Chapter 164: Sarada, Your Mom Doesn't Want You
Three days after the peace treaty between Konoha and Kumogakure was signed.
The terms required Kumogakure to issue a public apology within one week and begin positioning Turtle Island toward Fire Country's waters. The two and a half billion ryō in reparations, recognizing the Land of Lightning's current economic condition, would be paid in installments over five years. In exchange, Konoha would appropriately ease grain export restrictions to the Lightning Country, and the Raikage's remains would be returned.
Everything Konoha needed to extract had already been extracted. The Raikage's body had no further strategic value.
The campaign had been short — under four months — but from Sakura's perspective, worth it. Her name had been established. Without the Akatsuki actively disrupting things, she estimated Kumogakure would lack the capability to seriously threaten Konoha for at least twenty years.
And by then — with Naruto and Sasuke fully grown — the project of extending Konoha's reach across the ninja world would be straightforward.
As for the essay she'd once written about the Will of Fire?
Something to glance at occasionally. Anyone who actually believed in it was probably too idealistic to survive this world. Even a single "Dodai" was difficult enough to handle. What would the Third Tsuchikage present?
Sakura was fairly certain that the moment Konoha showed any serious expansionist intention, Ōnoki would reverse his position without hesitation. The logic was simple — no village could resist Konoha alone. Intelligent people understood this.
Root headquarters.
The one-eyed old man sat in his office, which was bright and clean compared to the surrounding darkness of the subterranean facility.
He'd spent a career wanting the seat above him. He still did.
In his hands: a slightly yellowed exam paper. He'd kept it since Haruno Sakura's graduation, four or five years ago. He took it out occasionally to look at it.
That girl suited him entirely.
The small conflict between them early on — in his view, that had been healthy. She'd acted exactly as a person with integrity should: when approached by her teacher's political rival, she'd immediately sought her teacher's protection rather than entertaining the offer. That wasn't disloyalty. That was strength.
He'd never held it against her.
And now she'd gone and done this — on the battlefield, against Kumogakure. His interest had only grown.
What an extraordinary child.
If only she'd ended up with him rather than that old fool Hiruzen.
With Sakura's strategic mind, he could have pushed Konoha to the top of the ninja world within a decade.
What a waste.
His fingers traced the characters on the exam paper. His expression darkened.
He was restricted to the village now. Hiruzen had sidelined him over the River Country losses, and Kagami Uchiha had taken the front command.
The mission credits were the real sting.
Kakuzu.
His fist hit the desk.
"Someone come."
A Root member in a striped mask materialized instantly.
"Put out a bounty on Kakuzu through the underground market. Seventy million ryō."
"Also — form an intelligence unit. Begin searching for information on Kakuzu, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Itachi Uchiha's organization."
After the Suna-Orochimaru attack on Konoha, Danzō's clearance had given him access to intelligence about the black-and-red cloud-robed figures appearing across multiple theaters. Kakuzu, Kisame, and Itachi in the same uniform meant the same organization — any reasonable person reached that conclusion.
Kakuzu: the missing-nin who'd once attempted to assassinate the First Hokage.
Kisame: who'd killed his own comrades and fled Kirigakure.
Itachi Uchiha.
Three S-rank missing-nin, acting in coordination. A hidden force operating beneath the surface of the ninja world. One that appeared to be preparing to act openly.
"Understood."
The Root member vanished.
Danzō looked at the exam paper and narrowed his one visible eye.
The restriction was a problem. Every significant move he tried to make was being blocked from above.
He needed a different approach.
"They're back!"
At the village gate, essentially all of Konoha had gathered. People pressed against each other on both sides of the road, faces open and warm. Someone had arranged petals across the stone path. A ceremonial cannon detail was loaded and waiting.
The crowd control team tried to hold the lines with the good-natured resignation of people doing something impossible.
Flowers on the ground. Cannon smoke in the air. Village waiting.
Sakura walked behind Jiraiya as they crossed through the gate and onto the familiar main road.
She looked at the petals drifting on the wind.
A lot of flowers. The Yamanaka florist must have done excellent business today.
"What do you see?"
Jiraiya, beside her.
"Lots of people. Flowers."
"That's not what I'm asking."
He'd long since stopped being surprised by her deflections. Of all the people he'd known — and that included Minato, who had genuinely stunned him — this girl was in a category of her own. The only thing he'd ever identified as a potential flaw was that her thinking ran slightly ahead of the values she was supposed to hold.
But that was correctable. He had time.
"You're describing what you literally see," he said patiently.
"Isn't that what seeing is?"
Kakashi walked behind both of them.
Obito. Do you see this?
I gave everything for this.
Why.
The main road ended at the official welcoming party — Hiruzen in his Hokage robes, surrounded by the village's senior leadership.
Jiraiya brought the group to a stop in front of him. The weight that had been sitting on him for months lifted visibly.
"Mission accomplished."
In front of the whole village, the public moment demanded restraint.
"Good."
Hiruzen looked at him, smiled, patted his shoulder — and then his eyes moved to the girl beside him.
"Sakura. You did well."
He meant it completely.
Before she could respond, the age-spotted hand came down on her hair and began.
She thought about dodging. She looked at his face and didn't.
He'd aged. Just in these few months, noticeably.
At the edge of the crowd, Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno watched their daughter. There was a lot of warmth in their expressions.
And, immediately afterward, the first stirrings of a problem they hadn't anticipated.
She's done so much already. She's so capable. She's so—
Who on earth is going to be good enough for her?
Looking around the village, is there anyone her age who even comes close?
She's never going to get married.
Their daughter was not yet thirteen, and they were already having this conversation in worried glances.
Hiruzen, meanwhile, was experiencing something considerably simpler: watching the uncertain child he'd taken under his care become someone who could carry real weight.
The hand in her hair ruffled it with something like ceremony.
You've grown.
The sapling had become a tree.
He'd be proud of this for the rest of his life.
Sakura, for her part, was developing a theory about how much more hair she would have left by the time this was done.
How long are you going to keep doing this, old man. I'm going to be bald.
Sensing the shift in her expression, Hiruzen laughed and moved to her side.
He reached for her hand — the old habit from when she was small, taking her hand and walking beside her.
He didn't have to bend down anymore.
He took her hand and raised it — up, in full view of everyone.
The crowd went quiet.
Everyone watched.
"This year—" His voice wasn't loud, but it carried. "Konoha Year Sixty."
"Sunagakure and a traitorous missing-nin attacked our village. Kumogakure came against us from the north."
"Twelve years ago, we lost the most brilliant light of his generation."
"Today — we have another."
"This young woman fought for you. She stood against the Fourth Raikage and won."
"Konoha's new star."
He paused.
"Her name is Haruno Sakura."
The roar that came back was not organized. It was just Konoha, at full volume, at once.
On a nearby rooftop, a woman with sandy-blonde hair in twin tails held a sake bottle by its neck, watching from a distance. The sound of the crowd reached her. She tilted the bottle up and drank.
Great-granduncle. Great-granduncle.
Looks like she's already what everyone needed her to be.
A pink petal drifted past her face. She reached for it. Whether it was the sake or something else, it slipped through her fingers, rising back into the cloud of petals above the crowd.
In the crowd, a pair of dark eyes watched the same girl they'd been watching since they arrived.
The mouth curved up slightly. Then something else registered — something internal — and Sasuke turned and moved through the crowd the other direction, disappearing into it.
She's already past where I am. I can see it.
Having the same eyes as Itachi doesn't mean having the same strength.
I need to be stronger. Go train.
Sakura kept the polite smile on her face, watching through the noise as the black-haired figure vanished.
Sasuke?
She wasn't an emotional idiot. She understood what she was seeing.
But she already had one person's feelings to navigate carefully. Adding a second was not on her agenda.
Sorry, Sarada. Your mom isn't taking applicants.
Go find a different set of parents.
Boruto's family seems nice.
She held the expression and didn't move.
Night.
The village quiet now, the celebration settled.
Sakura emerged from the Hokage Tower rubbing the small of her back. Another full day of post-war briefings. The chair had been worse than the battlefield.
The stars were sparse. She was navigating home by memory when a figure appeared at the corner ahead — dropping immediately to one knee.
"Sakura-sama."
"Danzō-sama requests your presence."
Two and a half years, plus two more.
And here he was again.
She looked at the Root member's masked face without any change in expression.
"Lead the way."
She had the standing now to face Danzō on any terms. Whatever he wanted, she could handle it. And if he chose direct confrontation — she could take Root apart from the inside and replace it with something worse before anyone found out.
The reason she'd ended up carrying the blame for this war, ultimately, traced back to that graduation exam paper he'd gotten his hands on. She'd needed to know what he was going to do with it, and dealing with that had required maneuvering that cost them all time and leverage.
And she did actually want to know about Kakuzu.
She followed the Root member down into the underground complex — vast, dimly lit, the architectural language of underground spaces that housed people with ambitions they couldn't display in daylight.
Old-style pavilions in a space that hadn't seen natural light in decades.
She scanned the shadows.
If I set fire to this room, does the whole section of ground above collapse?
She filed the thought and kept walking.
The Root member stopped at a door.
"Sakura-sama. Danzō-sama is inside."
(Chapter End)
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