Naruto : Wind of Catastrophe

"My parents died back when I was a baby. Or they might have abandoned me, I guess. Either way I don't know anything about them, and I barely know anything about the rest of my family. It just sort of bothers me, you know? There are no public records of them, so I don't even know their names. It's like they don't exist."

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Sorry, you probably don't care about any of that."

...

Sakura doesn't respond, staring down at her scroll without actually reading it, silent. Then all of a sudden she stands up, sending her chair sliding back across the carpeted floor, and rolls the scroll up in one quick motion. She walks over to the chunin supervisor's desk and flashes her shinobi ID at him. He glances at it, scribbles something on a notepad in front of him, and nods.

I'm still sitting at the table, perplexed, when she comes back. She bites her lip, fidgeting with the scroll in her hands. "C-can I show you something? Back at my apartment."

This... probably isn't going where I think it's going.

"Uh, sure," I say, standing up from the table. "What is it?"

Again, she doesn't respond, instead gesturing for me to follow her. We exit the library and thread through the civilians going about their day, emerging onto a calmer road leading to the residential district. She leads the way through her building, and soon enough she's wiggling a key into her door. The door opens up to a living room ten times nicer than mine. There are scented candles scattered across side tables and on mantles, a soft carpet covers the floor, and there are pictures of Sakura and her mother everywhere.

Sakura makes for the staircase at one end of the room and I follow suit, wondering where the pictures of her father are.

She leads me to her room and shuts the door behind me. Then we both... stand there.

As the seconds pass, my mind dives deeper and deeper into the depths of perversion. Sakura stands across from me, fidgeting with that scroll of hers again, and man is it just me or is she really cute when she's nervous. I look away, chiding myself, and notice the pink carpeting from the last time I was here has been replaced with a hardwood floor. Interesting. I wonder what happened there.

That is definitely what I'm wondering at this exact moment in time. Nothing else. Just that.

I'm furiously weighing the pros and cons of hardwood floors over carpets when Sakura seems to come to a decision, turning and disappearing into the closet I had dug her outline seal out of. The sound of what I'm assuming is a hatch opening and closing drifts through the crack in the door, and when Sakura emerges she brings an armful of scroll with her.

Curiosity manages to overwhelm the dirtier thoughts bouncing around in my head, and I inch forward as she dumps them on her bed. None of them are labelled, aside from a familiar symbol of a jagged forest green leaf. What does that represent, again?

Sakura pricks one open with her thumb, unfurling it until it rolls over the bed and onto the floor. She runs her index finger across the kanji, finally pausing at a line near the edge of her bed.

"Here," she murmurs, and I lean forward, scanning the text.

There are seven known jutsu that qualify as an Uzumaki Yokai technique, though two of them have only ever been rumored to exist, and the other five have been lost in the destruction of Uzushiogakure at the hands of Iwagakure in the Second Great Shinobi War.

No way.

I turn to Sakura, shocked. "You've had it this whole time?" I mean, I guess it makes sense. She never said that she'd returned the scroll when she told me about it, after all.

But why would she hold onto it for so long? And why would she keep it locked up in her closet? Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen a scroll in the library with that symbol on it, either...

"I have." She looks down at her feet. "But... I didn't get it from the library."

Yeah. "Where did you get it from?"

I'm beginning to think she'll ignore that question too when she breathes in shakily, and looks up at me. "My father left them for me, when he died."

My stomach drops. "Ah, hell, Sakura. I didn't mean to-"

"He was a member of the Yokai Corps," she says as if I hadn't said a word, and I fall silent. Half because of my surprise at her words, and half because it looks like she's having such a hard time saying them. "I was six years old when he died. The Yonbi was rampaging inside our borders, and had already destroyed three civilian villages by the time the Hokage sent the Yokai Corps to drive it away. My father and eight other members never made it back."

She drags her finger across the scroll, eyes glassy. "They wouldn't let me bring much with me to the orphanage. Only as much as the caretaker who brought me could carry. When I found out my father had left me the scrolls on sealing that I used to beg him to teach me, I knew exactly what to take." She smiles hollowly. "I always did love Fuinjutsu."

"What happened to your mom?" I ask, and immediately feel like slapping myself in the face for it. Of course the woman I heard talking downstairs last time I was here isn't her biological mother. I'm such an idiot.

"I never knew her. She died in the Kyuubi attack," she says before I can take my foot out of my mouth. "She didn't make it to the bunkers in time. I would have died too, but one of the shinobi directing the civilians saw me in her arms and picked me up."

"I'm sorry." It's all I can think to say.

She shakes her head earnestly. "Don't be. I'm sorry for lying to you on the roof. I had no idea these could be just as important to you as they are to me."

"So these are all…" I trail off, waving a hand at the other scrolls.

"No, there are more. These are all the scrolls that mention the Uzumaki in them," she says, and my eyes go wide. There have to be half a dozen of the things sprawled out on her bed. The urge to dive straight into the veritable whirlpool of information on my dead clan hits me like chakra-enhanced haymaker, but I find myself distracted by a niggling thought in the back of my head.

"Why are you showing me this?" I ask. Something like a cross between surprise and dismay appears in Sakura's eyes. "No, no, I mean- I'm really grateful, don't think I'm not. I'm just wondering why you didn't tell me about the stuff in the scrolls yourself, like you said at the library."

She relaxes at that, looking down at the scrolls. "I've only skimmed these ones. They're all too advanced for me to understand," she says. "I couldn't do any of the Uzumaki seals justice, and it wouldn't be fair to you for me to try. Also…" She falls silent, conflicted.

"Yeah?" I ask gently.

"Also, you're my friend. Friends don't keep secrets from each other. And you told me about your parents, so only fair if I tell you about mine." She peeks up at me. "We are friends, right?"

"Of course we're friends." I say, and I say it loud. "You shouldn't even have to ask me that, Sakura."

"Sorry." She bites her lip again. "It's just that I've never really had a friend my own age before. I get along fine with adults, but that's different. I guess… I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."

I'm not an angry person by nature. I love a good fight, no doubt about it, but that's because I love to fight, plain and simple. I've always been the pacifying force in my relationship with Sasuke, even though most people would think it to be the exact opposite at first glance. I just don't have it in me to get really mad about much.

But right now, as my teammate lays out her insecurities in front of me, I'm all at once dismayed and so furious I could explode. I exhale a long, slow breath. I beat back the uncomfortable feeling in my chest and unclench my teeth. I banish all emotion from my expression.

And then I lean forward and wrap my arms around Sakura's shoulders, and pull her flush against me.

She stiffens, a little gasp escaping her. "Naruto-?"

"I want you to know something, Sakura," I murmur into her hair. "I'm always going to be your friend. No matter what happens, I want you to remember that. Me, you, and Sasuke are in this together. So if you ever find yourself wondering whether or not we're really on your side, I'm telling you right now: We are."

I pull back, sliding my interlocked hands down until they're around the small of her back. I smile toothily at her. "We're in this for the long haul, the three of us. We're going to be the best shinobi in the whole damn village, and we're going to start at the Chunin Exams. I don't care how many dirty tricks they try to hit us with or how many enemies they throw at us. We're gonna win the whole damn thing because we're not just friends. We're more than that. We're Team 7."

And as the words leave my mouth, I realize I believe them one hundred percent.

For a moment Sakura is shocked stiff, mouth falling open as she looks up into my eyes. And then, ever so slowly, a smile blooms on her lips. Her whole face seems to light up with the motion. Her eyes sparkle. It's the first true, happy smile she's ever given me.

And as she throws her own arms around me, pulling me into another hug, I realize it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

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