Author Note: Optional Reading, just answering this reader's question. Readers who don't care, feel free to skip to the story.

Question: "Shouldn't Minato have been Hokage when Sakura was born?"

Short Answer: Not necessarily. In this story, Hiruzen is still Hokage when Sakura is born, but is retiring and appointing Minato as Hokage. Minato is Hokage for less than 7 months until Naruto's birthday, in which he dies.

Long Answer:

This DOES work with canon timelines actually, because Kishimoto was never clear when specifically Minato became Hokage. Sakura could have been born shortly after the war, while Obito is still training with Madara. Minato was never made Hokage straight immediately after the war (it was anime filler.)

Due to Kishimoto's unclear Naruto timeline, especially surrounding the events of when Minato became Hokage and when Orochimaru left the village, we are going to go with Minato being made Hokage shortly after Sakura was born (and dying 7 months later, when Naruto is born.)

There are some sources that Minato has been Hokage for less than a year.

It makes sense canonically that Sakura was born shortly after the 3rd shinobi war ended, while Obito was still training with Madara. Obito will attack Konoha 7 months after Sakura's birth; since in canon, Sakura's birthday is on March 23rd, and Naruto's birthday is on October 10th.

For Chapter 1 to make sense with canon, let's say Hiruzen was still Hokage, but is retiring, and Minato is going to be Hokage for less than 7 months until Naruto is born.

And, there are sources that reveal Orochimaru left Konoha 3 years after Naruto was born.

So, I hope that clears up some things. You don't have to memorize or understand all this timeline stuff, just read or enjoy the story :)


—- CHAPTER 2.—-


(´゚д゚`)


Previously:

And when Sakura Shimura was just a toddler, Danzo Shimura called the toddler to crawl over to him, and said, "You're old enough to be trained as a ROOT ninja now...and sole heir to the Shimura Clan."

Now:


"We have a meeting with Lord Orochimaru today," Danzo informed Sakura, who was just a few months old. "In the meantime, I will train you."

He carried his daughter to the ROOT underground base, to the training dojo.

First, he tried having her learn to walk on her own two feet; but it was quite difficult. She only knew how to crawl on all fours, or slide around the floor.

"Tsk, you need to grow up faster if you want to be useful, Sakura." He chided gently. He was growing fond of his daughter, though.

Who wouldn't? After months of milk-feeding the pink-haired baby, tucking her to sleep, only to be awakened in the middle of the night by the baby's crying for affection and attention. Ever since the war, no one dared wake him up, even during emergencies (unless it was a village emergency concerning a potential looming war.)

To think he of all people actually had known how to be a parent; he had read some books about child care. It was absurdly unimaginable, that he himself would call it a fiction.

(During his younger days, before Hiruzen was even crowned Hokage, Danzo had loved a girl, once. He had considered becoming a father, once.

However, that girl was killed in battle, and not too long afterwards, his sensei was killed in battle too… after crowning Hiruzen as Hokage.

Danzo had lost everything; no parents, no significant other, no sensei, and no Hokage position— even that had been given to his rival, Hiruzen, because Danzo had lost the test of bravery and displayed himself incapable of being willing to sacrifice his life to protect his comrades; he was trying to force himself to, but hesitated for too long, and then realized that he was relieved during that moment that Hiruzen volunteered instead.

He had shown not only himself, but Tobirama-sensei that he was a coward, during his final interaction with Tobirama.

He decided at that moment, that he would dedicate his entire life to protecting Konoha, no matter what.

If he couldn't be the star like Hiruzen, he would be the darkness that enshrouded Konoha's enemies, the darkness that would choke the oxygen out of the fire within their core, suffocating them, all to keep Konoha's stars burning brightly.)

He would be the roots that support the leaves, in the darkness. A true shinobi.

Danzo mused as he scanned the nutrition facts of the bag of milk. He'd gone shopping, and impressed the villagers, even the shinobi, whenever he went window shopping for his daughter.

Everyone loved how he was the perfect single father. Multiple women even approached him wanting to flirt with him — and wasn't that revolting — but he was disinterested, which seemed to encourage them even more; Danzo was truly a doting father who didn't, and wouldn't seek a new wife.

After arriving at the Root training dojo with Sakura, Danzo continued trying to teach her to walk.

There was a knock on the door. He extended out his chakra and sensed that it was the correct chakra signature; it was the same dark type as his own: Orochimaru's.

"Come in."

Orochimaru walked inside, serenely. He wore a kimono and had straight, silky, black hair, and pale, sickly white skin.

"Greetings, Danzo-sama." Orochimaru inclined his head, and smiled, long, snake-like tongue licking his pale lips.

"Welcome to Root, Orochimaru." Danzo greeted. Orochimaru was not officially a Root shinobi, but an ally of Root.

Orochimaru was Hiruzen's student and reported to Danzo about Hiruzen's actions. They had a quid pro quo deal going on. Danzo would supply Orochimaru with corpses, as well as live bodies of human children, some of them kidnapped from Konoha, others kidnapped from outside of Konoha. In return, Orochimaru would assist Danzo with his medical ninjutsu and scientific enterprise. The two of them would also share intel about Konoha's politics, the Hokage's decisions, and the decisions of the Council, which Danzo was a part of.

Orochimaru was a non-Root Konoha shinobi, but still an ally of Root. Danzo hoped he could keep this partnership for as long as possible, Orochimaru was a valuable asset. Of course, if Orochimaru got found out by Sarutobi, Danzo would have to cut all ties with Orochimaru and remove all traces of any connection to the man.

(After all, Danzo had a council position to maintain, and he'd be damned before he let Orochimaru drag him under when Orochimaru inevitably sinked.)

Currently, the two of them had the most useful partnership, and Danzo was slowly positioning the strings for Orochimaru to become Hokage. Unfortunately, Namikaze Minato came out more famous, from the war, than Orochimaru, despite how Orochimaru had lost the most to war.

Danzo still had a plan to get Orochimaru the Hokage seat, and even if that didn't work, Danzo could make himself the Hokage. Danzo knew Hiruzen had plans to retire, but surely there was no way Hiruzen would choose Minato as his successor, over Hiruzen's own student or Hiruzen's lifelong teammate, was there?

With these reassurances in mind, Danzo smiled at Orochimaru and asked, "Tell me, Orochimaru, how are the experiments going?"

Orochimaru beamed, his eyes gleaming. "They're going swell, unlike the last catastrophic experimental attempt to implant Hashirama cells into the 60 babies to grant them Wood Release…" Orochimaru looked pointedly at Danzo, like he was blaming him for that laboratory disaster, before continuing with a snake's smile. "I may have discovered a path toward immortality!" Then, he looked at Danzo with condescending eyes.

"That's what you should have been researching from the start; immortality. Your obsession with your sensei's brother, Senju Hashirama, won't grant you eternal life; even he had died. I shouldn't have toyed with those cells. They're useless. They don't work."

"Don't be a fool, Orochimaru. You know they work, you're the one who proved to me what they could do when you restored my missing arm with an arm made of Hashirama's cells. My right arm feels extremely powerful, and vitalized, more so than my original. I just know Wood Release is within my reach."

"And it didn't work." Orochimaru rolled his eyes at Danzo. "Now we have 60 dead babies to dispose of… And don't make me do it, I'll be a fool to get caught by the authorities for conducting your illegal experiments. I'll leave you to dispose of them. Here's the address to the hideout where the babies, which may have grown now, are in tanks." Orochimaru handed Danzo a scroll with the address. "Apologies in advance to your Root agents for the...rot. I left the bodies there for a few years unsupervised."

Danzo made a grim line with his mouth. "That will be alright, Orochimaru."

"Have fun disposing of dead babies," Orochimaru sneered. His yellow eyes finally flickered toward the bundle of blankets held in Danzo's arms, where little Sakura was. "This baby…"

Danzo angled Sakura, and woke her up from her nap. She opened her eyes, revealing purple, concentric eyes.

Orochimaru gasped, blindsided and shocked. This baby's eyes… even Orochimaru had heard legends about them; he had read ancient books about them. They were the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths, the founder of ninjutsu, the true God of Shinobi.

"I didn't even know that the Rinnegan still exists. How did a scoundrel such as yourself get your hands on it?"

Orochimaru never knew he would be seeing these eyes, on the body of a baby, much less a baby held within Danzo's arms. Orochimaru had heard that Danzo had a daughter, but is that truly his daughter?

He called bull on that one.

It was way too good to be true. Even if a God were to be born in this world, for that God to be the offspring of someone like Danzo, the scummiest of all scums? Hah, it was almost as blasmphemous as Orochimaru himself giving birth (in a female body he took,) to a kid with Rinnegan. It was scientifically impossible (he didn't have the genes for it,) and even if there was divine intervention, even if God existed, God wouldn't choose him. God wouldn't choose Orochimaru to spawn a Rinnegan child, and Danzo was just as bad as him, if not worse.

"How very curious!" Orochimaru exclaimed at Sakura, clasping his hands in delight. How badly Orochimaru wanted to pause his immortality research, to find out just how this marvel came to be.

"This is my daughter, Shimura Sakura. Sakura-chan, meet your Godfather, Orochimaru." Danzo supplied. Sakura waved her chubby little fingers at Orochimaru. Orochimaru stared at her in fascination.

"This is my first time seeing her. Once again, I never expected that — your daughter, has the— the eyes. The Rinnegan." Orochimaru was transfixed, and fascinated. "Is your— is your meeting with me today, to let me experiment on … the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths?"

"No, Orochimaru. We may be lifelong allies, but I have plans for her. Maybe after the plans are fulfilled, I would consider handing her over to you; only after you've proven yourself reliable for even longer."

"How much longer?"

"Maybe 35 years."

Orochimaru frowned, but decided that he could wait. That amount of time was only a blip of a second once he attained eternal life.

"Fine then. May I hold her?" Orochimaru stuck his tongue out, drooling estactically.

"No." Danzo shook his head. "I said what I said. And I know you will try something."

Orochimaru sighed dramatically. "Such a stubborn old coot. You know you can't refuse me once I'm Hokage, Danzo-sama."

Danzo smiled ruefully. "That's what this meeting is about. We are to plan our next course of action to convince Hiruzen to recommend you as his successor."

Orochimaru opened his mouth, excited when—

Suddenly, a Root agent appeared in front of the both of them.

"Lord Danzo," the masked agent said, kneeling. "I have bad news for you. "Namikaze Minato's inauguration is tomorrow. He's been crowned Hokage."

It took a second, but cold rage ran through Danzo's body. Almost simultaneously, cold rage ran through Orochimaru's body too. They looked at each other, eye contact with cold, yet furious eyes.

Suddenly, they both drowned the room in killing intent, cowering the Root shinobi even lower upon his knees, and turning his face white. Within seconds, the Root shinobi was gasping for air, hyperventilating on the floor, unable to breathe.

The two shinobi legends then took a look at Baby Sakura, who was wide-eyed and, frozen, and stone-cold.

Immediately, they both retracted their killing intent before the baby suffocates.

Danzo, however, was mad. All his hard work, all his strings and politics pulled to position Orochimaru for Kage, thrown out the window because of Sarutobi's favoritism against his own student, Sarutobi's fakeness.

Orochimaru was equally enraged, falsely led by blind promises from Sarutobi. Why else had he worked so hard for Konoha, only to lose to a 20 year old student of His dumbest teammate?

"Leave now!" Pissed off, Danzo threw a kunai at the ROOT Agent. The kunai cut an inch into the Root agent's chest, rupturing something without killing him, and the Root agent gasps and runs out of the room.

Then Danzo directed his eyes at Sakura, who had rolled onto the floor and is now crawling around his feet.

Suddenly, Danzo grabbed her by her collar and held her up. "You," He snarled.

"Aren't you supposed to be a deity?"

Orochimaru stared wide eyed, not expecting this development. "Uhh… Lord Danzo."

"Get out." Danzo turned furious at Orochimaru.

"Yes sir, yes Danzo-sama," frazzled and excited, Orochimaru eagerly exited the room. But he did not truly leave; he dipped into an inner breach of the corridor, and remained there, hidden. Orochimaru tried hard to eavesdrop. He even summoned a small, white snake and had the snake slither closer to the room he had just left, to continue monitoring the situation.

Like a predator, he was hungry watching what happened to the baby.

After grabbing his cane, Danzo turned Sakura upside down, holding her up by her ankle.

"Kill him," Danzo hissed. The order fell unclear, a hushed, vindictive tone. Promises of vengeance perfected the depth of his resentment.

She gifted him nothing but a clueless, unknowing stare, and it only served as an additional boost.

She was dangling her whole body off the ankle now. Struggled under his vice-like grip.

Sakura, never having spoken her first words before, unsure of the concerns and happenings of the world, stayed silent. The only instinctual tears pouring from her eyes, rolling past her forehead onto the ground.

It happened before she could blink.

She wailed as he whipped the cane against her stomach. He repeated his words, an order after an order. The name that triggered his anger kept on flowing out of his mouth. The object was everywhere, striking upon her tiny form.

It was done without the intent to kill, replaced with a firm purpose to harm, and yet it had the potential to cripple her for life.

Fresh blood dripped on the floor. She was… almost unmoving. Breathing too slow, too shattered to whine.

"K— K—" Sakura choked out blood and her eyes rolled backwards on her head. It looked like Sakura, barely a few months old, had passed out cold. Danzo heard a few cracks, and wondered whether he had gone too far, and broke bones.

Danzo heaved a sigh, gasping for breath. Gently, he laid her upon the ground. "NONO! SUMMON NONO!" He called into a loudspeaker.

(Hidden, Orochimaru spied the Root Agent, Nono Yakushi, from the other end of the building making her way to him, and watched her run into the dojo where Danzo had called her to.)

Nono Yakushi came into the room, and kneeled. "Yes, Danzo-sama?"

"Heal my daughter."

Nono Yakushi peered through her light brown bangs, to see Sakura laying out cold on the floor, in the pile of her own blood. Nono felt her own blood run cold. Within moments, she was instantly sitting in front of the toddler, healing chakra forced upon her hands, pressed onto Sakura's chest.

She healed all of Sakura's bruises, bleeding, and wounds. During the entire time of healing, she wondered whether it was Danzo who abused her. Like a mother's instinct, she opened her mouth to question him. "This girl is just a baby. You can't be training them this young, you usually wait until they're at least three. How did she—"

Suddenly, the body was dragged forcefully away from Nono. She instinctively reached out, but was met with Danzo's cane smacking her on her hands. Nono recoiled, eyes wide behind her round glasses.

"Don't question your leader," Danzo said, holding Sakura up by her ankle again. "Remember your place, young ROOT operative. Who is funding your orphanage? Who is keeping your son fed? Who could cut all that off?"

Nono swallowed and stayed silent.

Danzo smiled, and resumed beating Sakura up with his cane, muttering "Kill Minato," over and over again.

(Danzo avoided hitting Sakura's head. He didn't want to cause brain damage because that would make her useless when she grew old enough to be a Root operative; his Yamanaka healers were not skilled enough to heal head trauma, and neither were Konoha's brain surgeons— they'd also ask far too many questions. The body however…could always be healed by his Root medics, such as his best one, Nono Yakushi. Thus, Danzo resumed his physical abuse. )

Sakura cried endlessly, in the sea of pain, of white and blindness. She was unable to predict where the cane went. She was completely, mentally broken. To have all the bones in her body broken, to have the her skin on all her body parts cracked open and bleeding from the beatings of Danzo's cane, only for the Root medic to heal all her wounds, only for Danzo to start over again — it wasn't just physical, but mental torture. She was only one month old!

After hours of crying, all her tears had dried. No matter how much damage Danzo continued inflicting upon her freshly-healed-by-Nono body each time, tears would not come out of Sakura's blank eyes.

She was like a lifeless doll that Danzo held onto and beat; like a literal puppet. Eventually, Danzo grew bored.

"Heal her up, Nono," Danzo said, setting Sakura on the ground before her. Sakura tried to stand, but fell straight on her face, but didn't even make a sound at the clang.

Nono had eyebags under her eyes, and her own heart had gone black with guilt, constantly regretting not fighting Danzo hard enough. Upon being told that this was the final healing, Nono completely healed Sakura's body until there was no evidence of any abuse there.

"That's it now, Nono," Danzo said, staring at her with black eyes. "I see you're out of chakra. I'll deposit 10,000,000 ryo on your orphanage's bank account tomorrow. You can go home, and take two weeks off from ROOT. Look...after your son," Danzo's last words sounded less like empathy and more like warning. You know what happens to Kabuto if you tell anyone.

Nono bowed her head low, for a long second, before she turned to leave. As she was walking out of the room, she took one last look at Sakura, who was still laying on the ground, wordlessly and silently, staring at the ceiling.

Perhaps she should — take Sakura to the orphanage — Sakura and Kabuto could be siblings —

Nono reached outwards, toward Sakura's completely healed body. Even though Sakura was completely healed, to Nono, it looked as though Sakura was still completely covered in blood. Nono blinked rapidly, knowing that she was hallucinating; Danzo hasn't touched Sakura since the beating session was over.

Nono wondered whether she could live with this, seeing Sakura around the orphanage, as a constant reminder of gore and death. However, Nono felt obligated toward Sakura, as she healed Sakura at least twenty times tonight, she felt she developed a strong bond to the baby.

However, at the same time, Nono had PTSD whenever she looked at Sakura. And at the same time, Sakura wasn't an orphan; Sakura was Danzo's daughter.

Nono felt her blood run cold, watching Danzo place his hands underneath Sakura's armpits and hold her up, forcing Sakura to stand.

Sakura was barely a few months old, her muscles weren't developed to stand on her two feet. She was still a crawler.

Sakura fell flat on her face.

"What are you waiting for, Nono?" Danzo asked, without turning his back to look at her. "You're free to go home. Hadn't your past services at Root, earned you the privileges of owning your own home, the orphanage? Cash in on that. See to your children." Danzo's mouth was set to a grim line. " Unless you want to continue living at the ROOT base. If no one takes care of your orphanage, Root will have to claim all the children."

"Yes sir," Nono said quickly, bowed her head low and instantly disappeared.

From the corridor, Orochimaru watched Nono scurry past and leave the Root hideout.

Smirking in fascination, Orochimaru whispered, "How very interesting…" and stepped out of his hiding place, leaving the Root hideout as well. Orochimaru found the Yakushi's arrangement with Danzo a compelling story. Although, it was nothing he'd do anything about, he still had a partnership with Danzo.

"Still, Danzo, your style upon your followers is blackmail. My style upon my followers is fanatical worship. We are very different people." Orochimaru concluded, as he fully left the Root hideout. He can't stay for the entire beating, as much as he enjoyed it; he had experiments and research to do.

Left alone with Sakura, Danzo said, "I was tired of seeing that stupid smile constantly. This blank expression is more like it. You will grow up to be the ideal shinobi."

Sakura blankly stared back at Danzo, and parted her mouth.

"D—"

Danzo smiled, and carried Sakura out of their exclusive training room. He walked across the corridor, to the other end of the Root underground building, into the kitchen. From there, Danzo changed Sakura's bloody diaper. Once he was done, he prepared baby milk formula for Sakura.

He gave a bottle of milk to Sakura, and Sakura took the milk blankly. Her eyes widened at the milk, switching back and forth between Danzo and the milk bottle in her hands. Sakura gaped, and put the bottle nipple into her mouth, and started drinking the milk desperately. She was extremely hungry due to the strain upon her body.

Danzo placed Sakura on his lap, as he took a seat in a chair.

Danzo smiled and hummed lowly to Sakura, an old Konoha war song that Tobirama had passed onto him.

Sakura sucked the milk bottle dry, and Danzo took the milk and refilled it with more milk formula.

She accepted the milk and drank, while staring at him, wondering what Danzo was going to do next. Feeling full, Sakura gave the milk bottle back to Danzo.

Danzo took the milk bottle back, set it aside.

Suddenly, an idea came into his mind—from all this child caring—a fatherly idea. Danzo softened his voice, and cooed gently, his fingers combing through Sakura's tiny pink hairs on her head.

"Say dad-dy," Danzo said. Sakura had never said her first word before. He wanted to hear his daughter's first words. "Daddy Danzo-sama. Danzo-otou-sama. Otou-sama. Say daddy."

Sakura stared back at Danzo quizzically, Rinnegan eyes wide and lilac.

She swallowed, and opened her mouth.

"K-Kill Minato!"

Ironically, Sakura's first words were kill Minato, and ironically, months later, Minato would actually perish.

...

When that happened months later, a shocked Danzo would be rattled for a while, paranoid and suspicious and careful with Sakura, no longer abusing her with a cane. In fact, he stopped physically abusing her outside of training, and started buying her gifts, spoiling her as much like a doting father as he could.. and hoping she didn't remember. "Those residual scars on your body? You were born like that. Now, how about some fancy, expensive food, and fancy, expensive clothes?"

(However, that peace won't last forever; it won't be long before Danzo chalked it up to just coincidence, and acted like his natural self again instead of tiptoeing on eggshells regarding Sakura. His treatment of Sakura was both hot and cold.)


(´゚д゚`)


Later on, people would wonder why Sakura acted so emotionless, why she never cried. It was because long ago, her tears dried up.

Danzo had somehow found a permanent solution to stop the baby crying at night; by killing her emotions before she even developed them.

Later on, in the future, when Uzumaki Naruto becomes a Hero, Konoha would wonder how badly the ignorant villagers beat up Naruto for being the Kyuubi host, and sympathize.

They never wonder how badly Sakura was beaten; no, she was the spoiled princess of Danzo Shimura, Council Advisor and leader of Root; she was the heartless, arrogant princess who never feels sympathy or emotions for others. They would not even consider Sakura as one of Root's dogs, but Lord Danzo's trophy daughter served by Root's dogs.

And they would be half-right.


(´゚д゚`)


Author Note: Heavy chapter. Don't worry, things will get better. Comment your thoughts or if you liked or hated it! Thanks :(

(Warning/Rant: If you're a parent, this doesn't work in real life. It's child abuse and atrocious; do not hit children. They would grow up with lifelong disabilities, and you'd end up in jail.

My uncle-in-law actually held his 5-year-old step-son up by his ankle and beat him with his cane, whenever he misbehaved. That child is now 30, and he has some serious disabilities. Abuse is never the answer, folks.

I feel bad not doing anything, but this all happened before I was born. If you ever see child abuse, don't just let it happen; report it.)