Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I had the sudden thought a few months ago that shinobi are probably very poorly equipped to deal with a legal and economic take over of their village if they have nothing to leverage blackmail upon. Sure, assassination works in a feudal system, but it breaks down in systems where the power isn't centralized in one figure head. Sabotage and framing is all very good, but it's difficult to justify it if the movement starts off with advantages for the village and they're faced with a disgruntled population who know their leaders lie and are faced with a grievance when said advantages are gone. Also, how seriously would the Intelligence department take a bunch of civilians when the prejudice against them is so strong?
Cue this matter being delegated until it's too late and Kakashi just wants to go back to his days of murder. Sakura makes popcorn on the flames.
"This isn't fair, sensei!" Hiyori protested, her chair scraping back with a screech as the indignant cadet leapt to her feet, hair practically standing on end like a cat. "Why do we have to pass more tests when they don't?!"
The clan-born cadets who were filtering out for an hour of play sent the girl bored looks. Whining never got anyone very far here. The twelve civilian children remained in their seats; some seething at the unfairness of it all, mature enough to know this was unjust, yet just immature enough to not realise that there was a vast gulf between them and their peers so this was necessary. Others gritted their teeth, wanting to join their friends, wary of what content this surprise test would contain and frantically trying to remember what they could from the day's lessons.
"Hiyori-chan." Iruka-sensei said, slapping a paper on her desk, "Sit down. You do not mean to tell me that you spent five years with your classmates and did not pick up basic facts about their families? If you are not aware of unofficial rivalries, how will you compose teams when you are a Chunin? If you do not pick up on unsavoury rumours about a team-mate, who will you blame when they turn out to be true and they betray you on a mission? This is to provide you with knowledge of Konoha's shinobi society, much of which cannot be covered in lectures, but must be learnt through osmosis with the population."
The girl wilted, "But-"
The man glared. "Walking into the shinobi world with foreign etiquette and ignorant will cause your death."
In the corner of Sakura's vision, an orange blur slammed to his feet. "I'm not even civilian born, dattebayo!" The boy scowled fiercely. "Why am I here?"
Iruka-sensei straightened, "Naruto! You lag behind everyone when it comes to basic information. In addition, you were not raised by any clan despite what heritage you might hold. You lack this knowledge!"
"Then, why does Sasuke-teme get a free pass?" The blond boy howled, "It's not like-"
There was a sharp inhale of breath. The oxygen in the room was suddenly sucked out, leaving the boy silent and tight jawed, as if even he had realised that he would be going too far if he brought it up so insensitively.
Baka Naruto! Sakura thought horrified. Of course, Sasuke knew all this, regardless of what had happened to the Uchiha, he had still been raised by a Founding Clan for most of his life. The boy had probably forgotten more rumours and gossip (not that Sasuke-kun ever made such a silly mistake such as forgetting something he heard once) about the other clans from being the son of the Police Chief than the rest of them combined.
It had been awful timing. If Naruto had waited even a second longer, Sasuke would have twisted the doorknob and passed out of hearing range. Instead, the dark-haired boy retracted his hand, curling every finger into a white knuckled fist, silent as the grave. Sakura glimpsed raw emotion twisting his features before smoothening out to something blank and challenging.
The Uchiha swung his fist to his mouth as if he wanted to bite down, to trap what cutting words he wanted to say in a snap of teeth and bloody knuckles, but his hand hovered an inch or two above thin lips before falling away.
"Give me that test." He said, chillingly calm.
The entire room was silent, each aghast child watching the spectacle like Naruto was going to burst into flames and that Sasuke would be the one to do it. Really! Bringing up the fact that Sasuke-kun had lost his family like that- so crudely- so, so bluntly- Sakura's blood was hot in the pulse of her jaw.
"Sensei." The Uchiha said evenly, "I am sitting it," He glanced at Naruto and the smaller boy nearly flinched back, "I'll be finishing it within twenty minutes, So, you know. And taking top place. Beat me if you can, dead-last."
Ino looked furious at the insult to Sasuke's honour. Sakura spied her fingers curling and straightening as if retracting from a kunai grip.
Funnily, Iruka-sensei seemed hesitant, trading a sharp glance with Mizuki-sensei over their heads before nodding reluctantly.
Sakura was excited for the test. It was sufficiently different from the usual bookwork that it had the potential to be quite interesting. She spun her pencil between her fingers, the cat charm flying.
The sound of pen scratching on paper was both familiar and comforting. It started off simple, asking about market place rumours, family rivalries, legends sparked from historical events before moving onto hypothetical scenarios where the knowledge had to be put in use in longer essay style questions. Most students would struggle with its length and breadth.
True to his word, Sasuke-kun handed his paper in eighteen minutes into the exam, pinning Naruto with a viciously satisfied look and a sharp expression of warning. After this spectacular performance, Mizuki-sensei must have gotten bored because he started to tap a tune on the table with his red pen, waiting for the next student.
The last question involved a cipher block that took up half of the page. She didn't need to crack it but had to answer the question what was likely to happen if there was a cross contamination of clan codes and protocols in the field, with this one specifically, and if there were any recent examples to back her argument up. The question could be solved without breaking the cipher and reading the plain-text but Sakura had finished and she was bored. She just didn't want to upstage Sasuke-kun too much by finishing ten minutes after him. She might have been civilian born but having Ino for a friend and rival was almost as good.
No test would ever reveal the secrets of the clan codes, so their use in class involved a proxy and were indexed in the back of their book with a warning that this was a filler cipher and could be lethal if misunderstood. Bored, she scribbled the plaintext for the clans given in the question: Nara, Hyuuga, and Inuzuka.
LISTEN.
CAREFULLY.
CADET.
The hair on the back of her neck raised. Goose bumps raised down her arms and rippled down her spine. What was this? Then she scolded herself for being silly, of course it wasn't addressed to her, it was just an example code-
The sensei's tapping filled her ears.
Sakura swallowed, forced herself to look nonchalant and translated the Morse a character at a time. The sequence made no sense, so she scratched it out. It made sense for it to be some other auditory code. Morse was easy to recognise and many wouldn't need the hint embedded deep in the exam paper to recognise its use.
The paper yielded no clue on other ciphers, so she watched the sensei carefully. The white-haired man yawned, pen flicking idly in his grip, the cap and tip striking the wood cleanly in an unpredictable rhythm. There. Only one of them was important. Or perhaps both. It was two ciphers interwoven together. No wonder translating the entire thing didn't make sense.
BRING BEAUTY'S CORPSE AT MIDNIGHT WHERE HEROES LIE.
OUR SECRET CADET.
She stared blankly at the paper and scrunched it into a little ball when Iruka-sensei passed by her back to hand out more paper. Mizuki-sensei? Or both of the Academy teachers? Was this real, or was she hallucinating a plot out of her fiction novels?
But one thing was for certain.
Her hand shot up. "Mizuki-sensei!" She barked, and the man looked up startled, his tapping broken.
Once you have an advantage, protect it.
"Sensei, may I go to the bathroom?" She asked sweetly, the very picture of innocence.
"Are you done?" He asked, a wry unsurprised grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Go on then. You're free."
She went to hand her paper in but slid the extra working paper into her pocket when they weren't looking. As she passed Naruto, she pretended to stumble, falling heavily (well, as heavily as she could manage) into the back of his chair. Girl and boy tumbled in a startled mess on the floor, Sakura apologising sheepishly.
Naruto was remarkably gentlemanly about it, only telling her once that she had to go on a date with him to make up for her clumsiness before waving it off with a cheeky grin. She traced the edge of the lighter she had pickpocketed from the boy in the chaos. Kami knew why he had one, everyone knew Iruka sensei would go ballistic if any of them smoked at this age, but her observation had paid off. She knew she had seen him playing with the flickering flame at the edge of the playground the other day.
Sakura strolled leisurely to the bathroom to keep up the pretence, heart pounding its own Morse beat. What did it mean? Beauty's corpse? And why to them? Why wasn't Sasuke-kun given the chance to hear it? Why not any of the clan kids? She had to hurry, without her view in the classroom she had no way of knowing who else was close to figuring out the code. Was it extra credit? Sakura perked up and skipped to a stall, lowered the lid and hopped up.
The crumpled ball of paper took to the wavering flame well. The corners curled and turned ashen grey as it caught fire. It took a few seconds of waving the smoke near the smoke detector to set it off with a ringing clangour. To get rid of the damning evidence, she flushed the burnt paper and the lighter down the toilet with a guilty promise to reverse pickpocket Naruto a new one.
There. She would be the only one with this knowledge now. They would be too concerned with the fire alarm: this test was over. Her very first act of intrigue had her hands shaking when she went to unlock the stall. Was this right? Was this right of her to set off a fire alarm to satisfy her curiosity about a mysterious message and keep it selfishly to herself?
"Sakura-senpai!" Kiko from the year below stuck her head in, blinked, and complained. "You have to evacuate the building when you hear the alarm."
"Aa." She agreed. "Awful timing this. We were in the middle of a test."
The younger girl rolled her eyes. "Only you would be upset at a test being cut short, senpai. Come on. Everyone's trooped out already."
She let the girl drag her forward, out of the bathroom, mind still clicking clearly. "Know what caused it, Kiko? It's a bad time for a drill."
"Who cares?" Sakura got a breezy answer, "Some upperclassmen messing around with fire jutsus again?" Kiko sent her a cheeky smile, "Think it might be an early day today. There's no way the senseis can get all of us back to studying for the last half an hour after this."
Yes. She had been counting on that, actually. Sakura mulled it over some more and came to the conclusion that Iruka-sensei or Mizuki-sensei couldn't blame her for using such tactics which they had taught her. It…wasn't technically cheating as she hadn't gotten her answers illegally so she should be fine? Sabotage was another ballgame entirely.
Her homeroom teachers were shooting each other frustrated looks in the corners of their eyes when she re-joined the neat queue (which, at the moment, consisted of just her and the two teachers). The civilian children, once they had been let out to join the clan kids, had jumped into their ninja games with gusto. Sakura was the only one standing there silently, scanning them pensively to see if anyone else had noticed. She was so distracted that she forgot to join the gaggle of girls giggling near Sasuke, but that was only suspicious to Ino and no one else.
"Fine!" Iruka-sensei yelled after a brief, intense discussion with his colleague. "We'll continue tomorrow. Go home all of you, while we check out what caused the alarm."
-######################################################-
Sakura took her shoes off and placed them on the rack, noting her father's shoes on the row above.
"I'm home!" She called, moving deeper into the house.
Haruno Kirai met her in the kitchen, a deep violet yukata stark against his pale skin, made paler by the sweep of pink hair pulled back in a dignified ponytail.
"And what did you do today, little warrior?" He asked, amused, stirring honey into his tea. His eyes rested lightly on her cut fingers where she had fumbled a kunai throw. If only he knew what she had done today. She bit back the urge to tell him instinctively. OUR SECRET CADET. "Have you realised this is no life for you yet?"
"I can do this." She told him, repeating the same words she had for the past five years, and he touched her nose gently with the tip of his finger.
"It does not take a day to realise a mistake. What you can do, is not the same as what you should do." He said sternly. "I will ask you again tomorrow."
She hugged him and he poured her a cup of green tea, still steaming from the kettle.
"I will not change my answer."
"My daughter is talented indeed." He mocked, "Since when could you predict the future with such certainty?"
"Hey, dad." She hopped up on the kitchen counter, swinging her legs and taking note of her scabbed knees. "Are there heroes out there?"
The man blinked, utterly caught off guard. The curling smile that pulled at his smirk was wicked. "Do you still believe in fairy tales, little warrior?" He sounded delighted, as if he'd turned over an empty, hard shell only to find a hiding clam, soft and vulnerable. "Define me a hero, and let's try this again, hm?" He sipped at his tea and slid into a chair, all grace and tousled elegance.
"Someone who the Village would consider a hero."
"Ah." His smile became ever so slightly brittle. "War heroes. A tad different to the ones you tell the children to help them sleep. Yes, of course there are. The last war is still in living memory, after all. Of course, you do not need a world war to be considered a hero but it does help to die in the line of fire. The number of dead heroes dwarf the living ones. It almost makes one think that martyrdom is cheaper than skill."
She frowned. That was a remarkably macabre way to look at things. "If I use another definition. The usual one? The one where the hero is a good person, saves lives and is respected by all."
Haruno Kirai didn't answer for a long moment, calmly sipping his tea.
"Well, Sakura." He said pleasantly. "You might hypothesise about such people; I couldn't possibly comment." Her father saw her displeased expression and laughed, "Your description is too vague. A good person? What is that? Saves lives is easy enough, just take any medic; respected by all is difficult, however. One man's idol is another man's mortal enemy. Does a hero need a villain to be the hero, dear? In your hypothetical scenario?"
"Let's say that they do." Sakura allowed it suspiciously.
Haruno Kirai spread his hands. "Why? Doesn't nearly every shinobi in Konoha qualify as a hero for us then, if you waive the good definition slightly? And the shinobi in Suna for Suna, Kumo for Kumo- you get my point."
BRING BEAUTY'S CORPSE AT MIDNIGHT WHERE HEROES LIE.
Where heroes lay? Where heroes spoke lies?
The latter was almost redundant. Shinobi were meant to lie but heroes were meant to be better than that? She wasn't sure on the specifics for shinobi heroes though. So, where did dead heroes go? Obviously, they were reborn into their next life, but that wasn't exactly somewhere Sakura could go…Perhaps it referred to where their ashes were stored?
"Dad." She asked, turning over the problem, "Is there anything in the village which commemorates fallen shinobi or celebrates which heroes the village produces?"
"You mean the Memorial Stone?" He said flippantly. "Shinobi who die in the line of duty have their names carved there. It's near Training Ground 7, I don't know why you're so interested but it's there if you wanted to see it."
"How…how do you know such a thing exists?" Sakura boggled. It was a good question. How did a civilian know that there was a monument detailing fallen shinobi, let alone where it was? There was an implicit agreement between the two halves of Konoha that they would not breach each other's territory unless completely necessary. Haruno Kirai strolling into the heart of the training grounds to go sight-seeing should not have been allowed. She had been expecting something along the lines of documented archives of past speeches where the civilians were informed of notable feats and acts by the shinobi population.
He ruffled her hair. "Reasons, little warrior." The man stood and stretched his arms above his head. "You graduate next week, no? Do you want anything special for dinner?"
"Only if I pass." She protested, "I might not. There's tons of people who repeat years." Baka Naruto had failed several times, hadn't he?
"Yes." He agreed, "And plenty of people who it might have helped to repeat more." Haruno Kirai smiled at her, charming and blinding and sharp, before floating into the next room with a vague instruction to wash up.
…#########################################################...
It hadn't taken her long to figure out what beauty's corpse meant after that. What did people put on memorials?
Sakura pushed open the door to the Yamanaka flower shop, hating the fact that she didn't know any better florists. She let out a mental groan when she saw who was manning the counter. No…not now…She didn't need to keep a secret from a mind-reader in training who doubled as her best friend right now…
Ino's polite smile turned shark like once she noticed who it was.
"Forehead." There was glee hiding under the taunt. The girl leaned on the countertop, blonde hair falling artfully over one eye, all childish fire and poison. "What are you doing here? Ready to admit defeat yet?"
"You should spend more time talking to people than flowers, Pig." Sakura bit back, "It's clearly making you delusional."
"Yes. I need lessons in socialising from you." Ino placed her chin on the back of her manicured nails and smiled beatifically. "Did you enjoy your little test today? I hope you did, because the sight of Sasuke-kun talking to me after he came out would have shattered your little heart."
Sakura's breath left her in a rush. Was this true? Sasuke had approached Ino after the test? Why?
"What?" She was proud to tone down her surprise and almost convert it into a casual question. It was almost like she could pretend that her heart wasn't attempting to twist itself into a knot. "Oh, no. Is he okay?"
Ino's brow furrowed, "Why…wouldn't he be okay?"
"Well, he thought it was a good idea to talk to you." Sakura blinked at her innocently. "Maybe he got a concussion from a spar earlier."
"He won all of his spars earlier!" Ino snarled. "As you very well know from staring at him like a love-sick idiot."
"Oh? Were you looking at me instead of him? You're slipping in your dedication."
Ino breathed in deeply. "When was the last time he even acknowledged you, Forehead?" Victory tainted her tone. "Perhaps it's Naruto, you know?"
"Naruto?" Sakura was intrigued at this new line of logic.
"Yeah. We both heard him be a royal ass earlier. Maybe Sasuke-kun thought, rather rightfully, that the girl, such a brat has a crush on, is a bit of a bitch too. I know they say opposites attract, Forehead, but it's far more likely to like someone based on mutual similarities, you know."
"Thank you." Sakura said cheerfully. "So, what do I have in common with Sasuke-kun, then? Yours is easy, you're both heirs to clans and…that's it, I believe."
"Your similarity?" Ino said, just as cheerfully. "It's how boyish you are!"
Sakura stared at Ino, trying very hard not to laugh. From the other girl's mirthful eyes, Ino was having the same fight.
"I have pink hair." Sakura said. "I'm in a dress."
"And let me tell you, girl." Ino said without missing a beat. "I support you in all of your fashion decisions regardless of how strange you look."
Sakura leaned in, "Hey. Pig. Which one of us has the admirer again?"
"Only one?" Ino asked lightly, eyes half lidded. "And you want to compete with me, Forehead? Dream on."
Sakura slapped the counter and pointed. "It's no good being the traditional girl in such modern times. You haven't asked me what I'm here for. Maybe I'm going to ask the guy out for a change. Can I get some service here?"
"Right." Ino said incredulously. "You're going to ask Sasuke-kun out. Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"Alright." Sakura conceded the point, "But I need flowers anyway." She tapped the counter with her nail, "Could I get some?"
"I would say no, but it's so pathetic watching you crawl back when you need something." Ino wiped her hands on her apron and stepped out from behind the counter, "What do you need?"
"Flowers meaning beauty." Sakura hopped up on the high-chair, watching Ino flit around the cosy arrangement. "Also, a bouquet of spider lilies, please."
Ino stilled. "That time already?"
Sakura shook her head, "Nah. But it's the final exam next week. I wanted to update her."
"Oh." Ino said, and plucked some red flowers from its bunch, like a woodpecker in her precision. "Know what kind of beauty you want to signify?"
"Why are you helping me?" Sakura demanded, somewhat puzzled at this lack of mocking.
"I sincerely doubt you're going to walk up to Sasuke-kun and tell him he's beautiful to ask him out." Ino said, very dryly, "We both know that he is but some things can't be said to boys. What kind of beauty?" She snapped her fingers.
"What are my choices?" Sakura asked weakly. She really should have paid more attention in those flower arranging lessons.
Ino sighed noisily and pointed. "Amaryllis for splendid beauty. Carnation for pride and beauty. Lily for refined beauty. Orchid for exotic beauty. Stock for lasting beauty-"
"Some of each will do." Sakura interrupted hastily. She knew what kind of lecture this was building up to.
"What's this for?" The question was slightly muffled as Ino started to arrange a bouquet and held flowers between her lips for convenient placing. "Is it for your dad? That's kinda sweet."
"Oh, yeah." She said, guiltily. "A pot of Sweet William for him, please." Ino rolled her eyes but snagged it from somewhere. "That reminds me. He wants to do dinner for me next week for the finals thing. I'm guessing your family is doing the same?" Ino nodded, slightly distracted. "Want to watch the worst movie I can find after that?" Sakura offered. "I'll make it a cringy, sappy romance and I offer sarcastic commentary throughout. Take it or leave it."
The Yamanaka grinned again, teeth flashing, eyes fixed on the emerging bouquet. "You don't want to watch something with your dad?"
"Dad…" Sakura hesitated. "I don't think that would be the best idea, no." Ino shot her a sharp glance but didn't pry when both were in public. "So, you in or not? Or are you dooming me to an evening with the cat?"
"You don't have a cat."
"I will go get a cat if your cruelty drives me to it." Sakura said waspishly. "I wouldn't be surprised; you've been abandoning me more and more in favour of your precious Sasuke-kun-"
"We have gone to the same things for Sasuke-kun." Ino pointed out, Sakura's emotional blackmail completely missing its mark. "We just didn't go alone."
"And how is it their place to interfere in our contest?" Sakura asked angrily. "Sasuke-kun won't even look twice at them, why are they even bothering with the farce that they have a chance? Cha!" She pointed. "You lose to one of them, Pig, and I won't acknowledge you as my rival anymore."
"Brave of you to assume you're my rival." The girl murmured, wrapping up the flowers.
Sakura stared in disbelief. "I'm sorry?"
Ino tapped her cheek, "Well, Hiyori is rather good at conversing. She's so much more socially active than you, and a terror to fight. Wouldn't she make a good rival?"
"Yes, go talk to her if you want to be talked to death."
"Reika. She scored rather highly on the last few quizzes, did you know? Her new hair cut is also quite cute."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I wouldn't know." Sakura said mildly. "I don't keep track of the people jostling for second place in the girl's section."
"Third."
"Honestly, Ino, second place is not unattainable if you just try. There's no need to settle for third."
"I think I liked you better when you were too shy to talk back." Ino quickly wrapped up the spider lilies. She stated a price and Sakura forked it over.
Casting a critical eye over everything, Sakura noticed something. "You haven't charged me for everything." She said in surprise.
"Don't throw accusations which you can't back up." Ino snapped. The cash register snapped shut with a snap and she dumped the change in Sakura's palm. "Leave now, shoo. I have work to do." The blonde made little shooing movements towards a Sakura who didn't know whether to be highly amused or dreadfully offended. "The film is fine, I'll bring snacks. Mum got me some candied hawthorn."
"What work?" She focused on this utter lie with needle precision. Leaning over the counter, she snatched the manga away from Ino's pathetic attempt to hide it. "Oh, you're so busy, my mistake." Sakura tossed it back with an eyeroll. "That's a trash title and you know it."
"You recommended it!" Ino hissed, face red.
"Absolute lies." Sakura had nearly fallen asleep in lectures one day after staying up half the night to binge said title and struggling to contain her laughter at how ridiculous it was. "Anyways, look at the time, got to go, so busy, so much to do, I'm sure you don't relate-" Best to leave before Ino snapped and tried to stuff the bouquet down Sakura's throat. The glint in the other girl's eye was dangerous. With a cheeky grin, she backpedalled hard, waving to a rather confused Inoichi in the back room who waved back absentmindedly.
…..#####################################################...
Haruno Kirai showcased the Sweet William with the other half dead plants with a rather smug air. She didn't know why she kept buying him plants when his very touch seemed to drain the life from them.
She had asked him once why their garden was more suited to Halloween than a friendly neighbourhood and he had grinned. "Keeps me young. Look at this face, Sakura, you'll get wrinkles before your old man." He would pinch her forehead and exaggerate future frown lines with his nail. "Your Mam made me stop eating the babies. Said it would set a bad example for you. That true, daughter? You probably shouldn't let me cook then." With a jeer, he would send her off. She had picked at her chicken for weeks after that with suspicious eyes while he encouraged her to eat more, voice straining with laughter.
Hirohito-san was over for dinner with his son, Ren. The man mopped at his forehead and chuckled nervously every time her father did so much as look at him and ask if his bonsai trees were doing well. Ren appreciated Sakura for her hair colour alone and had come today with his dyed a brilliant green.
"What?" Haruno Kirai asked a near sobbing Hirohito-san, "Isn't it obvious that he inherited his love of growing green things from you? Sit down, lad, I'll lend you some spray. Kids should have fun, don't you agree, Yamato-senpai?"
Hirohito-san wailed something about respectability, moral descent of today's youth and something about Yakuza before scowling at his vegetables. Sakura distracted him with conversation about his fitness goals and he sniffed, calling her a good child. Ren slanted her a half-hearted glare when his father started laying into him for being a hooligan.
Kirai and Sakura exchanged a look, one brilliantly neutral and one deeply suspicious. Sakura was very sure that Ren had never done anything hooligan like in his life, the older boy was far too gentle for anything malicious. It was Sakura with the knife collection under her bed who came back with bruised knuckles and cut lips from friendly lady like training sessions which went utterly sideways with jealous competition. Just what had he told them that she did?
"Sakura made the dessert." Her father said shamelessly to distract everyone.
"I wish Ren had a cute girl friend to make him food." Hirohito-san said gloomily. "He's going to starve if he needs to cook his own food."
"Ah…"
Leaving her father to deal with that mess- really, he had brought it upon himself, she had no sympathy-
She looked forward to the man's reaction when Ren revealed he had been dating a waitress at Madame Miri's Magic for the last two years. They had run into each other, him on a date and hurriedly trying to act like he was a studious, filial son while literally skipping club activity to eat ice cream with Himari-san. Their relationship had improved significantly when she had something to blackmail him with and he realised that she wasn't going to rat him out.
"Please." Ren said sweetly, stabbing at his cake. "I don't mean to be negative but disappoint your father."
"I'm training to be a kunoichi."
He hummed, laughing under his breath, anticipating his father's face when his pedestal broke and shattered at his feet. "Can I please tell him?"
"I will stab you."
He carried on laughing quietly at the mismatch between reality and the image in his father's head. Ren talked her into showing him one of her knives after dinner. He handled the weighted blade incredibly well, betraying his experience in handling such a weapon. Their parents had retreated to Kirai's study with sake bottles to talk business.
"Lovely thing." The older boy murmured, spinning it around his finger.
"That?" Sakura asked scornfully. "It's not even sharp. Look at this one." She shoved one she had spent hours sharpening under his nose. The boy shot her an incredulous look and laid the edge against his palm. It sliced through skin immediately and blood welled.
"What do you mean this isn't sharp?"
She set her sharper knife aside and sighed. "You're such an idiot, Ren-san. Why would you cut yourself with a shinobi's weapons? I poison mine." There was precisely one second to appreciate her joke and his wide, panicked gaze screaming that he hadn't been expecting that and he really should have- then the boy freaked. She had to kick his knees out into a recliner and offer him a glass of water as the 'antidote' (He refused to believe that she had been joking about the poison) before he calmed down. Still, the boy refused to sit still after that, wringing his hands, large pupiled eyes flickering all over the room, throat pulsing.
Kirai folded his arms at her after they left, eyebrow arched. "I recognise those symptoms."
She spread her hands innocently. "It's not a poison. Who told him to cut himself on a knife?"
"Little idiot." He agreed easily, ruffling her hair. Something wicked flashed in those dark eyes.
"I need to go out tonight." She said as they did the dishes. He hummed and passed her a plate to dry, his yukata unravelling from its neat lines around his neck, exposing his collar bones. "I'll let myself in, no need to stay up."
"Alright."
Too easy. She narrowed her eyes at him, "What's the catch?"
He looked almost offended before wiping off the expression and replacing it with a haughty look of disinterest. "Your distrust is unwarranted."
"Your blatant lie is unwanted." She said sharply. The man rolled his eyes and muttered something about manners and uncute daughters.
"Can I not trust my daughter?" Kirai set the soap down, sleeves rolled to his elbows. The edge of his smile was mean. "My perfectly responsible daughter. My daughter who never lies to me, nor drugs my guests under my roof, nor keeps secrets from her old, worried father."
"Hey. He drugged himself." Her protest was feeble even to her ears. Her father rolled his eyes. "You're not old, Papa." She glomped his waist and pouted cutely at him, trying to take advantage of his fatherly instincts. He levelled a perfectly unimpressed stare at her, the edge of his mouth twitching.
Sakura was moved firmly off by the heel of the man's wet palm on her forehead.
"In the future, little warrior, when someone is giving you what you want, it isn't wise to push them to change their mind." He advised sagely and jerked her chin up by two fingers to meet his unreadable gaze. "Sakura, if this is about a boy, I'm going to be very disappointed. And then you'll be thanking all the gods you know that I'm not your mother."
"That's a lot of thanks." She said doubtfully. She knew a lot of gods.
His eyes were dark, and cool, and so very amused.
"You're my blood so of course you'll succeed to whatever you put your heart to. But give up on the Uchiha boy. He has an impressive façade but beneath that human mask, there's not a shred of love left for you. And there never will be unless something shatters his world for him."
Her head snapped to meet his gaze. She could feel her eyes hurt from the lack of blinking. Swallowing had suddenly become painful. Something foreign and hot wrapped around her heart cutting her breath off at the pass. She thought she had buried it deep, this realization that while Ino and the rest cooed over Sasuke's fathomless gaze as something romantic, she saw it on her father's face when hosting his business partners or when he caught sight of himself in the mirror and the warmth left his features- eyes cold, flat and utterly empty. It had terrified her so much that she had forced herself to forget it. Why was she remembering it now?
"You don't know that." Her voice was hoarse. Sakura had forgotten that she could still do this. Focus on a single target with such relentless intensity that all of her previous worries, so petty now, faded away. She didn't like it. It felt too much like someone else was peering out from behind her eyes, all cool clinical interest and endless rage.
"Prove me wrong at your wedding, child." The man said.
"Shut up."
He snickered, his little finger on the pulse in her neck, long cold fingers wrapping around her cheek and jaw, their pink hair mingling together. "Shall I sort it for you? Your father never thought to teach you such tricks so early but if you insist on loving that shell, I will do my best to support you. Will that make you happy?" The man asked wickedly, "Careful now, I'll know if you lie."
Her heart was pounding so much she could feel it in her temples. She barely noticed his proximity, mind conjuring images of the dark haired boy in the Academy. The world was unjust, she knew, but this choice was just an illusion. There were steel jaws behind each answer she could give and both of them knew it.
Sakura just stopped herself from knocking her father's hands away. It was his tactic to distract her, fluster her enough and throw her off guard with this bombshell that she would overlook whatever plan he had up his sleeve.
Her breaths were shallow.
She opened her eyes and glared, locking him stare for stare. Saying either yes or no would be dangerous here, he could take her words, twist them and run with it.
"Like you support me becoming a kunoichi?"
"That little thing?" Kirai's voice was low and lazy. "You've yet to show me that both of your obsessions are anything but that. You're at the Academy, aren't you? Despite everything?"
With a smirk, he released her, then frowned, reaching out and pinching her nose with two knuckles, using it to drag her forward. Startled, she flailed.
"Do not lose your head over a boy you barely know." There was the shadow of something dangerous in his drawl. "Do not. You have no real attachment to him, he has no reason to like you, you'll only jeopardise yourself if you forget what you're dealing with."
At her non-reply, his dark eyes narrowed.
"This world is vaster than anyone knows, and you decide that you've found your love down your street?"
Her jaw creaked. "What are you saying?" Sakura half laughed, "I never took you for a hypocrite."
Unexpectedly, her father flinched as if she had slapped him at the mention of Aisa. His smile faded but when he stood back up to his full height, Sakura knew that she was in the clear. Her answer had been put him on the defensive for now.
"Sorry." She muttered, suddenly ashamed. "But we're eleven. Aren't you taking this a bit too seriously?"
Haruno Kirai smiled and it was all teeth and indulgent charm. He patted her on the head and cold dishwater trickled down her neck. "That's true. Forgive me, I forget sometimes." A sigh. "If you're going out, who's going to play go with me tonight?"
"I'll play two games with you tomorrow." She promised quickly and he shot her a stern look.
"Oh, fine." He sighed, picking up the soapy plate again. "I suppose it can't be helped."
….#############################################...
Her father was playing the koto when she left, clutching the bouquet. In the mood she had put him in, he would play well into the night, alone in his room with the songs he had composed for his wife. Sakura chose to honour her differently. The spider lilies rested in a white porcelain vase before the woman's name on the familial shrine along with some incense.
Shinobi Konoha at near midnight was still manned, in stark contrast to the empty streets of the civilian district. People loitered around bars, strolled in the street lit parks, smoked outside shops with grilled windows and generally ignored her. She supposed adults had better things to do than to think about a civilian girl holding a bunch of flowers, scurrying through them. It wasn't as if she didn't have the right to be there: she was a student at the Academy and a citizen, it was just unusual not illegal.
She did want a map though. This was silly, she was probably over thinking this, there was probably no one there- how stupid did she have to be to take a class test so seriously? Maybe this was a lesson on paranoia, that seeing things where there weren't any was just as deadly as not seeing anything when there was danger. Maybe Iruka and Mizuki-sensei were waiting with cameras to capture who fell for their little trick; how would she face everyone then?
Uncharacteristically nervous, she ducked into a side alley and clutched at her cheeks. Why had she come wearing her face? Applying a henge would be stupid. Any shinobi worth the name would notice an amateur's attempt and then she really would be in trouble.
If it wasn't important, then they wouldn't have waited until Sasuke-kun left the room.
Yes. That was right. She tapped a beat on the stone wall with her nail. That was the intriguing fact here. They wanted the civilian kids to be the only ones to hear the message, added onto the fact that there was not a single pair of eyes looking at her now despite her sticking out like a sore thumb…they were trying not to scare her. They knew she was coming and had been expecting someone. No…that didn't make sense either, there was no reason for the secrecy earlier only for it to be so obvious and widespread knowledge now.
Sakura retrieved her pocket mirror with shaky hands, and almost dropped it when she saw her reflection.
An ordinary face looked back at her, bags under their eyes, lines at the corner of their mouth from pressing her lips together. A hitaite was clasped loosely around her forehead, pinning brown hair flat against her cheeks. A perfectly ordinary, tired genin.
Someone knew she was coming alright. And wanted to keep it secret from everyone else. Kami, she hadn't even felt the application. Her mind threw up wild scenarios of what could have happened if an enemy nin had managed to pull the same trick. She snapped the mirror shut, heart racing. Was this not proof that she was right?
There was a woof from the mouth of the alley and she almost jumped out of her skin. A pug stood there panting, tongue lolling against sharp white teeth, scratching its ear with its leg. It barked again, ran up to her legs and demanded attention by rolling over and throwing her an oddly imperial look for a dog. Sakura had no choice but to obey. However, the light from the streetlight shone a full moon off her watch dial and with a start, she noticed that she only had ten minutes left.
"I'm going to be late!" She muffled her voice just in time, jumping to her feet in dismay. The pug yawned, not very concerned.
The training areas were vast stretches of black space. Some of them bristled with ancient forests and one of them had a lake large enough to drown her house; the more she looked, the more her eyes adjusted to the oppressing darkness and more details jumped out to her. Lights flashed in a couple, flitting through the trees, clashing like fireflies, boggling her with their speed. It smelled of raw earth, iron and smoke, of bonfires and wet leaves, of things she had never heard of and made her heady. Sakura could deal with all of these, but worst of all was the chakra. The miasma of thousands of jutsus lingered in the air, settling on her skin like a lingering hand.
It suddenly crashed into her that this was too real to be laughed off later as a bad idea. Something about the darkness made it easier to imagine the more horrific outcomes.
Her knees might have turned to water but Sakura had never backed out halfway when she decided to do something. She was already here, why not go and see what this was about?
Training Ground 7 was desolate. The wind rustled through the trees and the leaves rasped under her feet despite her best attempt to walk silently. Now where would shinobi place a memorial to their heroes? Sakura turned on her heel and walked off the beaten path. If she knew anything, it would be in a clearing and not where it could be knocked easily by sparring nin. Groping blindly in a forest was not fun…she almost tripped over more branches, roots and uneven stones than she could count. Twigs scratched at her face and once she walked into a spiderweb.
After wandering for a fair bit, with a hint of embarrassment she realised that she had walked right past it near the start. She laid the bouquet at the memorial's base and murmured some prayers as was expected, then looked around. The stone itself was smaller than she had expected but solid, the writing cramped and gleaming pale even in the current limited lighting.
Paranoia raised the hairs on the back of her neck. It was very clear that she was alone and the haunting atmosphere was playing her courage like a stringed instrument. She knew she was a bit late but she had expected to see someone here. Disappointment and anger rose as a lump in her throat- what was the point of the message then? Had she really been right the first time, that all of the suspicious behaviour had just been coincidences, that this was nothing more than a waste of time? Who had cast the Genjutsu then? If this was just a mean spirited prank to humiliate Sakura about overanalysing things, then…the eleven year old was not immune to the thought of everyone laughing at her naivety the next day, that she had fallen for something which was obviously fake…she would have suspected Naruto but this was beyond anything the blond come up with himself.
Sighing and wishing that she had brought a warmer coat, she sat on a low hanging branch. Rubbing her hands together did little to help. She would give it some time, then leave. Perhaps she had interpreted the riddle incorrectly? What was a hero and what could someone mean by using that word?
An hour later, she slipped off the branch, too tired to continue. She had done more than enough, anyone more than an hour late for something they set up themselves without a good reason wasn't worth meeting anyway. Sakura would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed. For a brief evening, her life had been mysterious and exciting, just like a story. Reality had thrown cold water over her hopes but she cherished the feeling before it slipped away in a memory.
The underbrush rustled.
Sakura tried to jump back up the tree and grab a kunai simultaneously, accomplishing both in an inelegant stumble, breath fluttering in her chest.
A furry head poked its head out, tongue lolling.
Her second dog of the night barked cheerfully at her before emerging. His coat shone under the moon and his large paws made no noise on the leaf strewn ground. The dog frolicked at her feet, driving her back a few steps and she almost tripped over a low lying root. It dropped a bite worn, saliva dripping wreck of a ball by her hand and looked at her patiently.
"What." She was too flabbergasted to emote much. "No. Where did you get that from? The dump?"
The dog barked and she almost jumped out of her skin at its increased volume.
"No. Shush. Shush." She clamped her hands over its muzzle and hissed at it. It would do her no favours if people were to find out she was here. Unfortunately, dogs didn't understand subtlety and its barking grew louder and louder.
"Fine!" She snatched it up, seething at losing to a canine half her size. "I'll throw it for you. Just shut up."
It grinned at her, all teeth and crimson tongue. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, not sure how intelligent dogs were on average. More than her previous estimate at any rate. The dog bounded after the thrown ball and she legged it in the other direction. It didn't seem like any time had passed at all before the wind was knocked out of her. Sakura's jaw hit the ground with a painful tremor which travelled to her teeth, hands scraping off sharp rock. The massive weight on her back shifted so that she could breathe and dropped the damned ball by her gasping face.
The dog had the audacity to whine at her. Like she was the one causing it pain by refusing to cooperate! Sakura would like to make it back home without broken bones, but no, some bastard hadn't played with their dog enough and now apparently it was her job! She flailed but the dog had her solidly pinned with its weight spread over her lower back and legs, large paws on the back of her neck. It even nosed her as if questioning why she wasn't getting up. She was going to make a rug out of this pet.
She had never used Kawarimi outside of a controlled Academy setting and it was mildly humiliating to realise that she had no other choice. Sakura sped through the signs, snapping out the word in a low growl and landed on shaky legs a few feet away as the dog rolled off the smoking log.
"You." Her finger shook.
It batted the ball at her with its paw and a doggy grin.
"I am not playing with you."
It was almost like dogs couldn't understand human speech. Her words had no effect on the large furry demon and it ambled closer.
Sakura kawarimid away in a hurry. Her range wasn't great but the dog had no way of predicting in which direction she would disappear to even if its reaction time was lethally quick. Sweat trickled down her back and it was like the sun was shining on her cheeks. Using this many jutsus in rapid succession was like exercising a long forgotten muscle. It ached and sapped the energy from her body, like some part of her had been scooped out and used up.
The dog, delighted at having a new game- chase Sakura instead of chase the ball- bounded after her. She was too busy gasping for air to curse. When she was happy with the distance, she turned on her heel and ran. She raced up the dirt beaten track, took the fence at a flying leap and landed in a textbook perfect roll, almost ripping the shoulder of her dress open on the gravel. No one could know about this. No one could know that she had spent her time running away from a too eager pet. She saw its shadow and fled down the street, not caring if anyone in the other training grounds saw her. Jogging. Yes, jogging was something genin did, wasn't it?
She turned a corner, caught her foot on something warm and toppled with a muted crash.
In disbelief, another dog shook itself off from its sleeping spot and trotted to her. How many stray dogs did Konoha have? And why was she running into all of them? Sakura scrabbled away, mind throwing up images of a dog intelligence system, passing coded messages between their spectacled agents to best intercept their new toy as she fled- she banished the ridiculous thought and patted it once in apology. Its teeth sunk into the hem of her dress and she despaired.
"Hey." She said kindly, kneeling. "Does it taste nice? Is that why you're chewing on it? I know it smells like a strawberry but it shouldn't taste like one so please let it go?" The first dog rounded the corner and every single tendon in her body tensed. "Do you know what I think would taste nice? There's a lovely recipe I've always wanted to try but I've never found the willing ingredients." She glared at it. "Dog meat stew sounds perfect for an autumn night like this, don't you think? Didn't the poet, Yen Song, compare his childhood delicacy to his lover's touch and found his love lacking? If you bite on me, isn't it only fair that I snack on you too?"
The dog released her. Or rather its jaw fell open and she took the opportunity to whirl away.
Haste lent her speed.
When she reached the main gate of the training grounds, she hopped over it lightly and aimed finger guns at the dogs as she landed in a crouch. The dogs seemed to have given up chasing her, falling back with mournful little whines, and barking at each other. If she never saw a dog again it would be too soon.
Sakura wandered home, confused and angry.
When she caught sight of herself in the hallway mirror, the henge was gone. Her father found her touching her cheeks in abstract curiosity wondering how illusions worked.
"Papa." She said before he could say anything. "Do you ever feel like you've been bamboozled thoroughly?"
He blinked. "I take care to do the bamboozling, dear. Has your face offended you?"
"If I say yes?"
He drifted into the kitchen and got out two cups for hot chocolate. "I would be very sad since we share a face, dear."
"And if I say no?"
"Then I'd say to get in line, dear."
"Will you read me poetry until I fall asleep, Papa?"
"Of course, dear. We can move onto the Tea classics starting with Jinmin's Last Hour on Earth. It deals with structured order in the face of chaos, how familiar rituals comfort you in the face of oblivion. We can compare it to Sound's A prison laid in gold where the writer seeks eternal life because they feel their body is a prison, a story of logical conclusions ending in the loss of everything they hold dear."
"Call me free for I like to fly." Sakura quoted wistfully. "Yet still a man, not ready to die. Look to the brave and the foolish, the bright and the bold. This world is just a prison, laid in gold."
"There's a commonly held perception that the poet was inspired by sunset off the great rivers in the Land of Rivers." Her father coaxed her into a docile ball by stroking her hair while she drank her warm drink. "When the sun shines off the water, the land lights up in golden scars. There's a high plateau with sheer cliffs into Wave near there, they must have climbed to the top, possibly with suicidal intentions, and instead saw the sight which inspired their work."
"I'd like to see that." She said drowsily.
"I'll take you there once." He promised quietly. She didn't know when she fell asleep listening to his low voice calmly recite poetry, explaining the context and their history. Sakura had always loved hearing him speak. It had been fairy tales when she had been young, stories when she grew older, and then Kirai had introduced her to his passion of word-smithing when her calligraphy had been good enough to transcribe for him as he spoke. Her mother had used to joke that Sakura used to spend more time sleeping in Kirai's lap than anywhere else. When their unit had dwindled down to two, this bond had never changed and instead got stronger for the lack of any other familial bonds to form.
…###################################################...
"We'll be finishing off the general knowledge test today." Iruka-sensei clapped his hands. The civilian kids groaned in concert. Mizuki-sensei handed out their papers from yesterday with a calm, collected demeanour, he had been like that all day though. The man must have been upset about something or deep in thought because he barely said a word unless spoken to first, his tone bored and a wry smirk breaking that cool observation.
"You're done." Mizuki sensei said to Sakura, as if he wasn't speaking to her at all. "You don't have to stay."
"I'd like to double check, sensei."
He shrugged, handed her paper back and moved on. There was an awful tense moment where Sasuke passed by Naruto but the boy looked away and held his tongue, slightly red. So, he was capable of learning, Sakura sighed internally and flipped once through her finished paper. Truthfully, she was curious if they would repeat the cipher. All day she had been on edge, paranoia about anyone knowing about her failed late night excursion playing on her nerves likes a koto.
She fiddled with her pen, clicking and unclicking in a nervous tic until Reika hissed at her to be quiet.
Just like yesterday, the silver haired sensei tapped his pen against the desk.
Sakura's head shot up. Unlike yesterday, he no longer alternated between the tip and the end of the pen. It was a harmless sign of boredom or the cipher had changed. Had what she done made an impact after all?
It wasn't Morse mixed with the filler ciphers from the paper. That got her some unreadable nonsense. She played with substitution ciphers for a bit but got nowhere. It wasn't going to be that simple. The cipher string was so long as well…she was writing down letter after letter with no end in sight. Wait. She looked carefully at the man and tried her best to find the point where he paused to start the message all over again.
Yeah, as she had thought, he stopped briefly occasionally in the middle of the very long message as well as for a slight bit longer at the end. She lined up the shorter messages on top of each other and they were all the same length. Her heart began to beat faster in excitement. It wasn't one cipher; it was a cyclical cipher. It was one message encoded with one cipher, then again with another, then again and again until the cipher went back to the original one.
She had a hunch that she knew that the plain text was for each…and sure enough, it was the perfect length for BRING BEAUTY'S CORPSE AT MIDNIGHT WHERE HEROES LIE. OUR SECRET CADET. Sakura glowered at the paper; this was cheating. If she knew what the plain text already was, what was the point of encoding it…what was the encoding though…?
Fiddling with it for a minute revealed that it was a poly-alphabetic substitution cipher, she wracked her brain to remember the name of this type of cipher and came up with Vigenère? It was where a keyword was used to encrypt a message instead of a single letter. There was a different keyword for each iteration of the mysterious message. She scribbled down the keywords for each iteration, it was trivial given that she knew the plain text and the ciphertext, so it didn't take long at all.
What followed was a line from a softcore adult novel which graphically skirted the edge of propriety. She squeaked in her seat, hiding her flaming face behind her hands. What- what was this? Why would anyone use that as a encoding? Sure, no one in their right minds was going to guess that but whyyy- weren't they embarrassed? Sakura wailed inside her head.
She had thought it was going to be another message! If she had known this was going to be the result, she wouldn't have bothered!
The tapping evened out to a steady beat. She peeked between her fingers to see Mizuki-sensei covering his mouth as he coughed politely. He must have realised she had figured it out and stopped broadcasting the message. Was he laughing at her? She sent him her best scorching glare for the sheer inappropriateness of that sentence in a school environment and sunk low in her seat. Then, she scrawled PERVERT in large letters across the top of her test, stalked to the desk and handed it in, cheeks still hot.
The man glanced at her paper, the corner of his mouth quirking. "Detention." Thankfully, he said it quietly so the entire class didn't overhear how the teacher's pet landed herself in detention, but gleefully as if testing out the word.
"When?"
"I don't think you need to ask." The man hummed and swung his feet up on Iruka-sensei's desk, the owner of said desk shooting him a glare.
"No."
"No?"
"No." She said flatly. "I'm not acting as entertainment to a dog again."
"You don't need to worry about that." Mizuki-sensei examined his nails but she caught the glitter in his eyes all the same.
Sakura eyed him suspiciously.
"Off you go." The sensei shooed at her. "Let everyone else finish undisturbed, yes? That's a good girl."
Her back went hot and cold in equal measure. She had known Mizuki-sensei was a shinobi but this was the first time his words had such double edged meaning to them. It made her feel very small…what else had she missed about the man?
She edged out of the room, keeping the man in her field of vision at all times but the worst he did was flick chalk at Naruto's head and tell him blandly to stop slouching. Then another to tell him to stop fidgeting. Then another to tell him to stop leaning back in his chair. Then another to tell him to cut the glaring out. Then another-
Naruto's chair hit the ground with a crash. "What can I do, dattebayo?!" The boy howled.
The chalk hit him square in the forehead and Mizuki-sensei told him to stop yelling. Snickers spread through the room and Naruto sat back abashed.
She was so confused. What was the point of last night? Why was Mizuki-sensei repeatedly telling her to go to strange, unknown locations at midnight? Even the sight of Sasuke practicing kata surrounded by her classmates couldn't break her out of her contemplative mood- then she realised what she was looking at and how suspicious Ino would get if she failed to respond appropriately to this.
The dark haired boy didn't even acknowledge an additional presence in his fan club but she was grateful. She didn't want the shrewd boy to realise how her full attention wasn't on him and have him think that she was fake. Oh well, things happened, she would find out tonight- she seethed at the detention though, it better not go on her record and blemish it.
To the people who've read Dance of the Dog God: Haruno Kirai is Aisa's husband from that story. Different parents died in each story to justify the different Sakuras. He's…a very different style of parent, that's for sure; let me know what you guys think of him and the start?