Chapter Text
Sakura scowled as she threw her a kunai towards the target in front of her, only managing to hit the outer white ring even at the mere 15-foot distance that she had given herself, something that should have been child’s play for her by now.
Huffing, she grabbed another kunai, observing the sharp object while trying to calculate a better trajectory in her head in order to fully hit the bullseye. That was the thing though, she had a near perfect formula on how exactly to hit the bullseye, she just couldn’t fully implement that technique into her underused muscles.
Not for the first time she wished she had someone here to give her some pointers, most of the bases for her calculations came from books, many of which were usually directed at people stronger and/or taller than her. The academy books didn’t help as they merely talked about proper kunai maintenance and placement of targets, the use of actual techniques were usually left to the teachings of the sensei the academy student or genin would be under.
Kakashi, who was supposed to be said sensei, was far too busy with teaching Sasuke anything and everything that he knew. While that was supposed to be the case for both her and Naruto as well, their teacher told them with his ever-fake cheer that their natures would make it harder for them to learn Kakashi’s style of fighting. Sakura was not fast enough and tended to rely on brute strength, something that he should have told her to work on but noooo. Naruto relied on his inhumanely large chakra reserves, so Kakashi should have taught him better chakra control but again, nooo.
Sakura was earth and water nature, and while having two natures was uncommon in a genin, the mixture was pretty basic, causing it to be overlooked by Kakashi. Naruto had wind nature, not quite as common but again fairly over-seeable. Sasuke though, the young genius and seemingly turning out to be a little Kakashi in the making, just had to get not only two chakra natures, but fire and lightning, the same ones that Kakashi prevailed in.
It was almost as if nature itself was pushing Sasuke towards Kakashi and making it so that Kakashi overlooked his other two students with nothing more than a you guys can figure it out.
He seemed to take advantage of the fact that she was a paper shinobi, merely throwing water and earth scrolled justu with a you can do it better than I could, not my element.
Yes, not like he had any other elemental jutsus under his belt, what with the sharingan in his disposal.
Which was another excuse to focus his attention on Sasuke, the sharingan. You would think that Sasuke was in dire need of a teacher to control his kekei genkai what with the urgency Kakashi showed in disclosing anything and everything he knew of the eye technique, as if he knew better than the freaking clan the kekei genkai originated from.
She had believed that she at least had the support of Naruto, what with him being kicked to the gutter alongside her.
But no, her lovable yet infuriatingly lucky blond friend managed to get tutelage under a Sannin. Jiraiya, seeming to have developed a soft spot for the knuckleheaded ninja, decided to extend his stay in Konoha in order to teach his little new disciple his own set of skills.
This has all happened in their first month after graduation, and just when Sakura felt that hope was all but lost, she found a new light.
That light came in the form of Tsunade, who due to the Third Hokage’s failing health, finally came back in order to become the Fifth Hokage.
Three months later after a horrifying experience in Wave, Sakura had scrunched up all the courage and recklessness that she had managed to acquire from being in close proximity to a certain knuckleheaded blonde, and had marched towards the office with a sense of bravo that she in no way truly possessed. She had practically demanded the new fifth Hokage to take her under her wings, and after a few stress inducing questions that had most likely shaved a considerable amount of years from her life, she said yes.
“You have a fire in you Haruno Sakura, a fire that doesn’t seem easily extinguishable. I would like to be responsible to make that fire burn.”
Tsunade had said this with a certain glint in her eye, one which both excited and terrified the young genin.
Something both of them had overlooked though, and something which Sakura should have seen coming with her failing luck, was the fact that Tsunade was a Hokage, a newly integrated one at that. The blonde barely had time to breathe, much less teach an inexperienced genin freshly out of the Academy,
Sakura made do though, she got herself into this hole, and if she had to, she would dig herself deeper in it. So, she diligently read all of the medical scrolls that Tsunade gave her alongside the ones that Kakashi had uncaringly tossed at her direction. She started running and reading and training and fighting and listening because that was all she could do to not give up and give it a rest.
Two months later found her here, a little more muscle in her arms, an aim that still needed help but that was miles better than when she had first left the Academy (how she had managed to graduate with such a deplorable aim was beyond her, but seeing as Naruto graduated without even fully mastering more than one of the three basics, she should not really be so surprised).
Sakura was by no means the strongest, and she still had miles to run before even coming close to catching up with her teammates, whose own tutorships gave them a cliff high edge on her, but Sakura was nothing if not flexible, and stubborn as all hell, she would make use of everything that was given to her.
That was how she ended up here, in a training field usually designated to jounin or higher. Tsunade, looking more tired than what her genjutsu should have allowed, had given her the same apologetic smile that Sakura had become accustomed to in the months of tutorship under the strong blond. Tsunade barely had time to give Sakura some new scrolls filled with techniques and strategies in healing jutsus along with another book on herbs and their different properties before being pulled into an impromptu meeting with the rest of the council.
The young genin had resigned herself to yet another day in the library, before she was intercepted by Shizune.
The black haired jounin merely smiled a sad smile at her junior before telling Sakura some of the greatest news she had in the past months. Tsunade had been able to grant her access to the private training fields usually reserved for jounin or higher. It was a sort of apology gift that the blonde had been able to gift her, something that was usually not done but that she had managed to pull off with her privilege as Hokage.
Shizune had grabbed her hand, her palm burning slightly as a symbol formed on her palm, a circle with an x above it, kanji written in small lettering around the seal.
That is how Sakura ended up here, alone but with a little more freedom in terms of training. Living in an apartment made it so that training usually consisted of running laps around the village and practicing aiming inside the small apartment complex, praying that she didn’t hit something breakable. Using weapons was prohibited inside of the village unless an emergency came up, civilians being harmed from a stray kunai or any other weapon was a terrible offense.
It helped that the jounin training grounds allowed for singular use, what with there being a considerable smaller amount of jounin in the village than chunin. Tsunade must have thought of this when gifting her this privilege, knowing that Sakura would have an easier time training in the more private grounds, unlike the chunin training grounds where multiple chunin had to share.
Though even with knowing that she was given this new freedom, Sakura still found herself wishing for more. Tsunade-shishou was an amazing person, and a mentor she was proud of. Nobody else in the village except for Shizune could claim that they were in the mentorship of the fifth Hokage and the greatest healer known to this world.
Though, what use did all of that have if she couldn’t even throw a kunai right?
Sighing, Sakura sat down roughly on her behind while looking at her hands. Green flickered into view before becoming a pale glow in her palms, cool energy soon covering her whole hands while she felt her energy slowly but noticeably slip away. She had managed to get a hang of healing about a month ago, something that had greatly surprised Tsunade as it had only taken her a month to bring the fish back to life, something that not even Tsunade herself had managed to accomplish.
“That is some great control you have there Sakura, it might just become better than my own before you reach your late teens if you keep it up.” Tsunade had praised, pride in her eyes as she stared at the flailing fish on the table in front of the young genin.
Sakura could do nothing more than give her new mentor a bright smile, her own pride forming in her chest as she looked down at the fish with a bright glow in her viridian eye. She had done it! She beat Tsunade-shishou’s record in healing and had managed to bring the fish alive in a mere month.
Happy tears forming in her eyes, Sakura jumped into Tsunade’s arms as she cried in happiness. She was not worthless after all; she had a chance.
Smiling at the memory, Sakura sighed as she closed her eyes. She had read in a scroll that chakra control could be improved with meditation. The size of your capacity could also grow if you continued to practice. Feeling the chakra around her, Sakura frowned at the familiar feeling of want inside of her.
Tentatively, she did the same thing she always did when she meditated in close proximity with plant life, she let her chakra out.
Usually, scrolls talked about looking at the way your chakra flowed inside of your body and helping your control by moving chakra inside of your reserves and in that way getting better at controlling it along with making the reserves bigger.
Sakura had tried this technique at first, but soon she found herself unable to take her attention away from the chakra all around her.
Meditating made it so that she could feel the faint chakra in the plants and trees all around her. For some reason it felt almost as if...as if it was calling out to her.
As time passed, she had tentatively brought her chakra out of her body and into the world around her, the experience was nerve-wracking, and not something she had ever done before. It was almost as if a part of her was leaving her body, as if her very spirit was traveling to the in-between.
Her chakra found coverage in the grass around her, and she had never felt more at ease in her life.
It was as if the small energy around her was soothing her, pulling her into a dance as it pulled her chakra deeper into its roots, its own chakra mixing with hers, almost as if bringing it into an embrace.
Suddenly, while she is relaxing with her chakra blanketed across the grass, its own chakra interacting with hers, Sakura felt a pull.
The pull caused her to push her chakra further, as the pull brought her chakra to a tree not too far away from her. All her chakra suddenly concentrated on the tree as it pushed her chakra further into its branches until her chakra made contact with foreign chakra.
Sakura’s eyes snapped open as she turned towards the tree, wide with fear before forcing herself to calm down. This was the jounin training grounds, and while she had reserved this particular ground for herself, it was not too uncommon for some jounin to not bother with reservations and simply go to their preferred training grounds.
Biting her lip, Sakura felt the intruding chakra seeming to try and feel out her own chakra. Something that always amazed her, and a secret she kept from everyone even Tsunade herself, was the way she was able to feel other’s emotions with her chakra.
It was a gift she had learned when experimenting with her chakra control, she always felt that her chakra felt more natural outside of her body rather than inside, and when she was close to any life forms she could always interpret their emotions based on how their chakra felt, be it human or animal.
Though she had only ever used it on another human once, and so she couldn't help but freeze for a moment, feeling an almost out of body experience as the emotions of another human being ran through her, making her shiver at the foreign feelings invading her conscience.
The person was not hostile, rather their chakra was that of a calm river, calm and flowing if not a bit curious, of what she was unsure.
Just as Sakura felt her chakra start to creep further into the other person's pathways, mixing the two chakra together in a way that should be impossible, she forcefully called back her chakra, feeling her heartbeat thumping against her chest. Cold sweat started to build up against her back as she tried to push away the last influx of feelings that clawed at her consciousness, feelings that felt foreign inside her own mind, feelings that she knew where not her own.
Trying her best to stabilized her suddenly ragged breathing, wanting nothing more than to smack her own face and admonish herself for losing control of not only her chakra but her emotions as well, Sakura looked back towards the figure she could now see standing on the tree, not once having moved during the whole interaction.
Feeling a panic attack about to take hold, Sakura felt her anxiety start to forcefully be pulled away, something grabbing hold and taking them to another corner of her mind, out of sight out of mind. Sakura didn't have to look inwardly to know that it was done by her Inner, sending the imaginary being a mental thanks but knowing that she should not start a conversation, else she would start to disassociate in front of an unknown shinobi, same village or not such an act was not recommended. Sakura tried to push all of her emotions towards her Inner and leave only tranquility behind.
After being able to get a grip of her mental state, Sakura finally managed to choke out a semi-reprimand towards the unwelcomed guest, hoping that her lapse in mental control went unnoticed by the other party. “Hello shinobi-san, I am sorry to say this training ground is currently under my usage.” Sakura mentally congratulated herself in keeping her voice from shaking, she could not show any weakness at the moment.
“If I am not mistaken, you are a genin. How were you able to gain access to this training ground?” She heard a deep baritone voice respond. Sakura blinked; how did this man know of her current status? While at times of peace it was rare for children to move up in ranks rapidly, it wasn’t exactly unheard of. Sakura resisted the urge to play with her fingers, she needed to stay calm in front of this man. As the successor of Sanning Tsunade, she must not be a disgrace to her teacher.
“That is…I have special permission from my shishou in order to use this training ground, if needed I can show you the seal that shows such.” Sakura responded, but she berated herself for her initial stutter. It seems like she could not help but show some of her nervousness.
“Hn.” The man suddenly said, and from the tree jumped what she could only describe as a prettier more grown up Sasuke. No, rather while the resemblance was there, this man held a colder, seemingly stronger aurora that felt of danger and death, it brought a feeling of helplessness in the face of true strength. She couldn’t help but remember the man from her many visits to the Uchiha home, both by her own accord while she still held Sasuke in her heart, and by invitation of the younger Uchiha due to his mother's nagging to meet his teammates.
As far as she knew, the older Uchiha brother had needed to go on a long term mission not so long ago, if Sasuke’s whining could be trusted. So, she had only met him once or twice in the six months that she had been part of Team 7, she had also rarely seen him while she and Sasuke were in the Academy, again most likely caused by his busy mission schedule.
That didn’t stop her from burning his face into memory, at first in an effort to make a good impression to her future bother-in-law, but recently in a sort of benign admiration for his accomplishments. Even Tsunade, who could not stand the ‘arrogant and self-important Uchiha bunch’ as she said it, could not help but admit the oldest of the Uchiha brothers was a rare genius not likely to be seen again in the generations to come.
Now here she was, in the presence of the highly regarded strongest in their generation, and Sakura felt the need to run away and not look back. Like weak prey staring at a predator ready to pounce and eat it whole. Still, she held strong as she stood her ground, not looking at the Uchiha in the eye for she had been deeply ingrained on what foolishness such an act was, but rather looking at his forehead.
“If Uchiha-san has nothing else to say, I must get back to training.” Sakura said, hoping the finality in her voice was able to be heard without resulting in an insulted heir. While Sakura didn't believe in the whole Clan supremacy that was shoved down in all village children's throats, she knew better than to fight a losing battle. She would rather be overlooked right now, because while it hurt to acknowledge, she was yet not strong enough to go against those in positions of power.
Against her expectations though, Uchiha Itachi stayed in place, his presence palpable in the training ground as he stared straight at Sakura, while on the other hand she stubbornly continued to look only at his forehead, even when the flicker of red never overtook his obsidian stare.
“What was that just now? what you did with your chakra.” He finally asked, breaking the tense silence that had overtaken the training field. Sakura was taken aback, not ready to be further questioned by the other shinobi.
Sakura knew that this wasn't normal behavior by the man, numerous rumors raged across the village on how the Uchiha heir was a man of few words, rarely speaking and known to never communicate with anyone outside of his clan or mission squad.
Sakura wished to know what exactly made the man want to continue to question her, she knew for a fact that she was no one special, even the fact that she was the Hokage's apprentice should not be enough to garner such attention from the man.
“I have no idea what you are insinuating Uchiha-san…” Even with the silent support from Inner, Sakura could not make sense of the question the Uchiha had suddenly shot at her. She tried to analyze and understand what he had asked, but all her brain could do was bring up an Error message.
“Hn, you were able to push your chakra though the network of plants around you, not only that but you invaded my own chakra network without even coming in contact with me, not to mention you didn't cause harm to either of our chakra networks.” A hysterical part of Sakura couldn't help but think this was the most the man had ever spoken to her, the only other time they had met face to face he had said a short "welcome" as she entered his house before disappearing from view. The rest of her pushed that thought away, silently admonishing herself for thinking such a useless thought whilst in a crisis.
While Sakura wasn't one that kept secrets, well to be honest she didn't have any secrets worth keeping being the most normal individual in a team, heck in a class of abnormalities, she felt a part of herself shy away from answering any of the man's questions. A part of her brain that sounded suspiciously like Inner cautioned her about answering the Uchiha's questions, whispering that she should evade evade evade.
It didn't make sense though, she had nothing to hide. While this ability did seem a bit peculiar, it wasn't anything much of note, heck it might have been a minor mutation, what with her almost perfect chakra control that even Tsunade herself had commented on. Fuck it, sensors could do this too in theory, how where they able to sense otherwise? While Sakura had never truly studied the art of sensory, what with that being a specialized profession mostly consisting of chunin and higher, she convinced herself that her theories were not too much off the mark.
She pushed away the thoughts that if that theory was true, then the Uchiha in front of her wouldn't be so hell bent on getting answers, she pushed it away because she couldn't accept the alternative.
So, with such thoughts filling her head, Sakura pushed away the cautionary voice and steeled her gaze, gritting her teeth as decided to answer the higher ranking shinobi in front of her with as much truth as she could muster. Hopefully then he would leave her alone, right?
“All I did was push my chakra through the chakra system of plants and trees. In the process of doing this through a tree, I accidentally ended up entering your chakra system. I'm sorry for invading your chakra, I have never learned sensing and was ignorant over the fact that I could do so.” Sakura replied, trying to put as much professionalism as she could in her words. She had seen the way that Shizune talked to the council and decided to imitate her senior, something told her that it would go better than trying to imitate Tsunade's more...crass way of speaking to others.
Itachi though, didn't seem to be happy with her answer. Just as Sakura was ready to stomp her feet in childish defiance and finally say fuck diplomacy, she couldn't help but be startled as the older shinobi walked closer to her until they were less than a foot away. "What you did is not chakra sensing."
Before Sakura could open her mouth and say anything in response to his statement, the man slightly kneeled down with his hand stretched out towards the grass a few inches away from him. Sakura looked towards him in confusion, wondering what he was doing. Then her eyes widened as she saw the grass suddenly turn brown in front of her, dying in mere seconds. "Also, no shinobi is able to have their chakra enter the chakra network of plants or anything in nature, at least without it dying upon contact."
Sakura wasn't able to say anything in response to that damning statement before her chakra, which seemed to suddenly have a mind of it's own, came to life. She felt it pull itself towards the grass in front of Itachi, attracted to the mixture of dying grass mixed with volatile human chakra. Sakura didn't have time to even think of pulling back her chakra before it went inside the dying grass, pushing away the invading human chakra and once more connecting with the diminishing chakra the grass still held on to. Before her very eyes, Sakura felt as some of her chakra started to slowly transform, taking the nature of the grass it was interacting with as the grass turned from the once dead brown color back to a more lively green color.
Panic invaded her head as Sakura forcefully pulled back her chakra, causing pain to fill her system as she held it down, almost as if locking it away.
This was the first time Sakura had witnessed her chakra do such a thing, hell this was the first time she had even seen anyone do such a feat. Something told her that nobody should be able to accomplish this, but she stubbornly pushed those thoughts away, willing that to be a lie.
But, as Sakura looked towards Itachi, her once cautiousness over looking into his eyes now gone because of her panic, she felt dread fill the pit of her stomach as she took note of his slightly widened eyes.
He was surprised, the great Uchiha Itachi was surprised over something that she had done, Sakura knew that had sealed her fate.
“Will you be here tomorrow?” Itachi asked, Sakura’s eyes widened before she nodded her head, speechless. “I will talk with the Hokage about this, meet me here tomorrow.” With those final words, Itachi flickered away.
Well she did it now, she had officially bitten more than she could swallow. Just as she was about to hyperventilate over the events that had just transpired, she felt her consciousness be forcefully pulled inwards, and towards the warm embrace of a black and white figure the complete copy of herself. Sakura felt all the anxiety and panic be forcefully absorbed by the figure, leaving behind only tranquility.
Sakura sighed in relief, her consciousness slumping against the figure as she breathed out a sigh of relief. 'Thank you Inner.'
The figure snorted, letting her go and grinning at her with a slightly mischievous face. 'Thankful enough to let me take over yet?'
Sakura huffed, never knowing if such jokes were truthful or not. Sometimes she really was tempted to take such an offer, but she had a feeling that the other would smack her if she ever agreed.
'Nah, I couldn't want to subject my favorite imaginary person to the horrors of the real world.' Sakura saw Inner smirk and knew she made the right choice.
'Suit yourself, though how you managed to fuck up so much in just a few minutes is beyond me.'
Sakura was confused over her Inner's meaning, but the other just waved her away as she tried to question her over her choice of words.
'Just...' Inner sighed, looking towards Sakura as if looking at a naïve child. 'Think carefully before you making a decision.' Before Sakura could question her further, she felt herself be pulled away from her mental plane just as Inner shut herself wherever she always went inside of Sakura' consciousness whenever they stopped communicating.
Disgruntled over being kicked out of her head space, Sakura flopped down on the ground, exhausted both physically and mentally. While Sakura was not at all bothered by her mentor getting to know her newly found out abilities, the fact that a certain Uchiha wanted to meet with her tomorrow was not something that she wanted to deal with. She had sworn off the Uchiha clan, especially after her nth disgrace caused by her need to please one Uchiha Sasuke. She swore to herself that she would instead work towards bettering herself, no more fangirl Sakura who only knew how to look pretty and act like the damsel in distress.
The memory of the third month into Genin year, when she was forced to watch in the sidelines while her teammates fought for their lives, was something that would forever be ingrained in her mind. The Land of Waves will forever be a memory that would push Sakura forward. That very mission was the catalyst of Sakura seeking out Tsunade's mentorship and shedding the fangirl persona that she had donned in an effort to fit in. Sakura had seen how strong Shinobi's lives were snuffed out by the smallest of mistakes, how her sensei, who she had once thought of as unbeatable, was detained and rendered helpless. She saw her teammates, who were leagues stronger than her, so easily beaten back without so much as a drop of sweat from the enemy.
Sakura could not afford to be in the spotlight before she was ready, else she would die before she even knew the name of her killer.
Pushing away such paranoid thoughts, Sakura tried to think logically about the situation.
Going through her options, Sakura thought about going to see her mentor and clearing up any misunderstandings that would probably arise, but figured that Uchiha-san was already there and making a case for himself. Hence, she made a note to go tomorrow morning, like she usually did to pick up any training scrolls that Tsunade might have.
Nodding her head, Sakura sighed as she looked back at the target she was practicing on, before looking up at the sky. It was close to nighttime already, and while the training ground was a private one, she didn’t really want to overwork herself too much. If she overdid it, she would do more harm than good, and she was feeling quite tired at the moment.
Figuring it was about time to head home, Sakura quickly gathered all of her stuff, though not before shooting one last thoughtful glance towards the grass she had miraculously brought back from the brink of death. Biting her inner cheek, Sakura shook her head as she turned around and left the training ground.
On her way home, she suddenly thought about her choice of clothing, the past her had bought a total of 3 red qipao dresses, something that she now knew was not exactly the best for combat. While the dress was form fitting, it left too much room for the flaps to be tugged by branches and the likes. The red also clashed with her pink hair, something that had taken her a while to understand, not to mention it was like a red-sign wanting others to know her location, competently useless for cases were staying unseen was the objective.
Making up her mind, Sakura went towards one of the shinobi clothing stores, that was miraculously open even though it was evening already. Heading inside, Sakura browsed around, not exactly finding anything that caught her eye.
That was until she headed more towards the back of the shop, where she hit bullseye.
The clothes were inconspicuous and pretty standard, most likely moved towards the back for the more experienced shinobi, who wore such dull clothing. While the front was filled with colorful and differently designed outfits, likely for newly minted shinobi or academy students who thought only about the shinobi of legends, such as the Sannin, wanting to be seen instead of wishing to be overlooked.
Sakura though, Sakura knew better now.
These clothes here were perfect for someone like her, someone who needed to remain overlooked.
The shirt was a long sleeved dark green shirt that matched nicely with her eyes, the pants were a darker green looking almost black. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were hidden compartments in the shirt and pants. Smiling, Sakura quickly brought over the shopkeeper and asked for three sets of them, while the material wasn’t exactly cheap, coming from a merchant family, Sakura would be able to resize the clothes to fit her for some time, hence she wasn’t exactly mad about buying such nice clothing.
Bidding the shopkeeper a good night, Sakura started her trek back home. Deciding that the sooner she made it to her apartment the better, Sakura took to the rooftops for faster travel.
Landing in front of her apartment door Sakura entered quickly, muttering out an “I’m home”, only silence followed.
In front of her, on a little desk by the door, Sakura was met with the picture of a couple smiling brightly, the man was holding on to a small child looking no older than 8, while the woman was holding a small baby with puffy pink hair atop her head. Now this picture would seem like any other family picture, if it weren't for the fact that none of the people in the picture resembled the little baby. The man had deep brown hair with dark brown eyes, while the woman had blonde hair and grey eyes, the child wrapped in the man's arms was a perfect combination of both parents, having her mothers grey eyes and her father's brown hair.
The baby though, instead of resembling either parent, was a curiosity. She had bright peachy pink hair and brighter green eyes. She was laughing in the picture, but without knowing the context, many would think that she was not related to the family in the picture, a stranger brought into the picture by sheer coincidence.
Five year old Sakura had gone to the park wearing a pretty purple dress her father had bought her the day before, wishing to show it off to Ami and the others, hoping that if she dressed prettily, maybe then they would play with her too.
Instead she was pushed to the ground by the brown haired bully, the other child sneering at her as two other girls surrounded her, scowls on their faces.
"Stay away from us you freak, my mamma told me we shouldn't play with an unknown like you, outsider."
Sakura frowned, looking towards the bullies with tears starting to well in her eyes. "m' not an outsider! I'm from the leaf like you guys." Sakura screamed out in defiance, stubbornly pushing her tear back.
"Liar, your parents must have abandoned you." Ami said, huffing and towering over Sakura like she was superior.
"NO! My mommy is my mommy and Daddy is daddy." Sakura denied vehemently, tears now streaming down her eyes.
"Liar! You have ugly pink hair and and a big forehead, your eyes are creepy and look like poison, you are just lying because you were abandoned since you're too ugly."
"Ugly freak, ugly freak." The children sang out, laughing as Sakura stared at them with tears continuing to stream down her eyes.
That day Sakura ran home, trying to outrun the voices whispering in her ears that she was an abandoned child.
She had cried to her mother, who was shocked at the state that Sakura was in. She had tearfully asked her mother if she was really her mom, and the woman had answered yes, eyes showing determination. Sakura was her child an no one else's.
The day after, her older sister heard about what happened and, being an older Academy student at the time, threatened Ami and her group of bully friends to stay away from Sakura and never say anything to her again.
Not long after, Sakura met Ino while she was crying in a flower field after having everyone ignore her, and the blond had soon become Sakura's support system, pushing the doubts away from her head.
Her parents continued to show her all the love and support they possibly could at the time, shutting down other parent's remarks that had fueled Ami and the other children going after Sakura. They continued to be adamant that Sakura was really their child, and her mother had told Sakura time and time again that she got her genes from her great grandmother from her mother's side, who had looked identical to Sakura. Her being from a small clan in the far off village of Yukigakure making it hard for those claims to be proven or disproven.
Sakura had looked into her mother eyes, and willed herself to see hints of green in their grey expanse.
Tears prickling at her eyes, Sakura blinked them away as she walked further inside the small apartment, going inside her room and taking out a carefully kept sewing kit. It had been her mother’s, and Sakura prided herself in having been able to catch up to the woman’s talent by the age of 12.
She had personally sewed the Haruno clan circle in her own qipao when she had gotten them.
While she was originally going to leave her outfit as basic as she could, Sakura couldn't deny her inner child wishing to personalize her outfit, especially using the skills she had inherited from her mother.
Taking out the needle and thread, Sakura lost herself in the art of sewing. Letting all her doubts and worries leave her as she created intricate patterns here and there.
When she was done, it was already after dawn, but Sakura was so happy with her work that she didn’t even care. The first outfit had golden vines bordering the bottom of the shirt and around the wrist of the long sleeve, and the white Haruno circle proudly placed in the back.
One another shirt, she had sewn her given name, the cherry blossom, also in golden thread with tree branches on either side.
Finally, in the final one she created a bundle of irises right above the left chest area. For some reason, Sakura always felt a kinship with this type of flower, more so than even her birthname the Cherry Blossom. If someone were to ask what Sakura’s favorite flower was, they would be amuse to know that the Iris is her favorite.
Now that she finished with her touchups, Sakura decided it was prime time to sleep. She had a long day tomorrow, what with Tsunade most likely finding out that she held some sort of gift, but Sakura couldn’t hope to imagine how exactly she would react to it, hopefully not too severe, seeing as that it was merely a useless talent such as bringing back some plants.
With those thoughts, Sakura quickly put everything away, making sure to carefully hang her new clothes on her closet. Once that was done, she got comfy on her twin-size bed, her white fluffy pillow becoming her haven after a long day of training.
Pulling her purple comforter in a tight embrace, Sakura smiled as she looked towards her nightstand, where another picture was placed, this one holding a now 13 year old girl holding a five year old Sakura in her embrace, both of them beaming towards the camera, her parents in the background, each having one hand on either side of the girl's shoulder, the other hands both holding peace signs. The girl had a leaf hitai-ate proudly displayed on her forehead.
“Good night okaa-san, otou-san, Aneki.” Sakura murmured, her eyes slowly closed and she succumbed to sleep.
Some meanings of the Japanese words
Shishou: teacher of sorts, master, or exemplar (in this case teacher)
-san: an respectful honorific, practically meaning Ms. Or Mr.
Okaa-san: Mom
Otou-san: Dad
Aneki: Older Sister