Chapter 4 - Training
Sakura walked towards the training grounds, knowing that she soon might meet other fellow friends besides Naruto and Sasuke. She didn't know yet who she was going to find there, but was not surprised to actually see Yamanaka Ino and Hinata Hyuga there. Of course there were others too: Neji, Shikamaru and Ten Ten. However she couldn't figure out who was another one, a girl to be more specific. Watching her closely she noticed that she had the Uchiha symbol on her suit. Leaving the thoughts aside, she stepped forward looking at her old friends.
"Everyone..." she started. As soon as she spoke all pairs of eyes turned towards her.
"I'm home." Sakura gave a small smile towards her friends.
"Sa-Sakura ?!" a gasp echoed.
"That's me." she grinned at them waiting for the incoming squeals. The were not late though.
"FOREHEAD!" Ino jumped at her and so did the other except Neji and Shikamaru.
"Now now. Please don't kill me so soon Ino." she laughed happily while barely holding herself on her two feet.
"Damn Girl !" Ino eyed her from head to toe. Inspecting her long pink hair that reached her waist and the strange diamond mark she had on her head, Ino's gaze went lower to her body shape and clothes. "You're hot."
"Welcome home Sakura-san." Hinata voiced then and Sakura hugged her warmly.
"It's good to be home, Hinata". Smiling at her friends she waited and answered a lot of questions, when a whistle resounded.
"Oh. That's our cue." the blonde woman said while waiting. "Don't worry. We're going to catch up soon on all your adventures sweetie."
"Yeah. What do you mean about our cue?" Sakura asked and Ino answered her question.
"Well, you remember Ibiki Morino, right? The ANBU's top interrogator." Ino waited for Sakura to reply, but it came soon.
"Yes. He was the one who gave the questions at the genin exam. He's pretty harsh when it comes to rules."
"Well right now he's the ANBU's leader right after the Hokage. Usually at this time we train between us, to be able in the future to synchronise with each other. Ah, the Uchihas are here. And Naruto of course. He keeps tailing after Sasuke-kun all the time." the blonde woman remarked. "Izumi is already here it seems."
"Izumi?" the pinquette scanned the room and she reached the woman she couldn't figure out before.
"Ah yea. You see, the dark haired kunoichi standing in the corner. She's is pretty close to the Uchiha guys over there, incoming." Ino said pointing at Itachi , Shisui and Sasuke. Well, she's closest to Itachi since she spends most of the time training and in missions with him.
"Itachi...Is that so? How come?" the pinquette rose an eyebrow in question.
"Long story short, she confessed her feelings to him. But it seems Itachi turned her down. I swear, that guy has no personal life, only work work work." the blonde woman shrugged. "After that moment, she still kept sticking to him."
"Oh." Sakura didn't know what else to say about that and kept her mouth shut. The love life of Uchiha Itachi was none of her business. Or so she thought. Either way, she still frowned in his direction. Itachi however, caught that frown and just stared at her.
"As you might have noticed we have a new person joining us from today onwards. Haruno Sakura. Please step forward." Ibiki began.
"Yes." the pink haired kunoichi responded.
"Way to go girl." Ino yelled from behind accompanied by Ten Ten. Some other whistles could be heard from the back.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto screamed.
Sakura straightened and stepped forward ignoring Naruto's screams and went by the side of Ibiki as he made the introductions. She kept scanning the teammates with whom she would be working from now an and her glances would stop scarcely on Itachi. And Izumi.
"For everyone to be abreast of the situation, you will address her from now on as Captain. However, as captain she will not be leading a squad yet. Still, I expect you to give her the respect due to a captain, like Uchiha Itachi, Yamato and everyone else in a leading position. This was decreed by the Godaime Hokage. Any insult brought to her, will be brought to the Hokage herself. Did I make myself understood?" loud yeses could be heard from the training grounds, everyone except Itachi and Sasuke, not being able to believe what they just heard.
"W-What? Captain? S-Sakura?" Ino could not stop the trembling of her voice. "What the hell Forehead?" besides Ino, several whispers regarding the ties between Sakura and the Godaime began to arise from the crowd, louder and louder.
"Morino-san, may I?" Sakura asked smiling sweetly and mildly amused.
"O-Of course Haruno-san." they are yours.
Sakura glanced over them, staring them in the eyes and waited for the silence to cover the training grounds. Several seconds passed until not one sound could be heard and she proceeded with her speech. Instantly her demeanor changed and everyone noticed that. The tone of her voice chilled everyone to the bone as she looked at them.
"It seems some of you believe that whatever relationship I have with the Godaime has influenced my taking this position. Let me make it clear to you though. I have no intention of going easy on you whatever you might be thinking about me. Know beforehand that whoever has something against me, bring it on the training grounds. I will take you on whenever you want. Mild sparing is also welcome. But..." everyone looked at her eyes widened and entranced. "...I won't be playing child games, whatever you believe about me."
"Conceited woman." Itachi whispered under his breath.
"We shall see brother whether she's conceited or not." grinning at his brother, Sasuke stepped forward to challenge Sakura. Itachi sighed as he waited to see what was going to happen.
"How about beginning with a sparring, for the good old times?" Sasuke looked her straight in the eyes, and she returned the stare.
"Are you sure about that Sasuke-kun?" Sakura gave him a devilish smile as she stepped forward while everyone cleared the area for the spar.
"Never been more sure." he replied.
"Then shall we let it be a lesson for everyone else? If you can get one scratch on me within 10 minutes I admit defeat." Sakura put her dark-black gloves on and waited.
"Heh." Sasuke charged forward and kept attacking her, first with kunais then with shurikens and lastly with his kusanagi infused with Chidori. Sakura only kept avoiding his hits and throws while standing only on defensive stance. Sasuke noticed and pushed harder. He instantly knew that she only took the defensive stance, never the offensive. She simply dodged and avoided his attacks.
"She's good, dammit. I can't seem to even get within close range to her even with Sharingan." Sasuke thought to himself. "2 more minutes left." Everyone watched the spar as Sasuke kept pushing forward harder and harder not able to touch her. Eventually when the 10 minutes were over Ibiki called a halt to the spar.
Itachi kept watching them and figured something, but wouldn't let it cloud his thoughts. He saw that Sakura only remained in the defensive stance. He was somehow annoyed that this woman would humiliate his little brother in front of all ANBU teammates. It was time he took charge.
"Tired already Sasuke-kun?" Sakura smiled mildly at him.
"In your dreams. Still, you're good. Besides my brother and Shisui, no one can avoid my kunais and shurikens. Congratz. You deserve the position." After that statement Sakura gave him a genuine smile and Sasuke returned it graciously.
"Thank you Sasuke. The same goes for you. It's been a long time since we had a spar like that, am I right?"
"Yea." Sasuke heard the commotion behind and turned around to see his brother marching forward at a slow pace.
"Nii-san?" at that moment Sakura stared at the older Uchiha as he made his way towards them. Everyone else gasped and squealed at the scene, but Sakura held her position.
"Does the offer still stand for a captain to captain fight Haruno-san?" Itachi asked looking at her. Sakura waited for a while before answering him.
"I think that one spar should be enough for today Uchiha-san. I have other matters to attend to after this." As she turned around to avoid entering a conflict with the man in front of her, he appeared right behind her, holding a kunai at her neck, not touching it.
"So you like to play dirty Uchiha?" Sakura dropped the honorifics as she was getting merely annoyed.
"Nii-san, you don't have to-" Sasuke was interrupted by his brother as he cut him shortly.
"Go stand to the side Sasuke. I merely wish to see how strong she is, myself. No harm done. That is, if she's not too tired or scared."
"Pf. And you said about me that I am conceited?" she turned her head and looked him straight in the eyes, disappearing shortly after and standing several meters away from him, taking Itachi slightly by surprise.
"So you heard that." he drawled the words out.
"Very well. Let's do it. Same rules?"
"Same rules."
And they began. Again, kunais, shurikens were thrown everywhere, everyone looking mesmerised at the two of them fighting. Just like in the fight with him, Sasuke figured that Sakura was fighting the same way, in defensive. "What does Itachi want to prove?" he thought to himself. Then he noticed a movement at Itachi. He was running at fast speed towards Sakura and blew a ball of fire.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu."
The ball would have hit Sakura, but in the nick of time she jumped high up.
"The fireball. That's just predictable Uchiha-san. " saying these Sakura landed infusing chakra in her right heel and hitting the ground. The earth crumbled to pieces that everyone else had to go to a higher location as fast as possible. Specifically , the wall surrounding the training grounds. Still, they were all amazed and shocked at the monstrous strength she had and how easily she could crush anything. Itachi was not expecting that. The same force that the Godaime had, she had it too. "Never underestimate your enemy." rang in Itachi's head. However his first presumption was correct. But he couldn't understand why.
"Wohoo ! Way to go Sakura-chan." obviously Naruto was siding with Sakura as she avoided Itachi's attacks.
"3 more minutes." Sakura thought to herself.
"2 minutes and 58." Itachi kept counting during the fight and focused on his target, Sakura. There was something about her that was intriguing him. The woman in front of him kept dodging all his attacks even if he was running throwing weapons at a high speed. Even with his Sharingan, she could dodge continuously, but she would not attack. It's as if she was taking him for a fool.
"You said you won't be playing child games Haruno-san, but it seems this is exactly what you're doing." he said nonchalantly. Right then, Sakura jumped towards Itachi and grabbed him by his right arm and holding it still with her strength increased. Then, in barely a few seconds she whispered into his ear.
"I never said that I would attack my adversary Uchiha-san. I am merely dodging and waiting for the time to run out. There is a huge difference between me avoiding your attacks and attacking you." Sakura dared to smirk at him and threw him towards the ground. Itachi however instantly turned around and landed on his feet with Sakura in front of him, several meters apart.
"The 10 minutes are up." Ibiki yelled.
A lot of sighs could be heard from the people present as they wanted to see more of their sparring. Eventually they had to accept that the training for today was over. In fact there wasn't any training which annoyed some of them.
"Now everyone should be all clear about everything." looking at the ground, he sighed and yelled to Yamato to fix it. Ibiki dismissed everyone, but still they decided to remain for a little while around.
"You won this time Uchiha." Sakura said from behind him.
"Huh?"
"You managed to scratch me." saying these she showed him the cut on her arm and right after, she healed it.
"Eh? Itachi, you did it !" A grinning Sasuke turned to Sakura. "That's my brother, Itachi." Sasuke hit Itachi's shoulder as a brotherly sign.
"Oh well. After all, he's the heir of Uchiha clan. Of course he wouldn't lose." Sakura said glancing at Itachi.
He didn't know what to make of that. There was something suspicious about her.
"Well then, I am going to leave. Need to do something." Sakura on the other hand couldn't wait to leave the training grounds. She had to be careful if she wanted to keep her secrets well hidden. "See you around guys." as she turned around to leave she heard a shout.
"Haruno, don't forget. Tomorrow 8:00 am at the gate." Ibiki yelled.
"Yes." Sakura disappeared and then Ibiki also ran out of the grounds.
Sasuke and Itachi were the only ones now that remained on the ANBU training grounds looking at the remade earth by Yamato. For a while neither of them said anything. They just stared at the spot that Sakura left empty.
"You noticed that too Itachi, right?" Sasuke asked with a low tone.
"Hn. She was holding back." for some reason it annoyed him that she didn't quite take him seriously.
"But why?" his little brother brain-stormed for any valid reason but he couldn't find it, not even one.
"Hell if I know. But one thing is for sure." Itachi made no emotion as he made that statement.
"Huh? What is that?" Sasuke asked again.
"I didn't win." Itachi answered slowly feeling his anger rise.
"What do you mean? Sakura was clearly scratched by a kunai." Sasuke looked at this brother with an incredulous look on his face.
"I had my Sharingan activated. When she was in mid-air she scratched herself with one of her kunais."
"What? But why?"
"And that's where my dilemma lies, little brother. But soon, I will find out." Itachi finally looked at his little brother and remembered what Sakura said before leaving, but kept it to himself. "After all, he's the heir of Uchiha clan. Of course he wouldn't lose."
"What did she mean by that" Itachi thought to himself.
*the next day*
At 6:00 AM Sakura was sleeping soundly on her bed in the Uchiha compound, her blanket laying on the ground. The black laced lingerie didn't help at all in keeping her warm. The orange lanterns were blown by the wind and the person waiting outside her house noticed that she didn't even bother to close the doors properly.
That person was none other than Uchiha Itachi and he had a good reason to be there. Already knowing about his mother's and Sakura's plan, he entered the house and went to the room that he knew she would have taken as her sleeping room. As he was expecting for her to already be awake, he was quite surprised to be met by Sakura sleeping on her belly, her long hair in disarray on the pillow. He got closer to her bed in an attempt to pick up her blanket and when he was half a meter apart from her he sat on the ground and watched her closely.
Itachi saw the diamond mark on her forehead but didn't know exactly what it was supposed to be. Of course, he saw the same mark on Tsunade's forehead but he never bothered to ask about it, nor did he feel it his place to ask. As he kept gazing at her face he extended a hand to pull a strand of hair from her nose, but a short moment later, Sakura's eyes opened wide and she instantly took an offensive position as she jumped and held a kunai, he supposed she was hiding it under her pillow, to his throat. Itachi was thrown on his back by her sheer strength and kept staring at her frowning. Then he heard her voice.
"Never. Ever. Do. That. Again." her breathing was accelerated and she huffed in attempts to gather her breath.
Hehe 4th chapter. Intrigued? Not? Let me know :D