Summary: Sakura experiments with chakra control at the age of 6 and accidentally saves Shisui. Danzo puts a kill on sight order out for the girl. By the time they let her leave ANBU Headquarters she has a silver haired friend. Kakashi wonders how a pink haired girl can so heavily disrupt his life. KakaSaku

Deep within Fire Country's forest the largest ninja village of the Elemental Nations bustled in the sunshine. Her parents had brought Sakura to the market and for the first time she got a good look at the people moving about in between the buildings and trees. The market stalls and pavers sat around massive roots, leaving everything slightly crooked. It was a rain forest and inside the village both trees and wildlife sprung up as if the forest itself would take over. If only the buildings would let them.

Some of the trees were so old it was said the first village leader Senju Hashirama had tended to them, helping them grow even stronger and taller. Those trees were her favorite. Every time her family traded in a village without these huge plants she felt something was missing. The life in them felt physical. When she held her fingers over the bark she could feel they were alive. Her family traveled so often Sakura hadn't actually spent much time in Konohagakure no Sato. Yet now she was here and her eyes had started maturing she was able to see, truly see the things around her. It was breathtaking. That life she'd always been able to feel now had a visible representation.

Her world was full of colors. She saw them shift and flow. Sometimes the colors were faded and sluggish as they moved through plants. Other times they flickered in animals as they ran. Yet the times they were most intense was when she watched the warriors training or running. Ninja were the brightest of them all. They held so much color in them it swirled and stormed, barely contained by their bodies and they just wanted to be released.

The world around her was so full of color it hardly mattered that she'd been born with a congenital anomaly. An anomaly which left her hair perpetually pink and her eyes bright green. Bright green eyes which saw so much. People in this massive military village didn't have pink hair and green eyes. She was the only one. At least that's what the snooty boy who lived in the apartment over said, but what did he matter? There were other things to do with her life, things she'd only now begun to realize. Those colors she saw inside people could be fostered, she could make them grow. The ones inside herself were weak and flickering, but they didn't have to stay this way.

She saw academy students start out with only a flicker of the color, hardly anymore than what animals held inside them, only to work and work and build it up till they glowed. Sakura watched them and knew she'd never wanted anything more. She wanted to be so full of colors till they'd burst out of her with how strong they flowed, like those few people running around the village with vests and the marks of higher rank. Some of the ninja moved so fast she had to keep her eyes wide and focus really hard to see them. Those high ranked warriors shown the brightest.

When she sat up on her window she watched the people, plants, and animals with their flowing colors. Sakura loved how they moved around the apartment block. Their flickering dots, millions of them, shifting like pieces of sand in the desert her parents took her to each spring. They were so numerous and bright as they interacted under the sun.

Her first day in the academy the instructor with a thick scar across his nose, he said chakra was the power ninjas used which ran through all of them. It was the epiphany Sakura had been waiting for. She connected what he said with what she observed. Chakra made the colors. He said that if they worked really hard they'd be able to use and grow their chakra, to control it and even use it to affect things outside of themselves.

Sakura sat wide eyed, watching his chakra move as he demonstrated how to hold a leaf to his forehead and then how he shifted the chakra to move that leaf down his face and then down his arm. Later that same day when Iruka Sensei showed them taijutsu katas his chakra moved to mold and support his muscles. Sakura wanted that. When class that first day let out she ran, ran all the way home, then upon realizing her parents hadn't bought her the books on the book list, she turned around and ran all the way to the library tucked in next to the academy. She'd seen it a thousand times but no one had let her in. Yet she was a ninja in training now. No one was going to stop her. Her teeth flashed white in her flushed face as she presented her academy badge to the bored teenager manning the desk. He gave it one droopy look before waving her inside. The boy's hair tied up into a ponytail and made him look like a sleepy pineapple. She felt bad for him, having to sit at this desk all day, so she beamed at him extra bright in what she'd later realize was a low level genjutsu, an illusion of her chakra manifesting itself outside her body. The boy blinked, but the side of his mouth quirked up at her.

"What do you want to learn?"

"Chakra! The colors are so pretty."

His quirked smile tilted sharper, "Little sensor are you? Chakra control is in the genin section, but it's not guarded and so long as you don't try to move the books near this desk no ones going to bother to stop you reading them."

She looked at how sleepy he was and nodded, mimicking something she'd once heard the Jōnin Commander tell a blonde man outside the academy, "That'd be too troublesome."

"Haha you got that right."

She tilted her head. Now she thought about it his spike of pineapple hair did look familiar. He was probably from the same clan as the scar faced and serious Commander, this one was just a sleepier and younger relative. They also had a kid in her class. The bigger clans had a lot of members. The ninja clans seemed to do especially well. Maybe if she did well as a shinobi then her family could afford to get big too. Her otousan always wanted more kids, but had to work so much and travel so far to support them even with just the three people.

"Thanks Nara-san," She bowed to show her respect.

He waved her off and with a mumble put his head back on the desk as he'd been sleeping before she disturbed the peace. She looked around and after finding the only other people were occupied in the references for higher military ranks she discreetly moved to the genin section. Or what she thought was discreet. Her head of pink hair shone in the library's light. Her chakra fluctuated in excitement, in a way she'd later understand was apparent to every chūnin in the building.

She saw a man with a single eye and an orange book sticking out of his pocket. His single eye met hers just as she was about to enter the section for real ninjas. She froze with one foot behind the roped off area. Instead of interfering the one eyed man pulled out his book and went to grab his training partner, a man in an athletic suit talking louder and louder about youth. These two ninjas glowed so bright with chakra, she couldn't help but stop and watch it move through the single eye man's body. Then, suddenly and without explanation, his chakra dimmed as if it'd been snuffed out or hidden under a blanket. Sakura's eyes went wide. The colors could be hidden. Woah. She glanced up shyly to see the single eye observing her reaction. Sakura clasped her hands, wove her fingers together, and her chakra flared with an illusion of innocence. She wasn't sneaking into the real ninja books, definitely not. The man and his not at all quiet training partner moved along as if thoughts of the pink haired child were already forgotten. The moment they'd turned the corner she dove under the rope and between the stacks labelled "Genin."

The first three books she found on chakra control all mentioned tree climbing, listing exercises from trunk walking to branch jumping. Sakura's cheeks got big with her smile. There was a forest near their apartment building.

The man in front of him may as well be his great grandfather. An ojīsan, despite how he wore the leader's hat and ran the village from this central tower. Sarutobi Hiruzen embodied the will of fire, giving his entire life to the people of this village and the leaders of the future generations. He'd taught the Densetsu no Sannin, who'd taught Minato, who'd taught Kakashi. They weren't related by blood, but there wasn't a single person alive who he respected more. So when he kneeled in the man's office and the man made his plea, Kakashi was loathe to outright deny him.

"You want me to be Hokage."

"Yourself or Maito Gai if I cannot convince Tsunade. Even if I can convince her, you two as my most elite captains would qualify as her successors. Neither her or myself will live forever."

"If it is what you wish, I will do it."

The corner of the old man's mouth tilted. The smile sharp, amused, he knew exactly the sort of burden he was asking, but he was asking anyways. Kakashi truly didn't want it.

"Funny, that's exactly what Maito Taichou said."

"I'm assuming you have tasks for us." The two of them, Gai and himself, had been training together for years. The sort of training you didn't bring your team to as if involved beating the shit out of each other.

"Yes, you're both prominent and will have enough attention on you from the bingo books. But we can't make it too obvious who's in line. I'll need you to seem close to retirement. You will need to be less obviously significant. To appear like a lackadaisical jōnin who rarely takes missions."

When the ANBU Captain heard this he just stared at the man. Sarutobi puffed from his pipe and stared back.

When he failed to respond the old man assured, "Inu you're not being taken off the roster. Your current and old team Ro are still assigned to Uchiha surveillance. It's just your public appearance which needs to dip. Aim to be taken less seriously."

"Hokage-sama please explain what you expect. I'm not sure I understand."

"A low level genjutsu to appear slouched and less fit. Show up late to meetings. Maybe pick a book and get caught sleeping in public. That sort of thing. It'll be circulated you're thinking of retiring early, but your team Ro will be scheduled as always. Just tell them not to loosely spread it around. Inu and the Sharingan no Kakashi are still two separate people and I'd like to keep it that way."

So he needed an Obito appearance, well what Obito might have become if he'd lived past the age of 11. Instead the boy had given his life for Kakashi, the friend who'd never valued him enough in life. Obito the first friend Kakashi ever had, his friend he now spent every day speaking to at the memorial stone. It was easier to speak to Obito than to Rin. Rin, his best friend, Rin the one he'd killed. It was so much harder to talk to her at the memorial stone. Kakashi had kids he mentored, but he hadn't really had a friend since Obito and Rin died. Kakashi thought maybe he was just terrible at keeping friends, they all seemed to disappear around him. Those two friends remained the reason he worked so hard. Surely Obito wouldn't mind if he borrowed some of his tricks. The Hokage just wanted an elaborate illusion.

"Understood."

To top the ranks while seeming as carefree and disarming as possible. Leaving the office he'd picked up the first obnoxious book series he'd seen in the store and made a point to read it as he walked through the market. It was almost surprising how well this act worked, how quickly they forgot he looked like the White Fang reincarnated, how he'd been trained for ten years by the young blonde Hokage who'd been responsible for killing entire Iwa platoons by himself.

Maito Gai, fellow Elite ANBU captain, had taken a completely different approach. He'd started buying green workout suits and running around the village on his hands. In part because he could. It was a flex on all the other jōnin who didn't train as long, as hard, or as early as he and Kakashi did. Although Kakashi suspected the man truly enjoyed his creative workouts and the area genjutsus he created to back his more outrageous quotes on hard work. There was one to make his teeth shine bright and give him a bowl haircut. It was ghastly. When Kakashi told him so his training buddy challenged him to a spar to defend his honor.

It was one of the first days after Gai bought his jumpsuit, before he'd tailored his new persona, when Kakashi still felt it safe to drag his training partner into the library. That was the first time he'd seen the girl with pink hair. Her eyes as green as new spring leaves. A little sensor testing illusions of her own to connive her way past the desk chūnin and into the roped off books for ranked shinobi. He'd been so amused by her first genjutsu sloshing a feeling of happiness onto the desk chūnin, Kakashi then followed to watch what she'd do. Her reaction to his cloaking of chakra made him chuckle.

Messing with people was the cream of a ninja's life. They wore layers of deceit like armor. With them they protected and served the village's goals. Kakashi sometimes wondered if he and Gai were too good at it. However, it was times like this, when seeing something so innocent and pure as a kid sneaking into the genin section of the library, he remembered that was the sort of innocence they did this for. So they could grow up and never see a battlefield. So the pink haired girl wouldn't have to see blown up bodies by the age of six.

Kakashi couldn't remember what led to him seeing his first field of bodies, nor why a tiny genin had been left alone so close to enemy lines. It was the month before his sixth birthday. He'd used the tantō from his otousan's study. The one he'd been carrying around since the man used it to kill himself. By the time one of the older Leaf shinobi found Kakashi he had three squads of dead teenagers laying around him. They'd been genin and low chūnin. They hadn't a chance against the White Fang's son. He'd been born to kill people. Kakashi suspected he'd never been quite right after that. The same way Shisui, Itachi, and Genma would never be quite right. They'd given something so integral to themselves and they'd likely never get it back.

Weeks passed and she could now jump from branches stretching the distance between her apartment building and the Naka River. The Naka no Kawa was huge and raging during the rainy season. All the trees around it towered high, strong, and thick amidst the watery air. Their branches sturdy and solid as Sakura learned to jump through the river's mist, toes pushing herself from one branch and launching herself to the next. It was hard muscle building work. So hard she found herself eating twice as much as usual if she didn't want to tire out after only a few jumps. Traveling between trees was a whole new level of exercise her puny limbs had never dreamed of accomplishing, but when she followed the books' instructions the color surged through her and she felt alive.

Each session still left her out of breath and limbs shaking, but she'd realized the flickering chakra always present in her limbs, if she focused hard on the idea of grabbing and guiding it, then she could make it flow and help her muscles till they got stronger on their own. Even once she got scratched up with leaves and twigs the scratches went away faster if she concentrated chakra on the area. Sometimes, if she focused it on her hand and held it to a scratch it'd flicker green for the briefest moment. Those were the times the scratches went away quickest.

If only her classes were going so well, she'd have been happy.

A girl named Ami had gotten upset when Sakura beat everyone in the leaf exercise, getting even more indignant when their test scores posted Sakura's name at the top of the class list. Even the nice girl Ino had made a face at that. Under the pressure of their glares and after Ami and Fuki sneered out derogatory snippets about her looks, Sakura had hidden away in the trees during lunch. It was up there, hiding in her tree which she saw the lazy Nara and the nice Akimichi sitting below. Several times she thought of approaching them, but it was the lunch after their test scores had been released and Ino had stomped over complaining, "Big foreheads know everything don't they?"

Sakura sat in the leaves, hidden from view above their heads and her eyes got so watery and squished she couldn't see any colors. The wet coated her face and she had to use the long sleeves of the red dress her mom had sewn to stop it from dripping.

That afternoon she didn't move when the other kids went back inside. She sat on her tree branch and didn't want anyone to see her. Sakura thought of the peace near the Naka River and with a sputtering burst of chakra to her legs she jumped to the tree far across the academy yard. As she leapt from it she had color pooled in her fist and when she smacked the bark it exploded beneath her.

Sakura ran faster, jumped farther, till she felt she was just a streak of red dress and pink hair sparking between trees. It was easier now after weeks of practice. In her anger it was easier to make the chakra flow at a greater rate. She let it build, pooling down her arms till it fortified her wrists and fingers. If she didn't have such great control she wouldn't have been able to sense this or guide it, but she did and she could. It was empowering. She felt so strong and she wanted to hold onto that.

The colors swirled along her muscles and hardened along the knuckles of her hands. She didn't have a large chakra reserve, hardly more than the wildlife itself, but she was near perfect in controlling it. A moderate force shoved behind a tiny concentrated point, like the surface at the very tip of her knuckle, that was powerful enough to punch holes in trees.

Part of her thought she should contain herself. That she'd be better off pretending. To act like a proper little girl who'd wear her mother's hand made dresses and not get them dirty, but she was so hurt and angry she didn't want to do what the other girls in class did. Not when they got upset with her high scores. Not when they were so obsessed with looks and broody boys. Not when they cared more about flower arranging than the poisons a wise kunoichi could dose tea leaves with. She didn't want to do anything like them. If they kept making fun of her big head because she scored higher than them, well that was their problem.

Sakura smacked another tree. Her fist splintered bark and she had to close her eyes to avoid the flying debris. If only her forms were better she'd be able to land punches in class spars without hurting anyone. It's a trick she'd yet to figure out. Each time she punched an object it was too hard. She didn't dare punch a person like this.

Sakura came to a particularly large tree overlooking a canyon of reddish rock. It was a good view. The tears streaming down her face slowed and her hiccupping sobs quieted. Sakura didn't need friends, but she wanted them, she wanted them desperately. She'd been so focused on tuning the flow of colors within her, she hadn't realized by making herself stick out she was just putting a target on her back. The other kids didn't like it when someone stuck out, especially some nobody girl from a tiny civilian clan. The name Haruno didn't bring respect like the bigger clans, it was notable for how many trade routes they'd completed, but this was all they were known for. Her okaasan was the friendly woman selling cloth bundles at the market. Her otousan was often away buying and selling wares. Sakura's chakra dimmed with her emotions, calming down and slowing with her breath to a flicker. Right now she didn't feel bright, but hollow as if the colors were hidden away inside her like the crags of this red rock valley hid light.

Her academy student level chakra flickered till it looked no larger than the birds settling in the tree around her. Crows with their hooked black beaks. They didn't seem like normal crows either. They looked at her as if they were thinking heavily on something and when she moved none of them scared or scattered, they just sat there in the branches of her tree. She reached out a hand with some of the sunflower seeds she'd been eating at lunch. The bird closest cawed and ate from her hand. Two more flew down and shuffled their way in to eat, pushing their friend out of the way.

Sakura giggled, "That tickles."

The first crow hopped onto her shoulder and began preening her hair. Sakura giggled louder.

"You're nice. I like you."

The birds puffed up at her praise and Sakura sat there stroking them. She let the silence settle around her and her tears from earlier dried. Her new red dress had a few torn hems and some threads hanging loose. She'd have to ask her okaasan how to fix it.

She saw Uchiha Shisui walking below, stopping under the lowest perched bird, the largest crow in this murder. The teenager murmured something and the crow cawed back. Only it wasn't a crow's voice she heard, but the chakra illusion of the crow speaking their human language.

"We'll stay with you."

She only recognized him because the Uchiha in her class always spoke of his aniki and his cousin. Had been showing off pictures last week and while Uchiha Itachi had long sleek hair, Uchiha Shisui had hair which stuck up like ruffled feathers. Just like the teenager walking below her tree and talking to the crow. The book she'd read in the library noted the shunshin technique as something all leaf genin should learn. It was simple, but could save lives. It stated with this simple technique Shunshin no Shisui became perhaps the most famous Uchiha after Madara himself. A technique when paired with his "visual prowess" made him influential during the third war and in the rebuild after. The library book was vague on what that meant, but looking at him now she could see Shisui was perhaps 17 years old. He'd fought a war at her age. He was a hero.

When another man appeared below Sakura felt herself tense upon seeing him. For an old man he was huge. His broad shoulders and face half wrapped in bandages. The sight was foreboding. Instinctively, she pulled her colors deeper into herself as if it could hide her from view. She didn't want that man's attention on her. She didn't like how he looked at Shisui, how his colors changed with his focus and proximity to the Uchiha hero.

The man felt wrong. His colors were distorted around the bandages. As if the colors were in flux and fighting against themselves, as if some pieces were invading. Everything about his chakra was unsettling. Sakura stiffened the closer he got and the more he spoke. The way he looked at Shunshin no Shisui held malicious hunger.

When the man punched Shisui, she didn't even think, she let go of the tiniest flickering chakra holding her to her perch.

Tags: Badass Sakura, Sakura Saves Shisui On Accident, Kakashi Never Leaves ANBU, Kakashi/Sakura, Sakura is an Adult Before Attracting Kakashi's Romantic Interest, Shisui Sensei, Mental Health Awareness, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Protective Hatake Kakashi, BAMF Hatake Kakashi, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Shisui Lives, Uchiha Shisui Needs a Hug, Uchiha Itachi Being a Good Brother, Mother Hen Shiranui Genma, Haruno Sakura-centric, Strong Haruno Sakura, POV Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura is So Done, Enthusiastic Consent, Age of Consent, Adults Attract Romantic Interest