The first time Sakura killed, was when her father came at her with the kitchen knife. She had hidden underneath the bed, having just heard the terrible cries of her mother being hacked apart. When he came into the bedroom he was silent. However, the crazed dark eyes had scanned the room until it landed on her shadow underneath the bed.
"Sakura. I see you, It's just me," he had said bending down to search for the origin of the shadow. Their eyes had met then, and something clicked within Sakura's mind. Something primal awakened.
She still remembers the way her fingers went straight for his eyes and the way the blood drip down her hands. His agonizing screams still plagued her dreams. In pain, he had made the mistake of dropping the knife to reach for his eyes, and she had taken it, and plunged it into his heart.
She remembers very little of what happened next, having collapsed on the floor beside her dead father, unconscious. His blood still stained her hands.
A chunin was called in a day later to investigate the absence of the little girl from the civilian school. As protocol, he knocked first on the door, and waited for ten minutes. When no one answered, he walked around looking for another entrance only to spot the murdered Mrs. Haruno through the kitchen window.
Out of shock, he had backed up suddenly, knocking over a pot of sage from Mrs. Haruno's meticulously cultivated terrace herb garden. Not registering the clatter of broken pottery. He had stood there for a good thirty seconds before the Shinobi training kicked in, and he rushed to the nearest ANBU guard post.
Twenty minutes later, three-masked ANBU—the boar, the tiger, and the horse—broke into the house, to find the gory scene.
Boar had turned to Horse, "Tch, what do you think happened here?" From behind his mask, Horse frowned.
"It could be a number of things… job loss, insanity, alcohol... To think a man turned on his own family."
"Enough speculation! This girl is still alive!" Tiger ground out, after feeling a faint pulse. Taking Sakura's small, limp form in her arms she immediately ran to the hospital.
Which was where Sakura woke up to see a solemn Hokage sitting by her bedside.
"Ho…kage-sa…ma?" her voiced cracked out. The old man looked up; his wizened eyes held deep sorrow, triggering a rush of memories from the terrible night to flood her mind. Bending over in pain, the young girl clutched her ears, and closed her eyes. If only the memories could be blocked out as easily as that.
Sarutobi Hizuren leaned over from where he was seated to hug the girl as dry sobs over came her. His beard—Sakura would vaguely remember—had scratched her chin, and he had smelled of smoke. Which was somehow fitting for a Kage of the Fire country.
"He killed her," choked out Sakura.
"I know," said the Hokage, cursing the fates for inflicting pain on such a young girl.
"I… I killed him," she said suddenly very quietly, horrified. Though the medics had cleaned her hands, she could still feel the sticky blood that coated her fingers.
"I know," said the Hokage. She was silent for moment, and the old man moved away to examine her face. After a while, the small girl looked up into his eyes, and for the first time in decades, the old man was stunned. The look of adult severity within her green eyes shook him to the core. However, that did not prepare him for what the young girl said next.
"I'm a murderer."
"Welcome to the club."
Months Later
"Sakura."
"Yes Sarutobi-sama?"
"The hospital has finally written you down for a clean bill of health."
"You don't say…"
"Sakura."
"Mmhmm..."
"Sakura!"
"What?"
"Could you please stop what you're doing and listen to me?" demanded the old man eyeing the sketchpad within the young girl's hands. On closer examination, the old man saw a rough sketch of the Hokage monument. Art therapy, the medic had told him—to help with the healing process.
Once he had her attention he sighed, the girl had come a very long way from the distraught girl on the first night. Sighing, the old man rubbed his temples. "Sakura, they're moving you out of the psych ward today."
"Oh really?" she said not too concerned, "am I going back to the other wing?"
"No, you've been deemed physically and mentally stable enough to check out." This caught her attention.
"Where will I go? I don't think I have any remaining family…"
"Well that's the problem, Sakura. I has been decided that you become a ward of the state."
"Okay…"
"However, this only leaves you with two options. The first is that you become an orphan and move to the civilian orphanage."
"No!" she objected, "I've gone through too much. Hokage-sama, you know well enough how poorly kids are treated in civilian orphanages."
"That's the thing though, Sakura, you're eight years old—only a child. However, the second option is that you become a ward of the state…"
"I don't see the difference!"
"Sakura, the difference is that be becoming a ward of the state, you will declare your self as a Shinobi in training. This means that you will have to go to the Academy, and once you turn 12 you will be a legal adult, however, you must remain in the service for a duration of ten years."
The childish light that had illuminated her animated features dulled immediately, and a sudden veil of maturity graced her features. The thought of her becoming a Shinobi had never once crossed her mind. She came from a long line of civilians.
"Hokage-sama. I'm already a murderer, what's a couple hundred times more a difference?"
To Be Continued…