It was the middle of October, and Sakura was going on an easy run just inside the walls of Konoha. She was grateful for the cool fall breeze that swept over her as she ran. She would never have thought she'd actually enjoy running at any point in her life, but the intense training she had undergone had been enough to change her opinions. After all, she only ever got to go running on her easy days. On hard days, she would be sprinting. She shuddered at the mere memory of suicide sprints. Compared with the painful regimens she put herself through on Tuesdays and Fridays, runs were practically a walk in the park.
"Hey you! Academy girl!"
Was he talking to her?
"Yeah, you! Come over here for a second!"
One of the chūnin gate guards, one with a bandage over his nose, was waving her over.
Sakura slowed down to a walk, and stopped in front of the guard, trying to keep her confusion concealed.
"Don't look so scared. We won't bite," the chūnin assured her. "In fact, we've got a present for you."
He reached inside one of his pockets and presented a handful of bills and coins.
"This is all for you!"
She was beyond confused now. Why was this chūnin giving her money?
"Kotetsu, you should probably explain first." The other guard interjected.
"Right, right. Here's the thing, Academy girl. We chūnin are nosy because we don't have anything else to do. After we saw you training, a whole bunch of us decided to place bets. A lot of people bet that you would quit after a week. We've seen it before, you know. All these brats get so gung-ho and then they quit after the first three days," he told her, waving his arms as if the movements would make his story more believable.
"Anyways, it's been more than two weeks since you've started, so we won quite a bit of money. Izumo here thought it was unfair that we kept all the money to ourselves when you were the one training, so you're getting half of our winnings," the guard now identified as Kotetsu explained.
The story sounded far-fetched, but not impossible, so she accepted the money.
"Anyways, keep on making us mone- ow!" Kotetsu was interrupted by a painful elbow to the side.
"I mean, keep on training, that's what I meant to say, Academy girl."
"My name is Haruno Sakura, not Academy girl."
"We hope you enjoy the rest of your run, Haruno-san," Izumo stated in a calm tone as he started dragging his protesting partner back to their positions at the village's gates.
That was Sakura's first encounter with the Twins.
-X-
She painted the last few lines of the seal with smooth, even strokes. Done. She inspected the paper carefully, making sure the pattern matched the one in the book. Nodding absentmindedly to herself, she slid a kunai from her holster, attached the seal, and threw the kunai towards its target. She scrunched her eyes closed and covered her ears as soon as the kunai left her hand. As the weapon hit the trunk of the tree, blinding light flooded over the training ground.
After a few seconds, she walked over to the kunai. Her seal matched the book's sample perfectly, yet the bang part of flash-bang had yet to occur. What had gone wrong?
Walking over to her bag, she picked up the book, and flipped to the diagram that she had consulted when making her seal.
Circuit converts a portion of the chakra into light through ... also causes vibrations that will produce a loud ... time delay of one minute between flash and bang ... important-
Wait, what? A time delay? Sakura covered her ears in time to prevent the loud boom from deafening her. A flock of birds took to the air, scared by the sudden noise.
She sighed. Well, even if she made the wrong seal, she still managed to practice her brush strokes. She flipped to the diagram for a simultaneous flash-bang, and prepared the supplies needed for another seal.
As she reached for a piece of paper, an idea occurred to her. She had recently learned the Transformation jutsu, and while the technique was usually used to change the appearance of the user, she knew that the technique could also be used to change the appearance of objects. With enough chakra applied, the illusion would become more and more "solid", until it finally became reality. In this way, the jutsu could literally be used to turn one object into another.
The reason this application of the jutsu wasn't commonly used was because of the large amount of chakra required. But, transforming a sheet of paper into a seal tag shouldn't require nearly as much chakra.
Running through the hand seals for the Transformation, she placed her palms on the paper and channeled her chakra through the sheet. A puff of chakra smoke temporarily obscured her view, and she fanned it away with impatience. Through the smoke, she could make out black lines on the paper, but she needed to make sure that the seal array was complete.
Sakura stared at the paper. A perfect replica of a flash-bang seal remained. Immediately, she attached the tag to a kunai and threw it across the training ground, keeping her eyes on the weapon in anticipation. As soon as the weapon dug into the ground, a nearly-simultaneous flash and bang were released.
In hindsight, she probably shouldn't have stared at the flash-bang. She berated herself for her carelessness, though it was a bit hard to think with the annoying ringing in her ears.
Calculating the amount of chakra she had left, she judged that she would have enough juice to make at least 10 more seals this way. She frowned. She wouldn't be able to use this technique all the time, but it was a good discovery. A few experiments would have to be conducted to see how long the transformation would last. Best case scenario, she could make a few packs of exploding tags and flash bangs in the months before her spar. Maybe her dream of becoming a fūinjutsu master wasn't so far-fetched, after all.
-X-
"Get away from our training posts!"
Sakura could hear faint snatches of an argument emanating from the Academy training grounds. The Academy's training grounds were open to all ninja when it wasn't being used during the school day. It wasn't uncommon to see older Academy students there after school, with fourth-years often crowding the grounds to squeeze in extra practice in preparation for their graduation test. It was probably just a small scuffle that would resolve itself. She decided to ignore it.
"But I was here first!"
Was that Naruto? Her curiosity getting the better of her, she walked up the wall of the Academy to the roof. From her new vantage point, she could see several fourth-year boys standing around her classmate, who was glaring at them defiantly. They were trying to herd him away from the wooden shuriken posts, but Naruto was standing his ground.
"You can't tell me what to do! You're not the Hokage, dattebayo!"
The bullies were cracking their knuckles threateningly.
"If we can't tell you what to do, we'll just use our fists to make you do it!" the leader of the group cried out.
There was fear in Naruto's eyes now, and he started to back away, but they were surrounding him.
Her breath hitched. Once, she had been in that exact same position. Ami and her gang were advancing on her, throwing pebbles and dirt, trying to push her down. They were relentless, chasing her away from her favorite reading bench and harassing her whenever she stepped within their sights. She hadn't understood why they were so mean to her. And she had been just as helpless as Naruto was now.
Her morals clashed with a strong sense of self-preservation. She couldn't defeat a group of upperclassmen in combat. She had barely started learning Rapid Combat. As she watched them cornering him, she struggled to keep her breathing under control. Her hands were shaking, her knees were weak, she couldn't move. She was a coward.
-X-
It had been a good day for Naruto. He had received his monthly stipend, and had stocked up on groceries. His wallet, Gama-chan, had been happy and full. Of course, groceries meant a few boxes of instant ramen, but that didn't bother him too much. Ramen was the food of the Sage, after all.
Even better, Jiji had visited and taken him to Ichiraku's! He had wolfed down eight bowls of ramen during one sitting, and told the old man about his various adventures.
"The dog looked really sad because it didn't have any friends. So then, I painted animals on all the walls, so the dog wouldn't have to be lonely!"
Jiji had said something about an extremely big apetight or whatever after his fifth bowl of ramen, but he figured it was just Jiji talking about Hokage stuff. The old man wouldn't have to worry about that for much longer, though, because he would take the hat soon. Jiji had laughed, and told him that he would have to train a lot if he wanted to become Hokage.
And he had received his own set of shuriken to practice with! Naruto had promised to train hard, but it looked like his plans weren't going to work out smoothly.
His back was to the wire fence that surrounded the Academy training grounds, and he was surrounded. This would all be better if he could move through fences. He looked forlornly at the shuriken set that was lying near the wooden practice posts. The older boys would probably take them once they chased him away. His heart sank as the leader prepared to throw a punch. He just couldn't seem to get through a day without meeting some trouble. Naruto thought back to the villagers' whispers. They said he was bad luck, a demon. That was why they didn't like him. He was a no-good bad-luck fox. He raised his arms to brace for the assault, and closed his eyes. If he tried hard, he could imagine that he was at Ichiraku's, eating ramen with Jiji. It would be over soon.
"What's going on here?" a familiar voice boomed.
His head shot up at the sound. Hope tentatively bloomed inside his chest. It was Iruka-sensei!
The leader stopped mid-swing and scurried backwards, attempting to look innocent.
"You boys get back to practicing and stop making trouble before I kick all of you out," Iruka-sensei barked. "Usage of the Academy training ground is a privilege, not a right. You would do well to remember it."
"Yes, Iruka-sensei," the boys chorused. They wouldn't pick a fight with an Academy sensei watching, though they did shoot Naruto some mean looks as they scattered.
"Pack up your things, Naruto-san. I need to talk to you for a moment."
"Oh, okay." He sighed. Instead of a beating, he was going to receive a lecture. Iruka-sensei was going to try to make him do homework for the umpteenth time.
He collected his shuriken set, which had remained untouched, and hurried back towards the entrance to the training grounds.
"Iruka-sensei, nothing you say will make me do homework," he stated with utmost confidence.
Iruka-sensei seemed surprised. "Oh, it's not about homework."
Naruto's forehead scrunched in confusion. Not homework?
"So, what are we going to talk about?" he asked as they walked around the Academy building. It was strange. Iruka-sensei usually lectured him inside his office, and they had walked past the entrance that was closest to his office.
"Um. Your KHag essay!" Iruka-sensei stammered out.
"But you didn't assign one!"
His last essay had been on the First Shinobi World War. He had it done late, but he had handed it in all the same, so it couldn't have been about that paper.
"Let's just get away from this place, first. I'll explain later."
Something fishy was going on.
"If you're mad because I'm going to throw glitter bombs during class tomorrow, I promise I won't do it."
Iruka-sensei stumbled a little, then began to cough loudly.
"Are you alright? Do you need some water?" Naruto began to panic. Iruka-sensei had been fine the last time he had seen him. Now he was coughing. If sensei found out he was bad luck, would he try to avoid him, too?
"I'm fine. I don't need any water," Iruka-sensei replied between coughs. He recomposed himself after his coughing fit, and continued walking, Naruto trailing behind him uncertainly.
No more words were exchanged until they reached a clearing in a park near the Academy. Giant trees, now yellow and orange with the coming of fall, formed a natural barrier around them, giving a sense of privacy.
"Naruto-san, I'm going to do something very strange right now. Don't be surprised."
Naruto nodded in agreement. Really, he had already seen a lot of strange things. Nothing Iruka-sensei could do would surprise him, not even if he took all of his glitter bombs.
There was a small puff of smoke, and Iruka-sensei turned into Sakura.
"Hey! I've heard of that technique before! It's called the Transformation, right? Are you trying to teach me a secret technique? That's awesome, dattebayo!" He would be able to take the position of Hokage so much faster if he learned ninjutsu.
Iruka-Sakura blinked. "I don't know how to explain this, Naruto-san. But, uhm, I'm not actually Iruka-sensei. I'm Sakura."
"So, you're not Iruka-sensei?" he asked.
"No, I'm not," she confirmed.
"Then why did you pretend to be Iruka-sensei?" Naruto was very confused now. Did she just enjoy being tall?
"I. Um."
He waited patiently for her explanation.
"I saw those boys, and I didn't want you to get beat up."
Naruto's mind halted, trying to comprehend this new tidbit. Someone had tried to help him? But, he was a bad-luck fox, right? Nobody really wanted to be around him. They weren't even friends, just classmates.
"Are you okay?" Sakura asked worriedly.
There were tears on his face. He was crying. Why was he crying? The Hokage would never cry in such a situation.
"You're just pretending! You're a faker!" he finally burst out.
She jumped back, a hurt expression on her face.
"I'm a bad-luck fox! Nobody ever wants to be around me," he sobbed. "You shouldn't be, either!"
With that, he turned and fled from the clearing.