The next day Sakura dutifully took a shower and pulled her hair back in a low ponytail, then she put on her weights that Itachi had given her, afterwards Sakura wrapped bandages around each of her arms and legs when Sakura was finished she exited her room.
Pein briefly glanced up and noticing Sakura heading for the door, her training with Itachi would start the minute she reached the training grounds before she left his office Sakura turned and faced Pein "Thank you Leader" she smiled innocently and then shut the door.
Itachi was waiting in the tree for her "Itachi-senpai what are you going to teach me today" Sakura ran up to her first teacher of the day when he remained silent, she sat on the ground waiting for whatever it was he would say.
Itachi smirked "Genjutsu training first and you must complete the illusion without getting scared, then stamina training" he said for Sakura's sake and before she could complain formed hand signs and placed Sakura in a special genjutsu.
Inside the illusion, Sakura pouted but she stood on her feet and patted her bottom to get nonexistent dust off of her clothes, Konan was always telling her that a Lady never got her clothes dirty even if she was a kunoichi in training.
Then Sakura got a good look at the illusion and almost screamed in fright but she stopped herself just in time by pressing a hand over her mouth, Sakura's heart pounded and tapped a hole with her foot.
When nothing happened Sakura started walking forward, she could so handle this illusion, it would be a piece of cake for her the illusion had ghost like creatures floating all throughout and black patches like a black hole.
Thirty minutes later Sakura was getting frustrated, Itachi hadn't told her what she had to do in the jutsu her only instruction was to not get scared she sat on the ground and pouted while looking at every angle of the genjutsu.
Sakura tilted her head a moment later in realization she had just been aimlessly wandering around so far, but those ghost like creatures were going in and out of the walls, maybe she had to follow them to get to the end of the illusion.
Itachi looked up at the sky, Sakura hadn't figured out what to do so far, Kisame was nearby and waiting for his turn, if she didn't get it soon then he would have to release her from the jutsu and have her run her laps before turning Sakura over to Kisame.
Back inside the genjutsu Sakura gulped and shoved her hand forward hesitantly, it went through the wall like she thought it would, then she put a foot through until she was completely on the other side of the invisible hole.
Sakura smirked "Yes, I did it" she cheered before running forward and going through the holes no longer frightened of doing so, she hadn't outwardly portrayed fear so Itachi couldn't accuse her of doing so, finally she reached the end of the illusion and Sakura woke up.
Itachi internally sighed "Start your laps" he ordered and Sakura started running, Itachi jumped up into the tree and watched her go around the track for 20 minutes until she finished when Kisame stepped up Itachi left.
"So brat what did you have to do in your genjutsu" Kisame tossed the dull sword at Sakura to test her on her reaction time, she did a little better this time and then Sakura adjusted her hold to mimick him to perfection.
Sakura grinned in excitement "Well Kisame-senpai, at first I was clueless, there were all these ghost like creatures floating around and black hole looking patches" she started and held up her sword to block Kisame's attack, Sakura knew what he was doing.
Kisame smiled proudly, Sakura was keeping her head on her shoulders and not getting distracted by the conversation "That just explains the illusion what did you have to do to complete it" he asked and twisted his wrist to change the angle in which he thrusted his blade.
Sakura blew out a puff of hair to get her bangs out of her eyes as she lowered her sword and once again blocked Kisame's sword with her own "I had to follow the ghost like creatures through invisible holes" she struggled against Kisame.
"Not bad kid your pretty smart for someone so young" Kisame continued the conversation to see how long it would take for Sakura to get distracted and mess up, then he would tell her what she did wrong before they would start on their taijutsu spar.
Sakura wiped her forehead with a hand quickly before swinging her sword up to clash with Kisame's "I was the smartest in my class back at that dumb village" she boasted proudly, but she didn't get distracted like Kisame thought she would.
Kisame smirked and swung hard knocking Sakura down the sword flew out of her hand and landed in his "Kenjutsu training over, time for taijutsu" he ordered and Sakura hopped up on her feet and moved into her fighting stance.
Sakura kicked her foot out and ducked under Kisame's punch, taijutsu was where she really excelled, it was what Tobi had mostly trained her in and ultimately what made Sakura decide to leave with her friend to come here.
Next Sakura held up her hands to block the kick Kisame sent and cartwheeled backwards before charging forwards to give Kisame a powerful punch to the stomach, the man coughed and knocked her backwards.
The training went on for awhile until Sakura could barely stand, the weight of her weights were finally getting to her plus it was almost lunch time, while she was eating her energy would somewhat be restored and then she could face Sasori's training without a problem.
"Come on pinkie" Kisame called it a day and Sakura trailed him into the building where they parted ways, she went to her room to shower while he headed to the kitchen to begin making lunch for everyone.
After her shower, Sakura put her weights and bandage wraps back on before heading down the hall to the kitchen where the smell of delicious food was wafting through the base "Afternoon, Sasori-senpai" she greeted the red haired puppet man.
"Afternoon Sakura, you'll learn dodging and chakra control this afternoon" Sasori greeted politely causing Deidara to gag, it was disgusting how they faked being polite to the poor girl, he still wasn't comfortable here but there wasn't anything he could do about it anymore.
Pein glared and Deidara slumped in his seat sulking "How did training with Itachi and Kisame go" he enquired and Sakura tilted her head to the side as she thought about how she wanted to word her answer.
"Well at first I was stuck on the genjutsu but then I completed it without much more trouble, stamina training is going well running laps is fun, in my kenjutsu training I'm still having trouble with my reactions time of catching the sword, and taijutsu is where I excel" Sakura ticked off.
Pein smirked, by the time the girl was thirteen she would be a prodigy and a strong kunoichi "I've been thinking about adding to your list of training" he put out there suddenly and Sakura leaned forward listening in rapt attention.
Sakura was excited, she couldn't wait to learn even more "You'll start training with Zetsu, he'll teach you all about herbs, medicine and poisons, Konan will teach you how to be a proper lady and teach you medical ninjutsu, and Deidara will teach you survival" Pein listed off to start.
"Kakuzu will train you in your element nature and Hidan can teach you marksmanship and strength, and finally at the end of each day I'll be teaching you about history, math, and theories on whatever else" Pein smirked.
Sakura's eyes sparkled in happiness "I thank you Leader for taking me in and giving me the chance to help the cause" she stood from her seat and bowed low, Deidara had expected the girl to complain but she didn't.
"Wait just a minute, how the hell is she going to get all of that done in one day Pein" Konan was not impressed Sakura was still a child there was no way she would handle doing all of that and still be standing at the end of each day.
Pein groaned and resisted the urge to slam his head repeatedly on the table "Fine I'll make up a schedule for Sakura, for now Sakura will go through her training with Sasori but tomorrow she'll start training with everyone" he wouldn't relent on having Sakura train until she dropped.
Konan sighed but let the subject drop and started dishing out the food for everyone, soon the plates were cleaned and Deidara got roped into washing them even though he resented the idea of doing a woman's job.
Sasori took Sakura back out to the training field and without saying anything started throwing kunai at her, the girl immediately started ducking, swerving, weaving, and jumping to avoid getting hit by the sharp weapons until Sasori finally ran out of weapons.
Sakura knew instantly what her senpai wanted her to do, so she ran around the field and gathered all of Sasori's weapons before trotting back over to him "Good job" Sasori praised before leading Sakura over to the lake.
"Chakra control is an important part of being a shinobi, if you don't have a certain amount of control then you'll never be able to fight on water" Sasori smirked and walked out to the middle of the lake Sakura stared in awe.
Sasori chuckled "Your job is to reach me without falling in, and every time you do, you'll have to start over on land" he instructed, Sasori wanted to see how much control Sakura had over her chakra before they went in for a break.
Sakura eyed the water warily, she was not a fan at all but she mimicked Sasori's hand sign and carefully gathered chakra to the soles of her feet then Sakura took a hesitant step out on the water, she had read in a book once that water walking was difficult.
The book had said that in order to walk on water you had to account for all the waves and fish and keep re applying chakra to your feet every few seconds, so she applied this and unsteadily made her way to Sasori.
Sasori's jaw dropped, he hadn't expected that Sakura would actually get the technique down on her first try, no wonder Tobi had brought her here, with the akatsuki Sakura could become a top rank kunoichi and become a force to be reckoned with as she grew older.
"I made it Sasori-senpai" Sakura panted in exhaustion, her chakra flickered and then went out and she went under, Sasori immediately grabbed hold of her wrist and yanked her out before she drowned or worse passed out.
"You did and that was pretty good of you" Sasori kept a careful hold on Sakura as they walked back to dry land "But you still have a long ways to go" he patted her on the head and sent her in he had to talk to Pein.
Sakura went to visit Kisame and Sasori making sure she was no where near knocked on Pein's office door "Enter" Pein called out and Sasori glanced from side to side before slipping through the door and closing it with a click.
Pein raised an eyebrow and waited "Sakura has perfect chakra control, it's better than mine even" Sasori burst out impatiently, for a child of Sakura's age and size it was a most impressive feat so Pein was immediately suspicious.
"And you witnessed this act of chakra control" Pein interrogated Sasori who sat down in a chair at his order, Sasori nodded and went on to explain what kind of lesson he had taught her "Water walking" Pein erupted "Your supposed to teach her the easy stuff first" Pein shouted.
Sasori grimaced he had thought about teaching Sakura the tree climbing exercise but water walking would get better results not that it mattered now because the point of the conversation was that Sakura had perfect control.
Pein clenched his eyes shut and once again resisted the urge to bang his head on something preferably his desk "And how tired was she when she finished your little exercise" he questioned further, Pein hoped it was good answer.
Otherwise he would ban Sasori from teaching Sakura how to water walk and make him teach her the easier exercise "Sakura lost control and went under the water sure she was tired but she was still awake" Sasori explained.
Pein sighed in exasperation and ran a hand through his orange hair "Good you are dismissed" he waved Sasori out of his office, a moment later Sakura skipped through the door looking just as cheery and excitable as usual.
"Guess what Leader I learned how to walk on water today, the books say it's difficult but it was as easy as cake" Sakura chattered and sat in her usual chair "I can't wait to start my training with everyone it's going to be so awesome" she giggled before smiling sheepishly.
Pein should have guessed that Sakura would be excited about training with everyone in the Akatsuki, then he peered down at the girl curiously "Did you say books, you mean that you learned how to water walk from a book" Pein leaned forward.
"Well it was my first time doing the technique but the book said to keep applying chakra to my feet every few minutes and that I had to account for all the waves and fish in the water otherwise I'd fall in" Sakura recited the information she had learned from a book in the library.
"Unbelievable you really are something else Sakura" Pein chuckled in amusement, if Sakura could retain information like that with such ease then maybe she would surpass them all in strength and smarts.
Soon dinner was finished and Konan called everyone to the kitchen, at the table Pein cleared his throat "I want everyone in my office at 6:00 in the morning and that includes you to Sakura" he gave the order and everyone nodded though some grumbled about being woken up so early.
Afterwards dinner was finished and Sakura following Pein headed back to his office and by extension Sakura's room "Goodnight Leader" Sakura bowed and did the hand signs that would open the door to her room.
Sakura took a shower and dressed in her pajamas, then she set her clock when Sakura sat on her bed however a crinkling noise startled her and she flipped on her light to find a note on her pillow underneath her head.
*To Sakura
I am proud of you for doing that technique flawlessly, I've left you a gift somewhere in your room, your mission Sakura is to find it before the next note until then farewell and keep up the training.
Signed: Tobi*
A smile spread across Sakura's lips and she flipped on the main light to start searching for the gift Obito had given her, she searched under her pillows and under the mattress even under the bed but still she hadn't found it.
Sakura sighed, Obito always made it difficult but that was the fun of finding his gifts, then she thought of something and looked up there attached to the ceiling was a package, so Sakura focused chakra to her feet and walked up the wall to get her gift.
Attached to the box was another note and Sakura quickly unfolded it until it was opened all the way, she walked back down the wall to sit on her bed again so that she could read her note that Obito wrote just for her.
*To Sakura
If you are reading this note then congratulations, I've heard about the various training sessions Pein want's to set you up on so I thought I would help a couple of your new senpai's by giving you a gift to give to them.
Signed by Tobi*
Curious Sakura opened the box and found five books on all five elements, five scrolls with elemental jutsu's, the element paper in which Sakura would find out what element or elements she had, a pair of black gloves and a tantou sword.
'Thanks Obito for the awesome gifts' Sakura giggled inwardly, it meant that Tobi was now paying more attention to her, before she could go much further in her train of thoughts Sakura yawned then she put away her gifts and laid down again easily falling asleep.