Chapter Text
When Sakura is six months old, the Fourth Hokage's son is murdered.
It is weeks after the Kyuubi attack, when the the village is still reeling from the sudden death of their prized Hokage. The news of the Nine Tails being sealed into a baby, his newborn son, is not missed.
He is suffocated to death in the infirmary by a soft pillow and a harsh hand, with the wails of the other young witnesses filling the walls.
He is laid to rest between his parents, a small corpse of a child far too young to have died. The villagers tend to his grave, despite their hatred, and beg for the Fourth's foregiveness.
*
When she is seven, the Third Hokage dies under sudden and mysterious circumstances.
The Shinobi world mourns his death and Konoha is flooded with mourners and foreign ninjas, offering their condolences and best wishes.
The Hokage seat remains empty as the council searches desperately for his replacement. The Sannin are, of course, their first choices, but none are up to the task. Jiraiya turns it down. Tsunade is unable to be located. And Orochimaru has long since fled the village to continue his "research".
Konoha is filled with capable shinobi, but none came close to Kage level. With time against them, the council makes their decision.
When Sakura is seven, Shimura Danzō is inaugurated as the Fifth Hokage.
*
Danzo wastes no time in changing things to his will. Defunding civilian projects, enforcing harsher Academy training, transferring more shinobi into the Anbu. He tears down everything else to build their military strength.
The strong survive, he says. It makes sense, she supposes, but something about the statement does not settle well for her, in the way her parents gaze anxiously at each other. (She will understand some day.)
Danzo wastes no time in uprooting the Third's work.
He publishes pages upon pages of the Third's failures. Being unable to protect the Fourth's newborn son and letting the Kyuubi die with him. Releasing dangerous missing-nin who should have been executed the moment they were captured. Continuously poor village security. Ignoring Orochimaru's odd behavior and taking no action, even after numerous orphans and homeless civilians went missing. He was aware of Orochimaru's experiments long before he confronted him.
Sakura is smart for her age. The other kids in her class, except for Shikamaru, of course, don't understand the news in the slightest. Just that the Third Hokage had failed all of them. She tells her parents so one night too.
Her mother shakes her head at her, gently placing her glasses on the table where she is working on taxes. "The Third was a good Hokage, Sakura," she says, her tone gentle and patient. "He protected us and loved us all."
She shakes her pink head stubbornly. "He wasn't a good Hokage."
Her mother raises an eyebrow, then slips off her chair, kneeling before her so that they're at eye level. She smiles at her, tucking a small strand of pink behind her ear. "Being the Hokage isn't an easy job, Sakura. It takes a lot of hard decisions, and sometimes, all you can do is your best."
She tilts her head to the side, gazing at her to hear the rest of her words.
"The Third wanted peace and that's what he did," she states in that mother tone that's not to be argued with. Then, she smiles, standing up, and ruffles her hair affectionately. "Don't listen to everything you hear, m'kay?"
Sakura thinks of the Third playing with the kids at the Academy, laughing with them as if he were their own grandfather. The Fifth doesn't seem like the type of person to do that.
She nods. "Okay."
(She is still too impressionable.)
*
When Sakura is ten, she attends her first funeral.
His casket is wide open. His hair is just as messy and his clothes just as pristine as they were in life. Uchiha Sasuke's eyes are closed and his face is relaxed. She would've thought he were sleeping if she hadn't already known the awful truth.
That is the first time she learns the word.
Suicide.
She knows the story. Everyone does. Two years ago, Sasuke had returned home from the Academy to discover his enter clan slaughtered. His brother's corpse still gripping a bloody sword in his hand. (A murder-suicide.) He was never the same after that.
Three days ago, they found his body in the cemetery, sprawled out and bloody, and leaning upon the headstones of his parents.
Sakura is still too young, still wears her hair in pretty red ribbons— but this is the first time she truly learns grief. Standing over the open casket of her former crush and classmate, crying silent and confused tears.
He is younger than her. He was younger than her. Ten. Ten and his heart had stopped beating by his own accord.
Her mother places a gentle hand on her back and guide her away from his body. Her father takes her hand and they walk to the back of the ground.
Her whole class is there. Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, and many more. Faceless civilians and shinobi are there too, even though they had never known him.
Sakura supposes they're there to mourn the death of the last Uchiha, not Sasuke and who he really was.
So many people at his funeral, but none had been there for him when he had needed them. Though, she doubts Sasuke would've have let them, anyways.
(Do people only care when you're dead?)
Her mother wraps her arms around her, pulling her close. Sakura's warm tears bleed into her smooth black dress.
A gentle finger taps on her shoulder.
The pink-haired girl forces her head away from her mother to look at the person. Ino stares at her, cheeks stained with tear marks.
(Sakura has never seen her look so... weak.)
She untangles her arms from around her mother's waist and holds them out to her now former rival. Ino surges forward into her hug and they cry together.
If there was any good on that day at all, it was that they were finally best friends once more.
*
Academy students tend to the village cemetery weekly.
It's a large plot of land and spreads for almost as far as eyes can see. It's a beautiful place, really, with bright green grass and Konoha's warm, yellow sun. Not a bad place to be buried at all.
There is one downside of being buried here, however.
Sakura pauses in scooping up piles of fallen leaves, looking up to stare at the Hokage rock. The cemetery is nearly underneath the mountain. The Hokages' five faces, those of past and present, overlook the graveyard.
The Fifth's is her least favorite.
All of the rock faces are emotionless and stern. They are carved into a mountain side, after all, but some part of Danzo's carved face seems to spread his own chilling energy.
She can count on one hand the amount of times she's seen him. He's not like the Third Hokage, who made frequent public appearances, who tried to connect with every citizen and played with every Academy child like his own. No, the Fifth isn't like the Third at all. He is an elusive Hokage, a hermit, really. Cold and cruel.
His rock face conveys his nature perfectly.
"Whatcha starin' at, big brow?" Ino asks, interrupting her thoughts. She emerges from seemingly no where, dumping leaves and sticks into the trash next to her.
The pink-haired girl jumps a little at her sudden appearance, spooked. The blond just laughs, following her gaze towards the Hokage wall.
"Thinking about becoming the Sixth?" she asks, grinning, hands planted on her hips.
Sakura laughs and scoffs, shoving her. "Of course not."
"You're right," she admits, grinning. "Your forehead would be too big for the hat."
She snickers back at her. "Fuck off, pig."
"Sakura!" Iruka all but cries out. His voice booming loudly despite the distance and all of the students immediately turn to them.
She instantly pales and laughs nervously. "Sorry, sensei."
Iruka sighs, exasperated, or what she thinks is exasperation. She can't really tell to be honest. He's too far away. It's a miracle he heard her at all.
As soon as his head turns from them, Ino falls into a fit of hysterical laughter. "Nice job, loser."
Scowling, Sakura picks up the trash bag and throws it at her friend, who dodges and laughs mockingly at her terrible aim. In the process, some of the trash bag's contents spill across the grass.
"SAKURA!!" Iruka screams, "DETENTION !!"
"Sorry, sorry," she repeats, flushed, embarrassed that she had been caught. Ino cackles mercilessly.
"YOU TOO, INO!"
The blond's head snaps towards him so quickly it's a miracle her neck doesn't snap. "WHAT?"
Sakura throws her head back and cackles at her. Ino scowls, then picks up a banana peal and throws it at her.
Their detention turns out to be just tending to the cemetery after everyone else has left, while Iruka sensei sits not far away, head buried in a lesson plan as he mutters unkindly to himself.
Sakura can't shake the feeling that she's being watched.
She turns her focus away from the Will of Fire statue, the one where all of the Hokage buried, and stares back at the piercing eyes of the Fifth Hokage's carved face. An unpleasant shiver rolls down her back.
"Y'know the Fourth's son?" begins Ino, reorganizing the pile of gifts so that more could be left later.
"Of course, stupid," she answers, rolling her eyes. "The one with the Kyuubi."
"He would've been our age."
She tilts her head to the side, not sure what the other's trying to get at. Obviously his son would've been their age. The attack had occurred when they were babies.
(Her eyes drift to one of the headstones next to the Fourth's.)
She squints. "So?"
Ino just shrugs. She's certainly in a good mood today. Much less pushy than usual. "It's just weird, y'know?" she admits, "We could've been classmates with the Hokage's son."
Could’ve being the key word. (Sakura tries to not think of how he died.)
Her eyes drift back to the Fifth Hokage on the mountain side. She doesn't like him. She'll have to get over her weariness of him soon, though. Next year is her last year at the Academy, then she'll be a genin serving under his command.
Iruka joins the two at the statue, his hand pressing his lesson planner to his side. "Alright, you two can head home now."
The girls quickly bow to their teacher, pay their respects one last time, and flee before Iruka has the chance to change his mind.
They both pause briefly at Sasuke's grave, covered in flowers and other objects their classmates had gifted them that day. Ino takes a flower vase from a nearby headstone and moves it to his. Sakura hisses at her and smacks her on the side. They run out of the cemetery, laughing, chasing after each other and nearly tripping over headstones.
As they pass through the gates, Sakura pauses, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of Sasuke's grave.
Danzo hadn't attended his funeral, even though he was the last of one of Konoha's founding clans. The Third would've. He attended every child and shinobi's funeral, thanking their family for their service or praying with their mournful parents. The only sign that Danzo even knew of the last Uchiha's untimely demise is his signature on a piece of paper, authorizing the demolition of the Uchiha district.
It comes as no surprise that their Hokage cares nothing for the death of their children.
*
Ino grins at her widely, cockily— and God, Sakura has never wanted to punch anyone so badly in that moment. "Are you okay, scaredy-cat?”
When she is twelve, Sakura is assigned to Copy Ninja Kakashi's genin team.
It's their first real mission, escorting a bridge builder, a disgruntled man named Tazuna, to the Land of Waves. Though, their luck turns sour quickly. Tazuna had very conveniently forgot to mention the Blood Mist Shinobi on their tails. They had been ambushed and she— she had froze, like the child she is, not the kunoichi she's supposed to be.
Ino, in all her dickish nature, wastes no time in taunting her. Hinata glances nervously between her team, unsure of which conflict to be concerned for. Her face is unnaturally pale and her shoulders are squished up anxiously, hands nervously pressed together to her chest. Sakura almost feels bad for her.
Her own face is almost as flushed as pink as the hair on top of her head. An ugly mix of humiliation and anger stir in her stomach and foul taste stings her mouth.
She doesn't remember what happens next, just that Ino is on the ground, staring up at her with furious eyes. The mocking in her eyes gone. Rage dances within them.
"Sakura, Ino! Please!" Hinata begs but her pleas fall onto deaf ears.
Ino is on her feet in a heartbeat, launching herself at her. The two roll around on the ground in a blur of limbs and colored hair, spitting and punching with words that hurt more than the fists behind them.
Kakashi rips them apart from each other, hanging them both by their collars, like two young and troublesome puppies. Sakura's head is fuzzy with the adrenaline pumping through her veins and iron tinges her mouth as warm blood seeps through her split lip.
Tazuna mutters something about how he's doomed. Ino shoots him a dirty glare.
Kakashi lowers them gently. His hands move from the back of their shirts to their heads. "Why did I think it would be easier with girls?" he asks, mournfully and conks their heads together.
Stars dance in front of her eyes and her forehead head explodes with pain. Then there is a pair of lips on her own. The kiss is clumsy and rough and purely accident. Ino's lips are soft and smooth against her own.
She tastes like honey.
There is a split second, the smallest moment, shorter than a heartbeat, where neither of them move. Where their teeth don't clash and their lips are sealed firmly against each other. Sakura swears she feels Ino's heartbeat echoing just as rapidly as her own. But then Ino bites down on her lip, drawing blood, and they rip themselves apart from each other.
"Bastard," the blond grunts to her, but she's breathing heavily, eyes gazing anywhere but her. Sakura ignores her, humiliated and dizzy.
Hinata is horrified, glancing between them with wide, horrified eyes. Kakashi is indifferent as always, but there is an amused gleam in his eyes. He almost looks like he's about to start laughing. (She can't decide if she wants to die or kill him first.)
When Sakura is twelve, her first kiss is stolen by the same girl who makes her bleed.
*
The mission is a success, but it's almost not worth it.
Haku and Zabuza are dead, laying side by side with smiles on their faces. She knows the image will be burned into the back of her eyela after it's passed.
Her head is dizzy with exhaustion and she sways as she walks. Kakashi places a hand on her back to stop her form falling over.
Watch. All she had been able to do was watch.
Tazuna is rattling on to Inari about naming the bridge after Ino. Tsunami and Kakashi tend to Hinata's wounds, still pulling Haku's needles form her skin.
Her blond teammate senses her eyes and turns to her, smiling tiredly, reassuringly.
All Sakura can feel is rage.
*
She has always been jealous of the blond, an unshakable inferiority that has never wavered with the years. Jealousy of her social nature. Her fearlessness. Her clan background. Her shinobi skills.
Ino is everything she isn't. Battle capable, bold, and strong. A cunning kunoichi from a clan honored for their skills.
Sakura is a civilian child. The only thing that makes her a shinobi is the Will of Fire she hopes to carry someday. In a world where Danzo is Hokage, where clan children are praised above others and the skill of a shinobi, no matter their age, measures their worth, Sakura cannot afford to be a bad kunoichi. She cannot afford to fall behind Ino or Hinata, even if it means working twice as hard and training twice as longer.
So, while she's proud of Ino's progression as her best friend, as her rival, she cannot afford to slip behind.
No matter the cost.
*
She finds shelves upon shelves of books on chakra control. One in particular catches her eye. A small book on how one of the Sannin, Tsunade, used hers.
Now thoroughly interested, she picks up the book and begins to read.
She'll show it to Kakashi sensei tomorrow.
*
Hinata finds her on one of the training grounds, covered in dirt and sweat, and nearly passed out against a fallen tree stump.
"Sakura!" the Hyuuga cries, rushing to her aid. "Are you okay?"
She gathers enough energy to barely nod her head sluggishly. "'M fine."
"You shouldn't train so hard," she persists, pulling her teammate gently to her feet. She pulls one of her arms around her shoulders and begins to guide them out of the grounds.
(She is too exhausted to offer any other words.)
Sakura turns her head to Hinata, who is almost effortlessly carrying her to her house. Her small, warm hands are pressing into her side. Her short, black hair glints in the bright sun and her silvery-purple eyes are focused sharply ahead.
Those eyes, Sakura thinks. She has always wanted those eyes.
Distracted by her staring, she trips. Hinata stumbles, trying to catch her, but their bodies clash together and she fails rather miserably. The pink-haired girl's back has fallen flat on the ground harshly, and the dark-haired girl is above her, warm body pressing innocently into hers.
It takes Sakura a few moments to realize their lips are connected.
(What are the chances?)
It's short, even shorter than the one with Ino. Hinata stumbles off her, face brighter than a tomato, as she rattles squeaky apologizes. Sakura's head is fizzy. She's not sure if it's the excessive training or the kiss that came with it.
Sakura's second kiss is with a girl whose hair is darker than the night and whose heart is just as wide.
*
Her time with Team 7 isn't all that bad, really, especially on days like this.
Kakashi has finally awarded them for their hard work. A large picnic basket lays empty with its contents spewed out between them.
The sun has already long gone down. The sky glitters with a million, illuminated by a strikingly bright moon. The grass is cold against her skin and the wind tussles her pink hair softly. The view from a top of the Hokage rock is most certainly the best one, on top of Konoha and away from the harsh eyes of the Hokage.
Kakashi is fast asleep, laying down with his feet kicked up. His bright orange book covers his face and his chest falls up and down with every small breath.
Ino has now dedicated herself to figuring out what exactly his reading choices are. She keeps attempting to reach out to grab the book off his face, but each time, he jolts suddenly, as if sensing her peeking eyes.
"Ino," Sakura laughs, sitting close to them, but far enough to easily avoid a kunai should Kakashi wake up. Hinata, being the smart one amongst them, is stationed good twenty feet away, watching from a small tree stump.
The blond sticks her tongue out at her. "What, you scared, goody two-shoes?"
She sniffs at the nickname, though, she hardly finds it fitting. She always becomes wrapped up in Ino's antics, wether she wants to or not.
Her grin only widens at her expression and she continues. "What do you think he reads, huh?"
His hand is covering the book cover.
"I bet sensei is a romantic," Hinata pipes up from a distance.
"Kaka-sensei? A romantic?" Sakura repeats, smiling. "Those words don't belong in the same sentence."
Ino's grin is stupidly infectious and it makes hers subconsciously widen. "I bet he's a pervert and—"
Sakura bursts out laughing so loudly and so suddenly that she nearly falls over from the force. Kakashi sits up suddenly, startled. His book falls off his face into his lap. He looks around wildly. "Huh?"
His students fall into an obnoxious round of laughter. He glances around them with an odd expression, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.
(Damn those kids.)
Yeah, life with Team 7 isn't all that bad.
*
"Konohamaru," she scolds a young academy student, one of the three she had previously been assigned to train with on a genin mission.
He grins down at her from where he's hanging. A rope is tied around his waist, hoisting him up from the Hokage rock. There are colorful and childish doodles covering the five Hokage faces. A bucket of red paint is in his hands.
"Get down here!"
He sticks her tongue out at her, rebellious. "Don't be like that, neechan!"
She aims a shuriken at his rope, cutting it swiftly in half. The young shinobi shrieks, crashing ungracefully and roughly down to the ground. In his fall, he spills the red paint all over himself.
Sakura is flushed with embarrassment at his actions, but also with a sense of satisfaction at his current paint-covered state. She grabs him by the collar, drowning her hand red in the process. She pulls him to his feet and starts dragging him away. He shouts and struggles against her grip, but he is no match.
She glances continuously across her shoulder at the Fifth's face as she walks away, as if Danzo himself could see them.
"Don't be so reckless," she finally tells him. She can't prevent the fear that tinges her voice.
Konohamaru freezes, blinking up at her. He is caught off guard by her lack of anger. He tilts his head at her, curiously, then he smiles widely and mischievously. "Of course! No need to worry about me, Sakura neechan!"
The kunoichi sighs, shoulders slouching with defeat. She dumps him off at his house and walks. Her hand still covered in bright red paint.
*
"Chuunin exams?" Ino repeats, though she heardly her perfectly. Her eyes are sparking with a challenge.
Hinata stutters and she stops twiddling her fingers around to wave them around briefly, face flushed. "Well, it was just— it was just a suggestion—"
"—It's a great idea, Hinata-chan," Sakura agrees, blood pumping with the thought of a widespread competition.
She flushes, then glances to Ino for her approval, who nods. The dark-haired kunoichi sighs with relief, shoulders slumping. "That... that was easier than I thought."
"That's gonna be the easiest thing about it," Kakashi says, but he's looking at the book in his hands rather than them, as usual.
Ino, in true Ino nature, rolls her eyes, but she's grinning still. "Whatever, old man. Just sign us up."
*
The written part of the exam is easy enough, she supposes, as she places her arm in front of her test so that the kid sitting next to her can't peek at her answers. He sends her a dirty look, but she's hardly paying attention to him. One of the onlooking shinobi call him out for cheating, and he's pulled out of the room by an escort of scary-looking shinobis.
What a lousy ninja, she thinks, frowning. Can't even cheat without being caught.
So much for stealth.
She glances around the room, trying to find her teammates. Hinata is sitting in the front, but that's hardly a problem with her Byakugan. Ino is a few rows away from her and currently seems to be passed out, asleep on top of her test. Sakura, of course, knows better. The blond is most likely cheating off of Shikamaru, or any other smart person who had the misfortune of sitting near her.
A piece of drool dribbles out of her mouth and Sakura laughs a little, smiling. She mentally files away the image to make fun of her later.
She observes the room once more, observing its occupant. There's the classmates she already knows: Kiba, Shino, Choji, Neji, Tenten, and the weird bushy-eye browed guy who had just declared his undying love to her. Ino's expression was, of course, priceless.
A prickling at the back of her neck alerts her she's being watched. Sakura turns and makes eye-contact with Kabuto, the nerdy white-haired man, who had failed the exams seven times prior and who had just been showing her and the other rookies his collection of data cards.
Instinctively, she turns away.
There is something in that man's eyes she does not trust.
*
The Forest of Death.
When their pretty but weird instructor, Anko, had been explaining it to them earlier, she had thought the name silly. A name whose bark was tougher than its bite. Now, barely thirty minutes into the exams, she finds it oddly fitting.
Ino looks almost as if she's going to pass out, which Sakura would usually gladly take advantage of. However, seeing that her knees are shaking just as hard, she has no right to speak. Hinata appears no better.
This is different. This is different than the Land of Waves. The sight in front of her sends more fear chilling through her body than Zabuza had.
The snake-like woman croons at them, standing from a top the head of a gigantic purple snack. Her eyes are slit-like and her long tongue flicks back and forth animalistically.
There is something deeply unnerving about her, more than in the way she stares at them like a ravenous predator.
"Aren't you all cute?" she asks, dragging her tongue across her lips and her voice like a hiss. "I could just eat you all up."
The three kunoichi visibly gulp. A strike of fear rings through her whole body and makes her dizzy with nausea.
Hinata is the first to be knocked back into reality. She inhales sharply, then glares up at the woman. "Give... give us our scroll back."
(The scroll didn't matter anymore.)
The woman regards them for a second, like she is looking at a pathetic, unamusing joke. She, of course, ignores Hinata. "You're the Copy Ninja's brats, aren't you?"
Her fist tightens instinctively. Sakura musters up enough courage to glare up at her, seethingly. "And if we are? What's it to you?"
She laughs, toying with them. She decides to indulge them anyways. "Your sensei has something I want."
Ino is still stiff with terror next to her. A part of croons with success. Not as fearless as she may seem. Another part is curling in fear alongside her. Sakura has never seen her so terrified.
"He's not here," she manages.
"I'm aware," her grin is wide and unnatural, inhuman. She licks her lips and the genin can't help but shiver. "Perhaps you can help me."
"Why—" Sakura begins, but her voice breaks off and fear floods into her shaking body. The fear of dying suddenly becomes all too real. Sasuke, Zabuza, and Haku all flash in front of her eyes, like their death is her own. "Why would we help you?"
Her eyes gleam as she speaks. "I can be very persuasive."
The snake lunges at them. Hinata jumps to the side. Sakura shoves herself and Ino out of the path, and they crash to the ground harshly.
She throws kunais, tagged with paper bombs, but they fly past her and explode uselessly.
"Byakugan!"
Hinata rushes towards their defense. The snake turns to the other two girls and slams its tail into her. The force sends her crashing through trees, snapping them in half. She falls to the ground, unmoving.
Sakura screams her name, but the other makes no move to respond, unconscious.
The snake woman barely spares her a glance. "Like flies."
(Who the hell is she?)
While the enemy is distracted, the pink-haired kunoichi shakes Ino's shoulders vigorously. "Ino! Ino!" but her teammate's eyes remain trained and unmoving from the chilling woman. She slaps her harshly, and when she still makes no move, panic floods her body. "Dammit, Ino!"
"I have to say," she grins. "I thought you were all more of a challenge," then lunges.
Sakura closes her eyes.
Her heart stops and jump starts itself a millions times in a second inside her chest. The wind from the sudden movement stings her face and arms like needles a hundred degrees below freezing. The adrenaline pumping through her veins rings through her ears. Her chest is tight like a rubber band is tied around her heart.
She grasps at the corner of her mind, trying, trying to remember. Remember the book. Remember Kakashi's teaching. Remember. Remember!
She plants her feet firmly on the ground. She pulls her fist back, chakra concentrating at her command. Her fist collides with rough scale, just for a second, and she releases it all.
"Shannaro!"
The snake and woman are sent flying apart with the inhuman force. She catches her fall by throwing out her tongue like a rope and pulls herself onto an undestroyed tree branch, expressed shocked. The gigantic snake crashes into the trees behind, snapping them in half and into smitherins with the force. It disappears with a puff of smoke. A Summoning animal.
She places her hands on her knees, panting more from the nerves than the strain, and unconsciously grins.
"S-Sakura?"
She turns to the blond kunoichi, who has finally snapped back into reality. Ino stares at her with wide eyes, knees bruised and still shaking thoroughly.
She can't resist the moment. "What?" Sakura grins, soul screaming with victory. "You hurt, scaredy cat?"
Her victory is short-lived.
She freezes when a presence appears behind her.
"Impressive," the woman remarks, licking her lips. She presses a kunai gently to the genin's throat. "I haven't seen strength like that since I encountered my old teammate."
"Teammate?" Ino echoes, watching the kunai posed at her friend's throat.
She grins again. Her joy toying with them never seeming to end. "I'm sure you've heard of her. She's a Sannin, after all."
Sakura's blood turns cold and it's not because of the cold metal pressing against her throat.
Teammate. Sannin. Strength. Tsunade.
It clicks to place in her brain immediately.
Her whole body is consumed with raw terror. No wonder they're no match. No wonder their enemy has done nothing but play with them.
"You're..." she manages, voice shaking. "You're Orochimaru."
"My, my," he tuts, tongue swirling at her soft pink hair. She scrunches her nose and eyes. Gross. Gross. "You're a smart one, aren't you?"
Ino's eyes became impossibly wide. "What do you want from Kaka-sensei?"
Orochimaru chuckles into her ear and she shivers. "If I told you, child, you would know."
Her eyes narrow slightly at him.
"I must say, I expected more of a Yamanaka," he says, assessing her amusedly. His grin widens and his eyes trail to Hinata's fallen form. "... and a Hyuuga."
"Hinata," the blond whispers, terrified.
"I suppose it can't be helped."
In a blink of an eye, the presence behind her disappears and Ino is suddenly sprawled out on the ground, unconcious. Red soaking into her pale blond hair.
Sakura stumbles back in horror. Orochimaru kicks Ino's body once, chuckling to himself. He licks the dripping blood off his fingers.
Her nerves can't handle it anymore. Her knees buckle against her weight and she collapses to the ground, gasping in harsh breathes. Is this how she dies?
(Is this where her story ends?)
The Sannin chuckles underneath his breath, drawing closer. His pale hand slip into her hair, stroking the pink locks softly. She shivers and squeezes her eyes shut. (No. No. No...) "Do not worry, child," he croons, his other hand tracing the outline of her rosy cheek. Suddenly, he harshly grabs her chin, forcing her to look at him. "None of you brats are worth killing."
(Let us go... Let us go...)
"In fact," his tongue slips out to lick at his lips, "I think we can help each other."
The genin struggles against his hold, shaking her head against his grasp.
"Why would..." she grunts, "Why would I help.... you..."
He chuckles, tossing her roughly to the ground. Sakura's side collides unkindly with the ground and she grunts painfully. Her head is spinning rapidly.
Orochimaru kneels on the ground in front of her. His grin is as unwavering as it has been the whole time. "Aren't you tired, child? Of all this training coming to nothing? To dedicate your life and to make no gain in return?"
Sakura grasps desperately at grass until she finds the fabric of Ino's clothes. Her legs have become stiff and her head dizzy. Even if she can move, it is hopeless to fight him.
"Such wasted potential," he sighs, mournfully.
(A part of her heart stops. Potential? )
He pauses, then grins just as wide as he had before. "I could help you reach that potential, child... At a service to me, of course...." His tongue slips past his lips, licking them carefully.
Her silence stretches between them and he stares at her with slitted, expecting eyes. Her hesitation is too long.
The Sannin sighs, though it is more for affect than anything. He stands up, stepping his foot and his weight onto her lungs. Stars begin to dance in front of Sakura's eyes.
(Too be beaten so easily? Like a joke that doesn't require even a slimmer of his Sannin power? Is this where her training has brought her?)
He chuckles, lifting his sandal above her head. "Come to me when you're ready," he says, eyes sparkling with madness.
The back of her head smashes into the ground with inhuman force, flying rubble into her hair. The world is rapidly blinking in and out of existence as she stares up at him.
Orochimaru chuckles one last time, "They always do."
The world fades into darkness.