The pink-haired girl stood in the stream, water rushing passed her thighs in a soothing sensation. Only dressed in some bandages covering her upper body and simple cotton underwear, she was quick to wash herself of the dirt and grim of a day's worth of travelling. She had told the boys she was going to bathe, and she figured they were smart enough to get the idea she didn't want to be bothered.
That was until she turned around to find a very bare Sheru a few meters away from her taking his pants off and effectively mooning her.
"Pervert!" She screamed, picking up a fairly large rock and chucking it towards him. His eyes widened and he stumbled head first into the water to dodge the assault.
"Stupid girl!" He seethed as his head popped up, eyes dangerously narrowed, only to find Sakura turned around and covering her eyes from seeing his bare body.
"You're the one that followed me and was stripping like some kind of exhibitionist!"
Sheru sneered at her words, she was such a whiner sometimes.
"I came here because like you, I need to wash the dirt that has gathered in the most undesirable places and the sweat that has worked up since being in this unforgivingly humid place. I would like to do it before the sun goes down, and knowing the nature of frivolous little girls, like yourself, it would be closer to midnight when you would be done."
He bit out, Sakura whipped around, pointing a finger at him. Luckily, he still sat in the water, only his knees showing as he splashed water into his face.
Then she saw it, a red tattoo on his heart, it looked like a scorpion. Odd, scorpions weren't native to Ame.
"Look who's staring now." His cold voice pointed out, pushing his wet hair back to give her a leveled stare.
She gaped slightly, trying to find words to explain she was definitely not staring 'staring' at him, she was simply observing a tattoo. Yet her hormones suddenly noticed how attractive he was with the water dripping down his face and his hair pushed back. Her cheeks heated up and before a snarky reply could make itself known through her mouth, another voice spoke up behind her.
"You two are such loud brats. Sheru is right though, Sakura, you're practically a boy at your age, you have nothing to show."
Whipping around again, she saw Shigure, laying in the water, only his head popping up.
"Y-You jerks!"
She yelled at them, her face turning an interesting shade of red. She sank into the water, letting it sink up over her nose as she glared straight ahead, thinking about planning murder and the best way to hide a body.
Besides the bathing fiasco, Sakura was fascinated with the Land of Fire. It was so bright and green, while the sun shined all the time practically, only a few clouds to gaze up at.
It was noon when the three walked up to Konoha's gates, greeted by a group of chunin. They checked over their passports, seeing it as all good, they waved them in, giving them a map where their inn would be.
Although Shigure and Sheru didn't seem to appreciate the new atmosphere, Sakura couldn't get enough of it. The town was bustling with noise and people, Ame didn't have many people out and about because of the cruddy weather. She smiled brightly at all the carts that littered store fronts, selling all kind of items from food to knick-knacks. One store got her full attention however. Its name was simply Himitsu, letting her know it was in fact a ninja wear store.
In the front window held a bright red kimono, it was short, but with ninja you shouldn't wear long dresses unless you trained to fight in them. It was perfect, the color caught her eye and she could feel her hand go to her money pouch.
"No." Sheru's sharp voice cut in, while Shigure grabbed her shoulder and dragged her away.
"This is no time for window shopping, let's find our hotel and get settled in." Shigure grumbled, his eyes wandering around the bright hidden village. If he was amazed or impressed, he didn't show it.
They found their inn easy enough, other Rain genin stood around, some with their sensei waiting for a room key. Eventually, the manager gave them two room keys.
"Yes, I finally get my own room," Sakura fist-pumped. Shigure laughed a bit darkly.
"Uh-huh, yeah no. You are staying with Sheru, you two are still children, I'm an adult, I get the one bed room."
It seemed Sheru didn't care either way as he got the two bed hotel key and walked off to find it. Sakura and Shigure glared at each other, before she finally huffed and looked away.
"Fine, but next time, my turn."
"Sure thing." He added sarcastically as he headed to his room next to hers and Sheru's. She sighed, making her way into the shared room where Sheru already sat on his designated bed with his shoes off and a scroll in hand.
He could be such an old man at times.
"You should go find that Uzumaki brat."
He finally spoke up, not even looking at her.
"You're not going to come with me?"
"I don't like kids."
"You are pretty much a kid."
"I still don't like them."
Sakura's fist clenched as she resisted the urge to punch his arrogant face. She composed herself, not saying another word to her teammate as she walked out the door.
Exiting into the street, she looked around. She didn't even know where to start. Sighing, she began to walk around.
She could really use Shigure's ability to sniff out a dango house right about now.
Walking around was beginning to tire her, and she really just wanted to go relax at the inn. Just as she was about to turn around, she found herself looking at a blonde walking towards her.
With whisker marks.
How lucky she was. He seemed to see her looking at him, and started blushing as he walked closer, stumbling a bit from her unnerving stare.
"Um, do I know you?" He asked, she sure did look familiar to him, he just couldn't place it her face. She smiled at him and shook her head.
"No, I'm Sakura!" Now that really rang a bell, however the boy was grabbing for sticks in his mind. He grinned, he shouldn't be thinking so hard with such a cute girl talking to him.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!"
Then a glint of metal made him look at the girl's headband- a ninja forehead protector. However it didn't have the leaf insignia engraved into it, it was four straight lines.
"Uh, what's wrong with your headband?"
She touched it at the mention of it. What was wrong with it? Before she could ask, a child ran between them and tackled Naruto down.
"Naruto-nii-san! Help me, a man with makeup on is trying to attack me!"
"Konohamaru- not right now!"
He said, trying to use his eyes to look at Sakura, as if trying to tell Konohamaru he was busy. Konohamaru looked a bit dumbly up at Sakura, looking at her with a scrunched face.
"Who's this hag?"
A vein popped out of her forehead as she was about to unleash hell on the young boy, well at least until another boy came into the picture and grabbed the kid up by the collar.
This must be the makeup man the child was talking about. He was a bit taller than herself, with a bit weird cat-eared black suit on and suna forehead protector sewed into the front.
"There you are, ya little brat."
The unnamed boy growled out threatening.
"Hey put Konohamaru down or else!"
A glare was sent Naruto's way.
"Or else what? This brat drew on my most prized possessions."
She silently wondered what the possession was. Naruto was clenching his fist tightly, thinking of a plan to rescue the kid, Konohamaru. He seemed nervous, which made sense, the Suna kid was pretty intimidating.
"Why don't we all play nice now," Sakura tried, trying to calm out the tension. It would do no good to start an all-out brawl between two genin. If she assumed correctly, and usually she did, that would lead a domino effect to the already rivalling villages, and more genin would 'defend their honor' by starting more fights.
Then she noticed it. She looked up and spotted a boy in a tree. He flicked something out of his hand, before catching her eyes. If he was surprised she noticed him, he didn't show it.
The item he flicked, a small rock, landed hard and precise on the Suna-boys hand, causing him to yelp and drop Konohamaru. The kid was quick to scramble to safety behind Naruto.
"What the-"
"Sasuke!" Naruto grounded out in an angry tone.
"Kankuro!" A girl, older than them, came running up, looking royally pissed off.
"Why'd you ditch me?" She seethed out, glaring at Kankuro. Before he could answer, a new voice made an appearance. It shocked Sakura as the air became full of malice and killer intent in only a millisecond.
"You two, just shut up."
Her eyes narrowed as she took a defensive stance and looked up once again. Sasuke, who was still in his position in his tree, sensed the new comer also and looked somewhat surprised. On the opposite side of the tree, a boy, no older than them, stood upside down on the branch, with bloody red hair which reminded her of Sheru.
However, this boy managed to send shiver down her spine. She was a trained ninja, and at times she may not act like one, but she was surprisingly not easy to scare anymore, especially after encountering many of Ame's native species, most of them either poisonous, venomous, or just bacteria infested.
Yet, he scared her, whether it was the dead look in his eye or just how intense his aura was, she didn't know. Sasuke jumped down, landing next to Naruto to stare at the boy.
"O-oh Gaara, didn't know you were out and about-"Kankuro said sheepishly, the once pretty menacing boy turned into a frightened kitten under the younger nin's stare.
"Kankuro, you are a disgrace to our village and a disgrace of a brother."
His tone was sharp, and she could see it cut through Kankuro visibly. The boy backed up, waving his hands in front of him nervously.
"We were just playing, Gaara. Getting to know the locals, right sis?"
Apparently they were all siblings, however Sakura was not paying attention to that, more on the young suna-nin who seemed to be able to attack at a pin drop.
"Y-Yeah." The girl's voice a bit stronger, but Sakura still felt fear from her. Why were they so scared of their own, by the looks of it, younger brother?
The boy started turning into sand, a pretty advance trick for a young genin. He reformed right in front of them, however his back was turned to them and facing his siblings.
"Next time this happens, I'll kill you."
It was a pretty serious threat for something so small. She didn't like bullies as much as the next guy, but she never felt the need to kill them. Something was off about this boy, and her mind was working on why he was so violent and so obviously strong. She was no means a chakra sensor, yet his chakra radiated off him in massive waves, he didn't even try to hide it.
"Y-Yes, Gaara." Kankuro muttered out, looking to the ground and rubbing the back of his neck.
"Let's get back to the hotel, boys." The older sister's voice was quiet, a bit stronger but subdued by Gaara's presence.
"Wait! What is foreign-nin doing in the village anyways?"
Naruto yelled out accusingly, pointing his finger at the trio. Sakura sent a glare to the boy, did he want them to get killed by a psycho genin?
"Shut up."
"Dobe, be quiet." They both whisper scolded at the same time. That little moment made them look at each other. He was quite handsome with dark mysterious looks, but Sakura managed to tone down the blush to a minimum. It was quiet easy to do when Gaara's stare came onto them.
Naruto turned a bit red at the double scolding, but held his ground, staring defiantly at the Sand trio.
"We have passports," The girl said smartly, bringing her own up, showing her name was Temari.
"We're here for the Chunin Exams, I assume you guys are going to be in it to?" She continued, eyeing Sasuke in an appreciating way, apparently she had come to the same conclusion that Sakura did, except she had no problem showing her interest.
"Yes," Sakura said, but looking at the two Konoha genin, it seemed they were lost.
"The chunin exams, being held in Konoha this year? Ring a bell?" She tried, this only made Sasuke glare at not knowing what was going on and Naruto to stand there and look really confused.
"Did Scarecrow Sensei not give you the entry forms?"
Great, another person. Sakura looked behind her and saw a smiling boy walking towards them. His smile was off, somewhat fake. It was definitely odd for a young boy not to have a genuine smile, and a bit creepy. He was very pale, somewhat the same features of the Sasuke boy, dark hair and matching eyes. She wondered briefly if they were related.
"You knew about this Sai?!"
Naruto shouted out in surprise, only earning him a fake smile in return. This was turning into a very odd meet up.
"Sure I did, dickless," he simply stated, earning a surprised look from Sakura at his vulgar language and more cursing from Naruto's side.
"We will see you there then." Temari called out, her and Kankuro walking off. However Gaara stayed put, staring at Sasuke in an intense way.
"What's your name." It wasn't a question, but a demand. Sasuke glared at the boy, looking him up and down trying to measure him up.
"Uchiha Sasuke."
Gaara grunted.
"Gaara. I look forward to meeting someone with the same eyes on the battlefield."
She didn't know if that was a promise or a threat, but Sasuke only smirked at the boy, seemingly accepting the challenge. Boys were really weird sometimes.
"Hey don't you want to know my name?" Naruto again shouted and Sakura whacked him on the head. He whined and Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. She was so used to being around her team who she constantly tried (Sometimes succeeded) to hit, that she had instinctively hit Naruto for being loud.
"S-Sorry, I'm used to my teammates." She stuttered out, Naruto looked at her for a while, before shrugging it off with a grin. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, Sai spoke up.
"Hello ugly girl, I am Sai."
Sakura's eyebrow twitched. Her ego was really taking a real beating ever since she stepped out of Ame. She turned around looking at Sai with a sickly sweet smile.
His two teammates and the young boy Konohamaru backed up, looking on in morbid curiosity seeing what the somewhat weak looking girl would do.
She held out her left hand, offering to shake it with Sai. Sai seemed surprise, but somewhat happily took the girls hand.
"Hello Sai, I'm Sakura and I would like you to meet me best friend."
Sai blinked in a confused at her words, looking at her with a tilted head. It was almost cute. His eyes widened when her hand clenched his harder and harder, almost like she was going to break it. Then her fist came up, and him being effectively trapped in her death grip he wasn't able to dodge. Her fist came down in what seemed like a normal girl punch, but to the boy's surprise, Sai flew back a few meters.
A groan came from Sai and Sakura turned around looking at the unharmed boys, who were now looking at her akin to something to terror, Sasuke hid it a bit better than the two more obvious boys. Her face had relaxed and she now wore a genuine smile.
"Pleasure to meet you, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, brat." She looked darkly down at Konohamaru, as if warning him next time she wouldn't be so kind. He gulped and shook, grabbing Naruto's pant leg.
"Now, I'm going to try to repair my shattered ego, ja ne!"
With an overly happy voice she walked down the street, walking right over Sai without a thought.
"I think I'm in love." Naruto whispered, a blush dusting his cheeks, while Sasuke sent him a weird look.
Sai finally sat his upper body up, his cheek already growing an enormous size and his nose bleeding profusely.
"What did I do?"
His voice came out staggered as his unfocused eyes looked around, trying to get his bearings.
"Interesting." Sasuke commented, before pivoting and walking away.