Sakura curls into her mother's arms and watches the flames outside her bedroom window urge her to emerge from her shelter. She doesn't submit to their temptations. She knows more than many of the children her age how dangerous it is to play with fire.

The nine-year-old stiffens when her mother brings them to the floor of her window pane. Her mother shakes her pink hair with her haggard breathing and almost suffocates her when she squeezes her too tightly. Then, before Sakura thinks she's going to pass out, her mother suddenly releases her. Her body falls onto the wooden floor and flinches when her elbow hits the boards. She rubs the offended joint and glances at Mebuki, who inches backward without taking her darkened blue eyes away from the window.

Then, before either one could prepare for it, a shinobi crashes through the window. Sakura faintly hears Mebuki calling to her before another shinobi enters the room. The second soldier's eyes are wide, white, and surrounded by distended blood vessels. His flat, open palms slam into the first intruder's chest, emitting a loud crack muffled by a slush of fluid. Then a third shinobi appears and sets the white-eyed soldier ablaze. His red irises turn to Mebuki, a smirk lifting them, before approaching her.

"Sakura," Mebuki raises her fists. "Run!"

Sakura is about to dissent when Mebuki narrowly misses a string of flames. She will only distract her, the child realizes. If she wants her guardian to win and save them both, she has to do what her mother has told her and go.

The little girl rises to her slippered feet and runs into the hallway. The hollow passageways are dark but are becoming illuminated orange and red from a light behind her. A dry cough escapes Sakura's throat as her vision blurs with tears. Her skin feels like it's sizzling, so she rubs her forearms to distract herself from the advancing heat.

And then the walls and floors tremble around her. Sakura yelps when the force throws her forward and then catches the railing of the staircase before she could plummet off the second floor. Her right ankle twists at the sudden motion, disabling her as she wordlessly half-runs and half-limps toward the front door. The air crackles and hisses as her fingers fumble to turn the knob. After singing her sweaty skin with the metal's scalding heat, the exit finally pushes outward and allows Sakura to swallow the wind.

But the gales taste of ash and copper. The other houses in the neighborhood have been replaced by mountains of flames. When Sakura turns back to her own abode, she stumbles backward to witness fire consume the building from the inside out. Billows of smoke stream from the doors and windows and forge a wall between the skies and the decaying avenue. The white-painted walls shrivel into brown and then into black. Parts of it collapse, revealing hallways that have been too darkened to recognize or even see.

Sakura doesn't realize how far she is going until her ankle causes something hairy to roll onto the sidewalk. When she pivots to see what has been disturbed, her eyes land on the object that has stopped at the center of the road.

A severed head.

"No."

The girl's knees collapse and allow her bottom to fall onto the ground. Her elbows crawl the rest of her backward. She has known the owner of that head: a kind, elderly widow that visits her house sometimes to keep Mebuki company. She is one of her mother's closest friends, Sakura trembles, and she's dead.

"There you are."

Sakura freezes, unable to move as the shinobi her mother has faced in the house moves to stand before her. She scans the area and looks at anything but the sneering predator. He's here, she screams in her mind. Where is her mother?

"Oh, are you looking for your mommy?" the man tilts his head. His fire seems to be cackling from behind him, laughing at a joke that the ninja will soon reveal. "She's right here!"

For the first time tonight, Sakura screams. What plops onto the grass like a gift is Mebuki's bloody, disembodied head. Her short blonde hair is tangled into different directions. Some of the fringes are framing her wide, lifeless irises.

"N-No!" Sakura cups her mouth. "M-Mo-om!" She croaks and wails, mourning for the arms that will never hold her again.

"Don't worry, kid."

Sakura glares at the murderer, her pupils narrowing as the man unsheathes his blade. The sharp edge is red and sticky, still fresh with Mebuki's blood.

"You'll be with them soon."

What happens next happens too fast. On the first second, Sakura detects the whir of the blade. On the next second, she hears a grunt and a gurgle. On the third, she catches a thump and feels the ground shake. Sakura's wide eyes stare at her predator before gazing at the one who has taken him down.

"Are you alright?" the stranger asks. He kneels down before her with an outstretched hand, which Sakura immediately strikes with her smaller one before scurrying backward.

"Get away from me!" she rises to her feet.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the boy assures, exposing his open palms as he too stands up. He looks to be about fourteen years old with onyx eyes and black hair tied behind his back. His attire consists of a white vest and a black full-body suit, just like her mother's killer's.

Sakura scowls, allowing tears to drip down her lashes. "Your friend killed my mother."

"He's not my friend," the boy corrects, looking back at their subject in disdain. "They never were."

An explosion detonates from an apartment complex two buildings away from the house. Sakura slowly turns her head to the burning wreckage as her lips tremble. She can no longer recognize the building behind her, which is now a tall wall of flames. What of the residents in that apartment? Are they too lamenting the loss of their home? Sakura doesn't get a verbal answer but a visual one, which is of a mother and two children running from the inferno until they are impaled by a shinobi's sword.

"We have to get out of here," the boy states. "Get on my back."

Sakura doesn't regard him until the teenager wraps her arms around his neck. She tenses at his touch, allowing him to hook onto her tiny legs and run.

"I'll get you somewhere safe," he assures. "Just close your eyes and hang on to me."

Sakura forces herself to look away and hides her face behind his neck. She closes her eyes and tightens her hold of him, tears trickling through his hair as the boy leaps another fence.

Three Months Later…

Sakura bites her lip when a paper ball hits the back of her head. She is taking notes on what her math teacher is preaching about when the kids sitting at the back of the classroom start to ball their test sheets and throw them at her. On the surface, it seems that they are doing so because she has a big forehead and that has allowed her to get a perfect score on their latest exam. But Sakura knows better than that. They're all orphans from the same war that's still ravaging their country. None of them can do anything about losing everything they've had and being stuck in a barely-maintained orphanage, but they can pick on their class's top student and take their frustrations out on her.

Which starts another war that Sakura has no intention of losing.

Before the fifth ball touches her head, Sakura turns around, snatches the bullet with her hand, and flings it into her shooter's eye. The receiver, who is a brown-haired boy with a scar on his right cheek, immediately stands, screams, and charges at the girl. But his target is faster than him. Before the teacher can restrain him, Sakura grabs one of the previous paper balls and shoves it down the other child's throat. The boy staggers back and knocks the desk behind him, clutching his neck as his eyes water and roll to the back of his head.

As the teacher runs behind the boy and does everything she could to remove the projectile from his throat, the rest of the class watches in horror as Sakura looks on with indifference. They all know that the kid, Oge, calls Sakura names and then flees when she goes after him. What neither of them has expected is Sakura to use Oge's loud mouth to her advantage. The pink-haired orphan has turned her beatings into information about her bullies' movements. She is no faster nor stronger than them but is more intelligent, and that makes her dangerous.

The orphanage's administration realizes this too when Sakura is sent to the dean's office. "You almost killed your classmate!" the dean proclaims. His white mustache twitches in distaste at the pink-haired girl, who responds with neither confirmation, denial, or regret. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I was defending myself," Sakura replies. "Oge was throwing paper balls at me until I threw one back. I only shoved one down his throat when he attacked me." It doesn't change the fact that her parents are dead, but it still fills her with a sense of progression—as if almost killing her classmate has helped her avenge her parents somehow.

"That doesn't excuse your actions!" the dean remarks. "We can't have monsters like you here. It's bad enough to have those Uchihas out there. Now you?"

Sakura's eyes narrow. She knows that not all Uchihas are as malicious as the general public believes, but what offends her more is what the old man is implying. If he's actually comparing her to the monsters who destroyed her life…

"You are to leave immediately," the dean announces. "We're not going to have you try to kill any more of our children. These kids have already lost enough. They don't need to lose their fellow friends and classmates too."

Sakura's hands ball into fists. She had also lost so much, in case the dean has forgotten, and knows how much the other children have suffered because she is the receiver of much of their pain. She has had to deal with not only her grief but theirs; it isn't fair for her to continue to suffer and have no good to gain. Everyone has to do what they can to survive. If retaliating with violence is what it takes to do it, then so be it.

She is about to say so when a man beside the dean's desk steps forward. Sakura has never seen him before. But the stranger regards her with a sense of familiarity as if just looking at her is enough for him to know who she is and what she has been through.

"I'll take her to the academy," the man with a scar across his nose proposes. "Her abilities won't be wasted there."

"Are you mad, Iruka?" the dean demands. "You want to breed soldiers from that school, not killers!"

"Soldiers are killers, Mr. Atama," Iruka remarks. "If this girl is willing to kill to defend herself, then why not train her to do it for our citizens?"

Sakura silently watches the men debate until the dean eventually shakes his head in resignation. Regardless of his personal beliefs, the older man can't deny that the government needs more soldiers. The war is only getting worse every day. It isn't clear who's winning, but the number of people fighting is notably decreasing. What if someone outside the village overruns their divided nation? Will the Leaf Village still exist? Will there be anyone left to salvage what is left of their home?

It isn't long until Sakura is in a cart heading toward the Ninja Academy. She is sitting next to Iruka in the vehicle but glues her eyes to the window on her left. The scarred man may have saved her from living in the streets, but if he's sending her to a school filled with soldiers, then he may as well be bring her there to die.

"Don't worry, Sakura," she hears Iruka assure beside her. "You'll learn to get stronger in the academy. If you can learn to defend yourself in the orphanage, you can do much better here."

"You can't force me to attend," Sakura snaps. "I'm not a weapon."

"No, you're not a weapon."

Sakura finally faces him. The scarred man doesn't appear threatened nor offended by her defiance. If anything, he looks almost expectant of it.

"You're one of our only hope to end this war," Iruka continues. "You know what it's like out there."

Sakura does know what it's like out there. In fact, she remembers every detail. She has never discussed her tragedies outside of a therapy session and is reluctant to do so anywhere else. But something about what the dean had said back in the orphanage irks her, and Sakura itches to get something straight.

"Not all Uchihas are bad," she states. The Uchiha clan may have started this war, but much of their members have pledged allegiance to their village. The boy who had saved her three months ago is one of them. He's the reason she's still alive. It's too bad Sakura wasn't able to get his name. The teenager had left soon after bringing her to the orphanage, no doubt to find other children to salvage.

"So, you know that the world isn't always what it seems," Iruka commends, "that the line between what is and what isn't, isn't always visible if it is there at all."

Sakura doesn't say anything but knows that Iruka senses her understanding.

"Do you know who the Uchiha is?" he asks.

"No."

"You'll see him again someday," Iruka nods confidently. "I know. Good people don't die as often as the bad ones."

"But you're sending me to a school that turns me into a killer," Sakura remarks. "People who kill aren't good, even if their intentions are."

"There is more than one way to kill your enemy, Sakura," the chunin smiles slyly but doesn't elaborate.

Sakura crosses her arms and turns back to the window. She genuinely wants an explanation but knows she won't get one. Iruka seems like the type of person who judges someone's intelligence by her age. If she asks, he'll only give her a derisive look and tell her that it's something she'll figure out when she's older.

If she doesn't die first, of course.

"Sakura," Iruka extends a hand to her opposite direction, "this is Naruto Uzumaki."

Sakura raises an eyebrow at the boy standing before her. He has spiky blonde hair, dull blue eyes, and slanted lines streaking his cheeks like whiskers. He doesn't look very interested in meeting her. If anything, his twisted nose and wrinkled glare display something akin to irritation.

"Aren't you two going to say hi to each other?" Iruka presses.

"He doesn't look happy to see me," Sakura crosses her arms. "The feeling's mutual."

"Naruto," Iruka squeezes the boy's shoulder in coercion. "Say hi to Sakura."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the blonde waves off. "Can I go now?"

"Naruto!" Iruka scolds. "I'm introducing you to a new student! Be nice."

"Why should I be nice?" Naruto barks back. "She's just going to hate me like everyone else."

"Narut—"

"Stop."

The adult turns to Sakura, who has already grown bored and irritated at this futile attempt to get her to socialize.

"We don't need your help to make friends," Sakura tells him. "Besides, I wouldn't want to hang out with someone like him."

"Speak for yourself," Naruto mumbled.

Sakura immediately raises a fist, but Iruka effortlessly catches it before pushing her back.

"A-Alright," he stammers, barring Naruto's defensive stance with an arm, "let's calm down." He releases a breathy groan before stepping back. "The reason I'm introducing you two is that you both have a lot in common. You can help us end this war by learning how to fight together."

"I thought you said we could win the war without killing anyone," Sakura points out.

"You can," Iruka replies, grinning smugly when he does so.

Sakura rolls her eyes. An eyebrow raises when she sees that she isn't the only one exasperated by the man's vagueness.

"I don't need anyone to help me fight," Naruto snorts. His arms fold behind his head as he walks out of the classroom. "I'm out of here!"

Sakura watches him leave before turning to Iruka. After a tired glance, she too starts to exit the space.

"Sakura, wait!"

Sakura grunts and stops in front of the door.

"Give each other a chance," Iruka pleads to her back. "You know how difficult it is to live in this world. You don't want to live through it alone."

Sakura stands silently for a moment. Then, before Iruka can plead again, she walks away.

Sakura ambles through the empty hallways of the ninja academy and blankly stares at the path ahead of her. It is night time now, so there are no students or staff to disrupt her directionless stroll. For the first time in her life, the pink-haired child is alone in the dark. She no longer has parents to watch over or wait for her. She is also no longer confined in an orphanage with strict guidelines and eyes in every corner of the facility. The academy may have housing that is similar to the orphanage, but staying in the dorms is optional here. Sakura can sleep on the street if she wants to, and no one would stop her. If anything, the academy may encourage it. The staff will do anything to toughen up their students, even if it means to let them fend for themselves.

Sakura won't be homeless, of course, but she refuses to sleep in a room with girls who are trained to be more savage than her old roommates. She will rest somewhere more private and only go to the dorms to eat and bathe. A green backpack will carry her belongings. A job will provide her funds. The academy doesn't give an allowance, and Sakura had already learned that anything given to her comes with a price.

The nine-year-old reflects on these options while reflecting on Iruka's words. Her conversation with him and the blonde boy had been at sunset. Three hours have passed, and Sakura still can't get the scarred man's words out of her mind. As confusing and annoying as the chunin is, he is right about one thing: she doesn't want to live this horrible life alone. Yes, she finds it hard to trust people especially after her experiences at the orphanage; but she also doesn't know what to do if the war hits the academy. She may be more capable of defending herself now than ever, but what if her opponent is much stronger than her or even greater in number?

Sakura realizes then why Iruka has been pushing her and Naruto to make friends. Children are the most vulnerable and the most targeted in war. The bloodthirsty adults aren't always going to fight the wars they start. More often than not, they send the younger and more gullible kids to battle and die for them. The world is literally against her. If she's going to fight back, it would help to have like-minded allies to fight alongside her.

The pink-haired child ponders this as her slipper steps onto the sands of the academy playground. She is about to take another step when she spots a boy sitting on a swing at the end of the terrain. She spits a curse. How could she not have seen him? She should have at least sensed him before coming in! What if he's an enemy? He could have ambushed her before she even set foot in this place!

But after a closer look, she recognizes the blonde kid Iruka had introduced to her...Naruto is his name. The kid's not even swinging on the swing—just sitting there staring at the ground. He probably knows that she's there, so there's no point in hiding or running away. Not that she intends to. If anything, she might as well approach him. The thought of making friends doesn't seem dumb anymore, especially when, just a few seconds ago, she could have been attacked without backup.

"What are you doing out here?" Sakura calls out, crossing her arms as she approaches the swing.

"What are you doing out here?" the blonde boy remarks, replying with the same level of snark without taking his eyes off the sand.

"I asked you first."

"And?"

"Fine, don't tell me," Sakura stops in front of him. "Can you at least tell me why everyone hates you?" She doesn't really know that but remembers what the boy has told her. There isn't a reason she can think of not to believe him, especially since he's just as alone in the dark as she is.

The boy finally looks at her then, confusion and crossness in his eyes. "No one told you?"

"I didn't ask."

The blonde sits up straight and glares at her. Then, after a silent thought, lifts his t-shirt to reveal a mark on his stomach. It's a large black swirl surrounded by what appears to be inscription. Sakura's green eyes widen. A seal.

"My dad trapped something inside me, something really bad," Naruto tells her. "A beast that almost destroyed the village once, so my dad sacrificed himself to cage it in my body. People are scared of me because of it, and you should be too."

"Why?" Sakura dares, unintimidated.

"Because the beast can come out anytime," Naruto warns. "And if it does, I may not be able to get it back in."

A moment of silence passes. Surprising them both, Sakura uncrosses her arms and plops onto the swing beside him.

"Your dad was the fourth Hokage," she recalls.

"Yeah…"

"But he died with the rest of your family, and the rest of the village shuns you because you're holding the monster that nearly killed everyone."

"…yeah."

Sakura nods and looks ahead, noticing how the moonlight coats the playground in a soft white glow. She remembers now, that certain chapter of their village's history. She was only an infant when it happened, but her father had told her that story once or twice. She didn't think much of it when she had heard it at first. Now that she's meeting the boy who is suffering on behalf of the village, she wishes she would have taken more interest and asked more about it.

"Must be tough," she guesses, gradually swinging herself back and forth with the tip of her slipper. "I can see why you have trouble making friends now."

"Don't pretend like you know me," Naruto growls. "You don't know what I've been through."

"I don't have to, to know the world isn't fair," Sakura shoots him a knowing glance. "What? You think you're the only one who has it tough? I watched both of my parents die and then became the punching bag of the kids who had been through something only a little bit different. You think I want to be here? I'm only here because I nearly killed one of my bullies. That's not a bad thing when we're in the middle of the war. People need freaks like us. People need us to kill."

Sakura turns away as the blonde stares at her. Silence passes again, and Sakura keeps her teeth from chattering as the night gets cold. Then, right as her body submits to its need to warm itself, Naruto speaks.

"Someday, I'll end this war," he vows. "And not just this war, but all the wars after that. You'll see. Soon, people won't hate people like us. No, they'll love us and respect us, and they won't have a reason to be afraid anymore!"

Sakura's eyebrows furrow. Where has this energy come from? Is this kid bipolar or something? Then, after realizing she has seen stranger, she scoffs, "Yeah, like that'll ever happen," because the kid isn't just weird; he's also dumb.

"It will!" Naruto flails, finally moving that swing of his. "Believe it!"

Sakura sighs and looks up. As improbable as the blonde's words are, they're also the first ones in a long while that have given her hope. It's hard to find someone being positive in times like this. Sure, the boy can just be idealistic or plain delusional, but what harm would it bring to believe that things will get better even just a little bit? Who knows? Maybe Naruto will be right someday. If her life can go to hell at any second, surely it can get better in a second too.

"Alright," Sakura nods, matching the confidence in the boy's blue eyes, "let's believe."

A year has passed since Sakura has begun her schooling in the ninja academy. She excels her classes with high marks and has mastered utilizing a force called chakra, which helps her perform jutsus and other tricks which defend her against the fiercer bullies of the academy. Not that many fools have dared to cross her to begin with. She is a powerful, agile, and intelligent soldier who takes just as many lives as the students who have been in the academy longer than she has. It also helps to be friends with Naruto, the demon-vessel she had quickly grown closer to over the past months. While the two aren't one of the student body's most feared duo, they're sparring and having whatever fun they can in a war-infested village. Fortunately, the stigma around them has become less out of disdain and more out of respect. She and Naruto have also saved lives, after all. Naruto may not be as proficient in the frontline as Sakura is, but he's still developing into a considerable might due to his rivalry with the girl.

Between war, classes, and spending time with her friend, Sakura makes a living through a paid internship hooked up by Iruka in which she assists him and other chunins with paperwork and other office duties. It isn't the most exciting job in the world, but it is getting her name out to the people with influence. Word has quickly spread about her prowess as a student and soldier. The recent rumors Sakura has heard is her potential promotion to chunin. The genin rank between academy student and chunin has been suspended due to the children's immediate deployment to war. If she were to be promoted, then she would be the first of her class to graduate to chunin at age 11. It would be an impressive achievement indeed considering she had come from a civilian family and not a shinobi clan like many others.

Sakura reflects upon this while ambling through the crowded playground of the academy. Naruto has actually decided to study in the library today, determined to improve even more as a ninja since Sakura had told him about the rumors. The two had recently decided that to lead the village—and, eventually, the world—to a better future, one must first become a leader. The highest-ranked leader one can be in the village is the Hokage. The position is possible for both of them, but Naruto is the one who is determined to have it. Sakura can't be prouder of his ambition but also a little lonely. The blonde has been a great friend to her and also her only one. She won't hold him back—nor withhold the pride she feels for influencing him to take his studies seriously—but who would she hang out with while he's gone?

That's when Sakura detects someone watching her from afar. When she looks up to her upper right, she spots someone sitting under a tree on top of a hill. It doesn't take long for her to see that the person is Sasuke Uchiha, one of the few Uchihas who are in tolerable terms with the government. Sasuke has an older brother named Itachi, who is also on the village's side, but Sakura only knows that because she had overheard Sasuke's fangirls discuss him a few times. The younger Uchiha is handsome, Sakura admits, but not enough to lure her attention. In another time and place, she probably would have had a crush on him too. But in this world, she had learned only to admire people of action. All Sakura sees Sasuke do is stare at her. He has been harmless so far, so Sakura doesn't pay heed to it. But now that Naruto has gotten scarce, and she has grown bored and curious, maybe it's time to find out his deal.

"Hey!" Sakura calls out when she starts climbing up the hill.

Sasuke doesn't stand when she approaches but does hide his face when she sits beside him. "Hey," he mutters.

"I've caught you looking at me a lot," Sakura states. "Something you need from me?"

She catches the bluish-black-haired boy freeze and hide his eyes behind his bangs.

"I wasn't looking at you," he says.

Sakura rolls her eyes and stands up. "Fine," she jogs down the hill. She may be curious about what the boy wants but not if it involves games. How disappointing, she laments. She had expected the academy's heartthrob to be a little more interesting than that.

But then his voice stops her tracks.

"Wait."

Sakura turns only her head in response. "Yeah?"

"Can we," she catches a pause and a shuffle before hearing, "train together?"

The pink-haired girl turns completely around and raises an eyebrow. Sasuke has hidden his hands in his pockets, but she can still see him fidget through the white fabric of his shorts. The actions confuse her since the boy is supposedly aloof and a bit of a loner. But, she also recalls, he's also one of the top students in the school. There are still battles to be fought, so it wouldn't hurt to train with potential she hasn't gotten used to. Who knows? If Sasuke ends up being a cool guy too, they can be friends.

"Okay," Sakura nods.