Chapter Text
“Ugh!” Haruno Sakura looked up from her studying to find the source of the noise. Her mom, Haruno Mebuki, was standing in the kitchen, looking out the window into the distance. “That Uzumaki boy is a menace! Just look at the faces of the past Hokages.”
Sakura’s eyes followed her mom’s as she stood up to see. There at the edge of town was the enormous monument carved into the mountain. The four faces were covered in graffiti. She could just barely make out an orange dot on a rope scaffold diligently wiping away at the paint. No wonder Iruka-sensei was so mad at him today, she thought.
“If my child acted out like this…,” Her mom trailed off, shaking her head disapprovingly. Sakura thought if she acted out like that she’d be grounded for the rest of her life. “If only he had parents to discipline him right!”
Sakura soaked in her mother’s words attentively. After all, her mom was an adult and clearly knew what she was talking about. Sakura, herself, turned out wonderfully!
That’s right I did! Inner Sakura agreed enthusiastically.
“What’s going on?” Her father, Haruno Kizashi, asked as her entered through the front door. He ruffled her hair as he passed. “Your mom looks all worked up.”
“Naruto drew all over the faces of the Hokage!” Sakura said, relishing in the feeling of tattling. She loved the feeling of adult approval. It made her feel mature and important in a way that others her age never made her feel.
“I saw,” her dad grumbled. “Really, shouldn’t someone be watching that kid?”
Her mom huffed, annoyed, and began to set the table for dinner. “Well, it’s not our problem so there’s no point in going on about it anymore. Hurry up and wash your hands for dinner.”
Sakura neatly stacked her books and piled them onto the bookshelf and out of the way before following her mom’s order. She was on a diet, but she figured that tomorrow was too important to be hungry for. Tomorrow was the academy’s final exam! She would need her strength to practice a bit more before bed.
“Excited?” Her dad asked her as they all began to eat. He smiled as she shoved a small bit of rice into her mouth. “You never eat this much anymore.”
“I’m going to be practicing hard tonight,” She replied after chewing carefully. “Of course, I’ll work all of this off before the exam.”
“You’re going to do great!” Her mom gushed. “We should go out and get you all dolled up after you graduate so you’ll look extra pretty in your registration photo!”
Sakura’s face split into a huge grin. “I completely forgot about the photo,” she lied. Reluctantly, she scooted away her half-eaten bowl and rose to bring her dishes to the sink. “I can’t eat too much, or I’ll look bloated in it.”
Kizashi frowned, but Sakura was too busy clearing up after herself to notice. Mebuki met his eye and discreetly shrugged back at him. She mouthed that it was fine and got up as well to help her daughter clean up.
The next day, Sakura woke up bright and early. She spent a little extra time making sure her cherry blossom pink locks were perfectly shiny and carefully picked out her red qipao dress that she had ironed the night before. She took a moment to appreciate her reflection. Her long hair swayed gently against her back as she moved.
Sasuke-kun’s going to have to notice me today! She thought, excitedly. There’s no way Ino-pig will have as much time put into her looks since she has to help out at the flower shop.
“Sakura,” her mom called, “breakfast is ready!”
Practically skipping down the stairs, Sakura snatched up an apple from the kitchen counter. “I’m okay with just this, Okaa-san.”
Sakura took the time to carefully cut the apple into bite-sized pieces – it wouldn’t do to just be shoving things into her face like an animal – before taking her seat at the table with her parents.
There was a definite bounce in Sakura’s step as she made her way towards the academy. Today was the day she would become a shinobi of the hidden leaf! Muscle memory took her where she needed to go as she lost herself in a daydream. In her fantasy, she was placed on a team with Sasuke-kun. He would be amazed at her abilities as a ninja and realize that they were meant for each other. Ino would cry and scream in the background. Her lips spread in a lazy grin as she imagined the wedding ceremony they would have.
CRASH!
Sakura was sent sprawling onto the ground. The body she had collided with gazed down at her, unimpressed. Her eyes widened as they connected with his pitch-black ones. Uchiha Sasuke didn’t even so much as offer to help her up as he turned and continued walking. Wait, she thought suddenly, this is perfect!
Jumping up, Sakura rushed to her crushes side. “Good morning, Sasuke-kun! Can we walk together?”
He didn’t acknowledge her at all.
“Are you nervous at all? I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to pass. Of course, you’ll definitely be the top of the class!” She rambled, his lack of response only fueling her need to keep a conversation going. “I wonder what the test will be like. I’m assuming there will be a written test and then a practical one. I’m sure I can handle the writ–“
“Sasuke-kun!” A voice squealed, interrupting her. “Oh… Billboard brow.”
Sakura looked into the disappointed eyes of her ex-best friend, Yamanaka Ino. “Ino-pig.”
“How dare you walk together with Sasuke-kun.” Ino growled, pulling at her arm and squeezing in-between them. It wasn’t very hard as the Uchiha kept a decent amount of space between them the entire walk.
“Get out of my way, Ino-pig. Don’t you have anywhere else to be?” Sakura and Ino stopped and glared viscously at each other.
“Don’t you?” Ino shot back. “What gives you the right to walk with Sasuke-kun?”
“I just happened to run into him,” Sakura smirked and waggled her eyebrows. “It’s like we were destined to walk together.”
“Oh,” Ino shouted, her face turning red. “You were destined, is that it? You are so full of yourself, Billboard brow!”
“Ino-pig!” Sakura shouted back.
They stood there for another minute glaring at each other until a lazy drawl announced, “You’re going to be late.”
Pink and blonde heads whirled around to see Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji. They were strolling slowly without a care in the world, not seeming to mind that they were going to be late too. Both girls looked ahead to find the Uchiha long gone.
Sakura flushed. Anxiety pounded in her chest at the thought of being late and she took off at a sprint, leaving the others behind. Iruka-sensei would be so disappointed in her if she wasn’t on time. Would he take points off? Would he tell her parents? Sakura pushed a little harder to ensure that wouldn’t happen.
Sakura made it in record time, nearly collapsing from exhaustion as she took her seat. She still had 5 minutes before the bell, but her mom’s words rang clearly in her ears. On time is late, Sakura. Always try to be fifteen minutes early.
She cringed a little as she wiped sweat from her brow. Did she stink? Would Sasuke-kun notice? She tried to be discreet as she pulled out a tissue and wiped at her face and neck. This is not lady-like at all, she thought, sulkily.
Sakura turned out to have overthought the exam. As Iruka-sensei walked in after the bell rung, she noticed the distinct lack of exam papers. He instead simply had his usually sheet of announcements. He stopped directly in the center of the room and waited for the class to settle down before he spoke up.
“For the graduation exam,” He announced, reading from his single sheet of paper. “You will do the bunshin-no-jutsu. When you are called come to the next room.”
Sakura perked up significantly. The bunshin technique was easy! Any lingering doubts she had stuffed down in her mind vanished completely. I’ve totally got this, shannaro! Inner Sakura screamed with delight.
Sakura waited patiently as Iruka read each name off the list and left to conduct each student’s exam. Each student came back, excitedly bragging about how they passed. Sakura’s excitement mounted. Surely if some of these kids could pass, she could do so easily. Iruka-sensei often praised her for her intelligence, after all.
Hearing her name be called, Sakura jumped up. “Here!” She shouted, nearly sprinting down the aisle towards her teacher. Iruka-sensei led her to the room across the hall where he and Mizuki-sensei both sat at a large desk with rows of regulation headbands. One of those is mine, she thought with a quiet squeal.
“Okay, Sakura,” Iruka said, gesturing to her, “Whenever you’re ready.”
Sakura brought her hands together in the appropriate seal and perfectly channeled her chakra. Closing her eyes to help her concentration, she shouted, “Bunshin-no-jutsu!” A puff of smoke filled the room and quickly dispersed to show 3 identical versions of herself. Each of them grinned her wide, excited grin and then poof-ed back out of existence.
“Very well done, Sakura!” Iruka-sensei beamed at her.
Mizuki-sensei gestured to the headbands in front of them. “You pass. Go ahead and pick out your headband.”
“Congratulations on becoming a genin!” Iruka patted her head as he walked her back to the classroom.
“Thanks, Sensei!” She rushed back to her seat and sent a smug peace-sign in Ino’s direction.
“Uzumaki Naruto.” Iruka-sensei called. The boy in question pushed himself up out of his seat looking worried but determined. Sakura remembered her parent’s disapproval of the orange-clad boy and stuck her nose in the air. She certainly didn’t want to be put on his team. What would her mother say?
“Sasuke-kun!” She exclaimed holding up her new headband, forgetting about Naruto as soon as he was out of sight. The Uchiha’s eyes slid in her direction for a second before turning back to rest on the empty blackboard. “Look, Sasuke-kun! I passed!”
He ignored her.
Naruto never came back after his exam. Neither did Sasuke-kun. As the children filed out of the building to find a group of parents excitedly waiting to celebrate with their newly graduated offspring, Sakura’s eyes landed briefly on a spikey blonde head watching them dejectedly. Naruto must have failed, she thought. She felt sorry for him. He was always so loud about becoming the Hokage one day, it must have hit him hard to have failed.
“Sakura-chan!” Sakura quickly forgot her depressing line of thought as her parents rushed to lift her into their arms. “You passed! We’ll have a big celebration tonight!”
“It was so easy,” She bragged, trying to play off how much she craved their approval. When they let her know how proud they were she beamed. Today couldn’t possibly get any better!
“Hey that kid…”
“Yeah, that’s the kid.” Sakura turned towards the voices. Two women were scoffing down at Naruto. Sakura watched on, nosily. “And he’s the only one who failed.”
“Well, that’s good. We can’t have him becoming a shinobi… since he is…”
“Hey, we can’t talk about that.”
Sakura frowned. Why can’t Naruto be a shinobi? She wondered. She turned to her mother, question on the tip of her tongue, but her mom was enthusiastically listing off the things she would need to buy for the celebration tonight. Sakura took one last glance at the swing, but Naruto was already gone. She shook her head, forgetting about it.
Sakura’s mom turned suddenly, exclaiming, “Ayame-chan!” and Sakura followed her mom’s eyes to see Ino standing with her parents. Mebuki went up to Ino’s mom and invited them over the celebrate. Inoichi and Kizashi shared a knowing look. The two women were preparing to go all out with the cooking.
Sakura and Ino glared at each other, but allowed their parents to usher them off together towards the Haruno’s house.