Summary: Haruno Sakura was used to Naruto's bizarre plans, but this one really topped it. In an attempt to change the future for the better, her best friend sends her back to the past to infiltrate their own home. The medic planned to do this as discretly as possible, but she should have known that even with a second identity, it wouldn't be that easy.
Beta: None, so please bare with the mistakes.
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Never have and never wil...
I'm not sure whether I must be bothered by the fact that writing this seems to be so much faster than my other larger stories, or to be simply be happy that inspiration in coming my way...
Anyway please Read, Enjoy & Review!
Make the Future Blossom
Chapter 3: Adam's Needle
~A Friend in Need ~
~Sasuke~ About five weeks later ~
Everyone was death.
His Auntie and Uncle were dead too.
For a young boy, no matter the fact that he was part of a ninja clan, this was unreal.
Sasuke stared with horrified eyes at the scene in front of him. People he had known, loved, littered the streets with puddles of blood surrounding them. For a moment, he couldn't quite keep his gaze away from their blank and empty eyes. Something inside him broke, making it difficult to think.
He was absently aware that the rate of his heartbeats rose dramatically, his breathing became ragged and his surroundings started swaying ever so slightly. He felt his whole body tense up in fear as his brain tried to accept what had just happened.
Dead.
They were all dead.
After having been frozen at that horrible realisation for a few seconds, the young Uchiha was snapped out of it by a horrible thought.
Mom.
Itachi.
Dad.
Where were they?
His primal instincts took over and the seven-year-old ninja ran towards his own home as fast as his feet could take him. He stubbornly ignored the corpses surrounding him, reminding himself of the training that he had had. As he ran, his tiredness was pushed to the back of his mind – he had to get home, damn it – as he rushed over to the people he loved.
Tears were building up in the corner of his mind as he started to realise that his own precious people could be dead as well. He searched the front of the house, but couldn't find anyone.
'But if they aren't here…where are they?' Sasuke thought. Inspiration hit him quickly and he bounced towards the room at the back of the house.
Why? Why was this happening?
His eyes widened in recognition when he saw the familiar door ahead. However, instead of bursting through and yelling out to his parents and brother, he found himself frozen in fear just outside the doors. His hands hovered over the handle as his mind went blank but one thought.
'What if they are dead?'
Sasuke swore that he heard the calm voice of his brother coming from behind the door, but the boy was afraid that he was imagining it. His hand trembled and he forcefully closed his eyes to steel his nerves as he drew the doors open before he could change his mind.
His eyes widened when he saw took in scene in front of him.
There were two figures lying on the moonlit floor – his parents, he realised with a gasp. Two other figures were standing each on opposite side of his parents, facing each other in the shadows. As both figures glanced his way when he entered, he could make out the familiar face on his the left. He realised with relief that at least his Nii-san was fine.
The boy's eyes immediately narrowed with spite at the black-clad stranger that was crouched right next to his mother on the ground, a hue of green chakra surrounding the hand that was touching his mother's chest. It was only logical to him that this stranger had to be the culprit.
Still… why didn't his brother do anything?
"What is going on?" He called out, narrowing his eyes on the green chakra and rushing forward to protect his precious people.
He stopped when the stranger suddenly lifted his hand at him, motioning to stop. Feeling as if the ninja was threatening to kill his mother, he reluctantly listened but shook from fury nonetheless. He wasn't strong enough, he knew, but that didn't explain why his brother wasn't doing anything.
"Nii-san why don't you stop him?!" He yelled out, feeling angry. He didn't understanding why his brother was merely staring at the stranger, seemingly studying him. He should have comprehended – or killed – the infiltrator for what he had done!
His glare was boring into the cloaked figure, trying to discern some physical characteristics from below the hood, but everything was carefully hidden. The only part of the stranger that wasn't covered by black were the man's point and index fingers, as he wore some kind of odd fingerless gloves.
The stranger didn't pay him any mind, but was instead focused on the ninja opposite from him, just like Itachi was focused on him. Noting the tension in the legs, the ninja was ready to jump away at any moment's notice though.
Sasuke growled out when he realised that they were ignoring him and felt abruptly unsure whether he should attack the stranger that was – wait…
'Isn't that a healing jutsu?'
He was healing his mother? But then why was his brother acting so wary towards this ninja?
A sinking feeling appeared in his stomach. It was true that his Nii-san had been acting oddly the last few months, a traitorous part of his mind whispered to him.
"W-what is g-going on Nii-san." He called out again, now even more confused and feeling even more helpless than before.
"Is Mother still alive? Who is that? Did he kill everyone? Why? Wha-" He was cut of when a shuriken passed his head.
He hissed out when the pain from being cut on the cheek registered. His first reaction was to look at the stranger in the room, but he hadn't moved. His eyes widened when he saw his brother slowly move his hand back to his side, as if he was showing him that he had been the one who had attacked him on purpose.
"Foolish little brother."
The fear and panic that had disappeared the moment he had seen his brother, now returned full-force.
"W-what?"
He took a shaky breath as he looked his brother in the eyes and saw them change. They morphed into the familiar Sharingan, but the design was something that Sasuke hadn't seen before.
"Mangeky-" Itachi started, but trailed off when the stranger that had been facing him suddenly appeared right in front of Sasuke, forcing him to break eye contact.
Startled, the seven-year-old reacted automatically and tried to attack the figure. He didn't come far though as he was quite gently swept of his feet and held on the ground with a firm foot placed on his back. Even as he tried to twist away from under the foot, which he couldn't, there came no pain like Sasuke expected. The pressure on his back was strong and though it wasn't painful, he still panicked.
"Nii-san!" He cried out in horror, begging for help but went utterly still when he saw the odd and icy look in his brother's eyes.
The traitorous part of his brain whispered a possible answer for the current situation. The fact that his brother- who had been showing dislike to his clan for a while – might have actually killed –
'No, he wouldn't.' Sasuke didn't belief it. He didn't want to.
There was a tense silence as the seven-year-old couldn't do anything else but remain frozen on the ground, feeling very conscious of the fact that the ninja restraining him could kill him at any second.
"Why do you protect him?" Itachi suddenly spoke up, questioning the stranger, who didn't answer. Instead, the ninja merely tilted his head to acknowledge what he said.
Sasuke's eyes widened at the implication.
"Protect? What do y-"
"Foolish little brother. It was me who killed everyone." The original Uchiha heir revealed with a very blank expression.
"You are lying!"
Itachi didn't even seem faced by his denial. Instead, he held up a kunai. A second later, a kunai was flung into his Father's leg and Sasuke suddenly felt like throwing up.
"You really…" He chocked on his voice, unable to finish the sentence.
He tensed when he saw Itachi take a step closer to them. "Don't kill me!" He yelled out, suddenly afraid.
The hold on his frame disappeared at his show of distress and he scrambled up. Noting the fact that the figure moved in front of him in a defensive stance, instead of grabbing him like he had feared, gave him some reassurance. His hand clutched around the figure's robe without even realising it.
This stranger was possibly his only escape – his only protection from his brother - he thought with a shudder.
'Why?' He thought, clamping his hopes to this mysterious cloaked stranger that even seemed to make his brother wary.
"Why!" He repeated loudly, tears finally streaming down his face.
"To see what I was capable of." His brother told him, his voice colder than Sasuke had ever heard before.
"What you were capable of?" He couldn't understand. "That was it? You killed everyone for that reason?" He accused, furious, tears rushing down his face as emotions overwhelmed him.
What had gotten into his brother's head?
~Itachi~
The female ninja – it had taken Itachi a while, even with the Sharingan, to pick up the very subtle clues that were there- had barged in just a mere second after he had cut down his parents' throats.
His heart had been very heavy as he had done this, but he deemed it necessary. He would serve Konoha as he had done all his life. Still, he had to admit to himself that his mother's dead had hit him harder than his father's and couldn't help but feel the guilt building up as he did so. For all the love that she had given him, he now took it away.
He had always suspected that she hadn't even truly supported Father's ideas, but without prove, there was nothing he could do. She had moved to fight against him and therefore she had given him no choice.
He was snapped out of this emotions the by strangers appearance. As Itachi had still been prepared to fight, he had acted instinctively when the ninja had appeared.
He hadn't even sensed her well-hidden chakra signature just before she stood in front of him. Even now, straining his keen senses at such a close proximity, he couldn't read enough of her signature to be able to recognise her chakra in the future.
He had never encountered such control of chakra before.
Not to mention that Itachi had been surprised when the strike directed towards the ninja was simply parried and he was pushed away. The female ninja didn't make a move to strike back however, like one normally would have done, which made Itachi curious enough to see what was going on.
The ninja was clearly on the defence and lacked the reflexes of an offensive fighter.
It had only taken a few seconds for this exchange to happen and the newcomer had immediately taken his curiosity to her advantage. Seeing the stranger rush over and crouch down next to his beloved drying mother and somehow heal the most fatal part of the strike made Itachi mentally choke though. He had never seen anyone do that. He had made sure to strike in a place where his mother would die quickly.
At most she had had only five more seconds to live and even then the woman had started healing – therefore wasting her chakra in the presence of an enemy - one of the few family members he actually deeply cared for. His eyes had snapped to the glowing aura surrounding the hands as they started knitting the wound together and his mother's ragged breathing actually continued.
Five seconds had passed. Ten. Fifteen. His mother was still breathing.
Striking down his mother when they weren't facing him was one thing, but he couldn't take away the second chance this healer was giving her.
Healing.
It had been a gift that he had always admired from the bottom of his heart. It might even involve a little jealousness. The gift of healing was so much better than destroying.
As such, he found himself unable to make the stranger stop. Instead, he had been transfixed, fascinated, by the process.
"Why?" He asked instead.
The kunoichi didn't answer him. She barely raised her head in acknowledgement even though he could easily see that she was ready to defend herself. Her pose screamed defence and alertness at him. Yet, besides the wariness, she didn't seem to fear the traitorous ANBU captain in front of her.
"You know more about this don't you." Itachi prodded. The ninja was far too calm to react like this. He barely managed to pick up the tiny nod of the woman's head.
"Are you from the council?" He pushed, needing to know whether she was going to make sure he would kill his brother – he wasn't sure how he would react if she were.
It relieved him more than he liked to admit when she shook her head, just before his little brother had barged into the room and started the drama that Itachi had prepared for.
What he hadn't prepared for was that the ninja was actually protecting said boy when he was about to knock his brother out with the Sharingan.
Why?
"What you were capable of?" Sasuke repeated Itachi's words, nearly chocked on his voice. He clearly couldn't grasp what he was telling him. "That was it? You killed everyone for that reason?"
Monster.
"It was important." The older Uchiha confirmed but tensed when a shuriken flew over his shoulder. It had been aimed very precisely, having only cut a strand of his hair. It had been the only reason why he hadn't moved. It had not been aimed at his body, he knew. His Sharingan had flared to life and told him this the moment the ninja had moved her arm to throw it towards him. No, the shuriken had been a message.
The stranger was telling him something.
She knew that he was lying and she wanted him to… what did she want from him? To tell the truth? He wasn't going to do that.
Narrowing his eyes, he tried once again to look into the ninja's eyes, but the cloth that hid her face made him unable to. This ninja had been prepared.
'Is she with Hokage-sama?'
He flung a kunai back at her, cutting part of the hood and forcing it to drop back. He narrowed his eyes as he took in the cloth that covered the person's entire face. She had indeed been prepared.
'Fine then.' He thought. He would find out why she was here later.
"Don't you mess with me!" His brother called out and brought his attention back to the matter at hand.
He had already seen the attack coming before he had even started the conversation, but he was somehow not very surprised when the ninja grasped the back of the raging boy's collar and kept him away from him by pulling him back behind her. Itachi slowly unclenched the fist that he had prepared to use.
The anger in the boy's eyes made his heart drop, but he took advantage of it nonetheless.
Forcing himself to keep his expression and tone empty, he stared at the brother that was struggling against the hold, tears rolling down his face.
"Foolish little brother…"He repeated. "You are lucky that you can hide from me, though you aren't even worth killing right now. You will probably never understand my reasons. I can already see the hate in your eyes growing. So if you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way. Hide, run and cling to life, and when you have the same eyes as mine, come to me."
His eyes travelled to the figure of his mother.
"Or you might not be able to protect her like you are being protected now."
Then, with a spurt of speed, he moved towards the pair. As predicted, the pair dodged – though the frozen Sasuke was more like being dragged along – allowing him to slip away from his home. His village, which he would leave behind in order to keep an eye out for this new organisation called Akatsuki.
However as he passed, he could help but look the stranger in the eye, seeing the faint outline of the eyes behind the thin cloth that was covering the woman's face.
'Look out for him.' He tried to tell her with a soft glare.
He couldn't be completely sure that she understood what he was telling her.
"I will." The soft whisper that followed him – barely perceivable – still caught him off guard.
For some reason, this made Itachi feel a lot better. His little brother would still have his mother. He wouldn't have to lie to this self-proclaimed "Madara" about the intervention either, which allowed one more precious person to remain alive. There would still be hope for the clan to be reborn into something greater, more peaceful.
Had it not been for the ninja, he would have been forced to take another route. He had been planning to make his brother hate him so much that he would kill him. That he would be strong enough to fight this "Madara" that had met him. This kunoichi had messed up his plans and as much as he hated when that happened, he couldn't help but be somewhat grateful.
'How did she know though?'
Flashing through some hand seals to get him away before other ninja would catch up to him, he decided that he would just have to watch them from afar.
After all, maybe this path would be a better one.
He would just have to wait and see.
~Sakura~
Sakura stared after the empty space from which the ninja had just disappeared, suddenly glad that she had been careful to disguise herself as well as she had done. The cloth enveloped her whole head, hiding her extensive features for those who would somehow be able to see through or break the complex Henge that she had adapted from Naruto's horrible– dare she say it – Sexy no Jutsu.
Having concluded that Itachi had really left the scene, she allowed herself to let out a soft sigh of relief – she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders – before she glanced down at the trembling young boy that was currently clinging to her waist. He hadn't moved an inch away from her after she had pulled him away from the fleeing Itachi.
He had probably thought that he had charged at them.
It was so disturbing and heart wrenching to see her future teammate in the state he was in. He was so young as well – like Itachi had been. It still managed to catch her off guard, no matter that she had seen them walk down the street once in a while. Acting like the loving brothers that they had always been meant to be.
Had she looked so innocent back then as well? Even though she had been here for nearly two months, she hadn't dared to check up on her parents and 'herself' yet. The day that they had died… it was still too fresh on her mind. Not to mention that there was no way that it wouldn't be disturbing to watch, let alone interact with… a past version of herself.
Shaking herself out of the memories that were threatening to resurface, she looked down bring herself to focus on the current situation.
Slowly placing a soothing hand on the young Uchiha's head, she tried to give him a moment of comfort.
"Take a deep breath Sasuke." She whispered to him, keeping her voice as low as possible. "In and now slowly out. Now relax, everything will be alright."
Sasuke didn't stop shaking, but followed the advice of the 'shinobi holding him nonetheless. He barely noticed it when she knocked him out with a short rush of healing chakra, which would force him to sleep. It was a jutsu that she had frequently used on stubborn ninja trying to get away from the hospital.
As she felt his form slump down against her, she patted his head in a lovingly manner – forcing herself to remember the happy memories that she had from him before he had become… well crazy. He was the old Sasuke that she had cared about, not that shadow that had been left behind after all those years of seeking revenge. Crouching down for a moment to pick him up, she gently moved him to lie next to his mother. She carefully channelled some healing chakra to her hands, making them glow a very familiar green, before crouching down to take care of Sasuke's mother once more.
The Uchiha matriarch was nowhere near healed, seeing as Itachi's attack had cut through part of the spine, but she had been just in time to save her. Though she had managed to prevent real paralysis – a second later or if Itachi made even one move towards her, Uchiha Mikoto would have been unlucky - she probably wouldn't be able to be a ninja in the field anymore.
Yet, Sakura could only be happy that Sasuke would at least have someone to rely on. Someone that would hopefully keep him grounded. As selfish as it might sound, it was currently one of the main reasons why she had saved the woman. She was sure that she was a good person, but it was for Sasuke that she had come out her cover for a while.
She glanced towards the Uchiha patriarch with a slight apology, but she had already known that he couldn't have been saved. A sad truth that she had came to accept through her many years of experience.
You can't save everyone. No matter how much this fact bothered her…
Focusing once again on the woman, she proceeded to heal most of the lethal damage. She would be alright if she were to be moved to the hospital and revalidate for a while. They would heal her there over time, seeing as Sakura couldn't do much at the moment.
After all, faint signatures were closing in on the compound and Sakura couldn't afford to be seen.
So with a last glance towards Sasuke, she quickly moved through a few hand signs and literally flashed away. This time enforcing the original use of the jutsu Naruto had taught her.
It really had been the most important move that Naruto had been able to teach her - seeing as Naruto had reinforced the Yondaime's Hokage Guard Platoon – so she could come to his aid at all times. She could perform it if she was provided with a proper seal not too far away – drawn by the right ink or manipulated with her own chakra. It had been difficult as hell for her to learn and it took quite some valuable chakra, but it was one of the best moves that she had.
The jutsu was one of the best gifts Naruto had ever offered her.
Sakura smiled as she let her chakra guide her towards the pull and eventually ended up in a rundown cottage that she had stumbled upon a while ago in the woods. She checked the seal that she had engraved into the wood and was satisfied that it was still activated. Quickly changing clothes, she made sure to check for any chakra signatures – even possible hidden ones- and used the Body Flicker Technique to get her closer to the part of the village that she was currently living in.
As soon as she touched the ground, she quickly hid and checked again, feeling very paranoid all of sudden.
Releasing the Henge that she had applied on her hair to keep it black, she carefully applied a medical jutsu – one of the few that Tsunade had told her to keep silent about - to turn her eyes greyer. It was the only change that she made sure to keep up as her new identity here.
It made sure that her green eyes wouldn't so vibrant, nor would they stand out so much. Letting out a deep sigh, grateful that everything had gone well, the kunoichi calmly walked back towards her humble abode.
The air was cold and there as a heavy atmosphere in the air, as if the whole village was aware of what had happened. She allowed herself a small grim smile though, as she had finally changed a part of the history that she had known.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to relax. Her body lost its rigid movement and she made sure make a bit more noise as she walked. She didn't know hat had happened tonight. She would act surprised tomorrow and she would forget the pity that she felt for Itachi – the young ninja forced to act as he had done.
No longer was she Sakura Haruno. Instead she was "Sasaki Hana" once more.
~ End Chapter ~
The first change is set!
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