01: Pupil of Destiny

The Haruno clan was one of the first clans to join the Hidden Leaf, respectfully known for their high chakra reserves, great skill in genjutsu, and special dojutsu. It was called the Ilumigan. Out of spite, they were considered distant cousins of the Hyuuga clan because they shared a similar dojutsu.

When gossipers were asked why, they mainly mentioned how Hyuuga members have pale pupilless white irises, and Haruno members have pale, pupilless green irises instead. It's vaguely similar in that matter, but other than having eye dojutsu that could see what regular eyes can't, and having distinguishable eye changes when activated – there wasn't much resembling the two at all.

Other than similarities, there were various types of differences to count. A Hyuuga's eyes can see through objects and even a person's chakra pathway system. Whereas, a Haruno's eyes can figure out the aura of an object or person by looking at it. They gain not that but can also see into the future. Of course, only a few could have seen far in the future. Most of them could only see seconds, or a couple minutes in the future.

There wasn't much information on the scarce population that could be seen far in the future, records only stated they started a group called the 'Network' and that the ancient members in said group could see years and even countless millennia in the future…

A pink-haired girl shut the book to a close, finding that information unfulfilling to her liking. One can't see too far into the future without completely overriding one's brain with information into a vegetative state.

Ah, of course, however, she only knows of the side effects from her family. She wasn't quite able to unlock her dojutsu yet, despite it being accessible the moment the user was born…

…Strange.

Her family had only told her that some members of the dojutsu were simply just late-bloomers, but when it came to the clan records created by the elders, it was obvious that they were contradicting themselves. Perhaps she was a little too fixated on the mysteries of her clan. Like, she wanted to figure out why her clan was so short on members. For now, it was only her grandmother, mother, father, and a handful of other relatives – and frankly, asking her parents was seemingly a lost hope and would result in nothing but more retellings of the great elders of the clan and how it came to be. Comparing this population to other clans like the Uchiha, or the Hyuga, hers wasn't that grandiose despite being one of the first clans to traverse and live at Konoha and the second strongest.

Sakura Haruno, the stoic prodigy of the reserved Haruno clan, is one of the only two geniuses at the academy currently and only came second to the Uchiha. Second. The title felt bitter on her tongue. There's nothing worse than being named second. Of course, you could always just end up failing the class, but there's always a group of failures that would bond over being failures and whatever bare minimum they believed they accomplished.

Getting third place could be bad, but at least they get the reassurance and praise that they tried.

Being in second place was the worst of all because the pitying glances and the murmurs of how she could've never stood a chance compared to who got first place – was overall, completely insufferable. All they do is talk and talk about how there's always next time, or how the competition was too strong—Taijutsu training, ninjutsu training, kunai practice, infiltrating classes.

Just ties, ties, ties, and more ties. It's honestly crazy to her that the only class she lost to Sasuke was that damned spelling bee. Sakura could never forget the blank look on his face when he got a little sticker on his testing paper. He was undeserving of it, that ungovernable Uchiha could care less about anything relating to the academy unless it involved him graduating. The adults say that his quarrelsome personality is something that all kids experience, but as Sakura thought about that look in his eyes… it bore no childish rebellion origin.

But, when she mused it over. It was because of him that she always felt a need to get stronger.

Suddenly, the evening bell rang throughout the clan residence signifying supper, the sound obstructively cutting her off from her thoughts. She realigned the book on her bookshelf, and with a short, aggravated huff from being interrupted, stood up and went to the dining hall.