Sakura learns about the Uchiha massacre from Asano, who explains it to her several days after. Asano never mentions crying, but her voice gets rough at points in the story. Asano explains that there are, as of yet, no declared survivors.

That Itachi Uchiha was Sasuke's older brother and the heir to his clan. She explains that Itachi was a prodigy, and that no one knows why he cracked, just that he did.

A week and a half later, Sasuke is back in lessons. (Sakura had thought he was dead. Asano had shrugged at the accusatory look, and later explained they might have been worried he would die, or that Itachi would come back to kill him.) He has always been proud, and sometimes mocking. Before he had been closer to Kiba in behaviour though, now he is silent and focused. His already pale skin is near of greenly translucent and there are deep bags under his eyes. His hands twitch and he seems to forget where he is.

Asano has to point out how closely Sakura watches Sasuke. The thoughts that had been creeping in about how soft his hair was. How smart he was. How cool he was. They all vanish under the realisation that he has just had his brother kill his entire extended family.

Before the massacre, Sasuke hadn't been unpopular, now though he is 'dark and brooding' as Asano puts it. The girls in their class flock to him, slowly building up.

By the end of the term, Sakura is one of maybe five girls who shows no interest in him.

That's not to say that he's not cute, and if he offered she wouldn't date him. But she's pretty sure he's got other priorities. Asano also explains that his wife will probably need to be very strong (which Sakura isn't - yet!) and will need to retire to have lots, and lots, and lots of babies. Which. Sakura's eight (almost nine) years old, and she doesn't know a ton about having kids, but she's not sure she wants to raise lots and lots and lots of them.

Sometimes Sakura wishes that Asano had never said anything, that Sakura had been allowed to slowly fall to whatever illness it is that plagues the other girls in the class. They have a group of friends and competitors, a hobby, and a goal, all in one. And, while Asano is a good friend, the winter term is lonely.

After the Uchiha massacre, starting around three weeks after, Asano had started coughing. Then she'd been gone for a week and half and Asano's mother wouldn't let Sakura in. She was back in for a week, then out with a fever for a week. Most of the month of December was spent like this.

Term break is in March, and while Sakura's class has never been large, five students dropped out at the end. Which as Asano put it, is not an insignificant margin.

The next term is a lot more fun, in some ways. The first term was all boring academic stuff, the active pieces are starting to get introduced. Half of the day is now spent playing team games like 'Protect the Kingdom' and 'Shinobi vs. Samurai'. Asano introduces a game called 'Dodgeball' which is basically just trying to hit people with balls. It becomes a very popular game that Asano hates playing.

She hates a lot of the games. She enjoys them, but before and after them she laments ever going to the academy.

Having been Asano's friend for almost six months, a few things have become clear.

The first: Asano is smart. Like really smart. Sakura has always known that she was clever, but Asano- Sometimes it feels like Asano already knew the information in advance, and just needed someone to remind her. Sakura is proud of her, but also rather jealous. As a female entry into the academy who has received limited training from her parents, she relies on her academic grades to hold her place.

Second: Asano sometimes tries to act less smart than she is. When the scoreboards went up, first week of the second term, Asano was only third. She rarely raises her hand in class. She falls asleep in lessons (occasionally).

Third: Asano is terrible at focusing and getting the work she needs to, done. At first Sakura had thought that she spent time at the library reading because she enjoys it, which she does. But she also does it to avoid homework. Asano regularly turns in homework where the ink is still wet. It never her best work either, sometimes random markings are crossed out and there are always smudges.

Asano's kanji is terrible and so is her grammar honestly.

Asano is also really good at finding hiding spots. Anytime either of them want to talk about something private, Asano takes the lead. Her hiding spots aren't traditional hiding spots, they aren't the 'out of sight, out of mind' sort of hiding spots, but rather, 'the places you don't look' hiding spots.

To date, they've hidden, in restaurants, on roofs, underground, in trees branches, in tree trunks, in the teachers room of the academy, and in Sakura's parent's bedroom. To name a few.

The most awkward time was when they arrived at an alcove and Naruto, a kid in their class, was already hiding there. Asano said they couldn't leave because it would be obviously suspicious, and Naruto said he couldn't leave because then the ANBU would find him. Sakura said that they couldn't talk about anything interesting while Naruto was there, and anyway, it wasn't very comfortable.

Despite Sakura's complaints, the next hours was spent in conversion drifting for awkward to enthusiastic and back again.

Afterwards the two of them laid together in a civilian park - one of Asano's favourite hiding spots, and talked. The park covered a playground, some green field, and a river in between two banks. One bank was covered in blankets and in civilians who enjoyed pretending that winter was over and summer was here. The other side, which could only be accessed by going through the river or jumping across from a high tree branch, was limited to them. The river wasn't loud but it did provide enough background noise that it wasn't easy to overhear anyone else's conversation.

"Hey Sakura," Asano said, looking up at the sky with her arms crossed behind her head.

"Yep?" She asked, fiddling with a piece of grass.

"I think you should make another friend." It was so casually said that it took Sakura a moment to discern what Asano had said.

"Are you like? Friendship breaking up with me?"

"No! But. I know that I don't listen to you enough." Asano pulls herself up and looks past Sakura down the green bank. "Either I want it to be quiet, or I want to share my own thoughts with you. I don't listen to you very often. That's not fair to you. So I was thinking you should make friends with someone who will listen to you." Asano's gaze refocused and she grabbed Sakura's hand. Her hands were a bit sweaty and uncomfortable, but Sakura didn't let go. "You have to stay my best friend though."

Asano's tone was desperate in a ridiculous way, as if Asano was the one who needed friends. Sakura had known, has always known, that she was the weak one in the relationship. Sakura was clever, but not as clever. Sakura was awkward, while Asano was just reserved. Sakura's biggest strength over Asano was that Sakura didn't get sick. Which wasn't a very helpful strength.

"Who would I become friends with?" Sakura asked with her best attempt at a wry smile, "I'm happy enough just being friends with you."

"I don't know! Ino maybe! She's pretty and smart and great at conversation!"

"Weren't you the one who explained to me that interrogation and torture were often different because interrogation was when the victim told their interrogators willingly, which was the Yamanaka speciality?"

"Well yes…"

"So… you want me to get interrogated?"

"No! But. Ino would be a good friend. I don't want you to miss out."

"Ino could be my friend, maybe. But you and her are pretty similar and you both prefer talking about yourselves - except when she listens it means she might record it to hold over my head in five years. You, on the other hand, just don't listen. Or have fallen asleep."

"Hey, I do listen to you occasionally."

"I know you do. You maybe aren't the best person to monologue to, but you are decent at conversation."

"Am I?"

"When did you get so unsure of yourself?"

"The Uchiha Massacre." Asano says immediately. The joking, conversational tone is absolutely destroyed. Sakura pauses to think about it.

"Are you strong enough or convincing enough to stop Itachi Uchiha?"

"Um. No? Probably not. But there are other wa-"

"Are you of a high enough rank that, assuming you noticed, you could notify someone that Itachi Uchiha was acting strangely."

"No..."

"Assuming you knew the massacre would happen in advance, do you have a way to stop it?"

"No," Asano whispers, looking terribly heartbroken. Sakura sighs, and lets it go. Instead wrapping Asano up in a hug.

That's another thing about Asano. She adores hugs. It's sweet because the academy is clear that touching someone you don't trust is amount to suicide via stupidity. Which isn't very nice but after how clear they've made it, well it's not wrong.

"But back to the matter at hand, I have no need or interest to find other friends." Sakura paused, and in a tart tone added, "Thank you very much."