"It's the sea!" exclaimed Sakura, who'd always wanted to say that line.
There was such a thing as beach episodes in anime, in which characters would drop whatever they'd been doing at the time to have some fun at the beach or at the municipal pool. Upon their arrival, someone (usually a girl), would gleefully shout: "It's the sea!" and then the scene would cut to a montage of splashing water, the sun, watermelon splitting, beach volley, swimming, sandcastles, surfing, a big wave washing away a girl's bikini top, etc.
"What are you talking about, Sakura-chan?" said Naruto, who didn't get the reference. "The sea's right there, and it's been there for a while, y'know!"
Technically, Sakura, Ino, Naruto and Anko hadn't reached the Land of the Sea yet, even though they'd been travelling for four days straight. To get there, they had headed southwards through the Land of Fire to the Land of Tea, which was a rather narrow peninsula— so the sea had pretty much accompanied them all throughout their voyage…
"Er… Anko-sensei?" said Sakura, noticing the vacant expression on their team leader's face. "You're, er… drooling."
It was an expression Sakura knew very well— Naruto often had that very same dumb expression plastered across his face whenever he was having a flashback.
Suddenly, Anko's hand flew to her mouth, and for a moment, Sakura thought she was about to spew out her lunch…
"Sorry, everyone," said Anko, smiling weakly and wiping off the nervous sweat from her forehead. "Something just came up, so would you mind taking care of the arrangements for the boat without me?"
And just like that, Anko flickered away, leaving Sakura alone with Ino and Naruto. (Sadly, Shino had not made the cut with Sakura around).
"Eh!?" Ino spluttered. "Sensei!?"
The Jōnin in charge of Team 10, Sarutobi Asuma, was a rather responsible teacher, so Ino was pretty shocked when Anko just up and left them like that.
"We should hurry down to that fishing village," proposed Sakura, pointing at the wooden huts by the seashore. "The sun's already starting to come down…"
It's not like they could go around knocking on doors at night demanding a boat, so unless they fancied walking across the sea, they'd need to find someone willing to rent or sell them a rowboat.
And so, having been given their orders, Sakura, Ino, and Naruto made their way down the cliff. By the time they reached the seaside village, the sun had already sunk halfway beneath the waves, casting long shadows around them and bathing the shimmering sea in warm shades of orange and gold.
"Sorry, but I can't give you anything more than this…"
A vaguely familiar scene was playing out in front of Sakura's eyes as she walked into the fishing village with her companions. A young girl covered in bandages was offering her catch of the day to a fishmonger, who appeared to be haggling over the price of the seafood she was selling him.
"Hang on, mister!" Ino called out to the fishmonger in righteous indignation. "Aren't you bringing down the prices too much? That's high-quality fish right there!"
It really couldn't be helped that the fishmonger couldn't offer the girl any more than he already had— the supply side of things hadn't changed, but the demand had drastically lowered, as tourists and travellers had stopped coming this way in fear of the monster terrorising the Land of the Sea.
As Ino was busy badgering the man, the girl turned and walked away, glumly pocketing the paltry sum she had received in exchange for her work…
"What's with her bandages?" asked Naruto bluntly, demonstrating all the sensitivity of a sea sponge. "Is she injured, or something?
"She has her reasons," the fishmonger said vaguely. "She's a female diver from a small town on the cape of Mother Island, but she decided to come live here, since the island folk were ostracising her…"
The man seemed to be in a chatty mood, because he then started to explain the girl's entire backstory, completely unprompted.
In essence, the girl had once been 'spirited away,' like many of her fellow islanders, but she had broken the mould by being the only one to actually reappear after some time. Feeling that something was off with her, or perhaps feeling that the circumstances involved with her reappearance were sketchy, her fellow villagers had then decided to ostracise her…
'Ah!' Inner Sakura shouted. 'There's that blank look on Naruto's face— he's having a flashback, I'm sure of it!'
"The swing set in front of the academy," Sakura blurted out.
"Eh!?" Naruto cried out, startled out of his melancholic trance. "How did you know what I was thinking about, Sakura-chan? Are you a mind reader, y'know!?"
Flustered, Naruto hastily backed away from Sakura, his cheeks flushing crimson. Her very presence inspired dirty thoughts to spring forth from his mind like a fountain, and the last thing he wanted was for her to see just how much he wanted to motorboat her immense breasts!
"Ino taught me a few tricks," lied Sakura, a devious grin playing on her lips. "Oooh, and now you're thinking about… ramen! Did I get it right?"
Naruto turned as white as a sheet— he had indeed been thinking about ramen with all of his might, to cover up the dirty thoughts lurking beneath!
"Hee hee!" Sakura giggled, as Naruto turned on his heel and sprinted away after the diver girl, stammering some excuse into the chilly breeze flowing in from the sea.
"You liar," said Ino, stifling a laugh. "How did you do that?"
"Boy's thoughts are simpler than you might think," said Sakura with a wink. "Well, that and…"
The truth was that Sakura had a unique perspective on other named characters' thoughts, due to having watched the anime. And also… Sakura and Naruto were much more similar than she'd have liked to admit— and that also went for the original Sakura.
They were two sides of the same coin, male and female…
"Really?" said Ino slyly. "Then… what do you think Sasuke-kun's thinking about, right now?"
"Definitely revenge," said Sakura, nodding to herself.
…
Unbeknownst to Sakura, Sasuke hadn't given Itachi much thought lately.
Essentially, the Cursed Seal of Heaven that Orochimaru had planted on Sasuke was designed to erode his mind, which would have allowed him to take over Sasuke's body without much resistance from the host mind. It was an insidious thing that had been supposed to gradually grow in Sasuke's mind, forcing him to love, fear and respect Orochimaru— a heart demon that could only be beaten through sheer willpower.
However, Sasuke's willpower on its own wouldn't have saved him from suffering permanent brain damage, at the time of his excruciating initial transformation in an awakened state. Rather, it would have made things worse for him, as the transformation was supposed to be undertaken while unconscious.
Due Sakura's close proximity around the time Sasuke had transformed for the first time, she had come to replace Orochimaru as the curse's object of forceful fascination— she was an eligible target for both the seal and Sasuke's subconscious mind, since she possessed some of Orochimaru's chakra!
As a result, unbeknownst to both Sakura and Sasuke, her place in his heart was swelling by the day…