Revealed
Gaara smiled brightly when he saw Sakura and Kakashi drop out of the trees at their rendezvous spot about halfway between Konohagakure and Sunagakure around midday. Naruto always felt weird leaving his post in the village but Gaara did it quite often. Is it naivety or does Gaara have that much more confidence in his shinobi than Naruto does his? Sakura allowed the thoughts to pass as she approached the young Kage.
“Hey, Gaara!” Sakura greeted happily.
“Hello Sakura, Kakashi. One of these days we’ll have to get together for a reason other than dealing with diplomatic issues between our nations.”
Sakura nodded. “I'd like that.”
“So what’s going on?” Kakashi started. “Naruto days some of our shinobi have been sighted in your village causing trouble?”
“Indeed. Naturally they pose no actual threat to my people otherwise I would have dealt with them long ago. They're pretty young so out of respect, mostly for Sakura, but for Naruto as well, I figured I would the pair of you take care of things.”
Sakura smiled. “Thanks Gaara.”
“Why did we meet so far outside the village?” Kakashi asked sharply. Sakura eyed him; why the attitude?
Gaara, who either didn't notice or didn't care, explained without pause. “The culprits in question are somewhere around here. I’ve used my sand to track them a few different times. They always lead me out here but then the sand just tapers off right around here.”
“Weird.” Sakura commented, looking around at the strange hilly pasture on the other side of which a vast desert stretched far and wide.
“I trust the two of you can handle things here. I tracked them here and I've been here since. Kankuro and his team are on guard back at the village but I haven't seen a signal that they've returned, so I anticipate wherever their hideout is, they're still there.”
“Don't worry we’all find them and bring them back to Konoha; expect a full report in a few days.” Sakura stated confidently.
“I'll leave it to you then.” Gaara turned and began to walk away. “And Sakura, let's have our work-free meeting sooner rather than later.” He called back.
Kakashi crossed his arms, huffing. “Seems like someone is after the great Kunoichi.”
A light blush covered Sakura’s cheeks. “How weird is that?”
“Weird?”
Sakura looked over at Kakashi. “Yeah. Me and the Kazekage, that's ridiculous.”
“Hmmmm.” The silver ninja closed his eyes in contemplation.
“What?” Sakura glared at Kakashi. He hummed like that whenever he thought she was lying.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
“Later. For now let's find these kids.” He uncrossed his arms. “Naruto said the gate guards haven't reported any deserters but Gaara only informed Naruto about the disruptions a few days ago…”
Sakura reached back into her ninja pouch and pulled out her signature black gloves and began securing them on her hands.
“Sai keeps a close watch on the skies so there's no way someone got out above Konoha, that means they would have had to escape underground. They must be getting in and out of Suna the same way… Sakura can you--”
But before Kakashi even got the words out Sakura barreled past him and leapt high into the sky. She altered her angle mid-fly and pummeled her fist directly into the surface of the earth. At first nothing happened, shocking Kakashi, but soon there was a soft buzz from the ground and it split into a million tiny pieces, leaving a gaping hole at least as tall as Kakashi and as wide as the river Konoha in its wake.
Kakashi stared, wide-eyed. “I didn't know you could do that.”
Sakura brimmed with pride. “It's a version of my regular cherry blossom punch where I release my chakra through a fine point at the last second. Instead of blasting on the surface, it splits the land beneath the surface which then spider cracks with the force into many more pieces. The more chakra I use, the bigger the hole. Sasuke calls it Cherry Blossom Destruction.”
“Sasuke?”
“Yeah, he thought of it when we were fighting the ten-tails during the war and he saw me punch for the first time. He showed me when he first got back. He said he was surprised at how quickly I mastered it.” Sakura smiled remembering the rare look of surprise on his face when she split her first hole only a few hours after they’d started training.
“He doesn't know you as well as I do. That doesn't surprise me at all.”
That was weird… Sakura pushed the moment away and hopped down into the hole and Kakashi followed her. I should have said ‘thank you,’ but now if I say it it'll be weird.
Sakura prepared to do her destruction punch again. Her plan was to just continue to blast away at the land until she ran into something notable and then ask a favor of her wood-style sub-captain to come clean up the mess later, but before she could punch down again, four people came bursting up from the ground.
Sakura and Kakashi quickly back tracked out of the hole and prepared to face their enemies. To their surprise, two of the nin were dressed in typical sand ninja gear alongside two expected leaf nin, however there were subtle differences from their outfits and those worn by official ninja from either nation.
“Kakashi, they're not Sand or Leaf ninja.” Sakura noted as they landed on the ground a few feet away from them.
“Hey lady! Where do you get off busting up our hideout like that! You knocked down all of our loot!” One of the Leaf impersonators called out.
His voice was prepubescent and he wasn't very tall. If Sakura had to guess she’d give him 11 tops. Still, something concerns me.
“Someone is organizing them.” Kakashi was staring at them with great concern. Exactly, the real leader hasn't shown himself yet, even to Gaara.
“You’ll have to excuse us! We don’t really like little kids running around pretending to be shinobi from our village and causing trouble!” Sakura called back to the boy.
“Who’s pretending? Both me and my brother are from Konoha!” He shouted back.
“Then you need to come back with us! You must have someone there worried about you!”
The leaf-nin boy opened his mouth to say more but one of the fake sand-nin held out his arms in front of him. “Father, told us to destroy whoever was up here messing with our territory. That’s you, so prepared to be destroyed!”
Father?
“Is your father somewhere around here?” Kakashi called over.
“Sorry! We’re done talking!” The four boys split off with some level of skill and surrounded Kakashi and Sakura, who reactively stood back to back.
“Kakashi, I don’t want to hurt these kids, especially if they’re being controlled by someone…” Sakura whimpered.
“I understand. We can detain them without harming them too much. You go for the leaf kids, I’ll do the sand?”
“Yeah.”
In a flash Kakashi disappeared from sight. The boys looked around in shock before the sand-kids felt something strangle their ankles. “Headhunter Jutsu.” The boys were dragged into the ground up their heads as Kakashi popped out. A small smile rose to his face. “You remind me of someone I know.”
The boys struggled, to no avail, to free themselves from their dirt containment. The older of the two suddenly called out. “Go for the girl! When he goes to protect her, we can get free!”
Kakashi chuckled. “That plan isn’t going to work out.”
The boy called again to the two leaf-impersonators but they just stood there lifelessly. Sakura approached them and calmly and slowly tied a rope around them. “Hey! What’s the matter with you two, why don’t you run!?”
“Hey.” Kakashi asked with a harsh voice. “Are you two from Sunagakure?”
The younger boy started to cry. The older boy glared at Kakashi. “So what if we are?” The younger boy’s cries worsened.
“Why don’t you go home?”
“That place isn’t our home anymore. The Kazekage allowed our parents to be killed in the war.”
The explanation didn’t miss Sakura who turned immediately and stared with sadness. More kids orphaned by the war. I hate that my job is so necessary.
The younger sand ninja was snorting and coughing with ugly tears when he finally craned his head back and let out a loud scream. “PAPA!!!!!!”
That wasn’t a scream of mourning. He’s calling out for someone.
A tornado of sand kicked up a few feet away, and when it fell back to the ground a muscular, but young, man was standing in the center. “Well this won’t do.” Kakashi and Sakura backed towards one another as they turned to face the man, Sakura ended up standing a few feet in front of Kakashi. “Did no one teach you you’re not supposed to punish other people’s children?”
This man doesn’t look old enough to be those kids’ father…
Kakashi scrunched his nose. “Did no one teach you you’re not supposed to allow your children to run around making mischief for others?”
The man scoffed. “Who’s making mischief? Maybe we’re just giving the sand and leaf villages what they deserve.”
Sand AND Leaf? “What’s that?” Sakura called out.
“Lord Gaara of the Sand ran headlong into a war to protect something that had nothing to do with us, and as a result I lost my son and these kids lost their parents. All to protect your Kage, our Kage sacrificed the lives of thousands.”
“Our Kage saved your Kage; he’d be dead now!” Sakura called back, feeling defensive of her friend.
“If he hadn’t, we might have been spared a brat leader who puts his own personal decisions over those of an entire nation. Even your old Kage was the same. She didn’t bring out her strongest weapon until after so many lives were lost. She even cost your nation a Byakugan user, his sister was devastated, and now, that same kid who was the cause of all this trouble gets to run around as he pleases as a survived of the war, while people like me and those kids behind you have to live without anyone. How is that fair?”
Sakura suddenly felt quite relieved that Naruto sent she and Kakashi instead of coming himself. The story the man was telling was one of Naruto’s greatest fears and regrets. She, Kakashi and Sasuke had each spent multiple hours convincing Naruto that the casualties of the Fourth Ninja War weren’t his fault. Seeing this man and these children would likely unravel all their hard work. At the same time, Sakura felt bad for the man. If one didn’t understand the full scope of the threat, the war would seem that way.
“I’m sorry.” Sakura called out after a few seconds. “I’m sorry you lost your son and I’m sorry these children lost their families, but those are mistakes of the past! What you’re doing, could start a new war.”
“If you care about these children at all…” Kakashi added. “...you’ll let them come with us. We’ll take care of them.”
The man’s body became rigid as he cocked back his shoulders. “Those children are my family now. I’m their father. As such I’ll have to punish you for the terrible way you’ve treated them. Those two under genjutsu; they don’t even know what that is yet, they must be horrified.”
Sakura squinted her eyes in pain, doing her best to keep a straight face.
“Sakura, it was the best way to detain them painlessly. It was the right choice.” Kakashi muttered to her.
Sakura nodded. “I know.”
Knowing the man wouldn’t let battle pass by them Sakura got to work piecing together the information she’d learned already. He had a torrent of sand, similar to Gaara’s but he’s the only one that possesses that unique ability. A wind-style and earth-style user with expert change in chakra nature could emulate it, but he’s so young.
Wait.
He mentioned seeing Neji die and Hinata mourn him… So he was in the Special Jutsu Company.
“Kakashi.” Sakura peeked over her shoulder at him when the stars finally aligned.
“Hm?”
“He’s got a Kekkei Genkai.”
Across the field the man smiled. “Oh. You’re a smart one aren’t you. Tell you what, since you’re pretty and smart, I’ll let you be these boys’ mother. Of course, that would make you my wife…” He curved his smile into one of disgusting smugness. “...all inclusive.”
Sakura matched his smile. She’d recently done a bit of training with Tsunade where she deemed her ‘finally old enough to know’ that all men have an additional weakness and any kunoichi worth mentioning knows how to use it. “Interesting offer.” Sakura started. “But you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t have a ton of... “ Sakura glanced downward, certain that even through the distance he could see her. “...confidence in someone who’s spent the last five years holed up in a cave with four boys.”
The man’s face changed to one of anger. “What!?”
Sakura started giggling confidently. “Little boys are different from a grown woman; do you honestly think you could handle me? I’m not so easily satisfied.”
The man started to ball his fists and flex his muscles, reaching an ideal place of anger for Sakura. She used her acute chakra placement skills to create a shadow clone just out of sight, and in a flash she used her speed to close the distance between her and the man, appearing just behind him. She leaned in and whispered evilly. “Don’t get so offended. It’s just that I know men with a lot of muscles are usually overcompensating.”
The man scoffed. “Overcompensate for this.” He reached behind him and grabbed Sakura’s arm. Slowly a liquid started to seep from it; eroding the skin immediately.
With immaculate skill, Sakura used replacement jutsu to switch places with her clone, just in time to see the look of shock on Kakashi’s face. She approached him, slightly irritated. “Okay, first of all... “ Kakashi whipped his head towards her, sighing with relief. “...have more faith in me. Second of all, his Kekkei Genkai is an acid.”
“Acid?” Kakashi’s voice was oddly calm.
“Yeah. It got me down to the bone in a matter of seconds. It came out of his hands, but I’m sure he can throw it too. Be careful.”
Kakashi closed his eyes. “You too.” He crouched to prepare an attack.
“Kakashi.” He looked up at her. “I feel bad for him, minimize actual damage as much as possible.”
“I understand.” He took off running towards the man and Sakura prepared to do the same but in a second the four boys, now free of their binds, surrounded her.
“You may be good at genjutsu but if we don’t look into your eyes, you can’t catch us.” The older of the sand-boys said.
“And with one person instead of two, our attack will be much more effective.” The older leaf-boy mocked.
They started tossing shuriken to one another in a strange pattern that Sakura couldn’t quite trace. In a last rapid action they each pulled tight, revealing strands of chakra. Sakura knew she could break out of it with relative ease, the task at hand was to do so without causing the brainwashed boys too much pain while at the same time, not allowing them to escape.
She must have taken just a bit too long to think about it because before she knew it, she could hear Kakashi screaming out her name, followed by him jumping into her field of view. The boys, frightened, scattered, and the force of Kakashi against her sent them both to the ground. When she glanced up she noticed a small patch of acid searing its way through Kakashi’s face mask.
“Kakashi the acid! Your mask!” She screamed.
Reacting to a sound behind her, Sakura turned around to see the boys running towards her. No longer able to protect them with Kakashi potentially hurt, she quickly performed hand signs. “Wind Tornado Jutsu!” A jutsu that on it’s own created a large gust of wind, was magnified ten times with Sakura’s chakra and the boys went flying far and fast out of sight. She could hear the man rushing off in their direction and knew she’d bought them some time. She turned back towards Kakashi who’s face was hidden by his arms as he used them to stand. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Kakashi got to his feet and held a hand out to Sakura. “Are you okay?” But the sight rendered Sakura unable to move, nearly unable to breathe. She glanced over a few feet where Kakashi’s face mask was laying as mere fragments of fabric destroyed by the acid. So I’m not imagining it. “Sakura, are you okay?” She looked back up. Staring down at her, with now immense concern, was a mask-free Kakashi.
Heart pounding a hole in her chest, Sakura finally worked up the courage to grab his hand. She could only manage a nod as he pulled her up.
It’s his face. His WHOLE face.
“Are you sure?”
He’s… “Yeah…” ...beautiful.