on still water

by: whisperedsilvers

prompt: "for you."

summary: and sometimes, there are days without rain. —sakura/shisui

note: uhm, I had like three stories stuck in my head and this is the one that came out first?

note2: non-mass — fixed timeline.

note3: to be or not to be m?

the taste of war

.

.

.

It smells like amber. Burning amber, darkening into a charred piece of flint and smoky like black plumes. The taste of fire — if anything — is always increasingly difficult to explain, it's sometimes too much, overwhelming sparks of heat and the nearly heart-stopping stutters of dry air. It's like choking on something too great or too little to swallow.

"You okay?" Ino asked, her blue eyes tinged with something a little more than knowing, almost as if she were waiting for a specific answer.

Sakura blinked, clearing her throat she replied, "Yeah."

It was nearing five in the afternoon, with the sun settling gold over her wooden desk, the wind curling over her like a living thing, but disappearing altogether when she touched her shoulder self-consciously. Nine to fives were a blessing in disguise, it was slow in the hospital — surprisingly, but Kakashi had explained prior to his mission in Tea that things were always slow during peacetime.

But she had gotten a taste of war during the Chunin exam. Orochimaru's defection, the death of the third Hokage and the faded memories of the Forest of Death were enough to have her tighten her grip on training, because she just didn't really understand. Even at twenty, as head medic of the hospital, her instincts – perhaps her paranoia – there was always something.

Something.

Intuition, she and Tsunade both believed, was an important skill to have as a shinobi. While they, mere humans could not predict the future – no matter what forbidden jutsu Sasuke waved in her face – there was something. Maybe it was because she was a child, maybe because she saw things she wasn't meant to see or maybe, because she finally grew up— there was never any real closure.

She may have been in peacetime now, but it was only a matter of time before something happens.

"Actually," Sakura started, she closed her manila folder and stood up, "I'm kind of hungry. Wanna grab some dinner?"

Ino flickered her eyes over to the clock, she wrinkled her nose, "It's kind of early."

"We can take our time then," Sakura curled her lips up, "We can go to that new dumpling shop around the corner."

Blue eyes glittered, "Mimi's? Finally, I've been dying to go to that place!"

"Of course, pig."

Unfortunately, dinner never came. Ino had been called to T&I and Sakura took her time walking to Ichiraku.

"—don't know what you're talking about! Wind chakra is totally better than fire," Naruto's voice sounded congested, probably stuffed with noodles and whatever pork he managed to shove into his mouth, "It's practically rare and the most—"

"You know," Sakura started, she pushed the banner over her head and walked towards the counter, "I can hear you five shops down right?"

Sasuke snorted.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto smiled with teeth, "I thought you were in the hospital?"

"Eh, it's pretty slow since the chunin exams," Sakura wrinkled her nose, she supposed she should be grateful, fewer injuries means a higher mortality rate for shinobi, but it was almost stagnant if she thought about it. Did it make her a bad person to think of things like this? She pressed her lips together and ordered the festive gyoza.

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yeah," she said.

Sasuke stared at her.

Their dynamic as a team was always a power-play between, who had a better, much more deadly jutsu or who was faster or whose aim was more accurate, but amongst themselves, it was always a matter of how much more. It was harder for her more than ever, now that they were competing for ANBU exams, despite her being a medic – she was beginning to resent the title – she didn't possess any skills noteworthy enough to be even considered ANBU material.

Sakura's family was not from a clan nor did she have any special bloodline ability or anything for that matter. Her parents are first generation shinobi, though they didn't get very far in their career, they were content with being just that—they didn't, couldn't understand their daughter's desire for more.

They couldn't.

Chakra control, monstrous strength, and her medical ninjutsu were enough to get her a Jounin position, but it wasn't enough to cut it for ANBU. Despite the lack of medics, that were in the ranks, they wouldn't accept candidates that were anything less than ideal to join their ranks. Medical ninja in the force and medical ninja in ANBU had a different set of protocol, or so she heard.

Sakura's lips thinned as she chomped on her last piece of gyoza.

"—ra-chan. Are you listening?" Naruto's voice was kind of loud, but it was the poke of his chopsticks against her shoulder bone that knocked her out of her stupor.

"What?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Kakashi said that we should meet for training tomorrow."

She raised a brow, "What do you mean by we?"

The blonde frowned, "Like, all of us?"

Sakura had grown resentful over the years, sure it was dark and creeping like shadows over the mountains, but it was tight and constrained in the deepest parts of her, she relaxed her spine and tried to distract herself, "Isn't he on a mission?"

"He should be back by tonight," Naruto said, leaning back into the stool he explained, "He said it was a simple recon mission. Shouldn't take too long."

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed.

Recon?

Tsunade hadn't told her about any chatter that she picked up or perhaps she was just being paranoid, but recon missions – according to the objective scrolls in the office – were typically created to keep new information in and remove the remaining threat.

But they were in peacetime.

"Same place, then?"

Sasuke nodded.

Just as Sakura finished her tea, an explosion reverberated throughout the village—she stiffened and then the three of them moved. Leaping onto the roof, the three of them watched rubble and dust erupt from the Hokage mountain.

"Are they insane?" Naruto hissed, half in outrage and the other half in disbelief, "Who bombs the Hokage mountain?"

Sasuke's eyes bled red, he stated, "These aren't Leaf shinobi—they're masking their presence with a genjutsu. It's some type of white cloak."

"Their presence? Not their chakra?"

Sasuke nodded.

"We have to wait for orders," Sakura reminded them, as much as her fingers itched to run over, she knew her top priority was the hospital, "Masking your presence is a forbidden technique. Remember that mission we had in Rain?"

Naruto snapped her gaze towards her, "Sakura-chan we need to—"

"Naruto," Sakura tried to reason with him, but her voice was harsh, "If you want to apply for ANBU you have to follow protocol and that means letting ANBU handle it until we get further instructions."

Sasuke's lips thinned as Naruto's chakra fluctuated.

With Tsunade's face sliding off the mountain, onto the forest floor, the earth shaking beneath her feet and shinobi of all ages appearing on the rooftops beside her, her mouth moved before her brain could catch up, "This was an act of war."

.

.

.

footnote: my tumblr is located in my bio –

footnote2: um srsly idk where I'm going with this, but I need some Shisui in my life.

footnote3: please leave a review on your way out.