A Most Pink Affair 2 - (Naruto AU, Sakura!SI)
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Uchiha Satsuki.
The name meant 'business'. Actually no, that is not the correct terminology.
The family name and relation meant 'business'.
The youngest child of the Uchiha Clan Leader, the little sister of Uchiha Itachi, overall a slightly above-average student at Konoha Academy.
That's all.
The issue I had towards her was less about all of that and more on her reaction to all of this: she gloated, she smugged, and she girlbossed.
That's not to say I didn't understand it. Getting a big head as a child from getting so many praises and being told she could never fail definitely made Satsuki react as anyone would.
But that also didn't mean I was that pleased to deal with this sort of brat.
The moment Funeno-sensei made the announcement I was to be Satsuki's tutor, I knew my life would be over.
Why? Well, he delivered the news to the whole fucking class. Which meant that some of the boys fanboying for Satsuki and the few 'weird' girls doing the same were glaring daggers at my 'lucky breakthrough'.
Oh joy.
The worst bit wasn't the full attention of pre-murderous stalkers, but the fact that I was dealing with Satsuki.
And she was... dreadful. Not an outright bitch- not yet, but there was a trajectory leading up to it.
I had to curb this shit before it sets up the edgy emo avenger mindset out of her when the Uchiha Massacre unfolded in... two years from now.
...
Should I prevent the massacre? Can I prevent the massacre?
The answer to the latter is yes, but the current paths to take were risky in the long run as it meant employing my meta-knowledge and drawing unwarranted attention on my ass. Danzou, Obito... Orochimaru.
Yeah, I didn't need that.
So yes, while there was a tempting factor in keeping the Uchiha around just so I wouldn't be stuck with a bitchy Satsuki, there was also the overall issues of preventing the massacre.
Like a potential Genjutsu-induced coup, or the possibility that Itachi wouldn't be around to actually do shit outside of Konoha.
...Why the hell is life now so complicated?
Ah well-
"What are you thinking about?"
Satsuki's voice was a little bit squeaky. And adorable by relation. I turned to see the spiky-haired girl giving me a quizzical look.
We were sitting on the side, lesson already over and everyone else going outside to play.
I am not sure why Satsuki stuck around, but maybe it had something to do with the papers we were working on.
It was some homework, nothing too complex. But I already finished it and Satsuki was... well, struggling.
Despite what many would be willing to say about 'Sasuke' in his pre-Massacre mindset, his skills were more on 'if I like it, then I will have it done easy'. Homework? Not that kind of fun activity Satsuki wanted to go through.
"Stuff."
My nonchalant response gained a frown from the fellow girl.
"What kind of stuff?"
"Have you ever noticed how, despite your best efforts to ignore it, you are doing the bare minimum to keep up with your brother?"
Not exactly what I had in mind, but Satsuki appeared fairly stunned by my sudden question. Her eyes were wide open and she looked away from me for a solid second.
"W-What?"
"Everyone is comparing you to him. And you are definitely resenting this, which is fine."
"...I-I don't hate my brother."
"Who said anything about hating?" I asked flatly, rolling my eyes at the silly correlation. "You don't hate him, that would be silly. The issue is that you are put in comparison. He made it to Genin at your age, he was savvy with the ninja subjects, made it through the various ranks with ease and then he became ANBU."
...
"A-And? So- So what?" Satsuki questioned, sounding very annoyed by the topic itself, but also curious on where I was going with this.
"People are dumb," I answered with a calm look, sparing her a glance. "You are your own person, and we are in peacetime. And, before you ask, yes, being at war was a factor in getting your brother to a higher rank since promotions are easier to achieve during conflicts."
"...So, what you are saying is-"
"Do your thing and ignore those people gassing you up to be some sort of 'second Itachi'. You are not, you are Satsuki. Be your own thing."
...
Satsuki was quiet, her dark eyes aimed at her own desk. She was definitely deep in her thoughts due to what I just said and... I hummed.
"Say, Satsuki. How about we do some advanced training?"
My offer had her immediate attention. Satsuki regaled me with a giddy look. "Advanced Training? Like what?"
She was deeply unamused when I said tree-climbing, but I needed just one display to show her what I meant.
Satsuki had this flat frown on her face up until she saw me using just my feet to walk up to a high branch of a three.
Then it was full giddy mode as she asked all the details on how to do that. It may be basic ninja stuff, but it was actually a good technique to learn early on.
The question is... how did I do that?
And the answer is both silly, ironic, and fairly reasonable: I walked. On the ground.
While this doesn't sound like much, the truth is that Tree-Climbing is based on the notion of 'making my feet sticky to a surface through Chakra'. So, by nature of laziness, I can train with this by actually finding the right amount of Chakra to employ by merely walking around.
The kind of feeling I had to achieve was one that I was quick to spot - it was as if my feet had magnets and I was getting constantly forcing my steps down each time I moved.
It made me sluggish with my pace, but it worked both as Chakra Control Training and Stamina Building Training due to the sensation of being 'heavier than usual'.
It took Satsuki twenty minutes to find the 'feeling' and she quickly realized how difficult it was to keep it going for long as it was draining for kids like us.
Nonetheless, we started doing some basic 'chakra-walking' and then we did a little bit of Tree-Climbing.
"Good?"
I asked curtly and Uchiha Satsuki, the Smugger and the Brooder, beamed.
"Yep~!"
Uchiha Itachi turned up at home... late.
He had missed dinnertime again, which was going to be seen with mixed reactions. Fugaku, his father, wouldn't mind as he was 'just being a good shinobi', while his mother, Mikoto, would definitely flash him a sad look.
It's been a very long time since he dined with his family. Same for lunch and breakfast. While to many this didn't sound like much, for a boy of 11 this was very upsetting. The life of Shinobi, in Itachi's eyes, was getting more and more bleak - and more difficult to enjoy.
He had made some interesting friends like Hatake-taichou, but that didn't mean he couldn't ignore the many times his duty had to overrule his sense of family.
Sighing, he stepped through the gates of the compound, waving at Shinsui and other familiar faces before marching up to the main manor, walking through the front door and... no Satsuki.
Itachi frowned at this little anomaly in his usual routine, looking around for his baby sister but... she wasn't around.
How odd.
As he thought that Satsuki had gone to sleep early, he barely noticed a blur coming from... above.
"Niisan~!"
He just had enough time to catch the dive-bombing Satsuki, eyes wide open as he tripped back and landed on his butt.
Satsuki giggled at the successful ambush, while Itachi... frowned in amusement.
"S-Satsuki-chan. How... When did you learn tree-climbing?"
"Today, at the academy," She beamed smugly, arms crossing by her flat chest. "How was it? Did I spook you, niisan?"
Itachi was indeed surprised. Scared? Never. And to enforce that, he gave his bratty sister a round of tickles.
Her giggles charged up his mood and he felt like smiling as he picked her up and both got up from the ground.
"Still, I didn't know that the Academy had started teaching tree-climbing. Usually that's something only for Genin."
Itachi's comment had Satsuki's eyes wide open.
"That means that Sakura is even cooler than I thought!"
...
"Sakura?" Itachi inquired, causing his little sister to tense up. "Did Satsuki-chan make a friend?"
The little hint of teasing was enough to make the girl a blushing tomato.
"N-No. I just met her today and- and she just taught me how to tree-climb! That's all."
It didn't sound like 'all', but Itachi held back from bullying his lovely baby sister.
"I see. Well, if she is just a training buddy, then I doubt our parents would mind if she came to visit this weekend for training."
Those words had quite the effect as Satsuki appeared ecstatic. "T-They wouldn't? Wouldn't dad-"
"I doubt dad cares if you bring some classmates over. If it is all for the 'sake of training', that is."
"Obviously!"
Itachi sighed and smiled once again. While it was true he didn't have much time to personally teach Satsuki on how to move around at the academy, he was glad that his baby sister made a new friend.
Still, Itachi couldn't help but wonder how a normal civilian girl found a simpler way to practice tree-climbing.
Simple as it may be, the method still required some level of understanding of Chakra Control not common among academy students.
Could it be that his baby sister found the genius of her generation and befriended her?
AN
Next time, the Pink One enters the nest of the Brooding Ones. Expect 'Hn's and 'Tch's and 'Dobe' or whatever makes the Uchiha Clan the broodiest clan ever. Minus Mikoto. She makes cookies.