Chapter 33
Chapter 33: Countdown: 4
After the picnic, Sakura went home, shoveled down some cardboard rations, and then sauntered to the training ground. An enthusiastic Shisui greeted her. After a while, they figured out more about her freaky Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Let’s take a break for two weeks. My Sharingan sometimes goes crazy if I overuse it...I need to charge it a bit..." she admitted, which made the Shisui pout, and Itachi shrugged his shoulders. Her Sharingan was really weird.
"Besides, your little brother will be miserable if you don’t go home and teach him something!" she turned to Itachi, who deadpanned at her comment. Sasuke could get too dramatic. After bidding the teenager goodbye the 12-year-old sighed as she closed the door behind her. The eerie quietness of the home made her miss her Mission in Nami when she woke up to a nice breakfast with her Team at their host Tsunami-
Sakura shoot the thought away. She had no right to be close to her team.
Walking inside, she tossed her ninja sandals into the foyer:" I´m Home...", she yelled knowing no one would respond but silence. Her feet softly patted against the cold ground. She made sure the two of them were gone. She dropped off her clothes and stared at the clock on her bed, setting it for 5 a.m. Her hospital shift was early. She removed the floorboards, climbed down the long staircase to her familiar iron maiden, and slipped in. Pain was an old friend, reliable in its consistency. The memories carved themselves into her like scars on flesh.
She’d rather sleep in there than on her bed. Ever since she came back from Nami, her sleepwalking had become worse. If she hadn’t been in this coffin, she might have caused more people to die at her hands. She sighed, not flinching at the familiar, painful pricks entering her skin. The ninja threads pierced her arms and suspended her inside the needle coffin. She closed her eyes, relieved. She wore her trauma-like armor, heavy and suffocating. Soon her mind diverted to a dream consisting of quiet water, and trees. Nature. It was more nice than usual.
She may have slept an hour or two.
But suddenly, she was startled awake by two familiar chakra signatures and dragged out of the coffin.
Confused, she blinked.
"Sakura, who—wait, no one else has been here!" It was Shisui who grabbed her out, and noticing her, uh, lack of clothing, he panicked and threw his officer vest at her.
"Itachi... she’s... torturing herself!", he yelled in panic again.
That’s how, a few minutes later, she had two Uchiha officers at her kitchen table, looking as if she’d just burned the Hokage. Oh, great. Right—self-harming isn’t okay? She rubbed her tired eyes and sighed. Welp....How was she going to lie her way out of this one? In a few hours, she had her shift, team training, and other responsibilities. The quiet hooting of an owl outside was a bit crating to her ears but she was used to noise. The Dropping of wet water droplets from her sink's faucet was rhythmic.
"Well, I’ll be frank—it’s to avoid another sleepwalking incident where I become stabby, as you say," she spilled the beans, and Shisui looked at her, frustrated.
"This is not okay. Sakura, Kami—okay, you’re coming with me!"
With a blink of an eye, she was teleported somewhere else—Shisui’s home, probably, since she’d seen Itachi’s home plenty of times. She was placed on the floor. Ha, ha she had been kidnapped.
"Wait, wait, wait. My alarm! I have to go to my hospital shift at 5," she protested freaking out.
Itachi’s eyebrow twitched as he walked to what seemed to be a phone, called the hospital, and signed her off.
Oh, shit.
These two were going to lecture her. Sweat began to bead on her brow. How was she going to get out of this one?
Shisui sighed as he threw her a shirt. Yeah, a shirt.
"If you sleepwalk, I’ll stop you, again okay? Not the first time you stabbed me. I’m stronger than you think. But that iron maiden? It needs to go. And also, what the hell is wrong with you, kid?"
Everything, she wanted to say. Some creepy Warhawk guy named Danzo Shimura and ROOT, Chimera Project, I am Agent 03 Petal that killed the guy you´ve been searching for a whole year, EVERYTHING, she wanted to say. But she kept silent. No one was going to know or find out. It was good enough that these two were keeping her Sharingan secret. Her past hung over her like a specter, whispering reminders of who she was.
She made sure her ROOT tattoo was hidden by her long pink hair.
"Wash up, Sakura. Also, you can trust us," Itachi said as he left.
She looked down, walking to the bathroom, washing off the blood, and healing her wounds. She was used to pain. She was used to this.
She was a tool, after all. A tool that killed her own master.
She didn’t flinch when the ice water hit her skin when she dropped the two large shirts on her dry body, and when she was ushered into a guest room by Shisui’s warm smile.
Would he and Itachi still smile at her if they knew what she did?
To the Uchiha clan in the dead of night? When she was ordered to kill children, babies pillage graves under orders of Danzo? That she didnt resist him enough like a cowards?
She went under the blanket.
Surprisingly, Shisui was able to stop her from sleepwalking very well. So when the morning sun rose, she had successfully not stabbed him—seven times, according to him. He joked she was a scary sleepwalker. Staring at breakfast, she sighed. She didn’t deserve this kindness. But she forced herself to accept it. She couldn’t draw more suspicion to herself.
"Geh. I checked your pantry at home. Self-harm and bad diet? Ration bars and soldier pills aren’t food, kid!" Shisui scolded, and for the first time, Sakura mentally smiled.
She got scolded like a child.
She shook her head and was accompanied by Shisui to her training spot. The Uchiha district was full of life.
If they knew what I did the last five years when I was in ROOT, she thought darkly. She couldn’t let it slip.
On the way, she met Sasuke and Itachi.
"Eh? Sakura? Why are you here? Not that I mind, but why are you with my uncle? Shisui, what did you do?!" Sasuke’s eyes lit up, his face morphing into panic glaring at the teenager.
"Ah, Sakura has been asking me to teach her genjutsu!" Shisui lied smoothly and winked at her.
Sakura felt the pit in her stomach deepen.
She would rather be back in ROOT’s basements, tortured, her fingernails ripped off, in sensory deprivation—anything—than be treated kindly.
But Danzo was dead.
ROOT was gone.
All the agents rehabilitated and safely interacted with the village.
The children were safe.
All that was left was her monster, chimera self.
70% Hatake, 20% Uchiha, and 10% Senju DNA. The only survivor of the Chimera Project. An abomination. A flighty monster.
She walked beside the three Uchiha, quietly listening to the banter. Her face morphed into a fake smile. Her eyes wandered to the sun's horizon. Why did she wake up every day? Why didn't she end her life the day she ended Danzo´s? Was she a coward´s ist punishment for the lives she took´1589 lives she had more to save to make up for the 1.689 souls, she killed in Danzo's name for his fanatic belief that he could become Hokage, killed Minato killed the fire Dayimo, and become a perfect leader.
She couldn’t tell anyone this.
A hand patted her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Itachi shove something into her hands. She squinted her eyes. It was eye drops and... cookies?
When was the last time she ever got sweets? Sakura recalled it was a month before she had to end her predecessor, Rin had managed to find cookies somehow and gave them to her. The two, a woman and a girl, were on a mission and took a short break. The fireplace was crackling and Rin had winked at her. Danzo didn't see this so let them be human for once.
She could cry, she never touched sweets after that.
"Helps with dry eyes," Itachi said with a slight smile winking.
Sakura could scream and cry. Sakura stared down at the small package of cookies and eye drops, her hands trembling slightly. The warmth radiating from the Uchihas around her felt alien—uncomfortable yet strangely soothing. She didn't deserve all of this. As she and Sasuke entered the training field Sakura sighed. Naruto yelled a happy Good Morning at her as he went into a bickering match with Sasuke, A Fake smile and giggle escaped her mouth.
Her mind was heavy. She didn't notice the looks of worry from her Jonin teacher.
She didn’t deserve her friends: Ino, Hinata, and Tenten.
She didn't deserve her Team. Kakashi praises, Sasuke smirks, and Naruto's happy greetings.
She didn’t deserve to be in their lives.
She didn’t deserve to be in the Village.
She should have died in ROOT. Or in a ditch somewhere.
But she was alive undeserved.
And yet, as Sasuke glanced back at her and gave Naruto a smack which turned into a small brawl between the two she found herself clinging to the moment.
Kakashi beside her ruffled her hair and gestured for her to follow her to the training ground. Ignoring the two boys beating themselves blue and green.