Tears dropped down her emerald eyes as the girl gave her best to hold them back. Sakura had been crying for almost an hour.
She tried to stop, but every time she remembered Sukuna's transformed body, the four arms, the extra eyes, and that terrifying aura, her chest tightened again.
It wasn't like her brother had never been in trouble before, many times in fact, and most of the time it was trouble of his own making. But most importantly, he was completely capable of solving troubles. Either it was caused by him or not.
Sakura would rather die before saying this in front of him, but the idiot was super reliable. And strong. And nice to her if she really started crying. God she hated to cry in front of him, but on those rare occasions when she did, he was always there to comfort her until she quieted down. Though relentless teasing followed later down the line. But still, he was there. He isn't here anymore. That weighed down on her more than anything. Suddenly the reliable older brother wasn't there anymore.
That felt suffocating.
Karin was no better either. If anything, she was even worse. If Sakura silently hoped her annoying idiot would just walk in on them any second now, then Karin felt like she was the reason everything happened.
Nonsensical as it sounded, childhood trauma often is. Karin to some degree blamed herself for her mother's death, because she was weak. The same was here, she couldn't fight alongside Sukuna because she was weak. She felt like it was her fault, she just recently talked about casualties of Ninja. She brought up the topic, she said how it was possible and here it was. What if it was because she jinxed it.
She kept pacing back and forth near their temporary camp, biting her thumb out of habit, red eyes swollen. "What happened to him back then, what kind of jutsu does that to a person," she muttered for the tenth time. "No matter what kind of jutsu, I should be able to sense him right now! Then why can't I ?"
Needless to say, the redhead was a wreck currently.
Kiyomi too stood a little away from them, arms crossed, face calm—but her fingers were trembling slightly. She was not crying. She was thinking. Every detail of the fight replayed in her mind.
The opponent was beyond any opponent she personally had faced. The strongest still now. However, by how casually Sukuna acted, it didn't feel like he was worried about it. Given his reputation, he better not be.
But that form of his dawned on her mind. That form of his felt too creepy. Gave her chills. That cursed energy felt wrong. So much malice and chaos. So yes, she was worried, not for Sukuna, but because of him. If the boy turned back to that monster she heard about in the Heian Era, then what would happen ?
"We should've stayed! We shouldn't have left him alone!" Naruto grumbled from a little further away. The boy had been restless from the moment he left Sukuna alone back then.
"We couldn't," Sasuke replied quietly. "You felt that pressure, didn't you. We would have just gotten in the way." He said calmly, however, if one might have seen his posture, his clenched hands which almost were drawing blood then, they might not have believed his words at face value.
Sasuke's words didn't make Naruto feel any better. If anything, he felt even more frustrated.
When the destruction finally stopped and the sky cleared of heavy smoke, the five of them tried to return to the battlefield. They did.
But they didn't get far.
The entire area had been sealed off.
ANBU operatives stood on trees, on the ground, on rooftops of broken trunks—silent and unmoving.
"No entry," one of them said flatly when Naruto tried to rush forward.
"We just want to check on our teammate!" Sakura pleaded, voice breaking. "He was there!"
"There is no information we can share," the ANBU replied.
Karin stepped forward, eyes sharp. "Is he alive?"
Silence.
They felt like strangling that ANBU. They might have if they really could pull that off.
After several failed attempts, and realizing they truly could not pass without the Hokage's permission, they were forced to retreat.
Now they sat in a small clearing far from the sealed zone, waiting. What else could they do outside of waiting anyways.
The forest around them was quiet in a strange way, like even nature was afraid. That sentence might have sounded very realistic if they knew what their teammate did to it.
Sakura wiped her eyes again. "I'll kill that idiot, just let him come back."
Karin sniffed loudly. "Baka doesn't even think about what it does to other people."
Naruto clenched his fists. "When he comes back, I'm punching him."
"You won't," Sasuke muttered. "You'll cry first."
Naruto glared, looking at Sasuke like asking, 'is this the time to argue about that ?'
"Sorry, but I'd rather not have a sobbing blond clinging to me as long as it's not a pretty girl. And transformation jutsu doesn't count."
The voice came casually from behind them.
Everyone froze. They snapped their heads so fast that the combined energy could have powered a nuclear power plant.
And what they saw, Sukuna stood there, walking into the clearing as if nothing had happened. His clothes were completely torn and burned at the edges. Dirt and ash covered his skin.
But there was not a single injury on him. He had many actually, that madness from earlier didn't actually spare him. But reverse curse energy was incredible at what it does, and so was his cursed technique reversal.
However, he looked tired—eyes slightly dull, posture heavier than usual—but whole.
"S-Sukuna?" Sakura whispered.
He blinked. "Oh… are you crying." He asked with an intriguing smile on his face, like seeing alien poop.
That was all it took though.
Sakura launched forward first, slamming into him. Karin followed instantly. Naruto crashed into all three of them a second later.
"You Baka!" Sakura cried into his chest.
"You absolute idiot!" Karin shouted, tears falling freely.
Naruto sniffed loudly, face pressed into Sukuna's shoulder. "Don't scare us like that, you jerk!" The boy had snorts going through his nose, and the bastard didn't even use transformation jutsu.
Sukuna stiffened, clearly not prepared for the sudden attack. 'Could have used Kamui here…' he genuinely wondered before his face had that knowing smile.
"…You're all loud," he muttered.
He didn't push them away.
Sasuke watched quietly, relief hidden behind his usual calm expression. Kiyomi simply exhaled slowly, tension finally leaving her shoulders seeing the boy's normal form.
'Oh perhaps that form was something he used when fighting stronger opponents ?' That seemed like the most likely outcome.
Sukuna sighed, looking down at the three clinging to him.
"I said I'd survive," he said.
This time, no one argued.
"I'm still punching you though."
xXx
A/N : Did I over commit on the entire reunion part, hope not. If so then tell and I'll make sure it wouldn't happen again. Also tell me if you see any mistake, since I'm traveling I can't edit chapters often, so please tell me if you find any mistakes and I'll fix them ASAP!
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