December 20, 2002

3 years, 11 months, 3 days prior to Incident

As Sakura ambled to her usual lunch spot, she was accosted by three glowering school girls.

They herded her into an empty stairway, with a set of stairs going down directly behind Sakura. The two other girls stood sentinel at each end of the hallway as the lead loomed over Sakura.

"Look." The girl tossed her dyed blond hair over a shoulder. "I don't know who you think you are, but stay away from Light-kun if you know what's good for you."

"I think I'm Fuyuno Sakura, the second year's top ranked student," Sakura remarked wryly. "And I don't see why you feel threatened by me, Watanabe-senpai."

"Threatened? By you? Don't you know who I am?!"

"Watanabe Momoko, voted the prettiest third year in Daikoku Junior High. Your father is Watanabe Yamato, the wealthy owner of a furniture chain. You were accepted into Daikoku despite your average grades due to the backing of your father's money," Sakura listed.

The upperclassman snarled unpleasantly.

"Anyway, I'm not remotely interested in Light, nor is he in me. Our relationship is platonic, based on mutual interests and goals rather than any sort of romantic attachment."

"I don't care what your relationship is with him. I don't want to see you within ten feet of him, you eyesore! Is that clear?"

Sakura blinked. "That's probably going to be impossible. We're in all the same classes, and I happen to be his preferred partner for group assignments," she said. The pinkette then smiled teasingly and tilted her head. "But I'd be willing do it for the measly sum of 20000 yen a month."

"Like hell I'd give you any of my money," Watanabe spat.

Ah. So daddy wasn't doing too well.

Watanabe-senpai was the type to spend a waste a great amount of money on trivial matters; for her to refuse this kind of request didn't bode well for her father's business. No wonder she'd gotten angry at Sakura mentioning the company.

"I was going to just let you off with a warning if you agreed to do as I said, but now I'm pissed off," the blonde sneered, before leaning forward and shoving harshly at Sakura with both hands.

For a millisecond, Sakura didn't budge at all. Then she realised that, considering the strength behind the push, it would be abnormal not to at least stumble. But the stairs were behind her, and to stumble would mean to fall a great height. The railing was too far to grab.

She could do a backflip and land herself safely, but that would be an impossible feat for a normal person. She could jump and stick herself on the wall, but again, impossible for a normal person.

Sakura rapidly thought up any number of things that she could do to stop the fall whilst avoiding attention... but then she spotted the surveillance camera on the ceiling.

Idiot.

Sakura let herself fall, her smirk hidden by the long pink hair softly fluttering in her descent.

Light stared in confusion at Sakura's empty seat. When she hadn't come up to the roof at lunch, he'd assumed that maybe something important had come up. Now he couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong. Her bag and belongings were still at her desk, but there was no sign of Sakura.

Light raised his hand. "Sensei."

The teacher stopped mid-lecture, taken aback at the interruption from one of his best students. "Yes, Yagami-kun?"

"Do you know what's happened to Sakura?"

"Ah, unfortunately, Fuyuno-chan had a nasty fall down the stairs and had to be sent to the hospital."

The class fell into a mild state of shock at the news.

"I... see."

The teacher continued his lecture, but, though his hand automatically took notes, Light wasn't listening anymore. Sakura had fallen down the stairs? Impossible. The girl had an exceptional sense of balance. He didn't think he'd ever seen her trip over anything, except for the time she collided into him their first meeting.

Light suspected foul play. Being as rash as she was, Sakura had quite a few enemies in the school, not to mention her number one rank garnered a fair amount of jealousy.

When school was finally over, Light gathered up Sakura's belongings and convinced the teacher to give him directions to the hospital.

"Who was it?" Light asked as soon as he strode into the room.

He stopped short at the sight of Sakura in a hospital gown, her forehead swathed in red-stained bandages. She was holding an ice pack to her head.

Sakura, however, didn't miss a beat. "Watanabe... Momo."

"Oh, her. Do you need me to talk to her?"

"No... she's being punished by the... principal. We... were caught on camera..."

"It'll be either suspension or expulsion, then, depending on the principal's mood. On the one hand, her father is capable of paying for a more lenient penalty, but on the other, you're much too valuable to the school's reputation."

"... Watanabe-san won't be greasing any palms today," she told him. "Seems... like his furniture isn't selling too well."

"Expulsion then."

Sakura blinked several times. "Yes. Yeah... Whatever." She yawned.

"Sakura."

"What?"

"What's 14 multiplied by 18?"

"It's... it's, um... ugh... Dunno... Does it matter?" It did matter; she could usually do this kind of calculation in the time it took to spoke it. She clearly had a concussion, now that he thought about it. "Whatever, I'm tired."

"Wait, don't go to sleep yet."

Light reached over and pressed the call button.

Once every third weekday, Sakura left a kage bunshin henged to look like Fuyuno Megumi in the apartment while she went to school, to maintain the illusion that the Fuyuno children had a parent. There was therefore a two in three chance that there would have been no one to act as Fuyuno Megumi that day, or the few days following, as Sakura was currently in no state to do any jutsu over academy level or any kind of acting at all.

So it was a stroke of incredible luck that Sakura had created a Mama Fuyuno just that morning.

"Fuyuno-san, your mother signed the discharge papers when she came in earlier. You'll have to stay overnight so we can observe you, but you can leave in the morning if there are no other complications. Is there someone who'll come to pick you up tomorrow?"

"... My mum."

"Sakura, your family doesn't have a car."

"Oh no," the nurse said. "That won't do, she needs to avoid exercise as much as possible."

Sakura hummed noncommittally.

Light spoke up instead. "I'll be there with my father, miss. We'll drive her back home."

"Ara, that's great, now we've settled the problem. Fuyuno-san is a lucky girl to have such a caring boyfriend."

Sakura stared at her blankly as Light protested, "Ah, no - "

"No need to be embarrassed, boyfriend-san," the nurse giggled. "Visiting hours are over in half an hour, so make sure to kiss Fuyuno-san goodbye before then!"

As she left, the two students could hear the nurse sighing, "Ah, young love..."

Sakura blinked sleepily as Light gave an awkward cough.

Fuyuno Sakura - age 12, 2nd year junior high

Yagami Light - age 13, 2nd year junior high

AN

Sakura overestimated her physical durability. Because of the concussion, she can't concentrate long enough to heal her head (the brain is too complicated to handle with anything but the utmost of care), so she'll have to deal with only slightly quickened healing of a very serious injury until she recovers enough to heal herself properly. In all actuality though, the only reason Sakura's not much worse than this is because of her chakra.

Somehow... someway... Izaya and Shizuo will be included. I SWEAR IT.