Note: Yo, thanks for sending in those guesses, it was interesting to see what y'all thought. Also this has a ridiculous amount of skips between scenes because I'm too lazy to fix plot holes right now.
"Bye, father. I'll be back tomorrow." She said, leaping from the window.
She didn't return. Instead, she stared at the window each time she passed, shaking her head before continuing onward towards the memorial stone.
He was there again, the man, though, at this point she'd be surprised if he wasn't. Without fail, every day at the same time; right as the shifts at the gate were changed, and the academy students were returning from their lunch breaks, he was there. Most times he left as soon as she stepped into the clearing, but sometimes, he waited in a tree until she was done with her prayers, then jumped down beside her to chat.
He was a mystery to her now, her only knowing him in the future, only knowing him after he had been shaped by hardships and drug back from the depths of hell by the people he knew. She knew she was probably just as much a puzzle to him, but he didn't pry.
"Ne, what do you know about Danzo?"
He fell out of the tree, reaching for his kunai pouch as he substituted himself with a nearby branch.
"He's been messing with things again. You can practically feel the strain in the village."
Genma gripped his senbon, aiming to paralyze, but not kill. They shot out towards her, almost invisible as they flew from the trees.
"Hey!" She cried, moving just enough to prevent anything major from being hit. "I'm trying to gain allies here."
Genma dropped down from the tree, landing beside her with a tanto raised at her neck.
"Allies?"
"You know, people who can help me against Danzo?"
"What do you even know about Danzo. You're like, 5."
"And?"
"So it's Danzo's fault then?"
"I mean, it makes sense. He does have a ridiculous amount of power over things he shouldn't."
Sakura placed down her notebook, sighing as she circled the last bubble again. She was surrounded by weeks of research. Papers about the routes most traveled by shinobi. About the damage that was done to her house and the cause. Even papers stolen from the desk of Fugaku Uchiha detailing the routes and business of the Police Corps.
She had a report from them about the fire. It was civilian negligence. A faulty wire sparked the curtains and it went ablaze from there. The Uchiha police force could do nothing against it, as it was already too late to save any of the remaining structure. They managed to get her parents out, and keep the flames from spreading, but that was it. They were bound by law, preventing them from using ninjutsu to assist the civilian population without being presented a mission through the Hokage.
Danzo had put that law into effect, along with the ones preventing the shinobi force from working in civilian districts, restricting the Uchiha from the normal force, and restricting their power to the civilian district. Shinobi had more important jobs, she thought, than to babysit civilians too weak to defend themselves.
Genma placed down a cup of tea beside her, then sat across from her on the floor. She had commandeered his living room for a place to do research, and he, though reluctant, made space for her.
"Hey. Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, are you absolutely positive?"
"Yes I'm sure, Shisui, it'll be fine." Sakura opened the door. "Besides, he's already invested too far to go back at this point anyways."
"And?"
"Just trust me." She walked through the open doorway, taking her shoes off and placing them to the side of the doorway. "Hey Genma, Shisui's here"
There was no answer. "Genma?" She called again, venturing further into the house. Shisui followed close behind her, eyeing the shadows carefully.
"Oh." She stopped, staring into the living room, where Genma was passed out on the couch surrounded by scrolls and files. "Well." She said, turning towards the kitchen, "I guess we'll have to wait then." And then, stopping to face Shisui, "Tea?"
He wanted to point out that she was quite small, and that letting her near the stove would be a horrible idea, ninja or not, but instead he watched as she sat on a chair and stared at him expectantly. "The tea is above the sink. I prefer mine with honey in the bottom. Thanks Shisui."
He stared at her in disbelief, glancing back at the sleeping form on the couch, and then made his way to the stove.
Genma was still asleep by the time they had finished the pot, talking back and forth about how she planned on telling Genma about the timefuck she had managed to step into. "See, I think it'll go okay because isn't the hiraishin like, time-space ninjutsu."
"Okay, yeah, but-" Genma groaned, cutting off their conversation.
"Genma?" Sakura called, getting a loud thud in response. She ran over to the couch, standing over Genma's crumpled form. He had fallen off the couch. She knelt toward him, staring at his paler than normal features and the sweat that was beginning to form on his face. "Shisui." She called, and together they lifted him back onto the couch. Sakura moved back and wiped his sweat from her arms, then, concentrating her chakra to her hands and shaping it to heal, she pushed it through his body, shivering as it brushed past a foreign body. A poison she had seen Ino use during the war.
It was an intense one, generally used on those who turned traitor, causing them immense pain until they blacked out. When they came too, and the pain was tenfold the original, but their body was numb to it, they increased the dosage, until the person forfeited the information they had, or that they had spilled, or until the torturer felt merciful and ended their life. Why in the world Genma had it in his system, she had no idea.
"Shisui, you're going to have to get me a couple of buckets of water." She rolled up her sleeves. "And some of his chakra replenishing tablets. This is going to be a longass process." He immediately left, turning towards the hall closet, returning with two cleaning buckets filled with water a minute later." She nodded her appreciation and pulled her short hair into a small ponytail on the top of her head.
Were the situation any different, Shisui would've laughed at himself for taking orders from someone younger than him, time traveler or not. But he was currently scrambling around the house for a very serious time traveler, who happened to be standing over someone she, by all means, should not know as well as she did. He pulled open drawers and cabinets, searching for Genma's chakra pills.
When he found the tray, with several dozen chakra pills lined up in it, he made his way back to the living room, where Sakura stood over Genma, pulling a mass of water through his skin and around his body. He stood and watched her, until she coughed and a bit of water fell from her control, and he ran towards her, and, at her request, gave her not one, but two chakra tablets. Her small body seemed to glow, and she moved back, pulling the darkened water back from Genma's body.
"That's most of it," she said, pointing to one of the buckets before pulling the water from the other with her chakra, "so now we're going to hope this is the last pass I need to get the rest of it." He didn't doubt it would be, considering how capable she obviously was at this method of poison removal, which he had never seen performed successfully before. Most medics could get a shinobi into a clear enough state to live. This was much less likely with the weaker and less durable civilians. Not that Shisui had anything against civilians, but they were easily breakable and much too trusting in comparison to a shinobi.
"Okay." Sakura sighed, letting the water splash back into the bucket. "Okay."
"Do you want to tell me why you had so much of that poison in your system?"
Genma blinked at Sakura, and the Uchiha behind her with confusion. "I- What?"
"The poison? The one I fished from your system for you?" Genma opened his mouth to argue. "The poison that would've been impossible for you to wait out so I had to get it out for you? How the hell did you even get it with that anyways?"
"I can't tell you." It was the truth. Any job he took for anbu was under strict tell-someone-you'll-die orders. S-rank secrets and jobs.
"Anbu then." She said, an edge to her tone. She cleared her throat, staring him down, the Uchiha backing to the kitchen, a crash sounding a moment later. Genma flinched, Sakura did not. She held her hands in an unfamiliar sign. "Shinobi. Report." She said, voice latching onto his very soul, compelling him to answer. "How were you poisoned." He stuttered for the first few words, but he stopped fighting the compulsion after a little while, letting the words flow off his tongue and into the air between them.
He didn't notice as the Uchiha came back, staring at Sakura with disbelief and mild shock, nor did he notice the tea in the Uchiha's hands as he continued to give out important and very much S-rank details about his mission. When he finished, she just released the hand seal and sat on the floor, leaning against the table.
"The only thing I don't quite get, is why you were on a team with him in the first place. For a patrol mission. He specializes in assassination." She turned to him. "So do you, come to think of it. Why send the top assassins in anbu on a patrol mission. Surely there were more important things to do. Unless…"
Genma stared at her in shock. "What do you mean, top assassins."
"You know, Kakashi and Genma, unstable but talented geniuses in their own rights, can and will bring a team back from a suicide mission?" He caught her eye. "Oh shit was I not supposed to say that?"
"Kid, you are so lucky I had to improve my security for you."
"You were lacking wards anyways. Now you're just up to date. Which, speaking of-"
She took a deep breath, meeting his eyes. "Genma, what do you know about time travel?"
Note: Aight y'all, I didn't update last week because I realized Kakashi's birthday was on a Sunday, when i typically publish, and I wanted to post it because Kakashi (lie, i forgot to write. This is a coincidence.) Congratulations to all y'all who managed to guess our mystery man. He actually wasn't supposed to be a part of the story back when I had the Idea, but my dumbass loves him so here he is I guess. Anyways, slowly but surely, Sakura gains unknown powers because this whole fic is an au and also I spoil characters but also try to destroy them as much as possible.