To my shame, I realized that Anko had been right. I had always taken Sakura for granted, had never truly seen her as important in her own right. Two days later when I had sobered up, I headed out to look for Sakura. Given Tsunade was also the Hokage, I figured there would be large chunks of time where she wasn't directly training Sakura. It was during one these times that I hoped to talk to her and hopefully set up regular times to get together for training. If I was really brave, I'd try and discuss her decision to seek out Tsunade for training and her reasons why.

Soon enough, I felt her chakra signature in one of the less used training grounds. I headed over with a spring in my step. I was somewhat nervous about the meeting; a lot of its success would depend on how Sakura was feeling. However, it was also a relief both to have a plan again and to realise that it still wasn't too late to change Team 7's fate for the better.

I neared the training field, saw who Sakura was training with, or rather who was training her, halted and quickly hid in a nearby tree. Once again in the past seventy-two hours I found myself completely thrown. I decided to watch them and try and figure out what I was dealing with before I approached.

My cute little student flicked her fingers through dragon, tiger and hare. She was learning Suiton: Mizurappa, a low level water technique with many variations, also the basis from which many stronger water jutsu were designed. Sakura watched another quick demonstration. After a couple of tries an acceptable amount of water gushed from her mouth. She had finally gotten the jutsu right. The man behind her spoke and Sakura turned around to beam a smile at him. It was like watching some kind of surreal nightmare. Nobody should ever smile at Danzo like that, that goes double for my students.

Unable to watch the torture reel any longer, I headed over determined to spirit my genin away. "Well done, Sakura."

Sakura turned around in surprise and looked confused as to why I was there "...Thanks"

"Sakura you and I need to have a talk." I grabbed her arm and started dragging her away. It said a lot that I wasn't in the right frame of mind to use a transportation jutsu.

Sakura frowned and started digging her feet in the ground. "But Shimura-san was teaching me-"

"I'm sure Shimura-san has other things to attend to. Let's not waste his time." The sooner we left the better.

"It's alright," he waved, "No waste of time; it isn't a trouble training Sakura at all."

Hearing this, Sakura took it as permission to somehow dig her feet in harder. Fuck. I was going to have to deal with the heart of the problem directly.

Danzo continued, "I quite enjoy teaching actually, it's always a pleasure to help shape the next generation." I chill went down my spine at those words.

"I'm sure you do," I spoke with no small amount of loathing in my breath. Sakura's eyes went pack and forth, keenly watching us.

Danzo walked closer. "However, Sakura and I were just finishing up for the day." He turned to Sakura "You did good work today. Don't forget to keep up with those exercises we discussed earlier." Then he ruffled her hair. I wanted to puke. Danzo looked back at me with mirth in his eyes. "You can take Sakura now if you want." As if I needed his permission! He gave a final nod to Sakura.

"Come, Sakura," I said. This time she finally didn't protest when I dragged her away. After several minutes of hauling Sakura along, I found myself in another training ground closer to the markets. I dropped her hand deciding it was time to have our little chat. Sakura had been silent the whole way. I turned around to find her charily watching me. It was a little unnerving.

I opened my mouth and closed it again, not knowing what to say. Sakura hadn't appeared traumatized by being taught by Danzo, perhaps she even liked him. I inwardly shuddered. Nevertheless, this disaster had to be nipped in the bud. "It would be best if you didn't train with Shimura-san any more," I said in my best grown-up voice. Sakura always did seem to respect authority figures.

"Why?" she demanded.

Why indeed. I couldn't just let her in on a bunch of stuff above her pay grade.

"He's not a very nice person," I finally settled on.

"He was nice enough to teach me that water jutsu." I suspected there was a dig at me in there somewhere.

"I could teach you new jutsu instead."

She jutted out her chin. "You could, but you don't."

"I would like that to change," I said trying to steer the conversation back on course.

"It sounds like you're just saying that because you don't like Shimura-san. You've never been interested in teaching me jutsu before. The only interaction we've had in the past few months is a nod in the street." she retorted.

Fuck, I couldn't deny that I hadn't made an effort to be around. This conversation wasn't going how I wanted. My earlier half-prepared speech I was going to give about how it would be okay, beneficial even to have more than one sensei was no longer remotely appropriate.

"Look, we hadn't been able to train together in a while, so I sought you out thinking we could continue on from the tree-climbing exercise and work on water-walking," I went with.

Sakura's eyebrows rose and after a pause she finally deadpanned "I already know how to do that." I should have seen that coming. I wracked my brain for something we could work on instead. "We could continue on with the exercise we were working on last time," she said.

That was logical, I should have thought of that. "Sure," I smiled. What were we doing last time?

Sakura watched me just stand there for a few moments. "You don't remember what we were doing last time do you," she rebuked.

My God, could the hole I'm digging get any deeper? "What would you like to work on then?" I questioned, hiding my desperation.

She eyed me speculatively. "Naruto has the rasengan, Sasuke has chidori, I want powerful offensive jutsus too," she demanded.

"Okay," anything to turn this conversation around. "These are the seals for soulbane," I motioned. "It's a forbidden jutsu in Konoha," I said, hoping the word forbidden would reel her in. "It's useful when you are faced with multiple opponents, particularly when you are on a solo mission or when you are cut-off from the rest of your team."

Sakura smiled.

After Sakura finished training and we had finished dodging small, murderous woodland creatures, I was free to once again freak out about Danzo training Sakura. Realising that this little water jutsu training session must have happened in the original timeline as well just freaked me out further. How could I steer the future in a better direction when I didn't even know all the major variables in my teammate's lives?

While to my knowledge Danzo was never a big player in Sakura's life in the original timeline, I couldn't assume that would remain the case this time as well, especially given that the man likely still carried a grudge against me. Why was Danzo even training Sakura to begin with? Hopefully it was a one time thing. I decided to keep a close eye on her to make sure.

Apart from a two-day mission, what followed the next weekend was full of for lack to a better word stalking Sakura. She seemed very busy learning medical jutsu from Tsunade along with the occasional taijutsu session.

Unfortunately, when I was then assigned a fortnight-long mission for the next day, I realised that I could no longer keep an eye on Sakura myself. So after another genjutsu training session with Sakura, I headed to one of the smaller ninja dorms.

Looking utterly unremarkable, and situated in a maze of winding streets, the building was difficult to find and come across unless you knew were you were going. I entered the lobby and headed to one of the doors at the end of the first floor. Hopefully Tenzo was in. Hearing movement inside, I knew I was in luck.

I was met with a warm smile. "Did the Hokage call?"

"No," I assured. "It's more of a social visit."

"Ah, come on in," he gestured, opening the door wider. I walked inside and we both took a seat around the table once Tenzo brewed a cup of tea. "How have you been?" he asked.

"I've been better," I answered honestly.

He nodded, "I've heard."

Heard what from where? "How about yourself, did you just get back?"

"I've been alright, just got back yesterday. I suspect I won't be heading out for at least another week." Good. He leaned back in his chair. "So what brings you around? We usually don't meet up until Saturday, not that I'm complaining."

"I need a favour actually. I need you to stalk my student."

Tenzo's eyebrows rose. I wished I had of phrased that better to sound less creepy. "Why would you want me to do that?" Tenzo asked. "I know you're taking the loss of your genin team hard but there are better ways to deal with the situation," he continued somewhat concerned.

He must've seen me drinking myself into oblivion at the pub the other night; then again ninja can be surprisingly gossipy. I realised this was probably the reason why there was tea in front of me rather than the usual sake. "Well there is that, but it's not just that," I admitted. "I've come to realise I've been a less than adequate sensei to my students," I winced. "I was going to try and rectify some of that with the one still in the village, when I came upon the tail-end of Danzo teaching her a water jutsu."

Tenzo was surprised. He leaned forward. I had his full attention. "I have no idea what why he was there. I tried talking to her about it, but for the most part it blew up in my face. I would like to think it was a one time thing, but I want to make sure. I was hoping you could try to keep an eye on her while I'm away for the next fortnight."

"I can understand why you'd be concerned," he said setting his tea down. "I'll keep an eye on her." I breathed out, relieved. "What are you going to do if he hadn't met her by chance the other day?" he probed.

"I have no idea Tenzo. I hope I don't have to find out."