"Where is she!?" Tsunade stormed through the leaf village hospital. Nurses and staff scurried quickly out of Tsunade's blazing path. "Where is Team Seven?!" Tsunade yelled but didn't stop by the nursing station.
"Ro-Room 407!" A nurse answered, cowering down under Tsunade's distraught gaze. The leaf village Hokage quickly reached the room the nurse had said. Tsunade slammed open the door, inside the room Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke sat around a bed. Naruto and Sasuke looked banged up. Tsunade's gasped, seeing the sleeping body in the crisp hospital bed.
"What the hell happened!?" Tsunade harshly whispered, trying to not stir Sakura awake.
"She saved me." Naruto's eyes were empty as he kept his sight off his team and his Hokage. He couldn't even bring himself to look at the woman who had just saved his life.
"That doesn't tell me anything!" Tsunade snapped.
"We were ambushed." Kakashi stepped in for Naruto.
"Ambushed?" Tsunade shook her head, not wrapping her head around those words. "You are my best team! How the hell did-"
"We don't know all the details." Kakashi remained calm, "But it seems there has been a rogue group terrorizing the south, where the Waterfall Village is located. Sakura has been dealing with them for years."
"I-" Tsunade sighed, rubbing her face and running her hands through her hair. "How could this of happened?"
"She saved Naruto's life." Kakashi answered, turning back to gaze down at Sakura who remained asleep. "She didn't hesitate to place herself between Naruto and that shinobi."
"It seems she has just become reckless." Tsunade huffed.
"Is she going to be ok?" Naruto asked quietly as guilt was eating him away.
"From what the doctors said, the wound is bad." Tsunade didn't sugar coat it. "Whatever the hell is in her system it won't allow us to heal her with chakra."
"Yeah, she said something like that." Naruto confirmed playing this his fingers in his lap.
"I have never seen anything like this, I can't reach Kaguya to ask her about this poison or if they even have an antidote we could use."
"Do we know how long she is going to be asleep?" Sasuke asked looking up from his phone.
"No idea." Tsunade sat down in the free chair by Sakura's side. "We don't know how long this stuff will take to cycle out of her system."
"Great." Sasuke muttered.
"You two-" Tsunade pointed to Sasuke and Naruto, "-I need you to get to the front gates and take over for second shift. We are short today since team nine is out sick."
"Seriously?" Sasuke groaned. "We just got back."
"I don't care, you two get to the gates now. You're lucky I haven't thrown you two out the window for screwing up your mission! Not only has the Waterfall's Commander been injured on our watch, we lost the land of whirlpools money and I had to pay them for bringing you four back here! Now go!"
"Alright." Sasuke sighed, getting up from sitting by the window. Naruto follows Sasuke without another word, but he did glance back at Sakura. Her light pink hair flowed around her; a few strands fell off the bed.
"Ugh." Tsunade groaned as her head throbbed.
Slowly, Sakura began to surface into her conscious. Sakura didn't like this she wanted to drive back down into the pit of sleep she had been lost in. She quickly regained control of her body, pain and all. Her head hurt as she tried to move it, her heart was pumping so fast in her chest.
Sakura's stomach was sour as it rolled around making her mouth salivate as vomit teased her in her throat. She felt hot and sticky with sweat. Her blood felt like thick sand running through her veins. Sakura wanted to call bullshit on all of this, what the hell was she waking up too!?
"Kakashi." Sakura heard a voice beside her, she knew that voice to belong to Tsunade.
"Yes?"
"You should go get some rest." Tsunade told Kakashi as she rubbed her eyes and yawned.
"I am fine but thank you Tsunade."
"She is so different." Tsunade laughed, adjusting in her chair feeling uncomfortable.
"She is." Kakashi agreed, he got to see that firsthand. Sakura tried to open her eyes but the surface she had climbed on to regain consciousness was beginning to shake, threatening to drop her back into that black pit of muddy sleep. If she fell back into there, who knows how long she will be down there again.
"I can't believe how much she has grown in the years she has been gone." Tsunade had reached out, running Sakura's soft long hair through her fingers.
"Yes." Kakashi agreed, his favorite book in his hands as he leaned back against his chair.
"She is so much more...more..." Tsunade struggled to describe the hell fire she saw burning inside Sakura's eyes.
"She's not a student anymore."
"Kakashi, she hasn't been our student for a long time." Tsunade chuckled.
"I know that."
"Hey, if I am able to keep her inside the village, would you like me to place her back on your team? I am sure Naruto and Sasuke would love-"
"No." Kakashi interrupted.
"No?"
"How could I allow her back on my team?"
"Be-Because she is Sakura!"
"No, she isn't."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"Sakura stopped being Sakura the day she walked out of this village." Kakashi lowered his book and turned towards Tsunade, "She left our village, she abandoned her team. She abandoned the vows she took when she placed that headband on her forehead. How could we trust her after something like that? She is a flight risk-"
"Kakashi..." Tsunade hated how Kakashi spoke so ill of Sakura. Even after she had risked her own life to save Naruto. "...when she left..."
"What?"
"It was my fault." Tears pricked the back of Tsunade eyes, she looked up at the ceiling as she blinked quickly pushing them back.
"What was your fault?" Kakashi wasn't following the conversation.
"I was the reason Sakura left the village."
"What?" Kakashi fully placed his book down.
"She went to you against my orders. You and Naruto were eating at that ramen shop, I interrupted her before she could tell you what was going on."
"Tsunade-" Kakashi sat up, remembering that day. He didn't think much of it then, the distress that was plastered all over Sakura's round baby face, Kakashi thought Sakura was just having another meltdown because Sasuke was gone.
"I was terrified, you didn't see how she waved her hand and destroyed the training grounds. She couldn't control what had happened to her and I was so worried she was going to do the same thing she did to the training grounds to the village, she could have killed someone! I kicked her out Kakashi..." Tsunade breathed the truth out. Her chest deflated, after five long years of the guilt eating away at her Tsunade finally told someone the truth.
"You..." Kakashi tried to wrap his head around this concept.
"I banished her; I forced her parents to pack her a bag. I threatened Sakura to keep what had happened a secret. It is why her parents left the village after-"
"She was a child." Kakashi felt anger flare inside his chest, he lost a thick layer of respect for Tsunade.
"I know..." Tsunade sighed. "...I felt terrible, I still do! But even threatening her the way I did, I never thought she would truly leave. After I came to my senses, that is when I pulled you and your team into my office and told you Sakura went out on a mission alone and vanished."
"You lied to us?" Kakashi stood, Tsunade quickly followed suit. "You lied to this entire village?"
"Because..." Tsunade racked her brain, trying to think of words that she could place together that would justify what she had done.
"Because?" Kakashi waited, Tsunade felt panicked!
"Because at the time you were in love with her!" Tsunade blurted out. All sound seemed to drain away from the room leaving awkward tension as the two shinobi stared at each other. "Oh, come on Kakashi!" Tsunade broke under the silence. "How could I not see it!? The way you looked at her, you lit up when she was around."
"What did my feelings have to do with anything you did to Sakura?"
"Because you would have went after her-"
"And that is a bad thing?"
"Yes--I mean no! I just...you would have failed in trying to tame her power and so you would have left the village with her!"
"You don't know if we would have failed." Kakashi shoved his hand in his pockets.
"But if you did you would have left with her."
"She was a child." Kakashi closed his exposed eye, "I was her sensei, I placed my emotions a side, I distanced myself as I should have and never trained her alone. Your right, I would have left with her not because I felt something for her but because it would have been the right thing to do. She was sixteen and needed a hand to guide her, as her sensei I should have been informed-"
"I know." Tsunade agreed, "I really thought she was killed Kakashi, after her headband was found scratched up and bloody...I really thought she was gone."
"But?"
"I heard rumors about the Waterfall Village, they became such a huge force in such a small amount of time so naturally I got together with a few other village leaders. We investigated them to see if they were a threat or not, rumors got around about their Commander a woman with long pink hair. I took a shot in the dark and sent out a request to them, saying the leaf village was under an unknown threat."
"You lied to get her here?" Kakashi turned to look at Sakura.
"I didn't truly know it was her until she walked into my office. I found out she was alive the same day you did." Tsunade promised.
"I see." Kakashi said gazing at Sakura's face. If it wasn't for her hair color Kakashi would not have been able to recognize her. She had changed in so many ways...
"Problem is..." Tsunade awkwardly laughed. "...I don't have a threat to our village. When she finds out she may actually kill me."
"I believe that." Kakashi muttered remembering back to how she took down those Reapers with ease. "What are you going to do?"
"Me!?" Tsunade gasped.
"Yes."
"Well I kind of thought..." Tsunade laughed. "...that you and Team Seven would help me get her to want to stay."
"What?" Kakashi wanted to laugh at her terrible plan. "That will never work."
"How do you know!?" Tsunade pouted.
"This woman-" Kakashi gestured to Sakura, "-is not the student we both knew."
"I know that!"
"Clearly you don't." Kakashi said putting his book away in his pouch. "This woman in this bed is the Commander of another village. I don't think we can do anything to get her to want to stay in a village she was banished from."
"We have to try." Tsunade sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Why?" Kakashi stopped from leaving the room, "Because that will make you feel better?"
"No, because Sakura belongs here."
"If she did truly belong here, then you never would have kicked her out." Kakashi turned on his heel and left Tsunade to question her actions for the hundredth time alone.
----
Naruto rocked back and forth in his chair feeling bored. After standing guard all day at the gates, he now was sitting inside the hospital. It was still strange for Naruto to look at Sakura. She didn't look like how he remembered her, Naruto felt like if he moved his eyes off her she would evaporate, and this would all have been one intense dream.
Sasuke leaned back in his chair, balancing it on two legs as he stared into the screen of his phone, flicking through faceless names which belonged to the women he liked to sleep around with. Sakura opened her eyes to see white ceiling tile. Her lips feel chapped and her throat was scratchy. She had more control over her body this time as she began to move, trying to stretch her tense muscles. Tsunade and Kakashi were also in the room, on opposite ends with thick tension brewing between the two.
"Sakura!" Naruto leaped up, seeing the movement. Tsunade stood and everyone gathered around the bed.
"Hey-" Tsunade quickly placed a soft hand on Sakura's shoulder who felt warm, she was solid, she was here with them. Tears began to fill Tsunade's eyes, she blinked them away and pulled her attention onto the woman trying to get out of bed. "-you shouldn't move too much."
"Hm." Sakura groaned, feeling the pain in her side.
"Do you remember what happened?" Naruto asked, he scooped up Sakura's right hand with his as his heart was pounding.
"I was stabbed-" Sakura half mocked. "-I wasn't hit on the head; I know what happened." Naruto laughed, letting out a pocket of air from his lungs.
"Thank goodness!"
"What I don't know is how the hell we are in the Leaf Village." Sakura looked around the hospital room.
"You underestimate Team Seven. You out of everyone should know that is not a smart thing to do." Tsunade laughed. Sakura looked down at her hand in Naruto, after a second of thinking it over she decided she was too tired to give a damn about it.
"How long have I been out?" Sakura brought her free hand up and rubbed her face out of habit.
"Four days." Tsunade answered.
"Hm." Sakura hummed a response. "I had a weird dream." Sakura said not realizing she was recalling some of the conversation Kakashi and Tsunade had while Sakura was drifting in and out of sleep.
"Oh, I am sure you did!" Tsunade laughed. "With some of the drugs you were on I wouldn't be surprised if you could taste color." Naruto chuckled at the joke. Sakura fought the yawn from her lips and the burning sensation on her eyes to go back to sleep. She started to move to sit up, only to be stopped by Tsunade and Naruto. "What do you think you are doing?!" Tsunade demanded to know.
"Getting up?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"You have a hole in your side!" Tsunade yelled, as if it was the most basic thing in the world.
"And?" Sakura asked.
"And!?" Tsunade yelled feeling flabbergasted, "There doesn't need to be an and!"
"You said when we got back, there would be a village meeting about the threat on your village-" Naruto didn't like when Sakura said, 'your village'..."-that was four days ago. Tell me what's going on."
"This is not the time-" Tsunade nervously said, she felt herself begin to sweat.
"There is a threat on your village." Sakura stated, "There is never a right time but sooner is always better than later-"
"Your injured-" Tsunade's filled with worry as Sakura got out of bed against Naruto trying to keep her down but trying to stay gentle at the same time.
"That the best you got?" Sakura teased Naruto making him blush as she moved past him. Kakashi moved to get in Sakura's way.
"Sakura you-"
"Tsunade." Sakura cut the Hokage off turning to look at her across the bed. "I am fine."
"You are far from fine! You can't be healed-"
"I am fully aware of how this poison works-"
"Then you shouldn't be fighting me with staying in bed and-"
"I have had worse." Sakura brushed off, "I will live." Tsunade didn't care, she kept nagging Sakura who was busy looking through her bag for clothes to wear. Sakura wasn't a fan of the baggy hospital pants and shirt she had on.
Kakashi watched Sakura in silence as questions he didn't think to wonder began to float around in his mind. If she has had worse than this injury, what has Sakura been through while gone from the leaf village? Sakura refused to remain inside the hospital, she didn't need to take up a bed. Sakura kept demanding to be told about the threat against the leaf village. Tsunade compromised with Sakura and said they would talk about it in the morning if Sakura returned to one of team seven's apartment and got rest.
Tsunade didn't want Sakura to be alone just in case something was to happen. Sakura didn't like Sasuke, and she didn't want to tolerate Naruto who was glued to her, asking her if she needed everything under the fucking sun. He was driving her insane, all Sakura did was save his life. Naruto needed to get over it and move on.
The last choice was Kakashi, which Sakura agreed to because what the hell could she do? Sakura was laying on Kakashi's couch with the TV on low and she drifted in and out. She felt out of place, she never thought she would ever be inside Kakashi's apartment let alone sleeping on his couch. Sakura felt a warm hand on her forehead, she opened her eyes seeing a familiar masked face.
"Your awake."
"Mhm." Sakura muttered, Kakashi chuckled seeing she was drifting off.
"I have to run to the store; I will be back." Kakashi explained as he pulled the blanket from resting at Sakura's waist up to her shoulders.
"Your leaving?" Sakura muttered, liking the warmth the blanket brought.
"I won't be long; do you need anything?"
"Mhm." Sakura muttered again, causing Kakashi to smile under his mask as he stood up and left his apartment, glancing back at the woman who reminded him nothing of the student he once knew. Kakashi had planned to just get items to make Sakura dinner but Tsunade got in the way. She pulled him into her office, hoping she could drag him into her web of lies and figure out what they were going to say to Sakura when morning came.
Sakura flickered her eyes open; she saw Kakashi's living room, she couldn't see the kitchen due to the back of the couch. Sakura could hear Naruto and Sasuke bickering in hushed tones, she yawned as the front door opened her yawn stopped mid-way as Kakashi walked in. Wasn't he the one who was supposed to be babysitting her?
"Your awake." Kakashi commented closing the front door.
"Yeah." She rubbed her face as Kakashi walked his way to her, he kneeled down beside her as he placed a plastic bag on the ground. She watched him with caution, in all the time she had been under his watch before being kicked out of the leaf village she was never this close to him. He smelled nice. Kakashi placed his hand against her forehead, causing Sakura's eyes to widen.
"You don't have a fever." Kakashi said pulling out a pill bottle from Tsunade. "That's good." Kakashi smiled with his exposed eye.
"I am not taking those." Sakura glared, seeing through Kakashi's kind exterior.
"Still hate taking pills huh?" Kakashi chuckled as he stood up. "Well, you need to eat first and-" Kakashi stopped talking as he saw the trashed kitchen with two shinobi cooking two separate dinners.
"You are not doing it right." Sasuke lectured.
"You're not doing it right!" Naruto snapped, "Mind your business!"
"What are you two doing?" Kakashi asked, walking into his kitchen.
"Cooking!" Naruto smiled bright raising his arms above his head.
"I am cooking." Sasuke had to clarify, "Naruto is burning."
"I am not!" Naruto yelled.
"Oh my God you're trying to kill me." Sakura said, standing behind the three men who all jumped not having heard her move.
"Why are you up!?" Naruto shouted concerned.
"Because I may need to escape." Sakura said looking at the so-called food that was being prepared.
"Don't worry!" Naruto waved off with his hand, "My dinner will taste great, I don't know about Sasuke's but-"
"If anything is even edible in here, it's mine!" Sasuke defended his cooking.
"That's what she said." Naruto giggled.
"You are such a child!" Sasuke yelled.
"If I don't die from my side, I will definitely die from this." Sakura muttered looking at the brown goo that popped in the nearby pan, Sakura was pretty sure it was looking at her.
"Go!" Naruto said, lightly pushing Sakura out of the kitchen. "You too Kakashi! We got this; I make this all the time!" Sakura felt a little sorry for Naruto, he sounded so confidant in his cooking skills. How the hell has he fed himself all these years without giving himself food poisoning?
Sakura pulled her lips together unsure of how she was going to get out of eating whatever was growing in the kitchen. To her luck, it was time to change the bandage on her side, Sakura didn't give a damn how small the window in Kakashi's bathroom would be, she will find a way to squeeze through it.
Kakashi's bathroom didn't have a window.
Well what now? Sakura moved her shirt up and bit the fabric, holding it in place as she pulled the bandage off her side. The pain tingled her spine, she wrapped up the used bandage and threw it away. Sakura leaned back against the wall, holy damn she was already tired. She opened her mouth, catching her shirt before it fell against the overly sensitive skin. She sighed, closing her eyes as her head rested against the wall.
"Sakura?" Kakashi knocked, Sakura opened her eyes. Did she fall asleep? Sakura turned her head, Kakashi was standing in the doorway. "Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah?" Sakura said, pulling herself off the wall. She picked up the package of gauze.
"Here." Kakashi moved into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He took the medical supplies from Sakura's hand and kneeled.
"I can-"
"I don't mind." Kakashi's deep voice and his warm hands brushing against Sakura's exposed stomach sent shivers through her body. Kakashi and Sakura didn't exchange words as Kakashi cleaned and redressed Sakura's side. "I don't know about you-" Kakashi chuckled, "-but I don't think the food those two are cooking will be edible."
"I'm pretty sure what Naruto is trying to make was looking at me." Sakura cracked a smile as Kakashi stood.
"Come on." Kakashi took Sakura's hand and lead them out of the bathroom. She stared at Kakashi's hand wrapped around hers. He led them into the living room. "Get your shoes on." Kakashi whispered, she looked up at him. There was a twinkle in his one exposed eye, whatever it was it sparked Sakura's mischievous side and she willingly did as she was told.
"Where are you going?" Sasuke glared at the two with his arms crossed over his chest.
"We have to go to the store." Kakashi calmly answered.
"The store?" Naruto walked up beside Sasuke. "What for? Wait, weren't you just there?"
"And why can't you go, and Sakura stay here with us?" Sasuke added on.
"I need tampons." Sakura stood from the couch.
"Eh!?" Naruto choked up, Sasuke uncrossed his arms and shifted his feet. Sakura never understood why some men were uncomfortable with a woman's period.
"Are you two ok with going to buy me what I need?" Sakura called to the two who were pretending to be busy with their cooking. Sakura and Kakashi left the apartment taking full advantage of Sasuke and Naruto's uneasiness.
Sakura followed Kakashi out of the building and through the sleepy streets of the leaf village. Sakura gazed around her surroundings; it had been a long time since she walked these streets. Kakashi watched Sakura from the corner of his exposed eye. The moon light shined off the strands of her pink hair, reflecting off her glowing orbs of the blazing green that painted Sakura's eyes. Kakashi couldn't stop the thought of how radiant she appeared in this moment as they walked in silence.
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked pulling her attention onto Kakashi. Kakashi felt his eye widen in the sudden change of her attention, he quickly looked ahead.
"I thought you would like something to eat tonight that won't end up killing you." Kakashi smiled under his mask, turning back to look at Sakura who chuckled. Kakashi liked when her lips were tilted up when Sakura showed she was amused by something. Kakashi had taken Sakura to a small restaurant, the two were sat in a booth sitting across from each other.
"So-" Sakura spoke up after the two ordered their dinner from the server, the silence between them was nice but awkward. They were not old friends catching up, the fact they were even sitting here was odd enough. "-still on a team with those two?" Sakura laughed at the thought.
"Yes." Kakashi smiled, looking down at the table in front of him.
"That's good." Sakura allowed the conversation to die as she gazed out the window.
"Sakura-" Kakashi's darkened tone pulled Sakura back inside the restaurant. "-I'm sorry." Sakura stared at Kakashi, then glanced around her.
"For what?" She asked, the casual atmosphere she provided caused Kakashi to smile again. He couldn't stop smiling when he was around her.
"Tsunade told me." Kakashi said, he found himself feeling nervous. He rubbed his ungloved hands on the top of his pants. What was going on with him today?
"Oh." Sakura leaned back against the booth.
"And I am sorry-" Kakashi added to his statement, "-for that night, I should have listened more and I-"
"Kakashi I-" Sakura started but then snapped her mouth shut, looking out the window again. Kakashi noticed how Sakura didn't call him sensei and he oddly liked that factor. When Naruto and Sasuke stopped calling him sensei it was weird and a little unsettling but when Sakura said only his name, it just hit differently. Sakura's sigh brought Kakashi back to reality. "-I don't see what the point of having this conversation."
"I just thought you would want-"
"You think I want your apology?" Sakura laughed shaking her head. "What good does that do me?"
"Closure?"
"I don't need closure." Sakura leaned on her arm. "It would be you and Tsunade looking for it. I am not interested in having a heart to heart and a group cry." Kakashi was about to respond but stopped, seeing the server bring the food. Sakura thanked the server who smiled and left them alone to enjoy their meals. "Is that why you brought me here?" Sakura picked up her fork, glancing at Kakashi and trying to read his reaction.
"No." Kakashi answered honestly.
"Hm." Sakura took a bite of the pasta she ordered. Conversation between the two all but died. Sakura looked up after staring off into space, Kakashi's plate was empty. "Still with the mask?" Sakura wondered in a bored tone. Kakashi only smiled and closed his exposed eye as he did so. Sakura rolled her eyes,
"I was impressed." Out of the blue Kakashi complimented.
"Huh?"
"On the mission, your skill has drastically improved. I can see why you are Commander of the Waterfall Village."
"Uh..." Sakura didn't know how to react; she didn't like being complimented. Kaguya never did it because she felt it babied Sakura and no one else in the waterfall village would willingly talk to Sakura since she was their boss.
"Can I ask who trained you?" Kakashi threaded lightly,
"Kaguya." Sakura answered, smiling to herself waiting for the reaction she always got. She watched Kakashi's eye widen in surprise for a moment. She laughed at his expression, turning back to her pasta.
"You uh..." Kakashi was at a loss for words.
"She is not like before." Sakura said, reading the look in his eye. "She hasn't gone crazy on me yet."
"I trust you." Kakashi smiled, "I am proud of you, Sakura." She looked up at him, she didn't need appraisal from other people, but Sakura found herself feeling delighted Kakashi was proud, Sakura leaned back on her arm studying Kakashi. The poor bastard had no idea just how broken she was, if he ever saw just how unsavable Sakura was, he would be so disappointed.
"You said Tsunade told you the truth?" Sakura was a little curious what everyone thought had happened to Sakura Haruno. "What did she tell you when I vanished?"
"It was four days." Kakashi said. "We were wondering where you were after four days. That was when Tsunade pulled us into her office and explained you went out on a solo mission, but you never came back."
"That's the best she could come up with?" Sakura laughed, "Terrible."
"She declared you fallen after six days." Kakashi went on to explain. Sakura was surveying Kakashi, there an emotion in his eye, pain? No, that couldn't be right.
"It's kinda funny." Sakura smiled to herself.
"What is?" Kakashi wondered.
"You said it was four days before you all came looking or me?"
"Yes?"
"I waited three." Sakura laughed at the irony.
"I am so sorry-"
"I don't want to hear those words, that word means nothing to me. This isn't a conversation you want to have with me Kakashi." Sakura warned.
"Then what can I do?"
"What?" Sakura laughed, "What the hell do you mean what can you do? Can you go back in time and stop Tsunade? Or how about you go all the way back, actually give a damn and train me like you trained Naruto and Sasuke?"
"I-"
"Did you think I was going to say some cheap shit like being banished made me stronger?"
"You were a child; you didn't need to be stronger you needed to be safe."
"Your preaching to the quire."
"That is what I told Tsunade." Kakashi sighed, rubbing the side of his head.
"Told Tsunade what?" Sakura asked.
"That I should have been told what she did to you."
"Did she tell you why she didn't?"
"Yes."
"Well do you care to share?"
"She was worried I would have left the village with you."
"Yeah right-" Sakura scoffed.
"She would have been right." Kakashi's serious tone sent a shiver down Sakura's arms. She cleared her throat looking anywhere but Kakashi. "Would you like a cup of coffee?" Kakashi questioned, Sakura looked back to survey him.
"Sure." She answered.
----
Three days had passed; today was the day Sakura was finally getting briefed on the mystical threat against the leaf village. Sakura had finally been able to contact Kaguya who had lost her phone. Kaguya said she would get Dawn, a woman Sakura put as her second in command to investigate the Reapers migration.
Kaguya wanted Sakura to focus on recovery, but Sakura believed Kaguya enjoyed the fact Sakura was being tortured by being inside the leaf village. Sakura was inside the apartment Tsunade let her borrow. She was on a laptop also borrowed from Tsunade talking to her second and third commanders of the waterfall village.
"If Kaguya knew we were talking to you, and not letting you rest you know she would kill us, right?" Diem, Sakura's third command joked.
"Don't get caught then?" Sakura half joked, because she knew Diem was right. "How is everything going over there?"
"Boring." Dawn scoffed. "Not a damn exciting thing has happened! You're the only one having fun!"
"Oh yeah-" Sakura rolled her eyes. "-I am having so much fun."
"But really Sakura-" Diem spoke up. "-don't worry, we will handle the Reapers. You have their poison in your system you should really take cover until it is gone."
"I am taking it easy-" Sakura stopped speaking as she watched the front door open.
"Sakura!" Naruto sang as he just walked in. Sakura sighed, already having a headache. Sasuke and Kakashi were behind him. Sakura turned, glaring at the screen at her laughing commanders.
"Good luck!" Dawn and Diem called, hanging up the video chat.
"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head. "Who was that?" He muttered.
"My commanders." Sakura answered, standing from the couch closing the laptop.
"Commanders?" Sasuke had his arms crossed over his chest, why was there more than one commander?
"My second and third." Sakura clarified. "If something happens to me, they are there as...backups." Sakura put it.
"What would happen to you?" Naruto dumbly asked. Sakura raised an eyebrow, and then glanced at Kakashi.
"If I was killed in battle or something." Sakura turned back to Naruto. "They are there so the Waterfall Village doesn't collapse." Naruto looked down, he didn't like thinking about Sakura and dying in the same sentence. Naruto was still seeing Sakura jumping in front of him and saving his life but almost losing hers, when he closed his eyes.
"Are you ready to go Sakura?" Kakashi asked Sakura, changing the subject. She nodded; she was finally going to be get briefed on the threat, she could then track it and take it down then return to where she belongs, the waterfall village.
Sakura followed team seven through the village, where once more she was stared at like she was on show. Team seven was meeting Tsunade in the Hokage tower from what Sakura understood. They walked straight through with little interruption. Kakashi held the door open for Sakura, once she stepped into the office Tsunade smiled, beaming with delight.
"Sakura!" Tsunade greeted.
"Tell me." Sakura cut to the chase.
"Ugh." Tsunade was not a fan of how blunt Sakura had become. "We have been having small attacks-" Tsunade went on to explain how leaf village teams were getting jumped. Other people traveling to the leaf village had also been getting attacked and robbed. Kakashi's eye twitched he knew she was lying to Sakura, using the information Kakashi had given her when they first returned with Sakura injured to make up a story in order to keep Sakura around longer. Kakashi glanced over towards Sakura, if this Reaper's group really was beginning to migrate then that meant Sakura would have to remain here?
"But why would they even migrate in the first place?" Sasuke asked.
"When the Reaper's first popped up they were going after smaller villages, then as they got stronger, they began getting braver hitting large ones." Sakura said.
"But what turned you onto them?" Tsunade wondered.
"They tried coming after the Waterfall Village." Sakura closed her eyes; she didn't like to remember this far back into her past.
"Yeah but...that doesn't explain why your so-" Naruto started,
"They are a group of shinobi who kill people for fun, do I really need a reason?" Sakura snapped, Kakashi placed his hands in his pockets. So, the Reapers were one of Sakura's buttons.
"I suppose not..." Tsunade trailed off. "Do you believe it is this group of Reapers that are attacking us?" Tsunade sounded so innocent.
"It's possible." Sakura answered. "I haven't seen them this far out yet. We did just hit them pretty hard so I thought they would need more time to recover."
"Hit them hard?" Naruto questioned Sakura's words.
"We attacked one of their bases." Sakura explained scratching her arm. "It was a fairly large camp, and we killed a couple dozen of them."
"Wow." Naruto breathed; Sakura was so cool!
"Why go after villages?" Tsunade pondered.
"Because the villages are like trophies to the Reapers, the bigger the village-"
"The bigger the trophy." Tsunade finished, Sakura nodded her head. Now they were starting to get it. "This is a freaking game to them!"
"You said they don't go near large villages, why are they near us then?" Sasuke thought out loud.
"Because the Reapers are now stronger than this village, they want their trophy." Sakura explained.
"What?" Sasuke and Naruto scoffed together.
"That is impossible." Naruto crossed his arms over his chest as if that could make his fantasy true.
"Yeah okie." Sakura laughed, "You three are quote 'the best team' and you could barely keep up with the groups we ran into while on the way to the land of whirlpools. Those shinobi were the newbies of the Reapers, how do you think you can fair against an actual member? If what you say is true Tsunade, you need to get your village ready."
"Ready? Ready for what?"
"War." Sakura answered.