~Authors Note

Here's another chapter for you all because I feel like it, the story is coming along nicely and I just finished writing chapter 26, so I decided to share with you all another chapter earlier than planned

End Authors Note~

The next morning the genin of Team Seven met in front of the Hokage Tower at the stated time "He's going to be late again" Sakura noted when twenty minutes had gone by and Kakashi still wasn't there.

"Great, why is he constantly making us wait like this" Sasuke scowled, leaned up against a post, a couple feet away from his teammates, Sakura shrugged in response but it was Naruto who decided to speculate on their sensei's reasoning for always being late.

As he snapped his fingers "Maybe Kakashi-sensei has this weird girly habit, I mean he barely told us anything about him, so who's to say he's not into that sort of thing" Naruto mused, being purposefully loud.

Just in case Kakashi was hanging around, not to far from the members of Team Seven were a couple of Chunin who overheard the loud exclamation and the both of them promptly burst into laughter at imagining the Copy Ninja having a girly habit.

Right as said man appeared "Morning, it's time to undertake some missions" Kakashi who had been watching and listening quickly ushered his students into the Hokage Tower to prevent them from coming up with any more ludicrous speculations.

And having someone over hear them, unfortunately for Kakashi someone had already heard the first and against his will it was already spreading throughout the village like wildfire "Ah welcome, so here to get some missions I take it" Hiruzen greeted.

Once Team Seven had entered the room "Yes, five d rank missions to start them off" Kakashi requested feeling a little spiteful and wanting to punish Naruto for making up something about him, Hiruzen frowned but listed the available D rank missions.

"What those sound so lame" Naruto predictably complained, as the missions were listed, painting a picket fence sunshine yellow, picking weeds, cleaning out the park river, locating a lost animal and walking the pound dogs, they all sounded so boring.

Kakashi rapped the blonde over the head with an orange book "Do you want even more added Naruto, no, then no whining and in a month, I'll see about assigning you a C rank mission" Kakashi warned.

Freaking Naruto out just a tiny bit as the scroll was grabbed and the four of them headed out to complete their missions "Will you also be giving us training Kakashi-sensei" Sakura asked, once they'd started painting the fence.

Sasuke paid very close attention when Kakashi tilted his head at Sakura considering her words "Hmm, if you complete these missions without messing up a single time for a week, then I'll set up a training session for you three" Kakashi offered.

Not wanting to make it easy on the genin, Sakura craned her neck in Naruto's direction, the boy paled, eeped in fright then threw himself into painting the fence like a madman because he didn't want to bring Sakura's wrath down upon his head.

An hour passed in this manner, the sun was beginning to blare down on them as they worked, midway through their task Sakura even took off her qipao dress "The hell are you doing" Sasuke choked out.

Even though Sakura was still wearing clothes such as the spandex black shorts and the light breathable mesh undershirt, seeing her strip out of her dress like that without a care in the world irritated him for some reason.

She sent him a sharp look in response to his outburst "It's hot Sasuke and the sun has only just risen, it's going to continue to get hotter so I'd rather be comfortable than uncomfortable in that dress" Sakura scoffed.

Oblivious to the looks she was getting, Naruto kept his mouth shut since this wasn't the first time Sakura had stripped her qipao in public "People will get the wrong idea about you Sakura" Sasuke frowned, not wanting his teammate to be labeled with a foul name.

"Really Sasuke when have I ever given two cents about what anyone thinks about me" Sakura raised an unimpressed brow on the boy who was a lot more conservative than she'd thought, though Naruto had kinda blushed that one time.

But he'd gotten use to it by now "Better not Sasuke, this is not the first time so I think civilians are starting to get use to it, me to" Naruto chimed in, not looking at his teammates as he continued to paint the fence.

With that the argument was settled to Kakashi's amusement as they finally finished their first mission, so they headed off towards their second d rank, picking weeds out of civilians herb garden, Naruto watched his teammates very, very closely so he didn't mess up any.

And soon that job was done to until all five d rank missions were completed "Very good, you keep that sort of positive attitude up all week, not only will I teach you something unique, but I'll treat you to a meal of your choices" Kakashi offered as incentive.

To keep them at their best behavior hopefully, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke shared a look with one another "Just teach us cool things Kakashi-sensei and we'll do our best to keep the complaining to the bare minimum even to practically nonexistent" Naruto grinned up at him.

Only to get rapped over the head by Sakura this time "Knucklehead that should already naturally be a given" Sakura rolled her eyes at him, wearing her qipao again now that they were about to be dismissed.

"Can we just report in, get our mission pay and go home already" Sasuke sighed, tired of their antics already, he'd done surprising well however so Kakashi relented and soon they had their first mission pay as he left them at the Hokage Tower, where they split up in different directions.

Though Naruto and Sakura kept deliberately together "Where to first Sakura-chan" the blonde asked, eager to see what he could get with his just received pay, there were many things to consider after all.

But Sakura had promised to teach him how to finance his money better "First, take about 500 out of that pile and put it away, each time you get paid for anything add five hundred ryo to that pile to save back money alright" the rosette instructed.

Having already done the same, seeing little to no reason as to why he shouldn't, Naruto separated five hundred ryo from the bills and stowed them away in his storage pouch before following after Sakura who led him to the weapons store.

She grabbed a basket then directed him from aisle to aisle pointing things out, so by the time they were done in the store they each had a new pack of kunai, shuriken and senbon needles, a medium sized roll of ninja wire and a whetstone to keep their weapons sharp.

"Wow I thought it would have been more than that but I still have lots of money left over" Naruto exclaimed in excitement, realizing he could have asked her to help him way before this and feeling dumb for it.

Sakura sent him an indulgent smile "Don't think we're finished yet Naruto" Sakura warned, entering the next store him on her heels, they both got a pack of exploding and genjutsu tags, three empty storage scrolls, blank tags, chakra ink and ink brushes then moved on.

By the time they reached the grocery store after buying some soldier pills and food pills, people were outright glaring at Naruto who remained oblivious or that's how it seemed until she saw his eyes, he was doing his best to hide the fact that people hated him bothered him.

In response to this she threw her arm around his shoulders "Sakura-chan" Naruto spluttered in surprise having been lost in thought until then but all Sakura did was give him a wide smile and pull him into the grocery store.

Of course at this point they could only get a limited amount of groceries but it was enough for now until they got paid again "Tomorrow we're going clothes shopping, I know you love orange Naruto, but you really need to get in the habit of being a little less loud" Sakura declared.

Being tactful, Naruto gave a grudging nod of agreement as they finally split up to return to their individual apartments, only to repeat the next morning by completing D rank missions, Kakashi was late for the third time in a row.

So Sakura with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes decided to try her hand "Maybe you had it right Naruto, Kakashi-sensei might have a girly habit, or maybe…" here Sakura leaned forward lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

Which was still loud enough for people to hear "Or maybe what" Sasuke grunted, watching his surroundings and just as Sakura was opening her mouth to finish a hand clamped over it as Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke behind his kunoichi.

"Gotcha so you were watching" Naruto laughed suddenly, knowing that Sakura had only pulled that prank to see if their sensei was hanging around being purposefully late in meeting them, Kakashi glowered at him.

As Sakura wiggled free of his grip "Brats" Kakashi scoffed, still peeved about yesterday because now there was a rumor about him having girly habits thanks to Naruto and no matter what he'd tried to say no one had believed him when he said otherwise.

This also meant he was still very vindictive as he gave his little genin six more d ranks "I know they did well yesterday but surely Kakashi-kun there's no reason to test their limits like that" Hiruzen frowned at him after the mission scroll had been pocketed.

Kakashi rolled his shoulders in a shrug "Consider it punishment, they've got people believing I have a girly habit" Kakashi informed, shooting a glare at his students, two of them smiled innocently while the last one snorted.

Their beloved Hokage stared for a moment then actually laughed, dismissing them all in the same breath to carry out their missions, with one mission extra it took Team Seven an hour longer than the day before to finish them all.

But each of them were pleased when they were all done without a single misstep and Kakashi dismissed them as they got their mission pay "To the clothing store" Sakura reminded, grabbing Naruto's hand before he could run off.

He would if she let him because she knew how much he hated going shopping, interestingly enough Sasuke decided to follow them that day "If we're playing nice with one another that means doing things together" Sasuke grumbled.

When both Naruto and Sakura realized that he was pacing alongside them "Fair enough, let call this Team Seven's first team bonding exercise, clothing shopping is the agenda for today, so lets get to it" Naruto cheered.

Hyping himself up to Sakura's amusement as they reached the first clothing store and if she hadn't suddenly grabbed the blonde by the back of his orange jumpsuit, he would have gone straight for more orange monstrosities.

Naruto deflated and went limp in her white-knuckled hold "Keep your orange to free days only Naruto, it's time to behave like a real ninja, which means being more inconspicuous with our clothing" Sakura warned.

Releasing him from her grip "She's right and I'm sure Sakura doesn't want to watch you pick out your clothes so I'll go with you to help you while she does her own thing" Sasuke informed, knowing this shopping day wasn't just for Naruto, but for Sakura to.

Over an hour later the teammates met up again "Well" Sasuke demanded when Sakura sorted through the clothes he'd spent the last hour helping Naruto painstakingly pick out, finally she nodded in satisfaction.

So they headed up to the counter to pay for the new clothes "Oh what all did you get Sakura-chan" Naruto asked once the clothes were sealed away in the new storage scrolls, Sakura lifted a brow but shrugged and directed the duo to her apartment.

"You live here" Sasuke grimaced, taking note of the apartment building and how terrible the outside of it looked, it was then he realized that like himself and Naruto, Sakura really was an orphan and he wondered what happened to her parents.

Sakura shrugged again "It's not so bad on the inside and at least the rents not to high" Sakura answered leading the boys up the stairway until she reached her apartment, after patting her pocket for a moment Sakura figured out she must have forgotten her key that morning.

Sasuke almost laughed when Sakura glared at her door which locked her out of her apartment "Ooh are you gonna pick the lock" Naruto bounced, excited to see Sakura do her lock-picking trick in front of him.

This earned him a small smile before Sakura pulled out her lock-picking kit "Just have to twist it like so and bingo we're in, good thing I practiced on my bathroom door all the time otherwise this would have been a lot harder" Sakura grinned.

Flinging open her door and kicking off her sandals, a pointed glance had Naruto and Sasuke doing the same "Is this your first time here Do..Naruto" Sasuke hissed at Naruto when Sakura disappeared into her little kitchen.

Naruto nodded his head "Cause Sakura-chan's pretty cautious about letting people in" Naruto admitted, it had taken him forever to get through to her before they'd become friends after all so he could completely understand why she'd never invited him to her place before.

A few minutes later Sakura returned carrying a tray with green tea and little sandwiches "Lunch is on me, these are just to tide you over, as for what I got, here" Sakura informed, unsealing her clothes from the scroll.

Though she kept a few things hidden as she showed off the three different qipao shirts, in varying colors, off white, dark red and black, a couple new mesh undershirts, a new pair of spandex shorts and a couple of qipao skirts in off white and black.

It was all she'd been able to get, plus the new unmentionables that she didn't dare show to the boys "How big is this place anyway" Sasuke questioned, eyeing a hallway that led somewhere, probably her bedroom.

"Go explore if you want just stay out of my bedroom, I've got traps in there that will go off, their triggered by someone opening the door who is not me" Sakura warned, padding back into the kitchen to continue making lunch.

Sasuke raised a questioning brow at Naruto "Like I said Sakura-chan's really cautious about some things, even when we were in the orphanage she never let anyone in her room, not even me, even after we became friends" Naruto said.

As they stood and wandered the deceptively large apartment, Naruto and Sasuke found two empty rooms, a large bathroom with washer and dryer attached, and a storage closet but they kept well away from the last door at the end of the hallway.

Eventually they got bored so headed back to the little living room, fifteen minutes later Sakura called out to them that lunch was ready "I didn't think you'd be this good at cooking" Sasuke commented, asking a different question than the one he really wanted to ask.

"Just at the simple stuff Sasuke" Sakura announced, putting her hands together to give her thanks for the food before digging in, prompting the boys to do the same though Naruto decided midway through that he had a question he wanted to ask as well.

Because he paused and lowered his fork "Say Sakura-chan, how come you always pray like that, you've been doing it for as long as I can remember even, like since back in the orphanage" Naruto inquired curiously.

Hoping that she would tell him "Now that you ask Naruto I have no idea why I do it, must be something from before, with my real parents or even the couple that took me in, I don't really remember all that well cause I was little like 6/7 months old" Sakura admitted with a frown.

Upon hearing this Sasuke saw his chance at last "Do you remember anything else about your biological parents" the Uchiha questioned carefully, wanting to see if she did remember, it took a long moment.

While they sat there in silence waiting for her answer when all of a sudden Sakura clutched her head "I..I can't" Sakura cried, agony displayed on her face as flashes and sounds pounded into her skull, then being unable to handle the pain she went ghostly pale before fainting.

The two boys were immediately in action as Naruto caught her just before her head hit the kitchen floor "Good going Sasuke, you caused this so you find a way to fix it" Naruto scowled at the wide eyed Sasuke.

Less than a split second later he made a decision "Lets get her to the hospital, there's clearly something wrong if trying to remember causes her pain like that" Sasuke decided, lifting Sakura who was a lot lighter than he thought she'd be.

Naruto did the proper thing by grabbing the key off the hook by the door and locking the door behind him as they hurried to the hospital where upon explaining the situation Sakura was taken away by a medic to be checked over.

Unfortunately they were stuck out in the lobby for over half an hour until the medic came back "It's psychological, a trauma from when she was 6/7 months old, we have a Yamanaka on staff who looked into her mind and what he saw was a massacre" the medic told them.

"So trying to remember will always cause her intense pain like that and make her faint like that to" Naruto frowned, deeply worried about his best friend/crush, not that he would ever tell her that he had a crush on her though.

In spite of his hope that it wouldn't be like that the medic nodded "Yes, now you boys are more than welcome to take her back home so she can rest in her own house but if she has any more incidents bring her straight back here" the medic said.

Giving the boys instructions on want to do in case of future incidents, by the time they got to the room Sakura was in however, she was wide awake "Sorry" Sakura grimaced, knowing she must have freaked her two teammates out.

"Nothing to apologize for, it was my fault for asking a stupid question like that, put it out of your mind because I won't be asking again" Sasuke scoffed, watching as Naruto helped her up out of the hospital bed.

She was a little wobbly on her feet "Sasuke's right, put it out of your mind Sakura-chan" Naruto said, giving Sakura his arm to hold onto until her balance stabilized and then they were headed back to her apartment where the remains of their lunch was heated up and eaten.

For the rest of the week Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura threw themselves into the many D rank missions Kakashi assigned them until finally their first week as genin had passed "Don't forget you promised Kakashi-sensei" Sakura reminded, the morning of their second week.

Kakashi glanced at her confusedly for a moment before realizing what she was talking about "Guess I did, didn't I, looks like we're having a training session today so to the training grounds" Kakashi sighed.

Inwardly reminding himself that he'd also promised to treat them to a meal of their choosing as well "This is so awesome, we're finally gonna learn some super cool ninja stuff you know" Naruto cheered, rushing after their sensei.

"Knucklehead this isn't some kind of game you know" Sakura deadpanned, hating to temper Naruto's excitement but someone had to do it, and he always understood when she explained as he calmed to Kakashi and Sasuke's relief.

Sasuke had actually done well this past week to as he paced along at her side "The knucklehead has it right though, I wonder what Kakashi will be teaching us" Sasuke commented, eyeballing the man who drove them crazy.

Fifteen minutes later they were on their training grounds "Alright you three want to learn, then you'll learn how to…..dodge, I suggest you three start running now, Summoning Jutsu: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu" Kakashi faced them once there.

Only to loose his pack of ninja hounds upon his students, Naruto let out a girlish scream as Bull charged him head on then dashed head long into the forest, Bull bounding after him with Urushi and Guruko on his paws as they chased after the blonde.

Sakura stared in horror for only a split second then took off as fast as her feet could carry her away from the ninken, three of which ran after her, Shiba, Bisuke and Akino, Sasuke had no scruples as he leapt into a tree and took off that way.

Pakkun and Uhei leaping after him, screams mostly from Naruto and growls from the ninken echoed from the forest until twenty minutes later Naruto was dragged before his sensei by his new dark blue jumpsuit jacket.

And was promptly tied to a post, Sasuke was next fifteen minutes later as the three ninken who'd been after Naruto chased after the Uchiha, Kakashi glanced to the sky just as a groan of frustration met his ears as Sakura was finally captured and brought before him ten minutes after that.

Of course how could she have lasted any longer than that with all his ninken after her once the other two had been captured, still they had done well and he could give them that much "Not that I expected any different but you three surprised me by managing as long as you did" Kakashi said.

His students glaring at him all the while as they were kept tied to the posts though Sakura's glare did lighten at his words "Really, what's the longest record anyone's gone avoiding your ninken" Sakura inquired, ever curious.

Seeing as they were behaving he untied them at long last "A total of two hours, before the end of this month I want to see you three break that record, I'll also be making you run laps around the village, and practice your taijutsu" Kakashi informed.

Taking this much more seriously all of a sudden "What about jutsu's are you going to teach us any of those" Naruto chimed in with a pout, not liking that all they were going to be taught was stuff they already knew how to do.

Kakashi narrowed his visible iris "Prove to me first by accomplishing all goals I set before you then I'll teach you jutsu's" Kakashi offered, intending to push the genin past their limits from now on so that they didn't make the same mistakes he did as a genin/chunin/jonin and so on.

"Fine by me Kakashi but does that mean we won't be doing any more D ranks" Sasuke crossed his arms, already knowing the answer because they just couldn't be that lucky and he was right as his and Naruto's hopes were dashed.

When Kakashi shook his head "No, you still have to do D ranks Sasuke-kun, but I'll lower the amount to about two or three a day that we can complete in the morning before moving on to training" Kakashi announced.

Then he made them get started on improving their stamina by loosing his hounds upon them again until Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were sufficiently out of energy "Who wants lunch" Kakashi inquired chuckling at their bedraggled appearances.

Naruto was the first to pop up "Can we have Ichiraku, don't look at me like that Sakura-chan, you know old man Teuchi serves the good kind, plus it will help us recover chakra" Naruto asked, shooting his friend a look when she grimaced at him.

In response she heaved a sigh "Alright but next time I get to choose where we eat whenever Kakashi-sensei offers to treat us to a meal" Sakura warned, eyeing Sasuke who shrugged as if he didn't care.

"Let's just go eat already" Sasuke grunted, so they headed for the Ichiraku Ramen stand where they ordered their preferred ramen, Sakura gave her thanks as she usually did and then all four of them dug in, enjoying their first outing as a whole team.

It wasn't long after, once Kakashi had paid that the four of them split up to go home or wander around the village some more until the day drew to a close on them, none more so for Sakura who stared out her window stargazing before finally going to bed.

~In Another Realm~

Like Sakura, Jashin watched the bloody red stars of his realm, knowing that only a few weeks separated him from meeting the precious daughter he'd gifted to his followers for their service to him and he was eagerly awaiting that day impatiently.