Hi, me again! Another chapter! I was honestly so surprised at the attention the first chapter received, I thought there would be like, three views. Thank you guys! And thanks so much for the reviews! They really inspired me to post this chapter! Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer : Still don't own.
"Thinking" / memories
"Talking"
*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*
Sakura groaned, immediately wishing she hadn't stayed up all night reading then setting her alarm clock to 4am.
Resisting the urge to go back to sleep, Sakura dragged herself out of bed and headed to her washroom to take a quick shower. She then proceeded to get dressed, packing up everything she needed for the day into a scroll.
Yawning, she walked to the kitchen of her single apartment, grabbing an apple. She sighed, recalling how she came to possess this apartment.
"Women are not shinobi!"
"You're a disgrace to our clan!"
"Get out!"
Little did anyone know, but Sakura's family absolutely despised her want to be a shinobi and had kicked her out when she started to attend the academy. Only Sarutobi had noticed her wandering the streets at night and set up this small apartment for her, funding her living and shinobi expenses until she became a genin and started making her own money off of missions. She never told anyone this, mostly because she was ashamed of her past. So everyone believed she was just a spoiled civilian wanna-be. She let them.
It was better than the pity that she saw people give Naruto and Sasuke-kun.
Shaking her head free of her wandering mind, she threw out the core of her apple, grabbing her pack and heading to the training grounds. She looked inside her head as she leaped from rooftop to rooftop.
"So, the plan?" She questioned.
"Strength, speed and stamina. Taijustsu incorporates all of these things, so we will train with this. Best go warm up and stretch though."
She nodded, arriving at the deserted Team 7 training ground. She dropped her pack under a large tree and started to jog one lap around the large training grounds, passing the rest of the training grounds. She ran by another of the rookie team's training grounds, seeing a young boy around her age practicing his taijustsu katas.
She slowed down, observing him silently, watching his movements and trying to ignore his strange appearance.
With a bowl-haircut, bushy eyebrows and a skin tight green jumpsuit, he certainly made for an odd picture.
Her eyes widened as he executed a perfect series of advanded taijustsu, faster than anything she had ever seen.
Looking closer, her eyes widened even more as she couldn't see any detectable use of chakra.
"That speed...it's all him..."
"You should go enlist his help. Having experience always helps," Inner Sakura advised.
Nodding, Sakura approached slowly. "Uhm...excuse me?" She asked, seeing him stop suddenly and turn to look at her. Suddenly he lit up, flashing right in front of her, startling her.
"Greetings! You are Sakura-san correct?" He asked, holding one of her hands in two of his. At her shocked nod, he flashed a blinding smile, "I remember you from the academy! You are a year after me! You are the loveliest woman I have ever seen! I am Lee. Would you give me the great honour of being your boyfriend?" He asked rapidly.
She blushed, stunned at his blunt and quick nature, stuttering, "o-oh uhm, sorry Lee-san, but I'm not looking for anything right now. It's nice to meet you though," she said with a smile, gently tugging her hand from his grasp. He was not deterred though, "Fear not, Sakura-san! I will wait until the end of eternity for you-"
"Lee-san?" She interrupted.
He looked at her attentively.
"That taijustsu..." She said, trailing off, unsure of what to say.
"Ah yes! The great Gai-sensei taught me! Are you interested in taijustsu?"
At her nod, "I've never really learnt, but I would like to-"
"Then it is settled! You will become my apprentice! I shall aid you in the ways of taijustsu as I know the great Gai-sensei is unfortunately busy and cannot take on another student! It will be beneficial to my training as well!" He declared, grabbing her arm and pulling her to the grounds. She yelped, shocked at this turn of events.
For the next four hours, she was mercilessly beaten down, kicked, punched, and basically made a fool off as Lee instructed her on basic taijustsu stances, then left her to fend against his attacks, stopping every now and then to correct her form and technique.
"That should be good for today! Meet here tomorrow at dawn for our next session! And don't forget to purchase those weights! Your youth shines bright! Farewell!" Exclaimed Lee, grinning and disappearing with a flourish as she gasped for air, lying flat on her back on the hard ground.
"Why did I decide to ask him?" She said aloud, glaring at her Inner.
"Hey no pain no gain." Inner Sakura said, unsympathetic, "Hey now you can try that healing jutsu we read."
Sitting up painfully, Sakura concentrated, controlling her chakra, seeing it glow green on her palm. She slowly ran it over her worst bruises, cuts, and sore muscles, envisioning the cuts sealing, bruises healing, and muscles repairing, reducing the pain significantly.
She slowly stood, "Well, not perfect, but the rest are cosmetic anyways."
"Look at you, not caring about looking good. I'm impressed," Inner Sakura teased, much to her outer persona's chagrin.
"Shut up," she replied, ignoring her as she headed back to her team's training ground. She checked her bag, verifying that everything was in order and grabbed a quick snack, pondering her plans for the next couple of hours.
"So mediating, right? To expand our chakra reserves?"
"Yes, when you mediate and expand your chakra, focusing, you can exercise your chakra reserves. Remember that paragraph we read back in the academy?"
"Yeah, and we can also use our chakra to stand on the water to intensify that. Like the tree walking. I remember we theorized that but Iruka-sensei wouldn't listen to us," she thought with a frown, walking over to the river.
She took a deep breath, focusing her chakra and taking slow steps onto the water, changing the amount of chakra to properly balance her, her natural ability to manipulate chakra making this like a duck taking to water.
Sakura took a seat on the river, crossing her legs and closing her eyes, focusing on circulating and expanding her chakra.
"Okay, I'll just continue this until the rest of the boys come. It's only 9 after all. We're supposed to meet at 12."
In this state of mind, Sakura was capable of prolonged heightened senses as she used her chakra, expanding her aura and retracting it. So she was aware when Lee passed by, stopping briefly to observe her, but deciding not to interrupt her training. She also knew that Team 10 passed by, but didn't notice her, on their way to a mission.
It was surprisingly easy to maintain this style of training, likely because it required a lot of mental patience as well as focus. Both of which Sakura discovered she possessed, when she wasn't too busy chasing after a boy who hated her.
She smiled inwardly, understanding that she would always be there for him as a friend, but was better off without him as a significant other. It was more a competition with Ino than anything, that kept her coming back.
She exhaled slowly, feeling a familiar presence on the edges of her aura, and focused harder, ignoring the distraction even as she surprised herself with how far she was able to extend her aura.
"I knew it would work, silly Iruka-sensei," she thought.
"See? With your intelligence, we can make training way more efficient. No trial and error. Plus you already have talent, we just need to develop it," Inner Sakura commented.
"Sakura-chan! What happened?" A loud voice inturrupted, referring to her battered body.
"Should we answer him?"
"I suppose so. You are turning over a new leaf, so best make amends. We've trained enough for now," replied Inner Sakura.
Opening her eyes slowly, blinking to adjust to the bright noon sun, she cracked a smile at Naruto's dumbfounded face.
"Hey Naruto."
"Sakura-chan, what were you doing?" The blonde questioned, glancing at her many injuries.
She smiled at his enthusiasm, "Practicing taijustsu, chakra control, and expanding my reserves," she said, standing up slowly and walking over to him. She sweat dropped at his confused look, "I'm just training Naruto."
"Ah okay!"
"Listen...Naruto, can I talk to you about something?" She asked nervously, patting the spot beside her on the bridge. He sat down wordlessly, sensing her serious tone, his face clearly questioning. She took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry Naruto."
"W-what? Saku-"
"No, Naruto, hear me out. I know I haven't treated you very well in the past, and I wanted to apologize. I was stupid and a terrible person and I'm trying to change. I won't make excuses, but I really hope you can forgive me and we could start over?" She said quietly, glancing up to look at his bright blue orbs as he processed what she said. She averted her eyes as he was silent for what felt like a long moment.
"I knew it. I screwed things up too badly. He hates me-"
"urk," she vocalized as she was gripped in a bone-crushing hug. Naruto was clinging to her, babbling something happily as she gasped for breath, "N-Naruto! Air! N-need air!"
He released her, scratching the back of his head and grinning sheepishly, "ah, sorry Sakura-chan."
She gulped in deep breaths of air, "Baka." She said affectionately, giving him a much gentler hug to which he returned. In the midst of this, she heard him exclaim, "Teme! You're late!" Releasing her as he stood up and pointed at her ex-crush. She glanced over to see Sasuke with a brow raised as he observed them.
Sakura smiled softly, "Morning Sasuke-kun." She said, not expecting an answer. She looked away at Naruto, who was still raging about something she didn't know, and chuckled, missing the surprise in Sasuke's eyes as he pondered her lack of attention towards him.
"Something's changed..." He thought.
"Sakura."
She turned her head in his general area, awaiting the question.
"What happened to you?"
He waited for the blush to arrive, but it never did. She chuckled and rubbed the back of her head, "Just training. Is it really that bad?" She asked rhetorically. She sighed, seeing Naruto's concerned gaze and Sasuke's suspicious one.
"Well, may as well give this another shot," she thought, lifting her hands and concentrating to bring out the healing chakra to her palms. She ran her hands over her body, closing her eyes to focus on healing. When she opened her eyes, she cracked a smile seeing her unblemished skin.
"See? You can do it."
Sakura looked up to meet her teammates shocked gazes.
"Woah! Sakura, when did you learn that?" Yelled Naruto. She blushed, "uhm...last night?" She looked down, missing the incredulous gazes of Naruto and the more subdued one of Sasuke.
"That's so cool, Saku-chan!" Gushed Naruto.
Sakura smiled and stood up to retrieve her pack from under the tree. "Thanks Naruto-kun." She replied, sitting back down, with an apple and her new scrolls in hand, having stopped by the vault this morning to return the finished ones and get more. Her eyes scanned through it quickly as she nibbled on her apple.
3 hours later, the apple was no more and a small pile of scrolls was building up on the bridge. Sakura's notebook was quickly filling up with key points, ideas and theories as she read. Naruto had fallen asleep long ago and Sasuke was practicing his accuracy with shuriken.
"Yo."
"Morning Kakashi-sensei." Sakura greeted, not looking up from her notes. She had been practicing circulating and expanding her chakra as she read, so she wasn't startled by Kakashi when he appeared on the railing behind her. As she finished another scroll, she glanced up at Kakashi-sensei, who was reading over her shoulder with a surprised look in his eye.
"People seem to be surprised with our capabilities." Inner Sakura remarked.
"Sakura, these theories are incredibly complex. You came up with these?" He asked, a now-awake Naruto and Sasuke listening closely.
Sakura nodded, a light blush covering her cheeks.
"Ah. I see." He said, a calculating gleam in his eye, "Well, I just came by to let you know that we're off for the day. Ja ne!" He said, much to the irritation of his students. Sakura rolled her eyes and stood up, packing up all her things.
"Well, I'm going to go train. Feel free to come along." She invited, walking to the training grounds. She heard two pairs of feet follow her as she took a place at the centre of the training grounds. Ignoring her observers, she paused. "Alright. Now, ninjutsu is nothing more than a specific release of chakra, aided by handseals."
"Yes, so if you perfect chakra control, you should be able to perform any jutsu. Lets stick to expanding our repertoire of jutsus first, start with water jutsus today," suggested Inner Sakura.
Sakura nodded, a determined glow around her, her mind working out tactics, memorizing handseals, and recalling jutsus previously learnt. She raised her arms, summoning 3 clones, instructing them to attack her.
With a deep breath, she focused and formed hand seals.
"Water style: Water wall!" She yelled, a wall of water rising to block the barrage of kunai heading for her. Not missing a beat, she quickly replaced herself with a water clone, using the wall as a distraction as she ran through the hand signs of another jutsu in the refugee of a tree.
"With practice, we'll be faster at this."
She watched her water clone get struck down as the wall fell while she perfected the jutsu despite having only read it in a scroll, her natural ability to manipulate chakra as well as her analytical mind allowing her to work out the appropriate amount of chakra to put into a jutsu to execute it efficiently.
"Water style: water dragon!" She yelled, leaping high up off the tree, an enormous water dragon forming beneath her, rising to catch her on its head as it roared, breathing out a jet of water instead of fire, as was traditional. As the jet of water reached her clones, she saw them erect small barriers, just enough to keep the jutsu from destroying them.
That hadn't been Sakura's goal however. As the water soaked them she yelled, "Water style: water prison!"
Taking a move from Zabuza's handbook, the clones were all trapped as the water was all connected to the large beast on which she rode upon. Delegating some of her chakra to her feet to maintain the barrier, she ran through more hand signs, pulling out several kunai.
"Water style: typhoon vortex."
As she finished her sentence she released the kunai into the water prison as the water began to rotate, eventually spinning and raging like a typhoon, the kunai caught in the current, whizzing around like small deadly bullets as they too were spun in the raging water, quickly eliminating the clones. Panting slightly, Sakura released the jutsus, taking stock internally.
"No injuries, just some scrapes. Chakra is depleted 60%. Well, to be fair, I didn't have much to start with."
She cracked a grin, proud of her accomplishments. It was by no means perfect, she was still weak and couldn't last long, but she had made such progress just by one determined day. All of her future difficulties lied in training her body to respond as quickly and efficiently as her mind, which would take time.
She surprised herself at how natural it was to determine the correct amount of chakra to use based on the nature of a jutsu and it's hand seals. Now that she was taking training seriously, she was thriving. It was almost as if her brain was built for the quick precision that came with a shinobi lifestyle.
Looking up, she met the shocked gazes of Naruto and Sasuke. She blushed and looked away as Naruto cried,
"Whaa-Sakura-chan! When did you get so good?"
The question was innocent, but it still stung slightly, reminding her of how useless she used to be. She smiled mysteriously at Naruto, ignoring his question. Looking at the falling evening sky, she remarked, "I'm hungry. Ramen?" She watched Naruto light up, queries forgotten as he grabbed her arm, dragging her in the direction of Ichiraku's as she sweatdropped, smiling at Sasuke as she flew by.
Sakura sighed, patting her stomach as she stretched. She stood, meeting the annoyed gaze of Sasuke and the ramen overdosed face of Naruto. She had continued to avoid their questions, skillfully using distractions or giving vague, useless answers. She didn't want to let them know what brought about this revelation, just that it happened and she was better because of it.
She yawned, "I'm going to head home. Bye guys!" She called, exiting the stand and walking in the direction of home. She stopped by a store to look at some weights but saw so many different kinds. "Screw it, I'll get Lee-san to come with me," and walked home, dropping her pack and collapsing on her bed.
She sighed as Inner Sakura berated her to get up and clean up. She stood back up, walking into the bathroom to take a hot bath, grabbing her last scroll to read as she soaked. She then proceeded to climb into bed for a well-deserved rest.
Another chapter done! This one is significantly longer than the first one and I fixed some errors, and changed some things based on your reviews. I know the pace is a bit fast, but I'm trying to get the point across that Sakura is a genius and is capable of great things. Think Shikamaru if he actually tried. Anyways I love you guys! Please review!
