Spoilers: None.
Dedications: To Rose, Jen and Sorah. They all know who they are, and why they're so utterly important to me. Thanks for the boost. If this doesn't work, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.
A/N: Ee! Three people read it? Good enough for me. (You know, in Bleach fandom I want moar reviews, but I'm a newbie here, so that's totally expected. Even so, PLEASE REVIEW ME, YOU PEOPLE! OR MONKEYS WILL BEFALL UPON YOU LIKE HUNGRY PACKS OF WOLVES! I need to work my metaphors a bit.) Seriously, though, it tickles me pink to get new reviews--even constructive criticism is good! ANYTHING. They act as a good boost to write more, and how the hell will I write more if I'm not even sure people read this? (Is that enough begging for you? Or do you want more?)
ANYWAY! Chapter the first, and here we have…THE TEAM! You'll notice someone's familiar there, at least by their family name. You'll also notice that Sakura interacts with pretty much everyone, so don't expect that just because they're having lunch together, this will become a shippy-skippy ShikaSaku. I meant it when I said genfic. No ships—at least not involving Sakura. Either way, I have LOADS planned for Team Sakura. One chapter probably about how corny that sounds. XD But Haruno Teamu sounds worse. I need to stop divulging secrets and just write the next chapter! Carry on!
CHAPTER ONE
Teams Of Different Variations
"So, now that you know my name, lets start with a bit of introductions, hmm?" Sakura said, some minutes later.
Her morning wasn't going all that well so far. She'd managed to scare her students a little bit by sneaking up on them, but that hardly earned her any points, really. So now she was a genin teacher. Her. The Hokage's apprentice. This was her worst year ever. In a way, anyhow. Bah.
So, now she sat on the grass with them in front of her. Introductions were always a mess because no-one wanted to start. So, taking her old sensei's example, she began. "So, my name is Haruno Sakura, I'm a Jounin. I'm very grouchy in the morning, I don't take any type a bribery, I will really make you run laps if you mock my name, yes my hair is natural. My goals in life are to become strong and capable of helping my friends. All of them," she said. Then pointed at the boy. "Your turn."
"My name's Sakamura Jiro," he started in a neutral voice. "I don't like loud people, stupid people, annoying people…actually, people in general. I don't like people in general. My goals in life are to be as good a ninja as I can get, and surpassing my brother."
Well, second son. He's either a Sasuke-clone, or a Shikamaru-clone. My vote's for Shikamaru-clone.
Sakamura Jiro, as the Shikamaru-clone called himself, was a slim boy, average size, average looks, average voice. Everything about him was mostly average. The only striking think he had were his striking violet eyes, and the lack of hair on his head. Maybe a family tradition, she would have to check up on the Sakamura family after this. Maybe during lunch.
Sakura pointed to the girl in the middle, "Now you."
"My n-name is Tanaka Hana. I like flowers, and quiet places, and my goal here is to be a good ninja, but mostly to grow more self-esteem and control."
Sakura nodded appreciatively. Tanaka Hana reminded her in a way of Hinata, but only in her shyness and soft voice. Otherwise, everything was different. The girl was tall, taller than the boy, and skinny in a way typical of pubescent girls as young as she were. Her hair was short, and red, her eyes slanted, black—her eyes were the only Japanese trait she had, aside from the shape of her face. It was a huge contrast, how tall she was, how imposing she could be, how pretty, and strong, and yet how shy she had turned out.
Must focus on helping this girl grow. Won't have a Hinata-clone.
"And you now," Sakura instructed to the last girl.
"My name's Akimichi Mara, and I like potatoes. I'm only here because my mother wants me to be slim, but I guess I can take advantage of this. Maybe I'll get noticed by…someone."
Sakura frowned slightly, before smiling at the girl. Akimichi Mara wasn't at all an ugly girl. In fact, she was really pretty, even though her hair colour and eye colour were typical Japanese coal-black. Even with a round face, and her rounder shapes, she wasn't in any dire need of being slim. Definitely having a chat with her mother. After I have a chat with her about this. And that someone Mara mentioned, if it were any indication by the way her gaze had slid over her male teammate, Sakura decided she'd have to talk about that too, sooner or later. I'll not have another repeat of myself.
"Right then, now that that's done, you're free to go. We'll meet here, tomorrow morning, for first training. Don't eat anything. That's my only order."
She felt a bit bad about telling them this, but that's how it went. She wasn't going to copy all of Kakashi's training styles. So she had until the next day to create her own style, or to ask around.
The worse, or best really, part of it all, was that her team had already grown on her. And not even an hour had passed.
God, I'm such a girl.
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Noon found Sakura at a table in the town's sushi restaurant, one bowl of miso soup and one plate of sashimi, both empty beside her. The glass of water was still full, and she was rubbing her fingers over it as she studied the folders in front of her.
"What are you doing?" came a relaxed voice from above her.
She looked up into the face of Shikamaru. "Nothing. Investigating." She closed the folder shut, hoping he hadn't noticed the big red note she'd left near the photo of Sakamura Jiro, proclaiming him 'Shikamaru-clone'. "Why?" she asked, smiling sweetly at her old workmate.
When women had been women, and men had been women, Sakura was training under Tsunade, and Shikamaru was slaving under Tsunade. That caused some sort of alliance to form between the two tortured-by-Tsunade souls, followed by lunches together, a few games of shougi, and one drunken night neither of them wanted to remember. Ever.
"I'm being polite," Shikamaru explained as he sat down in front of her. "What are you investigating?" he asked, picking up the menu and lifting it in front of her face. "Ino asked me out to lunch, what does it mean?" he added, muffled voice.
"It means she wants to pin you to a wall and ravish you," Sakura answered, opening her folders again with a sigh. "It means she wants to have lunch with you, idiot. You'd better have said yes."
"Of course I did." He let the menu fall against the table, one hand rubbing his chin. "Ravishing against a wall, eh?"
"Shikamaru."
"Right, nevermind." There was a pause, very comfortable, and then a moment where he ordered his food and drink. Typically, same as hers. Shikamaru wasn't much for creative eating. Neither was she, then again. "So, anyway. What are you studying?"
"I'm not studying, I'm investigating. Tsunade-shishou assigned me a genin team. I'm looking up their past history," she explained.
"Interesting." Which in Shikamaru-language meant 'continue talking'.
"Well, there's one guy and two girls. The guy…I want to know more about his family, and such, because he looks like…you know. And I don't want a repeat of that."
"What's his name?"
"Sakamura Jiro."
"Sakamura, hmm…no. Everything's okay with that family. He's got an older brother, though. Chuunin, I think."
"Well, then surpassing him will be easy," Sakura marked it down in her notes. She thanked the skies for Shikamaru's huge memory. "Anyway, then there's a girl, Tanaka Hana—"
"Nice name."
"Shut it. She's shy but seems okay. All she needs is a boost. And then, there's Akimichi Mara."
"Oh."
"Sounds familiar?"
"Yeah, she's Chouji's…second cousin, or something like that. You should ask him about her."
"I will, probably. Either way, she concerns me. Her mother made her join so she could be slim—which is weird and odd for an Akimichi family member. And she doesn't seem very…I don't know."
"A clone of you?" Sometimes the guy thought too quickly. Sakura glared at him. "Well, either way, you should talk to Chouji when he comes back from his mission. He'll know what's wrong."
"Right." There was silence again as his food was brought in. "So…now that you're here, I need help with training plans."
Shikamaru looked up from his bowl, disinterested. "You use me too much."
"And you plan on dating Ino with that attitude?"
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Tsunade sighed, dropping in her chair as she looked at Shizune. "Well, I signed the papers. Nothing we can do."
Her assistant only gave her a Look.
"Don't give me that," Tsunade protested. "I know, I know, I shouldn't drink. Bah. A woman has ONE good vice—"
"Vices are bad by description, Tsunade-sama."
"Whatever. Anyway. What's done's done. Sakura'll have to teach them. There's nothing more I can teach her, and she's been named tokubetsu-Jounin one year ago. Girl doesn't want to go ANBU, not that I blame her, and the hospital only calls her in when there's a huge emergency. So teaching'll do her good."
Shizune sighed in a reprimanding way.
"Hey, the Sandaime was drunk when he named Kakashi a sensei, and look how good that worked out. For…most of them. Anyway, what's to say it won't be the best thing I've ever done?"
Shizune raised an eyebrow.
"You know," Tsunade snapped. "Talking with you is so…bothersome."
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It's not that Sakura did these things on purpose. Getting drunk before a day of teaching. Really, she didn't. But today was the day Naruto and Sai returned from a long mission, and whether she'd liked it or not, she'd been dragged along with them to the nearest bar, to celebrate their survival.
The bastards probably survived on purpose. Just to return and get Sakura drunk. Absolutely.
"So, Tsunade-baa-chan made you…sensei?" Naruto asked for the third time, after his third glass of sake. Or was that his third bottle?
"Yep," Sakura answered, slumped on her chair—if Kakashi had seen her right then, he'd have demanded retribution for copying his Kakashi Sitting Habbits ©.
"To young kids?"
"Yep."
"Is she insane?"
"Ye—hey! Naruto, what's that supposed to mean?" she bristled.
"Naa, Sakura-chan, it doesn't mean anything bad, like you think. Just that…well…you're more valuable as a…not-teacher…sensei…person?"
Naruto was obviously not doing well with word assembly at that moment. Or ever. Sakura shrugged. "Well, I kinda like the brats…so far, anyway…we'll see how it turns out."
"There go three young minds, about to be destroyed by an old hag," Sai said, raising up his glass.
Somehow, all their congratulatory dinners ended up with Sai nursing a bleeding nose.
A/N: Tanaka Hana roughly translated is 'inside a field' 'flower', OR 'flower in the middle of a field'. Yes, Sakura's not the only one with a pun for a name. XD I'm so horrible.