Sakura's POV

"W-What?" I asked completely stunned.

Ibiki sighed as he repeated himself.

"I am here to train you." He said with the most serious pair of eyes. It left no room for me to doubt that that's exactly what he's here for.

"Why me? Did someone ask you?" I asked, surprise still clear in my voice.

"I wouldn't necessarily say I was asked to." He trailed off.

Lies

"More like it was suggested. After the little mishap that occurred yesterday with Red Wolf and Senbonzakura, it was decided that someone ought to teach you how to properly handle a weapon such as Senbonzakura." He explained.

"Let me guess, that burden was placed on you?" I said after a beat.

"I wouldn't call it a burden. As a matter of fact, I have no real complaints with this task." I stared at him with an odd look until he sighed.

"If this was something I truly didn't want to do, no one would have been able to make me come here to train you."

That might be true. However something still feels off about this, and we will find out about what it is. Later.

You mean...

I think you should take his offer. With all the things I'm going to teach you, it would be beneficial for you to practice on someone rather than invisible enemies.

What if he questions how I'm able to do what you've been teaching me?

The truth. He already knows I'm a spirit in a sword. He knows I can talk to you.

That's true. I guess I do have a sensei now.

I blushed a bit when I looked to Ibiki who was waiting with his eyebrow raised.

Clearly I had spaced out a bit again.

"So, when do we get started?" I said with my cheeks still red.

Ibiki only grinned.

"Right now brat." I flinched a bit as Ibiki's whole demeanor changed.

What happened to Miss Haruno?

Not sure, but hopefully he can teach you a few things on how to be more aware of your surroundings, especially when we talk in your mind.

Hopefully.

I knew my lack of awareness in my surroundings was a bit of a hinderance. But well, this ought to change a lot of that.

"Alright, show me what you got brat."

Much like Senbonzakura had taught me earlier, Ibiki made me get into a battle stance with Senbonzakura and was clearly surprised to see a difference already.

"Senbonzakura basically told me that my form was shit and explained to me how to change it, but we both think it would be beneficial for me to practice more with someone." Ibiki nodded his head, not at all surprised that I was talking to a sword.

"Well, show me what he's taught you so far."

And so, I went through a few of the moves he had told me about and in return, Ibiki gave me additional pointers.

He never fought back considering this was the first time I was putting my moves to the test.

But after the first round he made me do it again, and during our second fight he fought back a little.

Then a little more during the third round.

Each time he put more effort into the battle till eventually he was wiping the floor with me after only seconds into the match, telling me to fix this and that.

After nearly two hours of this he stopped the sparring.

"Alright kid, not bad. Your form is getting better and better every time, however during the last few spars you started to get sloppy. We need to work on your stamina and your strength. Your muscles are minuscule at best and seem to barley support your own weight." Ibiki explained as he watched me topple to the floor on my back, out of breath and drenched in sweat.

"We'll start off simple. You'll practice basic skills like running, push ups, sit ups, and squats. Then we'll add weights to those workouts when they become easier. We'll do that Monday's and Wednesday's." He continued. I sluggishly turned my head towards him so that he knew I was listening.

"Tuesday's and Thursday's we'll work on your elemental ninjutsu. And on Friday's and Saturday's you can work on whatever Senbonzakura wants to teach you. And speaking of elemental ninjitsu, do you know what your affinity is?" Still out of breath, I settled for shaking my head.

"We'll have to test that, lucky for you I have chakra papers with me, just in case this happened." Ibiki added as he reached into his hip pouch and pulled out a small square paper.

I raised the upper half of my body so I was sitting rather than laying down as he handed me the piece of paper. I stared at it.

"What do I do with it?" I asked in a raspy voice, still tired.

Ibiki rolled his eyes before telling my to send my chakra though it.

I closed my eyes as I searched for my chakra, almost being able to see it flowing through my body and willed it to come to my fingers.

I watched as my chakra went through the paper, and almost immediately the paper had split in half, one side became soaked, and the other crumbled.

"Uh, was that supposed to happen?" I asked as I stared dumbfounded.

What did this mean?

I spared a glance to Ibiki and furrowed my eyebrows at the look on his face, he almost seemed to be lost in thought.

"Well that was unexpected." He deadpanned.

"What do you mean?" I asked, no longer tired from the endless sparring, now just curious.

"Normally, there are five different chakra types someone can have, through you can learn them all with practice. Typically someone only has one, sometimes two natural affinities. You however, have three." He explained to me.

"How? I come from a civilian family!" Ibiki only shrugged at my outburst.

"So? A lot of great ninja come from civilian families." I scoffed at him.

"Oh yeah? Name one." I challenged. Vaguely recalling Naruto and Ino's jabs at my civilian status.

"The Fourth Hokage." He said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I remained silent for few seconds before...

"What?" I hissed.

Ibiki raised an eyebrow before repeating himself.

"The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, is a civilian born, naturally talented, and truly powerful ninja. Why do you look so surprised? Isn't your teammates name enough of a giveaway?" He asked, a little more than curious.

Clearly he wasn't expecting this reaction from me.

My silence, though, was enough of an answer.

"Naruto's last name is Uzumaki, not Namikaze. The son of the Fourth Hokage cannot be associated with a civilian family name such as the Namikaze. It's fine for Minato-sama, because he's the Hokage and has made a name for himself using his civilian status. His son has not. The Uzumaki Clan already has a name for themselves, despite the Clan having been mostly wiped out many years ago. Therefore, Naruto Uzumaki is already someone to look out for, Naruto Namikaze, would not be."

I stood there for several moments, processing everything Ibiki just told me.

Naruto can't use his father's last name because his father is a civilian born.

Blossom, are you okay?

Everything Naruto has ever told me felt like a slap to the face, does his father even know what his son is saying?

I'm not sure.

More importantly, does Naruto even know that his father is civilian born like me?

I'm not sure about that one either.

I sighed deeply and ran my hand down my face and slowly began to laugh.

This was all too ridiculous.

Ibiki let me laugh it out before asking me.

"Is there any particular reason for that kind of reaction?"

I sighed yet again as I contemplated on telling him or not.

It might not be a bad idea to let someone in on what your feeling.

He's not my shrink Senbonzakura. There's no real reason for me to tell him. Besides, what can he do about it?

He might do something about it, he might not. But either way it could be good to tell someone about it, get whatever you need to off your chest.

But that's what I have you for.

A second opinion could be a good thing. Perhaps a different perspective to take this on. A different word of advice.

I suppose you're right.

"Well, you see..." I began as I told Ibiki my tale about Naruto and all the things he has been saying to me since day one. By the time I was finished Ibiki actually looked put off by what I had told him.

"I see, so that's what that was about then."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"The day of the exams, when Naruto was yelling at you about the Hyuuga fight. He said you wouldn't understand because of your civilian background."

Oh.

"Yeah, that's what it was about." I said quietly as I lowered my head a little bit.

I never realized how many people were paying attention to that little argument we all had.

"So what have you done about it?" Ibiki asked, throwing me off guard.

"What do you mean?" I asked puzzled.

"Don't tell me you've just sat there every time your own team mate opened up his mouth to talk shit about things he doesn't really understand."

I felt my anger start to boil up inside me.

"What could I have done!?" I demand. "He's the son of the Hokage, I always thought that if I had done anything other than smack his head my ninja career would be over!" Ibiki continued to frown.

"I see." He said dryly. "You didn't think that maybe even if you were to have gotten in trouble, the Hokage would have been on your side? Especially considering he is also born from a civilian family?"

"I don't know, maybe." I said, weakly. "I also didn't know that he was from a civilian family. Maybe I would have done something if I had known." I cast my eyes downward.

Not to mention I don't think Naruto even knows that about his father, otherwise he might not have behaved that way.

True.

"Well, I guess there's no time for that now anyway." I peeked a glance at Ibiki, more than a little curious about what's going to happen next. "We should get started on your training."

My head came up completely, intent on listening.

"I know that you've mastered walking up solid objects like walls and trees. Now, how about you try walking on water?"