empathy (rewritten 2019)

chapter six

During the weekend Sakura waited in the park by the Academy, a basket of her own in hand. Keiko approached minutes later as the sun rose to the highest peak.

As Keiko sat down on the bench next to her, Sakura reached in the basket and offered a baked cookie. "Let me explain," Keiko said taking the gift. She wore a regular shirt today, letting the scars on her arms breathe.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Sakura was gentle this time, taking note of the scars and their telling. "I was being so rude, I was just angry you left me."

"And I'm sorry too for leaving," Keiko said. "But I couldn't let that man take me in and take you too."

"You're not from Konoha, are you?" Sakura asked.

"No, I'm not. I lived in a smaller village away from here." She began. "My family led the village. We were normal. And I couldn't think of any reason anyone would try to destroy us--but a group of scavengers attacked. They burned the village to the ground, all the crops and schools and houses. And I was a genin at the time but I, I don't know, didn't know what to do. I was the only survivor because my mother locked me out of the village, telling me to run and to never turn back, and she closed the gates so I couldn't get back in."

"My god." Sakura whispered, watching Keiko's hands tighten into shaking fists. Keiko was so young, Sakura reminded herself. Just a few years older than me. What kind of god puts her through this?

"And I came here to ask the Hokage for help, but I've been on the run for a while. Half a year, really. I've been meaning to talk to him but I can't get past the door to his office. That day your instructor saw me--he reported me, and I got caught by the Anbu, and they interrogated me. That's why I was gone." Keiko said. Some scars on her skin, Sakura saw, were recent and still pink. "When I met the Hokage, I was grateful he offered me a permanent place to stay. He said he'd send a team to visit my village, see what state it's in."

"And? Is your family alive?"

Keiko looked down and swallowed. "Well, I've been here a long while. No doubt, they'd be dead," she said and it hurt Sakura to see the hope fall from her face. "If I had just stayed, maybe I could--oh, what am I thinking, what could I have done?"

"You did all you could do," Sakura said, holding her still by the shoulder. "You went for help. I think that's the best thing you could've done."

"God, I hope they're okay," she pressed her locked fingers against her lips and sighed.

Sakura stared and looked away. "I'm sorry. I've been so rude all this time and now I realize it."

"What do you mean?"

"I always thought I've had a rough life," she scoffed at herself, crumpling her dress by the folds. "My parents fight when I'm not home and my mother regrets leaving the kunoichi force. And everyone bullies me at school and the boy I like barely notices me. But I'm nothing like you. I'm lucky to even have my family with me. And to live here, compared to you."

Keiko hummed. "I can see that. I'm glad you can see that too." She nudged the pinkette in the shoulder. "I think I'm gonna stick around a while longer. Do you want me to keep walking you home?"

"Yes, of course." And then Sakura thought about the Academy. Her test scores. The upcoming final exam. The boy who couldn't even spare her a glance and the olden dream she had ages before him--locked in the depths of her mind, a whispering forgotten secret as it laid for the past years. "Actually, can we start hanging out on the weekends more often?"

"Why's that?" And she looked at the scars lining Keiko's arms, the kunai pouch wrapped to her side, the calloused fingers. Something about Keiko's strength made her remember her own--and that kunoichi who stalked down the street, swift and strong and the pride of the village. Sakura remembered.

And so she smiled at Keiko. "I want you to train me."