Chapter Text
Sakura pushed her bangs out of her eyes to see the path she was walking with her parents to the Academy. The little girl tried not to squeal with a childish delight at the thought that today was the day her parents would be enrolling her into the Ninja Academy!
Her Mama glanced behind her with a worried expression written across her face. Seeing it made Sakura knit her brows with determination and she picked up her pace to catch up with her parents. Mama and Papa had insisted that she hold one of their hands while walking to the Academy, which Sakura firmly said no to. She was going to be a ninja! Which meant she was no longer a baby that needed to hold hands with her Mama or Papa.
Upon seeing the long line outside the door of parents lining up to enroll their child into the Ninja Academy, Sakura caught sight of her parents exchanging glances and a few quick murmured words before turning to Sakura. “Sakura-chan.” Papa said, bending down to her daughter’s eye level. “Why don’t you go explore and play a little while we enroll you?”
Sakura looked around at all the activity going on outside the Ninja Academy before nodding excitedly. “Stay within earshot!” Mama called after her daughter as she skipped on ahead to explore her new surroundings.
Initially, Sakura headed towards the swings set, but stopped and hesitated since a blonde haired boy was already occupying it. Based upon the fact the other kids ran away the moment he sat down, Sakura decided he was not a good boy to play with.
Instead, she wandered some more until she caught sight of three ANBU members entering the Hokage’s office. Sea Green eyes wide with fascination, Sakura studied each mask intently: two cat masks along with a mask that Sakura knew was not a cat, but could not identify the animal.
Sakura knew each ANBU member had to be secretive with their identity. She giggled nervously to herself as she imagined an ANBU getting testy over someone mistaking their mask for another animal.
While Sakura knew she should have ran the other direction when she saw someone in ANBU within a several mile radius of her, her eyes remained trained on the door. Maybe she would get to see them leave without their masks on!
After what seemed like an eternity, Sakura was disappointed when she heard Mama calling her name. Looking around, her heart began to beat faster upon realizing she forgot the way back to the entrance to the Academy.
Uh-oh…
“Mama! Papa!” Sakura cried out, her head darting about in hopes she would see where he parents were.
“Do you need some help finding your parents?”
Sakura turned and looked up to see a big kid with warm black eyes was looking down at her. She felt herself blush a little, not only from embarrassment since she looked like a baby, but for a boy, he was kind of cute…
“Um…” Sakura put her hand near her mouth and thought for a moment before casting one more look at the big kid’s face. He smiled pleasantly back at her. “Yes.” she concluded. “Mama and Papa were enrolling me into the Academy and told me to stay within ear shot. I didn’t realize I wandered so far…”
“My parents are at the Academy enrolling my little brother. I’ll show you the way.” he said.
“Thank you!” Sakura chirped began to follow the big kid. “Are you still in the Academy?”
“I graduated quite some time ago.” The boy replied. “I’m actually…a Jonin.”
The big kid’s hesitation and the way his body tensed up did not escape Sakura’s perceptive gaze. Her breath caught in when she realized the big kid had the SAME black pony tail as one of the ANBU members she saw earlier.
NO…WAY!
Sakura quickly put a hand to her mouth to hide her grin. If the big kid knew that she knew his secret identity, he would probably kill her. And Sakura did not want to be killed. Not before she could become an awesome kunoichi who could summon all sorts of cute cats and dogs to do her bidding!
Finally, she caught sight of her parents. “Mama! Papa!” she called in greeting , waving her hand excitedly. Before turning to run to her parents, she looked at the friendly ANBU. “Thank you! Thank you so much! Now I won’t be scolded or grounded!”
The big kid once more smiled down at her. “Well, I am glad I can help a future kunoichi of Konha out.” he replied.
Just as she started running towards her parents, Sakura saw a boy running in her direction, waving at the kid behind her. “Itachi! Itachi!” the boy called out. “I’m going to be a shinobi just like you!”
Once more, Sakura grinned to herself. She knew a secret; she knew someone in ANBU and his name was Itachi. Sakura wanted to tell her parents her secret, but knew she couldn’t. ANBU were rumored to be listening in to everything. She was not about to get killed for having a big mouth.
Not too long after that, she heard that Uchiha Itachi slaughtered his entire clan. Sakura was a bit older, but not old enough to fully understand the adult world. She wondered if Itachi had to kill his entire clan because they found out he was in ANBU.
If that was the case, Sakura was very glad she never told Mama and Papa Itachi’s secret.
But wait...there's more!
While writing this, I had two ideas pop in my head. Since I am unable to fit these two snippets of dialogue into any other prompts, I decided to just leave it here:
Bear turned his head as his fellow ANBU made her presence known. He felt himself relax a little upon sensing she had no killing intent. “Report, Pink Cat.”
Instead of reporting, Pink Cat put her hands on her hips. “It’s not a cat.” she protested. Gloved darted to her mask and pointed to the stripes on it. “It’s a tiger. See the stripes? Secondly, it’s a light red. Not pink.”
Bear sighed and tried again. “Light Red Tiger. Please report.”
—
“Oh no fair!” Came a surprisingly masculine voice from behind the strange bird-looking mask. “I wanted a cute mask Want to trade?”