Chapter seven - Kittens and future.
Itachi was stunned. He just came out of the Hokage's office, and was just promoted to Jonin. And of course at the age of 11 that was a feat. But that was not why he was called to the office at the crack of dawn. No. He was called because his brother and his friends have been appointed to be the descendants of the legendary Team 7.
That was a feat not even he, genin at age 6 managed to do.
This privilege came with a lot of things. Team 7 was legendary. The first ever was Tobirama's Team, which had the current Hokage as a student, then came the legendary Sannin as Sarotobi's students. Then Namikaze Minato and his team as Jiraya's students. Then Minato had the last team which was formed of Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin and Hatake Kakashi. And now, it will be his brother and the other two trouble makers. It made sense that Hatake-san would be their teacher.
But everything came with it's precautions. They were watched from a young age. A very young age. All the gennin that were chosen for the team were monitored from a very young age to ensure their ability to maintain the legacy of the team.
That's why he's been called to the Hokage's office. He was appointed to watch them. And he gladly accepted. It was easier for him to watch them without having the Uchiha clan suspect anything, they will surly catch an outsider watching the second son of the head clan. But having Itachi watching his brother was as easy as eating Dango, like Sakura put it.
Of course, nobody was to know of this decision, yet.
Itachi smirked. He loved his first mission as a newly appointed Jonin. It promised to provide so much entertainment.
...
"Tou-san! Tou-san!"
Kizashi looked at his daughter. She supposedly went out to play with Sasuke and Naruto, so he took the opportunity to sit down and read a book in the fresh morning air with a cup of tea in their backyard. And now, not thirty minutes later, comes Sakura.
He placed his book down and gave her his full attention. He knew that she would get loud and grumpy if she didn't have his undivided attention. But something caught his eye in his daughter.
Now Kizashi didn't know anything about how or when a girl starts developing into a woman, but he was sure that his girl was too young to start that. And he knew for a fact that she didn't have a pronounced chest when she left this morning. Kizashi started to panic. What was going on with his baby? Is this normal? Do they grow over night? He was a lonely child, should he talk with her about this? Where is Mebuki when you need her? Wait .. Are they moving? He was sure that they aren't supposed to do that on their own.
"Look what I found!" Said Sakura, oblivious to the emotions of annoyance, realization, panic and confusion crossing her fathers face.
Just then the two balls went up his daughters shirt much to Kizashi's horror, and out popped two kittens.
And being the overly intelligent person that he is, he said the most intelligent thing that came to his short circuited mind, "What?"
"Kitties, Tou-san! Kitties!"
Realization dawned on him and he felt relief flood through him. His baby was still a baby, he had nothing to worry about.
"Why are they in your shirt, Sakura-chan?"
"They were cold!"
And as if to prove her right, the kittens meowed.
"Can I keep them? Please?" She looked at him with puppy dog eyes. He was hooked. Not like he could deny her anything. He sighed.
"Sure thing, kitty. But we're going to have to get them checked first."
And that's what they did, they went to the vet, had them checked and bought the necessary items to take care of them while the veteran gave them shots.
On their way back Kizashi asked, "What are you going to name them, pumpkin?"
"Sasuke and Naruto!"
"What? Why?"
"'Cause, Tou-san," started Sakura as if her father was too dense to see the obvious, "this one is orange and white, orange is just like Naruto! And this one is black, just like Sasuke!"
For the first time Kizashi took a look at the kittens. He found what his daughter was saying to be true. But he decided to pick her mind a bit, "Then why didn't you name the black one Itachi? Or Shisui?"
"Because these two keep fighting like Sasuke and Naruto."
And they were, scratching at each other in front of them while they walked. Kizashi smiled. It was time for a lesson.
"You know Sakura, taking care of these two will teach you responsibility, which is very important for a ninja .."
He continued giving her the lesson with Sakura drinking every word in like a sponge, while they did some grocery shopping.
He was talking to one of the vendors when he heard Sakura yell.
"No!"
"Sakura? What's wrong?"
"Naruto's dead!"
Alarmed, he approached her, "What! Where!?"
"There." She got up and approached a cart and bent down to retrieve the orange cat from beneath its wheel. She cradled the cat and looked at her dad with such a broken look that some of the women that had stopped to see what was going on had tears in their eyes.
Kizashi on the other hand felt himself sag in relief. He forgot about her naming the cats after her friends and thought that some villager finally snapped and killed Naruto, the real Naruto.
He took the kitten from his daughter, ignoring the other mewling cat, and checked 'Naruto'. The cat was breathing, but not for long. He had to do something before it really dies and his girl gets depressed about it.
"Sakura, get Sasuke inside your shirt, and hold Naruto." Doing as told, she felt her father picking up their bags, hanging then on his forearms and then picking her up before taking off to the rooftops.
Once a ninja, always a ninja.
...
Tsunade was finally having her break. The hospital was a chaos when she arrived a week ago, and she has been trying to put it together ever since. She was leaning back in her seat and thinking about the red haired man that talked with her in the Hokage's office. He was the father of the female member of the future team 7.
The Hokage had already told her about the girls interest in medical jutsu, and the father came to tell her about the girls skills.
Could he be lying to her about his daughters abilities? Could there finally be someone who had perfect chakra control like her? Konoha really needed another medic like her. But it's hard to believe the man, especially since most parents tend to exaggerate about their children's abilities. But the Hokage believed him, and she knew her sensei would always check to see if the word is true or not, before telling her. But she was still cautious about this. No need to have her hopes high and then be disappointed. Even Shizune has her limits. She can't do everything that Tsunade can because she lacked the same level of chakra control.
She was brought out of her thoughts when someone opened her window. She recognized him instantly. Of course she would, she was just thinking about him.
Noting the girl on his back and his panting, she took the girl of Kizashi's back.
"Please help him!" The little girl cried.
Tsunade was still in the process of digesting the girls colors when she said that, she was told about her coloring but nothing could have prepared her for the real thing. Looking at the now composed Kizashi, who was giving her a pointed look, she wondered who the girl was talking about. Her father seemed fine to her.
At the pointed look from the male Haruno, she remembered their agreement to have the girl ask for training rather than offering it to her.
Looking at the girl she noticed the cat she held in her arms. Taking the little kitten while crouching, Tsunade checked it with chakra, and made extra sure to have the girl see her chakra, and studied her.
To her surprise, the girl didn't look awed at the sight of her chakra. She looked as if it was a natural thing. Had she been injured before and a medic-nin treated her?
During her musings she unconsciously healed the cat. She stopped when it started mewling. That's when a look of admiration filled the girls eyes.
"Wow!"
Tsunade smirked at her and handed her the cat back and stood up from her crouched position in front of the girl.
"Tsunade-sama, could you teach me?"
Tsunade looked at Kizashi with a slight glare. He wasn't supposed to tell Sakura who she was.
"How do you know my name, gaki?"
"I read about you. A lot of the books in the library have your name and techniques in them, but none had a picture, so I looked in the bingo book. I tried doing a lot of your techniques, but something always goes wrong. My chakra is just like yours when I want to heal but it won't heal ..."
Tsunade listened to the girl rambling, but she stopped her at that point, "You can use medical chakra?"
"Yes."
"Show me."
So Sakura lifted her hand and then a green glow appeared coating it. Tsunade was awed. People took months, some even years to get to the stage this girl was at, and she just looked like it was an everyday thing!
Her mind was made up. She's going to train this girl. It was too much of a risk not to train her. She was a prodigy! No way was she slipping from her hands. But she had to make this girl understand that this is nothing to go around bragging about. She had to scare her. Just one last test to make sure that she won't be disappointed.
She crouched in front of the girl again and her hand returned normal.
"Look, Sakura, right?" At the girls nod, she continued, "What you just did isn't something normal. It takes some people years to do what you just did. You have to know that if you go around bragging about this you will be targeted. People will be after you, and Kami-sama only knows what they would do to a little girl like you."
Tsunade said this with the most menacing, scary and sinister look she could muster, which was a lot. But the girl never wavered. She looked even more determined.
"I understand. I won't tell anybody, except for Neji-kun."
She didn't get it. Why wasn't this girl afraid? She should be pissing her pants.
"Why?"
"Because he's my closest friend! We are getting married when we grow up!"
Cutting the girls enthusiasm, she said, "That's not what I meant, gaki! Why aren't you afraid? Why are you determined about this?"
The solemn look on the childish face that Sakura had was weird. "Because I want to be there for my friends. What if someone got hurt and you were out of town again? I don't trust anybody else to save them!"
Tsunade smiled, pleased. The girl was in for the right reasons. She motioned the girl to come closer. She could feel Kizashi's eyes on them, and hear the cats scuffling in the far corner of her office.
Retrieving a kunai from her holster, she made a gash on her arm and instructed Sakura while the later complied, "Call upon your healing chakra. Now push it into the gash. No, no, no. See, your problem is that you send your chakra to the gap, you have to send it to the skin on the edges. Good, good. Now imagine the cells multiplying to close the wound."
And just like that, the gash was closed. No scabbing. No scar. No anything.
"So? Are you going to train me?"
"Call me shishou."
"Hai, Tsunade-shishou!"
Tsunade smiled. She finally hit the jackpot. Her luck was finally looking good.
She frowned. That was a bad omen.
...
Arriving at their backyard, they found all the boys there, waiting for them.
Sakura jumped directly to Neji, and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back. Then she pulled back and started telling Neji about her day, leaving out her encounter with Tsunade, she would tell him when they were alone. She took out the two kittens from her shirt so Neji could see them.
Kizashi could tell that Neji didn't like the idea that she named the kittens after Sasuke and Naruto. But he didn't comment. Just like Kizashi didn't comment that Neji still had his arms around Sakura. But some people weren't as patient. Namely Naruto.
"Hey! Get your hands off my Sakura-chan!"
Neji raised an eyebrow at the shouting blond and the glaring Uchiha. Great. Just his luck. These two were always fighting and bickering and they finally agreed on something, and that something was against him. He smirked.
"Your Sakura-chan?" Asked Neji as he tightened his hold on Sakura.
"Yeah!" Chorused both of them.
"Sorry to inform you, but she's mine."
"No way! She's mine!" Yelled Naruto.
"Well, ask her."
They looked at Sakura, who was scratching Naruto the cat behind the ear.
"Yeah, that's true. He gave me this necklace," and she showed them the necklace, "and it means that we are going to date, then get married when we grow up!"
Seeing her happiness and giddiness put a smug smile on Neji's face. "See, she's mine!"
Trying to salvage some of their dignity, and of course it had to be Sasuke who had to do it, since Naruto was on the ground wailing to his hearts content. He said with a smug smile, "Yeah, but she named the kittens after us."
The next day Neji brought a white kitten for Sakura.
"I'm naming him Neji!"
Now, Neji had the biggest smug-smile that could ever exist, while Naruto wailed just like the day before, and Sasuke was silently crying while sucking his thumb.
Shisui and Itachi watched everything with amusement, while the later took notes for the Hokage.
...
A/N: Hope this chapter put some light on a couple of things :)
Sakura Hatsu, honestly, is this fic that predictable? You make want to cry :'(
Anyways, I'm not conforming or denying anything, yet. You'll just have to read to find out :)
Till next chapter,
Zee :)