ABOUT THE STORY:

-More Than Enemies will be crackish until chapter seven or so but starting then the plot takes off, becoming quite intricate. If you're looking for something darker, then feel free to skip forward a bit. However, the light parts are there to justify the growing bonds and friendships between characters, whilst the darker parts put those bonds forged to the test.

-This story is marked as itasaku but the most important component of it is Sakura's character development, romance is not the focus, in fact I'm over 250k words in and they're still at the friendship stage. I suppose you could consider it a very slow burn. After all, this whole fic was born from the idea orf Itachi training a clueless Sakura to then later re-encounter her as an enemy in the field, and the whole drama that would ensue once people found out Big Bad Itachi had 'manipulated' the pure cherriblossom Haruno. TL;DR: The main focus of the story are different relationships between the characters, not romance, including but not limited to: Kakashi becoming a better teacher, Sakura rekindling her friendship with Ino, getting closer to her teammates, getting over Sasuke, Sasuke taking the stick out of his ass, Hinata growing some balls, Itachi's development, etc.

-I shouldn't even need to say this but there will be no underage itachi/Sakura nor grooming or any creepy stuff.

-All and any comments are appreciated, concrit is welcomed. They all boost my morale a lot. The only thing I don't like having pointed out are typos, but actual errors that come from lack of knowledge are welcomed. Your analysis on the plot and what parts you liked/disliked always makes my day, no matter the language or skill level you comment with, so knock yourselves out.


More Than Enemies


Sasuke's apartment was high up, enough so that if the situation hadn't been what it was, Sakura might've gotten dizzy. Her feet clung to its outer walls as she sprinted up, up, up, toward the rooftop, far away from that horrible room, from Sasuke's blood on the floor, from the man chasing her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement behind her. She ran harder.

She made it to the top of the building in record time but it was't enough, the prickling at the back of her neck told her he was right behind her. He was onto her. But there was no time to think, it was fight or flight and she wasn't dumb enough to attempt the former. Sakura took off across the rooftop, the sound of footsteps on tiles following in her wake. He was right behind her... was he toying with her? Get away! something primal in her screamed, but she'd made it to the end of the roof. Get away! her instincts had gone haywire; she jumped.

It was lucky that she landed with only scraped knees on the next roof. The chase continued, she continued running. She jumped off another building again. In the air it was as if time slowed, her instincts screamed at her again, louder than ever and she went into a roll. Half a second later, something sizzled past her.

A weapon – very sharp, if the pain in her forearm was anything to go by. It had been covering the back of her head. If she hadn't thought to cover her nape with it, now she'd be dead.

The thought barely registered, thre was only the roar of the blood in her veins, the footsteps behind her, the wardrums of her heart that pounded still, running overtime to keep her alive. Time seemed to go faster again and in the next second her jump was finished, she was no longer airborne, she was crash-landing on yet another rooftop. Her sandals squelched noisily over it, ripping tiles off as she skidded downward, till the very edge. A tile sprung up, slashing over the tendon of her ankle. The pain barely registered, but the sudden blow did cause her to lose her balance, and then she was free-falling into the street.

It was by the skin of her teeth that she managed to latch onto a light calble with her feet before she could crash into the ground, but her momentum was too great and she could barely cling to the cable with her feet, static buzzing, chakra working frantically to cling to it, sparks flying even as she zoomed down the cord in increasingly tighter spirals. Finally, the momentum was too great and she lost control, feet flying free, body airborne as she careened across the street.
It would've been a bad fall, but Tetsuya had taught her how to handle those. She managed to land on her feet. Panting. Terrified. Planning her next action... but alive. However, before she could do anything, he was there. He'd caught up.

As she crouched there, on that cold pavement, staring up at the pale, androginous-looking man, Sakura said her goodbyes.

Her knees were threatening to give out on her, her throat clogged. His killing intent enveloped her like a blanket that slowly asphyxiates. She was panting like a pig at the slaughterhouse, nails digging painfully into her skin to the sound of his blade against the scabbard. He took his time, but finally he had unsheathed it. Her fingers shook. These were her last moments. Sakura's yaw clenched and she scrunched her eyes shut.
Yes, these might be her last moments – but if she was to die, she'd do so on her own terms. If the man was going to kill her, she'd damn well stare him down whilst he did it. She might be a weakling, but she wouldn't die a coward.

With a new resolve burning in her eyes, Haruno Sakura lifted her head and faced death.


One month ago...

Sakura was staring at the back of Naruto's head as she hought furiously. She could see that her teammate was quaking in his seat. If he raised his hand now, they would all fail but if he didn't and they still didn't pass, he might never become hokage. Even though she knew that she most likely would be able to answer the tenth question, she felt her heart reaching out to him. He was so determined, so very set on becoming hokage, on reaching his silly dream… it broke Sakura's heart to think that he might never be able to keep dreaming if he failed this exam. She didn't want to see the light in his eyes fade.

Sakura wondered. Should she raise her hand…?

To be honest, quitting now left a bad taste in her mouth, especially as she had done amazingly well... but no. If there was anything Kakashi-sensei had taught her, then it was this: "those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum". She had taken his words to heart.

The idea of giving up, especially after acing the test left a bitter taste in her mouth, but what if that was what the test was about? To know when a strategic retreat was better? After all, team seven could still try again next year, when they were more experienced and better prepared to tackle the chunin exams. Sakura recalled her old academy instructor, Iruka-sensei, preaching to her class about patience being a virtue that would help them greatly in their ninja careers. Keeping his advice in mind, Sakura thought, and thought, and thought… and made up her mind.

(Little did she know that this decision would change the course of her entire life.)

She raised her hand.


As soon as team seven was outside of the testing room, Sakura knew she'd made a mistake. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto would speak to her or even look at her. Sasuke let the examination room's door shut in her face and almost broke her nose. Naruto's arms were crossed and his teeth clenched. The aura surrounding the both of them was downright scary. She tried to explain her thought process, that they could try again when they were better prepared, that this was a strategic retreat, that it was the right thing to do when they (here she didn't say 'Naruto') clearly wouldn't be able to solve the tenth question.

It was to no avail. Naruto's arms remained crossed, Sasuke's usually relaxed pace much faster, so that she wouldn't be able to keep up, his neck and shoulders tenser than a cat's cradle string. "Sasuke-kun, please!" Sakura insisted. "We're a team! We have to do this together!" She hoped he'd get the hint, that they couldn't leave Naruto behind.

"I have to become strong," he answered.

"But you already are!" cried Sakura.

"Stronger," Sasuke, his gaze slanting to her with the equivalent of a snarl in his eyes. "You're worse than the dead-weight. Wasting my time." He was giving Sakura a narrow-eyed stare, borderline a sneer, his breaths ragged, and before she could make her excuses, he'd continued walking away from her at an even faster pace.

Naruto's enthusiastic defences of her shone in their absence. He was silent, also refusing to look at her.

…that ungrateful twat!

Sakura could feel her tears building. She couldn't stomach the thought that both her teammates hated her. She had done this for Naruto, couldn't he see? Risked Sasuke-kun's opinion of her for him? She had to make him see.

"Naruto!" she snapped. "You're not allowed to be mad at me! You were just about to raise your hand too!"

Here Naruto finally looked at her. "No I wasn't!" he yelled. "I'm gonna be hokage and hokages don't quit!"

"You're a baka!" Sakura retorted angrily, eyes stinging. "Don't you see you would've failed the tenth question? If you had, you wouldn't have been able to become hokage anymore!"

He squinted at her moodily. "A stupid test like that wouldn't have stopped me!"

"Yes it would!" Her throat felt raw. "See if I care, the next time!"

Naruto looked at her for a moment. "Sakura-chan…" He gave her a searching look, but said nothing. They stood there for a moment. Then, Naruto turned around and ran to catch up to Sasuke.

Well, at least he still called her Sakura-chan. Sakura's shoulders sagged. She took a quick moment to breathe and try to control herself. Just now, she'd almost started crying like a baby in front of Naruto. She couldn't let them see her cry. She couldn't. She had to keep it together for just a little longer...


Kakashi found them as they were exiting the building. He didn't try breaking the ominous silence. It was truly a testament to his laid-back personality that he could manage to read his Icha Icha book in such a tense situation. For once, both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have set aside their differences to build a joint front against Sakura.

Seemingly unaffected in the least, Kakashi, meandered ahead of them, leading the three genin back to the red bridge where they usually met in the mornings. "So." He propped his hip against the bridge. "What gives?"

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence.

"We didn't pass." Sakura forced herself to break it.

Sasuke scoffed hatefully and Naruto crossed his arms again.

"Ma, ma. You guys are way too uptight about this. I wasn't expecting you to pass either."

"Liar!" Naruto shouted.

"We could've passed no problem!" Sasuke grit out, staring hatefully at Sakura again.

To be honest, Sakura wasn't sure he'd looked at her so many times in a row in the entirety of their acquaintance. What did that say about her chances of dating him, she wondered sadly.

"I did expect you to pass the first stage," Kakashi amended, scratching his head. Sakura noticed with a snap that he'd pocketed his book. "But I didn't know that your proctor was Morino Ibiki." His lone eye narrowed.

"Even so, we were about to pass," Sasuke bit back, "but she ruined it!"

"Yeah! We still hadn't heard the tenth question!" Naruto chimed in, but Sakura was still stuck on Sasuke's vitriolic words, on his hateful expression as he said them.

(But she ruined it, ruined it, ruined it.)

Did he… did he hate her now?

Sakura could feel moisture start prickling at her eyes. Discretely, she leaned over the bridge, facing in the opposite direction of Kakashi-sensei. Her tears fell unseen into the pretty blue water.

Suddenly, a hand fell upon her head, which she knew instinctively must be Kakashi's.

"Ma… relax, you two. You'll do a better job next time, ne?"

"Yeah, no!" Naruto shouted. "I wanna be hokage! I don't have time to wait around for a year!"

"Neither do I, Kakashi," Sasuke followed up with narrowed eyes.

"Strength doesn't equal rank," Kakashi drawled simply. "Even if you had made chunin (which probably wouldn't be the case), as genin you will have more time to train. So! Let's get to that tomorrow. We meet here as usual. Dismissed."

When no one moved, Kakashi retrieved Icha Icha Paradise from his pouch and stuck his nose in it. This, as far as anyone was concerned, was the universal sign for "bugger off, brats". Still no one had moved (from what Sakura could tell), so Kakashi lazily waved a hand in dismissal and said: "Shoo."

And that seemed to do the trick.

"Shoo! He says! I'll say, when I'm hokage, no one will tell me that!" Sakura could hear Naruto's enraged muttering decrease in volume, along with another pair of footsteps which must be Sasuke's.

That was good. She didn't want them to see her tears. But neither did she want Kakashi to see them, and he had yet to leave. Instead of puffing away as usual, her sensei had remained right there next to her, leaning casually against the bridge as he thumbed through the worn pages of his trusty novel.

It must be said that, during the course of the entire conversation, Sakura had been fighting to suppress her sobs. It had been a very long time since she'd been so overwhelmed by emotion, and, while she was successful at keeping quiet, her whole body was, though silently, shaking just the tiniest bit. But Kakashi-sensei wouldn't be a jonin worth his salt if he didn't notice such things, so of course, he pretended not to. And was very obvious about it.

"Uh, Sakura-chan?" He sounded painfully awkward.

Unfortunately, Sakura didn't think she could talk normally right then. Wisely, she chose not to reply, knowing all the while that she must be making Kakashi really uncomfortable, but unable to do anything about it. She couldn't stop crying.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi tried again. "Come on. I know this nice little tea shop down the road. Let's go there, ne? Your awesome sensei has free coupons!"

Sakura nodded shakily and followed a few steps behind him, swiping at her eyes.

They walked in silence for a while, but Sakura was starting to calm down. Kakashi-sensei had put a hand on her shoulder and was holding his usual book in the other. Sakura knew that he must be judging her, but at least he wasn't being mean about it.

They made it to the tea shop.

"My eternal rival!" someone shouted. Sakura ignored the rude person until Kakashi actually replied.

"Yo!" Sakura looked up with surprise. Kakashi-sensei had lifted the hand from her shoulder, presumably to greet three ninja that were sitting on a table at the back.

The one who had shouted was by far the weirdest, with broad features, a bowl cut, eyebrows that resembled turnip leaves and a nose like a potato. The whole ensamble was completed by a bright green spandex outfit. Sakura looked away quickly; she didn't fancy losing her eyesight. Next to him sat a man who was smoking (Ino pig's sensei, her mind supplied) and a gorgeous woman with red eyes. Another man whom Sakura hadn't noticed before was leaning against the wall behind them. He had very creepy round eyes… It was strange. She could've sworn that no one had been there before.

No wonder Kakashi had so many quirks, with weirdos like these as colleagues.

The man in the green spandex rushed forward. "My eternal rival! Had I known you'd come here, I'd have prepared a challenge for us to compete in!"

"Ah, no need, Gai," said Kakashi. His hand went back to Sakura's head, ruffling it. "I'm actually here with Sakura-chan…"

Sakura could practically feel the weight of all the adults' gazes on her. Were they all jonin?! Kami.

Kakashi seemed largely unfazed. "Let's get some tea." He strolled toward the counter, ordering tea for the both of them.

"Hatake," said the old lady in charge. "I swear if you're planning to pay with those odious coupons again…"

"I suppose if you ask so politely, I can't refuse."

He began ruffling through his pockets, pulling out scrolls, papers, an old key chain with no keys, a mask, a senbon that was encrusted with blood…

The counter was getting progressively more cluttered as Kakashi continued to produce things from his pockets. Sakura was starting to feel keenly embarrassed on his behalf, when finally Kakashi retrieved two crinkled pieces of paper from within a scroll that seemed to be filled with random bills and receipts. With a triumphant swoop, he placed them in the only empty spot on the counter.

"Hatake?" the woman was growling.

"Yes?"

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"I just like my tea better if it's free," Kakashi said with a smile. "It has a special kind of flavour." He turned toward her. "Let's get a table, Sakura-chan." Then, he somehow grabbed everything he'd left laying around on the counter between his arms and ambled over to a table. Sakura was left to carry the tea.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura could see that all those weird jonin from earlier were staring at them with thinly veiled interest. The guy in green was giving Kakashi a thumbs up and bobbing his head up and down.

Kakashi turned to glare at them and suddenly they were all very interested in their tea. "So," he said, giving Sakura an expectant look. "Fill me in?"

And without further fanfare, Sakura did. Her previous embarrassment about Kakashi's antics had distracted her enough to feel significantly better already, and his nonjudgmental attitude was an added bonus. To be fair, it was freaking annoying that he was sorting through the mess he'd made while she explained about the exam, but, in retrospect Sakura would've admitted that it made the whole process less tense.

Finally, she was done talking and looked at Kakashi expectantly. He looked very annoyed.

Oh, no! Not him too, thought Sakura mournfully.

But then Kakashi's annoyance seemed to evaporate momentarily and he smiled instead. "Ma, I'm so proud, Sakura-chan. You're going to make your sensei cry tears of joy."

At Sakura's stumped expression, he added:

"You put your teammates' interests before yours, Sakura-chan. Naruto's, specially, and I know you're not as fond of him as Sasuke."

Sakura blushed. That was the understatement of the year. "But sensei… if what I did was right… why did we fail the test? It's not fair!"

Kakashi's face adopted the semi serious and annoyed quality it had had earlier. "Mmm… how to put this? Ibiki Morino and I don't see eye to eye about some things. Let's just say we have different priorities... but the way you handled it, attempting to retreat and regroup, you had the right idea. Ibiki's tenth question challenge was encouraging blind courage in genin, which is the fastest way for you to die in real life."

Sakura frowned. "But sensei…" she took a sip of her warm tea for courage. "Even if he has a different nindo, I should have seen underneath the underneath…" She sighed. "Some ninja I am."

Kakashi shook his head slightly, then propped his feet on the table and reopened his book. But he wasn't done talking, apparently: "Sakura-chan. If I were you, I would consider your failure to pass like a job well done. Morino Ibiki is the head of the torture division here… seeing underneath the underneath is a bit hard with him, wouldn't you agree? But even then, he shouldn't have used psychological warfare on you kids like that. Besides, logically, his test has no place in the chunin exams. Being chunin is about being able to work as a team. What he did was purposefully misleading and was encouraging you to put yourself above your teammates. You did good, Sakura-chan."

"Really?"

"Aaa. The purpose of the first nine questions was to gather information and pass it on to your teammates if they couldn't, which neither of you did. The only one who came close to being concerned about the team was you, Sakura-chan." Kakashi took a sip of his tea, though, unfortunately, his face was still covered by his book. "Really. If both your teammates performed this badly, that just means they weren't ready yet." He grinned. "Besides, I can't imagine Naruto cheating subtly to save his life."

Wait. Information gathering? Cheating?! Sakura's eyes opened like saucers as Kakashi's words caught up with her.

"Ch-cheating, sensei?!"

He blinked at Sakura lazily from behind his book. "How else would you complete the test? Didn't you mention the questions required advanced calculus?"

Sakura pouted. "So we were supposed to cheat?" Once again, she'd failed to think like a ninja. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

"Ma… at least that's what I would've done. The sharingan's handy like that."

"You're just lazy, sensei. I bet you could've solved every single question if you tried."

"I wouldn't presume so unless you told me what they are, Sakura-chan."

And so, Sakura told him about the questions. A few had been about tactics, but mostly they were advanced calculus (for trajectory prediction and such) and one was about disarming a civilian bomb.

"Huh… those chunin went all out," Kakashi opined when she was done explaining. "Most jonin wouldn't know this stuff."

"What about you?"

"Doubting your awesome sensei already, Sakura-chan?" He wiped and imaginary tear from his eye.

"So you can solve them?" That was good, Sakura could check the answers then.

"Maaa. You don't ask a lady her age, nor a jonin his IQ, Sakura-chan. Both will lie anyway." He winked. Okaaaaaay? "Though I'd still inquire into the others' responses, just to be safe, ne?"

Or in other words, he would still cheat because he was lazy. But at any rate, Sakura had a request: "So can I run my answers by you? I mean, I know I already failed, but…" Actually, she just wanted to see whether Kakashi knew his shit.

Kakashi slurped his tea. "I suppose your display of teamwork should be properly appreciated."

"So…?"

"Shoot."

"Oh, well… um, okay." Naturally, Sakura had memorised everything about the test as usual, so discussing her answers with Kakashi took no effort on her part (she wrote it all out neatly on a spare napkin). They spent the next fourty or so minutes hashing it all out, and at one point Kakashi even put his book down to stare thoughtfully at the napkin.

It was nice. Sakura felt pretty darn smart right then, discussing complex problems with her sensei like that.

"Looks like you aced it," Kakashi said at last. "Neat."

Sakura couldn't help but preen and fist-pump the air. "Cha! No need to cheat for me!"

"Ah, well…" Kakashi scratched his head. "Not in this case, no. But the real test, I think, was to see how good you were at information gathering and communication, not… uh… The elementary equations of ballistics." He smiled uneasily. "How did you know this stuff again?"

Sakura blushed. Somehow, his comment made her think of Ino when she called Sakura a nerd. "Um. I just… like to rationalise stuff. And um… I like solving problems."

"So you studied this in your free time?"

Sakura nodded.

"Well… how should I put this…"

Sakura interrupted him: "Yes, I know. It's a waste of time and I should've spent the time training, not reading books." She sighed. "It's just… this is the only thing I'm good at. And not just good, but the best. It felt so nice, to, for once…"

"Sakura-chan, it's fine. I understand. You know, sometimes we have to practice to get good at something."

"I know…" Sakura sighed. Of all things that she could've naturally excelled at, test-taking really wouldn't have been her first pick. She recalled one of Amy's favourite insults to her when she was little. "I'm such a paper ninja."

"A paper ninja, huh?" Kakashi said. "That's not a bad thing. The only other person I know who could solve this sort of thing at your age used to be an ANBU captain, you know? The youngest we've had, I think."

"Huh?" That actually sounded really cool. "So he was a paper ninja too?" Sakura asked giddily.

"Um…" said Kakashi uncomfortably. "Not exactly." (Sakura's shoulders sagged.) "But. He was very good at projectile motion calculations. He applied the knowledge to his own kunai throwing skills, with amazing results." For some reason, he seemed uncomfortable while talking about the mysterious ANBU captain.

"What could he do?"

"Um, I think what surprised me the most was how he could neutralise various shuriken with a single one of his," said Kakashi. "The one he threw rebounded off the others, which he used sometimes to deflect, others to attack."

Sakura's mouth fell open. "That's possible?!"

"My thoughts exactly."

Even theoretically speaking, that would be extremely hard to calculate. Actually pulling it off…

Sakura felt her competitive side stir. Could she do it?

"I see you're all fired up," Kakashi commented.

"Um. I guess I'd like to try. At least on a theoretical level."

"Well, who am I to stop my favorite paper ninja?"

Despite herself, Sakura smiled. "Sensei! Calling someone a paper ninja is rude. You're so clueless!"

"Mou, Sakura-chan. Calling a seasoned jonin clueless is way worse. Keep it up and you'll hurt your poor Sensei's feelings."

"There's nothing poor about you," said Sakura without thinking. "Not with how stingy you are, anyways."

"Now that's a compliment!"

Sakura giggled. Huh. Sensei was funny. She hadn't thought Kakashi's general weirdness could be funny. Normally she was annoyed at him for being late. But after today, she thought he'd have to be really late for her to get mad.

"Sensei?" She took a final sip of her tea, which was now cold. "Thank you."

Kakashi sensei smiled, his one visible eye crinkling: it seemed more genuine than usual. "Ma, the tea was free, so don't worry about it."

"Wait! I wasn't thanking you about the tea!" But Kakashi-sensei had already puffed away.

Sakura facepalmed. "Scratch that. Totally clueless."


So? Who was the androginous-looking, dark-haired man from the beginning? Read to find out!