"Nee-chan…" Black eyes stared at her imploringly from underneath the numerous sheets of paper she'd acquired through various sources. Questions after questions had been answered by her two sisters. Mio had diligently sat through it, like the darling sibling she was, but Akira, as Sakura was discovering, was alarmingly more like Naruto than she'd first thought. She couldn't sit still for one, and she struggled with the theoretical side of things. Mio was similar to her previous self, so teaching her had been easy. Akira was far more troubling. She also demanded far too many breaks. "Can we go to the park?" she asked, fluttering her eyes determinedly, holding up her answer sheet. "Pretty please! Lookie lookie… I got the last two questions all right."

Sakura sighed. She supposed that was worth a reward or two, if only to keep Akira interested in her studies. "Fine," she grumbled. "But when we get back, you'll be doing another hour of study. The exams are only two days away and I won't have you failing on me."

"Sure, sure, now let's go!" Akira was out of her seat in seconds.

She sighed again, hand half outstretched as she stared at the space her wonderful triplet had just occupied. "Right." Her hands went to her hips when she turned to the rest of her siblings. "We're going to lay some ground rules right here and now, OK?"

Mio nodded.

"Hai, nee-chan!" Yuki bounced to her feet, staring at her intently.

Ran nodded quietly next to her, tugging on her triplet's sleeve to hold her in place. The youngest pair of twins copied the others, the tiny heads nodding up and down placidly making Sakura silently worry. They didn't have any adults to go with them. Tomoe had been back as often as she could, but work was work. She needed to earn money, especially with all of them now depending on her, plus she needed her sleep. Though Sakura was fairly sure they'd now been registered with the civilian sector, and along with that came a stipend – one Tomoe always tucked into the safe containing all their money. There was no point in keeping them unregistered. A fair few of the bigshots in the village were already aware of her own existence, and three of them were due to join the academy in a matter of days… providing none of them failed the test. They weren't going to be nameless akasen brats anymore.

Her gaze darted back over to Akira, watching silently as her fellow five-year-old pulled on her coat, and yanked her boots onto—

"Akira, you're boots are on the wrong feet," she grumbled, hurrying over to help her fix her clothing. "Idiot."

Akira chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. "Sorry, nee-chan."

"Now." Sakura folded her arms, turning back to face the rest of her siblings, face red from the exertion. "You're all going to be staying in the same place, which means no wandering off when my back is turned. Understood?" Her eyes narrowed. "Otherwise I won't take you all out again, and we'll have to wait until Tomoe-oba comes around again, and you know how often she appears."

"Not very," Sora muttered, folding her arms with a pout.

"But we have Saku-nee!" Seiren said, and Sakura could almost envision sparkles in her eyes as she spoke. "I love Saku-nee the most."

"Nu uh." Sora scowled. "I love Sakura-nee more!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

Sakura sighed, a fond smile pulling at her lips before she went and pulled them apart by the ear. "You're to be on your best behaviour when we're out." She twisted their ears even more. "So—"

"Nee-chan, it hurts!" Sora sniffled.

"We'll be good, Sakura-nee! Promise."

"Hn." She let them go, smirking as they rubbed at their sore ears. "You'd better. Now, get over here," she ordered, turning around to the coat rack. "We're getting dressed to go out. It's rained recently, so don't forget your hats and gloves." Sakura turned, pulling her own coat and shoes free from the rack, ensuring her own clothes were properly wrapped around herself before she went over to help her siblings. "Mio." She turned to the door where her slightly spiky-haired sibling waited – the only one she could entrust with the task. "You're in charge of keeping an eye of Akane and Nozomi, m'kay?"

Mio nodded fiercely. "I'll do my best nee-chan."

Sakura blinked. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

Mio stared at her intently, hands bunched into fists. "I wanna be a good shinobi, so this is like my first misshion, right?" she asked, practically oozing determination.

She nodded. "Sure… you can treat it like that if you want…" she mumbled, helping Akane button up her thin jacket, wrapping her up in a scarf, before leading both her and her twin over to Mio. "Be good for Mio, OK?" she asked, tilting her head, smiling warmly as they nodded in unison. Adorableness at its finest.

"Come on, Saku-nee." Akira bounced back and forth impatiently. "We need to go. Maybe Naru and Sasuke will be there too…"

"They're probably studying for the test that's coming up – like you should be doing," Sakura muttered, fishing the front door key out of the box. "But the sooner we get going, I suppose, the sooner we get back for more studying."

"Ugh, nee-chan, don't remind me!" Akira pouted dangerously, lower lip wobbling, and Sakura all but shoved her out the door. She refused to fall prey to pouts and puppy dog eyes.

"Come on then," she said, herding the rest of their siblings through the door, hovering about them like the fretting mother hen she was, not that she'd even admit that fact. "I can quiz you on the way there and back so I know what to cover for our next study session."

"But nee-chan…"

"Hush and answer these questions," she ordered, taking Tora and Yumi's hands in her own, blinking as she felt Ran's hand bunch up in her coat. Mio had the youngest twins safely in hand, Sora and Seiren tottering along in front of her as they walked down the street and into the park. Akira grumbled the entire way, sullenly answering the questions Sakura threw her way as best she could until they reached the expanse of green grass.

It was a quiet day, all the clan children conspicuously absent. There were no doubts they were all preparing for the academy admissions tests. They needed to score well enough to get into the main class marked by the letter A. It was the only way to ensure they were still there at graduation, and that they got the best education possible. Sakura had been lucky to make it into that class the last time around. Some other civilians she'd known in passing had been put in classes B through to D, and they hadn't made it to graduation – either dropping out voluntarily or being forced to. Plus even if they'd graduated they wouldn't have been on the Jonin Track. They'd have been in the Genin Reserves, without proper tutor or sensei lest they find one themselves.

She'd be in the main class, definitely. Either that or the class Itachi and Shisui talked about a lot. The one filled with geniuses who needed something to keep them occupied. Early graduation this time around, was apparently not allowed thanks to the founders. Sakura supposed it made sense. They'd built Konoha so child soldiers didn't have to be sent out to the frontlines of some battle, so any shinobi under the age of twelve was apparently blasphemy. Not that Sakura minded too much, aside from the whole financial side of things. She'd get to stay with her sisters, and loathe she admit it, hang out with Renka. Possibly Itachi too, since he was still stuck in the academy.

But speaking of the academy… there was something she needed to do – a certain jutsu she'd been practicing for weeks to try and nail down. She plucked a leaf off the ground, sitting on the bench, ignoring the sounds of her siblings in front of her and the girls behind her as she focused her chakra. Elemental transformations weren't easy. Especially since her own had most definitely changed from the earth-water nature she'd had before. Sure, it helped that she'd done earth transformation jutsu before, but it didn't mean it hadn't been an uphill battle trying to get her new chakra to conform to that.

She'd managed it, as was proven by the leaf crumbling into dirt, but it took far more chakra than what she was comfortable with. If she'd have tried it back when she was five in her last life she'd have passed out on the spot. Fortunately for her, her chakra reserves were deeper, so making an earth clone in private was just about doable, but it took her a good few hours to recover all the chakra she used. It was necessary though. She wasn't about to leave her siblings alone and unguarded when she went to the academy and Tomoe-oba went to work – as she was forced to in order to get the money to provide for them.

Her heart clenched at the thought of their self appointed aunt. She tried, she really did, but because of that they rarely saw her. Well, while she was awake. They'd peeked into her room occasionally to find her asleep, flat out snoring on her small bed. Money from the nights, and the other part time job she'd picked up stowed away in the safe. Sakura already had the combination to that memorised while the rest of her siblings were moping about the lack of their aunt. But it was OK, they had Sakura… and she was the one who took them out to the park and trained them.

Sighing quietly, she slumped back against the bench, exhaustion creeping through her limbs. She was working just as hard as Tomoe – making their meals, setting aside a portion for the older woman when she got the chance – but it wasn't enough. She doubted it would ever be. The thought made her body shudder, lungs itching yet again as she sat there. She coughed into her elbow, taking a sip of the drink she'd brought along for that exact purpose. It always helped to calm her throat whenever it felt a bit dry.

"—ugly!"

"Forehead is—"

"Cry baby!"

"Ino-pig isn't here to save you today!" The taunts rang in her ears, and Sakura stiffened, turning around slowly at the voices she could hear behind her. They danced at the back of her brain, pulling back memories. Old memories. The ones where she'd been five years old, both in body and mind. Those voices belonged to Ami, Kasumi, and their groupies. She could remember those sounds, even if she hadn't heard them in years. The scars they'd left on her confidence and self esteem were still there. They were what had given rise to Inner Sakura – not that she existed anymore. Yet another thing she'd lost.

Her head snapped back around, having seen the red ribbon dangling from Ami's hand, her heart clenching painfully at the thought of the one Ino had given her all those years ago. It was gone by now. Ruined. That Haruno Sakura sitting back there didn't have a thing to do with her. She was this world's Yamanaka Ino's business. She didn't need to get involved with the girl wearing her old face. She didn't need to see the cowering figure behind those slightly older girls who thought they meant business – who thought they'd become awesome kunoichi without scars or scratches.

Pathetic. The lot of them… especially her old self. Her hands curled into fists. Why couldn't she just get up and punch them? Why was she just sitting there and taking it? Her lip curled, and she strode towards her siblings, ignoring the drama unfolding behind her. She hated her past self. Seeing it would be no good.

She didn't need to be reminded of slightly too large foreheads, and big green eyes. She had thinner black ones, and a scary face to go with it. The past was the past, and she wasn't going to be the one to dredge up all those memories. She couldn't get close to Ino again – she wasn't her Ino and never would be, because she wasn't Haruno Sakura anymore – and if she went near this world's Haruno Sakura it would basically be the same thing. So she walked away, ignoring the small voice in the back of her head that reminded her of Naruto.

She had her own siblings to look after. And Haruno Sakura wasn't one of them.