Note: Long time no see? I have AP exams soon and have not studied so catch me getting a 1 in history lol. Y'all have been complaining about not seeing Itachi and I get that, but all good things come to those who wait.

That fic in which I give Sakura a sword? Yeah it's out, currently have it written up to part of the chunin arc but half the sites I publish on are blocked by my school computer (which is my only working one) so updating is a chore (I do it through my phone any formating errors can be attributed to that)

Without further ado, Chapter 20

Itachi ducked under her foot and threw the paper bomb, the kunai lodging itself into the tree next to her. Shisui grinned as she quickly jumped back, directly in front of him. He swung his kunai towards her, the blade passing through her arm before the clone vanished.

"C'mon Sakura! Why'd you send a clone?"

A rustling to his left had him twisting around, a kunai coming right at him. He knocked it out of the way with his kunai, but failed to dodge Itachi's ninja wire from behind. He fell to the ground with a soft thud, frowning at the kids standing above him. Sakura threw a fist towards Itachi and the fight was on again, their temporary truce to beat Shisui ended.

They kept attacking and dodging, leaving Shisui tied up on the ground. He fumbled with the wire, slowly as to not cut into his skin, in attempts to get an arm free, but had no success. His next best bet, he knew, was if he could get his hands close enough to each other and use ninjutsu to get out.

Itachi ducked another blow from Sakura, leaping to the trees for cover when Shisui had managed to get one hand free. He cut it ever so slightly on the wire, and began making hand signs. With a twist, he got his hand onto the ground, and a crow popped into place.

"I like them."

"What." His voice fell flat as he stared at the crow.

"I like them. I'm gonna work with them."

"Wait-"

"Itachi! Sakura! Good job!" He walked up to the pair, who were laying on the dirt next to each other in sweaty exhaustion. The crow sat on his head, feet digging into his head.

Sakura shifted to look at him and sat upright, eyeing the crow. "Ah, Shisui? You have a crow on your head."

"And she won't get off until I introduce you." He bemoaned, twisting his head a bit to prove he couldn't shake him off.

Itachi stared at the bird with wide eyes. "Shisui, isn't this-"

Sakura gave him a questioning look.

"This is Yoko!" He said, plucking the bird off his head forcefully, some of his hair still in Yoko's talons. "Think of this as an early graduation present!"

"Wait. We can have more than one summon?"

Yoko nodded her head at the girl. "Yes. You just can't summon them at the same time."

Her eyes lit up and she resumed rereading the contract scroll. Tsunade had her do the same thing when she entered a contract with Katsuyu, just so she knew exactly what she was signing herself up for. She shook her head as she read the last line of the contract. The holders of the contract must permit their summons to pick food off their plates. Crows will be crows, she mused as she cut her thumb on a kunai and signed her name at the bottom of the scroll.

She went to roll it up, then stopped. "Wait. If you have more than one summon, how do you make sure that you summon the one you want?"

Shisui blinked.

"It's about intent, I think. Just, uh, think crow thoughts." Yoko said, saving Shisui from the thinking he didn't want to do.

"Crow thoughts." Sakura deadpanned.

"Yep! Crow thoughts!"

"You two have been given a privilege, remember, so be on your best behavior." Their old teacher said, patting them on their heads as they were lead through the academy doors to join the graduating class. He turned and knelt down suddenly, looking them in the eyes. "Don't you die out there. Alright?" They nodded, and he stood up and walked out of the room.

"Ah. Haruno and Itachi, is it?"

"Yes sir," Sakura chirped, avoiding the gaze of the students around them.

"Follow me to the testing room. If you pass, you will be assigned a team shortly."

They followed him into a hallway off the classroom they had never been to, and that Sakura was sure wasn't there before. She stopped suddenly.

"Sir? What will we be tested on." A kunai came flying at her from behind. She dodged it and caught the one incoming from the left.

"Oh, nothing much. Your reaction times, taijutsu, genjutsu, and overall ability to survive should do it, I think."

Itachi was batting aside the many senbon that came after him as the man talked. Sakura sighed at the man and shook her head, a pulse of chakra seeped from her for a brief second, and the hall went still. No weapons remained on the floor, despite there being several before. The man smiled at them and backed away, sinking through the wall, before that too dissolved around them. Three jonin stood around the area where a wall once was and nodded in sync.

"Uchiha Itachi. Pass. Your teammates will be waiting for you beyond those doors. Follow me." Itachi nodded and walked back through the doors they entered from, following the fan on the far left.

"Haruno Sakura. Pass. Follow me." The man began walking in a completely different direction than the doors, and Sakura frowned in confusion before complying.

"What."

"We had too many kids graduating including you so we decided it would be best if you had a jonin mentor, instead of making you stay in the academy or go to the corps."

Sakura read between the lines. We're scared of what the Uchiha clan might do if we didn't give you this opportunity.

"Okay, so who's my mentor supposed to be then?"

Sakura tried not to react when she heard the name.

"I trust you will be able to work together and do well on missions as just the two of you."

"Yes sir." She bowed respectfully at the Hokage before making her way to the door. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, child."

Note: Let's play the, how predictable am I game. Who is Sakura's mentor. (lol i looked at kakashi's graduation and said, yeah i can do that too)

The birds work for the bourgeoisie.

The exam was danzo's idea he's gonna start being a thing more often (what a bitch he is).

Sakura gets a Bird. (they are important for the future too)

I have most of the whole story fleshed out now. I know where chapters are supposed to end. I feel my chakras aligning and my joints screaming.

Hope y'all have been doing well and haven't been slipping back into old habits of middle school emo music sleeping and 90% of the time like me, thank you for reading, good luck on exams, wishing you health, happy late beltane, i dont know what else to add so goodbye for now.