In the forests of the Land of Waves stood a house. It was an ordinary house, that housed a family of three but it was also temporarily housing extraordinary people; these guests were ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village, of Konohagakure. A bit away from the house, the ninja were learning something new from their sensei. They were just recovering from a battle against the missing nin Zabuza Momochi, and the silver haired jonin sensei realized that he needed to teach his three students something else if they want to survive their next run in with Momochi and his accomplice. He told his students that they were going to learn how to climb trees without using their hands.

After demonstrating, he hung upside down on a branch and looked at his three students. He then threw a kunai at their feet. "Use the kunai knife to mark how far you make it up the tree. Then try to get higher the next time and the next time. You're going to need to get a running start at first, until pulling chakra to your feet becomes second nature." He watched as his students concentrated, the ran up trees as fast as they could. The blonde barely made it a couple of steps before sliding down. The black haired boy made it a few more steps before he expelled from the tree. The silver haired jonin stayed expressionless, he expected this from those two.

He was so focused on the two boys that he completely missed his last genin, a pink haired little slip of a thing, running up the tree perfectly her first time, until she giggled, "That was fun!"

The two boys on the ground looked at her in surprise while their teacher praised, "Well, looks like the female member of the squad has the most advanced chakra control. Well done, Sakura."

Sakura beamed, happy with the praise of her senses, while two boys looked on enviously, the blonde masking it better than the black haired boy. "We spoke of someone becoming Hokage one day, weren't we Naruto?" The blonde's look soured. "And as for the great Uchiha clan, maybe they're not so great after all." The black haired boy's face remained stoic but his eyes blazed in anger.

Sakura's face flushed, "Shut up, Kakashi-sensei! You're not helping!" She risked a glance at the black haired boy. Great. Now Sasuke's gonna be mad at me!

She started paying attention when Kakashi mentioned her name, "...and Sakura will go watch over Tazuna and make sure nothing happens while he's working on the bridge." Sakura looked at he sensei in shock, but kept her mouth shut and followed her sensei back toward the house. When they got out of earshot, Sakura stopped her sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Of course you can, Sakura, that is part of my job as your sensei." Kakashi smiled, although she couldn't really tell from under the mask he wears all the time.

Sakura took a deep breath to gather her courage. You're a ninja, Sakura. Take a leap of faith once in awhile. "I don't want to watch Tazuna, I want to train. You and I know perfectly well that you can just create a clone to go with him. Naruto and Sasuke are still training, and like always, I'm pushed to the side and I'm sick of it."

Kakashi paused, slightly surprised. He was a genius in his own right, but sometimes his cute little genin managed to surprise him. He knew that Sakura would eventually get frustrated with him, but he never expected it to be so soon. He knew that he wasn't the best teacher, but with the last Uchiha loyal to the village and the kyuubi's jinchūriki on his team, he didn't really have time to focus on a civilian raised girl if she wasn't serious. "Oh? And what do you plan to do about it?"

"I'm not stupid Kakashi-sensei, far from it. I competed for the top spot at the Academy and won against Shikamaru Nara, a certified genius. I might not be a chakra powerhouse like Naruto, nor as advanced as Sasuke, but I know research." Here Sakura paused and licked her lips. Unconsciously, her thumb brought in her middle finger in a nervous gesture. She knew that she needed to completely trust her sensei if she was to catch up to her teammates, but what she did could get her in a lot of trouble.

Kakashi noticed her nervousness, "Sakura...what did you do?" He felt a tinge of fear, even though he knew that he never messed up, no one else knew, so how could she?

Sakura looked down, "I...I looked you up when you first accepted us as your team. I might have looked in places I wasn't supposed to?" She smiled apprehensively at Kakashi. She rushed on, "Well if they didn't want a genin to know, they should have put better security. Anyway, I know that we're your first team ever training and I get it, okay? I know that I'm nothing special compared to Naruto and Sasuke, but," here, she took a calming breath, "after what happened with Zabuza, I realized that I need to get stronger and that chasing after Sasuke isn't the way to do it." Sakura refused to look away, steady and sure in her resolve. "I know that if you suddenly start showing interest in my training, Sasuke's ego will be bruised and take it out on everyone and Naruto is just getting some attention, and suddenly taking some of it away will not do him any good. So, I propose that you train me in secret, away from them. It's the only way, and you know it."

Kakashi looked at her in silence, then, "You realize that if I train you seriously, then I expect more from you from even Naruto. They have an advantage over you now, and you need to catch up."

"I know." Her look never changed. "What's the next step after tree climbing?"

Kakashi's visible eye glinted with almost sadistic glee and Sakura shuddered. "Water walking."

Kakashi left a clone with Naruto and Sasuke, and one with their client, the bridge builder Tazuna, and took Sakura to a nearby lake. "All you have to do is to draw chakra to your feet like before, but you have to account for every ripple of water. As you showed, you have near perfect chakra control and some stamina, this should be relatively easy for you."

Sakura thought that he sounded far too gleeful for this to be any fun for her, but she knew she had to take this seriously. She took a breath and put her foot on the water. She immediately felt a sense of calm that she didn't have before. She always loved water and had a sense that water seemed to love her too. When she was little, she used to make the bath water follow what she wanted, usually to splash her parents. The memories flowed as she stepped onto the water and stayed afloat, the water holding her feet to the surface like she wanted it to.

Kakashi's eye sharpened. He recognized the way the water moved around her as the same way fire moved around him, welcoming him, embracing him. He wasn't going to bring it up until they were out of enemy territory however, he never knew who could be listening. He threw a kunai at her and watched her try and dodge. "Don't do that. Don't will it to happen, use your chakra." Sakura looked at him in muted shock, her concentration broken and she fell in the water. She wanted to say something but remembered where they were. She nodded and tried again, this time using her chakra and let the water flow naturally. On her fifth attempt, she managed to stay afloat for more than five minutes, but used up her chakra reserves.

Kakashi and Sakura walked back to the house and met up with Sasuke and Naruto, the latter of which tried to get Sakura to go out with him. Her first instinct was to yell at him, as she had been doing for years now, but something stopped her this time. For the first time, she noticed the half resigned half hopeful look in his eyes, the kind of look that says that he knows what she's going to say but hopes of God that she won't. Giving her blonde teammate a considering look she replied, "Ask me again when we get back home and I might say yes."

Naruto stuttered to a stop, gaping at Sakura in unconcealed shock. She felt guilt course through her body. She had never given him the time of day before as she had always been obsessed with Sasuke. She glanced at Sasuke from out of the corner of her eye and noticed his surprise before he was able to mask it. Naruto then gave Sakura the biggest smile she had ever even from him. "Sure thing, Sakura-chan! I'll hold you to it!" Sakura smiled at him and walked inside the house, for once feeling confident in her decisions that day.

The days passed in this manner; Kakashi would make clones to follow Tazuna to work, secretly watching Naruto and Sasuke, who were making slow but steady progress with tree climbing, and training Sakura in secret. After mastering water walking after another day, Kakashi remembered something. With Sakura's perfect chakra control, she would be an excellent genjutsu specialist. However, if his hunch about her is correct, then creating genjustus wouldn't be her strong point, but breaking them is.

The next morning found Kakashi and Sakura back at the lake, however, Kakashi was going to do things a little differently. "You know how to break a genjutsu, I'm assuming. It's part of the requirements to become a genin. But can you break one without using any handsigns?"

"I didn't even know that was possible."

"It's not... technically, but I can do it. And so will you."

"W-What?"

"All you have to do is disrupt your chakra just enough to break it, but not enough for the user to notice." Noticing his students nervousness, he added, "Don't worry, I'm only going to be using the Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique. It's a D-rank level genjutsu. And don't worry about not getting it on your first try, it's a very advanced technique that I know you can do it." Sakura's face lost its nervousness at his commendation and nodded sharply and readied herself. Kakashi smiled underneath his mask and put her under. He knew that this was the beginning of something amazing.