Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Title: A non-believer of the heart

Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That’s right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you’d be surprised to know who’s on the other end of your string. AU.

Words: 6,972

A/N: This beast was what I was working on for the longest time though not sure if I want to continue since I like what I have right now… but just let me know what you think!

The manifestation of a first generation kekkei genkai is identified using the 3 Measures Rule. First, if the proposed kekkei genkai can be sustained for longer than a minute. Second, if it can be activated in twenty separate intervals. Third, if the origin of the proposed kekkei genkai can be isolated into at least one bodily section.

Should the proposed kekkei genkai satisfy all three measures, then one can move on to finalizing and documenting their measures to approve of their request. Should approval be granted, congratulations! A new kekkei genkai will have joined the ranks of Konoha ninja to further fan the flames of the Will of Fire!

…3 Measures Rule…

…proposed kekkei genkai…

…Will of Fire!

Sakura squints her eyes and rereads the last few paragraphs of the book in her hands. Despite only being six years old, she immediately picks out the military propaganda that has become basically standardized in all reading materials in the library.

Giving one last side eye at the words, she sighs and closes the hefty book. There was a reason for a young girl such as her to be looking up information on kekkei genkai—never mind the fact that she was able to read at the level needed to comprehend the books—to the point of the librarian reminding her that the library was closing soon.

“Sakura-chan! You’ve got about five more minutes!” Izumi calls out from behind her desk. For a librarian, she is louder and more boisterous than you would think.

“Mhm, okay!” Sakura replies. She picks herself up from the floor and gathers the books littered around her. Then she heads over to Izumi, places the books on the return cart, and says her goodbyes. “Thank you, Izumi-san!”

“It’s always a pleasure, Sakura-chan. See you again soon!” Izumi waves at the child and gets up to start reorganizing the shelves.

The reason for her reading up on kekkei genkai being the red string attached to Izumi the librarian’s pinky finger just so happened to be connected to the pinky of Taro the blacksmith, who smiled at Sakura as he was heading in the library she just exited.

Izumi and Taro also happened to be the twenty first occurrence of her seeing a pair of people connected by a red string.

Back at home, Sakura bounds up to her room after greeting her mother on her way to the stairs. She pulls out her journal, a simple notebook labelled with her name, and scribbles down the initials ‘I’ and ‘T’ in black ink before connecting them with a line of red ink. She sits back and marvels at her work. The page is filled with other initials connected by a red line. However, it is only a single page on the back of her notebook.

The rest of the pages are filled with initials that have a red dash connecting to nothing.

The thought does little to deter her quiet smile, though. Tucking away the notebook, she heads into her bathroom to wash her hands. Afterwards, she joins her parents in the dining room for dinner.

“What’d you do today, Sakura-chan?” Her mother asks as she serves her daughter a big helping of spaghetti napolitan.

“Library, like usual. Read stuff about ninja.” Sakura slurps up the noodles before taking a bite out of a cut sausage. Mom decided to make her favorite tonight for some reason.

“You’re still—do you still want to go to the Academy, then?” Her dad asks this time. Sakura looks up at the both of them, neither have touched their meals.

So this must’ve been what they wanted to bring up, she thinks as she puts her fork down.

“Yes, and I still really want to be a ninja,” She confirms flat out. Her mother sighs but looks at her husband imploringly. “I’m gonna go to the first class tomorrow.”

“Guess she’s not changing her mind, Mebuki,” Sakura’s dad says quietly to the side, and then louder he says, “I’ll make your breakfast, then. You gotta give ‘em your best on a full stomach!”

Sakura smiles at her parents and they smile back, her father’s arm around her mother’s shoulder in an easy embrace. Her gaze wanders a little lower, and though she can clearly see two separate red strings lead out in opposite directions, Sakura knows that they love each other as strongly as they love her.

Sakura has a kekkei genkai. One that parallels the story of The Red Strings of Fate. She found the story in the library one day, eagerly drinking up the romantic clichés and realized that the red strings connected to everyone she sees was related to the story in some way.

She had brought it up to her mother once, even younger than she was now, about what those red strings tied to people’s fingers meant and Mebuki shook her head with a laugh that said that she was merely humoring a confused, young child. Sakura felt embarrassed enough to never ask her again.

Thus, she did her own research. Using the 3 Measures Rule, Sakura concluded that what she had was a developing kekkei genkai, one that had never been seen before—at least, not one she had read while going through the list of notable kekkei genkai in an encyclopedia directory.

While not as spectacular as a Lava Release, nor as powerful as Konoha’s own Sharingan, Sakura thinks her kekkei genkai made her a bit special. Especially after attending her first day at the Academy and seeing just how much more ahead the clan children were, with their own kekkei genkai.

After class—of which the day was filled with boring busywork and nervous introductions—she heads straight into the adjoining building of the Hokage Tower.

“Hi.” Came the high-pitched voice below the receptionist’s desk.

The worker behind said desk had to stand up from his seat to be able to see the young, pink haired girl, “Hello. How may I help you?”

“I’d like the forms to register my kekkei genkai,” And because Sakura is polite, “Please.”

The worker, who had a hitai-ate on his forehead and a string connected to his index finger, looked confused for one silent moment before saying, “Have you—did you satisfy the 3 Measures Rule?”

“Of course.” Her pink head nods up and down.

“Hmm, wait one moment,” He stands up and goes into a room behind the desk. When he returns, he has a nervous smile, “Since you’re so young, could you bring a guardian back with you and we can schedule an appointment to—to check your, kekkei genkai. They can fill out the forms then.”

Sakura bites back the reflex to answer back haughtily and instead twists and untwists her lips, “My parents are busy, though…”

“Alright, how about you ask your Academy instructor instead?”

Hearing the alternative made her ears perk up. Nodding quickly, she was out in a flash and rushing back into the other building.

“Yaotome-sensei!” She calls out as she pulls back the door to her homeroom class.

“Sakura-chan,” The chuunin greets, surprised at the sudden visit, “Is something wrong?”

“No! Well, kind of? I need you to come with me to the Hokage Tower so I can get my new kekkei genkai!” Despite having a reading comprehension well above her age, as well as being above average in intelligence compared to her peers, Sakura is still a six year old. Being a six year old meant that emotions tend to overrule thought quite often.

“Slow down,” Yaotome-sensei chuckles, “You have a kekkei genkai? Do your parents know?”

Sakura makes a faint humming noise before saying, “They’re busy right now so the man said that I can bring you in their place!”

Her sensei sighs good-naturedly, having long since been used to the brief and often demanding conversations with his students, “Alright, lead the way.”

And so, Sakura heads back to The Tower a second time, with Yaotome-sensei in tow.

“Great, follow me.” The worker smiles in recognition of the other chuunin and leads the two of them into a room down the hall. Inside there is a table and seats as well as a potted plant in the corner. It reminds Sakura of her mother’s office at the shop.

Inside there was a man with pale eyes already waiting. The worker tips his head in farewell and closes the door behind him. Both Sakura and her sensei take a seat across from the serious faced man.

“Hyuuga-san, hello.” Her sensei greets with a small smile. Sakura follows suit and bows politely.

“Yaotome-san. Your student had wanted to petition a request for her kekkei genkai to get approval,” The pale eyed man, Hyuuga-san explained to her sensei.

“I just asked for the forms.” Sakura mumbled, for some reason feeling like she had to defend herself.

“Yes, those forms are meant for clan heads or a registered shinobi to fill out. Since you have not yet graduated from the Academy we need a formal interview to be done instead.” Having those pale eyes focused directly on Sakura made her fidget a little; it was like he could see right through her.

“Alright, alright, Hyuuga-san. Continue with the interview, then.” Yaotome-sensei brought the other man’s gaze back to himself, thankfully.

The pale eyed man then started to ask basic questions about Sakura: name, date of birth, citizenship. Boring stuff that Sakura could have easily said for herself but seeing how the other man’s face hardly moved with emotion made her feel glad that it was her sensei speaking to him rather than her.

“Haruno-san,” The man looked at her from across her seat, “Will you be able to demonstrate your kekkei genkai safely in this room?”

“Yeah!” She chirps confidently, already eyeing the red string on Hyuuga-san’s left thumb.

“Please demonstrate.” Both men stand up and head off to the side, eyeing Sakura like they were expecting some grand display in this small room.

“Uhmm,” Sakura starts by pointing at her sensei, “Yaotome-sensei has his red string on his right middle finger and—and I think it’s connected to one of the other sensei at the Academy because I saw it be tugged a little more in class.”

Her sensei looks down at his right hand, squinting his eyes to see said red string. Hyuuga-san turns his head to do the same, but his eyes suddenly bulge out in his inspection. Had Sakura not read up on the Byakugan, she was certain she would have screamed in fright.

“Hyuuga-san,” She continues, “Has his red string on his left-hand thumb. I’m not really sure who he is connected to though, yet.”

The Hyuuga then raises his own hand, inspecting it closely as he turns it this way and that. Both men have furrowed brows and Sakura recognizes that look as the one her parents have sometimes when there are less customers coming in this month.

The rest of the interview goes in a blur. The two men converse with themselves in hushed, but angry whispers. At least, Hyuuga-san sounded angry while her sensei just sounded disappointed. Hyuuga-san leaves first, not bothering to properly close the door.

“Yaotome-sensei?” Sakura asks carefully. She is unsure of what she did wrong and was more scared than anything.

“Sakura-chan, you seem like a good kid,” He takes a deep breath, “But it’s not good to lie, especially to ninja. It’s fine to have a strong imagination at your age, though. It means you might be inclined towards genjutsu in the future.”

 Sakura knows what genjutsu is from reading a book on it before, so she is confused at the sudden turn of their conversation. What upsets her the most, however, is that he had called her a liar. She did not lie to either of them and she knew better than to ever lie to a ninja.

She knew all of this but most importantly, she had just realized why the two men seemed so perplexed earlier.

“Sorry, sensei.” She hangs her head and says, subdued. A pat on her head is all she feels as she is left alone in the office room.

Her mom laughed at her, the pale-eyed man got angry, and her sensei was disappointed in her because none of them could see the red strings like she could. No one except Sakura could see those strings.

“Sorry we couldn’t pick you up from school, sweetheart.”

“It’s ok.” Sakura replies easily, knowing full well that running a business fulltime meant that Sakura had to be put in the backburner of her parents’ mind. As long as she came home before dinner, her parents simply assumed she was at the library.

The day’s revelation left her feeling ill. It made her dinner taste bland and had her excusing herself early to go back to her bedroom.

It’s not fair, she tells herself, that all those clan kids are treated so good just because their kekkei genkai could see through walls or expand their bodies.

Just because other people were not able to see the red strings, did not change the fact that Sakura could see them. She was not just imagining them up, like some baby with her imaginary friends. She could tell the difference between real life and fake!

The frustration of her situation was almost enough to make her cry. Since despite knowing full well she had a kekkei genkai—one that crossed off every requirement—only she would be privy to it.

Her mind wondered then, how many others were like her, had been like her? Possessed kekkei genkai that they could not prove and were stuck, almost trapped, in their own perceptions of the world.

It was lot to think about for a six year old girl, and so Sakura deftly bottled her emotions and went into a fitful sleep.

Sakura had learned to be content with her kekkei genkai. There was not much she could do about it, after all, if nobody except her could see the strings. Just as she could not change the size of her forehead, she just had to learn to accept or overcome her shortcomings.

To start off with, she never mentioned the strings to anyone again. After that day with Yaotome-sensei and the pale eyed Hyuuga, she kept her mouth shut about anything involving the strings, kekkei genkai, or even that day in that office. It is strange that a part of her tells her not to mention what happened in that office, although no one had told her to keep quiet.

Sakura thinks that after seeing the negative reactions towards her that day, it was best not to bring it up ever again.

Ignoring the strings and everything about them helped with making her fit in better with the other kids in the Academy but that did not mean that the strings were completely gone.

Sakura could still see the wispy threads in her peripherals and no amount of focusing on a person’s hand could stop her from noticing whenever someone tried to hand something to her. It was particularly challenging to feign ignorance during kunai and shuriken throwing classes where her partner, Ino, would hand off a dull weapon for her to throw. The red wrapped around her friend’s index finger laced it so tightly, as if the person it was connected to was desperately trying to get her attention.

It is because of this constant awareness that Sakura is unnerved to discover that the village had drastically reduced its number of threads overnight. The main road was usually laden with the amount of red thread populating the already busy streets. What was normally a web of intersecting, interwoven fibers had been thinned out to a meager version of itself. Many strings were simply dangling limply on the ground and the few that were still entangled in one another were loosely held together.

“Oh no,” Sakura whispers to herself, because the sudden disappearances of thread could only mean one thing.

Sakura and her parents attend the funeral of her great grandmother one solemn day. Despite knowing to bow her head in respect to honor the recent passing, Sakura tilted her eyes upwards to where the open casket lay.

There laid her great grandmother, her portrait atop her casket to show how she was in life. However, what caught the pink haired girl’s attention was not the portrait nor the woman’s placid corpse but the rapidly disintegrating red string.

Before her very eyes the thread withered away as if some flame had lit the other end. She watched as the soot floated away by some unknown gust of air, the thread quickly shortening as the small embers worked their way upwards to her great grandmother.

Finally, the last of the string tied around a frail thumb fell into pieces and… simply… drifted... away.

Sakura knows that the people who have no strings tied to their fingers—as rare as they are—are those who have had their ‘fated one’ die. When great grandpa left that funeral, Sakura noticed that his own hands were bare; the red string that had previously connected him with his fated person gone.

Rushing towards the Academy, the entire class in informed of the massacre that had taken place the night before. Sakura noticed a few more classmates whose fingers lay bare. Uchiha Sasuke is gone for a week.

Team assignments are finally announced. Sakura finds herself on Team 7 with one Uzumaki Naruto and the last Uchiha.

She thinks Naruto is okay enough. He had a reputation in and outside of the Academy as a ‘demon’, though in her opinion the boy was just mischievous, never mean-spirited. Maybe even misguided, given that he was an orphan and literally none of the other orphans are as harassed as he is.

About Sasuke however, Sakura hesitates to make any quick assumptions. Following that incident that occurred years ago, she had avoided him as much as possible because that large portion of threads vanishing into the night had left her greatly disturbed. Just merely looking at the dark haired boy left her feeling uneasy.

Swallowing down her unease, Sakura resolves to not let any of her personal feelings interfere with her new ninja career. Whatever her two teammates’ past were would not color any negative emotions against them.

Especially since they were the one pair in class whose strings were connected to each other. That must mean something.

“My name is Sakura,” She introduces herself after the three find themselves in an empty classroom, “I hope we can all work well together.”

“I h-hope so too, Sakura-chan,” Naruto blushes freely, completely ignoring the formality of introducing himself as well. Sakura lowers her eyebrows, wait, did Naruto—

“But I wish we weren’t stuck with this teme!” The blond cuts off her line of thinking, voice shrill as he stuck his tongue out at the other boy.

“Tch, dobe.” Said boy counters with a glare of his own.

Sakura reminds herself that she already decided not to let her personal feelings get in the way of her career. Still, with the way that Naruto was shooting googly eyes at her and how Sasuke was radiating visible, gloomy-dark energy made it hard to hold back the tick on her forehead.

Thankfully, their jounin sensei made it just in time. As in, an entire hour after teams have been announced.

At least Naruto’s prank worked; he had set it up earlier and now the chalkboard eraser fell right atop their new sensei’s head. Though the white chalk dust did not do much to contrast against the silvery white mop it had landed on, it achieved the desired effect of catching a jounin unaware and made Naruto snort.

“First impressions, I don’t like any of you.” Their dusty haired sensei announced. Sakura could only roll her eyes.

After corralling the three of them up to the rooftop, their sensei had introduced himself as Hatake Kakashi and urged them to do so as well.

Sakura looked to the two boys, already semi having introduced herself earlier and letting them go ahead. Naruto took his cue and went on to explode with confidence at his goal to become Hokage and then Sasuke followed with his promise of vengeance.

Sakura could already deduce that he wanted to hunt down the person who had been responsible for the night the strings vanished. The intensity of his wrath sparked some concern for him in her heart. She wondered if Naruto could feel his string being tugged as Sasuke clenched his fists painfully tight, though she immediately dismisses the idea since no one else so far has been able to see, much less feel the threads.

Then came her turn, “I’m Haruno Sakura. I like reading and dislike, uhm, being lied to,”

She hid the fact that she hated being told her kekkei genkai was illegitimate. It was a confession that she had not told a single soul about and she was not going to start sharing now.

“My goal is to be a ninja that my parents can be proud of.” She finishes resolutely. That part of her she can share; Ino already knew how being civilian born came with its own host of problems and it was not news that most civilians tended to shy away from ninja.

Kakashi wrapped up their meeting, warned them of tomorrow’s ‘survival training’ and poofed away with a taunting smile.

Naruto then immediately asked her if she wanted to have dinner with him for which she replied, “I think I have a better idea.”

“What is it?” He asks, and Sakura calls out to Sasuke before he left the building entirely.

“Sasuke! Want to go over strategies with us for tomorrow’s training?” She waves the Uchiha over, hoping his broody personality would not stop him from planning with them. Sasuke simply snorted derisively.

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto whined, “We were gonna have dinner, just the two of us. Forget this bastard!”

“I don’t need either of you.” Sasuke added, as if to further emphasize that he wanted nothing to do with them. The two were being intentionally antagonistic, each insult up till now causing her annoyance to skyrocket.

“That’s it, listen up! From here on out we’re Team 7!” She raises her voice to a shout, having finally been fed up with the two boys’ bullheaded pissing match, “Whether you like it or not, we’re gonna have to work as a team. Naruto, that means you have to stop egging Sasuke on, and Sasuke, that means having to interact with us at some point,”

Neither boys said a thing but at least Sasuke stopped heading for the door, “I’m not doing this so that we could be friends. I want us all to be comrades. So that when we have actual life or death missions, we won’t let our feelings towards each other affect our choices. Since we’ve literally never worked together, it’s best to plan out a few strategies so that we’re not blindsided by tomorrow.”

Gathering all the hope in her heart and pouring it out of her, Sakura hoped her message would reach the two boys. She knew the bottom line; tomorrow’s survival training was just another test of which Kakashi was to either pass or fail their team. It was a common practice for Academy graduates that anyone would have known if they bothered opening the Ninja Handbook. Knowing what she knew about the infamous jounin, their chances were slim. Getting the three of them working together cohesively would either make or break them.

Her eyes implored the Uchiha boy especially since Naruto seemed easy enough to convince so long as she was around, and she continued to look at his back even after he said, “Tch, you will all just get in my way.”

Her mouth pinched into an awful shape.

“Why’s he always gotta prove he’s such a bastard? But don’t worry Sakura-chan, you and I can plan for tomorrow, if you’d like?” Naruto bounced on his heels even as she stared at the ground.

What could she have said to make him change his mind? Uchiha Sasuke was Rookie of the Year but even that was a far cry to what a jounin could do. So why did he think he could take on whatever Kakashi threw at them alone?

“H-Hey, Sakura-chan?”

She was the top female of their class but even she had enough common sense to know when it was better to work with others, even if they were behind you in scores.

“Sakura-chan! Hey!”

Arrogant clan kids, they were all the same. He was probably looking down on her because he thought she was some dumb civvie with no ‘proper’ training. She already knew Sasuke and Naruto had bad blood since way back so that was why he was rude to the blonde, but then again, Sasuke treated everyone like that.

“Sakura-cha—an,” A voice yawned loudly right next to her ear, startling her and causing her to roughly push back the offending person.

“Oof! OUCH! What was that for?” Naruto yelled as he picked himself up off the ground.

“Sorry,” She flinched, had she zoned out that badly? “Was just thinking. But, uh, let’s go get dinner like you said, and we can plan for tomorrow.”

“Okay! I’ll take ya to my favorite place!” Naruto grabbed her hand, smiling all the way. She was grateful for the blonde’s ability to so easily forgive and forget.

Sakura and Naruto then continued to discuss tomorrow over steaming ramen bowls.

“Take this,” Sakura pushes a bento towards her dark haired teammate. All three of Team 7 are gathered that morning at an empty training ground save for a few stumps. “You’ve got to eat something before Kakashi-sensei gets here. Naruto and I already ate ours earlier.”

“He said not to.” Came a gruff reply. Sasuke glared at her hand as if she had offered him poison.

“Just take it, ya jerk! Sakura made it just for you since we all know you’re dumb enough to listen to that lousy guy’s words.” Naruto pestered.

“Hearing that from the dead last.” Sasuke growled, averting his fuming gaze towards the blonde. Naruto nearly lunged for the boy had their female teammate not held him by his arm.

“Kakashi-sensei probably told us not to eat to trick us. Does it really make sense to go into ‘survival training’ on an empty stomach?” Sakura offers, carefully wording herself to make Sasuke connect the dots on his own.

Just as expected, Sasuke takes one thoughtful moment to realize the situation before grabbing the bento out of her hands. Sakura briefly peeks at the red wrapped around his left ring finger, though her eyes instantly snap upwards to meet the Uchiha’s own. She blushes slightly, ashamed at having been caught though she knows logically that he would never see the red string himself.

It felt like she was trespassing in on something private when she looked too closely at a person’s string.

“Ugh, don’t tell me you have a crush on this teme, too, Sakura-chan!” Naruto wails, having seen the blush on her cheeks and assuming it was because of the Uchiha.

Well, it was, but for a whole separate reason that Sakura doubts he would ever understand.

“No!” Sakura denies immediately, “I’d like to keep all our relationships professional, if possible.”

“So we’re pro-fessional friends?” Naruto says slowly, not truly knowing the meaning but trying nonetheless.

“We can be friends, too, but when we’re wearing this,” She taps on her hitai-ate, her finger making a faint clinking noise against the metal, “We have to see each other as ninja, as teammates with a common goal.”

Naruto looked at her as if she said something truly inspirational and pumped his fist, “Yeah! We’ll be the best ninja team Konoha’s ever seen!” Sasuke stopped frowning as well which is basically a full blown smile when it comes to him, leaving Sakura wondering if this was the first time anyone has said anything vaguely encouraging to these boys before.

“Ahem,” Came a cough from behind the three of them.

Naruto promptly screeched and jumped up into Sakura’s arms in alarm before yelling, “You’re late!”

Kakashi merely shrugged and gave a half-baked excuse before explaining that their survival training had indeed been a coverup just as Sakura had expected. It was either get the bells or go back to the Academy. Sakura knew she had only one option.

“And start!” Kakashi announced, the timer starting to tick down.

Naruto dashed towards their sensei which, thankfully, Sakura had foreseen and with all the strength she could muster, dragged them both up to the trees to hide.

“Wh—Sakura! I almost had the drop on ‘im!” Naruto fumed. Sakura urgently shushed him.

“No, you didn’t! Did you even see the kunai in his hand?” She asked roughly. When Naruto returned her with a pitiful glance, she knew he had not.

In a firm tone she said, “Remember the plan, we get Sasuke and—”

“Sasuke just ran in the other direction. There’s no way that bastard’ll help us!” Naruto cut off.

Getting increasingly annoyed, Sakura took a levelling breath, “Sasuke still thinks he can get one of those bells alone. Even with us two, it’ll be difficult so Kakashi is clearly expecting us to work together if we want to those bells.”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you yesterday about teamwork.” Naruto agreed concededly.

“Good, so you know what to do.” Sakura offered a small smile to which Naruto nodded at, though they were interrupted by the sound of leaves rustling behind them.

The two shot off into action, Naruto amassing several clones to intercept Kakashi as Sakura went off alone, following the other end of the red thread connected to the blonde. It shook and wobbled as he threw himself at Kakashi.

She followed the thread until it led her up onto another tree branch, a confused yet serious expression on her dark haired teammate’s face as he sees Sakura.

“Sasuke, we have to work together to get those bells or we’re not gonna get them at all.” She explains outright. There was no time to waste as Naruto can occupy the jounin for only so long.

“You haven’t even seen me try.” Sasuke sneered.

“He’s a jounin. Tell me you don’t honestly think you can go up against that?” She pleads back, already seeing how Sasuke’s thread had gone eerily still. Naruto was either knocked out or unable to move.

“Hn,” The boy replies vaguely before stating, “Who will go back after we get the bells?”

“Does it really matter if we don’t get them in the first place and we’re all sent back?” Sakura indicated that time was running out by glancing back behind her. Paranoia has her scanning the tree line for any hint of red.

Sasuke realized that Kakashi would be heading towards them soon and acquiesces with a gruff sigh, “Fine.”

She immediately brightened up at the boy’s compliance and pulls out a kunai, “We need to go back and get Naruto.”

Attaching an explosive tag on the ringed end, she threw her arm back and let the weapon fly towards where she heard another rustle of leaves. Together they leapt away from the small explosion, hoping it was enough of a distraction to get to their blonde teammate in time.

Sakura lead the way and behind her Sasuke wondered just how she was able to pinpoint the other boy’s location so accurately. Within seconds they were cutting the other boy out of his bindings where he was trapped upside down.

“Hey, you got the teme on board!” Naruto exclaimed as he oriented himself properly. His head still ached from the blood rushing into it, but it was quickly fading with each passing second. Sasuke deigned not to entertain him with a reply.

“Now that everyone’s here we can get those bells but only,” Sakura stresses, “If we work together.”

The two boys share a look of contempt, but Sakura’s more potent gaze quickly had them looking back to her.

“There’s no way we’ll be able to get those bells in a fair fight.” She concludes.

“So we gotta, what, do underhanded tricks?” Naruto scratches his head but Sakura beams at him, causing a faint blush to spread across his cheeks.

“Exactly, Naruto! Sasuke should engage him one-on-one while Naruto summons a bunch of his clones and barrage him with overwhelming force. And remember to use any jutsu or weapon up your sleeves.” Sakura calculated the odds that Naruto and Sasuke’s combined assault would successfully divert attention away from herself.

“Then what about you, Sakura-chan?” Naruto questions.

“I’ll cast a genjutsu to momentarily stun him while you both occupy him and when I give the signal, we all make a grab for the bells. At least one of us should be able to get close enough.” She explained, though not outright lying, it was close enough to what she was planning on doing. There was no way to explain how she was going to use her kekkei genkai in their favor, after all.

Sakura looked between the two boys and hoped they got the message loud and clear: distract and then grab.

The three of them shift their gazes to be filled with concentration and renewed vigor. This was their last chance. With an unspoken agreement the three head off to the clearing and wait for Kakashi to appear.

“Oh my, you know it’s rude to gang up on your elders.” Kakashi muses nonchalantly as he moves his eyes over the three of them.

Three against one, they were in a standoff. Then, in an aborted movement, the two boys flung towards the jounin. Naruto summoned his clones again and Sasuke breathed out a fire jutsu before joining in on the fray.

As expected of a shinobi of his caliber, Kakashi deftly dodged or parried each oncoming attack, all the while keeping an eye on Sakura in the background. This would be trickier than she had thought, though her hands have already started forming the starting hand signs for genjutsu.

Naruto amassed even more clones, the bulk of them completely drowning the jounin. Sakura took this as her chance, casting a minor genjutsu to affect the area and then quickly throwing out kunai in an elaborate pattern.

Kakashi soon emerged from the Naruto pile, many of the clones popping out of existence as the glint of his own kunai shined in his hand. Sasuke jumped in hastily though Kakashi was already scanning Sakura for any kind of ambush. The moment his eyes lifted away from the girl, Sakura bellowed, “Signal!”

The boys jerked their heads in recognition and dove towards the jounin’s belt to grab at the bells. Kakashi simply responded in kind by leaping the other way, but at that moment, a force caused him to stumble. His body jerked back downwards, the force seeming to have pulled down his hand first.

Although ninja wire held no candle against chakra strings, they did what Sakura had intended and Kakashi had managed to be held down successfully. The seemingly random pattern of scattered kunai attached to wire were, in fact, placed to overlap the red string leading towards Kakashi while keeping clear of the boys’ own strings.

And in that moment of brief confusion from the jounin, all three children of Team 7 plunged onto Kakashi and grasped and grabbed for all they were worth.

“Remind me never to put the bells on myself ever again and just put it on a clone.” Kakashi whined pathetically. He swore he felt someone grab his crotch at least once.

“Gyahaha!” Naruto cackled, a bell dangling from his finger, “Now you know about the might of the future Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto!”

“Hn,” Sasuke smirked in triumph, for once not goading the other boy and simply letting a satisfied look overcome his features. He had a bell between his fingers as well.

Sakura simply smiled, all too happy with herself at how her diversion had worked. This was the first time she had used that technique on anyone but herself, yet she had used it on a jounin and more importantly, won.

“Good news, you managed to get the bells before the timer ran out,” The jounin curved his eyes in a smile, “Bad news, Sakura-chan has to go back to the Academy.”

The mood dropped right away, and although Kakashi upheld his eye smile, the three children frowned and grew solemn.

“B-but we couldn’t get these bells without Sakura-chan.” Naruto speaks up first, his eyes already hard and determined.

Sakura whipped her gaze towards Naruto in overwhelming relief before snapping her head back down, shameful that she was the only one having not gotten a bell in the tussle.

“It’s okay, Naruto. We all knew the rules before starting.” Sakura said placatingly, but her traitorous eyes started to water at the prospect of being sent back. After everything she had worked towards and practiced and cried over.

But life was not fair, and it was a lesson that Sakura should have already learned long ago.

“There was no point in having us work together like this if one of us has to be sent away,” Sasuke finally speaks up, accusation lacing his tone. “Why make a test designed for us to fail unless we worked as a team?”

Sakura blinked her tears away at Sasuke’s valid question. He is right, her mind reinforced. She should have realized it sooner, perhaps emotions were running too high for her to notice, but there was no way a single genin could take on a jounin alone. Strength in numbers.

“Sakura-chan realized how to beat the test but she should have concluded the reason behind it,” Kakashi drawled, taking on a pleased tone, “Maa, but that’s what having your team is for, huh? Split the thinking and work between the three of you.”

“Wha—?” Naruto titled his head in confusion.

Sakura ran her arm under her nose and hurriedly said, with hope in her voice, “Kakashi-sensei wanted us to work together because that’s what he was trying to teach us. That together we’re stronger, better.”

Naruto lit up with understanding and immediately clung onto Sakura, happy that she was going to stay.

“Exactly. You all,” And with a healthy dose of anticipation, “Pass.”

Naruto whooped, still clinging to his female teammate and Sakura lets out a relieved giggle. Sasuke smirks once again and Kakashi cannot deny the inkling of fondness towards the genin. His genin.

Survival training and Team 7’s subsequent victory came to pass as the day dissolved into night. All three were excused and their single-eyed sensei watched them head off while he hid in the camouflage of the trees.

Kakashi could not fault them for using the actual word ‘signal’ as the signal, they were still genin after all. “My cute little genin,” He would then go on to describe them in front of company because they truly were in his eyes. The three so much more innocent and naïve compared to his own team during their age.

In a swirl of leaves, he appears at the Hokage Tower. “Here to deliver some good news.” He announces.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looks up at him expectantly, “Kakashi-kun.”

“Team 7, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura, under the direction of their jounin sensei, Hatake Kakashi are ready for active duty, Hokage-sama.” Kakashi intones happily.

“Oh-ho!,” A puff of smoke from the Hokage’s pipe floats upwards, “That is good news. I’ll be expecting Team 7 to start building up their experience with their first missions tomorrow.”

“Of course, Hokage-sama.” And with a respectful bow, Kakashi leaves the aging man to his paperwork.

Hiruzen would be expecting a detailed progress report in the upcoming weeks, Kakashi reminds himself. He takes his time with his usual trudge towards his apartment, an orange book already obscuring his face like a second mask.

Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke are high priority individuals. Even if they had failed to attain the bells from today’s test, Kakashi would have been forced to pass them because of pressure from the Elder Council. Talent could only go ignored for so long.

Without surprise, the Uchiha’s above average taijutsu and fireball jutsu as well as Uzumaki’s shadow clones were clearly above the skill level of average genin. Unexpectedly, however, was his lone female student’s competency during the test.

Sakura knew how to get the bells, but it did not bode well if she were to continue completing missions with the same unquestioning mentality; complete the mission, at any costs, no hesitation. Kakashi had seen first hand what that line of thinking does to children.

She knew what the mission objective was, saw the most efficient way to complete it, and then executed it without hesitation. That level of planning would have been expected for a student with scores like hers but given the sudden change in situation—being lied to about the day’s true objective—and working with a team for the first time, that amount of level-headedness was a pleasant surprise.

That, or she’s just naturally predisposed to being adaptive and composed in any given situation, he thinks.

Beyond that, she had done something while he was preoccupied with the boys. He had felt her activate a genjutsu, the distinctive layer of chakra prickling his senses, to the surrounding area. She had done that to most likely conceal the kunai and wire she threw out, but why hide them? Then after he had lunged away some force dragged him back down.

Releasing a sigh, Kakashi closes his book and looks out at the sunset. He should probably go talk to someone about this.

Chapter Text

Title: A non-believer of the heart

Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That’s right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you’d be surprised to know who’s on the other end of your string. AU.

Words: 6,209

A/N: You guys spoil my story for yourselves haha! Hopefully this chapter will clear up some stuff about Sakura’s kekkei genkai 

----

The Red Strings of Fate were just that: they indicated who you are tied to. Someone you are bound to meet at some point because fate had decided your two destinies were intertwined.

What it did not mean was that it secured love between the two individuals. Having coexisting futures did not equate to predestined love, as romanticized as the trope had led many to believe.

Sakura knew that what tied one person to another would be completely different in context from individual to individual. Izumi and Taro had been a case where they fell deeply in love with each other, but Sakura had seen others where it was harder to grasp their relationship. Like the two men she had seen at the market whose connected string fell slack as they approached each other, both of their wives at their sides as they exchanged greetings.

When she had saw it all those years ago, she had been confused.  She still clung to the idea of eventual romance with the strings and it was not until she grew older that she realized that love can be many things, and the string was but an easy perception of the complex relationships held between two people.

She then wondered if multiple strings could be attached to one person. Surely there were enough people in the world, let alone in Fire Country, that someone would have more than one destined meeting. Yet in her limited range of just Konoha, she has so far never once encountered such an occurrence.

It’s probably for the better, she thinks to herself, there would be too many strings on one road alone if people had two or three of them.

Sakura kept this thought in mind, however, as her team worked on their first D rank mission. Pulling weeds became tolerable when you could easily let your mind wander as she could.

“Man, this blows!” Naruto screamed from the other side of the field. His forehead drenched in sweat even with a towel wrapped around his head, “We should be out there kicking ass and saving people!”

Sasuke held back an insult for once and even seemed to agree as he shot an accusing stare at their teacher, who was lounging under the shade of a nearby tree. Sakura felt her throat too parched to add in her own opinion.

“Everyone had to do these missions at one point. Think of this as an exercise for patience.” Kakashi replied easily, his face still buried in his book.

“Screw patience!” Naruto screamed back, “How’s this supposed to help me be a legendary ninja?”

And so, the rest of they day went, though Sakura did not mind much since she was left daydreaming in peace.

----

Kakashi arrived at Konoha Hospital. Inside, he waited until a nurse noticed him, promptly blanched, then turned to him again, “Hatake-san. What a surprise to see you here voluntarily.”

“It’s nice seeing you, too, Nurse-chan,” He responds to her blandly, “I’d like to see the medical records on my students.”

“You’ve taken on a team?” She hesitated to ask.

Kakashi held no pleasantries for small talk nor did he want to explain himself, so he pushed, “The records, if you would.”

Blanching yet again—and for being in a hospital, she should take better care of herself—the well-intimidated nurse left to collect the records after Kakashi told them their names.

“Thanks.” He says with a smile in his voice before disappearing.

At first glance, the files held little value unfortunately enough for Kakashi. Naruto and Sasuke’s files were expectedly thin and even the scraps left inside were mostly crossed out. Sakura’s file also held nothing of note, except for a small annotation on the bottom of a page.

Preliminary interview for kekkei genkai identification conducted with Hyuuga Nitori. Concluded with failed manifestation of kekkei genkai. No further testing required, deemed likely a childhood illusion.

Though short and concise, the evidence laid clear. Sakura had gone in to be tested for a kekkei genkai when she was younger but was ultimately deemed to be some kind of imaginary delusion for her age.

Furrowing his brows together, Kakashi felt his instincts kick in. Something was telling him that there was more to this seemingly insignificant event, and there was one name he had as a lead in this investigation.

----

Sakura stood alone in a small open field. Kunai littered the ground, each one attached to ninja wire that glinted as it caught the sunlight.

She double checked each kunai’s placement before roughly jerking her arm, a smile already creeping onto her face as she realized her hand had barely moved. Giddy at her success at marking the kunai in a way that the wire overlapped themselves and her red string, she failed to notice the shadowed person making their way towards her.

“Nice set-up, though I don’t really get it.” A voice sounded as a greeting. Sakura immediately swiveled her head towards the voice in surprise. The voice belonged to an older looking girl with brunette hair styled into two buns.

“Uh, thanks,” Sakura replied though quickly berating herself for her awkwardness. Ino had always made fun of her inability to continue a conversation. “I guess.”

She pulled out another kunai and leaned down to cut a few of the wires as the older girl prodded, “So ya mind explaining why you have random kunai and ninja wire lying around?”

“Um,” Sakura mutters, as intelligent as her scores would prove, “Just practice.”

The brunette sighed, her shoulders dropping in defeat, “Alright, I get it, I’ll leave you alone then. My name’s Tenten. If you finally decide you wanna open up about—all this,” She gestures wildly at the field, “Walk on over to training ground five, it’s right over there.”

Sakura follows the direction towards where the other girl, Tenten, points. Her red string dangles easily from her finger, and Sakura quickly averts her eyes when the girl turns back to her.

“I’m Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you, Tenten-san.” She bows her head lightly and blushes when the other girl barks out a laugh.

“I like you, Haruno. You better come to training ground five soon!” The brunette hollered, though she was already walking away.

Huh, Sakura thinks, maybe she just made a new friend. One that had a hitai-ate and various nicks and scars dotted across her exposed arms. Weapon reliant, she surmises. Definitely worth making friends with.

‘Soon’ became the next day as Sakura quietly approached the training ground. Even before stepping into the field, she heard the telltale clang and grunts of a spar. The noise could hardly compare to the actual experience of seeing the full thing, however.

“Leaf drop!” A green clad boy shouts as his foot rapidly descended onto another, dark haired boy.

The other boy strains his eyes—Hyuuga, her mind supplies—and dodges only to swiftly turn and strike a palm at the other’s shoulder. This continues as the two boys trade blow for blow until Sakura spots the girl she met earlier, Tenten, appear in the sky unfurling a scroll.

The next thing she knew, multiple kunai and shuriken were flying downwards towards the boys, and startlingly, herself. Widening her eyes, Sakura dived outwards and ended up rolling into a nearby bush.

“Nice of you to join us, Haruno!” The brunette yells as Sakura stood and tried to remove the twigs from her hair. Looking over to the boys, the Hyuuga simply pulled his sleeve back into place while the other snapped from a defensive position to rigid straight. Of course, she thinks sarcastically, these must be her teammates and they were already used to sharp objects raining down on them from the heavens. She stomps down the feeling of annoyance at having to wash her hair again today.

“Hi, Tenten-san,” Sakura finally greets, “Sorry for intruding. I can leave you to your guys’ practice—”

“Nah, you can stay! We’re basically done here, right, Gai-sensei?” The older girl turns her head to the side and Sakura gapes.

Green jumpsuit and a pristine bowl cut meet her eyes. She switches from glancing at the smaller version to this ‘Gai-sensei’ and tries to make sense of what she was seeing.

“There’s two?” She inquired.

“Huh?—Oh! This is Gai-sensei,” She pointed at the larger man before pulling the smaller version towards her, “And this is Rock Lee. And that other guy is Neji.”

Before she could offer her own name, a blur of green appeared in front of her and suddenly her hands were enveloped by another, “Beautiful flower, this chance meeting… It must be FATE!”

Knowing a thing or two about fate, Sakura glanced down at their joined hands and instantly breathes out a sigh of relief. Lee’s string did not connect to hers. Though if she did not have that ability, just the sheer amount of conviction in his eyes may have her think otherwise.

“Leave her alone! Geez, respect a girl’s personal space, would ya?” Tenten stomped over to pull the boy away by the ear. Sakura watched as he reached his arms out towards her like a kid. At least she was not the only person with absurd teammates. Releasing another small sigh, she turns to the others in Tenten’s team.

“My name is Haruno Sakura, I’m part of Team 7—ah, Team Kakashi.” She introduces formally to the stoic faced Hyuuga and their teacher.

The jounin leaps towards her—was she simply a magnet for men like these?—and says in a voice much too loud for their company, “You’re sensei happens to be my ETERNAL RIVAL! My wonderful student must be right! This is FATE!”

Glitter dances in the man’s eyes as he raises a thumbs up, “And now you will carry on tradition, with you becoming Tenten’s own ETERNAL RIVAL.”

Lee shakes himself from Tenten’s hold and gets on his knees right next to Gai, tears already spilling from his eyes, “Oh, Tenten, you’re so blessed to find a rival so soon! How a lotus BLOOMS!”

The two spandex wearing men then embrace in a tearful display including sparks and flowers. Sakura could only gulp as her senses are overloaded by the sheer amount of healthy masculinity. Neji finally pitches in by calling them all idiots under his breath.

“Sorry about them—they mean well, they do,” Tenten clasps a hand on Sakura’s shoulder, “But I’m really glad you’ve decided to come by.”

“Your spar was really good.” Sakura compliments, a placid smile on her lips at the older girl’s assurance.

“Aw, shucks, thanks. But I know why you’re really here, Haruno,” Tenten laughs, her eyes squinting back at her, “Why don’t you show me how you handle your kunai?”

Sakura continues to smile even as she pulls out a kunai from her waist pack, “Don’t need to tell me twice.”

----

“Ever bothered with a door?” Hyuuga Nitori grumbles as a few of his papers float out of place by the sudden shunshin. He goes to grab them to shuffle the sheets back in order.

“Six years ago, a girl with pink hair walked through that door. Tell me everything you remember from your interview with Haruno Sakura.” Came the demanding reply. The pale eyed man fully lifts his gaze to the Copy-nin, worry working its way up his bones. The newer generation would never know just how intimidating the Copy-nin truly was.

Even if the man put on an easy-going front these days, his and Hatake’s era had been one of blood and war. Ultimately, Nitori’s sense of preservation overshadowed his desire to ask why and thus he goes to his filing cabinet to pull out a sheet.

“Haruno Sakura,” Nitori repeats, after finding what he was looking for, “Came in requesting to register her supposed ‘kekkei genkai’. Her current sensei at the time—Yaotome, chuunin—had accompanied her for the formal interview as she had been too young to fill out the form.”

Kakashi glances down at the paper, as if making sure he was telling the truth. The Hyuuga’s frown deepened, “We concluded that the girl had an overactive imagination that led her to believe her imaginary constructs were real. Understandable, as most civilians still entertain the thought that such a thing fosters creativity in a child.”

Ignoring the man’s latter opinion, Kakashi continued to question in the same impassive tone, “What were those imaginary constructs.”

The Hyuuga raised a brow, having expected the line of questioning to stop after showing his brief notes on that day. Nonetheless, the pale eyed man continued, “It’s been years, but if I remember, she had seen these ‘red strings’ which could have possibly been connected to another person. Obviously, her parents had read her too many bedtime stories and it had embedded itself into that child’s mind as real.”

Kakashi stayed silent for a moment, digesting the information. He replayed the events of that day to remember his standoff against his students, trying to catch a moment where there had ever been some kind of ‘red string’. His female student had only thrown out those wire-attached kunai, he recalled. The only time his attention had been fully preoccupied away from her she had released a genjutsu, and even then, he was still able to break past it and keep her in his peripherals. No red string in sight.

“Are we done here?” The Hyuuga scowls, already filing away in his cabinet.

“Yes, and I’d recommend investing in some décor by the way,” Kakashi squints his lone eye, “Your office just seems to lack imagination.”  Then disappears in an awful flurry of leaves, leaving sheets to scatter across the room even messier than before.

----

Being alone with Sasuke still made her feel uneasy. The weight of knowing what had happened that night even before the official announcement made her feel privy to something that should not have involved her this deeply.

Even now she hesitates to look at him as they lay pressed up together, hidden behind the trunk of a large tree.

“Sakura.” The Uchiha says, his tone on the verge of annoyance and worry. Being caught distracted made her blush so she shook her head and refocused on the target.

Just on the other side of their tree was Tora, curled up and seemingly asleep. Not planning on falling for that ruse again, Team 7 had split to encircle the cat when it inevitably wakes and runs. Naruto had several other clones ready and all at once, genin and clones alike pounced on the cat.

The mission ended as it did the last two times they had done it, with each member of Team 7 littered with thin red lines and all manner of debris on their person. Except for Kakashi, who had simply supervised at times like these where his help would have greatly been appreciated. What mattered was that the cat was back in its owner’s arms, as temporary as it was.

Still, Sakura gives a small smile to her team after receiving their pay for a job well done. Eyeing the other boys, she wondered if they were patching themselves up properly after their missions. Unlike her, they did not have a nagging mother nor doting father to force her to treat her injuries more seriously.

“You guys want to come over to my house?” She finds herself saying, although she quickly regrets her hasty offer, “I mean, if you want, that is. I’ve got a ton of medical supplies back at home, and—uh, I can make sure your wounds don’t get worse?”

She phrases that last part as a question, a blush already radiating off her cheeks hotly. Stupid, stupid, she berates herself, just shut your idiot mouth up, Sakura.

“Oh man, do I?” Naruto, bless him, agrees readily. The blinding smile on his face a steady reassurance for Sakura, “’Course I’d want to, Sakura-chan!”

“Hn.” Sasuke grunts, which isn’t a direct no so the dark haired boy must be okay with it. Sakura finds herself smiling, too, not caring how dopey she must look right now.

“Inviting everyone except your dear, old sensei? Gasp,” Kakashi clutches his heart, “To be betrayed by my own student.”

Naruto teases back that it was what he got for being late all the time, but Sakura offers him the invite as well, “It’d be my pleasure to have you, Kakashi-sensei! My parents wanted to meet all three of you!”

“Huh? Really?” Naruto tilts his head. She bites back her instinctual reply that most parents would be interested in their child’s shinobi team. So instead she nods her head, her heart thumping in her chest happily.

When they reach the Haruno residence, Sakura gauges the reactions from her teammates. The two-storied house was a familiar sight for her; her eyes took in the slightly patchy grass around it, the way the outer walls seemed dull with age, and how it would hardly win any sort of award other than for it being ‘homely’.

So Sakura is a bit precautious, watching their faces closely for any hint of negativity. Being a kunoichi did not do much to shield her from the throes of puberty, including her need for validation from her peers.

“You live here, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asks while looking away from her, instead his gaze on her home, though his voice held no meanness.

“Obviously.” Sasuke counters. Sakura risks a steady look at her Uchiha teammate, sensitive about his reaction especially. The Uchiha compound had been one of the most architecturally beautiful places in Konoha. At least, it had been before that night ended with a single occupant, which made upkeeping appearances the least concern.

Thankfully, Sasuke held no distinct emotion on his face other than his usual scoff at the blonde. To which said blonde insulted back. Kakashi merely heaves a deep sigh. Their usual bickering and their teacher’s put-upon resignation had somehow become a relief for Sakura; she could always count on them being unchanging and familiar in that way.

Heading inside, she calls out, “I’m home! And I brought my team with me!”

A smiling Mebuki pops her head out of the living room to greet them, “Welcome home, sweetheart. Oh, just look at all of you! I’m so glad you can all stay for dinner, though you’ll have to wait bit since we weren’t expecting you all so soon! You hear that, honey? Sakura brought her ninja team!”

And from the kitchen, “Already started on a second pot!”

“Uh—” Naruto starts, but Sakura already has a hand around his face to quiet him.

“We’ll be down in a minute! Tough mission today, gotta go lick our wounds and all that!” She managed to babble before pulling both boys upstairs with her to her bedroom, leaving a defenseless Kakashi alone with her parents. He’s a jounin, she thinks, he can handle small talk with other adults.

Kizashi managed to catch them on the way up, his apron still on and holding a ladle, “Leave the door open, young lady!”

“Always!” She answers back, her face set ablaze. Sasuke, being the more cognizant of the two boys, blushes just as brightly.

“Ugh, sorry.” She apologizes as they all settle on her bedroom door. She pulls out a medical kit out from under her bed, “My dad doesn’t mean anything by that, he’s just teasing.”

“Wait, your mom said we were staying over for dinner. But you said it was just for band aids and stuff.” Naruto reminds her, his hands already thrown behind his back as he gets comfortable on the carpet.

“Um, haha,” Sakura laughs awkwardly, having been caught, “So, maybe—actually—my mom and dad wanted you guys over for dinner and like, formally meet you all one day. And today’s the day.”

“Then just say so in the first place.” Sasuke grunts, rolling his eyes. He would never get why girls always had to go at everything in a roundabout way.

“I really meant to look at your guys’ injuries, though! And not just for ‘band aids’. We gotta disinfect your wounds so that they don’t fester.” She goes to Naruto first, though to her surprise, most of his cuts have already healed. Weird. She still goes over them with an alcohol wipe to which Naruto complains at the cold feeling but obviously clings to her even as she tries to inspect him.

Shuffling over to her other teammate, Sasuke pointedly looks the other direction. From this close, though, Sakura can see a faint blush color his cheeks. Also weird.

Here were two paired people, a single string between the two of them, and it seemed both boys blushed whenever Sakura got close. She did not think herself overconfident in her looks like Ino, nor was she even actively flirting with either of them, but she knew what these small, private moments meant. Besides that, she had always had an inkling that the boys were not headed towards a destiny of love, but instead one of friendship, or at least deep camaraderie. In what she has seen with the strings, her hypothesis is that if the strings are tied to the same finger it will most likely lead to a romantic pairing. Her observations with her teammates proved it true. Naruto’s was on his right index, Sasuke’s on his left ring.

Sakura’s on her right pinky.

Her hypothesis still needed more data, however, quickly ignoring that last train of thought. She had not paid enough attention to untied couples to see if matching fingers were significant in that way either.

“We should probably head back down and save Kakashi-sensei.” Sakura decides, standing up and leading the way. Tonight she was going to focus on her parents meeting their team, not on her silly kekkei genkai ideas.

Down beyond the stairs, the three of them heard the distant sounds of a commotion.

“Maa, I’m fine sitting where I am. Truly.” The jounin’s usual blank tone now colored with rising panic. Mebuki pulled on his arm further, trying to drag him off the couch.

“Nonsense!” The woman pushed, and upon seeing her daughter, “Sakura! Come help me get your sensei to the dining table!”

Just as she was going to protest—since she cared about her teacher and had to stick up for him, after all—her father announced, “Dinner’s ready!”

----

“Sakura, a word.” Her teacher motions her over after practice one sunny afternoon. She hesitates at his command at first, the part of her that was used to always being at the top of the class with perfect attendance shuddering. Good kids do not get a ‘talking to’, that corner of her mind echoes.

“Of course, Kakashi-sensei.” She acquiesces, the two heading off away from the two boys who were competing against each other as usual.

Alone, Sakura is the sole focus of her teacher for once. She finds that it leaves her feeling antsy, and maybe it had been better when he ignored her for the boys instead. She waits until he speaks, despite her discomfort, since she is a stickler for rules and the Ninja Handbook said to always defer to a superior officer.

“Is there anything you want to tell me, Sakura-chan?” The jounin asks, reverting back to the familiar honorific. He even curves his eyes in his own fashion of a smile. Coercive tactic, she thinks and guilt rushes into her at thinking her teacher would do such a thing to his student. He wouldn’t, would he?

“I-I don’t follow. Did I do something wrong?” She asks outright. She racks her brain for anything that stood out in the past few weeks. Other than dinner with her family, nothing out of the ordinary. She would even go to say that the dinner bonded them closer.

His eye remained curved, but Sakura can feel the temperature dip lower and lower. Concern starts to prickle at her gut, more demanding than before as her teacher lapses into silence.

A horrid moment later, he says, “What did you do, that first day where the three of you rushed at me?”

Realization dawns on her and she uses every ounce of willpower within her to hold back a flinch, anything that would tip him off of her recognition. He’s onto me, she thinks. Yet that corner of her mind echoes again, but what do I have to hide?

The larger man drops his façade and the smile smears away into an intense stare. “I shouldn’t have passed you.”

Shock fills her face, “W-what?”

“If there was an easier way to get the bells, you would have done so without getting Naruto or Sasuke’s help. That’s the issue here, Sakura.” The jounin’s accusation strikes her like blow. Caught in a whiplash at his sudden hostility, she fails to make any sort of defense for herself.

“You don’t work with people for the sake of teamwork, you just did whatever you had to to finish the objective.” He pushes on, seeing the tremble in the girl’s hands, “And whatever you did that day, you’re not telling me. That’s enough of a reason to alert the Hokage, let alone allow you to be on a genin team.”

Sakura cowers into herself, shame and fear and panic amassing into a single emotion of chaos. Closing her eyes, she forces herself to calm down. Kakashi was trying to force a self-incrimination out of her, his words could merely be a bluff to do so. He wanted to know about the red strings.

But does he deserve to, the echo in her mind protests and immediately it starts screaming NO! NO! NO! NO—

She shut the wailing echo up, pushing it even further into the recesses of her mind. After so many years of hiding and faking, someone had taken notice. She used to fantasize about this moment, hoping it would validate her existence, but instead it left her anxious. The red strings were her own private comfort. A secret with herself that despite what anyone believed about her, she was special. These strings made her special. No one could ever take that truth away.

Sakura eyes the jounin now with a new standpoint. He wanted to unravel the only thing that made her worth something in the ninja world. She knew what he would do if she divulged her kekkei genkai to him. Unlike a six year old civilian child, the Hokage would listen to the Copy-nin. They would run tests on her, pick apart every aspect of the strings, and even turn her into breeding stock to ’continue her line’. She knows this because she is not stupid enough to fail to see how Konoha treats its clans and bloodlines.

They would remove all agency from her. Sakura wanted to be a ninja that her parents would be proud of, yes, but above all else she wanted to be a ninja of her own terms. She fought to enter the Academy, she fought against the system’s prejudice against civilian born ninja, and she would fight now, to maintain her strongest leverage in the world. Setting her posture straight, she levels a solid gaze on the Copy-nin.

“Chakra strings.” She declares. Kakashi narrows his eye.

“Chakra strings, really,” She’d be half dead to miss the disbelief in his voice. “How.”

“The genjutsu was actually used to conceal them. The kunai and wire were a simple distraction, meant to divert attention away from the chakra string. Same as the genjutsu,” Sakura bites back the urge to sneer at the word ‘string’. She was not in a position to mock a man as dangerous as Kakashi. “Most people underestimate a civilian girl, so they don’t expect it.”

“Hm,” He grunts, found wanting of a better reply. She was right of course. Even he had high doubts about her contribution in the actual fighting portion of that test. It was a natural assumption; where Sakura excelled in planning and intelligence, she would have to suffer with weaker jutsu and taijutsu. “Show me.”

Sakura risked a moment of reluctance. She had thought herself confident enough in her answer that he would leave the issue, though the careless excuse was now backfiring on her.

At her teacher’s expectant look, she musters forth chakra in her fingertips. She had read about chakra string—or chakra thread, as it was known in Suna—before. Knew the high level of control needed to create and direct the technique. In theory, she understood it perfectly and her control had always been pinpoint.

Giving a last minute prayer, she molds the chakra and forces it out of her fingertips. They edge out slowly, too slowly to have been usable in battle, so she pushes more chakra into it. As the string materializes, her eyes widen at its properties.

Red, bright red chakra strings pour out of her fingers and slither onto the ground where they almost seemed to mingle and become one with the strings of fate.

“Ah,” Kakashi makes a sound of surprise before speaking to his student, his gentle tone genuine for once, “So this was what it was.”

Allowing the man to make his own assumptions, Sakura quickly drops the technique and watches as the chakra strings fade away in one segment. She hoped he found her demonstration sufficient, as her chakra stores were not nearly enough to attempt it a second time.

“Happy?” She pouts, riding on the sudden lift in atmosphere. Playing up her childhood naivete could only help her now. Especially by acting like Kakashi’s earlier confrontation was wiped from her mind in favor of trying to please him.

“Maa, could you forgive sensei for being mean to you earlier?” He scratches his head, bashful, “But to be fair, it’s not good to hide things from me or from your team. So I expect you to tell the boys, too, soon.”

“I will!” She nods her head, “And I’m sorry, Kakashi-sensei. I guess I’m still getting used to the idea of having a team that has my back.”

A large hand reaches out and pats her head. She is sorry, she repeats in her head, about lying like this. Maybe when she has made enough of a name of herself to be afforded more influence and power in Konoha’s hierarchy she could come clean. Right now however, Sakura needed every advantage available for her to rise through the ranks and prevent anyone from trying to take advantage of her.

----

Kakashi regretted having to go such lengths with Sakura. He did not mean those words earlier, at least not the part of not passing her through. Indeed, the girl at that time did not truly care for teamwork, but he has seen the budding friendships between his students.

He felt guilty as well. The girl pointed out his own mistake in underestimating her. He held no ill will towards civilians or civilian born ninja but that did not excuse his own thoughts on her abilities. Abilities that she had proved were on par of the standard the Hokage wanted his team to be. Perhaps she would never be the powerhouses that a jinchuuriki or an Uchiha could become, but the fact that a genin of her age could summon an A-rank technique spoke volumes of the girl’s potential.

And what a sight those chakra threads had been. Red instead of the customary blue. Chakra color was greatly reliant on the type of chakra being used and red was usually associated with bijuu, the tailed beasts, but lesser known was its ties with physical energy. Kakashi was not the type to teach through rigorous exercise—that was Gai’s M.O.—but he had seen her lean muscles. Finally recalling that her Academy file had also marked her as the best in taijutsu and spars for the female students. Near perfect all-around and would have easily taken Sasuke’s title of Rookie of the Year had she been taught under a clan and received training before the Academy.

Nonetheless, those red chakra threads were proof that the girl’s ‘imagination’ stayed throughout the years.

----

Sakura head off towards training ground five to blow off steam from her earlier conversation with Kakashi and the stress that followed it. She worried her lip at the possible consequences of hiding her kekkei genkai. Interrogation under T&I seemed a definite outcome and the thought of imprisonment brought a chill to her bones. It was a good thing she planned on never being caught.

She stubbornly denied any thought that accused her of being a traitor. Hiding a kekkei genkai in peacetime would hardly count as even toeing the line of treason, especially if she did not have anything outwardly destructive like the Sharingan. She only had these silly little strings after all.

Besides, if I can hide from a jounin, she thinks brazenly, I can hide from anyone!

“Hey, Haruno!” Tenten calls over to her up ahead. Pushing those earlier thoughts aside, she settles back into the easy routine of being just Sakura. Civilian, no bloodline limit Haruno Sakura.

Walking up to the older girl and recognizing the mischievous smile on her face has her asking, “What are you planning? I can see that look on your face.”

“Well, I’ve been seeing the way you’ve been looking at Neji,” Sakura’s eyes widen at the name and Tenten’s smile grows toothy in response, “And let’s just say I’ve decided to give a little push to help ya out. Ya know, from one girl to another.”

“T-Tenten,” Sakura stutters, “Why? I mean—I thought, I thought that you had a crush on Neji, so why would you… And no! I do not look at Neji, in that way, I mean!”

The brunette haired girl laughs in the face of her friend’s mortification, that devil. Let it be known that Team 9’s kunoichi should never be considered ‘the normal one’, because as far as Sakura was concerned, Tenten had a mischievous streak a mile wide.

“Ehh, I’ll admit he’s pretty on the eyes but I’m not nearly as infatuated with him as you, Haruno,” The girl laughs, “And don’t get your panties in a twist, you know I’d never out you to anyone like that.”

Sakura releases a put-upon sigh, though silently relieved that her friend would not become a rival for Neji, “Fine. But was it that obvious?”

“Only if you’re looking for it,” Came Tenten’s cryptic reply. Before Sakura could ask what she meant, the other girl nudged her playfully, “Look, they’re coming! Tell me you’ll play along, please! Just act normal!”

“Sure, I’m good at pretending.” She replies, a slow smile on her lips. Years of ignoring the strings on people’s hands gave her plenty of practice, this was easy. Regarding the rest of Team 9 with a raised hand, she watched as Tenten went up to her teacher.

“Can you help me practice my new weapons, Gai-sensei? I’ve finally managed to seal them into my other scrolls. Oh—and, Lee should join too since I want to test my limits with them!” The brunette asks cheerfully, a bright aura around her.

“Of course, Tenten,” Gai agrees and places a hand at her shoulder, “Lee, what do you say?”

“I would never rebuff a teammate’s offer to strengthen her skills! Tenten, I can only endeavor to become a ninja like you and one day receive a RIVAL OF MY OWN!” Lee places his own hand at Tenten’s other shoulder.

“THAT’S the SPIRIT, Lee!” Gai dips his head once, the strength of that single nod of approval spreading to Tenten.

“Uh, let’s get to it then.” She holds back her usual retort and turns the other way, not before sending Sakura a conspiratorial wink.

“Neji, stay with Sakura-chan,” Gai instructs before heading off with his two students, “I’m sure she can impart knowledge taught directly by my ETERNAL RIVAL onto you!”

With that, Neji and Sakura stood alone. Sakura fidgets a bit, realizing Tenten’s plan was to get the two alone together and of course the girl had not thought to tell her what to do after. Devil, she thinks again, though fondly.

Eyeing the older boy, Sakura tries and fails to keep the blush from her cheeks. She tried not to think too hard on their current predicament and turned her head away from Neji. Sakura had lost Ino to Sasuke all those years ago. Where Ino’s crush remained, Sakura had any sliver of infatuation with the Uchiha crushed when the massacre happened. Ino had left her behind to continue pursuing Sasuke and Sakura had only her books and her strings to fall back on, as usual.

Despite that, she was a healthy, growing girl who could not deny that Neji made her eyes go all googly and her knees wobble uncertainly. Ugh, she complains in her mind’s eye, just when she thought her life was complicated enough she just had to go and nurse a crush on some guy way above her league. And not just someone older and more experienced, a clan kid as well.

The echo manifests within her thoughts again, seeming to shrug. At least Sakura was not the type to back down in the face of a challenge.

Chapter Text

A non-believer of the heart
from wyteeth

--

Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That’s right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you’d be surprised to know who’s on the other end of your string. AU.

Words: 6,621

A/N: Neji is kind of a dick but we all know how Sakura has a soft spot for a-holes in canon lol Also, I love to hear what you all have to say about the red strings of fate! Rest assured I read every single review/comment and I have to say a lot of you are on the nose about many things!! I also finally describe what Sakura looks like, oops…

--

The inevitability of death had always lingered over Neji’s head like a shadowed cloud. Despite that bleak outlook he knew that death was the great balancer of all life. Everyone had to die at some point including the Hokage, the clan head, and even himself one day. To be made equal with everyone in the end, it brought a sense of relief and gave meaning to the suffering he endured.

He believed that fate was cruel because it reared its head at every opportune moment to reinforce its strangled hold on his life. The throbbing pain above his bandaged forehead spoke volumes on that.

The weak-willed girl who did not deserve the freedom from it screamed even louder.

When Haruno Sakura came strutting into their team practice, head held high and glancing at him with an assessing look, it made his blood boil. Here came a civilian born ninja, just like Tenten, no clan and no status to speak of and already demanding things that were not in her right to do so.

However, there were so few things that impressed him in recent days so much as when he had seen the pink haired girl face off against Tenten. In a flurry of various shrapnel and metal, the field was littered with the leftovers of their constant barrage. Then they engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Tenten using her longer reach to hit the girl in the plexus though Sakura used her speed to deliver a kick to the knee.

The two fought savagely. No hint of any standard style and no trace of clan-specific taijutsu forms. Each hit delivered was meant to hurt, underhanded tricks were used to give even the smallest advantage. Neji watched and observed and thought of wild animals. Though not like the Inuzuka for even they had a distinct and standardized fighting style.

What these two were doing leant more towards the crude and barbaric style only seen in common thugs. Unlike them however, the girls had the speed and killer instincts of ninja. Not being stuck to a particular style meant they could improvise and adapt to each individual opponent. 

In the end, Neji had to applaud them for trying. Their taijutsu, as effective with each other as it was unconventional, is clearly overshadowed by clan techniques like his own. Civilians were doomed to always be lesser than their clan counterparts in the end, even more so if they were female. Once more, he remembers that even the greatest of wills cannot win against the tide of fate. He had seen that doomed effort go to waste time and time again through his own experiences alone.

--

“We can spar?” Sakura offers after the silence between them stretched too long, “If you want, that is.”

Neji gives her blank look, though Sakura figures that it was better than a glare. Looking entirely as if her mere presence drained him, he replied, “If that is what you desire.”

Blinking, surprised that he would respond—though Sakura should know better, he was mean but polite—she nods her affirmation. The two then stood apart from each other, both readying their stances. Sakura observes how his eyes remained forward, Byakugan still hidden. She fights to stop herself from looking at his face any more, lest she get distracted and make a fool of herself.

Or would that work in her favor? Surely, everyone enjoyed winning at spars. Would Neji think her better if she let him?

Before she could continue the thought further, a shuriken came flying straight at her face forcing her to leap away. Dodging the next three shuriken easily with a cartwheel, she finally got close enough to try and deliver a roundhouse kick.

Neji was too fast, immediately jabbing at her calf painfully causing her to stumble and narrowly avoid another jab to the abdomen. Retreating to put some distance between the two of them, she pulls out her kunai and wire.

Wait, she stops herself. Would she really try to trap someone with their strings again? Her last attempt had prompted her teacher to interrogate her. Tumbling out of the way of Neji’s drop kick, she shoves her hand back into her pouch. It was probably best to lay low for a while until she felt it completely clear.

“Focus.” Neji grunts at her, causing her to blush. He barely looked impressed, let alone winded. Sakura surmises that perhaps Neji wanted a real struggle. If not, he would have just activated the Byakugan in the beginning and be done with her.

Blocking another drop kick with an arm, she uses the other to grab a kunai and slash outwards at the boy to push him away. Neji’s eyes narrowed, finally noticing she decided to get serious and then activated his bloodline limit. Sakura smiled internally at having his full attention for the first time.

Scouring her memories for everything she had learned about the Byakugan and the Hyuuga, she remembers the single blind spot they had. Summoning a few clones, they circle around to surround the older boy.

“Whatever tricks you have planned will not work. Even surrounded, the Hyuuga have trained to counter all attacks and maintain an impenetrable defense.” He stated, as if he was telling off a young child.

Sakura let a smirk form on her lips, she allows chakra threads to emerge from her fingertips. Neji watches as chakra threads start forming on all the clones as well, feeling on edge after seeing the bright red color of them. Despite the strange outward coloring, the chakra within the threads were normal and bright in his eyes.

“Chakra threads. Though I bet your Byakugan already saw that.” She explained. Then, all at once, the horde of pink haired girls charged forward.

Neji must have been Rookie of the Year for his graduating class, she thinks, as every hit, kick, and lunge from her was thwarted at every angle. If she allowed herself a brief moment to simply watch the boy, well, Sakura could honestly admit he was beautiful as he used the Gentle Fist technique.

Gritting her teeth in frustration, however, she had to summon more clones as they popped out of existence after meeting Neji’s jūken.

“Eight Trigrams: Revolving Heaven!” He shouted.

Jerking back in alarm, Sakura forced her chakra threads to rush towards the boy knowing that once he got that jutsu going, she would lose. Neji responded in kind by weaving and dodging out of the way, at least she managed to hold him off longer.

Sakura furrowed her brows, a single drop of sweat falling into her eye but even as it stung she kept it open. Just one, she needed just one chakra thread to reach him.

There! Right above the first thoracic vertebra was the blind spot that allowed her chakra thread to wrap around the Hyuuga and prevent him from rotating.

Caught off guard, Neji struggled against the thread’s hold and failed to avoid Sakura as she leaped down upon him and pinned him to the ground. Her kunai bared along his neck as she smiled down at him.

She won.

As the string disappeared, her smile grew shy as she realized she was sitting atop him. “Uh, so—”

A foot planted itself on her stomach and pushed her onto her back, a kunai aimed at her neck this time.

“No fair! I won!” She squawked, eyebrows raising at Neji’s dirty trick.

“Hmph, always expect a fight to continue unless the opponent is unconscious or dead,” Neji smirked down at her, “Or if the other yields. Do you?”

Rolling her eyes, she dips her head, “Fine, I yield.”

Neji lifted himself off her and dusted off his clothes, not offering to help Sakura up as she rolled over and stood up herself.

“I didn’t think you were the type to play dirty like that, Neji-kun.” She muttered at him, shaking her long braid to get any dirt clumps out. She did not bother dusting off her own clothes as they were shades of black and grey and would not show dirt as easily as Neji’s beige shirt.

“You could say I only learned from watching you and Tenten spar each other.” He replies easily, the corners of his mouth rising.

Sakura gapes as she realizes he was watching her during her practice with the other girl. That must mean he noticed her, right? Also, wow, does Hyuuga Neji look absolutely gorgeous with a smile.

--

The gates of the village grew smaller and smaller as Team 7 continued on their path. It was midday and they had set off on their first mission outside of Konoha’s walls.

“Geez old man, you smell like booze!” Naruto complained from beside their client, a bridge builder named Tazuna.

“Shut up, kid. When you grow a foot or two then you’ll see the world from my perspective,” Tazuna grumbles, “Booze will be your friend one day!”

“Ble—egh,” The blonde stuck his tongue out in response, “As if! I got Sakura-chan with me and she’s all the friend I need!”

Hearing her name, the girl turned back to look at Naruto who was shooting her a thumbs up. She replied with her own, though hesitant, thumbs up as she raised a brow. Off to the side, Sasuke shakes his head, “That doesn’t even make sense, idiot.”

Sakura tuned them out quickly before their inevitable shouting match begun again.

“You shouldn’t encourage his behavior too much if it makes you uncomfortable, Sakura-chan.” From beside her, Kakashi had his nose buried in his favorite orange book—though Sakura knew he was secretly fully aware of their surroundings, he was a jounin so it was a given, she figures. He had asked her to walk on point with him while the boys walked beside their charge. She thinks he set it up this way because he simply did not want to be spending the mission with a talkative Naruto or gloomy Sasuke.

“Nah, I don’t mind, really,” She assures him. Naruto was kind and understanding if you looked beneath his brash attitude. Sakura also had the feeling he just wanted friendship more than anything, since she could not remember if he had any back in the Academy. “I think he’s trying his best. I don’t think he had a lot of friends before so it’s okay if he’s clingy… Uh—I made him sound like a real kid right now, huh?”

Kakashi eyes her from his book as Sakura lets out a small laugh. Then, a flash of red catches the corner of her eye. Turning her head down towards it, she sees two strings leading into a puddle. Since when did inanimate objects like water get strings of fate? Tilting her head in confusion, she was about to lean down to inspect it before a gloved hand stopped her at her shoulder.

“You noticed it too,” Kakashi whispered. His face was still in his book, though the firm grip on her shoulder sobered earlier’s mood.  “Don’t react. The two don’t know.”

Sakura gulped, nervous at the implication that whatever that puddle was her teacher was on edge because of it. She gave a minute nod and focused her vision straight ahead. The grip dropped from her shoulder even as she tensed for whatever came next.

The group continued forward past the puddle. After a few moments—of which Sakura bit her lip in anticipation—the sound of rattling metal had her instantly jump backwards away from it.

Metal chains ribbed with serrated edges drew forward and wrapped around Kakashi. The source of the chains coming from the arms of two shinobi. In horror, she finally realized that the strings were connected to these two nin all along and that they were hiding in that puddle somehow. Shit, she curses herself, if only she had used her head and realized that sooner.

Already too late, she watched helplessly as the unknown nin shredded their sensei. Sasuke pulled out one of his kunai, knuckles white as he glared at their assailants.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto wailed, eyes wide open in disbelief. Sakura was ready to join in with him before pausing. Kakashi’s string was still whole. In fact, instead of disappearing into ash it had merely teleported towards the dense tree line.

Her pink braid sways as she shakes her head. Kakashi should have died. She had seen those chains tear into him, heard that awful noise as the chains pulled and scraped against each other. But there was his string, still leading in the same direction away from the rest and now moving closer as the enemy nin appeared behind Naruto.

There was no way for her teacher to survive that, Sakura thinks adamantly… Unless he had used the Substitution jutsu.

Nearly smacking herself at her continued idiocy, she finally gets out of her head to focus on their situation. Two enemy nin, Kiri by their hitai-ate. Both ganging up on Naruto.

Without missing a beat, she pulls out two of her own kunai to hurl them both at the enemy nin as Sasuke fired his own weapons at their chains. Unable to dislodge their chain from where it stuck to a tree, the two were trapped as her kunai embedded themselves into their thighs.

“You little shits!” One of them snarls. They eject their connection with the chains and separate as they charge towards Tazuna and Naruto.

Sakura’s eyes flit back towards the tree line, urging her teacher to hurry up and intervene but refusing to call out his name. He must have a plan, she forces herself to believe. She must trust him as her teacher and her superior officer if she expects him to trust her.

“Stay behind me!” She barks at the bridgebuilder. Pulling out another kunai, this time one with a wire, she readied herself for the oncoming nin.

A blue blur rushes in front of her, causing her to flinch a little. Sasuke, she thinks. She had no time to dwell on that thought longer as the Mist nin got closer and closer—

—Until an arm found itself lodged across the nin’s neck.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura cries out. She bites back a retort about showing up late instead to let her teacher’s figure, alive and whole, fill her with relief. The jounin made short work of the enemy shinobi, knocking them out and sealing them within a scroll which caught Sakura’s attention.

She had heard of fuuinjutsu, certainly, though it was only snippets and concise explanations compared to the volumes of books dedicated to other jutsu. There were gaps in her understanding of it because of that. Is there a separate dimension just for sealing scrolls? A separate plane of reality entirely? Fuuinjutsu toed the line with space-time jutsu the more Sakura questioned its existence.

“—at’s why I promise never to freeze up again!” Naruto shouted, snapping her out of her reverie. Glancing around, she noted that Naruto had a determined grimace on his face while Kakashi looked distracted. As it turns out, Tazuna had lied causing their current mission to bump up a rank. We were on course of returning to the village until Naruto urged everyone to continue the mission anyways. The old man even used his family to get a pity vote from Kakashi, which led to them boarding a boat to reach the fishing village.

Personally, Sakura thought it better to head back to their village. Not because she was heartless, but because she believed Konoha would not be so cruel as to deny another village aid simply because they could not afford it. Worse comes to worse, she would scrounge up the money herself to get the proper help Tazuna needed to return to Wave and complete the bridge. With an enemy like Gato, their enemies would only increase in numbers and skill.

Judging her teammates, they were hardly qualified enough to carry an escort mission like this that expected chuunin maybe even jounin rank ninja to attack them. Including Kakashi, she also doubted anyone would have the finesse required to deal with an issue that could potentially affect the entire economy, and to an extent the government, of Wave. At minimum Tazuna needed a few jounin guards and a foreign intermediary to consult the Daimyo of Wave. Instead what he had were three freshly minted genin and—admittedly a very talented—jounin but despite Kakashi’s reputation, he would have to balance protecting the client and his students.

All this ran through Sakura’s mind as they reached the village and continued walking inland towards Tazuna’s home. Her eyes would wander to Kakashi, wondering just went through that shock of grey hair and if he truly believed that they were ready for this type of thing.

Yet for all her worrying she remained quiet. Truth be told, Sakura was excited.

Blood pumped through her veins in a steady staccato during their fight with the Mist shinobi earlier. Her heart rate soared impossibly high as she saw the dead seriousness in their eyes. She knew that for all the training they got in the Academy, no amount of practice would prepare you for the real experience of fighting someone who was out to maim you. And it had been eye opening. Sakura would even dare to say fun.

Finally, she had started her ninja career. She could finally start proving everyone who ever doubted her wrong.

Which was why telling Kakashi about the risk of being underpowered and undermanned for this mission fell to the backburner of her mind. Instead she dutifully carried on and kept an even sharper eye on the road before them.

“There!” Naruto threw a kunai at the bushes ahead of them. Inside the bush was a snow white rabbit, shaking as the weapon grazed across its forehead. Thankfully it was untouched as the blonde had missed his mark.

Another flash of red in the corner of her eyes.

This time she would take it seriously. Tilting her head down low, Sakura tried to follow the string as inconspicuously as possible only to gasp just as Kakashi yelled, “Everyone, get down!”

There were two strings, she realized as her body thudded down onto the dirt below. Two strings, two enemy nin. Her pupils shook as the adrenaline crashed down onto her body like a wave.

The gigantic blade that nearly split them all in half was splintered into the trunk of the tree before them. Impossibly long and sporting a hole at the farthest end, Sakura recognized the blade from a description in a book she read before. The Decapitating Carving Knife, Kubikiribōchō. Infamous in Konoha war history as a blade that ate the blood of its victims to strengthen itself. Which meant that the nin perched upon it is one of Kiri’s Seven Swordsmen and had to be at least A-rank level.

“Momochi Zabuza,” Kakashi announced, causing the enemy shinobi to glance down at him, “To think this is where you ended up after going rogue. Team 7 listen up! Leave this guy to me and under no circumstances do any of you interfere.”

Sasuke gulped harshly while Naruto shouted, “But Kakashi-sensei!”

Kakashi lifted his headband before turning back at the three genin, his single red eye a stark contrast to the greys and blues of their surroundings, “If you want to keep your life, listen to what I said.”

Sakura pulled Naruto closer to her and Tazuna, taking her teacher’s severe warning to heart. Her blonde teammate still seemed unhappy with how tightly he clenched his fists but refused to make any other retort. She also swallowed down the questions she had about the Uchiha kekkei genkai implanted in his eye.

“I’m honored that you’d use the Sharingan so soon on me. Truly,” Zabuza sneered, catching everyone’s attention. His voice rumbled like gravel, muffled slightly by the bandaging around his mouth yet it sent fear down Sakura’s spine.

Dislodging his blade and touching down onto the surface of the water, he moved his hands in a formation, “Hiding in the Mist jutsu.”

 A blanket of fog moved in on them thick enough to obscure Sakura’s view of the fated red strings in front of her. The loss of sight disturbed her though not nearly as much as her teacher’s fading back as the mist enveloped him too.

As if sensing her disease, a surge of chakra crested over them and broke the fog. Only to be replaced by stifling killing intent. Sakura gasped internally, feeling rooted to the spot.

“Don’t be scared,” Kakashi’s steady voice broke through her fear, “I’ll protect all of you.” Sakura allowed herself a moment of relief only—

 “Think again,” Replied the voice that stood right behind her. Horrified, she wrenched herself backwards as her teacher jumped in to intercept the incoming swing of Kubikiribōchō. Kakashi’s kunai met its mark, digging deep into the other shinobi’s abdomen.

However, Sakura saw right through it.

“Clone!” She screamed in warning, already having seen the lack of a string. Behind him stood a second Zabuza, who grit his teeth in frustration as Kakashi turned and dodged his attack. Sakura shook her head, not believing her own eyes, “Clone, again!”

This made Kakashi pause, that brief moment taken advantage of immediately by the real Zabuza who emerged to deliver a kick to Kakashi’s side, shooting him off into the body of water. The nuke nin turned his head towards her, levelling a calculating gaze before running off towards Kakashi, blade drawn.

A shock of grey hair surfaced the water though Zabuza had already started to form more hand seals, “Water Prison jutsu!”

With her teacher trapped and another Zabuza clone forming out of the water, Sakura scrambled to think of a way out of this mess, anything at all so that they could even survive this encounter.

“Pathetic, the lot of you,” The nuke nin spat out, now having successfully dispatched their teacher,  “Except for the girl, none of you show any promise whatsoever. Don’t you dare call yourselves fucking ninja, you coddled brats.”

A shameful wisp of pride tugged on Sakura’s heart at having been acknowledged by Zabuza. NO, her mind screamed in protest, garnering the attention of men like him was a death sentence!

“Run!” Kakashi yelled as loud as he could from his water prison, his voice distorted yet held every ounce of urgency to get the three genin to leave, “He’ll kill you! Take Tazuna and get out of here, now!”

Sakura grabbed her hair, distraught at the scene playing before her. Was she really going to have to choose between her teacher’s life and her own? On her first mission outside of Konoha’s gate, this was what she was faced with?

Leaving the cushy embrace of her village’s walls has only proved every derisive comment from civilians about ninja: they were vile beasts that should not be considered human, they would kill anyone if they were paid enough for it. Gazing into the murky depths of Momochi Zabuza’s eyes, she knows they are right. He would slaughter each of them with no regard for age or morality.

“Even if we run, he’ll just hunt us down.” Sasuke gritted through his teeth. He was faring better than either of his teammates, if only marginally, so he had stepped up to take the lead. He had to snap them out of their fear-stricken shock and get them to act.

“Are you saying we should stay?” Sakura cautioned to say, though her hands detangled themselves from her scalp and were readily placed at her sides.

“We’re not scum!” Naruto added, fierce in his gaze as he bared his teeth, “I ain’t leaving anybody behind!”

Team 7 glanced between themselves, their eyes flashing with newfound conviction. Though fear still lingered on their faces, smirks were passed all around as they realized they had each other. All three pulled out their weapons, Sakura having pulled out kunai-attached wire.

“Hey, remember that bell test?” Sakura asked, a plan already brewing. She didn’t care if there was still a slight tremble to her body or if her palms were sweaty from nervousness. Everyone’s lives were on the line and even a second of hesitation would mean a death sentence. She gripped the handle of her kunai tighter.

“You want us to...” Sasuke trailed off, not wanting to give away their plan. She nodded, her eyes already scanning for a certain red string.

“Got it!” Naruto affirmed, body leaning forward in anticipation.

They only had a single shot at this. Zabuza had already put a mark against her for seeing through his clones earlier and that meant he would be gunning to get rid of her first. With no other exchanges between them, they all shot off and commenced their plan to free Kakashi.

Naruto had summoned multiple shadow clones while Sasuke shot shuriken after shuriken out. With deadly accuracy, the Swordsman merely batted both clone and shuriken away with his tremendous sword. Leaving the boys to it, Sakura shot out multiple kunai-attached wire, not caring if she was burning through her tool kit because of it. If she could not free Kakashi now, she would have no use for leftover weapons as a corpse.

Then she started forming chakra at her fingertips, slowly building up more and more until chakra thread eased out of her.

Sasuke hurled a fuma shuriken that Naruto had pulled out of his pack, the large thing spinning like a saw blade only to be caught by the Zabuza clone. However, a second fuma shuriken emerged behind it, forcing the clone to leap out of the way.

Having a clear path towards the nuke nin, the fuma shuriken quickly transformed into Naruto who delivered a kunai straight at their enemy’s forehead.

“H—” Naruto started a victory yelp only to choke on air as the kunai is caught by Zabuza’s jagged teeth. The bandages lay torn open around his neck and a look of cruel satisfaction shone in his eyes. Defeat replaced triumph, Naruto’s smile dissolving into an open-mouthed frown.

 Sakura allowed an instant of despair rush into her before reigning it in. While she hoped that the same technique they had used on Kakashi would work on Zabuza—where he would dodge and be held down by her kunai—she did not account for the use of his own teeth, effectively rendering her first plan useless. It was a good thing she had a second one already on its way. Having been edging closer to Zabuza’s red string until she was near enough to maneuver her chakra thread onto it.

Each passing second caused her muscles to burn worse. The sheer effort of maintaining the chakra thread and forcing them to wrap around the fated string was draining her reserves at an alarming rate. Biting into her lip hard enough to bleed, she squeezed all the willpower and chakra she had in her into this moment. She had to be level headed. She had to be the one to keep it together or they will die. Intaking a deep breath to steady her, she refocused her energy into the task at hand.

Finally, she had her chakra thread wrapped onto the string and with a small tug to test its grip, she raised her head to look at the shinobi who was drowning her teacher.

Now! Sakura pulled, using the last ounce of her strength to tow the Swordsman away from the water prison. Zabuza widened his gaze, feeling the sharp tug on his right hand. The sudden shock causing him to be pulled away from his technique and onto the water below.

Sakura watched as the Kiri nin’s hand dropped the same time the water prison burst like a bubble. Sweat trickled down her forehead from having exerted enough force to even pull out her kunai-attached wire from the ground.

With Kakashi free, their chances of survival had just skyrocketed. Emerald orbs gazed over at her two teammates fondly. She had given them everything she had and if it was enough, she had done all but give her own life to save theirs. The smallest of smiles form on her lips, quietly, as she blacks out.

--

Tazuna and Tsunami have no strings. Tsunami’s son has one still, though she only saw him for a moment before he ran outside. Sakura observes this all as she is gently propped up on the dining table by a careful Sasuke.

“I could’ve helped.” Sulked Naruto, who sat to her left with his arms crossed.

“You don’t know how to be careful.” Sasuke sniped back, forming a glare even though he was still helping Sakura down onto her seat.

“Thank you, Sasuke,” She whispered, throat still a bit dry from the three days she spent unconscious, “I’m fine now.”

“Tch.” The Uchiha ticked off, though he pushed a glass of water towards her before settling into his own seat to her right.

With the two of them beside her like this she can feel their connected string of fate push against her chest tightly. She had a passing thought of tugging on it only to dismiss that mischievous idea easily. She did not think her body could handle the two boys tumbling down onto her at the moment.

Her current state was weak and sensitive. She had woken up earlier that day to Naruto’s enthusiastic whoops—which made her ears ring alongside the aching pain all over her body. Her teacher had woken up about a day and a half before her, so it had been Sasuke and Naruto’s clones who brought everyone back to Tazuna’s home.

She spent that morning sipping water and trying to sit up only to be hit with sharp muscle pain each time. “Chakra exhaustion,” Kakashi said with an eye smile, “Same as me.” When she finally could stand up with help, she joined Team 7 and Tazuna’s family at their table for lunch.

“Hey, Sakura-chan,” Naruto started beside her, “Kaka-sensei had me and the teme start climbing trees. Like with cha-ku-ra, instead of with our hands and stuff!”

“Once you feel up to it, come and join.” Kakashi mumbled off to the side, his face deep in his book.

“’Course! Once I get feeling back into the tips of my fingers I’ll start.” She promises with a laugh, though she immediately started coughing from the strain on her lungs.

Tsunami looks at her worriedly, “Oh, you poor thing. Being a ninja must be hard on a girl.”

Sakura coughed into her palm once more, keeping a neutral face. Passing comments like that were commonplace, especially from a civilian. They just expected girls to perform worse than their male counterparts—and with how roughed up she looked, Tsunami probably thought Sakura was the only one too slow to dodge or something. She sure as hell had heard enough of them from her own parents despite knowing they did not have any true malice in their words. She planned on just shrugging it away as usual before Naruto piped up.

“Sakura-chan’s like this because she did some cool ninja moves like bla—am!” He wiggled his fingers in front of him, “Which took a lot of cha-kra, and like—like, that hurts your body so much! But if she didn’t do that, then Kaka-sensei wouldn’t gotten outta that water bubble!”

Sakura felt her mouth drop a little as she watched Naruto continue, “So basically she saved our lives! Sakura-chan is tough, so even though she’s like this right now, she can handle it!”

“These kids really are something, though they don’t look like much.” Tazuna chimed in teasingly though he had a lopsided grin himself.

“S-sorry,” Tsunami quickly apologized, realizing that her words had been demeaning, “I guess I shouldn’t say anything if I wasn’t there. But I promise that I’m truly grateful for every one of you for saving my father. Who knows what’d happen to Wave if Father died.”

“No offense taken. And protecting Tazuna-san is our first priority in this mission. You can count on us.” Sakura assured, allowing a smile to overcome her features to relieve the worried woman. From underneath the table, Sakura searched for her blonde teammate’s hand and gave it a squeeze in thanks. Blush dusted the tips of tan cheeks as a shiver also worked its way upwards from the contact.

--

When she felt strong enough to walk (weakly) on her own, she joined the boys with their tree-walking exercise in the forest outside.

“I made it all the way up there,” Naruto bragged while pointing at a mark on a large tree, his fated string blowing with the slight breeze as it hung down from his right index, “It’s way higher than Sasuke-teme’s one.”

“Are you blind? Mine’s is obviously higher, dead-last.” Sasuke scoffed, already climbing his trunk.

“Whattya say?!” Naruto screeched before charging up on his own, leaving Sakura alone at the base of the tree.

Shaking her head at their antics, she stepped towards an unoccupied area and prodded at her chakra reserves. Her stunt earlier had quite literally drained her, and she speculates that a second longer would have killed her. No wonder she had slept for three days. Her body was desperately trying to recoup the already meager amount of chakra she had.

Oh well, she thinks, at least she wasn’t in a crutch like Kakashi was.

Sakura gently eased chakra down to her feet, this time only feeling a throbbing pain as she tapped into her reserves—it was infinitely better than the excruciating pain she felt when she had woken up and tried to check her own chakra. She placed a foot atop the rough bark and tried pulling away to see how much resistance met her. The next few steps were easy, as she got the hang of how much chakra was needed.

Sasuke noticed her first. He had just made a few centimeters of progress and slid down to admire his handiwork. A spot of pink in the tree next to him caught his eye and with surprise he saw his female teammate sitting on a branch, swinging her legs in the air. Grey meets emerald green and Sakura offers a smile and a wave down at him causing him to blush horribly. Ugh, he thinks to himself as he burrows his face into his shirt.

“Woah, Sakura-chan! How’d you get all the way up there?” Naruto marveled, noticing her soon after.

“My favorite student here has excellent chakra control,” Kakashi responds popping out of nowhere, causing Naruto to jump up in shock. “It’s the reason why she was able to create those chakra strings we saw earlier with Zabuza.”

“Favorite student?” Sasuke mutters, his words colored with suspicion and a hint of jealousy.

“Ya mean those red strings coming outta her hands?” The Uzumaki asks after recovering. Sakura walks back down her tree to nod at the boy.

“It’s what I used back during the Bell Test. That’s why Kakashi-sensei was dragged back down to the ground, remember?” Sakura explained, biting through her lie as she tries to steer the conversation away, “Speaking of Zabuza. What happened to him? You guys haven’t said anything about that yet.”

“He was taken away by a hunter nin from Kiri,” Kakashi said, and seeing the recognition in her face he continued, “Though I’m starting to think it was just a fluke.”

“Huh?” Sakura grunted, brows furrowing in confusion. Sakura had the terrible suspicion that the second string of fate she saw during that fight had been that hunter nin. But why would they wait and not help Kakashi if they had truly wanted Zabuza dead? Perhaps—

“See hunter nin only go after rogues from their own village. Which means they have no need to take the body back to Kiri since they already have them on file.” Kakashi interrupted her thought. Despite leaning on a crutch, the jounin looked as deadly and calculating as he had during his fight with the Swordsman.

“What?” Sakura hesitated, dread filling her as she hoped her suspicions would be proven wrong, “Did they not behead the corpse?”

“Exactly. They just left with the entire body after using senbon—a weapon known for nonlethal attacks—to knock him out. I’m afraid Momochi Zabuza is still alive and that the hunter nin was his partner. When things started to get hairy, his partner simply faked Zabuza’s death to rescue him.” Kakashi concluded. The revelation passed its way around. Everyone knew a second encounter was inevitable then, the only question now is when?

“How long do we have until he comes back?” Sasuke demanded, his hands already itching for a fight.

“Only a few days now, at most a week. While we were recovering he was doing the same thing.” Their teacher explained.

“And his partner, that masked kid, will be there too, ‘ttebayo!” Naruto piped up. Sakura held back her shock—Zabuza’s revival wrought enough of that—that the Swordsman’s partner was just a mere kid. Of course, she echoed bitterly, there were tons of kids her age out there who were deadlier and stronger than her. Her own teacher was a shining example with all the things he had accomplished when he was her age.

“Definitely,” Kakashi agreed, “For now, you three keep practicing. When the time comes, I’ll go up against Zabuza again while the three of you stay back to protect Tazuna.”

Naruto made a dissatisfied noise, “But his partner! His partner!”

“If I am overwhelmed or separated from you three, and only then,” Kakashi stressed, bearing down on the blonde, “Then you may engage with the other nin. Zabuza’s partner is easily chuunin level if not higher, that means he has more experience than the three of you combined and will not hesitate to kill you. Got it?”

The three genin nodded harshly, Naruto in particular swallowing down a hard gulp. “Alright. I’m heading back to let Tazuna know what’s happening.” Kakashi said before turning back towards the house. Looking at her frowning teammates, Sakura deeply regretted her earlier selfish desire to continue the mission, but she could not have known it would escalate to this extent. They were woefully underpowered even though they had numbers on their side.

The two boys continue with tree-climbing while she heads off on her own, further into the thicket of the forest.

Passing these towering woods as she walks by, Sakura thinks it would be immensely useful if she learned how to reinforce her body with chakra to increase her strength. She would have been able to literally pull Zabuza out of the water if that were the case. Her hand forms a tight fist as she calls her chakra forth.

Augmenting one’s body was made famous by Senju Tsunade’s chakra enhanced strength. The Sannin were revered for their contributions during the Second War, Tsunade especially for her prowess on and off the battlefield.

But she has Senju blood on her side, a nasty part of her jeers, Tsunade would have become great without even trying.

But I have my chakra control and stubborn willpower on mine, she snapped back. Gathering chakra into her fist, she turned on the nearest trunk and slammed against it for emphasis, “Shan—naro!”

To her pleasure, her fist buried itself into its bulk. Levelling the ground like Tsunade was still a far cry but at least she started off with something. Smirking triumphantly, she placed a foot on the trunk and pried her fist back. There was a good chance of getting maimed in her next encounter with Zabuza and his partner, but with her new ability, she sure as hell ain’t going down easy.

Chapter Text

A non-believer of the heart
from wyteeth

--

Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That’s right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you’d be surprised to know who’s on the other end of your string. AU.

Words: 5,061

A/N: Here’s Wave Arc Part II! Will be busy as the academic year starts, heads up.

--

Brimming with giddy excitement, Sakura practically skips on her way back to Tazuna’s home to find Kakashi. Her newfound chakra strength was something she would share openly with her team, she decided, if only to keep the amount of lies she was hoarding as little as possible. Starting with her teacher, she wanted to prove that she was trustworthy and reliable enough.

As she neared the stilt house she saw a small figure. Slowing her pace to a halt, she recognized the striped bucket hat.

“…You’re all gonna die.” His small, sullen voice intoned. Inari was sitting on the edge of the veranda, his legs swaying above the murky depths of the water below.

Sakura’s smile dropped, her earlier mood now dampened, “What makes you say that?”

“Tch,” The young boy scoffed, anger filling his previously empty eyes, “It’s Gato! He’ll kill everyone, and no one can stop him! Especially not you dumb ninjas!”

The frown that settled on her lips deepened. Gato was the reason Tazuna had hired them and it was also the reason why Zabuza appeared. Realistically speaking, if Kakashi wanted this to be over with he would go out in search for the shipping magnate and take out the source instead of biding time waiting for a mercenary. Unfortunately, he had to hold back due to political reasons, Sakura thinks.

Sakura believed in the Will of Fire; she believed in the good of the ninja that work for her village and the things they did to ensure their village prospered. Yet despite that she was not naïve enough to ignore the fact that money talks, and it speaks volumes.

A man like Gato held power, not in the physical sense like shinobi and samurai, but with wealth. And with that wealth followed political authority that could influence the Five Great Shinobi Nations themselves.

Who knows how many missions in Konoha were funded by the very same man who hired Kiri’s nuke nin, Momochi Zabuza? Gato must have a daimyo or two in his pocket if he was planning on destabilizing the entirety of Wave alone, and it was because of this that Kakashi probably stayed back instead of straight up assassinating the man.

With knowing all that, Sakura steels herself to say, “You’re right,”

“H—?” Inari makes a confused noise, taken aback by her confident agreement.

“You’re completely right that we can’t stop Gato right now. Not when other villages, my own included, take his money and in turn give him power.” She answers.

“Then, then why are you here?!” Inari screams, frustration welling up in him, “Just die!”

“I won’t,” Sakura grits out, and though her voice is just above a whisper she reverberates with the same intensity as the enraged boy in front of her, “And neither will my teammates. We’re here because we wanted to help you and your village. Gato’s tyranny won’t end just because they build the bridge, you know! But I promise I’ll work hard to get rid of him, completely! Even if it means I must change the minds of my own village, of my Hokage, I’ll do it!”

Sakura lets out a heavy breath. Tears prick her eyes, yet she only feels annoyance that her habit of tearing up whenever she felt intense emotions comes out at a time where she wanted to look cool, damn it.

What was up with her anyways? Since when was she the type to preach to troubled kids? Someone like Naruto was better suited for this role, not someone like her who grew up with both her parents around. Even Sasuke could relate better because of what happened with his own family.

Nonetheless, becoming shinobi meant that she was considered an adult in nearly all sense except for age. The responsibility that carried with it meant that she could not turn her back on a misguided child like Inari, not when she knows things can get better for him and his village if they just kept trying.

Little civilian kids like him need hope in the world. Besides, she was like him too until she decided to put fate into her own hands.

Inari stands back, “W-Why are you doing all this?”

“Because I have hope. I’m not blind to the injustices in this world but I have special people in my lives, like Naruto and Sasuke and my teacher!” Sakura clenches her fists at her sides, remembering how Team 7 fought for each other’s lives together. Facing Zabuza was the scariest moment in her life, yet she felt closer to her team than ever before.

She gives a hard look at the fated string that hung around the young boy’s right hand, “You too. You’ll meet someone one day who will be very special, and they will be worth fighting for, even if it seems like a lost cause.”

At her words, Inari flushes bright red. He gets embarrassed and hides in the scruff of his collared shirt though Sakura can see the faint outline of contentment on his face. Without all the anger, Inari properly looks like his age. The thought brings back Sakura’s smile as she watches the boy duck behind her and run off.

“I didn’t think you were the type to give inspirational speeches, Sakura-chan,” The pink haired girl twists her head to see Kakashi leaning on the doorway, “Those were some very kind and brave words.”

“Kakashi-sensei!” She called out, flustered at being caught unaware, “How long have you been there?!”

“Maa—I was just heading out for a stroll, get some air, and then I hear my favorite student calling me special! How wonderful!” The jounin has the gall to eye-smile and clap his hands together in a dainty manner.

“Whatever,” She flushes, but taking a look at her teacher, she offers a bright smile before asking, “Can I show you something?”

--

The week was finally coming to an end. Tension ran high amongst the group as everyone waited for the Demon’s arrival. When Tazuna head off to work at the bridge that morning, the entirety of Team 7 decided to escort him out of necessity.

“Wait, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave your family alone.” Sakura motioned at Tsunami, her son clutching her back. “Gato wouldn’t want to leave any loose ends.”

“Hmm,” Kakashi started, any sign of the affable teacher long gone today, “Do you have anyone you can stay with in the village, Tsunami-san?”

The woman nodded her head, “W-we do. Please be careful out there, and please protect my father.”

“That no-eyebrow-having bastard is gonna get the beating of his life!” Naruto brought a thumbs up, his confidence helping ease the worry lining the woman’s face.

Inari slowly creeped out from behind his mother’s back, “Please be safe, Sakura-san.”

The pink haired girl blinked in surprise. She felt her ‘speech’ yesterday bordered cheesy and inspiring, but she was glad that the young boy was warming up to her. He seemed so cynical then, unwilling to see past his own trauma. But as she gazed down at him she could see the flicker of hope in his features.

Nodding her head firmly, she replied, “I will. Thank you, Inari-kun.”

With that, Team 7 and Tazuna walk off towards the bridge. As they ventured deeper, the mist around them strengthened and covered every inch of space. Again, she could only barely see the red strings of fate in front of her.

“Hey, Sakura-chan,” Naruto whispered. Sakura could make him out the best in this fog since his orange jacket stood out much better than Sasuke’s or Kakashi’s dark clothes. “Does that brat have a crush on you or somethin’? You shoulda seen him a few days ago though, he’s such a mean little dude.”

Sakura wonders herself, though she would honestly say that Inari probably just needed someone to look up to who could make him feel safe.

“Naruto, Sakura, focus.” Kakashi scolded from in front of them. His no-nonsense tone immediately causing both the blonde and her to straighten their backs.

“Sorry, sensei!” They chorused, Sasuke snorting at them from where he stood off to the side. Just as Sakura thought that the tension in the air broke a little—

Two strings, again. Leading from the side and up ahead of them. Wasting no time, she alarms, “They’re here!”

Clang!

Like a symphony, metal hits metal in a rush of hurried blows. Clones, it appears, as Sasuke goes out to dispatch them, but Sakura has her eyes trained forward. “Up ahead! Zabuza and his partner!”

“I’m getting tired of that mouth of yours, pinky,” Momochi Zabuza drawls out, alive and edged with an even deadlier aura than before, “I think I want to get rid of you first.”

“Sakura!” Kakashi calls out immediately, “Stay back!” The three males stand in front of her and Tazuna in a defensive position. Zabuza barks out a laugh, amused that they would just telegraph their plan so openly.

Sakura allowed herself to smirk on the inside. Good, let him think that, she echoes in her mind.

“Haku, take care of those two wannabes,” The nuke nin orders, “I got something to settle with this bastard.” Kakashi grips his kunai tighter, Sharingan already out and spinning wildly.

“Bring it!” Naruto cries out, kunai drawn. Even Sasuke lets out a growl, his jaw clenched firmly.

The difference between the next second and the last is the sudden movement and tangle of limbs as both sides charged at each other, blades and jutsu drawn. Sakura allowed herself to just stare in wonder. Copy-nin Kakashi lived up to his name, though he had already proven it in their last encounter. Still, she could not help the thrill of watching her teacher go all out once more.

To the side, the boys were tag-teaming Zabuza’s partner, Haku. This being the first time she seen him, Sakura can now see that Haku could not have been much older than her. So young and already a nuke-nin, she thinks sadly before shaking her head.

This was no time to sympathize with Haku, not when said person was forming a dome of ice over her two teammates.

“Naruto! Sasuke!” She cried out. Appearing in a mirror of ice, Haku draws out senbon in between his knuckles.

Oh gods, Sakura gapes in terror as wave after wave of senbon come flying at her two boys, their mark hitting true as pointed metal met cloth and flesh. She wanted to go in and help them, their earlier plan to keep her chakra strength hidden until the right moment came be damned.

Emerald eyes flitted between Kakashi and the boys. Sakura knew she had to stay with Tazuna, however. All this fighting would have been for nothing if he died here. The whole village of Wave would perish if the bridge were never completed. Closing her eyes, she held back a cry of frustration.

Zabuza was too far above her level to even compete with and she would only be a liability for Kakashi if she did join him. Naruto and Sasuke were facing off Haku, however, and making it three-against-one would greatly improve their odds of survival.

But she was too far away from them, she realizes. She had to interfere somehow from where she stood.

Think, think, she berates herself. Then, finally, she opens her eyes with an epiphany.

Sakura summoned as many chakra threads at once, splitting her concentration between the battle ahead and drawing out chakra. Then, as sneakily as she could, she sent them out in search of Haku’s fated string. Thankfully, the masked nin seemed too preoccupied with her teammates to notice her chakra thread reach his fated string and tie itself around it.

Once secured, she looped the chakra threads around her hand and pulled with all her might, her muscles filling with chakra enhanced strength, “SHANNAROOOOO!”

Haku rocketed out of his ice dome and jerked roughly through the air, a few senbon dropping onto the ground as he was flung towards Sakura like a speeding bullet. Once Haku got close enough, she gathered all her strength once more and met Haku’s face with her fist.

“Haku!” Zabuza screamed out, hearing a sickening CRUNCH.

--

“—akura! She’s awake! Sakura-chan’s awake!” Came a deafening exclamation once Sakura came to. The scent of disinfectant and the bright lights overhead immediately assaulted her senses.

“Shut up, idiot!” Another male voice chided, yelling only slightly softer, “Go get the nurse!”

She hears shuffling as the door creaks open, a shadow covers her face. Her body is filled with pain, not much different to how she felt back in Wave but this time her hand in particular ached something fierce.

“Sakura, can you hear me?” She blinks, the voices no longer muffled by her own ears as she shifts her eyes onto a dark figure.

“Sa-Sasuke?” Her lips tremble involuntarily, even her teeth ached. A moment of silence passes before she hears a deep sigh.

“You’re an idiot, too.” Her Uchiha teammate grumbles, though the admission makes Sakura snort out a laugh.

“Ow—” She complains right after, though she holds a smile, “It’s nice to see you alive, too, Sasuke.”

She realizes why her right hand hurts so much, it was the one that she used to punch Haku with and it was currently wrapped in a sling. It was strange to see her red string stick out of her shoulder since it was wrapped alongside her arm.

The door slams against the wall, “Here she is!” Naruto proclaims as he runs up to her side, a brunette nurse following him.

“You gotta help her!” Naruto grabs her blanket instead of her hand in fear of hurting her, “She just woke up and like, like her eyes were all glassy and I don’t think she even recognized us! What if she lost her memory?!”

“Naruto,” Sakura cuts him off though already filling with fondness, “I’m okay, just tired.”

“She remembers me!” Naruto cries out, a wobbly smile on his face. Sasuke rolls his eyes despite holding back his tongue. One of them needed to be the level-headed one and it definitely was not the dead-last or the girl who didn’t know her limits.

“When can she be discharged?” Sasuke asks the nurse who was scribbling something down on a clipboard.

“By evening, today, if she can stay awake long enough. We gotta runs some tests to see if she’s suffered anything beyond her physical injuries.” The nurse adjusts her glasses and nods at the bed-ridden girl, “I suggest one of you stay with her for the next few days, or at least to take her home.”

“I can! I can!” Naruto volunteers, raising his hand, “We can hang out every day then, Sakura-chan!” He blushes as he looks at the girl.

“No! You can’t even take care of yourself much less another person.” Sasuke snapped back, in place of offering himself.

“The more the merrier.” The nurse shrugs not really interested in the petty squabbles of three children. She adjusts the IV bag before heading back out to attend the other patients.

--

Somehow, Sakura gets two boys on each of her side ready to catch her if she so much as stumbles. After much deliberation, they even decided to get dinner together at a soba place.

“Ramen woulda been so—o much better.” Naruto whines, slouching as they neared the restaurant.

“She needs something that’ll build up her strength, and soba is good for you.” Sasuke retorts. Sakura bites back the fact that a hot bowl of ramen does sound appealing right about now, but she is thankful nonetheless that the two could compromise with a healthier noodle dish.

As they entered, they notice a very distinct shock of silver hair sticking out of one of the booths deeper in.

“Kaka-sensei?!” Naruto calls out, already running forward. The remaining of Team 7 follow at a more sedate pace.

“What a coincidence! How’d my cute little genin know this was my go-to place?” Their teacher exclaims brightly, though he was also sporting a cast, “Oh—We match, Sakura-chan.”

“Uh, yeah.” She smiles albeit awkwardly. Her mind is a bit of a mess, only remembering the porcelain expanse of Haku’s mask as he closed in on her before feeling a blinding pain and blacking out. Next thing she knows, she wakes up back in Konoha safe and sound. Even though the day was already almost done, she still felt like a small part of her lingered in Wave, like her mission was left unfinished.

“We didn’t,” Naruto crossed his arms, “Sakura-chan needs to eat and we’re here to help since she’s hurt.”

“And did Sakura-chan give the okay on that?” Their one-eyed and currently one-armed teacher asks.

“Uh—” Naruto scratches the back of his head, flustered. Deciding this was enough dallying and that she would rather start ordering, Sakura slides in next to her teacher.

“I’m fine with them, obviously, sensei.” Sakura rolls her eyes, still not sure what to make of Kakashi’s weird overprotectiveness over her. She had the feeling he just wanted to make it up to her for questioning her loyalty before, but perhaps he really was just doting on her as his ‘favorite student’.

After putting in their orders, Sakura confronted them about the events that transpired while she was unconscious, “So, what happened back in Wave? Did I—Did I take out Haku?”

“Did you?” Naruto intones strangely, “You punched him hard enough to knock him out and crush his mask! Turns out, he was that girl—uh, guy—I met at the forest one night!”

“You blacked out after, but we thought you died and he hit you with a senbon or something since we were still trapped inside his jutsu,” Sasuke added, his fingers steepled together as he rests his chin atop them, “Naruto, freaked, out—”

“I didn’t freak out, bastard!” The blonde says but a flash of worry passes through his features, “I-I was just scared ‘cause we thought you died. And so was this guy, his eyes became all red but not like when you cry really hard!”

“Sharingan.” Sakura offers, her eyes widening at the intense reaction from her teammates. Would she have lashed out angrily too if one of them did die on that bridge? Or would she be stuck in place, numb from the horror?

“Yeah, that!” Naruto nods before looking down at his menu, “Anyways, after that Zabuza became all quiet and then Gato and his thugs came.”

While Naruto kept turning the menu, Sasuke added, “It was a double-cross. Zabuza turned on him and killed Gato while we got rid of the thugs. By the end, we realized both you and Haku were still alive and that Zabuza only took the job to raise funds for a revolution. Not really nuke-nin if he was planning to go back to his village.”

“That’s right, Kiri is on the brink of civil war.” Sakura remembered that the entirety of Water Country ran on political shit, what with Kiri’s graduation ceremony and the bloodline purges. Gato probably had a hand in it, too. “Did you let him go?”

“We weren’t in a position to keep fighting since we were down teammate and Naruto’s situation needed to be taken care of immediately.” Kakashi replied, wrapping it up nicely, “Officially, Team 7 was unable to apprehend Momochi Zabuza due to extenuating circumstances involving two team members which held priority over capture. So, yeah, Zabuza took his partner and scrammed.”

“Soba and a side of fried eggplant!” The waiter announced as he appeared and placed the food in front of Kakashi before noticing the freshly joined genin, “Oh, what can I get for you three?”

After placing their order, their teacher smiled and added, “Did you all write down what I said earlier? It’s what’s going to be written on your official reports, by the way, so make sure to have them done and turned in by—oh, I dunno, next week?”

“R-report? For what?” Naruto deflated, having asked but already knowing it would be on the mission.

“I’ll help you, Naruto, and you can help me write down what happened after I blacked out.” Sakura offered with a smile. From the side she could see Sasuke eyeing them and decided to extend the offer to him as well, “You too, Sasuke. If you want?”

“Whatever.” He flipped his head to the side, causing a fond smile to take over Sakura’s features at her sulky teammate’s constant pout.

--

“Haruno, hey!” A cheery voice calls out to her. Sakura lifts her head to meet Tenten’s broad smile as the older girl jogs up to her. “Just got back, eh? How was it?”

“It was a lot,” The pink haired girl laughs. She was walking home after turning in her report that morning but seeing Tenten brightened the mood instantly. “Jumped up to B rank actually.”

“You’re kidding?” And when Sakura shakes her head no, the older girl opens her mouth comically. “And I was worried about random thugs, but a B rank means there was a ninja, right?”

“Yup, Momochi Zabuza and his partner Haku. Including the Demon Brothers, all nuke-nin from Kiri.” Sakura smirks, allowing herself to boast in front of her friend. Her family would faint if they knew and Sakura’s circle of friends had always been small.

“If you weren’t injured I would so knock that smile off ya’ face, Haruno. Anyways—I’m glad your back,” Tenten admits the last part quietly, and before Sakura could react, the brunette brightens up again, “Let’s go shopping for today! Since I’d feel bad if I sic Gai-sensei and Lee on you.”

“Shopping?” Sakura asks, deciding to let that admission pass. She could always tease Tenten about how much the girl actually cares for her later, Sakura thinks amusingly.

“We can train when you’re not wearing a cast. Now let’s go, Ha-ru-no.” Tenten marches forward in a singsong voice. “Tell me more about the mission though. It was an escort, right?”

“Well there was a bridge builder and…” she trails off when she notices a familiar face. Up ahead, Ino stopped walking as well. Even from the distance they stood apart, Sakura can see a strange look on Ino’s face, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape before the blonde shakes her head, snapping out of her reverie. Whatever emotion that was, it gets wiped away and replaced with the spiteful look Sakura is accustomed to seeing on her face.

“Billboard-brow.” Ino growls out. Sakura blinks at that, overcome at seeing her childhood friend only to be reminded why their friendship didn’t last.

“I’m not in the mood right now, Ino.” She shrugs the shoulder of her side that was in a sling pointedly, ready to walk away with Tenten when the blonde speaks up.

“Wait! A-are you okay?” Sakura honestly thought she would never see the day where Ino would care about anyone besides herself and Sasuke. For a moment she hesitated before steeling herself to face the other girl.

“I’m fine.” She says, blank and with as much of a straight face as possible. It wasn’t fair that Ino only decided to care when she wanted to, Sakura thinks. They haven’t had a real conversation in years. The mission at Wave opened her eyes to many things, one of them being that she had to know who she would fight and die for, the ones who had her back. Frankly speaking, Ino wasn’t that. “Let’s go, Tenten.”

The brunette presses her lips together in a firm line, disapproving but respecting Sakura’s wishes. As they walk away, the crease between Ino’s eyebrows deepen as she watches the two figures disappear into a shop.

Once inside, Sakura angrily shoves hanger by hanger on a rack with her single, working hand. She was hardly even looking at the clothes, her jaw tight from the earlier confrontation.

“That was the Yamanaka heir, right?” Tenten asks rhetorically, poking her head out on the other side of the rack, “You sure she won’t, y’know, rat you out or something?”

Sakura levels a heavy look on the other girl. Tenten is genuinely concerned which she had every right to be.

(Civilians like Sakura and her always had to be wary around clan children, especially heirs. They were the future nobles of their village after all, Sakura thinks bitterly.)

Despite only being genin, Ino already had a lot of influence by simply being a clan heir, and not just any clan but one that had the immutable support of the Nara and Akimichi. Facing her literally meant bringing down the wrath of three clans onto your head.

If Ino wanted to ruin her career, it would be easy to get someone from the Genin Corps to draft her in under the guise of ‘apprenticeship’ and be none the wiser. Sakura assumes that their past friendship left some lingering empathy within the blonde girl to spare her that fate, at least.

Allowing herself to relax her features, “Yeah, yeah. Ino’s an asshole but she has enough honor in her frail, shriveled up heart for someone other than Sasuke to not do anything to me.”

“If you’re sure…” Tenten trails off, already at another rack and scanning the items.

--

Sakura confronts her teacher, “Your eternal rival is weird.”

Kakashi holds back a sigh, “So you’ve met him, huh?” He wonders just how traumatized from green spandex and bowl cuts his student must be now.

“Yeah. He’s pretty cool.” Sakura admits, eyes still focusing on steadying her hand to finish the stroke. The brush glides across the paper, stray fibers bristling and creating a unique texture with the black ink.

Kakashi glances down at his student, observing her as she practices her fuuinjutsu. It was their off-day and he happened to see her as he entered the library. Being the type of person to avoid human interaction—even if it was with students who were his favorite—he was about to turn tail before he saw the large scroll laid out in front of her. The pink haired girl was always so full of surprises, he thinks.

Then again, maybe she had a few screws loose and that was why she thought Gai of all people was cool. Maybe she was so traumatized by their Wave mission that her ideas of the world and the people in it are screwed up.

“I wouldn’t use those words to describe him that exactly…” He trails off. He hopes Sakura catches his drift. Shouldn’t she think her own teacher would be cool? He was cool, right? Gai himself called him hip.

Kakashi scratches the metal covering his eye, wondering just when he started to care about mundane things like these. His own teacher said that age makes you sentimental, and the jounin is uncomfortably finding the truth in those words.

“You’re right,” Sakura agreed, allowing Kakashi to release a small sigh, “Gai-sensei is also smart and strong!”

Damn it. Kakashi can only hope Gai never catches wind of this or else the other man would count it towards their number of competitions together, and currently, Kakashi was down one. That means he would have to actually put in effort to one-up Gai and Kakashi wanted to just sleep in all day otherwise.

“You have the Sharingan.” Sakura hesitated, pausing mid-strike before dipping the brush in ink.

“Yes, I do,” Kakashi replied blandly, “You’ve seen it and I’m sure you’ve read about it before.”

“Yeah, I did.” She parrots back, fidgeting in her seat. After the Uchiha Massacre—as it was dubbed—she spent more nights than she could count just reading on the clan and their famed doujutsu. Sakura considered it a way to pay respects on her own: to make sure someone remembered the Uchiha.

“Sensei, I—I remember when the Uchiha, went away,” She hedged. Sakura chose her words carefully, as if the ghosts of a dead clan hovered over her and forced her to be respectful, “Their chakra just, like, went out. It was like an entire corner of the village just shut off.”

It was not a lie, per se. That intimate feeling of loss could still relate to the memory of seeing those missing strings of fate, she would imagine it would feel just as empty had she been a true chakra sensor. She had to make Kakashi believed she was a sensor of some variety.

“Is that how you noticed those Zabuza clones?” Kakashi asks, already understanding what Sakura was trying to get at. She allowed him to come to his own conclusions, at least then it would not feel as shameful as outright lying to him.

“Mm.” She agrees, finishing up the character below her.

“Then I guess you have some sensor capabilities, though I’m sure you already had an idea and just wanted me to confirm it, no?” Kakashi lilts, an eye-smile ready. Sakura blushes before nodding her head.

“I just, didn’t want to be overconfident. Especially since I’ve got the chakra threads and the strength thing,” She shrugged, “I didn’t want to seem like I had my fingers in too many pies.”

“I understand,” Her teacher lays a gentle hand on her head, “With teammates like Naruto and Sasuke, it’s important for you to do anything you can to keep up with them. But speaking of that chakra enhanced strength of yours, I don’t want to see you working on it anymore.”

That made Sakura turn her head up in shock, knocking the hand off quickly, “W-what? Why?”

“That is a very high-level technique that could have very dangerous consequences. The minute you used it, you blacked out just from exhaustion. I won’t have you practicing it until you find a proper teacher.” He explains, voice hard.

Sakura gulps realizing he was correct. Not only did it render her unconscious, but she broke her hand to boot. Enhanced strength but not so much enhanced shock absorption, she has yet to learn.

“Lucky for you—” Kakashi chirps, “I think I know someone who can help.”

Sakura begins to smile, “Really?”

“Well, they know someone who can help, that is.” Kakashi scratches his covered eye again bashfully but Sakura smiles openly this time, glad that her teacher was finally helping her with getting stronger.

Chapter Text

A non-believer of the heart
from wyteeth

--

Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That’s right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you’d be surprised to know who’s on the other end of your string. AU.

Words: 6,053

A/N: I hate rehashing canon but that also rivals my hate for not creating any (bigger) plot holes lol but if Kishimoto can have them, so can I!

--

In a small office filled with yellow light, Sakura sits at a round table with her hands folded in her lap. The windows are closed, but autumn had just arrived in Konoha leaving the air cooler and more comfortable for its citizens.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m still back in Wave, having to fight for my life.” Sakura scratches the scars littered across the top of her right hand. Her cast had come off recently, just when she was starting to get used to the thing.

Sitting adjacent from her, a young woman with kind eyes named Miura jots something down on her notepad before replying, “That’s normal, you were put in a very high-stress situation. Your first mission out of the village and your first combatants were nuke-nin.”

“I guess,” Sakura agrees with a shrug, “I was—am scared. But more than that, I guess I just feel like I left things unfinished.”

“You feel like you could have done more?” Miura looks up at her then with a raised questioning brow.

Sakura hedges to answer, “Yeah.”

“You dispatched one of the nin, Haku, single-handedly.” Miura points out with the tip of her pencil. It does not make Sakura feel better; any pride in the act long gone after remembering her unconscious state afterwards. Any honor tainted by the fear that she had nearly killed someone.

“But I blacked out right after. Maybe if I was around to help we could have captured Zabuza, or arrested Gato. Now that he’s dead, who’ll pay back the reparations to the people of Wave?” Sakura let loose the thoughts that plagued her after returning to the village. She had laid awake in the dead of night, worried if Gato’s death had only welcomed another monster in the midst to seize power and replace him. What if—

“None of that was your mission.” Miura snapped her back to reality with a firm tone. The scribbling stopped, and Sakura was forced to look at the other woman’s face. “Which you completed, by the way. Safely escort the bridgebuilder? Check.”

“Y-yeah.” Sakura agreed again. Perhaps it was the exact thing to say because she had been lost in her own thoughts, caught up in the what-ifs and could’ve-beens. She needed a reality check before she became too embittered with the world and her own failings.

“I think I know what’s really troubling you,” Miura let out a soft sigh, “You want to do what’s right—what you think is right but either you physically can’t, or something is stopping you.”

Sakura lets those words ruminate in her mind, tossing and turning them in inspection before nodding. Her eyes fall onto the dainty string tied around her right pinky. She agreed with Miura in more ways than one.

Gathering up the breath she was holding, Sakura declares, “We aren’t taught to always do the right thing in the Academy, per se. B-But I just thought that as ninja, at least of Konoha, we had the responsibility to at least try.”

--

There is someone in the tree, her mind supplies as she notes the red string leading up the trunk.

She couldn’t react just yet, though. Not when these Sand shinobi were holding the Hokage’s grandson hostage. Thankfully, Naruto was trying to talk it out instead of bum-rushing his way into a fight as he usually did.

Maybe the mission in Wave actually did some good and taught him patience.

“Let Konohamaru go, pajama freak!” The blonde screams.

“Don’t call me that, idiot! My name is Kankuro!” The older boy with face paint yells back but is immediately accosted by the other girl with a slap over the head.

“We can’t just give out our name’s like that,” She whispers angrily though the damage was already done. “Whatever. You brats will hear about us in the exams anyways.”

Sakura nearly flinches. Where did the time go? How could she forget that Konoha was hosting the Chuunin Exams this year? Her own parents were in a frenzy to prepare for the expected tourists.

Glancing to her side, she could see the unfamiliarity of the exams form on her teammate’s face. Answering quickly to stop his inevitable question, “We don’t care. Just give us the boy and you won’t have any trouble.”

“We won’t have trouble? That should be our line, pink—”

Kankuro suddenly yelps. He grips his hand in pain as Konohamaru takes his opening to run away to Naruto’s side. Everyone whips their head towards the source: the top of the branch where Sasuke was holding another rock.

Only Sakura hides an internal gasp as her eyes drop down the branch to the intimidating redheaded boy below. The red string leading up the trunk belonged to him.

Locking eyes with the boy, the look in those empty teal orbs ran a shiver down her back. Fear welled up in her inexplicably. The boy could not have been much older, but he radiated killing intent naturally as if it was second nature.

She reached out in purchase of Naruto’s warm grip, finding his palm and taking comfort in him as she stutters out, “S-Sasuke, come down right now!”

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto asks worriedly.

She ignores him in favor of staring down her other teammate. Sasuke narrows his eyes, fighting her mentally for a moment before he jumps down next to her. Having the two of them at her side made Sakura feel safer, as if their proximity meant that she could protect them better.

“Below the branch.” She explains, jerking her head upwards as everyone finally spots the redhead.

“Gaara!” The other girl shouts. They knew each other, of course, Sakura thinks as the metal hitai-ate on him was etched with Suna’s insignia.

“We’ve got Konohamaru, let’s go.” Sakura orders, not wanting to stay any longer. Just being in Gaara’s immediate vicinity was enough to give her the creeps so she was not planning on staying any longer than necessary.

Before she could also grab Sasuke’s hand and pull all of them away, the redhead dissolves and reforms in an eerie display of sand. Right in front of her.

“What’s your name.” Gaara demanded, less of a question than a direct order.

Sakura’s heart rate jumped as she stared into kohl-lined eyes. Surprisingly, Sasuke was the one to cut in this time, “None of your business.”

Gaara does not acknowledge the Uchiha as he asks again, “What, is, your, name.”

Gulping, Sakura just wants this over with, she replies, “Haruno. Seriously, you guys, let’s go already.”

They take the hint and head off in the opposite direction, though Sakura risks a single glance backwards to see the lingering gaze of the shell of a boy.

--

“Sakura said that the Chuunin Exams are coming up! Sign us up!” Naruto demanded at their teacher who was perched up on a tree branch above him. The rest of Team 7 look up as well, waiting for their teacher’s answer.

A slow flip of the page, “No.”

Naruto pulled a face, about ready to jump up angrily, “What?! Why?”

“Short answer? You’re not ready. Long answer? None of you demonstrated the skills needed to enter. During the mission in Wave, you all disregarded my orders and immediately engaged with the enemy. What makes you think I have any faith in the three of you following exam protocol?” Kakashi responded, unruffled by the blonde’s frustration. With those facts laid straight out, even Sasuke could agree that they had been ignoring their commanding officer’s direct orders.

“But they ran at us first!” Naruto retorted, though even he sounded uncertain in his own justification.

Kakashi closed the orange book neatly before jumping down in front of the three genin, “No excuses.”

“Then what are we gonna do in the meantime, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asks. She was already dreading to see Tenten’s disappointed face when she would have to tell her that they won’t be seeing each other at the exams this year.

“Why, my cute little genin, we’ll be doing as we’ve always done: train!” Kakashi gave a crinkle-eyed smile, “And then some.”

“Explain.” Sasuke grunted out.

“I already promised my favorite student, but I have a special someone who will come and help with your training. Specifically, with Naruto.” Kakashi winked at Sakura briefly, though with his other eye covered it was more of a blink.

“Me?” The blonde pointed at himself.

“Yup, and Sasuke here can have one-on-one training with me, leaving Sakura with another mentor who might be coming a bit later.” Kakashi crooned, as if expecting his students to praise him for a job well done for getting these ‘special mentors’.

“Might?” Sakura asked.

Kakashi blinked again, “Maa, that person is a bit busy. But you can always join me and Sasuke until then.”

--

Jiraiya of the Sannin comes waltzing into practice with a pouting Naruto under his arm during a spar between Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi merely raised a hand in greeting before letting out a simple, “Yo.”

“This brat is useless. Completely incompetent.” The Sannin grunts out before dropping the boy.

“Ow!—That hurt, you pervy, old man!” Naruto screeched though he quickly recovered and stood up to point a finger at him, “And you’re the one who’s useless! All you do is creep around the hot springs, and you don’t explain nothin’ to me! You’re worse than Kaka-sensei!”

The silver haired jounin lets out a deprecating sigh, waving his hand to stop the spar. Off to the side, Sakura tightens the bandaging around her fists before bounding up towards the Sannin, “Jiraiya-sama! It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’ve read all about you and the Sannin!”

“Ha—that can’t be good,” Jiraiya whispers under his breath before facing down at the girl, “Well, it’s me! Jiraiya the Toad Sage!”

Sakura’s eyes widened, a look of fanaticism on her face as she stared up in awe. While Sakura continued to fawn over the large man, muttering here and there about his various accomplishments and abilities—to which Jiraiya thought strange for a young girl to know—Kakashi approached him.

“So, have you contacted her yet?” The jounin asks plainly, hands inside his pockets.

“I know where she is but she…” Jiraiya trails off for a bit before continuing, “Well, let’s just say she needs some convincing.”

Kakashi gives it some thought, allowing a moment to pass over them. The two men look at the genin in front of them: Sakura is still spouting off some bit of trivia from the Second War, Naruto is trying to use the summoning jutsu, and Sasuke was staring off blankly while spinning a kunai on his finger.

Releasing another sigh—it seems to be a staple for him these days—Kakashi finally replies, “Guess we better get to it.”

--

As the group of five walk on a dirt path towards Tsunade—of which Sakura still cannot believe she’ll have the luck of meeting two out of the three Sannin—the lack of string on Jiraiya’s fingers catches her notice for the first time. True, her mild hero-worship of the man did leave her starstruck for a moment but now she could clearly observe Jiraiya’s calloused, stringless hands.

“What are you staring at, girly?” Said man asks, causing Sakura to snap her eyes back up to his face. “I’ll admit this is the first time I’m saying it but, ‘my eyes are up here’.”

Sakura flushes a bit though quickly recovers, “You’ve got a lot of scars on your hands.”

“Occupational hazard. And you’re one to talk,” Jiraiya gestures down at Sakura’s own bandaged hands, “Got a story for that?”

“Sakura-chan punched a bad guy so hard it broke his face and her fist at the same time!” Naruto explains for her, jumping in unexpectedly.

Jiraiya lets out a small whistle, “This must be why we’re looking for Tsunade then, huh? Want to pick up her inhuman strength and all.”

Sakura perks up at the Sannin’s admission. She had her suspicions that Tsunade was the one Kakashi said would teach her, but she had not wanted to get her hopes up. But with what Jiraiya had just said, they were basically just escorting her to Tsunade themselves.

Inside, she was pumping her fists and screaming to the high heavens. Sakura couldn’t wait to brag to Tenten about how cool, strong, and kind Tsunade will be—

—Unfortunately, as it turns out, the blonde haired woman was anything but.

“Get outta my space, you idiots.” Tsunade slurs from where she was half-on, half-off a low standing table. “And you!”

Tsunade abruptly stands up and stumbles over to Jiraiya, “How dare you show, y-you’re fuckin’ face, now. After all that, that bullshit.”

A moment of weakness flashes through Jiraiya’s face before he reaches out a hand to try and steady the drunk woman, only to have it slapped away as she rounds on Kakashi next, “Take these brats away and never come to me again. Got it? Next time, I won’t be so nice.”

“Tsunade-sama,” Kakashi tries to console the woman, going to stand in front of his shocked students, “We’re not here to bring you back to the village.”

“Psh—as if you could even try, young man.” Tsunade nearly makes it to the door before another person catches her by the shoulders.

“Tsunade-sama!” A short haired woman cries out.

“Shizune, tells these assholes to scram, will ya?” Tsunade mumbles into the other’s shoulder.

Shizune sags under Tsunade’s weight as the woman seemingly falls unconscious. She furrows her brows together in concern before addressing the group, “Sorry about her. She’s having one of her bad days.”

“It’s fine, Shizune-chan,” Jiraiya greets her familiarly with a fond smile, “It’s that day after all.”

For once, Naruto keeps his mouth shut but the question is written clear on his face: why is today so special?

--

Jiraiya and Kakashi decide to stay a night, waiting until next morning for Tsunade to sober up and forget her past. They gather again at that low standing table.

“I humbly ask you to teach my student the ways of your chakra enhanced strength.” Kakashi bows low to the point of touching his head to the ground.

The extreme act of politeness for her behalf causes Sakura to blush fiercely, immediately dropping next to him as she bows as well. They were essentially asking Tsunade to pass down a technique that, by all rights, she could keep to herself as a clan specialty.

It would be like asking Neji to teach her the Hyuuga Gentle Fist or asking Sasuke to teach her the Uchiha-style taijutsu. Completely brazen and presumptuous; even if she had the last Hatake backing her up she was still a no-name civilian born.

“Get up.” Tsunade commands, her arms crossed as she looks down her nose.

“Tsunade-sama?” Shizune asks at her side.

“I’ll teach you, but I ain’t coming back to Konoha. You’ll have to make do with whatever I give you now.” The blonde woman announces while looking off to the side.

Sakura’s eyes shutter open before scrambling back down into a bow, “Thank you so much, Tsunade-sama! Thank you!”

“Didn’t I tell you to get up, already? And when are you all planning on leaving?” Tsunade’s features soften as she looks at the pink haired girl.

“Before the final phase of the Chuunin Exams,” Kakashi replies, “I’d like for my genin to get a taste of what it’d be like once they enter.”

“Alright.” Tsunade nods her head once before standing.

Sakura finally lifts her head from the ground, her hands fisted in anticipation. She smiles broadly, utterly amazed at the opportunity given to her. Who would have thought that a nobody like her would be taught by one of the Sannin themselves?

Staring at Tsunade, emerald eyes catch the red string on the blonde woman’s finger. Briefly, her mind questions if Orochimaru would have one too, or would his be gone just like Jiraiya’s?

She continues and wonders if men like Orochimaru deserved to have one at all, considering all the crimes against humanity he has committed, each one documented to remind the village of his betrayal.

It doesn’t matter anyways, Sakura tells herself. The last Sannin was nowhere in sight and the last time he was heard from was years ago.

--

When they return to the village the streets are lined with various cart-vendors and tourists. It is a sight to behold and one rarely seen as Konoha is usually quite strict with allowing outsiders, let alone foreigners, enter the gates.

“Woah, there’s so much people!” Naruto shouts. He seemed to feed off the large crowd’s energy as he scampered forward to gawk and gaze. Jiraiya smiles fondly but his attention is soon grabbed by two passing women.

“Tch, too many people.” Sasuke adds sarcastically. His arms were crossed but even he was peeking at one of the stalls.

“I think we’ll be good for a break until the final matches in a few days. Let’s meet up at the main entrance of the stadium then, okay?” Kakashi instructs good-naturedly, though Sakura does not miss the light thrumming of his string hanging off his thumb.

Either her teacher was getting old and getting tremors, or his fated person was on the move, Sakura surmises. One of the choices being much more likely than the other.

Everyone hums in agreement and breaks off into their own respective ways. Heading home, Sakura lets her eyes roam over the wares that were displayed openly by the vendors. She figures this was a good way to make some quick cash and wonders if her parents had a stall opened somewhere too.

Which reminds her, she was gone for almost an entire month and hadn’t even thought of them even once.

She slowed her steps until she stopped entirely. Before leaving, she told them that she was going off for training though she had not specified a timeframe. Although they too went on business trips themselves all the time, some even longer than a mere month—and when she left for Wave her parents seemed nonplussed, only wishing for her safe return.

And then they wind up seeing their only child come back unconscious and in a hospital, Sakura realizes.

They were both worried and relieved simultaneously when Sakura came home with her arm in a sling. Then, when the cast came off and she started wearing the bandages over her fists it was more so to soften the recoil than to hide the scarring from where they had performed surgery.

Sakura tried to be as willfully ignorant to the troubled looks her parents tried to hide every time they looked at her. Not to say that she was doubting their love for her. Her parents loved her, she was sure of that, but maybe now they also feared her a little bit.

Her parents both came from a long line of merchants who understood only one thing of people like her: Ninja were cold-blooded murderers whose infamy was built on the suffering of others.

There is a saying that goes, ‘Ninja only get famous when their kill count reaches 100’. Though knowing what she knew about the Second War, she could easily name a few who fit that bill entirely. Her own teacher included.

She is reminded again of another saying, ‘A ninja will give you 100 words. Trust only one of them.’ That one, at least, just proved how little civilians knew about their work. Even the civilians living in a hidden village where they see shinobi on the daily, even work alongside them, have a wary disposition to anyone with a hitai-ate.

“Sakura-san!” A voice calls out to her.

She turns her head to face Lee who was sprinting towards her uncharacteristically winded. He screeched to a halt as he reached her and let out puffs of air.

“Lee! Are you okay?” Sakura raised a hand as if she could somehow heal whatever injury the older boy had. Perhaps she should have asked Tsunade to teach her some iryo-ninjutsu back then, Sakura regrets.

“N-not me,” Lee breathes out trying to catch his breath, “It’s Tenten, she, she—”

“Take me to her.” Sakura demands, her arms growing cold at Lee’s reaction. Whatever happened to the brunette girl left Lee thoroughly shaken up.

--

Sakura hated the hospital, she concludes. She would never work here even if it cost her life. There were just too many bad memories already being tied to the place.

Slipping into the doorway, Sakura sees Tenten’s still figure lying on the elevated bed. Several tubes stuck out from the few places that were not bandaged and the heart beat monitor was too faint for her liking.

Sakura closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. Her hands ached from how tightly she was clutching them. From her side, Lee spoke up softly, “She was matched against a Suna-nin named Gaara in the preliminaries of the Chuunin Exam’s final stage.”

The name snapped her eyes wide open. Thankfully, Lee spared her the details but just the mention of that redhead compounded the horrible assumptions in her mind. Whatever that boy did to Tenten left her like this, the back of her eyes burned at the thought.

“Gai-sensei had to stop the fight before he k-killed her.” Lee stuttered, his own voice wavering.

Sakura grit her teeth, anger now flaring up inside her, “Then is that bastard going to be in the finals?”

“Yes. Neji will have to face him next.” Lee tilted his head down but even from where she stood, Sakura could see the mounting fear. Lee had just seen his teammate nearly killed and now Neji will likely share the same fate.

“What?!” Sakura nearly screamed, “Tell him to forfeit! Drop the match! Don’t just let him go in there, Lee, look at what happened to Tenten!”

“Sakura-san, Sakura-san!” Lee tried to calm the girl who was glaring openly up at him, “Gai-sensei and I tried! We tried but Neji-san will not be swayed from his decision to face the Suna-nin!”

“Then tell me where Neji is.” She demanded, her lips pulled tightly over her teeth as she held back a snarl. It was unfair how she was lashing out at Lee like this and she would soon regret it but right now she needed to talk to the Hyuuga.

“I am unsure. He left on his own after we talked to him.” Lee admitted. His large, round eyes shifted over to Tenten and Sakura knew she would just have to find the other boy herself.

Clenching her fists again, she stomped towards the window and promptly jumped out.

--

Sakura is not a sensor, not a true one at least. She could barely tell the difference between the chakra of a tree and that of a dog let alone the minute differences between a person’s chakra signature. Because of this it took her much longer than she wanted to track down Hyuuga Neji.

Even with her ability to see the strings, there was no distinction like color and size to tell them apart. So instead she painstakingly followed any string that was in the areas that Neji frequented the most.

“E-excuse me?” A meek voice asked. “Y-you’re S-Sakura-san, correct?”

“Hinata-san! Tell me, have you seen Neji?” Sakura reached out to put her hands on the Hyuuga heiress’s shoulders. Normally she would not have dared to do such a thing to a clan kid, but Sakura had thrown propriety out the window after seeing her best friend’s broken body.

“N-Neji-nii-san? He is training in the field outside of the Hyuuga c-compound,” Hinata stammered before asking, “I heard you and N-Naruto-kun came back from a d-dangerous mission?”

“Yes, yes we did,” Sakura answered quickly, already turning her back to head to the training ground, “Thanks again, Hinata-sama!”

The heiress blinks at the formal title, watching as a blur of pink whizzes on by. Sakura can only hope that it was enough to excuse her suddenly touching the other girl.

Sakura is nearly out of breath once she reaches the training ground, yet the sight of the dark haired boy refills her with vigor as she marches up towards him.

“Forfeit your match.” She ordered. Neji stops his kata to level a hard stare at her.

“You are in no place to tell me what to do. You are not my sensei, my teammate, and you are most definitely not my better.” He answers coolly but Sakura can see the carefully constructed mask he had built up to cover his true emotions. She can recognize it easily from seeing it in Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, and even herself.

“Then don’t do it for me! If you care about your teammates at all, then forfeit for them!” Sakura pressed on, unknowingly pumping chakra through her veins causing Neji’s Byakugan to activate.

The sudden spike in tension in the air cackled with killing intent. Neji whirled to stand chest to chest to her, his eyebrows bundled together angrily.

“I’m doing this because of them! That monster needs to pay for what he did to Tenten!” Neji roared back, responding to Sakura’s aggression in kind.

Sakura was taken aback for a moment before recovering, “Please, this isn’t what she would’ve wanted! Risking your life needlessly will only hurt her!”

When Neji did not respond, she added quietly, “You’re not going to save anybody by doing this.”

She wanted him to know that what happened to Tenten would happen to him and that he could not take back her near-death.

Finally, Neji spoke, “If this was fated to be, I will fight Gaara until my last breath.”

“Neji!” Sakura was close to tears, more heartbroken than angry now, “This, this isn’t your destiny. Just forfeit and you can change your fate!”

“What do you know about my fate?” Neji spits back, “I have never been in control of it, not once, and not even now. At least I am willing to take on this fight.”

The breath is knocked out of her as Sakura flinches at his words. She was caught, unable to say anything because Neji is right. The red string tied to him was undeniable proof of that.

No one is truly in control of their fate. Not her, not Neji, nobody.

Feeling thoroughly defeated, Sakura shakes her head and disappears in a cloud of smoke.

--

The day of the finals of the Chuunin Exams arrived sooner than Sakura hoped for. As instructed, she is waiting by a pillar in front of the main entrance of the stadium.

A crowd, larger than she has ever seen in her life, all coalesce to get in their seats and spectate the upcoming fights. The sheer number of red strings bundled at their feet makes her wonder how anybody can even walk without tripping.

(She’s had to step over a few just to make sure of that.)

As expected, Sasuke arrives soon after her. He makes no greeting other than to stand at her side.

Various types of people from tourists, foreign dignitaries, and locals pass them as the two wait in silence. Sakura can’t even muster up any kind of pleasantry for the boy next to her as she numbly gazes out into the crowd.

“Sakura.” The Uchiha finally calls out. He peered over at her, an inkling of emotion in his face that Sakura doesn’t care to decipher at the moment.

“Hi, Sasuke.” She answers back. Releasing a sigh since it was not worth troubling the other boy with her problems just yet, instead she asks, “Are you mad that Kakashi-sensei didn’t enroll us into the exams?”

He mulls over the question before speaking, “At first. He underestimates us.”

“You think so? I think he just cares a lot and doesn’t want us to,” Sakura catches herself, the image in that hospital room flooding her mind, “To get hurt.”

“Hm.” Sasuke grunts out, neither agreeing nor denying her. Silence falls on them again.

Naruto arrives soon after, thankfully, with Jiraiya and Kakashi in tow. With everyone there they head into the stadium to find seats in the stands.

“Man, this place is crazy! It’s like everyone’s itching for a good fight!” Naruto burst in excitement, barely containing himself in his seat.

“Shut up, it’s starting.” Sasuke chides from next to him and Sakura wonders why she didn’t just sit in between them like usual. Luckily, Naruto’s reprisal was cut short as the first match was listed: Aburame Shino versus Rock Lee.

“Who’s that bushy brows?” Naruto comments as the spandex clad nin hopped down onto the field.

Sakura perks up, if only a little, to cheer him on, “Go Lee—ee!”

Showing he heard her call, Lee smiles up at her and gives her a thumbs up.

“You know that guy, Sakura-chan?” Her blonde teammate asks.

Kakashi speaks up from where he sat next to her, “She’s been training with Gai’s team, and Rock Lee is to Gai like Sakura is to me. Our favorite.”

Sakura rolls her eyes at her teacher’s weird behavior. Then again, when it comes to the silver haired jounin, she really shouldn’t expect anything less at this point.

“Gai-sensei doesn’t play favorites. And it’s not really training, just practice for fun, I guess.” She lets out a small laugh. Kakashi shoots her a strange look, wondering if anything Gai did for ‘fun’ was actually fun for anybody else.

“Start!” Genma, the proctor, calls out. Everyone quiets as they all focus on the match below them.

Shino’s plan seemed to be all about keeping his distance from Lee. Every step forward from the other boy was one back and away for him. A smart idea, Sakura gives him that, because Lee’s taijutsu could end the fight if he ever makes contact.

This continued, a game of chase with ninja speed, before Lee suddenly came to a halt. He loosened something in his arms, causing Sakura to crane her neck in surprise.

The small strip of weights fell to the floor heavily, leaving a small crater where they lay. The stadium became even quieter as everyone realized just how heavy that small band had been despite being discreetly hidden in Lee’s arm bandaging.

And those aren’t even his heaviest ones yet, Sakura thinks as she admires the boy openly, knowing just how much he was really holding back. Her own weights around her ankles were just a fraction of what Lee was carrying, yet even then they were there to make sure she could keep up with Naruto and Sasuke stamina-wise.

Lee used his weights to turn his taijutsu deadly. Without them on, his speed would rival that of a jounin.

“Do not run, fellow Leaf shinobi! Face your opponent with the strength of your youth!” Lee calls out to Shino before running impossibly fast at the boy.

Shino flinches backwards but is unable to block the kick aimed towards his side as he is sent careening away towards the wall. A gasp falls over the crowd as everyone observes the Aburame smash into the concrete and slide down onto the ground.

Lee steps up to Shino’s fallen body only to stop short, something on his foot seeming to catch his attention.

Then, Shino raises his head, a dribble of blood falling onto his dark glasses, before yelling out, “Parasitic Destruction Insect Technique!”

A black form encases Lee’s leg, growing steadily as each second passed. Lee attempted to kick it off to no avail as if the form itself was burrowing into the cloth.

“This is Aburame kikaichu!” Lee realizes as he jumps upwards, taking the kikaichu with him as he spins and spins. Faster and faster until he blends together into a tornado-like form.

Shino lets out a deep bellow as the kikaichu are flung off Lee’s body, scattered to the wind by Lee’s merciless spinning. Just when the last of the kikaichu fall off, the tornado comes crashing down towards the Aburame. Leaping away just in time, Shino escapes the tornado only be hit by Lee’s next attack.

“Leaf Drop!” Lee shouts as the whirlwind around him dissipates revealing his raised leg which promptly comes down onto the other boy’s shoulder, knocking him out cleanly.

“Aburame Shino is knocked out! Rock Lee will advance to the second round!” Genma shouts and the crowd responds in a varied mix.

There are people like Sakura who has jumped out of her seat and is cheering happily and then there are others who are dissatisfied with the outcome. Sakura chooses to tune them out in favor of supporting her friend; her chest blooming with pride over the fact that a clanless kid like her was able to beat a clan heir and their signature move.

Her mood is brought down, however, by the thought that Lee will probably have to face Gaara is he wins his next match.

The screen lights up again, displaying: Yamanaka Ino versus Nara Shikamaru.

“Aren’t those two in the same team?” Naruto asks, scratching his head all the while.

Sakura’s own face scrunches up in confusion as she wonders out loud, “How did Ino make it to the finals?”

“Yeah,” Sasuke grunts out in agreement, surprised to see his ‘biggest fan’ come this far.

On the stage below, the two members of Team 10 stare each other down. Ino has her fists clenched, her dainty face full of tension. Shikamaru is no better, his hands out of his pockets as he squints his eyes in a glare.

“I’m not gonna go easy on you, Ino.” Shikamaru calls out.

“Good, ‘cause if you do I’m knocking you out to next week!” The platinum blonde answers back as she throws out razor sharp shuriken at the Nara boy.

Shikamaru dodges and attempts to get near her only to be met with the end of Ino’s kunai. The two grapple, Shikamaru pulling out his own kunai to counter Ino as the two fight hand to hand.

“Shadow Imitation Technique,” The Nara grunts out as he raises his hands to form a seal. The shadow below him stretches out and connects with Ino’s easily due to their close distance.

“Ugh!” Ino grits her teeth as her body goes still, mirroring even the same slouched posture as the boy opposite of her.

A few seconds tick by with no more movement from the two, and Sakura wonders if either of them even has the guts to knock the other out. Glancing at her own teammates, she questions if she could bring herself to hurt them too.

Finally, Ino relents as she surrenders, “I give up, okay!? You and your stupid jutsu…”

Shikamaru releases his hold and the shadow beneath the girl recedes back into him. Genma raises his arm and announces, “Nara Shikamaru will be moving onto the next round against Rock Lee!”

The winner rolls his eyes, seemingly unimpressed by his own victory as he walks up to Ino to give her a hand, “Let’s go.”

Ino scoffs again, throwing her hair behind her but taking his lead anyways, “Congrats, lazy bones. Try to look a bit happier since you beat me, alright?”

“It’s too troublesome.” Shikamaru responds automatically. The pair head back up to the stands where a cheering Chouji and grinning Asuma meet them.

 Back at where Team 7 was sitting, Naruto was fidgeting in his seat wondering if he should head over to congratulate Shikamaru. He was one of the few back at the Academy who didn’t outright hate him after all. He was going to ask if his teammates wanted to come with—since Ino and Sakura were friends, right? —until he noticed how pale Sakura’s face suddenly became.

About to ask her what was wrong, the last fight of the third round was presented on the screen: Gaara versus Hyuuga Neji.

--

A/N: Here’s the match ups for the prelims if anybody was wondering (since Team 7 did not participate):

Yoroi vs Kiba (double KO)
Zaku vs Shino
Misumi vs Kankuro
Ino vs Hinata
Shikamaru vs Kin Tsuchi
Gaara vs Tenten (ouch)
Dosu vs Chouji
Temari vs Neji
Misumi vs Rock Lee

Finals were supposed to include Kankuro vs Dosu but Kankuro dropped out and Dosu was killed, thus there were only 3 fights for the finals.

Chapter Text

Title: A non-believer of the heart

Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That’s right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you’d be surprised to know who’s on the other end of your string. AU.

Words: 3,394

Recap: Team 7 and the aftermath of Wave, meeting Gaara, Tsunade passes on her abilities to Sakura, and the final matches of the Chuunin Exam begin.

-----

Naruto sees the abject horror on Sakura’s face and something uncomfortable settles at the bottom of his gut. Churning readily and building up, feeling just like a punch in his stomach (of which he knows the feeling quite well).

The blonde turns his head back towards the screen, watching as the flickering pixels dance across the name Hyuuga Neji.

It brings back a memory from not too long ago, right after returning from their mission in Wave.

— Knock, knock, knock .

The noise is crisp and loud even against the flimsy wooden door. Opening it reveals a pink haired girl dressed in grey and black, hitai-ate shining below her chin.

“Uh, hey. I’m gonna help you write your report, Naruto.” She says, emphasizing her words by lifting the formal looking document in her hand.

The blonde boy smiles bright and wide, how she had known where he lived not even a passing thought in his mind, “Really? Thanks, Sakura-chan! Come on in!”

“Don’t thank me yet…” she mumbles. Naruto stands to the side to let her in his apartment. It is even messier than she had imagined, and her expectations were not exactly high.

“Show me what you’ve got,” she says as she clears a desk to put down the empty report and a pencil, “Just fill in whatever you can.”

“Umm—okay, let’s see…” Naruto mutters, his eyebrows knit together in concentration. Not even a minute has passed and Sakura can already see him struggling.

“Write it all in present tense.” She suggests, not unkindly.

“Present… tense?” Naruto asks, always unsure and walking on eggshells whenever people use words too unfamiliar to him. Asking questions meant that he would look dumb, he knows, but he feels safe around Sakura so he asks anyways.

“Like, ‘I escort the client, Tazuna, to Wave after I leave the village. Then, Momochi Zabuza attacks us on the way there.’” She explains.

“Ohh, uh, okay.” Naruto nods his head and writes down exactly what she had just said. Sakura sighs but allows it, hoping it would help him as an example.

The time passes like this, Naruto writing, Sakura suggesting and editing, Naruto writing again. They are about to finish up when a question that has been lingering at the back of his mind makes itself known. The words tumble out, uncontrolled like everything else about the Uzumaki.

“So, um,” Naruto starts, though his eyes stay glued on the report in front of him, “Do you have a crush on that pale-eyed dude?”

Silence. Then, with a voice not betraying any of her emotions, “What.”

Seeing Sakura’s normally stoic expression turn even more blank, Naruto hurriedly adds, “The one with the long hair! He’s related to Hinata-chan!”

“Naruto,” she blinks and trails off before pointing out a mistake in his writing, “I before e.”

“I’m serious!” Long since used to being shaken off, Naruto persists and drops his pencil, “C’mon, Sakura-chan!”

Said girl closes her eyes and sighs, “Does it even matter? Why are you so hung up about this?”

“W-well, can’t a guy know his best friend’s crushes!?” Naruto blurts out.

The two stares at each with widened eyes. It was a confession neither of them was expecting for a day of sit-down paperwork.

Sakura cracks first, her lips pulling upwards into a smile, “Thanks, Naruto, I think you’re one of my best friends, too.”

Oh. Huh.

Reciprocity and acceptance are strange new territories for the Uzumaki, but he finds that he quite likes it. He is terrified of making a mistake and costing their still too new relationship, but his friendship with Sakura is worth it.

Just imagine being Hokage and everyone in the village is your friend—

—SCREAAAAAM!

The blaring sound of the audience around him shakes Naruto back to the present. All the way across the stands from him, people are whooping and raising their fists in excitement.

Looking back at his pink haired teammate, he realizes only then that she had avoided the subject entirely about the Hyuuga boy who was now entering the arena. Naruto can’t help but think that Sakura was always much too good at diverting attention away from her, in the battlefield and out of it.

-----

Neji elegantly leaps downwards to the arena, his eyes resolute and facing forwards as he ignores the raucous noise around him. His unaffectedness was something Sakura had admired, strove to emulate, but now she sees it as a mask that she wishes she could tear off his face.

Sakura can see the hatred, and most importantly, the fear hidden underneath it all.

In her peripherals, she can see her blonde teammate face her way. His gaze prickles the side of her face, yet her attention is focused solely on the upcoming match below.

Sand pools opposite of the Hyuuga, increasing in mass before taking on the shape of a boy.

Gaara.

The redheaded boy’s pupils were shaking, his energy already high strung. He seemed to be mumbling something to himself, but his voice was too quiet to be picked up. Nonetheless, the crowd continued to cheer.

“Begin!” Genma shouts, his presence diminished by the killing intent already leaking out of the two boys.

Without pretense, an arm made of sand rushes out towards the Hyuuga with unbelievable speed and engulfs the other boy in a tomb of death. There is no noise or movement, no sign of Neji having survived the crushing grasp of that arm of sand. Silence washes over the entire arena then, the entire crowd suspended and still from the complete annihilation displayed before them.

This all happens within a split second, so quickly concluded that Sakura lurches out of her seat and cries out desperately, the first and only one to break the choked silence, “NEJI—”

—But then the sand starts parting in small sections until a swirling ball of light breaks Neji free from its hold. Neji’s brunette hair scatters wildly but there is a ferociousness in his eyes that betrays his previous demeanor.

The Byakugan is proudly displayed for all to see and the crowd goes wild at its wielder’s escape from the sand.

He’s made it out, he’s free!

That move from the Suna kid nearly killed the last one!

“Revolving Heaven!” Neji roars, chakra surrounding himself again but instead of staying stationary, the ball gyrates like a spinning top towards the red haired boy.

Gaara’s sand tries to stop him with cresting waves that crash down hard upon that spinning ball of chakra. The fact that it doesn’t waver is a testament to Neji’s skill.

The fact that Neji was tight lipped instead of bragging about the Hyuuga clan’s family technique further proves the boy’s resolve.

Gaara’s eyes widen as Neji draws nearer and nearer, forcing him to raise a hand in panic, “Sand Coffin!”

Sand starts forming into an arm and fist again, this time much larger yet somehow just as quick as its predecessor as it swoops down to envelop Neji.

Neji dodges, evades the following strike and the next one with his raw speed and agility alone. Getting closer to the other boy, Neji even manages to land a strike on Gaara, though instead of blood, the skin where he was struck cracks and flakes.

Almost like a broken glass vase.

Sakura narrows her eyes, shaking her head from these fanciful thoughts. If Gaara was glass, then she would be a feather. Negative thoughts stand on the verge of her mind and threaten to remind her of her own mediocrity.

No, this isn’t about me, Sakura reminds herself quickly. She knows better than this, thinks of her own skills more appreciatively and believes in Neji’s just the same.

Biting her lip, she fiercely counters her own self, If Gaara is glass, then Neji is the boulder that will shatter him!

STRIKE!

“Gh—!” Gaara groans and snarls like beast, his hackles raise; the very tips of his maroon hair curls as if in defense as well.

STRIKE!

The next attack Neji lands on him is even worse received. Gaara moves too slowly, no, Sakura thinks, the Suna nin did not move much at all. For two primarily stationary and defense based fighters, Neji has the advantage of his taijutsu training. Neji raises a palm and punches it forward without making contact, this time the force of the strike exploding out of his hand like a storm.

STRIKE!

The crowd bellows appreciatively, masking the heavy breathing coming from the Hyuuga; the technique had taken more chakra than he had planned due to his stamina being taken from dodging the sand attacks.

A moment passes with no movement from the other boy until he removes his hand from his forehead. Red, more vivid than Gaara’s hair, dribbles down the right half of his face. The Suna nin stares down at his hand, his mouth ajar. Neji watches as he clenches his fist, poised to defend for a counterattack.

Then, with a sharp gust of sand speckled wind—

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Gaara screams, his eyes nearly all white with the contraction of his pupils. Over, under, and all around him is sand. A dome is formed made purely of it and in its center a single, twinkling eye can be seen.

But instead of the raucous jeers from the crowd, the howling mass of people suddenly dies down, a hush falling from the sky above.

-----

Sakura grits her teeth, “Kai!”

She had seen numerous red strings enter and carry themselves all over the arena. Whoever these infiltrators are could not mask their presence from her emerald eyes, much less attempt a genjutsu on someone like her.

Turning her attention around her, she sees Naruto slumped in his seat but thankfully Sasuke was wide awake, albeit confused. She turns to him and with a slightly panicked tone, tells him, “Konoha is being invaded!”

Sasuke grunts in response, sarcastically replying, “They couldn’t even ambush us awake.”

Sakura opens her mouth to voice her agreement before a grey figure lands in front of their seats.

“Sasuke, Sakura, release the other genin and evacuate the area. Follow the orders of any chuunin or jounin when instructed. Otherwise, I want all of you out.” Kakashi commands all while deflecting hurling weapons in rapid fire succession. The two barely nod before their teacher flashes away to take on a group of enemy ninja nearby.

After awakening the third member of Team 7, all three genin began going through the stands to release all those still under the genjutsu.

“What the hell?!” Naruto screeches, fending off stray kunai and shuriken while Sasuke and Sakura released other genin, “One second the crazy kid and Neji are duking it out, and now this?!”

Sakura snaps her head upwards at the mention of the Hyuuga. She jumps near the railing to look down below, only to catch the tail end of Neji’s last stand.

“—Come back here!” The words are torn from Neji’s throat as he leaps after Temari who is carrying an unconscious Gaara on her back.

Quickly turning to her teammates, Sakura says hurriedly, “I’m gonna go after them, stay here with the rest!”

As she was about to leap off, two hands clamp down on her wrist. Whipping her head back, she is faced by two grim-faced boys.

“I want to fight that Suna shinobi.” Sasuke spits out, his eyes resolute all the same.

“Whether we stick to the plan or not, we gotta do it as a team!” Naruto beams at her while raising a thumbs up with his other hand.

The three are picturesque in this moment, embodying the Will of Fire in its purest form. The Nara looking on at this idealistic scene smirks to himself, deigning to forego his original plan to be fake asleep.

Shikamaru gives the three one last look before he lets out a sigh and says, “A plan, Naruto? Let me guess, we’re supposed to stay out of this whole thing and evacuate civilians, but we’re going to chase after the Hyuuga instead?”

Before Naruto can reply, Sakura steps up, her wrist now released from the two boys, “We are. You’re free to follow,” She turns to the rest of the genin group, “But we can’t guarantee that there won’t be any consequences from following us.”

Sakura bit that out after remembering how their Wave mission had ended with them not being put up for the exams. The group of genin in front of her look at each other, weighing the risks and assessing their skillsets. It would be beneficial to go after the Suna nin since it could lead to a field promotion but listening to orders and helping civilians can achieve the same goal also.

In the end, three other genin stepped up to come along: Nara Shikamaru, Rock Lee, and Yamanaka Ino.

“Neji has lost his way, and we must be there to help him!” Rock Lee declares as he clenches his bandaged fist in determination. There was a depth to his round eyes that betrayed his equivocal feelings.

Shikamaru and Ino nodded as well, the two thrown off balance with the lack of their other teammate who had been injured by one of Oto’s shinobi.

Sakura glanced at the blonde haired girl who was facing Sasuke with a decisive look on her face. Shaking her head slightly, she addresses the impromptu team with a voiced laced with newfound authority, “Let’s go!”

And off they flew in flash of kaleidoscope colors. In the far distance, another length of red string picked up and followed them.

-----

The stadium far behind her makes it easier to decipher how many people were in her group. There are six people, including herself, chasing after Neji, yet she counts eight after taking a quick scan around them. The realization that they are being followed nearly makes her lose her step onto the next branch.

“Sensed anything?” Sasuke asks in a whisper after surging forward to jump alongside her. It was strange how the Uchiha boy seemed to know what she was thinking sometimes, Sakura thinks in passing.

With a lowered voice, she replies, “Two unknowns, travelling slightly ahead of us.”

“Then that means we’re being set up for an ambush,” Shikamaru joins in from Sakura’s other side, slightly surprising the other two. He then explains “Surely there’s more behind us than in front.”

Taking in the other boy’s words, Sakura nods her head in understanding, “Either we stay and fight as a group, or, someone stays behind.”

The three fell quiet, the decision resting heavily on their young shoulders. Finally, it is Shikamaru to break the silence, “I’ll stay while the rest of you go on.”

Sakura frowns, but agrees, nonetheless. She was not familiar with his fighting style so if they were forced to fight as a team, it would have lead to difficulties coordinating attacks. However, the same could be said about Shikamaru’s own teammate being left behind with the group.

Luckily, Sakura is saved from informing the other girl as Shikamaru volunteers again, “I’ll let Ino know I’m staying behind and to behave.”

Shikamaru says this while pointedly looking at Sasuke, who responds with an eye roll, yet Sakura cannot shake off the feeling that he had meant it for her as well. The pink haired girl is distantly reminded that back when she and Ino’s relationship was better maintained, she would often run into the Nara solely because of their families’ close ties with one other.

Offering Shikamaru a grateful smile, he nods at Sakura knowingly before falling back to talk with the Yamanaka.

Surprisingly, there is no burst of complaints from the other girl and in the next moment, Shikamaru’s spiky head of hair disappears in the thicket of foliage below.

Sakura uses whatever prayer she can remember to wish this would not be the last she sees of him.

A deep intake of breath later and Sakura refocuses her concentration on the task at hand, quickly pushing the thoughts of the strange dynamic with Ino and her guilt about Shikamaru to the back of her mind.

She had to focus on the mission: Neji needed to be stopped from making a choice he will regret.

Sakura clenches her teeth, feeling only slight relief at seeing four strings up ahead heading northeast. With a raised voice, she says, “Over there!”

Pushing themselves to make it just under the wire, their group finally comes across the Sand siblings and Neji. Gaara was slung over the black clad shinobi while the other two were angrily whispering with each other. Neji was glaring at the three with his Byakugan.

Temari clicked her tongue, irritated with their circumstances before yelling, “Kankuro, take Gaara and go!”

“But—” Kankuro tries but is interrupted by his sister.

“Go! Now!” Temari raises her hulking fan, and with an arcing sweep she adds, “I’ll hold them back!”

Despite the uncertain look in his eyes, Kankuro leaps away with the red head on his shoulder. Temari, however, wastes no time to use her fan to send out three waves of air blades in quick succession.

“Revolving Heaven!” Neji howls, the dome of chakra dispelling the attack easily. Before he can charge forward, a green figure cuts in front of him with arms spread wide.

“Neji, wait! Please rethink your decision of attacking them, our village is under siege and is in critical condition! We are needed in Konoha now more than ever!” Rock Lee pleads with him.

Unfortunately, the Hyuuga ducks his head, looking even more incensed. His pale eyes surged with blame towards the trio in front of him.

Rock Lee steps back in shock at the hatred in his usually level headed teammate’s eyes, choking out a few words before being interrupted, “You are making a mistake!—”

All too quickly a fight breaks loose, Neji aiming at Temari with bloodlust written across his knuckles, Rock Lee trying to hold Neji back whilst deflecting Temari’s own vicious wind attacks.

Behind them, Naruto grits his teeth and clenches his own fists. He may not fully understand what was happening, why Neji was lashing out so violently, and how Gaara’s limp body made something primal in him churn relentlessly, but he knows that his best friend was wearing a look of heartbreak in her eyes as she watched on. That heartbroken look was so achingly familiar that he could hardly bear to see it on her face.

Distantly, Naruto also remembers that the village he so desperately wanted to be Hokage of was also being laid siege now, and the realization adds no help to his current feelings.

Without voicing any sound, Naruto lunges forward and into the fray.

“Naruto!” Sakura cries, for a split second considering grabbing the blonde’s string to haul him back towards her.

Sasuke flings his arm out to hold her back, his look firm and darker than usual. Before Sakura can voice a question, he tells her, “We need to stop that guy carrying the Suna nin. He has to have something to do with the invasion.”

Sakura blinks, quickly understanding the ‘he’ in mention was Gaara. She relaxes her arms that had unconsciously risen up at her sides in preparation for battle.

“Back in the arena,” Sasuke continues, his tone serious and foreboding, “I saw something in that dome of sand he made. And it wasn’t human.”

“That’s impossible.” Ino gasps out, finally shaken from her unusual silence. Her presence nearly forgotten as the fight broke out in front of them.

“I know what I saw,” Sasuke turns his head towards the direction of where Kankuro had absconded to, black and red fills the color of his eyes, “Whatever he is, it’s dangerous and they know it.”

Sakura gulps, finally seeing the Sharingan in Sasuke’s eyes and yet it was not the most surprising thing for her at the moment. She looks at the two strings leading deeper into the forest before saying, “If Gaara was meant to be part of the invasion, why did they knock him out?”

Pensive looks were shared before a silent agreement was made. All three of them, with one blonde switched out for another, made the unanimous choice to continue pursuing Kankuro and Gaara for answers.

Sakura took point, swiftly following the red strings in front of her while thinking, Well, it’s time we find some answers of our own.

-----

A/N: Short chapter but it’s been nearly a year since I updated, oops…