A/N: Welcome my peeps. Hope you all enjoy the story! Just remember, flames will be used to fuel the will of fire!
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I financially prosper off the Naruto franchise. Those honors belong to Kishimoto-sama.
Chapter Three: The Real Training Begins
He closed his one visible eye, and lowered his head. Opening his eye, he looked at the pinkette cry her heart out into the dirt. But for once, he wasn't just looking at her, he took a moment to take all that was Sakura in.
"I'm sorry", he whispered to no-one as he too disappeared off in a whorl of leaves.
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The cold morning wind tousled Sakura's short locks as she slowly made her way to the training grounds. The pinkette groaned to herself as she anticipated what the sadistic trench coat clad Jounin had planned for her for the day.
On the outside, Sakura looked like she had attempted to fight a bear, and lost. Pale skin, lost its vibrancy, dark bags marked otherwise flawless skin, and her gait had lost the feminine sway it normally had.
She groaned to herself again as she finally approached the training ground. Her limbs hurt something fierce. She honestly had no idea how people like Gai-sensei and Lee wore these weights all the time. She felt like she was one step from physically having her limbs fall off.
As she approached, the purple-haired Jounin waved with a huge grin on her face.
Isn't it a little bit too early to be smiling like that? She thought to herself, more that a little off put.
Waving back, she walked up to stand next to her sensei. Arms crossed over her chest, shoulders squared, and a false look of alertness on her tired-looking face.
"What exactly do you have planned for me today"? She asked. Inwardly, she cringed at the question, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.
Anko's grinned widened. "Well, my hands are actually tied today". She said, grin morphing into a small pout. "I know that you have good chakra control which sets you up primarily for two paths: Genjutsu user, or medical corps. Unfortunately, I am not either of those and Kurenai-chan is busy with that bug kid".
Sakura's face morphed into a puzzled expression as she shifted her feet. "So you're telling me that you don't have anything to offer me"? She inquired.
Anko grunted in the negative. "Eh, I never said that pinky. I know some genjutsu. Just nothing on the same level as what Kurenai could teach you. This just means that things will be a bit harder for us, nee. I can teach you theory, and some things outside of the box. The rest, no matter what you choose, you'll just have to learn on your own".
The genin wiped a hand over her face tiredly. "Great, more self teaching. Because it worked so well before" she whined.
Anko reached over and smacked her sharply on the back of the head, causing her to jolt. "Hey"! She shouted sharply.
"You aren't self-teaching yourself necessarily, you idiot. I said I would guide you, didn't I? Now, enough of this chit chat. Let's get to work"! She shouted cherrily clapping her hands in front of her.
Anko took a few steps back, plopping herself down on a small boulder behind her and made herself comfortable. Pulling out a stick of dango, she took a bite before continuing. "So we've already established that you have good chakra control, yes"? She asked.
Sakura nodded her head in affirmation.
"Alrighty then. While this may be the case, during your battle with that Ino brat, I noticed that the both of you tire out after using only a few low-level jutsu. So today we are going to work on increasing your chakra reserves. This is something that takes a lifetime of doing, so don't expect miracles by the time finals rolls around".
Sakura put her hand up and asked "Okay, but how does one go about increasing their chakra reserves"?
Anko shook her head sadly. Aren't these kids taught anything worthwhile? She thought to herself.
"I am so very glad you asked", she said sarcastically. "Your chakra reserves can be increased through building the two types of energy in your body. The first type is physical energy. You started to build that the moment you put on those weights. The second type is spiritual energy. This is done through meditation, which is where your homework-"
A sharp groan interrupted her lecture. Anko glared at her, effectively shutting the pinkette up.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted...This is where your homework comes in. I want you to meditate twice a day in two seperate hour long intervals. Every day that passes I want you to add an additional ten minutes to both sets. This does two things, it increases your spiritual energy and also helps you learn self discipline".
Sakura raised an eyebrow at her as if to say 'I am the embodiment of self-discipline'.
Anko took another bite out of her dango stick before flicking it at Sakura, hitting her square in the forehead. "Oi, don't look at me like that pinky. It's well known how little self discipline you have. We've all seen how you treat your teammates...Speaking of which…". She trailed off.
Sakura at least had the grace to look slightly embarrassed as her face flushed an attractive light shade of pink.
Anko's stare suddenly turned sharp and she focused a moderate amount of Killing Intent at the genin. Sakura took a quick step back, tripping over stray pebbles and fell straight on to her butt.
Her voice dropped a few octaves as Anko growled out "No more of that hitting your teammates bullshit. And no more fawning over the other, got it"?
Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically.
Anko clapped her hands in front of her with a wide smile on her face. Sakura was beginning to notice a pattern here. "Good"! She said cheerily. "Anyway I have another gift for you". She pulled a rectangular box, no bigger than the size of her forearm, out from one of the pockets of her trench coat and tossed it at her.
Sakura caught the box clumsily in her hands and yanked the top off. Inside lie two silver scalpels. She looked up at the jounin with a puzzled expression on her face.
Anko just continued to smile. "Next week, we will focus on ninjutsu, this week our focus is armed combat and taijutsu. Specifically with those scalpels".
Anko reached over and plucked one of them out of the box. "You see, medics are more dangerous than they are made out to be. Not only do they have a large understanding of poisons, but because of their in-depth understanding of how the body works, they can use something as unassuming as these to inflict a deadly amount of damage on their enemies.
The jounin handed the scalpel back to her, and Sakura took it into her hand, studying the small tool carefully. "If you inject your chakra into that blade, it increases in size, sort of like how Asuma-san's works. However, unlike his, yours in meant to inflict a large amount of damage in a small area of impact, got it"? She asked.
Sakura nodded. "But how am I supposed to do that without knowledge of which areas are the most deadly"? She asked.
"That's where the hospital comes in. After training today and meditation, I have arranged for you to meet a friend of mine there. They will start you on medical lessons. It's up to you to learn as much as you can from them. While I can teach you how to wield those weapons, I can't teach you the whys and hows if you know what I mean".
Sakura nodded. "Alright". Pulling both out of the box, she dropped the package to the ground and got into battle position, a serious look on her face.
Anko smiled and jumped off the boulder, pulling her own weapon of choice out. The two katars glistened in the morning sunlight as she charged at the genin. And with that, the battle had officially begun.
I hope you're ready Sakura. This may only be the beginning, and I know we don't have much time. But if I can teach you enough to survive in this world, then I have slowly begun to atone for my own sins. Anko thought to herself. Make me proud.
A/N: Pairings undecided as of now. Not sure if I'm gonna go yuri or het yet. Either way, it probably won't matter until way later. Also I'm trying to play to Sakura's strengths here, there will be no "sasuke-kun!" and standing there with a kunai for three episodes with this version of Sakura. Anko would have her hide!