Possibilities
A Lesson on Preparation
By: Solita (Coyote)
It was a peaceful spring morning in Konoha. The sky was a pleasant, clear blue, with a few passing clouds providing shade to those that were awake at this time. The wind was blowing over the village softly, ruffling the green grass that lay in the countryside. On a solitary hill, a girl, with hair as pink as the cherry blossoms that she was dozing under, was absorbing the warmth of the rising sun.
If you were a visitor from the middle of nowhere passing by, you probably wouldn't guess that this little village trained and raised some of the strongest Shinobi in the land. You also would be surprised that our pink-haired friend was a Shinobi as well.
This story is NOT about the beautiful scenery of the Shinobi village, and is NOT about a village that trains little Ninja's either. The story that I am about to tell you is one that my grandmother told me, years and years ago before she passed away. This is the story of how this pink-haired Shinobi took a journey, and was able to find her unlimited possibilities.
Sakura's heart was going a mile a minute, waiting outside the large oak doors of the Hokage palace with her lazy-eyed sensei. She and Kakashi were waiting to be let in by Tsunade, who had just sent them a message that they were needed at Hokage palace immediately.
As Sakura waited, and waited, she did not need to ask her sensei, or question the Hokage as to why she was called here. Naruto had left only a month ago to begin the Jounin exams.
She was starting to fidget a lot, just like her good friend Hinata. Kakashi noticed his student's nervousness, and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Sakura looked up to see her sensei's smile (well, as much of his face that she could see anyways).
After about three hours, Sakura was beginning to get extremely restless.
"Tsunade-sama is worse than you Kakashi-sensei," Kakashi chuckled, and replied while reading his hentai-book.
"Well then, I guess that means I'm going to have to make you, Naruto, and Neji wait five hours now," That's right, Neji was now a part of team 7. After the difficult mission of attempting to retrieve Sasuke, most of our favorite Genin teams needed to adjust their members.
Neji was one of the first to recover from his horrid injuries, but unfortunately Lee was taken into intensive care the minute they got him through the Konoha gates. Since Gai was keeping a close eye over Lee, he decided to call off training for a while for his team.
Neji, as we all know, just can't stand to be without proper training for long periods of time, and quite vocally expressed his displeasure over his team's temporary reprieve. To calm his impatient student, Gai enlisted the help of his greatest rival, Kakashi (he considers it another match to see who can train Neji better). Kurenai decided that she would take the remaining girls that were short teammates, Hinata, Ino, and Ten Ten. Asuma said that he'd train Chouji, Kiba, and Shino (when he gets back from his mission with his father). (Author's note- they're all chuunins, but since in this story Lee can't train as vigorously as he used to, I'm going to have it so that he gets private training from Gai, also after they recovered they all took the chuunin exam again and all passed.)
"Hey," Sakura asked, "where IS Neji by the way?" Kakashi looked up from his pervert-book, and made a quick sweep of the area with his exposed eye.
"You know, I'm not actually sure," Sakura sweat-dropped at her sensei's lack of responsibility. Not that she cared very much for Neji; he was still part of their team. She began to wonder if Tsunade had called him out as well.
"Do you think maybe his pride just kept him from coming?" It was really more of a statement rather than a question, coming from the pink haired chuunin. "Do you think that just seeing Naruto coming out of the Jounin exam, possibly alive, would make him feel weak?" Kakashi sighed. His favorite female student was still having a hard time getting used to Neji being a part of the team. Not only was it because he was replacing Sasuke's position on the team, but she had grown very close to Kakashi-sensei and Naruto over the years, and she had never really known Neji as well before.
"He's a lot like Sasuke in that matter, isn't he?" Sakura stiffened for a split second before checking herself, and relaxing. Kakashi knew he had hit a sore spot, and was a bit guilty that he had brought that topic up. However, he knew it was important for Sakura to get over Sasuke abandoning them all, just as it is important for Neji to get over his pride. In that, Kakashi always thought that Sakura and Neji were much more alike than either of them would ever like to hear.
"I really don't appreciate being talked about behind my back," an emotionless voice said from behind Sakura. She whipped around to see her new teammate walking towards them. He stopped just a few feet away from her, "If you have something you'd like to say, then say it to my face,"
Kakashi wrinkled his good eye in a sign of a smile, and Sakura turned her head away and snorted in frustration. Just then, the great oak doors creaked open. Kakashi put away his book, in time for Sakura to knock him down as she raced over. Neji just stood there, hands in pockets, just watching with his empty eyes.
Through the crack, Sakura could see orange, then blonde, then the sky blue eyes of her best friend, and teammate. Her own eyes were the size of plates, and her mouth was slightly open in awe that Naruto had made it out alive. Don't' misunderstand, she has the utmost confidence in her friends strength and ability to pass the test, it was only because she loves him so much that she worried.
"Nihihi," Naruto grinned at her in his fox-like way, "Did you honestly think that I wouldn't make it?" No one else got a chance to say anything, because after Naruto had made his little victory proclamation, Sakura embraced him in a tight hug.
"Sakura?" Naruto was a bit worried, because after knowing Sakura for so long, she isn't the type to show this kind of emotion, except in the past when it had been Sasuke. "Sakura," Naruto said calmly, "I'm alright. You see? I made it!"
Neji, Tsunade, and the rest of the Jounins that had followed Naruto out weren't quite sure why Sakura was so emotional about Naruto making it out alive. Kakashi was the only one who knew, and he smiled at his two students, and went back to his pervert-book.
"You didn't lose another friend," Naruto softly said to Sakura.
No one else knew Sakura enough to know, that that was why she was so nervous about Naruto taking the Jounin exam. Sakura had pretty bad luck when it came to friendships. When she was younger, everyone constantly teased her because of her forehead. Then she and Ino had a bad falling out, and even though they had seemed to reach a new level in their friendship after the first chuunin exam, well, some things are just hard to mend. And to top it all off, Sasuke had betrayed the village, and completely abandoned team 7 for his own personal gains. After all that, you can just imagine how protective of Naruto, and even Kakashi, Sakura is.
"....Baka," Sakura muttered, using all her strength to hold back the tears. After Naruto had finally hugged her back, she let go, and let him talk to his sensei and Neji.
Tsunade walked up to Sakura, a sweet smile on her face. Sakura looked up, and grinned back at her Hokage.
"You're very proud of him, aren't you," Sakura knew that that wasn't a question, and the Hokage was right.
"You better watch out Tsunade-sama," Sakura laughed, "One day Naruto's actually going to challenge you to become the Hokage, and he might win!" Sakura and Tsunade shared a good laugh, before the Fifth's eyes became serious.
"So Sakura, when are we going to see you standing with the rest of the entries for the Jounin exam?" Sakura was known for her freakishly fast mood swings, but this broke the record.
"Your teammate, Neji, has made it QUITE clear that he does not want to miss the next exam, but you haven't said a thing about it,"
"I'm just not ready yet," Sakura was looking off into the distance, avoiding the Fifth's gaze.
"But that's what you said about the Chuunin exam, and now look at you! You're off on A class missions with your team every week!"
"But I...." Tsunade cut her off before she had a chance to finish.
"If you keep up this attitude, then you'll never be ready for ANYTHING!" Sakura just kept her empty stare off into the horizon. Tsunade really liked the girl; she saw the same fire inside Sakura that she saw in Naruto. She also felt that the pink-haired kunochi had great possibilities, if only she'd let herself try to awaken her sleeping power.
The Hokage was becoming desperate, and even though she didn't want to, she knew that it was her only hope at trying to convince the girl.
"What if Sasuke came back?" The girl's eyes immediately widened in what would almost seem like fear. Just that sentence caught Naruto, Kakashi, and Neji's ears. Even though they were still talking to the other Jounin, they were partially focused on the two females conversation.
"What if you weren't ready for Sasuke to come back because you wouldn't know what to say or do? Then one day, just out of the blue, he decides to make an appearance, he's not going to give you time before hand to prepare. And what if he came back hostile? Especially then, you wouldn't get all the time in the world to prepare!" Sakura's teammates were getting a bit worried about their partner's reaction to all this.
At the current moment, her head was down, with her hair covering her eyes.
"I'm sorry I had to say that, but you know what I say is true. Being a Shinobi means that you must be prepared for the unexpected. You must use quick judgment, or it might me yours or your friend's life. These exams are probably the only times you will be able to fail, and still get another shot at it. In a real battle, there is only one shot; you have to be ready all the time.
Please, Sakura, the reason I'm pretty much begging you to take the next exam is because I think that you would be a valued Shinobi on the Jounin squad, and I want you to show everyone that you can still be a woman and kick ass!!" Tsunade shot her fist into the air, and the members of team 7 (yes even Neji) couldn't help but laugh.
"Also, I believe that you are not fully pushing yourself to your absolute limits. I think that there is far more to Haruno Sakura than just an intelligent, chakra and genjutsu master," Sakura looked up at the woman, her eyes full of shock and also gratitude.
"Please, just think it over, for me, your perverted sensei, and the baka," with that final plea, she patted Sakura's shoulder, motioned for the other Jounins to follow, and walked away.
"Sister, are you sure that she is who we are looking for?" a soft, deep voice asked from the shadows.
"Pink hair, green eyes, a fiery spirit...trust me brother, she is the one," a feminine voice replied.
"How are we going to get to her?"
"Why, I think we are going to have to train for the next Jounin exam,"
Sakura looked up into the trees, she could have sworn she sensed some unidentified chakra nearby. But, she quickly brushed it off as she went over the Hokage's words.
She took a deep breath, and swallowed, turning towards her team. She nodded to her sensei, signaling that he should get ready to give her the hardest training sessions of her life.
She was ready to take the Jounin exam.
"Moving forward by Stumbling
On your Own"
A Point In Time by: OneSideZero
A.N- Okay, this is my Naruto fanfic. I hope it does better than some of my other failed attempts. I HOPE EVERYONE ENJOYS IT!