Chapter 2: First Appearances

3rd Person POV

Rewritten as of 12OCT19

She was thirteen years old, having only just graduated from the academy not six months ago. To say everyone was shocked at what she was saying would be an understatement.

Everyone stared at the girl that spoke of knowledge and wisdom way past her age.

"That's quite the perspective you have on things there, kid." Surprisingly, it wasn't Anko who spoke this time, it was Ibiki.

"Most people would just look at things as how they appear to be, in black and white." He continued. "What made you think of this that way?"

He along with everyone else was truly interested in what she had to say.

"Well, since our first day, Kakashi-sensei always says to, 'look underneath the underneath.' so I always figured that things weren't always as they appeared, that there was alway more than meets the eye in any given situation." Sakura explained as she recalled their first team training exercise after the bell test.

Outside the interrogation room Kakashi smiled a crinkled eye smile behind his mask. Feeling pride has his student actually listened to him.

He knew there was a reason for Sakura being put on the team, other than her clear book smarts, she could retain information really well and apply it where she needed to.

She was also a quick learner with excellent chakra control, if the tree climbing exercise was anything to go by.

"Well I believe that concludes our interrog- I mean, our questioning." Anko said before fake coughing to cover up her mistake.

The Hokage clearly gave her a lecture when she slipped up the first time, she didn't need another one.

A slightly troubled look appeared on Sakura's face, making Anko pause in her move to stand up from the table.

"That is unless, there's something you need to say." Anko added at seeing the look on Sakura's face.

"Well there is one thing?" Sakura said, the sentence coming out more like a question than anything else.

Telling someone now was better than telling them later about the scroll Zabuza had given her in his dying moments.

"What is it?"

"W-well..." How was she supposed to say this?

"C'mon kid, spit it out." Anko barked, getting annoyed with her lack in response time.

Really, there was no need to beat around the bush.

"Zabuza, gave me something..." Anko once again slammed her hands on the table and stood up completely.

"What!?" She asked incredulously. Even Ibiki uncrossed his arms in shock and faced her directly.

"What did he give you?" Ibiki barked as he almost seemed to storm up to her.

"A scroll-"

"Let me see it." Ibiki demanded without even letting Sakura finish her sentence, holding his hand out expectantly.

Sakura's Personal POV

I frowned when I was abruptly cut off from ever finishing my explanation of what Zabuza had given me.

I reached for the scroll that was stored in my weapon pouch and as soon as it touched my fingers I felt a presence I never felt before, a strong one, but a comforting one.

I took the scroll out to stared at it in wonder.

I definitely didn't feel this when Zabuza first gave me the scroll.

Then when Ibiki took the scroll from my hands, the feeling disappeared.

I wonder if Ibiki feels it too?

I stood there watching as he began examining the scroll. Turning it left and right, up and down before he frowned.

"There's not even an opening to this thing." He said slightly irritated.

"What? Let me see that!" Anko said as she also grabbed the scroll and began looking at it from all angles, the confusion on her face clear as day.

"What the hell? There's no- wait a second... I know these scrolls!" Anko proclaimed as realization crossed over her features.

"You do?"

"Yeah, someone taught me about these things before. They're called, for lack of a better term, Sword Scrolls. They're pretty big in the Hidden Mist Village, especially since the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist obtained their sword from these kind of scrolls. Each scroll is said to have some kind of powerful sword with some kind of ability, but you have to obtain the abilities some how. Each sword is different, therefore each secret to unravel about the sword is different. No two are alike." I gaped at the little story about the scrolls.

Well that was unexpected.

"That's great and all, but how do you open it?" Ibiki said after a beat, the scroll clearly having caught his attention.

"You need some kind of key, and chances are any key we'd need to open it is back in The Village Hidden in the Mist." Anko explained with a frown.

She also seemed to have wanted to take a crack at using the sword.

"So the scroll is worthless?" Ibiki concluded after a beat.

"Pretty much." Anko deadpanned.

I just stared back and forth between the two of them who were having a conversation in their own little world.

But didn't Zabuza say that the key isn't needed if it chooses it's master?

I was about to tell them that before deciding to keep my mouth shut.

It's better if I don't, if I do, I may never get that scroll back.

My own thoughts surprised me, just from that feeling the scroll gave me when I touched it already gave me an attachment to it... I wanted it.

It's mine.

"Does that mean I can have it back now?" I asked a little to quickly.

Both Anko and Ibiki looked to each other before looking through the mirror.

'If the Hokage thought it was dangerous for her to have it, he would have came in here already. Well, it really is worthless without that key... It'll probably just lay around collecting dust.' Ibiki thought as he relented and handed over the scroll.

"Sure thing kid."

~•~

Minato looked on with a slightly troubled look on his face.

Honestly, why would an S-class criminal just willingly hand over something worth so much?

I mean sure he was dying, but usually something that worthwhile would usually be buried with the body or destroyed before ever being given up to a child.

One from an enemy no less.

Whatever the reason was, he was sure the truth about 'why' will come up at some point in the future, he saw no point in questioning the young girl more than she already has.

Minato stood up along with the rest of the people in the room and walked back to his office where the interrogators would decide whether or not the children can continue on with their training or if it was best to let them have some time off.

Later That Night

I heaved a sigh as I walked into my house, announcing that I was home to my parents, only to be greeted with silence.

That's odd, is no one home?

I looked around and found a note attached to a plate of cold food.

Went out of the village, be back in a week.

Love, mom and dad.

That was all the note said, along with a little heart at the bottom. I sighed again before warming up the plate of food before taking it to my room and sat on my bed.

I stared at the hot pink walls of my room and let my mind wonder to the last couple of hours.

It was a wonder I hadn't gone insane already.

I sighed as I took out the scroll and looked at it from all angles just as Ibiki and Anko had done earlier.

They were right.

There was no seam to open the scroll, it was just sealed shut all around, making me wonder how anything could have been sealed inside it in the first place.

"If I don't need a key, how am I supposed to open it?" I asked myself as I took a bite of my food.

Maybe a phrase? Like a code word or something?

I paused for a second then face palmed.

Sure Sakura, just say 'open sesame' and wait for the magic gong.

I shook my head to get rid of any other ridiculous plan my mind decided to come up with and though of different ways to do it.

As I kept thinking of ideas I continued to eat my food till I was done, then I thought some more, trying to come up with even the slightest idea, but nothing was coming to mind.

I was top of the class when I graduated, can I really not come up with anything right now?

It's almost ten o'clock... I should get some sleep.

I took my plate back into the kitchen and set the scroll on my vanity table next to all my hair brushes and makeup that I no longer use.

It was kind of difficult to do so after having been on a team with two idiots that often end up fighting each other rather than work on the mission and somehow end up dragging myself in it

Literally.

I've lost count of how many times the two would start to throw paint or weeds at each other on our D-rank missions and get hit in the crossfire.

Truly, there was no point in make up.

I stared at the scroll as I got into bed, just thinking.

I decide to sleep on it and do some research on it tomorrow, there was no point in wasting any more time on this for the night when I had to get up so early for training tomorrow.

Dream

I 'woke up' when I feel a breeze ghost over my body, making shiver a little.

'That's odd, I thought I closed my window.' I thought to myself as I felt around my mattress to try and grab my blanket only to feel nothing but grass.

I let out a gasp and sat up quickly, looking around in shock at an entirely different view I fell asleep with. There was nothing but grassy grounds and cherry blossom trees for miles around me.

I've come to realize that I'm in some sort of lucid dream.

I stand up and walk around, staring at the falling cherry blossom petals with almost childlike wonder.

I reach out to grab one but stop when I felt the same powerful presence that I did earlier in the day when I touched the scroll.

I whipped my head around and nearly screamed when I saw a Samurai standing at the other end of the clearing I was in. He was dressed in a standard red samurai armor and samurai mask, with a sword attached to his hip.

He looked almost magical as the cherry blossoms were floating around him.

"I wouldn't touch those petals if I were you, they're quite sharp, despite their beautiful appearance." I heard him say with a smooth voice.

"What? They look like ordinary flower petals... Unless, it's a genjutsu of some sort." He gave a low amused chuckle.

"That is what you'd call this sort of thing in your world isn't it? A genjutsu, a technique that gives you the illusion of something other than what you are supposed to be seeing." I frowned and nodded slowly, not knowing why it was so easy to talk to a complete stranger who just appeared out of nowhere, even if it's in my mind.

'Because it's a dream.' I tell myself. 'I'm not in any real danger, plus, this feeling. This strong, over powering presence of... safety, protection, belonging, comfort, and so much more.

"So if I'm not really seeing flower petals, what am I seeing?" I ask as I look up to all the floating petals.

"They are fragments, fragments of a blade." He said as he looked up to the petals.

"A blade? What blade?" I asked confusedly, the only blade I saw was the only attached to his belt on his hip.

"I see, although you are more ready than most others, perhaps you're not that prepared after all." He said almost disappointedly.

"What? What do you mean."

"You can actually hear me speak. Most who just come into contact with their companion sword they can't hear a word we say. They have to want to know, to know so badly they'd do almost anything. You've already done quite a lot.

You've kept my scroll despite it being given to you by a criminal, you want me back as soon as I'm gone from your possession, and you spend hours of you time trying to open my scroll.

You have already taken that step, but it appears as though you are still not ready yet to wield me."

"Wield you? Wait, does that mean you're the 'power' Anko spoke of that resides in the sword?" I asked, slowly connecting the dots.

"I suppose that would be me, yes."

"But you're not just some "power", you're a spirit, a being." Another small chuckle came from the Samurai.

"There's that as well, your view of things, you are more open to other possibilities than the norm; "look underneath the underneath" yes?"

I slowly nodded.

"You heard that conversation?" I asked quietly.

"Dear Blossom, I heard everything. Even things that weren't said out loud. Now go, you've been here too long, we can talk again soon."

And just like that I was pushed out of my own dream, waking up startled and breathing heavily. I look to my table where I put the scroll and stared at it.

"I didn't even get his name..." I whispered sadly.

"She couldn't even hear me say my name, perhaps the next time we meet, she will walk away with me as her sword, in her hands."