Chapter Text
The aftermath is evident only to those with high enough clearance. The civilians of Konoha continue on with daily life, believing the lies that ROOT spread about a training accident to account for the damage to the side of the Hokage tower. It seemed that the Shimura compound and the Hokage tower were the main targets, there were a few casualties on Konoha’s end and a couple of missing scrolls containing forbidden jutsu.
Danzo insists that she come along with him when he goes to confer with Hiruzen about the attack. She shuffles in the Hokage’s office behind Danzo, mindful of the four ANBU chakra signatures flickering like candles about the office.
“Well if it isn’t Lord Danzo and his little shadow.” Hiruzen teases when he sees them before sobering quickly. “I’m glad both of you were unharmed in the recent attack.”
“You as well. It’s a lucky thing that you weren’t in your office.”
“Yes, as you know it was me and Biwako’s anniversary so I wasn’t working late.”
“What was taken?” Danzo asks, cutting to the point. Sakura’s somewhat surprised at his bluntness which is mostly reserved for her and Kikyo, usually, Danzo liked to dance around the point with honey slick words.
“A few scrolls, one forbidden jutsu, the usual destructive kind, and some of Lady Tsunade’s and Orochimaru’s medical research,” Hiruzen says.
Danzo strokes his chin thoughtfully. “We’ll have to send a team to retrieve them. The autopsies provided by Orochimaru confirmed their identities-- one of the ninjas had one of Iwa’s lesser-known bloodline limits. I would like to volunteer ROOT for the job as this matter of Iwagakure’s infiltration must remain hidden from the public to avoid panic at all costs. Especially with the recent criticism from both the public and the council on how we are handling the war. We’ll do both a retrieval and retaliation to show them that Konoha is not to be trifled with.”
“Yes, ROOT would be the most suitable for this task. I’ll send the mission scroll shortly.”
“No need. It would probably be best to keep things as off the record as possible.”
“Very well. It would be easier after all to avoid the unnecessary panic that would occur even among the lower ranked ninja if people knew how easily we were breached. Speaking of which, I’d like ROOT to look and see if we have a leak, it was too clean a job.”
“I will look into the matter.” Danzo inclines his head ever so slightly. “Come along Sakura.” She can feel Hiruzen’s gaze digging into their backs as they sweep from the room.
Sakura and Kikyo are surveying the hallway where they fought the enemy nin. The evidence of the attack has been mostly cleaned away, Aoi had ordered the bodies out to be dissected and analyzed by ROOT the day previous. Kikyo has hauled a soapy bucket of water along to get any spots the cleanup crew missed. She’s aggressively attacking the floor with a wet rag, while Sakura pokes her nose around to see if there’s anything of note, mostly though she feels the fog of boredom setting in. The spring afternoon is a touch too hot as the humidity of an uncharacteristic heat wave rolls into the valley that Konohagakure is settled in. The air is full of the sound of cicadas buzzing in the heat. She’s only here because she had been desperate to escape the dullness that had been watching Danzo deal with a mountain of paperwork in his office. There was little for her to do the few days since the attack, everyone was too busy dealing with the suddenly urgent ROOT-related tasks. With both Aoi, Kikyo, and Danzo suddenly submerged under a mountain of classified work, Sakura had spent some time lazing about the house or running through some slow katas in the cooler air of the dojo.
“Sakura, Sakura! Hellooo.” Kikyo says, waving at her from where she is crouching on the floor. Wrenching Sakura from her musings.
“Sorry what Kikyo? I was lost in thought.”
“Look at this,” she exclaims, gesturing towards where the wooden floor has warped and gnarled. “That’s why that nin tripped, you must have done it. You used the mokuton successfully,” she squeals, throwing her hands up in a celebratory manner. Sakura is stunned for a moment, kneeling down to run her hands over where the wood has been distorted. Feeling the whorls and bumps under her fingertips helps her break through the shock, and a bright fierce joy floods through her. She looks up at Kikyo with a huge grin. Kikyo’s frenetic energy is infectious and she finds herself grasping Kikyo’s hands in hers as they jump around laughing in elation.
The next day Sakura’s exhilaration has melted back into a now familiar feeling of frustration brewing under her skin. As the pre-dawn light spills over the Shimura compound, Sakura pants, the sweat on her skin chilling her as it meets with the crisp early spring air, the heat wave finally over. There is a small sorry sapling trembling in front of her. It had taken the better part of the morning and her chakra to summon it. Undeterred she reaches again for that feeling of connection, channeling her chakra carefully trying to make it sway or grow. The sapling begins to sway furiously, but before she can feel victorious she falls to her knees and vomits on the side.
She drags herself back to the house, physically exhausted.
Danzo decides to take them all out for dinner that week, another meal at Ichiraku’s. At which Kikyo loudly crows her disappointment about failing her Tokujo examination in poisons. Just when she thinks she’s managed to bury most of the past memories associated with the place, she sees Minato walk in along with Kakashi and what must be Kakashi’s genin teammates Obito and Rin. The ramen turns to ash in her mouth. She can’t stop staring out of the corner of her eye, transfixed. Obito is loud and brash, poking at Kakashi’s nerves, while Rin tries to mediate between the two of them. An almost familiar scene that makes anxiety settle deep in her stomach.
“Sakura?” Danzo prods, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. He glances minutely over to where she’s been looking. “Looking forward to getting a genin team?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” She responds, tearing her gaze away to stare down at her half-finished ramen.
“Genin teams make me so nostalgic,” Kikyo sighs.
“Really, do you ever see your teammates?” Sakura asks curious, the other girl was always skulking around alone or with Danzo when she saw her.
“Oh well,” Kikyo pauses, “They’re dead. First team, training accident in the first month, I was the only survivor. Second one was a C-Rank gone all wrong right after our first go at the chunnin exams. No remains, just ashes and dust. Not even my jounin-sensei made it. I’m lucky I guess, if you can call it that.”
“I’m sorry,” Sakura says, unsure of what to say in the face of such familiar immense loss, extending a hand to rest on Kikyo’s where it rests on the counter. Kikyo lets it rest there for a tiny moment, before she removes her hand from underneath Sakura’s.
“Don’t be. The second time around at least was ineptitude. I wasn’t allowed to use my kekkai genkai at the time but my teammate Hachiro was. And he made a stupid decison relying too much on his doujutsu and we all paid the price for it.” Her features twisted into a scowl. “That’s why you better pray you get teammates you can rely on, that don’t rely just on flashy bloodline limits just get the job done.” Sakura resisted pointing out the hypocrisy of the other girl’s words considering their recent fight with enemy nin.
“Though that won’t be something you need to worry about until you graduate from the academy.” Danzo says lightly, passing over a stack of bills to pay the tab.
As they leave Ichiraku she looks over one last time at Minato laughing with his genin, she makes brief awkward eye contact with Kakashi which she quickly turns away from, leaning into Danzo’s side for warmth in the chill evening air.
When Danzo comes to find her the next day, Sakura is tending to her kunai on the engawa, sharpening the blades and checking for rust just like Kakashi taught her a million years ago, though rewrapping handles regularly is a habit she gained from Danzo in this life.
He sits down next to her, silent for a moment. Sakura does nothing to break it, waiting for him to spit out whatever he’s musing over. “I think it is time for you to come with me to see ROOT’s headquarters. And for you to begin to take on some of your real responsibilities as my successor. Outside of the pageantry. I never want you to forget the price of peace you live in.”
Sakura stills, just for a second, but she knows Danzo has seen her moment of hesitation, of weakness. Eager to turn his mind away from her lapse, she turns toward him a small nervous smile on her mouth. “It would be an honor to begin fully transitioning into my role, father. I’m looking forward to all I have to learn.”
He fixes her with an unexpectedly somber look, resting a warm hand on her shoulder. “Honestly, don’t be too excited Sakura. I might ask too much of you.”
“Nonsense, I trust you.” Sakura lies through her teeth. At that, he only sighs, and lets her know to meet him in the foyer after her morning training with Kikyo.
Danzo’s trust in her never fails to shock her, though she supposes it would be paranoia bordering on insanity to suspect something amiss in a four-year-old child. But still. They were ninja, nothing should be left to chance. Danzo doesn’t bother to blindfold or genjutsu her as he leads the way to the ROOT compound. She wants to comment, to thank him at first, but when the implication of danger he’s putting her in with this knowledge sets in she doesn’t. She can see his game, a secret for gratitude, a gift-debt of knowledge and vulnerability, putting a target on her back, tying their interests further together, tying her allegiance to the Shimura clan in more webs of twisted knots.
Danzo erases his chakra signature and Sakura does the same as she follows him looping over Konoha’s rooftops and they are just two more shadows in the night. In a relatively inconspicuous alley in the southwest sector of Konoha, they come to a stop. Sakura commits a few landmarks to memory, a laundromat on the corner with its name in cursive mint, a small shoe shop to the left of the ally’s mouth. Danzo does a few quick seals, dragon, lion, cat, before pressing his palms to the wall, revealing a staircase winding downwards.
The interior of ROOT is moodily lit, with muted sconces lining the wooden corridor at regular intervals. The air is lightly fragrant, the smell of cedar and pine the halls are lined with making themselves known. It’s a maze, Sakura catches movement in the corner of her eyes flickering around bends, only a moment out of sight. The walk through the compound is disorienting, the halls are the kind of claustrophobic quiet that is present in most underground spaces, all sound muffled. The ROOT of her past life had been the stuff of nightmares, from Sai’s brief stories and Team 7’s own experiences with Danzo. Sakura didn’t know what she expected, maybe screaming, wails of pain, some sign to indicate the horror she knew was to be unveiled behind the walls. Instead, the ambiance is almost calming, their footsteps echoing in rhythm through the hall, her hand tucked in Danzo’s as he led her along. It almost felt like a normal ‘bring your daughter to work’ day.
They end up in what must be Danzo’s office, behind three warded doors all hidden seamlessly into the walls. Despite the thickness of the doors, each slides away soundlessly after Danzo applies the correct seals.
Inside the office, the air is comfortably warm. Though the room is lit better than the hallways they had traversed, there is still a muted quality to the light. The walls are lined with shelves, bloated with the weight of scrolls and books. A heavy rug covers most of the floor, so plush she can feel her steps sinking into it as she makes her way to one of the chairs bracketing the solid oak desk, like the rest of the furniture it is varnished an ominous ebony. There is nothing on it save a desk lamp.
“I feel the need to warn you, Sakura,” Danzo says as he gets comfortable in the chair across from her. The desk between them is a physical manifestation of distance. She notices that his chair is higher than the one she’s sitting in, letting her gaze wander around the room again though there is little that catches her eye upon this glance. She snaps her attention back to Danzo as he continues. “The conditions and training ROOT soldiers are put through are much different than what you're familiar with. It may come as a shock. ROOT is one of those institutions that are an ugly necessity of the ninja world and unfortunately, Hiruzen’s inability to stomach this part of the job has left the ugly honor to me.”
Sakura nods, forcing herself to keep eye contact. To show that she’s worthy of being Danzo’s confidant, his weapon, his successor. Danzo’s eyes are two pieces of flint glinting in the light. The same black jade as hers in this life.“I have a proposition for you my dear. I thought I could give you the luxury of a sheltered childhood, that is afterall what the ninja institution of Konoha is striving for however imperfectly. But the recent attack by Kiri has shown me that it would be more of a disservice to you to leave you unprepared for the realities of this world. ”
“Kiri?” Sakura questions, “I thought it was Iwagakure that invaded the compound.”
Danzo snorts, looking at her directly now. “Do you really think Iwa ANBU would just have their clan symbol brazenly displayed? It was almost a too-obvious move by Kiri, but they’re a village of bloodthirsty brutes rather than politicians after all. I had a ROOT operative pose as a missing-nin and leak some intel to them on how to break through Konoha’s defenses. Kiri is so bloodthirsty and covetous, I knew they’d take the bait. Them being stupid enough to try and pose as Iwanin was a bonus.”
“What about the Iwa bloodline limit in the autopsy result? ” Sakura asks.
“You don’t think I don’t have a freezer full of Iwa bodies ready to be produced? Well, actually he was fresh, for the deception to work he needed to be. A POW who held no more use to us. The devil is in the details my dear. ANBU forensics is still loyal to Hiruzen over me. There’s no need for pity, death was a mercy for someone like him. Now, all we need to do is retrieve the forbidden jutsu scroll Kiri stole. And of course, punish Iwa.”
“For a crime they didn’t commit.” Sakura says, pointedly, studying Danzo’s reaction.
“Please Sakura, there are plenty of crimes they have committed that have gone unpunished. Disabuse yourself of the silly notion of justice, our aim is to end the war in Konoha’s favor and mitigate our losses. Thinking about fairness is going to get your people killed and put blood on your hands. These events Kiri have set in motion are simply the excuse we need to justify to the other Hidden Villages for taking the war to Iwa’s territory. Hiruzen refuses to move the front there and its cost Konoha untold casualties. With this ROOT will be authorized to hit vital supply chain points deep within the Land of Earth.”
“Won’t that escalate the conflict?”
Danzo shrugged. “It is already out of hand, we are losing this war of attrition and for what? So Hiruzen can pretend to be the bigger person in front of the other ninja village leaders? He’s on a short leash with his bleeding-heart peace-loving supporters in the village, his inaction is all a political maneuver to retain support for his position of Hokage. It's born of disgusting selfishness. Inaction isn’t peace, it’s complacency and in the long run will cost Konoha more than fighting and ending this war. We’ve already had a needless amount of loss on the frontlines because of Hiruzen’s waffling on the matter. I want to drive this point home to you. In anything you do, be decisive, indecision will get you and the soldiers you lead killed. Come, let’s head to our next destination.”
They step back in the labyrinth, and Sakura meditates on their conversation. This is the most he’s revealed about his motivations to her in their years together, his tongue no doubt relaxed by the high security of his office within ROOT.
The next place they visit is more in line with her notions of ROOT. Danzo leads her through a set of big brass doors, into the upper platforms that ring what is obviously a fighting arena. The colosseum floor is lined with dirt, and the cement walls that line the arena and give way to the audience area give the place a brutal industrial feel.
She goes over to the edge of the platform they’ve walked out on. Danzo follows her, close enough that she can almost feel his arm brushing hers. Ever the concerned parent.
“The selection process for joining ROOT’s ranks in full capacity is a holdover from past eras. Kiri actually uses a more ruthless version of the process, you’re probably familiar with their academy graduation exam?” He makes a distinct sweeping gesture with his arm, and another hidden door swings open, revealing two children no older than Sakura being escorted by a masked ROOT agent.
She reaches up to tug on Danzo’s kimono sleeve. He looks down at her and gestures back towards the arena, indicating that she needs to be watching. There’s a lump in her throat but she follows the unspoken command. Sakura’s distinctly aware of the chasm between her and the children below--they are dressed in clean but threadbare clothes that have clearly been patched and mended as they’ve been worn. As the cold lingers in Konoha’s early spring, Sakura is in a casual kimono, embroidered with flowers along the edges and the thick fabric obvious in quality. She stands above watching them, doing nothing to stop them from hurtling toward death-- and she knows she could. She could throw a fit to get Danzo to show mercy or jump into the pit herself and tear them away from each other, but what would be the point? There would be no permanent safety for anyone lying on that route of action.
The fighters are decently matched, probably around chunin level. One of them is probably related to a Nara, stepping and sliding inside the thin shadows of the arena. The other is deftly spinning a web of suiton attempting to catch her opponent. The fight is nothing special, but because they’re on such similar levels in terms of skill it gets drawn out to the point where they're both out of breath and getting sloppy.
Sakura knows who's going to win the fight as soon as she sees the tell-tale spark of genjutsu leave the shadow-user’s finger tips. It takes a few moments to kick in, but the moment the genjutsu takes hold the animated mass of the girl’s suiton jutsu falls to the earth with a splat. She stands stock still, Sakura cannot see her face from where she and Danzo are standing but she watches as the Nara boy approaches her panting palming a kunai. With an almost leisurely gesture he slits her throat in one liquid motion. The corpse falls to its knees and then collapses in a heap, blood sluggishly oozing from its neck in a dark river.
Sakura keeps her expression smooth and impassive. It's easier than she would like, after the Fourth Ninja War all but the most extreme violence had lost its bite. She can feel Danzo’s gaze on her, gauging her reaction.
“Is this what all operatives go through?”
“Only the ones we’re lucky enough to get as kids. The adults need have their loyalty to Konoha conditioned differently.”
A memory of Sai comes unbidden, Sai who could be in this arena in six years time. Sai who only got to escape the horrors of ROOT for a year or two before Kagyua and Madara ended it all.
“And does this method inspire much loyalty? Are there ever any defectors?” Sakura says, her voice carefully level.
“They don’t know anything else. To them ROOT is a paradise compared to where I’ve plucked them from. To the village, it may be barbaric, but to them this is a god-given chance at life. As much as my soft heart would like for all of them to graduate into ROOTS ranks, Konoha lacks the infrastructure to take care of every hapless orphan in the world. With this, terrible as it may seem, all the ones I rescue are given an equal opportunity at a new life.”
“And this training is… effective?”
“Extremely, what you’ve seen here is barely scratching the surface of the education they receive.”
She wrinkled her nose.
Sensing her distaste, Danzo continues. “It’s ugly, I’m not blind to the truth. But it's for their own good. They need the skills to succeed on the battlefield. That won’t come if they're coddled. Do you see the current standards of the academy? Unlike Hiruzen who uses undertrained child soldiers as cannon fodder, I at least make sure my soldiers have a fighting chance. You're lucky I’m not like Fugaku who takes Itachi out to look at their corpses rotting on the sun-bleached battlefields.”
“They’re still child soldiers.”
“If you want to get specific about it Sakura, then yes. I make sure the children I steal away from the depths of poverty and war a chance to survive.” He gives her a teasing wolfish smile. “No need to call your dear father a saint. I’m already aware of my magnanimous nature.”
Sakura presses her lips into a flat line, deciding that this conversation was going to go in circles and that she had already tested Danzo’s patience enough.
“It's fine, this is one of those things you’ll understand when you're older. When the world has shown you her true hideous face. For now, I’m sorry to inform you that it's your birthright to learn the ropes of conditioning these child-soldiers. ROOT is a cornerstone of our clan’s political weight within Konoha. The conditions in ROOT are specifically for taking non-standard Konoha shinobi or outsiders and prepping them to be completely loyal to the state. It’s an indispensable asset to the village and the Hokage.”
He places a heavy hand onto her shoulder. “But I think that’s enough for one day. I’ve certainly given you plenty to think about. Maybe I’ll ask Hiruzen if you can shadow him one of these days, it's best to have an informed opinion on the facets of running a village. I am not unsympthatic to my dear old teamate’s political leanings afterall”
The walk home is in silence. Her hand again, protected from the chill early Spring air by Danzo’s. Sakura feels sick in the pit of her stomach, not from the violence she had witnessed, but at the inevitable knowledge that she would soon have to be its orchestrator if the future she wanted, dreamed, and hoped for was to come to pass.
That day marks yet another changing point in her new life. The leisure of routine with little responsibility a thing of the past, Danzo is quick to begin exposing her to the weight of her duties. Not to mention the issue of Sai sitting heavy in her mind, a sharp thorn of guilt lodged. Sakura pondered over how to address the matter of her old teammate. She surely couldn’t just leave him to rot, fighting and enduring in ROOT. But she didn’t have the resources to move against Danzo yet, she was still just a child. She had no political weight, no connections, no money of her own, and a body that she wasn’t comfortable in, her physical prowess a mere echo of its former life.
A week after her first foray into ROOT, Danzo brings along a familiar face and an unfamiliar one to their morning meditation. The first is the boy from the arena, looking stiff and blank, and the other a girl a few inches taller than Sakura, maybe a year or two older in age.
“This is Daido and Asa.” Danzo says gesturing to them. “Show Sakura your tongues.” They comply, revealing their ROOT seals. “They’ll be your personal guards, with you day and night. They will train with you, I’ve already let Kikyo and Aoi prepare for the change in schedule. When the time comes they will be the members of your ROOT unit. They are in your care.” Sakura can hear Danzo’s unspoken message of ‘don’t mess up’ clear in his tone.
“Hello Lady Shimura,” Daido steps forward, his face impassive. “It is an honor to be a part of your personal guard.”
“Nice to meet you.” Sakura replies, wincing at her awkwardness. A previous life of being a jounin who had led her own squads had made respect no stranger but it had not prepared her for this level of bizarre deference.
“Likewise, it is an honor to serve you Lady Shimura.” Asa says, stepping forward as well. To which Sakura gives the same awkward greeting. The skin of Lady Shimura never fits quite right, but especially moments like this, where two children have been indentured to her, her new identity feels especially foreign.
Both Daido and Asa are very quiet as they attended her lessons with her, taking to each task assigned to them dutifully and with determination. They are both relatively skilled for their young age, Daido with his knack for genjutsu and Asa with her rare Hyoton kekkai genkai that she’s eager to show off while sparring with Daido under Kikyo’s watch. Kikyo, ever loyal to the Shimura clan's affinity for weapons and her own strange flavor hypocrisy, finds the display of kekkai genkai tiring.
“Asa, a little less dependency on your jutsu, your chakra pools are too small to sustain this level of use for long. Fights with genjutsu users like Daido are more drawn out, so you need to be extra mindful of your limits.” She advises.
“Yes Kikyo-sensei.” Asa says.
At night, she can feel the presence of Asa or Daido, above her on the roof, or in the hall. They perform nightwatch in shifts, Asa’s chakra a bright flame when not hidden, ironic for an ice user, and Daido’s a guttering flicker.
The only lessons they do not attend with her are her morning meditations with her father, her private mokuton practice (which is kept a secret from everyone except Kikyo and possibly Aoi), and her civilian based ones.
They become fixtures in the background of her life, quiet and unassuming. In public Daido and Asa remain unseen, though when she walks through the streets of Konoha, alone or accompanied by Danzo and Kikyo, she can feel their chakra signatures in the crowds. Daido is always quiet but quick to laugh at Kikyo’s jokes and sarcasm, whereas Asa only wears a small smile if she’s winning during a spar.
Sakura remains dominant in the little group’s sparring lessons, much to Danzo and Kikyo’s joy. Her extra lifetime of training, Shimura chakra pools, and combat experience giving her an edge over Daido and Asa.
Despite both their efforts to live as her shadows Daido and Asa mark the biggest change in her life. Danzo puts her in charge of organizing their schedules after he shows her the rotations and structure of the compound’s ROOT security details. She takes this task seriously, pairing them on their single rotations with another ROOT agent, the Kiri attack fresh in her mind. Despite the imbalance in social situation between her and her two new companions, they become a constant and almost a strange comfort in her new reality.
As bizarre as it is to find herself in a position of complete dominance over two fellow shinobi, Sakura sees the situation for what it is, an opportunity. She will have to test the extent of Daido and Asa’s loyalty to her over Danzo, but she’s sure with time and proximity she will be the foremost Shimura that they serve.
As the height of Spring blows in with a flurry of her namesake cherry blossoms, her academy admission creeps ever closer. Something Sakura is both looking forward to and dreading. With the arrival of her fifth birthday, she finally has the amount of chakra necessary and the fine control to begin the formation of her yin seal. Though this has little bearing on her progress with the mokuton, an enduring frustration and headache. However, her mysterious mokuton teacher is due to return any day from his ROOT mission according to Danzo. Sakura looks forward to his arrival, hoping that exposure to some proper guidance will lead to a breakthrough.
It’s a late spring morning that Sakura comes down the stairs, blearily blinking the sleep out of her eyes, to find Danzo staring at Academy Admission forms spread out over the kitchen table while Kikyo putters around making breakfast as usual behind him.
He looks up at her as she pads into the kitchen.
“I think it’s about time for you to take your placement exams for the Academy. God knows they should just let you test out completely but with the new regulations, there’s an eight month minimum. Just do well on the exam so you can get it done and over with and then we can worry about things that actually matter like your genin team placement and first ROOT assignment.” Danzo says, stroking his chin. “Of course remember your participation on these missions are strictly confidential-- a family affair-- don’t discuss ROOT information with anyone but Kikyo or me.”
“Yes, of course I know father,” Sakura says around a mouth full of egg. “You don’t need to nag.”
“Remember what I said about talking with your mouth full. You’re a clan heiress not an orphan.” Sakura gives him an annoyed eye roll to which Danzo huffs, shaking his head. She can’t help but think how, in a different Konoha, she is an orphan.
“Kikyo will drop these academy papers off on the way to her mission assignment today, and we should have notification of your class assignment for the fall within the week.” Danzo says.
Sakura swallows her last mouthful of egg. “Kikyo’s taking a mission?”
Danzo nods, setting his morning paper down. “Yes, even ROOT’s most elite agents have to show their allegiance to the Hokage every now and again.”
“It’ll just be a minor headache. I’m officially chunin rank anyway. Luckily I failed that miserable tokjuo poisons exam. I swear Orochimaru’s some kind of sadist with the questions he’s writing, not to mention the practical portion.” Kikyo says from where she’s frying sausage on the stove. “It’ll probably be some super sleeper C-rank most likely or an annoying B-rank. Keep training, we’ll brush up on your kenjutsu when I’m back and begin working with the tanto. Spar with Daido, Asa’s hopeless at anything not ninjutsu related. It’s gonna be the death of her one day.” She pauses for a moment, turning away from the stove to make eye contact with Sakura. “I’m serious about keeping up with training, when I return Lord Danzo has assigned me to take you and the other two on your first ROOT assignment in Kiri. We have some forbidden jutsu to retrieve and some scrolls to steal to pay for their little insult to Konoha.”