"Forehead! Forehead! Forehead!"

The children chanted whilst they circled the four year old girl sitting in the middle. They were a lot of seven kids and were laughing maliciously at the crying girl.

"Who's got the biggest forehead in the world?!"

"Sakura!"

The group of boys and girls continued to fire ugly nicknames at the girl whilst they walked around her throwing sand at her. Sakura sobbed loudly, very loudly hoping that somehow a person with a heart made of gold would hear her and come to her rescue. She wasn't cut out of this. She hugged her knees and buried her face in them, tears streaming down her face in an attempt to make herself feel better. Even though she was four years old, she was still a girl and thus she valued her looks especially in this time were women were nothing more than possessions. If she was ugly and all those stuff the kids called her then she wouldn't get a chance to be like okaa-san and she'll be alone for the rest of her life.

"Hey! What're you doing over there?!"

The group stopped their noise and turned to look at the intruder. Even Sakura stopped crying to see. A boy of seven years clad in a black kimono top with white pants stared at them with a frown on his face. The one thing that shocked Sakura the most was that... "You have pink hair!" she blurted out as she pointed at the head of short spiky pink hair. Quickly realizing her mistake, her face turned the shade of her hair. But her sudden outburst was long forgotten as the surrounding children bowed to the boy.

"Haruna-sama!" they all shouted simultaneously as they bowed. "What were you doing?" he asked without a hint of warmth in his features. "Well you see, she has a really large forehead," one of the boy's, Denki, started. "And-" the other boy's glare cut him off. "As a member of the Haruno clan, you should know better than to bully one of our own. What if a time comes where you won't be able to protect yourself and she's the only one around? It's very belittling for a member of our clan to be disrespectful of others, especially to members of the main family," he said in a clipped tone. "Apologize," he commanded. The children looked around each other, not sure they should oblige or not. "Apologize!" he barked as his chakra flared dangerously. Immediately, they apologized profusely and scampered away quickly. Haruna sighed deeply. He turned to the pink haired girl who was staring at him with a dumbfounded expression. "Hello, my name is Haruna. Nice to meet you," he said with a smile as he pulled her up. "How did you do that?!" she almost shouted, not minding the grains of sand which went flying toward the boy. "I just flared my chakra," he replied easily. "Can you teach me?" she said as she inched closer to him, her eagerness getting the best of her. "Sure, no problem," he said. "Thank you!" she exclaimed as she pulled him into a hug. Suddenly hit with realization, she quickly let go of the boy. "Pardon my manners, Haruna-sama," she apologized quickly as she remembered that she had just hugged her future clan leader.

Everyone knew that the leaders of the Haruno clan were always characterized by pink hair due to the many hidden talents they possessed. "Don't be so formal with me. Let's be friends."


Naruto narrowed his eyes at the male pinkette. The way his eyes roamed over his female teammate's figure or how he didn't let go of her hand sent alarm bells ringing in his ears. 'Haruna? Spring vegetable? What kind of a stupid name is that?' he thought disdainfully as the group was led through the compound. It was like any other compound, traditional houses with the main family separated from the rest of the lot. The only different was that the Haruno crest was all over the place instead of the Uchiha fan he had gotten used to as he accompanied Sasuke back to his old house after the war. He was expecting to see a sea of pink hair but no. He saw normal colors like black, brown, blonde, auburn, red and even purple. Once or twice did he spot a head of pink, he noticed with relief. It would be super weird to not spot a pink haired Haruno, right? But one thing was for sure, they all had the same sea green eyes.

He eyed Harumi who seemed comfortable enough around Haruna, as though she had known him for as long as she was alive. He glanced at Sasuke who had a cool facade. But then again, the Uchiha always wore a cool mask so he couldn't tell what he was feeling deep down inside. And as usual, the female population was fangirling at the dark haired male, though more secretive than the girls back in his homeland as they discretely sent bashful looks at him. Maybe it had to do with the time they were in because the only Haruno he had known was one heck of a Sasuke fangirl and boy was she very expressive of that.

"I'm glad you managed to make it back here. I take it you're still fusing with Inner Sakura?" he asked in a gentle voice and it was unnerving the blonde. He was acting like Sasuke, trying to be cool and all. His teammate nodded. "Yeah, I'm still receiving memories of my time here but I'm no longer clueless as when I first arrived," she replied. Several members bowed as they passed, casting curious looks at the two foreigners, namely Sasuke and Naruto. He mentally stuck his tongue out at them. "Well, I'm just happy that everything is going according to plan. We'll need to have a meeting with the elders and decide on what to do before the time of the invasion," he said as they arrived at their destination. The double door was opened and the group made its way into the meeting room where a cluster of white haired old men and women were waiting for them.


It had been decided that Sakura was to start training their army with the knowledge she had from the future. Since Naruto and Sasuke had unceremoniously tagged along on her journey, they were to help her too and would stay with the Harunos for the meantime before they went back to their respective clans. It was still the warring states period and wanted to avoid starting a war over mere clan members who were actually from the future. The pinkette was to also train kunoichis at large as well as medical ninjutsu. Her two male teammates would work with Haruna in training the men. And Naruto didn't like it one bit.

Currently, they were seated in Haruna's dining room, enjoying a quiet and peaceful dinner. At least everyone except Naruto. He noticed that the vegetable still cast longing looks at Sakura, not even caring that the woman had a child already and belonged to someone else. "Is everything alright, Uzumaki-san?" the Haruno leader asked without taking his eyes of his meal of sushi. "Everything is fine, Vegetable-sama," the blonde replied with sarcasm heavy in his tone as he rolled his eyes. He ignored Sakura's heated glare. "So how's the clan business?" he asked a little too casually as he played with his food. "Sakura, we're having a sparring session tomorrow to see the skills you acquired from the future," the pink haired male spoke, completely ignoring the seething blonde. She nodded in understanding.

Dinner had been rather uneventful. After finishing their meals, every one went to his own room although Sakura was asked to stay behind by Haruna. Naruto wanted to protest but a single cold glance by the pink haired clan leader told him to shut his mouth, and so he obliged. The look had been exactly as that of a very, very mad Sakura and he never, ever wanted to be on the receiving end of that look. The brooding blonde went to his room thinking of the various ways he could annoy the man the next time he saw him.


"Kick his rear, kaa-san!" Harumi shouted from the sidelines. "That is no way for a child to speak, little girl,"Hana, one of the female elders with a heavily wrinkled face spoke disdainfully. The white-haired girl rolled her eyes before to turning to the woman with fake smile. "Pardon my manners, Hana-sama," she said in a sugar coated voice. The woman replied with a with a scowl before turning to look at the match. 'I guess all clan elders are the same,' Naruto thought as he remembered the cranky Hyuga elders of his timeline.

Sakura took deep breaths, Inner silently cheering for her in her subconscious. For now, she was going to use her skills from the future only, Inner wasn't allowed to help her until later on. She was dressed in her usual red qipao dress which ended mid thigh, her pink arm and leg guards and ninja shoes. Her hitai had been replaced in favour of a red hairband with the Haruno crest on the middle. Haruna was dressed in a black long sleeved shirt and shinobi pants with green metal amour on top. He had a sword attached to his back. "Are you ready?" Haruna asked. The medic nodded. "Hajimeru!" the referee shouted.

In the blink of an eye, Haruna had flashed in front of the unsuspecting kunoichi. 'Holy Cow! He's fast' she exclaimed inwardly as she avoided a punch in the nick of time. Had she not trained with the most unsuspectable blonde in the universe, she'd be eating dirt at the moment. Shifting her weight, she avoided another punch and countered with her own. She avoided using chakra as she had to display her taijutsu skills. The two exchanged blows and she noticed that she had the upper hand in taijutsu. It was one of her best strengths after all.

Quickly shifting to kenjutsu, the pink haired male jumped back to create distance between them before sending a barricade of shuriken and kunai flying towards the female. The kunoichi managed to dodge and deflect some of them with her own kunai but not without leaving a scratch or two. Haruna charged towards her, throwing a handful of kunai. Sakura avoided them all but she felt her shoulder being sliced. 'How come?' she thought as blood began to slide down her arm and that's when she noticed the thin wires attached to the kunai. Haruna flicked his wrists and the kunai came back flying at the medic.

Sakura threw three kunai managed to deflect the flying projectiles. The other two, she simply jumped up and they hit where she has been previously standing. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Haruna was already upon her with his sword raised and slashing downwards. With no time to take out a kunai, the female Haruno caught the sword with her hand and it cut her palm. Ignoring the stinging pain, she quickly took a kunai and slashed it at Haruna's exposed front. The male managed to rip out his sword from her grasp and twist away from the attack. Sakura slashed her kunai in a systematic way and Haruna was quickly able to find her blindspots. He filed them away for later reviewing.

She was able to stand up pretty well against his skills, leaving a few cuts there and there but he wasn't a master swordsman for nothing. In three swift jabs, he had managed to cut her arm twice. The kunoichi grit her teeth in pain. 'Oh what the hell!' she thought as she jumped away from the male but not without receiving another slash on her leg. She backflipped and landed on the ground. As soon as Haruna started making his way towards her, she punched the air in front her creating shockwaves and sending the male flying backwards. "Shannaro!" she shouted as she punched the ground. The result was devastating as she had completely destroyed the entire grounds, the sidelines barely managing to remain standing.

Using the jagged rocks as leverage, she jumped from rock to rock as she searched for the clan leader. 'Where could he possibly be?' she thought as she couldn't find the male, let alone sense his chakra. Unless... "Kai," she muttered as she dispelled the genjutsu only to see three more heavily layered genjutsus on top of the first one. She quickly released them and soon enough found her target. Haruna was breathing heavily and his armour was tattered.

Sakura stared in confusion at the man. Had he beed swallowed by her earthquake? He formed quick hand signs and water sprouted from his mouth, shooting towards her at a fast speed. She jumped backwards and noticed the steam surrounding the jet of water where it landed where she had previously been. The water continued to follow her as she moved from rock to rock, hoping that it wouldn't actually touch her as some of the hot water had scalded her back. Finally, the jet of water stopped and she inwardly released a sigh of relief. Damn, that water was hot.

She eyed Haruna who didn't appear to fazed at all apart from taking a breath from breathing out too much water. He formed another series she knew all too well. 'Grand Fireball Technique,' she thought dismayed as fire shot out from his mouth. As she manoeuvred her way around the broken landscape, she noticed how the fire kept following her, not like the way she had used to seeing the fireball technique. It was as though he was controlling the direction of the flame, exactly as he did with the water. Just what the heck was this guy? She continued to jump from rock to rock, mentally calculating how he could hold the jutsu up until the fire died down. It was around three minutes, which was pretty impressive. Her eyes scanned the area, taking note of the rocks which had turned red from being in contact with the fire. The edge of her qipao dress on her hip had been burned off.

Sakura wasted no time in charging towards the pinkette, using the broken rocks as cover. Haruna was slightly crouching as he took deep breaths. He noticed her at the last second, moving his head briefly to the side to avoid her fist but he didn't notice the other flying at his gut. The fist connected with his stomach and everything went painfully black.


Hello hello?! How are you? Did ya miss me? Sorry for the late update, was just busy that I didn't get time to write. Do you like the chapter? Hope you like the fight between Sakura and Haruna and of course, the flashback. Read for more on the fight and many other things to come.

Reviews are still appreciated a lot.

Tozoonana

AfricanFire