Restart Life [Part 1 of the 'Square One' series]

To anyone else, Haruno Sakura is the civilian daughter of Haruno Kizashi and Haruno Mebuki. A peculiar girl with a dazed look in her eyes and acts strangely sometimes and is the best friend of the Yamanaka heir.

<Ino is her friend, but never her best. That spot is reserved exclusively for Tobirama, her friend and cousin who does Fuinjutsu experiments with her all hours of the day. Inner appeared during that time, she recalls. Probably the stress of dying a few times prior and fighting a never-ending war.

At that time, she was Senju Kotoha and she was slaughtered on the battlefield by an unknown Uchiha. That day, Senju and Uchiha finally ceased fire, but both lost people dear to them. Her name is at the Memorial Stone by Training Ground Three. Somedays, she passes by the place and visits some of the graves of her past identities. It feels nice to be remembered.>

(Eyes are the windows to the soul, but shinobi tend to overlook children’s eyes.)

“Mornin’, Sakura-chan!” Uzumaki Naruto greets her like clockwork every day in the Academy. He looks so much like Minato and acts so much like Kushina that it hurts. He then proceeds to babble on about his day. She has always let him, acknowledging his rant with a smile, a simple wave of her hand, and maybe let slip some easy wind techniques to him, offering to teach him after class ends. 

Naruto is the wind, never grounded, free and unyielding. But in Konoha, nothing is free as all are tied down to the village, all faux loyalty and corrupt codes. Konoha, for all it’s preaching, is harsh and bitter.

Sakura, however, is all at once and nothing at all.   

(She despairs because Hashirama’s dream is gone, gone in the wind of those hungry and oppressive.) 

Inner talks about him sometimes, because – 

“He’s annoying, Outer. Kushina’s son or not, if he confesses to us one more time I will kill him.” Inner mumbles to her on some days.

A humorless chuckle escapes. No, no you can’t. He’s our nephew. It’s our job to raise him right, no matter what Konoha may think. She thinks blandly, no emotion steeped in her voice.

“Konoha can go fuck itself.” That is something they can both agree on. Sakura has always been more human than Inner.

One day, she passes by the location ‘Momiji’ used to be and sees a bar. She looks a little deeper and sees Genma, Gai, Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Raidou… All those hatchlings she swore to protect at some point, but never managed. Because she died a little too early, just as always.

<She was half Uzumaki with stunning tangerine hair streaked red and a few years below Minato’s graduating class in her last life. Genma, Gai, Team Minato, Kushina-chan, Mikoto-chan and many others come by her cafe all the time. She stayed tokujo and did not rise the ranks because of an amputated leg. She died half a year before the Kyuubi attack due to a mission issued by Danzo.>

A henge is easy, henging into her past identities more so. 

She slips away after drinking a few glasses of sake because she knows that Kakashi knows she’s under a henge but in all honesty? She doesn’t care. 

Thankfully she has the chakra signature of an Uchiha, so no matter how suspicious she is, he can’t just go up and talk to her without arousing suspicion. Two Uchihas (“The clan heir and his cousin,” Inner clarifies, “Don’t slip up, outer.”) attention linger on her a little longer but she doesn’t stay long enough for them to gauge information on her. 

Out of sight, Inner pouts and complains aggressively. “Now we can’t go out as Kaoru anymore! Senju are extinct, Yamanaka Okari is out of the question – Danzo being alive means Kurogawa isn’t an option, but not for long. We’ll poison his tea, write bloody letters on the wall –”

Sakura agrees wholeheartedly. – spill his guts onto the pavement, watch him scream, shred his innards into ribbons…

And well, if she fucks around with her kids by sending anonymous sendings of their favourite foods with smiley doodles in well-made preservation scrolls with a temperature aspect to it, it’s no one’s business but her own. 

(She pranks Danzo as well. The look on his face when the glitter bomb exploded – glorious!)

Kurogawa is an identity she favours. Perhaps because as Kurogawa, no one actually sees her. 

(A part of her thinks that Sakura is the same.)

She had been a stringless kite hidden in the mist with no true connections and more masks than she can count, but a kite as such fell and never flew again. 

<Kurogawa was a ROOT agent, kidnapped at the age of three, sent to infiltrate Kirigakure at six, and died thirteen. She was tortured and killed when her identity was exposed and the seal failed in extracting any information. A ghost of a smile and a final apology on her lips, a forever farewell to her friend.>

When Inner informs her that Danzo with half a dozen ROOT agents is approaching Uchiha Shisui, defenceless and alone, she bites back a curse, gets all the equipment she has, and scales the wall to get there with bursts of Shunshin. 

“We’re kicking his ass today,” Inner promises with a grin, bloodthirsty and full of teeth like an Inuzuka.

Sakura adds quickly if only to fuel her fire. I’ll let you take control of a Shadow Clone. We’ll both henge as Kaoru.

“Hell yes!”

The first thing she does upon reaching the shrine is to cut Danzo’s Sharingan arm a hair’s breadth away from implanting Shisui’s eye into his own and kick both away from the bastard. 

Sakura distinctly hears Shisui, empty bleeding eye socket and all whisper under his breath. “You're the girl from the bar.”

She grits her teeth, gestures for him to grab the hand and his eye, and dodges a barrage of water jutsu with shunshin. She replies, just as silently, “Uchiha Kaoru. Take Danzo’s arm and go find the Ino–Shika–Cho and the Hyuuga clan head. Then, go to the Sandaime.”

She makes a few Shadow clones, all puppeteered by Inner, and lets them fight against the ROOT agents and Danzo. Heaven knows Inner has always wanted the man’s head on a platter. Inner is bloodthirsty, fights for the thrill of the kill and the adrenaline high, but she fights for survival.

(She fights to survive, but never to live. Someone like her doesn’t have the privilege.)

“Ino–Shika–Cho and Hyuuga-sama?” Shisui questions as she fixes his eye back with Iryo-Ninjutsu, healing a considerable amount of damage done to him. 

She is an acceptable field medic but is miles away compared to Tsunade or the medics in the hospital. There will still be some damage which can hopefully be salvageable. Somewhere in the depths of her mind, a voice croons: You could’ve done better. 

Sakura tries to answer to the best of her ability, but it is hard while a fight is raging not even a metre from them. She pushes him away from the water bullet that skims past and replies steadily, supporting him with a hand. 

“Yamanaka Inoichi can perform a mind-walk to confirm your story, and everyone knows if you get one, you get the whole set. Hyuuga takes no shit regarding bloodline theft and everybody knows it. Sandaime has overlooked Danzo’s bullshit for long enough. If we’re going to bring him into court, we need allies.” 

Shisui snorts despite himself just as the memories of a clone rushes back to her head in full force. All ROOT agents are down, Danzo alive and still engaging Inner in combat. 

“But what if you died?”

Died, she muses, it doesn’t even seem like a word anymore. “Then I’ll start over again. Stay alive and I’ll be there, no matter how long. Inner used Tamashī Sōrei,” she mutters unconsciously as another clone is destroyed.

“Tamashī Sōrei…is that your Mangekyou?” asks Shisui in awe. “Spirit Poltergeist. What does it do?”

Inner chimes in, “No harm in answering. You didn’t leave anything regarding your Mangekyou with the Uchihas.”

“It traps someone in a Genjutsu-like state in their head and can’t be broken that easily, making them run around like headless chickens. And I can phase through whatever the hell I want, so that’s that.” She answers with a grin and picks him up bridal style, ignoring his undignified squawks and the throbbing pain in her ribs where the kunai made its way in the clone. She runs, using chakra to enhance her legs. 

She drops him in front of the Yamanaka compound where the trio is most likely to be with the arm in his hand. “I’ll go get the Hyuuga head. Meet me in the Hokage tower in ten, no, five minutes.”

“Five minutes?!”

“What can I say, I’ve always been good with words.”

 Without waiting for a response, she leaves in the direction of the Hyuuga compound. Two guards halt her step in front of it and demand more than anything. “

State the reason for your presence, Uchiha.” Her last name is uttered like a curse and she resists the urge to bite back with more masked politeness and snark than she originally intended for. 

“I have to meet Hyuuga Hiashi-sama,” she states steadily, before decreasing her voice to be nothing more than a whisper in the wind, “regarding bloodline theft.”

Maybe because it is the hardness in her eyes or the danger in her voice, or that bloodline theft is a sore enough topic for them, a guard leaves hurriedly and emerges not a minute later with Hyuuga Hiashi behind him.

Before anyone can get a word in edgewise, she interrupts any attempt to, sneer at her for being an Uchiha or spout any insults she will not react nicely to. “Hyuuga-sama, follow me. Time is of essence. I will explain everything on the way.” 

She reaches the Hokage Tower right on time and waves at Shisui, who is still holding the arm full of his family’s eyes. His grip on it is tight and steady. 

“Yes, hold on tight to your demons, Shisui-kun. Watch it wash away your conscience.” Inner says in a way that indicates her amusement, although there is nothing to be amused about.

Sometimes, Inner seems more than she makes herself out to be. More than just a figment of imagination made from a mind shattered into a billion pieces. 

She doesn’t care.

With Hyuuga-sama busy over Danzo’s Sharingan arm, Inner informs her of Danzo’s unfortunate death. 

There is nothing unfortunate of being murdered, Inner. Especially if you’re the murderer. Sakura signs

“I meant his potential. Don’t you remember how he was when you were Yamanaka Okari?” Inner says back. 

She does remember. Shimura Danzo was an unpolished gem, who went and got himself polished through unorthodox methods. 

<Okari died a legend. When she was Yamanaka Okari, Shimura Danzo was nothing more than a comrade of the war. She had two little brothers she treasured with her life – Nara Masashi and Akimichi Kou. She actually did give her life for them, during an ambush by Kumo and Iwa, she sent them to get help, knowing her inevitable death. Single-handedly, she slaughtered every single shinobi there in battle and died of chakra exhaustion. She left a message using a forbidden clan jutsu on her Hitai-ate. A sorry and a farewell. Something she has said too many times to count.>

She disappears before anyone gets the chance to hunt her down and retires to her bedroom, hides all her shinobi equipment Inner placed out in the open just to mess with her, and sleeps till daylight.

She’s glad to know she stopped a civil war when certain things were revealed the next day. Luckily she didn’t use Kurogawa for revenge, otherwise, she’d be out of counterparts to use.

It doesn’t matter anyway. If she dies, she’d start over again, from square one in a different game.

She passes her written test with flying colours, purposefully flunks her physical tests except for flexibility, and puts up a ‘plain civilian born’ front for the teachers. Iruka-sensei isn’t half bad of a teacher, although he seems to take special care towards Naruto, and not just because of his pranks. 

“Maybe he was similar, I can actually imagine Iruka-kun running around causing havoc wherever he goes.” Inner offers nonchalantly. Sakura imagines the mental picture of Iruka-sensei substituting Naruto and laughs. 

Mizuki-sensei however, dislikes Naruto with a passion. He ebbs at the clan children from time to time and helps clanless kids more than he’s supposed to, especially her. He ignores it every time she sneaks into the library to learn more about fields she hasn’t learnt and turns a blind eye when she climbs up the tallest tree in the schoolyard.  

“That means he’s like a civilian-born, like us. Dissatisfaction towards clans, disappointment built up into envy and prejudice. I wonder what monsters he will produce.”

Uchiha Sasuke becomes the class’ popular boy. When she sees him, she sees Itachi and Shisui and what could’ve happened if Danzo had actually taken Shisui’s eye. If Haruno Sakura is just a young girl with the mentality of a child. 

When the second year comes around, she starts taking jobs under the henge of Kurogawa. Working in a cafe reminds her of being Momiji. She purposely makes her henge a little poorly, if only to convince the ninjas that she’s a child when her cover bursts. 

(Momiji was a woman built from steel with a bleeding heart. She loved to see smiles on people’s faces.)

“Kurogawa, two cups of our signature coffee and a slice of chocolate cake.” Says Hima, a fellow worker, “The food you make is divine. They might move you to the kitchen if Hitoshi-oji retires.”

“I wouldn’t be here long enough for that to happen. The main reason I’m here is that I need to earn enough money to buy better supplies.” She replies with a shrug. Hima is the only one here who knows her identity as Sakura. 

“I’ll still visit.” She promises quickly to wipe the crestfallen expression on her friend’s face. 

“I can’t imagine that you’re nine, and that’s like half my age.” She rambles as Sakura makes the coffee in slow and excruciating movements, ensuring the strong aroma. “Your henge is, simply put – amazing. Most people can’t handle limb coordination. I sure didn’t when I was at the academy. Failed the written test badly.”

Inner croons, “Not everybody gets the chance to start over, darling.” 

“Written tests aren't a problem for me,” she shrugs, “I have excellent chakra control as well, but my Taijutsu isn’t so good. Academy three is all fine and good. I’m thinking of learning Genjutsu or something else. Maybe healing.”

“What’s your affinities?”

“Water and Earth. I’ve been testing the basics,” she grits her teeth in mock annoyance. “I still can’t get the water bullet down.” She could pull off Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave with little to no trouble. Water Bullet might as well be a walk in the park and then some.

Handing the beverages to Hima, she leaves the establishment, her shift over for the day. 

It’s just as easy to sneak out of the village as usual. She started a tradition as Okari – every time she lives again, she comes to the small hut North of Konoha, invisible to all but her and writes things down in books, sealed in a storage scroll with preservation aspects to prevent decay. Like – saving Konoha and its orphans, learning secret Kiri jutsu, ways to use a naginata, Yamanaka clan techniques and theories if she could use it as someone else...stuff like that. 

The best part is that no one reaches the place unless strictly necessary because of the ghost rumors and her barriers, giving her all the opportunities in the world to write (or cry) with no one here to disturb her. 

She adds ‘make chakra repressing seals around my hut’ on her ever-growing list of things to do. The house was made with Mokuton, or at least a trial version of it, due to Hashirama having taught her the basics as they have the same elemental affinities. The place is dusty and littered with seals on the walls, only added after living as Momiji. Uzumaki seals are tedious and useful at the same time.

Taking a duster left a long time ago, the cleaning process is speeded up with the help of Shadow Clones. Honestly, her hut is more of a dusty secret underground attic, with how bare and dirty it is.

I got another life again. I had hoped it wouldn’t happen, but I got a new book and plan to update some things in Momiji’s book. Now I’m Haruno Sakura, 9 years old, born March of the 64th year. Civilian daughter of Haruno Kizahi and Haruno Mebuki. The ‘civilian’ thing is funny and weird, but I’m in the academy so it’ll be alright. Pass the written tests, flunk all physical exercises besides flexibility, and here you have useless little Sakura. 

How amusing – for a woman who has gone through more hardships than anyone else here within my circles to be treated like glass, like a porcelain doll. Kaa-san doesn’t care about me being a ninja, dressing me up either way. Tou-san doesn’t mind either, as he was at least a genin. 

I saved Konoha’s orphans! Remember Shimura Danzo? I had a few lives which I was rather close to – Okari and Kurogawa. Maybe Momiji if you stretch. As Okari, Danzo-kun was my kohai, an unpolished gem. As Kurogawa, he was not the young boy he was. As Momiji, he was the reason for my death. 

ROOT had plans to kill off the Uchiha and harvest their eyes. Kaoru would’ve thrown a fit over this, so I henged as Kaoru with Inner, got back Shisui’s eye (he’s Kagami-kun’s grandson – they look so alike) and let Inner do all the work. She’s always wanted Danzo’s head on a platter since Kurogawa. 

Now that I noticed, I have different personalities with different identities. 

(Kaoru was polite, strong, and steadfast. A bleeding heart of gold. Someone who will not back down without a fight. Easily angered, but fast to blow out.

Kotoha was cheerful, kept her head down around the clan elders, joked with Hashirama, and did her best to keep her loved ones alive. Her laughter rang true, never false. The most honest of them all.

Okari takes care of her teammates whom she considers family greatly, gently wishing for harm to never befall them. Her smiles are melancholic, mature.

Kurogawa is an empty husk with too many masks, Orochimaru is the one who taught her that, and she never showed her true self. A shattered soul, left only fragments in the wind.

Momiji is crass, snarky, and informal. She treats people with respect and an olive branch if you earned it, and treats people who didn’t with ignorant gazes and insults.

Haruno Sakura is a girl whose eyes glaze over and holes herself in the library, climbs the tallest tree in the academy to touch the sky, and doesn’t cry, no matter how badly hurt she is.) 

Sakura pauses to lie down on the wood after writing all that she wanted and reminiscing about her life. It hurts that the other personalities want a chance to live again. If it’s like that, then why would she get another chance when she doesn’t in the end?

<Haruno Sakura is a girl spun and woven from lies, suppressed and hidden until she can hide no longer.>

“Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto,” announces Iruka-sensei. Naruto starts yelling about how he’s in the same team as the teme while Sasuke refutes his insults by insulting him back. Yelling ensues and Sakura rolls her eyes before leaving the classroom to the designated spot.  

Naruto follows her out like a kicked puppy as Sasuke rolls his eyes and follows behind. 

Team 7… The unlucky team throughout the decades. Sitting on her chair, she reads through a book on sword katas, hoping to find time for practice. 

(She gains back inches and inches of herself more and more, hard won inches, but inches nevertheless.)

“Sakura-chan, what are you doing?” Naruto inches closer when she is moping and peers over the chair. “Swords?”

She answers quickly, noticing Sasuke’s attention on the topic. It’s always harder to hide things from Sasuke and Shikamaru. “I have a naginata back home –” I bought it when I was Okari and kept it in the hut with all my other sharp pointy things. The sparrows help me transport my things back when I die “– I brought it. And I want to learn how. Naruto, you’re an Uzumaki, right?”  

“Yeah?” “What does being an Uzumaki have anything to do with you?” Both boys turn to look at her.

“You don’t know?” she questions, a lie through her teeth (she already knew Hiruzen wouldn’t have told him), “The Uzumaki were a clan from Uzushiogakure, nearby the Land of Water and was destroyed during the second war, if I’m not mistaken. Kumo and Kiri allied to destroy the village, and they were notorious seals masters. Uzumaki Mito was the First Hokage’s wife and the first jinchuuriki.”

Seeing Naruto’s slightly pale face, she adds, “Not that I know what it even means, but you’re from a clan, Naruto. A dead clan, but a badass clan nonetheless.”

“Hokage-sama actually told him about the fox?” Inner tilts her head to one side. “Certainly not,” she concludes eventually, “Someone else told him. Sandaime was planning to keep it a secret all his life, wasn’t he?”

Both are silent now, Naruto looks on with brimming admiration and shock while Sasuke confidently (“Arrogantly,” Inner corrects haughtily), smirks. 

“The boys are flipping mad. Don’t worry about them.” Inner says with a giggle, an undercurrent of laughter in her voice.

“But that can’t keep them alive.” She adds.

“So my parents were from a super cool clan?” Naruto asks, tears brimming and wipes it away. “Wha’s that…seals? I’ll be awesome at it, like my parents!”

Sasuke cuts in. “Why is dobe the last Uzumaki? There should be more records somewhere, but no one told him.”

Sakura hums. “Senju Tsunade is technically part-Uzumaki, and since Uzumaki’s have red hair that means Naruto is half-Uzumaki as well. I saw from the books that there were two more Uzumaki’s in Konoha when we were born, but Uzumaki Kushina died during the Kyuubi attack while Uzumaki Momiji died on a misranked S-rank half-a-year before that.”

The classroom was filled with joyous laughter, and she thinks this team is different.

Hatake Kakashi. The boy she beat to the ground for insulting her profession and became one of her ducklings, in the end, is her genin-sensei. Sakura would love to make the hand signs for a genjutsu disruption and attempt it, but she knows that it’s the truth and she’s only delaying the inevitable. 

“Maa, my first impression of you is… I hate you.”

After dropping that bomb on them, he orders them to meet on the roof in five minutes. After he made them wait for five full hours. 

“Guys, we’ll wait five minutes before walking slowly. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Also, do any of you know sign language?” She asks, irritated at her former duckling’s time management. The Hokage must be blind, making the man who is composed of ten years of trauma in a flak jacket as a genin-sensei. If she wasn’t a reincarnation, this entire team would have been six feet under and worse.

Sasuke and Naruto shake their heads. “Good. Pass or not, the first thing we’re going to do is learn sign language, Konoha ANBU style.”

“Alright, dattebayo!”

“Hn.”

She shrugs. From her knowledge of the grunting language, that means okay, although slightly reluctant. And neither of them wondered how she knew ANBU sign. 

Uchiha’s…antisocial idiots, a lot of them. She thinks sympathetically.

She takes out three cups of instant ramen she prepared in case Kakashi decides that it will be a good idea to do survival exercises on the first day like the psycho he is. Naruto positively gleams. Sasuke raises a brow at her, questioning her choices. 

She shrugs. “I packed it just in case our teacher is a psycho who lets us do survival exercises like the Forest of Death. Unlike common belief, I do not enjoy roasted snakes or squirrels. Sasuke, can you heat some water? Preferably with Hosenka.”

Said boy nods before following instructions. Although there may be a water heater, there is none where she would know. 

The look when Kakashi sees the cup of ramen in each of their hands was worth it. 

“Sorry sensei, a black cat crossed my path so we went the long way and passed by the teacher’s room –” Sakura starts, a wolfish grin on her face. Naruto took the hint and continued “– where we found these and made cup ramen! Then we found a drowning fish and saved it.”

“Hn,” Sasuke has a sly, satisfied smirk on his face. 

“Okay,” Kakashi takes a deep breath, likely to avoid accidentally killing off his genin. “How about we introduce ourselves? Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, stuff like that.”

“How about you introduce yourself to us first?” Naruto yells. 

“He sucks at stealth. If we want him alive, we need to teach them.” Inner says. 

Sakura agrees, I know. I’ll invite them both to my house later. We should’ve brought Naruto back home earlier. Should we get ourselves another apartment to do illegal shit? 

“Maybe. The Hokage has gone senile with age. Hiruzen is too softhearted, Danzo too sacrificial.”

“Oh, me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes or dislikes. Dreams for the future…and, well, I have lots of hobbies.” 

Kakashi is still an asshole. Just in a different context. Sakura sighs internally. 

Inner offers unhelpfully, “At least he’s not a destructive, ‘stick-up-his-ass’ asshole?”

Naruto introduces himself first. “Me! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo. I like cup raman and when Iruka-sensei brings me to Ichiraku’s and Sakura-chan. I dislike waiting three minutes for the cup ramen to cook. My dream…is to surpass the Hokage! And then have all the people of this village acknowledge my existence!”

“Hobbies…pranks, I guess.” He adds after a few seconds of contemplation.  

“Next.”

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like tomatoes and I don’t like annoying fangirls. I want to be a shinobi like nii-san. My hobbies are training.”

“Next, you, pinky.”

Me… “My name is Haruno Sakura. My likes and dislikes fluctuate occasionally based on my own opinion of them. My hobbies are…baking and cooking I guess. I don’t have a dream besides keeping my loved one’s safe no matter what, but I can already feel that our team is going to be troublesome.” She says, pulling a page from a Nara's book.

Kakashi’s face looks like a ghost, face pale as a sheet until Sakura realizes her mistake. 

(“Hey, Hatchlings! I’m Momiji, Uzumaki Momiji. My likes and dislikes change a lot and are none of your damn business. I like cooking and I run a cafe in the morning and a bar at night. My only dream is to keep my loved one’s alive, no matter the cost. I’m your babysitter for the day since Minato and Kushina are off…somewhere and no one wants to deal with you fire hazards, since the other day someone burned half of the forest down.”)

“Oh…crap.” Inner curses in the safety of their shared mind. “Our introduction was too much like Momiji, wasn’t it?”

Thankfully, Kakashi is either too stoned to notice or she picks her composure off the ground faster than she thought, awkward silence stays between them, Sakura falling into the role of a naive girl easily. 

Kakashi, after a few (embarrassingly long) minutes of silence, announces. “We will start our duties tomorrow, survival training.”

“What survival training?” “Why do we hav’ to do survival training?”

She stays silent. Either Kakashi decides to be smart and omit the bell test, or…

“I’m your opponent, that isn’t normal training,” he replies, and she feels the distinct urge to bash her head (or Kakashi) into the wall. Of course of all tests, Bakashi just had to go for the stupid bell test, which should be expected as he never wanted a genin team in the first place. “Of the 27 graduates, only 9 have the chance to become genin, while the rest go back to the academy. It’s a test with over a 66% failure rate. Don’t eat breakfast tomorrow or you’ll throw up.” He announces dramatically. 

“Fuck you and your bells.” Inner agrees alongside her. “His stupid flair for the dramatics never fades as he grows old.”

As Kakashi disappears with a swirl of leaves, Sasuke says. “So, whose house are we going to for our team meeting?”

“Mine,” Sakura offers. “We need to get a head start on sign language. Maybe I’ll cook dinner for you guys as well.” She should have that book on ANBU sign somewhere. 

“And get a good place inside Konoha to do illegal shit in,” Inner reminds her enthusiastically. “So that your sparrows can move stuff easily and that we wouldn’t need to live in the hut. No offence but you don’t have beds there. Just keep the sparrow summons contract in the hut and –”

“Alright,” he agrees, “lead the way.”

Haruno Sakura will keep this team alive. 

(Because she failed the others, she should at least save one.)

“So…Naruto? Have you gone into ANBU headquarters before?” Sakura asks. Said boy brightens at the mention and boasts proudly.

“I pranked them before! Turned their masks pink!” He says with a foxy-grin as Sasuke perks slightly at the mention, likely imagining his brother with a pink mask. 

Inner remarks softly, “They’re not bad. If we work hard and teach them all we know, this team can survive.”

They will, she promises herself. 

She and Inner solidify a plan of action. “Alright…We need a book on ANBU sign, maybe code if we have the time. Do you know their schedules?”

“Ah…usually there’s less people there in the mid-noon. Cuz’ all of ‘em are patrolling, or something. But there’s only one person at 4 in the mornin’ cause that’s when most of ‘em sleep and the last guy is on night watch.” Naruto says, drawing a makeshift map of ANBU headquarters and where the sign book should be.

Sakura is reluctantly impressed by his trap setting ability. He would be a good summoner for the sparrows, able to hide in plain sight and blend into the background. “Anything else of note?”

Sasuke nods. “Someone probably drops by at 5 o’clock, mostly to start patrols and get equipment. Nii-san said before that the guy that’s on the night watch gets the short straw and most of them sleep on the job. And there’s lots of wards and traps, so we have to be careful.”

She agrees, slightly lost in her thoughts as Inner lists escape routes and secret pathways she can remember as Okari. 

“We might be able to enter with our chakra signature enveloping the boys.” Inner says, eyebrows scrunched. “The wards are keyed to chakra signatures, but we entered when as Momiji once, and the wards didn’t activate as long as I used Okari’s chakra. But if we don’t repress our chakra, the shinobi might notice us… What do we do?”

Repress our chakra, then deactivate part of the wards that trigger the alarm when those not of the blood wards enter. Sakura concludes. Steal the books, then throw a prank – glitter, maybe, as a cover up.

She repeats most of her thoughts to the two boys, who nod excitedly. While Sasuke goes back to ask his parents for a sleepover, Sakura and Naruto check over the plan.

(She could teach them to sign herself, having memorized every page in the book, but there will be no explanation when asked.)

To be honest, the actual operation was anticlimactic. The last person left a while ago as Sakura halts the wards embarrassingly easily, Sasuke searches for the books as Naruto prepares a great prank, glitter, glue, and everything troublesome to clean up. 

“Done?” Sasuke whispers, “We don’t have much time. 10 minutes at the most.”

“Done!” Naruto whisper-yells, just as cheerful as ever. “Sakura?”

She nods and gestures for them to leave quickly. “20 seconds and the wards will reactivate. Come over here, now.”

“What? Why not the door?”

“Door makes it even more suspicious because we’re not wearing ANBU gear, you idiot. I have a location-centered seal in my house.” She hisses, glaring at Sasuke who’s peering out the window, contemplating whether to trust his not-yet teammate or calculate the risks of falling from there and testing the strength of his bones when they accost him to T&I.

 “Oh for fuck’s sake –” She grabs them both by the collar and activates the Hiraishin seal which tugs them backward, thinking if Kakashi or Genma sees us we’re deader than dead.

“Deader than dead,” Inner echoes. “Is that the best you could come up with?”

Shut up, Inner. Sakura sucks in a breath, keeping her sanity inpact and tuning out Sasuke’s too-late horrifying revalation that they broke into ANBU headquarters what the fuck or Naruto’s much more innocent yay we did a great prank Kakashi-sensei is going to be so mad.

Sakura comes to a horrifying realization. Oh gods it is going to be so much trouble trying to keep these brats alive.

“Now you notice? They’re like Hashirama and Madara, dogs and cats.” Inner says flatly. “Too late, you’re keeping ‘em alive no matter what.” The last part is a little more stressed because Inner knows that she wouldn’t do things without motivation. 

Sparing a glance at the boys by the corner of her eye, she sees them quarreling and shooting insults at each other but otherwise with sweaty smiles on their faces. Happy, like a family. 

I am going to keep them alive, no matter the cost. She decides, determination roaring in her bones and a fire in her eyes.

“You will. I’ll make sure of it.” Sakura isn’t sure, but she can hear the smugness radiating off Inner.