"Nee-chan!"

Sakura grunted, feeling a weight impact her stomach, and blearily she opened her eyes. "Huh?" She blinked, staring at how dark it still was. Why was Akira awake? Even she usually would not have been awake at that hour. "Aki-chan?" she slurred, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What're you doing up?"

"They're here!"

Sakura sat bolt upright. "Who?"

Akira held out a large envelope she could barely make out in the early dawn light. "The results, silly!" she said with a giggle. "Can we go and open them? I wanted to open them with you and Mio-nee… but I can't wait any longer!"

"Ugh." Sakura rubbed at her eyes. "Fine… but we should go to the other room," she said, yawning as she pulled herself out from under the covers. "It won't do us any good if we wake the others…"

"I'll get Mio!" Akira declared.

"Shh!" Sakura hissed, making her bed back up before she headed out into the living room, yawning again as Mio and Akira followed her like little ducklings. "Alright, lemme get the lights," she mumbled, gesturing for them to sit at the table while she went and switched the lights on.

"Hurry up, Saku-nee!" Akira demanded, and Sakura scowled.

"Patience, Aki-chan," she said, sitting herself down on the other side of her sibling. "Now let's open this and see whether we all passed."

Akira pressed the letter into her hands all of a sudden. "I don't wanna open it… you open it, nee-chan!"

Sakura sighed. "Right," she said, breaking the seal on the envelope, relief flooding through her when she scanned through each of the letters. "We all passed," she informed them, handing them each of their acceptance letters, eyes locking on her own.

"I'm in class 1-C!" Akira said, climbing to her feet, jumping around in joy. "I did it! I did it!"

"I'm in class 1-D…" Mio mumbled, frowning ever so slightly as she sat quietly at the table.

"They probably split you up – being siblings and all," she said, looking for her own class number, almost smirking when she spotted her designation. "It seems I'm in class S…"

"No number in front of it?" Mio peered down at her letter, curious.

"You think that's the super special class they told us about?" Akira asked, pausing in her celebrations to peer over her shoulder curiously. "Saku-nee is awesome, after all!"

Sakura smiled at that. "Too right I am," she said, preening under both their gazes. She was allowed to have self-confidence in herself and her abilities… unlike one Haruno Sakura. Her lip curled at the thought, mood souring as she thought on the pathetic girl. Sakura shook her head. She didn't need thoughts like that ruining her mood. Instead, she held her head high, basking in the recognition she'd received due to her abilities. She was strong – just like she had always wanted to be, and everything was going to be better than her first life from that point onwards.

Or so she thought until the first day of the academy began – and it began inside one Senju Tobirama's office, with Uchiha Fugaku, father of Sasuke, at his side.

"Sakura-chan," Tobirama began, looking utterly exasperated by the paperwork in front of him. "Why do I have a report here about you tying a boy to a tree and inciting bees to attack him? That's not the only one with you written as the likely culprit either."

Sakura blinked, shifting ever so slightly on her feet as the two actual adults stared down at her with varying expressions of dismay and disappointment. "I don't remember doing anything like that," she said, folding her arms as she fixed her glare on the white-haired man.

"There were multiple eyewitness accounts, mostly of the children targeted—"

"Genjutsu," Sakura offered, staring at him unrepentantly. "What possible reason would I have to harm them, especially with my admission to the academy…?"

"Sakura-chan." Tobirama stared at her flatly. "If I find you doing anything of the sort again, then there will be consequences. You are an academy student now, and with that comes with expectations, both for yourself, for your future fellow Konoha-nin, and for those you will be protecting."

She folded her arms, looking to the side to escape the glare. "Hn."

Tobirama twitched, breathing deeply before letting out a long, exasperated sigh. "You should be getting to class now. Be prepared to stay behind today and write an essay on why cultivating healthy relationships with your peers is a good idea," he said, and Sakura felt appropriately cowed.

Writing lines was an utterly tedious task, and actually having to think about the lines to write made things ten times worse. It was hardly like he could give her something more difficult to do though – her body was horribly young and far too small for any other menial tasks, and Tobirama probably didn't want to psychologically traumatise her by giving her the so-called 'E-Ranks'. They were even more boring and simple than the dreaded D-Ranks, and one didn't even get paid for the privilege of completing them. Sakura tilted her head. Were E-Rank missions still given as punishment for detentions? she wondered. She could still remember the time Kiba had been forced to do one for his antics. He'd been ill for two days after that thanks to the overpowering smells his sensitive nose had been subjected to. So maybe they weren't. Early graduation wasn't allowed – so Tobirama clearly was concerned with his students' health, both of the physical and mental nature.

Though she needed to arrive back in good time to make dinner – and then she had to henge and hunt down the nearest bar to gather some information on the unwelcome guests in the neighbourhood. Letting out a huff, Sakura let herself out of his office. She was going to be having a busy day it seemed.

Her footsteps were silent on the floorboards, eyes flickering about as she tried to find the correct classroom. She had found 1-A, the classroom for the major clan kids, and 1-B, for the best civilian children and those of minor clans, was unsurprisingly right next to it. But there was no S classroom as far as she could see. Tilting her head, she looked over towards the stairs, shrugging as she headed up… and up yet again, until she reached the topmost floor before the highest roof. She had once stared at Sasuke from that roof. Shaking her head, Sakura allowed herself a smile as she finally spotted a classroom which hadn't existed in her last life.

Praying she was still on time, she slid the door open, stepping into the rather loud classroom. There were five rows of desks, and preformed groups of friends huddled about different desks. Her gaze darted over to where Itachi sat, by the window, and she made a beeline for him – hearing the door slide open once more behind her.

"RIVAL!"

A large weight collided with her side, and she crumpled to the ground at the surprise attack, scowling underneath her mask as she felt herself being cuddled to death.

"Sakura, you made it!"

"And as touching as this scene is, get to your seats," Tobirama's voice sounded, smoothly stepping over their sprawled forms, and Sakura stiffened – realising it was he who'd snuck in behind her. "To those of you joining this class this year, welcome. As some of you know by now—"

"Come on, Itachi saved us some seats!" Renka hissed as quietly as she could, a beaming smile on her face as they made their way up to the desk closest to the backmost window.

Sakura all but dived for the middle seat – so she could at least have some sanity in the form of Itachi next to her. Renka would then be an excellent buffer against the rest of their classmates, should they decide to check out the 'fresh meat'.

"—your teacher for today is—"

The slam of the door cut off Tobirama off, a very familiar Uchiha walking in through the door. "Lucky you!" Izuna sung, all but skipping to Tobirama's side. "You get me, though the grump over here will be supervising, given its our first session of the new term."

"We will be heading down to the usual training grounds, so please partner up. Groups of three are also acceptable," he continued, red eyes flickering over onto their group as Renka all but plastered herself to her side. "Most of you should be familiar with procedure by now, so please guide your new classmates."

"Let's go, Sakura!" Renka chirped, and Sakura only paused to glance back at Itachi, smiling underneath her mask as she offered her hand out.

"Shall we?" she inquired, tilting her head as she looked at him searchingly.

Itachi smiled back, taking her hand gently – a gentleness she couldn't quite reciprocate as Renka all but dragged her and, by extension, Itachi along with her.

"It's awesome!" Renka remarked, following Izuna dutifully as he led them down the stairs and out of the academy building. The sky was a bright blue above them, barely a cloud in sight, and the breeze was mild, if rather cool – perfect for her, considering the hoodie she wore. "You're finally here… my eternal rival is finally in the academy with me." Renka hopped from foot to foot gleefully. "It's gonna be so great. We can challenge each other every day now! It's gonna be so youthful Gai-sensei will cry…"

Sakura blinked. "Yay?"

Itachi snorted softly – so softly most would never have registered it, especially with Uchiha being one of the most dignified clans around.

Raising an eyebrow, Sakura ignored the usually stoic Uchiha beside her, following their mildly irritating instructor for the day to a rather spacious training ground. Renka was on her like a moth to a flame, and the rest of her first day went exactly as she expected – fighting the mini Hashirama clone until they were both lying on the ground, exhausted.

The village changed after dark. That much Sakura knew, and she could certainly attest to it as she prowled through the streets. The sun had gone down, twilight setting in, and Sakura made her way to the nearest bar. Her henge was that of a burly adult male – based off the carpenter whose shop she passed on the way to the academy – knowing she was less likely to attract the wrong sort of attention than if she went in henged in an adult form of herself.

The bar she chose was one of the seedier ones, the one more likely to host gossip and possibly some connections to the criminal underbelly that existed in Konoha. Shinobi made no move on it – it not being too much of a problem, considering it was mainly made up of civilians. Only the police force seemed to care, and only when they was a big enough incident.

To her, though, it would be helpful – after all, somewhere in that underbelly, her unwelcome visitors waited. Her eyes flickered around the patrons of the bar, and Sakura took note of them as she went and ordered her drink with the help of the wallet she'd filched off some drunkard a few streets back. Chatter sounded all around her, and Sakura went and sat down, her alcoholic beverage of choice in front of her. She wasn't about to drink it, obviously, but fortunately there was a small potted plant on the windowsill – even if it seemed ridiculously out of place. One Senju Hashirama had encouraged the people of Konoha to engage in gardening, so it was probably the result of that which had led to potted plants finding residence in most buildings.

It provided something to look at though, while she listened to the conversations going on around her. The stupidest place to talk was somewhere quiet, especially when one wanted to blend in.

"Himura's son is certainly something – you should have seen the pieces he crafted – and his father is getting damned insufferable—"

"Well his son did miraculously improve—"

"Maybe it's because he's actually paying attention to everything Himura teaches him now. That boy has been far too lazy as of late—"

"I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. The shipment will be ruined…"

"The report is due on Monday," the voice rang out, and Sakura's eyes darted over to the businessman, and she eyed the stain on his shirt distastefully, covertly pouring some of her drink into the soil yet again. "I don't understand how we're expected to finish—"

"—totally saw you outside 'The Red Boar'… Why didn't you tell me you were going – I totally would've come along with you—"

"That's the place to go."

"—should get going. It's getting far too dangerous to stay out late, you know."

"Oh that's right! Sara gave birth recently, didn't she?"

Sakura ran a finger around the edge of her cup, sitting quietly there as she waited and listened. Information was invaluable, but only if she could find something actually related to what she needed to find – whom she needed to find. Though it wasn't like she expected the sound nin to wind up neatly gift-wrapped in her lap. Information and investigation. Those were the two important parts to her self-appointed mission.

Though she kind of hoped the village security would sort things out – not that she would ever entrust the entirety of her siblings' welfare to them. They had already failed her twice. She couldn't afford a second time.