January 27th, 999 A.S.
Location: Academy – Standard Class 2-B, Morning
The classroom felt colder than usual that morning. The windows were still frosted over from the night's deep chill, and the pale sunlight struggled to warm the tiled floor. Yet the real absence—the one Sakura felt in her chest—was not the cold air, but the empty desk beside her.
Naruto's desk.
She stared at it longer than she meant to, her eyes fixed on the scuffed grooves on the wood, the faint scratch-marks where he'd once carved a crude attempt at a spiral. It was the desk where he used to fall asleep halfway through math lessons, the desk where he'd drawn stick-figure doodles of himself as Hokage and tried to pass her notes that made no sense but always made her smile.
And now it was empty.
The rest of the class filtered in slowly, like nothing had changed. Kiba barked a joke that made a few kids laugh. One of the Yamanaka cousins whispered something rude about Naruto's "promotion," followed by a snort of dismissal. But it all sounded distant, muffled, as if she were hearing it underwater.
Ino slid into the seat beside her and wrapped her arms around Sakura's shoulders from behind, her cheek resting on the back of her friend's head.
"You okay?"
"No," Sakura whispered, not even pretending.
"Want to talk about it?"
She shook her head.
Ino sighed, hugging her a little tighter. "He's not gone, you know. He's just... in a different class."
Sakura nodded silently, but that wasn't what she meant.
It wasn't about not seeing him every day—though that hurt. It was that something in her had grown around him like ivy on an old wall. She missed the way he looked at her like she was worth following, worth listening to. Like she was someone important, someone who made things better. In a world full of indifferent faces and cold silences, Naruto had looked at her like she mattered.
And now she couldn't tell him just how much that meant.
Because she didn't fully understand it herself.
Was this how her mother had felt before choosing her father? That strange ache in the chest that wasn't just about loss but about belonging? And worse, about fear—the fear that if she didn't say something soon, someone else would claim that space in his heart while she was still sorting through hers.
Sakura's throat tightened.
She didn't want to be one of those girls fawning after him just because he was stronger now. But shewasfawning—quietly, inwardly, against her own will. And she hated herself for being too scared to say it aloud.
As Iruka entered and began to call the class to order, Ino gave one last squeeze and whispered, "He misses you too, you know. He'll come back to you. He always does."
Sakura wanted to believe that.
But when she looked over at his empty desk, all she felt was the echo of the boy who used to laugh beside her, who was now gone to chase something she couldn't yet follow.
January 27th, 999 A.S.
Location: Academy – Advanced Shinobi Training Class A-1, Afternoon
Naruto's Age: 10 Classmates' Age: 12–13
The moment Naruto walked into the advanced classroom, the atmosphere shifted like a breeze cutting through still air. Conversations faltered. Eyes turned. Half the kids looked confused. The other half, skeptical.
The advanced class was held in a slightly smaller room, but one far better equipped. Chalkboards lined with advanced jutsu formulas. A training dummy sealed into a corner wall. A half-disassembled summoning seal marked with annotations in red ink. Naruto blinked—this was a different world entirely.
He adjusted the new scroll case strapped to his back and walked toward the desk Iruka had told him would be his, near the back beside a cracked window.
At ten, he was the youngest in the room by at least two years. He could feel it in the way they sized him up—not just with their eyes, but with chakra. Sharp, confident, honed edges of power flared from half the kids around him.
Still, Naruto smiled and sat down. He refused to shrink.
"Is this a prank?" someone murmured to the left.
"Or a test," another whispered, snide. "They threw a runt in here to see how we react."
But not all the faces were hostile.
One leaned forward behind him, a girl with short-cut silver hair and goggles pulled up over her forehead. She offered a half-smile. "You're the seal prodigy, huh? I'm Shiori Tenma."
Naruto tilted his head. "Pro-what?"
She grinned wider. "That means you're good. Don't let the other jerks bother you."
A seat over, a tall boy with dusky brown skin and tightly braided hair yawned and gave Naruto a sideways glance. "I'm Hato Reijin. If you beat Shikamaru at Go, then I'm not betting against you."
Two others approached after class was called to order:
A lean, reedy boy with glasses and a voice too calm for his age,Nakamura Ren, who specialized in barrier formations.
A squat, quiet girl with a thunderstorm of chakra coiled under her skin namedTatsuki Renga, whose family ran one of the hidden blacksmith guilds in the northwestern ranges.
And finally,Kuro Yamada, who hadn't said a word, but gave Naruto a nod of respect before returning to sharpening a kunai.
These five would become, if not friends, then allies. Bonds forged in shared growth, discipline, and the quiet discomfort of being outliers. Shiori with her curiosity and open heart, Hato with his easy-going nature and battle instincts. Ren, precise and careful. Tatsuki, a fortress in human skin. Kuro, deadly quiet but reliable.
The first lesson that day was not a warm welcome. Instructor Matsuhiro—a lean ex-ANBU with a missing ear and zero sense of humor—pointed at Naruto during introductions.
"You. Uzumaki. Let's see if you can actually hold your own."
He tossed a chalkboard eraser at Naruto with an arcing throw powered by chakra. Fast.
Naruto blinked—and moved on instinct. His hand snapped up and caught it, just as he flared a small burst of chakra to steady his stance.
The class stilled.
Matsuhiro's eye narrowed, but he said nothing. Instead, he turned and began scribbling kanji forKetsueki Shōhei—"Blood Barrier" sealing techniques—on the board.
As the lecture began, Naruto glanced around. He saw a few smirks, a few stunned expressions.
But mostly, he saw what he'd always wanted—respect. Not the loud, boastful kind. The quiet nod of warriors recognizing another potential warrior.
And for the first time in his life, Naruto felt like he had stepped into a world where he belonged.
Still, he wondered, as he traced out the sealing formula on his worksheet, how Sakura was doing without him.
January 28th – February 18th, 999 A.S.
Location: Academy, Training Grounds, Haruno Household, Village Streets
Naruto's Age: 10 Sakura's Age: 9
The weeks following Naruto's promotion to the advanced class were a quiet transformation for Sakura Haruno—one marked by quiet defiance, hours of sleepless study, and the silent, aching determination of a girl unwilling to be left behind.
Each morning she sat in her regular class, desk by the window still turned half-toward the now-empty seat that once belonged to Naruto. Iruka noticed it. Ino saw it. Even the less observant boys began to note how the once-bubbly, sometimes self-conscious Sakura had grown distant and far more intense.
Gone were the long, meandering notes she used to pass to Ino during break periods. Now, her notebooks were filled with ink-scribbled diagrams of low-level seal matrices, chakra flow calculations, and handwritten hypotheses about modifying level one formulas with internalized chakra storage. Naruto had spoken of it before he left. She wanted to understand it—fully.
Her lunches were quieter, usually eaten beside Ino under the trees where Naruto once sat. Ino tried to lighten the mood with jokes and gossip, but even she realized that something had shifted inside her friend.
"He'll lap you in battle if you don't spar more, you know," Ino teased one afternoon while watching Sakura review a chakra control chart. "And when that happens, guess who's gonna be fighting fangirls over him."
Sakura didn't even blink. "Then I'll learn to hit harder."
Training Ground 3
February 5th, 999 A.S. Early Morning
Under the crisp haze of early morning frost, Sakura stood alone before a set of weighted wooden dummies. Kizashi had added them to the backyard, but Sakura now sought harder targets. This time, she practicedchakra-infused strikes—a technique Iruka had introduced as a theory, but one she wanted to perfect.
It hurt at first. Her control wasn't refined enough to keep the chakra from backfiring into her own wrist. But with each session, she improved. Her blows grew sharper. More precise.
By week's end, she cracked the outer plating of a dummy's chest.
At night, she asked Kizashi—sometimes even Naruto's name thrown in—to teach her how to read terrain, react to feints, and shift weight in a grapple. Kizashi watched her with a growing sense of awe and caution. The Haruno girl had always been clever. But now, she was becoming fierce.
Haruno Household Library Room
February 10th, 999 A.S. Evening
She began to draw seal patterns on the margins of her schoolbooks. At first, simple ones: a heating seal for a tea cup, a chakra-light lamp glyph, a scroll-lock ward. Then, emboldened by Naruto's stories and the memory of the storage seal he showed her weeks ago, she tried replication.
It took five scrolls and one minor singeing accident, but she eventually created a chakra-preservation seal capable of holding ten percent of her base chakra for thirty minutes.
"It's not what he made," she muttered one night, her fingers blackened with ash and ink, "but it's a start."
Her father watched from the doorway, not interfering. Mebuki watched too—but with far less comfort.
Naruto's Advanced Class – Academy Roof
February 13th, 999 A.S. Afternoon
Naruto had become something of a controlled storm in the advanced class. In the sparring ring, he was swift, unexpected, and confident. What he lacked in height and reach, he made up for in footwork, explosive power, and perfect chakra timing.
More than once, older boys twice his weight had been flipped or slammed to the floor.
And when he wasn't fighting, he was sealing.
By now, Naruto could create level-three seals: interlinked glyph matrices, delayed activation barriers, chakra-triggered smoke bursts. During a public class demonstration, he laid down a chakra-infused seal on a paper talisman that, when thrown, detonated in a flash of light and disorienting sound.
Even Matsuhiro, the stern instructor, nodded in begrudging approval.
Observation Post – Hidden Rooftop East of the Academy
February 15th–18th, 999 A.S. Various Times
Sai watched it all.
Every spar. Every seal. Every glance Naruto gave toward the window of the classroom he once sat in. Sai recorded the evolution of Naruto's body language, his growing confidence, the casual camaraderie with Shiori and Hato.
But what caught his attention even more was the way Naruto often stopped to look down into the training yard below—the standard class yard where Sakura now trained alone on weekends, hammering away at dummies, flinging kunai, and dragging her chakra across trees in near-tearful focus.
She never saw him watching. But Naruto always paused.
Sai recorded that too.
In his daily report to Danzo, he noted:
"Uzumaki continues accelerated growth. Advanced-level sparring and level-three sealing capability confirmed. Social bonds expanding—especially with peer group in advanced class. Sakura Haruno remains deeply tied to his emotional core. I am recalibrating approach accordingly. Observation ongoing."
But Sai, for the first time, did not end his report there.
In a quiet line not meant for Danzo, written in a cipher he'd been taught not to use, he added a second note:
Loyalty is power. This bond is not weakness. It may become the thing that makes him impossible to control.
February 25th, 999 A.S.
Location: Academy Courtyard Haruno Household Study Room Naruto's Letter
The ink was still drying when Sakura Haruno finally placed her brush down. Her pulse thundered in her ears—not from exertion, but from the tension offinality.She stared at the seal etched into the parchment before her, triple-checked the keystone runes, and closed her eyes.
Level two: Internal chakra modulation with anchor glyphs and release phasing.
No sense showing it to Naruto unless it actually works.
Sakura raised the scroll to chest level, rolled her chakra through her core like Kizashi had taught her, and pushed a focused stream into the center glyph.
The ink lit faintly—then flared with a steady pulse of blue light before fading.
It had worked.
A sharp breath escaped her lips, and before she knew it, she was already out the door, scroll in hand, sprinting down the academy corridor to find Iruka.
Academy Courtyard – 3:47 PM
Iruka was midway through collecting lesson plans for the next week when Sakura burst into the courtyard like a summer storm. He looked up in mild confusion, only to see the girl's eyes gleaming with determination and the proud, almost frantic excitement of a student whose confidence was finally catching up to her ambition.
"Sensei!" she called, waving the scroll overhead like a torch.
"Sakura?" He moved toward her, brows raised. "What is it?"
"I finished it. My first level-two seal. With stable containment and phase timing. I double-checked the matrices—I swear it's all correct."
Iruka took the scroll, unfolded it with care, and examined it for a full minute in silence. His eyes tracked the flow of the seal, the clean curves of each containment ring, and the steady symmetry of the chakra intake lines.
Finally, he gave her a long look, then smiled.
"Well, this is impressive. Not perfect," he said, tone warm but honest. "But it's functional, cleanly executed, and stable under moderate chakra loads. That puts you well ahead of most second-years."
Sakura's knees nearly buckled in relief.
Iruka handed it back. "How long did it take?"
"Three weeks. I messed up… alot.But I didn't stop."
"That's clear. If you're already grasping this, you'll be working with independent seals before summer."
Sakura didn't answer right away. Her thoughts were already moving forward—toward Naruto.
Haruno Household – Later That Evening 6:39 PM
Dinner was quiet. Mebuki remained cautious around her daughter, especially since the last argument about Naruto, while Kizashi had spent most of the evening re-reading village council notes. But when the plates had been cleared and the teapot settled in the center of the kitchen table, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded paper.
"Before you run off to study again," he said, "someone asked me to pass this along."
Sakura tilted her head, taking the paper with mild confusion. The parchment was thick, slightly creased, and faintly smelled of ink and old tree sap—the smell of the Academy's paper stock. But the moment she saw the handwriting, her heart jumped.
Naruto.
Her fingers tightened slightly as she unfolded the letter. Kizashi gave her space and quietly stepped away to leave her in peace.
Hey, Sakura.
Sorry I haven't been able to write sooner. They keep us real busy in the advanced class. The kids are older, and most of them know stuff I've never even heard of. Some of them can already make real jutsu! I don't think they like me yet, but I'm trying. There's one boy named Tetsuya who helped me learn a better way to flip someone using their shoulder instead of brute force. I used it in sparring! One girl, Hato, said my seal was "weird but cool." I hope that's a good thing.
I'm learning so much, but it's way harder than I thought. Sometimes I wish you were here. Not because I want you to be gone from your class—but because when it gets really hard, I think of you yelling at me to stop whining and get it done. That helps a lot.
I hope your seals are going good. I want to see what you made. When I get a break, maybe we can train again. Or talk. Or just walk to the market like before. I miss that.
Anyway… I better go. They're going to teach us multi-sequence glyphs next week. Whatever that is.
Naruto
By the time Sakura reached the end, her breath had turned shaky.
He missed her. Not just as a teammate. Not just as a study partner.
Buther.
She folded the letter slowly, tucked it against her chest, and walked upstairs to her room. She placed it under her seal manual, not to hide it—but to remind herself of why she needed to keep going.
That Night – Haruno Household Study Room, 9:10 PM
The lamplight danced across the sealing diagram as Sakura practiced a new glyph structure.
She redrew it five times that night—once with a more efficient chakra path. Once with a smaller key seal. Once in reverse-flow. And once blindfolded.
Each time she muttered under her breath:
"I won't be left behind. I won't let him carry this alone."
March 4th, 999 A.S.
Location: Academy Advanced Wing, Late Morning
The cold light of early spring cut through the thin frost on the windows of the advanced training hall. Naruto's hands were still scratched from the earlier scrollwork session, and he was halfway through sketching a new triple-loop chakra shunt when Iruka found him on the floor beside a ring of scrolls and ink pots.
"Uzumaki," Iruka said, smiling as he approached, holding a familiar scroll under his arm.
Naruto looked up, eyes bright. "Sensei! Did you get my new seal notes? I tried putting the keystoneunderthe surge node this time, and it didn't blow up!"
"I saw," Iruka said with a small laugh. "No explosions is always a good start."
He crouched beside Naruto and carefully handed over a second scroll—this one a student progress report, but with a name that wasn't Naruto's.
"Sakura Haruno," he said, watching Naruto's eyes dart over the seal sketch on the second page. "She finished a stable level-two containment seal yesterday. I tested it myself. Chakra anchoring held for five full seconds without a leak."
Naruto blinked, brows rising. "Sakura… really? That fast?"
"She's been pushing herself," Iruka said, tone gentle. "Probably harder than anyone else in your old class. You had something to do with that, I think."
Naruto stared at the scroll a little longer. A crooked smile grew on his lips.
"I knew she'd catch up," he said proudly, almost to himself. "She always figures it out when she stops trying to be perfect and justdoes it.I gotta make sure I stay ahead though," he added quickly, already reaching for a new brush.
But just as he dipped it in the ink—
"Hey."
The voice came from just behind him, soft and curious. When Naruto turned, he saw a pale-faced boy with black hair like a crow's feather and skin so devoid of warmth he seemed carved from cold rice paper. His eyes were blank, but not empty. Curious. Calculating.
"Sai," the boy said. "They said I should learn from you."
Naruto tilted his head. The other boy didn't blink or smile. His posture was perfect, too perfect—like someone who had memorized what a human should act like, without trulybeingone.
"Sai, huh?" Naruto said, wiping his fingers on his pants. "You new here?"
The boy nodded slowly.
"I've been watching you." He paused. "You are… strange. But competent."
Naruto blinked. Then smiled in that easy, toothy way that caught most people off guard.
"Strange but competent? I'll take it."
Sai didn't smile back, but he blinked—like he was processing the tone, the friendliness, and finding it… unfamiliar.
"I'd like to train with you," Sai said plainly.
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Sure, maybe later. Right now I gotta spar—hey, Kyouji!"
The older boy from the Gojin Clan—a third-year who'd been in the advanced class for nearly a year—had just walked in with a wooden practice staff across his shoulders.
"Spar starts now," Kyouji said, tapping the mat with his foot. "You ready, runt?"
Naruto grinned.
"Always."
He turned back to Sai briefly. "You can watch if you want. Might be fun."
Sai watched as Naruto jogged off, already spinning the staff in his hand with a reckless, wild grace that didn't seem to belong to a kid who once couldn't answer a full sentence without being laughed at.
The pale Root operative stood still, hands folded.
"Strange," Sai whispered again to himself. "And dangerous."
Root Surveillance Report, Filed That Night
Subject: Uzumaki Naruto
Evaluator: Operative Sai
Classification: Unstable Potential
Subject displays signs of rapid cognitive growth and social adaptability. Sealing proficiency increasing at exponential rate. Has retained interpersonal warmth despite marginalization. Likely influenced by sustained contact with Haruno Sakura and others. Initiating phase one contact. No overt suspicion from subject noted. Assessment: Root directives will require update within next evaluation window.
March 4th, 999 A.S.
Location 1: Advanced Training Hall – Early Afternoon
Location 2: General Academy Classroom – Concurrent
Location 1: Naruto's Sparring Match
The wooden mats of the advanced training hall absorbed the tension like a sponge. Around the sparring ring, several older students gathered, their eyes flickering between the tall, lanky Gojin Clan boy and the shorter, sharp-eyed blond who had been punching above his weight class since his first day.
Kyouji Gojin cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. His family was known for spear techniques and long-form taijutsu. He'd been told to test Naruto, but not to "go easy."
Naruto twirled the training staff in his hands once, then planted his feet, left forward, knees loose.
"Ready?" their instructor called from the side.
"Ready," Kyouji said, voice bored.
"Ready," Naruto said, eyes never leaving his opponent.
"Begin!"
Kyouji moved like a pendulum—fluid, long, and relentless. His first strike came in low, sweeping, aimed at knocking Naruto off his feet. Naruto hopped over it with barely a grunt, twisting his staff to intercept the follow-up.
Crack!
The two staves collided with a clatter of wood. Naruto twisted again, ducked, and drove a sharp jab toward Kyouji's ribs. The older boy stepped back, just enough to avoid contact, then launched into a rapid three-strike combo that forced Naruto into a tight spin. One hit grazed his arm.
But Naruto didn't falter.
He grinned.
He was reading the flow now—Kyouji's shoulders, his foot placement, the way his back foot twitched before a thrust. Naruto moved like a boy with something to prove, something he'd bled and read andearned—not because he had talent, but because he trained every morning before breakfast and every night when others were asleep.
He spun his staff low and struck up, catching Kyouji just under the chin. Not enough to break the skin, but enough to make him blink.
Naruto followed up with a jab to the midsection and a spinning sweep that brought the older boy crashing down.
The silence afterward was thick with disbelief.
Kyouji blinked up at the ceiling, stunned. Naruto stood over him, panting, sweat streaking down his temple.
A few students started clapping.
Naruto looked over and saw Sai watching him. The pale boy tilted his head, that same unreadable expression on his face.
Naruto didn't care.
He just smiled.
Location 2: General Class, Study Period – Same Time
Sakura sat with her arms folded on the desk, Naruto's letter unfolded neatly in front of her. The brushwork was clumsy, the grammar still a little off, but it was undeniablyhim.
"Class here is tough. Everyone's older. I think I made a friend but he's weird. I miss training seals with you. Don't fall behind or I'll have to teach you everything again! …P.S. I sparred a Gojin kid. Didn't lose."
The words had replayed in her mind all morning.
She barely noticed when Ino dropped into the seat beside her with two wrapped red bean buns and a smug look on her face.
"So," Ino said casually, biting into one. "Still moping over your boyfriend's scribbles?"
"He'snotmy boyfriend," Sakura snapped, too fast.
"Uh-huh," Ino said, licking some sugar off her thumb. "You blush every time his name comes up. You punch girls for looking at him too long. And you spendhoursdrawing seals like some obsessed little genius because he's two levels ahead of you."
Sakura flushed.
"I just don't want him to get too far ahead," she muttered.
Ino tilted her head. "You meanyou don't want to be left behind.There's a difference."
Sakura looked down at the scroll again. She could see the smudge where he'd made a mistake and tried to blot it out. She could picture his fingers, stained with ink, and that goofy grin when he finally got a seal to work.
"I just… I don't know how to say it," she whispered.
Ino softened, just a little.
"Then write it," she said. "Tell him what you're feeling. You think he wouldn't care? That boy practically sparkles when you smile at him. The whole class saw it. Iruka-sensei saw it.Isaw it."
Sakura didn't respond for a moment. But then she slowly pulled a fresh piece of paper from her desk. Her fingers hovered over it like she was afraid it might burn her.
"I don't want him to think I'm weak," she said quietly.
"Then don't be," Ino replied. "Be the girl he trains with, not the one who trails behind him."
Sakura finally dipped her brush in the ink.
March 5th – March 28th, 999 A.S.
Locations: Advanced Class Training Grounds Haruno Home Academy Grounds
[Location: Advanced Class Training Grounds – March 5th, Late Afternoon]
Sai stood half-shrouded in the shadow of a tree just beyond the ring of students dispersing after sparring drills. His pale fingers curled gently around his sketchbook, though he had not drawn anything for over ten minutes. His eyes remained fixed on Naruto.
The boy's stamina was excessive for his size, Sai noted. His reflexes still unrefined in some areas, but the application of prediction models—likely learned from sparring with the Nara boy—had made him preternaturally adaptive. He countered faster. He moved more deliberately.
Most disturbing of all, from Root's perspective, was the consistency. Naruto was not improving in bursts like most young shinobi. He climbed like ivy—day by day, quietly, relentlessly, until you looked up and realized he had reached a height that demanded attention.
Sai had reported all of this, of course. Danzo-sama had absorbed the data with cold interest, offering only curt directives: continue observation, deepen connection, assess loyalty.
Sai found that directive increasingly... problematic.
Today, Naruto had smiled at him after a sparring match, teeth white, sweat glistening on his brow. No wariness. No fear. Just… openness. Sai, raised among the emotionless operatives of Root, found this disconcerting. It was not supposed to matter. He was a sensor and a weapon. Not a child. Not a friend.
But he had written it down anyway.
"Naruto Uzumaki smiled at me. I felt something unclassified."
[Location: Academy Grounds – March 9th, Late Morning]
Naruto's latest class assignment—a challenging sequence of chakra manipulation to balance across a rope line—ended early. Instead of eating with his new group, he excused himself and bolted toward the general classroom wing.
He waited outside until Sakura emerged with Ino and Choji, who grinned and waved.
Sakura blinked in delight.
"Naruto!" she called, pushing through her small group.
"Hey," he grinned, rubbing the back of his neck. "I had a bit of time. Thought we could walk home."
Her heart nearly burst at the casual sweetness of it.
They walked in companionable silence for a few blocks, exchanging news. She showed him a scroll she was working on, and he whistled at how clean the ink lines were. When she laughed—pure and happy—he flushed. She was the only one who ever laughed like thatwithhim, notathim.
When they reached her gate, she lingered.
"Thanks," she said, softly. "For coming by."
Naruto hesitated. "I miss sitting next to you."
She gave him a radiant smile, her hands briefly brushing his. "Me too."
He jogged off a moment later, waving.
Sakura stood at the gate long after he was gone, her cheeks still hot.
[Location: Haruno Home – March 15th, Late Night]
That night, as the wind rattled the old window frame, Sakura lay under her blanket, her mind unable to quiet. Her hand brushed the edge of the note Naruto had given her after their last visit—just a brief thanks for the sealing advice.
She clutched it close to her chest and shut her eyes.
She imagined a day in the future when he didn't live alone in a dark apartment. When they shared ramen after missions. When his hand lingered on hers a moment longer. When his lips, maybe—just maybe—brushed her cheek.
Her face flushed deep crimson as warmth flooded her chest and her belly fluttered.
She buried her face in the pillow, heart pounding.
[Location: Haruno Home – March 16th, Evening]
Kizashi watched her at dinner. His daughter had been humming.
Humming.
Nine-year-olds did not hum after vegetables unless something powerful had taken root. Mebuki had noticed too. Her look was tight-lipped but silent.
Later that night, he found Sakura rereading a sealing scroll under the flickering lamp, her expression dreamy. He knocked softly and entered her room.
"Sakura," he began gently, "you're getting older. And… I think we need to have a little talk."
Sakura blinked, frowning. "About what?"
Kizashi cleared his throat and sat awkwardly on the edge of her bed.
"Well, uh… boys. And feelings. And what those feelings can become." He scratched his jaw. "It's not a lecture. You've done nothing wrong. But I'd rather you learn this from me and not from, say, Ino."
She listened quietly, wide-eyed, as he explained—medically, clearly, though with a kindness in his tone—about growing up, emotional bonds, physical closeness, and the sacredness of real love.
When he finished, Sakura was flushed but not embarrassed.
"Is it wrong that I think about him?" she asked quietly.
Kizashi smiled and pulled her into a side hug.
"No, sweetheart. But you need to grow with him. Not just toward him. Promise me that?"
She nodded against his chest.
"Good girl."
[Location: Haruno Home – March 28th, Sakura's Birthday]
Naruto arrived early, carrying a small wooden box with a burnt etching of a cherry blossom. Inside was a sealing scroll with a tiny chakra-light mechanism that illuminated like a paper lantern when opened.
Sakura opened it, gasped, and hugged him so tightly he couldn't breathe for a second.
Behind them, Ino laughed and teased her about "hugging her future husband." Sakura just stuck out her tongue.
But that night, alone in her bed again, Sakura whispered his name to the dark ceiling and smiled.
She didn't know what the future held.
But she was sure—utterly sure—that Naruto Uzumaki was in hers.
April 2nd – April 9th, 999 A.S.
Locations: Haruno Household Advanced Class Training Grounds Hospital
[Location: Haruno Home – April 2nd, Early Afternoon]
Sai stood at the edge of the village's forest, the cold breeze ruffling his dark hair. His fingers gripped the corners of his notebook, but his focus wasn't on his sketching. It was on the boy—a blonde, loud, and obnoxious figure that had wormed his way into the hearts of everyone around him.
Naruto.
Sai had observed him for months. Everything about the boy's growth—from his raw, unpolished chakra control to his increasing proficiency with seals—disturbed the carefully constructed world that Danzo had hoped to build. A weapon must not grow too strong. A weapon must remain controlled.
But there was something about Naruto. Something that did not sit easily in Sai's mind.
Sakura. That was where the complications began. The girl's feelings, her intense emotional attachment—was that the result of mere childhood friendship or something deeper?
Sai's task was simple: infiltrate. Observe. Report back to Danzo. Extract any useful data. But somewhere between watching Naruto sparring with his classmates and the moments he caught between him and Sakura, Sai began to question his own capacity for loyalty. What was loyalty, really? Was it to Danzo, who had raised him in cold silence, or was it to a boy who, despite everything, had a light in him?
Sai didn't have the answers.
[Location: Haruno Household – April 3rd, Late Morning]
Sakura stood outside, her hair tied back in a messy ponytail, determined to perfect a more advanced seal. It was one of the highest-level two-seals her father had ever mentioned. With Naruto getting so strong, she couldn't just sit idle. She had to catch up.
Focusing on the scroll before her, she began to chant softly, running her fingers along the markings. Her chakra flared, threading through the seal's structure, and for a moment, it seemed to glow.
Then the energy surged, spiraling out of control. Her eyes widened.
"No, no!" she shouted.
Before she could react, the ground beneath her feet shifted violently, and a violent explosion of energy sent her crashing into the nearby tree with a sickening thud. Pain shot up her spine. Everything went black.
[Location: Haruno Household – April 3rd, Early Afternoon]
Mebuki found Sakura an hour later, slumped against the base of the tree, barely conscious. Her chest heaved in shallow breaths, and her face was pale, smeared with dirt and blood. Panic surged through Mebuki's veins, her hands trembling as she hurried to her daughter's side.
"Sakura, sweetheart, talk to me," she cried, her voice frantic.
Sakura groaned softly, but her eyes flickered open. Her vision was blurry, her body sore, but the worst pain was in her chest, a deep ache she couldn't escape. She blinked at her mother, disoriented.
"I'm… fine, Mom," she whispered weakly. "I just... wanted to catch up."
Her mother swallowed hard, holding back her tears. "Sakura, this is why I told you not to rush. You're not ready."
Sakura tried to sit up, but the dizziness made her fall back. Mebuki cupped her daughter's face, her own voice shaking.
"I'll get you to the hospital."
[Location: Konoha General Hospital – April 3rd, Evening]
Naruto's heart pounded in his chest as he raced toward the hospital. He had heard from Iruka about what had happened to Sakura. The thought of her hurt—hurting because of her drive to keep up with him—stung him deeply. He never wanted her to feel like she needed to compete with him.
Arriving at the hospital, he burst through the doors, panting. He nearly collided with an exhausted-looking nurse.
"Sakura Haruno," he gasped. "Where is she?"
The nurse pointed to the room at the end of the hall. Naruto rushed forward, each step heavier than the last.
When he entered her room, his heart nearly broke at the sight of her, pale and fragile, her body swathed in bandages. Her face was strained, though she tried to offer him a faint smile when she saw him.
"Sakura..." he whispered, stepping up to her bedside. He gently sat beside her and took her hand in his.
"Sorry I messed up," she mumbled, her voice hoarse.
"You didn't mess up," Naruto said, shaking his head. "You're not alone in this, Sakura. You never have to be."
She smiled weakly, her hand squeezing his in return.
He stayed at her side through the night, quietly reading to her from a scroll, letting the soothing sound of his voice calm her thoughts.
[Location: Haruno Household – April 9th, Morning]
Sakura's condition had improved, and the doctors had cleared her to return home. But it wasn't the healing of her body that concerned her—it was the ache in her heart, knowing she had pushed too hard.
Naruto came by the house that morning, carrying a small bouquet of flowers—nothing fancy, but it was all he had. Mebuki smiled politely as she let him in.
Sakura sat at the window, looking out at the bright spring morning. She heard Naruto's voice before she saw him.
"Hey," he called softly. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," she replied, offering him a smile, though it was still weak.
Naruto walked over to her and set the flowers on the table. As he reached for her hand, his face turned serious.
"I'm sorry, Sakura," he said, his voice thick. "I never wanted you to hurt yourself trying to catch up with me. I don't want you to think you have to be like me. I just want you to be you."
Sakura's eyes softened, the warmth in her chest growing. Her hand reached for his, and she gave him a faint, grateful smile.
As he turned to leave, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. His lips brushed her skin, and a gentle warmth spread through her. For a moment, everything seemed to still.
When he left, Sakura's heart beat faster than it ever had before. She touched her cheek, still warm from his kiss, and allowed herself to imagine a future where things could be different. Where they could be together.