Chapter One
Of course after just getting married the last thing the two expected was to be sent on a long term ANBU mission and cancel their honeymoon but duty called but after finally finishing the nearly one year recon mission in waterfall country, the pair of ninja were finally headed home. Leaping from tree to tree with speed and precision in order to finally get home and have their much needed break.
They were about an extra days worth of travel away before they reached the front gates of Konoha and the sun was starting to set.
"Hun, we should make camp for the night" Aito called out to his wife while landing in a clearing.
"Are you sure we have to?" Sachi said with a slight wine, "We're so close to being home, and I'm so ready to sleep in my own bed!"
Aito chuckled, "Yes I'm sure. We've already been running nonstop for 48 hours now and if we don't get some rest,"
"Yeah yeah I know I just want to be home." Sachi cut him off with a huff while collecting firewood to stay warm and cook whatever Aito happened to catch.
A couple hours later, the two of them were sitting next to the fire eating some rabbit in peaceful silence. It wasn't often that they got a chance to wind down and be slightly off guard, especially within the past year so both were content with just being in each other's company.
Suddenly they heard something make a winning sound not too far off from camp.
"Honey, did you hear that?" Sachi asked scanning the area in which she heard the noise.
"No are you-" Aito started to reply when a baby's wail started to screech through the surrounding forest. At the noise Sachi leap from where she sat and sprinted towards the distress call.
Aito followed close behind to make sure his wife and teammate didn't get into any trouble. He quickly made it to the large tree with protruding roots to find his wife standing there coddling an infant with a patch of bubble gum pink hair wrapped in a patchwork green blanked with the name 'Sakura' and the date April 7th embroidered along the edge.
He quickly extended his chakra in a 2 mile radius to see if anyone was close by that could be related to the child, but came to find no one. They were the only ones around with the exception of the wild life in the area.
Sachi looked up from the baby to her husband with the largest pouty eyes she can muster. "Aito," she says with a start "no one else is here, it's clear that she was left for dead."
Aito looked at the little bundle in Sachi's arms with hesitation at first while slowly making his way closer to his wife.
Once standing directly in front of her, she handed Sakura to him and he gently held the baby to his chest and looked down into her sweet large emerald green eyes that seemed to look straight through you.
At that moment his eyes softened and he looked up at his wife, "Well we can't just leave her here."
Sachi leap up with excitement and started imagining a frenzy of situations she couldn't wait for because she never expected to become a mother in her whole life due to the incident from her mission years ago.
"Sachi, what are we going to tell everyone when we get back to the village?" Aito asked as they started walking back their camp for the night. Sachi stopped, took Sakura and looked down at the sleeping angel.
"She is our child, end of story." She stated with absolute finality, "When people start asking questions of when had her, I got pregnant during our mission. I never want Sakura to know of the horrible fate her biological parents put her in and that is how we are going to protect her."
5 years later
"Sakura sweetheart, it's time to wake up. You start the academy today." Sachi said in a motherly voice gently waking Sakura from her sleep.
Upon hearing this information Sakura leap up from her bed and ran over to her closet.
Sakura had the dream room any little girl could ever ask for. Her room was shaped in a fairly large rectangle. She had a twin size bed with pink sheets and a floral comforter in the back corner to the left along the back wall that also had a large window with shear pink curtains. She had white walls and carpet with a flower rug in the middle and a pink desk and book shelves on the wall to the right. Even though she was only at the ripe age of 5 she still had plenty of books of different jutsus and medical scrolls that her parents have saved up for her to study as she gets older and books to prepare her for the academy, which she had all of those on her desk from her constant studying. The wall to the left had the slide open closet and a door that led to her own bathroom.
To say that the Haruno's didn't provide for their special angel would simply be ridiculous.
Once coming home from that mission five years ago, Sachi decided it would be best if she retired from being a ninja and instead got a job at the academy to pass on her knowledge to the younger generation. Which ended up being an advantage for little Sakura because ever since she could walk and talk all she wanted to do was learn as much as she could about becoming the best ninja ever.
Aito decided to retire from ANBU but remained a jonin. As much as he wanted to please his sweet wife, there was no way he was going to allow himself to become soft and take a civilian job. Initially he was taking regular missions, short and long, but now that he was getting a little older he decided to become a sensei to a genin team.
As Sakura rummaged through her clothes she seemed to be displeased with what she had. "Mommy!" Sakura yelled down the hall to her mother who was in the kitchen.
"Yes dear?" Sachi replied while preparing breakfast for the two of them before them both headed for the academy.
"I don't have anything to wear!" Sakura said in a whiny voice to show her frustration.
"Of course you do silly, you have a closet full of clothes you could wear" She said motherly while walking into Sakura's room to find all of the clothes that were once on hangers in the closet were now all over the floor with Sakura laying back down, arms and legs wide staring at the ceiling like she was going to create a clothes angle.
"Sakura." Sachi started while standing in the door way. Said little girl slowly turned her head to look at her displeased mother. "Yes mommy" Sakura replied in a flat voice.
"Since we don't have time for it now we won't worry about it but as soon as we get home from school you are going to be cleaning up this mess. As for something to wear I got you something special the other day." With that said Sachi pulled a child's red ninja dress with white trim and the Haruno emblem on the back and slits on both sides on the bottom, along with black ninja shorts to go under the dress.
Sakura leap up off the ground with the largest grin on her face.
"Oh thank you mommy!" Sakura nearly screamed while snatching the outfit from her mother to get changed while Sachi went back into the kitchen to finish packing lunches for the day as well.
When Sakura came out of her bathroom she was excited to get going.
"Wait a minute Sakura, your hair is still in your face. Can you try to put it into a ponytail or something?" Sachi asked knowing that Sakura would end up fiddling with her hair all day if her bangs were in her face.
"Do I have to?" Sakura said with a pout. When she used to play at the park down the street the kids used to pick on her about her 'over sized forehead' so she was apprehensive about showing off said forehead at school.
"It doesn't have to be a ponytail but your hair has to be out of your face so what would you like to do with your hair?" Her mother said with a voice that showed no wiggle room. Sakura seeming to be drawing a blank on what she should do. Sachi then added "Why not use my lucky head band to keep your hair back? Everyone can use some extra luck on their first day of school."
"Really? Your lucky headband? Are you sure?" Sakura asked in amazement. "I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it love" She replied while walking back down the hall to go into her own room to fetch said luck red headband.
As she came back into the kitchen Sakura was already sitting on one of the kitchen stools waiting for her mother to come back. Sachi walked up to Sakura taking the long ribbon like headband and started to position it starting under her hair and making both ends of the ribbon even before tying a bow on the top of her hair to keep her bangs back.
"All done," Sachi said with a smile "Now let's grab our toast and head out before we are late." Handing Sakura her slice of bread with some butter and strawberry jelly on top as well as grabbing her own before the pair headed out of the door.
As Sakura headed through the academy doors she couldn't help the swell of excitement that filled her tiny belly. She had been there before because of her mother, but this time she gets to go into a classroom of her own and participate with all the other students.
The halls were mostly empty by now because the warning bell had just went off about a minute ago so the classrooms were filling up. Her mother already had Sakura's class number and was showing her the way.
Upon reaching the door Sakura looked up to her mother with a large grin, "Bye mom, I love you!" She said with excitement before opening the classroom door and entering the room.
Once in the room Sakura then realized that everyone else had already made it into the classroom and everyone in the class was staring, at her, including the teacher.
"Welcome" The teacher started, "You must be Sakura Haruno, please take a seat" he said with a smile on his face.
Sakura looked at him for a couple seconds. Once she was sure he was genuinely not upset with her she nodded her head once and turned her head to the group of students in the room to find an empty desk.
After scanning around for what felt like forever it seemed like she really only had two options. Either sit next to one of the bullies that used to mess with her at the park, or she could sit next to the boy that seemed to be... she couldn't quite find the right word for it but he didn't seem too happy.
Maybe it was because all the girls around him with hearts in their eyes? Either way, she'd rather sit next to him than next to the bully so she finally started making her way over and sat down, oblivious to the fact that here were eye daggers piercing into her back.
Once she took her seat the teacher started with his introduction.
"Hello class," He started while grabbing a piece of chalk and facing the blackboard "My name is Iruka-sensei, and I will be one of your four sensei to teach you the way of the ninja. I will be teaching you all the ninja basics and once you pass all the tests to the basics you will move on to learn taijutsu, ninjutsu, then finally genjutsu. As you learn each section you will be brought back here to complete your tests since I will be your main sensei. Any questions?"
Sakura glanced around the room to see if anyone had any questions when the blonde haired boy shot his hand up in the sky, fingers spread as if to make it more visible, and bracing his raised arm with his other arm. It sure did seem like he was putting a lot of effort into wanting to be called on.
"Yes?" Iruka-sensei said while motioning the strange blonde boy.
"Why can't we just get to the good stuff?! I wanted to learn a new jutsu by the end of the day! Believe it!" The loud obnoxious blonde boy shouted.
"In order to be a strong ninja, you have to have-" Iruka-sensei paused changing his train of thought "How about we ask the class what you need in order to become a strong ninja" and with that almost every student had their hands up.
As the teacher called on the students Sakura could tell that he wasn't quite getting the answer he wanted. Answers like 'a strong bloodline' or 'you have to be smart' 'you have to be strong' got put under the category of, 'that helps but not quite'. Sakura took a couple seconds to think about what Iruka-sensei had said before he made this a question.
In order to be a strong ninja, you have to have... what do you need? Sakura started to ponder. Then Sakura started thinking back to the books she finished so she could have an advantage on the class then it hit her. You need a strong foundation! She thought with excitement.
Slowly raising her hand Iruka-sensei then called on her.
"In order to be a strong ninja, you need to have a strong foundation of knowledge to work with." Sakura answered in a light but sure voice. At that answer, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her including the boy next to her even if it was only for a second.
"Good job. That was the answer I was looking for." Iruka-sensei said with a proud smile on his face "It looks like someone read ahead in her books" He added with a chuckle.
"Now let's start with chapter one" The class then flipped open their book to chapter one.
In this story Itachi is only 5 years older than the rookie 9.
Edited chapter 7/14/15- I'm pretty sure I got all the mistakes this time and if not they are so minor that you can get over them! lol
