Daisy Chains
Age 6 1/2
"All right, sweetie," Mama called from the kitchen. "We're going soon. Do you have your shoes on?"
Sakura nodded proudly, kicking out her feet. Upon them were a pair of shiny new red shoes, buckled unevenly on the right and a little loose on the left. But Sakura didn't mind. She was almost a grown-up now- six years old. She was going to go to school, and she had her own pair of special school shoes, and she was going to become a ninja!
Then she sighed; if only Mama would hurry!
"Mama!" She said, standing up and stumbling towards the kitchen (maybe that shoe wasn't buckled right after all) on unsteady feet. "Mama, can we go now? I have to go to school!"
"Coming! It's all right, baby, we've got plenty of time to get there."
Scowling, Sakura scuffed her shoe on the carpet. She wasn't a baby anymore, she was going to go to school to be a ninja! She was six whole years old now. Little 3- and 4- year olds were babies. Sakura was gonna be a kunoichi!
At last, after what seemed like forever, Mama bustled into the living room. She paused to glance at her reflection in a brass bowl of fruit, smoothing back her hair and patting away imaginary flyaways. Then she turned to Sakura, who by now was hopping up and down with unrestrained excitement and anticipation. The blond woman laughed, some of her worry lines smoothing away.
"Hold on a minute, pet, and let me fix your shoes."
"I can buckle my own shoes, Mama!" she declared proudly.
"Yes, you did. You're such a clever girl, Sakura. But if you'll hold still just a moment, I'll tuck away that strap-" Quickly, she did so, and then patted Sakura's hair. "Isn't that much better? Now you look all neat and trim and pretty as a flower."
"Like Princess Ryuko!"
"Yes, indeed."
Sakura took a moment to bask in her mother's praise, then remembered where they were going and tugged on her mother's wrist. "Come on, come on, come on! I have to go to school, Mama!"
"All right, then, let's go!"
Skipping with delight, Sakura all but danced out the front door. She skipped down their street, held held high. She waved to the neighbors, and old Mr. Kishimoto grinned at her and saluted when she skipped by his door. She grinned and saluted back. She skipped all the way down the street, past the guard ninja and the gardener and the little boys playing on the side of the road. She was still skipping when they got to the main road.
At last, Mama pulled her to a walk. "Careful, pet. You're getting dust on your new shoes. And look, your hair's going to be quite a fright by the time we get to the Academy. You'll want to look your very sharpest today."
"I don't care! I'm not tired."
But Sakura let her mother dust off her shoes with a wet handkerchief and smooth down her disheveled hair. And tried very hard to walk slowly all down the main street, and on the street they turned after the fish market. But after that...
After that, she could see the Academy. And she just couldn't keep from pulling her mother ahead.
"Slowly, dear. Dignity." But her mother was smiling.
There it was! The Academy! She trotted ahead of her mother, cheeks pink with exercise, eyes bright with curiosity.
A man at the door held a clipboard. There was a dark scar across his nose, and he had long hair in a ponytail. Sakura wasn't usually frightened of ninja- it would be silly to be frightened of ninja when she wanted to be one, and besides, ninja were just like policemen. But today, she stopped, looking up at him through her bangs. He was tall, and she didn't know him.
But the young man only smiled at her. "Why, hello there," he said, squatting down until he was just at her level. "What's your name?"
"Sakura!"
"Sakura, hm? That's a very pretty name. Are you going to be a student at the academy?"
"Yes!"
"Well, then, My name is Iruka, so you can call me Iruka-sensei."
"'Pleased to meetchoo!" she recited.
Mama came up from behind and took her hand. "I'm Mebuki Haruno, her mother."
Iruka-sensei stood up so he was tall again and faced Mama with a smile, and held up his clipboard. "I can register you both now, and then Suzume-sensei will take little Sakura here down to the courtyard for her physical examination. You can go with her, if you like."
"All right."
"Do you have all your documentation? Passports?"
"Yes, they're in my purse..."
Sakura stopped paying attention to them. Grownups were so boring sometimes.
Instead, she tried to peer through the entrance of the Academy. She could see lots of other people. Most of them looked like they were her age, and there were a lot of teachers in green vests and headbands, and some parents. Some of the parents were also wearing jackets. Were they ninja? Sakura knew that ninja had kids, and sometimes the kids turned into ninja too, but she didn't realize there would be so many of them.
"Who are you?" demanded a voice from behind her.
Sakura turned to see a girl standing by a man in a vest. The girl was wearing a pale orange dress with white flowers. She had blond hair, about the same length as Sakura's, pinned back on the sides, and her eyes were oddly pale. She was standing with her hands on her hips, but she didn't look angry.
"Sakura."
"I'm Ino. Are you going go to school here?"
"Yesss!" Sakura grinned. "Are you?"
"Yeah! Say, do you like flowers?"
Sakura nodded vigorously. "Mama named me after sakura 'cause she liked them so much."
Ino tilted her head. "I though it might be 'cause you have pink hair."
"Nope, she named me before I was born!"
"I've never met anyone with pink hair before," the blond girl observed. "Does your mama have pink hair too?"
"Nope. This is my mama!" Sakura tugged on her mother's sleeve. "My papa doesn't have pink hair either. Mama says it was 'cause I was born in the spring, and they were as happy to see me as the world was happy to see the sakura flowers."
"Oh. Is your papa a ninja?"
"No. Is yours?"
"Yeah! This is my daddy- he's a jonin!"
Sakura's eyes went wide with astonishment. "Wow!"
"I'm gonna be a jonin too," Ino informed her. "An' I'm gonna be the best kunoichi ever!"
"Really?"
"Yeah- like Princess Ryuko!"
"I wanna be like Princess Ryuko too! I'm gonna beat up the bad guys just like her."
"I wanna have my hair like her," Ino said. "I'm gonna grow it long someday."
"I like her ninjutsu!"
"Me too!"
"'Specially 'Flight of th' Storm Dragon'!"
"I like 'Forest God's Sword!'"
The tall man in the green jacket standing near Ino- Ino's daddy, Sakura remembered- had finished talking to the other ninja at the entrance. He smiled at Sakura but took Ino by the hand. "It's time to go get your physical done, Ino. You can talk to your friend later, okay?"
"But daddy!"
"No buts. Come on."
"Bye-bye, Sakura!"
"Bye-bye." Impatiently, Sakura turned to her Mama. Ino got there after Sakura did, so why weren't they done yet? "Mama! Are we done, can we go?"
"Almost done," said Iruka-sensei. "We just have a few more papers to do- and look, you get to sign this one, Sakura."
Her face lit up- this was big girl stuff, now- and she forgot all about Ino. "Really?"
"Yes. Look, right here. I'll read it to you, and then you need to repeat after me, and then you can sign it, all right?"
"I can read by myself!"
Iruka-sensei looked surprised and impressed. "Really? Have you been to school before this, or did your mother teach you how to read?"
Mama laughed. "Sakura learned to read when she was just four. All right, pet, read it out loud for us."
Solemnly, Sakura accepted the sheet of paper and squinted at it. It was in very small writing, but she could see it. "Um... 'I, Sakura Haruno, do swear that I am a loyal cit- cit- um, cit-zen of th' Leaf village. I do in- um, in-dee-cate my inten-shum-"
"Intention, sweet," corrected Mama.
"-intention to enroll at the... Acamady of Ninja Arts... until th' age of eleven. I do also swear that I 'm of sound mind an' body, an' I am willing to obey an' learn. An' mos' 'portantly, I do swear that I love my village an' will work toward its few-tur-"
"Future."
"-future peace an' prosperity.' An' that's all it says," Sakura finished.
"Very good job!" said Iruka-sensei with a smile. "I can see you'll be an excellent student already, Sakura-chan! Now, if you swear to do everything that you just read out loud for us-"
"Yesss!"
"-Then I need you to sign right here on this line, all right?"
With clumsy fingers, Sakura took the proffered pen and wrote a large, lopsided 'SAKURA' on the line. "Do I get to go to ninja school now?" she asked eagerly.
"Yes, you do. Now, if you'll just go with Suzume-sensei, she'll get you all set up for your physical examination. Okay?"
"Okay!"
The smiling woman with a long blue braid took the forms from Iruka-sensei and beckoned to Sakura and her mother. "The equipment is all set up out in the courtyard. We'll just be doing all the standard tests- taking her height, weight, blood pressure, checking her eyesight, hearing, stamina, flexibility. Unless she has any conditions in particular, there shouldn't be any problems. We just want some base numbers for reference. Does she have any allergies?"
"No, none."
"Asthma?"
"No."
Sakura pattered after Mama and the blue-haired sensei into the courtyard area of the Academy. There were lots of tables set up outside, and children were milling around or getting measured or looking at eyesight charts. She saw Ino doing some kind of stretching thing where she touched her toes and turned her head from side to side. A boy was running very quickly and being timed. Another boy was on the scales as they approached that station.
"My, Chouji-chan," said the lady at the scale. "You are a very big boy. You weigh 67 pounds already!"
The boy didn't seem to mind, to Sakura's surprise. (She knew that it was bad to be too fat, and besides it wasn't pretty.) Instead, he grinned widely. "My pa says we got big bones, but my ma says we just like to eat."
"Well, normally you'd be a bit over the limit, but we can make exceptions."
The boy nodded contentedly and stepped off the scale.
Suzume-sensei led Sakura to the scale. "All right, Sakura-chan, I need you to take off your shoes and step onto the scale, okay?"
Sakura nodded and kicked off her new shoes. Her mother picked them up.
"Hm... let's see, 48 pounds- perfect, right where you should be. And look- you're 43 inches tall!"
Sakura stepped off the scale and tugged her shoes on without unbuckling them. "Am I tall?"
"A little, yes. Now, I'm going to ask you to touch your toes for me. Can you do that?"
"Yes!"
"Very good- you're nice and flexible, too. Can you tell left from right?"
"Uh-huh."
"Good- I want you to turn your head as far to the right as you can. Good! Now the left- excellent. Can you raise your hands as high as you can- good. All right, let's go check your eyesight now."
"Okay!"
Obediently, Sakura padded after Suzume-sensei. She loved tests.
At the eyesight section, Suzume-sensei made her stand at one end of a string with a chart on the other side. "All right, can you see the row that I'm pointing at?"
"Yes."
"I want you to tell me what you see on that line."
"Um... a moon, a boat, a star, a cat, a triangle, an' a circle."
"All right, now cover your right eye with that card- good... okay, now your left eye- read what's on line 5 for me- good! Okay, Sakura, your vision is very good! Now, we're going to check your hearing. If you'll sit here and put on these headphones- good. Now, I want you to raise your hand when you hear a beeping sound. Can you do that for me? Okay, here we go."
Beeeep. Sakura raised her hand. Beeep. That one was higher. Beeeep.That one was quieter. She kept raising her hand- this was easy!
"Good, we're done. You have an excellent range of hearing, Sakura."
She smiled proudly.
"Now, I want you to follow my fingers with your eyes, but don't move your head- good. All right, sit down here and we'll take your blood pressure and listen to your heart and breathing. Don't worry, I promise it won't hurt a bit. We'll just put this on your arm here, and I'll make it inflate- good, just stay still. Okay, done with that- you're very healthy. And breathe in; now out- and in- and out. Good job, we're all done with that."
Sakura kicked her feet from the chair.
"Okay, now we're going to do a memory test. Do you think you can do that?"
She nodded eagerly.
"All right, I'm going to say some numbers and I want you to recite them back to me. Ready? One three five."
"One, three, five."
"Two four seven six."
"Nine seven four three one."
"Eight ten five nine one two."
"Six four five two seven one three."
"Um... six four five... seven two three?"
"All right, good. Now, Sakura, I hear that you know how to read already. Would you mind reading off of this card for me?"
"It says 'Th' fourth ninja law states that a ninja must always put the success of th' mission firs'."
"Good job! Do you know how to count?"
"I can count to a thousand! But that takes a long time."
"What about adding and subtracting?"
"Ummm... a little."
"Okay, good. Now, I'm going to see how fast you can run- ninja need to be very speedy. I want you to run as quickly as you can from here to that fence and back. I'm going to time you to see how fast you go. Do you understand? Good. Ready? Go!"
Sakura liked running- she tore as fast as she could to the fence and sprang back around and ran back. She could see Mama looking disapprovingly at her messy hair, but she didn't mind.
"15.24 seconds- not bad at all, considering you're a civilian."
"Who was the fastest?"
"Oh, the little Inuzuka boy. Yamanaka-chan was the fastest girl today."
But Sakura wasn't paying attention anymore. A little boy about her age had walked up, led by a white-haired chunin teacher. He was just her age, but he was already wearing ninja sandals- and he had an Uchiha fan on the back of his shirt.
"Look, Mama- it's an Uchiha!" she said excitedly.
"Hush, dear, it's rude to point." Her mother pushed her hand down.
The boy had seemed to hear her, though. He glared at her. Sakura felt a little bad, although she didn't know what she'd said wrong. She kept watching him, though.
His examiner had pulled out a stopwatch, and the Uchiha boy dropped to one knee like a professional athlete. At the word, he pushed off hard, leaving little dents in the ground from his feet, and ran so quickly she almost lost track of him. At the fence, he didn't turn exactly- he coiled and sprung round, propelling himself hard in the opposite direction. He ran like a ninja, arms behind him, and was back before Sakura could even register her amazement.
He gave her just a passing glance. Then he turned to his examiner.
"Best time today by... three seconds!" said the examiner, sounding very impressed. "8.20. The second best time was the Inuzuka kid at 11.43. Good work, kid."
Sakura padded over, smiling. "Wow, you're really fast! My name's Sakura. Who are you?"
He glanced at her guardedly. "... Sasuke Uchiha."
"I wish I were as fast as you! How come you go so quick?"
"My father expects me to be the best. I'm an Uchiha."
Sakura felt a little embarrassed. "Oh. My mama and papa aren't ninja, so..."
"Yes. I can tell."
"Do you know a lot of ninja stuff already?"
"... a little."
"Really? Can you do ninjutsu?"
"No."
"Can you do shuriken?"
"Yes."
"That's really cool! I wanna learn shuriken."
"..."
The white-haired chunin cleared his throat. "Uchiha-kun, I need you to step over here for a memory test. You can finish talking to your friend later."
The black-haired boy- Sasuke- shrugged and walked away without saying goodbye. Sakura didn't notice. She was already thinking about how to get Mama to buy her some shuriken. She was gonna be the very best student in the whole school!
"Sakura-chan, hurry along. We have two more tests to do..."
To the Parents of Miss Sakura Haruno:
The Leaf Village Council of Education and Recruitment is pleased to inform you that your child has been approved for a full scholarship education at the Academy. The Civilian Recruitment scholarship includes four years of tuition and reduced prices for equipment. The continuation of this scholarship is conditional on the academic achievement of your son/daughter and will be reviewed at the end of each semester. Additionally, should your son/daughter qualify to serve in the Leaf Village armed forces after graduation, he/she may not choose to withdraw for a period of at least five years. Please check the appropriate box below and sign on the line provided.
I, the parent/guardian of Sakura Haruno:
(X) Accept the Civilian Recruitment Scholarship and agree to the conditions above.
(_) Do not accept the scholarship and request that my son/daughter be removed from the Academy and placed in either the Artisan Trade School or the Hidden Leaf Civilian Institute.
Parent/guardian signature: Mebuki Haruno
Leaf Village Council: Education and Recruitment, Year 306, Session 12
Vote Topic: The continuation of the Civilian Recruitment Scholarship.
Vote proposed by: Hiashi Hyuga
Seconded by: Tsume Inuzuka
Speakers: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hiashi Hyuga, Choza Akimichi, Shikaku Nara
Results: In favor: (9) Opposed: (7) Abstaining: (1)
The Civilian Recruitment Scholarship will continue for 12 months before a review may be considered. The Academy will continue accepting new applicants that meet the standards set down in Year 301, Session 43.
It was 9:43 pm, and little Sakura had long since been tucked into her cozy bed upstairs, dreaming sweet dreams of going on ninja adventures and saving the day. Mebuki sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea while her husband finished drying the dishes in the drying rack. It was dark out, and a single overhead light illuminated the dim kitchen where the two of them kept one another company. The blond woman was rubbing her face tiredly.
"It was so stressful," Mebuki admitted at last. "They were all ninja- the parents, the teachers- I even saw a little girl with a kunai pouch strapped around her leg, can you believe it?"
"It is the Ninja Academy," her husband pointed out. "That's what it's there for."
"Yes, but- every little boy and girl we met was from a ninja family, and- oh, Sakura met the little Yamanaka girl, and there was the Akimichi boy and the Inuzuka boy and the Hyuga heiress and the second son of the Uchiha clan head- and-"
She paused, looking slightly wretched.
"And... I know it's silly, but I worry about Sakura. What if her teachers treat her differently? What if the other students look down on her? I hear that there are four children from ninja families for every one civilian child- and what if she falls behind? I couldn't stand to have Sakura go to a trade school. But if you graduate from the Civilian Institute, you have to go abroad to get educated at a private school- it's only ninja that can go to medical school for free or get apprenticeships."
"You know better than that," rebuked her husband.
"Yes," she said, "but I still worry."
"There's no reason."
"I heard-" Mebuki bit her lip. "I heard the Uzumaki child was accepted- that he's attending the school in Sakura's class. And the Uchiha boy I saw- he was a trained fighter, I could tell, and he was so cold even at six... Sakura is going to be in class with children like that. Even if they aren't malicious, they're dangerous. What about her social skills. I'm sorry, I know your sister was a ninja, but you can't deny that they're all a bit... warped."
"Let Sakura forge her own way," said Kizashi. "All we need to do is be there for her when she needs us."
"Yes. You're right."
"You should go to sleep- you're exhausted."
"All right."
"Love you."
"Love you too. Good night."
"Good night."