Title: A non-believer of the heart
Summary: Sakura has a kekkei genkai. A rather useless one, if she says so herself: she can see the red strings of fate. That's right. She can see who is tied to who and sometimes, you'd be surprised to know who's on the other end of your string. AU.
Words: 6,972
A/N: This beast was what I was working on for the longest time though not sure if I want to continue since I like what I have right now… but just let me know what you think!
_
The manifestation of a first generation kekkei genkai is identified using the 3 Measures Rule. First, if the proposed kekkei genkai can be sustained for longer than a minute. Second, if it can be activated in twenty separate intervals. Third, if the origin of the proposed kekkei genkai can be isolated into at least one bodily section.
Should the proposed kekkei genkai satisfy all three measures, then one can move on to finalizing and documenting their measures to approve of their request. Should approval be granted, congratulations! A new kekkei genkai will have joined the ranks of Konoha ninja to further fan the flames of the Will of Fire!
…3 Measures Rule…
…proposed kekkei genkai…
…Will of Fire!
Sakura squints her eyes and rereads the last few paragraphs of the book in her hands. Despite only being six years old, she immediately picks out the military propaganda that has become basically standardized in all reading materials in the library.
Giving one last side eye at the words, she sighs and closes the hefty book. There was a reason for a young girl such as her to be looking up information on kekkei genkai —never mind the fact that she was able to read at the level needed to comprehend the books—to the point of the librarian reminding her that the library was closing soon.
"Sakura-chan! You've got about five more minutes!" Izumi calls out from behind her desk. For a librarian, she is louder and more boisterous than you would think.
"Mhm, okay!" Sakura replies. She picks herself up from the floor and gathers the books littered around her. Then she heads over to Izumi, places the books on the return cart, and says her goodbyes. "Thank you, Izumi-san!"
"It's always a pleasure, Sakura-chan. See you again soon!" Izumi waves at the child and gets up to start reorganizing the shelves.
The reason for her reading up on kekkei genkai being the red string attached to Izumi the librarian's pinky finger just so happened to be connected to the pinky of Taro the blacksmith, who smiled at Sakura as he was heading in the library she just exited.
Izumi and Taro also happened to be the twenty first occurrence of her seeing a pair of people connected by a red string.
Back at home, Sakura bounds up to her room after greeting her mother on her way to the stairs. She pulls out her journal, a simple notebook labelled with her name, and scribbles down the initials 'I' and 'T' in black ink before connecting them with a line of red ink. She sits back and marvels at her work. The page is filled with other initials connected by a red line. However, it is only a single page on the back of her notebook.
The rest of the pages are filled with initials that have a red dash connecting to nothing.
The thought does little to deter her quiet smile, though. Tucking away the notebook, she heads into her bathroom to wash her hands. Afterwards, she joins her parents in the dining room for dinner.
"What'd you do today, Sakura-chan?" Her mother asks as she serves her daughter a big helping of spaghetti napolitan.
"Library, like usual. Read stuff about ninja." Sakura slurps up the noodles before taking a bite out of a cut sausage. Mom decided to make her favorite tonight for some reason.
"You're still—do you still want to go to the Academy, then?" Her dad asks this time. Sakura looks up at the both of them, neither have touched their meals.
So this must've been what they wanted to bring up, she thinks as she puts her fork down.
"Yes, and I still really want to be a ninja," She confirms flat out. Her mother sighs but looks at her husband imploringly. "I'm gonna go to the first class tomorrow."
"Guess she's not changing her mind, Mebuki," Sakura's dad says quietly to the side, and then louder he says, "I'll make your breakfast, then. You gotta give 'em your best on a full stomach!"
Sakura smiles at her parents and they smile back, her father's arm around her mother's shoulder in an easy embrace. Her gaze wanders a little lower, and though she can clearly see two separate red strings lead out in opposite directions, Sakura knows that they love each other as strongly as they love her.
_
Sakura has a kekkei genkai. One that parallels the story of The Red Strings of Fate. She found the story in the library one day, eagerly drinking up the romantic clichés and realized that the red strings connected to everyone she sees was related to the story in some way.
She had brought it up to her mother once, even younger than she was now, about what those red strings tied to people's fingers meant and Mebuki shook her head with a laugh that said that she was merely humoring a confused, young child. Sakura felt embarrassed enough to never ask her again.
Thus, she did her own research. Using the 3 Measures Rule, Sakura concluded that what she had was a developing kekkei genkai, one that had never been seen before—at least, not one she had read while going through the list of notable kekkei genkai in an encyclopedia directory.
While not as spectacular as a Lava Release, nor as powerful as Konoha's own Sharingan, Sakura thinks her kekkei genkai made her a bit special. Especially after attending her first day at the Academy and seeing just how much more ahead the clan children were, with their own kekkei genkai.
After class—of which the day was filled with boring busywork and nervous introductions—she heads straight into the adjoining building of the Hokage Tower.
"Hi." Came the high-pitched voice below the receptionist's desk.
The worker behind said desk had to stand up from his seat to be able to see the young, pink haired girl, "Hello. How may I help you?"
"I'd like the forms to register my kekkei genkai," And because Sakura is polite, "Please."
The worker, who had a hitai-ate on his forehead and a string connected to his index finger, looked confused for one silent moment before saying, "Have you—did you satisfy the 3 Measures Rule?"
"Of course." Her pink head nods up and down.
"Hmm, wait one moment," He stands up and goes into a room behind the desk. When he returns, he has a nervous smile, "Since you're so young, could you bring a guardian back with you and we can schedule an appointment to—to check your, kekkei genkai. They can fill out the forms then."
Sakura bites back the reflex to answer back haughtily and instead twists and untwists her lips, "My parents are busy, though…"
"Alright, how about you ask your Academy instructor instead?"
Hearing the alternative made her ears perk up. Nodding quickly, she was out in a flash and rushing back into the other building.
"Yaotome-sensei!" She calls out as she pulls back the door to her homeroom class.
"Sakura-chan," The chuunin greets, surprised at the sudden visit, "Is something wrong?"
"No! Well, kind of? I need you to come with me to the Hokage Tower so I can get my new kekkei genkai!" Despite having a reading comprehension well above her age, as well as being above average in intelligence compared to her peers, Sakura is still a six year old. Being a six year old meant that emotions tend to overrule thought quite often.
"Slow down," Yaotome-sensei chuckles, "You have a kekkei genkai? Do your parents know?"
Sakura makes a faint humming noise before saying, "They're busy right now so the man said that I can bring you in their place!"
Her sensei sighs good-naturedly, having long since been used to the brief and often demanding conversations with his students, "Alright, lead the way."
And so, Sakura heads back to The Tower a second time, with Yaotome-sensei in tow.
"Great, follow me." The worker smiles in recognition of the other chuunin and leads the two of them into a room down the hall. Inside there is a table and seats as well as a potted plant in the corner. It reminds Sakura of her mother's office at the shop.
Inside there was a man with pale eyes already waiting. The worker tips his head in farewell and closes the door behind him. Both Sakura and her sensei take a seat across from the serious faced man.
"Hyuuga-san, hello." Her sensei greets with a small smile. Sakura follows suit and bows politely.
"Yaotome-san. Your student had wanted to petition a request for her kekkei genkai to get approval," The pale eyed man, Hyuuga-san explained to her sensei.
"I just asked for the forms." Sakura mumbled, for some reason feeling like she had to defend herself.
"Yes, those forms are meant for clan heads or a registered shinobi to fill out. Since you have not yet graduated from the Academy we need a formal interview to be done instead." Having those pale eyes focused directly on Sakura made her fidget a little; it was like he could see right through her.
"Alright, alright, Hyuuga-san. Continue with the interview, then." Yaotome-sensei brought the other man's gaze back to himself, thankfully.
The pale eyed man then started to ask basic questions about Sakura: name, date of birth, citizenship. Boring stuff that Sakura could have easily said for herself but seeing how the other man's face hardly moved with emotion made her feel glad that it was her sensei speaking to him rather than her.
"Haruno-san," The man looked at her from across her seat, "Will you be able to demonstrate your kekkei genkai safely in this room?"
"Yeah!" She chirps confidently, already eyeing the red string on Hyuuga-san's left thumb.
"Please demonstrate." Both men stand up and head off to the side, eyeing Sakura like they were expecting some grand display in this small room.
"Uhmm," Sakura starts by pointing at her sensei, "Yaotome-sensei has his red string on his right middle finger and—and I think it's connected to one of the other sensei at the Academy because I saw it be tugged a little more in class."
Her sensei looks down at his right hand, squinting his eyes to see said red string. Hyuuga-san turns his head to do the same, but his eyes suddenly bulge out in his inspection. Had Sakura not read up on the Byakugan, she was certain she would have screamed in fright.
"Hyuuga-san," She continues, "Has his red string on his left-hand thumb. I'm not really sure who he is connected to though, yet."
The Hyuuga then raises his own hand, inspecting it closely as he turns it this way and that. Both men have furrowed brows and Sakura recognizes that look as the one her parents have sometimes when there are less customers coming in this month.
The rest of the interview goes in a blur. The two men converse with themselves in hushed, but angry whispers. At least, Hyuuga-san sounded angry while her sensei just sounded disappointed. Hyuuga-san leaves first, not bothering to properly close the door.
"Yaotome-sensei?" Sakura asks carefully. She is unsure of what she did wrong and was more scared than anything.
"Sakura-chan, you seem like a good kid," He takes a deep breath, "But it's not good to lie, especially to ninja. It's fine to have a strong imagination at your age, though. It means you might be inclined towards genjutsu in the future."
Sakura knows what genjutsu is from reading a book on it before, so she is confused at the sudden turn of their conversation. What upsets her the most, however, is that he had called her a liar. She did not lie to either of them and she knew better than to ever lie to a ninja.
She knew all of this but most importantly, she had just realized why the two men seemed so perplexed earlier.
"Sorry, sensei." She hangs her head and says, subdued. A pat on her head is all she feels as she is left alone in the office room.
Her mom laughed at her, the pale-eyed man got angry, and her sensei was disappointed in her because none of them could see the red strings like she could. No one except Sakura could see those strings.
_
"Sorry we couldn't pick you up from school, sweetheart."
"It's ok." Sakura replies easily, knowing full well that running a business fulltime meant that Sakura had to be put in the backburner of her parents' mind. As long as she came home before dinner, her parents simply assumed she was at the library.
The day's revelation left her feeling ill. It made her dinner taste bland and had her excusing herself early to go back to her bedroom.
It's not fair, she tells herself, that all those clan kids are treated so good just because their kekkei genkai could see through walls or expand their bodies.
Just because other people were not able to see the red strings, did not change the fact that Sakura could see them. She was not just imagining them up, like some baby with her imaginary friends. She could tell the difference between real life and fake!
The frustration of her situation was almost enough to make her cry. Since despite knowing full well she had a kekkei genkai—one that crossed off every requirement—only she would be privy to it.
Her mind wondered then, how many others were like her, had been like her? Possessed kekkei genkai that they could not prove and were stuck, almost trapped, in their own perceptions of the world.
It was lot to think about for a six year old girl, and so Sakura deftly bottled her emotions and went into a fitful sleep.
_
Sakura had learned to be content with her kekkei genkai. There was not much she could do about it, after all, if nobody except her could see the strings. Just as she could not change the size of her forehead, she just had to learn to accept or overcome her shortcomings.
To start off with, she never mentioned the strings to anyone again. After that day with Yaotome-sensei and the pale eyed Hyuuga, she kept her mouth shut about anything involving the strings, kekkei genkai, or even that day in that office. It is strange that a part of her tells her not to mention what happened in that office, although no one had told her to keep quiet.
Sakura thinks that after seeing the negative reactions towards her that day, it was best not to bring it up ever again.
Ignoring the strings and everything about them helped with making her fit in better with the other kids in the Academy but that did not mean that the strings were completely gone.
Sakura could still see the wispy threads in her peripherals and no amount of focusing on a person's hand could stop her from noticing whenever someone tried to hand something to her. It was particularly challenging to feign ignorance during kunai and shuriken throwing classes where her partner, Ino, would hand off a dull weapon for her to throw. The red wrapped around her friend's index finger laced it so tightly, as if the person it was connected to was desperately trying to get her attention.
It is because of this constant awareness that Sakura is unnerved to discover that the village had drastically reduced its number of threads overnight. The main road was usually laden with the amount of red thread populating the already busy streets. What was normally a web of intersecting, interwoven fibers had been thinned out to a meager version of itself. Many strings were simply dangling limply on the ground and the few that were still entangled in one another were loosely held together.
"Oh no," Sakura whispers to herself, because the sudden disappearances of thread could only mean one thing.
Sakura and her parents attend the funeral of her great grandmother one solemn day. Despite knowing to bow her head in respect to honor the recent passing, Sakura tilted her eyes upwards to where the open casket lay.
There laid her great grandmother, her portrait atop her casket to show how she was in life. However, what caught the pink haired girl's attention was not the portrait nor the woman's placid corpse but the rapidly disintegrating red string.
Before her very eyes the thread withered away as if some flame had lit the other end. She watched as the soot floated away by some unknown gust of air, the thread quickly shortening as the small embers worked their way upwards to her great grandmother.
Finally, the last of the string tied around a frail thumb fell into pieces and… simply… drifted... away.
Sakura knows that the people who have no strings tied to their fingers—as rare as they are—are those who have had their 'fated one' die. When great grandpa left that funeral, Sakura noticed that his own hands were bare; the red string that had previously connected him with his fated person gone.
Rushing towards the Academy, the entire class in informed of the massacre that had taken place the night before. Sakura noticed a few more classmates whose fingers lay bare. Uchiha Sasuke is gone for a week.
_
Team assignments are finally announced. Sakura finds herself on Team 7 with one Uzumaki Naruto and the last Uchiha.
She thinks Naruto is okay enough. He had a reputation in and outside of the Academy as a 'demon', though in her opinion the boy was just mischievous, never mean-spirited. Maybe even misguided, given that he was an orphan and literally none of the other orphans are as harassed as he is.
About Sasuke however, Sakura hesitates to make any quick assumptions. Following that incident that occurred years ago, she had avoided him as much as possible because that large portion of threads vanishing into the night had left her greatly disturbed. Just merely looking at the dark haired boy left her feeling uneasy.
Swallowing down her unease, Sakura resolves to not let any of her personal feelings interfere with her new ninja career. Whatever her two teammates' past were would not color any negative emotions against them.
Especially since they were the one pair in class whose strings were connected to each other. That must mean something.
"My name is Sakura," She introduces herself after the three find themselves in an empty classroom, "I hope we can all work well together."
"I h-hope so too, Sakura-chan," Naruto blushes freely, completely ignoring the formality of introducing himself as well. Sakura lowers her eyebrows, wait, did Naruto—
"But I wish we weren't stuck with this teme!" The blond cuts off her line of thinking, voice shrill as he stuck his tongue out at the other boy.
"Tch, dobe." Said boy counters with a glare of his own.
Sakura reminds herself that she already decided not to let her personal feelings get in the way of her career. Still, with the way that Naruto was shooting googly eyes at her and how Sasuke was radiating visible, gloomy-dark energy made it hard to hold back the tick on her forehead.
Thankfully, their jounin sensei made it just in time. As in, an entire hour after teams have been announced.
At least Naruto's prank worked; he had set it up earlier and now the chalkboard eraser fell right atop their new sensei's head. Though the white chalk dust did not do much to contrast against the silvery white mop it had landed on, it achieved the desired effect of catching a jounin unaware and made Naruto snort.
"First impressions, I don't like any of you." Their dusty haired sensei announced. Sakura could only roll her eyes.
After corralling the three of them up to the rooftop, their sensei had introduced himself as Hatake Kakashi and urged them to do so as well.
Sakura looked to the two boys, already semi having introduced herself earlier and letting them go ahead. Naruto took his cue and went on to explode with confidence at his goal to become Hokage and then Sasuke followed with his promise of vengeance.
Sakura could already deduce that he wanted to hunt down the person who had been responsible for the night the strings vanished. The intensity of his wrath sparked some concern for him in her heart. She wondered if Naruto could feel his string being tugged as Sasuke clenched his fists painfully tight, though she immediately dismisses the idea since no one else so far has been able to see, much less feel the threads.
Then came her turn, "I'm Haruno Sakura. I like reading and dislike, uhm, being lied to,"
She hid the fact that she hated being told her kekkei genkai was illegitimate. It was a confession that she had not told a single soul about and she was not going to start sharing now.
"My goal is to be a ninja that my parents can be proud of." She finishes resolutely. That part of her she can share; Ino already knew how being civilian born came with its own host of problems and it was not news that most civilians tended to shy away from ninja.
Kakashi wrapped up their meeting, warned them of tomorrow's 'survival training' and poofed away with a taunting smile.
Naruto then immediately asked her if she wanted to have dinner with him for which she replied, "I think I have a better idea."
"What is it?" He asks, and Sakura calls out to Sasuke before he left the building entirely.
"Sasuke! Want to go over strategies with us for tomorrow's training?" She waves the Uchiha over, hoping his broody personality would not stop him from planning with them. Sasuke simply snorted derisively.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto whined, "We were gonna have dinner, just the two of us. Forget this bastard!"
"I don't need either of you." Sasuke added, as if to further emphasize that he wanted nothing to do with them. The two were being intentionally antagonistic, each insult up till now causing her annoyance to skyrocket.
"That's it, listen up! From here on out we're Team 7!" She raises her voice to a shout, having finally been fed up with the two boys' bullheaded pissing match, "Whether you like it or not, we're gonna have to work as a team. Naruto, that means you have to stop egging Sasuke on, and Sasuke, that means having to interact with us at some point,"
Neither boys said a thing but at least Sasuke stopped heading for the door, "I'm not doing this so that we could be friends. I want us all to be comrades. So that when we have actual life or death missions, we won't let our feelings towards each other affect our choices. Since we've literally never worked together, it's best to plan out a few strategies so that we're not blindsided by tomorrow."
Gathering all the hope in her heart and pouring it out of her, Sakura hoped her message would reach the two boys. She knew the bottom line; tomorrow's survival training was just another test of which Kakashi was to either pass or fail their team. It was a common practice for Academy graduates that anyone would have known if they bothered opening the Ninja Handbook. Knowing what she knew about the infamous jounin, their chances were slim. Getting the three of them working together cohesively would either make or break them.
Her eyes implored the Uchiha boy especially since Naruto seemed easy enough to convince so long as she was around, and she continued to look at his back even after he said, "Tch, you will all just get in my way."
Her mouth pinched into an awful shape.
_
"Why's he always gotta prove he's such a bastard? But don't worry Sakura-chan, you and I can plan for tomorrow, if you'd like?" Naruto bounced on his heels even as she stared at the ground.
What could she have said to make him change his mind? Uchiha Sasuke was Rookie of the Year but even that was a far cry to what a jounin could do. So why did he think he could take on whatever Kakashi threw at them alone?
"H-Hey, Sakura-chan?"
She was the top female of their class but even she had enough common sense to know when it was better to work with others, even if they were behind you in scores.
"Sakura-chan! Hey!"
Arrogant clan kids, they were all the same. He was probably looking down on her because he thought she was some dumb civvie with no 'proper' training. She already knew Sasuke and Naruto had bad blood since way back so that was why he was rude to the blonde, but then again, Sasuke treated everyone like that.
"Sakura-cha—an," A voice yawned loudly right next to her ear, startling her and causing her to roughly push back the offending person.
"Oof! OUCH! What was that for?" Naruto yelled as he picked himself up off the ground.
"Sorry," She flinched, had she zoned out that badly? "Was just thinking. But, uh, let's go get dinner like you said, and we can plan for tomorrow."
"Okay! I'll take ya to my favorite place!" Naruto grabbed her hand, smiling all the way. She was grateful for the blonde's ability to so easily forgive and forget.
Sakura and Naruto then continued to discuss tomorrow over steaming ramen bowls.
_
"Take this," Sakura pushes a bento towards her dark haired teammate. All three of Team 7 are gathered that morning at an empty training ground save for a few stumps. "You've got to eat something before Kakashi-sensei gets here. Naruto and I already ate ours earlier."
"He said not to." Came a gruff reply. Sasuke glared at her hand as if she had offered him poison.
"Just take it, ya jerk! Sakura made it just for you since we all know you're dumb enough to listen to that lousy guy's words." Naruto pestered.
"Hearing that from the dead last." Sasuke growled, averting his fuming gaze towards the blonde. Naruto nearly lunged for the boy had their female teammate not held him by his arm.
"Kakashi-sensei probably told us not to eat to trick us. Does it really make sense to go into 'survival training' on an empty stomach?" Sakura offers, carefully wording herself to make Sasuke connect the dots on his own.
Just as expected, Sasuke takes one thoughtful moment to realize the situation before grabbing the bento out of her hands. Sakura briefly peeks at the red wrapped around his left ring finger, though her eyes instantly snap upwards to meet the Uchiha's own. She blushes slightly, ashamed at having been caught though she knows logically that he would never see the red string himself.
It felt like she was trespassing in on something private when she looked too closely at a person's string.
"Ugh, don't tell me you have a crush on this teme, too, Sakura-chan!" Naruto wails, having seen the blush on her cheeks and assuming it was because of the Uchiha.
Well, it was, but for a whole separate reason that Sakura doubts he would ever understand.
"No!" Sakura denies immediately, "I'd like to keep all our relationships professional, if possible."
"So we're pro-fessional friends?" Naruto says slowly, not truly knowing the meaning but trying nonetheless.
"We can be friends, too, but when we're wearing this," She taps on her hitai-ate, her finger making a faint clinking noise against the metal, "We have to see each other as ninja, as teammates with a common goal."
Naruto looked at her as if she said something truly inspirational and pumped his fist, "Yeah! We'll be the best ninja team Konoha's ever seen!" Sasuke stopped frowning as well which is basically a full blown smile when it comes to him, leaving Sakura wondering if this was the first time anyone has said anything vaguely encouraging to these boys before.
"Ahem," Came a cough from behind the three of them.
Naruto promptly screeched and jumped up into Sakura's arms in alarm before yelling, "You're late!"
Kakashi merely shrugged and gave a half-baked excuse before explaining that their survival training had indeed been a coverup just as Sakura had expected. It was either get the bells or go back to the Academy. Sakura knew she had only one option.
"And start!" Kakashi announced, the timer starting to tick down.
Naruto dashed towards their sensei which, thankfully, Sakura had foreseen and with all the strength she could muster, dragged them both up to the trees to hide.
"Wh—Sakura! I almost had the drop on 'im!" Naruto fumed. Sakura urgently shushed him.
"No, you didn't! Did you even see the kunai in his hand?" She asked roughly. When Naruto returned her with a pitiful glance, she knew he had not.
In a firm tone she said, "Remember the plan, we get Sasuke and—"
"Sasuke just ran in the other direction. There's no way that bastard'll help us!" Naruto cut off.
Getting increasingly annoyed, Sakura took a levelling breath, "Sasuke still thinks he can get one of those bells alone. Even with us two, it'll be difficult so Kakashi is clearly expecting us to work together if we want to those bells."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you yesterday about teamwork." Naruto agreed concededly.
"Good, so you know what to do." Sakura offered a small smile to which Naruto nodded at, though they were interrupted by the sound of leaves rustling behind them.
The two shot off into action, Naruto amassing several clones to intercept Kakashi as Sakura went off alone, following the other end of the red thread connected to the blonde. It shook and wobbled as he threw himself at Kakashi.
She followed the thread until it led her up onto another tree branch, a confused yet serious expression on her dark haired teammate's face as he sees Sakura.
"Sasuke, we have to work together to get those bells or we're not gonna get them at all." She explains outright. There was no time to waste as Naruto can occupy the jounin for only so long.
"You haven't even seen me try." Sasuke sneered.
"He's a jounin. Tell me you don't honestly think you can go up against that?" She pleads back, already seeing how Sasuke's thread had gone eerily still. Naruto was either knocked out or unable to move.
"Hn," The boy replies vaguely before stating, "Who will go back after we get the bells?"
"Does it really matter if we don't get them in the first place and we're all sent back?" Sakura indicated that time was running out by glancing back behind her. Paranoia has her scanning the tree line for any hint of red.
Sasuke realized that Kakashi would be heading towards them soon and acquiesces with a gruff sigh, "Fine."
She immediately brightened up at the boy's compliance and pulls out a kunai, "We need to go back and get Naruto."
Attaching an explosive tag on the ringed end, she threw her arm back and let the weapon fly towards where she heard another rustle of leaves. Together they leapt away from the small explosion, hoping it was enough of a distraction to get to their blonde teammate in time.
Sakura lead the way and behind her Sasuke wondered just how she was able to pinpoint the other boy's location so accurately. Within seconds they were cutting the other boy out of his bindings where he was trapped upside down.
"Hey, you got the teme on board!" Naruto exclaimed as he oriented himself properly. His head still ached from the blood rushing into it, but it was quickly fading with each passing second. Sasuke deigned not to entertain him with a reply.
"Now that everyone's here we can get those bells but only," Sakura stresses, "If we work together."
The two boys share a look of contempt, but Sakura's more potent gaze quickly had them looking back to her.
"There's no way we'll be able to get those bells in fair fight." She concludes.
"So we gotta, what, do underhanded tricks?" Naruto scratches his head but Sakura beams at him, causing a faint blush to spread across his cheeks.
"Exactly, Naruto! Sasuke should engage him one-on-one while Naruto summons a bunch of his clones and barrage him with overwhelming force. And remember to use any jutsu or weapon up your sleeves." Sakura calculated the odds that Naruto and Sasuke's combined assault would successfully divert attention away from herself.
"Then what about you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto questions.
"I'll cast a genjutsu to momentarily stun him while you both occupy him and when I give the signal, we all make a grab for the bells. At least one of us should be able to get close enough." She explained, though not outright lying, it was close enough to what she was planning on doing. There was no way to explain how she was going to use her kekkei genkai in their favor, after all.
Sakura looked between the two boys and hoped they got the message loud and clear: distract and then grab.
The three of them shift their gazes to be filled with concentration and renewed vigor. This was their last chance. With an unspoken agreement the three head off to the clearing and wait for Kakashi to appear.
"Oh my, you know it's rude to gang up on your elders." Kakashi muses nonchalantly as he moves his eyes over the three of them.
Three against one, they were in a standoff. Then, in an aborted movement, the two boys flung towards the jounin. Naruto summoned his clones again and Sasuke breathed out a fire jutsu before joining in on the fray.
As expected of a shinobi of his caliber, Kakashi deftly dodged or parried each oncoming attack, all the while keeping an eye Sakura in the background. This would be trickier than she had thought, though her hands have already started forming the starting hand signs for genjutsu.
Naruto amassed even more clones, the bulk of them completely drowning the jounin. Sakura took this as her chance, casting a minor genjutsu to affect the area and then quickly throwing out kunai in an elaborate pattern.
Kakashi soon emerged from the Naruto pile, many of the clones popping out of existence as the glint of his own kunai shined in his hand. Sasuke jumped in hastily though Kakashi was already scanning Sakura for any kind of ambush. The moment his eyes lifted away from the girl, Sakura bellowed, "Signal!"
The boys jerked their heads in recognition and dove towards the jounin's belt to grab at the bells. Kakashi simply responded in kind by leaping the other way, but at that moment, a force caused him to stumble. His body jerked back downwards, the force seeming to have pulled down his hand first.
Although ninja wire held no candle against chakra strings, they did what Sakura had intended and Kakashi had managed to be held down successfully. The seemingly random pattern of scattered kunai attached to wire were, in fact, placed to overlap the red string leading towards Kakashi while keeping clear of the boys' own strings.
And in that moment of brief confusion from the jounin, all three children of Team 7 plunged onto Kakashi and grasped and grabbed for all they were worth.
_
"Remind me never to put the bells on myself ever again and just put it on a clone." Kakashi whined pathetically. He swore he felt someone grab his crotch at least once.
"Gyahaha!" Naruto cackled, a bell dangling from his finger, "Now you know about the might of the future Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Hn," Sasuke smirked in triumph, for once not goading the other boy and simply letting a satisfied look overcome his features. He had a bell between his fingers as well.
Sakura simply smiled, all too happy with herself at how her diversion had worked. This was the first time she had used that technique on anyone but herself, yet she had used it on a jounin and more importantly, won.
"Good news, you managed to get the bells before the timer ran out," The jounin curved his eyes in a smile, "Bad news, Sakura-chan has to go back to the Academy."
The mood dropped right away, and although Kakashi upheld his eye smile, the three children frowned and grew solemn.
"B-but we couldn't get these bells without Sakura-chan." Naruto speaks up first, his eyes already hard and determined.
Sakura whipped her gaze towards Naruto in overwhelming relief before snapping her head back down, shameful that she was the only one having not gotten a bell in the tussle.
"It's okay, Naruto. We all knew the rules before starting." Sakura said placatingly, but her traitorous eyes started to water at the prospect of being sent back. After everything she had worked towards and practiced and cried over.
But life was not fair, and it was a lesson that Sakura should have already learned long ago.
"There was no point in having us work together like this if one of us has to be sent away," Sasuke finally speaks up, accusation lacing his tone. "Why make a test designed for us to fail unless we worked as a team?"
Sakura blinked her tears away at Sasuke's valid question. He is right, her mind reinforced. She should have realized it sooner, perhaps emotions were running too high for her to notice, but there was no way a single genin could take on a jounin alone. Strength in numbers.
"Sakura-chan realized how to beat the test but she should have concluded the reason behind it," Kakashi drawled, taking on a pleased tone, "Ma—ah, but that's what having your team is for, huh? Split the thinking and work between the three of you."
"Wha—?" Naruto titled his head in confusion.
Sakura ran her arm under her nose and hurriedly said, with hope in her voice, "Kakashi-sensei wanted us to work together because that's what he was trying to teach us. That together we're stronger, better."
Naruto lit up with understanding and immediately clung onto Sakura, happy that she was going to stay.
"Exactly. You all," And with a healthy dose of anticipation, "Pass."
Naruto whooped, still clinging to his female teammate and Sakura lets out a relieved giggle. Sasuke smirks once again and Kakashi cannot deny the inkling of fondness towards the genin. His genin.
_
Survival training and Team 7's subsequent victory came to pass as the day dissolved into night. All three were excused and their single-eyed sensei watched them head off while he hid in the camouflage of the trees.
Kakashi could not fault them for using the actual word 'signal' as the signal, they were still genin after all. "My cute little genin," He would then go on to describe them in front of company because they truly were in his eyes. The three so much more innocent and naïve compared to his own team during their age.
In a swirl of leaves, he appears at the Hokage Tower. "Here to deliver some good news." He announces.
Sarutobi Hiruzen looks up at him expectantly, "Kakashi-kun."
"Team 7, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura, under the direction of their jounin sensei, Hatake Kakashi are ready for active duty, Hokage-sama." Kakashi intones happily.
"Oh-ho!," A puff of smoke from the Hokage's pipe floats upwards, "That is good news. I'll be expecting Team 7 to start building up their experience with their first missions tomorrow."
"Of course, Hokage-sama." And with a respectful bow, Kakashi leaves the aging man to his paperwork.
Hiruzen would be expecting a detailed progress report in the upcoming weeks, Kakashi reminds himself. He takes his time with his usual trudge towards his apartment, an orange book already obscuring his face like a second mask.
Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke are high priority individuals. Even if they had failed to attain the bells from today's test, Kakashi would have been forced to pass them because of pressure from the Elder Council. Talent could only go ignored for so long.
Without surprise, the Uchiha's above average taijutsu and fireball jutsu as well as Uzumaki's shadow clones were clearly above the skill level of average genin. Unexpectedly, however, was his lone female student's competency during the test.
Sakura knew how to get the bells, but it did not bode well if she were to continue completing missions with the same unquestioning mentality; complete the mission, at any costs, no hesitation. Kakashi had seen first hand what that line of thinking does to children.
She knew what the mission objective was, saw the most efficient way to complete it, and then executed it without hesitation. That level of planning would have been expected for a student with scores like hers but given the sudden change in situation—being lied to about the day's true objective—and working with a team for the first time, that amount of level-headedness was a pleasant surprise.
That, or she's just naturally predisposed to being adaptive and composed in any given situation, he thinks.
Beyond that, she had done something while he was preoccupied with the boys. He had felt her activate a genjutsu, the distinctive layer of chakra prickling his senses, to the surrounding area. She had done that to most likely conceal the kunai and wire she threw out, but why hide them? Then after he had lunged away some force dragged him back down.
Releasing a sigh, Kakashi closes his book and looks out at the sunset. He should probably go talk to someone about this.