3 – The death-training continues.
"Done." The gruff voice Sakura had gotten used to during the past week told them. By now she didn't care if she was graceless or not, her hair was a mess, she was dirty and the hems of her dress were covered in slime as was her legs. The fabric of her clothes was torn, shredded in places and charred in others when she had been to slow to dodge. Muscles aching and screaming for rest Sakura hummed in satisfaction at the ground. 'Dear, lovely, Solid ground. I won't ever take you for granted again.' Beside her the boys had dropped to the ground as well, they weren't as badly of as Sakura but both were still tired and worn by the "exercise" the dog, Pakkun, had led them through. There had been pits of slimy water they had to pass by balancing on narrow poles and objects, codes they had to crack to pass to the next room and damn impossible stamina tests.
Every time one of them had failed a test they had to do it over, all of them, and there had been hidden traps that had been rigged with flash-tags, smoke-bombs, shuriken and more, most of them triggered when the three of them had been too distracted to notice the traps or too certain of themselves. There hadn't been any pattern in the traps either as sometimes the traps were in the most obscure places where there wasn't even a chance they would be trigged, while at other times the traps were in the sneakiest and most exhausting places forcing the three to circle around the traps. And some of the traps were multiuse while some had been one time only.
Groaning Sakura opened her eyes to see that the boys had collapsed as well; rolling on her back she concentrated on breathing and trying to ignore her hair that lay plastered slick against her neck and forehead. In the corner of her eye she could see someone approaching them and by using a last sliver of strength in her body she was capable of turning her head to the side. The man had a green Chūnin-vest over dark-blue long sleeves. The white hair was distinctive enough that Sakura recognized the man in her sapped state as her new sensei and the one ultimately responsible for her currently sorry state.
Just like the first day the man was reading an orange book with warning labels on the cover. However he also carried lunchboxes and Sakura's stomach growled hungrily at the thought of food. The boys seemed to agree as they were watching avidly how the boxes moved when the Jōnin sat down on the ground.
"Right then, my little Genin. How did you like the training this morning?" Three glares answered his question. "I see, maaa. Don't worry tomorrow you won't be going through the building again tomorrow, depending on how well you do I might even let you off from doing it ever again." The man shrugged "But we can discuss that later, for now how do you feel about lunch?"
Three amazingly loud growls were heard and Sakura blushed at the sound her stomach had made, but didn't have the strength to really care. Sasuke turned his head away slightly; red dusting his cheeks and Naruto didn't react in any way that could be interpreted as uncomfortable. However all of them nodded to their teacher to show their agreement to eat.
"Well then, the last team member to stand won't get a lunchbox." The evil, evil man said with an eye-smile. Surprisingly, or not, Sakura found that she was the last of the three Genin to get off the ground. She knew her stamina sucked and by now she really hated how she had slacked off during the academy. Meanwhile Kakashi had handed the boys a lunchbox each and was subtly keeping an eye on her. "Are you not going to eat Sakura?" The girl looked over at her teacher who held up a third box. Flabbergasted the girl watched as the man held it out for her.
"But I got off the ground last!" She couldn't help but blurt out. Slapping her hands over her mouth Sakura felt her cheeks grow warm again and her to her horror her eyes tearing up.
"Maaa, I believe I'm still part of the team, no?" And thinking back to what Iruka-sensei had said she realized it was true, the Jōnin was stationed with a team to lead them, but the team leader was also part of the team. A small smile spread on her face and Sakura took the wobbly steps over to her new teacher, and team leader, who patiently held out the box towards her from his place on the ground.
"Thank you, Sensei." She got another eye-smile in response. The man went back to his book as he waited for the Genin to finish their meals, Sakura was surprised to see that the bento wasn't one of the pre-packed ones that could be bought in a store but homemade. She glanced at her teacher but saw nothing indicating he had noted her observation, buried in his orange book as he was.
Soon the three had finished eating and after a moment of uncertainty she had helped the boys pack the bento in like they were before they were opened. Sasuke had protested, but a sharp glance at Kakashi had conveyed her reasoning and Naruto had surprisingly not needed any help. Of course this had made the boy tell the Uchiha that Naruto was much better, to which Sakura had responded with a fist to the back of the blond head and Sasuke had ended with a disinterested "hn". Nothing more had come out of it thought, she was sure that if the boys had had more energy there would had been a fight. Now however the boys were much too tired.
Kakashi looked up from his book lazily resting his eye at the three of them and Sakura think she saw it flicker to the bentos but wasn't sure. Soon the man stood up and settled into a lazy slouch.
"So Genin, now that you've had your first training session? Tomorrow we will be concentrating on building your chakra stores and control, depending on which one you're better at you will have to train the other to match." Sakura felt her face drain slightly at that. 'Isn't chakra building exercises the most draining thing there is?' she recalled the books describing the various ways of gaining more chakra and shuddered. 'Che! We can take it. And even if it gets too much I'm sure Sasuke-kun will make sure we get home safe. See? Nothing to worry about.' Sakura nodded, agreeing silently with herself.
"For today we will continue after Pakkun give a rapport of how you did." The cheerful voice froze Sakura; she really hadn't done well in the exercises this week. She hadn't been strong or fast or smart or tactical enough. Beside her she felt Naruto twitch and Sasuke-kun going still. Turning her gaze towards the dog Sakura watched in trepidation as it began the report.
"The pups need some serious training. The blond pup is way to reckless and can't follow a plan for more than moments as he gets frustrated and stops thinking, he has to little patience to wait and plan even when it is plain that one of the others has an idea of what to do. He is too slow, weak and his forms are sloppy, little to none in the way of chakra control and why does the pup even wear orange?" Naruto glared at the dog and huffed. He may or may not have also muttered something about "Because orange is awesome, Datebayo.", but Sakura wasn't certain of that. She didn't think it safe for her mental condition to think too much of it and why –if that was what he had said- he would think that either, so she refrained from thinking about it.
"We will have to ask him." The man nodded for the dog to continue.
"The lack haired pup is a brat. He wants to do everything himself, thinking himself superior to the others even if they have qualities that could make up for what he lack of ability… at least a little bit." The Uchiha bristled yet the dog didn't seem to care. "Poor chakra control and wasting energy he need on unnecessary things, some planning abilities but lacking any sense of survival instincts when it comes to showing up the blond pup." The black haired boy glared at the dog, but didn't say anything. 'Of course not, Sasuke-kun is way to cool to react to insults.' 'So true.' Sakura's inner agreed.
"The pup isn't to god at considering the others or even their ability and the only thing he ever adds to plans are snide comments or insults, if he even bothers to listen. Sure he pointed out the flaws in whatever strategy the others came up with, but he didn't lend a hand in changing those flaws nor did he share his own plans." The dog looked gruff for a moment. "Do you think there's something defect about the brat?" The dog actually seemed worried. Unseen to Sakura a vein at Sasuke's temple started throbbing at the question and when Naruto snickered a harsh glare was thrown from the eyes of the Uchiha. Unseen by any of the children Kakashi huffed a small laugh, but Pakkun caught the response of his summoner with ease.
"No Pakkun, I don't think the boy is defect. He's probably as much in his right mind right now as he'll ever be." The dog and the man studied the Uchiha and Sakura found herself treated to the sight of an expression of brief concern being directed to the boy in mention. Then a shiver of unease seemed to go through both dog and man. Sakura dismissed the words she thought she herd as a trick of her mind and the wind, after all they made no sense. Honestly what could "Bowl-cut, turtles, green and spandex" really have in common?
"What about Sakura then, Pakkun?" Her sensei's voice brought her out of her thoughts, making her turn her bright and slightly very eyes on the small, brown dog.
"Slow, too little muscle mass, not to good hand-to-eye coordination. She's good at coming up with plans and seeing flaws in them, but lacks the power to go through with them herself. She figured out some of the trap patterns and her chakra control was the only thing letting them pass some of the obstacles, but she doesn't trust herself. However she is somewhat bi-polar about how she acts as she hits the blond pup for breathing wrong yet adores the black pup." The dog eyed Kakashi seriously for a moment and stated in a regretful tone. "I think you might have a fan-girl on your hands."
"Aaah, I figured. Still I'll do my best to work the condition out of her, if that doesn't work, well... I still have That, don't I?" The dog looked almost horrified.
"Kakashi… you don't mean That, that. Do you?" The man nodded solemnly.
"I know it might seem a little… harsh, but… you know what happens to fan-girls in the field." Clapping his hands the Jōnin turned to his students. "Enough of that, for now. You've had enough rest so we can get started on the next exercise." An eye-smile was directed at them and a shiver of trepidation ran down Sakura's spine, but she had to ask.
"What kind of exercise, Kakashi-sensei?" 'Khe! We can take anything the man can throw at us. Most of all Sasuke-kun!' Sakura didn't really agree with her inner at the moment, the man was a Jōnin after all – even if they had not seen the man really do anything yet. And the man was still giving that eye-smile, it certainly didn't do anything to ease her nerves. 'Kakashi-sensei smiled like that yesterday when he told us to find Pakkun-san, didn't he?' And inner didn't seem to have any answer to that.
"Well my cute little Genin, you will be answering a few questions." Sakura didn't need to turn around to know Sasuke-kun and Baka-Naruto sweat-drop behind her.
''A few questions', my ass.' Face red with exertion Sakura struggled to breathe as she did the pushups she was required to do. By now even she had lost count of how many she had done and the boys didn't seem to do much better. 'But Sasuke-kun is doing better than Naruto-Baka.' And Sakura had to agree with her inner personality. Not that Naruto were doing bad, but Sasuke seemed more used to the exercise and that meant he hadn't wasted energy earlier on when Naruto had challenged the dark haired boy on who could finish first.
Sakura threw a glare at the reason the three of them were even doing this in the first place, her sensei however didn't seem to notice as he just turned page in that stupid book of his and giggled! He Giggled! They were struggling in sweat and pain and that Stupid, Old-man haired, Perverted MAN just sat there in the shade of a tree and giggled! How dare he?! And not only had he punished them all when Naruto or Sasuke didn't know the answer with exercises, no. Their so called sensei was going to make them do punishments tomorrow as well!
Suddenly Sakura became aware that there weren't any struggling breaths beside her own. Pausing to look up she found both Naruto and Sasuke looking at her incredulously. Hesitatingly Naruto spoke.
"Ano, Sakura-chan? I think we're done…" she paused and cocked her head to the side staring at the boy, 'Done? Done with what?' and then she realized he meant with the pushups. With a whimper like sound Sakura collapsed on the ground. She was done. She had done it.
"Aaah. God job, Minna-san." The cheerful voice of her torturer came. Struggling she managed to turn on her side, not having the energy for much more. "You're done for today, tomorrow we will start with the extra punishments you got yourselves" the three couldn't help groaning at this. "…and the afternoon questions will be focusing on weapon care instead of history. I hope you'll do well, otherwise there will be the same punishment for a wrong or to-slow answer. The day after we, or rather you, will have another round in the fun-house…" If the glares of the three Genin could kill there wouldn't be anything but goo left of the silver-haired ninja, slowly drying in the afternoon sun. "So before we part ways, let me tell you something surprisingly few people - especially ninja - seem to understand." A dark eye gazed down at the young triad before him.
"No one can know everything. There is a reason the specialists get chosen for a task before the multitasking ones, a jack of all trades in never something you want to become." The Jōnin held up a hand to stop his students from interrupting. "You might become adequate at most things, you might even become good at them, but you will never be the best at something unless you specialize in it. The Sandaime specialize in ninjutsu and outthinking his opponents, the Yondaime specialized in speed." Sasuke-kun and the Naruto-Baka still seemed sceptic to the idea.
"The reason the Sandaime lost to the Yondaime in an all-out match was speed, the Yondaime would probably have lost to Jiraiya of the Sannin in terms of physical strength yet one Sannin wouldn't have been able to take the Yondaime in an all-out battle." A wry smile made its way to Kakashi's masked lips. "The winner of a battle isn't always the strongest ninja, but the one who's the best at utilizing the environment and turning the battle into a battle on their own terms, finding a way to make an enemy play to your strengths, and the strengths of your allies."
Sakura thought about what her teacher was trying to say. 'So if I can… make the enemy… play by my rules… I can win?'
"I don't get it." 'Naruto, of course, he doesn't understand anything, does he?' "If I can win by making my opponent do what I want, why would I even need to wait to take the Hokage-hat?" The man supposed to teach them sighed.
"Because, Naruto-kun, if your best ability isn't as good and better as the Hokage's worst he, anyone really, will wipe the floor with you. For while you might try to turn your enemies weakness against them they will be doing the same to you, there are also occasions where your best ability is the best ability of your enemy and then you might have to rely on your second-best or even third-best ability. In the end it might even come down to which one of you is the best at an academy level Jutsu or have the best chakra-control." An eye-smile. "And that, my cute Genin is why I'm training you in the basics first, now let's get the three of you home." Sasuke tried to stand, but didn't manage. A glare manifested on the boy's face as he fell back on his ass and their teacher chuckled. "Maaa, looks like I'll have to take you, hmmm."
Naruto was clearly startled when suddenly the while-haired man had scoped him up beneath an arm and struggled weakly in the firm grasp. The man lodged Sakura on his back and caught the Uchiha (who tried his best to escape) underneath his other arm, then they were flying. Sakura tightened her hold on her teacher, knowing Kakashi-sensei probably wouldn't let her fall, yet unable to battle the instinct.
Slowly, as she got used to the sensation of wind and seeing the world flash by, Sakura let up on her tight grasp. Soon they stopped by a rather ratty apartment building. The paint was flaking away from the frames and there were more than one broken window. Kakashi-sensei walked into it without hesitation and stopped before one of the better-looking doors before letting Naruto to his feet.
"Get some sleep, Naruto, and don't forget to lock the door." There was an eye-smile there and Sakura was starting to think it was some kind of permanent fixture on the man's face. Naruto simply nodded to Kakashi and giving his two teammates a tired wave got into his apartment.
The second time they stopped it wasn't the gentle landing of before but an abrupt halt that jarred Sakura and Sasuke both. Sakura wasn't able to see the man's face, but she could feel the tense muscle beneath her. Then they were gone again, however this time they weren't flying above the rooftops. There was a jarring lurch and then when Sakura tried to recover from having the air stolen from her lungs she was sat on the ground. Somewhat distantly she noted they were back where they had parted with Naruto.
There was a loud crash and Sakura jolted to her feet peering into the apartment Naruto had disappeared into. Sasuke leaned in beside her but what met her gaze wasn't what she had expected. Naruto was crumpled by a pasty-yellow wall and he had bloody gashes on his arms. Kakashi-sensei was… Kakashi-sensei was holding a man by the throat.
Ripping her eyes away from the sight Sakura made her way towards Naruto, quickly checking on him and finding that while the boy wasn't unconscious he was still bleeding. The gashes weren't as deep as they could have been, but there was glass caught in the wounds.
Sasuke was standing a bit away seeming a bit awkward and unsure of what to do. Sakura did to, but she knew she had to get the glass out of Naruto's wounds. Sinking to her knees before the hurt boys she determinedly grabbed a handkerchief from her pocket Sakura tried cleaning away as much blood as possible before suing her nails to pick out the shards. 'Did she ever mention she had weak nails? No?' Well she did, and it really didn't help, still Sakura dismissed the thoughts of the abuse her nails were suffering in favor of concentrating on getting the glass out of Naruto.
Doing her best to clean the wound, Sakura fought tears. This wasn't supposed to happen! Sure she didn't really like Naruto, and she might hit the boy over the head when he was being really stupid, but she never actually wanted him to get hurt.
"I'm ok, Sakura-chan." Startled she looked up, Naruto's blue eyes meet hers and the boy was looking at her strangely. The boy seemed… embarrassed? Before she could snap out of her stupor to answer Sasuke broke in.
"You're not ok dobe, and if you can't see that you are more stupid than I gave you credit for." The dark-haired boy sounded angry from where he stood, guarding the doorway into the hall. The moment Naruto had declared himself 'fine' however the last Uchiha had turned back to the two of them and was at the moment looking angrily at Naruto.
"Teme! I'll have you know that I've had much worse than one bottle wound lots of times!" The blond huffed and turned away from his teammates and thereby missed their expressions. The two of them were stunned. 'Worse? But why would Naruto-Baka have had worse?' Sakura couldn't really wrap her head around the notion of someone her age being badly wounded. However before she could ask her teammate anything Kakashi-sensei's voice got audible again.
"… again, got it. Next time something like this happens I won't be as lenient." As one the newly turned Genin faced their teacher as his voice reached them. The Jōnin looked actually scary, more so than he had the day of their exam, as he glared at the civilian in front of him. The civilian in turn nodded frantically and as soon as the Jōnin let go the man was out the door. The speed that the civilian utilized had Sakura momentarily wondering if the man had went to the academy as a kid, then once more she got distracted by her sensei speaking.
"I don't think the civilians will bother you again Naruto, as an orphan you fall under the protection of your sensei at all times until the time you reach either the age of sixteen or the rank of Chūnin, whichever comes first." Kakashi crouched before the hurt Genin and began looking over the wound. "In this case that means I can, and is expected, to retaliate if anyone hurts you. The perk is that I can retaliate however I see fit using any means I like, but the back draw is that I'll need to be able to defend my actions to the Hokage and his council." The grownup sent a speaking glance in the Uchiha's direction. "The same responsibility falls to the different teammates of a Genin-team, they are expected to take care of each other as they are in a sense, family. Well done cleaning the wound Sakura." The man withdrew a roll of bandage from a pocket and proceeded to bandage the boys arm.
"What did you say to him, the civilian?" Sasuke inquired, Kakashi glanced his way as he answered. Sure hands not stopping in their work.
"Maaa, I just explained how the Jōnin-Genin situation works." A hart-beat and an eye-smile found its way onto the teachers face, but this time there was something cold and scary about it. However this one somehow seemed more malignant than the previous Sakura had seen. "And of course that if such an… accident were to happen again I would have to… retaliate."
"But why not take the man to the police? Surely attacking someone and hurting them would get the man a disciplinal act?" Wasn't that what Iruka-sensei had told them to do? Kakashi gave a sigh, and this time didn't bother to hide it.
"Normally that would be the case, Sakura, but not this time." Kakashi studied his three students for a moment. "You might have noticed that Naruto isn't well liked inside the village, there are some who are indifferent to him and fewer still who like him. Yet the big masses more or less flaunt their dislike for him."
"But that's because of the pranks, right?" Sakura didn't sound confident in her reasoning and Kakashi shook his head.
"No. they disliked him, not for what he's done but for what has been done to him. I can't tell you why, no don't argue," The man held up a hand. "they don't like him and telling you why would be considered high treason, but I can assure you it's not his fault."
"What will you do then, threaten every civilian in Konoha?" Sasuke-kun sounded intrigued to even to Sakura's fatigued ears, and when he answered Kakashi sounded amused.
"No, Sasuke-kun. I won't, after all I don't' need to. This time tomorrow every Shinobi worth his or her salt in the village will know that I've staked a claim on Naruto-kun here, and within a week it will have reached every civilian." This time the eye-smile was cheerful. "The grape-wire is the most useful tool one can have in information gathering, yet also a big back draw. In no more than a month the rest of the Shinobi villages will know that I've taken students, most will see this as a problem. But no need to worry your heads about that just yet." The Jōnin turned to Naruto. "Now then, you should get to bed, Naruto-kun, it's been a long day and tomorrow will be hard on you three as well." And with that the Jōnin stood up and once more had the pink and black haired brats on his person without them having the time to react.
An: It's almost 11 o'clock at night and I'm getting up to work early tomorrow. On one hand: I have work, but on the other: I have work. No seriously I like the pay-check, but it's not the best for my free time and so my writing suffers. More about the Team relationship next time.
Question: Do you want me to show-cast the other teams? I have some plans for more than the canon teams, and Sasuke, and Sakura's family... and more. So hang tight!
See you soon! (hopefully)
DominaNocte