In the residential district west of Konoha, rows of pale-yellow houses stood peacefully side by side.
A pink-haired girl of twelve or thirteen lay in her bed. The pink curtains had not been opened all morning; even though it was nearly noon, they remained shut.
"What time is it already? Go get Sakura downstairs to eat! It's noon already, why is she still not up?!"
Haruno Mebuki was finishing up lunch preparations in the kitchen as she shouted at her husband in the living room.
Haruno Yashiro set down his broom and looked worriedly toward his daughter's room. Its door was still tightly shut, without the slightest sound from within.
With a silent sigh, he walked to Sakura's bedroom door and knocked.
"Knock, knock, knock."
"Sakura, it's noon already. Time to get up and eat."
Then he lowered his voice and added a few more words by the door.
"Hey, if you don't come out to eat, your mom's going to get mad. I won't be able to stop her then."
Haruno Yashiro waited outside for several seconds before hearing Sakura's reply from inside. Her voice still sounded as dejected and listless as it had over the past few days.
"I'm not hungry. You two eat first."
"Ugh..."
As Sakura's father, Haruno Yashiro did not know how to comfort his daughter.
Both he and his wife were civilians. Mebuki was a nurse at the hospital, while he was merely a businessman with a little money. After Sakura was born, though, he had spent all their savings at the time to buy this house and rent out a storefront.
They had then devoted themselves to raising their daughter.
That much was obvious from Sakura's temper and personality, because she had completely inherited Mebuki's fiery disposition.
Haruno Yashiro walked to the dining