Sakura thought her chakra reserves enhancing training was finally complete. She didn't think they would grow much more even if she kept all the exercises she had taken up over a year ago and it started to feel pointless to send her clone away every night. Both her control and her reserves had grown and it was refreshing to say she was satisfied with the results.
She would never be a power house like some of her peers but she had more than enough to stand by their side. It was all about control, really, and that she had plenty to go around.
Things had been calm for a while. She still woke up screaming most nights and, particularly when Tsunade wasn't home, spiraled down a dark path in which she barely recognized where she was from time to time. Her coping mechanism had so far been ignoring it ever happened and it was kind of working.
After an adjustment period, the Rookie 9 and Team Guy had managed to meet up more often and while Sakura didn't really participate in many of their gatherings, she did manage to maintain her friendship with Lee, Tenten and, of course, Ino. Her training partners always made sure to include her on some of their training sessions when they were all in the village and once in a while, Tenten would join Ino in forcing her to some girls night. Sometimes even Hinata was present and they had agreed on having sleepovers whenever they could.
Sakura just made sure she never actually fell asleep during those.
The missions and training were still taking up a lot of her time, but she had managed to let herself be lulled into a sort-of-but-not-really routine. The day she realized that was the day she decided to change her training methods. She wouldn't get ready for Naruto's return if she got complacent.
So she decided to try something different. On a cloudy afternoon, Sakura headed to one of the Senju training grounds and created a clone, this one more resistant than the ones she used for practicing clone reach. When the rain came, she took to the trees and hid herself. She played a game of cat and mouse with herself until inevitably her clone won and they started sparring.
Sparring, perhaps, was putting it lightly. Since the clone was more resistant, it could take a few hits before it disappeared and Sakura used that opportunity to go full out. She used every one of her nastier genjutsu and didn't hold back on any chakra enhanced physical attacks. It was definitely something she could never practice with her usual sparring partners so these sessions were often destructive and left her completely wringed out.
She couldn't take much from fighting against an 'enemy' that had the same skill level and moves as herself but she had learned a lot. After fighting herself for so long, it had become quite easy to stablish her tells and quirks and, after that, to get rid of them. Tenten had noted how unpredictable she'd become and how much that could help her in the field.
Sometimes she felt chakra signatures around the training fields but she just steered clear of them and kept to the ones that were vacant, her own chakra always halfway covered.
It came as a complete surprise, naturally, when one of her training sessions with herself got interrupted by a loud whistle.
"Am I drunk or is there really two of you?" A man asked from the shadows.
Sakura immediately turned towards him, her hand unsheathing the tantou at her back and her clone tightening her fists. A tall jounin wearing a bandana-style hitai-ate came out into the clearing, his hands in the air and… was that a senbon on his lips?
She heard him muttering something like, "How did I not know there were pink-headed twins in the village?" before he took a few steps closer. Sakura bared her teeth.
"What are you doing here?" She asked him and was glad to see him heading her silent warning and stopping where he was.
"I was looking for an empty training ground." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Anbu training grounds are always better for night practices. I'm pretty sure you're not Anbu, though, so that begs the question of what you're doing here."
He still looked laid back, as if he didn't really care what her answer was but something about the way he kept his eyes trained on her let her know he was ready to fight her depending on her answer.
"Anbu training grounds?" Sakura couldn't help but frown at that. "This isn't Anbu training grounds. I live here."
"You live he-" His eyebrows rose high. "Oh… Oh." The man scratched his jaw. "I remember you now. Though the last time I saw you, you had considerably less clothes and was covered in blood. You're Haruno Sakura, right? Kakashi's kid and the Godaime's apprentice."
"I'm not Kakashi's anything." Sakura raised her chin at him and sheathed her blade. She remembered him from her first mission as a chunin, the shinobi who had cut off the head of the missing nin, and could now fill in some of his features that were hidden by the lack of light. "It's rude not to introduce yourself when you're in someone else's backyard, you know. Specially if you already know their name."
The man smirked at her and came closer into the spot she was standing where the moon illuminated the grass.
"Shiranui Genma, darling." He gave her a two-finger salute. "And this isn't your backyard. The Senju have let Anbu use these grounds for training for over two decades now."
Sakura copied his shrug, her heart racing a bit at the possibility of him causing her any trouble because she was basically trespassing on Anbu territory. It wasn't her fault that there weren't any signs that she was leaving her compound and entering the shadow corps domain. Really, they ought to be more attentive.
"No one has ever complained about me being here before." Was the best she could do.
"I suppose that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you're masking most of your chakra?" Genma raised an eyebrow at her but he still looked more amused than anything else.
Sakura found herself wanting to return his grin but fought against it and shrugged once more in response. His observation confirmed her suspicions that he was a very skilled shinobi. His confusion about there being two of her had only been a ruse and she knew that now.
"If this is Anbu grounds than why aren't you wearing the uniform, Shiranui-san?" Sakura redirected the conversation towards him instead of confirming his accusation.
"I don't want any of that reverence bullshit, kid." He waved his hand dismissively but Sakura didn't miss the fact that he was also not answering her question. "It's Genma."
Sakura narrowed her eyes at the man. She had long since determined he wasn't a threat in any way and had seemed to enjoy a joke so letting Inner take over seemed alright with him.
"I'm not a kid, jiji."
Genma blinked at her for a second before throwing his head back and laughing. It was the sort of laugh that one would think was carefree but Sakura could see from the way he kept his eyes open and the hand that went to his stomach that was poised just that bit closer to his hip pouch that he was still ready to fight at a moment's notice. She knew it wasn't about her, though. He looked to be around Asuma's age and that would make him around the age that everybody went to fight the Third War.
She knew the shinobi around his age had joined the battlefield younger than she had graduated the Academy and she assumed that had left some marks. Not being able to relax, even while in the village, was an expected outcome. There was a reason most of the shinobi from that generation wore their uniforms constantly.
"I like you, Blossom." His smirk was as rugged as his laugh. He pointed his chin towards her tantou. "Do you know how to use that blade or is it just for show?"
Sakura's eyebrow twitched at the nickname and she narrowed her eyes at him, her own grin stretching across her face just before her clone moved in front of her and dispelled itself with an unnecessarily large cloud of smoke. She used the cover to move forward, chakra enhanced muscles propelling her forward in a fast shunshin while she unsheathed her tantou once again and brought it up to meet his neck.
The clash of metal on metal was enough to get her blood singing and she couldn't help the way her smile widened when the smoke cleared and she could see his face once again.
"Wanna find out?"
It was an unnecessary question because Genma was already moving towards her, his own tantou matching hers blow for blow in a fight that seemed more like a dance. She knew they were both holding back, testing each other's limits and reach but it was still exhilarating.
"You're good, Flower."
A vicious swipe to his neck.
"Your footwork and hold are solid and you're fast." They both paused on opposite sides of the training ground, blades still held in the air as Genma looked at her head on. "Tell you what. If you can hold yourself against me until midnight, you got yourself a new sparring partner. Nothing else but our blades are allowed." He gave a pointed look to the craters and ruined trees she had left behind.
Sakura didn't say anything. She lowered her center of mass by bending her knees and spreading her feet, twirled her tantou on her hand to better grip it and when he said, "Go," she was already halfway across the training ground.
He never really thought much of medic-nin.
During the war there had always been a constant need for them and what he remembered from that horrible, dark time was begging the skies for someone to stench the bleeding on his comrade's bodies. He remembered how desperation sunk in when the squad he was in had been attacked and the first to be targeted was the sweet girl he'd been flirting with for the past few weeks. Medic skirts and pouches were as good as bullseyes paint in the battlefield and her head flying was a scene that still haunted his nights, well over a decade later.
For quite some time, he'd really believed that iryo-nin were, well, a bit useless to be honest.
Every single one he had come in contact with the exception of the Hokage and Shizune had been so focused on their training that they had left the ninja part of 'medic-nin' aside and the result was a ninja that became a liability in the field. He didn't make it a habit to request a medic on his missions, even if they were dangerous.
This time, though.
"I need Shizune on this." Genma's voice was hoarse and he knew the team behind him stiffened in response to the heavy feel of the room. He didn't care to comfort them at the moment.
"She's in a mission, brat," the Hokage spoke harshly in response to his lack of deference but her eyes held such sadness that he had to look away. She knew all too well what he was feeling and Genma was all too aware of it. "It shouldn't take long to finish but it would still take some time for her to reach Grass and time is something we can't spare at the moment."
She was right and he hated her for it. Their information was fresh, a distress message sent as one of Anko's snakes straight to the Hokage. Her team had been captured by the same syndicate they'd been trying to shut down in the border between Iwa and Grass and they were requesting backup. The message had taken three days to get to Konoha and it would take two more for them to reach Kusa. There was no time to wait for Shizune.
Genma fought a shiver.
He didn't normally request a medic-nin for missions, that much was true. But today he would because when it came to his friends, Genma was not one to fuck around.
"Haruno Sakura," he spoke up, lifting his head and looking his Hokage in the eyes as if he wasn't asking her to send her pseudo-daughter on an A-Rank mission that bordered on Anbu level. His team — Aoba and Raido, ever there by his side — had been specifically set up so that they could work like the well-oiled machine they were, all of them elite jounin. Adding chunin Haruno would be like asking for her to go on a suicide mission.
If he didn't know better, that is.
Because no matter all his previous opinions on medic-nins, Sakura had managed to break them all down with her little chakra infused fists. From that first night they had met on Anbu training grounds and throughout the few months ever since, she had proven herself as a skilled fighter. She still had some work to do to get an elite status but the girl was good.
Another shiver was forced down, this time one of unease. While he knew she was the obvious choice, Genma still worried. Haruno Sakura, despite her age, had become more than just an occasional training partner for him. There had been moments of respite between trading blows in which they'd gotten to talk and he realized that the girl had a dry sense of humor that bordered on dark and somehow connected with his.
They had met from time to time around the village and her pink hair had become a constant in his life in the past weeks. And now he was specifically requesting her for a mission that she might not have the skill to complete.
He opened his mouth to back down, go back on his request and hope everyone forgot it ever happened, when a knock on the door interrupted him.
"Enter," Tsunade yelled.
"You sent for me, Shishou?" To Genma's horror, Sakura strode into the room, her pink hair neatly tied in its usual braid, her altered uniform neat and all her weapons present. Genma watched as she nodded to his squad before clearing his throat.
"Sakura," he greeted her with a slight nod and her eyes narrowed in response. He didn't use her name often, preferred to call her stupid nicknames that always got a rise out of her and suffering through the 'old man' jibes she sent back his way, so he knew she recognized the gravity of the situation immediately.
Tsunade sent the scroll flying Sakura's way and she caught it flawlessly before reading it quickly.
"Fuck," she breathed out, her eyes moving over the page so fast he had a hard time thinking she read it all. "Does Iwa know, yet?"
It was like the air had been punched out of his lungs.
He had been so worried about Anko and the squad she had taken with her that he hadn't even considered the implications of having Konoha nin being held hostage by a missing nin compound in the border with Iwa. By the sharp intake of breath coming from his friends, he figured they'd failed to think of that too. Five seconds in and Sakura was already being a better jounin than them. They had to pull their heads out of their asses if they wanted to complete this mission. Fast.
"Not yet," Tsunade sighed and massaged her temples. "It won't be long before word gets to them, so time is of essence here." Tsunade leveled her gaze on her apprentice. "This is an A-Rank mission that I wouldn't usually send a chunin to, Sakura. Be careful."
Sakura nodded. "Not my first A-Rank, Shishou," she tried to assure her, "not even the highest ranked mission I've taken."
Despite the situation, Genma found himself curious at hearing those words.
"Damnit, Sakura!" The Hokage raised herself from her chair by slapping her hands on the table. "This isn't an accidental S-Rank. This is an official A-Rank that borders on Anbu level. You wouldn't be sent if Shizune was in the village. This mission is beyond your skillset and you'll do well to remember that. Don't be reckless."
Sakura didn't glare or shout insults at the Hokage like he expected of a fourteen-year-old. Instead, her expression blanked for a second before she nodded perfunctorily at the Hokage and turned back towards him.
"I need to get my medical equipment from my house, taichou." Her voice was as shuttered and contained as her expression.
"That's fine." He cleared his throat and stood up straighter. "We'll all meet up there in fifteen minutes and use training grounds 67 as an exit."
"Team Genma," the Hokage said, her eyes grave and mouth pinched, "be careful."
"Hokage-sama," Genma, Aoba and Raido said at the same time but Sakura only smiled gently at her master.
"I'll see you when I get back, Shishou." Sakura's big green eyes shinned mischievously but behind it something gentle and scared could be seen. "Don't let the council drive you crazy without me here, okay?"
Genma didn't know how to feel about Sakura coming with them on such a dangerous and sensitive mission. He felt more anxious than before, the responsibility for his friend's lives sitting heavily on his shoulders, but he couldn't help but relax just the tiniest bit when he remembered the slight green tone Sakura's hands took whenever she healed him after a sparring session.
He couldn't predict how Sakura would handle this mission, but he knew that with her around them, Anko's chances of survival no matter what she had gone through while being held captive, had just raised tenfold.
Sooooo, our surprise character is my boyo Genma! I absolutely love him and had some unexpected fun writing from his perspective, next chapter will have some more of that ;)
About the chakra exercises. I believe it's about time Sakura reached the point where her reserves won't be doing any significant growing. My personal theory is that it works just like our body, we have growing spurts around puberty and keep on growing (even if very little) until we're about 25. Only, I'd reckon it'd be earlier, say around 20, in the Naruto world. My Sakura is almost completely mature at this point, if you remember my other theory about how ninja grow up earlier than we do due to stress and other stimuli. A fourteen-year-old ninja would naturally be more physically and mentally mature than a fourteen-year-old irl. At this point in the story, Sakura is coming into herself and has developed into a very assertive young adult who has her own set of morals and loyalty. She's becoming more confident in her abilities everyday and is starting to see how successful she really is. I love writing this.
Next chapter we'll have the first part of the mission! I hope you guys enjoyed this. Please let me know what you think and help make my last days at uni feel a little bit less like death.