The sounds of birds woke her. For a fleeting moment, Sakura lay in place, her mind quiet.
It was dawn. A soft light filtered through the trees, casting lazy shadows across the planes of her face. It wasn't until Sakura looked a little more closely at the scenery that she saw the huge creature which disturbingly–
…was crouched right over her!
She scuttered onto her feet, hastily shouldering her belongings. A frightful glance later proved that the thing was an enormous lizard. Counting its tail, the beast was at least two meters long, and Sakura didn't want to know how fast those legs could be. There was no other choice, so, tired and sore, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and hurried away from the area. Deeper into the Forest of Death.
Yesterday, she'd broken in. Sakura remembered she'd been too scared of getting caught by possible guards to dare run around the barrier looking for the river. This wasn't like last time. Now Sakura was in the depths of the forest, the only human in miles, and had no idea where to find water. Her throat was really dry. Her back felt sore from the continuos hauling of the armor, and worse even, Sakura's calves throbbed painfully at every step.
It was strange, delusional almost, to think that she was back in this hellhole. Voluntarily.
But Sakura had come to a resolution. There was no choice but to soldier on and grit her teeth. And indeed, she kept walking and walking for hours on end. Around noon, Sakura finally stumbled across the river. Walking deeper into the forest and away from the barrier had worked, as the river cut the forest in half. The tower, however, was nowhere to be seen, which Sakura honestly couldn't care less about. But more importantly, back to the present and back to Sakura's raw throat. Back to the discovery of water.
Filled to the brim with relief, she dropped her rucksack and armor with a resounding clank. She had eyes for the river only. It was particularly hard to resist the urge to jump inside.
Instead, Sakura looked for wood. She'd need to be prepared in case the leeches stroke again. She wasn't Sasuke, so starting a fire took almost half an hour of trying. This wasn't the same as it had been back at the academy: she didn't have tinder now. Instead, she had a growling belly and a sore throat, an a river in front of her. Resisting temptation was hard, but Sakura didn't approach it until she had a torch waiting for her at the shore. Carefully, she edged near the water and finally, in a blissful moment of glory, drank. And drank. And drank.
The suddenly emerging leech which had stuck onto her cupped palm made her shriek. Frantically, she bolted back to the torch and burned the leech to death. There was a little bit of blood in the wound, but not much.
Scared still, but no longer thirsty, Sakura decided to relocate to somewhere nearby. Thus, she proceeded with the arduous task of hauling everything she had to the top of a tall tree. When she made it to the top at last, Sakura dropped down on her bum.
After a while of panting, regular thought process came back to her:
Just fantastic! Inner grouched. We're exhausted as heck! Damn your stupid ideas!
It was your idea too, remember? Outer Sakura piped up. And anyway, how was I supposed to know how heavy that armor really is?
Inner ignored her. …worst of all: we're absolutely famished! I'm ravenous! I need food and I need it now!
This time it was Sakura's turn to ignore Inner and her I-statements. She had eaten nothing for dinner yesterday, and neither had she had breakfast or lunch. But what could she do? To distract herself from her hunger, Sakura decided to take an inventory check.
There was, of course, the Kaguya forsaken armor. Sakura huffed, and instead turned to her rucksack.
It was fortunate her mother had lent it to her for shopping yesterday. She'd need something to carry her things. And not only that: could there, per chance, be anything useful in there, like a water canteen?
Eagerly, she began digging for riches.
The first thing she found, unsurprisingly, was the last thing she'd introduced: the dark blue pair of sandals. It was followed closely by her new outfit, which could come quite in handy as well, as Sakura was wearing her red dress. There were also a hand mirror, a few hair clips and hair ties, tissues, hand cleaner (her mom was one of those stingy people who hated to touch things a lot of people had held) and… sunscreen. Few! Thank Hashirama for small favors. Pale people had it hard, Sakura knew. To her immense luck, there was also a kunai. That was almost even better. Sakura was really glad now, because she'd just realized (with mounting horror) that she'd stuck no weapons in her pouch the previous morning. Or had she?
Dread pooling in her gut, Sakura unclasped the pouch and opened it with shaky fingers. Money. Her halved savings were still there, as were those papers she'd stollen from the achieve. Sakura promised herself that she'd return them. She was no thief. The papers were pressed inside of her journal (yes, the one Kakashi had given her) to hide them in plain view. So Sakura was now stuck with the additional weight of the jornal. Though on the flip side, at least it would be useful to light fires.
Sakura kept ruffling through the pouch. There was also a pencil, more tissues, (she could only see them as tinder by this point) and a blunted shuriken. Sakura recalled it was the one she'd used to beat Ino – a lucky charm of sorts.
Luckier still was the box at the very bottom of her mom's rucksack: it was edible! On top of that, it contained Sakura's favorite sweets in the world: tea mochis. She'd stopped eating them because of her diet, but they were extremely preferable to starvation. If she had to hazard a guess, the mochis were probably a little surprise her mother had bought for her. She felt suddenly so grateful that she almost wept. Something edible! Without thinking, Sakura stuffed them into her mouth in rapid succession.
Divine.
But then she stopped forcefully. She'd eaten two. That left four more. Definitely not much. With a devastated sigh, Sakura realized that she'd have to ration them.
TWISTED
At the same time in a different place, team ten had met up for training. They'd just enjoyed a most tasteful lunch in their usual barbecue restaurant – Naruto's love for ramen not withstanding – and now the five of them had gathered at training ground ten, laying in wait for Kurenai to arrive. Well, Shikamaru was laying.
A scant few minutes afterward, the genjutsu mistress strode into their turf.
"Ah, you made it." Asuma's face lit up. "Good."
"Heya." Kurenai smiled. "So. We're all set?"
"You bet!" Naruto yelled. "I wanna see myself beat up some of those thugs back at Wave!"
"That's not really it, Naruto," muttered Ino snidely. "You're supposed to use the experience to learn the flaws in your teamwork, not inflate your ego!"
Shikamaru snorted. "I'm surprised he even has an ego, considering."
"I've brought chips for the show," announced Choji out of the blue. "Want any?"
"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Must you keep talking?" interjected Kurenai.
Asuma rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. "I believe they're as anxious to proceed as we are, Kurenai."
"That's good to hear."
"Ne, ne! Vampire Aunt! You're the one that trains Sasuke-teme, am I right?
"Vampire Aunt?"
"Your eyes are like those of a vampire! Believe it! Hey, hey! Tell me about training the teme, Vampy Aunt!"
"That's hardly–"
"You think I can beat him? Because I'm going to!"
Asuma decked Naruto on the head with a mysteriously procured newspaper. "Get out of her hair, Naruto," he deadpanned.
Naruto frowned. It looked like he was about to protest, but in the end, he chose to listen.
Kurenai sighed. "So… let's get down to business, guys. I'm going to project Naruto's recollections of the mission in question for all of us to see and learn from his mistakes. Do you know how this technique works?"
"I have a question," said Ino instead.
"Go on."
"Well… if your jutsu is so great, why do they always rely on my clan's mind abilities for interrogation?"
"That's an interesting quandary," replied Kurenai. "Members of the Yamanaka clan are generally more accurate, but that's not it. For my jutsu to work, the subject needs to give their consent. Understandably, no interrogator can afford that luxury. There are also certain skill requirements to be met which not many in this village posses, not to mention, once it's started, it must be seen through till the end."
Ino looked slightly thrown for a loop. "Ah. Alright. That makes sense."
Naruto, who didn't look like he'd heard any of it, shouted: "I have a question! Hey!"
"What is it?"
"When are we getting started? 'cause I'm not getting any younger!"
"Now he talks like an old man?"
"You're the old man, Shikamaru!"
"While you were distracted…" Kurenai smirked, "I've already gone ahead and caught the lot of you in a basic genjutsu. We'll work our way up from there." She gestured for everyone to sit down in a circle. "Let's get down to business. First, I want all of you to do your best picturing the scene. Especially you, Naruto."
She moved right in front of him, her red nail poking the center of his forehead.
"What scene?"
"How about… the mission desk? That's easy for all of us to imagine." She turned to the rest of them. "Listen. All of you, try to picture the mission desk. Naruto, the other members of team seven… Lord Hokage, even, and Iruka-san are all present."
"This feels like a theatre play," muttered Ino.
Next to her, Shikamaru yawned. "Such a boring lecture."
"What lecture?" Choji munched on his chips confusedly.
"Moron! If you'd stop chomping on food and concentrated…!" Ino hissed,"then maybe you'd know what's going on!" In truth, she had no idea what lecture Shikamaru was talking about either. But then, unexpectedly, as she focused more on Kurenai's words, a deep voice, and then another, hushed one, began floating into her senses. She closed her eyes. Choji had stopped eating chips, or at least, she couldn't hear it anymore.
"…C and B rank missions get assigned to chunin…" Was that the hokage speaking? He seemed to be wrapped up in a winded lecture indeed. "…while jonin level ninja take on B and A rank missions. Do you understand, Naruto-kun? As you are a genin, I can't assign any complicated–" He cut himself off.
In the silence, what previously had been a whisper became clearly audible. The heads of team seven were brought close in conference:
"…so I was thinking of eating some miso ramen for dinner, see, but I'm not sure 'cause I feel like pork's tastier!"
"Naruto!" Iruka-sensei, Academy teacher extraordinare, shouted irately. "You can't pay your superior this kind of disrespect! Apologize to Lord Hokage!"
"What a moron," Shikamaru muttered as they watched.
"Ahh… sorry, sorry," said Illusion-Kakashi to the hokage. "He's a ball of energy."
The ball of energy in question paid tribute to his nickname by shouting: "I don't care about stupid regulations or stupid ranks! I want a cool mission, believe it! We've been completing all of these dumb D-ranks; that's not my standard, yeah! After all, I'm gonna become the next hokage!"
The hokage in question chuckled. "Very well then, Naruto-kun. A C-rank it is. This'll be one interesting escort mission."
"But – Hokage-sama!" Iruka rebutted worriedly. "If I may be so blunt, they're not ready! Naruto's not–"
"Yeah! Yeah! THANKS OLD MAN!"
"Naruto! What did I just say about your rude behavior?"
Iruka was once again woefully ignored.
"Bring it on! I'm so ready for this challenge! Who's our charge? A beautiful princess? An important landlord?"
"Ugh… you're unbelievable, Naruto," muttered Reality-Ino. As they watched on, the real Naruto crossed his arms defensively, muttering he regretted nothing.
Right on cue, and making the exact same expression as Ino, Illusion-Sakura hissed: "Unbelievable. Naruto, you're such an airhead! Can't you be calmer and cooler, just like Sasuke-kun?" She threw him a reverent look, followed by a lovestruck sigh. Naruto, on his part, turned away brusquely.
Meanwhile, Real-Choji said to Ino: "You and Sakura are so similar even in your reactions – now that's what's unbelievable."
"Excuse me? Me and Forehead girl?"
While they were bickering, the scene suddenly morphed. A weathered looking man who was holding a bottle of liquor (and looked quite intoxicated) had joined team seven's group. Presumably, he was the mission's client, and the scenery had changed into nature.
"Ahaha! Look! It's a puddle! Wanna go jump inside with me, Sakura-chan?"
"Seriously?" groused Real-Ino to the current Naruto. "That's you trying to woo someone?"
Predictably, Illusion-Sakura hit Illusion-Naruto on his head. "No way, you moron!" Turning to Sasuke, she added: "Gee, Naruto is so immature. Totally not my type." She blushed. "My type is the real mature, reversed kind of ikemen, you know?"
Whether he knew or not, Sasuke didn't reply.
"Heh, your friend's attempts at flirting aren't exactly smooth either," said Real-Shikamaru to Ino, looking smug.
"That's because Sakura's a dunce!" cried Ino. "I'm way more skilled."
"I thought you said she was the only thing standing in your way to date Sasuke?" Choji prodded, exchanging winning smirks with Shikamaru.
Their collective attention, however, was promptly whisked away. Without warning, team seven was suddenly rendered under attack: two dangerous looking ninja had leapt upon them, catching the group completely of guard.
Ino shrieked.
Naruto, who had been at the forefront, whirled around, frozen. Sasuke meanwhile jumped into action, and so did Kakashi.
Except… the enemy was faster, and Kakashi was gruesomely sliced right through the middle. Entrails flew everywhere, a horrible smell ensuing.
"Sensei!" A broken scream.
Illusion-Naruto's trembling had gotten to the point of dropping a kunai. Without warning, a steely look took over Sakura and she rushed past him. She was fast, Naruto's world was spinning. Sakura's body spread in front of their charge protectively – she'd been the only one to remember him in the midst of the panic.
Naruto watched petrified still as one of the two ninja – the one who'd cut through Kakashi like a butter knife – sprang at Sakura. Wide-eyed, petrified, he looked on.
She'd seen it too, but Sakura remained in front of Tazuna, looking half terrified half resolute. But then, Sasuke jumped into the assailant's path and kicked and jumped and flailed. It was thanks to him that the attacker was taken care of expertly, Sasuke looking almost bored by the whole thing.
The other assailant, like a cornered rat, fled from Sasuke's power and lunged at Naruto instead, who was still rooted to the spot, shaking. The enemy closed in.
Everything pointed toward Naruto getting maimed. The assailant dove forward, his kunai burying into Naruto's skin. Just then, Sasuke sprinted to the rescue with furious speed, and like a dream, the other guy was out too.
Panting, and bleeding slightly from his hand but otherwise uninjured, Naruto looked up at Sasuke, whose foot was still on top of the attacker's face.
And then, smugly, Sasuke condescended: "Need saving, Bibiri-kun?"
Need saving, Bibiri-kun?
Bibiri-kun?
Bibiri-kun?
Naruto went completely stiff. Scaredy-cat? He wasn't!
(At this point, it was hard for team ten to tell whether he was thinking or talking to himself.)
No! I'm not a scaredy-cat! Never again!
"Well…" Illusion-Kakashi said suddenly. "Hadn't expected you to seize up like that, Naruto. Sasuke, Sakura, you did well."
Everyone stared at him.
"Kakashi-sensei! You're alive!" Sakura was crying.
Naruto tried to hide the fact that he was near tears too. "But…! I thought you were dead, Sensei! I saw it! That guy…!"
"He's truly one of a kind," muttered Kurenai as they looked on.
Unaffected, Kakashi meanwhile pursued his book again. "My demise was a perfectly logical ploy. It had to seem like I, the largest threat, was out of the picture… That gave me freedom to determine exactly what, or rather, who those two were after. They're the famous demon brothers, you know. Skilled mercenaries, and ninja, not just your average joe – they even made it into the bingo book as B ranked threats."
"You mean those two weren't bandits?" exclaimed Sakura, sniffing. "But then…"
"Yes. Sakura-chan, you did well to immediately flank Tazuna," said Kakashi, nodding towards the bridge builder. "If the demon brothers had been after money, which was unlikely, considering who they are, they wouldn't have targeted anyone specifically."
"But they did," Sakura whispered, wide-eyed.
"Yes. They did." Kakashi turned to Tazuna, his stare smoldering. "Isn't there something you wish to tell us, Mr Bridge-builder?"
The old man stiffened. Silence fell over the team like a blanket, only Sakura's hiccups were audible in the background.
Kakashi crouched, picking up the kunai Naruto had been stabbed with. "Poison," he concluded breezily. "Ma, nothing we can do about it. It's probably for the best. Let's return to the village. That needs to be removed from your system, Naruto."
If possible, Naruto looked even paler.
No! I don't wanna be a burden! No! No! I promised myself I'd put Sasuke-teme to shame on this mission! I promised I'd protect Sakura-chan! But the stupid teme beat me to the punch!
Naruto was trembling.
Never again! The observants' eyes became wide as his hand rose into the air. He was gripping a kunai. With a determined shout, Naruto slashed the kunai into his wound. It was bleeding, the dagger buried inside of him. Naruto tore it forward slowly. "I'll never go back on my word! Do you hear me? That's my ninja way!" By this point, there was a giant gash all across his hand. If I ever chicken out again, this wound, this pain, will remind me: never, ever will I stop! I'll keep my promises, and then I'll be worthy of becoming Hokage! BELIEVE IT!
"Touching display. Though I can't help but wonder what you were trying to achieve by stabbing yourself, Naruto," said Kakashi drolly.
"That's obvious, Sensei: the poison is out now, see! You don't have to abort the mission anymore, believe it!"
I won't ever be a burden again!
"Right… in light of your valiant display, I suppose we should continue. If you're all amenable?"
Sasuke gave a curt nod, Tazuna grinned. Sakura still looked stumped.
"That was… intense." In reality, Ino broke the silence. She still looked a little shaken. The others were either that or disturbed.
"Just wondering, Naruto…" murmured Kurenai. "Are you masochistic?"
"What?"
Coughing, Asuma turned toward Shikamaru. "Getting back on track… care to start on a comprehensive analysis, Shikamaru?"
"Why me? What a drag…" Shikamaru rightened himself a little. "Two words: Naruto, idiot."
"Eloquent." commented Kurenai, clipped.
"Shikamaru." Asuma heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Care to elaborate?"
"I'm not an idiot!" Naruto interrupted.
"Sure you aren't," said Ino snidely. "Shikamaru, elaborate."
"What's there to say? Look at people's feet more, Naruto."
"Hah? What's that got to do with anything? If I had done that, I wouldn't have seen any attack coming. Believe it."
"Not that that helped terribly," Choji added. Naruto gave him a dirty look.
"Well, I don't know what you're on about in regard to people's feet, but personally, I think Forehead's sensei's at fault in this."
"What do you mean, Ino?"
"Morons! Do you know anything about psychology? Oh, don't answer that! Look, I get that sometimes it's inevitable, but pretending to suffer a gruesome death in front of kids who've never even been in a real fight before is the dumbest move a sensei can pull! What is this guy, retarded? Anyone would freeze up if they'd just seen their teacher's entrails spew all over the floor! Gee, Sakura wasn't kidding when she said Kakashi has the emotional range of a teaspoon!"
"What's an emotional range?" asked Naruto. "Is it a maths problem?"
"No! And that's not even the point!"
"She's right, you know. I think maybe we should speak to Kakashi about this…" said Kurenai dubiously.
Asuma didn't bother to consider it. "Forget it. He's a lost cause. Not used to us normal people, that one."
"Well I still don't get what this guy meant about feet!"
"Troublesome. It's rude to point, Naruto. And for the record, no one expects you to. You're less observant than a mole as it is." Shikamaru punctuated that statement by yawning in his face.
"Hey! I take offense to that! When I'm hokage, I'll make a mole chomp your most precious parts off! Ha! Ha! And I never go back on my–"
He was interrupted by Ino's punch to his head. "Shut up!"
Kurenai sighed. "Let's review the scene."
"Pay attention to people's feet this time," said Asuma knowingly. "You have the luxury of not being in mortal danger, kids."
"What a luxury," said Shikamaru spitefully.
"Indeed." Without further ado, Kurenai plunged them into memories again.
TWISTED
It was dark already. Sakura had found a few berries, but that was it. No more for dinner. Exhausted, she laid on the floor and wondered what was wrong with her. Wouldn't it have been more sensible to prepare in advance for the forest? But on the other hand, she'd managed just fine last time without bringing food or water; she could do it again.
Sakura sighed. Tomorrow, she'd wear the armor. Carrying it on her shoulders was really impractical, and anyway, she'd have to get used to the extra weight if she had any chance of winning against Neji. Because that was her plan: beating Neji – and fighting Gaara herself.
A/N:
Hey there! I'm aware the training arc might not be the most riveting, but it's something Sakura has to go through. She just has to. And it'll be hard. On another note, what do you think about team ten's particular 'training'?
Anyways, I've been answering to many of your reviews, and, as promised, I will answer a few guest reviews too. I decided to include the original review so the recipient may know what I'm talking about.
Without ado, let's go!
G R A C I E: why do you make kakashi seem like such a jerk that is not how he acts in the shows but besides that i think you have a real talent for writing i LOVED it
Thanks! And yeah, Kakashi has his moments. I don't know exactly what parts you're talking about, but his behavior has an explanation, I promise ;)
Guest: I am excited for the next chapter. This type of resolve could lead to her being extremely song.
Depends on what you understand under 'strong', but yeah. I've been itching to write Sakura getting her shit together for ages. The time has come now!
Nanami: Interesting development, the armor makes me think that Sakura follows a mixed path of ninja and samurai, but I'm not good at guessing just that it was terrifying Sakura's near-death scene, I thought that would be the end of the story and then I remembered that Itachi still does not come on the scene and that means that Sakura will not die just because of a sudden outburst of violence, the death bosuqe was unexpected but I'm glad to see that she can strengthen herself, I will not deny facing her fears it's hard and I'm anxious to see what happens, a scene of Sakura's fight with Gaara would make me very happy, but then I think and if it remains as it reads ... better let the author follow his course. Thanks for the update.Live The GaaSaku!
Thank you, Nanami! About the samurai thing, that's an interesting idea. I'd actually considered it, but I don't think I'll go through with it LoL
Anyways, I'm sort of glad you thought the Gaara scene was scary as hell – that's what I was going for. In other stories, the character walks out of a near-death scene as though nothing major has transpired – that's not a normal reaction in 12 year olds xD. This just means that the story is realistic, which is ultimately what I was going for.
Regarding 'bosuque'… did you mean bosque? De la muerte? Anyways, about a Sakura vs Gaara scene… we'll see ( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡)
Guest: Im loving this story a bit more with every chapter I read, and even when I think I couldnt possibly love it more you prove me wrong. Thank you so much for the chapter. This fan will be waiting for more :D
Wow, you've made my day, whoever you are! I on my part love your review, so now we're even :p Do you think the first few chapters should be rewritten, by the way? Thanks for your input :)
Guest: need them updates, really like it
Updating will be tough the week after next because of exams. I'll do my best though, promise
Guest: he would look good with a ponytail that weasel
Indeed ;)
Guest: shell go berzerk and loosethan gets a great idea for the stadium?
…um. What?
Guest: amazing
Thanks :)
Guest: Well here, you go What a great story with this comment you are above the 98% garbage rate of naruto fanfiction which means its very enjoyable
Um. I'm honored. Heheh. :)) Thanks for your support :D
And with that we're done, folks! I'm glad to get to connect with my readers!
See ya!