I kind of love ShikamaruXSakura pairings... It's so cute! Sadly they aren't as popular... :/
Hope you guys like it!
Secrets: Chapter 1
Sakura was considered S-ranked at age 15. And nobody even knew.
I'm drowning.
Sakura, age 12
It was a week after Sasuke had left her behind on that bench and she was still depressed. It wasn't because she supposedly loved him, it was because she knew that with his departure that Team 7 would never be completely whole again. She hadn't even liked him that much, she had found it an amusing source of fun to provoke Ino-pig and it he was good-looking. Plus her parents had drilled the family motto into her ever since she had been born. Deception must be constant. Her parents were living proof of their motto.
Her parents were considered, by the whole village except for the Third Hokage and Sakura herself, civilians. Perhaps if a team of recon ANBU had an S-Ranked mission to observe her parents, they might have noticed. Just maybe. Because who would ever suspect that her seemingly average parents were shinobi? And considered S-Ranked too because of all the information they knew.
But no one ever knew. Because the non-existent Haruno clan specialized in three things; intelligence, their clones, and deception. They were pretty much the record keepers and spies of Konoha and reported only to the Hokage, and him alone. It was doubtful that the Council even knew of their existence, they only accepted that information on other villages filtered into Konoha with surprising accuracy and detail. Ever since Sakura had been born up until now, the only training her parents had ever asked of her had been to live half her life as she wanted and half of it as a lie. So that's what she did; she put on a fangirl attitude but kept her smarts. Even during the fight against Zabuza and Haku she had played the weak, fangirly genin to perfection. Yes, she was weak. But was she an embarrassing fangirl? Hell no. So as she sat in bed, holding the picture in her hands, she realized that in order to protect what was left of Team 7 she would have to get stronger. She put the picture down and headed to the kitchen, where her parents were both home from their missions.
"Mom, Dad?" They looked up from eating their breakfast and turned to her. She prepared herself for the hellish training that was to come. "I want to learn the Clan techniques." Her parents immediately focused their piercing eyes on their daughter.
Her father was solemn. "Are you prepared? Mentally?"
"Yes." She nodded.
"You are aware that Clan training will require you to sacrifice your personality to deceive everyone? Your mask must be perfect, never to be broken." Her mother spoke up and gazed at her daughter intently.
"Yes. I can accept that." She had been pushing off her private training for a year now and while her parents had been okay with it, she knew they wanted her to begin as soon as possible. And she knew that the moment her training begun, her interaction with others would probably be at least seventy-five percent lies, and twenty-five percent her true self. That once she mastered it, her deception and mask would completely cover her.
She could see the approval in her parent's eyes.
"Very well, we shall begin."
Both her parents stood up and walked to the basement. Although their house looked normal from the outside and inside, there were so many secret seals and areas that not even Sakura knew about. The basement was where all training occurred but this was the first time that Sakura would see it since it was reserved only for clan training.
"We'll start off with the clones." Her mother said. "Let us begin."
Sakura, Age 14
Sakura was three-quarters done with her training, which was to perfect the clones and her chakra control mainly. Deception hadn't really been a big part of her training since she didn't have to keep her shinobi status a secret, only her techniques and knowledge. Even though there were technically three parts to master, intelligence held two meanings. For one, it meant she had to be smart and able to strategize, but it also meant information gathering. The first part was as easy as breathing for her, but information gathering would only be possible if her parents died or if she succeeded their position since it was based solely on clones.
The clones had been the most difficult. They were very similar to Naruto's Kage Bushin no Jutsu in the sense that they had solid bodies, but the her clan's clones took it to a whole new level. They were special because they could stay solid even if she and the clone were separated by a long distance and could mimic all bodily actions, like bleeding, to make it seem even more realistic. She could also control them personally if needed or she could put them on a sort of autopilot, where their personalities were like a robot's.
Her chakra reserves were growing, in a year or two they would be on par with Naruto's, since it took quite a lot of chakra to maintain more than ten clones over a long distance. In order to maintain chakra flow between the clones, her parents had placed a two seals on her back in the form of tattoos. The first tattoo effectively helped Sakura limit the amount of chakra each clone had while the second tattoo stored bits of her chakra for emergencies, and kept Sakura's own chakra levels moderate.
Sakura Age 15
Sakura walked along the dusty path to Training Ground 3. Her training outfit had changed over the past year, she now wore black shorts along with a white medic skirt, and a black t-shirt with the Haruno clan symbol on the back. She had also grown her hair out so that when she let it down it reached mid-back but she usually preferred putting it into a messy high bun held with two poisoned senbon.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled. He had matured a lot since Sasuke's departure and was planning to go on a training trip with the sannin Jiraiya soon.
"Hey Naruto." She smiled and thought of her own training. It had hurt her to realize that Kakashi would not train her. His attention had always been on Sasuke and after he had, his focus had shifted onto Naruto.
'He underestimates us.' Inner seethed.
'But it's fine. It means our secrets will stay hidden.' Sakura replied.
'He never cared much for us. Only them.' Inner was the part of Sakura that sought for acknowledgement for what she could truly do.
'It's partly our fault too; his first impression of us was a clumsy, ditzy, fangirl. Not the best impression.' She regretted having overplayed her role slightly now, it had come to bite her in the ass. She also regretted even having her crush on Sasuke, his departure had made her realize that she hadn't seen underneath the underneath. And she had finally seen that under his cold attitude, was a scarred boy who was willing to trade his soul for revenge. He could be brought back to the light, but the question was if he would allow others to help him back.
She sighed and a twinge of sadness hit her heart when she looked at Naruto. She would miss him during his training period. Naruto's eager voice broke her from her thoughts.
"I promise to bring Sasuke back when I'm done training, okay?" Naruto grinned at her and she smiled back.
"Thanks Naruto, but stay safe. Promise me you'll come back alive, with or without Sasuke. Okay?" Inside she felt like crying. She loved Naruto like a brother and even though having Sasuke back would mean that Team 7 would be reunited at last, she would rather have Naruto safe with Hinata than him and Sasuke fighting to the death. Which could happen, considering their personalities.
"Eh?" Naruto's smile faltered for a second before it came back even bigger. "Don't worry! I'll bring Sasuke home for sure! And stay alive, dattebayo!"
"You better. If you come back dead, I'll kill you, bring you back to life, kill you again, then bring you back to life." She smirked. "And I'll make sure you never have children. Got it?"
"Y-y-yes." Naruto was pale and stuttering like Hinata. "Got it!"
Sakura laughed. "Good. Let's go meet up with Kakashi-sensei. I wonder what his excuse is gonna be this time."
Sakura: Age 15 (One week to her 16th birthday)
"Mom? Dad?" She walked into her house and rounded the corner to meet the stench of blood and a figure standing above her parents on the floor. She snarled. "Who are you?"
The figure straightened up and she could see that it was a rough nin. "Oh, a pretty little girl, I'll have my fun with you once I finish with your parents, the ones who managed to get me banished from my village." Sakura could hear a smirk in his voice. She looked at her parents on the floor, fighting back the urge to sink to the floor and cry. Quickly assessing their situation, she could tell that she was far too late to save her mother but her father had a chance if she moved quickly. She sank into an offensive stance.
"Bring it." She disappeared and reappeared behind the man while using a quickly formed chakra scalpel to cut his right arm.
"You bitch! I'm going to rape you and kill you!" He snarled and he threw a kunai at her with his left hand. She dodged easily and rushed at him again with her chakra scalpel. This time, she swiped her scalpel across his chest, cutting through his ribs and his heart. He fell to the ground, gasping, as the blood in his heart chambers rushed out into his body and he died a slow, painful death.
She ran over to her father to see if she could save him. It only took one glace to see that her mother had died during her fight with the rough nin. "Daddy?" She whispered as she brought her glowing hands to his chest and assessed the damage. As she scanned, she knew it was too late. Four of his ribs were broken, both of his lungs was punctured, his left leg was broken in five places, and two of his major arteries had been cut. He smiled weakly at her, then turned serious as he grabbed her hands. "Sakura. Keep the secrets. They will be heavy, but you must bear them. Do you understand me?" He was growing weaker with each word. She nodded, tears streaming down her face. He continued. "No one must find out, you are the only one left now. When it's hard to bear the burden, remember, we love you. Stay strong. Always be our little Sakura." It took the last of his remaining energy to muster up a smile for her. One last smile before the light in his eyes faded.
"Mommy. Daddy." She brought both of their bodies to the center of the room and laid them side by side. She cried silently as she closed their empty eyes and as she kneeled over the two bodies, tears plopped down onto their cold faces. She kept crying even when she noticed two ANBU appear and take control of the situation.
The next day, she stood in front of Tsunade's desk in her office looking like hell.
After her parents bodies had been taken to the morgue, she had spent all night comforting herself over their deaths and preparing for her duty. The moment her father had died, a small circular seal had appeared on her back in between her shoulder blades. It linked directly to a seal the Hokage also had and would burn slightly whenever the Hokage summoned her. She had also spent the better part of the night taking control of the clones her parents had spread out in various areas. There were ten of them hidden in various villages, and were the reason why Sakura had been trained the most in her chakra reserves. Her parents reserves were half of hers because both of them supported five clones each. But since Sakura was the only one, she would have to support all ten by herself.
She hadn't gotten around to the secret memory jutsu yet. It was a scroll hidden in her basement that would transfer every piece of information her parents had ever known and kept into her own mind. History would literally be implanted into her brain. However, the transfer jutsu took three days, which was why she had put it off for now. She would have to hurry though, in case Tsunade summoned her. Her parents had only ever told their true identity to the Third Hokage after nearly fifteen years of secret missions. When Tsunade had taken over, they had told her that their successor would only reveal his/her identity after proving him/herself.
"Sakura, honey, I'm so sorry." Honey brown eyes took in her pink haired apprentice who was looking haggard. "We're going to start arranging for a funeral as soon as possible."
Sakura shook her head. "I'd like to have a private funeral please. And I'd appreciate it if their deaths were kept between the ANBU, you, me, and records."
Tsunade's eyes softened and she frowned. "Sakura, honey, are you sure? Why don't you want to tell them?"
"I don't…" Sakura began, then trailed off. "I don't want them to see me as weak again. Not after Sasuke. Besides, my parents were very reserved. They weren't very close with a lot of people."
Tsunade was still frowning. "If that's what you want Sakura…"
She nodded firmly. "Yes, shishou."
"Very well then." Tsunade sighed. "Take a week off Sakura. Don't overexert yourself okay? And if you ever need comfort remember that me and Shizune are always here for you."
Sakura smiled then. A very small one. "Thanks shishou."
