Chapter Text
Sakura sits, contemplatively, in her brand new apartment. She would have been meditating or practising her fuinjutsu, but the giant ball of chakra that was her next-door neighbour made concentrating hard.
(There's also the presence of Hatake Kakashi – but Sakura's not focusing on him right now.
The never ending wave of guilt and grief all combining into a massive depression that she can't fucking focus on right now.
Stop. Stop focusing on him.)
She understands why the Hokage placed her in this specific apartment. Placing the village's most sought after children within the same apartment complex made ANBU watch both easier and able to be done by a single four-man squad. She herself had done something similar with the clan orphans – specifically the last Hyuga and what few Nara were left.
(The Hyuga – she'd seen the aftermath of the Hyuga Branch Clan's uprising and it was terrible. A single mute little boy was found in the rubble and no one even knew his name or if he was Main or Branch – he'd been too young for a seal regardless. He was listed simply as 'Hyuga' in all village records because he was all that was left.
And the Nara. Fuck, the Nara. Kiri and Kumo had combined forces and targeted the village and Sakura had been front and centre for the massacre that was the Nara clan grounds. Strategically, it was a sound move; get rid of Konoha's smartest players just as village leadership had violently changed hands and the village would fall not far behind.
They hadn't counted on a single Academy student taking the Nara kekkei genkai to its worst. What started as a massacre on Konoha shinobi became a massacre on all who entered the compound. Shadows and demons and the dark taking people in only spit out their bones – it was hell.
She'd been the one to calm that girl down, talking her from her hysterical panic and fear all while the shadows tried their best to snap her in half like they had done to her teammates.
Only sheer luck had gotten her away with just a small scar on her abdomen.
Shikaku had not been as lucky - the man never would be a ninja ever again, not after the horrors of that night. Losing his wife and his son and his daughter-in-law and his unborn grandchild and then his legs - no, there was no way for the man to be a shinobi again. Not with his injuries or the rage and hate and suicidal depression that hid behind his intellect.)
Then there was the fact that having a friend of similar age increased loyalty to the village, and a Jinchuriki was the least likely to have ties to the village. Placing her, a young child who has had no chance to learn the ingrained hatred most people teach their kids, who is also of similar age to the Jinchuriki, right next to said sacrifice set both of them up to seeing the Hokage as a saviour like figure while reinforcing loyalty and a bond of friendship that most Jinchuriki sorely lacked. It's a rare win-win scenario for a village leader.
So yes, she can understand the Hokage's thoughts on this particular matter.
That doesn't mean she likes it. Uzumaki Naruto was a whirlwind of volatile chakra that grated on her far too strong senses. She could even sense the minute traces of the Kyuubi's chakra slowly being siphoned into the boy. The mixing emotions of happy, nervous, depression, anger, and bravado is giving her a headache as well. A five year old should not be feeling things like depression. And her anger at the injustice of his situation just made her focus on his chakra more which only made her head hurt worse. It was a never ending cycle so far.
It also grated on her that Naruto was now older than her – as the Hokage explained, everyone that would be in her Academy class was going to be older than her – considering her birthday was no longer in March, but on the last day of December. She had once been one of the older children in her class. Being born in March meant she had to wait nearly a year to start. Even Danzo apparently had some morals, considering he wasn't willing to let a four-year-old into the Academy (even if Sakura would have celebrated her birthday less than two weeks after starting).
At least in this universe, the Hokage saw no problem with letting her into the Academy at four years old, considering she'll turn five soon after beginning.
She knows how cruel children were. Even if she had only been in the Academy for a year or so before, there were still kids (mostly of civilian descent) that made fun of her pink hair and shy nature. Now she was going to go back to the Academy for the next semester with her pink hair and her unsettling gaze and she'll be the youngest there.
She's really not looking forward to it.
Naruto's chakra shifts with nervous energy outside her door and Sakura lets out a soft hiss. She'd spent the last two hours trying to acclimate herself to his chakra – spoiler alert, it didn't really work. A hesitant, barely heard knock comes to her door, and Sakura forces herself to calm down. No need to scare the kid, after all.
“Coming!” She calls out, wrangling her senses to the back of her mind, suppressing them and hoping it would be enough to at least interact with the boy for a few minutes. She didn't like to suppress her senses. It made her feel weak and vulnerable, not knowing if there were threats nearby.
She lets out a quiet hum as she opens the door, her suppressed senses flaring back to life and immediately being drowned by the massive chakra the kid has. She takes a deep breath before circulating her own chakra, buffeting the heavy presence away. She wrangles her senses back once again, just as the boy begins to speak.
Blue eyes meet hers and a grin winds up tanned, whiskered cheeks, “Hi! I live next door. I'm Uzumaki Naruto!”
“Nice to meet you, Naruto.” Sakura says, letting a smile cross her face, “I'm Sakura.” She pauses, before remembering that the Hokage had assigned her a surname and that she should probably use it, “Uzumaki Sakura.”
His eyes snap open wide, “What?! Really!” His jaw drops, “S-So, are you like, my long lost sister or something?”
Sakura snorts, “Sister? Nah. We're cousins. Your mom was my aunt.”
“My... mom?” He frowns, “You know my mom?” He's shaking, Sakura notes, possibly in depression or rage. Quicker than any five-year-old had the right to be, his hands are fisted into her shirt. Rage it is.
His eyes flicker between blue and red, and her muffled senses are briefly overwhelmed by the Kyuubi's angry red chakra, and wow, those ANBU are terrible at their job. Can't they sense the Kyuubi's chakra? What, were they just willing to let her get mauled by an angry Jinchuriki?
Wasn't there a saying about not incurring a Jinchuriki's anger? Well, too late for that now.
“Who is she? Tell me!” He shouts, whisker marks darkening with his anger.
After a moment, his eyes settle on blue and Sakura figures it's okay to actually respond. She grabs his hands and pushes him away, gently. Great, her only shirt now had ten little holes clawed into it. Fantastic.
“Geez, Naruto,” She says, straightening her shirt, “don't you know it's not nice to grab a lady without her permission? Those claws of yours could've hurt me, you know.” She watches as he seems to force himself to calm down, guilt and shame rising in him. “Good, you calmer now?”
Naruto nods meekly, “Sorry... I just... no one tells me anything about my parents. I just wanna know! Why doesn't anyone tell me anything?”
Sakura shrugs, “Well, I don't know. But!” She smiles at him again, “Your mom's name was Kushina. Uzumaki Kushina.” Her gaze softens as he mouths the name to himself.
“Do... do you know what she looks like?” He asks, looking very much like a kicked puppy and that expression, Sakura decides, absolutely does not belong on his face. Damn, this kid had emotional manipulation down pat. And while she does, in fact, know what Uzumaki Kushina looked like, that was in her before. Not here.
So she steels herself and shakes her head, “No. I just know her name.”
Naruto nods, a bit solemn, “Do you... know my dad's name?” Now this one she actually doesn't know. She has an inkling, considering every single Jinchuriki was related to a village leader in some way. Plus, blond hair and blue eyes is not a common Konoha look. But she's not certain, so she can't say her speculations.
She shakes her head again, “Sorry. I don't.”
“Oh.” Naruto frowns to himself a bit, before his head snaps up, “Oh yeah!” He smiles at her, “I, uh, wanted to know if, um, maybe you wanted to play, maybe?” He looks down at the holes in her shirt and winces, wrapping his arms around himself. “I-If you don't want to, that's fine! I, um... well...” He fidgets, “Um, yeah...”
And despite her senses screaming at her to not, she dips her head, “Sure!”
“-an' this is the best park! Sometimes Shikamaru and Choji are here and they don't mind playing with me! A-And none of the adults have even tried to kick me out!” Naruto chatters into her ear, having wound himself around her left arm with a tight, possessive, grip.
It was actually helping her acclimate to his chakra, funnily enough. She no longer needed to circulate her own chakra to buffer his. So she let him lead her around like a prize, giving what a child's mind says is a 'tour' of the village.
And wow, she never thought she could hate the village when Danzo wasn't in charge. Every few metres was either a civilian or one of the stupider ninja giving a heated glare at Naruto, whispering horrible, nasty rumours and non-truths to each other. One fool of a man had even attempted to pull her away from him! Flashing her own glare had nipped that in the bud, just in time, as she had felt the possessive rage begin to rise in Naruto.
Truthfully, she wanted to see what would happen if she just let Naruto go wild on them – and if there hadn't been shinobi around who would definitely attempt to murder the kid should he snap, she would've let him.
No, she had to prevent Uzumaki Naruto's death as best she could. She refused to have to deal with Konoha's Rabid Dog ever again, and keeping Naruto alive would do that.
“-Sakura-chan? Are you listening?” She nods, and he sends her a beaming grin that makes her chest seize with some emotion she can't quite name. “Over this way! There's one last place to see!” He begins dragging her through a nearby alley, into one of the quieter streets.
“This place, they let me eat here! A-And the old man sometimes lets me eat for free!” Naruto tugs her into a small food stand titled Ichiraku Ramen. Sakura's never been here before – ramen wasn't part of her state demanded diet, and after Danzo's death she never really thought of the food, too used to ration bars and wild game.
An older man stands behind the counter, gently wiping it down with a small rag. He looks up at their entrance and smiles, “Naruto! Welcome back!”
“Old man Teuchi!” Naruto croons, scrambling onto one of the stools. “Hey, hey! This is Sakura-chan! She's my cousin!” Sakura pauses in her attempts to lift herself onto a stool and waves at the vendor, decidedly not looking the man in the eyes.
(She's not stupid – she knows what her gaze does to people. But she's working on that.
It's not her fault that her control keeps slipping, letting the small genjutsu she uses to hide dispel.)
“Your cousin?” Teuchi mumbles, barely audible.
Naruto nods, “Yeah, yeah! She just came to the village! Old man Hokage gave her the apartment next to mine!”
“Well, this calls for celebratory ramen!” Teuchi claps his hands, “So, what will it be?” Naruto squints up at the menu, before looking at Sakura, who had finally managed to get onto the stool.
“Ne, Sakura-chan, do you know what that one says?” He points to a newly added item, and Sakura tilts her head.
“Salt Ramen with Menma and Pork.” She says, and Naruto grins.
“Yeah, that one! I'll have two of those ol' man!”
Teuchi makes a note, before looking to Sakura, “And you, little lady?” Sakura blinks, and pointedly looks at the menu.
“Ah... Miso with Extra Pork, please.”
“Coming right up!”