Chapter Text
When Sakura was three she had yet to awaken the Byakugan in front of anyone besides her brother. When white and black eyes caught sight of his frown, she cringed and knew why he was so upset. She now had awakened the Hyuga doujutsu and would be under close watch just as her nii-sama and her otou-sama.
She saw the pleading look in his own pearly white eyes that she could take back the fact that she had been capable of that damned cursed jutsu. Baby teeth bit the pink bottom lip of their owner as she deactivated the Hyuga doujutsu and activated the Uchiha one in her other eye. She heard her brother’s breath hitch. He knew she was screwed.
But maybe he didn’t understand that she was an anomaly now, that she had realized a while ago. She had both the Sharingan and the Byakugan. She could be used as a pawn now, a purely political pawn. But, it gave her an advantage. Now, she could never be heir, but now, at least, she couldn’t be sealed by the curse that hung over her brother and their father’s head.
She would now be saved from that damned curse, but now she would be forever stuck in a game of politics between two powerful and noble clans. Perhaps Hyuga Neji didn’t understand that she was more screwed than he was in this fucked up world, and perhaps Hyuga-Uchiha Sakura didn’t understand how much pain her life would be dragged through but they knew that all they had was each other.
They weren’t twins, weren’t able to communicate telepathically, weren’t able to see into the future, but they were there for each other. Sakura’s unshed tears glistened threateningly, challenging her brother to speak in some unknown code. But he knew better. They both knew better.
Hyuga didn’t show emotions. Hyuga didn’t disobey orders. Hyuga fought and followed orders like perfect soldiers. But, Hyuga were damn good secret keepers. As long as Sakura never activated their shared doujutsu, and as long as Sakura activated her Sharingan on the weakest level, then she should be able to grace by life without the pressures that her brother had to. But, as soon as she exposed herself as part Uchiha then she would open her family to scrutiny. That was something that none of them could take any more of.
It would break their father in unimaginable ways. It would make her more of a monster than she was already. Sakura already barely spoke, only speaking a few words here and there to her brother and barely at all to her father. She loved her small family with everything she had, but how could she defend her mother and say that she never took another man into bed. Hyuga Kaito was raped.
And, in another life, Haruno Sakura was raped.
Neji nodded his head softly and understood her request. Neither of them would speak a word of this. Neji would continue his training with their doujutsu and Sakura would continue to be frail and useless. Yet, Sakura was anything but.
Her workouts were discrete and away from others. She used her Byakugan to keep an eye out for others who could be watching, she would begin storing minuscule amounts of her plentiful chakra into her forehead. Her Sharingan would allow her to learn by watching others train. Her reserves were much larger in this life than in her life as a Haruno. But, she needed it more so in this life. She needed more to keep up her secrets, to keep Neji-nii-sama safe, to keep her father within the safety of her area of vision.
When Sakura was three and a half, she began her training under the Hyuga main household. She never received the coddling or attention that Hinata or Hanabi received but she was grateful for it all the same.
Sakura caught the slight glances of anger directed towards her cousins (maybe sisters of a sort) coming from her nii-sama. He was angry, and he had every right to be. Neji was angry at the fate that had been given to them. If their father had been born just minutes earlier then they would be able to live peacefully. They would be able to be free of the heavy burdens that chained them down.
“Again!” Hiashi barked.
“Hai!” She pushed herself up from her kneeling position for the third time.
“Again!” More wind knocked out of her.
“Hai!” She pushed herself off the ground for the seventeenth time.
“Is this supposed to be trying?” He mocked bitterly. “Do not disappoint your grandmother!”
“Hai!” Her lip was split and bleeding.
“Block this, you insolent child!” Blood spurt out of her mouth.
Her father was off on a mission and couldn’t witness this. Neji sat facing her with a stone-cold face. No emotions, they had always been reminded. But if you were looking carefully enough, you could see that he was looking at a spot of the wall above where she constantly fell and stood. He couldn’t bear to see her face but bit his tongue harshly. It may bleed later, but better his tongue bleeding than being sealed.
“Again!” Hiashi ordered. His frustration was beginning to show. She was beaten, bloodied, tired, but why didn’t she just give up? Why did she and her brother have to fight back harder than his own child? Why was it that his child was pathetic, but this demon child had unknown resilience?
“Hai!” Her hair was entirely caked in grime by now. There was a healthy trickle of blood pouring from her mouth. But she would not give up. She would not falter and have her brother pay the price for her weakness.
“Again!” Hiashi’s brows were furrowed tightly. Why did this monster deserve to be free of the curse seal even if she couldn’t awaken the Byakugan? His brother’s harlot of a wife birthed a demon. Her chakra pool was enormous and not even he had the reserves she did when he was a child.
“H-Hai!” Her breathing was erratic. Her left eye was almost swollen shut, she knew that he did this on purpose. Her left eye proved that she was a Hyuga. He detested her and didn’t want to see the fact that she belonged. Her legs wobbled and hands shook. She caught the sadistic smirk on his face. The rosette didn’t dare narrow her eyes, though. She knew the consequences.
“Do you wish to stop, child?” He snarled the last word out like it was a curse. He was taunting her. He would get away with it too. He always did, even if her father was around.
“N-No!” Her small voice wavered but she stood up again and again. She would never back down. Not when she could still fight. Not when she had too much to lose. Not when she knew that Neji could be called to train right after her. She had to wear her uncle down. Her brother loved her fiercely, and he might let his anger slip if he fought right after her. Sakura couldn’t risk that.
He knocked her down again. Her head smacked the ground harshly. She knew that it would be bleeding heavily if she happened to hit it once more. She had been healing herself over these past few nights. They already called her a demon, why not heal herself when everyone else slept anyways?
In another world, she had made fun of Naruto along with the other kids. In this world, she was the demon of this clan. She was a monster. She knew that they were wary around her. Her chakra pool was too large, she healed too fast (she never showed her healing ninjutsu though), she was colored oddly… She was different. And if anyone knew human nature, then they would know that “different” scared people.
Sakura would make damn sure the world was scared of her.
There was a cut above her good eye, bleeding enough to blur her vision even more so, the opening on the back of her head was leaking a small stream of blood, her left eye was completely swollen shut, there were nicks and bruises adorning her whole body, her breathing was labored. She could continue. She had to.
“That is enough, Hiashi!” an older Hyuga slammed his cane down three times. “That child needs to go to the hospital.”
“T-Touya-sama!” his maid stuttered.
Hiashi backed down from his challenge with Sakura. He bowed to his father. He would not be seen showing disrespect to him. Not when his father still held the title of clan head. “Hai, otou-sama!”
“Sakura-chan…” Touya’s wife, Nadeshiko, called out softly. Her son was so harsh to her grandchild.
Sakura struggled to walk towards her before crashing to the floor. Before she could hit the floor, Neji-nii-sama had caught her. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her ear as she drifted towards unconsciousness. The young Hyuga grit his teeth. He couldn’t stand up for her, he would only hurt himself instead and cause her more pain.
Maybe it was selfish, to wish others to harm his little sister so he could save the day. He didn’t truly want her to get hurt. He just wanted to be given a chance to save her and show her how much she meant to him. Catching her right now wasn’t good enough. But soon, he would be given the chance to prove his worth as her older brother.
“You are too harsh on that child, Hiashi,” scolded Touya.
Nadeshiko held out her arms for her only grandson to place her other grandchild into her arms. After a moment, he handed over his younger sister. He bit his tongue again. Should he thank them for aiding his sister? Would it be disrespectful to show gratitude for something that should have never happened in the first place?
“Thank you, Obaa-sama.”
Nadeshiko’s face softened. She had been of the side branch before her marriage and never once forgot what it had meant. She loved all her grandchildren, she truly did. But her heart always broke for Neji and Sakura. Their fates had been sealed the moment their father was born. If she were to be completely honest, her favorite grandchild was Sakura, herself.
Sakura would’ve been an amazing clan head if she had just been born to a different father. Her backbone was strong as chakra enforced steel and her fight had always been born from the ferocity of her heart.
Nadeshiko had originally been the one to protest her second son’s fate for the cursed seal. Her husband, bless his soul, had backed her up then. But should she bring up her wish for what to do with Neji and Sakura… would she be denied this time? She prayed to their god, Kaguya that she would not. Kaguya had never disappointed her yet, but would she pull through her grandchildren this time?
XOXOXO
In the darkness of Sakura’s hospital room, Nadeshiko whispered her plan to her husband. The older woman’s breath was held by the weight of the words she had just spoken.
Touya’s thick, brown eyebrows furrowed. After ten minutes, he agreed to his wife’s plan with a simple nod.
Nadeshiko wanted to cry. Her big, strong husband was a saint. It was wrong, what they were doing. But they knew the young rosette’s secret. This was the one way she and Neji could be free. The guilt of who she would be hurting could weigh down on her another time. Her grandchildren needed to be free.