This is my first Naruto story and I'm actually pretty proud of it. So I hope you enjoy and I do not own Naruto or any of the animes I have written about.
Kakashi's POV
I had surprisingly found myself walking with Jaraiya, Naruto, and Sasuke on my way back to Konoha.
"Isn't this awesome! Sasuke's back and we're going to get to go back home. And we can see Sakura!" Naruto yelled. I rolled my eyes with my hands in my pockets while we approached the large Konohagakure gates. They were wide open, welcoming anyone and anything into our mostly peaceful village. All three of us spotted a blob of pink hair and knew immediately who it was.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled. She whipped around to Naruto's voice. He ran to her while Sasuke and I walked.
"Guys, you've been gone a while. I was just on my way to lunch." she said with a smile.
"Did you miss us?" Naruto asked, as eager as ever.
"Of course." she answered.
"Let's go to Ichiraku!" Naruto screamed before grabbing her by the wrist and running to his favorite ramen shop.
"Naruto! Don't drag me!" came out her irritated tone. Sasuke and I kept up easily and sat ourselves next to Naruto when we arrived. Sakura was on the far left with Naruto next to her and then me, and then Sasuke.
"Naruto! It's been a while! And your team is reunited as well. Welcome back you three. Ramen's on the house." said his favorite shop's owner.
"Alright! Thanks, jii-chan!" he cheered. Sakura ate silently listening while Naruto spoke of adventures in his training. After slowly finishing her ramen bowl, though, she stood up. She gave us a smile.
"This was my lunch break so I should get to finishing my rounds. See hokage-sama. She would probably like to be informed of all of your returns." she said before walking away.
"She's different." Sasuke said.
"Yeah." Naruto said silently.
"She has a stronger aura. More responsible. But we should get to the hokage. She won't be happy if she heard we got back and didn't report to her. After all, I was on a long mission. Sasuke has come back from Orochimaru meaning she is seriously going to want to talk to him. And Naruto she probably just wants to see how you've grown." I said as we silently stood up from our meals. We began walking to the large hokage tower at the center of the village.
"But she said rounds, Kakashi-sensei? What did she mean?" Naruto asked.
"Oh, you guys weren't here when she started. Sakura has undergone medical training. Tsunade has taught her the ways of medicine and now she is probably working in the hospital. After all, three years is a long time for her to train her medicals studies and she probably went over the things more than once. She is a smart girl." I said. They nodded in agreement. We arrived at the hokage tower and instead of going through the front and up the stairs, Naruto had decided to just scale the building until he reached the hokage window. We joined him up there as he tapped on it. Tsunade turned around stoically and opened the window.
"Hey granny Tsunade! What's up?" Naruto said.
"Nothing much, come in. I mean, there's no point in the door anyway." she said, sarcastically. We crawled in through the window.
"Oh, even Sasuke Uchiha has returned. Come back to destroy our village?" she said with a raised eyebrow, seeing Sasuke crawl through last. He shook his head.
"I've killed Itachi and my vengeance has been completed. I return to being loyal to my village." he said.
"Yeah, well don't expect me or probably many people to welcome you back with warm arms. You're going to be under the surveillance of an ANBU." she said. I can understand the extra pre-cautions. Sasuke had trained under Orochimaru, enemy of the leaf, and just decided to return? You can never be too careful.
"Kakashi, I trust that there will be a mission report on my desk tomorrow." she merely said to me. I nodded.
"How did your training go, Naruto?" she asked, turning to the blonde.
"It's great! I'm so strong, I could beat everyone in Konoha!" he said excitedly. The hokage scoffed and shook her head amusedly before hardening.
"Have you seen Sakura yet?" she asked. We all nodded.
"I was expecting a more warm welcome, but yeah." I said, rubbing the back of my head.
"I'll be sending you on team missions again, soon. I want to tell you right now, before you make horrible mistakes. Don't underestimate her." she said. The seriousness could not have been more apparent.
"You're free to go. At sunset we'll have a bell test, shall we. I want to see how all of team seven has improved over these three years." Tsunade said. We nodded.
Later at Sunset Sakura's POV
We had all met at the hokage tower because we decided to walk to the training grounds together. We had to stop once or twice because Kakashi had to use the bathroom and Naruto got distracted, as always. But we eventually made our way there.
"Before we start, you guys remember…" Kakashi began before I cut him off. I turned to the tree diagonal to us.
"Before we start, is it that you can't suppress your chakra or enough or are you trying to see which one of us would notice. Cuz you've been hiding since you got out of the 'bathroom'." I said. Naruto and Sasuke gave me awkward looks.
"What are you talking about, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Have you gone insane in the time we were gone?" Sasuke asked. I wanted to shoot him a glare but instead, without turning my face from the tree Kakashi was sitting in, I pulled out a kunai and tossed it at his clone. It disappeared with a poof at the moment of contact with the kunai. Naruto gasped aloud while Sasuke's eyes merely widened.
"Where is he?" Naruto asked.
"In the tree. We can't attack because he hasn't told us to begin yet. But I would recommend he get down before I do attack." I said with a smirk. Naruto smiled, I guess at my determination.
"I would recommend you get down as well." Tsunade shishou called. Shizune, Jaraiya, and shishou were standing on the sidelines next to some trees. Hearing shishou's warning, Kakashi-sensei dropped down from the tree.
"Alright, begin." he said. We all snapped into action, hiding behind trees and bushes. From my position I could see shishou nod at me with a smirk. I responded the same and paid attention to my target. Kakashi-sensei and the bells. We observed as he pulled his hitai-ate from covering his sharingan.
"Seeing as it is three of you, who all trained under one of the legendary sannins, this eye will probably come in handy. No murderous attacks please." he said. I nodded towards him from my spot before he disappeared. Fuck, I knew I forgot to learn one of his jutsus. It was that fucking teleport one. Naruto ran out to the center of the training ground and I cautiously met him there, along with Sasuke.
"Where is he?" Sasuke muttered. Naruto looked by spinning around various times and Sasuke only out of the corner of his eyes. I thought these two would be smarter. It was my turn to look.
"Guys, back up." I said. They did as told without questioning me.
"Right, left, above, behind." I muttered. Before I could continue, Naruto spoke.
"See, he's gone." he said. I rolled my eyes.
"Below!" I yelled, raising my chakra infused fist and pounding it down on the ground. The ground blew to smithereens, revealing our dear sensei beneath. Naruto and Sasuke had fallen down from the crash as sensei looked on at me with widened eyes.
"Where did you…?"
"Tsunade shishou didn't just teach me her medical ninjutsus." I said with a smirk.
"I'll make sure not to get hit by you." he said. Calculating when he would blink, quickly in my head, I waited for the moment. Then charged at the exact moment. I missed just barely and ran my fist into a tree instead, knocking it down.
"Just so you know, Kakashi-sensei, wherever you are, that punch had no chakra in it." I said.
"Sakura-chan, you got a whole lot stronger while I was gone." Naruto said. I turned and smiled at him, my arms entwined behind my back.
"Behind you, Naruto." Sasuke quickly said. Naruto spun around and armed himself with a kunai, holding it up in the perfect position, so as not to be stabbed by Kakashi's kunai.
"Just in time." I whispered. They were struggling back and forth until Sasuke withdrew his sword and slashed it right between both kunais.
"Kunai and shuriken only please." sensei said. Sasuke nodded and drew his sword back to it's hilt. He teleported again. Damn it. Note to self: Learn that jutsu. We gathered together once again.
"He's suppressed his chakra well, now that he knows that I can sense it." I said.
"Well, looking around, he's not around here." Sasuke said.
"We'll have to look for him. Get those bells at all costs. If you find him send some type of alert.." I said, but then noticed that Naruto was already gone.
"Guys! Help!" I heard a few seconds later. We followed his voice, to the blonde hanging upside down from a tree by his one leg tied to a rope. I pulled out my kunai and sliced it.
"How many times do you fall for that in your life?" I asked. Sasuke merely shook his head. We split up looking for Kakashi. All of sudden, I could see feathers falling around me.
"Dispel." I said after making the necessary hand signs.
"I thought you would know better than to try genjutsu on me, Kakashi-sensei." I said.
"I did need to give it a shot." he said appearing in front of me. I pulled out a kunai and held it in front of me where as he pulled out his own. At the exact moment that he threw it towards me, I threw mine into the air, making sure to be out of the way of his kunai. The explosive tag on it, did its job and soon, I could feel Naruto and Sasuke's chakras coming towards us.
"Did you get rusty with your kunai throwing?" sensei asked in a small taunting tone. The comment made me less than happy. Sasuke and Naruto arrived.
"It was an alert." I said before pulling behind them.
"I'll leave this one to you guys. If he can see my every move, it's pretty hard to land a hit." I said. He raised his eyebrow at me. I'm just kind of pissed. First they all leave me and then they come back and think I'm still the weakling shit I used to be. And to think that my own sensei, who had been with me for an entire year more, thought I slacked off and allowed my techniques to fade. I trained my fucking ass off while they were gone. Sasuke and Naruto were attacking constantly. I saw an opening for me and charged in head on. He dodged and I smashed the tree behind him.
"I thought I said no murderous attacks." he said.
"All my attacks are critical." I said. He appeared behind me, and my elbow counterattack smashed a tree.
"See, that one wasn't even chakra infused." I said.
"Bad choice, getting her angry." I could hear shishou mutter from afar. I knew that I should be careful in my angry stage because I could hurt somebody I don't want to hurt. Emotions shroud the mind and one should always have a clear head when coming to chakra control. And that's my whole game: chakra control.
"Wait!" Naruto yelled. He ran towards me and Sasuke walked behind.
"I just remembered a gift I have for Kakashi sensei." he whispered to us. He pulled out one of Jaraiya's perverted publications.
"And what is that going to do for us?" Sasuke asked.
"I bet he would hate to hear what happens." I said, almost reading Naruto's mind.
"Once there is a clear opening, I can attack from the front, while you guys attack from the sides." he whispered. We nodded and Sasuke and I took off to the sides.
"Oh, where did the other two go?" sensei said, looking towards Sasuke's direction and then looking around for me probably.
"I forgot to give you your present, sensei." Naruto said. He pulled out the book he had hidden behind his back. Kakashi's eyes went wide.
"I don't think with all the missions Granny Tsunade's gonna give us, that you'll have time to read it, so…" he began. Kakashi covered his ears and closed his eyes, so as not to hear or see the next things Naruto would say. That was our opening and we each took our own bell. I remembered the kunai throwing taunt he gave and decided to go before I said anything or did anything I didn't want to.
"I'll be finishing my rounds. Call if you need me." I said walking away from everyone with the bell twirling around my finger.
Naruto's POV
Sakura looks as if she's kind of angry. That or she doesn't want to be around us.
"Is Sakura okay?" I asked granny.
"Yeah, just a little angry at all of you. I can tell that she's especially angry with you, Kakashi." she answered.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, first of all, you all left her here, without even keeping in contact with her. And second of all, I told you, Kakashi, not to underestimate her." granny said.
"She is getting angry about that little comment?" he asked monotonously.
"While you were gone, she trained her ass off. It's hurts her pride to have someone close to her insult all the training she has done. I personally had to go, send Shizune, or an ANBU to make sure that she wouldn't overdo herself. That's how hard she worked, to the point of exhaustion, though I wouldn't let her get to far into that. She has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. And by now, I can send her on A and B rank missions on her own if I'd like to. She could be able to pass the jounin exams if she tried." granny said. My jaw dropped a bit.
"I didn't expect her to train that much." I said.
"Yeah, well she did. But, besides that, go celebrate. I think all of your friends are clear for missions today. You'll find them just wandering around the village.
Later in the Evening
The Rookie 9 and our senseis were all gathered at Ichiraku, that is, except for Sakura.
"Hey Ino, you're Sakura's best friend. Has she been training a lot in the past three years?" I asked, still bothered a bit by her sensitivity towards her training.
"I'm guessing she has. With my missions, and her daily routine, I barely saw her all these years. Whenever I did though, she was either eating, or in the hospital. She's been working hard I guess, because Tsunade has been telling me that she wants Sakura to take the jounin exam whenever it takes place." Ino answered.
"Yeah, we've all barely seen her. I've been guessing she has been training hard." Tenten said.
"She has always felt like the ball and chain to you guys. Think about it." Ino said.
"Yeah, Sasuke Uchiha, only person spared by Itachi of the Uchiha clan. You've been known to be strong since you were a kid." Tenten said.
"With Naruto Uzumaki, you are the boy with the nine tailed fox sealed within him. Two chakra sources and not to mention some killer power packed in you." Temari said. She had been in Konoha as well, so she joined us for the ramen.
"And with the elite copy-ninja, Kakashi Hatake, as her sensei, she had probably compared herself numerous times to you guys. There used to be a huge power difference between you. But now, seeing as there are few times she has been seen because of training, I imagine she's gotten much stronger. She probably doesn't want to fall behind." Kurenai sensei said.
"We'll see now that she is going to start taking missions with us." Sasuke said. I nodded and continued to enjoy my evening.