Summary: Sakura experiments with chakra control at the age of 6 and accidentally saves Shisui. Danzo puts a kill on sight order out for the girl. By the time they let her leave ANBU Headquarters she has a silver haired friend. Kakashi wonders how a pink haired girl can so heavily disrupt his life. KakaSaku
CHAPTER 1
GENJUTSU
Deep within Fire Country's forest the largest ninja village of the Elemental Nations bustled in the sunshine. She watched her mom playfully shove the man beside her, urging him on and to, "stop gawking at the same trinkets we saw last time". Sakura watched him protest and point out the new sparkling hues being sold from his favorite jewelry stall. He liked bright things as much as Sakura, his hair just as distinguishable as her own. The two of them couldn't hide in the crowd even if they wanted to.
To most people's eyes her dad's dull pink hair shone against the village full of duller shades. They couldn't sense how his hair laced with chakra and stood up in points around his face. However, Sakura knew Haruno Kizashi shown vibrant and strong compared to the civilians and lower ranked ninja around them. His cheeks widened with his grin as her mother looked back, disapproving yet amused. As if she couldn't help but smile. Not when the man beside her goofed and made even their walk through the village a silly adventure.
They were enjoying their retirement. "Sometimes too much," Sakura overheard the Haruno's gossiping neighbors complain. The same neighbors who said the Haruno ninja should have advanced as far and long as they could. That two such promising Chūnin should have become ANBU, not wasted away their good years. Yet Sakura was always secretly pleased they did. She loved her family's outings. She loved how her mom's sometimes stressed face relaxed in the onsen. How they spent late nights dancing in Suna with a small cup of alcohol passed back and forth between the adults. She liked how easily her dad laughed, how easily he swung her mom around and kissed her. They were the cutest, happiest people she knew, even as they squabbled and passed her dad's favorite jewelry without buying anything.
Her parents led the way from the village's front gates and for the first time after a year away Sakura got a good look at the people moving about in between the buildings and trees. The market stalls and pavers sat around massive roots, leaving everything slightly crooked. It was a rain forest and inside the village both trees and wildlife sprung up as if the forest itself would take over. If only the buildings would let them.
Some of the trees were so old it was said the first village leader Senju Hashirama had tended to them, helping them grow even stronger and taller. Just like how the sands in Suna sometimes glowed and moved on their own without wind. The Senju trees and the Suna sands were her favorite. That chakra in them, so tangible and tough, brushed against her when she walked near. Once in Suna she'd even touched a finger of sand drifting through her pink hair and when it flew away, she ran after it, laughing and joyous with the discovery. Leaving Sunagakure was sad, but returning home was equally fun. Konohagakure no Sato is where everyone knew them, where all the best ramen and noodle shops were, where her dad claimed he could walk the street blind-folded. He said this while walking backwards through a busy street with ox pulled carts rolling along.
Haruno Mebuki squawked, "Kizashi!"
To which he laughed and neatly side-stepped a 400 kg animal. Sakura grinned. One day she wanted to be as good at Sensing as her dad. To her mom, a non-sensor, these little feats still sent the woman's heart-racing and chakra pumping frantically. Sakura could feel it increase with a moment of anxiety and smooth out again seconds later when all turned out well.
"I can't take you anywhere," Mebuki complained.
"So you take me everywhere. Some day you'll find somewhere which works," He winked down at the blonde.
There was some truth in it. Her parents, who said at one point in their lives they'd been completing 10 A and B rank missions a month outside the village, they still had the energy and behavior patterns from years and years of work. Patterns ingrained in them since the age of 12. Small things they continued to do even though neither had missions any more. They still moved about. Her parents still completed tasks despite no pay. How many times had she seen her mom knock out a thief along the road? How many times had her dad reported criminal activity to the local authorities? Sakura thought they didn't even realize it.
When she asked where they were going and why, they always had a new reason. Often stating, "We want you to see the world while you're young."
Sakura might only be 6 years old, but she observed the undertones and grief when they spoke like that. Noticed how they didn't have many shinobi friends left from their graduating class. Knew they'd been through a war they never talked about when she was around. Sakura might be 6 and might be tiny, but she never wanted her parents to lose people again. If it meant she had to be like the Kage level fighters they sometimes spoke of then she'd do it. She'd be smarter and stronger than the rest and the Haruno's neighbors could be quiet because Sakura would take care of all of them.
Being able to sense what happened around her, she realized, would only help her and it was so, so pretty. What her mom called "Your sensory skills have started to develop". Whatever it was let her truly see and feel the things around her, it was breathtaking.
Her world was full of colors. She saw chakra pathways shift and flow. Sometimes the colors were faded and sluggish as they moved through plants, lethargic and not at all in a hurry to get where they needed to go. Plants were like that, too relaxed to be rushed. Completely different than those chakra pathways which flickered and pulsed in animals as they ran. Yet the times they were most intense was when she watched the warriors training or running. Ninja were the brightest of them all. They held so much color in them it swirled and stormed, barely contained by their bodies and they just wanted to be released. Ninja walking together with their flickering dots, millions of them, their chakra shifting like pieces of sand shifted in the desert dunes. They were so numerous and bright.
Her world was vibrant even in the early dawn of the rainy season. Even during the sudden summer rains which drenched the streets and made her mom squawk and rush to cover their luggage with a tarp. Even when the skies were grey and with the crowd huddling under doorways and awnings, all were full of chakra in a way Sakura was only just beginning to understand. Those colors she saw inside people could be fostered, she could make them grow. The ones inside herself were weak and flickering, but they didn't have to stay this way. She could be like those Kage level fighters, like her parents could have been if they hadn't retired when they had her.
Wouldn't it be nice to do something so grand? To be so fast civilians couldn't see the movement, to look at her own arms and be able to see a brilliant thrumming of potential? She wanted that. Sakura's fingers may be thin and her muscles might be slim, but that didn't mean she couldn't become someone great. If she used her head, she wagered she might even be able to work her way up and join that top academy class. The one the old men in the market always gossiped about with all the clan kids, the ones born with kekkei genkai.
They'd arrived in Konoha later than they would have liked, rushing through intermittent weather along the road and only with a portion of their luggage to arrive in time for the first day of the academy. They hadn't thought she'd be able to get in this year, the spots were all full, but when a messenger bird arrived for them stating a spot had opened up for one Haruno Sakura they gathered up the most immediate possessions, paid a movers service, and took the first cart rental they could find. And it was finally here. The day she'd been waiting for. She didn't have any of the larger school things they'd been ordered but wouldn't arrive for a few weeks. But they'd gotten here with an hour to spare and Sakura, still wearing the red qipao her mom bought at a Wind festival, was being dropped off.
In front of them a crowd of civilian and ninja parents lingered. The academy building in the shadow of the tower next to it. The building and the various young Sensei standing around it looked equally fresh, and it made Sakura skip higher and run to hug her dad from behind.
"I can't believe we made it," Her mother muttered.
Her dad grinned, "Told you the cart would survive."
Sakura glanced to the side at the rickety cart which her parents had taken turns running with. Her on one of their backs and the other pulling the cart so fast along the road one of the wheels had cracked when it hit a bump.
"Barely," Her mom rolled her eyes, clearly not too bothered that they'd have to scrap the creaking cart for someone's firewood.
It was with this her dad pushed her towards the youngest Sensei with a cheery, "Good luck! We'll pick you up here at the end!"
The push wasn't very hard, but there were so many kids crowded around the young man in the Chūnin vest, that she had to shuffle sideways to get near enough to hear his quiet voice above the ruckus.
"This way, this way, come along," the young Sensei looked green around his edges. Nervousness seeped into his chakra pathways and flooded his face with heat when he realized not just kids looked up at his words.
"Ah, Nara-san, sir..." He stumbled when he met the gaze of a tall, tan man slouched to the side. An equally slouched child standing next to him like a miniature doll. Neither looked enthused about being packed in with the crowd of screaming children and balling civilian parents.
In contrast, the man unceremoniously stepped back and let his son be swept up with a horde of children suddenly running towards the academy doors as they swung open. Sakura, the youngest Sensei, and the other kids in her class got caught up in the wave. She grinned, riding it and dodging just before sharp little elbows and thin shoulders would have hit her.
Her first day in the academy the instructor with a thick scar across his nose, he said chakra was the power ninjas used which ran through all of them. Sakura had always been quick to put things together. He didn't say it explicitly, but Sakura arrived at the conclusion of his "powering jutsu" speech. They'd all have to work if they were going to grow their chakra reserves. To control it and power the jutsu which made ninja so invaluable protecting cargo lines against thieves and territorial gangs. Even an 11 year old Genin could fend off grown attackers. 6 wasn't so young compared to that.
Sakura sat in that class with the youngest, least experienced teacher and the other non kekkei genkai children. They didn't even take their names. By the end of the first week three girls had already dropped out. Sakura, noticing the discrepancy between boys and girls remaining frowned to herself and sat next to a quiet boy with spikey hair. It made him look like a sleepy pineapple. He had a tendency to stare at whatever low level Chūnin they gave them in the morning, wait through whatever introduction they gave, then burry his head in his arms.
If it weren't for his squinted eyes, the calculating gleam in them when he observed the young teachers getting flustered, Sakura wouldn't have thought the boy any brighter than the rest of their classmates. However, at the first week's test he scored in the top, second only to herself and he'd slept through every single lesson the teachers hadn't been paying attention to their row in the very back. The various young Sensei sent to their low level class always seemed easily flustered. Worse, they were easier to distract and so far no one said a thing when one boy in the back started laying his head on the desk during long, stammering lectures.
She saw him at lunch, looking utterly bored and exhausted after sitting in a class of other 6 year olds for hours and she wondered if he simply needed something more... Just more. Like her, was he bored and overwhelmed? She wasn't sure what courage made her walk forward, but knew she wanted to at least try.
"Hey you, Shikamaru isn't it?"
She spoke down to his fake-sleeping form. As if anyone could sleep with the high pitched shrieks of the other children running around them. His form huddled next to the tree, trying to pretend to relax, but his shoulders and arms had been tense ever since he exited the building. She watched him choose the strategic high ground of the only hill with trees in the yard, huddling close to it as if it could fend off all the others. Then she glanced at the stone shogi set across the training rings. The kids hadn't gone over there, all avoiding it. Too close of a proximity to the academy's dozens of Sensei, Sakura guessed. The shogi set was stationed there for the Sensei Lounge, not meant for students, but it was technically in the training yard and she didn't see any harm in using it.
The boy grunted in response to her question, neither confirming nor prompting further conversation. She plowed on, feeling she needed some sanity just as much as he did and latched to the idea.
"No one's going near the Sensei Lounge. It's quiet over there. I bet that would be better at keeping them all away, loads easier and without any effort. The Sensei are already doing all the work for us. If you want to go."
He cracked an eye open. Balefully assessing her. She felt the heat rise up her cheeks. Sometimes she hated being so bold. If the noise wasn't driving her crazy she might have tried to speak to someone less intimidating. Not this boy who so clearly didn't belong in the lowest level class and who nearly outscored her while not even trying. She held her expression level, trying to convince herself it didn't matter if he accepted or not. She could go sit over there all by herself. She'd be fine. Probably. Hopefully.
In her nervousness she added, "They have a shogi set."
He moved so fast, she hadn't thought him capable of such a thing. She backed up, instantly wary now her suspicions were proven true. He wasn't unfit. He wasn't dumb or sleepy like the other kids all whispered when they thought no one could hear. She'd been right to keep quiet and watchful, and he still scared her a little bit, the way he watched for a bit too long or a bit too close.
That's how Sakura found herself at the shogi set, playing for the first time ever, the rules explained to her anytime she needed a reminder. There were so many pieces and strategies and Sakura quickly found herself outmatched. The sort of outmatched which would have utterly discouraged her if the very next day he hadn't grabbed her arm and fled from the shouting kids screaming about the lunch break. An entire week passed like this. Her boredom in class outweighed by the mental stretching and frantic strategizing she had to perform at lunch.
No, the boy was smart, way, way smart. So smart in fact, that when they completed their physical exams at the end of the second week the two of them were the only ones the Sensei took notes on. She felt the chakra observing them, stirring when she or Shikamaru ran passed at the end of the long line of kids jogging laps. It may have only been two weeks since classes started and one week of attempting to out think the genius boy's mind, but she hadn't been the only one analyzing their shogi games. Apparently they'd become quite the spectacle for a crowd of Sensei hidden by a genjutsu on the other side of the Lounge window. So it didn't matter that Shikamaru hardly tried during their two week physical exam, or that Sakura was winded so easily, Iruka Sensei watched them and held up his hand when they tried to follow the other kids going to grab their lunch.
"Nara Shikamaru and Haruno Sakura, stay behind."
She looked at her silent, sleepy acquaintance. When the Chūnin called his name the boy's shoulders slumped.
"Come here."
The Nara dragged his feet, but he trudged forwards regardless. Sakura, hiding her smile behind a cascade of pastel hair, followed in his wake. She swore she heard him mumble something under his breath. Her smile grew wider.
"My name is Iruka."
Shikamaru, hands in pockets, drawled in a high pitched voice completely unfitting of the attitude, "We know."
The young Chūnin's face tinged red, "Ah, right, of course. You're a Nara, you would know that."
Said Nara looked supremely unimpressed.
"Look I know your class was slotted for the latest ones to sign up, but I really think you'd do better with one of the other classes. Heck, I think you both could jump up a year, but I don't want you pressured into it."
That was how they found themselves being escorted to a classroom full of clan heirs. Or where the clan heirs would be if it weren't already halfway into the lunch break. The two kids just came from the academy office and still carried all their things. Sakura clutched her father's home made bento in her hand, something he'd gotten up extra early this morning to prepare, and found herself looking around at all the seats. Every desk seemed to already be occupied. Almost every single seat had a jacket draped across it. Coats and bags with stitched crests declaring these were children of the village's most prestigious ninja clans.
She swallowed. Hadn't she wanted to be here? What if she wasn't good enough and they tossed her out? To distract her from the worry she turned to the one familiar thing in the room. The boy didn't seem to care which class they were placed in. She bet he'd be bored in any of them. His slumped shoulders indicated he was ready to be done with the hassle of moving their things.
"Didn't your parents want to sign you up early too?"
"Hmmm, what?" Shikamaru dragged himself back into the present. Turning slightly towards her, seriously listening to her this time. It was a sliver of respect she hadn't had before their first shogi game.
She repeated herself.
"Oh, well ya, dad was supposed to. Only then he didn't and I honestly think he forgot. It wasn't until the night before classes started that my mom was yelling at him and that he went to drop the entrance forms off. Apparently the Uchiha Head forgot too, and had been bribing the desk Chūnin to get his son in the top class."
"But your dad didn't," She followed him to the empty seats in the classroom's back row. They were the only ones left.
The Nara heir snorted, dropping his coat and bag into a messy pile on the desk, "He's way too lazy for that."
Sakura hid her smile again. After placing her own coat down she remembered her lukewarm bento. She wouldn't be able to eat it all herself, not with only a few minutes left.
"Want some onigiri?"
"Choji is going to love you."
Choji it turned out was a sweet, soft-spoken boy who blushed when she held out her half-eaten bento to him. Her and the Nara hadn't gotten very far, most of the onigiri sat untouched. Her dad was convinced she needed to eat more if she wanted to be a serious shinobi, and after hearing she'd been playing shogi with the Nara boy had started preparing her food himself, saying she wasn't doing it right and not to worry, he'd help her. Sakura had been miffed she no longer had control over her lunches, but liked being able to sleep in later so let him fuss as he wanted.
Choji seemed to approve of her dad's hard work. After a minute of everyone grabbing another onigiri, she looked up to see both boys' cheeks full of the wrapped rice triangles. She chewed, her own lips tilting. Choji gave her a great big smile and grabbed another one. His chakra seemed extremely low, so she gave him the last of hers. He smiled, clearly grateful, then to her astonishment not five minutes after drinking some juice and finishing off her bento he was glowing almost brighter than anyone else in class.
"Woah, you're really strong."
"Choji? What do you mean?" That was the pretty blonde girl who sat on the Nara's other side.
"His chakra. It's huge."
Choji's face flushed with the attention, but gave a gentle, happy look around at them, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but my dad's been training me in our clan technique. He said I'll have to eat as much as I can, but that by the time I'm 13 I'll be able to pull off the first major stage of the jutsu."
"That'll be useful," Nara side eyed him. Then nudged the other boy with his shoulder. Choji's face flushed brighter, chakra pooling his cheeks when he smiled. As if the jovial mood was fueling how his chakra swirled and stored. Sakura, who'd seen a lot of people, had never seen a chakra network do that.
Without thinking about it she grabbed the leaf off her desk and stuck it to his cheek. It held fast.
Blondie gasped, "He's doing it!"
"Ya well he's happy, his chakra's reacting." Yet Sakura couldn't help but smile. They weren't even supposed to do anything with their leaves till tomorrow, but she'd had a theory and she'd been right. Concentration of chakra to an area affected things outside the skin.
Even as she said it an idea began forming in her mind. It wasn't anywhere discussed in her books, but they had referenced it. And now she'd seen chakra control in action she needed to know more. When class let out that day she hurried to pack up her things.
"Ug, why so fast?"
She'd jostled the table in her packing and the Nara snapped upwards in his seat.
"End of class. Do you want to go to the library? I have something I want to read."
"Nah, my mom's expecting me to pick up groceries on the way home. The Yamanakas and Akimichis are coming over tonight."
She paused in her packing, it was only a moment, then she forced herself to act like everything was normal. She'd almost forgotten the three of them had known each other since they were small. While he called Ino and Choji by their given names, he called her Haruno-san. She was thankful the sleepy boy had once again buried his face in his folded jacket. The makeshift pillow hid her reaction from his too sharp eyes.
She raised her hand to wave at the other two, but they were so engrossed in whatever was happening at the front of the class with a loud blonde and the Uchiha heir that they didn't see her. Her gesture froze, then her hand moved to clench her backpack. Choji said something under his breath and Ino giggled. Shikamaru continued to nap beside them as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Her throat flexed, that loneliness she'd felt so often traveling with her parents lodging itself there, made her mute. Sakura wondered if she stayed long enough, if these ones would become her friends. She hoped so. If she were going to become a ninja it'd be nice to have friends who worked just as hard, who were just as smart and sneaky. Maybe tomorrow she'd sit next to Ino. Blondie giggled and played with words in a way which appealed to her. Sakura thought they could get along if she put in some effort.
With that buoying her mood she skipped out of the academy, down the road, passed the Hokage's tower and paused in front of the massive concrete building with a single word painted above the reinforced glass window and locked door. The man sitting behind the counter, his chakra stirred as she came near but he acted as if he hadn't noticed. She cleared her throat.
He didn't stop sharpening his katana. She jumped a bit, making his head finally tilt up. The man sitting under the "LIBRARY" sign eyed her.
"Library's for nin. Scram."
"And academy students," She added imperiously with the sort of tone which said she'd heard this straight from the mouth of a retired Chūnin and he better let her in. Her dad said the academy didn't really teach anything for the first year anyways, that it was ok her books hadn't arrived yet, but that she could go to the Shinobi Library if she was worried about it. He'd said this in his teasing way, knowing she would of course go to the library. Because duh, who wouldn't want to read about cool jutsu and earth shattering punches of blonde goddesses? Really now. The Chūnin behind the library desk, still blocking her entrance with a locked door, seemed just as lax about this as Haruno Kizashi. She wasn't to be deterred.
"How old are you shrimp?"
From down below the counter she beamed at him, looking from his resigned and drawn expression, to the name tag stitched on his vest, and back to his face.
"Hello Hayate-san. I'm 6. How old are you?"
He snorted, "Kid, not the point."
She rocked back and forth on her heals, chakra leaking from her. In a leak Sakura only marginally noticed, but she was so happy to be saying her next statement, she wanted the teenager to be happy too, "I passed my first academy tests, that means I can use the library now right?"
She looked at the locked doors beside him, then back at him. The feeling of happiness increased and washed over him. This time she did notice it leaking from her, but wasn't quite sure what it was, didn't know how odd it was for a 6 year old.
"I'm 16 and you know what? Come on in. You're right anyways."
"Thanks Hayate-san!"
He coughed a little in his hand, "What'd you want to learn anyways?"
"Chakra control! How to control it, reinforce my muscles and make me stronger. Do you know anything about that?"
"Sure, but it's a pretty high level skill. In the Genin section," His tilting smile let onto some sort of joke she didn't quite catch.
"Ah, well thanks anyways Hayate-san."
"Kid-san," His ironic drawl softened by the hint of a smile and how his hands hadn't once stopped sharpening the long, thin sword in front of him. When she stood on her tip toes she could see it glinting in the afternoon sun.
"I'll behave," She lied. It slipped out so fast and easy.
He smirked and she half wondered if he'd laid the information out in front of her on purpose. He lifted a hand, pressing the red button beside the desk. The thick doors buzzed and she jumped forwards to grasp and haul the heavy wood open.
"See-ya!" She dropped the heavy door and bounced on in. Her giddiness of this first infiltration mission making her chakra flare. Excitement built as she walked past the academy student section, up, up, up the stairs to the section marked Genin.
She passed another Chūnin putting away books. His leg, clearly recovering from a break and encased in a cast, hobbled next to a cart of scrolls. He looked miserable as he put them one by one onto a shelf. He didn't even look up when she passed. She felt bad for him. Her desire to share her happiness flared again and his spine stiffened, straightening. The boy blinked, turned around, but her happiness only leaked faster, rushing out around him. The side of his mouth quirked up at her. He went back to his shelving, clearly ignoring that someone so small and missing a headband shouldn't be up here.
What she didn't know is every section was monitored. Every unauthorized entrance noted and recorded. A genjutsu of overconfidence laced in the section entrances, triggered to drop on anyone not wearing a leaf forehead protector and a rank badge with the appropriate clearance. Oh and when her feet crossed the barrier under the Gennin sign her head swam, her overwhelming elation turned dizzying. She was so sensitive to chakra she immediately knew something was wrong.
"Kai," she whispered.
It's what Iruka-Sensei had hollered when he thought the orange paint covering his desk was a trick. Only to realize his desk had been physically painted during afternoon break and was dripping copious amounts of paint into the floor.
The feeling immediately eased. What elation she'd been feeling replaced with dread. If this was a trap, she had to hurry. Her borderline eidetic memory scanned the shelves, processed the image it saw, and she jumped to the section she wanted. Chakra molding, tree climbing, water walking... What was this? She opened each book, read, flipped through the first few chapters before putting them back. They seemed to be getting more bizarre before she found a simple, slim book with a Senju written on the side of it. She'd just picked it up, read the first page when a voice from behind her spoke.
"That was quick."
She whirled around. A meter away a man lounged.
He had a scattered pile of books before him. Her mind processed the titles: Sealing Weapons and Supplies on the Body, 50 Advanced Earth Hiding Techniques, History of Stone: The Village of Earth, Blood, and Bone. Then she glanced up, she'd apparently walked all the way through the Genin section and wrapped around to the open room of tables.
She held the Senju book as she'd opened it. Snapping it shut would only make her look guilty. Like when her mom came into the kitchen at night to find her dad sneaking food. If he would just wise up and pretend to belong there it'd all be fine, but he blubbered and stammered and hid the food behind his back. She was sneakier than that, she was.
His eye glanced down at her book, "I didn't know they were still letting kids graduate early."
Her book drooped.
"The kids are really getting good at hiding their headbands these days."
She backed away. Besides the fact he'd caught her, besides the facts he slouched, had a single droopy eye, and an orange book sticking out of his pocket, the ninja was the single brightest person she'd ever seen. His pure white chakra blended in with his hair, so strong it physically stuck it up and to the side. His forearms and shoulders laced with muscles, the flow of chakra tight and sinuous with them. If the young Chūnins teaching her classes were capable then this boy almost man was dangerous.
Her eyes flitted back to his books. Her curiosity warred with her unease before it won out, "What are you reading about Stone for? Are you going there?"
"A holiday, they're giving me some time off." He answered so smoothly she didn't question the sincerity or lack thereof.
She tilted her chin, "My mom says Mamiucho is pedantic and hasn't ever been anywhere. She says Akimichi's history is better."
As she talked the brow above his single eye rose. He maintained the droopy gaze, but it was too steady, too unblinking. It began to unnerve her. In combination with his raging, swirling colors, it held her still to the spot.
He looked between her and the clearly marked sign above her head, proclaiming the section for graduated and contracted Genin.
His single eye met hers just as she was about to bolt back into the section for real ninja. Just then a man in an athletic suit barged forwards, "My rival!"
If she hadn't seen his swirling colors of honey gold coming this way, blazing just as bright as the man whom she'd been speaking with, well it would have scared her. Still did if she was honest.
"If you get any better at jutsu I will have to increase my mastery of taijutsu! We must spar again tonight before you leave!" As he spoke he got louder and louder.
The two of them standing together, she had to blink. These two ninja glowed so bright with chakra, she couldn't help but stop and watch it move through the single eye man's body. Then, suddenly and without explanation, his chakra dimmed as if it'd been snuffed out or hidden under a blanket. Sakura's eyes went wide. The colors could be hidden. Woah. She glanced up shyly to see the single eye observing her reaction. Sakura clasped her hands, wove her fingers together, and her chakra flared with an illusion of happy ignorance. She wasn't cataloging their skills. She wasn't an academy student reading well above her class, definitely not.
The man and his not at all quiet training partner began to speak and since no one had come to kick her out yet, she snuck back into the Genin section to continue her reading. The first three books she found with chakra control in the title all mentioned tree climbing, listing exercises from trunk walking to branch jumping. Ah, she thought. So that's what those other books meant. This one actually explained why some people started out running at the trees, attempting to go straight up on the first go. Yet, it claimed, this was hard for those who weren't naturally good at control. A much easier way was to start on a low branch and just try getting used to sticking your feet to it, then walking forwards. The same amount of chakra to keep feet from slipping off a branch was similar if not equivalent to what those feet would need when walking or running up a tree.
Ideas already swirled in her head, the chakra pooling there, making her brain buzz fast and on point through the possibilities. Yes, she could do this. Sakura's cheeks got big with her smile. There was a forest near their apartment building.
Tags: Badass Sakura, Sakura Saves Shisui On Accident, Kakashi Never Leaves ANBU, Kakashi/Sakura, Sakura is an Adult Before Attracting Kakashi's Romantic Interest, Shisui Sensei, Mental Health Awareness, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Protective Hatake Kakashi, BAMF Hatake Kakashi, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Shisui Lives, Uchiha Shisui Needs a Hug, Uchiha Itachi Being a Good Brother, Mother Hen Shiranui Genma, Haruno Sakura-centric, Strong Haruno Sakura, POV Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura is So Done, Enthusiastic Consent, Age of Consent, Adults Attract Romantic Interest, Shikamaru & Sakura Should Have Been Friends