Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Her new name was Sayuri. Her new full name was, in all its Japanese glory, Sakurasō Sayuri. Her family had a fascination for flowers.

She was three, she knew. Had had her birthday last month. And with it came the memories. She missed being Sayuri Winchester, but there was nothing to do now. That girl was long dead and reborn into a traditional Japanese family. As the reborn version of herself, she would do right this time! She would stop being pessimistic and be kind to all and everyone.

Then at least her next girlfriend wouldn’t strangle her to death, she hoped.

Oh. Right. Did sexualities change when you were reborn? Or was Sayuri still demi sexual? Well, it wasn’t important. She was physically only three and had time to explore her new home—and preferences. Still twenty-one, though. She frowned at that. Would it be weird if she, as a teen, developed feelings for her peers? Since she would be mentally thirty years old. Let’s… let’s not think about that.

She looked around the playroom. It looked just like it always had. Except… had she drawn that picture? She stood up on shaky legs and wobbled over to the framed drawing. It was of a woman in dark clothing and a bandana around her forehead. She was clutching a kunai. Sayuri Winchester’s Japanese grandparents used them in the garden. Sayuri herself had loved to play ninja with them.

She gasped and stared at the clothes the woman wore. Nope. Let’s not think about that. She opened the door and left to find her parents. What were their names again? Sayuri Winchester’s memories sometimes clouded her current ones and made it hard to remember.

Asami and Hirohito. Those were her parents’ names.

“Mama.” Sayuri wobbled over to the man and woman on the couch, her hands outstretched. “Papa.”

The two adults smiled brightly at her and Sakurasō Asami picked her up. “My brave little flower,” she said and showered Sayuri with kisses. She giggled. “Mommy’s leaving soon, you wanna come?”

She was going grocery shopping. Sayuri nodded in excitement. She hadn’t left the Sakurasō compound ever. Maybe today was the day mommy finally brought her to a real grocery store!

Asami kissed her husband goodbye and went to help Sayuri put on her shoes. She blatantly ignored the fact they were small, blue and came from a certain anime she loved. Instead she let her mommy hold her as they left the house.

“Nyo, nyo!” she complained and pointed at the gate separating the clan from the rest of the city. “Wanna see!”

Asami hesitated. “You sure?” she asked, unconvinced. “You won’t cry? Regret it?”

“Nyo! Sayuri is a big girl!” she tried to say, only to remember she couldn’t pronunce R’s.

Her mother giggled, patted her hair and greeted the people walking through the gate. Sayuri’s gaze immediately found the four heads sculptured into the rocky mountain in the distance. She blinked at it before looking at the apartments and small stores littering the street in front of her.

“Asami-chan, is that…?”

“It is! Isn’t she adorable?”

“A true child of Sakurasō!” the older woman laughed. “She looks just like you.”

Sayuri waved at the woman as they continued their journey. “Who dat?” How she longed to be able to speak properly.

“A nice neighbour.”

The store wasn’t as big as Sayuri had thought it would be. It was a more local store than a supermarket. Did they even exist here?

Asami saw Sayuri eye the room filled with children. “Do you want to wait for mommy? You can play with them, if you’d like.”

“Nyo,” Sayuri said and pointed at a cashier. “That way.” Asami smiled, patted her head and let Sayuri drag her to where she thought they should go. She was pleasantly surprised to learn her daughter actually tried to find everything on their list and not just running straight to the toys.

“Asami-san?”

She turned around and greeted her old friend. “Mikoto-san! Long time to see.” She looked at the young boy holding his mother’s sleeve. “And this must be Itachi-kun.”

Sayuri stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. Itachi’s gaze followed her sudden movement and blinked. “Hello,” he greeted her.

“Nyello.”

Asami grinned at Mikoto. “Sayuri, this is your godmother, Uchiha Mikoto. That’s her son, Itachi.”

“Nice to meet you again, Sayuri.” The girl blinked at her, not understanding. “We’ve met before, but you probably don’t remember.”

“Hullo.” She hid behind her mother. Having to face the facts in the middle of a grocery store wasn’t exactly how she had planned this, but she figured now was as good as any time to accept she’d been reborn into the fricking Narutoverse. And at the same age as Itachi, for some reason. At least she wasn’t an Uchiha.

The two children kept their gazes locked on each other as the women talked, Itachi with curiosity written all over his face and Sayuri with distrust. She didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Sure, he had been forced to slaughter his family, but he had found the resolve to actually do it! That spelled major trouble for the future.

Wasn’t Itachi one of your favourites?

Hush, brain, don’t remind me.

Itachi cocked his head to the side, having seen her hesitancy.

“We’ll see you soon, then, Mikoto-san.” Asami pulled Sayuri into her arms. “Sayuri, be a good girl.”

Sayuri waved at Mikoto and Itachi. “Bye-bye.”

While Sayuri had had her stare-off with Itachi, the two women had decided they should go on a playdate. Of course Sayuri couldn’t be just a random background character. She had to be the daughter of Uchiha Mikoto’s friend. At least she knew what the future held. If she played her cards right, she could keep being a background character. She didn’t want to die a second time and she didn’t want to fight any wars, any monsters or psychopaths. Itachi included. She wanted to keep up her medical studies, and the best way to do that was to become either a doctor at the Konoha hospital or a medical nin.

“Ball?”

She blinked back to reality and looked at Itachi. He was holding the ball with a silent question in his eyes.

“Ball,” she replied and held out her hands. He smiled in satisfaction and pushed it to her. As she pushed it back, her thoughts lingered on the initial surprise of interacting with him. She forgot that he was still only three, meaning his mental capacity was way lower than hers. He was an actual three-year-old, whatever the manga or anime tried to say.

“Ball!” He pushed it forward again. Sayuri could feel the pressure of his chakra and immediately laid down on her back. The ball flew past where her head had just been. “Yuri?”

She sat up and went to get the ball. Note to self, be careful of a powerful but untrained Itachi. If that had hit her, she might have gotten a nosebleed.

And this was the predestined kin murderer. Everyone had to start somewhere… 

“Less play.” She sat down and calmly pushed the ball to him. He smiled, giggled and pushed it back. And so they played for hours on end, until Asami came to get her. It was time for Sayuri to go to sleep.

And so it went on for another two years.

It was close. Sasuke was about to be born soon, which meant Naruto wasn’t far off, which also meant Kurama was about to be unleashed. Had Sayuri been older and, well, a ninja, she would have tried to stop Obito. As she was now, throwing kunais at the targets together with Itachi, she wasn’t of much help. Which meant Minato and Kushina would die. How she resented the thought.

“Yuri is sad.” Itachi poked her forehead and she lashed out with her kunai. He blocked it with ease. Ah, there was the genius she had seen in the anime.

“I… had a nightmare.” She fidgeted with her other kunai. “Feels like something bad will happen.”

“Bad how?”

“Dunno. Something bad. When will your sibling be born?”

“Mommy said this month.”

Sayuri smiled absentmindedly and threw her kunai. It missed and she sighed. “Why you so good?”

“Talent.” He blew her a raspberry and threw his kunai. Bullseye.

Sayuri mentally cursed. She had hoped some of her talents would seep through her young body, but apparently not. It wasn’t meant to be, her and Itachi graduating the Academy together. At least not as she was now.

I’m five! I barely have control over my own body, how can the Uchiha’s be so relentless?

They finished their training and sat down to eat their rice balls. Today it had been Asami’s turn to make lunch for the pair.

“You like flowers?”

Sayuri looked at Itachi. “I guess. Why?”

He swallowed his rice ball and showed her an orange lily he got from… somewhere. Did he have a magical bag, like in Harry Potter?

Sayuri looked at the flower and giggled. “You got my flower!” She was named after exactly that flower, and though she didn’t particularly like it, she adored her name.

She paused.

“Yuri?” Itachi cocked his head to the side. “You no likey?”

She took the flower and looked at it. “You know what it means?” He shook his head. She would forever laugh at how sick the world was. “Hatred. Revenge.” Not to mention Sakurasō was the Japanese name for primrose, which meant desperate .

Suddenly, her name didn’t sound very pleasant.

“You upset.” Itachi’s eyes filled with tears. “Sorry.”

Sayuri leaned her head on his shoulder, which wasn’t as comfortable as she’d hoped, and sighed. “Now you know.”

They turned around at the sound of rapid footsteps and Asami and another Uchiha ran around the corner of the dojo, their eyes wide. “Her water broke!” Asami exclaimed. “Itachi, Sayuri, come with me.”

Asami picked them both up and shunshined to the hospital. She informed the nurses who she was and they escorted her and the children to Mikoto’s room, though they weren’t allowed inside.

“Here,” Hirohito offered the two wide-eyed children a sandwich each. They silently took them and ate, trapped in their own minds.

Sayuri’s head was spinning. Today was July 23rd. Was that Sasuke’s canonical birthday? She didn’t know, had never bothered to look it up. But Naruto’s she knew and oh good gods , it was only three months left— no, two and a half, until Obito released Kurama. Until Naruto’s whole life was ruined. He had to endure twelve years of forced solitude, of hatred and resentment—she was once again reminded of her name, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth—but… should she intervene? The Sakurasō compound was massive, at least in her small eyes. Surely her parents had space for him.

But how would she suggest it? What should she say, “Mommy, daddy, please adopt the kyūbi’s jinchūriki”? As if they would! Their own clansmen and women would surely die in the attack, not to mention Minato and Kushina.

Two cool fingers pressed against her forehead and slung her back to reality. Itachi was standing in front of her with worry evident in his eyes. “Breathe.” She complied until her lungs could function properly.

“Thanks.”

Itachi nodded and sat down again. “Why you scared?”

“Bad feeling.”

“Same as before?” She nodded. “Hm… Can I help?”

She shook her head. “No one can.” Because she was the only one who knew, and if she exposed Obito now, without proper evidence, people would first think her mad, and after the attack, they would be suspicious of her knowledge. She couldn’t afford being branded a traitor—at age five, no less—but that wasn’t worth all those lives Kurama would take. But honestly speaking, no one would heed her warning, or even remember it until it was too late. That was how it was in films and books. Prophets weren’t treated like normal people in reality either.

I’m sorry.

What happened to thinking positive?

Screw positive, how is this positive?!

You can help Naruto. You can help Itachi, Sasuke and heck, even Gaara. Help everyone you want to help. Her mind had a point. She had the knowledge, she just had to get the power, too. She looked at her tiny hands. Could she take a life? She doubted it. But she could save them. She had been a medical student before her death, and though she’d only studied two years, she’d learned a lot. She could keep studying medicine here. Her father was a medical nin, after all. He could help.

Yes, that’s a good start. She could become a medical nin, try and stop Itachi from making the biggest mistake of his life, and she could see to that Sasuke wasn’t scarred for life. As for Gaara, she didn’t have a plan. Nor did she think she needed one. Naruto would help him. She knew jack shite about how to deal with Shukaku, and she was sure Gaara wouldn’t appreciate a stranger appearing before him. Gaara’s redemption wouldn’t take as long as Itachi’s or Sasuke’s. And he was in another country entirely. He was out of her reach, at least until she became a ninja.

She promised herself to try and help him if she found herself in Suna for a future mission.

Sasuke had been born safely. Exhausted, Asami and Hirohito took the two children to see Mikoto and the baby, fawned over his small form and left. For the next few days, Sayuri and Asami acted as Sasuke’s nannies, feeding him, changing his diaper and singing him to sleep when Mikoto needed rest. Itachi was out training—courtesy of his father, Sayuri figured—and Fugaku was doing important police stuff.

A month in, and one and a half months until Kurama’s release, Sayuri walked through Itachi’s home to take care of Sasuke yet again. She opened the sliding door to his nursery in time to see Mikoto finish breastfeeding him.

“Good day, Sayuri-chan.” She looked tired, worn, which wasn’t surprising considering she had a newborn baby to deal with. “Thank you for coming.”

“Baby brother cute! I have to see him.” She had taken to calling him that, since her mommy was his godmother. She was fairly sure the Sakurasō clan hadn’t been present in the manga or anime, and that if Asami had existed, Sasuke wouldn’t have lived alone. But now a powerful clan had popped up in Konoha and one of their clanswomen was his godmother. Did that mean Sasuke would be living with them after the massacre?

Sayuri burped Sasuke and sat down so she could hold him. Sayuri Winchester’s cousins had been her age when she died, and none of them had had children of their own. Sasuke was the first baby she’d ever held. It was a foreign feeling, his small movements reminding her of a really fragile cat. She was surprised mommy and Mikoto had let her come alone to care for him. Even weirder was that no other Uchiha was here to oversee her caring. Did they have that much blind faith in her?

Sasuke coed and she gushed. He was so adorable! And he didn’t hate her. Something in the back of her mind had said he usually cried in others’ arms. She was happy he liked her.

“Yuri?”

“Ichigo!” She smiled at him. He grimaced. “Done with training?”

He had opened the sliding wall and was now pulling off his shoes. He walked inside and sat down in front of her. “I am. Father taught me a new jutsu.”

“Cool. Wanna hold?”

“Thank you.” He looked down at a content Sasuke. “Asami-san?”

“Mommy’s out on a mission. Daddy’s at the hospital again. Mikoto is asleep, I think.” At least she hoped she was, the woman would end up with darker circles than Gaara at this rate.

“I see.” They didn’t say more, just looked at Sasuke falling asleep. After a while, Itachi handed him back to her so she could put him in the crib. “I’ll go change.”

“See ya.”

He came back a few minutes later with a board game. They played for hours, only stopping to care for Sasuke and for Itachi to beg someone for snacks. When Mikoto found them that evening, the two of them laid on the pillow-covered ground with Sasuke between them, all three sleeping soundly.

Chapter Text

It was the night of Octobre 10th. Sayuri was sleeping over at Itachi’s place, but she hadn’t done much of that. Obito’s attack would start any moment now, she could feel it.

“Yuri, go to sleep,” Itachi muttered from the bed. “Late.”

She nodded, but didn’t move. She had to be fast and get Itachi and Sasuke to the evacuation centre; she couldn’t afford to— The whole building shook and the wood creaked threateningly at the violent movement.

Itachi had somehow wrapped his arms around her for protection.

“Sasuke!” Sayuri exclaimed. They waited until everything stopped moving to run out of the room and down the hallway. Mikoto was already there, holding a crying Sasuke.

“Itachi! Sayuri! Thank god.” She pushed Sasuke into Itachi’s arms. “Go to the evac centre and bring Sayuri with you, okay?” She kissed his forehead. “All available shinobi have to protect the village.” And then she was gone.

Itachi dragged Sayuri to the entrance where they put on their shoes and ran for their lives. In the distance, she could hear Kurama’s mad cries blending with the dying screams of ninja and civilians alike. They would forever haunt her.

“Mommy!” Sayuri screamed and turned to run home. Itachi stopped her.

“You can’t! Dangerous. Come with us.”

She would never forgive herself if her parents got hurt. “Have to! Mommy! Daddy!” She managed to free herself and took off. Itachi was by her side in moments.

Kurama’s cries were closer now. Much too close. Sayuri turned her head to look at the bijū and instead saw a giant boulder fall from the sky. She pulled Itachi to a sudden stop, making all three of them fall over. Sasuke cried in fear.

“No.” Sayuri stared at the boulder, having landed with a massive crash. “Mommy!” Her feet moved on their own, light as feathers while her heart sank like led. Her voice broke, died, and still she kept screaming.

Her house, her home, gone. Buried underneath the ridiculously huge boulder. How many had been home? Had they all evacuated already? Please, not mommy, please, not daddy, not—

“Yuri!” Itachi dragged her away from the bloody rubble and forced her to run. They had to get away before the huge monster’s attacks hit them.

They ran between two houses and turned to look at what lay beyond. Carnage. Blood. Death. Itachi’s eyes itched, hurt, but he wasn’t stopping. They had to move move move move. Run, jump, dodge, run. They couldn’t stop. Stopping meant death.

Sayuri stopped running. Turning, her eyes wide in astonishment, fear, hesitation and a thousand other emotions Itachi couldn’t name. Then she ran between the houses and disappeared. He called her name, ran after her, but she was gone gone gone gone. Nowhere to be seen. His eyes were hurting so much. They were burning. Why were they burning?

Sasuke let out a scared cry and Itachi made up his mind. Sayuri hadn’t listened and now she was gone. He had failed to protect her, but he hadn’t failed his brother. Not yet. As soon as Sasuke was safe in the evac centre, Itachi would look for her. He couldn’t lose her. Not her.

She had seen them. For a split second, she’d seen Kushina and Minato. They were on their way to their deaths, and she couldn’t allow that.

Her feet moved on their own. She was on the roofs, but she couldn’t remember how she got there. But she was running, jumping, all in an effort to keep up with the desperate adults. 

And then she saw it, the blasted altar they died by, where they sealed Kurama inside Naruto. And Kurama was here, too, and he was huge . It was ridiculous how massive he was.

There was no way for her to save them. She didn’t excel in fuinjutsu, in medical jutsu, in anything , but she could take Naruto. She could get him to the evac centre. Afterwards. And then she would take care of him. Protect him. Love him like his parents wanted for him.

She missed it, what happened next. All her mind registered was Kurama’s furious shouts, Minato and Kushina, flashes of light, chains, and then a blinding light. When her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, Minato and Kushina were impaled and Naruto Kurama’s new jinchūriki.

Again, her feet moved without her command. She reached them as they fell to the ground, practically dead. But they were alive. Barely, but alive. CPR. She knew CPR. She had to— but oh god the blood. Everywhere. On her. Leaking from them as she desperately tried to stop it and keep them alive at the same time. She was covered in it, tasted it, smelled it. It was horrible.

Something warm flooded her body and leaked into the two of them. Magically, their wounds healed. Kushina started breathing again, then Minato. Sayuri stared at him and he looked at her. His eyes were unfocused, but he blinked, then smiled.

Then he stopped breathing. His eyes went dull. Her chakra stopped spreading inside his body.

No. No no no no no. He wasn’t dead. She saved him! She’d seen it, how he healed, how he breathed, he’d seen her!

“Naruto…” Sayuri nearly jumped out of her skin at the faint voice. “Naruto…”

“He’s safe,” she said, both of her hands now focusing on Kushina. Maybe, just maybe, her chakra would be enough to save at least her. Maybe… just please… maybe.

“Thank… you…” She smiled at her, her cold, so very cold hand resting on Sayuri’s cheek. “Thank you.” Her eyes closed, her hand fell and her breathing stopped. The only sound she heard was Naruto’s cries.

What… what just happened?

She was towering over Naruto. He stopped crying to look at her. His eyes really were bluer than the sky.

Save him.

Sayuri picked him up, her mind repeating the same command over and over and over again. Save him save him save him save him.

When she found the evac centre, people screamed. At first, she didn’t understand, then a jōnin asked why she was covered in blood.

Oh, she thought and looked down at herself. It’s theirs.

She found herself unable to speak. She left the jōnin to look for Itachi. She found him, fuming, because he wasn’t allowed to leave, even to look for her. His face as he saw her would be forever imprinted in her mind. He didn’t ask where she’d gotten the baby from. He didn’t say anything, actually. Just let her sit by his side, resting her head on his shoulder, watching the villagers wait for their loved ones to return.

Many hearts were shattered that night. Many families broken apart. That included her own. When daddy came to pick her up, his eyes were hollow and his body heavy. He didn’t have to explain anything, his haunted expression was enough confirmation. Her mother was gone. Gone forever. She would never see her again.

Sayuri realised she didn’t care. Asami had been yet another name, another body, another sacrifice to protect the village and her daughter. That was all there was to it. She would never come back.

She left Itachi and Sasuke without a word. Just like Itachi, Hirohito didn’t question where she’d gotten the baby from. He had enough to deal with. So Sayuri took him to her grandparent’s home, bathed him and dressed him and put him in her bed. She sang him to sleep. Then Hirohito joined them. She sang him to sleep as well.

The funeral was gloomy. Everyone had lost at least someone. It wasn’t raining, as would be fitting; the sun was out, drowning them in deceitful light, promising warmth and happiness they wouldn’t feel for years to come.

The third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, held a speech to honour the fallen. Sayuri heard nothing of what was said, but everyone was crying, so it must have been touching.

Naruto moved in her arms but thankfully didn’t make any sounds. The villagers would gut them both if he made a scene.

Daddy had agreed to take him in, after much screaming and argumentation. She had found her voice in order to defend the infant in her arms, and Hirohito had finally understood Naruto was innocent, a victim just like her, but he lost both his parents, whereas she still had him. He had even let her take the boy to the funeral. She hadn’t wanted to, but everyone was going and she couldn’t leave him alone.

Groups of people were leaving flowers at the monument. Sayuri identified white lilies—shirayuri, in Japanese, her mind supplied—as well as, and she frowned at this, higabana flowers. Why were they offering red spider lilies to the dead? Sure, it was the flower of death, but was that customary or something? It seemed a bit… morbid.

Naruto coed quietly and blinked. She started moving from side to side to placate him. He fell asleep.

“Sayuri.” She took daddy’s hand without looking and followed as he left a forget-me-not for her mommy. It meant true love . Sayuri’s heart clenched and she forced herself to swallow the lump in her throat and put down her own flower, a sweet pea. Goodbye .

“Sakurasō-dono.” The two of them turned to look at Fugaku. He bowed deeply. “I am forever indebted to Asami-san. She saved my life. I am so sorry.” He was crying. Sayuri didn’t care.

“Thank you, Uchiha-dono,” daddy forced himself to say, bowed and bid the family farewell.

Itachi looked at Sayuri as she passed him. She blinked and didn’t turn around to keep the contact.

She devoted herself to training, to her studies and to Naruto. She was damned if she didn’t become the best big sister he’d ever had. Or wanted to have. Whatever.

There were several things she forced herself to change. For one, she couldn’t keep her suspicious and depressed attitude. Her daddy needed her, Naruto needed her, and she couldn’t function properly if she kept mulling over her failed attempt at saving his parents. So she forced herself to smile, all the time, to think good, happy thoughts, and always try to see the positive, the good, in both things and people. Otherwise she would break.

Another thing she changed was her approach to her situation. She wasn’t Sayuri Winchester anymore, she was Sakurasō Sayuri, sudden head of the Sakurasō clan—mommy had apparently been the head, would have been great to know beforehand—and she now had a lot of responsibility. This meant she couldn’t sit idly by while Obito dicked around with Itachi, Danzō coming after Shisui and whatever else the world would throw at the village. Her clan would be hurt, they would die, and she couldn’t allow that. So, she bought a journal. She wrote down everything she remembered about the plot, the sub-plots, the characters and her own thoughts and comments, possible solutions and much more. She needed a plan. Or at least a semblance of a plan.

“You’re frowning again,” Itachi said and tapped her on the forehead. She looked up from her hunching position and frowned at him. He smiled faintly. “We were supposed to train today.”

“Right.” She stood up and grimaced. Her back was protesting. “Sorry, I… had work.” She gestured to the documents spread over her desk. “I can’t have daddy act as the temporary head for much longer. He needs to do something good.”

“Caring for his clan is good.” Itachi followed her outside to the Sakurasō training ground.

“I know, but it’s suffocating him. His definition of good, of being of use, is to be in the hospital or out on the field, saving people.” Hunting things, the family business. She was still heartbroken that she couldn’t watch Supernatural anymore. She hadn’t seen the last three seasons yet!

Itachi nodded and pulled out a kunai from his supply satchel. Without looking at the targets, he threw it, hitting his goal. “Do you want to introduce Sasuke to Naruto?”

She nodded slowly. “It would be best. Naruto won’t have a lot of opportunities to make friends. I’m receiving hateful glares for simply taking care of him. I can’t begin to imagine how the villagers will look at him, or how he’ll take it.” She bit her lip. “He’s just a child.”

“I know.” Itachi took her hand and squeezed. “Are you busy this afternoon?” She shook her head. “Good. I’ll bring Sasuke over.”

“Thanks.”

It had been a year since Obito’s attack. Or well, a year and a half. Sasuke’s second birthday was coming up soon.

“Ichigo?”

“Yes?”

She smiled. “Do you hate him, too?” She threw a shuriken at her target and hit. There was no satisfaction.

“No. He’s just a toddler, like Sasuke.” Itachi threw two shuriken. Showoff. “I think of it like this, what if it had been Sasuke? I can’t hate him for something he didn’t have a choice in.” He looked at her. “I’m glad you’re taking care of him. It makes you happy.”

“I’m always happy.”

“Sure. I’m not an idiot, Sayuri.”

“No, you’re the Uchiha genius.” At his frown, she deflated. “I know, okay? But I can’t drop it. It’s like glue; it holds me together.”

“Can’t I hold you instead?”

She managed to quell her laugh. That was not what a seven-year-old should say. At all. That was more of a pick-up line and he was nowhere near old enough to use those. “No. I need it. It makes daddy happier. Naruto doesn’t suspect a thing, either.”

“He’s one,” Itachi deadpanned, “he doesn’t have that ability.”

“Hush, let me dream.” She threw two shuriken, mimicking him, and hit the targets. “I’ll see you for dinner.”

Naruto and Sasuke, to Sayuri’s immense surprise, liked each other. After they’d overcome the typical childish shyness, they sat down with a ball to push between them and spoke in gibberish. Of course, they understood every word the other tried to say, but Sayuri and Itachi weren't privy to the knowledge.

They kept at it like that. Once every weekend, they would meet so the boys could play while Itachi and Sayuri studied together. During the days, they went to the Academy to train in taijutsu and learn chakra theory and how to control it. Afternoons and evenings were spent either in the library finishing their homework—and in Sayuri’s case, extra studying—or at home, eating dinner together.

“Look, Ichigo, look! Here.” Sayuri, now nine, put her flower crown on Itachi’s head. He looked up at her and sighed in defeat. “You’re so cute!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He picked a flower, twirled it between his fingers and handed it to her.

“Thank you.” She put the white flower in her hair. “It’s gorgeous.”

“Nee-nee.” Naruto looked up from his colouring book and reached out for her. “Am hungry.”

Sasuke stopped playing with his teddy bear and looked up at Itachi. “Me too. Food!”

“I think I have something you two love,” Sayuri said with a laugh and opened the basket she’d brought. Two years ago, she and Itachi had found this flowery meadow, and since then, had taken their younger brothers there whenever they got the chance. It was calming and the perfect place to relax and not think of school or obligations.

“Sandwich!” Sasuke and Naruto screamed and jumped up and down. Itachi laughed as Sasuke nearly rammed his head in his jaw. “Ichigo-nii-san, gimme!” Sasuke begged when Itachi took his sandwich.

“Ichigo…” He pouted up at Sayuri. “This is your fault, you know.”

“But it’s cute!”

“Why ichigo? Do I look like a strawberry?”

Sayuri sat down and let Naruto crawl into her lap. He laughed as she handed him the sandwich. “Your eyes do!”

“I don’t have them yet, and they’re blood red!”

“Strawberries are also red.” She wiped Naruto’s face and he tried moving out of the way. “Hey, where are you going? Sit down and eat.” She looked at Itachi. “I refuse to think of your eyes as blood red. That’s not a nice comparison. Strawberries are sweet and tasty, and they’re cute, hence Ichigo.” He should be glad she wasn’t using it in school.

Itachi looked at her in mild surprise. One of his hands caressed the skin underneath his eye.

“Nii-san.” Sasuke turned and put his hand on Itachi’s. “Nii-san’s eyes good.”

Itachi smiled. “Thank you, Sasuke. Your eyes are also nice.”

Sayuri noticed the sadness in his demeanor, but didn’t comment on it. If she did, Naruto and Sasuke would bug him about it.

Four years left until the massacre. She hadn’t come up with a solid plan yet. She only had suicidal ideas she wasn’t about to fulfil. Danzō was dangerous and he would have his eyes set on both Shisui and Itachi. Sayuri hadn’t met Shisui that many times, but it was time she took this seriously. With his death came one of the biggest sparks for the Uchiha coup, which would lead to Danzō giving Itachi his ultimatum. If she could stop Danzō from taking Shisui’s eye, Shisui might be able to stop the coup. And if he couldn’t… she could always steal and copy the documents about the Kurama incident. If she presented the lack of evidence against the Uchiha clan to the Hokage and council—with the Uchihas present, of course—then there was no way the village could wipe them out, Danzō wouldn’t get a hold of the Sharingan and the Uchiha clan wouldn’t try their coup.

That was her goal. Now the problem was how she would get the documents. The archive division was heavily guarded, after all, and she wasn’t even a genin yet. They would catch her immediately.

But I don’t have time. She had to do it, whatever it took.

Chapter Text

This wasn’t the best of ideas, but she would make it work. She had been trained by her father and clan members, she could do this. She could, would, break into the archives, copy the documents she needed and high-tail it out of there before anyone knew what hit them.

She was not going to get caught. Nope.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts, her mind repeated as she snuck inside the window she’d left open when she’d visited a few hours before. Who knew the Academy made visits to this place?

She closed the window, making sure it looked locked, and closed her eyes, following her teacher’s instructions to feel the chakra signatures around her. She had promise, her teacher used to say, to become a sensory type ninja. She wasn’t a pro yet, which was why geniuses like Itachi could still sneak up on her.

Three ninja to her left outside the room and one to her right. The archives division was right underneath her, but there were no windows. From the emergency exit maps she’d glanced at, she knew there was a staircase to her left. She couldn’t go there, there were too many ninjas.

She crept behind the desk and performed the kage bunshin no jutsu , Naruto’s specialty, and forced it to take the appearance of a dead clan member. She picked the lock on the door and sent the clone to scare the shit out of the three ninjas guarding the stairs. Snickering, she bolted down the steps and sent disguised clones to get the attention of the chūnin guarding the hallways.

Sayuri took cover inside a scrub, concealed her chakra and waited for the reinforcement to pass.

The teacher and chūnin showing them around earlier that day had been careless. They’d explained how they categorised the documents, which made it easy for Sayuri to figure out where she had to go to copy the ones she needed.

Thank god clones could be disguised as objects as well. With her bag full of clones made to look like documents, she snuck outside and walked back home, trying desperately not to look suspicious. Since people tended to look like it either way, she focused on her breathing, getting it under control, and on how easy it had been to get what she needed. Well, she had thrown a bunch of clones at the guards, which had created chaos and confusion, so they hadn’t felt her presence at all. 

Being positive sure proved fruitful!

When she got home, she locked herself into her room and spent the rest of the night writing down everything from the copied documents, and released her clones. The next day at the Academy would be horrible. Her chakra wouldn’t be able to replenish completely and the clock was already two in the morning.

“Nee-nee.”

“Holy fu—” She bit her tongue and turned to look at Naruto. He was holding a teddy bear Itachi had gotten him. “Hi sweety, what are you doing up this early?”

“Can’t sleep.”

“Nightmare?” He nodded. “Aw baby. Go lay in my bed instead. I have some things to do, but I’ll be there shortly.” He nodded again and climbed into her bed. He was asleep within seconds.

”Your iPad’s on fire,” Dorothy whispered evilly into Sayuri’s ear.

She shot up and nearly whacked Naruto in the face, screaming, ”Don’t touch my iPad, Dorothy!”

”N-nee-nee?” Naruto asked, horrified and with quivering lips. Tears quickly gathered in his pale blue eyes. ”I-I’m so-ho-rry.”

Still drunk from sleep, Sayuri stared at him with wide eyes. “What?” Then she remembered the dream and blushed. “Oh! No, it’s not— I wasn’t talking to you.” She quickly wrapped her arms around him and showered him with kisses. “I was having a weird dream, is all.” It had been months since the last dream as Sayuri Winchester.

“Nee-nee, what’s an ipadu?”

“I— Uh… Something that caught on fire in my dream,” she murmured bashfully. “Do I, uh, talk a lot in my sleep?” He shook his head. “Great. Now, let’s wash up and eat breakfast.” She left the bed and patiently waited for him to enter the bathroom. She filled the bath and bathed both of them. Naruto loved playing with water, like an over-eager dog, and splashed it everywhere.

Hirohito greeted them at the long rectangular table. Some other early birds from the clan were sitting farther away, discussing between themselves, but paused to greet the children.

“Uncle, what’s an ipadu?” Naruto asked and sat down to his left. Sayuri nearly face-palmed.

“A what?” Hirohito frowned. “Where did you hear that word?” Naruto pointed at Sayuri. Traitor.

She coughed in embarrassment. “I dreamt something weird, is all. Someone told me my, hm, ipadu”—she cringed at the pronunciation—”had caught fire.”

Her dad’s frown deepened. “Never heard of.”

She shrugged and thanked all gods that he changed the subject to school. Naruto was five now and this was his first day at the Academy. Sayuri being the big sister had dutifully promised to follow him to the classroom. Of course, Itachi would be there with Sasuke, too.

Hirohito sent them off with well-meaning encouragement and a promise to Sayuri that she would begin training her chakra when she came home.

“What does uncle mean, ‘Sakurasō chakra’?” Naruto asked curiously and took her hand. Sayuri absentmindedly pulled them back and forth in a calming manner.

“Hm, I dunno, really. I think it has something to do with our eyes.” Every member of her clan had the same golden colour. Usually when your eyes were special, it meant you had a form of kekkei genkai. Just look at the Hyūgas, Uchihas and hell, look at Ōtsutsuki Toneri.

She glanced up at the sky. If she remembered correctly, he was Naruto’s age. How long until the extinction of his clan?

So many clans, gone. It was bizarre how many families were being wiped out at the same time. Maybe it was a coincidence from Kishimoto’s side, but Sayuri didn’t trust in coincidences. Just look at her, predicting the future and changing it to her heart’s content. No coincidences there!

Since she had no proof of some grand clan-wiping conspiracy theory, she stored her worries deep in her mind and challenged Naruto to a race. She let him win—marginally—and they both panted heavily by the time they met up with Itachi and Sasuke.

Sasuke immediately latched on to Naruto, his mouth moving non-stop about the Academy, courses, ninjas and everything in between. Naruto, of course, was equally eager to start his path to become the strongest ninja in the world.

“Like nee-nee and Ichigo-nii-san!” he proudly declared.

Itachi’s face went beet red as the passing villagers tried not to laugh. “Naruto, don’t call me that!” 

Sayuri giggled and looked away when Itachi’s hurt eyes landed on her. “Sorry, but you’re adorable.”

“Am not!”

She gave. “So, any new missions?”

All embarrassment left him immediately. “I’m going to that old cat-lady again.” He glanced at Sasuke and relaxed when the boy didn’t start nagging him. “Please keep an eye on him?”

She smiled, both in amusement and in understanding. “I’ll try my best, but by the Sage is he slippery as an eel.” Just like in the anime, Sasuke had taken to following Itachi on his D-ranked missions. Only difference, Sayuri thought, was that he snuck out and tracked Itachi down. She was fairly sure Itachi had taken him with him from the start in the anime.

“Nee-chan!” Sasuke said from in front of them, giving her his saddest puppy eyes. Or rather, kitten eyes. Her jaw dropped. “Why did you tell him about your secret language, but not me!?”

“Secret language?” Itachi asked, glancing at Sayuri.

“What language?” she asked in return.

Sasuke gave Naruto an accusatory look. “Tell them!”

“You said something weird this morning. It must have been a secret language.”

Oh. It wasn’t secret at all, it was Swedish, a language that didn’t exist in the Narutoverse. “Er,” she said, thinking fast, “I had a lot of time, so I… uh… did it for fun?” She grimaced at how ridiculous the lie sounded.

“Really?” Sasuke asked. “Can you teach us?”

She gave a laugh. “When will you ever use it?”

“When we’re with you!” the boys said in unison.

Sayuri shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “Maybe one day, when your lisps have disappeared.”

That ignited a competitive spark in the boys and they immediately challenged each other to get rid of it. The one that did it first would be taught her language first.

They kept walking, ignoring the dirty looks from villagers and ninjas alike, until they reached the famous Academy. The boys found themselves very shy, hiding behind their older siblings while said siblings were introduced to a teacher they had had themselves.

The boys refused to budge from Itachi and Sayuri’s side, until they promised they would all eat at Ichiraku’s after school. Naruto was the first to greet the teacher, quickly followed by Sasuke, who couldn’t be lesser than his best friend in anything.

“How long do you think it’ll take for the teacher to wish themselves elsewhere?” Sayuri joked on the way to her own classroom.

Itachi chuckled. “An hour, maybe?”

He was wrong. It took until first break for the teacher to slam open the door to her classroom and beg her to console the boys. Apparently, they missed their siblings a great deal.

Sighing heavily, she excused herself from the group gathered around her and followed the teacher to their classroom.

“Boys, why are you crying?” she said as soon as she saw them. They stopped wailing, looked at her with wide, surprised eyes, let out a high-pitched scream each and rammed her. They fell to the floor in a heap of tangled limbs.

“Nii-hi-san isn’t he-re-he!” Sasuke shouted into her shoulder. She gently patted his back.

Naruto tugged at her shirt before burying his face in her other shoulder. “No one likes us!”

At this, the classroom stopped breathing and filled with heavy silence. Only the boy’s sobs could be heard.

“Sensei,” Sayuri said calmly, “is that true?”

The teacher, now pale, gulped. “They’re all new and wary of each other. I’m sure it’s not as bad as he thinks it is.”

She glanced down at Naruto. The boy took a deep breath. “They called me monster.”

Calmness threw itself overboard and left rage to deal with the aftermath.

Sayuri’s smile turned malevolent, down-right terrifying, as she again looked at the teacher. “I am trying my hardest to remember I can’t kill you.” Her voice was anything but serene, more like a raging waterfall. “Give me one reason not to use the dad-card, please.”

“I-I know it’s wrong of the ch… the children to discriminate against him,” the teacher began, taking a step backwards. Someone from the class sobbed. “I promise I’ll tell them off whenever they say it again.” They looked at the class. “Did you hear that? Calling someone a ‘monster’ is disrespectful, what would your parents say?”

Wrong question.

Yamanaka Ino stood up, in all her adorable glory, and declared that “It was my parents that called him that first!”

The teacher actually whimpered. Pathetic.

Sayuri released herself from the upset boys and stood up. “Do you see these two?” she asked, and looked Ino in the eye until she nodded. “Good. Now, imagine I start calling you monster or freak. Imagine I laugh at you behind your back, when you can hear me, or whisper mean things when you pass. Imagine no one helping you, imagine they join in. You feel something heavy in your chest, like a stone weighing you down. This stone is pressing against their chests right now. Tell me, Yamanaka Ino, why it is okay for you to make them cry.”

Her gaze flickered hesitantly. “I, um… Mommy and daddy said it first!”

“I know. What gives them the right to hurt my baby brother?”

Again, her gaze roamed the room for an answer. “Because they’re adults!” She seemed proud of the answer. Until she saw Sayuri smile, that is.

“My daddy’s also an adult. Your sensei, too. I remember them saying it wasn’t okay to call someone else a monster. What do you say about that?”

“You’re a bully!”

“In what way?”

“You, uh, you’re—! You’re…! Argh, because you make me sad!” Ino stomped her foot on the ground. “You’re a meanie!”

“Like you are to my brothers?” Sayuri cocked her head to the side, her smile vanishing. “Since you made them cry, that means you’re a big meanie, too, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “That means you’re a bully, too. And since I’m the older bully, that means I can bully you back.”

“Wh— No, I didn’t mean it that way!” Ino looked ready to implode. “Stop twisting my words!”

Toddlers, she was learning she detested them. “Then explain how it’s okay for you to bully my brothers when I can’t do the same to you.”

“Because you’re older, and senpais shouldn’t be mean to their kohais.”

“Fair point.” She looked at Sasuke and Naruto. “I give you permission to say and do whatever you like to anyone that’s mean to you.” She would give the class an hour, tops, before someone had to go to the hospital. Not because Naruto and Sasuke were ferocious, but because they had little to no control of their chakra.

Sensing the danger, the teacher looked at Ino. “Detention, Yamanaka-chan. This is a detestable behaviour and not something a respectable ninja takes part in.” They looked at every student in the room. “Understood?”

“Yes, sensei!”

Sayuri nodded, impressed. “Thank you for your help.” She hugged the boys. “Again, it’s okay to protect yourselves against bad words and gestures. Tell me if anything else happens and I’ll be there for you.” She kissed them, glared at Ino one last time and went back to her class.

A few days later, Itachi handed her a sunflower. He raised his eyebrows at her odd giggle, not knowing Naruto’s future daughter would be named after it.

That thought led her to scoff over Sakura’s name.

“What is it?” Itachi asked and leaned forward.

Sayuri put the sunflower beside her and began pulling up grass. “They have a girl in class,” she began to explain, “named Haruno Sakura. Her name means kind and gentle, but she’s nothing like that. Freesia or Kiiroibara suits her more.” At Itachi’s lost expression, she laughed. “Freesia means ‘childish’ or ‘immature’.”

“And kiiroibara?”

A yellow rose. “Jealousy.”

He raised his eyebrows again. “You had time to figure that out?”

She nodded. Sayuri had taken her time during recess to study Naruto’s class. She wasn’t impressed, and had been reminded both that she wasn’t all-powerful and that his class was as horrible in real life as in the anime.

Heaving a heavy sigh, she fell back onto the ground and looked up at the cloudy sky. None of them had a distinct shape.

Itachi laid down beside her and closed his eyes. She did the same, and together they tried pushing their chakra from their bodies to read the surrounding area. They didn’t reach far, and it exhausted them—especially Sayuri.

“Sasuke’s birthday is coming up,” Itachi said. “You wanna come celebrate?”

“Sure. Does he want something special?”

“He was eyeing a book about shinobi.”

Sayuri grinned. “I definitely know that one!”

Itachi tickled her nose at her mocking tone. “You’re mean,” he said with a small smile. “I’ll ask him about the name, don’t worry.”

“Good.”

Itachi’s and her birthdays had already come and gone.

“Wanna spar?”

She grimaced, but sat up either way. “Don’t be too harsh on me,” she begged.

He covered his laugh with a cough. “I’ll try.”

Approximately five Uchiha shinobi and kunoichi died during the Kyūbi Attack. There were at least twenty eye-witness accounts of Uchiha members saving civilians and ninja alike. And sure, there were records of them using the Sharingan during that time—but that proved nothing. It was their kekkei genkai, and part of their repertoire, just like the Byuakugan for the Hyūga clan.

In other words, there was no proof any of the Uchiha members had knowingly manipulated Kurama into attacking the village. No one had seen Tobi—or rather, Obito—either. The discrimination was baseless, and now that she thought about it, illegal.

“Where are you going?” her dad asked when she passed his office. Asami’s office.

“Library,” she replied, blew him a kiss and shunshined over rooftops until she reached her destination.

The librarian gaped upon seeing her eyes and bowed deeply. “Greetings, Sakurasō-hime. What can I do for you?”

Sayuri gave the woman her kindest smile. “Can you show me where you store Konoha’s law books?”

“Of course, what laws do you want to see?”

“On discrimination and baseless punishments.”

The librarian gave her an odd look but kept quiet. She showed Sayuri where to find the books and high-tailed it away from her.

It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. One of the paragraphs clearly stated it was illegal to incite punishments when no evidence could back it up, and that groundless discrimination was also punishable. Of course, she couldn’t punish every villager, but the Hokage could. There was something called collective punishment, after all.

Pleased with her findings, she wrote them down and headed back home. Hirohito chuckled when he saw her again, and she promised she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“The Sakurasō clan has cultivated a special type of chakra,” Sayuri’s teacher, Sakurasō Yūto, explained to his class. “This chakra enables us to heal wounds far beyond even that of lady Senju Tsunade.”

The class oohed and awed. Sayuri herself raised an eyebrow, impressed.

“We cannot, of course, raise people from the dead, but thanks to our chakra, we can cure people moments from death’s door.” He pointed at the board behind him. “This is a kekkei genkai, a special ability within our clan only.”

“Kekkei genkai,” a young girl from a branch family said, “is that like the Sharingan and Byakugan?”

Yūto-sensei nodded. “Correct. When a kekkei genkai lies within the eyes, it’s called a dōjutsu.”

Sayuri already knew this. Except for the various forms of Sharingan, and the Byakugan, she could remember the Rinnegan and Tenseigan. There were more in canon, she remembered, but she couldn’t name any of them or their abilities.

“Sensei,” one of Sayuri’s cousins said, “isn’t our kekkei genkai a dōjutsu?” The class nodded in agreement.

“No, Naoto-kun, it is not. Our eyes are also a characteristic only to our clan, but are not part of our kekkei genkai. A child of Sakurasō can be born without the tell-tale golden gaze, but as long as it has our chakra, it does not matter.”

Curious, Sayuri raised her hand. “Then why are we all born with them?”

Yūto-sensei paused and looked away. “That is a topic for another day. Dismissed.”

At first, no one moved. They just looked dumbly at their teacher until his sudden dismissal sank in and they started to leave.

Sayuri frowned at the odd behaviour, but didn’t pursue it. She could always ask Hirohito, or look it up in their personal archive.

She stretched her arms and back and walked through the big house, followed her classmates and family members through the garden until they all split up. A lot of them went in the same direction, talking and laughing with friends, but Sayuri walked alone, behind a group of children her age.

Looking at them was odd. It was like looking through a window. She had never been part of a community like that, always being the odd one out.

Thinking back to her past, it had been the same there. As a Winchester, she’d been socially awkward and preferred the isolation. She had had many friends over the years, but they never stayed.

Now, Itachi was her only friend; would he also leave her one day? Her heart ached at the thought.

“Nee-nee?” Naruto’s cold hand against hers sucker-punched her back to reality. She stumbled and looked down at him with wide eyes. “Nee-nee okay?”

She smiled. “I am, just lost in thought.” She hugged and kissed him. “Do you know you’re my favourite brother?”

Naruto squealed in delight. “Only brother,” he corrected with a giggle. He stopped when Sayuri stilled. The look in her eyes became dark. “Nee-nee?”

“Will you also leave me, when you grow up?” Neither the Boruto manga nor the anime had finished airing. She didn’t read the manga and could only rely on the anime for reference, but as far as she knew, Naruto lived to see his children grow up, to become Hokage. But that was only considering how the original Naruto series unfolded. Now, all bets were off.

Naruto put his small hands on her cheeks and looked her in the eye. “Naruto never leaves nee-nee,” he said with conviction.

“I love you,” Sayuri whispered and enveloped him in another hug. “You’re the best thing that happened to me.”

“Naruto loves nee-nee, too.”

“Let’s go throw water balloons on the clan members!”

During these past years, Sayuri had come to terms with the fact that she would never be able to take a life. The thought of ending someone else’s life sent a bitter after-taste in her mouth, and she was sure she’d have nightmares for years as a result.

Since she couldn’t directly take someone’s life—except maybe in self-defence—she would save it. She’d already thought about it, about becoming a doctor, a medical nin, and after entering the Academy, her conviction grew. 

But the day she really understood these two realisations about herself, was the day Itachi came home from his first C-ranked mission.

It was in the dead of night, but Sayuri couldn’t sleep. She felt restless; something was nagging in the back of her head, and it wouldn’t stop. Since she was obviously not getting any much-needed sleep, she pulled her blanket around herself and went to sit on the roof.

The full moon was out, reminding her of both the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Naruto: the Last and the night Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan. She shuddered. This was not a pleasant thought for such a late hour.

Twirling the dried sunflower in her hands, she failed to notice the shadow creeping towards her until it was only a few meters away. She lashed out, kicking away their feet, and they nearly fell off the roof.

“It’s me!” Itachi hissed at the same time Sayuri noticed the blood on the foot that kicked him. “What are you… doing… Stop!” He caught her hands roaming his body for injuries. “I’m fine; it’s not my blood.”

“Then who’s?!”

He stilled, looked away and let her go. He stood up, his face stone cold, and moved away. Sayuri caught his arm and forced him to look at her. His breath caught at the sight of her eyes. They were golden, yellow and brown. There were specs of silver, too. Her eyes were far more beautiful than— 

“Izumo Tenma’s.” He leaned against her, apologising for ruining her blanket. Sayuri didn’t care, and covered him with it, pulling him closer.

Izumo Tenma. She didn’t recognise the name, but instinctively knew this incident should have activated his Sharingan, if it hadn’t already done so.

According to the anime, Itachi’s Sharingan had awakened at the sight of the brutal murder of his teammate. Izumo Tenma appeared to be that unfortunate child, and this mission had been the one that changed Itachi’s life forever.

And she had totally forgotten about it.

“They’re ugly.” His voice broke, and he began sobbing. “They’re so ugly and useless!”

She rubbed circles on his back to calm him down. “They’re a pretty strawberry—”

He pushed her away, holding her shoulders in a vice-like grip, and stared at her with his red eyes. “Do they look like strawberries? Huh? Don’t lie! They’re red, blood red!”

Sayuri cupped his cheek and caressed the skin underneath a tear-filled eye. With her other hand, she removed the hitai-ate from his forehead and pressed hers to it. Another sob shook his body and she closed the blanket tighter around them.

“Itachi.” He looked at her. “How many stars are in the sky?”

He blinked. Sobbed. “What?”

She giggled and looked up at the sky. He followed her gaze. “Do you know?” He shook his head. “Me neither. There’s more stars up there than sand corns on the beach.”

He frowned and looked at her. “Sand corns?”

She blushed. “I meant grains!” And there her native language ruined the moment.

Itachi let out a quiet laugh. “Corns,” he whispered with a small smile. “Corns.” His laugh grew louder and he hugged her tight. “I love you.”

She didn’t hesitate to return the hug. “You, too.”

She led him to the bathroom and helped him wash up. They were still ten and bathing together hadn’t started getting weird yet. Sayuri mourned the day puberty would force their friendship to change.

Itachi thanked her for the spare clothes she’d borrowed from her father—a very oversized shirt Itachi was drowning in—and climbed into the bed with her. He sighed as the warmth enveloped him.

“Sayuri?”

“Mhm?”

“I love you.”

She grinned in the dark. “I love you too.”

Yeah, she could never take someone else’s life, not when they had someone to mourn them. She couldn’t do that to another human.

Chapter Text

Itachi didn’t go home the day after. He soaked in Sayuri’s bathtub while she ran over to his parents to report his whereabouts. Fugaku clicked his tongue in annoyance but didn’t voice his concerns, and Mikoto smiled and handed Sayuri a change of clothes, thanking her for being such a good friend to Itachi.

“Nee-chan,” Sasuke whined, “is nii-san okay?”

She ruffled his hair and gave him a fake smile. “Yes, just tired.”

When Itachi was dressed in his new clothes, Sayuri took him to the living room and opened the doors to the garden. It was early summer, and the sun was trying its hardest to warm them up. They snuggled together under a blanket and watched the birds play in a birdbath.

“Why do you wanna be a kunoichi?” Itachi asked quietly.

Sayuri hummed and pulled at the grass with her toes. “Lots of reasons.”

“Please tell me.”

“First, because it’s expected of me. The Sakurasōs birthed some of the strongest medical nins—not to mention assassins—well before Konoha existed. As the future Head, of course I have to become one, too.” She looked at her hands, remembering the warmth that left her when she tried to save Minato and Kushina. Another reason was because it felt natural. If you entered the Narutoverse, wouldn’t your first instinct be to become a ninja? It was what the world revolved around, after all.

“That’s not a good reason.” Itachi should know, having been forced to train since before he met her.

“It’s also because I wanna be useful,” Sayuri continued. “Saving people’s lives feels fulfilling, like I’ve done something good.”

Itachi nodded, a difficult expression on his face.

“And I like it, the thought of standing by your side, protecting and helping you.”

“Me?” He looked at her with surprised eyes. “Why?”

She giggled nervously. “You’re my only friend, you know. It wouldn’t feel comfortable without you.”

He cracked open into the happiest of grins. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” she replied. “And, mostly, I want to become stronger to protect everyone I love; you, daddy, Naruto, Sasuke, and our clans. To do that, becoming a kunoichi seems to be the easiest way.”

“You can’t even kill spiders.”

She pouted. “They’re not mean! And some of them carry poisons we use in our recipes.” Itachi gave her an odd look. She shrugged. “What? I’ve read ahead, okay?”

He gave a small smile. “Well, you’re no weirder than us.”

She nudged his shoulder. “We’re being weird together, then.”

“Yuri?”

“Mhm?”

“Love you.”

She grinned. “Love you, too.”

A few hours later, the two of them were walking around town, window-shopping and snacking on some dangos. They were doing nothing in particular, just enjoying their time together, as well as the fresh air. The gods knew Itachi needed it.

“That looks like it hurts,” Sayuri said and pointed at an open shop wall. Inside lay a young man with his torso exposed, pinned with needles.

“It’s acupuncture,” Itachi explained. “It makes your back feel less pain.”

Sayuri wanted to tell him she knew very well what acupuncture was. She was just surprised at seeing it.

She blinked. “Itachi, does it work on tenketsus?”

“Uh, maybe? If you infuse the needles with chakra, I guess. Why?”

Her mind was brimming with ideas, and she giggled. Haku had used needles to fight in the first season of Naruto, and Sayuri had always thought it was a cool way to fight. What if she learned how to do it, too? She might not even need needles! She could be like Tylee from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

“Are you… okay?” Itachi asked and poked her forehead. Her mind came to a screeching halt as she remembered him doing that before he died. “Wh—” Itachi jumped back. “I-I’m sorry?! Why are you crying?”

“You’re not going to die, are you?”

“What?” He frowned and reached for her, before he thought better of it and paced impatiently by her side. “No… I’m not. I promise.”

“How will you keep it?”

“The promise?” She nodded. “Well, I’ll be careful on my missions, so that you don’t have to see me hurt. And I’ll train to become stronger so no one can kill me.”

She would take it, for now. And she would do her hardest to help him live a long, happy life, too. Her coming here couldn’t have been an accident. Maybe she was meant to help them, so that Itachi, Naruto and everyone else could live good lives in at least one reality.

That’s what fanfics are for, a part of her mind whispered.

Then this is my own personal, real life fanfiction, she rebutted. Whatever she should call her new life didn’t matter. The fact was that she was here, and that she had decided to fix everything she thought needed fixing.

Starting with Itachi not murdering his family.

“… Come again?” Hirohito asked, his brows creased in confusion. They were sitting in his office, him and Sayuri, a few days after her last conversation with Itachi.

Sayuri gave her dad a kind smile. ”I wanna learn acupuncture,” she repeated.

”Why?”

”Because I can both help people and fight them with it!”

It was a good idea, she knew it. Haku had been amazing with his needle fighting style, and she was sure it was more efficient in saving chakra than throwing lots of jutsus at enemies. She was a would-be medical nin, she couldn’t waste her chakra when her teammates were wounded or dying.

Hirohito sat back and thought it over. ”I think I know why you’re doing this,” he finally said, ”and I must say, it’s an interesting proposal. I’ve heard of it before, but never seen it for myself.”

”And,” she supplied, ”it won’t take lots of time from my other studies!” She was already learning about the anatomy of humans. If she focused on nerves and muscles, and memorised where they were, she could very well paralyze her foes with a single strike—with and without needles.

She might not be a Legendary Sannin, jinchūriki or have a vast reservoir of chakra, but that didn’t mean she had to be weak—she just had to be smart.

”All right, I’ll find you a teacher. But Sayuri, don’t take up too much. I don’t want you to burn out.”

She kissed her dad on the cheek. ”I promise I’ll be careful. And Itachi’s such a mum anyway; he won’t let me either.”

Sadness passed in Hirohito’s eyes, and Sayuri realised what she’d just said.

”I wish your mother was here to see you grow up,” he whispered and hugged her. ”She would be so proud.”

Sayuri barely remembered Asami. It was a fact that children couldn’t retain their memories until they were around three years old, but at that time, Sayuri’s old memories had resurfaced and drowned out those of her current life. Then Asami died. She was simply another shadow looming over Sayuri, someone she knew she should care about but didn’t.

But Hirohito did.

”She would tell me to stop snacking on dangos.”

Hirohito guffawed. ”That’s my daughter!”

The graveyard was desolate. Everyone was working, of course no one would be here to mourn their dead. But Sayuri was, because she snuck away from the Academy during recess. She only had a few minutes to visit those she wanted to see.

First was Asami’s grave. She put a few forget-me-nots in front of it and sat down to pray silently. She’d never been much of a religious person, but it felt nice wishing for the well-being of people she cared about, and people that cared about her.

“I’m sorry I can’t remember you very well,” she began quietly, “but I know who you are, and I remember you loved me. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to save you. But I promise I’ll become good enough to save others, so please keep watching over me.” She bowed her head for a moment before heading to the next grave.

Sayuri sat down on her knees and put a few morning glories and daffodils on the grave.

”Again, I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, neither of you,” she murmured regretfully. ”I’ve tried taking care of him, of Naruto, and I hope I’m doing both you and him justice.” She swallowed. ”But it’s hard, you know, not knowing what the right course of action is. Should I tell him the truth? Why, why not? Should I let someone else, one of your friends, take over custody of him?

”His classmates hate him. They call him a monster. I can’t stand it, but whatever I do they just won’t stop—because no one punishes them. Detention doesn’t face them anymore, and their parents don’t care, because they hate him too.” She sobbed. It was so unfair they blamed Naruto, a newborn baby at the time, for the death of his own parents—something the third Hokage kept a secret, just like in canon.

It was disgusting. 

”I wish I could have saved you that night. I’m sorry I was weak, I’m sorry my chakra wasn’t enough.”

She let the tears fall, just like they had. Because she hadn’t been enough, hadn’t been able to do anything; not stopping Obito, not saving them, not being able to help Naruto like she wanted to. She needed to become stronger, so she could change the world as she wanted it. Screw consequences, as long as Naruto and Sasuke became the overpowered shinobis they were in the series, everything would go well. Sayuri would make sure they ended up with a happy ending.

She stood up and prepared to leave when she noticed another chakra signature nearby. She froze and looked around. Either the person was invisible—which wasn’t that unlikely considering what jutsus could do—or they were hiding in the trees.

She looked up, an eyebrow raised. ”You’re up there, aren’t you?”

Silence.

”I can… You know, I can feel you. You chakra. It’s…” She focused on the faint signature and gasped. ”Lightning, earth, water, fire, wind, yin, yang…” How many natures were there, again? She should know this by now.

The stranger jumped down from the tree and looked up at her. She stared back in shock. Whoever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t Hatake Kakashi.

How old was he? He was fourteen years older than Naruto, making him nine years older than her. So, nineteen? Twenty? That meant he was already in Anbu, already deep into depression.

Kakashi studied her without any curiosity, still hunched on the ground. Then he stood and Sayuri had to again curse her body for being that of a short child.

”You knew them?”

”Wh-what?”

He nodded at the grave behind her. ”The fourth and his wife.”

She turned to look at the flowers. Her heart clenched. ”No… I didn’t. I met them briefly before they died.” She clutched her pink and silver kimono. ”I couldn’t save them.”

Kakashi glanced at her eyes. ”You’re the Sakurasō girl that took in their son.”

It wasn’t a question. Sayuri answered nonetheless. ”Yes, Naruto. He’s almost five, now.”

He nodded.

Wow, this was awkward. Kakashi kept looking at her with his one bored eye. She couldn’t stop looking at the one he was covering. Thinking that the boy he failed to save killed their master. It sickened her.

”You wondering what’s under it?” Kakashi asked, knocking on his hitai-ate.

”Hm, no, but what’s underneath the mask?”

You could hear a needle fall. And cut the silence with a knife.

Kakashi looked away and coughed. Did he find her funny? She smiled at that. ”Was it an inappropriate question?”

”No, many wonder the same.”

”But you won’t tell me.”

He nodded. ”I won’t.”

”Gotta keep that mysterious aura up.” She flushed. ”I’m sorry, that was definitely inappropriate.”

Kakashi shrugged. ”You’re a child, I’m not mad.”

She glanced at the grave. ”I’m sorry… If I’d been older…” She jumped when he put his hand on her head, and looked up. ”K— Uh, mister?”

”You couldn’t help it.”

She could have told someone. Not that they would believe her, and afterwards they would treat her like a suspect and traitor.

”But… I’m a Sakurasō…”

Kakashi’s voice was uncharacteristically gentle when he spoke next. ”And, what, three years old? Listen, kid, it wasn’t anyone’s fault, least of all yours. You were a toddler, and toddlers don’t fight. The adults were supposed to protect you.”

”But you’re not that much older than me.” Maybe she should learn how to keep her mouth shut.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. ”How’d you figure that?”

She bit her lip and fiddled with her fingers. ”You’re Hatake Kakashi, right?” He nodded. ”I read up about the fourth, since I took Naruto in. Wanted to tell him anything I could about… about his parents. I found you, too.”

Kakashi looked away, clearly uncomfortable. ”That’s not good.”

”Because you’re Anbu?”

Now he cringed. ”That’s classified.”

”I’m good at what I’m doing.”

”I noticed.” He quieted down, hesitated. Again, he was uncomfortable. ”How old are you?”

”Ten.”

”Nine years… You were five.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out what he meant. ”Yes. I lost Itachi and Sasuke while on the way to the evac centre. Then I found them.”

Kakashi glanced at the grave. ”… How is he? Their son.”

”Naruto.”

He looked away. ”Naruto.”

”He’s sweet, really sweet. He likes to sleep in my bed, because he doesn’t like being alone.” He probably imprinted on her that night. If human babies could, that is. Maybe he’d developed an innate fear of loneliness.

She cocked her head to the side and looked at the grass. ”He loves ramen. Always wants to eat at Ichiraku’s. And he loves cuddles. But the best thing he knows is building a pillow fort so he and Sasuke can sleep in it.”

”Uchiha Sasuke?”

She nodded. ”They’re best friends. Because I’m always with Itachi. He takes Sasuke over to play.”

”They should be in school now.”

She giggled, but the smile was bitter. Kakashi didn’t say anything, but again he raised an eyebrow. She explained, ”The contempt for the kyūbi has become resentment for him too. It’s bleeding into the minds of his peers. They… they call him monster.”

”Are you sure you’re ten? That was a lot of big words.” She frowned. Had he heard a word she said? ”How do you know he’s not a monster?”

She looked him in the eye and didn’t hesitate. ”Monsters are made, not born.” Motivated by Kakashi’s surprised face, she continued. ”Naruto was already born when Hokage-sama sealed the kyūbi in him.”

Something changed in the way Kakashi looked at her. She couldn’t decipher what, but she was sure about it. She hoped it was something good.

He ruffled her hair before letting go. ”You’re a good kid, Sakurasō. It seems Naruto has a good sister in you.”

”Not good enough.” He waited for her to continue. ”He comes crying about them being mean. They ask Sasuke to play all the time, but never Naruto. I… know that’s not… not entirely true. He’s an Uchiha, of course they don’t completely like him, either. But… but Naruto doesn’t see that. He’s sad, he doesn’t like the Academy. But he wants to be a shinobi so, so much, but I can’t… I can’t really do anything. Talk to him, yes but that doesn’t solve the problem.”

”True. The solution lies in the eyes of the public.”

She looked up at him. ”How do I make them change? See that he’s just a five-year-old boy with feelings?”

Kakashi didn’t have the answer to her question. ”Sometimes the only thing you can do is to be there for him when he needs you.”

She clenched her fists. That wasn’t enough. The contempt would only grow. Now he had her, her family and the Uchihas, yes, but the Uchiha clan was in decline in the eyes of the villagers and held no power to help him. And then there was the Sakurasō clan. They held power, yes, but not enough to sway the general opinion. They dealt in medicine, poisons, and were doctors, not politicians. Neither were they part of the founding clans—she’d read that the Sakurasōs had come to Konoha ten years later—and no Hokage had come from them.

Kakashi seemed to understand her reluctance, because he patted her shoulder and said, ”Or you could train to your heart’s content, become stronger and get enough power for people to listen. If you’re strong, Naruto will work harder. He’ll prove himself, too.”

Both of them knew there was more to it than that, but she appreciated him dumbing it down.

”Thank you, Kakashi-sensei.” She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. ”S-sorry!”

He shrugged. ”It’s… okay. Just—don’t call me that again, okay?” She nodded. ”Good girl.” He turned away. ”What’s your name?”

”Sakurasō Sayuri.”

He looked at her over his shoulder. ”The Head?”

”Soon, yes.”

He nodded. ”Thank you, for taking care of him.”

Before he could leave, she took a hold of his sleeve. He jumped so violently he nearly rammed his elbow in her face.

”What?” His voice wasn’t as kind as before. She let him go.

”Y-you could see him, too. If you want. I think he’d like that.” She had to explain who he was first, of course, and about Minato and Kushina, but she’d already set her mind to do that.

It took a moment for Kakashi to gather himself enough to give a reply. ”I don’t think he would.” Then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

She stood there, alone, looking at the place he’d just left. She took a deep breath and looked at the grave of Naruto’s parents. ”I’ll keep trying, I promise.”

Sasuke was crying. He’d been crying for a while, because they’d just heard that Itachi wouldn’t make it home before the day was over.

”Sasu-chan, here,” Naruto said and offered his stuffed Kurama toy—that Sayuri had made in secret for his third birthday—to Sasuke, in an attempt to calm him down. ”You can borrow Kurama.”

Was she too obvious in trying to ease him into being a jinchūriki? She hoped not; it was better to familiarise him with Kurama before telling him the truth, right? 

Sasuke let out a last loud sob, looked at the stuffed toy, and took it. ”Thank you,” he murmured, sobbed again, and hugged Kurama. Then he tugged at Naruto’s pants. Naruto grinned and sat down to embrace Sasuke, too.

”Sayuri-chan.”

”Hm?” Sayuri turned around to look at Mikoto. ”Is something wrong?”

Mikoto waved her over. With a last look at the boys, Sayuri followed her out of the room. A boy slightly older than her walked past her, nodded in greeting, and entered the room to watch over the boys.

”Who’s that?” Sayuri asked curiously. Mikoto wouldn’t let just anyone watch her child, especially when he was with Naruto.

”Oh, that’s my relative, Uchiha Shisui.” Before Sayuri could register her words, Mikoto continued talking. “But Sayuri, do you think we should give Sasuke the rest of his presents now instead?”

Sayuri glanced at the closed door. ”No, not all of them. Give him some. I’ll save mine and Naruto’s for later.” She bit her lip. ”He really won’t be coming?”

Mikoto’s sad eyes were proof enough. ”I’m sorry, Sayuri-chan, but last I heard, they weren’t even in the land of Fire.” The report had reached them earlier that morning. Damn.

The rest of the day they spent watching Sasuke gush over his new presents and play with Naruto and some other invited Uchiha children. Sayuri’s heart swelled at the sight of the children playing happily with the blonde boy. At least he had a place to belong.

It was after darkness fell that Sasuke’s mood shifted. The children had gone home, except Naruto and Sayuri—they were sleeping over—and Sayuri caught Sasuke out of bed, by the opened wall in his bedroom, looking at the night sky.

Pulling the blanket closer around her shoulders, she soundlessly closed the bedroom door and snuck up to the boy. He jumped when she sat down behind him and pulled him into a backwards embrace.

“Just me,” she assured him. “Why are you awake?”

Sasuke sobbed and leaned in closer. “Nii-san didn’t come.”

“I’d like to believe he tried his hardest to finish the mission quickly, so he could come home to celebrate with you.”

“But he didn’t come.”

Sayuri looked up at the moon. “It’s not too late yet. He still got a few hours.”

She felt rather than saw his pout. “But by then I’m asleep!”

She chuckled and kissed his cheek. “If he comes, I’ll wake you up, promise.”

Sasuke turned around. “Really?”

“Yep, on my own honour.” She held out her pinky, and Sasuke eagerly made the promise with her.

Instead of brimming with excitement, however, his mood dulled and he turned away. “Nee-chan, does nii-san hate me?”

What? “Why would you think that?” she asked, aghast at the thought of Itachi disliking the brother he sacrificed everything for.

“Nii-san doesn’t train with me anymore. I rarely see him…” He leaned against her. “Does nii-san hate me?”

“Itachi would never hate you, Sasuke,” she murmured into his hair. “He’s just torn between your father’s expectations, his duties and us.”

“That’s mean.”

Sayuri wholeheartedly agreed, especially since she knew what would happen because of it.

“But Sasuke? I have a secret to tell. You wanna hear it?” He nodded. “Then swear on your clan you won’t tell anyone! Not Naruto, not Itachi, not even your parents. This stays between us.”

His eyes widened by her sudden grave attitude, but nodded after a moment of thought. “I promise.”

“Good. I have a plan that, if it succeeds, will lift some of Itachi’s burden. Then maybe he’ll have more time to spare us both.”

“Really?”

She grinned and kissed his temple. “Really.”

“Thank you, nee-chan.” He returned the kiss. “Do I have to go to sleep?”

“Yes, Sasuke, you have to. Otherwise you’ll be really tired tomorrow, and then you won’t be able to train with Naruto.”

The thought of not keeping up with his best friend was enough to get him back to bed. She kissed him goodnight again and gushed over him snuggling up to Naruto, before leaving the room.

Sayuri wasn’t tired anymore. She was actually more awake now. Having spoken to Sasuke had reminded her that Itachi was joining Anbu soon. He would meet Kakashi. Maybe she could do something with that fact? But what? She had no ideas, her brain was working on an empty stomach.

Should she get Itachi to speak about Naruto? She hesitated. She didn’t know if that was such a good idea.

Instead of going back to her room, she exited the house and walked around the garden. Maybe some fresh air could clear her head and give her an idea. She jumped on top of the wall separating the main family’s place from the others and sat down. It took only a few minutes before the Uchiha guards spotted her, people she recognised from years of getting caught sneaking away at night with Itachi.

“Sakurasō-sama,” they greeted with amused grins. “Is Sasuke-sama asleep?”

“As a baby.” She couldn’t help but grin back.

“Are you waiting for Itachi-sama?”

She nodded. “You don’t happen to have heard anything?” They shook their heads and she looked away in disappointment. “Okay. Thanks either way.”

They both bowed. One said, “I suggest you go to sleep too, Sakurasō-sama. It’s quite cold tonight.”

“All right. Goodnight.” There was nothing to see but a star-filled sky and a moon. They weren’t as pretty when she was stargazing alone.

She’d opened the door halfway when she felt the faint signature of chakra. She whipped her head around, ready to fight. It was unnecessary. After analyzing the signature, she recognised it as Itachi’s. She tracked it to a tree growing by the wall. He was looking at her with sad, tired eyes.

“Why not come inside, wash up and greet Sasuke?” she said gently and smiled. He jumped down and walked up to her. In the light, she could see he was covered in dried blood. “What the actual fu— I mean… I mean… Itachi, what in the world happened?”

He moved away from her grasp, back into the shadows. “Is Sasuke awake?” His voice was weak, and couldn’t hide the pain he felt.

“Itachi, I need to see—”

“Sayuri, please.”

She was going to scold him for this tomorrow. “No, but I promised to wake him if you came back tonight.”

“What time is it?”

She shrugged. “Not midnight?”

Itachi walked past her, like a ghost, into the building. She hurried after him, making sure to lock the door. Her clones went to pick up things to clean the blood he left on the floor.

“You’re ten,” she fumed, “why are you more stubborn than a mule?!” Itachi didn’t laugh, which only worried her more. “Please, let me check on you before you see him. Are you hurt?”

“I am, but it can wait.”

“I won’t have you bleed out on Sasuke’s birthday!”

This time, he looked at her over his shoulder and smiled faintly. “Not that wounded.”

Excuse you! she mentally yelled. You’re ten! You’re bleeding! Stop being stoic and let me help! What good were her studies if she couldn’t help him? She wasn’t learning this for kicks!

Itachi opened the door to Sasuke’s room without a sound and snuck inside. Sayuri followed, but stopped him before he reached the bed.

“Before you go on another rant,” she whispered, “let me at least wipe your face. It’s covered in blood and I won’t have you scaring Sasuke to death.”

Itachi followed her to the closest bathroom where he let her rub a wet towel on his face and arms. She pulled off the hitai-ate, too.

“One could think it was raining blood,” she said. Itachi didn’t answer.

They went back to Sasuke’s room, where Sayuri gently nudged him awake.

“Nee-chan,” he whined and rubbed his eyes. “Is it mor… ning…” He stared at Itachi. “Nii-san!”

“Ssh!” both ten-year-olds shushed him. “Don’t wake the whole house,” Sayuri whispered.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Sasuke,” Itachi said and caressed Sasuke’s hair. “I tried getting here as fast as I could.”

Speaking of, was he Usain Bolt? It was impossible to travel from any part of the border to Konoha in less than a few days, but he’d managed in barely twenty-four hours. Apparently the laws of physics didn’t apply to geniuses.

“Thank you, nii-san,” Sasuke said with tears in his eyes.

“Of course. I’m all yours tomorrow. We can do whatever you want. I’ll even buy you a birthday present of your choosing.”

The thought of spending an entire day with his brother put Sasuke on cloud nine. “Nii-san, I love you!”

Itachi stopped him from hugging him and getting his PJ’s covered in blood. “Go back to sleep now, and we’ll see each other at breakfast.”

Sasuke pouted, but nodded and crawled underneath the blankets.

“Nii-chan,” Naruto murmured and blinked his eyes. “Nii-chan back?”

Itachi caressed his cheek. “Yes, Naruto, I’m back. Thank you for taking care of Sasuke while I was gone. Great job.”

Naruto smiled, already asleep. The two boys linked their fingers together, and both Itachi and Sayuri swooned over the cuteness.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” she whispered and steered him to the biggest bathroom. She prepared the built-in tub with hot water and forced him to strip, much to Itachi’s embarrassment.

“Yuri, I promise I’m not hurt enough to need help bathing,” he begged, trying and failing to catch her hands stripping him.

“Between the two of us, I’m the medical expert, so shut up, strip, and let me check your wounds!”

After a few more arguments, Itachi gave up and pulled his shirt above his head. Curses he’d never heard before left Sayuri’s mouth as she forced him to sit on a stool by the showers. She put her hands on one of the stab wounds and did as her teachers had told her: she directed her chakra to her hands with the command to heal the wound. She wasn’t very good yet, but she was good enough to fix at least this much, though some wounds left scars.

“The bruises will heal,” Itachi said and moved away before she could fix them too. “Don’t exhaust yourself.”

“Like you do by running across half the country?” she hissed. “And off with the pants, I wanna see your legs.”

“I’m— I’m a boy!”

“And we’re ten, why are you embarrassed?”

“Well… sensei said…” He looked away, ashamed.

“Whatever they said, they’re mean. We’ve always bathed together, and I don’t see why we can’t keep doing that.”

“Because… because…!” He looked around, as if the bathroom held the answer. “Because you have breasts and I don’t.” If only the heavy silence could suffocate him.

Sayuri put her hands where her breast had been and pointedly looked at them. “Am I blind?” she asked.

Itachi couldn’t stop the hysterical laugh that escaped him. Nor could he stop the tears. “I’m so-ho-rry,” he cried as Sayuri quickly embraced him. He hugged her tight, as if she was his last lifeline. “I just wanna sleep.”

She was again reminded he was just a child, a child that had seen a lot more than he should have. She took a deep breath and looked at him. “Let’s take a bath together. I need to patch you up, okay? And don’t listen to your sensei—I don’t have breasts yet.”

He nodded and wiped the tears away. Quickly he stripped and let Sayuri inspect his legs before soaking himself in the warm water. She joined him immediately and began dragging her hands through his wet hair.

“I like it like this,” she said offhandedly. “You’d look good with long hair.”

“Really?” He touched it. “You think?”

“Uh-huh.”

They were silent for a while.

“Sayuri?” He turned to look at her, once again crying. “I don’t want Sasuke to know this pain.”

Before her eyes, the black in his irises turned red, and the three tomoe looked eerily out of place. 

Sayuri’s brain momentarily went on hiatus and she had to take a moment to gather herself—and find a new brain—before answering.

“Explain.”

“I don’t want Sasuke to see someone he cares about die,” Itachi said, fighting and losing against the hot tears. “These eyes are a curse! They won’t manifest without pain.”

Sayuri held him close again. “I can’t even begin to imagine what you went or are going through,” she began, her throat tightening, “but I can understand your desire to protect Sasuke. And he doesn’t need the Sharingan to become an amazing shinobi, just look at lord fourth, he didn’t have a kekkei genkai.”

“Lord fourth is dead!” Itachi wailed.

All right, bad example.

“Hatake Kakashi is still alive.” Though he did have a Sharingan, he’d been formidable even without it. And she wasn’t supposed to know he had it. So. “And he’s one of the most feared shinobis in the world, you know.”

“Hatake Kakashi isn’t an Uchiha.”

True.

“Then you’ll just have to… I don’t know… I don’t know!” What should she say? That he should work harder to create a world where Sasuke didn’t need the Sharingan? That would push him to kill the clan, she was sure of it! To create peace, he would sacrifice them all, if just so Sasuke could live without their dōjutsu.

Senju Tobirama had been right. Uchihas!

“Train him,” she said, talking faster than her brain could keep up with. “Train him now when he doesn’t have the Sharingan, teach him how to fight and survive without it. Let him become strong without the power of his eyes. Then he won’t need them, right?”

Itachi moved away so he could look at her. “I’ll try.” He sobbed. “I’m just so tired.”

Tomorrow, Sayuri decided, she would speak to Hirohito about her findings. She had to get him to help her present her case to the Hokage. And book a meeting. Because she didn’t know how to do that.

She looked at Itachi. Yes. I need to fix this now. Or else I might be too late.

They left the bath soon after, and snuggled up against each other on Itachi’s bed. He looked at her and gave her a shy smile.

“You’re my best friend, Yuri,” he whispered.

“And you’re mine. Love you.”

He beamed. “Love you, too.”

Chapter Text

She didn’t get a chance to speak to Hirohito the following day. When she came home after breakfast, she found out that he’d been called to the hospital and would be gone for the day. Instead of doing nothing, she took Naruto to her room. It was time to start easing him into the truth.

They sat down on her bed, with Naruto in her lap, and she showed him a picture book she’d been working on. It was a story about a boy who lost his parents to the kyūbi and how he learned to harness the power of it. As expected, Naruto loved it, and spent a while looking through the pictures.

Phase one, complete.

Summer came and went, and she didn’t get a chance to talk to Hirohito about the discrimination charges. He’d become increasingly busy with hospital work—the work he loved so much—which added stress to his work as the acting Head of the clan. So she decided to wait until everything calmed down, and focus on her studies.

It was in August that her acupuncture teacher arrived, a short woman named Umi. She was an amazing teacher, and together they went through the anatomy of muscles and nerves in only a month before Sayuri memorised them all. She followed Umi to her clinic in another village Sayuri had never heard of, to study the work of acupuncturists and see the effects of their treatments. It was fascinating.

At the same time, she kept talking about Kurama with Naruto, made more picture books to explain the origins of the nine bijūs—to the best of her abilities, she didn’t actually remember much—and finally started telling him about his parents.

“Your daddy’s name was Namikaze Minato, and you mum was Uzumaki Kushina,” she explained one day in mid September, holding up pictures of the couple. “You look a lot like your daddy, see?”

Naruto touched the picture. “Dad?”

Sayuri nodded. “That’s your daddy. He loved you lots.”

He started crying, then, and they hadn’t talked more about Minato and Kushina for a few days. But almost a week later, Naruto woke her up in the middle of the night, crying, and asking for his parents. She pulled him into her lap, covered them both with her blanket, and told him what little she knew; he’d been the fourth Hokage, she’d been a strong and terrifying kunoichi. He’d created a few jutsus, and she promised Naruto to learn them so she could teach him, too.

“You wanna know his nickname?” Naruto nodded eagerly. “The Yellow Flash! Because he was super fast.”

“Will I be super duper fast, too?”

“If you keep up your training, then maybe.” She knew Rock Lee had become insanely fast after training under Guy, so maybe she’d contact the train-obsessed man and ask for some help.

I might end up dying for this… She grimaced.

Naruto’s fifth birthday came and went. This time, their families went to celebrate in the graveyard, so Minato and Kushina could partake, too. Naruto cried a lot.

The time came for Itachi to take the chūnin exam. No one thought much about it, since Itachi was the prodigy among prodigies. Obviously he would ace the test.

When Itachi came back, indeed having finished the exam, everyone was surprised to hear he’d gotten the second highest score in history, only being beaten by no one other than Namikaze Minato.

But Itachi wasn’t himself. It didn’t have anything to do with the exam; he’d been acting odd since before. He didn’t fare very well during physical training, getting easily distracted and started daydreaming at odd times. Out of the four of them—her, Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto—she was the only one who noticed and asked if he was okay. He shrugged it off with the excuse that he hadn’t slept very well lately. 

Sayuri wasn’t content with that. She knew the coup d’etat weighed heavily on his mind, and it was time to do something about it.

When she and Naruto came home from training, she left the boy to play in his room and went to see her dad. Hirohito smiled at her when he saw her.

”What does my lovely daughter want?”

”We need to talk.”

Her serious attitude had him raise an eyebrow and motion for her to sit. ”Tell me what’s wrong.”

She took a deep breath. This was it. ”The discrimination against the Uchiha clan has gone on for long enough,” she said. ”I’ve looked into it, and what’s happening is far from legal. We have to stop this before the resentment goes too far.”

Hirohito frowned deeply. ”What do you mean?”

”Before Konoha is engulfed in a civil war.”

”What? Do you know what you’re saying, Sayuri?” She knew, because she’d seen it happen before. ”Do you have proof that the claims against them are false?”

She nodded and pulled up the documents and notes she’d accumulated over the past months. He read them, his eyebrows raising higher and higher in disbelief.

”Sayuri… how did you get these?”

She blinked at him. ”Do you really think the Hokage would give just anyone these papers?”

He groaned, but didn’t scold her for her unethical behaviour. ”I’ll discuss this with Fugaku, Shikaku and… a lot of other people… before I take this to the Hokage.” She nodded, expecting nothing less from her brilliant father. They needed support, and if the other big clans could give them that, then she would wait patiently.

”Thank you, daddy. Love you lots.” She kissed him on the forehead.

”Love you, too, my precious genius.”

Feeling itchy and restless, Sayuri went for a walk. It wasn’t long until she noticed someone following her. She groaned. What now?

She went into the forest surrounding the park and leaned against a tree, waiting for her stalker to appear.

A gentle laugh resonated throughout the forest, but Sayuri couldn’t pinpoint it. ”You’re being very creepy,” she called to the stranger. ”Just show yourself.”

And so they did. Uchiha Shisui came out from the shadows and a lazy grin on his face. ”You’re a really good sensor, Sakurasō-sama,” he said, and Sayuri raised an eyebrow. He coughed. ”So, you might wonder why I’m following you.”

You don’t say?

”I’m not someone suspicious, I promise!” Sayuri decided to keep quiet, which seemed to make him even more nervous. ”Uh, do you remember Sasuke’s birthday? I was the one who babysat him while you were talking to Mikoto-sama.”

”Uchiha Shisui.” She nodded in greeting.

”Yes, that’s me!”

”So, what do you want with me?”

His nervous, goofy persona immediately disappeared, and he became serious and silent. ”This will come off as weird and rude, but I don’t care. For your own sake, I’d like you and your brother to stop seeing Itachi and Sasuke.”

Sayuri’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline. What was he on about? Did he want them isolated? Except her, Itachi only had Shisui. Sayuri wasn’t about to leave them alone with their horrible fates.

Shisui sensed her mood shift, and quickly tried to explain himself. ”It’s not good right now, to be friends with us. Our clan…”

Sayuri snapped. ”I’m not blind, you fool!” He gaped. ”I know something’s up, and I know it’s because of the Kyūbi Attack.”

”How…?”

”I’ve been hanging around Itachi since before the attack. I knew everyone moved. I know they’ve been segregated. For the love of Sage Hagoromo, I go to the Academy—don’t you think I’ve heard the rumours?”

It took a moment for Shisui to gather himself. ”Still, you don’t know what’s going on inside our clan. I’m afraid you’ll get hurt.”

”As if the adults would dare hurt me.” It would end with all of them dying from poisoning. ”Itachi’s my best friend, and if something weird is going on with his family because of the discrimination, then I have to be there for him.”

Shisui smiled. ”You really care about him, huh?”

”Of course, he’s my best friend, and I don’t want him to be sad.”

”You’re a good girl, Sakurasō-sama, but please, promise to be careful.”

”Okay, I will.”

He excused himself and disappeared.

So, it was happening. The discrimination had gone on for too long, and the Uchiha adults were considering a coup d’etat. Sayuri couldn’t let that happen, so she ran all the way back home and told Hirohito about her encounter. The very next day, he left to meet with the heads of the Nara, Hyūga, Uchiha and Yamanaka clans.

Sayuri spent that day teaching chakra control to Naruto, and worried about what would happen next.

”Well?!” she exclaimed as soon as Hirohito joined the siblings for dinner.

Hirohito kissed her forehead and ruffled Naruto’s hair before sitting down. ”We discussed it.”

”And?!”

He fought a smile. ”They agreed the Uchihas have been wrongfully treated, especially after reading through your research. We’ve invited the Akimichi and Aburame clans for another meeting, to discuss how to present this to lord third, and when.”

Was this happening? Was the Uchiha clan about to be saved? She’d done it! She’d managed to save Itachi and Sasuke from a life of pain and suffering.

”I worry about Danzō, though,” her dad muttered to himself, and Sayuri’s previous satisfaction withered and died.

Danzō. She’d forgotten about him. He’d killed Shisui and stole one of his eyes. It had earned Itach his Mangekyō Sharingan and scarred him for life. Not to mention what he did behind Sarutobi Hiruzen’s back.

She had to do something about him, too, but what? She wasn’t good enough to sneak into Root and gather evidence—all of them were on higher levels than her, both genin, chūnin and jōnin alike.

Hirohito noticed her gloomy mood and poked her nose. ”We’ll fix this, don’t worry. I won’t let something like this taint our village, or hurt your friend.”

She nodded. ”Thank you, daddy. Love you.”

”And I love you, too.”

”Naruto loves both of you!” Naruto exclaimed. ”Lots and lots!”

Sayuri and Hirohito laughed.

”We love you too,” Hirohito said.

The next couple of months passed in a blur. Sayuri kept up her studies in acupuncture, the Academy and private Sakurasō lessons in medicine and poison-making.

When she got a bit of spare time, she would spend it training with Itachi—and sometimes Shisui—teaching Naruto or come up with plans to gather evidence of Root’s existence. The last part was nearly impossible, because she didn’t remember where Root was hidden.

”She’s frowning again,” Shisui said during lunch one weekend. ”Hey, Sakurasō-sama, if you’re not careful, you’ll get wrinkles!”

Itachi rolled his eyes. ”Let her be, she’s been worrying about something for months now.” He’d tried to ask her about it, but she’d figured it would sound weird if she told him she’d been the reason the recent debates about discriminating against the Uchihas had been renewed, so she’d told him nothing.

”Do you like him?” Itachi asked on their way back home later that day, after Shisui had left for a mission.

”Shisui’s nice and all, but he’s not you.”

He beamed.

”Sayuri?” She looked at him. ”Why won’t you tell me what’s making you worry?”

”A lot of things worry me.”

”Then why aren’t you telling me?” Was he upset that she kept secrets from him? What a hypocrite!

Sayuri sighed. ”Because you have enough problems as is.”

He stared at her. ”What do you mean?”

”Something’s going on with your family, right? You always get distracted during training, but you never tell me why.”

He flinched. ”I’m not trying to neglect you, I promise!”

”I know. I also know there are some things in life we cannot share with each other. It’s natural. I just wish you’d trust me more.” She couldn’t help the last part. Of course Itachi wouldn’t confide in her—all his problems were related to his clan, which she wasn’t a part of. He was a loyal boy, and wouldn’t tell her even if her life depended on it.

But somewhere deep inside, Sayuri had expected Itachi to talk to her instead of shutting her out. They were best friends, and if he was hurting she wanted to help him.

”I’m sorry…”

She took a deep breath to calm down. ”No, I should be the one apologising. I have no right to ask that of you. My bad.” She waved away the topic and upped the tempo. Itachi matched her steps with ease.

”You’re still angry.”

”Not angry, upset,” she corrected him. ”Just give it some time and I’ll get over it.” She wasn’t about to guilt-trip him into leaking sensitive information. She wasn’t that childish.

They entered the Sakurasō compound. As soon as they got inside Sayuri’s house, they went to the kitchen to get snacks before locking themselves into her room.

Sayuri had barely sat down before Itachi caved.

”Myclanisplanningacoupd’etatandI’msoscaredbutwhatshouldIdo?”

Sayuri gaped at him. She deciphered what he’d said before gasping in horror. ”Itachi, you’re not supposed to tell anyone about that!”

He cringed. ”But you were angry.”

”Upset! Big difference. And this has nothing to do with me—this is between your family and you. What if they find out you told me?”

”You’ll tell them?!”

”No! Sit down.” He did. ”Of course I won’t tattle on you! What kind of person do you think I am?” That hurt, to think he’d actually been worried about that. ”Oh, Itachi, don’t cry.”

He sobbed. ”I can’t stop it. What about Sasuke? If they fail to overthrow Konoha—”

”They won’t do anything like that.” She moved closer to hug him. ”Haven’t your dad told you about the meetings between the clans?” Itachi shook his head, and Sayuri cursed his old man. Then she explained to him what happened, and while she was at it, decided to tell him it was her idea.

”Why would you do that?” he asked in amazement.

”Because you’re my friend and I hate that you get shit for something you didn’t do.”

”I love you!” He hugged her and she squealed.

”I love you, too.”

”Nee-nee, tired,” Naruto complained a week later. They were training in the forest, and had been for a while now.

”Then let’s take a break.”

Naruto flopped onto the ground. ”Nee-nee, why am I so bad at this?”

Because you have two chakras fighting inside of you. ”Because you haven’t gotten the hang of it yet.”

He looked up and blinked. ”Was mum and dad as bad as me? I'm the worst in the class. Sasu-chan is the best, but even he can’t help me.” Sayuri had always loved that Naruto never got angry at the huge difference between their chakra control. He was genuinely happy Sasuke was good at it.

”I don’t know,” she replied. ”I didn’t know them, but I know they trained hard every day, and that’s what we’re doing, too.”

Naruto sat up with a gloomy expression. ”Can I become a shinobi?”

”You can become Hokage if you’re good enough,” she tried to motivate him. ”But hey, let’s try meditation. A sound mind and a sound body is needed in this line of work.” Said a girl that wasn’t even a kunoichi yet.

They crossed their legs and took several deep breaths. She wanted to think of why Kurama had never revealed itself to Naruto, or how come Naruto had never found the bijū. But that wouldn’t do. That wasn’t meditating. So instead she sorted away all sounds and feelings until she was only aware of her own breathing.

Her chakra flowed within her body, warm and pulsating, thinner than a thread. She mentally frowned. Her chakra was golden, just like her eyes, and felt as familiar as the first day she’d used it, and nothing about the chakra was weird, but rather the fact she was aware of it like this was. She could follow the flow from tenketsu to tenketsu, and knew that if she wanted, she could both close and open them, like gates. It was dangerous to do so, and she wouldn’t but she was surprised she had found the option simply by meditating.

She stopped by the tenketsu closest to her heart. These were the needle thin pressure points that regulated the flow of chakra in her body. The body had 361 of these chakra points, and most people could only release chakra from the ones in the hands and feet.

Could she train enough to be able to release chakra from any of the points? The Byakugan was designed to see the pressure points—and the jutsus the Hyūga clan had created catered to the use of their dōjutsu; it was nearly impossible to defeat a jōnin level Hyūga with their Byakugan activated. But if she mastered her new fighting style and weapons, as well as the tenketsus, she might be able to handle at least a chūnin level Hyūga. The thought excited her.

Sayuri mentally followed the flow down to her navel where the biggest concentration of chakra was. It was weird, how she always felt the chakra in her chest, when in reality it was situated somewhere else entirely.

It wasn’t possible to explain the level of astral projection she experienced. She couldn’t feel her body anymore, didn’t know if she was still breathing. All she was aware of was the chakra flowing, and that she was still Sakurasō Sayuri.

That was, until something hard hit her face with such force she was ripped from her mind and face planted right back into her body. Her head whipped back, hitting the tree she’d been resting against, and her body went limp. Something warm and sticky—blood, her mind diagnosed—fell from her nose into her mouth.

She opened her eyes and groaned. The world was spinning even when she lay down.

”OhSagesI’msorryIdidn’tmeanto—”

”Whoever’s speaking, shut the fuck up or I’ll rip out your tongue,” she hissed. It went dead silent. She took a deep breath and sat up. Her head felt too heavy, her eyes burned, and her nose—was it broken?

She called forth her chakra and made a pathetic attempt at hand signs before feeling the warmth of her chakra covering her body to heal it.

”Yuri?”

She leaned against the tree again and carefully opened her eyes. She blinked against the bright light—of the sunset. It had been mid-day just now, how long had she meditated?

In front of her sat Itachi, with tears in his eyes. Behind him stood Shisui with an expression mixed between worry and amusement. Naruto clung to his leg.

”Who hit me?”

Itachi waved his hand in defeat. ”I’m sorry, but you didn’t react to anything we said or did,” he mumbled.

”So you broke my nose?” She cursed as the nose righted itself with a horrible cracking sound.

”I didn’t mean to,” he whispered.

”I’ve never seen anyone go that deep into meditation,” Shisui intervened. ”What were you doing?”

”I don’t know, following the flow of chakra,” she murmured and stood. She rubbed where her head had hit the tree. ”Sages, Itachi, you pack a mean punch.”

Shisui snorted.

Itachi looked ready to cry again. ”I’m sorry!”

This time, Shisui couldn’t stop the laugh growing in his stomach. Sayuri glared at him. ”I apologise, but you should know I’ve never seen Itachi this upset. He doesn’t cry, ever, in front of anyone.” Itachi gave him a panicked look, but Sayuri didn’t notice. She was staring at Shisui in disbelief.

”He doesn’t cry?” she repeated. ”He cries all the time!”

”Yuri!”

Shisui laughed. ”When he’s with you , then maybe, but I’ve never seen him do that.” The older boy gathered himself and kept grinning. ”When little Naruto here burst into the room, crying about you, Itachi lost his cool. You should’ve seen him!”

”Shisui, stop!” Itachi threw a shuriken at his friend, which he dodged with ease.

Naruto threw himself in Sayuri’s arms. ”Nee-nee, are you okay now?”

She kissed his forehead. ”Of course. Thanks for getting help. How was your meditation?”

”Not as deep as yours,” he mumbled and pressed his nose to her neck. ”I felt something big move.”

She forced herself to show nothing of the surprise she felt. This wasn’t something Itachi and Shisui should hear.

”Let’s talk later,” she whispered into his hair. To Itachi, she said, ”Thanks for getting me out of it. I wasn’t aware so much time had passed.”

Shisui and Itachi shared a look.

”You should be careful,” Shisui warned. ”And please don’t tamper with your chakra points.”

She promised she wouldn’t meditate as deeply next time, and Itachi and Shisui followed her and Naruto home.

As soon as they were left alone in her room, she locked it. ”All right,” she said, overly cheerful, ”you said something about moving?”

Naruto nodded and pulled up his shirt. Underneath it was the same seal as in the series. ”Something in here moved.”

”Hm.” He’d felt it, then. The presence of Kurama. Good. ”There’s something I need to tell you.” She motioned for him to sit on her bed.

”Kurama?” he asked and frowned as she handed him the stuffed toy. ”What about him?”

She bit her lip. ”You know everything you’ve read in the books, right? It’s not actually a story. Kurama, Shukaku and the others are real.”

Naruto gasped. ”Then can I pet him?”

She laughed. ”That’s a bit hard. Let me explain.” It took a long time to explain everything about the bijūs, that they were real, and what jinchūrikis were. Then she came to the hardest part. ”Your parents died protecting you from a great threat, right?”

”Yes,” Naruto nodded.

”Mhm. This threat was Kurama. Your mother were its last jinchūriki, but on the night you were born, it got free and killed her and your father. Before they died, they sealed Kurama inside you, where the bijū has been ever since.”

Naruto looked at his stomach. ”Is Kurama bad?” He sounded devastated at the prospect. He’d loved the stories she’d written about the fox demon.

”No, I don’t think they’re neither good nor evil.” They were beings made from chakra, with their own values and beliefs. And Kurama had been forced to attack the village—she couldn’t blame the bijū for it.

”Why hasn’t Kurama said anything to me?”

She shrugged. ”Maybe it’s tired of being locked in?”

”Then should we let him out?”

She winced. ”I don’t know,” she said carefully, knowing well Kurama heard every word they said. ”Kurama might not be evil, but it’s really strong. I dunno how to explain this properly to you, but in the wrong hands, Kurama could be used as a weapon.”

Instead of getting more upset and crying, Naruto nodded in understanding. ”But can I be his friend?”

”Why not? Try talking to him, and see if he answers.” She kissed him on the head. ”I have to go—I have more homework to do.”

A few days later, Itachi found Sayuri at the training grounds, trying out her new weapons, senbons strapped to protective gear around her arms. She had to dress in kimonos with wider sleeves, and it felt weird but right when she flailed her arms around and felt the air rush against her skin.

Her accuracy was abysmal. She’d never thrown something so thin as senbons, only kunai and shuriken. Aiming was hard, and hitting more so. But she was patient.

”You’re getting better,” Itachi said.

”Thank you. What are you doing here?” She pushed a senbon from the holster with her chakra. It missed the mark by a lot.

”I have some free time, and thought I’d go see you.” He sat down and relaxed while she tried her hardest to hit the targets.

She stopped for a break and laid down beside him. He grinned and dragged his hand through her long mahogany hair.

Sayuri loved it when he played with it and closed her eyes.

”Do you think you’ll graduate early?” Itachi asked.

She shook her head. She didn’t want to graduate early. If she had to prioritise missions before her studies, it would take too long to learn what she needed. Because she had decided something vital.

Sayuri couldn’t directly kill someone—but if they ingested a poison, it wasn’t her fault. At least she told herself that.

Danzō had to be removed, and she wasn’t good enough to forge documents or anything of the like. The only option she had left was to either join Root, or kill him. She’d rather poison him than join his sadistic organisation, so she was researching the most common poisons, what doser were deadly and how to get a hold of their ingredients. She couldn’t do that if she had to keep up with studies and missions and befriending her new teammates and sensei.

Itachi pouted. ”I miss you.”

”Hey, I’m here, aren’t I?”

He gave her his special sad-kitten-eyes. She looked away so she wouldn’t give in. ”You know what I mean.”

”I do. I’m sorry.” She patted his hand. ”But hey, when I do graduate, maybe we’ll be on the same team!” Immediately after those words left her, she remembered Itachi would join Anbu any day now. She knew she didn’t want to go there, where her medical abilities weren’t important. But then how would she protect him?

Itach let himself fall onto the ground and looked at her. ”I don’t want you to join my team.”

”Why?”

”They’re nice and all, but the captain… He’s scary. And the missions are hard. There hasn’t been one mission where someone doesn't die. If it’s not one of us, it’s the enemies.”

Sayuri took his hand and hugged it. ”I want to save lives, not take them.” Which was why she wished she had a better plan for Danzō.

Itachi looked at her some more, before averting his eyes. ”Let’s train.”

“It’s important you never touch unknown plants with your bare hands,” the teacher sternly told the children. Today, Sayuri had a lesson about caring for plants, together with the other eleven-year-old Sakurasō members. “Instead, you have to use these.” They handed out a pair of gardening gloves to them all.

Plants like nightshade caused skin irritation if you came in physical contact with it, so it was important not only to memorise the plant’s physical attributes, but to also always carry with you the proper equipment to handle them.

Sayuri put on her gloves and felt a surge of pride. She was finally going to care for the plants she’d been admiring from afar! Soon they would start learning recipes, too. Not that Sayuri needed them, since she knew most of them from her studies to kill off Danzō. What she was looking forward to was the advanced class. There, she would learn about the secret recipes her ancestor created, both medicine, poisons and antidotes.

“Sakurasō Sayuri-hime,” the teacher said sternly, “do you perhaps know the name of this plant?”

Sayuri took a look at the pink flower. It reminded her of orchid leis. “Oleander?” she guessed.

“Correct.” They gave her a suspicious look. “How’d you know?”

“I recognised the flower, sir. Also, oleander leaves are elliptical in shape and the sepals have narrow triangular or narrow ovate shapes. And it smells strongly,” she explained.

The teacher nodded, satisfied with her answer, and moved on to talk about how to care for the plant.

“How did she know that?” one of her classmates asked in awe.

“She’s the future head of our clan! Of course she knows more than us. She probably studied in advance.”

“She can hear you excellently, too,” Sayuri replied with a bright smile. “And yes, I do very much enjoy reading about our clan’s specialty. I want to be a doctor like daddy, so I have to know this stuff.”

They had the decency to blush and murmur apologies.

Sayuri didn’t care for what the children thought of her. Sure, they were the future of her clan, so her reputation among them mattered, but watching them almost poison themselves and run around being childish, she couldn’t help but think them immature. Why waste time befriending them when she could spend it reading up on state affairs, studying herbology—‌how she missed not being able to read Harry Potter—‌and playing or training with her friends?

The day before Christmas, Naruto walked inside Sayuri’s room with wide eyes. “I talked to him,” he whispered in awe.

“Who?” Sayuri asked and put down the anatomy book she’d been reading.

“Kurama. I talked to Kurama. He’s huge!”

She gaped at him. “That’s amazing, Naruto!” He laughed when she hugged him. “What did it say?”

“Kurama is very mean, and I don’t think he likes me, but at least he’s behaving.”

Considering the bijū had been trapped in Naruto for the past several years, she understood if it wasn’t content with the situation. But given Naruto’s lovable nature, it was only a matter of time before he managed to win Kurama’s heart. Or at least loyalty.

“Tell Kurama I’m happy you’re talking to each other.” She patted his head and returned to her studies.

“Nee-nee, why can’t I learn all those things?”

“Because these are special Sakurasō secrets. Even if you’re adopted, you don’t possess the chakra necessary for some of these techniques.”

Naruto pouted. “Did mum or dad have any cool secrets?”

She knew for a fact Minato had created a lot of jutsus, but hadn’t come around to learn them yet. And the Uzumaki clan had gone almost extinct, she thought, but couldn’t remember why. “I’ll look into it,” she promised. “I’ll teach everything to you.”

“Love you, nee-nee.”

“Love you lots.”

She still couldn’t believe she was in the Hokage tower’s archives, legally this time! After telling Shisui she wanted to research Naruto’s maternal family, he’d spoken to the Hokage and gotten permission for her to look through their documents. It was amazing!

Focus.

The documents smelled old, but it didn’t bother her that much as she picked up a bunch and sat down to read through them.

“‘The alliance between Senju Hashirama and Uzumaki Teru has been acknowledged by…” she read and immediately skipped half the document filled with signatures and names of long dead ninjas. It was clear the document wouldn’t provide any backstory, so she put it aside.

Most of the available reports from the Warring States Period told an interesting story. While the Uzumaki clan hadn’t belonged to Konoha during its founding, they provided much assistance to the Senjus, mostly fuinjutsu. A lot of the papers were about trade deals first between the Senjus and Uzumakis, then the Uzumakis and Konoha, before finally being registered under Uzushiogakure and Konohagakure.

Sayuri had never heard of Uzushiogakure before. Had it been mentioned in the series? She couldn’t remember, but it wasn’t important.

“Excuse me, where are the files on Uzushiogakure?” she asked the archive assistant assigned to her.

“Over here,” they said and showed her to a tucked away corner. Sayuri thanked them and flipped through the files until she found one labeled FINISHED .

The Annihilation of Uzushiogakure

This report seeks to understand what happened in Uzushiogakure by looking through reports from witnesses, Anbu Black Ops and other Rescue Squads dealing with the situation, the introduction read.

A shiver of dread went through Sayuri as she began reading about the tragedy that unfolded.

9:00 - Unknown red-headed girl enters Konohagakure, alerts authorities about riots and fights in Uzushiogakure.

9:05 - Unknown girl identified as Uzumaki Tsuki.

9:15 - First Division Rescue Teams 1, 4 and 7 are sent to Uzushiogakure.

The Following Day

13:00 - Rescue Team 4 annihilated, Anbu teams 14, 23, 26 and 30 sent to recover and destroy bodies; Anbu Rescue Teams 9, 12, 15 and 18 sent to assist First Division Rescue Teams 1 and 7.

14:00 - Anbu Assassination Squads 2, 8, 10 and 11 sent to assist Uzushiogakure.

15:00-18:00 - Radio silence.

18:00 - First Division rescue Teams all annihilated by Kumogakure, Amegakure and Kirigakure forces. Uzushiogakure suffers heavy civilian casualties. Sending reinforcements.

19:00 - The Head of the Uzumaki clan, Uzumaki Ren, assassinated.

The Next Day

22:00 - First wave of Uzushiogakure civilians enters Konohagakure.

23:00 - Uzushiogakure abandoned. Kumogakure, Amegakure and Kirigakure retreats.

Uzushiogakure’s Casualties:

Civilians: 15496 Shinobi: 5407

Uzushiogakure’s Survivors:

Civilians: 1520 Shinobi: 371

Uzumaki Survivors: 20

After that, a detailed explanation followed, painting the village as a danger for the rest of the world, too powerful for its own good, which was why they were destroyed. According to the report, it wasn’t just Kumo, Ame and Kiri that attacked that day. Witnesses said they’d seen Suna and Iwa forces as well.

Sayuri found a list of Uzumaki survivors. She frowned when Kushina’s name didn’t appear.

“Um, I have a question,” she said to the assistant. “Why isn’t Uzumaki Kushina’s name written here?”

The ninja read through the list. “Ah, she had already immigrated. She should have been around… fifteen, I believe, when Uzushio was destroyed.”

“I’ve never heard of it, is it a hidden village?”

“Yes, in the land of Whirlpools.” Figures, since Uzushiogakure translated to village hidden by whirling tides .

“Thank you.” Shocked by her findings, Sayuri returned everything to its rightful place and followed the assistant out of the archives.

She couldn’t tell Naruto about this. It would destroy him.

In February, Sayuri decided what poison to give Danzō. Her herbology teacher would scold her if they ever found out she was the thief that stole their oleanders, and that she was going to use it on one of their own.

The oleander contained lethal cardiac glycosides, and if consumed, caused vomiting, diarrhea, erratic pulse, seizures, coma, and death. It couldn’t be traced back to her—‌the Narutoverse didn’t have such advanced forensics, and there were several places in Konoha where you could buy parts of the plant. With this, she hoped Danzō fell into a coma before dying.

She’d been secretly following Danzō whenever she saw him, and had concluded he never ate out. She knew where he lived now, so she disguised herself as a dead clan member and entered his home dressed as a servant. Lying through her teeth about being the latest addition to the kitchen staff, she was put through tedious work by cleaning dishes.

It wasn’t until dinner rolled around that an opportunity presented itself. For one split moment, someone dropped a saucepan of hot water and everyone freaked out. Sayuri then snuck up to Danzō’s drink and poured her liquid oleander in it. Then she went to assist the poor boy.

Danzō did fall into a coma, and died a week later. To Sayuri’s surprise, this led to the findings of Root documents, lists of members that included missing clan children and the eventual unearthing of Root’s headquarters.

Thank god, Sayuri thought during breakfast when a clan member relayed the news. At least she didn’t have to worry about that anymore.

“What?” Hirohito barked. Sayuri jumped in her seat. “Show me!” He stood up and rushed after the scared clan member.

Sayuri frowned and looked at one of her many relatives. “What just happened?”

The woman looked at her with tears in her eyes. “They found our missing children,” she whispered in awe.

What? Had Danzō managed to kidnap people from her clan as well? Suddenly she didn’t feel very guilty anymore.

With Danzō’s death came the retirement of the two council members Sayuri vaguely remembered from the series. They were old friends of Danzō, and it wouldn’t surprise Sayuri if they had anything to do with all his shady business.

In their stead, Nara Shikaku, some woman Sayuri had never heard of and Hirohito were elected, and her dad almost cried from grief. “How am I supposed to work three full-time jobs?!” he exclaimed after reading the results.

“The council is virtually useless,” Fugaku said. Their families were having dinner together at the Sakurasō compound. “You’ll attend a few meetings a year, tops. Don’t worry, it won’t take too much of you.”

“I can’t wait until Sayuri gets older.”

Everyone chuckled, but later that night, Sayuri told him she was ready to take over the duties as the Head of her clan. It was time she shouldered what rightfully fell upon her, so he could get back to doing what he loved.

“Thank you, but you’re too young,” he replied and hugged her. “You still have me, and until you’re old enough, I will keep you safe from this mess.” After some argumenting, he agreed to let her at least help him, to lessen his burden.

Sayuri also had the displeasure of meeting Root’s Sakurasō members. But as soon as she saw their golden eyes, all her doubts flew out the window. These were her people, and Danzō had twisted them beyond saving.

She spent too much time in their company, easing them back into a life not coloured with pain and death. Some didn’t take well to the change of scenery, and one day while Sasuke was in the garden playing with Naruto, one of the children walked up to them.

“Nanami,” Sayuri called and jogged over to them. “What are you—‌”

Nanami grabbed Naruto and pierced his heart with a kunai.

“NARUTO!” Sayuri screeched. One of her senbons embedded itself deep into Nanami’s eyes. The girl screamed and tried to run, but Sayuri was faster. With chakra coating her leg, she kicked Nanami’s kneecap. It broke. Sayuri placed a few hits on her back, momentarily paralysing the girl before moving to heal Naruto’s wound.

“Nee-chan,” Sasuke cried, his black eyes turning red. “Nee-chan, please save him!”

“Go get dad,” she said curtly, braced herself and pulled the kunai from Naruto’s heart. Her chakra flowed into him and collided with both his own and Kurama’s chakra. To her amazement, the fatal wound closed in less than a heartbeat.

With the help of Sayuri’s senbon, Nanami took her own life.

“We can’t keep them here,” one of the clan elders had stated during the emergency meeting.

“Yes, they’re too dangerous. Look at what that girl did!”

Sayuri moved closer to Hirohito, who silenced everyone. “Those children are victims of abuse, and I will not allow any of you to harm them in any way, shape or form.”

“Stay out of this,” someone spat. “You’re not even a Sakurasō!”

Several agreeing murmurs spread in the room.

“I may not be of your blood, but Asami was my wife, and Sayuri is my daughter. Until she’s ready, I am your leader and you answer to me.” He looked every single one of them in the eye. “These children have been through hell. What they don’t need is their family freaking out over one incident.”

“An incident that nearly cost you your son!”

He nodded in agreement. “But Naruto is alive, and Nanami is not. Is that not sufficient punishment? Or do you want to put these children through even more terror?” Everyone averted their eyes. “Thought so. What we need is a rehabilitation plan. I’ll ask the other clans what they’re planning to do, and then I’ll come back with a proposal.”

“You were amazing,” Sayuri squealed later in his office. “You really put them in place!”

Hirohito gave her a tired smile. “I’m happy I looked cool, but now I have half the clan breathing down my back.” He groaned and went to lay down on the sofa. “I’ll have to speak with Shikaku.”

Sayuri leaned against the sofa and dragged her fingers through his blond hair. “Can I help with anything?”

“I don’t know. If I think of something, I’ll tell you, promise.”

“Promise.” She gave him a smile and kissed his forehead. “How’s it going with the Uchihas?”

Again, he groaned. “Don’t even mention that disaster.” Before Sayuri could panic, he continued with, “All clan heads are in agreement that the exclusion of them is unfair and unwarranted, and we’ve booked a meeting at the end of April. Hopefully that will be the end of this.”

Sayuri wholeheartedly agreed. She kissed him again before leaving him to rest. On her way to her room, a broad grin grew on her face and she jumped in excitement. Things were finally going her way! Itachi didn’t have to die and Sasuke wouldn’t grow up to be the ass she remembered.

This was the best day of her life!

Chapter Text

“I missed this,” Itachi said in relief. He relaxed against the picnic blanket and felt he could fall asleep with the sun showering his body with warmth.

Sayuri sat by his side and grinned. In her hands she held flowers that would soon become that year’s first flower crown.

It was May now, and it had been two weeks since the clan heads' meeting with the Hokage. Sarutobi Hiruzen’s arguments had been brutally downvoted by the evidence Sayuri had provided, as well as some additional information the other clans managed to dig up. Within a few hours, the third Hokage had signed a document stating the treatment of the Uchiha clan had been wrong, that they were getting compensation for everything and that they were free to live outside their compound and work wherever they wanted.

Of course, the villagers’ resentment wouldn’t disappear overnight, but at least they couldn’t openly scowl at them anymore without getting in serious trouble.

“What do you want for your birthday?”

Sayuri looked down at him. “An updated version of The World Plant Encyclopedia was released last week, and I really want to read it.” She couldn’t help but grin. Over two thousand new plants and sub-species had been discovered on the Shinkaku continent, and she couldn’t wait to read about them.

Itachi laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”

They relaxed against each other, letting the other fill them with confidence and strength. Right now, Sayuri couldn’t be happier. She’d succeeded in saving the Uchihas, her studies were going well and Naruto was happy.

“I’m getting a new team soon.”

“Oh? Who?”

“Dunno, it didn’t say.”

“What happened to the old one?”

“They quit. Sensei is getting a new team.”

Sayuri took his hand and squeezed. It must be hard for him, always being alone like that. No one could really understand him, not that they stayed long enough to learn anything. Sayuri herself couldn’t fully comprehend him, even though she knew far more than anyone else.

“I’ll be here for you,” she told him. “I promise.”

“Thank you.” He looked at her with red ears. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Kakashi was again standing by Minato’s grave. Whenever Sayuri went to visit Asami, he would be there, silently grieving either his former master or his teammates. Sayuri didn’t know which made her hurt more.

They didn’t greet each other. Sayuri swapped the dead flowers on her mother's grave for fresh ones and put her hands together in a prayer. She hoped Asami was watching over her, proud of what her daughter had become.

“Congrats.”

She didn’t look at him, just put the flowers on the grave of Naruto’s parents. “For what?”

“I heard you started the Uchiha campaign.”

She grimaced. Of course he knew. He was part of Anbu, and if they were good at something, it was finding out secrets.

“You’re an interesting girl, Sakurasō.”

“Thanks. You still don’t wanna meet Naruto?” He tugged at his hitai-ate. “He would be delighted to see you, you know. He loves hearing stories about his parents.”

“Have you told him about them?”

“Only what little I know. Daddy went to school with them, so he tells him stories from there.”

“I see.” He walked over to the Uchiha’s private part of the graveyard and knelt in front of Obito’s grave. He missed Sayuri’s scowl. “He wouldn’t like me.”

“I still don’t understand why you’d think that.” She sat down and offered him some flowers. He took them and decorated Obito’s grave with it.

“You have enough for one more?”

She nodded. It was sad she hadn’t had the chance to meet Obito and Rin. She had the feeling she’d like them both, especially Obito, who had reminded her a lot of Naruto from the series. If only she’d been stronger, then she could have found him before he released Kurama.

It would most likely had gotten her killed, but she had to try.

“How’d you know him?” She nodded at the grave.

“Obito was my teammate.”

She was surprised he’d answered.

“Really? Did you get along?”

He shrugged. “Somewhat. Not in the beginning, but after a while, we learned to respect and trust each other.”

“I like him.”

Kakashi glanced at her. “You haven’t even met him.”

“No, but he’s an Uchiha, and someone you respected, so he must have been nice.” Not that he was now, but that was beside the point.

Kakashi looked at her with a mix of amusement and sadness. He didn’t say anything and walked over to Rin’s grave.

Nohara Rin, rumoured to be his girlfriend. Sayuri had never paid much attention to it, because she’d died when they were thirteen. They’d barely been old enough to fall in love.

And it was Kakashi, Sayuri wasn’t sure he’d ever been capable of falling in love.

“Was she pretty?”

“I guess. Obito would say so; he loved her.”

“Oh.” Not the direction she’d hoped for. “Did she love him?”

“They were friends.” He took the last flowers from her, put them on Rin’s grave and stood. “Rin was captured by Kirigakure shinobi. Due to certain circumstances, she died during the retrieval mission.”

Yeah. She knew. Rin had been forced to become Matatabi’s jinchūriki. Sayuri didn’t remember the details, but she knew Rin had forced Kakashi to kill her, for the protection of the village.

How she hated that thought, of the village being more important. She understood, of course; the well-being of the entire group was more important than the life of an individual—‌until you're the one being sacrificed. From Konoha’s point of view, Rin had been strong, had had the courage to die for the safety of everyone else. Sayuri thought it was cruel and disgusting, but a necessary evil.

Still, she knew she’d never be able to sacrifice someone she loved for the greater good of strangers. For her clan, maybe she would, but a village full of hypocritical assholes that blamed a child for something they had no part in?

Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

“I wish there could be peace,” Sayuri said absentmindedly, looking at Rin’s grave.

“If not in this life, then maybe in the afterlife.”

She looked at him with sad eyes. He met her gaze, his void of any feeling. “Are you sure? Have you ever seen the afterlife?” Sayuri probably had, considering she’d died and been reborn, but she couldn’t remember what it looked like, if it had a form at all.

“No, but a lot of people I know have gone there.” He nodded at Rin. “They have to be happy. At least once.”

She looked at the graves surrounding them. These people would never return. They had left their loved ones behind, gone ahead to an existence they could tell no one about, a place far away where the living couldn’t reach them.

“It’s lonely,” she whispered. “Isn’t it lonely, being the only one left?”

“Sometimes,” Kakashi agreed. She looked at him and offered him her hand when she saw the tears in his eye. “Sometimes, it hurts more than every wound I’ve ever received. But as long as they’re not hurt anymore, I can live with that.” He took her hand and squeezed.

“Why are you still here?”

“Because I have nothing better to do.”

Sayuri dragged him away from the graveyard, away from the people that had left him behind, all the way to her house, into the hall, until she found Naruto in his room, playing with Kurama and Shukaku.

“Naruto,” she said, and the boy looked up from his toys. “Naruto, this is Hatake Kakashi, your dad’s student.”

Time seemingly stopped for a moment. The jōnin and the boy looked at each other, assessing one another, and then Naruto grinned, jumped up and threw himself around Kakashi’s waist. 

“Nii-chan!” he shouted and looked up. “Can you be my nii-chan?”

Hesitantly, Kakashi brought his arms around Naruto and picked him up. “Why do you want me as you nii-chan?”

Naruto didn’t hesitate. “Because you’re family.”

And that was the story of how Kakashi's first meeting with Naruto ended with Kakashi crying like a baby.

“Happy birthday!” came a cacophony of voices. Sayuri jumped from the bed and into Itachi’s waiting arms. “Happy birthday,” he whispered and hugged her hard.

“Wha—‌ What?” She looked around to see her dad, Naruto, Sasuke, Shisui and Itachi in her room, smiling broadly at her. “What?” she asked again.

“Don’t tell me you forgot your own birthday,” Hirohito laughed. He handed her his present, a silky blanket she’d seen in a store a few days prior.

Shisui gifted her a set of senbons, straps to hold them to her arm, a new belt to keep poisons and medicines, and gloves.

Sasuke handed her a picture he’d drawn of all of them, Kakashi included.

Under Mikoto’s guidance, Naruto had made a bracelet for her, which Sayuri immediately put on.

Finally, it was Itachi’s turn. He grinned at her as he handed her a heavy, rectangular package. She jumped in excitement when she saw it was the newest edition of the plant encyclopedia they’d talked about.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” she shouted and threw herself back into his arms.

“Ooh, what a cute couple,” Shisui teased, and Itachi’s face went beet red.

“Shisui! We’re just friends.”

Sayuri giggled. “Love you lots,” she whispered in his ear.

“Love you more,” he replied.

A few minutes later, Kakashi stopped by to leave her his present. He’d told her the day before his team had been selected for a mission, and wouldn’t have time to properly celebrate.

Itachi leaned against Sayuri as she opened the package. “I’m also leaving for a mission.”

She stared at him. “You could have told me that earlier,” she said, hurt he’d kept it from her. Now she wouldn’t get to celebrate with him!

“I’m sorry, but I was only told yesterday evening. I’m really sorry.”

She pouted, but swallowed her feelings and hugged him. “You better not be dying on my birthday! Or any other day, for that matter. Ever.”

He nodded, still red in the face. “Hey, Yuri?” She turned to look at him, and was met with his signature poke on the forehead. Startled, she stared at him with big eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too?” She had a bad feeling about this, so she dragged him away from the others to speak between four eyes. “What’s wrong?”

He looked at her in surprise. “Nothing?”

“Don’t lie to me. You never tell me you love me this much. And you certainly don’t poke me!” He only did that to Sasuke when he couldn’t keep his promises. “Is your mission dangerous?”

“They’re always dangerous,” he replied and averted his eyes.

Feeling hurt and a bit betrayed, she was about to retort when Kakashi popped up from thin air. He put his hands on their heads and ruffled their hair. Sayuri slapped his hand away. Kakashi didn’t react, instead he turned to Itachi.

“If you’re leaving, would you mind coming with me?”

With a last, apologetic glance at Sayuri, Itachi nodded. “No, senpai. I’m coming.”

Sayuri went back to opening Kakashi's present. She laughed when she unearthed The Tale of a Gutsy Ninja .

She didn’t hear from either Kakashi or Itachi for days. That feeling of certain doom didn’t go away either. Instead it festered inside her stomach, spreading from limb to limb until it threatened to drown her. Sasuke said his brother was the strongest ninja in the world, and that he would never be defeated by anyone. Naruto claimed Kakashi could beat Itachi with his eyes covered and hands tied to his back.

Sayuri didn’t care who was stronger than the other. She only wanted them to come back safe and sound.

“It’s all right,” Shisui tried to reassure her two weeks after they left. They were training at Training Ground 4, their usual meet-up place. “Both of them are capable shinobi; they won’t lose so easily even against the Hokage.”

Sayuri knew well the powers they wielded. She’d seen Itachi up close, after all, and in the series, Kakashi had been a force to reckoned with. His real life counterpart was by no means lacking. But she also knew Akatsuki was active. They were as strong or stronger than them. Obito was also out there, probably spying on them. And then there was Orochimaru and Kabuto. And let’s not forget about the other hidden villages and their shinobi. Or the Seven Swordsmen. Or all the rogue ninjas the series hadn’t mentioned.

Shisui sighed and dragged his hands through his hair. “Neither of them will die, Sayuri. They’re both geniuses with a long list of missions to their belt.” He smiled teasingly and ruffled her hair. “Besides, Itachi wouldn’t want to leave you alone.”

“What?” She frowned. “Of course not! He’s my best friend. I dare him to—‌” She pouted as Shisui began to laugh. “It’s not funny! What if he gets hurt again?” She still held the memory of the Izumo Tenma incident close to her heart.

“I meant,” said Shisui, gathering himself, “that he wouldn’t want to leave you alone with the other boys.”

“Boys?” What boys? Sasuke and Naruto were like brothers to her! Thinking of them from a romantic perspective would forever be out of the question.

Shisui kept grinning. “You’ll see,” he said cryptically and moved into position. “Until then, fight me like you mean it.”

She smirked. “I’m not some weak baby anymore. Are you gonna use your Sharingan?”

He thought for a moment. “Nope. Get ready.”

She wasn’t, and subsequently got her ass handed to her for the rest of the evening.

“Stop worrying,” Shisui said as they walked back to her home. “It clouds your judgement and you make rash and potentially fatal mistakes.”

“I know,” she muttered. “But what if… if someone attacks Kakashi on his blind side? Or… steals Itachi’s eyes?”

He put his warm hand on her shoulder. “Listen here, Sayuri. You’ve never been out there, so you don’t know what actually happens. Yes, sometimes it's gruesome, but sometimes it’s also boring and uneventful, even for chūnin like Itachi.”

“He went on a B-ranked mission!”

“And he’s survived many like it. Itachi knows to handle himself with care. What would he do if he died and left you alone?”

“Nothing! Which is my point!” Rin, Minato and Kushina would never see Kakashi and Naruto again. Would never see Naruto grow up to become Hokage. They didn’t know Kakashi rarely slept, that he took on missions bordering on suicidal just to feel something! They were gone, all of them gone, with no obligations left to this world. 

“Sayuri…”

“Stop saying my name like it would change something. If Itachi dies, I… I… It will hurt, okay? He’ll leave his family behind, Sasuke and Naruto and Fugaku and Mikoto! He’ll leave you, and I won’t ever see him again!” He’d never hug her or tell her he loved her. She’d never be able to make him flower crowns or bath in the river or have sleepovers. He was her only friend, and she didn’t want to lose him, to become totally alone. Itachi deserved better than dying in an unknown land, than being forced to become a villain and die by his brother’s hand.

But Shisui didn’t know that. He hadn’t seen the future.

“It’s okay to cry.” He put her arms around her and let her cry into his shoulder. “I know it’s hard, not knowing if the people you care about will survive or not, but I trust them. I trust Itachi to do anything in his power to return to us. And I trust Kakashi-senpai to not die just yet, because he’s smitten with Naruto and wouldn’t leave him for anything.” He gave her a quick hug before resuming the walk.

“If he dies,” she sobbed, “I’ll find a way to bring him back so I can kill him myself.”

Shisui grinned. “You can’t kill to save a life, no way you’d do that.”

She swallowed her tears and the memory of slipping the poison in Danzō’s drink. Yeah. She couldn’t kill to save a life. Sure.

It was the same feeling as the night of October 10th. The heaviness originated from her heart and spread to her lungs and chest, weighing down on her like a physical object. The only difference was, she didn’t know why her anxiety kicked into overdrive.

No longer able to sleep, she pulled Hirohito’s birthday blanket around herself and went outside for some fresh air.

The night was chilly and the moon hung low. At least it wasn’t windy. Sayuri walked on the path running through the garden, listening to the crickets playing. Usually, the clean air, darkness and calm sounds of nature would ease her worries, but tonight she’d become immune.

She jumped onto the roof and sat to stargaze alone. It was the loneliest feeling in the world. Looking up at the freckled sky, she realised how truly alone she was right now. Not a soul was awake. There was no one to hold her when she got too cold or told her to go back to bed. Looking at the stars, seeing them all grouped together, reminded her that at the end of the day, there was no one in the world that truly understood her. 

She was a foreign soul trapped in a fictional world—‌who in their right mind would believe her? What was there to understand? She’d never see her family again, would never again watch her favourite shows or read her beloved books. They were so far away it was ridiculous, and all those things that used to define her were gone. Sayuri Winchester didn’t exist in this world—‌yet she lived in it, with another identity, another face and another voice. She had new hobbies, a new family and friends she’d surrounded herself with because—‌

Tears fell from her eyes, and she snuggled closer to hug her legs. She was a horrible friend. Truly the most vile person. She wasn’t worthy of calling Itachi her friend. Had she ever seen him as a real person, and not just someone she’d only seen a few times on a screen?

He wasn’t the same Itachi as in Naruto, she knew that, but to make the actual connection was hard. Apparently so hard she doubted she’d really tried, even after eight years.

Naruto had been animated, but everything in this world was real. It was like living in a film studio, constantly cosplaying day after day. She’d lived in Scandinavia for her whole life. People in Sweden didn’t dress in kimonos or cheongsams, and they damn sure didn’t know what a kunai or shuriken was or how to use them.

She took a deep, ragged breath to calm down. It wasn’t the end of the world just because she hadn’t shaken the feeling that she was in a dream. Normal, yes, it was normal to not completely adjust to such a cultural crash-landing. Eight years might be a stretch, but she could fix this. If she just… did something, then… 

How exactly did people acclimatize?

The faintest of chakra signatures alerted her she wasn’t alone anymore. She looked up, and up again, into Itachi’s bloody face.

She had to give herself some cred, because she didn't scream her lungs out. 

“You stubborn boy,” she muttered and tried to wrap the blanket around him.

“I’m back,” Itachi said weakly and stumbled. Sayuri caught him and dragged him to the bathroom. He didn’t complain as she stripped him, at the most his ears got red, and then he sank into the warm water and winced.

“I’ll get some ointment. Don’t move.” She silently made her way to what used to be her mother’s herbalist room, or whatever she should call it. Her mother had used it to store herbs, and it was there she made medicine, antidotes and poisons.

After grabbing what she needed, she snuck back into the bathroom and waited for Itachi to clean himself.

He turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “You gonna watch?”

“You got into puberty since I last saw you?” she retorted.

He laughed meekly before taking the towel she offered. He left the now pink water, wrapped the towel around himself and sat down on the empty stool in front of her. “Ow!” he whined when the cool salve was smeared on his stab wounds. 

“Shisui says you act all cool and stoic in front of him, but in truth, you’re just a baby,” Sayuri teased. Some of the wounds were deep and jagged. She didn’t want to know why.

He pouted. “I’m an Uchiha,” he said as if that explained everything.

“And I’m a Sakurasō.”

“You know what I—‌ Ow! You did that on purpose!”

Sayuri licked her lips like a cat. “Just admit you can relax around me.”

He calmed down. Sayuri smiled at his red ears. How she loved to tease him. “Maybe,” Itachi whispered.

She went to get him some spare clothes. When she came back, it was to find Itachi naked and examining himself. Feeling like she’d intruded, she threw the pajamas at him before rushing out of the room.

Why on God’s green Earth hadn’t she knocked? She didn’t want to see that!

Wounds. He was looking at his wounds. Yes, definitely. He was just looking at the bruises, of course. And he was a boy! An eleven-year-old boy. They could get into puberty.

I don’t want to go through that a second time. If she got lucky, she wouldn’t get as many pimples as last time.

“Yuri?”

“Gah!” She nearly jumped out of her skin. Itachi didn’t giggle like normal, instead he stood there, in clean clothes, and looked at her weirdly. “What is it?” She hoped he wasn’t about to ask her what she’d seen.

He took her face between his hands and kissed her on the cheek. She gaped at him, her brain having momentarily immigrated to Venezuela.

Itachi’s whole face went aflame, and he declared, loud and clear, that, “I’m going to do this from now on!” Then he winced and hunched over, and Sayuri caught him before he hit the floor.

“Sure you can,” she said next to his ear. “As long as you come back alive, I’ll let you do whatever you want.” She made sure he could see her loving smile. “Happy belated birthday, Ichigo.”

And then she kissed him back.

Chapter Text

A few weeks later, Sayuri met Kakashi at Training Ground 4. He’d agreed to teach her some of Minato’s jutsus. They began with some light exercises for warm-up, before she got to demonstrate how much chakra she had. Slightly above average, he concluded with satisfaction.

She would never be a monster of a fighter like Naruto and Sasuke, but that wasn’t the point, either. Learning offensive jutsus was a safety measure in case she had to fight. Considering she wanted to be a field medic, situations where fighting was necessary would arise daily, and so Kakashi had agreed to train her.

Of course, part of it was because she wanted to show the jutsus to Naruto. But Kakashi could teach him too, so it was mostly for her own sake.

“The jutsus I want you to learn first have been built upon from another jutsu,” Kakashi said slowly. He was standing with his hands in his pockets, leaning on one leg. Though he looked casual, his one eye was alert and observed not only Sayuri, but the area around them. “I will have to teach you that one first.”

“All right, I’m ready.”

His eyes creased in amusement. “The base jutsu is an S-rank.”

“What?” She was eleven! How would she learn something so incredibly difficult? Most jutsus she knew came from the Academy, and the highest ranking one was C. “Uh, Kakashi… I don’t even know one B-ranked jutsu,” she said with a frown. “Are you sure you can teach me this?”

“Of course. Your chakra reserves are adequate and your control excellent. And from what I’ve gathered, you’re patient, too. I have no worries about you learning the Flying Thunder God Technique.”

Sayuri’s brain came to a halt. “The what-now?”

The Flying Thunder God Technique—‌what a mouthful—‌was a jutsu created by Senju Tobirama. It was a teleportation jutsu, where you marked the thing or person you wanted to teleport to. Kakashi explained that the mark couldn’t be removed after you put it there, meaning if you were marked, you didn’t stand a chance. He explained that it looked similar to the Body Replacement jutsu.

“What’s the distance limit?” Sayuri asked, fascinated at the prospect of teleporting.

Kakashi ruffled her hair. “There is none, as far as we know. However, the greater the distance, the more chakra is consumed.” In other words, there may not be a limit to the jutsu, but there sure were limits to the person using it.

Naruto could probably travel the world at least once before he emptied his reserves, but Sayuri doubted she could travel more than a few kilometres. Since her primary goal wasn’t fighting, the jutsu—‌also called hiraishin—‌would be better used for defence, if she had to flee somewhere, maybe with a patient.

“All right, what do I have to do?” she asked.

“Right now, I’ll teach you how to mark things. Take out a kunai.”

She watched as he brought out a kunai resembling a sai, which Raphael used in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She vaguely recognised it, but couldn’t remember from where.

“This,” Kakashi said and held the kunai for her to inspect, “is a Flying Thunder God kunai.” She was just gonna call it the hiraishin kunai. Less of a mouthful to pronunce. “Minato-sensei—‌ I mean lord fourth, created these specifically for the Flying Thunder God jutsu.”

“So you teleport with them?”

He nodded. “Precisely. Do you see the handle? It serves as the marker.” 

Now she remembered! Minato used this in the Fourth Shinobi War! How could she forget that? It was one of the most OP things she’d seen.

“That’s actually really great,” she said in excitement. “I mean, instead of wasting time marking the enemy, you just throw it at them and bam! The last thing they see is your face up close.” And if she had some herself, she could give them to her friends and family, in case she needed to get to them fast.

“That’s what Minato—‌ Hokage-sama thought as well.”

“You can call him sensei, you know.” She smiled at him. “It’s not a crime, I promise.”

“… Minato-sensei.” She grinned and he looked away. “Shall we start?”

If learning the actual jutsu was going to be as tedious as learning the marker, not even Sayuri’s patience would last. It had been a few months now—‌Naruto’s birthday had been last week—‌but Sayuri still couldn’t grasp the complexity of the marker.

Kakashi had to draw the formation in which she had to mould it, and Sayuri had likened it with the most complex fuinjutsu she’d read about. He had explained all the different parts were needed to ensure the marker fed off of the marked target and didn’t disappear after her chakra had run out.

“Then just make the eternal symbol!” Sayuri had groaned in frustration one day.

Kakashi had laughed. “If it was that simple, learning fuinjutsu wouldn’t be so hard.” That comment had only reminded her of Uzushiogakure, and how she still hadn’t told Naruto about it.

She felt bad for keeping it a secret, but was reluctant to reveal it since Naruto didn’t need to know how the only other potential home he had, had been brutally wiped off the earth. As if losing his parents and being hated by the village wasn’t enough.

So she kept the secret, hoping he’d never ask her where his mother came from, and kept trying to mark her damned kunai.

The weekend the week after Naruto’s birthday, Itachi went to her house and asked if they could train together. She had just come off an all-nighter studying for both a theoretical test at the Academy and for her lessons at the compound, and had no intentions of even trying to defeat him in a mock battle. But the prospect of fresh air and some sun lured her away from her bed and across Konoha to Training Ground 4. She was tired of seeing its ugly face.

“Did you sleep at all?” Itachi asked when she couldn’t stop yawning.

“Does it look like I did?” she snapped, before catching herself and apologising.

Itachi gave her a small smile and poked her forehead. “Should we rest instead?”

“Only a little while,” she murmured, yawned and went to lay down on a patch of grass. Itachi followed and began to play with her hair. “Is it fascinating?”

“What is?”

“My hair.” She’d started to notice it about a year ago, but Itachi played with it whenever he got the chance. It wasn’t like it was extra silky or anything, but for some reason, dragging his hands through it, twirling it around his fingers and braiding it had become a way for him to relax. And a surefire way for Sayuri to fall asleep.

“I dunno,” she heard him whisper. “It just feels nice.”

The next time she opened her eyes, the sun was setting. She froze and sat up. Itachi was sleeping beside her with a calm, almost happy, expression.

She was jealous of the girls in class. They could gush and crush over him to their heart’s content, but if Sayuri did that, it felt gross, borderline pedophelia. Could she have a crush on him, despite being mentally older than Kakashi? She had been reborn, so in reality, her mind was only as old as her body, but she had retained the memories and personality of Sayuri Winchester, who was in fact over twenty when she died. Crushing on an eleven-year-old was definitely wrong, if she’d still been her former self. Now, it was unclear, but since she felt uncomfortable with the idea, she buried her feelings and decided that if she was going to fall in love with him, she’d do so when he was at least older than fifteen. At least then he wouldn’t be a prepubescent child.

The next hour or so, Sayuri spent trying to place her marker on the kunai. When taking a break, she would look at Itachi’s pretty face—‌would he look as good in real life as in the anime?—‌and play with his hair.

“That tickles,” he murmured and opened his eyes. “Good”—‌he looked at the sky—‌”afternoon, Yuri.”

She couldn’t help the smile cracking her face. Even as a child, he was seriously pretty. It hinted at how fatally beautiful he would grow up to be. Honestly, she was jealous. Why did he have to look so damned perfect even as a child? Creation clearly played favourites.

Itachi’s face went up in flames. “You’re beautiful, too!” he almost screamed.

Sayuri felt like dying. She couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud.

“I… I…” What was she supposed to say? “I’m sorry!”

“O-okay.” Itachi sat up and gathered his hair in his signature ponytail again. She’d pulled it out to play with.

The silence was  awkward and suffocating. They shuffled around each other, not daring to look at one another, and when Sayuri stumbled and Itachi caught her, he almost immediately dropped her.

“Sh-should… Should we…” Itachi pressed his lips together into a thin line. “Train?” His voice broke and he looked like he was about to die.

Sayuri giggled hysterically. “I’m sorry,” she said at Itachi’s hurt look, “but I can’t stop.”

“I’m not that…” He turned his back to her. “I’m not usually this pathetic.”

Sayuri hugged him from behind and he nearly jumped out of his skin. “I know. You’re supposed to be an Uchiha, and Uchihas don’t have feelings.” He grimaced. “But I’m happy you can be yourself around me.” She kissed his red cheek. “Let’s go back and ask daddy for ice cream.”

“Y-yeah,” he stammered as she let go. “I want that.”

It took her until the end of November to finally mark her kunai. They weren’t able to check if it had actually worked, since she didn’t know the jutsu yet, but at least she’d completed the first step.

“And now you have to keep doing that until it’s as natural as breathing,” Kakashi said and patted her head.

Sayuri nearly had a stroke. “Are you kidding me?” she hissed and threw the kunai at the ground. “It took me, what, half a year to do this, and now you want me to repeat it?”

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. “Do you think your enemies will wait for you to put the mark on their backs?” he asked slowly. “This is for your own good, so don’t be a baby and keep going.”

Sayuri put the kunai in her satchel and picked up a new one.

And then began the cycle of patience and pain anew.

The thing with putting the mark on objects without chakra was that the seal used had to be more complicated. There were extra layers, so to speak, that when activated drew from the neutral chakra from its surroundings. Why in the world Kakashi hadn’t just taught her the simplest way she’d never understand. Maybe he was a secret sadist.

When all her kunais were marked at the end of December, Kakashi finally taught her to put it on living creatures. It was much easier and she mastered it within a week.

“Stop smiling,” she muttered. “You put me through so much unnecessary pain!”

“But it’s worth it, isn’t it?” he chuckled. Of course he was right. Pride swelled her chest and she felt accomplished in having mastered it so quickly, despite it being less complicated. But maybe that was Kakashi’s way of keeping her motivated.

While Kakashi tore down her patience, she kept up her studies in school and at home, too. There were days she had to stay up all night finishing essays and homework, but Itachi was understanding and let her sleep during their training sessions.

“Here, mother made it,” he said one afternoon after yet another nap. “It’s her special herbal tea.”

Sayuri smelled it and recognised several herbs for fatigue and for calming down. “Thank you.”

He nodded and watched her drink. When she was done and handed the cup back, he blushed. “How’s school?” he asked meekly.

She put a Pocky—‌they had Pocky here!—‌in her mouth and cocked her head to the side, thoughtfully. “Dunno. Without  you there, it’s pretty boring and I have no friends.”

“Then what do you do during recess?”

She read up on jutsus and herbs. “I usually check on Naruto and Sasuke.” Not a lie, but more and more of their classmates had come around to like the jinchūriki, so she felt more comfortable in leaving them alone now.

Itachi gave her a concerned look. “You should try and make friends; two of them will be your future teammates.”

“I know that, but…” She pouted. “I don’t wanna talk to the girls, because all they talk about is you or each other, and the boys either talk about you or how strong they are.”

Itachi laughed before masking it with an embarrassed cough. “I’m sure that’s not all there is to them.” He paused. “Why are they talking about me?”

She gaped. He couldn’t be serious! The boys idolized him and the girls swooned at the mere mention of his name. Ever since they started school, girls—‌basically toddlers!—‌had come to her on Valentine’s Day and asked if she could give Itachi their chocolates.

“Ichigo,” she said sternly and made him blush, “you’re incredibly popular. So much so, in fact, that it’s a miracle you haven’t noticed.”

He frowned. “How was I supposed to know? I only went with you for less than two years, and besides, you’re the only friend my age I have…” His face contorted into shock and he began to fumble. “Not that you’re not still my best friend, because you are, I promise, it’s just that Shisui is also my friend and senpai and I really, really respect him.”

Slowly, Sayuri blinked in confusion. How had the Uchiha Itachi been reduced to whatever babbling mess this boy in front of her had become? He wasn't usually this... much. This was so OOC of him it felt like a slap in the face.

“Itachi,” she said with a frown, “you’re allowed to have more than one friend. It’s actually preferable.” Humans were social creatures, and even introverts had to have some form of interaction at least sometimes. Having only one person to rely on wasn’t good. She’d experienced something similar as Sayuri Winchester, and she hated it.

“Oh.” He blinked. “Do you… not want to be my best friend?”

How in the world had her words translated to such a rejection? “Did you just hear a word I said?” She crawled over to him so she could put her hands on his shoulders. “Just because you have more than one friend, it doesn’t mean I won’t stop being your best friend.” She pouted. “Actually, I’d be really angry if you abandoned me like that. Meanie.”

His smile shone bright like a diamond.

She missed modern music so much.

“I would never leave you like that! I love you, Yuri, I promise!”

He was too cute, and that happiness radiating from his whole being melted her heart.

“I love you too, Itachi. Lots.”

“I love you more.”

She grinned. “I love you forever.”

The day after their conversation, Sayuri sat in the classroom, reading The World Plant Encyclopedia Itachi had given her, when his relative Uchiha Izumi walked up to her. In the last couple of years since they started school, Sayuri and Izumi had had a total of one conversation between them. And it hadn’t even been about or during school. Izumi had just seen Sayuri and Itachi walk home together one day and started a very one-sided conversation with Itachi.

Not that Sayuri blamed her, she was just as smitten by him as everyone else.

“Hello?” she hesitated to say when Izumi just stared at her. “Do you want something?”

“Tell me, what’s your secret?”

“Pardon?”

Izumi rudely sat down and leaned too close for comfort. “How did you get Itachi to like you?”

The actual fudge is she on about? Itachi was as human as everyone else. If people just approached him normally, they would find out what a sweet and sincere boy he was, instead of treating him like some kind of unapproachable deity. Or object.

“Have you, like, tried to talk to him…?” she answered and scooted back. Izumi moved after her.

“Of course I have, but he always interrupts me with some bad excuse.” She was adorable when she pouted. It really annoyed Sayuri that people from her old world shipped her with Itachi. He deserved better than this weak fangirl.

I sound like Sakura-haters. Now she kind of understood where they came from.

“Like?” she decided to prob.

Izumi seemed surprised at the question, but immediately smiled in satisfaction. “Like he has to train, or go help his father with something. Sometimes it’s to pick up his brother from school. And sometimes he just says he’s busy.”

Had it ever occurred to the girl he may just not be interested? He had been brought up to be reserved and polite, and the only person he could relax around was Sayuri—‌both Shisui and Itachi had said so.

“What do you usually talk about?” the Uchiha girl asked, again leaning forward.

Sayuri frowned and moved away. “How the day’s been, school, our families…”

“That sounds boring.” She pouted again. “Then what do you do?”

“Train, or pick flowers to put in each other’s hair, and sometimes we have sleepovers.” Especially if he came back from a really horrible mission.

“You put flowers in his hair?” Izumi asked, aghast.

“And flower crowns. He loves them.”

“Oh great sages! What does he like?”

“To do?”

Izumi shrugged. “Anything! To do, to eat, what are his hobbies?”

Sayuri glared at the girl and closed her book. In one swift motion, she jumped over the table. “If you really cared about getting to know him, you’d ask him these questions, you’d think about how he feels. Now goodbye.”

This was the reason she avoided her classmates like the plague. None of them saw Itachi for who he was. They project a specific image onto him and get disappointed when he doesn’t follow their script.

That afternoon, she met Itachi at the entrance and hugged him before leaving him with Naruto and Sasuke. She had training with Kakashi today, and she really needed to blow off some steam.

“You look positively raging,” were his first words to her.

“And you’re still reading porn in broad daylight.” He’d had the decency to get embarrassed when she’d first commented on it, but now his hobby had been reduced to a joke. It was fine with her, though. It wasn’t important to her or her training what he read, as long as it didn’t get in the way.

“Your anger will get in the way, so go punch that tree or whatever.”

She gave him a cold smile, but did walk over to it and kicked it. “You’re popular with the girls, right?” she asked after a few kicks.

“Hm? Not really.”

She turned to look at him in disbelief. “Kakashi, you’re drop-dead gorgeous, are you sure you’re not just dense?”

If it hadn’t been Kakashi, she might have thought he looked offended. “You’re hurting my feelings, Sayuri-chan.”

“I called you beautiful, take it as an apology.” She hit the tree again.

Kakashi sighed and put away the book. “So, why so upset?”

“Itachi isn’t for their entertainment!”

“Uh. Who’s?”

“Izumi’s, my classmates’! They treat him like some kind of god. Izumi asked me how to approach him today. Like, girl, just look at him like he’s human, be polite and ask about his interests.”

Kakashi was in no mood to talk about that kind of thing. “Why not ignore her?”

“That’s the first proper conversation we’ve had. The other time she mostly spoke to Itachi. And we were, like, six.”

He really wasn’t the best person to have this conversation with. Shisui should have been here so Kakashi could push it all on his shoulders. “You know what? Keep punching that tree and call me when you’re calm again.” He returned to his book.

What had she expected him to say, really? He was no role-model, that’s for sure. But she already knew that, so she forgave him and kept kicking the tree until her rage subsided. She went to sit cross-legged in front of Kakashi and patiently waited for him to put down the book.

“Right, let’s teach you how to use the Flying Thunder God,” he said overly cheerfully, and began explaining how the jutsu was more similar to that of the Summoning jutsu than Body Flicker.

Almost a week later, Sayuri and Itachi were playing ninja with Naruto and Sasuke when Izumi walked past. She took one look and cringed away, but Sayuri could still see her eyes on Itachi.

“Annoying,” she muttered under her breath.

“She doesn’t mean anything bad.” Itachi didn’t look like he believed his own words. “Is it you or me she’s looking at?”

“You, who else?” She almost scoffed.

Izumi nervously played with her hair. It looked extremely cute and it only served to anger Sayuri more. Why did all of them have to be so adorable? Damn Uchiha genes.

No, don’t come here! She inwardly groaned when Izumi hesitantly walked up to them.

“Who’re you?” Naruto asked and ran into Sayuri’s arms.

Sasuke ran over to Itachi. “I dunno you. Sho!”

“Sasuke, behave,” Itachi told him off. “She’s one of us.” It didn’t seem to make their suspicion any better, but Itachi ignored it. “Hello, Izumi. Do you want anything?”

It rubbed her the wrong way how gentle his voice was. That girl didn’t deserve his kindness.

Izumi flushed. “Um, yeah, yes, I do!” She looked at Sayuri. “I’m sorry I offended you… you know, at school.”

“I know.” Izumi cringed at the venom in her voice, and even Itachi frowned and looked at her. Sayuri forced herself to calm down. “But it’s not me you should apologise to.”

“Then… who?”

Sayuri looked at Itachi. “Him, of course.”

“But… I…”

“No buts. If you came just because you felt bad, then leave and never speak to us again.” She crossed her arms and glared at the girl. “I don’t appreciate people objectifying my best friend.”

Itachi froze and their brothers began trash-talking Izumi. The girl, with tears in her eyes, shrank and bowed deeply. She apologised multiple times before running off.

Naruto and Sasuke picked up where they left off and ran around the park, while Itachi looked at where Izumi had stood with a hesitant frown.

“Is she…” He pursed his lips. “Is she one of those fangirls in your class?”

“Ichigo, all of them are your fans.”

“Oh.” A pause. “Are you one of them?”

She stared at him. She, a fan? Someone that runs around gossiping about his skills and looks, daydreaming of how he is as a person and seeing him as nothing but an object? Was that how he saw her friendship?

Hurt, she walked over to Naruto, told him they were leaving and dragged him back home. Itachi shouted after her, but she ignored him and ran all the way back.

“Won’t Itachi be sad?” Naruto asked as soon as she closed the door behind them.

She pulled off her sandals and marched to her room. “Oh yes, it’s him we need to worry about!” she hissed.

Naruto ran after her.

“Kurama says it’s a misunderstanding.”

“Do you often speak to it?” He nodded. “Good.” She opened her bedroom door and sat down by her desk. The plant encyclopedia lay wide open on it, and she closed it in anger.

Naruto was wise enough to leave her alone, but when her anger and hurt didn’t subside, she left the estate to go look for Kakashi. Who knew, maybe he had time to teach her that jutsu he prepared her for.

She walked around town at first, greeting everyone that waved at her, and even stopped to buy some dangos. Which of course immediately reminded her of Itachi. Grumbling, she ate it all as fast as she could.

“Sayuri-chan!”

She waited until he’d jumped down from the roof to greet him. “Hi, Shisui. Back from a mission?”

He shook his head. “Back from training, actually.” He gave her a somewhat sad smile. “Itachi’s really upset, you know.”

Itachi this, Itachi that, why did everyone keep forgetting she also had feelings? He was the one that compared her to his fangirls!

“Uh, you know, Itachi would never knowingly hurt you,” Shisui explained when her mood worsened. “You’re too precious to him.”

“Oh yeah? He likened me to the girls that follow him around all the time! How did he not think that would make me angry?”

“Itachi, you idiot,” she heard him mutter under his breath. To her, he said, “He definitely didn’t mean it that way. Please talk to him—‌this is all a big misunderstanding.”

“Then what did he mean?”

Shisui looked away, uncomfortable. “That’s not for me to explain.”

“No, of course not.” She left him there, still in the same sour mood as before.

The villagers were out and about, milling around everywhere. It let her disappear into the crowd, to blend in, so no one could find her. She kept walking, letting the flow dictate where she went, until she found herself outside a dango shop. She briefly wondered if Itachi had gone home to eat some after their fight, but shook her head at the thought.

At that moment, Uchiha Itachi walked out of the shop and stopped at the sight of her. “Yuri!”

She looked away and he stopped running to her. “Hi, Itachi.”

“Um… Want one?” He held up a stick, and she reluctantly took it. “Can we talk? Please?”

Those eyes of his made it impossible to say no.

They walked away from the centre of town and sat down by the water. Neither of them spoke, glad the dango gave them an excuse to not be the first to break the silence.

Sayuri wanted to ask Itachi what Shisui had said, but at the same time, she wasn’t the one who’d asked to talk, and she didn’t want to be the first to speak.

“I’m sorry,” Itachi whispered a few moments later. “I didn’t mean… I wanted to know if you also like me.”

“Not like a crazed fangirl,” she muttered. Then she took a deep breath and leaned back on her palms. “Shisui said the same thing. And called you an idiot.” He smiled without humour. “But you know, of course I like you. Why do you think we’re besties? And we always say ‘love you’.”

“Yeah, but…” He was blushing again.

“What is it?”

Itachi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Ilikeyouveryverymuch.”

He had to stop speaking like that, she could barely understand him.

Wait.

“I know that. You tell me you love me all the time.” It wasn’t a big deal. He didn’t have to make it awkward; just doing it like normal was fine.

Itachi groaned and hid his face in his hands. “Shisui didn’t prepare me for this!” he whined.

“He didn’t prepare you for what?”

“I love you!”

She blinked. “I love you, too.”

“No, not like that!” He stood up and looked down at her. His face was a deep scarlet and his eyes bounced around between her face and the ground. “I love you!”

“You can’t just—‌ Oh.” Oh. Great Sages. He had a crush on her?! On her? “ Oh. You wanna be my…” Now it was her time to blush. “My boyfriend?”

“Yes! Shisui said that’s what I should ask you, but I’m dumb and can’t even do that right, and then you got angry and ran off and Shisui was laughing so much and he’s so mean and—‌”

“Breathe.” She took his hand. “So, you have a crush on me?” He nodded.

Great Sages, what did she do? It had been so long since she had last been a child that it had slipped her mind they could also have crushes. How many times in her last childhood hadn’t her classmates asked each other out as twelve-year-olds? It had never been anything serious, and most of them changed partners every week, but to think Itachi would… but then again, he was a child. Of course he would behave like one.

“Please say something,” he whispered awkwardly.

But she didn’t know what to say. On one hand, she still felt like she was twenty-two, and agreeing to be his girlfriend was definitely not okay, but on the other hand, she’d died and been reborn. The only thing stopping her was literally the thought of her having once been twenty-two. She’d forsaken her former self and life years ago and had decided to live as Sakurasō Sayuri. That meant to accept she was not just in the body of a child, but that she was one.

And more importantly, who’d reject the Uchiha Itachi’s love confession?

She could always say yes and, if he ever found someone else to love or fell out of love with her, move aside and get over with it. They could still be friends. She was adamant she wouldn’t lose him because of a childish crush on the only female friend he had.

Ouch. That hurt. But of course it was true. He didn’t have any other friends from the opposite gender. It was obvious he’d fall in love with her if she was the only choice.

She looked at her hands and clenched them. “Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”

When Itachi got tired of her and realised his crush was gone, she’d step back and just be his best friend again. Until then, she could entertain him. And pretend she could laugh at all Itachi-fangirls from her past and brag about having received his affections.

“Really?” he asked, not daring to believe his ears.

“Yes! Of course.”

“I love you!” He threw himself into her arms and kissed her on the mouth. “Thank you!”

Sayuri’s brain evacuated to the moon and left the chaos in her mind for her body to handle.

Eleven-year-old Itachi had just kissed her. She was definitely going to hell for this.

Chapter Text

Days bled into weeks, weeks bled into months and months bled into each other. Her life became satisfyingly monotonous: she trained with Kakashi and mastered not only hiraishin, but also the jutsus derived from it, for example the Revolving Flying Thunder God jutsu—‌which she called hiraishin mawashi, its shortened Japanese name—‌and the Spiralling Flash Super Round Dance Howl jutsu, whose japanese name was equally as long. Kakashi told her Minato had been crap at naming his jutsus, and she was inclined to agree. Instead of giving it a long and complicated name, he could have called it the hiraishin kunai jutsu and saved both her and Kakashi a lot of grief.

Every weekend when Sayuri didn’t have homework from home or the Academy, or any training with Kakashi, she would spend time with Itachi on awkward but fun dates. The first one they went to had been organised by Shisui, and the less said about that, the better. Safe to say was that they never told him where or when their next date would be ever again.

Naruto and Sasuke were both excited and jealous. They loved it that their siblings were a couple, but at the same time it grossed them out and, according to them, stole the precious time they had with Sayuri and Itachi respectively.

After her twelfth birthday, Sayuri aced her medicine-making, poison-making and antidote-making exams, making her eligible for the next stage of learning. She also kept up her near-perfect grades in the Academy, but still couldn’t beat Itachi’s or—‌to her surprise—‌Kakashi’s and Minato’s.

On the day of her last exam that would either make her a genin or send her back to school, Itachi, Sasuke and Shisui met her, Naruto and Hirohito outside school to give her an encouraging pat on the back. In Itachi’s case, it was a kiss on the cheek.

Sayuri barely had time to open the door to the classroom before Izumi grabbed her and shook her. “Why did Itachi just kiss you?” she almost screamed. The other girls in class also looked at them.

“Can you let me go?!” Sayuri slashed at her with a senbon. “You have no respect for others, Uchiha Izumi.” She corrected her clothes before sitting down.

Izumi followed her and took a seat to her right. “Please, Sayuri!”

“Since when did I allow you to call me by my first name?”

Izumi pouted. “Sakurasō-chan, pleaaaaaseeeeee!” the girl kept whining. Sayuri briefly toyed with the idea of poking out her eyes. She was shite at sewing, so sewing her mouth shut was out of the question.

In the end, she decided to tell the truth. “He asked me out.”

A collected gasp of despair went through the classroom before everyone began chatting.

“You’re his girlfriend?” Izumi asked.

“Yes. Now can you please leave me alone? I’m nervous as is.”

“Why are you nervous?” one of the boys scoffed. “You’re almost as perfect as him; you have nothing to worry about!”

“Shut it, Fuyu,” Izumi replied. “Everyone’s allowed to be nervous. Especially you.”

The level of competence in her classmates wasn’t important to Sayuri at the moment, but she had to admit she was curious about Izumi’s words. But she wouldn’t ask her about it, not Izumi.

The teacher opened the door and barked at them to stop yapping and to sit down until their names were called. Then they’d go into the classroom next door and perform whatever jutsu the proctors asked of them.

They went through alphabetical order, meaning Sayuri had to wait a long while until her name was called. While she did, she pretended to read a book about the most common illnesses a shinobi could get, but in reality she listened in on her classmates.

Most of them helped each other remember what jutsus they’d learned, others were panicking about not remembering the hand signs. Some babbled encouraging words to their friends. A few were talking about teammates, and they naturally hoped to be grouped together with friends. Sayuri didn’t care as long as they were willing to cooperate with her.

“What jutsu do you think they’ll have us perform?” Izumi asked, having come back to talk to her.

“No clue. Both Ohara Fuyu and Kaminari Tsubaki performed the henge no jutsu, but I just heard Kobayashi Minami say she had to do the shunshin no jutsu.”

Izumi frowned. “Do you think they’ll have us perform C-ranked jutsus, too?”

Sayuri shrugged. It was in the curriculum, so of course some of them would appear in the exam. She was more worried about the unfair advantage some students could get from this. Why did they ask everyone to perform different jutsus?

“Sekirei Shiori,” the teacher called one of their classmates.

Izumi leaned closer to Sayuri. “It’s your turn next! Good luck.”

Sayuri didn’t bother answering, and then the teacher called her, too.

There were three teachers sitting down in the next classroom, all of them looking at her sternly. She had to give her name, age and chakra natures. Her primary nature was lightning, followed by earth and water.

“We will ask you to perform the genjutsu Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings,” the proctor in the middle announced. “You can start anytime you want.”

Sayuri looked them in the eye and activated the jutsu. At first, they didn’t see anything change, and the proctors frowned in disappointment.

“Sakurasō-hime, what exactly did you do?”

“I activated the jutsu.”

“What did you change?”

She pointed at the ceiling. Where it had before been empty, now letters could be read, stating things like Teachers are too dumb to look up , or Sasaki loves Benio . After basking in the proctor’s surprise, she also pointed out small details, like the coffee stain on a desk or the crack in a window. This was what her classroom looked like.

“Adequate,” the middle proctor said. “Now, perform the shunshin no juts—‌ Fuck!”

Sayuri giggled at the woman’s surprised curse. She’d performed the jutsu all right, and was now towering over the proctor with a gleeful grin.

“You pass,” another said, looking at Sayuri with surprise. “Please tell your classmates you only performed the shunshin no jutsu.”

“Yes, sensei.” She made her way back to her seat and gathered her things.

“How’d it go?” Izumi asked.

“I passed.”

“What jutsu?” Fuyu asked from the other side of the classroom. “Was it E? Or D?”

C, actually. “D. It was the shunshin.” She didn’t bother to say goodbye.

“Nee-nee!” Naruto shouted and threw himself at her. “Did you make it? Did you, did you?”

“Idiot, get off her.” Sasuke pulled the boy by the collar before looking up at her. “But I also wanna know.”

She kissed them both on the forehead. “I aced it, of course!”

“Yes!” they celebrated. “So we’ll get Ichiraku’s tonight?” Naruto asked, jumping in excitement.

“Of course. Itachi and I will come get you after school. Have a nice day.” She waved them goodbye and went to the café where the others were waiting. They were enjoying tea and sweets when she noticed them, but before she could call out, someone gently bonked her on the head.

“Yo,” Kakashi greeted behind her. “What jutsus did you get?” She grinned and proudly told him. “Hm, they should have asked for something harder.”

“We’re only taught up to C-ranked jutsus,” she pointed out, still smiling.

“Well, true. Shall we?”

That Friday, Sayuri’s class was again gathered to get their assigned teams and teachers. Everyone were gathered in small groups, chatting and gossiping, except Sayuri. She was perched on the windowsill, looking out at the rainy outside, a forgotten book in her lap. All she wanted was to curl up under a kotatsu with Itachi listening to the rain fall.

Others might have found their hobbies boring, but the two of them truly enjoyed nature in all its forms.

“Who do you think you’ll end up with, Sakurasō-chan?”

Sayuri didn’t take her eyes off of the wet glass. “Dunno.”

Izumi cocked her head to the side and frowned slightly. She’d never seen her classmate this gloomy. Sayuri had always been quiet and detached, but this was the first word she’d said today. Her body language screamed to be left alone.

“Did you and Itachi fight?”

Itachi was away on another mission, no way they had fought. They’d simply argued whether or not he should take her hiraishin kunai with him, and he’d been upset she didn’t trust him to return safely.

…  Maybe we did fight.

“Aren’t you looking forward to seeing who’ll be your sensei?” Izumi tried again. When Sayuri refrained from answering, she sighed and walked over to her friends.

When the teacher came inside, everyone froze and quickly scrambled to their seats. Sayuri was the only one who didn’t move as the teacher began calling their names. Izumi got onto team 1, and Sayuri was placed in team 4, together with Ohara Fuyu and Sato Dai. When she heard that, she looked up at her classmates. Fuyu she knew, he’d been a constant pain in the arse since day one, but she’d never heard of the other one.

Ohara Fuyu had gotten his name from his snow white hair and icy blue eyes. He was one of the better fighters in class, and had a decent score in ninjutsu. Sayuri also knew he liked ramen and daifuku. Every Friday since school started, his parents had packed him homemade daifuku for dessert. He bragged about it every time.

Sato Dai, once he and Fuyu joined her, was a tall, thin boy with black eyes and sand coloured, wavy hair. He also had a lot of freckles.

Their sensei joined them after a while. Her name was Aoyami Mirai, a girl with lavender coloured eyes, sun-kissed skin and the oddest colour of hair yet. It was teal. Sayuri briefly entertained the idea of her being some sort of main character, until she remembered what world she’d been reborn into.

At least her hair wasn’t pink and her name Haruno Sakura.

“My treat,” Aoyami Mirai said and led the trio into a café. “So, I want all of you to order something, and then we’ll get to know each other.”

Sayuri ordered dango and hot chocolate before sitting down in the booth their sensei showed them.

When they were all seated, Mirai placed her hands together and leaned on them. “I’ll start by introducing myself. I’m Aoyami Mirai, twenty-one years old and a jōnin. I like cats and origami and dislike the Icha Icha series.” She looked at Fuyu. “Your turn!”

As Fuyu launched into his introduction—‌”I’m gonna become a jōnin before Uchiha Itachi!”—‌Sayuri couldn’t help thinking of Kakashi. Because Mirai-sensei mentioned that blasted book series, Sayuri now wondered if they knew each other. What if they’d met at the bookstore, while he was looking for the next installment?

“Sato Dai, twelve years old,” her other teammate said, and she was dragged back to reality. “I’m a genin, of course, and I like my parents and to play shogi.”

Cue Shikamaru popping up in her head. Not that Dai looked or behaved anything like him.

“I don’t like the rain,” he finished.

Finally, it was Sayuri’s turn. She smiled bitterly behind her dango. “Sakurasō Sayuri, at your service. I’m also twelve, and a newly-made genin. I like hanging with Itachi and studying herbs, and I dislike his fans, especially the girls.”

Fuyu scoffed. “Jealous, much?”

“How can I be jealous when I’m the friend?” She sent him a nasty glare. “Have you ever even spoken to Itachi?”

Sato Dai grimaced and glanced at Mirai for help. She was smiling knowingly to herself, observing her new team.

“You know,” Mirai drawled, “I think I’m gonna like you. Let’s go!” They finished their desserts and joined her in the rain. “We’re going to Training Ground 13. It’s customary for all jōnin senseis to evaluate their new team, to see if they’re worthy of becoming shinobi or if they have to go back to the Academy.”

The only reason Sayuri didn’t immediately opt for an extra year was because, in the end, it would delay her becoming a medic. But a new team was tempting.

“What? No! I worked hard to get here. You can’t do this to me!” Fuyu raged, and Mirai happily told him that she could, in fact, appraise her team. She was responsible for them now, and she wanted a team she could mould into perfect shinobi, not children that would die on their first mission.

“It’s for your sake, too,” she explained and patted him on the head. “See it as a safety measure; if you’re not ready yet, we send you back so you don’t die a gruesome death.”

That took the fighting spirit out of him.

They ran on the slipper roofs all the way to Training Ground 13, where Mirai set them to complete a few cooperative tasks. Sayuri quickly learned Sato was adaptive and responsive, while she continuously clashed with Fuyu.

“You dumb cow!” he screamed at her as she slipped in the mud and let the ninken they were chasing get away. “How hard can it be to run?”

She nearly poked out his annoyingly blue eyes.

Sato pulled his wet hair from his face and glared at them. “Ohara, the ninken is going for that big boulder over there, run behind it—‌the ninken I mean. Sakurasō-hime, you intercept to the right. I’ll take it from the left.”

“Just Sakurasō is fine,” Sayuri said, nodded and ran. Fuyu cursed as he followed. A moment later, the ninken was caught and disappeared with a poof. Mirai applauded them from underneath a tree.

“We failed, thanks to a certain someone,” Fuyu muttered under his breath.

Sayuri rolled her eyes. “You’re muddier than me.”

Sato closed his eyes and exhaled sharply, probably wishing death upon them both.

They gathered before Mirai, who was snickering at their drenched, dirty selves, before praising Sato for taking the lead and actually getting shit done. Then she turned to Fuyu, and her warm eyes turned colder than his. “I’ve noticed you don’t really get along with her,” she nodded at Sayuri. “Care to explain?”

“She’s incompetent and antisocial,” Fuyu said and crossed his arms. “Not my fault she doesn’t listen!”

“Wh—‌ Excuse you! I was trying,” she snapped at him. “And how exactly am I incompetent? I have higher grades than you in everything!”

“Great Sages, save me,” she heard Sato mutter, but chose not to comment. 

“Just because you’re booksmart doesn’t mean you’re good at actual—‌”

“I spar with Uchiha Itachi weekly, you ass! And with Hatake Kakashi, I can’t be bad at fighting!”

Mirai whacked them in the head. They both screamed in pain. Holy crap, she could punch like no other.

“Now that you’ve calmed down,” Mirai said with a not-so-friendly smile, “let me speak. Ohara, I know being the leader sounds exciting, but if you’re bad at it, it’s more of a danger than help, remember that. Sakurasō-hime, I saw you were trying hard to follow your comrade’s orders, and I command you for it, but even if it’s annoying, don’t start bickering. It will kill you.”

Sayuri swallowed her pride and excuses and nodded.

“Great!” Their sensei clasped her hands together. “I won’t send you back to the Academy, so don’t worry. I saw something I can work with. Meet me here at 5:00 in two days. We need to work on your disastrous—‌”

“Non-existent,” Sato whispered.

“—‌teamwork. Until then, cheers!” She disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Sato immediately set off somewhere that was not around his hopeless teammates, but stopped when he noticed Sayuri following him. “What?” he asked, not very friendly.

“I’m sorry I messed up,” she murmured. “And thanks for taking the lead.”

He blinked, then sighed. “Sorry I snapped. It was uncalled for. And, well, I didn’t want to fail, that’s why I did it. But please make up with Ohara, or else I don’t think we’ll last that long.”

She nodded. “I promise I will. See ya.”

“Bye.”

The first thing Itachi said when he entered Sayuri’s room the day he came home from his mission was, “How’s your new team?” which was followed by gesturing to himself so she could see he wasn’t hurt.

Sayuri looked up from her book about chakra and healing and smiled. She could finally relax, knowing he wasn’t hurt or covered in someone else’s blood. Then she froze.

“Is that an Anbu uniform?”

Itachi stopped moving. “Uh. No?”

She raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked at the kitsune mask hanging from his hip. He squirmed and tried to hide it.

“You know I’m not allowed to disclose that.”

He had a point, so she nodded, pushed her disappointment into the depths of her mind and told him to take a seat.

“What are you learning now?”

“Yūto-sensei wants us to study the different medical jutsus for healing scratches and make a basic diagnosis,” she replied and showed him her notes. “This is exhausting, though. I might not get any sleep tonight.”

Itachi pulled off his chest plate and pouted. “But we were going to watch a movie… Should we cancel?”

She refused. She’d been looking forward to spending some time with him, just the two of them, ever since her graduation. Ever since she was assigned to team 4, all her mornings had been spent training with them, and all her afternoons divided between babysitting Naruto and Sasuke, training with Shisui and going to her clan exclusive lessons. There hadn’t been any time to relax.

Itachi chuckled when she told him Naruto had woken her up one morning because she’d begun listing medical ingredients in her sleep.

“Hey… I’m sorry about before. I know it’s not me you don’t trust,” he said after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

Sayuri shook her head. Itachi had had a point. She’d seen him come home covered in blood way too many times, and whenever she thought about it, his soulless eyes came to mind. She imagined they looked like that after he’d been forced to slaughter his family, too, and it left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.

“You didn’t give me a kiss,” she suddenly remembered. “How dare you?”

He grinned and leaned forward. “How could I ever forget something so sacred?” He kissed her cheek and they giggled. Then he leaned against her shoulder and relaxed. “I missed you.”

She dragged her fingers through his hair and undid the ponytail. His long hair fell freely down his shoulders. “I missed you too. How’d the mission go?”

He laughed without humour. “Don’t ever tell the daimyo, but his children are horrible.”

“Oh? Please tell me.”

They moved from the desk to her bed, and spent a few minutes talking about his mission to guard the fire daimyo’s children while they went to visit their grandparents. The daughter was dreaming of becoming a kunoichi, and repeatedly tried to sneak away from Itachi’s team. 

Then it was his turn to ask her about her new team. She heaved a sigh and began telling him how Fuyu had it out for her. Sato she kind of liked, he reminded her of a strict Shisui, and Mirai was… something. Itachi raised an eyebrow when she told him about their first mission, an E-rank. It had been to weed out someone’s garden, and Mirai had ended up laughing her ass off as Fuyu began digging in the owner’s herbal garden. Sayuri had noticed and thrown a huge fit about it, and they’d ended up in a fist fight.

“Will you be okay?” Itachi worried.

Sayuri nodded. Fuyu was just a proud boy that thought he was the best. Give him a few more months and he’d calm down—‌she hoped.

“I’m jealous.”

“Of what?”

“Your teammates,” he pouted. “They get to see you every morning, and now you won’t have any time for me.”

She giggled and took his hand. “I promise I’ll put aside some time for us. How about we have a picnic?”

He decided he liked that, and promised to look up his schedule.

September 21st marked the first D-ranked mission Team 4 received, and they met each other at dawn at the gates. Mirai was the only one not looking like a zombie.

Their mission was to hand over some kind of contract to a nearby village. Mirai handed Sayuri the actual contract while she gave Fuyu, Sato and herself decoys. After making sure they all had adequate equipment with them, she led them away from Konoha and into the forest.

The group did nothing except jump between trees and discuss eventual tactics if someone decided to attack them. But when lunch rolled around and they stopped to eat, they were still very much alone and very much bored. At least the genin. Mirai was happy everything went smoothly.

During lunch, Fuyu nagged their sensei into telling them stories of her missions. Once, for example, when she was still a genin, her team had been assigned to deliver a birthday cake. One of her teammates had unfortunately dropped it right in front of the birthday child. On her first C-ranked mission, she nearly got decapitated. The last A-ranked mission she went to blew off her leader’s arm.

Fuyu was amazed and a bit creeped out, and kept asking questions long after they began their trek anew.

“It’s annoying how cheerful he can be,” Sato murmured. He was looking at Mirai and Fuyu jumping in front of them.

“True,” Sayuri said, “but that might be because we don’t like him.”

They finally reached the village, and Mirai took them straight to the chief’s house. Team 4 was shown into a neat room that smelled a lot of flowers. Sayuri could identify both lavender and hyacinth, but there was something else underneath, another incredibly sweet scent she vaguely recognised.

“Chief,” Mirai greeted the old woman who entered. It brought Sayuri out of her thoughts and she quickly bowed. “These are my new genins, Ohara, Sato and Sakurasō.”

The white-haired woman’s gaze held onto Sayuri’s for longer than what was considered polite. “Are you good with plants, Sakurasō-hime?”

“A bit,” she humbly replied. She could feel her team’s curious gazes on her, but was determined to keep her true knowledge hidden.

“Your eyes are really beautiful, too. Is it part of your kekkei genkai?”

Fuyu and Sato inched closer to Sayuri, and Mirai discreetly told the woman it was rude to ask about something so sacred. She apologised and took her seat. Servants entered the room at the same time and placed cups of tea before them all.

The woman, whose name was never spoken, began discussing the mission with Mirai, and was pleased to know nothing had gone wrong. When she asked for the contract, Mirai nodded at Sayuri to hand it over.

The chief’s hands were pale and bony as she took the scroll from Sayuri’s hands. That’s when Sayuri felt the strong scent of oleander. Why was the old village chief dealing with such a deadly flower? Shaken, she returned to her seat as the woman, who seemingly didn’t notice anything, asked Mirai about payment.

“What’s wrong?” Fuyu whispered.

“Oleander. She smells like oleander.”

Sato frowned. “So? She had a lot of pretty flowers in her garden.”

Sayuri hadn’t thought much about them. She’d mostly seen lavenders, roses and tulips. Now she was afraid the woman was growing much worse things, and what she did with them. To grow and sell dangerous plants, you had to have a licence. This was just pure speculation, but Sayuri’s intuition said the woman definitely didn’t have one.

“Oleander is one of the most poisonous plants in the world.” She had to dig her nails into her palms to remain quiet. “Don’t eat or drink anything.”

Fuyu wanted to scowl at her, but her expression told him he better not. So he put down his cup and instead focused on their sensei.

Sayuri sat on needles throughout the exchange, and when Mirai had their money, she thanked the chief for her hospitality and picked up her cup. Horrified at the prospect of it being poisoned, Sayuri snatched it from her.

“What the—‌ Sakurasō-chan, what was that about?” Mirai tried to take the cup, but Sayuri threw it into a plant. “I am terribly sorry for my student’s utter lack of respect, chief!”

The woman chuckled. “No need. Why don’t we ask why she threw away perfectly good tea?”

Sayuri squirmed under their scrutinizing eyes. She swallowed her anxiety and took a deep breath. “I was afraid some oleander might have been accidentally mixed in the tea,” she explained.

“What’s that?” Mirai asked.

“Well… every part of the plant, even the smoke if you burn it, is dangerous and could kill you.”

Mirai’s gaze immediately dropped to the children’s untouched cups. “How long would it take to kill us?”

“Depends on the dosage.”

“Chief, do you have a permit?”

“No, but my son does. He lives with me, and grows some beautiful flowers to study.” The woman was frowning hard now. “Whenever we have tea together, we sit in this room. He usually dries and puts flowers in books at the same time. He might have handled some of your flowers, too.” She looked at her empty cup. “I’m sure he wouldn’t hurt any of you; he’s a nice boy.”

Mirai thanked the woman and stood up. The children followed suit and they were followed to the door by the chief and her servants.

“I again apologise for needlessly worrying you,” the old woman said. “And thank you for deli—‌” She stopped mid-sentence and groaned in pain. Her servants crowded around her as she began to vomit. “I…” She was breathing heavily and started to sweat. “I can’t… can’t feel my… mouth…”

“Milady!” the servants shouted as some of them ran off to call for the local doctor.

Sayuri was already pushing a few servants out of the way to get to the woman. She sat down and rummaged through her bag for atropine.

“Are you sure it’s oleander poisoning?” Mirai asked and kicked a servant in the stomach.

“She’s vomiting, dizzy, sweating and is losing feeling in her mouth and face,” Sayuri murmured to herself. She stood up and ran around the house to the garden. She needed to know what other plants with similar symptoms were growing there, or else she might end up killing the chief.

“Isn’t that wolfsbane?” Sato commented and pointed at some lilac flowers.

“Oh Sages—‌ yes! They are!” She hugged him before kneeling by the woman again, this time injecting the antidote into her system. “Wolfsbane, also known as aconite, is also extremely deadly,” she began babbling. “The symptoms are numbness, puking and hypotension, to name a few.” She put her fingers on the woman’s carotid and noted the low pulse. Hopefully the dosage hadn’t been too high, or else the antidote wouldn’t be enough.

The group anxiously waited for the symptoms to ease, and when the doctor finally arrived, the young woman concluded the chief would live. Fuyu dunked Sayuri on the back, impressed by her knowledge. Sato also congratulated her, as did the others, but Sayuri didn’t want any of it. She actually wanted to go home, soak in a bath and be left alone.

The woman had almost died. What if Sayuri had been wrong, and it hadn’t been either oleander or wolfsbane poisoning? If she’d administered the wrong antidote, it might have made the situation worse and killed the patient. But if she’d hesitated, the amount of aconite would have definitely ended the chief’s life.

This time, Sayuri had gotten lucky, but what about the next? This was what she wanted to deal with, to diagnose and treat sick people, but this was far worse than she’d ever imagined. She was nowhere near good enough to help yet, despite her vast knowledge. She needed more experience—‌preferably without the risk of anyone dying.

“I will report this to the Hokage,” Mirai said sternly and nodded at the doctor. “We will launch an investigation. Are you able to apprehend the son?”

“He’s a former shinobi, so I’m afraid not.” Of course he was. Why would anything be simple?

Mirai contemplated their options before making a decision. “Fuyu, you and Sayuri go back and report to Hokage-sama. Sato and I will arrest the son and bring him with us.”

Fuyu nodded dumbly before dragging Sayuri by the arm. It woke her from her hysterical thoughts, but she refused to speak to him during their way back home. There were no pauses, either, and when they were halfway there, Sayuri remembered she’d left a hiraishin kunai in her room. She didn’t have the strength to explain anything to Fuyu, so she just grabbed him and activated the jutsu. In mere seconds, they stood by her night table.

“What the heck?” Fuyu hissed and looked around. “Where did you take us?”

“My room.” She opened her window and jumped outside. “Thought it would save some time.”

Fuyu followed after her, still dumb-struck, and missed Itachi playing with Sasuke and Naruto just a few meters away. 

“What you did was really amazing, by the way,” the white-haired boy said as they jumped from roof to roof. “I never thought it’d come in handy.”

“Me neither.” At least not so soon. She had thought that the older and better she got, the more specialized missions she would receive. But the universe worked in mysterious ways, and Sayuri wasn’t happy with that at all.

They reached the Hokage Tower a few minutes later and reported to the third what happened. He called for another shinobi from another sector, and informed the children they would take it over from there.

Sayuri didn’t say anything when she parted from Fuyu. She just wanted her bed.

But of course, nothing ever went as planned, and Itachi was waiting for her with a concerned look in his eyes.

“Weren’t you supposed to be on a mission?” he asked as she passed him and fell head first onto her bed. It dipped when he sat down by her side.

“I was.”

“Then how did you end up leaving your room with someone?”

If he was implying she’d been cheating on him—‌as a twelve-year-old—‌he had a lot to learn. And she was in no mood to deal with his insecurities.

She told him about the hiraishin no jutsu, and explained using it had been the best option. It just so happened that she left a special kunai at home, and that was the end of that. She thought, at least.

“So the guy was a teammate?”

“Yes, Itachi, he was. If you wanna look him up, his name is Ohara Fuyu.”

Itachi fiddled with his fingers. “He was beautiful.”

She groaned. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Can you let me sleep now?” When he didn’t reply, she looked up to see him gloomily stare at the floor. She sighed and sat up. “Are you worried I’ll start liking him?” He nodded. “Well, don’t be. He’s the one I always fight with and I have zero interest in swapping you out for him.” She hugged him and smiled when he relaxed into her. “I love you, Ichigo.”

“I love you lots.”

“I love you more.”

He smiled, but it wasn’t happy. “I love you most.”

She kissed his cheek and leaned back into her bed. “I promise I won’t fall in love with him. I love you too much to do that.”

“Are you sure?”

As if she would ever find Fuyu more appealing than Itachi, regardless of age. He was like a toddler most of the time, and there was nothing attractive about that. The only thing she liked was his hair, because she’d always been weak for white-haired guys, regardless of medium. But Fuyu’s personality took her adoration right out of her. And he was twelve.

Unbeknownst to Sayuri, Itachi only stayed until she fell asleep. Then he left to ask Kakashi for a favour.

Chapter Text

That first D-ranked mission was the only one of its kind. For the rest of the year, Team 4 went from doing E-ranks and D-ranks to mostly C-ranked missions, all of them ending well. It was mostly due to Mirai and Sato, because Fuyu and Sayuri kept clashing whenever they met.

Sayuri was cautious to be seen alone with Fuyu. She hadn’t forgotten how worried Itachi had been, and really didn’t want another misunderstanding to arise.

She mastered all derivations of the hiraishin no jutsu. Kakashi moved on to teach her the Rasengan, which she couldn’t believe. She also hadn’t known or had forgotten he knew it.

Naruto kept up his studies, and Sayuri made sure that he got to train with Guy every once in a while, to build up his stamina, speed and taijutsu. Ever since he began meditating, his chakra control had greatly improved, also thanks to his conversations with Kurama. From what Sayuri understood, the fox demon was slowly warming up to the blonde ball of sunshine.

While all of this was going on, Sayuri nearly forgot what would happen after Itachi’s thirteenth birthday. She’d read somewhere on the Internet that Sasuke had been seven when Itachi killed their parents but that Itachi himself had been thirteen. From that dubious information, Sayuri concluded that the massacre occurred somewhere between June 9th and July 23rd.

The closer Itachi’s birthday came, the more he noticed her nervous behaviour. She began asking him strange questions about masked men and asked if the clan was still dissatisfied. They were not, he told her repeatedly, and it was true. The rest of Konoha had slowly warmed up to the idea that maybe collective punishment for something they probably didn’t do was wrong, and now welcomed the Uchiha clan everywhere they went.

Sayuri was relieved there was almost no animosity between the Uchihas and Konoha, but couldn’t shake the worried feeling inside her. The reason was simple: she didn’t remember why Obito had helped Itachi kill everyone. That meant that, if she was unlucky, Obito would do it himself.

Itachi’s birthday passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Sayuri didn’t calm down, and in the end, couldn’t sleep properly, always waking up from nightmares. As a countermeasure, she began brewing tea with sleep medicine in it, and drank it every night.

“You can’t drink more tea,” Itachi said one evening, and took the teapot from her. “Too much medicine is dangerous, you know that.”

“I’ll drink it until it starts working!” she hissed and tried to snatch it from him, but he was faster and moved out of reach. “Uchiha Itachi, I swear to every god in this world—‌”

“I don’t want you to die!” he shouted. “So stop overdosing on sleep medicine.”

That succeeded in slapping her out of her sleep-deprived hysteria, and she promised to stop chugging three teapots worth of medicine every day.

June ended and July began, and Sayuri spent most sleepless nights wandering Konoha’s deserted streets, daydreaming about her old life. She kind of missed it, but at the same time, it no longer felt like home, more like a long-lasting dream. Konoha was her new home and this was the life she was living. It felt good, right, to interact with the characters of Naruto and to be a part of the story. But not even those serene feelings helped sleep to claim her.

Sasuke’s birthday was approaching, and Itachi again noticed Sayuri’s mental health began to slip. She would constantly ask him and Shisui about the clan, and her eyes scanned their surroundings one too many times at all times. She began muttering in that pretend language of hers, whispering about “Obito”, “Kurama” and something he couldn’t pronunce. It hurt, not being able to help, but he made sure she knew he was always by her side if she needed him.

On the night of July 15th, Itachi, Kakashi and Shisui were away on a mission in Sunagakure, and Sasuke was sleeping over at Sayuri’s place. Once again she found herself unable to sleep, and sat on the roof above her room, stargazing.

It was a quiet night, and not even the wind moved. Sayuri felt like the last person on earth, and the lonely feeling accompanying the thought tore at her mind. Doing what any sane person would and forcing her feelings deeper inside her, she moved from a sitting position to lying down. That way, she didn’t have to see the faint lights from the shopping district.

Time didn’t exist, and it didn’t take long for all remaining lights to go out. With the darkness surrounding her, she began feeling more and more tired, and had almost fallen asleep when dread jolted through her body. She sat up and nearly fell off the roof in the process.

She hated her intuition sometimes.

Silently, she headed back inside and dressed in her kunoichi outfit, a sleeveless kimono—‌usually she wore a yellow one, but she had a dark grey for camouflage, too—‌and departed with her senbons and kunai at the ready.

She could have teleported—‌as she called the effect of hiraishin—‌directly into Itachi's home, but didn’t, in case the intruder was there. It never occurred to her that her intuition warned her about something else.

The first body was that of a Uchiha chūnin, sprawled onto the ground in front of the gates to the compound. Sayuri determined he was dead and moved on. She sent shadow clones to check houses and the people strewn across the streets, but all came back the same: they were dead.

She didn’t hesitate to enter Itachi’s house. The smartest thing to do would have been to call Hirohito or the Hokage, but Sayuri was far from sane at the moment and thus blindly raced through the dark hallways, jumping over dead bodies of people she knew.

The door to Fugaku’s office was closed. Sayuri didn’t care and threw it open and slipped on the blood on the floor.

Icky icky icky get it OFF ME, her mind raged as she surveyed her surroundings. And met Obito’s masked gaze.

“Hello there,” he said with the same deep voice as in the anime. “Who are you?”

“Run!” Mikoto screamed from underneath him. He was currently standing on her, holding a katana to her neck.

Obito cocked his head to the side, and Sayuri could feel his one eye taking her in. “You’re not an Uchiha… I think. What’s your name?”

“S-Sa… Sayuri.” As if she would give him her clan name, too. She wasn’t that dumb. But she didn’t want to anger him and risk getting impaled.

Obito burst out into a surprised laugh. “Seriously? Then take a seat, little one, and watch as I end the lives of your people.” And with that, he pushed the sword down. Except it didn’t touch Mikoto, because Sayuri was standing in front of him. She kicked Mikoto to the side. The woman broke through the wall.

“Don’t touch her,” Sayuri snarled and paralysed his arm with a one hit. “Why did you do that? Why why why why WHY?!”

Obito blocked her next punch and sent her flying into the garden. “I don’t have to explain myself to you, brat.” He sent a fireball after her. She dodged it and sent senbons at him. He deflected them. “Now leave if you don’t want to die.”

He turned around and kicked Mikoto away from him. She’d been sneaking up to him.

Sayuri teleported, but he was ready and grabbed her head. With too much force, he pushed her to the ground. Sayuri paralysed the arm and rolled away.

“Fugaku?” she asked Mikoto, who was now beside her.

“Somewhere.”

Well, shit. Sayuri concealed them with a thick mist and dragged Mikoto out on the streets. They had to get away from Obito. He wouldn’t wake the whole village just to kill them. She hoped.

She could feel Fugaku’s chakra far away. They were running toward it when Mikoto dropped to the ground. Sayuri fell as well. Over their heads, kunai flew.

“You can’t get away from me,” Obito said calmly from the mist. “You’re a bit entertai—‌ Hey!”

While he struggled with whatever it was, Sayuri pulled them to their feet and began running.

“Get off me!”

The pained shriek that followed chilled her.

“Sasuke!” Mikoto screamed and left her side. She disappeared into the mist, and Sayuri quickly cancelled it.

Mikoto was fighting Obito while a crying Sasuke was crawling away from them. Sayuri teleported to him and healed his broken arm. She told him to run before turning to the fight.

“Sayuri, take Sasuke and get the Hokage.” 

No way Sayuri left Mikoto alone to deal with Obito. She would die.

“Now, Sayuri!”

“No!” She teleported to them and pushed her fingers under Obito’s ribs. He sagged to the ground but immediately rolled away.

Mikoto grabbed her shoulders. “You have to protect him, do you hear me?” she hissed desperately. “I don’t matter, but he has to live. Take him away from here, Sayuri, please.”

“But you—‌”

“I’ll be fine.” She turned and blocked an attack from Obito. “Leave!”

Sayuri was a coward. She couldn’t take him on, so she turned around, gathered Sasuke in her arms and ran. At that moment, Fugaku ran past her. Surprised, she turned around to smile. Obito wouldn’t be able to take them both down.

She was wrong.

Fugaku must have looked him in the eye, because he stopped abruptly for three seconds. When he came back from the genjutsu, Obito beheaded him.

“You are all very irritating,” he muttered and turned to Sayuri. “That’s a child of the Uchiha clan, right? Give him here.” He moved away from Mikoto’s attack. Sayuri began running again.

This wasn’t happening. Nothing was happening. She was asleep and having a nightmare. No, she was caught in one of Itachi’s genjutsus.

Mikoto’s screams weren’t real. The blood wasn’t real.

She gasped. Pain shot up from her back and chest into her body. Sasuke screamed, but she couldn’t hear him as she slammed into a wall. She was stuck.

“Nee-chan,” Sasuke gurgled.

She stared at him in disbelief. They were both hanging from Obito’s katana, embedded in the wall.

Her limbs were going numb. She couldn’t really feel them, but she mustered enough strength to push away from the wall. It was utter hell. The hilt pressed against her back but she ignored it. Her mind singled in on one thing: Sasuke had to live. She laid him down on the ground and began healing the wounds.

Somehow, her clones were fighting to keep Obito away. It drained away her chakra. She kept going. The clones disappeared one by one. She kept going. Her chakra was dangerously low. She kept going. Obito was standing right behind her. She kept going. His hands were on the hilt. He pulled, she screamed, but didn’t stop.

Keep going keep going keep going.

The blade pressed against her throat. “You wanna save him? Then kill her.” He pointed at the still-breathing Mikoto. “I’ll let you both go if you kill her.”

Sayuri couldn’t leave Sasuke; he would die before she reached his mother.

“SAYURI!”

Obito disappeared from her side and Itachi took his place.

“Sayuri.” Itachi was holding her. “Stop, please stop.”

“Sasuke.” She was mumbling. She couldn’t feel her lips. Everything was cold. Her chakra—‌she couldn’t feel it anymore.

“He’s fine, he’s fine, Sayuri. The bleeding stopped. Please let go.”

She fell. He caught her. She saw his eyes. They were red.

“Hey, pretty boy.” Obito grabbed him by the hair. “Be careful now, or his head rolls.”

Sayuri’s gaze couldn’t focus anymore. All she saw were murky colours. Obito walked over to Mikoto. 

“I’ll give you a choice,” Obito said to Itachi. “Kill this woman, and I’ll let all three of you live. Otherwise, you will all die.”

“No,” Itachi sobbed. “Please.”

“I’m not very patient tonight. I’ll count to ten. One… two…”

Mikoto turned on her back and smiled at Itachi. “Kill me,” she said.

Obito let go of Itachi and he cradled her to his chest. “Please mum, don’t say that.”

“You have to. Kill me, Itachi. You have to…” She coughed violently. “You have to live. Kill me.” She pressed his sword to her throat. “Please.”

“Nii-san,” Sasuke cried, and Itachi made up his mind. He kissed her on the forehead and told her he loved her, that he was so sorry for what he was about to do, and put her down on the ground.

“No…” Sayuri could barely hear her voice. She could barely see anything; the darkness was closing in fast. She was fading.

The last thing she saw was Itachi cutting his mother’s throat.

Chapter Text

She woke up. She hadn’t expected to survive the massacre. It was a pleasant surprise to open her eyes to see a hospital room. It was beige, with an open window to her right. There was a night table, too, with a single peony in a vase. She blinked at it. Did the person that left it know it meant brave?

I’m a coward. She’d left Mikoto to die.

The room was empty of people. She slowly sat up but winced when her chest and back throbbed. There was no clock in the room, so she had no idea how long she laid there before the door opened and a nurse came inside. He jumped when he saw her awake, before checking her vitals, asking her questions—‌What’s your name? Which year is it?—‌and promising to be back with a doctor.

Sayuri couldn’t care less.

When the doctor came, she asked about Sasuke. She breathed a sigh or relief when they told her he was alive and not at the hospital. They praised her for her quick reflexes and healing ability—‌without it, he would have died.

That reminded her of Mikoto.

“I’ll contact your father,” was the last thing the doctor said before leaving.

She refused to see anyone that wasn’t Hirohito. She could hear Naruto crying from the other side of the door, but thankfully he wasn’t let in. Dealing with him required more energy than she had right now.

Hirohito sat down on the visitor’s chair and took her hand. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. In the silence, Sayuri noted her dad looked haunted, with deep bruises underneath his eyes, greasy hair and smelled like he hadn’t bathed for too long.

She’d been asleep for two weeks, he explained, and all he’d done was worry and run himself into a wall. How was she feeling? Empty. Was she hungry? No. Did she want a hug? Yes. But it didn’t feel right when they did. Hirohito didn’t have any energy to share, and Sayuri was left feeling emptier than before.

“Mikoto and Fugaku…” he began, but she held up her hand to stop him.

“I know. I saw.”

He crumbled a bit, then. His head hung low and his shoulders shook. He was reliving the death of Asami, Sayuri figured.

“Itachi?” she asked, her voice cracking. She was too tired to speak properly.

“Alive.” At least it was something. “But he hasn’t spoken a word since… since that night.” Of course he hadn’t. He’d been forced to kill his own mother. That kind of trauma wasn’t something you shook off and moved on from.

Hirohito sobbed and slowly looked at her. “Do you want to see him?”

She shook her head. She was in no mood to deal with that heartbreak. It was selfish, but she had to think of herself first and foremost. There was no use in trying to piece him together when she couldn’t even piece herself back.

They talked about other things. The Root children were faring surprisingly well. They were all distraught when they heard what had happened to Sayuri, which warmed her heart a bit. Ohara Fuyu had stormed into the compound and demanded to see her, too. Then he’d started crying like a baby, before being escorted back home. Mirai had checked on her a few times, but she’d been in a coma and hadn’t noticed her. Sakurasō Yūto, her herbalist teacher, had compiled a compendium of everything she’d missed and would likely miss. She didn’t feel like reading it.

“You remember Yukira-obaa-san?” Hirohito asked while playing with her fingers. “She baked you some of that apple pie and custard sauce. We’ve saved it for you.”

“Thanks,” she croaked.

He told her her old classmates had contacted him, asking about her, worrying about her life. It was touching, but strange, to hear people she considered strangers to care for her well-being.

The funeral would be held in a few days. The doctor had promised Hirohito Sayuri would be fit to leave before then. She didn’t want to go to another funeral. Hirohito insisted she did.

“How many survived?” she asked bluntly, and played with the blanket.

“Three.”

“Oh.” Then Izumi was dead. She felt bad that they hadn’t made up, that she’d been such a brat that day when Izumi tried her best to apologise. And now it was too late.

She asked where the boys would live. Hirohito said they had all chosen to stay with them. Itachi’s room was right by hers now, and Sasuke was sharing one with Naruto. Shisui’s wasn’t far off, either.

“Daddy,” she said meekly, “I want to give them lots of flowers.”

“I’ll buy as many as you want.”

“I want shions. And bluebells. Red camellias and daffodils.”

He smiled at the meaning behind them. “Anything else?”

She thought for a moment. “Higabana flowers.”

The funeral was gloomy. This time, the sun didn’t shine. It was an uncharacteristically cold day, too, and the onlookers were shivering as they listened to the third Hokage’s preaching. Like before, Sayuri didn’t listen to a word he said. She was holding her bouquet of flowers in one hand and Naruto’s hand in the other. To her right, Itachi was standing with Sasuke, both with empty, hopeless eyes. Hirohito had his warm hands on her shoulders, to lend her strength.

When she’d first met Itachi, he had looked at her with eyes no child should have, and then left. Sasuke had begun to cry silently and hugged her hard. She hadn’t seen Shisui at all.

Now Shisui was standing behind Itachi and Sasuke, lending them strength he didn’t possess, while trying to put up a brave front. No one was buying it.

The third ended his speech, and let the three remaining Uchihas leave their flowers on the memorial. The gods didn’t think Konoha had enough of those.

No one questioned Sayuri on the abundance of flowers in her hands. They just watched in sorrow as she knelt before the memorial and put them on the ground. Her forehead touched the cool stone and she whispered, in Swedish, “I will take care of them all.” She stood, nodded and returned to her father.

When the memorial service was over, the group made their way to Ichiraku’s, where Teuchi was glad to serve them a big meal. It was on the house, he assured them. He didn’t want their money.

They ate in silence, until Itachi ran off to empty his stomach. Shisui said he’d done that a lot.

That night, Sayuri slept in her own bed again. It didn’t feel right, like she was missing something. It was uncomfortable, and she went to sit by her desk to read. She found she couldn’t focus on the words, so she just sat there and stared out the window until a soft knock came from the door.

She opened it, and there stood Itachi, holding a bear she’d given him once. She let him in, and he stopped in the middle of her room, looking so incredibly lost. She moved him to the bed, where they curled up together. They didn’t say anything, just looked at each other.

“I thought you died.” His voice was monotone.

“I thought I did die.” Her’s wasn’t much better.

“I killed her.”

“I saw.”

Tears began to form in his eyes. She wiped them away. They came back.

“I killed her.”

Sayuri nodded. “And you saved Sasuke.”

“But I killed her.” He sobbed. “She’s gone. They’re all gone.”

“Not all of them,” she pointed out and reached for him. He grabbed a hold of her and hugged her tightly. “Sasuke’s still here. Shisui is breathing. They’re alive, thanks to you. Me too, I guess.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “She’s your mother, and she did what she thought she had to.”

“But I—‌”

She kissed his nose. It shut him up. “You killed her,” she stated. “But you saved us, too. That amounts to something, right?”

He nodded mutely. “Yuri?” She looked at him. “I hate my eyes.”

She caressed first one eyelid and then the other. “I love them. Wanna know why?” He sobbed and nodded. “Because they protect you. They give you the power to protect us as well. They’re a beautiful, deep scarlet, like the sun at the end of sunset. They’re as warm as ripe apples and… and… Strawberries. They look like tasty, tasty strawberries.”

She didn’t know how to console a traumatised child, barely knew how to cope herself, but she had to be strong, not just for their sake, but for her own. She had to move past what happened, and if that meant calling the Sharingan tasty strawberries and apples, then so be it.

Itachi smiled through the tears. “You’re so strange,” he whispered.

“Then let’s be strange together.”

He nodded. “Yuri?”

“Yes?”

“Can you wash my hands?”

She took them into her own and studied them. Her fingers danced across his palm, but couldn’t sense any dirt. “Why?”

What he said next shattered her heart.

“I can still see her blood on my hands.”

She moved past it. She buried her feelings deep down where they couldn’t bother her and dedicated her life to her studies. Again. Kakashi refused to teach her any longer. He could see the same suicidal drive in her eyes that he held. It was actually seeing her drive herself close to total collapse that made him realise he was the same, and he took time off work to visit a therapist. He urged Sayuri to do the same, but she declined.

Itachi became Anbu captain a few months later. He went out on missions and came back covered in someone else’s blood. He never told her why, but she could guess.

It took a while, but Itachi slowly came back to her. He became more outspoken, more emotional, and he began hugging her again. He hadn’t done a lot of that since the night of the funeral.

Naruto had more time than ever to explore himself, and built a semi-trusting relationship with Kurama, much to Sayuri’s relief. With the help of Kurama, his chakra control got so good it was almost as good as hers, and he could finally complete jutsus above E-rank.

One day in late November, Sayuri told him about the Uzumakis and their fondness for fuinjutsu. He didn’t know what that was, and Sayuri explained with her limited knowledge. It was fascinating for him, so she had Mirai set him up with a friend of hers, to teach him the basics.

Not long after, she was green-lit for missions again, and joined her team on a few C-ranks. They were more often than not attacked during their times away from Konoha, and Sayuri found the experience in healing she was looking for. 

She also volunteered at the hospital. They loved having her over, since her healing nature was better than that of both medicine and normal jutsus.

Itachi couldn’t sleep without her by his side, so he temporarily moved into her room. Hirohito didn’t like that at all, but saw the necessity in it. But he did have the birds and the bees conversation with both of them. As did Shisui. Sayuri felt like dying both times.

We're minors! We're not having sex! she wanted to scream at them.

Time went on, and Sayuri found solace in spending it with Itachi looking at birds. During the night, they stargazed. But the night before the one year anniversary of the massacre, Itachi wasn’t in the mood for bird-looking or stargazing. He didn’t leave his room all night, and Sayuri was left caring for both Sasuke and Shisui.

The oldest Uchiha sat crying in his room when Sayuri entered. After he failed to respond to her calls, she brought a blanket, sat down and draped it over their shoulders. Neither of them said anything, just sat there in the darkness, drawing strengths from each other.

“I failed them.”

“No, Shisui, you didn’t. You didn’t know this would happen.”

He shook his head, still pressing it against his knees. “They’re all dead. Mother, father, Fugaku-sama, Mikoto-sama…” He shook, and she pulled him closer. “They’re all gone.”

She stared up at the ceiling, but it offered nothing but cold silence. “I’m glad you’re still here,” she whispered. If Shisui had also died, it would have broken Itachi forever. But he was alive, because Danzō was dead, and he’d been sent on a mission.

Itachi had told her the reason he came home before the others was because of a feeling of despair. It felt like drowning, he explained, that he couldn’t get enough air. All his instincts screamed at him to get home home home. But he’d been too late. What he’d seen had horrified him, especially witnessing both her and Sasuke impaled at that wall.

Neither Shisui nor Kakashi had gotten that feeling, so they kept a normal pace back home while Itachi hurried. In other words, they’d missed the whole ordeal by hours. It didn’t stop Shisui from seeing the bodies of his family and friends, but at least he hadn’t witnessed Mikoto and Fugaku’s deaths, or the near-death experiences of Sayuri and Sasuke.

“Me too, which is why…”

“That’s the survivor's guilt talking, not you,” she adamantly told him. No way in hell would she let him feel bad for surviving. He had done nothing wrong. “Cry all you want, but someday you have to face the world again, and when you do, I want you to live a life worthy of telling them about. Can you do that, Shisui?”

He nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I’ll try. Thank you, Sayuri.”

All of them, except Itachi, bunkered up in Hirohito’s bedroom and slept together. The next morning, Itachi told her he hadn’t slept a wink and couldn’t understand why he was so tired. They were used to go several days without sleep, but for some reason, he was tired enough to fall asleep standing.

“That’s because of the stress,” she explained. This was another form of psychological stress than anything he had ever experienced, and his body didn’t know how to handle it. Her solution was to drag him to the living room and under the kotatsu. He fell asleep within minutes, and she stayed by his side for hours until he woke up again.

When he could focus his gaze on her, he smiled. “What would you say if I loved you?”

She kissed his forehead. “Dork, I already know.” She kissed him again. “I would say that I love you too.”

“I love you more.”

She giggled. “That’s not true, because I love you most.”

“I love you till forever.”

And just like that, another four years passed.

Chapter Text

The short-distance radio crackled in her ears. It was a loud and annoying sound, but she couldn’t turn it off; the team had to keep the channel open at all times.

Team 4 had been promoted to chūnin two years ago, and since then rarely took on missions lower than B-rank. Their current mission was A-rank, and they were supposed to observe a cult of suspicious rogue ninja. According to the reports regarding the group, they were human traffickers.

“South-west of Rock 13,” came Dai’s voice from the radio. “They have a young girl with them.”

Sayuri didn’t move from her position. She was right by the corner of the thirteenth rock they’d marked. They’d done so for easier navigation.

“Sayuri, can you see them?”

She looked at the corner where five masked individuals were now visible. In the middle of their semi-circle walked a girl with light coloured hair.

“Yes, sensei.”

“Perfect. Fuyu, move to the crevice to your right. Dai, stand back for now.”

Sayuri waited until they were almost at her tree to send senbons at them. Two noticed and deflected them, but the other three fell to the ground, paralyzed.

Fuyu and Mirai jumped out from their hiding places and swiftly dealt with the remaining enemies. While they fought, Sayuri ran over to the girl, who couldn’t be older than Naruto, and cut the ropes tied to her hands.

“My name is Sayuri,” she introduced herself, “and I’m not here to hurt you. We’re from Konohagakure no Sato in the Land of Fire, ever heard of us?”

The girl, who had eyes the same colour as Sakura’s hair, gaped at her. Then the question registered and she gently shook her head. “Will you kill me?” she asked with a quivering voice.

“Nope,” Sayuri replied, popping the p. “I’m a medic, you see. I rarely take lives. Show me your wrists please.” The girl did and Sayuri easily healed the bruises. “What’s your name?”

“S-Sen…” She gulped. “Senjugahara Koharu.”

Sayuri nodded and asked her where she came from. The Land of Whirlpools, Koharu replied, dazed. She was also twelve, and Sayuri happily told her about her little brother. It was the perfect distraction, and Koharu didn’t look at the fight behind her back even once.

When the traffickers were taken care of, Sayuri left Koharu with Dai to report what she’d learned to Mirai. Their sensei told Koharu they had time to walk her back home. The girl sobbed and hid her hands in her face.

“They’re all dead,” she said between sobs.

Sayuri quickly embraced her. “What do you mean?”

Someone had attacked Koharu’s home and slaughtered the settlers. In the beginning, Koharu and her siblings had been rescued by their guards, but as the guards died fighting their way out, so did the children, until only Koharu was left. She was captured alive by the murderers and then sold to the traffickers.

“Do you have any living relatives?” Fuyu asked. She shook her head. “Oh. Sensei, what do we do?”

Mirai massaged her neck. “For now, let’s just collect the traffickers and the reward. Senjugahara-chan, you can come with us to Konoha if you’d like. I can put you up at my place until we find a more permanent solution.”

The girl agreed and took Sayuri’s hand. She looked up at the older girl. “Can I come with  you?”

“Of course,” she replied with a pained smile. If Mirai hadn’t offered to let her live with her, Sayuri would. It felt like she was running an orphanage.

It turned out Koharu had some taijutsu training, and she managed to keep up the pace for most of the trip to Konoha. At the gate, however, it took a little coaxing from the guards to let her in. They also had to book an appointment with T&I to investigate the girl. Mirai promised to do so right after reporting to the Hokage Tower.

“I can take her until then,” Sayuri offered, and Mirai agreed to collect the four of them at the Sakurasō compound. Since their mission had been such a success, she wanted to celebrate with some BBQ.

The four of them entered the compound and were immediately greeted by the members. Koharu held onto Sayuri’s kimono and hid behind her back.

When they entered Sayuri’s house, a servant informed her that Hirohito and the others were having dinner in the garden.

“You’re fricking rich,” Fuyu whispered. “Is that your mother?”

Sayuri followed his gaze to a photo of Hirohito, Asami and a two-year-old Sayuri. “Yeah, she was the head of our clan.”

“Was?” Dai elbowed him in the ribs. “Ouch! What the hell was that for?”

Sayuri ignored them and led the way to the patio where her family was currently eating.

“Sakurasō Asami died during the Kyūbi Attack,” she heard Dai hiss. “It was a huge scandal that her husband inherited the position. You should know this already!”

Koharu frowned at them. “We’re not deaf,” she said sternly, “so please stop talking.” That shut the boys up and they mumbled apologies.

Sayuri smiled and patted the girl on the head as thanks.

“Dad,” she greeted Hirohito and walked up to him. She let him kiss her cheek before gesturing to Koharu. “This is Senjugahara Koharu, a girl we rescued from our mission. She’ll be staying here until Mirai comes back.”

Hirohito smiled at the girl. “Welcome to the Sakurasō clan! Do you want some food?”

“Um.” The girl moved behind Sayuri again. “We… we were supposed to… to eat with… with the older woman.”

Sayuri grinned and apologised that they couldn’t join in on the fun, but Hirohito just shrugged it off, stating that it wasn’t the end of the world.

Naruto, however, was jealous they were eating out without him. “I thought you’d spend some time with us when you got back!” he whined.

“I’m sorry…” Koharu whispered.

Naruto blinked. “Why are you sorry? It’s Mirai’s fault for stealing nee-nee!”

Sasuke flicked him on the ear. “Just shut up, idiot.” He then turned to Sayuri and smiled. “Welcome back, nee-chan.” Itachi, Shisui, Hirohito and Kakashi also welcomed her back from the mission.

They made room for Sayuri and her guests to sit, and she naturally took a seat beside Itachi. Koharu was left standing, until Sasuke called her over to sit between him and Naruto. Fuyu and Dai were placed between Shisui and Kakashi, and they both began a fanboy interrogation with the famous ninjas.

Under the table, Sayuri could feel Itachi’s hand grasp hers, and leaned on his shoulder.

“I missed you,” Itachi whispered.

“I missed you too.”

He grinned and kissed her cheek. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Yes, sleeping.” They chuckled. Sayuri leaned closer and kissed his neck. Itachi froze and his ears turned red. She snorted. “What did you have in mind?”

“I wanted to spend it with you,” he squeaked. For the past two years, Sayuri’s new hobby had become to embarrass him. His bashful reactions were the cutest thing she’d ever seen.