Chapter 31
Chapter 31: Countdown: 6
After the eventful dinner with her team, Sakura went home. Sasuke gave her a smirk, and Naruto waved from his bedroom window as they walked away. Eventually, Sasuke split off from the trio, leaving Sakura and Kakashi alone. Of course, she got head pats from Kakashi, and she swore she saw adoption papers in his pocket. What was that weird Jonin planning? Walking the streets, she picked up various bits of gossip.
Prizes for fish had gone down thanks to a new trade route to Nami. So, Tazuna had kept his promise to her. Hmm, what else? The Chunin Exams were in four months. Okay, that’s going to be fun. There were also rumors of the "Assassination of Elder Danzo Shimura" being closed with no leads found. Sakura's heart pounded. She had made sure the job was clean and left no evidence. Hopefully, the police force would just move on to other matters. Her eyes scanned nearby shops as she sighed in relief.
The last couple of weeks, she’d actually been eating food.
Funny, when she was around her team, she did human things. On her own, she usually just shoved tasteless soldier pills and cardboard crackers down her throat. It was a bad and harmful practice from her ROOT days, even though Danzo was gone, his ghost still haunted her. Maybe she should take Kakashi’s offer…?
She shook her head.
No. She couldn’t.
The last time she slept at their place, she screamed the house down and almost killed Sakumo. She needed to get her sleepwalking and night terrors under control. Turning to the hospital, she quickly signed herself up for the morning shifts before heading back to the abandoned district to her home.
It was the only relic of her parents. She never found out where Danzo had disposed of their bodies.
Walking further into the abandoned district, past her house, she made her way to a familiar training ground. Besides her and some stray cats and animals, no one came to the abandoned districts. There had been talks about rebuilding this place, but people were still scared from the Nine-Tails attack that had claimed the Third Hokage's life and many fellow shinobi.
Plus, the whole Danzo debacle had further complicated things, putting any idea of reviving the district on hold. Good for her—she could still train her secret chimera powers.
Stepping onto the shared training ground, she activated some privacy seals and barriers. Channeling chakra into her right foot, she released the seal, and the familiar silver chakra circulated in her blood. In four months, the Chunin Exams would be here. Not that she’d use any of her special powers, but she should at least try getting her Mangekyō Sharingan in check. She took a deep breath, activated her Sharingan, and watched it shift from one tomoe to three, and then to the Mangekyō.
She focused. After a while, a silver dome surrounded her. Now what? She knew she could do the dome thing and slow things down. But what else could she do? She couldn’t just walk up to Kakashi and his dad and be like, "Oh, hello, I’m a freak experiment from Danzo, and I have your clan’s amazing sacred silver chakra. Please teach me how to use it!"
She’d get executed, or something like that.
She would deserve it… she would not resist the punishment. After all, she was alive while other kids died.
Shaking her head, she recalled her fight with Tobi in the cave. She could slow things down. Stepping out of the dome, she threw a kunai inside. The kunai dropped to the ground.
Great.
She focused again, and the kunai slightly floated before dropping again. Sakura groaned, frustrated.
"Hm, that’s a weird Mangekyō ability, I dare say so myself," a voice suddenly broke her concentration. Sakura freaked out.
Why did her sensor ability not warn her?!?!
How didn't she notice the two new chakra signatures? Turning her eyes, burning red, she flinched when she saw the Uchiha police officer whom she almost stabbed twice during her sleepwalks.
SHIT! He saw her and her eyes and oh no... no...
He raised his hand. "So, Pinky, first off, the Mangekyō comes with a lot of strain, so don't use it all the time. When a Uchiha awakens it, which is rare, it comes with a unique ability just for the user. Some may have similar abilities. Lastly... oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Shisui... nice to meet you, stabby kid."
Sakura blushed. "I'm sorry about those... sleepwalking incidents, officer. Am I getting punished for them?"
"Nah, but on another note... So, how long did you have the Sharingan? I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me for now. Between me and Itachi, you won’t need to worry. I’ve got a feeling you don’t want the main clan to know?"
Sakura raised an eyebrow, her body stiff. He wasn’t going to drag her to the Uchiha clan and demand an answer... why was he so kind...? If he knew she unnaturally obtained these eyes...
"I'm not really... an Uchiha," she muttered, her gaze wandering to the ground.
"You got the Sharingan. You awakened the Mangekyō. You're Uchiha," Shisui said matter-of-factly.
I got it from pillaging graves under Danzo's orders, killing your kin, and DNA experimentation, she wanted to scream, but her mouth was sealed shut.
Beside Shisui, another figure stepped into view. It was Itachi, Sasuke's brother. "Besides awakening the Mangekyō this early... it's rare to awaken it. Besides us two, there are only 20 Uchihas with this special mutation. So, come on, Sakura... when did you awaken it?"
Sakura closed her eyes, shutting the Sharingan off. The silver dome vanished with a sigh. "Around when I was 8 or 9. My Sharingan evolves on its own, not via traumatic experience."
The two teenagers exchanged a glance before turning to the 12-year-old, surprised. Wait, what?
"So, what do we have here?" Itachi stepped closer. Sakura was panicking, hoping they wouldn’t realize it was similar to Hatake's chakra.
Itachi tilted his head, Sharingan in his eyes. "Sakura, can you do that again?"
Hesitant, she nodded. Her Mangekyō came to life, and this time, she made a blue dome, suppressing her Hatake chakra.
She tossed a kunai again and tried moving it. This time, it was more successful.
"Oh wow... this ability is broken," Shisui gasped as he watched the kunai fly around the dome space.
"I agree..." Itachi sighed as they both rubbed their eyes.
"Did I do something wrong, Itachi-san?" Sakura panicked as she looked between the two.
"No, no, not your fault. It's just your Mangekyō is fascinating. You can create a space, and you can manipulate any object. Maybe even people. That is... fucking terrifying," Shisui explained.
"That ability…" Itachi began, his voice steady but laced with curiosity, " It feels…" He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as he observed her. "Unnatural."
Sakura stiffened, her chest tightening at his words. Unnatural? Her throat constricted, and for a moment, she struggled to breathe. She couldn't speak the truth—not to them. Not now. Not ever. She’d always known her powers were different, but hearing Itachi say it like that made the weight of her secret even heavier.
Shisui seemed to sense her discomfort. "What he means," he said, his tone softer than before, "is that we’ve never seen someone awaken this kind of Mangekyō ability. It’s not exactly something you can train for. It’s… personal. Very unique to the user. I don’t know how you got it, but it’s clear that whatever caused it, you’re not the average Uchiha."
Sakura bit her lip, trying to keep her composure. She wanted to tell them—wanted to scream out the truth of how she’d come to be like this, but she couldn’t. There were too many secrets that could ruin everything. If Shisui and Itachi knew how her Sharingan was born, what she had done, what she had been part of... They wouldn’t see her as a confused, scared girl. They would see a monster, an abomination, someone who should never have existed.
"I'm not like you," she managed to say, her voice shaking. "I didn’t wake up because of trauma or some curse. It... it just happened."
Shisui and Itachi exchanged another glance. Shisui’s face softened slightly, but his eyes remained sharp, searching her expression for any sign of deceit.
"It doesn’t matter how it happened," Itachi said, his voice calm but forceful. "What matters is what you do with it now."
Sakura nodded, swallowing hard. What could she do? She was still trying to figure that out herself. But she knew one thing: the more she used this power, the more dangerous it would become. And she couldn't afford that—not with everything that was at stake.
"Are you going to tell anyone?" Sakura asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Shisui shook his head. "Not unless you want us to. Your secret is safe with us… for now." His eyes were sincere, but there was something guarded about the way he spoke. As though he too was weighing the consequences of this revelation.
" I plan on not using it for now...Plus All I want is to protect people, my village Konoha no Sato..", Sakura sighed shutting off her eyes.
" Then we help you master this strange skill. Is that alright?", Shisui stepped forward and gave her a shoulder patt. Sakura looked away ashamed nodding.