Author's Note: Warning: A part of this is merely filler, but the rest has some action. Now about how the others died… Hmmm, well, Neji won't be revealed for a while because I'm making my Neji-loving friend write his death… and I can't come up with a way to kill my Shino… except my friend said "He got bit by a spi-ider!". Don't worry, that's not how he dies (Even though I could write something funny and tragic with that) … sorry, anyways… onto the fic! Oh, and the little things… wording and such… will be wrong if I can't find it in quotable quotes for each episode.
Warning Two: This has a little bit of 'poor Sakura' in it, but it couldn't be helped as I wrote it… if you don't like it, sorry!
Chapter Four: To the Wave Country (Part 1)
Sakura finally had the chance to go shopping.
And, after a few D-ranks, she had the money.
So… she went shopping.
She was tired of the outfit that she had, she needed something more her: the twenty-three-year-old who lost everything. But not too much, because Kakashi-sensei was still watching her, as if she was some imposter, Of course, I could be in his eyes.
Only there was one problem.
Half of the outfits that she wore hadn't even been designed yet. When asking of her most recent (if you could call it that) outfit she had worn at twenty and up, she shop owner gave her an odd look, informing her that there wasn't a outfit like that there, that there probably wasn't an outfit like that in existence.
Hehe… Oops?
So she decided on subtle changes.
Black gloves with the knuckles reinforced that ran a couple inches up her arm. She needed to build up her physical strength as well as her chakra coils, and she didn't need bloodied hands while doing it.
Black sandals… there wasn't much thought behind that… it just reminded her of the look she had after the other's died.
And a darker red variation of her current outfit… not much thought into that either.
-
Now for training.
She trained from breakfast to whenever Kakashi-sensei showed up, which he was starting to do earlier. After team seven was dismissed, she trained until dinner. It was her new schedule. She even encouraged Sasuke and Naruto to train more, and the progress they made was much more than what Sakura remembered from the first time around. Yes, she had started calling it that because, however unlikely in might've seemed, she had been given a second chance, and she was going to use it.
Sakura's training on the other hand was going slowly. She knew that it had taken ten years to get up to her previous/future level, but it was still infuriating. She was progressing at an incredibly slow rate in her opinion, and the rate only slowed down when she found that Kakashi-sensei had, in all rationale, started stalking her. So she continued to train in different places every day. She had the upper hand now, and if she told Kakashi-sensei of the future, he'd tell the Sandaime, and she'd lose the upper hand because the time line would be changed incredibly.
She was still progressing slowly, though.
So she trained harder.
-
"—I want a C-rank!" Naruto demanded, earning looks that weren't exactly surprised turned to him. "We've been training for hours every day! Even Sasuke-teme has been training a lot. We're ninja now, not kids who need to baby-sit!"
"Naruto! You're a new genin, no matter how much you train, and genin with almost no experience start out with simple missions!" Iruka reprimanded, glaring at Naruto as he protested.
"Babysitting isn't a mission, it's—"
Kakashi silenced Naruto with a bonk on the head, but before he could speak, Sakura interrupted.
"I agree. If we train this much, we might as well get something useful out of it." She said, supporting Naruto. Immediately the focus shifted to her, Kakashi and Iruka in particular. Maybe I shouldn't have…
"Hai. If we train this much, we shouldn't be babysitting, wasting our skills." Sasuke said, drawing focus away from Sakura, all except Kakashi, who was still half focused on her. Iruka was about to say something, but the Sandaime interrupted.
"The three brats just want to prove they're ex-brats now, Iruka, go easy on them. I think I have an C-rank here…"
-
"Sakura?" Choji's Funeral.
"Hai, Naruto."
"Do you remember, at the bridge, where you thought… he died?"
"Hai."
"Haku, and maybe Zabuza, didn't deserve to die."
"What?"
"Haku wouldn't kill for no reason, he was just acting on Zabuza's orders, who in turn was acting on Gaito's orders. Neither should've died."
"What?" Sakura repeated, wondering why Naruto was bringing this up now
"They didn't deserve to die. I could've prevented that if I thought. Now Choji's dead because of one of my mistakes."
His voice was deadly calm, and it scared Sakura slightly, but then it clicked. He was remembering one of the instances where he couldn't be in control, just like what had happened with Choj'. But…he wasn't blaming himself for this, was he?
"I led them into that area while I was injured. It was my fault. I was the one that hesitated and argued with Haku, giving him time to sacrifice himself for a useless goal. They're just two of the many mistakes I've made, only those cost lives."
What? He was blaming himself for both?! He had nothing to do with either, it couldn't be helped.
"I promise you Sakura." He continued, his voice taking on a slightly bestial tone. "And this one I'll keep. I'll train harder, and next time I meet that teme, I'll either bring him back or kill him. He isn't going to take any more of my friends."
"…Hai." She seriously couldn't think of anything else to say after that.
She blamed herself for not stopping Naruto's training sooner.
She blamed herself for not helping Naruto keep his promise.
-
Sakura took a deep breath, driving out the memories that threatened to overwhelm her.
"…an escort mission outside of the village."
Yes… maybe I can fulfill one of Naruto's… regrets.
"I will now show you who you'll be escorting."
Uh oh…"He's a very important bridge builder who needs to get to the land of waves… it should be a pretty easy mission, just protection from bandits and such."
"A bunch of snot-nosed brats? And the one with the idiotic look on his face… are these even ninja?" The man in question said, a bottle of alcohol in his hand, squinting at Naruto.
"Who—"
Sakura elbowed him lightly, "I think he means you." She whispered, and Naruto glowered at the man, seeping killing intent. Sakura felt a little proud, it was she who taught him how to control his killing intent more, and it paid off.
"Well, yeah? You'll see, I'm probably the strongest ninja in my team!" He disputed, earning a comment from Kakashi-sensei.
"I doubt that, Naruto, but you'll be able to show of your hard work if, if, we run into any bandits and such."
"Yeah. You'll do great when… if …we get some action." Sakura stated.
-
Is this really Sakura? She would never defend Naruto like this… and barely a word was said after Sasuke agreed with her, just a tiny bit of relief. Could she be taking being a ninja more seriously than I first thought? But I taught her; I should've noticed this.
-
Kakashi wasn't as surprised as Iruka, but still, he was still trying to figure out Sakura. Including times were she would seem out of focus, as if lost in thought.
She knows more than she's letting on about the C-rank mission. But… how could that even be possible? They hadn't even done it. It was just a slip of the tongue that she noticed and tried to correct. But she still said 'when'… I'm going to ask her after this mission… especially if something happens.
-
I slipped up. I shouldn't have said that 'what'. I need to be more careful, and Kakashi-sensei already suspects me of doing…something.
-
"Yeah!"
"Naruto? Excited?"
"Yep! Sakura-chan, It's my first time outside the village! I'm officially a traveler now!"
"Your first time?" Tazuna asked, incredulous, "I'm not even getting ninja who've been out of the village?!"
"Well, you did request just a simple C-rank… unless you were lying, and in that case, we'll have to go back to the village." Kakashi said lazily, reading his… book.
"No, I just thought I would get a team that has some experience."
"It shouldn't be a problem, we're dealing with bandits and such, aren't we?" Kakashi replied, looking at him over his reading material. (Much better name!)
"Hai." Tazuna grunted.
-
The puddle.
Frankly, the source of the first evil in the mission.
Sakura ignored it.
She dropped back, though, right behind Tazuna and Sasuke.
Then the puddles…turned out to be more than puddles… of course, this came only as a surprise to Naruto, Tazuna, and to an extent, Sasuke.
-
Kakashi, was once again, 'killed' in an instant.
Once again, Naruto froze.
But Sakura was ready this time.
"Sasuke, protect Tazuna!" She yelled, grabbing the chain with her chakra, reinforced gloves, wincing as it cut into her flesh, though not as much as it normally would. I need to get more of these gloves.
The ninja stopped. One turned his gaze on the girl who was still holding the chain. He dove for her, but she grabbed his metal arm, wary of the poison, and shifted her body weight to let him fly right past her. That was the extent of her strength so far.
She ducked, and the chain whizzed over her head as the other brother was pulled along, and she sent a kunai after the two, driving the chain into the tree. The same tree as last time…history does repeat itself.
Sasuke was watching Sakura as if she wasn't her.
When they detached the chain, one went for Tazuna, the other for Sakura.
That's when Kakashi arrived.
He dispatched the one heading for Tazuna, and in an instant, dispatched the other one too.
This is why I need to train more. That was the level I was at before… this.
-
Sakura would've never done something like that. Is that girl still the same Sakura, or… Sasuke's thoughts trailed off as Kakashi interrogated the two 'demon bothers'. She just… can't be Sakura… there is no way.
-
"Tazuna, I would like you to explain why two chunnin-level ninja were after you."
And later, Sakura, I would like you to explain how you knew two chunnin-level ninja were after him.
---
I think I did a good job with Orochimaru. Just enough to warn him to be careful, because a dead Sannin is no longer useful, and just enough to ensure that he'll die by Sasuke's hands or by Jiraiya's and Tsunade's hands. I need the extra time to train, so that I'll no longer need a Sannin here. But that girl, if she knows too, she could crush the sound village altogether. That's why I need him… but not for long.
Author's Note: Yay me! Another chapter done! And, just in case people are wondering, reviews do make a difference. I type faster with reviews. Ja ne!
MD