Chapter 13: One Year
A shuriken sliced through the air and thudded into the target.
After every other student had gone home, Sasuke Uchiha remained alone on the training grounds, throwing shuriken after shuriken.
He stared at the blade — just barely off-center — and frowned.
Not enough.
Ever since Sakura Haruno had taken first place from him during that physical training session, he'd never won it back.
Or rather — he had, in a sense. Sakura had stopped participating in exercises like shuriken drills altogether.
First place fell to him by default.
He thought of his father's calm, impassive gaze. Just once, he wanted to hear those words.
"That's my son."
Another shuriken flew. This time, the spinning blade buried itself dead-center in the bullseye.
"Looks like rain tonight."
Sakura had given herself a rare day off. No books, no training — just the rooftop, the evening breeze, and hopefully some stars to count.
But the overcast sky had killed that plan.
A cool wind tugged at the tips of her pink hair.
"Sakura! It's about to rain — get down here!"
Mebuki's voice came from inside.
"Coming!"
Sakura called back — but then her nose twitched.
A faint scent of blood, carried on the wind.
Her body was the miniature version of the wartime Sakura — a top-tier medical ninja. She knew that smell intimately. Even at this distance, even this faint, she could pick it out.
She turned toward the direction the wind was blowing from.
The Uchiha compound. On the far outskirts of Konoha.
It was a considerable distance from the Haruno house. For the smell of blood to travel this far… the body count must have been staggering.
Yikes.
Not my problem.
She had enough on her own plate without sticking her nose into that disaster.
And frankly, there was nothing she could do about it even if she wanted to.
Sakura went back inside. Rain had started pattering against the windows. She glanced at the droplets threatening to drift into her bedroom and snapped the window shut.
The next morning, the rain-washed air was crisp and clean. Sakura headed to the Academy as usual.
She barely needed Iruka's lectures anymore, but he still required her to attend every school day — weekends excluded.
The moment she stepped outside, she could tell something was different.
Fewer people on the streets. The occasional shinobi moving with purpose. She even caught a fleeting glimpse of an ANBU operative.
All of them heading toward the village outskirts.
The pieces fell into place.
So — the Uchiha massacre.
That weasel she'd met once had actually gone through with it.
What an arrogant man.
Couldn't figure out how to solve the problem, so he solved the people instead. Wiped out three generations like a puzzle game — match three, clear the board.
Extreme didn't even begin to cover it.
Sakura allowed herself a moment of silent judgment, then pushed it out of her mind and kept walking.
Her fourth-to-fifth-year promotion exam was coming up soon.
She had zero bandwidth to spare on this.
A full year had passed now, and Sakura could feel the Yin Seal on her forehead drawing chakra faster and faster.
As she grew, her chakra reserves expanded — and with them, the surplus being siphoned off.
She had a feeling: within five years, the seal would fully manifest.
That made the grade-skipping even more urgent. In those five years, she didn't just need to become a full-fledged ninja — she needed to get her hands on the Yin Seal training method.
A tall order, to say the least.
As for defecting from the village?
The thought had never once crossed her mind.
Abandon her mom?
Abandon her dad?
"Morning, Ino."
Sakura walked into the classroom to find Ino stationed at the doorway like a statue waiting for someone.
"Oh… it's you, Sakura."
The disappointment was palpable.
"Wow. Seeing me actually let down the great Yamanaka heiress. I'm touched."
"No no no — that's not what I meant!"
Ino's head shook so fast it could've rattled.
Then she glanced around furtively, confirmed nobody was paying attention, and leaned close to Sakura's ear.
"Sakura — stay away from the Uchiha compound for a while."
"A lot of people died there."
Ino's warm breath tickled her ear.
"Yeah, yeah. Got it."
Sakura waved dismissively.
"Wait — you're not even surprised?"
Ino stared at her, bewildered.
Sakura tilted her head, thought about it for a second, then threw on an exaggerated look of shock.
"Oh wow."
"How scary."
Ino pouted at the abysmal performance.
"So fake."
"No really — I'm genuinely terrified."
Sakura looked at Ino with the most earnest expression she could muster, green eyes practically screaming please believe me.
"Yeah, and I'm the Hokage. All you ever do is mess with me."
Ino swatted at Sakura's arm — though it looked a lot more like a pout than a punch.
"Alright, alright — my bad."
Sakura ruffled Ino's hair and headed to her seat.
She didn't need to ask who Ino had been waiting for at the door.
The sole surviving orphan. The last Uchiha.
Unfortunately, Ino would be waiting in vain today. As Iruka walked in, she had no choice but to return to her seat beside Sakura.
"Ahem — Sasuke has had a family situation. He won't be coming in for a while."
"Please try not to discuss it around him."
Iruka touched on the subject briefly and moved on.
Human nature being what it was — the harder you tried to suppress something, the more violently it rebounded. A light touch meant it would blow over on its own.
Most of the students kept quiet, clearly having already heard something from their own families.
Sakura paid the room no attention. She pulled out The Will of Fire — Third Hokage and continued reading.
After three promotion exams, she understood perfectly well that compared to all the combat drills and coursework, the Will of Fire was what the exams actually focused on.
Not that it mattered much. After nine years of compulsory education in her previous life, the Will of Fire material was pretty thin stuff.