The lines on either cheek make her mother think that she has not had enough sleep. Sakura disagrees, she has been sleeping more than normal; she does not lie to herself and try to deny that it is because of the rare pleasant dreams that have become more common.
She knows they will not last, so she collects them in her mind and stores them away for when sheets of rain come pouring down.
.
Sakura is sitting across from a man with a scowl and a scar on his left cheek. She knows the scar is an illusion, probably one meant to show her just how dangerous the life of a shinobi really is. While she can appreciate the lesson that her mother and her friend are trying to impart, she can not help but glare at him.
"I'm a Chunin, and your mother asked me to go talk to her kid. That's you." He waves in Sakura's general direction. It is a gesture made with no regard for the other party, as if acknowledging her presence is something he is doing to humor her.
She wants to tell him that she could kill him in more than a dozen different ways as she is, without weapons and a small, weak body.
Instead she stays silent. There is an advantage to letting an enemy underestimate her, even if it rakes at her pride. The man in front of her is not her enemy, even if he gives her a twisting feeling in her gut, she reminds herself.
"Ah, thank you Shinobi-san." She is nothing, if not polite.
"The life is hard." The man in front of her, who had not introduced himself and had not bothered to ask about her name, sighs. It is overdone and drawn out for too long. He would never make it undercover. "You can die out there. You ain't gonna be no hero."
"I was aware, but thank you for reminding me, Shinobi-san." As long as she does not die as a hated villain, one who had led an innocent boy to pursue only vengeance and violence, she will be satisfied with however her life ends.
The man in front of her is visibly affronted, and she raises an eyebrow in mock confusion.
He does not like that, and he leans closer to her. His breath smells of booze and smoke; not uncommon coping mechanisms for shinobi who have been through trauma, but Sakura has a feeling that this man knows nothing of war.
"Listen, brat, they are going to eat you alive out there. Konoha has no need for a pink haired little girl."
"Noted, Shinobi-san."