Haruno Sakura was born during a ruthless roar of a tempest. Lightning arced from the dark clouds converging overhead to strike the otherwise peaceful village below. The terrible storm mercilessly pummeled the marketplace, forcing desperate shopkeepers to hurriedly close their shops and flee before its wrath.
As if mimicking the oppressive atmosphere, she emerged to the world with a mighty howl, putting the thunderstorms to shame.
Drenched in sweat, a shuddering mess, Haruno Mebuki came to embrace her newborn the moment she was presented before her in a flash. Holding her tiny baby close, secured, safe and sound within her arms, Mebuki beamed in earnest, her emotions overflowing with affection and gratitude.
Then the baby came to peer up curiously, and the gratifying occasion grew to a halt.
The new mother gazed upon what shouldn't be there — and responded with a harsh resounding scream of bodacious horror, successfully alerting the doctor and nurses nearby.
All it took was one glance to mute them unmitigatedly. Eerie stillness thumped throughout the room before an unlimited uproar arrived to crash the silence.
"Impossible—"
"—not a myth?"
"—should alert Hokage-sama—"
Mebuki watched as each and every person tumbled, scattering everywhere as they would occasionally turn to look at her daughter as if—
As if her newborn was a deity.
She trembled in trepidation. Forcing herself to gaze down at her baby who was clamorously wailing now, Mebuki felt her heart pang at the sight. Little Sakura was frightened, distressed, by the sheer sound of cataclysm circulating on all sides.
The room started to spin. She ignored her husband's shouting and demands for an answer — even going as far as shaking the doctor's coat — she shut all the noises out, closing her eyes down.
She bit her lip until she tasted copper. Regarding the bundle in her arms, she was torn on whether to hold her tight or cast her away. 'What does it mean?' She found herself wondering, unaware of her own hands pressing the baby deeper against her chest, efficiently lulling her to sleep.
'What's going to happen to my baby?'
"—tify the ANBU on patrol," One of them insisted.
"Should we risk it? What if Hokage-sama—"
"It's not about whether we should or shouldn't, we mustn't hide anything from him!" The doctor hissed, outraged and downright disturbed by the thought of betraying their leader.
"...but how could this happen, Koushi-sensei? This is... this has to be a miracle,"
Another round of silence launched across the room.
"The Haruno are civilians," Someone began, a chart in one hand. The woman proceeded as though the aforementioned weren't present. "Migrated from the Land of Iron 4 years ago, though not before staying with their relatives in Land of Rivers for a year and a half. They have other relatives in each of their respective domains, all civilians."
"Clan affiliation?"
"None."
"Intriguing," The doctor marveled.
It took Mebuki 15 seconds to register that Sakura wasn't even snuggling in her cradle anymore.
Oblivious of her current condition and what's in store, little Sakura gurgled as the doctor cooed, appreciating the light touch on her left chubby cheek. The ineluctable fate settled on her tiny shoulders was conspicuous — to those who were aware of what it was — a promise of a future of conquering the impossibilities.
It was to be feared, yet there was no denying that the eyes were a mystical gift from the heavens.
(It just so happened that the ones who were in charge of delivering the newborn were retired veterans who fought and shed blood on the battlefield. Those who learned, those who were familiar with the conjectural tale.
Albeit no longer as competent as they used to, their knowledge had never diminished.)
The nurses who held Kizashi by his arms to keep him from lashing out at the doctor didn't break a sweat. Assuring him that it would be fine, that nothing would happen to their daughter. They said once the Hokage was informed, they would give their baby back to them, and they were all certain that Sakura would have a wonderful future. An adventurous one.
Kizashi didn't buy it and told them to fuck off.
The two nurses exchanged a swift glance, nodding harmoniously before one injected him with sedative, and the other supported his weight while leaving to look for an unoccupied room close by, taking him out of the room.
By this point, Mebuki was hyperventilating. The urge to scream was overwhelmingly heavy. A desperate need to seek for help lathered her raw, simmering so furiously that she couldn't help the tears rushing down. A part of her knew no one would be on her side, and yet, yet...
"Please," She cried out in pain. "Don't take my daughter away from me!"
A sudden pause of tense silence filled the room, as the nurses at the back exchanged a dark look, but the doctor in front of her was smiling clinically.
"Oh no no," The doctor broke the silent atmosphere, shaking his head. With a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, he continued. "Rest assured, we treasure your daughter dearly. Hokage-sama would have to be in the loop first. And this is incredible, Haruno-san!" He spouted, tranquilly rocking her baby.
"The Rinnegan is said to be the most superior dojutsu of all. The evidence of its existence was tentative at best. As most civilians are in the dark, no one would blame you for your lack of understanding on this specific matter."
"She will guide us into all truth!" He grinned, too occupied with his speech to be agitated by the noisy sound of veritable despair. "True peace is in the wind, and to think Kami chose us to be her protector for now, as she will be our savior one day. Who knows what would've happened had you resided in Kumo?" He grimaced.
He beamed when Sakura perked up, cooing at him. It had to be an approval, and he idly wondered if she understood him. He wouldn't dare to treat her normally, what with the oddity of her existence, or how did this tiny being came to own a former-chimerical dojustsu. He didn't want to mess up, and he certainly wouldn't want to make her upset.
Her slightly large eyes emitted innocence. The delicate purity of it all was permeable, lustrous with a glint of signification; and she didn't seem to mind the unhinged blast of storms just outside the window. Most newborns would be alarmed and wailed their lungs out due to what they deemed anomalous. This one... she appeared lullabied.
"Kumo would've done the unthinkable." The nurse scoffed.
"Oh? That sounds personal," his tone turned teasing.
"It's irrelevant."
"You—" Then the atmosphere morphed into what one would consider forbidding, as three undetected presences came into view.
Even though they were out of practice, it's instinctual for the veteran medics. Each holding their choice of weapons hidden somewhere within.
The masks placed on their face put them at immediate ease.
"A-ANBU-san!" The doctor sputtered, hand on his chest to soothe the dread.
One of the nurses exhaled shakily. "Of course they found out before we could directly broadcast the news," She shook her head, pocketing her weapon back.
A sudden thump of footsteps resonated across the place, a fourth presence more dominant than the rest. A deliberate, suffocating atmosphere entered the hospital room, meant to forcefully set the occupants' knees on the ground to perceive the superiority of that specific individual before he even arrived.
As the footsteps became harsher, drawing nearer, the frozen medics took a quick look at the ANBU who stood with their backs straight, unmoving and rooted to the spot, giving the impression that they knew who the imposing figure was.
"ANBU-san?" The nurse mouthed, growing uneasy over the lack of response and the impending threat looming closer.
The ANBU who stood in the middle made a brief signal with his hand, before they all moved.
In less than a second, the three ANBU slammed the three medics onto the ground, pinning them each from on top of their backs, kunai against their necks. The ANBU on top of the doctor had successfully wrested baby Sakura from the doctor's hands. The ANBU agent held the blanket which cocooned baby Sakura, on one hand, while pinning the doctor to the floor with his legs, his other hand pressing a kunai to the doctor's neck, just like a trained assassin, and a thief.
In the next second, the door burst open.
And the dominating presence burst into the room, intensifying the atmosphere even more than before, in unison with the booming storm. Revealing none other than Shimura Danzo, current Captain-Commander of both ANBU and its subdivision called ROOT, and Advisor to the Hokage.
Directly behind him, was a platoon of ROOT agents.
"NO!" Mebuki screamed in horror at the sight of the medics she distrusted disabled by ANBU she distrusted even more. .
"Be quiet." Someone said.
"This is against the law—" the doctor died as the ANBU sliced the kunai against the doctor's neck. Everyone watched in horror.
"Danzo-sama," The three ANBU greeted synchronically, as though nothing had happened, as Danzo stepped toward them.
Danzo faced Mebuki. Mebuki trembled in fear.
"Please..." She sobbed, her vision blurry as she reached her arms out toward the bundle of blankets held by the ANBU agent across the room. "Not my daughter, please—"
"Your daughter?" There was lilt to his raspy, deep voice, a smile to his face, as though Shimura Danzo found this greatly amusing. An aloofness, as though he were humoring her, when he didn't have to, when Mebuki Hauno was a disabled post-labor mother on her bed. "You mean my daughter."
Mebuki felt the blood in her veins run cold. She felt herself paralyzed, and wasn't sure whether it was out of the impact of his bold statement, the unbelievability and absurdity of it, or his raw and overwhelming killing intent that's been looming amongst the room for a good five minutes. She forced herself to speak.
"W- What did you just say? W-Wait! Don't touch her!"
The ANBU agent who had killed the doctor, had freed his baggage; dangling the baby by the blankets, the masked agent handed the baby over to Danzo.
Even Danzo's revealed eye was wide, as he dropped his cane, like the prop it was to garner Sarutobi's sympathy, to free both his arms— and slowly took the baby into his arms, like it was made of gold, porcelain, as though it could break, shatter, or disappear at any moment.
Danzo held the baby very gently, as though it were his own, as he tilted her head to look into her purple-ringed eyes. The baby stared back, curiously, unperturbed.
"Fascinating..." He marvelled at her eyes. "To think I would live the day to see the Rinnegan. How very fortunate," Danzo turned his head toward Mebuki. "How very much a miracle, what you've given birth to, Mebuki-san."
Thoroughly disturbed, Mebuki reiterated— "Whoever you are, I don't know what you're talking about. I never wanted to be involved in any of that ninja mess! Just give me my baby back. "
"You and I know very well that that's not an option, Mebuki-san," Danzo said, waving a female ANBU agent from the back over. She came in front of Mebuki, and handed a stack of papers with a pen to the new mother. "Sign these papers, or I'll make you forget all of this ever happened."
Mebuki could barely read them, could barely gather what they were, but she did— "They're adopti— I would NEVER." Mebuki screamed. "I will fight you, in court, in politics, in everything to keep my baby, away from your vile hands! Haruno Sakura is legally mine, and Kizashi's."
"Speaking of Kizashi, where has he been?" Danzo smirked, and Mebuki's blood ran cold, wondering, where has her husband gone in all the noise???
"Returning to what I was saying," Danzo continued, he was giving her an option. "Who would you choose, if left with two options of who will live? A husband that you've been together with for years, or a daughter you knew less than five minutes?"
Mebuki was shocked speechless. But then, cold fury swept through her shivering mess of a body. She was disabled utterly, but sheer willpower moved her body from her bed, her hospital bed, as she stumbled out of the blankets onto the floor. She smacked her forehead across the floor, blood pouring out all around her undergarments, her stitches opening up as blood made a mess.
Danzo took a step back, looking down at her cynically, cooly.
Mebuki wailed in extreme pain but no doctors, no nurses were coming in to help, as all the machinery and life support medical equipment were beeping wildly and mechanically.
The smile left Danzo's face, as though reminded of something. His eyebrows furrowed... As though he was reminded of a dead friend, from the warring days.
He frowned and clenched the baby tighter, strained, before he opened his eyes, as though resolving himself once again. He crouched down, looking sympathetic, then said in a gentle, low tone, "You can always try again."
"YOU—" It took Mebuki a second to process his words, and what they meant; he was implying for her to try to give birth to another daughter in the future??
"Who knows...I may even help you."
"YOU VILE— MONSTER—"
"It's an option, depending on whether Kizashi gets himself out of the picture, with his more... impulsive antics, and recklessness." Mebuki SPAT at his face from the ground where she was in, despite all the pain. Danzo felt the saliva slide down his chin, and only stonely picked himself up, baby bundle in arm, and walked away. "It was your choice."
The next thing Mebuki knew, three ANBU agents pinned her down, despite that she was already disabled and heavily injured on the hospital floor. And one of them, blonde, held a hand over her forehead, before she could struggle out of their fierce grip. And suddenly, she was forgetting. Forgetting everything that had just transpired, as her conscious world went black.
She was being given amnesia. In fact, the Yamanaka branch of ROOT worked to erase the memories of every staff member, and civilian, and non-ROOT in the hospital.
Meanwhile, Shimura Danzo, and his platoon of ROOT, left the hospital. They had taken the baby.
There was also no paper trial or record that the Harunos were ever at the hospital, on March 28th.
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That night, news spread across the village of Konoha, that Danzo had finally gotten laid, with a village woman who wished to remain anonymous, and she had given birth to a baby girl. There were also rumors that, that same night, the woman died at childbirth, leaving Danzo as a single father.
For the first time in a long time, people felt sympathetic for Danzo.
Danzo even held a small funeral for his deceased "wife." The wife was a ROOT Agent. At the funeral, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood beside Danzo looking mournful and said, "I wouldn't imagine...how it feels to lose Biwako, my wife."
Danzo side-eyed Hiruzen. "Old friend, I hope you finally understand now, this is why I do everything that I do."
Softly, Hiruzen gazed at Danzo in the eyes. "I do, Danzo, I do."
That night, Hiruzen gave Danzo two weeks vacation off ANBU and Advisor duties, to mourn his wife, and take care of his newborn. Hiruzen already had three kids of his own, and had always assumed that Danzo would never have children of his own. However, defying all of Hiruzen's assumptions, Danzo had actually fallen in love and gave birth to a baby girl, only for his wife to die. A pang of pain and sympathy ran through Hiruzen's body, as he mourned for his old friend, who had given so much, sacrificed so much for Konohagakure. Part of him felt that, comparing the sacrifices the two of them made, that Danzo deserved to be Hokage more than he himself did. However, Hiruzen would never say that. Danzo's role was to be in the Shadows, because no one else would do it.
So with some appreciative look, Hiruzen thanked Danzo and left the funeral.
Danzo smirked and ended the funeral, telling the ROOT impersonating as old friends to scatter and leave.
Danzo returned home, with baby Sakura, and on his way back to his ROOT HQ where he lived, he bought a book on how to raise infants. He also purchased baby formula.
It was...interesting. How for the first time, Danzo was playing the role of family.
As soon as he got home, he removed the seal on Sakura's eyes, and they turned from the fake green into purple eyes. "Still here, still good," Danzo confirmed.
He briefly wondered whether he should confess to Hiruzen about the emergence of the Rinnegan, which had never been seen on Earth since the era of the Sage of Six Paths, and even that was just a legend. But he knew that Hiruzen would investigate, and uncover what he had done. And besides, looking at it in a specific way, he could treat this phenomenon as 'just superpowered eyes,' another tool in his arsenal, like how the Uchiha waved their Mangekyou Sharingan. And why would he share his tools with the old, senile, weak goat?
"But I do wonder about this phenomenon.. What could have possibly triggered the Rinnegan's awakening, from a civilian bloodline."
From within his arms, Baby Sakura tried to tug on his garment, snapping him out of his thoughts. Danzo frowned at her brazenness.
"It is said that in times of disorder, one who wields the Rinnegan is sent down from the heavens to become either a 'God of Creation,' who will calm the world, or a 'God of Destruction,' who will reduce everything to nothingness," Danzo told the baby. "Yet, I can kill you in an instant, Deity or not."
Danzo's scars stretched as he made an expression. "No matter what triggered your eyes, whether by a God or sheer blind fate— your eyes are in my hands. They're merely eyes, ato be used as a tool, for me. Just as they say the Mangekyou Sharingan are the eyes of a demon, but Shisui is just a child, a tool to be used. I shouldn't hesitate. I should just take them," he hovered his palm over the baby's small eyes.
They were so tiny, her head was so tiny, her skin was so soft, her fingers were small and chubby like flower petals, or kitten paws.
Baby Sakura even tilted her head upward at him, and stared at him at this point, observing keenly far beyond her years. She wasn't crying, she wasn't protesting, she just stared, her mouth turned into O shaped.
"Well, I can't use these anyway.
"Ah, perhaps when you grow older, when your eyes grow to an adequate size, they'll fit in my sockets better than...Mangekyou Sharingan." He hummed, telling himself. "I'll raise you well, and teach you well, my daughter... Shimura Sakura."
——--
Five months later, Mebuki Haruno and Kizashi Haruno would die in a caravan accident. There was not a trace of suspicion around their deaths. Civilians died by accidents all the time. And no one had the manpower to investigate, because shortly afterwards, the Kyuubi attack broke out and half the village and the village's shinobi forces were wiped out.
——
And when Sakura Shimura was just a toddler, Danzo Shimura called the toddler to crawl over to him, and said, "You're old enough to be trained as a ROOT ninja now...and sole heir to the Shimura Clan."
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END OF CHAPTER 1.
Author Note:
Hey, thanks for reading.
Please comment! We want to know how many people, if any, are reading/following this story. Thanks! Also we have the plotline planned from start to finish already.