Work Text:
It takes Sakura a long time to distinguish between the living and the dead.
Her ability comes from the combination of her parents' fairly useless Kekkei Genkai.
Her mother has far more yin chakra than yang (making it quite difficult to do ninjutsu – the most she could do is the campfire starter jutsu; instead she relies more on gen, tai, and the more yin-focused medical ninjutsu).
Her father's eyes glow in the dark (a rather unfortunate ability for a shinobi; he never was allowed on missions during the night – an upside, however, is that he could see slightly better in the dark).
Sakura, however, could see yūrei 1 and other kind of yōkai 2 (to see them requires a ridiculous amount of yin chakra and her green eyes do glow in the dark like her father's – unlike him, however, she cannot see any better in the dark).
Her parents catch on fairly quick to the fact that their daughter is seeing spirits and that said spirits interact with her as well.
To be fair, if you'd walked into your toddler's bedroom and see said toddler floating six feet off the ground, you'd think at least something weird is going on.
“Arikura-no-baba 3 !” Three year old Sakura screams happily, as Kizashi and Mebuki watch in horror from the door. Their daughter is floating, covered in a thin, purple-ish haze.
Their daughter is floating.
“What the fuck.” Mebuki says, jaw dropping. Kizashi can't do anything but stare.
Sakura is seven when she first realizes that not everyone can see what she can.
The realization comes during her very first history lesson in the Shinobi Academy, as she stares down at the drawings in her textbook – as she recognizes the mighty shinobi within.
After all, she sees them all the time.
Her fingers trace the kanji and katakana and occasional hiragana of their names – Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, Uchiha Kagami, Uchiha Izuna, Hatake Sakumo, and Uzumaki Mito.
'Well...' Sakura thinks, the words of her history teacher flying over her with no acknowledgement, 'This explains a lot of things.'
“You're one of the founders of my village! Why didn't you say anything?!” Sakura all but screams, pointing angrily at the long-haired man standing in her bedroom. Hashirama isn't quite sure what to respond with – so he laughs sheepishly and shrugs,
“W-Well, you never asked, Sakura-chan!”
“Kushina-san!” Sakura shouts, excitement dredging through her. The red-head grins widely and waves her closer.
Uzumaki Kushina was always paler, more washed out, than other spirits, and only recently did Sakura figure out why.
Sakura is eight now, and has been moved from her mediocre Academy class and into a class filled with clan heirs.
It was in this class that she felt a familiar energy surrounding a blond-haired boy and after a moment of staring at him, it clicked –
Half of Kushina's soul was attached to this boy.
“Sakura-chan, it's been a while!” Kushina ruffles Sakura's hair, grin turning a bit more teasing, “Did ya' meet any cute boys, 'ttebane?” Sakura tilts her head, fighting back a soft blush,
“I-I met this boy a-and-” She pauses to suck in a breath, “Kushina-san, he has the other half of your soul in him, y'know4!” Kushina's eyes widen in surprise,
“You met Naruto!” Violet eyes shine with tears, “W-Was he okay? Did he look alright, healthy?” Sakura nods,
“Yeah! He's real loud and he plays all these pranks and sometimes the adults glare at him, but only the civilians, y'know? Like, the only shinobi I've seen that seems to not like him is Mizuki-teme5, y'know?” Sakura smiles, “But he's real nice too, y'know, and I think we're kinda-sorta friends already!” Kushina kneels and grabs the younger girl, gathering her into a hug full of warmth that should be impossible for a ghost to have.
“Thank you, Sakura. Thank you so much, 'ttebane.”
“Uzumaki Mito, y'know!” Sakura says pointing down at the painting of said woman in the textbook. Naruto stares down at the woman, blue eyes scanning over delicately painted features. “She kinda-sorta looks like you, y'know!” Naruto feels a choking bundle of emotions rise in him. A family. He actually had a family. He can see that him and this woman share a similar face shape.
“S-Sakura-chan-”
“And look here!” Sakura flips through the book quickly, stopping on a page near the middle of the section on the Second Shinobi World War. “Here, here, Uzumaki Kushina!” Naruto looks down and immediately something clicks for him about the red-head in the picture.
“I-Is that...?” Naruto swallows roughly, fingers tracing over a face nearly identical to his. “This is-”
“It's your mom, y'know!” A sob leaves him and he turns to his first ever friend and he hugs her tight,
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, 'ttebayo!”
Something's screaming in the attic.
Sakura frowns heavily, the expression sitting weirdly on her face, and she glares at the attic door situated in her closet.
The screams in the attic are angry, almost guttural and sound more like some sort of animal than a human.
And judging by the way neither of her parents are in here and trying to get to the attic, whatever it is only she can hear.
Sakura groans softly and slips out of her bed, applying a tiny bit of chakra to jump up and open the attic.
There's a woman in her attic.
Sakura blinks, staring at the woman.
The woman is dressed like a noblewoman might be – a brightly coloured, fancy, kimono with clearly expensive jewellery hanging from her surprisingly thin frame.
The woman turns to face her and Sakura gasps and takes a few steps back.
Her face is melted, skin and muscles hanging from her bones limply. Her eyes glow bright white and she's hunched forward, with arms that are far too long scraping against the wooden floor. Her mouth opens wide, far too wide, and each of her teeth are razor sharp and dripping with some sort of viscous liquid.
“Pretty... child...” The woman rasps and she begins to walk towards Sakura and dear kami-sama6 what is that noise?! A thin, horrible wail is slowing building around Sakura, seemingly emanating from nowhere and everywhere. Sakura glances away from the woman to try and find the source of the noise – but then the woman is right in front of her, too long arms and fingers with long ragged nails draped over her shoulders and all Sakura wants to do is scream but she can't and the woman's face is nearing hers and the woman's teeth are sharp and her mouth is wide and her breath smells rotten and fetid and Sakura gags and then someone is roaring angrily and a horrid angry chakra is welling and –
“SAKURA!”
The attic is silent.
Her mother and father hug her close and gently guide her out of the bloodied attic, casting worried glances at the, to them, unblemished room behind them.
Kushina is hesitant in her steps following them, her eyes bright red for a while longer, fading back into violet as the angry chakra sucks itself back into her.
The attic is silent.
Sakura realizes, that night, that her ability comes at a higher cost than she thought as her mother gently soothes her scratches and bruises with medical ninjutsu.
She could have died.
Sakura lays on her bed and ignores Kushina and Hashirama and Sakumo and Izuna as they try to gain her attention.
She could have died.
Her eyes close.
The attic is silent.