Sakura- Flower of Blood (English Version)

7. Chapter

The gates of Konoha were huge.
At the sight of them, Sakura's eyes widened and she felt the anticipation bubbling up inside her, finally.

She would go to the ninja academy which Isanami had told her so much about.  There were many other children there who also wanted to become ninjas.

But the little girl stopped about a hundred meters from the village and tugged nervously at the green hem of her top.

"What if I'm not good enough?" This question had been banished from her mind the whole time, but now, so close to her goal, it crept back into Sakura's mind.

"What if I can't become a ninja?"

"Don't worry about that, you're already better than your future classmates."

A little smile came over the little one's face, but she still wasn't convinced.

"When we get there, I'll teach you some real Jutsu." Sakura's eyes glittered and she nodded excitedly.

"So now you go over to those two men and tell them what we discussed. Okay?"

"Okay."

Confidently, she now walked towards the small hut by the gate.

Two young men sat in it and didn't seem to notice her at all, as they were much too absorbed in their card game.

"And these are the guardians of Konoha?"

"They used to be more serious about their job." Isanami also sounded a bit upset about the ignorance of the two shinobi.

She stopped in front of the small wooden hut and waited to be noticed, but even now, the two didn't seem to care about what was happening right under their noses.

Sakura cleared her throat a little annoyed but couldn't bring herself to do anything louder because she was a little shy.

One of the two men turned his head and then shook his colleague.

A little surprised, they looked down at Sakura without saying anything.

"Uhm, I'd like to go to the ninja academy."

Their eyes widened and they exchanged glances.

"What's your name, if I may ask?"   One of them asked. He was wearing a bandage over his nose and had wildly protruding hair.

"Sakura, Hazebe Sakura." She didn't want to change her first name because she thought it suited her.

One of the maids was called Hazebe, and she had always been the most likeable of them all.

"Ok Sakura, I'm Izumo," the other one said, half of his face was covered by his hair, "Where are you from?"

"From a small village about a day's journey from here, called Hiraka." That village really existed, and Sakura knew that almost all her employees came from that village.

"Seems to be true." the mummy flicked through a thick folder comparing it to a small map of the surrounding land.

The other nodded and then smiled at me.

"I'll take you to the Hokage first, okay?"