Chapter Text
She could see the huge gates rising in the distance, the only waypoint through the wall surrounding the village. Her heart squeezed more at every step that drew her closer to the dreadful destination, and she tightened her arms around her Nee-chan's neck.
There had been a time when Sakura would have been ecstatic to finally see the place where Kaa-san and Nee-chan had grown up, where her clan had dug its roots. Her mother barely spoke about Konoha, but Shizune-nee never failed to supply her with stories of the village she had once called her home. It made the girl eager to know every part of it, to feel as much for it as her family did.
She had simply never imagined that it would be like this.
For a moment, the kid couldn't keep her brain from reminding her of what happened, of the reason why her family was heading towards those dreadful gates. She shut her eyes tightly, struggling to get rid of the memory as more tears made their way down her cheeks.
Shizune-nee caressed her pink hair, muttering words of comfort, promising that everything would be okay – that they would meet again someday. Muttering that she loved Sakura and pleading for the girl to believe that, even if it appeared otherwise.
Walking beside them, Tsunade said nothing. She hadn't spoken much since the incident, no more than some curt words to explain to Sakura that she would have to live in Konoha and that the Slug Princess and her apprentice couldn't stay with her. Kaa-san had been distant ever since the attack, and Sakura simply couldn't bear it anymore.
She reached out with a trembling hand, and her small fingers closed around a strand of blond hair, drawing her mom's gaze to her. The child saw, then, Tsunade's eyes shining with tears she refused to shed. But Kaa-san never cried – at least, never in front of Sakura – and the sight of it looked so wrong that the child just couldn't look.
“Sakura.” Kaa-san called, but the young girl shook her head and kept her face hidden in the crook of Nee-chan's neck. “Sakura, look at me.” The Sannin asked, and her trembling voice sounded so gentle that the child couldn't not obey, no matter how much she didn't desire to see the person she loved the most crying.
Sakura lifted her head, and her green eyes soon met her mother's brown ones. Save for their facial features, they looked nothing alike, and Shizune once said that the child had inherited her unusual coloring from the father they never spoke of.
“You will be fine.” Kaa-san promised, holding the girl's gaze as she took a hand to Sakura's head and, with her thumb, stroked the same place where a purple diamond marked her own skin. “You are strong, and we'll see each other again.” She forced a smile, but it quickly fell from her lips.
Sakura knew it was a lie. She wouldn't be fine, not without her family, and she wasn't strong.
If she were, there would be no need to leave her behind.
[HS – UN – US – HK]
The Hokage Mansion was huge, perhaps the largest building Sakura had ever been to, but the girl didn't pay it any mind. Her family was gone, had left her behind with nothing more than Shizune-nee's senbon launcher, still too big for Sakura to wrap around her arm, and Kaa-san's hitai-ate, the worn black fabric so fragile between her fingers, and the girl felt her heart constricting.
She could barely see Konoha's symbol carved in the metal as tears blurred her vision. She'd never seen her mom wearing it – nor did Nee-chan wear hers, for that matter – but she clung to it like a lifeline. It was everything she had left of Kaa-san, after all.
“... Tsunade-sama?”
Sakura jerked her head up at Kaa-san's name. She hadn't been paying much attention to what had happened since her mom handed her over to an old man – the Hokage, she corrected herself – still at the village gates. Still, she had noticed when he brought her to his office and left her on a couch. And that, a short time later, a woman had entered the room.
Said woman seemed a little shorter than Nee-chan and had her straight brown hair cut in a similar chin-length bob that framed her face. She had gentle brown eyes and rectangular purple markings on both cheeks. The woman was wearing a long-sleeved black top and a beige apron-skirt, under which were black shorts. She also wore a black Konoha hitai-ate and a pair of black sandals, with red stockings that stopped at her thighs. A small, red bracelet circled her left wrist.
“Yes.” The Hokage replied, although Sakura hadn't heard the entire question. “The council won't know. No one beyond what's strictly necessary will.” Then, he looked at the pink-haired girl with a gentle gaze, and she quickly looked away. “For now, secrecy will keep her safer than any ANBU squad could.” He went on, not seeming to mind the fact that she had been staring before.
Sakura turned to watch the conversation again in time to see the newcomer's hesitant nod. “Then, why tell me?” The woman asked. “Am I being assigned to take care of her?”
The Hokage nodded. “There will be no records of this mission, of course. Think of it as a favor.” He smiled a small, kind smile. “You're, by no means, obligated to do it, but I would appreciate it if you could monitor Sakura-chan and keep me informed about her wellbeing.”
“She will be living with me, then?” The woman asked, nervousness hanging on every word.
“Only until I have an apartment ready for her.” The Hokage replied, unaffected by her hesitation, almost as if he hadn't noticed it. Or as if he had been expecting it.
At his answer, the woman opened and closed her mouth several times, as if unsure of what to say. Then, she averted her gaze from him to Sakura, examining her with those big brown eyes, before she turned back to the Hokage. When she tried to speak again, the sound that crossed her lips was a slightly shaky, uncertain voice.
“Forgive me if I'm being rude, Hokage-sama, but...” She trailed off, unsure if she should continue. Only when the man nodded in encouragement did she speak again. “Is that wise? Making her live alone, I mean. She is only six.” Again, the woman eyed the child, brown eyes so filled with worry that it reminded Sakura of how Nee-chan looked at her sometimes.
Used to look at her. Nee-chan wasn't around anymore.
Behind the wooden desk, the Hokage clasped his hands in front of his face.
“I'll confess that I considered leaving her in your care, but I understand that you already have your share of duties.” He raised an eyebrow, and the woman lowered her head, embarrassment burning bright red in her cheeks. “I wouldn't wish to add to your responsibilities.”
“You wouldn't.” She replied almost too quickly, her shoulders stiffening. She took a deep breath, and determination made its way to her face as she stared at the Hokage with steely eyes. “Do you trust me to carry out this mission, Hokage-sama?”
He merely nodded.
“I trust you to give Sakura-chan some semblance of happiness, and I expect she can offer you the same.” He confessed. “I believe that the two of you would benefit from each other's presence.”
It felt like an eternity had been squeezed into a short second before the woman nodded. Then, for the first time since Sakura started to pay attention to the conversation, the newcomer's eyes moved away from the Hokage entirely and instead turned to the little girl, whom she soon walked to.
In front of her, the woman bent down to her knees.
“So, Sakura-chan, right? Is that your name?” The kid nodded, always quiet, and the woman slowly brought a hand to her hair, gently holding a pink lock between her fingers. “It's fitting.” She said, a small smile gracing her lips. “I'm Nohara Rin. I'll take care of you, okay?” When she made that promise, there was no nervousness shaking her voice.
And, for whatever reason, Sakura just couldn't find it in herself to doubt her.
[HS – UN – US – HK]
Her first day in the Academy was hard.
Iruka-sensei introduced her as Haruno Sakura and told the class that she'd just moved to Konoha. The lie made her stomach churn, and the name sounded so wrong that tears immediately gathered in her eyes, although she didn't allow them to spill.
She was no longer Senju Sakura, it seemed, and she didn't know who Haruno Sakura was.
The academic part was simple enough. Nothing the sensei explained was particularly difficult, or something Nee-chan hadn't started teaching her whenever she had a chance – usually when they'd stop by some small town so Kaa-san could gamble. Truly, it was boring, but she didn't complain.
Break was harder.
Sakura had no friends in Konoha, let alone in the Academy, and she had expected the loneliness. Still, it didn't make it any easier to bear it, although it was better than what came after.
The pink-haired girl didn't have much experience interacting with other kids, since she spent most of her life traveling. But she knew that having such a large group surrounding her was not a good thing.
It reminded her of the criminals that had surrounded her family and were the reason why Kaa-san and Nee-chan felt like they could no longer keep her safe. And when the children – especially the girl named Ami – started calling her Forehead Girl and Billboard Brow and so many other things, Sakura hugged her own knees and started crying.
She hated her forehead, not because she cared that it was too big or whatever the girls were saying, but because it was empty. She remembered her mother's forehead, the purple diamond that marked it – the Yin Seal, Shizune-nee had called it. And Sakura felt like a failure.
Because, if she had it – if she were stronger – she'd be with Kaa-san and Nee-chan. She wouldn't be in this Academy, surrounded by kids who seemed to hate her for no reason.
If only she had the Yin Seal, Sakura would be happy.
But she didn't, and that reality pulled her down, to the ground, while the other children continued to torment her. It was nothing less than she deserved for being so weak, Sakura supposed.
When she got home, teary-eyed, Rin was lying on the couch. She hadn't been there in the morning, and the girl had assumed that her caretaker had spent the night in the hospital. The weariness that inhabited her features certainly indicated it, but whatever tiredness the medic felt seemed to wash away as soon as her brown eyes found Sakura's red, tear-stained face.
Rin was kneeling in front of Sakura before the girl could even register that she had moved.
Brown eyes searched the child's face. “What's wrong, Sakura-chan?” She asked, and a hand made its way to the girl's face to wipe the tears. Sakura did not answer, a lump in her throat preventing her from doing so, and Rin appeared to take it as a cue to pull her into a tight hug. “Hey, I'm sure they miss you too.” She said, assuming that the girl's state was due to her missing her family. She wasn't entirely mistaken.
Then, why did they leave me? Sakura almost asked, but no word made its way through her mouth. She already knew why they had left her.
Because she couldn't defend herself.
Because she was useless.
Because she was weak.
Rin held her while she cried, no questions asked and, at some point, Sakura fell asleep. When she woke up the following day she was in her bed, and a note left on the bedside table told her that an emergency had pulled the medic back to the hospital. There was also a timid suggestion that they should talk about Sakura's first day in the Academy when Rin returned home, and the pink-haired girl dreaded the conversation before even having it.
Still, she got up and braced herself for another long day.
Class came and went as it did the day before, still too easy and too monotonous, and break arrived with a push that sent Sakura straight to the grass. Towering over her, Ami burst out laughing, and the group that always followed her soon mimicked it.
Sakura remained huddled on the ground, listening to every insult and feeling every kick and shove until the kids grew tired of her. But a sigh of relief got caught in her throat when she saw another child approaching – another girl.
The Senju-turned-Haruno screwed her eyes shut and waited for the name-calling and the shoving, but nothing came. When she dared to look, she found herself facing a pair of pale blue eyes devoid of pupils that belonged to a child with blonde hair who stood far too close to her.
Said child was smiling, and there was no trace of what Sakura saw in Ami's face when she looked at her.
“Everyone makes fun of your forehead, huh?” The blonde-haired kid asked, tilting her head to the side. It didn't sound provocative. Just curious, so unlike the other children that Sakura found it in herself the courage to speak.
“Who are...?” She tried to ask, but her voice, hoarse from crying, could barely carry the words.
The other girl soon responded, and the smile that remained on her lips grew. “I’m Yamanaka Ino. What about you?”
“I’m... Sakura...” She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced the lie to make its way through her lips. “Haruno Sakura.” The name left a bitter taste in her tongue, and Sakura forced herself to swallow it.
The blonde-haired girl, Ino, took a hand to Sakura's forehead and pushed a few pink strands away from her face. “Ah, I see. So, this is the big forehead.” Unlike Ami and her group, Ino's smile had no malice as she spoke. “So, you try to hide it with your hair. You look like a ghost.” She teased, not unkindly, but Sakura felt her eyes watering all the same.
Ino pulled away, still grinning.
“It's Sakura, right?” She raised an eyebrow, and the pink-haired girl nodded silently. “Come here again tomorrow. I'll give you something nice.” Ino didn't wait for a reply before turning her back on Sakura and leaving. Wide forest-green eyes followed her as she walked away.
When Sakura came back to the apartment after class ended, Rin was nowhere to be seen. A bentō that surely hadn't been there in the morning was lying on the kitchen table, making it obvious that the medic had been there sometime while Sakura was away.
Another note had been left beside the lunchbox, with a brief message: ‘Busy day. We’ll talk when I get home. Love, Rin.’
Sakura sighed in relief. She preferred to postpone that conversation as much as possible. She was already a nuisance in Rin's life, and she did not want to make it worse by telling the woman about what she suffered in the Academy. Rin-san shouldn't have to worry about that.
Therefore, when the medic returned home, Sakura pretended to be asleep. The next morning, the pink-haired girl took advantage of Rin's apparent exhaustion to leave before she woke up.
To Sakura's surprise, Ino had been waiting for her. The blonde-haired kid didn't even greet her or say a word before pulling the other girl's head and tying a red ribbon to her pink hair in a way that kept her bangs away from her face.
When Ino finished, she pulled away and examined Sakura with a satisfied grin.
“See, Sakura, you're way cuter this way.” She stated. “You can have that ribbon.”
Sakura put a hand to her face, fingers finding the forehead now free of any strands of hair. Exposed for the world to see.
“Thanks, but-” She tried to speak but was soon interrupted.
Ino's smile faded, and the irritation in her face made Sakura wince. “But what?”
“My forehead...” Her empty, seemingly too big forehead. It couldn't simply stay exposed like that, as if it were something to be proud of when it was anything but.
“They make fun of it more because you try to hide it.” Ino pointed a finger to her face, and Sakura stiffened. “You have a cute face, so show it off confidently. Confidently!”
And Sakura had no idea how to respond to that.
“Ino-chan...” She tried to speak but stopped when her voice failed. She wiped her suddenly teary eyes, and, for the first time since she came to Konoha, a sincere smile made its way to her mouth.
When Sakura returned to the apartment that day, Ino walked with her, chattering about everything and anything. Rin had been sitting on the couch, surely waiting for her, when the pink-haired girl entered the living room with Ino, laughing at something her new friend had said.
The worry in the medic's features washed away promptly, and Sakura knew that the conversation they planned to have was no longer needed.
[HS – UN – US – HK]
The days in the Academy got better. Ami did not bully Sakura when Ino was around, and the girls went everywhere together. It made everything simpler, calmer, and Sakura was no longer so filled with unhappiness with life in Konoha, even though she always missed her family.
She first noticed him by accident. Ino had been complaining about her father forcing her to spend more time with Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji because of some clan traditions, and Sakura had allowed her eyes to wander.
He was alone, far from the other children, sitting on a swing that hanged in the shade of a big tree, shoulders slumped and eyes always on the ground. He appeared as unhappy as Sakura had felt on her first days in the village, and she wondered why.
She found herself asking before she could help it. “Ino-chan, who's he?”
Ino looked at her with indignation, unhappy with the interruption, but she followed Sakura's gaze to the boy on the lonely swing. The Yamanaka frowned.
“That's Naruto.” She stated. “You don't want to be friends with him. No one does.” The blue-eyed girl shrugged. She was about to resume her complaint when Sakura interrupted her again.
“But why?” The Senju – now Haruno – asked.
Ino's face scrunched. “I don't know.” She appeared displeased with not having an answer and, for much longer than usual, she remained silent, thoughtful. In the end, however, she shrugged again. “But, anyway...” And resumed her complaints.
Sakura was only half-listening, nodding whenever she felt was right. But she didn't take her eyes away from the boy, who looked so lonely that she wondered if that was what she had looked like before Ino befriended her.
The next day, Sakura spoke to Naruto for the first time. Ino was sick and hadn't come to class, so leaving the pink-haired girl alone during break. Rin had been at home long enough to make some food for both Sakura and her blonde-haired best friend, and, with one bentō to spare, the girl made a decision.
Naruto was sitting on his usual swing again, hands tight around one of the ropes that held the seat while he watched everyone else having fun. Distracted, he didn't notice her approaching until she was right beside him.
Sakura greeted him with a courage she didn't know she had. “Hi.”
He stared at her, startled by her sudden presence, and his fingers tightened around the swing rope. “Who're you, dattebayo?” He asked, blue eyes still wide.
“I'm Haruno Sakura.” The lie still made her stomach churn, but she could not help but notice that it was becoming easier to tell it. She didn't know how to feel about that. “You're Naruto, right?”
“Yeah.” He shook his head as he answered, and Sakura held out the spare bentō to him. He looked at it with wide eyes. “For me?” There was so much disbelief in his voice that she like crying.
She tried smiling at him. “It was for my friend, but she's not here. I thought you'd want it.” Again, she offered it to him, only for the boy to continue to stare at her as if she'd grown a second head.
“Why me?” He asked.
“Why not?” She replied.
He looked away, but Sakura saw his ocean eyes shining with unshed tears. “No one likes me.”
He sounded resigned to that reality, as if it were something he had grown used to. Sakura realized, then, that he was exactly what she had first thought. Naruto was like her – lonely. He did not have anyone to talk to him or walk him home, and it did not seem like he had any family around. Much like her, in a way, but still different.
She once had Kaa-san and Nee-chan, and now she had Rin-san. Naruto seemed to have no one.
And Sakura was going to change that.
“Nee-chan...” She averted her gaze, her voice trembling. Her eyes watered, but she forced herself to continue to talk. “Nee-chan used to say we shouldn't judge people we don't know. And Rin-san told me to make some friends, so...” Again, she held out the bentō to him.
He seemed far less interested in the food and more in what she had said, wide blue eyes staring at her in surprise.
“You- you want to be my friend, dattebayo?” He asked in a shaky voice, and she wondered if this was the first time anyone had ever been kind to him.
“Yeah.” It looked like it was all she needed to say.
She was his friend – his first friend, or so it seemed – and the smile that appeared on his lips was a match for the sun itself. Sakura couldn't help her own smile, and the rest was, as people usually said, history.
It wasn't easy, she had to admit.
Ino was less than thrilled to have Naruto tagging along. The boy, for his part, found the Yamanaka annoying and said so to her face. Sakura would usually find herself caught in the crossfire of their disagreements, and she was also often the one to separate them whenever one of their spars ended with the blonde duo rolling on the ground, pulling at each other's hair and scratching each other's faces.
It wasn't easy, but she wouldn't have it any other way.
[HS – UN – US – HK]
Sakura and Naruto had been friends for months when he took her to his place for the first time. It was in a distant part of Konoha, almost somewhere else entirely, and to say it was horrible would be an understatement. She didn't understand how someone allowed a boy to live like that.
He explained that he could not find a better place, that no one wanted him around, and Sakura felt like she shouldn't feel so surprised. She had seen how people treated Naruto and had punched her fair share of kids and adults alike because of how they acted towards her friend, even if it got her in lots of trouble with the Konoha Police Force and, thereafter, with Rin-nee and Ojii-san.
It shouldn't be so surprising to her that he had been denied yet another basic right such as a decent home. But, still, it was.
There was no point in complaining, though. So, she acted.
“Can Naruto live with us?” She asked during dinner, in one of the very few nights when Rin didn't have to work. There was no better opportunity than that, Sakura supposed.
The medic choked on a mouthful of rice.
“It's just...” She tried to explain as Rin struggled to recover. “We went to his house today and it's- it's so bad. You should see it. He can't...” Her hands fisted. “I can't just... leave him there.”
When she recovered, Rin looked at her with solemn brown eyes for what felt like a long time, but soon she spoke.
“Okay.” She said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
Sakura's eyebrows rose in surprise, her green eyes widening. “Okay?”
“Okay.” Rin repeated, and that was that.
Sakura knew Rin had a good heart, but she wondered if the easy acceptance had something to do with the picture that she had seen in the medic's bedroom the other day. It looked like an old photo of four people. Rin was in the middle, still a kid with a smile so wide that her eyes closed. To her right was a black-haired boy who wore a pair of goggles with oranges lenses. To her left, a white-haired boy had most of his face hidden behind a dark mask.
But it was the man standing behind them all, his hands on the boys' heads, that caught her attention and kept it. He was the Yondaime Hokage, Sakura knew. She had seen his face on the monument. And, seeing him in that picture, he looked so much like Naruto that the girl asked Rin about it.
The woman went silent, so pale that Sakura worried that she would faint.
“It's a secret?” The child asked then, when it became obvious that Rin wouldn't answer her initial question. She understood secrets, and she was good at keeping them. Even from Rin herself, when necessary – and, sometimes, it was.
The medic looked away, guilt darkening her brown eyes, but nodded, and it was all Sakura really needed. She didn't try asking again, nor did she talk to Naruto about her suspicions.
It didn't matter, anyway.
When the pink-haired girl brought the blonde-haired boy to their apartment to show him what she had gotten him, she made him wear a blindfold and took him to her bedroom – the only other one was Rin's already. Then, when they stood in front of the newly acquired bunk bed, she finally let him see.
At first, he eyed Sakura and Rin, who stood just behind the pink-haired girl, with confusion.
“What's this, dattebayo?” He asked, looking between his friend, the medic and the bed.
Rin was the one to reply then, a smile tugging at her lips. “It's a bunk bed.” She explained, but he still looked confused, unable to understand what that had to do with him. The Nohara placed both her hands at Sakura's shoulders before she spoke again. “We want you to live with us if you want.”
It was something Sakura hadn't considered – the possibility that he didn't want to live with them. She had only thought about how she hated to think about Naruto going back to that horrible place, abandoned by a village that should take care of him. She just couldn't allow it, not anymore.
Sakura felt her heart break a little when she watched Naruto's eyes water as he took in something as simple as a bed. When he engulfed her in a tight hug, repeating his thanks over and over again, she held him just as strongly.
The duo stood there, clinging to each other like a lifeline, and, in more ways than one, they would never let go.
Later that day, while Naruto slept like the dead on the top bed – he claimed it as soon as he finally believed that it wasn't just a dream – Sakura woke up to yelling.
“SCREW THE COUNCIL!” The fog of sleep did little to prevent her from identifying Rin's voice, even though she had never heard the medic speak in such tone. Nohara Rin hardly ever got angry, and it was even rarer when she did so when Sakura was around.
The girl, now fully awake, heard sobs, and she had half a mind to get up and run to Rin, to comfort her like the medic always did to her. Still, she remained silent in her bed and tried listening when Rin spoke again.
“I can't do this anymore, Kakashi. I...” Another sob. “He is just a boy. I can't let him live like that anymore.” Sakura heard a sharp intake of breath, and the sobbing slowly subsided. “If the council has a problem, they can say it to my face.” Her words were unwavering, and her voice was steely, determination burning through the sound.
The other person, Kakashi, didn't answer – if they did, Sakura didn't hear it. Rin's outburst seemed to put an end to the argument, and silence reigned.
Naruto was still snoring on the top bed, unaware of what had happened, but Sakura remained very much awake until the first rays of sunlight entered the room through the window.
[HS – UN – US – HK]
Naruto dreamed of being Hokage. Ino dreamed of making her father proud. And Sakura...
Sakura dreamed of seeing Kaa-san and Nee-chan again, and she knew that she needed a lot more power and skill than she had at the moment to achieve that dream.
Her strength was remarkable, although it was nowhere near Kaa-san's, but her taijutsu didn't quite match it. Chakra control came easily to her and as a consequence so did genjutsu, her best subject. Ninjutsu, on the other hand, was something she struggled with, even though she knew the theory flawlessly.
It wasn't enough. So, she trained.
Ino constantly complained that Sakura spent too much time in the Training Grounds, an argument that was actually one of the few that got Naruto to agree with her. Sakura couldn't even disagree, to be honest – she had lost count of how many times Rin went to pick her up, late at night, just to find her passed out on the grass.
Still, it wasn't enough for her to stop. She had to grow strong if she wanted to achieve her dream, after all.
It was on an ordinary day, when the girl was at the Third Training Ground – throwing shuriken at the middle stump, even though she preferred to use senbon, mostly because of Shizune-nee – that Rin introduced her to Yūhi Kurenai.
The medic had promised to teach the girl medical ninjutsu and, even though they were still going through basic things like a first-aid kit, Sakura was looking forward to the lesson of the day. But, when she saw Rin walking toward her, alongside a woman with unruly black hair, she knew there would be no training for them that day.
Sakura threw a shuriken at the stump. “You're late.”
Rin blushed, and her smile was a nervous one. “I know.” She looked away. “I actually can't stay. Sorry, Sakura-chan.”
The pink-haired girl threw another shuriken. “Why?”
“The hospital is a mess.” As it had been ever since Kaa-san left Konoha, or so the child had been told.
Sakura sighed. It just couldn't be helped, she supposed.
“Okay, then.” The girl looked dejected when she nodded, and the next shuriken she threw missed its target.
Rin soon approached her and ruffled her pink hair, catching the girl's attention again. “Hey, don't worry. I brought someone to fill in for me.” She gestured to the other woman, who stepped closer. “Sakura-chan, this is Yūhi Kurenai. She's a genjutsu specialist.”
The raven-haired woman's eyes were crimson – not quite like the eyes of the Konoha Police Force officers' got sometimes, but still blood-red, almost as rare as Sakura's pink hair. But her smile was gentle.
“Nice to meet you, Sakura-chan.” She said, in a calming voice that immediately made the girl feel more comfortable around her.
Sakura returned the smile, and it seemed enough to satisfy Rin, who ruffled her hair again.
“And I'm already late. Have fun, you two.” The medic then kissed the girl's cheek. “See you later, Sakura-chan!” And she was gone with a puff of smoke.
Left alone with the unfamiliar woman, Sakura looked away, uncomfortable.
“Thank you for helping me, Yūhi-san.” She said, a shy smile gracing her lips.
“You can call me shishou.” The dark-haired woman corrected with a smile of her own, but it was soon replaced by a straight face. “Well, I suppose we should get started. Rin told me you're quite smart.” Sakura's cheeks burned red at the praise, but she rejoiced on the inside. “Tell me, what is the most important thing to know about genjutsu?”
A simple question. “How to break it.”
“That's right.” Kurenai grinned. “So, this is how we're going to do it. I'll cast one, and, if you can break it, I'll teach it to you. Sounds fair?” She raised an eyebrow, and the girl nodded in response. “Let's start with a simple D-Rank.”
Sakura watched her perform the technique and tried to memorize the hand seals – snake, rat. Easy enough for her to replicate when the time came.
“Demonic Illusion: Hell-Viewing Jutsu.”
A sudden gust carried leaves that surrounded Sakura entirely, only to vanish the next instant. The once bright sky gave way to the darkness of night, and the moon shone bright in the sky. The girl was no longer in the center of the Third Training Ground, but with her back pressed against a tree.
There was a man walking toward her, his smirk dripping with poison. She'd never forget his face, no matter how much she tried, and seeing him again pushed all the oxygen out of her lungs. There was no escaping, nowhere to go. Sakura could see Shizune-nee fighting not far from her, but even then she was so outnumbered that she wouldn't be able to help the pink-haired kid.
No one could help her.
“Tsunade-sama, snap out of it!” Shizune yelled at the sannin, who was on her knees, trembling as her brown eyes never once left the puddle of blood on the ground, although it didn't seem like she was actually seeing it. “He's going to hurt Sakura!”
And he was, Sakura knew, watching him walk toward her, a kunai in hand.
She was going to die. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, and that man was going to kill her.
She was going to die.
With whatever was left of breath in her chest, she let out a piercing scream.
“SAKURA!” A female voice swallowed her own, and Sakura opened her eyes to see a dark-haired person through her tear-blurred vision. She simply couldn't tell who it was, and the crippling fear weighted on her like a mountain. “Hey, it's okay. You're okay. No one is going to hurt you.” The person – the woman, whoever it was – promised.
Sakura couldn't breathe, choking on a lump in her throat. She couldn't move, her paralyzed limbs tying her to the ground. And, no matter how much she wished to run, she remained there, listening as the woman in front of her continued to talk.
“Can I touch you?” She asked, and there was the blur of what appeared to be an outstretched hand.
Sakura wanted to refuse, to run as far away as possible. But, more than that, she wanted comfort, anything to remind her that she was okay. That she wasn't a six-years-old child facing a man who planned to kill her. That she was now eight years-old, and that this was nothing more than training.
Training, she remembered. That's right. Training.
And finally, she managed to spot Yūhi Kurenai in the blur and nodded in agreement. The woman's arms immediately wrapped around her, and Sakura continued crying, her face hidden in the crook of the genjutsu specialist's neck.
“It's fine.” Kurenai-shishou repeated. “Everything's fine. Nothing's going to hurt you. You're safe. You're safe, Sakura-chan.” She rested her chin on top of the girl's head. “And don't worry. I won't tell anyone. I promise.”
It took Sakura far longer than she cared to admit for her to understand what Kurenai meant. It was sudden, as if light were cast on her thoughts, and she remembered the so-called "ghost" produced by some genjutsu: a shadow of what the affected person saw, which appeared only to the caster.
And Kurenai had seen Tsunade and Shizune.
Still, Sakura couldn't find it in herself to worry about it. The fear and the crying and all the training she had done before Rin and Kurenai got there left her exhausted, and soon she fell asleep on the genjutsu specialist's arms.
Sakura hadn't expected to see Kurenai again after that – after having a breakdown over a D-Rank jutsu – but the woman had been waiting for her at the same Training Ground the next day, a small, shy smile tugging at her lips and another apology on her tongue, along with a proposition to keep teaching her.
The girl didn't quite understand what Kurenai had seen in her, but, if it was enough for the genjutsu specialist to not give up on her, Sakura found that she didn't care.
[HS – UN – US – HK]
It was a new day.
Rin ate breakfast with Sakura and Naruto, as she did whenever she had a chance, and ruffled both children's hair before the three of them left the apartment. Ino had been waiting at the door of the building, her foot tapping impatiently, and she made sure to stick her tongue out to Naruto before smiling at Sakura.
Rin kissed the three kids' foreheads before leaving for the hospital, and the trio made their way to the Academy. Ino and Naruto bickered constantly on the way, always finding new ways to annoy each other, and Sakura took the opportunity to look around the village, just to see Kurenai-shishou talking to a man she knew was Sarutobi Asuma. The genjutsu specialist smiled and waved at her, and Sakura returned the gesture.
This was her life. It wasn't perfect, and she still missed her family so much that it hurt to think too much about them. She promised herself that she would grow strong enough to make them proud, to find them. But, for the time being, she had Rin and Ino and Naruto and Kurenai.
It wasn't perfect, but she was happy.
It was enough.