Chapter 9
"Why'd this have to happen to me?" Sakura whispered to herself as she looked down at the ground that was at least double the distance away it normally was, body dangling in the air from where Itachi was holding her up by her wrist. Why was he even so strong at that age?
She forced her instincts – screaming at her to run – to shut up. And, while internally repeating "He's not a threat yet, he never really was, he won't kill you", she ripped her eyes away from the patch of dirt she had been looking at and turned her gaze to his eyes, pitch black (and not blood-red). A part of her expected to see the hypnotic pattern of a spinning Mangekyō to stare back at her, and into the very depths of her soul. A part of her couldn't comprehend the idea of that man not having his Sharingan active at all times, trapping anyone foolish enough to look into the deep pits of crimson inside a living nightmare, slowly gnawing at the sanity of whoever dared to challenge him.
A memory of spinning Tomoe on the face of someone she could never get herself to hate briefly overlapped with what she was actually seeing, but Sakura quickly shook the hallucination away, instead concentrating on the face of a young – so young – Itachi Uchiha.
She had known that he had been young, at one point. Of course he had been. It wouldn't have made sense otherwise.
But something inside of her had never really considered the thought that the Itachi, the most dangerous missing-nin Konoha had ever produced, the murderer of the Uchiha, could have ever been an young boy, too. It felt surreal. That this child would grow up to do something like that. That he would still be a child when he would commit the Uchiha Massacre, one of the bloodiest events to go down in a hidden village that was supposed to be the 'nice one'. That someone would order a child to slaughter their own kin in cold blood. Because it was a slaughter, not a fight or a battle. When he had killed his parents, they hadn't fought back. Because they had accepted the decision Itachi had come to and only wished to protect their other son. They had known they would be killed eventually. Sasuke had never understood that part, even when he had told them the full tale of what had transpired that day, years after he found out himself. "Why did they give up?" he had asked angrily. Perhaps he would've never understood.
(But she understood what it meant to know about your assured death, apporaching ever closer until she could practically touch it. She was familiar with the thoughts that would cross one's mind when a loved one was in danger. And she knew what it felt like to make the decision to reach for one's inescapable fate, grab it, and pull it closer, if only to add that distance to the time another has left.
She understood what it felt like to give up everything and welcome death with open arms, for she had seeen it coming for far longer than the short moment it took to meet the end and face the unavoidable)
Sakura felt disgusted. She looked away again, breaking the eye contact the both of them had been holding for way too long.
"Hm." Itachi thoughtfully hummed as she turned her head away from him.
"Oh, you caught her!" The boy from before suddenly appeared before her – and way too close at that –, earning himself a kick to the stomach, though he probably didn't even feel the force of it. Sakura's chakra was running dangerously low, and she refrained from using any more than was absolutely necessary.
"Woah, Woah! You can't just attack people!" The curly-haired boy raised his arms defensively.
Ignoring him, Sakura turned her gaze to Itachi yet again. "Let me down."
"No, Itachi! Don't!" was the reply she got instead, the other boy looking at Itachi with a pleading look on his face. "She almost escaped my grasp! Itachi, do you know what she was doing here?" He pointed another accusing finger at Sakura. "Jutsu! With that chakra pool! And she's like, what, 7 years old? She shouldn't be doing that!"
Itachi, who didn't seem bothered by the familiar way the other boy was talking to him – the heir of the Uchiha clan – gave her a long look, analyzing her messy hair (a result of re-familiarizing herself with her chakra, causing her to fall from the tree quite a few times) and the way her eyes were threatening to close every second (fuck, she needed to work on the chakra pool thing).
Finally, his assessment was, "Hn."
She glared at him. "Let. Me. Down."
"Hey, pink gril! Easy going there! We won't bite you." The other boy interrupted again.
"My arm hurts. Let me go."
Instead of letting her down, Itachi simply brought up his other arm and moved to hold her up by her waist, raising her to eye-level.
"Why." Sakura questioned him, this time vowing to not break the eye contact until Itachi would give in. It was surprisingly easy to convince herself that this boy and the terrifying enemy she had once faced were different people.
"You shouldn't do Jutsu at your age." Itachi's voice was, just like his face, and his eyes, and everything else about him, young. It kind of reminded her of Sasuke's voice, back when they were still Genin. It was, cold, confident, and had a hint of aloofness.
But, above all else, Itachi's voice was calm. Calmer than anything Sakura had ever heard.
She glared at him. "Don't bother. It's not your business."
"It's bad for young children."
"Well, you guys probably did that at my age too, right?" She crossed her arms.
"It's different."
"Why, because you're clan children? Do you get to be trained early on by your ninja parents, but I can't?"
"No."
She huffed. "Then what is it? What makes you different from me? Your pure Uchiha blood? The Sharingan?"
Before Itachi could reply, the other boy, who had turned quiet, interjected. "How do you know we're Uchiha?" He regarded her with confused eyes, running a hand through his black hair. And wait a minute– He was an Uchiha? It wasn't just Itachi?
Sakura swallowed. That explained some things.
"It's obvious." She didn't say more than that. The two seemed to understand, though.
"Anyway." The boy clapped his hands together. "We aren't going to let you go just yet. How about introductions first?" He held out a hand. "I'm Shisui Uchiha."
As in, Shunshin no Shisui? Sakura wanted to punch someone, something, anything. Why did it have to be all these important people she would meet when going out to train?
She didn't take his hand. "Sakura Haruno."
What followed was a long talk about health and safe use of chakra. It was one every aspiring Shinobi was given at the Academy. Except, Sakura was being told so by two strangers, who had decided to take responsibility for the safety of a random child.
"You probably weren't told about this yet." Shisui finished, after a long rant about the need for supervision when trying new techniques at a young age. "When do they teach this at the Academy? Do you know, Itachi?"
Said boy didn't even get the chance to shake his head before Shisui made a knowing 'Ah' sound. "You wouldn't know, right? Since you graduated early, too." He laughed light-heartedly.
"Who laughs at their own joke?" Sakura muttered. She wanted to go home and pass out for twelve hours.
"Great question, Sakura-chan! It's me! I laugh at my own jokes!" Shisui pointed to himself. As soon as he had learned her name, he had started calling her by that nickname, as if they hadn't met 30 minutes ago at most.
Itachi sighed at Shisui's antics and Sakura couldn't help but agree with him. The boy in question however, didn't seem to notice this, and continued to chatter on. "But you didn't learn this yet, right? Unless they changed the Academy curriculum..."
"I don't go to the Academy." Sakura had found that out once she had learned of her actual age from her mother, which was not quite six-years old.
"Huh?" Shisui looked confused. "Why?"
"I'm four." She looked at him in a way that said 'why would I, huh?'.
Itachi turned to Shisui at that. "She would join along with Sasuke, next April." Ah, so that was going to be his first contribution to the conversation in 10 minutes. Of course it would be about Sasuke.
Shisui looked even more confused. "Why were you doing Jutsu, then?"
Even the ever-so blank face of the Uchiha heir showed a hint of confusion at the boy's words.
Sakura sighed. She really didn't want to tell these people that. "I don't go to the Academy. Not yet. But when I do, I know for a fact," Sakura paused, wondered if she wasn't giving away too much information, but nah, probably not, so she continued. "–that my class is going to be full of clan children and, most importantly, clan heirs."
She gave them a glance that almost looked judging if it weren't for the fact that it lasted only for a short moment. "Just like you two, they get training, way better one than the Academy teachings. I'm a civillian. My parents aren't Shinobi."
At that point, she didn't care that she was articulating herself with words way beyond her age. These people – or, at least one of them – had seen her make a Shadow Clone. It couldn't be too surprising for her to talk and act like an adult after that, right?
Sakura went on. "So, obviously, I'm going to fall back. Not with the Academy material, but with my peers. They are always going to be better than me. And I'm going to be one of the weak ones. Maybe I'd get sorted out after the first year, and then I would've lost my chance at becoming a Shinobi." She took a deep breath. "So that's why I'm training here."
That was a lie, obviously. She could probably hold her own in the Academy class, simply by already having all of the knowledge they teach. Even in this weaker body, it would be possible.
But it was a reasonable explanation. The Academy was unique because it raised Shinobi, not adults. It didn't judge your capabilites by individual scores and grades, but instead determined it by comparing you to other students. Because the Village had no need for a Shinobi that would hold others of the same generation back due to a skill difference. Last time around, it had been her booksmarts that had earned her the spot of a Shinobi and the Kunoichi of the Year title.
The two older boys had turned awfully quiet, exchanging glances throughout Sakura's explanation. It wasn't strange for Itachi to be quiet, but not for the other – as Sakura had learned – louder boy. He was staring into the distance with a concentrated look. Itachi was frowning at her and, unexpectedly, the one to break the silence.
"You don't need to become a Shinobi."
"Yes, I do." She had to become one. Had to become strong and save the world.
Shisui seemed to reach a decision on whatever he had been pondering over.
"I can train you."
It wasn't a question, but a statement. He could train her. Yes, he could train her. Shunshin no Shisui could train her.
"Would you?" She asked.
Shisui grinned. "I should, if I don't want you to die from chakra exhaustion. It doesn't seem like I can stop you from training altogether, anyway."
Itachi sighed, as if wanting to say that that wasn't the point of this whole conversation. She nodded. This was an opportunity.
An opportunity to change something, become a strong person, sooner, faster.
Shisui, too, nodded. "Yeah, I should. Can't have you dying out here. How does every Friday sound to you, Sakura-chan? A four-year old can't have much to do, do you?"
Sakura briefly wondered what she would tell her mother. "Friday is good. Let's do that." She'd work something out.
Shisui was overjoyed.
Turning to Itachi, Sakura asked for the umpteenth time: "Let me down now, please." And this time, he complied. Sakura's feet touched the ground for the first time in a while. She just wanted to leave, now.
Shisui placed a hand on her shoulder. "How about you eat dinner with us? Itachi's mom's cooking is heavenly. "
Itachi shot him a warning look. "You can't just invite yourself over. Or other people."
"Oh come on, Itachi! We're cousins, aren't we?" The boy dramatically placed a hand to his chest "And Sakura-chan is so exhausted from her secret little training, what if she falls unconscious on the way home?"
Itachi didn't look convinced, so Shisui turned to her again. "You want to come eat dinner with us, right? Right?"
"Yeah, no."
Sakura promptly turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Shisui to half-yell, half-cry at her to come back.
But she wasn't going to eat dinner with the Uchiha main family.
No way in hell.