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Light glinted of the forehead protector tucked in her brother’s drawer. It was the one he used for formal situations – where his slightly messier, scratched one he used on missions wouldn’t be appropriate. They were Uchiha and they had a reputation to uphold. Sakura smiled. She was really glad she had been reborn with a brother like Itachi. He was nice, and he looked after her and silly Sasuke too. She loved him.Which was why things had turned out like they had.It was the only way left now – to ensure both the clan didn’t pull off their coup, and to make sure Itachi wasn’t forced to carry out a massacre of the people they both loved. Sakura closed the drawer, shutting her eyes. She would never wear that forehead protector again. She hadn’t even started at the academy just yet. Sakura chuckled, almost skipping her way over to the mirror and the armour she had deposited there. The same armour she had filched from Danzo’s Root Base. ANBU standard, meaning it was the best available to her. He’d even had some in her size. Though she had been careful to steal a few more chest plates, arm guards, and the like in slightly bigger sizes.After all, she wouldn’t be able to come back after this.But it would be worth it. Neither Danzo or traitors would be able to hurt her precious big brother and her foolish slightly less big one. She pulled the armour on, ensuring the fit was nice and snug before she tucked the little pouch of all her supplies on her back. It was bigger than the one she had worn in her last life, instead spanning the width of her back rather than being a little pouch barely half the size.Then again she was taking everything. A precious picture of Itachi-nii. One of Itachi-nii’s shirts, another of Sasuke’s, both with the Uchiwa emblazoned neatly on the back. A sealed scroll full of kunai. Another with various weapons, and plenty of other supplies. She would need them to survive, she knew. Along with her strength. It was why she had spent the last few years training her socks off.Closing her eyes, she sent her chakra surging towards them, her control pinpoint as per usual. Her eyes snapped open, glittering red, three ash black tomoe spinning in the iris of each of her eyes. Carefully, she took one last look around the room, heart aching as she picked up the katana. The one which would be stained red by the end of the night. The thought brought a smile to her lips, a twisted one with bared teeth which hungered for the blood of those traitors. The ones who had undoubtedly been the root of the problem in her last life. She would make them pay in this one. She unlocked the window, the sounds of Sasuke entertaining himself in the other room with his plush green dinosaur teddy lost on the soft whispers of the wind.Then the room was empty once more. The gates clanked shut with a slight creak, bolt sliding shut with nary a whisper, and Sakura stared up at the Uchiwa emblazoned above the gateway. A welcome to the Uchiha District. The same district Danzo had forced them into – but there wasn’t any time to reverse the wrongs that man had forced upon her and her clan. Humming under her breath, Sakura looked to the sky and the stars which twinkled there, peering from behind the occasional cloud which rolled in front of the large moon.It was such a pretty night.Too bad it would soon be stained with blood.Her eyes swirled red, wind dancing through her hair as she stepped away from the gates, delving further into the compound. They would be near her house she knew. How dare they go after her not so big brother…
Well, not that they would get that far.
A bloodcurdling grin broke her face.It was time. Moonlight glinted off the blade of the slender katana, serving to only highlight the sticky red liquid dripping down the blade. It splattered down onto the ground, leaving a splotchy red trail as she made her way towards the dying man. The foolish dying man. Sakura skipped, her heart feeling wonderfully light all of a sudden. She had done it.
Itachi-nii would be so proud that she’d protected them…
Well, if he knew what she’d prevented. But it was OK if he didn’t. She loved him, and that was all that mattered. If he was safe, then she was happy. “Silly, silly, silly,” she sang, giggling as she finally found herself at his side. He was dying, and Itachi-nii wouldn’t have to torment himself by killing them all. “You should’ve known better than to come after Sasuke-nii,” she muttered, laughter fading as she kicked at the soon-to-be corpse. “You should have known better than to try and hurt Itachi-nii.”She rustled through the bag on her waist, her smile returning as she found the little jar she was looking for. It had been prepared ever since she had heard about what he was planning behind her father’s back. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be taking your eyes now!” she chirped, ensuring her hand was clean before she reached down, savouring the horrified look in his eyes before she ripped the first one out. “Shhh, silly. You’ll wake Sasuke-nii if you keep that up.” Sakura patted his cheek, taking the other eye just as swiftly as the first, dropping it carefully inside the greenish liquid. “At least now you can be useful to me…”Sighing, she stared at the floating eyes, smirking at the mangekyou pattern showing in those red irises. The combination of that pattern and her own would no doubt be beautiful, she mused, sighing wistfully. She had never thought she would wind up with such pretty eyes. Her green ones from before barely compared. She giggled in happiness.“I’ll put them to good use, I promise,” she whispered, caressing his cheek almost lovingly. “And I’ll be so much better than you at using them… You should be grateful to have even been of use to me,” she murmured, hysterical laughter bubbling at her lips as death rattled in his throat.This second life was so much better, no matter all the things she’d already lost. She wouldn’t lose anything that was hers again.
She was such a good little sister.
“S-Sakura…?” the small voice stirred her out of her giggling.She blinked, turning to find her not so big brother carefully edging out of the house. Clouds covered the moon, light vanishing behind heavy clouds, the darkness of the night almost making him stumble as he tried to find her in the dark. She hadn’t been paying much attention to his little flickering chakra signature with her meagre sensory abilities. Sakura had been more concerned with the other ones, busy off at the leftovers of ROOT Headquarters.
She had made quite the mess for them.
“Sasuke-nii!”The clouds rolled away, and the tell-tale scent of urine reached her over the overwhelming coppery taste of blood which hovered in the air.“What’s going on?” he demanded, voice high and terrified. “We… We need to go… need to leave, before whoever did this comes back.”Sakura tilted her head, sniggering at the sheer confusion on her brother’s face. “It’s alright, Sasuke-nii,” she crooned, uncaring of the corpses of their brethren as she hurried to her brother’s side. He wasn’t completely stupid though, and she could almost see the instant realisation dawned across his face.“No… Get away,” he screeched, eyes on the blade. “You… You monster!”Pain clawed at her heart. Stupid Sasuke-nii… not stopping to think about why she had done it. She had done it for him, and Itachi-nii, of course. “Silly, silly Sasuke-nii,” she sang, flicking out her blade in a precise, deadly arc, smiling as the blood spattered from the metal and to the ground instead. She sheathed it then, holding out her empty, bloodied hands to her brother. She was hardly about to turn her blade on her brother. He was her special silly brother. “I did it for you… for Itachi-nii,” she murmured, grabbing at his face even as he froze, shivering in horror as she hugged him. “I love you, nii,” she whispered, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck.Sasuke whimpered.It was hers to nuzzle. She nipped at the skin there playfully, before she sank her teeth in. Until she tasted blood. Sasuke was hers. Only she could be the one to leave any sort of markings on his skin. It was why she had stopped those… traitors. They would have hurt her precious Sasuke. Would’ve blackmailed her father and her even more precious Itachi-nii. “You’re mine, nii,” she whispered. “They’re not allowed to touch you… not allowed to hurt you. You’re mine. Only I can do that.” She laved at the wound with her tongue, smiling into his neck at the taste of his blood. It was hers. Only she could spill it. It tasted so wonderful on her tongue.She probably wouldn’t be able to see either of her brothers for a long time, if ever again. But that was alright so long as they were safe in Konoha… where she’d removed as much rot from the tree as she could. They would be safe there.Sakura let go, stepping back from her brother, eyes spinning red as she cast the genjutsu. “Sleep, Sasuke-nii,” she whispered, carefully setting him down on the ground – away from the bloodstains and entrails of those she’d killed.Wind whistled through the silent compound, a steady drip, drip, drip reaching her ears as she paused there in the moonlight.“Such a good night,” she mumbled, staring up at the stars which seemed to twinkle in approval at her actions.Then she was gone, and the Uchiha Compound was left silent, aside from the shallow breaths of one – the only living person being a young boy of eight years of age. Uchiha Sakura was gone.Nobody would find her.Nobody could… except perhaps Aniki, but Sakura didn’t mind that.Everything had been done for him in the end.Anything for Aniki.
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It was nearly two o’clock on the morning of the fifth of December in Konoha Main Hospital when the wails were first heard. There were four of them in total inside the private room of the Senju Maternity Ward – though that number was soon brought up to five with the delivery of the baby.She was a small, loud thing, and the midwife soon passed her over to the father in order to take care of the exhausted mother who slumped down in the bed.“A girl,” he mumbled, thumb tracing across the small bright pink cheek even as the child screamed his ears off. “She has your hair,” he said, eyes drinking in the sight of his first, and only daughter. “Well, mostly…”The thick coat of hair already lining her head was almost all the same bluish black that both his wife and his youngest son had. A part of it, however, was nothing like either his or his wife’s – being a cherry blossom pink. It was unusual yes, but the midwife had assured him it was likely to do with a mutation rather than anyone else’s genetics. He trusted his wife, and the child’s chakra was similar enough to her siblings and his own from what he could tell with his meagre sensory abilities. That would have to be enough for the Council of Elders. The stodgy old coots were likely to raise a fuss over the pink tuft of hair. Fugaku sighed, a sinking feeling of dread building in the pit of his stomach as he thought about having to meet with them and present his youngest daughter up for inspection.They would want to find a betrothal for her, he knew, to improve their slipping standing in Konoha. But, he mused silently, he could worry about that when the time came. His daughter had just been born, and that was enough cause for celebration.“Itachi,” he spoke, turning to his eldest who waited silently by his side. “Meet your newest sibling.”Itachi reached out, and Fugaku couldn’t resist the small smile which slipped onto his lips when he spotted the look of wonderment on his eldest’s face. He was a gentle boy, Fugaku knew, and he loved his brother Sasuke with a gentle ferocity unique to him. Sighing, he let Itachi hold his wailing sister – knowing he wouldn’t drop her. He had been careful enough with Sasuke and he had only been five years old at the time. Now he was eight, and already well on his way to becoming a shinobi – a better one than even he had been at that age.Fugaku only hoped his and Sasuke’s relationship wouldn’t turn out like his and his brother’s own. That was bad enough as it was. Perhaps that was why he was so soft on his children. Because he didn’t want them turning out like he and his brother had under their father’s careful watch.The same father who had been cold and distant, forcing them to compete to see who was better. And he’d showered Fugaku in praise whenever he had trounced his little brother. It was why he had vowed to be closer to his children than most Uchiha usually were.He liked to think both his sons were better off because of that.“Otou-san.” Large black eyes peered up into his own, capturing his attention. He’d hated it when his father had ignored him. “What is her name?”“We were thinking of Kagami – after your maternal grandfather… but now I’m not so sure,” he said, eyeing the pink tuft of hair along with his eldest. “What do you think?”Large black eyes fixed on the pink tuft of hair. “Her hair is pink… pink like sakura blossoms,” Itachi remarked, and Fugaku chuckled.“I thought the same.”“So it’ll be Sakura then?” Mikoto’s voice reached them both, even as tired and weak as it was. Sakura’s birth had been a long one – longer than both their previous, which had been a minor cause for concern, but for naught it seemed. Their daughter was healthy, if the strength of her lungs were any indicator. Though she certainly wasn’t happy. Her tiny, squished face was wrinkled, a frown already settled on her brow even as she was passed back over to her mother.She was undoubtedly an Uchiha, or so Fugaku mused with a small chuckle.“Welcome to the family, Sakura-chan,” Mikoto whispered, and suddenly the cries died away as their daughter snuggled into the warmth. “That’s a good name… Uchiha Sakura.”
And suddenly the cries were back in full force.
Warm.It was so warm and comfy.Then it wasn’t. Cold. So cold. But then she was warm again, but it wasn’t the same. The heat wasn’t all encompassing. Nor did it seem to pulse anymore. Her eyes were too sticky to open properly, so she was left in blindness as she tried to work out what was going on. Someone was crying loudly – a baby’s cries, she noted blandly as she tried to grasp a hold of her memories. How had she ended up there? Blind and seemingly alone? The flashes came to her slowly.
Lilac hair. Blonde and black. Red. So much red. Anger. Roar. Snarl. Rage. Lunge. Punch. Miss. Hand. Nails. A hand spearing through her chest. Pulpy red organ. Her heart—
Sakura whimpered, screaming as she remembered, but on the sounds of a squalling child met her ears. She really wished the baby would shut up – birth was a wonderful part of life, so the kid hardly had any reason to be bawling like their pet cat had died. She had died. She was supposed to be dead, in the Pure Lands. This wasn’t the Pure Lands. Everything felt wrong. Her skin was too tight, and she couldn’t move her limbs properly. Not to mention she was also seemingly blind. Sakura didn’t like this. She didn’t like it one bit.The baby kept screaming, and Sakura tried to tell the baby to shut up, but all she received for her efforts were a gurgle of incomprehensible noise. Really what was that baby doing? Sakura paused then, thoughts coming to her then. She had died… so why was there a baby screaming? Blissful silence came then, and Sakura sighed, yawning then – and from the sounds of it the baby was yawning with her. But really, why was there a baby screaming in wherever the hell she’d woken? She opened her mouth and tried to ask someone, but the baby made noises instead. Almost as if the little child was trying to speak for—If Sakura could have blinked, she would have. There was no way… no way… She sobbed, testing out the noise, heart pounding in her chest when the baby sobbed along with her. They were coming from her mouth. Murmurs around her made her snuffles taper off, a soothing finger brushing at her pudgy cheek. There was no baby and her.
She was the damned baby.
“That’s a good name… Uchiha Sakura.”Sakura screamed. She was a baby, and her name was now apparently Uchiha Sakura. She didn’t know exactly when it happened, but eventually, blissful oblivion came for her once more, and she slipped into an uneasy sleep.She kept drifting in and out of consciousness after that, her itty bitty brain too small to fully cope with the idea she had apparently been reborn. She was supposed to be in the Pure Lands. Not wherever the hell she was, inside a bitty little Uchiha’s body.She was a Haruno, wasn’t she?Not anymore, a snide voice whispered, and that was about when the blackness rolled in. A white ceiling was the next thing she recalled when she woke, though it was partially blocked by a fuzzy dangly object.She kept trying to bat at the dangling fluffy objects, little giggles escaping her when she heard the rattling of bells or the crackle of strange textures under her pudgy little fingers. Not that she had much sensation in them just yet. That would come later. Once she had grown a bit. Gotten more used to her strange, tiny new body. All she could really do was lie there and blink up at the fuzzy faces which occasionally peered down at her. She liked her new mother the most. She also smelt the nicest. Plus she was the best at comforting her when she woke up.Because there was too much time for her to dream – to dream and remember. Kaguya had killed her. She had killed her precious teammates. She could still see those images, those memories, whenever she closed her eyes.
She couldn’t save them.
She wasn’t good enough to.
A failure. Her tiny lip curled as best she could. Always running behind her two idiots.Blank eyes staring up at the sky… She could never forget those. Forget the patients who’d slipped away under her hands. Corpses littering the battlefield. The stench of rot and ash as the bodies were hauled away to be burnt. They didn’t have time to deal with an infection. Fire was the quickest way to solve that.Sakura shook her head as best she could – which wasn’t much.The fact she had been reborn as an Uchiha meant she had undoubtedly been born in a new dimension. She’d had months of drifting between nightmares and her thoughts to figure things out. Naruto had been starting seal work, in memory of Jiriya, and any work revolving around time-space fuinjutsu had those sorts of warnings. There were other dimensions out there – Kaguya had only proven that much, though hers had been barren and devoid of life.And if in her new dimension the Uchiha existed, then Indra had once existed, and that meant Kaguya had as well.Fear stole through her at the realisation.What if Kaguya came back? The thought had made her cry and scream, and not even her mother could calm her down – only her own exhaustion had, and she had woken to two very concerned parents hovering over her. There was a smaller figure there too sometimes, and Sakura liked his voice… it sounded oddly familiar. As though she had heard it some place before, but the only Uchiha she had ever met were Itachi and Sasuke. So she was probably just confusing things.It didn’t matter too much to her at that moment in time.Kaguya was the more pressing issue. If she came for that dimension she had to be ready… She couldn’t afford to lose anyone again. Sakura curled her chubby fingers into the fabric of her mother’s shirt as she came to in her arms. She was an Uchiha now… and that would hopefully open up a whole new avenue of skills for her – on top of what she already had.Even if she never awoke the sharingan, there would still be genjutsu and shurikenjutsu – two things the Uchiha had been famed for back in her old dimension. But first she would need to get a bit bigger.Sakura scowled up at the ceiling. Kaguya would never touch what was hers again.
Ever.
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Sakura absentmindedly gummed on the plush kitty toy someone had bought for her, snuggling it to her chest. She had ripped the last rabbit one to pieces before throwing it across the room. Her parents had seemingly swiftly picked up on her aversion to all things rabbit. She liked cats. Cats were affiliated with the Uchiha.Sometimes she even dreamed of getting cat summons. Big cats with teeth sharp enough to rip adults to pieces. Pretty and deadly. Katsuyu had been a wonderful summon, but she hadn’t been enough. Maybe she could have multiple summons this time around? Sasuke had at least two contracts. Humming as best she could with her disused vocal chords, she mulled the idea over. It would likely depend on her compatibility.Maybe she should reverse summon herself to her most suited realm? Nodding to herself, Sakura decided that would be best – but like with most things she was plotting, it would have to wait until she got a bit bigger. Until she didn’t have the chakra reserves on a one-legged kitten.Until she could rip Kaguya to pieces. That so-called goddess wouldn’t survive her if she ever showed her ugly mug around her. Punches hadn’t been enough the last time around. She hoped she would awaken the sharingan eventually. The higher evolutions would be useful… She swallowed. But unlikely for her to obtain. A snort escaped her. The next thing she knew, and she’d be trying to obtain the Rinnegan like old man Madara—Sakura froze. Oh. She was actually kind of related to him now, wasn’t she? Giggles reached her ears, and Sakura took a moment to realise they came from her. She was laughing, albeit hysterically, at that realisation.“Sakura-chan?” the calm voice of her mother rang out through the room, and she paused in her laughter to peer up at the pretty black-haired lady. She hoped she’d grow up to be just as pretty. Dimly, Sakura wondered if it was time to play. Her parents made sure to let her enjoy lots of tummy time. She was probably due to start crawling soon. Clan children always developed faster than civilians thanks to the increased amounts of chakra compared to civilians. Her tiny little body was the result of years of bloodline marriages designed to result in good shinobi, and she was going to make full use of it – along with her knowledge from her last life.The creak of the door interrupted her musings, and Sakura looked up as best she could, pulling herself to a seated position. Advanced clan baby skills lesson one. Sakura snorted. She missed Kakashi-sensei.
She missed everybody.
They had left her behind…
Gone off to the Pure Lands without her…
Sakura doubted she would ever find them again. She was in a different dimension and had seemingly transcended the limits of Team Seven weirdness. A soft sigh escaped her, even as her beady little black eyes – yes, she’d checked in the mirror, and the verdant of her old life was gone, replaced by the Uchiha black – fixed on the even smaller figure edging into the room.Her heart stuttered in her chest at the sight of short, spiky, inky black locks. It couldn’t be… “Now, Sasuke,” her mother continued, ignorant to her internal panic as she stared at a miniaturised Uchiha Sasuke. “I know you’ve been looking forwards to meeting your sister, but make sure you hold her correctly, just as I told you, understand?”“M’kay,” Sasuke said, voice far more high-pitched than she last remembered. “Can I hold her now?”“Sit down,” Mikoto ordered, and then Sakura found herself being scooped out of her crib. “You ready, Sasuke?”“Un!” Sasuke smiled up at her so eagerly Sakura couldn’t help but coo – though it came out as more of a gurgle as she was passed down into the tiny arms of a toddler. But it was still Sasuke. She blinked up at him, tiny hands clawing at his shirt as her black eyes stared up into his big, matching ones. Kaguya hadn’t gotten to this Sasuke yet. He was safe… innocent. Sakura giggled. And he was all hers. Now she only needed to ensure he never left her again. She wouldn’t survive it. “Hi, Sakura!” he chirped, voice bright and cheery. She didn’t remember him sounding like that before. “I’m your second biggest brother, though kaa-chan says you don’t remember seeing me before ‘coz you’re so small.” The world shifted as Sasuke adjusted his hold on her, another set of hands reaching out to steady her, and Sakura blinked as she stared up into the pretty face of who had to be her eldest brother. “This is Itachi-nii, and he’s the bestest nii-san in the whole world. Understand?” Sasuke continued seriously, and Sakura cooed at him. So adorable. So innocent. So pure. Sakura wanted to wrap him in cotton wool because he was hers – hers to protect – but movement from her other side had her attention turning onto her other brother. Her older brother.
Itachi.
The infamous kin slayer who Sasuke had eventually killed.She had seen the reports Tsunade had found after digging through all of Danzo’s old files. She knew the truth about who Uchiha Itachi really was, though she had never properly met the man. But he wasn’t a man just then. He was a boy. The same boy who was staring down at her with adoration and love in his eyes.He was hers, just like Sasuke.Sakura gurgled, a happy smile pulling at her lips as she stared up at her brothers. A giggle escaped her. She’d never had brothers before – and that was something she was looking forwards to. Her family was going to be bigger that time around.And she would never let Kaguya touch any of them.They were hers, and she would cling to them until the ends of the earth. She wasn’t going to be the weak link that time around. She would protect them all.Her fingers curled in a shirt each, only loosening when larger hands moved to take her miniature ones in their own. She gurgled happily, wishing she could talk. Wishing she could tell them they would be fine under her watch. The only one allowed to hurt them was her, and that was only because she knew how to heal their injuries. No one else would touch them.Especially not Kaguya.Eyes closed all of a sudden, exhaustion taking its toll, her higher mental faculties placing a strain on her body, forcing her to sleep before the stars even came out to play. He stared up at the sky, watching the moon high in the sky above. It was beautiful, and he likely would have kept thinking that way had he not learnt the truth about it. About why it had been created and what it kept from the earth below.The mark on his shoulder burnt, the inky black lines of the seal stretching there making him wince. It’s power wasn’t natural – or should he say the power wasn’t natural to him. It clashed with the chakra humming through his pathways, but it kept him there. Kept replenishing his tired cells, anchoring him to the earth itself, because that was what the earth needed.It was why he was still there. Why they were all still there – watching and waiting as time moved on without them. His gaze turned south, where he knew the village was, snow crunching under his boots as he shifted his feet in the heavy snow. It was everywhere he looked, lining the ground, covering the trees above, and silently he missed the plains of Suna. At least there it wasn’t horribly cold and wet.Not that anyone else seemed to mind it.“Something on your mind, nii-san?” his brother inquired, feet crunching the snow underneath them as he moved to join him there, staring at the starlight from a short ways away from their mountainside cottage. Their place of solitude in a mad mad world which they hadn’t quite worked out how to fix.Sighing, he watched as his breath misted in the air. “Do you think we’ll ever manage it? A world without war and conflict?”He shrugged, long slightly less spiky hair fluttering out in the wind behind them, the red ribbon – a present from his best friend’s brat – catching in the scant moonlight as his little brother turned to face him. “Don’t ask me,” he said oh-so-helpfully. “You and that idiot are the ones chasing this. Me and the snowman were just dragged along for the ride.”“All we can do is try,” said snowman spoke up – having materialised behind them fast enough to make them both jump in surprise.“Dammit, stop doing that!” his brother snarled, waving a kunai in his face. “One of these days we’ll stab you, no matter how much wailing the oaf inside will subject us to.”“You should head back in soon,” he continued, heedless of his brother’s cries and threats in the background. “It’ll be getting colder. There might even be a blizzard hitting soon, and you’ll need shelter for that no matter how good you are at wrapping yourself in warm chakra.”He waved a hand then. “Fine. I’m coming.”There was a beat of silence, before the little shit that was his brother chimed, “That’s what she said.”Flat black eyes locked on the matching ones. “If there was a koi pond, you would be in it… as it is…” he trailed off, grabbing the lump of snow closest to him, lobbing it right into his brother’s face with the unerring accuracy they all had. Though admittedly he was better at throwing smaller, metal objects.All of them were.Just another part of shinobi life – not that their lives were anything close to the norm even for all the craziness that was just simply being a shinobi. Sakura stared listlessly at the moon, hatred clawing in her belly. She wanted to grow big enough to walk around – big enough to practice throwing shuriken and kunai. She needed to get those skills nailed down. They were a shinobi’s bread and butter, and she had failed to realise that in her previous life.She was getting a reset. A reboot. If only with a slightly different start point… and she was going to make the most of that.Yet another gurgle escaped her, and Sakura turned in her crib, blinking at the sight of Sasuke’s face with which she was met. His hand slipped into the crib, clutching at her own for a few minutes, delight and adoration written on his face – the kind children always had when they received something shiny and new.“Sasuke!” their mother called softly, sticking her head into the nursery. “There you are… come on. It’s time for bed.”“But I wanna stay with Sakura!”Mikoto sighed, a soft smile on her lips. “She’ll be there in the morning, sweetie, and she wakes up a lot in the night. You need your beauty sleep,” she said sternly, ruffling his hair in the next second. “You’re going to be a brilliant brother – one who gets enough sleep so he can play with his cute sister tomorrow.”“Un,” Sasuke muttered, looking downcast.Sakura squeezed his hand, giggling happily at him before he was herded out of the room. He was so different to the Sasuke she had loved and known. It only made her love him all the more.
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She was six months old when she fell in love, and she fell the only way Uchiha knew how to – deeply and irrevocably. It wasn’t her precious little chubby-cheeked Sasuke she fell for though. Instead, it was her eldest brother who had the honour of attaining her deepest affection.The moonlight was soft, falling in through the small gap in the curtains, casting light between the bars of her crib. She had woken then, bathed in that cursed moonlight, and wailed. Kaguya haunted her dreams, as did all the deaths of her comrades. Because she couldn’t save them. She was always reaching out with a hand, only to watch as their blood painted the dry, hard earth. She was always too late. Too late to grow. Too late to save them. Sakura swore she wouldn’t be again, but still she wailed, terrified of being alone once more.Her family was still alive, right? Hands fumbled up in her crib, grabbing a hold of the bars, and Sakura pulled herself to a seated position. They weren’t Edo-Tensei creations, were they? It was just a nightmare, she reminded herself, sobs still falling from her lips as she floundered in her crib for some form of comfort in the darkest parts. She didn’t want to see the light from the moon. Didn’t want it to touch her skin. She preferred the nights of the new moon – when the miniature planet sealing Kaguya away couldn’t be seen.Dimly she heard someone stirring over in where she knew her parent’s bedroom to be located, followed by murmured protests for someone to go back to sleep. Before her parents could reach her though, her door clicked open, and Sakura’s head swivelled around so she could stare at the two smaller figures which had entered her room.“’Tachi, you can’t use your sister as an excuse, dammit,” an unfamiliar voice rang out, coming from the taller of the two people. Sakura vaguely recognised his chakra as the one which had been hanging around with her brother for most of the day – well, for what he had spent inside the house within her minute sensory range. Apparently they were having a sleepover of sorts. “You can talk to me. In fact, you should talk to me… or at least talk to your psychiatrist. I don’t want you eating yourself up with guilt – it wasn’t your fault.”“I know,” Itachi said, walking across the room towards her, a soft smile on his face when her cries were replaced by frantic grasps and grunts of complaint in his direction as she reached for him.Sakura could only gurgle in happiness when he lifted her from her crib, checking her nappy briefly before peering down at her curiously. “Does she need changing?” her cousin, Shisui, asked. Sasuke hadn’t told her much in either life about him – but all that she did know was that he was a close friend of Itachi and always stole him away from Sasuke. Sasuke had been awfully cute when complaining about him to her as she snuggled into his tiny lap.“No… I think she just wanted some company,” her brother murmured, as she giggled up at him, grabbing a hold of his finger with her miniscule hands as he poked at her squishy cheeks. He was there. He was real. Kaguya was gone, and she was safe. Safe in the arms of her precious aniki as he began to rock her back and forth.The door creaked open again then, the tired face of Uchiha Fugaku filling the gap. He rubbed at his tired eyes. “Itachi…? Shisui…?” He peered between them sleepily, before glancing down at her, a soft smile pulling at his lips when she turned to him, reaching out her arms with yet another gurgle. She babbled at him, her words incomprehensible, fingers pulling at the small shirt on her brother’s back as she basked in their closeness. Basked in her precious family surrounding her. They were all hers. Only hers. “I see you’ve got things handled here,” he said, yawning the next second.“Go back to bed, otou-san,” Itachi all but ordered, snuggling Sakura a little closer as she turned to him with a radiant beam on her tiny lips.Shisui smiled. “We’ll come and get you if Sakura-chan needs anything else,” he said, glancing at her closely then, as if inspecting her. Clearly she passed his inspection, and Sakura felt oddly happy that she had passed muster with her cousin.Fugaku nodded, tiredness lacing his every step as he closed the door with barely a sound, leaving her alone with her brother and her cousin. She didn’t know too much about Shisui, though she was eager to find out. He might be hers too. Hers to look after. “She’s certainly cuter than Sasuke-chan was…” Shisui said, peering down at her, face close enough to touch – so that was what she did, smiling as her hands sloppily patted at his cheeks. “Quieter too…” He trailed off then, catching sight of her brother’s unamused stare before a cheeky grin appeared on his lips. “What? You can’t deny it.”A soft smile broke on her brother’s face. It was a beautiful sight. Sakura wished he would smile at her more. “You’ve stopped crying now…” Itachi murmured, finger brushing at her cheek, the tough feather soft, and her hands latched back onto the slim digit. “What did you want, imouto?”Her hands fisted in his shirt even tighter in answer, incomprehensible sounds rolling from her tongue. There were no doubts she would definitely need to work on that later, but she had a few months until she was due to start speaking.“Awww,” Shisui cooed, face looming over her tiny body. “It’s like she wanted you… how adorable.”“I love you too, imouto,” he whispered, ignorant of the warmth that bloomed in her chest.‘I love you too, nii-san,’ she wanted to whisper back, but her immature tongue and vocal chords wouldn’t move as she wanted them to. Instead, she settled for a gummy smile, fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt. She wouldn’t lose him. They were family now. She had to protect all of them. Protect. Protect. Protect. Protect. The word rang around her brain like a mantra. They were her world now. She had lost the first one. She couldn’t afford to lose a second. There’d be nothing left of her sanity to piece back together if that were the case. They were hers. She was the only one who could hurt them. The only one who could let them die.Tears leaked down his face, her blood running cold as she stared up at him, reaching up to wipe that sad expression off his face. Why was aniki crying? Who hurt him? Her eyes narrowed into slits, hands patting at his cheeks as he held her up closer.“She’s trying to stop you from crying… my heart can’t take this,” Shisui mumbled, snatching her away from her brother, nuzzling his face against her own. “You’re too cute, Saku-chan!”Itachi glared at him flatly, his voice complete and utterly deadpan when he next spoke. “Shisui.”“Speak to the baby, ‘tachi,” he said, cradling her disgruntled self for another few minutes before he spun her around to face her precious brother. “Think of it like puppy therapy, but with a baby instead, OK?”Sakura felt her lips turn flat, Shisui’s laughter vibrating through her body as he spied the displeased expression on her chubby face. He had just claimed her as a substitute for a dog. She was allowed to be a bitch about it.“Go on… it’s not like she’ll remember this or be able to understand it,” he urged, holding her back out for her brother to take.“OK then,” Itachi said, staring intently down at her with a sombre face. Sakura didn’t like that expression on him at all. Smiling suited him more. She wanted to find whoever had made him that sad and rip them apart. “Today… I awakened my sharingan.” Black eyes spun into red, a single tomoe spinning in each eye as he stared down at her. “Otou-san congratulated me.” Tears leaked down his face, and Sakura swallowed thickly, her throat feeling oddly dry.“Let it out, ‘tachi…”“A boy who I considered a friend is dead…” he whispered, voice cracking. Itachi-nii wouldn’t have been sad if that friend hadn’t existed, Sakura mused sourly, jealously and hatred clawing at her chest. Itachi was hers now. He wouldn’t have been sad if he was all hers. “All because I wasn’t strong enough to save him… and all everyone around me is saying is how great it is that I’ve awakened these cursed eyes.”She couldn’t save them either. Her fingers curled in his shirt. Nobody was congratulating her though… that would only make things worse. She yawned then, staring sleepily up at her brother as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve.“I think she’s tired…” Shisui mumbled. “Best put her back to bed… we don’t want a repeat of the cranky Sasuke incident.”“No.” Itachi’s smile was pained and broken. “We don’t.”They placed her back in her crib, leaving just as silently as they had arrived, and then Sakura was all alone – left to mull over the events that had just occurred – a better thing to think about than death and Kaguya. Her brother had cried. Someone had made him upset. She wanted to kill whoever had done that. Her new family were meant to be happy, and they were meant to live. She blinked, flopping onto her back, staring up at the ceiling, eyes narrowing. Uchiha Itachi… her older brother… the boy who would murder all his clan aside from Sasuke… and he had just cried right in front of her. It wasn’t the face of a burgeoning mass murderer she had seen just then. It was the face of her precious aniki. The same one that Konoha would mould into that of a hardened killer. Even though he was so gentle. She could feel the odd sort of comforting wavelength his chakra seemed to emit. It was like campfires and marshmallows. Like a fluffy, warm blanket on a cold winters evening.Konoha wanted to strip that away. Wanted him to become an excellent shinobi with all the blood and death that entailed.
Konoha was going to destroy her brother.
Sakura sat up, sheer and utter loathing coursing through her at that thought. The village she had once thought was nice – better – was going to rip her brother’s sanity to shreds… and for what? To keep an old warhawk’s thirst for power sated.No. She shook her head. That wouldn’t happen. She’d tear Konoha to the ground if that happened. Itachi was her brother. Her lifeline. Her stability. The Uchiha were her family. Hers. She’d lost one. She wouldn’t lose another. Protect. Protect. Protect. Protect. The thoughts raced around her brain, and then the world bloomed red. Tiny black eyes became small red ones, a single tomoe swirling around the gleaming bloody iris in each eye. Her back slammed into the cushioning of her crib, exhaustion flooding through her tiny limbs as the red glow of her eyes permeated the room.
Nothing would touch her brothers. Especially aniki.
She’d kill anyone who tried.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
If there was one person in her family who she didn’t like, it’d have to be her newfound uncle. He was seemingly one of the many ripples of her new universe. The same ripples which had given birth to her – the youngest of the main Uchiha Family. She loved her nii-sans, and her new otou-san and okaa-san were slightly less lovable than her precious brothers, but she still loved them. They were attentive, and they loved taking her outside and showing her the compound. She hadn’t been allowed any further than that just yet – she was only around nine months old, and far too young to go to the many parks outside the Uchiha District. It wasn’t safe… not with the rising tensions between the clan and the village. Still, she was content with her new life so far. There was no Kaguya in sight, and she had far more family than last time. More importantly though, she felt loved. It helped that everyone was none the wiser about the way her eyes could already turn that scarlet red colour. To them, she was just an ordinary baby, and they showered her in affection. The Uchiha Clan wasn’t anything like what she’d heard about when she’d been a Haruno. They weren’t cold and distant. They were warm and close-knit, though Fugaku did seem to like encouraging a rivalry between the boys – but that was for them. She was his baby daughter, and she liked to think she had him wrapped around her tiny finger. All she had to do was flash a gummy smile in his direction, and he’d melt into a pile of goo. His chakra was warm, tinged with the distinctive fire-style nature usually found in the Uchiha Clan. Her mother’s chakra was much the same, if only slightly more mellow and tame. Sasuke’s was pretty much the same, the only thing missing being the dark edge to his chakra – the one which hinted at something lingering underneath. That was gone, and Sasuke seemed happier than ever. Her other brother’s chakra was her favourite. It was toasty and warm, the flame feeling somehow purer than the rest, less gritty than the rest of the various relatives she could sense inside the compound. Her uncle’s chakra was disgusting. Oily. She didn’t like it in the slightest, and she didn’t like his dismissive attitude of her in the slightest. He only had eyes for tou-san and Itachi-nii. She didn’t like the looks he gave aniki. She wanted to rip out his eyes – protect Itachi from those disgusting greedy stares, but she was too young. She was still working on her strength. She hadn’t been idle while stuck rolling around on her back and crawling on her front. She’d been working on her chakra – seeing as how her physical body was going to take an age to sort out. She could only wait until she was able to run around before she could start on building the muscles she needed to survive. She hadn’t known she’d need them until far too late in her last life. “You can bet kaa-chan is going to be her first word, just like Itachi-chan…” Mikoto said as the rest of the family ate. She was having her lunch later. The family just liked to have her at the table. They liked listening to her babble. “It’ll be tou-san, obviously… just like Sasuke-chan,” Fugaku shot back with a smirk at his youngest. “Clearly she’ll be saying tou-san first. She looks just like Sasuke…” Sakura smiled at them, giggling at the little bet going on. She was due to be saying her first words any day now… and everyone in the household had placed their bets on what her first word would be. “Pink,” Sasuke spoke up, pointing at the large pink section of hair covering a fifth of her head, the rest matching the blackish blue of her mother and youngest brother. “She’s definitely a bit pinker than Sasu-chan,” her mother said, smiling at her son. “That’s for sure.” “What about you?” Fugaku looked towards his eldest. “What’s your bet on?” Itachi blinked, a small smile curving at his lips. “I—” “Chi!” Sakura giggled at the silence that fell, a bright grin on her face as she tried the word again. She apologised to her mother and father, but there were two people she loved more than them. “Ta-chi-nii.” She grinned, knowing she’d totally butchered his name, but the look of shock on his face was worth it. She loved her brother. Her arms flailed, reaching for her brother from her high chair. She wanted to cuddle him… while she still could… just in case she couldn’t change his fate no matter how hard she tried. Fugaku smiled softly. “I guess Sakura-chan won’t be the tiebreaker between us then…” he mumbled, lifting her from her high chair, holding her out for Itachi. “I think she wants to see you.” “Imouto…” Itachi stared down at her softly. She curled her baby fingers around his larger ones. “I-ta-chi-nii,” she said, snuggling into his chest, enjoying the feel of his own chakra against hers. Sakura blinked, realising her mistake too late as Itachi sat back, staring down at her curiously. His eyes spun into red, examining her curiously, and Sakura pouted, keeping a tight reign on her own sharingan. Her chakra system was unusually developed for her age – a consequence of her using it so often when she was left alone. Even children who’d accidentally discovered their chakra didn’t have so well-developed pathways. Strong pathways came from constant chakra use – and the stronger they were, the more chakra one could use at a time without hurting themselves. Worry pulled at her brother’s face, his gaze darting over to their father questioningly, and Sakura stiffened as her father chuckled. “I know,” Fugaku said, closing his eyes. “Her chakra is unusually well developed, but I caught her playing about with it yesterday.” Sakura winced. She’d thought she’d been subtle with her little chakra drills… but then again, she’d never had two parents with the same training. Oops. “But the Clan already have their genius, Itachi,” their father said, taking her from his son, lifting her up with a smile. “And that’s you… They don’t need another one.” Mikoto smiled. Itachi sighed in relief. “I’m sure she’ll make us and the rest of the Clan proud in her own way… once she’s ready,” he finished, and Sakura blinked in shock as her father set her down on his lap. Maybe it was another one of the ripples… Uchiha Fugaku was nothing like Sasuke or anybody else had described to her all those years ago… or maybe it was because she was his precious daughter… Sakura smiled. Either way it didn’t matter. She loved her new father… especially since one day he’d be teaching her how to set things on fire. She couldn’t wait for that day. In fact, she was already looking forwards to it. She had plenty of people she needed to set on fire. “Tou-san!” she babbled, grinning up at him, watching as he smirked over at her mother. “She still said tou-san first, so I’m going to count that down as a win,” he said smugly. Mikoto glared at him. “No it doesn’t. That’s cheating!” “We’re ninja, and we have the sharingan,” he said with a wink. “Of course we cheat.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Her mother sat in front of her a little ways away, clapping as her father stood nearby, camera at the ready as she stumbled to her feet. Legs wobbled, her arms outstretched, windmilling whenever she threatened to overbalance which was fairly often, given her lack of motor control. Sasuke cheered her on from the side, Itachi busy with his genin team and likely due home any minute now. She’d worked out their schedules over the last few months, including her designated four hours of nap time in the middle of the day when everybody was out of the house aside from her, Sasuke, and the nanny hired to take care of them both. It was the perfect time for chakra manipulations, especially seeing as her family were aware of them. She took it as a green light, and no longer bothered to try and do it all that discretely. Discretion wouldn’t get the job done on time, and Sakura was short on that. So crawling up the walls it was. Sakura giggled, stumbling towards her mother, growing that much closer step by step until she was in her mother’s arms and the camera was clicking. The sound of the front door opening and closing had both her and Sasuke perking up, a glance shared between them before they ran for the porch. Well, Sasuke ran, Sakura toddled as quickly as she could, stumbling into the foyer only to faceplant against her aniki’s legs. “Tachi-nii!” She smiled up at him, clinging to his pant legs as he poked Sasuke on the forehead. “Home!” “Yes, Imouto,” he mumbled, and then two fingers tapped her forehead far more gently than Sasuke’s given her age and the sheer shakiness of her newfound footing. “I’m home.” “Aniki!” She held her arms up in the universal carry me sign. “Up!” She bounced up and down on her feet. “Up!” Itachi smiled, lifting her up before she could start jumping wildly about the place. “I see you’ve started walking already.” Fugaku walked around the corner. “We took pictures,” he said, putting Itachi’s sandals away as she snaked her arms around her brother’s neck, nuzzling her cheek against his throat. “How was your day? Successful?” He eyed his son from head to toe. “Yes, Otou-san,” he said, nodding even as Sakura continued her nuzzling. “My team completed a total of four D-Rank missions, as well as setting the record for catching Tora in the fastest time.” Fugaku smiled softly, ruffling Itachi’s silky hair. Sakura wished she was tall enough to do that. “That’s my son,” he mumbled. “Now let’s go outside… I think it’s time we continued our training.” “Nii-san…” Sasuke pouted, clutching at his brother’s leg. “Can I train with you and otou-san?” He stared pleadingly up at the both of them, Sakura watching as he unleashed the puppy eyes he seemed to have perfected. “Pretty please?” “You’ve still got your training drills to do, Sasuke,” their father said, reaching down to ruffle his hair. “You can join in training with your brother once you’re a bit older.” Sasuke released the breath he’d been holding in a huff. “How older is older?” he grumbled, staring sullenly at the floor. “When you’re five.” “But that’s ages away.” Sasuke’s shoulders sunk, and Sakura reached down as best she could, trusting her other brother to keep a firm grasp on her as she patted his cheek consolingly. “There, there, nii-san,” she said, internally cooing at his baby cheeks and how much she wanted to pinch them, even as Itachi carefully set her back on the ground. Sakura pushed herself off her backside, stumbling after the three members of her family as they went out into the garden to train – Sasuke pouting as he went off to run laps and generally improve his fitness. Exactly like she needed to do, no matter the fact she was still wearing nappies. She toddled off the engawa, eyes fixed on Sasuke as he ran, silently praying her legs would hold out for at least one measly lap. She refused to be weak, even at the tender age of twelve months. She’d been there for a year already, and she was irritated at her progress, despite the medic inside of her telling her she was well within the limits of amazing baby growth. She wanted to be able to throw shuriken and kunai. She wanted to feel a bit more defensible in her new body lined with baby fat and noodle limbs. Time. It’d all take time, and that was a precious rarity, especially if the Uchiha Massacre was scheduled to take place still. Part of her hoped the natural ripples of her strange universe would sort it out, but she doubted fate would be that kind to her – she was a member of Team Seven, and the universe loved to throw everything their way. Her way. She was the last one left. She scowled up at the sky, chasing after Sasuke on shaky legs. At least until she faceplanted the ground and had to be rescued by her tou-san. “I think that’s enough running about for you today, Sakura,” he said, scooping her off the cold dirt, carrying her inside while Itachi threw kunai after kunai at the targets set up. “’koto?” He peered around the dining room, heading into the kitchen when her mother was nowhere to be found in that room. “What’s the matter?” Mikoto appeared from the room behind them, smiling up until she saw the thin layer of dirt coating Sakura’s front from head to toe. “This one needs a bath, I think,” he said, handing her over with yet another hair ruffle, and Sakura giggled. “Have fun, tou-san!” she called, waving enthusiastically as she was carried off to the bath. A bath and some dinner later and Sakura sat back in her room, staring at the ceiling blankly as she went through her regular chakra drills, closing her eyes as she expanded her sensory capabilities as much as she could. She was a self-taught sensor rather than a naturally born one, so it wasn’t quite as easy for her as say Senju Tobirama, but she was starting younger than most, so she was fairly sure she’d become decent enough with it over time. Time, again. Something she didn’t have much of. Her uncle’s chakra pinged on her radar, eyes narrowing as he sat downstairs in her father’s home office, speaking with her father. He’d been coming over far more frequently, much to her annoyance. She hated his visits, just like she hated his oily chakra, but it told her something rather important. Something she needed to know. Their relationship with the village was only worsening. How so, Sakura didn’t know, but with her uncle seemingly on her father’s case about it, all she knew was that it couldn’t be good. She bit her lip, disgust making her small hands curl into fists. No doubt it was something to do with Danzo – a problem she’d have to deal with at her earliest convenience. She flopped back on her bed, sighing gutsily. There was so much to do, and yet so little time in which to do it… She’d have to start laying her plans out as best she could. There were only four more years until the massacre was due to take place, and that wasn’t accounting for any factors which could make it come around early. The ripples in the universe compared to her own made it hard to tell. Would they aid her, or would they spell ruin for her brother? Sakura grumbled nonsense under her breath, slapping her hands to her cheeks. First, she had to check the situation with Danzo. Next was dealing with the Uchiha Clan through one means or another. “Oh.” She blinked at the ceiling, the solution piecing itself together slowly yet surely. “I’m going to have to infiltrate ROOT…” A shark-like grin pulled at her lips. She’d make Danzo dance to her tune this time around. A giggle escaped her as the scenarios played out in her mind.
This was going to be fun.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
There was just a slight snag in her plans, not including the fact she wasn’t exactly sure of how she was supposed to snag the attention of ROOT. Something she hadn’t really been prepared for. Sakura pouted as she was carried to the park, dressed up in pink and frills, the Uchiwa displayed proudly on her back. Sure, she loved being held by her new family – especially her new brothers – but she had goals now. None of them involved meeting other toddlers at the nearest local park. She didn’t have time for that, dammit. Her training was already cutting into her sleeping time, and that was unhealthy as it was. Fortunately her body sometimes decided to get some sleep whether she wanted it or not, so she never ended up risking her life with her reckless training methods. It wasn’t her fault that she wanted to improve her chakra capacity as much as possible. There were theories that if a child completed lots of chakra exercises early on, their overall chakra stores and their maximum limit would be increased exponentially – since chakra stores grew largely from three years of age to seven. They never stopped growing, but that was the best time – and the academy missed that window, starting chakra manipulation and control lessons when they were nine… though she supposed growing chakra reserves were slightly harder to control, but geniuses like Kakashi and her brother had managed it. “Sakura-chan, make lots of friends, OK?” Her mother smiled down at her, and Sakura patted her cheek. “There are lots of siblings of Sasuke-chan’s friends, so I have no doubts you’ll find at least one to get along with.” She scowled, but apparently the image just looked adorable on her pudgy face. “Fine,” she grumbled, swearing to silently find the most quiet and tolerable one possible. There was no way in hell she wanted to be dragged around by a loud brash friend ever again. Ino had been enough. But her Ino was dead now, and she didn’t need any paltry imitations. “Aww, don’t make such a face, sweetie.” Mikoto pinched her cheek and her scowl faded away. “Friends are a good thing to have.” “Hn.” Sakura sighed, glancing around the park, figuring she might as well try and interact with some other toddlers, if only to get her mother off her case about making friends. She didn’t want any friends. There’d never be any Naruto or Sasuke for her. No Naruto to rescue her when she fell in too deep… if she succumbed to the so-called Uchiha madness. Curiously, she looked around, wondering who her target should be. There were plenty of Inuzuka children milling about, but they were too loud. Yamanaka would just remind her of Ino – of what she could never have again. Nara would be too smart. She couldn’t see any Akimichi. Sakura bit her lip, her blood practically freezing when she spotted her past self. Her past self was there. But what was she doing in a place full of toddlers and their siblings and parents…? Sakura blinked, eyes widening as she spotted another one of her new world’s ripples. She swallowed, her throat suddenly extraordinary dry, her sharingan pressing behind her eyes. It wanted to come out. Wanted to memorise to sight in front of her. The sight she’d never seen before. The sight she wished she’d had in her old universe. But it wouldn’t bode well to reveal her sharingan just yet. She needed tricks up her sleeve, especially if she wanted to eliminate Danzo and ROOT… and possibly some of her clan should her uncle keep acting up. But she didn’t want to think of the future. Not in that instance. She didn’t want those thoughts to spoil the beautiful sight in front of her, because clinging to the backs of the legs of Haruno Sakura was a small child. A small pink-haired child with bright blue eyes just like Haruno Kizashi. Her feet moved before she had time to process it, taking her towards the girl who had to be about the same age as her. Big blue eyes darted up to meet hers as she drew closer, and Sakura felt herself smile. “Don’t be shy, Kagami-chan,” Haruno Sakura said, smiling at her younger sister just how she’d used to before everything went to hell. Not that she’d had a younger sister to smile at. But Kaguya didn’t matter. The blood she could see staining her hands didn’t matter. All that mattered was her. Kagami. “Kagami-chan,” she whispered, liking the way it rolled from her tongue. “Hi,” she chirped, reaching out for that tinytiny hand of the small pink-haired toddler. “I’m Sakura.” “Like nee-chan!” Kagami mumbled, curling behind her sister’s legs that much more, at least until Haruno Sakura urged her away gently. “You go play with Sakura-chan, Kagami-chan,” Haruno Sakura said, seating herself down in the grass, proving herself to be a responsible older sister. Just like she would’ve been too. “I’ll watch from here, ‘kay?” Sakura grabbed Kagami by the hand, tightening her grip ever so slightly. Not enough to cause harm, but enough to ensure she wouldn’t be separated. She couldn’t be separated from her. Not now, not ever. “Where we goin’?” Kagami looked at her, biting at the nails of her other hand as Sakura led her to the side of the clearing where the playground was amidst the park’s trees. “Flowers,” Sakura said as way of explanation, gesturing to the wildflowers that grew along the edge of the playground. “Pretty flowers.” “Cool!” Sakura smiled, wrapping her arms around her new friend, whispers burning at the back of her brain as her sharingan flickered into view under the fringe of her hair, appearing only for a single instant before it was gone. She nuzzled her cheek into those pink locks. The ones which used to cover all her skull rather than just one fifth of it. In another life, Kagami would’ve been hers. She giggled, hugging Kagami ever closer despite her growing confusion. Kagami would’ve been her little sister. Kagami should’ve been her little sister. The one who she could’ve whispered stories to, and tucked in at night, just how Itachi-nii sometimes did for her. Sakura bit her lip. She would’ve made an excellent big sister. She still could. Her smile widened, and she nuzzled her cheek against those pink locks yet again, the word slipping almost inaudibly from her lips
“Mine.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sakura hummed to herself, smiling as she braided Kagami’s hair, ignoring her Sasuke-nii and her old self who milled about in the garden in front of them. It was the end of a warm, sticky day, and her mother had been more than happy about her asking to play with Kagami. Of course, that meant her old self had to bring her sister over, but Sakura could suffer through seeing her old self if it meant seeing Kagami. Her precious sister. Hers. Sakura smiled, weaving Kagami’s hair into an intricate style that made her look even prettier than she already was. “Done,” she said, having finished tying the ribbon, securing the pretty braid. “Whoa…” Kagami peered into the mirror her kaa-chan had leant out to her. “It’s really pretty! You’re super awesome, Sakura!” Sakura preened, pulling herself forwards to sit next to her precious little imouto, wrapping her arms around her. “Of course I am,” she mumbled, smiling in satisfaction when Kagami returned the hug. Admittedly it had taken her a short while to get Kagami to accept them from her, but she had succeeded in passing off those daily hugs as routine. “Tou-san said Uchiha are s’pposed to be ‘loof and all, but Sakura isn’t like that!” Kagami chirped, resting her head on Sakura’s shoulder. “You’re a weird Uchiha, Kura! Hee. Kura, get it? Friends need nicknames. That’s what Sakura-nee said – she’s got a blonde friend called Ino.” Sakura blinked placidly. So that was something that remained constant between the worlds. That didn’t matter though, she supposed. She had Kagami now. Kagami was hers. “You can be Mi, then,” she said matter-of-factly. Her hand closed around Kagami’s own. “We’ll be Kura and Mi, not Sakura and Ino…” she murmured, resting her own head on top of Kagami’s. She wouldn’t let their sisterhood end the same way as her friendship had.
Kagami was hers. Only hers.
“Huh?” Kagami blinked in confusion. Sakura smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Mi,” she said, basking in the presence of her precious little sister for as long as she could get away with. But all good things came to an end – and all too soon she had to be separated from her sibling. Mi… Mine. Her hands itched whenever she walked Kagami to their door, and she could just imagine her living with them. Sharing a room together, braiding each other’s hair, whispering stories to one another as they grew up there together – as it should have been. Pouting, she wandered to her mother’s side, watching from the counter as she cooked dinner with a practiced ease. “Will there be any pudding?” she asked, swinging her stubby legs back and forth. Her muscles were coming along slowly but surely, though they weren’t anything near where Sakura wanted them to be.
She’d need them to rip ROOT to shreds.
Her hands twitched, clenching down on the kitchen counter upon which she sat. They were a threat. A threat to Kagami. A threat to her precious brothers. A threat to her family… and she couldn’t lose her family again. “Imouto?” Itachi appeared from the corridor, Sasuke trailing on his heels. “Nii-san!” Sakura leapt down, eagerly trotting to his side. “What are you doing now? Neh, were you taking Sasu-nii to train before dinner?” Shisui was there in an instant, smiling sunnily at her as she looked between her brothers and her cousin. “How ever did you guess, Saku-chan?” “Yay!” Sakura grinned brightly, distracted from mourning the absence of her Kagami. “I’m coming too,” she declared, throwing herself into Shisui’s arms. “I wanna do more than just run around this time though, you got that?” “Sure thing, Saku-chan,” Shisui chirped. “I’m sure I can think of something fun for you to do, while the stick in the mud over there drills Sasuke on shuriken.” “Muscle and endurance are the base upon which everything is built on, Shisui,” Itachi called, guiding Sasuke towards the targets. Sakura pouted yet again, puffing out her cheeks at the thought of doing more and more running. She needed to be stronger than before, so she didn’t lose anyone. She couldn’t lose anyone. Never again. Her grasp on Shisui tightened reflexively, sharingan pushing behind her eyes wanting to come out. Never. A poke to her cheek startled her out of her daze. “What’s with the serious face?” Shisui inquired. “Or are you just that excited to be training with yours truly?” “Shi-nii!” Sakura smiled up at him, using every inch of her cuteness as she begged her cousin to teach her something useful for her plan to take down ROOT. “Teach me shunshin? Please. Pretty please?” Shisui leant over her exhausted form, smirking. “I don’t think you’ll be copying me anytime soon, Saku-chan. Those short little legs of yours can’t keep up.” “They’re perfectly average sized for my age!” Sakura grumbled, pushing her aching self to her feet. “Oh really…?” “Shisui,” Itachi spoke, glaring at him as he swept her up into his arms. “Stop teasing her. You’ve tired her out enough as it is with your ridiculous training methods, and we’ll be late for dinner if we dally any longer.” “And the jealously—oof… Not cool, Tachi,” Shisui grumbled, rubbing at his stomach. “You have pointy elbows.” Itachi just ignored him, turning his focus to her instead. “Why do you push yourself so hard, imouto?” he murmured, cradling her to his chest, and Sakura pulled herself back so she could stare up at him with earnest eyes. “You don’t need to grow up just yet…” Sakura beamed. “I’m gonna protect you, nii-san! That’s why I have to get stronger.” “I should be telling you that,” Itachi said softly, eyes softening as he locked stares with her own. Sakura tilted her head. “But Tachi-nii is sad…” Itachi stared down at her wordlessly. “This is too cute for words,” Shisui mumbled behind them. “She just wants to protect her big brother… I could squeal at the adorableness.” “Please don’t,” Itachi said, one hand coming to tuck some of her fluffed up inky black locks back behind her ear. Sakura placed her smaller hands on either side of his face, staring up at him with a big grin on her face as she opened her mouth once more, eyes narrowing at the thought of anyone trying to hurt her precious eldest brother. “I’ll kill anyone who hurts you, nii-san!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Summertime brought the stifling hot airs with it, and Sakura was infinitely grateful to not be stuck in a sweaty, hot classroom. It didn’t matter that the summer holidays would be there soon enough for the academy – a chance for civilian children to unwind, and a chance for those with clan lineage to grow even further ahead of their peers. Of course, she had only realised that little snippet of information later on in life, once she had grown from the naively-in-love twelve year old genin she had once been. Things would have been far different if she’d grasped a hold of that information earlier on. How, Sakura wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe she would have quit, seen the immense hurdle in front of her and balked at the prejudices and the way the system made it so very hard for civilian born shinobi to climb. Or maybe she would have become better, driven by her rivalry with Ino. She didn’t know. She never would.The constant hum of bugs, hovering in the air over water, or hidden behind dark green leaves made for a backdrop of noise for Sakura’s trail of thoughts. None of them were particularly good, and she was in a terrible mood because of them. Her plans weren’t working as they should have. None of them were.Finding ROOT was not as simple as she had made it sound. Sure, it sounded easy in theory, but when the leader of ROOT was a paranoid old shinobi who had been running the gig behind the scenes for years… It was another matter entirely. To make matters worse, the Hokage was actually aware of a personalised force of ANBU dancing to Danzo’s tune. And he did absolutely nothing. He could have found out where the bases were, taken them down and prevented any more kidnappings of civilian and clan children who lived on the fringes, and he could have branded the old man a traitor and protected the people who trusted in him to keep them safe. Or had him assassinated, quietly and quickly. As the student of the Hokage – one who didn’t let old friends get away with treason – she had managed a glimpse of the files. Just a glimpse – nothing more. But even a glimpse was enough to see how far the madness had descended.Incompetence.Sarutobi Hiruzen was an incompetent, bumbling fool too lost in his desire to keep things peaceful, whether it be between nations or between a group of friends to see what his actions would bring. Or perhaps he too harboured some sort of dislike for the Uchiha?Sakura could only speculate, but it made her even more furious than it had when she had first discovered it. Because his incompetence this time would hurt her. Hurt her clan. Though the guilty parties might be there, children and other innocents were too. Danzo would slaughter them all indiscriminately, given the right opportunity to do so. Sakura didn’t care about whether she was in a different universe or not. Things were shaping up to be the same way. The way people interacted with them when they ventured beyond the safety of the clan compound. She could still remember the wary look in the eyes of the civilian manning the shop they had stopped in to collect The thought made her hands curl into fists, a snarl escaping her as she thought of what Danzo would do to her family.There had always been that greedy glint in his gimlet eyes, and it on some level, Sakura had realised in hindsight, unnerved her. She had good instincts when it came to people – being raised the daughter of a merchant the first time around had led to that. Not that any of her old skills or memories were helping her then.For one, she had no idea whereabouts any of the operatives were, nor did she know where they were based. Sure, being the Hokage’s student she had been made aware that underground bases existed, but that was just about the extent of her knowledge. Never before had she wished to do as much of Tsunade’s paperwork as she had.For two, she hadn’t the slightest clue of how to entice Danzo into perhaps keeping her around rather than flat out killing her. She would have to give off the impression she was useful, but also that she was thicker than she actually was. He could never see her coming.She wasn’t sure of how to begin and flopping around on the floor did nothing but make her stomach twist into that much tighter of a ball. She didn’t know how to begin unravelling the underground empire Danzo had created, but she had to try. Sakura knew she wouldn’t survive if her clan died. If Itachi ran off to join the Akatsuki. If Sasuke became a boy obsessed with vengeance.She wanted them whole – as whole and healthy as hired killers could be – and she wanted them safe, even if only from snakes and rotten roots. Scowling at her thinking, she sent her chakra out, trying to sense for anything out of the ordinary. Maybe Danzo had his sneaky spies watching the compound?But she hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary just yet, and she was getting antsy about that fact. Because the clock was ticking, and she had precious little time to figure out how to divert the impending disaster looming over her head like an axe waiting to fall.“Calm down,” she reminded herself. It wasn’t like she was out of time, nor was she becoming complacent. “Look underneath the underneath.”The wrinkle between her brows grew more prominent as she thought desperately. There were other ways to ensure the Uchiha’s happy future, but Sakura wasn’t certain of any of them working beyond her kill Danzo and all of his ROOT plan. Even how she was going to manage that was still up in the airs, because she had to focus on finding the bastard and all his dens first.“Your face will get stuck like that, you know,” her mother’s voice only made her scowl that much harder. “What’s the matter, Sakura-chan?”She huffed then. “Nothing,” she grumbled, looking away determinedly. “Just miss ‘Tachi-nii.”“He’s out on a mission,” Mikoto told her then, leaning against the doorframe. “He’ll be back before you know it, and then you’ll be able to play with him.” She leant forwards, smiling widely. “Who knows, with how your brother spoils you, he might even bring you back a souvenir.”Trying to conceal the blush which burned the tips of her ears was a lost cause. “Hn,” she grunted, trying to channel the stoicism she saw her father using whenever confronted with his brother. She had yet to master it, going by her mother’s cooing. Sometimes she hated being stuck in a body which still had baby fat clinging to it. The other part of her loved it, because even if she was that much more squishy and adorable it had given her Itachi and Sasuke, though not the versions she had once loved. They were new, and they were all hers. Hers to protect and cherish, and she would do just that, she promised herself.“We could see if Sasuke-chan wants to play?” she offered, and Sakura barely held back the smile at the thought.“Hn. That would be acceptable,” Sakura said, nodding then. Though she did wish Kagami could come over again soon. She missed the other girl – her new sister, even though if she wasn’t by blood as it would have been before. Kagami was hers, though, in every way it mattered. Her little sister.Sakura always had to resist the urge to puff out her chest whenever she thought of that. She had never been a big sister before, so she thought it was going to be a wonderful learning experience. It wasn’t like she’d had one before, nor had she had any children. Her cheeks reddened at the thought, and she mused briefly over her romantic prospects then and there. But she didn’t linger on that vein of thought for too long – she had better, more important things to be doing than musing over possible future relationships like the lovestruck teen she had once been.A scowl crossed her face at the memory of that time, and she rolled over onto her front, wishing for a cooling system beyond dipping her toes in the river flowing behind the house. The Uchiha Main House was traditional right down to the tatami mats, and sadly no one had yet to install a compact air conditioner like the ones the Haruno Family had saved up for.“Shall we go and get Sasuke-chan now? I might even let you both help in the kitchen a bit later if you behave,” her mother offered, and Sakura perked up. Really, she would take any sort of distraction to get her mind off the fact she was getting nowhere as she was. And it was hardly like she could ask anyone for help, given her situation. The Hokage’s office was dark, the beige walls looking closer to a dark grey in the dimness of light. It had been only minutes since the sun had set and waiting as the shadows had lengthened was rather unsettling to say the least. It created an uneasy atmosphere, to say the least, and not one he had experienced too many times before. Similar to the time when he had been given the mission to guard his fellow agemates upon Kushina’s birth. Though the mission he was given was even more unsettling.“The latest shipment from Kurogane has recently come in,” Sarutobi began, and he felt a slight unease curl up in his belly. Because Kurogane was one of their main weapons suppliers. “When completing the inventory, it was found that Konoha has received thirty-three boxes of supplies, as opposed to the thirty-five we usually receive. A request was then sent to Kurogane, and it was found that they have believed themselves to be delivering us fifty boxes of supplies, rather than the thirty-five we have received for a number of years. Our transcripts have been falsified – are being falsified, and we are lucky to have been able to catch onto this as quietly as we have done.”He sucked in a sharp breath then, eyes widening behind the ceramic face mask clipped in place. “Hokage-sama?” he murmured, silently wondering if he had heard that correctly, because it meant that someone had been playing them for fools for quite a while. “I am sure you understand the importance of the mission I am about to assign you,” his Hokage’s voice was grave, his eyes narrowed. “This is a highly sensitive mission which is being assigned to you, and you alone. You are not to share the details of this briefing with anyone, nor are you allowed to bring anybody onboard – even your fellow ANBU – without discussing this with me prior to doing so.”He bowed his head. “Understood, Hokage-sama!”“Then your mission is as follows: uncover who, or whom, is behind the missing shipments,” Sarutobi finished, his voice laced with iron. “This is considered an S-Rank Mission, more so due to this being an internal threat, and I have no doubts you will complete it to the best of your abilities, ANBU Rat.”ANBU Rat lifted his head. “Of course, Hokage-sama.”“There have been numerous suspicious movements from certain parties within the village… and Danzo has brought me his worries about a certain clan within our walls,” Sarutobi continued. “Not to mention they have the uncanny ability to adjust memories and their perception, as well as imitate handwriting…”Dark eyes narrowed, and ANBU Rat felt himself frown behind his mask. “Hokage-sama, forgive me for asking, but I have I been selected for this mission because of my connections?” he asked, looking at the face of the Hokage, which presumably told him nothing. Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn’t survived to the age he had by being readable, that was for certain.“You would be correct,” he said then. “There is little doubt that Uchiha isn’t involved, meaning he will be your best point of contact, should you need to venture into the Uchiha Compound for any reason. The case file is on my desk, ANBU Rat, and you will have the next ten minutes to read and memorise as much of the information as you can before this is stored away again.”“Understood, Hokage-sama. If you will permit me to approach?”“Granted.” She had failed.She had failed the test… so why wasn’t she dead? It wasn’t the Pure Lands she could remember a soft voice telling her so long ago – the last vestiges of the memories she had before the house. Before Number 5000.Failure was unacceptable. Incomprehensible. She should be dead, Number 4999 knew that much. The one who watched over them was not so merciful as to let failures live.Her eyes opened slowly, and she noted the liquid she appeared to be submerged in. She was in some sort of suspension, inside a tube. Her vision was compromised, and her body immovable for reasons she couldn’t quite fathom, as confuddled by her new situation as it was. Unable to look anywhere else but forward, she stared at the approaching figure blandly.He wore a white coat, and carried a clipboard, from what she could make out as the man stepped closer and closer. His shoes were too big, even if his hair was long, leading to their being a greater likelihood of him being of the male designation. Sensei Number 7 had taught her all about that, not that she thought she would ever use it again.A pale hand rested against the transparent wall of her tube, pulling her attention to the subject before her – the long-haired male in the lab coat.Number 4999 blinked.Serpentine yellow eyes stared back.