Chrysalis, a naruto fanfic

Summary:

While in the academy, Sakura Haruno discovers that she can make her Earth-natured chakra into quartz crystals. So begins Sakura's foray into making her own crystal manipulation jutsus that she soon calls "Crystal Style". (Eventual Crystal Release Sakura)

The ninja section of the public library was Sakura Haruno's favorite place in Konoha. She was still just an academy student, not allowed to the more classified sections of the library that were all in the upper floors, but she still marvelled at the amount of information that the two lower floors available to her held.

The field of medicine in particular had appeared to have no classified sections. She was still surprised to see chuunin and jounin in the Academy floors, studying grown up anatomy books. But the way the library worked was that the content was separated not by the age of the person in question, but by how classified and secret the information in the books were. Medical books were allowed for Academy Students and up. So was all sorts of E-rank and D-rank jutsu, if you had the proper documentation.

Luckily, her parents were chuunin. She only had to ask them about accessing the D-rank and E-Rank jutsu portion of the Academy section in the library and they agreed to help her get the permits. With certain conditions of course. She couldn't practice using jutsu unless she were in the presence of her mother, father, or older brother. Chakra Exhaustion was dangerous, after all. Also, they didn't want her to use the jutsu for nefarious purposes, so if she ever tried to break rules with them, then her permit would be revoked.

So Sakura studied. There was so much information she wanted to possess. She in particular had become interested in genjutsu and medical ninjutsu ever since she learned that both required excellent chakra control. Chakra control was one of the areas she excelled in. So she eagerly read books on both things.

But there was a third subject that Sakura had always been interested in. Sakura had become fascinated with the idea of elemental jutsu. Earth in particular, because she would have loved having some control over plants or flowers. Unfortunately, only Mokuton could do that, and Mokuton was a combined nature transformation kekkei genkai that had yet to be successfully recreated. Then, she learned that Earth Release could create low-grade bits of quartz, gems, and other minerals. It required an inhuman level of chakra control and focus though and was an extremely rare ability. But now she had an idea--an idea for her own secret technique.

So this was the reason why she had gathered all the books on the basics of Earth Release on her table. And, since they can't borrow books, and could only read them in the library, she decided to write down in her journal the steps on how best to access Earth Release as well as writing down the steps for executing one D-rank Earth jutsu.

With that done, she left the library and went home. Eager to try out her new jutsu.

Luckily, her mother was making dinner in the kitchen. She only had to ask and her mother agreed to also keep an eye on her while she tried out her jutsu.

First step in assessing elemental ninjutsu was to meditate. Sakura sat, cross-legged, in the grass of her yard, her mother just a window away, and made the hand seal for Earth Release, which was the Snake seal. She concentrated on making Earth style chakra inside her body. It took her a long time to do. She kept making small mistakes or losing her concentration. But eventually, she managed to get her hands to glow in the brown color of Earth style chakra.

The first jutsu she wanted to master was the earth clone. Earth Clones are not illusory clones, but golems of earth made to look like the caster. Unlike the illusory clone jutsu learned in the academy, earth clones can actually hit people and cast shadows. They cannot cast jutsu, so the clones are stuck attacking only with taijutsu or the weapons they have on hand.

One earth clone would cost about a third of her chakra. She technically had two tries to perform the jutsu, leaving her with some chakra points left over to not be chakra exhausted.

She managed to make a clone on her first try. Unfortunately, the clone she made didn't look enough like her, instead looking like a brown-colored version of her. Still, when she poked it, it was sturdy enough. Testing its durability, she decided to punch it, but it felt like she was punching stone. Immediately, she yelped and fluttered her hand in a vain attempt to dissipate the pain.

"Ow," she said tearfully. And glared at the clone when the clone laughed at her. Taking out a kunai, she stabbed the clone infront of her. That did the trick. The clone disintegrated into small rocks and boulders. And now she had a rough idea on her clone's durability.

Then, she noticed something in the rocks that caught her eye. Pink crystals the size of her nails. They looked roughly like bits of quartz and gems. Immediately, she got an idea. What if she made a clone entirely of crystals? After all, minerals and gems were also part of Earth, right? The book had mentioned this was extremely hard to do, but she wanted to give it a try.

She concentrated, tongue sticking out of her mouth, as her hands clasped together in the snake seal. This time it costs her a bit more than a third of her chakra and the result isn't what she expected. Clone Sakura doesn't look remotely like her, instead it is a humanoid golem that is made up of splotches of crystal and splotches of rock.

Tentatively, she again tests out the clone's durability and is pleasantly surprised. It can take a punch, and only kunai and shuriken seem to puncture through the portions made of rock. The crystal parts are even harder to break, to the point where it took a chakra-enhanced lunge with a kunai to break it.

Sakura considers her results. Obviously, the crystal material is superior to the earth material of the clone. If she is able to make a pure crystal clone that looked like her… well, the possibilities were endless.

Unfortunately, she now exhausted her chakra, only having a measly bit left. That means no more attempts on making clones and no more casting of elemental jutsu.

Glancing at the clock, it was now two in the afternoon. She should get back in the house for lunch now anyway.

When she returned to the house, she found her older brother Ichigo sitting in the kitchen, eating some onigiri. That's when she remembered something.

"Weren't you going to take me to the weapons shop this weekend?" Sakura asked, as she stole an onigiri from her brother's plate. She took a bite off it quickly, before he could steal it back.

He looked at his stolen onigiri with a mournful expression.

"Aniki!" she said, when he didn't respond right away.

"I thought you'd forgotten. You were gone all day today and seemed busy a day before that."

"I was busy training. I have time now, if you do," she replied.

"I do happen to have this afternoon free. And I should probably buy some stuff there anyway. " He said.

"I actually had to throw kunai and shuriken for a test. I wasn't very good at it though. None of them hit the bullseye."

He nods. "It takes practice to become good."

"Can you also teach me how to throw shuriken and kunai properly?" she asked hopefully.

"You're supposed to learn that in the Academy," he said at once. "I'm not exactly swimming in free time either," he told her.

"Just for 15 minutes," Sakura bargained, "all I need is someone to point out what I'm doing wrong."

He sighs and looking aggrieved, he said, "Okay, I'll help you. "

Sakura hugged him spontaneously and he ruffled her hair.

They walked to the main merchant district and then to a shop called Yamamoto Shinobi Weapons Store.

"How may I help you today?" the clerk asked.

"I would like a set of kunai and shuriken for the lady next to me and for myself as well, " said Sakura's brother.

She nods and they follow her through the store and into the children's section. She hands them a set of kunai and shuriken for them to inspect.

"Hey, niisan. You are an expert in kenjutsu, aren't you?"

Sakura eyed a set of katana and wakizashi longingly. They looked so cool. They even had a cherry blossom motif in the handle!

"I am." Ichigo sounded wary and the clerk just grinned, knowing from experience where this was going. "And I'm already teaching you how to throw kunai and shuriken. You have to pick and choose which training you want more, imouto."

Sakura considered. But then tried to bargain. "Just show me the kata once and I'll do the rest. Promise."

He sighed. "Sakura-chan, please…"

"Please niisan," she gave him the puppy eyes. She only used them sparingly, but this situation definitely called for it.

"You'll need to practice with wooden ones first," he said, sounding tired.

Sakura giggled and bounced on her toes. "Yay! Can I have it be a daisho set, with a katana and wakizashi like a samurai? Samurai are so cool!"

"I thought you wanted to be a ninja," he said, his lips twitching in a suppressed smile as he nodded to the clerk. She handed him a wooden katana and wakizashi sword set that was about child size. He handed it to Sakura.

Sakura admired the twin wooden blades for a moment and smiled. "Perfect," she said. And then she looked at the cherry blossom motif katana and wakizashi set she was looking at before and declared-- "Soon. You will be mine." Inner Sakura began to cackle evilly in the background and she grinned in spite of herself, caught up in the mood of the moment.

Her brother bonked her on the head. "You're such a nerd sometimes," he said, rolling his eyes, but he is smiling.

Her brother got his own set of shuriken and kunai and paid for their purchases and they leave.

As soon as they get home, Sakura nags her brother to help her practice her kunai and shuriken throwing. She intended to use the yard for this, but her brother explained that this was a bad idea and it'd be better to book a training ground designed for shuriken and kunai throwing. They'd have targets set up already after all. He promised her that during the coming week he'd book a training ground for 2 hours so that she could practice. He'd suggested for her to make the most of her time there. After all, academy students couldn't book training grounds, only chunin and above could.

What he could do was teach her the kata for her double swords as well as help her with her taijutsu.

Soon enough, they were in the yard, as her brother taught her the basics of kenjutsu. First, he showed her the stances and katas, going in slow motion. Then he had her do them, also in slow motion. He corrected her stance multiple times until she could do the full round of kata without any mistakes.

He nodded in approval and, suddenly, he attacked her. Using the kata she memorized, she intercepted him. Sakura realized then that he was going at her speed and not the typical chuunin speed, in order for her to learn how to use her kata in real combat. They spent the next hour like that. Him attacking and her defending, her launching attacks and him expertly dodging.

After some time, her brother called her kenjutsu training to a halt and then they switched into training her in taijutsu.

Once again, she went through all the taijutsu katas in slow motion. Once again, he corrected her positioning. Then, once she could go through a full round of them at normal speed with no mistakes, he suddenly attacked her.

They spent the next hour like that. Sparring. And when it was over she was impressed at the results. Her taijutsu had improved by leaps and bounds.

"You should probably invest in weight training." He told her, once training had ended. "Your punches and kicks aren't very strong unless you chakra enhance them and that takes a split second of concentration on your part. A split second too long, in my opinion."

She nods, panting. Her brother smiled, ruffling her hair.

"You did good, imouto. I can tell you've been working hard at training. I'm a bit curious though. What motivates you to try so hard?"

She hesitates then, biting her lip.

"You know you can trust me, imouto."

She nods. It was true. If there was anyone she trusted in this world, it was definitely her older brother.

"Both mom and dad are ninja, you're a ninja, and from both sides of the family, we've been ninja for generations. But everyone acts like that doesn't matter. As if being a true ninja clan means having a dojutsu or a secret family technique. It just makes me mad…

"I want them to take my family seriously. I want them to look at me and take me seriously. They look at me and see pink hair and think I won't make it far. That I'd be a paper ninja at best. It just makes me mad and frustrated and I want to prove them wrong."

He looks at her then and smiles. It is both fond and proud. "I believe in you, Sakura. You will definitely prove them wrong."

…

The next day, she woke up early in the morning and worked on her katas for an hour or so. Then she did some weight-training with her mother's weights. Today would be the day that they would be doing Taijutsu spars in the Academy and she didn't want to get her butt kicked.

Sakura took a shower after her exercise and changed into her ninja outfit: a pastel pink hoodie with a white fur collar and the Haruno symbol on the back, a long-sleeved white shirt with pink stripes, and a black capri pants.

She styled her long hair in a french braid and then twisted the braid into a bun at her nape. That done, she ate some omurice her mother made for her for breakfast and then headed to the Academy.

Each day, the Academy started off with theory lessons and then, in the afternoon, went to the Academy training grounds to practice more practical skills.

Theory was Sakura's favorite portion of the Academy. She loved learning through books and found that, in general, she had an easy time remembering what she read or studied.

The hardest portion of the Academy for her was arguably the most important of being a shinobi: practical skills.

Still, she had been practicing her katas and had that sparring session with her brother. In this short time, she felt like she improved a bit. She just hoped it was enough to not get her butt kicked, but she supposed whether she got paired with an easy opponent was up to luck.

Sakura looked up when the teacher went to the front of the room. She spent the next four hours listening to lectures. She took lots of notes and ignored the spitballs that Ami shot at the back of her head. Ino was at her side, barely paying attention, and shooting messages to a girl next to her.

When Theory class ends, the Practical part begins. Like usual, Sakura is matched up to Ami in a taijutsu match.

They make the Seal of Confrontation.

Sakura is the first to attack once the teacher blows the whistle. Ami quickly recovers from her surprise and dodges. She then feints a kick which Sakura dodges and then kicks Sakura hard on the abdomen and Sakura drifts across the boundaries of the circle marked on the ground.

"Winner: Ami!" Mizuki-sensei announces.

Sakura and Ami face each other, Ami sneering at her, as they both make the Seal of Reconciliation.

Sakura, disappointed at herself for not lasting long, drifts over to her friend Ino. Ino smiles at her sympathetically and pats her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. Ami's surprisingly good at taijutsu. She may not be very strong, but she is very fast."

"Is there a way to get faster?" asked Sakura.

Ino shrugs. "Practice maybe? I don't know."

After class ends, she decides to follow her older brother's advice and buy her weights from the store. The weights were made of cloth and stuffed with metal bits and they were expensive. She stored away the receipt though, perhaps she could get her mother to pay her back for her purchase once she realized that it was for ninja training purposes.

The clerk helped her put on the weights. She decided to start at 10 pounds on each limb and work her way up.

After that, she decides to spend the day in the library again, researching and writing down things about crystals this time. It takes her about a few hours of work. When she was done with that, she read up on medical books again, eager to learn more so she could eventually cast her first medical ninjutsu.

It is dinner time when she heads back home and her mother looks up at her and smiles. "Library again?" she asks.

Sakura nods, yawning tiredly. Her mother hands her a bowl of curry and rice. She eats it eagerly.

"You must have been really hungry," her mother observes, "perhaps I should prepare a bento for after school too."

"That would be great. " Sakura's mouth waters at the thought. Her mother's bentos were always delicious and beautiful. "Maybe you can wake me up early on weekends and teach me how to make a few bentos. I always wanted to learn how to cook."

"You're just always either in the library or training. I didn't want to disturb you. But I'm glad the interest is still there."

"Of course! You're cooking is the best! I have to learn. "

"I just worry you're working yourself too hard. You spend a bit too much time in the library. Don't you have any friends? What about that girl, Ino? What happened there?"

Sakura hunches forward, pouting. "She's just really obsessed with Sasuke right now. That's all she talks about during lunch time. I like her to bits and everything, but we're not similar at all. I'm a nerd, she's a social butterfly. I want to read books, she wants to gossip about Sasuke…"

"I thought you liked Sasuke too?"

"Mo-om! That's a secret!" Sakura wilted some more. "And while I do like him, I'm not obsessed with him. Ino just takes it to another level, you know?"

"You should try talking to other people, at least," her mother tried.

Sakura sighs. "Mom, I swear I'm fine."

"But--"

"Dear, just let her do what she wants." Her father walked in the kitchen. "Training and reading are good hobbies in my view. They'll help keep her alive in the future more than friends at this age ever will."

"You're underestimating the power of good social skills. But I see your point."

"There's this new D-rank jutsu I want to try today, can I--"

Her mother huffs in amusement. "Just go! I'll keep an eye on you from the window."

"Thank you, Mom! Thanks dad!" Happily, she went on her way.

Sakura knew she should probably practice her earth clone again, but she really wanted to try something different. Today she wanted to use Earth elemental chakra to make quartz, gems, crystals, or other minerals. There was no jutsu for this unfortunately, which meant she would have to create something herself.

What she wanted was an extremely hard durable material. Maybe a diamond? Diamonds are supposed to be one of the hardest materials on Earth, right? Why not try to make a diamond?

Sakura cupped her palms and concentrated on converting her chakra into earth-natured chakra. Then she had it pooling into her palm and she concentrated all her might on making a diamond. She opened her eyes again when she felt tangible weight on her palms and looked down.

A rock met her eyes. Disappointed, Sakura drops in on the grass and concentrates all her might on making a crystal, at the very least. Something strong and durable and sharp at the edges. She felt her chakra dip low and a weight at her palm.

A hexagonal-shaped crystal met her eyes. It was slightly transparent and pastel pink in color. She had no idea if it was a diamond or not, but it was pretty.

Diamonds aren't easily destroyed though. She could try to crush it in her palm with a chakra-enhanced squeeze but if she succeeded, it would cut into her palm.

She decided to take it to a pawn shop to determine what kind of crystal it was. Perhaps she could even sell it. She doubted she would make much, since it was a bit too easy for a ninja to make, but she could still get about 2,000 ryo for one. And considering that with 3,000 ryo she could buy a jug of milk, she wasn't exactly gonna get rich anytime soon. It would still be helpful for her meager savings, however.

The next day, her chakra had fully recovered. After doing some taijutsu and kenjutsu kata, she sat down cross legged and, for the next hour, she concentrated on making crystals, focusing on making it as hard of a material as she could, and making them different shapes. One time she made crystal senbon. Another time she made crystal shuriken. She tested how easy they could fly, and both flew fast and sunk into the wall as if they were made of metal. She made a crystal kunai and it easily cut paper in half, so good was its sharpness. This time she managed to make 30 crystals before she felt her chakra dip low. And she put them all in her pink backpack next to her jutsu journal and her materials for class.

Sakura arrived at the Academy a bit earlier than usual. She sat, bored, in front of the class, waiting for Ino or the teacher to appear. While she waited, she focused on her cupped palm, once again pooling her pink chakra onto her palm. It solidified into a crystal, no bigger than a nail and sharp as anything in the edges.

Sakura placed her new crystal in her bookbag, her book bag three-fourths full of crystals alone.

Ino went through the door and Sakura focused her attention on her as Ino moved to take a seat by Sakura. Ino then noticed her open bookbag, which brimmed with pink crystals. "Crystals?" She tilted her head in confusion as she examined her bag. She then raised a brow at Sakura. "Where did you get so many?"

That's right. Sakura had yet to tell Ino about her crystal making jutsu. Sakura explained her research in the library for Earth ninjutsu, the little comment at the end that making gems and minerals were also possible if rare ability, and her successful attempts at making crystals.

Ino's eyes widened. She leaned in to whisper to Sakura, "You made a new jutsu. And such a pretty one too. Can you teach me?"

Sakura shook her head. "I'm planning on making this my family secret technique," she explained, "just like the Naras have their shadow possession jutsu and the Yamanakas have their mind-transfer technique. I want the Harunos to now have Crystal Style jutsu."

Ino said, "That's right, it's always been your dream to make your own family secret technique." Ino smiled at her, "I'm still amazed that you found this out completely on your own and developed your own jutsu! That's so big!"

More students started to appear at the door and Sakura made a shushing sound. "It's our secret, okay? I don't want this to be a new gossip around the school. I need to master this first before I can show it off."

Ino nodded, eyes sparkling. "Our secret." she repeated, sounding extremely happy.

After class, she went to the pawn shop and showed the clerk her crystals. The clerk squinted at her in suspicion. "Did you steal this from your parents, little girl?"

She didn't get angry. She would have asked the same thing if she was in his shoes. "I'm an academy student. I made them with Earth jutsu."

His suspicion didn't fade from his face, but he just nodded. "Give it here then, girl. Let's see what you got."

He examined one crystal and hummed, "low grade and poor quality, but still this is a true gem, a rose quartz I believe. These were made with jutsu, you said? I believe it." He looked at her then. "What I don't believe is that you made all these, especially if they are the same quality as this one. Not just anyone can make gems with earth jutsu, you know. The chakra control alone, well, you must, at least, have monstrous chakra control to achieve this."

"I don't know about monstrous level chakra control, but I do know that I'm pretty good." Sakura muttered.

"Who did you get these from?" He asked again, hostility in his voice.

Sakura's patience was ending. "I made them! I'm telling the truth and I can prove it!"

Immediately, she cupped her hands, closed her eyes, and concentrated. Pink light solidified once again in pink crystal shuriken.

His eyes were wide in disbelief as he stared down at her palm. "Well, I'll be…" He took the crystal shuriken from her palm and examined it in the light. "Just like the last one…" He muttered as he kept examining it, this time with a magnifying glass.

"I have some questions if you don't mind," Sakura said. "How hard are these? I intended to make ones with diamond-level strength."

He snorted at the thought. "Diamond-level strength? No way. Quartz at best. In fact, it seems all these are rose quartz. Quite impressive for your age and rank, of course, but no diamonds."

When he saw her wilt, he chuckled. "But keep practicing, kid. Maybe in a few years you'll be able to make diamonds. After that performance? I definitely believe it will happen eventually as long as you keep at it. Anyway, let's talk business. What do you say to 100,000 ryo for all of these?"

Sakura's eyes widened in disbelief. That's more money than she ever had. But then, she began to think. This was a pawn shop. He would want to buy stuff cheaply and then sell it for a higher price. It's very likely he's given her half or a third of the real price.

"150," she said smoothly, "I can go no lower."

He examined her then and snorted. "You need to grow into that poker face, kid. But what the heck, you have a deal. Just remember to come to my pawn shop when you make more in the future."

"Deal," she said happily. The clerk handed her the money and she put it in her backpack, already thinking about what she would use her money on.

When she went home, she found a note by both her mom and dad stating they had been assigned on a mission together and would be back in 3 days. There was money on the counter so that they could buy meals at food stalls while they were away.

Her older brother came in while she was finishing reading the note. "What do you say to buying some udon today?" Ichigo asked.

Sakura's stomach growled at the thought. "Sounds perfect," she said.

They were soon heading towards the downtown part of Konoha, when her brother informed her that he had booked the training ground 14 for shuriken/kunai throwing practice for tomorrow after class. He would only help her for a little while before he had to leave, but she should have the training grounds to herself for an entire two hours.

While she walked side by side with her brother, her mind wandered to her crystal style jutsu. Particularly if it was normal to make these crystals so easily with Earth Natured chakra and the fact that the pawn shop owner had found it strange that an Academy student could make them. Perhaps she should talk with an Earth Ninjutsu expert. Her older brother and parents probably had contacts who had those abilities. But since her mother and father were away for the next three days, she decided to ask her brother.

"Nii-san, I found out something strange when I was practicing Earth Style ninjutsu." And she explained the whole deal with the pink crystals she made with Earth Style ninjutsu.

Her brother scratched his chin. "That does sound weird. Tell you what, I'll ask around and see if anyone with a talent in Earth Ninjutsu could advise you."

Sakura nodded, feeling content. They had spotted their favorite udon food stall and were heading towards it.

The stall wasn't busy. Right away, Sakura was able to order some tempura udon while her brother ordered some beef udon. They each sat inside the food stall and waited for their orders.

"Have you had any interesting missions lately?" Sakura asked her brother.

"Hmm… interesting missions, eh? Well, there was this time where we had to battle an oni."

She looked at him skeptically. "An oni? You must be lying…"

Her brother shook his head, a serious look in his eye. "No, youkai are very much a real thing. They don't often live in shinobi villages though. Too much bad history."

"Well, in the Academy they did say they were very real… I just thought that no one in Konoha would ever meet one. People in far away places would, maybe, like in Kirigakure. In the seas, most likely."

They each received their orders. They broke apart their chopsticks and muttered a quick "Itadakimasu" before taking a bite.

Sakura had to hold back an indecent moan. The udon tasted absolutely perfect, the taste of crunchy prawn tempura… the saltiness and a hint of sweetness from the dashi-based broth, the hint of fishcake and chopped scallions...everything came together like a dream. At her side, she noticed that her brother had closed his eyes and smiled as he took another bite. His food must taste good too.

Feeling playful, Sakura stole a bit of udon and beef from her brother's bowl using her chopsticks. She heard him yell out a "Hey!" as she quickly took a bite.

She closed her eyes and smiled. The savory broth, the juicy and tender beef, the caramelized scallion, and the chewy smooth noodles… all of it tasted divine.

She opened her eyes to see her brother steal some of her tempura from her own plate and she choked out a "hey!", her mouth still full of food.

"An eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth!" Her brother declared. He held her head in his palm, as if that would stop her from moving.

She pouted. "I only had nine of those tempura, you know! And your plate is full of beef. It's not the same!"

He gazed down at his own bowl. "The punishment for thieves is higher," he said, while dropping a bit of his beef into her plate.

She didn't push the point anymore, satisfied to continue eating.

Later on, while her brother was in the living room, Sakura demonstrated for him her skill in making crystals.

"How did you manage this again?" he asked her.

"Just pool Earth-Natured chakra in your hand and concentrate on making a crystal." Sakura instructed.

Ichigo read her notes on assessing Earth style chakra and later did as she said but only managed to make rock, not crystal.

Fifteen minutes passed as he attempted over and over again, getting rock each time. Sakura looked surprised. "But it felt so easy to do!" She protested.

"For you, perhaps. It seems like this isn't a skill just anyone can do. Which is a very, very good thing, if you think about it."

"But...it's my family secret technique! What about my plans to have this jutsu be handed to future generations of Harunos?!"

He suppressed a smile and patted her on the back. "It could still happen. Maybe a Haruno will be born in the future with a similar ability to yours."

"I suppose that's true."

"That said, I promise to have some Earth ninjutsu specialist come and explain what is happening. Just give me two days and I'll probably find someone. Now if that's all, I have a report to write."

As her brother worked on writing his report, Sakura practiced making more crystals.

She had noticed that she could make her crystals as fragile as glass or as durable as a quartz. But if she didn't focus on which material she wanted, it defaulted to a pink quartz material. She could also change its color to whatever she wanted, but when she didn't choose a color, it was always pink. She theorized it was because the color of her chakra was pink. The sharpness of the crystal's cut was more random, so she usually had to focus on making it sharp. Soon, once again, her bookbag was getting filled with crystals and her chakra levels dipped low.

Sakura planned on researching how to make a storage scroll tomorrow. That way, she could store all her crystals into a scroll for later use, and it wouldn't take up so much space in her bookbag. But also, she had an idea for a ninja technique that combined fuuinjutsu with her crystals. Whether it was possible was something she would find out soon enough.

…

The next day, in the Academy, Ino was waiting for her. She clasped her hands on Sakura's arm as soon as she was within reach and told her excitedly about her plans to trespass a haunted mansion on the outskirts of Konoha tonight. Apparently, some of the other girls in the class had put her up to it, daring her to go inside.

"And why should you do this exactly?"

"You mean, why should we do this exactly? Well, Kyoko's older sister is having some sort of grand birthday masquerade ball for her Sweet Sixteen and Kyoko promised me we could get an invitation if we went to this haunted mansion and stayed there at midnight for an hour. Sakura, don't you see? This is an opportunity of a lifetime!"

Sakura just shook her head. It sounded like a bad idea, but more importantly--"You're being hazed."

Ino stared at her. "What?"

"They sound like bullies. Why would they make you do something that might endanger you, if they weren't bullies?"

"Kyoko-chan isn't a bully! Do you honestly think I'll make a friend out of a bully? And this plan doesn't endanger us at all. Ghosts aren't real after all. It's all in good fun."

"If youkai are real, it's possible that ghosts are too."

Ino snorted at the thought, unconvinced.

"I just don't feel good about this at all, Ino." She said,"I'm staying out of it and you should too."

Ino looked at her with a determined set of her jaw. "I'm doing it, Sakura. The only question now is if you're willing to let me do this by myself or go with me."

Sakura balked but Ino's gaze on her was intense and she didn't pull away from her arm. "I'm going to regret this," Sakura moans as she cradles her forehead. "But okay, I will go with you. Just have it be noted I think this is a bad idea."

"Noted." Ino said solemnly, then grinned. "I knew you wouldn't let me down. Thanks Sakura."

"I couldn't let you go this alone."

"And I appreciate it. Now let's go. I think class is almost about to start."

…

After classes ended, Sakura headed to training ground 14 to practice her shuriken and kunai throwing. When she arrived, she saw that her brother wasn't there yet, so she got to work with her practice without him. Unfortunately, she wasn't making much progress. She never hit the bulls eye, no matter how she changed her technique.

Just when she was about to throw another shuriken, her brother was there, halting her movement and repositioning her body by slight degrees. "Try it now," he said.

And sure enough, it was about 2 inches away from the bulls-eye. Sakura gaped. "Whoa!" she exclaimed. She tried to put herself in the same position, but her brother stopped her.

"You need more flick to the wrist. Watch."

He threw the shuriken, in slow motion this time, and watched in amazement as his shuriken landed on the bullseye.

She tried again, making sure her body position was right, and did the little flick in the end that she was missing and was amazed when her shuriken landed a few millimeters away from his in the bullseye.

She tried again and again, all of them hit the place she was aiming for. Sakura was beaming.

"Now lets try further away," said her brother. He adjusted the position of the target and then walked back to stand beside her. "Do it again."

This time, it missed the bullseye by a few inches, but still it was a huge improvement from before. Her brother gave her tips once more, but then soon had to leave.

"Do your best, imouto." He said as he shunshined away.

Sakura stayed until her two hours in the training ground were up, amazed how a few tips had made so much of a big difference to her aim.

She left the training ground happy.

Sakura went home and made herself some omurice for her and her brother, who was no doubt with his team. Then when she finished eating, she went into her room, and sat cross-legged in her bed as she assessed her chakra. Sure enough, it was full. She hesitated, neither her brother or her parents were home. It would break the rules to practice jutsu unchaperoned. But Sakura promised herself that she'd be extra careful on her chakra reserves as she practiced. It should be alright.

This time, she wanted to practice something different with her crystal technique. She grabbed her bookbag full of crystals and went outside, to the yard, sat down cross legged in the grass and pulled out a handful of petal-shaped crystals. Instead of making more crystals, she wanted to try hovering it in her palm, forming a whirlwind. She cupped her palm, concentrated her earth chakra and focused on making the crystals move in her palm in a circular motion. She opened her eyes, keeping her concentration, and watched as the petals slowly moved clockwise around her palm. Then she made it go faster and faster, wincing slightly as a petal scraped her skin. The pain broke her jutsu and the petals still. She tried again, making the petals hover farther away from her palm and concentrated on making a whirlwind tornado of petals on her palm.

She watched it for a while, then tossed the whirlwind tornado of petals to the tree.

"Crystal Style: Cherry Blossom Whirlwind!"

The tree shook and the petals embedded themselves in the tree with a dull thunk.

Sakura meanwhile was grinning. She could manipulate crystals to float and fly! This was big! Then suddenly, she felt dizzy and chakra exhaustion hit. That took more out of her than she expected though. Perhaps Sakura should invest in learning a wind jutsu to offset the chakra cost of the technique? It was worth looking into at least.

Sakura looked at the sky. It was now night. In a few hours, she would have to go meet Ino at the haunted mansion.