A New Hope
Disclaimer; I don't own Naruto.
16 months later.
" You called, Shishou." spoke at 13 year old girl, with long pink hair. Over the past 16 months, Sakura has studied under both Tsunade, Hiruzen, and even her sempai Shizune working hard to develop her strengths and reduce her weaknesses. Tsunade taught her taijutsu, medical ninjutsu, and diplomatic skills that might become necessary, due to the fact she was the fifth Hokage's second apprentice. Through Hiruzen, she worked on her ninjutsu and genjutsu, the latter being easier due to her natural ability to detect and dispel them. Though with her chakra control, it helped to learn new ninjutsu, but she still needed to work on her chakra coils and stamina, so that she doesn't burn out too fast. It seemed that her coils progress slowly, due to her civilian background, and if it was not for the fact that she already began working on them, it would have taken her longer to get to the acceptable amount her Shishou wanted for her to be able to retake the chunin exams.
She had retaken the exams in Suna, with Team 10, since Shikamaru was promoted after the invasion fiasco. It was not hard to integrate into the group, being newly reacquainted friends with Ino, but she did need to learn more about Choji, Shikamaru, and Asuma. She still remembered how introductions went.
OooO
" Alright. Since Sakura will be joining our team for the next couple months for the upcoming chunin exams, why don't we start from the beginning and introduce ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Sarutobi Asuma, I like smoking and the bounty I have on me I dislike -"
" Ahem!" cut in Ino, giving her sensei a sly look." I think you're forgetting something, or someone."
Asuma had a faint blush appear on his face and coughed." Yes, well, I also like my girlfriend Kurenai. Anyway, I dislike strict people, boring people, and dishonesty. My hobby is playing shogi and my dream for the future is to leave a legacy behind that people can look up to, like my father."
" My name is Akimichi Choji, I like food -" " There's a surprise." interrupted Ino.
Sakura slapped the girl's arm." Don't be rude."
" Ow! Sakura you hit too hard." at the pinkette's glare, Ino sighed." Sorry for being rude Choji, please continue."
Choji nodded, glad to receive the apology." Also like my best friend Shikamaru." said Nara gave a crooked smile." I dislike it when people called me fat or insult my clan. My hobbies are buying and eating snacks, there is a special way you have to do it in order to get the best kind. My dream for the future is to be a great ninja, like my Pa."
" I'm Nara Shikamaru. I like naps and dislike troublesome people and situations. My hobbies are shogi and cloud watching and my dream is to be a great tactician."
Followed by Ino." I'm Yamanaka Ino, I like Sasuke-kun, flowers, and shopping and I dislike being underestimated. My hobbies are flower arranging, shopping, and learning my clan techniques. As for my dream for the future...I'm not sure anymore." the introduction different from what Sakura expected and she knew she would need to speak with her blonde friend.
Lastly, Sakura." My name is Haruno Sakura. I like dango, training with my team, and art. I dislike spicy foods and people who hurt my friends and family." she looked down, before taking a deep breath. She has not told her friend that her mother was in a coma, or that her dad passed away, but she knew she would need to eventually." My hobbies are training, reading, and art. My dream for the future is to be one of the greatest ninja ever known."
" Alright, I'm not too sure about you Sakura, but I can see that people are changing and developing already. So, since you're all already training with your clans or masters, for the next couple of months we will meet up to work on team dynamics. You will learn each others strengths and weaknesses and learn how to work together to cover them, while training with your teachers to get rid of them, okay?" announced Asuma.
" Hai." responded the three genin and one chunin.
OooO
It had taken a bit of time to get dynamics down, but with the help of Shikamaru they were able to get a formation made up and were able to cover each others backs well. Sadly Ino and Choji had not made chunin, due to losing in the finals. Ino against Hinata and Choji against a sand nin. But Sakura was able to make it through and got promoted, much to her happiness. However, even not being on the same team with them, she would still drop by from time to time, whenever she was not busy with training.
" Sakura, since you have been recently promoted to chunin, I have a B-class mission for you." Tsunade spoke as she pulled out a scroll and tossed it to Sakura." You and a partner will be heading to the Hachō Village, where you will meet with a client to pick up a package."
" Who's my partner?"
" Given that most of your peers are busy training for the chunin exams or are on other missions, you shall be going with a more experienced shinobi. He is of your age group, but was trained separately along with others." there was a knock at the door, as Tsunade finished speaking." Ah, here he is now, come in!"
In walked a boy, who could have passed for an Uchiha. He had the palest skin Sakura had ever seen, inky short black hair and eyes, and a passive face. He was wearing mainly black, black shinobi pants, shoes, and a long sleeve shirt that stopped less than have way towards his hips.
' And we thought Naruto had bad taste, but this belly shirt is just awful.' remarked Inner.
Sakura inwardly agreed, while she continued to asses the boy in front of her. He stood next to her and turned.
" I assume you shall be the one I am to participate on this mission with." he spoke.
" Hai, my name is Haruno Sakura." she nodded.
" My name is Sai. I must say, I didn't expect my partner to be so...ugly."
The room was deadly silent, then...
"Shaanarrooo!" the sound of a human crashing through a wall, met everyone's ears, who happened to be in the Hokage's tower.
Hiruzen looked up from his calligraphy and sighed.' Sakura-chan really needs to get a rein in on her temper. Sadly Tsunade is not the correct person to teach her.' he thought, as he went back to his work.
Back in Tsunade's office, said woman was wondering if she was rubbing off too much on Sakura.
" Sakura, did you really need to do that?" she questioned rubbing her eyes.
Sakura looked away in embarrassment." No, but I couldn't help it." and she really couldn't, because Inner had taken over during Sakura's split second of shock and decked Sai.
' Che. He deserved it, were beautiful and when we grow up, we'll be gorgeous.' grumbled Inner.
' Yeah, well, there was no need to punch him through the wall. Also, I didn't know you could even take control of my body.'
' I didn't either. I just really wanted to hit the little punk and before I knew it, it felt like I was swinging my arm forward and I hit him.'
' I think after this mission, we should experiment and see what else we can do. 'Cause now we know, you can manipulate my chakra and control my body.'
Inner nodded and Sakura turned her focus towards the boy getting up.
Sakura took a deep breath." Look, I'm sorry for hitting you. I just don't like to be insulted and your comment caught me off guard."
Sai dusted off his shirt and rubbed his bruised cheek." That's quite alright, we both seem to say and act without thinking. I didn't know stating the truth could be so deadly." he then gave a smile that was obviously fake.
Ignoring Inner's comments, Sakura wondered about her new 'partner'. He took her hitting him well, but still rudely commented even after he saw what it had done to her. Not to mention his smile and the way he speaks seemed hallow for some reason.
A cough brought both teen's attention back towards the Hokage.
" Now that introductions are done, you two will be traveling to the Hachō Village. This mission should not take more than a few days, but don't let your guard down for a second. There are people who are after what the package contains, but the continents of it must remain a secret even to you. You shall leave by high noon, dismissed." both bowed to their superior and made their way out of the tower, set on packing all necessities for the mission.
OooO
" Sasuke." called Kakashi.
Sasuke, who was rinsing his head under the waterfall, walked up to the jounin.
" As you know, the next chunin exams will be in a few months." he got a nod from the teen." Tomorrow, we will be moving to meet with Jiraiya-san and the boys, so that the three of you can train together for them."
" Hn." ' I wonder what they've learned over the past year and a half.' Sasuke thought before remembering something." What about Sakura?"
Kakashi smiled, Sasuke cared more about his teammates, than he likes to admit. " I'm not sure. Since were so far out, it's hard to remain in contact with Konoha and Jiraiya-san, but seeing who her teacher is, I'm sure she's doing just fine. Now, grab your sword, cause if you want to use it in the exams, you need to be more than proficient with it."
Sasuke nodded and turned to grab it from inside the small house they rented. He was not sure, how Kakashi would be as a single instructor for such a long period of time and assumed that after a while the copy-nin would begin to get lazy with his training. However, the Hatake surprised him by being strict and more serious about his training than before. It seemed like, Kakashi understood his need to get stronger, to accomplish his goal.
Knowing this, inwardly made Sasuke thank Minato for stopping him from leaving the village and breaking all his bonds.
" Sasuke!"
" Coming."
Sasuke and Kakashi had already made it to the village and booked in a hotel room, waiting for the rest of their group. The place was nice, but the people were a bit guarded. Apparently they were on bad terms with the Land of That, which lead them to be mistrusting of travelers. Especially ninja.
Sasuke wondered if their group would be able to make it out of this village, without any problems. But, then he remembered that her was on Team 7, which brought more bad luck than good in these situations and sighed.
OooO
" Eh?! Were meeting up with Teme and Kaka-sensei for the chunin exams?!" shouted Naruto at the news.
Jiraiya stuck his pinky in his ear." That's what I just said brat, now tomorrow we move towards the meeting place. After today's training, I want both of you to start packing, cause I don't want to wait around. It'll be a day's travel and I want to get there as soon as possible."
" Why's that, Sensei?" questioned Minato.
" To avoid trouble of course. You two seem to have an act for it and I would like to walk into the Land of This, without blood dripping down my body." responded Jiraiya. Though on the inside, ' Not to mention, there is a great bar, that is said to have some of the most beautiful women in the land.' Jiraiya's fingers started flexing and a perverted grin spread across his face.
' To avoid trouble my ass.' thought in sync Naruto and Minato, with narrowed eyes.
" Ahem. Anyway, I want you both to work on perfecting the rasengan. Naruto, your's is still too small, you need to gather more chakra."
" I know that. It's just hard to focus so much at one time." spoke Naruto, as he crossed his arms.
" Minato, you need to work on combining your rasengan with your wind infinity. So far, every time you try, you get blasted from the spot your standing in.
Minato looked at the ground, slightly frustrated. He has tried many different ways to get them to mold together, but instead of blending they clash. He needs to perfect this attack, it could help with its disadvantage at long-range jutsus.
" While you two are doing that, I'll start working on my research." he said, before dashing off.
Minato sweat dropped, Jiraiya never seems to change.
That was two days ago and they were now nearing the entrance to the Land of This. Hopefully they would find Sasuke and Kakashi soon, because the atmosphere they've been subjected to, since they entered the Land of This has not been welcoming.
OooO
Sakura and Sai had just stopped to take a quick rest, seeing as Sakura is still getting used to traveling distances the shinobi way.
" So Sai, what's your rank exactly? You look to be about my age, yet you never attended the academy, from what I recall."
Sai, gave an awkward smile, before replying.
" I am a Root ANBU member, we are trained separately from the normal group of ninjas. It's a good thing too, otherwise I might have quite from having to look at your hideous face everyday." he explained in a calm tone.
'Pound his ass now!' roared Inner, as she swung her fist around. Sakura was about to comply too, until she noticed Sai's posture became more alert.
His steel eyes, met her confused ones.
All of a sudden, shuriken and kunai came flying towards them. Luckily for Sakura, Sai shielded her and blocked them with his Tanto.
" So, you knew we were here after all." spoke a gruff voice, as a guy with shoulder length brown hair, came out into the open. Followed by a guy with grey hair and two large shuriken on his back. Sakura cursed herself for not being more alert. Just because she was not a sensory type, did not mean she could not be aware of her surroundings.
" You must be the ninja Konoha sent to retrieve the package. Che, pathetic." sneered the grey haired man. He was large, towering over his partner by a whole foot.
" Were not gonna let you make it to the rendezvous point." announced the brown haired male, as he pulled out a sword.
" Sai, you take the swordsman and I'll take the big guy." whispered Sakura, as she got into battle stance. Sai was already unsheathing his tanto.
This mission might be harder than Sakura first thought.
OooO
" Oi Sasuke, that was my rice ball!" shouted Naruto, as he pointed an accusing finger at said boy.
" I grabbed it first, dobe. It's not my fault you're still slow." As the two broke out into their second argument in the past hour, Minato just sighed.
" I didn't realize they fought this much."
" How could you not notice it before, Minato?" question Jiraiya, as he poured himself another glass of sake. Minato was watching his old teacher to make sure he didn't go overboard. Honestly, the man was almost as bad as Tsunade.
" Normally, I talk to Kakashi or Sakura. But seeing as Kakashi stepped out to see what's going on with this village and Sakura's not here..." he trailed off.
" Ah." spoke Jiraiya with a slight flush on his face." Young love."
Minato nearly choked on his Miso soup, before he could get a word out.
" Sensei, it's not that. I'm just used to her being around and talking to her is all." He looked down at his food for a moment." I'm gonna go take a bath." he said, as he walked out, ignoring his son's call.
OooO
Kakashi was currently under a henge, as he sat at a small pub. He had spent the past few hours trying to see what had this land on edge and what he found was unsettling. The Land of This was at odds with The Land of That. For a while now things have only gotten worse to the point where it is dangerous to venture too close to the other sides territory and it won't be long until one side full out attacks the other.
' This could be bad. If the Land of That attacks here, Jiraiya and myself will have to step in. However, if we kill their troops and the ruler of the Land of That finds out Konoha aided their enemies, they might try to start a conflict with Konoha.' Kakashi really hated politics. They were a real pain in his ass, when he had first received the sharingan from Obito. The Uchiha accused him of theft and it took a lot of persuading by Minato to get them to cool off. It helped that Kakashi was slowly making name for himself with it, bringing honor to the sharingan, instead of shame, but that didn't mean the Uchihas were pleasant to him. They were civil at best and snarky at worst.
Kakashi stopped his train of thought, when the door to the entrance opened up. Now normally the copy-cat nin wouldn't pay much attention to ninjas entering a bar, if he was not on a mission, however these two were an exception. The first thing that got Kakashi's attention, was the fact that the air around them was that of experienced and powerful ninja. Next, was the fact that most did not pay them much mind, meaning they were under a genjutsu, like himself. Finally, it was the cloaks they were donning. Black, with Red and white clouds.
Akatsuki.
I'm so sorry it took so long. I will try to update a few other stories of mine in not too long.
The next chapter or two will still take place during the time skip, because with so much unused time in canon, I could take this opportunity to bring in characters sooner and make small changes. Like having Sakura meet Sai and see the difference in skills, or having the boys run into Akatsuki again to really see the danger.
If you are wondering, the Land of This and That are actual places. I had to do some research, but they were the best places to use, that way I could bring in the Akatsuki early. If you do look up the places, try not to spoil it please, I wanna leave a bit of surprise.
Thanks for reading and please review.