TH: Okay, OW. I was not expecting this vaccine to hurt quite so much. 'A little soreness in your arm' yeah right. Try a lotta soreness. I suppose on the off chance I stab myself with rusty metal, I will appreciate the fact I've had this shot, though.
Going Sideways
Chapter Twenty-five
Theme:: Wander
However much Sakura trusted Minato to do what needed to get done, she knew that he was one man. And she also had the knowledge to help make things better. In her mind, there was no reason why she shouldn't start trying to do so.
As soon as Kakashi and Minato were confident that her presence in the Village was established enough that she wouldn't have random ninja trying to kill her, and when they were reasonably certain she wasn't a security threat, they allowed her to wander around on her own. Because Sakura didn't want to raise any red flags in anyone's mind, she didn't go immediately where she wanted to go. Instead, she went to the Memorial, and spent some time making promises to some names that weren't on it, and some names that were.
Afterwards, she wandered around the larger of Konoha's marketplaces, curiously looking for what stores were missing from her time and what stores were new here. There was a very cute clothing shop that made Sakura miss her human body all over again. Not that she would have been able to afford it; she didn't exist in this time, which meant her account didn't exist either. All the mission pay she'd saved up was gone—poof.
:Ugh,: she thought, ears going back. :Depressing. Sigh. Well, I guess it's been long enough; I can probably head there without raising suspicions.:
She ambled down the street, and slowly the sound of shouting, laughing, and running children became louder. She turned a corner and the Academy came into view. Classes had just been let out, and the students were milling around the grounds, meeting parents, walking home in groups…
Being even shorter than a child, Sakura couldn't see much of anything from her position on the street. So she marked out a path that she could jump up step by step to reach the roofs. Leaping from box to bin to a low roof and finally to the main roof of a nearby building, she turned to scan the crowd around the Academy.
Her movement had evidently drawn her target's attention, because when her gaze landed on him, he was looking straight at her.
It was almost ridiculous how adorable little Itachi was, before his life made a pale mask of his face. He had round cheeks—the last remnant of his baby fat—and wide eyes. His hair was shorter than it had been in her time, but was still long enough to pull back into a cute little tail at the base of his neck.
He looked at her solemnly from his little kid's face. Sakura gave him a fox grin, mouth open and tongue lolling, flicked her tail cheerfully, and bounded away.
Hopefully, that would be enough to pique his interest. She knew Itachi was, by nature, very curious. He'd probably at least heard about her—after the Kyuubi attack, there was quite a bit of talk when the Hokage started being seen with a little fox companion. The Uchiha Clan also tended to keep an eye on Kakashi, since he did possess their kekkei genkai. So Itachi also had probably heard that she was teamed with the Copy Ninja. If she was lucky, he would seek her out out of curiosity. That way she didn't have to worry about making him suspicious by seeking him out.
She hoped, anyway. And she hoped she wouldn't have to wait long. Time was ticking, and she needed to make sure they'd all be prepared.