Sakura sat on the bridge waiting for her team. She had two slips of paper, one in each hand, and was repeatedly tearing and mending them with chakra. She wanted to practice Hashimoto's exercise and improve on it. If she could repeatedly focus two separate repairs at the same time – it'd help her a lot when the time came to heal Zabuza and Haku. Even if she made a shadow clone to help her there would be multiple wounds to focus on – she needed to improve by leaps and bounds.
Making her exercise a little more difficult, she continued to rip and repair one slip of paper while using her other hand to focus on changing the pigment of the paper at a constant rate.
She opened her eyes as she heard footsteps on the bridge although she didn't stop her exercise.
Rather than any of her team, she found Kurenai staring at her.
"Kurenai-sensei," she greeted her with a smile. "I look forward to sparring with your team this Sunday."
"Yes, Shino said," she returned the smile. "And how are you? Is that a genjutsu you're practicing? It doesn't look like any I know."
"No, it's just a medical exercise," she answered evenly. "I'm just practicing. Trying to build up my ability to concentrate on different things at the same time."
"It was a good idea, sparring with the different teams," Kurenai spoke again, taking a seat next to her, watching the slip of paper change from blue to pink and back again. "I've spoken with Asuma and Kakashi and we're thinking of doing regular tournaments. You may have unwittingly started a new tradition."
"Really?" Sakura laughed. "I hope so. It'll help to prepare us all for the field. Not to mention the chunin exams."
Kurenai held back a giggle, causing Sakura to raise an eyebrow at her strange expression.
"What?" she asked, perplexed.
"Oh it's nothing," she grinned. "I guess I can just see why you get along with Shino so well."
Sakura blinked. What?
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"It's nothing bad," Kurenai assured her. "You're both just very focused and serious. It's a good quality for a ninja – you seem very mature."
Serious? Sakura frowned.
"I... suppose I am," Sakura agreed. 'Who wouldn't when they've seen everything I have...'
"Well, I need to go meet my students," Kurenai stated, standing up. "I hope Kakashi doesn't make you wait too long."
And with a wave she was off and Sakura was back to doing her exercises in silence.
By the time Sasuke and Naruto turned up, Sakura had long ago tired of her simple tasks and had moved on to focusing on a single piece of paper, replicating the cells, and making it grow before splitting them again and continuing the process.
Reminiscent of Konan, she filled the paper with chakra and folded them into flowers, using a larger piece of paper to wrap around the stems and create a bouquet.
Although she'd never actually met Konan, she had heard about her from Naruto and had nothing but respect for the older woman. They were similar in a lot of ways – both sacrificing everything for their team and their ideals. Both filled with love and a steel resolve.
At the entrance of her team mates, she handed them each a bouquet, grinning cheerfully at the sight of them. It really was amazing, seeing them together and not trying to rip out eachothers throats.
Naruto claimed his excitedly, shouting "Sakura-chan! You made these for me?"
Sasuke, on the other hand stared at them blanky, before slowly taking his and examining it.
"What is this?" he asked, closely analysing the joins holding the bouquet together.
"I'm practicing my medical jutsu," she explained. "Replicating, manipulating and fusing cells."
"Wow! Sakura-chan! You're amazing!" Naruto beamed at her.
"Well, I may not be as good as Sasuke at taijutsu, or as good at you in making Shadow clones Naruto, but at least I can be good at this," she smiled to herself. "Then whenever you act rash and stupid and get yourself into trouble I can patch you up afterwards."
"You learnt this after one day?" Sasuke pressed her.
Sakura sweat dropped. 'Shit, he's suspicious...'
"It's just exercises," she scratched her head and tried to look cute and embarrassed. "I've been practicing and combining them since I learned how. Originally it was just ripping and mending a scrap of paper, but that got boring."
"What else can you do, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked eagerly.
"Give me those flowers back again and I'll show you," she offered, stretching her hand towards her blonde teammate.
Naruto pouted, and hesitated before handing them over.
"I finally get a gift from you and you take it back," he whined.
"Gezz Naruto, you can have them again afterwards," she laughed as he perked up. "I'll just improve them a little."
Focusing her chakra and letting it bleed into the flowers, she tweaked the pigments, and coloured them yellow, then focused on changing the stems and leaves green, before moving onto the larger piece of paper holding it all together. This she changed into a dark green with a bright orange Uzumaki swirl featured on it.
"There we go," she handed them back to him. "Custom made Uzumaki flowers for Uzumaki Naruto."
"Wow Sakura! You have to teach me that!" Naruto stared at her in amazement. "That's so cool!"
She smiled at his brown nosing. She used to find his blatant admiration of her annoying, but now she just saw it as sweet.
"What is its use?" Sasuke asked, still seemingly unsure if he should be impressed or not.
"Well, this is just the basic stuff," she explained. "When I get better at it, and Hashimoto sensei teaches lets me work on people I'll be able to heal wounds, mend broken bones and all that. As strong as a ninja can be, they're no good if they're injured and out of commission. To keep Konoha strong we need medics to keep our forces strong and healthy."
Sasuke nodded in understanding. "Hn..."
"So... you want me to do you're roses?" she asked, catching him staring at Naruto's bouquet.
"If you want to," he said, handing them over immediately.
She giggled, and accepted them gladly, colouring his flowers carefully black and red, before placing the Uchiha crest on a navy background.
She glowed with pleasure to see him accept them back again. Never before had he treasured anything she'd given him like he did those flowers... Sure, she had received acknowledgement from him on the (very) odd occasion, but this was something new entirely.
Yet even through this, she knew she would never have her happy ending with him. As much as she had loved him in the past, she had too many bad memories of him to ever be able to feel that way again. Even if he didn't turn into that person again, her memories would always overlap this reality. Although hindsight was a blessing in that she could change things... it also proved to be a curse.
Sakura frowned for a moment... Curse...
She had to be prepared in case Orochimaru did manage to place his cursed seal on Sasuke. Perhaps she could examine Anko sometime soon...
"Oi, Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Naruto asked. "You're frowning all of a sudden."
"Oh, it's nothing, just thinking," she jumped. She really needed to control herself better.
"Oh, ok," hecocked his head to the side. "What about."
'Shit...'
"Just... wondering if something would work," she stalled. 'Shit. Now I'm gonna have to back that up.'
"Wondering if what would work?" he prodded, both him and Sasuke wearing equal expressions of interest.
"Um..." she sweat dropped. "I've never tried it before..."
"What? What? What?" Naruto whined. "Don't leave us hanging."
"We're your teammates, you should share your ideas," Sasuke seconded.
'Just make an exploding tag with your paper jutsu,' her Inner personality recommended.
Relieved, she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket.
"Ok, stand back," she warned as she expanded it and inked a fairly weak explosion pattern on the sheet. She then crinkled it up into a ball to give it weight and tossed it into the air, where it caused a minor explosion, small enough not to be dangerous.
"What do you know, it worked," she said, staring at the smoke.
"That's... a very useful technique," Sasuke admitted, staring at her in wonder. It seemed he realized he was underestimating her. "You realize that as long as you have a piece of paper on you, you will have an unlimited supply of exploding tags."
She grinned. She hadn't really thought of using her medical technique in this way before.
"You're right," she laughed in delight. "But it takes chakra. I still need to expand my pool."
Kakashi chose that moment to appear.
"You're LATE!" both her and Naruto accused, but Kakashi waved them off.
"Gomen, gomen," he pleaded. "An old lady asked me to help her with her groceries."
"LIAR!"
AAA
The week proceeded in much the same way, with Sakura pushing herself harder every day. Without her mornings being taken up by the Intel Squad, she had hours to spend practicing her jutsu and medical techniques, as well as about three hours spent in gruelling Taijutsu training. Some days Sasuke and Naruto would train with her, but some days she would be on her own. She knew she wasn't much of a challenge for the boys in taijutsu at the moment, so often tried to limit her time with them. She didn't want to hold them back – and they had started to train seriously as well. She figured it was partially due to her dedication to training, partially due to the boys rivalry, and partially due to the looming fight against Team 8.
She was pleased with her progress, although she was exhausted at the end of every day. The first three days were especially painful as she was still getting used to doing such strenuous training, but by the end of Friday she was feeling extremely encouraged.
She could now give Naruto a run for his money in taijutsu, even if she was still behind Sasuke. She could also summon a fairly decent sized water-dragon with a decent amount of force behind it, although it wasn't yet as good as Kakashi's. She had expanded both her physical and chakra stamina by leaps and bounds... Although she knew she had a long way to go.
But with this much success after two weeks – by the time they went to Wave country she knew she'd be prepared.
She'd also encouraged the boys to work on their other senses with her. They spent an hour or so every day fighting blindfolded, or with ear plugs – next week they'd try both.
Sasuke continued to impress them all with his abilities, and although Naruto took a little longer to get the hang of it, he improved as well. Sakura still had trouble keeping up with how much they improved – but she still managed somehow.
So when it came to Saturday, she rose before the sun did, getting ready for her Medical lesson in a brilliant mood.
Her room was filled with bouquets, along with a few other origami animals – as was most of the rest of her house. Her mother adored them, but had started giving them to friends as well due to the sheer number she made.
She was getting fast, too, as she became more familiar with the technique.
She had also continued to make explosion tags, to get faster at inking them, in case she had to do it in the field sometime.
She had also realized, with a wicked grin, that she'd never have to buy scrolls again – she could produce her own for free and with limited effort.
She ate a hearty breakfast and packed three bentos – she'd gotten used to making extra, in case she found someone to eat with, or if she was just hungry. Not to mention, it gave her an excuse to practice and improve her limited cooking skills.
She sealed those, along with all of her supplies – two hundred blank scrolls along with a ridiculous amount of ink and several brushes – into a single scroll which she attached to her waist.
She tied her hair into a bun, leaving a few longer tendrils to frame her face, but kept most of it out of the way for practical reasons. She was still unused to her long hair, and while she kind-of loved it, it would get in the way if she was going to move on to healing fish today.
She stuck a couple of senbon in her bun, and left feeling that she liked the effect. Still, she couldn't wait to get her short hair back during the exams.
She did about an hour of katas, stretching her muscles and getting a little exercise before heading over to meet Hashimoto. She was a little early, but it seemed he was as well. Apparently, now that he had a prodigy as his student he was more excited. She let out a quiet laugh, before greeting him.
"Hashimoto-sensei," she waved.
"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" he grinned. "I hope you're ready to work hard today."
"Always," she mirrored his expression.
"But first, I want to see how good you've become at the paper exercise," he tore a piece of paper into several scraps and handed them to her. "You better have been practicing."
She smirked. She could see what he was doing here.
Laying them out on the table she quickly matched up the pieces and fused them into one sheet within thirty seconds.
She held it up to see and he beamed at her.
"That's brilliant, Sakura. I can see you're going to become my pride."
"I want to show you something else," she said, tearing the paper again. "I've been combining some of the basic techniques I read about in those scrolls."
"By all means," he leaned forwards, keenly watching her.
She quickly manipulated the pieces of paper, tearing, expanding, folding, fusing and colouring until she had a colourful bouquet for him.
She handed it over as he stared at her, stunned.
"This is amazing," he said, analysing it both with his eyes and his chakra. "You haven't missed a single cell."
"I've been practicing," she grinned. "My house is filled with those now. It used to take a while, but I'm pretty quick now."
"Right," he agreed. "Well, today we're going to take you a step up. "I'm going to have you examine a fish with your chakra. You'll focus your chakra on it, and sink through the layers, detecting every layer of skin, bone, organ, blood cell. Once you've got that down, you're going to heal it and start it's heart. After that, if you catch on quick, I'll take you down to the morgue so you can analyse a human and see how we do autopsies. You'll have to do that before you move on to living humans. Hell, I might even have you working on minor injuries before the days out."
She grinned up at him, extremely excited. He really was pushing her fast.
The morning passed quickly, and Sakura had successfully reanimated twenty fish that Hashimoto had given various disorders before handing them to her. They had even had a little battle where Hashimoto had been making cells decay just as quickly as she was healing them. He was thrilled with her progress, and they stopped for an early lunch together.
While Sakura rested her chakra to let it replenish, she transcribed several more scrolls to add to her collection, and before long they headed down to the morgue together.
It was obvious that Hashimoto was a little apprehensive of how the young girl would take dealing with dead bodies, but she impressed him with her resolve as she always had done. Even in her own time her resolve had put her far ahead of Ino, who detested corpses and could barely handle looking at them, much less touching them.
"It's unpleasant," Sakura explained her attitude to her sensei. "But necessary. From what I learn here I can heal others. Turn one's death into another's life."
He had beamed at her when she said that, buzzing with excitement. They spent several hours looking at the selection of three bodies, explaining what had killed each of them, and the ways they might have been saved if situations were different. He even allowed Sakura to heal one of their wounds, ready for burial.
After that, he'd taken her up to the hospital and introduced her to the systems (as if she didn't know – she was in charge of the place back in her time). It amused but also embarrassed her about how he shamelessly bragged about her to the other doctors when he introduced her. Still, she was taught practically several things she had only 'learned' in theory – how to heal gashes and cuts, how to clean out infections, how to set bones, and heal them with chakra. It was nothing overly difficult, but she knew that her accomplishing this after two lessons would set a record – although she'd learned quickly the first time it had taken her two months even then.
With most of the afternoon spent in the hospital, they retreated back to the library where Hashimoto gave her several more scrolls to transcribe, and suggested for her to pick out even more that struck her fancy.
She made two shadow clones, and started going hard. She copied out notes on damage to arteries and blood vessels, several scrolls on more advanced anatomy, muscular disorders and diseases, and several other topics. All the while Hashimoto stood over her, watching her with pride.
She also hunted down a few scrolls on studies that had been done on chakra – types, affinities, kekkei genkais and even basic channelling. She desperately wanted to know if she could unlock the secret to Naruto's sage mode – but she'd never managed to ask about it during her time.
Eventually, as she finished another scroll, and was about to go hunt down another – she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"You've done enough for today Sakura," Hashimoto said. "I'll put that away. Seal everything in your scroll and I'll take you out to dinner. You've worked hard today – I'm very proud of you."
She beamed at him. Of everyone, he was the most encouraging of all her senseis. She figured Iruka might be like this if he had a single student rather than a whole class load.
"Thank you sensei," she said, before rolling up her scroll and reattaching it to her hip.
AAA
The next morning her team (minus Kakashi) met on the bridge two hours before their spar with Team 8 and were discussing tactics.
She couldn't help but feel excited, even Sasuke was pumped for this – and Naruto, Naruto was ready for an all out war.
They headed out to the training field where they'd be fighting, and started to prepare traps for an ambush – harmless ones, albeit.
Naruto had rigged up some cream pie traps while Sasuke dug a pit and covered it over seamlessly. Sakura, on the other hand, started rigging up wires and explosion notes (just small ones), casting various genjutsu over them to keep them hidden.
They had finished within an hour, and cleared the area of all traces of them. Except scent, of course, but they couldn't do much about that.
They knew Akamaru at least would pick up on it, but some of their traps still might work.
When their opponents finally arrived, right at the agreed time, Sakura waved at them jovially, while Sasuke smirked and Naruto wore his usual cheeky grin that advertised he was up to no good.
She was slightly jealous to see Kurenai backing up her team, but knew not to expect much else of her own sensei.
She walked up to meet them, and greeted them warmly.
"I can sense a genjutsu," Kurenai eyed the pinkette suspiciously. "You've set up an ambush."
"Yeah, I can smell you all over the place," Kiba seconded and Akamaru whined in agreement.
"Well, we got here first," she grinned cheekily and winked. "We knew you'd probably find them, since you're a team of sensors. But we'll see if you get all of them. We wanna see how much you've progressed since graduation."
"Well, let's get this party started then!" Kiba grinned, ready for action as always.
"Sh-Shouldn't we wait for your sensei?" Hinata asked shyly, turning red when Naruto looked at her.
"Na, it's his own problem if he's late. He might not turn up 'til tomorrow anyway, that lazy teme."
Sakura smacked him at that.
"He's annoying, Naruto, but he's still your sensei," she frowned at him. "Show him some respect at least."
"But Sakura-chaaan," he whined.
"I agree with Kiba. Let's begin," Sasuke said, getting in position.
"Ok, one rule though: No serious injuries, and we stop if anyone gets hurt," Sakura stated. "Otherwise anything goes."
They all nodded in agreement, and Kurenai counted them down.
"Three... Two... One... Go!"
There was a flurry of kunai and shuriken, and they each spread out across the training field.
Naruto made several shadow clones and charged Kiba and Akamaru who performed their famous beast clone jutsu.
Meanwhile, Sasuke engaged Shino, in long ranged combat throwing projectiles and fireballs.
That left Sakura and Hinata (who had a major disadvantage due to being distracted by Naruto).
Sakura regained her attention, however, by tripping her up with a spin kick to the knees.
"Let's show the boys how dangerous kunoichi can be," Sakura winked at her friend, who nodded, determination covering her features.
Sakura had a hard time keeping up with Hinata's gentle fist technique, and avoiding shots that would inhibit her chakra, but overall she was slightly better than the shy girl.
She went a little easy on her, however, as she wanted to let the girl impress Naruto.
She had activated her byakugan, and was constantly warning her teammates when they got too close to one of their traps.
Sakura didn't want all their sneaky works to go to waste, however, so upped her game. She formed two shadow clones and started to perform some taijutsu combos on the girl.
Before long, they heard a yelp. Everyone paused to see Shino hanging upside down by a wire with a cream pie in his face.
Letting out a snigger, she kept up her offensive with Hinata, backing her up to where Sasuke's pit was. Apparently, she was only checking above ground, as she fell into it with a yelp of her own.
As Sasuke and Sakura both ran to aid Naruto, who was cornered by Kiba and Akamaru.
"You take the one on the left, I've got the one on the right," Sasuke told her with a smirk.
"Gotcha," she replied with a grin.
She sent her Shadow clone in for an attack, and when he showed an opening she grabbed him by the arm and threw him into her wire network of explosions at the same time as Sasuke.
Team seven stood victoriously, enjoying the moment for a minute while Kurenai laughed.
"Naruto, go help Hinata-chan out of the pit. Sasuke, help Kiba and Akamaru. I've got Shino-san," she instructed, and went to aid her still-upside-down friend.
"You've improved," Shino told her as she untied him, and they jumped down together.
"I wasn't even fighting you," she laughed at him, pulling a cloth out of her skirt-pouch to wipe the cream off his face. "We should have a one on one spar after this."
"I don't know about that, you might still have more traps set up," he smirked and she laughed.
"OI!" Kiba approached them, pointing an accusing finger at the bug boy. "Did you just tell a joke?"
Shino just stared at him emotionlessly while Sakura laughed at Kiba's disturbed expression.
"Are you hurt at all Kiba?" she teased him. "I didn't really expect you to get caught out in my explosion trap."
"You were the one that threw me in there," he pouted.
"You've done really well," Kurenai commended Team 7. "You've pointed out a weakness in our team – we need to work on our team work and communication. You won't have so much luck next time you face them."
She grinned, and went over to the dog boy, healing his scrapes over.
"They're shallow, they'll heal on their own," he whined, still embarrassed. "They barely even hurt."
"Yeah, but I need the experience, so bite me," she stuck her tongue out at him.
He gulped and blushed, looking anywhere but at her, but she didn't notice as she was more focused on her task.
"Sakura-chaaan, I've got a cut too," Naruto pouted, walking up to her and showing her his arm.
She laughed at him.
"You know if this was a real fight and your enemy had a poisoned blade you'd be dead by now right?" she teased him, but healed him nevertheless.
"By the time we find an enemy like that you'll be a good enough medic to fix it though, ne Sakura-chan," he grinned back at her.
"I'd still rather you didn't get hurt in the first place," she retorted, giving his ear a tweak. "There, all done."
"Do you guys want another go?" Naruto asked, still keen.
"There's no point," Sasuke cut in. "They're a waste of time until they improve."
With that he turned away, leaving several bewildered looking faces.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, jerk?" Kiba challenged, taking a step towards him.
Sakura put a restraining hand on his arm and stepped in front of him.
"Sasuke, you shouldn't talk to your friends that way," she challenged him.
"Since when were they my friends?" he scowled at her.
"I'm your friend, aren't I?" she hesitated.
"I wasn't talking about you," Sasuke frowned.
"Yeah, but they're my friends. And our allies. Part of our village," she approached him.
"Unless they can help me get stronger I have no need for them. I need to focus on my goals," he replied, frown intensifying.
Sakura held back tears. She felt like she was losing him all over again.
"There's a reason why ninjas band together, Sasuke," she sighed, before looking into his eyes. "We need strong, skilled people like you to fight enemies. We need medical ninjas to look after everyone. We need sensors and trackers like team eight. Whoever it is you're trying to kill, Sasuke... your friends can help you if you'd let them. Even if you want to do the fight on your own, we can be there for you. Otherwise, when everything is finished, and you have peace... you'll find yourself empty... without anyone to share it with."
Sasuke looked away.
"I'm done here today," he repeated. "I will see you tomorrow."
"Okay Sasuke," she took a step back. "See you tomorrow."
She watched him disappear, and returned back to their friends.
"I'm sorry about him," she apologised.
"His actions are not your responsibility," Shino assured her.
"The asshole," Kiba growled.
"What's his problem anyway," Naruto seconded. "He always gets like that, the teme."
"Naruto..." Sakura sighed. This was getting unnecessarily melodramatic. "You know he's an orphan like you, right?"
Naruto paused. "Yeah..."
"Only, he got to know his family. He loved them," she sat down, staring at her feet. "They were massacred. I don't know the details and you shouldn't ask him about it, 'coz its a sore spot for him... but if that happened to you, wouldn't you want to get strong so you could avenge them?"
Naruto looked at his feet and Kiba was struck silent along with the rest of them.
"He's bitter. The only thing we can do for him is to love him and give him time," Sakura sighed again, and looked to Kiba. "I know you don't like him but please be patient with him. He's still a Konoha ninja. He's still one of us."
"I'll try," Kiba huffed grumpily.
They were silent for a moment before Naruto broke the tension.
"Hey, let's go to Ichiraku! We can come back after and train some more!" he prodded.
"Ramen again, Naruto?" Sakura laughed. "Can't we go some place else?"
"But ramen is so goooood," he grinned up at her and she laughed again.
"Okay, okay, but you're paying for mine," she gave in. "You guys'll come, right?" she asked. "Kurenai-sensei, you too."
They nodded in agreement, and headed off.
Sakura was amazed how Naruto had somehow completely changed the atmosphere from depressing to fun. Thus was the extreme difference between her teammates.
He and Kiba ended up having an eating competition, much to Sakura's disgust (although Hinata was still watching him with dreamy eyes... somehow), leaving her, Shino and Kurenai to a discussion.
Sakura asked her a few questions on how to improve her genjutsu, and ended up discussing with Shino various insects abilities to re-grow parts.
"Like, worms... if you slice them in half each of the halves becomes a new worm, right? I just wanna know how," Sakura urged. "What kind of chemicals or DNA would tell you, if your arm was cut off to grow another one."
"You really want to talk about worms while eating ramen?" Kurenai complained, feeling sick.
"Sorry," Sakura apologized, embarrassed. She forgot some people got queasy easily.
"I'm not sure about the exact details," Shino admitted. "But I know that only certain species are able while others aren't, and that it depends on how much damage there is to see a successful regeneration. My family may have some information in our library. You can come and see it if you like."
"Really?" she beamed at him. "That'd be amazing! It'd help me so much with my research!"
"You can come this afternoon if you like," he confirmed, feeling pleased with himself. "It's not often we find people outside our clan who show such an interest."
"Just be careful how much access you let me have or you'll never get me out of there," she grinned at him.
"What exactly are you researching?" Kurenai asked curiously. Sakura was the most openly ambitious genin she'd met.
"Cell regeneration and duplication, it's for my medical studies," she explained. "Like those paper exercises you saw me doing."
"Ah, right. And how is that going for you?"
"Really really well," she replied. "Here, I'll show you."
She tore a corner off her serviette and channelled her chakra into it, creating her a bouquet.
"Wow! Sakura-san! Those are so beautiful!" Ayame exclaimed from across the counter, hearts in her eyes.
She Tore another slip off and created a set of red roses for the young girl, handing them over with a grin. She'd always liked her.
Meanwhile, Kurenai was inspecting her bouquet carefully.
"This is really something," Kurenai said, staring at the pinkette in appreciation. "And you're trying to use this technique to re-grow limbs?"
"Or organs or whatever. It'd keep ninjas from dying of dumb things like heart failure, hopefully... and be able to patch people up if they get into trouble. But it's harder on a living thing than it is with something inanimate like paper."
Kurenai hummed in thought. "That is potentially a very dangerous technique, Sakura. I would be careful in displaying it. You might get unwanted attention."
She blanched. How could she be so stupid? Kabuto was still wandering around somewhere... Orochimaru might end up coming for her. Still, they had plans. It'd be alright – she wouldn't improve to a level where he would want her until it was time to kill him.
"I know," Sakura answered her quietly. "I've already spoken with the Hokage. Don't worry about me, I know the risks involved."
Kurenai eyed her curiously. "You have Kakashi, after all. I'm sure you'll be okay."
AAA
They spent the afternoon training, and Kakashi turned up for the last two hours.
Sakura and Naruto laughed as Kurenai yelled at him about taking his duties seriously.
Sakura had tackled him in a hug while he was distracted and begged him for a new jutsu, refusing to let go until he agreed to teach her. Naruto had chased him, trying to do the same, but Kakashi was evading him, even with Sakura clamped onto his side.
Team Eight watched the show in amusement, Kurenai in hysterics at Kakashi's expense.
"Okay, okay," Kakashi agreed. "Sakura-chan, let's see if you can learn an earth type technique. I'll teach you the Whack-A-Mole jutsu."
"What about me?" Naruto whined.
"Hmmm..." Kakashi tapped his chin. "I'll teach you a whirlwind technique."
With that, he created a shadow clone and took Naruto to the other end of the field to give him instructions. With Sakura, he pulled her underground and away from Team Eight so they couldn't hear what he said.
"So much for our sparring," Kiba whined.
"We can still improve our own techniques while they're improving theirs," Shino pointed out.
"You just don't wanna leave your girlfriend behind," Kiba teased him.
Shino reacted badly, grabbing him by the jacket and thrusting him into a tree.
"She isn't my girlfriend," he stated, before letting him drop.
"Geez, someone's defensive," Kiba muttered.
Shino turned back to him, but stopped when Hinata grabbed his sleeve.
"Shino... don't," she asked, her voice weak but her grip firm.
He nodded, and turned away again.
Meanwhile, Kakashi was showing Sakura how to change the dirt into a fine sand. All she had to do was send out a wave of chakra to vibrate and loosen the dirt, and use that as her network. From there, she could sense the others walking above her through the dull sound and vibrations.
Then he taught her how to disrupt the earth to move through it, so she could pop out of the ground , then back underneath letting the earth close back in around them.
"Go on, give it a go, that one sounds like Kiba," Kakashi whispered pointing her to one set of footsteps.
She sprang out of the ground next to him, and pulled him down into the ground, leaving only his head exposed and solidifying the earth around him, in effect reversing the original technique. Within seconds she sprang up through another hole, Kakashi following her closely.
"Good job," he congratulated her, giving her a high five.
"What the hell," Kiba growled at them. "Akamaru! Get them!"
Seeing the dog bound towards them, they both disappeared into the ground once again with a "Meep!"
They could hear Akamaru frantically digging Kiba out, and they prepared themselves for a Gatsuuga. It seemed like Hinata had run over to help him while Shino and Kurenai had jumped into a tree or something – they weren't on the ground anymore anyway.
"Now's where it gets tricky," Kakashi whispered. "But listen carefully."
She strained her ears. They were about halfway done with Kiba.
"What's that rushing noise?" she whispered.
"Underwater river," Kakashi replied, pleased she'd picked up on it.
"I can make a water dragon..." she whispered. "Hang on, I'll try get to it."
"Just make sure you don't flood us out," he replied.
"Right."
Creeping closer, she felt around the dirt and sent out chakra to loosen the dirt near the body of water. She listened carefully.
"Gatsuuga!" she heard Kiba's frustrated cry.
'Heh, he's way off,' she thought smugly. 'Still, he'll keep digging my dirt up 'til he finds me.'
Listening closer, and stretching out her chakra net she felt vibrations coming from where one of the trees were. She felt around where the roots were, and loosened the dirt until it would be easy to cause a water tunnel with a little pressure, then she reached for the water and performed the hand signs.
Kurenai and Shino were making preparations in their tree, and called Hinata over as well. They let Kiba and Akamaru dig up the Earth as they looked for signs of either of their foes, weapons ready.
Hinata was desperately searching with her byakugan, but Kakashi was moving fast, and Sakura was... there.
But before she opened her mouth to speak, the earth burst open and they were all knocked out of their tree by a massive water dragon.
She heard them thud on the ground and laughed to herself, while moving quickly away from the spot where she was.
This was seriously a cool technique.
Then she felt something crawling on her. Hold that, several things.
"CHAAA!" she yelped in surprise, then moved quickly again so she wasn't hit by Kiba's Gatsuuga.
'What do I do now?' she wondered. 'I can't drown them, they're Shino's... The jig's up I guess, he'll find me before long.'
Popping out of the ground near Shino, she saluted him.
"I believe I have some of your friends," she addressed him, and he summoned them back to him.
"You should've felt them Sakura-chan," Kakashi chided from above her, seated lazily in a tree. "You need to stay on your toes."
"If they weren't Shino's bugs I would've just flooded and drained the place," she pouted. "I had a backup plan, just not for a friendly fight."
All of a sudden she was knocked to the ground by Akamaru, followed shortly by Kiba.
"Ambush me, will ya," he growled, pinning her to the ground. "Akamaru! Show her our special technique! Death By Licking!"
She shrieked and screamed with laughter as Akamaru licked her face and stuck his wet nose in her eye.
"I give up! I give up!" she laughed, taking a breath of relief when they stopped.
"Oi! What's going on over there! What're you doing to Sakura-chan?" Naruto called, running back over to them.
"Hey Naruto," Sakura called still from underneath Kiba. "How's your wind technique coming along."
"Umm," he scratched his head. "Alright."
He demonstrated, doing the seals and sending a large puff of wind away from them.
"I can't get the hang of making it a whirlwind though," he scratched his head.
"Just practice Naruto," Kakashi advised him.
Sakura stretched until her shoulders popped, making Kiba flinch in disgust.
"You know, that's not very ladylike," he accused.
Sakura raised a brow at him, before swiftly boxing him around the ears.
"Keep talking like that and I'll show you just how unladylike I can be," she scowled.
"That wasn't necessary," he pouted, rubbing his ears.
"Neither was your comment," Shino stated darkly.
"Oi Kakashi, how are you so clean?" she asked, looking at his spotless clothes. "We were both down there but I'm filthy."
"That's just the difference between a genin and a jonin," he smirked. "I think I've taught you enough tricks for a day."
After messing around for another ten minutes or so they decided to split up, as most of them were either covered in dirt or soaking wet.
Sakura agreed with Shino to go clean up and meet him back at his house to start looking through their library.
She washed out her clothes thoroughly and dug every scrap of dirt out from under her nails. When she was finally happy with her state of hygiene, she made her way down to the Aburame complex.
When she knocked on the door it was answered almost immediately by Shino, who was missing his jacket, but was still clad in long sleeved and loose fitting black clothes.
Still, she'd never realized how skinny he was...
"Shino-san," she greeted him. "I hope I didn't make you wait for too long."
"It's fine," he gave her a tight smile. "I had to dry out my clothes as well."
She blushed.
"Heh, sorry about that."
"It's fine," he repeated. "You challenged me today. I appreciate it."
She blushed and gave a small smile in response. She'd never be this good without the time travel. She kind of dreaded her friends reactions when they'd find out.
She hoped they wouldn't hate her for lying to them.
"This is our library," he ushered her through the door.
At the sight of all the scrolls she grinned.
Turning back to her companion, she threw her arms around him, and despite feeling him stiffen in shock she gave him a gentle squeeze.
"Thank you Shino, for letting me come in here," she spoke sincerely. "You're a good friend."
He hesitantly lifted his arms up and patted her on the back awkwardly before letting his arms fall back to his side. She let him go immediately, and started looking around at the scrolls stacked against the walls.
"Where should we start? How do you file them?"
He moved near her and pulled out three scrolls.
"They are organized by bug type. These are on worms," he handed them to her. "Although I am unsure if they will be helpful. While you read those I will find you some information on other types of bugs with regenerative qualities."
"Thank you Shino," she beamed at him, and took the three scrolls to a table on the far wall.
As she pored over them she took notes onto a blank scroll she had with her.
They spent nearly three hours in companionable near-silence, only really talking when it was necessary.
Sakura, however, gleaned a lot of information, and Shino enjoyed himself sifting through his clans records on his favourite topic.
At long last they were interrupted by the entrance of Shino's dad.
"Sakura-chan," Shibi greeted her. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"
A look of surprise came over her features.
"Is it that time already?" she wondered aloud, but was interrupted by her stomach growling followed by a blush. "Thank you, Shibi-san. Only if it's not too much trouble."
"Not at all," he nodded to them. "Come up when you're ready. You can get back to this after you've eaten."
AAA
"So," Shibi addressed the two younger shinobi from across the table. "How has your day been?"
"Good." Shino answered, pronouncing the full stop.
Sakura giggled at him.
"And Sakura-chan?" Shibi pressed.
"Good," she agreed. "I'm very grateful to both you and Shino-san for allowing me in your library."
"It's good to see someone interested in it," he repeated Shino's sentiments. "Of course, none of our clan secrets reside there so you can have free reign. What, may I ask, are you looking for anyway?"
"Ideas for my medical jutsu," she replied honestly. 'Sounds like he half expected me to be a spy.'
"Sakura-san has been researching cell regeneration. Why? In order to improve Konoha's medical force," Shino stated, seemingly glaring at his father. "That is all that you need to know."
Sakura hesitated. Father and son were having a stare-off and she was unsure if she should interrupt.
"Shibi-san, I can show you what I've been researching if you want to know," she offered. "It's not a secret or anything."
"You don't have to," Shino answered on his father's behalf, giving her a much softer look.
"I don't mind," she repeated. "I wouldn't blame him for wanting to know what was being done with his information. He might even have insight for me."
Shino nodded and returned to his meal silently.
"So," Shibi folded his arms in front of him. "Do enlighten me."
She noticed Shino's eyebrow twitching – a tic that always occurred when he was annoyed – and vowed to make it up to him later.
"As you've gathered it is my intention to become a medic-nin," she explained. "I have a natural talent for chakra control that opens up possibilities that most others could never attain. I've taken an interest in cell restoration and regeneration. For example, if a ninja loses an arm or a leg they may very well be out of commission for the rest of their lives. Many commit suicide due to the loss of their livelihood. If I could develop a jutsu that can successfully clone cells to the extent of regenerating lost limbs such as is seen in some insects, and also lizards tails, it would be very useful to Konoha. I've also taken an interest in the case of Gekkou Hayate. He was kind to me recently, and I would like to find a way to cure his wasting disease. I believe I know how, I just need to build up my chakra pool and test a few theories."
Shibi sat back, a satisfied smile on his face.
"I see," he replied. "You're very ambitious for a shinobi your age."
"I am the first ninja in my clan," she explained, blushing a little. "The Haruno's have been merchants for generations. I have no kekkei genkai or clan techniques. All I can rely on is my resolve. I'm determined to prove myself and be a credit to Konoha."
"I see," Shibi's smile widened. "And would you be the prodigy that Hasimoto-san has been bragging about?"
She flushed.
"Has he?" she asked, a little annoyed. "He shouldn't be so blatant about it. Is he a friend of yours?"
"Not as such," he corrected. "He is more of an acquaintance, but I happened to be at the Hokage Tower at the same time as him."
She noticed Shino's eyebrow twitching like hell out of the corner of her eye. 'Was he checking up on my background or something.'
"I see," she smirked at him. "What fortunate timing for you. Did you happen to say anything else to you?"
"Not so much," his grin could split his face. "Why do you ask?"
'Two can play at this game, sucker,' her Inner voice challenged him. 'Channaro!'
"A student is always curious about what their teacher says about them," she replied neutrally. "Weren't you the same way?"
"Of course," he agreed. "But Hashimoto isn't your only sensei, is he?"
"No," she replied. "Hatake Kakashi is my teacher. But I pick bits and pieces up of all sorts of people and through scrolls. I'm good at putting things together by myself."
"Is that right?" Shibi leaned forward keenly. "And have you managed to invent any new jutsu of your own?"
"Rather than answering, how about I show you?" she smirked.
She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and tore a corner off. Focusing her chakra into it she expanded the sheet, caused it to fold itself into the shape of an origami beetle and inked a weak smoke bomb seal onto it. It crawled towards him and disintegrated into a puff of smoke.
"Of course that can be edited for any kind of explosion or seal as well as take any form," she smiled, taking another scrap of paper and forming one of her bouquets. "I stumbled across it while practicing some basic techniques for Hashimoto-sensei. It runs off the same basic idea of regenerating cells that I am researching now."
"Impressive," Shibi agreed, staring at her bouquet.
"So, Sakura-chan..." he started again, staring at her intently. "What else do you do with your time? You must not have much time to spare between two teachers."
She nodded in agreement. "I've been very busy with training. Both of my teammates are stronger than me, so I have to work hard to keep up. I don't want to slack off and be left behind."
"That must explain it then," Shibi nodded to himself. "I had wondered why it had taken you so long to come by again."
"Dad, that's enough," Shino all but growled at his father. "Sakura-san, you don't have to proceed with this conversation if it makes you uncomfortable."
"Don't be that way Shino," Shibi replied. "I just want to know about your friend."
Shino's brow twitched again.
"I'm honoured Shibi-san, but it is getting late," Sakura spoke neutrally. "Although I find no discomfort in this conversation, I believe Shino does. And as he is my friend I am inclined to end it here. There are still things I wish to discuss with him before I go. Thank you for the meal and your hospitality Shibi-san, please keep these flowers as a token of my appreciation."
"Thank you Sakura-chan," he bowed his head to her politely. "You are very welcome here any time. I look forward to seeing you again."
She bowed in response, and retreated with Shino back to the library.
"Gomen," Shino apologised again to her, his face tinged pink and his eyes downcast.
"Shino, it's fine," she took a step closer and wrapped him in another hug. "I don't mind your father. I think he's funny, in a way. Don't let it bother you."
He once again lifted his arms around her, but this time kept them there.
She felt his heart beating fast, and her own responding in the same way.
"Sakura-san," he addressed her quietly. "There's a festival in a month on the new moon. Will you go with me?"
"Shino..." she sighed, and moved so she could examine his features. "I..."
"You don't have to," he responded, dropping his arms from around her and taking a quick step back to a more respectable distance.
"That's not it. Shino..." she took his hand in hers and rested her head on his shoulder. "I have a secret, Shino."
"And you can't tell me?" he confirmed. "Is it bad?"
"No. Not as such. I just can't tell you yet," she squeezed his hand. "After a year I can tell you. I already organized it with the Hokage. All of us that graduated together from the Academy. You'll all know after the chunin exams. If you're still interested then, ...ask me again."
"I'm sorry that you have to go through this on your own," he answered her, pulling her back to him. "In the mean time I will do my best to be a good friend to you. Supporting one another even when we don't fully understand – that is part of what friendship is."
He held her closely, and she wondered vaguely how she got herself in this situation.
Not that she minded.
Since she had overcome her feelings for Sasuke, it seemed she was able to see others. And she was glad she saw Shino.
"Thank you Shino," she sighed into him. "But do me a favour and don't speak to anyone of this. I don't like hiding things from others, but it's necessary. You'll understand when the time comes."
He nodded silently.
"And... don't be offended if you don't see me often. I'm busy making preparations," she explained. "I need to train. But I still want to spar with you whenever I can. You push me beyond my limits... And I really need to work on my taijutsu."
"I want to train with you too," he agreed.
"I should go," she said, and he let her go. She packed up her things efficiently, and turned to him again.
Pulling a scrap of paper out of her pocket she created a to scale model of a kikai – a female with wings. She'd seen them often enough in her own time to remember the details.
"For you," she gave it to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Train hard, Shino. You don't wanna be caught out next time."
He smirked at her and escorted her to the door, where he paused. "It's dark, I'll walk you home."
She laughed at his chivalry and linked arms with him.
"I'd be insane to decline," she grinned at him as they walked down the street.
They chatted amiably about their teams, their jutsu and various other neutral topics.
When they arrived at Sakura's house she invited him in under the pretence of seeing her other scrolls that she was working on. He accepted gladly, and was introduced briefly to her parents before he was whisked into her room.
He was blown away by the sheer number of scrolls she had stacked up in her shelves.
"How many are there?" he asked curiously.
"About a hundred and fifty," she laughed at his expression. "A lot of them are really basic things like anatomy."
She pulled out a scroll and unwound it, showing an exact diagram of a human heart.
"This one contains all the human organs. I don't really need it now since I've committed it to memory and even examined a real one several times in the morgue. I've got a near photographic memory, so I don't have to back track very often. But still, it's good to hold onto them for reference, or if I want to pass on the knowledge at a later date. This shelf here has the ones that I'm using at the moment," she explained as she added the freshly transcribed scrolls to her collection. "If I end up with too many I can always seal them away in another scroll."
"How long did it take you to get all of these?"
"Two weeks," she smirked as she saw his eyebrow twitch and giggled.
"Two weeks?" he repeated.
"Yeah," she agreed. "It's from my two sessions with Hashimoto-sensei. He likes to give me a little homework during the week since I only see him once a week."
He stared at her in silence and let his eyebrow twitch again.
"I create a shadow clone or two to help me transcribe," she admitted. "I got the idea off Naruto. You absorb any intel a shadow clone has when it's dismissed so it's a perfect way to get a lot of information in a short amount of time. Although I can't create as many clones as Naruto I can still maintain two for several hours at a time so it's like compressing three days of research into one – I'm hoping I'll be able to increase the number with practice though."
"You only have a limited source of chakra," Shino reminded her, apparently a little concerned. "Be sure you don't drain yourself completely."
"Of course," she agreed. "I know my limits. I'm just trying to find ways to improve."
They shared a moment of silence, neither one quite wanting to say goodbye.
"Thank you again Shino," she crept closer to him, and he lifted a hand to touch her hair shyly.
"You don't need to thank me," he stated evenly. "A friend helps their friends out whenever possible. This, too is part of friendship."
"A good friend also acknowledges when their friends help them," Sakura replied in kind, a soft smile on her features. "I'm glad I got the chance to know you, Shino. And I'm glad you took the time to know me."
He leant over and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek.
"One year, Sakura-chan," he reminded her. "I should go now. I will see you soon."
With that, she showed him out, and returned to her bed to think on what he had said.
'The Hokage might be upset with me,' she pouted. 'Morino-san definitely would be.'
'Screw it, we deserve a little respite as well,' her Inner voice defended. 'Besides, it's not like he ends up with someone else. We're not meddling that much.'
Mostly justified, but still feeling a little concerned she drifted off to sleep.
AAA