Hoshigaki

Honor

When Kisame entered his office alone after weeks out of Ame, Pein could feel the shift in the air as his subordinate quietly stood in front of the desk. Dark circles wound around his half-lidded eyes as his gaze stayed everywhere else but the rings of his leader's eyes.

"Report."

"I was intercepted by a team of Konoha shinobi in Fire Country," he informed. "Three of them attacked me head on and I managed to kill two while the leader ordered someone who stayed behind to—" he drew in a deep breath—"detonate a warehouse they planned to trap me in. They failed and the remaining shinobi presumably retreated."

He looked defeated. Pein pondered the change for a brief moment then laced his fingers atop his lap and leaned back against his seat. "And Sakura?"

Kisame stayed silent with his eyes trained downwards and lips pressed into a grim line. He said nothing more—he didn't need to—as his oral report was taken and was dismissed from the office. He hadn't made it three meters down the hallway when Konan passed him by and greeted him with the barest of nods.

"Kisame-san," she acknowledged. "I take it you and Sakura have just returned?"

He avoided her stare, keeping his gaze straight ahead in a manner wholly unlike him. 

"Yeah, I made it back," he said. At her further inquiring gaze, he sighed and moved his eyes up to meet her own—hazel and cold, the way they've always been. "I'm the only one who made it back."

Konan didn't stiffen, nor did she make any inclination that the words affected her. She merely nodded once in understanding. "I see. My condolences, Kisame-san."

"... Thanks."

She continued on her way and he kept walking the other, a red ribbon burning a hole in his pocket and silence reigning heavy on his shoulders the whole road towards his empty home.

::

His name was Yamashiro Aoba and he said that she would be safe in Konohagakure. He also said nothing bad was going to happen her, that her kidnapper was gone, and that she was going to stay at an orphanage headed by an extremely kind matron until she was going to get adopted into a nice family.

Aoba told her all of this in assurance—but as much as the good intention was there, Sakura couldn't help but bear the crushing thought that she'd never see her Papa again.

"I'm positive you'll love Konoha," he said. He carried her on his back as he jumped through the treeline, the other only surviving member of the team far ahead to scout. "It's always sunny there with barely any rain. You said you were from Ame, right? I know this might be a big change for you, but I think you'll be just fine."

Always sunny. Papa promised he'd take her to a sunny place one day, and it felt wrong to go to a place like that without him there too.

"Papa was a shinobi," she murmured. "I want to be like him."

"Oh! We have a great Academy in Konoha and, er, how old are you, Sakura?"

"Seven."

"Seven," Aoba repeated. "Well, that's one year later than normal, but I'm sure you can get tested in to transfer into your year if you know enough. Have you been taught some things related to the shinobi arts?"

Sakura ducked her head. "Yes."

"Maybe you'll even be a little advanced. The matron shouldn't mind you joining the Academy either, because I do know of some of those kids who attend classes. There's also—"

She let him trail off into explanations and the circumstances surrounding her arrival, but all she could think about was her Papa and the Akatsuki and everything they'd told her. After Leader-sama gave her all those tests, he said she was smarter than a lot of the other kids her age and that she should use that to her advantage. And Papa said he already knew she was smart before all that and told her that even if it was good to know a lot of things, it was better to keep it hidden.

It was always better to be underestimated than overestimated—better to keep an ace up her sleeve than for her enemy to know what she was really capable of.

So if she took that and put it with this Academy... then...

Then she shouldn't do her best like she did with Leader-sama's tests, right? So they wouldn't find out what she really did know and wouldn't expect a lot from her.

"—Sakura?"

She blinked and moved her attention back to him. "Huh?"

"I asked if you were tired and wanted to take a break. Konoha's only a few more hours away, but if you want to stop for a bit, that's okay."

"We don't have to," she replied as she shook her head. "I'm not tired."

Aoba gave her a small smile and continued to shoot off through the trees. 

He wasn't a bad guy, Sakura noted as she quietly analyzed him from her spot against his back. Papa always told her that Konoha shinobi might be strong, but they were always going to be the weakest of heart when it came to emotionally driven situations. Not everyone was like that, but if she had to ever appeal to someone's better nature, it was always a good idea to do it in front of a Konoha shinobi.

Sakura looked up at the trees and the way they passed her by. They were so green and light, unlike the damp, dark ones scarcely spotted around Amegakure. These trees were ones that basked in the sun and grew big and strong for all the world to see.

Resolved, she shut her eyes and made a promise to herself as the wind blew against her cheeks. Once she was able to hold the world on her shoulders, she was going to see him again and show them—show everyone—that Hoshigaki Sakura wasn't meant to die like they thought she would.

She was going to be a strong shinobi, just like her Papa.

And no one was going to stop her.

::

Pein tapped his fingers against his desk. Once again, an unprecedented incident had changed his plans and came to cause a minor setback in his operations.

Hoshigaki Sakura was dead.

Unfortunate, considering he was already planning so much for her in the future. She was to be granted the vermilion ring and a place on the right ring finger on the Sealing Statue as a shinobi with a prowess for genjutsu and intelligence with maybe a touch of swordsmanship as well to match her father, but he expected her to be more intellectually inclined than others.

Now, he was led to find another candidate to fill her place.

It made him wonder who could possibly fit the slot Sakura left behind.