Sakura, or Hitomi, was in a dilemma.

At the ripe age of eleven months old, she has already decided that absolutely hatedher wardrobe.

"Ofou-fama," she said, moving her lips and almost toothless mouth to form the words, successfully gaining the man's attention. Then, she waved her chubby arms angrily at the now irritated man standing in front of her crib, conveying her dislike at the article of clothing that he was approaching with.

"On't like pwink dwess." She pouted, adjusting the muscles on her face so that she was mimicking what she'd seen other children express before. Her parents have been told by many relatives and the physician that her speech and motor development were "phenomenal", which she guessed meant "really awesome". They had also said that it wasn't normal for children her age to be speaking coherent sentences yet. Well, she couldn't help that she already had relatively a lot of life experience stored in her head. "Wred is pretty-er." She added, lamenting at her lack of teeth and muscle again.

Fugaku-tou-san, however, only frowned at her antics, his expression stern as he inched closer to her. She glared at the small icing pink kimono and the primrose obi that he was holding out to her, recalling the expression that Itachi-aniki used on Shisui-nii-san.

"Don't be silly, Hitomi." Fugaku scolded, using her other name as he frowned again. "This is what your mother picked out for you." He then tugged on the sleeve of his own navy blue kimono, showing the simple patterns printed on it to his child. "See? I am already dressed. You are expected to look your best today, as the festival celebrating the upcoming generation of the Uchiha clan will commence in a mere hour. Also, glaring ladies are frowned upon in polite society." He ended his speech with another stern glance at her, expecting his youngest to understand what he meant.

Sakura just blinked at him.

Fugaku brought his unoccupied hand up to his forehead, rubbing it. "Never mind what I had just said. As a child of the head of our clan, you are expected to speak with your manners. Remember what Okaa-sama and I have taught you and Sasuke?"

"Ai, ofou-fama," she answered automatically. The phrase was drilled into the twins' heads so many times that it was almost a second nature to both of them, even to Sasuke, whose vocabulary consists only of a handful of words. She grabbed the wooden bars of her crib and pulled herself up to stand on her mattress, trying to impress otou-sama. She knew how to execute the movement, but it was the lack of muscle development (again) that prevented her from fully doing it.

Fugaku sighed. "So, when I ask you to wear this," he began, gestured to the kimono and obi, completely ignoring the attempted move. "You are expected to obey."

Sakura deflated a little at that. "Okay, ofou-fama." she replied sadly, a little at the fact that she was being forced into wearing her least favorite color and a little because that otou-sama wasn't even slightly acknowledging her efforts at pleasing him.

Fugaku-tou-san nodded curtly, approving of her decision. "As is expected of the Uchiha clan," he said not so quietly, probably hoping to stamp that phrase in her consciousness forever. The eleven month old was promptly picked up, placed on a little mat situated on the floor of her and Sasuke's shared room next to her favorite stuffed bear as Fugaku proceeded to change her out of her pajamas.

"Vwhere is Saus-kay?" she asked him. Sakura had only woken up minutes ago, and the first thing she did was to search the entire room for any signs of her playmate and brother. After all, she spent a better part of her days frolicking or attempting to frolic with him. The blue wallpaper with the big red and white fans were there, and so was the other crib on the other side of the room and their numerous toys all piled in the middle, yet Sasuke was simply nowhere to be found. A feeling akin to disappointment fell over her.

"He is with Itachi," Fugaku answered simply, expertly flipping the child around so that her back was facing him, tying her obi. "Unlike you, Sasuke was awake at the cracks of dawn. Itachi had removed him from this room as to allow you a few more hours of rest."

Sakura's head hung with shame. Had she overslept again? Out of twins, it seemed that Sasuke was the early bird, a fact that made Fugaku-tou-san proud for some reason. She remembered him saying once that it had to do with "proper training schedules" or something, whatever that meant.

But every time Fugaku said that, her mind would prod at her with strange experiences that she was sure has never happened—things like a little girl with candy floss pink hair and two eyes that were exotic jade, looking at mirror twirling around in a new red dress—things like going to the playground, accompanied by a man with a head of strange pink hair styled into four points at the top of his head—things like being called Sakura Haruno.

She was Hitomi Uchiha, wasn't she?

Not Sakura.

So why was her mind telling her that her real name was cherry blossom?

It was just something else she didn't understand about herself.

Sakura wanted to dwell on the thought a little longer or try digging for more information, but Fugaku had already picked her up. Adjusting her so that she was sitting in the crook of his elbow, he swiftly drew the bamboo door open. He gracefully exited the twins' room, delving into the morning traffic that was always present in the main hallway despite the circumstances with Sakura. Greetings were exchanged between Fugaku-tou-san and a lot of her clansmen (dressed in formal wear). It was a common sight, as otou-sama was the clan head. She tried to memorize every face that she could see, to amuse herself, not noticing the poisonous looks directed at her when Fugaku's back was turned.

Soon, they were outside. Numerous impromptu stalls and little carnival games were set up, looking out of place among so many stoic and formally dressed people. Sakura found herself darting her eyes around, trying to catch everything. As they passed a koi pond, a couple of older children ran by, laughing. She noticed their kimonos soaked and the koi were looking very agitated. She watched them run around, suddenly reminded of her previous "play dates" with other Uchiha children.

She only had three or four of them before, preferring to spend time with her brothers more, an opinion that she'd expressed to okaa-san after the first two. Her chosen playmates were all at least a year older than her. She knew, however, that there were plenty of toddlers closer to her age that could fulfill her rather interesting mental requirements. Mikoto-kaa-san had told her that she was to play with them and have fun while being polite and kind, but Sakura found herself being wary of all of them. They didn't seem like children. Children like her were supposed to laugh and smile and ask silly questions and throw temper tantrums and play house. All of her playmates were like robots. They move her stuffed animals around mechanically when they were pretending to be great ninja warriors battling with their summons. They told her nice things about herself that she knew weren't true. They smiled without crinkling their eyes, something that even aniki does, and aniki was the second most serious person she knew. Most of all, they didn't look happy.

The children that had just run by were beaming, though. She was fascinated. She wanted to squirm out of otou-sama's grasp and join them, but something told her that Fugaku-tou-san would just scold her again. So she settled to look around instead, hearing the low murmurs of conversation. The colors and sights were flooding her senses, and she noticed that there were clumps of older girls here and there dressed in kimonos with so little material that she couldn't help but to feel cold for them. And why were they looking at her like that? Did she do something wrong? Did they not want her to feel cold for them?

She was cut off by a childish shout. "Hiiii-tomi!" Sakura immediately turned towards the source of the sound, recognizing the voice.

"Saus-kay!" she giggled, reaching out to him, seeing her twin return the action in Itachi-aniki's arms. Both of the older Uchihas sighed and set the squealing children down. The twins had learned how to walk properly only recently, and it was funny to watch them wobble at the fastest rates they could over to each other.

Then, to Fugaku's everlasting horror, the twins happily gave each other a hug and Hitomi proceeded to nag Itachi to take them around the festival. Their older brother happily obliged, leaving Fugaku, theirfather behind in the dust.

A long lecture would benefit the twins later; preferably about respecting one's parents.

Fugaku vaguely wondered if he should break this bond ahead of time by finding someone like Shisui to Itachi for each of them- it'll be a pain if they were put into separate genin teams.


By any means, Uchiha Fuumi was nota happy girl right now.

The little brat standing defiantly in front of her should barely be out of her diapers by this age, and yet they were, arguing about her Academy homework. If the tiny brat wasn't the daughter of the clan head, then she would've settled for more…violent means to end their little tirade right now. Like strangling her. Yes, something clean and easy.

It was very tempting.

A hand was brought to her temple, and the Second year student vigorously rubbed the sensitive skin near her eye for all her index and middle fingers were worth. The almost three year old sitting across from her only widened her stupid little smirk at her obvious display of distress, causing the already angered girl to scowl even deeper.

Today had notbeen a good day.

Her father had recently started a morning training regimen for her, inspired by the oh so wonderful Uchiha Itachi. Fuumi clenched the scroll that she had been studying earlier tighter in her unoccupied hand. Father, a minor failure amongst the Uchiha due to his inability to rise to the rank of jonin, should be the one training, not Fuumi, the number one in her class. Thus, the seven year old spent well over an hour before school started running laps around the compound and doing one-handed pushups. She ended up going to the Academy drenched in sweat, which definitely didn't help her already miserable social life.

Then, her instructor decided to start off their before-lunch lecture about one of Konoha's most prominent clans (Hint hint: it starts with a U) by telling her class about one of his past students from said clan. Which basically meant he spent over three minutes kissing up to all of his accomplishments. Itachi. She didn't know that one name could inspire so much jealousy and nostalgia in her. Jealousy for all of that endless talent he has, and nostalgia for the days that had passed. She had played with him a few times when they were younger- and, truth be damned, those days were one of the happiest periods of her life, even though she'd only spent a few hours with the heir. He was only a few months older than her, and they both loved playing near the woods. And after few years, that was where their similarities ended. Their bond, weak as it was to begin with, withered and frayed over time as Itachi became a living legend and she was cast aside, forever cloaked in his shadow.

They were the prime example of early friendship between a talented main member and a somewhat gifted branch member in most clans; an amiable friendship turning into a bitter one-sided jealousy in the matter of years.

Her foul mood only worsened at that particular comparison. It wasn't her fault that Itachi had been born with everything-the title of heir, good looks, prodigal amounts of talent, and a better bloodline that allowed him to activate the Sharingan by the time he graduated from the Academy.

And to add to that, she was stuck babysitting his younger sister right now.

Fuumi resisted the urge to glare at the girl, despite the fact that she was already conveying enough negative emotion to scare the wits out of Buddha. The Matriarch had taken the child's twin to town for a short shopping trip, and Fuumi was the most eligible person in the Matriarch's line of sight suited for the task of watching the third child of the clan head. She had almost been inclined to talk to the woman and drop some hints in favor of her father like he'd instructed, but she decided against it. If he wanted that promotion to special jonin, he was going to get it himself. But what about the consequences? If father heard about the opportunity she gave up, she would never hear the end of it. The mere thought of that made her shudder. Her mind compensated her insecurity by stating that he was just a selfish oaf.

That made Fuumi growl. It didn't take a once-in-a-century genius to know that her father was already lost in the labyrinths of power-seekers. Everything had been much better when her mother was around. That wasn't the case anymore, as the woman had died a year ago. Fuumi felt the anger and frustration leak out from her like the air rushing out of a deflated balloon, replaced by the incurable sadness that had filled her to the brim ever since Mama had left.

The child seemed to notice this, and the smirk was wiped off of her soft features. In its place was a curious look, as if questioning her sudden shift in her mood. Fuumi just shook her head.

"Thank you, Hitomi-san." She began hesitantly, almost as if testing the words on her tongue. The three year old looked taken back. It came out as a surprise to her, too, considering the fact that she was seriously thinking of strangling the annoying child earlier. "But I think I have the necessary facts to write my report on different usages for the Substitution Techniques. You can go play now."

The girl frowned, her face clouding with worry. For a second, Fuumi was seriously regretting her initial judgments of the child. It had been awhile since someone had looked that genuinely concerned for her. And even though she knew that Hitomi wouldn't understand her situation even if she told her about it, somewhere deep down beneath the cold exterior, below that ever present layer of sadness, she was grateful.

Turning until her back was facing the child and leaving her to play alone, Fuumi bit her lip and began working on her essay so that the toddler wouldn't see the tears streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks. Whether they were for lost friendships or dead mothers or her innocence, she wasn't certain.


The short fiasco between her and Fuumi a few hours ago was still floating around in her mindscape. Sakura was sporting a thoughtful look, the image of complete defeat and sadness on the older girl's face flashing again and again in front of her eyes even as she downed the bowl of rice and steamed fish fillets placed in front of her. Well, it was technically her fourth bowl. Grabbing the cup next to her and gulping some tea to ease her churning stomach, she noticed out of the corner of her eyes that Mikoto-kaa-san and Itachi-aniki was staring at her. She shrugged their reactions off. Eating had been her way with coping with uncertainties and worries ever since her First year in the Academy, if the memories in her head were accurate. Besides, Fugaku-otou-san should be proud of her for wanting to build up her frame so early in her career.

"Hitomi-imouto," Itachi's voice had an inkling of warning in it. Sakura stopped in the middle of bringing her laden chopsticks to her mouth and turned to Itachi-aniki, the smile of an innocent almost-three year old plastered on her face. "I am worried about your health. If you continue eating in that manner, people might mistake you for an Akimichi."

"I'm hungry!" she said simply, returning to her thoughts and food once more and leaving Itachi-aniki's eye twitching. In her original timeline, people knew to steer clear of Sakura during one of her feeding frenzies.

Sakura found herself unable to suppress the notion that something was very wrong in the Uchiha clan. Fuumi was just another one of the puppet children- as she'd called the population of unhappy children in the compound, including some of her playmates- being used by their parents for their own gain. Skewering a piece of imported tilapia with her bamboo eating utensils, she yanked the meat off and began tearing at it for all her teeth were worth.

All of her clansmen were like vultures, tearing and snapping at each other for a corpse, never willing to share it. The corpse was pride.

And pride was rotten in that sense, right?

Something pricked at the back of her mind. Chewing thoughtfully, she turned right and examined Sasuke. Would he become one of those children, too? He seemed so much like Fuumi and the others during their academy years. Speaking of which, she was still confused as to what he was to her. He was her brother, yes. One of her best friends, too. But how would she explain her infatuation with him during the Academy years? Does that mean she liked him that way?

It grossed her out. There was no way she could love him in that way now.

Turning her attention back to her food, she continued to wallow in her thoughts.


Wake up. Say good morning to kaa-san and tou-san. Eat breakfast. Say bye to Itachi-nii when he leaves for missions. There goes a morning.

Listen to otou-sama's speeches and lessons. Play with Hitomi-imouto. Explore the compound. Eat lunch. Play with Hitomi-imouto. Explore the compound again. Listen to the tutor talk about cool ninja things. Say bye to tutor-san. Be convinced by Hitomi-imouto to dress up as a girl and then chase her to get revenge. Take a nap. Well, that's another seven hours.

Say hi to Itachi-nii when he comes home. Pester him for awhile. Beg with Hitomi-imouto to have aniki take them training and sometimes succeed, and then watch aniki do super awesome ninja things with Shisui-nii. Go home and take a shower. Eat dinner. Play with Hitomi-imouto. And Itachi-nii too, if he has time. Have a story about super cool shinobi heroes read to him and Hitomi-imouto. Go to sleep with his mana-chan.

There goes Uchiha Sasuke's day.

Tonight, however, Sasuke felt himself twisting and turning amongst his sheets. Hitomi is usually the one to fuss around at bedtime, since he could always hear her rolling around in her bed on the other side of the room, muttering to herself. He was the one who "sleeps like a rock until I poke him", like Itachi-nii says to Shisui-nii. He scowled, hating how aniki would always wake him up with a chakra-enhanced poke to the forehead.

The three (almost four) year old sighed dramatically and buried his head into his pillow, smothering himself in the softness. Their cribs had been tossed away the moment they had turned two, replaced by two identical wooden beds with built in drawers for clothing, spread with red and blue sheets for Hitomi and Sasuke respectively. Speaking of Hitomi-imouto, she was actually asleep by now. Her breathing was all evened out. He tried to match her pattern, but the more he concentrated on the way she was expelling and inhaling air, the more awake he felt. It's not that he was uncomfortable or something. His mattress was made from memory foam, and so was his pillow. Besides, May was one of his favorite months; not too cool, not too hot, no annoying amounts of pollen in the air or scalding sunlight, and it was filled with tomatoes galore. Oh, tomatoes! Sasuke involuntarily smiled, imagining the sweet, juicy fruit…

He shook his head rapidly, remembering that he was supposed to be sleeping. He was actually really tired, so what was keeping him awake? Is there going to be something exciting happening tomorrow?

Wait.

Wait a second.

He had a lead! Otou-sama had told him and Hitomi something today that made them squeal like 3 year olds today! Sasuke racked his mind again, trying to figure what it was that so important…

He was interrupted by the sound of the window sliding quietly open.

His heart rate skyrocketing, Sasuke slowly rolled himself over, just in time to see Hitomi-imouto's crouching form straighten and jump out of their window.

What?

He immediately turned to her moonlit bed. It was empty.

Grabbing a shirt and stuffing his feet into his sandals, he climbed up the bedside table underneath the open window and scrambled to the ledge, barely thinking as he tugged his shirt on and dropped onto the grass below. He saw Hitomi-imouto disappearing into a path up ahead, and once he recovered his balance, he followed.


Wake up at three in the morning. Feel paranoid and look for any signs of intruders or very familiar mass murderers. Walk over to the other bed and check her twin for any signs of change. Meditate to get her chakra reserves going and do some basic strength exercises if she has time before her "mother and father" enter the room. Say good morning to the clan Patriarch and Matriarch that were her parents in a way, but weren't in another. Have an internal thinking session about her current situation. Eat breakfast while observing her current family members for any clues that could signify the beginning of the early demise of their clan. Say good bye to the man that will one day singlehandedly be the cause of the demise and thereby tossing his brother's soul to the devil, all the while wearing a genuine smile for the boy that was her aniki.

It had been that way ever since she remembered the Chunin exams and Sasuke's departure.

Listen to Fugaku's speeches about keeping the Uchiha clan's name in honor and glory and try to ignore Inner's jeers at her father. Play with Sasuke. Upon his request, go around and explore the Uchiha compound that seems to expand every day. Eat lunch with kaa-san and try to convince Sasuke not to kill himself from eating tomatoes. Play with Sasuke. Explore the compound once more. Listen to the tutor that probably knew less than her talk about everything ranging from the history of the Three Sannin and their battle with Hanzo to the main exports of the other Elemental Nations. Say bye to the tutor. Convince Sasuke to dress up as a girl and then "run away" from him. Pretend to fall asleep with Sasuke and once he's out cold, practice her hand seals and stamina outside. Well, that's another seven hours.

Get back to her room and appear clean before Sasuke wakes up. Say hi to Itachi when he comes home from missions, with a hidden Shisui watching him nearby and laughing his ass off when they pester him. Beg with all her childish might to have him take them out training and sometimes succeed. Watch legends in making train and take note to use their techniques later. Go home and take a shower. Eat dinner with her whole family, and watch for any signs of tension. Play with Sasuke once more. And Itachi if he has time. Have a bedtime story read to her about some great event in shinobi history. Wait until Sasuke goes to sleep again and set out to revive her past glory.

Today, however, was different. Fugaku had taken them aside earlier and informed them that he will start their official clan training tomorrow. Usually, he'd just be babbling to them about the clan's accomplishments with Sakura listening half-heartedly (some of it was actually interesting) and Sasuke memorizing his every word.


"Hitomi, Sasuke." Fugaku started, his tone serious. Sakura recognized this immediately and she focused on him, letting her chakra coils settle down. She had been filling them to their maximum capacity and withdrawing the chakra just as quickly, to enlarge her reserves. "I am going to be candid with the two of you."

Said children involuntarily sat up straighter on their bamboo mats, adjusting their legs so that they were folded more neatly under them.

"In less than two months, you will both be turning four. That means that the two of you only have another two years until you begin attending the Academy. Now, both of you know of Itachi's accomplishments, do you not?"

Sasuke grumbled slightly before they nodded.

Fugaku continued. "Yes, your brother is quite a prodigy. He shall be taking the chunin exams soon, and, if he passes, he will truly be amazing. For now, that is enough about your brother's deeds.I expect you two to be every bit as astonishing as your brother has turned out to be.However, do any of you know how your brother achieved that?"

Sasuke slowly shook his head, and while Sakura knew the answer, she followed in suit as well.

Fugaku sighed. "Exactly. You two are still a long way from becoming your , you first training session is tomorrow."

Sakura's eyes widened for a millisecond and Sasuke started to tremble before erupting into cheers.


Sakura smiled at her brother's cuteness, the movement bringing her back to her current predicament, which was trying to fall asleep. She was going to have fun tomorrow. Just think of the things she could accomplish with her own medical and chakra control prowess, combined with the benefits of being an Uchiha descendent, which was a deluxe package on its own. Ninjas were taught to take advantage of anything that may be in their favor no matter how grave the situation, and Sakura found that piece of advice very reliable.

The smile faltered, and the ever-present question of how she ended up as Sasuke's twin was brought up by a yelling Inner. Last she checked, he was her crazy teammate, and she was still a Haruno, still Tsunade's apprentice. If you ignored the three years and ten months she spent as Uchiha Hitomi, that is.

It still unnerved her to think that Sasuke, the innocent, ever happy and almost Naruto-like Sasuke would become that soulless monster brainwashed by revenge. She shuddered, memories resurfacing at the notion.

During her time as a member of Team 7, she had always wondered who the man that Sasuke was so intent on killing was. The Uchiha Massacre itself was a very touchy subject throughout the whole village, and only vague records of it existed for public use and references. Being the Hokage's apprentice had its perks, though. All she had to do was ask and she could've gotten into some of the better guarded archives. It was only until after she'd been promoted to a chunin that she decided to do some research and- voila.

So that's how she'd first heard of Uchiha Itachi. He was an enigma to her at first, a stunning specimen that the medic-nin side of her so wanted to examine. Not in that way, of course- it was his mentality. She was no expert on psychology, but the few reliable files she'd found on him revealed surprising information; mostly things that one didn't expect a 13 year old ANBU captain to do. Although she now had the chance to look and ponder at him all she wanted, he was still a mystery waiting to be solved.

Oh, Uchiha Itachi, who ae you? Or, in other words, how the hell did you change from a loving brother into that monster of an S-class missing-nin? I know you love your siblings more than you care for yourself, so why…?

She shook her head. If things kept on going like how they did, then she would probably remember something that would shed some light on the subject soon. Almost every day she'd wake up with new memories from her life as Sakura Haruno. It was almost as if she was living two lives at once. Her identity crises had far too many questions surrounding it- questions that she just didn't want to answer until she had everything. Just today she was provided with a clear image of the day that Naruto and Jiraiya returned to Konohagakure in the future…or is it the past? But how is that even possible? She wasn't even sure which is which anymore.

Speaking of Naruto, she was sure he was out there somewhere right now. If she wasn't freaking housebound, she would've found him and knocked some sense into him by the time he was able to speak, dammit! She had to find him,had to motivate him so that he might unseal his potential at an earlier age and maybe the whole nightmare during the chunin exams wouldn't happen, and Orochimaru wouldn't…

She growled, taking care to muffle the sound with a mouthful of her soft cotton sheets. Now that she knew what his plans were, she was not going to let him win this time. There was no way in hell that she'd let that snake bastard steal her twin brother, teammate, and, even though it disgusts her to think of it, her first love once upon a time.

But how was she supposed to stop Orochimaru, as in Orochimaru of the Three Legendary Sannin? By crying him to death? And what if he comes after both her and Sasuke? What was she supposed to do then?

In truth, Sakura had actually given a lot of thought into the subject. The main reason why Sasuke submitted to the Curse Seal was because of his need for revenge and his impressive amounts of hate. If he hadn't possessed any of those, the seal wouldn't have worked on him.

So, all she had to do was either a) kill Orochimaru before everything happens b) make him not have any of those two qualities.

The latter was a more realistic choice.

Well then, how to do it? For one thing, a huge reason why Sasuke went through such a huge change (a change that didn't even go unnoticed by her fangirl self) after the massacre was probably because he was betrayed by the person closest to him. Now that she had plenty of time to think about it, he should've seen a psychiatrist or at least gotten some therapy at some point during the aftermath. Any of those two would've made a huge change, no matter how lame they sounded. Whoever had been in charge of the social services back then should be tortured by Ibiki for their lack of common sense.

However, she could tell that he wasn't fully devoted to Itachi this time around because, well, he has another sibling. That should lessen the blow a little. The smile morphed into a smirk. Fuck, she was technically the eldest in the family. And knowing that, she'll never let him fall for that again. And, if she could, she will do all she can to prevent the Massacre from happening.

Her train of thought was interrupted when her ears picked up a faint rustling sound outside. Hearing had always been her most acute sense, tying closely with vision thanks to her month being near-blind from an experiment with poisons gone awry when she was fifteen. That was a story for another time, however. The sound was definitely made by soft fabric, maybe something like a cloak. A cloak…Cloaks were forbidden in the clan, unless they were issued by the Hokage for mission that requires one to travel to harsher climates. Therefore, it can't be an Uchiha.

Silently, she drew her legs up underneath her and sat up, coiling up like a cobra about to strike while scooting to press her back to the wall. This was all done in less than a second, during which she was also groping for a weapon, only to realize that all they had were some blunted kunai. Cursing underneath her breath, she cast her eyes to the large window, straining to catch another clue of the intruder.

And there he was.

Orange mask decorated with a swirling orange pattern, black hair spiked up, swathed from head to toe with black.

He was perched there, on their open window, seeming to be regarding her with a somewhat curious expression using his only visible eye.

She froze, and the skin around the single crimson eye crinkled in a half-assed attempt at a smile at her surprise.

Sharingan. He has the sharingan.

His form flickered for a brief moment, and he was gone.

Sakura wasted no time in jumping into her shoes and gracefully leaping up to the windowsill with a burst of chakra. Her timing had been perfect- if she had been even a moment too hesitant, she would've missed the mysterious man dashing off into the forest at a breakneck speed.

Cursing colorfully once more, she bunched the muscles of her leg like a swimmer would before the beep sounded, and propelled herself forward in a motion too fluid for someone of her caliber. Growling at her lack of muscle mass, she sent another wave of chakra to her thighs before running after the man. She should've noticed that Sasuke had seen her.