Twiceborn: Second Bloom | Alternate

Chapter Nineteen: The Wait For Results

"Are the results in yet?" Akira bounced onto the tips of her toes. "Did we get in?" She flittered around – a ball of nervous energy as they waited and waited. "What if I failed? What if I'm the only one who failed? Noooo... That can't happen, can it, Saku-nee?"

Sakura felt her eyebrow twitch as she stood behind the stove, a bowl of pancake mixture in her hands. A triangular head scarf was in place on her head, keeping her spiky pink hair out of her face, ensuring it cascaded down her back in a somewhat orderly fashion. Deep breaths, she reminded herself, resisting the urge to wipe at her tired eyes. Her sisters didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of her shortened temper. They were too adorable for that. "Calm down, Aki-chan," she said, setting down the batter on the side, deciding it was in her best interests to calm her sibling as best she could before she did something she'd regret. Like snap at her cute sister. She couldn't bring herself to be angry at that adorable face so much like their mothers that it hurt. That was a raw wound in her chest. A reminder of her continued failure to protect all her precious people.

"But nee-chan!" Akira's hands fisted in the slightly too-large apron Sakura wore, their noses practically touching as Akira pulled her back and forth in her worrying. "What if I messed up on that test? What if I was really lame in my fights...? I only won three, and the last one was super close!"

Sighing, Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand, the other lancing out to poke at her sister's forehead. "Hush. Stop worrying," she said softly, smiling at her idiot of a sibling. "If you fail, then there's always next year. Admissions are open until the age of eight." Though the requirements became stricter each year. "But I taught you everything you needed to know." Her hands clamped down on her sister's shoulders, a toothy, threatening grin on her lips. "So any failure would be down to my part, unless you didn't revise or train as much as I told you to..."

Seiren smirked from where she sat, next to her twin. "Told you nee-chan can be super scary," she said smugly.

Sora turned her head away from her twin. "Hn."

Sakura felt her eyebrow spasm. The Uchiha-ness was spreading and infecting them all. "Stop pacing about, and just relax, would you?" she spoke, prying herself out of her sister's grasp. "It won't make the results come any sooner, so just play with the twins and the triplets. You won't be able to do that as much once you get accepted to the academy."

"You think I've passed?" Akira blinked.

"Well, it doesn't matter. You'll start at the academy eventually, no matter how many times I need to beat all the necessary information into that thick skull of yours," Sakura said, grinning sadistically, relishing when she spotted the shudders running down her sibling's spine. Her sisters were adorable, and clearly she'd spent too much time hanging around T&I in her last life. "Go and bring the twins to the table, would you? Pancakes are nearly ready," she said, returning to the oiled pan, lifting up the mixing bowl.

"Nee-chan makes awesome pancakes," Seiren declared, ignorant of the way it made a warm fuzzy feeling build in Sakura's gut. "They're the best."

"Nee-chan's are the only ones we've ever had, stupid," Sora grumbled. "Not like we can try those shop-made ones the other kids are always waving in our face. Oh..." She blinked, and Sakura felt a gaze bore into her back as she loaded the first pancake onto the plate, the heat seal she'd painstakingly carved and inked already humming with chakra. "Saku-nee, what's a whore?"

Sakura choked on her saliva, pouring the next bit of batter into the pan. "Uh. Where did you hear that?" she hissed, barely able to keep the surprise and snarl out of her voice. "Or should I say who?"