Twiceborn: Adventures of the Red-Haired Menaces

Chapter Fourteen: Fringe

She couldn't sit still.

Just thinking about what the other three would be doing that day had her feeling jittery. Because what if it all went wrong? What if they got caught? What if she was supposed to be doing something? What if burning down a random building would distract them from what her 'brothers' were doing...? Sighing softly, she kept the twitchiness of her fingers to herself, resisting the urge to breathe those wonderfully warm and comforting flames. The sight of something burning always seemed to help calm her down, for reasons she couldn't quite place.

And it wasn't that she was a pyromaniac, no matter what Naruto said – on the rare occasion he had caught a glimpse of her and Sasuke training together. He was usually busy with Kakashi, dealing with all the seals needed to maintain their cover. It also helped that they were posing as the Nakamura siblings, who were secret Uzumaki's hiding away after the tragedy of what befell their clan years before.

The best deceptions were the multi-layered ones. But now it was growing risky, because they were targeting the files of Orochimaru's experiments, and Sakura was willing to bet that Konoha's Intelligence hadn't managed to sift through all of his experiments. There had been far too many. Sakura's lip curled. Proof of how lax Konoha had been in their monitoring of the goings-on in their own village. Proof of how well Orochimaru had managed to play the system.

It meant their files hadn't been looked through. Nobody had thought of a connection between them and the lab they had broken out from upon their arrival in that timeline, nor the madman whose clutches they had managed to escape. Sighing, she swung her legs back and forth, trying to conceal the bubble of unease that came with being separated from her brothers. Sasuke. Her fingers twitched, itching to grab onto her brothers' clothing. She wanted to pull them close and wrap herself around them. So they couldn't leave. But that train of thought wasn't healthy, so away it had to go, and Sakura had to learn how to deal with being alone. Because her brothers would come back, and if they didn't, then there was nothing stopping her from going to get them. Well, aside from her own fears and doubts. She didn't want to let them down again.

She tapped her finger against her desk, half-heartedly paying attention to the lecture on the history of the shinobi world and Konoha's illustrious part in it. Her eyes drifted to the clock, chewing on her lip as she continued swinging her legs back and forth. Part of her wanted to scream. The hands of the clock were moving far too slowly. They should have been moving faster, because the faster time went by, the faster she would be reunited with her brothers. "Stupid," she muttered, wincing as she tasted blood – having bit her lip a bit too hard.

Dimly, she hoped a certain white-haired Senju wouldn't be in the medical office if she went to get the nasty cut she'd just given herself healed. She needed to practice her new differently-flavoured chakra on some fish before she went around healing herself as such. She didn't want to take any chances – like if she had a new wind or fire affinity and wound up making her injury that much worse. Patience was a virtue. Unfortunately not one she was bestowed with, nor one which was easy for her to learn, being as hot-headed as she was. A curse of her previous temperament, the impulses of her tiny body, as well as the new genetics of both of her parents – who had both been known to have volatile tempers. She really had scored the genetic lottery. Anger, and eyes which could cause blindness and mental instability. Just her damned luck.

"Nakamura-chan!"

Sakura bared her teeth, barely refraining from growling as their instructor for the day called on her to answer a question. It really wasn't a god day for her, or so she decided, going back to watching the precious seconds tick by until her brothers and their esteemed leader returned.