Thank you all who have read, followed, favorited, reviewed and...whatever else there is to do :) I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this second chapter out–life gets crazy sometimes. This chapter is going to be a bit shorter than the first one, but it was either make this one shorter, or cut the bell test into two different chapters, and that just felt weird. This chapter, like the first, is a bit heavy on the exposition and trying to set up the world as it makes more sense to me. I debated making Sakura as preocious as she is in this fic but decided that she was precocious in canon, too, it's just that Kishimoto never did more than tell us–as opposed to show us. Also, when I watch my twelve-year-old cousins who play sports, they know EVERYTHING that is available for them to know. Hell, some of them know everything about nearly every sport to the point that I don't even know where they find the time to breathe. So, that's my justification for making her as knowledgeable as she is, but she still has a lot of learning to do, so hopefully, she isn't boring for you guys.

Edit: Thank you, Suzululu4moe, for pointing out that it doesn't make sense that Sakura wouldn't know her chakra natures. I was going to go one way with that part of her journey, trying to sort of stay with canon in that Kakashi didn't teach Naruto about chakra natures until Shippuden, but as soon as I read your comment, I knew I had chosen wrong. So, I changed it. If you've read this chapter already, there's really no reason to re-read it; it's literally the only thing that changed. If you're new here, well, the change doesn't really matter, huh?

CHAPTER II: MEET ME IN THE MORNING

The little bell on the back door of Hayashi Meats chimed brightly as Sakura walked into the butcher shop/deli, and Hayashi Yuzuki poked her head out from the freezer with a smile.

"Sakura!"

"Hi, Yuzuki!" Sakura beamed at her friend.

The woman was in her early thirties with dark hair and brown eyes and flawless pores. The two embraced, with Yuzuki accidentally transferring some marinade from her apron onto Sakura's tunic.

"Today's the day!" Yuzuki squealed.

"Yeah." Sakura smiled to hide her nervousness. "I'm on my way to the training grounds right now."

"How exciting!" Yuzuki clapped her hands together then turned to the fridge and pulled out three sealed packages, each with four individually-sealed links of pork sausage. "I made them special for you and your team. You know how important protein is for breakfast."

"Thank you!" Sakura took the sausage from her then kissed her cheek. "You didn't have to do that!"

"Nonsense! We've been waiting for this day for a long time." She smiled softly, putting her arm around Sakura's shoulders and turning her to look at the picture over the prep table of an older woman with the same dark hair and eyes as Yuzuki. "We're so proud of you, Sakura."

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek but it didn't help to stop her tears. She turned her face into Yuzuki's chest and did her best not to sob like a baby.

Hayashi Izumi used to babysit Sakura while her parents were on missions. She had lived a couple houses down from them and had kept Mebuki in good health throughout her somewhat-trying pregnancy, which easily transitioned into keeping Sakura in good health throughout her childhood. It was during one of those long-term situations, when Sakura's parents were on a mission and she had had to accompany Izumi to the deli early one morning, that everything changed.

"Sakura," Yuzuki whispered as she stroked Sakura's hair. "You don't need to cry for her."

"I'mmm nn-not," Sakura said shakily. "I'm crying for yo–for you."

Yuzuki's eyes widened at this and it took her a while before she could compose herself to ask, "Why, Sakura?"

"Be-cause, 'cause, I can't ima–imagine losing my mmmooomm!"

"Oh, Sakura." Yuzuki said softly, her eyes misting a little. "I didn't lose her, sweetie. She's just a little further down the path than I am."

"Don't you miss her?" Sakura sniffed.

"Hmm." Yuzuki smiled and tilted Sakura's head up to look her in the eyes. "She's still here, sweetie. Look around: this store, all her regular customers. Me. We're all her legacy. More importantly, you are her legacy."

"Me?!"

"She died for you, didn't she?" Yuzuki shrugged casually but Sakura winced as if she'd been slapped.

On that morning eight years ago, two teenage boys had broken into the deli and tried to abduct Sakura. Izumi, despite being in her sixties, had interfered faster than the teens could react. She had smacked one of them with a rolling pin and he had kicked her to death for it. Sakura, who had been playing with her rock collection at the time of the break-in, threw one at him and cut him across the face. She had been terrified when he turned on her, yet so relieved that he was finally leaving Izumi alone that she had deemed her terror worth it.

"You honor her sacrifice by doing what you love and doing it well. By living happily. As long as you and I do that, she'll always be here, and we'll never have to miss her."

Sakura sobbed again and collapsed against Yuzuki as she wrapped her arms around her. Yuzuki laughed gently, kissed the top of Sakura's head, then patted her back and pulled away from her.

"I love you, Sakura. Now, get going! You don't want to be late on your first day!"

"I love you, too, Yuzuki!" Sakura hiccupped and wiped her eyes on her shoulders. "See you later!"

[Sharks and Minnows]

It was five o'clock on the dot when Sakura skidded to a halt on the training grounds and realized that she was the only one there. As if the dark, sinking feeling in her chest hadn't been giving her enough problems since last night, she began to panic that everyone had made it here early and decided to start without her. But, after only a minute of looking around and worrying her lip, she saw Sasuke approaching the grounds, and then Naruto, both walking like zombies and not looking much better as they collapsed to the earth against their packs and shut their eyes.

The gross feeling in her chest abated a little, but Sakura knew it would only grow worse if she didn't keep her momentum up, so she spent five minutes doing jumping jacks and running in place to make sure she was warmed up, then began a half-hour stretching routine. That turned into another hour of Tai Chi, though by the end, Sakura was so irritated that Kakashi-sensei was late again that she wasn't really moving her chakra at all, just her body.

Yesterday, she had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe there'd been some extra paperwork he'd had to fill out before he could officially be their sensei. But what the hell was his excuse today?! Didn't he know that 'on time' meant 'ten minutes early,' dammit?

Naruto's stomach growled loudly, setting off a chain reaction in both Sasuke and Sakura.

The boys both groaned and hunched over miserably, and Sakura, in her irritation at their sensei, decided that she was going to dish out Yuzuki's gift now. Besides, at this point, she was just as likely to puke from not eating as she was from eating, so Kakashi-sensei could just shut up about it.

The boys both looked at her like she was a sorceress when she tossed them each their breakfast packets, and Naruto even managed to thank her before he started eating.

He's the only one to thank you, Inner pointed out loudly.

Sakura ignored her; Inner had always liked Naruto more than Sakura did.

Sakura finished her food then moved further away from the boys so that she could meditate on not strangling Kakashi-sensei when he showed up.

Sakura's mother had taught her that meditation would help her regulate her breath, which would prevent her from becoming angry, or tense, or panicked. The more control she had, the less likely she was to dissolve into a crying, screaming, violent ball of emotions.

Fortunately, it was usually Naruto who incurred her wrath, and he seemed completely unfazed by anything she could throw at him–literally. Sometimes, it seemed like he intentionally riled her up.

Because that's the only time I acknowledge him, she thought in a moment of clarity.

And why do you think that is? Inner prompted.

Uh...

Inner flashed two images in Sakura's mind that nearly knocked her senseless.

(X) (X) (X) (X)

Eight years ago

The blind alley was damp and reeked of wet cardboard. It was still too early in the morning for the sanitation workers to be making their rounds, and certainly too early for the china shop to be open. Sakura tried opening the back door to the shop anyway, then dashed for the metal trashcans, hoping she could use them to leverage herself over the wall.

"You're gonna pay for hurting me, you little bitch." A smooth voice sounded behind her.

Sakura turned sharply on the blue-eyed blond with the gash on his forehead, little hands on her little hips as she shouted with righteous indignation. "You hurt Hayashi-san! She's old!"

The gaunt, gangly teen stalked forward, slowly closing in on Sakura. Whether to toy with the four-year-old or to try to keep her from spooking, it didn't matter; it was a mistake.

Sakura's nerves couldn't take the suspense and she lunged at him first, biting down hard on his thin forearm and shaking her head violently just like her favorite animal.

He bellowed furiously and Sakura dangled from his arm for a moment before his fist collided with her ribs. The air rushed from her lungs and her teeth released his arm, but instead of falling, she dug her fingernails into his skin and raked them down his arm as her tiny feet kicked at his legs. He cursed and bellowed again, his blue eyes raging, and slammed her head-first into the alley wall.

(X) (X) (X) (X)

Sakura still had a scar near her hairline from that collision.

"Sakura!" Naruto's booming voice broke through her thoughts as he jumped from his spot next to Sasuke to crouch near Sakura. His look of concern made it hard for Sakura to breathe. "Are you okay? You sounded like you got hurt!"

Sakura hadn't met Naruto until a couple of years after the attack, but it was unmistakable to her now: her loathing of him had very little to do with him and almost everything to do with the blue-eyed blond who had attacked her.

And that wasn't fair at all!

Praise the gods! Inner threw her hands up dramatically. I've only been trying to get you to realize this for six years!

Sakura had never really seen Naruto in any of their interactions, only the teen from the alley. Everything Naruto did was painted with the fear that his features triggered, and the fury that the fear triggered. The two were nearly-always a package deal with Sakura–fear and anger, anger and fear; she couldn't remember ever feeling one without the other.

As Sakura took several seconds to stare at Naruto and to think about their interactions over the years, she realized that Naruto had never, ever retaliated against her violence. He never hurt her, was never mean to her. He was annoying, yes, but so was every other person on the planet.

It was as if a filter had been lifted from her eyes and she could see Naruto in a whole new light. The last six-years-worth of memories that had been colored by her experience in that alley were now clear and focused and not at all the threatening displays of machismo that she had always thought they were. They were just Naruto trying to be her friend, trying to impress her, trying to help her.

Trying to be seen.

Sakura reached out for Naruto, making to pull him in for a hug. She was already on the verge of crying but when she saw how Naruto flinched in anticipation of her hurting him, yet didn't make a move to defend himself or run away, she burst into tears.

"Sakura, what's wrong? What'd I do?!" Naruto asked in a panic just before she threw her arms around his neck and held him to her.

It only took him a moment to realize that she wasn't going to hurt him and he didn't hesitate to return her embrace. He couldn't remember ever being hugged before and he wasn't going to waste this chance–not when he had been longing for one since the first time he saw Choji's mom give him one.

"I'm so–hiccup!– sorry, Naruto!" She wept. "I–I–I've been so me-mean to you!"

"It's okay, Sakura." Naruto patted her on the back, still holding her in a hug because hugging was his new favorite thing.

"No, it's not!" Sakura wailed, pulling back to look him in the eyes. "Please, forgive me, Naruto! It isn't–it was-wasn't ever your fau-fault!"

"What wasn't my fault?"

"M-me! How–how I reac-reacted to yo-you." She said then took several breaths to calm herself down. "I thought...I thought you were someone else."

"Someone else? I don't get it, Sakura," he laughed a little nervously. "but of course, I forgive you."

"You do?" She whispered and wiped the tears from her face.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" He asked sincerely. "You're my friend."

Fresh tears poured down her face and she held Naruto even tighter. He was a lot sturdier than she had ever thought he'd be and there was something comforting about that. There was something comforting about Naruto, in general–simple, sweet, and sincere.

"You're my friend, too, Naruto." Sakura promised him, and herself.

"Cool!" He grinned his cheesy grin and put his hands behind his head. "Uh...now what?"

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Do you want to meditate with me?"

"Nah, I'm no good at that." He replied matter-of-factly. "You go ahead; I'm gonna sleep some more."

Once Naruto had returned to his pack to use it as a pillow, Sakura crossed her legs, touched her thumbs and ring-fingers together, pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, and shut her eyes.

She breathed in slowly, imagining a ball of chakra moving up her spine, and when she exhaled, the ball moved down her front in a circuit that her reference books called the Microcosmic Orbit. Using this technique helped her really get in touch with the chakra moving in her own body, the way it flowed through its seven chakra centers and fourteen designated meridians then branched out; the way it seeped into each of her cells; the way it surrounded each of her organs and muscles.

Her mind began to wander, meandering slowly from naming the fourteen meridians and their major acu-points to a book sitting open on her desk about a technique called Iron Shirt, which gave the internal organs extra protection by packing chakra around them. From there, she thought of all the acupuncture and massage books at the library that had helped her over the years, and finally, of Uchiha Itachi, who was responsible for getting her successfully started down the path toward chakra control when she was only seven years old.

Without his guidance, she wouldn't be able to stand on water today, let alone run.

Without his guidance, she wouldn't have found the texts on chakra control that resonated with her the most.

Without his guidance, she wouldn't feel so sick every time she saw Sasuke.

No one knew of her connection to Itachi, not even her parents. He had never asked her not to tell anyone about their training sessions, but keeping them secret had made them feel extra special, and had made her feel special, too.

Sakura shuddered at the thought of anyone finding out. Inner had almost given her away yesterday during team introductions when she had opened her big, fat, traitorous mouth to answer the question, "What are your likes?" with "Uchiha Itachi." Sakura had had a spaz attack that she knew made a terrible first–official–impression on Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura would never be able to forgive Itachi for what he did, and she despised him as much as the rest of the village did. As Sasuke did.

Inner, though, was a different story. She was insistent that Sakura knew him better than to accept the story that he had murdered his family just to prove his strength. It didn't fit at all with the Itachi she knew.

Sakura's argument that she didn't know him that well at all never fazed Inner, and neither did Sakura labeling her as naive and stupid.

You're wrong about Itachi just like you were wrong about Naruto.

Give it a rest! Sakura snapped at Inner.

Make me. Inner blew a raspberry and stuck her thumbs in her ears, wiggling her fingers.

Sakura re-focused on her chakra, which had gotten a bit out of hand during her internal argument. But, before she could start reining it in, she froze.

Somehow, she was 'seeing' something resembling a bonfire–orange and chaotic but warm and inviting, too. As she studied it in her mind's eye, she realized it was Naruto's chakra.

Holy Hashirama! She could see chakra!

Ever since finding out that Ino was a sensor-type last year, Sakura had been diligently working to develop her sensing skills. True, she wasn't a sensor-type and would never be able to track someone over long distances like Ino would, but that didn't mean that she couldn't sense the chakra of those near her.

And over the last year, Sakura had gotten pretty good at distinguishing different chakra signatures by feel, but she never expected to be able to see it!

She couldn't wait to compare notes with Ino!

Right, notes.

Sakura's analytical mind jumped to work, looking for the things she had done differently.

Duh, blockhead, Inner piped up again, waving a notecard with the name of a book she had read last year about clearing mental hang-ups. You cleared a major block with Naruto!

Well, that was definitely part of it. But, it didn't explain why she could also see Sasuke's chakra–deep violet and moving in an unsettled swirl, like a distant, chilling wind. She hadn't cleared any blocks with Sasuke and nor would she any time soon, as the only serious block they could have would be Itachi.

Why do you question me? You can see Sasuke's because you can see Naruto's. Once you accepted that it was possible, it became completely possible. And not a moment too soon, either. Inner rolled her eyes. I've been seeing chakra for years.

WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?!

Are you sure I didn't?

Sakura didn't have a good answer to that, so she ignored it and did another round of the Microcosmic Orbit, focusing her thoughts on expanding her chakra boundaries. She imagined a bubble surrounding her, growing wider and wider with each round of the Microcosmic Orbit. The closer the bubble got to Naruto and Sasuke, the more clearly she could feel their own chakra boundaries and she wondered if they could feel hers, as well.

It was difficult to see their boundaries, as their chakra was just a couple of amorphous blobs, rather than body-shaped, and she was tempted to complain but figured that would be too much of an insult to the chakra-sensing gods. The fact that she could see their chakra at all was pretty cool, and she was already learning new things–like how it fluctuated, expanded and contracted, and otherwise changed boundary shape and size. She had always assumed that chakra just...was. That it existed within the body, never leaving its confines until a jutsu was employed.

But that wasn't the case at all. Their chakra extended well passed their bodies, and she was pretty sure that it was changing based on their snoring patterns.

Sakura had read in her reference books that emotions could exist within chakra, that they were one of the reasons it was possible to read a person's mood and even personal history through the aura of energy around them. Sakura had never much cared about that aspect of sensing chakra, and hadn't thought she was anywhere near being able to sense such things, anyway. She had always thought, though, that either proximity or touch would be required, but she had neither in this moment and yet could sense the flow of emotions, and things that she couldn't identify, in her teammates' chakra.

Sakura knew that her age, at least in terms of her physical development, was holding her back; her body just wasn't developed enough to fully utilize everything that chakra had to offer, no matter how much she practiced. And–if Inner wasn't trolling her–apparently her mind wasn't developed enough, either. Still, Sakura was determined to perfect her skills and techniques now so that when she did finally develop, her transition would be short and smooth.

She focused in on Naruto's chakra, eager to find out what she could learn from it.

[Sharks and Minnows]

"YOU'RE LATE!"

Sakura sat up with a start.

She wasn't sure when she lost consciousness, only that the sun was nearly directly overhead, meaning she had been asleep for hours. As she stood, Naruto's jacket fell from her. She looked at it, for the life of her not figuring out why he would think she was cold when it was sweltering out here, and then realized that her legs were sunburnt–but her face wasn't. If Naruto hadn't covered her, she'd be deep-fried by now.

She handed him his jacket as she stepped astride him and Sasuke, giving him a grateful smile, then turned to Kakashi-sensei.

"You see, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way here."

"What kind of excuse is that?" Naruto demanded.

"The only one you're gonna get." Kakashi said cheerily. "Sakura, how nice of you to join us."

Sakura cringed. "Sorry, Sensei."

Sakura's gut clenched as Kakashi-sensei explained why there were only two bells and what the consequences were for the one left out. She couldn't allow that; though she detested Itachi, she had promised him she'd watch over Sasuke and she intended to keep that promise. Not to mention the legacies she'd sworn to uphold. Sakura had been working her ass off to be the best kunoichi ever, had even endangered her friendship with Ino for it at times, and she would be damned if she would be the one left out.

And because of her promise to Itachi, she had to make sure that Sasuke got the other bell. She couldn't be separated from him, not when she would be sent out of the village for extended lengths of time, unable to watch out for him. She was a little worried about what was going to happen when he tried to join ANBU–they were the best, after all, and he would need to be the best to kill his brother.

Over my dead body. Inner harrumphed.

But, Sakura figured that if he were good enough to join the black ops group, he wouldn't need her to look after him anymore.

The problem was...Naruto was her friend now. She had made promises to him, too. How could she abandon him for Sasuke? For herself? How the hell was she–

"Begin!"

Oh, shit.

Might I have been able to create more tension and drama if I hadn't reconciled Sakura and Naruto so early on? Sure. Would it have been worth abusing my poor baby and killing pieces of my soul every time I did it? Nope.