{…}

{…I guess, with the situation we're in—} (and what happened when they bonded) {—I shouldn't worry about being naked around you.}

She pauses before continuing,

{…And I guess that'll be easier for me than it could be, since you're in my head, instead of out there next to me.}

She continues fiddling nervously with her clothes for a moment, clearly postponing it a bit longer, despite her words.

Sable's voice is soft and gentle as it replies, but also a bit embarrassed. {Sakura, sweetie, while it's very understandable to be embarrassed or shy, I'm a biokinetic symbiote who's bonded with you. I can feel every cell of your body in full detail. It is a little bit late for that.}

Sakura sighs.

{…Yeah, I guess I know that.}

Pulling together her courage, Sakura finally removes her shirt—and, in a burst of temporary confidence, the rest of her outfit.

Now fully nude, she stands stock-still in the middle of her room, doing her best not to freak out.

It really is fine, though.

Okay, yeah, it really is fine.

Sakura begins folding her discarded clothes.

{Thanks for letting me work through that.}
{I guess I just… had more of a mental block there than I expected to.}

Soft fondness and gentle care wells up from Sable, along with the sensation of something not unlike a hug if it was threaded through her body rather than wrapped around her with arms.

{Always.}

Projecting appreciation and affection towards the symbiote, Sakura wraps her arms around her body, doing her best to approximate hugging Sable back.

Cozy appreciative fondness at the hug. {Thank you.}

It maybe needed a hug. Kind of badly. 

It has a very good host.

Sakura is very glad it thinks so. She hugs herself/Sable some more.

Then she puts her folded clothes away and gets into bed.

…And then—nearly immediately—falls asleep.

Sable starts working through the chakra control exercises Sakura gave her, very carefully. She stumbles a bit at first, but she's able to correct herself with Sakura's memory of doing them correctly.

Once she has them mostly down, she starts working through plans and ideas.

The most important problem it faces is how much detail the Hyuuga clan's legendary sight provides them. If it covers the level of cells and bacteria, it can't hide and needs an explanation. If not, it can hide and can hold off on being explained until it makes detectable changes to Sakura. 

The problem here is that the only way to get this information with any degree of confidence is to ask a Hyuuga, which means they need Hinata on-side.

How do they explain it to Hinata, then? It's objectively concerning by any normal metric. If this was Worm, knowing about it would lead to its hosts being thrown in Master/Stranger quarantine. It's sure there are similar interrogation cells here, this is a village of ninja.

She could teach Sakura to manipulate. These kids are desperate for contact—

No, that's a terrible idea. Bad habit to be in, and not a resilient plan.

Say she's developed a self-biokinetic ability, and any visible inkiness is just the underlying mechanism of her ability?

Risky, they'd want to take Sakura to the medics, and then Sakura and Sable would find out first-hand how good their scans were. Definitely the kind of thing to learn from a distance first.

Maybe they have to be honest?

Slightly terrifying, given her fundamental nature is so objectively concerning, but they have to be honest with someone eventually, and it might as well be the kids she's trying to train with.

Oh fuck, this means that what saves them from a catastrophic reveal might be the power of friendship.

Oh no.

Well, it's not that bad. All three of the trainees are pretty far from flush with companionship, so nudging them into being friends shouldn't be that hard.

It's not exactly been flush for companionship either, has it.

Fuck, she's been so lonely. It hurts. It hurts so much. She's got a person now, but Sakura didn't exactly get a choice in the matter, did she?

Fuck. 

And all this happened because she died.

She died.

She died cold and alone in a horrible state in the deep south, and no one knew who she really was, and no one understood her.

She died, and it's only through mysterious multiversal fuckery that she has this opportunity to live again as a symbiote.

She died.