Chapter Text
Sakura's first week at the academy consisted of three things. Becoming friends with Yamanaka Ino and two kind boys named Shikamaru and Chōji. She became one of the many fangirls who fell for Uchiha Sasuke, the second heir to the prestigious clan, and Uzumaki Naruto, son of the Hokage. She then promptly fell out of love.
Not because Ino and the other girls were crushing on the boys, and she didn’t want to fight her new best friend for the boy.
No, because Sakura saw her ultimate goal 24 hours after joining the club.
Sakura learned very quickly (like 48 hours) that Sasuke’s good looks were a dime a dozen within his clan. Uchiha was synonymous with beautiful in the Hi no Kuni dictionary. Uchiha Sasuke was not the only Uchiha in their grade, let alone the academy.
Which meant dozens of parents or guardians to Uchiha children came to pick them up. Handsome men. Beautiful women. Gorgeously aged grandparents…
Also, ridiculously attractive siblings.
Sakura, walking home with Ino, stopped and put her finger to the blonde’s lips, effectively stopping the other girl’s chatter, and stared.
“Sakura-chan?” Ino questioned, slightly offended but curious.
Without moving her eyes, she asked Ino, voice breathless and reverent, “Who is Sasuke talking to?”
Bless Ino for being an heiress to a shinobi clan and a budding gossip.
Uchiha Shisui was a handsome teenager. Boyish good lucks and would certainly “break hearts one day” as her mother often said. She had never seen curly hair like his on any of the Uchiha she had come across in the academy. Even at six years old, Sakura was certain his unique hair and feline eye shape made him popular.
But the older, more masculine of the Uchiha trio was not who Sakura was interested in. Not even remotely.
No… Because a boy far more beautiful than Hinata’s older cousin stood next to him, smiling softly at a faintly blushing Sasuke, before poking his forehead lovingly.
And Sakura craved- Craved like she never had before.
The forehead she had become accustomed to hiding from bullies suddenly felt like a winning lottery ticket.
Yes, Uchiha Itachi was a beautiful, beautiful boy. Silky raven black hair, mild tear troughs, alabaster skin, a slim build…
A princess.. He’s as beautiful as a princess… Sakura’s hand that grips Ino’s tightens. She apologizes to her best friend. I want to be his knight.
Sakura has no words to fully articulate her deep want for the older boy. She only knows that he becomes her goal in a way that defies logic. That afternoon, on her way home, Sakura decides she will not be a disarming and pretty kunoichi.
She will be a shinobi. Strong. Powerful. Undefeatable.
(She has no clue that that’s exactly what Uchiha are attracted to.)
Sakura’s new desire means her routine changes. Her habits change.
She still goes to the library and devours every book available to her within her current status. Her chūnin-ranked parents bring home taijutsu scrolls to help determine which would suit her best. She increases her cardio and strength training to make sure she won’t fall behind the clan kids who’ve been training since they could walk.
Haruno Sakura is nine years old and well on her way to being the best graduating shinobi for her cohort.
Ino supports her endeavors by sparring with her. Inoichi-oji loves her like never before because his daughter now takes taijutsu seriously. Shikamaru and Shikaku-oji help her refine her knowledge by playing shogi and other tactical games with her. Chōza-oji appreciates her because she helps his shy son come out of his shell and begin to appreciate his body. Chōji’s mother and Mebuki are the best of friends simply because the women exchange recipes for growing shinobi.
The new Ino-Shika-Chō are her best friends and brothers in arms for her lofty goal. They revolved around each other in a way that would be detrimental to the trio's intended destination if not for the fact that Sakura had known from the beginning she would never be put on a genin squad with them. Thus, all their clan heir training, she never attends.
Ino has long since grown out of her fangirl phase and has since taken a heavily invested interest in Sakura’s goal of marrying Uchiha Itachi. She helps Sakura still look girly and feminine. Shikamaru feeds her any and all news about the Uchiha that he manages to catch. Chōji is a steady presence by her side when training gets too tough.
“Why do you guys help me anyway?” Sakura asks, chewing on a piece of mango as she sits across from Shikamaru. Ino and Chōji are doing their homework.
Shikamaru looks up at her with furrowed brows. She has been friends with this trio long enough to know his silent look is both calling her stupid and questioning why they wouldn’t.
But it is Ino who voices their shared thoughts, “Because we’re friends, Sakura-chan!”
Sakura blushes and ducks her head, losing her concentration and costing her the game. She doesn’t mind.
Sakura is 10 years old when the senseis finally get the clue that Sakura is too advanced to only spar with the civilians or other girls. They put her against Uchiha Sasuke.
Uzumaki Naruto cries out, “Boo, Iruka-sensei! Teme and I need to have a rematch!”
Sasuke, her future brother-in-law, sneers at her, clearly not expecting anything. Sakura sizes him up, unimpressed not only by his attitude, but the overconfident aura.
Sakura braids her long pink hair down her back, accepting the scrunchy from Ino, wordlessly.
“You’re looking pretty cocky for a civilian born with bright pink hair,” He taunts.
Ino-Shika-Chō tenses beside her. Chōji uncharacteristically frowns and clenches his fists. Shikamaru is no longer slouching, and his shadows sharpen. Ino’s face goes blank as she opens her mouth, likely to tear into Sasuke in a way he is not likely to recover from. A Yamanaka specialty.
But she simply scoffs, “You’re pretty overconfident for a kid whose head is shaped like a duck's as-”
“Sakura-chan!” Iruka-sensei interrupts to scold, if only because he could tell she was going to curse.
As does Sasuke, who blushes and glares at her. Ino-Shika-Chō relaxes and smirks at him.
“Kick his ass, Saks,” Shikamaru murmurs encouragingly, unusually vicious for once.
If Ino-Shika-Chō look smug and full of belief that Sakura will indeed kick Sasuke’s ass, it’s because they know she never went all out with the other kids. Meaning, Sakura knows all of Sasuke’s moves, and he knows none of hers.
Which is his fault for only ever fighting Naruto, Sakura hums as she steps into the ring.
Sasuke glares venomously at her from across the circle, and Sakura lifts her fists in front of her, waiting for the signal.
See, the thing is… Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura are rivals. Not the kind of rivals that he is with Naruto.
Sasuke hates Sakura because she aces every single written test. Not a wrong answer in place. For Sasuke, whose goal is to surpass his brother but also impress him, Haruno Sakura is a roadblock. A large one.
Sakura knows this and thrives on his disgruntled expression every time grades come out and the academic rankings are updated.
If Uzumaki Naruto is his rival in taijutsu. Haruno Sakura is his rival in academics.
And Sakura had never been paired with him for spars, so he had no means of putting her in her place.
(Not when her territory was ink and parchment.)
Until now.
Mizuki-sensei’s hand chops the air, beginning the spar.
Sakura lasts the second longest anyone has ever lasted against Sasuke.
(Naruto is the top, and vice versa.)
She lasts so long because she lets Sasuke's aggression lead him into making the first move. She simply dances around him for the majority of his strikes, much like an iryō-nin would.
(Her papa is an iryō-nin. It’s where she gets her phenomenal chakra control from.)
The ones she blocks, she uses as a marker. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for his shoulder to tense just so and for him to land in a crouch a bit too lo-
CRUNCH
Haruno Sakura is 10 years old when she breaks Uchiha Sasuke’s nose in a spar. It is glorious and worth every ounce of blood splatter across her fist and clothes.
Sasuke flies out of the circle and into a shocked Naruto’s arms. (She gets her muscle strength from her mama. The woman was freakishly strong. The dichotomy of her healer papa being a titan and her petite mama being a brawler is not lost on her.)
She’s panting heavily because her spars with Ino-Shika-Chō never last this long or get this intense. The group is meant for capture, not combat.
“... The winner is Haruno Sakura,” Iruka-sensei says, as shocked as the rest of the class and senseis.
“HELL YEAH!” Ino cheers, running up to throw herself into Sakura’s arms. The rosette catches her on pure instinct and spins the blonde in the air, both of them giggling uncontrollably. Chōji and Shikamaru stroll up to them. The former frets over how fast and high she spins Ino, and the latter is unbelievably smug. She just knows her friends will be sharing their memories with Inoichi-oji, so the older group could laugh and be just as proud.
“Teme! Sakura-chan punched your sharingan on!” Pandemonium erupts.
That day, after classes end, Sakura is being pulled toward the Akimichi compound for a spontaneous BBQ when she digs her feet into the dirt, halting the group.
“Sakura-chan?” Chōji gently calls out in confusion.
Ino and Shika turn their head in the same direction as Sakura is looking.
Naruto and Sasuke stand before three young men. One with silver hair and a mask, Uchiha Shisui, and Sakura’s end goal, Uchiha Itachi. Judging by how Naruto flutters around Sasuke, arms swinging wildly, he is narrating the spar from earlier.
“Uchiha looks like an upset cat,” Shikamaru chuckles softly.
Sakura snorts in agreement.
They can all tell when Naruto gets to the end of the story when their guardians’ eyes widen in shock. Itachi looks relieved for some reason, but also congratulatory.
Nodding in approval (it wouldn’t do to get on the bad side of her future husband now), Sakura makes to turn around and keep walking. She can’t, though.
Because for the first time ever, Uchiha Itachi is looking at her.
Not in her direction.
Not beside her.
Not above her.
At her. In her eyes.
She vaguely sees Naruto pointing at her and giggling, but her entire being is focused on Itachi. He nods in her direction, and Sakura beams before bowing.
“Looks like you’re finally on his radar, Sakura-chan,” Ino teases, nudging her.
Shikamaru huffs, and Chōji chuckles.
To say her friends' parents are amused and proud at her accomplishment would be an understatement.
Sakura has never seen Shikaku-oji laugh as hard as he does that night. He and her Papa have begun to choke on their laughter, in fact. Inoichi-oji and Chōza-oji have been silently laughing with tears streaming down their faces. All the mothers just pat Sakura on the head and tell her, “Good job”.
Somehow, someway, Sakura gains the respect and friendship of Uchiha Sasuke.
She is as confused as Ino, Shika, Chōji, and all Sasuke’s fangirls when he comes into class the next day and sits in the row in front of hers.
Not before greeting her, “Sakura.”
And with Sasuke, naturally comes Naruto.
“Morning, Sakura-chan!” He greets with a smile brighter than the sun. “Our families want to meet you. They all cracked up when I told them what happened yesterday.”
Sakura has a lot she wants to say. An entire list of things, in fact.
But all she can manage is to stare wide-eyed at the pair.
What the absolute fuck?
Sakura is 12 years old, three weeks from being 13 years old, when she gains a genin team.
“- Team 7 will consist of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi.”
Naruto and Sasuke sit on opposite sides of her.
Sasuke looks smug, and Naruto grins widely.
“Hell yeah! We’re gonna be the best team, ‘ttebayo!”
Sakura bites back a groan, already sensing the absolute mess this team will grow up to be. A quick glance behind her, and she sees Chōji, Ino, and Shikamaru looking at her with pity.