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Test Subject M-37's earliest memories were of the quiet hum of machinery, bright overhead lights, and a stark lab with white walls and shiny metal beds. All of his memories were broken up by vertical, gray bars. The bars were thick and heavy and always cool to the touch. Test Subject M-37 had existed behind them, safely enclosed inside of a metal cage that was tall enough to sit up and wide enough that he could touch both sides at the same time without having to stretch out his arms all the way. It was not long enough to lay down flat in but that was okay because he liked to sleep curled up on his side or on his back with his bottom and crisscrossed legs pressed against one of the sides.
The bottom of Test Subject M-37's cage was lined with a thick, comfortable pad and he was given a warm, gray blanket to sleep under when it was cold. In the right-hand corner of his cage, there was a glass bottle hooked to the bars. Attached to the bottom of the bottle was a metal straw that poked between the bars. From it, Test Subject M-37 could suck nutrients.
Beyond three of the cage's sides were shiny steel plates in which he could sometimes see blurred bits of color and light. The fourth side, the one that he observed the lab from, was his only window onto the world. It was his only source of wonder and entertainment. Through the bars, Test Subject M-37 watched people in white robes move about between machines, dissect other test subjects, and put things into other test subjects. They came and went and made noises at each other. Through careful observation, Test Subject M-37 came to understand the sounds that they made among themselves as first communications and then as concepts. He never understood their obsession with clothes, though.
Sometimes, pairs of medic nin would poke and prod at Test Subject M-37. He liked that even when they hurt him or made him sick because he liked being touched too much to care about his own suffering. Occasionally, when he felt particularly badly, Test Subject M-37 would touch himself in the places and manners in which the medic nin had touched him while imagining that they were the ones touching him. He imagined that he was not alone. When he did this, the people beyond the bars of his cage would whisper to each other and make notes in a thick packet of papers.
Sometimes, Test subject M-37 could feel others' movements through vibrations along the bottom of his cage or through one of the shiny steel plates. Test Subject M-37 tried to ignore the others because they screamed and cried and died. There was no point in getting attached to something that was going to leave or disappear. It made him feel badly.
The scope of Test Subject M-37's world was small but he was not unhappy. After all, it was the only life that he had ever known until the white-faced animals came to take him away.
Even after twenty years, Tenzo tried not to look up. The sky was just so vast and limitless and colorful that it made him feel anxious and confused. The ground was the same way sometimes, particularly when he was threading his way through it. Tenzo preferred things with clearly defined parameters like missions, trees, and cages.
But oftentimes, missions were nebulous or not what they seemed. Sometimes, his one room apartment was too big. Occasionally, his trees felt too much like extensions of himself, which meant that his head was among the limitless clouds and his feet were buried among and endless sea of dirt. And when he thought of it like that, Tenzo's chest tightened and it became difficult to breathe. At those times, all he wanted to sit on top of something (but nothing too high) so that he could not feel the endless sea of dirt beneath him and wait for the world to contract down to a more manageable size.
Tenzo never missed the lab or the medic nin who experimented on him but he often missed the smallness of his world. When he felt like that, Tenzo went home.
The cages that he grew for himself were always tall enough to sit up in and wide enough that he could touch both sides at the same time without having to stretch his arms out. They were never long enough to lay down flat in so that he could lay curled up on his side in or on his back with his bottom and crisscrossed legs pressed against one of the barred sides. They were always wooden because that was the medium in which he worked. And they never had doors because he did not need them. (Nor did he want them. Doors were how the outside got into otherwise safe, secure locations.)
Naked, Tenzo would sit in his cage and watch his small, silent apartment from between his bars. It was very restful. Most importantly, it felt like coming home.
The first time that someone caught him relaxing in his home, it was Hatake Kakashi. Prior to his captain, no one had cared enough to drop in on Tenzo unannounced. Humans did not seem to like him. Kakashi, who liked Tenzo even though he was strange and had unnatural abilities, stood in the doorway to Tenzo's apartment and stared.
Tenzo stared back. He tried not to think about how much the stitches in his stomach hurt or that if he had just stayed in the hospital the way that the medic nin had wanted him to, Kakashi would never have looked at him with that particularly blank expression.
Then Kakashi shuddered convulsively, took a single step backwards, and snapped the apartment's front door shut between them.
The next day, when they were doing paperwork at Kakashi's apartment, Kakashi carefully made no mention of what he had seen. In fact, he behaved as if he had never dropped by Tenzo's apartment at all. Allowing Kakashi's behavior to be his guide, Tenzo did the same.
They never spoke of it. But, even though he never touched Tenzo or dropped by Tenzo's apartment unannounced ever again, Kakashi continued to come around. Even if he disappeared for awhile or left Tenzo behind for a bit, Kakashi always came back. And he continued to treat Tenzo as his friend and comrade. Tenzo could have liked him for those things alone.
When Team Kakashi settled down under the promise of being locked in a cage with him, Tenzo could not help but be disappointed. Even though he had never shared one of his cages with anyone before, Tenzo had really wanted to share that experience with them. And he felt certain that, if the others were locked in the cage with him, they would bond together much more closely than if they were sitting side-by-side in a hot spring, especially since Sakura refused to be naked in front of Naruto. They would have settled down and become happy.
The more Tenzo thought about it, the more unhappy he was that their team had bonded at the hot spring rather than in his cage. (The only positive thing that had come about from that side trip was that he had been able to trick his subordinates into eating his special seeds.)
After his first, disastrous mission with Kakashi's new team, when he had finished bullying reports out of Naruto and Sai, Tenzo retreated first to his apartment and then to his home. Team Kakashi, with its maladjusted traitor, out of control jincuriki, and impulsive medic nin, was too chaotic for anything else. Spending time with Team Kakashi was like falling into the sky.
Tenzo did not like the sky.
Even after he left Team Kakashi and the Fourth Secret War (which was not at all secret, truth be told) had come and gone and Sasuke returned to the village under his own power, Sakura continued to come around. Even if she disappeared for awhile or left Tenzo behind for a bit, Sakura always came back to see him eventually. And she always treated him like a friend and comrade even though they were no longer teammates.
Tenzo could like her for those things alone.
He loved that Sakura touched him, frequently, thoughtlessly, and gently. She never hit him or shouted at him the way that she did Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke. Tenzo greatly appreciated her consideration. In fact, he greatly appreciated many things about Sakura. He enjoyed her hair and the sound of her laughter and the way that she leaned close to him when they spoke together.
He loved the way that her face lit up when she told him about medical jutsu, even though he rarely had any idea what she was saying. In fact, Tenzo loved a great many things about Sakura. He even suspected that he might love her. It was different from how he loved Kakashi but no less intense for that unnamable difference. Not that he ever confessed his love to her (or Kakashi). For him, knowing that he did was enough.
Haruno Sakura was the second person ever to visit Tenzo's apartment unannounced. Like Kakashi, she did it because she cared. And, like Kakashi, she caught Tenzo relaxing in his home. She stood frozen in the doorway to Tenzo's apartment and stared.
Tenzo stared back anxiously.
Sakura was one of two people who genuinely liked Tenzo even though he was strange and had unnatural abilities. (Humans still did not seem to like him.) Kakashi, who was generally much more laidback than Sakura, had not taken Tenzo's home life well. If Sakura stopped coming around to see him, it would make Tenzo feel badly again. And he would be sad to lose her affections.
"Sakura?" he asked when he could no longer stand the silence.
Sakura shook her head, hard. Then she took a single step forward into his apartment and snapped the door shut behind herself. She scraped up a bright smile from somewhere and said, "Yamato-taicho, how are you?"
"Well," he said pleasantly. When Sakura arched her eyebrow at him, Tenzo added, "But my injuries are maybe twinging a bit."
Actually, they hurt, especially the one that ran from his right shoulder diagonally across his back to curl around his left hip. That one was particularly deep and it hurt the worst, which was really saying something considering the fact that his entire back felt like it was on fire at any given moment. Tenzo kept expecting to hear the crackle of his skin as it was incinerated from within.
Nodding, Sakura came several steps closer. Tenzo's apartment was so small that coming a few steps closer meant that she was standing next to his cage. All Tenzo could see of Sakura ranged from her knees to her feet. Her toe nail polish, which was aquamarine and chipped, was quite pretty.
"If you had stayed in the hospital the way I wanted you to," she said as she sat down next to the bars, "then your wounds wouldn't even be twinging."
"Sorry," Tenzo replied, even though he was not particularly repentant. Being forced to stay in the hospital, which reminded him strongly of Orochimaru's lab, without being allowed to sit in his home seemed cruel to Tenzo.
"This is good too," Sakura assured him. She grinned. "Now you can't escape me."
In response, Tenzo smiled.
"Now," Sakura said, her expression sobering. "Lean closer to the bars so that I can take off your bandages."
Tenzo did as he was told. To make things as easy as possible for Sakura, he pressed right up close to the bars. They dug into his chest and forced his head an awkward angle but it was worth it to feel Sakura's hands touching him so very gently. It was like being back in Orochimaru's lab but so much better.
When she had finished taking off his soiled bandages, Sakura said, "Lie on your stomach please, so that I can see what you've done to yourself in the last four hours."
Tenzo modified his cage and then did as he was told so that Sakura could stare down at him and make disapproving noises. When she was finished scolding him, Sakura said, "May I join you, Yamato-taicho?"
Tenzo hesitated before jerkily nodding. His chest tight with excitement and nervousness, he made the cage wider and longer. When he melted the bars away for her, Sakura shuffled into his home without hesitation. She startled when the bars grew up behind her again, though.
"Welcome to my home," Tenzo said to Sakura's knee. He wondered if she would mind very much if he touched it.
"It's very nice," Sakura said politely. "Very unique."
The tension in his chest dissolved as quickly as it had formed. Beaming, Tenzo touched Sakura's knee. When she failed to protest or hit him, he left his hands there. Perhaps in response, Sakura began to tend to his injuries. Even though it hurt, her fingers were warm and her hands were gentle.
Content, Tenzo closed his eyes and enjoyed being touched and cared for while safely confined within his home. For the first time in a very long time, everything was perfectly right even if his back was flayed open and, if Sakura's mutterings were to be believed, possibly infected.
"Sakura?" he asked sometime later.
"Mhmm?"
"Can we do this again?"
Sakura's hands went momentarily still against his back. Resuming her work, she said, "If you want to, I suppose we can. I'll need to change your bandages again in a few hours anyway."
"Thank you," Tenzo replied, his heart thrilling at her promise. After they had become closer to one another as comrades, Sakura had ceased being stingy with her touches but it was always nice to have something to look forward to. And no one had ever wanted to visit him in his home before.
Smiling to himself, Tenzo closed his eyes, happy to make new and better memories with Sakura.