Summary: Sakura asked for an adventure and excitement in her life. Her wish is granted by the leader of the Uchiha Clan.
Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto is the creator of Naruto. So, unfortunately, Naruto is not mine. Sad times.
The warm glow of the afternoon setting sun spread throughout the village. Children holding hands with their parents as they walked back from their school, which most of the little boys who wore a tale-tale signs of mud and dirt on their knees from playing games with their friends had their mothers nagged and chided them for being so careless.
Sakura Haruno, the only daughter of Yiramaru Haruno, walked on a lonely path towards her home. After a gruelling day of work, where Sakura had to revive 100 fishes since dawn, tried to control her chakra to walk on water for 2 hours, revive more fishes. Then off to work to serve more than 40 customers, most of which were perverted men, then forced to wash the damned dirty dishes for more than 4 hours and then serve more annoying costumers at the restaurant, Sakura could barely stand- let alone walk on her way home. She cursed her manager for being so harsh and brutal about her working hours, but understood that it had to be done in order to receive her pay check. She also hated waking up before dawn to heal fishes for that old woman, but again- she understood that it had to be done in order to grow stronger.
Opening the white painted wooden door, she hazily saw her father slumped on the red couch and soft snores where heard. Her father was a ninja. In fact, he was the only ninja in the village. The Great Haruno, they would call him. He is known from his perfect chakra control that enables him to have perfect aim and strength. Sakura admired him and wanted to become a konoichi, however, her father disapproves and prevented her from becoming one. He refused to teach her chakra controls or any type of jutsus, he never spoke about his past experience as a shinobi, but he explained to his beloved daughter that being a ninja was hard journey, full of deaths and deceit. So, she was signed into a normal school, full of normal students, and carried on her normal life. There was no excitement or adventure, which Sakura sought for. Now, aged 21, working full time in a regular restaurant, had no exciting moment in her life, except that she found a lost puppy in the street and then it got lost a couple of days later, only to be found in the deepest part of the woods. And the 7 years old Sakura got a reward for returning the dog to the rightful owner, after losing to her father to keep the dog.
But Sakura could list down the most memorable moment is when she saw, first-hand, a battle between clans. She saw several jutsus preformed, and then a massive ball of fire was produced. But the specific thing that intrigued her was the red eyes that dominated the features of one of the ninjas, which flicked towards her quickly; making Sakura thinks that it was her imagination. However, that was one of the image she could never forget.
As Sakura sighed at the sight of her sleeping father, one step into the house and her dad woke up, a trait that is common to all shinobis.
"Hi, father." Sakura greeted, as she made her way to the kitchen to eat her readymade dinner.
"How was work?" Her dad asked. Sakura would never tell her father about the perverted men who tried to hit and flirt with her whilst she worked, otherwise the restaurant would suddenly become a graveyard.
"Quite tiring, but I'm going to get my pay check tomorrow." She sat next to her father with a bowl or ramen. "So, I guess I'll be cooking something fancy for tomorrow's dinner." She smiled.
"Sure. Your mother would be so proud, you've grown so much." Her father smiled. He would rarely talk about her mother, only that she is now resting someplace nice.
A sudden knock was heard from the door, to which Sakura made her way towards it. Two men stood and greeted Sakura, "Hello, Sakura."Leju greeted, he was her father's closest friends. The person next to Leju was Sakura closest friend/brother, Shinu, who is the son of Leju.
"Hi, Leju-san, Shinu." She replied, to which Shinu grinned. Shinu was a year older than Sakura, but acted half his age. She could still remember their first meeting almost 10 years ago. Sakura was on her way on the local farm to buy some eggs. There she met Leju's family and their son, Shinu. Shinu was not a shy child; he immediately befriended Sakura, and asked her to join Academy with him. However, when Shinu learnt that she was going to a normal class, he tried his best to meet and visit her often.
"Can we speak to your father?" Leju asked, to which Sakura replied with a muted nod and opening the door wide to let them in. She knows that another villager or another ninja have died due to the war between clans; a normal citizen like herself has died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sakura knew the protocol, a message will be sent to her father, the person who was in charge and organise the people in their small village. The whole villagers would then pay respect to the families of the deceased. Nothing else can be done to save other people, but to warn them to stay safe and stay within the small village.
"Don't worry, Sakura-chan." Shinu winked and ruffled her hair. "We won't be long until the whole world will be at peace. Or else... hell breaks loose, which probably already happened since you were born." He joked. But deep inside, he hated those clans. He thinks that the clans like the Uchihas and Senjus only care about their pride not being wounded, that they only pursue for power. They are the reason that innocent people are dying.
"Whatever you say, crazy." She chuckled. Trust Shinu to make a terrible joke.
"Speaking about crazy, stay away from that old woman, she's crazy, ok?" Shinu warned. He was walking on his way to Sakura's house one day when he saw an elderly woman, white fuzzy hair and light blue eyes, walking by the river and was followed by Sakura. He saw the elderly woman's hands blurred for a split second and followed by glowering green colour radiated from her hands, Sakura imitated her actions which then produced the same glow. Confused, Shinu went to investigate the scenario. But all he saw was Sakura helping the elderly woman to walk and exchanged conversations.
"Whatever you say." Sakura repeated, disregarding the warning.
"Sakura, I'll have to investigate one of the villager's deaths, it would seem that the death was intentional. I will be back in a couple of hours, if not expect me to be back in a day or two, I have to speak directly to the leader of the Senju clan." A deafening silence was soon followed. At that precise moment, Sakura grew more worried and anxious of her father's decision.
Yiramaru then strode out the door, followed by Leju.
Yiramaru failed to hear his daughter's farewell.
The next day, Sakura's father was still absent. However, normal routine had to be followed, and thus made her way to the river. The village was dark, only the moon shone and lightened the path to which she took. Crickets chirped in the woods and bushes nearby.
The old woman was already waiting; the emerald diamond glittered in the moonlight. She was old, but not frail or weak. Sakura first saw her in the exact same spot a few months ago; the old woman approached Sakura who was crying and explained that her father did not allow her to become a konoichi. The old woman chuckled and muttered something under her breath; she then agreed to teach Sakura basic training to be a konochi, to which the 9 years old Sakura smiled and hugged the strange woman. From then on, the old woman trained and pushed Sakura to her limit. Sakura will certainly learn something new at every training session.
Over the years, Sakura learnt that the woman's name was Tokoru, but Tokoru insisted that Sakura should call her obaa-chan since Tokoru never had a grand-daughter. Sakura agreed since she had never had or met any of her grand-mothers.
"Hello, Sakura-chan." Tokoru greeted with a warm smile.
"Good morning Tokoru Obaa-chan, what are we learning today?" Sakura smiled weakly, her facial muscles were still tired and she tried to stifle a yawn, she knew Tokoru doesn't like anyone yawning before her, she thinks that they are bored of her and would thwack her head every time Sakura's yawn escape her mouth.
"Today will be about me." Sakura smiled and rolled her eyes, at times Tokoru would tell Sakura about her life stories, and Sakura admittedly interested in her adventures, and each story would hold a moral which at times hard to decipher.
"Well...where do I begin?" Tokoru thought, sitting down on one of the boulders. Sakura sat in front of the woman and began to listen. "I shall tell you about my love life." Tokoru giggled. "It began when I was in a small village, similar to this village. I was an ordinary woman, like you when our family moved into the village. Most the people there was strong and powerful, they have special skills and powers that some men even walked on waters and trees.
At first, I was scared of them; I thought they would use those powers to attack vulnerable people like myself and my family. However, my parents seemed to trust them, and asked one of the farm owners if I could work on their farm. The family was nice and treated me like their daughter. I grew fond of their only son, Hashima, he had dark black hair, and green eyes like yours." Tokoru smiled and looked at Sakura's glistening jade eyes, "He was a little stoic at times, but he certainly showed great care towards me." Tokoru giggled childishly. "One day, he showed me his powers. He proclaimed that he could make me see things that are not real, they call them genjutsu. I didn't believe him; I knew no one could do such a thing, so I challenged him. Then the scenery before me changed. There was sand beneath my feet, cool salty breeze on my skin, and blue waves caressing the shore. I have never seen the sea before and he was the first person to show me.
Most of the time, his family and himself go to battle with another nearby village, they would come back beaten and bruised, and I could do nothing to help them. I challenged Hashima to teach me about chakra, to teach me everything he knows. He obviously agreed. He told me that everyone has chakra within them, some has more than others. So, he taught me chakra control, which I developed to use my chakra to regenerate the cells of every living creature.
After years together, he asked me to marry him. I was going to lie and reject his offer as joke, but knowing him, he would probably put me under his genjutsu and force to make me watch cows dancing as a punishment. You see, one time a cow chased me through the fields, and Hashima rescued me. Every time we have an argument, he seemed to remember that moment and would not make me forget. " Tokoru chuckled at the thought, "A year later, I gave birth to my wonderful child, Toka. She bore the same physical features as her father, the same hair, the same stoic attitude, but she did inherit my eyes. She grew up to be a strong konoichi, she developed her own genjutsu and even surpassed her father.
When Toka was nearing 25, she introduced us to her lover. He was such as gentleman; he was a strong shinobi also. As a father, Hashima became possessive and overly protective of our only daughter. One time, he stalked Toka's lover to find out if he had negative traits, like gambling, smoking, whatever you can think of. But over the years of them being together, Hashima accepted the man and agreed to take her hand in marriage." Tokoru smiled, and realised the sun had risen; she stood up and started to walk towards the village.
"Wait, Tokoru Obaa-chan! What happened to Toka and her lover? And what about Hashima?" Sakura yelled.
"You'll find out in my other stories." Tokoku called back and proceeded to walk on.
So, Sakura made her way to the restaurant, but on her way, she pondered on the hidden moral behind Tokoru's story. It usually takes Sakura a few minutes to identify the true purpose and meaning. But today's story seemed to be a normal life story.
'Does it mean that I shouldn't be prejudice? Since Tokoru obaa-chan was scared about Hashima's family at the start. Or does it mean that I should be patient to those who are stoic? Or...be determined to learn new things?' Sakura thought.
When she reached her destination, she opened the back kitchen door and grabbed her hanging red apron and tied it around her neck and behind her. The chief, who is also the manager, was already in kitchen, steaming dumplings and other foods.
"'Morning, Sakura." Tsuji greeted.
"Good Morning, Tsuji-san. How the twin's first day of school?" Sakura asked politely, recalling that the two very adorable twins started their first school in Leju house. Leju wife, Meiku, acted as a teacher for younger children, to learn basic skills such as reading and writing.
"They said it was very good. They learnt to count to three, and learnt to write mother and father." Tsuji chuckled.
Sakura smiled and embraced the hectic day ahead of her.
After a couple of hours later, Sakura was still full of energy. Suddenly, the door opened. Yiramaru stood on the door way, a grin on his face and a smiling Leju beside him.
"May I have your attention people?" Yiramaru exclaimed. The whole restaurant stood still to hear his announcement. "Excellent news, Uchiha and Senju clan are at peace! There will be no more wars, battles and losing our loved ones." Each word Yiramaru said were full of emotion and hope.
"How do we know this is real?" One of the men shouted and challenged Yiramaru.
"The truce between the two clans created a village. But I promise you, this village is the symbol of peace. The leader of the Senju clan, Hashirama, said everyone is welcomed to move in."
The whole restaurant whispered, debating whether to believe or accept the news.
This will be the most adventurous time for Sakura.