COURAGE

勇気

Book One: 始める

-Chapter One-

平和

Peace

"I started having these dreams of flying. I was free. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up." – Jake Sully "Avatar" James Cameron

~Author's Note~

Ohayo Minna-San!

So, i cleaned up this chapter a bit, mostly just editing Sakura's thoughts and stuff so ya. Hope none of you guys mind this. A new chapter should be up in a couple days so stay tuned for that!

It was peaceful….

In short, it meant that somehow, someway, there was a time and place in which hate and anger, grief and sadness, misery and regret, all collectively seized to exist. In their place, a sort of silent state of nothingness occurs, but it is not as bad as it may sound. That nothingness, somehow manages to instill a sort of hope; one that is born from the absence of war, of battle, and of one's fear from it.

It is so rare - this state of peace – that most believe it does not exist, that it is simply just something humans as a whole have chalked up to be yet another one of their impossible goals in life. That such a ludicrous idea could be born only from the mind of those who have lost everything, and – scrabbling to take the reins of life back from insanity – conjured up an idea so outrageous, so incredible, that it might take their entire life to reach it.

Both are true.

There are two very different kinds of peace. The most common being that of world peace, or lack there of. Where everyone and anyone must get along together in harmony, and no longer will the battles rage or the fire's burn. That is the idea of the man who thought himself cheated out of life.

But, there is another kind of peace. One that occurs within the very heart and soul of every human, every creature, and every living, breathing thing on this planet so much so that it is not in fact that hard to find. It is the peace of heart, of spirit, and of soul. Of mind and body, fire and water, earth and air, and everything else in between. It is when one allows themselves to separate the physical from the spiritual, and allows their tethered soul to roam, to be truly free and not bound by the heavy duties of ones heart.

And somehow, in this moment, she had managed to let loose the ropes that tied down her soul and stumbled upon this rare moment of peace. Someway, she had managed to come to terms, to let go, of all that troubled her in that moment to allow herself a silent conversation with the energy of the universe.

It was so wrong.

She was a ninja for Kami's sake! And not once had she ever heard of a ninja – a ninja, one who kills and forever wears the blood of his enemies upon his hands – finding peace. It was absurd, the idea!

Though, she supposed that to all but a rare few ninja, only the first kind of peace existed. The kind born from one's weariness of war, of fighting, and of all the battle that had so far consumed their very souls. As it most often does when one's occupation is that of a ninja. That kind of peace was, well, it was kind of like smoke, always slipping through their fingers. Oh sure, they could fantasize about it all they wanted, claim they were fighting for it and that one day it would come, but all ninja knew it was just a lie to keep their weary spirits fighting.

But she had always been a sort of silent rebel at heart- For god's sakes she had pink hair - challenging the age-old laws that resided all around her, picking them apart to know if their intentions were as true as the day they were created. She had always looked for something more, as it was the human nature to do so, but not that of the ninja, who were inclined to obey their higher ups like dogs without question. Instead she took the harsh imposed laws of life in stride, and would always find a way to weasel around the fine print, to find a better answer. One may call it what they like but she thought of it as an intense sort of curiosity.

And so, after chasing away the mild feeling that she might be breaking some ancient, and undoubtedly outdated anti-inner peace law, she decided to embrace this newfound state of mind. Embrace it in such a way since she had stumbled upon it, that she would try – oh gods, she would try – to make it last as long as possible, maybe forever if she could.

Easy, right? So all she had to do was just keep her eyes closed, and maybe, just maybe, she could make it-

"Sakura!"

-Last. Of course she should have known better, because things like this, like peace - whatever the hell that really was- were just to good to be true.

And so, she reluctantly returned to the harsh, unforgiving reality that was her own. And did so with eyelids scrunched tightly, fists curled, and the slow beat of a mantra repeating in her mind.

Just ignore him, just ignore him…

"Oi, Sakura!"

An irritated hiss escaped her curled lips, making the girl's feature resemble that of an irritated wolf to a certain extent. Her eyelids – so thickly decorated with their lashes – peeled back, first the left, and then the right to reveal a torrent of jade brewing beneath their cover.

"Ugh, Kemuri!" Her arms flailed wildly, threatening to hit her familiar who sat so unfortunately close to her. "What the hell was that for, huh? Did you not see me meditating? C'mon, you had to have seen me!" she growled, her arms crossed indignantly with an air of to-obvious irritation towards the great beast.

Only to be met with the simple reply of a raised eyebrow in silent question, shown by the one brow that was not buried beneath said creature's sooty forelock.

"Psh, he probably couldn't see us behind that mop of twigs on his face… we should cut it off." Most would call this… voice, an extreme case of schizophrenia, an identity crisis, or at nicest, an extremely real alter ego. Sakura - lacking both the knowledge and the time to care – just called the strange, ever-present and annoying critic inside her mind 'Inner-Sakura' as was dubbed upon the oversized forehead of her strange counterpart.

The pinkette quickly dismissed her Inner-self's comment, and returned her focus to the smirking horse that sat beside her. One look at his impressively smug face and Sakura was suddenly hit with both the urge to wipe the smirk right off his face via ninja slap, and the notion that he had whatever was coming to him.

"You know-" she drawled, torrential jade eyes narrowing at the sight of his increasing smirk that was slowly, but surely de-railing her train of thought until- "Gods! Don't give me that look Kemuri!" a quick nudge, and whisper of encouragement from her Inner spurred on the rant. "And if it hasn't already gotten stuck like that maybe I should just smack it off your face!"

Jade clashed with sepia as the two creatures had an ever-intense stare-down, eyes locked in a battle of the ages where no blood would be spilt, and the only risk posed was from dry eyes and lack of eye drops on both sides. After what seemed like eternity to the young genin, who still refused to allow her eyes their watery refuge, only one thought came to mind, Gods? Did Nin-horses ever blink? No, but apparently they had an allusion that they were masters of the ever successful win by guilt technique.

"Mah, mah, Sakura. Your words are tearing apart this old horses heart, ne?" The Equine offered up his best, heart broken face. And complete with his quote, 'irresistible' bambi-eyes, did absolutely nothing to sway the irritated expression that was planted stubbornly on Sakura's face.

She snorted, "Oh, c'mon Kemuri your anything but old! You're only fifteen for Kami's sake! Five years older than me!" Her face twitched as she fought the ever-contagious grin that threatened to spread from the face of her companion. "Kemuri! Oi, it's really hard to be serious when your grinning like, like…" Her face scrunched up in a number of emotions, eyes shutting themselves off for a moment before flying back open. "Like a Naruto!"

Silence reined for a few moments, allowing her latest comment to stew in the crisp, morning air. And only when the irony of the remark was all but tangible, did Sakura's jade eyes suddenly widen in realization. A small hand quickly came up to smack her forehead unceremoniously, staining it a similar blush shade as her cheeks – but for very different reasons.

A giggle escaped her lips as she locked eyes with the great, champagne shaded nin-horse, "I can't believe I just said that-" she suddenly paused, shivering as an eerie chill crept up her spine and the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood at attention.

And suddenly it wasn't just the Ninja and her horse in the clearing anymore, they had an – not to mention unwelcome – visitor. Now, despite Sakura being what a certain stoic friend of hers had dubbed a 'newb ninja' the pinkette was still blatantly aware of the chakra that had just stormed the area.

And she – true to her ninja training – was instantly hugging the ground, confident in the knowledge that the proverbial ocean of grass the Hokage's mountain offered would hid both her, the massive Nin-horse, and the horrifyingly pink thing she called her hair from the intruder. Her breathing slowed and quieted to an almost non-existent level, as she tried to become "one with nature" like her academy teacher Iruka-Sensei had said once. She shivered, trying to forget the day she had been convinced he turned into a hippy.

Now, the average genin was not very seasoned when it came to the in's and out's of chakra, barely being able to mold their average sized amounts into only the most basic of forms.

Luckily Sakura was not the average genin, and though her pools of chakra were a bit more modest than most, she could manipulate them expertly. Chakra control, that's what Anko-Nee called it… I think. She wondered absentmindedly before re-focusing on the slippery, there but not really substance known as chakra.

Sparing a quick glance at Kemuri who nodded his massive head in return, assuring her the chakra or it's owner hadn't moved yet Sakura deemed it safe to focus for just a moment. Her eyes squeezed shut and she concentrated on the minty green colored stuff that seemed to flow just like blood throughout her body. Her fingers twitched and curled.

'Serpent'

The chakra came from all parts of her body, rushing to fill the molds with expert precision. The shape of a shuriken, or throwing star. Her hands twitched again.

'Ram'

Tiny particles, dust perhaps, but yet too pristine to be anything but crystal coated the solid chakra, changing it. The item inside was now solid. Two fingertips touched, and eight knuckles did the same.

'Horse'

And suddenly her eyes were open again, jade burning brightly as she sprung into action and onto the back of the ever-present nin-horse.

"Kesshō: Rokkaku Shuriken!" Her fingers quickly gripped the newly materialized crystal weapons, and after spurring Kemuri into an impossible run, she quickly turned in the direction of her target and let them fly.

"Poof"

Sakura frowned, her face scrunched up with predictable chagrin as she buried her fists in the Nin-Horses mane so she would not waste her chakra.

"Damn." Kemuri, sensing his rider's lack of chakra to spur him on, slowed to a shuffling halt. "So it was a shadow clone then." She sighed, mentally berating herself for not trusting her gut instinct. "Yup, definitely going to need to work on that one later, ne Kemuri?" He simply snorted in response, eyes dancing back to connect with hers for the briefest of moments.

The seconds ticked at unbearable pace, time somehow seeming to grind to a halt amongst the pregnant silence that hung so heavily in the air, and the eerie lack of action. Simply, it reminded Sakura of the drawn-out, predictable, yet necessary moment of suspense in a horror movie.

No one ever attacks with just one shadow clone though. She thought, recalling upon one of the many lessons her Nee-Chan had taught her. Her fingers twitched, anxious to snatch up a weapon as they felt slightly – naked at the moment, and her gut churned. 'Clones are the key tool of deception; used to avoid deadly detection. Found in groups of three when smallest, upwards of one hundred at their tallest. Remember these three things; Distract, attack, overwhelm.'

Sakura frowned, mulling over the old academy rhyme in her head once more, Distract, attack, and overwhelm. So that means… Click. Almost instantly, Sakura was hugging Kemuri's neck, minty green chakra fighting to flood her legs as she unraveled her opponent's battle tactic.

"Kemuri, run!"

The massive Nin-Horse wasted no time, and without a moment to lose he launched himself into action, and away from their previous spot; hurtling them both into a breakneck run most Jōnin would have trouble keeping up with, let alone see.

"Damn, you really cut it close. Our heads would've been lopped off like a-" Sakura growled, quickly cutting off her peanut gallery of an Inner-Self.

Look, Inner not the time okay! she growled, ducking to avoid a low tree branch as the duo entered the forested outcrop of her training field. If you're going to say anything then please, make it be useful. Otherwise you can just shut your yap, you got that? The pink-haired genin hissed, before promptly ignoring whatever witty remark her other self was sure to come up with and returning her attention to more urgent matters.

Like not making it out by the skin of her teeth for instance.

The frigid bite of the torrential mountain water brought Sakura back to the real world, gasping for air after the shock of the freezing liquid wore off. "Kemuri." She hissed, fingers grappling for his slippery mane as she quickly stole a glance behind her in search of enemies.

The enormous equine chuckled, throwing her a hearty look to go along. "Kemuri! Stop joking around this is serious!" she huffed; guiding him towards the shore from behind mottled pink locks. "You didn't have to go jump into a goddamn river now did you? We could have just circled around one more time."

"True, but you were spacing out and so I thought I'd take a little detour and wake you up." The horse chuckled in response as the duo clambered up onto the rocky bank. Sakura growled under her breath, before collecting up her chakra and then spreading it out upon the ground. She cast it like a great fishing net, searching, and hoping that she could catch the enemy before they caught her.

Her Inner chuckled, and Sakura couldn't tell if it was just the weighty suspense or the twist of her gut but it sounded sinister, and dark, and like impending reality. "You know what they say Sakura-Chan, it's kill or be killed when you're a ninja."

She was only twelve feet out, twelve feet away from danger or death when something akin to the sound of rustling grass but with sinister intentions reached her ears. The sound easily elected an involuntary flinch out of her, as she retracted her chakra. She had found her enemy.

"Snakes." She breathed, as the whole world around her seemed to freeze for just a moment.

Sakura had never liked snakes. Ever.

She slowly, as if not to prompt the hidden enemy into action leaned forward to whisper in the horse's ear. "Kemuri, I think that there is three of them. Can you keep them back for a moment?"

It was a stupid question and she knew it. Of course he could hold off a few (undoubtedly oversized) snake summons for a moment, but alas it never hurt to ask. Sakura's jade eyes drifted to her companion, watching as his ears rotated like a satellite dish before he slowly nodded his still dripping head.

The corner of her mouth quivered up, as she gently lowered herself down to his back. The gears of her mind had already jumpstarted and churned with a gumption she didn't think possible. She needed a plan; one that would work and she needed it now. And Sakura had never failed to disappoint, at least not yet. For even before Kemuri had the chance to shift his weight and paw twice, the young genin had her plan.

And not a moment to soon, because the enemy never waited long and suddenly Kemuri was moving, rearing, his hooves ablaze with fire before they came crashing back down again in an explosion of heat and earth and dust. The moment her horse's great flaming feet had hit the ground the fire had spread, like yawning so contagious it now surrounded them in a ring of heat. But Sakura knew all to well that fire worked both ways, and that though it would make it hotter inside the ring it would also keep the snakes at bay long enough for her to complete her Jutsu.

'Ram' She drew a single hand up, the other remained fisted in Kemuri's mane but with fingers crossed for good luck. Sakura was still just a child, after all. She quickly bowed her head, her outstretched pointer and middle fingers almost touching her lips while the rest of her hand remained fisted. Only a single hand was required to do this move, but you took double the risk of failing it if you tried.

But you'll never know unless you try.

"Now! Shōton: Kesshō Gokakurō!"

The ground shook, and chakra crystals leapt from the earth as if they had a mind of their own, each enormous shard finding its way toward a snake with cavernous holes like gaping mouths laying in wait. A great rumbling sounded, and when the dust settled, Sakura saw that not one pillar of Nephite jade missed its target. Not one serpent escaped its crystalline prison.

The young genin stared, wide-eyed for a moment almost as if she could not quite comprehend what had just happened, or rather how such an impromptu attack had worked. But, it had and no sooner had Sakura felt an almost overwhelming euphoria fill her, then her mouth broke out into a huge, brighter than the sun grin, and despite her better conscious – she let out a loud cheer.

"Sakura Haruno Mitarashi, what the hell was that?"

Oh but of course all good things must come to an end right?

The pinkette immediately stiffened – much to the newcomers chagrin – and silently gulped before adopting a pose not unlike her very good (blond) friends 'I'm guilty and I know it' one and turning back around to face the proper direction on her Nin-horse.

Who was poorly hiding his amusement with the whole situation, and promptly received a kick to the gut from his passenger.

"Hey Anko-Nee, so I was just… um… How much of that did you see?" Her sheepish grin said it all; the oddly familiar sense of 'oh crap' was rapidly growing in the pit of her stomach. Hm, to run or not to run?

The Tokubetsu Jōnin flashed her a smirk that sent shivers down the young girls spine, before announcing in a sickly sweet tone "Eh, I saw enough to know that somebody was using techniques that sure as hell were not academy level." Anko was suddenly in front of her, leaning down at eye level. "Care to explain why that is, ne?"

Sakura gulped. And, oh boy, oh boy was she going to be in a lot of trouble when all this was said and done. But she was not about to be intimidated so easily; and so after shoving down that horrible, gnawing monster in the pit of her stomach, she jerked her head up and faced the special Jōnin with fiery green eyes.

"But they are academy level techniques Anko-Nee." She rolled her eyes as nonchalantly as she possibly could, but not too much because that would be suspicious. Right? "Jeez, where have you been?"

Somewhere inside the dimensions of her mind, her Inner-Self had face palmed comically. "Oi, Saku…" the alternate ego groaned, hiding her shame behind her hands.

"You are a horrible liar missy." Sakura slumped, feigning a dejected look at the words of her precious (sort of) older sister whose hair reminded her of the wisteria tree that grew outside her bedroom window. "But…"

"But…" Anko smiled as she watched the young genin's expressions change like the colors of a rainbow, as they so comically did. Yes, yes, she supposed she should be scolding the petal-haired girl for using techniques that were so obviously not genin level, and perhaps for being an absolutely horrible liar, but where was the fun in that? Easy, there was none.

She reached out a hand, and ruffled her little sister's hair affectionately. "Maybe I can let it slide just this once. Since when were you able to perform the Kesshō Gokakurō, huh? I swear, wasn't it just a week ago that I left and you were mastering the Rokkaku Shuriken?"

Her lilac eyes danced as she watched Sakura's face contort into a snarling pout, her little hands darting up to wrestle her own larger ones away from the coral colored locks. "Anko-Nee!" she whined, crossing her arms over her chest. "First of all it was a month ago that I learned the Rokkaku Shuriken, and second of all Kemuri and I have been working really hard on the Kesshō Gokakurō together."

Anko smirked, "Oh so Kemuri knows how to do it too now does he?" that elected a particularly nasty snort from the Nin-horse, but she paid him no mind other than an outturned tongue.

"Argh! You know what I meant!" the little genin fussed, much to her amusement. Suddenly Sakura adopted a suspiciously smug expression that was polar opposite from her previous one. She really had to get the girl checked at the doctors. "Oh, and you owe me some dango, Anko-Nee."

Her head snapped up, and immediately she arrived upon one conclusion. There was only one, possible way that she – Anko Mitarashi the amazing – would make a bet with the little devil otherwise known as Sakura. For dango much less.

She must've been drunk.

She quickly eyed the pinkette suspiciously, "Alright, c'mon now Sakura you know better than to take advantage of me while I'm drunk." Her eyes gazed disapprovingly upon Sakura. Hadn't she taught her better than that?

Just as the jade-eyed genin was opening her mouth to reply; a sudden noise that sounded like some grotesque hybrid between what one would make when fake gagging, and a squeal interrupted. All eyes were instantly on the Nin-horse who had adopted a quite comical expression – raccoon-masked face all screwed up and tongue sticking out like he had just tasted something utterly vile.

It made Anko wonder – where the hell did Sakura pick that guy up?

"Oi Anko-" He groaned, eyebrows – scratch that – singular, visible brow raising in such a way that she knew he was about to show his- "That sounded so… Wrong." Perverted side.

The Jōnin resisted the urge to scratch her head in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about Kemuri?" Sakura asked placing her tiny hands on her hips and giving him the look from above – not that he could see it. Anko nodded, That's what I'd like to know.

The large, sepia eyes of the nin-horse danced between the two of them, pink to purple, purple to pink, and back again. Before lowering his champagne shaded head in a dejected sort of manner and muttering, "Ugh, you know. Anko, last I checked little academy ninja like Sakura-" at this he promptly received his second kick to the gut for the day, courtesy of his passenger. "-Don't jump specialized ninja like you, even when you're drunk."

Jade and Lilac eyes were dry with anticlimactic letdown as they stared - no scratch that - glared at the champagne colored nin-horse. Anko face-palmed, wiping her hand slowly down her features as if to drag the disappointed expression from her face. "Don't you two have somewhere you need to be?" she drawled, arms crossing with an indignant huff towards her little sibling/apprentice/friend.

Sakura's face suddenly took on a look of panic, "Eh! Oh my gosh, yes! We're gonna be late for the Academy!" She cried, quickly scrambling to grab a clump of the equine's inky black mane who – sharing similar thoughts as Anko herself – snorted in amusement of the girl's sudden hysteria. The pink-haired 'day one genin' threw a glance back at her, smiling before she called out, "Sorry Anko-Nee, I got to go alright? Bye!"

And as quick as she had come, the girl was gone.

"I can't believe I lost track of time like that! I mean, of all days to be late it had to be today." The pink-haired genin whined, her limbs flailing wildly in an attempt to emphasize her momentary hysteria before assuming a dejected look, slouching upon the back of her ever-faithful steed. Said steed, only rolled his eyes, and continued leisurely trotting down the bustling streets of Konoha, looking as though he had all the time in the world.

Sakura huffed, the occasional twitch of her brow, and the air of annoyance that followed her around like a storm cloud doing nothing to better her mood as she watched the horse. Who so carefully avoided the many, rambunctious children that would occasionally dart across the street, giving not even a moments notice as to when they were going to do so.

"Ohayo Sakura-Chan!"

And suddenly, both she and her mood had done a complete 180 turn, in company of her nin-horse of course, and was now backtracking towards one of the many simple street vendor's. All sense of time and the urgency to keep it had flown out the window the moment she had heard his voice.

Said street vendor, a variety of glass goods decorating the front of his stall, waved at her animatedly. His old, prune-ish face wrinkled into a kind, old smile as he stepped out from behind the counter, absentmindedly wiping his hands with a dirtied old cloth before he approached both horse and rider.

Sakura smiled brightly, "Ohayo Masa-San!" she chirped, as she secretly peeked over his shoulder, trying to get a better look at the various glittering wares that decorated the inside of the stand.

Only Kemuri's snort and the strangely effervescent rumble of the old mans laugh drew her attention back. "So, how are we doing today huh, Sakura-Chan?" He asked, pale brown eyes twinkling with the kind of mirth she supposed that only an old man could find in a situation like this.

"I'm doing well, Masa-San." She replied, stealing a glance over his shoulder again before, true to her polite nature, she added. "How about you? Doing well?"

The old man only chortled again in response, wrinkly cheeks stained pink with laughter as he waved her off. "Oh, good, good, of course Sakura-chan." His ancient, tea-shaded eyes twinkled as they landed just above her forehead. "Ah, Congratulations little one." His hand rose with surprising steadiness, spider-veins and all to point at her headband. "You certainly deserved it. After all, you are the youngest of your class to graduate, neh?"

The young genin blushed, eyes straying first to her scarred forearm and then to her fiddling hands before she answered. "Please Masa-San, it was nothing-"

Suddenly the timely street vendor chuckled again, and Sakura looked down to see that Kemuri had stolen the tattered rag hanging from his belt, and begun to wave it around. She rolled her eyes and inwardly sighed, 'attention hogging-ass…'

"Oh, forgive me Kemuri-chan. I seem to have forgotten something." Masa rasped, his hand disappeared inside a pocket on his work apron momentarily before returning, a shiny, red apple in tow.

Kemuri dropped the rag faster than one would a bad boyfriend, his sepia eyes lighting up as he nodded his head toward the fruit with such gusto one would not think it possible of a horse. Completely disregarding the fact that he was no ordinary horse, and that this particular horse could talk and hold quite lengthy conversations. Now the real issue here was figuring out how to get him to shut up.

Sakura sighed, her eyes rolling in a similar manner to one who was watching two toddlers fight over a scrap of paper or something else. But how could she not? To her Kemuri would always be like one, giant, ten-foot tall kid at heart.

"-eading before this?" Her head snapped back, jade eyes widening as she barely caught the tail end of the old man's sentence.

Her Inner-Self, timely as ever piped up. "He was talking to us you space case!" she snapped, waving her fictitious limbs about as if someone other than Sakura could see them. "Show the old man an ounce of respect and answer the damn question!"

The pink-haired genin bit her tongue and resisted the urge to pummel her Inner, for multiple reasons. The most prominent being that she would be armed only with the knowledge that putting oneself in a chokehold in the bustling streets of Konoha's market on a Thursday morning was not in fact something normal people did.

So instead she opted for returning to planet earth, though not before brushing a stray strand of pink hair behind her ear she asked, "Gomen nasai, Masa-San. Could you please repeat that?" her cheeks tinted pink with embarrassment as she waited for his response.

"Not a problem. I was just wondering where it was you were headed to before you stopped here, Sakura-Chan?" he asked, tilting his head so that the few, wispy, graying hairs that still remained did a little jig of sorts.

Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but stumbled on her words for a moment as her jaw hung slack. A good question. Where exactly was it that she was headed again?

Her other self side suddenly snickered, sending the jade-eyed girl into a momentary tizzy as the memory she so desperately sought eluded her. "Geez, so now we're schizophrenic and developing a case of Alzheimer's. Kami, get a grip would ya' Outer-Chan?" Her Inner taunted, before sighing at the lack of reaction from her counterpart. "For the love of… We were headed to-"

"The Academy! Shoot!"

"What in the name of Sarutobi's pants happened here?"

Sakura's jade eyes grew wide with a concoction of amusement, confusion, and a few other things as they took in the utter chaos that she assumed once was her academy classroom. In the muddle of confusion her strapping Chunin sensei seemed to be supsiciously absent, but of course that was to be expected. Iruka-Sensei would never let the classroom get this out of hand. Though, there was that one time…

Her gaze drifted from the mob of savage, swarming fan girls at the center of the room to the door and back again as she contemplated the necessaery escape route should the herd of fan girls decide to stampede. She shivered, and upon closer inspection discovered sprigs of blond and raven to be at the center of the swarm.

Her Inner-self sweatdropped comically. Sasuke and Naruto. She thought, a slightly amused grin stretching her lips as she did, Why am I not surprised? The young Genin chuckled girlishly under her breath as she mulled over the possible scenarios that could have resulted in well, that.

"Don't even bother trying to figure that out, it's impossible." Her Inner huffed, crossing her fictatious arms in a display of annoyance as if someone other than her Outer could see it. "They're Sasuke and Naruto. They could be fighting over who gets to clean the blackboard for all they care." Sakura hummed in agreement with her Inner's words. She knew the two well enough, she supposed. One, because he had been her first (human) friend since she had arrived in Konoha, and the other because at one point she had enough air in her head to actually be infatuated with him.

Sakura only just managed to fight back the oncoming shiver at those memories. That had been the most unfortunate time in her life, when she too had swooned like a blond airhead after Sasuke. Only the face slapping, reality-inducing words of wisdom provided by her Inner-self snapped her out of the allusion that Sasuke was worth her time pursuing. It was all just a bad joke now, one she was sure Naruto was never going to let her live down.

She snorted, sure he was cute- that was something she could not deny- but any visual appeal he had was mercillesly crushed under that "greater than thou" attitude that followed him around like bad B.O.

And Naruto? Naruto on the other hand, was a very different story. A story that Sakura herself wasn't quite willing to reminisce on yet. At least before eight o' clock in the morning. So many cups of ramen…

She shook her head slowly, either out of despair or hilarity before turning her gaze towards her companion, who was at the moment lounging lazily in his seat, head lolled back over the wooden frame and hands clasped neatly in his lap. Strange, somehow that last part was neither surprising nor un-ordinary.

"Uh, Shikamaru?" The boy grunted primitively in response, but otherwise gave her no reason to believe that he had heard her inquiry. "Care to explain what –" her thumb and forefinger attack his forehead, thumping it 'playfully'. "-The heck is going on here?"

A charcoal colored eye revealed itself, obviously unhappy with being disturbed. "How should I know, huh Sakura?" He groaned, eyelid slowly drooping to shelter the tired orb once more.

But she was a relentless one of course.

The pinkette rolled her jade eyes at her friend's enthusiasm - Note the sarcasm – or lack there of. Before promptly attacking him again, only this time – ninja till the very end -she changed tactics.

"Ai!" Sakura erupted into a fit of laughter as she watched Shikamaru literally jump out of his seat, after the proper poke to the stomach of course. The Nara groaned, a slight pout dawned upon his face as he began muttering incoherently under his breath whilst he rubbed his sore rib.

"By the way Shikamaru, the sloth called, and he wants his personality back." She teased, gently hopping up onto the desk just next to where he sat. Iruka obviously wasn't coming anytime soon. "C'mon Shika, we're gonna get our Genin teams today, try to at least pretend to be excited would ya?"

The Nara smirked lightly; sometimes his little pink-haired friend was just too easy to rile up. Meh, who was he to complain about a job made easier? Good for him, not so good for her. He closed his eyes and with one final sigh leaned back in his seat again. Set the trap, load the bait, sit back and watch the magic happen,"Nah, that'd be much to troublesome." He muttered, just loud enough so his easily riled companion could hear it.

And just as he predicted she would, Sakura took the bait. Okay, more like mauled it.

Sakura felt her hackles rise and despite her better conscience, her lips pulled back into a feral snarl that could put an Inuzuka to shame. She knew he was baiting her, but she also knew that if she let him get away with calling her troublesome once… She growled, the sound low and gutteral before locking her aggressive jade eyes onto his. "What was that you lazy, son of a-"

Aaaaaaaa!

The shrill, ear-popping screech of at least twenty fan-girls screaming in unison stopped Sakura dead in her tracks, and caused everyone else in the room to simaltaneously experience their first heart attacks in the ninja career. Sakura, ears still ringing painfully, turned around to see what could have possibly caused such a terrible, 'ohmigod somebody better be dying' scream.

They were kissing.

Her jade eyes felt seconds away from bulging out of her sockets. Sasuke and Naruto were kissing- well, now they were both respectivley wiping their mouths in a fit of hysterics – but the point is that they were kissing!

She sweatdropped inwardly I'm not quite sure how to respond to this. She whispered to her Inner.

Her Inner-Self's sadistic cackling answered her. "I do, it's fucking hilarious! Quick, somebody get a picture or something!"

"Sakura!"

Her head jerked back, jade eyes snapping wide open in surprise to see none other than Iruka-Sensei giving her the look of death. She gulped, and unconsciously shrunk back further into her seat, absentmindedly noting Kiba's not so silent snickering from the seat next to her.

"H-hai, Iruka-Sensei?" she squeaked, not liking the glare that seemed to burn holes through her head.

Even her Inner seemed to cower a bit, "Crap, when the hell did he get here?" she mumbled, sweat dropping at her teacher's never-ending look of death.

I don't know! I was trying not to watch my best friend make out with Sasuke! What the heck were you doing? Sakura growled inwardly, only to be answered with silence. She huffed, Ya that's what I thought you said.

"Some of us would like to know who their teamates are, you know, just saying." Iruka said, smiling ever so slightly in a 'your forgiven with embarassment' way.

"Alright continuing on, Team 5 will consist of Ame-"

Sakura immediately tuned out, cheeks still flushed with embarassment as she pouted silently. "Last day with you Academy teacher. Piss him off, fantastic." She muttered, huffing under her breath as she tried to ignore Kiba's incessent snorting from beside her.

"Team 7, Mitarashi Haruno Sakura -"

"Hey! That's our name!" Her Inner cried, as Sakura's attention peaked at the sound of her name and she sat just a little straighter in her chair. "Wait, I hate the number seven."

Shut up Inner!

"- Uzamaki Naruto." At that her boisterous blond friend rocketed out of his seat to perform what could only be called a happy dance. She smiled.

"And Uchiha Sasuke."

She swore her jaw hit the ground. "Shit."

Fin!

So what did you think? Please R&R! I'll try to update once a week but it's rare when I don't have a writers block so, ya. Sorry for the grammar mistakes, all my stories are non beta-ed so, yah. Most importantly remember to FAVORITE, READ, FOLLOW, AND REVIEW!

Target word count: 5,000 words

Total Word count: 6,500 words

Japanese-ey Translations!

勇気 （ゆうき）＝ Yuuki = Courage

始める (はじめる)＝ Hajimeru = Begin

けむり= Kemuri= Smoke

平和 = Peace

Kesshō Gokakurō = Crystal pentagon prison

Rokkaku Shuriken = Crystal Shuriken

Until next time!

-Find-A-Way-Today.