A/N: Finally done with this one. I think I might rewrite some of the genjutsu scenes later, but for now it's at least decent. Despite the fact that it's in third person, Genius, I think, is much closer to the heart of Sakura. It's a little less hazy than UB, but at the same time feels more vague because there is less description. Some of the things that she thinks are as close to canon as I could possibly allow for this story.

Point I feel that needs to be made: No, Sakura in this story is not some magically mature teenager than can beat the crap out of everyone. This story follows the canon storyline loosely, so she does develop. She just develops in a different way. So please, don't get too irritated with her.

Genius by Sandi

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Chapter 2: Emergence

She wakes up to a cool morning, the wind gently brushing her bed-strewn pink hair. Her eyes, slow to open, stare up at the ceiling before closing again.

The morning is finally here, she thinks, with her eyes closed and her arms crossed over her face. Even now, at 5 o' clock in the morning, she cannot decide whether she feels excited or nauseous. She sighs.

It is probably the latter.

She is not permitted to use her fan today, according to her father. She must, he had said, use the same tools as the other children. Her brow furrows upon recalling his words. Why did it matter?

As far as she is aware, her highest priority at the moment involving her team is to rectify her sensei's impression of her.

But as always, she heeds her father's word carefully and upon packing her things, leaves behind her fan. She checks her inventory three times before leaving the house, her steps soundless even on the rotting floorboards.

Once she is outside outside though, the morning wind kisses her face, and for the first time in nine hours, she smiles.

She walks slowly and takes the long way, knowing that she will still be early.

The wind is so pretty, she thinks. She pauses, knowing that normally people don't see the wind. But she does. And she loves that she can.

It is not a sappy rainbow as people assume; rather, when cheerful, it exudes a cheery blue-green, and maybe a few shades of yellow thrown by from the sun. Unfortunately, she notes, the wind is not happy today. It is a grungy green-brown, tinged with gray.

The wind is upset. Anxious.

Upon seeing this, she feels the knots curl themselves tighter in her stomach. She takes a deep breath to loosen them, the early morning air a cooling, calming presence on her throat. She knows how to be in control, to assure herself that things will turn out well. Not because of luck, but because of skill. Not because she wants them to, but because they have to.

The thought makes her feel mildly better. It is not her war, she realizes, only her fight.

She reaches the forest entrance at 5:50, a time assured by the watch on her wrist. There is no one there, a fact that doesn't surprise her. She sits down, her legs crossed and her back straight, and meditates. It occurs to her after ten minutes of gazing into nothingness that her father strongly disapproves of meditation. Meditation is a word for those that want to make doing nothing into doing something, she recalls him saying. But, she thinks, sometimes sitting and thinking about things ––or not thinking about things–– is better than always doing something.

She prefers watching, not doing.

The sidelines are safer, calmer. She does not like who she becomes in battle anymore. Or what she becomes. It is a hazy feeling, the one that occurs when one is completely in control but at the same time has none. The aftermath of the feeling hits like a brick as well, with perfect recollection but no feeling of doing. She pauses.

It is a scary feeling.

And she is too much of a coward to embrace it. She has never had the courage to tell Father this, and thinks it perhaps unnecessary. She has no need to feel anything for what she does. Her hands twitch in her lap before becoming still. It is perfectly okay, she assures herself, to pretend to feel.

Fifteen minutes pass before she sees Naruto and Sasuke arrive, bickering almost incessantly. Their liveliness makes her feel immediately out of place, so she does not greet them.

Naruto notices her first. "Sakura-chan!"

"Good morning," she says with a smile, getting up from her sitting position.

"Have you been waiting long?" he asks her, his cerulean eyes so sincere that she is momentarily at a loss for words.

"No," she lies, her expression unchanged. Actually, she thinks, it is not quite a lie. She has not been waiting for them at all. Though as soon as this thought occurs to her, she feels ashamed, with no idea why.

Suddenly she feels the need to make conversation, if only just to mend the atmosphere she had destroyed.

She looks at her two potential partners.

One is so exuberant that he makes her feel out of place, while the other hardly speaks (to her) at all. For a moment, she considers dropping the whole prospect of conversation. But it soon occurs to her that as they are her teammates, conversation would be mandatory. So with slight resignation, she opts for the latter only because she cannot stand the unease that occurs when conversing with the former.

"Sasuke-kun," she says, her tone uncertain.

He does not respond, and she finds that she did not expect him to.

"Did you have to wake up early?" She is genuinely curious about this, and it shows. If he normally got up around this time, she thinks, she will need to train earlier. Faster. Harder.

But all she receives in response is a "hn."

She has no idea what this means, and wonders if he expects her to translate it. After a few seconds though, she realizes that perhaps he only intended to drop the conversation. A blush works a way onto her face––she is not supposed to be this socially inept.

She feels Naruto attempt to fill in the gap of conversation, first with random motions that she cannot recognize by pure intuition and then with his voice.

"You know, it's a nice day isn't it?" Naruto asks, and she vaguely feels that this question is addressed to her.

She decides to speak the truth, because the blond in her eyes appears to be invincible. Or at least far stronger than her.

"It isn't." Her tone is flat, flatter than she intended it to be.

When she feels Naruto's energy drop dramatically, she feels guilty, responsible for poisoning his... goodness. But, she assures herself, she only spoke the truth. Nothing more and nothing less. Bare.

Upon watching the blond's expression fall though, she has second thoughts about her correctness. Perhaps Father was right, she thinks, perhaps people needed lies.

She certainly did.

She jerks back as if she has hit a mental landmine. Perhaps she did, she realizes, as looks back and forth between both boys. It is at this moment that she decides Naruto is dangerous, dangerous in ways kunai or exploding tags will never be. Silently, she vows never to get close to him.

Thirty minutes later it occurs to her that her teacher is over an hour late.

Remembering all lectures on punctuality from her father, she questions whether she will be okay on this team. Punctuality, she learned, is a sign of seriousness, of dedication.

Then where does lateness fall?

She wonders this as she returns to her sitting position, her back straight and legs crossed. Her hands fall into her lap.

It does not matter, she decides, while gently biting on her lower lip.

She has been trained to wait.

It takes two more hours for Kakashi-sensei to reach the vicinity.

By this time, she is incredibly anxious. She has given up numbing the feeling in her belly, whatever it happens to be, and instead watches her teammates. Almost immediately, "teammates" becomes "teammate." Sasuke's features are too striking for her to look away, and she finds herself staring.

It occurs to her that perhaps she is being too interested, too attached. But, the more she thinks about it, the less significant her observations become. Thinking makes the world seem so much more gray and so much less magical. After a moment, she supposes that she likes it this way.

She shifts her eyes to the sky, wondering if the wind has changed its mind.

It hasn't.

"Sakura-chan."

Kakashi-sensei's voice brings her back to the present, the here-and-now. Though she does not appreciate being disturbed, she does not show this, letting out what she hopes is an enthusiastic "good morning."

She watches his masked face carefully for any changes in expression. Surprise bleeds onto his face like blood trickling from a shallow cut. It is then that she realizes that there are so many things she does not understand.

She is confused.

Should she be affronted? Pleased? The world of emotions is so confusing, and she has no way to separate them all from one another. To her, they all bleed together, like different types of dye dumped into the same bucket of water. To her, it is easier to smile than to understand.

It is what she has always done.

Kakashi-sensei's voice becomes audible again. "I'm glad to see that all three of you have decided to show up."

Naruto is a ball of energy, ready to say what she cannot. "Sensei, you're late!" Sasuke only glowers.

"Am I?" is Kakashi-sensei's response.

She hopes he is joking when she responds. "You are three hours late, Sensei." Her voice is shriller than she wishes, but she supposes the volume is worth it.

"Well, as I was walking, a black cat––"

"Liar!" Naruto and Sasuke both say. She manages to chime in on the second syllable.

Kakashi-sensei only smiles, and she feels deeply uneasy. "But I'm here now right?" He does not wait for a response before continuing. "So you guys can have a test."

"A test?" Naruto's voice quickly becomes whiny. She wonders if he knows his whine grates on her nerves.

"Yep. A test. The bell test." Kakashi-sensei's lips have lost their smile, but she sees the amusement lurking in his eyes. Unintentionally, she shivers, her thin shoulders shaking back and forth.

"Why?" Naruto asked, his voice back to his normal (loud) volume.

"Well..." Kakashi-sensei drags out this word for a few seconds.

"You guys are my first genin team and were forced on me, so I want to make sure you're worthy."

Sakura is speechless.

Granted, she normally does not have much to say, but his flippant attitude frightens her. This is not going according to plan, she thinks. She dislikes the unexpected–––there is too much left to instinct, and her instincts are not her.

She hears herself comment. "Sensei, you never told us about any test to prepare for." She looks straight at Kakashi-sensei, and focuses as much intensity as she can muster in her green eyes. Time after time she has been told that her gaze is unnerving.

His response surprises her further. "I know you're book-smart Sa-ku-ra–––I want to see something else."

She does not appreciate the way he says her name, his tone lilted and teasing. She frowns. She has never been teased by a teacher before.

She has a response ready anyway though, as she is never at a loss for words when in front of an authority. To be ready is to be safe, she thinks. And to be safe is always better.

"What exactly does this test entail?" Despite how her words come out, she makes a large effort to hold back her thoughts, biting on her tongue to prevent any complaints from coming out. The blood tastes bitter, with a metallic tinge. Nothing unusual.

Kakashi-sensei pulls out two gold-coloured bells, attached by a single metal ring around an inch in diameter. She looks at her teammates, relieved that they are as confused as she is. Sasuke wears a look of disdain to mask his confusion, his lip curled into a slight sneer that does not quite hide the bemused look in his dark eyes. Naruto, on the other hand, wears all his thoughts on his face. She knows that she will never be that easy to read.

Thankfully, Sensei clarifies. "Your goal is these two bells. You will have to take them from me." He takes this moment to wink at them. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." She cannot tell whether she should be affronted or relieved. But, as she thinks about what he says, she recalls that he is a former ANBU, a current jounin. At her current skill level, it would be impossible to beat him.

She smiles a wide, toothless, lipped smile, ignoring the looks of her teammates.

Perhaps he will not be such a bad sensei after all.

She suddenly hears Sasuke cough. "So what's the point?" he asks gruffly, his glare fixated on Kakashi-sensei now.

Kakashi-sensei smiles. She loses her own.

"The point, dear genin, is to get these." Two bento boxes dangle from his long, nimble-looking fingers. She frowns, the corners of her mouth turned slightly downward.

"Sensei, there are only two boxes." She gives him a pointed look, knowing she is pointing out the obvious.

"That's correct. There are only two boxes. And the test starts now."

Before she can further scrutinize his face, he disappears in a puff of smoke. She groans to herself before turning to watch her teammates.

They both carry looks of determination on their faces, and she can tell that they have not come to the same conclusion as she has. Within a few seconds, they both disappear from her vision, running after Kakashi-sensei. She sighs before running after them.

It will be a long morning.

She has two choices, she realizes as she glances around at her surroundings. The same two. For a few minutes she sits down on a rock and thinks.

There is some relief apparent in her expression when she sees the dark-haired boy come into the vicinity. He is significantly lower on chakra, an obvious sign that he has already met Kakashi-sensei.

"Sasuke-kun." Her words hold conviction, and she puts just enough intensity in her green eyes to let him know that she is very much serious.

He graces her with a look in her direction, though still clutches his kunai.

She knows she only has one chance, and has deliberated over the words for more than five minutes. "We need to work together."

A look of disbelief is her reward. She does not consider this an insult to her abilities, only a flag to his pride, which she concedes is not so wrongfully-placed. He has potential, after all.

She does not plead, something she herself cannot stand. "You need us."

"Hn." His face has not yet shifted into a sneer, but she senses it is very quickly heading into that direction. She continues, outlining some semblance of a strategy.

"You are strong, but you need support. A distraction." Her eyes intensify and meet his gaze.

He appears to do a mental double-take, and she finds that she herself is satisfied. She can affect him, despite what anyone may say. His kunai-wielding hand drops to his side and she allows herself a small smile. With sound confidence, she continues to speak.

"I'll plan it. Naruto and I will distract him while you get the bells. Just wait for my cue before you do anything reckless." Her last word appears to irritate him some, but she feels it needs to be said.

"Why should I listen to you?" His question, though probably ill-founded, has merit she thinks. Her smile does not fade as she responds.

"Who had the highest academic rank in the academy?" Without a response from him, she says, "You may think I'm physically weaker than you, but I have brains. The mind of a strategist if you will." She taps her head here, and she realizes that she is beginning to lose herself to the pull of battle. It is not in her personality to add extra motions to anything she does.

He grunts in what she realizes is agreement.

"Stay here while I get Naruto-kun." The twitching of his muscles betrays his aversion to being ordered around, but he bears it relatively well, maintaining his brooding countenance.

Naruto's chakra is like a burning fire, she thinks, one that releases so much smoke into the air that everyone around it suffocates. She can always tell where he is, and she has yet to figure out whether this is a good thing. For now she supposes it is.

With no hesitation, she darts in the blond's direction, jumping from branch to branch on the murky and contemplative wind. Her long pink hair whips itself backward in the wind of her aftermath, with the exception of a few loose strands.

She clenches her fists and loosens them during the minute-long journey. Her control is starting to slip.

"Naruto-kun."

The blond in question turns around, grinning widely as soon as he recognizes her face. "Yeah?"

"Come with me." He obeys without protest, and she silently thanks Kami that he is not as difficult as Sasuke. Momentarily, she feels bad about barring him, but decides that it is best for the both of them, maintaining the unseen barrier.

His movements are far clunkier than hers, something he notices after they are half way there. She only notes that he is slower–––grace is hardly her forte in teaching. "How do you run like that?" is his question.

She purposely evades it. "Like what?"

As he cannot imitate her strides, he is left at a loss of words. His face scrunches up in thought, and she takes the opportunity to observe him closely for the first time.

His skin is tanned, not the kind from hanging around with friends, but marred with a few burns and bruises here and there. The kind from having no place for shade, no home, she thinks. He has a few whisker-like markings on both his cheeks which she finds significant. They have a deep chakra link to the mass of chakra in his belly. She knows though, that she will never ask how or why a spirit came to be sealed within him, despite the fact that she finds the topic deeply intriguing.

The rest of his body is of little interest to her, except for his eyes. His beautiful, open cerulean eyes. She is terrified of those friendly eyes. She has seen his body, scarred from his scant twelve years of life, so she knows if anyone has the right to be sad and melancholy, it is him. Yet, she notes, he is always open, trusting, and incredibly happy. It is incredibly irritating and off-putting at the same time, she thinks.

He is dangerous.

This is her last thought as her eyes finish raking down his body, looking for any details capable of providing future use.

As she expects, he does not notice her observing him, though she notices a twitch in the chakra of his belly. In response, she glares at the place she knows the spirit to be and turns away.

Yes, he is dangerous.

They arrive at the designated meeting place in five minutes. Her feet barely touch upon the ground before Naruto begins to grovel.

"Why him?" he groans loudly.

She senses another chakra presence, perhaps only fifty feet away. Kakashi-sensei.

She is too wary of their sensei's presence to tell Naruto to shut up, but Sasuke does it for her. "Shut up, Dobe. Do you want to eat lunch or not?"

At the mention of lunch, Naruto's bright face gains even more exuberance. She is torn between rolling her eyes and sighing, despite the fact that she cannot recognize the feeling in her chest. Annoyance perhaps?

Sasuke then turns toward her, his tacit cue for her to begin briefing them.

"Naruto and I will head out toward Sensei first. Sasuke, stay right behind us until you can see him. Then, hide as best you can." She does not bother asking him to mask his chakra because she doubts it will make a difference.

She turns toward Naruto. "How many clones can you make?"

He does not question her knowing his ability to make multiple clones, probably out of a lack of general knowledge of jutsu, she decides. Either way, it is best this way.

Naruto shrugs, the movement of shoulders slightly awkward on his body. "I don't know Sakura-chan."

"Can you do ten?" Ten, she thinks, will be enough without draining too much chakra. He is terrible at conserving it.

"Yeah!" he says enthusiastically, starting to get into the spirit of things.

"So we're set on what we're going to do?" she asks, mostly for her own benefit.

"What are you going to do Sakura-chan?" Sasuke looks toward her as well, a clear sign that both are suffering from curiosity.

She does not shrug, only because she has been taught not to. Instead, she stiffens her already straight back and says the first thing that comes to mind. She slips further.

"Genjutsu probably." Though her statement has some uncertainty in the words, there is none in her tone.

Her silence is their cue to get in formation. They do not question her lead, nor her ability to know where Kakashi-sensei is. Upon this observation, she realizes that they are only children, not quite shinobi. They will not scrutinize her like the others always did.

Her tense shoulders relax slightly.

They get to Kakashi-sensei in a matter of moments and she hisses harshly, perhaps harsher than she intended to, "Naruto, go!" She wonders if he realizes she has dropped the honorific before disregarding the idea altogether. It is more important to retain as much control as possible.

As soon as she sees the clones materialize, she locks her gaze on Kakashi-sensei, who is reading a book that she assumes is not for a child's eyes. So this is what he meant by giving us a handicap, she muses as she watches Naruto attempt to gain Kakashi-sensei's attention.

Upon watching the second clone disappear in a puff of smoke, she makes herself appear right in front of Kakashi-sensei, only five feet away. For a few moments they stare each other down, her gaze as intense as she can allow herself to get. Her hands form the few hand signs so fast that there is a slight breeze. Or perhaps there is a small breeze. The surroundings are becoming hazier to her.

Her sight begins to blur as her genjutsu takes place.

It is a basic genjutsu, one that does not require much chakra. The environment becomes that of a strange dreamland, yet she continues to stare Kakashi-sensei down as she transforms herself into a geisha doll, eyes wide. She hopes that she cannot invade his memories or his mind. She does not want to. The only thing on her mind has nothing to do with the bell test, or Kakashi-sensei.

The only thing on her mind is keeping control.

To add to the control aspect, she chooses to play with the element of earth, an element that requires much effort on her part. She does not move physically, only manipulates the threads of chakra she has put into the genjutsu. Creating a genjutsu is like creating a play, she thinks. Props have to materialize, sometimes out of nowhere, and the actors have to be in character.

The geisha smiles. Slowly, under her control, the earth begins to move, sliding to allow several chasms in the ground and raising a few platforms a couple hundred feet off the ground. Her geisha character walks toward him, wraps him in her string, and throws him on a platform, still smiling. A kunai appears.

Suddenly, she feels Kakashi-sensei shudder slightly. She begins to worry, upon sensing a reaction from him. He is supposed to resist her so that Sasuke can grab the bells. He is supposed to be stronger than this.

Subconsciously, she can feel her genjutsu begin to crack. He is breaking free. The fact makes her so relieved, yet she does not let go of her genjutsu. She curses under her breath, in the real world.

She has lost control.

The threads of chakra in her genjutsu become thicker, and the surroundings become more real. She can just feel it, the creation of a whole new world. Vaguely, she feels the excitement of accomplishment. She feels her threads creep like hungry snakes toward Kakashi-sensei, hungry for bad memories and fears to prey on, aiming to intrude upon his mind. Disturbed, she yanks herself back, almost falling on her bottom.

In the real world, she sees the odd looks Sasuke is giving to her.

When she finishes crafting, he is completely absorbed into her dreamworld. Her geisha character is as good as she is with a kunai, if not better because in her mind, she moves as fast as the wind. Another kunai materializes in her other hand. It becomes an odd war now, she thinks, as the geisha flies after him and he attempts to escape by jumping from platform to platform. Down, of course, is death. She smiles uncontrollably.

Suddenly another character, dripping blood on her newly created earth appears in her world. She allows it, and looks outside her genjutsu for a few moments.

In the real world, she can see Sasuke approach Kakashi-sensei hesitantly. Hesitantly? For a split second, she focuses her attention on the real world. Naruto's clones have disappeared, and both boys appear apprehensive about approaching a strangely quiet Kakashi who is moving around quicker than they can follow, mumbling to himself while his book lies closed on the ground.

Vaguely, she feels that she has forgotten something.

A gust of wind blows by.

She realizes then that she is supposed to capture him, not make him run. An earth cage slams down on him as she regains control, taking hold of the millions of chakra threads she has created for the sole purpose of one genjutsu. It is like grabbing the reins of a horse that has run completely out of control with the expectation of actually stopping it, she thinks. For a moment, she feels like she has done the impossible.

Perhaps she has.

Kakashi-sensei is still now, his hands on the bars and his eyes focused on the single character that she let appear, one not of her creation. Her hands move to dispel the genjutsu, though she is barely aware of the signs she is making. In the real world, she turns to Sasuke, motioning for him to get the bells. He obeys her tacit request without a word.

Her hands are shaking now.

They are hardly strong enough to be doing this, she thinks as she gazes upon her small, pale hands.

But they are strong, she assures herself, and she slowly rewinds her chakra strands. To her, breaking her own genjutsu is the equivalent of doing all the hand signs required under the pressure of 400 feet of water. Her hands ache as she goes through hand sign after hand sign, careful not to leave any chakra traces behind.

The process only takes a minute, but it feels like a year.

When she has finished and Sasuke holds the bells up in his hand, there is only an odd expression left on Kakashi-sensei's face. She does not look away when he looks at her, and they exchange glances. She hopes she is wondering the same thing that he is. Why didn't he break the genjutsu faster?

Silently, she extends her senses toward her sensei and realizes that he meant to study her work, presumably before being swept into it. He does not appear to be unsettled, so she knows that she did not intrude too much on his conscious, or even subconscious mind. She heaves a quiet sigh of relief.

Real damage, she thinks, has yet to be done.

The four remain in silence for only a few seconds, due to Naruto's exclamations of victory. She finds herself replying appropriately, responses without any personal thought done her part.

"Good job guys," Kakashi-sensei says after a pause. She feels his one-eyed gaze rest momentarily on her and turns to watch her teammates for a distraction.

The glint in Sasuke's eye is pure tacit appreciation of his own talents, and she feels that the lesson has perhaps been lost on him entirely. She does not bother reinforcing it though; that is not her place.

She turns toward Naruto, the boy with boundless energy. He is slightly beaten from the skirmish and lower on chakra than she has ever been in her life, but she still feels the optimism bleeding from him. Where before she might have been tempted to let a smile creep onto her face, she knows better now, her carefully schooled expression evidence of her aversion.

She herself is not satisfied. She is not proud of anything she did in the confrontation, though her body language shows none of this. Her trained smile is beautifully artificial, one of slight confidence and satisfaction.

Naruto's stomach grumbles, breaking into Kakashi-sensei'sanalyzation of their respective skill levels.

Sensei places one of the two bento boxes in the boy's hands, a tacit request for the boy to eat. Not surprisingly, Sasuke takes the second.

Kakashi-sensei looks at her after the boys have begun to eat. Though she has taken the pains of diminishing her presence, she has the vaguest feeling that her efforts are not needed.

She knows what he is wondering. What will you do? is the question clear in his exposed eye. Unfortunately for him, she thinks, he will never get a rise from her. She is not one to protest or complain, especially to an authority. Hunger, the thing that her teammates still fall prey to, is not an issue for her–––she has been trained to ignore it. The rumble of her belly is soundless, essentially non-existent.

Instead of talking to anyone, she sits down, her back still straight and her legs out in front of her. Making a point of her being relaxed, she leans back on her hands and watches the wind. It has recovered from its anxiety, she realizes. A small smile graces her face, accompanying the warm feeling in her belly.

After what she feels is a long pause, Kakashi-sensei speaks to them.

"Congratulations, team. You have passed the test." On his face is a smirkish sort of smile. Is there such a thing?

The boys barely look up to acknowledge him, and she senses that her teacher has another card to play. "I'm glad you figured out how to split the two lunches amongst the three of you," he says, aiming a pointed glance in her direction.

Silence creeps in while she is not watching. She sees Naruto look down at his food and then look at her before realization dawns on his face. The Uchiha's reaction, she decides, is not worth the time to analyze or scrutinize.

He offers her some of his bento.

She declines. "I am not hungry."

"How can you not be hungry Sakura-chan!" he cries out, as if she has committed a great crime. "I was starving!" he discloses to her, as if it were not entirely obvious. Suddenly something occurs to him, and he asks, almost accusingly, "Did you eat breakfast?"

"Yes," she says. She did not, but he has no need to know this.

She can feel Sasuke look at her for a few seconds before steering his gaze elsewhere.

"You should eat something Sakura-chan," Naruto says seriously. "You're too thin!"

She makes the mistake of looking directly into his eyes. There is an abrupt pause before her reply of "No, I'm not really."

She looks down at her thinly muscled body. She supposes that she may look weak to some, but she is just light enough to ride the wind and strong enough to wield a formidable weapon. Every day of training she does with her father is designed to keep this lithe, muscular build.

"Sakura, please eat something," Naruto whines. She has to make an effort to not let her eyebrows twitch.

She ignores him, pretending to be completely absorbed in the sky. In a way, she supposes she is.

There is a few more minutes of pleading on Naruto's part before she hears a gruff voice say, "Eat."

She finds a half-eaten bento in her hands. To his credit, he is a neat eater, with no crumbs or otherwise disgusting remains.

Surprised, she looks up and meets the gaze of Sasuke. She is surprised because his kind has always scorned her kind. "No," she says, "you should eat it. Food is a waste on me." She sees his forehead scrunch a bit before loosening in a play of nonchalance. If he were to feed her, she thinks, it would be like feeding a monster.

She never rewards herself for losing control.

That night when her father asks her if the day went well, she lies.

"Yes."

"What jutsus did you use?"

"Only one."

"Which one?"

"The earth one." She disregards the other pieces of the genjutsu.

"How did your teacher like it?" For the first time, she notices that his voice is almost painfully formal, as if he is struggling to keep up the play of politeness.

She hates those questions, the ones that have no particular answer. "I think he liked it."

"Oh?"

"He is the genjutsu type." Despite the fact that she has never thought this before, as soon it comes out of her mouth, she realizes that it is true.

"That is convenient."

"It is?" She asks it partly out of curiosity, but more out of habit. This knowledge is not a necessity.

"You are the genjutsu type Shiro." He says this with an air of confidence not unlike Sasuke's. The similarities worry her.

She mulls this bit of information over for a bit.

Her father notices her thinking and does not bother her until the end of the meal, a gesture she is grateful for.

"Don't forget your duty Shiro," he reminds her. It is the ultimate blanket statement, she thinks. He is telling her to be courteous to everyone and everything, take all missions with absolute seriousness, train as concisely as possible... She pauses. The list is far too long, it suddenly occurs to her. She wonders how it ever ended up in her head in the first place.

To her father she says, "I won't."

Though the more and more she thinks over the words, they sound like "I can't."

A/N: Well? Please leave a review!

P.S. I'm really excited about this story because it's more about how character interaction leads to character development. To give you a glimpse of how things will turn out... Sakura, of course, is the main character, and the two second most important characters are Sasuke and Kakashi. Third tier would be her father and Naruto. I didn't really want to develop Naruto because he's developed so much in canon (well, if you can call sudden maturity "development").