The weather was very representative of what Sakura felt that day; it was miserable, dark and very unwelcoming. It was unnaturally humid and felt like they were in the eye of a tornado, expecting chaos to unleash at any minute.
It didn't help that Sakura slept alone that night right up until her screams woke everyone up in the house, causing instant panic. She hadn't thought of the nightmares since her family had returned, but her first night alone served as a reminder of her damaged psyche. The tendril monster was especially brutal this time, tearing her aunt and uncle's limbs one by one, starting with the toes and moving upwards. By the time he ripped one of her uncle's leg off, her father was shaking her shoulder to wake her up.
The images from her nightmare stayed a while after she had been woken up and her mind was telling her that the tendril monster was shaking her, getting ready to rip her arm out of her shoulder socket. Sakura had accidentally lashed out and punched her father in the jaw after which everyone moved back in order to give her some space.
The first thing Sakura saw when the dream veil lifted was Takeshi's wide eyes, brimming with tears. She blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what was going on and suddenly, her father had come to her side and wrapped her in a tight embrace.
"You're awake now, no more nightmares. We're here for you, Sakura-chan." Her father was cradling her and repeating those words - to comfort her or himself, she wasn't quite sure.
Takeshi took a hesitant step towards his cousin, his mind reeling with the rawness of Sakura's screams. He tried to speak up but he couldn't make a sound, fear causing him to freeze up.
Everyone had stayed in Sakura's room after that, hoping they would be able to sleep for another few hours before the funeral. Takeshi layed facing Sakura, watching her expression soften as she fell back asleep. He smiled softly and promptly fell asleep once he was satisfied with Sakura's dreamless sleep.
Sakura was mindlessly following her parents down the street on their way to the funeral. It seemed surreal to her that today would be the day that they would all say goodbye to her aunt and uncle. She didn't want to say goodbye and risk forgetting about them; she wanted to greet them every day and they would ruffle her hair and teach her about being a shinobi. They would die of old age after retiring from active duty in many years, after they had grandchildren.
Of course, Sakura knew that was a pipe dream but she felt a rightness in her chest at the thought of parting with them. She was aware that they had been brutally murdered, she simply wished that none of it had happened. She did like imagining what life would be like if they were still alive. She liked to think they would be teaching her about poisons and she would be coming back home from the academy and telling them all about her day; what she learned, who her classmates were and all the new friends-
"Kura-chan, are you alright?" Takeshi asked as he entwined his fingers with hers.
Sakura focused on everything around her, noticing they had walked a good twenty minutes without her realizing it. She looked at her cousin and gave a small smile "Yeah, I was just imagining what things would be like if they were still alive."
"I know it would be nice, but you shouldn't think too much about that. It may make life harder to get by at times."
Sakura looked up at her cousin and wondered when he had gotten so wise. She noticed he had grown older during his last trip by the way his jawline was a bit more defined; his face had lost some of its roundness. She liked to imagine that he would resemble his father when he reached adulthood and he would find the perfect woman and he would have the most perfect children-
"Kura-chan… you're off in your own world again." He teased her.
Sakura grinned and stuck out her tongue at him and focused on picking up her speed on the crutches to catch up to her parents.
They soon arrived at the field of flowers where they had decided to hold the funeral. It was very fitting seeing as the Hiroki was a poisons expert and Natsuko adored the smell of flowers.
When Sakura glanced around the reception, she saw that the predominant flowers were peonies and sweet peas arranged in small bouquets throughout the reception with cherry blossoms and bluebells beautifully decorating the picture frames of her aunt and uncle. She was able to name the flowers - her parents dealt with flowers across the shinobi nations, she would be very disappointed in herself if she hadn't been able to learn the very basics of her family trade - but she didn't know what they symbolized.
"Mama, what do the flowers mean?" she quietly asked her mother after having caught up with her.
Her mother knelt down in front of Sakura and placed her hand on the girl's head. "The peonies represent bravery and I coupled them with sweet peas which mean goodbye." Her mother took a shaky breath and Sakura could see the tears forming in her eyes.
"Takeshi suggested we decorate his parents' picture frames with bluebells and cherry blossoms to show how grateful we are that they protected you." By the end of her sentence, Mebuki allowed her tears to fall down her cheeks and choked back a sob.
Takeshi, who had been standing beside Sakura when she asked her mother about the flowers, stepped towards Mebuki and pulled Sakura towards them. He hugged Sakura close to him as he leaned into Mebuki softly thanking them both for being there for him.
During the ceremony, Sakura stood to the side with her family while the Hokage gave a short speech about both Hiroki and Natsuko. She wasn't aware that the Hokage knew her aunt and uncle quite as well as he did; as she had always assumed the Hokage only really interacted with the Jounin of the village. His heartfelt speech only reinforced the notion that the village was worth protecting, seeing as it was all part of one big family. Sakura didn't have a big family, seeing as most of them basically disowned Hiroki for becoming a shinobi and they shunned her father for supporting Hiroki's career choice. She only ever spoke to a distant cousin who lived in the northern part of Fire country once. No other family members lived in Konoha, it was only her mother, father, Takeshi and aunt and uncle that had lived in this part of Fire country. She had never met her paternal grandmother but she was the only other person who accepted Hiroki's choice to become a shinobi.
She took the chance to look around at everyone who was attending the ceremony. Again, she didn't know that her aunt and uncle had been a part of so many people's lives. There were two shinobi who were standing together fairly close to the front that seemed particularly affected by the loss of her aunt and uncle. One of them had long black spiky hair and what Sakura assumed to be a bandage that ran across the bridge of his nose while the other had his hair covering one eye and wore his forehead protector like a bandana.
They were definitely the most affected - aside from her family of course - and it made Sakura all the more curious. They were shinobi, probably at least chunin if Sakura had to guess, so it was possible they either worked with one or both of the deceased or they had been frequent teammates. Sakura was tempted to bet that they were co-workers more than teammates, just because she knew her aunt and uncle rarely went on missions.
She wanted to walk over to the two but she didn't know what to say. Would she tell the two shinobi that ther aunt and uncle were no longer suffering? That everything would be alright? That they shouldn't be sad? She didn't think that anything would be appropriate, so she just stood there and looked at them. She felt like she was invading their privacy, but she was more curious about them than anything.
The one with the spiky hair glanced around the reception and locked eyes with her. For half a second Sakura felt immense guilt at being caught staring at the two, but she gave him a sympathetic smile and her heart broke a little when he returned one of the saddest smiles she had ever seen.
She grabbed Takeshi's hand and squeezed it, silently asking for his support and he squeezed right back. She decided to continue looking around the reception and saw a woman with red eyes and long wavy black hair. The eyes reminded her of Shisui and Itachi and she hoped they were doing well on their mission. She also hoped they finished their mission before her parents and Takeshi left for Suna; she didn't want to be alone now that the nightmares had returned.
Takeshi squeezed her hand repeatedly to gain her attention and motioned her to look towards the front of the reception where the spiky haired shinobi and his friend were both looking at her. Sakura's eyes widened ever so slightly, startled that they were both looking at her. She had assumed her brief glance with the hedgehog nin was a short interaction that neither party would ever reflect upon again, but it seemed he had informed his friend.
Hedgehog - the nickname Sakura figured suited him best - gave her an encouraging smile and even managed to give her a small wave before his friend - Bandana - gave an exasperated sigh and nudged him to stop. Sakura smiled and chuckled quietly at the two, glad that they were able to temporarily be in better spirits.
When it was time for everyone to walk up and pay flowers down for the deceased, Sakura walked hand in hand with Takeshi. Takeshi held both of their bouquets of carnations as Sakura used one crutch to help her along. She had somehow been able to hold in her tears during the entire reception but as soon as she laid down her flowers, she finally realized that this was the last goodbye. She stood there, quietly telling her aunt and uncle how much she loved them, how much she admired them and how no one could ever replace them. She told them that she would train to become a strong shinobi and do everything in her power to avenge them if she could. She told them of all her hopes and dreams, how Takeshi would grow up to be someone amazing and that they would be so proud of him. She wanted to spend hours standing there and telling them everything and anything she could think of but her father gently picked her up and walked away.
She knew she was making a scene, but she didn't want to leave. She tried to reach out to her aunt and uncle, tried to go back to them but her father held on tightly. Through her tears she saw Hedgehog looking at her but couldn't make out his expression. She didn't care if he thought she was being childish or if she was making a fool of herself, she didn't want to say goodbye anymore.
Sakura started flailing her arms and legs, anything to get her father to let go of her. She bit the inside of her cheek and soldiered through the pain radiating from her leg. It was stupid but she didn't care if she was in pain, it only fueled her drive to go talk to her aunt and uncle again.
"Sakura-chan, we'll be able to come back and visit everyday if you want. We just have to let everyone say goodbye today. We have to be considerate to others, they all knew Hiroki and Natsuko too." Her father reassured her, hoping it would calm her down.
Kizashi had never seen Sakura so recklessly determined to do something and it scared him a little. He knew she was in severe pain but she kept on struggling to get free. He quickly walked away from the reception while Takeshi followed him, carrying Sakura's crutch.
"I'll bring her home Mebuki, can you deal with things here?"
"I'll be fine, please make sure our girl's alright." Mebuki said worriedly
Sakura calmed down after a few minutes but began shaking from the pain she had caused herself. Her tears were slowing down and her breathing became more regular by the time they entered their home.
"Where will I be able to talk to them?" She asked quietly.
"They have a tombstone in the cemetery that we'll be able to go visit whenever you want." Her rather informed her. "We're going to have a lot of people in the house soon, but we can go visit the tombstone tomorrow."
Sakura nodded against his shoulder, and said "can you bring me to my room for a bit?"
"Of course sweetheart, come downstairs when you're ready."
The Haruno household was very busy that afternoon as most people who attended the funeral came to spend the afternoon. Civilians and shinobi interacted with each other and everyone told their favorite stories of Hiroki and Natsuko.
Mebuki had just finished preparing tea for everyone when she decided to go check up on her daughter and see if she wanted to come down and hear all the different shinobi stories - she was trying her best to be supportive of Sakura's career choice. She walked up the stairs and gently knocked on Sakura's bedroom door "Sakura, sweety, did you want to come downstairs for a bit?"
When Mebuki didn't hear a response she quietly opened the door only to find the bedroom empty. She walked inside and looked around, not finding her daughter anywhere - maybe Sakura had gone downstairs and she just hadn't seen her yet. Mebuki made her way to her husband and asked him if he had seen Sakura but he thought she was still in her bedroom as well.
They enlisted Takeshi in helping them look for Sakura around the house. The three thoroughly looked around the house and in the yard but to no avail. Mebuki was starting to panic a little, did someone kidnap her daughter? Could Shisui have come back from his mission and taken her away without telling anyone? What if she was in danger or hurt somewhere, all alone?
A shinobi with black spiky hair walked up to the three Haruno and asked if there was something wrong.
"You haven't seen a pink haired child around the house, have you? It's hard to miss her." Kizashi asked, trying to lighten the mood for his family.
"I remember seeing her at the funeral, but not here, sorry. Do you need help finding her?"
"If you happen to see her around the house, could you bring her to us?" Kizashi asked, thinking that maybe a shinobi would have an easier time finding his daughter if she was hiding. The shinobi nodded, walked over to his friend and started his search for the pink haired girl.
"This isn't like her, Kizashi, she's never hid from us before." Mebuki continued to express her concerns as they made their way to Sakura's bedroom. Once inside, all three searched every nook and cranny of the room until Takeshi noticed something odd.
"Her bedsheets are missing from her bed."
Kizashi's eyes widened as he put the pieces together and walked over to the window. He pulled the curtains aside and instantly knew where Sakura was. He chuckled softly to himself and let out a sigh of relief.
"I think I know where she is. She used the bedsheets to climb out of the window like the stories we used to read to her. And I bet you she's at the cemetery." He informed his wife and nephew.
"Why the cemetery?" Mebuki asked.
"I told her that Hiroki and Natsuko's tombstone was where we could go to talk to them. I said we could go tomorrow but I guess she didn't want to wait that long." Kizashi smiled as he made his way down the stairs and out of the house to go see his daughter.
Kizashi found Sakura sitting on the grass in front of a tombstone - he would have to ask her how long it took her to find it since he hadn't even known where it was - with her legs stretched out in front of her and her big book of chakra on her lap. She was animatedly describing the spar she had seen between Shisui and Itachi - he had already heard this story at least 5 times - with the most enthusiasm he's ever seen coming from her. She looked so carefree and happy that it pained him to know she may only be this excited at the cemetery from now on. He had a feeling she would be spending a lot of time here once she started at the academy.
He slowly made his way over to Sakura and placed his hand on her head. She beamed at him and tilted her face upwards where he saw the telltale signs of crying; puffy eyes, red cheeks and dried tears. He sat down beside his little girl and let her finish her story.
"You scared us with that little disappearing act." Kizashi tried to not reprimand her too harshly.
"Sorry Papa, I just… I just wanted to speak to them again. I won't do it again." His daughter said softly.
"I will say that I'm pretty impressed though. You managed to climb out of your window and into the yard while carrying that big book without anyone noticing you. Then you walked all the way over here, and that's at least a kilometer and a half - and without your crutches! When did you leave your room?" Kizashi wasn't a genius but he figured that she must have left shortly after he left her in her room.
"Don't be mad… I waited 10 minutes after you and Takeshi-kun left my room." She was looking up at him with pleading eyes and he knew he could never be mad at her, she was his world.
"Well at least I'm pretty sure your mother will allow you to attend the academy after she hears about this." Kizashi laughed as he thought of Mebuki's expression of disbelief when he would tell her later that day.
The two sat by the tombstone until the sun started to set - Sakura wanted to stay but Kizashi pointed out that she was slowly falling asleep - then made their way back to the house, hand in hand.
"Sakura-chan, what would you like to do for your late birthday?" He wasn't sure what Sakura's reaction would be at the mention of her birthday seeing as it was a horrific experience for her, but he hadn't spoiled her as of yet and he was itching to do so.
Her silence was enough of a response for Kizashi, so he figured he would surprise her with something he knows she loves. "How about this then: tomorrow we can go watch some shinobi train."
Sakura tackled him into a hug and he gently lifted her up onto his shoulders - her favorite method of travel as she longed to be tall. He stopped chuckling long enough to say "I'll take that as a yes." at which she hummed in agreement.
By the time the duo made it back home, only Mebuki and Takeshi were there, cleaning the house. Sakura had fallen asleep and Kizashi was now carrying her in his arms, always mindful to not move her leg.
"Takeshi, are you ok to sleep in Sakura's room tonight?" Kizashi asked, not wanting a repeat performance of the previous night.
"Yeah! Can I finish cleaning tomorrow morning?" He asked Mebuki, today had been emotionally exhausting for everyone and Takeshi seemed to almost be falling asleep on his feet, pushing himself to clean so his aunt wouldn't have to do all the work.
"I think we could all go to bed early tonight. But this time, everyone sleeps in our bed, it's much bigger than Sakura-chan's." Mebuki glared playfully at the two males - they had been the ones to insist they slept in Sakura's room the other time - and followed her family upstairs.
"I'll be bringing Sakura to see some shinobi train tomorrow as her birthday present, did you two want to come?" Kizashi quietly asked his wife and nephew.
"I'll pass." Mebuki deadpanned.
"Me too, I want to work on my present… it's almost done!" Takeshi exclaimed. He had been working on a collage of their family for Sakura. He had finished it when they were travelling but after coming home, he decided to add more sections of his parents for Sakura.
"Then a father-daughter date it is." Kizashi stated excitedly.
Kizashi woke up with the sun shining through his bedroom window. He was glad that the funeral was over with and had the chance to say goodbye to his brother. The two had been close, despite their family having disowned Hiroki for becoming a shinobi and it was very hard for him to lose his only family left - at least the only family worth mentioning if you asked him.
He stretched and noticed he had something against his side so he opened his eyes to see Sakura kneeling beside him with a cheshire grin. She was trying her best to keep still but she was vibrating ever so slightly, unable to contain her excitement.
"I think today is a great day to clean the entire house and the yard. It could be a nice family activity, right Sakura-chan?" Kizashi playfully asked his daughter.
He was rewarded with an expression he loved to elicit from her; her eyes widened comically - the left one twitching occasionally - and her mouth moved but no sound escaped. She was too adorable when she was speechless and in utter disbelief and Kizashi couldn't help but laugh.
Sakura then narrowed her eyes and glared at him - his second favorite expression.
"You're too gullible sweetheart," He stated as he got out of bed "go get dressed." She was out of bed and gone pretty fast for a girl with the use of only one leg.
Kizashi sighed and got ready for his outing. Before the funeral he had no idea where shinobi trained so he had used the opportunity yesterday and asked the shinobi at his house where he could bring his daughter. The consensus was that they could enter the training grounds and as long as they did not hide their chakra, they would be alright. Kizashi didn't know how someone would hide their chakra but when the chunin mentioned it was something chunin and jonin did, he was fairly certain it wouldn't be a problem. Some of the shinobi even said that as long as Sakura didn't hide her chakra, they would be fine, stating that Kizashi didn't have enough chakra to be noticed unless someone was concentrating on it. Basically his daughter had more chakra than him and he should never walk in a training ground alone for fear that the shinobi that were busy training wouldn't notice him in time - a nice blow to his ego, that he had to be accompanied by a child. Kizashi had made sure to glare at that particular shinobi whenever the chance arose yesterday.
"Papa are you ready?" Sakura yelled from her bedroom.
"I'll meet you downstairs in twenty minutes!"
"Papa!"
"Fine, fine. Make it fifty!" Oh how he loved to bug her! He heard the rushed footsteps coming towards his room so he quickly jumped under the covers.
"You went back to bed instead of getting dressed?!" She yelled at him and it took a lot of effort for him not to burst out laughing. She grabbed the top blanket and pulled hard on it and fell to the ground in a heap.
"Are you cold sweetheart? Here, have more blankets!" Kizashi threw all the blankets from his bed onto Sakura and grabbed a few more that were folded to the side and even threw all the pillows onto her. He could hear her muffled laugh and he debated going around all the rooms and getting more blankets. His decision process took about 3 seconds and he ran to Sakura's room first, then Takeshi's room and finally the guest bedroom and gathered all the blankets and pillows. He hurried back and placed everything on his bed and waited for Sakura to peak through the blankets then he started throwing everything he had gathered at her.
By the time he was finished the blankets and pillows were blocking the door frame. "Mebuki! Takeshi! Can you come up here for a moment?" Kizashi was a born prankster and jokester and loved to make others laugh, and it was the perfect time for everyone to laugh after having the funeral the previous day.
"Kizashi what… did you...do?" Mebuki questioned confusedly.
A small laugh erupted from the blanket pile and Takeshi jumped on it. Miraculously he didn't injure Sakura and the two played around in the blankets as Mebuki and Kizashi shared a laugh.
"I am not cleaning up this mess," Mebuki informed her husband, "if you don't clean it up, no one gets any blankets tonight." She knew he would try to leave the mess for her to clean up; as usual.
"Yes, yes dear, I'll put everything away when we come back this afternoon… or evening if Sakura-chan would like to go visit Ino later?"
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes! I haven't seen her in forever!" Sakura somehow managed to throw all the blankets and Takeshi off of her as soon as she heard Ino's name. She got up and froze when she put weight on her leg. "What… what do I tell her about my leg? Shisui said I shouldn't tell anyone about it because it's a weakness." She trailed off and became very pensive. "But Ino's my friend, she wouldn't be fighting me."
Kizashi didn't know how to respond to Sakura's conundrum; he was tempted to let Sakura tell Ino since they were good friends but he just didn't know - he wished his brother was still alive, or that Shisui was in the village.
"Maybe you can just tell her that you hurt your leg and leave it at that for now." Mebuki always had the answer to a difficult question. Now that he thought about it, it made perfect sense.
Sakura hugged Mebuki tightly and suddenly threw a pillow at Kizashi with a wide grin before running away down the stairs. He chuckled and kissed his wife goodbye and ruffled Takeshi's hair before following his silly pink haired child down the stairs. She had already taken his shoes and coat out for him and he warmed at the sentiment until she spoke "This way you have no excuses to take forever to get ready." and she even had the audacity to stick her tongue out at him.
Kizashi played along and glared at her while getting ready and slowly made his way towards her. She had walked towards the street and was beaming a thousand watt smile at him as he stalked his prey. He picked up his pace and caught her before she too far away. She yelled as he tickled her relentlessly until she had tears of joy running down her face - she loved being tickled and he loved hearing her carefree laugh, it was a win-win situation for both of them.
As they got closer to the training grounds, her father put her down and walked with her, hand in hand. After having seen Itachi and Shisui's spar, Sakura was curious to see what regular shinobi were capable of doing, since she knew her two friends were the best of the best. She had seen her aunt and uncle spar once but it wasn't quite as exciting, they had been slower and more careful around each other.
She was excited to see the training but she was even more excited to see Ino again. She would have to explain why she hadn't been to school yet but also tell her that she would be going to school on Monday and they could sit together in class. This got Sakura thinking; if they weren't in the same class, then maybe they could sit together at lunch or when they were let outside to play. But if they weren't in the same class, who would Sakura sit with? She was already a few weeks late, so everyone probably already made their groups of friends and would-
Her thoughts were cut off as she felt something wet all over her face - as if someone had squirted water on her. She wiped it off and saw red everywhere. Her father pulled hard enough on her hand that she fell on the ground right before he laid down on top of her.
"Papa, you're heavy, get off." She pleaded. Were they under attack? Maybe he was protecting her. But when her father didn't move, she managed to wiggle her way out from under him with great difficulty and she saw why he didn't respond. There was a kunai in his neck and shoulder and all she could hear was some gurgling sounds coming from him.
She sat there terrified and breathing heavily and looked around frantically until she saw the tendril monster come out from the bushes and she screamed for help as loud as she possibly could. She kept screaming even when she felt a familiar chakra signature quickly coming towards her.
I know I haven't updated in a while, I've just been really busy and wasn't sure how to go about this chapter . Nonetheless, I managed to churn it out somehow!
Let me know what you think and also if there is anything you hope will happen or what you hope won't happen/will be different in Sakura's behavior.
I already have the major events planned so I won't be changing those. I am going to try to do my best to keep Sakura close to canon, but seeing as so many things that are happening are not canon, it will affect the way she grows up.
Also, I'd love to know what you liked/disliked from the chapter :)
End of chapter question:
Which character out of K12 would you like to see in the next few chapters?