Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and this is non-profit fanfiction.
A/N: In this story I say fuck the Christian calendar even if it's practical. It breaks immersion in Naruto, a world in which they don't have the Christ, so they don't have Christmas or any Christian-related festivities. They're much closer to the Shinto, Buddhism and Hinduism than they are of any Western culture. I'll use a lunar calendar with 29-30 days a month, 7 days weeks (the closest being 4 weeks of 7 days, even though one could argue 5 weeks of 6 days would be better but let's keep weeks as close as possible to what we know to count time without mistakes, the last days of the month will simply not be included in weeks, they're bonus days and have a special significance that I'll have to come up with, some kind of festival of the new moon). Days will be called by their number if the month like in Japanese.
I'll also mimic Masashi Kishimoto and use the Japanese dates for the beginning and the end of the scholar year cycles (2 cycles, April 1st-September 31st and October 1st-March 31st) adapted to my 29-30 days months. Also since this system is not a civilian one, they will only get true resting days on the 29th and 30th of each month and instead get more relaxing days at the academy at the end of each week (they want to train spies and killers, not happy children).
Also since the 3rd war has ended only 9 years before the beginning of the story (Sakura is 8), the level of technology will be closer to that of the beginning of the Cold War than the late '90s. I'll integrate FMA style transports: early-mid 20th century trains and WW2 cars and motorbikes. It offers a bit of traveling ways to make missions more interesting (protect clients in a train, sabotage the rails of an enemy supply line, mine clearing a train at full speed… Seriously, westerns have lots of good inspirations for Naruto missions that were never exploited… Just like Indiana Jones, 007, X-Men, Spider-Man…).
As for the ninja population, just like any military, they're a minority of the population but Konoha is basically a military base so everyone in Konoha works for the military. Did you know that the military has nearly all the jobs you can think of? Crazy right? And military bases are sometimes nearly as big as a small city. Well, that's Konoha for you. Centralized military base for the Land of Fire.
The traditional outfits are only used for official business like political meetings. The rest of the time every ninja wears standard ninja gear like in the first chapters of Naruto where almost every ninja was wearing a flak jacket with a long sleeved shirt underneath (and a mesh shirt underneath the underneath… XD), blue/black pants, lower leg bandages and closed ankle boots because they don't want their toes to be damaged all the time and you don't jump on trees with sandals unless you have a death wish).
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Chapter 2
After a week of practice, Sakura had gotten her attitude right, was used to her name and fake family, had managed to get her handwriting with her right hand up to a satisfying level for the academy as well as to get the motions of her left arm with chakra strings good enough to have no problem with normal movements, still not good enough for combat or other common ninja situations. She was ready to start her first year at the academy, to meet her targets and begin the mission.
On the first day of the fourth moon, Sakura left her new home with her school bag on her back and skipped all the way to the academy like an excited child, singing a Konohan song for young ninjas about going to school to learn to serve their country. She entered class 3 and took a seat alongside Naruto, in the middle row. Sasuke came to sit at her other side, completing the three seats desk.
'Lucky, I've got my work cut for me. Now, let's observe them and try to appeal to them both.'
The teacher, a young chûnin named Iruka Umino, was probably seventeen or eighteen, with a skin slightly darker than average and a scar over his nose. He introduced himself and started with a written test to see everyone's level of knowledge before testing their physical aptitudes one of the training fields of the academy. Naruto moved like a street rat, fought like a thug and had absolutely no formal training. Sasuke was very skilled, refined, clearly trained by his clan before its' tragic end… Sakura had good lower body performances, but she still needed to re-learn everything with her right hand and to do it with her puppet-arm without making it obvious that it wasn't a real arm but a prosthetic with a genjutsu applied to hide it. Once she'd be able to draw seals again, she'd make sure to make a seal to make the illusion permanent without requiring any focus, which would leave her with more attention to the other things she needed to think about.
At the end of the day, she had barely spoken to the boys, exchanging courtesies with Sasuke and getting used to Naruto's slang. She went back home, where she trained her handwriting until dinner and went to bed early.
At the end of the first week, she had established a cordial relationship with Sasuke who was glad that she was not fawning over him like the girls born from non ninja parents and a more friendly one with Naruto who was eager to make friends of his own age.
Sasuke was a loner by choice. He didn't relate to most other children and the massacre seemed to have made him jump over the edge of solitude.
Naruto was a sociable boy who could not make friends because he was hated for some reason that no child knew of. Sakura knew the official bullshit. Naruto's parents had broken a taboo and harmed Konoha. As for what kind of taboo, speculation was all over the place, from selling information to another country to stealing clan secrets or poisoning the Fourth Hokage. Sakura was of the opinion that clan secrets were probably the reason for which so little was known about him and his parentage.
Due to these circumstances, Naruto quickly clung to her like a monkey, wanting to spend a lot of time with her that she couldn't afford until she had gotten her left arm issue under control. Maintaining the genjutsu was really draining her chakra and wasting her attention.
After the end of the first month of school, she had managed to make a seal that would do the trick and stuck it to her prosthesis, automating the process of maintaining the illusion with a constant chakra flow. From that point onward, she started spending more time with Naruto.
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"Hi Teuchi! Hi Ayame! How are you?" asked the blonde.
"Naruto! We're fine and you!" welcomed the waitress of Ichiraku ramen, a small ramen stand that Naruto loved to eat at. "You brought a girl along this time?"
Teuchi, the cook and owner of the stand, bent back to salute them and take a look at Sakura.
"Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too! You're more polite than this little prankster! "
"I don't have to be polite with family! And I've won the best prize for you two at the lottery when you were supposed to close the stand, you owe me one bowl per day!" exclaimed Naruto, sticking his tongue out.
"Naruto saved your stand?" asked Sakura, interested.
"Two years ago, we were struck by the increase in the price of rice flour. We couldn't maintain accessible prices so we had to increase them, but our clients couldn't afford these. As we were ready to close the shop, my father found Naruto hiding in the storage. He held out a lottery ticket and told him "If you give me one bowl of ramen per day, I give you this totally legit lottery ticket with one year of rice flour at half price. I've noticed your storage is suspiciously empty and the prices have doubled since last month". My father didn't believe him at first, but then he went to get the prize and it was validated, so we started giving Naruto his daily bowl of ramen and hiding him when he's in trouble."
"I see. You are thankful people," said Sakura with a smile that did not reach her eyes.
"Well, we're trying to thank the people who help us in return, that's the least we can do."
"Ayame! How's your relationship with Iruka doing?"
The girl, who was in the process of drinking a glass of water, sprayed it all over Naruto's face in surprise.
"What are you talking about, you little monkey!"
"Ayame? Is what Naruto said true? Are you dating someone?" asked Teuchi on a protective father tone.
"Ah! Crap… See what you did, Naruto? Now I have to tell my dad!"
"Oopsie! It slipped… I just saw you kissing yesterday so I was wondering…"
"Ayame! You're kissing a boy I haven't approved of?"
"Dad! Iruka is a chûnin and he teaches at the academy! He's very gentle and thoughtful!"
"Oh? If he's teaching at the academy, he must be a good lad. Most shinobi don't want anything to do with kids. But don't go and get yourself pregnant so young, you hear me?"
"Of course! Who do you take me for? I won't do that so early! We've only seen each other for a month…"
"A month? How could I miss it?"
"He's a ninja, dad."
Sakura thought that this was either a fortunate coincidence or Iruka was trying to get closer to Naruto. Was he after the boy? Did he have a good or a bad motive? Was he spying for another village? Which one?
"Hey, Sakura! You're lost in your thoughts," remarked Naruto.
"The smell of ramen was bringing memories from when I was a little girl," she explained. "My mother used to cook me ramen when I did something good…"
"…'Must be great to have a mom, or even just memories…"
"Ah, sorry… I did not want to upset you…" pretended Sakura, a hand on his shoulder in comfort.
"…Can I… Can I meet your parents?" he asked.
"My parents do not like you. I am going against their will by befriending you."
"Huh? Why do you do it then…?"
"Because you are worth it."
Naruto was left unable to speak. It took him thirty seconds to process the information before tears appeared at the corner of his eyes, a shaky smile forming on his lips.
'Oh, no…'
Like she anticipated, he hugged her while sniffling the snot running from his nose. She did not want to know if the humidity on her shoulder was from the snot or the tears, she feared the answer.
"Thank you…! Thank you…! Thank you…! You… You're my first friend!" he managed to say between hiccups.
Sakura looked at Ayame. She did not know what to do in this situation. It was the first time she had been in this position. The girl nodded, mimicking a hug. Sakura hesitatingly put her arms around Naruto. In the end, she just tapped his back lightly in comfort.
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After the first meeting with the ramen family, Sakura put a brown wig and spied on Ayame's dates with Iruka to determine his motives. One month later, she decided that if he was doing it to spy on Naruto's life outside the academy, he was playing the long game. They had not talked about him a single time.
Meanwhile, she had earned Naruto's blind trust and started helping him with his homework. She would not introduce him to her fake family. They could ruin the whole mission and she did not want to mix her cover with her target. Naruto shouldn't get attached to a ROOT member and a potential ANBU, even a mediocre one…
She had established a plan to get Sasuke's interest, hook him and keep his attention. She would make Naruto an amazing ninja from the street rat he was currently, take all the credit for it and Sasuke would get jealous as he would fall behind. Then he would come to her and ask her to train him like she trained Naruto and she would make sure to keep his attention until he would only trust her, leaking a small bit of information he would eat up, revealing secrets of no value to her that would bring him to her side. She would have to learn more details about the Uchiha massacre for it to work, though.
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One night, as she was leaving after one of Iruka and Ayame's dates, she felt a blade against her throat.
"Why were you spying on us, little mouse?" asked the teacher in her ear.
"I was curious about how dates work," she replied, faking fear.
"It's been at least two weeks that you've been spying on us. That's more than what's required to learn how dates work."
"I got addicted. It's like reading a romance book, but the characters are real and the action is happening in front of me."
As Iruka pulled on her hair to look at her face, her wig stayed in his hand, revealing her pink hair, which looked orange under the street light.
"Sakura? Were you trying to find blackmail material on me?" he asked, surprised.
"Exactly, mwahahahaha…"
It sounded super fake.
"Don't tell anyone at the academy that I'm dating a super cute girl who cooks super well, please. I'd be embarrassed…"
He ruffled her hair – 'bastard, it will take me five minutes to disentangle that mess' – and put her wig back before leaving her with a hand wave.
When she was back in her bedroom, she activated the security barrier tags she had drawn after the genjutsu seal for her arm and removed her wig. She grabbed the piece of paper at the bottom of it and opened it.
'A rolling stone gathers no moss'
She used a U-rank fire technique to burn the paper. Yes, she remembered. No, she did not gather moss either and she would not anytime soon. After all, she did not roll for Danzô or the Hokage…And now, she knew she was not alone…
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A/N: I invented U-rank techniques. They're basically everyday techniques like starting a fire, burning a letter, purifying water, healing grazes, sterilizing instruments, boiling a cup of tea, that kind of stuff. U stands for "Utility".
Did you expect the twist at the end of this chapter? I hinted at it in the story summary. I hope you like it and what it will lead to.
