Two
The young rosette watched as her peers got up and left with their respective teachers, until she and her other two teammates were left all alone in the room. (Even Iruka-sensei had left, not before he gave them a mild warning that their teacher would show up late.)
Sakura leaned back in her seat with a sigh and her gaze drifted up to the roof, a memory began to play on the back of her eyelids and Sakura smiled to herself as she remembered.
‘Mama, Mama!’ Sakura called from the garden, a wide grin plastered on her lips. Her voice echoed in the small Haruno household, and it didn’t take much long for Mebuki to emerge from the indoors. ‘Look!’ Sakura giggled, whilst her mother stared at her, appalled. The toddler hung from the branch of the willow tree upside-down with no support, except for her two feet that were stuck to the branch of the tree as if her daughter had glued them there. Mebuki was almost about to believe that idea, if Sakura hadn’t moved to walk down the tree.
‘S-Spring?’ Mebuki stuttered, her shock had yet to wear off.
‘I learnt it from a scroll in the library!’ Sakura explained cheerfully. ‘The teachers in the Academy haven’t taught us this yet.’ Her later sentence was added like an afterthought.
‘T-That’s…’ Mebuki cleared her throat, and gave her daughter a weak, but proud, smile and said, ‘that’s amazing, Spring. Come inside now, you can train after lunch, okay?’
‘Okay, Mama!’
‘Mama,’ Sakura whispered to her mother as they strolled down the market street. ‘Look up, there’s Silver-san. He brought me home that day, remember?’
‘Yes, honey, I remember.’ Mebuki smiled down at her daughter. ‘You want me to pick you up, so you can look at Shinobi-san clearly?’
‘Yes, please!’ Sakura chirped, and the blonde woman picked up the child. The young girl debated on calling out for him, but then the shinobi’s eye fell on her and she lit up like a lantern. Sakura waved, the motion was equally as enthusiastic as his smile. ‘I wonder what his name is,’ Sakura confessed once the shinobi was long gone.
‘You’ll be able to ask him, one day.’ Mebuki hummed as she carried her daughter back home. ‘Will you help me prepare dinner? I’m making udon today, you think Naruto will like it?’
‘Na-chan likes everything you do, Mama!’
The corner of Sakura’s mouth lifted up for a brief second, as memories of her mother swarmed her brain. (In some distant corner of her mind, a buried memory flickered to life—)
(‘So obedient,’ the man crooned as he lifted her chin. ‘You should always be this way, okay? Forever my little girl, aren’t you?’)
(Sakura’s mouth morphed into a grim frown as she glared at the man supposed to be her father. He disgusted her, and there weren’t many things that did so.)
‘Look, Sa-chan!’ Naruto’s voice came to her ears, his joyous cheer burst into her mindscape not unlike how sunlight suddenly flooded her room whenever her mother would sharply draw the curtains apart.
Naruto had cleverly placed a duster above the door, so it would fall on whoever’s head was unlucky enough to enter through that door — right, their jounin-sensei who was horrendously late. Sakura shot her blonde counterpart with a look that spoke volumes: are you sure this will work on him?
Naruto’s blinding grin was an answer on its own: positive!
She sighed. The Uchiha levelled all of them with a glare, Sakura wouldn’t normally care if withering glare had only been for her but he looked at Naruto as if he was nothing but a speck under his shoe, and Sakura didn’t like it. The rosette narrowed her eyes at him, and her fists clenched where her hands were put together on her lap.
The tension on the room broke apart when the door finally slid open and a strangely familiar man walked in through the door. The duster fell on his head with a gentle poof as chalk-dust was released from the fall of the object. Sakura’s eyes lit up with recognition — that same shock of silver hair, that same mask.
It was Silver Savior Shinobi-san! (Sakura could practically hear the Naruto in her head snicker at that nickname.)
‘My first impression of you guys,’ he sighed before he continued, ‘is that I hate all of you.’
Sakura wilted once the words left his mouth.
‘Meet me on the rooftop, you’ve got 30 seconds,’ and then he disappeared. The last Uchiha spared no second before he sped out the door, Naruto and Sakura shared a brief glance and then they ran.
See, the thing about Sakura was that: sure, she had short legs but she was small and had a great stamina (courtesy to Naruto’s ritual of running from his “Masks” and other people that chased him for his pranks) which resulted in her speed. She was fast, and she knew how to redirect chakra to her legs – which meant it was not much of a difficult feat for her to overtake Sasuke (by a hair’s difference) and practically stumble into the rooftop.
Hatake Kakashi gave her a look of faux disinterest.
‘Well, why don’t you all introduce yourselves, now that we’re gathered her,’ he asked. ‘Your name, of course, likes, dislikes, dreams or goals, and your hobbies!’
Silence was his reply, and then he sighed again.
‘Right, I’ll start, I guess.’ Kakashi’s visible eye crinkled in a manner that made Sakura uncomfortable. Was he pretending to smile? ‘I’m your jounin-sensei, Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes are… none of your business, I don’t have any hobbies that you need to know of, and my dream… well,’ he shrugged.
‘What kind of introduction was that?’ Naruto protested loudly. Kakashi raised his eyebrow at him.
‘Why don’t you introduce yourself then buddy?’
‘I’m Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!’ Sakura felt the natural tug of her lips when Naruto beamed. ‘I like ramen, and spending time with Sakura! I don’t like it when people are mean,’ Naruto paused, before his smile became a grin and Sakura was sure that it was sun stranding in place of her best friend, ‘I’m gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!’
‘Hobbies?’
‘Playing pranks,’ Sakura answered for him, though her voice was too soft to be picked up. She gulped, and looked down at her feet.
‘Oi teme, it’s your turn.’
Sasuke glared at Naruto, and Sakura’s protective instinct flared.
‘I’m Uchiha Sasuke, I don’t like a lot of things, and I dislike most things. I don’t have any hobbies besides training, and my goal is to…. Kill a certain man.’
‘...Okay,’ Kakashi pinched his nose. ‘You’re next,’ he looked at Sakura. The girl wondered if the adult remembered her.
‘I’m Sakura — just Sakura,’ the girl introduced herself, her voice was barely above a whisper but it was loud enough to be heard. Naruto smiled at her encouragingly. ‘Uhm, I like flowers, reading and spending time with Naruto, I dislike people who think they’re better than everyone else and those who are hateful for no good reason,’ she paused. ‘My goal… is to protect my loved ones.’
‘Well, aren’t you a curious bunch.’ Kakashi hummed. ‘5 am, training ground three. Don’t be late, and don’t eat breakfast. You’ll puke.’
Then he disappeared.
Again.
Sakura internally sighed. They were going to have a wonderful time.