Title: Oyogu
Summary: "You are a part of the ocean's secrets Sakura..." When you're part mythical creature and part shinobi, the secrets you hide more than double. Yet when times become turbulent, Sakura finds herself trusting in a blank-faced, stoic ANBU captain every significant step of the way, much to her team's consternation.
Pairing: ItaSaku (later)
Author's note: Hi all, I wanted to clear up a comment regarding Mikoto's statement. I looked back at what I wrote and realize what I wanted to convey didn't quite come through. To anyone that was curious, first I'm trying to place Sakura's intelligence at a level beyond what simply studying can afford, she's just not been in the situation where that can be displayed. Second, Mikoto is trying to protect Sasuke. Think about it, his dad is headstrong and anything beyond what Sasuke can control will be used against him by his father ie. why isn't he doing better. That's all, enjoy!
Sakura filled the large wooden tub with water, her body thrumming in a strange mix of anticipation and nervousness. Itachi's comment had lingered long after he left and she had forcefully sat still, waiting for Oba-sama's telltale snores before creeping to the shared bathroom.
"You appear to be a sensor type, or at minimum proficient with chakra. Practice will benefit you."
His single statement validated everything, from the moment she engaged Zabuza's clone with a haphazard plan thrown together to the impromptu substitution jutsu on Tazuna, fully prepared to exchange her life for his. She took a risk on an analysis she made on her own, used logic and hope to face someone out of her league, a worthwhile action but one that went unnoticed by her teammates.
She had done well and despite Itachi-san's obvious lack of presence during the mission, he had praised her on the one thing that secretly niggled her consciousness at the back of her mind: That she was good enough, that she wasn't just weak and useless.
His words spread warmth through her chest and evoked determination within her. If one of the most prodigious shinobi of Konoha could tell her that, then why the hell wasn't she spending every waking moment training, tapping on the potential he saw within her? Though the night was young, she, for all her eagerness, didn't have the first inkling of where to start.
Until she remembered what Akage-san had told her.
With running water in the background, splashing the base of the tub as it filled, she cupped both palms against her solar plexus. Yang and yin. Her physical body, her chakra, were of yang energy, fed by the sun's rays and warmth. Meanwhile, the less human side within her was of yin energy, connected with the moon and tides. Without Akage-san telling her, she would have felt unstable, out of control. But now, she had an idea; preventing whatever triggered her transformation from overtaking her body and by effect, the toll of unwanted change on her body. Essentially, she needed to merge two opposite ends of the nature spectrum together. Fire and water, yin and yang.
Which was so easy.
Not.
While manipulating chakra came naturally, she had come to realize that her life force was a separate energy, connected to chakra but was not in fact the same. It was an energy that could never be extinguished unless the person was killed. It was this energy she supposed, that needed to interact with the yin side of her. On her mental list of things to do was to meditate, but first she figured she needed to understand the process her body went through when she transformed. If not, how on earth would she meld the two energies together?
She held herself against the tub as she dipped a toe into the water, goosebumps breaking out onto her skin as the cold water lapped against her ankle. Suddenly, her foot gave way and she dropped into the tub. Emerald eyes widened as she stifled a shriek, landing heavily onto the base of the tub, knocking her skull and sides against the wooden edges. Groaning, she lay limbs askew for the moment, just grateful she hadn't landed lower bits first. After a moment, she opened her eyes ready to inspect her legs for any change only to realize she no longer had two separate limbs. Instead, she now had the figure of a mythical serpentine creature. Curious, she wiggled her toes and bit her knuckle to quell the laughter bubbling up when her fins paralleled the movement.
The tail, her tail, was not much longer than her legs, hanging over the edge of the too-small wooden tub. However, she could feel the ends of her tail splayed across the floor. She lifted her legs, pleased when the appendage moved easily, not requiring particularly difficult ab work. She was so engrossed in the fact that she had a tail the idea of holding her legs still didn't occur to her. Unlike bone, tails were far more pliable unrestrained by joints that typically halted movement after a certain angle.
She realized with eyes widened her tail was continuing on its course and gaining in speed. The cartilage rounded in a way knees simply could not accommodate and she had little time to gasp before her tail fin slapped her in the face. She heaved a sigh, shoulders drooping even as the translucent, white caudal fin fell from her face and onto her neck.
So lesson number one, she needed some kind of awareness in this form. Alright, concentration was imperative for any shinobi. Maintaining an innate sense of one's body, what muscle groups were working and just how they were positioned was the difference in crucial seconds out on the battlefield. Daily, rigorous training and basic katas in the academy enforced at least some semblance of that within her. She began by trying to focus on her lower body, going back to earlier days in the academy where they practiced basic chakra control exercises. From the waist down, she felt normal. Her tail felt like a natural if not extremely flexible continuation of her body.
Slowly, she rolled her fin outward, the tips of the delicate caudal fin curling away from her face. While her tail was not much longer than her legs, her caudal fin was about a foot and a half. At its widest point, its pearly sheen was near transparent, allowing the dim lighting to shine through. Flecks of silver dotted her fin, gaining in size as they inched upward along her scales, followed by amoebic red and black shades. The shapes covered her tail in an almost symmetrical pattern, paralleling one another and fading upon reaching her hips. From there, the silver flecks lost size, graduating upward until beige scales took over. Starting from mid-upper thigh, a set of translucent fins tipped with silver curved up along her hips and ended at the lower points of her back. They came together to form a fin that ran along her spine, stopping right below her shoulder blades.
Now that she had examined her tail, she wondered at her transformation. Each time she shifted between forms, it was by surprise. Most perplexing of all, she could still inhale air with ease, unlike the previous occasion. She formed a bunshin and instructed it:
"When I come out of the water, catch me. Okay?"
She straightened her tail and grunting a little, used it to raise herself out of the water. The moment her hips left the liquid, her physique became humanoid. In less than a few seconds, the tips of her fins had tingled, the sensation rushing along her tail all too soon before she suddenly shifted. Her clone caught her legs before she stumbled and settle her firmly on the rim of the rub. Making sure she was stable, she lowered her feet slowly into the water, watching in fascination as her skin seemed to first fuse together, then sprout scales as her toes extended outward.
By the time the sun rose, she found herself slumped in the tub with purple smudges under her eyes. After spending the night re-entering the tub over and over, she had finally figured it out. The tingle was not just a sensation, it was literally her transforming at a cellular level. It also acted as a signal, telling her body she was in water and needed a more efficient form suitable for the environment she was in. Water, after her awakening at Wave, was now an instinctual trigger that needed suppressing. Then, the tingling would slow down, allowing her to follow her transformation through sense and sight. Her next goal was to draw inward and meditate, to focus on both her chakra and this new energy.
Sakura broke into a run as she braided her long hair, speeding in a mad dash until she saw the bridge, her teammates, and no sensei.
Breathing out, she landed, kicking up dust and the two boys' attention just as Kakashi-sensei arrived.
After a few laps and calisthenics, Naruto and Sasuke were paired off as usual with adjusted guidelines -no ninjutsu, taijutsu only- and for the first time, Kakashi-sensei made to focus on her.
She followed him to a clearing some distance from the duo and watched him hesitantly, eyes pinned to the back of his flak jacket. Without any warning, he spun around with a kunai in his hand, "React, don't respond," and his visible eye narrowed.
What?
WHAT!?
Instinctively, she pumped chakra to her feet and leapt backward, substituting herself with a log mid-jump. She didn't allow herself to calculate what was happening, fingers falling into a single hand-seal before his sudden appearance before her forced her to abandon any motion and just push the chakra outward.
Kakashi observed the flustered kunoichi as he pushed off the ground and toward her direction. Two clones flickered into existence without a 'poof' or smoke, signs of additional chakra residue. She executed another substitution, forgoing hand seals yet again. His intention was to push her. To see what happened with her chakra when she stopped thinking about what to do. Clearly the mission at Wave had 'inspired' her, but now that she had the ability, what would really happen when she let go?
As it was, she had executed a substitution partway through a jump, without hand seals, and stopped halfway through another set of seals whilst completing the jutsu. He dodged the clones with ease, forcefully dispelling them and with a sudden burst of speed, cornered Sakura.
Sakura moved backward slowly, a part of her painfully aware Kakashi-sensei was going at an extremely slow speed, another part of her freaking out because she was dodging his chops and open-palmed strikes by mere margins and close combat was just not her strength. She noted a tree behind her and as they advanced toward it, gathered chakra in her foot without giving it much thought until her back was maybe several inches from it. She threw herself leftwards, avoiding a blow and threw herself backward,-the back of her mind was Sasuke's overpowered first try at tree-climbing- SLAMMING her foot into the trunk of the tree. Her chakra splintered a chunk of the wood from under her foot, sending a projectile toward Kakashi-sensei.
Her foot throbbed as she landed but he was not finished. He sped towards her, directing her backward until her feet touched water. Panicking, her chakra surged into the soles of her feet, she could not transform in front of her sensei! She skidded on the surface, but maintained her balance, dodging shuriken after shuriken he threw at her.
"Use your feet to catch the shuriken and keep them afloat. I don't want to buy new ones."
Then why was he throwing shuriken at her? There were leaves all around them for crying out loud! But her thoughts were cut short as a sharp edge nicked her arm. Cursing, she enhanced her speed with chakra, aware that she had to work to stay afloat, and chased after the shuriken. She leapt in the air, trying to kick it off it's course but bumped her shin against it instead. It dropped to the water and she watched in horror as it sunk and Kakashi launched another one at her in what seemed to be retaliation.
How was she supposed to keep it afloat?
She ducked to the side as a grey disc whizzed past her, stretching one foot out and knocking the weapon out of its path, and then rotated her ankle in a U shape in an attempt to catch it with the flat of her foot.
Success, it tilted to one side but didn't fall to the stream.
Kakashi's single eye curved into a half-moon, "Good job, keep going."
Her mind raced, she had one foot left, and her sensei could clearly see that, so surely he meant something else? As he threw the next shuriken at her, she kicked the one balanced on her foot upward, coating it with chakra, and spun with one leg extended. Her chakra glazed across her skin like a film, sticking the next shuriken to her toe with ease. She transferred it to the stream, keeping her chakra layered over the weapons' surface so it would float.
Finally, when she was visibly lagging and the shuriken were no longer staying afloat and the sounds of battle from her teammate's direction had all but disappeared, Kakashi-sensei stopped.
"Pick them up," was all that left his mouth, then he left.
She crouched on the grass, dipping her hands into the water to gather the shuriken. The tingling started immediately, from her fingertips to her elbows, forming fins and small scales along the submerged skin. She freaked out and pulled her hands from the water, turning around to make sure no one had seen her. Sakura bit her lip, she couldn't allow a mistake like that to happen again. Not with her annoyingly perceptive team so close by. What to do?
Tentatively, she placed a palm on the surface of the water, coating it with chakra. As expected, she encountered resistance as the chakra filled up the holes between the molecules. She guided her chakra past the first layer of water, pushing it deeper and deeper, filling up the spaces beneath the shuriken instead, pushing the pieces of metal towards her palm.
She joined him beneath a tree after collecting the scattered tools, noting her teammates were now fighting long-range, using ninjutsu instead of taijutsu. Their stamina was impressive, she quietly marveled to herself, and allowed herself a moment of envy.
"Perhaps you have realized this Sakura," He spoke as he placed the book down, "but you have impressive chakra control."
She looked at him, eyes wide and unblinking, and he almost chuckled at the undiluted hope in them. "The earlier exercise is deceptively easy, as you realized, and requires a balance of agility, flexibility, chakra control, and reflexes."
He paused for some time, thinking of what he had to say to her.
"But you need to hone your skills on your own. While I am your sensei, your training cannot consist only of your time with me." She nodded, knowing as much. "I can give you guidance, but think of me as an exam, I cannot help you improve what you don't already know."
Wait what?
Her chest constricted and she felt the urge to yell at him, but she stayed quiet. Although she had already recognized he couldn't give her personalized training for fear she would give her secret away, she had hoped that he would train her. Especially after it seemed like he was finally focusing on her. She understood him though, why would a sensei want to give the deadweight on his team extra attention when he had two talented students who didn't need all that basic work. For all that Naruto and Sasuke wanted to learn cool jutsu, a teacher would want to teach exciting, new things.
She felt her head bob up and down, mindlessly listening to what he was saying, not really paying attention. After all, it was more or less what she had figured out for herself.
Training ended and as they split apart, she found herself wandering off to the unofficial Uchiha grounds, Itachi's toneless yet welcoming words at the back of her mind.
However when she arrived, she didn't know what to do.
It was perhaps an hour later that Itachi and Shisui found her stretching while positioned on a stream. Shisui stared as she descended into a full side split, each leg extended fully in front and behind her. His eyebrows rose when she reached behind and gripped her ankle, pulling her foot forward. Flexibility was incredibly important in the shinobi world, integral in executing most lower body movements. Most shinobi could do a full split, but not many could execute it with such limberness.
She had sensed their presence the moment they arrived on the outskirts of the training grounds. Before they crossed past the trees shielding them from her gaze, she called out to them, "Konichiwa Itachi-san, Uchiha-san."
Shisui did not fail to notice the fact that she had addressed his cousin by his first name, or that she had identified them based on their chakra signature. He looked toward his cousin, an intrigued look on his face, questioning Itachi but the man only walked forward, nodding his head in response to the kunoichi.
Hatake Kakashi sat in the corner of an old tea house, reading his dirty novel. Or rather it was placed at the assumed reading height, his fingers periodically flipping the pages as his thoughts wandered toward the pinkette.
Had he done the right thing? His goal was to foster a sense of competitiveness and self-motivation in her, but did she misunderstand? She had left the training grounds with her eyes on the ground, looking so miserable Sasuke had commented on it. Yet he wanted to see what she would do with her emotions.
After all the chuunin exams were due in a few months.
Hey guys, thank you putting up with my late updates, meh grammar and lackluster vocabulary. It's been a rough few weeks. Summer break is here and I think I've reached the point where I don't know what day it is, just whether I'm eating Maccas or pizza. You feel? Anyway, I'm going to increase the pace by chapter 12 or 13, so you guys will have the little training montage we all love that comes with the chuunin exams.
I hope you guys understand Kakashi's motivations. Even though Sakura knows what she wants, Kakashi isn't aware of that yet and thinks she's still a relatively unmotivated if talented genin.