Chapter 104: Comrades, Strong Liquor, a Carriage
Dawn broke. The sun came up and scattered light across the land the way it always did — indifferent to what the land had become overnight.
Grass Village, which on any other morning would have been waking to the sound of daily life, was rubble and silence.
Sasuke sat in a corner, dried blood on his clothes, watching the pink-haired girl bandage his arm with an expression that gave nothing away.
It had been his first real battlefield. The experience had shown — but he'd adapted faster than most would have, held himself together on nerve alone, and kept fighting. Still, he'd taken hits.
"There. Should be back to full in a few days."
"Come find me to change the dressing every day until then."
Sakura looked at him and made sure he'd heard it.
"Understood."
"Thank you, Sakura."
Sasuke met her eyes without any of last night's awkwardness. Normal. Straightforward.
"What's there to thank me for. We're comrades."
Sakura shook her head and looked at him — perfectly composed, giving her nothing — and felt the faint suspicion from the night before recede slightly.
Maybe she'd been imagining things.
Hopefully.
"Rest. I need to get to the other casualties."
She picked up the medical kit and moved on at a brisk walk.
The dark-haired boy watched her go until she disappeared. Then he looked at the neat white bandaging on his arm, closed his eyes, and leaned back against the wall.
He was a man of vengeance. Until that man was dead, everything else was weight he couldn't afford.
Attachment. Feeling. All of it.
This was fine. Exactly like this was fine.
There was an unwritten rule that held across the shinobi world: whatever else happened, you did not harm uninvolved civilians. Even two shinobi who had completely lost their minds in the middle of a fight did not touch civilians. Anyone who crossed that line got hunted by everyone.
The Grass villagers had retreated indoors and stayed there. Supply stations had been set up outside — rations and basic goods, available to anyone who came for them. Whether they'd dare to go was their own calculation.
Sakura had no commentary on any of this. She was working alongside the other medical shinobi, moving from patient to patient.
With everything Wartime Sakura knew and everything she'd practiced, her medical ninjutsu was precise and fast. She could assess and treat in a fraction of the time most required.
Outside of Tsunade, she was probably the strongest medical shinobi in the shinobi world at this point.
Karin notwithstanding.
"You have a remarkable young person."
Kitsuchi stood off to the side, watching the pink figure move through the rows of wounded.
"Sakura is genuinely something." Kakashi sat on a piece of rubble nearby and let tiredness show in his voice. "Yeah."
"Once this wraps up, we're heading home."
Kitsuchi looked at the visibly depleted man beside him and frowned slightly.
"Hope the next time we meet, you're not missing any parts."
"I'll take that as a wish for good luck."
A night of continuous fighting had hollowed Kakashi out. But rest wasn't available yet.
Then a large hand appeared in front of him, holding a small flask.
"What's this?"
Kakashi took it and looked at Kitsuchi.
"Grain is scarce in Earth Country. So grain-brewed liquor is rare there — and because of that, what we do make tends toward the extreme end of the spectrum."
"This one I've been keeping for myself. I'm giving it to you."
"Consider it an attempt to wake you up."
Kitsuchi looked at the white-haired man and smiled.
Kakashi looked at the flask. Somewhere in his chest, something shifted in a way he hadn't expected.
There had been a time when Iwa shinobi occupied a specific category in his mind. He'd spent years keeping that category very clear.
And yet here we are.
He reached into his pouch to find something to offer in return and came up empty. He had nothing.
Kitsuchi waved it off before he could say anything.
"Don't worry about it. If you want to give me something — buy me a drink next time we meet."
He said it like a man who had never been complicated about generosity.
Kakashi stood, and this time he was the one who smiled, and held out his hand.
"Then it's a deal. Next time we meet — drinks are on me."
Kitsuchi laughed — a large, genuine sound — and grabbed the hand.
"It's a deal! I'll be holding you to it!"
The weight Kakashi had been carrying in his chest loosened a degree.
This man. Unexpectedly easy to like.
"Dad! We're leaving!"
Kurotsuchi's voice, from a distance.
Akatsuchi already had his pack on. Ōnoki was back in the chair. Kurotsuchi was waving.
"Then I'll be going."
Kitsuchi operated the same way he talked — no wasted motion.
"Safe travels."
Kakashi called after him.
Kitsuchi raised one hand in acknowledgment without looking back.
Kakashi watched them go, then lifted the flask and took a small sip.
It hit the mouth like a lit match — sharp, burning, radiating outward. A line of heat went straight down his throat and settled in his stomach like a small fire that had found its hearth.
"That is strong..."
He took the one sip and stopped. Looked at the flask in his hand. Carefully put it in his pouch.
Save it. For the drink he owed.
One night. One village. Taken.
As planned, five hundred shinobi would stay to garrison Grass Country — five hundred from Konoha, five hundred from Iwa to follow.
The Nara shinobi assigned to command the garrison was already in conversation with Kakashi, running through the handover.
Kakashi's job now was to bring the remainder — around three-hundred-something, plus the wounded — back to Konoha.
"Get them home."
The Nara shinobi looked past Kakashi at the stretchers and the walking wounded and said it quietly.
"Will do. Take care of yourself."
"You too."
The return march began.
Less than twenty-four hours since first contact. Sakura hadn't slept in any meaningful way since leaving Konoha. She'd gone straight from the march to the fighting to the medical work and back again.
Kakashi watched her walking with the column and made a decision.
"It'll be a while before we're back. Go rest in the carriage. You've earned it."
Sakura glanced at him, made no argument, and immediately climbed into the carriage designated for casualties.
She found the Uchiha boy already there.
She blinked. Registered the mild surprise. Didn't pursue it.
"Move over. Give me some room."
(End of Chapter)