Twiceborn: Second Bloom | Alternate

Chapter Four: Pink-Haired Girls and their Antics

"Saku-nee..." Mio's voice rang out through the small garden attached to the back of the brothel. It had no doubt once been beautiful, but years of unattendance had left it an overgrown mess. Sakura supposed it was lucky it had been, otherwise she most likely wouldn't have been able to use it. She sighed, glancing over at her sister who'd managed to find her in the mess that they called a garden. The dark green grass was overgrown and ridiculously tall, numerous vines creeping up the garden walls, large plants obscuring the sliding doors leading back inside. The few benches dotted around the place were still in surprisingly good condition, but the little brick shed was ruined. Well, the brickwork, at least, was tumbling down, forming little piles of moss-covered stones here and there. She was using the neat wooden flooring as a training ground for her katas, since it was still in fairly good shape, likely thanks to the roof being intact and protecting it from the worst of the elements. It was on that wood that her sister stood, staring at her levelly with tired eyes. "Saku-nee, what you doing?" Mio yawned, scratching at her mildly spiky pink locks. "You're always out here... every night..."

She'd been in the past for weeks now, and she hadn't wasted any time in getting back into her old routines. Well, what she could do of them. She was no longer a fully-grown adult, and her limp noodles of limbs were still taking some getting used to. Still, she wanted to get some semblance of her old fighting skills back, not that she was sure she actually could. Her chakra was different, and her control wasn't coming to her as easily as it had before.

Sakura bit her lip, extending her senses as much as her new body was able – which wasn't much – to see if anyone was listening. Anyone like Root shinobi. Fortunately for her, there didn't seem to be, but Sakura couldn't be certain. Not with how terrible she was inside her new body. It would take far longer than she'd like to actually get herself to a point where she was happy with. A point where she'd be able to defend her sisters to a satisfactory degree and make no mistake she would. They were all she had, and she'd defend them to her last breath. She couldn't—wouldn't—lose anyone else. Not that there were many people left to be ripped away from her. Her torn and broken heart proved that much. Sakura wasn't sure how it was still beating. It hurt. It hurt so much. But pain was good. Pain meant that she was alive... meant that she could see her sister's smiling face as they stared at each other in the dilapidated excuse of a shed. "I'm training," she said matter-of-factly, serious black eyes boring into her sibling's matching ones. "I wanna be strong so I can protect you."

Mio tugged at her sleeve. "But it's late, Saku-nee... We need to sleepy... Mum says rest is important too."

"I'll be done in an hour, Mio..." she mumbled, moving into another stance, a strange warmth in her chest as she stared at her sister. It wasn't a lie, in an hour she'd be done with all her physical conditioning, but she'd be working on her chakra after the sun went down. She wasn't used to her new chakra. It was nothing like the cool, earthen-feeling kind she'd had in her last body. The chakra coursing through her right that very minute felt like a firestorm, and she had the distinct impression that if she didn't master it to a satisfactory degree she'd end up getting burnt... in more ways than one.

"You gonna be a shinobi, nee-san?" Mio asked all of a sudden, her black eyes alarmingly sharp for someone her age, not that Sakura could judge.

"Huh? How'd you know 'bout shinobi?" she questioned. Sakura was fairly sure she hadn't even known what shinobi were a few days ago... then again, she had been hanging out with Sasuke and Naruto, so maybe that was the explanation for that.

Mio bounced up and down. "Naru and Sasuke-kun mentioned them, so I asked kaa-chan and she told us all about them. They can walk up walls! I saw some of them too... It was so cool!" she said, practically vibrating in excitement. Sakura, on the other hand, was far more concerned about the kun on the end of Sasuke's name. She'd have to go and supervise their next outing. "Being one would be super awesome! Why wouldn't anyone want to?"