A/N: I had promised to some of you that this would be up yesterday and I completely forgot! I am so sorry for that.
As for the votes, the majority voted for C and, last I counted, A and B were in a tie. So, I decided I'll post at random intervals, depending on my own writing rhythm and end the chapters where I feel they should end, independently of the length of it.
That being said, I wanted to also say that I'm trying to include in my routine some more time to write, because I also have other fics I want to keep updating and because i'm feeling rather inspired as of lately.
Now, on to the chapter!
I hope you like it!
Chapter 07 - Oh, no. I've been kidnapped!
(Kakashi's test, part 2 - Two weeks before the events on chapters 4 and 5)
Sakura was walking slowly after Kakashi, studying his back. He seemed to be relaxing a little bit more each step they took.
It was super weird, because he really did look preoccupied for a split second when he arrived, like he was concerned she was hurt, which had never happened before.
Never
ever.
But she decided not to dwell too much on it. He had always been weird, so maybe he had been preoccupied with the possible headache he'd have if she really had gotten hurt by that boulder. Or maybe she was just seeing things, Kami knows sometimes her vision wasn't the most reliable.
Yeah, that was much more plausible.
When they arrived back at the clearing, she only had time to sit before Naruto came rushing and laughing by himself. Then a few seconds later came Sasuke, looking like he had just eaten something sour.
"Yo, pups! You did well." Kakashi said when they were all reunited.
"Oi, sensei, what are the scores now?" Naruto asked loudly with big eyes and an even bigger smile. Sakura noticed that he was covered in dirt, but seemed fine overall.
"Naruto, you have two points total." the blond's smile widened "Sasuke has three points total." the boy's scowl deepened for a second before he schooled his face once more "Sakura has four points." did she just hear a poorly disguised pride in his voice? Nah, that couldn't be. She brushed the confusion aside when her teammates turned to gape at her, Naruto in awe and Sasuke surprised.
"Oi, Sakura-chan! You're crushing it!" the blood bounced in his place
This time, she did blush, but managed to smile proudly. She had gotten better results than she had dared to expect, to be honest.
"But hey, teme. What happened to-" Naruto began to ask and was stopped by Sasuke's glare.
She was also wondering just what had happened to make Sasuke earn just one point in the spar. She knew that he was one hell of a fighter and more often than not, could easily triumph over Naruto, who was also a damned good opponent. Sakura had never really fought them, but she had watched so many of their spars that she could easily copy their mannerisms and combos (which she often did with Lee).
That much observation also granted her the ability to predict (with rather good accuracy) how their spars would end depending on their moods, it was a hobby of hers, though not always she stuck around enough to see the results, only knowing about it the next day when Naruto blabbed about it to anyone who had ears.
So it was safe to say that she was rather curious to know why Sasuke had earned just a point for the second task. Though it was clear that, whatever had happened in Sasuke's spar with Kakashi's clone, wasn't going to be discussed or shared.
"Yoshi, we can just move on to the next round then." their sensei said, taking a scroll and opening it. Sakura recognised it as a summoning scroll and was proved right when she saw him flying through the hand signs and biting his finger.
Soon, there were three dogs with them. Sakura quickly identified them as Urushi, Bisuki and Pakkun. The fist two raced towards her, wiggling their tails and she knelt to scratch their ears and giggled as they licked her face. She really liked them and she knew that they liked her a whole lot too.
One advantage of having been the weak link for so long in team seven was that she had been trapped into 'pack' duty long enough to make real bonds with most of the ninken and earned a rather enviable stamina to keep up with them (which helped her training with Lee as well). Also, she had been seriously contemplating signing a contract and having a pack of her own as soon as she became a chunin, but she still hadn't decided, given that summoning demanded more chakra than she'd be comfortable spending in one go, because of her reserve.
She had (rather happily) noticed that her reserve was steadily growing, probably because of all the training she had been doing. The growth wasn't fast nor was it too big that people around her had noticed, but she now had almost twice as much as she had the year before. But now she had a pretty okay reserve, even if slightly lower than most chunin she knew, though it still didn't reach one fourth of her teammates', much to her annoyance, given that their own reserves were also growing (and at an alarming rate too).
That was something she had no control over, so she learnt to let it go, or rather was schooled by Lee one too many times that a big ass reserve meant nothing if the shinobi didn't know how to properly use it (she suspected that that speech had been Gai's). It would serve no purpose to dwell on it and, eventually, she settled for keep honing her control and stretching her limits as much as she could, for it was a much finer use of her time. Also, she had taken the habit to keep her chakra continuously concealed in order to master that ability and so no one (other than probably a Hyuuga or another strong sensor type) could make a precise reading on her reserves, which gave her room to bluff, in case she ever needed.
After greeting her, the ninken stepped back and walked over to Kakashi. She completely missed her sensei's amused glare and Sasuke's curiosity at her interaction with Urushi and Bisuki, but she did notice (could she not?) Naruto's barely restrained cheerful laughter and his failed attempt to get Pakkun to greet him the same way.
By the time she had cleaned her face as best as she could with a cloth from her pouch and stood up, each dog had a scroll on his mouth and Kakashi was poofing out of sight. Pakkun dropped the scroll in front of her (though the other ninken still held theirs), sat on his rear and began explaining the task in his deep voice.
"This task is about tracking." he said and Sakura felt like her heart sank to her knees.
She knew nothing about tracking. She had never even thought about it before that moment.
How naïve. What was I thinking? she wanted to slap her forehead, but settled for biting her bottom lip instead. Tracking was an essential ninja skill, how could she have forgotten to learn about it?
Lee never trained it either, she remembered, but he had a Hyuuga on his team (a genius Hyuuga) and said team was actually a well working unit. They had a tight synchrony that flowed flawlessly. She didn't know if any of the boys from team seven had any tracking skills, though that didn't matter right now, because she needed to make do with her own (nonexistent) skills.
"In the scrolls, there's information on your target. For this task, you can move around the city as you please, though you're forbidden to ask anyone for help on the mission, risking losing a point for cheating." he looked directly to Naruto while saying that and the blond scowled a bit. "You have half an hour to find the target. You'll each be accompanied by a ninken, though that doesn't mean they'll help you find the target either. We'll just be there in case you fail and need directions before the next task."
Then the other dogs put their scroll in front of the boys, they all picked them up and began reading. The first sentence had her scowling already.
"Task #3 - Track me
Target name: Hatake Kakashi
Physical characteristics: Good-looking as hell. (This message is, grudgingly, approved by A.)
Last known location: Right in front of you, duh. (Wouldn't you wanna know the current one, huh? - A)
Mission briefing: Oh, no. I've been kidnapped! Find me. (Good luck with that. - A) *Here there was an ugly drawing of Kakashi in cuffs.*
Time limit: I'd do it in less than 5 minutes, so an hour should be more than enough, right? (Hell no, Kakashi. I have better things to do, you know? Give them 15 minutes. - A) I think that's not enough, you know. (30 minutes, then. I'm not waiting more than that. - A) Yoshi! You have 30 minutes, pups. (What about-) *the rest was scratched*
P.s: Once you arrive at the location, the ninken will give you the order for the last ~finally!~ task. (There's more? - A) Yes? (Sucks for you, kids! HAHA - A) I need you to help on the task as well. (WHAT? That was not the deal, Kakashi! - A) Come on, you're already here and *more scratches* (Remember me to never ever owe you anything anymore. -A).
That was it.
Sakura couldn't hold back her amused snort. Then Naruto started laughing and she joined against her better judgement. They laughed so hard, there were tears on their eyes and they were left panting. She even caught Sasuke giving an amused smile (it had been fast, but she saw it alright).
Because of their fit of laughter, Naruto's scroll had rolled down to the ground and the ninken had all rushed to read it. Even they were having a hard time keeping it together, Urushi and Bisuki were trying to hold back a laughter (could dogs laugh? she wondered) while Pakkun rolled his eyes.
"Alright," Pakkun broke the moment "you have 30 minutes starting now. Bisuki, you'll accompany Sasuke. Urushi is with Naruto and I'll go with Sakura. Dismissed." As soon as he finished, Sasuke disappeared and Sakura was left looking at Naruto, who was calmly taking his water bottle out of his pouch to drink.
She didn't stick around for longer, she had to get moving if she wanted a chance to pass on the test. However, she didn't know where to go or how to start, so she was forced to stop soon enough. She couldn't feel Pakkun's presence, but she knew he was there, watching her and that made her nervous.
She took out the scroll and read it again, frowning when nothing new appeared on it and then put it back in the pouch. She decided to go to his house, to see if there was something she could use to help her.
-cCc-
Fifteen minutes had already passed and the girl had yet to do anything track-related. Maybe that had been too harsh, Pakkun scolded himself. She had gone to Kakashi's house, but that was pretty much it. Clearly she didn't know a single thing about tracking, it was depressing to watch.
To be fair, she was aware of that fact and still didn't give up, even if her efforts had all been in vain. Could she be any further from Kakashi's real location?
The answer was yes, she could. But only if she walked north of her current location. Which she did.
He held a sigh. It would be a hard day, watching her splendidly flunk this test.
-cCc-
Sakura was one step away from full panic. She hadn't been able to progress one bit on this whole tracking deal. 23 minutes had already passed and she was even further from completing the task than she had been at first. Could that be possible?
It could and she wasn't really surprised at the outcome, to be honest. But she felt so frustrated that the tears were getting really hard to be restrained.
With a heavy and shaky sigh she stopped again and sat on the tree branch. She fished the mission scroll once more from her pouch and began re-reading it even if by now she had it memorized.
There must be something she was overlooking, because she had a weird feeling that something important was escaping her attention. She played Pakkun's words again.
"In the scrolls, there's information on your target. For this task, you can move around the city as you please, though you're forbidden to ask anyone for help on the mission, risking losing a point for cheating." he had said.
She scowled.
The information on the scroll was useless.
Being able to run around the town was also useless, because she had no lead to follow.
She wouldn't dare ask someone for help.
What now?
She knew that not every shinobi had ability in tracking, so how did they track their targets in missions?
She wanted to yell in frustration, but suddenly she felt people approaching her position and she concealed herself as well as she could in her current place on top of the tree branch.
"-much more, Akamaru! We'll surprise Kurenai-sensei, right, Hinata-chan? Shino?" she heard Kiba saying.
Sakura scowled. That was one hell of a tracking team. Kiba with Akamaru and their sharp senses, Shino with those bugs of his and Hinata with the byakugan. Damn. A part of her brain was thinking that she should ask them for help with training some tracking skills before the exam, if possible.
The rest of her brain, however, had just had an idea.
-cCc-
Pakkun was struggling with his impulse to offer his help to the girl. She looked absolutely miserable as she sat down and read (yet again) that freaking useless scroll. Damned Kakashi and his weird sense of teaching. What was that brat thinking?
He heard as children, and a pup, approached their location and a minute later he saw Sakura sensing them too. She hid herself (which positively surprised him with her skill) and watched the pups with poorly disguised frustration.
Then her body-language changed completely. The defeated posture became confident and she turned to look at him, a devilish smirk on her face. He had a good feeling about it.
"Ne, Pakkun-kun. You said that we can't ask for help, right?" she asked innocently.
"Right, Sakura-chan."
"But you never said that I can't talk to my friends, right?"
"Right." he nodded, already understanding where she was going with it.
"You also never said that you would interrupt me if I were to speak with someone, not to ask for help, mind you. Is that correct?"
"Yes, that is correct, Sakura-chan. I'd only interrupt you if you broke a rule."
Her devious smirk turned into a full grin.
"Pakkun-kun, I just remembered that I have something really important to tell Hinata-chan. Would you mind waiting for me here just a little bit longer before we continue the task?"
There it was. Took her long enough, but she had, finally, found a loophole she could explore.
"Of course, Sakura-chan." he said with a nod, barely restraining his own amusement.
He watched as she schooled her face and pinched (rather hard) her cheeks before stepping out of the branch and landing on the ground without so much of a sound. Then she broke a run towards the group of children.
"Hinata-chan!" the pink haired girl yelled, panting hard. She was a good actress it seemed.
A few meters ahead of her the three children stopped, turned to look at Sakura and Pakkun immediately understood her plan.
"S-S-Sakura-chan." the Hyuuga girl stuttered.
"Please tell me you've seen my team today!" Sakura all but demanded breathlessly.
"So-sorry, S-Sakura-chan. I haven't." the Hyuuga fidgeted in place and Sakura gave a defeated groan.
"Goddammit. Just when I need them, they vanish! I swear to you, every time is this whole ordeal." Sakura huffed and grimaced while turning slightly away from them, talking to herself in feigned stress "What now, Sakura? I can't waste more time searching for them, but I can't come back to the Hokage empty handed. I can ask Ino to help me, but she's stuck in training for another hour or so and I don't have half this time." from then on, she was mumbling gibberish, seemingly already forgotten about the other kids.
After a few seconds she began to walk away, still mumbling gibberish to herself and briefly raised her hand to wave to the kids. "Thanks anyways, Hina-chan!"
That was when the magic happened.
"W-Wait S-Sakura-chan!" the Hyuuga girl staggered forward, grabbing Sakura's arm and stopping her "I-I can help you."
Sakura's eyes went wildly wide and she slightly shook her head.
"No, no. I can't ask you to do that, Hinata-chan!"
Pakkun held a laugh. Damn, she was good.
"It's no big deal." the Hyuuga blushed.
"Yeah, show her how awesome your byakugan is, Hinata-chan!" Kiba cheered and his teammate blushed deeper while nodding.
"Byakugan!" she said and the veins around her eyes puffed up. After a minute she announced "They are all south from here. Sasuke-san is closer to us, but moving fast. N-Naruto-kun is already at Kakashi's location. H-He's near the hotspring, in an apartment to the right. T-Third floor."
To say that Sakura was amazed was a gross understatement. She was absolutely flabbergasted. She had known that the byakugan was an incredible kekkei genkai, but this was the first time she had witnessed it in action.
"Oh, Kami!" she promptly hugged Hinata "You're a lifesaver Hina-chan! I promise to thank you properly as soon as possible!" she yelled, already turning to sprint south and leaving the girl gaping at her, confused.
In a minute Pakkun reached her and she eyed him with a smile.
"I didn't break any rules, did I?"
"No, Sakura-chan. You didn't." he was happy to see that she had found a way out of her situation, though he wasn't sure they'd reach the location in time. They had only two minutes and a half left to get all the way across Konoha.
"The byakugan is wicked, isn't it, Pakkun-kun?" he heard Sakura asking after a moment of silence.
"Indeed." he simply agreed, for the Hyuuga kekkei genkai really was something to behold.
Then she checked her clock and yelped, halting to a stop, which confused Pakkun for a second before he saw her taking the infamous weights off of her ankles and shoving them into a storage scroll.
Then she all but flew through the forest and Pakkun managed to follow suit for a brief moment before she lost him completely. He'd grimace if he hadn't been so surprised. Truth be told, he could catch up to her if he really tried, but it would only serve to make him sweat like crazy, so he puffed out and re-puffed at Kakashi's location, which promptly confused his master and the other two people in there, but Pakkun only mumbled "She's fast." before getting out of the apartment to check if she'd reach the location in time.
She didn't.
A/N: I know this is, probably, not where you'd hope that I had finished this chapter, but hey, it felt like the right place to stop. Next chapter will most likely be bigger, because I'm feeling inspired! :)
Blu3b3rryT3a → Uhh some great ideas! Hopefully you'll enjoy what I have in mind for that.
RoseAnne21 → ¡Gracias! Acá Sakura no será como el canon, no me gusta la manera que Kishimoto la escribió.
NaluGrey → Thanks! I'm working hard on fighting scenes, they're not as easy as I expected! haha As for Kakashi, yes. I'm actually beginning to like him in this story, hopefully he'll have a chance to properly apologize to Sakura.
Kakashi dreamer → AAW! Thank you!
alcici249 → Falo sim :) Mais ItaSaku em breve! E sobre o Kakashi, também espero que ele seja o sensei que ela merece. Veremos onde a história nos leva!
MistressPeach → They are three cute beans, are they not? haha
ItaSaku99 → OOPS, I did it again. haha Sorry (though not really sorry). Zabuza's mission hasn't happened (yet?), so Sasuke's yet to awaken his sharingan. The chunin exam is coming soon, I promise, but I'm having a lot of fun writing this part of the story, so I might extend it a bit.
Emzy2k11 → I'm glad you're enjoying it! I just finished the chapter before I saw your questions haha so yes, her reserve is growing! (Don't sweat, I love big reviews!)
Renee Releford → OMG you just gave me the best compliment possible. I've been working VERY HARD on my writing and I'm so so so glad that you feel like it's improving! When I finish this story, I wanna go back and rewrite the first chapters, because I feel like the writing is, albeit done with good intentions, quite cringy hahah
LoganLiet → sorryyyy, but I think they're quite cute together (when done right, that is)