"How many more missions like this do I have to take?!" Sakura complained loudly as she dropped unceremoniously on the ground, lying on her back. Both Naruto and Sasuke followed and the three formed a three pointed star. Chasing Toru the cat was the norm of the day for the past two weeks, coupled with weeding gardens, painting fencing, picking litter around the village and babysitting. It seemed that Sasuke had a knack for babysitting as all the children seemed to adore him, scratch that, all the baby girls seemed to adore him.

And Sakura seethed as none of the children wanted to be within a metre radius of her because of her temper. 'How can I become the Hokage or Uchiha Matriarch if none of the children want to be near me?' she thought in devastation. Naruto had better chances with children than her. Perhaps if you worked on improving your temper, then maybe children will want to be near you, Inner said. 'You make it sound easy,' she replied. Inner had shrugged at the back of her mind.

Their latest mission was chasing Toru the cat and none of them were closer to catching it. They were lying on the ground not out of exhaustion but exasperation. Sakura puffed out her cheeks as she tried to smother her rising anger. "Neh, Sakura-chan, do you have any idea on how we can catch Toru?" Naruto asked. "Why are you asking me? Don't you usually have ideas?" she replied sharply. "Yeah, but I'm out of ideas for the moment," he replied. "You're just too lazy to think about it," she said with a smile as she imagined Naruto's cheeky grin he'd be wearing at that.

"Hmmmm, reminds me to pay a visit to Nara-san," she said as she propped herself upright. "You mean old man Shikaku? Why wouldn't you want to meet him?" Naruto asked as he sat up as well. "No, I mean his son, Shikamaru," she replied evenly. "You made it sound like you were going to speak with his dad," the blonde said as he made a face. "So, why do you want to meet him?" he asked as he turned to face her the same time she turned to face him and Sasuke sat upright, facing the duo. "I need to thank him for something and ask for a favour," she spoke.

Before Naruto could ask what, Sakura had changed the direction of the conversation. "So, to get Toru the cat, we need to ait him out. The owner says he likes to eat sardines so I'll just have to make trail of sardines for him to come to us and we capture him," she spoke. "Um, question. How do we even know where to start the trail? We don't even know where he is," the blonde retorted. Sasuke hn'ed in agreement. "I have a secret weapon," Sakura said with a devilish smirk.

"Here is your cat," Sakura said proudly as she handed over the cat. "Thank you very much!" the pompous woman squealed as she hugged Toru who did not even flinch, which was unusual as the cat always seemed to want to run away from her.

As Team 7 left the Hokage Tower and Kakashi had poofed away, Sasuke turned to face Sakura. "Explain," he demanded. Sakura sighed. She knew this was going to happen. "Yeah, how did you manage to find Toru and calm him down?" Naruto asked his curiosity piqued. "Well, first, to track him down I used chakra sensing," she said. "You sensed his chakra? But that's like chunin level and Toru's chakra is little and difficult to find considering you're an amateur," Sasuke said as he narrowed his eyes.

"No, I don't mean chakra sensing like that," she said, a little bit offended that Sasuke didn't think her capable of doing that. "I read the Nidaime's journals he wrote when he was still young. He was the younger one between him and the Shodaime since their siblings died early so the Shodaime always dumped the menial duties on him. One of them was making sure to bring back the cubs of Guzen, their father's panther summon which had a tendency of running away from their mother. He was a very good sensor but because he didn't want to waste time and chakra trying to locate them, he added a little bit of his chakra to the collars he made for them," she explained. "It's easier to try and locate traces of your chakra than trying to find someone else's chakra," she added.

"It was difficult though. I really had no idea how to do that but I had fuinjutsu scroll that had the basics of sealing techniques and I used that information to put to together a small seal that could store a little of my chakra. I attached that paper to Toru's collar the third time we caught him to help me track him down. I'm still learning how to sense chakra but sensing traces of my chakra comes easily to me than real chakra sensing," she finished.

"Wow, that's great Sakura-chan. Can you teach me how to do it?" Naruto asked eagerly. "It's not a really awesome skill as you like but I can teach you," she replied with a smile. "Thanks!" he said. "What about how you calmed Toru down?" Sasuke asked. "Easy. Genjutsu," she said with a smirk. "You can already use genjutsu?!" Naruto asked in shock. "No you baka. I'm still learning. I asked Yuuhi-san for some help. She's renowned for being one of the best genjutsu masters in the village," she said as her eyes shined.

"Really?" Naruto asked excitedly. She nodded. "Genjutsu involves altering one's senses to your will or their will, either good or bad, yours or theirs. I used a genjutsu which made it appear as though Toru has left Konoha and his master while he's actually here," she spoke with a grin. "So basically, he's living inside of his head," the jinchuriki said in realization. "Exactly. It was easier to do it on Toru because he's not a ninken plus he has a weaker will than mine. Otherwise if I were to do it on a ninja or ninken, they'd probably notice pretty quickly," she said. "Teach me!" Naruto exclaimed dramatically.

Sakura laughed. They had arrived at Ichiraku's and took their seats. She sat in the middle with Naruto on her right and Sasuke the left. "I'll teach you." She turned to Sasuke. "Do you want to learn as well? I know it's not fancy but I guess it could come in handy sometime," she said uneasily. "Hn," he replied nonchalantly. Sakura looked at Naruto for an explanation but received a sheepish smile in return. "I mean to say yes," he said. Naruto and Sakura high-fived in victory.

"Shikamaru? I don't know where he is," Ino said as she narrowed her eyes at her. "You do Ino, you just don't want to tell me," Sakura said as she narrowed hers in return. The two girls were in the Yamanaka flower shop and were currently glaring death daggers at each other. Several civilian customers had left the flower shop as soon as they felt the killing intent from the two kunoichi.

"Why do you want to see him? For all I know, you never talk to each other," the blonde said flippantly. "That's none of your Kami damned business. Just tell me where he is," the pinkette replied snarkily. The Yamanaka heiress turned her head away in dismissal with her nose scrunched up. "Fine, if you won't tell me, I'll find him myself," she said as she began to walk towards the door.

"You're still want to become Hokage?" Ino's voice rang out. Sakura's hand froze on the door handle. Ino had been the first person she told that she wanted to become Hokage. She had laughed at her, jokingly but told her that she supported her no matter what. She was the first person to believe in her. "Yes," she ground out through clenched teeth. She opened the door and walked out. "Good luck with that," the blonde's voice sounded as she closed the door behind her, ignoring the tears of frustration and longing that burned at the back of her eyes.

Hope you like it.

Tozoonana

AfricanFire