Twiceborn: Second Bloom | Alternate

Chapter Eight: A Lot Can Happen in Five Months

Sakura sighed, silently wishing she could sink into the ground and vanish. They were at the park again, and Sakura was bored out of her mind with neither Naruto or Sasuke in sight. Children's games were for children, even if some of them were designed with training in mind. Even if she was somewhat content with her current life, she needed some excitement every now and then. Something to throw herself into, heart and soul, just to forget about the memories that haunted her. She wanted friends who could keep up with her... who could keep pace with the current her, challenge her. Though she doubted anyone her age would be able to do just that. Not even the rumours of the newest Uchiha genius around her and Sasuke's age could bring her out of the slump she'd fallen into. They might have skill, but barely anyone her age would have experience on top of that. She liked the peace she had, but the monster inside her wanted to be let out... the voice reminding her that her happiness wouldn't last. She was always in danger. Cursed. Hated by fate. Everyone she'd loved last time was dead and buried, and their ghosts haunted her in her dreams. She needed to keep her guard up, the voice whispered the same thing to her in the depths of her mind. The beast caged inside her demanded to be released... kept her on edge wherever she went, and every night of missed sleep made the howling that much worse, the whispering always getting louder, telling her she needed to defeat her enemies... permanently. And it was for that purpose she wanted to train herself to exhaustion, and hopefully collapse into a somewhat dreamless sleep. She was tired of seeing blood every time she closed her eyes. Though she knew all too soon her hands would be coated in the real stuff again.

"What's wrong, Saku-nee?" Mio stared down at her, curiosity written across her face as they milled about the park, wind rustling in the hair – or hoods, in Sakura's case. "You've got the sulky face on."

Sakura twitched. She was totally not sulking. She was above such childishness. "Do not."

Akira stuck out her tongue. "Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do. Not."

"Do! Too!"

"Do too."

"DO NOT—dammit nee-chan!"

She smirked.

"I have to agree with Aki, Saku-nee," Mio said, smiling brightly. "You've got the sulky face on."

Sighing, she edged closer to them, until they were well within poking distance. "You're both idiots," Sakura grumbled, poking their foreheads before they could back away, smirking at their twin cries of outrage. "But you're my idiots."

Akira huffed, and then Sakura found herself trapped underneath two warm bodies as they tackled her into a hug. "We love you, Saku-nee. Don't be sad."

"I'm not sad," she grumbled, knowing she'd be ignored.

"Oooo," Sora's voice echoed over the two heartbeats she could hear. "Are we having a group hug?"

"I think we are, twin," Seiren muttered, not arguing with her sister for once, and Sakura soon found herself crushed under the weight of two more small bodies.

She grinned, enjoying the warmth for a few seconds, before substituting out with a log and vanishing to her sisters' eyes with a puff of smoke. Love her sisters, she might, but she didn't intend to get squished under all their weight. She couldn't protect them like that.

"Hmm..."

Sakura tensed, fist lashing out towards the owner of that annoying voice which'd been bothering her for weeks ever since the disastrous picnic. Not that it'd been much of a disaster, aside from being stuck in close proximity to one Uchiha Madara. Izuna was actually alright, once he'd gotten past his fixation on her sisters' resemblances to him and his friends, and by alright, she meant she'd be perfectly fine, so long as nobody yanked down her hood in full view of him. Dye her hair black, and there'd be no mistaking the Uchiha in her, though Sakura doubted she'd ever get the urge to dye her hair that colour. That'd just be asking for trouble, and she wanted to stay as far away from that as possible until her sisters were ready to defend themselves.