Sakura went outside, following both Sasuke and Naruto.
They both sat outside and Sakura decided to remain standing.
Naruto chooses that moment to ask a question. "You said that the Sharingan only comes from the Uchiha right? Then how does Kakashi have it?"
Sakura didn't answer, but neither did Sasuke. It was a long few moments of silence until Naruto asks again.
"Did you both hear me?"
Sasuke snaps. "From a dead Uchiha. A transplant. Where else would he get it from? They're all dead now."
It's evident that he's filling with range, anger to the brim, but somehow Naruto remains oblivious, still thinking that Sasuke's just trying to one-up him.
He scowls in his direction. "Bastard! And why do you think they're all dead huh? Maybe there's more!"
It takes Sakura seconds to realise that Sasuke is trembling.
It doesn't take long before he throws the first punch. It wasn't Taijutsu or a display of fighting technique.
Just two boys releasing their anger.
"You don't know anything," Sasuke snarled. "You talk about family like it's something you can find in a gutter."
"I didn't mean it like—!"
"You never do!" Sasuke snapped, his voice breaking on the edge. "You say stupid things because it doesn't matter to you. You've never lost anyone! You've never had anyone to lose!"
That silenced Naruto.
Sakura stepped forward, quiet, but firm. She didn't try to stop them… didn't interfere.
Instead, her eyes traced Sasuke's face, the shadows beneath his eyes, the tremble of his breath.
Naruto lunged first, shouting wordlessly as his fist swung. Sasuke met him halfway, tackling him to the ground.
Fists slammed into shoulders and ribs, no technique, just emotion.
It was raw. Ugly. Honest.
Sakura was on them in seconds.
She didn't break it up, instead she blocked elbows and then redirected them both with a single palm to their chests.
They both went flying into the forest as she leapt in after them.
The forest was chaos. Leaves kicked up into the moonlight, fists and fury flying, a storm of unresolved grief and pride clashing in every strike. Sasuke and Naruto locked limbs and broke apart, again and again, panting hard with red in their eyes.
Sakura stepped in, not with rage, but with something sharper.
"Enough," she said, raising a hand between them.
They didn't listen. Sasuke shoved past Naruto, rushing again.
Sakura caught his wrist mid-swing and flung him back with more strength than expected, her feet steady on the earth.
"Stop. Fighting."
Naruto skidded back, winded. Sasuke landed in a crouch, hair shadowing his eyes.
"This isn't helping anything," Sakura continued, voice tight. "You want to break your fists instead of speaking? What does that solve?"
Sasuke stood slowly, trembling… not from fatigue. From rage. And then, he spat words like shuriken.
"Of course you'd say that."
Sakura blinked.
"You're the only one here who hasn't lost anything."
She stilled.
Sasuke's voice rose. "You don't know what it's like! To have everything taken. Your clan. Your future. Your blood. You talk like you know pain, like you know struggle… but you have no right."
Sakura didn't flinch.
"You have no idea what it means to really lose something."
Naruto looked between them, chest heaving. "Hey… Sakura—he didn't mean—"
"Then explain it to me," she said.
The words cut through the mist.
Naruto fell silent. Sasuke froze.
"Both of you," Sakura continued. "Explain it. What it feels like."
Sasuke opened his mouth—then shut it again. His hands clenched into fists.
"You want me to explain grief?" he muttered. "To someone like you? Someone who gets everything right? Who has no real problems? You don't understand—you can't. Not when you're a genius. Not when everything comes so damn easy."
Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly, but her expression remained cool.
Sasuke's voice cracked.
"Not when you're like this…"
He looked up, the faint gleam of tears at the corners of his eyes.
"Exactly like him."
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Her breath caught. Naruto turned sharply.
"You stand there," Sasuke growled, "so calm, so perfect—like nothing touches you. You don't stumble. You don't flinch. You just… watch. And I can't stand it."
Sakura didn't speak. Her silence made the forest colder somehow.
Then she stepped forward, just one step. Her voice was quieter than before.
"I haven't gone through what you've lost," she said, not denying it. "But that doesn't mean I don't care."
Sasuke didn't respond.
She kept going.
"But if all you see when you look at me is him—then you're not looking at me at all."
Naruto had been standing off to the side, fists still clenched from the scuffle, but his brow furrowed deeper with each word.
"Wait... who the hell are you talking about?"
The name landed with a dull thud in the dirt.
Sasuke's head snapped toward him. His eyes were wide and wild now, glinting red for half a second before fading. "You don't even know?!"
Naruto took a step back, startled. "I-no! Why would I...?"
And then Sasuke broke.
"My brother!" he screamed. "My older brother... it was him! He killed them! My whole clan! My mother! My father! My friends! Everyone! Every single person with my blood in their veins, slaughtered!"
His voice echoed through the trees, louder than any jutsu they'd cast in training, rawer than any scream of pain they'd heard.
Naruto's mouth hung open.
Sasuke's breathing had turned ragged, his eyes glassy. "And you… you didn't even know. Because nobody tells you anything. They all whisper about me behind my back but they never say it out loud. Like saying it would make it more real."
He took a shaky step forward, gesturing to the mark on his shoulder, the cursed burden, invisible to everyone else.
"You want to be stronger than me, Naruto? Then carry this. Carry this and try to smile after."
Sakura didn't speak. She couldn't.
Naruto opened his mouth, then closed it. Then said, softly: "Sasuke… I didn't know."
"I know you didn't know!" Sasuke shouted. "That's the problem! None of you know! You talk about pain like it's some contest but none of you were there, none of you saw the blood on the floor or the silence in every room!"
His hands trembled.
"Do you know what silence sounds like after everyone you love dies in a single night? Do you?!"
Naruto was silent.
Sakura's voice was quieter than before, the edge in it dulled by weight. "...No. We don't."
Sasuke sank to his knees.
The fight left him like a dying fire, rage hollowing into something colder. Quieter. Exhaustion settling in like a second skin.
No one moved.
Then Naruto walked forward, slowly.
And sat beside him.
He didn't say anything. Just let his shoulder brush Sasuke's.
Sakura didn't sit. She just turned, walked to a tree, and leaned her back against it. Arms crossed.
Ding!
[Aura System]
+25 AP Gained.
(Farming Method: Remaining composed while witnessing your teammate scream out the core of their trauma.)
Somewhere in the night, Sasuke muttered, "...I'll kill him."
Naruto blinked.
"I'll kill Itachi," Sasuke whispered again. "With my own hands."
Naruto didn't nod.
But he didn't say no either.
And in the quiet that followed, none of them realized when they drifted off... together, right there beneath the stars.
***
Naruto snored lightly, sprawled half on his back with his mouth open. Sasuke lay with his arms folded over his chest, frown still etched into his sleeping face. Sakura sat against the tree where she'd stayed all night, arms still crossed, head tilted slightly, resting.
The peace of early morning trembled.
A pair of footsteps, soft, deliberate... approached through the trees.
Haku moved like a ghost, barely disturbing the leaves beneath him. His gaze swept over the scene. His eyes lingered on Sasuke's hunched form for a moment, then Naruto's, before finally settling on Sakura.
He stepped closer, quiet as snowfall.
Then he reached out.
His hand was inches from Naruto's shoulder...
And Sakura's hand snapped up like a trap, fingers wrapping around his wrist with impossible speed.
The air went still.
Haku's eyes widened, and for the first time, something cracked in that perfect, kind expression.
Sakura opened her eyes.
Sharp. Awake.
She looked up at him with not even a single expression.
And then, she smiled. Barely. Just enough.
Ding![Aura System] +15 AP Gained(Farming Method: Waking before a disguised enemy and catching their wrist like an elite Jōnin with something to prove.)
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Of course Sakura's lost something. She's lost her dih💔
Dw she'll get it back tho.
Anyways, here's the chaps I never uploaded last year. Hope this at least slightly makes up for it.
Better chaps incoming, I've got a funny little encounter organised for the chunin exams I doubt any of you will see coming.
Hope you enjoyed
The next bunch of chapters will be released on my patreon at the same time as they'll be getting uploaded here, I'm going to update here normally and then after the wave arc finishes, I'll be posting more chapters on my patreon that you guys can read if you want. So make sure to join!!
Announcements will be there first too. If any of you guys have any ideas or any plans or anything you want me to do you can contact me using the patreon too.
Patreon: Teddartic