Pardon me for the countless grammar mistakes.

I edited this multiple times because apparently, I got no sense of time for this fic. Sakura just turned eight in March, and now in April, she's a third grader and in the same class as Naruto and Sasuke because she is in the same age group as them. Remember, I use the Japanese school term, April-March, so Sakura is actually younger than Naruto who was born in October, not older. Sakura is the baby in the team seven lol. I tell you, sometimes I get upset because a fic assumed that in canon, Sakura was older than Sasuke and Naruto because she isn't.

P.S. In this fic, Sakura's eighth birthday isn't celebrated because it isn't a tradition for Japanese to celebrate it. Naruto's family is an exception, though, because they seemed to celebrate it in the Road to Ninja. Well, she got gifts but no celebration.

Well, to the story!

Chapter 4: Attachments

Morning came rather quickly for her. Her alarm clock ringing, and then there she was, wide-awake. Before she went to the bathroom to wash her face, she addressed the teenage boy who appeared to be sleeping.

"Good morning, Shisui-san," she chirped, still, she was quiet in order not to alert her parents downstairs.

Shisui opened his eyes and said, "Good morning."

After a period of silence, Sakura shifted and glanced at him, "Well, Shisui-san, last night... you said you want to talk..."

"Yes," Shisui looked above and moved closer to face Sakura, "it's... my likely attachments to this world and training you."

"Attachments and... training me?" That was unexpected to her. He looked so solemn and cold last night she thought he would tell her that he disliked her or something.

"Possibly, my attachments are Itachi and Sasuke."

That was too personal of him. She almost couldn't believe that Shisui was talking about this to her that she couldn't say anything other than; "eh?" and a barely heard "what".

"I'm also curious about your 'mysterious' talent for anchoring me―my soul―to this world. I want... well, I want you to find what it is that you have that you can do this or if another person can do this as well. Not to mention, you actually have untapped potentials that every teacher in the academy outright ignore. So in order to find what your 'ability' is, that I'm sure was yin-chakra related, I have to train you." And I want you to help me with Danzō, but that's for another time.

Sakura hummed and clutched her pillow close to her chest, "Well... training, huh. I don't have a problem with that. But what is it about Sasuke-kun? And, who is this Itachi?"

Exhaling, Shisui corrected, "That's Itachi-san to you. And well, he's... he's my closest friend and Sasuke's elder brother."

"Eh? Sasuke-kun has an elder―?" Sakura gaped.

Shisui shot a look at the pink haired girl, "You didn't know?" it was uttered with such disbelief that Sakura winced, possibly with shame.

"Um... I didn't."

"Ridiculous. And you're still claiming you're in love with Sasuke?"

"Hey, stop that! You said you won't question me about that anymore!"

"Heh. Alright," Shisui smirked.

Sakura pouted as Shisui irked her with that smirk. She turned her head to the side and harrumphed.

"Another reason for me to train you is; I need you to be strong to help Sasuke and Itachi."

Sakura frowned at that. She softly inhaled and asked, "Are Sasuke-kun and Itachi-san in danger?"

Shisui grimaced, his face went back to neutral expression before he responded, "You can say that. That's why you have to be strong enough to help Sasuke and Itachi... well, if you want to help, of course. I'm not forcing you." Yeah, right. I wasn't. ... darn it, who am I fooling? I won't ask you to help them if I was able to do it myself. But unfortunately for me, I can't leave you and you're the only one who can see me.

Sakura gulped as Shisui's face turned from neutral to something that screamed 'woe is me'. Because Shisui never showed that face to her before, she hurriedly exclaimed, "I'll help them, Shisui-san!"

"... that's good." Totally.

"But... well, I'm going to be strong in the future, without your help. I just turned eight and Konoha is in no danger of war. I'm sure when I graduate from the Academy, I would be plenty strong to help Sasuke-kun and his brother," she argued, suddenly feeling scared, "Why is it have to be now? Is the danger immediate? Do I have to tell Hokage-sama?"

Shisui knew Sakura was just scared because this was sudden and... she was just a child.

"Sakura, no, I don't need you to tell the Sandaime. What you need to know is that, your current training in the academy is not enough. The Academy has grown too soft. I have taken down lots of enemies when I was your age, and you? Lots of target practice dummies, I'm sure. Even Sasuke has Itachi showing him how to hunt large, dangerous animals... giant cats, mostly, but that's tame compared to what I've done when I was his age." Usually not one to boast, but he wanted Sakura to know that he wasn't a slouch being a ninja when he was alive.

"You mean, unlike me, when you're about my age, you're already fighting with your life out there?" Sakura asked as she tilted her head, bewildered.

He sighed tiredly at that, "Tell me about it. Well, I cannot blame you as your parents are rather... lame."

"Shisui-san..." Sakura scowled at him. Was the Academy before she entered, allowing students to fight outside the Konoha's walls? "Um, how old are you, Shisui-san?"

"I've never told you my age, huh. Well, tell me, how old was I when I first participated in a battle?"

"Hmm. You said before that you just recently died. You looked about seven to ten years older than me, and that means you're... about eight to eleven years old when the Kyūbi's attacked. By that time, the Academy graduating age was ten thanks to the Yondaime, because the Third Great Ninja War made the Academy Graduation Age lowered to nine. And then upped by the Sandaime to eleven after the Kyūbi. There's no way you fought in the attack as only ninja above twenty five were allowed to fight.

"It was only after the Kumo's failed peace delegation that the Academy Graduation Age was twelve, and there was no fight at all. By then, you're about eleven or above and must have been graduated already. So, you have been a ninja for more than five years utmost until your... death. And that means, you had fought a 'war' because of the now resolved conflict Konoha had with Kiri. The conflict was a leftover from the Third War and that's where―" Sakura was interrupted by an irritated-faced Shisui who was mussing his already messy hair.

"Stop, stop right there. Gah, just please stop rambling. Geez, now I feel a supposedly impossible headache because of you."

Sakura lowered her head, "Sorry, I was just..."

"It's okay. But you're wrong in some areas. I'll give you a hint; I participated in the last war."

Sakura breathed in and widened her eyes, "R-really? But that's... Are you older than you look?"

Shisui deadpanned at her expression, "No. Well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to be sixteen in October."

"Oh." He had died young, then. She didn't know what to say after knowing this. When she first met him, she had thought he was a middle aged shinobi that was only young-looking... because she couldn't fathom a person seven years older than her was dead and currently unable to pass on properly. She heard him sigh and then she looked up at him.

"Well, do you agree to help Sasuke and Itachi?" Sakura nodded, "No slacking off and complaining when I'm training you, got it?"

Even if it sounded like a threat, Sakura nodded once more with a small smile, regarding it lightly because Shisui's face morphed into a blinding grin that made her grip her pillow tighter to contain the inexplicable feeling of happiness that she had when he smiled.

She did, however, thought he smiled like that on purpose.

"So, then, Sasuke-kun, Naruto and I will be at the district's entrance after I―"

"I don't live there anymore."

Today, the third day of being a third grader, Iruka-sensei assigned a group project to the class. Luckily, she had Sasuke-kun in her group. Unluckily, she had Naruto in the group as well. Well, Sasuke-kun was the leader for this project, so the three of them had to go to the leader's house to do it, per Iruka-sensei instructions. She was relieved because she didn't have to show her ordinary house nor going to Naruto's dirty apartment.

She was looking forward to go inside the Uchiha district, but Sasuke-kun said that he didn't live in the district anymore. That was something she didn't know before. But Shisui-san once said that the Uchiha District was empty, so that was the proof that Shisui-san was right.

"Where do you live now?" Sakura asked, trying not to sound eager. She couldn't help it, she had always assumed that even if his clan all gone all of the sudden a few months ago, he would live in the district all alone.

Sasuke threw a sideways glance at her. "None of your business."

She felt her stomach dropped at the faint disdain in his voice. "Oh." Oh, indeed. Did she sound too pushy? Retreat, retreat. "Well, then, um, where are we going to―"

"I've never said I'm going to work on the project with you."

And that, made Sakura's stomach churn and twist with something unrecognizable. "Y-you're right," she eventually said after a long period of silence between them, "but, um, we can do the work at my house if you'd like. I'm sure Iruka-sensei would understand. And Naruto, too." It was better to work the project at her small house rather than not spending time with Sasuke-kun at all. Naruto's apartment wasn't even an option because... well, it just wasn't.

Sasuke turned his back on her. "No, thank you," he stated, dismissing her completely, hands already in his pockets before he got up and walked toward the classroom's exit.

The phrase was polite and yet... his voice. His voice didn't hold an ounce of kindness in it.

Sakura only felt cold when he uttered that, because he sounded rather empty. He always sounded like that ever since his family was gone... somewhere, but this was the first time she took it seriously. Since Shisui-san's dressing down of her crush on Sasuke-kun, she started noticing that Sasuke-kun wasn't like her ideal prince that would sweep her feet off the ground, to say.

Well, at first, he was. He was all smiles and sparkling big, black eyes whenever she looked at him before the Uchiha was all gone. He was rather talkative to certain people, she once caught him talking to Chōji who had the same prestige of being heirs to noble clans. Sakura was fine with him seemingly interacting only with people that had good backgrounds, because she knew her parents were just... normal chūnin with no reputations to speak of.

When Sasuke walked away from her without even discussing to split the work or not, she didn't even try to follow him. She was rooted on her place, trying not to cry and yell that life wasn't fair to her.

He was her first... crush, that she admit. She wondered if maybe, Sasuke-kun considered her as the same as the rest of his admirers when he ignored her like this. That maybe, she was just not as unique in his eyes as she thought she was. Well, no one had a combination of pink hair and green eyes in the class, as far as she knew. Was it her wide forehead? Did Ino's red bandana pronounce the ugliness of it...?

She didn't even register Shisui calling her name or Naruto leaving the seat beside her to follow Sasuke.

Sakura dipped her head low, and exhaled a dejected sigh when she caught a glimpse of purple in her peripheral sight.

"What do you want?" she bit out, without looking at the purple-clad blonde.

Ino smirked wryly, "Nothing, nothing." Soon, she giggled to herself and then processed to walk away before she cheerily waved to her, "See you next week, Sakura!"

Ino was making fun of her and... talking to her instead of ignoring her presence. Ever since she had distanced herself from Ino because of their crushes on Sasuke-kun, Ino and her was doing their best to ignore each other. That's why she just blinked and negative thoughts about Sasuke-kun forgotten in favor of thinking about her former friend.

"... I'm so stupid."

Shisui growled, fists clenched tightly at each side. He was witnessing it. His cute cousin was no more. The innocence and the determination. Gone.

Sasuke. Sasuke was like an empty shell right now. Like a walking puppet who only could utter a few words.

Had no one taking care of that kid? On a closer look, Sasuke was... he barely looked like he was alive. Like he wasn't even eating right. There was bags under his eyes. And his clothes. God, they were rumpled and messy and―it was like he wasn't ironing them before he wore it.

He was so frustrated that he tried to follow Sasuke.

"Oi, Sasuke! Are you going to do all the work?"

It was the jinchūriki. Uzumaki Naruto, if he recalled that correctly.

"Usuratonkachi," he heard his distant cousin muttering under his breath, "I'm not going to do it. Sakura will."

"Huh? Are we going to dump all the work on Sakura-chan?"

There was no hint of hesitation when Sasuke answered, "Yes."

"You're skipping? Like me? Since when you are like this, huh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's brow twitched. "Go away."

"Tch, I was just asking. What's your problem, anyway? Acting like you don't want to spend time with us and stuff. You don't care about being number one anymore? Well, Sakura-chan cares about your grades! And my grades, too... I guess."

"Why are you bothering me with this? Just go away already, Naruto."

"Sakura-chan's pretty... and too nice. You shouldn't be mean to her. Do you even see her face when you're talking to her? You have eyes, right? Use it, you bastard."

"Why are you telling me those things? She's annoying."

"What the―? Sakura-chan was being nice! You're too much of a douche to understand that she wants us― no, she wants you to do the project with her!"

"Shut up, idiot. You're being annoying like her. If you want, just help her do the project and skip my name from the paper. I don't need good grades... to be a good ninja."

With that, Sasuke and Naruto walked away from his hearing range, and he wasn't able to follow them further. They continued arguing, as he kept his eyes on them, not wanting to look at the pathetic sight of Sakura taking Sasuke's attitude toward her too seriously. That girl should be able to see that Sasuke was too trapped in his own world to respond nicely to her.

Still, he allowed himself to smile.

The good things he was able to find from this was that, Sasuke was more responsive to Naruto. Although he was jittery at the thought of Sasuke being near the jinchūriki, he couldn't help but happy seeing Sasuke scowling and talking back to Naruto like a normal kid, and not being an emotionless statue that he was when he was in the proximity of anyone else other than Naruto.

Shisui was grateful.

Still... to be able to help Sasuke without meaning to. That Naruto kid sure was something.