Disclaimer: I do not own the series Naruto or any of the characters or concepts within it. I don't own Onimeno-sensei either; he's from another series entirely, and is merely twisted around to fit the premise of this story.

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The Eyes Have It

Chapter 3: Remorse

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"Team Seven will be Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto."

Sakura merely rested her chin in her hands glumly at the announcement, instead of joining in with the chorus of disappointed and anguished wailing. Hinata was an obvious, fair choice; she was not only a well-rounded kunoichi, but also the only girl in class who didn't carry a torch for the last Uchiha.

Sure, she was blushing to beat the band now, but Sakura would be willing to bet that it had more to do with all of the envious stares the poor girl was receiving than being on a team with Sasuke-kun. And even if she was wrong, she knew that Hinata would never act on those sorts of feelings.

She couldn't, and not just because she was the heiress of her clan. The fact of the matter was that very bad things could happen when you tried mixing doujutsu.

Onimeno had recently started giving her little lessons on the perks and drawbacks that went along with being a doujutsu user, and one of the first sessions had involved records of previous attempts to cross-breed. While there had been some stable results, most of the documented cases had been unpleasant at best and outright horrifying at worst. It was always a very pricy gamble, seeing which eyes would mesh with one another, or create something new, or destroy each other on a genetic level.

Sakura wished she could say that her love for Sasuke-kun could overcome any hardship or hurtle, but her dreams of someday becoming Uchiha Sakura had cracked and shattered as she leafed through photographs of blind, sickly children who slowly and surely had their meager chakra reserves sucked dry by useless, parasitic eyes.

So in a depressing sort of way, Sakura was almost glad that she wasn't in Hinata's place. Being on a team with the boy that she now knew she could never have and Naruto, too? It would be a cruel, never-ending nightmare. Perhaps, with luck and distance, she would be able to gradually fall out of love with Sasuke without too much heartache.

By the time Sakura had just about finished with her moping, the furor had died down enough for Iruka-sensei to continue on. "Right. Team Eight will be Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Inuzuka Kiba."

Sakura twisted around in her seat to scan the classroom for her new teammates while Team Ten was announced. She found them at the back, offered a tentative wave and a smile, and received an inscrutable nod of acknowledgement and a toothy grin for her trouble.

As teammates went, Shino and Kiba weren't too bad at all. If anything, Shino's heavy clothing and heavier silences creeped her out more than any bug ever had, and Akamaru was positively adorable. She had never spent much time with either boy, and as far as she knew they weren't exactly best buddies either. They essentially had a blank slate to build off of, which was arguably almost as much of an advantage as literally being born and raised to be a team the way Ino, Choji and Shikamaru had been.

Once Iruka-sensei had finished going down the roster and bid them all good luck with their fledgling careers, Sakura stood and started making her way to the back of the classroom, where her teammates had already gathered. Hinata crept down the same aisle, heading towards where Naruto and Sasuke-kun had already begun to bicker. Just as their paths converged in that slowly emptying classroom, a strange impulse took hold of Sakura and she reached out to grab the other girl's hand.

Hinata looked up at her with wide, bewildered eyes, but Sakura's body had seen fit to leave her brain and mouth out of this particular plan. So she simply smiled reassuringly and gently squeezed Hinata's fingers, before letting go and resuming her leisurely pace.

"Didn't know you two were close," Kiba mused as the new Team Eight strolled off to find an empty classroom.

Sakura shrugged. "We aren't. I just…suddenly had the feeling that she wasn't going to have an easy time of it with those two."

"You have a logical basis for your concerns. How so?" Shino pushed his sunclasses up the bridge of his nose. "Simple: their frequent clashes and opposing personality types foreshadow a very difficult time indeed."

His new teammates turned to stare at him, but it was Kiba who spoke up first. "…dude…do you always talk like you're holding a conversation with yourself?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and prodded him hard in the side, eliciting a surprised yelp. "That's rude, Kiba. Apologize." She agreed with his assessment, but she at least had the manners not to say so to Shino's face.

"Sorry, man." Kiba grumbled, eying Sakura warily. Akamaru yipped in what could only be called amusement from his perch in Kiba's hood.

Shino inclined his head, tacitly accepting the sentiment, and they settled down to have a quiet lunch together. They had just barely finished packing their empty lunchboxes away when the classroom door slid open, revealing a gorgeous, crimson-eyed woman.

She took a long look at them, then smiled warmly and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. "Team Eight?" It was more of a courtesy than a real question. When Iruka-sensei had handed out the assignments, he had only stated that their jounin instructors would pick them up sometime within the next few hours. Elite ninja were more than capable of tracking down their own specific handful of wet-behind-the-ears genin. "My name is Yuuhi Kurenai. I will be your teacher from today onwards."

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"She's absolutely amazing, Yuta-oji," Sakura gushed to Yutaka a few hours later at the fine restaurant he had taken her to as a celebration. "She's…well, honestly, it's like she leapt straight out of one the old stories Hiraku-ojisama's so taken with. She's beautiful and graceful and brilliant. I really hit the jackpot!"

Yutaka chuckled from behind his teacup, shaking his head gently. "Well, that's good to hear. You'll definitely have plenty of stories to share the next time you're summoned back to the Estate." He went to take a bite of the high-quality tempura, before stopping short, as if just recalling something. "Oh. I nearly forgot; the boys wanted me to relay their congratulations when the time came…as well as their envy."

Yutaka had two sons, a set of twins a year older than Sakura. While she wasn't exactly friends with Toshio and Tatsuo, there was a long-standing sense of restrained fondness born from being pushed into being playmates by their parents. Hajime only had one son, Tsutomu, who was several years their senior and more often than not spent his days being groomed as the next Lord Haruno. He had been shaped from the same mold as his father and Hideki, leaving Sakura with that same ambiguous impression of discomfited dislike. Tsubaki and Akemi's collective assortment of children, conversely, were all years younger than them and generally tended to stay within arm's reach of their mothers' skirts.

So, while she couldn't exactly count them among her dearest companions, Toshio and Tatsuo were definitely staunch allies, especially when it came to Sakura's decision to follow the path of a ninja.

"That's sweet of them," Sakura smiled. "I'll write them a thank-you note when we get back."

"Such a good girl," Yutaka reached over to pat her head fondly.

I have something I would like to talk to you about, Sakura experimentally tried to say, but all that ended up coming out was a slightly dry "I try, Yuta-oji."

She hid her grimace with a long, measured sip of tea. Every time she attempted to broach the subject she both longed and dreaded to reveal, the words stuck in her throat and twisted into something else entirely. She knew it was silly, and even cowardly—after all, this was her Yuta-oji, if anybody would be loving and supportive at a time like this, it would be him—but she just couldn't manage to conquer her crippling indecision over whether to tell him or not.

"So, are your teammates cute?" Yutaka asked casually.

Sakura promptly choked on her tea. "What."

"What?" He shrugged elegantly. "I can't be interested in my favorite niece's nclosest prospects for the future?"

"Prospects for the fu—Yuta-oji! I am not going to marry Kiba or Shino!" Sakura cried. "Never in a million, billion years! I go for the refined type."

He laughed, long and light, and when he stopped there was a definitely pleased angle to his expression. "Well, it's good to know what you like," he said diplomatically. "But really, I was just teasing you."

"Mean!" Sakura pouted, and they continued with dinner, bantering playfully all the while.

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The next morning, Sakura rose the way she always did: slowly and with great reluctance, dragging her feet every step of the way. Without her parents close by, and with her uncle still sleeping soundly in the guest room, she didn't need to be nearly as sneaky or quiet when it came to making the trek from her bedroom to the bathroom.

The minor illusion technique that Onimeno had taught her dispelled when she went to sleep or lost consciousness, and the dots in her eyes had been growing a little bit lately. Onimeno had told her that it was a sign that she was progressing towards her doujutsu's stable form, but it definitely made her 'condition' harder to hide.

As she did every morning, Sakura took a deep breath, braced herself for whatever would come next, and then looked into the mirror.

It wasn't as much preparation as she needed.

Sakura let out a long breath, impressed despite herself, and leaned forward for a better look in the mirror. Over the course of the night, the white dots had ballooned out until each pupil was entirely white. It was an eerie look, like something out of a manga, and ironically reminiscent of her clan symbol.

"Well," she comforted her reflection. "At least the worst has come and gone."

Naturally, she was entirely wrong about that.

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Chapter Word Count: 1,684

Total Word Count: 5,363

Targeted Word Count: 5,000

And here we have Day 3 of my challenge! An introduction to Sakura's new team, more background for the future family drama to work off of, and the growth of her doujutsu. Tune in tomorrow for more Onimeno-sensei!

Thanks to Arkeus, minniemousemom, MoonShadow396 (you were right, by the way!), Guest, and Anonymous for your reviews!

See you all next time!