Doujutsu!
Age: 6 (Almost 7)
"Doujutsu!"
Crow's team was heading back to Konoha when he comes to a sudden halt. Craning his head to the right, he gives Team Ro a signal. The team begins darting towards the direction of the east border of Hi no Kuni. There, Crow's instincts are proven right.
In the clearing, there were two small hooded figures fighting seven Kumogakure nin. Crow recognizes the nin as the diplomatic envoy sent to Konoha for the finalization of the peace treaty between the two warring countries. The Head Ninja, the main representative for the treaty, is in the middle of the envoy, holding a bundle of blue in his arms.
Cries can be heard from the bundle; immediately the Anbu team is on guard. The envoy had not arrived with an infant. Who's child were they holding captive?
In the span that it took Team Ro to analyze the situation, only the Head Ninja is left standing. The two small hooded figures were looking worse for wear; their cloaks tattered and nearly falling off their form, their wounds bleeding profusely. The envoy nin were no easy opponents.
The Head Ninja employs a wind jutsu, which slices through their forms multiple times. The cloaks fall to the ground along with two logs, revealing the two nins to be Konoha nin from their Kawarimi technique.
Immediately the Anbu spring into action, confirming who the ally is and who the enemy is in the situation. They swiftly take out the Head Ninja, severely injuring him and knocking him out. They quickly stow him away in a scroll, along with some other nins who still survived the battle. But the child was not in his possession by the time Team Ro finished with him.
Rabbit looks up, sniffing the clearing, and points to the direction heading towards Konoha. The Anbu team is quick to pursue, soon catching up to the two small figures who battled the Kumo nin , one of them holding the crying bundle.
They intercept the two, giving them a clear view of the two nin's appearance. Both of them were young, incredibly so, around the same age that Crow himself had graduated the academy. They wore dark clothes, aside from dark maroon straps on their shoulders, presumably to hold their matching tantos in place. They looked to be wearing standard outfits since they both wore the same thing regardless of their gender. One of them had light shoulder-length grey hair with black eyes. The other one had midnight black hair, cut short bellow her ears, and striking green orbs.
Crow stiffens, he knew those eyes. Crow gives Team Ro a different signal. Ordering them to retrieve both the child and the two young shinobi. They nod their ascent, engaging the two.
They put up a considerable struggle against the more experienced shinobi. When the crying child is in the hands of the Anbu and the two were cornered and exhausted, it became apparent to them that they were fighting a losing battle.
The male half of the duo quickly whipped out his tanto and swiftly plunged it into his heart, as was standard protocol for ROOT agents of their tier. The female was quick to follow but was knocked unconscious by Crow before she could take the plunge.
Itachi's heart was pounding hard within his chest, almost threatening to beat its way out. He recalls the things he'd seen during the Third Shinobi War, children mutilated, dying; all for a conflict devised by selfish individuals. Here he was faced with the same situation. His face scrunches up, looking at the decapitated little boy; he couldn't have been older than seven. What kind of organization did that to their ninja? To children?
He looks down at the girl in his arms, her pale form almost ghostly in its slightness, many scars littering her body from the fight, old ones fading like the waxing moon. Her now closed eyes were still seared in his mind, her chakra feeling familiar to him; there was no doubt about it. This was Sakura Hatake. Was.
"Taichou, the child is confirmed as a Hyuuga Clan member. How should we proceed now?" Asked Ox, carrying the small bundle in his arms, revealing its heritage through its pupil-less lavender eyes.
Itachi became Crow once again, the captain of Anbu Team Ro and nods swiftly, ordering the team to make a speedy arrival towards Konoha. This complicated matter of what looks to be a kidnapping of a Hyuuga and the interference of young shinobi from an unkown organization needed to be brought to the attention of the Yondaime.
Sakura screamed and clawed at her restraints when she awoke and saw Itachi. Or more specifically, his eyes. Itachi had kept his sharingan on, in case there were any nasty surprises with her awakening.
He quickly switched it off, showing his dark grey eyes instead.
But the damage was done and Sakura shrinked into herself some more, despite her restraints strapping her down to the hospital bed. Itachi is not surprised at first, rationalizing the reaction as some type of reactionary withdrawal from getting cleared of the drugs constantly pumped into her small body. However quickly going over her reaction and how it was directed to the sight of his eyes…
His eyes narrow, was an Uchiha somehow connected to Sakura's capture?
The Yondaime is just as bewildered by her reaction. He had a theory of where Sakura has been during the past year; regarding a secret organization residing within Konoha that is separate from its governing Hokage. But her explosive reaction towards Itachi's sharingan only brought up more questions for him.
But for now, he had to do something to curb Sakura's acquired phobia of the sharingan.
"This is Sakura, I want you to be nice to her. Is that understood, Sasuke?" Itachi asked, presenting a small red haired girl to him. She seemed uncomfortable with Itachi's close proximity to her, inching away from his hand on her shoulder, her dull eyes darting surreptitiously towards his eyes.
Sasuke knew the tone of voice that his older brother took. It was the tone of voice he usually reserved for when he had a mission for Sasuke! So in turn, Sasuke nodded his small head resolutely, promising to be nice to the little girl. His brother entrusted this responsibility to him, he had to succeed!
"Hi! I'm Sasuke Uchiha! And I'm six and a half!" Sasuke said, smiling brightly at the little girl, tilting his head to the side. It seemed like she was a little absent-minded, not responding to his prodding, her dull green eyes looking straight through him.
Sasuke felt a little annoyed, his eyes narrowing and his nose scrunching up; sure he didn't like how girls in the academy fawned over him but he also hated to be ignored. He has had enough of that from his father.
He comes closer to her, waving his hand in front of her face, trying to catch her attention. Then, faster than he could blink, she had his arm in a tight grip, the pain forcing him to yield and drop his bum to the floor.
Sasuke's eyes started to water, he knew he shouldn't cry, his father would decry him and tell him he was a mar to the pride of the Uchiha Clan. But it hurt, darn it! He closed his eyes tightly then, trying to bury the pain.
Then he felt a soft, cool hand on his cheek, cooling his superheated face from suppressing the tears. He opened his eyes to find the very reason for his pain staring at his eyes closely. A minute passes, her eyes never leaving his, him paralyzed by her sudden intense gaze. Suddenly, she smiles a small smile, leaning in towards him even more, their foreheads touching; her eyes never looking away from his dark black eyes.
Sasuke felt his face heat up even more. This girl was weird.
After their weird first meeting, the weird girl—"Her name is Sakura, Sasuke." Itachi would chide—would follow him everywhere. Her fingers always hanging on to some part of his clothing, tethering herself to him.
She seemed to shy away from everybody else within the Uchiha Clan. Always looking towards their eyes searchingly first, then flinching, and looking away before hiding behind Sasuke's back.
She was really weird.
But Sasuke secretly liked that she stuck on him and depended on him so much. It made him feel important, needed and powerful. Something that he was not, not in the Uchiha Clan what with Itachi's presence. He also secretly really liked that above all, Sakura always preferred his company to Itachi. Always.
So in reality, Sasuke really liked that Sakura latched on to him. But the academy recently just taught them about the Shinobi rules. Rule #27: Shinobi must never show emotions. And Sasuke took his training as a ninja very seriously.