Cosmogony

Sometimes Sakura dreamed of stealing the sun.

She could almost taste it. The heat, the bitterness, the pain, the agony and the surprising pleasure that came with it.

But she would wake up with arms hugging a plush doll with braided hair and a loose silk dress that she practises her stitches with 

She almost hungered for the sensation in her dreams

Her kaa-san would open the door gently and help her bathe. They would choose a dress in her closet that was becoming cramped with all the clothes that would always multiply with each week 'cause her kaa-san would buy her a few more new ones.

She yesterday asked if she could have a younger sister to give her dresses to, but the stiff way her father laughed her question off and the pain that flashed in her mother’s eyes made Sakura stop.

Everything’s okay though, she was given a few extra puddings by the end of breakfast and her tou-san hugged her tight and warmly then whispered too quietly in her ear 

“I love you, sweetheart…you’re enough”

But she heard from a neighbour just when Sakura passed by their house, that most fathers want sons because they carry their surnames, and men want legacy somehow. But Sakura heard her kaa-san was the one that gave birth to Sakura, not her tou-san. So whose legacies do boys carry?

Sakura thought of it thoroughly till her head hurt.

Night came and Sakura hid beneath the comfort of her thick blankets surrounded by her dolls and trinkets.

The night wasn’t a peaceful one, the rain came down heavily in Konoha as lightning struck with vengeance 

In one moment if it was the storm would claim her with its loud penetration through their roof, but suddenly, gone was the loud lightning strike, or heavy platters of rain.

Green eyes opened, and wetlands greeted hair with abundant fauna and proud ancestor trees. 

Sakura looked up and a masked man with a small sword like the one Sakura saw in weapon shops, was situated on his back. He was crouching on a branch of a tree like a panther looking down on its prey, gazing down intimidatingly. 

Sakura clutched the hem of her nightgown tightly shivering from the cold air that hit her.

But then Sakura noticed the exposed span of his shoulder was a rapidly growing root of all things covering the tattoo that was previously glinting menacingly in spare moonlight.

“Um…I’m H-Haruno Sakura, I live in block 37 of Shinsei District in Haruno Residence. Uh- oh! My Kaa-san says that you have to bring me home safely or she’ll break both of your legs and feed you to Tami-chan if not…”

Sakura seriously thinks she’s lost, like super lost. 

The masked man with the old man’s hair tilted his head at her.s

The fang in her chest shimmers and tingles — Sakura reaches and scratches it from the outside of her clothes 

“What’re ya doin’ here kid?”

Sakura squeaked in surprise, as another masked man suddenly asked just beside her.

“Don’t be stupid Cat, she looked like she’s lost”

Another voice sounded, although this time a masked woman with purple hair appeared from the shadows. Cat scratched the back of his head 

“Well… It’s always polite to ask, you know…manners” Cat clicked his tongue and crossed his arms on his chest 

“Sure, just like how you politely asked that enemy shinobi if she preferred lavender more than vanilla — perfumes of all things”

The purple-haired woman, put both of her hands on her waist, looking very fierce while looking down at the man who was two heads taller than her

Sakura fiddled nervously with the ribbon of her sleeping clothes while looking back and forth between the two 

“Uh-ano..” Sakura croaked, face reddening in embarrassment 

The masked man then faces her as if realizing that they have another companion in the clearing “Don’t worry kid, we’ll take you home in a second” he even gave a thumbs up.

His words didn’t provide any relief to Sakura at all, they only intensified the wariness she felt with all these strangers strangers

“We're super fast ya know, we’re cool that way. Though you gotta’ hop on to my back for that” The lithe tall man Cat told her as he kneeled in front of Sakuta who clutching her doll tightly

“How’d that sound?” he asked her gently 

Sakura was still, her face a veneer of crumbling steel as a child sheltered but lost her way home. So Sakura hesitated to look back and forth to the silver-haired man with tattoos as her insides screamed at her to run for him and to Cat who initiated an offer of protection–he said he would bring her home 

The purple-haired woman at the side sighs. 

“Taichō” she drawls 

“It seems our little mouse here prefers you over Cat” Sakura blushed at the insuation, her mother’s scandalized voice ringing behind her air

Oh, how ungrateful! Utterly ungrateful Sakura is 

“I-I do—” Sakura stutters her way out of the situation 

But the purple-haired woman was already jumping to the bark where the silver-haired set his nest 

Sakura was soon delivered home with a gentle pat on the head with her parents rushing to her side. Mebuki was already sobbing as Kizashi bowed down his waist repeatedly in thanks 

“Just doing our job,” a man with a needle stuck in his mouth says 

Gone were their masks and weird clothes and Sakura didn’t notice they changed.

Right. She fell asleep.

Sakura thought about the lightning man with a tattoo and peers through the people who brought her and was disappointed to not find him there 

In a few weeks after the disappearing fiasco, her mama and papa educated her about soulmates 

“Like Itachi-kun?”

“Like Itachi-san yes”

Soulmates were a unique concept that tied people together throughout their lives. Mebuki and Kizashi were lucky to find each other and coincidentally lived in the same village, they were normal people — some that can’t be said for the names carved in her soul-stretching their mark on her mortal skin.

When all was done and her parents thought she understood enough, Sakura would close her eyes and dream as if awakened by a woman whose world was different. 

Soulmates don’t exist there you see, Sakura sees the girl with the same hair as she chases a boy who looks like Itachi-kun with some resemblance. It must’ve been very lonely, Sakura thinks. 

To love someone so desperately. 

She doesn’t feel it’s wrong or bad to chase and hope for something you want. Her papa always tells her that life’s too short, and perhaps the woman dreamed but as far as Sakura can understand, she had long stopped chasing.

Sakura was five when she met at least three of the men who may someday build a paradise from the world that turned into ashes to correct its imperfection for her.

Four of them were Uchihas after all.

Sakura was six and she dropped from the sky and fell into arms bigger than her but still small.

“Hello?” green eyes squints 

Sakura peers into dark eyes and skin paler than the moon. 

The boy seems to be in disbelief and opens and shuts his mouth several times before his dark eyes soften as if settling on something in his mind.

“Hello there soulmate, it seems that I don’t need to find you after all” 

Green eyes widened in recognition as the mark dangerously between her hips and thighs burned warmly 

“I’m Izuna!” a cheer seems to enter his voice as Sakura squirms from his grip the becomes tighter as if afraid she would vanish just as fast as she appears 

“Cool, right, can you please put me down?” 

Izuna took a minute as if deliberating the decision before putting her down to Sakura’s relief. A soulmate’s order was absolute after all.

Izuna took notice of the thin clothing his soulmate had and frowned and shrugged off the cloak he had, he’s thankful he was the one assigned to this particular border patrol, if not who knows how long he had to waste and what land he had to scour to find his soulmate?

Sakura on the other hand flushed at the gesture before remembering where she was supposed to be before she fell asleep on the Academy school grounds and it would be her next class soon.

“Ah Izuna-san? Do you perhaps know the way to Konoha? I still have classes and I…”

Izuna merely gave her a puzzled look 

“I apologise but I am not familiar with any land or village that is named Konoha” 

Sakura paled. Izuna panicked at her expression.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

Sakura stutters “N-no Konoha?” 

Izuna can only nod with a wary gaze settled on her “You are currently in the lands occupied by the Uchiha Clan, and I apologize if it caused you distress, but you can come with the compound! My brother would be thrilled to know you!” 

“B-but I need to go home, mama and Papa will be worried and I still have a class you know” Sakura bit her lower lip to stop the urge to cry 

Izuna only tilted his head in confusion

“What’s a class?” 

Sakura couldn’t stop it and fainted to Izuna’s horror 

Izuna brought her bundled up in a cloak and strapped in his front like some precious sacked cargo

Sakura stopped sniffling long ago but her eyes were red and bloodshot which made Izuna terrified and constantly asked questions while he travelled on foot 

Perhaps Izuna was so excited about finding his soulmate and keeping her in a place which he knows will be able to protect her that he forgot one critical fact.

His father.

Uchiha Tajima was well aware of the fact that both of his remaining sons were tied to one person, in this case, a small vulnerable slip of a girl who no one can imagine to know how to defend herself.

If it’s squarely possible, Sakura would want to be buried then and there from where she was standing

This scary man was looking down at her like she was worth more than nothing but the dirt outside his house and the equally scary old people around him.

“Izuna.” He calls out her soulmate who flinched in response but stood straight.

“Otou-sama” he bows and Sakura follows his lead clumsily “Respected elders” another bow which Sakura also repeated.

There was a flash within her soulmate’s father’s eyes and Sakura could see a pattern bordered by crimson. Pretty, pretty eyes like Itachi-kun. She thinks absent-mindedly.

A heavy soaked cloak on her back sees him but he sees her first. Crimson eyes, swirling pinwheels as they bore into her, power-radiating, conquering. It was enthralling to be under its power.

The scary man narrowed his eyes at her as Sakura was lost again in another broken memory, gone was the trepidation as her green eyes turned glassy as if in a dream she would never wake from 

Uchiha Tajima was a man who led and knew wars first before he could fully comprehend them and this shows. For wars have no boundaries, only two sides of the same coin and its soldiers. 

“Explain why you have come back earlier than you were told to” 

Rain. A never-ending torrential of a god’s tears with flawed dreams 

Izuna only raises his head, steel shining within those obsidian orbs and Tajima could’ve been even prouder. This was his son, his son.

“I have finished scouting our borders and the Senju wouldn’t be a bother for a short while as they are preparing for the harvest season” Izuna clinically reported to the rest of the council.

“Then pray to tell Izuna-sama” a  man with greying hair rasped his voice like brass steel ringing, his coal black eyes beady “What guest you have brought us” 

Then every eye poured into Sakura’s small form. The little girl with glassy green eyes still lost, seems to sparkle with ancient fire threatening to burn.

“Hello” Airy, dreamy as the butterfly's first flight. “I am Haruno Sakura” 

Izuna looked at the girl fate chose for him stunned before grinning widely 

“Otou-sama! This is my soulmate, and she fell from the sky!” 

Sakura who was barely awake was then ushered by dark-haired women in clothes she vaguely remembers seeing in her historical picture book

They tutted at her clothes. Commenting how unseemly they were for a small girl like her, but the sturdy quality surprised them. They are not in the position to question though. Words travelled fast that the clan head’s second son found his soulmate. And it is something of great importance to a clan such as the Uchiha who were especially vulnerable with their emotions.

Sakura was used to being dolled up, but she wasn’t used to not having her mother do it. Frowning, she looked around the spacious traditional room. The two girls beside her were startled when Sakura suddenly sobbed.

“Sakura-sama?” The shorter girl asked her panicked

Green eyes still searchingly looked at her surroundings, tears streaming down her face “Where’s Mama” 

Both girls relaxed at the question seemingly understanding that this girl no matter her importance is still a child. And it seems like an orphaned one at that.

“I apologise Sakura-sama but according to what Izuna-sama explains on how he found you, it seems that your parents are–” a hand slapped the shorter girl’s mouth 

“Ume!” Ume’s companion hisses at her 

Ume glares but lowers her head apologetically “My apologies I have gone too far” 

The taller girl just grabbed Ume by her arm before bowing cordially to Sakura. “It seems Ume is still in need of further discipline and I will be distributing her punishment now. We will only remain outside of your room, so you may call us if you need any assistance” 

She then proceeded to drag Ume out of Sakura’s sight. They can only stare blankly at the shadows outside those fancy paper sliding doors.

Where exactly is she 

Sakura slept fitfully on her futon. She felt small fingers touching her hair and cording through the strands carefully as if afraid too much force would wake her.

“Aniue. What are you doing?”
“Where did you find her?” a huff 
“I told you I was patrolling and she fell directly into my arms!” 
“What a great vivid dream you have of your little brother.” 
“I’m not lying!” It was Izuna’s snapping voice that woke her.

Ah this wasn’t a dream after all 

“Idiot. You were too loud” Izuna then proceeded to mutter a series of apologies 

Hazy green eyes open to two dark blobs that take a few blinks to get clearer 

“Izuna?” it came out sounding childishly from a child’s mouth 

“I’m here!” Sakura winces at the volume. The older dark-haired boy then glares with enough heat that Izuna dunks his head in shame

“S’ alright” Sakura rasps feeling her throat becoming painful “Papa’s loud too, and Mama would often get mad” 

The older dark-haired boy looked at her sadly, and oh he was the one threading through her hair.

Sakura blinked “Who’re you?” she asked him. Her Mama would have pinched her ear for that because that was a very rude way of asking to be introduced and raised her better than that.

The older boy only smiled amusedly at her, everything about him was pale and dark. Like the moon, her mind supplied 

Like Sas– 

“Madara.” How familiar, how strange 

The mass of intertwined spiral at the skin above her heart twinges and then burns 

His eyes were as dark as the future he wrote for himself but when they looked at Sakura, they were soft and gentle  like a summer night’s breeze 

“You may call me Madara” 

Red moon, a fan, long dark-dark hair, gleaming empty hungry eyes, and a puppet who thought himself the master of the game.

“Never trust the man with two faces, who lives under a mountain of corpses,” Sakura mutters smiling eyes clearing 

“Oh, it's Sakura” Her tone continues with ease as if she never uttered strange mutterings before 

Madara and Izuna both looked at each other sharply 

“It suits you,” Madara says and Sakura beams in return 

“It does? I thought it was rather plain, you know, before…” She then chatters off about her Mama having rather plain taste in names but it was better than her father's eccentric ones 

“She sounds lovely” Madara softly says, her chest faintly fluttering in exchange it was searing as if undecided between her broken dreams or what was presented in the present 

“Yeah! And I gotta go home now, you have a pretty home. But my Mama would be worried and I still have class tomorrow. You guys looked like Itachi-kun a lot, so I guess you’re all related, but I guess he’s on a mission again” Sakura tells them, shrugging off her blankets and preparing to stand.

Much larger hands stopped her and Sakura frowned at him even if his touch sent a comforting sensation calming her “Madara?” 

The two brothers looked at each other again, they seemed to do this a lot 

“About that Sakura-chan…you see” Izuna sighs 

They told her, her parent’s dead. Sakura only looked at them like they were a pair of lying idiots.

She thinks she can’t wake up from this dream because it seems so far from the normal ones. Sakura knows her red-headed soulmate is in Suna, with its vast monotone sandy lands and hot climate. He is shown like a spectre, shining brilliantly with his mere existence and his art. Itachi was the nearest, and the most likeable, she fondly thinks, with his gentle peaceful nature. And that silver-haired man, she wasn’t sure, other than the burn in the lightning fang mark in her body tells her enough.

Madara and Izuna would visit and talk to her daily but other than that, Sakura was never to step a single small dainty feet outside of her compound. She was like some kind of prisoner she thinks, like princess fuki in her storybooks. 

“Why can’t I go out?” She asks Ami-san who was the older taller girl from her first day 

Her dark eyes held no excess emotions that Sakura could see, but the jaded aspect at the back of her head easily pinpoints the small switches as they retracted from her eyes gleaming emitting a painful understanding 

“You safer here Sakura-sama” Sakura pouts at that, that’s all they repeatedly told her after all

“B-But Izuna and Madara go out often too!” She protests

Ami-san only shakes her head “Madara-sama and Izuna-sama can take care of themselves, but you Sakura-sama, you can’t. Hence you must remain here until Tajima-sama declares otherwise” 

Sakura frowns heat flaring inside her, irritation bubbling like a fragile glass that melted under pressure. And Sakura snaps 

“I don’t care! I want to go out! Out!” she cries bawling as Ami-san rushes to comfort her mistress

“It’s not safe outside Sakura-sama! Those Senju monsters might come for you once they know how important you are”

Sakura’s only reply was to cry louder

It was on her third day that a pretty woman met her. She has the similar dark hair and eyes that were common from Madara and Izuna as well as the people she had been at least allowed to see. 

“I am Uchiha Kimiko. And I will be educating you on how to be a proper lady of the clan once you come of age to marry” 

Sakura fidgets under the ramrod seiza she is in. Her lips tremble as her eyes begin to produce moisture. 

“Cease your fits and crying. That is not how a future matriarch should behave.”

The command had her swallowing her cry. 

She wants to go home

Kimiko made her first lesson by commenting on Sakura's posture and explaining a set of what she would expect.

She sleeps that night wishing and hopeful that she will be back home the moment she wakes up.

The familiar ceiling greets her and Sakura sobs her childish mind protesting and wanting her parents and Itachi-kun. She called out to them every night but no one came.

“Be graceful Sakura-sama. Straighten your shoulders.”

“Again”

“You won’t charm even a rock with that expression. Smile!”

“Repeat!”

“Remember, women do not fight, our role is to please and make the home comfortable for the men to come back after their battles.”

“Again.”

“Again.”

Sakura cries herself to exhaustion every night. Even the trinkets Madara and Izuna would give her won’t make her smile anymore.

It had been so many days that Sakura already lost count with her fingers.

She wants to go home. She wants to go home. She wants to go home.

“Wh-”

“Where have you been, you damn idiot.” 

The voice snaps at her and Sakura blinks at the scene and the scent of oil and wood

“Sasori?” she calls out voice breaking

Her red-headed soulmate finally fixed his gaze on her. His eyes sharply noted her appearance before frowning lips turns into a scowl.

“What happened?” His eyes narrow as Sakura runs and throws herself at him knocking the puppet he had in his lap.

“I-I don’t know I just fell asleep then there’s these scary men and they say that-that mama and papa’s gone—” 

Sakura heaves into sobs as she fists Sasori’s shirt. She felt being lifted, being cradled more comfortably as Sakura burrowed her face into the nook of the teen’s neck for comfort.

“Calm down and tell me what happened.”

And tell him she did.