Chapter FOUR

Inoichi opened his eyes to a to a world of black. He blinked a few times, trying to catch a glimpse of something, anything when a voice made him freeze.

"Hello."

Inoichi whipped around and suddenly noticed that a light had appeared out of nowhere, illuminating a girl standing here. Around her, though, was still darkness. He instantly recognized Sakura and tensed, for this was unlike anything he had experienced. He then saw something on her forehead. "Inner..."

The Sakura clone laughed and skipped over to him. "That's right, I'm an Inner Spirit. I am what everyone calls the Haruno Kekkei Genkai."

"Inner Spirit?"

Inner Sakura nodded, and unlike her outer self, did not appear to have any qualms about talking about her clan's techniques. "I'm a second presence that exists in Sakura's head. I protect her mind from anything that may harm her. The existence of the Inner Spirits is what makes the Haruno so formidable in battle."

"You can block pain?" Inoichi guessed. "Guilt? Fear?"

"Aren't you a smart one, eh, human?"

Inoichi did not say anything as the girl skipped over. "You want memories, yes?" She asked. "I can file them up for you, neatly, one at a time. Which one do you want?"


Inoichi soon found himself standing in outside the mouth of a cave. Beside him stood a group of people, all white haired apart from one, a man, who had pink hair. He watched the man give a speech about the moon and the cycle of life before the children were ushered into the cave.

Unlike the children, who showed signs of confusion and excitement, the adults showed no emotion.

"The Inners awaken only under certain circumstances." Inner Sakura said. "Childhood is the only time the Harunos are free of emotional shackles."

"You call absolute control, the ideal form of a shinobi, to be a shackle?" Inoichi asked. He didn't know what to think of the fact that he was having a philosophical talk with the mental being of a girl who was only five. If things had been just a little different, it would be like talking to a kid's illusionary friend. He shook off the thought.

"The Harunos cannot control how much of their emotions are erased." Inner Sakura said. "Once their Inners awaken, they can no longer feel."
"Sakura looks like she has emotions," Inoichi said. Admittedly, not as much as normal children in Konoha had, but she seemed plenty capable of showing emotion.

"Sakura will get better as time goes by." Inner Sakura sounded a little proud. "The clan head alone holds the keys to the shackles, and she can unlock these chains whenever she wishes to."

"Does the death of the rest of the clan automatically make her head?"

Inner Sakura laughed. "It's not as simple as it seems." She said. "Sakura survived the massacre for a reason. She emerged as clan heir and after the death of the former head, she is clan head. The will of the Moon protected her."

"Emerged as clan-" The ground began to shake and Inoichi cut himself off and turned back to the cave just as the entrance was being closed off. Inner Sakura snapped her fingers and suddenly, the two of them were inside the cave.

A breath left Inoichi as he inspected his surroundings. The rocks around him had glowing splotches of blue and green crystals growing out of the surface and they released enough to light to eliminate the otherwise dark cave.

"It's beautiful, isn't it." Inner Sakura asked. "It's the glow of life."

Before Inoichi could ask what she meant, the scene before him once again changed. Images flashed before his eyes. Children huddled together by the rocks when suddenly, one was sprouting a blue, glowing horn made purely of chakra and turning onto the other with a feral screech. Blood splattered the cave floor and the child, a small boy, let the other, a small girl, fall limply onto the floor, her chest a bloody mess from where the boy had attempted to tear out her organs.

Then came the screams, abruptly cut short, as more horns began to sprout.

"What is this?" Inoichi demanded. He knew he was in Sakura's mind, he knew that, but he couldn't help but step to the side when a feral child jumped through the air and landed on the back of another child, who had been attempting to crawl away.

"The ferals are those who failed to Awaken. That was called a Lost Awakening."

Inochi watched two children try to claw each other's eyes out with curled fingers when another pair barreled into them, having knocked each other off their feet. "You called this the Ceremony of Choosing?"

"Yes." Inner Sakura was practically glowing. "Here, children can bring forth their true strength. They are yet to be tainted by the way of the shinobi. They had yet to receive any shinobi training. They are not taught anything apart from clan tradition. They cannot fight, they cannot read, they cannot write. Down here, what determines the fights is their inner strength." She spun around and smiled innocently, and Inoichi was reminded with a jolt of his own daughter. "I kept Sakura alive. I protected her. They are dead. Sakura is alive. This shows that I was the most superior."

Behind them, the scene changed. The ground was now littered by the bodies of children and the floor was slick with blood. Amongst those still alive, Inoichi spied a child with two horns instead of one sprouting from his head. This child was unlike those with only one horn. He appeared calm and controlled, and he easily knocked aside the feral children without so much as a blink.

"That's a successful Awakening." Inner Sakura said. "Two horns are an epitome of success, but it didn't matter, not really. Sakura had the blessing of the Moon. The path of the Moon is set in stone for us. Our fate was set in stone long before anyone stepped into these caves."

There was a sudden chill and Inoichi knew what he would see if he turned around. Still, he did, and he caught sight of Sakura stepping out of the shadows, eyes glowing and chakra horns sprouting proudly from her head.

"She has white hair." He noted.

"Yes, the hair is symbolistic too." Inner Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "You know what happened from here."

The scene changed again and Inoichi turned to the sound of huge rock blocking the cave opening moving to the side. The gentle moonlight from outside was still such a contrast to the darkness of the caves and Inochi blinked a few times. Soft footsteps echoed throughout the cave and Sakura slowly padded towards the exit. The girl's white clan robes were almost clean of blood but Sakura's hands looked like they were donning crimson gloves. Her eyes were still glowing and her chakra horns almost looked as though they were hardening into real bone. The light reflected off of Sakura's hair, which was now pink.

"The clan is the clan head, and the clan head is the clan." Inner Sakura said softly. "The hair is a symbol and a reminder of those who paved the path for the head. Sakura will forever carry the reminder of those whose blood she spilt in order to clamber up to her rightful place."

Inoichi did not say anything and watched Sakura step out of the puddle of blood inside the cave, only to step into another moments later. The girl paused and slowly glanced down. Her eyes followed the trail of blood and landed on the pile of her dead clansmen lying at the feet of a white haired teen.

Inochi did not remember this particular face from earlier and gauged that this was the mysterious teen Kakashi and his team had encountered.

He leaned in, trying to pick up something, anything, when suddenly, the scene before his eyes began to blur. "What?"

Before him, the scene continued to play on. "What is your name, girl?"

"I am...Sakura."

The scene faded away.

"His name was Toneri, and he took us, simple as that." Inner Sakura said, and her expression was unlike anything Inochi had seen on her face before. "My job is to protect Sakura, and I knew this teen was not someone we could mess with. He took us, and I let him. The massacre of the clan, arriving in Konoha, everything is set in stone on the path of the Moon, and he was merely a part of it all."

With that, Inoichi was booted, rather ungracefully, from Sakura's mind.


Sakura slumped over in her chair soon after Inoichi began. Itachi gently laid the girl down on the table and they sat in silence as they waited.

Twenty or so minutes later, Inochi sat up with a jolt. Sakura remained motionless.

"What did you find?" Minato asked.

Inochi told them of what had occurred within the girl's mind. He told them of Inner Sakura and of the Haruno clan. He relayed what the Ceremony of Choosing was and what he had witnessed within the caves. He then covered the brutal end of the Haruno clan save for a single girl and the name of the teen who had committed the massacre.

"Toneri," Itachi whispered. It was an unusual name but he had a feeling it suited the mysterious air the teen the seemed to emit.

"I was booted shortly after Toneri appeared." He said. "I do not know if it was Inner Sakura or something else."

"This Inner Sakura, she cooperated?" Ibiki asked.

Inoichi nodded slowly. "Mostly." He said. "Inner Sakura told me she puts Sakura's safety and protection above all else. I believe as long as we guarantee her protection, she will not interfere."

"What now, Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked softly.

Minato frowned. "We will keep Sakura at the Uchiha compound." He said. "We will keep an eye on her for a while longer. For now, we will keep an eye out for Toneri."


Inner Sakura let out a laugh as she pranced through the landscape. Around her, the scene changed with each step. One second, it was a forest, next it was a lake. Finally, the scene stopped in a cave similar to the one of the ceremony.

"Humans are truly stupid, aren't they, Kura-chan?"

There was no reply, but Inner was not surprised, not with the way Sakura's body was encased within a huge crystal of solid chakra. Inner Sakura skipped over and placed a hand over where the girl's heart was.

"I've done what I can. The stage is now yours." A sphere of glowing chakra appeared in Inner Sakura's hands. She released it and the chakra moved towards the crystal. Upon contact, there was a flare of light and the chakra was absorbed into the structure.

"Wake up, Kura-chan."


Toneri stood on his perch, concealed by the shadows and a faint notice me not genjutsu. The huge flare of Otsutsuki chakra called out to him and he could feel the tug towards a huge shinobi clan compound located at the border of the village.

Still, Toneri remained where he was. He spread his arms and let himself simply feel. Then it was gone and he was turning towards the other huge shinobi compound in the area.

Toneri had spent a lot of time setting up everything and the next step was to check up on a seed he had planted years ago.

The Otsutsuki chakra was pure and was almost impossible to sense unless one was an Otsutsuki.

He wanted to give Sakura an ally, someone who would not betray her.

He arrived at the Hyuuga compound and found his little side project going through a series of kata, just like he knew he would be.

The Caged Bird Curse Seal was similar to a seal used by the Otsutsuki main house a long time ago, before the branch family had broken away, and he knew how it worked. It hadn't been altered by a lot and still reacted well to his chakra, and an interference in the binding was nothing too difficult.

Hyuuga Neji was bound not to the Hyuuga clan, but to Otsutsuki Sakura himself.


Memories flooded through Sakura's mind with the ferocity of a broken dam. Everything she had temporarily forgotten returned, merging with the memories of her time in Konoha and expanding within her mind.

It hurt.

Sakura could hear her Inner whispering words of comfort to her but with her new freedom as the clan head, the suppression of pain was no longer a natural reaction but a reactional one, and Sakura found herself unable to pull herself together enough to command herself to let go of the pain.

She felt her throat contort in a scream but she could not hear anything. She could hear footsteps and voices, but all she could see was her time within the caves with Toneri, before everything had started. She saw the bodies of her clansmen and could hear someone whispering to her, over and over again, of her role as the last Haruno and the Otsutsuki clan head.

She was Haruno Otsutsuki Sakura. She was one of two Otsutsuki left, and she had a role to play within this cruel, twisted world warped by the selfishness of humans and it was her duty, as a member of the clan who had gifted humans the weapon to kill, to fix it all.


It was a scream that forced Itachi out of his much needed sleep. He shot up into a sitting position, mind clouded momentarily with sleep. He quickly looked out the window, noting that is was probably around three. Then he was wide awake and shooting out of his room. He didn't see anyone in the corridor, but he could sense the awake chakra of his parents. His brother was slowly stirring as well. He darted across to the room opposite his, Sakura's room, as well as the source of the scream, and flung the door open.

The girl was curled up on her bed in a fetal position. Another scream was wrenched out of the girl and Itachi quickly approached her. He realized that her chakra signal was going haywire and shook her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. Tears ran down her cheeks and her hands were clenched, nails digging into her palms. Itachi quickly uncurled her fingers when he realized that she was drawing blood.

"What's going on?" Mikoto appeared at the entrance of the room, eyes widening at the sight of Sakura. She quickly darted in.

"I tried to wake her, but..." Itachi trailed off, not knowing what to do in these kinds of situations.

Mikoto gently shoved Itachi out of the way and shook the girl. "Sakura-chan, wake up."

Sakura flinched away, arms moving to wrap around herself. "Senri...sama." She gasped out.

"Sakura-chan!" Mikoto desperately shook the girl.

"Kaa-san?" Sasuke stood at the entrance, rubbing his eyes. He blinked at the scene of Itachi and his mother hovering over Sakura and quickly stepped into the room. "What's going on?"

"Nightmare."

Sakura let out another scream, this one muffled by her arms.

"Sakura!" Itachi roughly shook her. The girl shook his hand off. Itachi rolled her over onto her back and inwardly flinched. Her eyes had blinked open, but they didn't seem to be looking at anything. Itachi then noticed that in the dim light of the room, Sakura's eyes were glowing.

"Her eyes..."

"Sakura?"

Said girl slowly blinked, each time her eyes returned to normal. "Ita...chi-san? Mikoto...san?"

Mikoto wrapped the girl in a hug." Oh, I was so worried! What happened?"

Sakura whimpered, burying deeper into Mikoto's warmth.

"I do not know." She cried. "It hurts."

Mikoto patted her head gently, and Sakura looked up. She then turned towards the door, catching sight of Sasuke. She froze. "Indra...?"

Mikoto and Itachi glanced at each other. Why had Sakura muttered the name of their ancestor?

"No..." Another wave of tears flooded out of Sakura's now normal green eyes. The broken cry forced Itachi to remember that despite the air this girl let out and the Kekkei Genkai that allowed her to appear calm and collected under most situations, she was just a girl, barely his brother's age.

Mikoto nodded at Itachi, wordlessly telling him to leave Sakura with her. Itachi grasped Sasuke's shoulder and nudged him out of the room. He closed the door behind him.

"Why was she crying?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Itachi sighed. "I do not know. However, if I have to guess, it is probably about her clan." He thought back to the name she had gasped out. Haruno Senri had been the previous head of the Haruno clan. Inoichi's digging around had probably reminded her of something.

"Her clan?"

Itachi nodded. "Sakura's clan was killed by an unknown person a few years ago." He explained gently.

"Oh," Sasuke mumbled. "Could she not read because her clan is dead and no one could teach her?"

Itachi smiled faintly and crouched down so that he could look Sasuke in the eye. "Well, not really." He said. "Sakura's clan has a tradition, and that tradition demanded all children below the age of six to not be taught anything apart from clan related things."

"Anything?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi nodded. "Children under the age of six were not allowed outside the compound. Their compound was underground, and so, all children under the age of six have never stepped foot outside their compound." He paused. "Apart from the clan heir. The clan heir is taken in by the head, and then taught everything the head knows. However, Sakura's head passed away soon after she was chosen as heir..."

"Oh."

Itachi nodded. "It's very late." Or very early, depending on the way you look at it. "So why don't you go back to sleep?"

Sasuke nodded, yawning. "I'm going to bring Sakura to the park tomorrow." He mumbled. "And I'll introduce her to Naruto. And we can play catch."

Itachi smiled. "That is a good idea."


So, here's chapter five~

The last bit was taken mostly from the original version...ye, just saying.

Darque: MY MOCK EXAMS ARE DONNNENNNNNNEEEEEEEEE.

Raven: That's good to know.

Darque: Yup! I'm sooo happy. I failed all of them, I'm sure, but that's the price that comes with freedom.

Raven: Freedom?

Darque: The freedom from the shackles of stress that comes with studying. By not studying, I was able to free myself from this burden.

Raven: Can't you free yourself from failure?

Darque: Pah, that's a small price to pay. FREEEEDOOOMMMMMM~~~~

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