The Grandfather of the Flower
Between Chapters 8 and 9
It was early morning, Sakura was dressed in a red kimono with light purple butterfly designs and a purple obi.
'Great, first time I enter Squad one's barracks and I end up getting lost.' 3-year old Sakura thought as she wandered around looking for her Mother and Father who have been gone for two days on their mission, leaving Sakura worried about them. So she snuck out of the compound to find them.
Sakura wasn't watching where she was going as she turned a corner when she bumped into someone and ended up falling on her backside.
She rubbed her soar bum as she looked up at who she ran into. It was head captain Yamamoto!
Yamamoto looked down at the little girl who ran into him, recognizing her as Sakura Haruno Shihouin, the daughter of the captains of squad 2 and 12.
He held a hand out to Sakura to help her up, which she took. As soon as she was on her feet she bowed in respect, "My apologies Head Captain, I wasn't looking where I was going."
Yamamoto just smiled kindly and gently patted the little girl's pink head, making her straighten up to her full height. "It's alright little Sakura *she pouted at being called 'little'* but can you tell me why you're inside Squad One barracks?" Yamamoto asked gently.
Sakura put her hands behind her back, looked at the ground and started to lightly tap her right foot. "Well... um... I got worried about Mom and Dad and wanted to make sure that they were alright." She said as calmly as she could trying not to seem like a child.
Yamamoto felt sympathy as he looked at Sakura with caring eyes. "Why don't we go to my office and have some tea, I have a feeling that your parents will return there when they're done with their mission." Yamamoto said gesturing in the direction to his office.
Sakura looked up at the elderly man and smiled shyly as she took hold of his hand as they walked to his office. When they got to his office, Sakura was astonished by the view of the seireitei. "Wow." She said in amazement as she walked to the balcony.
"Careful Sakura, I don't want you falling off." Yamamoto instructed sternly yet gently.
"Yes sir." Sakura said respectfully.
Yamamoto went to his desk that had a teapot on it, took out two cups and started pouring the tea. " Hope you like Sencha, it's my favorite." Yamamoto said as he handed a cup to Sakura who blew on it to cool it down then took a sip. She smiled at the taste, showing Yamamoto that she liked it.
Yamamoto smiled at her for that as he drank some as well. Then he asked, "What caused you to be worried about your parents Sakura? Surely you must know by now that they are the most skilled within the soul society."
Sakura looked up at him then looked at the ground trying to explain her answer to his question. Then she answered, " I've been having bad dreams lately. They are always the same whenever Mom and Dad are out on their missions together. Every night while they're gone I get nightmares where they and I are separated for good and can never find each other no matter how much we try. *she begins to tear up* I'm always scared that the moment they're gone they may never come back and so I wanted to come here and to make sure that they haven't left me for good."
She's crying now and the Head Captain did what anyone would do for any scared child. He walked over to Sakura, picked her up, carried her to his chair, and sat down with her on his lap holding her and comforting her. "It'll be alright Sakura. They will come back because they will never abandon you for you are their child. So don't ever think that they will leave you for good because they love you far beyond the soul society. Even if you are separated from them they will whatever it takes to come back you." Yamamoto said to young Sakura as she processed his words.
The way he said it was like a Grandfather conferring with his grandchild, a way to keep them from feeling distraught and scared.
Without a second thought, she hugged him the way a grandchild should, catching Yamamoto off guard for a moment before returning her hug with the same force.
"Head Captain Yamamoto?" Sakura said in his hug.
"What is it Sakura?" Yamamoto replied.
"Is it alright if I call you Grandfather?" She asked shyly as she looked up at him with hopeful eyes. Yamamoto could not find it in his heart to say no to such an adorable whom he has unexpectedly become attached to. With a warm smile he said, "Only if you allow me to call you my Grandchild." At that she smiled so bright he thought it would outshine the sun and hugged him tightly to show how happy she has become. "Grandfather Yamamoto."
"Sakura..."
"Sakura..."
"Sakura..."
Sakura slowly opened her eyes to see that it was morning and soon realized that she was not in the Head Captain's office but inside Tazuna's house in the wave country.
She looked around and saw that her team mates faces were on either side of her and were a wee bit too close to hers for her liking and out of surprise and basic reflex she punched the blonde loud mouth Naruto in the nose with her right hand and did an uppercut on the chicken ass of an Uchiha in the jaw with her left hand.
Naruto was sent tumbling to the ground on his back clutching and cradling his bloody nose and screaming about how that hurt.
Sasuke stumbled a bit and landed on his ass and right hand while massaging his bruising jaw as he glared, irritated at her for catching him off guard.
Sakura finally decided to sit up to see how much he hurt them. Surely they should know better than to surprise a girl awake especially if said girl had fighting reflex.
When Naruto finally recovered, he started to yell, "What the heck was that for?!" still massaging his nearly broken nose.
Sakura looked at him in slight irritation and annoyance for waking her and yelling at the top of his lungs for all to hear. "You two should know better than to wake a girl so close to her face you fools. Which by the way, why did you wake me up?" She scolded as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she noticed that there was wetness there... it was tears. This shocked her, 'Wait, when was I crying?' she though as she stared at the tears that were collected on her hand.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the pale hand that was Sasuke's, who was holding a handkerchief that came out of no where.
She silently took the handkerchief as she looked up at Sasuke who looked worriedly at her. She wiped away her tears and turned to give the handkerchief back to him but he said, "Keep it." She nodded while Sasuke sighed as he and Naruto sat cross legged on each side of her saying, "We didn't mean to wake you up, however, we saw that you were crying and looked like you were having a nightmare so Naruto started screaming at you to wake up, which was a mistake on his part that got us whacked by you." He glared the last part at Naruto.
Naruto put his hands up in defense saying, "Hey, I didn't know that she would react that way."
Sakura smiled warmly at them which made Sasuke blush a bit at that and hoped that Naruto and Sakura didn't see that.
Sakura closed her, still remember that dream of the first time she met and called Yamamoto Grandfather. She opened her eyes and looked at the handkerchief and said, "It wasn't a nightmare, it was a memory... a happy one."
This peaked Sasuke's and Naruto's interest, "What was it about?" they both asked.
She smiled and turned to look at them and smiled, "It was when I met my Grandfather for the first time when I was scared that my parents may never come back from their missions." She explained.
Sasuke and Naruto were surprised by this new information on their team mate.
While her team mates were processing this, her mind wandered to what her Grandfather Yamamoto said to her that day, 'You're right Grandfather, nothing can separate Mom, Dad and me forever, and I will return to them just as they've always returned to me. Thank you.'
Posted on December 2, 2014
Author's note
I've had a MAJOR writer's block on how to end this chapter and I'm quite satisfied after three months with no inspiration.
Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed how Sakura met her Grandfather for the first time.
Please do me a huge favor, review and tell me what you think and give some ideas that you'll want in this one shot series.
