The Hidden Leaf Village of twenty years past wasn't so different from the one Sakura had come to call home. The village centre was still a tangled maze of utility poles and questionable urban planning, and the clan compounds still sprawled across the outskirts; the only real difference was that everything looked newer, less weathered by time. Sakura found it was a shame that she couldn't go exploring this sixty-year-old Konoha or go meet the younger versions of her senseis, for obvious reasons.
"I'm due back at the front in a few days," Fugaku explained, glancing over his shoulder to ensure Sakura was still keeping pace as they made for the Uchiha District's training grounds. "I should like to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible before then."
Sakura hoped they wouldn't send her off to war before she could run away.
"The Hyūga clan's current patriarch commands the Kirigakure front, since the Byakugan directly counters the Hiding in Mist Jutsu," Fugaku went on, "but Hyūga shinobi are stationed across all battlefronts, forming scouting teams alongside members of the Aburame and Inuzuka clans— insect and dog handlers respectively."
Fugaku pressed on with his rather lengthy account of the war.
"The Third Hokage and the Jōnin Commander dynamically allot the Leaf's field commanders for the remaining fronts— Lord Orochimaru; Lord Jiraiya; Namikaze Minato, whom you met the other day; and myself— according to the intelligence those scouting teams supply."
More often than not, Orochimaru faced the Hidden Sand, Jiraiya the Hidden Stone, and Fugaku the Hidden Cloud, whilst Minato led a small but highly mobile battalion of elite shinobi— his Flying Thunder God Jutsu enabling him to instantly whisk himself and his men to any battlefield in need of aid.
Time and again, by arriving in extremis at battlefields where all seemed lost, Minato swiftly ended up becoming a legend across every front; he became known as a man who could single-handedly turn the tide of war. By the war's end, his military glory had won him the political clout to sideline the unpopular Third Hokage, following his disastrous handling of the Hyūga Affair and his refusal to demand war reparations… whilst the efforts and sacrifices of Fugaku and the Uchiha clan went largely unnoticed, owing to their own, dismal public relations.
"Incidentally, at what age did you awaken your Sharingan?" Fugaku asked as they reached the training grounds. "… and how long did you train under Lady Tsunade?"
Sakura counted off on her fingers. Not counting the original owner of her body, who had trained it since the age of six, she had been a ninja for some three years now, but…
"Age fourteen," she replied. "And Lady Tsunade taught me for a little under two and a half years, mostly medical ninjutsu… and a few of her special tricks."
Fugaku looked slightly disappointed. Fourteen was a bit too old to call her a three-tomoe genius, but she was definitely talented, especially considering the fact that she had only been training for three years.
"Shisui!" Fugaku called.
Sakura almost did a double-take.
A young boy was standing right there before her, as if he'd always been part of the scenery. Wherever he'd been before, he'd flickered right in front of them in the split second she'd blinked; had she been his enemy, her throat would already have been slit… and he was only eight.
Sakura felt a faint spark flare up in her right eye as Shisui gazed up at her curiously. They both flinched and looked away in unison, the spark suddenly sharpening into a twinge of pain.
"This is Uchiha Konan, a new addition to the clan," said Fugaku, glancing between them with a faintly perplexed look. "Shisui, as the foremost genius of your generation, I'd like you to show her our Uchiha-style taijutsu and shurikenjutsu. Ideally, I should have her ready to sortie in three days, when I depart. She'll serve as medic to my personal squad, so she may not need to fight… but in war, nothing is certain, and I'd like her prepared for anything."
Sakura's face went white as a sheet. Interfering in the Third Shinobi World War was no small matter. Killing people was the worst thing she could possibly do if she wanted to avoid altering the future even further… assuming she ever managed to return to her own time.
"I'll be impressed if you manage to last more than five seconds against young Shisui," said Fugaku, giving Sakura's shoulder a firm pat. "But I'm sure you don't need reminding what our eyes can do, hmm? If I see you throwing the match on purpose to avoid getting drafted…"
Sakura remembered how, back in the Chūnin Exams preliminaries three years ago, Sasuke had easily seen through Kabuto's act. Kabuto had dodged his every strike by a hair's breadth, then thrown in the towel, claiming he'd been beaten black and blue, thus handing Sasuke an easy victory.
"Why don't we start with some light sparring?" Shisui offered. "Taijutsu only, then we can include some ninjutsu and shurikenjutsu if all goes well?"
Sakura followed him reluctantly into what appeared to be at first glance a sumo ring; a circular sparring ground of beaten earth encircled by a thick rope. Shisui performed the Seal of Confrontation, and without thinking twice about it, she returned the gesture.
Fugaku frowned.
By now, quite a few clan members with too much free time on their hands had gathered around to see who had dared to challenge the Uchiha clan's little genius. Kagami's brat had always been exceedingly skilled for his age, but ever since he'd returned from the frontlines a few days ago, he had become unbeatable, even for the adults of the clan.
"Begin!" Fugaku declared.
The bout began with both combatants activating their Sharingan and closing the distance. As they traded a flurry of blows and flipped around the ring, it quickly became clear to anyone watching that the girl had no formal taijutsu training, though her eyesight, reflexes, and instincts were surprisingly sharp.
"You're pretty good," Shisui called. "But you aren't used to fighting opponents who're shorter than you are, right? And your field of vision is rather limited…"
The thing about being… compact, so to speak, was that Sakura was used to fighting opponents taller or several times bigger than herself, which meant she hadn't the faintest idea how to deal with someone even shorter than her own 160 centimetres. Worse still, Shisui kept ducking beneath her sightline, which was half‑blocked by her own shelf‑like chest.
Shisui struck Sakura with a low kick, causing her shin to go numb, and taking advantage of her momentary loss of mobility, he agilely slipped past her guard and punched her in the boob, causing her to scream in pain, before snapping his leg up as she reflexively doubled over, catching the edge of her chin with an axe kick. Sakura landed hard on her backside, momentarily dazed as her brain rattled around inside her skull.
"Not bad, new girl!" someone shouted. "You held your own against Shisui for… fifteen seconds!"
Fugaku nodded appreciatively.
"You can move on to incorporating ninjutsu and shurikenjutsu," he said. "But go easy on the Body Flicker, okay? Give her a chance to learn our moves properly. With her three-tomoe Sharingan, it shouldn't take her too long to learn the basics."
"If I'm allowed to use ninjutsu…" Sakura hissed, her face burning with humiliation as she pushed herself to her feet. "It won't go as easily as you might think!"
To think she had easily manhandled twenty brats of Shisui's age at once during her raid on Root's headquarters, yet couldn't land a single blow on the Uchiha clan's young genius! Taijutsu wasn't her forte, but even so!