Darkest Before Dawn

Ibiki-sensei

   Eight days had passed since Kizashi's and Mebuki's funeral, and Sakura was seated in her living room, nibbling on some dango Anko had happily given her, and reading a book on chakra control. She was grasping the concept extremely quickly for her age, especially since she memorized the hand seals for simple jutsus like the bunshin. Sakura had also improved her grammar skills, now able to fully enunciate her r's and l's. She put her finger on her chin.

   "I wonder what my chakra affinity is..."

   She hopped off the couch and padded over to her parents room. She opened one of the drawers and pulled out a slip of chakra paper. Putting the chakra paper between her hands, the concentrated on molding the chakra to her palms... and stopped when it turned to dirt, then liquefied.

   "Earth and Water."

   Sakura went back into the living room, picked a few books off the floor, and left the house.

~

   Ibiki Morino sat on a high tree branch, looking through a folder with narrowed eyes.. He was in charge of the Haruno investigation. The missing-nin that killed the two? It could have been anybody. The only real lead they had was to find a Takigakure ninja- but that particular man's skill set was beyond him. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. This was getting nowhere.

   "I did it!"

   Ibiki stood and lept through the trees towards the voice. He stopped about a quarter mile southwest and peered down curiously at the source. A child. With pink hair. He huffed and was about to turn back until...

   "Monkey... rat... tiger..."

   He focused his full attention on the little girl. She couldn't possibly do that jutsu!

   "Dragon... horse... dragon! Suiton: Ja no Kuchi!"

   A column of water appeared from the ground, nearly twenty feet up. It slammed through several trees before dying down. The girl plopped down with a happy sigh and began to read one of the books she brought with her. Ibiki blinked in sheer disbelief.

   "Little girl."

   She looked up and smiled.

   "Hai, mister?"

   "How old are you?" he questioned. Her smile grew wider as she held up a hand.

   "I'm Sakura Haruno and I'm five!"

   Ibiki blinked again. Haruno? He re-opened his file and scanned through the information. Sakura Haruno. Daughter of the deceased Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno. Konoha's number one interrogator hopped down and crouched before the child.

   "Where did you learn a jutsu like that?" asked Ibiki. Sakura closed her book and showed him the cover. ''Dynamics of Water Jutsu', he read. She continued on reading as Ibiki entered a state of deep thought. A five year-old girl able to perform this C-rank technique was obviously a prodigy. Maybe one to rival Itachi Uchiha at that. He smirked.

   "And you've been doing this all this by yourself? No help? Not even from... your parents?"

   The rosette looked down for a moment, then back up to the man. The smile had never left her face.

   "Daddy and Mommy went away over a week ago, so I take care of myself now. I decided to be a shinobi like Daddy and Mommy, so I learn Jutus from the books in Daddy's library. I don't want to bother anybody by asking them to teach me, so I do it myself." she explained. Ibiki studied Sakura a bit more, an odd gleam in his eyes.

   The child was young, had a large work ethic, impressive intelligence...

   "Kids like you don't come across every generation." said Ibiki, reaching the other book the girl brought with her and flipping through the pages, "And you mind your manners well, not like others your age who're brats that don't know what to do with themselves. So I'll offer you a proposition. Since you've got the potential, I, Ibiki Morino, would like to become your teacher."

   Sakura picked up her two books and grinned.

   "No thank you, Morino-san."

   And she walked away. Ibiki stared at the now empty area at a loss of words.

  'Did she... did she just...?'

   He threw his head back and laughed.

~

   Sakura was back in her house atop a stool- carefully storing the books away. She couldn't help but let out another giggle.

   Someone knocked on the door.

   The girl hopped down, trotted over to the door, and greeted the person with a wide smile.

   "Hi again, Morino-san!"