Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

The Past: Rolling with the Punches

She had barely gotten any sleep and the dark circles under her eyes proved it. She had spent half of the night staring blankly at her bedroom ceiling replaying her conversation with the Hokage over and over again. Each time she grew a little more indignant and a little less embarrassed. By the time her alarm clock rang, she felt disconnected again.

Mechanically, she dressed in black bike shorts and a grey top, brushed her teeth, ran her fingers through her hair, and tied on her weapon's pouch.

She stopped outside of her parent's bedroom and pressed her head to the door. She closed her eyes and listened to soft snores coming from the inside. It had been a while since she had last had a proper conversation with them. She sighed and moved away.

She didn't have long, so she grabbed some fruit and rice to eat from the kitchen. It was a light breakfast, in case she would be doing anything strenuous, or her nerves got the better of her.

Before walking out of the house, her reflection caught her attention from a small round mirror that hung on a wall.

She wasn't sure why she stared at herself for so long. Maybe it was because she hadn't done so for the last month? Too busy training. Now that she did have a chance to properly look at herself, she noticed small changes. Her hair was longer. It rested just below her shoulders. Her eyes seemed different, too. Her face had become gaunter, despite the fact that she had been eating like she was supposed to. She grimaced at the differences.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The T&I building was a large facility that was made of many levels spanning upwards, as well as many subterranean levels. It was located in sector four, near the hospital. Walking in was similar to walking into a building located in the business sector of the village. Everything was well organized, dull, and kept professional. Yet for some reason, the building smelled of antiseptic, much like the hospital.

She followed the wayfinding signage throughout the building. It took her only moments to find Ibiki's office situated on subterranean level two. When she walked in, he was rigidly reading over paperwork. In those seconds before he looked up, she was reminded of what an intimidating figure Ibiki was. His scarred face was always set into a stern expression. She remembered the temple her parents used to frequent when she was younger. The stone walls were lined with terrifying carvings detailing legends about deities and the battle of good against evil. Ibiki reminded her of some of those stone faces that would always terrify her as a child. She steeled herself before stating her purpose.

"Haruno, Sakura reporting for unit 10-40-10, sir."

He nodded before standing from his seat. "Follow me, Haruno," he said.

She followed him down a few levels and then down long winding corridors until they came to a stop in front of a nondescript door. When he opened the door, she found that it was an entryway to another corridor with numbered doors running down as far as the eye could see.

"Your bunk is number three. Inside there are some clothes set aside for you. Put them on and meet me back here. You have five minutes."

She nodded and rushed down to the door that was labeled three. When she walked in, she took note of how small it was. There was a rolled-up futon and folded sheets in a corner. Beside it, the clothes Ibiki had mentioned. She quickly shed her clothing and donned on the black jumpsuit and black ninja sandals. She rushed out to Ibiki, who was standing stoically where she had left him. He nodded to her and beckoned her to follow. It wasn't long before they came to a large grey gymnasium with black padded floors and bright light panels on the ceiling.

"You will report here every morning at four. An instructor will be here to train you. This will only last one month. After, you and the rest of the unit will fight off against one another to gauge everybody's strengths and assign field partners."

"Hai."

"Today, I will be your instructor. After that, someone else will guide you."

"Hai."

"Your written scores are high, but your physical prowess is not. Your training will be geared towards building that up."

"Hai."

"Tell me, Haruno. Do you know how to take a hit?" His eyes gleamed dangerously, and she found that she did not know how to answer—rather was too ashamed to do so. He hummed in amusement.

"No? Well, today, you'll learn, and maybe pick up dodging skills."

Not even a second later, the right side of her face felt on fire, and she was knocked to the ground.

"Get up, Haruno," Ibiki growled out. Disoriented from the sucker punch, she staggered up, unaware of his movement towards her. The wind was kicked out of her, and her abdomen was on fire. Her body skidded across the flooring, and she rattled in small breaths.

"Get up!" Ibiki shouted.

Finally, she pushed herself up, and the beating continued. By the end of the day, she sported large purple bruises on almost every inch of her skin, and one of her eyes was swollen shut—at least Ibiki had given her an ice pack to put over it.

She was given permission to go home and pack basic essentials for a month. No one was home, which she was thankful for. She wouldn't have to listen to her parent's judgment or have to lessen the severity of her struggle today.

She ended up packing her toothbrush, a few hair elastics, changes of underwear, weapons, bandages, a first aid kit, a digital pocket watch, and a few books and scrolls. Hopefully, she would have time to read them. Ibiki said that she would be getting rations to eat while staying in bunk three, so she didn't worry about grabbing any of her own. She left her parents a note, and quickly went back to her bunk at T&I.

When she returned to the corridor that held her lodgings, she noticed a tall girl with long dark hair in front of door six. When the girl looked towards her, she noticed how pretty the girl's features were. She had plump lips and dark almond eyes. Her figure was slender, like the acrobatic dancers her parents would often go see.

The girl nodded towards her, giving her bruises a long stare before entering her bunk, Sakura returned the gesture and did the same. She was exhausted but figured she could read more into her chakra theory tome.

Because her meditation sessions were going well, she had made another goal for herself. She planned to use her chakra to enhance her speed and eyesight, but first, she had to get quick enough on her own. Relying on chakra to enhance her physical abilities could be a double-edged sword in the field, as she could find herself suddenly drained of chakra. Then were would that put her? Dead. (Survival was her ultimate goal.)

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

She was startled out of her sleep when she heard her small pocket watch going off in her pack. She dressed in a clean black jumpsuit and headed towards the gymnasium.

True to his word, Ibki was nowhere in sight. Instead, a person with a blank white mask stood waiting for her. The mask was not indicative of ANBU, but rather more similar to ones used as stage props for plays. Regardless of the strangeness, she bowed to the person.

"I will assess you in taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. Let's begin."

Overall she had her ass handed to her, again, and she also received a very frank assessment. But after all the critique, the drills started and so did the instruction. From sunup to sundown, she was trained until her instructor was satisfied with the progress of her form and speed. The katas that she learned were better suited to her than the ones that the academy had taught her. It was more fluid and helped her with opponents of bigger stature, which she would definitely need.

They seemed to focus on taijutsu the most because she had no basic training on any major ninjutsu, and according to her faceless instructor, you needed more than a month to learn. However, he went ahead and tested her chakra affinity, which turned out to be water and earth. He gave her scrolls on multiple D and C ranked jutsu for her affinities. She could try them in her spare time and ask him questions during the training, which she definitely did.

Even when her official training stopped for the day, she would practice her chakra control by sticking leaves to random parts of her body, keeping them still using only chakra. She found it ironic that she could keep a leaf on her forehead the longest. After all, as a child, she had been bullied relentlessly over its size. She snorted, half annoyed and half-amused.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Midway into the month that Ibiki had set out for her, her instructor changed his lesson plan. He took her out into the village and made her observe half of the population and city layout—as if she hadn't grown up in Konoha. Afterward, he had her try to trap him in genjutsu. Her goal was to keep him under for a minute. He would often break out in a second.

"The wall lacked texture," he would say, or, "The color was not right."

She adjusted and tried again.

"The old woman was moving too fast, and the villagers lacked emotion."

She adjusted and tried again.

"The birds in the sky lacked normal behavior patterns and detail."

She adjusted and tried again.

Slowly, she learned how to memorize everything she observed by filing it away neatly in her mindscape. Where before she couldn't really say she had had one—maybe it had been a void where her thoughts roamed aimlessly—now she compartmentalized her thoughts into categories, subcategories, and so forth. Her mindscape was a library, and every book was vital information and memories.

So, she weaved and weaved detail upon detail and layer upon layer, until a week later, when she had successfully managed to trap him for a minute, and then three minutes. The day after that achievement, Ibiki came back.

"Haruno."

"Hai."

"They tell me, you're a genjutsu type."

"Hai."

"I'll be training you today."

"Hai."

"Let's begin."

As she found out through getting beaten within an inch of her life, Ibiki wanted her to use genjutsu to distract him long enough to let up on his attacks. It was difficult, to say the least, and she found that weaving her illusions on Ibiki did not work. He was too fast and too strong-willed, and could not be pulled into a completely new scenery of her own fabrication. She would have to use a different approach, one she had read in a book. If she couldn't trap him in a full illusion or distract him with things not there, she would have to shift their current reality partially.

He was advancing towards her, again. She squared herself up and weaved a very simple illusion that distorted his depth perception. He raised his fist and swung towards her.

She felt the shift of air near her face, and the warmth of his body as his arm missed her by a tiny margin.

Her heartbeat loudly, and her spirit felt as if it could fly from elation. It had worked!

Ibiki noticed it, too.

"Good, Haruno. Again!"

She ended up dodging him a total of seven times, and although her face and body were bruised and swollen, she had never felt as great as she did that night reading her tomes and scrolls.

When she arrived in the morning, Ibiki was there again.

"Ready for round two, Haruno?"

"Hell, yes." He chuckled at her response.

"I've rarely met recruits that look forward to a beating."

She snorted at his statement. It was true, these sessions with Ibiki were brutal, but they helped her learn. However, today she would be putting into effect what she had been learning in her free time.

"Let's begin."

"Hai!"

He came at her just as she cycled chakra through her legs and eyes. She saw every twitch of his body and how it shifted as he moved. After being beaten to a bloody pulp by him, she had learned his attack patterns—the ones he unknowingly shifted to. She dodged.

He advanced, and again she dodged. She saw him smirk, and then she felt the burn of a hit on her body. She went sprawling to the ground.

He began to match her speed, and she was forced to incorporated her genjutsu distortion into the spar. Sometimes she would feel the burn of a hit, and sometimes she would fall, but she also dodged.

Deep within her, she began to feel a sensation that she hadn't felt after her team had left. It was serenity. What a light feeling that was. This sensation spurred her last-second decision to attempt to trap Ibiki into a fabrication of her own creation. She caught his eyes with hers as she shifted to dodge, only moving slightly to the left, leaving enough room to still catch a slight touch of his upper arm. A small pulse of chakra was pushed into his system.

One moment, they were leaping through the gymnasium. The next, time stopped, and Ibiki stopped with it. His eyes glazed over, and he stood in place—the epitome of a statue.

Her eyes widened, and she stared in shock at the sight. She waited for him to break out and attack her, but he stayed in place.

She had made him think that half of the day had already gone by and that he had released her from training. She remembered the layout of the building and had him go back to his office to work on paperwork. Ibiki was not the type of person to scare easily, but she took a chance on him being a creature of routine, at least in his work life.

She approached him and craned her neck to observe his scarred face. How had those scars come to mar his skin, she wondered? Her imagination ran wild coming up with multitudes of possibilities and scenarios, but then it drifted to a memory of her and team seven trying to uncover their sensei's face. The memory sobered her up, and she placed her hand on Ibiki's arm, sending a small jolt of chakra to disrupt her illusion. When he became conscious, the look he gave her reminded her of a hawk's gaze, and she felt as if she were in front of the Hokage again.

"Good, Haruno."

Her face burned and she went flying.

"Don't let your guard down, though."

That night she went to bed with fewer new bruises and injuries.

Ibiki showed up a few more times, where she improved on her dodging skills until it was back being taught by her faceless instructor. She was slightly disappointed, but her instructor's guidance in her taijutsu forms and speed made up for it. By the end of the last week, they had even helped her mold her first water globe held together by her chakra. Essentially the globe was useless, but it was the beginning of learning water ninjutsu.