A/N: welcome to my first AU! Warning, major redesign of Sakura's parents, since their anime design sucked. If you end up liking this i do hope you tell me in the reviews, because I don't want to waste any time writing something that people don't want to even read.
Haruno Sakura was a tiny girl. Everyone said so. Even at 8 years old, she was small for her age. And precious, if the cheek-pinching adults were to be believed (Sakura believed them). And smart, if she did say so herself (she did). But mostly, she was just small.
And that is what she depended on as she flitted across the sidewalk through the dark night, jumping in the shadows to avoid the stark splotches of light provided by street lamps as she trailed her target. She hid behind trash cans, pressed herself flush against tree trunks and lampposts that scratched at her tender skin.
Her attempts at hiding didn't matter much. Her target was entirely unaware of her pursuit as he ran home from the training grounds. But still, Sakura was careful, fancying herself a true ninja, no matter how much Mama and Papa hoped she would drop out. Drop out and take an interest in civilian life, like a good little girl.
Sakura was not much interested in being a good little girl. She wanted to be a ninja.
Focus! She shook the stray thoughts out of her head. Iruka, her teacher at the Academy, was always reminding her to focus. When you feel your thoughts drifting, tell yourself to focus.
Adults talked too much, as far as Sakura was concerned. She tightened the red ribbon holding her hair off her face and peeked out from behind her tree.
Her target drew further away from her, and Sakura gave chase. She thought of her friends, giggling under Ino's bedsheets, waiting for her to come back unsuccessful. Not this time. This time, Sakura was determined to complete the dare.
She was going to find out exactly where Sasuke lived and report back to her starry-eyed friends. Her eyes narrowed onto the Uchiha crest on the target's back.
The target slowed, and Sakura knew they must be nearing The Destination, as she's dubbed it in her head - it sounded ninja-ish. The thought of being in the Uchiha Compound after dark sent shivers down her spine. Technically, she wasn't not allowed in the compound - everyone was allowed in, to buy Uchiha goods or do Uchiha work. But Sakura got the feeling that she shouldn't have come here. Not tonight. She glanced up at the full moon and considered turning back.
Sasuke came to a sudden stop inside the compound, and quickly assessed his surroundings, as if he'd heard a cat in the bushes. Sakura watched, peeking out from behind the corner of the building she's hidden herself behind. She shook her head and reminded herself that tonight, he wasn't Sasuke. He was her target. Think like a ninja.
Something flickered along the rooftops, and Sasuke stopped again. He stared up at an electricity pole for a long time before moving on. Sakura glanced at the same pole as she passed it. There was nothing there, and she felt uneasy; it was so quiet in the Uchiha compound. She'd been there before, with Ino - it was usually a loud place, even at night, people haggling or visiting or breathing fire. Sakura couldn't breathe fire, even if she tried her best. Sasuke could - she'd seen him do it. She liked him, but that was just weird, in her opinion.
He continued on after a shake of his head and she followed after him. He expertly maneuvered through the streets, and shops and stalls began to melt into residences. The homes were nicer than any house Sakura had ever been in before - even Ino's. They were tall, regal, with sharp edges and perfectly manicured hedges. She tried to imagine herself living in one of these mansions, but she couldn't. All she could see was her own tiny house down the street from her parents' shop.
In her distraction, she didn't notice that Sasuke had stopped again. She almost gave away her position by barreling into him, but managed to slip behind a small hedge at the last moment and allowed herself to glance around the corner to see why he'd stopped a second time.
She clapped a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
There were bodies everywhere, littered on the street like garbage. Each corpse lay in a pool of its own blood, and immediately Sakura knew they were beyond saving - some were still breathing, but barely, ragged death rattles escaping their bloodied lips in gasps. Sasuke remained frozen, but not for long - he broke into a sprint. For a moment, Sakura couldn't move. She considered her options - get an adult, or follow Sasuke, who might be racing toward the cause of this violence. Her instincts were of two minds - the child wanted to run. The ninja wanted to follow.
She forced her tremors down, clenched her jaw, and followed him, making less of an effort to conceal herself. Sasuke didn't look back, didn't notice her presence. He was distracted, fear quickening his steps.
He wove through the streets expertly, picking up pace, and Sakura followed until he stopped in front of a large house that looked like a palace compared to her own home. The front door was ajar. He took an uncertain step forward, then several, then he pushed open the door and slipped inside.
He screamed. The door slammed shut behind him.
Sakura tried to slow her heart rate with the techniques that Iruka had taught the class - hyperventilating wouldn't do her any good, not right now. Plan first, panic later. She hid in the hedges lining the property and looked around for street signs, house numbers, something to tell the first adult she can find. She knew the closest posted Anbu patrol was nearly a quarter mile west from the entrance to the compound. If she ran as fast as possible, maybe they could be at the compound within ten minutes.
She was about to untangle herself from the bushes and make a run for it when she heard the door open and then slam shut. Quick footsteps approached the hedges. She held her breath, kept her miniscule chakra concealed the way she was taught in the academy.
The footsteps passed her, and she caught a glimpse of a man running past the bushes. Blood, fresh and dried, decorated his face and clothes. He looked a lot like Sasuke - she could see it in his long hair, his lips, the shape of his face.
His eyes were different. They were bright red.
Moments after the man passed her, she heard the door open and shut again. It was Sasuke, and he didn't notice her either as he broke into a run. He was covered in blood, breathing hard, tears streaming down his face, as he chased after the man. She knew Sasuke's face like the back of her hand from years worth of covertly studying him in the Academy. She'd never seen him like this.
After several beats of hesitation, Sakura followed after the pair. She wasn't entirely sure why she did it, but she couldn't stop herself, couldn't stop her legs from running after them. She followed Sasuke down another street, careful to keep herself concealed at all times. She came to rest behind an ancient-looking weapons shop when he finally caught up to the man, and shouted, "Itachi!"
Itachi?
The man stopped and turned to face Sasuke. He opened his mouth, and his voice sounded cruel, hard, calculated.
Sakura could hear their voices, but couldn't make out the words over the sound of the blood rushing in her ears and the thumpthumpthump of her frightened heart. She watched them, and her whole body trembled as her mind raced. The man was clearly much stronger than both of them combined, if he was the one who murdered all of those people who lay strewn in the streets with nothing but the swords on his back. She can see no other option - she had the strong feeling that the three of them were the only living bodies in the compound.
Why haven't we been found? Anbu patrols or at least the posted chunin squad should have heard something by now, should have come to investigate...
Sasuke and the man argued for a few moments before Sasuke suddenly collapsed to the ground.. The man caught him before his head hit the cement and slowly - gently - laid him on the concrete. Her heart constricted, jumping into her throat, at the sight of the man's bloodstained hands on Sasuke's head. He's going to kill him. Sakura bit her lip. What would Ino do, right now, if it was Sakura on the ground? She wouldn't just sit and watch. A real ninja would never just sit and let their comrade be killed.
Sakura threw herself out from behind the shop before she could talk herself out of it, before she could really think about what she was about to do.
"Stop!" she shrieked, keeping one hand on the building to stop her knees from giving out. Her voice didn't sound like her own - it was shrill, afraid. The man's head turned to look at her. "Don't hurt him!"
They made eye contact and Sakura knew that he thought of killing her. She braced herself, reaches for a kunai that isn't strapped to her waist - she's in her pajamas, after all - but to her surprise, the man's swords stayed in their sheaths, and his eyes softened.
"Who are you?" he asked, and his voice is not unkind.
"Haruno Sakura," she said breathlessly. "He's my friend. Don't… don't kill him."
"He's my brother," the man sighed. "I wasn't going to kill him. It was good of you to try to stop me. Are you an academy student?"
She nodded, trembling. Sakura had never been so afraid in her entire life - this man, with his blood-covered swords and red eyes, was speaking to her as if the streets weren't littered with corpses that he had cut down.
"My name is Itachi. I'm not going to hurt you, Sakura. You will be a good Konoha ninja someday. Do you always run around our compound in your pajamas?"
"You killed all of those people," Sakura whispered. Her throat was closing in on itself, aching with fear.
"I did," he nodded, and his eyes were unfathomably sad behind their blood-red veneer. "But I have no quarrel with you. A friend of Sasuke's is a friend of mine, Haruno Sakura. I have to go, but will you make sure he's okay?"
Sakura nodded, one hand clutched to her chest, the other still supporting her weight against the brick wall. The man turned to leave; with one last look at his younger brother, he sighed. His eyes were wet with tears. "Look after him."
With that, he disappeared into the night, his form fading quickly against the pitch black sky. Sakura finally allowed herself to collapse, scraping her knees on the concrete - she didn't feel it, her entire body overcome with simultaneous fire and ice. Sasuke was lying maybe fifty feet from her body but it may as well have been a mile. She couldn't move, not an inch, hyperventilations racking her lungs, joints locked in place.
For several moments she remained frozen where she fell. She worried that Itachi will change his mind, turn around and come for them both.
Then shouldn't you get out of here before he comes back?
The thought allowed her to bend her knees and stand, stumbling shakily to Sasuke's body. She knelt next to him and pulled his arm over her shoulder and lifted him carefully - despite her stature, she was stronger than she looked; Mama always said so, letting her carry sacks of flour to the shop all by herself.. She stood slowly, and whether it was the adrenaline pumping through her veins or her own strength, he wasn't nearly as heavy as he looked.
Sakura retraced her steps with Sasuke on her shoulder - she couldn't navigate the streets as nimbly as Sasuke had, but she thought she remembered the way back to the village. She passed by his home and pauses, wondering what was inside that had made Sasuke scream like that, but she decided that she didn't really want to know.
Once finally outside of the compound, she set her path homeward, hoping to run into a grownup before then. Civilian or ninja, it doesn't matter, as long as she found someone.
In her heart, she knew that there was nobody left that could be saved in the compound. She ignored her heart, telling herself that the medics in Konoha could work miracles, that if she could just find someone, then there might be survivors...
There was no one to be found. The village was unusually quiet and empty; the roads and trees were dark, as if they too were too afraid to make a sound. For a moment, the chilling thought that maybe the carnage did not stop inside the Uchiha compound stopped her heart, that maybe the reason that she did not run into a single patrol was because Itachi killed them too.
She shook the idea out of her head and pressed on. The full moon illuminated her way, and she listened to Sasuke's steady breathing in her ear, a reassurance that she wasn't the only person left in the entire world, no matter how alone she felt in that instant.
Sakura carried him on her back for the better part of two miles, passing by the lookout posts that she had never seen empty until tonight.
Eventually she reached her own street, every muscle in her body burning and protesting as she dragged herself up the steps to her home and through the front door, and dropped to her knees on the carpet in the front hall. Sasuke slumped beside her, still unconscious.
"Mama!" Sakura screamed, and within seconds, light flooded the hallway, spilling out of her parent's room.
"Sakura?" she heard her father's voice call, and the rustling of sheets as he and her mother jumped out of bed, her mother pulling on her ratty bathrobe. "Are you okay? What happened at Ino's hou-"
"Oh no," her mother gasped when she emerged from the bedroom, her father right behind her. "What happened?"
"I don't know!" Sakura sobbed. "He was going home, and I followed him there, and everyone was dead and he won't wake up so I brought him here so you can fix him!"
Mebuki leaned down and scooped Sakura into her arms, and her father felt Sasuke's neck for a pulse, pulling a cushion from couch to put under Sasuke's head. Sakura buried her face into her mother's neck, breathing into her long brown hair.
"We have to get the Hokage. That boy is a Uchiha," Mebuki whispered over Sakura's head. "Kizashi, she says people are dead. Call someone."
"Right." Kizashi, flustered, left Sasuke's side to pull his overcoat from the hook by the door. "Can you manage by yourself?"
"Of course I can!" Mebuki snapped. "Hurry!"
And with that, Sakura's father rushed out the door. Mebuki cradled Sakura in her arms, smoothing the hair on the back of her head, and murmured quiet reassurances while she placed Sakura down on the couch and wrapped her in a blanket.
Sakura shivered and watched her mother kneel next to Sasuke. She placed a hand on the boy's forehead and used her other hand to peel back one of the boy's eyelids.
Sakura recoiled into the couch. Red. Sasuke's eyes are red. Just like Itachi's.
It was not a good night, to say the least. Sakura briefly wondered about her friends huddled up in Ino's large bed, doling out truths and dares and never-have-I-evers; they must be asleep by now. She wondered how long they waited for her before deciding that she chickened out and scampered home to her mama.
She hoped she wouldn't have to see them tomorrow.
It didn't take long for her father to return, and he had the Hokage and three other ninja in tow. Sakura recognized them as Anbu by their masks - where were you? They crowded around Sasuke, mumbling to each other, peeking at the red eyes under his closed eyelids. Sakura caught some words she knew - compound, shock, massacre.
Her father whisked her up to her room, and sat with her until she falls asleep. When she asked if Sasuke was going to be okay, he assured her the boy would be fine. Sakura knew he was lying, but she didn't mind.
She dreamed of the kind, red eyes of the man who murdered his family in one night.