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vesperlionheart · 6 years

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Pompeii 49

History has been, is, and will forever be, a fickle thing. How will history remember the days of upheaval that trail out from the cortex of a single mistake? How will the readers of history interpret these events?

Ash continued to fall through Pompeii, warm like bursts of sunlight, and where they touched blight was no more. It touched their bodies and suddenly their armor was old, like it had been old for ages. Scratches and dents that had never stayed now stood out. The metal weighed heavy on his body, fitting poorly.

Beside him, he could hear his brother stripping and decided to follow suit, saying nothing. A small pile of discard armor grew at their feet, rusting away as soon as it lost contact with their body.

“Sakura!”

He looked up in time to see his brother making the mad dash through the trees to the desecrated shrine. Determined to follow close behind, he spared only a single glance over his shoulder for the boy made out of shadows that they had managed to save from a fate far worse. He would wake in his own time, free of blight or sickness. The whole of Pompeii would soon wake up in much the same way thanks to the ash blessing.

‘More than they deserve,’ he thought darkly.

He had been watching along with his brother for far too many months as each one passed with a little more of her smile, until Sakura was left with a pitiful fragment of her usual cheerfulness. They didn’t know what they did to her when they accused her, they had no idea how their accusation had cut deep enough to wound her psyche.

That had been what Kaguya wanted. When the ceremony to keep her sealed for another year failed that had been the beginning of it all. But, wonder of wonders, what had been impossible centuries ago, before record, before ancestors, before warnings, was now finally realized. An unkillable monstrosity was laid to rest.

Indra turned to follow his brother down the path, racing to catch up. The way was familiar, but where once upon a time there had been a neat clearing with a shrine and lake, now there stood a shattered alter and a twisted, heavy peach tree that loomed over a slowly draining pond. The healing waters were receding with no guarantee they would ever be seen again.

Ashura had already reached Sakura’s side and was calling out to her when Indra knelt down on her opposite side. He pulled her to him and stared down at her unfocused gaze, glassy from the ash and sweat clinging to her lashes.

She tried to say something but her voice didn’t make it past her lips.

“That’s enough, rest well. Thanks to you, Sakura, Pompeii is safe,” Indra said.

Her eyes slid completely out of focus and her eyelids fell all the way as the rest of her body sagged into his arms.

Ashura made a strangled noise deep in her throat and reached to tug at the scraps of shirt around her neck. She wore a collar of bruises, blooming into color with the promise of darkening later on. There was blood in places where her clothes ripped too, likely the result from being thrown around like a rag doll.

“How could she do this to her?” Ashura asked out loud, cataloging each injury and bruise. “It’s brutal.”

“The old gods typically are not less, and you should know better than to put such a thing past our grandmother,” Indra answered while folding Sakura closer to his body with care.

The sight of her made him shake in anger. Her back was bleeding in places from minor scratches in too many places. He could see bruises growing underneath the surface of her skin like far off galaxies drawing closer into view. Like his brother, he was more distraught than he remembered ever being when he saw the state their favorite person was in.

“She’ll recover, won’t she?” Ashura asked as he stood to follow his brother.

Indra looked to the water that were once a source of healing and frowned at how dead it now seemed. Ashura understood the look and leapt for what was left, scooping up some of the water into cupped hands to bring back to Sakura’s form. He washed her arms and back this way, but whatever magic had once existed in the water was null now.

“It’s not working,” Ashura panicked.

“That’s not the only thing we can do for her. Grab the other one, the companion, and take him with us.”

Ashura moved to grab Yamato and turn the man over to better haul up into a fireman’s carry. “Where are we going?”

“Pompeii will provide a haven. Come, we should leave this place least grandmother’s blight linger in some ill way.”

Ashura grunted in understandment, shuffling the man on his shoulders until he became comfortable. “I doubt there is anything left if we’re both here like this. Grandmother’s curse wouldn’t have lifted with anything less.”

Indra hummed in agreement, growing distracted by the cluster of ashflakes that lingered on her long lashes. He blew them away and wished he could do the same for the cuts and bruises making a collar on her neck. She had never seemed more frail or small.

The pair passed the scarred places of earth where they once made battle. They passed the sleeping body of the Nara boy who had dared raise a hand against their Sakura, and they passed several crumbling trees that seemed burned out from the inside. The edge of the forest soon came into view and the two brother made a beeline for it.

“Brother,” Ashura called. “Can you see it, can you tell now what Sakura is?”

Indra refused to blush. “Don’t be crude in such a situation. I wouldn’t dare pry after all she’s done to help us.”

Ashura huffed, less embarrassed by the request. “You have greater insight than I do, brother, and you were blessed with those eyes of yours. I through that you would be able to see what was hidden from you before after everything that’s happened.”

Indra hated how the temptation grew inside of him to peer through the veil of his blessed sight and see the unseen, if only that meant he could know Sakura greater. When they had first met he had distrusted her emphatically and tried repeatedly to devise her true nature. Was she a forest sprite or nymph, was she something older, a foreign god from forgotten or desecrated lands?

The boy she called Shikamaru was so easy to see through. He knew the Nara were Shades, masters of shadow and the great manipulators of darkness. Their offspring was no different. He could see the truth of many others who traveled too close to their perches.

The Senju were all fey, the Uchiha were all tengu, that silver haired one tied to the one named Obito was a golem. The redhead woodcutter was a Golem Warlock. The blond girl who called out to Sakura was a Swan Maiden. They were all so easy to see through. Even the Storm God Pein could be perceived with some effort. He had not encountered an individual he could not see through until…

Sakura.

“It doesn’t matter anymore that I can’t see what she is. She’s something far greater than you or I and what’s more, she’s the creature we owe our lives to. I’ll not ask or pry again. Should she wish to share that with us, it would be my greatest pleasure, but I dare not demand what I do not deserve.”

“You’re so old fashioned. You make it sound like I asked you to do something nasty,” Ashura chuckled dryly. “I just wanted to know her a little better.”

When Indra looked back he could see that his brother was more depressed than he sounded. Ashura tried to summon a brave front but walked with a weight that came more from his heart and less from the new, physical body.

“Ashura,” he softly called. The younger brother lifted his head only a fraction in response. “We will have plenty of days to get to know her better in our own ways with our own voices. Don’t despair. Pompeii will provide.”

Ashura blinked and straightened, looking at something past his brother’s shoulder. “Provide something like that?”

Both males looked as one as a structure shimmered into focus, here and then there. The brick exterior and ivy growing up the side made it look like it had always been there, always been around, but it rested in the middle of the field between the tree line and the town, far from any road or conventional footpath.

Indra saw the veins of magic running all throughout the structure and nodded, detecting nothing nefarious about it. The book that sat dead in her backpack was meant for the building, their magical signatures were the same.

“Come, it seems provisions have found us,” Indra said, holding her closer and mounting the first of the steps leading up to the library entrance.

The doors were already opening in their own for the brothers.

Hashirama had his arms folded into the sleeves of his outer robe where they wouldn’t be a distraction to those who knew him well enough to see how white his knuckles were with tension.

“Is that who I think it is?” Minato Namikaze asked stiffly. Beside him Kushina reached for his arm to hold onto as she drew her body closer. Her eyes were wide in a terrifying way.

“If you mean is that the body of Kaguya Otsutsuki who we have been bothering to seal away each year, then the answer is yes, that is who you think it is,” Hashirama’s wife Mito answered cooly. “Count yourself as one of the fortunate few who are so blessed as to walk away from this with your life in place. I have heard a rare few have been so lucky in ages past.”

“No shit, it was the reason we were keeping her sealed I thought,” Shikaku Nara huffed.

The father looked back over his shoulder at his son who sat apart from the group with his head in his hands. Shikamaru had refused to turn around after seeing the shadow play of the whole ordeal the first time. He hadn’t said anything when they called to him, and Shikaku was only mildly worried about what this would mean for his son later on. He was a father, after all. But Shikaku had faith that, eventually, Shikamaru would recover from whatever trauma he was currently dealing with. Now wasn’t the time to rush that sort of healing. The others could wait if they wanted anything more from his son.

“Shikaku,” Hashirama called out. “Show us the shadow play once more.”

Behind them all Shikamaru flinched and held himself tighter. It made Shikaku’s lips draw thin to do something he knew was hurting his son, but there was no choice. It was Hashirama, after all.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Back it up and get out of the way.”

He drew up his magic and hooked it to the natural shadows surrounding the area. Like fabric figures they rose up, forming the outlines of the characters who had run through the forest clearing no more than four hours ago. As long as it was within a day Shikaku would be able to make the shadows show him what happened.

The shadow figures stiffened and then all at once each began to move to their places and play out a scene they had seen several times already. He kept his magic flowing as one figure threw another and then gripped it tight. There was no sound and there was no color, but it was interesting how the brain filled in those details once the shapes and sizes made sense.

Kaguya dove forward, knocking Sakura back against the trunk of the tree. Her hands clasped around Sakura’s neck, claws biting into the soft flesh there. Sakura flailed wildly as streams of blood pooled out from beneath Kaguya’s fingernails, soaking into Sakura’s shirt. Sakura turned the knife in her hand and drove it into Kaguya’s side.

Naruto’s father gasped as if he could actually hear the wound being made.

“And here is where we think she drops Sakura to go to the figure in the tree,” Hashirama intones. He watches the shadow play like some great detective, internet on unraveling every mystery.

“We think it’s Yamato,” Shikaku supplied.

It was what his son told him he heard Sakura say before this whole fight happened. It made sense. Most people knew how devoted the copy was to the new doctor, so it wasn’t too hard to believe that she would be equally devoted.

“We think so, yes,” Hashirama grunted, eyes going dark.

They watched the climax of the fight as Kaguya’s shadow drifted down with a branch sticking out of her head, falling until the shadow lay atop the corpse of the woman they had already discovered. Her body was soaked with ichor that had already been witnessed on multiple accounts from trees cut open. Shikamaru had been seeing the gold ichor for months along with everyone else.

‘And you did nothing!’

“She gets up though, she’s able to do that much,” Minato supplied helpfully. As the words were out of his mouth Sakura’s shadow crumbled against Yamato and slips down, only to be scooped up by two new shadows who leave the area.

“The knights,” Hashirama grumbled. “Who are they?”

“The armor is old, whoever they were. The metal is disintegrating in our hands when we try to touch it, so there’s not a lot we can do to identify it,” Minato said before looking back over his shoulder at his silent wife. Her eyes were still wide and her hand was a vice on his arm.

“Are they a threat?” asked the eldest Senju. “What do we know about them other than they appear only at the end and spirit her off to...nowhere.”

They had followed the shadows until they climbed what seemed to be stairs into a void of space where shadow could not follow. The trail was impossible to track after that.

“They don’t seem to be a friend to Kaguya, if that is what you are worried about. They saved my son, even after he tried to stop Sakura. I don’t think they are figures we need to worry about right now. We-”

“But they took her,” Tobirama interjected, voice hard like his eyes as he stepped through the trees into the clearing. The group turned as one to greet him without words. It is clear the younger Senju has more to say. “They have Sakura right now. That’s more than enough reason to seek them out and track what we can of them. She was hurt.”

“She’s not a danger like we thought she was, we don’t have to do anything,” Hashirama replied. His voice was softer only for his brother.

Hours earlier Tobirama had awoken as fit and healthy as ever, barely remembering the sensation of sickness only to discover the branch of cherry blossom he cherished in a jar had withered away into white ash on the windowsill. Like everyone else who had fallen sick, there wasn’t even a trace of illness left in his body.

Hashirama had never seen his younger brother so desperate for something, and he hated how this new emotion was so painful to watch bloom. More than just desperation, Tobirama felt an overabundance of guilt towards Sakura, also a new emotion. It didn’t help that no one could tell Tobirama what had happened to the wrongly accused savior of Pompeii. Even if she did adore that abomination, Hashirama was willing to look past that all for the sake of his brother who was helpless to the blooming of his long still heart.

“We’ll find her. There aren’t a lot of places she could go in that sort of condition. With all the able bodies someone is bound to spot something,” Minato said.

Tobirama’s red eyes flashed as he growled. “We need to expedite the search. We have no idea what sort of wounds she may be suffering from after encountering such an ancient creature.”

“If she was able to stand up to Kaguya and hobble away I’m sure she’ll be fine-”

Tobirama slammed a fist into the side of a tree and Shikamaru shook, curling up into even a tighter ball.

“It’s not good enough that she’s fine. She need to be found!”

“And we will,” Hashirama interjected. “This is not something we will leave to others. You and I, brother, will seek her out together in our own ways. Who can deny our skills?”

“Meanwhile,” Mito interrupted sharply. The group turned to stare at the older red haired woman as one. Mito’s hand was raise to point to where Kaguya laid. “What should the people be told of this. Pompeii clamors for answers, even now. Some believe Sakura was killed that they are all now better and others don’t know what to think.”

Shikamaru was still shaking, but his nails dug deep into his scalp like an effort to try and keep him still. It was enough to make his father worry.

“We’ll put a stop to those rumors, we won’t let them go on like that,” Shikaku said, turning to look at Hashirama next. “They will believe you if you go out and tell them what we saw here.”

Hashirama looked from the youngest Nara to his father. “Yes, that is one way to do things, but please understand how sensitive the situation is. We have to be careful about what we tell the people. I don’t want to stir up unnecessary worry.”

“You want to put a spin on this?” Minato guessed.

“That makes it sound like something underhanded. I want to manage the most sensitive information. I am not a liar, you know that is not a Senju trait.” Hashirama tried out another polite smile reserved for fundraisers and campaign speeches. “I’m not here to spread information or cause a panic. Let me manage this message to the public.”

“Oh, is that what we’re doing now?”

The group minus Shikamaru turned to watch Tsunade step into the clearing. She wore all black and the diamond on her forehead pulsed with purple energy. Her hair was braided back like she was prepared for something a bit more strenuous than her usual routines.

“Tsunade,” Mito whispered, unable to raise her voice after all.

The blonde woman scanned the group lazily before her eyes set on Hashirama. “I should have known they would leave this in the hands of the best deceiver incapable of lying. What sort of spin were you planning, old man? What were you planning on leaving out?”

Hashirama swallowed. “The people don’t need to know it was Kaguya.”

“You mean they don’t need to know it was your fault all this happened in the first place. Instead of addressing the issue when you first noticed it, you played politician for the crowd and endangered us all. That brat has been bearing the burden of your mistakes all this time and you plan on denying her justice.”

Tsunade took a step into the clearing, disrupting the air with a crackle of her own magic. Shikaku noticed it a second too late, but her magic was already ingesting the shadows of the area and learning everything the shadow play had told them. Before he could stop it she was done.

“Tsunade, don’t be rash,” Hashirama warned.

“You’re smart to be wary, but I’m not the one you should be threatening with your big boy tone,” she mocked. She set a hand on her hip and tilted her chin up so she was staring down her nose at him.

Mito stepped up beside Hashirama and glared at the other witch. “Don’t do something you’ll regret. Your reputation in Pompeii is-”

“I don’t give two shits about something like that,” Tsunade hissed angrily, cutting the older woman off. “And maybe if you lot learned a bit from me we wouldn’t be in this mess, but we are and there's nothing we can do to go back in time to change it.”

“People don’t need to know,” Hashirama tried again.

“People are learning it as we speak. You owe this much to her and to everyone else. All the people you’ve deceived are entitled this truth.” She bared her teeth.

Hashirama breathed deeply. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret later, witch. You’ve been allowed to wander so freely thanks to good grace.”

“You want to try threatening me you should try using some threats that mean something. You’re not as powerful as you think you are, old man, and the winds of change are blowing.” She waved her hand at the dead body of Kaguya. “And we’re rooting out the rot where we find it, so make sure you’re not a cancer we need to cut out before you go threatening others of the same.”

“Do you know where she is?”

Tsunade leaned back to look over at Tobirama and frowned. The aggression that ran through Hashirama like a taut bowstring was unrecognizable in Tobirama. The younger brother was agitated, but in a very different way.

“What does that matter to you?” She narrowed her eyes at him and there was a spark of purple there to match the glow of her diamond. “It was your little branch and bud that made this whole fiasco possible, so don’t think I’ll tell you only for you to try and paint yourself into a victim. You don’t get to do that after blaming and doubting her.”

“She’s hurt. All that can come later, but she left this area heavily wounded and was carried off by two figures. Do you know who they were or where she might be now?”

“I doubt she’s in anymore danger.”

“She’s hurt. Someone should make sure she’s taken care of!” Tobirama exclaimed.

Tsunade huffed loudly and shifted to fold her arms across her chest. “Don’t think you’re the only one capable of such a thing. Without you, there are still plenty of individuals who are willing to care for and cater to her needs. She may be a bit of an idiot and an airhead about some things, but there are too many rejects hungry for affection to not break themselves at her feet for another taste of her mercies. I won’t expect an illustrious Senju to understand this, but you’ve degraded and cast too many into the darkness in your hubris. If you underestimate Sakura that’s your fault, but she is far more loved than you could understand with your limited emotions.”

“There is no need for insults here,” Hashirama interjected. He took a step forward to put himself in between Tsunade and his younger brother. He pulled himself up with all the authority he had left in him and narrowed his eyes at her. “You can go and tell whoever you like what you saw here. It doesn’t make a difference or not. This won’t matter in the long run the way you think it will.”

“Maybe that’s what you believe, but Pompeii is tired of putting up with a functioning cancer in its body, and the time for surgery is now. Maybe you’ll survive the cull, but don’t think things aren’t changing around here.”

Tsunade lowered her head and a moment later the rest of her body folded into a space between here and there, and winked out of existence.

“I’m sorry, but she stole my shadow play and-” Shikaku tried to say but stopped when he saw Hashirama’s hand.

“That’s enough for now. We need to draft a narrative for the Uchiha before their damn birds reach this place. She can tell whoever she wants to, it’s all just shadows in the end. It’s not enough to do what she hopes.”

“Still….” Shikaku looked back at his son. “This matter is far from settled.”

“Agreed,” Hashirama said before turning to face the corpse and raising a single hand under his chin. Root work began to grow up around the body at his beck and call. “ For now, we must deal with this body. Someone can say it burned up at the touch later on. Stand back while I cage it for later.”

Sakura felt the hand at her throat and choked on a breath before her eyes shot open. The trees were gone and the forest wasn’t a forest anymore, but a long bedroom with old fashioned wallpaper and victorian molding.

She felt movement at her bedside and turned, facing it only to see the face from before-the one that had been there when she slipped away.

Mari!

She tried to say his name but all she could feel was the vibration of her throat. There was a sound somewhere but it wasn’t close. She tried again, tried to call out to him, to ask him what had happened, to as where was she, but her voice was so far away, trapped someplace she couldn’t hear but yet still felt.

She remembered her ears ringing like there were nails being hammered into them and reached up to feel her ears, not knowing what else to expect. She scraped at her ears and felt the touch, but there was no sound, even when she tried to claw her ears open there was no sound. She couldn't hear anything!

The knight with dark hair and darker eyes reached for her hands and pulled them away from her ears before she could scratch them raw. He held her hands together in one of his own and she felt his other knuckle brush the side of her face, where tears stained her skin.

She couldn’t hear it, but she could read his lips well enough to know what he said. “Shhh, don’t cry. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

“I can’t hear anything,” Sakura said, not knowing if she spoke or screamed the words. She made them in her mouth like she knew how to do, but she had no idea if he understood her or not.

His eyes softened and the knuckles under her tears brushed across her ear before going back to her face, where more tears were starting to flow. Slowly, he inclined his head until their foreheads were touching and then he closed his eyes.

There was a presence in her mind and she pushed back at first before the warmth of it made her relent and allow it access. When she opened her eyes she could still feel the presence someone inside of her.

This time, when he moved her mouth, she heard him.

“I’m sharing my ability to hear with you. Now you hear what I hear. I’ve only done this for one sense. Are you still able to see and feel and taste without issue?”

Sakura swallowed and then weakly nodded. “I-I think so. Who-Mari, it’s you, isn’t it?”

A soft secret sort of smile melted on his face. “Yes, that’s me, but I am also called Indra. You called my brother after the daffodils but his name is Ashura. We were the knights you were so kind to.”

Sakura felt a new thrill of joy upon seeing one of the two knight brothers in the flesh before her, finally out of armor. “It’s so good to see you, but I still have so many questions. What happened?”

“You saved all of us.”

Sakura laughed and sagged forward a bit. “No, really, what happened, because I don’t remember much of it.” But the images came back and she had to swallow when she remembered the things that made her retch the first time. She remembered killing Kaguya and then…

“Yamato! Sai, are they alright?” Sakura asked suddenly, a new feer blooming in her heart.

“Annoying so, both companions you’ve mentioned are alive and well enough to bother us constantly about your status,” Indra grumbled. “Both are up and walking around the library least the drag us into further trouble with the head librarian here.”

“Library?” Sakura looked around her, searching for a clue that would tell here exactly where she was. “I didn’t know there were bedrooms this nice here.”

When they dragged Sai into the library, leaking from his wounds, they had deposited him on the nearest couch and Sakura hadn’t thought to go exploring further than that. But the Library was odd and mysterious and she couldn’t believe that if it wanted to, it couldn’t just grow an additional room to provide what was needed.

Sakura braced with the heels of her hand and tried to sit up but gasped at the pain stretching across her abdomen and back. With a whimper she fell back into the blankets, cradled by Indra who was too fast to not be attentive to her pain. She looked down and saw her sleeping pajamas were clean, but thin enough to make out the bandages through. She pulled the hem of her shirt up and winced at the parts that weren't bandaged.

“It looks so ugly,” she whined, forcing herself to laugh as she dropped the hem and looked away from all the marks marring her body. Scrapes and scratches and bruises made her into something hard to look at.

“You are more than your scars, and I could never see you as anything less than radiant.” When he looked up at her the black color of his eyes was almost red, like desert bloodstone.

She felt like he was seeing into her when he stared at her so intently. She had to blush. “I-I’m nothing so special, but I’m glad you all are safe. How long have I been recovering for?”

“A couple of days. Since we brought you to this place most of the people in town have recovered. No one is still suffering from Kaguya’s curse.”

Sakura sagged in relief. “Then Ino and Naruto and all the others are safe. That’s all that matters. I was afraid nothing had changed while I slept.”

“When Ashura was on watch yesterday you started to wake up but fell back asleep again. You’ve been restless all day and I’m afraid it might be because of the pain. I’m sorry we were not able to do more this time.”

Sakura touched her ear and grimaced. “Is this… permanent?”

He swallowed, looking lost. “I’m sorry, but it’s beyond me. I am no doctor.”

Sakura snorted at his words, unable to help herself. “Right, no, I’m sorry. That’s my job. I’ll have to ask Shizune to give me a check up. If it was a normal accident I would say there’s a chance my hearing comes back, but I still don’t understand completely what she did to me. She was in my head.”

“But you did what no one else could. Despite everything you were triumphant. These scars will heal at least,” he said, brushing his knuckles across the bandages around her neck.

“My friends and family are safe, that’s all that matters. It’d be nice if my hearing came back, but I’d rather it be like this than how it was before.” Sakura closed her eyes and let her head fall back into the pillows.

“Ashura has been waiting for you to wake. I feel selfish, monopolizing your time like this. Are you well enough to speak with him or should I leave you to rest some more?” Indra asked.

She remembered the cheerful knight that reminded her so much of Naruto, waving wildly to her while darkness rolled behind his blade at the end of her journey. Daffodil.

“Please, if he’s here, I want to see him,” Sakura said, chest going light at the thought.

Ashura smiled, squeezing her hand in reassurance or maybe thanks. She heard everything he heard as he stood from his seat and exited through the door. She heard him call out, she heard what he heard, ‘Is she-?’ ‘Yeah, and she’s asking for you.’ She even heard the hurried footsteps on hardwood floors.

When the door banged open she turned her head across the pillows to see the other of the two brothers standing there, eyes wide and watery, hair a ruffled mess behind a simple cloth headband. The smile that spread across her lips was so easy and that only made his tears come faster.

“Sa-ku-raaaaa!” he cried, dashing over to drop down loudly beside her bed and drape his arms across her form. She hadn’t meant to but she grunted at the touch and he flinched in reaction.

“Imbecile,” Indra hissed, smacking Ashura upside his head. “She’s still hurt. Don’t be such an oaf with her.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Sakura laughed. “I’m not that hurt, you just surprised me a little. Ah, but it’s so good to finally see you in the flesh, Daffodil. How are you?”

Ashura’s face colored as his eyes watered even more. He tried to breath it out and steady himself but it came out sounding more like a choke. He melted at her bedside and weakly reached for her hand like it was made of glass. “I was so-oo-oh sc-scared Sakura. You were so small and still. I was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to speak to you like this. I would have traded being a stupid empty suit of armor if I knew what would happen. I’m so sorry you’re hurt!”

Sakura laughed, squeezing his hand back in reassurance. “Don’t think about it like that. It’s not like you giving up what you are now would do me any good. And really, there are worse things than scars. I’ll heal, that’s no big deal, but what about you? You have a body now, that has to be weird.”

Ashura bent down and kissed her fingers and then pulled back to laugh when she flustered at the touch. “Yeah, it is nice having a body again. I had forgotten what it felt like and what I was missing out on.”

Sakura couldn’t help it, but she felt compelled to flick his forhead, so she pulled out of his hold and did just that. He reacted way too dramatically, falling backwards in a way that made her laugh.

“Sakura?”

She heard the voice and it was like a knife in her heart because it was the most lovely sound, only for it to be something she might never hear again.

Yamato appeared in the doorway, looking out of breath with a pale Sai trailing in behind him. Further back in the hallway there was the top of Shizune’s head and maybe even Sarutobi’s.

Yamato didn’t wait for her to say anything, but dashed to the opposite side of her bed and fell atop her like a feather, slowing just enough to be soft enough to do no damage.

“Stupid girl,” she felt him mutter into her shoulder. That area was growing damp and she didn’t dare point that out, already knowing the reason for his tears. “What a stupid, stupid girl. What were you thinking?”

Sakura looked up and saw Sai lean against the foot of her bed, looking happy but tired. He was doing so much better than he had been when she last left him.

“I was thinking about making sure my family stayed safe. I wasn’t going to let her take any of you away from me, duh,” Sakura huffed with a roll of her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Really, Yamato, what do you take me for?”

“I’m sorry,” Yamato gasped, pulling away. She hadn’t noticed it until just then, but his hair was just past his jaw line now, long and healthy. Stands of it stuck to his cheeks where the tear trails stood out.

“Don’t be,” she tried to say.

“I’m sorry she did this to you. It’s not fair, and it’s because of me. That was the whole reason you were there in the first place. You would have been fine if I hadn’t been a distraction-a weakness for you.”

“If that’s how you want to go about labeling yourself, then fine. It’s a weakness I gladly accept.”

“Sakura-”

“No,” she cut him off with a single finger raised. “Not your turn to talk. Listen to me first. I’m not invincible and I might not be the baddest bitch you see in town, but we all have a weakness or two, so I’d be proud if my weakness was my precious people. And honestly, hon, how many people are so lucky to have their weakness also be their strength? I would have gone there on my own, anyway. Don’t think anything was your fault.” He looked away and when she saw his jaw shiver she reached to hold it and pull his face back towards her. “Promise.”

“You were almost killed.” He still shook in small ways as he forced himself to speak. “You don’t even know who she was or what you did.”

“I saved my family,” she answered without hesitation.

Yamato sagged into her side, burying his face in the covers around her hips. When his shoulders shook she reached out to scratch her fingers down his spine and up again, calming him back down.

Across from Yamato, Ashura glared lightly and huffed loudly. “I was also really scared for you Sakura.” Ashura scooted closer to the opposite side of Sakura and leaned in a little. “Never been more scared in my life.”

Sakura hummed, seeing through his words straight to his true intentions. “I’m sorry I scared you.” She reached out and ran a hand through his wild hair, scraping his skull with her nails just enough to cause a pleasant tingle.

“Are we going to have to put up with these new intruders?” Sai asked blandly, fake smile slipping into place as he nodded his head at Indra.

“Seeing as how we are the only fully healed, capable bodies in this building, It should be more like us putting up with you,” Indra shot back.

“That might be a little hard, since we’re already maxed out on spaces in our family and you would just be a nuisance. You already have a sibling, so be content, flower person. Find your own place to crash.”

“We did,” Ashura huffed from beside Sakura. “The library likes us just fine. If you don’t approve pack your own bags.”

“Now now,” Sarutobi cut in, sliding past Shizune and Indra to enter the room with his hands up. “There is plenty of room here for all of you as long as you need it. You were all welcomed for a reason and we don’t have to be picky.” He turned his smile off and instead looked to Sakura, frowning slightly at the bandages he could see. “Speaking of welcoming, there are two others just outside who are debating coming in. Should I go out to welcome them in or leave them alone?”

“What, who are they? I’m fine but I don’t know if I’m ready to defend myself to people just yet,” Sakura answered. She remembered too well what it looked like when people made an effigy of her to burn in the streets.

“That’s alright, these two are fine,” Shizune cut in. She waved to Sakura before disappearing to open the front door and do what Sarutobi suggested.

“How are you feeling my dear?” Sarutobi asked, looking back at Sakura.

“I’ll feel better in a few days. What is it they say after a crash. It hurts worse later on, right? Ah, I think that’s where I’m at right now.”

Sarutobi chuckled at her good humor and easy smile. “Oh, I’m not sure what they say about things like that, my dear. You’re the doctor, after all.”

Outside there were footsteps and the room seemed to widen as two different blond, blue eyed people poked their heads into her room.

Sakura felt dizzy at once.

“Ino, Naruto! You’re alright!” she cried, nearly getting out of bed only to wince and fall back down, unable to do that much.

The cried her name as one and plowed through the other individuals in the room to get to her bed and collapse at her side. Sakura hugged them as well as she could and then paused them away to look them over for signs of sickness, but aside from some weight loss they were perfectly healthy and bright.

“Quit worrying about us,” Ino cried through her thick tears. “You’re the one stuck in a bed now, you dummy.”

“No one would tell me what happened to you when I woke up. I thought something terrible had happened and you left or something, and I still don’t get it cause the old man ain’t talking, but I didn’t think it would be like this,” Naruto babbled, freaking out at the sight of all her bruises.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Sakura sighed.

Between the group of them, minus Indra who was content to let Ashura speak for him, the group went over the events pertaining to the Pompeii Plague caused by Kaguya, starting with the botched binding ceremony/ritual and going to the final confrontation. Naruto was oddly quiet when Yamato, Sai, and Ino recounted the details of how so much of the town turned on her and blamed Sakura for the sickness...including the entirety of Naruto’s family.

“People are still looking for you,” Ino added at the end.

“We were too, but we didn’t know where to start because the clinic is a mess, like it’s gone-gone.” Naruto made a cutting motion with his hand across his neck.

“We didn’t have a lot of leads to go on when we found this place. I’ve never been here before but Shizune was at the door and it was our best shot so that’s how we got here and...yeah, that’s the story,” Ino added.

“Looking for her? Who exactly is looking for Sakura?” Yamato asked, tone dark. Sakura didn’t miss the way the other boys in the room tensed, ready to go if the need arose.

“Lots of people...most everyone actually. Tsunade stole a shadow play and has been broadcasting it non stop in all the shadow places, replaying the showdown with illusionary magic to add color and textile. Now everyone knows what happened and only a few wacko hold outs still believe it was all a trick on your part,” said Ino.

Sakura meant to ask something more but the room around them shivered and Sakura felt queasy all of a sudden.

“What’s that?” Naruto asked, panicking.

Sarutobi cursed. “Someone has managed to enter the library uninvited.”

“That’s possible?” Shizune hollered, bracing against the wall.

“No, not unless they managed to follow behind someone else who was invited….” Sarutobi’s eyes and word trailed to Ino and Naruto and the whole room tensed at the implications.

The library had revealed itself to Naruto and Ino, allowing them to enter, but the magic that hid it between the here and there didn’t matter if someone was already on the stairs outside with one foot in the door.

Sarutobi turned on his heel, ready to expel the intruder but stopped short when he saw who it was in the doorway.

“I don’t think you should be here,” the old man intoned, drawing himself up as best as he could.

“No, I’m pretty sure this is exactly where I need to be.”

#Pompeii #Weird Wednesdays #out fic #7K #eat your heart out kids #long under cut

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