A/N: Welcome to... a filler chapter! Indeed, the plot takes a quick coffee break in this chapter, but I promise some interesting twists will happen in the next :) I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter, but I apologize if you think some parts are a bit dry.

Again, the same thing as the author's note in the last chapter, but I also apologize if Kakashi is a bit OOC. I liked him later on in the anime/manga, but at the beginning I thought he was a really crappy teacher (although kinda funny).

Oh, right! One big thing I should probably mention. I took the liberty of coming up with a bit of a backstory for Sakura, as well as a reason for why she entered the academy in the first place (I think it was mentioned in canon that she originally had a reason for wanting to become a ninja, but that she forgot it after a few years as she started caring more about popularity and Sasuke. Or maybe that was in some fanfic I read and I'm confusing the two lol). I suppose my backstory might have a few plotholes (hehe), but hey it's fanfiction, I can twist things a bit. Also (you need to read the chapter to understand but whatever) maybe with the Uchiha clan massacred (they were the police force technically), there would've been more bandits around? Idk mate, I'm just spouting BS now to try and justify me not doing my research properly.

Anyhoo, I hope you like this chapter and thanks so much for reading!

[chapter 6]

Sakura met her team at the East gate of Konoha exactly an hour after they had split up. Not exactly to her surprise, Kakashi had yet to arrive, although Naruto and Sasuke were already there, arguing angrily about who knew what.

"Hey," she greeted tiredly, already settling down to wait for their tardy sensei. To think that he was so lazy that he couldn't even bother to show up on time for a real mission. She shook her head.

"Oh! Hey, Sakura!" Naruto said enthusiastically, turning to her. "Can you help me and the bastard with deciding something?"

Cautious, she looked at him. Did she really want to be brought into whatever petty argument they were having today?

"Sure," she said with a sigh. It wasn't exactly like she could just ignore him, although her mind told her that she should've done exactly that.

"Great," Naruto grinned, "You think that I'd be a cuter girl than the bastard, right?"

So that was what they had been arguing about, she thought with amusement.

"Um…"

What did she say? She didn't necessarily wanted to side with either boy, although the way Naruto had phrased the question was quite rigged. To be completely honest, she'd always thought that if Sasuke had been born the opposite gender, he would've been a beautiful, if slightly moody, heartbreaker. But Naruto was cute too, in his own way. She could easily imagine a bright and perky blond girl with pigtails and whiskers on her cheeks standing in his place. Mentally wincing at the loud arguments sure to follow, she decided that Naruto would indeed make a cuter girl.

"I agree, I guess," she said. Naruto crowed in victory. "But I think Sasuke would make a prettier girl," she quickly added on.

The black-haired boy smirked. "See. Even Sakura knows it's true. I'd be the prettier girl."

What had their team even come to, Sakura thought, mentally facepalming.

"Were you even listening? Sakura agreed with me and said that I'd be the cuter girl!"

"Pretty is a better compliment than cute," Sasuke said, frowning. "Cute basically just means endearing in an idiotic way."

Naruto leaped up in outrage. "No way! I'll show you!"

The blond formed a few handseals that she recognized as the henge jutsu, and a thick cloud of smoke formed around him.

Slowly and dramatically, the smoke drifted away to reveal a busty female standing there. Completely naked.

Sakura almost jumped in shock, and she could see the tips of Sasuke's ears turning pink, although the Uchiha tried to look as emotionless as possible.

While it was true that there were still wisps of smoke covering the important parts, Naruto's female form didn't leave much to the imagination.

Pushing down her embarrassment and the fierce blush that had been rising to her cheeks, she stomped over to Naruto.

"You idiot!" she yelled loudly, hitting him hard on the top of his head. "Have some respect for the other gender!"

His henge fell, disappearing in another poof of smoke to reveal Naruto sprawled on the ground, clutching his head

"Ah! Sorry, Sakura!" he cried. "Don't kill me!"

She just sent him a glare, before moving away and sitting back down.

Sasuke was sputtering, not able to find words.

Naruto seemed to instantly forget about his pain, instead hugging his stomach and shaking in laughter.

"Aahahahahaha," he laughed, pointing at Sasuke. "I knew you were secretly a pervert!"

The tips of Sasuke's ears burned even redder.

"You idiot!" he snarled, launching himself at Naruto. The two fell over in a tangle of limbs and flurry of punches. Sakura just resolutely turned away and pulled a book on anatomy out of her bag.

It was actually really interesting and well written, despite its relatively dry topic. There was so much to learn. Slitting someone's neck or stabbing them in the heart weren't the only ways to kill someone, nor were they fail proof. Some parts were so disgusting they made her want to throw up her breakfast, but she kept reading, consumed by a sort of sick fascination that made her unable to put it down.

By the time Kakashi showed up, two hours late as usual, she'd finished the book twice - she prided herself on being a fast reader - and her brain was swirling with the new information.

"Good morning, my cute little genin!" their sensei greeted. He looked up, as if rethinking his words. "Although I suppose I should say good afternoon."

Naruto immediately jumped away from his brawl with Sasuke. Funnily enough this wasn't actually the same fight they'd been in when she'd started reading. It was actually their fourth - or was it the fifth? She'd lost count - fight.

"You're late!" He accused.

"Ah," Kakashi apologized. "I ran into an old friend on my way here, and he challenged me to a contest of who could get the most ladies to give them their numbers. I couldn't refuse, of course, my title of 'Konoha's most eligible bachelor' was on the line afterall."

By now it had almost become a routine. Kakashi would show up two hours after their set meeting time and then Naruto would point at him and say the same three words. Then Kakashi would make some stupid and unbelievable excuse. Every single time.

Sakura frowned. "Do you even have friends, Kakashi-sensei? And I can't believe that any woman would willingly date you."

The jounin pressed a hand to his heart. "You wound me, Sakura," he said, mock tears in his eye. "I'll have you know that I won the competition by quite a lot."

She shrugged disbelievingly. "Sure."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, dusting himself off from his scuffle with Naruto. "Can we go? We're late as it is."

"Right!" Naruto crowed. "We're going out of the village! This is going to be so amazing! We're going to find some princess in need of help and I'll jump in and save her and she'll be so grateful…"

He trailed off, a blush on his cheeks, most likely from imagining the scenario.

"Oh yeah, and then I guess we could get that stupid plant thing the old man wanted," he added on as an afterthought.

Sakura looked over at him. "Naruto, have you ever been out of the village?" She asked curiously.

"Nope! This is going to be my first time! I'm so excited!"

Well that explained his quite unrealistic expectations.

"Have you, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, looking down at her.

"Yeah, I used to go with my father when he would bring stuff to other villages to trade," she said awkwardly, looking away.

"Ah. Sorry."

"Nah, it's cool. We visited a bunch of really fun places. I have a lot of good memories from that time."

It was true. They'd traveled from village to village with only a horse and a large cart dragged behind them. Nights had been spent camping in the forest, sleeping on the moss-covered ground and using rolled-up sweaters as pillows. It hadn't been luxurious, but it had been the best time of her life. There hadn't been so many bandits and roaming missing-nin back then in these parts.

Her father had carried her on his shoulders sometimes, pointing out all the landmarks and telling her about all the places they passed. They'd gone for weeks at a time, although her mother had stayed at home most of the time, unless her father happened to be travelling with another caravan of merchants. Mebuki Haruno had been born the daughter of a relatively wealthy family, and she'd never gotten used to living in the wilderness like Sakura had.

This practice had continued until a few months before she started at the Academy. There had been more and more reports of dangers along the travelling routes, and after a heated argument between her parents which her mother had won, her father had sadly told her that he couldn't bring her along anymore.

With a tinge of regret, Sakura remembered that the original reason she'd even wanted to go to the Academy had been so she could become a 'super strong ninja who would get rid of all the bad people and then my papa will be able to bring me with him on his trips'.

That had been before they'd received a scroll telling them that Kizashi Haruno had been murdered not far from Konoha by enemy nin. She'd never get to travel with him again.

Kakashi gave her an eye crinkle before turning to the two boys.

"Well, Naruto, you'll get your first view of the big world outside the village soon enough," he chirped. "Now if everyone has everything, let's set off."

With a bit of grumbling, the three genin set off. There were two chunin standing watch at the gates, but after Kakashi miraculously produced some papers out of nowhere and Sasuke showed them the mission scroll they had received from the Hokage, they were waved through.

As they walked through the forest - Kakashi had said that no good shinobi took the main road unless the had too, although Sakura thought bitterly as her pink hair got tangled in various branches that good shinobi also tended to travel through the trees and not on the ground - Sasuke read over the mission scroll that they hadn't had the chance to examine in detail yet.

"We're supposed to reach the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Whirlpools within three days," he read off. "There we'll stay temporarily at an inn there to rest before we cross the water to get to the island of Uzushio. There, we have another few days to get all the plants we need and properly store them before we have the same amount of time to get back to Konoha. The mission is expected to take about two weeks in total."

Kakashi shrugged. "Hope you kids packed enough."

Sakura suspiciously glanced at Kakashi's non-existent backpack while she rolled her shoulders to relieve the soreness caused by her own, heavy pack. Sasuke didn't have a pack either while Naruto did, although he didn't seem to be struggling as much as her despite his looking larger.

With a growl, she glared at their sensei. He and Sasuke had probably put all their stuff in storage seals, something most shinobi did for long missions. They were expensive, and with the meager amount of pay they had earned from their various D-rank missions, she hadn't had enough to buy one. Kakashi probably had copious amounts of money from the high-level missions he was sure to have taken before being made a jounin-sensei and Sasuke had access to his entire clan's wealth.

If Kakashi noticed her trying to shoot daggers into his back with her eyes, he didn't show any sign of it.

"Well, since we're going to be gone from the village for a while, it wouldn't do to stop your training." He smiled sadistically. "We'll get some training every morning before setting out."

Sakura groaned, already imagining the countless strength and speed increasing exercises he was sure to push them through.

"Won't that leave us too exhausted to defend against attacks though?" she tried.

Kakashi just smiled. "No combat mission, remember? Besides, you'll face situations where you have to fight even when you can barely move from exhaustion in the future. It's good preparation."

She gave up, resigning herself to muscles that felt like jello for the rest of the trip.

They stopped after a few hours for water and a ration bar before continuing until the sun had set fully behind the trees, leaving their path shrouded in darkness.

After the third time that Sakura tripped over a tree root and was sent sprawling, Kakashi finally called for a halt.

"Let's stop for the night," he ordered. "We'll continue in the morning after training."

Sakura protested furiously. Sure, she was tired but she refused to hold her team back. She wanted to be strong enough to stand by their side. Besides, a team was only as strong as its weakest link, and she refused to be that link.

"I can keep going," she stated, fire burning in her eyes, and she stood up straight.

Kakashi just looked at her dismissively.

"We've got a long day tomorrow," he said. "Treat this as an order from your team commander."

She looked at the ground, feeling angry, but she complied. Together with the two boys they set up the bedrolls and started a fire while Kakashi hunted for food.

The team huddled around the fire for warmth, eating the rabbit meat that their sensei had gotten for them. It was delicious and juicy, the kill fresh and perfectly cooked by the fire, but Sakura just ate it silently, still unhappy about how Kakashi had made them all stop because of her. She hated it. Tomorrow, she wouldn't let any sign of weakness show, she told herself resolutely, no matter how tired she was.

"I'll take first watch," Kakashi told them without room for argument. "Naruto will go next, then Sasuke and finally Sakura."

She looked down angrily again. She knew he was giving her the daybreak watch because he knew she was the most exhausted and wanted to give her the longest, uninterrupted sleep. While it was true she appreciated it, it still grated on her nerves. Kakashi had never really treated her differently than the boys before this, making her do the same exercises in training. She'd prove herself tomorrow.

With a nod, the three genin silently got ready for sleep and climbed into their bedrolls.

Sakura changed behind a tree a little way from the clearing they had decided to spend the night in. She pulled on a pair of long pants and shirt that she'd decided to wear tomorrow, strapping her kunai pouches and the rest of her gear back on.

Shinobi didn't have sleepwear on missions, where an enemy could attack at any moment. This was one of the first lessons they'd learned at the academy. Instead, to keep clean, you changed into clean clothes for the next day before bed and in the morning you were ready to go.

She made her way back into the clearing and climbed into her bedroll, relishing in the warmth it brought. Nights in fire country weren't cold by any means, but it could still get chilly.

Sleep came way too easily. Kakashi had been right about how tired she was. That night, she dreamt she was a little girl again, travelling with her father and sleeping in forests just like she was now.

It wasn't a nightmare in the least, but when Sasuke woke her for her watch she had tears on her face.

Sasuke gave her an odd look she couldn't read but didn't question her.

"Thanks," she said simply, crawling out of her bedroll and shivering in the chilly night air. The Uchiha nodded and made his way to his own sleeping area, lying down.

Sitting next to the fire for warmth, she watched him for a while, seeing when his controlled breathing finally grew slower, showing that he had finally fallen asleep.

They'd learned how to stay awake and alert for the entire duration of a night watch in the Academy, so it wasn't too hard for Sakura.

The forest was quiet though, only the sounds of the usual nighttime wildlife surrounding her. An immeasurable amount of time passed silently, and she watched as the sun slowly rose from behind the trees. She felt the same peace that she'd felt months ago, sitting on the bridge with Naruto, and embraced it.

She wasn't sure where it came from, but the same thing happened every day now. The peaceful sensation would fill her as the sun rose and slowly disappear throughout the day. Each time, it was hard to describe, but it almost felt as if the calm was actually coming from the nature around her, flowing through the trees to her. She'd learned not to question it by now.

At what she guessed to be around six in the morning, she gently shook awake her teammates and sensei. They woke up with quite different reactions.

Kakashi opened his one visible eye before her hand even touched his shoulder and he was standing next to her before she'd even processed that he'd zipped open his bedroll.

Sasuke woke up silently, a slight quickening in his breath the only sign that he'd entered consciousness. He acknowledged her with a slight bow of his head, silently getting out of his bedroll, although not as fast as Kakashi.

Naruto though, went completely insane when she lightly shook his shoulder and whispered that it was time to wake up.

"Ahhhh!" He yelled loudly, flailing wildly around inside his bedroll. He - still stuck inside of it - rolled around the clearing, almost falling into the still smoldering fire, although Sakura's quick reaction time was enough to save him before that happened.

"Naruto, calm down!" She exclaimed, pinning him down to the forest floor so he would stop squirming around.

The blond blinked sleepily. "Ah, Sakura?"

She sighed. "Yes, Naruto. It's me. Now get out of your bedroll and help with breakfast."

He grinned sheepishly. "Right."

Sometimes she wondered how he'd even graduated from the academy. He had no sense of subtlety and he was as graceless as a toad. Of course, she thought, rethinking, he did have that special sort of clone that the Hokage had supposedly taught him. Naruto had smirked widely when he'd told them, saying that 'his old man' had said that only he could make them because he was the greatest.

Team seven ate a quiet breakfast, made up of more ration bars and a few of Naruto's instant ramen cups. As it turned out, that was why his pack had been that large. He hadn't even brought much in terms of clothing, the instant ramen taking up most of the room.

"Alright," Kakashi said, unnaturally cheerful, as they finished off their meals. "Once you're done, meet me in the forest for training."

Sakura instantly slowed down the speed at which she was eating, nibbling at her ration bar, but there was no stopping the inevitable.

The next three hours were torturous. Kakashi didn't let up on them in the least, and he seemed to take great pleasure in hurling various sharp objects at them as they frantically dodged attempted to get used to the mostly unfamiliar setting.

But soon enough they were on their way again. Sakura had barely been able to pick herself off the ground where she'd collapsed as soon as Kakashi announced them finished for the day. It was only by remembering her resolution the night before that she summoned up the will to get to her feet, brushing the dirt off of her and struggling to tug her clothing and gear into some semblance of neatness.

If they saw a lake today she was jumping in. There was no way she could spend the next two weeks sweaty and covered in filth.

Unfortunately, they didn't pass a lake in the end and that night Sakura had to climb into her bedroll in an irritated and moody state. It was only made slightly better that Kakashi hadn't made them stop that day because of her.

The jounin was unbelievably clean the next morning, to her astonishment. She could've sworn that he'd been covered in grime as well when the three genin had gone to bed the night before. He hadn't sweated as much as them during training, but a day-long march through a forest without a clear path would make anyone dirty.

"How." She demanded with a glare.

Kakashi gave her that same, annoying eye crinkle. Thankfully, he replied, since she had been about to attack him if he'd pulled the same 'mysterious and vague' act that he normally did. "A little trick I picked up a few years ago using a water jutsu,"

She could only gape, stunned. How had she not thought of that. To civilians, the jutsu that ninja used were practically magic. Of course there'd be one that could be used to bathe oneself in the absence of a water source.

"Teach me," she begged him, not ashamed to get down on her hands and knees. "Please, Kakashi-sensei."

The jounin just shrugged. "I'll think about it if you manage to land a hit on me tomorrow morning."

She didn't.

But Kakashi seemed amused by her desperation and multiple foolish attempts, so he taught her it anyways out of what she assumed was pity.

It wasn't that hard. Using a pretty standard water jutsu and a little chakra you could literally recreate the naturally-occurring process of condensation. Form a little rain cloud above your head and boom, you had your own personal shower!

That night Sakura slept comfortably, her skin tinged pink from being scrubbed so hard and her hair still damp.

The next morning at breakfast, Naruto and Sasuke looked on with glares of jealousy and feeling petty, she decided not to let them know how she'd done it. They would be staying at the inn that night anyways, where she was sure there would be showers.

Of course her good mood was ruined as soon as they started their morning training, where Kakashi, being the sadist that he was, chose the muddiest and most bug infested part of the forest to do their exercises.

But the day went on and around afternoon the dense forest they had been travelling through finally began to thin. The trees here were different too, less tall than the ones near Konoha. They weren't as lush and green as the ones by the village either, most of them looking a little dry and wilted. It must not rain here as much, she realized. Or maybe it was the proximity to the salt water of the sea. Did that mean they were almost in the Land of Whirlpools?

"We're approaching the border," Kakashi told them quietly, confirming her suspicions.

Within another hour they'd reached the inn they had planned to stay out, and to Sakura's delight it was right along the coast. The ocean glittered behind it and soft waves lapped at the banks of the land, which was covered in a fine sand.

"One room, please," Kakashi curtly said to the owner of the inn, a thin, balding old man with a pleasant smile. The man glanced briefly up at their headbands and paled a bit.

"O-of course," he stuttered, digging beneath the counter to pull out a large key on a ring. "F-Follow me, please."

He must not get many shinobi customers here, Sakura decided. The shinobi village of the Land of Whirlpools, Uzushio, had been destroyed by Kiri years ago, afterall, and not many nin passed through here anymore.

The inn keeper brought them to a large room that thankfully had large windows and a stunning view of the ocean outside. In the distance, Sakura could even see the faint outline of the island itself, although most of it was shrouded in a thin mist that draped over the sea.

It was a beautiful place, and despite their exhaustion from a day of travelling, the three genin spent the rest of the afternoon diving through the water like dolphins and playfully splashing each other.

It had been ages since she'd had this much fun.