Chapter Text
A crowd of unfamiliar adults surrounded a small figure with a distinctive pink hair, shooting her poorly disguised looks of pity while they carried whispered conversations. No one dared to approach her, perhaps so as not to startle her and prevent her from bursting into uncontrollable tears again.
Her green eyes, swollen and red, stared vacantly at the horizon. Her childlike mind didn't quite understand what was happening, but she felt a tightness in her chest that refused to go. From the moment she woke up, she cried and screamed for hours, waiting for the familiar presence of her parents to come to her to calm her crying. However, she only got consolation from unknow people, increasing the unease in her being with their presence.
Suddenly, the figure that until then was standing rigidly next to her, the only person who managed to stop her tears and calm her cries of anguish, moved away from her for a moment, taking with him the attention of the adults gathered on the place.
“Poor girl, so young and she already lost her parents...”
"I don't understand what Hokage-sama is thinking, letting that man be her guardian, he doesn't even live in the village!"
"Don't speak so loud, he could hear you."
"They say that Sato-san is not right in the head and that's why they discharged him as a ninja."
"Yeah, I heard he was the only survivor of his team and that drove him crazy."
“I heard he was held prisoner for months...”
Her ears heard the words, but her brain failed to recognize their meaning. Despite her great intelligence, at the young age of one year, she could only understand one thing. They were talking about her new guardian, her father's cousin, Haruno Sato. Soon, her mind decided to silence their words, leading her out of that place, into happier times. It was the best she could do to lessen the suffering she was feeling.
When the orange lights of the twilight began to bathe her immobile figure, she felt the adults move away one by one, until she was completely alone, with her mind abstracted and her eyes staring into space.
When the Sun finished setting and the stars began to illuminate the sky, footsteps were heard approaching her person. But the little girl was still disconnected from the world, so the author of the steps knelt in front of her to look into her eyes.
"Time to go, little flower," he said softly, trying not to startle her.
The girl focused on his face when she heard his voice, looking at his black eyes and hair, so different from her father.
The man in front of her stood up when he noticed he had her attention and offered her a hand. The little girl looked at the hand for a while, before raising her hand with vacillation, her eyes once again slipping back to the two carved stones on the left that marked the place where her parents lay in eternal rest.
With one last glance, Sakura followed her father's cousin, both of them getting lost in the middle of the night, leaving one life behind and giving way to another.