Deviation Actions
Literature Text
*******
It was dark by the time they returned to the Akimichi compound. Choji was waiting for them outside the meeting hall. Inside the hall, the lights were all ablaze, and she could hear the murmur of voices. She knew for certain that one of them was Naruto’s, she could recognize that loudmouth’s tenor anywhere, but among the more quiet rumblings she thought she could pick out Sasuke. Despite the urgency in Choji’s message, she couldn’t help but ask, “Are they… actually talking in there? Like really meeting?”
Choji shrugged and then nodded. “I think so… Inu-san is in there with all of his ANBU, providing an ‘honor guard’ but yeah… there’s been no fighting… yet.”
Sakura raised an eyebrow. “Yet? What do you mean yet?”
Chijo grimaced. “Well… Look... keep in mind I’ve only been able to hear bits and pieces, but it sounds like there’s been a lot of discussion on how the council and the Shimura clan should be dealt with.” He took a deep breath. “Inuzuka-sama wants to attack the Shimura clan, Naruto and Sasuke want to ignore them and go ahead and attack Kabuto, my father and Hyuga-sama don’t want to do anything until there is some way to assure that their lands and holding are safe. The ANBU commander swears he will put down any violent acts in Konoha…” He paused for a second. “They all can agree on what needs to be done… just not on how to do it!”
Sakura nodded thoughtfully. “Well that isn’t too horrible. Once Ino gets here, I’ll convince her to have a go at repairing Tsunade’s psyche, and once the Hokage’s back…” Her voice trailed off as she saw Choji’s face. “What?”
“Um… yeah,” said Choji hesitantly. “About that… we kind of have a problem.”
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “She’s not coming,” said Sakura flatly, afraid she already knew the answer to her question. Choji nodded, his face a mask of misery. “Did she say she can’t come, or won’t come?” she snarled.
Choji bit his lip. “Sakura… please… don’t force her into doing something rash… You don’t know what it’s like for her! It’s been torture!”
Sakura gave him a withering glare. “Torture? Torture??? Does she have any idea what’s been going on in the rest of the village?”
“She does! She just…” Choji sighed. “Look… I told her how important it was… and she just said that we needed to go through official clan channels…”
“Official clan channels?!?”
Choji held up his hands. “I did get her to promise that she’d talk to you about it… directly.”
She took one look at Choji’s anguish laden face and sighed again. “Fine… I’ll go wherever she wants to and talk to her in person. Where are we meeting?”
“Um… well… she said she can’t get out of the Yamanaka compound so…”
“She wants me to sneak into enemy territory?” Sakura asked incredulously.
Sai cleared his throat. “Actually,” he said with a smile, “it’s a lot easier than one might expect.”
“Let me guess… The tunnels again?” Sakura asked in a tired voice. Sai nodded. “Great.”
*******
The Yamanaka compound was a huge garden right in the middle of Konoha. Unlike many of the other clan compounds, it didn’t have much in the way of designated living spaces, it was more of a working area. Many Yamanaka had their own houses scattered about the neighborhood… Although from the amount of people wandering around and the smell of crowds, it appeared that many of them were living there now.
The Yamanaka compound boasted one thick wall, about six meters thick, which was actually a large rectangular building with a spacious courtyard. During peacetime, the ‘rooms’ in the ‘wall’ were mostly used for storage, processing, drying and showcasing herbs, with the occasional suite set up as offices or meeting halls. Right now, those rooms were what the Yamanaka clan were calling home, kitchen and hospital.
The courtyard was where the livelihood of the Yamanaka clan grew. Although there were a few edible plants sprouting in plots here and there, most of what was cultivated there were rare flowers and herbs.
It was an aesthetically pleasing place, with fountains watering the greenery with gentle sprays of water, ambling gravel paths, and artfully trimmed trees. It was a lovely place to visit in the daytime.
At night, Sakura had to admit, it was a pretty good place to hold a secret rendezvous.
She and Sai had come up from the tunnel right at the base of an old towering redwood that was the centerpiece of the garden. There was a fiercely tangled mess of old twisting roots that parted when Sai activated a series of hidden seals.
Together they went up into the damp earthy night air. Sakura couldn’t help but contrast this with the more pungent farm aromas of the Akimichi holdfast.
“She said she’d be waiting for us in the stand of willows,” Sai hissed delicately, jerking his head off to the right to indicate that she should follow. He didn’t follow the gravel paths, but instead cut through the planted rows of herbs, gracefully avoiding anything that could snag his feet.
In the dead of night, and as exhausted as she was, Sakura wasn’t so agile. “Shhh!” Sai cautioned to her. “Step where I step… and try not to brush into anything, unless there is a breeze...The guards will investigate the slightest noise if it doesn’t sound natural.”
“You sound like you know from experience,” Sakura grumbled back.
Sai nodded. “I came by to visit Ino... once or twice when we were dating. She liked to kiss me in the very same willow stand where we are heading.”
Sakura didn’t need to know that. Even if it did explain how Sai was so familiar with the Yamanaka compound at night. She found herself sourly wondering if Shikamaru had ever done the same.
Sai pushed aside a bough of willow leaves and motioned her inside. It took Sakura a second for her eyes to adjust so she could clearly make out the shadowy figure waiting for her inside.
Sakura almost didn’t recognize her at first. Gone was the stylish sexy clothing. Gone was the exquisite application of make up. Gone was the confident carefree air of someone who could waltz into a crowded room and have everyone’s attention riveted to her in a handful of seconds. “Hey Sakura,” Ino said with a nervous glance over her shoulder. “I… I really shouldn’t be talking to you at all… But Choji insisted that I owe you an explanation…”
It was too much for Sakura. First Tsunade and Shizune… and now Ino? She grabbed the Yamanaka girl by the shoulders and spun her against a trunk of a tree. “Oh no Ino! Please don’t tell me they’ve gotten to you too?!?” She swallowed and lowered her voice. “Quick! Tell me how we first met?”
A flash of anger lit up Ino’s face and for a second, she looked like her old self. “What the Hell's gotten into you Forehead? You don’t have to slam me into a tree! Gods!” She wriggled her way out of Sakura’s grasp and tried looking at the back of her long sleeve full necked blouse. “You could have torn the silk!” she said in an accusing voice. “I mean.. this damn thing is hideous so I don’t really care…much…but still…this was practically the only thing I had in my wardrobe that my mother will still let me wear!”
That was the Ino she remembered. Sakura felt some of the tension go out of her. “Thank the Gods… You’re still you.”
The Yamanaka girl gave her a quizzical look. “Duh… Who else would I be?” She arched a perfect eyebrow.
“That doesn’t matter,” said Sakura quickly. “Look… I’ve got a major crisis and I need your help…”
“That’s an understatement, you look like cat vomit! When was the last time you slept?” Ino leaned closer. “Or took a shower for that matter? Gods! You’re breaking out everywhere in the worst way! You’ve got a huge cluster of zits right beside your nose!”
“What?” Sakura yelped, her hand involuntarily reaching up.
“More to the left,” Ino commented. “So… what was all that nonsense about ‘Oh no! They’ve gotten to you too?’ Who could have possibly gotten to me when I’ve been locked up in here day after day?” She sighed theatrically. “I wish someone could have gotten to me… I have been so freaking bored!”
Sakura felt a brief flash of annoyance. Ino had a kind generous heart, and could be almost supernaturally empathetic at times, but there were also moments, particularly when she was feeling sorry for herself, that she couldn’t see past her own nose. Sakura swallowed down her frustration and quickly told her the story of Tsunade and Shizune.
Ino’s eyes grew wide as she talked. “Holy smokes Forehead!” she whispered reverently. “So you think that the Shimura clan actually attacked Tsunade-sama?”
“Not think… I know! Sai confirmed that the assailant had a Root ANBU seal on his tongue.” She shook her head. “We need the Hokage back, Ino… All of Konoha needs the Hokage back. We’ve got bigger problems than the Shimura clan right now! We’ve got monsters attacking us! We need to be unified, and the only person who can do that right now is Tsunade!”
Despite being known to act a little ditzy on occasion, Ino was far from stupid. She knew what Sakura was asking her to do. She took a deep breath. “Look... Sakura… I want to help…really…I do…but I think you really should talk to my dad about this… make a formal request…I mean…”
Sakura grabbed Ino’s arm, vigorously shaking her head. “Ino… your clan is allied with the very clan that did this to the Hokage in the first place! I’m pretty sure they used your clan’s forbidden jutsu! I can’t make a formal request! I don’t know who in your clan I can trust… except you!”
Ino pulled away, but Sakura came after her. “Listen Ino, I wouldn’t be asking you if this wasn’t of the utmost importance! If I could think of anyone else to ask, I would!”
Ino took another step back shaking her head. “I’d like to help… I’d love to help… believe me… but… there’s this thing…”
“Explain it to me!” snapped Sakura.
Ino looked up at her in surprise, clearly not used to Sakura giving orders. The shock passed though and the Yamanaka kunoichi stood there pursing her lips. Sakura could tell she was weighing things over, probably deliberating between the risk of being discovered and her eternally burning desire to gossip. Gossip won. “Well,” she said leaning forward, “I can’t give you all the sordid details… but I am in so much trouble with my clan right now… and even more so with my mom!” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Oh, I so wish I could tell you… but if my terrible secret ever got out... I would be ruined!”
“I know you slept with Shikamaru.” Sakura said plainly. She felt horrible that the pale expression of shock that flooded Ino’s face gave her some small satisfaction. “I know that’s what the Shimura clan and the council are holding over your clan’s head… I understand that it would shame you and your clan… but to side with the council? Don’t you know what they’re doing to our village?”
There was a long pause from Ino as a hurt look passed over her face. After a moment she walled up all her pain and put on an indifferent expression. “Yeah… well… The Yamanaka is slightly bigger than the Haruno clan Forehead… We’ve got interests and contacts all over the Five Great nations… For all their philandering and skeeviness you’d be surprised at how prudish some of those merchants and lords can be.” She exhaled. “Besides… my Mom would go totally on a psycho murdering spree if word of this ever got out.” Ino looked up pleadingly at Sakura. “You know what she’s like…”
“I do… I also know what’s been happening in the Hidden Leaf ever since Tsunade disappeared!”
“Sakura! I’m grounded!” hissed Ino throwing her hands in the air. “No… I’m worse than grounded! Okay? Whenever I had gotten into trouble before, I was always able to go crying to my Dad and he’d go around to my mom and talk her out of whatever prim and proper rampage she was on! He can’t do that now! Not only am I in trouble with Mom, but half the clan is pissed at me too! Everybody looks at me like I’m a leper or something! You can’t imagine what that’s like!”
Sakura didn’t say anything, she just glared. “Okay… I guess you might be able to imagine what that’s like,” Ino muttered sheepishly. “But look… You’re asking me to put more than my reputation on the line here… I have my clan to think about!”
“And I have the whole village to think about,” said Sakura coolly. “If this was some small insignificant thing, believe me… I wouldn’t even be bothering you… but this is the best… no… probably the only chance I have to get Tsunade back into power where she belongs!” Sakura took a step closer to Ino. “The Shimura clan owns the Yamanaka right now… and it’s your fault!” She stepped again. “The Ino I knew wouldn’t chicken out and let some bastards like the Shimura clan go on tormenting her friends and family… she’d fight them! She’d do whatever it took to make this better!”
Ino’s face was quivering with anger. Good, Sakura thought to herself, An angry Ino is better than a cowering Ino.
“You can’t blame this on just me!” Ino snapped, with flushed cheeks. “If you’d seen how crushed Shikamaru was… you’d have tried to do what you could to make him feel better too! It was just a kiss! He looked miserable! He wouldn’t stop drinking, and then… well… it just…”
“I don’t want to hear it!” barked Sakura. Ino flinched at the sound of her voice, and Sakura immediately forced herself to calm down. “Look… Ino… I understand… okay? I completely get why you… did what you felt like you needed to do… but that doesn’t change the fact that you did it… and right now, you are the only person I can think of who has both the talent and the reasons to want to help.” She reached out and took her friend’s hand. “Konoha needs your help… I need your help… Hell, Shikamaru needs your help! The Shimura clan is putting the thumbscrews to the Nara clan too! As long as this situation persists, they have two of the stronger clans in the Leaf under their control… Do you honestly believe that they’ll just forget about it?” She shook her head. “They’ll keep this going forever! The only chance you have of making it stop is to get Tsunade back in charge!”
Ino’s hand was shaking. “But if they find out it was me that helped heal her…”
“They’ll know the most powerful person in Konoha will owe you a very substantial debt.” Sakura gave her a reassuring smile. She could see the Yamanaka girl wavering. That comment about helping Shikamaru had moved her. “Come on Ino… You’ll be in the middle of the Akimichi compound, surrounded by Akimichi and Inuzuka and a whole bunch of other people who hate the Shimura clan…” Her smile grew a few centimeters. “Come on… all you have to do is sneak out… You're good at that!”
Ino flashed her a quick grin. “Well, I was just complaining about how bored I was… wasn’t I?” She turned and gave Sai a little wave. “Fine Forehead, since you’ve asked so nicely… I’ll see what I can do… Just… let me try to find something decent to wear!”
*******
Entering the Hokage’s mind was like walking off a well lit path and into a shadowy forest. A dark, malevolent wood straight out of a fairy tale… the kind of woodland that watched with hungry eyes, where witches and ogres devoured small children. Even though Sakura knew it wasn’t real, that she was actually sitting in a makeshift hospital room in the Akimichi stronghold next to Tsunade’s cot, she was very glad for the projected mental presence of Ino radiating firm confidence close by. That was one of the things Sakura admired most about Ino. She might be flighty as times, and there were moments where she could completely overdramatize things, but when she wanted to, she could take in everything around her with a crystal clear clarity, and then act… without a single doubt in her mind.
Thick strands of foul smelling moss dangled off of every branch. Every now and then there would be a faint glimmering darting amongst the wood, a tiny flying bright speck, almost like a firefly.
When the sparks got too close to any of the hanging vines, the ropy finger-like tendrils would swing out and trap it, cramming it deep within the pestilent sticky depths. “Yuck!” declared Ino with the calm tones of an expert. “This is hideous!”
“It certainly looks unpleasant,” Sakura agreed.
Ino shook her head and grabbed a handful of the dripping green slime. “Forget what it looks like… That’s just the personalized reflection of the Hokage’s mental landscape. I’m talking about the amount of force something like this took!”
“Something like what?” Sakura asked still confused. “You mean the forest?”
“Ugh!” grunted Ino unwinding strands of plant matter from between her fingers. “Not the forest… the forest is just how Tsunade-sama sees her the inside of her head… I’m talking about all the goop! This garbage,” she shook her hand sending a spray of wet to spatter on the forest floor. “Is how she sees the mental attack on her… on some level, she knows something happened to her, she just can’t do anything about it! It’s so inelegant! And an extravagant overuse of chakra besides… My dad would definitely have something to say about this.”
“I should hope so!” Sakura agreed.
Ino pursed her sensuous lips and tilted her head. “He likes his jutsu to be subtle and insidious. This is a brute force jutsu, applied over and over again over the course of several days… covering up her memories bit by bit.” Ino shuddered. “Gods… what a nasty jutsu… doing this to someone while they can feel what you’re tearing away and covering up...”
“So… Will getting rid of it cure Tsunade-sama?” Sakura asked, carefully watching Ino as she studied the handful of muck.
“It will help, but it’s not the only thing that’s wrong,” she declared pointing a finger at the sky. “We’ve also got to get rid of all the fake memories flying around up there.”
Sakura looked up. The sky was a swarming cloud of lights blinking on and off. “How can you tell which ones are fake and which ones are real?”
Ino stared up at the flickering swarm of memories and frowned. “You mean you can’t?” Sakura shook her head. “Huh, I guess that had better be my job then… No sense in turning the Hokage into a vegetable… You can take care of the moss.”
“Yeah… But how do I take care of the moss?”
”Brute force put it in… brute force will get it out,” Ino said, reaching up and tearing another handful of the stuff off the tree. “C’mon Forehead… It’s time to get your hands dirty.”
It was hard. It was hard and nasty and gross. Everytime she touched some of the hanging creepers, she would feel bits of the false emotions used to trap the memories bleeding over into her fingertips.
The first pile of vegetation she dug out left her feeling despondent, mediocre, worthless. It felt like it took her a very long time to find the tiny spot of light it was covering up, but in reality it was probably only a couple of minutes. She tried to brush the point of brightness with a finger and in doing so, touched it.
She could see why this memory was buried… It was young Tsunade’s graduation test… she had finally become a genin. She and her teammate Orochimaru had each managed to take a bell from Hiruzen-sensei, and then she had triumphantly returned home to the praise and cheers of her mother, father, aunts and uncles. Her grandmother had heaped praise upon her head and hugged her tight, whispering in her ear, “Your grandfather would be so proud!”
The memory flapped its wings a few times like a butterfly warming itself in the sun. Then it buzzed and flew away. Sakura watched it go for a second and then turned to the next tree.
This handful of moss left her feeling flat and joyless. This time the memory she dug out was of a time an adult Tsunade had gone to one of the more expensive gambling resorts… The night was full of flashing lights and ringing bells, of fortunes made in one instant and lost the next. A cloying scent of smoke filled the air, dulling the senses and filing the dark shadowy rooms with occasional flashes of color. There were sweet liquors and laughing strangers and the clattering roll of the dice. It was the frenetic energy of escapism… desperate acts to forget the world and all of its pains.
She pulled her hand away and watched the small memory firefly spin off into the sky. That one... wasn’t so good… although Sakura could feel its appeal… to be able to forget about all your troubles and cast everything away…
The next tree was dripping in vegetation. At her first touch, Sakura could feel the throbbing pulses of self loathing and shame… the huge unwieldy sense of a life that has been ruined, an honor destroyed… After what felt like hours she uncovered the glowing sprite and reached out to tug it free, but the damn thing was stuck fast. She gripped it harder and started pulling with both hands. Sakura could feel the beginnings of the memory leaking across her fingers…
And suddenly she was lying naked, across the chest of a man she didn’t recognize. The air in the room was hot and stuffy, and both their bodies were slick with sweat. There was a hovering tension between the two of them, but also a feeling of release as well.
The man spoke first. “Tsunade… I…” His voice was hoarse and smelled strongly of sake. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have taken advantage of…”
Sakura felt her chest quiver and she made a bitter chuckle. It was an unfamiliar laugh. “You weren’t taking advantage of me… if anything... I was taking advantage of you Jiraiya,” said Tsunade’s voice from out of her mouth. She tilted her head up and kissed him on the lips, tasting a salty tang. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and hurried about the room gathering up her scattered articles of clothing. “So… will you promise not to say anything to Hiruzen-sensei until I’m well away?”
There was a deep despondent sigh from the bed. “You’re still leaving.” It was a statement, not a question.
Her head nodded to the rustling of twin pony tails. “Why should I stay? There’s nothing here for me anymore…”
There was a slight cough from the younger version of the Toad sage. “What about our squad?” He gave her a small grin. “The Two Sannin’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”
Young Tsunade pulled on her pants. “It’s been the ‘Two Sannin’ for a while now… I never see Orochimaru anymore.”
“He says he’s busy helping Danzo-sama with some big secret project… something that will change the direction of the war.”
“Mmm,” grunted Tsunade, noncommittally, pulling on her shirt.
There was a slight pause. “There’s me,” Jiraiya said in a quiet voice.
Sakura felt her shoulders tighten, and then relax. She turned to look at Naruto’s mentor and felt a sharp pain in her heart. “I know… I know… and that’s why I wanted to have... this... little moment before I left.”
She could tell that Jiraiya’s wide smile was to cover his hurt. “Little? It wasn’t that little!” he said with a laugh. “You called out for the Gods at least twice!”
“Three times,” said Tsunade with an answering smile that quickly faded. “But that doesn’t change my decision.”
“What would you say... if I told you that I loved you?” The question hung in the air like a sizzling paper bomb.
Tsunade closed her eyes and turned away, so he wouldn’t see how her face grew pale. “I’d say that you probably tell that to all the girls.”
There was a rustle of falling sheets behind her. She heard his footsteps approach and felt his arms wrap around her. “Then I’d have to inform you that you were the first woman I ever said it too,” he murmured into her ear. “Tsunade… I know that I should keep my fat mouth shut… I know that it’s too soon… after your loss… but if saying it can convince you...”
She turned in his arms and put one finger over his lips. “Jiraiya, you are my trusted friend, and a wonderful comrade… but after Nawaki… and Dan… I can’t feel anything anymore… I will never feel anything for anyone again.”
“That’s not true… I know it’s not true… You yourself told me, that healing takes time…”
She dropped her hand away and hid it behind her back so he wouldn’t see it shaking. “There are some wounds you just can’t heal from…” She saw the look of skepticism on his face and felt a flash of anger. “Jiraiya, I can’t stay here anymore! I see their ghosts wherever I look! Every time I see blood I can’t help but think back to…”
He must have seen the tormented tremors her body was having. “Shh…” he whispered, pulling her head to his chest. “Shh… It’s okay my Princess, it will be okay…”
“No,” said Tsunade forcefully pushing him away. “It won’t be okay… it will never be okay again… and that is why I have to leave!”
There was a long silence, followed by the creak of bedsprings as Jiraiya sat down heavily on the bed. “Have I told you, my student’s coming up with another new jutsu?” His chuckle echoed in the small room. “That Minato... he has such a knack for breaking down difficult problems and making them seem simple.” When there was no response from Tsunade he continued. “He calls it the rasengan… it’s still just theoretical at this point, but if he gets it to work…” He shook his head in amazement.
“And you’re telling me this because?” Tsunade said quietly.
Jiraiya took a deep breath. “I think it’s past time you looked into getting a student of your own.”
“No.”
“I’ve got the perfect kid in mind.”
“No I said!” Tsunade snapped. “I told you, I am leaving the Leaf! Don’t think you can change my mind!”
Jiraiya continued as if he hadn’t heard. “She’s a sweet kid, smart, clever, good with her hands…”
“Jiraiya!” said Tsunade in a warning voice.
“Would make a top notch medical-nin one day…”
“Ugh!” snapped Tsunade. She yanked open the door and bent to put on her boots.
“And she herself could use a little vacation away from Konoha,” Tsunade paused, hand halfway towards her left boot. “It’s a shame really,” Jiraiya continued nonchalantly. “Shizune Kato has practically been disowned from her clan… Since that mission where she got... captured by those Hidden Mist shinobi, nobody in her family wants anything more to do with her.” The Toad Sage looked up and stared intently into her eyes. “It’s not like it’s the kid’s fault… It’s a real pity, I remember how her dear old uncle Dan used to dote on her… Too bad no one ever offered to step up and take his place.”
Tsunade exhaled. “I’ll… I’ll think about it.” She shoved her foot inside the combat boot and buckled it closed.
Jiraiya nodded sagely. “Please do.”
Tsunade pulled on her other boot and started to walk away. “Hey Tsunade!” Jiraiya called after her. She stopped, but didn’t look back. “Wherever... you end up going… just remember… There are still people that love you.”
“I know,” she whispered back. She quickly marched away from his apartment, not sure if she was more hurt to be leaving, or to know that he cared…
The world crumbled away from her. Sakura jerked her arm away and stared blankly at Ino, still lost deep inside Tsunade’s memories and bitter-sweet emotions. The tiny firefly of memory circled her head once and then soared upwards to blend in with the starry sky. “Be more careful Forehead,” said Ino reproachfully. “It’s a bad habit to go digging around in other people’s heads.”
Sakura shook her head a few times to clear it. “Oh… like you’ve never taken a peek?”
Ino turned away and gave her a small nonchalant shrug. “I’m not saying I’m perfect… I’m just warning you… People think all sorts of crazy stuff in the privacy of their own heads… Don’t go poking around unless you’re ready to see a lot of garbage that can really change your opinion about someone.” Ino flashed a quick smile. “Besides… all that snooping really slows you down.” She gestured upwards. In the time it had taken Sakura to clear those three trees, Ino had really cleaned up the sky. The multitude of fireflies was now just a scattering of sparkles.
Sakura exhaled. “Fine!” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ll stop snooping!”
Ino giggled. “Good… Although… Did you find anything really juicy?” Ino stared at her eyebrows waggling. “Ah! I know that look Forehead! You did! C’mon! Tell me!”
*******
