Twiceborn: Second Bloom | Alternate

Chapter Twenty: Sakura, Sound, and the Many Reasons They Don't Get Along

"Nee-chan!"

Sakura grunted, feeling a weight impact her stomach, and blearily she opened her eyes. "Huh?" She blinked, staring at how dark it still was. Why was Akira awake? Even she usually would not have been awake at that hour. "Aki-chan?" she slurred, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What're you doing up?"

"They're here!"

Sakura sat bolt upright. "Who?"

Akira held out a large envelope she could barely make out in the early dawn light. "The results, silly!" she said with a giggle. "Can we go and open them? I wanted to open them with you and Mio-nee... but I can't wait any longer!"

"Ugh." Sakura rubbed at her eyes. "Fine... but we should go to the other room," she said, yawning as she pulled herself out from under the covers. "It won't do us any good if we wake the others..."

"I'll get Mio!" Akira declared.

"Shh!" Sakura hissed, making her bed back up before she headed out into the living room, yawning again as Mio and Akira followed her like little ducklings. "Alright, lemme get the lights," she mumbled, gesturing for them to sit at the table while she went and switched the lights on.

"Hurry up, Saku-nee!" Akira demanded, and Sakura scowled.

"Patience, Aki-chan," she said, sitting herself down on the other side of her sibling. "Now let's open this and see whether we all passed."

Akira pressed the letter into her hands all of a sudden. "I don't wanna open it... you open it, nee-chan!"

Sakura sighed. "Right," she said, breaking the seal on the envelope, relief flooding through her when she scanned through each of the letters. "We all passed," she informed them, handing them each of their acceptance letters, eyes locking on her own.

"I'm in class 1-C!" Akira said, climbing to her feet, jumping around in joy. "I did it! I did it!"

"I'm in class 1-D..." Mio mumbled, frowning ever so slightly as she sat quietly at the table.

"They probably split you up – being siblings and all," she said, looking for her own class number, almost smirking when she spotted her designation. "It seems I'm in class S..."

"No number in front of it?" Mio peered down at her letter, curious.

"You think that's the super special class they told us about?" Akira asked, pausing in her celebrations to peer over her shoulder curiously. "Saku-nee is awesome, after all!"

Sakura smiled at that. "Too right I am," she said, preening under both their gazes. She was allowed to have self-confidence in herself and her abilities... unlike one Haruno Sakura. Her lip curled at the thought, mood souring as she thought on the pathetic girl. Sakura shook her head. She didn't need thoughts like that ruining her mood. Instead, she held her head high, basking in the recognition she'd received due to her abilities. She was strong – just like she had always wanted to be, and everything was going to be better than her first life from that point onwards.

Or so she thought until the first day of the academy began – and it began inside one Senju Tobirama's office, with Uchiha Fugaku, father of Sasuke, at his side.

"Sakura-chan," Tobirama began, looking utterly exasperated by the paperwork in front of him. "Why do I have a report here about you tying a boy to a tree and inciting bees to attack him? That's not the only one with you written as the likely culprit either."

Sakura blinked, shifting ever so slightly on her feet as the two actual adults stared down at her with varying expressions of dismay and disappointment. "I don't remember doing anything like that," she said, folding her arms as she fixed her glare on the white-haired man.