This is my first fanfiction, but I think I did pretty well with it! I hope you enjoy and please keep note that I do not own any Naruto characters in this story, just the ones that I have made up. Please review!

A Different Kind of Perfection

The young child stood in the corner of her room, her face downcast to the tatami-mat paneling of her bedroom. Her bright pink hair dangled beside her cheeks, hiding most of her thin face and the rest lay listless along her back. She wore a jade green ceremonial kimono with light pink cherry blossoms scattered about the fabric as well as a darker green obi. Her looks complemented her beautiful name. Sakura.

The child kept her face and eyes to the floor as she heard footsteps approach the entrance to her bedroom, and the clack as her door slid open. Heavy steps came closer to her and Sakura found her face being lifted by a broad hand. Her eyes traveled up the yukata that the man wore and when the man's hand stopped lifting her face, she stopped adjusting her eyes. This man was her father, a man she only knew as Otou-san or Sir, depending on his mood. Removing his hand, the man straightened up and looked down at Sakura almost accusingly.

"Child, have you not heard your mother calling you to assist with dinner?" the man began, folding his arms in annoyance. "Repeatedly, she has called 'Sakura, my daughter! The table must be set!' whilst you stood here sulking in the sun's light." The man's form of speaking only assisted the fact that the people that lived in this household were in the countryside, not knowing any slang that happened to be created in the city of Konoha. The father waited for an answer, crossing his arms against his broad chest.

"S-sumimasen, Sir." Sakura mumbled, biting her bottom lip as her hands stayed idle by her sides. "I hadn't heard okaa-san calling me. I shall get to it right away." The young girl took a short stride forward, towards the door, only to feel a heavy knee knock the wind out of her lungs. She knelt over in pain and clutched her stomach, crying out.

"Well, then open your ears, girl! Surely the children from Konoha must have heard her calling for her slow child! Why the God of Heaven has cursed me with such a stupid daughter such as you, I shall never know! You can't even clean my dishes right, let alone milk a cow!" the father scolded the child who lay in a bundle on the ground. "Why can't you be like your mother? She knows what is expected of her and she does it when she is told! A perfect wife and a stupid and slow daughter, I have. Get up and help your mother, and do not disturb Fuyutaro!" The man strutted from the room and slammed the paper-filled sliding door behind him.

Coughing, eight-year-old Sakura stood shakily, still gasping for air and clutching at her stomach and leaning on the wall until she regained her breath. Once her lungs were filled, she ignored the sharp pain her abdomen and pulled on her white knee high socks before leaving her small bedroom and heading down the hallway, into the bright light of the kitchen and dining room. At the dining room table, her younger brother, six-year-old Fuyutaro, sat as he busily reviewed over some work his father had prepared for him.

Haruno Fuyutaro was a young prodigy and his father was proud of it. At six-years-old he had already perfected reading up to a sixth-grade level and could do arithmetic up to an eighth-grade level. His dark brown hair cascaded down his back in a braid and he wore a jade-green shirt with yukata-styled sleeves and white slacks that stopped at mid-shin. The boy's own emerald-green eyes glanced up at his older sister as she entered the kitchen and he smirked at her apparent pain. Although very young, the child had begun to learn his father's ways at an impressive rate.

"Konbanwa, Sakura-boku," the little boy greeted his sister, the smirk still apparent on his face as the girl nodded respectfully and went to join their mother at the sink, where she was peeling carrots. Sakura glanced up at her mother, who gazed down at her in turn and put the carrots in the sink down for a second, wiping her hands off on her apron and bringing up one hand to caress her daughter's cheek and another to wipe away one stubborn tear.

"Sakura-chan..." the woman muttered, bringing the child close in a short hug and planting a kiss on her forehead. She sighed, relishing in the warmth of her child. She hated to see her only daughter going through the 'training.' She had been through it herself and hadn't liked any part of it. Especially the part that would come after her daughter had completed the first trial.

"Ahem..." Fuyutaro cleared his throat, causing his mother to immediately drop her arms from around her daughter's shoulders. "Mother, I would like to speak to Sakura." The pink-haired eight-year-old turned to face her younger brother and nodded her head, waiting for him to begin speaking.

"Sakura-boku, it has come to my attention that you haven't been to school, lately?" he asked her, the smirk finding its way back onto the young child's face. Sakura nodded again, gulping at the statement.

"Well, I have agreed to help tutor you in what you need to learn. Father said it would be alright and, of course, Mother has no say in this. Come to my side and sit on the floor." He smiled and pointed to a spot beside his seat and waited for pink-haired Sakura to sit down. A few seconds later, his command was completed. "Now... look at me." Sakura knew better than to glance up at the face of her brother and shook her head fiercely. Fuyutaro frowned and grasped her hair in one hand, tugging until she looked at him. "Now repeat after me. 'I am an idiot with the brain of an insect.'"

Tears appeared in Sakura's eyes. "I am an idiot with the brain of an insect."

"I shall never marry and shall be forced to work the fields until I am old and shriveled. My brother will surpass me and will become superior. I am nothing but a whore."

"Fuyutaro!" the children's mother exclaimed in horror, her hands clamped on her apron.

"Shut up, Mother!" the boy snarled. "Say it, Sakura. Now!"

Slowly, Sakura repeated what her brother said, tears cascading down her cheeks. "I... shall never marry... and shall be forced... to work the fields until I am... old and shriveled. My brother..." she stopped for a second, her brother now grinning a devious smile, waving a hand, willing her to continue. Sakura's eyes suddenly gave a small spark and she glared up at the boy who restrained her. "My brother is a hopeless excuse for a child and shall one day be killed by the hand of a mighty warrior!" The child regretted saying what she had retorted the moment it had left her lips. Fuyutaro glared at her, childish anger in his eyes. He released her hair and stood, knocking her to the ground.

"Father!" he exclaimed, his hands clenched in fists as he heard his father advance down the hallway. "This dobe has just told me that I shall die by the hands of a warrior! She had threatened me with death!" he yelled as his father's burly figure appeared in the doorway. The man glanced at Sakura, an angry glint in his eyes. Glancing back at his son, he tossed him a quirt he had held behind his back. With a cruel smile, he looked at the girl on the floor.

"Whip her."

TBC...

Glossary: Konbanwa, Sakura-boku- Good evening, Sakura, brat.
dobe- dumbass
quirt- whip with barbs

Hope you liked the first chapter! R&R