Sakura spent the next few days tending to the Manyū clan's wounded.
Most of the kunoichi had escaped with little more than scrapes and bruises, but many amongst the clan's civilians— children, the elderly, and those unable to mould chakra, for one reason or another— had been grievously hurt when the Sphinx was summoned. Flung against walls, buried beneath collapsing roofs, trampled in the chaos, the causes and injuries were far too many to name.
On the fourth day after the Tanimagakure Crush, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi returned from scouring the twin hills that sandwiched the village, having failed to find the missing Chiriku. They had, however, managed to sniff out Lady Utatane, whom they discovered serenely sipping tea and awaiting their return at base camp, a look of mild disapproval creasing her already wrinkled face.
By this point, the situation had at last begun to stabilise, so the Hidden Leaf party was invited to take part in the funeral held for Lord Munenori and the others who had fallen. Having come rather unprepared for such an occasion, Team 7 and Lady Utatane were each provided with funeral garments, and the peasant seamstresses even managed to conjure up a kimono in Sakura's size, allowing her to assist in her true form.
The funeral itself was a sombre affair.
With the village still in ruins, the ceremony was held in the small shrine at the base of the Right Nipple Mound, the eastern of the two hills that flanked Tanimagakure. The shrine marked the start of the winding path that led up to the summit, right next to the forest.
One by one, the villagers filed past the altar, where photographs of the deceased had been arranged and crowned with garlands of flowers. After Sasuke and Kakashi went to pay their respects, it was Sakura's turn, and in that moment, rather morbidly, her first thought was to wonder how flash photography could have possibly existed in the Warring States Era.
She placed a flower on the altar and returned to Sasuke and Kakashi, who had stepped a little way off to the side, away from the altar and the crowd.
"You're looking proper dapper in that suit, Naruto," said Sakura, as he returned from the altar. "Very dashing."
Naruto's ears flushed bright red with embarrassment. He instantly shot Sasuke a triumphant look, barely able to stop the corners of his mouth twitching into a smile— though, had he known why Sakura hadn't told Sasuke the same, he might not have been so eager to rub it in.
The truth was simple: Sasuke looking cool just went without saying!
"Oh, right," said Sakura glumly, looking rather downcast. "Sorry, Naruto. Your birthday present… sort of got swallowed up by that Fūinjutsu from the other day, along with all our other things. Oh, and happy birthday, by the way."
Amidst all the excitement of discovering that the Manyū existed in this world, Naruto's birthday had completely slipped Sakura's mind. He had been feeling rather downhearted that his best friends in the entire world had forgotten, after everything they'd been through together as a team.
"I thought only Kakashi-sensei had remembered!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise. That sneaky look of his crept onto his face, and he added, feigning nonchalance, "So, er… what did you get me, anyway, ya know?"
"I spent entire nights knitting you a handmade scarf," Sakura sighed. "I wasn't sure what sort of gift you'd want, but, well… winter's coming, and I couldn't help but notice your winter clothes were full of holes, three years ago…"
As an orphan, Naruto found homemade gifts infinitely more meaningful than any store-bought trinkets. Not that he had ever received one, but he had always told himself that, if he ever did, he would treasure it to his dying day.
"Maybe it's still inside that seal?" Naruto said hopefully, looking at Kakashi. "Maybe, if we opened it juuust a little, ya know…?"
"The old man said the seal crushes everything it touches," Sasuke said, his voice laced with disdain. "But just in case it doesn't… I suppose that means you want to have a go at wrestling that monster by yourself again?"
Naruto shot him a withering look.
"It's okay, Naruto," Sakura assured him. "I'll make you a new one."
Perhaps it was for the best that the scarf had been compressed into a tiny cube. The little scrap of fabric Sakura had hastily knitted together was barely long enough to wrap once around his wrist, let alone multiple times around his neck.
"I didn't think you were the type to knit, Sakura-chan," said Naruto in amazement. "Sure, I don't mind waiting, ya know!"
"I learned from Hinata," said Sakura modestly. "I still need a lot more practice."
"I can help with that!" said Naruto. "You know, I've got this hole in my pants right here, and my old jacket is pretty torn up, too…"
Naruto turned around and bent over, using his thumb to point at his—
"What the hell are you showing Sakura?" asked Sasuke furiously, delivering a nasty kick into Naruto's unsuspecting arse. "Nobody wants to see that, you moron!"
"First of all, I'm not your maidservant, and second, that's sewing, not knitting," Sakura said, peeking out from between her fingers covering her eyes. "Now that I think about it, how on earth have you been getting by all this time without knowing how to sew!? You're always wearing the same clothes!"
It couldn't have been his parents— they were living rent-free in his chakra, biding their time until the Nine-Tails' seal finally broke, and until the day he learned to use its chakra properly.
"I don't know, actually," Naruto said sheepishly. "When my clothes get too beaten up, I usually find them all fixed by the next day."
Sakura and Sasuke stared at him, bemused.
Was there a fairy living in his apartment, secretly fixing his clothes at night? Or, more likely, the Lord Third had seen just how hopeless he was at household tasks and had hired someone to mend his clothes, lest the village's nuclear deterrent go wandering around with his dignity on full display.
"Hem, hem."
Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi turned around.
It was Lord Munakata and his lady wife, Kyōko. Her eyes were red from crying, and two suspiciously damp stains marked the front of her kimono, despite the absence of rain.
"I apologise, but we couldn't help but overhear you talking about the seal earlier," Lord Munakata said. "How soon would it be possible to lift the seal and emigrate to the Hidden Leaf?"
With Katsuyu's help, Sakura had already sent word to the village about the Uzumaki seal, and after digging through her grandmother's belongings, Tsunade had finally managed to identify the specific Fūinjutsu through Sakura's description of the patterns.
"I can already lift the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing," Kakashi said solemnly. "As for the Great Mountain Seal, we already have everything we need to remove it. You can tell your people to get ready to move out."
Naruto gulped.
Only his Uzumaki blood could be used to trace the counter-formulae that would be overlaid on the original seal, cancelling its effects and most importantly, easing the pocket universe back into the main world without everyone meeting a gruesome end in the process!