Chapter TWENTY FIVE

The first thing that came to Sasuke's mind was surprise. He had fallen onto a field of sharp bones and he was surprised that all his limbs were intact. Nothing hurt apart from what he thought were newly healed fractures and the usual muscle pains from strains and bruises that were no doubt left to heal on their own.

There was no one in the guest chair but there were cards and flowers on the table beside his bed, no doubt from visitors.

A pity, really, because he wanted to know happened to the final match.

All this time, he had fought for the recognition of his family and friends. When he had climbed up to the finals, his father had nodded at him while Itachi had pulled him aside for a few quick words and Sasuke had thought that this was the first step towards what he was aiming for.

However, after exchanging blows with the girl he had come to want to understand, he began to think that it didn't matter. It wasn't that he no longer cared or he had found a new goal he wanted to achieve. It was simply that this recognition he had so long yearned for didn't seem to be something as big as he had always thought.

There was a sense of relief within him but he knew this feeling quite well, had felt it plenty of times before.

He would never admit it out loud but now that he thought about it, he could say that he had been jealous. He was jealous of the shadow Itachi was able to cast over anyone who associated with him and how this father seemed to have eyes only for him. He was the promised heir of the Uchiha clan while he was nothing more than an extra.

Then Sakura had come along.

Sakura who thought she could only leave a mark in the world through battle. Sakura who was so exposed and yet so shaded from the harsh cruelty of shinobi life. Sakura who had been uncertain and insecure and as lonely as him.

Sakura who looked beyond his title as Uchiha at him for who he was. Sakura who turned to him because she didn't understand the most fundamental aspects of enjoying life. Sakura who had asked him without words and shown him without actions that she trusted him to lead her towards the childhood she hadn't been able to experience and the future that could be.

He slowly stretched out his limbs, wincing at the pain. He carefully pulled back his sheets then ran his lightning chakra through the alarm that was disguised as a heart rate tracker, the Kakashi had taught him, to disable it. He then pulled out the needles attached to his arms and struggled to pull himself to his feet.

Just then, a nurse stormed in, eyes burning. "Uchiha-san! Please stay still! You have a mild concussion, two broken in your left arm, a fracture in your right wrist, a dislocated kneecap, all fixed, of course, though it could have been worse if-"

Sasuke winced and was about to think up of a plan when someone caused the distraction he needed. It seemed whoever it was trying to escape hadn't known about the alarm.

The beeping of a pager was heard and the nurse scolding him sighed and she darted out without a word.

The second thought that hit him was that it would be Sakura. She was impatient enough to forcefully yank out the needles and did not know about the alarm system.

Sasuke let out a sigh and began making his way towards the door.

He had a person to find, after all.

The first thing that came to Sakura's mind was confusion. When she had prevented Sasuke's fall, she hadn't been thinking. Her eyes had caught the signs of fatigue and her body had moved on its own accord.

My bones will negate the impact better than Sasuke can. She had thought. I can take the brunt of the fall and not attain as much damage, which now confused her because it had been a fight and it wouldn't have been her fault if Sasuke had fallen and gotten a little more than a scrape.

The Sawarabi no mai, which had never been able to perform during her practice sessions with Kimimaro had sprouted like the garden it was often related to, almost as though it had been enhanced by her need to prove herself to the boy in front of her.

Sasuke was unresponsive and Sakura had been uncertain of her ability to flip themselves when Sasuke who was both taller and heavier than her, unbalancing her.

Slamming against the ground wouldn't kill her, she had thought. But maybe jolting anything would hurt Sasuke.

And like her Kekkei Genkai answered to her burning will, it had once again acted upon her wishes. The field of bones had simultaneously shattered at contact with her, slowing the momentum of their fall. The contact had been harsh and painful but Sakura managed to absorb most of the shock from the fall. Sasuke had glanced at her for a split second before he had gone unconscious a second before landing.

Sakura remembered lying there as the audience went into an uproar and soon, someone came to lift the dead weight of the Uchiha off of her. She hadn't complained and after confirming that he was cleanly knocked out and that she had, technically won the match, she smirked before passing out herself.

She scanned the general area for chakra signatures but didn't recognize any of them. The clock started a little past noon but did not tell her the date. She left out a soft sigh and proceeded to yank out the needles. She jumped when an alarm suddenly began blaring, realizing a little too late that shinobi patients trying to escape wasn't an uncommon occurrence. Out of instinct, she smashed her palm into the alarm device, instantly shutting it up.

It was too late, though, and Kabuto came charging in, a scary smile on his face.

"What are you trying to do, Sakura-san?" He asked.

Sakura eyed him warily then proceeded to yank at the last of the needles. The alarm, already broken, did not let out any more sounds.

"Nothing, Kabuto-san." She replied. She got to her feet on the bed and glared down at him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have places to be." She made a mad leap for the window but Konoha shinobi must do that often too, because Kabuto was there a second later, a grip on her wrist. He pressed a point behind her knee as she flew past him and her balance was lost. With a yelp, she tumbled onto the gray haired medic.

Instantly, battle instincts reared its head. She twisted to land on her functioning leg and threw a few harsh blows into Kabuto's arm, disabling it just like the medic himself had taught her. Kabuto fells off of her and Sakura was about to make another lunge for the window because the door no doubt had nurses standing outside and not even she was stupid enough to harm one.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open and Sasuke stood there in all his bandage-wrapped glory, breathing heavily and Uchina scowl on his face. "Where do you think you're going?" He demanded. "Not trying to escape, right?"

Sakura blinked dismissively at him. "No, I just thought I'd jump out of the window for fun." At Sasuke's unimpressed glare, she rolled her eyes. "Of course I am."

And then, without batting an eye, she jumped right out.

Sakura thought she had been born a few decades too late. The time where people would gauge their value through the number of kills, when war had brought the ultimate value, was over. Those like her, who could only live and breathe battle, were no longer needed in times of peace.

And people like her needed to decide if they would cling on or let go completely, because there was no more chaotic value of life, but two fixed sides within a community, those who obeyed and those to who went against it. Sakura would counted herself to be the latter, though recently, thinking about being in the former caused a warm feeling she had never felt before well within her chest.

"Sakura!"

The pinkette turned up towards the caller of her voice and caught sight of Sasuke in his all glaring glory, boring burning holes into her head. She felt the corner of her lips twitch upwards and she mockingly waved. "Hello Sasuke, I didn't see you there, how's your stay in hospital been so far?"

Sasuke's glare intensified but under his dark gaze was something akin to amusement. "I believe we have some unfinished business to settle." He sneered.

Sakura made a 'come hither' gesture with her hand and Sasuke jumped out of the window after her.

No one heard Kabuto screaming at them in the background.

Kimimaro flipped through the hospital files and sighed for the hundred and first time that day. "This is...worse that her final match." He finally said.

"Not to mention the partially burnt down hospital walls and that lovely garden of bones practically blocking the entrance way into the hospital." Orochimaru chuckled. "Tsunade was having kittens."

"It is no laughing matter." Kabuto said. His hair was a mess and his glasses were crooked. He had gotten yelled at too! How was he expected to go up against crazy shinobi who jumped out of the window with still healing fractures and other injuries? Sasuke was supposed to have a mild concussion!

He knew there was a reason he had dropped out of the shinobi system to become a medic.

"It isn't." Kimimaro agreed. He glanced at the door which led to the room where Sakura and Sasuke had been relocated after their major battle outside the hospital. "To begin with, I do not know why you were keeping Sakura confined to the hospital. Bone injuries do not bother us Kaguya. We can easily regrow them."

Kabuto glowered at him. "You aren't making me feel better. At all."

Just then, they heard a crash from within the room and someone swore loudly.

"You idiot!" Someone hissed. "I said be careful."

"I've never done something like this." Someone else snarled. "I've never had to tee-pee-too until today!"

"It's tiptoe!" There was a loud sigh. "How did you manage calling yourself a shinobi until today?"

"I went crash and smash and knocked down everything in my way." Came the proud reply.

Orochimaru let out another chuckle. "It seems you're up, Kimimaro-kun." He said.

The Kaguya let out a soft laugh then threw the door open.

Sakura and Sasuke, who stood by the open window, the vase previously on the table now on the floor in pieces, jumped when he entered.

"I'm afraid you cannot leave." Kimimaro said. "I'm being paid to keep you in here." He added. "A-rank mission."

Sasuke snorted. "They sent in the other bone generator after us." He hissed. "Do something."

"What do you want me to do?" Sakura snapped. "Fight? I'll fight him." She took a step towards her clanmate but Sasuke stopped her.

"Idiot! Did you forget why we got yelled at in the first place?"

"Because Tsunade was interrupted during her sake-drinking period and she would have to pay to get the hospital fixed." Sakura replied easily.

Kimimaro winced. He walked over to them while they were busy bickering and scooped them both into his arms. Ignoring their protesting screeches and growls, he dumped them on the bed. "You cannot leave." He repeated.

"Ah, no, Kimimaro, stop-" Sakura grunted when the older kaguya yanked her back by her wrist then promptly sat down on her arm. "Kimimaro!"

The Kaguya turned to Sasuke, who was now tangled up in the sheets, and decided he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon either. "Give me one good reason I should let you go." He said.

Both Genin stopped struggling to look at him.

"Huh?" Sasuke asked.

"It is just as I had said." He said. "Give me one good reason I should let you go."

"Because I am your clan head and I order you to release us." Sakura said, deadpan.

Kimimaro hesitated at this but Sakura only seemed pleased when he held his ground. Instead, the girl simply rolled her eyes. "Because there are so many things I want to see." She said. "So many things I've never seen before lie within the walls of Konoha. Between paperwork and the exams, I haven't explored the village yet."

"Konoha is a beautiful place." Kimimaro agreed quietly. "I was surprised when I first came here too."

"It's...it is beautiful." She agreed. "Everything was so new and...and..." Sakura waved her arms. "So fragile. It was nothing like Kiri, where everything was brittle. Konoha...Konoha is breakable. Very breakable. And that's why the people here fight so hard to protect it. No matter how weak its core is, it won't break as long as no one gets their hands on it. Konoha is a fragile village with an impenetrable defense that comes in the form of loyal shinobi and the supportive civilians."

"And?" Kimimaro asked softly. He slowly sat up, allowing her to scramble away. "What are you plans for our clan, toushu?"

Sakura turned to him. "A defense will only be as good as its shields." She said. "And what better defenses exist but ours?"

"You're just shy, aren't you?" Sasuke blurted out of the blue.

After Kimimaro had let them go under the guise of them escaping, the Uchiha had promised to bring her to the Hokage monument, and the two of them were slowly making their way over.

Sakura froze mid step and turned to him, exasperation clear in her eyes. "Huh?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Just saying." He hesitated. "You didn't want to admit you care about Konoha."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "What made you think that?" She asked.

"I don't know, really. It was just a thought."

The two of them continued walking in silence before Sakura broke it with a sharp sigh.

"Okay, fine, I was."

Sasuke turned to her, eyes curious. He didn't speak, but his stare expressed his curiosity.

"Before the whole Kiri-Kaguya mess and before Haku and Zabuza-san found me, I was shy." She glanced away. "Or more like, I was a coward. Of course, I was a kid who barely able to grip a kunai properly, thrust out into a world where everyone was out to get me because of my blood."

Sasuke opened his mouth but Sakura raised her hand, stopping him from saying anything.

"It was Zabuza-san and Haku that taught me that only those in power were allowed to look down on others. Only if I were strong would I be allowed to look down at my pathetic opponents. Only the strong were given the right to make choices on the battlefield." She smiled softly. "I wanted the choices I wasn't given when my clan was wiped out. I wanted them so bad."

"So you became strong, in order to earn back the freedom you had lost." Sasuke murmured.

Sakura shrugged. "I think it was something like that." She said. "Being with them allowed me to enjoy the blood I had cursed more than once."

"The blood thirst of the Kaguya." Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded. "They let me think I was normal. Because I was surrounded by those who weren't but acted like they were, I was able to think I was as well."

"And we broke that illusion when we fought, over the bridge."

"You didn't fight." Sakura snorted and nudged him, hard. "If Haku had been even a little less kind, he would have shredded you."

Sasuke nodded. "I know. He was...kind."

"He didn't deserve the end he did." Sakura said firmly. Sasuke once again was interrupted when he tried to speak. "No, I'm not trying to imply anything. Haku simply deserved better. Unlike Zabuza-san and I, Haku never enjoyed it. He forced himself to, though, so that he could stay with us. I think Zabuza-san knew that too."

Sasuke kept quiet.

Sakura snorted. "So yes, where was I?" She blinked. "Right. I wasn't shy about admitting I liked Konoha." She said. "Like I said, I'm a coward. I know there's more to a clan and a village that housing and land. The Kaguya were wiped out of Kiri for turning against it. Everyone was killed. Kiri might demand our return, either as shinobi force or as prisoners for execution." She sighed again. "Kimimaro had been living here quietly by himself, until I stormed in and ruined it. Kirigakure knows that not one, but two of the Kaguya are alive and that Konoha is housing them. To Kiri, we are criminals."

"Being scared doesn't make you a coward. The line between 'scared' and 'coward' is if you can move past that fear or not." Sasuke said softly. "And Hokage-sama will never hand you over." He smirked, trying to brighten the mood. "Not with Naruto so attached to you."

Sakura snorted.

"You are one of the bravest people I know." He insisted. "Being scared and being brave can go hand in hand, but being brave doesn't allow you to be a coward."

Sakura eyed him for a second longer before she let out another snort. "What're you getting all emotional for?"

"That was you." Sasuke shot back without a second pause.

Sakura smirked at him and Sasuke decided that he did not want to hear whatever Sakura said next, because he was sure it would make him say something sappy and out of character and he would regret it later. "We're here." He said, a little forcefully.

Sakura raised an eyebrow but did not comment on his attempt to change the topic., She decided to amuse him and turned towards where Sasuke had been looking. "Oh...Oh!" She darted toward, eyes widening with each step. "Wow...This is..."

"Pretty cool, huh?" Sasuke glanced over at the girl before he too fixed his gaze onto the village, full of life, spreading out below them. In the distance, they could see the walls of the village and if he squinted, he could make out the individual shapes of the civilians and the shinobi alike, minding their own business.

"In Kiri, you could barely see a few feet in front of you." Sakura said, a little breathless. "This is...You can see the whole village."

Sasuke nodded. "This is what Konoha shinobi are trying to protect." He said. "This scenery. The buildings and the people are all a part of it." He took a deep breath and turned towards Sakura, prompting her to look at him as well. "You're a part of it too, now." He said quietly.

Sakura's eyes widened just a little and for a second, all she could hear were Sasuke's breathing and the soft hush of the wind tickling her ears.

"This is the path you're going to walk from now on." Haku whispers. "I'm sure you won't regret it. It's your first ever self made decision, after all." He laughs. "You always followed me around. You followed my suggestions when shopping for equipment and even in restaurants, ordered the same thing I did. Look at you, you've grown up so much."

"It's only been a few months." She whispered.

Sakura felt those comforting arms wrap around her again, this time unlike the time during the exams, not the ones that had nearly pushed her over the edge with guilt. These arms brought acceptance.

"It feels like a very long time." Haku insisted. "Or maybe you just grew up too fast."

"I was just behind." Sakura said. "I was naive and so stupid back then."

"I didn't mean it that way." Haku chided softly. "You've gotten bigger, that's all."

Sakura heard Sasuke's voice in the corner of her mind and Haku seemed to too.

"Oh, looks like I have to go soon." He said.

Sakura flinched and pouted a little.

Haku let out another soft laugh. "Or maybe you haven't changed at all." He said.

An invisible hand grabbed hers and Sakura griped it, afraid to let go.

"You have nothing to be afraid of." He told her. "It'll be different for you this time. You'll get to taste the childhood you lost and the freedom you didn't know existed. You'll be free to go whatever you want to and you won't be bound down onto the tracks of fate Zabuza-san and I seem to have stepped away from at some point." He hummed softly. "You'll be free to see this beautiful world for the first time with your own eyes."

"Even though it steals and kills and destroys without an end?" She asked.

"Just like it gives and creates and brings to life." Haku said.

Sakura sighed. "I'll give in this once." She said stubbornly, and Haku laughed again.

"I'll keep that in mind, then."

Sakura opened her eyes and just for a second, she saw a glimpse of silky black hair. She rapidly blinked and it was gone. In its place was Sasuke, standing right in front of her, eyes full of worry.

"You okay?" He asked.

Sakura blinked. "You're unnatural act of concern surprised me, that's all." She said.

Sasuke scoffed but did not comment. "What were you thinking?" He asked quietly, and Sakura had a feeling the boy in front of her knew.

"Who knows?" Sakura shrugged. "Just where to go from now on."

Sasuke huffed. "Why don't we start by heading home?" He asked. "Everyone's worried about us. About you."

Sakura registered that by 'home', Sasuke meant the Uchiha compound.

Home, her home, their home.

Sakura smiled. "Why not?"

The two of them began making their way down the mountain and Sakura did not look back, not even when those ghostly, calming hands brushed her cheek.

Toushu - Head (As in head of clan and stuff)

So...It's a little longer...okay, at least twice as long as our usual chapters...but...

THIS.

IS.

IT!

Our second ever completed story is complete! (Wow, that mouthful.)

Thank you so much for following and keeping up with this story all this time.

Really, this thing became much longer than what we had originally planned. There was just so much we wanted to include and more things came to mind and...yeah...Truth be told, there was a moment of weakness where we thought 'maybe we should make this thirty chapters...maybe no one will notice...heh heh heh...' but we someone how managed to keep ourselves together.

We first started writing this in 2014 and it's been such a long time...or so it feels. There was a time we kinda drifted away from it but it was you loyal readers that convinced us to finish it and we're really proud of it.

We will now be reading over the chapters to fix bits and pieces, though nothing major with be altered, since if we begin that, it we will never be able to finish this story.

This will probably not get a sequel, though since we adore Kimimaro, we'll probably have more Kimimaro related stuff in the future. (If you like things like that, check out Ivy). (That shameless advertising, though)

Once again, thank you for your support and we hope you continue to do so in the future.

We have a couple of other stories out, so please do check them out if you haven't done so yet~

Read and Review~