show me the leaves (autumn gold)
part 2 of the “The Haruno Clan is a samurai clan”
part 1 - part 3
read it on AO3
Konoha is... not what Sakura expected. From a village that sends its men into the bed of strangers just to get intel, she had thought to find another Sanrōgakure. What awaits her is kilometres of forest, shadows brought by the woods going on for days and a peaceful calm she only remembers from the contracts she took as a samurai.
The village proper smells like macha and sweets, vibrates with children laughing and shinobi enjoying a few days of leave. It fills her with emotions she did not anticipate, and she finds herself stumbling as they get to the doors. She lets Shikamaru handle the guards, who look at her funny but without an ounce of aggressivity. How anyone can be so accepting of the unknown baffles her.
Shikamaru gestures her to follow and she complies, a weird urge to scratch her short hair itching her fingers. She's in her samurai armour, massive ceramic plates building a fortress around her body, and she feels strongly out of place compared to the simple uniform of the shinobi force. There is a part of her that want to scream “this is not acceptable protection, you idiots!”
People are staring. She knows it, like hands crawling on her back, and she has to force herself not to shiver. It wouldn't do to show weakness in a village she just entered, where she's a stranger and a possible threat. It doesn't stop her from feeling like an intruder in her own skin.
"Come on, the Hokage wants to see us. Just- brace yourself, okay?"
Sakura doesn't have time to ask why before his hand grabs her wrist and she's pulled through slime, breathless, a nauseating feeling taking over her throat. She's falling before she can realize what happened and only Shikamaru's grip allows her to stay upright.
She looks around and the sunny street is now a large office with open windows facing the village below. The urge to throw up is back in full force.
"What the hell?!"
"Sorry," Shikamaru says with an embarassed shrug.
Her senses tingle and she hears the brush of clothes against skin. It's enough for her to take back her hand and settle in a standard guard position. There is a woman facing her, smiling softly in the shadow of her Kage hat.
"Welcome to Konoha, Haruno-sama. I am Hyūga Hinata, Nanadaime Hokage."
It's enought for Sakura. She breaks her stance and bows low, her short hair brushing her forehead in an annoying manner.
"It is an honor, Hokage-sama."
"Shikamaru-kun has informed me of the circumstances of your alliance. You'll excuse my cautiouness, but I am obliged to ask you to surrender yourself."
Sakura stops herself from tensing, knowing that woman has no other choice. It still makes her queasy to imagine being defenseless in the hands of those people when the only one she trusts is standing besides her, motionless.
"I won't resist."
"That is a relief. Falcon-kun, Boar-kun, please escort Haruno-sama to T&I. Shikamaru-kun, I believe you have a report for me."
He doesn't look at her as the two masked guards take her away, and Sakura is having a hard time not regretting her decision. She was too quick to trust, it seems.
The guards barely restrain her because she's complying, and they take her to this T&I the same way Shikamaru transported her to the Hokage's office. The nausea is still there, but this time she doesn't know if it's because of the teleportation, or the betrayal poisoning her heart.
Sakura doesn't have to wonder what T&I stands for very long. It's written in broad strokes and bold kanji on the wall of the first room they enter. She can only hope they'll settle for the I and forego the T entirely. If they so much as approach her with the intent to hurt, she'll show them what a samurai can do and she'll never set foot in a village again. The rōnin lifestyle is getting more appealing by the minute.
The masked guards disappear and leave her in an empty room, with blank walls staring at her, and only a table and two chairs to keep her company. She snorts, unimpressed. She won't be intimidated by solitude; she's spent more hours training alone, naked in the snow, than they can possibly imagine.
At last, someone enters and Sakura is faced with a carbon copy of her companion of the last few days. The ponytail and tanned skin would be a dead giveaway, if the slouch wasn't enough.
“Haruno-sama, we have a couple of questions for you.”
“I imagine.”
“Please sit down.”
She complies and watches as the stranger does the same.
“State your name, rank and loyalties.”
“Haruno Sakura, samurai. As for my loyalties... well, they have shifted a lot recently.”
The Nara raises an eyebrow. “Were they, at any point, for Nara Shikamaru?”
“Is he your relative?”
“My cousin, yes.”
“My loyalties haven't laid with him. My assistance, yes. But not my loyalties.”
Shikamaru's cousin nods, before writing down a few things.
“Why did you come back to Konoha with him?”
“I promised information against protection. He assured me I would have that. I admit to some... disappointment.”
“This is a hidden village, what did you expect?”
“Well, certainly not a bunch of back-stabbing lying pieces of shit trying to extort intel out of me.”
Sakura only receives a blink in response. It doesn't matter. She's feeling particularly petty.
“Listen, if you're not offering asylum, I'm leaving. You have no reason for detaining me and no right to do so. I'll gladly take out anyone who stands in the way of me getting out of here. So you tell me; am I welcome in Konoha?”
Still no answer and no Shikamaru in sight. Sakura shrugs. Maybe Suna will be more receptive to the wealth of information she can give. In any case, she's done with the Leaf.
“In that case...”
Sakura gets up, headbutts the Nara when they make to grab her hand, and kicks the door on her way out. Her katana, laying on the desk of one of the Interrogators, finds its way back into her hand. She swinging it in a precise motion, barely a breath from opening this approaching man's torso, when a cloud of smoke blinds her.
A body she's intimately familiar with presses against her back and slender fingers wrap around her blade, bleeding steadily where the steel eats into the flesh.
“I will cut through your hand if you try to interfere.”
“I don't doubt that,” the raspy voice says in her ear.
“I'm giving you two seconds.”
The body disappears. The fingers don't. Shikamaru is now facing her, his usually bored eyes now firmly intent on her, his whole body tensing under the pressure she's applying to her blade.
“I apologize for letting them take you without interfering. I had to explain everything to the Hokage first.”
“I don't care.”
He closes his eyes, his expression pained as she slices into the meet of his fingers. “Konoha is offering you asylum, and if you want it, citizenship.”
She stops, a hair away from severing his fingers. He opens his eyes to look at her, an ocean of feelings in the darkness of his iris.
“I'm sorry for not being there for you, Sakura. It won't happen again.”
She hopes so.
