Riptide

They hunkered down early that evening as the water continued pouring from the sky. The rain had picked up and there was no point in sloshing through the night. They found a cave and Kakashi and Yugao carefully made sure it was well structured before letting the team in. They didn’t risk a fire, instead wringing out what had gotten wet under their heavy rain cloaks. They kept a careful watch that night as the rain slowed before stopping, just before dawn.

All of them were on edge.

The next morning Gai scooped Sakura up just outside the shelter, not letting her run herself as they made for the treetops to avoid the mud and put on speed. One mile, two, as they sped through the old growth trees, keeping careful footing on moss and lichen covered branches and darting around the evergreens that offered no easy travel. Kakashi was focused on the pack behind them while Yugao took point.

Kakashi’s nose twitched, he saw Tenzo blink.

“Down!” Sakura shouted first voice loud and shocked.

Kakashi dropped instantly but Yugao wasn’t as lucky. Kakashi caught himself on a lower branch and saw what Sakura had shouted a warning about. In the low morning lighting the large white threads were nearly invisible. And they surrounded them. Gai had went high and clung to a treetop with care as Tenzo was already at Yugao’s side, trying to cut her free.

“Nets?” Kakashi demanded.

“No,” Tenzo said and his voice was shocked, “Webs.”

Kakashi felt the hair on the back of his neck raise and barely ducked in time to avoid long dark limbs.

“Spiders!” Gai yelped and there was a thin note of fear Kakashi had never heard from his friend.

“Spiders,” Kakashi cursed as he saw the dog sized creature chittering from the branch he’d just stood on.

“Genjutsu!” Sakura yelled, flaring her chakra.

Kakashi copied her immediately and then had to dodge a blow as a spider he hadn’t known was there, hidden under an illusion, appeared lunging at him. Somewhere above him Tenzo was cursing and Yugao was worryingly silent. Sakura, clinging to Gai’s back was flaring her chakra erratically and Kakashi realized with dread that the genjutsu was not a single genjutsu, but multiple ones, all layered perfectly and cast by multiple users. Kakashi dismissed another one just in time to save himself from jumping face first into a large web that had looked like a clear space.

Kakashi drew his tanto and cursed as he uncovered his sharingan.

He had a moment of dread before a spider was coming at him, the size of a horse as it raced down a tree.

“Its the spiders!” he yelled, “They’re casting the genjutsu.”

“Very good!” the spider trying to eat him chittered.

Kakashi stared at the summon even as he deflected a leg with his sword. Somewhere above him Tenzo had stopped cursing and grown silent. Gai and Sakura came crashing through a branch, thrown downwards, and Gai had managed to shield Sakura from that blow but they were both dazed. Kakashi slashed at the spider, caught its eye, and dropped from the tree as it shrieked in pain. Gai was on his back winded, and Sakura had rolled free of his arms, knives in hand.

It took Kakashi a moment to note that Gai wasn’t merely winded but had thick web tangled around his face. Sakura was already lunging forward, knife slicing through the web and Gai gasped for air. Kakashi looked up, blade raised and felt something like dread as he stared up at the hundreds of eyes staring back. The trees were thick with white web and with spiders that ranged from the size of cats to horses. They were watching silently, illusions evaporating like wisps of smoke to reveal even more and more.

Kakashi darted a glance at where they’d entered the area and found their trail clear, but the moss-covered limbs and evergreens melted away to show more branches covered in web. They’d been neatly guided right into a trap, too careful to keep their senses stretched behind them instead of right near them.

Web and spider moved and two large neatly wrapped bundles were hung within sight. Kakashi recognized Yugao’s face nearly covered in web, her eyes blazing and angry. Tenzo was in the same state, gaged and bound but looking a little more hazy, blinking like he’d been stunned.

Gai gave a yelp and Kakashi and Sakura spun to him to find a web they hadn’t noticed attached to his foot. They both lunged for him but a large spider dropped down between them as he was reeled back. He was making a breathy noise of fear and Kakashi filed away the fact Gai was afraid of spiders. Kakashi clenched his first around his tanto as he watched his friend drawn up into a web where he struggled but barely moved the web. Multiple spiders swarmed nearby to keep an eye on him and he stilled.

“Kurogane.”

Kakashi kept his team in the corner of his eye but turned to face the man who’d emerged from the gloom.

The man wasn’t tall nor short, just average like the rest of him. Average dark hair, average face, bland eyes. He wore a dark kimono and only one small tanto on his back but he set Kakashi’s warning bells off.

“Nano,” Sakura said and her voice was very calm.

Too calm. Controlled and carefully regulated. She didn’t loosen her grip on her knives as she looked at the man.

“Come here,” the man, Nano smiled, beckoning with a hand.

Sakura didn’t move and the man sighed.

“If you don’t, I’ll have my summons kill your friends.”

Above them the spiders swarmed closer to the trapped team.

“I have some spiders that have a strong enough poison to kill them ten times over with a small bite,” Nano said rather cheerfully, “a few more like to kill through fear; using their genjutsu to simply break a person.”

Sakura’s fists tightened on her blades.

“Now,” Nano smiled, “Come here.”

Kakashi made an aborted move forward but the rustling of legs behind and above him had him freeze. He risked a glance up and found a boar sized spider watching him, gaze hungry as it was ready to drop. Kakashi calculated how quickly it would fall on him and stilled his feet. Sakura glanced at him, glanced at the spiders and slowly stepped forward.

“Leave the knives.”

The knives dropped to the ground silently, embedding in the dirt.

He reached for her and she didn’t flinch under his hands as he stroked her cheek, her hair. He cupped her face and Kakashi felt a snarl well up in him as he looked at her, face rather dazed.

“Oh Kurogane,” he murmured, “Still so beautiful. Look how you shine.”

His glazed expression and parted mouth made him looked drugged even as he stared at Sakura with an adoration that turned Kakashi’s stomach.

“Will you be mine?” Nano asked with a smile, “That brute Zabuza abandoned you. I will teach you so well, make you shine even brighter. Oh the weavings we will make together.”

His fingers slipped under her coat, pushed the hood back, pushed it from her shoulders, until it dropped to the ground.

“Nano,” Sakura said and her tone was still so even as his fingers danced under her collar, stroking at her neck, “I told you not to touch me.”

He made a low noise like he hadn’t heard her and ducked his head closer, looking at her feverishly.

“We could go anywhere, do anything. As long as you weave for me.”

“I don’t like you touching me,” Sakura responded and her voice was higher.

“But you’re so warm, so bright,” he murmured face so close to hers she must be able to feel his breath across her skin.

He let go her only to reach down and grab her hands, still leaning close.

“Show me,” he demanded, “Weave for me.”

Sakura didn’t move for a long moment. Then she slowly shaped her hands around the sign for a genjutsu. She slowly flashed through signs until Kakashi felt her chakra stir. Nano was looking at her hands with delight and he sighed so happily as she cast the genjutsu on him. He shuddered but seemed unaffected by whatever illusion cloaked him because his eyes stayed steady on Sakura.

“Oh Kurogane,” he moaned, “So beautiful.”

He leaned over, brushed his hands across hers, stroking her fingers even as she stood tense. He leaned in closer, face closing in on hers and Kakashi watched with horror, twitching forward despite the large spider chittering above him.

The sharp sound of a slap echoed and Nano reared back, loosing some of the dazed pleasure as he blinked at Sakura.

“I told you not to touch me!” Sakura said, voice thin with fear and anger.

He blinked at her but drew no farther back. Quick as a snake, or a spider, his hand darted out to tangle in the side of her hair. Sakura’s hands snapped to his wrist in a practiced move to relieve the pressure. His other hand took that time to strike in and dig into her collar. Sakura was hauled up by it and Nano’s expression shifted to something disgusted.

“Don’t be ugly Kurogane,” he ordered sharply, “The only worth in this world is beauty.”

“Fuck off,” Sakura choked.

“Don’t be like this,” he said, tone pleading even as his grip visibly tightened on her hair and collar, “We could be so beautiful together.”

“No,” Sakura said with a shaky voice.

Nano stared at her, face crumpling in disappointment.

“There is nothing I hate more than wasted beauty,” he said, “But I suppose I do enjoy watching it die. There is Beauty in the death of it as well.”

He let go of her hair but not her collar and his hand withdrew a tanto from his back. Sakura was choking and panting in his grip, eyes wide with fear, and Kakashi snarled low and deadly. He went to lunge and finally the spider above him sprung. Kakashi slammed into the mud and dirt hard, shoved down by long hard legs.

“Now now little dog,” the spider chittered, “You must allow the girl to deal with her own unwanted mate.”

“I want to watch your Beauty bleed away,” Nano said gently, “Watch it pour out and evaporate.”

“Fuck you,” Sakura declared.

He raised the tanto and Kakashi howled as he arched it downwards. And then Sakura’s feet were up between them and she kicked off despite the harsh way it pulled on her collar. Her fingers had found his around the collar and there was a snapping sound as she threw herself back. He howled in pain.

Sakura hit the ground hard, rolling across the mud and earth, but when she came back up she had her knives back in her hands. She wasted no time, lunging back in. He deflected the blows with his tanto, leaning away from her assault and holding his broken fingers to his chest protectively. Sakura’s eyes were blown wide with fear and what Kakashi was realizing was rage.

Sakura had been a neat but hesitant fighter before Wave. Her kata were crisp and well practiced and her strength was an asset; but she’d also moved like a student, like someone who’d never seen combat. She’d fought in an almost patterned way of someone unused to fighting, someone who’d only practiced or lightly spared. He knew both her parents were civilians and thus knew she’d never had anyone to practice with outside the academy and so her fighting had never been polished.

Now Sakura fought like a wild thing. Her blows were all brute strength and hard hits. The Konoha style was blurred together with a basic Kiri style and her movements were all quick and tight. She got up in his face and didn’t allow him to put a distance between them as she alternated between slashes and blows. The curving hilts of her knives were fashioned as knuckle dusters and she used them.

And she was vicious. She fought like someone who knew exactly what she had to lose.

Kakashi watched, straining under spider legs as he watched his student fight. Above him, Kakashi’s sharp ears caught hints of sawing rope. The creak of roots beneath his body echoed and he smelled the scent of smoke. At nearly the same moment Kakashi’s hands found the hilt of his tanto and he barked, loud and sharp.

Above him Yugao was a silent swirl of blades as she burst out of her prison, swords flashing in the dim light. Tenzo exploded in an array of deadly roots. Gai lit up with the release of a gate, smoke rising off of him as he broke out of his trap. Kakashi’s blade was sharp and quick and scored along the side of the spider above him as he rolled free. Kakashi sharpened his killing intent and unleashed it, watching vaguely as smaller spiders immediately shied away,

Kakashi kept half his senses behind him on the screaming spider but also looked to Sakura. The Sensor, surprised by the sudden commotion glanced up at them, eyes darting to Kakashi as he felt the direction of killer intent aimed at him. It was the only opening Sakura needed. Sakura reared up, knives flashing in the dim light, and her blow wasn’t hesitant in the slightest. She slashed with conviction and a snarl and the man’s throat parted as easily as cloth.

For a moment there was a split second of stillness. Sakura’s blade ended its vicious slash, arched high, and Sakura was still. The man was suspended, frozen in that stillness.

And then his throat flared, his blood hot as it splashed across Sakura with the viciousness of her blow. He fell like a puppet with its strings cut, crumpling the ground soundlessly.

The spiders started chittering, almost like a roar of approval as they pulled away from Kakashi and his team. In a wave of smoke they all vanished. Tenzo and Yugao dropped down beside him covered in ichor and wispy ends of web. Gai stepped over, steam evaporating off his skin as he shut the gate down. Sakura looked over at them and the blood across her face looked almost like freckles. The blood across her chest was thick and dripping.

“Can we go home now, sensei?” Sakura asked.

“Yes,” Kakashi said.

He picked her up and she let him. He ignored the blood and mud she was practically dripping in and held her close. They took off into the trees like they’d never paused or had such a fight. Behind him Yugao sealed the body before following. Sakura wasn’t shaking but she was lightly panting and did not complain as Kakashi carried her through the trees.

When they found the first source of water they could, a small stream, Yugao offered Sakura a change of clothes but Sakura shook her head and merely washed the blood from her face. No one asked her how she felt as that was abundantly clear; this was not Sakura’s first kill, nor her tenth, nor maybe even her fiftieth. This was not a bad kill either if the peaceful way Sakura smiled at Kakashi said anything.

Gai carried her next as they raced homewards. They crossed into Fire Country that afternoon and Sakura’s smile settled even further.

.--.

Tsunade clicked her nail on the desk and considered the small message sent ahead of one of her teams racing home.

The girl was alive.

Tsunade had known this for weeks now, straight from correspondence with the new Mizukage who had carefully put in a note about a wayward genin in the opening of communications. Tsunade had known who it was before proof had even been sent. She might have been sloshed when she’d met the pink haired brat being dragged around by Momichi Zabuza, might have laughed about pink haired shinobi. But Tsunade had remembered.

She hadn’t cared in the beginning. Liquor and old-grief had kept her in a haze for years and even a pink haired brat hadn’t budged her. It had taken a blonde brat instead. Had taken Naruto hitting her over the head with truth and anger to get her to pull herself back together.

And it was only weeks after Naruto that Tsunade had even thought of the pink-haired brat she’d left in Momichi Zabuza’s hands. Weeks to look at Naruto’s full file and find a picture of the original Team Seven with a pink haired brat beside the Uchiha and Naruto. Weeks to find her file stamped with ‘deceased’ on it.

Naruto rarely spoke of the teammate he lost but every once in a while he got quiet and sad and said something about her; ‘Sakura was the smartest ever’, ‘Sakura was so kind’, ‘Sakura was super awesome’, and so on.

Tsunade knew how hard loss was even though she was already weathered by it. Knew it intimately with how it had drugged her for decades. And she had thought about opening her mouth and telling Naruto his teammate was alive, that Tsunade had abandoned her.

But there was no knowing if the girl was still alive. She’d been with Momichi Zabuza making their way towards Kiri where he was a wanted man. And then Kiri had been embroiled in a civil war and Tsunade would bet good money that the girl was dead in a ditch somewhere.

So Tsunade sat on her shameful secret and didn’t tell Naruto she had seen his precious teammate and abandoned her. Tsunade wasn’t a good person; too many mistakes. But she couldn’t bear the thought of Naruto’s tears aimed at her. Couldn’t bear his pain. Not if she had nothing to offer to him. So she had discreetly penned letters to the Mizukage asking after Momichi Zabuza and his companions. She’d rewritten the letter numerous times, trying to figure out how to word her worries without coming off as weak, without making the pink-haired brat seem like a more valuable hostage.

She was tempted to give an ANBU team a retrieval mission; be it for the girl’s corpse or for Momochi to find out where she was buried. But she had waited instead.

The day she received correspondence from Kiri’s new Kage with a small note about a genin being returned, Tsunade knew she’d have to face her mistakes. Because the girl was alive.

She told Kakashi about her survival first because his reaction would be less painful than Naruto’s. Kakashi could be reasoned with, told to wait for a team and follow protocol. Naruto would run hollering out the gates at the first mention. She did not tell him of a meeting in a pub with Tsunade sloshed and mocking and the angry eyes of pink haired brat on her filled with betrayal.

Tsunade wondered how the girl would react to her sitting in the Kage seat of the place she had refused to return the girl. Whatever her reaction, whatever anger the girl turned on her, Tsunade knew it was her right. A kage was supposed to look after her people and Tsunade had abandoned one in her own selfishness. Tsunade hadn’t been Hokage at that point but she had been a Konoha shinobi (if only in name) and she had been a Senju. It had been her duty and Tsunade had betrayed it. Tsunade was pretty sure that was the lowest she had ever sunk. She had done terrible things in the war but this was peace and this was her own people and Tsunade had turned away.

She would have to explain that to Naruto and face his tears. Would probably have to fend off Kakashi’s attempt at her life for it. Would have to face down the kid she’d betrayed and see if it would create a life-long enemy who Tsunade could do nothing less than allow back into Konoha even if it meant a knife in her back one day.

“Shizune,” Tsunade said.

Shizune looked at her as if she could read her mind. Her niece judged her, but it was softened with love. She held her tongue.

“When they arrive, you’ll be the one to do her health check,” Tsunade said, “You will be her personal doctor from now on.”

Shizune nodded.

“Who did we decide can take her in?” Tsunade asked rhetorically, looking out the window.

“Umino Iruka would be the best choice,” Shizune answered, “He was her sensei for four years so she should feel safe with him. He’s also had training for how to handle cases …similar to this.”

“Similar?” Tsunade barked a laugh, “Nothing like this. What’s he handled in the past?”

“Mainly abuse cases,” Shizune said, “Unless you want her to stay in TI, he is the best choice.”

Had this been anyone else, had it even been an adult in the same situation, Haruno Sakura would have been staying in TI for quite a while until she passed inspection. But Tsunade had been reminded of her duty by a short loud blonde brat and she owed this girl too much to allow her to disappear into the system. Some might say it was favoritism, but Tsunade called it paying her debts. And despite how terrible Tsunade was at doing that, she was trying to be better. And she recognized that she owed this girl quite a bit.

“Intercept them at the gate,” Tsunade told her, “Get her that check right way. I’ll send Kakashi after Umino. Don’t bring her back to the office until Umino and Kakashi join us. Best not to leave her alone with me.”

Shizune gave her a knowing look but nodded and headed off. Tsunade wanted to hope the girl would be smart enough to not try and kill her for her betrayal, but she had been in Kiri for months now. Kiri was a very eye-for-an-eye sort of place. And Tsunade needed the girl alive to repay her debt, not killed for trying to attack the Hokage.

“Well,” Tsunade said, looking down at the file in front of her, at a pink haired girl beaming up at her, “You fucked up Tsunade. Time to try and fix it.”

.--.