Everyone had their Jounin Instructor except Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto. Yes, they were on the same team again and she was very happy. For a fearful moment, she thought she might have changed something that would disrupt the team she got put on, but it didn't and it turned out okay.
"Where is he?" Naruto whined.
"Maybe he got lost on the path of life?" Sakura said before she could stop herself.
-and what will you say when he uses that excuse later?-
Sorry Inner, she thinks to herself.
"What?" Sasuke asks her.
"Um, nothing." Sakura laughs it off.
She can feel his chakra signature, how did she never notice, it was different than she remembered it to be, it was darker. She immediately stood up and faced the door. Sasuke gave her an odd look but then smiled as a moment later the door started to slide open. She had sensed him he thought to himself, she really was remarkable.
Kakashi walked into the room and pretended to look around. Kakashi's eye met Sakura's and she stiffened.
"Well, let's go up to the roof shall we?" He poofed away.
Sasuke and Sakura began walking to the roof while Naruto complained the whole way that it wasn't fair he didn't walk with them.
He was still complaining when they got to the roof and when they sat down in front of their new Sensei.
"If you don't like walking learn the body flicker," Kakashi says smoothly to Naruto.
"But but but like that's totally impossible at our level Sensei!" Naruto starts wailing.
"Is it?" Kakashi looks at Sakura.
"It is for him." She laughs lightly like it is a joke. Kakashi doesn't laugh.
Sasuke looks from Kakashi to Sakura, "Have you two met before?" He asks.
"No," they both said at the same time.
"So, should we introduce ourselves?" She looks at Kakashi.
"Sure, go ahead." Kakashi sits on the rail in front of them.
"I'm Haruno Sakura, age 12, new Genin, I have water and earth chakra nature, I read a lot and want to learn as many jutsu as possible.'
"And you," He points to Naruto.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I want to marry Ramen cause I looooove it and I want to be Hokage."
"And you." Kakashi points to Sasuke.
"I am Uchiha Sasuke, I want to awaken my Sharingan and find a way for my clan to awaken their Sharingan and get to the next levels without trauma. I no longer want the name Uchiha to be associated with being a Cursed clan."
"Really?" Sakura looks at him in astonishment. So this is what he would have said before. She is a little more than surprised.
"Really." He looks at her.
"I will do everything I can to make that your reality." She says with sincerity..
"Uh, thank you, Sakura." He blushes.
"Interesting." Kakashi is watching her again.
"What?" She looks at him.
"I mean, what Sensei?" She smiles. Kakashi had spent so much time telling them to stop calling him Sensei when they had gotten older, it was hard to get back into the habit again.
"That's a bold statement to make at such a young age." Kakashi is still looking at her.
"I meant it." She said.
"I don't doubt you." He smiled.
"Neither do I." Sasuke smiled at her too.
"Kura can do all sorts of cool stuff, she can'' Naruto began but Sasuke hit him over the head and Sakura looked at Kakashi to see if he noticed but he was inspecting a piece of lint on his shirt.
She knew he noticed though.
"Okay well then, let's meet at dawn by the old hill, for our first mission, of survival. Don't eat breakfast or you will throw up." Kakashi said then poofed away.
"That was...weird, right?" Naruto asked the others.
Sakura frowned, "Yeah, weird."
"Wanna go get some ramen?" Naruto asked them.
"You and Sasuke go I need to go check on something." She flickered away.
"What was that about?" Naruto asked Sasuke.
"Who knows. See you tomorrow Naruto, I'm going home." He started heading for the stairs.
"Awww come one Sasuke!" Naruto started to whine as he followed him down the stairs.
Sakura hopped down from the big tree she had flickered to and walked out into the small clearing. Back straight she bowed to the north and drew her sword in a graceful arc off her back bent low and thrust up point even with the branches in the sky. Kick out to the left, low spin step right up and down, a graceful movement to the middle and she shot forward blade to the side, one swift swing, one flick of her wrist and she stopped the blade just shy of his throat.
"Kakashi Sensei, you startle me." She had yet to lower her blade. What was he doing here?
"If I startled you, then the past three years have been a waste." He raised an eyebrow and she lowered her blade from his neck slowly, twirled it in her wrist once and sheathed it without looking back onto her back.
"Three years hum. That is a long time to watch out for nothing." She smiled at him. So, he had been watching me like I thought, a damn dog with a bone.
"It was not nothing that I just saw." He comes back with quickly. She is avoiding the true topic, why.
"You have masked your chakra better this time than any time before, what did you do this time that you haven't done before?" She inquired.
"Yet you knew I was still here." He said, he knew she knew he had been watching her, what she didn't know is he had requested her for team 7.
"I am a sensor...among other things." She continued to smile sweetly at him.
"I have to trust you, we are a team now. You refused to join me in Anbu, I am not part of Anbu now, but I am your Sensei, you shouldn't hide your skill from me, it could be dangerous for the team." He spoke the truth and she knew it.
"My boys know the truth, they know the extend to my skill save one Jutsu, but they know." She said. Was it too soon, the Kakashi she knew might not be this Kakashi before her now. When they had met she had been weak, he had learned to trust her over time, this Kakashi was suspicious.
"And which pair would that be, Shisui and Itachi, both former members of my Anbu team, or Sasuke and Naruto currently on our team?" He was serious she could tell, she wouldn't leave here without answering him. He must have seen the thought cross her mind for he stepped forward and invaded her space. "Secrets can not be kept on a team. I need to know you will not abandon a teammate on a mission."
"I would never! Those who abandon their comrades are worse scum!" She all but yelled at him without thinking. How dare he accuse her of doing such a thing, she would never abandon her boys, that's the whole reason she was here!
"Rin?" Kakashi said in the voice of a smaller boy, then blanched. He poofed away in a puff of smoke.
He had called her Rin...oh Kakashi. Sakura felt terrible, why had she said that to him. It just came out. She knew it had been Obito to say that to him, to change him, but surely Rin had known too. The look on his face, that voice, the voice of the small boy who had killed his friend, the same age she was now. Oh, Kakashi she thought. She had to find him. She focused her chakra and sent it out around her searching, there, at his apartment. She flickered to his door and knocked.
Kakashi felt her chakra right before she knocked. He turned his head from the door and ignored her. Go away, he thought, I don't want to see any ghosts right now. He had wanted her on the team for her hidden skills, it was a well kept secret, he knew only a few people knew. He had wanted her for Anbu, yes, to protect her. It was only a matter of time before the wrong people noticed her strength and used her for their own gain. With her on his Genin team, he could protect her, like he wasn't able to protect Rin, and then, she had said "that" to him. "Rin, I swear, I swear Rin, I will watch over her like I should have watched over you. I won't let her die as you did."
He needed closure, he needed to redeem himself and he felt that watching over Sakura, helping her get stronger was his best chance at his much needed redemption. Maybe...one day he could look at himself in the mirror again without seeing the blood of the past.
She knew he was in there, she knew he was ignoring her but she understood. She went to the market, to the miso stand and got him pork miso with eggplant and set it on his balcony.
He saw her set something down and then flicker away. Yes, he knew it, She could use Shisui's body flicker, that proved it, she didn't try to hide it. He got up and went to his balcony. There was a small bag that smelled delicious. He opened it to find his favorite miso. How did she know? Rin used to make it for him, he knew Sakura hadn't made it but the feelings came rushing back to him as he popped the lid off to eat.
Sakura ate breakfast before she left her house the next morning, she knew what was going to happen. She packed two small Bentos with rice and an egg each for Naruto and Sasuke. They could eat them before Kakashi got there. Calling a goodbye to her mom, she ran out the front door with her backpack and katana. The sun was high when she got there, her boys were sitting side by side playing rock, paper scissors when she walked up the hill.
"Sakura we were worried, you're two hours late." Sasuke glowers at her.
"I figured he would be late so why hurry? I brought you guys some breakfast, I know he told us not to eat or we would throw up but I have a feeling he was lying so eat up." She hands them each a box and they eat. They are boys, they are always hungry.
"I bet he won't be here for another hour." She looks around. "Sasuke, why don't you have your katana with you?" She asks him.
"I don't really know how to use one yet and I didn't want to bring it if I can't use it." He looks at her and sees she has hers on.
"You know how to use one?" He never knew that.
"Yeah. I trained in it for a year or two but I still need to work on it." She admits. She was thinking of asking Shisui or Itachi to teach her.
When had she trained in it and with who? Sasuke can't remember seeing or hearing of her training with one before.
Kakashi showed up an hour later as she had predicted. He gave his whole spiel about taking him down for the bells and such and she cut him off.
"We need to work together as a team to get those bells boys, or we won't be able to get them. Well, I might be able to actually, but it isn't about any one of us individually." She looks at Naruto who nods and then at Sasuke who smiles. "Ready Boys?"
They nodded again. "Let's get this Copy Nin!" she all but sticks her sword in the air and yells charge!
It took them 3 mins. 3 mins. To get the bells from Kakashi.
"Um, you pass." He eye crinkles them like she remembers, only it looks a little fake.
"Want to get some ramen?" Naruto asks them after Kakashi dismisses them.
"I want to train some more Naruto sorry," Sakura says. "Why don't you go ask Hinata to get ramen with you, I heard it is her favorite food."
"Really?" Naruto's eyes get big and round.
"Yes, in fact, she told me the other day she wishes she had someone to eat ramen with, no one ever wants to go with her and Ichiraku ramen is her favorite!" Sakura nodded to him seriously.
He ran away grinning.
"Did she really say that?" Sasuke asked her.
"No but she is in love with him has been since the academy, if she doesn't like ramen she can learn to." and she laughed, Sasuke eventually laughed with her.
"Well, I can stay and train with you, if you want?' He looked at her.
"I was going to see if your brother or Shisui was free, do you want to come, I wanted to train with my katana that Itachi gave me, you can learn too as you wanted." She said
"Itachi Uchiha gave you a katana?" Kakashi asked her. They must be closer than he thought he mused.
"Yes, for graduation from the academy, Sasuke got one too." She looked at him, "Why."
"Um, just unusual is all." He said and poofed away.
"Does he always do that?" Sasuke frowned at the puff of smoke that was once their teacher.
"Yes," she laughed.
"So, wanna come home with me and see if they are available?" Sasuke asks her.
"Let's go." she smiles.
Three hours later…
"Sasuke, your guard is sloppy, it won't matter if you master the stroke if your opponent can get through to your heart first," Shisui spoke harshly to him.
"Guard up, arm lose but ready, again," Shisui instructed.
"Sasuke held his katana in his right hand crouched low and ran, spun brought his blade up, stepped in and ...Bam. Fell back on his ass.
"You had your guard up but left you're right open for attack, you're sloppy," Shisui told him seriously.
"Let's work on each step and then combine them, guard against my attacks, visualize where you think I am going to come from and then prepare for it." Shisui ran at him with his sword straight back and ready, Sasuke stiffened. Bam, he was flat on his back. Shisui stood over him with a frown.
"Let's watch Itachi and Sakura, maybe that will help, you can see what I mean. She is actually very good with a katana, she doesn't really need to learn as much as practice. Her style is somewhat familiar to me but I can't put my finger on it." Shisui was watching the pair across the field, his Sharingan activated.
"You mean you and Itachi didn't teach her?" Sasuke had assumed they were the ones who taught her the sword.
"She is an enigma isn't she." Shisui smiled as he watched her dance around Itachi blade in hand. "She is going to be beautiful when she gets older, strong, dangerous...beautiful."
"She is spoken for. We have made a blood bond." Sasuke looked at Shisui smugly.
"Have you?" Shisui was startled at first but then he said. "What kind of blood bond?"
"She asked for it, she asked me to never abandon her, to never break our bond as friends." Sasuke smiled.
"As friends." Shisui looked at his simple younger cousin. "She sees you as a friend Sasuke."
"It is more than that," Sasuke says defensively.
"Not for her," Shisui said simply.
They watched Sakura and Itachi exchange blows, dodge and weave back and forth. Shisui was right she didn't need training, just practice. Sasuke could tell she was having fun...and so was Itachi, they were a good match of skill. Sasuke realized then, he didn't know her as well as he thought he did.
