Twiceborn: Second Bloom | Alternate

Chapter Eighteen: Academy Battles

Fighting did come after lunch, and Sakura had never been more grateful she'd eaten a light lunch. She'd probably have thrown up otherwise, and Sakura didn't want to do that. It wouldn't give a very good impression of her to all her potential classmates. Renka and Itachi had vanished back off to whatever they were doing before, and she was oddly bored as she watched the others spar. It was a tournament style melee, meant to gauge their ability. Clan children and civilians had been separated in order to make things fair. Not that it was particularly fair with Sakura in the rankings with the civilians.

Sakura sighed, swinging her legs back and forth as she sat on a bench at the edge of the makeshift sparring rings. She'd already had all her fights and had unsurprisingly won them all. She knew where to hit them to make them hurt, and she did so with lightning fast strikes and unnerving precision. She'd rank top out of all the civilians. That much was certain. A quick glance over at the clan children told her that both Naruto and Sasuke were dominating. For the boys at least. Not only had they been separated by parentage, but by gender as well. Though Sakura had thoroughly questioned Mizuki, the boy watching over them, and it had been confirmed all the sparring practices would merge together by their final year in the academy.

"Sakura-chan?" a nameless chunin called her over, and she blinked in surprise. It seemed she still had a few fights to go. "We'll now be testing the gap between the best students of each group."

Her eyes locked on Sasuke as he stood there, smug as ever, his eyes occasionally darting over to where Mio stood. But more than not Mio was looking at her. Sakura was only fortunate she hadn't had to face either of her siblings in any of her fights. Not that they'd made it exceptionally far with their meagre fighting abilities. She'd been too focused on teaching them how to run away – to run away and survive, no matter how cowardly it might seem.

She blinked, hands tucked into her pockets, her steps languid and silent as she strode into the ring, eyeing the civilian boy standing on the other side of the slightly larger ring.

She wondered what to pick up from the market to cook for dinner. She bit her lip. Tomoe would likely be out, but she'd probably come back around ten o'clock, once she'd tucked the rest of her sisters in.

"Sakura-chan, pay attention," the chunin overseeing the next set of fights barked, glaring at her as she stared off into space. The sky was a pretty shade of blue. "Now Daisuke-kun, give it your all."

One pink brow arched. "No encouragement for me?" she mumbled, eyeing up her next opponent – a chubby boy who knew how to use his extra weight to his advantage. What was the bet he bullied people to figure that out? She tilted her head. She'd seen him doing it around the village.

"Go Saku-nee!" Akira yelled, pumping her fist in the air.

A smile curved at her lips underneath her velvety soft mask. Tobirama definitely knew the best masks to purchase. Her eyes glittered, her stance deceptively relaxed even as the chunin proctor looked on, unimpressed. Probably wasn't expecting too much from her. "Ready," he called, and Sakura rocked forwards onto her toes, anticipation clawing through her as she pulled her hands out from her pockets. "Fight!"

Sakura grinned, practically dancing out of the way of the sloppy, yet somehow decent attack – for a five-year-old that was. But she wasn't just an everyday five-year-old. She sidestepped his next punch, stepping into his range, dropping low as she swung a foot around and into the backs of his knees. A smirk fought its way onto her lips, thankfully hidden in all its Uchiha glory as she knocked his legs out from under him. Lunging forwards, her fist stopping millimetres away from his throat, and she looked at the chunin overseeing them, eyebrow raised.