Queen of Air and Darkness

iii. the essence of experience

The aftermath of the attack was chaos. Sakura had not seen the castle in this much a flurry...ever. She had, perhaps, been too young after Orochimaru's attack, too focused on her own personal tragedy. Now, as Tsunade's apprentice and a promising healer, she found herself in the center of the action.

The Akatsuki.

The name passed from mouth to mouth, a hushed intone of horror. Sakura could not identify where the name first came from, but she followed the rumors as they spread like wildfire.

They led her back to Naruto.

Perhaps it was not a surprise, he had spent the most time outside of the castle and thus had the freshest intel. What Sakura was not expecting was to find Naruto in the center of the throne room, surrounded by the other squires of Konoha. They had grown up together, gone through page training together, but no one had cared about Naruto then. He had been nothing but a scruffy orphan who had made it into the program by the skin of his teeth and absolute determination.

Now, it seemed she could not catch Naruto alone.

Naruto was in fine form, completely confident in his circle of supporters. If he shared Sakura's misgivings about their loyalty he did not show it. Instead, he seemed to be feeding off their energy, huffing orders and swinging a sword around.

"We need to muster a group to go after the attackers," he was saying, rallying them into action. Sakura's natural suspicion of Naruto's fitness to rule faded away slightly— she could not disagree with the need to capture the intruders.

"We've seen what they can do," Naruto continued. "On the border. They attack quickly and leave no survivors. We can't let that happen here!" He swung his sword a little extra for emphasis, growing more and more agitated with every word.

Good.

It had been four years since the day they were meant to first become squires. Four years of training and plotting and nothing else. At first, she had expected a party to go after Orochimaru, but in the weeks after Naruto left with Jiraiya Konoha seemed to relax. Only Sakura seemed to remember the attacks daily, even as the council paid lip service to the fallen king.

Tsunade, for all that Sakura respected her, had not been interested in pursuing her former brother in arms. After months of snipining on Sakura's part, Tsunade had finally confronted her and made her opinions very clear.

I will not risk good men for a petty grudge.

The rebuke still rang sharply in her ears, even as she steeled her shoulders and called out to catch Naruto's attention.

"Sakura!" Naruto raised a hand and yelled. "What happened to you!" He seemed as cheerful as ever, undeterred by both the attack and Sakura's insult the previous day.

Sakura looked down at her now dirty and torn dress.

"The same thing that happened to you!" She shouted back, gesturing at Naruto's own singed tunic. Naruto laughed, high on battle and popularity and action.

"Did you get 'em?" Naruto asked. Sakura joined the crowd of squires that had attached themself to Naruto. Most of them did not look like they had faced much more than a scuffle.

It struck Sakura as odd, not to see even the lightest wounds amongst her peers. The second thought hit her that she should be relieved that no one was injured, that death had spared the other squires of her year.

Knights would be badly needed in Konoha soon and they could not afford to lose any of their future.

"He got away," Sakura said, grimacing for effect. "Kakashi and I fought one but he escaped into the moat. Yours?"