Chapter 3 – Friendships
Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body
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"What are you working on this time, Sara?" A soft voice whispered over her shoulder.
Sara looked over at an adorable girl with short, dark blue hair, kept just above her forehead with chin-length strands framing her face. The sun was high above their heads but she wore a cream-colored hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper sleeves and fur around the cuffs and hem. Sara didn't judge, ninja could wear whatever they like in whatever weather as long as they could regulate their chakra to control their body heat.
"Hey Hinata, Good Morning. I'm just trying to see if I can make the chakra capacity of these chakra storage seals larger." Sara gestured at her notes. It didn't look exactly positive because she scratched off a lot of errors everywhere. She sighed, massaging her temples.
Sara glanced at her own reflection on the window. Her long black hair was braided from the top of her head. Her soft big black eyes were trained on herself. She wore a gray shirt and black pants. Her seal weights, wrist bands on each hand, showing. She always liked to keep things simple. She often wondered why ninjas make such a fuss about their outfit.
Hinata giggled. "But do you still need to make them larger? I think your seal now has a decent capacity. B-but I'm not really s-sure."
Sara threw an exasperated look at Hinata, making the other girl blush and twiddle her fingers.
"U-Ummm.."
"You're right Hinata, as always. Don't second guess yourself. It is decent now of course, but I might need more chakra in the future so I'm seeing if I could extend it. But yes, it is pretty decent now." Sara says in approval, assuring Hinata.
Hinata had always been really shy in the anime. But meeting her in the flesh made Sara realize just how unsure she was of herself.
Sara didn't really intend to make friends with Hinata. It just happened. On her first year in the Academy, she kept her distance from the Rookie 9. She watched them with awe in her eyes and observed the chibi version heroes of the future. She was quiet but quick to smile and friendly to anyone who talked to her. But like in her past life, she would sit alone and read a book in peace.
Ino had tried to include her in large groups. Ino was the kind of popular girl who had a kind heart and didn't want to exclude people. She already had Sakura behind her and also introduced Sakura to other people to increase her confidence. Sakura was shy but she was excited to meet new people.
Ino probably saw how Sara would keep to herself too. So she warmly invited Sara to gatherings and friendly outings to make her feel part of the group. But Sara was truly happy to be alone. So she graciously humored Ino, but stayed on her own in breaks anyway.
Besides, Sara was the kind of introvert who didn't come off as snobbish or frightened of social niceties. She looked like a happy bookworm who was comfortable with her books. So people left her alone, and Ino soon understood this, just cheerily waving from a distance when she spotted her.
In Sara's state of solitude though, Hinata would always be right beside her coincidentally.
Sara usually picked a lunch table at the far ends so she could watch other people during lunch. At that far end, Hinata would also be quietly eating. During class, Sara would choose to sit at the very back. Hinata would also be sitting by that spot. During academy physical trainings, unlike other students, Sara would choose a spot where it was covered and secluded. Other students prefer to train somewhere more open and public to show off. Hinata would be near Sara's training spot to hide away.
And more coincidence, Hinata and Sara both walked the same way home. They usually never talked to each other. They share a comfortable space between them even though they chose the same space to be isolated in.
Hinata was the heiress of the Hyuga clan so Sara really didn't plan to interact with her. But it couldn't be helped in the end.
It was at that late lunch time, Sara had a thick book about the balance of natural affinities in seals out while she ate. She had small dry fish and one-half rice packed. The orphanage wasn't getting a lot of funds these days and the caretakers decided to focus their expenses on the younger kids. Sara didn't mind, of course. But it still left her a little hungry at times.
Hinata was seated beside her again, at the far end table away from everyone else. She brought out her lunch pack and produced a bowl of rice (gohan), a bowl of miso soup (miso shiru), pickled vegetables (tsukemono), fish and meat.
It was a damn full course meal. Nothing less for the little heiress after all. Sara caught sight of it and she felt hungrier, seeing the heavy meal just beside her. Despite the less food intake, Sara continued her intense physical training. She increased the weights every quarter and ran around Konoha 10 times every day. She did specific exercises for arm and leg strengthening, flexibility, speed and agility, and so on. The lack of food left her half dead every session. But she didn't want to slow down her pace.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, conditioning herself to feel okay with her measly meal.
"D-Do y-you l-like t-to sh-share w-with m-me?" The voice was so soft that Sara wasn't sure she heard it. Her eyes snapped open and she stared at the little princess. Hinata was fiddling with her fingers nervously. But she looked at Sara and tried her best to smile. It was adorable.
"I-I h-have t-too m-much f-food. D-do y-you w-want s-some?" She was stuttering so bad, which meant that she must really be frightened to ask her. But she was kind enough to try and overcome her fear just to share her food with a hungry classmate. Sara felt a rush of affection for the sweet girl. She smiled widely and scooted closer.
"Thank you, Hinata chan." She said gratefully. Hinata was red now, but she still smiled back. "J-Just H-Hinata p-please."
Sara tilted her head. "Just Sara too then."
That was the start of their close friendship. It was a slow building friendship because they just stick together since they want the same space. But it did build through time.
In the classroom, Sara offered to help Hinata with her homework. And they deliberately walk together now when they go home. Sara would also train with Hinata during the academy training sessions.
They often share just companionable silence between them. But they also chatter about everyday stuff and talk about their observations of their classmates. Hinata was a pretty observant person after all. It never showed in the anime, but because she was always just silently in the back, she had a pretty good judgment on people around her. Sara would fascinatedly share her comments with the shy girl.
Befriending Hinata was tricky for Sara. She was afraid that this friendship might change something in the canon timeline. This was the reason why she chose to stay away from the Rookie 9 no matter how tempting it was to get involved with them.
For example, her heart broke for little Naruto who was shunned by everyone and laughed at. She was tempted so bad to jump to his defense once, or even just sit with him one time just to talk to him. Besides her, she knew Hinata would really like to do the same. Hinata would sometimes bravely attempt to engage with him, but it was always somehow foiled. With every failed attempt, Hinata got more and more scared to try again.
Well, it's because it's not yet time for you two. Sara thought to herself as she watched the crestfallen Hinata. It was true. Several events would lead them to fall in love. Hinata's sacrifice when she faced Pein was the first one. Neji's death was next. The whole shebang on the last movie was another. A lot of things happened before they finally truly connected. But those events made them a strong couple.
Sara, on the other hand, couldn't take Naruto's suffering. She knew that it had to happen. But she didn't like it. So she sneakily went around it. She would leave various stuff for Naruto. She got cool prank material, sweets, and various stuff in the hopes of cheering him up and leave them on his class seat or in front of his worn-down apartment.
She managed to cajole Hinata into doing them too, much to the latter's joy. Hinata probably wanted to do them in the first place but she was too scared to get caught. But with Sara, they were able to gather a lot of random stuff that made Naruto brighten up when he found them. They regularly did this.
Sara didn't dare approach Naruto, but she hoped that her and Hinata's little tokens would make him a little bit happier, if nothing else.
When the Uchiha massacre happened, Sara wanted to comfort Sasuke so badly. He was just so broken when he finally showed up again at the Academy. The fangirls weren't helping, as they tried to talk to him and comfort him with words and hugs. This only angered Sasuke more.
It made Sara feel for Sasuke because he was just a young boy. He shouldn't have experienced such tragedy. Same with Itachi too. Itachi was just a boy, and he had to clinically kill all of his family. It was a horrible fate that befall the brothers. And Sara wished she could do something.
After some convincing, she finally convinced Hinata to go along with her plan. The two of them began cornering Sasuke. They didn't talk to him. They just stayed around him like a protective barrier. Like during lunch time, Sasuke would sit far away from everyone else. The girls would usually follow him and crowd him. But Hinata and Sara would get there first. They would sit beside him and in front of him.
The first time they did this, he had an enraged look in his eyes. He probably thought that they were one of those girls who thought they could fix him. But they practically ignored him and just began talking to each other. When girls started approaching their spot, they actively made an effort to distract anyone who would try to engage with Sasuke. They chattered about menial things that interested the other girls, so their focused stayed away from Sasuke.
This way, Sasuke was in the group but he was left alone. In the end of that lunch, Sasuke almost had a grateful look in his face as they moved away again. Hinata and Sara kept doing this for the next months, until he got himself together. They drifted away slowly, but Sasuke would always sit near them from then on.
That was especially hard for Hinata to do. She had to talk to other girls to distract them, and she needed to speak out loud. But the kind girl also felt sorrow for the broken boy. So she stepped out of her comfort zone to join Sara in protecting him. Sara really adored Hinata.
There were a lot more instances when Sara had to become involved with the Rookie 9. But she successfully evaded getting too connected to any of them. She didn't want to risk changing anything canonically. Except for Hinata. Sara absolutely loved the sweet princess. It was killing her not to help Hinata with her struggling confidence at first. She knew that Hinata had to attribute it all to Naruto. Naruto would be a strong inspiration for Hinata And Sara was scared that trying to inspire her now might be half assed as compared to the strength that Naruto would be able to give her.
But in the end, she just couldn't help it. She watched Hinata who didn't have an ounce of faith with herself but was eternally kind to other people. Sara wouldn't be able to live with herself if she just let her friend be. So slowly, she started encouraging Hinata. Throwing simple compliments to get her used to it and getting her to speak up with her ideas and thoughts. Sara slowly got her to speak more so she would get rid of her stutter, even if it's just between the two of them.
Sara also made Hinata tag with her during her difficult training sessions.
The first time Hinata joined her, Hinata was shocked at the intensity of it. She claimed to be dying just at the half of it. But Sara urged her to finish it, using positive push instead of scaring her like other trainers. Hinata couldn't handle the trainings everyday, so she only joined twice a week. But Hinata felt better focusing on getting stronger.
Of course, Sara's friendship with her was the most positive influence of all. Sara shared everything with Hinata, including her seal experiments and thoughts on her physical improvements. It made Hinata happier to know that someone trusted her on that level. It also made her speak up more because she knew Sara valued her thoughts and ideas.
It wasn't long before Sara received a dinner invitation from the Hyuga household.
It was definitely surprising and Sara panicked. She really wasn't supposed to get involved. The Hyuga clan was one of the biggest and most influential clan in Konoha. This invitation could go a lot of ways. Sara didn't want recognition at all. She just wanted to be invisible and watch the show. But she knew that going to the dinner was important to her friend, Hinata. So she mentally prepared herself and courteously showed up for dinner.
The dinner was simple enough. Only Hinata's actual family was there. For a moment, Sara was frightened that a lot of the Hyuga relatives would come. But there was only Hinata's dad Hiashi, Hanabi, and Hinata herself.
"I hear you've been doing well in school, Sara." Hiashi commented, his piercing eyes obviously assessing her. Sara briefly wondered if this was a test, to see if she deserved the companionship of their heiress.
Sara bowed her head meekly. "I work hard just like Hinata. My good results are only proof of it." She said humbly. She noticed Hinata threw a glance at her.
Hinata cleared her throat. "Sara is the top student in the academy. Not just the top Kunoichi, she's actually ranked 1."
That shocked Sara, for 2 reasons. One, Hinata spoke up to her father to praise her. This only spoke of the confidence she built up in her company. Hiashi was already frightening for her, what more for his daughters. Two, Sara honestly didn't know her rank. Was she really ranked 1? If she was, then that meant she had higher scores than even Sasuke. How did that happen?
"Am I?" She asked, waving it off. "I don't really know. It shouldn't matter."
Hiashi raised his brows at her. "Doesn't it? Rank is important as a shinobi. It will determine your career path, power and influence in the future."
Sara shrugged. "I don't see why it should be important. The life of a shinobi is about saving people's lives and using their strengths for peace. I know it's foolish to see it as simply as that. But this should be the core goal of this career anyway."
Hinata beamed at her, and Sara knew that they both share the same ideals. Hiashi stared at her impassively though. Sara wasn't sure what his final judgment of her was. Hiashi continued asking her questions about herself throughout dinner. But it was more relaxed and casual.
Hiashi invited her again for a training session in the morning.
This unsettled Sara. Why did Hiashi want her to join their training? Perhaps he was curious what the top student had.
That was still an issue for her though. She honestly had no idea that she was ranked 1. She fathomed over the fact that she made it higher than both Sakura and Sasuke. It was true that she did ace every exam. She never made a single mistake since she entered. That was really because she already covered the academy material since she was 3 years old. In truth, she only kept one ear open when classes are conducted. What she actually does was pore over her sealing books or ninjutsu scrolls. She spent a lot of time studying new material in her classes. She aced every exam anyway.
It was also true that she never lost in one on one battle activities, not even against Sasuke. Those were troublesome to escape from. After she beat Sasuke the first time, every one of his fangirls began to be enraged. But she disappeared with Hinata right after, and people eventually calmed down. Sasuke stared at her with piercing eyes when she appeared again, but she and Hinata kept to themselves and chattered quietly. Sasuke sat near them as always and let it go after some time.
Sara was pretty forgettable when she wanted to be.
She needed to do something about that rank though. The ranking was one of the prime causes of those team ups and she really didn't want to mess that up. She still had some time though so she pushed the thought away from her mind.
That morning, Sara trudged her way to the Hyuga training grounds.
It was as grand as she expected it to be. As one of the main clans of Konoha, they made it a point to have large grounds as huge as the stadium for training. They have separate grounds for training and honing your skill, that one has various equipment scattered about, and another grounds for battles. One of the Hyuga greeted her at the gates of the compound and directed her towards the battling grounds.
Hinata and Hiashi were already there.
Hinata looked downright nervous. She was almost trembling, but she clenched her fists to hide it. Sara bet that her palms should be bruised by now. She wondered why her friend was so terrified.
"Good morning, Sara. I trust that you prepared for this morning?" Hiashi politely greeted.
Sara smiled at him and grinned at Hinata. Hinata relaxed minutely. "Well I had breakfast earlier, and I already did my warm ups around the village. So what will we be doing today?"
Hiashi tilted his head. "You will be sparring with my daughter."
Hinata squeaked.
Ahhh so this is why she's nervous. Hiashi is really intend on torturing his daughter. Sara thought, glancing at her fidgeting friend. Poor Hinata.
Sara knew what Hiashi was attempting to do. He wanted Hinata to harden and toughen up. She must have already lost to her sister at this point. Hiashi wanted to continue to push her. Sara considered throwing the match. But Hiashi would probably realize that anyway, and Hinata would too. It would hurt Hinata if she threw the match because she didn't trust that Hinata could beat her on her own.
So Sara squared her shoulders and nodded firmly. "Okay, I'm ready when you are, Hinata."
Hinata took a deep breath and stepped forward. Hiashi jumped out of the way and observed from above. Hinata crouched low to the usual Hyuga stance, with her palms up.
Sara and Hinata actually never sparred. Sara was amazed that she never thought of sparring with Hinata. She just thought that Hinata wouldn't like it because she was already so reluctant to hurt her sister in the anime, so Sara never suggested it. But now that she thought about it, sparring with Hinata would be helpful for the shy withdrawn girl.
Sara raised her fists up and heightened her chakra sensitivity. This was a practice that she had honed on for years. It was a weird habit, but she used to consciously try to feel the flow of chakra on people around her. It used to require extreme concentration. She would sit on the roof of the orphanage, close her eyes, and detect the people's chakra passing by. Over the course of time, she could do it without much effort now. She could even feel the massive reserves of chakra Naruto had over anyone else in class. She was also rarely surprised because she could detect the presence of someone approaching her.
She knew Hinata would use her Gentle Fist, so she wanted to really observe how that will go down.
Hinata activated her Byakugan, but Sara still spotted the pleading look in her eyes.
She doesn't want to attack first.
Sara sighed inwardly and poised to attack. She lounged on Hinata, carefully hitting softly at first to test the other girl's reflexes. Hinata was fast too but Sara could feel her hesitation. She took advantage of an opening and pushed a fist to Hinata's ribs. Hinata winced, but she quickly retaliated with a hit on her lower arm and on her thigh.
Sara felt it. On the outside, it looked like a mere gentle tap. But it was really a painful intrusion of sharp pointed chakra. The part Hinata hit numbed down considerably, and she knew that she had to move her chakra flow around them instead of through them now. Sara jumped back, and kept her eyes trained to Hinata's hands. She could feel Hinata's chakra, specifically the dense pointed chakra at the top of her fingers, like a pointed knife.
It fascinated Sara. She wanted to explore it more.
Sara attacked again, and she observed as Hinata tried to hit more of her tenketsu points. Sara consciously lessened her weights so she could move faster. Her own hands were carefully hitting away Hinata's fingers. She knew she shouldn't block Hinata's hands because Hinata would still be able to slice through. So she specifically hit Hinata's palms away instead.
But despite Sara shoving Hinata's hands away, she could see exactly where Hinata was aiming.
She watched Hinata try to hit several parts of her body. After seeing enough, Sara finally aimed to retaliate. She put her palms up and exerted chakra on the end of her fingers like a scalpel and quickly hit the same points that Hinata was trying to hit on her own body earlier. Hinata gasped in surprise, and tried to block her, but she was faster.
Sara aimed a final kick on her chest that threw Hinata back to a nearby tree.
Hinata exhaled hard and dropped to her knees. Sara walked up to her and offered a hand.
"Sara, Y-you…." Hinata took her hand, looking up at her with wide awed eyes.
Hiashi jumped back down to them. "I see. You used the same technique on my daughter?"
Sara blinked up at him. "Oh. Sorry, I was just fascinated how it went through. The Gentle fist is a graceful combat stye."
"B-but Sara, how were you able to channel chakra so dense on your fingers? Have you done this before?" Hinata asked with wonder.
Sara shrugged. "I need to have complete chakra control for my seals, remember? Some of them require the slightest quantity of chakra on one part, then flood a good amount on the other. I have a good hold on my chakra."
Hiashi nodded, his face carefully blank. "But the tenkutsu is still invisible to the naked eye. You shouldn't have known exactly where to hit."
"I have a good visual and accurate memory. I knew where Hinata was trying to hit me. It was a question of hitting her accurately on the same spots too." Sara was trying to be off handed about it. But she knew it was particularly dangerous to have copied their technique after a few minutes of looking at it. She was just so fascinated with it that she forgot herself for a moment.
It wasn't like it was easy anyway. She spent years from her birth here to perfect her chakra control, same with accuracy on her targets. May it be kunai or by hand, she knew how to hit specifically which part of her target. Her playtimes were all trainings since birth. So really, it was actually unfair to Hinata.
Hinata rolled her eyes at Sara, her face was turned away so her father couldn't see. Sara shook her head at her.
Hiashi stared at her for a long moment, probably assessing if she should be tied up and interrogated. Sara tried not to look too frightened. In the end, Hiashi turned away and started walking back.
"Well, you may resume your spar then." He said before he turned the corner and was gone from sight.
The both of them exhaled in relief. They turned to look at each other and giggled hysterically.
"Okay, that was so much pressure! Your father is scary." Sara said in between her giggles.
Hinata wiped a tear of laughter from her eyes. "He is. I thought for a second he's going to lock you up or something."
Sara gasped. "Shhhh don't say that. I really didn't mean to you know! Your style is just so awesome."
"But you beat it so easily." Hinata sighed, fiddling her fingers and looking down.
"That's because you were still holding back. You shouldn't be so nervous about hurting me you know. I bet you'd kick my ass if you took me seriously." Sara nudged Hinata's shoulder. "Those hits of yours hurt by the way."
Hinata rolled her eyes exaggeratedly this time. "But you didn't even flinch! Well no matter, my father clearly accepted you now. He told us to resume the spar so he's allowing us to stay together now."
"So it was a test after all!" Sara groaned. "You should have warned me!"
Hinata shook her head. "I knew you'd pass his silly test anyway. Dad probably saw how uncaring you are of power and status, so he must have known now that your friendship with me is genuine. You're an awesome friend."
"So are you." Sara beamed at the sweet girl. "So you want to continue that spar?"
Hinata nodded eagerly. "You have to tell me how you're so fast!"
"Oh that's because of the weights. You see…"
From that day on, Hinata and Sara constantly sparred with each other. Hinata showed Sara exactly where all the 361 nodes were and what they were for (Sara was sure her father would have disapproved of this) and Sara started Hinata out for weight training. Hinata purchased her own seal weights (which looked a lot more expensive) and increased the time she trained with Sara, running around the village with the full weights on.
Sara wasn't sure exactly how this will affect Hinata's growth. Neji needed to beat Hinata at the Chuunin exams so Naruto would vow to kick his ass in the next part. This would be the turning point of Neji's transformation. Sara was pretty sure that Neji was still leagues away, so she hoped that this training would at least decrease Hinata's near death consequences on that match.
Presently, Sara was trying to improve some of the seals she made. Sealing was her favorite hobby. From those basic books she got years ago, she learned the balance the seal requires and the many rules it needed to work. It was always difficult to come up with the right concoction. More than that, it also drained a lot of chakra. This was why it was discouraged for anyway lower than Jounin level to really access the art because of the difficulty and the complexity of the seals. Not even those Jounins are encouraged to mess around with it.
This was also why the Uzumaki clan was so good at making seals because they were born with heaps of chakra reserves to mold the seals.
That was the first challenge for Sara. At 3, her chakra was almost nonexistent. One of her first created seals therefore was the chakra storage seal. It took her 3 years to perfect. It was an extra storage seal for your chakra to flow. Attaching it to your body expands your chakra network. Of course, this was tricky because it meant redirecting your chakra flow to include the new network. This new network would allow you to expand the amount of chakra in your body. She could attach as many as she wanted of those seals to her body to make her chakra reserves larger and larger, but it would require more concentration because it needed constant conscious redirecting of chakra.
It was a band aid solution because it didn't make your actual reserves larger. But in the meantime, while she was still on the process of expanding her reserves, she would use them so she could activate her seals.
After she successfully attached her chakra storage to her body, she was finally able to create her own seals and activate them. It was fascinating for her to use math, physics and chemistry to create useful seals. It was a difficult study but she felt her parents channeling their genius to her whenever she had to balance the elements on the seals she was making.
Now, she was attempting to make the capacity of her chakra storage larger. So instead of attaching 10 to her body, she could attach just 5 and it would give you the same capacity. But it was proving to be difficult.
Sara groaned as she scratched off another potential formula.
Hinata giggled. "You're very dedicated."
Sara eyed Hinata's bruised fists. "So are you."
Sara raised her fist. "To being awesome kunoichis!"
Hinata shook her head with a soft smile. But she lightly tapped her knuckles to Sara's.