Yamanaka Ino felt her stomach sink into her shoes as she stared at the entrance of the small, brick-walled public bathroom at the edge of the park. She shot a warning glance at the girl beside her. "Don't tell anyone!"
Mirei just grimaced in understanding. "Yeah, if Ami heard about this..." The brunette trailed off ominously. "Should I-?" She tilted her head toward the building.
"No." Straightening her back, Ino hoped that she looked calmer than she felt as she waved the other girl off. "Go to class and tell Iruka-sensei something. I'll talk to her."
Mirei hesitated for a second before nodding wearily and walking away. They both knew that Ino was the last person Sakura wanted to see right now, but she wasn't going fight over it. Sakura was Ino's weird friend, after all - and that was entirely the problem.
What do you want me to do, Sakura? Ino pleaded silently. How can I make this better? She knew that Sakura still had trouble with people but over the last few months the mousy little bookworm had started to open up. If you'd just try to make some other friends, you wouldn't be so- so-
Releasing a sigh of defeat, Ino took a few steps closer to peek through the shadowed doorway. How do you think you're gonna talk to Sasuke if you can't even-
A shrill scream from deeper in the building interrupted Ino's thoughts before quickly descending into frantic, wet gurgling and then silence. "Sakura?!" Ino practically teleported the short distance from the entrance to the bathroom's interior as her heart leaped into her throat.
"Sakura, are you okay?!" she shouted again, hopping to the tops of the thin metal dividers between the stalls. The stall at the end was the only one that looked occupied from the outside but when she looked down the only thing she saw was a pair of child-sized ninja sandals sitting neatly in front of the toilet.
"What the...?" As her panic started to subside Ino noticed that there also appeared to be a pile of wet clothing sitting in the toilet bowl. Leaning down for a better look, the blonde girl nearly fell from her perch as a geyser of water blasted out of the toilet, clearing the blockage and slapping her in the face with a sodden red dress. Ino's sputterings of confusion and disgust gave way to an icy wash of terror as a pair of of transparent, watery tentacles reached out of the toilet bowl to grab the edges of the seat.
"I- IRUKA-SENSEEIII!" she cried, already outside again and running before even realized that she'd abandoned Sakura to her fate. The school was still blocks away but Ino couldn't think of anyone else to call. "IRUKA-SENSEI! THERE'S A MONSTER IN THE BATHROOM AND IT ATE SAKURA!"
-----
Retaking his seat, Sarutobi Hiruzen gestured to the single chair on the other side of the desk. "Please sit - but don't get too comfortable; it would probably be best if we kept this meeting brief."
"Of course, Hokage-sama." Nodding in understanding, Haruno Kizashi slid into the chair with the same languid ease that Hiruzen remembered from his jounin examination. Before clan affairs took him out of the field Kizashi had been on the shortlist of potential Hokage candidates; not as brilliantly unorthodox as Minato but steady, methodical and practically unshakable even in the worst of circumstances.
Now Hiruzen was somewhat regretting the fact that he hadn't followed up with Kazashi years ago when he was again looking for a successor, for the Haruno clan's 'affair' was finally coming home to roost. "How is your daughter?" he opened a genuine note of concern, starting with the safest of potential topics.
"She's... recovering," Kizashi hedged, scratching under one of those ridiculous pink spikes in a disarming fashion. "The experience was more traumatic for her than I would have liked - purely due to bad luck, of course, but we're still deciding if we want to send her back to school. She was having a hard enough time before, and now..."
"Her friend's reaction was unfortunate," Hiruzen agreed. Despite his academy teachers' best efforts there was now a persistent rumor going around that the public restroom by training area 11 was 'haunted.' "Still, I think it would be for best if she returns once she is able. We will have more than children asking us difficult questions if she does not, and letting her graduate as a genin of the village may help smooth future adjustments."
"Then you think we have a chance of pulling this off?" Leaning forward, Kizashi fixed him with a shockingly intense gaze. A tendril of doubt slithered in Hiruzen's gut, reminding him that the Village system had been founded in his own lifetime and sometimes the will of the clan was still supreme.
Transmuting his unease into the gravitas of one of the most powerful men alive, Hiruzen flattened his expression and reached for his pipe. "I've had a trusted expert go over your report," he replied, lighting the bowl with a flicker of flame and taking a short draw. "She was satisfied with your conclusions, though we would both like to do an independent examination of your daughter and the other members of third generation."
If he was upset that his secret was out, Kazashi didn't show it. "That can be arranged," he agreed, "though it may take a week or more to get some of them to the village. The Haruno haven't been a proper ninja clan in decades so our members are pretty scattered."
"And yet you are still close enough to continue a 'doomed' plan that was started before the first great war," Hiruzen observed with a hint of accusation.
Kizashi waved a hand dismissively. "Old men need their hobbies. I'm sure you know how it is."
"Indeed," Hiruzen acknowledged, imagining that he could feel a cold, one-eyed gaze on his back. "It strikes me as quite convenient that this particular project should come to fruition so soon after our last major revision of the bingo books." The one that had officially listed the Kagura clan as 'extinct,' he did not add.
"I think my daughter would with disagree with you," the pink-haired man countered, "and I can only pray that she never hears what her great grandfather had to say about it."
"Does he think we can still contain this?"
"No, but he thinks that we shouldn't bare steel unless we intend to use it."
Hiruzen had to admit that that was also a valid option, but only a year after the fall of the Uchiha he had no stomach for another massacre - not without doing everything he could to prevent it. "You may tell him that I respectfully disagree," he intoned, garnering a smile from the man across the desk. "Additionally, I have though of a modification or two that might make your own scenario more palatable..."
-----
As he stood on the balcony of his new apartment and looked down at the street below, Uchiha Sasuke had to admit that he no longer felt as betrayed as he had the week before, when the Hokage had informed him that he was being evicted. Compared to the empty streets of the Uchiha district the bustling downtown area he'd been moved to just felt more like the home of his memories, even if he wasn't exactly living like a king.
If only it didn't smell like ramen. Looking to the side, Sasuke frowned at the piles of bulging garbage bags that filled the adjacent balcony. A few of them had been savaged by animals at some point, revealing themselves to filled entirely with cup-ramen empties. Does he live on the stuff? he wondered
That reminded Sasuke that he needed to go grocery shopping - and soon, if the darkening sky was any indication. The village got its fair share of summer storms but this one was looking to be a real monster. Maybe I should also tell the guy next door to take his trash out too. I don't want any of that crap blowing my way...
-----
Haruno Sakura felt a little under-dressed as she stood on the front step of her new house and watched the water sheet down from the sky. Actually, make that a lot under-dressed, considering that she was wearing a knee-length pink raincoat and nothing else.
"Daddy, this is embarrassing! I've been okay since this morning. Can I go put on some shorts at least?" she pleaded, glaring up at her father who was much more sensibly attired in black hakama and a plum kimono bearing their family crest.
"It's a little late to say that now, Sakura," her father pointed out. "Just sit tight and this will be over soon. Besides, I doubt they'll care."
"If you say so," Sakura muttered petulantly, returning her attention to the rain. She knew they were supposed to be meeting someone important today, but that only made her even more nervous. Sakura knew full well what could happen if she had an 'accident' and her raincoat really was decent enough as long as she didn't move around too much, but was it really okay to be almost naked in front of guests? She wasn't a baby!
Before she could formulate another complaint, however, a hint of movement caught her eye; a strange ripple in one of the many foot-swallowing puddles that covered the street. Sakura could almost feel her jaw unhinge as the ripple turned into a bump, then a mound, the water moving up and forward as if it were a man climbing a flight of stairs out of the ground.
Wait, it is a man! Indeed, as it progressed the absurd standing wave began to take on the definite lines of a person, and when it finally stopped in front of them it was instantly replaced by a pretty, pale young man with lavender eyes and shoulder-length white hair. He was dressed formally, much like her father, though his kimono was white and he had a large, wrapped bundle strapped to his back with what looked like two sword handles sticking out of it.
"Haruno Kizashi-dono?" the stranger asked, addressing her father with short bow and a tight-lipped smile, apparently unmindful of the fact that he was now getting soaked by the driving rain.
Her father nodded and returned the bow. "The Village Hidden in the Leaves extends its welcome, Houzuki Mangetsu-dono."
Sakura automatically mimicked her father's bow but her mind was already elsewhere. Something about their guest tickled her memory and he had funny, broad sort of accent just like her grandfather. Grandpa was from the Wave country, wasn't he?
Meanwhile, Mangetsu had turned to survey the street behind him with a calculating expression. "This is quite the extravagant fishbowl you have here, Haruno-dono," he observed sardonically.
"I’m glad you like it. It was built to hold far bigger fish than you or I, Houzuki-dono," her father explained with a similar tinge of irony.
The pale man smirked. "I will remember that," he promised. Lifting his hand, Mangetsu made a quick gesture and in a heartbeat the street was filled with unnaturally moving ripples as dozens of people seemed to melt right out of the rain, scattering to and fro to carry out tasks that Sakura could only wonder at.
Wait, wasn't there a Hidden Mist clan that could turn into water? Freezing, Sakura stared in horror in the spectacle that was unfolding around her.
The leader of the apparent invasion seemed to notice her tension for he flashed her a wide grin that showed off a mouth full of dagger-sharp teeth, marking him as one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. "And you must be Haruno Sakura-dono," he guessed, sounding very pleased for some reason. "Was that reflexive? That was a very fast transition."
It was then that Sakura realized that she'd turned into water again. Ducking behind her father, she thanked the gods that she couldn't blush in this state because she'd just made a complete fool of herself in front of a foreign invader. Ugh, why can't I do anything right?! She kept losing pieces of clothing around the house and leaving wet spots on the floor and she pretty much had to sleep in a bucket if she didn't want to ruin her futon-
"So this is the bloodline freak who dropped herself in the toilet?" A new voice asked, higher than Mangetsu's but with the same sort of Water-country breathiness.
Sakura was absolutely certain that steam was rising off of her head as she reached up to grab the back of her father's hakama. "Noooo! You told them that?!" she screamed, for once too angry to run away in spite of her shame. Surprisingly, her fingers actually caught the fabric instead of soaking through, so she nearly managed to pants her dad as she leaned around his leg to see who had called her a 'bloodline freak.'
It was another boy, this one probably about her age. He looked quite a bit like Houzuki Mangetsu in miniature but he didn't have the thing on his back and he was completely naked. "Why aren't you wearing clothes?!" Sakura screamed, pointing a damning finger at his nakedness.
"He can't hydrify objects yet," the elder Houzuki answered, earning himself a glare and snarl from the boy at his side. "This is my brother Suigetsu," he introduced, clicking his tongue and putting on a too-wide grin of malicious satisfaction that almost turned Sakura into a literal puddle of terror and seemed to have the same effect on the boy. "Try to show little more tact, Suigetsu. We aren't in the Water country anymore and Sakura-dono is your fiancée."
"WHAT?!"
-----
Tipping back his bowl, Sasuke swallowed the last of the broth before setting it down and sighing in satisfaction. He considered ordering another bowl, but decided to let the first one settle first.
"See, I told you ramen is the best on rainy days!" Naruto crowed, shooting Sasuke a 'Told you so!' grin before diving back into his fifth helping.
Sasuke just murmured his agreement, thankful that Naruto was too busy eating to say more. For some reason this moment just felt perfect.
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