Shattered Sun

Hot potato

Sakura wondered what changed. Sasuke seemed brighter but more focused. Naruto...became distant yet closer. It was strange. Kakashi seemed to know and so does Sasuke. Hell, even Tsunade knew! She was sure of this as the woman acted differently with Naruto; kinder, gentler. She never hit him when he called her 'Baa-chan' even though her temple twitched.

In fact, all of them acted gentler with Naruto. The few times she almost fall back to the habit of hitting Naruto, Sasuke was quick to intercept. Kakashi too kept reminding her to be nicer to Naruto. She didn't get it. But even so, she noticed how different Naruto had become.

He was calmer but there're times his hands started to shake. Kakashi was quick to notice and placed a calming, grounding hand on his shoulders. And whenever it happened when Kakashi was away or busy, Sasuke will sit beside him and talk to him about random things. He will also looked at her in a way that warned her to stay away until Naruto's shaking hands settled.

Tsunade behaved similarly. She will take notice of his shaking hands and started to do things that will distract him or put a hand on either his shoulder or sat beside him while humming a calming tune. Naruto will then calm down and smiled, replying to her.

So in her curiosity Sakura started investigating. She read up on the symptoms. She noticed how his hands will start to shake, how he sometimes reacted violently to suspicious noises and many more. She was left even more confused; why did Naruto have signs of severe PTSD?

Then the things Tsunade, Kakashi and Sasuke have been doing was to calm and ground him. They only touch him when only his hands was shaking. When he stiffened or frowned, they talked to him in a calming tone. They usually talked about what they did just a few minutes ago. They didn't exactly tell him his surrounding or the likes, they didn't point out anything but helped remind him that whatever it was that he was thinking, he wasn't there.

Sakura understood then why they always separate her from Naruto whenever he behaved oddly. Her first reaction was to hit him because that was the norm for her. But who knew how Naruto would react to such a violent treatment? Nothing good for sure and she wasn't sure she can handle his hit with how she kept having to heal Sasuke after every sparring session. Naruto hold back on her a lot and she was grateful because she needed to focus on evasion because as medic she can't afford getting hit.

But just the way the wind blew past her whenever she barely avoided him was enough to send chills down her back. She adopted Sasuke's speed training when faced with Naruto. He hit hard and whenever Sasuke failed, she had to heal broken bones and skins. Tsunade told her to practice her Iryojutsu with Sasuke but said nothing about Naruto. The boy heal fast anyway.

So ultimately Sakura learned not to get hit even though Naruto held back with her. Whenever he's about to hit her, he pulled his punches back unlike with Sasuke. She then was told to get faster.

But when she told this to Sasuke, he had frowned at her and told her, "Naruto hold back on me too,"

Naruto hold back less with Sasuke and that was enough to make it look like Sasuke had gone through the wringer. Sakura wondered just how the once blond managed that. Tsunade had been talking about teaching her the Byakugou no In as she showed promise in the medical field.

Sakura has also noticed how much busier the Shinobi of Konoha had become. Everyone seemed to be training harder. Ino had visited and complained how Asuma has started to run his team into the ground with his training worthy of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Ino wanted to complain but she have been growing in leaps and bounds so that was moot.

Tsunade has also been reviving the medical programs of Konoha. Now every team have at least one member that can be an impromptu medic until actual help arrived. Konoha was slowly changing from the inside and Sakura didn't know what to think about the changes. It felt like Konoha was preparing for something, something big.