in which kakashi introduces team 7 to his pack earlier than in canon. the resulting consequences for one haruno sakura are… interesting to say the least.
alternatively: haruno sakura is a nosy little thing with insatiable curiosity, of course she attempted to mimic her sensei's super cool jutsu (only after very thorough research, of course).
Warnings: violence, mentions of disordered behavior (calorie restriction, food avoidance, over exercise, binge eating), children used as tools of war, ninja shit like death and T&I, more warnings may be added as the story progresses.
Haruno Sakura was, as per usual, awoken by the sound of her alarm at precisely 7:00. The young girl rolled out bed onto her tip toes and stretched, yawning in a rather unladylike fashion all the while (there was no Sasuke to see her here, after all). Sakura shuffled into her bathroom to to, err, take care of things.
After that was done, she began to get ready for what was sure to be a long day full of more manual labor - work which, in her professional opinion, was ill-suited for shinobi such as herself. Humming a nonsensical tune to fill the silence, Sakura began to unbraid her long hair and carefully run her fingers through the tresses. After she was sure it was free of knots, she tied her Hitai-ate and pushed it back to function as a headband.
Satisfied with her appearance, she quickly got dressed and shuffled down the hall to the kitchen. A scan of the ice box left her with a bento her mother had packed for her with a note attached: "Be careful, love you -Mom :)" A warm smile spread across the girl's face as she swiped the box and the water bottle beside it. Her mom may not find the life of a shinobi to be the appropriate career for her daughter, but she supported her nonetheless. Even when she couldn't be there because of her job, Mebuki found ways to assure Sakura of her love and support.
Spotting the clock out of the corner of her eye, Sakura very nearly swore (but little girls don't swear. no, no, no). If she didn't leave now, she wouldn't get there before Sasuke-kun!
She rushed to put her sandals on, throw her bag over her shoulder and lock the door on her way out. She only had 10 minutes to make it to the training ground if she wanted to arrive before her teammates but she refused to run. If she ran, she might tangle her hair or ruffle her clothes and she didn't want Sasuke-kun to see her all red-faced and sweaty and panting. It just wasn't a good look on her, or anybody really, even Ino (the pig) couldn't pull off the dirty and exhausted look that came with exercise.
Waving at a fruit vendor her mother does business with, Sakura wondered what her team had to look forward to today. Fence painting? Gardening? Babysitting? Some actual training? She scoffed; even if Kakashi-sensei did decide to hold a training session, it would likely consist of her two male teammates sparring while she sat on the sidelines reading the textbook she kept in her bag. As interesting as chakra theory was, it would be nice to learn something from the man who was assigned as her sensei instead of teaching herself.
Puffing out her cheeks, Sakura physically shook those thoughts out of her head and put on a cheerful smile as the trees surrounding Training Ground 3 came into her visual. Neither Sasuke-kun nor Naruto had arrived yet and Kakashi-sensei was sure to be at least two hours late; so, the Haruno gently dropped into a sitting position beside one of the trees and let the sound of the river lull her into a meditative state. She'd been attempting meditation lately as her textbook stated it was effective in expanding one's chakra reserves (plus, it had been helpful in curbing her… wrath when it came to Naruto-baka's antics). Sakura was both a girl and of a civilian family so her reserves weren't exactly impressive; if she wanted to beat her rival, she'd have to fix that.
Just minutes later, she heard the gentle rustling of grass and knew Sasuke-kun had arrived. Carefully, she squinted her eyes open and caught a glimpse of her crush stretching, his hair falling to fan over his face as he bent to touch his toes. Sakura couldn't keep her eyes from widening and the soft, dreamy sigh from leaving her lips but quickly slammed her eyes shut again when the Uchiha tilted his head at the sound. She pretended to still be immersed in her meditation as best as she could, Sasuke-kun didn't like it when she interrupted his "pre-mission ritual", she'd learned that the hard way (shut up, you're annoying me).
The obnoxious sound of feet running across the grass, a sound which resembled chewing gum with your mouth open, signaled the arrival of her other teammate; as did the yell he let loose just feet away from her, "Hi, Sakura-chan!"
"Idiot. You don't need to yell."
"No one asked you, bastard! I was talking to Sakura-chan!"
Snapping her eyes open into a glare directed at her orange-clad teammate, Sakura stood with a huff and brushed off her dress. She picked up her things and then turned to look at him in mild disgust, "You may be talking to me, but I'm not talking to you."
She then walked to the other side of the clearing and began to read her book, "The Theory of Chakra: Spiritual and Physical". The young girl studiously ignored the blonde's cries and the scoffs and grunts her crush used in place of an actual reply (so cool). Instead, she allowed herself to become engrossed in the concept of ninjutsu creation through shape manipulation.
At least, that was the plan.
"Ne, Sakura-chan, you made a bento! Can I see? Can I? Can I? Can I, please? I've never made a bento and I'm starving because I woke up late this morning and didn't have time to wait for the microwave so I couldn't have any ramen. Not that I want to eat your food, Sakura-chan, it's just that sometimes I like to smell it whe-"
"Take it."
"Wha-? Sakura-chan, I can't just-"
"Take it. I already ate, my mom just made this for lunch so take it. You can't complete missions on an empty stomach, idiot," Sakura rolled her eyes as she insistently held out the bento box.
The Uzumki hesitantly, almost gingerly, took the bento from his crush and softly uttered his gratitude, "Uh, thanks Saukra-chan."
"Mhm, now go away. I'm trying to study."
"Ahhhh, you're so smart Sakura-chan!" Naruto gushed as he held the bento securely to his chest. Catching a glimpse of her stern face, he chuckled nervously and went to sit a ways away. Best to not to incite her rage, lest he get a punch to the skull.
Huffing irritably, Sakura resumed her reading.
As predicted, Kakashi-sensei didn't appear for another two hours.
"Hello, my adorable students! Today, we'll-"
"YOU'RE LATE!" came the twin screams of Sakura and Naruto.
"Hn," followed the standard Uchiha grunt.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Kakashi feigned nervousness, "Ah, you see, a young woman's hat flew away in the wind. And what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't hunt it down for her?"
"It's not even windy!"
"And you're not a gentleman."
"Hn."
"I'm hurt," their sensei deadpanned, "but, as I was saying: today, we'll be leaving the village for the first time as a team!" He finished with a clap of his hands his usual eye-smile.
"What!" exclaimed the orange-clad genin, "I've never left Konoha before! What's our mission? Are we finally getting a C-rank? Are we guarding a foreign princess? Escorting samurais? Ooh, ooh! Are we gonna save the daimyo from some bad guys?"
Sakura hated to admit it but she was just as excited (and slightly terrified). She had never been allowed to leave the village before either, no matter how much she begged her father to take her on the trips he took to foreign villages. She was filled with exhilaration at the idea of seeing new things and meeting new people but she was also filled with terror at the same time. She may be naive, but she certainly wasn't ignorant; those new things and new people could mean their deaths.
And, from the slight smirk curving his lips, Sasuke was feeling every bit of her elation and none of her fear (duh, Sasuke-kun isn't scared of anything).
"Ah," Kakashi chuckled, "not quite. We'll only be going a couple of miles out to one of the rice farms. The farmers are having a rat problem this season. Our mission is to hunt down the threats and eliminate them."
Sakura cringed at the word "eliminate". Although she'd done it before, she really hated killing animals, even rats. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke looked too thrilled at the idea either. Though, for them, it likely had more to do with the implications of the mission rank than the undesirable order to kill. Pest control was generally considered a D-rank mission after all.
The mission turned out to be unexpectedly grueling work. Also, gross.
On top of rooting out every little rat family hiding in and around the rice fields, Team 7 had been ordered to kill off the insects that were living off of the rice. It would be impractical to spend hours searching for every itty-bitty bug so other measures had to be taken.
Sakura held the insulated jar in hands with just the very tips of her fingers and tried not to think about the things crawling around inside. She hated bugs, hate hate hated them.
"Here, Sakura-chan!"
Hurriedly, Sakura ran to the sound of her sensei's voice, careful not to jostle the jar too much lest it pop open. Once she reached the corner of the field where Kakashi-sensei stood reading his book, she held the jar out to him with wide eyes and hoped he'd take it off her hands. Not looking up from his book, her sensei hummed and instructed her to let the creatures loose at the base of the outermost rice plant's stem.
Shuddering, Sakura knelt down, quickly unscrewed the cap of the jar, and practically threw it down at the plant's base. She quickly scrambled backwards as hundreds of wolf spiders scattered into the rice field, scurrying around and quickly preying on every insect they came across. Disgusting.
She looked to her teacher for approval and hoped he wouldn't make her repeat the process. This was her third jar and she never wanted to see another spider ever again.
"Maa, Sakura-chan. Go see Takeji-san for another batch."
"Sensei, please. Please, please, please. Anything else!"
"Hmm, you want to help with the rats again? You didn't seem to like that very much."
"Please, sensei. Just no more spiders." Sakura was willing to get her hands dirty if it meant avoiding the eight-legged creatures.
"Okay then. The largest colony is in the Southwest region of the main field. Off you go."
"By myself?" she squeaked. Get rid of the largest colony by herself? If it was the largest, that meant it was bigger than the one her and Sasuke-kun had cleared earlier which had eight burrows. That means there was at least nine burrows in this colony. That means there was at least a hundred rats to eliminate. That means Kakashi-sensei wanted her to kill one hundred rats, by herself.
Kakashi sighed heavily as he finally shut his book and gave the pink-haired girl his attention. "I suppose I could help you out…"
Sakura nodded rapidly, "Yes, please. Thank you sensei."
"Maa, it's not me you should thank Sakura-chan. I'm not the one that's going to be doing the work, after all."
Sakura tilted her head in confusion and then furrowed her brow as her sensei began a series of hand signs. Boar. Dog. Bird. Monkey Ram. Then he slammed his hand down and a large circle of symbols spread out around him. She gawked in disbelief and awe as a pack dogs appeared around her teacher in a cloud of smoke.
Kakashi-sensei eye smiled at her look of astonishment and motioned toward his pack with a lazy wave of his hand, "These guys will be your temporary teammates for the duration of your mission."
The dogs were going to help her? Were they ninken like the Inuzukas' partners? Either way, this is the best she was going to get so she may as well go along with it.
"Uh, hi?" Sakura smiled nervously at the largest dog in the group, a huge, dark, bully dog with a spiked collar.
However, it wasn't he who replied but the smallest dog amongst them, "Hey kid. I'm Pakkun and that dumb bag of bricks is Bull." Pakkun's voice was startling because it didn't match his appearance at all; where he was small and kind of cute, his voice was deep and hoarse.
The pug-like dog went on to introduce the rest of the pack to the little pink-haired girl, "The grey one behind Bull's Urushi. Don't let his looks fool you, he's the softest of us. The one next to him with the stupid hairdo is Shiba,he's the real asshole of the pack but he's effective," he then motioned his head to the small, tan dog next to him, "This one's Bisuke, he's the second smartest of the pack (me being the first). The idiot with the sunglasses is Akino; he can talk but he prefers not to so don't take offense. The one hiding behind Kashi-kun is Guruko, he's got the best nose. And last, and definitely least, is Ūhei. He's boring."
Sakura's eyes bounced around the pack, frantically trying to catalog the rapid input of information. She had an excellent memory but the quick telling of names and the shock of talking dogs was kind of hindering her ability to process her thoughts. She internally raged at her sensei for dropping all of this information on her without warning while he stood there with a smile.
"Nice to meet you all! Thank you for helping me," Sakura bowed with a polite smile.
"Eh, no problem kid. C'mon then, lead the way to the mission site."
"Ah, yes. Of course, no problem. Follow me," she rambled nervously. She was leading the mission? Sakura knows it's not really a mission, it's a task that's part of their mission. But, still... she's never played the lead on a mission, even in the academy exercises. It was always Ino or one of the male clan kids like Sasuke-kun or Kiba-san.
Bull snorted and nosed her in the direction of the rat colony and Sakura jolted, "Wait! Do you already know where we're going?"
"Yeah kid, we can smell them from here."
That. Was. So. Cool! Sakura's not even mad that they're making her lead the way even though they know where to go. The colony has to be at least a kilometer away and they can smell them? She has to get a ninken.
Not too much later, Sakura watched as Shiba licked the blood from his paws while Pakkun attempted to wipe his off in a nearby patch of grass, his cute face twisted in disgust. The rest of the pack was sitting around a pile of dead rats (ew, ew, ew) and awaiting orders.
Sakura hated to ask but, "You didn't eat any of them?"
Pakkun gave her a look of revulsion and the one in the glasses (Akino?) grunted, "No."
Realizing she might have implied something offensive, she quickly changed the subject, "So, how did you become Kakashi-sensei's summons?"
Pakkun gave up on cleaning his paws and padded his way over to Sakura to sit beside her in the dirt, "Our summoning contract runs in the Hatake family. We're the first all 'domestic' dog pack to exist though, most of the previous packs were a mix of 'domestic' and 'wild' or just 'wild' dogs. Kashi-kun raised us all as puppies and we, in turn, trained with him, watched him grow, and agreed to protect him."
"So, if one wanted to create their own pack how would they do that?"
Pakkun side-eyed the pinkette and seemed to contemplate whether he wanted to answer her question for a minute. Finally, he turned to look at her more directly, "Summoning contracts are very serious business, kid. They're for life and they're an agreement to work with and protect each other for the duration of your life. They're also not easy to come across. Most contracts are passed down through clans, through senseis, or, more rarely, found in obscure or abandoned locations," the small dog sighed frustratedly, "Basically, you're not likely to ever get a summoning contract. Not unless you apprentice for another sensei with a contract they're willing to pass down to you."
"What about Kakashi-sensei?" She asked confusedly, "Why can't he give his contract to one of us?"
"We're the last. There's, uh, no female ninken left in our summoning world. And, no offense kid, but none of us really want to be attached to anyone who's not Kakashi. We'll probably die with him."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Well, this sucks."
As she, the boys, and Kakashi-sensei walked back to the village Sakura thought about Pakkun's words. The only way to get a contract was through a sensei, a clan, or some random discovery.
It wasn't fair. Sakura wasn't a clan kid, or some rich civilian with connections, or someone with the ability to travel outside of the village. Everyone else around her seemed to have things so much easier; that's what happens when you're born into privilege she supposed.
Sasuke-kun was born into the infamous Uchiha clan (though, maybe she should reconsider that line about "privilege"... Sakura didn't wish what had happened to Sasuke-kun on her worst enemy, not even Ino-pig). Ino-pig was born into the Yamanaka clan and got to learn about freaky mind control techniques. Kiba-san had a ninken and he belonged to the Inuzuka clan. Basically, she was surrounded by people with a considerable advantage over her all because of their fucking pedigree. Hell, even Naruto had a special relationship with the Hokage and she had heard things about his monstrous strength.
Her pitiful civilian background with a banker and a merchant for parents didn't do much for her in the ninja world. Sakura had seen what happened to civilian shinobi. Ami was transferred to the corps. Ataru didn't make graduation. Renji-san, the kind old man who traded spices with her mother, never made it past genin and retired after he lost his leg in the Kyuubi attack because he wasn't goodstrongfast enough. Her own father dropped out of the Academy. Sakura needed something to make her stand out, to make her sensei take note, to make her strong. Something like...
"You're not likely to get a summoning contract."
But, did she really need a contract to perform a jutsu?
This... would require more research.
yo, i don't write much and i didn't edit this so i apologize for any errors, any boring parts, and anything else blah blah blah. this story will be abt (traditionally) strong!sakura bc i'm a sucker for that and it's also gonna have some mythical/fantasy undertones so if u don't like that shit... byyyye
i'll try to update once every two weeks but college keeps me busy so .. ya know :p
leave a review, criticize the shit outta me, u go gurl