A/N: I stared at the last CH 2 so much until I Hated it. So here's this. It'll hopefully be the last rewrite this cursed story will get (rip)
Next will feature Naruto for real, but not now.
"What brought this on, dear?" her mama asked gently, fear and doubt warring within her eyes. In another world wherein Sakura's bravery had been the size of her four-year-old fist, she would have been disheartened to see the lack of trust, even if it was justifiable by the fact that she was four years old and had just declared that she wanted to pursue the life of a killer. But Sakura has had secret siblings in her head for two years, nearly three, and her bravery was spurred on by the desire to be like the kunoichi in her sister's stories—to be like her sister.
Although she wasn't completely disagreeing with her mama's doubt. She doubted herself, too.
Her declaration wasn't hers, not wholly, and was mostly brought on by her sister's sad eyes and the frightening bits and pieces of knowledge that implied the world's end. Sakura didn't have to agree to help her siblings, her brother made that very clear, and she was free to back away if she felt frightened. She was, to an extent, but no one else was there to help her siblings save the world. What could they do by themselves when they were stuck in a body controlled by a little girl? What could they do if that little girl was unwilling to stand and fight for the world? They wouldn't be able to do anything.
Luckily, Sakura hated the thought of the world ending due to some vengeful moon lady with enormous familial and mental issues, hated the thought of her parents dying, and had agreed.
Staring up into her mama's green eyes, Sakura wondered why her siblings were keeping a respectful distance, and realized that it was because this was hermama. Her siblings were her siblings, but her mama wasn't theirs, and neither was her papa. Sakura's parents were the only ones she could truly have for herself now, the one line her sister and brother wouldn't dare to cross. It was comforting, knowing that, so Sakura gathered up all the things her sister said in clipped tones and mashed them together in one, big, hopefully believable reason.
"I'm so proud of you," Saeko-nee said that night, sitting on the 'floor' of the dark expanse that represented Sakura's mind. She was smiling, brightly so, and Sakura relished in the feeling of the pride radiating off of her sister. Her brother's smile was much more muted, but his approval was there, hidden upon layers of something else that Sakura couldn't quite identify.
Still, once the moment of self-satisfaction passed, Sakura couldn't help but ask, "Does this mean that I have to stop playing with Ino?" Like how our older friends stopped playing with us, Sakura noted dully. Ino was Sakura's only friend at four years old, the longest friend she had ever had aside her siblings, and Sakura didn't really want to let her go. But I will, Sakura thought resolutely, if it meant saving the world.
To be honest, Sakura had a set of expectations then and there on the way her life would go on. Her sister told her, in no uncertain terms, that to save the world, Sakura needed strength. Would she have to emulate Taki-nii and Mitsuha-nee and stop playing with Ino entirely, dedicating her life to training? Sakura didn't have a fuller grasp on what training really meant aside from the implications from her older friends and from the tales of her brother and sister. She knew training vaguely meant learning how to do cool things, like walking on the walls and on the water, or training how to raise the earth with a single punch. Sakura was smart, smarter than almost all of the children her age, and she knew that much power wouldn't come without years of training. That amount of power took time.
She knew that was why Saeko-nee had frowned at her brother the night before, why they nearly descended into a full-on fight, because Saeko-nee wanted Sakura to do— something , at least, to help save the world while Sai-nii strangely didn't. At least, he didn't want her to be doing anything yet. Saeko-nee wanted to use all time they had while Sai-nii wanted to hold off on whatever they were planning to make her do, losing time in the process. Sakura still didn't understand that portion of their argument and perhaps she never would. Maybe it was one of those older-sibling-things.
To her pleasant surprise, however, Saeko-nee spluttered from her seat and gawked at the four-year-old. "What? No!" she exclaimed, sounding genuinely confused, "Why would you stop playing with Ino? The two of you are friends and I'm pretty sure you're both too young to be fighting over boys."
Sakura blinked, "Why would we be fighting over Shikamaru?" remembering the other half of the duo Ino introduced her to a few days ago, Sakura added, "Or Choji?"
Saeko-nee opened her mouth, looking ready to explain, and then shut it again with an audible click. Sakura watched with fascination as Saeko-nee exchanged a look with her brother and then seemed to reconstruct her own facial expressions, ending up with a cheery-looking face that somehow managed to seem stern at the same time, reminding Sakura heavily of her mama when she was having a row with her papa. Those things never ended well, and though they were funny most of the time, Sakura still preferred if neither her mama nor her papa were shouting at one another.
Sai-nii hummed from his spot, looking far too pleased with his own self and earning a jab to his side for his trouble.
The little knot barring Sakura's throat eased a little. This was normal behavior—this was her siblings' normal behavior. It almost seemed as if nothing changed at all, as if her sister hadn't asked her last night to help stop a war that wasn't even in her reach yet, as if her brother hadn't told her that she wasn't supposed to exist on a conscious level. But something had to be changing – or will change – because Saeko-nee looked so happy with herself, too, despite the annoyed creases in her eyebrow. Sakura had learned that her sister was rarely happy with herself, even if she did smile a lot and told bad jokes that made Sakura smile to herself.
Finally, her older siblings stopped jabbing each other, and Sai-nii turned to Sakura with a serious look on his pale face. "Things will change," he began, obviously reading Sakura's thought process using that strange ability that he shared with Saeko-nee, but not with Sakura. Quietly, her brother added, "But your sister and I discussed this, Sakura-chan, and we're not going to take away your childhood from you."
In an increasingly familiar gesture, her siblings took hold of each of her hands, and Sakura couldn't help but wonder why her brother's hand felt cold while her sister's hand felt exceedingly warm. Maybe, just maybe, if they were all mixed together, they'd form the ideal temperature for hand-holding. Still, Sakura didn't pull away, even if her fingers numbed or her skin blistered. These feelings were just feelings; Sakura's hands were alright in the real world, perhaps clenched tight around her blanket, but she was alright nonetheless. Saeko-nee stared into Sakura's eyes with her identical pair, whispering, "You're such a good girl, Sakura-chan, for even agreeing to help us. Thank you."
Shaking her head exactly once, Saeko-nee added in a much cheerier tone, "Sai's correct; we're not going to make you stop playing with Ino. That's just wrong and unfair, but you're also right, things will be changing from here on out. But not in the way you're thinking, Sakura-chan. Not yet, at least—if we can help it, we'll wait another year, but tomorrow," Saeko-nee let go of her hand and stood up, smiling down at Sakura, "Sai and I will send you friend-hunting."
Sakura almost laughed aloud when she woke up, feeling much lighter than she did before. Friend-hunting, her sister had said with a smile. They weren't expecting Sakura to save the world on her own—which was why they were going to make her go out and socialize with other people, making friends who would grow up to be powerful and useful in the grand scheme of saving the world. Sakura had to nudge them along the right way, too, and make sure they didn't stray from the path and end up like Saeko-nee's Demon-Eyed Brother – Sai-nii called himDuckhair for some odd reason – from her stories about herself.
Sakura really did feel bad for that character; he made a whole ton of bad choices.
If her parents noticed the bouncy attitude or her eagerness to go to the park – even though it was still morning and still far from the unspoken official meeting time Ino and Sakura had – they said nothing, content to watch their daughter act like the bubbly girl she was supposed to be at four years old. Mebuki and Kizashi had gotten used to having a moody little girl, with perfunctory politeness and almost eerie silence three-fourths of the time and a puppy's energy and a voice shriller than a siren for the other fourth of the time.
They were simply glad to see that their daughter was no longer the quiet, solemn girl from yesterday's breakfast, and they were all too eager to dismiss their daughter's declaration and hope that Sakura would grow out of it. Kizashi really didn't like the idea of Sakura slitting people's throats, even if he did know there was a possibility of his daughter doing other things like mission filing if she became a shinobi.
Mebuki accompanied Sakura to the park today, Kizashi having to attend some meeting with some merchants. But really, it was only a bunch of married men gossiping like teenagers about their wives and – for those who had them – children. Mebuki knew that Kizashi had been talking about how his daughter was becoming quite an artist, just like him. Unlike her husband, she took a little cheer in knowing that her daughter may follow her footsteps one day and have teammates – friends – who'll hopefully drag the moodiness out of her.
"I'll be here, alright?" Sakura nodded at her mama, waving her hand goodbye even as her mama simply turned and walked away to sit down on the bench underneath the shade.
The park wasn't as crowded as it usually was during the afternoons and her sister said something about families doing house-cleaning during the hour as a form of family bonding. That never happened in Sakura's home, to be honest; her mama could simply form seals with her hands and out puffed two identical copies of her to help her do the housework.
There were a few children around, though, and Sakura was eager to get started on her very own mini-mission: making friends. Her brother debriefed her beforehand. Making friends was easy; Sakura just had to be herself. Sakura was a little girl inclined to honesty and imitating her brother's close-lipped smiles, so she started there. She didn't know where she got it from, but she knew that smiling usually endeared people to others, and honesty to accompany it was never bad. In all her enthusiasm, Sakura couldn't find it in herself to remember that it was Sai-nii who told her that, and that Sai-nii had read it from a book and that Saeko-nee had mentioned many times before how her brother was as good at socializing as a rock.
The first group Sakura introduced herself to – "Hi, I'm Sakura. Do you want to be my friend?" – had taken one look at her face and bluntly stated, "You have a wide forehead."
Oblivious, thinking that they had gone into a game of stating the obvious, Sakura cheerfully replied, "And you sound like a girl."
She was almost hit with a punch, almost, if those boys' respective parents hadn't come along and carted them off while scolding them about hitting girls, leaving Sakura staring dumbfounded at their backs. Strangely, Saeko-nee was merely laughing in her head, while her brother seemed as shocked as Sakura was. Though, if Sakura knew why he seemed so surprised, she would have batted at his face with her tiny hands.
The second group of children – and the only group of children remaining at that moment – reacted similarly to the first group's reaction to Sakura's presence. The group of children – a trio of girls clearly led by the one with ridiculously asymmetrical purple hair – took one look at Sakura's face and the redhead of the group cackled with mild glee before she even said anything. "Your hair is pink!" The redhead laughed, though Sakura couldn't see what was so funny.
Unsure, blinking once, she nodded, "Your hair is red."
The kids paused for a moment before breaking into peals of laughter once again, so much that the girl with really curly orange hair doubled over and fell to the ground. Sakura felt her eye twitch and she eventually decided that they weren't worth the effort. Saeko-nee was still laughing herself silly in their shared head. At least Sakura knew her sister wasn't laughing because of the jab at their hair color. Saeko-nee had pink hair, too, after all, but she was still laughing and Sakura couldn't figure out why.
Sighing, Sakura started her trek back to the largest tree in the middle of the park, right where the swings were located. She had to admit; making friends wasn't as easy as her brother made it sound. Sakura couldn't figure out what she was doing wrong; she did all those things and had managed to befriend two children older than her, and she's sure Ino said something about liking how honest Sakura was, but these kids seemed to hate her for both of those things.
Sakura-chan, her sister wheezed, your brother was terrible at making friends.
What? Then why did Sai-nii sound so self-assured with his own advice? Prodding at her brother, Sakura received her answer a moment later, I read it from a book. It really is useful advice, though.
Saeko-nee snorted. Not when it's you who's following it, then, a little mournfully, of all the things she could have learned from you, it was how to be as awkward as you are.
I'm awkward? She thought she was being normal. Isn't this how normal children were supposed to act?
You're not normal, Sakura-chan, you're special. Don't listen to what your sister says; your awkwardness is endearing and kids these age are stupid, anyway. As if to prove her brother's point, the purple-haired girl from before suddenly shoved her redheaded friend over, causing the girl with red hair to scream and clutch at her knee. Instead of saying sorry, the purple-haired girl merely huffed and turned her face away from the redhead, and the orange-haired girl of the group followed the purple-haired girl like a puppy when she walked away. Sakura strangely felt a lot better after seeing that.
But still, special or not, how was she supposed to gain friends if the other children found her strange? Why didn't Mitsuha-nee and Taki-nii turn her away that first day? What did she do right that day that she wasn't doing correctly now? Her siblings helped her back then—oh. Can't you tell me what to say and do?
There was a thoughtful silence before her sister replied, no, Sakura-chan, we can't tell you what to do all of the time. We helped you back then because it was your first time making friends with anyone, but now you're on your own.
Make us proud, her brother added cheerfully.
Day two of friend-hunting. Friend Count: 1. And if Ino didn't count because she was Sakura's friend beforehand, the Friend Count would be at 0. Shikamaru and Choji didn't count either. Sakura's met them, like, once and they didn't even talk or play together. The duo had merely been passing by.
Sakura scribbled in her notepad angrily, fluffing up the tail of the cat she was drawing with each angry stroke of the pencil. Again, Sakura was in the park an hour earlier than Ino. The park was still filled with the same children from yesterday, and while she resolutely ignored the group of girls who laughed at her hair, they didn't ignore her. They were very loudly talking about her, commenting on her forehead, but not loud enough for her papa to hear from where he was talking with some friend of his that he ran into.
Can the Choujuu Giga technique work if I used a pencil? Apparently, that was what the making-drawings-move-out-of-paper technique was actually called, but Choujuu Giga was honestly shorter to say, so Sakura let the name be even if it did remind her of Choji.
No, unless the lead of your pencil is infused with chakra, but I don't think it can work that way, her brother replied. Disappointed, Sakura kept on scribbling onto her sparkly pink notepad. Perhaps sensing her mood, Sai-nii added, I'll teach you how to make chakra-infused ink later and how to do the technique.
Please use it wisely, Sakura-chan , her sister piped in, frowning, no drawing lions to maul the kids you don't like. Sakura huffed at her sister. She wouldn't do something like that. They really should have more faith in her.
Sakura, your first impulse was to punch the girl in the face. You don't even know how to make a proper fist.
Yes, well, the girl would have deserved it, honestly. And if she didn't shut up about Sakura's forehead soon, she was going to walk over there and smack her with the notepad.
Sakura smacked the girl – apparently named Ami – with her notepad and relished at the offended squawk, even as she was dragged away by her papa from the park. Her only regret was that she didn't get to play with Ino.
Sighing dramatically, Sakura trudged through the streets of Konoha with her papa. It was day three of the friend-hunting mission and she still made zero new friends. They walked past the park and Sakura stubbornly looked away from the area, hearing Ami's distinctive shrill voice yelling for one of her friends. Due to the stunt she pulled yesterday, Sakura wasn't allowed to play in the park for a week, which meant no playing with Ino for a week. Sakura didn't even get to tell her friend that she wouldn't be there. Hopefully Ino wouldn't be too mad at Sakura for disappearing for so long.
This is what you get , her sister had said when her papa said as much, zero impulse-control, honestly—Sai, stop smiling, this isn't a good thing.
She has a spine, Hag, was her brother's retort.
Her sister didn't admit it, but Sakura could feel the pride coming off in waves. So while she did hate the consequences of her actions, she wouldn't have done anything differently. She suspected her sister had a personal vendetta against Ami, anyway, because there had been a moment of self-satisfaction that wasn't hers.
Her papa was going to bring her to their shop in Konoha, a branch of the Haruno clan textile shops. While her papa did run away from the rest of the Haruno clan because he wanted to become an artist instead of the head of a merchant clan mainly situated in the Land of Iron, the defiance didn't last long, especially after Sakura was born and an artist's pay wasn't enough to support the only Haruno family in Konoha. So he asked permission to open a branch of their main business in Konoha and her grandfather, despite all his misgivings and issues with his son, allowed him to do so. Thus today was basically a 'bring your child to work' day for her papa.
Knowing how much his daughter hated the mathematics involved in his job – despite the fact that she was strangely great at it, for a four-year-old – Kizashi let Sakura stay in the break room in the back of the shop with a bottle of ink and watercolors, brushes, and empty scrolls and other thick papers, given that she wouldn't get paint everywhere. Sakura was exceptional at art; her papa proudly displayed her scroll paintings around the shop, paintings of cats and birds and big fluffy dogs. She had a preference for drawing animals. He called her an art prodigy.
Being a prodigy meant nothing if she had no inspiration, though, and as it was now, she really didn't have any. Sakura glared at the blank pieces of paper as if it personally offended her. She didn't feel like drawing cats. She must have drawn all of the cats in Konoha already and she wanted to draw something else, but no , she just had to have no idea whatsoever on what to draw. Why was her imagination failing her now? Why?
You're so dramatic, Saeko-nee laughed, to which Sakura responded with an exaggerated sigh. She shoved the scroll in front of her away to thump her head lightly on the table, groaning, "This is it, my career as an artist is over," she turned her head to rest her cheek on the table and mournfully said, "I guess I'll just stick to boring mathematics and become a merchant."
Somewhere in the Land of Iron, the head of the prominent Haruno Merchant Clan sneezed.
You'll become a kunoichi, her sister reminded, amused, but yes, if you don't make the cut, you'll be installed as clan head when you're grouchy and old with a good idea on taxes and bills.
Briefly, Sakura saw a glimpse of herself buried in piles and piles of papers and receipts, sipping boring tea with bags under her eyes brought on by sleepless nights, and she fought against the shudder that ran down her spine.
Unsurprisingly, because Sai-nii had a deep-seated hatred for sitting still in offices and thinking about economy, her brother chose that moment to add to the conversation. Well, since we don't want that to happen, why don't I teach you the Choujuu Giga technique?
But I don't have chakra-infused ink, Sakura pointed out despite her excitement to learn how to make her drawings walk around. Just imagining her papa's reaction to be able to hold a cat without his allergies acting up was motivation enough.
Then we'll make some , was her brother's reply. Chakra-infused ink is a rare material, often used in high-level sealing techniques. You know the seals on your bedroom window? Sakura nodded, though to the outside observer, she was nodding to herself. Her brother continued, the seals on your window are relatively simple and keeps intruders out. They were made with standard ink. Chakra-infused ink costs a lot for the reason that only a few number of shinobi and kunoichi uses them. But that's not the only reason, there was a brief pause, and then her brother said, go find a needle.
Sakura found a sewing needle attached to a roll of thread and took it. Returning to the table where she left her art supplies, she asked, what now?
You have a 50 ml bottle of ink, her brother began, now, prick your finger.
She blinked. What?
You know that chakra is a form of life energy that all living things have to some amount; without it, a person dies , Sakura nodded again. It was unavoidable for Saeko-nee and Sai-nii to lecture Sakura on certain technical topics such as chakra; the stories they told Sakura made a mention of chakra countless of times, along with the different types of jutsu. Similarly, when a person bleeds out, they die. There's a whole correlation lesson on blood and chakra that you'll have to sit through in the academy, so I'll put this simply: to make chakra-infused ink, you need to drip blood – your life force – into the ink. And then you'll follow my instructions closely. First: prick your finger.
Uncapping the ink bottle, Sakura held the needle to her eye-level. She didn't like the idea of puncturing herself with a sharp needle, but then again, she didn't like the idea of never being able to perform the technique. With a deep breath, Sakura placed the sharp tip of the needle against the skin of her index finger, and bit her lip when the tip broke the skin.
It isn't deep enough, her brother said. Complying, Sakura pressed the needle deeper until her brother told her that it was enough. Removing the pointy metal, she eyed the slowly growing red dot on her finger, until the dot became a drop and dripped into the bottle of ink. Press on it to make it bleed more, she obeyed until her brother said two seconds later, that's enough. Now find a cotton to press against your finger and stop the bleeding.
Once her finger wasn't dripping blood anymore, Sai-nii continued his lecture. This is the second reason why chakra-infused ink costs so much: the processes of making it are complicated. The simplest way of making it requires blood, different amounts of it depending on the amount of ink. Secondly, it won't work if the blood to ink ratio isn't balanced. A competent shinobi – or someone very good at math – can simply make their own ink, but people generally don't like bleeding themselves out. The more ink one needs, the more blood they have to use.
Why not use someone else's blood? Like an enemy's blood, or an animal's. Though, Sakura really hated the thought of wounding animals for their blood.
Then you'd have to tune their chakra to your chakra, which requires precise control and time that most people don't have. Without proper tuning, the effects of the ink are significantly weaker.
Can I add something? Saeko-nee piped up. After receiving Sai-nii and Sakura's affirmative, she said, aside from bleeding yourself out – and by the way, I disapprove of this method, it's harmful and you didn't even check if the needle wasn't covered in rust—
Sai-nii huffed within their shared mind.
—another way to make this ink is through directly channeling your chakra to the ink. The downside, however, is that this method takes a lot of time that shinobi do not have – especially if they need this ink in the middle of a sealing, or a battle – along with preparation before the chakra-to-ink ratio becomes sufficient. Furthermore, it requires nearly perfect chakra control, or else the ink would splatter and wouldn't hold together. That level of chakra control is one that I don't think even you can achieve so easily, Sakura-chan, special of not, her sister paused, as if contemplating her next words, but I'll teach you how to do this because I will notlet you bleed yourself out for the sake of art.
There was something pointed in her sister's statement, something angry and concerned all at the same time. Perhaps wisely, Sakura merely nodded, biting down the comment that she wouldn't be so stupid as to bleed herself out for art.
Continuing on, her brother said after a moment of prolonged silence, now you have to draw something.
Confirming that her finger was no longer bleeding, Sakura reached for her brush and carefully dipped it within the homemade – so to speak – chakra-infused ink. She reached for one of the thick blank papers, hovering a hand over it, before reaching for the empty scrolls instead, similar to the ones her brother manifested out of nowhere in her mind. Frustrations with the lack of drawing ideas forgotten, Sakura meticulously began painting a cat. It was a fat cat, with a bushy tail and chubby legs, but it was cute nonetheless. It took her three minutes to draw the cat, which was a new record, considering how long it usually took her to be satisfied with her art when she used brushes and ink without giving in to the impulse of coloring the drawing.
You know, her brother said as Sakura overlooked her work, I think you'll never get married in the future and just have a million cats as your children.
She's four years old and that's far too young to be mentioning marriage around her.
She's four years old and we're making her help us save the world, her brother shot back.
I can hear the both of you, Sakura reminded before they could descend into another fit of exchanging insults with one another. This made her siblings quiet down with a promise to squabble at a later time and that was the best she would ever get from those two. What's next?
Close your eyes and look for the...flame of sorts, inside your body. That's your chakra. Sakura did as her sister instructed, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to look for the flickering light that she knew was inside of her. She has never done this before, but Sakura was exceptionally good at following instructions, and with her siblings to instruct her, what could go wrong? It didn't take long; Sakura found the glow her sister was talking about and patiently waited for their next instructions.
Lift your writing-hand and take your index finger and middle finger together and point vertically.
Vertically?
Pointing upwards, Saeko-nee clarified, now do the seal of...
Sakura peeked her eyes open to stare at her painting again. The cat stared back at her, inanimate and chubby. Just a little bit more and she would be able to make her drawings move around. Oh, she couldn't wait to show this to Ino! Just six more days before Sakura would get to see her again; she couldn't wait. She wondered, distantly, what Ino's favorite animal was.
Focus, Sakura, her sister's amused tone snapped her out of her reverie, making her wince. She had stopped paying attention while her sister was still speaking and that—that was very rude of her. Thankfully, it seemed Saeko-nee was just amused. She suspected that it had something to do with Sakura's cat-related daydreaming.
I forgot you don't know hand seals yet, her sister admitted, no matter. Curl your other fingers together, with your thumb over your ring finger and pinky. Now close your eyes and concentrate on your chakra.
As she did so, she heard the very distant wisp of her brother's voice say, Ninpou: Choujuu Giga.
Kizashi was sure his mouth was hanging open. He moved it just to make sure, and yes, his mouth really had been open. The shop was silent, eerily so, and it wasn't due to the slow business day. There was only one customer at present, and Kizashi was vaguely aware of the sharp way his attention zeroed in on Sakura, but in the face of his daughter holding up a cat made of ink in her tiny arms and her mostly incoherent mile-a-minute ramble, Kizashi honestly thought he couldn't be blamed for ignoring him.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, someone broke the silence that ensued with Sakura's declaration. It was the customer, prompting Kizashi to take another look at the man again. He was chewing on a needle and the bandana on his head blatantly displayed the Konoha symbol engraved on the metal plate. The man, clearly a shinobi, approached Sakura and knelt to her eye level. With a light tone, the man said, "How did you, ah," he took one look at the ink-cat, very obviously a drawing by the roundish features that Sakura tended to use with her cat drawings, "How did you… bring the cat to life?"
If this was any other day, Kizashi would have laughed at the confused tone. As it was, he was wondering that, too.
Faced with a stranger, Kizashi saw how his daughter stood up straighter, her facial expression adopting the perfunctory politeness she was so fond of using, unless within their home or with Ino, and even then, she sometimes retreated to using it. The little girl who rambled about jutsu and chakra so quickly that even Kizashi couldn't understand was gone immediately. Sakura was silent for a few seconds, and then she blinked. Staring back at the shinobi, she said, "I could show you, if you want."
The shinobi nodded with a friendly smile.
Kizashi watched as Sakura placed the cat onto the counter and hurried off into the back room, returning a moment later with an empty scroll and a bottle of ink in her hands. Without any mind to proper behaviour in the presence of other people, Sakura sat on the floor, nearly behind the counter, with her legs crossed beneath her and the scroll spread out in front of her. She pulled a brush from her pants' pocket. Kizashi made a mental note to tell his daughter not to put brushes into pockets. What if the ink stained her clothes? Mebuki would throw a fit.
The shinobi stood straighter, overlooking Sakura from above. Kizashi inched closer to see what she was doing. With immense care, Sakura dipped the brush into the bottle and drew her favorite type of bird: a hummingbird. It took her five minutes at most, and Kizashi had to wonder at the shinobi's patience with Sakura. He was under the impression that the man had been in a bit of a hurry.
Finally, as she finished the last brush stroke, Sakura set her brush aside and closed her eyes, her hand coming up to her chest and forming one of those hand seals that Kizashi had seen Mebuki do from time to time. With a steady voice, his daughter spoke just as she opened her eyes, "Ninpou: Choujuu Giga."
There was a burst of power that even Kizashi felt – and he was a civilian – and he felt his jaw drop again as the ink rose from the scroll and the bird was suddenly flying around, a black-and-white thing that flitted around his shop. Sakura cracked a smile then and held out her small hand, to which the bird landed obediently on her palm. Kizashi heard the shinobi make a noise, one of honest surprise that reflected exactly how Kizashi felt.
When did she learn to do that?
"Where did you learn to do that?" he found himself asking.
To this, Sakura merely smiled, close-eyed, and answered, "I experimented." in the most casual of tones that Kizashi couldn't help but squint at his little girl. Sheexperimented? How? Where did she see this technique before? Did she just copy the jutsu after seeing it?
Or maybe, amazingly – and terrifyingly – she made the technique on her own? Gods, Sakura was going to end up giving him grey hairs before he was forty.
The shinobi made another noise of surprise. "Wow, kid, you're quite the little prodigy then, aren't you?" After looking intently at the bird on Sakura's hand and then at the cat still sitting on the counter, the shinobi asked, "What's your name, kid?"
"Haruno Sakura," she replied, this time looking much more cheerful than before. Kizashi couldn't help but snort at the way the shinobi paused. It was more or less how people reacted when they first witnessed Sakura's rapid change of moods – and by people, Kizashi lowkey meant himself and Mebuki. "What's yours?"
"Shiranui Genma," the shinobi replied, with as much cheer and friendliness as Sakura had.
Surprisingly, or perhaps maybe not, the list of surprising events didn't end there. Sakura stuck her hand out further, prompting the ink bird to fly, towards the shinobi and asked, "Do you want to be friends, Genma-san?"
Four years old and befriending killers, Kizashi thought, closing his eyes for the barest moments before opening them up again. The shinobi was looking at himnow, as if asking some unspoken question about Sakura's sanity. Grey hairs. Most definitely grey hairs.
"My papa won't mind," she suddenly added.
When the shinobi genuinely laughed and said, "Sure, kid," Kizashi wondered if this was the consequence of essentially banning Sakura from seeing her friend for a week.
Sakura waved goodbye at Genma-san even as he walked away from her papa's shop, a bag full of satin cloth in his hand. Feeling the distinct pride and cheerfulness coming from her siblings, Sakura mentally updated her Friend Count. After all, no one really explicitly stated that she could only befriend children.
Day three of friend-hunting. Friend Count: 1, and if Sakura counted Ino even though they've been friends before her friend-hunting mission began, 2.
