Fiat justitia, ruatcaelum

Friends like these

The light of dawn settled gently over Konoha, though it was afternoon when the warm daylight washed over the pink haired girl as she slept.
First she moaned and let one foot slip free. The light ran up, caressing her face and Sakura awoke.
She rubbed her eyes and stretched out.
Her eyes snapped wide and she sat up, her gaze darting around the room. Her shock faded as she remembered where she was.
The master bedroom was as crypt-like as it had been the night before. Except for the delicate tickle of spring flowers. They dispelled the aura of unease greatly, but it lingered. Like the scent of burned toast, even on thanksgiving day.
Sakura scanned the room carefully. She hadn’t been moved. The chair was heavy and still in place.
*Even if I slept like the dead, they hadn’t tried very hard…*
She stepped off of the chair and went to the window.
A distance away, she could see the traffic of the day beyond the wall.
She set down the robe once more and checked the pitcher. It was dry as desert bones.
Though the basin was still full. Sakura dipped her fingers in the water and recoiled.
She held her hands to her chest, staring at the vanity in disbelief.
*Warm, still?* She knelt down, looking under the table for some sort of heat source. *Why is it warmer than last night? How?*
Nothing was hidden beneath the table. Sakura lifted the basin. Nothing beneath it, either.
But laid into the ceramic were silver kanji, set in a ring around a ruby red and ivory white Uchiha fan.
“As the sun rises, so do the waters of the rising. Fresh, warm, awake, refresh.”
Sakura sighed. Just imbued items. No ghosts… Guilt welled up in her.
*The place is abandoned… These things belong to no one. And if they did, someone would have come through by now…right…?*
A hand towel hung to the right. Jet black with the fan embroidered upon it with unrivaled pride.
Chewing her lip, Sakura gave herself a sponge bath. The soot was hard to scrub away, but came off eventually.
Clean, she padded over to the bed. The clothes that had been laid out were a little old fashioned. The style was a plain dress suit.
*It’ll probably fit alright… But no crest?*
She began to dress and found that the suit fit quite well. The belt held the Uchiha crest as a small, silver belt buckle. *Should have known…*
She reached down for the over coat and her foot tipped something just under the sway of the bed covers.
The toes of a pair of conservative shoes peered out at her.
Sakura sat and pulled the shoes into view. The left held a pendant and wedged under the slight weight, a slip of paper.
Sakura pulled the page loose and unfolded it. A woman’s handwriting, small and neat;
*Return borrowed scrolls
Have sword serviced
Find flowers for…*
Sakura’s hand popped open and she could only stare at herself. At the suit.
Conservative to an extreme. Plain black and the crest appeared only once. As a modest belt buckle.
The obsessive care the next morning had been laid out with.
The name on the page still drifted before her mind’s eye. *Obito.*
“A funeral…” The weight of what had been piled upon Sakura as if she were the bottom stone in a landslide. *She hadn’t made it to that funeral…*
Sakura flew from the bed to the door, ripping it open.
She leapt the stairs and was in the courtyard before she stopped.
“What the hell am I doing?”
*Running around like some scared, superstitious idiot!*
Sakura growled at the inner voice, though she had to admit that she was right.
*I can’t do anything until I know something… And whatever that something is, I can’t do it in pilfered pajamas!*
“So I do it in the clothes of the dead?!”
*Like they’re going to be missed!* Her inner self would have slapped her in the face, *Looters have pirated everything else without so much as a by-your-leave!*
“So how do you ask a dead woman if she minds your borrowing of her wardrobe?”
Something fell and knocked Sakura on the head, a half second later, a soft thump sounded near her bare feet.
Sakura looked up, then down. The object had been a fruit. And more floated heavily on the branches of the tree above her.
She looked around harder. In the night, she hadn’t seen the trees. Their long branches reaching over the fountain, overgrown and untended.
Sasuke had said something offhand, so long ago now, that these trees had once bore a unique fruit. But that they were dead and the fruit lost.
Sakura bent down and picked up the fruit. It was light. And fuzzy, like an apricot. Colored red across the top that faded quickly into a natural white. A short tail dangled from the base of the fruit. The edible imitation of the Uchiha crest.
“How vain can a clan get?”
Her hands slapped over Sakura’s mouth, the fruit falling to the ground again. *I said that aloud!*
She waited for an otherworldly power to smite her. And when it didn’t, she silently gathered several fruits and carted them back inside.
From the kitchen, she gathered a broken and rusted knife and a fragment of serving dish, the Uchiha crest still present on the bowl.
It would do.
Sakura found the library door to the outside and stumbled into the garden. It, too, was in dire need of attention, but the flowers had bloomed beautifully.
A short bit of work, and she combined sliced fruit and flowers on the bowl into an offering for the spirits of the Uchiha. The fruit had been thinly sliced and decorated with flower petals.
*Acceptable, anyway…*
She carried it back upstairs, stepping over the chasm in the middle, and set her offering on the vanity beside the water basin.
She knelt, head bowed, “To whomever can hear me; I beg forgiveness for my trespass and for the aid I have taken in ignorance.” She took another breath, “I offer to avenge this clan, spirits that have yet to pass on, in exchange for the use of your things left in the land of the living. I pay my humble respects and ask finally for your blessing in the task I have undertaken.”
She rested her hands on her thighs and straightened up, eyes closed as she observed a moment of silence.
*On the offhand chance they have anything to add…*
The slow, rhythmic pop of clapping hands cut the air like a metronome. “Very moving.” Sakura sprung to her feet. Neji stood in the doorway, patting the palm of one hand with the fingers of the other, “I actually felt that one.”
He approached casually, casting his eyes over the room and examining the offering on the makeshift alter.
“I nearly thought you were sincere for a long moment.” He nudged the edge of the broken bowl. “Nice touch there.”
A subtle movement drew Sakura’s eye. Hinata had leaned against the door jamb, slowly chewing. Half of one tennis ball sized fruit in her hand.
Neji settled into the vanity chair. “I was quite curious as to who was hiding under that illusion. It was quite good, Stranger. Nearly perfect. Had your henge been a woman, I might have missed the ruse entirely.”
Sakura stepped back. “Hyuuga Neji.”
He nodded, “I see I am recognized. The young lady in the corner would be my faithful comrade, Hinata.”
Sakura sighed. *Of all the people…* “I’ll pay you back for the other day. I’m really sorry…”
Neji held up one hand, “What’s pocket change between friends? I’m not concerned with noodles. I do care about your name, however. As, you see, we are sitting in the last sanctum of the Uchiha.”
He pushed himself out of the seat and moved to the window, “And it is said that only an Uchiha could open the door.” He turned, leaning against the wall, “And unless I am mistaken, I am the second to have entered this room that was not an Uchiha.”
Sakura was aware of her clothing now more than ever. “ Uchiha Sasuke once brought me here, though under… different circumstances. *How much to give them…* My name is Hanuro Sakura and I’m not even certain of the history of…”
A fat, juicy plap slapped Sakura, a half eaten Uchiha fruit spinning away. *Hinata?*
She looked to the left. Hinata stood seething in the doorway, her eyes blazing like wraith fire. “Enough with your lies!”
“Hinata.” Neji spoke calmly, “I do recall asking you to mind your temper.”
Hinata snarled at Sakura, crossing her arms as she leaned against the door, “I thought you had meant ‘mind’ as in ‘obey’. My apologies.” Her words had left a puddle of sarcasm and distain at her feet on the floor.
Sakura held her cheek in shock. *Hinata…?*
“At any rate,” Neji continued with a mild edge in his tone, “If some astral power did exist to punish those who had sinned against the Uchiha, a large number of people would have been smote rather violently some time ago. I believe you have more to fear from the living.”
Neji walked for the door, “As I understand the law, This property is yours, should you wish to claim it. Only an Uchiha could object, and the general consensus holds them to be dead or in permanent exile.”
“An Uchiha. In exile?” *A fate worse than death for them…* “Since when has this been?”
Neji paused at the door, “You aren’t from around here, are you? It has been this way since the Fifth Hokage came to power. Hinata will explain the rest.” And Neji left, the stairs creaking as he descended.
Hinata glowered after Neji, but spoke in an even tone, “Lord Orochimaru unseated the Third Hokage. In the end his only real opposition were the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans. But with the aid of the Mist Village, he was able to force the clans to a wall.”
Sakura sat on the bed, listening as she slipped on the shoes. She felt guilt well up within her again… *But I’ve done what I could do…*
“Uchiha Obito attempted to assassinate the Hokage and failed. The price was the death of the clan itself. A task Lord Hitake saw to personally. It is believed that he killed them to a man, though rumors do surface now and then.”
“What sort of rumors?” Sakura stood. It was eerie how well the clothes fit her.
“The occasional imposter surfaces. The first few might have been genuine, but they all fall before Lord Hitake.” Hinata looked Sakura over. “Are you really going to wear that?”
Sakura looked down at herself. Then in the vanity mirror. She appeared ghostly pale. But she looked rather nice. Official, if a little young for any station she would have to dress like this for. “What’s wrong?”
Hinata shrugged, “Whatever. You’re unarmed and your hair sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Worse.” Hinata sighed, “Do you want my help, or just my opinion?”
Sakura looked to Hinata. *Just an act… or putting on an act?* “I’m not quite certain of the local Genin fashion. Any help you can offer would be welcome.”
Hinata didn’t speak, but walked to the wardrobe and began digging through the drawers. She tossed out a pair of boots. Long steel plates ran up the shin and covered the top and toes, low heels and massive buckles ran up the calves. Then came a set of matching gauntlets, the plate overlapping her knuckles. A mask flew up at her face. It would cover her hair and either her face or her neck.
“Now you need a weapon. Any preference?” Hinata opened the bottom drawer.
Sakura looked down into the drawer. A chained sickle, a metal fan in Uchiha colors, and a windmill shuriken. “I can use the shuriken, but that’s about it.”
Hinata handed it to her roughly. She clipped it onto her belt. Smaller than Sasuke’s, it still dangled nearly to her knee, even closed.
Hinata crossed her arms, looking Sakura up and down. “Well, billboard brow, at least you look like a ninja now. Come on.”
She led the way downstairs, sliding down the banister. Sakura followed suit and landed beside Hinata at the base of the stairs.
“That took long enough.” Neji stood behind them in the office, “But you do need insignia. What is your home village?”
Sakura shrugged, “It doesn’t much matter. It would seem it doesn’t exist anymore anyway.”
Neji nodded to Hinata. She scowled darkly, but left in good haste.
Sakura entered the room and leaned against the wall, “So what else should I know?”
Neji leaned back as well, “Let’s see… about seven years ago, Lord Orochimaru and the Third Hokage did battle. I’m told it was quite the sight to behold; jutsu flying every which way, buildings knocked over in the crossfire… They managed to destroy a large piece of Konoha and many acres of surrounding forest.
“After the battle was finally decided, the Fifth Hokage repealed and enacted several laws. Then he set to sifting through the shinobi ranks.” Neji almost chuckled, “He discovered the jinchuriki Uzumaki and attempted to have him trained in a more… serious caste than the academy offered. Uzumaki spoke his mind and went his way.”
“Where did he go?”
Neji shrugged, “He’s still nearby Konoha someplace. But the Black anbu were sent to have a word with him. That word was assassination. They were heard from again, but it was their screams.
“One young boy fought and destroyed nine of Konoha’s most elite nin. These were the men of legendary skill that protect the Hokage. And after the battle, Uzumaki altered Monument Mountain into the form we enjoy today and carted off all the ramen he could carry.”
Neji smiled, closing his eyes, “That was quite a lot of ramen…”
*First Kakashi… Then Sasuke…No Naruto either…* “Nothing is as I recall…”
Neji shrugged, “When Kage meets Sannin in battle, the effects are either completely unnoticed or they cange the landscape. Things of this nature occur almost regularly.”
“Wait…” Sakura held up one hand, “Why are you telling me all this? Why did you even come looking for me?”
“You seemed starved for information. As well as lost and alone.” Neji smiled warmly, “I took it upon myself to do you the service helping where I could.”
Sakura crossed her arms, “In exchange for…?”
Neji shrugged, “As you insist; I would like to be able to send a message now and then discretely. And if my courier was skilled and unknown, so much the better.”
*Dirty bastard…*
“Though do understand, I don’t want to take your services for granted. I merely seek an ally against a certain man. I sense you have little love for our Hokage…” He hesitated, the false charm he was oozing slowling momentarily. Sakura touched lightly at the bruise on her neck. It still burned with the feather of her touch. The memory was even less pleasant.
“I just want to keep in touch with my old friends, the Uchiha.” Neji turned as Hinata came back through the door.
She cast down an armload of headbands. “Trinkets of the dead for the girl who sleeps in a tomb.”
“I feel our visit together is coming to a close.” Neji drew a small letter from his jacket, “Return with a response from Itachi or Sasuke, and I will be more than happy to compensate you for your services.” He tossed the letter onto the charred desk and left the room, exiting into the courtyard.
Sakura looked down at the letter. Sealed with wax, unmarked.
“If you value your freelance status, don’t trust him.” Hinata spoke in a low tone, “And don’t serve him.”
Sakura heard the words. The tone Hinata used… “Then why do you?”
Hinata scowled, and fell into one of the guest chairs, “I’m branch family. Give him twenty minutes and half an excuse and my brain is a pile of mush and ashes inside my skull.”
Sakura picked up the letter, “He’s got me in a bind already. I have to appease him this. The last thing I need his him as well as Kakashi and half of Konoha’s ninja after my neck.”
Hinata scoffed, “Then it’s already too late for you to escape that bastard’s web.” She cast her eyes over the headbands on the desk, “Just take one of those damned things. I didn’t risk stealing them so they could gather dust in a ruin.”
Sakura turned one over. A leaf headband. Stained with a trickle of black blood.
“Don’t go all pasty like that.” Hinata walked over to the desk, “They came from the prison yard. And the remains of the men there weren’t ninja anymore. Some weren’t even men anymore.”
She turned a few more over, recognizing many of the villages. *It’d be just like that bastard not to tell me anything of real use…*
“Just pick one already, damn!” Hinata growled in impatience and snatched one up, shoving it into Sakura’s chest, “There. Excellent choice. Now let’s go!”
The wrap ends were too long, even for a belt. Sakura perched the metal band over her shoulder, pressing the thin steel around comfortably, and tied it around her pants belt. She grabbed the letter and tucked it into her bracer before chasing after Hinata.
Without time to don the mask, Sakura threw a henge over her hair hair and eyes. Uchiha black.
Hinata was ahead of her, leaping the high fence and falling on the far side.
Sakura followed, pulling the mask on, down over her neck before she looked up from the ground.
Hinata had only gotten a short way down the abandoned street. Half in the night’s shadow.
And standing before Hinata, a man in a jonin uniform.
“Why were you inside the Uchiha Compound?” His shouting voice was windy as he pointed with one hand.
“You!” His finger shifted from the wall to Sakura, “Hold fast! In the authority of the Lord Hokage, I demand that you turn over any artifacts that you have collected!”
Sakura looked more closely at the jonin. He wore a leaf headband, but a glyph she couldn’t make out was carved beneath his headband, scored into his forehead.
Sakura held up her hands, “Very well.” She drew Neji’s letter from her bracer.
“Yes! Give it to me!”
Sakura approached slowly, each step bringing the jonin into focus. His flesh wasn’t only colored by the shadows, but ashen blueish. His unblinking eyes a grayish yellow, the irises cloudy and opaque.
His chest expanded, “Give me the paper!” His grip on Hinata tightened, lifting her from the ground.
*This nin is…* Inner Sakura roared in rage, her hand looping the shuriken from her belt and slicing through the extended arm of the guard. His arm fell to the ground as Sakura brought the weapon around, cleaving out his knees and rising to sever his other arm, her fist around the letter crashing into his jaw and sending him onto his back.
The corpse fell to the ground, sucking in a deep breath, “GUARD!! ANBU!! INVA…!”
Sakura landed on the screaming corpse, one foot crushing brittle ribs and the other flattening his throat. He was silenced.
She lifted one foot and found the memory of fear awakened within the decomposing eyes. “Sleep.”
And the foot fell, charged with chakra. The head burst like a rotten tomato, brains sprayed down the roadway for ten feet, an eyeball rolling to a stop in the gutter.
Sakura realized she was panting heavily and forced herself to calm down. She relaxed her chakra, though it was trying to overflow from within her. A feeling she didn’t particularly enjoy.
She stepped out of the corpse, clipping the shuriken back to her belt and trying to rub the wrinkles out of the letter.
Hinata threw the severed arm toward the body, “Great. You’ve killed a Grave Spawn.” She looked up and down the street, “Now let’s get out of here before the living arrive.”
Sakura found herself drawn along in Hinata’s wake again as she darted down a side street and into a cellar window. They retreated to the far corner of the cellar and huddled behind a stack of canvas bags.
The thin smell of mildew was present and dust drifted lazily in the moonlight.
“Loathe as I am to admit it, that was nearly clever.”
Sakura forced herself to chuckle, “It doesn’t take much to fool a corpse.” She sighed at the lost cause of false humor, “And I’m not terribly proud of that…”
“So you regret victory and getting to live to see dawn?”
“Not that… I lost control. I reacted without thinking.” She thought of Naruto. Always acting on his first, strongest impulse. “I always thought clever was supposed to keep you out of trouble.”
Hinata scoffed, “Whatever. Humility pisses me off. If Grave Spawn were really pushovers, do you think I’d’ve let that maggot treat push me around.”
Sakura held her tongue. *He wasn’t very strong. Maybe he was weakened with age. Rotten. And I did catch him pretty off guard…* “What was carved into his forehead?”
“Death.” Hinata plucked a bit of lint from her sleeve, “It’s where the control tag is placed. If they even use one at all.”
Sakura tried to suppress her shudder, and failed. “Who would want to come back from the dead?”
“Depends on what you left behind, I suppose…”
Sakura lifted her head to gaze at the other girl, but she had looked up as a door latch overhead was broken and the door opened.
“Looks safe enough.” A man. Young. His voice was lightly muffled, as through a scarf or a mask.
The door closed and three sets of feet wandered into the room.
“All this for a report? You had better have found something important.” And older man. One with authority in his voice.
“All I have is the sentry’s scattered mind. This was a professional hit. But they missed one detail. The eye. But it may have been left on purpose for all we have.”
“So what do we have, numbskull?”
The younger man sighed, “For certain, we have one female that came over the wall of the Uchiha Compound. She was young. Dark hair, light eyes. But not enough detail to pick out real color and not enough facial detail for a positive ID. We also have a second suspect. They appeared smaller, but in the later moments, seemed larger. They wore a headband on the shoulder, but the sentry’s mind doesn’t recall what village. Only that they were fast, strong, and had precision chakra control. And they looked like an Uchiha. Speciffically, the last Maiden in Waiting.”
“That’s all?” the older voice replied, “Your information is weak at best. And in error. Any Uchiha entering Konoha would be killed on sight. And that woman was killed long ago. If anything remains of her, it is a ghost.”
The young man changed his stance, “I only report the memories of a broken corpse. And I agree. The sentry may have been seeing a henge, or perhaps nothing more than a doppleganger. The only crest he reacalled was a small, silver fan. All I think we can trust with any security is that there were two attackers at some point and that some form of information was secured from the Uchiha Compound.”
“Anything from the body?” The older man dropped something and ground it on the floor under his boot.
“Not much. A razor edged weapon was used to sever the limbs and the killing blow was performed in a style I am unfamiliar with.”
“Unfamiliar? You’re part of the forensics branch. What do you mean by ‘unfamiliar’?”
The young man changed his stance again, “The surface truama is equivalent to a very power tiajutsu attack and sub dermal damage resembles that done by the Hyuuga Gentle fist, though the amount of force used would be like comparing a katana to a zanbato; Similar, but on a whole new scale.”
The three men said nothing for a moment.
“If there is a rogue Uchiha loose in Konoha, or some fool who fancies themselves one, they would be responsible.” The older man turned to face the silent third party. “This appears to be the limit of our report, Lord Hitake.”
“I will carry your report to Lord Hokage. But he will expect a more complete report soon.” There was a flash of light and smoke.
“Is he really willing to trigger the Lord Hokage’s wrath?”
The older man sighed, “Don’t be foolish.” Hesitation. A forced sigh, “Lord Hitake is far too valuable, and too damned clever, for Lord Orochimaru to slay in a fit of rage. But don’t forget that he’s laid our necks out on the chopping block.”
The door opened and the footfalls exited. The door slammed behind them, but didn’t stay closed. Silence resumed. The gentle chorus of the crickets resumed.
“Seems you’ve made a bang-up first impression.” Hinata patted Sakura on the shoulder.