Hi👋 so hope you’re having a good day but anygays hope it’s alright to ask this but anygays I just finshed reading the newest chapter of learn to lean on the people who love you it’s a really good fic and I’ve really been enjoying reading anygays I can’t but wonder how would everyone react if in the last two chapters root actually managed to kidnapped Sakura you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to or if it would spoil anything thanks🙏for reading
Thank you so much for this ask! It really got my brain cooking with something I’d thought about before but hadn’t really expounded on and so this has been a really fun exercise! Sorry it took me a bit to answer!
So! What would happen if ROOT succeeded in kidnapping Sakura! Probably it would happen right after her house explodes and both she and Kakashi are unconscious.
Kakashi wakes up in the hospital.
Sakura wakes up in a cell.
Kakashi immediately knows that he’s lost Sakura and he’s gonna be Throwing A Fit in that hospital room. Supper unfortunate because the nurses are going to have to sedate him for that. Tsunade, of course, would be alerted to the explosion of Sakura’s house and Kakashi being in the hospital and Sakura no where to be found.
Danzo, having planned this for a while (though not very well), already has a dead body ready to go as a decoy for Sakura so that Konoha thinks she’s dead. This body would be discovered in the rubble of her childhood home, burnt to a crisp.
Kakashi, of course, does not fucking believe that (and neither does Tsunade because, hello, world’s greatest medic nin???). However, Danzo has the council’s backing. Sakura is declared dead, even though neither Tsunade nor Kakashi believe or support that claim. The council immediately petitions for Kakashi to be put back on the mission roster.
Kakashi has other fucking plans, thank you very much. Time for reason with a capital T.
Soon, Kakashi is spending all of his free time with his dogs tracking down any possible place Danzo could have stashed Sakura. Danzo has to close any hide-out that Kakashi has been to in the past and any that he finds on his little one-man crusade. Several of Danzo’s agents in ANBU go missing. He has to stop sending his agents out. Tsunade can’t sanction Kakashi’s behavior but she can conveniently look the other direction as it happens. Danzo can’t exactly take the matter to the Hokage because the things and people going missing aren’t actually supposed to exist in the first place.
But he can come together with the council and court martial Kakashi for not following orders and getting back on the mission roster and acting against a councilman without evidence. Which he tries to do.
Except, he underestimated the price of one little pink-haired girl. Danzo originally focused on Sakura, not because she was a prodigy—though that certainly was a bonus—but because it would allow him to get back at Kakashi for taking Kinoe/Tenzo/Yamato from him and failing to assassinate Hiruzen all those years ago.
But now, the big three—Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi—are getting involved, because you know my girl Ino ain’t putting up with her precious Sakura disappearing like that. Especially not after she’d essentially offered Sakura political asylum the night before and Ino puts her fucking money where her mouth is. And where Ino goes, so too are Shikamaru and Choji forced to follow.
Danzo is beginning to panic.
It’s one thing for the lone, insane Hatake who doesn’t play at politics to be hunting him down in his own city (pretty bad). It’s another thing entirely for a solid half of the shinobi population to start refusing missions and throwing their weight around behind his removal from office (extremely bad).
The rest of the council, cowards that they are, give into the clan political pressure nearly immediately.
Danzo is ordered to appear before the Hokage and council for a trial and hearing.
Instead, he gathers up his forces (and Sakura because he doesn’t believe in the sunk cost fallacy) and flees.
Meanwhile! Sakura woke up in a cell! She’s been given just enough healing to live and her chakra has been sealed until Danzo can get her brainwashed and sealed. While everything surface-side is happening, Sai is bringing Sakura illicit contraband in the form of food and water and medical attention that she’s not supposed to have because he’s unlocked the feeling of guilt! His brother, Shin, would also still be alive at this time and probably assisting Sai in taking care of Sakura.
Sakura is pissed at Sai at first but quickly realizes how little choice he has in the matter (and also she’s kind of already pack bonded with the boy like an idiot).
Once she’s well enough, Sakura is sealed and trained (beaten), but broken? Not on your life, buddy! This is the queen of compartmentalization! Ya girl Sakura suppressed her emotions so well she crafted a separate personality! She’s got a will and spirit so strong she kicked a Yamanaka out of her head! While she was exhausted from all the shit she just went through in the Forest of Death!!! Danzo can try his best but all he’s going to make Sakura is angrier! Besides the seal, the only other leash he has on Sakura is Sai and Shin. She complies to keep them safe and alive but she’s got a plan forming, she’s got an agenda. She’s gonna kill Danzo and take down root from the inside.
Around this time is when Danzo has to flee Konoha. He’s got plenty of secret little hideouts all around fire country, as well as some connections that he still keeps in contact with; a band of bloodline thieves, a coupled child-trafficking rings, and…Orochimaru.
Danzo can’t really be caught with Sakura, but he does refuse to give her up, because with training she’s turning into an absolute powerhouse of a ROOT agent. As soon as he thinks she’s docile enough, he sends her out on missions and she always succeeds with no casualties. She is, after all, a medic (kind of). She heals Shin, she and Sai are besties (or maybe together I don’t know), and she plots a revolt.
The other ROOT agents are beginning to look to her more and more as the years go by because she saves their lives and gets the job done. She’s gained a lot of respect among ROOT with Danzo being none the wiser.
She’s also worked her way up to his bodyguard, so she’s with him every time he goes to see Orochimaru (often) and Sasuke is with Orochimaru and he recognizes Sakura. He does not try to save her and she does not try to save him. They mutually understand that whatever they were before—friends, comrades, romantic interests—they will never be again. But they do come into contact with each other often, now.
Meanwhile, Kakashi is suicidal. He has nothing left to lose. His last kid was stolen away and he throws himself into mission after mission hunting down any hint of Danzo or Sakura wherever he can find it. Gai is his mission partner more often than not because Gai’s the only one who can be trusted to call Kakashi on his bullshit. They do not get together because Kakashi feels too guilty about Sakura disappearing and doesn’t believe he deserves someone as good as Gai.
Then, Naruto comes back to Konoha and is let in on the news that Sakura is missing and has been for years. The gaara retrieval arc goes about the same but Shizune goes in place of Sakura and Yamato joins the squad early as well. They get the information about Orochimaru from Sasori and when they go to confront Sasuke, the party would consist of Kakashi, Yamato, Naruto, and Ino. The fight goes relatively the same way but instead of taunting Naruto when he’s standing so close to kill him, Sasuke tells Naruto about Sakura and where she is.
Kakashi wants to go immediately, but is convinced to wait because if they don’t have a plan to extract Sakura and remove the seal or if they kill Danzo before removing the seal, she may die.
Luckily, Tenten has been working on this very thing for the last couple of years, now. So has Sakura. Tenten beats Sakura to solving the problem of the seal by two days. When Sakura finds this out later, she’ll be pissed. But for now, the teams got a counter to the ROOT seal and a location to get to.
Meanwhile, Sakura has also found a way to undo the ROOT seal and so she starts undoing seals as fast as she can without alerting Danzo. At this point she’s turned perhaps most, if not all, of the ROOT agents against him. So, without further ado, she begins her revolt!
Of course, just as the revolt is ramping up, who should appear but Kakashi and the rest of the Konoha contingent. Danzo is killed pretty quickly after that and the ROOT agents are free and Sakura’s got some information to get into Sasuke’s hands (because there’s no way she doesn’t find out about the Uchiha Massacre while she’s Danzo’s bodyguard).
So, to pay him back for telling Naruto and Kakashi where to find her, Sakura makes a quick stop in Sound with a “do with this information what you will” and heads home to Konoha to rest. She, Sai, and Shin (who survives the Mysterious Lung Problem thanks to Sakura’s medical prowess) move in with Kakashi. Congratulations on your three new teenaged children Mr. Hatake; it’s a girl and a boy and a boy.
Alls well that ends well and there’s probably a second part where Sasuke shows up and is like “Sakura help me save my brother” or something etc. etc.
And that’s what would happen if Sakura gets kidnapped! Which is an exponentially more interesting and dramatic fic. But! I wanted to write something more laid back and coming-of-age-ish and where Sakura and Kakashi have a good time instead of a traumatic one. Maybe I’ll write this version some other time or something but for now, Learn to Lean will be about Sakura learning and growing with friendship :) yeehaw
