...Sakura picked up her new books that had been handed out to them and made her way slowly to the door of the classroom. She waited and let the other kids out before her so she wouldn't get poked and prodded out the door. Sasuke was still there to her surprise. He seemed to be taking a long time writing his name on the cover of his books and she wondered what the hell he was doing but he also seemed to be trying hard to ignore her. She didn't care, she needed to drop these books off at home and start her recon of the Uchiha district compound. Wait maybe Sasuke could help her with that.

Ino came bounding up the stairs at her smiling the whole way.

"Come on Forehead let's go get some Dango to celebrate our first day." Ino was eyeing Sasuke who was still there for some reason. "Want to come Sasuke?"

"Ok," Sasuke said to both of their surprises.

"You want to come to get Dango with us?" Sakura asked clearly surprised.

"You don't want me to?" Sasuke asked her.

"No, you can I was just surprised is all." She said.

"Well come on let's go!" Ino was dragging Sasuke out the door by the arm as he looked back at Sakura.

"Sakura, may I speak with you for a moment?" Iruka was standing at his desk in the front of the room.

"Yes, Sensei." Sakura turned to Ino and Sasuke, "You two go, I'll meet up with you later." and she walked to the front of the class. Ino dragged Sasuke out of the room with a mad grin on her face.

"Sakura, I wanted to talk to you about the written part of your test. You went into great detail about Jutsu and I wondered where your knowledge came from. Your parents are civilians I know and I found it rather odd you would know so much about the Shinobi world at such a young age and just entering the academy." Iruka looked at her expectantly.

"I never would have pegged you to be biased Sensei," Sakura said without thinking.

-You just met him, idiot, remember?-

"Uh, I'm not, it just struck me as odd." He said a little offended. "Where did your in-depth knowledge come from Sakura?"

"I read a lot." She shrugged.

"Well, I was really impressed. I look forward to having you in my class Sakura, thanks for staying, see you tomorrow." He waved her out the door.

-You need to be more careful for this to work, you can't be found out. It will cause us too many problems and might even get us in trouble, this is a new beginning for a lot of us, you can make changes that will benefit everyone, don't screw it up because you don't think before you talk!-

Inner was right Sakura thought as she pushed the outer door to the academy open. She needed to start thinking before she spoke. She needed to figure out the date of the massacre, damn why was she so stupid and oblivious when she was a kid.

Sakura was still trying to figure out the date when she walked through the academy door and out into the courtyard only to run into Sasuke Uchiha.

"You need to stop getting lost in your head Sakura." He smiled at her.

"Where is Ino? I thought you went to go get Dango with her?" Sakura looked around but didn't see Ino anywhere.

"I told her I didn't want to go without you, I came back here to wait for you." He told her.

Wow, again, this Sasuke was so different than the one she knew, it was almost scary.

"I bet she loved that." Sakura laughed and he smiled at her again.

"No, she didn't but um my mom makes really good Dango and she probably made some for my first day at the academy. I don't really like it that much, but do you want to come back home with me to have some?' He said in a rush to her blushing.

Sakura needed information on the Uchiha, there was no better way than to do it by going to the Uchiha compound with an Uchiha right?

"I would like that Sasuke, thank you." She smiled at him and flattened the bangs over her eyes making sure her seal on her forehead was hidden.

"I can carry your books for you, um, if you want?" Sasuke took her books out of her arms and she let him.

"Thank you, Sasuke." She smiled and they set off together for the Uchiha compound.

"Hey Sasuke, got yourself a little girlfriend on the first day at the academy, huh?" 16-year-old Shisui Uchiha dropped out of a tree in front of them as they neared the Uchiha compound grinning at them like a Cheshire cat.

"Shut up, she isn't my girlfriend, just a friend." Sasuke glared at him looking more like the Sasuke Sakura remembered from her time.

"Oh, why are you carrying her books for her then hum?" Shisui stepped forward quickly and ruffled Sasuke's hair then turned to look at Sakura and paused.

Shisui's Sharingan activated as he looked at her and she moved into a fighting stance. Sasuke threw himself in front of her blocking her from Shisui's eyes.

"What are you doing? She is my friend!" He yelled at Shisui.

Shisui's eyes faded from red back to their normal color. "Sorry." Shisui laughed, "For a minute there your chakra spiked but I must be mistaken, your too cute and little to be able to do that right?" He gave Sakura a funny look but started grinning again.

"Whatever, we're going to see if mom made any Dango, I told Sakura she could have some." and they left Shisui standing by the gates of the Uchiha compound scratching the back of his neck.

Itachi fell down from the tree beside him. "She knew we were both here. Her chakra did flare. She is 7 years old?"

"Looks like you have some competition for genius of Konoha now." Shisui clapped him on the back and smiled. "Looks like little Sasuke found a little girlfriend huh?"

"Hn," Itachi said as he watched Sakura and Sasuke walk down the main street of their compound to their house.

"Let's go get some Dango," Shisui said and started to follow them, Itachi moving up beside him. Itachi liked Dango.

Sakura wanted to hit herself in the forehead. She had sensed them there and thought she was prepared but when Shisui had jumped down in front of her and reached for Sasuke she had panicked. Old habits die hard and she forgot for that moment she wasn't on the 4th Shinobi war front lines again.

She had reacted by reflex, and she knew they both saw it, all three of them. Itachi had stayed in the tree watching her. She wondered why. She had never met Shisui Uchiha, he had died before she had enough sense to look at the world around her. She had met Itachi, but only once at the academy when he came to pick Sasuke up from school.

Sasuke watched her out of the corner of his eye. When Shisui had jumped down from the tree she had flared her chakra and immediately fell into a fighting stance, like a seasoned shinobi. Why had he never noticed her before, were her parents really civilians? He wanted to learn more about his new friend, she fascinated him.

Sasuke slid the door to his home open for Sakura and let her step in first.

"Tadima." He said.

She took off her shoes and put them in the provided cubby holes by the door. Sasuke had just finished removing his shoes when his mother came around the corner of the hall to greet him.

"Okaeri," His mother said and smiled when she saw Sakura. "Hello there, and who might you be?"

"Haruno Sakura, I am pleased to meet you, please think well of me." Sakura bowed low but did not break eye contact.

"I am pleased to meet you Sakura, please come in, do you like Dango? I made some for Sasuke's first day at the academy." She led Sasuke into the tea room. "I will put on some tea, Sasuke, please make your friend comfortable."

"Thank you for inviting me over Sasuke, you have a beautiful home and your mother is very kind," Sakura said politely. She remembered how formal Sasuke used to be and thought it must be due to his elite Uchiha upbringing. She did not wish to embarrass herself with poor manners.

"It's nothing. So, how did you finish your test so quickly?" He asked her without pretense.

"You finished right after me, how did you finish yours so quickly?" She shot back at him annoyed.

"I am an Uchiha, you are civilian born." He said as if that explained everything.

"Why, you arrogant little." Sakura started to say but was interrupted by Shisui who appeared in the garden facing the open tea room.

"Wow, Sasuke, way to woo a girl, insults, and Dango. Good job buddy." Shisui was grinning...again.

"I wasn't wooing her." Sasuke huffed. "I just thought it odd she finished the test before me is all and Iruka's eyes kept getting wider and wider as he read her test, and then he kept her after class to talk to her." He defended himself.

"Did he?" Itachi said beside her. She hadn't even seen him come in.

She had reacted by reflex again and was up and across the room in a fighting stance before he had blinked.

"So fast for a new academy student," Shisui observed her.

Sasuke's mouth hung open as he stared at her.

Itachi was looking at her with a very calculating look in his eye.

"She is almost as fast as you Itachi, what are you 11 years old now? She isn't that far behind you, amazing." Shisui sat down by the tea table and grabbed a stick of Dango.

"I didn't know there was such talent joining the academy this year, and you come from a civilian home?" Itachi asked her.

Sakura had relaxed into a normal standing position but she hadn't come back to sit at the table yet.

"Yes." She answered him.

Mikoto came back into the room with a tea tray then and set it down on the table. She had brought an extra plate of Dango as well.

"Shisui, Itachi, I felt your chakra signatures dears and brought extra for you. Isn't it nice, Sasuke made a new little friend and brought her for tea." Mikoto smiled at everyone.

"Yes, an interesting little friend." Itachi was still looking at her.

Sasuke didn't seem to like this so he got up and pulled Sakura over to the table to sit by him and poured her tea for her while glaring at his brother.

Sakura's mouth dropped open, Sasuke had poured her tea for her! She blushed.

Mikoto went on to ask about their first day, complimenting Sasuke and Sakura on their test grades and telling Sakura she was welcome back anytime. Sakura had thanked her and complimented her Dango blushing prettily and left amongst many smiles and earnest looks from Sasuke who had offered to walk her home but she told him she had to stop somewhere else on the way and that it wasn't necessary.

Some hours later Sakura found herself alone outside the gates of Konoha by the forest river. She sat with her knees drawn up thinking, her arms wrapped around her knees with her head resting on top. She had spent the last few hours trying to walk around the perimeter of the Uchiha compound but had been noticed by that damned Itachi who seemed to be following her so she left.

There was a faint chakra signature moving her way, it was familiar but also distorted. She tried to reach out to her senses but she couldn't quite place it. She stood and looked up, there was someone at the top of the cliff that shot up from the river where she was now. She jumped up the side of the cliff using her chakra and then suppressed it as she watched from a far off tree.

Was that Danzo Shimura? Hate began to swell in her chest, that fiend, that jerk and his warped sense of righteousness. She crept closer keeping her killing intent under control.

Shisui popped into existence in front of Danzo. Wow, she thought, she had never seen the technique except by the Yondaime and the Nidaime at the end of the war and hadn't had time to admire it then. To see Shisui do it was amazing. She listened with chakra enhanced ears to them argue. It seemed that Danzo didn't think Shisui could do…. Oh no, this was it, this was when….

She pushed chakra into her feet and flew to Danzo chakra forming to a sharpened point as she moved. He turned as she rocketed into him from behind and thrust her chakra sharpened fingers point first through his chest and killed him. In her rage, she forgot about her age, forgot about how she was supposed to be a secret. Lifting her leg, she kicked the lifeless body of Danzo Shimura from her arm and flung the blood and mass from her fingers.

Shisui stared at her.

She stared back at him.

"Who are you?' Itachi spoke from behind her.

She turned sideways, keeping both Uchiha insight and took two steps back, "I am Haruno Sakura. He was the cancer of Konoha, filling your clan with lies and pitting them against the village. I did this for Konoha, and the Uchiha of Konoha"

She prayed they would understand or assume she was some elite assassin sent to take care of Danzo, age notwithstanding. They knew they had planned to divert the coup, to use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami to right the views of the clan, to create peace.

"He was going to take your eyes. The eyes with the Kotoamatsukami, use them now to do what you intended" She said to Shisui.

"How did you know that, who do you work for." He asked her. He wasn't hostile he didn't seem angry or suspicious but he was definitely curious.

-Who wouldn't be?-

"I serve Konoha, always. I know because I was told." She said looking from 11-year-old Itachi to 16-year-old Shisui. "I am who I say."

Itachi nodded. He himself had just joined Anbu. He thought he was the youngest member to join, even younger than Kakashi Hatake at age 13, but apparently, he was wrong?

Sakura nodded to them, "Thank you for your understanding and please do not tell anyone." She took a risk, she knew not all Anbu knew one another."You understand." She nodded to Itachi and leaped to the trees, flying through the forest and away from them.

"Well, Sasuke sure knows how to pick a girlfriend doesn't he?" Shisui laughed.

"I want to know more about her." Itachi looks down at the body of Danzo Shimura. "The way she killed him, I have only seen Kakashi Hatake kill like that. It wasn't the Chidori though."

"Well, whatever it was we need to get rid of this body." Shisui kicked Danzo's lifeless body and grinned at Itachi.