One week later
No one noticed her slight improvements at kunai throwing and she never said anything to bring their attention to the fact. Her team continued about their usual schedule and were sent on two lowly D-class missions inside Konoha that warranted a two hour moaning and complaining spree from their loud mouth blonde that was more exhausting than the actual work itself.
During the day, if they weren't out on a mission, she was working her internship under Shizune at the hospital and whenever Tsunade had free time; her mentor would give advice and loan out her medical scrolls to practice chakra control with.
And every night past midnight, like clockwork, she was training little details that she thought needed fixing. After a few hard days, it finally stopped being self pity and started becoming honest criticism.
The night guards began to silently notice her trips to the Training Grounds. It wasn't anything worth reporting, but nightly sneak outs by a pink haired girl to the Training Grounds were admirable to say the least. The night guards already had bets on how long it would last since they'd seen other ninjas also "attempt" to reform themselves, only to cave in under pressure. Even two ANBUs guards were in on it.
.
…
.
One month later. (September)
She had a dozen dart boards out. Every single one now landed in a bull's-eye and in the essence of improvement she continued to challenge herself. Now she spun around in place for twenty seconds to disorient herself before attempting to throw her kunais. She missed a lot at first, but then got better and better at identifying her targets and distinguishing them from the surroundings. She felt like squealing when she compared herself what she had been a little over a month ago.
Once she got to the point where she was happy with herself, she spun around for a minute. The first time she attempted it; she fell to her knees and couldn't catch her balance for over an uncountable amount of time. So, instead, she tried again for thirty seconds and improved with that level of disorientation…
Then forty seconds. Then forty-five. Till she worked her way up to a minute of spinning and being able to regain balance and orientation within seconds to shot out her kunais.
She had already cost six night guard ninjas their weeks' salaries in unethical betting.
.
…
.
Her training was starting to put a toll on her body. She changed from training every night to training four times a week, when she wasn't a mission and went out of her way to discover methods to counter physical exhaustion with medical chakra jutsu.
Tsunade taught her one in particular when Sakura explained (lied) about a bad dream that had kept her up as the excuse for her tiredness. All she had to do, her instructor explained offhandedly, was create a wave of soft healing chakra over her body, and its effects lasted twice as long as caffeine but did not work as well as a solider pill would have.
Even so, it helped Sakura survive on very little sleep and continue to improve herself in secret.
Still….no one voiced anything to her.
.
…
.
A month later (October)
She decided to reward herself with a special training outfit, after looking through various options – the selection for females was disheartening, she settled on a unisex dark red tai-chi outfit. It was loose enough to move around in, and the jacket was perfect for the chilly evenings, and when she got too hot and sweaty, she could easily take it off. She wondered what she would look like in it beside her father, would he be proud? Her mother would certainly take pictures of them and hang them all over their….once upon a time. Sakura quickly pinched her outer palm to stop unwanted thoughts and took her outfit to the counter to be paid for.
She also began running every morning she could; it woke her up better than a cold shower and improved her speed and agility. Lee had once made it known that he was able to run ten laps around Konoha without breaking a single sweat. She made half a lap her starter goal. Unfortunately, she failed miserably at the first attempt but by the third week she was able to get through half of Konoha without painfully gasping for breath.
Eventually, she started to play games with herself to not get bored during her morning training. Run around that tree, jump over that garbage can, jump onto that branch, flip to the ground, run up those stairs, jump off that balcony... She was getting better and better, and was especially happy after an early snow storm; running on a foot and a half of snow took careful chakra control and was the best practice she could have asked for.
Her once-rare buy of white hot chocolate became a daily treat, since she was accomplishing so much and was able to afford the extra calories.
Still, no one said anything to her. Many of the night guards no longer bet against her, but bet for her. What days would she train and what days she would run, a bar tab was the bet for Wednesday morning while another bet weapon cleaning duty on Thursday morning. She became an expected sighting for them and most of them began to mention sighting of her in their report.
But still, every mission she was still placed in the background.
Ignored.
But it was okay for her, she didn't think she was good enough to be noticed or properly compared to her teammates…just yet. Her medical jutsu was also on the fast track of improvement; she had already assisted Shizune on two surgeries and led one simple deflated lung restoration all by herself (with Shizune overlooking, of course).
.
…
.
A month later. (November)
She no longer just practiced Kunai tosses, she practiced throwing everything she could; knives, sherikens, swords, rocks, senbons, sticks. If she missed a target, she ran towards her weapon as quickly as possible, picked it up and tossed it at the first target she noticed. It kept her on her toes and she stopped seeing a miss as a failure – only as a reason to change up the situation for her benefit.
.
…
.
A week later. (The week between November and December)
The toll on her social life became obvious as she declined more and more dinners with friends in favor of a nap before training. She had even skipped the winter festival and denied all the Christmas and New Years parties. One early evening, Ino caught her on her way home from the hospital and said, "you know, forehead, people are starting to talk about you being depressed that Sasuke doesn't like you…."
"That's stupid," Sakura replied running her fingers through her growing hair as they passed the last sections of the market square, Ino had interrupted her mental repetition of a medical procedure and Sakura was trying to find her place again.
"Well, what are they supposed to think?" the pinklet didn't grace the blonde's rhetorical question with an answer so Ino added, "I believe it."
"Well, Ino-pig, I'm not surprised," Sakura replied giving her a disheartened look that said more than words ever cold.
"Really, Sakura…Naruto came to me…asking if he did something wrong. I told him obviously he did…but…I mean," the worry in her best friend's voice was painfully obvious. No matter how self absorbed Ino could act, there was still an incredible soft spot for Sakura somewhere in the pretty purple-color loving girl's heart.
An impregnated silence fell between them as Sakura became wracked with guilt and wasn't even able to think of anything training relevant to avoiding emotional confrontation. She recalled Sasuke's face when she declined his invitation to the Uchiha Christmas party. Only the main branch was allowed to bring their teammates, everyone else had to be strictly Uchiha…it was such a big deal that even Kakashi had accepted.
"I'm sorry," Sakura whispered, "are a lot of people worried?"
"Naruto, Tenten, Lee, Hinata…and me…of course."
Sakura cracked a smile and caved into the demands on young teenhood, "alright. Let's go out tonight then."
"All I'm saying is that if you – wait, really forehead?"
"Yes, Ino-pig!" Sakura said playfully pushing Ino's arm with her own.
"We need to go shopping!"
Sakura laughed and nodded…maybe she had been taking training a bit too seriously.
.
…
.
One month later (December)
Sakura modified her schedule to include at least one day out a week with either her team or Ino and the girls. It made her realize how lonely she had been feeling when training had turned her into a compulsively obsessed freak. Even though eating with Naruto and Sasuke was unpleasant (they always started competing or fighting or competing and fighting) – on the plus side she had gotten to know the shop keeper and chief of the ramen stand pretty well.
She had even asked Sasuke if she could still come to the dinner, he just nodded as an answer and Sakura went shopping with Tenten immediately afterwards for a dress appropriate for the occasion.
Sadly, she didn't get to wear the beautiful green long sleeve dress with a beautiful red bow – Tenten said it made her look like a present worth opening – because of an emergency medical call back when three four-man teams returned horribly beaten up in an ambush turned avalanche/unavoidable mud slide. Sakura spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day reconnecting muscle fibers and the 26th passed out in the doctor's lounge.
Sasuke's mother, who had once been close to the young girl's own mother, had made Sasuke give Sakura some left over's after hearing about the hospital catastrophe.
.
…
.
A week later. (January)
Tsunade called Sakura into her office after she had successfully restored a jounin's broken shoulder – her second time performing medical surgery unsupervised.
"Hokage-sama," Sakura greeted her teacher with a bow.
"So…how long did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"Uhhh, notice?" She didn't want to jump to conclusions, but the guilty look her face probably gave her away.
"Sakura, is there anything you want to tell me?" Tsunade asked. The night guards had inquired about her from some office workers at the Hokage tower, since she was kind of familiar, so he claimed. Shizune, obviously being concerned why jonin men were asking about their little girl, had been prepared to use various torture methods of interrogation. They, on the other hand, were very willing to divulge Sakura's secret nightly visits quickly followed by rapid reassurances that they were not plotting, inappropriately eyeing, or insulting the pink haired kunoichi in any way shape or form. Two them were sent on trash missions for good measure.
When the Hokage used the tone of being omnipotent, Sakura knew there was only one something that she had ever done wrong. A dozen thoughts ran through the young girl's head and she couldn't pick out an acceptable version of the truth or half fib to try to tell in time.
"Hehe, Sakura…" Tsunade paused, a soft smile appearing on her face as though she had just recalled some memories, "alright….I'll bite. I have some poisons I need you to read up on, Shizune has the scrolls. I'll be testing you on them tomorrow."
"O – okay, thank you," Sakura said uneasily, unsure of how much the blonde knew but silently grateful that she hadn't vocalized anything. It would have been very embarrassing and the explanation of why would have made her wish to dig her own grave.
"And by the way, may I suggest Training Ground thirteen if you want to practice reaction times…"
Sakura's face turned bright red as she stuttered some inaudible reply.
"Dismissed," Tsunade waved her off with a shot of sake in her hand and motherly smile.
Sakura jolted out of the Hokage room as quick as a thief running from security. But as she made her way towards the hospital a huge, borderline arrogant, smirk was on plastered on her face – someone had noticed.
.
…
.
She had never gone into room thirteen but she had read the training ground manual, three times; the room was rigged with so many explosives and traps that there was a warning in its description in bright red bold letters, Sakura tried to forget what it said. The room was usually used by jounin and ANBU during their down time. The concept behind awakening the room was to create a chakra web on the four corners of the room, that activated all the traps and if two chakra strings disappeared all the traps disabled themselves under the presumption that said ninja was done or extremely hurt. She made sure her chakra reserves were at their max after she signed herself in.
Her name was starting to look more and more like chicken scratch with every passing visit.
Carefully, the kunoichi entered training room thirteen, nervously and hesitantly. One downside to the training rooms numbered ten and up was that you never knew if it was being used unless you had high level chakra sensory training.
And someone was using room thirteen, and unfortunately she discovered that by sight.
She should have left before her presence was detected but she couldn't move; she was absolutely captivated.
The ninja was beautiful…not in only in appearance but in movement as well. The graceful gliding, the split second decisions made to dodge a kunai being thrown from an unseen location in the room. The avoidance of exploding landmines….
It was like watching an ancient dance that was reserved only for holy days and was incidentally taking place during Armageddon. He wore a complete black outfit, a black tank top with black pants, a weapons pouch strapped to his thigh and a string of kunais and ninja stars hung around his belt. She also noticed a wakazashi sword still sheathed across his back. The man was dressed just like the ninjas from story books.
Then suddenly the dancer stopped and a kunai was thrown straight for her face from his fingers. She squatted down; hands over her head and squeaked loudly and embarrassingly, marginally avoiding the attack.
"Who are you?" A deep mellow voice asked, pausing his training. There were no more activated traps, meaning that the ninja had probably let go of his chakra web.
"Sakura Haruno! I'm sorry; I didn't know this room was being used!" She shouted so quickly that the words tumbled over one another. She was trembling in fear and unable to look up; those bright red eyes that connected with hers moments before the kunai was aimed to her face had terrified her into absolute submission. Those were the eyes of a ruthless killer and she felt like a prey being noticed by a predator – she was a deer in the domain of the lion.
"Stand up," the voice was very close and Sakura wished she knew teleporting jutsu. But since she didn't, and wouldn't be able to do it anyway – teleporting jutsu required stable a heart rate which was why they were rarely used in battles, her heartbeat was currently topping 200 beats a minute. She obeyed his undeniable command, her hands dropping to her side, her eyes avoiding his; instead she focused on his black sandals – ANBU issued.
"You're not a jounin," was the cold statement that slipped from his lips.
"N-no-no sir, but the Hokage told me I co-could train here…for…reaction time," she felt more nervous than Hinata when she was confronted with Naruto in a close-quarter situation.
"Hn," was his familiar response, "go ahead, then," his invitation was in the same tone as every other word he uttered and Sakura had a hard time computing it. But when the silence became just too unbearable she finally looked up, his face expressionless, his eyes onyx, his long black hair, and his deep lines under his eyes all shouted familiarity at her. Then a breath later it hit, he was an Uchiha, and by the looks of it – from the main branch.
"Uchiha-san," she gasped looking back down out of a mixture of shame and respect, "I'm really so –,"
"You came here to practice, go ahead," his hand reached out towards her face, she flinched, her whole entire body tensed, and she closed her eyes tightly, the most un-shinobi thing she could have done in that possible moment – short of soiling her underwear – but he only went retrieved the kunai he had thrown into the door behind her, "I won't interrupt," he added placing it back into his weapons pouch.
"O-okay, thank you," she said bowing as low as the short distance between them would allow her to. Her eyes still half closed and directed at his shoes.
He stepped aside and she nervously, legs shaking and obviously breathing abnormally, moved to the center of the room. He turned around, assessing the damage that his training and done and then returned his gaze back at intruder as he leaned his back against the door and crossed his arms.
He had noticed her right away, but disregarded her presence, knowing she was an ally of Konoha and thinking that she would leave immediately. That was the general unspoken rule on occupied rooms; she obviously either didn't know, didn't belong, or didn't know how to sense occupied rooms. Itachi assumed it was a disappointing mixture of all three.
Sakura Haruno….that name sounded familiar. He wracked his brain, and the name was repeated in his mother's voice – the Uchiha mistress had mentioned her a few times.
"When will Sakura come over?"
"How is Sakura?"
"Did you give Sakura the pie I made?"
Ahhh….now Itachi remembered, Sakura was the teammate of his younger brother. Having been on a yearlong mission and only recently returning, meant he missed quite a bit of information about Sasuke's life. The little he remembered Sasuke mentioning about her was that she was annoying and weak…but he also recalled hearing about her from someone else…He thought deeper as he stared at her trying to recall every detail he was told because there had to be something that would explain this 1 A.M visit to a room that was restricted from anyone under Jonin.
He watched her inhale deeply, trying to calm her nerves and shyly stealing a glance at him – no doubt, wishing he'd leave.
He didn't have any plans on leaving. If she was stupid enough to come here before at least passing the chunin exam, than she was probably stupid enough to make a rookie mistake and die.
He felt her connect a web to one corner, then another, and then the last two at the same time. A landmine triggered where she stood, she reacted too late and was propelled by the explosion to the right. A kunai shot out from one of the walls towards her leg. Once more she noticed it too late and was stabbed.
She definitely needed reaction practice…but this room was too advanced for her. Her team was supposed to build her reflexes during training…
She landed on a branch, gasping, wide eyed – obviously surprised by the danger of the room. Itachi had managed to make it look so easy. Another kunai shot out from the opposite wall towards her face, she took the kunai out of her injured leg and aimed to the one coming towards her – blocking it midair. An explosion tag went off on the tree she was resting; Itachi saw a big gush form on her shoulder blade from her incompetent movement to avoid a spiked piece of bark.
She still didn't remove her chakra web from the corners.
She landed on the ground, more skillfully than how she fell, only to have a set of shurikens come at her from every direction. She put chakra at her feet and propelled herself forward to a high jump, not registering the second set of ten shurikens coming towards the height of her jump.
The room reacted on probability. As a ninja, you had to choose the improbable paths to outwit your enemy.
She got stabbed by six of the sherikens, Itachi flinched slightly from hearing her groan of pain as she black flipped out of the way of an explosion tag – she had at least managed to anticipate that one.
He watched as she dislodged the shurikens that were logged in her arm and threw them at the eight-point ninja stars coming at her while dodging the large shuriken that came to sweep her head off.
She did pretty average for a beginner; Itachi had to give her that. She deflected the oncoming weapons with a near perfect aim and was almost one full minute inside the room and not dead or unconscious yet. During his first time, he was about her age, Itachi had managed to last a full seven minutes in the room before getting injured, but his injury was a centimeter deep cut by a shuriken that only scrapped him.
She deflected another round of kunai attacks from her right and evaded most of the ninja stars on the left, but she had gotten stabbed deeply in her left calf which made her center of gravity questionable at best. He watched her flip to the floor, landing with most of her weight on the less injured leg. She caught her balance by taking any extra step and bent down to remove the kunai from her calf – a regrettable mistake.
Unfortunately she didn't expect the landmine that she had stepped on to go off instantly. Her body was flung against the tree.
All her chakra webs disappeared at the same time.
Itachi sighed as he walked towards her bleeding body, prepared to take her to the hospital. What first startled him was that she wasn't unconscious and what really surprised him was that her hands were glowing green as she held them over her abdomen.
She knew medic jutsu. It could explain her desire to work up her reaction time, Itachi thought. ANBU field medics were given a test similar to Training Grounds Room 13 and had to not get hit for 90 minutes. That also explained why there was only one active ANBU medic in Konoha…most medics who assisted in ANBU missions were handpicked jonin.
He squatted beside her silently and watched her work. She ignored him, whether out of pride or concentration he wasn't sure. The Uchiha wouldn't have put it past her to have forgotten his presence all together from the adrenal and consecutive near death experiences.
She exhaled sharply before beginning to cough up blood.
"God damn, stupid fucking ugh, I swear…" she muttered with a bloody mouth as her hands traveled up to her chest. Itachi assumed from the position of her hand and bloody mouth, she was healing her lungs.
When she finished with her lungs she glanced at him, "sorry for having to make you watch that pathetic…display of lack of skill."
Itachi didn't reply as he continued to observe her as she bent her leg, flinched, and dislodged a kunai and shuriken from her right thigh and two other kunais and a ninja from her left.
She healed those parts half assed, obviously wanting to conserve her chakra. He was slightly impressed at the amount of pain she was willing to bear with, only whispering a flutter of curses under her breath.
"So…Uchiha-san…since…you…" she paused and then grunted, seemingly having an internal argument with herself, "can you," she paused again, knotted her brows and exhaled sharply, her teeth were still stained with blood, "sit me up…and put my right hand on my shoulder…I can't move my back."
He placed his left hand on the back of her neck and leaned her off of the tree; then he lifted her right hand and bent it up and over her head so she could reach the huge gush on her shoulder that was streaming blood down her back.
"T-th-thanks," she muttered as Itachi held her in place, "I haven't been able to emit medical chakra from anywhere other than my hands yet…" she flinched slightly as she split out saliva intermixed with blood on the other side before getting to work on her shoulder.
Itachi knew she hadn't injected any numbing chakra into her body….unsure if it was whether if she didn't know how to or if she was a masochist.
"You're…really good at this room," she muttered as a he watched the muscles reconnect with one another, covering the bone that had been exposed from the hole in her jacket. "So…what's your…." She breathed in deeply, "name?"
"Itachi Uchiha."
"It-Ita…Sasuke's older brother?"
He nodded.
Mikoto and Fugaku had told her about Itachi, youngest to graduate the academy, youngest ANBU, then youngest to make ANBU Capitan and Sasuke never said a single bad thing about his brother, he idolized him like a god. But any time she visited the Uchiha compound the eldest son was always gone…so she wrote him off as one of those elusive ninjas, or a legend the head of the Uchiha clan tells outsiders for reputation sake.
Sakura chuckled in a half-mad kind of way, "great. Perfect. Just my luck….You know, Lady Luck is also known as Miss Fortune…"
A noticeable smirk appeared at the corner of his lips but she didn't see since her eyes were closed in concentration. A thin layer of skin appeared on the back of her shoulder blade slowly.
"Why is it a misfortune that I am here?" He asked, "I believe that it was fortunate…though without my being here you may have eventually learned how to expel healing chakra in other parts of your body due to instincts of self preservation….or you may have bled to death."
They way he spoke so nonchalantly made Sakura shiver. Yes, she could have very well bled to death…
"Just…can you…" Sakura stopped speaking as her hand's medical glow began to fade. She was obviously out of chakra. Itachi removed her hand from behind her and let it drop gently on her stomach as he slowly lowered her back in a position so she could lean against the tree behind her. Itachi did it for a number of reasons, one of them being to decrease her chance of asphyxiation.
"Can I what?" he asked coolly.
"Not tell Sasuke about me being here?"
This brought a slight intrigue into his mind. He hadn't even entertained the thought of informing his brother.
"Why?" He asked watching her open her eyes slowly, bright clover-green eyes stared at him and then looked away before they closed again, she tried to even out her breathing and calm her racing heart.
She didn't respond. And so he waited.
He may have waited ten or fifteen minutes before she finally spoke again, and it wasn't to his question either.
"You can leave; it'll probably be another few hours before I can fix my sprained ankle and walk. Promise I won't bleed to death."
He didn't move and remained squatted beside her.
"Okay," Sakura sighed again after getting the unspoken message from the ANBU, "since your adamant about making me feel like a complete pathetic loser, do you mind reaching into my weapons pouch and getting out my index cards? I can't sit up or move that leg at the moment without feeling like I'm having tea with the devil in his torture chamber."
After a moment of consideration, he reached into the weapons pouch in her thigh and felt for paper-like material, he got out a stack of thin cards.
He looked at them; he estimated that there were nearly a hundred of them – he flipped the first card to see what was written on the back.
Sakura tilted her head slightly.
"They're study cards on some poisons…"
"Marina-Tu," Itachi said.
"Found in Suna, blooms only at night, the petals aren't poisonous, only the stem is through touch and ingestion. They are usually blue and smell similar to red roses. To harness them, the stem needs to be kept in room temperature water for a day, then taken out and sliced into pieces and boiled in the same water. That water is odor-less and tasteless and is sixty to seventy percent poison. Causes nausea and depending on the dosage hallucinations. Can be treated through induced vomiting if ingested," she replied almost robotically, "Ugh, I'm so –,"
"Tulips of Spring," he interrupted her as he flipped to the next card.
"Uhhh, um they're found in the Land of Spring, blooming all year round. They're not poisonous in their natural state but when they are mixed with salt water and seaweed extract they make a deadly sleeping potion. If it's inhaled, it can be cured through lung purification surgery. If it's ingested there are no safe methods of removing it and will have to be waited out. Uhhh, and if it's ingested there's a high probability of coma occurring."
"Cira-Taru," he continued and Sakura relaxed, closing her eyes as she answered.
After going through the cards once, Sakura only made six minor mistakes, the second time around she knew them by heart and at the end of the third drill she had accumulated enough chakra from the rest to fix her ankle. Itachi once more held her up by the back of her neck so she could lean forward to work her magic on her ankle.
Once she was done, the ANBU helped her up and even though she was about to protest, he placed his arm around her shoulders to helped her walk the fleeting look he gave said shut up in about eight different languages to her.
When they walked out of the training ground, the sun was already coming up.
"Where do you live?" he asked as they walked out towards the streets.
"Uhhh, red-complex apartment in Mushu square."
"Alone?" he asked since that area was cheap and used to be an orphanage house but now was known for housing adult singles and teen ninjas.
"Yeah," she quickly changed the subject, "would it be too…crazy to ask if we could…speed up? I really don't want to be seen drenched in blood…and stores are about to –," Itachi silenced her as he picked her up bridal style and jumped onto the roof of a building with stealth she had only witnessed from Kakashi when he was being serious.
Before she blinked again, Itachi was standing on the roof of her building.
"Wow…tha-thanks a lot," She said as the man settled her down.
She took a step back and bowed low to him, "I really appreciate everything you've done Uchiha-san. Thank you," she straightened up, slightly swaying from loss of balance and then with a smile on her face, "I'll see you around? Maybe?" She said with a slight awkward wave as she walked towards the door of the roof.
Itachi didn't respond as he watched her leave.
There was no fear in her eyes, no quiver in her voice as she said goodbye. He was about to leave when he noticed he was still carrying her study cards, but for some reason decided against going and disturbing her. He'd return them later, she didn't need them after all – she had them memorized perfectly anyway.
:) Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please feel free to leave a review ^-^)-b