Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who favourite, followed and reviewed! I really wasn't expecting such positive reviews and it was a really great surprise! I really liked hearing from you and your opinions! It's given me some stuff to think about and I hope this chapter clarifies some things, and look out for the second Author's Note at the end!
Anyway, without further ado, on with the chapter.
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Chapter 2 – 最初の友達! 山中いの!
The Beginning of Friendship: Yamanaka Ino
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When Sakura finally leaves her room, it is with a determined heart and a calculating mind. With only a week to meeting Ino and the beginning to the rest of her life, she has to use this time to hash out the finer details and begin her training. At the moment, with her current skill levels and inability to protect herself physically or politically, she can't deal with any of the bigger problems such as Danzo, Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. And until she is ready for such confrontations, she cannot under any circumstances capture the attention of powerful individuals, nor could she trust anyone with her knowledge.
It is with this line of thought and inner turmoil that's running through Sakura when she finds her mother in the kitchen and Sakura stops to look. Akane is standing over the fire, tending to a wok full of what smells like yakisoba. Her red hair tied up and swaying behind her, humming a soft tune. The scene is familiar to Sakura, but unlike most times there is a tension within Akane's posture. The tenseness in her shoulders is foreign and so wrong in the image, it makes Sakura shift uncomfortably at the image and it doesn't take her long to realise that she is the reason for it.
In all her plans and plotting of the future, Haruno Sakura never took her parents and their feelings into account.
Her kind and loving parents who would give the world to her if the could. In the past three months, Sakura has been causing her parents unnecessary worry, to the point where her mother can't even relax whilst cooking, her favourite hobby and main stress relief. Sakura wondered if her parents could even sleep at night, knowing that she might be having nightmares. And in a meer week, she was going to turn her parent's life around again. In a week's time, she's going to ask her parent's to be okay with sending their only daughter to become a child soldier, knowing that she might die in action. In a week's time, Haruno Jiro and Akane will have to spend the rest of their lives worrying if Sakura will survive. In a week's time, they will have a parent's worst nightmare haunt them day in, day out.
Guilt rolls in her gut violently and crawled up her throat, suffocating, and Sakura felt ill. If 'nightmares' as she called it, already made her parents so stressed and tense, what would wanting to become a ninja do to them? And right then and there, Sakura acknowledged that she is, will be a terrible daughter who will force her parents to go through many pains and hardships, and she can only hope that they'll forgive her and love her just the same. She can only hope they'll see how important being a ninja is to her. She can only hope that one day, once this is all over and true peace across the Elemental Nations has been achieved, they'll still be alive for her to make it up to them. She can only hope that she, herself, will be alive to make it up to them.
As though she could sense her daughters thoughts, Akane turns around and smiles, "Sakura, I'm glad you're awake. How are you feeling?"
"My throat hurts," Sakura manages to croak, wincing at the pain.
"Mama will make you some hot honey tea," her mother nods, "You can watch TV or go play until lunch is ready."
She shakes her head, "Sakura help mama."
"Sakura," her mother says softly in surprise as she turns towards the cupboards, taking out the place mats and chopsticks to set up the table. And Sakura doesn't see the smile on her mother's face when she returns her attention to the wok, checking on the yakisoba and gyozas, before filling the kettle with water and turning it on.
Minutes later, Sakura and Akane are sitting opposite one another and enjoying their meal quietly. The honey tea helped soothe the pain in her throat considerably, and though it was still sore, Sakura could speak. But the meal, so far, has been in silence and Sakura spends it staring down into her bowl that's getting emptier, once again lost in thought and struggling under the weight of everything.
"Was it another nightmare?" Akane asks softly as she picks up a piece of gyoza with her chopsticks and placing it in Sakura's smaller bowl.
Sakura looks up from her bowl and meets her mother's eyes that are so similar to her own. There's a soft smile on her face but it is laced with worry, and Sakura felt her heart clenched tightly in response. She never wanted to see her parents, her mother, like this.
She nods and tries to smile reassuringly. Her eyes crinkle at the corners and her cheeks stretch as far as they can go and are already starting to hurt, "But I think that will be the last nightmare."
Akane eyes widen in surprise.
"Because I'm not afraid anymore," she continues, "Because I have my mama and papa."
With those words, Sakura watches as some of the tension and stiffness leave her mother's body, and Akane's expression softens with a gentle smile on her lips. Even in her eyes, the worry has lessened but still there. Akane is a mother and would always worry for Sakura, but as long as Sakura can lessen her mother's worry, she would do her best to. It wasn't much but at least it was something.
"I'm glad you think that way Sakura, and that you trust papa and mama," Akane tells her, "You're such a smart little girl and you've always been so independent, we worried that you wouldn't ever rely on us for anything. I'm happy to know that our little Sakura blossom is safe from nightmares, but if they ever come back, I want you to know that mama and papa will always be there for you. There's no shame in coming to us for help."
Sakura's smile softens but it is no less bright or genuine. Her heart fills with warmth as she acknowledges her mother's words, and the guilt is less suffocating. She may not have the words to respond, but perhaps she could show it through her actions. Perhaps, instead of just plotting and planning, this week will also be dedicated to her family and her most precious people. Starting from this week and every day after that, she'll let her actions speak for her.
With all the enthusiasm she can muster, Sakura turns the conversation away from dreams and nightmares by asking what they were going to do for the day. Akane tells her, and it's the same thing they do every other day, but Sakura is glad of it. She's happy that she'll get to spend time with her mother and she was going to treasure every bit of it.
After lunch, she stays to help her mother with the dishes. Her mother is, once again, surprised but lets her dry the dishes and help put them away. Though she really isn't much help, it is the thought that counts and Akane relaxes more with every passing moment. It's the first time Sakura has offered to help with the dishes and it makes her feel like she had accomplished something.
Once the dishes are dried and put away, Akane helps Sakura get changed into a simple red dress despite knowing full well that Sakura is more than capable and Sakura lets her. Akane picks up the comb on the wooden desk and starts to brush Sakura's shoulder-length hair until she's sure that the pink locks are tangle-free and styles it with a red ribbon, which she secures with a bow atop her head like a headband, and Sakura lets her. Akane takes Sakura's tiny hands in her own and leads her out of the house, down the street and into the shopping district where she picks up the little girl despite her growing weight, and Sakura lets her.
They spend the rest of the day like this, just a mother and her young daughter, going from shop to shop. Sakura knows from her parents talking and teasing, that even before her memories of another life, she has always been independent. From an early age, she had liked doing things on her own. Had made her parents worry that she had a speech impairment because she refused to speak until she could string full coherent sentences. She didn't like that her parents babied her and so they gave her her independence and stood as encouraging bystanders that spoke and treated her like she was older because that was what she wanted. So, for the first time in her life, she lets her mother spoil her and baby her and show her off to other parents. She lets her mother do all the things she's accustomed to doing herself so her mother can feel like a mother, and not just an encouraging mentor or guardian.
Sakura is happy to relinquish all that independence she's amassed if it means she'll be able to ease her parents worry. Akane notices these changes, but she doesn't question her for it. Instead, she takes as many liberties as Sakura is willing to give, stopping and stepping back when she knows Sakura is trying to hide her discomfort. It will be a slow progress, but these small steps to improve their relationship and deepen their bond is all that Sakura hopes for. It's not a lot and it can't amend for all the damage she will cause in the future, but it's something small that she hopes will make things better and easier.
By the time they return home for the evening, the sun is beginning to set and they have more bags than they can realistically carry. They bought enough ingredients for a feast, and Sakura giggles beside her mother when the redhead rubs the back of her head sheepishly, having realised that she may have gone overboard. And when Akane tells Sakura that she can go and play whilst she prepares dinner, Sakura stays and asks her mother to teach her. The answering smile and agreement is enough for Sakura to feel like she's making all the right decisions, and it makes the weight in her chest and the burdens she placed on her own shoulders feel lighter.
It isn't a surprise that Akane is a good teacher. Sakura listens to her mother's instructions carefully as she teaches her how to prepared the different types of ingredients. Akane is a patient teacher that lets her trying things on her own, only interfering and taking over when it's evident that Sakura might hurt herself. The process is slow, much slower than it would be if Akane were doing this alone, but she doesn't rush Sakura or reprimand her and soon enough, Sakura gets the hang of it. But by the time they're done with the preparations, Jiro has just returned home and Akane takes over in hopes to have dinner ready sooner.
"I'm home!"
"Welcome home, papa," Sakura calls back from the kitchen as Jiro makes his way towards them. A large smile takes over his face when he see his four year old daughter learning to cook with her mother, and ruffles Sakura's hair in greeting before pressing a kiss to Akane's cheek. Sakura tries to pretend she's disgusted by their display of affection, prompting her parents to chuckle and pinch her cheeks and smother her in kisses.
"Ew! Stop it, papa! You're getting saliva all over me!"
"Jiro, can you help set up the table with Sakura please," Akane says as she hands him the chopsticks, "I'll have dinner ready soon."
"Of course," he says, accepting them, "Come on, my little Sakura blossom. Help me get the placemats."
"They're already on the table, papa," Sakura says with a grin, pointing to the placemats she and Akane forgot to put away earlier.
"Oh? And when did you get super speed?"
"Just now!" she chirps, shifting her weight from one foot to another as she looks up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "And when did you get so slow, papa? Is mama giving you extra helpings? She should give it to me instead. You don't need it and I'm a growing girl after all."
"Cheeky brat," he says with a huff, fighting off a grin. Akane is laughing slightly in the background, and he holds it in well but eventually loses the fight, "When did your tongue get so sharp?"
"Does that mean I'm right?"
Jiro shakes his head to hide his laughter, "Come on, the table isn't going to set up itself and instead of picking on your poor papa, why don't you tell me what you and mama did today?"
"I woke up just before lunch," she starts, "and mama made yakisoba and gyoza! Then I helped mama wash the dishes and then we went out shopping! There were a lot of people in the shop so mama carried me a few times. Mama also bought a lot of food. We had six bags of food with us and now there's no more space in the fridge!"
"That much?!"
"Of course! We have to feed you papa," she grins, "And then we came home and mama taught me how to cut stuff!"
Jiro sweat dropped.
"And then you came home!" she finishes before asking, "What did you do today, papa? What do you do when you're not at home?"
"Me?" Jiro asks, pointing at himself, surprised by the sudden interest. Usually Sakura just babbles on throughout the night, telling him about the different people they met on the streets and anything interesting that happened. Never once has she expressed interest in what he did at work until now that is. "Well...how do I explain this?"
Jiro walks to one of the bookshelves and takes a large scroll, unfurling it on the coffee table to reveal a map of the elemental nations, "Do you know where we, Konoha, are?"
"Land of Fire," Sakura says beside him, pointing at the large country with the [火] symbol.
"Correct! My little Sakura blossom is so smart," he praises before turning back to the map, "The Land of Fire is large, one of the five great nations, but the land doesn't always produce what we need. For example, good quality fur. Because the Land of Fire is usually warm and hot, and our winters short but cold, we don't have many animals with furs or if they do, they're not very thick. But countries like Land of Snow" – he points to the country labeled [雪] – "produce quality fur."
"Our ancestors, at least as your grandfather told me, were wandering traders from the Land of Vegetables. They went from country to country, trading in unique objects and would help people restore their old precious objects before we finally chose to settle in the Land of Fire and later Konoha, once it was founded. Currently, most of the people we supply and trade with are people who your grandfather met during his early travels and established long lasting connections with them, and I maintain that."
Sakura is listening intently to what her father is saying and he smiles down at her softly, placing his much larger hand on her head, "The family business was supposed to fall to my older brother, your uncle, but we found out that he was sick and there was no cure. But before that, I've always wanted to open a bookstore and we finally did that a few years before you were born, so I collect both new and secondhand books and sell them at our shop, and use the office above it for the family business...and I've probably made the family business sound terrible, but it really isn't. It's what brought me to your beautiful mother after all!"
"What are you two talking about?" Akane asks as she steps out from the kitchen, away from the roar of the fire, with a plate in each hand.
"Ah, Sakura asked me what I do when I'm not at home so I told her about the family business and our bookstore."
"Papa just said that it was the family business that let papa meet mama," Sakura said enthusiastically.
"I suppose that's true," Akane nods, "But we can talk about that over dinner. Jiro, come help me with the rice and soup. Sakura, go wash your hands and then come sit."
The father and daughter disperse temporarily to complete their appointed tasks before reconvening at the table, now covered in food, sitting in their respective seats. The large steamed fish, around half the length of the table, is placed at the centre with a vegetable stir-fry and pork cutlet with teriyaki sauce on either side of it. Each placemat has its own bowl of rice and soup, as well as a small side dish of pickled radish.
"Itadakimasu!"
"Can you tell me now?!" Sakura immediately asked, eager to hear their story.
"As long as you keep eating your dinner, or I'll stop," Akane warns before beginning her tale, "Before I came to Konoha, I was just a chef-in-training in a small town in the Land of Wind called Ceramic Village. I don't remember my parents and I grew up in an orphanage, and unlike most of the people in the village, I had no talent in the art of ceramics. It was before the Third Shinobi War, and your grandfather and papa were there to meet with the village leader. Hanasaki style ceramics was just becoming famous and it originated from Ceramic Village."
"We were there for a week," Jiro continues, his eyes were clouded and far off as he looked into the distance, "I met your mother on the first night there. The restaurant was near closing and the other chefs were reluctant to start up the fire and clean up again, but your mother volunteered to cook for us and clean up afterwards."
Akane's eyes adopt the same reminiscent look, "I remember. After that, you came back every day you were there and stayed until late at night just to walk me home. Everyone teased me so much."
"It was love at first sight," Jiro tells her before his eyes focused on Sakura, "And when we came back to Konoha, I wrote her letters once a week. I thought she wouldn't reply but I received one a month later and we kept up our correspondence. But then the Third Shinobi World War happened, and in my letter before that I just confessed to your mother and asked if she would like to come to Konoha and live with me. The war lasted for more than three years, almost four, with little outside information available to civilians."
"As soon as the war ended, I hired a genin team to escort me to Ceramic Village despite protests from your grandfather. Even Sandaime-sama asked me if I was sure I wanted to travel out of country, but dropped it when he realised my reason and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise."
"I was so surprised and happy to see him again, I kissed him and he fainted," Akane giggled at the memory, "And two days later, we were heading to Konoha. In the time your papa was gone, Namikaze Minato was the newly minted Yondaime Hokage, and I was the first civilian citizenship request that he dealt with."
Sakura looks at them, eyes sparkling, completely absorbed in the story. Knowing their story changed things and opened Sakura's eyes. It was obvious that her parents loved each other deeply and dammit, she going to do everything in her power to protect that love and happiness.
For all her ambitions to make this world a better place with the knowledge she held, never once had Sakura's reason had been for her own sake or her family's. It was always about other people. Make a difference so Naruto will be happy earlier and get the love and help he should be receiving. Make a difference so Sasuke can grow strong without falling off the deep end. Make sure to forewarn the bijuu and their jinchuuriki so the war will be less devastating, and in hopes that the world will unite and come into an alliance much sooner. Make a difference so that all her future peers and the people she will meet one day be happier. But who says it can't be for her own happiness too?
In her last life, with only three close friends who cared about her and absent parents, she struggled to find meaning her life. She had no real dreams or goals, no aspirations to strive for. Life was a repetitive struggle that she couldn't find a place to truly belong. But perhaps as Sakura she could. Even at four years old, she's already has a bunch of goals that are maybe too ambitious. She knows what she's going to do. She knows who she wants to be. She hasn't quite discovered a place to belong, a place where she feels whole and content, but that's something she can strive for in this life that she couldn't in her last.
There are her reasons for her to live her life to the fullest, and she hopes that at the end of the day she can say she did her very best.
A week later, Sakura was up before anyone, a bundle of nervous excited energy. In the past week, Sakura hadn't thought much about her meeting with Yamanaka Ino and had instead focused on the things in the far off future that she may or may not be able to change. Particularly the situation with Naruto, and how her parents might react to him. She's not blind or naive enough for her to believe her parents will act like she wants them to, i.e. accepting and welcoming. The majority of Konoha's population, civilians in particular, view Naruto as the Kyuubi incarnate, despised him and shunned him for it, going so far as to prevent their children from being his friend. Her parents could very well be one of those people.
If – no, when she befriends Naruto, she may have to keep their friendship underwraps for some time while she slowly poked and prodded her parents for their reaction and thoughts in regards to Naruto and the Kyuubi. And if worse comes to worse? Well, she'll deal with it if they ever get to that stage.
Aside from worrying about her friendship with Naruto, Sakura also thought about Sasuke. Sasuke, himself, was his own enigma. Sakura didn't think she had the means or power to actually prevent the coup d'etat, not without exposing herself at least. The Uchihas also didn't seem to be the type to mingle outside of their own clan, which means she'll probably won't be able to meet or befriend Sasuke until they're in the academy together. If she does see him before then, well, she'll just have to take that opportunity. But in the worst case scenario, she'll have a year in the academy before the massacre to befriend him and hopefully steer him off killing Itachi.
That, too, was an enigma. Sakura doesn't believe for one second, now that she's had the time to analyse and attempt to understand Sasuke, that killing Itachi is a simple revenge plot. His motivations had to be far deeper than that, because Sasuke sought after justice and didn't just hate Itachi but also everything that Itachi stood for. He had his own set of morals built around Itachi and up until the truth of Itachi had come out, Sasuke had been a good person. He was innocent and naive in many ways, particularly his ideas and perception of the world. All his interactions with Orochimaru is evidence of that. He didn't kill anyone he didn't think deserved it, he didn't make anyone do anything for him. He followed his own set of morals and he wanted to reform the shinobi world because he thought it was wrong, even if his methods were questionable.
But that's besides the point. Right now, it doesn't matter what Sasuke wanted to prove or achieve when he went after Itachi, or what he wanted to do afterwards. What matters is what she can do right now to avoid the terrible fate of two brothers. The point was that Sakura needs Sasuke to build bonds with people in the village, probably starting with either herself or Naruto, and then from there on, maybe she could guide him and open his eyes to the world. Show him both all the wrongs and the rights of the shinobi world, and motivate him to change it in a much more legal way.
She wants to be his confidant, someone he can trust to not understand his pain, because nobody could actually do that, but empathise with it.
Other than that, Sakura spent the rest of the week's time meditating and reading. Since chakra was the molding of both physical and spiritual energy, and Sakura has yet to announce her desire to become a ninja yet, she couldn't spend hours out of the house training her body. So instead she was going to start by training her spiritual aspect, hence the meditating. The first time she reached for her chakra, it responded almost immediately and she knew from her reading that it meant that she either had a lot of chakra or very little. Sakura knew it was the latter since moments later, as she tries to focus on moving her chakra around her body, she became progressively more tired and couldn't maintain the activity for more than ten minutes. But slowly she could do it for longer and longer, and by the fourth day, Sakura was ready to begin incorporating the leaf to her meditations which involved sticking a leaf to one's forehead with chakra. Too little chakra and the leaf will just fall, too much chakra and the leaf will be blown away.
It came as no surprise that Sakura could do it in her first attempt but like her meditating, she couldn't hold onto it for very long. Every morning and every evening, she completed the exercise to the point where she could not maintain the leaf sticking on her forehead. She could, at her best, maintain it for forty five minutes and couldn't wait until she could maintain it for a whole day. And until that day comes, she'll just have to keep at it and train her body equally as hard.
Which brings us back to the current situation. Sakura has once again risen with the sun and started her meditations, but the nerves and excitement of meeting Ino and making her first friend made concentrating on meditation difficult. She's only managed to keep the leaf sticking in five minute intervals before her mind wanders and the leaf is falling before she knows it. An hour later, instead of the frustration she'd usually feel at this point, Sakura just decides to give up and left her room to help her mother with breakfast.
Except her mother was already done. Three bowls of rice were on the table along with a grilled fish each, as well as Sakura's favourite. "Umeboshi!"
"Sakura's favourite," Akane says as she turns around and smiles widely at her, "Good morning."
"Good morning, mama," she replies, "Is papa awake already? Do I have to go wake him up?"
"He should be coming out of the shower," Akane tells her.
Sakura makes her way to her mother, tugging on the apron and looking up at her hesitantly, "Um, mama?"
"Yes, Sakura?"
"Can I please go to the park today?" she asks, "I really, really want to make a new friend! And I think I'll make a really cool and nice friend today! So can you make a bento for me?"
"Of course! I'll make it right after breakfast and then we'll go to the park together."
"Yatta!"
"What's going on here?" Jiro asks as he enters the living room in his usual clothes.
"Good morning papa!"
"Sakura wants to go to the park and make some friends today," Akane tells him, "and she just asked me to make a bento for her."
Jiro looks down at his daughter, "Our little Sakura blossom wants to go to the park and make friends?"
Sakura nods enthusiastically.
"Our little girl is growing up and leaving home already!" Jiro cries.
"Papa!" Sakura exclaims, embarrassed.
"Enough of that," Akane cuts Jiro off mid-cry, "Let's eat breakfast so you can get to work, Sakura can go to the park and I can go to the market."
They ate breakfast with some lighthearted chatter from Sakura which was just nonsensical babbling about who her friend could be, what they would look like and just how cool they'd be. Her parents nodded at all the right places with a fond smile. Soon after, Sakura and Akane were cleaning up whilst Jiro went off to work. Akane sent Sakura away to get ready when she started with the bento.
Sakura quickly changed her sleepwear into another bright red dress and spent the rest of her time reading, only leaving her room again when her mother called for her. Akane was standing at the genkan with a small lunch bag, and helped Sakura into her shoes quickly. They left the apartment and down the stairs to the main street, Sakura skipping along the road towards the park.
Once they arrived, Akane handed the lunch bag to Sakura, "I'll come back to pick you up before the sun sets, ok?"
"Un! See you later, mama!"
"See you later, Sakura," Akane kisses her forehead before waving her off, "Have fun!"
Sakura ran off into the park and immediately let her eyes sweep across the area for light blonde hair. It soon lands on a girl around her age in a an orange dress who was similarly looking for someone to play with. Sakura smiles and runs up to her.
"Hi, I'm Sakura. Haruno Sakura," she introduces herself, "Do you want to play together?"
Yamanaka Ino was nervous when she first walked into the park. It was the first time off of clan grounds to interact with other kids without supervision, nor was she with Shikamaru or Choji. She had looked around and spot a group of children already playing together and she was hesitant to join them. But before she could muster up the courage to approach them, a girl with light pink hair and large green eyes approached her and introduced herself as Haruno Sakura. She even asked her if she wanted to play together!
"Un!" she agrees, "I'm Yamanaka Ino! It's nice to meet you."
The other girl smiles at her brightly and Ino returns the smile with equal enthusiasm. Sakura takes her hand and pulls her to the group of kids that were playing some sort of game.
"What are you guys playing?" Sakura asks them.
"We're gonna play ninja!"
"Ninja?" Ino asks.
"Yeah! One team has to hide this can in plain sight," one of the boys said, lifting up an empty tin can, "and the other team has to find it. If someone from the other team touches you, you're out and have to stand still until someone releases you by crawling between your legs!"
"I'm Sakura" Sakura introduces herself, "This is Ino! Can we play with you?"
"Sure! I'm Kentaro!" the boy introduces himself before pointing at the boy beside him, "This is my little brother, Kenmaru."
The other kids took this as a cue to start introducing themselves. "I'm Nami!"
"I'm Ryosuke!" a boy with glasses said.
A girl with brown hair and light brown eyes introduced herself with a wave, "I'm Ami!"
"I'm Shota!"
"I'm Ryota!" said the boy, finishing the introductions, "and this is my twin brother, Ryuichi."
"Yosh! Let's start!" Kentaro called, "Who wants to be the other team captain?"
Apart from Sakura and Ino, most of the kids had their hands up, begging to be chosen, "Why don't Ryosuke and I take captain this time? We're the oldest and then we can take turns being captain."
They all agreed and divided into teams.
"We'll take the can then," Ryosuke said, "Give us the head start! We won't leave the boundaries of the park."
"Ok! You have 5 minutes!" Kentaro says, setting the timer on his watch with a few beeps of buttons, "Start!"
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After two rounds of Ninja, the children breaked for lunch and gathered at a grassy clearing with their own lunches. They were smiling and laughing and talking amongst themselves. The game was tiring but in a good way. It was the most fun Ino had or at least that she could remember, and she was very glad that the girl, Sakura, had dragged her along. It was weird but Ino felt a connection with the other girl. Right now, they sat together with the two other girls whilst the boys sat a small distance away talking about boy stuff.
"Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, are you guys going to join school soon?" Ami asks.
"Not yet," Sakura says beside her, "I'm only four so I have two more years! How about you, Ami-chan?"
"Me too!"
"I'm going to be joining the Academy and become a ninja," Ino says, "Just like my papa and mama."
"A real ninja?" Nami squeaked.
"Why do you wanna be a ninja?"
Ino turned to look at Sakura who was staring at her quite intently, and Ino had a feeling like this was some sort of test that she had to pass. So instead of saying the first thing to came into mind – 'Because I'm a Yamanaka' –Ino stopped and thought about it. She thought back to what her parents told her about ninjas, thought back to her clansmen and all the other ninjas she's met.
"Ninja help protect this village and the people in it," she finally says after much anticipation, "Ninja protect this country. I want to protect this village and this country too!"
As though she passed the test, a large wide smile graced Sakura's lips and Ino felt her relax now that her first friend outside of the clans seems less serious.
"That sounds wonderful! Then I want to be a ninja too. I want to be a ninja who can protect her precious people and this village," Sakura says, looking at Ino with bright eyes and a pump of her fist, "Let's do our best, ne, Ino-chan?"
"Sakura-chan?" Ino asks as she and Sakura hid behind a thick tree bark, "Is it weird but I feel like I know you."
Sakura turns to look at Ino with wide surprised eyes, "It's not weird at all, Ino-chan. I feel the same way."
Ino grins at her in relief, "I'm really glad I met you."
"Me too!" Sakura returns the smile.
"Maybe you can come over to my house one day and we can press some flowers together," Ino chirps her suggestion, "We can invite Ami-chan and Nami-chan too!"
"Yes! I've never pressed flowers before! It sounds fun. I have to ask my mama first though."
"Me too, but I think mama would be okay with it," Ino says.
"Found you!" Ryuichi exclaims, tapping the both of them on their soldier, "You guys are really loud! I could hear you from miles away."
Sakura and Ino stuck their tongue out at him in retort.
"Ryuichi-kun is a meanine," Sakura huffed at him.
He grinned at them before moving away, "Enjoy your time out."
"Well at least we have each other to talk to," Ino says, "Anyway, I wanted to tell you that your hair is really pretty. Is it natural? And where did you buy the dress? My mama got my dress from Ichigo, but it's orange and orange doesn't look good on me. I like purple more. My favourite doll, Kagome, has a purple dress."
They spent the rest of the day playing and eventually the sun began to set and parents came to pick up their kids. One of Ino's clansmen had picked her up a bit earlier, promising to meet up again soon before she left, and Sakura was now sitting on one of the bars of the climbing frame, swinging her legs as she waited for her mother to pick her up. Ami was still there with her so they talked about their hobbies to past time, and apparently Ami liked to bake with her mother and they talked about the different dishes they've made before. Or it was more like Ami talked and Sakura added commentary here and there.
Instead of her mother, Jiro was making his way to the park entrance and Sakura jumped off the climbing frame. Ami stopped talking and Sakura looked at her with a smile, waving her hand, "That's my dad! It was nice meeting you, Ami-chan. I'll see you again soon!"
"Bye! See you soon, Sakura-chan."
Sakura ran towards her dad, skidding to a stop before she could crash into his leg. Jiro was smiling down at her and his hand went to ruffle her hair. "Sakura. How was it today? Did you make a lot of friends?"
Sakura nodded, "I made a lot of friends! We played ninja together! Where's mama?"
"Mama is cooking at home," Jiro tells her, taking her hand and leading her back towards their home, "We should get back just in time for dinner. I heard that there's dango for dessert tonight."
"Yatta! That's my favourite," Sakura exclaims.
Jiro chuckles, "I know. Now about these friends?"
"I met Kentaro-kun and his brother Kenmaru-kun, Ryosuke-kun and the twins, Ryota-kun and Ryuichi-kun. And Ami-chan and Nami-chan! And the first friend I made today was Ino-chan!" Sakura tells him, "Ino-chan is really cool and she said she wants to meet up again tomorrow! She also wanted to invite me to her house but she said that she'll ask her mama to ask mama about it tomorrow!"
"Oh that's great, Sakura," Jiro says just as they arrive back to the apartment and he unlocks the door, "We're home!"
"Welcome home," Akane calls, "Go wash your hands! Dinner is ready!"
The father and daughter duo went into the bathroom to wash their hands, and face in Sakura's case, before making their way to their own seats at the table. Akane took out the last few dishes from the kitchen and placed it at the centre of the table before taking a seat herself.
"Itadakimasu!"
"How was your day, Sakura?" Akane asks, "Did you make a lot of friends?"
"Yeah! They invited me to go back and play again tomorrow," Sakura chirps, "And Ino-chan said she wants her mama to arrange a playdate with you so I can go to her house and try flower pressing!"
Akane smiles, "Okay, we'll go to the park again tomorrow and I'll talk to Ino-chan's parents and arrange it."
"Yatta!" Sakura cheers, "And then, today, Ino-chan and I joined a group of friends and played ninja with them! We had a picnic at lunch too and we talked about a lot of stuff! And, papa, mama, I know what I want to be when I grow up now!"
"What do you want to be, Sakura?" Akane asks.
"I want to be a ninja!"
Author's Note: Sakura realises a lot of things and learns a lot about herself and her history, and Ino makes an appearance!
I really wanted to develop Sakura's thoughts and motivations in this chapter, have her questioning things and realise that her actions and decisions impact more than herself and what she wants to change. I also hope I set up a pretty good foundation for friendship between Ino and Sakura.
That said, my take on Sasuke's revenge plot in this story largely coincides with Swagkage's video on Youtube called "Dissecting Uchiha Sasuke". It's one perspective that I really didn't consider when I was watching the show, and it makes sense so. But we haven't even met Naruto yet and Sasuke comes much later in the story, at least from what I have planned so far.
The relationship aspect of this story is also not set in stone. I've written down canon pairings for now, but that may change depending on how I think I've written the dynamics between characters.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading this chapter and I hope to see you at the next one! I'll be replying to reviews below.
tiny. sakura: thank you so much! hope you liked this chapter as much as the last and hope you'll stay tuned!
happy guest: thank you! yes, she is being a bit hard on herself but it's also because of the pressure she's feeling. her main goal is striving to be better than she was in shippuden! and you'll be happy to know that chapter 1 will be the last you'll see of 'Kitsune' :D anyway, I really liked hearing from you!
TheSilentLady1002: thank you so much! I look forward to it too!
Nanami: thank you! I hope you'll keep reading this too!
HarbringerOfCrazy: I like your pen name! Anyway, thank you for your inspirations and suggestions! I hope you're not too disappointed that Sakura met Ino first, but I chose this mainly because I think meeting Hinata will be a lot harder and the Hyuuga are less welcoming to outsiders. That and I agree on most of the stuff you suggested, my main goal is to make Sakura really all rounded like how I think a shinobi should be, and have her inspire others in her generation to strive for the same. Hope you liked this chapter too!
xXSakuraBlossomsXx: Thank you so much! Pairings aren't set in stone, but I wrote down SasuSaku just because I think their relationship dynamics will change drastically this time round since Sakura isn't a fangirl and aims to be a serious kunoichi. If the dynamics don't really work and a better pairing pops up, I'll definitely change it to that.
Dom2040: Thank you so much! :D
arapyanime: Sakura will become friends with most of the Rookie 9 before the Academy starts. Thank you for reviewing!
mothedman: Hope this chapter clarified the Uchiha Massacre thing since Itachi was in ANBU and Sasuke was in the academy at that point, there's still some time to go. Ahh I know I've already thought a lot about stuff that happen way in the future and am super hyped about it but gosh it's FAR. And thank you so much!
Magatsu Tempest: Hope this chapter was good too!