From Shadows

"Sakura would be good," a child's voice said. "Her favorite time of year was when they bloomed."

She tried to look at the source of the voice, but found her eyes difficult to open. Instead, she slowly—and with great effort—turned her head towards it and reached out her hand, much against her body's will.

"Ah, look! She likes it, too. Sakura it is then," the same voice said.

It was a challenge to form thoughts or remember what happened. Where was she? The voice didn't sound familiar, but he knew her name somehow. Or he was giving her a name that just happened to be her real name?

Whatever the case, her body was in no shape for fighting. Whoever was watching over her didn't seem like an enemy, so she had no choice but to continue trusting him with keeping her safe until she could recover enough to figure out what happened and get back on her feet.

"Nice to meet you, Sakura," the voice said. "I'm your big brother, Shisui."

What?

Ino had been like a sister to her, and Naruto was her brother in everything other than blood, but she never had a real sibling.

And she certainly never met Shisui before because he was dead and had been for a long time now.

Except, if he was alive, when was now?

She concentrated on her surroundings, which used to be an easy task until this point. She struggled to gain much in the way of useful information other than she was in the arms of another person and her body felt far too small.

With effort, she opened her eyes to a red tinted world, but it was a world of piercing clarity.

“Ah, Sakura is—”

She looked up at Shisui and found that he was young, just a boy, but horror came over his face when her eyes met his.

He brought his hand to the side of her head, and she saw his fingers laced with chakra. Then, she returned to darkness.

Shisui, to say the least, freaked out.

For months, he anticipated becoming a big brother. To have someone to love and protect from the world. To have a bit of light in the darkness that wrapped the village as war raged on beyond its walls.

Then, when the day came and his mom went into labor, the medics pushed him to the side to wait with his father, whose pale face and distant eyes told him this wasn't normal.

Nobody bothered to tell him what went wrong.

A nurse led them to the nursery and directed them to a baby who slept under a sign that simply read "Uchiha."

His mom had not survived the birth. Their mom, he corrected. It saddened him that she would never know both of her parents, but he swore, as her tiny hand wrapped around his finger, that she would never feel the loneliness.

"You can name her," his dad said. "I… I don't know what name she picked."

Such a simple thing, but Shisui couldn't stop the grin that spread on his face. His baby sister. He got to choose the name she'd have for the rest of her life. Yet, he wanted to honor his mother with the name.

It was spring now, and his mom always loved sitting under the cherry blossoms when they bloomed.

He picked up the little girl, swaddled and so fragile in his arms. And the name seemed just right.

Sakura.

Though his dad wasn't listening as he talked to staff instead, and Sakura probably couldn't understand him, he spoke aloud to her about the name. She reacted and snuck a tiny hand out of her blanket towards him. While he knew that she couldn't control her motions yet (not meaningfully), he thought that maybe it was her approval of her name.

Then, she struggled and opened her eyes.

And he saw the Sharingan stare back at him.

He tapped the side of her head with chakra in his fingertips to put her back to sleep and looked around to make sure no one else saw.

How?

Was it the trauma that their mom went through during her labor and birth that influenced Sakura enough to awaken her Sharingan already?

Nobody could know. He didn't want to think about the training that she would be put through early or the possibility that ROOT would get their hands on her.

He would train her. Protect her.

This was a mission he refused to fail.

When Sakura opened her eyes again, Shisui held his breath until he saw that they were both as pure black as they should be.

It was a fluke then, he told himself. She didn’t really have the Sharingan yet. That would be ridiculous.

But he knew what he saw, and he knew that he would never forget those eyes looking at him. He couldn’t fool himself this time, but he was determined to fool everybody else. For her. For her safety.

The relief that, for the moment, her eyes were their proper color was short-lived. Those same eyes welled up with tears and her wailing was quick to follow.

Shisui looked around the house for his father. They’d been able to leave the hospital shortly after Sakura’s birth, having been reassured (several times at Shisui’s demand) that she was healthy despite the complications that killed their mom.

In truth, his father's absence was unsurprising. Even before the loss of his wife, he'd been distant. The life of a Shinobi weighed down on him more than others, and another loss was too much.

Their curse, he'd told Shisui, was not of hatred, but of death.

But you have a new daughter. You have me.

Shisui wanted to yell at his dad until he came to his senses. Until he saw that he still had children worth living for.

For now, he worked on getting a bottle for Sakura with the knowledge that she needed him more than anyone.

Sakura cried only when she needed to. In her past life, it seemed like all she could do was cry. As an infant, she could not hope to be self-sufficient. It came as a relief that Shisui, although young himself, was steadfast in tending to her.

In return, she cried only out of necessity. (And she avoided using her Sharingan. Not that it was useful to her at the moment, but it definitely freaked Shisui out. And if she was being honest, having it from birth freaked her out a bit, too.)

The care didn't ease the frustration of being unable to prepare herself to prevent the massacre of her new family, the destruction of Konoha, Sasuke's defection, and the Fourth War. Her full awareness had been reborn in this new body, and she had to make the most of that.

Good thing the Uchiha were known for producing geniuses.

With nothing else to do beyond observe and survive, Sakura spent as much time as she could acquainting herself with her forming chakra pathways. To be at her best, she needed to work with her chakra early and build her reserves. Her control should still be perfect, but now she'd have a better start.

To prevent the war, she would need it.

“It started with the Kyuubi attack. Danzo organized the clan relocations, and he put the Uchiha on the edge of the village. Even then, he was sowing the seeds of distrust against us.”

Sasuke told her the truth about the Uchiha Massacre. Well, he told anybody who would listen the truth about the massacre. Not to shame his family, but to absolve his brother. Itachi suffered more than she could imagine, but he wouldn’t have to suffer this time around.

She could use her training and Sasuke’s information to save the clan.

Her clan.

That thought spread warmth through her tiny body, and a giggle bubbled up and out her mouth. She opened her eyes to see Shisui looking down at her with a touch of surprise on his face that shifted to joy at the sound of her laugh.

“I was worried—before you were born—that you wouldn’t like me, Sakura,” he said, keeping his tone light. “I’m glad that I worried for nothing.”

He brought one finger close to gently poke her forehead, and she instinctively wrapped her hand around it.

His smile turned sad, she thought. She didn’t like the resignation tied in with that sadness. He was her brother now, and the most she could do with her current body was worry about him. 

It’s the worst part of being reborn so far. Having the mentality of an adult and knowledge of the future, but not being able to do anything with it.

“I have to go on a mission soon,” Shisui said. He paused, looking away from her before he continued. “Believe me, I don’t want to leave you, but somebody has to earn money for us. I’m… I’m the only one who can right now.”

The ceiling changed and she felt the warmth of the sun fall over her face.

“I’m not going to leave you alone with Dad. Don’t worry, I’ll ask Aunty Mikoto if she’ll watch you. You’re only a couple years younger than her son, so maybe you can start making a friend.”

I can’t even crawl. How am I supposed to make a friend like this?

“It’s just that Dad can hardly take care of himself right now. I don’t want to hand you over to him and just hope that he somehow pulls himself together enough to take care of himself and you,” Shisui said. “It’s not that I don’t love him. I just don’t have faith in him. They’re two different things.”

He was rambling at that point, but Sakura suspected that it reflected only a portion of the weight placed on his shoulders. If the most she could do for the time being was be an outlet for him to vent his frustration, then so be it.

Shisui laughed under his breath and turned his big eyes back to her. “Listen to me, Sakura. I’m ranting to a baby. You probably don’t even understand a word I’m saying. All you need to know is that I’m gonna keep you safe, okay? Forever.”

Sakura gave him the best response she could. A wide, toothless smile.

He wasn’t nervous. Well, maybe he was a little nervous. To be fair, Mikoto could be a frightening woman, and she was an accomplished kunoichi before she became the clan matriarch. Plus, this was kind of a big favor he was asking of her.

Shisui adjusted the bag slung over his shoulder, and then he shifted his grip on sleeping Sakura. He lifted his hand to knock on the door, then he put it back down and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

The door flung open, and Mikoto stared down at him with little Itachi standing at her side, one of his small hands gripping the hem of her dress.

"I've sensed your presence here for ten minutes now, Shisui. If you still haven't built up the courage to knock, you never would," she said. "So, what has you so nervous?"

Shisui tried to grin, but was certain it came off as more of a grimace. "Aunty Mikoto, I just… I—I have a mission, and my dad is still struggling. I need someone to take care of Sakura while I'm gone."

Mikoto frowned and her expression softened into sadness. "I see. Well, I assure you that I will take care of her while you're gone, and you do still have my condolences."

Shisui nodded and handed over Sakura and the pack he had over his shoulder. "I brought everything I thought she'd need. I had hoped that Dad would have pulled himself together by the time I was put back on active duty, so I'm sorry for the short notice."

Though he often acted informally, he ended with a bow of gratitude.

Mikoto smiled at him. "You know you can come to me if you need anything, right? I can't believe you were nervous about asking me to babysit this adorable girl."

Shisui nodded. He did know that Mikoto would help him, but that didn't make asking for favors any easier. While he had pride in taking care of Sakura on his own so far, there was no longer a choice. He needed help.

His family needed money.

The village needed him.

Simple in theory. Painful in reality.

Mikoto brought him out of his thoughts. "When do you leave?"

"I'll have to be heading to the gates soon. The mission shouldn't take more than a week."

"Uchiha help each other out, Shisui. I'll be happy to help watch Sakura when you go on missions," Mikoto said with a soft smile. "And I know you'll represent us well in the village."

Shisui nodded, but his focus was on the little bundle of Sakura held in Mikoto’s arms and the tuft of dark hair that he couldn’t figure out how to tame. (That was okay, though. Unruly hair looked good on him, and he thought it looked good on her, too.) He didn’t want to leave her behind.

Small Itachi took the pack loaded with Sakura’s things even though it was nearly as large as he was, but he seemed determined to help.

Shisui nodded, gave Mikoto (and Itachi) his thanks, then flickered away before he could convince himself to weasel out of the mission.

Sakura woke up to the sounds of different voices. Shisui’s voice had become so consistent, that it seemed strange for it to not be in the mix.

“Good morning, Sakura,” a woman’s soft voice said.

She didn’t recognize this woman, but she had to be an Uchiha. Shisui wouldn’t have handed her over to anyone outside of the clan, she figured. Plus, he did mention a woman when he was venting before, didn’t he?

There was a child looming over her as this woman held her. She met his eyes and he looked surprised, then amazed with a soft fondness in his smile.

"My name is Mikoto, and this is my son, Itachi."

Oh. Itachi.

She would fix this world so that Itachi wouldn't be forced into becoming her killer. So that he wouldn’t be forced into a life as a villain and scapegoat for the village he loved so much.

If only she could walk.