished her lunch, turning her gaze back to the all encompassing mist while she sorted through her thoughts. Sakura spends the rest of the day thinking back to what Yagura had said. That any family she would be placed with, she would be wanted there. Sakura wanted to know what it felt like to be wanted. To have someone take interest in her accomplishments. To comfort her when she was scared. But would it be worth the risk of history repeating itself. Would it be worth having another father that-. Sakura shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. Not wanting to dwell on the shadows that couldn’t hurt her anymore. Laying down Sakura continued looking out the window, it was dark now and the mist blocked out the stars but it was peaceful in its own way. That night she dreamed of warmth and comfort, the feeling of arms holding her followed her into awareness as a new day started.

The next morning followed the same pattern as the past few. She had breakfast and the doctor would come take a look at her, occasionally asking a few questions on how she was feeling. And then Sakura was left to her thoughts until lunch.

Just like he said the previous day, Yagura returned just after Sakura had finished her lunch. 

“How are you feeling today?” Yagura asked.

“I’m okay.” Sakura replied.

“Have you thought any about our conversation yesterday? Do you have any questions?” Yagura inquired.

“What do you mean when you say placed with a family?” Sakura’s voice is soft and she isn’t making eye contact with Yagura, preferring to look out at the mist outside the window.

Yagura tilts his head as he considers the motivation behind her question. “You would be adopted into a family and be considered a full member of said family.”

Sakura’s head whips around so fast that Yagura is concerned that she may hurt her neck, but Sakura’s eyes are wide as she stares at him. “Will I be able to take their last name?” Sakura’s voice is barely above a whisper.

“If that is what you’d like.” Yagura replied

“I have never been wanted and if a family wants me then I want to be with them.” Sakura’s voice trembled but the look in her eyes told Yagura that she longed to be loved by a mother and a father.

“There is a family that would like to meet you. The mother was unable to have any other children after an injury sustained on a mission. Would you like to meet them? You won’t have to say yes or no right away.” Yagura’s voice was careful when telling her about the couple he planned on introducing the young girl to, not wanting to overwhelm her.

“Yes please, I would like to meet them, but could I clean up a bit better first?” Sakura’s voice was hesitant but a small spark of hope had bloomed in her chest, giving her courage. 

Yagura nodded before excusing himself and a moment later a nurse walked in to help Sakura get up before leading her into the shower. By the time Sakura had scrubbed her skin and washed her hair the nurse was back with fresh clothes and helped her dry her hair before tying it up in a bun. The clothes fit a little loose but not enough to be a problem and she still had her sandals from before so that wasn’t an issue. The nurse took her by the hand and led Sakura down to the entrance while explaining that Sakura would be dining out with Yagura and the family he wanted her to meet. Sakura nodded her understanding, feeling comforted when she saw Yagura waiting for her by the doors. It wasn’t raining but the threat loomed if the distant rumble of thunder was anything to go by. Sakura was quick to take Yagura’s hand, allowing him to lead her down the quiet street. They didn’t walk far before Yagura was ushering her into a restaurant that smelled so good Sakura was sure the food was fit for the gods themselves. 

“Remember, you don’t have to make any decisions right now.” Yagura’s voice was low but kind, speaking so only she could hear him.

Sakura nodded her understanding, anything she was going to say was cut off by a voice that rumbled like the thunder outside.

“Yagura-sama, there you are.” The man that spoke was tall and blue . The woman next to him had brilliant red hair and red eyes that held a kindness in them that Sakura was unused to seeing.

Yagura helped Sakura into the other side of the booth, making sure she was settled before turning his attention to the couple across from him.

The red head was the first to speak, turning her eyes to Sakura, giving her a long look before introducing herself.

“My name is Kuware,” her voice was kind and smooth, reminding Sakura of early summer rains and grey mornings, “What is your name child?”

“M-my name is Sakura” Sakura hated that her voice cracked but she felt terribly nervous all of a sudden.

All nervousness seemed to flee at the deep, happy chuckle coming from the impossible large man sitting across from Yagura.

“Don’t be so nervous Guppy, my name is Hoshigaki Mino and my lovely wife here has already introduced herself.” The large man’s voice was a balm on Sakura’s soul. Soothing over abrasions from the past.

Sakura looked at the man, green eyes meeting his strange, almost glowing yellow eyes and feeling a sense of relief wash over her. When she turned to look back at the woman, no, her name is Kuware, Sakura could see the smile in her eyes, she must be used to her husband’s demeanor and relaxed even further. As dinner progressed, Kuware asked Sakura questions, none very alarming or scary, just trying to get to know that small girl a little better.

Sakura’s yawn was what ended the dinner, Yagura was quick to take in her tired expression before moving to take their leave. His voice was polite, telling the couple his goodbyes and allowing Sakura to mumble her goodnights as well before leading her back to the entrance of the restaurant and into the night. Sakura was quiet on the return trip to the hospital, mulling over the encounter with Mino and Kuware. Sighing tiredly, she thought to herself that seven was awfully young to be making these decisions. Sakura was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow after Yagura promised to return tomorrow after breakfast to speak with her. Mino’s voice continued to rumble in her head in dreamland as the thunder rolled over the village hidden in mist, and for the first time, Sakura felt truly at peace as she slept.

The next morning dawned a bit brighter if you asked Sakura. Well, maybe not truly brighter, the mist still rolled in from the ocean but Sakura had hope and she was going to hang on to it with both hands. True to his word, Yagura knocked on her door as Sakura was finishing her breakfast. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for what he would say.

“Good morning Sakura.” Yagura greeted her as he sat down.

“Goodmorning.” Sakura’s reply was quick as she tried to contain her excited fidgeting. 

Yagura smiled at her display before continuing, “What do you think of Mino and Kuware?”

“I like them.” Sakura’s voice was quiet now, like she was telling him a secret.

“Is anything wrong?” Yagura implored, taking in her change in demeanor.

Sakura shook her head, “No, I just- I don’t want to be hurt anymore.” her voice trailed off as she looked away.

Yagura took in her slouched shoulders and quiet sniffles before continuing.

“They will not hurt you Sakura. You will be cared for and cherished in their family. If that ever changes then I will know and I will take care of you.” Yagura kept his voice soft. Mist was a rough enough place and child abuse was a very big no-no. 

“I want to be a part of their family.”Sakura’s voice was so soft that Yagura had almost missed it.

“The doctor will be releasing you this morning and I will walk you to your new home.” Yagura spoke, amusement leaking into tone when Sakura whipped her head around to stare at him.

“Really?” Sakura’s voice was high with nerves and excitement.

“Of course, it will be a new beginning for you, but I think you will be very happy.” Yagura gave Sakura a soft smile when a few tears escaped her eyes, he could see the hope and happiness swimming in her green orbs. 

The next hour or so was a blur as the doctor came in to do a final check up before releasing Sakura into Yagura’s care. The two were walking out the door before Sakura’s senses caught up with her. She followed Yagura out into the street, holding his hand to keep from being separated  in the small crowd as they passed the market.

“Where do they live?” Sakura’s voice was soft but clear as the continued walking, the sounds of the market dying down the further they went.

“Close to the ocean, we will be there soon.” Yagura replied with a gentle squeeze of Sakura’s hand.

Soon enough the house- no, the compound seemed to creep out of the mist, traditional houses with wide porches and many with connected docks leading to the ocean. Various men and women were about, some blue as Mino had been while others looked to normal skin tones. Sakura’s wide eyes took in the people around her, many were peering at her with interest and a few even looked happy to see her. Yagura led Sakura up to what had to have been the head household, helping Sakura up the stairs to the porch when Kuware rounded the corner, smiling softly at Sakura as she came to a stop. 

“Welcome home Sakura.” Kuware’s kind voice filled Sakura with so much hope, hope that she would be happy and loved, that tears sprung out of her green eyes as she released Yagura’s hand and took several stumbling steps to wrap her arms around Kuware's waist.

Kuware was quick to fold the small girl into a hug, letting Sakura muffle her quiet sobs into the fabric of your yukata. Kuware rubbed a soothing hand up and down Sakura’s back as she hiccuped and sniffled, crouching down to use her sleeves to wipe Sakura’s tear stained face.

“Let’s go inside and get you some lunch, then I will show you around your new home. How does that sound?” Kuware asked, still crouched at Sakura’s eye level.

Sakura’s answering nod was all Kuware needed to stand up, gently grasping her hand and Leading both Sakura and Yagura into the home. She showed Sakura which cubby would be for her shoes in the genkan before she pulled out some slippers for Sakura to wear around the house. Sakura had only a moment to admire the comfortable purple house shoes before Kuware was leading her down the hall and into the family area where Mino was sitting at the kotatsu reading over a scroll. 

Mino’s welcoming smile was enough to earn a smile back from Sakura as he patted the cushion next to him for Sakura to sit down at. Kuware led the girl over, helping her get settled before disappearing to the kitchen, only to reappear a moment later with lunch for the four of them.

As the meal was finished Yagura drew Sakura’s attention out of her happy daydreams and back to the present.

“Sakura, there are still a few things to be decided, firstly the adoption will need to be finalized, as the Mizukage, after I sign this scro-”

Yagura was cut off by Sakura’s stunned expression, “Wait, you’re the Mizukage?” 

“Yes, I am.” Yagura was trying not to laugh at the way Sakura’s eyes seemed to bug out of her heads.

Mino, on the other hand, roared with laughter causing Kuware to join in.

When the laughing died down Yagura continued with a smile on his face, “As I was saying, as Mizukage when I sign this scroll the adoption will be considered legally binding, thus making you a part of not only this family but, by extension, the Hoshigaki Clan.”

“If you’d like to change your family name, this is an opportunity to do that as well. Not that we can’t do that later if you so choose. The choice is yours.” Mino spoke, his rumbling voice still held the happiness of his laughter.

Sakura took a moment to roll the question around in her head before nodding, “I would like to take your family name.” her voice was soft but sure in her words.

Yagura and Mino both signed the scroll before Mino held it out to Sakura, helping her read through the parts that she would need to sign. And there on that scroll was the last time she wrote her name as Haruno Sakura. Tears escaped her once again as the next signature of hers was Hoshigaki Sakura. As the ink dried, Mino pulled her into a hug, his large hands coming up to wipe her tears away.

Sakura was finally home.

Chapter Text

The morning dawned a warm grey that Sakura was beginning to grow used to. Taking a moment to remain in the warmth of her bedding Sakura’s mind went over the previous afternoon and evening. How Kuware and Mino had shown her around the house. Kuware had shown Sakura which bedroom was hers. Down the hall from Mino and Kuware’s and just across from her new older brother. This had been the most exciting information she had learned yesterday. She was going to have an older brother.Sakura could not wait to meet him. Allowing herself another moment of gazing out at the grey horizon outside her window, Sakura stretched and pulled herself from bed. Folding her bedding before leaving her room, she wandered towards the quiet sounds coming from the kitchen where Kuware greeted her with a smile and a gentle good morning.

“Can I help?” Sakura asked as she peered over the top of the counter.

Instead of answering, Kuware bent down to pick Sakura up and set her down on the counter, “You can keep me company.” her voice full of humor.

Mino joined them in the kitchen a few minutes later, Sakura took in how his navy colored hair seemed to explode in every direction and she could still see where his blue cheek had been squashed against the pillow.

Breakfast was a quiet and peaceful affair and before long the dishes are on the drying rack and Kuware is helping Sakura clean up and get dressed. They were going shopping to get clothes for Sakura and help her get better acquainted with the village itself.

Mino on the other hand had business to attend to this morning with the Mizukage. 

-Mino-

Kirigakure was a tough enough place to survive, the island nation was lacking in resources and technologies that bigger villages had the luxury of. Things like child abuse were not acceptable in any way shape or form. Kiri did not have the luxury of losing one of it’s future shinobi and so there were grave punishments to the crime. Mino was disgusted that Sakura’s abuse had gone unnoticed for years in Kohona. How could an entire village full of shinobi miss it.

Mino slouched in his chair across from the Mizukage. Mulling over what Yagura had learned from the interrogation done on Sakura’s mother. Sakura had been an accident child, her mother’s clan forcing her parents to marry. Her mother’s clan taking out their frustrations on the small child that they believed to cause them shame. Her father torturing her for the greater good. 

“What will happen to the woman? We know from her that her husband was arrested in Konoha, will we send her back?” Mino asked, wondering what his kage had in mind.

“Sakura is now a citizen of Kiri and her mother did attack her in our territory so I believe we are equipped to handle this.” Yagura’s voice was cold and flat, children were the future and should be treasured as such.

“Our waters, our ways.” Mino’s voice rumbled in the quiet room.

-In Konoha-

Fugaku starred at the missing persons report pinned on the board at the precinct. The little girl who had changed the course of history. She had been missing for a month now, her scent lost to the rains that had poured down. This girl had been the salvation of his clan and he would see her returned to Konoha. They had learned nothing of the mother’s plans from Kizashi, she had obviously fled as soon as they had arrested Kizashi for questioning on reports of abuse towards his child. The Haruno clan hadn’t known where Mebuki was taking the girl, only that she would be selling her to the highest bidder. The Haruno’s hadn’t seen or heard from Mebuki since the day she left, smuggled out with a group of merchants.

The questioning of Kizashi had opened a door that could not be shut but the council. Danzo had been placed on trial and executed. Haruno Kizashi had been put on trial and imprisoned. The council had been put on trial and been stripped of their titles before being imprisoned. The Uchiha were no longer regarded with suspicion. It would take a couple generations before all prejudices disappeared but it was a step in the right directions. 

And all this has started when his son, Sasuke, had told his mother that he didn’t think his classmate’s parents were feeding her.

-In Kiri, back with Sakura-

Sakura had never been shopping for clothes before. All of her clothes had been hand me downs. It was exciting to be able to pick what she wanted to wear. Kuware had told her to pick what she liked, so Sakura did. Her new sandals fit better than the ones she had been wearing when she arrived. Holding her new mother’s hand Sakura followed Kuware around the market, glancing around at all the shops and stands, selling everything from produce to textiles. They had just stopped for lunch when Mino joined them, loading his wife’s shopping back on his arm while Kuware carried their take out, each holding one of Sakura’s hands as they walked home.

Lunch was eaten with the sliding doors open, allowing the family to see the rolling waves that tumbled onto the rocky beach outside their home. Sakura was half done with her soup when Mino spoke.

“Kisame will be home tomorrow.”

Kuware and Sakura looked at him. Sakura was excited, this morning before they had left the compound Kuware had introduced her to a few of her new clan mates that they passed but she had heard this name last night. Kisame was her new big brother. Sakura hoped that he was happy to have her as a little sister.

“Kisame has always wanted a younger sibling.” Kuware said after noticing Sakura tense shoulders.

“You’ll probably meet his teammates as well. I swear those three are attached at the hip all day, every day.” Mino grumbled good naturedly.

“His team?” Sakura inquired.

“Kisame had had the same teammates since they graduated the academy together, they are together often and you’ll see the other two around here often enough.” Mino explained.

Sakura looked at Kuware who rolled her eyes, “They’re harmless, and relatively well behaved, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Sakura nodded at her words, going back to her lunch as she looked outside, her mind swimming with thoughts about her new family.

After lunch Mino announces that they are going outside. Sakura looks at him questioningly while Kuware snorts and rolls her eyes, motioning for Sakura to follow Mino out onto the porch. Following Mino as he leads her down the walk way and onto a low pier over the water.

“Come here Sakura.” Mino beckons her forward as he crouches by the water.

Sakura walks forward slowly, carefully peaking over the edge to see the water below.

“What is that?” Sakura’s voice is a bit shrill as she takes a step back from the dewy eyes staring back at her.

Mino laughed before motioning her closer again, “This shark was born a few months ago, she stays close to the docks to be safe.” Mino paused as another, much larger shark joined them, large dark eyes peering up at Sakura, “This is her mother Mika, she’s a tiger shark.”

The shark, Mika, looked at Sakura for a long moment before opening her mouth, “Who’s the Chum?”

“That shark just spoke.” Sakura said quietly, eyes wide and mouth agape.

Mino laughed again, “Of course, Mika here is one of the numerous summons the Hoshigaki Clan holds a contract with. Mika,” he turned to address the shark, “This is my new daughter Sakura, I would like her to be paired with your new daughter.”

Mika looked at Sakura again, “What would you name her?”

Both sharks were looking at her now, “Does she not have a name?”

At Mika’s negative answer Sakura turned her gaze back to the small shark, eyebrows drawn down in thought. 

“Kazemi” Sakura said softly, her eyes still locked on the shark who had taken to swimming in circles while she had been thinking.

Mika seemed pleased with this and gave some sort of affirmation to Mino that Sakura missed before the newly named Kazemi darted towards them.

“Hold out your hand Sakura.” Mino instructed, gently helping her reach out towards the small shark.

Kazemi brushed her snout along Sakura’s fingers before pricking a tooth on Sakura’s pointer finger.

Sakura’s hiss of pain was quiet but she didn’t move away, instead she reached out to further run her hand along Kazemi’s back, feeling the texture and tracing her dorsal fin. Mino let Sakura have a few more minutes of petting Kazemi before helping her stand. The two bid the sharks goodbye and Mino led Sakura back to the house.

“Can I go see Kazemi tomorrow?” Sakura asked as Mino wrapped a bandage around her finger.

“Of course, you can go see her whenever you’d like, just be sure to tell someone if you plan on getting in the water.” Mino replied with a smile on his face.

“I don’t know how to swim.” Sakura said while peering up through her lashes.

Mino paused for a moment before speaking, “That isn’t a problem, as it gets warmer I will teach you how.” 

Sakura’s answering smile was enough to brighten the entire room.

“Alright you two, we have important things to discuss.” Kuware said as she entered the room.

Mino led Sakura back to the table and Kuware joined them, “Sakura, it is okay if you want to say no to this right now, it can always be done later but it’s best we talk about it sooner rather than later.” Kuware started.

Clearing her throat, Kuware continued, “I am not from Kirigakure, I moved here when I was engaged to Mino. I was born in Uzushiogakure and before I was married my name was Uzumaki Kuware. Do you know about Uzushiogakure?”

Sakura thought for a moment before nodding, “The wife of the first hokage was from there.”

Kuware nodded, “That’s right, the Uzumaki were known to be very good with seals and I am very good with seals. Mino and I would like to seal you to our family. It’s the way that the Uzumaki would seal adoptions and it would keep your mother’s family from laying any claim over you. It would be as if you were born to this family.”

Kuware paused and let Sakura absorb the information. This was truly a lot to ask a seven year old to understand but Sakura was very bright and Kuware had no doubt that if she had questions, she would ask. The silence around the table was thoughtful as Sakura gazed out at the ocean, deep in her own mind while her new parents watched her.

“I have a couple questions.” Sakura spoke after several minutes.

Kuware nodded for her to continue.

“Would I turn blue?” 

Mino burst out laughing. Kuware and Sakura spent a handful of minutes watching Mino try to compose himself as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.

“No Guppy you will not turn blue.” Mino answered, still quiet amused at the question.

“Will it hurt?” was the next question. Kuware was quick to shake her head in the negative.

“Can I call you mom and dad?” this question was whispered, like she was nervous to ask.

Kuware was quick to gather the small child in her arms, her long red hair acting as a curtain between them and the rest of the world. “Little Starfish, you could call us mom and dad even if we never seal you.” 

Kuware’s fingers brushed her tears away as Sakura clung to her neck. 

“I- I want to do it.” Sakura said softly into Kuware’s ear. Sakura’s arms still wrapped around her as she ran a soothing hand down her back.

Kuware nodded but didn’t let go, letting Sakura remain latched to her. Mino joined them a few moments later, his arms wrapped around the both of them. For the first time in her life Sakura felt the love of a family that wanted her. As Sakura calmed enough to disentangle herself from Kuware her heart felt lighter than it had in years. The weight that seemed to rest on her shoulders was lifted and Sakura smiled up at her new parents, truly happy.

Dinner was a simple yet tasty meal, Kuware had cooked while Mino had coached Sakura through the basics of shogi before the three sat down together to eat.

The sealing was less simple but not nearly complex as Sakura had thought it would be. Kuware had gone first, pricking first her own finger and letting several drops fall in the ink stone before gently pricking Sakura’s finger and her blood to the stone. Next, Kuware poured a small amount of ink and mixed it in with the blood before grabbing a brush and dipping it into the mixture. She held Sakura’s left arm as she inked the Uzumaki swirl just above the inside of her elbow. Sakura could feel the seal latch on to her, she could feel Kuware’s chakra intermingling with her own. Next Kuware grabbed a fresh ink stone, allowing Mino to add his to add his blood first before letting Sakura drip her still bleeding finger and adding ink. This time Mino grabbed a brush, clean and unused as his large blue hand held her right arm still and inked thin, upside down triangles just above her elbow. Mino’s chakra felt different from Kuware’s. Kuware’s felt like a smooth pond while Mino’s felt like the ocean in the middle of a storm.

“Are you feeling alright Starfish?” Kuware asked softly as Sakura’s eyes grew heavy.

“Just feeling tired.” Sakura mumbled 

“That’s normal, let’s get you cleaned up and in bed.” Kuware said as she helped Sakura to her feet and led her to the bathroom.

After helping the small girl shower, brush her teeth and get into her pyjamas, Sakura was practically sleeping walking. Allowing Kuware to tuck her into her blankets, Sakura was asleep before her head hit the pillow. Kuware spent several minutes next to Sakura as her breathing changed to indicate a deep sleep. Leaning down to press a kiss to her temple before leaving the little girl’s room.

“Sleep well my little Starfish.”

It was grey when Sakura woke up but she could tell that it was late morning by the growling in her stomach. Stumbling out of her bedding Sakura made her way towards the table only to bump into something solid. Looking up, Sakura was met with a face that looked like Mino’s. The same blue skin and navy hair. This man was taller than her new father. The two stared at each other until Kuware spoke up from the kitchen.

“Kisame let your little sister sit down, she needs to eat.”

Sakura took a couple steps around her brother and sat on the cushion in front of the plate of food her new mother was setting out for her.

“Good morning.” Sakura said, giving Kuware a small smile before mumbling her thanks and digging in.

Kisame sat across from her and continued to stare at the small girl with his mouth agape. Sure, his father had told him that he had a new little sister but he had honestly believed that the old man was playing a prank on him. Clearly he was wrong, because right her in front of him was a tiny little thing that his mother had called his little sister. He completely missed the knock on the front door and only came out of his thoughts when his mother poked his cheek.

“You need to go debrief with your team Kisame.” Kuware said, greatly amused by her son’s reaction.

Lumbering to his feet Kisame nodded before departing the house. He walked into Yagura’s office completely in a daze, missing the look of amusement on his kage’s face.

“Kisame, I see you’ve met your new sister.” Yagura spoke, not looking up from the mission report.

The eyes of his teammates were suddenly on him. Staring into his soul and trying to find the answers he was also seeking. Kisame stood there as Zabuza gave the report, he could feel Mei twitching on his other side. They were probably going to drag him home to see what all this was about. Yagura dismissed them as soon as Zabuza was done and just as Kisame predicted, his two teammates were dragging him back towards the Hoshigaki compound.

“And just what do you three think you’re doing?” Kuware hadn’t turned from the stove, but she knew that Kisame and his team were frozen in place behind her, clearly looking for Sakura.

“What’s this we heard about fish face gettin a little sister?” Zabuza, as per usual, was going straight for the kill. He wanted answers so he asked the questions.

Kuware smirked, “Sakura is down on the dock talking to Kazemi.”

The three fell over each other to pull the sliding door open and peek out. Sure enough the little pink haired girl ‘Sakura’ was sitting on the dock, dragging her feet through the water while talking to a tiny circling dorsal fin. 

“Why’s it pink?” Zabuza’s question was directed towards his mother.

Kuware sighed and rolled her eyes. 

“Kisame! You should introduce us to your little sister!” Mei whispered excitedly.

“Kisame wasn’t brave enough to introduce himself to her this morning, what makes you think he can introduce others to her.” Mino’s voice rumbled behind them, amusement lacing his tone as he eyed the three adults acting like children.

“Well I’m not scared like fish sticks here.” Zabuza muttered before standing and walking out the door, making his way down the dock to tower over the little girl.

Sakura stared up at the man, wondering who was standing over her.

“Who are you?” Sakura asked, peering up at the grumpy man.

“That’s what I’m here to ask you!” Zabuza grumbled

“I’m Sakura.” was all she said before standing and making her back up to the house. 

Chapter Text

“Little Starfish, come sit down and meet your brother.” Kuware called as Sakura reached the porch.

“Hello.” Sakura said, feeling shy as she stood close to Kuware’s leg, not able to make eye contact with Kisame.

Kisame seemed to finally snap out of his daze and sat cross legged in front of Sakura, bringing his face closer to her level without crowding her.

“You can ignore that grump. You’ll get used to his attitude eventually.” Kisame spoke, giving Sakura an encouraging smile. 

“My name is Sakura.” She said softly, finally allowing herself to make eye contact with Kisame.

“My name is Kisame. The grumpy one over there is Zabuza and the redhead is Mei.” Kisame explained, pointing at each of his teammates in turn.

Sakura took a moment to look at each of her new brother’s teammates. Mei, in her opinion, was very pretty. Zabuza, on the other hand, had half his face covered and Sakura couldn’t see much beside his eyes and messy hair.

“Why’s his face covered?” Sakura asked, still looking at Zabuza.

“He covers it because he’s ugly.” Mei was quick to chime in, causing Kisame to chuckle and Sakura just looked at her wide eyed, nodding in understanding.

“Hey! I’m not ugly ya dumb bi-” Zabuza was cut off my Mei smacking her hand over his mouth and dragging him to the floor.

Sakura walking over, giving Zabuza a couple pats on his arm, “It’s okay, being ugly isn’t so bad.” she said sweetly.

“Look here kid,” Zabuza started pointing a finger at Sakura.

Only to stop talking when Sakura leaned forward slightly and bit his finger. Not hard enough to break skin but it certainly startled him.

“Did you just bite me?” Zabuza asked, looking at Sakura bewilderedly, Kisame and Mei dissolved into laughter in the background.

“Kazemi said if someone points something at you, you should bite them.” was Sakura's only answer.

“Who is Kazemi?” Zabuza asked

“My shark.”

Kisame and Mei laughed even harder, both gasping breathlessly at Zabuza. Sakura simply shrugged and joined her smirking father at the table and reaching for the snacks her mother had laid out.

“Well, I think she’s going to fit right in.” Mei said as she joined Sakura at the table.

“Do you think I’ll turn blue?” The question seemed almost hopeful coming from Sakura.

“Sorry Starfish, I don’t think you’ll turn blue.” Kisame said as he also sat at the table, grinning at Sakura’s pout.

The rest of the afternoon passed easily enough. Sakura had even won over Zabuza after asking about his sword, listening to his whole story about it’s background. This of course had started an argument between Kisame and Zabuza over whose sword was better while Sakura and Mei had watched.

Sakura’s life fell into an easy rhythm after that. Mornings were spent with her mother, going through conditioning and training, learning Uzumaki forms. Afternoons were spent with either her brother or her father. Kisame was teaching her the basics of kenjutsu and her father was teaching her the basics of just about every other weapon he could stick in her hands. Evenings were typically spent with her family, playing shogi or out on the docks talking to Kazemi. Kisame had also taught her how to swim as the weather got warmer.

Zabuza and Mei were also constants in Sakura’s life. The two had been sitting at the kotatsu, all poorly hiding their anxiousness, when she got home from testing at the academy mid way through the summer. Sakura had let them sit in their nerves for nearly half an hour before Zabuza exploded.

“Did you get it or not? C’mon twerp! Spill the news already!” Zabuza’s gruff voice filled up the space as he paced around the table.

Sakura did her best to hold in her laughter at Zabuza’s hand wringing but couldn’t. Her laughter filled the air as Mei and Kismae joined in, “Yeah, I passed. I’ll start with my year mates in the fall.” Sakura was finally able to get out, amusement lacing her tone.

Zabuza huffed as he sat down again and Kisame and Mei quickly drew her into conversation about what kind of training and conditioning they could give her for the rest of the summer. Zabuza threw out ideas here and there but Kisame was actually writing it all out, even Mei’s more outlandish proposals.

The rest of summer seemed to fly by. Training and Studying took up most of her days but that didn’t mean she wasn’t having fun. Kisame had taught her how to swim and most days when she had free time she could be found swimming around the dock with a couple of dorsal fins following her.

Sakura’s new family had been very welcoming. During days that she wasn’t training with her parents she could be found with her cousins, helping with chores or walking the village. Sakura found that she liked the people in Kiri. From what she heard before is that they were rough and mean. Sakura did not agree, they were simply blunt and up front people. Most didn’t butter up with empty sweet words.

Before anyone knew it, summer had come to an end and the first day back at the academy had rolled around. Monday morning dawned as grey as most mornings in the mist, though there was a noticeable chill in the air that wasn’t present a couple weeks ago. Kuware had packed her lunch while Mino and Kisame were arm wrestling over who would walk her to school this morning.

Sakura didn’t even question the sight of her father and brother, simply looking at her mother with her eyebrow raised. Kuware gave a short laugh at the two men before rolling her eyes.

“Neither of you are walking Starfish to school this morning.” Kuware said as she set breakfast on the table.

The two men whipped their heads around so fast that Sakura was concerned they’d hurt themselves. Kisame opened his mouth to protest and Mino didn’t even have a chance before Kuware shut both of them up with a look.

“I am walking her to school today.” Kuware gave them a look that left no room for arguments while Sakura giggled in the background before joining her family at the table. 

True to her word, Kuware walked Sakura to school. Sakura and her mother had waved goodbye to the two men standing on the porch before disappearing in the thick, early autumn mist. Sakura didn’t have any cousins as year mates but the ones that attend the academy had promised to check in on her during the lunch break. Kuware had made sure to give her a hug before sending her inside, letting her know that one of them would be here to walk her home this afternoon.

Sakura was relieved to discover that the academy was vastly the same as back in Konoha. At the same time it was completely different. Clan children weren’t favored over civilian children, the classroom learning was always joined with a practical demonstration. Chakra exercises began early so by the time they graduated and were placed with a Jonin sensei they would have a firm grasp on how to control their chakra. 

The biggest difference that Sakura had discovered was that bullying was met with zero tolerance from the teachers and staff. Kiri wasn’t a large village and every ninja was valuable. Even those still in the academy. Clan children mingled freely with civilian children. Sakura could feel that people were looking at her but not in a rude way, most were simply curious. Several of her new classmates had made a point to introduce themselves before class had started, one even offering to let her sit next to them. 

The first day had been good, she had sat with her older cousin, Mai, during the lunch hour, her teacher and classmates had been welcoming and she hadn’t felt terribly behind during class when reviewing the history of Kiri. 

The second day was better. The teacher, Suguru-sensei had split the class into teams of three, to get them used to working in three-man cells once they graduated. Sakura was placed into a group with two boys. Haku and Chojuro. Haku had the confidence that Sakura wished she had, gracefully walking over and introducing himself with a pleasant smile on his face. Chojuro was shy in a way she was not. Social interactions were clearly a weak point for the other boy but he too had managed to introduce himself. Sakura had done her best to remain confident throughout telling her new seatmates her name and felt she had done pretty well but had begun fiddling with the hem of her shirt when her nerves caught up.

The rest of the morning was spent doing information gathering based exercises with their new teams. Sakura had discovered that she was good at deciphering codes, Haku’s disarming personality made it easy for him to talk information out of people and despite his pastel blue hair, Chojuro’s shy disposition made it very easy to eavesdrop on others. As morning lessons came to a close, Suguru-sensei informed the class that these would be their groups for the rest of the school year. Any group drills or projects would be done with the groups formed. Haku had suggested that the three have lunch together to get to know eachother better. 

Looking back in her memories, Sakura realized that these new friends were vastly different from her friendship with Ino. Sakura had always been Ino shadow, trailing behind like a lost puppy looking for love and positive attention. While Sakura felt some guilt for her thoughts she knew that the friendship hadn’t been healthy or long lasting unless something had changed.

These new friends, because Haku had declared in that confident voice of his, that they would be friends were different. Even shy Chojuro joined the conversation as the three sat huddled around their bentos.

The rest of the day passed by more quickly then Sakura would have liked. Before she was ready Suguru-sensei was wishing them goodbye and sending the students on their way. Sakura exited the school building with Haku and Chojuro by her side. She and Haku were listing pros and cons of the defensive maneuvers that sensei had shown them after the lunch break while Chojuro threw in his two cents here and there. Chojuro’s squeak of surprise drew the attention of the other two as they noticed two large shadows looming over the trio.

It was Sakura’s second day at the academy and Kisame wouldn’t stop fidgeting. The constant bouncing of his leg or rearranging the scales on his sword was driving Zabuza up the wall. It was an hour past noon when the Demon of the Mist finally snapped.

“What the hell is your problem?” Zabuza all but growled at Kisame, not able to take his strange behavior anymore.

Kisame just turned and blinked at Zabuza, absolutely confused as to what his friend was talking about.

“Huh?”

Zabuza’s left eye got a twitch and he was about to slug Kisame across the face when Mei interrupted.

“Starfish is at the academy and Kisame is waiting to pick her up in a couple hours.” Mei’s bored voice drifted from where she was sharpening her kunai on the other side of the porch.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Zabuza’s voice was colored with disbelief. 

Both Mei and Zabuza watched as Kisame turned and looked at the clock inside before his leg began bouncing again. Zabuza’s vein looked like it was about to push through the skin of his forehead and Mei rolled her eyes at the both of them.

The next couple hours dragged by as they waited. Mei was called to the Mizukage’s office at some point and Zabuza was left with an increasingly inpatient Kisame gave up on doing anything but staring at the clock. The clock struck three and suddenly Kisame was up and running to the door, shoulder checking Mino on his way before throwing his shoes on. Zabuza followed, mostly for the entertainment value of watching one of Kiri’s most infamous ninja try to maintain his dignity as he ran to pick up his little sister from school.

Zabuza rolled his eyes at Kisame's excitement. Didn’t mean he wasn’t also on the look out for the tiny little shark. The sight that met the two was interesting. Sakura seemed to have found the only other pastel looking children in Kiri. 

Sakura looked up at Kisame and Zabuza as the two loomed over them. The two boys beside her were also looking up, she could feel Haku tense and Chojuro was looking everywhere except their eyes. Sakura simply rolled her eyes, used to her brother’s antics.

“Hello big brother. Hello Zabuza.” Sakura said, Haku’s tense shoulders dropping a bit and Chojuro quietly heaved a sigh of relief.

“Whatcha got here Sakura?” Kisame asked with a smile.

“These are my friends, Haku and Chojuro.” Sakura answered simply before turning to bid her friends goodbye and follow Kisame home.

Sakura walked beside Kisame on the way home. A skip in her step and a small smile dancing across her face. She and her new friends had bid each other goodbye after promising to wait for each other before walking into class. Running into the kitchen the moment they walked to the door, Sakura was already telling Kuware about her day and the friends she had made.

Mino, Kisame and Zabuza all sat around the table listening as Sakura told her mother about her day and about her new friends. Mino was excited because Sakura was happy. Kisame was pleased that Sakura was being treated nicely. Zabuza, ever the pessimist, was taking mental notes of the names Sakura mentioned to look into their backgrounds.

Chapter Text

Kisame has always wanted a sibling. Sure he had Zabuza and Mei but it wasn’t the same. He wanted a little sister, though he would take a brother too, but a little sister would be someone small that he could protect. He knew his mother couldn’t have any other children after an injury sustained on a mission but he secretly held out hope that one day he’d have a sibling. 

Then, on a late spring day, Kisame was given what he had been wishing for on the stars he could never fully see through the mist. 

His mother called her Starfish and Kisame hadn’t been able to stay long enough to see if that was the tiny girl’s real name or a nickname. His trip to the Mizukage’s office and the following mission report was a blur to Kisame. A million questions raced through his mind, swimming in all different directions.

His father had told him there was a new addition to the family but Kisame had brushed it off, thinking the old man was messing with him.

His thoughts consumed his mind and the Mizukage’s voice pulled him to the surface.

“Kisame, I see you’ve met your new sister.” Yagura spoke, reading the mission report.

Mei and Zabuza each zeroed their attention on Kisame. Zabuza finished the report and He could feel Mei twitching on his other side, clearly wanting answers.

The moment Yagura dismissed them, Mei and Zabuza frog marched Kisame, at ground breaking speeds, back to the Hoshigaki compound. Bursting into the kitchen only to freeze in place.

Hoshigaki Kuware was a shinobi to be feared and Kisame had no doubt that his mother could kill a man at least seventeen different ways with the kitchen spoon she was holding without getting a drop of blood on her.

“And just what do you three think you’re doing?” His mother didn’t turn to face them, the three froze in their tracks regardless.

Zabuza, as per usual, went for a direct attack, “What’s this we heard about fish face gettin a little sister?”

Kuware turned to look at them out of the corner of her eye, smirking before nodding at the sliding door, “Sakura is down on the dock talking to Kazemi.”

The three elite shinobi pushed and shoved, falling over each other to pull the sliding door open and fall to the floor, attempting to look casual while peeking down to the docks.

Sakura was sitting with her feet hanging off the side of the dock, dragging her feet through the water while talking to a tiny circling dorsal fin.

“Why’s it pink?” Zabuza hissed his question towards Kuware only to be answered with a sigh and rolled eyes.

Kisame can say with all honesty that the next several minutes were a blur of introductions and insulting Zabuza. Business as usual.

A new dawn had brightened up the Hoshigaki head household. 

Kisame had learned quickly that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

Sakura had nightmares, the first night she woke up screaming Kisame had been ready to murder whoever made his new sister cry. His father had beat him to Sakura’s room and his mother followed a half second later, already moving to comfort the tiny girl. At his mother’s shooing, Kisame and his father left the room. Kisame followed his father to the kitchen, sitting down when Mino put a kettle on for tea.

The two men were both sitting at the table, steaming cups of tea, untouched in front of them when Kuware joined them. A third cup joined the two already resting on the table and silence was a heavy presence in the room for several minutes that followed.

“What happened to her?” Kisame’s voice broke the silence.

“Her previous family weren’t very nic-” His mother’s voice started only to be cut off by Kisame.

“Cut the shit. I’m not a kid that needs the nice version.” Kisame knew himself to be laid back but in the moment he could not find his normal attitude with the screams of his little sister still ringing in his ears.

His father sighed heavily, picking up his cup to take a drink before meeting Kisame’s gaze.

“Sakura’s biological family tortured her under the guise of training. She was starved and beaten regularly by her parents and her mother’s clan.” Mino’s voice was grave and his eyes looked haunted.

The three sat around the table as the rest of the story was told, and Kisame felt something like tears press against his eyes as his father finally came to the end as the sun started to turn the mist pink.

“What can we do to help?” Kisame finally asked.

“We will show her family truly is.” His mother spoke, her voice soft but Kisame could hear the underlying anger.

Kisame knew that people didn’t get over trauma quickly or easily. It took time and a great deal of care. The only bright side was how young she is, children were resilient in a way that couldn’t really be explained but Kisame knew that she would get through this.

Kisame made it his personal goal to make Sakura laugh every day. Usually at Zabuza’s expense but after he had told his team what Sakura was probably going through, neither seemed to mind the childish antics that Sakura led them through most days.

Chapter Text

Time passed as smoothly as the tide came in and went out everyday. Sakura’s bonds with her family and friends grew and strengthened each and every day. Days at the academy were spent in the presence of Haku and Chojuro. Soon they were spending after school hours together and often met on weekends. They were one of the few teams that weren’t changed after that first day.

Spring had sprung as well as it could in the fog shrouded Kiri, the mornings still chilly but the afternoon sun burned off most of the oppressive grey of lingering winter storms. The morning of graduation the fog appears pink in hue, being thin enough that the sun’s rays could almost poke through. Sakura was 11 now, soon to be 12 and today was the day she and her team would receive their Hitai-ate. The day they would begin training under a jounin sensei.

Sakura’s parents were standing next to Haku’s and Chojuro’s uncle was nearby. Kisame and his teammates had managed to return early from a mission and had joined the crowd not long before the ceremony began. Yagura stood in front of the newly graduated genin, a speech of hard work and perseverance that Sakura couldn’t truly bring herself to listen to as her excitement took hold. 

The moment that Yagura had placed her Hitai-ate in her hands was a moment of prideful joy for Sakura, glancing at the crowd she could see her family cheering. Stepping back into line, Sakura waits for the rest of the ceremony to finish, using the hard earned patience she had acquired to keep her from shifting in place. Before too long, their sensei had them sitting in their teams in the classroom, awaiting the arrival of their jounin sensei to arrive.

Team Five’s sensei had arrived first, a short red haired man that Sakura knew was distantly related to Mei.

Team Nine was next, a woman that Sakura had never seen before had claimed them and away they went.

Sakura was a part of Team Three, Haku and Chojuro sitting on either side of her. The door slid open again and it took Sakura a moment to register that the tall blue haired man had called for Team Three. As a group the three stood up, almost snapping to attention as the admittedly sour faced looking man eyed them.

“Follow me.” was all he said in his gruff voice, hardly waiting before walking out the door, leaving his three students to rush after him.

And rush they did, their sensei hadn’t introduced himself nor had he asked for their names as he led them out to one of the training grounds closer to the bay.

Their new sensei was tall, not as tall as Kisame or even Zabuza but he towered over Sakura and her teammates. His blue hair gelled up and he wore a green haori over his standard issue greys.

Sakura had to stop short, almost tripping Chojuro as their new sensei suddenly stopped and turned to face them. His arms were crossed and the scowl on his face had become more pronounced since he had picked them up at the academy.

He looked hard at the for several moments before heaving a sigh that made it seem like the weight of the world was on his shoulder.

“My name is Ao. You will address me as Ao-sensei, I have been assigned as your teacher. I am twenty-seven years old though by the looks of the three of you I will soon be approaching forty-eight. Now, all of you will introduce yourselves, tell me your name, something you would like to learn, your favorite food and something fun you enjoy doing.” 

Haku, brave soul that he was, stepped forward first.

“I am Haku Yuki, I would like to learn more about kenjutsu, I enjoy ice cream mochi and my favorite thing to do is paint.”

Ao gave no visible reaction as Haku stepped back into line and Chojuro stepped forward.

“M-my name i-is Cho-Chojuro, I would l-like to learn more a-about ni-ninjutsu. My f-favorite f-food is sashimi and I enjoy f-fishing.”

Chojuro was quick to step back into the line, a quiet sigh of relief and the slight sagging of his shoulders. Sakura stepped forward after a moment to gather herself.

“My name is Sakura Hoshigaki, I would like to learn more about taijutsu and Fuinjutsu, my favorite food is anmitsu and I like to help Mei prank Zabuza.”

While Sakura hadn’t sounded as confident as she would have liked to, it was over and she took a step back to rejoin her teammates. Ao looked over them for a moment before speaking again.

“I have reviewed your academy teacher’s notes about your skills and abilities, today we will lay out a schedule for the coming months for our training regime as well as a couple out of village training trips. The three of you look woefully under supplied so after we layout our schedule we will be taking a trip to the armory and the outfitter to gather anything you may be missing.”

The next couple hours were spent on the training ground with their sensei, going through a schedule and being weighed down with supplemental reading before heading back into the village proper for supplies. By the time that Sakura had made it home the sun had long set and dinner cleaned up.

“I’m home!” Sakura called as she removed her shoes and dropped her various bags of ‘essentials’ as Ao liked to call them.

“Who’s your sensei?” Mei was the first to reach her, pulling her into a hug, Sakura had no doubt that she had hit both Kisame and Zabuza on her way.

“His name is Ao-” the rest of Sakura’s sentence was cut off as Zabuza let out an annoyed growl.

“That bastard! Why’s the Mizukage do that? He didn’t even want a genin team!”

“What’s his problem?” Sakura asked Mei in a low voice as Zabuza continued ranting about Ao.

“Ao beat Zabuza in a spar during our chunin exams and never agreed to a rematch but he likes to tease Zabuza about it sometimes.” Mei whispered back before moving to help Sakura carry all her bags to her room. 

“What is all this stuff?” Kisame asked as he followed Sakura and Mei into Sakura’s room.

“Well Mei is holding enough supplemental reading to get me through anbu and I guess the three of us looked ‘under supplied’ so the rest is gear along with a list of things that should be on our person daily and my training schedule is around here somewhere.” The end of Sakura’s mini tirade was mumbled as she began looking through the numerous items in order to find said training schedule.

“For someone who threatened to disembowel himself on the Mizukage’s desk when given a team he sure is taking this seriously.” Zabuza groused from where he was leaning on the doorframe.

Sakura and Mei looked over at Zabuza curiously.

“Stop lookin at me like I was sneakin around. I just happened to walk by the Mizukage’s office during his rant.” 

Kisame scoffed at Zabuza before the two men were shoved out by Mei and the door closed for ‘girl talk’.

Sakura lay awake in bed a while later thinking over what she and Mei had talked about before the older girl had left. According to her Ao was strict and followed the rules, he was also very good at what he did and he’d warm up to his new team soon enough.

With that in mind Sakura cleared her thoughts and sunk into an easy sleep that was disturbed all too early by a tapping at her window.

“ Psst! Psst! Sakura wake up! Let us in!” 

Sakura rolled out of her bedding and pulled the window open, letting Haku and Chojuro tumble into her room. Chojuro looked about as tired as she did while Haku looked like he was hyped up and ready for the day.

“Before you say anything we are having breakfast.” Sakura’s voice was still heavy with sleep as she led a sleepy Chojuro and a pouting Haku to the table where her father was reading over reports.

“Good morning Starfish. Good morning Starfish’s accomplices.” Mino’s voice rumbled as Kuware snorted at the long time nickname for Sakura’s friends.

“How was meeting your sensei yesterday?” Kuware asked from the kitchen.

Haku groaned and Chojuro let his forehead thud on the table.

“It was, um, fine I-I think.” Sakura said, looking at her teammates for some sort of support.

“It was not fine and we need to retaliate.” Haku spoke up.

“No, we don’t need to retaliate! We need to listen and be respectful!” Chojuro squeaked, knowing that retaliation usually meant he and Sakura got pulled along in the tidal wave that was Haku’s indignant fury.

“You three gonna mutiny old Ao because if you are I have a couple of ideas for you.” Zabuza spoke before also joining the table.

“No! Don’t encourage them!” Chojuro looked well and truly panicked now.

“What kind of ideas?” Sakura and Haku asked at the same time.

“You two stop! Come on guys! Maybe he’s just awkward and doesn’t have any social skills!” Chojuro was trying hard to pull his teammates away from Zabuza and what he was about to say.

“Chojuro is right.” Kisame grumbled as he too joined the table.

“See!” Chojuro’s voice had risen in pitch as he motioned towards Kisame, inwardly praising whatever god was listening for a voice of reason.

“You should wait a few days before you mutiny to lull Ao into a false sense of security.” Kisame finished as he began loading his plate.

You could see Chojuro deflate at that, seemingly giving up as he grumbled into his breakfast about stubborn teammates.

A short while later found the three teammates at the same training grounds they were at yesterday, this was to be their teams official meeting spot. All three were loaded down with everything Ao had asked them to be carrying on their persons on a daily basis. Haku was suggesting that they meet at his home after training to get a head start on their supplemental reading if they had enough energy after training when Ao seemed to appear out of the thick morning mist.

“None of you seem surprised to see me.” Ao drawled out in an almost bored tone.

“I sensed you.”

“I saw through your genjutsu.”

“My teammates are really cool.”

Haku, Sakura and Chojuro all spoke at the same time, slightly unnerving their new sensei.

The morning was filled with a variety of skill tests, Ao seemed to be trying to get a better reading on their overall levels and abilities. After a short lunch break they were told that they would be facing off against Ao.

It was predictably a beat down on Ao’s part but he had been pleasantly surprised by his students willingness to work together and the fact they already had a few pre planned attack patterns showed their long friendship.

All three of the students lay panting on the ground, they had put up a good fight, giving their everything despite being severely outclassed.Sakura and Chojuro rolled to their feet first, Sakura helping Haku up after finding her balance. The three looked at Ao and Ao stared right back at them.

“Come on, we’re getting dinner.” Ao said as he turned away and walked back towards the village.

No one spoke on the walk. No one spoke as Ao picked a barbeque restaurant. No one spoke until they had been seated and ordered.

“Did you really threaten to disembowel yourself on the Mizukage’s desk?” Sakura broke the silence.

Chojuro dropped his head into his hands as he resigned himself to whatever would happen next while Haku was very quick to jump onboard with Sakura. Ao looked straight up surprised and a bit taken aback.

“How’d you hear about that?” Ao asked as food was being dropped off.

“Zabuza is an awful gossip.” Sakura said simply, shrugging her shoulders.

The muscle is Ao jaw twitched a tad, “Zabuza is awful at several things, I will be sure to add gossip to that list.”

Haku and Sakura did their best to smother their giggles while Chojuro stared at Ao with his jaw on the floor.

Ao simply sighed before looking at the three of them, “I will be your sensei and you will be my team for who knows how long, I would rather be in good standing with you three then constantly fighting off pranks that I’m more than certain will come my way. Not that I don’t look forward to seeing you try.”

In that moment they realized that Ao-sensei did have a sense of humor and that maybe he wouldn’t be all that bad.

The following weeks were hard, Ao-sensei was a grueling task maker and he wouldn’t let you stop until you performed perfectly. They were led through drills and tasks before being sent home, tired and dirty after a long day of training.

Sakura was on a mission today. A very important mission. Well, according to her mom it was of the utmost importance.

“Ao-sensei?” Sakura asked on a humid Friday evening after Ao had ended training for the day.

“Yes Sakura?” Ao was preparing himself for a long winded question that would require an equally long winded response from himself.

“My parents wanted me to invite you to dinner tomorrow night.”

Ao was so shocked that you had choked out an agreement before his brain could catch up. Sakura looked fairly pleased with herself but was quick to gather up the boys and the three students high tailed it out of the vicinity before Ao could change his mind.

Sakura and the boys were quick to hurry into Sakura’s room after greeting Kuware in the kitchen, making sure to tell her that Ao would be joining them for dinner tomorrow evening.

“Okay Haku what’s on your mind?” Sakura asked after they got settled.

“I have a thought, it’s really just a vague idea, but a thought about being able to better communicate in situations where speaking would be inadvisable.” Haku began, rambling a bit as he usually did when he felt unsure.

“So what’s this idea, we can’t use the standard Kiri sign language because Ao-sensei will be able to see what we are saying.” Chojuro said, laying on his back with his feet propped against the wall.

“What if we didn’t have to make any verbal or physical giveaways to our conversations?” Haku’s voice was pitched low, uncertain of his idea.

“What do you mean? Like we connect our minds or something?” Sakura asked jokingly only to realize that was exactly what Haku had in mind.

“How would we even do something like that?” Chojuro asked, not really caring about sharing thoughts with his two teammates.

“Hold on, I’m getting mom.” Sakura darted out of her room and returned with an amused looking Kuware.

“Mom, we have a hypothetical question for you.” Sakura began.

“Hypothetically, of course, is it possible for say three people to share thoughts in an unobtrusive way? Hypothetically.” Haku asked.

Kuware snorted at all three of them.

“Hypothetically it is possible with the application of seals to share thoughts with a number of people.” Kuware said. Sakura could tell by her tone of voice that she would help but they would have to ask real nice for it.

All three turned to face Kuware, puppy dog faces in full affect, willing to beg and plead for her knowledge.

“It’s known as a Hive Mind Seal, typically it was only used in high stake espionage situations, but I suppose we could modify it for the three of you. You need to have a way of ‘turning it off’ when you aren’t together though.” Kuware said.

“I don’t think proximity should be what turns it on or off.” Chojuro chimed in.

“No it should be like a light switch, we have to manually turn it on or off.” Sakura replied.

“Aren’t seals done in ink, wouldn’t we have to reapply it when it washes off?” Haku asked.

“There are ways to set seals with chakra so they become permanent.” Kuware explained.

“We’d need a way to temporarily add people as well, like Ao-sensei.” Sakura said after a moment of thought.

“Are the four of you planning world domination or something in here?” Mino asked, he had returned home late and found the house surprisingly quiet and his lovely wife seemingly missing.

The four of them were sprawled on the floor in Sakura’s room, looking over various seals and plotting.

“Mom is gonna give us matching tattoos!” Sakura exclaimed, clearly a design had been settled on.

Mino gaped at Kuware who smirked while surrounded by giggling genin.

“It’s just a seal dear.” Kuware said, voice sweeter than honey.

“Just a seal my ass.” Mino grumbled as he walked away.

“Alright, do you want to do this tonight or tomorrow after training?” Kuware asked, turning back to the children.

“I think we should do it tonight, that way we can try it out during training tomorrow. On Saturday’s we always do team exercises so it would be best to get a head start.” Chojuro mumbled, tired but still very invested in the conversation.

“Alright, this seal does require a focal point, or a control seal.” Kuware started only to be interrupted by Haku.

“What’s a focal point?”

“It will be the connector for all the other seals, they will be in charge of keeping the channel open and are capable of blocking out people if necessary. Usually the person with the best chakra control is the focal point.” Kuware explained.

“That would be Sakura. She has the best control.” Chojuro said.

“I agree, Sakura’s chakra control is exceptional.” Haku nodded in agreement.

“That’s settled then, we’ll use Sakura’s blood as the binding for the chakra so the seal becomes permanent. We can either make it so the ink will wash off eventually but the seal will remain or we can make the ink permanent as well. It’s up to you.” 

“Permanent.” came three responses.

“Look at you three, already so in sync.” Kuware cooed over them.

Kuware stood and left the room, presumably to gather her inks and brushes while Sakura, Haku and Chojuro laid in comfortable silence around Sakura’s room. They had all realized that Kuware was correct, they were in sync and it made them feel closer together.

Kuware returned a few minutes later, ink in hand and a few different brushes.

After a few minutes and deciding size and location the teammates all agreed having the seal be relatively small just behind their ears. With Sakura and Haku’s long hair and Chojuro’s ear protectors the seals would be practically unnoticeable.

The sealing was simple enough, though it did sting when Kuware used chakra to set the ink. Kuware helped the three children get settled for the night, Haku and Chojuro decided to stay the night. Kuware had barely shut the door and all eyes were closed.

Chapter Text

Shisui liked to believe he was a good ninja, he really did. But, he held so much guilt about not being able to spot what was happening right in front of him. He had been tasked with picking Sasuke up from the academy at least three days a week his first year and he hadn’t noticed that his little cousin’s classmate was being abused by her own parents.

Standing at Sasuke’s graduation increased that guilt tenfold. She should be up there with Sasuke. She should be graduating as well.

Instead she had an empty grave.

They hadn’t been able to even find her body and Shisui cussed out Hatake in his head all over again. So much for never leaving a comrade behind.

Shisui left the festivities not long after he had congratulated Sasuke and been introduced to his team. He could see the guilt in Hatake’s posture as he stood behind Sasuke.

Her grave was in the Uchiha plot, not far from where Shisui’s own parents rested. Fugaku and Mikoto hadn’t wanted to risk Sakura’s family vandalizing the tiny girl’s grave and had fought the elders to have her put to rest on family land. 

Itachi found him out there later, the sun had fully set and the moon was high in the sky and still Shisui stood, hands in his pockets in front of the grave of a little girl he hadn’t saved.

“Shisui, you didn’t know.” Itachi’s voice broke through the silence.

“I should have seen it though. I should have noticed.”

“Shisui, there are many people who should have noticed, people who knew her and were closer to her. You are not at fault for her death.” Itachi was always making sense in ways that Shisui didn’t want to hear.

“But, still-”

“Sasuke was out here this morning, he left the flowers. He comes out to visit her at least once a week to tell her what he learned from the academy and leaves flowers.” Itachi continued as if Shisui hadn’t spoken.

Shisui knew his younger cousin felt something over the little girl’s death but he hadn’t realized the extent until now.

“Come inside Shisui, Father wanted to speak to you.” Itachi gently ushered Shisui back towards the house.

Meetings with Fugaku were always about the police force, something his uncle was grooming him to take over one day and this one was no different. They spoke late into the night and by the time Shisui fell into his own bed he was too tired to have any dreams.

The next morning brought a rude awakening via summons to the Hokage’s office. 

Kiri had sent word, wanting to form a treaty and trade pact with Konoha. They had had a nonviolence agreement for a handful of years now and looked like Kiri had wanted to take a step into friendlier waters. Shisui was to be a part of the delegation the Hokage was sending, mostly as security but also as a second opinion.

Shisui really did not want to go to Kiri.

They had lost Sakura’s scent not far from Kiri and Shisui wasn’t looking forward to being there again.

Shisui spent the rest of the day packing and convincing Aunt Mikoto to water his house plants while he was away. The sun had just begun to set when Sasuke walked past his house, presumably on his way home from training. Sasuke seemed to pause for a moment, before he turned and walked towards Shisui.

“Sakura was really nice, she wouldn’t have blamed you for what happened, and I don’t think you should either. I know you feel bad, I do too sometimes. Talking to her helps, maybe you should try.” Sasuke’s voice was sad, but his words were honest.

“I’ll do that Sasuke.” Shisui replied, trying to ignore the wet feeling in his eyes.

“Goodnight Shisui.”

“Goodnight Sasuke.”

Sasuke continued on his walk home and Shisui gazed up at the sky, more stars beginning to appear as the sun finally sunk below the horizon. Standing up and stretching, Shisui made his way inside to go through his mission pack checklist one last time before hopefully going to bed early.

It was several days later that Shisui remembered his second reason for not wanting to go to Kiri. It was wet and humid and wet . They had met their guid across the water into Kiri proper on the mainland beach. Zabuza seemed to be doing everything in his power to subtly piss them all off, or maybe that was just his personality. Shisui just wanted to be rid of him.

The crossing had taken two days and that was two days too many to spend in that man’s presence. What kind of peace talks started with being harassed.

Checking in at the gates was done with little fanfare and Zabuza had passed them off to a woman Shisui recognized from the bingo book. Anyone who could spit lava in his face was someone Shisui wanted to stay far away from. Their exchange had intrigued him though.

“Sakura wants to use Kubikiribocho to decapitate her sensei. Something about not being allowed to use the sharks.” the woman, Mei, had said, her tone entirely too cheerful to be talking about death.

“Starfish can have my sword if she can knock that bastard out.” Zabuza growled out as he walked away.

Sakura? 

Oh of all the times to not have access to Hatake or an Inuzuka!

Sakura was dead, Shisui reminded himself. He had gotten his hopes up ever so briefly because some other little girl shared the same name. Focusing again on the task at hand, Shisui promised to himself to remain diligent so they could leave as fast as possible.

For the entire week Shisui was in Kiri he was convinced he had lost his mind. Flashes of pink. Voices calling out greetings to ‘Sakura’ or ‘Sakura-chan’ and he had once heard ‘Sakura-hime’. Everytime he would look towards the flash of pink it would be gone. Everytime he tried to follow the voice that responded to Sakura, he’d find nothing. When negotiations were finally done Shisui was ready to be gone. Walking from the Mizukage’s office and back into the mist filled streets Shisui stopped dead in his tracks.

Not twenty feet away was a girl with pink hair, walking away from him with two others about her age. She couldn’t be any older than Sasuke. No. No. No.

Shisui spent the next several minutes convincing himself that it couldn’t be true. He was seeing ghosts. Yeah, that’s it. Being back here and Sasuke’s words were causing him to see ghosts. Because she was dead. Because Shisui hadn’t saved her. She couldn’t be here because she was dead.

Right?

Chapter Text

Saturday morning's group training got off to a strange start. Haku and Sakura had to get used to Chojuro keeping a running commentary on everything. Sakura and Chojuro had to get accustomed to Haku’s inner voice practically fan girl-ing over everything his teammates did. And poor Chojuro and Haku had to play mental patty cake with Sakura’s brain that always seemed to be listing the best ways to kill Ao-sensei and running trajectory calculations for kunai throws.

Ao-sensei had noticed their off performance but hadn’t said anything after taking note of how tired and irritable they seemed.

Ao-sensei had let them go in the early afternoon and Sakura was sure to remind that Ao was expected at the dinner table on time.

Sakura and Haku were sitting on the porch at Sakura’s house drying their hair when Chojuro spoke up. The three of them had returned to Sakura’s house following training and all three had gotten cleaned up and put on fresh clothes.

“I think we should prank Ao-sensei at dinner.”

Haku and Sakura nearly died from shock when those words fell from Chojuro’s mouth.

“Not a bad prank or anything, just something super simple.” Chojuro explained further.

“What did you have in mind?” Haku asked.

“I think Sakura should be blue for the evening.”

Sakura let out a laugh at Chojuro’s statement.

“We’d have to get everyone else in on the prank otherwise it won’t work.” Sakura said, highly amused with the suggestion.

Sakura got up and walked back into the house, stopping in front of Kisame, Mei and Zabuza.

“Hey, I’m gonna be blue this evening for dinner and you all need to act like it’s completely normal.Okay?”

Mei smirked and Kisame chuckled quietly. Zabuza however was grinning with an unholy gleam in his eyes.

“Sakura, be nice to your sensei.” Mino said gently from the table.

“This is nice. Originally we were going to slap a paralyzing seal on him and bury him in the sand for a few hours. This is practically harmless for them.” Chojuro intoned from the doorway.

Mino sighed and Kuware rolled her eyes but both agreed to play along.

The look of shock on Ao’s face when Sakura answered the door later that day was worth it. Her skin was similar to Kisame’s thanks to a temporary seal drawn on her back. 

“Sa-Sakura, are you alright?” Ao-sensei had asked as he removed his sandals.

“What are you talking about Sensei? I feel fine.” Sakura replied, giving her sensei a worried look.

Ao followed Sakura to the dinner table, and politely introduced himself to both her father and mother before greeting his other two students.

“Well well well. If it isn’t Ao.” Zabuza practically prowled into the room, throwing an arm around Ao’s shoulders.

Mei sauntered in next, “Lookie who’s here. Ao’s a big important sensei now. You better take good care of them. Or else.” Mei’s words were said sweetly but her eyes promised pain.

Sakura was doing her best to contain her giggles but she and Chojuro were bent in half with hands slapped over their mouths to prevent any noise from escaping. Haku wasn’t fairing much better as he tried to get his two teammates to pull their acts together.

“Alright alright, you’ve had your fun. Zabuza, Mei let him sit down so we can eat.” Mino groused from the table, everyone could see his poorly disguised humor.

Dinner had gone well enough, despite Zabuza and Mei needling Ao and Kisame discreetly encouraging them. Ao had developed a  tick in his visible eye from watching Sakura with her blue skin and why was everyone acting like it was normal . Sakura and Haku had even managed to hussle Ao into playing cards with them.

The tick was even more pronounced because he was sure his three students were cheating their way through the card games. Which they were, he just couldn’t figure out how, much to their unending glee.

“Alright you three! What’s going on here? Why are you blue? How are you cheating? And why does Zabuza look like he’s going to flay me alive? And, well Mei has always been unhinged so that’s nothing new. Start explaining.”

Ao’s questions were met with three laughing genin. He was trying to look stern but his three students had descended into hysterics and Ao huffed at them, crossing his arms as he waited for them to regain their composure.

“The blue is just a joke, Sensei.” Sakura finally managed to say through her giggles, reaching around to her back to rub the seal enough to smear the ink, breaking the seal and allowing the blue to fade away.

“What about the insane duo back there?” Ao asked, jerking his thumb towards Zabuza and Mei who were sitting by Kisame behind him.

“Zabuza has always been weird and Mei isn’t insane, well not clinically at least. I think.” Kisame was the one to answer this question, earning him a punch on one arm from Zabuza and Mei slapping him across the back of his head.

“And how are you three cheating?”

“That’s top secret info sensei! If we told you we’d have to kill you!” Haku exclaimed, using all of his acting skills.

Sakura and Chojuro’s renewed laughter did not help.

“Fine fine, keep your secrets for now. Make sure you do your readings tomorrow, you will be quizzed on the information next week.” Ao sighed, waving them off.

Ao stayed for a while longer, trying to figure out how they were cheating by himself, before heading home. 

“He’s not as stiff as I remember.” Zabuza said after Ao had left.

“Having a bunch of genin swarmed around you all the time is sure to change a person.” Mei said quietly, watching Starfish and her teammates clean up and talk amongst each other.

Team Three had been with Ao for six weeks when he announced that there would be a change to their routines.

Haku would begin training with a cousin of his who specialized in the family’s bloodline trait.

Chojuro had been requested to apprentice under one of the current Swordsmen.

Sakura would be spending more time with her mother learning offensive seals and polishing up her Fuinjutsu.

All three of them would spend their Saturdays in the hospital's first aid program. Haku and Sakura were proficient at stitching themselves and each other up and Chojuro could wrap a sprain like no other. Ao wanted them to be more prepared.

Ao-sensei still hadn’t figured out how they cheated at cards, or just about any game they played against him but had let it go for the time being.

This Saturday had been particularly grueling in their first aid course, having to treat the ‘patient’ while being harassed was difficult and Sakura’s patience was at an all time low when they were finally dismissed.

“Hoshigaki! Stay behind!” This week's teacher yelled before she could exit the room.

“Yes Kanna-sensei?” Sakura asked, stepping up towards the elderly doctor.

“You’re very familiar with poisons and you seem used to making antidotes.” it wasn’t a question but Sakura knew the statement required an answer of sorts.

“One of my teammates has begun using senbon and we have started experimenting with paralytics for him.” it was true, Haku had recently been introduced to using senbon with his ice mirrors and had found great success but they were trying to give him an extra leg up now.

“How do you create your poisons?”

“It started with the supplemental reading our sensei gave us, mostly about what plants we can and cannot eat from the other nations and from there it was looking more into the ones Ao-sensei told us to definitely not eat.” Also true, Ao-sensei was still stuffing information into them in the form of scrolls and books.

“And from there? After you research what next?” Kanna-sensei asked

“Some supervised creativity and a bit of guesswork and a lot of mackerel.” Sakura shrugged.

“You will come to me once a week. I will teach you more about poisons and antidotes. You will also begin learning medical jutsu, your control is wasted in basic first aid.”

“Wait! I don’t want to be a medic!” Sakura was a bit panicked, she didn’t want to be sidelined from her frontline position.

“You want to be able to take care of your teammates, yes?” Kanna asked, looking at Sakura.

“Of course but-”

“I have no intention of leaving you to rot in this hospital. You will learn medical jutsu to use in the field.” Kanna explained, eyeing Sakura as her shoulders sagged in relief.

As Kanna walked away she called back to Sakura, “I happened to have learned from the best, you’re in luck.”

Sakura didn’t know what she meant by that but that was a question for later. 

The following week Sakura found herself outside the greenhouse at the hospital. Kanna had left word to meet her there. Taking a deep breath, Sakura walked in, ignoring the curious stares of others and walking over to Kanna.

“At least you’re on time.” was all Kanna said as she continued inspecting the plant in front of her.

“What is this plant girl?” Kanna asked as she motioned towards a plant to her left.

“Water hemlock.”

“How do you know?” Kanna asked, surprised by Sakura’s quick answer.

“By sight and the smell.”

“Good good. What does it do to you, should you ingest it?”

“Respiratory distress, often times respiratory failure and death.” Sakura replied, quickly and efficiently.

“Correct.”

The rest of her time with Kanna was spent walking through the greenhouse name and listing properties of the different plants that resided in its walls. If Kanna was impressed by her knowledge she didn’t show it, she did however drop an arm full of scrolls on Sakura.

“Read these and come see me next week. We will be talking about medicine and poison.” Was all Kanna said after dismissing Sakura for the day.

And such was Sakura’s life for the next week. Studying, training, seals and her teammates. Most of the time after training the three were bunked down together at one of their houses. Sakura’s had the most room but also had the most distractions. Haku’s was equally spacious but was the furthest away. Chojuro shared a home with his uncle and was the smallest but his uncle didn’t mind them spreading out over the entirety of the living space to study together. His uncle would often find them all asleep and various forms of disarray on the living room floor. Both Sakura’s parents and Haku’s parents had a collection of photos of the three friends passed out over books and weapons alike. 

The following week Sakura met with Kanna at her home. Kanna lived smack dab between the civilian quarters and shinobi housing in a small house with a small garden. 

The door had opened before Sakura could, which was spooky but spooky was on par for ninja so it was easily brushed off.

“Come in Sakura.” Kanna’s voice called from the back of the house, beckoning Sakura further inside.

As Sakura was taking off her shoes in the entryway the front door suddenly slid shut by itself.

“Kanna-sensei!” Sakura’s voice was pitched high in surprise.

Kanna’s cackling laugh was the only response she got.

Sakura quickly darted towards the sound of Kanna’s laughter, glancing back as her shoes righted themselves and slid into a cubby on their own.

“Kanna-sensei! Your house is haunted!” Sakura’s eyes were wide as she stared at her part time sensei only to gasp when she saw what Kanna was holding.

Sakura’s mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to ask Kanna why exactly she was holding a hand that wasn’t attached to a body but no sounds ever made it past her lips. Kanna simply laughed again at her as she set the hand down and wiped her own hands with the rag that had been thrown over her shoulder.

“It’s just wood girl, nothing to be afraid of.” Kanna’s voice was laced with mirth as she approached the still wide eyed Sakura.

“Why do you have a wooden hand, Kanna-sensei?” Sakura managed to squeak out.

“It’s a part of a puppet, I’m doing maintenance.” Kanna's reply came easily, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Puppet?” Sakura was very confused at this point.

“Yes, silly girl, a puppet. One I control with chakra strings, made for battle.” Kanna was still amused but Sakura was beginning to think that was a good thing.

“Chakra strings?”

“Kiri doesn’t really teach puppetry.” Kanna’s voice held a hint of nostalgia now, a wistful smile on her aged face.

“Where did you learn Kanna-sensei?” Sakura asked, finally moving closer.

“In my home country. More on that later, come along girlie, we have work to do.” Kanna said, snapping Sakura into focus.

“Yes ma’am!”

Sakura was first taught how to diagnose a patient. Her current patient was a mackerel that Kanna-sensei had produced out of thin air.

“Coming to a correct and efficient diagnosis is the first step. I don’t care how good at healing you may end up being, if you can’t tell what’s wrong with your patient they will die before anything you do works. Sometimes they’ll die anyway.” Kanna-sensei stood over her as she worked putting together an antidote for what she thought the fish had been poisoned with.

Out of the twenty fish that Kanna had poisoned, each with a different poison, Sakura had only lost five. Four to misdiagnosis and one because like Kanna-sensei said, you can’t save everyone.

It was still a hard lesson to learn, even on a fish.

Kanna-sensei told her, “better the fish then your teammates, chin up girlie, we have one more lesson before you’re done for today.”

When Kanna finally dismissed her, Sakura took great care in tucking the scroll given to her in the pouch on her hip. It was a tiny scroll, smaller than the length of her hand and only as wide as two of her fingers, but it was a storage scroll only meant to hold one thing. Sakura would always treasure the gift given to her.

The following day Ao-sensei had given them off.

“Go and pack, we will be making an outpost run to the barrier islands, pack for at least two weeks, we will be meeting at the gates at six tomorrow morning. Hopefully that will be early enough to keep us out of the storm that is supposed to hit tomorrow.” Ao-sensei dismissed them and they all took off in different directions.

It wasn’t usually for Sakura to come to an empty house. Her father was still an active shinobi and her mother often worked with the intelligence department. So, when she arrived home to a note on the table saying they would be home for dinner she wasn’t surprised. 

Sakura simply got on with her packing. Most of her belongings she sealed in storage scrolls, a couple clothing items and toiletries were kept out, but the vast majority of what she packed stayed on her person and not in her pack. Packs could be lost relatively easily. Waterproof tights and a lined shirt were laid out for the morning, along with her lined water resistant cloak. By the time she was finishing up the front door opened.

“I’m home!” Mino’s rumbling voice called out.

“Welcome home dad!” Sakura called back as she walked towards her father’s voice.

“Just you and me tonight kiddo, your mom is tied up with intelligence and Kisame is still out of the village.” Mino explained as he held up a bag of takeout.

“Sounds good, Haku and Chojuro will be here later, we’ll be making an outpost run to the barrier island with Ao-sensei.”

“Are you delivering supplies?” Mino asked as he laid out food on the table.

“No, just learning where they are. It’s one thing to see them on a map, it’s another to actually get there.” Sakura replied as she joined Mino at the table.

“Well be safe with that storm rolling in tomorrow.” her father said, his voice a little worried.

“We will, Ao-sensei has us leaving pretty early, that’s why Haku and Chojuro are coming over, it’ll be easier to leave here together.”

“How’s your little group mind working?” Mino asked as they dug in.

“It’s good for the most part, sometimes we have to turn it off, still getting used to listening to more thoughts then my own. Ao-sensei still hasn’t figured it out” Sakura said, a smirk forming as she thought about her sensei’s ever growing frustration.

“Be nice to your sensei Sakura.” Mino jokes, a smile on his face.

Chojuro and Haku arrived as Sakura finished putting away the leftovers, all three congregated in the living room as they pulled out weapons and whetstones. The sound of metal being sharpened intermixed with their voices long into the night before the three finally retired to sleep.

Sakura, Haku and Chojuro arrived five minutes early the following morning and Ao-sensei joined them a moment later.

“Let’s go you three, this storm is getting worse and I want to be on Fin Island and bunkard down before it hits.” Ao said as he signed them out at the gates.

Fin Island was to the north west and with the storm rolling in from the south east it was the best island with the most available cover. It also meant they had a day full of hard running on rough seas in front of them.

They hadn’t even made it half way when the first rains hit them. Ao-sensei had them tether up together and they changed their formation from spread out to running in a single file. By the time they had reached Fin Island the rain had picked up and so had the wind. Ao-sensei had been quick to lead them to a cave on high ground after clearing it and laying traps, they had taken turns getting into dry clothes and as a group sat down to start dinner.

Dinner was a simple affair of rations and water from their canteens and after that was done Ao-sensei laid a map to show their course over the next couple of weeks. Their days would be spent mostly running over water, which was part of training. Ao-sensei was trying to expand their chakra stores little by little.

When Ao-sensei finally put the map away Haku had produced a deck of cards and soon a deadly game of go-fish was in order.

“Okay, that’s enough. How are you cheating?” Ao-sensei asked.

The three genin laughed, amused by their sensei’s fed up expression.

Sakura simply laid down her cards and pulled out a scroll that described the seal they used and how it worked. They had decided to Ao-sensei about it during this trip and had brought the materials necessary to explain.

Ao spent several minutes reading over the scroll.

Sakura could practically hear his blood pressure rise and Haku was watching the vein in his forehead become more pronounced.

“Have you three lost your mind?” Ao asked, voice hard.

“No, but I suddenly find myself hearing voices.” Chojuro’s answer was so nonchalant it caused Ao to choke on air and his two teammates to fall over themselves laughing.

“Please tell me you at least consulted an adult before you did this.”

“Of course we did! My mom helped us draw up and modify the seal to fit our purpose!” Sakura almost sounded offended but she knew he was asking because he cared in his own, strange way.

“Would you like to join our madhouse?” Haku asked after a moment.

“Please don’t tell me you refer to your joint minds as a madhouse.” Ao’s head dropped into his hands as the genin began laughing again.

“Only sometimes Ao-sensei.” Sakura replied as she laughed.

“Might as well.” Ao agreed and was a little taken aback by how fast Sakura pulled ink and a small brush from her pack.

“Where do you want it?” She asked as she approached him.

“Where do you three have yours?”

All three moved their hair or in Chojuro’s case his ear protectors to show off their seals in the skin behind their ears.

“It’s mostly so it’s hidden but you can put it anywhere.” Sakura explained.

Ao-sensei had finally decided on his back next to his right shoulder blade. The inking and sealing had been done by Sakura and the next half hour was Ao getting used to three little voices invading his brain until Sakura had finally shown him how to flip the switch off.

Ao who had first watch, watched as his three students arranged their sleeping bags, all of them seemed to like to be almost on top of each other. And though he would never say it out loud felt honored to be included in their little secret. He hadn’t wanted a team but looking back, he had needed one. They were certainly his now, as he was theirs. Yagura-sama had to have planned this.

Chapter Text

What if she wasn’t dead? That thought circled Shisui’s mind the entire journey back to Konoha. Which, as they approached the gate turned into What if she isn’t dead and I left her behind? Again. Shisui stayed behind when his team leader finished the briefing, still completely lost in his own mind telling him that he had failed that little girl again.

“Hokage-sama I think I’ve lost my mind.” Shisui’s voice was far away as he stared out the window behind the Hokage’s desk.

“How inconvenient. What’s wrong, Uchiha?” 

“I saw a girl with pink hair in Kiri.” Shisui was still looking out the window.

“So what, lots of people in Kiri are oddly colored. Hell, there’s an entire clan where having blue skin is normal. ” The hokage leaned back, taking in Shisui’s unusual demeanor.

“Sakura Haruno had pink hair.”

“Shisui, you have to stop looking for her.” Tsunade sighed, suddenly feeling every bit of her age.

“I don’t know if I’m imagining things or if it was really her. I almost wish I were imagining things because I can deal with being insane, I can’t deal with knowing that I failed her again.” There was a dispearation in his voice that the Hokage had never heard before.

“Did she look well fed?” Tsunade asked, carefully watching the man in front of her.

“What?” The question had clearly taken Shisui by surprise.

“I said, did she look well fed? Were her clothes in tatters or well made? Did she look like she was still suffering from abuse?”

“No. No, the girl looked fed and well dressed and-and happy.” Shisui slumped into one of the chairs in front of the Hokage’s desk.

“If she were a ghost, she’s clearly telling you to move on and let her go. If she’s real then I would say she’s doing well.” Tsunade said, pulling a jar of sake out of the desk and pouring herself a glass.

“But, Hokage-sama, what if-” Shisui began, suddenly feeling panicked.

“If it will make you feel better, I will pen a letter to the Mizukage and perhaps you will get your answer. As for now, I’m taking you off of active duty.”

Shisui didn’t even try to protest. He knew he wasn’t in any sort of mindframe to be on missions. Leaving the tower after his impromptu meeting with the hokage, Shisui wandered back to the Uchiha compound. Gaining more than one second glance as he made his way to the home of his aunt and uncle.

“Aunt Mikoto, I think I’m seeing ghosts.” was all he said as he laid down next to the kitchen table.

“And who did you see Shisui?” Mikoto asked quietly, as she continued washing dishes.

“Sakura Haruno. I saw her in Kiri.”

“Oh, and what did you do?” 

“I ran away like a damn coward.” Shisui whispered, self loathing evident in his voice.

“Shisui-” Whatever Mikoto was going to say was cut off as the front door opened.

“I’m home!”

“Welcome home Sasuke.” Mikoto called back as Sasuke’s footsteps approached the kitchen.

“Why are you on the floor?” Sasuke asks, looking at Shisui in confusion.

“I’ve finally lost my mind.” was all Shisui would say as he began counting the wood grain on the ceiling.

It was later that night as Shisui paced in his own house that he finally realized that he wasn’t seeing ghosts. Now, the real question is, was that little girl Sakura or just someone with pink hair.

Shisui paced, thoughts going round and round in his mind until the sun peeked over the horizon. 

The following week went by in a similar pattern. Everyday Shisui made a point of dropping by the hokage’s office to see if there had been any reply and every day he was disappointed. Shisui knew Itachi was worried about him and his constant pacing. His constant visits to Sakura’s grave. And, most importantly according to Itachi, his forgetfulness when it came to meals.

On the tenth day of Shisui’s forced holiday he was summoned to the Hokage’s office just after breakfast. Whatever that letter said, Shisui needed to hear. He needed the closure of knowing if the little girl he had failed was dead or alive.

“You’re going back to Kiri Shisui, there’s been an issue with a gang leader and Kiri doesn’t have the manpower to deal with it during their busy season. So, that being said, you, Itachi and Hana will be dealing with it for them, a team will be dispatched to help with navigation around the island and some background knowledge but are too inexperienced to handle the problem on their own.” Tsunade’s words were filled with sadistic humor. Clearly they weren’t getting the full story but it at least explained the presence of the other two people in the room.

“Itachi, you will take the lead. You leave tomorrow, they will be expecting you in the next six days. Dismissed.” Tsuande finished handing out the mission scrolls as she dismissed them.

The three made a plan to meet at the gates at dawn to head out before going their separate ways.

What about Sakura though? Why didn’t the Mizukage say anything about her?

Chapter Text

It had taken four days for the weather to clear up enough for safe travels. During those four days three genin had taken upon themselves to passively vex their sensei as much as they could without being called out by said sensei. The rest of the trip had been rather uneventful to Ao-sensei’s peace of mind. Though, there had been that one time he woke up to the hushed whispers of his three students that had sent chills down his back. 

The four of them were standing in front of the Mizukage’s desk, learning how to give an appropriate and respectful mission report.

“How do you feel your training is going?” Yagura-sama asked the genin.

What Yagura-sama had not expected was for the three genin to all begin singing his praise, voices overlapping each others as they spoke of ‘how awesome Ao-sensei is’ and ‘how Ao-sensei tells great stories’ or ‘Ao-sensei is such a badass’. They were going to have to work on Sakura’s language, clearly she spent too much time in Zabuza’s presence.

“Ao, how do you feel about your students?” Yagura asked, a smirk playing on his lips after listening to his students.

“I’m fairly certain they have started a cult amongst themselves but they work hard and I have no complaints beyond them waking me up on full moons to ask if I want to go swimming with the sharks.” Ao-sensei maintained a straight face, though he knew his Mizukage was having a go at him.

“Alright, Ao, you are dismissed, you three will stay because you have a mission.” Ao-sensei opened his mouth like he wanted to protest but thought better of it before he bowed politely to the Mizukage before making his exit.

“We have a mission Yagura-sama?” Sakura asked, feeling the most comfortable talking to the Mizukage.

“Do you three feel as if you could successfully navigate through the barrier islands and even to the mainland?” Yagura asked, letting them have a moment to think about it. If he was surprised that they didn’t speak amongst themselves he didn’t show it.

“With Sakura’s summons a trip to the mainland would be possible without losing time and without leaving us exhausted. Ao-sensei quizzes us several times on the location of each barrier island and its location and features before we made this trip. We feel that we could comfortably find our way around.” Haku answered for the group after a moment.

“I’m sure you have heard your sensei grumbling about a man named Gato-”

“Oh yeah, Ao-sensei said if he had a chance he’d show that ‘over greased, poorly dressed pufferfish-” Chojuro’s speech was cut off when Sakura slapped her hand over his mouth.

“What Ao-sensei said next is really not appropriate to be repeated in the Mizukage’s presence” Haku said with a smile.

“We don’t have any jounin to spare at the moment so I have hired a team of Konoha-nin to assist us in his removal. The three of you will be escorting them and assisting them with your knowledge about the locals and terrain. While I would prefer you three to stay out of the fighting I understand that isn’t always possible. I also understand this won’t be anyone’s first kill.” Yagura watched their faces, looking for any signs of discomfort from the genin.

“No, Yagura-sama this won’t be any of our first kills, we ran into those a while back on patrol duty.” Sakura spoke even though Yagura hadn’t asked the question.

“The Konoha-nin will be meeting you in the smaller port in Kyuushi village, be discreet when on the mainland we don’t want to tip anyone off. You are expected there four days from now so I suggest you spend the rest of today packing. Haku, you will take point on this mission. Dismissed.” Yagura watched the three genin shuffle out of the room.

The three had separated from each other on the street, heading home to get cleaned up and begin packing before meeting at Chojuro’s home that night. 

“I’m home!” Sakura called out as she walked through the door.

“Hey! Where the hell have you been?!” Zabuza yelled, his thumping footsteps followed by Mei’s quieter ones and Kisame’s rushed steps to catch up.

“We took a tour of the barrier islands with Ao-sensei.” Sakura said as she began walking towards the laundry room to unpack her bag.

“What’s the rush Starfish?” Mei asked, following behind the pink haired girl.

“We’re leaving on an escort mission in the morning.” Sakura replied as she grabbed a snack from the kitchen before heading towards her bedroom.

“Oh yea? What kind of escort adventure is Ao leading you?” Zabuza asked, smirking as he trailed behind with Kisame.

“Ao-sensei isn’t coming with us. Just Haku, Chojuro and me.” Sakura says, absentmindedly as she begins pulling clothes out of drawers to seal up for tomorrow.

“Hang on a second. I must have something in my ear because it sounded like you said Ao isn’t going with you.” Zabuza said, eyebrows pinching together.

“He’s not. Haku will be our team leader for this mission. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to pack so I can meet Haku and Chojuro for dinner in a few hours.” Sakura replied, entirely done with Zabuza’s mother henning.

Sakura finished her packing easily enough, even taking a short nap before leaving her room to say goodbye to her parents who she could hear moving about along with Kisame and his friends.

“Be safe Sakura, there aren’t any storms but you know how quickly squalls pop up.” Mino said, after his tiny daughter told him she’d be leaving on a mission without her sensei. 

“Where are you three staying tonight?” Kuware asked as she moved around the kitchen.

“At Chojuro’s. We’re going to go eat with Ao-sensei soon and turn in early.” Sakura replied as she nibbled on her snacks while going through her mission pack checklist.

Zabuza and Kisame were still pouting but Mei had given her a smile and a thumbs up as Sakura departed the house. Meeting her team plus Ao-sensei at the restaurant was a fairly regular occurrence. It was the same restaurant Ao-sensei had brought them too on their second day as his students.

“Alright, I know you probably can’t talk to me about your mission which is fine but make sure you have at least three-no-four contingency plans in place.” Ao-sensei’s voice made it very clear that it was not fine.

“We will Sensei, we are staying at Chojuro’s house tonight and we’ll have all those details worked out before we go to bed.” Haku answered as their food was delivered.

The four ate together, Ao-sensei throwing out tips and suggestions every few minutes until they separated. As soon as they commandeered Chojuro’s living room, the three dumped out piles of weapons to sharpen as they planned.

Luckily they had the home field advantage, as Haku put it. They would always be surrounded by water and all three, as all Kiri-nin should be, are very comfortable on the water. It also didn’t hurt that Sakura had nearly a dozen sharks she could summon at the drop of a hat.

“Sakura, are you going to be alright?” Chojuro asked.

It wasn’t a secret what he was referring to. Sakura had told her friends before they had graduated from the academy. Mostly because Haku refused to be shrugged off every time she freaked out or had a nightmare. If anything, telling them about her past had made it easier to move on from the lingering trauma. 

“I’m going to be fine. I have you two with me so everything is going to be okay.” Sakura said, fully confident that as long as she had her teammates everything would be just right.

Haku nodded and Chojuro sent her a smile as they began to organize their weapons to pack back up. Not long later, the three tucked themselves in, hoping to get as many hours of rest as possible before while they still could.

The following morning brought with it the smell of rain and an oppressive humidity. Sakura and Haku were very quick to give up on their hair and braided the long locks quickly before heading out. The three signed themselves out of the village and following Haku’s lead took off towards their first stop.

Now, Moss Island was called so because it was covered, that’s right you guessed it, in moss. Every inch of the island had a coating of thick, plush moss. It was also poisonous due to the bacteria that lived in said moss. 

“Why did we decide to stay here again?” Chojuro asked as he and Sakura were setting up the tent.

“It was most logical. The only other island in this direction is completely flat and has no natural shelters.” Haku replied as he returned from clearing the area and setting up a few traps.

“Tomorrow will be a longer water crossing than I feel comfortable making without draining chakra.” Sakura said as they sat down to eat.

“I agree, we want to have good reserves when we meet with the Konoha team.” Chojuro chimed in around a mouthful of rice.

“We can run during the morning, and once midday hits we’ll ride Sakura’s sharks until we hit land. We aren’t meeting with them until the day after tomorrow so will be able to be in top shape by that point.” Haku explained, a bit lost in thought.

“I’ll summon some of my faster sharks then, so we can hit land before night.” Sakura said, happy to summon her fishy friends on the mission.

“The winds seem very unfavorable tonight, I think we’ll get some rain tomorrow.” Chojuro said, turning his gaze towards the mainland.

“If we do hit bad weather we should exchange the smaller and faster sharks for one of your more solid sharks Sakura. Ao-sensei isn’t here if we fall in, we should stick closer together.” Haku replied, also turning his gaze outward, taking note of the direction the wind was coming from.

“We’ll need to blend in on the mainland so maybe a henge for Chojuro and I. Make our hair look more normal.” Sakura pointed out.

“No way, those are a pain to keep in place, we’ll just pull our hoods up, if the weather is bad no one will question it anyways.” Chojuro said.

“Now all that is settled, let’s set up our watch rotation and get some sleep.” Haku said, as they finished dinner.

“I’ll take the first watch. I want to write up more tags before we make contact.” Sakura spoke first.

“Alright, Chojuro, are you okay to take the second shift?” Haku asked, turning to the other boy.

“That’s fine with me, but you’re in charge of starting breakfast then.” Chojuro replied, happy to not be to not be on breakfast duty.

Haku merely rolled his eyes before crawling into his sleeping bag, Chojuro not far behind him as both boys fell asleep quickly.

Sakura did focus on tags for a while but she had picked first watch because she wanted time to herself to think about the meet up with the shinobi from Konoha. Sakura wouldn’t lie to herself and say she didn’t feel a little bit of fear. What if they tried to take her back? She didn’t want to go back to Konoha. Kiri was her home.

When Chojuro relieved her just after midnight Sakura fell into a blessedly dreamless sleep. Waking up to Haku making breakfast had been refreshing and amusing all by itself.

“Come on you two. Rise and shine! Breakfast is getting cold.” Haku hustled Chojuro and Sakura out of bed.

“Where’s the sun?” Sakura asked as she accepted the bowl Haku shoved into her hands.

“Hurry up and eat, we’re going to push hard this morning. That storm looks like bad news.” Haku ushered them to eat as he began to break down their camp.

“How bad?” Chojuro asked after inhaling his food.

“Bad enough that I’d turn around and go home if it wasn’t coming from the direction of home.” Haku said as he folded up the tent.

“Bad bad then.” Chojuro replied.

“Yes Chojuro. The storm will be bad bad.” 

Sakura nearly choked on her breakfast at the amount of sass in Haku’s voice.

Chojuro merely rolls his eyes but accepts the information. All three are ready to go before the sun is fully up, not that they could see the sun through black storm clouds. Taking off quickly over the water, Haku sets a hard pace for the morning, hoping to outrun the worst of the weather. Thunder was booming overhead around midday when the trio stopped on a bit of rock to tether themselves together. The sea had become rougher and the wind howled in their ears. All three were especially grateful for being able to communicate in their heads instead of trying to find a way to yell over Mother Nature’s temper tantrum. 

Sakura ended up summoning Nisho, a very large great white, so all three could ride on his back together. Nisho, despite his incredible size, was very fast and very agile. He unfortunately didn’t believe in swimming up each and every wave, so Haku, Chojuro and Sakura became very used to being dragged below the surface. 

They made landfall ahead of the storm but just barely. Chojuro was the one to spot the cave and after Haku had cleared it the three hunkered down as the storm began to well and truly make itself known.

“Well Haku was right, this storm is bad bad.” Chojuro said a few minutes later, breaking the silence.

Haku scoffed while Sakura giggled but the mood had been lifted and soon the trio were in dry clothes and digging into their rations. 

“We’ll keep the same rotation we had last night for the watch.” Haku said as they got out their sleeping bags.

“What time are we meeting the Konoha-nin?” Sakura asked as she began pulling out paper to write explosive tags on.

“About nine tomorrow morning. We have about a half hour run to where we are supposed to meet them but I want to arrive a few minutes early.” Haku spoke from his sleeping bag.

“That still gives us a little time to sleep in or have a more substantial breakfast.” Chojuro muttered, already half asleep.

Sakura settled into her watch easy enough, explosive tags were hardly difficult for her so she was able to keep her senses sharp while keeping her hands busy. The night passed peacefully enough, though the storm did continue raging long after her watch was over.

The following morning dawned dark, the storm still firmly settled over the coast line. At least the rain and wind had let up enough to no longer be a hazard. After a few extra minutes of sleep and a filling breakfast the three took off with Haku in the lead, followed by Sakura and Chojuro covering their rear. Haku stopped them inside the tree line close to the port, all three had their hoods pulled up to keep them as dry as possible.

“I will take point, we will maintain this position with Sakura in the middle. If any of the Konoha shinobi try to grab her we will bail towards the ocean and Sakura will summon backup. Otherwise we will be polite and helpful.” Haku laid out his plan, Chojuro nodding firmly and Sakura giving a nod of her head after making eye contact with Haku.

They watched the port from the cover of the trees until an hour before their meeting time. Haku led them to a small clearing a little further down the coast and the tree got comfortable for a short wait. Sakura and Haku laid a few subtle genjutsu and traps around them, hoping to see who they were meeting before being seen themselves.

It seemed the Konoha team had the intention of arriving early as well. They showed up not fifteen minutes after Haku, Sakura and Chojuro had begun their wait. Sakura sprung one of the traps they had laid, creating a noise in the opposite direction, waiting for the Konoha team to turn towards the distraction before making their appearance.  The three seemed to melt out of the gloom, all three keeping their hoods up as the Konoha-nin turned back towards them.

“My name is Itachi Uchiha, we have been sent from Konoha to assist you.” The shorter of the two men spoke first.

“I believe it is us who will be assisting you, Itachi-san. My name is Haku and these are my teammates.” Haku responded, pushing his hood down so the others could see him.

“It is good to meet you Haku, these are my teammates, Shisui and Hana.” Itachi introduced the other two standing by his sides.

Haku simply nodded at the other two, not giving the names of his teammates as he was sure that was what ‘Itachi’ wanted him to do. 

“We have a room in town, I’m sure that will be a much more suitable location.” Itachi said after a somewhat awkward pause.

Pretty boy wants to keep his pretty hair dry. Must have been nice sleeping on a bed last night.

Haku had to work very hard to ignore Chojuro’s comments that flowed through his brain.

Sakura’s internal cackling wasn’t helping either.

“That sounds very agreeable. We will follow you.” Haku said, his face maintaining his pleasant smile.

The group made its way quickly into town, following Itachi to a small inn near the edge of town. Chojuro immediately commented about it’s proximity to the edge of the forest, playing to the advantage of Konoha and Sakura shared her thoughts on how she would have picked the inn three blocks back that looked over the bay. Haku, the only one whose face was visible, was doing his best not to react to the mental debate going on between his two teammates.

As they entered the room Itachi had opened, Sakura and Chojuro both kept their hoods up and all three remained standing.

“You three seem kinda young don’tcha?” The female, Hana, spoke as she leaned against the wall opposite of the door.

“Age doesn’t particularly mean anything in our line of work.” Haku replied, keeping his tone polite and his face unreadable.

“Your teammates just gonna stand there?” Hana asked, feeling a little put off by the general silence that surrounded the three.

“Are you expecting them to dance?” Haku’s face was still polite but his tone was significantly snarkier than it was a moment ago.

“Why won’t they show their faces?” Itachi spoke before Hana could, clearly trying to keep the situation from spiraling out of control.

“My teammates have distinctive features that would be easily recognizable, we were told to maintain a very low profile while on the mainland.” Haku answered, wanting to move on with the conversation.

“Can’t be more distinctive then that giant blue guy that likes to spar with you whenever you have run ins.” Shisui said with a chuckle.

“Ah, you mean Kisame-san.” Itachi said, amused.

Sakura shifted a bit at the mention of her brother’s name. This action had the unfortunate side effect of drawing Itachi’s attention to her.

“Do you know Kisame-san?” Itachi asked.

Sakura simply nodded her head.

“They hail from the same clan.” Chojuro spoke this time, feeling as on edge as Sakura did.

Itachi seemed to let it go but Hana was still staring at them.

“I don’t like that I can’t see their faces.” Hana growled out.

“Would your teammates mind terribly if they took off their hoods, we are inside, they don’t need to worry about being seen.” Itachi was officially just trying to keep the peace at this point.

“They would mind. The hoods will stay. Traveling in a large group will attract unwanted attention. We will leave first, head west before taking to the water and meet you on Lone Tree Island, from there we will make our way towards a more sustainable campsite.” Haku pulled a map from his pocket, marked with the location of Lone Tree Island and handed it to Itachi.

“We will be taking our leave now. I imagine we will stop for a quick bite before departing the town so wait about an hour before you leave.” Haku continued talking before Itachi, or any of the others tried to get a word in. After he finished, Chojuro was quick to exit out the door, eyes forward as Sakura and Haku kept their eyes on the room's other occupants.

Four blocks and a stop at a stall selling steamed buns later Sakura was the first to break the silence.

“I think we’re up the creek without a paddle.”

“You got that right.” Chojuro sighed while Haku simply nodded in agreement.

Chapter Text

“I don’t trust them.” Hana was the first to speak.

“Any particular reason Hana?” Itachi asked.

“The one that didn’t speak was scared. I could smell it.”

“Maybe they aren’t very strong or maybe they realized that they wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight. Who knows?” Shisui spoke this time, trying to play it off.

“I’m not ignoring scared children. We already learned that lesson with Kiba’s yearmate.” Hana growled.

Shisui flinched and Itachi sighed.

“Hana we can’t assume things like that without any evidence.” Itachi said, voice sounding very tired.

“My nose isn’t lying, that kid was terrified.” Hana argued back heatedly.

“I’m not saying your nose is lying. I’m saying we don’t know the full story.” Itachi sighed, feeling tired.

“Before this goes any further, we do need to pack. We are on a schedule and we are on a mission. Hana, I understand you are worried about them but put it on the back burner for now.” Shisui spoke up, interrupting what would probably be a long argument.

“Of course, you’re right Shisui.” Itachi said as he stood up to begin packing.

“I’m gonna find out why the kid is so scared.” Hana grumbled, also turning to do her packing.

They finished packing quickly and Itachi returned the keys at the desk before departing the small inn. 

Itachi realized a bit later exactly why Haku had given him the map. The fog was thick and without the map, odds are they would all be lost.

“How does anyone live in this?” Shisui grumbled, not liking how the fog seemed to close in on them.

Itachi suddenly stopped running, realization dawned across his face. Sighing loudly and a brief flicker of chakra dispelled the genjutsu that had been surrounding them. The fog became much more manageable and no longer felt as suffocatingly close.

“Betcha it was the little scared one.” Hana mumbled, something like admiration in her voice. Wasn’t everyday that a couple of genius Uchihas got caught in a genin’s genjutsu trap.

Itachi was sure he’d never hear the end of it if his father ever found out. Sighing, they resumed their journey. 

One Tree Island lived up to its name. It was barely a rock in the middle of the sea with a single tree growing from its uneven terrain. Sitting under said tree were the three genin.

Haku who they recognized. Itachi could certainly see why the other boy would hide his hair in town, it was a bright pastel blue. The third was the one that caused Itachi to freeze in his tracks. A girl with long pink hair and green eyes sat between her teammates, watching them with a high level of mistrust and suspicion.

Shisui seemed to stop breathing and Hana’s eyes went wide as a shocked gasp left her.

“Sakura Haruno?” Itachi asked.

The blue haired boy sneered at them, lip curled up, “Her name is Sakura Hoshigaki.”

Haku’s entire demeanor was cold and Itachi realized why they had waited to be out here before revealing her identity. Though they may only be genin, this was their territory. Dorsal fins broke the surface, lazily circling the group still standing on the water, a nonverbal threat if Itachi had ever seen one.

“You’re not dead?” Shisui’s voice had a hint of hysterics in it as he stared at the girl.

Sakura simply raised an eyebrow as if to say duh.

“What Shisui means is how are you alive?” Itachi asked, just as shocked as his cousin.

“I never died. The Mizukage found me and a family took me in.” Sakura responded.

“What do you mean the Mizukage found you?” Itachi’s voice sounded dumbfounded.

“Exactly what it sounds like.” Sakura replied, voice cold.

“Konoha has been searching for you since your disap-“

“Well they can keep looking as far as I’m concerned. My place is in Kiri.” Sakura's voice left no room for argument.

That statement seemed to snap Shisui out of his trance.

“You know we are going to have to report that we had contact with you. Konoha will demand that its citizen be returned.” Shisui said, temper a bit flared.

“Konoha can do no such thing because Sakura is a citizen of Kiri and has been for years.” Haku hisses back at Shisui.

“Kiri is an uncivilized back wat-“ Shisui began only to be cut off by Sakura’s deadly calm voice.

“At least Kiri doesn’t tolerate child abuse.”

Shisui’s mouth snapped shut and Itachi’s eyes went wide.

“Would you consent to a medical check?” Hana’s voice broke the tense silence.

“Why?” Sakura asked, more curious than angry about the question.

“I have no desire to remove you from your family. You seem well taken care of but for my own peace of mind I would like to double check.” Hana explained as she stepped onto the island away from her teammates.

Sakura and Chojuro rose in tandem, occupying each other’s personal space as they approached Hana. Hana gently grasped Sakura’s wrist as her hand lit up with green chakra. A few minutes passed in silence before Hana removed her hand and the two genin back up closer to Haku.

“Thank you.” Hana spoke again, giving Sakura a nod.

Sakura simply nodded back.

“Hana?” Itachi questioned.

“We aren’t removing her from Kiri, she has a family here and is very well cared for. Get off your high horse and put your guilt away.” Hana snapped at both of the Uchiha.

Haku had joined Sakura and Chojuro and the three watched from their formation as the Konoha team seemed to fight amongst themselves for several minutes.

“Not that this isn’t entertaining but we have a job to do.” Haku drawled out lazily.

That seemed to refocus Itachi, “Of course.”

“If you’ll follow us we’ll lead you to a location more suitable for camp.” Haku continued as the genin readied themselves to move.

Taking off across the waves was an interesting experience for the Konoha team. Sure they knew how to walk on water but the three genin made it seem like second nature how they’d slide down waves and hop over currents. Sometimes even darting through the waves when it seemed too troublesome to jump over it. They also last a lot longer than the Konoha team thought they would. It was nearing sundown when they stopped, this island was called Last Ditch Island and was much bigger than the island that had met up with the Kiri genin on.

“Why’s it called Last Ditch?” Hana muttered as they followed the genin into the underground cave structure.

“If you didn’t notice, the entire island is surrounded by coral reefs, sand bars and underwater rock structures. It’s your last ditch resort because odds are you’ll wreck your ship and end up stranded with very little hope for rescue.” Haku answered from up ahead.

“Who comes up with these names?” Shisui asked, perplexed at the simplified naming scheme of the islands.

“All uninhabitable islands are named after a relevant feature of the island.” Chojuro sighed as the genin began pulling out rations to eat.

“Why pick this island?” Itachi asked as he sat down and began pulling rations out of his own bag.

“That’s easy. It’s in an area called no man’s land.” Chojuro said, which honestly didn’t explain anything.

Haku rolled his eyes as Sakura finished the explanation.

“No man’s land is outside of the main port but it's not used because it’s not easily navigated. A rouged wave could push you onto a rock or an underwater riptide could throw you off course in low visibility. Most captains won’t risk their vessels or crews just to save a couple hours.”

Itachi nodded as he ate, Shisui and Hana also digging into their own rations. After meals were eaten both teams gathered around the lantern that Sakura had pulled out upon entering the cave, and Haku laid out a different map.

“The pufferfish has an office here in the main port but has a private island that is his stronghold over here.” Haku began pointing out locations on the map.

“The pufferfish?” Shisui interrupted.

“Gato.” Chojuro clarified.

“Why hasn’t the daiyamo done anything about this?” Itachi asked.

“He is being bribed, we have another team that’s dealing with that problem.” Sakura answered nonchalantly.

“Okay then. Moving on. What else you got for us kid.” Hana butted in before Itachi could say anything.

The smile that the three genin shared sent chills down the Konoha team’s backs.

Chapter Text

Itachi’s only thought when the mission was over was that all three of those genin were certifiably insane. Looking back he was actually fairly certain that the genin could have taken care of the entire mob by themselves and the Hokage had probably set them up to see Sakura. Shisui had been looking a little queasy since watching Haku turn some of the hired help into pin cushions and they were all horrified when Sakura had decapitated Gato’s right hand man. To say this trip to Kiri had been a learning experience would be a polite understatement. 

“So, how’d it go?” Tsunade asked, watching them over her sake.

Itachi shared a look with Shisui and Hana before responding.

“The mission was successfully completed.”

“That’s good, that's good. What about the girl?” Tsuande smirked now, watching the Itachi flounder about for an appropriate response.

Hana spoke before he could, “I watched her rip someone’s spine out with her bare hands and bitch slap his buddy across the face with it.”

Tsuande spit out her sake in shock before she started laughing. Itachi and Shisui turned to Hana, both clearly having missed that particular ‘Sakura moment’. Hana merely shrugged, she personally thought it was a good move, even if it was a tad gory.

The other ‘Sakura moments’ Hana had witnessed would be:

Bursting from the water on a tiger shark's back, sword in hand.

Leaving craters in the earth from where her fists hit.

Causing grown men to break down in tears, more than once.

Using genjutsu like a finely sharpened blade.

And Hana’s personal favorite, slapping Shisui across the face with a fish. Accidentally.

“Tsunade-sama, why didn’t you tell us she was there?” Shisui asked.

“Didn’t know until old Yagura told me. So, how’d she look? Kiri taking good care of her?” 

“Yes Tsunade-sama, Sakura consented for me to run a diagnostic scan on her. She is very healthy and seems perfectly happy where she is.” Hana replied before Shisui could open his mouth again.

“Tsunade-sama! Please! She should be returned home!” Shisui’s voice sounded desperate now.

“Shisui, she is home. Yagura made it perfectly clear that I was not allowed to send a team to kidnap a clan head’s youngest child.”

“Clan head?” Shisui and Itachi were both shocked.

“And Yagura mentioned she would probably be here for the chunin exams coming up.” Tsunade drawled offhandedly before she dismissed them.

Hana left the Uchiha’s in their dazed state to run home as quickly as she could. She couldn’t wait to tell her mom about this interesting development.

Shisui and Itachi were in a daze as they sat in front of Fugaku’s desk at the police station. Fugaku simply looked at them with an eyebrow raised, wondering what the hell was wrong with the two men.

“Father, I would like to inform you that you can close the missing person’s case of Sakura Haruno.” Itachi’s voice was strained as he continued looking out the window of his father’s office.

Fugaku sighed, “You found her body then?”

Shisui laughed nervously and Itachi was looking towards the heavens.

“Not exactly uncle, she’s alive.” Shisui’s voice boarded hysterical.

Fugaku’s eyebrow twitched and you could see the end of his patience rapidly approaching.

“She is alive and well in Kiri. She was adopted into a family.” Itachi quickly explained before his father lost his temper.

“She’s also going to be here for the chunin exams.” Shisui added on after a moment.

Fugaku was silent before heaving a sigh.

“Is she well taken care of? Being provided for?”

Itachi and Shisui both nodded.

“The Hokage knows?”

Another nod.

“Am I about to be ambushed by Tsume Inuzuka?”

Itachi and Shisui both shared a look, before nodding and making a move to get out of the blast radius.

“Uchiha! What the fuck is going on?” Tsume’s voice could be heard from the lobby.

Itachi pushed Shisui from where he had frozen half way out the window before quickly following. 

Chapter Text

The two weeks following their return from the joint mission with Konoha had been interesting. Ao-sensei was attempting to smother them with information and training. Kana-shishou had been on a god given mission to have her perfect all the poisons and antidotes she knew. She had even given Sakura a more detailed look at several poisons from her own arsenal. Sakura also knew that Haku had been spending more time on his bloodline trait and Chojuro often came back bruised from his training.

The trio were once again bunk'd down at Chojuro’s house.

“They’re preparing us for something.” Haku murmured as Sakura was helping Chojuro patch himself up.

“You said that last week too.” Chojuro groaned.

“He was right last week just as he is this week.” Sakura said as she began putting supplies back in the first aid kit.

“What do you think is going on?” Haku asked, as the other two settled down.

“Could be anything. Don’t forget that Ao-sensei said we’d be talking about things tomorrow before training.” Chojuro said with a sigh.

“Why does he do that? It’s like he’s expecting us to find out before he tells us!” Sakura huffed dramatically.

Haku and Chojuro stiffened and shared a look.

“Hey Sakura, how confident are you that you could talk to the Mizukage right now?” Chojuro asked to Sakura’s confusion.

“Pretty confident I guess. It’s after hours but he’s probably still in his office. Why?” Haku’s grin was officially giving her the creeps.

“Come on. Let’s go!” Chojuro was pulling her up as Haku led the way.

“Guys we share a brain, why do I feel left out?” Sakura asked as Haku nearly forced her sandals on her feet.

“The Mizukage would know what’s going on so we’re going to ask!” Chojuro explained as the three took to the rooftops for the quickest route to the Mizukage’s office.

Haku landed on the windowsill outside the Mizukage’s office first, followed by Sakura and then Chojuro. The three balanced on the ledge for a moment to ascertain the Mizukage was alone before barging in.Seeing no one else in the room Haku once again led the way towards a smiling Yagura. He was obviously amused by their antics.

“What can I do for you three this evening.” the Mizukage asked, eyes bright with silent laughter.

“Do you, um, know what’s going on? With Ao-sensei? Not that anything is wrong with him! It’s just that maybe he’s been acting weird lately. Well, weirder than normal. And I don’t know what I’m asking.” Sakura stumbled and sighed, finally giving up and hoping the Mizukage would take pity on them.

“Yagura -sama, if I may,” Haku began, waiting for the Mizukage to nod before continuing, “It seems like Ao-sensei and our individual teachers are attempting to prepare us for something. Is there an exam or test coming up?” 

Yagura observed the three genin in front of him for several moments before heaving a sigh.

“Due to our recent agreement with Konoha it has been decided that we will participate in their upcoming chunin exams. Tomorrow, Ao will be speaking to you about entering. You are, of course, not obligated to attend. But, only teams of three will be entered, if one of you decides not to sit these exams your team will remain in Kiri.”

The three genin seemed to take a moment to think about the information before nodding and thanking the Mizukage and taking their leave. Back through the window they had come through and off onto the next roof.

“I bet Ao-sensei is still awake.” Sakura whispered to the other two, nudging Haku with her elbow.

“That is a really bad idea.” Chojuro whispered back, looking between Haku and Sakura.

After a moment Chojuro sighed and Haku and Sakura shared a smile.

Ao had gone to bed early. He had taken the evening for himself, had dinner and gone to bed early. He was not expecting to be woken up not an hour later to a hideously loud bang on his window followed by a groan of what could have been pain. Rolling out of bed and flinging his curtains back he is met with the sight of his three genin balanced on his window waving and smiling at him.

Groaning in annoyance, Ao opened the window, allowing the three genin to fall into his room and begin to chatter loudly and indistinctly around him as they swarmed about him and his space.

“What do you three bottom feeders want?” Ao asked as he dragged his hand across his face while Sakura and Chojuro led him to his sitting room and Haku disappeared into the kitchen, presumably for tea.

“We wanted to ask about the chunin exams!” Sakura exclaimed, entirely too awake for this whole ordeal.

“Where did you hear about that?” Ao responded with a question instead of giving them the satisfaction of an easy conversation.

“We drew our own conclusions that something was happening based on our past two weeks of intensified training schedules and ambushed the Mizukage in his office, very politely mind you, and asked what was going on.” Chojuro explained as he shoved Ao’s mug of tea into his hands before taking a seat on the couch with his teammates.

“Please tell me you at least knocked before ‘ambushing’ the mizukage?”

“Of course we did Ao-sensei!” came Sakura’s response.

Quickly followed by Haku’s, “what kind of hooligans do you take us for.”

“Since I’m awake I suppose I can explain what we were going to be talking about tomorrow. ” Ao sighed before taking a sip of his tea.

The three genin had huddled together on the couch, staring at him with the same intensity that they listened to mission briefings. 

“The chunin exams are being hosted in Konoha this year and due the recently solidified peace, the Mizukage deems it safe enough and as a show of good will. As I’m sure you know, the exams can only be taken by three-man squads and if any one of you does not want to go for any reason then none of us will go.” Ao explains as he watches his students think, more than likely having a conversation amongst themselves.

He lets them have a moment, lets his words sink in, knowing they’ll ask their questions when they are ready.

“We want to go.” Sakura spoke, though he could see Chojuro and Haku straighten up beside her, clearly in agreement with her statement.

“Are you sure?” Ao asked and at the unanimous response he stood up, pulling papers from his desk, “Fill these out tomorrow, I’ve also included a packing list, inform your other teachers that you will be out of the village for a while and take the rest of the day to restock and gear up. We leave for Konoha in four days.”

The next four were, inevitably, a disaster. A very controlled disaster but a disaster nonetheless.

Kisame and Zabuza had pouted, not that they’d admit to, for two of those days until the Mizukage had announced they, along with Mei, would be part of his security during the exams. Mei and Kuwari were doing their best to make sure Sakura could have anything she possibly needed. If that included more clothing with the Hoshigaki clan symbol on it then so be it.

The day before the three genin teams were set to leave, Sakura, along with Chojuro and Haku had barricaded themselves in Sakura’s room to finish packing and laying out their plans. Sakura had rolls upon rolls of seal paper out, making anything from paralyzing to exploding tags. Haku was organizing his senbon as well as his backups. Chojuro, already having sharpened his blade, was quizzing the other two on chakra theory and trajectory calculations.

Sleep had come easier than expected but they were up before dawn, dressed and eating before Kuware made her appearance the next morning, followed closely by Mino.

“Good luck Starfish, I know you will do your best!” Mino rumbled, crouching down to gather Sakura in a hug before kissing the top of her head.

“Be safe Sakura, I know you are nervous about being in Konoha but remember that they will play by the rules and so must you.” Kuware spoke as she passed out bentos to each of them.

Kisame rolled out of bed shortly after and followed them to the meeting point at the gates. Zabuza and Mei had joined them along the way and Ao-sensei was waiting for them.

“Do you feel that you packed adequately?” Ao asked.

“Maybe I didn’t pack enough socks.” Zabuza snarked behind him.

“If I were worried about you I would have asked, as it is, you are the first person I’m willing to sacrifice for good weather.” Ao snarked right back.

The small exchange had, for some reason, lifted the tension from Sakura’s shoulders. Breaking out in giggles, she was soon joined by both her teammates while trying to tell Ao-sensei that, yes, she felt they had packed appropriately.

The Mizukage appeared out of the mist as the giggles died down, the other two genin teams following behind him. One was a team of their year mates and the other was from the previous year. Sakura couldn’t say she knew either team very well but it would be interesting to travel with them and see how she, Haku and Chojuro compared.

The sun had breached the horizon and Sakura could feel the first taste of autumn on the breeze as they stepped onto one of Kisame’s summons to journey across the waves to the mainland.

Chapter Text

The first day of travel, in Sakura’s opinion, had been a disaster. They’re yearmates were clearly not ready for such a long day of travel and when they had stopped at midday, none of them had food to eat. The older team had been better prepared but Sakura could understand why their sensei hadn’t put them through the exams yet, all three seemed soft for lack of a better word.

Camping out that night had also been a mess. The two other female genin seemed to think that Sakura would be sharing her tent with them and had been miffed when Haku and Chojuro had strolled in and set down their bags.

“You can’t share a tent with boys!” The older girl, Sakura had already forgotten her name, hissed.

“Why not?” Sakura asked, expression neutral for the time being.

“It’s not allowed!” The girl whisper shouted back, clearly scandalized by the notion.

Sakura made eye contact with the girl, looking at her like she had lost her mind before turning away to continue getting their tent secured. The girl tried, unsuccessfully, to get Sakura’s attention several more times before turning away to find her sensei.

“That was weird.” Chojuro muttered, keeping his voice low.

Haku and Sakura both nodded as they built a small cooking fire.

“Why are you cooking?” Ao-sensei asked as he walked up to their tent.

“We figured we would cook while in our territory, fishing is easy enough for us, and save our rations for the mainland. We know how to hunt but it isn’t as natural to us as fishing.” Haku explained as Chojuro grabbed his fishing spear. 

“What was going on earlier with the other girls?” Ao directed his question to Sakura.

“They were confused as to why I was sharing a tent with my teammates.” She responded, confusion lacing her tone as she turned her attention more fully to Ao.

“Your team is, how do I say this, closer than most.” Ao started.

“Most teams are formed and solidified at least a year before graduation. How is our team closer than most? Besides the you-know-what.” Sakura kept her voice low so as to not be overheard.

From what I heard, the three of you were the only team to not be changed or moved after your formation in the second year at the academy. Your friendship and trust lies a lot deeper than most realize. You aren’t just working together during ‘work’ hours, as far as I have seen the three of you are almost always in each other's presence. What you have with your teammates is different but much stronger than the bonds those teams have.” Ao had crouched down to be closer to their eye level as he spoke, Haku had shifted to press his shoulder against Sakura’s and Chojuro, after a recent growth spurt, was looming protectively over the both of them.

The three nodded before splitting off, Chojuro and Sakura towards the water to fish and Haku had pulled out a pot to make rice in.

The next three days consisted of crossing to the mainland, which drove Sakura, Haku and Chojuro to madness. The other genin team had, in Haku’s quietly voiced opinion, no stamina. Sakura had muttered that they had made their crossing in two full days and she knew Kisame could make it from Kiri to the mainland in twenty hours. They had, of course, kept their comments to themselves and to Ao-sensei’s never ending frustration , they were beginning to freak out the other’s with their ‘silent’ communication.

It was not silent at all in the Madhouse.

But, even the Mizukage was getting curious as to their methods and Sakura was reminded that not even her brother knew about their secret. Only the three of them and Ao-sensei knew. Sakura doubted her mother knew exactly how much they used the seal.

Sakura was almost pleased when they reached the mainland. She and Haku were of the opinion that the other two teams would be moving faster once they weren’t having to use chakra to stay on top of the water all day.

They were wrong. If anything, they moved slower and even Ao-sensei was beginning to lose his patience at all their ‘breaks’ and ‘I need a rest’. Sakura had lost her patience exactly ten minutes ago when the older group had once again requested a break.

‘We are never going to get there at this rate!’ Sakura ranted into the Madhouse.

‘If they request one more break I’m going to turn them into pincushions and leave them behind.’ Came Haku’s icy reply, also thoroughly fed up with the older genin team.

‘The girl is some merchant's daughter, the youngest if what I heard is correct, and is used to being pampered. I don’t know how she made it through the academy.’ Chojuro informed them.

‘She didn’t go to the academy.’ Ao-sensei chimed in.

‘What do you mean?’ Sakura asked, frustration clear in her mental voice.

‘Private tutors. It also explains why she was so alarmed by you sharing a tent with your male teammates.’ Ao gave a mental shrug before withdrawing from the conversation. The break was finally over and it was time to start moving again.

A few hours later they stopped for the night, Sakura and Haku were quick to pitch their tent and Chojuro pulled out rations to prepare. Tonight, Kisame, Zabuza and Mei had put their tent closer then the previous nights and Sakura could feel them watching.

Zabuza was the first to break the silence.

“Why don’t you three talk?” He asked in the same gruff manner he used on duty.

“Leave my genin alone Zabuza.” Ao grumbled as he joined them, making his camp between his team and the others.

“Oh I see how it is. It’s a team secret!” Mei teased, clearly trying to get Ao to admit to liking his team.

“If you’d like to believe it’s a secret you may. Maybe you three just aren’t special enough to know.” Came Ao’s response, causing his three genin to giggle.

The Mizukage’s voice interrupted any further conversations.

“The genin should all be getting some rest, we have a long day tomorrow to make up for lost time.” While his tone of voice had been neutral enough, Sakura could hear the warning that another day like today would not be tolerated.

The message, Sakura realized as she glanced around camp, had been received. This was as much a test for the sensei as it was for the genin and the Mizukage was watching all of them.

Sakura and her teammates looked to Ao-sensei, to see if he had further instructions for them before turning in for the night, all three going to sleep quickly, know that tomorrow would be a harder day of travel for the others and patience would be needed to keep their mouths shut when the complaining started.

The Mizukage had them running ahead with Mei the next day, watching how she scouted and as Ao-sensei put it, learning on the job. Mei for all of her teasing off duty was very focused and diligent, explaining what she was doing and, more importantly, why she was doing it. During the midday stop she had Zabuza and Kisame explain how and why they did certain things while scouting to show that there were many ways to do the same job.

After lunch they joined Zabuza at the rear and he showed, more through actions than words, how to cover the back of such a large and diverse group. Sakura could hear the complaining from here but remained attentive to Zabuza and what she was learning.

When they stopped for the evening Ao-sensei had them plot their course and give an estimation on when they would arrive in Konoha.

“We’ve been following this river here,” Sakura began as she pointed to the map, “but if we deviated at this fork here we could save time and hit the main road by end of day tomorrow. Then we’d be in Konoha for a late lunch tomorrow giving us two and a half days before the exams for rest.” She explained while drawing the path with her finger.

“We’d have to push hard tomorrow and separating from the river takes away the water advantage for us.” Haku said, brows furrowed in thought.

“We have more than just water jutsu to fall back on though, while the river is a nice fail safe it could also be an ambush point. See, here on the map, the river goes through a ravine and this will push us very close together which would severely limit any big, fancy water jutsu we could use. Too much chance of hitting a teammate throwing water dragons around in tight spaces.” Chojuro noted as he pointed further up the river.

“Yagura-sama, what do you think?” Ao-sensei asked, causing the genin to look behind them where the Mizukage had clearly been listening in.

“All three of your students have good points and valid observations. In this situation, I believe Sakura’s projected route is both a smart move and an efficient one. While we will lose our potential advantage of the river, Chojuro makes a good case on avoiding a landscape that would make us an easy target for ambush. Good work, all three of you.” The Mizukage spoke, giving them all a nod before heading off.

Mei, Kisame and Zabuza all came to look at the map as Sakura and Haku plotted out the best places to break for midday and the next evening. Chojuro and Ao had taken the canteens to the river to make sure they all had plenty of water.

Sakura’s yearmates had wandered over and asked to see the projected route, having heard they would no longer be following the river. Sakura and Haku explained the route to them, also showing them when the terrain would probably allow for snacking while running, also mentioning there was no shame in having jerky in an easily reachable pocket for on the go munching.

Ao-sensei gave them approving nods as he and Chojuro joined them, before shooing the three off to bed for another full night's rest. Kisame gave each one a pat on the head as they passed and Mei gave them a thumbs up before moving to take watch.

The next day was a tough day of travel, even for Sakura, Chojuro and Haku and while the older genin team had been up in fits about leaving sight of the river, their yearmates seemed to have taken to heart what they watched over the last week of travel began asking for pointers and tips during the breaks, not complaining even at the end of the day. They had set up camp, far enough from the main road to not be accidentally stumbled upon but close enough to have easy access in the morning. 

Sakura pulled out the map and plotted stops for the next day under Ao-sensei’s guidance while Chojuro pitched their tent and sensei’s, to be cheeky, and Haku got their rations ready to eat.

“You three will be shadowing during watch tonight. Sakura you’ll be with Zabuza, Chojuro with Mei and Haku with Kisame. I will be having a night free of you and you three better behave or I will come up with a threat after a full night's rest.” Ao grumbled good naturedly before giving Sakura a shove towards Zabuza to begin their watch.

Keeping watch with Zabuza was an interesting experience to say the least. Sakura knew that Zabuza was a very straightforward, no nonsense kind of ninja, much like her sensei but he had an aggressive way about him that Ao didn’t. She followed Zabuza as he silently prowled around the outskirts of camp, checking traps and monitoring the sounds around them. When midnight rolled around Mei and Haku relieved them and Sakura was quick to find her sleeping bag after giving her report.

Morning brought the rumbling of thunder and the threat of a very late summer storm. The older female, who’s name Sakura had even bothered remembering at this point, had asked if they would be seeking more appropriate shelter to wait out the storm.

Sakura had just about opened her mouth to respond in the most polite way she could when Haku spoke.

“No, I don’t believe we will. If I’m correct ,please feel free to tell me if I’m wrong. What we are seeing is the very edge of a multi day downpour and we would be better suited pushing hard to Konoha and arriving early to have time to adequately rest before our exams.” While Haku’s voice had started out politely enough the end had become an annoyed hiss.

Before the girl could respond, the Mizukage had called to move out. 

It seemed that Yagura was going to push hard towards Konoha, by mid morning the winds were howling and while they had managed to stay ahead of the rain thus far, Sakura didn’t hold out hope that their luck would last.

The rain reached them as the gates came into sight and even though all the genin were tired, they maintained their pace, wanting to reach the village before the brunt of the storm hit.

Checking in had been a  debacle in and of itself. The gate guards had stared at her. The chunin that had come to escort them, clearly of Uchiha descent, had been dumbfounded and stared at her until prompted into action, only to take off the moment he had completed his task of showing them to their lodging. Their team would be sharing the two bedroom apartment for the duration of the stay and once they had all showered and changed into dry clothes the three genin had flopped onto the couch in exhaustion.

A few moments later Ao-sensei returned with boxes of takeout and got them to the table to eat like ‘civilized human beings’ when a knock sounded at the door.

Ao flashed them a hand sign to act normal but be on guard as he got up to answer it.

“My name is Fugaku Uchiha, head of the Konoha Military Police For-“ 

The voice was cut off as Ao-sensei slammed the door shut before calling out through the wood, “For any inquiries please contact the Mizukage and don’t interrupt meal times. Thank you and goodbye.”

Ao-sensei rejoined his genin at the table and picked up the chopsticks as if nothing had happened.

“Ao-sensei, I don’t know if you know this but, you’re kind of a badass.” Chojuro whispered in awe several moments later.

Ao snorted and rolled his eyes, “I’ve wanted to do that for years. Stick in the mud Uchihas.”

Sakura burst out into laughter and was quickly joined by her two teammates.

“I can’t wait to tell Zabuza how cool you are.” She giggled as her laughter died down.

“Just make sure you tell him out of the Mizukage’s earshot.” Ao grumbled at her, though the smirk let them know he wasn’t upset.

Chapter Text

To say team three was surprised to be summoned by the Mizukage a few hours later would be a complete lie.

They sure did act surprised though. If Ao didn’t know any better he would say the three were innocent of all charges. Too bad he knows they could all put the devil to shame in the right mood.

Yagura-sama on the other hand, was not as familiar with the overall team atmosphere being complete and utter chaos mixed with sharp pointy objects.

Sakura knew what was coming though. Konoha would probably want some answers and Sakura would probably be responsible for providing those answers.

Ao-sensei stopped in front of the Mizukage’s door, giving a couple knocks and stepping back to stand right in front of his students. The door was opened by Mei and the three genin followed their sensei inside.

“Ao, I believe I only called for you and Sakura.” Yagura’s voice was neutral but Sakura could tell he wasn’t displeased.

“I apologize Yagura-sama, I have found where one goes, the other two are sure to be right behind.” Ao-sensei did his best to sound apologetic, it didn’t work very well.

“This is the Hokage, Fugaku Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake, they have a few questions they would like to ask of Sakura.” Yagura introduced the others in the room.

Ao-sensei had opened his, presumably to tell them where they could shove their questions when Sakura stepped forward.

“Excuse me, Yagura-sama, due to the circumstances I am to have a family member of higher standing with me for any forgien affairs questioning not in relation to a crime. So, unless I am being arrested a member of my clan must be present.” Sakura kept her voice and face neutral and her spine straight, using all the clan manners her mother had taught her so they wouldn’t know how terrified she was.

“Is she being placed under arrest?” Yagura asked, face impassive and Sakura knew that if they tried to arrest her they would be facing down a very angry jinchuriki.

“She’s not under arrest, we just have some questions. How long will it take for an applicable family member to arrive?” The Hokage asked, calm and collected about the situation.

With a flick of his fingers Yagura sent Mei from the room, “Not long at all.”

Moments later, the door opened again exposing Kisame in all his terrifying form. His glowing yellow eyes fixed on the outsiders in front of him and Sakura would bet that he was cataloging how to kill each one of them.

“You called for me Yagura-sama?” His voice was tight but respectful.

“Ah yes, Kisame, your sister is in need of your presence during questioning by Konoha.” Yagura beckoned him closer and Kisame took his place by Sakura’s side, glancing down at her to make sure she was okay.

Sakura watched the expressions of shock and worry cross through the eye’s of the Konoha nin. Clearly knowing something in theory and seeing it in front of you were two very different things.

“If Sakura woul-“ 

“Sakura-hime should be addressed correctly.” Kisame’s voice cut the Uchiha off, giving him a look that would make a lesser man curl up and die.

“If Sakura- hime would allow us to escort her to the police department to conduct a formal interview.” Fugaku said, already making a motion to lead them out the door.

“If she isn’t being arrested why does she need to go to the police department.” Kisame asked, not moving except to place himself between his sister and the others.

Fugaku looked like the vine in his forehead was about to explode and Sakura would swear she saw his eye twitch. 

“We can hardly conduct an interview in a room full of people.” Fugaku responded somewhat icily.

“I don’t see why not. Sakura will turn around and tell her team everything and I will be obligated to report what I hear not only to our father, the clan head, but the Mizukage as well.” Kisame was now enjoying this small flex of power he had and he was only being as difficult as he was for Sakura’s benefit, knowing the presence of the others would give her strength through this ordeal.

“That’s fine, we can do it here. Would you consent to another medical scan?” Tsunade intervened before Fugaku could blow his top.

Sakura shared a look with Kisame before meeting the Hokage’s eyes and nodding, taking a step forward and holding her hand out. Tsunade’s hand lit green as it touched Sakura’s, staying connected for several moments before a slight frown crossed her face.

“We couldn’t remove you even if we wanted to. Not without starting a war at least. A war that we would be in the wrong to start. Are your parents good friends with an Uzumaki?” Tsunade’s brows were a tad furrowed now as she directed her question to Kisame.

“Our mother is Kuware Uzumaki, current head of the Uzumaki clan.” The smirk on Kisame’s face let the Konoha nin know that they had walked right into a trap.

Fugaku and Kakashi had surprise written in their posture and expressions while Tsunade simply smirked.

“It appears that we are cousins. You may call me Auntie, respectfully mind you, I am still the Hokage.” Tsunade smirked at Sakura but there was a warmth in her eye.

The rest of the interview passed without much fanfare, Fugaku would ask a question and Sakura would respond. Most questions were about her life both before and after, making sure that she was, in fact, being looked after. The last question though had Sakura turning towards Kisame.

“What is the current state of your biological mother and if applicable we would ask the Mizukage to release her to our custody to serve prison time here.”

“That won’t be possible.” Yagura spoke before Kisame could.

“The reason?” Fugaku asked, he didn’t sound vexed and Sakura figured it was an official question more than a personal one.

“Habitual child abuse and torture along with attempts to sell a seven year old to several brothels hefted a heavy sentence. She was also quick to wave her family name in front of us with the promise of money for her release. Bribery is a very serious offense. She was executed after a trial and deliberation by both the civilian and shinobi councils.” Yagura explained while keeping an eye on Sakura.

“If it isn't too much trouble, we would like to have a copy of the investigation and trial for our records.” Fugaku requested, turning his attention more fully to Yagura, an invisible signal that the interview was over.

“I will have copies sent when we have returned to Kiri. Ao, you may take your genin and return to your quarters.”

Ao was quick to guide Sakura back into line with her teammates, allowing the two boys to swarm around her, brushing shoulders and sharing personal space as much as they could while exiting the room. 

Tsunade turned to Kisame after the genin had left the room, “How is she so normal after that level of emotional trauma?”

“It’s hard to say if any one thing helped more than another. My mother and father doted on her, hell I dote on her. She has a shiver of sharks that she goes to talk to when she wants. If I had my guess it would be a combination of her being as young as she was and the relationships she made and built since then. She decided that if these two strangers wanted her then she would give them a chance.” Kisame spoke though Tsunade could tell he was seeing Sakura’s first days and weeks in his memories.

“Your mother sealed her into the family.”

“You already know she did.” Kisame replied with a half smirk.

“Is she going to be alright, bringing all this up now will undoubtedly affect her.” The underlying concern was clear in Tsunade’s voice.

“My guess is those two will be sticking as close as they physically can for the next couple days but I think she’ll be fine, she’s strong.” Kisame’s voice held pride for his little sister.

“That’s good, that’s good. Yagura, thank you for entertaining my request. Kisame, thank you for allowing this interview to take place.” Tsunade acknowledged before taking her leave, Fugaku and Kakashi following her out.

“Kisame, go check on your sister.” Yagura waved Kisame away, knowing that the man wanted nothing more than to make sure his sister wasn’t falling apart a couple hallways over.

While Kisame knew and had witnessed many times before how close his sister and her teammates were, even he was surprised by the scene he walked into. Someone, his money was on Haku, had braided her hair and the three were piled on top of each other on the couch while Ao was telling them about a mission that had been one disaster after another and Kisame was almost positive was classified but the genin were laughing. 

The next few days Sakura and her teammates confine themselves to their quarters and the training grounds assigned to them, though they don’t show off anything worth seeing to any potential watchers.

It was the night before the exam when Ao-sensei sat them down to strategize for the following day.

“Tomorrow is a written exam of some sort, I’m positive. They won’t just be testing your answers though, remember part of our job is to get answers we don’t have and don’t forget your teamwork.” Ao muttered as he looked at the schedule the senseis had been given.

“The schedule says there’s a survival portion afterwards, do you think there will be a break between the two?” Haku asked as he continued sharpening senbon.

“I doubt it,” Sakura rolled her eyes, “We should pack heavy like we won’t be able to return to these rooms for a couple days.”

Ao-sensei hummed in response while nodding his head and the genin began packing their items in a way that left them relatively unnoticeable.

“We should go out for breakfast, see if we can pick up any information from the locals.” Chojuro suggested, earning nods from his teammates and sensei.

Ao sent them off to bed shortly after, the three bedding down in the room they had commandeered and somehow fit three futons in. Haku, Chojuro and Sakura preferred sticking close together as it was but especially now they were in a forgien village and after Sakura’s interview.

Tomorrow was a big day but all three slept knowing that they would give their all towards anything thrown at them.

The following morning dawned on clear skies and sunshine and three little sharks swam out to become terrors in their own rights.

Chapter Text

Kakashi was surprised. Which didn’t happen often. He had requested to be present during the interview because of the role he had played in the search for the girl so many years ago. While he wasn’t surprised she had been found, he knew it would happen eventually. He wasn’t even surprised that she had been adopted into a family.

What really surprised him was that those three genin seemed to revolve around each other. He could see in their body language how deep their bonds ran and he first thought had been this is what Obito meant. It wasn’t just the girl in the middle glueing the team together. The entire team, sensei included, had glued themselves to each other and no one was left out. Kakashi wasn’t ashamed to say he sent nearly a dozen teams back to the academy because they couldn’t display a fraction of that level of teamwork, but now, seeing it. Kakashi was in awe.

He was looking forward to seeing how they did in the coming days.

Fugaku felt apprehensive on his journey home that evening. It was confirmed with his own eye that the girl, Sakura, was alive. Not only alive but thriving in Kiri.

“I’m home.” He called out as he stepped through the door, being greeted by several voices.

He joined his family in the dining room and by the looks of it, they had just sat down to eat.

“Sasuke, how do you feel about the upcoming exams?” Fugaku asked as dishes were passed around.

“Not bad. Kakashi-sensei left us with a workout for the day. He said he had something to take care of.” Sasuke responded, marginally more interested in the tomato dangling from his chopsticks.

“Kakashi was with the Hokage and I for most of the day.” Fugaku replied before taking a bite.

“Oh? What did the Hokage want with you and Kakashi today?” Mikoto asked, a teasing lilt to her voice.

“We were able to close a missing child’s case officially. Kakashi was a huge part of the original search party and requested to be present during the final interview.” Fugaku's response lacked the somber tone that usually came with the closing of old cases.

In the back of his mind Fugaku was thankful that Itachi and Shisui were not here.

“Were they able to be returned to their family?” Mikoto asked, brows furrowed in confusion. Most old cases were bodies finally found, not children going home.

“Sakura was found in Kiri, and had been adopted into a family. She is doing very well.” Fugaku’s almost happy tone made sense now.

“I-is she here? In the village?” Mikoto demanded, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“Yes, she is here for the chunin exams.”

“Oh my! We have to go see her! We have to -“

“Mikoto, we won’t do anything before the first task. Sasuke, you may tell your teammates but only your teammates alright.” Fugaku had just barely kept his wife from running from the table, probably to go and find the poor girl and feed her.

Sasuke nodded but Fugaku could see the smile he was trying to hide and the beginning of tears at the corner of his eyes.

Sakura Haruno had changed many things, unknowingly, for his family. Sakura Hoshigaki was the storm that no one saw coming and he had no doubt that she’d leave a wake of change behind her.

The day of the first task dawned on clear skies and sunshine only to be met with the tired grumbles of three little fish that definitely didn’t appreciate it.

“Why is it so sunny?” Sakura grumbled, trying to bury herself under the blankets and away from the sun’s omnipresent rays.

“We are in the Land of Fire?” Came Chojuro’s voice, also muffled by his bedding.

“You’ll all be on fire if you three don’t get up right now .” Ao’s voice sounded from the doorway of their room.

“Is it always this sunny here?” Haku asked as they began stumbling out of bed and dispersing to get dressed.

“Yes Haku, it is always this sunny.” Ao responded as he dragged his hand tiredly across his face.

“It should be a crime!” Sakura's indignant cry from the bathroom.

Mumbled agreements came from all her teammates, Ao included.

“Alright, alright! Breakfast time, all of you please remember we are representing Kiri and your normal heathen-like behavior will not be tolerated.” Ao grouched at the three of them while the genin did their best to look as innocent as possible.

“Oh wait!  Before we go!” Sakura was shoving pieces of paper into Haku and Chojuro’s hands while Ao looked on in confusion.

“Sakura, what did you do?” Ao’s expression was almost pained as he watched the genin stick the paper with seal against their skin, under their clothes.

“It’s like that notice-me-not genjutsu the sensei in the academy used. We want to be as unnoticeable as possible so after breakfast we’ll activate them.” Sakura replied, giving  Ao a thumbs up and a bright smile.

“Why not just use a genjutsu?” Ao was almost afraid to hear the answer.

“Because this doesn’t take any effort or skill to keep in place, nor can you dismiss it like you can a genjutsu!” Chojuro replied for Sakura, also seeming much too pleased with this little trick.

“Please don’t cause any irreversible mental or emotional damage to others.”

“We can’t promise that Ao-sensei!” Haku cackled as he led the way out of their temporary apartment.

Ao led his school of genin through the early morning crowds, navigating to a restaurant close to the testing site but tucked out of the way. Sakura and Haku were keeping up a steady stream of useless chatter but Ao could see that because they drew the attention to themselves that others didn’t notice Chojuro listening in to the conversations around them. These three were a handful that Ao was starting to believe he would never get rid of. That thought didn’t bother him as much as it once would have.

Breakfast was a simple affair, the kids ate and silently plotted. Ao ate and silently plotted how to get them all out of trouble when his genin inevitability blew something up. Business as usual.

Ao stayed with them until they had finished checking in before taking his leave and between blinks of his eyes, they had activated their, as Sakura called them, you-can’t-see-me seals and his gaze passed right over them. Why did children have to be so terrifying?

Sakura, Haku and Chojuro linked arms and walked past the group of genin surrounding the wrong door, though Haku flung a senbon as they turned the corner out of sight to disrupt the genjutsu around the door.

‘Why’d you do that?’ Sakura asked

Haku gave the mental approximation of a shrug and Sakura let it go. Arriving at the classroom, the three sat at their assigned seats and waited quietly, not drawing attention to themselves unlike several other genin seemed to do.

‘Ao-sensei would flay us alive if we acted like that.’ Chojuro muttered, conjuring a mental image of Ao-sensei’s disappointed face.

Haku and Sakura agreed, Ao-sensei would be very displeased if they walked into a room screaming about being the number one ninja.

It’s not that he didn’t want them to be the best but the best only became the best because they were quiet and unassuming until a move needed to be made. 

As it turned out, Ao-sensei had been right, a written test was laid out in front of everyone with very strict orders to not cheat. It wasn’t that the questions were difficult but they weren’t academy level either. Together in the Madhouse they answered and only wrote the answers on the paper, not showing any of the work they did to arrive at those answers.

Question 10 had been blank so they simply waited, playing a mental game of ‘I spy’ while they watched people get dismissed for cheating too obviously.

Question turned out to be a test in and of itself and the crazy lady in mesh that rolled through the window after looking like a tide pool Sakura would not want to dip her toes into if she had the choice.

Be that as it may, they were now in the thick of it with the chunin exam and a choice was exactly what they didn’t have. When the genjutsu took over, Sakura was quick to break out but played ‘dead’, Haku and Chojuro following suit as they were moved from the classroom to the outdoors. The sounds of the city fade, replaced with just the ambient noises of nature and the proctors talk amongst themselves.

She could hear the crazy lady a ways to her right, talking to someone, “man, I didn’t even see those kids from mist until the last second! I thought Ibiki was losing it when he told me how many had passed and I was short three heads in my count!” The conversation cut out as another voice joined in hushed tones and began walking away.

Upon being ‘woken up’, Sakura immediately joined her teammates, they had been given a Heaven scroll and needed to acquire an Earth scroll to move on. They were also expected to survive in this Forest of Death.

All three were in agreement but Ao-sensei would call this whole training ground a load of bullshit.

“What’s our strategy?” Chojuro asked as they found a hollow in a tree and put a genjutsu over the opening to disguise themselves.

“There’s a river, I think we should remain close but not on the water itself or in sight of the banks. Other teams will come for water and it’ll be an easy way to target others” Haku said, a deep concentration written across his face.

“We don’t want to be the first to reach the end point. We don’t want to be the last either. We’ll spend one night here and check in tomorrow before lunch.” Sakura added, sticking with the thought process of under the radar.

“We should reactivate our you-can’t-see-me’s and tether together.” Haku suggested thoughts in the same place as Sakura’s.

“Someone will see the tether.” Chojuro pointed out, causing Haku to scowl.

“Chakra strings are invisible.” Sakura’s grin bordered on unholy.

Haku and Chojuro grinned right back at her.

As sundown was upon them they found a quiet stream where Sakura summoned Nako, a small Brown Shyshark who swallowed two of the three sets they had collected before disappearing. It wasn’t ten minutes later when their well laid plans got tossed up in a hurricane.

Finding themselves pinned with sand against a tree was not what Sakura had been expecting.

‘What is he?’ Chojuro’s voice was frantic in their minds.

‘Give them the scrolls, maybe they’ll go away!’ Haku suggested, voice panicked.

“Are you a jinchuriki?” Sakura called out her question to the redhead that had pinned them.

‘Sakura! Now is NOT the time to be making friends or asking personal questions!” Haku’s voice cut through her thoughts.

The redhead tilted his head to the side but the pressure from the sand lessened marginally so Sakura took that as a signal to keep talking.

“Your seal is messed up! I can feel it in your chakra! They didn’t separate the two of you enough for both of you to coexist!” Sakura’s mother had shown her the seals that were traditionally used when sealing tailed beasts inside hosts and then had shown her the seals they had used to correct Yagura-sama’s own tailed beast many years ago.

“What makes you think someone as weak as you can fix it?” The redhead growled at her.

“I’m weak not stupid.” Sakura replied, voice laced with sarcasm before she could stop it.

Suddenly the sand fell away from her and Sakura dropped to the forest floor.

“You may correct it, since you seem so confident. But, if you do anything foolish, I will kill your teammates.” Sakura could hear the double voice now, the tailed beast was definitely watching her.

“My name is Sakura, what’s yours?” She asked as she approached the male as submissively as she could to show she meant no harm.

“Why does that matter?” His jade eyes were riveted on her as she reached into her pouch to pull out ink and a brush.

“I guess it doesn’t matter, if you don’t want to tell me I’m certainly not in a position to make you.” Sakura shrugged as she examined the seal on him.

This statement pulled a short bark of laughter from the redhead before he responded, “My name is Gaara.”

Sakura nodded as she continued to study the seal, sketching the seal present and the corrections needed in the dirt with the opposite end of her brush.

“Explain it to me.” Gaara demanded as he watched her work.

“This seal here would separate the two of you more fully, giving your tailed beast his own space in your mind. This here is a lock for that space in which only you can open. This here is essentially an ‘oh shit’ button for your tailed beast to take over should a situation arise but there are a couple fail safes as well.” Sakura explained as she pointed to the corrections and additions she had made.

Gaara seemed to have a mental conversation with himself which Sakura couldn’t judge him seeing as she also had voices in her head before nodding at her to continue.

“I’m, um, gonna need some of your blood.” Sakura held her ink stone out to Gaara who seemed slightly taken aback by her statement, but still reached into his weapons pouch to prick finger and allowed it to drip before Sakur pulled it away and dumped ink on top, using the brush to mix the two together.

“I’m just gonna move your shirt to the side, sorry this is so awkward.” Sakura was mostly talking to herself at this point but Gaara was growling or murdering her teammates so she assumed he was at least partially amused by this.

The moon was well over the horizon when Sakura finished, and after a quick warning she set the seal with chakra causing Gaara to hiss but he released her teammates and after a nod in her direction disappeared into the night.

“A-are you okay?” Chojuro asked in a hesitant voice as he approached an unmoving Sakura.

“I-I-I think I need to sit down for a bit.” She stuttered out before collapsing to the ground.

“Team vote: get to the checkpoint tonight and sleep on a real bed. In favor, say Aye.” Haku’s voice cut through the stillness.

“Aye.”

“Aye.”

“Aye.”

“Chojuro, are you good to carry Sakura?” Haku asked as he bent to make sure Sakura wasn’t hyperventilating.

“Yea, I’m good.” Chojuro nodded before crouching in front of Sakura and with Haku’s help they got her situated on his back before standing.

“We’ll follow the river, it will be the easiest to navigate and I don’t want to get anymore lost then we need to be in this hell.” Haku said, voice calm as he led them to the river before taking off towards the checkpoint, Chojuro right behind them.

Ao believed himself to be a calm and collected man. Seeing Sakura being carried into the checkpoint by Chojuro was disproving that belief all too quickly.

“Status?” Ao almost growled.

“Minor injuries, no medical attention needed. Sakura was in shock but is responding and has eaten.” Haku reported, keeping to the facts for the time being.

“You three will be confined to the checkpoint until the tasks time limit is up, after you are shown to your rooms I will bring you all some food.” Ao kept his voice low and calm, after asserting that no medical attention was needed he felt marginally better. He was curious as to what could have happened to put Sakura into such a state.

But, that could come later. His genin needed food and rest. Questions could wait.

A proctor led them down a hall to a room, it was spacious enough to fit three futons but Ao wouldn’t be surprised if they smushed two together and shared. After making sure they were comfortable, Ao went in search of a restaurant to get meals for his team. Luckily, being in a shinobi village meant that most restaurants had late night staff.

Returning as quickly as possible, Ao was pleased to see that Sakura had perked up a bit and ate readily when he handed her a takeout box. Ao got the story mostly from Chojuro and Haku with Sakura giving tidbits here and there. The sealing had ended up being a major chakra dump for Sakura and had left her in a state of exhaustion.

“You’re lucky you have the next couple days to recover. I won’t be able to stay so make sure you are getting enough sleep and keeping moving, don’t become stagnant in this room. Let me know when you wake up and I will have food delivered.” Ao gave them all a hug before departing, letting them sleep for as long as they needed.

Chapter Text

Sakura and Haku are playing a card game upside down in the ceiling while Chojuro was going through katas when a proctor retrieved them, stating this portion of the exam was over and it was time to move on. Ao-sensei met them in a small arena and stood behind them while instructions were given.

Single elimination preliminaries with randomized pairings.

Fights like this had been commonplace in the academy and unlike choreographed drills, these fights had been designed to help a sensei discover what type of fighter a child was. Ao-sensei had encouraged sparring and had them participate in the morning fights in Kiri. 

Gaara and his teammates wandered over shortly after the first match had begun, sliding down to sit beside Sakura and watch the matches with her. Another redhead followed over a few moments later, a puzzled look on his face as he observed Gaara’s rather docile behavior and Sakura’s uncaring proximity.

“What did your genin do to mine?” The redhead asked as he joined Ao leaning against the wall.

“Haven’t a clue, if I had my guess, something I told them not to do.” Ao responded with an aggrieved sigh.

“Sasori. Those brats are my responsibility even when I don’t want them.”

“Ao, and those three are the devil in disguise.”

“Did Ao-sensei make a friend?” Sakura loudly whispered loudly to Haku.

“It appears so! I bet he’ll write about it in his diary.” Haku giggled back.

Chojuro dropped his head into his hands with a groan.

“I suggest the three of you shut up before I feed you to the Isobu.” Ao growled at his students causing them to stifle their laughter into their hands.

Haku was the first to be called up. His opponent was a loud boy wearing green spandex. Sakura and Chojuro were having a hard time not laughing at Haku’s comments about the boy’s fashion sense. Haku had not wanted to pull out his bloodline trait this early in the exam, when the boy, Lee had proven to be extremely fast he found it necessary.

Trapping Lee in the ice prison had been difficult but the boy fell easily for the genjutsu and the proctor had called the match before Haku could turn the boy into a pin cushion. Lee had been taken away with a medical ninja and two genin across the arena were glaring at Haku as he returned to his team.

Gaara and his teammates had gone and come back in their own turns. The boy having lost his match and the girls ending in a tie. Gaara had won his and then Chojuro was called.

Sakura remembered Sasuke Uchiha from her time in Konoha. She remembered the fledgling crush that Ino had on him. And while she could admit he was cute, Sakura was looking forward to Chojuro beating him.

Sasuke had done his best to keep Chojuro’s sword at bay with ninjutsu and genjutsu, he could never get an opening. Chojuro had decided he was done playing nice and starting putting more pressure on Sasuke, never allowing him a moment to set his face or the breathing room to think. The fight ended with Sasuke pinned to the wall with Chojuro sword drawing a thin line of blood at his throat.

Sakura handed Chojuro a granola bar as he rejoined them, slouching against Haku as his breathing calmed down. Ao gave him an approving nod before turning to watch the next match.

Sakura’s fight had been the second to last and she felt like the target of a very bad joke.

Her opponent would be her once upon a time only friend. Ino Yamanaka.

Ino was a clan and Sakura had expected a decent fight from the girl. She found herself disappointed. Ino appeared to be all talk nowadays. Her taijutsu felt like choreographed sequences from the academy and she had been trying to bait Sakura into talking since the match began. Sakura remembered the Yamanaka clan techniques and knew she only had to keep moving to avoid it. She had predicted that Ino would guess where she would be next and catch her. Ino was in for a nasty surprise when she shoved her way into the madhouse. Sakura could feel Ino trying to withdraw from her mind but Haku and Chojuro kept her mind pinned down while Sakura walked towards Ino's unprotected body unhindered. Ino managed to pull herself free and tried to dart out of Sakura’s range only to be pulled right into Sakura’s fist by an invisible force.

Sakura walked back to her teammates after being announced the winner of the match and she could feel several sets of eyes following her. Sakura found she didn’t care. Ino had once turned her back to Sakura and now Sakura had no trouble finally closing the door in her mind that Ino once occupied. 

Sakura and her teammates watched the final match and a proctor stepped forward to explain the next portion of the exam.

“In a month's time, today's winners will compete in a single elimination tournament. If you will please step forward and select a tile. You will be paired against the corresponding tile for the first round.”

Sakura stood in line to select her tile and after showing it to the proctor she fell back with her teammates and waited.

Haku would be fighting Shikamaru.

Chojuro would be fighting Kiba.

And Sakura would be fighting Neji.

Gaara had gotten a buy for the first round and would be fighting against the winner of her match. 

Team Three had just exited the arena and were four steps behind their sensei when the crazy lady ambushed them.

“How’d you three go unnoticed?” The purple haired lady was much further in Sakura’s personal space than was necessary.

Sakura and her teammates remained silent, not giving anything away by word or action.

“Anko, leave them alone.” Ibiki called from the other side of the pathway, obviously this was normal behavior for her.

“No way! Not until they teach me their trick!”

“If I show you, what will you show me in return?” Sakura asked, expression neutral and voice bored.

“What do you mean?” Anko’s head tilted to the side and even Ibiki was paying more attention to the conversation now.

“You can’t expect me to show you one of my tricks without showing me a trick of your own in return. That’s bad manners.” Sakura replied with a shrug. Kisame had been the one to teach her how to barter when someone asked her to show them something and this woman was undoubtedly a jonin and maybe even anbu, she would definitely know some useful tricks.

“I see how it is, kid, I’ll find you in a few days and we can talk about a trade.” Anko smirked at her before rejoining Ibiki and walking away. Team three simply caught up with Ao and continued looking for somewhere to eat.

Chapter Text

It was the day after matches when Sakura found herself surrounded by the Sand Siblings and their sensei. She had found a mildly sunny patch of grass in the courtyard between two of the forgien housing buildings. She had been tweaking the gift Kanna-shishou had given her early in her training.

“Where’d you get that?” Sasori asked, seeing the small redhead puppet in Sakura’s hands.

“It was given to me by one of my teachers.” Sakura responded offhandedly as she fixed the doll's kimono and smoothed down her hair before sealing her back in the scroll Kanna had given Sakura.

“Come to lunch with us.” Gaara’s request sounded more like an order than anything else but Sakura nodded regardless and stood from her lounging position on the grass.

Before they had taken more than half a dozen steps Sakura’s teammates exited the building joining them.

“How did you do that?” Sasori sounded both impressed and frustrated.

Sakura simply grinned and shrugged, indicating she wouldn’t be sharing any of her secrets any time soon. The seven of them found themselves sitting down in a ramen stand for a quick bite. The six genin talked amounts themselves, Kankuro being the first to break the semi awkward small talk.

“Do you have any other puppets?” Kankuro asked between bites of ramen.

“No, but we’ve been discussing making my own after these exams are over. I have some designs drawn up if you might want to take a look. Maybe you’ll have some suggestions.” Sakura responded, happy to be able to talk to someone besides Kanna about puppets.

Haku and Temari were getting along famously after discovering they were probably the sanest members in each team. They had been exchanging their ‘crazy team’ stories and swapping tips to get their unruly teammates in line.

By the time lunch was over Sasori felt so removed from the conversation, it was like he wasn’t even there. It was only when he moved to separate from the gaggle of genin did he realize that Sakura had been keeping tabs on him the entire time.

“Return to the lodgings, there is something I need to take care of.” Sasori waved them off, taking a step away when Gaara spoke.

“Is this what we talked about yesterday?”

“Yes Gaara, now go. You know I hate being late as much as I hate being kept waiting.” Sasori turned and walked off, not sparing the genin another ounce of attention. 

The genin separated at the entrance of the building the mist delegation were staying in, Sakura and Temari made plans to meet up in the morning to train together.

They had been about to enter their apartment when the older genin, Kimiko, Sakura had finally remembered her name came rushing around the corner, face red with fury.

“This is all your fault!” She screamed at team three though Sakura could feel Kimiko’s eyes zero in on her.

Sakura simply stood there, not reacting, knowing the other girl would probably have more to say but she wasn’t going to actively participate in the conversation.

“You-you can’t be better than me! You’re just an adopted freak ! I am a real princess!” Kimiko’s face was nearly purple with rage at this point and if Sakura were being honest she was having a hard time not laughing.

Sakura merely rolled her eyes and turned to follow Chojuro in the apartment. The moment her eyes left the other girl Kimiko pulled her hand back to strike Sakura only to be caught in Haku’s bruising grip.

“Hitting a comrade is a deplorable action. Hitting a comrade out of petty jealousy is grounds for suspension and even expulsion for the shinobi ranks.” Haku’s voice was colder than ice as he hissed at the girl.

“What’s going on here?” The Mizukage’s voice cut through the hallway, causing Kimiko to freeze in place.

“Mizukage-sama, please help me! These three have assaulted me!” Kimiko burst into tears, her voice high pitched as she wailed about team three’s supposed crimes.

“Lying is unbefitting of a kunoichi of Kiri.” Yagura’s cold tone brought an immediate halt to the crying.

“I-I-I…”

“Do you have nothing to say for yourself now? Return to your sensei, you will be moved to a single room and confined until the exams are over. Upon arrival in Kiri we will be discussing your future as a shinobi.” Yagura turned and walked away, presumably to find Kimiko’s sensei and inform him of this new development.

Haku released the girl’s wrist and gently shoved both Sakura and Chojuro into the apartment, shutting and locking the door behind him before speaking, “I did not see that one coming.” He whispered, eyes a little wide with shock.

Ao joined them a short time later, the look he gave them let them know he already knew what had happened.

“First off, thank you for acting as calmly as you did and not escalating the situation. Secondly, why did you have lunch with the team from Suna?”

“Plotting world domination.”

“Starting a new regime of adolescents.”

“Making new friends.”

“I’m going to bed.” Ao growled as he stalked to his room and slide the door closed with a final click.

Sakura and Haku started laughing first and Chojuro joined in after rolling his eyes at the pair.

“So, you’re going to train with Temari tomorrow?” Haku asked.

“Just in the morning, we can all meet up for lunch again then I was thinking we could hit the river. Maybe swim a bit, do some training on the water.” Sakura replied as she pulled out her whetstone and a pile of dull kunai to sharpen.

Haku was the first to announce he was heading to bed but the other two were quick to finish their game of shogi before scampering off to bed as well, knowing that they only had a month to prepare for their final matches and everyday counted.

Sakura almost cried with joy when the following morning dawned grey and overcast, a light mist leaving condensation on the windows.

“Finally, a good morning.” Haku sighed as they ate breakfast, even Ao-sensei looked marginally less grumpy.

Shortly after breakfast, Sakura said her goodbyes as she went off in search of Temari. Temari, as it was, was easy to find waiting right outside the entrance to the building.

“Good morning.” Sakura said politely, falling into step beside the older girl. Temari simply grunted a response but Sakura was content enough with the easy silence to leave it be.

Temari allowed Sakura to lead them to the Training grounds team three had been using since their arrival and taking a deep breath she turned to Sakura, “I don’t know what you did to my brother but, thank you.”

Sakura nodded her head in acknowledgment, not knowing what to say. Temari though, needing no further encouragement, proceeded to tell Sakura what he had been like and while she had tried to be a good big sister, she had been terrified of her brother. But now, she had the opportunity to know her brother without worrying about being killed should the tailed beast be in a particularly vexed mood.

Sakura stepped forward and gave Temari a hug, which the blonde eagerly accepted and returned, “I’m glad I was able to help Gaara and your family.”

The rest of the morning passed easily while the girls sparred and exchanged gossip, swapping stories about the boys on their teams and when they had embarrassed their sensei in public. They had been packing up and preparing to leave the training grounds when Anko appeared in a poof of smoke, starling both girls.

“Lookie lookie what we have here!” Anko exclaimed, seeing the two girls together.

“We may have to take a weather check for lunch.” Sakura explained to Temari.

“No problem, do you want me to tell your team where you are?” Temari asked, looking at Anko like she wasn’t sure if she trusted her enough to leave Sakura behind by herself.

“No, I’ve got that covered, thanks though!”

“See you later Sakura.” Temari nodded at Ank as she passed and continued back to the path that would lead to the lodgings.

“So, kid let’s talk about that trade hmm.” Anko crowded into Sakura’s personal space and Sakura was beginning to think it was just a personality trait more than anything.

“You’re anbu aren’t you?” Sakura asked, keeping her eyes on Anko’s face to read her expressions.

“Can't say I know what you’re talking about.” Anko’s non answer was to be expected so Sakura wasn’t put out by it.

“You probably work in T&I.” Sakura guessed, once again keeping an eye on the older woman.

“Now that I can answer!” Anko began leading Sakura towards town.

“I’ll show you how we weren’t noticeable if you tell me what was said during my biological father’s interrogation.” Sakura spoke with a light voice but she knew Anko could detect her underlying nervousness.

“That’ll be a question for Ibiki, but let’s go talk to him, if he says no then I have a hundred and one tricks I could show you instead.” Anko threw her arm around Sakura’s shoulders and Sakura allowed it, the contact calming her down.

“Alright kid, gotta cover your eyes, so get on my back and hold on tight.” 

Sakura allowed Anko to slip a blindfold over her head and held on tight as soon as she was situated on her back. It wasn’t long before Ank came to a stop and entered a building, though she didn’t stop to let Sakura down until after she knocked on a door after three flights of stairs. Sakura heard a faint ‘come in’ from the other side and Anko carried her inside before removing the blindfold.

“Anko, what is she doing here?” Ibiki grumbled, surprised to see Sakura.

“She wants to know the contents of Kizashi Haruno’s interrogation.” Anko spoke before Sakura could.

“Kid, it’s not pretty. If you want to know I’ll tell you but, if I’m being honest, I have no idea how you turned out as stable as you are after all that shit.” Ibiki looked Sakura dead in the eyes as he spoke.

“I have extra voices in my head.”

This statement caused Anko and Ibiki to stare at her in worry.

“Care to explain that a bit more?” Ibiki asked, silently wondering if he should call a therapist.

“Well it’s a bit of a long story…”

——————————————-

“You asked me to call a meeting with the Kage’s and your Kage is strangely absent. What’s going on boy?” Tsunade grumbled, not pleased with her afternoon drink being interrupted.

“Orochimaru is planning to attack Konoha during the finals in a month's time. Suna was on board, bad blood and all that, recently Gaara has decided that he will not only not participate but will hinder any attack.” Sasori’s voice was deadpanned, getting straight to the point.

“So what, you’re telling us in hopes of getting off the hook?” Tsunade growled, aggression written in her posture.

“I have brought you Orochimaru and his assistant Kabuto as a peace offering and as our Kage has been dead for a while, Orochimaru has been wearing his skin, I have given orders to Suna shinobi to play along like nothing has changed. During the invasion, because it would be foolish to stop, they’ll be easier to kill if they’re all in one place.”

“I’m sorry, do you mean to tell me you have Orochimaru and Kabuto present with you at this time?” Yagura spoke now, voice careful as he studied the younger man in front of him.

“Yes, of course. I have been holding them prisoner in a puppet after Gaara brought them to me encased in sand.” Sasori moved to pull out a scroll to release the puppet in question.

“No no no no no. Not here! Are you insane?” Tsunade hissed before Sasori could open the scroll.

“I am in full control of my mental facilities.” Sasori’s voice was impassive.

“Here’s what we are going to do. You two are going to follow me to T&I. Ibiki is going to make someone scream and if he can’t I will then we will continue on you as if none of this happened for the time being. When you return to Suna I’m assuming you will become the Kazekage, and when you go there will be a peace treaty and an apology letter on my goddamn desk before the celebrations are over.” Tsunade stood to her full height and led the men out of the room, mumbling about needing a drink to deal with this shit.

————————————-

“I’m curious as to how insane you truly are.” Ibiki muttered, leaning back in his chair after Sakura’s brief description of having her teammates in her head.

“Probably about as insane as Anko.” Sakura responded with a shrug causing Ibiki to groan and Anko to cackle.

“I’m going to make a deal with you kid. I’ll let you see the contents of the Haruno investigation after the exams are over and preferably with one of your adopted parents present. It’s not pretty and I don’t want to drop that burden on you.” Ibiki said, hoping that the girl would accept.

“You promise?”

“I promise, hell, I’ll bring it to Kiri and let you see it there.”

“I guess Anko is gonna have to show me one of her tricks instead.” Sakura sighed dramatically as she and Anko stood to leave only to be met with Tsunade at the door.

“Good afternoon Auntie.” Sakura chriped sweetly in a way that Yagura knew spoke of blown up training grounds.

Anko was quick to scoop Sakura up and dart away with her, laughing and cackling trailing behind the two.

“Ibiki I need you to do that thing you do where you make people cry and spill all their secrets.” Tsunade said as she stepped into Ibiki’s office.

Ibiki’s eyes were trained on Yagura though, “That girl terrifies me.”

Yagura shrugged, “Her mother rubbed off on her, personally I think it’s amusing.”

“Let’s go make someone cry.”

———————————-

Anko and Sakura ended up at a dango stand close to the training grounds.

“You have a seal on your neck.” Sakura mentioned as she bit into her treat.

“A psychopath put it there when I was a kid, but I haven't found a way to get rid of it yet.” Anko answered, not bothered by it.

“Can I look at it? That can be our exchange.” Sakura offered.

“Sure, as long as you promise not to use it on anyone.” Anko consented.

Sakura produced a scroll and pencil out of her pouch and began sketching on the seal, touching it with her chakra to get a reaction and making notes. Anko had been surprised she had gotten so much out of the small seal but as the scroll was beginning to fill up, Sakura was finally done.

“You got all that out of touching it a couple times?” Anko was actually amazed, no one had ever gotten so much information about the seal.

“Yeah, I don’t think I can remove it but my mom is way better at seals than I am so I’m pretty sure between the two of us we can think of something. Or at the very least, give you control of it.” Sakura shrugged as she put the scroll and pencil away, exchanging them for a square of sealing paper and ink.

She spent the next several minutes teaching Anko how to write the seal and what it was based off of. Before too long Anko had it down though she promised to keep it to herself.

“Hey and when you get back to Kiri, feel free to write to me okay.” Anko slipped Sakura her address before pointing the way back to the lodgings and taking off.

Sakura had been almost in sight of the building when Gaara seemed to materialize next to her.

“When we fight in the finals, I want a real fight. No ninjutsu or genjutsu. Just Taijutsu. Just fists.” Gaara spoke without ever looking at her, voice even and calm.

“Just taijutsu it is then. In Kiri we call them Honor Matches and it’s a custom among rivals turned friends.” Sakura replied easily, already looking forward to the match.

Gaara nodded and separated to return to his own rooms while Sakura entered the building and made her way to her teammates.

The next ten days are spent with Ao-sensei working them to the bone from sunrise to sunset. Drills and spars mixed with survival training all while shoving information into their tired minds and quizzing them on the material. Sakura knew that whoever was watching from the trees was impressed and worried at the intensity of their training, but they never interrupted or made themselves truly known so Ao-sensei was content with ignoring them.

Ao-sensei had finally let them have a day off and three little sharks found themselves swimming around the morning market buying produce and looking at trinkets from different vendors. Haku had just suggested a restaurant down the way when a voice called out to them.

“Sakura. You owe me an explanation for what monstrosity you pulled during our fight.” Ino Yamanaka seethed.

Sakura knew at that moment that she would have to keep Haku from killing Ino.

Chapter Text

Sakura was taken back to a time where Ino had been her only friend. A time when that red ribbon had been so very important. A time when she had been a budding blossom, not yet ready to bloom. It occurred to Sakura at that moment that she had bloomed and she had done it without Ino. Ino had wanted to cultivate what Sakura would become. She wanted to take ownership of what Sakura accomplished.

“I told you what was happening and you ignored me, so as far as I’m concerned I don’t owe you a thing.” Sakura’s face was empty and her tone flat. She saw Ino recoil at her words, bringing her hand to her chest but Sakura found that she didn’t care. She linked arms with Chojuro and grabbed Haku’s hand and the three of them walked side by side to the restaurant to have a late breakfast.

Side by side.

 As friends should be.

Haku and Chojuro would always be by her side no matter what and that thought was the one that chased away the darkness that lingered in her mind.

It was after their late breakfast when Sakura was interrupted again. 

“Hey! Wait there please!” While the voice wasn’t really shouting it was definitely louder than polite conversation called for.

A blonde boy was dragging two dark haired boys behind as he sped towards Sakura and her teammates.

“Look Sasuke, we found her!” The blonde was all together more excitement than Sakura could handle at the moment.

“Stop yelling, you idiot. I can see that.” Sasuke growled, tugging his arm out of the blonde’s grasp.

“Can we help you?” Haku asked, voice polite but not inviting.

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha and my parents would like to invite you and your teammates to dinner tomorrow night.” Sasuke had shoved his hands in his pockets towards the end of his invite, clearly embarrassed by having to do this.

Team Three held a quick council in the Madhouse before Sakura stepped forward, “That should be fine, what time?”

“My brother or myself will come and collect you at five tomorrow evening.” Sasuke informed her before corralling his teammates away. Sakura nodded and offered a wave as the boys walked away.

“That was weird.” Chojuro mumbled as they began their walk back towards the apartment.

“Yeah, it was.” Haku agreed along with Sakura’s nod.

“I wonder what Ao-sensei is up to today?” Sakura wondered out loud as they walked into their apartment, each one pulling out a pile of weapons to sharpen before making themselves comfortable on the floor.

“We should prank Zabuza.” Chojuro suggested a short while later.

“What did you have in mind?” Haku asked, looking up from his whetstone.

“You know how he gets flustered real easily when certain topics pop up?”

Sakura and Haku nodded, it was common knowledge that Zabuza didn’t like to be embarrassed and would try to act like he wasn’t.

“Let’s invite him for dinner, we can go out and ask about ‘the talk’.” Chojuro’s face was red but they all knew that Zabuza would probably combust on the spot.

“No way, that was bad enough when Ao-sensei brought it up.” Haku squeaked.

“Oh come on, he’ll probably die of humiliation right then and there.” Chojuro tempted, all three pranked Zabuza on the regular and this was a rare opportunity.

“Sakura and I get to pick the restaurant and you have to ask Zabuza.” Haku said, gearing himself up for an interesting evening.

Chojuro nodded and darted out of the room, presumably to find Zabuza and use some method of blackmail to coerce him into going to dinner with them. It was clear that Chojuro had been successful when Zabuza came stomping into their apartment several minutes later holding the blue haired boy by his collar while glaring at them.

“Let’s go, brats.” Zabuza grumbled, releasing Chojuro and hurrying them out the door.

“Are you okay with barbecue?” Sakura asked, posing the question to everyone but Zabuza’s grunt of agreement solidified the answer.

“Mei and Kisame will be meeting us there.” Zabuza mentioned as they walked down the street.

Sakura was hard pressed to keep the smile off her face, while embarrassing Zabuza was great, embarrassing him in front of Mei and Kisame was even better. Mei would definitely play along and was more than willing to throw Kisame into the hot seat with Zabuza.

“Alright, what’s all this about?” Zabuza asked after they had ordered, leaning back in his chair to cross his arms.

Just when Sakura believed the night couldn’t get any better, it did.

Yagura-sama and the Hokage walked in and were sat at the table behind Zabuza.

“So, Ao-sensei has been really busy lately and we as a team had a couple questions and we agreed that we thought you would be a good and trustworthy adult to ask.” Haku started, doing his best to subtly stroke his ego. Zabuza was practically preening, especially with his Kage behind him undoubtedly listening.

“Ask away goldfish. I’m a fountain of knowledge.” And now Zabuza was flexing, obviously pleased with himself. So pleased in fact that he did not notice Ao-sensei join the Mizukage’s table.

Sakura really had to commend their acting skills and Mei’s timing. Right as Mei and Kisame were sitting down, Chojuro blurted out their ‘question’.

“Can you give us The Talk?” Haku and Sakura nodded eagerly as if to second the question.

Several things happened at once.

Yagura-sama rolled his eyes.

Ao-sensei dropped his head into his hands, clearly remembering when he actually gave them The Talk.

Tsunade spit up the water she was drinking.

And Zabuza made a noise like a balloon letting out air.

Mei had been frozen in shock for a moment before she began laughing  hysterically and Kisame was trying to whisper to Sakura about getting The Talk from mom.

“Come on now Zabuza, these three genin are coming to you in their time of need. Don’t leave them stranded on an island.” Mei said as she slapped Zabuza’s back.

“No, no, just not. Zabuza don’t say anything. Please don’t say anything.” Kisame looked like he may start praying to the gods to get him out of this situation.

“L-look, fishies, this-this is really a question for your sensei.” Zabuza started.

“But you said you were a fountain of knowledge! Surely you can give us at least the short version!” Sakura pouted, internally cackling at the look in Zabuza’s eyes.

“Okay. Okay, the short version is none of you, especially you Sakura, need to know anything about swords and sheaths because you’re too damn young.” Zabuza growled out frantically.

Mei’s laughter wasn’t even verbal at this point but she was bent in half with tears streaming down her face gasping for air. Kisame looked so panicked and kept running his hands through his hair, a nervous tick from his younger days and Zabuza looked ready to pass away on the spot.

“That was so painful to watch. Zabuza please do not ever take on a genin team.” Ao-sensei just looked fed up, giving his genin a look that said straighten up or you’ll be sorry.

“Next time, please just stab me. It’ll be less painful.” Zabuza grumbled as their food arrived and spent the rest of dinner avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Chapter Text

“You three better be on your best behavior.” Ao-sensei grumbled at his three genin.

“Any particular reason, Ao-sensei?” Haku asked, voice full of faux innocence.

“Yes. The Uchiha are a traditional clan, Sakura much like your own, please be respectful and polite while you’re there. Chojuro, you spend enough time with these two to have picked up some manners.” Ao lectured, pacing back and forth in front of his bathed and well dressed students.

All three nodded, hands folded nicely in front of them.

“And remember, if you aren’t sure if you should or should not do something, what do you ask yourselves?”

“Will this get me arrested?”

“Do I have time to hide the bodies?”

“Will Ao-sensei be mad?”

Ao-sensei simply sighed and shook his head, “Good enough I guess.”

Ao walked his students down to the entrance of the building to meet their escort.

“Good evening, thank you for coming.” All three recognized Itachi from their joint mission, bowed politely in return, offering their own greetings.

“If you’ll follow me, it isn’t terribly far, though we may detour around the market. It’s quite busy in the evenings.” Itachi spoke as he led the way with three pastel sharks following him.

They ended up walking through the marketplace and Sakura let her eyes wander about the different stalls and vendors and was shocked to not see anyone from the Haruno clan. She remembered there were always three or four stalls in the market and couldn’t fathom why there weren’t any.

“The Haruno clan left the village about two years ago. Shinobi boycotted them after the news came out about what they had done. Then, the Tachibana clan turned their back on the Haruno and began bringing in competing products and goods. When their disgrace became public, even the civilians turned on them.” Itachi’s voice was soft and didn’t travel any further than the three genin walking behind him. And if he noticed them huddle closer together, he didn’t say anything about it.

The Uchiha clan compound was beautiful in it’s own way, it didn’t roll out of the mist as her own did but it did sprawl behind it’s walls. Sakura was very used to the murals painted along the walls back home, making the plain wall only adorned with the clan symbol a bit plain. The houses all had wide porches and many held a variety of plant life that certainly brought color to the streets. Many Uchiha stopped and bowed at them as they walked past and Sakura could feel their eyes on her walk after they passed.

“Are you a part of the head family?” Sakura asked quietly.

Itachi let out a soft chuckle before answering, “I am but they are not bowing to me. They are bowing to you.”

“Why me?” Sakura’s voice was thin and a bit breathless, eyes wide as another Uchiha bowed.

“Perhaps it would be better if my father explained.” Itachi responded, turning his head to send her a small smile.

It was a few minutes later when Itachi led them up to a house, stopping on the porch and turning to them, “Please excuse my mother, she is very excited to meet you.”

Sakura, not knowing what to expect, simply smiled and nodded though she externally prepared herself for squealing.

Luckily the Lady Uchiha was much more composed then that, though Sakura did get the distinct feeling that she was very excited.

“Hello and welcome. I am so glad you could join us this evening. My name is Mikoto and I believe you’ve already met my husband Fugaku. He will be joining us shortly.” Mikoto was a beautiful woman and Sakura had the feeling she was just as beautiful inside as well.

Sakura, Haku and Chojuro all bowed respectfully, offering greetings and together presenting the small gifts they had brought for their host.

“Oh my, so polite, thank you. Please come in. Itachi, show them to the sitting room, your brother is there with his team. Dinner will be ready shortly.” Mikoto gave the genin a soft smile before sending them off with Itachi.

“I apologize, the hallways are a bit tight.” Itachi offered, noticing how they went from walking side by side to a straight line.

“It’s okay, we understand. Hallways like this are designed for safety purposes.” Sakura responded, used to the layout. Haku and Chojuro nodded behind her.

“I heard from my father that Kisame is your older brother.” Itachi spoke as he slid open the door leading into a sitting room.

“I’ve heard several re-enactments of your fights over the years. Zabuza and I are his favorite audience.” Sakura responded as she took in the room's other occupants.

“Any particular reason?” Itachi asked, curiosity coloring his tone.

“Zabuza likes to critique him in the form of insults and I used to tell him he was the coolest, now I help Zabuza.” Sakura replied, her lips tilting up into a smile as she recalled the last time she and Zabuza had watched Kisame wave a kitchen spoon around like he was actually in a fight still.

“Please make yourself comfortable,” Itachi motioned them further into the room before turning to his brother, “Sasuke, why don’t you introduce your team to our guests.”

Sasuke perked up from where he was playing a game of shogi against the other dark haired boy while the blonde lay sprawled to the side.

“We haven’t been officially introduced, My name is Sasuke Uchiha and these are my teammates, Naruto Uzumaki and Sai.” Sasuke pointed to both of the other boys in turn and Sakura vaguely remembered them from the exams. Well Naruto she remembered for sure, who could forget the loud boy in orange.

“It’s nice to meet you Sasuke, My name is Sakura Hoshigaki and these are my teammates, Haku Yuki and Chojuro.” Sakura reciprocated a polite smile on her face.

The six genin made small talk while waiting for dinner, Sasuke even striking up a conversation with Chojuro about his sword work in the exams. Sai was odd but it was clear that he didn’t always know how to react to social situations. Naruto was who Sakura herself struck up a conversation with, mentioning that her mother is an Uzumaki and they were probably distant cousins. This had the effect of boosting Naruto’s happiness by the nth power, Sakura couldn’t bring herself to feel overwhelmed.

Dinner was called several minutes later when Mikoto poked her head in and led them to the dining room. Fugaku joined them just as they were sitting down, greeting his family and guests politely. Itachi appeared a moment later with Shisui and Hana behind him. Sakura smiled a bit at seeing Hana, liking the older girl’s personality. Hana threw a fanged smirk back at her.

“No sharks today?” Hana asked as she sat down.

Sakura smiled before responding, “No, but I brought my teammates and they are  just as hungry.”

Both boys snorted, amused by the joke. Hana’s smile widened and even Itachi smirked a bit. Sakura could feel Shisui staring but was resolved to ignoring him unless he spoke to her.

Shisui, as it turned out, couldn’t leave the past behind him.

“Why didn’t you return to Konoha?” He asked half way through the meal. Mikoto and Itachi tried to shush him and Hana looked ready to sink her fangs into his jugular.

“What did I have to return to? My mother’s family was just as cruel. I know orphans slipped through the cracks in the system. I wouldn’t have had the backing to continue my career as a shinobi here. But, in Kiri, someone wanted me. They wanted me. As someone growing up being unwanted, having a family that wanted me was worth everything I left behind.” Sakura wasn’t even upset about Shisui’s question,she could tell by his expression that a very old guilt was sitting on his heart.

“The Uchiha wanted you!” Shisui sounded a bit desperate.

“Do you think your elders would have welcomed me? Would it have been easy. Being stared at growing up, knowing that everybody knows what happened to me? Being reminded constantly about my past. I grew up loved and very safe in Kiri, with a family that only sees Sakura and not the product of my biological parents' hatred of me.” Something clicked in Shisui as Sakura finished speaking, as if what she said cleared away the clouds in his mind, allowing reason to seep through.

“I should have noticed. I’m sorry I didn’t save you.”

“I’m sorry I slapped you with a fish.” Sakura smiled easily, letting Shisui know that all was forgiven.

“I have a question.” Haku spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Of course.” Fugaku nodded.

“Why is everyone bowing to Sakura?” Haku asked, somewhat deadpanned.

Fugaku huffed a laugh before explaining, “When Sakura’s biological father was arrested and interrogated, much of that information led back to Orochimaru, who through one of his disciples, brainwashed your father. But it also led to Danzo and his root operatives who were stoking the flames of discontent between the Uchiha and the rest of the village. When Danzo was brought under investigation it was discovered that he was in possession of several stolen Sharingan and, well the rest of that isn’t exactly dinner conversation.”

Sakura, Haku and Chojuro were absolutely hooked, staring at Fugaku and silently compelling him to finish.

“In the end, Lord Third had Danzo executed before stepping down as Hokage. Myself and a few other clan heads tracked down Lady Tsunade and, I won’t lie, bet the Kageship on a game of cards which I won, thus forcing her back. While she was reluctant to take over she has brought sweeping changes into the hospital and many factions of our society.” Fugaku sighed, having done his best to give the watered down version of a very bloody event in Konoha history.

“I heard she can break a mountain apart with her bare hands.” Sakura said to Chojuro, reciting from a bingo book.

Hana let out a barking laugh, “Why is that the part you’re interested in? The Hokage is the best medical ninja in the world.”

“If I break someone before they can hurt me, why would I need a medic?” Sakura asked innocently.

“I mean that is a good point.” Hana agreed with a nod and a shrug.

The rest of dinner was easy going with relaxed conversation going around the table. When the meal had ended and the evening was coming to a close Itachi once again acted as their escort, leading them back to their lodgings, only this time with Sasuke by his side.

“Our yearmates are having a get together tomorrow, you and your teammates are welcome to come.” Sasuke offered as they reached the entrance to the building.

“We’ll have to talk that over with our sensei first.” Sakura stated politely, giving both Uchiha a small smile and a polite bow before saying their goodbyes and heading inside.

“How’d it go?” Ao-sensei asked as soon as they walked in.

“We didn’t start a war so I think it went rather well.” Haku replied breezily, causing Chojuro and Sakura to snort and giggle.

“Well I’m beat.” Sakura sighed as she slumped onto the couch, Chojuro not far behind her and Haku rolling his eyes at the both of them.

“All of you should head to bed, we’ll be training in the morning but you’ll be free in the afternoon.” Ao-sensei started motioning them towards their room.

“Ao-sensei is keeping a secret from us isn’t he, Haku?” Sakura fake whispered.

“You’re right Sakura, I think he is.” Haku responded with a solemn nod of his head.

All three sets of eyes were suddenly trained on Ao. If he had been a lesser man it probably would have unnerved him, as it was, he had been stuck with these three for months now and was very used to their antics.

“Bed. Now.”

 The three genin scampered off giggling.

The morning’s training brought the gentlest beat down Ao-sensei could give them before he had them begin their drills. He had also brought in a Konoha shinobi named Genma, who he had won some sort of bet with, to give Haku a lesson with senbon and Anko had shown up to spar with Chojuro and Sakura. The crazy woman liked to yell out pointers mid attack, often causing them to lose focus of defending. It had been an interesting lesson to say the least.

Ao-sensei had left after dismissing them for lunch, and subsequently, the rest of the day. The three genin make quick work of getting cleaned up and dressing in clean clothes before journeying out towards the restaurant Sasuke had mentioned last night. When they arrive, Sakura sees many faces she recognizes from her single year at the academy in Konoha and a few from the chunin exams. Naruto is quick to call out a greeting to them and waves them over to join the table. If there’s any awkwardness about the Kiri genin being there it was well hidden and each of them were soon pulled into one conversation or another.

Lunch had been an interesting event, one of the highlights was when Sakura thoroughly trounced the boy named Shikamaru in a game of shogi, much to everybody’s disbelief. Shikamaru had demanded another game but it was already mid afternoon by that point and it was time to head back to their lodging to check in with Mei, who was their unofficial supervisor when Ao-sensei was absent.

The three stood and said their goodbyes, though Sakura had promised to make time for another game with Shikamaru before she left, and made their way back to their apartment.

The rest of the day was spent sharpening their weapons and quizzing each other on different subjects under Mei’s semi watchful eyes. Sometimes Mei would throw out a tidbit of information to them, sometimes she would show them a path of thought they hadn’t wandered down before and let them draw their own conclusions. All three were making several pages of mental notes.

The next two weeks were jam packed with training. Mei, Zabuza and Kisame often joining in to help. Even the Mizukage joined in a few times. The other two teams had not made it through the forest with the necessary scroll and were out of the exams, though their yearmates had gotten permission to join in during the afternoon sessions. The female, Kiko, who Sakura didn’t have much interaction with during the academy was often asking Sakura questions and Sakura could see the desire to be better burning brightly in her eyes. As it turned out, their sensei was new and not used to training others. Whereas Ao-sensei had been in Anbu and had experience training new recruits.

Ao-sensei, admittedly, was pleased that his genin were making friends. The three of them were so insular and close that they didn’t branch out often. It was nice to see them forging relationships outside of their group. In the week leading up to the finals, Ao-sensei paired down their training, allowing them more time to rest and more time to plan out their matches. Sakura had already informed her sensei that if she made it to her second match against Gaara, they had agreed to an Honor match.

Which explained the interesting conversation Ao had had with Gaara just days ago about the etiquette of Honor matches.

Ao could say with full confidence that he was ready to go home. These genin were going to drive him crazy. Oh well, he’d be able to hit someone soon.

Chapter Text

It was two days before the finals when Ao-sensei had them standing at the gates. The three genin were looking among themselves and the gate guards trying to figure out why they were just standing here, waiting. The only upside was Ao-sensei had bribed them with dango to stand quietly. Small victories.

It was several minutes later when Yagura-sama arrived with the Hokage that the trio became even more puzzled. That was, until a bolt of lightning seemed to strike down in front of them.

Sakura couldn’t believe her eyes. In front of her stood not only her own parents but Haku’s dad and Chojuro’s uncle. Haku’s dad and Chojuro’s uncle, even her own father looked sick, each of the men had found something to brace themselves against while groaning. Her mother, on the other hand, looked extremely pleased with herself.

Each of the genin found themselves running up to greet their parents, or in Chojuro’s case his uncle. Sakura nearly collided with her mother first, throwing her arms around Kuware, the home sickness she had been pushing away by keeping busy came rushing back to her. Her father joined them a moment later, wrapping his arms around both of them.

“It’s so sunny here Starfish.” Mino grumbled good naturedly.

“I know, it's awful. The sun is always waking us up.” Sakura grumbled right back. Kuware chuckled at both of them.

“Alright Starfish, let us go greet Yagura-sama and then we can go get lunch together.” Kuware said as she pulled her husband and daughter towards the Mizukage.

“That was an interesting arrival.” Yagura drawled, amusement lacing his tone despite his neutral face.

“Thank you Yagura-sama, I stole the seal from my little sister’s husband.” Kuware, once again, was sounding altogether too proud of herself. Mino, on the other hand, looked queasy at the mention of their questionable form of transportation.

Sakura, Haku and Chojuro waited as their  adults signed in and got visitor passes before the group wandered into the village, her father much like her brother drawing many eyes with his unusual skin tone. Together the group decided on barbecue and Chojuro took the lead to a restaurant the trio had discovered earlier in the month. It was owned by the Akamichi clan and the food was amazing, though all three would deny it being better than the barbecue restaurant that they frequented with Ao-sensei in Kiri.

Lunch had been a pleasant experience, the adults listening to the genin talk about the trials they had faced so far and what was coming next along with the people they had met while in Konoha. Mino was beaming with pride when Sakura told him about her Honor Match she would hopefully be having in the second round while also strategizing for Haku’s match against Shikamaru. 

While all three genin would admit to being very happy about their surprise guests, they were also relieved when Ao-sensei stole them away after lunch to plan out their fights and go through the strategies they had been working on for the past couple weeks.

The following day was spent in their apartment preparing. Weapons were sharpened, clothes laid out for the morning and  pouches were stocked and checked over. Ao-sensei finally dragged them out for dinner, before taking them to the night market where he let his genin wander around looking at stalls. Every so often one of them would double back to show him what they had found whether it be food or a trinket.

By the time Ao-sensei led his genin back to the apartment all three were relaxed and happily talking amongst themselves. 

Chojuro was the first to say goodnight for the evening, Haku not far behind him but Sakura stayed at the table for a while after both boys had fallen asleep.

“Sakura, you should get some rest.” Ao murmured, walking over to see what she was doing.

“Just a couple more minutes sensei, I’m almost done.” Sakura replied, eyes never leaving the object in her hand.

Ao was surprised to see a large piece of green sea glass that had been carved into a shark, a tiger shark if the details were to be believed.

“What are you working on?” Ao asked as he watched his student carve another detail in the shark’s design.

“It’s for Gaara, I know he doesn’t know but you’re supposed to exchange gifts after an Honor Match and I’ve been working on this for him. Plus, he’s my friend now, no matter what happens tomorrow.” Sakura explained as she chiseled the last line on the shark before wiping it down with polish.

The green shark wasn’t any bigger than the palm of her hand but the detail she had put into it was stunning.

“You’re a good kid Sakura, now off to bed.” Ao patted her on the head before pushing her towards her room. Sakura shot him a smile and a goodnight before joining her teammates.

The morning of finals dawned a cool grey, the air heavy with mist and the threat of rain later in the day. To say the least, these were favorable conditions for the three Kiri genin. Haku and Sakura both braided their hair knowing that they would need it out of their faces for the day. All three were dressed and ready to go by the time Ao-sensei announced they were once again going out for breakfast before making their way to the stadium.

Breakfast was quiet but not nearly as oppressive as yesterday had been when nerves had been at a high. Sakura and Haku’s parents and Chojuro’s uncle had come to wish them luck after they had finished their meal, giving hugs and words of encouragement before sending them off.

Team Three, led by Ao-sensei disappeared into the back hallways of the stadium where they would wait until called for their fights.

“Now, most days I’m not sure if I should sacrifice to the ocean or have you locked in padded cells, but I am very proud of you and I am honored to be your sensei.” Ao’s voice sounded grouchy but his students knew him well enough that this was as soft as he could get and doing so in public was probably physically painful for him.

“Thank you Ao-sensei!” The three responded in unison before rushing forward to hug their sensei.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough. I said that’s enough! Off. Off!” Ao-sensei had hugged them for less than half a second before attempting to peel his suddenly leech like students from his person.

“Hoshigaki Sakura! Hyuuga Neji! You two are up. Best of luck to you both.” A proctor had announced from the front of the room before leading the two out to the arena floor.

Sakura could hear both her mother and her father cheering for her as she stepped on to the dirt floor of the arena. Then from the Kage’s box she heard Zabuza and Mei yelling encouragement before being cut off, probably by Yagura-sama.

Sakura turned her attention to the boy standing across from her, she knew the gist of what a Hyuuga could do, she also knew that his bloodline trait would pretty much eliminate any blind spots he had. Sakura, though, had not been taught to sneak into an opponent's blind spot. No, Sakura had been taught to go for the throat and without a doubt due to her near constant exposure to Zabuza as a young child, had the ruthlessness and the tenacity to do so.

When the proctor called for the fight to begin, Sakura calmly reached in her pouch and pulled out a storage scroll, using the motion to disguise her action of pulling in a layer of fog. All Kiri nin worked best in low visibility and Sakura was no different. As the fog obscured Neji’s view of her she unsealed a collection of swords all over the arena floor. All the blades stood straight with their points buried in the dirt. Sakura could hear Neji’s breathing increase as he moved around trying to locate her.

Sakura knew that many people assumed because she did not openly carry her sword that she didn’t have one or perhaps thought her to be bad with sword play. Neither were true. Sakura grew up with not one but two of the Seven Swordsmen sprawled about her parent’s living room. Sword play had been a part of her since she had come to Kiri.

Each sword had its own unique seal on the butt of the hilt, allowing Sakura to know where each sword was. Sakura would never be as fast as Haku but she was fast enough with a sword that Neji was about to be in trouble. Sakura moved quietly to one of the longer swords, preferring to start out with more reach while her opponent was still fresh. Grasping the handle Sakura darted out of the fog, dragging the sword across Neji’s left shoulder before disappearing back into the gloom. She heard Neji activate his Byakugan and knew that he would be able to find her in the fog. 

As far as Sakura was concerned, Neji could see her all he wanted, it didn’t matter. Grabbing the next sword Sakura once again darted out, and while Neji saw her and moved to avoid her he wasn’t fast enough to get out of the sword's range, earning another cut along his right side. Sakura could hear him gasp in pain, knowing it was due to this blade’s serrated edge.

The next time Sakura ran towards him, she moved as he moved to dodge instead of completing another pass and taking advantage of his moment of confusion, Sakura spun to use the hilt of her blade, ramming it against his temple before dancing out of range of the stunned Neji. Using Neji’s dizzied state, Sakura completed three more quick passes, each pass resulting in a new patch of red staining his shirt. 

Sakura pulled back into the mist, allowing Neji a moment to think before taking the upper hand. She came at him head on this time, inside of from the corner of his eye, it was only when his hand reached out to strike her did he understand his mistake. Sakura exploded into a puddle of water and when Neji spun to find the real Sakura he inadvertently took his eyes off of the direction she would come from, allowing her to slide her blade along the side of his neck just deep enough to spill blood.

Two proctors jumped between them then, calling the match and ensuring Sakura didn’t make any further moves. Sakura had been announced the winner and led back to the waiting area while Neji had been escorted away by a medic. Sakura rejoined her teammates and sensei as soon as she spotted them, allowing Ao-sensei to act as a shield between her and the other Konoha nin she could feel staring at her.

Team three sat quietly, preferring to converse inside The Madhouse while in this crowded room. Another pairing, one of the boys being Naruto, disappeared and the fight was a short one because Naruto came back not ten minutes later with a slightly singed shirt but otherwise unscathed.

Haku was called next and Sakura could see Shikamaru’s face from across the room as he studied her teammate. Both Sakura and Chojuro silently cheered for Haku as he walked off to enter the arena, before they resumed their waiting positions. In the end Haku won by default of being able to leave the arena on his own feet, though just barely. Shikamaru was probably in rough shape. As soon as Haku sat next to her, Sakura began closing up his wounds before healing the concussion clouding his eyes. Haku leaned against her as she finished and Sakura dug out a granola bar for him to munch on while they waited.

A few more pairings went up, one resulting in a tie where neither participant returned to the waiting area before Chojuro and Kiba were called.

Sakura had settled in for a wait, letting Haku doze off on her shoulder when Chojuro walked to the arena only to be startled by his reappearance just minutes later.

“What happened?” Sakura asked quietly as Chojuro reached them.

“Water Dragon.”

“Water Dragon?” Sakura and Haku parroted back.

Chojuro simply nodded, “Water Dragon.”

“Alright then. There’s one more match in the first round and a break for lunch before the second round. You three join your families in the stands and I will meet you up there with food.” Ao-sensei sent them off, pushing them towards the doors they came in this morning.

Haku took the lead, guiding his two teammates through the crowds and up into the stands. Mino was the easiest to find in any crowd so the three genin simply looked for the large blue man before walking over to join them. Kuware and Mino were quick to congratulate Sakura on her victory along with her teammates causing Chojuro to blush when his uncle told him he had never seen a Water Dragon used that way before. Ao-sensei joined them a few minutes later and began passing out lunches to his three students.

“Eat quickly and stay alert.” Ao-sensei’s voice was low so as to not travel further than their group and while his posture was relaxed, all three of his genin could see the way he was watching the surroundings.

Sakura had just finished her lunch and looked up towards the Kage box when an explosion shook the stadium. 

A man jumped out of the crowd three rows back, sword pulled as he began to slash towards the civilians around him when a blue fist wrapped around the blade, shattering it.

Mino Hoshigaki was a terror that few remembered due to his age and his own son’s vast reputation. Mino had never been a swordsman, in fact he hardly wielded any blade but seeing someone with skin tough enough to grab a blade and splinter it was more terrifying than most could imagine.

“Haku, Sakura, Chojuro, hit the dirt and assist!” Ao-sensei barked at his students, drawing their attention to the plethora of Sound ninja occupying the stadium floor and lower levels.

Haku led the way in a flurry of senbon flying in front of him. Chojuro went low, swords parting flesh with barely a whisper. Sakura kept high, flinging projectiles from a vantage point before diving in with her fist, leaving craters not only on the ground but on the enemy as well.

———————

Ao believed himself to be a calm and rational man. He trusted his students to be competent and be alive when he found them. When the fighting began, he played his part in protecting the civilians around them and directing the other Kiri nin on the Mizukage’s behalf.

The sun was setting by the time Ao’s job was done and it had been hours since he had seen his students. The screams of fallen shinobi were quiet now, instead the air was filled with the crying of the injured and mourning mothers.

Making his way back towards the epicenter, Ao could see the path his students had taken. Ice sheets were shattered about and Sakura’s swords were scattered through the enemy, pinning them to walls and down on the ground. He saw evidence of a large water dragon that had flooded the streets, leaving puddles of bloody water. Ao made sure to collect whatever his students had left laying around, silently praying that he would be returning to smiling faces and not empty looking parents.

He heard them before he saw them, picking up his pace when Sakura’s voice called out over the other noises. He saw Chojuro first, assisting a Konoha nin with moving bodies on a stretcher towards a makeshift triage center outside the hospital. He saw Haku next, helping the Hokage’s assistant with diagnosing poison effects to neutralize. His eyes darted around for Sakura, almost desperate to see his third student and found her with hands covered in blood as she sealed wounds with chakra at the Hokage’s side. The Mizukage found him shortly after he had set eyes on his students.

“The exams have been canceled. We will remain to offer our assistance but we will be leaving in a week.” Yagura spoke, voice strained and Ao could see the blood on him and while the tailed beast inside him had healed the wounds the Mizukage was still in pain.

“What are my orders?” Ao asked, looking to his Kage for directions.

“Keep an eye on your students. Sakura has been healing for a while and will need to be pulled away soon.” Yagura responded knowing that Ao wanted nothing more than to keep his students in sight.

—————————————

It was several days later when Sakura woke up without being woken up. Chojuro was still sound asleep but Haku was beginning to stir on his own as well. The two teammates allowed the silence to remain, staying in the comfort of their blankets until someone made them get out. Chojuro woke when Ao-sensei knocked on their door before calling out to them to get up for breakfast.

The three little sharks make their way to the table where Ao-sensei was laying out breakfast. The meal was a quiet affair and Sakura knew that Ao-sensei was still worried about their health and safety after the failed attack on Konoha. Casualties had been in the single digits on their side and Konoha with help had rounded up and detained all of the sound nin participants. 

Sakura and Haku had just finished clearing the table and were moving to help Chojuro finish the dishes when a knock sounded from the door. Ao-sensei, went to answer it, and after seeing who was on the other side, stepped back to allow not only the Mizukage but the Hokage as well.

The three genin were quick to give proper greetings although they all felt underdressed, standing in the kitchen in their pajamas.

“Team three, please step forward,” Tsunade spoke and in unison the three stepped forward, “Konoha has given the recommendation that the three of you be promoted to the rank of Chunin for your actions during the Chunin exams. Furthermore, Konoha recognizes your commendable actions and esteemed service to our village and thanks you.” Tsunade gave them a nod of appreciation and thanks.

“Kiri recognizes Konoha’s recommendation and I, the Mizukage, issue Sakura Hoshigaki, Haku Yuki and Chojuro field promotions to the rank of Chunin. Your actions in our ally’s time of need will be remembered and all three of you bring much honor, not only to our village but your families and yourselves as well. Well done.” Yagura-sama’s voice was neutral but all three could hear the pride in his tone and see it in his eyes as well.

The two Kage’s left shortly after and Ao-sensei pulled all three into a hug, allowing himself to be squeezed by his students for several minutes.

“I am very proud to be your sensei.” 

Sakura was the first to sniffle, followed by Haku and Chojuro as they pulled each other into another hug all feeling very grateful to still be together.

It was a few days later when the trio found themselves standing at the gates of Konoha, saying goodbye to the friends they had made while here. Gaara had approached Sakura with a small potted plant in his hands.

“Your sensei mentioned that rivals exchange gifts after an Honor Match, and while we did not fight I consider you my friend and I would like you to have this.”

Sakura took the plant, cataloging the poisonous flower before smiling at Gaara and reaching for the shark she had carved out of a piece of green sea glass and dropped it in Gaara’s palm, along with a piece of paper.

“Feel free to write to me when you get back to Suna!” Sakura said as she reached forward to pull Gaara into a one armed hug.

Stepping back into line with her teammates, Sakura waved at a few others before Yagura-Sama called for them to move out.

Sakura was happy with the friends she had made and was happy with the closure she had gotten while being here and while they had said goodbye she knew it wasn’t.

It was a see you later.

———————————

It would be hours later when Gaara ran his thumb across the bottom of the small green shark that he noticed a difference in texture, flipping it over he saw a neatly carved kanji catching light in the sun. Friend.