Chapter Three: Hopeless, Surprise
It had been over two weeks now since she had received her students. And in reality, they weren't improving much. Now she knew how Kakashi-sensei had always felt around them. She sat silently watching her students try to master chakra control. They were trying it out for the first time today. She now knew why Kakashi always read his books because for the last hour, all they had been doing was looking at the tree and maybe getting an inch or two off the ground. Yukio was swearing quite a bit everytime he landed on his butt. While Midori was glaring at Yukio for getting much higher then her, Mazu, as her two other students had been calling him for awhile, sat on the ground playing with a small butterfly that had landed near him. Sakura could only roll her eyes.

'These guys are actually useless. I thought it was just me, but really, even Sasuke and Naruto seemed to get higher then these two.'

As she adjusted herself into a more comfortable sitting position, she gazed at the three hopeless cases until Midori decided to call out for her.

"Sakura Sensei…" whined the 12 year old as she turned around to her teacher.

"What's wrong now?" asked Sakura as she gazed at the girl who was now glaring at her.

"I think you were lying. How the hell can you walk up a tree? It's like walking on water," said Yukio as he glared at the pink haired girl. His look always seemed to send shivers up her spine every time she looked at him. It was just something about the look in his eyes that just sent shivers down your spine.

"It's not impossible," said Masakazu as he let go of the small bug, watching it fly off.

"Then you try it, Mr. Perfect!" shouted Yukio as he glared at the orange haired kid.

"I didn't want to show you up; I wanted you to at least get it down so you don't have to look like an idiot," Said Masakazu. He then slowly raised himself up and started towards the tree, the tallest and sturdiest one he could find. He put his hands together and approached the tree, and thus started to walk perfectly up the side of the trunk until he got on the uppermost branch and walked on the underside of it. He looked at them for a long time before walking around it to sit on the upper side.

"Well, maybe you aren't as hopeless as I thought," said Sakura as she scratched her head, looking at the boy. He had almost perfect chakra control. The only thing wrong was that she could see small footprints in the bark, showing that he used a little too much.

"Wow! Mazy! That was awesome!" chirped the brunette as she pumped her fits into the air, laughing happily.

"Stop calling me that!" said Masakazu as he somewhat rolled his eyes and looked down at his teacher.

"I'm impressed! If you work a little more, you'll probably be able to go up the trunk without having tiny footprints left," said Sakura as she trailed off and started in a different direction.

"Sensei!" shouted Midori as she ran after the pink haired woman, who merely rolled her eyes and turned around.

"Hum?"

"Is there a trick you can tell us or something…you know to help us out?" asked Midori as she gazed at her teacher.

"Nope, I can't help you" Smiled Sakura as she walked back to her post in the ground and sat down with her back to it.

"…" The girl stayed silent before she started to run towards the tree with her Kunai out and attempt to climb it, only falling slightly and hitting her head on the tree.

"You're pathetic," said Yukio as he walked over to her.

"You're no better!"

"Am so!"

"Not!"

"So!"

"NOT!"

"SO, SO, SO, SO, SO…INFINITY!" Yelled the girl as she got up and glared at the boy.

Sakura could only role her eyes at the two. They were worse then Naruto and Sasuke. At least they actually tried to get along with each other…well at times. As she sat there, she pulled out some scrolls to read. It was a simple mission they had; go to earth village and escort the Tsuchikage's head priest home safely. It would be fairy simple; all she needed was her students to try to work together. So as she sat there she noticed Midori slowly walk over to the tree in which Masakazu was currently in and stare at him till he came down to see what she wanted. She noted right away that she was asking him a question; he seemed to look surprised, but started to talk back. They stayed like that for a good 10 minutes. Sakura smiled knowing what the two where talking about.
As time passed, the sun was starting to set and the children looked at Sakura. They'd been there since seven that morning and had very few breaks, let alone anything to eat.

"Sensei, can we go home?" asked Midori as she fell back down to the ground from the middle of the tree.

"Nope, well I guess you could…but you still haven't made it to the top. I want you to train until you can," said Sakura as she stood there.

"Sensei…don't you think that's stupid to train all night and wear our selves down. Like what if an enemy ninja attacks the village tonight? We wouldn't be able to help out at all," said Yukio, obviously trying to weasel out of training and go home and sleep.

"I don't know, I wonder what Naruto and Sasuke would think," said Sakura, her voice slightly trailing off as she thought about the two boys who had pushed them selves to the limit to get that right.

"Sasuke and Naruto? Sensei what on earth are you talking about?" asked Masakazu.

"Uh…wha? Did I say something like that?" Asked Sakura who looked flustered to think what she just said.

"You said, I wonder what Naruto and Sasuke would think," said Midori as she walked over to her teacher along with the two trailing behind glaring at one another.

"Uh…oh I was just thinking about the past when I was 12" Smiled Sakura as she looked at the three.

"You might as well tell us because were not going any where till ya do" Said Yukio as he looked sternly at her.

"…uh…man, you should really be training but ok. There was a time in which Naruto and Sasuke didn't like each other much. However, you know they did. They pushed themselves every day. They trained with one another until we gradually left Kakashi-sensei to go and train with other people. The day we learned chakra control like you are now, they spent a whole day or more working on it. It wasn't a pretty sight. Even when eating they were in a completion."

"So, Naruto and Sasuke were best friends, even when they hated one another?" asked Midori.

"I guess you could say that." Said Sakura as she placed her finger on her chin and tapped it.
"Sensei…did you like Sasuke Uchiha when you were younger?" questioned Midori as she watched her sensei's face suddenly flush beet red.

"Hn, no surprise there. They're always hanging around. It wouldn't surprise me if they were screwing," said Yukio, giving a smug look as he looked at his teacher.

"No…there's nothing between Sasuke and I. He has one person on his mind. And that one person only…no one else, not even Naruto…" said Sakura as she held her arm and looked away and to the ground, her face hidden behind her bangs.

"Sensei…" started Midori.

"I want you three to keep training until its perfect," said Sakura as she started to walk away.

"Way to go you idiot…Now even Mazy has to stay here too… " Said Midori. as she watched her sensei slowly leave the grounds and head to some unknown place in town.

"Hey! How was I to know she liked him? And she didn't need to take it so hard."

"You still have to remember, you idiot, she's not very old herself. Think about it. She's probably gone through a lot. More then anyone our age. I've heard stories of their generation. It was the hardest they'd really ever had…and you go making it worse…"

"I told you, not-my-fault!" said Yukio as he left to his tree with his hands behind his head, with Masakazu following.

Sakura didn't know where she was going. She wasn't too sure whether or not she should have just left them standing there. Sure Kakashi Sensei left them alone a lot at night to train, but…she was starting to regret doing so. She never really believed that children should be pushed and worked to exhaustion, but right now she just wanted them to leave her alone, she knew that sounded horrible for even her but right now…what Yukio said affected her in such a way. As she though about it more, she actually started to think about how she felt about Sasuke, it was true she used to love him when she was only 12 but she grew up now. She thought she had grown out of that childhood crush, but it seemed to hit her like a brick wall when she dawned on the fact that she still actually liked Sasuke. But then she knew better, Sasuke Uchiha would never like her in return, he made that very clear when he left. As for now, she should just move on and try to forget about the Uchiha.

Sakura then headed further down the dirt roads till she noticed Neji and Ten-Ten laughing and smiling…well it was more Ten-Ten then Neji, he even in age still showed no emotion towards people. As she walked past, Ten-Ten seemed to give her a smile and an overly enthusiastic wave. Sakura just smiled and kept heading in a random direction. Up ahead she noticed a tall man dressed in a weird green suit yelling something about the greatness of youth and what not. She knew right away who it was, there stood Lee standing in front of 3 of his students and pointing out how Tai-jutsu is just as good as anything else. She had to smile at Lee he was one of the most positive thinkers she knew besides Naruto.
As Sakura made her way over, one of his students, named Calli, looked at her for the longest time before Lee had to turn around and watch as she walked over to him. He gave a smile and started to turn red when the boy named Calli, a long, black-haired boy, pushed his teacher forward to Sakura. While Sakura looked confused at what the kid was doing before he ran off with the other two in hand and hid behind a building. Sakura then turned her attention to Lee, who wasn't quite looking at her, but then grabbed her hand and looked her straight in the eye until he heaved in a great breath of air.

"Sakura…will you go out with me!" Asked Lee all in one breath as his now deep red face looked away towards some spot on a building.

"Uh…..Sure" Said Sakura. 'If this is a way to get over Sasuke I will do anything. And anyways, how bad could it be? I mean, Lee has always liked me, he's even openly admitted it. So I should give him a chance.' thought Sakura as she gave Lee a smile. He looked at her with wide eyes.

"Great!" Said Lee as he instantly turned around and gave his students a thumb up. All Sakura could do was give a sweat-drop as she looked at the man, and smile. He was happy, and she was glad.

When Sakura awoke, her gaze was blurry. She lay on her stomach looking at the window in front of her. Her arm was slung over the side of the bed, only millimeters from the ground. She gazed silently as the rain splashed on the window. She smiled to her self as she looked out the window. She had told them to take the day off. They'd been training for the last three weeks to get ready for the chuunin exams, which would be held in only four days.

It had been five weeks since Lee asked her to go out with him. They'd gone on a few dates, but nothing big. He seemed to be nervous around her and that always seem to make her smile. She stared blankly at a spot on the wall until she averted her gaze to the desk next to the window. It was a complete mess; scrolls were scattered everywhere. She had been reading the details of their last missions to come up with some improvements for their training, to help them work on the stuff in which they seemed to fail.

Then she looked from the piles of paper to four pictures that hung on her wall to one that was on her desk. She looked at them from right to left, The first that hung on her wall was of her and her parents, then Naruto, her, Sai, and Kakashi. The next one was of Kakashi, Sasuke, her and Naruto, after it was of her and her three students, then lastly the one that stood on her desk on top of one of the shelves was of Naruto and the fourth. It was odd to look at it. It was of him when he was 17 years old, before he had gone off to look for Sasuke. They were standing next to each other, smiling like idiots at the camera. She gave a low sigh and looked at the head protector wrapped around the top corner of it. She rolled onto her back and onto her left side, as to try to fall back asleep. She pulled her blankets up further and further until you could only see her head. As she lay there she got to thinking of her child hood, and then of Naruto's and Sasuke's. She actually realized how unfair their childhoods were. Naruto had had it the worst of all three. It's true that Sasuke's clan was killed, but Naruto had no one from the start, not to mention the village hated him. Even worse, he had the nine tails sealed within his body. Now he was on his own in the huge world, wandering from town to town for an answer she knew he'd probably never get. She then gave a low frustrated sigh, threw off her sheets, swung her legs over the side of her bed, and glared at the floor.

She was never a morning person. She was just glad she didn't have to go and do anything important today. But knowing the Hokage, she'd have her on hospital duty. Sakura gave another sigh as she walked on the cold floor to her bathroom to get ready for the day.

Two hours later, she was dressed and ready for the day. Too bad the day wasn't quite ready for her. The rain was coming down harder then ever, and now and she swore she heard thunder at one point. As she sat at her desk and looked out the window, her eyes drifted around her room. She would have watched T.V but un-luckily for her the power had gone out, so there she sat at 12 in the after noon completely bored and without power, or a way to make food for that matter. The only thing she thought that she could possibly do was to go and wander down to one of the open stores. 'But then again...' She looked outside and glared. She'd either sit there and wait until the power turned on, or not eat anything that involved cooking. As Sakura looked around, she realized how neat and orderly it was…well, besides her desk that was covered in an insane amount of scrolls. She decided that she'd clean it up. Sakura pulled out a large box from the shelf above and started to put markers in them to indicate where to start again. She then slowly pilled the 20 or more scrolls into the rather large dark green wooden box. As she placed it on the shelves that were built into the large desk she started to look at the picture of Naruto and the forth. She never actually knew why she had it. It was just something she'd found on her camera and decided to frame it in memory of the fourth and Naruto. Even though Naruto wasn't dead, it didn't help much because it sure seemed like it. As Sakura looked closer at the picture, she started to realize how much the two actually looked alike. She hadn't really seen them standing together, well, for a long enough time to actually get a good look at them, anyway. They were normally running around everywhere.

'My god, they do look a lot alike! I mean, gosh, they have the same blonde hair, almost the same cut, almost identical height… Their eyes are differently shaped, but same blue, same nose and stupid smile, same chin, same build… Wait, that's too great to be a coincidence, isn't it? Naruto did once tell me the fourth didn't speak much of his father, but if I were to look at it, the fourth would be a perfect outline for Naruto's father. I mean some one has to know, Kakashi Sensei defiantly won't tell me a thing…I need someone who is smart, good at problem solving…Kakashi sensei would be the best….who else could I…' That's when it hit the pink haired girl. Why didn't she think of it earlier? It was so simple! He would know right away. She was such an idiot for not think of it earlier. Sakura then quickly moved away from the picture, pulled on a coat, pulled out an umbrella, and quickly got out of her small apartment.

Elsewhere
Two figures slowly walked down a back road of god only knows where, one with blood red eyes while another had an oddly colored orange mask, they walked next to each other, both alert and both focused. They had been following the 'fox brat,' as Itachi seemingly called him, for more than a year now and had gotten nowhere. They didn't even know if the man everybody had been seeing was actually the blonde kid and not a shadow clone wandering around. They had heard he was out of the village for some 'mission' as they found out from a traveling ninja who had seen and heard the conversation between Sakura and Naruto the day he had left. The leader was getting frustrated at the two who had being tracking the blonde-haired person for not retrieving or even seeing him. Tobi walked silently looking all around amused by a few passer-by's who walked as far as they could get from the two cloaked men. Even enemy ninjas seemed to avoid them at all costs. They slowly made there was to a small town, there the first store on there path was a Ramen stand. So they entered, knowing that the 'fox brat' had a odd, weirdly love for Ramen, and so far had been to one in every village.

"I was wondering something, for a long time" Said Tobi instantly not using his third person talking he had grown fond of in the past few months. Itachi stayed silent and pulled a torn photo out from under his cloak to the woman at the cash. And asked the same question he always asked, while Tobi continued to talk.

"Why did that Kyuubi kid leave for such a long mission in the first place? What's the point of tracking him? He already took out one of us, who says he can't take out another? And you with your eye sight slowly fading …"

"…"Itachi gave him the worst death glare of all.

"Sorry, haven't seen him" Smiled the woman as she glanced at the picture once. Oddly fast.

"I mean, what happens if the Sannin is with the Kyuubi boy? What are we goin' to do then? You thought about that?" asked Tobi as he looked around.

"Kyuubi!" stated the woman as she looked at the two men in front of her. "You mean that man that we here only an hour ago was the holder of the Kyuubi! My god! I'm amazed I'm still alive! I have to alert the elder that the enemy is here! Let alone their greatest weapon!" Screeched the woman as she turned to them and then was about to leave before Tobi grabbed her. She looked into the small dot on his face and instantly froze and fell to the ground.

Itachi gazed at the elder man in front of him. He had never seen him use such a technique before, let alone do anything. He'd never liked him either. No one knew anything about him except for the leader, and that was about it. All he had known was that there was something about this man he didn't trust.
As Itachi looked over the taller and elder man, all Tobi could do was bend down to make sure she was alright and look around glad no one was in the stand. He looked to Itachi and felt a stern look through the hole; it was as if it was sending some sort of glare beam towards the Uchiha. This just gave another reason to not trust this man.

"Well, he's here. Let's go and bring the Kyuubi boy to leader, to make him happy," said Tobi in his odd way of happiness.

"…"Itachi just looked at the man and followed him out, not ever wanting his guard to be let down.

"I was thinking…why does the leader want the nine tails now? It's your job to get him, so why am I here?" Said Tobi instantly as he spun around and seemingly looked at the man.

"We need all the tailed beasts, and you're back-up,"

"…But we've only gotten six so far…wouldn't extracting the nine tails now ruin the balance?"

"…If he take him now when he's alone it will be easier. Then, we don't have to worry about village hidden in the leaves coming to back up their comrade."

"I was thinking, how will I know what the nine tails looks like? All you told me was that he had blonde hair. We've seen exactly 23 blondes in this village alone!"

"He'll be the first one yelling at some-" And is if right on queue…

"What the hell do you mean I can't buy this here?!" Yelled a manly voice from off in the small store only 20 feet away from the two men, they both looked mildly surprised at there luck.

"That him?" As Tobi said that, a few people had stopped to stare at the small shop as a blonde haired man forced his way out. Just as he looked up, he wished he hadn't gotten up this morning. There before him was a pair of red eyes, he needed no more time to think, and instantly ran off. Remembering the words of the elder sister from sand, 'When fighting an Uchiha, if one against one, run away.' Well, maybe not the exact words, but that's all Naruto could remember at that point.

The two men watched him run, then realized that he was actually was the fox boy. They quickly recovered from their shock and started to run at full speed. The blonde ran hard and fast, jumping from roof to roof. Just because he didn't have chakra didn't mean he still couldn't do that, it just made it easier to fall.

"I thought you said he never runs away from a battle?" Tobi smirked.

"He doesn't, he's the first one to charge into one" Said Itachi confused, you could tell it but his voice but his face would always seemingly hide it.

"He got smarter then" Laughed Tobi as they ran faster then instantly stopped. The blonde was caught in a dead end. The only things around were a few scraps of iron and a metal rod. He looked lost.

"Why did I go this way?" Said the freaked out blonde as he looked left to right, then front to back…that was his down fall because behind him there stood the two raven haired men.

"So this is the nine tails fox? I expected something a little more from the strongest of the tailed beasts. Look at him; he looks worse then your old partner. Look at that unkempt hair…" said Tobi, over dramatizing.

Naruto looked around, and grinned upon seeing an opening. It wasn't a large one but maybe it'd work. He waited, and then instantly started to charge his way towards the two men, eyes firmly on the ground. Then his foot hit something, all that was heard was metal scraping off dirt, and then on wood. Everything went dark.

Important Notice!
Hey you guy's sorry this was so bloody late. You know school work and all, Hahaha I may have to get another Beta though. Because mine is having a hard time coping with this story as well, because of all the school work, social life ect…, Anyways I want to that Moogle a lot for helping out with this chapter. She kind of rushed it but I much appetite that. I just wanted to post it to you, its been over two weeks and I am sorry. The fourth chapter will be my last chapter I believe till I finish school on the 22nd of June. But I need these next few weeks to study, for my 4-5 final exams. Sorry for the incontinences.

Canadain-Girl