A/N: Naruto does not belong to me. This story is the product of having an over active imagination.
Coming out of the library, I squinted at the sudden brightness compared to the cool dark of the library. My feet were on autopilot as I made my way home, still in a daze after my encounter with Genma.
I still couldn't believe that he had decided to teach me fuuinjutsu. The whole exchange had left me very much on the back foot, and I cringed inside as I thought back to how confrontational I had been. It was a miracle he had not taken offense at my lack of respect.
Shiranui Genma was not someone I had a lot of information on. The manga I had read a lifetime ago was not very helpful in this situation, as it had glossed over many of the supporting characters. All I knew was that he had been a part of the Hokage Guard Platoon under the Yondaime.
My observations of his actual person had been more useful. I guessed he was, or had been a part of ANBU. Seeing how familiar he was with senbon led me to believe he was in assassination, perhaps specialized in poisons. Probably Capture and Interrogation, too, seeing as senbon were very useful to take down opponents non-lethally. Being competent in fuuinjutsu would have only helped him there.
I was just thankful his boredom had led him to offer me sealing lessons. It was rather serendipitous.
One curious thing had happened, though. When he had asked about a man in green spandex, a cascade of memories about Maito Gai had run through my mind. Of him helping my mom in my taijutsu training, of him running me to the ground, of him and his god-awful green spandex.
Apparently, I had not regained all of my memories. I could only hope that if such a thing happened again, I would be able to mask my reaction. A name or a reference worked as a trigger, I gathered. (Though I would not be surprised I had forcibly suppressed the memories of Gai, in sheer self-preservation.)
"Tadaima," I called out as I opened the door to my house.
"Okaeri, Sakura," my mother's voice called out.
I searched for her and found her going through invoices in her and dad's office. After her retirement, she had taken over the running of the businesses in Konoha, with my father handling the ones in the capital and the rest of Hi no Kuni.
I threw myself in the armchair across from her desk, sitting sideways with my back to an armrest, and my feet over the other.
We sat in silence as she finished going through the stack on her desk.
Setting the last one aside after going through it, Mom asked, "How was the library? Did you find anything to work on?"
I chewed on my lips, Genma's words on fuuinjutsu users going through my mind. I nodded, though, and answered, "Yes, I did. Fuuinjutsu."
My mother's eyes hardened.
"Do you realize how dangerous learning fuuinjutsu is? I do not want to bury my only child before she even reaches twenty!" She spat harshly.
I swallowed a lump in my throat, but doggedly replied, "I know, Kaa-san. Genma-san was very thorough in his warnings. But, mother, fuuinjutsu makes sense to me, in a way that nothing has before, not even taijutsu. Plus, this will give me an edge in the field, even if the only things I would be able to make are explosive seals." An edge against the S-ranked fucking monsters in Akatsuki.
Her face could have been carved from stone, but I could see the softening in her eyes.
"Besides," I continued, "Genma-san offered to teach me the basics for the rest of this week, so it's not as if I would be unsupervised."
Finally losing the tension in her body, she mused quietly, "Genma is Gai-kun's genin teammate, isn't he? He's a good kid, I suppose. You could do worse for a sensei."
"So, can I? Learn fuuinjutsu?" I asked warily.
She sighed, "Yes, you can. It's not as if you were not going to learn it covertly. At least this way, you will have someone looking after you."
"Thanks, Kaa-san!" I grinned sheepishly at her pointed look.
"I'll also ask my sensei if he can give any advice on learning sealing."
Now, I was curious. "Who was your sensei? You never talk about your team."
"I don't? I could have sworn you had met them."
I wracked my brain, but nothing came to mind. No new memories returned so I assumed I had no memories of meeting them. I shook my head.
"Right, you were only three when they met you. Both of them are very busy men, so I guess it's understandable that you haven't met them properly. I didn't realize I haven't talked about them with you."
"So, who were they?"
"My genin teammate was Hatake Sakumo, and our sensei was Uchiha Kagami. Our last teammate was Gai-kun's father, who died during the last war. His name was Maito Dai."
I stared at her, dumbfounded.
"What." I said, my voice flat.
I was completely blindsided. That's it. I'm done. So many shocks in one day cannot be good for my psyche.
Calm down.
Easy for you to say. I am the one who has to deal with all of this in just one day, I cried mentally, a hysterical edge to my thoughts.
Seriously, you need to calm down Sakura. Otherwise Mom is going to notice it.
Thankfully, Mom took my reaction at face value. Her mouth turned up into a smirk as she watched me struggle to digest the information.
"Tell you what, I'll invite them over for dinner one day. It's about time you met them."
I could only nod dumbly. I wondered if my mother had been on the same team in the original timeline. Or was the death of Shimura Danzou responsible for this?
The next day, during breakfast, my mom announced that she had booked an appointment at the hospital for me and my chakra problem and that we would be going after lunch.
"That way, we can get our training session over with by lunch," she said, the glint in her eye frightening me.
"Which reminds me, Sacchan, your footwork was a bit sloppy yesterday. We will be going over that in today's session," my father said, his eyes a bit admonishing.
"Hai, Tou-san," I replied, grimacing inwardly as I remembered the kenjutsu training the day before. I had been a little preoccupied, given the promise of fuuinjutsu lessons, and the revelation of Mom's team. This had reflected in my katas and spar, leading to the chastisement now.
"Now, go get ready for training. We will be simply sparring, as I do not want to introduce anything new until the doctors have okayed chakra usage," my mom said, getting up from the table.
After we arrived at the training grounds, we stretched and I ran my usual laps. We then sparred for three hours, my mom beating me into the ground every time. Though I was proud of myself when I noticed me keeping up with her, even though I didn't win. If nothing else, my stamina was off the charts. A product of Maito Gai's tutelage, no doubt. I surmised that my taijutsu was at a high genin level, stamina and agility at low chuunin. Now, if only I could start chakra training. I would be golden.
We wrapped up out training session in time for lunch, which were bentos my Mom had packed. I started eating mine, pleasantly surprised at the presence of onigiri with salmon, one of my favorites. As I chewed on an onigiri, my mind wandered to fuuinjutsu. I had taken the fuuinjutsu book home, and had read it more thoroughly. The first step was working on calligraphy in order to steady your hand. As child-me had been determined to be top of my classes, my calligraphy was almost perfect, the only thing hampering me was the size of my hands.
The second step to starting fuuinjutsu was memorization of the different level one seals, most of which were standard. Most of level one seals were those which required no additional skills, just memorization and a steady hand.
Crafting a seal, however, was a whole other ballgame. Half of inventing a seal was completely intuitive, with the other half requiring the ability to do multiple scientific calculations and logical reasoning. This dichotomy is what prevented many from advancing to level three or above. I guess I needed to listen to my intuition more often, as it seemed to be directed by chakra, somewhat, in this world.
After we finished our lunch, Mom led me to the hospital, which I was seeing for the first time as far as I could remember, as I did not have eidetic memory and had proved that my memories of my toddlerhood were non-existent.
She went to the reception desk, and asked, "Hello, we have an appointment with Yoshimura-sensei. Is she in?"
"Name?" the bored looking chuunin at the desk asked.
"Haruno Mebuki and Haruno Sakura."
She flipped through a book, and said, "Ah, yes. Yoshimura-sensei is expecting you. Room 302, please."
Thanking her, my mom and I made our way to the third floor. Room 302 was a generic hospital room. A figure turned toward us as we entered, and a smile broke out on the weathered face.
"Ah, you must be young Sakura. And Mebuki-san, it's nice to meet you again. It's been a while."
"Good afternoon, Yoshimura-sensei," my mother greeted. I bowed and said my own greetings.
"Now let's get right on to the problem," Yoshimura-sensei said, flipping through a file in her hands, which I guessed was mine. "Hmm, you were born with a skewed Yin to Yang ratio, right? Well, hop on to the bed. Let's see if it has improved, as your mother has informed me of physical training. It should have stabilized by now, barring any extenuating circumstances."
I did as she asked, watching curiously as she brought a green-glowing hand to my sternum. After a few moments, she frowned. Making a few hand signs, she brought both hands up, one to my forehead, and the other under my collarbones.
"Is anything wrong, sensei?" my mom asked.
A bolt of horror shot through me. What if I had broken something irreparably by being awake earlier?
The Iryo-nin visibly thought for a minute, but replied, "Nothing wrong. Just a bit unusual. I'd like a Hyuuga to take a look, however, just to be safe."
My mom nodded, the slight frown on her face the only indication that she was worried.
I chewed on my lips nervously as Yoshimura-sensei went to the door. She called a nurse and asked her, "Could you fetch Hoshiko-sensei for me please? Tell her that I require her for a chakra consultation in room 302."
The nurse nodded and left. The iryo-nin came back to us, and on seeing my nervous expression, soothed me, "Don't worry, Sakura-chan. Your chakra is fine, much more stabilized than before. It's just that your chakra and your coils seem a bit disconnected from your CNS. Hyuuga-sensei would be able to fix that in a jiffy, though, so sit tight, okay?" she smiled kindly.
We waited in silence after that, my worries lessened somewhat.
A pale-eyed brunette, main branch Hyuuga going by her bare forehead, entered briskly. She came over to where we were, and went through the file Yoshimura-sensei handed to her.
She looked at me, then Yoshimura-sensei, and asked, "What seems to be the problem? I assume you checked her Yin-Yang ratio. It should be balanced by now. Why did you call me?"
"Take a look at her coils. They feel disconnected to me. You are more experienced than me when it comes to chakra irregularities."
The veins around Hyuuga-sensei's eyes bulged as she activated her Byakugan. She gazed intensely at me, or rather, my chakra system.
"Hmm," she said, thoughtfully, "I see what you mean. It seems as if they are being blocked by a thin film at her Gates. I've seen this happen sometimes. This will not take more than a minute to fix."
Hyuuga-sensei then placed two fingers on my forehead, and brought up the other hand, palm flat. Her hand lit up with visible chakra, and once, twice, thrice, she struck me at the base of my throat, my sternum, and my stomach, respectively.
Something burst inside of me.
And I screamed.
A/N: Please Review!