Shinobi (Sequel to Otokage)

I Don't Remember Anymore.

The two of them sat in Bubble's Mochi, Ino in an uncomfortable silence and the other looking like there was nothing bothering her. Sakura bit into her mango mochi with her back straightened like that of a higher rank.

"Sakura...sama--"

"Sakura is just fine when it's the both of us." the Otokage said. She took another bite, "As you were saying, Ino?"

Ino drew in a deep breath as she willed herself to look her old friend straight in the eye. Those green irises seemed unrecognizable, being thoroughly saturated with years upon years of being a shinobi. She'd only seen a look like that in veteran shinobi hardened by battle and the sight of many, many deaths.

"I'm slowly seeing why you did this, but after seeing you like this... Seeing you as the leader of this village... Sakura, what happened to you? What... You're not as loud and it's like you've lost the ability to get upset!" she exclaimed. Sakura observed how her face tinged pink with exasperation. She then took a sip of her hojicha tea.

"Maybe it's because we grew up in such a nice village. The first Kage we knew was a kind old man and everyone could've been the nicest person in the whole world, only if you weren't Naruto, sadly enough. Konoha shinobi thrived on positive emotions and it wasn't any different for us. After leaving, I saw that the other villages certainly weren't like us. We're too nice and merciful. But since coming here, I think I've lost some of that."

Sakura plucked another mango mochi from the plate in front of her.

"Six years passed and I had done more than I'd ever imagined. It didn't strike until I experienced what being a shinobi meant by it carving into my bones. Literally."

The memory of her and Kabuto being captured and tortured for two weeks rang through her mind. She was twenty-one years old when it happened, the worst of her wounds leaving her torso and thighs horribly scarred and put Kabuto in physical therapy for the better of three months. They escaped when she head-butted an assaulter, fracturing her skull in the process, and self-dislocating her shoulder to wriggle herself out of the bindings.

It was also in that moment she felt something in her head snap. But she didn't know what it was.

She quickly disregarded both that thought and Ino's surprised stare.

"What I'm getting at is that I've grown out of Konoha's ideals. Shinobi aren't good people, Ino, no matter what everyone might say. We take things. We gather information. We kill people." Sakura said, a small but cruel smile reaching her lips, but not her eyes, "The latter one, especially. How many people do you think have died by my hands?"

Ino clenched her fists.

"... How many?"

"I don't remember anymore."

A shiver ran down the blonde's spine.

"I don't remember how many people I've buried. I don't remember how many lives were lost because of me. I don't know how many families I've destroyed. But do you know what I do remember? I remember the looks on their faces when I cut them down. When I murder them. When I take away everything they ever had."

Ino couldn't move her eyes away. She had killed before, yes, but only in the worst of circumstances and she could list the names of those people and count them off on her fingers. Green eyes had shadowed, giving off an unforgiving and unregretful air. Truthfully? The person sitting across from her frightened her out of her wits. This wasn't Sakura. It couldn't be. Whoever this is was... was...

"When you kill these people, their blood stains your hands. You wonder why you can't get it off-- why not even bleach can wash the color away. It's a contradiction. I'm a medic, but I have to kill. It really changes someone, you know?"

The shadow abruptly disappeared from her stare and the air around them returned to normal. Sakura took the last mochi from her plate.

"Does that answer your question?" she asked. Ino was silent for a long while before her lips curled up in anger.

"You... You stupid forehead."

::

Shikamaru sighed as he entered a convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes. He was content with his team in terms of them not doing anything impulsive. Ino was the one he expected to act out from the four of them, but he was certain that she'd mellow down because Sakura was here. Now there was going to be a fight outside the village at her personal training grounds tomorrow at three. It was an out of the blue type of demand that he didn't expect her to take him up on. He slid into the junk food section. He was already here, he might as well take a snack too.

In the middle of deciding what chips to get, he heard a voice snarl from the aisle beside him.

"You're seriously getting rainbow goldfish, hm? You're not five. I think you can be a big kid and get the regular kind, un."

"But I like the green ones!"

"... Where did I go wrong with you, un?"

A relatively tall man turned into the aisle with a chipper smile on his face and his eyes seeking out those goldfish snacks. Shikamaru recognized him as the diplomat who stayed in Konoha for the duration o the Exchange Program. Tobi, if he recalled correctly. As he took a bag of goldfish from the shelf and turned, he caught Shikamaru's eye.

"Hey, you're Nara-san, right?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"Yeah. Tobi-san?"

They shook hands. Was he the one the council members talked about? The other one on the list of the dead who suddenly decided to make their appearance. The Uchiha.

"Are you here on a mission?" Tobi asked. Tobi did have some features that could pass for one of the clan's and did have a similarity to both Sasuke and Itachi. The scars threw him off, though.

"A small one."

"I see, I see."

He looked too kind to be a previous member of the Akatsuki.

"Oi, Tobi! How long does it take for you to get your goddamn rainbow, hm?!"

"Coming, senpai!"

He smiled at Shikamaru and excused himself to return to Deidara. Before he left, he mouthed a few words so subtly that the Nara had nearly missed it. But he sure as hell didn't miss the wide grin and the way his mismatched eyes flashed the same shade of blood red.

"Don't cause any trouble, okay?"