Island of Storms [Sakura]

Chapter 6 | Small

Sakura watched as the newly renamed boy went off to meet with the others. He really was strong. They all were. They didn't even blink when they learned Konoha had abandoned them. Sakura frowned as she thought about how they must have been feeling on the inside. She had been the same way, visually unaffected. She had gone out on a walk the night before, after everyone had woken up. The full realization hit her like a brick wall and she fell apart. Kakashi had found her and stayed with her until she was calm enough to return to the house.

Sakura gave a grateful smile to the woman next to her.

"Thank you..."

"It's no problem at all. I'm very happy someone considers me their grandmother... Will you be staying?" she asked quietly. Sakura had described some of the less secretive parts of her story to the woman when they had been designing her clothes.

"No, it's too dangerous," the younger woman sighed. "This area is nice, I'd like to find a place that isn't far from here, but it's so close to the Land of Fire..."

She took a seat in the chair Kosai had been sitting in. Iro began to sort her pencils as she returned them to their box.

"Yes, that is a problem, isn't it...?" They sat in silence for a few moments before the woman spoke again. "I have a question for you."

"Hm?"

"Well," she finished up sorting her pencils and closed the container, "have you heard of Arashigakure?"

Sakura thought for a moment before frowning in confusion.

"No. Is it a town?"

"Well, it used to be a thriving hidden village," she started, picking up a regular pencil and beginning to write down notes around the sketches. "But a powerful shinobi flooded the island it resided on, forcing all of its citizens off. After they were pushed off the coast, the shinobi cast a jutsu that would forever protect the island from those unworthy of the land. Everyone around here brushes it off as an old story. Bah!"

The old woman roughly placed the pencil back on the table and Sakura held back a smile. "My great-grandfather was a citizen of that island, he told my grandfather and mother about it. He believed that the shinobi saw how hateful the village was; being just as bad as the Bloody Mist! He decided to free the land that had once been a haven for the unwanted. I'd bet my left leg that would be a place you could keep away from those chasing you."

"So, it's an island that's turned into a legend?" Sakura asked.

"Few have even heard the legend, to be entirely transparent."

"How?"

"I'm not quite sure," the old woman hummed. "The people who used to live there spread out quite a bit, like my family who ended up on the southern coast of the Fire Country. I suppose people didn't talk about it much. And it's not as if there was some great treasure to keep people looking for it."

"All right, it sounds like it might work, but we don't know where it is," the pink-haired woman pointed out.

"Of course I do, I'll show you after I have finished your garments."

"Wait, you actually know where it is?"

"Of course! It's not that far."

"Not that far? What?"

"Sakura."

Said woman jumped slightly in her seat and turned to Sai, giving him a somewhat hurt look.

"You scared me!"

"But shouldn't you be looking for chakra signatures?" he asked, his tone holding underlying amusement.

"Not yours!"