Chapter 1

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SAKURA AT AGE 5

Sakura played on the playground, she swung on the swing, slid down the slide, and played in the sand. She had just arrived yesterday and her Mother dropped her off here to play, usually she didn't stay in one place for more than a week but her Mother had said they would stay for awhile. Her grandma called it 'suna'. So far Sakura had only been in one big place like this and that was Kiri but it wasn't very exciting. They usually stayed in small towns where they would lock Sakura inside with nothing to do but talk to herself for hours on end. Coincedently thats when Inner-chan came along. She was always there when Sakura was alone.

As Sakura started molding a sand castle into the sand, she looked up to grab her bucket that she found when she first entered the sandbox and saw two boys one was about 13 witch red hair and creepy emotionless eyes, and the other one was her age he had green eyes like hers even though they didn't exactly match and black rims surrounding his eyes he was holding a big brown teddy bear what looked like the kanji for 'love' was written on his forehead.

Sakura doesn't believe in love.

'Oh, they seem nice outer-chan' inner said to her

'I bet inner-chan' Sakura answered then smiled to herself. She wasn't aloud to talk to other kids.

Sakura usually played by herself when her parents and grandma went out to do there 'adult stuff' that they were always doing Sakura suspected that they just had a super dangerous job that she would get hurt is she went with them. Sakura hated when they did that but she knew they cared about her so it didn't matter.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Sakura had come back to the park everyday for about a week, this time without her mom dropping her off and her just walking. Each and every time the two redheads showed up, what Sakura found odd was that everyone stared at the older one but glared and was scared of the younger one. Though this time the taller redhead approached her.

He looked strangely worried, something that didn't match his face. Sakura liked him better when he showed no emotion. The redhead her age was hovering next to the taller one almost touching him.

Sakura looked up at the taller one wide-eyed as he patted her head.

"Hello, my name is Sasori and this is Gaara I see you come here a lot." He pointed at the younger one.

The one called Gaara waved shyly at her before hugging his teddy bear. Sasori looked directly into her eyes.

"Do you know who we our?"

Sakura shook her head violently indicating that she had no idea. She felt as if for some reason her grandmother would dislike her talking to this boy and backed away.

"Well, I am the Kazekage's much younger brother, and this here-" he pointed at Gaara "Is his son and also my nephew." Sasori stepped closer

Sakura clammed up, her mouth felt dry, she had an inkling that they were important people.

"What's your name." There was a sickly sweet smile on his face that didn't scare Sakura, she'd seen scarier.

"My names Sakura Sir I'm afraid I can't tell you my last name." Suddenly the emotion flew off his face and his expression turned to the same cold emotionless one he had before he saw her.

"And why is that Sakura-chan?"

"Grandma wouldn't like that."

SASORI POV

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Sasori had seen that little girl everyday for the past week at this park, at first he thought she was a spy sent to kill Gaara when he saw her staring at him so intently. Each and every time that little girl always kept some sort of eye on the both of them, making sure to stay away. Then Sasori thought her parents had set her on some sort of suicide mission to get the both of them, she looked fragile amd traumatized. She had some hints of insanity (he came to this conclusion after hearing her on multiple occasions talk under her breath saying things that sounded like whispered 'inner-chan's') Though this idea was ruled out when he had approached her on the last day, he feigned being worried hoping that she was dumb enough to tell him everything.

Once she told him that her grandma wouldn't like him knowing her last name he knew that her family was most likely secretive or hiding in their village illegally. Though since currently he didn't really care to find out her background he took the easy way out, the Gaara test.

Ask her to play with Gaara, she is new to the village and won't want to be rude so will accept with hesitance.

Gaara will inevitably hit her with his sand.

She will either scream, stand still out of fear, or fight though that is unheard of in kids her age.

So the plan commenced a Sasori found something entertaining to watch, while he was on Gaara watching duty.

NO ONES POV

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"Well that's okay-" the smile spread across his face again and Sakura felt like running. "But could you please play with Gaara he doesn't have any friends and is very lonely." He then pushed the boy who growled but still went ahead and walked up to her.

'Inner-chan?'

'I'm not sure Outer-chan.'

The boy looked lonely, and sad for the most part. He had this look in his eyes a look that Sakura couldn't take her eyes away from. Her mother always had the same look in her eyes.

It's a look she would become familiar with in the future. He looked so hurt. So Sakura stood her ground and decided to be his friend.

"Hello!" She waved cheerfully

The boy just stared at her not making a move to reply back, Sakura kept going.

"Do you wanna go play in the sand, I found this really cool bucket the other day that just keeps reappearing every time I take it home with me!" Sakura said.

Sasori scanned the area, that was suspicious a bucket that keeps reappearing and it looked cool? What kind of buckets look cool? Was Sakura stupid?

"Show me the bucket." Sasori said

Sakura complied and ran over to the sandbox that wasn't really needed seeing as there was sand everywhere, she picked up the bucket and ran back. She handed it to Sasori who's eyes widened.

On the bucket was a scraped Konoha leaf symbol carved in by kunai. Sakura was being followed or at least watched by Konoha shinobi. He knew a warning when he saw one, especially when he looked at the bottom of the bucket and saw writing in chicken scratch. He looked up at Sakura who had begun talking to Gaara who still was not answering.

He read the words under his breath

"Don't touch the girl."

Sasori pondered that for a moment not even watching Gaara or Sakura, when he suddenly scanned the area with his chakra.

'Dammit!' he thought there in the tree was a black haired shinobi with a low ponytail, one he recognized all too well. Then just as he blinked there were two more one with gray hair and the other with black alike the first one although his was curly.

Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. All well known Konoha nin two of them with s-class rank.

Kakashi was smiling at him and he suddenly knew who wrote the message.

All three of the nin in the trees disappeared, and when he looked over at Sakura he realized she had grabbed Gaara

"C'mon don't be boring!" She said and grabbed touching his arm before a sliver a sand wrapped around her wrist. Sakura looked up and saw Gaara's eyes again the were different blood thirsty in a way, he looked like her father. He was staring at her too.

She didn't flinch she knew how people like him acted, her father acted the same way. She knew if she flinched she would be seen as prey. She knew if she flinched he would enjoy it.

So instead of talking to him Sakura just looked directly into his eyes. She didn't blink she didn't move, she didn't even breath.

'Outer?'

Sakura's eyes grew fierce and she glared at him with all her hate. And the sand slowly dissolved onto the ground.

Sakura inhaled and exhaled fiercely, she then grabbed Gaara again and pushed him towards the sandbox.

SHISUI UCHIHA

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Why couldn't they just murder the Sakura's parents and kidnapp her back to Konoha again?

Shisui realized he had said that aloud when he was fiercely hit in the head with 'Icha Icha'.

"We wouldn't want her to go insane like her parents right? She needs to trust Konoha before we take her." Kakashi answered as he flipped a page in his book.

Kakashi, Shisui, and Itachi all sat in a tree watching Sakura play in the sandbox. It really was astonishing that Sasori hadn't noticed them yet.

Itachi spoke up "Aren't we going to kill her father and grandma? The mother isn't Haruno and doesn't have Shinobi training wouldn't it be best just to leave her alive."

Kakashi nodded, and Shisui sighed.

"It would be easier to just fight now." He grumbled

Itachi was only 13 and doing missions like these while shisui was 15 and Kakashi was 18.

They conversation ended as they watched Sakura play in the sandbox alone, Shisui really wanted to just grab her and take her away. She lived in false hope thinking that her parents cared about her, they feed her lies ger grandmas hate for uchiha spreading to her son and hopefully not Sakura.

Their mission was simple, Kill all the Haruno's except for the child, well it as simple on paper grandma Haruno was known for her fighting skills and her ability to fight off the Sharingan. Her son didn't have the same amount of skill but was still training under his mother.

The fight wouldn't be long, what really mattered was making sure they surprised the Haruno's so they don't hide away Sakura.

He stopped thinking and focused his attention on Sakura when he saw her stand up and walk to the tree the three of them were in. She grabbed a stick and carved into the tree three words.

Gaara and Sakura.

Shisui wanted to murder Gaara, after the told Sasori about there presence Shisui wanted to slit Gaara's throat and he would if that wouldn't cause a war.

He thought for sure Sakura was dead when gaara had his sand on her, but she prevailed. What didn't stop was Gaara's bursts of anger that would fling sand at Sakura and injure her. Gaara would always cry and beg Sakura to forgive him and Sakura always would.

It was toxic.

He looked up at the sky and saw that it was getting dark, he pulled his mask down as Sakura got up and brushed the sand of her clothes. Sakura left the park and headed to her hotel room.

AT SAKURA'S HOUSE

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When Sakura arrived home she was surprised to see both her parents and her grandma home already. Her mother greeted her first then her father who simply nodded at her.

"Where have you been." Her grandma said as Sakura sat down on the couch next to her mother.

"At the park." She answered

"Who said you could go to the park? And you know what your not going again! YOU KNOW WHY-"

Sakura squeaked out a 'no'.

A plate hit her in the head and neither of her parents flinched as it shattered.

"Because THE KAZEKAGES SON WANTS TO MARRY YOU!"