"Suna's council sent you a thank you letter and payment for an A-rank mission." Tsunade-sama said as soon as Sakura entered her office. "Under your mission records an ANBU-type has been added."
"What?" Sakura exclaimed before she could help herself.
The Godaime sighed.
"They don't really have a closed ANBU system like we do, just ANBU-type missions. For how you handled the first missing-nin that attacked you, successfully extracted information from them on field and then proceeded to exterminate their hideout, you now have a foreign ANBU status."
Tsunade-sama sounded resigned if a little surprised but Sakura couldn't focus on deciphering her Hokage's microexpressions. Suna ANBU-type missions? What would happen to her mission roster here in Konoha? Would she have to go to ANBU here now? She voiced her questions hurriedly, almost not registering the words out of her mouth.
"There will be certain changes," the Hokage's eyes softened with something like regret. "You are now on Suna's Bingo Book like all their ANBU-type ninjas are so you'll get a bit more recognition outside but I asked them to explicitly put your rank as chuunin in Konoha so your bounty shouldn't be high." She crossed her hands together. "Apart from a bonus, Konoha won't be changing anything more for you, Haruno. It's bad enough that you had to go through a mission like this so young, I don't want this to escalate into something else."
Sakura knew what that meant. Historically, civilian born ninja like her that manage to get people's attention were often scaled for more dangerous missions. Seduction missions, ANBU missions that were too suicidal to consider sending a clan kid. Lower branch's and civilians were the ones who most took missions like that and Sakura had just proved that she could do it.
Despite the Hokage's assurance, Sakura couldn't risk being lost to the system like that. She had to stay where she was and alive if she wanted to protect her friends. Whatever doubts and insecurities that clouded her mind were pushed to the side as she bowed low to her Hokage and spoke clearly.
"Godaime-sama, please teach me everything you know."
Sakura counted a minute before the Hokage asked, "Why?"
Still holding her bow, Sakura replied.
"I want to protect my friends. I need to protect them. I need to keep them safe and I can't do that if I don't have anyone to teach me how." Sakura remembered Tenten's words from earlier and hoped she didn't sound to cocky by repeating them. "I was the one with the best chakra control in my class, I can take anything you throw at me."
The words had been barely out of her mouth when her senses caught the telltale sounds of an object moving fast towards her. Sakura ducked instinctively and a second later the wall behind her cracked, a paperweight embedded in it so deeply it had almost run through. From the height of it, she was sure it would have hit her right on the forehead and the impact would have been enough to kill her.
Sakura also knew that the Godaime had barely used any strength at all.
"I don't waste my times with losers." Tsunade-hime's voice was as sharp as her gaze when Sakura turned back to her, forcing her muscles to relax and not to look like she was ready to attack her Hokage. "If I take you in, there will be no quitting. You won't stop until I say you're done, you won't rest until I say you can rest and I won't take anything less than your hundred percent focus and effort."
"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Sakura bowed even lower, her heart thumping so hard she felt like it could rip her ribcage open any second.
She couldn't believe this was actually happening. Tsunade-hime, the female Sannin, the Godaime Hokage had just taken her in as a student. Sakura, the civilian nobody was going to be under the tutelage of this goddess of a woman.
"Call me Shishou." Tsunade sighed. "Maa, I really thought you would've asked me this earlier. I guess I owe Shizune now."
"Eh?" Sakura straightened her back to look at the blonde.
"The Hatake brat had suggested me to take you as an apprentice as soon as I got to the village." Tsunade shrugged. "He said you had the right skills and temperament for a med-nin."
"Oh," Sakura said.
It was somewhat surprising to hear that. Kakashi had never shown a particular interest in teaching her much of anything, she never would have thought that he would go as far as recommend her to one of the greatest kunoichi of all times. It was kind of overwhelming, the thought, and it kind of made her feel like a jerk for how she had yelled at him before.
"Why didn't you come sooner?" Tsunade asked her.
"I—I don't know," Sakura stuttered, unsure of how to deal with such a powerful woman's full undivided attention. "I never thought you would accept me as an apprentice. I'm just a civilian kid with no extraordinary skills to speak for…"
"Sakura," Tsunade barked, her beautiful features contorted into a deep frown. "When I accepted you as my apprentice in meant more than teaching you medical ninjutsu. It means teaching you everything I know, from combat skills to healing skills to political training. It means passing on my Will of Fire to you and I won't have my legacy be a quivering mess of a girl with low self-esteem."
Sakura could only gape at her. She was so surprised by the outburst that she could barely muster any indignation.
"From now on you will bow to no one. You will speak your mind and act like my apprentice, do you understand?"
"Hai, Shishou!" Sakura had enough presence of mind not to bend her back but she still nodded her head to her master. "I will not disappoint you."
"You haven't so far." The corner of Tsunade's lips lifted almost imperceptibly. "Your training begins now. Head towards the Hospital and find Shizune. Tell her you need access to medical tomes, she'll know which ones to give you. Next Saturday I will quiz you on what's on those books and if you pass, we'll begin the real training. Dismissed!"
By Thursday, Sakura was already bored out of her mind.
She had taken the medical tomes Shizune—the dangerous, soft-spoken woman that always accompanied the Hokage—had given her and read them all methodically. She worked out a nice little routine for herself and stuck to it until she could recite the new material on physiology and chakra manipulation by heart.
Sakura woke up every day to do the advanced workout Lee had set for her. Then she spent her morning reading and taking notes on the gigantic books. She had a pre-lunch spar with Tenten whenever they could and if the girl wasn't available, Sakura would bring flowers to Ino's bedside.
During the afternoons she would read some more before doing a late-night training session before bed. She also may or may not have spent a few sleepless nights on her books.
She couldn't help it if they were amazing.
Not only was it a completely new subject for her, which always excited her, the complexity of it appealed to the part of her that liked solving problems. It was incredible to discover just how much chakra could do.
It was reading Medical Ninjutsu Volume 1 that she found out she might have a problem in the future. The part of moulding her chakra and tuning it to other people's sounded hard but doable, what she feared most was that she wouldn't have enough chakra for it.
Her chakra reserves were average at best and she would be completely useless in the battlefield if she wasted all her chakra healing someone.
She had to do something about it. She just didn't know what. So Sakura did what she always did when she was stuck and didn't know what to do. She went to the library.
The genin at the desk directed her to a section of books on chakra theory and left her there. It was a bit of a stretch, she knew, but she refused to think that being born a civilian could cripple her so much.
Lee was doing fine, she reminded herself. But then Inner whispered, Lee doesn't use chakra, and she felt her hopes plummet.
Sakura didn't know how long she stood there, staring blankly at a page that could have been written in ancient codes for all she got from it. She couldn't let this bring her down. She wouldn't. Not when she had come so far.
Not when she had already bloodied her hands and used her body to get her where she was.
With renewed energies and a bitter sense of determination, Sakura powered through the books. When it was midnight and the library was closing, she booked out the two remaining tomes and left.
The track to her house was long, she had to go past all the central Konoha where most ninja lived to get to where the street market was and where most civilians gathered around. But Sakura barely noticed anything around her. Her feet guided her truthfully and left her eyes free to glide over the words and consume them like they were the air she needed to breathe.
"Sakura!" She heard her dad's voice just before his arms enveloped her. "We were so worried! Where have you been, young lady?"
Young lady, the words echoed in her head, as if she was five years old again and caught sneaking an umeboshi out of her mum's kitchen. As if she hadn't had a man's life on her hands and his last words be ones of spiteful hate because she had tortured him. As if she didn't know the feeling of having her best friend's blood covering her.
"Are you listening to me, Sakura?" Her mum had joined her dad in scolding her and she could vaguely remember being ushered inside the house. "Just because you are the Hokage's apprentice now doesn't mean you don't have to obey us still. You will be home every day by nine o'clock, young lady, or you will be sorry!"
"Just because I'm the Hokage's apprentice?" Sakura felt Inner taking over before she could so much as try and make sense of what was going on. "Why can't you understand how big a thing that is? Why can't you see how important it is for me? I need to dedicate myself as her student, okaa-san!"
"I'm not saying you don't but when it comes down to it, you're still a thirteen-year-old girl and my daughter!" Her mum exclaimed while her dad crossed his arms from behind her and they both stared her down.
"By the laws of Konoha I'm already an adult, mother!" Sakura glared at them, righteous anger coursing through her veins.
"While you're sleeping under our roof, you'll follow our rules." Her father finally spoke, staring down at her seriously. "Nine o'clock."
With an infuriated cry, Sakura threw her hands in the air and stormed up the stairs to her room. She didn't know how to deal with this.
She had always been the perfect daughter, never stepping the slightest bit out of line. The only thing Sakura could ever remember doing for herself and not because it was expected of her was entering the Academy, starting her career as a ninja, but even then, her parents had to sign a consent form.
She knew they had hoped she would quit the first time she took a punch to the face. That they still hoped she would give up being a ninja, especially now that Team 7 had disbanded. They had been counting on her giving up from the moment they signed the sheet when she was six years old.
What they didn't know was that she learned how to take a punch. In the Forest of Death she had taken hit after hit and still clung on to her enemy with sheer force of will, the same one she had seen in Naruto and admired so much.
She had learned from Sasuke that solitude only meant she would have more time to focus on her skills and Kakashi had taught her the importance of a team.
Sakura would fight for her boys until the bitter end. She would get strong enough to lift them both on her shoulders and carry the weight of their past for them. She would be there when they needed her to lean on and for that she couldn't let something as petty as a squabble with her parents get to her.
The answer to her problem came to her so suddenly, she almost fell out of bed with the force of her gasp.
Naruto's sunny face brought to mind not only his determination but his signature move. Kage Bunshin.
He had taken the one thing he just couldn't manage and mastered it and Sakura would do the same.
The books she had read so far seemed to be in a consensus that the easiest way to grow your chakra reserves, especially for someone her age, was to deplete them consistently. The clone would half her chakra immediately and she would still be able to work in some chakra control when trying to use as little as possible while creating and maintaining one.
She wondered how long she could keep a clone functioning and how far she could send it.
With an excited grin, Sakura formed the seals and focused her chakra. Exactly half of what she had, no more, no less. She wouldn't spend a single drop of it more than necessary.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"
It was with a low 'pop' that an exact replica of her jumped into existence. No smoke, no loud noise. She had done it.
"Yes!" She pumped her fist in the air before doing a shimmy. She couldn't believe it had actually worked. The focus she needed to maintain her clone was practically non-existent from this close, now she had to test out how far she could stretch their connection. "Walk slowly in the direction of the training fields, keep to the shadows."
Her clone blinked at her. "And what do you expect me to do until you lose your focus?"
Huh. It seemed her clone had an attitude. That was oddly offending.
"Take a book with you, brat." Sakura crossed her arms in front of her and her clone sent her a deadpan look before grabbing the last tome she had yet to read. It was a look that told Sakura exactly what the clone thought of her cursing at herself. "Go on, then."
"Roger that!" Her clone saluted her mockingly before jumping out of her window, the soft sound of her feet hitting the ground echoing loudly for Sakura. She hoped her parents didn't hear anything.
Sakura sat on her bed and closed her eyes. It was easy so far to keep her chakra steady and fluid enough to maintain her clone but she knew the further away it got from her, the harder it would be. She picked up her book and went back to her reading.
It was hard work, keeping her focus both on what she was reading and on her chakra fluctuations. She usually would have read at least a few chapters by now but her clone had almost left her neighbourhood and it was increasingly hard to keep it up.
She was sweating now. Her breath was laboured and she could barely read the words on the paper anymore. Reaching so far was hard.
The moment her clone stepped into the main street, she almost lost her hold of it. She could feel it immediately taking a step back, the connection not as strained, before it gradually loosened until her clone was climbing through the window. With another quick salute, the clone popped out of existence and the book it was holding, fell to the floor with a thud that echoed inside her head.
Sakura gasped with the intensity of information coming back to her. She tipped to the side and stayed still as her vision blurred with past and present sensations.
She could feel the ground beneath the soles of her sandals and she could feel the cool breeze of the night but most of all she could see all the words of the chakra control book her clone had been reading. The way she processed things and thoughts made sure the words and the meaning behind them were forever ingrained in her brain but having them coming back to her as they were, so fast, was like a thousand punches to her head.
Sakura gasped for a few moments, her eyes scrunched closed and head pounding before it dawned on her.
Her clone's experiences had come back to her. If she could manage to keep it up for long enough, even if only for more than half an hour, she would be able to increase her learning capacity. It would also be the best chakra control exercise she could do without the fear of potentially harming herself, especially because she had no one to oversee this kind of training.
The downside of all this, at the moment, was that while her clone had been able to focus on her book normally, Sakura herself had at least halved her concentration. So far, the experiment was useless because even if she did double her learning capacity for the ten minutes it took her clone to reach her limits, her own capacity dropped drastically.
So maybe, for now, it would be best if she didn't focus her training on sending her clone further away. Maybe she could start with something small while she read the materials Tsunade-shishou sends her. Something like tree walking.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Sakura said, focusing yet again to use exactly half her chakra reserves.
Her clone appeared with a pop and echoed her grin. She now had a little less than a fourth of her chakra reserves.
"Yosh." Sakura got up from her bed and pointed at the wall her bed was leaning against. "Sit down on it and read as much as you can. When you start feeling sleepy, do some sit ups without breaking the connection with the wall."
"Hai!" Her clone jumped straight to the wall and sat down just as she told it to.
Sakura took a few steadying breaths before doing the same. It was harder to do this than she expected but after a while of matching her chakra flow to her clone's and attaching herself to the wall, she managed to fall into some sort of meditative state that made it easier to read the words on her book.
The chakra control took a place on the back of her head while she read and before she knew it, three hours had passed. Her chakra levels had dropped so much she had barely any to stay sitting like she was and she simply left the connection go, falling to her bed in an exhausted heap.
She released her clone almost as an afterthought and with a gasp, received its experiences. Naturally, it was all too much and before Sakura could even comprehend what had happened, she passed out.
Yo! I'm back. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Life is going to get a bit harder pretty soon because I'm back at looking for places to rent and better paying jobs while catching up on my assignments and my mom is visiting me soon BUT I was thinking for quite some time of setting up a posting deadline for myself. So, you guys can expect a new chapter every second and last weekend of the month, roughly. As I go along, I'll try to update more often, especially the next few chapters which will be very training heavy and which will contain quite a few time jumps. I know those can get confusing if updates are too far between, so let me know if you have any questions, 'kay?
Btw, chapter's title comes from the anime episode Sakura's Determination.
I can't express in words how your reviews/kudos/bookmarks make me happy. Truly.
I don't know if many of you follow me on Tumblr (s-scorpiusmlfy) but there was a comment there that just made me break down crying in the middle of the tram, it was ridiculous, but that's how you guys make me feel. This chapter was dedicated to you amibadwolf and all the people who left me a comment and made me smile on shitty days.
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