AN: A new month means a new batch of fresh chapters. And of course, we of Team Scrimshaw are proud to present the next step of Sakura's journey into the path of bloody violent science and escalation!

AtW: Sorry about being so slow to post stuff. 100% my fault. We actually have a bit of a backlog and we should start posting some stuff more regularly. Expect a new chapter of OWIM tomorrow or the day after maybe along with at least another two chapters of Sink or Swim. See you guys later.

Wyvern: As always we'd like to thank Weise for their continued patronage and hope that this story continues on into insanity!

Now then, onto the reading!

Suffering and Elegance - Chapter 5

Haruno Sakura

"So let me get this straight." Sakura had to take a deep, deep breath. "Because some idiot Yamanaka knocked himself snooping around inside my brain while I was unconscious, I, me, Haruno Sakura have to go back through remedial training. Under the supervision of a mostly naked member of Torture and Interrogation that sexually harassed my twelve year old teammate before we were sent into the death game you arranged us to go into. Not because you thought we were ready for it, but because you thought it would scare us into working together. And now, after all of that, you've fobbed Naruto off on a spandex clad lunatic, whom you claim is probably the most powerful living non-kage ninja outside of possibly one of the Sanin, are going to specifically train Sasuke in a killing technique to fight an over powered psychotic preteen, and I'm just expected to deal."

Kakashi half shrugged, managing to express a degree of laziness that said it would take too much effort to fully lift his shoulders.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

Sakura immediately started raking her scalpel down the side of the hospital bed she was strapped into.

"You know, you're probably gonna have to pay for the beds you keep destroying. I thought your parents mentioned that they explained that to you too?"

Grip tightening, flickers of chakra unintentionally enhancing her grip on the surgical tool she was holding, the kunoichi snapped the bladed implement like it was a glorified twig.

"Kakashi-sensei." Looking her teacher straight in the eye, the pink haired girl poured everything she had into her next words. "If it wasn't for the fact you were finally being honest with me I would stab your good eye out."

Scratching the back of his head, the white haired jounin chuckled.

"Well, I suppose I kind of deserve that for letting them peek into your mind while you were out of it. Still, no slacking off you know. Sauke and Naruto are going to give this training their all and you don't want to fall behind do you?"

"That idiot is taunting us, let's rip up his stupid orange smut! That'll show him - shannaro!"

Inner Sakura's thoughts largely lined up with what she was feeling, but deciding to reciprocate the honesty she had been shown took a deep breath and laid her cards down.

"Sensei, I'm not happy. For a lot of reasons. But… you were there when they scanned me?"

Reaching out, the former child soldier put his hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"The whole time."

The little squeeze he gave her let the stress slip out of her. Because, if nothing else, all of her teammates had proved that she could rely on them. Above and beyond what anyone could ever hope to make up for.

"Thanks." Suddenly a little girl once more, she nodded. "Yeah. I'll take the training. Maybe I can figure out a way to catch up to those two knuckleheads." Both of them shared a chuckle. "Oh, I almost forgot. What about the weird seal on Naruto's stomach?"

Sakura immediately noticed her teacher flinch.

It was minute. Something you could blink and miss, yet her eyes were drawn to the way his hands slightly twitched, or how he seemed to blink just a fraction of a second faster than before.

Seems like she hit the nail on the head.

"Is it bad? I had to get rid of the one on Sasuke first because it was more dangerous." And she felt guilty about that too. Because after waking up the blonde had done everything he could to help and support their team to make it through the forest. All the while carrying something that might have been dangerous, that she had chosen not to act on to prioritize their teammate.

"You don't need to worry about it. We've contacted one of Konoha's foremost sealing specialists. He will take a look at it and make sure Naruto will be okay… just as soon as he gets here."

She knew he was trying to reassure her.

Knew she shouldn't take it at face value.

Sakura might not be a sealing enthusiast, but she knew how complex they could be. The one on Sasuke had been simple but dangerous, or at least simple in the sense that it was hungry, that was how she managed to transplant it after all. She couldn't even begin to grasp what a more complex design could do to someone. That it didn't seem to affect Naruto yet wasn't very reassuring either, the shinobi world was never so generous as to not cripple someone.

Who knew what it would do if set off?

"It's not just that. I'm just… that seal was super complex, sensei. They were both weird, but the one on Sasuke barely covered half of his shoulder and it almost looked like, well, a person. Naruto's was massive. It covered his entire stomach. There's no way it was a rush job." She paused for a moment, unsure of whether or not to say what she was thinking. "And I think I maybe saw symbols that looked like demons too."

Another twitch.

Another blink.

"We don't know for sure, Sakura. We're dealing with one of the Legendary Sannin here. Orochimaru is ahead of the curve when it comes to sealing, I'm afraid."

He was lying to her.

Why was he lying to her?

"But that doesn't make any sense!"

Kakashi sighed, hiding his face from sight with that damn book. Was he onto her or something?

"I can't tell you any more than this. Naruto's secrets are his own and we should trust in the Hokage's judgement. He trained the Sannin so he knows what they are capable of. If he says the specialist will help, then we should trust that they will."

Sakura doubted it.

Apparently she'd already had 'specialist' help. And they didn't do her much good.

"And if they don't?"

Her teacher shrugged.

"Then we'll figure something out. The world's a big place. Someone is bound to know what to do."

That wasn't good enough! Clearly Sakura would have to find the closest library and start reading books on sealing! Because if she had to bet the continued wellbeing of a teammate and friend on a nebulous person who might or might not be able to help, then she would have to pull up her sleeves and do it herself.

And unfortunately, her face must have been showing it because Kakashi chuckled.

"I'm not gonna stop you from using your free time however you want. But whatever extra studies you might want to indulge in should be cleared with the tutor they've assigned you."

Sakura felt the beginnings of a smile tug at the edges of her mouth.

"Who are they, really? I mean, other than the obvious, I don't know much about them…"

That's when the window to her room exploded.

'Dejavu.' Sakura blinked, nonplussed as a very familiar banner unfurled itself before being pinned against the wall by four expertly thrown kunai, revealing a very familiar name.

Standing before it, a very familiar woman.

"Well, aren't you a lucky girl! Hope you're feeling good because it's not everyone who gets to be taught by yours truly. The most gorgeous woman in Konoha and the most effective proctor in the history of the Chunin Exams!"

Sakura bowed her head in greeting.

"Good morning, Mitarashi-san."

"Yo, Anko. You're early again." Kakashi sensei waved, completely unaffected by the woman's entry. "And aren't you reusing this gag too much?"

Unfortunately she didn't seem to appreciate the interruption.

"Dammit! Don't you guys know to let someone finish when they are speaking?! Or how much effort it takes to actually unfurl this at just the right moment. Seriously, nobody seems to appreciate the effort nowadays."

"I'm sorry?"

The woman's amber eyes narrowed in annoyance at Sakura's words.

"Damn right you are! Just what have you been teaching your brats, Kakashi?"

"Chakra control, survival tactics. You know. Stuff." He shrugged, utterly captivated by the words in his novel as he flipped to the next page nonchalantly.

Looking at the older woman, the pink haired genin couldn't help but feel a vague hint of familiarity.

She was certainly the one who tried to freak out Naruto before the second exam. Granted, there was no way you could miss the fishnet, orange skirt, beige cloak combo. The half eaten dango sticking from her mouth was new though. Her new outlook, however, pointed out several new things.

Faced scars.

Corded muscle.

A sharp gaze which seemed to dissect everything in sight. Looking for something, anything she could use to her advantage.

'Oh. She reminds me of Orochimaru.'

Carefully choosing not to comment on that particular thought, Sakura had become distinctly acquaintanced with the dangers a ninja faced in life, she chose to focus more on what her alleged tutor's rather revealed body told her. Between nearly dying half a dozen times since the start of her career, she now had an inkling of how powerful the older ninja of Konoha were.

"Or at least how stubborn. I gotta wonder if it was worth it surviving getting stabbed through both kidneys."

Blinking, more because Inner Sakura had made a rather grim comment that wasn't in anger, the actual Sakura decided to do her best to emulate her teacher and just roll with the crazy.

"Thank Anko-Sensei. I'm looking forward to studying under you."

"'Snort' You say that now girly." The T&I specialist tossed her hair. "But I'm going to make you hate me, hate that idiot pervert over there, and hate your life even more."

Choosing the bow and smile, the genin actually channeled a bit of Naruto's cheek.

"Thank you very much Anko-Sensei. I look forward to the challenges you place before me."

Her smile was almost as fake as the one her blonde troublemaker of a teammate plastered on his face some times. Almost.

That got her an eye twitch from the tokubetsu-jounin standing across from her. An eye twitch that led to a very sudden kunai toss. Jerking her scalpel free of the ruined bed beneath her, the young kunoichi tried to deflect the toss on pure instinct - barely missing the projectile despite her best efforts.

"Huh. Not bad rookie." Anko gave an appreciative nod. "Most genin have trouble even seeing my attacks, you almost blocked it." There was still an immense amount of smugness in her tone. "Of course, that wasn't me really trying. But you've got potential."

Sakura carefully extricated herself from the ruined leather strap that had previously been used to hold her down when she started using her "reacquired" medical supplies to stab things out of frustration. Plucking the kunai free from the now totally destroyed bed, she tossed it back at her tutor.

"I aim to please Sensei."

There was a giggle.

Unfortunately it didn't come from Sakura or the older Kunoichi.

"Oh Misaki… how daring of you…."

Because of course the masked jonin didn't seem to care about the attempt to maim his student by his co-worker, or the very tense standoff that they had been taking part of for the past few minutes.

He never did.

Instead, her sensei, a well accomplished and feared ninja known as one of the best, had finally gotten to the good part of the raunchy novel she knew he must have read at least a few dozen times since he had started training her.

"Is he…."

"Yes, he is." she answered the older woman.

"Eww."

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Like you can talk." Which earned her a dangerous look.

"Oh?"

"I'm sorry, aren't you the one who goes around licking blood from a genin fresh off of the academy?"

"Possessive of the blondie?"

"I'd rather not have to warn him away from large cats. He's got enough on his plate as it is." Between mysterious seals, training for his future as a ninja and dealing with whatever happened after the chunin exams, Team 7 as a whole had a lot on their plates.

Unpredictably, the purple haired kunoichi laughed.

"I like your style, pinky!"

"Sakura, please."

"Nah, first you convince me you ain't dying. Then we talk about names."

'Oh dear.'

If Sakura never saw the Forest of Death for the rest of her life, it would have been too soon.

Between the death traps, massive beasts, and poisonous plants, she'd been hard pressed to not relapse into a puddle of traumatized mush the second her temporary mentor had dragged her back to the thrice damned plot of land where Sakura's life had nearly been taken… multiple times. By multiple people!

And you know what the kicker was?

She was here to do laps.

"Why are we here to do laps?!"

"I told ya, pinky! Your body is in need of some fine tuning and in my honest opinion there is no better place than the playground of yours truly to get it done!" The special jounin answered her question with a winning smile, something that wouldn't be out of place on Naruto's face most of the time.

Only Sakura made the executive decision to hate it.

"Kakashi-sensei agreed to this?!" Ducking under an expertly aimed kunai, Sakura rolled after losing her footing on the tree branch.

Because obviously what cardio needed was a bit of excitement to really get the heart pounding! And what else but probable death was nearly as effective?

"Well, Kakashi told me I needed to get you up to speed on the whole physical side of being a ninja. You have a pretty solid foundation on the theory, you just suck on everything else, right?"

Oh, the nerve on this woman!

"I'm perfectly capable, thank you very much!"

Apparently mouthing off wasn't the right thing to do, as she then had to dodge a swathe of snakes.

"The way I see it, pinky, you're about to hit a wall. You're well and good enough as a rank and file genin, but you lack the extra punch to climb any higher than that. I was watching the exams and I can tell all you have are the foundations and whatever else you got crammed in that head of yours."

Sakura wanted to disagree.

She wanted to say something.

...She wanted to jab her scalpel into the other woman's trachea and let her choke to death on her own blood. But not so much that she was worried for her mental health. Well, not any more than usual at least.

But Anko was right in that Sakura lacked any kind of specialized skill before the exams and even now all she had gotten from the experience was some kind of instinct for putting together the puzzle pieces everyone forgot were there. Though, if she were being honest with herself, it seemed less like it was the knowledge dump Anko had implied and more like the ability to just have ideas click. And it was still nothing she was experienced enough to make use of to win a fight.

"So what do I do?"

Skidding to a halt, the genin turned and faced her tutor. Something that got another trio of snakes launched at her, two missing and once being slashed apart, as Anko shrugged.

"I dunno. At this point, without a knife in those hands of yours you'd hit like a wet noodle. Your stamina isn't bad for a second generation, but you are lacking a lot when it comes to chakra. So that's what we are fixing first."

Placing her in a sealed property away from the village was just a coincidence, she was sure.

"And after that?"

"After we get some muscle on that scrawny ass of yours, we'll talk about some options. Though I doubt you'll get that far in just a month. Though I suppose we should try and do something about whatever Orochimaru stashed away in that nogging of yours."

Again with this!

"I said he didn't do anything to me. My teammates were the ones attacked."

Her mentor, sitting high above on one of the branches, swung her legs idly.

"Afraid we can't take your word for it, pinky. If the Yamanaka couldn't confirm it, that makes you either a scroll bomb, a flight risk, or a mole."

"Shouldn't you be trying to keep me in the dark if that was the case?"

"Do you really think you could get away if you tried to run?" The tokubetsu jounin laughed. "Nah, you're clever, you'd have figured out that's what we wanted to do. The last time Orochimaru did this, the affected brat didn't have any memories either. Had to piece it together for a whole decade. So afraid we can't take you at face value until we learn about whatever you have going on up top."

Sakura could at least agree to the last part.

She very much wanted to know what was going on inside her head.

Despite being a good student with an excellent memory, she knew it wasn't exactly normal for someone to so quickly comprehend so much about human anatomy, never mind put it into practice in the instinctive way she had back in the forest. She'd been on autopilot, sharing her body with something that knew what it was doing.

It wasn't a good sign. Though it opened the path to becoming a medic at some point.

But the thought was as unappealing as it was tempting.

Healing someone was well and good, but it wouldn't be anything other than healing.

Very few medic nin experienced combat, and Sakura knew that by taking on that role she might never be able to shake it off. There would forever be a wall between herself and her teammates as they were the ones allowed to fight on the frontlines and she would be kept from helping them.

Her stomach sunk at the thought.

Then sunk deeper as a kunai stabbed through a branch above her… and immediately sizzled.

Sakura fell off her perch, breath ragged as she rolled with the fall, barely avoiding the burning falling debris as chunks of wood rained down around her. Her head pounded, ears ringing as the remnants of the blast echoed through her brain.

'That woman is insane.'

Insanely sadistic. Insanely cheerful.

Gods, just what was Kakashi-sensei thinking?!

"Well, you didn't die. Good on you!"

She glared at the purple haired woman, who she felt an intense desire to dissect with one of the kunai laying around the training field.

'There was a particularly rusty one half a mile back. Maybe I can double back…'

Cha! Dissect the crazy!

"You have a nice look there, pinky. Getting in the mood for some good old fashioned murder, aren't you?" Anko offered her a dangerous smile as she descended from the canopy, there was something wrong about it, something twisted and hidden from sight hiding behind those eyes as she stalked forward like a jungle cat.

Fingers twitching, the scalpel in her hand was held loosely.

Embers fell around her and ash settled in her hair.

There were stains and tears in her qipao.

Taking a deep breath, in. Out. In. Out. In.

Exploding forward, Sakura snarled as chakra blasted out from under her foot. Blatantly imitating Naruto, the pinkette lashed out with her blade as she was launched forwards. Obviously Anko dodged, easily maneuvering around the wild strike and throwing out a lazy backhand.

"Youch!" Only to leap back as the scalpel, trailing behind the strike, sliced deep into her palm. "You little shit! That… that wasn't a half bad trick Pinky!"

Taking a lick of her hand, the T&I specialist flushed as the blood covered her tongue. Sakura took the opportunity to gain a bit of distance, spinning her weapon and keeping the blade in motion.

"I take it you approve, Sensei?"

Forcing her voice to be dead, cold, empty, the young genin tried to channel absolute detachment. Something she considered to be the opposite of her opponent.

"Medical twine secured around a scalpel, almost like a kusarigama?"

Nodding, the pinkette kept from focusing too hard on any one spot. Taking in everything in front of ther, Sakura was trying to use something Kakashi had taught her team about how becoming hyper focused can cause you to make a mistake.

"We're shinobi. If the medical staff at the hospital didn't want things to go missing they'd have secured them more properly… besides, they took my gear from me that I got back during the exam. Turnabout is fair play."

Cackling, the older woman threw her head back, letting her coat fall open, before just as suddenly blasting half a dozen snakes from her coat sleeves.

These also weren't the small, wriggling little monsters that had been fired at the genin all day. No, these were fat bastards, each as big around a grown man's thighs and with a mood that could be best described as "fouler than whatever it was Kakashi did in his bedroom."

Spinning the blade, Sakura let the scalpel rake one of the serpents across its eyes as the thread tangled itself up with the rest of the other projectiles. Planting her foot, and using the inherent momentum in the snake projectiles, she let the beasts carry themselves forward, spin around, and, using her body as a fulcrum, return the message to sender.

With interest.

"Shannaro!"

Pumping her chakra into the throw, the kunoichi also cheated… just a little.

Instead of a single attack, there were now five, flickering illusions of the bundled up snakes.

Anko's eyes widened slightly, her lips curled up just a little, and, rearing back with another cackling laugh, she punched through the mass of snakes - not being fooled by the bunshin in the least.

Of course, when a woman's fist turns a pile of high velocity serpents into so much shrapnel and amateur pain it tends to be somewhat shocking. And that is how Sakura suddenly found herself getting backhanded into a tree, a knee driven into her gut so hard she puked, and then being punted up and into the canopy above.

All of this happened in about the time it took her heart to beat about once and when the darkness faded from her vision the first thing she saw was the ground, several meters below her, rapidly approaching.

Flailing about, decorum totally forgotten, she managed to slap her hand against the trunk of a tree.

Desperately trying to slow her descent, she managed to rip the skin from the palm of her hand, pop her shoulder out of its socket, and then slap enough of her body to the ancient oak that sudden stop didn't mangle her any farther.

Anko, finding this moderately amusing, fired off a number of kunai.

Far too beaten to properly dodge, the pinkette simply let her body drop to the ground. Thankfully, she hit it in such a way that her shoulder popped back into its socket with an appreciatively loud and meaty crunch. Sakura, more or less, whimpered into the mud as a wave of heat and over pressure washed over her. Thankfully she'd fallen far enough away that she was only picked up and thrown about a little.

"Whew, almost went too far there. Good thing you kids are hard to break, huh?"

Face down on the ground, Sakura tried to respond, mostly communicating with gasps of pain.

"I know right. I used, like, six explosive tags. That's gonna be expensive to replace. Hey, do you happen to-" Still not quite capable of moving, the kunoichi felt her alleged sensei rummage around her pockets. "Bah. I forgot how little D ranks pay. Oh well, this'll buy me lunch. Thanks for taking care of your sensei, brat!"

There was the sound of a shunshin and Sakura silently wept into the ground.

Her entire body ached and she hurt in ways that were worse than even what Hinata had done to her. Not that reality seemed to care because whatever sick fuck of a god that existed must have thought the whole thing was funny.

"'growl'"

Looking up, she saw a trio of fully grown tigers.

Only they were twice the size of normal tigers, had glowing red eyes, and definitely smelled all the blood that had come from the snakes and, more recently, her.

"Sensei?"

The answer to her pained question was the crunch of a log as the giant cat casually smashed it out of the way.

"I see."

Fingers numb from the pain of being somewhat badly mauled already, she still managed to grab her knife.

"Here kitty, kitty."

Eyes wide, voice cracking a little, the giggling genin called out to the kings of the forest.

She felt ready to… create.

Kakashi Hatake

Ah, the joys of teaching.

The overwhelming happiness one feels at the thought of imparting their wisdom upon the next generation while upholding the decades of tradition upon which their village was founded - all to create a safer world for ninja of any family or background.

Kakashi hadn't put much stock into it before.

Just… you couldn't expect someone like him to dedicate enough attention to a gaggle of brats without them having something to keep him interested. The reason why he had booted so many teams before was simply because all of them lacked the mindset to make themselves worth the effort.

But Team 7?

They were different!

They were passionate, strange, and had a variety of personalities, sometimes making them feel like characters out of a book. The jounin had quickly learned they played marvelously off of each other in that were as dramatic as they were entertaining. Which made his decision to approve them all the better when they actually caught onto the meaning of his test.

The Gods, whichever were out there, were clearly rewarding him for his patience.

"What do you mean, I can't train?!'

Truthfully, where else would he find such amusing reactions in Konoha?

"I told you, Naruto. You're staying in the hospital until they figure out whatever it was that they did to you during the exam."

The blond, of course, didn't like his reason.

Hadn't liked it the first three times he explained them either.

"I feel fine though! I don't hurt or anything! Are you sure I just didn't heal by myself?"

Kakashi chuckled.

Oh the bliss of ignorance. Well, it wasn't like they taught genin about advanced sealing techniques and how they overlap back in the academy. Kakashi himself only knew enough to perform a few of the simpler seals, and had no confidence at all in poking around the work of the Fourth Hokage.

That way lay a vengeful tailed beast stomping through the village.

"Afraid it's not as simple as a cold, Naruto. But don't worry, we'll have someone take a look at it. Until then, think of this as a vacation. Rest, smell the flowers, maybe find the time to read a good book."

He waved his own booklet cheerfully.

"You're just pushing me off so you can go train Sasuke, aren't you?!"

The older ninja blinked.

"Sasuke is also under observation, Naruto. Though his case is a bit simpler than yours."

"See?!"

"But that doesn't mean I'm leaving you hanging, you know? Sasuke needs as much help as I can give him for the next stage of the exams, but since you aren't participating I can afford to take it slower and get you some more specialized help."

Please take just the bribe.

"Better how?"

"Well, I got…"

And that's when the window exploded.

"Dynamic Entry!"

And the familiar form of a spandex wearing ninja crashed into the room. Kakashi, of course, might have used windows as the primary means of egress from unpleasant situations, but he always left them intact. Like a gentleman. Why yes he did have room to point out the idiosyncrasies in the behavior of others, thank you for asking.

"Bushy Brows?!"

Naruto's reaction, however, was nothing short of hilarious.

"Kakashi! I have received your secret message! What matter of grave importance do you wish to discuss?! Have you finally come to your senses and decided to travel the righteous path of youth?!"

"Nah, nah. I just figured you might want to finally cash in that favor you owe me." Vaguely gesturing at his blonde student, the cyclopean jounin pointedly ignored the shop keeper that was looking like he was either going to pass out from terror or explode with rage. Kakashi slid his one good eye over to meet the man's gaze. "After all, I bet you that I could run more laps in a day and you lost."

"Hardly my eternally cool rival!" Gesticulating, Mighto Gai took what could only be described as an action pose. "After I accepted your challenge, you most unyouthfully used your gift on me! I spent the whole day jogging in place instead of properly lapping the village!"

Coughing, Kakashi desperately wracked his brain as Naruto gave him a look that said the young jinchuuriki could already smell the pile of bullshit from where he was sitting.

"Of course. Situational awareness is a key component of being a shinobi. Besides, we all have different gifts that we have to use to their highest potential, wouldn't you say so Master of the Eight Gates?"

"I'm so sorry for doubting you my dear comrade!" Tears pouring from his eyes, Gai had taken an even more intense pose as he saluted his friend.

"Wait, you're saying that guy is the person who taught Lee his super speed move!?" And Naruto had done the same, jabbing an accusing finger at both senseis.

The shop owner, who had initially tried to kick Naruto out, had passed out when Kakashi flexed his ki just a teensy bit and the former child soldier gave a silent prayer of thanks for the fact that he was surrounded by idiots.

"Listen brat, Might Gai is, without a doubt, one of the three strongest living Konoha shinobi and one of the ten strongest shinobi alive today." Pausing for a moment, the Jounin spoke totally honestly. "And personally, in the right circumstances, he might actually be able to be the strongest person in the world. So don't look down on him, ok?"

There was a moment where Naruto grew very, very serious. Somehow that made Kakashi's stomach ache but the former ANBU operative chalked that up to the chef spitting in their food. Turning to Gai, he found the other man equally as serious.

Holding out his hand, the taijutsu specialist respectively shook hands with the blonde brawler.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto, I'm Gai."

"Nice to meet you Gai, I'm Naruto."

Outside the shop there was a scream, loud and piercing, only for some lunatic to kick the door open.

Kakashi's knives were half way to punching a hole through the person's head before he realized it was Sakura… covered head to toe in blood… wearing the skinned pelts of half a dozen giant predatory animals.

"Hey guys, I made art."

And with that grunt, the blood and mud caked girl passed out, eyes rolling back in her head, and fell forward.

Doing his duty as a teacher, he obviously caught her.

Unfortunately, Gai took that opportunity to do as he always did.

"Ohhhhh! My too cool rival! Saving your troubled genin! All after helping me so I could help your other student so you can help your third student so they can form a lifelong bond as a team and rise above the challenges the world will throw at them! You're too cooooooooool!"

Mostly ignoring Naruto's confused and worried babble, Kakashi wondered where in the Hell Anko was. And if he should be thanking her or shanking her.