"Hina-baa-san. I got some water for you," Sakura offered demurely as she held out a glass of water. In front of her, the Haruno's next door neighbor peered confusedly at the glass through her thick, wire rimmed spectacles.

Hina Raichi was an aged woman with as many wrinkles as she had thin, grays strands of hair. She typically wore long skirts and heavy shawls even during the summer; Sakura suspected she had issues with her blood circulation dur to her inability to keep warm. Hina kept her hair pulled back in a well-kept bun but didn't appear stern at all. Rather, the laugh lines and crow's feet that adorned her face hinted at a much more gleeful youth.

As Hina peered bemusedly at the murky contents of the glass, Sakura did her best to appear innocent. Within the glass, two sleeping tablets had been dissolving for quite some time and now only left a foggy residue behind. With any luck, old miss Hina would (rightfully) assume that her eyes weren't as good as they used to be and would drink the glass without any questions.

Once the drugs entered Hina's system, it would only be half an hour more of knitting lessons before the elderly lady was out.

Sakura struggled not to grin.

"Sakura-chan, did you get this straight from the tap? Not anywhere else?" Hina questioned Sakura. Sakura tilted her head to the side by about thirty degrees and blinked twice in false bewilderment.

"Where else would I get water, Hina-baa-san?" Sakura asked, making sure to look genuinely curiously. Sure enough, Hina's eyes pinched at the corners in fondness before the woman reached out to lay a hand on top of Sakura's hair.

"Of, course. Sorry, Sakura-chan. Obaa-san's being silly." Hina smoothed Sakura's hair down a few times and smiled lovingly down at the child. Sakura smiled back, showing her teeth this time. Normally, she smiled with her mouth shut because she thought baring her teeth was too much like a challenge. Yet today, she felt it… oddly appropriate that she bare her… fangs. Sakura's eyes glittered malevolently.

Thirty minutes later, Sakura carefully approached the snoring form of Hina.

Poke.

…

Poke?

Poke. Poke. Poke.

Sakura nodded to herself, allowing a satisfied upturn of her lips to appear on her face. Hina was out.

Time to get to work.

First, she hurried into the half bath down the hall for some of Mommy's emergency bobby pins. Then, the little girl hurried over to the third room in the house: Oka-san's office. She carefully bent the bobby pin into the position she had found worked best and rubbed her aching fingers afterwards. Sakura pouted silently. Bobby pins were so hard to bend with her little hands! She couldn't wait till she was bigger and stronger.

Momentary pouting over, Sakura carefully inserted the newly made lock pick into the locked knob and began to carefully jiggle. For most other locks, Sakura would need something of a much higher quality and sophistication. Luckily, the locks in the Haruno house were cheap when they were new and hadn't exactly improved over the long years since then.

Click!

The door popped open. Sakura bared her teeth in victory before carefully stepping inside.

The older Haruno's office was kept neat. The wooden desk in the center held a few carefully organized documents along with an ink well and some blank paper. Along the back wall, a wide window delivered hazy, diluted light through the cheap blinds. On another wall, several large bookshelves held a few tomes and knickknacks. Opposite the bookshelves, a few heavy-duty filing cabinets leaned against the other wall.

Sakura looked around hesitantly. She'd only been in here a few times as Mebuki didn't like allowing her daughter into her work area. Slowly, the child approached the desk and peered carefully at the few papers left on the desk. She frowned. None of these had Mommy's signature.

Strange green eyes flickered over to the filing cabinets. Mommy said those had confidential things in them. Therefore, something in there likely had Oka-san's signature.

Sakura nodded to herself and peered at the filing cabinets. All of them were locked, but only one of them was in good repair. The other three were old and were likely easy to pick. Sakura peered curiously at the obviously new and expensive filing cabinet but left it alone. She could see what looked like an explosive tag peeking out from under the bottom of the cabinet. Sheesh, Mom was paranoid.

Just as Sakura had done with the door, Sakura picked the lock on the oldest, most run-down filing cabinet. Compared to the lock on the door, the cabinet was easy.

Once she opened the cabinet drawer, Sakura peered at the different colored files within.

"Eenie, meenie, miney, moe, catch an enemy nin by the toe…" Sakura whispered softly. She picked a teal blue folder and opened it carefully. "String him up, ask him why, and if he cries stab him with a kunai." Inside, several documents bearing her mother's signature looked back at her. Sakura carefully pulled out a few spare pieces of paper and a pen. "What is his blood? If its earth, burn him dry, if its water, boil it high, if its wind, devour and fan, and if its lightning run and hide. Avoid the strike and burn their heart. Sign their body with fire's mark." Sakura flipped the top of her mother's folders upside down. She focused on the shapes her mother's writing made, rather than the word itself and carefully began copying her mother's signature. After a dozen attempts, Sakura finally felt ready. From within her blouse, Sakura pulled out the permission form the Hokage had given her. Like her mother's document, Sakura placed the paper upside down. Then, holding her breath to avoid accidental movement in her body, she carefully forged Mebuki Haruno's signature on the academy permission form. Sakura smiled and allowed two unnaturally sharp canines to slip through her lips when she was done.

"For we are fire's children and we burn just as hot." Sakura repeated the line she'd heard from some clan children at the park. It seemed to fit her emotional state nicely in that moment.

Sasuke puffed out his chest. Before him stood the door to Tou-san's study. Normally, the door caused Sasuke no end of trepidation; he often resorted to sneaking past it to get to the playroom. Yet today… today he'd be going in there on a mission: to gain early access to the academy. In his hand, one of the academy permissions slips was scrunched up tightly from where he had stolen it from one of his older cousins. If Aniki knew Sasuke was doing this, he'd probably disapprove of it. But Sasuke had to do this! He wanted to be just like his Aniki so that means being strong and a really amazing ninja! Yet anytime Sasuke asked about early admission into the academy, Aniki always looked so upset. The older boy would take Sasuke aside and try to tell him that Sasuke should do things at his own pace, and that there was nothing wrong with being a little slower than Itachi-niisan was.

Yes, Sasuke understood that things happened in their own time. But that didn't mean he wanted to wait around for ages for his turn at the academy! He wanted to become a super strong ninja now! There wasn't anything wrong with gaining a head start! It wasn't as if he could graduate right now anyway. Post-war regulations didn't like graduating academy kids before a certain age. All Sasuke would really be doing is extra training and meeting a few of his elder (future) comrades. Granted, Sasuke hoped that administration would be willing to bend the rules a little and let him slide through, but that was beside the point.

Steeling himself with one final breath, Sasuke knocked on his father's door. A moment passed.

"Come in," Fugaku's demanding tone came out slightly muffled from within the office. Sasuke opened the door and peeked inside. The elder Uchiha was sitting behind his traditional Japanese desk in seiza position. One hand held a inked brush slightly above what looked to be some sort of official looking document. The lighting form the window behind Fugaku made him appear imposing while the dark wooden bookshelves lining the adjacent walls did little to help. Sasuke stepped inside quietly and closed the door behind him.

"Well?" Fugaku asked curtly once Sasuke had turned to face the Uchiha clan head. "Why have you disturbed my work?"

"I've come seeking your permission regarding early entrance to the academy." Sasuke murmured. Seeing his father's lips parting to form a denial, Sasuke hurried to finish his request. "Please! I know that it is dangerous for me to attend so early, but I know I can succeed and achieve honor for the Uchiha clan!"

Fugaku paused, a spark seeming to have lit within his eyes.

"Dangerous?" Sasuke blinked but answered Fugaku's odd question.

"Yes, most shinobi who graduate early receive more injuries and die sooner than shinobi that graduate with their age group. They are also less likely to form lasting relationships and bonds than if they were in their own age group… but that doesn't mean I will be at risk! I promise you, father, I will train hard and become a shinobi you will be proud of! I won't fail." Sasuke promised. He subconsciously stood a little straighter as his father leveled a stern eye over him. Fugaku seemed to be evaluation something for after a moment the man sighed and quirked his lips upwards in a mockery of a smile.

"Very well, Sasuke. If you think you attend the academy, I will give my permission for an early admission." Fugaku held at his hand for Sasuke's permission slip and Sasuke excitedly passed it over. The elder Uchiha signed it with a flourish before waving his hand in dismissal. Sasuke obediently began to leave the room only to be stopped by the sound of his father's voice.

"Oh, and Sasuke?" Fugaku called.

"Yes, father?" Sasuke asked as he turned to look back into the study form his place at the door.

"Make sure not to say anything to your big brother about this. He's been so busy lately and I'm sure it would be the perfect surprise to cheer him up." Fugaku's eyes glittered in the darkness of his silhouette and for a moment Sasuke had to fight the urge to shiver in fear. Sitting like that, so intent and cast in shadow; Sasuke's father seemed more some kind of a monster than a man.

Sasuke left the room and shut the after he nodded his assent to his father's wishes. It didn't matter what his father did or didn't look like in the morning light. Sasuke had already gotten his permission to enter the academy early. Surely, everything would be alright if he could become like his big brother?

Naruto hummed happily as he packed away his sandwich into his bento box. Today was the day he would get to take the academy entrance exam. Jiji had worked with him till dinnertime yesterday to make sure he was ready for it. Granted, it was a lot of reading and writing that Naruto wasn't really fond of, but at least her could finally read the word 'finish' without having to sound it out. Naruto tied the ties on his bento box bag before heading out the door. The blond child pulled out the key on his necklace and carefully locked his apartment door. Then he headed off to the academy.

The ninja academy was situated to the north of village, near the Hokage tower and the ninja administration building. Naruto didn't really understand why it was there, but Jiji had just said it was more defensible and closer to the administration in case of an emergency.

As it was, Naruto lived slightly to the Southwest of the village center, so he simply hurried towards the market square. From there, he dodged food carts and vendors to make his way to the northbound main road.

As he headed northward, the houses became grander and the streets became cleaner. Well groomed trees dotted the sides of the road as Naruto passed into the area run and inhabited by Konoha's more wealthy families. If Naruto were to turn Westward, he would reach the Uchiha compound. Turning East would send him to the Hyuuga compound. Naruto ignored these options however and continued northward until he made it to the ninja academy.

The academy was technically connected to the Hokage tower, but it was painted white with red roof shingles and had a smaller door leading into it. The academic section of the building was off to the left side of the grand doors leading to the administrative portion. Normally, Naruto would rush through those doors and jump the secretary's desk to get to Jiji's office, but today her was here for actually business so he walked over to the side entrance that led to the academy portion of the building. Already, several parents and children stood about outside. Some were even still filling out the paperwork required to get in. Naruto's own paperwork had been filled out ages ago and was safely stored in his back pocket.

Naruto hurried over to his swing to wait. There were still a few minutes until they would open the academy doors and he was hoping to see Sakura before he had to take the test. Yet, as time ticked on, Naruto didn't see Sakura. More older children and families gathered, but the blonde saw no sign of his new friend. Worry and even a little resentment began to curl in Naruto's chest. Why wasn't Sakura here? If she took much longer, she wouldn't be able to enter the academy with him. Did she not want to be friends with him anymore?

Abruptly the academy doors opened. A young man with a scar across his nose came out.

"We're ready to begin now." The young man called. "I'm called Iruka Umino and I'll be helping you sign your children in. Once they've been signed in, another chunin teacher will take them to the rooms we'll be testing them in. You are free to wait in the welcoming hall and enjoy the refreshments there." Once he had said his piece, Umino stepped back inside the school, but left the door open for others to follow. Immediately, parents and children hurried to head inside.

Naruto bit his lip. Where was Sakura? He had just stood to follow the rest of the crowd inside when he heard his name being called.

"Naruto! Naruto!" Naruto looked back towards the main road just in time to see a pink and green streak tip headfirst into a pile of leaves.

Naruto blinked.

"Sakura-chan!" He cried out, alarmed. That pile of leaves was huge! Would she die from lack of air? Naruto raced over and grabbed one Sakura's flailing hands. One big tug later, and Naruto found himself with a lap full of pink and red. Sakura blinked up at him innocently before smiling brightly.

"Naruto!" The pink haired child then proceeded to wrap her arms around Naruto's center and hug him tightly. Naruto grinned at the friendly contact. Sakura couldn't not like him if she was hugging him, right?

"Hey, are you two taking the entrance exam? If not then please leave the area to play, the students need quiet to test well." The scarred ninja had stuck his head out of the door to peer at them. All of the other children and the adults had entered the building already. Naruto jumped up and tugged Sakura to her feet.

"We're taking the test!" He shouted loudly. "Don't start without us!" He ran into the ninja academy with Sakura right behind him. The ninja pinched his nose and seemed irritated.

"I just said to be quiet. If you're going to take the exam you need to use your inside voice." Iruka groaned as he led them inside and shut the door behind them. Turning, the teenager cast a shrewd eye on the both of them, frowning especially hard at Naruto.

"You don't have any adults with you. Do you have a permission slip with your guardian's signature on it?" Iruka asked.

Naruto nodded eagerly and produced his crumpled form. Jiji's signature rested proudly on the dotted line. Sakura pulled out her own neatly folded form and showed off her mother's signature. Naruto thought it looked much more fancy that Jiji's signature.

"All right, then go-" Iruka started to gesture towards a table set up further down the hall with two chunin manning it but was interrupted by a sharp but insistent rapping on the door. Iruka sighed but turned back to the door and pulled it open. A short, dark haired child awaited him. The pale skin tone and spiky hair marked him as an Uchiha just as much as the fan on his back and the navy-blue clothing did. However, a surprisingly warm set of red-brown eyes sat just above his nose and made Iruka wonder what fluke of genetics or parental mix had allowed the child to gain such different features. Normally, the Uchiha were extremely picky on who they allowed to marry into the clan. Surely, this child would never be able to gain the clan's awe-inspiring doujutsu. He just didn't have the right eyes for it. Maybe something else would develop…?

"I'm here for the academy entrance exam," the boy announced. He thrust his permission slip forward as though afraid it wouldn't be recognized. Iruka gave him a blank look before gesturing towards the booth he had been pointing to earlier.

"That's the sign in station. Please take your form over there and receive a name tag. After that, one of the proctors will lead you to the testing room." Iruka directed. The boy nodded and began to hurry past Naruto and Sakura.

"Hey! I know you!" Naruto burst out as he pointed at Sasuke. The Uchiha blinked at the offending limb and traced it back to Naruto. He blanched. Why was the ramen crybaby here?

"What are you doing here? Aren't you too little to be here?" Sasuke asked. Naruto blinked.

"I'm not short! And I can be here if I want to be here!" Naruto's cheeks reddened at the perceived insult. Sasuke cast a disdainful eye over Naruto. To his eyes, Naruto looked far to young to be at the academy or left without adult supervision.

"Yeah right, didn't your parents ever tell your not to wander to places you shouldn't be?" Sasuke scoffed. "And you're being rude too." Sasuke added as he looked back at the offending finger still pointed at his face. A look of hurt flashed quickly across Naruto's face before the blonde hid it away again. Immediately, the Uzumaki plastered a huge grin across his face.

"I don't need parents. I'm so indi-dipendent that I'm allowed to wive all alone! I can even make my own food!" Naruto declared. He stuck his hands on his hips and thrust his skinny chest out boldly. Sasuke briefly looked puzzled before a look of horror passed over his visage.

"You're an orphan?" Sakura asked. She had come to the same conclusion that Sasuke had. Her eyes crinkled at the corners and a small frown wove its way onto her lips. Naruto looked surprised for a moment before giving a hesitant nod. Something strange lingered in his eyes. It didn't really match the smile he was struggling to keep on his face. The young Haruno immediately turned to Sasuke and took a partial step in front of Naruto. Unbidden, one of the phrases she had heard her mom say to stupid people popped into her head. She didn't really understand what it meant (mother said it had a no-no word and wouldn't tell her what it meant) but it always seemed to get results.

"You shouldn't assume. It just makes an ass out of you and me." Sakura carefully, but forcefully, recited. Sasuke blinked in confusion while Naruto gaped before bursting out into laughter. Meanwhile, Iruka was shocked and struggled to regain his breath while his eyes appeared as if they would pop out of his head.

"Okay, children. I th-think its time to get you registered now!" Iruka hurried forward and began to usher them forward. He sent the Uchiha child to one ninja working registration and the two other children to the other. Sakura bared her fangs triumphantly. Nobody messed with her friends! HA!

The testing rooms were simply classrooms. They held about sixteen desks in each, so five rooms had to be utilized in order to properly hold all of the ninja academy applicants. Luckily, the classrooms were assigned by randomizing the alphabet, so Naruto and Sakura were placed in the same testing classroom. The fact that the rude, dark-haired boy was not placed in the same room as they were was merely the icing on the cake to Sakura. They were even placed next to each other!

"Alright everyone. This is the ninja academy entrance exam. This will be a timed test. It has twenty-five questions. Ten questions will be on grammar and reading. Ten questions will be on math. Five questions will be on social understanding. You will have one hour to complete this test. Any unanswered questions will count against your score, so I suggest you answer all of them, even if only with a guess." A blank faced Chunin announced from the front of the room. His partner, a younger female ninja with short black hair, passed out the tests.

"You may begin." The male Chunin intoned. Sakura hurriedly grabbed her pencil and started in. First up were the math questions. Most of them were basic addition and subtraction, though there was one multiplication problem phrased as a word problem hidden in the middle of the questions. Sakura answered them with ease before glancing over at Naruto. He seemed to be doing well; though he had his tongue stuck out in concentration he was still answered the questions quickly. Sakura nodded to herself and turned to the grammar and reading comprehension. These weren't hard at all. Sakura was used to much harder to read words and phrases from her science books. However, she Sakura looked at Naruto from out of the corner of her eyes, he appeared to be struggling. His eyebrows were screwed up and the constant scratching of his pencil had slowed. Sakura frowned.

Thinking quickly, she carefully tapped the eraser head of her pencil on the desk in front of her. Then, as if she were having trouble with a problem, she went to chew on the end of it, but 'accidentally' dropped it instead. The pencil made a loud sound as it hit the ground and successfully garnered Naruto's attention. As she grabbed it, she made sure to tap his foot three times with the pencil before returning upright. Hoping that her antics had gone unnoticed by the Chunin, Sakura nervously drew the pound symbol at the top of her desk with her fingers. The Haruno tried to make it look like idle movement due to nerves but wasn't sure how well she did. In lieu of being more discreet, Sakura made sure to focus on the papers in front of her.

She wasn't called out however, and when Naruto began to tap his eraser on his desk she felt as if she were on top of the world. His pencil hit the desk seven times before stopping.

Question number seven.

Sakura read through it again and nodded to herself. If any of these were slightly harder than the others it would have been number seven.

7. Which word best completes the following sentence?

Tobi did not _ before the test and failed it.

Sleep

Eat

Study

Read

Sakura knew that Naruto had problems pronouncing longer words and that math was his strong suit rather than reading. She also knew that he didn't quite understand how all the letters were put together yet. So, in hindsight, it wasn't too surprising that he would have trouble with this question. Sakura quickly began to tap her finger on the side of the desk in a repetitive beat of three quick taps and then a pause.

A-B-C … A-B-C … A-B-C…

The continued scratching of Naruto's pencil rewarded her efforts and Sakura allowed herself a smile. Unfortunately, a glance at the test proctor had her insides freezing in fear. Both Chunins' eyes were right on her.

For one long moment, Sakura felt as if her heart would jump out of her chest as she held the male Chunin's gaze. After a moment, the Chunin broke their stalemate with a huff and a look away. His younger partner followed his lead and also removed her attention from Sakura. For one dumbstruck moment, Sakura felt her eyes widen and her breath catch. What? They knew she was cheating, and she wasn't in trouble?

Sakura glanced over at Naruto and met the blonde's own shocked visage. He had noticed too. They had cheated, been caught, and not gotten into trouble somehow. Slowly, a grin began to appear in Naruto's eyes as some sort of lightbulb went off behind his blue eyes. Sakura tilted her head at him before having her own epiphany. This was a ninja exam. Of course, they weren't going to be in trouble for cheating. So long as it wasn't blatantly obvious, cheating was probably encouraged as a good base for later ninja skills. Sakura bared her teeth in pleasure before turning back to her test. Naruto did the same.

From then on, the two went through the test together, using their improvised code whenever one of them found difficulty in discerning the correct answer. Surprisingly, Sakura found herself completely stumped on the final five questions. These were the social knowledge questions and she had no idea what they were talking about.

What in the world was 'beating around the brush'? And weren't humans by definition 'under the weather' as they all lived on the earth and not somewhere in space?

Luckily, Naruto was able to help her with these. Apparently beating around brush referred to avoiding the subject and being under the weather was used to imply that someone was ill. None of the answers for the social knowledge made sense to her with partial exception to the last one: when it was raining cats and dogs, the Inuzuka clan had let out their dogs to run wild in the streets. She wasn't all that sure why the verb 'raining' was used but if the Inuzuka clan ever just let their animals run wild in the streets, Sakura was sure they'd end up chasing Konoha's cat population and it would feel like it was raining cats and dogs then.

Or at least, that's what Naruto seemed to believe as that was the answer he gave her.

At any rate, they completed the exam with what Sakura expected to be perfect scores. Afterwards, the two of them stopped by the park and swung for a little while before Sakura had to hurry home in order to beat her mother back and make sure to give her minder the antidote to the sleeping tonic the woman had unknowingly ingested earlier. Next time, she'd need to make a faster acting one. Sakura had almost been late to the exam that morning!

Sasuke walked home happily. He had known all the answers to all of the questions on the entrance exam! Surely his brother would be proud? Sasuke hadn't told Itachi-ni-san that he was going to take the academy entrance exam, but now that he'd done so well, Sasuke couldn't wait for Aniki to come home from his latest mission. Still though…

The thought of the young blonde and the pink haired girl popped into Sasuke's mind. The young Uchiha frowned. He hadn't thought the boy was an orphan. If he had known, Sasuke would never had spoken about the child's parents like that. He would have gladly shown more of what his mother called 'tact' in telling the kid not to point fingers. Though… he didn't really know what the pink girl meant when she had told him off about what he said. What was an ass? Why would assuming turn him into one?

Maybe he should ask Aniki when he came back? Aniki seemed to know everything.

Gonna be honest and say that I procrastinated starting this one and when I did finally get to work on it, I found myself only able to right a few sentences before being stuck. Well... except for that first bit. I had that creepy Sakura moment planned for ages and was really excited to work on it. Well, was it creepy enough for the spawn of Orochimaru stuck in a military village that excels in creating child soldiers?

And... poor Sasuke. He's so innocent from being raised as a rich kid. Like, seriously. I know that in cannon his brother seriously messed him up, but I was surprised by how nitty-gritty he was able to get without having some sort of shock response or something from not being exposed to anything resembling the dark side of things (aside from the night his brother murdered everyone). I mean, he was raised pretty nicely even after his clan was killed, so I would think he'd still be somewhat of a posh rich kid deep-deep-deep inside.

And in other news... I am apparently still on track to graduate on time. Hallelujah! I'm sooooo relieved. I've changed majors four times since I started college and I'm only halfway through my third year.