Alright, second round. Don’t fail me, Kakashi characterization! D:

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Halcyon

Theme 15: Supporting the Other

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“...And the blueprints are still missing, so you—Sakura, are you listening to me?”

Said medic blinked back to reality. “Yeah, I’m listening. The blueprints are still missing.”

“I thought for a moment you were sleeping on the job,” Kakashi said cheekily. “I’d hate to have to scold you my first week as Hokage.”

The Copy Ninja smirked under his mask when a pair of wide awake – and annoyed – green eyes glared at him. “I’m fine. Where are those blasted blueprints?”

“The electrical plant ones? Most probably under all the rubble,” he shrugged. “We’ll have to keep digging to find everything we need. And to recover more bodies, it seems.”

Sakura sighed and rubbed her hand tiredly over her face. “I think I’ve seen enough death to last me the rest of my life,” she grumbled, for once not caring she was next to the current ruling Kage. “When do you think we’d have time to mourn our losses? It feels so bizarre to bury them without a passing word.”

“We’ll hold a grand memorial day for them, I promise,” he said softly. “For now I think it would be good if you go over the blueprints we recovered from the Tower’s site. It’s a general print of the village layout. Do you think you can distribute our forces equally? Ask Shikamaru to help you.”

“Yeah, his brain can be useful in this project,” she nodded. “Anything else, Hokage-sama?”

The silver-haired man groaned and directed his dark grey eye to the smirking young woman. “I’m going to give you a few graveyard shifts if you keep pulling that.”

“Hai, I’ll be going now,” she answered easily. “Just keep in mind that the scroll you’re holding is not a kunai. It’s actually the list of patients the hospital is treating, as you’ve asked.”

“Oh, good. Nice work, Sakura.”

She left the office shaking her head, wondering where the hell she could find Shikamaru.

-X-

She didn’t have to look hard for the tactical genius, for he was sitting in a boulder next to his father just outside the hospital. Luckily, both Nara men were all willing to help her with the logistics. Soon, they had everyone working in all the areas needed: a team was still clearing out the rubble, another one was cutting a few trees to prepare boards, while Yamato used his special jutsu to recreate a long line of wooden houses, much to the civilians’ relieved, vocal joy. Another team was in charge of giving a proper burial to the myriad of bodies that were still appearing under all the chaotic disaster that was left of the village. Shikaku went to join the burial team, while Shikamaru stayed with Sakura, as they discussed the how to proceed afterwards.

“And I guess we could house another chunk of the villagers in the Academy,” he was saying as he rearranged his leg encased in a cast on his seat, when Sakura suddenly frowned and looked around, seemingly searching for someone. “What’s wrong?”

“Where is Naruto?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him since he was released from the med-tent. And he’s not helping here.”

“I’m sure we’ll find him later,” Shikamaru said, bored. “This cast is such a drag.”

“I know it’s annoying, but I can’t spend all my chakra mending your femur,” she shot back as she looked again at the prints splayed over another rock. “Give it a rest for a while. We need copies of this to get another team lining the village layout. Hey, Sai!”

Said ink artist nodded when she explained what she wanted him to do. As his brush slid easily and expertly over the fourth copy of the print, he looked up when Sakura asked once more about Naruto’s whereabouts.

“Last time I saw him, he was in the Academy,” he relayed truthfully. “He didn’t look good.”

“I’m sure he didn’t,” she said with concern. “Stay with Shika for a moment, Sai. I’ll go look for him. And don’t let him walk around with that cast!”

“Tch, woman, you’re so troublesome,” she heard the Nara grumbling.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m annoying,” Sakura answered in a self-deprecating tone, walking towards the half-askew building she formerly knew as the Ninja Academy without looking back to see how Shikamaru had reacted to her words.

Naruto wasn’t in the Academy. Nor in the Cemetery, or the area where the Hokage Tower was. She found Yamato, Iruka, and Genma though, as they helped a group of people to erect a new Tower, which was going to be the ground zero for their logistics and command headquarters. Kakashi was there, waving lazily at her as he leaned and heaved up a heavy-looking piece of wood.

Everyone was helping...so where was Naruto?

Her eyes soon noticed a line of grey smoke that cut the blue in the sky. Quickly locating the spot, her feet took her to the immense crater left by Pein’s Shinra Tensei, discovering something she really wasn’t expecting.

Naruto was sitting in front of a large pyre, which contained the easily recognizable cloaked bodies that belonged to the Akatsuki Leader. It seemed as if there were only five bodies though.

Sakura knew that the real Pein, a man named Nagato, was maneuvering these bodies from a secluded location while they wreaked havoc in Konoha. Naruto had told her as much, as they prepared Shizune’s and Papa Frog’s bodies for burial.

However, she knew there were six bodies, not five.

Sliding down the crater, she walked up to her blond friend and sat next to him. He didn’t acknowledge her presence in the least.

“Naruto,” she called softly. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, Sakura-chan,” he responded after a long silent moment. “I figured I owed Nagato this much.”

Her brows drew in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“I...talked to him. He was so thin and tired, with almost no chakra,” he related, his azure eyes fixed on the pyre. “He was so stubborn, wanting to kill everyone to make a difference. He said he was going to organize the world and to finish with all the wars.”

“By making the countries fall into chaos first?” Sakura asked in disbelief. “That’s insane!”

“Yeah, that’s what I told him,” Naruto shook his head sadly. “But he was determined to fight me; even if he couldn’t move from that thing that kept him up, even if he knew he wasn’t going to win...he wanted to fight me.”

“Naruto...”

“I told him about the Ero-sennin, yanno,” he kept talking, not noticing that Kakashi and Sai had wandered over to the edge of the crater and were observing the scene. “I told him about this book he wrote. Nagato was the hero in that book. He never knew how much Ero-sennin wanted him to share his opinion....but he wanted to inflict as much pain as he got. He died peacefully, and Konan – the woman that was with him – took his body with her...and the other body, too. He was their friend.”

“...I...can’t really blame him for that,” she murmured, now knowing what the Akatsuki Leader had meant by dealing a painful retribution. “We know...about that feeling, about wanting revenge,” her eyes met Naruto’s, and he nodded in understanding. “Now we understand why...why Sasuke-kun was so adamant in getting his revenge.”

“I do understand, and that’s what confuses the hell outta me, Sakura-chan,” he confessed, frowning at the pyre. “It’s...I mean, if he killed Itachi, why he wouldn’t want to come back? We’re his family! And now he has a new team?”

Sakura knew how her friend felt. Betrayed, disappointed, and cheated even.

“Maybe he thought we weren’t enough,” she finally dared to voice her most secret thoughts. “Maybe he thought we didn’t have enough backbone to help him with his revenge. Maybe he thinks we’re still weak,” she added bitterly, making Naruto look at her with worry.

“Sakura-chan, you’re strong –”

“Maybe now I am,” she cut him off with a shake of her head. “But I wasn’t before, and now I’m...I’m in charge of so many lives, and shishou looks so fragile, and this is so horrible, Naruto...” her eyes filled with tears, “and I can only think that maybe...maybe Sasuke-kun will come here, as an enemy, and we’re gonna have to fight him...”

“I don’t want to fight him,” Naruto blurted out, making her gasp. “I just want him to come back home. But if...if he’s a threat for us...for the people we have left...then I will protect them. I can’t...I’ve been thinking about all this...Nagato gave me so much to think about, and I don’t want to! I don’t want to kill my best friend!”

“Naruto!” she exclaimed, surprised. It was the first time she had heard such words coming from her friend’s mouth, and she realized that this had been what he had been mulling so hard since he returned from his fight with the Akatsuki Leader.

“I don’t want to kill him...but if I have to...I will.”

“Oh, Naruto, you don’t mean that,” she said, now crying in earnest. “Sasuke-kun is –”

“Can you forgive me, Sakura-chan?” he interrupted her, looking more frazzled and desperate than ever. “I...have to confess that...I really think I can’t fulfill my promise...” he trailed off. “I realize now how hard is to be a ninja. To take another’s life...without even thinking if that person has a family, friends...this is...and Sasuke really didn’t want to be saved, right? He just wanted to do things his way. And we were in his way. I was in his way.”

“You have more things to think about now,” she tried desperately to steer him off this painful topic. “You have the people’s acknowledgment now. You’re our hero, Naruto, and no matter what, we’ll stand by you. All of us, Neji-san, Lee-san, Hinata-chan...even Kakashi-sensei! You know he’s just warming your chair for when you’re ready to be Hokage.”

The blond young man let out a wet laugh. “Yeah, I bet he’s getting a kick out of ordering people around,” he snickered, his eyes still moist. “I...I’m sorry, Sakura-chan. I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be--Naruto!!” she exclaimed as she watched her friend kneeling and bowing humbly to her. “What are you doing?!”

“I want your forgiveness!” he shouted. “I can’t...bring him back...I just can’t...”

“Stop it!” she cried, “You haven’t done anything wrong!”

“But my promise –”

“Listen, baka!” she yelled at him, at her wits’ end. “I’d rather for you to be safe than to be running around and get hurt trying to get him back! He doesn’t want to come back, and I don’t care anymore!” she hauled him up as she stood up. “Look around you, Naruto! We have to rebuild our home! I don’t want to look for him anymore when I see this! I...”

She fell silent when she raised her head and noticed a group of four people standing at the other side of the gigantic crater. A silver-haired guy; a tall, orange-haired man and a redheaded woman with glasses...and the one they were just talking about.

The entire group was wearing Akatsuki cloaks.

“Sasuke...” Naruto whispered, not believing his eyes.

“Naruto, Sakura,” he greeted tonelessly, as he watched impassively how Kakashi and Sai joined the other two with a couple of leaps, ready for battle.

“Uchiha Sasuke!” the pink-haired kunoichi hissed, clenching her fists in anger. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

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- Tenna' ento lye omenta -

-XxX-

AN: Ahahaha. The shit is about to hit the fan, as if they hadn’t enough with having their home in ruins. I gotta say, this is the scene that is missing in the manga in my opinion, not to have them running around like headless chickens because of that stupid Danzou. En fin. Not much KakaSaku interaction, but I’m just building the drama up, haha.

As usual, many thanks and love to MelissaRose85 for her wonderful betaing work, and to you guys for reading. 8D