Arc One: Seed

❀

Sakura sent her friend a silent prayer of thanks, Konan was an angel in her eyes for blessing her with these new additions to her yukata. With the winter snow almost upon them, not enough to begin its slow descent -though those days were in sight- it was cold enough that Sakura hadn’t wanted to complain about her simple dress but the recent gift she’d been given was nothing short of a godsend.

A black long sleeve compression shirt and leggings hugged Sakura’s warmth close to her body. Her pale skin pinking at the ends of her fingers and very tip of her nose was a stark contrast to the fabric colour.

Her basic black yukata was still worn, though underneath was a thin undergarment layer in white to match the white belt around her waist, and the simple grey outer layer still in place, though not adding much, it didn’t go unappreciated.

The flutter of Sakura’s hat tassels forewarned another gust of the winter chill to follow, though thanks to her friend, she could blink the crisp air away.

“Keeping pace back there?” Kisame threw over his shoulder.

“I should be asking you both that, any shortness of breath I should know about?” Sakura parried with a raised brow.

“You kidding? I could keep this up for the rest of the day!” The larger man laughed, his speed as they leapt from branch to branch indeed was as consistent as when they had left base that morning.

“We will break soon when we hit Rivers.” Itachi voiced.

“Yeah? How far away’s that?” Kisame asked.

“Not far, we’ll set up camp for the night when we do.”

“Are there no inns nearby?” Sakura chimed in.

“What? Not happy to rough it up with us?” Kisame teased.

“I’m happy to camp out! I just want to keep the environment as controlled as I can considering that I’m still monitoring your recoveries!” Sakura hissed, once again to be met with Kisame’s laughter.

“Though the Land of Rivers is technically a colony owned by Suna, due to its distance from the capital city and lack of resources to guard it, we will be safe to camp for the night.” Itachi explained.

Kisame continued, “plus its idyllic for travelers like us passing through, plenty of natural food and animals around and access to river water means it’s got everything we need.”

Sakura furrowed her brow, taking to extra-long leaps to run between the two men now instead of behind where she had been keeping an eye on their stamina.

“I’m confused, if Rivers is such a picturesque place, then why isn’t it guarded better? Especially if it’s owned by Suna.”

Kisame grinned, teeth on display as he said, “how firm of a believer in curses are you?”

Sakura blinked her eyes wide, she had not expected that, she schooled her expression “not very, I think everything can be explained.”

“Ah, sceptics aren't left alone long in Rivers.” Kisame further explained with a sadistic glee in his tone, “you see, thanks to its wildlife and the river of its namesake that cuts long through the Lands of Wind and Fire, the Land of Rivers has been an oasis throughout every war in history. Not just the three great shinobi world wars, not just for every skirmish and boarder side battle but even throughout the warring states period does River hold blood from.

“Its perfect living conditions made it a prime location for anyone in battle and war to stake claim over. No matter the danger guarding it, dying men would do anything for a chance at salvation, a sip of water from the bank or a fish to fill your stomach could mean the difference between life and death after all.

“But that risk was one that all knew. Rivers would purposefully be left unguarded at times to lure enemies, vagabonds and innocents alike just to kill them. Nature's perfect trap.” Kisames' teeth gleamed and Sakura swallowed. She hadn’t realized she had mimicked the larger man and followed him from the trees to now walk along the ground.

“It’s said the blood soaked into the very soil and the souls of all those thousands slain still claw their way to the riverbanks for that one lifesaving risk they lost their lives to.

It continues to this day, the Land of Rivers now cursed to drag those who pass through to a bloody and brutal death.”

Sakura felt a cold sweat kiss the back of her neck and her hair began to stand on end.

“Bandits.” Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Itachi’s voice behind her. “Suna doesn’t have the resources to expend to guard Rivers so it is now a hotspot for bandits.”

“Aw come on Itachi, I really had her going there.” Kisame chucked, evidently not too upset at his fun being cut short.

“You son of a - agh! ” Sakura snarled, slapping Kisame’s arm before putting a hand to her chest to help get her breathing under control.

She hadn’t lied when saying she was a sceptic, she was. But knew that she was also once a little girl who was scared of the dark before she got old enough to rationalise there was no danger there. She did believe there were explanations for noises in the night and ‘ghostly’ feelings, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel uneasy or afraid before she knew what those things were.

Kisame laughed louder before nudging her shoulder with his elbow. “Come on, I think the idea of a curse scaring people away from setting up villages in such a great location is a much more interesting idea than just ‘I’m going to build an inn here! Oh no, bandits please don’t take all my money and my life! -Ahk! I’m dead’ y’know?” He illustrated his point with an accentuated voice pitched with a goofy mockery of a hypothetical murdered woman. Sakura was still slightly unnerved though she did find his voice, despite the awful subject matter, a little funny.

“That is, however, the exact reason, Kisame.” Itachi said.

“And despite all that, we’re still going to camp there tonight?” Sakura questioned like the unknowing voice of reason she found herself being. She took her tasseled hat off her head for the moment, holding it in one hand so she could rub her neck unhindered.

“Yep,” Kisame popped the ‘p’ for emphasis. “Yeah, it’s not safe for travelers but we’ll be just fine. Got a little birdy watching over us after all.”

Sakura raised a brow, unimpressed. When her request to join the team had been accepted, it had been under the order that she was only to be the medic, she would hover behind the two to monitor their wellbeing and only step in if their health required it. She was not here to be a bodyguard especially when conflict would be easier avoided.

Kisame barked out a laugh, head thrown back when faced with Sakura’s unamused expression, he furthered his torment of her by ruffling her hair. “Ack!” Sakura fought him off so she could adjust her hair to tuck back into her bun she had styled in the same fashion as Konan, paper rose in place and all.

“It’s dangerous for travelers,” he gestured to himself with a thumb, “we’re a lot harder to kill than that.”

Sakura muttered as she assessed the petals of her gifted rose for any damage, “with an ego that size, it’s a wonder how not even two days ago a fight left you close to death.”

She was swiftly shoved into a nearby bush.

❀

For the oasis it was described as, Sakura found herself almost underwhelmed by the sight of the titular river this land was named after. ‘It’s… certainly a river.’ She didn’t voice, but the unintentional pursing of her lips must have given her thought away as Kisame nudged her shoulder.

“Remember, to a dying man, a mouthful of river water will be the best drink he’s ever tasted.” With that, the larger man departed her side and followed Itachi where he was setting up camp near an alcove of trees.

Sakura turned to the two men and furrowed her brow. “Shouldn’t we camp further into the forest?” She questioned, then under the attention of Itachi’s harsh eye she felt the need to explain herself. “It’s just, if bandit attacks really are as common as you say then we should take any step to avoid them, and the river isn’t too far away anyway.”

Itachi’s eyes didn’t narrow but Sakura felt under their scrutiny. “You needn’t concern yourself. Remember you are here should our health turn, which is something you claim to be improving. Ergo we will ask for your input regarding what you’re here for.” Sakura’s fingers felt the sleeves of her yukata in a nervous touch. He finished with, “our camp will be safe here.”

Sakura averted her eyes, embarrassed, she nodded.

Sakura turned, she could claim it was to focus her attention back on the river but in actuality it was to avoid looking near Itachi.

He wasn’t wrong that she was here to be a medic, not a full teammate, she only wanted to help but she had overstepped.

Sakura found with her mind full of thoughts, her body carried her slowly towards the calmly flowing water.

Should she apologize? Her concern may have been legitimate…

The sun had begun to set, the trees becoming dark constructs and leftover light from the distant sun casting a warm hue reflecting off the water of the river and shone back on the various puddles she stepped past.

The sound of the river water was almost quiet, as easy to miss in nature like leaves rustling or distant birds flapping their wings.

She already had the impression that Itachi wasn’t happy to have her tagging along, was it because their medic-patient confidentiality was under jeopardy should she need to assist him near Kisame. Did he not want Kisame aware of his remaining unknown medical condition?

Sakura’s slow steps had yet to carry her to the river's edge, rather they stepped among the rocks that began to accumulate in larger sizes and numbers closer to the river until pebbles that could fit in her palm to boulders she could sit her weight on knowing it was immovable.

If that wasn’t the case then perhaps he just didn't want her there. In Sakura’s firsthand experience, Itachi had been unhelpful, stubborn, quick to make dangerous assumptions - considering the stroke situation and the idea his medical history wasn't relevant to his new diagnosis - and generally unkind to Sakura’s presence. He put up with her when he sat as her patient but he gave the impression of a man who would sooner swallow down his pain and deal with it than divulge in a medic.

Sakura would soon scold herself for allowing the calming sound of the river to wash out the sound of a kunai whistling through the air.

Clang!

Sakura’s head snapped up in the direction of the sound just in time to see a flash of metal-on-metal right in front of her right shoulder.

In that second the weapons made contact, Sakura could gauge the direction they were thrown - whipping her head one way she saw the vague shape of Itachi with his arm raised from his seated position by the bundle of sticks he had yet to light into their campfire, and the way across the river was a man slowly exiting the treeline.

She bit down a curse at being caught with her guard down, no doubt getting her no further out of Itachi’s poor graces, and readjusted herself into a more battle ready position.

A long low whistle blew through the air, “some impressive reflexes you got there.” The man grinned with his sharp canines on full display, wrapped in dark furs and accompanied by the three growling dogs too large to not be some kind of wolf hybrids who mirrored his threat with their own fangs. “I always like it when travelers have some sense to them.”

“We are not in the mood.” Itachi spoke.

“Speak for yourself, I’ve been dying to stretch my legs.” Kisame was shrouded in the shade of the trees close by his teammate, but Sakura could hear his grin in his words.

Sakura wanted to avoid a fight if she could, Kisame should be more than well enough to handle himself, but she would rather they not shed any blood if she could help it. 

“We’re just passing through, we don’t have any valuables worth fighting over, it’d be best if we just went our separate ways.” She attempted, the man tsk-ed three times in response.

“Hear that boys!” He yelled, head tilted back, “they say they ain’t got any valuables!”

Sakura tensed upon hearing a series of snickers and jeering voices from the tree line behind the bandit and his dogs.

“It's true, you’ll just waste your time here and walk away empty handed.” Sakura kept his gaze.

Kisame snickered, “optimistic you think they’ll be walking away.”

Sakura shot the vague impression of Kisame’s form hidden in the shadows a glare - begging him to stop trying to instigate a fight.

“That’s some big talk for just a couple of travelers,” the bandit spun a kunai on his finger, “now we can fight if that’s what y’all want but believe me this will go a lot smoother for you lot if you just cooperate.” He stopped the kunai to point casually in Sakura’s particular direction. “Especially for your young lady over here.”

Sakura felt a shiver briefly slither down her spine to settle close with disgust in her gut. She really didn't want them to be pulled into a fight, but she felt her fists tighten at her sides. If he was deaf to reason, then maybe he would understand a threat.

“I don’t know who you and your boys are, but you best turn around and forget you ever saw us before you regret it.” The man laughed at her words.

Then scrunched his face into a pandering grin as he chuckled, one of his dogs turned its attention to sniff at his hand but he batted it away with a smack to its maw.

“Listen to that, boys! She says she doesn’t know who we are!” A series of laughs and exclamations like “ain’t that cute” and “poor thing!” bounced in the darkness around her.

Sakura spoke again, this time calling the man's bluff. “If you wanted to just kill and rob us then you already would have used your element of surprise to do just that. But instead, you announce your men's presence, not to mention that your kunai wasn’t aimed to kill!” Her eyes hardened on the man, “you aimed for my shoulder, you opted not to kill me when you had the chance so why should I believe you can’t just let us go?”

This seemed to give the bandit pause for just a few seconds as they held eye contact.

Eventually he broke this stand-still when he hung his head with a sigh. One of his dogs turned its attention to sniff at his hand but he batted it away again.

Sakura didn’t let her guard down but did let out a little breath, hoping her assessment was right and he could be somewhat reasoned with - or at the very least threatened into leaving.

She tried to press the metaphorical iron while it was hot, extend the threat and call of his bluff into a final warning. “If you-”

“See now, I’d hate the feistiness of a woman's mouth if it wasn't my favourite part of them.” He interrupted her and no sooner did he finish that Sakura felt a chilling sensation jolt all the way up her body.

She pulled a kunai from her belt pouch ready to throw against the threat of the man across the river from her when that wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind.

Sakura’s eyes darted to the source of that grip on her to see the very same bandit standing so invasively close, that any closer, he would be under her tasseled hat and share her air. His eyes were a frozen dark brown to her widened green.

The second she flicked her kunai to the opposite hand in an attempt to arm herself, the bandit had let out a sharp, loud whistle and one of his dogs was instantly at Sakura’s side. In a snap it rose to a height that met her eye before it sank down with its ferocious jaw clamped hard and locking onto her left forearm. Sakura winced, though she locked her eyes on the man who seemed equally as focused on her own.

Through the pain of the teeth piercing through skin; four canines, each almost three inches in length, puncturing through the muscles and dragging on the surface of the bones. The pressure of the jaw, an iron grip, emphasized with the occasional tug and shake of the dog's head further putting her ulna bone under the threat of breaking.

“You’re dangerously quick to make assumptions, girl.”

Sakura’s eyes flickered to the kunai the bandit had kicked from the ground -the one first thrown at her- she too noticed around his thighs and arms there were numerous kunai strapped encircling them followed by multiple pouches around his belt.

“You’re right in that I didn’t want to kill you immediately and didn’t want my presence to go unnoticed.” He brought the tip of his kunai nonchalantly closer between their chest and gestured along with his words.

Sakura ignored the searing pain in her forearm as the canines scraped along her bone with a particularly harsh tug, the dog growling as she tensed, so she could focus on the other hand caught in the man's wrist still with a kunai clenched tightly in the palm.

Something she had caught the second the shock wore off was that the man holding her was a clone. His grip held no warmth associated with human touch nor cold from the winter air chilling the skin, let alone they were near a breath apart and no breath was wafting against her face.

No matter the chakra nature used to shape a clone they were all inherently alike in one key factor. They all lacked the living quality intrinsic to human life. There was no blood flowing through their veins to warm their skin to the touch, no internal organs requiring them to draw breath. The bandits' cheeks and ears even lacked the logical blood rush the body naturally would conduct in the cold chill of the winter air.

They could blink as a reflexive action or seem to draw breath when a human seemingly would in a gasp of shock, but unless ordered to by the one who created them then they would simply exist. 

They were created with an action ingrained in their construct. To operate a manual breathing pump in a makeshift operating room, to use the knowledge of the jutsu caster to act as a right-hand nurse, or in this case to take the target by surprise and disarm her.

Clones were only unique in the fact that they held the knowledge of the one who created them, hence why Sakura’s prior clones behaved like her, held her knowledge of medicine and likewise she gained their knowledge should they read a book in her place or even how they observed the surgery she had conducted. This bandit's clone behaved with the real bandit's vocal inflections, body language and reflexes as it held her at knife point.

Clones could be extremely dangerous depending on the skill of the person who created them, but they were also quite simple to defeat. She flexed her grip on the kunai in her palm.

All Sakura needed to get out of the immediate threat of the man grabbing her was a force deadly enough to dispel the clone.

He brought up the tip of his kunai to gently place it against the edge of her bamboo hat and slowly push it up until the string holding it sat across her neck and her hat rested behind her.

She grossly disliked the way his lowered eyes traced her exposed face, from the curve of her chin, briefly settling on the snarl of her lips, up to her hairline. Appreciating the unobstructed view he held under knife point.

“Never come across a young girl with such a unique colour before.” He shifted the kunai between his fingers so he could pinch one of Sakura’s pink bangs and rub the strands. He looked to be comparing the hair colour to her eyes as her glare hardened.

“Still want to avoid that fight?” Kisame voiced along with a rustle as he pushed himself from the tree he had been leaning on.

The bandit across the river tutted, wagging a finger, “uh uh uh.”

Sakura’s eyes flickered towards her patients, she couldn’t see Itachi’s seated form behind the bandit clone that held her but she could just make out Kisame’s silhouette along with the strips of moonlight glinting off the two swords crossing his chest and held too close to his neck.

“You two stay right where you are,” the bandit across the river spoke.

Sakura had wanted to be cautious and get out of this situation as carefully as possible when it was only her safety under threat, but seeing the danger shift to her two patients had her throwing her own caution to the wind.

Moving fast before the clone gripping her could react, she angled the kunai towards the wrist that gripped that hand and in a swift motion she sliced the metal deep and quick along where veins would be at the wrist.

Clones would vanish upon great force that would either greatly harm or incapacitate a person, the force of a sword through the chest would cause a person to bleed out, meaning it would dispel a clone. Likewise, so would slitting a wrist.

With Sakura’s aided strength, the force of the slice cut deep enough that had the man been real, the very tendons pulling taught to keep the hand attached would be severed enough that the appendage, through the tearing of muscle and veins, would hang a limp, bloody and unresponsive.

This deadly motion had the desired effect, the reactive intake of breath through snarled lips and eyes wide in shock before the very body that held that image of expression vanished.

In the precious seconds Sakura had to keep control of the situation, she spun the kunai in her fingers to grip the circular blunt end. Her eye twitched in pain as she spun, the dog in response to her movement had growled and locked its jaw harder, her forearm bones fractures under its strength.

She slammed the back of the kunai onto the base of the dogs' neck, the whimper upon impact was followed by the jaws loosening enough for Sakura to twist the throbbing appendage away as the dog began to fall limp and unconscious.

Sakura spun back towards her group, registering that the seated Itachi too was being held under threat by two men with swords crossed under his chin, she pulled out a second kunai from her pouch.

The sound of the dog hitting the ground duetted the kunai once held by the clone, splashing into a shallow puddle, did not overpower the sound of two more kunai whistling through the air behind her as she had taken but a step from where she had been held trapped.

It took one more step for Sakura to angle her head and torso out of line so the two kunai could fly past her.

It took the following step for two forms of water to shoot from the ground, take the form of the bandit, grab the kunais that flew by Sakura, and catch her again. ‘So fast-!’

Sakura swung her arm out in reflex, intending to drive the kunai into the head of the left-most clone.

But mid-swing, a large hand engulfed her fractured arm, gripping it so tight that a bolt of pain shot along the wounded limb, making Sakura bite down a scream desperate to pierce from her lips.

The hand belonged to the bandit clone now standing directly behind her, his legs straight even though she was still in motion, as though he sprouted from the ground as she was mid-step.

Another hand, the clone to her left she’d intended to stab through the skull grabbed her wrist, the clone behind her twisted her fractured arm, and the clones used the surge of pain that struck her body as their opportunity to rip both kunai from her hands to send them clattering to the stoney ground.

“Now, now, let’s not get carried away.” The bandit’s voice was getting closer though none of the three surrounding were speaking. “You didn’t even let me finish, and if you keep struggling then I’m gonna have to do somethin’ drastic.”

Not wanting the bandit to gain even a second's worth of more confidence, Sakura bit through the pain in her restrained arm and focused her chakra in her other arm. Using the clone's grip on her wrist against him, she swung to the side, both alleviating the pain of the fracture and using the swing and her enhanced strength to launch the clone.

Said clone was sent to the hard ground with a harsh thump, not even an intake of breath later was Sakura swinging a leg up and sending it arching down, the heel impacting the stomach so hard that the clone erupted in a splash before her foot even touched the ground, cracking the surface. In that second, Sakura was able to kick the kunai that the now vanished clone had held and catch it with her free arm.

The grip on her fractured arm twisted in response and Sakura’s eyes flickered to the clone responsible. In that direction, Sakura saw the main bandit across the river, he was slowly walking across the river top and his hands were flashing through hand signs almost too fast for Sakura to register.

Sakura spun the kunai in her hand, swinging the blade towards the throat of the only clone left, gripping her arm and immediately being parried by that clone's own kunai. Before she could even adjust, two more clones appeared around her, one grabbing her free arm with two hands making her incapable of bending it.

The other behind her grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulled tightly in a fist and forced her head to angle towards the real bandit who continued his leisurely pace until he stood in front of her.

He chuckled, “you’re pretty rude, young lady.”

She grit her teeth through the pain and moved as quickly as possible to escape before the main bandits' steps reached her. She hooked a foot around the ankle of the clone behind her to destabilize it. Then used the seconds worth of slack it had on a fistful of her hair, Sakura threw her head back - without chakra enhancing the impact it would simply break a man's nose, but with the enhanced force she would shatter the man's skull - the effect had the clone vanishing in a splash.

But just as Sakura pivoted in an effort to use the kunai in her restrained hand, a sudden force kicked the back of her dominant knee, forcing her to buckle.

She was prevented from getting control again by the two clones twisting her arms and pulling them straight out from her sides. “Ngah-!” Sakura bit off a painful sound as the injured arm was angled.

She was subsequently forced to her knees in a harsh thud.

The bandits' boots came to a stop right in front of her knees. “For how skilled you seem to be, it looks like you have no idea who I am.” He spoke.

Sakura scoffed through the pain, “if we weren’t warned about any specific bandit in the land of Rivers then it must mean you’re not that threatening.”

He clicked his tongue. Sakura kept her head down, to others she may look like stubborn defiance, but she was trying to bait the man.

With her arms restrained and on her knees, her best chance was to bait the bandit closer so she could headbutt him and break his nose.

“See now, girl, I’m known as Rōga of the Hundred Hands. Have you put together how I earned that title?”

Sakura answered, “because you can’t win a one-on-one fight.”

“Ha!” The laugh was sharp and loud, more akin to a bark.

Sakura watched his feet adjust slightly, she began to brace herself - whether for a strike to land on her or for her chance to strike.

“And here I thought you said you didn’t want to fight,” he chided her.

“I’m not afraid to fight you, why not lose the clones and see how an actual fight would go?” She goaded.

“Now who said I was looking for a fight?”

“Well, you don’t seem to be able to take no for an answer - if the clones are anything to say. Your actions say you don’t want to kill us so what else am I supposed to read from this?” ‘Come on, just lean down…’

He snickers, “come on girl, you’re not that dim, you are right about two things.”

Two fingers pinched a lock of her fringe again, Sakura’s face scrunched up reflexively, but she resolutely kept her eyes locked on his shoes.

“Think about it…” Rōga dragged out slowly, Sakura slowly took in a breath seeing his stance adjust. If he was going to invade her personal space enough to all but fondle her hair - she’d rather he make his wolf dog hybrid break her leg - then she could lure him close enough to really make him hurt.

‘...Now!’ Sakura reared her head back but in that split second before she could shatter the creep's nose, a sharp familiar pain sank into her upper thigh. 

“Ah!” Sakura gasped as the wolf's teeth pierced the muscle and robbed her of the burst of strength she’d summoned.

Through the haze of pain her vision focused enough to see the face of the bandit. His eyes didn’t flicker across her face, his breath didn't waver, and he moved no closer or further away.

When confronted with Sakura's cry of pain and expression twisted in suffering, his eyes seemed to dilate.

An expression comparable to one receiving a gift, steadily peeling the wrapping and the recipient's face slowly unravelling from uncertainty into delight. The corners of the smile rise to crease the eyes, eyes growing softer and an exhale to release any tension. Who would be tense upon receiving such a gift?

A chill of realization slid like ice down Sakura’s spine.

In the face of Sakura’s suffering, this man reflected ecstasy.

She understood now why he wanted her alive.

Compared to how slow his savouring of her twisted expression, the sudden twist of his lip, the downward draw of his furious brows, and near growl he bit off at the tail end of his exhale was as sudden as lightning.

“Fuckn’ useless! ” He was at his feet and took a quick step around a clone holding her arm to deliver what sounded like a swift and unrestrained kick to the ribs of his dog.

The sound of the impact, yelp of the animal, sudden release of sharp teeth in her thigh and thud on the ground painted the picture well.

“For the last fuckin time! You jump when I say, you yield when I say and you fuckin’ restrain. When. I. Say .” Those last words were punctuated with the hard thud of a swift kick and responding yelp.

The sounds were muted to Sakura’s ears as she only seconds ago realized the danger she was in. She was prepared for a fight and equally prepared for injury - her broken arm an example of her compartmentalizing her problems as something she’d simply fix later. But if that euphoric face was as dangerous as she now believed, she needed to free herself now .

“You good down there, squirt?” Sakura heard Kisame’s voice, but her eyes had fallen back to the ground, wide in desperation.

Her mind was racing, thoughts came so quickly it was like she was in a crowded room made of her own voices all unanimously throwing ideas and observations at each other. When one thought came, another would question it or strike it down.

‘No matter how many clones I destroy, it's like he's always got another ready - his hand signs moved so fast - how many is he capable of summoning at once? - what chakra nature is he? - it takes less than a second for his clones to form - that's too fast - if it's so fast it means he's not molding his chakra to that elemental shape - I’d be faster than the clones being constructed if that was the case - no - then he has to be using an element around him to make the clones quicker - that would require less chakra and effort - he’d be able to summon many without exhausting himself - which element? - I didn’t see fire take shape - earth is heavy and I would’ve seen it after dispelling the clone - air? THROB’

Sakura instantly snapped her wide eyes shut, like curtains had suddenly been thrown open in a dark room, the sun blinding her so fiercely it felt like her eyes were on fire inside her skull.

THROB.

The pain was intense but her thoughts continued to layer and layer one after another. So painful that she’d almost forgotten seeing the element shape the clones.

‘It wasn't wind release - why do I know it's not wind release? - the quickest method would have to be wind release because it would be like molding something lighter than a cloud - it wasn’t wind release - why not? - did I recognize the hand signs? - yes but also yes in a different way - I know what hand signs it would take to mold air into a clone - those were not the same hand signs - if I’ve got water release then why do I know how go summons a clone from air like a tangible solid shado- THROB .’

Sakura worked her jaw open, the tense grinding of her teeth did nothing to lessen the aching pain pounding at her brain and pulling her lower jaw this way and that likewise didn’t help.

THROB.

Still, she thought.

‘It was water release - he’s got a water chakra nature - I recognize the hand signs because I use them - why couldn’t I recognize that immediately? - He’s using pre-existing water to make his clones quickly and with minimum effort! - the river! - of course a man with water chakra nature would attack people close to a water source guaranteed to lure travelers in - but even so - how - I’m not even near the river anymore - how did he get river water from behind me to form clones in front and around me so fast?’

Through Sakura's scrunched up expression, brows stayed furrowed and teeth clenched, her eyes flickered over the ground. A foundation of dirt with the odd blade of grass and pebble, the dirt soft under Sakura’s knees making her yukata darken in colour as it absorbed the water.

Kisame’s voice rang distant to her ears, “giving you one more minute before I start acting on my own.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I don’t much appreciate being rushed.” Rōga gradually got his tone under control as he spoke, “not by either of you.”

Through the pain, Sakura yanked her head up, her thoughts continuing as she saw the faint silhouettes of her patients.

‘Why is the ground so damp? - we’re a far enough distance from the river that there shouldn’t be any puddles - there was a splash whenever I destroyed a clone - the kunai splashed when the clones vanished - but - I passed puddles before I ever reached the river - but - the river’s famously calm - there couldn’t be puddles made naturally especially at the distance they were - a trap - THE SUN IS OUT AND IT HASN’T RAINED FOR SEVERAL DAYS SO THERE SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ANY PUDDLES ON THE GROUND–’

THROB. Sakura couldn’t help the scrunching of her face, eyes shut so tight they would have hurt had she not been so consumed by the throbbing pain in her skull.

But before she could even think about why that specific thought that in a crazy trick of her brain sounded louder than her other thoughts and said in a way that was like it was mimicking someone, she heard the slicing whistle sound of a blade pierce the air before flesh.

THROB– Sakura snapped her eyes open to see Itachi’s crouched form had been run through the chest with one of the two swords that had crossed his neck.

Sakura gasped –THROB . First from the shock and panic of Itachi being mortally stabbed – THROB. Then from how intense the pain in her skull blinded her.

The image frozen behind her eyelids of Itachi’s life being ripped apart before her thrummed along with the pulse of her blood rushing. It flashed and pulsed and rippled and Sakura continued to feel horror as the image changed into a man being torn to pieces, his blood splattering across the dirt and two singular puddles as he had been caught in a trap –THROB.

“–No!” Sakura’s cry of anguish split off into heavy panting as he struggled under the pain.

THROB . It felt as though rough enormous hands had encircled her throat, gripping it tighter and tighter until it felt that they were squeezing her very brain stem. Her breaths, motor functions, her very thoughts – THROB . Everything was being choked from her as images and sounds both familiar and foreign pulsed inside her head with the brutal and recognizable – THROB.

“Alright, that’s enough humoring this,” Kisame spoke.

His words were followed by the snapping sound of bones then muted splashes.

“Wh-” the sound of Rōga’s voice was then overshadowed by the sound of feathered wings flapping. 

Another sharp whistle pierced her ears followed by the clicking of fingers.

THROB. Sakura cracked a single eye open to see the wolf that had attacked her run, with a slight limp on its left hind leg, towards a form that had once been Itachi morphed into a dark flock of birds.

The confused growling wolf hesitated, unsure about how to attack before its master barked “Attack him!”

The wolf pounced at the flock only to freeze among the many wings before it was thrown away, hitting a tree with a thwack and laying deathly still.

The two men that had held Itachi were suddenly gripped by Kisame’s dark towering form, their necks crunching like twigs in the man's grip and water hitting the dirt where they had hung.

“I can take care of this,” Kisame grinned.

Itachi took a moment before he lowered himself back to where he had been seated. “Just don’t make a mess, we do plan to stay the night.” With that he brought a sign to his mouth and a small burst of fire was thrown to the bundle of sticks.

With that light came the two men's illuminated forms, their cloaks, and their faces.

THROB– Sakura could only see every few seconds when between the aching of her head she could crack an eye open.

She felt the grip the clones had on her arms stutter, and the bandit’s voice was the most un-self-assured it had sounded all night. “You - You’re Kisame Hoshigaki, and - and you’re Itachi–ACK!”

Kisame was suddenly gone from the light of the fire. Sakura utilized the throbbing pain that held her body wound tight with tension and twisted her arms free. The broken arm protested with a lightning strike of agonizing pain shooting up the limb, but she rolled forward away from the clones and grabbed a fallen enemy kunai on the way.

Before the pain could paralyze her, should she allow the combined agony of her head and broken arm to overwhelm her senses and send her crumpled form to the ground, she prioritized the danger before her wellbeing and attacked.

Springing to her feet she slashed the kunai across one clone's neck and stabbed the other below the ribs, both vanishing into twin splashes.

Only when Sakura registered the main bandit was restrained, with Kisame holding him in a tight grip, one single large fist encircling his neck and the other gripping a wrist, did Sakura allow herself to fall to the ground.

She rested her forehead against a knee, eyes scrunched as she struggled to get her breathing under control. THROB.

“The… The other bandits…” Sakura struggled, still not ready to succumb to her pain yet as she hadn’t forgotten how they were surrounded.

“Itachi dealt with it,” Kisame responded and true to his word there were no figures nor noises hiding in the trees. “They were just more clones of our small time bandit Rōga of the Hundred Hands here.”

Said man struggled for breath, pushing himself up on his toes and fumbling fingers trying to pry Kisame’s from choking him. “P-please - I - I’ll just go! I didn’t -didn’t see nothin’!”

THROB. Sakura gripped a fist in her hair, as if the pulling at her scalp would alleviate the pain though she knew it was useless, the gesture seemed to happen on its own.

“Now this is just sad, what happened to that ego you were showing off?” Kisame taunted, “it’s funny how quickly someone loses their confidence when your opponent isn’t smaller than you.” He grinned.

Rōga’s pronounced canines paled in comparison to Kisame’s own rows of threatening sharp teeth.

Still the man begged, “please! - please, I’m sorry - I’m sorry - I swear I won’t say nothin’! Please j-just let me go!”

Kisame hummed, tilting his head slightly to appraise the trembling man in his grip. “Seems like a waste, if we take a detour I bet your corpse would get us a bit of money.”

That slipped through the cracks of Sakura’s pain and she looked up, “what?” truly not knowing what the situation was becoming. THROB.

Kisame didn’t even look at her, “there’s a bounty on this guy's head, not a big one since he’s pretty unknown but hey,” he shrugged, “that's the price of demanding attention.”

“We…” Sakura struggled to find the words. Sure the man was a piece of work that absolutely was planning to do some heinous things to her, but the idea of killing anyone just because they could left a bad taste in her mouth. The idea of killing someone for a reason even less moral than him being a reprobate but rather for money tasted worse. “We’re not here for that. We’re already on a mission that’ll pay us well.”

Kisame replied, “Nothing wrong with getting some more, could even go towards our spending money so we could rest a bit more comfortably and eat better. Hell, don’t tell me there isn’t anything you need to buy that the budget right now doesn’t allow.”

Sakura blinked hard, THROB, the larger man wasn’t wrong. She was still in the planning processes for the remedies for her other patients but when she came to the right conclusions she would no doubt need money. After all, the odds of their next clientele having coincidental books she’d need and give to her for free likely wouldn’t happen twice.

THROB. “We don’t have time for a detour. Pain-sama wouldn’t want us to fall behind schedule. Not to mention my other patients can’t afford for us to take any deviations.” She tried to reason.

Kisame shrugged, “eh, the worst they’ll do is complain but I’m sure they’d shut up if we brought back a bounty, and Pain knows we could do with some extra cash.”

Rōga pleaded more, his eyes desperate and wide, “it’s not much! Please - my bounty isn’t worth it! Just let me go a-and I’ll disappear.”

Sakura couldn’t think of any more reasoning through the continued pain. THROB. Tears had pricked the corners of her eyes and her breathing was becoming more erratic. All she wanted was to never see this lowlife again without feeling the taste of vomit in the back of her throat for having his life under the mercy of Sakura’s words influencing Kisame’s grip.

“Please, Kisame-san…” she struggled, “...we don’t have time.”

The looming man looked down at her, expression morphing from smug to neutral, and be it either her convincing or how pitiful she looked, he sighed.

“Alright, alright, enough with the sad look. Both of you.” He looked back to the bandit, grinning again. “You’re not dying today so consider yourself lucky.”

Though he was struggling for breath and his face seemed frozen in a state of panic, his eyes took on a relieved light. As though even as he’d been begging, he had fully expected his life to end at the hand of Kisame any second.

He stuttered, “a-ah th-thank you! Thank you so much! I - I promise you won't see hide nor hair from me e-ever again!”

Kisame nodded along, “we better make sure.”

THROB.

Sakura had huddled in on herself, forehead pressed to her knees, the deep bite on her thigh pulsing as it bled and cradling her broken arm as she was able to focus just enough to slowly start mending the break, though the aching remained.

THROB.

But the pop sound of bone dislocating quickly followed by the dull tearing of skin before heavy flesh. Not a second later, hardly any time to put an image to sound in her mind of what was happening, a scream followed.

THROB.

Sakura looked up as the tearing ended and the guttural screaming devolved into fractured sobs with cut off almost screams as the bandit struggled to register through the agony that the man still gripping him by the throat had torn his arm clean off from the shoulder socket.

THROB.

Blood had spurt from the open wound during the initial tear due to how quickly it had happened, staining half of the hanging man's body and spattering onto Kisame’s arms. It now dripped from the flesh gaping and bleeding into the open air and falling onto the ground below. Further dampening the dirt now with blood.
THROB.

Again, with each hard shutting of her eyes, Sakura saw the man’s arm being torn off morph into Itachi being restrained and mortally wounded, until it all looked like a man being torn into pieces. Sakura felt horror like lead drop in her gut.

Kisame looked over at her again, “I know you’re a medic but you’re not gonna ask to heal this guy are you?”

THROB.

Tears burned her eyes, every breath felt too big for her throat, her arm and her thigh were still bleeding but the continuous anguish her head was experiencing kept her from even considering fixing it, and all she could do was look upon the pathetic man who had threatened her.

THROB.

It was true, Sakura was a healer, it was her moral obligation to save lives and heal the injured. No matter the patient, all deserved to be in good health, if a doctor could allow themselves a bias against any person simply because they didn’t like them then they would be a disgrace.

THROB.

But under all the pain she was suffering, the threat her patients had been under, and the thought that a scumbag like this wouldn’t hesitate to attack a girl who had the misfortune of seeking refuge at this river and had no one bigger to stand up for her…

THROB.

Sakura shook her head.

THROB.

“Good decision.” Kisame said and dropped the sniveling man to thump harshly on the ground and clutch the bleeding open flesh of where his right arm had once been.

THROB.

Sakura felt sick.

THROB.

The man whimpered and choked on his sobs, but Kisame was unphased, nudging him with his foot and saying, “c’mon better get moving before we change our mind, and this better be the last anyone sees of you.”

THROB.

The world began to spin, gravity shifting on an axis and the nauseous pairing of Sakura’s pulsing brain with the heaviness in her gut and garnished with the morphing gory images behind her eyelids made the taste of bile rise on the back of her throat.

THROB.

The mans stutters and sobs left him struggling to control his mouth but after a moment, fueled by Kisame’s threat, he whistled weakly. The sound shot through Sakura's ears like a senbon piercing her eardrums. She momentarily thought her ears were even bleeding in response.

THROB.

The wolf Sakura had knocked out slowly and almost as deliriously as his master, struggling its way up to him. The man hobbled to his feet and leaned most of his weight on the wolf.

THROB.

He hesitated, looking back at the other wolf that Itachi had thrown, he whistled weakly again. The wolf remained immobile even after a second more controlled whistle.

THROB.

The man spared only a sneer at the prone animal before hobbling away with a lone wolf as his crutch.

THROB.

After witnessing through cracked eyes the man abandon his companion, the rapid thoughts swirling around in the hurricane of her mind seemed like whispers when a single thought all but screamed.

‘THOSE WHO ABANDON THEIR COMRADES ARE WORSE THAN SCUM.’

Sakura threw her body to the side and threw up. THROB . Stomach acid making it even harder for her to breathe. THROB . She swayed to the side and gripped her hair in fistfuls as tightly as she could. THROB.

“Woah, it’s okay now squirt, didn’t think that guy got to you this bad.” Kisame’s voice was getting closer but Sakura was hunched in on herself. THROB.

“I - I” Sakura was seeing too much, hearing too much. Feeling so much and it all conflicted. Every image or voice was right and wrong. Was what she saw and what she couldn’t place her finger on. Her brain, like fists slamming on a door, just would not stop .

“C’mon, you’re gonna be okay, look at me.”  Kisame tried to coax.

THROB. Sakura, through great effort, pulled her head up. 

Kisame didn’t even look like himself in her blurred and distorted vision.

THROB. Unaware to even herself, Sakura opened her mouth to speak. 

“S-sensei…”

Behind the form that must be Kisame, Sakura saw a small drop of red.

Then all she saw was red.

Her eyes fell shut as her head hit the ground. 

❀

Consciousness came slowly but the headache came quickly.

Sakura winced, relaxing slightly as she felt the ache wasn’t the same as her prior pain but more comparable to a lingering near numbing thrum.

If the throbbing migraine from earlier was a scream, the current feeling in her skull was an echo reverbing back. Still heard and felt but so distant that she could ignore it.

Sakura began to take stock of her current situation as she slowly opened her eyes.

She had been laying on her back, a softness behind her head and blanket covered up to her chin, but even with the winter chill she was warm thanks to the heat of a campfire illuminating half of her face.

Recognizing that her arm was no longer broken, meaning her attempt to mend the bone through the pain had succeeded just before she’d passed out. Sakura’s body snapped taut. 

She sat upright fast and immediately felt the aftereffects, that being her brain felt as though it was still on her pillow before it was slingshot-ed back into her skull. The dizziness made her sway and hold a hand to her forehead in an attempt to find focus.

“Steady yourself,” Itachi spoke and Sakura immediately calmed her body down. 

A relieved sigh slipped from her lips and she let her shoulders loosen. “Where’s Kisame-san? What happened? How long was I asleep for?”

Itachi raised a hand to quiet her. He sat relaxed, close to the campfire, the makeshift bed laid under him looked used and his cloak rested loosely on his shoulders.

“What do you remember?” He said.

Sakura took a calming breath. She began from their arrival in the land of Rivers and continued through the ambush by a group of bandits who turned out to be single bandit aptly good with his clone jutsus.

But as she got to her headache, moments started to appear off . Sakura wasn’t sure how many times in her life she’d lost consciousness but since it was most likely induced by the migraine and exacerbated by stress due to the situation she was in, she assumed her memory of the events would get fuzzier as it got closer to darkness.

Even with clear minded focus, she struggled. Kisame had killed the water clones, Sakura in her pain had splitting and blurring vision that had her seeing ⬛⬛,and she had called out ‘⬛⬛.’

She explained it to Itachi as best she could.

“But it’s strange,” she held her open palms in her lap, “it's like for every nine things I remember there's one I don’t. Like the room I’m in is full but I feel something is missing.”

Itachi remained an apt listener, Sakura would feel touched by his concern but her stomach loudly rumbling left her in a state of embarrassment.

Itachi pulled himself to his feet, picking up a plate close to him and offering it to her.

Sakura looked from the hunched man to the plate before hurrying to take it and thank him, not used to the retreating man being nice to her.

“Kisame caught dinner so save your gratitude for him, of which you owe him an immense amount.” He lounged back on his blanket.

Sakura’s head slowly fell in shame. “Yeah, I do.”

She looked down at the plate of some kind of cooked meat. “Kisame-san caught this? What happened to our ration bars?”

“He’d rather always have a meat dish so he sorts himself out. If you’d rather not have rabbit then just put it to the side.” While Itachi explained, Sakura looked from her plate to the empty one beside Itachi before shaking her head and blowing on the meat before taking a bite.

‘If he was really only hunting for himself then Itachi-san and I wouldn’t have been given a cut. Kisame-san is quite considerate.’ She chewed the meat, it was similar to chicken if a bit more tender. It wasn’t a dinner Sakura was expecting but she was grateful for the hearty filling of her empty stomach.

She looked to the sleeping man who she owed her thanks. He was slumbering deeply, his blanket thrown from his torso and tangled around his legs as though he’d been struggling to be rid of them. But given her knowledge of his active sleep behaviours, he likely had fought the fabric, beside that he was snoring in long low breaths. Sakura spared the thought over how healthy his breathing sounded.

But upon looking at the man's face, Sakura thought of the blood splattering as he tore the arm clean off of a weeping man he held off the ground by the throat.

Sakura gulped. The sight of Kisame so brutal and his smile as blood sprayed almost predatory, that the image of him collecting enough rabbits to treat his teammates to dinner with was such a stark contrast that left Sakura confused on how to feel.

She took another bite and morosely chewed the lean still warm meat.

She nearly startled when Itachi spoke, “Do you think we’re not going to discuss what happened?” His tone was harsh.

Sakura coughed, fighting to swallow the meat, she took a swig of a water canister that was near her pillow to help and fought to meet Itachi’s eyes.

“No, I… I’m so sorry for what happened back there.” Her shoulders sagged as she continued, “I don’t know what happened, what made me lose consciousness or even if it was anything in particular. But I promise this won't happen agai-”

“Has this happened before?” Itachi interrupted.

Sakura lowered her plate into her lap. “The headaches come and go but I haven’t lost consciousness due to them before. This was the first time since I woke up without many of my memories.”

“So you cannot guarantee this won’t happen again.”

Sakura tried with a firmer tone with pleading words, “no but now I know the threshold of pain I can withstand before I fall unconscious and possibly some of the triggers! I’m starting to think that I sustained some kind of specific trauma that’s tied into my memory loss which triggers the headaches and if I’m able to figure out what they are then I think it could be the key to healing my mind.”

There was a beat of silence between them, just three people basking in the warmth of the flickering fire with the whisper of nature's ambiance circling them.

“Interesting.” Itachi’s slow voice and deep tone felt at home among the fire and Sakura’s shoulders untensed in its warmth.

This ease didn’t last as the next words spoken were as cold as ice. “You see this experience for what it could become and not for what it was.”

Sakura’s eyes snapped up to his grave black ones narrowed in prejudice.

“Before you hypothesise any further, let’s take a closer look into what exactly happened.” Sakura shrank in on herself further and further with each fact the man listed.

“You were underprepared for an ambush despite being warned about the abundance of bandits in this specific area, and had I not intervened you would have been injured further.

In the face of oncoming violence from an enemy who already attempted to harm you, you chose to try and reason with him when the appropriate action would have been to fight immediately. Especially seeing how he posed a threat not only to you but to your patients, when being a medic is a position you claim to carry at the utmost priority, your decision could have cost you that very integrity you hold so close.

Not only this,” Sakura wanted to look away but the dread in her gut froze her in place. “But you froze. In a position of fight or flight, you instead froze. Be it due to this recurring headache , a panic attack, anything regardless, you were in a life threatening situation and you were useless.”

Sakura finally pulled her eyes away but under all the weight of those words she could only drop them to the floor, a brief sting horrifying her to the realisation that she might just cry .

Still, Itachi continued. “The ability to reflect on your experiences and find the silver linings is a privilege that without Kisame’s intervention you would not have.”

Sakura nodded, both in agreement and in an attempt to stave off the tears she struggled to keep at bay. “I…” she sniffled, “I really am grateful for that. I’ll thank him when he wakes up…”

“I’m afraid that isn’t enough.” Sakura’s body curled to physically protect her from Itachi’s words, a pathetic notion that curling her toes would protect her from the truth.

“Konan and Tobi may have sung your praises, the latter making it a point to mention how well you had conducted yourself on his mission, but evidence suggests he may have embellished.”

Sakura’s vision began to blur and her futile effort to keep her emotions from spilling out had begun to truly crumble.

‘Konan-chan and Tobi spoke for me? Did they praise my efforts directly to Pain-sama?’ She gripped her crossed arms tightly, almost bruising her chest with how close she held herself.

“Needless to say I am not impressed, and should you lapse again like you did there, I’ll suggest you be sent back to base immediately.” Sakura felt the tears begin to pearl. “We don’t need a liability.”

“I!” Sakura choked. “I’m really sorry Itachi-san! I know I’ve already let you down but please -” she sniffled.

His expression never changed, whether faced with her reasoning, her hunched shame, or her tearful apology; he was rigid and immovable.

“You want another chance to prove you can defend yourself? Because this is a mission through shinobi territories home to lawless individuals. You will face these situations again.”

She shook her head slowly, hoping the tears wouldn’t fall so he could see her seriously. “I won’t be a liability. I won’t be useless. Please let me prove myself as a medic, all I want is to keep you both alive .”

The silence Sakura had found comfort in upon waking up was now against her as it couldn't hide the pathetic sound of her sniffling.

Itachi let the moment simmer. As if allowing Sakura this time was to make her reflect on his words and her pleas. They sat there with their thoughts, letting the moment marinate.

“This cannot happen twice.” ‘If it does, you’ll be sent back and will be allowed on no more missions,’ was left unspoken but Sakura still heard it.

“It won’t. Trust me, I promise I won’t be a liability again.” She swore.

“Trust is earned when actions match words, do better.” While Sakura agreed wholeheartedly with his words, she was at a loss for her own.

He was right. She could promise, plead, and swear until her throat bled but it was worth nothing if she couldn’t prove it.

Luckily for her, Kisame’s stirring came to Sakura’s rescue as his legs struggled against the blanket as he stretched his arms out and slurred. “If you didn’t wanna, then you shoulda said so… dumbass.”

Sakura snorted, wiping her eyes as she giggled. The dread and turmoil she’d been choking on left her as easy as a sigh thanks to the oblivious sleeping man.

“Rest, you need it.” Itachi said, shifting a knee up so he could rest a forearm atop it.

Sakura nodded, wanting to do anything but disagree with the man. “I’ll take the next watch shift.”

“You will not,” Sakura winced, “Kisame and I will take watches, you will rest until morning.”

Sakura figured he was ordering this of her because either he didn’t trust her or wanted her fully rested to properly recover from the earlier incident, which one though she didn’t know.

“Okay,” she took a final sip of her drink before putting it down and resituating herself back inside her makeshift bed. “Good night, Itachi-san”

“Hn,” was the only sound she received in reply. Sakura accepted that and rolled over to face away from the fire. She had worried that after such a tense conversation she would be left awake with her thoughts, but she needn’t worry as once she allowed her body to relax her mind easily began to slip away.

Exhaustion began to loosen her muscles and fatigue weighing her eyelids, but in the subtle glowing darkness before her, Sakura saw movement.

A creature hunched on the ground moved slowly, as though drowsiness and gravity was trying to keep it down but the animal was willing itself up.

Sakura furrowed a brow as the fire’s light traced along two pointed ears and muzzle until she could recognise the wolf dog hybrid animal that had not too long ago had been a threat to her.

She took in a small gasp, as if ready to call for Itachi about the possibility of the bandit Rōga and his hounds return. But the thought of her companion brought back the memory that aligned with what she was seeing.

The wolf struggling to its feet wasn’t the wolf that Rōga had fled with, it was the one that had attacked Itachi.

‘I thought he killed it though, surely if he’d just knocked it out then it should have woken up sooner.’ Sakura thought as the wolf shook its head along with its lingering weariness. Evidently the animal that had been ordered to attack Itachi by which he had hurtled against a tree was left alive.

Sakura studied the animal, ‘but why? And why leave it alive?’ It wasn’t that Sakura was eager to kill the animal - far from it! But for a man like Itachi who had scolded her for not doing her part to keep them safe then he would take the precaution to kill an animal trained to attack people it had been ordered to.

Sakura watched fascinated as the animal sniffed the air, saw Sakura laying not too far away and cowered back. She felt a pang of sympathy for the wolf, despite being ordered - without the presence of its master - didn’t want to attack them.

Judging by how Sakura had seen Rōga ‘discipline’ the animals, it seemed such cruel treatment truly didn’t inspire loyalty. This was even more evident by how the wolf flinched back as Sakura slowly held out a hand from her blanket.

She wanted to ease the poor thing and even offer it some food if she could, but it was so skittish that the second her eyes flickered away it began to back away into the woods.

The animal, once out of the fire light, only became a pair of footsteps rapidly getting further and further away.

‘Honestly the woods are probably better for you than if you were awake for Rōga to take you.’ As Sakura thought that, she came to a hesitant conclusion.

The wolf had frozen before the flurry of crows before it could attack Itachi, Kangae is capable of genjutsu, and the animal hadn’t even made a noise when it struck the tree.

‘Had… Did Itachi-san use a genjutsu to knock you out so Rōga couldn’t take you?’ Sakura almost wanted to physically shake the thought away, especially after just being on the receiving end of such a harsh scolding from said man.

But the thought had made sense, and if he had truly intended to free an abused animal trained to fight for a master who didn’t care if it lived or died, then Itachi had gone out of his way to be kind to the animal. 

Sakura didn’t know what to do with that thought. Was there more to the man than harsh words and a mission focused mindset?

Sakura wanted to believe so.

Her eyes grew heavy as she pondered this, she hoped the time spent on this mission would give Sakura ample time to look closer into the man and his actions.

It took the human brain between fifteen to twenty minutes to fall asleep, a brain suffering from stress could be susceptible to sleep even quicker, it shouldn’t shock her that she fell asleep so deeply and so quickly.

Sakura was truly exhausted.

Even still.

It couldn’t have been much later when a feeling pulled at her consciousness.

Tugging her awareness back so carefully like a child onto her mothers sleeve.

The feeling itself was hard to find the words for.

Like the chill down the spine of walking alone at night and hearing a second set of footsteps.

The paralysing fear as a child of seeing faces in the dark of your own empty room that you swore were blinking back at you.

The hair on Sakura’s neck rose and stood on end as the feeling of being under the eye of an apex predator who had been watching her far longer than she had realised it made her freeze in place.

She hadn’t moved from her prior position, on her side faced away from the group around the fire, and she didn’t know how but she could feel it in the survival instinct home deep inside her brain, that there was another presence behind her.

Through this paralysing fear did Sakura have the thought of what Itachi had told her, that she couldn’t freeze again, and she focused her tension through the terror for any snap action she should take.

What stopped her was hearing voices. They were muted and hard to understand through the rustling of leaves and distant flapping of bird wings, but she could make out the deep baritones of Itachi, Kisame, and another unknown voice.

Knowing Itachi and Kismae were talking with the voice eased Sakura’s fight response.

But still, something kept her from turning over. Something kept her rooted in place, body tense, eyes wide and seeing only darkness with the deep seating command to stay still.

Even so, even focusing as hard as she could, even recognising who was talking at a time, Sakura understood nothing. It was like listening to someone while submerged in water.

Sakura could hear the voices when they reached her ears but the milliseconds it would take for her brain to register what was being said, it was like they were suddenly distorted.

Like forgetting what was being said as it was being spoken.

Like time itself was impossible to register, Sakura had no idea how long she lay frozen, all she knew was she wished someone would comfort her. Would ease the tension coiled in her body by telling her everything was alright.

She spared a thought for Konan who could take her by the cheek and calm her nerves with a smile. She thought of Tobi who would hug her around the shoulders and rub his cheek against the top of her head, cooing how she was safe with him. She heard a flap of Kangae’s wings.

A feather fell.

The flap she heard was not in her mind and was too large to have been the raven. It was echoed in the night by smaller sounds that could have been it reverberating back or multiple wings taking action after the initial one.

The feather was likewise not belonging to Kangae.

Sakura saw the black feather flutter in her vision, slightly illuminated by the fire behind her and fall to land on the ground in front of her.

Kangae was the size of a juvenile raven, he fit snugly in her lap and his wingspan stretched from her fingertip up to her shoulder. A smaller but proud size boasted by a young and growing raven. A single feather fit perfectly to the size of Sakura’s own hand.

This lone feather lay equal to Kangae’s wingspan.

Sakura examined it with wide eyes as she realised it would reach from her fingertip and touch her chin.

A chill rocked her body. Freezing her further as cold dread kept her lips sealed whilst all she could think regarding the third presence behind her was just how big it was .

Before she was even capable of registering a second thought, the black colour of the feather began bleeding into the colours surrounding it. Like a droplet of black ink, it swirled and merged until solid shapes were indistinguishable to Sakura’s eyes.

A wave of fatigue washed over her vision with the colours and deliriousness began to weigh her eyelids.

Sakura had no idea when she’d closed her eyes, only that she now opened them to the sunlight.

“Wh… what…” Sakura mumbled sleepily and pulled herself from the heavy blanket.

“The sun has only just risen.” Mid eye-rub, Sakura turned her head to see Itachi by the smoldering fire, standing in his plain clothing, clouded cloak in hand as he shook the visible bite of winter from the fabric.

“Oh, good morning then.” She offered and was met with a “hn,” and glance to the ground in front of her.

She followed the gesture and saw two small flame roasted fish laid out on a plate.

“Ah, thank yo-” she caught herself, looking back at Itachi who kept his emotionless gaze on her. Remembering how Itachi doesn’t care for unearned gratitude, she picked up the plate and looked around. “Where’s Kisame-san?”

“Cleaning himself up,” he looked past her to the river, “I suggest you follow his example.” If it was anyone else who said that to her then Sakura might have been irritated, but even only a few days into knowing Itachi had her wanting to look closer into the man to understand him better.

Sakura thought of the wolf who was alive and free because of Itachi’s actions. 

He was quite private and didn’t speak much, when he chose to speak, it was in service to a point. The way he could be a patient that detailed what he felt impertinent whilst keeping what he deemed irrelevant close to the chest; he sought a solution to one problem, not the other, so he kept focus solely on that.

Even with words that could have been interpreted as an insult, he spoke with a purpose to a point. He wasn’t trying to offend Sakura by calling her dirty. He was telling her where to find Kisame, to do something alongside him so as to more easily thank him, and she was filthy, so a wash was something she was in dire need of.

Sakura could of course be completely wrong about the man, and he was just trying to say she was unsightly, but she supposed she still had more days on this mission to try and understand him better.

She nodded, “I will.” Even knowing his aversion to gratitude as his motives didn’t require appreciation, Sakura couldn’t let it go unsaid, “thanks.”

They said nothing else as Sakura quickly ate.

Soon she rose to her feet and turned to the land's titular river. Kisame stood shirtless, his pants not rolled up, instead they simply got wet as the steady stream water soaked them up to his knees.

He was lathering what must be his shirt with soap as his dark cloak was hanging on a stick he’d clearly stabbed into the ground close to the river’s edge. “Sick of stinking?”

“Is it that bad?” Sakura fanned out her yukata and cloak in pinched fingers, assessing the dirt patches and tears from wolf teeth.

“Eh, you’ll feel better after. I know I’m not put off by blood and dirt but ain’t nothing better than getting clean.” He held his arms out in a ‘see?’ gesture.

The juxtaposition again gave Sakura pause, this man had so ruthlessly torn a pleading man's arm off and now stood jovially washing the blood away.

Sakura fiddled with her fingers as she came to sit on a large rock, her eyes staring unfocused at the streaming water, wondering how to broach the subject.

“I’m almost done so you can use the soap in a sec,” Kisame said, appraising the black shirt sleeve.

“Okay, thanks,” her eyes snapped up, “and thank you for dinner and breakfast.”

“You sure like thanking people,” he snickered.

“When they do something nice for me then yes.” 

“Big assumption there accusing me of being a nice person.”

Sakura heard the echoes of the man's begging morph into agonizing screams. “I said you did something nice, not that you are nice.” She drew her knees up, he’d attacked the man to defend her, she wanted to believe he was a nice man.

“An important distinction for everyone.” Kisame agreed, then he quirked an eyebrow at her whilst he hunched over to wash the suds away. Sakura’s eyes again unfocused.

She wanted so badly to return to the easy teasing back and forths they had traded before the bandits' ambush, but the lack of hesitance he’d shown when crippling a begging man didn’t sit right with her.

She was blind to Kisame assessing her as he easily stepped through the water to emerge from the river right by her. He swiped another large stick from the ground and stabbed it between two rocks, he mirrored the nearby cloak and hung the shirt atop the stick.

Sakura was pulled from her thoughts when Kisame filled in the quiet.

“Y’know you should be careful that close to water with your guard down.”

Sakura let out a sigh, ‘don’t tell me my failure last night has him doubting me as much as Itachi-san now.’

“I’m fine, there’s no bandits around right now.” Her words were monotonous.

“Not talking about bandits, I’m talking about the water itself.” He corrected with a nod towards the river.

Sakura furrowed her brow and looked back to said river. “What’s wrong with it?” Rōga had used water style jutsus, was there another threat close by with the same techniques that Kisame was warning her of?

Kisame came to stand next to her, Sakura tensed and looked across the river, she couldn’t afford to be taken by surprise again.

“Take a closer look at the river water,” he said, his voice becoming quieter and Sakura did.

Her eyes scan near frantically for anything suspicious in the water. Her hunched body coiled tight and ready to pounce as Kisame crouched down to speak quietly in her ear.

“Don’t you know how water has mysterious properties?” Sakura’s brow furrowed. “Every body of water in the world once came from a single source that was said to have mystical capabilities.”

“What?” Sakura’s face scrunched up, “that’s not true.”

“Yeah, it is, the deeper into the ocean the more cryptic the possibilities. Curses, creatures from legend, time travel, ghosts, any impossibility could be hidden in there. That’s why it's called the deep .” He explained further, his words unbelievable despite the gravitas he spoke with.

Sakura almost scoffed as she turned unamused eyes to the man beside her, “okay, you’re just trying to play some kind of joke on me.”

“Don’t look away!” His words were hushed but harsh, nearly making Sakura jump. “I wanted to see it for myself but after hearing about the legends about the land of rivers I knew it was the water doing something.”

Sakura opened her mouth to dispute him only for Kisame to shoot out an arm to point at the water close to their feet. “Look! There, behind our reflections!”

Sakura was so taken in by the seriousness with which he spoke that she turned back to the river and followed where he was pointing. Their reflections were inconsistent blurred colours atop the steadily rushing water, the glare of the sun shining across the surface making it hard for Sakura to focus on below the water. Still, she tried, focus lacing her brow and leaning closer over her hunched form…

Her stomach swooped, eyes wide in alarm and a sharp intake of breath was suddenly interrupted by water as she was shoved into the river.

It was shallow enough that after the sudden and brief submergence that engulfed her in freezing water, just pushing herself up with her hands on the rocky ground had her erupting from the surface.

She spat and coughed the river water out as it rushed by her shoulders all the while hearing Kisame howling with laughter.

“Ahaha! You’re way too gullible!” He gripped his gut, still laughing at Sakura.

“Shut up!” She sputtered. Desperately trying to pull herself to her feet as the heavy fabric of her yukata and overcoat made her struggling too similar to a drowning kitten. “I can’t believe - ! Ugh!” 

She managed to stand, wobbly on her feet and harshly began pulling off her overcoat.

“Come on, you were gonna jump in anyway, I just made it funnier.” His rambunctious laughter may have subsided, but his entertainment continued through more contained chuckles as he watched her flounder.

“I don’t care ! I’m just - !” Sakura didn’t have any words to articulate exactly why she was so annoyed. Perhaps it was her wanting to have a serious talk with the man and instead he was just sidestepping the conversation and instead going right back to a playful rapport that she clearly wasn't ready for yet. Instead she was reduced to aggressively flailing until her coat was separated from her and angrily grumbling a one-sided argument under her breath.

Kisame threw the soap wordlessly, his chuckling having died down, and she caught it only to turn her back on him. She approached the riverside, wading through the water that raced past her thighs, and threw her coat on a rock.

She stripped off her yukata so she stood chillingly in her long-sleeved black compression shirt and leggings. Her hair no doubt must have looked like a drenched bird's nest as she had to keep blowing her fringe from her eyes once she’d hunched over to begin lathering the yukata with the soap. The only kind thought being one of relief that her paper flower gift from Konan was safe atop her blanket.

The silence continued, if Kisame was intending to give Sakura time to cool down then he better be ready to wait!

“Think fast,” Sakura snapped to attention and caught a kunai.

“What’s this for?”

“It’s one that was thrown at you last night,” upon hearing that, Sakura more closely inspected the weapon. Come to think of it, Rōga had left at least three behind before he hobbled away.

Kisame was quiet as she turned the weapon over in her hand. It was when she gasped and nearly dropped the kunai into the water that he spoke again.

“Finally noticed,” she didn’t reply, because of course she couldn’t. The feeling of bandage or leather was absent from the grip, in its place spooled and tied around the metal was a long lock of black hair.

“See, while villages fill up their bingo books on rogue-nin who pose a threat to village safety and their piece of mind and shit, our friend Rōga was a recent edition.” He shrugged nonchalantly, “not a big bounty like he said but that’s cause his targets weren’t shinobi or even to hurt villages directly.”

Kisame lowered himself down atop the rock and swung his legs over the edge, his feet catching the stream. “He targeted wandering travellers, specifically his goal was murdering women. From the looks of it he liked to keep trophies.”

“I get it…”

“Plus that wasn’t the only kunai he decorated, both the other ones he left have hair wrapped around the grips,” he scoffed,” and you saw how many pouches he had, who knows how many women he killed and turned into tool wrappings.”

“I get it!” Sakura yelled, her head dropped low, eyes never leaving the kunai in her palm and other hand tightly gripping the soap wrapped inside the yukata.

“What do you get?” Kisame dropped his arms behind him so he could lean back, and he cocked his head lazily.

“I know Rōga was a despicable person, I saw the look in his eyes when he saw me in pain! You’re telling me not to feel bad for what happened to him and I was right to not heal him.” Sakura’s words began loud and harsh but gradually lost their fire as she finished.

“ Did you want to heal him?” His tone was free from judgement.

“No - yes! …no?” Sakura sighed, her shoulders dropped and head hung. “I don’t know.” She had been suffering such pain when she had the opportunity to heal him so the refusal had felt easier, but now with clarity and a clear mind would her answer have been the same?

Kisame shrugged, “eh don’t beat yourself up about being conflicted, people like you always want to help even at their own detriment.”

Sakura placed the kunai atop her scrunched-up cloak so she wouldn’t lose it then gave Kisame a scrutinizing eye. “What do you mean ‘people like you’?”

“Nice people.” Again, his words held no judgement, he spoke like he was stating a universal fact.

“What do you have against nice people?” She asked firmly.

“Absolutely nothing. Nothing wrong with being a nice person, the world could use more of ‘em in fact.” He stretched his arms behind his head like a cat soaking in the sun. “The problem is nice people don’t last long out here.”

“Are you telling me not to be nice? Because as a medic it's my duty to heal anyone without bias.” She straightened her back, turning slightly to him so she could focus again on scrubbing her yukata.

“That’d be pointless. Telling a nice person not to be nice is like telling a fish not to swim; it’s in their nature.” He shook his head then pointed to her. “I’m telling you to be a nice person but only be nice once. Otherwise, you’ll be taken advantage of.”

“Once?”

“Yep,” he held up a single finger for emphasis. “Be nice first, offer an alternative to a fight, give them a chance to back down, whatever. But only do it once, then when they throw it in your face you gotta respond the same.

“You gave that bandit way too many chances and it nearly made you his next victim.”

Sakura chewed on her lip, “I’ll… You’re probably right…” It was hard for her to admit.

Kisame let out a long-suffering sigh upon her admission. “Look. I respect your drive as a medic and I know you feel you need to remain unbiased. But do you know how I think you fix this dilemma and ease your conscience?”

She looked at him skeptically over the yukata she was holding up to assess for leftover dirt. “You’re just going to make fun of me aren’t you?”

He smiled and put a hand to his chest, “hand to my heart, my advice is completely sincere and it’s entirely up to you if you want to take it.”

Her silence was taken as a lack of disagreement, so he continued. “Instead of being nice, focus on being kind.”

Sakura’s expression morphed from distrust into complete confusion. “Hold on, I’m confused. Be kind?”

“Yep, like me.” He grinned widely, proud to be his own example.

Sakura remembered the screams, cry and tearing of flesh. “You reject the notion of being a nice person but see yourself as a kind person. Tearing a pleading man's arm off doesn't seem very kind to me.”

“It’s all about perspective.” He leaned back against his arms. “From his perspective that wasn’t very kind of me.”

Sakura nodded and he continued, “but here’s the question, do you want to be kind in the eyes of a man like that?”

Sakura mulled over that, she approached the edge and emerged from the river. “I don’t care that a serial assaulter and woman murderer thinks I’m unkind. But from the perspective of his past and future victims, I am.”

He looked to where Sakura stood by the rock he rested on, he gestured to her feet with a slight nod only for Sakura to see two large sticks on the ground.

“He enjoyed murdering women too much to just stop and since he killed enough of them for neighboring villages to put him in their bingo books, that means if I didn’t do something when I had the chance then what kind of person would I be?”

Sakura held the stick in one hand, rubbing the wood under her thumb and following the grooves a kunai left behind to get rid of stray pieces and make it better to hang clothes on.

Kisame was right. Sakura suppressed a shiver upon remembering the disgusting gleam in the bandits' eyes as he looked down on her and the feeling of a woman’s hair decorating his weapon. Her heart ached thinking about just how many women he must have killed and how he was still walking around with remnants of them.

‘I didn’t want to heal him.’

“That’s not a bad thing,” Kisame said as Sakura had unintentionally admitted that thought out loud.

“But as a medic what does that make me?”

“A pretty damn considerate one.” He spoke like it was a unanimous agreement.
“Considerate?” She exhaled exasperated.

“Think about it. Think of the perspectives.” He spoke slower, encouraging her.

If she had healed that monster, he would have continued praying on travelers, torturing women and taking their hair as his perverted trophies. To those women, Sakura would be the monster that condemned them to their suffering.

Kisame hummed, lowering himself back and resting his head in his hands, soaking in the morning sun.

Kisame had been right, and Sakura bit her lip as she realized how childish she had been.

Still, she looked back to him and asked. “Why didn’t you kill him then? Was it because I said not to?”

He shrugged, eyes closed and body calm. “Little bit. You’re smart so I figured you’d come to your senses so instead I did him a kindness.”

Sakura almost asked him right then how tearing his arm off could be considered a kindness , but she took his earlier advice and put it into perspective. No sooner did she find her answer.

“You tore his arm off so he couldn’t perform jutsu anymore. So without his only advantage that he would have to reflect.”

“Rōga of the hundred hands left with only one is just Rōga. I left him alive and he gets to take a look at himself, if we see him again then I will kill him because that means he didn’t learn. If he goes back to being a bandit after having this close of a brush-in with death, then he’s beyond reform.”

Somehow, through the thoughts of Sakura’s medical integrity, failure to fight off a disgusting man, and confliction over her inherent niceness being a hypothetical cause for more women murdered; a small smile began tugging at her lips.

Kisame had done so much for Sakura to feel grateful for. He had saved her life, regarded her childish mindset and not murdered despite her pleas, he both gave that bandit the chance to reform and saved future victims by tearing away the monster's famous weapon, and even whittled down two extra sticks knowing Sakura would need them to dry her clothes.

Her grip tightened on the stick and she looked at the happily dozing man with polished eyes. What a truly considerate man.

“Thank you… Kisame-san.” Her voice was weak, but heavy with gratitude.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Sakura stabbed the stick into the ground and hung her yukata.

She returned to the river and got to work washing the minimal dirt from her cloak.

The two settled into a comfortable silence as Sakura scrubbed and Kisame lounged, there was a mixture of dirt and blood dirtying the suds and sinking in the water.

Once clean, Sakura held the cloak up to assess the damage, resolving that she would need her needle and thread to mend the tearing. Upset too that her gifted compression shirt and leggings would need to be mended as well.

She emerged from the river and hung the cloak along with their other clothes. Seeing how they would need time for their cloaks to dry, Sakura unhurriedly joined Kisame atop his rocky perch and lowered herself to sit beside him. The chill made her shiver but she bit her tongue.

Not knowing when they would get moving again and not wanting to risk asking more ‘unnecessary’ questions to risk gaining more of Itachi’s ire, Sakura settled herself to appreciate the comfortable moment.

Noticing her silence was the result of a busy mind unable to completely relax, Kisame chose to insert himself into her quiet.

“Something else on your mind?”

Sakura hugged her knees close to her chest to nurture the warmth huddled inside her. “It’s nothing, just thinking about the fight last night.”

His eyes closed as he lounged, “anything specific?”

Sakura picked up the kunai wrapped with hair, held it in her hand and looked it over, “It’s just how fuzzy my memory gets the closer to when I lost consciousness. I remember a lot of what happened and the more I think about it the clearer it becomes, apart from some seconds it feels like I went blind or deaf.”

Kisame hummed, “give it time, if it’s important then it’ll come back to you.”

Sakura relaxed her shoulders, the kunai hanging limply, her voice almost dejected, “you sound so sure of that.”

“‘Cause I am.” He smirked. Sakura envied his facile temperament when discussing her dilemmas.

“It's also something I remember that’s bugging me though.” She turned to look at him as she corrected herself, “well maybe ‘bugging’ is the wrong word. Bothering me? Or it’s just something that’s been floating around in my mind I can’t stop thinking about but I’m sure it’s not as weird as my brains making it out to be.”

“Just say it, whatever it is it’s doing you no good stuck in that head of yours.” Kisame’s expression remained laidback.

“It’s just… Why did Rōga know your names? He recognised you and said your full name but from what you said to him this must have been your first time meeting. Not to mention how scared he was when he recognised you both.” Sakura felt she was beginning to ramble uncontrollably as the words passed no filter from her brain to her mouth.

“I’m probably just overthinking things like I tend to but I guess I’m just… curious…” Her words trailed off as she came to see Kisame’s eyes were open.

Half lidded deep eyes, not a sign of a smirk or grin pulling at his lips, and if possible the aura of nonchalance that he had lounged with had evaporated into the air. His posture remained the same with his arms crossed behind his head, one leg held up whilst the other hung off the boulder to toe the stream, but the energy with which he lay had shifted, throwing Sakura’s thoughts off axis.

She was reminded of the juxtaposition of his easygoing grin and the brutality of his actions.

A breeze brought with it a chill that shivered her body and Sakura felt the goosebumps prickle her exposed skin as she couldn’t pull her eyes from the man's own.

“When you look like I do, it’s hard not to make a name for yourself.”

Sakura swallowed, both her nerves and her immediate shame.

Considering the natural ease with which he talked about his sharklike appearance and bull sharklike anatomy, the thought that his appearance could be anything other than just just a part of himself and not something used to spread horror of his character had never crossed Sakrua’s mind.

Upon meeting him she had initially been shocked, but that had morphed into a fascination to learn about him then into a facetious companionship. The reasoning behind his seemingly cruel brutality only endeared her more to the man.

To think of how the gravity with which he spoke about his appearance told Sakura more than enough. He was a man who knew the kind of response a figure like his incited, the kind of unique stature a body like his would elicit a powerful word of mouth, and he had lived with this knowledge all his life.

Was his early years plagued with such prejudice? Had the dark grins come before or after realising people would know of him before they knew him?

Sakura had come to feel so natural in Kisame’s company that she hadn’t realised how ignorant of the man’s obvious experiences she had been.

She bit the apology off her tongue before it could be spoken, knowing he wasn’t looking for one nor needed one.

Instead she eased her chin against her knees and rubbed the goosebumps on her arm. “That makes sense.” She spoke.

With that, Kisame’s lax demeanor returned, his eyes closed and he hummed in agreement.

Sakura mirrored him and closed her own, the kunai hanging in her grip as she took a deep breath and simply enjoyed the sun.

Sakura was beginning to sense a pattern as she fell into the pitfall of stress over her missing memories and overthinking her current experiences followed by the realisation that Kisame was right.

‘Give it time, if it’s important then it’ll come back to you.’

He had said it like it was fact and Sakura was beginning to believe him.

She needed to relax and treat her mind kinder than she was. Trying to force memories and becoming consumed in her spiraling thoughts had so far only resulted in agonising migraines and now a fainting spell.

She couldn’t afford to let her situation affect her performance. Not if she was going to treat her patients, be permitted to go on missions, and hopefully someday even become a member of Konan’s team.

The sun was warm on her skin. Sakura in that moment felt light, like her burden had been momentarily lifted.

She was deaf to the dull thrumming like fists against a barrier. She was blind to how Kisame had thrown away her train of thought. She was forgetful to how Kisame had never explained why a bandit had known and was terrified too of who Itachi was.