DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.

Edited: 28/2/21

The Leaves of the Tree

6.

Life goes on.

They kept the scroll stolen by Hanabi, but only Shikamaru was interested in studying it further. Before they went home that night, evryone took an oath to never, ever, reveal what they have discovered unless Naruto said they could. Hinata promised to make sure her sister kept the secret, too. The group no longer spent their weekends in the library, though Sakura continued to visit during the week – she had genjutsu to research, after all. Sometimes, Naruto joined her, but he was doing his own thing now, reading up on fuuinjutsu.

Sakura had never, ever, seen Naruto so absorbed by honest studying before. He dedicatedly read every beginner's scroll and actually took notes in his sloppy writing. He grilled Tenten on anything he didn't understand and when she didn't have an answer he conducted research with the same tenacity as Ino on a shopping spree. The first time Naruto attempted a sealing jutsu, he did it under Tenten's tense supervision, with Lee cheering wildly on the sidelines and Sakura observing curiously. He failed so spectacularly; he couldn't even draw on his chakra. He failed on the tenth, twenties and fortieth attempts, too.

Tenten was stumped. According to Shikamaru, that Hyuuga scroll made it quite clear the Uzumaki were unparalleled, unbeatable, completely impossible to challenge, when it came to fuuinjutsu. They were the true masters of the craft, to the point it could almost be considered their kekkei genkai, their blood limit. And yet, Naruto, who was guaranteed to be at the very least 50% pure Uzumaki, who's mother was a sealing genius that restrained the Nine Tails even at death's door, couldn't put a kunai in a scroll.

If it were Sakura, she'd get pissed and abandon he entire thing.

Naruto though – Naruto grit his teeth, tackled Kakashi-sensei the next morning and from his spot on the jonin's stomach demanded at the top of his lungs to be taught, or else. For some reason, as Naruto flew off the metaphorical handle, roared and flailed, something about Kakashi-sensei seemed to change. Sakura couldn't see his face because of that damn mask, but his eyes seemed to glaze over, as if he were seeing something else entirely, before they focused again and then softened. He let Naruto run rampant for a while longer, before he took out a tattered little handbook, handed it to the surprised blonde and told him very seriously to prepare.

Sasuke watched the exchange with furrowed eyebrows, and when Sakura patted Naruto on the back and told him he'll definitely succeed, Sasuke seemed to sneer at them both.

Then Naruto did what Naruto does best.

He opened his big mouth and fucked up.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, you'll ace it, too! You'll definitely get the hang on genjutsu, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura would've killed him.

Sasuke looked at her as if she were insane. And also a little bit as if she was the scum of the earth. Afterall, katon jutsu aside, genjutsu was an Uchiha talent without doubt. His scorn made her feel small. Made her feel useless, again.

Surprisingly, though, Kakashi-sensei hummed thoughtfully, eyed her up with very open suspicion and then asked her a question.

"Sakura-chan, you're on a mission. One teammate's kidnapped, and you can either save them or complete the mission. What do you do?"

"I save them," Sakura said immediately, thinking that if Sasuke was to be kidnapped, she'll give her life for his.

If Naruto was taken away, she'll rip those who dared do it limb from limb, and drag him back.

'Damn straight!' Inner huffed.

"What if they're guarded? If you're outclassed completely?" Kakashi-sensei prodded.

"Cast a genjutsu," Sakura said after a long moment of thought. "Cause a distraction. If I'm alone, I can't fight them, but I can distract them. Distract them long enough till my teammate's conscious and we can escape."

"What if your teammate's already dead?"

Sakura blinked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes when she didn't immediately answer, and Naruto raised a foot, probably to kick him in the ass.

'That's even easier, honestly,' Inner muttered.

It was.

"Cast a genjutsu," Sakura repeated, and thought about what she'd do if Ino was taken from her. If Tenten was taken from her. If Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke or Naruto were ever taken from her. She thought about Momochi Zabuza, raining hell after Haku's death on that bride in Wave Country. She thought about Naruto, cloaked in red chakra, wrecking havoc after Sasuke was pierced by hundreds of ice needles. She tried to put herself in their place. She only had one answer to what she'd do if she was in their shoes. "Break them."

Sasuke and Naruto gaped.

Kakashi-sensei's eyes crinkled in a smile devoid of any happiness.

He started teaching her, too.

As stated before, life goes on.

Team 7 was allowed to go on C-Rank missions now.

The first mission was difficult, the second a little less so. By the twentieth one, they'd picked up a rhythm. The first time Sakura successfully hid them under genjutsu, and Naruto sealed up their precious cargo so it would be impossible to locate by outsiders, Sasuke gave them the closest thing to a smile they'd ever seen. Kakashi-sensei even bought the whole team dinner after that mission.

Their teamwork was really, truly, going great.

Sakura finally understood what Ino was talking about, when she went on and on about how amazing it was, being a part of Ino-Shika-Cho. How great it was to feel needed, important.

Kakashi-sensei let Sakura strategize with him, because neither Naruto nor Sasuke had the focus to do it properly. Naruto trusted Sakura with his back. Sasuke listened when Sakura hesitantly gave advice about his techniques.

Kakashi-sensei made a habit of stopping by Sakura's favourite anmitsu stand when they did particularly well on a mission.

Naruto finally gave in and joined Sakura and her parents for dinner more often. Her mother thought Naruto was a whole hoot, and when her mother liked somebody, Sakura's father shut his mouth and liked them, too. Her parents welcomed Sakura's friend with open arms and all but adopted him into the family. Mebuki spoiled Naruto whenever she could, to the point she'd began collecting absurd amounts of ramen in any flavor she could get her hands on. Naruto even had his own room, decked out in his favourite bright orange that hurt the eyes. It was as if Sakura suddenly gained a half grown brother and she absolutely loved it. Naruto loved it, too, even if he was too shy to take advantage of the unspoken offer.

Sasuke started walking part of the way with Naruto and Sakura in the morning and after training. He even deigned to join them for ramen, or BBQ, and actually said more than two words. Granted, he spoke dryly and to the point – but he spoke. He spoke with Sakura, not at her. If her heart could give way, it would.

A year ago, it probably would have, too.

But now Sakura just smiled brightly, transferred her tomatoes to Sasuke and secretly piled extra meat on Naruto's portions without a word. She quietly slipped Kakashi-sensei premium paper glue, when she noticed his Icha-Icha was looking more frayed than usual, and in return he took to patting her on the head as a form of greeting.

'We are so his favourite,' Inner Sakura mused, as they watched Kakashi-sensei lay into Naruto and Sasuke for getting into a fight, again. Sakura had instigated this one, actually, but Kakashi-sensei had seamlessly twisted it around and laid the blame solely by the boys' feet. Judging by Sasuke's incredulous expression, he'd noticed the blatant favoritism and couldn't quite believe it was happening. Naruto didn't even care, he just wanted to punch Sasuke some more.

'You know what,' Sakura thought, 'you might be right.'

If so, she totally deserved it, and she was never giving the position up.

Despite their strengthening bonds as a team, neither Sakura nor Naruto, by mutual agreement, breached the subject of Uzushiogakure or the Uzumaki Clan with Kakashi-sensei. He'd avoided them too thoroughly before, to the point Sakura suspected the subject might be a little bit too personal.

She brought it up only once to Naruto.

"Y'know, since Kakashi-sensei's been the Yondaime's apprentice since he was six, and the Yondaime went to school with your mom…" she tilted her head, "do you think Kakashi-sensei knew your mom, Naruto?"

Naruto chewed on his cup noodles thoughtfully and then nodded.

"Yeah, he probably did."

"Then why didn't he tell us?" Sakura huffed.

"Probably can't," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Don't you care?"

"I do," Naruto scratched his head with the clean ends of his chopsticks. "But y'know, Sakura-chan. I think that if it were you who died, or Ino, or Hinata, I wouldn't wanna talk about it either 'ttebayo. Kaka-sensei was ANBU, right? Shikamaru said so."

"Yeah," Sakura's curiosity abruptly changed into a solemn heaviness. "You think he was part of the guard? For your birth? since the Yondaime was there it does makes sense."

"Shikamaru thinks so," Naruto supplied.

"Then he 99% guaranteed was," Sakura deadpanned.

"Yep," Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, Sakura-chan. I think we should leave him alone. Maybe he's feeling guilty, dattebayo."

Truthfully, she also thought Kakashi-sensei might be feeling guilty.

So they left him alone and never asked. Kakashi-sensei didn't ask them about their extracurricular interests either. He just steadily taught Naruto what little he knew about fuuinjutsu, and he helped Sakura get a handle on most basic genjutsu, finally dividing his attention equally between all three of his students.

For Sakura, genjutsu were as easy as breathing now that someone was teaching her. She didn't always have the chakra for it, but she always had the control. Always understood. Now she could layer up to four basic illusions together so seamlessly, sometime even Kakashi-sensei couldn't tell they were there. She kept her achievements between her and team 7 though. She didn't brag to either Ino or Tenten, didn't ask Hinata to help her practice or grilled Shikamaru on different strategies possible with her new skills.

Why?

Kakashi-sensei buckled up and wrote Team 7 down as participants in the upcoming Chunin Exams.

And as Sakura was tasked with researching the hell out of the exam by a serious Sasuke and an excited Naruto, she tasked her idiot boys with something else: keeping quiet. Because Sakura already knew one thing about these exams: they were first and foremost, a competition. If no one knew you were going to compete, no one knew to watch out for you. And that was an advantage.

So team 7 collectively acted like Kakashi-sensei did them dirty and wouldn't let them register for the exam out of sheer assholery.

Ino constantly mocked Sakura, with the same enthusiasm Kiba used to laugh at Naruto and Sasuke for not being signed up. Tenten and Lee graciously told them not to worry, and that they could definitely do it the following year. Hinata blinked and, with flushed cheeks, stutteringly wished them both good luck, and that's when Sakura realised that girl was definitely more talented than anybody ever thought.

After all, Kakashi-sensei was in on the lie, too, and Hinata still didn't fall for it.

Either way, now team 7 was on their very own mission.

Pay attention, gather information and prepare.

The Chunin Exams were coming.

They were definitely going to get promoted!