IV – Taking the Back Seat

Five steps was all it took.

Luckily, Tohuko had picked her up before leaving the Hospital and placed her to sit on his shoulders, so even though she felt her heart skipping a beat, she couldn't stumble and draw more unwanted attention to her. It also served to make her tall enough to peek above everyone on the street without having her view blocked, so she couldn't mistake what she saw.

It had been automatic that her eyes flashed to the stone faces after leaving the hospital. It was a gesture Sakura used to repeat every single day and, as she still felt lost between Izumi and Sakura, she repeated it as well. The sight of those stone heads up there, still looking over the village even after the war and everything that had happened, used to serve both as a reminder and an incentive to work harder to keep protecting Konoha, to do her best for all her precious people.

Right now, that sight not only felt foreing, but it took her breath away like a punch in the gut would.

At first, what caught her attention was that there were only four. Perhaps it shouldn't have startled her, considering that Sakura, just like Izumi, had lived most of her life looking at that same amount. But she had gotten used to seeing five and then six, it had become the new normal.

She could recognise all the faces from both Konohas, even if they were not all the same.

Izumi, as the toddler she was, didn't know much about the history details of her village. She felt a sudden urge to race to the library and pull an all nighter, though, rationally, she knew that it was not an option at the moment. She'd make time for it later.

What had startled her was the Nidaime's face. It was the only different one and, frankly, she didn't know what to make of it. Hashirama's face sat where it always had, same as the Third and Fourth's faces. They reassured her that, however unexpected the Nidaime's face, Konoha had thrived.

Still, she could only gawk at Madara's stone face, proudly watching over the village like he hadn't tried to destroy Sakura's Konoha more than once.

For an entire minute she was at a loss of words as her mind tried very hard not to overwhelm Izumi's little body with memories of war, gore, pain, death, fear, anger and sadness. It was only by sheer will power that Sakura's essence managed to restrain said memories from flooding her mind and in her struggle, she failed to prevent her sharingan from surfacing. Trying not to startle her parents or any citizen, she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

The part of her that was Sakura couldn't hold on to the hope that she was still in her dimension anymore. Not when she hadn't been around for long enough to actually change anything and still… things weren't like what she remembered.

Part of her was scared about what else she might discorever to be different, but the other part, the bigger and louder one, was itching with curiosity. So she locked the war memories on the darkest corner of her mind and worked to calm down. She needed to take one step at a time to properly evaluate things as well as give Izumi's body time to adjust to all the changes that came with Sakura's presence.

She needed to be careful not to bite more than she could chew at the moment, because, no matter what Sakura's mind wanted, she was still in a toddler's body and that came with its own restrictions. She was in there too, sure, but this was not her body, she had already lived a full life and she didn't want to take that away from young Izumi who had only just started living. From then on, Sakura decided to put in the effort to remember that she was supposed to be Izumi's Inner now and that, although able to help and influence the little girl, it was still Izumi's life and, ultimately, she should be the one calling the shots.

Sakura was no stranger to meditating, to being able to concentrate deeply and long in her own chakra and life essence, so she began to build a place for her inside Izumi's mind, from where she could exist and fulfill the task Obito had entrusted her with.

Sakura'd always be there to help, instruct, teach and protect Izumi (and by extension, the rest of this Konoha), but this was Izumi's ride, her life to live, so Sakura took the back seat.

She wondered if Inner ever felt like that. Probably not, as she wasn't a full conscious lodged inside, or alongside, another. Maybe this was a lot more like how Kurama and all the other tailed beasts felt.

(Huh.) Sakura chuckled by herself in the comfortable quiet of Izumi's mind (With all this chakra that came with me from the ten-tails, I might as well consider Izumi-chan as a pseudo-jiinchuriki.)

Perhaps this line of thinking would both help Sakura understand her role in the young Uchiha's life as well as beginning to explain things to the girl.

.

Izumi's dad loved dango, but most of all, he enjoyed the homemade dango that her mom would make on special occasions. Apparently, today was just that and they spent a whole hour together making some after lunch.

Both her parents were off duty today, enjoying and keeping an eye on their daugther, so Sakura didn't find out exactly what their jobs were, though she suspected that Tohuko was an active shinobi (because of the way he moved and how he was always paying attention to the minimal details). She already knew for sure that Hazuki, despite having a sharingan, wasn't a shinobi. The woman looked serious, but had a slight playful side to her, she seemed the kind of person that would follow an instruction down to the smallest details, but at the same time, in the kitchen, she seemed to be pure instinct and followed no recipe, so the pinkette had no clue what the woman did for a living.

The information in Izumi's mind was limited to things she enjoyed doing, watching or eating; people she knew, places she liked to go and more things like that. The girl was like any other toddler Sakura knew from her time and, though it limited her own access to information, Sakura was glad that the girl could grow up as such so soon after the ending of the Third War.

Izumi's parents were both trying to disguise, but they were clearly worried about her and watching her every move. Sakura decided to take the day to get to plan a way to make sure Konoha was safe from the likes of Kaguya and the Akatsuki (if they even existed). While Izumi enjoyed the day with her parents, Sakura took a step back to think and learn more about the person she was bound with so that she could plan things very carefully, which included Izumi's home life.

The day went by pretty smoothly. Sakura found out that Izumi's mom was the best cook she had ever known in both her lives (sorry, Mebuki) and thought that she might be a restaurant chef, though nothing was confirmed yet. They had an old cat named Kubo that absolutely adored Tohuko, but hissed at anyone else who tried to pet him. Their house was located at the edge of the shinobi district, next to a lake and an old abandoned park. The house had two floors, the top one with her parents' room as well as Izumi's and a single bathroom. The first floor was divided in four rooms, being the kitchen, the living room, a bathroom and another that was locked. In the back of the house, they had a laundry room and a pretty garden with a big tree. The lake was to the left side of the house and the abandoned park was literally behind their garden.

During dinner, Izumi found out that they'd be visiting Fugaku and his family in two weeks, when her mother had a scheduled break from work and that her dad would come if he wasn't on a mission. So Sakura's suspicion was correct and Tohuko really was a shinobi.

"Papa?" Izumi called "What kind of shinbi are you?" the little girl asked, much to Sakura's surprise. Could the girl access her thoughts? She should be more careful until she could fully understand how their connection worked.

"What kind of shinobi, love?" her dad corrected Izumi and she nodded "Well, I'm a jonin." he smiled.

"Oh." she paused "Is mom a joni too?"

"Jonin, love. And no, I'm not a shinobi, remember? You came to work with me a couple of times before."

"I think she was too young to remember that, Zuzu." Tohuko chuckled and Hazuki frowned slightly.

"Perhaps." she said to him and Izumi looked back and forth "I work at the mission assignment department."

(Oh.) Sakura thought, while Izumi frowned briefly in confusion.

"It means that I'm one of the people who organizes and directs the missions that need to be completed. The Hokage gives me the information on missions that don't need his um… explanation and I pass them on to my team after I rank and document them."

That was pretty cool and it could be useful if explored right. Sakura stored that information with great care while Izumi spent the rest of the day being pampered and gifted with attention from her parents.

At night, when Izumi was finally alone, Sakura wanted to go through all that she knew about the future events so she could begin to plan exactly how she'd be able to help Konoha so she could prepare and train for it. The four-year-old little body of Izumi was extremely tired and she fell asleep before Sakura could even understand what was happening, but not before a gentle thought reached Sakura's immaterial body.

Good night, pretty Lady. The whisper tickled Sakura's face like a soft caress and then the pinkette felt as Izumi's consciousness splipped into a deep slumber, leaving Sakura to her own devices.

.

The next day, her parents woke her up at 6am to have breakfast before they went to work. They had been surprised when Izumi descended the stairs already out of her pajamas and with a smile on her face. She had never really been a morning person before, but the pretty Lady in her head was full of energy and so it felt like Izumi herself was also ready to start the day.

(Ops.) The pretty Lady chuckled in her head, making Izumi giggle. She had a nice laugh that reminded Izumi of her mom.

(Wasn't there a saying that old habits die hard? Apparently some don't die even if you do.) Izumi caught the young woman muttering to herself inside her head. It was a weird feeling, but not uncomfortable. Izumi wanted to ask the pretty lady her name (she had dreamt about her and overheard the name there, but she wanted to be polite like her mom taught her to do and introduce herself now that she wasn't sleeping) so Izumi announced she'd to go out to the garden to play after they left.

Once breakfast was over, her mother left, but Tohuko stayed given that his shift didn't start until 8 and her babysitter would arrive just before that.

The entire previous day, night, this morning and even in her dreams, Izumi got to know and meet people she had never actually seen before but that felt so familiar to her it was like they knew each other for an entire lifetime. Izumi was a smart kid, which was why she was almost sure that those people were a memory from the pretty lady. That, however, begged the question: who was the pretty lady, why and how was she inside Izumi's head? Who had put her there? Was she a friend? Or was she dangerous? Would she harm Izumi? Her parents?

The little four-year-old felt anxiety rising and tightening it's ghost-like fingers around her throat, making it hard to breathe, which caused her sharingan to shoot to the surface and her vision changed.

It was a curious experience, like watching the world through a series of different, but powerful lenses. It distracted Izumi enough that she momentarily forgot her worries. There was a blue drop of energy in the center of her dad's body, just like there was one in Kubo, though much much smaller. Looking around she could spot other little drops in the distance as well as one approaching her house.

"Come on, love. Fei-chan just arrived." her dad brought her out of her trance. Izumi took a deep breath and tried to do what the pretty lady had done while she was at the hospital. She slowly retracted her chakra, trying her best not to let it snap back into place too quickly and leave her feeling ill. It worked. Though not as smoothly as when the pretty lady was controlling her chakra, but enough that the discomfort was minimal.

Looking up at her dad, she smiled.

Tohuko had short honey blond hair, styled much like what Sakura remembered of Asuma's, except for the beard. He had chocolate brown eyes, a pointy nose, high cheekbones and thin lips. He was very tall, but was crouched down with one hand extended for Izumi to grab, which she did. Her dad was wearing a navy blue vest with the standard jonin green flack jacket and a weapon pouch on his right leg. His hitai-ate was tied on his forehead and he had a tanto on his back.

They made their way to the living room and she sat on the couch while he opened the door for Fei. Before Izumi could see the girl, he went to say goodbye, asked her to be a good girl and said that he'd be back by seven. Tohuko kissed her forehead and left.

Fei was a fourteen or maybe fifteen-year-old girl with big blue eyes and coppery brown hair tied in a high ponytail. She wore blue glasses, a yellow jumpsuit with a grey shirt and white sandals. She looked plain weird, though Izumi liked that her smile was sweet and that she smelled of warm bread. Sakura liked her even more upon realizing she was civilian, because that meant she'd be able to get away with some things if needed.

The best thing, however, was that Fei spent most of the day reading and giving Izumi space to do as she pleased, within the ground rules her parents had instructed the girl to follow, of course. So she had plenty of time to sit on her own and talk with the pretty lady.

By the end of the morning, they had established a few priorities based on what little Sakura (as the pretty lady told Izumi to call her) explained and told Izumi about their situation and what happened in her own life.

First thing first: Sakura was a medic and she was really strong and, best of all, she wanted to help Izumi become strong as well.

Second thing: Some bad things (Sakura hadn't told Izumi exactly what yet) happened in her life and she wanted to make sure that Izumi could protect her loved ones if they happened again, but the plan was, apparently, to not let them happen at all.

Sakura was really smart, Izumi was sure, and for whatever reason, she exuded safeness and, thus, seemed trustworthy to the four-year-old. As Izumi did her best to meditate, Sakura talked to her for hours and by lunchtime, Sakura had a list of things they needed to do, another to avoid and a third one to try and figure out. It was a lot to remember, so Izumi made a little list of her own with what she remembered as most important:

Avoid:

1- Plant man

2- Red cloud and Spiral man

3- Snake senior and jr.

4- Boogie man

5- Coup (which she didn't actually know what it meant, but Sakura had talked about it more

(Easy peasy.) Sakura chuckled in her head, though it sounded wrong.

.

After about an hour of breathing exercises that Sakura taught her how to do, Izumi felt ready to begin.

All right. She thought, reaching for Sakura. Where should we start, Sakura-san?

(If you pause to think it through, everything in our list circles back to the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha.) Sakura pointed out.

But I can't do anything about that, Sakura-san. I'm four.

(Yes.) Sakura sighed (Don't worry, I'll think of something, okay? All you have to do is trust me and work hard to get stronger).

Hai! Izumi nodded multiple times, keen to lear everything that Sakura could teach her, but specially how to punch really hard as she saw glimpses of the pinkette doing in her dreams.

They went through what Sakura knew about the night when the current Hokage died alongside his wife, his son got turned into a jinchuuriki and the things began to really go downhill according to her. If things happened the same way as they did before, they had but a handful of years before a bad thing happened to her village and clan. Izumi wanted to help because her mom was from the same clan as her and she'd be sad if anything happened. So she closed her eyes and followed, as best as she could, every instruction Sakura gave her.

.

By the end of the day, she was feeling absolutely drained and barely made it out of dinner still awake.

After Sakura and herself played many different scenarios on her head about the whole Kyuubi attack that was supposed to happen soon, Sakura was forced to admit that she could do nothing to prevent Obito from extracting Kurama from Kushina and attack the village. Also, there was nothing she could do to actively change the relationship of the Uchiha clan with the village, even if she lived within the district, which she didn't. She had about eight years until the big bad thing, but she had no hope of changing the way the elders thought or felt or plot against the village.

It left Izumi feeling on the verge of tears, but her dad always told her she was a brave girl and brave girls always found a solution to their problems. She only had to breathe, count to ten and, what was it?

(Try to look at it from another perspective.) Sakura reminded her.

That's what she'd do tomorrow. What they'd do.

(Knowledge is power.) Sakura reminded her. (And we have all the knowledge of how things played out. Even if they don't happen the same way now, we still know about people's powers, motivations, secrets, how they won and how they lost.)

That was the key according to Sakura. Izumi though it was pretty smart and something her dad would say.

Sakura also had the knowledge Izumi needed in order to get a lot stronger too.

(Clearly my previous skillset hadn't been enough compared to Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Obito, or any of them. I was strong, but they… they all were bakemonos with unimaginable monstrous strength.) she sighed before perking up at once (Shannaro! That's it.) Sakura had a smug smile similar to the one her mom had when finding the answer to a difficult puzzle (To defeat bakemonos you have to become a bakemono yourself.)

Even if Izumi could understand a little bit of the reasoning, she was scared to become a monster.

(Not a bad monster!) Sakura was quick to appease her (Just like, strong like one.)

But not a real monster, right? Izumi insisted.

(Not a real monster.) Sakura agreed (We'll protect people from the real monsters.)

Good night, Sakura-san.

(Good night, Izumi-chan.)

She soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

.

The next day, the morning went by exactly the same way and soon enough, Izumi found herself under the tree in her garden 'meditating' as she had told Fei, though in reality, she was talking with Sakura. Eventually, they grudgingly agreed that the first task she'd have to pull off in order to keep Konoha safe from the future Sakura lived through was to save Minato's life.

Sakura argued that the fourth Hokage had said himself that, had he remained alive, the bad thing that happened to the Uchiha wouldn't have come to. Also, Minato was a crazy strong shinobi that could only add to Konoha's strength. That and it would prevent many other bad things from happening... (All in one go) Sakura concluded.

They spent the rest of the morning thinking it through but found no answer as to howthey'd pull this through. So, after lunch Izumi decided that she would go about another difficult puzzle instead: her chakra. Or more precisely, how the hell would she access it and make it easier to use, because if she wanted to get stronger, she'd need to master her control over it as soon as possible.

(You said it feels like a tight elastic, right?) Sakura asked.

Yeah. It's a struggle to pull it from the reserve and then when I release it it bounces back too quickly for my body to keep up with the change. That's why I feel sick.

(Well, how do you deal with an elastic that's far too tight to use?) her Inner sounded rather sensei-ish, which was quite amusing, so she played along.

I tug on it until it's loose enough to- Oh, I understand! they both smiled.

It was settled. Before they could do anything improvement-related, she had to master her new chakra to be able to control it as well as Sakura did. (Better even. Shannaro! We'll make sure your chakra control is even better than that B-word Kaguya.) Sakura sneered and punched the air.

Izumi laughed on her own, that was a stretch, but hey, if you don't have big goals you settle for less than you could've gotten, right?

So they made another list (a mental one, this time).

To master the new chakra/ To give Kaguya a run for her money:

1. Keep the mind healthy with meditation

2. Keep the body healthy with good food, sleep and exercises

3. Daily chakra exercises

She was about to say she didn't have anything else to add when Sakura kept going without her.

4. Find out your chakra nature

(It already feels so different, who's to say that this will stay the same? Also, you're an Uchiha, perhaps you'll have an affinity to fire as well.) Sakura reasoned. Izumi hoped she was right, because if there had been one thing Sakura seemed to loath in her life was not having any chakra nature.

(That had sucked.) the older woman agreed.

5. Go to the library to study the other known natures (all of them, including those related to kekkei genkais.)

(Better to be prepared than to be taken by surprise) Sakura said in that same sensei-ish tone from before.

6. Find/develop and master some jutsu that can go against wood release.

That was the end of Sakura's list and Izumi got confused at how specific the last topic was.

(Well, given that every freaking bad guy got Hashirama's cells implanted on them at some point, we'll have to go up against it eventually. And given that the wood release is a damn strong nature transformation, it would be useful to have something to counter it with just as much strength, instead of relying on our fists every time, because that's bound to fail.)

Izumi wasn't too sure, but she reckoned Sakura knew better, so she just went along with it. Sakura hadn't even notice that Izumi was barely following her monologue.

(Kekkei genkais are only passed down between the same clan or generation, so I was thinking something in line of what Tsunade-shishou told me about the Sandaime Tsuchikage.)

Izumi pretended she understood and took time to access said memory. After the Fourth War, one day Sakura's shishou had gotten too drunk (even for Tsunade's standards) with Mei and was babbling gibberish for most of the time until they started to gossip about the other kages' abilities. It was then that Sakura had discovered that the dust release used by Onoki, the Sandaime Tsuchikage, was not really a kekkei genkai per se… it was a kekkei tota and even though that didn't sound all that different, both women assured her that it was indeed very distinct.

They said that, as exclusive as the dust release was (with only two users in history), it had been taught to Onoki by the Nidaime Tsuchikage, Mū.

Only then Izumi understood Sakura's plan. The goal was not to search for another kekkei genkai she could use (because fate had made her an Uchiha she already had a sharingan even if she had absolutely no idea how to use it). The goal was to study them and try to come up with an exclusive technique that she would be the only user and, thus, be able to go par to par with those bakemonos with more than just her fists like Sakura-san.

Izumi thought that was a good plan and was excited to work on it already.

(You have to get used to your chakra before we can even begin to think about those things.) Sakura rolled her eyes at Izumi, but failed to contain her content smirk.

With that, she settled on working in pulling and pushing her chakra until she felt too tired to continue, which was around 5pm, so she settled on the sofa with Fei, who served her some fruit slices and tea so she could wait for dinner and then promptly started to tell her all about the girl she liked in her neighborhood.

Her mother arrived earlier and gave Fei an earlier release. She called Izumi to help her cook dinner, which the girl happily complied. That was the first time Sakura paid close attention to Izumi's mother's looks. How she had failed to notice just how much she resembled all the Uchihas she had ever met in both lives, she had no idea.

Hazuki had short black hair that went just down her chin and almond shaped eyes that were even blacker than her hair. She was paler than both Izumi and Tohuko, but not as much as Mikoto or Itachi.

Unlike her dad, Hazuki had fuller lips, a narrow nose and chubbier cheeks, though she seemed to be in good shape. She was taller than Mebuki, but still about maybe 25 to 30 centimeters shorter than Tohuko. She was wearing a grey skirt that reached above her knees and a white sleeveless blouse with a U shaped cleavage that left a necklace in sight. The jewelry was silver and the pendant was composed of two stones, a deep green ball and a red tear under it.

When Izumi asked about it, her mother explained that it had been a marriage present from her late father-in-law and that the emerald stood for their part of the family, while the ruby was to represent her Uchiha lineage.

Izumi then asked what family her dad had come from, as Sakura had asked her before and she didn't know the right answer. What Hazuki responded startled Sakura so much that she had barely been able to restrain from reacting harshly and hurting Izumi, who knew nothing about said clan, or more precisely, a specific infamous member.

Her father's name was Shimura Tohuko.

A/N: Yes, I'm alive and well! Do you like this chapter? I feel like it's a little transitory but important nonetheless.

Also, I haven't proof read any of it, I just finished writting and wanted to post before I changed my mind like it happened multiple times since I last updated this fic. Anyways, please ignore any mistakes, I'll come back to correct them later.

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Trivia time!

There is absolutely no mention of Izumi's father neither in the manga nor in the anime, so he's my very first and beloved OC! :D And I made him a Shimura! haha I've yet to see a fic with another Shimura that's not Danzo and I thought it'd be fun to play with the pairing Uchiha x Shimura.

There are many reasons why I decided that Hazuki wouldn't be able to use her sharingan, one of them being to show that just having a bloodline limit doesn't make you instantly stronger, though it helps most of the time, it can also be a disadvantage in certain scenarios.

Considering that this is a different dimension, Kaguya has never existed here. What might that mean? How do they have chakra? Tailed beasts? Is there another Otsutsuki? Muahaha You'll see!

Because we don't have Kaguya and her influence, Madara became Nidaime Hokage! What happened to Tobirama, you ask? Well, we'll get there, don't worry ;D