Haruno Sakura had a secret.
It was a well-guarded one too. No one alive besides her father and her aunt knew about it.
The Haruno clan, although rather small, hadn´t always been merchants. No, that had been a rather recent development. Only four generations ago, they had been ninjas. And they had a powerful bloodline limit.
To Sakura, who possessed the rare gift of her ancestors, there were never any secrets.
She knew the truth. The truth about everyone she looked at. Neither the future, nor the past, just the truth at that exact moment. Their thoughts, their motivations, their fears and abilities. Whom they loved and hated. She saw them and knew their very soul. Often the truths she knew about people could be used to predict their actions or explain the past. She knew all the secrets in the village and she also knew she could never talk about it. And so she didn´t talk much to begin with.
Her late grandfather had been the first to figure out what was wrong with her. Old Tatsuo had been surprised. He had thought the power had died out generations ago. Nevertheless, he had still remembered his great grandfather. That man had been equally irritated by the world. Precise. Sad. Detached. Yet, strangely comforting when needed. After realizing she had the Soul Seeing Eyes, the Kekkei Genkei that had been the inspiration for their family crest, he made his son swear to never tell his wife. It was no surprise, that her mother resented and feared her for her strange behavior. In the beginning, oh how she had loved her pink haired little girl. But she never smiled and Mebuki became concerned. She also never spoke, only ever stared at people blank faced and Mebuki couldn't shake the fear that her baby was different.
Sakura didn't speak until her fourth birthday. It didn't occur to her until then, that it would be better to clear things up, before they got out of hand.
When she first spoke, it was to assure her mother that she wasn´t in fact, like previously assumed, mentally challenged. Instead she rather preferred to remain silent, thank you very much. She then requested to be let into the academy as soon as possible.
Her mother grew afraid of her and little Sakura hadn´t been able to fully understand why.
Her father was proud, yet he also couldn´t bring himself to love her. She was too cold, too detached, it scared him that she was almost like a puppet. He had tried for some time, to use her ability to improve his profit by making her tell him which of his suppliers were deceiving him. She hadn´t answered, knowing that he wouldn´t allow her to become a ninja if he knew she would be an asset to his operation. There was a distant aunt, that lived in a place far away, whom the girl had never met. This woman knew about Sakura and Sakura knew nothing about her.
Sakura knew her being like this was the reason she was an only child. Her mother had gone to the hospital once to get rid of a potential sibling when she was nearly 5. When she asked her mother about it, purely out of interest, not out of malice, her mother had stared at her for two minutes before breaking down crying, demanding to know how she knew it.
"I saw it." (on your soul). Mebuki´s crying only increased. Feeling bad about that, because she didn´t want to hurt her mother, Sakura tried to console her by hugging her from behind. Instead of helping it had only made matters worse. Before she knew it, her mother had thrown her across the room. There was a loud crack when she hit her face on the ground. A thin rivulet of blood trailed down the side of her face.
"Don´t touch me,", Mebuki spat.
She never tried touching her mother again after that. The gash on her brow healed, but a scar remained, reminding Sakura every time she looked into a mirror.
In school she had learned that families loved each other. It was an unfamiliar concept to her. There was only resentment, fear and emptiness at home.
The world was an awful place. Sakura knew that to be a truth. She also knew she needed to become stronger, if she wanted to survive. And all of it was the fault of a man named Danzo Shimura. Sakura saw him once, in the street while he was on his way to the Hokage tower. It was the first time in her life that she cried. His soul was so unhinged, cruel and ruthless, she couldn't help herself. It had scared her to death. Kizashi and Mebuki both had been terrified.
She was five, when she started training herself by going to the library and reading until they had to remove her in the evening. The desk clerk at the time, Maito Gai (bless his heart) helped her to get started with all the academy theory. Other than clan children she didn´t receive regular taijutsu training, so she made up for it and wore weights and began by improving her stamina through jogging. Gai-sensei´s mind was always full of exercises, so she implemented a few of them into her daily workout routine.
It took her no time at all to persuade her father to hire a tai chi master. After all he didn't want Mebuki to know about his various escapades with other women and men, much less the two little sisters she had outside the village.
It was even easier to make Mebuki buy her workout gear, blunted kunais and shuriken. Her father still didn't know about the hospital visit and her mother, panic-stricken like a deer whenever Sakura addressed her, gave her everything she wanted, and a list usually sufficed.
Sakura was six, when she befriended Ino in the park. The weather had been beautiful and even Sakura could appreciate a nice sunny day with a soft breeze, so she read her book on chakra control there.
Ami and her friends, some girls whose names Sakura had forgotten already, thought it was fun to terrorize the little girl with the supposedly big forehead. Sakura hadn't cared in particular for the bullies' feeble attempts. They were envious of her hair color and tried to make her feel bad in retribution. She had told them one or two uncomfortable truths about themselves and they had left her in peace, never to come back again.
Ino had come to the rescue a little too late but Sakura didn´t mind. Ino was the first human she had ever seen so far and wanted to befriend. She liked that Ino always spoke her mind. She was so genuine, unlike many other people. The truth was always on her face, for the world to see. Sakura loved her fiercely. It was the first time she smiled.
She was seven, when she started the academy and she realized she couldn´t let everyone think she was a genius when she only acted upon her gift. Her answers on the first day of school made her teacher so uncomfortable, that he left because he didn´t want to deal with seven-year-olds saying things, like: "I don´t think you need to teach us that, yet, most of us probably won´t live to survive our 14th birthday,", in response to telling the girls they would have kunoichi-classes later that day.
Sakura knew she had been right. He knew it too. But he didn´t want to hear it from a small girl with pink hair and a civilian background.
Seven still, when she decided to tone it down and assumed a valid cover, her work out continuing in secret. She dumbed her answers down, as far as she could without arousing suspicion. Her entrance exams had been immaculate after all. During taijutsu training there was no need for her to pretend very much. The clan children had all been trained since they could walk and all she had been doing so far was improving her speed, flexibility and stamina. Even if her tai chi master buttered up her ass with praise, she couldn´t compete with the clan children in taijutsu just yet. Especially Hinata, who had been drilled by her father every single day since she had been able to walk, was far ahead of her.
It was in her fourth month of academy that the Uchiha massacre happened. Sakura had seen Itachi the day before it. She had seen the truth on his aggravated soul. He was sobbing internally. It was then, that she created her shit-list. Danzo was the first person on it. He needed to suffer. And she would make sure he did.
She was eight, when she finally managed to seem perfectly useless. She had developed a second personality in the process that didn´t have her powers but it worked well for her, although she wasn´t entirely sure how it had happened. Both agreed to call the younger personality Sakura. The older one had in her head always thought more of herself as Haruno.
Sakura loved acting. She made it her personal mission to be able to fool every single person in Konoha without fail. She also adored Ino and had a sort of love hate relationship with Naruto.
They were eight, when they misjudged the effect it would have on Ino if Sakura pretended she liked Sasuke too. Both agreed it was poorly planned and could have been avoided, but it was important to their cover then, so Sakura continued the farce for them. They were rather indifferent towards Sasuke, so the effect Sakura's obnoxious "Sasuke-kuuun!" had on him, didn't matter in their eyes.
Hinata was nearly eight when her father gave up on her. Sakura and Haruno, who both felt bad for her, invited her to their training. It was only for an hour per day, but it helped Hinata immensely. Haruno knew it was the distance from her father that made her stronger. The little Hyuuga was under the constant impression that she wasn't good enough and once Haruno had seen the man she figured out why.
Hyuuga Hiashi didn't feel like his daughter was cut out for the ninja life. In his mind she was resembling her mother too much, to become a strong ninja, to be strong enough to be the heiress. He didn't like that he had to push her so much, afraid he might break her in the end.
Sakura made sure to give Hinata the feeling of belonging and love. It was remarkable how much she improved once she developed more self-esteem. Haruno wondered about that concept but Sakura had read up on human behavior since her "birth" to improve her acting. Haruno had been called emotionally stunted by her in the process. She had shrugged internally, it didn't matter.
They were nine, when Haruno allowed Sakura to end their friendship with Ino over the nonexistent crush on the lonely, broken boy. It broke both their hearts a little but then again at least they didn't have to see Ino´s huge guilty blue eyes over being in love with Sasuke too much to not want to give him to Sakura. Sakura herself was smug over the fact how easily everyone believed her acting. She didn´t like Sasuke much.
I despise him. Pfff. Not like. Ha – the little asswipe only thinks of himself. He is impolite even to those who show him kindness and he is obsessed with his stupid vendetta.
He is a child. A relatively normal child. We´re the exceptions, you can´t expect everyone else to be as mature as us. And besides, he is lonely. He doesn´t have friends, and the weekly visits to this so called therapist don´t work. He tells them some lies and is on his merry way back to brooding alone in his home, which is where his parents died.
I still don´t like him.
Neither do I. He is too hateful. I foresee tragedy in the future. That or he will get himself killed early.
They were nine, when they had no friends besides Hinata and decided to go to the library more often again. Not having Ino as a friend meant a lot more downtime between physical training and they didn´t want to waste it. Hinata sometimes accompanied them to the library. The little Hyuuga was, apart from their parents, the only person who knew they weren't useless, but she respected Haruno´s choice to appear so. They trained together more often.
The desk clerk in the library had given up on the pink haired girl. He thought they were stupid, because it appeared as if they were reading the same books over and over, when really they just read books and scrolls from the genin and chunin sections, and put them in the covers of academy books. It was funny to them how Shiranui Genma could be so careless, especially when they came in every day at precisely the same time and left exactly two hours later. Sakura had Haruno check – no normal child without a clan had a schedule this strict.
Once Genma had decided that they were useless and stupid, he didn´t monitor them any longer and they were able to roam the restricted sections more freely. They didn´t when Hinata was with them. And they didn´t dare try to enter the jonin section. That would have been too obvious. Even Genma with his mind made up would have noticed.
They read books on politics in the great ninja villages, torture techniques, fighting styles, war and fight strategy, chakra control, anatomy and healing, elemental jutsu, and everything else that captured their attention.
They were ten, when Haruno started to resent their village, to hate the villagers with a vengeance. The lonely broken boy, remained exactly that, because nobody cared about his emotional state. He had no person to confide in and yet he was still better off than the other lonely little boy, who was not broken, not by far, but he was disregarded due to his container status to an extend that made her want to hurt them all. Even the children had picked up on this behavior and Naruto´s only friend seemed to be their chunin instructor Umino Iruka. But Iruka´s gentleness was overshadowed by the blank hate Naruto received from anyone else in the village. Haruno had waited for things to change. He was likable, happy and loud. She found him endearing, even if she wasn´t actively seeking out his friendship. But her waiting was in vain and she realized, that she had to do something herself.
They knew they couldn´t suddenly change their behavior towards Naruto but Sakura made sure to treat him friendlier and care more and more for, until they were eventually friends. They brought him food most days and helped him clean his apartment. Haruno helped him with his taijutsu training and Sakura learned cooking together with him. He was a natural talent, something that couldn´t be said for her.
They were ten, when Haruno first killed. Sakura hid in the back of their mind. She didn´t want to see it.
The man was a widower. He had lost his wife and children during the Kyuubi-attack ten years before and he was angry. A civilian merchant, that had no idea that Naruto was his very own being. Nevertheless he had figured out where Naruto lived or what he did during the day. His plan was simple, but would have been effective. Sell the child spiked instant ramen. If she had let him proceed, Naruto would have died. ,
Haruno had poisoned him. It was easy. Before their grandfather died, he had given them several scrolls of his great grandfather. She couldn´t understand most of them, yet but among them happened to be the summon scroll of ravens.
They had summoned them in their room and they had agreed to the contract after realizing they had the Soul Seeing Eye. After Haruno had told them she needed to protect a friend, one of them, Munin, brought her a small vial.
The man had cursed her in her in his death and asked her why, why she would protect "the wretched demon creature". She had simply rolled her eyes at him.
"He is my friend, and he is a fluffy and sweet human, who deserves to live, unlike you utter piece of garbage. "
There was so much pain and hatred, so much suffering. Haruno just wanted it to stop. She had no idea how, though. She killed a few more times after that. Rapists and murderers of the innocent. Sakura didn´t approve but Haruno had seen their souls. They showed no remorse for their deeds, nor any shred of goodness. Worst of all they planned to do it again. Haruno made sure they wouldn´t.
They were 11 when Haruno uncovered the secret of sealing. It was like breathing air to her. Never before had anything really challenged her mind. Each new seal was like a riddle begging her to be solved. She incorporated weight seals into their training and got rid of the simple weights. When she asked Hinata if she was interested in a weight seal, the girl had declined. The prospect of having a seal on her frightened her. She associated seals with the caged bird seal her cousin Neji was cursed with.
They were 11, when she let Sakura take over for more than a few hours for the first time. It was refreshing. She had never realized how tired she was of all the pain.
Haruno allowed herself to sleep more often then, while Sakura took over her body for longer amounts of time. It was a good arrangement, because even if they were not the same or shared the same memories, Sakura being all fluffy, socially knowledgeable and caring and Haruno being tired of everything, they talked sometimes and often enough agreed on certain things. Haruno liked to stay in the back of their head mostly anyway, even when she was awake. The only times when she really took over was to study some sealing scrolls.
Sakura never forgot that Haruno was the original personality. She knew that what she called inner and occasionally Ha-chan was a completely different person and not just some voice inside her head, telling her strange things.
Train harder. Leave Sasuke alone for some time, we have better things to do. Ignore our parents. Dumb it down a little more unless you want to arouse suspicion. Widen your chakra reservoir. Don´t read that book, read the scroll on sealing. Train harder.
Chill, I got it covered ok? Just go back to sleep. I´ll wake you when something interesting happens or when I´m back at the library.
They were 12, when they graduated. Haruno was awake for the first time in a few days, an ecstatic Sakura had woken her.
They had been placed in a team with both lonely boys. It was one of those rare surprises. Iruka had recommended to put her on a team with Naruto and Kiba. He was more concerned with their chemistry and less with matching their abilities to the best possible outcome. Haruno wondered who had thought it was a good idea to put her on a team with them, but when she saw Sarutobi during the graduation ceremony she couldn´t discern any special thought about her. He had been preoccupied by thinking about how proud Naruto´s father would be.
The three of them waited for their sensei to appear. When he did, he was 3 hours late and he lied about his first impression. He was terrified he would let them down, too.
"Oh...me? My name is Kakashi Hatake. What I like...I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...hmm...never really thought about that...as for my hobbies...well, I have a lot of hobbies."
He introduced himself on the rooftop and Haruno cringed inwardly as she saw him. So she allowed Sakura to react for them. It was a good thing Sakura was mostly unaware of the truths Haruno saw.
(I like my dogs, I love the friends I still have left and Konoha. I hate myself. My dreams are dead and my life is filled with regret and guilt but I live on for the village. I read porn and talk to dead friends at the memorial.)
The day after that horrendous experience, Kakashi tested whether he would send them back to the academy or not. It was the so called bell-test.
I´ll take over for a while.
Knock yourself out. Imma look at you giving us away and earning us a psych eval.
Thanks for your confidence Sa-chan.
Of course it was not about who got the bells. It was about teamwork. Having deepened her friendship with Naruto more in the last 2 years, she snatched him before he could attack their sensei and brought them out of earshot. She landed silently on a low branch and sat Naruto, who was already loudly protesting down. Then she scanned their surroundings making sure the area they had landed in was advantageous for the half formed plan in her head. They were in the tree covered part of training ground 3 now. When she held her head just right she could still see Kakashi in the open a rough 50 meters away, totally crushing Sasuke, who had tried to take him on his own.
Idiot.
"Shut up, Naruto. He is a Jonin. You wouldn´t stand a chance on your own. Unless we work together we´ll never get the bells, you realize that, don´t you?", she said.
It had the desired effect. Naruto, still sitting on the branch, sheepishly rubbed his head and looked down for a moment before grinning widely at her.
"Then we´ll work together."
She nodded with a small smile on her lips and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Yes, of course we will."
"Maybe we should get Sasuke on board?"
They agreed, that Haruno should go to look for Sasuke, while Naruto prepped his surroundings. Even if his prank in school the day before had been childish, he had a true talent for traps. Since they had befriended him, they had helped him with all his training, encouraging him to improve in a way that their teachers never could. Needless to say his grades had improved by a landslide. He found it funny because hers had still been terrible.
But no such thing could be said for their interaction with Sasuke. Sakura´s fake crush on him made him defensive whenever they were near. Not that they actually wanted to talk to him, they simply hadn´t anticipated that someone would put them on the same team.
It was no surprise for Haruno that Sasuke had already tried to take Kakashi down on his own. On the other hand, people didn´t surprise her often, unless she hadn´t seen them in a while. The genjutsu that Kakashi tried on her from a distance was not creative. A half dead Sasuke collapsing on the ground. Truly inspiring. For a seven-year-old perhaps. Her true feelings concerning the lonely broken boy were only pity and maybe a little contempt. How could that dumbass think his brother was a coldhearted killer? So the scene that Kakashi showed her was mainly annoying. She didn´t even bother to dispel it and simply marched on in her search for Sasuke. The fact that she was effectively impervious to genjutsu did of course help.
Haruno even winked at him where he sat in his tree reading his little porn book. The look of horrified surprise was totally worth it.
Psych eval. Tomorrow. All my hard work, Ha-chan. Come on!
When she found Sasuke, she barely suppressed an eye roll and ripped him out of the ground, put him on his feet and proceeded to dust him off. Then she turned around again, motioning him to follow her. She didn´t check whether he was complying.
"We´re trying teamwork. Anything else is foolish as you might have noticed." Haruno said.
Of course she realized, she had slipped that moment yet again, but what would it have mattered in the end. Sakura would take over again and destroy all of his suspicions with a well-timed "Sasuke-kuuuuun".
You have a lot of confidence in me. Maybe you should your appreciation by not killing all my hard work!
Sasuke, though still surprised, followed her. At the moment her behavior was somewhat fishy but he ignored it in favor of following her. He could find out what was wrong later.
"Careful, Naruto has placed some traps. We´re going to lure Sensei here. Plan´s not finished yet, so you might as well give some input as to how you´re going to help this operation."
In the end they didn´t succeed. Far from it. But their display of (however begrudgingly in the beginning) teamwork forced Kakashi to let them pass.
He of course noticed how she had simply changed personalities right in the beginning. Or that his genjutsu hadn´t fazed her in the slightest.
She didn´t care. She would establish herself as the mission persona while Sakura could have her usual life. At least no one would question it then if she took over in dire situations.
It wasn´t until their first C- Rank that she took over their body again.
You know I could handle it.
She saw the puddle from quite a while.
I know. But I wanna take over for a while again. You could sleep for a change.
"Kakashi-sensei."
Naah. This is gonna be good. We both know that. I wouldn´t miss you fucking up for the world.
Hearing her serious tone and feeling her change of demeanor he looked up from his book.
"Yes. I see. Good job for noticing."
I´m not gonna fuck it up and you know that.
Sasuke who wasn´t quite used to her changes, not as Naruto who had witnessed them a few times by now, was instantly tense.
"Noticing what?"
The battle was over shortly.
Naruto had instantly thrown himself before their charge and Sasuke had engaged one of them in fight. The second one thought that Sakura would be easy prey to pick on.
Oh boy was he wrong.
It was a testament for his incompetence that she was able to dodge his attack gracefully and slip behind him like she did. She snapped his neck. Even if she had never stopped training herself, or having tai chi lessons, it shouldn´t have been that easy. He was pathetic and underestimating her to a painful degree. It had been his death in the end.
Not to kill the mood but. I was right, you fucked it up. Also, it would be really nice if you didn´t kill people while everybody is watching. It is really hard to explain that away.
It took less than a second and when Kakashi appeared to finish the first one off she had already finished patting the second one's body down, and hidden the forbidden scroll she knew he was carrying with him.
Look at Naruto, he is shocked.
I can see that Sa-chan. It was just, I didn´t want them to get hurt, so I acted on impulse.
Well, dumbass, tell me how I´m supposed to explain that? He looks like he is about to cry.
Truth be told, he was not far away from crying. Sakura took it as her clue to take over and walked over to him to pat on his back.
"Hey Naruto, it´s ok- they we´re trying to kill us. We´re ninja, remember, we sometimes have to kill."
He turned his big blue eyes towards her and sniffed.
"But Sakura-chan how can you be so calm about this?"
Dangerous, he is about to ask whether it was our first kill. Intercept!
"I don´t know Naruto, I just…"
Sakura made it so that their eyes turned to the ground, let them water a bit, contorting their face guiltily and made their voice wavering when she answered.
"I-I was just… I … I just wanted to keep you all safe,", Sakura whispered, putting a cherry on top by slightly trembling as she confessed it.
They all bought it. Even Kakashi. I´m so proud of you.
I should become an actress. And the best thing is, it isn´t even a lie.
No, you just made us appear much more emotional than we actually are.
Can´t help that you´re emotionally vacant.
… Like you are better
At least I don´t let them know that I don´t care.
Isn´t that what sociopaths do?
Fuck you.
Kakashi who had watched with excellently hidden interest turned to Tazuna then, the cause for the Kiri nin to attack them. The man, still staring at the corpses on the ground was white as snow. He shuddered before he lifted his gaze and was instantly pinned into a corner by Kakashi´s single eyed stare.
"I´m really interested why they were so intent on killing us Tazuna-san?", the jounin inquired, his eye dangerously narrowed and his chin slightly bend forward.
It was then that the rest of them uncovered what she knew from the beginning. Tazuna the bridge builder had been lying about the possible threats on their mission because he didn't have enough money to pay them properly.
They decided to go through with it anyway.
And promptly encountered Zabuza later that day.
I told you, didn´t I?
Oh come on. It was a given. And apart from that. This time, it´s not me who is fucking shit up!
When the mist became thicker and thicker until her teammates weren´t able to see anything anymore, so she hung back, realizing that seeing Zabuza through the mist was connected to her Soul Seeing Eyes. She fell into a battle stance and readied a kunai and some shuriken. It was easier to keep an eye on everything from where she stood before Tazuna.
Her teammates then engaged in battle and Haruno kept her position before their charge even when Kakashi was trapped in the water prison jutsu. It gave her to means to kill two water clones discreetly before Kakashi could spot them in the mist. Because he was looking, and she had already given herself away too much with the demon brothers.
The clones didn´t see it coming. She then concentrated on Zabuza, who was grinning at her through his bandages. She stifled the urge to roll her eyes at him. Yes, Kakashi was inside of Zabuza's water prison, but that man was a renown genius. His bingo book entry stated "kill on sight". Zabuza may have been a swordsman of the mist but her Sensei had fought a war when he was only 8. Their respective skill levels were miles apart. The only reason the fight was still on was because Kakashi wanted to get a feeling for his genin and their reaction to possible death.
"Were you lucky, pinky, or was that actual skill right there?"
Zabuza smirked at her then, knowing she had killed the clones with her shuriken. It was a good thing that her sensei was too preoccupied with watching Naruto and Sasuke's attack, to pay attention to Zabuza's words.
She didn´t grace him with an answer, it would only have served to bring the attention back to her. Kakashi, having been freed from his cell by the boys and left without an excuse to monitor the fight any longer, then began to fight Zabuza in earnest, dealing with him rather quickly by making use of his ill-fitted Sharingan. It was over in a flash and just before he could kill Zabuza, a little boy posing as hunter nin interceded.
Haruno let them proceed, after making sure Kakashi had noticed even in his weakened state. Only when Haku left, did he dare to give in and fall to his knees. It was remarkable how long he had been able to use the Sharingan considering it wasn't his to begin with and therefore swallowed huge amounts of chakra. She wondered for a second why nobody fixed it, now that the Uchiha were all dead and no clan leader could object.
He´s easier to control that way plus you don't want to make him too strong.
Yes, I suppose so. There isn't much that binds him to the village, if you look at it from a superior officer's point.
Two days later they arrived at Tazuna's house relatively healthy, except for Kakashi who was suffering from chakra exhaustion. The boys had carried him and Haruno had kept two eyes firmly on their surroundings. It had been a quite exhausting ordeal for all of them. Sakura and Haruno had been awake in turns and their body hadn´t slept since they started their mission three days ago.
After they had put their Sensei into a bed Haruno excused herself despite her fatigue, saying she wanted to scout the surroundings and left before anyone could say something.
Haruno´s legs lead her to the shore, where she sat down for a second, collecting herself and breathing the sea air in. It had been a long three days. She meditated for some time then before she fished the forbidden scroll out of her clothes.
Kinjutsu and judging by the seal protecting it from Uzushiogakure. How did the demon brothers come across this gem?
Uzushio isn't far from here? Maybe they scavenged it from the ruins before they came to Wave. How do you know it´s kinjutsu?
It was on his mind when I killed him. He thought he could sell it for a high price on the black market. I´m not sure if it´s actually a kinjutsu but he thought of it as such.
Can you open the seal?
No. Not here, I need to look at that one reference text before. I could destroy scroll if I made one mistake.
So you gonna try water walking now or what?
Seriously Sa-chan. Fuck off. I´m tired, everything takes a little longer ok?
She went to the shore and slipped out of her sandals before she walked in a step. The water was cold but refreshing. The way her toes curled in the sand was relaxing. She would need be careful not to fall asleep.
Yeah dumbass. And you wonder why I want to have pauses sometimes. Your workout regimen is easily as bad as Gai-sensei's, maybe even worse since you don't understand the need for downtimes, or sleep for that matter.
We can't afford any downtime.
Haruno had read about water walking in the various books and scrolls she had already consumed on chakra theory, but hadn't tried it at home yet. It was a good opportunity for her. Slowly she lifted her left foot to hover over the water. Then she circulated her chakra to it and carefully probed the surface only to have her foot dive into the water again.
I was afraid you would say that. Try again, but this time more flowing, also more chakra. This isn´t a wooden floor. Water keeps moving.
Aaaww you care.
Even so, she did try again like Sakura had suggested and it nearly worked. She nearly stood on it for a second before she lost her footing and fell into the water.
See. I´m a genius. Let´s continue until we can walk smoothly and go to sleep. It should be easy to keep awake considering we're drenched.
We might get a cold though.
They did get a small cold. When they woke up the following noon their throat hurt and their nose was stuffed. Nobody had woken them and when Sakura surveyed the room only Kakashi was left. He was still sleeping. Haruno was still asleep, too, the strain of being awake so long had exhausted her. She would nap until Sakura woke her and Sakura felt like she could let her rest a little more.
The minute she stood up from the futon she realized what a horrible mistake she had allowed the day before. Their muscles were sore and every movement hurt. Even stretching did little to help with the stiffness.
"Great…"
It probably wouldn´t hurt to sleep just a little longer. Even Haruno couldn't argue with that.
"Sakuraaaaa!"
With a bang both Sakura and Haruno were awake at once. Within their first movement they grabbed the kunai beneath their pillow and jumped to their feet assuming a fighting stance, the kunai millimeters from Naruto's throat.
"Whoaah Sakura, it's ok it's me, Naruto. I forgot that you don´t like to be woken like that."
Once their mind registered it wasn't in fact an enemy, they immediately calmed down and lowered their kunai. Naruto came into the focus of her eyes. He felt really bad for making her jump like this, but was simultaneously impressed by how fast she had been.
"Hey, Naruto. What´s up?", Sakura said with a small huff.
"Kakashi-sensei sent me to fetch you. He said you slept long enough, you know I protested because I know you´ve been awake the past three days but he didn't believe me. So, I will wait downstairs ok?"
Sakura let out a sigh and nodded.
So when are you gonna take over again?
Later.
"Thank you Naruto."
Sakura dressed them in their signature red dress and put their hair into a bun.
We need to look into more levelheaded clothing, I know we agreed this would be great for our cover, but in life or death situations it´s really impractical.
I´m thinking about it. Give me 2 hours with Hinata and the pay for this mission.
Mercy?
No.
Kakashi had summoned them, to let them walk on trees and since Haruno had managed water walking, with some help from Sakura the day before, it wasn´t a challenge for them. It also wasn´t, however, a skill they were comfortable showing off right away, so Sakura gave herself an hour, during which Haruno meditated before she even channeled chakra to their feet. Then she stumbled up the tree. As Haruno expected, after that Kakashi let them go.
It was evident that he wasn´t really expecting much from them, obvious even without Haruno´s gift. She could see the pity in Tazuna´s mind after he figured it out. The only thing Kakashi considered them good at was genjutsu, book smarts and maybe chakra control. Apart from that he didn´t think they´d ever surpass chunin level. Even if he acknowledged, they were able to don a no-nonsense attitude sometimes (which was how he referred to Haruno taking over) he hadn´t really seen how Haruno had killed the demon brother and assumed it was sheer dumb luck.
That made her angry but only just so, and she went to the bridge to guard Tazuna.
Arriving there she made an excuse saying she needed to check underneath the bridge, where she made two shadow clones, having learned the technique from Naruto just after graduation, and posted one of them on the bridge and one of them beneath it.
She herself walked over the water until she was out of earshot and knelt down. It was harder to channel chakra into the knees. Or anywhere that wasn´t her hands or feet for that matter, so she worked on that. It couldn´t hurt to be able to release chakra from everywhere in her body.
Why in the world, please the water is cold!
Chakra strengthens muscles, bones and tissue remember? If we´re able to release it everywhere we might get our skin to become impenetrable. And even if not, I prefer to be able to control every aspect of our body, rather than just ignore this.
But why in the middle of the fucking sea?
She knew that Tazuna was leaving when her under the bridge clone dispelled and it´s knowledge returned to her. The possibilities of training with those clones were insane. It was ridiculous. She could let one or more of them learn theory or meditate while her real body did taijutsu training. One of them was in the village, stealing secrets and keeping tabs on Danzo. He knew something about her but she only caught glimpses of him every now and then, so she didn´t know very much. But even if her innate chakra pool was not as big as Naruto´s or Sasuke´s she was able to make 5 at a time without outright fainting. It was certainly enough. Especially since she widened her reservoir every day.
Kakashi accompanied her to the bridge the next day, making her training more difficult but not impossible. She just meditated to enhance her chakra pool, while Sakura was tasked with circulation and control exercises.
They day after that they were attacked.
Sasuke accompanied them this time, since he had been able to tree walk the day before and he engaged Haku directly. To say it was stupid would be an understatement. Haku´s kekkei genkei paired with his skill were to much fur Sasuke to handle.
Haruno stayed back, taking care of their charge, since Haku didn´t intend to actually kill Sasuke.
Kakashi fought Zabuza, but both of them were not fully paying attention as each of them was keeping an eye on their respective students. Zabuza not as much as Kakashi, but their sensei couldn´t know that Haku didn´t aim to kill, rather than incapacitate, nor did he know the exact skillset or level Haku was fighting on.
Then Naruto appeared to save the day it all went horribly wrong. Sasuke was far from dying when Naruto showed up, but he looked like death twice warmed over, so it was an easy mistake to make. Unfortunate for Haku, whose ice melted when Naruto's rage cracked the seal on his belly and allowed him to utilize Kurama´s chakra.
In the end it wasn't however Naruto who killed Haku. It was Kakashi.
Haku had thrown himself between his mentor and Kakashi´s deadly chidori. . She knew he was precious, innocent and just getting over his loneliness. It was a terrible waste. Not to mention that Kakashi was forcibly reminded of his dead friend Rin.
Zabuza now ultimately pissed off, mowed Gato and his talentless goons down with only a kunai in his mouth.. Haruno watched in dark satisfaction as the man who was responsible for everything was killed. Although, seeing Zabuza die made her twitch.
She let Sakura continue managing their body after that.
After having seen her face upon Gato´s death, their sensei was slightly suspicions. They would keep it that way.
And I have to do the hard work, typical of you Ha-chan.
Sa-chan. You and I both know that you enjoy to play with their suspicion.
I can practically smell that psych eval coming our way.
Just like every day, Sarutobi sat behind his desk, his hands folded and his torso leaning slightly forward.
As per usual he held his face carefully blank of his actual emotions, having put on a plastic smile for the three genin that stood in front of him with their jounin-instructor behind them. Kakashi wouldn´t be fooled since he wore that smile himself, but Sarutobi liked to think each and every of his ninja beneath jounin level considered it a grandfatherly smile. He, however, felt far from smiling at all.
Team 7 had just returned from wave and their report gave him a severe headache. A fresh genin team on an A-rank mission. The paperwork would kill him. Besides that, there were so many ways that this could have gone south. And if it had, the Kyubi container, the last Uchiha and one of his best anbu- operatives could have died. Why again did he think it was a good idea to put them all on a team? Ah right, because Kakashi was the best Anbu- operative he had and needed to ensure the safety of both Naruto and the Uchiha boy, apart from the fact that Kakashi also had the Sharingan and could help the boy train it. There had been so many logical reasons to put them on a team together, but just as many to not do it. In the end the council had decided. Sarutobi was almost certain that Danzo had his hands in this one, but then again Danzo had his hands in everything.
"And then Sakura-chan killed this missing nin guy in one move! She was awesome, but also a bit scary,", Naruto chirped in between his musing, making Sarutobi acutely aware of the constant sting the girl caused in his brain.
Sakura Haruno. The reports he received about her, presented her mostly as a liability. She had been seen in the library, reading the same academy books over and over, her intelligence was only book smarts and the only thing she was above average was chakra control that didn't help her much with ninjutsu, since she tired easily and didn't have much chakra to begin with, her taijutsu skills appeared to be below average for her age group, a result of her lacking stamina and speed both. All together rather a useless genin. And yet…
And yet now and again something didn't add up. Her entrance exams had indicated a great intellect. It also appeared as if she had been getting tai chi lessons for seven years now and her Chunin instructor had never seen her use any of it. Kakashi had submitted a report, mentioning a sudden change in personality during his first test. And now she had supposedly killed a Kiri nin within seconds without batting an eyelash. He made a mental note to order Kakashi to look into it and maybe assign an Anbu to shadow her. He was almost certain that she dumbed herself down, but to which extent, he couldn't say. Either way, it was certainly suspicious. Especially since it had been per Danzo´s suggestion that he put her on this team. And he was sure that if he had those files on her, Danzo had them too and then probably some.
Sakura?
Hmn?
We need to be careful. Danzo seems to have taken an interest into us, and Sarutobi is getting suspicious.
I told you the killing wasn't a smart idea .
Yeah I know.
Do you have a plan or?
I´m thinking about it.
They were 13, when Haruno saw the being called Zetsu the first time. He was hiding in the shadows a few blocks away from the Hokage's office.
13, when she knew about the eye of the moon plan.
13, when she took over and approached him, were he was in the shadows and told him as much.
"I want in. The eye of the moon plan. I want to help."
Zetsu, who had seen her coming his way but never thought she would notice him, stared at her in absolute disbelief.
„You can see me? No, wait. More important. How do you know about that? ", he said readying himself to pounce and kill her on the spot.
„I see the truth. I see humanity and I see the tiny spark of will that keeps you going. I can see the plan on the surface of your splintered soul. Get Kaguya back. Trap everyone in an eternal Tsukuyomi. I know that´s the only way to make everyone happy. To get rid of the pain. So I want to help. "
Zetsu eyed this little human. She appeared earnest. But she was weak.
„I understand, ", she said and nodded when he was about to answer.
„I will get stronger and prove my worth. Then you´ll decide. "
With that she marched back to whence she came from.
Never once in his entire existence was he so utterly surprised.
„ She sure is something this girl, we didn´t even answer her request , ", his white side remarked.
„No. We didn´t need to. She knew our answer before we could say a word. "
In the back of Haruno´s mind however Sakura sat whispering to herself:
But do we really want that?