Chapter Text
Sakura is three years old and tomorrow she attends the Ninja Academy for the first time.
Ino-chan is the same age as Sakura, but she won't be going for another year.
Sakura has no ninja tools. Kaa-chan and Tou-chan say she won't graduate, anyway, so she doesn't need any.
Hokage-sama wrote a letter himself asking for her.
'Induction'. Sakura asked what that word meant, but nobody told her.
At the academy, they call her a 'civvie'. Tou-chan said its short for 'civilian'. Why do they say it like its bad?
Her sensei is a man with silver-blue hair and green eyes. When he smiles, it reminds her of a wolf. But not a nice, soft wolf. A big, mean one.
She thinks she doesn't like him.
On her first day, a kunai is placed into her hands. She's told to throw it at the target.
It reminds her of darts, just with a really big and heavy dart instead of a small one.
The kunai is heavy. Its not heavy like a can of soup, though. Not something she could roll under her foot for growing pains, for sure.
Mizuki-sensei snaps at her as she tests the kunai in both hands.
She tilts her head at him. He tenses.
Mizuki-sensei is clanless, just like Sakura. But he likes the clan kids more.
Sakura heard Kaa-chan and Tou-chan talking about how clan kids are less likely to die. She thinks she understands why Mizuki-sensei doesn't like her.
He doesn't want to be attached if she dies.
Sakura knows death. Death is what the little birds she catches sometimes experience. Death makes them shriek and squirm until it takes them completely. If Sakura were to die, would she shriek and squirm, just as the little birds did?
Mizuki-sensei looks upset. She should probably throw the kunai.
Turning to the target, she lets her eyes wander the ground, then raises her hand.
Holding a kunai is nothing like holding a dart, so she has to improvise.
She throws the kunai.