Chapter Text
“Sakura!” Ino waved her hand in the air to catch her friend’s attention. “Come on Sakura! Let’s sit back here okay!”
A tender smile lights her little face and Sakura races to the back of the minibus to sit with her best friend Ino Yamanaka. However, before she is even halfway to her friend, she trips and falls. Her new blue skirt is now dirty with the grime of the bus’s floor, her hands and knees are scuffed and red. Tears roll from her eyes to wet her shirt and she brings her tiny fists to her face to swipe at the tears ineffectively, hoping no one will notice.
“Serves you right stupid.” Ami smirks from her seat, craning her neck to see if the dark haired boy at the front of the bus is watching. “Go on, sit at the back of the bus, that way no one can see you because you’re so ugly with that huge forehead of yours.”
“I’m ...I’m not ug ugly.” Sakura stutters and runs to her friend Ino who is glaring and shaking her first at Ami in anger.
“Just ignore her Sakura of course you’re not ugly. I don’t know what her problem is.” Ino starts criticizing Ami’s clothes and hair, making Sakura laugh when she sucks her cheeks into her mouth and pretends to be a fish, claiming Ami’s face looks like a fish face when she tries to think too hard. It makes Sakura feel better, knowing she has Ino on her side. It would be a very lonely life for Sakura without Ino.
“Thank you Ino.” Sakura’s face is still red, her skirt is still dirty and her hands are still scuffed, but her best friend is with her...so maybe...it’s okay.
Sasuke listens to the bickering behind him but he doesn’t care. He saw the pink haired girl fall but she was fine so he didn’t care. He wondered if today was the day his mom would be home from his brother’s house, in the next city over. Sasuke doesn’t like the museum, he doesn’t want to go on this field trip. The other kids on the bus are noisey, he doesn't like noise.
“Hey, all the seats are full, can I sit here?” A blonde kid asks.
That blonde kid. Sasuke doesn’t care, he doesn’t listen to what others think anyway. “Hn.”
“Uh, thanks.” Naruto sits down next to Sasuke and looks out the window on the other side of the bus, past Choji and Shikamaru who somehow found a way to recline in his seat without falling to the floor...and look comfortable while doing it.
“Settle down now, okay everyone here okay, let’s go.” Iruka sensei sits down behind the bus driver and pulls out their map and schedule, to double check it before they get there.
“This place is hu huge.” Sakura hides behind Ino, she doesn’t like large places. Large places intimidate her.
“I’m not impressed.” Ino places her hand on her hip looking up at the towering building with admirable confidence for a 6 year old.
Sakura gazes at her in adoration. She wishes she could be so brave...but she knows she just didn't have that drive that Ino does, she isn’t brave...not like Ino.
“Ino you’re so brave.” Sakura smiles at her friend.
“You can be brave too Sakura, you just need to stand up for yourself against Ami next time okay?” Ino hugs her friend.
“I’ll um, I’ll try.” Sakura promises Ino. She doesn’t think she can do it, but maybe...if Ino thinks she can , maybe she can.
“Great!” Ino hugs her friend...she knows Sakura can be brave, if she wants to.
Translucent spiky hair covers one of his eyes as he watches the same routine day after day.
A bus arrives, children get out, teachers yell, children talk...so mundane Madara walks the halls, his hands behind his back. He’s been here in Konoha for centuries now...with nothing to do. Damn that Hashirama, trapping his soul here for eternity.
Konohagakure.
Madara chose the name himself, before he left. Looking around, it was barely recognizable. The buildings, the people...they were too different, too mundane. He no longer found motivation to watch the elite, he garnered no favor in following the dangerous...they all died too young or grew too old too quickly and turned corrupt. That was then however, and this was now.
Shinobi were no more. There hadn’t been shinobi in over two hundred years and he had been there for over four hundred now.
He was bored.
Madara had accepted his fate, this was his hell that he was destined to exist in, day in, and day out until...well...until the end of time. He sighed with airless lungs, looked at the lines of children with dead eyes. A flash of pink caught his eye. His head turned.
More noise. He sighed.
“Get in the back of the line where you belong ugly pink headed monster!” Ami sneered at Sakura.
“No n no.” Sakura stood her ground with the support of her best friend by her side who was nodding and pushing her in the back.
“That’s it Sakura, I know you can do it.” Ino whispered to the back of her pink shirt that matched her pink hair.
Madara watched...because there was nothing else for him to do. People passed through him, he barely even noticed it anymore.
“I said, Move!” Ami pushed Sakura hard and she toppled over backwards onto her butt.
Madara watched as the tears welled up in the little pink girls eyes. He watched as she clenched and unclenched her fists in defeat. She’s giving up so quickly? How unfortunate...but expected.
He sighs, the shinobi of his time are no more, this was 2020 and to them chakra is magic, a myth, a fantasy...not like in his day, he smiled thinking back at his own splendor.
Sakura stood back up slowly and looked at the dark haired girl. She could feel something building up inside of her. Rage, humiliation, she wasn’t sure but it surged through her body and pulsed in time with her heart. She had... had enough.
“Ami.” Sakura’s voice was small but determined, her whole body trembled with an energy...that she had never felt before.
“What? What are you going to do ?” Ami turned her head back to her friends who were laughing and snickering with her.
SMACK!
Ami spun and flew backward several more feet than a hit like that should have thrown her. She landed hard on her butt. Ami stared up at Sakura in shock, then...she started to scream, tears running down her face, howling.
Madara stood up from his seat, his eyes spun red and he stared at the little pink haired girl. He barely had enough chakra to ‘be’, he couldn’t really use his sharingan, but it didn’t take the sharingan to see, to feel, that familiar feeling of…
”Chakra.” the word slid from his translucent lips like a breath of fresh air...like salvation...like redemption..
Chakra…the girl, the little pink haired girl had ...chakra!
“This is...unexpected.” Madara watched the little girl look at the palm of her hand and then across the room at the girl sprawled on the floor because of her...a small twitching of her lips tells Madara...she had felt it too.
“Interesting.” Madara grinned. “Very...interesting.