I Watched a Change in You

Sakura wakes to a soft light hitting her face and the smell of antiseptics. She blinks her eyes open and looks around, the familiar site of a hospital room greets her. Immense relief hits her and she sags into the bed. She’s finally out of the white void she’s been in for forever. A part of her really thought she was done for after the first couple of days and she wasn't able to find a way out. Raising her hand to her face she notices her hands are rougher than when she last occupied her body. A cough disrupts her and she snaps her head to the corner of the room to find a familiar face peaking from behind a book.

“Kakashi Sensei!” Relief spreads through her that it’s her old Sensei and not her father.

“How are you feeling?” Kakashi puts his book away and steps to her bed.

“Sore.” She says honestly then looks around and notices a large vase of flowers. “So pretty, who..?”

“Ino, she brought them as soon as she heard, she should be back soon.” Kakashi moves to the front of her bed. “I should go grab a nurse.”

“Wait…” Sakura bites her lip and looks down. “Kakashi Sensei…” Where does she start?

Kakashi pauses and she hears him hum, she looks up to see him smiling, “It’s a relief that you’re back, you see, we thought Itachi accidentally killed you.”

Sakura swallows hard at that, “Well, you aren’t wrong, he did kill a Sakura, but honestly I couldn’t tell you what version it was, but it wasn’t me, thankfully.”

Kakashi face is devoid of expression and she can’t gage what he could be thinking at this point. He looks down in thought and puts his hands in his pockets, his quiet response gives her anxiety.

“Did anything happen? Did she do anything embarrassing?” She inquires with a bit of urgency, wondering how much shit she might be in dawning on her.

Kakashi chuckles. “Embarrassing? Not quite. The other Sakura was intent on being a kunoichi and because it would be easy for Tenzo and I to monitor her we let her, ‘you’, back on the team.” Kakashi meets her eyes. “We haven’t told the Hokage of this mishap yet, but your team knows, the Uzumaki’s know and so does the Uchiha’s.”

Sakura gaps at that then rubs her face, the Uchiha’s and the Uzumaki’s know... Kami!

“So…” She hesitates then she can’t help the small smile that creeps, “I’m back on the team?”

Her sensei pauses and looks at her seriously. “Of course. And I know this will sound strange but 'you' have been staying with me and you can continue to if you want. If not we can figure something out.”

Sakura swallows hard and tries not to tear up and nods. “Thank you, Sensei.”

“Don’t you worry about a thing Sakura. You’re back now.” Kakashi reaches over and pats her head. “I’m going to get a nurse, get some rest.” With that Kakashi leaves.

Sakura sighs heavily and lays back down suddenly too tired.

………………………

After leaving the hospital Kakashi takes off towards the Uzumaki residence, his mind still thinking about earlier that morning. Of course Naruto was upset but he didn't think he would act like that...

It was quite the shock to come back to the training grounds with a panicking Naruto holding a knocked out Sakura in his arms. Her face bruised and body limp in Naruto’s grasp while he continued to hold her in shock. Kakashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to stop him from moving and to lay Sakura on the ground. As he looked at the damage he watched as her seal gem disappeared from her forehead, the traveler no doubt leaving along with it. Naruto beside him had his hand gentle against her face and while he mumbled apologies to her did she open her eyes. Those eyes filled with hurt but the moment they found Naruto, Kakashi could tell... there was love.

Kakashi can't help but growl to himself as he makes his way to Naruto's room. The poor dimension traveler went through a lot and definitely didn't deserve that send off. No matter how relieved he is that their Sakura is back it doesn't change how much he grew fond of the other Sakura.

Kakashi lands into Naruto’s room through his open window. The young man is laying on his bed with a frown upon his tear stained face. He takes in a silent sigh before starting. On the way over he practiced on what to say so he tries to keep his patience. “I expected better of you, Naruto. What made you land such a heavy hit to her head during a spar?”

“I know….” Naruto says curling into himself and turning from him. “She okay?”

“She is, and it’s our Sakura. She came back.” Kakashi leans against the wall staring hard at Naruto who is shuddering and gasping. “I’m telling your parents about this incident, it was uncalled for and unlike you Naruto. And you are going to learn from this.” Kakashi pauses still staring at Naruto’s back. “Look at me Naruto.”

Naruto remains silent but his shoulders continue to shake and Kakashi can hear sniffling.

“Look at me!” Kakashi snarls and Naruto turns quickly sitting up from his bed with his shoulder hunched over but he looks up tears running down his face.

“Nothing I do, or your parents do, to punish you for your despicable behavior during this spar will rid you of this feeling you have right now. It’s going to live with you, even after Sakura forgives you. You need to think about these actions and the consequences, you can’t let the demon take hold of you, do you understand?”

“I do.” Naruto croaks out a response.

Kakashi gives him a hard stare before taking off.

——————

Kakashi walks into his apartment and finds Obito and Itachi in his living room. They are sitting on their knees before his table with cups of tea. They are in their ANBU gear, so it’s not a simple house call, it’s a mission.

“Report.”

“The Hokage is requesting you on a mission, we have orders to follow you to the land of Sand to do some recon on some suspicious activity. There’s more details in here.” Obito hands him the scroll, his face covered by his badger mask. “Kakashi, rumor has it that T&I unit is gonna be picking up your kid soon.”

Kakashi takes the scroll and enters his room to gear up. It’s no surprise that interrogation would want to see Sakura, especially if her friends noticed how different the girl had become. Fortunately, or unfortunately it’s not his biggest concern anymore seeing as how their own Sakura is behind the wheel again. Still, Kakashi summons Pakkun before leaving sending a message to Tenzo about the update about T&I coming for Sakura.

As he stands before the Hokage he feels a tension in the air and when he meets the Hokage’s eyes he can see an unfamiliar blank mask. Kakashi knows he should have told him about Sakura sooner. A possible breach in security should always be immediately addressed to the Hokage and he violated the first rule in that protocol and he’s acting ANBU Captain when he’s not on missions with his team.

“Kakashi, you and your team are going to do some recon near Suna’s border, the exact coordinates are inside your scroll. You are not to engage with anyone for any reason no matter how dire. Intel states that a set of individuals have been building shrines and leaving dead livestock in front of it… but that’s mild compared to the other things they've been doing… Another source says they have found dried up corpses without any blood in front of the shrines as well. Right now there's no match for this kind of religious behavior found in our database.”

Obito shuffles on his feet, and Kakashi knows his superstitious friend is already regretting this mission. Well that’s what he gets for doing ANBU part time, he should have just stuck with teaching the kids, but apparently that doesn’t pay enough. Itachi’s energy seemed to spark with determination, the man always enjoys a good mystery on a mission.

“Yes, Hokage-sama!” They all bow and then take off speedily in the direction of Suna. If they continue to make good timing they can reach their destination in three days. And with any luck they may catch these individuals in the act, building a shrine can take time and if they are still in that area chances are good they will.

As Kakashi leads his team through the forest, jumping from branch to branch his mind replays the meeting with the Hokage. There was tension in the air and something felt off about the way the Hokage looked at him, was it distrust or was it because of the nature of the mission?

Keeping Sakura’s predicament a secret from the Hokage was something he and Minato intimately discussed and they did not take it lightly, simply put, they have their reasons. He sighs and continues to pay attention to their surroundings making sure no one is tailing them. He will have to think of a way he can smooth things over with the Hokage when he gets back, maybe pick Tsunade’s brain first just to see if the guy like’s a specific brand of sake. All he can do is hope that shit doesn’t hit the fan before then but unfortunately there’s another side to this… Perhaps he was tasked with this mission, and Itachi specifically because they are untrustworthy right now. Might be the Hokage wants them out of town while he does his own investigating.. Kami knows if the Hokage catches wind of all that has happened from someone like Naruto. Ugh, he grimaces and checks on his two comrades behind him.

“Let’s stop at the border.”
………….

Sakura is staring up at the ceiling when her door opens, she looks over and watches as two shinobi walk in.

“Sakura Haruno, you were just cleared and you’re to come with us.” The shinobi addressing her has blonde hair and blue eyes, clearly a Yamanaka. She wishes she can say she’s surprised but she knew Kakashi was leaving out a lot and probably for the best.

She gets dressed with them watching her and she follows them out with both at her side.

The hospital staff stare at her as they exit but she holds her head up high. She didn’t do anything wrong and she wasn’t about to cow down, this is just routine. Once they enter the interrogation building her courage starts to ebb away. The cold and bare halls with luminescent lights blaring down on her reminds her of her time inside that crazy Sakura’s head. They turn down several different halls and corridors before stopping at a large door with a one sided glass on the outside.

Her two escorts remain outside as she walks in alone. There’s a table and two chairs, picking one she sits down and waits. And waits. And waits. Pretty soon she has to go to the bathroom and she’s trying to not show any emotion. Pretend this is a mission or something for Kami’s sake.

The door slams open and in comes a man with a scar across his face and a smile but his steely eyes trained on her shows malice. He scraps the chair back and sits down across from her.

“There’s been some information on you. What I find very interesting are the sources, can you guess who they are?” The interrogator asks her.

She shakes her head, “I don’t, sir.”

He hums. “Do you know why you are here?”

“I don’t, sir.” She says dully and looks at the table and decides to fold her hands together.

“Take a guess, I want to hear it.” His tone of voice almost insinuating like there’s a long list that he knows of. ‘Go on, rattle off all the names who would rat you out, make our job easier,’. She knows he’s trying to rattle her and it is working, she swallows.

“I think…” Sakura doesn’t know who to say, so she says the only person who really does come to mind. “My father, Kizashi Haruno.”

He continues to stare then looks down at the folder he brought in with him. “Well well.” Opening the folder he takes out a document and shows it to her. A picture of her smashing her fist into the ground with debris in the air. Another picture of her with chakra scalpels while in a fight. All presumably of the other Sakura either in a spar or during a mission, needless to say the girl didn’t mention anything about being tailed in their conversations.

Pissed off she pushes it back. “Nice pictures, I would like copies.”

“Where did you learn these techniques? Last we knew you quit being a kunoichi.” The interrogator takes another document eyeing it before looking at her.

“I took a break because I lost my mother but I didn’t quit, my duty is to protect and serve Konoha.” Sakura tones back her anger and tries to calm down. “She was murdered, I am sure you have records of that somewhere in that folder you have.”

So her anger seeps back out but she blames it on having to take a piss.

“Your Sensei, tell me about him.” It’s a demand, but it’s not an angry one. Instead the interrogator sounds inquisitive like he’s just chatting up about a friend.

“What’s to tell?” She’s not a fool, she’s not going to betray anyone on her team.

“You say you serve Konoha, then you will tell me about Hatake Kakashi or we will skip all this and take you in and begin the real torture for this interrogation.” Sakura can feel the heat come off this guy, he’s practically getting off at thinking he’s putting the fear of Kami in her. Well tough shit, she’s been in a mental isolation cell for weeks now, she can handle a physical one!

“That’s fine with me.” She scowls.

The man laughs and throws the folder together and slaps it down on the table. “I love it when you fools say that. Take her to her cell!” He shouts and the door opens to have her escorts take her out while putting on chakra cuffs around her wrists.

…………….

Ino paces her bedroom while Shikamaru is sitting on her bed.

“We have to say something.” Ino whispers not trusting the thickness of the walls or her mother’s inane ability to hear the tiniest noise from miles away. “We have to.”

“Think of how this will reflect on us, you only guess… and well, I did too. The chances of us guessing that right though? That puts us on the dart board.” Shikamaru has had this discussion with her twenty times now. “We just can’t, and what would that even help?”

Ino squeezes her fist and clenches her teeth down forcing her to heavily breath in through her nose. Her frustration has been mounting since being inside her friends head and now she’s finally awake and discharged and T&I take her before she can get to her!

“You know what they do Shika. You know what they are going to do to our friend.”

Shikamaru closes his eyes feeling like a massive weight is bearing down on him. His father always told him to be a respectable shinobi and here he is being a coward. Logically speaking, and without emotions, it would be better for them to stay quiet and help Sakura from the shadows. They say anything to anyone and they will be right in that interrogation cell with her.

But is it the right thing to do?

“We can’t just disclose information such as that to anyone.”

“They’re our parents.”

“Doesn’t matter… she said… her leader knows.” Shikamaru avoids naming names when they might be over heard.

“Not available, I tried already.” Ino’s whisper is so quiet Shikamaru can hardly hear it and looks at her lips instead.

He shakes his head, that figures, and that’s exactly why he has a slight towards Kakashi. The guy just ticks him off. And of course he’s heard all about how he’s a hero. But any guy who blatantly walks around with porn is a creep! And he’s heard how he is from Naruto, dudes a flake.

“Troublesome.”

Ino looks at him with her ‘don’t start’ look.

……………

Sai is at headquarters picking up his latest mission. With Kakashi gone and Sakura now awake and returned to normal it’s time for him to take a break. He almost regrets not learning more about Root Sakura to see how she dealt with coping but it never felt like a good time. Sai was just heading out when Tenzo appears besides him looking flustered.

“Is that a mission?” Tenzo asks as he looks down at Sai’s scroll.

Putting the scroll away Sai nods to his mentor. “I figured it would be nice to do a simple B rank, get out of here and clear my head.”

Tenzo looks put off but only for a split second then nods. “That’s a good idea. Are you heading out immediately?”

“It’s not that kind of mission but I was going to.” Is there something wrong? He tilts his head, the unspoken question doesn’t translate and Tenzo waves him off.

“Just be safe, you know with the heatwaves… make sure you get extra water when you can.” Tenzo reminds him, then disappears.

That was weird… Sai continues to walk towards the house feeling a sense of foreboding but Tenzo would have said something. He decides to leave earlier than planned after that, sometimes he thinks he makes up issues for him to be anxious about, just another form of PTSD brought by sudden changes. That’s what his self help book said anyway.