The First Flower of Spring

by Evil Is A Relative Term

Because every ninja comes from somewhere. Lacking a presence in any ninja village, the Haruno are a clan just the same. Beholden to the traditions of her family, Sakura is changed, as are Team Seven's dynamics. What will become of them?

4. Young Flower in the Sun

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, there would also be heroines instead of just heroes.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed! I'm really interested in the array of responses I've been getting, especially about the OC characters. In this chapter we have sudden time progressions between each of the POV breaks, because I'm interested in getting Sakura to gennin and out of the Academy as soon as possible. That said, here's the newest chapter of The First Flower of Spring!

Chapter Four

-Young Flower in the Sun-

A life without conflict is boring. A life without struggle is pointless. -Haruno Shiki

Have you ever struggled at anything? –Haruno Kagami

-X-X-X-

When Sakura came home to Konoha, it was as an orphan. Both her mother and father were still alive, but it was unlikely she would ever see either of them again. Sakura felt very little about that, as if they were pleasant strangers she'd once lived with. Before Shiki-dono had sent her away, he'd forced her back into the First Flower state. While the kekkei genkai was active, it broke the user's emotional connections to the people around them, but it was possible to make those fractures permanent. If Sakura were to come upon her parents now, she would have to start all over. It had made Shiki smile fractionally. "You might call us the masters of letting go," he'd told the girl as flowers bloomed in her eyes.

Haruno Chouko, Haruno Katsuo, and Haruno Shiho were reported to have died in an accident while traveling. Sakura left the home she'd lived in for her first five years and moved next door to Ran-oba-san's, where she was given Shiho-nii-chan's old room. Ran-oba-san had looked unhappy when she surveyed the neatly organized but slightly cluttered room, but she told Sakura that everything that had been Shiho's was her's now.

Only days later Sakura was enrolled in the Academy where she quickly excelled with Shiho-nii-chan's help. The only subject in which Sakura consistently underperformed was practical sparring—Sakura would rather face her instructor's disappointment any day than to go against Shiki-dono. "Your classmates are fragile. Do not fight them seriously," he'd instructed her idly when he appeared in Konoha to train her before disappearing again. As the years passed, she grew to think of him as more a force of nature than a person and regarded his edicts with all the seriousness of a revelation from a kami.

Sakura didn't make many friends in the Academy. The other children still bullied her, but that wasn't really the reason, as there were others in her classes just as isolated as she. Sakura always ran home as quick as her feet could carry her to Shiho-nii-chan.

"Most days I feel more like I'm disabled than dead," he remarked sardonically. The guan dao that his soul was anchored to spent the time she was away from home in the central living area, where he spent most of his time watching his mother bake. It was the most time they'd had together since Shiho had graduated from the Academy. Mother and son reconnected, but Ran began to understand that for Shiho, no one was more important than Sakura. Not even his own mother. And if she sometimes displayed the same behavior she'd feared from her own mother-in-law, well, it sometimes felt like her son had married the child, so why shouldn't she bully her like a new bride?

For her part Sakura didn't complain. She knew, despite having become the heir, that she'd hurt Ran-oba-san in a way she couldn't take back. So she resolved to become the best shinobi she could, because one day she would be the oyakata-sama and then, surely, Ran-oba-san might forgive her a little. And so Haruno Sakura graduated the Academy at eleven years of age.

-X-X-X-

Hatake Kakashi surveyed the three gennin the Hokage was attempting to foist on him again. Ever since he'd resigned his position in ANBU the Hokage had tried to make into a proper jounin-sensei, but Kakashi wasn't about to let anyone get that close again. It was one thing to have the faceless teammates ANBU had provided him with, every one skilled enough to offer him at least a challenge, but gennin were special. Newborn ninja, they were as vulnerable as true infants. They would depend upon him for everything, when he had nothing left to give.

This year was interesting mostly for the variety. One jinchuuriki, one orphaned potential Sharingan user, and the obligatory kunoichi. With hair the deep pink of a sunrise. That made one of Kakashi's brows disappear into his hairline. "Well, why don't you introduce yourselves?"

That led to a demand from the blonde that he introduce himself first. Chuckling internally at their bemused expressions as he obliged them, he almost sighed at Uzumaki's dream. For a single moment he was almost painfully reminiscent of his own mentor, but then the resemblance disappeared, buried beneath their many differences.

He turned next to the kunoichi, ensconced to one side of the glowering Uchiha. She was wearing a shirt that seemed far too large for her, the long sleeves prevented from falling over her hands by means of cloth strips bound around her forearms. It was an almost traditional ninja look, except for the way her thin body was swathed in its folds. If she was standing the hem would almost certainly fall to her thighs.

As the rest of her was presented very neatly, from the way her long hair was braided tightly back to the traditional dark tabi and waraji on her feet, making her almost suspiciously indistinct, Kakashi wondered whether there was more to her choice than her mother hadn't done the laundry.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," the girl introduced herself levelly, her expression thoughtful. Her wide green eyes and oversized shirt made her seem smaller and younger than she was. "I like Shiho-nii," she said after a moment. "I don't dislike much of anything. My hobby is reading. My goal is to make Ran-oba-san happy."

Kakashi blinked. It was a peculiarly small dream. Especially when compared to the loud-mouthed brat and the Uchiha, who seemed to have a flair for the deeply melodramatic as he gave his own introduction. But it didn't matter. They would fail and she would have another year to find another dream.

-X-X-X-

Shiki-dono was there when Sakura returned home. Instead of greeting her as she knelt in front of him, he instead stared levelly at her. "Ran tells me that your teams were announced today."

"Yes."

"And your teammates?"

"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. My jounin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi. But we won't be officially gennin until we pass his test."

Shiki-dono frowned. "An Uchiha?"

Kagami, who was as always floating at shoulder level, not even interested in pretending life like Shiho-nii, snorted. "It's a good thing she's almost tall enough to wield that big pointy stick. If you didn't have Shiho, you probably would have ended up following around that boy like a bitch in heat. Is he at least cute?"

A faint blush pinked Sakura's ears. Kagami was almost as bad as Shiki-dono. While Shiki-dono inspired a fearsome kind of respect, Kagami always made her feel like she was sharing a dirty secret just by speaking. If Shiki-dono could use fear as a weapon, then Kagami used sex just as effectively. "He would have been my fixation?" she asked.

"Perhaps," Shiki-dono remarked. "If Chouko had been allowed to form you, I can only imagine what foolishness she would have allowed you to indulge in."

"And instead you've raised her up to be like you," Kagami said dryly. "What a dramatic improvement."

Shiki-dono was unperturbed by his weapon's words. Sakura found their relationship fairly peculiar. Kagami almost seemed like she simultaneously resented, feared, and respected her wielder. Not like Shiho-nii, who was still as much her hero as ever. Sakura had nothing against her new teammate, but he could never make her feel as warm and whole as Shiho-nii. She was almost certain the Uchiha was missing something himself, some vital component in his psyche.

"Sakura is my heir. I could do nothing less," Shiki-dono said blandly. "And she has done nothing less than live up to the promise she showed when she was first chosen."

Sakura wondered if it was strange that there was not a single person in the room who would flinch at the reminder of the bloodshed that day had seen, when fourteen other children of the clan had died.

"But useless memories are not what I've come to discuss. If your sensei is Hatake Kakashi, then there is all the more reason to allow you to utilize your full abilities from now on."

Sakura looked up at him with surprise. After so many years of hiding her skill, why would Shiki-dono choose now to unveil it? As his heir, she belonged to the oyakata-sama, owing him both obedience and deference. She was, in a sense, a weapon. And, as Shiki-dono had told her years ago, "A weapon flashed too often loses its ability to inspire fear."

"Your new sensei is somewhat famous. I don't know that he'll show it to you tomorrow, but he has a transplanted Sharingan from a former teammate. His legend is built on its strength, though I don't doubt he's talented enough in his own right. He did make jounin before he received it, after all."

"And then promptly failed his first mission, right?" Kagami prompted. "That was the one where he got the Uchiha brat on his team killed."

"Indeed."

From behind her, Sakura felt Shiho-nii shift. "How do you know so much about Konoha's ninjas?" Shiho-nii asked.

Shiki-dono peered at the spirit through narrowed eyes. "I do not ask any of the clan members to betray a village they have an active allegiance to. However, for most ninja of jounin class, it is easy enough to piece their history together through information held by foreign ninjas. Especially flashy ones like Hatake."

"Why don't cha just tell the brats 'I know everything' like your expression is saying?" Kagami teased.

"Because a belief in one's own invincibility is the surest path to an early death," Shiki answered her.

"So," Sakura asked, "if Kakashi-sensei makes us fight each other, it's alright to go at the others with killing intent?"

"No," Shiho-nii bit out before Shiki-dono could even open his mouth. Sakura half-turned to look at the spirit, who looked exactly as he had the day he'd died for her. "This is Konoha, not Kiri. You cannot go at your teammates with intent to kill. You cannot let her," he told Shiki-dono.

"I didn't mean it like that," Sakura told him frantically. "I wouldn't even let the kekkei genkai bud. I just meant, is it alright to force down their qi with mine?" She could see Ran-oba-san watching her with wary, judgmental eyes. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm not…" then she trailed off, because could she really claim to not be monster? "I didn't mean it like that," she simply repeated.

"I don't think Shiho ever thought you did. I think he just didn't want you to give me any ideas," Shiki-dono explained. "But he shouldn't worry. I'm just opening your options, not commanding you to slaughter your classmates. Despite the significant time that has passed between his career in the ANBU and his current position as a jounin, Hatake has never taken on a gennin team. That makes it highly likely that his exam is extremely difficult. Is that not so, Shiho?"

"Yes, Shiki-dono," Shiho-nii said after a moment's hesitation. "But surely…."

"You are Sakura's path forward, not the anchor that holds her back," Shiki-dono said in a voice so flat that Sakura felt goosebumps rise on her arms.

Shiho-nii went very still, even his flowing robes stilling from their usual movement. He knelt by Sakura's side, then quite deliberately lowered his head. "Forgive me from my impertinence, oyakata-sama. However, as much as Sakura is yours, she was first mine. It is my duty to keep her from the path of the Thousand Generation Flower. And with all due respect, you were born with it blooming in your heart."

"Shiho!" Ran-oba-san protested, her mouth falling open in shock.

"Hahaue, please be silent," Shiho-nii said. Sakura's eyes widened in shock. Shiho-nii never spoke back to his mother and he never addressed her so formally. She chanced a glance toward her companion, who though she'd been with him six years, still surprised her. Shiho-nii's face, normally so relaxed and open, was set in implacable lines. Even Kagami seemed to tense.

And then Shiki-dono smiled. "Sakura, you will complete the task Hatake assigns you tomorrow without hesitation or pity. You will be established as a gennin of Konohanagakure. This is my absolute order as your oyakata-sama." He reached into his kimono and removed a thick scroll with a pattern of dark clouds roiling across the back. "This is a sealing scroll. Shiho can instruct you in its use. You are to seal him in it and carry him with you when you take your test. If you bloom beyond the First Flower you are to unseal him immediately. This order is also absolute."

Sliding the scroll across to Sakura, Shiki-dono stood. "Thank you for your hospitality, Ran. As always, it was a pleasure." And then he was gone, before she could even blink.

At her side, if it was possible for a spirit to pale, Shiho-nii did it. "I couldn't even see him move," he murmured.

"Shiho-nii?"

His mouth turned down in a frustrated gesture. "I was a jounin before I died, Sakura-chan. And I couldn't even see him move."

"That's why he's the oyakata-sama," Ran-oba-san's frosty voice startled her as the older woman stood, smoothing down her slacks. Picking up her discarded apron, she headed for the kitchen. "Shiki-dono succeeded as the head when he challenged the former oyakata-sama to one-on-one combat. That is how he inherited so young."

Sakura watched her go with trepidation, knowing that it would be days before she forgave Shiho-nii. "Was the former oyakata-sama very weak?"

Ran-oba-san snorted. "What a foolish question."

"I just wanted to know why Shiki-dono would challenge him. Weakness is the only sin Shiki-dono cannot forgive," Sakura explained.

Ran-oba-san shot her a peculiar look, but grudgingly elucidated. "The rumors at the time said he just got tired of waiting. Nothing can hold Shiki-dono's interest for long. And it would take a very long time to wait for the former oyakata-sama to die."

Ran turned back again, her steps hard and angry. "Kaa-san, I…" Shiho-nii began, but she cut him off.

"Teach Sakura how to seal you. She'll need to go bed early after dinner." With that she disappeared into the next room.

Shiho-nii watched her go with sad, old eyes. "I didn't want to hurt her. But I won't let Shiki-dono turn you into him."

Sakura wished she could hug him in that moment, but he was a spirit. He could speak and be heard, he could be seen by those of Haruno blood, but he could not touch or be touched. Only the weapon that was his body could do that. "I won't turn into Shiki-dono, Shiho-nii," she promised. "I think…I think Shiki-dono was born the way he is. He was always better, stronger, and smarter. He never learned to respect people as his equals, because they weren't. But I also think, until Kagami went Walking in the the White Moon Garden for him, Shiki-dono was probably lonely, the kind of lonely that could eat up the world to fill the hole in itself. And, at the end, when there was nothing left, he would only feel empty."

Shiho-nii was looking at her with wide eyes, but Sakura didn't stop talking. She would never, ever lie to Shiho-nii, but he could not understand. He had been born to live a short life, but his soul was whole. He couldn't grasp what the Haruno crest signified. Not the circle of eternity, but the emptiness it curled around. How very easily that Thousand Generation Flower bloomed. And he needed to know, needed to be there, because only kami-sama knew how much that tiny crack, that imperfection of the soul that the main clan children were born with, was really a fissure without end.

"He would never feel guilt, even if he destroyed the world, not without Kagami," Sakura felt a peculiar sensation of warmth sliding down her cheeks and realized she was crying. "So Shiho-nii, don't worry about me becoming Shiki-dono, because I can only be Sakura, which means I have you, forever, right Shiho-nii?"

And even though he couldn't really touch her, Sakura imagined she could feel it when he ran his hand gently though her hair, then moved his spirit closer, so she was enveloped by the white folds of a fabric she would never feel. When he moved his chin to rest on top of her head, there was no sensation of weight, but Sakura could imagine and it was enough.

"So," he asked when her tears had stopped, "shall I teach you to seal me?"

-X-X-X-

He'd been put in a team with the village idiot and a girl who'd lost every practical spar she'd ever participated in. When Hatake Kakashi arrived four hours late, after telling them not to eat breakfast, Uchiha Sasuke officially decided this was a bad day.

-X-X-X-

Despite not intending to allow them to actually become gennin, Kakashi had bothered to look over their files, just so no nasty surprises would crop up. Experience had taught him that an opponent didn't necessarily have to be good, just lucky. And it would be awfully tacky to be killed by someone who wasn't even officially a gennin yet.

When all his good little gennin candidates had gathered round, he presented them with their task. "I want you to take these bells from me," he said, dangling them so they jingled for good effect.

"What? What kind of test it that?" Naruto protested. Kakashi wanted to roll his eyes but refrained. Did he really think taking on a jounin was within his capabilities? Even for someone with an outrageous dream like becoming Hokage, that was a little much.

"If you really want to take them, you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill." Sakura flinched at that and he suppressed the urge to sigh. How did she expect to be a ninja without hurting anyone?

And then that orange knucklehead thought that he could prove himself by not waiting for the signal. Not a bad tactic, really, if he had any follow through at all. But he didn't, so that ended quickly enough.

"Now, begin," he commanded and Sasuke and Sakura leaped away, leaving only the ninja that Kakashi desultorily predicted would be the loudest Hokage to ever live if he ever made it to the office. But even his shadow clones were more flashy than effective. It doesn't matter how much chakra you pour into a jutsu if you don't know how to use it.

Watching him crawl back out of the river was amusing, but Kakashi thought he might have to present an opening to the others to draw them out. Both Sasuke and Sakura seemed too cautious to attack him otherwise.

Just as he was preparing it and he felt the Uchiha's chakra spike in anticipation, Sakura burst from the tree line, three kunai leading the way, another gripped securely in her hand.

Substituting himself with a log, which splintered as the kunai dug deeply into it, he again felt that feeling of wrongness as the pink-haired girl immediately changed direction. Preparing himself, he half-expected her to charge right in, but instead she swooped low, flinging a handful of the loose-sandy dirt into his face. It was just unexpected enough to make him hesitate, which meant the razor-edge of her kunai almost drew a bloody furrow through his eyes.

"That's pretty low, trying to take out my eyes on the first blow," he said as he blocked a reverse strike.

"If I destroyed your eyes, you wouldn't be able to use your Sharingan," the girl murmured and as she made eye contact with him, Kakashi was suddenly hit with a black wave of killing intent. What…is this? No gennin should be able to radiate killing intent like this. Kakashi felt uneasy as he watched the steady, calm face of the eleven year old. Most learned killing intent in a deep rage, but this girl who wasn't even a gennin used it like someone from the wars, like a weapon and a promise.

He barely brought his hand up in time to catch her wrist as she made another strike, this one a curving blow intended to disembowel him. But he only had control of one hand and the other dipped into her pouch, coming out with a handful of paper bombs.

"Think fast," she challenged as she threw them in his face. Pulling another substitution he was able to avoid the explosion, but he had to let go of her wrist. Before he could recover from the idea of her willingness to blow both of them up, she was coming again, this time drawing a summoning scroll. As she bit her thumb, Kakashi took the opportunity to safely stow Icha Icha Paradise. Kunai flicked into his hand as he went on guard, unwilling to be caught totally unprepared again. He wasn't even worrying about the others. Naruto seemed to be frozen at the bank of the river and Sasuke hadn't budged from his perch.

However, nothing could have really prepared him for the massive halberd-like weapon that appeared from the smoke, which she grasped confidently. "Ran-oba-san said it would only be polite if I introduced Shiho-nii to you," she yelled, swinging the thing downwards with enough force to sever a man cleanly in half with the momentum alone.

Kakashi sidestepped, but Sakura recovered from the movement much faster than he anticipated, flipping the blade and tracing an upward diagonal slash that actually lost him half a centimeter of hair from his left side. He was still adjusting to her movements when she dropped the guan dao, leaping forward with even more speed than she'd previously displayed, tucking and rolling at the last moment like a gymnast. A hot line opened in his side where the narrow blade that must have been tucked in a wrist sheath cut through his flak jacket.

This time she didn't even give him warning as another handful of paper bombs filled the air. As Kakashi retreated, he noticed abruptly that one of his bells was missing. Startled, he watched as she appeared through the smoke, grabbing her guan dao from the ground, then disappearing back into the trees. Her killing intent, which had never wavered for a moment, vanished just as easily as her chakra signature.

In that moment, if the Uchiha or Uzumaki had been thinking, it would have been their best chance to get a bell.

-X-X-X-

Naruto shivered and it wasn't from the cold water that he was still standing in. He hadn't been able to move when Sakura had emerged some the trees. He still could barely move. Naruto was no stranger to being hated and he sometimes thought people wanted him dead, but this hadn't been about him. He knew it had been about Kakashi-sensei, but Sakura's will to kill had left his insides lined with ice. Naruto hoped she would never, ever look at him the way she'd looked at Kakashi-sensei.

People looked at him like he was a monster, but Sakura had looked at their sensei like he was just less than nothing, just a barrier between her and the bells. He'd been in her class at the Academy since she'd enrolled, but he'd never seen her display anything like what he'd just seen. Even Kakashi-sensei had looked surprised.

Sakura wouldn't really kill Kakashi-sensei, would she?

-X-X-X-

He hadn't been able to act. Kakashi had left himself open, but Sasuke hadn't been able to force his hand to move. What was that? It had almost been worse than…no, he refused to think that. Nothing in this world could be worse than that night.

Had that even been the same girl? Sakura was notorious for avoiding physical confrontation, but she hadn't just confronted Kakashi, she'd managed to make the jounin bleed. The sensation, that heavy, fearsome feeling, made him shocky, reminding him of his brother and what he'd done. That was his teammate? It was impossible.

But, as she leaped into a tree neighboring his, he caught sight of her eyes. They were the same focused green as they'd always been, her hair that same deep pink.

"Better hurry, Sasuke-san," she called out encouragingly as she leaped higher in the tree. "It'll be noon before you know it."

A/N: You know, this fic was partially inspired by the fact that we never get to meet Sakura's parents. In fact, we only hear a female voice speaking to her about twice in the whole series. It was one of those lines, when a strident female voice asked her to come and help with the housework, that I asked myself, "What if Sakura had a guardian rather than parents?" That's how Ran was born. Then one thought led to another and suddenly my story was populated with characters who just took on a life of their own.

And, y'know, I just scrolled back over this chapter and this is seriously the most depressing story I've ever written.

Next chapter you get to find out if the fate of Team Seven. Will they pass the bell test? And how will Sakura react when Kakashi threatens the life of her new teammate?