"Please, make me your apprentice!"
The Fifth Hokage Tsunade studied the twelve-year-old girl before her intently for a moment. Haruno Sakura stood ramrod straight, her body steeled and green eyes burning with determination. Very few people would've had the audacity to come into Tsunade's office to make this request, and even then, most would've shown at least a hint of nervousness in doing so.
Haruno Sakura displayed none. All she could see in the preteen girl was pure mettle and determination. Most girls would be heartbroken and curled up at home crying after what had recently happened to her. It was quite clear that Haruno Sakura was not most girls. In fact, she reminded Tsunade of someone that she had once known. This cause the Fifth Hokage to smile in satisfaction.
There was no need to warn Sakura that Tsunade would not go easy on her. It was clear that Sakura had come here with full knowledge of that; in fact, she'd been seeking it. She wanted to become stronger, someone that her comrades could rely on. She wanted to be able to stand at Uzumaki Naruto's side in battle and help him bring Uchiha Sasuke back with her own two hands.
Her beloved Uchiha Sasuke.
For that reason, she had sought the tutelage of the strongest kunoichi in the history of Konoha.
"Very well. Follow me." Tsunade said as she stood up from her desk and walked out the room. Sakura seemed momentarily stunned that Tsunade had actually agreed, but she quickly turned and followed the woman.
"Before we begin, I want to tell you something." Tsunade said as she led Sakura through the hallway, "You're not the first Haruno girl to fall in love with an Uchiha... nor are you the first to be abandoned by one."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Sakura asked in confusion.
Tsunade looked up at the sky as she thought of the past, "When I was young, I also had a mentor: Haruno Hanako. She was my grandfather's childhood friend, and the best iryouninja around when Konohagakure was founded. In order to prepare you for your future, I should start by explaining her past..."
誓い
It was an unusually quiet day. Two young shinobi had just finished a sparring match that had ended in a draw. When one had gone to relieve himself in the nearby river, the other had teased him by standing directly behind him, resulting in the two of them running around until both accidentally fell off the cliff and into the river. Fortunately, the river was flowing rather gently, so neither of them was exactly struggling to survive, but both were surprised when a kunai attached to a rope was suddenly dropped into the water, and a girl standing on the nearby cliff called to them to grab hold. The two boys did so, the one with wild black hair grabbing hold first. He looked up and saw the girl straining to pull both of them up.
"Don't be stupid! You can't pull both of us––"
"Shannaro!" The girl exclaimed, suddenly yanking up the rope with a burst of power, inadvertently flinging both boys up the cliff and into the forest several yards behind her. She sweat-dropped and ran after them. "Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to pull it that hard!"
The boy with the crazy black hair looked at her from where he had landed upside down on a bush, "What kind of strength do you have?" He asked incredulously. He could help taking notice of her deep green eyes and dark pink hair.
The girl laughed nervously and walked over to them, "Are you two all right? Are you injured in any way?"
"I'm fine." The boy with black hair said as he leapt up from the bush and looked at his friend. "What about you, Hashirama?"
"I'm fine, I like wood..." The other boy muttered in a daze, having landed sprawled over a log on his stomach. The girl laughed a little and helped him up before leading them both back to where she'd been standing on the cliff. She gathered a pile of dry wood and set it down.
"Let's get a fire going so you two can dry off. Your families will be wondering if you come home dripping wet, right?"
"Yeah, but... the smoke from a fire might draw attention." The boy told her nervously as he supported the still stunned Hashirama.
"Don't worry about it. These are the driest hardwood sticks I could find. They won't produce a great deal of smoke." She told him as she sat down and fruitlessly began trying to light the fire. The boy saw her growing frustration and sighed.
"Let me." He told her, setting his friend down and blowing a small fireball from his mouth to light the wood.
The girl giggled nervously, "Thanks. I'm Hanako."
"Madara." The boy replied as he sat down and gestured to his dazed friend, "This is Hashirama."
"I know." Hanako said with a smile, "I've seen you two around here quite a bit."
"You have?" Hashirama asked as he came to his senses.
Hanako nodded, "Yeah. I come to this area a lot to gather medicinal herbs, so I often see you when you're here."
"How is it that we've never noticed you before?" Madara asked, looking slightly annoyed.
"I'm pretty good at concealing my presence, and no offense, but I generally make a point to not get involved with other shinobi." Hanako explained, "But when I saw you two fall into the river, I couldn't ignore you."
"Why do you avoid other shinobi?" Hashirama asked.
"It's the way of my clan." Hanako replied, "To avoid conflict, we avoid getting involved with shinobi from other clans."
"So then why would you need to gather medicinal herbs so often?" Madara asked, noticing a hole in her logic.
"I'm an iryouninja." Hanako explained, "I make my living by treating ordinary citizens. Many of them get injured in the crossfire of shinobi conflicts, and that bothers me. I make enough treating illness and ordinary injuries that I can treat those who have the misfortune to get caught in those conflicts for free." She gazed thoughtfully into the fire that she and Madara had made. "I've heard some of the things that you guys talk about, you know. I can't help but feel as you do. This shinobi world we live in... there's just something wrong with it... Not only shinobi, but civilians as well, suffer from the constant fighting. People of all ages are killed... women are left widowed... children left orphaned. There's just something wrong with all of it."
"Do you... do you have siblings you lost like us?" Hashirama asked tentatively, but Hanako shook her head.
"No... but I lost my parents... when I was about seven-years-old. That was when I decided to become an iryouninja."
Neither boy knew what to say to that. Whatever family problems they might've had, they were still glad to have their fathers. To think of somebody who had no family at all...
"By the way..." Hashirama began nervously, attempting to change the subject, "What's up with that ridiculous strength?"
Hanako laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. I used chakra to enhance my strength in order to pull you up, but I guess I overestimated the amount needed to lift your combined weight."
誓い
Hashirama and Madara continued to meet up regularly and Hanako stopped hiding from them when she happened to be there as well, often joining in on their conversations or helping them to clean themselves up after they would spar. Sometimes, only Madara was at the river when Hanako came there. On those days, he would help Hanako to improve her taijutsu or marksmanship, for the sake of her own survival. Other days, it was only Hashirama, and on such days, Hanako naturally found herself speaking to the boy about the difficult world they both faced.
One day, she found that the two boys had scaled a large cliff in the area, and rather than bother to climb up and join them, she merely went about her business until they came down. When they did, she followed the two of them to the river. After Hashirama had crossed the river and exchanged skipping stones with Madara, Hanako revealed herself to crazy-haired kid.
"What were you and Hashirama talking about today, Madara-kun?" She asked.
"Oh. We were talking about building a village together someday, with a school where kids could train and grow strong, and a ranking system for missions to take individual ability into account." He told her.
"That sounds amazing..." Hanako said happily, clasping her hands together with a dreamy look. "Just imagine, if all the shinobi in the Land of Fire worked together to create such a village, then citizens would be protected by shinobi instead of fearing them, and even the orphaned children of shinobi would have somebody to look after them." Her gaze became soft as she said, "There wouldn't be so many meaningless deaths..."
"Yeah!" Madara agreed with a grin.
"Hey... Madara-kun... if such a village comes to be, and my clan becomes part of it... then... at that time... could you and I... could we...?" Hanako looked down with a blush and bit her lip, afraid to speak the dream she had recently come to hope for aloud. Madara understood what she was asking and smiled at her.
"Yeah. At that time, there won't be a need to worry about what clans we all come from." He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, causing her to look up at him in surprise, "Someday, Hanako, you and I will be able to decide our own futures." Hanako gasped and smiled happily at the ebony haired boy before she nodded.
"Yeah!"
The feelings I was hiding are now giving a clear voice to the certain vow that I'm holding in my hands...
Hanako smiled happily before looking back at the river, "Hey, did you know? In my clan, there are all sorts of stories about this region."
"Huh? Really?" Madara asked, wondering what had brought that up. Hanako nodded to him.
"They say that this river is a river of life, because it brought the mother of my clan together with her husband, and that's why it's called Nakano River: 'the Southern River of Joy'." She explained, "I've also heard that the building where my clan came into being exists somewhere near this river, and that it's called Nakano Shrine." At this, Madara looked taken aback, but Hanako didn't seem to notice as she continued, "They say that the mother of our clan was widowed shortly before giving birth... she was all alone, and the baby was breech, but she and her child were saved by the younger son of the Sage of Six Paths and his wife. However, not wanting to be caught in the conflict between the Sage's younger son and his elder son, she soon left with her child and forbade her descendants from becoming involved with other shinobi... unless there came a time when the Senju and Uchiha made peace with one another, and became allies instead of enemies."
"I see..." Madara said thoughtfully. He wondered if perhaps Hanako had realized the identities of both him and Hashirama, but had, for some reason, continued to interact with them in spite of her clan's laws.
"Hey, Madara-kun?"
"Yes?"
Hanako turned and looked at him again, "To be honest... I need to go to the Forest of Death to obtain some special herbs for a patient's illness... they can only be found in that place, but I... I can't make the journey alone... I hate to ask, but... could you and Hashirama accompany me there next time? We don't have to go very deep." She sighed in frustration, "Truthfully, asking this goes completely against the rules of my clan, but... the truth is that there's nobody in my clan strong enough to go with me. It's pretty sad, but... I'm actually the strongest one... If... If I don't get these herbs... my patient will..."
"I understand." Madara said with a nod, he knew how important it was to Hanako to be able to help people who were suffering, "We can get there by following the river, right? Then we'll go next time if Hashirama is up for it."
It was a promise that couldn't be kept.
So since it's stated in Origins that for every incarnation of Indra and Ashura, there is also an incarnation of Haruka, I decided to write a story about the incarnation that existed alongside Hashirama and Madara. It will probably be a fairly short story (the story of Madara and Hashirama is only three episodes long in the anime), but it mainly will serve as a slight exposition into Sakura's character as she is in the Uchiha Clan series.
Also, the theme for this story is my personal translation of Innocence by Eir Aoi