Chapter FIVE

"WAKE UP!"

It was Ibiki's chakra more than his voice that first made Sakura shoot up in her bed. She fought to get out of the blankets wrapped around her limbs and managed to yank the door open just as the man continued to yell.

"YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE!"

Sakura winced at the loud voice. She could see Ibiki standing at the foot of the stairs. She could tell that he wasn't angry or anything, though. Sakura nodded to signal that she had heard before she ran back into her room.

She quickly threw on the clothes Sasuke's mother had insisted to pick up for her. She had decided to tag along on one of their shopping and had been horrified at the options Naruto and her son had brought up. Ever since she had insisted on taking care of the girl's clothes shopping. She grabbed the pouch containing all the necessities of the first day, then hopped towards the door.

She stumbled down the stairs and came to a halt in front of Ibiki who smirked down at her. He placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair.

"Now, eat breakfast. I believe the Hokage's brat and the Uchiha brat have insisted on coming to pick you up." He paused. "This is your first day and I'm actually free today so I'll walk you."

Sakura's eyes brightened.

Truth be told, Ibiki didn't seem that busy. He didn't leave that early in the morning and Sakura often saw him off. In the evenings she would go to the TI department and he would buy her dango on the way home. Once in a while, his work did go over time and Sakura ended up falling asleep in Ibiki's office. His chair was comfy and it wasn't that hard, especially since someone, usually Kotetsu or Izumo, came to check on her, draping blankets over her and leaving snacks in case she was hungry when she woke up.

After Ibiki revealed to Sakura that Minato had given him adoption papers, Sakura had immediately announced that she was going to 'move-in' with Ibiki. Ibiki had agreed after a bit, though it was obvious to anyone that he had declined at first only for show.

She was now living with Ibiki!

Sakura gobbled down her breakfast and stood up, about to bring her plates to the sink. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Ibiki glanced at Sakura, who was doing a pretty good job of trying to put her plate in the sink and run to the door, which was impressive, seeing as the two were on completely opposite ends of the house.

Deciding to help her out, he went for the door. Sakura took that chance to run to the sink. Of course, he was greeted by a grinning blond and a smirking Uchiha. Behind them stood the Hokage and his wife, then the Uchiha matriarch and the Uchiha prodigy, Itachi. He politely greeted them. He heard a crash and hoped that Sakura didn't break anything.

Then the pinkette was by his side, grinning just as stupidly as the Naruto boy.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto's grin widened. "You ready for school?"

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "Yup. How about you, Sasuke?"

"Of course." Sasuke flicked his head to one side with superiority one could only project with practice.

So, the Uchiha haughtiness had been passed on.

Ibiki inwardly sighed.

"Come on, Sakura-chan." Naruto took Sakura's hand and darted out the house. Sasuke, not to be outdone, grabbed Sakura's other hand.

Ibiki locked up his house then followed them with the rest of the adults.

If there was one thing the two boys were good at, it was treating Sakura like a princess. Though he would never admit it, he felt safe enough with Sakura in their care. He kept respectfully close enough to the group but far enough away that he did not get dragged into any of the adult conversations.

When they arrived, plenty of signs told them where to go. They lived through the talk given by the Hokage to the new students. Ibiki sat scowling in his chair, having forgotten how boring opening ceremonies were. Sakura, too, was sitting impressively patiently for a girl who usually had her mind on three different things at once.

Soon after that, they were split into their classes and parents wished their children good luck for their first day. Ibiki ruffled Sakura's hair. "Remember what I taught you?" He asked.

Sakura nodded and opened her mouth.

Ibiki quickly placed a finger over her lips. "You don't have to say it out loud," he said, aware that there were a lot of people around them.

Sakura closed her mouth.

There were a few clan children there and Ibiki remembered Genma saying that this year, there were a lot of noticeable clan heirs joining the academy. "Stay with Naruto and Sasuke," he continued. "Don't worry, your teacher, Umino Iruka, has been notified of your situation."

Sakura nodded.

"Have fun." Ibiki was feeling more and more out of character.

The girl saluted. Her eyes were sparkling. Ibiki tried to remember school had ever been fun for him. He wondered if the light would vanish after she was met with her first face load of homework.

"Come on, Sakura!" Sasuke called. Sakura waved at Ibiki one more time before she darted off. Naruto soon joined them. When the three disappeared into the Academy building, Ibiki turned around and began heading towards the TI department.

Sasuke read out the classroom numbers as they walked while Naruto led her along by the hand. Sakura had never been to the Academy before, so she was honestly quite glad for the guide. The Uchiha soon proudly called out the number of their allocated classroom and Sakura allowed her friends to lead her onward.

Naruto suddenly jerked to a halt. "Steps, Sakura-chan."

Sakura skidded to a halt behind him and slowly inched a foot forward. Her toe hit something and she carefully stepped over it.

"Why don't you do your scan thing?" Sasuke suggested. "There are quite a bit of stairs up towards the seats."

She had. A few times, in fact. But the uncontrolled chakra signature of the children made her motion sick and the fact that it was her first time here threw her off. "Okay," she said.

They were one of the first ones there. There was another trio sitting together near a table, with the only girl having a chakra signature similar to that of the man she had seen with Ibiki before.

Yamanaka Inoichi.

That may be his daughter, which then made the other two possibly Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji.

InoShikaCho.

Sakura focused on her two friends for a moment. Perhaps they could have a cool name of their own?

Another who caught her eye was a boy with a dog in his clothes and a boy with a countless number of bugs crawling all over him. She leaned away uncomfortably, then turned towards the girl with strange chakra lines running towards her eyes. She filed this all away in her mind so that she could ask Ibiki about them later. He was a professional stalker, after all. An Interrogator, he insisted, but she was sure that was just a more polite synonym.

There were a bunch of civilians too, but Sakura did not care for them at the moment. Her vision drew her to those with chakra that caught her eye, after all, and in that sense, clan-borns had an advantage.

Sasuke and Naruto did not seem to care for the rest of their classmates either. They led her up towards one of the upper seats, near the window, and planted her between the two of them.

Students gradually trickled in, finding familiar faces and settling down in groups. Their teacher, Umino Iruka, joined them a few minutes before class was due to officially start. He had a warm and bubbly feel around him and Sakura could tell he was rather genuine about what he was doing. He introduced himself, talked them through their course, went into detail about their first year, then had them all stand up to that they could go around the school. As he showed them around the facilities available and what they would be doing in each one, Sakura focused mostly on mapping out the school in her head.

During lunch, Sasuke and Naruto immediately claimed the spot under a sakura tree. A few other people seemed to have their eyes on that spot, but none of them were stupid enough to oppose the Hokage's son and the second son of the Uchiha head for a bench.

Both Naruto and Sasuke knew this and they took advantage of it without a hint of hesitation. Sakura thought they were unreasonably smart when it came to things like this.

"Sakura-chan's sitting under sakura," Naruto laughed.

"You're so lame," Sasuke scoffed.

"What'dya say, you bastard?"

Sakura shuffled away to scavenge their lunches as her two friends tumbled onto the ground in a flailing of limbs.

Ibiki might not have told anyone, but he had been worried over Sakura's attendance of school.

She was different and children could be cruel. Sure, he could easily be crueller than any of them, but he didn't understand children well and he had no idea what to do if Sakura was hurt.

That didn't seem to be something he needed to worry about, seeing how her two best friends took their roles of guard dogs very seriously.

There were other things that worried him too, like her inability to see, which he then worried might affect her ability to keep up in class.

If he was reading her status reports correctly, that wasn't a problem either.

And the biggest one, the one which Sakura could not cover up for with her maturity (or simple blockheadedness), and her smarts, was the attention she would get from the village. Not the people, but the shinobi, namely the counsel.

In the end, he had decided that their scrutiny would be worth the risk, because as an Academy student she was protected by the status of a child, and once she was Genin she would be protected by the Hokage as a shinobi working beneath him.

Being able to defend herself as well as utilize her unique abilities would do nothing but benefit her too, especially if anyone decided they wanted her powers as their own.

There was a particularly stubborn bloodstain on his hand and he scrubbed at it in annoyance. Once she was officially an apprentice of the TI, he would have a major say in her future as well. Of course, in the end, she was still a tool for the village, but between his influence and Minato's soft heart and fondness for the girl, he was sure they could keep her far, far away from people like Shimura Danzo.

"-and so, the borders of the two nations were agreed upon without further conflict. This peace, while shaky, proceeds to last for several decades." Sasuke paused in his reading to gauge Sakura's expression. The girl was nodding, eyes closed in thought and hands linked in front of her.

"Are you following?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. I got it, I think. Thanks."

Sasuke leaned back and closed his notebook. "It helps to talk someone through it," he said, then glanced at their third friend from the corner of his eye. "And you listen, unlike somebody."

Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance when the pencil he had been balancing on his nose fell off. "Learning's boring," he complained. "I don't get how you do it."

"I doubt anyone finds it fun," Sasuke said.

"Ibiki finds it fun!" Sakura chirped. "He loves learning about people."

Sakura often talked about her guardian, the man who was her first friend. So far, all he knew was that he may have heads lining his kitchen cupboards (he didn't really trust Shisui), his idea of fun usually consisted of a sticky, red liquid and screaming (he trusted Sakura, but didn't know what to think of this piece of information), and he was very, very, frighteningly good at his job (Or was he good at his frightening job? He couldn't remember). His parents seemed hesitant to talk about him and Ibiki looked scary enough that Sasuke would rather not go up to him himself, though Sakura didn't seem to see anything wrong with him. He was nice to the girl, so maybe he wasn't bad, but the scars on his face honestly creeped him out.

Sakura couldn't see. Maybe that was why. He felt a pang of guilt at the thought, because didn't that mean he was judging a person for how they looked?

"What about the rebellion?" Sakura asked. "What happened to them?"

Sasuke cleared his thoughts and flipped open his book again.

Sakura was smart and that was the only reason she was able to keep up with her classmates, who had one huge advantage compared to her when it came from learning from a board. Because she couldn't see, she couldn't take notes for later revision, and that meant she had to listen to what the teacher was saying. She had to listen and learn everything in one go. He and Naruto often went over the class notes with her, but she more often than not did not need them to do so.

"The leader of the rebellion and the village council came to an agreement too," he told her. "Agricultural support was extended towards the people in exchange for military aid."

Sakura often told them she would do better in the practicals, which would be a part of the syllabus the following year. Sasuke thought she was doing plenty good already, but he guessed it was difficult to be confident about something when you couldn't see your own success. In Sakura's case, it was literally too.

Sakura nodded to herself. "I think I'm good," she said, grinning. "Thanks again."

Sasuke grinned back. "No problem."

Morino Ibiki looked scary, but Naruto felt like he was more intense than he was frightening.

And he seemed plenty nice to his friend who in turn loved the man very much, so he honestly could not be that scary.

Apart from on their first day, the man did not come with Sakura to school, nor did he come to pick her up. The girl did not seem to mind at all, more than content to make her way alone, but both he and Sasuke insisted on walking her. That gave them plenty of time to hang around the playground when either his or Sasuke's mother was here, and pester Itachi or Shisui when said older Uchiha were on accompanying duty.

"Ibiki's busy," Sakura told them often. "He doesn't seem busy, but he is. He's very important."

She would head straight to the TI building after school and they'd wave goodbye to her before she rushed through the doors and he and Sasuke went their respective ways, but today there was a man standing at the doors. He looked up when they approached, a wide grin on his face. "Sakura-chan! Your classmates?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. Naruto and Sasuke. And Shisui."

"Hello, Hagane-san," Shisui, their current accompaniment, greeted.

"Shisui! It's been a while!" Kotetsu waved, then turned back to Sakura. "Ibiki's taking a little longer than expected," he said. "He said you should go home without him."

Sakura's eyes widened. "He promised me dango today," she said.

"Oh," Kotetsu looked apologetic. "Maybe he can take you tomorrow?"

Sakura nodded. "Okay," she said. "I want two different sauces. Do you think he'll get me two different sauces?"

Kotetsu laughed and ruffled her pink locks. "You can sure ask."

Anyone who bought dango for someone else had to be a good man.

Sakura looked satisfied and she turned to face them. "I guess I'm heading home then."

"We'll walk you home," Sasuke instantly said.

Naruto nodded and held out a hand, which the girl took without hesitation. "Let's go, Sakura-chan!"

Ibiki knew Sakura's friends were scared of him. He was long used to it, really. Children too young to realize what his scars meant found them disgusting and those old enough to understand knew what exactly he was no matter how much he tried to hide it.

As someone had once said, you were either a hero, or you were a shinobi.

Perhaps that had been what allowed Sakura to wheedle her way into his heart. She saw so much, and at the same time, she saw less than anyone in the world. Her vision made it so that her understanding of things were different from the rest of them and perhaps she would never fully be able to understand how things worked for those who could see normally.

She saw truth, she could not see masks, and Ibiki sometimes wondered if that was a good thing. People made masks for a reason, after all.

As if summoned by his thoughts, the doors to the TI building was thrown open and said pink-haired girl marched in.

Ibiki had been in the lobby area by chance. Of course, his need to stretch his legs could not have been ignored for a second longer, he most definitely did not know Sakura would be arriving.

Of course.

"Ibiki!"

The girl ran over towards him, a bright smile on her face. She gripped at his shirt and immediately started trying to tell him what she had done in the academy during the morning, before, and after lunch, all at once.

Ibiki listened. He might have pretended to not sometimes, but he did. If anyone called him out on it, it would be because he would rather listen to her ramble, than have her turn to Anko for entertainment. The first time Ibiki found out exactly what kind of 'stories' Anko had been telling Sakura, blood had rushed to his head so fast he worried he would faint.

He had been late for his daily leg stretching, and when he arrived at the lobby Sakura had already been there. With Anko. She had been listening to Anko talk.

He reminded himself to tell her anyone who wanted brain cells should avoid doing that as much as possible. He carefully inched forward.

"-And then the drunk tried to run! He looked pathetic, really. He could barely walk straight and he was trying to outrun a bad-ass, awesome kunoichi like Anko-sama over here." Anko smirked down at Sakura's wide eyes, as though she could feel Ibiki's horrified gaze boring into her back. "I caught him in a blink of an eye, and then the bastard pulled out a kunai. Of course, in front of me, it wouldn't have been any different from a toothpick. And then I just pummeled the fuc-"

Ibiki swooped in, abruptly cutting off Anko's story.

"What the hell?" The woman asked angrily. She yanked out a kunai and waved it threateningly.

"Go corrupt someone else," Ibiki growled. He set Sakura down on the ground.

"But Ibiki~" Sakura whined. "I want to hear about what happened to the bastard that dared to stand up to Anko-sama."

Bastard...did she even know what it meant? Ibiki felt himself pale even more and he could feel Anko smirking at him. "If you forget everyone she said, I'll promise to let you eat dango for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole week."

Sakura's eyes brightened and she stuck her pinky out. Ibiki sighed before crouching and hooking his own around her's.

He had begun Taijutsu training for her the following day. That should make up for all the calories.

Two years passed in a flash.

They worked their way through the syllabus, a luxury Sakura understood was possible only because of their current times of peace. She followed the best she could through theory lessons and was excited as everyone when, finally, they started practical lessons. They spent mornings doing kata and had lessons on projectile throwing and taijutsu. They learnt hand signs and were taught to use easy jutsu.

Something Sakura had no problem with, much to her best friends' annoyance. Her grades were at the top of her class when it came to almost anything physical.

Itachi was lucky enough that his brother's first day of his third year overlapped with his break. He had just returned from a mission and unless there was an emergency, he would be off the roster for a few days. He walked with Sasuke as the latter chattered on about the curriculum. They made a small detour to meet Naruto at a park before they made their way over to Ibiki's house to pick up Sakura.

The pink-haired girl was standing in front of her house when they arrived and both boys broke away from his side to go greet her.

"How've you been, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"We saw her yesterday, Dobe," Sasuke muttered.

"What'd you say-"

Sakura wagged her fingers in front of their faces. "Guys." She then turned towards him, a wide smile on her face. "Hello, Itachi-san!"

Itachi nodded in greeting, noting that she was now looking directly into his eyes. The last time they properly talked had been a while ago, and she had missed his eyes by a small distance more often than not. He wondered if she had been practising.

Sakura turned towards the house behind her. "Ibiki! I'm gonna go now!"

Ibiki appeared at the door, already dressed in his Shinobi attire. He eyed him before offering him a stiff nod, one he politely returned. "Be careful."

Sakura nodded, and she followed the three males out onto the streets.

"We have fighting stuff today, right?" Naruto exclaimed, leaning back with his arms crossed behind his back. "I can't wait!"

"Neither can I!" Sakura chirped.

"Taijutsu, not 'fighting stuff'," Sasuke said at the same time.

Sakura hummed. "Still. I'll beat up everyone, so you just watch."

"Hey! I'm gonna be strongest!" Naruto interrupted.

"Hn. You wish," Sasuke huffed,

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.

Itachi followed closely being, feeling childishly ignored. Sasuke had been talking to him until they had met up with Naruto. He rarely got to spend time with his brothers these days.

He caught Sakura looking back at him from the corner of her eye and he inwardly winced.

It was hard to remember that this innocent looking girl could see through even the most well-concealed feelings and emotions. His mask of indifference didn't matter because she couldn't see his face. Instead, she looked right into his soul.

Sakura blinked, then smiled back at him. "Itachi-san? What's the Genin graduation test like?" She asked. Immediately, Naruto and Sasuke turned to him eagerly.

"Right! Tell us, Itachi-teme!"

"Nii-san, tell us!"

Itachi allowed a small smile to grace his lips.

Yes, she was very interesting indeed.

I just posted my first MHA fanfic, so if you're interested, here's the summary for it!

Price (My Hero Academia):

In a crueller world, Ochako realizes that hoping will never get her anywhere. She willingly takes her first step into villainy and is unknowingly led the rest of the way in by a man who buys her loyalty. Years too late she realizes the truth, and she can only hope that if she cannot be a hero in all senses of the word, maybe she can at least be one for those she cares for.

Chapter five friends! I'm midway through rewriting the next chapter, though the next next chapter is already done, soo...yeah.

Read and Review!