Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto.
Random ficlets on the daily life of Konoha citizens.
Major AU, you have been warned.
balloon: a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas
Sakura skipped cheerfully down the streets of Konoha, her short fingers gripping a balloon string tightly. Her bright red balloon bobbed in the air with every skip the four year old took.
When she saw the old peddler selling that red balloon, Sakura knew immediately that she had to have it. Incessant begging and large Puppy Dog Eyes later, her mother conceded with the condition that she had to play with the balloon outdoors.
"No playing your balloon in the shop, honey. The weather is really nice today so off you go! Have fun, sweetie"
"Kayyyy" Sakura replied in a singsong voice as she bounced out of her parents' shop.
"Where am I?" Sakura panicking, she sobbed as fat tears rolled down her cheeks. Big menacing looking trees surrounded her with the sound of animals howling in the dark woods. She could barely see anything with the only bright thing she could see was her red balloon stuck among the branches of the tall tree in front of her.
She was distracted by the food in the market stalls earlier and as she reached out her hand to accept some manju from a hawker, she had accidentally let go of the string. By the time she finished her treat and thanked the hawker, her balloon was already blown away by a slight breeze.
Sakura spotted a red blip in a distance and ran after it to get her balloon back. Her short legs struggling to keep up with the balloon as she panted heavily. She watched as her balloon floated into a fenced forest with the sign 'Training Ground 44' hung on the gates. She started sniffing as tears began to pool in her eyes, afraid that she was never getting her balloon back when she saw a small tear at the bottom of the fence.
Covered in smudges of dirt and littered in small scratches, Sakura made it through the makeshift hole as she caught sight of her balloon again. Slowed down by the humongous trees which blocked its way, she managed to catch up with it until her balloon got stuck in a tree.
Lost, tired and hungry, Sakura began wailing.
"Little girl, what are you doing here?" a voice called out to her together with the sound of rustled leaves.
"I was- 'hiccup'- looking for my balloon. And now it's there" Sakura cried, pointing at her balloon.
A shinobi shot past her in a blur then walked up the tree and retrieved her balloon. Sakura stopped crying at the sight of the shinobi walking up the tree trunk. She broke into a watery laugh as the shinobi placed the string back into her grubby hand, gently but firmly closing her fingers around it.
"Thank you shinobi-san" she looked gratefully at the shinobi when she realised that the shinobi-san is actually a female ANBU. Every child in Konoha, civilian or shinobi have heard tales of the elusive ANBU and could recognise one immediately. Even though she was clad in a standard ANBU uniform and face covered by a bone white mask with an owl drawn on it, Sakura could see her womanly figure.
'Wow. She's a girl and she's ANBU' thought Sakura in awe.
"C'mon, climb on my back. I'll get you back home"
Arms around the kunoichi's neck as they ran through the forest at high speed, Sakura asked "Kunoichi-san, what's your name?"
"Well, you can call me Owl"
"Owl-san, I'm Sakura!" she said delightedly. "You were really cool earlier" she added.
Owl laughed at that, Sakura could feel the vibrations of her laugh as she laid her head on her back.
"If you train hard as a shinobi, you can be like me too"
"Really? Then I'll train hard and be a great kunoichi like you too!" she announced.
"Here you are" Owl lowered herself to the ground so Sakura could climb off her back.
"Thank you, Owl-san" she piped up.
"Now, no more chasing balloons in the forest. Alright?" she said at which Sakura nodded immediately. A poof later, Owl Shunshin'd away leaving Sakura at her doorstep. Sakura stared bright-eyed at where Owl was earlier, 'I'm going to be a kunoishi. SHANNARO!" she told herself.
"Sakura, is that you? Where have you been all day? Your father and I have been worried sick about you" her mother reprimanded as Sakura walked through the door.
"Kaa-san, I am going to be a shinobi"
Author's Note:
So here is the 'B' instalment of my Alphabet Series. I hope that you all enjoyed chibi-Sakura as I did. Feel free to prompt me and give me suggestion on the next words I should use in this series. Reviews are most welcome!
P.S. My sister informed me that she did not like the previous chapter due to the fact that it was a slash. She also said that I should appeal to the mass readers by editing the chapter and cutting out the slash parts. So what do y'all think?
Written at 3:55 PM