Chapter 11

"What happened to your hair?" asked Tatsuya curiously, his sister was always known for her unusual pink hair it made him wonder why she changed the colour.

"I dyed it, people would recognize me as not a lot of people have pink hair," replied Sakura as they walked through the market. After telling Ryou and Tatsuya the whole truth (although Ryou already knew) she and Tatsuya went out to catch up.

"But, did you know something?" she said frowning.

"What?" asked Tatsuya.

"When I met grandpa in the flower field he told me that I was the last remaining descendant of the Sakura Clan, but if he was friends with Ryou then obviously he knew that you were still alive."

"You're right, I never saw grandpa when I was living with Ryou-Sensei, maybe he didn't tell him that I was living with him, who knows," he replied shrugging, "I only found out about my clan when I accidentally performed a fire jutsu that I didn't even know of, after that Ryou-Sensei told me everything, so I decided to learn more about my clan and getting stronger."

They continued to walk but in silence until Tatsuya broke it.

"You've really grown," he commented, he still couldn't believe his little sister was such a beauty, but she was still his Sakura.

"You've said that so many times," grinned Sakura, peering at the stands of jewellery.

"Okasan and Otosan would be proud of you," he said making her look up in surprise.

Smiling she silently started to walk, Tatsuya following her.

"Why didn't you come back?"

They were sitting on a bench, facing the market.

"When Ryou-Sensei brought me back to health I didn't want to leave, he was really nice and quiet lonely so I decided to keep him company. I asked if he would train me so that I could become stronger."

"What is the attack that only the Sakura clan can use?" asked Sakura, she was dying to know.

"It's an attack that includes all four elements and it's very powerful, mind you it took me a long time to master it but once you are able to do it, it's very powerful."

"Can you teach me it?"

Tatsuya looked down.

"I don't know."

"Please nii-chan," begged Sakura, "if I want to beat Mordan then I have to learn my clans special attack, hey do we have a bloodline limit?"

"Yes."

Sakura sat up properly, eyes never leaving her brother's face.

"What's it called?"

"It's called Hikami, it allows you to see everything and all of your senses are heightened, it also increases your speed and your body heals faster. It's the ultimate bloodline, there maybe more uses to it, but I haven't tried them yet."

Leaning back she gave a sigh, this was just the beginning of her long journey. She wondered what Ryou would teach her. No doubt she would become powerful, maybe more powerful then Sasuke and Naruto.

"I'll be there."

"What?" she opened her eyes and stared at her brother.

"I'll come with you wherever you go," not looking at her he put his hands behind his head and stared at the blue sky.

"Of course you are."

He looked at her; she was staring straight ahead eyes glassy.

"I'm not loosing you again."

"First we'll see what you can really do." Grinned Ryou.

They were standing in Ryou's back garden which turned out to be a very big training field with a sort of jutsu which made it look like a normal garden and a sound barrier as well. Sakura and Naruto were standing facing Ryou and Tatsuya on the other side of the training field.

"The first match will be Ryou-Sensei against Sakura-Chan," announced Tatsuya.

"Good luck Sakura-Chan," grinned Naruto as himself and Tatsuya walked off the field to watch on the sidelines, Tatsuya gave her a wink before joining Naruto.

"On your marks," Sakura got into her fighting stance, "GO!"

Running at full speed she charged at Ryou, he in the other hand stood calmly with his hands clasped together. Summoning some of her strength she punched Ryou straight in the face but with a poof he turned into a log.

'Damn'

Looking around he was no where to be seen.

'There's only one place'.

Summoning her chakra she punched the ground with her insane strength, a huge creator was formed and to her satisfaction Ryou jumped out with only a few cuts and bruises.

She could hear Tatsuya gasp in surprise and Naruto whoop in excitement.

"Impressive."

With that he made a few hand signals.

"Tsuchi Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Suddenly two copies of Ryou were made out of mud, Sakura looked around, but there was no mud anywhere, so where did that mud come from?

"This technique doesn't need any mud nearby to be able to be performed," said Ryou answering her confused look.

Grabbing a kunai she saw a large pond filled with water and made a few hand signals.

"Daibaku no Jutsu!"

A huge vortex of water appeared heading straight for the mud clones.

"Daibaku no Jutsu!"

Sakura stepped back in shock; he was using the same jutsu as her? But that would cause a powerful explosion of water!

Bracing herself she watched the two attacks collide and water engulfed her.

Naruto watched with anticipation as the battle commenced, he didn't know Sakura knew water techniques, his eyes widened as Ryou performed the same technique, what in the world was he doing? He glanced at Tatsuya. He had his arms folded and was concentrating on the battle. He had been a bit shocked at Sakura's monstrous strength. He smirked; his sister was really strong for such a small girl.

"Shit," cursed Tatsuya as the two water attacks collided, this would cause a big explosion and he hoped that Sakura could withstand it, he saw her bracing herself as she was covered with water. Ryou stood face blank, arms folded as the water covered him but he just performed an easy shield technique that protected him.

There was no way that Sakura could withstand such a force and when the water cleared he gasped in surprise.

Sakura was standing drenched in water, she had a few bruises but other then that she was fine, grinning she stood up to her full height.

"Surprised?" she asked Ryou.

"How did you-," but he was caught off by Sakura.

She made a few unknown hand signals before murmuring some words, he only caught, "Sakura…..jutsu" out of no where sakura petals appeared and started to float in the air, Ryou looked up eyes narrowed with suspicion something was wrong here. Posing to jump he escaped just in time as the sakura petals turned into sharp pieces and attacked him. He only got a few scratches and landed perfectly, Sakura was very good but not good enough.

'Time to end this.'

Sakura gripped her kunai, she was very work since that sudden blast of water had really knocked her off, a lot of her chakra had gone and she refused to take any of Serenity's chakra because she wanted to fight on her own without anyone's help. She wanted to prove to everyone that she wasn't weak and that she could look after herself and this was a perfect start. There was no way that she could beat Ryou though, he was way too powerful and he didn't even seem out of breath.

"Doton: Doryu Taiga," he muttered making a few hand signals. He made sure his clones didn't use the same attack or he might end up killing Sakura which would definitely not be good.

A river of mud burst up beneath Sakura causing her to gasp in surprise, she didn't have enough chakra to dodge it and took the full blow.

"Its over," announced Ryou, the mud clones disappeared as he walked over to where Sakura lay.

She lay there panting with exhaustion, that final attack had completely wiped her out; she felt a shadow over her and opened her eyes before painfully sitting up.

"You did well," said Ryou before offering her a hand, Naruto and Tatsuya hurried over.

"Thanks," she accepted his hand.

"Those wounds look bad Sakura-Chan," said Naruto.

"Looking down she observed the wounds and tried to heal them, but didn't have enough chakra.

'Allow me; you can use my chakra to heal your wounds.'

'Thanks Serenity.'

'It's the least I could do since you wouldn't let me help you in the fight.'

'I wanted to do it by myself.'

'I understand.'

"You did very well," said Tatsuya.

Sakura smiled at him in gratitude.

"I'll need to train you in increasing your speed and stamina. You also need to learn a range of fire, earth; water and air techniques as well as a few taijutsu for those will come in handy."

Sakura, using Serenity's chakra healed her wounds with ease, looking up she answered Ryou's and Tatsuya's questioning looks.

"I'm a medic-nin; I was the apprentice of the fifth Hokage Tsunade-sama."

"Why did you decide to become a medic?" asked Tatsuya.

"I realised that I had perfect chakra control that even rivalled Tsunade-sama herself, so I decided to put it to good use and made a decision to become a medic-nin and heal people."

Standing up she gave a stretch and looked at Ryou.

"What now?"

"Well, I would like Tatsuya to fight against Naruto to see how good the future Hokage is," he replied with his eyes staring at Naruto.

"All right!" shouted Naruto, punching a hand into the air, "I'll beat your butt Tatsuya BELIEVE IT!"

Sakura rolled her eyes before making her way to the sidelines.

"Good luck you two," she shouted over her shoulder.

Sitting against a tree she gave out a sigh and gazed at the blue sky, there wasn't a cloud in sight and it looked like as if there wasn't a cloud for miles, Shikamaru wouldn't have been very happy if he was here. She missed Konoha and its white clouds, she missed the loud children playing with each other in the streets, she missed the secure and happy feeling when she walked through the busy streets but most of all she missed the rest of Rookie Nine and Gai's team. Ino's loudness and Shikamaru's usual "troublesome" comments, Ten-Ten's and Neji's competitions and Lee's good guy poses and his claims of undying love towards her. Choji's usual munching noises and Kiba's funny tricks with his best friend Akamaru. She missed them all badly but quickly pushed it all to the back of her mind and focused on the fight before her.

Naruto had summoned his clones and they were all charging at Tatsuya, he performed a fire technique which made fire come out of his mouth, destroying half of the clones as some had dodged. Tatsuya was obviously more powerful but Naruto wouldn't give up, his determination always surprised Sakura because he never gave up no matter what. She always wished she was like him even if she would never admit it.

They both had a fair amount of wounds, Naruto especially but he was still standing with a grin on his face.

'Typical Naruto'

They suddenly charged at each other with their kunai's and soon were in a heated kunai fight, moving in a blur.

'Naruto really has improved.'

But it was Naruto were talking about here. Sakura wouldn't expect anything else from the hyperactive ninja.

10 minutes later Naruto collapsed and Sakura rushed over to heal his wounds, after healing them she healed Tatsuya's wounds.

"That Naruto put up a good fight," commented Tatsuya as he flexed his newly healed arm.

"He's Naruto!" Grinned Sakura, "I wouldn't expect anything less."

Tatsuya picked up an unconscious Naruto and they as well as Ryou made their way back to the shop where Ryou locked it up for the rest of the day. It was now sunset and they were sitting in a bedroom with Naruto lying on the bed still unconscious. Sakura was perched on the windowsill gazing at the bustling crowd outside, Tatsuya had gone to get some drinks and Ryou was reading a book.

"Do I start training tomorrow?" she asked, eyes glued to the crowd outside.

"Yes, you and Naruto."

Sakura turned towards Ryou.

"Why Naruto-kun as well?"

"I decided to train Naruto as well because he will be a good help to you when you fight Mordan and because if he wants to become the next Hokage he needs to become stronger."

She nodded, before gazing at Naruto.

"You can also take some advice from him as well," said Ryou, nose still buried in his book.

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura, "what kind of advice could I take from Naruto-kun?"

"Naruto works with his demon that resides within him, you should also learn to work with the Serenity, you can be stronger if you work together, also you learn things faster as well, that is what you must learn to do with Naruto's help."

"I understand."

Tatsuya entered which ended their little conversation, he handed them drinks and Naruto suddenly woke up and happily accepted a drink which turned out to be Tatsuya's. Grumbling Tatsuya left to get another one (Ryou told him not to kill the future Hokage or else Tsunade wouldn't be very happy).

Looking at the darkening sky Sakura drained her cup and stood up.

"Come on Naruto-kun, we should get going."

"Okay Sakura-Chan."

"Starting tomorrow, you'll both be staying here." said Ryou, making them both jump they had forgotten he was there.

"Erm okay," said Sakura sending a questioning glance to Naruto who just shrugged.

"It's so that you don't have to travel to come here and so that I know you're safe," he replied not looking up from his book.

"How does he do that?" burst out Naruto as they walked down the stairs.

"I have no idea."

"Maybe he can read minds or…" Naruto rambled on.

Sakura ignored him as they made their way to the ground floor; she stopped as she remembered that the shop door was closed because Ryou had locked it. They had come through that way and she didn't know any other exits.

"Damn, which way is out," she murmured to herself.

"Leaving so soon," said a voice from behind her. Whipping around she found herself facing Tatsuya.

"Yeah, It's getting late and I'm tired anyway," she replied, Naruto was still rambling on about the ways on how Ryou knew what they were thinking. Tatsuya sent Naruto a questioning glance which Sakura replied with rolling her eyes.

"Ignore him, he's in his own little world," she whispered to him.

'You can say that again'

'Shut up, no-one asked you'

'Humph!'

"Don't worry," she said reassuringly noticing the worry in her brother's eyes, "from tomorrow we're gonna be staying here anyway."

"I wasn't worrying," he replied to which Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Anyway I was wondering what way the way out was?"

"Follow me," Tatsuya led them to another exit and they both left after waving him goodbye.

"So are you excited?" asked Naruto as they arrived at the inn, he had left his own "little world."

"Yeah, I can't wait till we start our training," yawned Sakura as they opened the room door.

"Me too," grinned Naruto.

T.B.C

There I've finished the next chapter and as I promised it was longer and it's not a cliff hanger

Anyways I hope you review and I've got school the day after tomorrow so I won't be able to update as usual as I normally could.

Thank you Shatteredxmemories for checking over this chapter and making sure the grammar is correct, I couldn't have done it without you

Wow 101 reviews, I never thought the story would be that successful

Later

Starryeyes22