Pulp is back with another chapter! I figured since I plan on going slow with these, I might as well rapidly update so it won't be a super long wait. Just know this fanfiction will be long! The conflicts wont start till later, and I mean like Chūnin Exams and Wave Mission, which actually isn't that far away later.
I was given a review on my last chapter on a different format by a certain kind-hearted someone who gave me praise on the realistic story development, and they liked how slow everything was going.
First off, thanks again! That's one of my first actual reviews that hit the topics I was looking for and it means a lot to me. Now, if you guys have any suggestions on how you'd like the story to play out, please put them down in the comment so I can check and tally them.
Seriously this story revolves around you guys so get cracking! Anyway, please review, and give me your take on how it is. See you soon, and enjoy.
She felt the soft thrum of medical chakra on her finger tips, and knew she was ready.
She repositioned her face mask, its plastic scent wafting up her nose, preventing the acidic gas from reaching her lungs.
She was kneeled over her patient, unmoving and ready to strike. Her scraped knees were digging into the rough ground, greeting images of the gravel in her rough skin.
She felt sweat trickle down her forehead and tried to even out her breathing. She could not fail this. Not after she'd failed so many. The same words every time.
She looked down at Shikamaru, and assessed his form.
Completely collapsed lungs, a large hole in his left kidney, along with one quick traveling poison, blood covered him head to toe. Littered with scrapes and deep gashes, cuts and bruises, he didn't look alive.
But she could faintly hear his heartbeat, after she picked it apart from her own beating in her ears, and she knew he still had a chance.
She could hear the clanging of metal and the sloppy thuds from colliding human flesh. She could hear the squelches and the screams, the electricity and the water, she could hear it all.
But she ignored it.
She ignored it in favor of sticking her hand in the hole in her colleagues abdomen. She ignored saving those innocent people in favor of saving one life that meant something not-so-special to her.
She ignored it all.
She ignored it so she could once again fail her duties as a medical Ninja; she ignored it in favor of trying one more time, hoping one more time, whisking one more time, that she could be more. She could be someone. She could help.
So she could help.
So she wouldn't sit around on the sidelines half heartedly mending broken bones, and watching fully as the light faded from their eyes, saying 'I trusted you. Why did you fail me? Aren't you one of the best?'
She felt her eyes sting, but once again brushed it off in favor of failing to save another life.
Because really, that's all she could do.
—Restart—
"change what I can"
"Ready..go!"
We all shot off into the trees, Naruto included this time, and they met up in a secure place that Sakura picked beforehand. She brought her finger up to her lips, signaling silence towards Naruto in case he forgot.
He nodded animatedly, and she silently humored herself with feeling around him, and getting hit with the excitement rolling off him in waves.
'He probably feels like a true ninja,'
'I-INNER! YOU'RE HERE!'
'And I'm gonna wreak havoc. Nice to see you again Saku-Chan.'
'It's great to see you again. Help me through this, will you?'
'Of course.'
She felt her second personality head back into the far reaches of her subconscious, till she was only a light, almost unrecognizable, pulsing sensation in the back of her head, one she had grown to miss quite often.
She smiled and turned her attention back to Naruto, who didn't seem to notice her drifting.
"Okay, Naruto. We're going with Plan A first for appearances."
"I'm not surprised you were right about the test being teamwork, Sakura-Chan! You're so smart!" He whisper-yelled.
There he goes again, stroking her nonexistent ego. She was sure it was a whole lot bigger back in the day, when she was just a drooling idiot playing ninja.
"You ready?"
"I'm ready, dattebayo!"
"Hide your chakra signature like I taught you...a little more..there you go. Now hold it like that. We're going to wait this out till Sasuke..kun goes down."
'You better get used to that, and fast.'
"H-how are you sure Sasuke-Teme will be defeated? I don't know, he seems pretty strong." the blonde admitted begrudgingly.
She had to hide a light snicker, their rivalry was still thriving. "Sasuke-kun is going up against a Jōnin, Naruto. And he isn't even a Genin. He has a long way to go. "
He nodded in serious, yet silly tenseness, and his attention went back onto their target.
She looked down at Kakashi, standing in the middle of a clearing; Sakura saw his chakra fluctuate as Naruto and her hid their chakra signatures; he most likely wasn't expecting that, less likely from the Dead-Last and the fangirl.
She has planned this very meticulously; she will show him that they are both diamonds in the rough, but if he's still too blinded to see that, then she'll leave him behind, and take Naruto's training in her own hands.
The silence was tense, not a word spoken, not a sound made. The only thing you could hear was the occasional glitch in the scenery; the rustling of the leaves from the sometimes wind.
She glanced at Naruto, and he returned her stare, exasperation and impatience, yet muted by determination, settling on his features. She turned her head sharply back to the clearing as a more deliberate rustling was made; looks like Sasuke was the first to lose patience.
He came jumping out of the shrubs, and Sakura felt her heart momentarily stop. This had to go perfectly. He had to be subdued. What changes would be made now that she changed the events? Naruto wasn't supposed to hide in the first place; what will happen?
"Shinobi Lessons Number One: Taijutsu."
She was snapped out of her reverie by Kakashi-sensei's—its sensei now, she must remember that—lazy drawl, as he blocked Sasuke's moves one by one, book momentarily forgotten. To her immense relief, it happened just it it had last time, Sasuke's fingers momentarily grazing the silver bells, the widening of Kakashi sensei's eyes as he pulled him into the ground to go look for his other students-to-be.
'That will have to wait,'
she thought snidely as she gave Naruto the signal to produce the clones. Two shadow clones silently popped into existence, before a transformation was put on them, one turning into Sakura, and a slightly disheveled Naruto.
She gave the clones the signal as she felt Kakashi's signature relax, he had picked up on them. They'll have just enough time to see if Plan A's a hit or miss.
Hopefully a hit.
The real Naruto and Sakura kept themselves hidden, and slinked through the foliage silently, only to emerge just out of the vision of one neck-deep Uchiha Sasuke.
He was fuming quietly, and didn't pick up on them. Soon, the pinkette was directly behind him and he hadn't had a clue.
'How should I go about this..'
She pondered silently. She wanted to let them see a glimpse of her potential, nothing too advanced that she shouldn't know.
Maybe wrap a bandage around his mouth? Knock him out? She can't forget she's on a time limit..something extremely rookie...so...
She quickly shoved her hands against his mouth before he knew what was happening, and had Naruto digging him out. He struggled to no avail, and soon they had him tied up behind a large amount of greenery, convulsing and shouting muffled curses.
She and Naruto looked on without a hint of guilt, or just Naruto, she forced an uneasy expression on her face. Just keep this up till Wave, was her mantra so she didn't turn green.
She ripped her hands off his mouth and noticed a light pink tint on his cheeks.
'Must be because of the lack of oxygen,'
She told herself, and stuck with it.
"WHAT are you-"
"Shut up and hear us out, Sasuke-TEME!"
"Dobe"
"Aargh!"
"Ssh!"
She slammed her palm back over the raven's mouth, and gave the motions that she was about to speak.
"Sasuke-kun, doesn't this test seem a bit weird to you?"
'I'll start out slow, hopefully he'll take the hint.'
He glared heatedly at her, and looked mildly surprised when she brushed it off with a bit of forced effort.
"How can we, rookies, beat an Ex-ANBU Captain? The answer is simple; we can't. And he clearly doesn't expect us to. Beat him on our own or working together might not happen, but taking the bells...?"
She let her statement hang in the air, and watched a look of contemplation flash briefly into his eyes before it was clouded almost immediately by arrogance. She slowly removed her hand from his mouth to let him speak. He sneered at her briefly before answering.
"You I can work with, but the dobe will just slow me down. And even you are dead weight. I can do this on my own."
"And how do you expect to do that? He beat you once; what makes you think he can't beat you again?"
In a moment of rare wiseness from Naruto, Sasuke finally caved. As in, scoffed and turned his head. But she learned to interpret him and that means he was listening. She hid a brief smirk and leaned closer to the two.
"So here's the plan.."
She reached her chakra out and felt around for the boys' signatures, finding Sasuke's, feeling like ozone and cold fire, across from her in the large space between the her bushel, the grassy clearing and his, and found Naruto's, feeling like sunshine and optimism, above them in the trees, all of them hiding their chakra.
She knew the clones were already gone, most likely after Kakashi had underestimated her by leaps and bounds (though she couldn't really blame him), and landed a fierce hit on the Naruto clone. She could feel his chakra out, like a lazy river, agitated and slightly surprised.
He had to put in more work than he thought necessary and that irritated him, most like.
She saw him come back into the clearing and tensed, felt the boys' chakra signatures, while nearly undetectable after her brief tutoring session, still and stiffen.
"So, who's next? Or are you all going back to the Academy?" Kakashi accused, though she brushed it off, having taken this test officially three times.
She made the signal for them to start; a single cherry blossom petal floating through the air leisurely. She felt their signatures relax and hers tense up, for as soon as it hit the ground the grassy area was flooded in shadow clones, many transformed to look like Sakura and Sasuke, the rest like Naruto, and they charged him.
She reveled in the feeling of his chakra jumping, though he wasn't startled.
The three to-be genins of Team 7 stalked into the crowd unnoticed, and discreetly Subsituted themselves with the clones, getting closer and closer to the busy body of their teacher. As soon as they were close enough they continued their charging, Kakashi luckily not noticing the difference till he slashed at them without remorse and they didn't disappear. His eyes widened as Naruto and Sakura tackled him, taking the gash in full stride while Sasuke sidestepped and grabbed the bells.
He rolled to the side for a while, before coming to a stop on his back, breathing heavily by the continual loss of chakra.
Naruto was holding onto the slightly deep cut on his forearm, though it was nothing compared to what Sakura purposely threw herself in the way for, knowing what would happen.
Here was a clean and a bit deep gash running from her left forearm to her right hip, and she had to force herself to stop the impulse to inject medical chakra immediately.
'Speaking of which, we still haven't tested out all our tricks.'
'Mm. Yeah, I gotta get to that sometime before Wave.'
She held her mouth open in a genuine silent scream, the adrenaline slowly but surely leaving her system, leaving pain. Not unimaginable pain, but pain nonetheless.
Kakashi jumped to his feet in a blink, and had Sakura in his arms and running to the hospital and soon the boys were dashing after them.
'This could be my chance to show my interest in medical justu, if those nurses do what is expected of them.'
Soon she found herself seated in a hospital bed, a brunette and easily forgettable medic-nin tending to her slash with glowing green hands.
She looked on with awe as the nurse mended her broken skin, and replaced the missing cells. Not too long after, she was done. Sakura noticed Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi sitting in chairs on the opposite side of her bed, the latter wearing a look of guilt that she managed to pick up with less than a fifth of his face showing.
She smiled kindly at him, a reassuring smile. She watched his eye turn up in relief.
"So...did we pass?" She asked timidly.
"We? Who gets the bells?" He added, to assure himself of his new team.
She watched in shock as Sasuke dropped one into an unsuspecting Naruto's lap, and the other tossed onto her bed.
"Hn, I did the least. They deserve them."
"HEH?! WE WOULDNT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO IT WITHOUT YOU GRABBING THE DARN THINGS!"
"I did the least. I literally got in the way. Naruto was the distraction and Sasuke-kun was the execution, I didn't do much."
"You were the one who came up with the plan in the first place."
"YEAH, WHAT TEME SAID!"
"Inside voices, Naruto."
"Hn, Dobe."
"GRR..hmph!"
She watched Kakashi-sensei's eye shine with happiness. Maybe he'll actually be happy with this team.
"You all pass."
"Hey, Sakura-Chan, wanna go on a date with me?"
She froze at the familiar question, and turned a sympathetic glance towards Naruto. The three new Genin were back at the Training Grounds, collecting any stray weapons or cleaning up unused traps.
Naruto has gotten tangled in rope for the third time now, with the same stupid grin on his face.
Sasuke worked in complete silence, but his stature told her he was pleased.
"Sorry Naruto, but instead what if we all go out for a group dinner? We're a team now, and we should get to know each other. What do you say?"
"With that brooding TEME?"
"Don't be too rude, Naruto. Sasuke-kun? Would you like to join our group outing? Or are you busy?"
"Hn. You're annoying. I have training to do."
"Want me to help?"
She asked absentmindedly; she didn't even take her focus off her cleaning of the stray kunai. She didn't mean for it to come out of her mouth, but her brain caught up with her much too late and she kept working while the other two stared at her incredulously. Soon she abruptly stopped and realized that was out of character.
The pinkette felt her face heat up, but she didn't take her eyes off her work. "N..never mind. You're never interested anyway."
She mumbled the last part under her breath quietly but loud enough to be in their earshot. Well, maybe just Sasuke. Either way he just scoffed and walked away. She forced a look of disappointment on her face before 'remembering' her awaiting dinner with Naruto.
She gave him an excited smile. "Let's hurry up, shall we? Don't want to stay out too late at Ichiraku's." She could tell he was confused at her sudden change in attitude towards him but she also saw how he planned to milk it till it went dry, which it inevitably will, right?
To this day, she still doesn't know what he saw in her. Just an average, failure of a kunoichi.
And really, that will never change. Her future will be riddled in times with her working in the darkness, Naruto and Sasuke putting up appearances in the light as she struggles to fix what went wrong.
Because really, what other way will it go? She is a failure; plain and simple. She will die protecting her country even if she is never recognized.
"AH! OF COURSE! Lets hurry, hurry HURRY!"
She watched him enthusiastically snatch up the kunai in order to eat food with her faster. She smiled forcefully and speedily handled her weapons, slipping them into her much happier weapons pouch.
'I've got my work cut out for me. While I wait, might as well get one thing done.'
'Soon, we must seek out Itachi.'
"You ready to go, Naruto?"
"Mhmm! Let's head out, Sakura-Chan!"
They both scrambled to their feet and Sakura momentarily pushed her weighing thoughts out of the way, and let a smile creep onto her face.
She can indulge in this just a little while, can't she?
Was it it good? It was shorter than the others but in the next goal is the Wave Arc and if I'm feeling motivated enough, finishing it. Though I probably won't. Hope you enjoyed! Leave a like, leave a comment, leave a review, or just leave. Give me your take on the story progression though!
I need some suggestions on what you'd like to see in future chapters, future events you'd like to include in this, future plot twists and stuff like that so I can prepare beforehand and not skewer the plot.
Sorry about any spelling errors or stuff like that. Don't forget, i'm still just a kid.