Chapter 11:

"Today we're going to partner up and spar. I will be giving you feedback and pointers based on your form and tactics," Kakashi announced as they finished their warm-ups.

"We're doing actually training?" Naruto asked with excitement.

"You're actually teaching?" Sakura said skeptically. Kakashi coughed, giving Sakura a baleful glare.

"Remember that I did teach you in Nami no Kuni how to send chakra to your feet, and I even helped you with your natures-"

"Nami no Kuni was ages ago, and I already knew my nature long ago. You are going to step up your game and actually be more like a teacher, right?" Sakura asked with a sharp glint in her eye. "You are taking your job seriously, aren't you?"

"Of course I am..." Kakashi said with a smile. Of course, the fact that he had intended to fail them and hadn't actually had experience teaching didn't really matter, did it?

"How about a couple of jutsus then?" Naruto asked, practically bouncing about.

"Later. I'll hone and perfect your basics first, since a strong foundation is essential in order to become stronger." Naruto wilted.

"...He's actually serious," Sakura said with a shocked expression. This time, Kakashi flicked her forehead, causing her to stumble back.

"I keep telling you, Sakura. Respect," Kakashi chided. Sakura's brows furrowed. "How about we pair up and spar for today so I can see any glaring weaknesses you might have. How about... Sakura. You and Sasuke go first, no holding back."

"Can Naruto go in my stead?" Sakura asked Kakashi. "I really need to take a piss, and I've been holding it until you came."

Kakashi almost faltered at how bluntly his female student had put it and waved her away. "Of course, of course. It's fine."

"Get ready to get your ass kicked, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.

"As if," Sasuke snorted, gaze lingering on Sakura as she hightailed it out of the training grounds.

...

"What are you doing here?"

Sakura flipped a page of the book, eyes rapidly scanning the text.

"Oi," the voice said more irritably.

"Can't you see I'm playing hooky?" Sakura said shamelessly.

"I can see that. I don't see why you're playing hooky here." Kantoku glared as the young shinobi pouted.

"I thought you liked me."

"I tolerate you. Why the hell are you even playing hooky? If you plan on being 'the God of Shinobi', shouldn't you take training seriously?" Kantoku said, rapping her lightly on the head with his cane. Sakura winced.

"Being God of Shinobi doesn't just mean being able to fight really well," Sakura grumbled. "True power is knowledge. Information and knowing the truth is what gives you the upper hand in any situation. Besides, it's sparring today. I don't want to fight my teammates."

"You didn't seem to have a problem fighting back when you first entered the academy," Kantoku grouched.

"I didn't know better and it was an accident. I don't want to fight anybody unless necessary," Sakura said stubbornly.

"Right, right. Fine. Stay if you want then. Don't come crying to me if you get in trouble."

"Yes, sir." Sakura heard the librarion return to the desk. She sighed as she rubbed her eyes as she yawned, shutting The Founding of Konoha. "'Founding of Konoha' my ass," Sakura grumbled. "Whoever wrote that was high off his rockers." Sakura unconsciously reached for the metal band hidden under her armor and shirt. Time for another field trip then.

...

When Sakura didn't return about half an hour later, Kakashi told himself it was because it was probably a female problem.

After an hour had passed, he told himself it was perhaps a severe case of diarrhea.

After two whole hours had passed, he was forced to accept his female student had either fallen asleep on the toilet, been kidnapped or assassinated, or was playing hooky. Either way, it did not seem she was coming back.

"Sakura-chan ran for it," Naruto said in a matter of fact tone as Kakashi's patience wore thin.

"Way to state the obvious," Sasuke said. Kakashi's eyes twitched.

"Both of you, another hundred push-ups. I'll know if you don't do it."

Kakashi ignored the sounds of protest as he walked away(making a quick shadow clone to watch over his remaining students), trying to sense where his missing student was. He could now narrow it down to her being kidnapped, assassinated, or playing hooky because she was nowhere close to the restrooms closest to the training field. There were mentions of her being AWOL in the academy, but she wouldn't have carried the habit over to her genin career, would she?

"What a handful," Kakashi said as he decided to take his time searching out for his wayward student. "This isn't some form of protest for reading Icha Icha, is it?"

Kakashi soon found it wasn't and his female student had very much kept the habit of going AWOL. Sakura was shifting nervously with a guilty look on her face as she stood at the entrance of the Hokage tower with a stack of scrolls and books in hand.

"Why hello there, Sakura. I too was going to go visit the Hokage. Fancy meeting you here." Kakashi said with a smile.

"Kakashi-sensei, you see... There's a perfectly good explanation for this."

"And that is?"

"..." Sakura bit her lip. "Sorry?"

"For?"

"...Ditching."

"And?" Kakashi prompted.

"Lying..."

"And?"

Sakura furrowed her brows in deep thought. "Um... For wasting your time, I guess?"

"Correct. Perfect score, Sakura-chan. Now if you could be this pleasant and listen to my directions the same way."

"Hai," Sakura said, bowing her head.

"Good. Expect severe punishment for making me waste energy," Kakashi informed his student. "I'm tripling your training tomorrow."

Sakura choked.

"T-triple?!"

"Oh? Did I say triple? Sorry, I meant quadruple your training tomorrow. I'll triple your training today."

Sakura nearly dropped the scrolls and books in her arms, her mouth opened and closed, not knowing how to respond.

"How cruel," Sakura said as she rubbed her aching muscles after a quick shower. "Kakashi-sensei's so harsh."

Carefully, she made her way around all the books and spare scrolls she had lying about and... was that an ink bottle on its side? She really needed to clean. She dropped onto the bed, flinging her towel to the side. She moved some thick medical textbooks to the side as she picked up the scrolls and books that the Sandaime had lent her with a warning not to damage or lose them. There was a glint in his eye as he had handed over a couple, saying she might find something that interested her. She opened a thick book that looked ready to crumble and had flecks of what might have been blood. The handwriting on the first page was rough, that of a child's.

Year XXXX, October 23

Today, I turned five years old. I will start joining the grown ups in battle. Kaa-chan said I should write to leave something behind should something happen. I'm scared. I don't want to fight. I don't want to kill anyone. I don't want to die. Will my younger brothers also be fight? They're too young. I hope this war ends before that happens, but this war has gone on so long... I don't get why we're still fighting.

-Hashirama

...

Sasuke dropped onto the bed, exhausted from the extra training the petulant jonin had added after he had dragged Shusa back. He hated that he was exhausted; Itachi wouldn't have been exhausted. Itachi was already an ANBU captain at this age. Shusa had had her training tripled and she still looked better off then he had.

His eyes strayed to the photo of Team 7. Kakashi's eye crinkled into a smile with his hands placed on the two boys' heads. Sakura smiled peacefully in the middle, in that ridiculous costume. Sasuke resisted the urge to throw a kunai at her picture and instead fell back into his bed.

"Sasuke. I... I'm going to be strongest shinobi in this world. I'm going to become the God of Shinobi. Stronger than Senju Hashirama, and stronger than Uchiha Madara. Stronger than all of shinobi of legend. I want to- I will become the pinnacle of power. And then..." Sakura trailed off, closing her eyes.

Sakura had never finished her sentence, and Sasuke had walked off before she could have. That was years ago.

Around the time she had become Haruno Sakura.

Sasuke shut his eyes tiredly.

...

Naruto jumped into his bed happily. Today was a great day. Nothing exciting, but he had gotten to spend the day with people who didn't hate him. Excluding maybe Sasuke, but Naruto knew he cared in his own way. At the very least, none his team stared at him like he was a monster. Naruto snuggled into bed. This was fine. Things were fine like this.

It was like he was any other kid, and not a jinchuuruki to be feared.

Sakura was going to kill Kakashi. He had indeed quadrupled her training. Quadrupled her tripled training from yesterday that is. She was sorely tempted to ditch the heavy armor and extra weights that she had adorned but she gritted her teeth through it. At this moment, she was glad that Heiki-san and Kantoku-san had pushed her as much as they did or she would have collapse ages ago.

Naruto was sending her glances of pity, looking torn between being a good friend and joining her extreme regiment and staying out of it. However, it seemed not even Naruto's strong loyalty could sway him into joining her.

And she had lost count of what lap she was on. Not good.

"You're doing well, just a couple more hours..? Ah, well if you keep up this pace, you should finish sometime after nightfall," Kakashi said cheerfully from his spot in the tree. Sakura almost flung a rock at him. She didn't, but she tripped over one and nearly fell.

"Ooh. That was close. You need to pay attention to where you're running," Kakashi said with a click of his tongue.

"I was taught that using vulgar words is looked down upon in our society," Sakura said between breaths. "But I want you to know, Kakashi-sensei, that I think you're an asshole."

"Why, thank you Sakura-chan. You're not the first to think so. I do agree my personality is just about the best thing about me. Well aside from my dashing good looks."

"We can't even see most of your face!" Naruto screeched, having been listening on to the conversation. "For all we know, you're butt ugly behind that mask."

Kakashi looked offended.

"I'll have you know that this teacher's charming face has captured the hearts of both men and women," Kakashi said in a somewhat proud tone. The genin turned to stare at him with wide eyes that set Kakashi on edge.

"Why'd he change his speech pattern?" Sakura muttered.

"So he swings both ways?" Sasuke asked, his eyes seeming to see Kakashi in a new light.

"Does that mean you've hooked up with a lot of people?" Naruto questioned. "Though I still bet he's probably hiding something weird..."

"I mean he's rumored to have copied over a thousand jutsus... For all we know-" Sakura started, drawing curious gazes from Sasuke and Naruto.

"Now, let's not get carried away there." Kakashi said as he appeared behind Sakura, hand landing firmly on top of her head. She let out a small yelp of surprise. "I'm surprised you think you have the leisure to chatter away, Sakura-chan. Perhaps this training isn't enough... shall we quin-"

"Sakura-chan is going right now," Sakura said with a pale face, continuing her laps.

"Oh, and Sakura," Kakashi called after the girl. "If you've lost track of how many laps you've done, start over from... why don't you start from zero again?"

"****!"

...

"Naruto, you will be sparring with me while Sasuke, you will be repeating your upper body regiment part of your training." Kakashi announced once the two had finished their usual warm-ups. Sakura was still running, glaring darkly at him from time to time. Sasuke looked discontent and Naruto looked offended at being singled out. Kakashi sighed and went on to explain his reasoning.

"Naruto, you have great strength and stamina, but you lack strategy and planning like Sasuke. You're reckless and you usually attack head on. On the other hand, Sasuke lacks the same stamina and upper body strength you have." Kakashi said patiently. Both boys scowled.

"Wait, what about Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, gesturing to the girl who was working on her push-ups.

"Her stamina is not bad, and neither is her strategy. She seems rather lackadaisical considering her goal in comparison to Naruto. There are also other issues... And not to mention the team as a whole has quite the short fuse when it comes down to it." Kakashi finished.

Sasuke looked miffed at being grouped with the other two.

"Now let's get to work you two. Of course, if you don't want to, you're welcome to join Sakura over there."

"BRING IT, KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto yelled almost immediately, very much not wanting to join Sakura. Kakashi's lips twitched in amusement.

True to Kakashi's predictions, Sakura didn't finish until long after nightfall. Sasuke and Naruto had already headed home (Naruto a bit reluctantly) while Kakashi stayed to keep an eye on his female student. She seemed to be set on finishing the entirety of the training that he had assigned.

"You don't have to do all of it, Sakura-chan. You should go home and rest. Skipping meals isn't a good thing either." Kakashi said, glancing at the night sky with a frown. "If you're so eager to do all of it, just finish the rest tomorrow."

"No... today. A-almost done." Sakura said. She looked slightly sick and on the verge of collapse. Kakashi sighed, wondering if he should just knock her out. The normal amount of training wasn't all that rigorous, but twelve times that was something Gai might have come up with. But she was already close to finishing, it wouldn't hurt to let her just complete it, would it?"

Sakura pulled her chin up to the bar with trembling arms before dropping to the ground in a heap. "That's... it I think," she said with a relieved moan. Kakashi stood up, stretching his body.

"Good work today," Kakashi waited for a response. Kakashi said with a sighed as he realized that she had fallen asleep soon after she had hit the floor. "Sakura," Kakashi said as he poked her cheeks. "You can't sleep here."

"Don't wanna move," Sakura groaned as she swatted at his hand.

"Sakura," Kakashi said as he continued to nudge her. "You need to get home."

A single emerald eye opened, seeming to grow an eerie green before Sakura fully sat up with a groan.

"Hai, hai. As you wish," Sakura said as she struggled to stand. With a frown, she discarded her armor, then the weights on her legs with a happy sigh. Kakashi's eyes widened slightly as he saw her release the weights.

"You were wearing those the entire time?"

"'Course. Heiki-san and Kantoku-san are absolute tyrants. I'm not supposed to take these off during training or anything else unless it's an emergency, but I'd rather sleep on the training grounds then walk back with them on." Sakura sealed the items into a scroll and put it into her pouch. She swayed minutely as she stood before regaining her balance. She hesitantly took one step forward as if testing her mobility and seemed satisfied when her leg didn't give out on her. "Then I'll see you tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei. Thank you for staying so late with me," she said with a bow.

"It's not a problem. I'm glad to see my students working so hard."

"Even when the teacher isn't most of the time," Sakura lamented.

"Sakura..." Kakashi warned. Sakura jolted and immediately sputtered out apologies, hoping Kakashi wouldn't multiply her training again on a whim.

"You know what, I think I'll go home right now," Sakura said as she ran out of the training grounds with a sudden burst of energy. Kakashi smiled in amusement as he also made his way home.

Kakashi paused. Did he have anything in his fridge? No. Of course he didn't. He'd have to starve tonight, eat out tomorrow morning, and then get groceries after tomorrow's training.

...

I haven't written in this at all since Kaa-chan first gave this to me... Kaa-chan died today. She was really sick. This is Kaa-chan's last present, so I think I'll try to keep writing like Kaa-chan wished. Tobirama is also already an year into his training. He's doing really well. I'm afraid Tou-san might send him out early at this rate. I have to be better if I want to protect him.

-Hashirama

...

Kakashi was surprised to see Sakura the next day looking as if the nightmare of yesterday had never happened. She didn't look like she was suffering from muscle pain or exhaustion at all. If anything, she looked as energetic as ever.

"Kakashi-sensei! Are we going to do a mission today?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Hm. Why not?" Kakashi said. "Of course you can't complain once you get it because it's 'lame'."

"But picking up trash and painting fences is lame," Naruto said with a scowl. Kakashi sighed. Sakura opened her mouth then closed it.

"You can't be so picky with what missions we're given. You're all still genin. Look what happened last time with 'C-rank' mission we got."

"But we were actually doing ninja things then!" Naruto yelled. "D-ranks are easy! Anybody can paint fences and walk dogs."

"During the war," Sakura interrupted in a quiet voice, uncharacteristically serious, "even newly graduated Academy students could be sent to the war front. Easy missions like these are available because we are at peace. Don't take it for granted..."

Naruto fell silent, looking a little guilty.

"-Is what somebody once told me." Sakura said a bit contemplatively. "I haven't experienced a war myself, nor do I wish to, and this is probably something veterans are able to appreciate more. I concede our missions are pretty trivial, but I think that is also good and it's nothing to be scoffed at." Sakura paused before adding, "And there's the fact that we're not executing the missions as efficiently as we could be. We are technically being paid to do these menial tasks that the clients could have asked any other ordinary citizens to do at the same price; the least we should do is do them perfectly or better. The fact we're not even doing D-ranks properly says a lot as easy as they are."

"...Sorry," Naruto mumbled. "I didn't think of it like that."

"There's no need to be down about it," Sakura said as she nudged his shoulder. "We'll just do D-ranks so well that the Jiji will have to give us a higher ranked mission!"

"Yeah..." Naruto said, perking up. "Yeah! Let's do this!" Naruto cheered. Sasuke smirked slightly and Kakashi smiled. It seemed he didn't have to say anything after all.

"To the Hokage's office!" Naruto cheered, bounding towards the Hokage tower with more enthusiasm than he had had in weeks. Sasuke followed after the blond with hands stuffed into his pockets.

Sakura turned to Kakashi and gave him two thumbs up once the two were out of earshot. "Now they'll be super motivated for about a week."

Kakashi returned the thumbs up. "Nice job. Very cunning of you, Sakura."

"Can we at least avoid the Tora mission though?" Sakura asked hopefully.

"We have to accept whatever we're given by the Hokage."

"Ugh..."

"I'm surprised you're so chipper today seeing as you seemed as you were on the verge of death yesterday," Kakashi said abruptly. Sakura smirked before lifting a gloved hand that glowed a familiar shade of green.

"The benefits of iryo-ninjutsu."

"Aa."

"You should learn some too since you get injured so often, Sensei."

"Maybe. I haven't taken that into consideration much since it always turns out..." Kakashi trailed off. Should he have learned some healing techniques? If he had, than could things have ended differently? Could he have-

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. Kakashi shook out of his reverie.

"Hm? Oh, I'm sorry for zoning out. Well, I never took it up myself since it never interested me. Besides, the medical discipline takes up a lot of time and dedication." He had always taken it for granted. Rin for granted. His eyes briefly flickered towards the Memorial Stone visible from the training grounds.

"Sensei..."

"Hm?" Kakashi said distractedly. Sakura stared at him for a moment with unreadable eyes.

"You're a pretty bad teacher," Sakura said bluntly. "You're late. You don't teach us much. I'm sure there are many others who could be better at this job than you." Kakashi cringed. "But I'm glad you're our teacher. I wouldn't trade you for any other. I can't even imagine anyone else as the leader of Team 7 besides you. I'm sure Naruto and Sasuke think the same. You were really dependable during the mission in Wave... excluding the part where you passed out after you battled Zabuza the first time, of course. We're really glad we met you." With that, Sakura ran after her teammates, yelling for them to slow down. Kakashi blinked, feeling slightly warm. It seemed like he wasn't doing to horrible of a job if his students were saying that.

Kakashi trailed after his students at a leisurely pace, pursing his lips underneath his masks as he contemplated the past few months. All of them had certainly matured, especially after the mission to Wave Country. Naruto was more aware of the power difference that existed; the too naive outlook he had was gone. Sasuke had awakened his Sharingan. And he was getting along with his team more? Then the wild card Sakura... who Kakashi could not exactly figure out. There were moments when she acted beyond her years and she seemed sensitive to the moods of those around her. And her dream was certainly unusual with a questionable motive. Naruto, as was made blatantly obvious through his actions as dreams, was driven by his need to be acknowledged. He took after Kushina and nature, but Kakashi had no doubt Naruto would achieve the title of Hokage like his father. Sasuke was driven by his hatred and need to avenge the family his brother had killed. He was closed off, but seemed to have a strange friendship through Sasuke formed through rivalry.

And Sakura wanted to become the God of Shinobi. For what? It was a rather large dream for any person. The only one to have achieved the title was Senju Hashirama who had ended the Warring States Era by uniting the Senju and Uchiha. He and Madara Uchiha were considered on an entirely different level from any other shinobi, within their era and even now. When they had fought, maps had to be redrawn, or the stories went at least. What goal did she have to want to reach an impossible dream? Or perhaps he was just overthinking things. Maybe she just wanted to be the God of Shinobi the way a child might wish to be a leader of a country.

"Kakashi-sensei, hurry up!" Naruto yelled, drawing glares from nearby civilians. "You're so slow!"

"Why wouldn't I want to take my time and enjoy the scenery?"

"You must have seen the scenery plenty of times since you're so old. Hurry up!" Naruto replied.

Kakashi sighed. Kids these days had no manners.

...

It's so bloody. War is terrifying, and there are so many children fighting. Tobi's been allowed to join us too. I feel as if my heart is going to leap out of my chest with worry. He shouldn't be out here, but father is pleased with both of our performances. He's pushing Itama and Kawarama's training. The war has so many casualties, but I selfishly wish my brothers will not be one of them. I need to get stronger for them. I want them to live a long fulfilled life. I know Kaa-chan won't want us to be joining her so soon.

There's so much hate, but no one seems to remember who started what and why they're still fighting. In this new generation, should it survive, I hope to meet others who might share my dream of peace.

-Hashirama

...

A/N: Hello... Yes, I haven't updated this in a while and updates will be far and few in between due to school. Yes, the introduction was pretty bad. I'm trying to add some new arcs to develop the characters more before the chunin exams. This chapter is less than my 10k goal, but I kept taking huge chunks out and adding small things in. I know the direction I want this to go in, but its's hard sometimes to build it up. I do want them to have another mission out the village like the Wave arc which takes a couple of chapters.

And just for any future complaints, I'm trying not to make Sakura overpowered. However, she has trained all these years under former ANBU so it's not out of place that she is strong. In perspective, I'm trying to put her on the basic level of Itachi when he was 13.

As a note, since I am dragging it out, I plan on revealing the name of the owner of the ring during the chunin exam. I'll do my best to update as much as I can. Thank you to those who have supported this story thus far.

~Tokumei Yurei