My Ink Filled Heart
Disclaimer: Do I really need to point out, that I don't own Naruto?
Summary: Sakura discovers an old Manga book in her attic, written by a relative of hers. As she reads it, she is instantly transported to Konoha. Now she must learn the ways of a shinobi to survive or die trying.
Pairing: KakashiSakura
"Talking"
Thinking
Inner Sakura
Sakura didn't know what to do tomorrow. Firstly, she was to endure some type of survival training exercise, which she was almost positive she was going to fail. She had never done survival training; living in a city like Tokyo you only needed to memorize where to and not to eat and what time the bus came and left.
The most survival training she had done would be the annual trek up the local shrine. She had some training in Judo as it was mandatory, but she was never an overzealous student like some of her peers and she figured she was average if anything. She had taken to the ground work portion much more than stand up in Judo.
Secondly, she had no idea where training ground seven was. The village of Konoha was pretty huge and she honestly didn't understand how anyone expected her to remember the layout of the village in two days. She really should have asked Kakashi-sensei to draw her map of the area.
"I wonder if they'll be mad if I don't show up," She wondered aloud, her body resting atop the futon in the single bedroom of her apartment. She was a little shocked at seeing it, having been used to western style beds for the past fifteen years. It was so traditional it even had a buckwheat husk pillow. She had tossed it to the side when she realized it. She knew that she would get a neck ache for sure if she used it.
Thinking about it longer she decided that if she really needed to be there, someone would come and get her. Satisfied with her decision she turned on her side and fell into oblivion.
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It was the nightmares that woke her up first. She breathed sharply, the smell and taste of blood still clear in her mind. It was sunny now, the sun so high up that she figured it was coming onto noon. The test was at eight so she figured she had missed it.
She wondered absently if the two boys had failed then. She felt an inkling of regret for the blonde haired boy, Naruto. He had seemed so eager to be a ninja.
She banished the thoughts from her mind and changed into the clothes Boar-san had given her. He had also kindly left her with some basic tools for hygiene and she used them gratefully.
Grabbing the cloth headband, the metal shining innocently in the sunlight, she tied it across her forehead and tried to ignore the way it almost stung.
She walked to her door, hands grabbing for the doorknob and twisted it open.
Kakashi-sensei stood outside.
"K-Kakashi-sensei," She yelped in shock, back pedaling in her instinctual fear. He raised a hand in greeting.
"Yo. I came to bring you to team seven training grounds." Her fear spiked. Was she in trouble? He seemed to sense her fear.
"Don't worry, you aren't late. I realized you didn't have any tools so I went to pick up this." He passed her what looked to be a pouch. It was similar to the one he wore and Sakura took it gently.
Opening it up, she was surprised to see what looked to be shuriken and throwing knives. She reached out to touch one and was startled when Kakashi placed his hand over hers.
"Watch out, they're sharp. Much better quality than the ones they probably gave you at your academy." She gave him a look. What academy was he talking about? He seemed to ignore the questioning look she gave him and instead turned to walk down the steps to the bottom level. She quickly attached the pouch to her hip and followed after him.
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"You're late!" Naruto called out angrily, his pointer finger raised in agitation. Sasuke merely grunted, his frown set deeper than usual.
Kakashi feigned surprise while Sakura looked embarrassed by this declaration.
"What? I was merely helping Sakura-chan here find her way."
Naruto's expression smoothed over to settle on something between excitement and flustered happiness as he leapt over to greet Sakura in a tight hug. She had tried to side step him but was too slow to dodge his orange clad arms.
Sasuke barely spared her a look, his attention glued to Kakashi's slumped form. He set the brooding boy a small wave which only seemed to make him angrier.
"Now, now, before you damage Sakura-chan, I think we should start up with the test." Sakura took this as her queue to shove Naruto away. He didn't seem to notice as he focused all of his attention on Kakashi after his statement.
"Yeah! I've been practicing my moves all night! What are we doing?" Sasuke merely hummed his interest as Sakura gazed at the trees in a disinterested fashion. The test meant nothing to her. Kakashi gauged all of their expressions, his eyes lingering on Sakura, before he moved to pull out a pair of jingling bells from his pocket. They shined as a ray of afternoon light hit them, and three pairs of eyes zeroed in on the pieces of metal.
"Bell test," Kakashi stated with his customary smile in place.
"Bell test?" Naruto and Sakura echoed in a dubious manner. One of Sasuke's brows rose.
"The only way you can pass this test is if you are able to obtain a bell from me before the timer I set goes off." Sakura's brows furrowed questioningly as she gazed at merely two bells, not three. Naruto seemed to notice the dilemma as well.
"But there's only two bells and three of us."
Kakashi's smile grew and turned mocking.
"Yes, that's right. Only two of you will be able to pass. The third person will be sent back to the academy where they will have to prove themselves worthy of being ninja, next year. That or they just drop out and become regular civilians." Sakura's eyes narrowed sharply as she took a sharp intake of breath. This was her chance. She just had to throw this test and she could become a simple civilian instead of one of these monsters.
Naruto and Sasuke seemed motivated enough in which she didn't have to be too obvious about her plan.
"Well getting a bell should be easy enough, seeing as you're so slow sensei," Naruto said smugly, his overconfidence in an easy win making him cocky. Kakashi simply snorted as he looped the bells onto his pants.
"Those who speak the loudest are often the weakest." Naruto became a blur as he rushed Kakashi in a blind rage, and sakura marveled at the inhuman speed. Her mouth opened in shock when Kakashi seemed to be even faster as he subdued Naruto.
Monsters in training was all she could think as she saw the kunai Naruto had tried to use on Kakashi. If someone as bright and innocent as Naruto was capable of such a thing, she feared to meet the rest of them. Yes, she would most definitely not be passing this test.
So that was why, when the test began and Sasuke fled the scene and Naruto stayed behind, she decided that she would not rely on their personal drive to get them through the test. She would actively help them pass because it seemed that they both lacked strategy. So with that she quickly gripped the collar of Naruto's collar and bolted towards the bushes with him.
"What are you doing?" He cried as her grip on his collar choked him.
"We have to find Sasuke." She told him, her eyes darting for the tell tale black and blue amongst the foliage. It wasn't until she looked up that she found him hiding on a low branch of one of the trees.
"Sasuke," She called up to him as she and Naruto came to a stop at the base. Sasuke looked down at them with a sneer.
"Leave," He hissed causing Sakura to frown. Sasuke was again struck by how odd it was for a girl not to fawn at him. Sakura was a strange one. He decided she was even stranger when she declared she wanted to help him and Naruto pass the test.
"You just want me to help you two weaklings."
Naruto protested vehemently and called him a weak bastard to which Sakura slightly shoved the boy, and told him yes.
"I don't know how strong you think you are but there's no way that you alone can get the bell from Kakashi. He's way too fast and far stronger than you. If you want an iota's of a chance of getting the bell than you have to combine you're strengths with ours." Sasuke scoffed.
"And then what? We fight over who gets the bells and who goes back to the academy?" Sakura shook her head.
"You two can have the bells. I'll go to the academy." Naruto started to say something but Sakura cut him off.
"So are you in?"
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While they discussed their plan of action, Kakashi lounged under a tree and caught up on his reading. Which provided a great opportunity for Naruto to burst out of the clearing with a hoarde of clones. As they all rushed towards Kakashi in a seemingly wild attack, Sakura blended seamlessly with the massive wave of orange, her feet taking her to hide behind the tree Kakashi stood under.
He was too preoccupied with dispelling Naruto clones to notice her presence, and the steady stream of kunai and shuriken Sasuke sailed from his cover amongst the bushes served to distract him completely. He dodged kunai and simultaneously punched and kicked out clones. But the attack wasn't strong enough to back him up or force him to use both hands. Sakura sighed from her position and signaled for Sasuke to hurl something bigger.
He rewarded her with a giant ball of flame that both took out a majority of the clones and forced Kakashi to dodge backwards into the tree.
That was when four, well-aimed kunai pinned his arm to the tree. The fireball served as cover for their silent approach, and Kakashi was forced to drop his beloved book as the wave of Naruto's crashed into him, their limbs tangling themselves with his, as they struggled to subdue him.
And that was when he noticed a flash of pink to his right and saw Sakura reach out to grab the bells. He smirked and teleported with a puff of smoke as her fingers just barely grazed the bells.
The bell went off in the background and Naruto groaned at their failure.
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"So," Kakashi began. "Who was the ringleader of this little getup?" While no words were exchanged, Sasuke and Naruto's eyes trailed towards her.
"Hmm Sakura, how unexpected. Tell me what were you planning on doing when you got the bells? Give one to Naruto? Or Sasuke?" Sakura licked her suddenly chapped lips and glanced at both boys.
"I would have gave it to both of them. And volunteered myself for academy." Kakashi gave her a long, flat look.
"Well you won't have to worry about that. While you three may not have figured out the point of the test, you were able to work as a team regardless. Which is all I was looking for, teamwork. So congrats kids. You all pass thanks to Sakura"
And from there he explained the memorial's purpose and their new motto of teamwork as Naruto yipped with joy and Sasuke smirked quietly. But all she could focus on was the pit in her stomach at the realization that she had just damned herself.
Kind of unbelievable but still pretty realistic compared to the other bell test I read. I hate the bell test by the way. Tried to make it different since it's typically always the same and I had to work with the fact that Sakura has no abilities whatsoever. So yeah. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.
Bell Test-Complete
December 25, 2013
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