Stream of past

This Court is Biased as Fuck

Sakura was meditating in the koi pond inside the Senju compound. The trial was tomorrow and the medic was trying to calm her nerves down. Since the day Danzo had died, she had been plagued with nightmares every night. Lady Katsuyu had suggested meditation and so here she was. Rather than sitting on top of the water, Sakura had chosen to let herself sink and let the cold ground her. The pond wasn't very deep so even with her sitting down, the water barely reached her chest. The koi fish swam around her, occasionally bumping into her arms. Something disturbed the water surface and she opened her eyes to see her favourite blonde menace.

"Heya, Sakura-chan. Whatcha doing?"

"Naruto? Wha- How are you here?"

"I snuck in, of course. Did you really think a few ANBU and Kaka-sensei could keep me away from you?" he crouched down so they could somewhat be at eye level. "What are you doing here?"

"Meditating, I...had quite a few nightmares recently and Lady Katsuyu thought it might help."

"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's alright, honestly after everything I've done, I des-"

"What the hell are you talking about? It's not your fault that Danzo kidnapped you!"

"Maybe, but...Naruto I killed so many innocent people. People who had families, loved ones. Good people who were trying to do their best for their country, dead by my hand because Danzo hated that he couldn't manipulate them. There is so much blood on my hands..."

"Sakura-chan..."

"You must be pretty disappointed in me, huh. You always saw the best in people and tried to help them out..."

Naruto took her hands. "Sakura-chan...I don't care how many people you killed."

"Wha-"

"You did what you had to in order to survive. I can't possibly blame you for that. Do you think Kaka-sensei is a bad person because of he was in the ANBU?" 

"No, of course not."

"Do you think Yamato-taichō is a bad person? Ah, shit I forgot you don't know him. Or maybe you do, he was part of ROOT too, and he might have killed a bunch of people, but I think he might have gotten away earlier, ugh."

Sakura laughed. "No I don't think this Yamato-taichō you speak of is a bad person."

Naruto grinned but sobered up quickly as he asked his next question. "If...if Sasuke had actually killed you that night, would you have hated him?"

"No, never. That wasn't his fault."

"Well, there you have it. If these three aren't bad people, then neither are you. You did what you had to to survive Sakura-chan. To come back to us." Naruto grinned. "And I will always be grateful to have you back."

A tear fell down Sakura's face and she pulled the blonde into a hug. "I missed you so, so much for those three years. I missed your laugh and your stupid pranks, I only ate ramen with tomatoes when I went out of the village because it reminded me of you and Sasuke, and every time I saw something bright orange I wanted to cry."

Naruto hugged her back. "I missed you too, Sakura-chan. I missed your hugs and the death threats you spewed at everyone that pissed you off, I missed being able to talk to you and make fun of Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei together. I...I'm really glad to have you back home."

They stayed embraced and cried together for what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes. Sakura eventually started shivering from the cold water, so they separated. Naruto stepped back and offered her his hand, pulling her up from the water and away from the shade into the warm sunlight.