Sakura swallowed audibly, ignoring the glance it earnt her from the chunin next to her as she stared at the door to the office. It was a plain door – professional, and the large silver plaque across it proclaimed 'Senju Tobirama'. His office. The same one she'd been called up to all of a sudden. She lifted her hand, knocking loudly, the set of three knocks seeming to echo in the silence that fell for a few moments.
"You can come in, Sakura-chan," Tobirama called, and the chunin at her side vanished back to wherever they were supposed to be.
Dimly she wondered how Tobirama had known it was her, but then her brain decided to start working again. Sensor, duh. She wet her lips, praying none of her secrets had been unearthed as she opened the door, the handle awfully high up for her short five-year-old self. The damned chunin hadn't even bothered to help before buggering off, and Tobirama was no doubt sitting on his comfy office chair. Scowling, she wrenched the door open, pulling it to when she entered. His office was surprisingly neat, considering how much of everything there was. Scrolls full of jutsu – blank scrolls for more jutsu notes, all lining up a bookshelf spanning one side of the long office. It was more a rectangular shape than anything else, the paint alternating on each wall between a clinical white and a deep dark blue. Like the depths of the ocean, or maybe a slightly bluer midnight sky.
"Take a seat," Tobirama ordered, tapping on the—Sakura blinked. He had a hospital bed and a miniature medical station set up in the corner of his office. Blindly, she stumbled forwards, taking a seat where he'd indicated. Her glare was firm and fixed, her frown only growing when she realised exactly what was going on as he held up a pair of medical scissors. Her stitches were coming out. "This won't take long."
Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course it wouldn't. She'd done the same procedure many a times. Sighing, she pulled off her hoodie and shirt, revealing the bandages underneath, uncaring as the Senju unwrapped them. He was a medic, as was she, so nudity didn't faze either of them. Plus she was tiny, and there wasn't anything she needed to hide, unfortunately. She pouted, staring at the wall as she felt the gentle tugging sensation in her shoulder.
"I'm glad to see you've been following orders," he said, seated behind her as he worked. "Even if you have been exercising at home a little more than you should."
Her eye twitched. "Stalker," she grumbled.
"Hardly," he muttered. "I'm just making sure idiotic little brats don't go making their injuries worse. Izuna's been helping too, the idiot."
"Goodie?"
"You should be fine to head back to those morning exercises you do, but please ensure you're getting enough sleep." He peered at her, and Sakura finally blinked in surprise. He wore reading glasses? "You look pale enough as it is… though you should be having your physical soon and that will tell us if there's anything wrong."
Sakura blanched. Since when were physicals a thing? She'd only had one or two in her later years, and more often than not they'd been optional. She blinked, staring at the white-haired Senju. Surely any signs of her cough wouldn't be too noticeable, right?
"Physicals aren't anything to be scared of," Tobirama said, staring levelly at her, hands radiating medical chakra as the last of her stitches was removed.
She glared at him mulishly. "I'm not scared. Hn." She looked away from him, staring at his ridiculously large bookshelf. There probably wasn't a single book he didn't own on jutsu theory. In fact, Sakura was fairly certain he'd written most of them. She'd read plenty of his works in her last life, and they'd been great. Super informative. As if he was teaching it to her in person. Never would she have thought there might be an opportunity for him to teach her in person. He was in charge of the academy. She only prayed he wouldn't be doing any physicals himself. Knowing him, he'd be horribly thorough, and Sakura had secrets that he had no place to be uncovering so soon.
"Of course not, brat," he muttered, rolling his eyes in a way which made her bristle. "Now, put your shirt back on and head into the room to the right of this as you come out. Your test is in there."
"OK," she grumbled, glaring at him out of the corner of her eyes as she pulled her shirt back on and trudged out of the room. "See you around, I suppose, old man!"
"Brat."
Sakura closed the door behind her, humming under her breath as she crept into the next room along, blinking as she found a very young, very familiar chunin standing in front of the sole desk in the room.
"Are you Sakura-chan?" Iruka asked, looking down at her with wide brown eyes. He looked young – barely sixteen – which was odd, considering she was so used to him being a fully grown adult. She'd never met him properly when he was younger, though it seemed he'd decided to become an academy instructor that much earlier in her new world. Either that or they had extra chunin helping out with the admissions process.
"That's me," she said, staring up at him blankly.
"Well, this is your test, and you have two hours in which to complete it," Iruka said, setting the thick paper down on the desk. "All equipment you should need is on the desk."
Sakura blinked, eyeing up the stationary and the exorbitantly thick test paper. She didn't remember it being that large in her last life… but Tobirama was in charge of the academy this time around, so obviously there were some changes. Danzo and Hiruzen hadn't had the chance to cut down on curriculum or try and enforce early graduation.
"When do I start?"
"Well, the time is ten o'clock on the dot, so you have until twelve o'clock in which to complete the paper. Good luck, and you may begin now."
She flicked open the test paper without a second thought, blinking at how easy the questions were. It was definitely the correct test paper for someone of her level… well, what should've been her level, anyway. Without further ado she began, her pen scratching at the desk as she wrote her answers out. Early graduation wasn't allowed… so even if she aced all the harder questions nobody would be able to do anything. Besides, it was obvious Tobirama was expecting her to ace the test. Not doing so would only make him more suspicious… make him think she had something to hide. Subtility at this point, was well and truly moot. Well, about everything aside from the sharingan. Tobirama knew her well enough, as did Izuna. Neither she nor her sisters would be able to simply vanish without a decent investigation arising. Besides, she was fairly sure Danzo wouldn't try anything stupid with his sensei alive and well, if he'd even taken steps down that dark path he had in her old timeline.
Yawning, she answered question after question, the only ones making her pause being the history ones. She'd had to look through the library a lot, since though maths and basic language were still the same old stuff, the history of her new dimension was another ballgame entirely. There were elements that remained the same, like Uzushio being wiped out, and the yellow flash massacring Iwa nin, etc, but large parts of it were entirely different. The biggest being that Madara didn't go batshit crazy in pursuit of so-called peace. Her lip curled at the thought. She loathed him. Loathed that face. Loathed the Uchiha black eyes that reminded her of those ones that brought the alliance to their knees.
A smile curled at her lips, eyeing the unfamiliar fuinjutsu test section. Of course with Tobirama in charge, sealing would be covered more in depth than 'here's a storage scroll, now use it'. Maybe her academy days wouldn't be as boring as she thought they'd be. Plus, with her answering all those questions, maybe she might get shoved into that 'advanced' class Itachi, Sasuke, and Shisui kept going on about.
Humming quietly as she scrawled answer after answer, she allowed her thoughts to turn to other matters. Like her 'eternal rival' and Itachi and Shisui… A smile curved at her lips. Perhaps she might see them later, after all the tests were over. They were a good distraction, and they were tolerable, Renka less so, but that wouldn't deter her.
She really was getting comfortable with her life there… A frown marred her face as she closed the test paper, eyeing the time. She'd finished with twenty minutes to spare. And it begged the question of when everything would crumble down around her.
It had happened far too often for her to think about any other outcome.
"Finished?" Iruka smiled down at her. "You've got twenty minutes still to check all your answers."
Sakura sighed, pressing her test paper into his hands that much more forcefully. "I'm done," she murmured, hurrying out of the room, silently wondering about all her sisters. The ones at home should've been fine, especially with her earth clone there as backup, and Akira and Mio were there in the academy. Everything should've been well.
Her shoulders slumped in relief.
"ETERNAL RIVAL!"
She jumped to the side, head snapping around just as Renka dived at the spot she'd just been standing in. "Oh…" Sakura said, staring at her wonderful friend, staying still just long enough for those arms to catch her in a vicelike hug. "Ugh." Her back slammed into the ground with a loud thump, a groan escaping her as Renka practically sat on top of her with that beaming grin in place.
"You're here! How was the test? You did awesomely, didn't you? Have you done the practical part? I bet you kicked everybody's backsides!" Words streamed from her mouth like water from a fountain, and Sakura felt her head beginning to spin. "As expected of my rival! You're the best, Sakura!"
Her traitorous cheeks pinkened. "Get off me, you blithering idiot!"
"Get off her, Renka-chan," Tobirama's voice made Sakura nearly jump in surprise as he stood in the corridor watching the pair of them. "You aren't even supposed to be here."
"But Tobi-oji, she's my rival! Of course I have to come and see her. Regular meetups are essential for a good eternal rivalry according to Gai-sensei," Renka said. "'Sides, it's not like I'm the only one who came. I dragged that black-haired guy along. The one that's BFFs with my eternal rival!"
Itachi poked his head through the open window from where he was standing on the sill outside. "Renka-chan was very insistent about coming and seeing her eternal rival—" his lips twitched almost imperceptibly "—and there were no duties I had to attend to."
"Get in," Tobirama ordered, glaring at him. "I don't need any accidents involving windows."
"It's not like he'll fall out the window or anything," Sakura muttered. "He's not stupid."
Tobirama rolled his eyes. "I take it you're finished with your written test."
One pink eyebrow rose.
"Don't give me that look," he said, turning swiftly on his heel. "You have an hour and a half break for lunch, and then you'll be doing your physical and fitness tests, so don't eat too much of that gigantic bento you brought."
"It's for me and my sisters to share," Sakura grumbled.
"They'll be out in…" Tobirama glanced at the clock on the wall above the doorway to his office. "Fifteen minutes. Try not to burn down the school before then."
Renka grinned toothily. "So after is OK?"
"Don't get smart with me, brat," he muttered, vanishing back inside his office, and left to their own devices, Sakura decided to make her way to the playground. Though it was better to call it a training ground. They weren't civilians.
The pair of them followed her like silent shadows, dogging her footsteps as she found a nice spot underneath the large leafy tree littered with scratch marks higher up from where kunai or shuriken had been thrown. What for, Sakura didn't know. There were perfectly good target posts a matter of feet away. Stretching her arms above her head, she pulled the large bento out of her bag, setting it down in front of her as she waited for her sisters to finish their own tests. They should've done fairly decently. She'd drilled enough information into their brains. Grimacing at the memory of trying to teach Akira, she silently pitied her future sensei. Good luck to them, they'd need it.
"Oh, so you haven't got to fight anyone just yet then?" Renka tilted her head, sinking back against -the rough bark of the tree on her left, as Itachi sat quietly to her right. "I thought they'd have already done the practical stuff, but I guess they space stuff out a whole lot more now. But don't worry. You're my rival, so there's no doubt you'll beat everyone else into the dirt. I certainly did!"
Sakura swallowed along with Itachi. Renka had quite the blasé personality when it came to violence, as well as being loud and proud, and she was still getting used to the older girl.
"You'll do fine," Itachi said, his voice a quiet murmur. "Though I doubt you're worried about these tests too much. I suspect there are other things occupying that mind of yours."
Sakura stiffened. "Yeah, I suppose," she said, blinking as she remembered she was sitting next to a future S-Rank shinobi in the making. She had plenty to worry about, and none of that included academy work. Her poor brain was practically overloaded, what with her situation and her declining health. The lack of sleep probably wasn't helping matters, but what could she do? She needed to train. Needed to look after her sisters, especially with their aunt working as hard as she was. She had to keep them all safe. Keep all of them from utilising their sharingan – not that there was much danger of that anytime soon. It would only activate as a last resort since their bodies knew better than to use too much chakra… and it wasn't like they knew how to push chakra into their eyes anyhow. Her shoulders drooped. Yep, that was a lot to think about.
"SAKU-NEE!"
She groaned, feeling herself being sat on again for the second time that day. "What's up, Aki-chan?" she questioned, staring up at the upset expression on her face.
"That test was super hard." Her lower lip wobbled dangerously. "Really really hard…"
Sakura sighed, prodding her sister's forehead even as she was squished beneath her weight. "I'm sure you've done fine. I spent enough time hammering everything into that puny brain of yours." Itachi's gaze bore into her, and she was acutely reminded that was the first time he'd witnessed her own forehead prodding technique. Dimly she wondered how his own compared to hers.
Probably vastly superior, but Sakura didn't particularly care.
"Nee-chan?" Mio stood in front of her, smiling hesitantly. "Are we gonna eat anytime soon?" she asked. "I'm starving."
Her lips twitched into a grin. "Well, no point in waiting around, I guess." She nudged her sister off her lap, cracking open the lunch she'd made. "Dig in."
She'd worry about what was in store for her next after she'd eaten.
