Definition of Strength Chapter 4: My Precious: Charging Forward, a naruto fanfic

I'm in the groove, I'm in the groove, I'm in the groove! Yippee! Heh, just feeling happy today, so I decided to start the chapters faster than normal =) Thank me, review!

This chapter is actually part of the arc I started with the previous chapter, the My Precious arc.

Princess-Kally actually pointed out something from the last chapter that I would like to stress. The three genins in the past chapter finished the race at the same time. Actually, the main reason of having this plot was to show how stubborn (or equally stubborn) they were. The second was to point out the natural weaknesses of kunoichi (women) against shinobi (men). Sure, Sakura's chakra control is phenomenal, but she still has lower stamina (even after all her training) compared to the guys. The fact that all three tied even after the guys got caught in so many traps? Naruto has boundless stamina, bouncing back after getting caught so often in all the traps. Sasuke has skill, breaking out of many of those traps with minimal fuss. So yes, all three have their individual strengths and weaknesses. Sakura is no superwoman.

Disclaimer: I'm twiddling my thumbs, wiggling my fingers, closed my eyes, prayed. Opening one, I see… Nope, still don't own Naruto.

'Italic' – internal rants

"Normal" – spoken rants

{Bold} – split personality's rants

Charging Forward

"What mission should I give you next?" An old man wearing a conical hat and robes mused, fingering his beard. "Hmm… Perhaps babysitting Kota-sama's grandchildren?" He leafed through a pile of mission requests.

"That sucks!" A loud burst of complaints were broadcasted through a loud-mouth blond to the village leader, the Hokage.

It had been a long arduous month of repetitive training, missions and more training again in unending cycles. 'This would not have been bad,' Sakura thought sourly, 'If it had not been just D-class missions.'

Honestly, D-class missions should not be considered missions at all, only glorified chores. So far, Team 7 had been babysitting some councillor's brats, dog-walking huge dogs, gardening and catching the same God-damned cat five times. 'Damn that cat, Tora and its owner, Madam Shijimi, the wife of the Fire Country's Daimyo.' It had gotten to the point where even Sasuke was close to losing his famous stoic-ness. Even Kakashi-sensei was bored; he had been playing around with the intensity of their training to entertain himself. {Then again, that could be because of all the whining Naruto is singlehandedly producing, cha!}

"Hokage-jiji! Give us a better mission damn it!"

And now, they were in the missions' room at the Hokage Tower, with the Hokage surrounded with many stacks of paperwork at a desk at the centre of the room. Sakura found herself cheering on Naruto who was annoying the Sandaime into giving them a higher ranked mission, not caring about the disrespect he was showing. Even Sasuke had a slight smirk on his face, letting the blond do the dirty work.

"Naruto, be respectful!" Iruka-sensei who was holding a stack of forms behind of the Hokage, stepped forward, lecturing him about the different missions. Uninterested, Team 7 tuned him out, far more interested in planning their next training session.

Chuckling, the Hokage cut in before Iruka-sensei could launch another incensed rant. "I see you have been training hard. How about I give you a C-class mission?"

"Finally Jiji! What will it be? Saving a Princess, go on a treasure hunt, save the world?" Naruto postulated wildly, Sasuke inching away from the threat of being nailed by the blond's enthusiastic waving arms.

"Ask Tazuna-san to come in." The Sandaime gestured to the chuunin guarding the door.

The odour of alcohol wafted in as a slightly drunk man stepped into the room.

"This is Tazuna-san who you will be escorting."

The client, Tazuna-san, was fifty or sixty year old with spectacles, gray hair and a slight beard.

"I am the Master Bridge-Builder, Tazuna!" Tazuna proclaimed, striking a pose.

"You are to protect his life while he finishes building his bridge." The Hokage continued.

"That's so lame! How about something cooler? Give me one with a princess!" Naruto objected, interjecting.

"Who's that shrimp in orange?"

"You're probably the first genin who got thrown out of the Hokage's office, dobe."

"Don't complain teme! That guy insulted me, and you wanted a cooler mission too!"

Sakura only sighed and turned her attention back to the medical scroll Kakashi gave her, trying to ignore them, as the two began bickering and fighting yet again. {Those guys…} 'You would think they would get tired of it after a month. But no…'

Fed up, she turned around to ask Kakashi-sensei… 'He's gone. He ran away from the problem again.' Turning back, she looked at the boys, still bickering. A tic started forming on her head. After a few more moments, she couldn't take it anymore and snapped, exuding a scary aura. Closing her medical scroll, she stomped up to them and smacked the two on the head with the scroll with loud thwacks.

"Enough!" Her aura was starting to turn into killing intent as she began to channel Inner Sakura. "Shannaro! If I hear another word of complaint from either one of you…" She trailed off, her eyes gleaming with malice implying her threat. The boys, thoroughly cowed, gulped nervously, Sasuke trying hard to school his face from showing his fear of the pink headed girl. "We meet at the village gate in an hour." Her eyes flashed dangerously. "Now get going!"

"Eh heh…" Kakashi laughed nervously as he watched his students from the nearby roof he escaped to. "Remind me never to cross her." He spoke to the orange book in his arms, shivering slightly.

There must be a blue moon tonight, because Kakashi was waiting at the gate with the client on time as they arrived. He even involuntarily quivered once, eying her like she was going to explode. The masked nin turned away quickly when she gave him The Eye.

Naruto almost immediately started arguing with Tazuna at the gate, squabbling continuously for an hour after they left Konoha, travelling through the forest surrounding it. Behind them, two shadowy figures followed, taking advantage of the commotion.

'Can't they just give it a rest? This is worse than him with Sasuke!' Sakura tried futilely to drown them out, focusing on the greenery and wildlife around them. {That geezer is like a kid instead of an old man. Can't they both shut up, Shannaro!} She winced at a particularly loud shout, focusing harder on the environment. 'A tree, another tree, a bird… Shadows?' She stretched out her senses. 'There's nothing.' She dismissed it as a fluke as the hollering from the two annoyances brought her back to reality. But then when she squeezed her eyes tight to meditate, drowning them out, she sensed she walked over something on the ground with chakra? She opened her eyes. It was a puddle?

She turned to Kakashi-sensei quickly, trying to signal him. Catching his eye, he merely nodded knowingly. 'He knows. Then why?'

He didn't even bother moving out of the way when two dark figures emerged from it and ambushed him. They wielded a shuriken chain, attached to their left and right arms respectively, which they wrapped around Kakashi-sensei, slicing him into shreds in a gruesome show of blood and chunks of flesh. Naruto was paralyzed with horror at the sight.

'Genjutsu! He's alright.' Sakura quickly reacted, warding off some poisoned kunai headed for Naruto and their client.

"Move, Idiot!"

Naruto snapped to attention just in time as one of the dark shrouded ninja rushed him. He managed to parry the attack, giving Sasuke a chance to immobilize the ninja, pinning their chains to a tree with a kunai.

Next to Naruto, Sakura quickly took out some ninja wire. "Ready? Don't freeze this time. Kakashi-sensei's alright."

"Me freeze? Sakura-chan…" He pouted, recovered from the shock after the reassurance.

They moved further apart, still standing in a triangle formation front of Tazuna-san, ready to counter the threat. Unable to hold the chain to the tree for long, Sasuke snapped it, getting rid of it but unfortunately also letting the ninja loose.

Instead of attacking Sasuke, the two enemy ninja rushed towards Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna-san extending claws that were dripping with poison.

"Don't get scratched by those things!" Sakura managed to warn Naruto and Sasuke as she took on the ninja wearing a cloak, dodging and darting around him speedily a few times with her ninja wire whilst countering his claws with her kunai. She had fortified the wire with her chakra, deterring the clawed ninja from cutting it. Finished, she leapt a little further away, pulling the ninja wire with as much force as she could manage. This tightened the loops of wire around the nin, binding his arms and legs tightly to his body. Unable to balance, the nin fell to ground face down, unable to break free from the chakra-laced wire as she gave another mighty tug. Sakura flitted in, hitting a pressure point at the back of the ninja's head with the butt of her kunai to render him unconscious.

"Naruto, Sasuke?"

"We're done, Sakura-chan!"

Naruto had distracted the ninja with twenty kage bunshins, all attacking the ninja at once, with Sasuke using that as a distraction to sneak up behind from the ninja, disarming him and slamming him into the ground. Naruto's Kage bunshins then dog-piled the ninja, beating the nin up. The blond had created even more bunshins before joining the fray himself.

Sakura sweat dropped at the sight. 'Overkill.' She turned back to the sweating and trembling bridge builder after hogtying the unconscious ninja she had defeated prevent any escape.

"You have a lot to explain." Kakashi-sensei finally made his appearance, cutting in before she could reassure the bridge builder.

"But, you…" Tazuna was stammering, unable to believe his eyes.

"It was a nice genjutsu, yes?"

Tazuna looked at the place where Kakashi was shredded, spotting a cut up log. "Oh." He seemed to slump into himself with relief.

"Good use of your chakra control Sakura, good job Sasuke and you too Naruto, after you got over the shock."

"Hey! I beat up that guy!" Naruto began grumbling.

Kakashi merely ignored him, speaking to Tazuna-san again. "Why are they after you?"

"I… I don't know what you mean…" Tazuna's voice was wavering, trying desperately to avoid answering.

"I expected the ambush. There hasn't been any rain for a few days." He pointed at the puddle. "I let them attack to see who they were targeting." The silver haired jounin went silent allowing Tazuna to digest the information. Seeing the panicked look in his eyes, he continued, "After they 'annihilated' the main threat, me, they went straight for you."

The bridge-builder's hands were now shaking.

"You knew they were coming after you. Those are the Demon Brothers, chuunin level missing nin from the Mist. This should be a B-class mission or above. So why did you only commission a C-class mission?"

"I… There was no choice." Tazuna bowed his head. "Have you heard of a man named Gato?"

Sakura cut in. "Gato as in Gato Shipping?"

Tazuna nodded miserably. "Yes, he is responsible for this. You see Wave Country has been very poor ever since he took over the country's trade."

"How can he do that?" Naruto burst out, outraged.

"What about the feudal lords?" Sakura asked, not believing nobody had done something about it.

"He killed off all his opposition." The Bridge-Builder looked depressed, a faraway look in his eye as if he were remembering something extremely unpleasant. "Even the feudal lords don't dare cross him now." He slumped down further into himself. "Even they don't have the money for a B-class mission now." The gray haired man looked beseechingly at them. "It took all our combined savings just for this C-class mission."

"Sensei?" The genin looked to their teacher for an answer.

"As their teacher, I am responsible for them." Kakashi gestured to Team 7. "I cannot under conscience allow them to continue this mission. The next ninja that Gato sends will be a jounin, especially since we have defeated the two chuunins."

Tazuna then turned to the genins and tried to convince them. "I have a grandson at home…"

Sakura turned a deaf ear to the elder man's pleadings, reflecting on the situation. 'It is going to be very dangerous if we continue.' She chewed on her lip, her mind going over the many possible scenarios. 'It was true that we did defeat those chuunins, but going against a jounin? We haven't been able to defeat Kakashi-sensei, even when he wasn't serious.' The memories of those painful training sessions after the survival test flashed past, Kakashi trumping them each time. 'We couldn't even lay a hand on him if he didn't let us.'

They were in a very precarious position if they agreed to carry on, she realized. 'And yet… I can't leave them alone.' Her eyes grew pained as she made her decision. 'I said I would never let a person bully others anymore. How can I chicken out?' She looked at Naruto and saw the mental dilemma he was going through. Even Sasuke seemed a little moved. 'It looks like our decision has been made.' They glanced at each other and nodded slightly.

"… And my daughter will be without a father, my grandson without…"

"We'll continue the mission." Sasuke interrupted the Bridge-builder's rant, stunning him with the easy acceptance.

"No fear! We have me, the future Hokage on the team!" Naruto's proclamation brought the bearded man out of his daze.

"Well, prove it!"

They started bickering yet again.

"Why do we have to go so slowly?"

Naruto's senseless whining was really getting on her nerves. "Shut up idiot! Quiet!" She snapped at him. "We're in enemy territory."

They were crossing the strait separating the Land of Waves from the mainland. Due to secrecy, the boatman, Kaji-san had been paddling them through a lesser used route.

"We are lucky, the weather is good." Tazuna's friend stated. "No storms and plenty of fog. We won't be noticed as we sneak in."

They reached at the Wave Country soon after that, embarking at the small port there, continuing their journey on foot.

The silence in their journey on the dirt path to Tazuna's house was a welcome one, allowing Sakura to recover from her frazzled nerves from the earlier attack and Naruto's constant whining. Therefore, she didn't take it very kindly when Naruto gave a loud yell and whipped a kunai at a random bush.

"Naruto!" She bonked him on the head. "Stop doing useless things!"

"But Sakura-chan!" He rubbed the lump that had formed on his head. "I felt something!"

"There wasn't anything!" She snapped back. "Don't be so paranoid…"

Naruto whipped around in the middle of her rant, slinging another kunai at another bush further away. "This time I got it!"

He rushed parting it, revealing a terrified white rabbit? "But… There was something else there!"

Sakura's eyes narrowed. 'He's right. There's lingering chakra here, like a jutsu had been used. Kawarimi no jutsu? But that person moved…?'

"Get down!" Kakashi's shout rang out through the clearing and the genin scrambled to the ground while Kakashi pushed Tazuna-san down. A large sword spun over them and would have decapitated them if they haven't ducked. It crashed into a tree wedging its edge halfway into it from sheer force. A rather tall ninja with a bandage mask covering his nose and mouth appeared, leaping onto the handle of the sword.

'A Zanpaktou? That guy… I didn't feel him coming.' Sakura's eyes grew large at that realization.

"Momochi Zabuza, an A-class missing nin from mist." Kakashi spoke to the tall figure, slowing inching from the ground, his eyes locked on every movement from the enemy nin.

The ninja, revealed to be Zabuza, leapt down from his zanpaktou almost lazily. "I am."

"I made sure to brush off the dust on my bingo book after my students defeated your associates." He tried to rile Zabuza up.

"They're of no more use, getting beaten by a trio of genins, poor excuses of ninjas."

"Why you!" Naruto exploded, trying to charge the missing nin, but was restrained by Sakura.

"Stay back. He's too strong for you. Looks like I'll have to use it." Kakashi raised his slanted headband, opening his previously concealed eye. It was red. A closer look revealed something that looked like three tomoes in the eye?

Zabuza recognized it. "Ah, the Sharingan. I'm honoured to be able to see it in action."

"What is that?" Sakura breathed out, slightly awed. Beside her, Sasuke seemed to go into shock.

"It can't be. The Sharingan is a kekkei genkai that only the Uchiha have!"

"Aren't you an Uchiha, teme?" Naruto was puzzled.

"I haven't developed it yet." Sasuke frowned. "The Sharingan is a doujutsu that gives its user the ability to anticipate and copy all techniques."

'Uchiha? So that is the famed Sharingan.' Sakura abruptly recalled the info she and Naruto dug out about their sensei. 'But which Uchiha did he get it from…?' She shook her head slightly, as if trying to shake the thoughts out. 'Not time to think about it now.' She turned her attention back to the two jounin-levelled ninjas' confrontation.

"That's right boy. Its user can instantly and flawlessly copy the techniques and reflect it back at his or her opponent. That's how Kakashi was included in the bingo book as a highly dangerous ninja, earning the nickname "Copy Ninja Kakashi" for copying over a thousand ninjutsu."

The three genins stared at Kakashi at Zabuza's assertion. 'Kakashi-sensei is that good?'

"I'll consider it a testament to my skill if I kill you too, on top of that old man." Zabuza smiled cruelly, rapidly forming hand seals. He initiated the Hidden Mist no jutsu, summoning a thick fog from the nearby lake to conceal himself from the Sharingan.

"Be careful." Kakashi warned the three genins. "He is known for his silent killing technique." He started gathering his chakra, emanating a strong aura. The atmosphere turned heavy from the killing aura emitted by both jounins, the weight of it swamping the unprepared genins.

'I almost can't breathe!' Sakura was panicking. {This measly thing isn't going to stop me!} Inner Sakura roared, breaking Sakura out of the induced trance. Taking a deep breath, half meditating, she managed to revert to a composed state of mind. She took hold and squeezed the other two's hands hard, breaking them free from the hypnotic fear the killing intent put them into.

She nodded gruffly at Sasuke, and they formed a triangle formation in front of Tazuna-san, protecting him. She tried stretching out her chakra senses, but she was hampered by the fog? 'The chakra infused into the mist is hindering my senses!' Sakura strained her senses further, willing and forcing it to detect something other than the mist.

"I will not allow my comrades to die! Believe in me." Sakura immediately focused her chakra senses at Kakashi-sensei's voice stressing and fine tuning it until she could feel his chakra.

'It's like changing the frequency!' She marvelled, now about to feel all the energy around her. Naruto's chakra shone like a bright beacon beside her, countering Sasuke's natural darkness. Behind them, she could feel Tazuna's life force, whereas before she couldn't feel anything from him. 'Tazuna-san doesn't have a chakra system!' She realized. 'I'm not sensing chakra! I'm sensing the life itself!'

Life was like energy, pulsing all around her, giving her the impression of many colours surrounding them. 'I can use this to see!' she suddenly realised, the colours of the life around her, forming a different type of sight. 'Like a second sight.' The natural energy around her was glowed in shades of yellow, with animals and humans glowing shades of blue. 'Naruto is glowing two colours, red and blue? Huh?' {Never mind that! Someone's heading towards us!} 'It's not Kakashi-sensei's chakra!'

"Incoming!" She yelled, pushing Tazuna away. The boys ducked and rolled away at the same time, avoiding Zabuza who had suddenly appeared behind them. Kakashi appeared behind him, slashing him and he dissolved into a puddle of water, proving him to be a water clone.

'A clone?' Zabuza yet again appeared behind Kakashi, stabbing him. Kakashi also fell apart, also collapsing into water. 'So a clone doesn't have a chakra system.' {Except for Kage Bunshin} Inner Sakura reminded. A sudden movement behind them alerted her to a presence of another human. 'It's a darker blue. That is quite a large amount of chakra! Almost equal that of Kakashi-sensei.' She was alarmed. 'If that person jumps in…'

Staying calm, she kept an eye on the unknown person and the fight in front of her as it migrated to the lake, taking care to signal the other two about the presence of another enemy. The other two genins formed a tighter guard around Tazuna-san, acknowledging her message.

Finally the fight seemed to be over, with Kakashi holding a kunai around Zabuza's neck. 'No, wait, it's not…!' It was yet another water clone! This time Zabuza initiated a technique, Water prison, trapping Kakashi on the lake.

"Take Tazuna and run now!" Kakashi ordered.

"Unfortunately, I won't allow that." Zabuza ordered his remaining water clone to attack Team 7.

"Sasuke and I will handle this." Sakura said as she took out her wire. "Naruto, protect Tazuna and prepare for phase two." She had fallen into the role of a planner in Team 7 ever since that fateful day of the survival test.

"Hn.", "Got it, Sakura-chan." They agreed.

"I'll distract him, come up behind me." She informed Sasuke as Zabuza's water clone headed towards them.

She ran out towards the clone, somersaulting over it, throwing a kunai attached to her wire out to Naruto. Naruto caught the kunai, holding fast as Sakura used it to try to trip and distract the clone. Behind them, Sasuke headed towards them as Sakura distracted the clone, trying to loop around it with the wire, the clone resisting against her efforts. Sasuke managed to stab the clone after Sakura immobilized one of its hands with the wire, while she kept the other hand busy countering her attacks. The clone dissolved into water, unable to hold its form.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she headed back to guard Tazuna.

The blond formed the cross-shaped hand seal, summoning twenty Kage Bunshins. "I'm on it!" The Kage Bunshins stormed Zabuza en masse, one of them tossing Sasuke a windmill shuriken as they went.

Sakura smiled. They had used this technique on Kakashi-sensei once during training, and it had worked, buying them a few precious seconds after surprising him.

Zabuza fought off all the Kage Bunshins with one hand, slicing through them with his zanpaktou easily. This though, created a smoke cover which Sasuke utilized for the Shadow Shuriken Technique, a technique that hides a second shuriken under the shadow of the first shuriken. Zabuza was not so easily fooled though. He caught the first shuriken and dodged the second. Sakura had left Sasuke to protect Tazuna, attacking the missing nin on the lake with a kunai after he dodged the second shuriken, but Zabuza managed to parry her attack with the windmill shuriken he had caught.

Sakura turned gleeful at this as she continued to force all her strength down on the windmill shuriken Zabuza was wielding also subconsciously augmenting her strength with chakra, keeping his free arm occupied. Behind Zabuza, the second shuriken transformed back into Naruto who had originally transformed into the shuriken before one of his clones had passed him to Sasuke. After changing back, Naruto slung a kunai at Zabuza, forcing him to release Kakashi from the prison to catch the kunai. 'Sigh, yet another chakra intensive technique.' She shook her head as she sprinted to catch Naruto before he sank. 'Only Naruto.'

Enraged at being outsmarted, Zabuza turned to attack them, but was stopped by Kakashi who was now free.

Kakashi nodded at Sakura. "Get them further away."

She retreated, carrying Naruto to shore. They leapt into the trees carrying Tazuna up with them to avoid the massive waves from the clashing water dragon jutsu the jounins were using. Kakashi's water dragon eventually threw Zabuza into a tree, and Kakashi prepared to finish him off.

'Wait, that other presence is moving?' Sakura opened her mouth to warn Kakashi, but before she could, two senbon was shot out towards the two jounin. Her eyes widened in horror, but the target of the senbon turned out to be Zabuza.

The mysterious presence materialized. "I'm a hunter-nin from the Village of the Hidden Mist. That is my target."

Kakashi placed two fingers on Zabuza's pulse. "He's dead."

The hunter-nin picked up the body and vanished.

"Just in time." Kakashi muttered, falling to the ground, unconscious.

"Sensei!"

It had been hard work dragging Kakashi to Tazuna's house even though they took turns carrying him. Fortunately he was only been unconscious due to chakra exhaustion. It was almost a week before he showed signs of stirring.

Sakura was at the back of the house, it being her turn to guard Tazuna, as Kakashi staggered out in search of them.

"Sensei! You shouldn't be out of bed yet!" Sakura admonished at the sight of his haggard face.

"Where are the other two?" Kakashi ignored her reproach.

She sighed, giving up on him as a lost cause. "They're training while I guard Tazuna-san. I taught them the water-walking chakra control exercise."

"Good." He slumped into the nearest chair. "The fight isn't over yet."

"What do you mean?" She asked, shocked.

"Every hunter-nin is supposed to dispose of bodies immediately to prevent village secrets from leaking out." He breathed out, still feeling the fatigue from chakra exhaustion. "Fortunately for us, Zabuza is also going to need at least a week to recover."

"But his partner is also jounin-level…"

His calm vanished. "That's why we need to improve the team."

Sakura bit her lip nervously, considering something. "Sensei, something happened during the fight." She confessed. "My senses changed after I stressed it to sense through the fog."

Kakashi silently gestured for her to continue.

"Now instead of just sensing chakra, I seem to be able to see the chakra and life force of living things. It shows in different colours and shades." She stated, looking nervously at Kakashi. She finally burst out. "Why is there a second chakra source in Naruto?" Pacing around, she continued. "I wasn't sure before, everything seemed jumbled then. But now I sense it clearly. Worst still, it seems evil." She looked straight at Kakashi, dreading the worst. "Is he possessed?"

Kakashi thought about it. "That is a very useful ability. You can sense others even if they hide or suppress their chakra?"

"Yes. I couldn't sense Zabuza before the attack, but after…"

He mulled over it. "Don't worry about Naruto. That is because of something happened to him when he was young. He will tell you all when he is ready."

Sakura nodded, accepting the explanation.

"How are they managing with the water-walking exercise?"

She palmed her forehead. "Naruto almost has it. Thank goodness he isn't exploding off the water anymore. Sasuke, well, he is slightly ahead of him. They're making it into a competition. They're making everything into a competition, even eating!" She rubbed her forehead feeling an incoming headache, frustrated at the boys' antics.

"It seems like everything is normal. What about you?"

"Sasuke is helping me with my taijutsu, we've been sparring." She admitted reluctantly. "And I've been practicing the medical jutsu on the scrapes the boys get."

"Good. I'll teach you how to channel chakra to improve your speed together with the others, after they master the exercise." Kakashi rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "I also have another scroll for you." He looked at her warningly. "I have a deep trust in you not to abuse it." He continued, "Do not practice this on any ally. Chakra scalpels are dangerous."

"Chakra scalpels?" She ran the term through her head, trying to remember why it sounded familiar.

"Yes, it has the ability to sever arteries, injure a person internally just by a touch."

Her eyes widened and she nodded, recognizing the severity of the technique.

"Good. I'll stay here with Tazuna-san. Go and help the boys."

She nodded and left, still slightly speechless over Kakashi's revelations.

Kakashi sniggered slightly after she was out of sight, taking out the Icha Icha from behind him. "She forgot about ordering me back to bed. Ah… What she doesn't know can't hurt her." He giggled perversely as he flipped to his favourite scene.

They've mastered it. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with her non-glowing hand. 'And I've accomplished it too.' She proudly gazed at her glowing hand, the soft green glow indicating that she had activated the chakra scalpel.

Sakura turned her face to the sky. 'We're almost ready, and I'm stronger than ever.' She smiled. 'Bring it on!'

In the forest as he was forraging for wild vegetables and fruits, Naruto came across a girl?

Authors note:

This was hard! I wasn't quite sure how to write the action scenes differently. In the end, they just had the same outcome. Yes, Team 7 is much stronger now, compared to the canon, but that's due to all the changes that have happened.

Please read and review!