Situations and Frustrations
Except for what was going on the next morning, Kakashi decided.
He sighed and settled in a tree nearby with his book, waiting to see how his most prodigious duckling handled the situation. (He was most definitely not getting in the middle of a genin disagreement, or worse, preteen girl drama.)
That morning, Sakura had taken a long time to decide what to do with her headband.
It was the picture in her parents' bedroom that finally settled the matter for her. In that photo, her dad was being incredibly goofy and her mom smiling quietly, but both of them were wearing their hitai-ate proudly across their foreheads. And if they could, so could she. She was their daughter, after all.
Before she got to the training grounds, however, Sakura was confronted by a furious-looking Ino dragging along a bored and slightly annoyed Shikamaru beside her. Behind them both meandered along Chouji, predictably munching on some snacks.
"You," Ino snarled at Sakura and let go of Shikamaru, marching to within inches of her face. "I told you not to interfere."
Sakura just stared, wide-eyed, at Ino for a moment before shuffling back a step. "Wh-what?"
"With my Sasuke-kun." Ino stepped forward, closing the distance between them again and glaring at the pink-haired girl. Their hitai-ate nearly touched, and Sakura swallowed but recognized that Ino would only close any distance she put between them again, and stayed put. She looked down at Ino's shoulder.
"I have?" she whispered, very quietly.
"I've seen you looking at him, and he is MINE!" Ino yelled and swung a punch at Sakura, who had seen her shoulder tense and had ducked back immediately. "You watch him, every day, and you try to help him! HA!" Ino launched after Sakura, turning wildly to land a hit on her, but Sakura dodged every one. "Sasuke-kun is the greatest, and you're just dragging him down with you, Pinky," she hissed. Sakura stumbled a bit as she evaded another strike. Wasn't Sasuke getting better at fighting though, with her? He wasn't getting worse, at least she didn't think so. But…
The nausea was coming back.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered on the sidelines, and Sakura glanced at him for just a second, trying to figure out if he was going to start throwing weapons as well. She really hoped the boys wouldn't join the fight.
Sakura jumped backward again, away from Ino, and then saw shuriken come flying at her. She pulled out a kunai and blocked them mid-jump.
Sakura landed and focused sharply on Ino's arm, gauging where she would throw next, but the fight was suddenly and unexpectedly cut off by a deep, rough voice.
"Ino."
Ino froze, but Sakura didn't look away from the other girl.
"Hi Asuma-sensei!" Chouji waved a chip at the taller man, who had appeared with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth.
"Hey, kid." the jounin, Asuma smiled back at him, and then his kind face turned serious as he looked back at Ino, who hadn't turned away from Sakura and was still glaring in rage. "Ino. Drop it."
Ino didn't react for a few, long seconds, but finally straightened from her attack position. Her eyes still burned.
"And a note of advice to you, Sakura, was it?" She glanced briefly at the other team's sensei, who smiled back in a tight-lipped way. "When you're facing Ino, don't stop moving," he finished.
Ino smiled suddenly, her whole demeanor changing to a calm and friendly one. "Watch your back, Sakura," she stated softly.
Sakura said nothing in reply and Ino turned her back on the girl, flipping her hair over her shoulder with practiced ease and sauntering over to walk next to her sensei. Their team walked away, but Sakura didn't stop watching Ino until they were out of sight.
When they had disappeared from view, she ran towards the training grounds, desperately trying to convince herself she wasn't making her teammates weaker. She flexed her hand and felt the chain tighten around her skin, and Sakura let out a shuddering breath. She knew she wasn't dragging down her team, but…. She couldn't help but wonder if Kakashi had made the wrong decision, keeping her with the boys.
When Sakura reached the training grounds, she was met with a familiar sight. Naruto and Sasuke were there, arms folded and both glaring away from each other with nearly identical expressions. She stifled a grin at the sight of them.
"Hi," she said quietly, almost hoping the boys wouldn't hear her and she could just go back to watching them like she used to in the academy. That way, she couldn't hold them back, or hurt their dreams.
Sasuke jumped and Naruto whirled around, face splitting into a grin. "Sakura!" he cried happily.
"Where were you?" Sasuke grumbled, and Sakura shifted nervously.
"Ah, I ran into one of our old classmates," she evaded, desperately wishing they wouldn't ask anything else. However, Naruto was full of questions.
"Who was it?" he asked excitedly. "Was it Ino? Did she say anything about me?!"
Sakura flinched imperceptibly at Ino's name and then nodded. "It was Ino's team, but she didn't say anything about you, I'm sorry," she replied quietly, with a glance towards Sasuke.
"AW MAN!" Naruto whined loudly, then whirled on Sasuke, pointing an accusatory finger. "ONE DAY I'M GONNA BEAT YOU SASUKE, AND THEN INO WILL HAVE TO LOOK AT ME!" he yelled, and then attacked his rival.
While Naruto and Sasuke were occupied, Sakura pulled out a tiny jar of from her pocket and streaked a little of the contents on a scratch Ino had given her. The cream would heal it in a matter of seconds, but before it was done, she glanced up and saw Sasuke's eye on her, studying her for just a short second. She turned pink and hurriedly put the cream away, hoping that he wouldn't ask about it.
He didn't, when the impromptu spar was over and Naruto was lying out cold on the ground, but that didn't help her feel any less nervous.
After Naruto had regained consciousness, he turned back to Sakura. "Are you going to have us do something else today before Kakashi-sensei comes?"
Sakura wound the chain around her left wrist, frowning thoughtfully. She usually would come up with an idea for practice on her way here, but Ino had preoccupied her thoughts that morning. "What do you guys want to work on?" she hedged, wanting them to decide this time.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the question, and Naruto squinted confusedly. "Whaddya mean?"
Sakura let out a small laugh, relaxing a fraction. "Well, is there anything you want me to show you today?"
"Uhhhhhhh….." Naruto was at a complete loss.
"Chakra control," Sasuke decided. "Jutsu will be easier if my control is better."
Sakura nodded, relieved that she knew how to teach them to do that, and then went over to the trees across the clearing. "You've done the leaf exercise at the academy, right?" Sasuke nodded shortly and followed her. Naruto trailed after both of them, obviously trying to remember what leaf exercise she was talking about.
"Well now, instead of at your forehead, you'll gather chakra at your feet, and make yourself stick to a tree trunk, and walk up it slowly, without slipping." Sakura walked over to a tree at the edge of the clearing and focused her chakra, then stepped onto it. She stuck her foot to the tree and then walked up it, enhancing her muscles with chakra to keep her straight.
"WHOA!" Naruto yelled excitedly. "That's so cool!"
Sakura grinned and flipped off the trunk, landing next to the boys. "If you use too much chakra, you'll shoot off the tree and probably disintegrate the bark. Too little and you won't stick. I started off low, on a log or roots or something like that until I got the hang of it."
"I'll beat you at this, bastard! You can bet on that!" Naruto hollered at Sasuke, already running towards a tree he had apparently chosen for the exercise. Sasuke rolled his eyes and then turned to the tree Sakura had shown them on.
He closed his eyes, concentrating on the feel of chakra in his feet, and then Sakura watched him step onto the roots of the closest tree precisely where she had, wobbling precariously. Satisfied, she ran through the taijutsu sets Uncle Shin had shown her before his last mission.
She still couldn't shake the feeling of not being good enough though, of not being able to teach Naruto and Sasuke enough for them to achieve their dreams.
Even worse, she was afraid of holding them back, just like Ino had said.
"Morning."
Sakura jumped as her sensei seemingly materialized behind her.
"Good morning Kakashi-sensei," she replied with a small bow. She felt something tap her forehead, and she looked up. Her sensei was tapping her headband thoughtfully. Sakura swallowed.
"You wore it like this yesterday too, didn't you, Sakura?"
She bowed again, more quickly this time. "Yes sensei." Sakura chanced another glance at his face, and… was he smiling?
"It looks good on you that way," Kakashi said, without a hint of reprimand in his voice. "You're a shinobi now, after all."
Sakura let out a small breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and felt her eyes water. She blinked hurriedly and shook her head.
"Thank you." She bowed once more and then turned to Naruto, who was still trying not to slide off the roots of the tree he had decided to practice on.
"Ah, Sensei," she said, her eyes squinting into a frown as she studied the smaller boy. "I have no idea how to help Naruto with his chakra. And I'm not good enough to keep teaching Sasuke and Naruto, soon they'll know everything I know and-"
Sakura stopped talking when Kakashi-sensei chuckled. "Don't worry about Naruto," he told her. "He'll figure it out. And right now, you teaching them is the best thing for this team right now. Soon enough their basics will become instinct, but until then, keep them doing it. You're doing a good job." Kakashi-sensei ruffled her hair, and Sakura felt her face heat up, as tears pricked the corner of her eyes once more.
Naruto finally looked up and saw them talking. "Kakashi-sensei!" he accused, pointing a finger. "You're late!" He then let out a yelp as his chakra promptly disintegrated and he slid off, landing with a small 'thud'.
"Ah, well, you see, I lost my lucky pencil this morning, so I had to get a new one from the store in the next village over and then come back," Kakashi-sensei explained dismissively. Sasuke gave Kakashi-sensei a scathing look and jumped down from the base of the tree he had been practicing on.
"That's ridiculous!" Naruto countered defiantly, getting up and brushing himself off. "There's no way!"
Their jounin-sensei nodded. "Of course not," he smiled. "I'll meet you at the Hokage's office."
And suddenly, Kakashi wasn't standing in front of them anymore. Sakura watched Naruto blink, then frown, as he tried to figure out what happened. "Was that a clone?" he asked slowly. Sakura shrugged and Sasuke merely stared in disapproval at the place where the jounin had been. Naruto looked from one of his teammates to the other. "Well I'm going to the old man's office for a super cool mission that worthy enough for me!" Naruto decided, and then marched off without looking behind him.
"What, collecting trash again?" Sasuke muttered under his breath. Naruto twitched.
Sakura hid her giggles as Naruto whirled around in fury. They really shouldn't fight so much.
They arrived only to find Kakashi-sensei already standing outside the door and reading intently. The three genin stopped next to him and waited for him to start moving, but he merely turned another page.
"Sensei? SENSEI?!" Naruto yelled, and waved his hand over the book Kakashi-sensei was reading. Naruto scowled, and made a grab for the book, but suddenly Kakashi-sensei was about half a meter left of where he used to be, still reading.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHH!" Naruto yelled. "COME ON YOU OLD FART! I WANT TO GET A SUPER COOL MISSION ALREADY!"
Sasuke just huffed and walked past Kakashi, and on into the building. "Jounin, huh?" Sakura heard him mutter. Naruto hollered in outrage once more and flew into the building, shouting at the top of his lungs something about the "bastard not beating him again!" and Sakura smiled.
She glanced up at her sensei, who snapped his book shut and winked at her when her two teammates were gone.
"They're too much fun to mess with," he said conspiratorially.
"They are pretty funny," she admitted. "I love watching them. I think they're really good friends, even though neither of them would ever say that."
Kakashi glanced down at her, then scratched his head thoughtfully. "You know, I think I might actually agree with you. Did you watch them a lot at the academy?"
Sakura stilled, and then nodded her head slowly, almost as if she was afraid of answering. Kakashi took a deep breath in order to keep himself calm. Right now, Sakura was shutting down, and that was the very last thing Kakashi wanted to happen.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, and ransacked his brain, trying to find something to say that would make her smile again. Sakura glanced upward at him, and words he was most definitely not expecting to say came out of his mouth.
"I used to have a teammate a lot like Naruto, actually. We argued just like that, all the time. It drove the other two mad."
Sakura giggled softly, and Kakashi smiled in triumph. "Really?"
He nodded. "Yes, it's true. I was once a young, silly little ninja too."
Sakura smiled, almost slyly, and Kakashi blinked in surprise at her expression. "And now you're just an old, silly big ninja?" she asked mischievously. Then suddenly her face changed, like she was absolutely horrified at what she had said.
But Kakashi just laughed out loud, and with all the speed of the famous Copy-Cat Ninja he grabbed her by the ankles and jumped upwards to the window that was regularly left open in the Hokage's office for exactly that purpose.
Sakura let out a gasp and then laughed as he deposited her gently on the floor, right behind the Third Hokage. The old ninja turned around at the commotion and then chuckled himself, offering a hand to Sakura.
"Hello, Haruno Sakura," he said, as he helped her off the floor. The girl turned a shade of pink slightly darker than her hair and bowed quickly.
"Hello, Hokage-sama."
The Third turned a mock-disapproving gaze on the jounin, who whistled innocently. "I do hope," he began, "that you aren't torturing your students, Kakashi. Dragging them in by their ankles seems a bit much. We do need them in working order."
Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "Of course not. All of my genins are completely fine, without a scratch on them, and ready to work."
At that exact moment, Naruto and Sasuke burst through the door at the same time, each attempting to push each other back. Half of Sasuke's bangs were shorter, a sleeve was ripped off of Naruto's jacket, Naruto also only had one shoe and was limping slightly, and Sasuke had a beautiful shiner, just like the sunrise.
They both crowed "I won!" and then fell on top of each other in an exhausted heap.
Kakashi looked a little dismayed at the state of two-thirds of his genin team, and the Third Hokage raised an eyebrow at him.
"They did it to themselves!" Kakashi said petulantly. "They were fine when we were outside!"
The much older shinobi just looked at him expectantly and Kakashi sighed. He walked over to the two boys and pulled them up by their jackets, setting them unsteadily on their feet. They blinked at Sakura, and since they only just noticed the presence of other ninja in the room, both of them frowned rather comically.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke, Naruto, but technically, we did win," Sakura said, covering a smile. Sasuke frowned harder and Naruto's jaw fell open, as they realized they had lost to the laziest sensei in the world.
"WAIT A SECOND!" Naruto shouted. "HOW COME-"
"Ah, Team Seven," Iruka, who had been watching the whole spectacle from the side of the desk, cut in hurriedly. "Now that you're here, we can get you set up with another mission."
"ALL RIGHT!" Naruto exclaimed, conveniently forgetting his earlier frustration.
Kakashi saw Iruka let out a sigh of relief, and inwardly agreed.