Queen of Air and Darkness

xv. what gives it its greatest fury

The castle was burning. Sakura's eyes welled with tears to ward off the harsh assault of the smoke. Heat pressed down on her from all sides, making seat prick at the base of her hairline and run down her back in rivulets. They could not remain in this position on the walls, exposed to witnesses that now streamed out of the great hall. Nor could they press forward. The flames blocked their path to the stables where Sakura had prepared two horses for their escape.

She needed to gather her thoughts, to put together a plan, to get them out of there, but every turn she imagined slipped out of her fingers like the sands of the Sunagakure desert. For her focus had split. In one direction was the desperate need to get off the walls, to get Tsunade and herself to safety. But, from the courtyard below came a different call to action. The Akatsuki were advancing, with the languid, casual grace of a predator stalking defenseless prey. They did not care that the knights of Konoha were readying to mount an attack, nor did they care that the castle burned around them. And Sakura knew they were right not to be concerned. Two had been enough to overwhelm the forces of Sunagakure— a land where sorcery flowed like river water, and its knights were fully trained in its use.

Here, where half the force had no such defense, and those that did had suppressed the abilities of their bloodlines, the Akatsuki would burn through them like the flames that tore a rampage through the castle. It would be a massacre.

A lone figure at the center of the courtyard caught her attention. As she registered her identity, the breath caught in her lungs. Kakashi, dressed in the dark uniform of the guard, his sword drawn, stood ready to face the attack. Sakura's knuckles went white where she clutched the stone side of the upper ramparts of the castle. He would die here, and he would do it for a realm that would never appreciate him for what he truly was.

The moment Sakura had spotted Tsunade in the dungeons, had seen the toll imprisonment had taken on her, Sakura knew she couldn't stay in Konoha. When she had first their horses, she had expected to get Tsunade to safety and then to return home. But when she saw the hollowed cheeks of her mentor, she knew Konoha could never truly be her home. Tsunade's grey, dull hair, and the new lines that framed her eyes and mouth had been enough to fill Sakura with fury. But worse was the knowledge that if she remained in Konoha, it would also be her own fate.

Konoha would make a knight of her, take whatever it could, and then imprison her for the sheer pleasure of it. It did not matter who sat on the throne. Konoha had not even done right by its own king. Instead of raising him with tutors and loving foster home, King Hiruzen had abandoned him to roam wild through the castle, the true nature of his father's life and death a secret from him. And now Naruto had claimed the throne, content to allow others to manage the kingdom.

But, here on the ramparts, Sakura knew that she had been twice a fool. First, for thinking she could ever walk away from this place. It was her home, her origin point, the core at the center of her. And she had a responsibility to it, even if it would forsake her.

Second, for tethering herself to Kakashi, as surely as she had tethered herself to the realm. He was so close, just below her where she hid on the ramparts. It was as though an invisible chain dragged her down, and her bones ached for the strength it took to stay away. But she could not go to him, could not defend him, or else risk all that she had planned to rescue Tsunade. Fear burned through her as hot as any fire as she watched him advance towards the Akatsuki. He would do his duty, he would die for duty, as surely as he had raced through the desert alone to rescue Gaara.

And though Konoha would turn its back on her, Kakashi never would.

She couldn't ask Tsunade to stay. "We have to get to the stables," Sakura said, her voice weak against the crackling thunder of the blaze.