Sakura barely had time to take in the mess of onigiri she had made on the floor when her dad suddenly appeared in the kitchen entry way, star-shaped hair disheveled looking and a kunai in hand. His wide eyes darted around the room trying to take in the enemy that had frightened his daughter only to determine there was none present.

"Sakura-chan? What's the matter?"

Her mind stalled as she tried to come up with an explanation for her scream. It wasn't as if she could explain she thought she heard a voice speaking in her head that was different from the one that had been there before. She cleared her throat enough to be able to squeak out, "I saw a spider."

Her father's shoulders relaxed and he dragged his empty hand down his face. "A spider, huh? I bet you scared him more than he scared you." The kunai disappeared, likely up a sleeve somewhere, and Kizashi approached Sakura and the deformed onigiri at her feet.

"So what's got you up so early making breakfast?" He peered around her to look at the food that was already made. Sakura was nearly done; the onigiri she had dropped was going to be her last one before she made some miso soup.

She tore loose some paper towel to wipe up the rice. "I had a nightmare, and since I didn't have dinner last night I thought it would be good to have breakfast." In the light of day, her nightmare about eyes and the river seemed ridiculous. Of all the things to be frightened of! But her father didn't mock her but instead made a sympathetic noise in his throat and patted her head.

"Well, you had an exciting day yesterday, between meeting your new team and falling in the Naka River. It was probably a bit too stressful. How about you tell me about it after I get dressed?" He smiled down at her, drawing a similar one from Sakura. He ambled out of the kitchen back to her parents' room and everything was blissfully normal.

'A spider? Really?'

And then the voice reminded her of its existence. Sakura's eyes unfocused as she turned her attention inwards.

'I wouldn't have had to make up an excuse like that if you hadn't scared me!' Sakura thought towards the voice. Maybe Inner Sakura was being fickle and wanted to sound like a man? But she had never done anything like that before.

There was a ripple of amusement mixed with incredulity. 'Honestly, I don't know what's more ridiculous: your excuse or the fact that he believed you. Your father, I'm guessing.'

Sakura paused as she digested those words. 'You're definitely not Inner Sakura.'

Inner Sakura had always known who the people around Sakura were to her, and Inner Sakura had never separated herself from Sakura to such a degree as to tease her. Inner Sakura was the extreme, suppressed thoughts of Sakura; anything Sakura couldn't voice aloud Inner Sakura expressed mentally, and things Sakura liked or disliked Inner Sakura loved or hated in greater measure.

'I have no idea what an Inner Sakura is, but I do know that I'm not one.' A beat, and then, 'Have you always had voices in your head? You're rather calm about this. You should get that tested.'

'I-it was perfectly fine until you showed up! What are you anyway?'

'I'm a who, not a what. And my name is Shisui.'

'That's nice, but that doesn't tell me what you're doing inside my head.' Sakura thought a bit dryly. She got the impression of a shrug from the voice.

'I don't know. One moment I was floating in the river when you fell in, and the next thing I know I came to inside your head.' Shisui said. 'Also, heads up, I think your father is coming back.'

Sakura got to work shaping a new onigiri so it wouldn't be obvious she had been standing in the kitchen staring into space, and sure enough, her dad walked in, closely followed by her mother. Both were dressed and ready for the day, which included another afternoon shift of patrol and gate duty, if Sakura recalled correctly.

The voice-named-Shisui remained silent as Sakura's mother helped her finish making breakfast and they sat down to eat. Apparently he wasn't terribly interested in her family life, despite his previous claim of having been bored in the river. Which, what did that even mean? The phrase "floating in the river" brought to Sakura's mind corpses, and she was fairly certain there had been no dead bodies in the Naka River yesterday. Sakura was grateful for his silence either way; it would be difficult to have the normal breakfast with her parents that she'd wanted when she woke up if there was a voice in her head constantly trying to catch her attention.

Breakfast was pleasant, though Sakura did find herself repeating endlessly that she was fine after the near disaster at the river yesterday. Her responses to her parents' questions weren't exactly detailed.

"So how exactly did you fall in the Naka River?" her mother asked.

Sakura flushed a dull red and looked down at her plate. "The rocks were slippery," she mumbled. She was sure that both of her parents knew she had an enormous crush on Sasuke, but that didn't mean they had to know that her crush had been the motivation behind rushing to see him and consequently nearly drowning.

Mebuki seemed to sense that although there was more to the story, Sakura didn't want to share, and she didn't push for more details. "Well, soon enough you'll learn from your jounin instructor how to handle situations like that and it won't happen again. Speaking of your new team leader, what do you think of him?" And she turned the topic of conversation away from Sakura's watery misadventure and onto her team.

All too soon, it was time for Sakura to leave for the hospital for her check up to make sure she was fit for training. She was confident that she was going to be given the all clear. Her lungs felt fine, she had no headaches, and there was no sign of fever or chills. The only lingering problem she had from falling into the river was Shisui.

'So when you fell in the river, did you just forget how to water walk all of a sudden?'

Sakura struggled not to splutter aloud. 'I can't believe you're making fun of me! The Naka River is dangerous you know! I could've died! And-and what is water walking?'

'You don't know what water walking is?' Sakura both felt Shisui's shock and heard it in his voice, and it was incredibly unsettling, to feel emotions that weren't her own. 'When did you graduate from the Academy? What were you even doing playing around by the Naka River if you can't water walk?'

'I graduated from the Academy two days ago. And I wasn't playing around the Naka River,' Sakura thought defensively. 'I was trying to return a kunai to Sasuke-kun. He dropped it during our team survival training.'

And instead of trying to be helpful, she ended up causing him more problems by nearly drowning and making him take her to the hospital. Now she would have to work extra hard in training to show what an excellent kunoichi she was and make him notice her. And when he noticed her, Sakura will have finally, definitively beaten Ino.

'That's like, the third time this morning you've thought about this kid. I didn't know girls started getting boyfriends so young.'

Sakura nearly tripped at Shisui's words.

'I, you-! It's not like that!'

'If you say so, kid. Oh, look, there's the hospital.'

Shisui's words drew Sakura's attention away from their internal conversation to find that she had indeed arrived at the hospital. A few moments after walking inside, Sakura had secured a quick check up with one of the junior med nin. While she waited for their arrival, she debated whether or not to tell them about Shisui. On one hand, Sakura was fairly certain this was not a normal reaction to drowning in a river. On the other hand, telling the hospital about Shisui would necessitate telling them about Inner Sakura, which Sakura had never done before. It would be much easier to just not say anything. Sakura was used to having a voice in her head. Shisui wasn't that much different from Inner Sakura, just more annoying.

In another few minutes the med nin arrived and ten minutes after that Sakura was sent on her way with a clean bill of health. The medic hadn't even seemed to realize there was something abnormal about Sakura, the same as every other doctor who had ever looked at her for any reason. Shisui, like Inner Sakura, remained undetectable, even when the medic had chakra at their disposal. That suited Sakura just fine.

Once she was out of the hospital and no longer obligated to interact with the outside world, Shisui apparently felt free to talk to Sakura again. 'So what's so great about this Sasuke kid anyway?'

Sakura struggled both with her embarrassment over her crush on Sasuke and the need to tell Shisui off. It was one thing for Sakura's peers to know about and acknowledge her feelings towards Sasuke; she had never made them secret, after all. It was another for adults to notice and ask about it, and Shisui at least sounded like an adult, even if his demeanor didn't match his voice. At the same time, well, what wasn't great about Sasuke?

In the end, Sakura decided to gush about Sasuke. After all, Shisui was in her head. Who was he going to tell?

'Sasuke-kun is so cool! He's the best genin in our class, he even made Rookie of the Year! And he's so handsome. He always wins in his taijutsu matches, and the only ones who do better on the academic tests are Shikamaru and me. And Shikamaru doesn't count because he always lost to Sasuke-kun during spars. And I get to be Sasuke-kun's teammate instead of stupid Ino-pig, which means she'll never have a chance at him!'

There was a long moment where Shisui was utterly silent and Sakura was unable to discern even his emotions. His silence quickly made her feel uncomfortable and self conscious.

Finally, he said, 'Well. I'm sure Sasuke has some talent as a shinobi.'

'Now you're making fun of me,' Sakura thought, feeling a bit hurt. Inner Sakura had never made fun of her or her feelings before.

He didn't bother to deny it. 'Only a little bit, but I'm sure you'll grow out of it. What about your other teammate?'

'Naruto? He's an idiot and he's annoying. He's always running around yelling about being the Hokage, but he's so dumb. I can't believe I got stuck on a team with him.'

'That's pretty harsh. Are you sure he has no redeeming qualities at all?'

Sakura tried to take Shisui's question seriously. After all, it'd be pretty bad if Sakura couldn't get along with Naruto at all. They were going to be on a team together for the forseeable future and they'd need to work together to succeed. Kakashi-sensei had taught them that already.

'…he's got lots of chakra and he never gives up?' The first was a quality that Sakura felt a little envious of, having small reserves herself, despite it being normal for girls to take longer to develop their stores in comparison to boys. The second…well, Sakura could grudgingly admit in the privacy of her own mind that Naruto's resolve was something to be admired.

'See, he's not so bad. All genin teams are a little rough around the edges when they start out, but that's what your jounin instructor is for.' Shisui said.

Sakura considered Kakashi-sensei. With the way he had batted them around yesterday with such ease, there was no denying he was a skilled shinobi. But he didn't really fit Sakura's image of an elite shinobi. It didn't matter now, of course. Sakura was stuck with Team 7, for better or worse.

Like earlier, the distance from the hospital and the training grounds seemed to have shortened while she spoke with Shisui in her head. Before she knew it, she had arrived at the training area to find Naruto and Sasuke glaring at each other and Kakashi-sensei noticeably absent. Sakura had the sinking feeling that his tendency for tardiness wasn't just a one time thing.

Naruto was the first to notice Sakura's approach and immediately straightened to greet her.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay? You didn't get hurt did you? I yelled at Sasuke-teme for you, I can't believe he didn't take care of you-" Sakura cut off Naruto.

"Stupid! Sasuke-kun saved me, he didn't just let me drown! You didn't yell at him did you?" Sakura propped her hands on her hips as she loomed over Naruto. She tilted her head to catch Sasuke in her peripheral vision to check his reaction. Did he notice her defending him?

'That's Sasuke?' Shisui seemed rather interested in Sasuke now that he could see him through Sakura's eyes.

'Yeah. Isn't he so cool?'

'It's a bit unfortunate.' Instead of agreeing with her, Shisui instead felt…unsettled. Sakura blinked in surprise.

'Why?'

There was a pause from Shisui, like he was trying to figure out what to say. 'Well, it's just…his hair looks a bit like a duck's ass, doesn't it?' Sakura froze as Shisui's words registered. At first she was outraged that someone would dare say such a thing about Sasuke. But…Sakura glanced at Sasuke and her lips involuntarily twitched. Well, Shisui wasn't wrong.

"Uh, Sakura-chan?" Naruto's hesitant voice cut through her thoughts.

"What?" she snapped at him as she jerked back to the real world.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well, you were making funny faces. Are you okay? Did the hospital miss something when you went for your check up?"

It was a struggle for Sakura not to burst into giggles. Yeah, they missed the new voice I have in my head. Instead she scowled at him.

"Are you saying something about my face?"

"N-no! You have a great face, Sakura-chan!" Naruto backed up and out of her reach. Sakura relaxed her posture. No sense getting into a scuffle this early, before practice had even started. It would just make them look unprofessional when they were supposed to be real shinobi now.

Instead, Sakura spun to regard Sasuke. A part of her wanted to hug him in gratefulness for saving her life, but Sakura refrained. He didn't like to be touched and Sakura didn't want to crowd his space. And then as her eyes fully took him in, reality blurred and warped. Suddenly it wasn't Sasuke standing there but a grinning young boy, gap toothed and flushed with happiness. Just like yesterday, when Sakura blinked rapidly the image was gone. She shook her head slightly to help focus on the present. If she tried hard enough, it would be like she had never seen anything.

"Sasuke-kun, thank you for yesterday!" She beamed at him even as her face began to blush. She could just imagine Sasuke diving off the cliff and using his jutsu to help pull her body from the river. And then he probably carried her in his arms as he raced to the hospital to save her life. How romantic!

'You're kidding right? That's not romance, that's just common courtesy.' Sakura's smile became strained at Shisui's words.

'Shut up you jerk. It was totally romantic!'

Sasuke's response filtered through her conversation with Shisui.

"-st don't do it again." Sakura ducked her head, a little embarrassed. It didn't matter how romantic it might have been – it still didn't change the fact that she almost died in a stupid accident.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble I must've caused you," Sakura said. Sasuke shrugged but it didn't escape Sakura's notice that he glanced quickly down her body. Worry clouded her thoughts. Sakura knew she should've brushed her hair more this morning.

'Now you're being silly. He's making sure you're all right.' If inanimate voices had eyes, Sakura was sure Shisui would be rolling his.

Sakura decided to ignore him. He was a terrible distraction. But if he was right, then that meant Sasuke was worried about her, and that was even better than him noticing her looks.

"Hmph. If Sasuke-teme is so great, why'd he let you fall in the first place?" Off to the side, Naruto pouted at the two of them.

"Maa, maa, the important thing is that Sakura is fine now," Sakura startled badly at the sound of Kakashi's voice. Inside her head, Shisui snickered loudly.

'Did you know he was there?' Sakura fumed.

There was still laughter in his voice when he replied, 'Of course I did, it's not like he was trying very hard to conceal himself. I forgot how hilarious genin are.'

Luckily for Sakura's ego, both Naruto and Sasuke seemed just as surprised as Sakura at the sudden appearance of Kakashi-sensei. At least, it was sudden to her, even if it wasn't to Shisui.

Sakura turned to greet Kakashi-sensei and this time the double image of the ANBU version of Kakashi overlying the slouching, tardy version didn't shock her at all.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're late!" At her side, Naruto echoed her words in tandem, except he had the audacity to point accusingly at the jounin. Sakura was too irritated to reprimand him. It was rude to point at people, but it was also rude to show up to a meeting of any kind several hours late.

Shisui snorted inside her head. 'If you had any idea who your jounin instructor was, you would be the one who would be acting more respectful. This team has the potential to be really really good….or an absolute disaster.'

'And what exactly does that mean?' Sakura asked acidly.

'Look, you've got the Rookie of the Year, apparently, then there's the blond kid, and it's no wonder you said he has huge reserves, he'd have to. And then you, which, for as much as you fawn over Sasuke, you're reasonably clever and intelligent.'

Shisui's words drowned out Kakashi's reply to their accusation. Instead, Sakura's mind began to tick over the things Shisui had said during the course of the day, noticing a disturbing pattern. Ignoring how Shisui could know what her intelligence was, she instead asked him something else.

'Why would you expect Naruto to have high chakra reserves?'

'That's an S-class secret and not for you to know,' he answered.

Kakashi-sensei was still talking, and Sakura should be paying attention to him. She was probably standing there with her mouth hanging open like an idiot, but the puzzle of what was going on inside her mind had all of her attention.

'Earlier, you told me that it was boring sitting in the river all day. Then you said before that genin teams all start out rough. And then you mentioned that thing about Kakashi-sensei.' She started slowly.

There was a sense of curiosity from Shisui. 'What's your point?'

'And I keep seeing all these things when I look at people. You have knowledge that I couldn't have. Before, when it was just Inner Sakura…she only knew the things that I knew. But you don't. So where are you getting this knowledge from? More importantly…what are you?'

'Ah, I see.' Shisui paused. Sakura waited with barely concealed anticipation. With all the banter they had traded throughout the day, Sakura had noticed more and more these oddities in his speech, and her curiosity had grown. Inner Sakura had always been a mystery to her, but one that Sakura had accepted unquestioningly. Now she wished she had thought more about what Inner Sakura might have meant, because then Sakura might know more about what Shisui was. But that all changed when he answered her.

'Haven't you guessed yet? I'm a ghost.'